Life Remixed

Okay so I was bartending last Sunday when the most recognized food critic Michael Bauer walks into the restaurant. My boss comes to me and says “You serve him, this guy looks weird.” So I did, and lemme tell you this guy was weird. Right off the bat I knew he was a wine/food critic. He ordered 5 different wines, drank almost a whole bottle. He also ordered 3 dishes of food. Keep in mind this is all for one guy. But you know how I roll, I served him well. In the end he loved the meal and tipped me 30%. His bill was about 80$. All I can say is that he better give the restaurant and myself a good review..

Okay folks, so I finally got a chance to see the movie that EVERYONE has been raving about (to the point that their heads fall off from excessive raving). That movie of course is The Dark Knight. Directed by Christopher Nolan who also did Batman Begins and the Prestige. Starring Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne, Heath Ledger as the Joker, Aaron Eckhart as Harvey Dent, and Maggie Gyllenhaal as Rachel Dawes.

So..The Dark Knight.. If you’ve been living under a rock for the past month, it is the sequel to Batman Begins. It follows the DC’s utility-belt wielding hero Batman as he fights against crime and corruption in the streets of Gotham City (apparently Chicago in real life). The main antagonist is The Joker, played by the late Heath Ledger. Before I start I’d like to clarify that I’m going to be very critical of this movie; the reason being that I have heard nothing but utter epicness about this film. I watched the Dark Knight yesterday in IMAX with sky high expectations. All I can say before going deeper into my review is…THIS MOVIE BLEW MY MIND.

Performances 5/5

From the opening scene to finish, I was so enraptured by the awesomeness of The Dark Knight. First I want to talk about the performances. Holy hell the acting was amazing. Spot on casting. The MVA (most valuable actor) goes to Heath Ledger without a doubt. There is no one on this earth that could have played the maniacal Joker in the fashion and finesse that Heath Ledger did. If you have seen Tim Burton’s older batman film with the Joker, this one blows it sky high into the void. The Joker in this movie isn’t just some clown with gross makeup and lots of henchmen. Well he is, but SO much more. Christopher Nolan’s Joker is a criminal mastermind. The way he carries out his plan is so genius and plays on the morals of people; I could not help but be reminded of Jigsaw from the Saw series. And he doesn’t have just one plan, he has many. Heath Ledger also adds that quirkiness and humor that completes the Joker’s personality. It was such a joy to watch him on screen. I’m sad that we will never see another Joker by Ledger.

Aaron Eckhart (Harvey Dent) was the second best actor. Amazing performance! He played such a big part in the movie as the hope of Gotham. “The White Knight” of Gotham is what they call him. Harvey Dent has so much symbolism throughout the whole movie. Maggie Gyllenhaal was an okay part of the movie. They always seem to make her a victim though which seemed a bit annoying. Still good acting from both.

Christian Bale, the best batman/bruce wayne to date. I loved him as Bruce! Not so much as Batman. Bale does this raspy voice as batman which made me laugh the first time I heard it. From that point it just got irritating and ridiculous. However, Bale’s performance as Bruce Wayne was spot on!

Effects 5/5

The special effects in the Dark Knight are mind blowing. The camera work is breathtaking. The musical score is soooo good. I can’t put the awesome effects into words. The camera work is so great and original, I’ve never seen anything like it. During the action scenes, you will literally be on the edge of your seat, and a lot of this has to do with the subtle but dynamic. Also, the score of music that they chose for this movie is astounding. It’s goes from ambient to suspenseful depending on the scene. I could go on an on about the special effects.

Plot 4/5

Okay, the plot of this movie is epic bearing close to legendary. I walked away from this movie with chills, mostly from the story. It made such an impact on me because the story is so real and deep. The main theme of the Dark Knight (without giving spoilers) plays on the morals of humans in general. There’s the Joker who believes that people are naturally evil and selfish creatures, while Harvey Dent represents the hope and bright future of good for the city of Gotham. Batman is somewhere in the middle of the spectrum. He is fighting to bring out the good in people, and he believes that there IS good in people, yet it cannot be seen in the dark. Batman is not the average superhero, actually he is almost an antihero laden with angst. After watching this film, I was convinced this was the perfect story. Until later I found some nit picky, confusing things that I saw as flaws; because of that I am unable to give the plot a perfect 5/5. However I will not go into them because the somewhat spoil the movie. ( I may write a spoiler section later if I feel like going into a deep analysis of the ‘flaws’ I saw.) Still this plotline is amazing, better than most movies that aren’t even in this genre.

Closing Remarks

If you can watch this is IMAX DO IT. It is so worth the extra money and time. The Imax formatted scenes are so mind blowing. It’s hard to watch all these comic movies in the summer of 2008 without comparing them to eachother. Yes I am talking about the big Marvel vs DC debate. At least in my perspective, Marvel has been dominating the movie scene up till now with huge successes like Spider-man, X-men, and Marvel Studio’s latest creations Ironman and The Incredible Hulk. DC’s past movies have been less than astounding, with exception to Batman Begins (which I have yet to see.) However, The Dark Knight seems to be the savior of DC movies. This seems to be the era of ‘epic comic films’ since Marvel Studios has started producing movies themselves, and DC seems to be headed in the right direction. Their upcoming film “Watchmen” will be the test. Anyway, a lot of people have been comparing Ironman and The Dark Knight to eachother. Both being phenomenal films. I loved Ironman from start to finish (also I must add that I am a Marvel fan, therefore may be biased). I also loved Dark Knight, but then it seemed so perfect that I couldn’t help but look for the flaws in the movie. Little things like Bale’s raspy voice and the movie being super long (but not boring long). With those things said, I believe The Dark Knight is the best super hero movie ever made. Ironman previously held that title in my book, but Dark Knight is slightly better just slightly. However the thing about Ironman that makes me so excited is that Marvel Studios is connecting all their movies in one universe. So Ironman’s story isn’t confined to the sequels it will have, but also in movies like Hulk and the upcoming Captain America. That is what Marvel Studios is doing right, and that is why it will always have the edge over DC. I have to say DC is definitely making a comeback, and it’s time has come to shine. Though Marvel had the limelight for years “The night is darkest just before the dawn. And I promise you, the dawn is coming.” And yes the dawn has come for DC.

The Dark Knight – Total 4.9/5 stars

I’ve found an english translation of Lim Yo-Hwan’s (SlayerS_BoxeR) book. It was originally writter in korean, but a hero soul translated it into english. For you noobs Boxer is the greatest pro gamer to ever live. He revolutionized the pro scene for Starcraft: Brood War. It’s definitely on my read list. You can find the book here:http://boxerbiography.blogspot.com/

I’ve been playing Bioshock for the Xbox 360 and I am blown away by this game. I’m currently playing in 1080p and the visuals are the best I’ve ever seen for any game ever. The game itself is not only disturbing but it is a mental masterpiece. The premise of the game is that you are trapped in an undersea city ironically named “Rapture”. Don’t be fooled, this town in not a happy place. The denizens of Rapture are a physically and mentally decrepit bunch. As you explore Rapture, trying to unravel its mystery, you discover that it is a social experiment gone horribly wrong. In a failed attempt to create a Utopia, so to speak, the founder of Rapture (a man named Ryan) has left a seething madhouse under the ocean. Along with social experiments, supernatural tests also happened in Rapture, giving individuals ’superpowers’.  You can kill these people and adapt their abilities for your own. The story of Bioshock is something I’ve never experienced before, but it is the WAY the game tells the story that is so amazing. Bioshock plays on your moral capacity, giving you the choice to save people or kill them and harvest their lifeforce for additional super powers.

With news that there is a Bioshock movie in development, I’m curious as to how the director will handle the story-telling aspect. Since players experience the game in the first person FPS point of view. Anyway, I will continue to play Bioshock and continue to be blown away.

I’m also playing Gears of War. It’s pretty fun, sorta. I find the plot to be very un-original. Essentially it is a cross between Halo and Resisitance: Fall of Man. Aliens invade the Earth and you are a special badass soldier called on to save the human race. First I will elaborate on the parts that I don’t like about the game. The enemies, monsters, grubs, locust – whatever you call them look STUPID. They look really bad, and the fact that these monsters have huge muscles and claws that could tear you to shreds, yet they use GUNS to shoot you is pretty stupid to me. There are other breeds of enemies like huge berserkers and small aliens that climb on ceilings and crawl fast to you, but they both look really stupid. And again unoriginal. The major downside of this game to me is that it just copies the enemies from other games. The berserkers are copied from Halo’s hunters and brutes. Where there are similar huge aliens that run and trample you. The wall crawler things can also be found in any other shooter including Resident Evil, Resistance, FEAR, Halo, etc. I really disliked the enemies, they got old for me really fast. Killing the same aliens that have appeared in other titles in some sort of form was quite boring. Second thing I had a problem with also pertains to visuals. The character models look really bad and unrealistic. I played GOW in 1080p and the characters appear poorly rendered. Especially the girl Anya.

Okay good parts of GOW. The weapons! They weapons are soo original. I love them. There’s a crossbow like gun that explodes on impact, a laser pointer that can target an enemy to be toasted by a satellite overhead but only works outside. The guns have freakin chainsaws on them (which gets old fast, but still cool for the first 5 minutes). I really like the weapons. A cool feature that GOW adds is power reloading. Instead of the same old reloading, you can press a button and if you time it right you reload faster as well as get an attack bonus. If you do it wrong your gun gets jammed and well you’re screwed. I really liked the environmental visuals. They look so beautiful! Even though the character models and the enemies look horrid, the landscapes are really nice. And the last thing about the game that I love is that it is played in 3^rd person. It is my favorite scheme for playing shooter games. SOCOM and Resident Evil use a 3^rd person orientation similar to GOW and it feels a lot more natural than FPS to me. Anyway the Co-op option for GOW is pretty fun. I was able to play with my girlfriend over Xbox live and that was pretty fun. It lagged a bit, but I suspect that is because of my connection. I plan to finish the game so that I can give a full review. But right now I can safely say that Bioshock is a much better game in my opinion. I’m am currently waiting for Call of Duty 4 to arrive so that I can try that game out.

This is a video everyone has to see. I know it’s old but if you haven’t seen this, please do. It will make you smile.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vr3x_RRJdd4

Okay so I usually either have a cup of coffee from the Starbucks downstairs with my lunch. But today I decided to switch it up a bit. So I tried out Starbuck’s green tea. Which turned out to be Tazo green tea. I usually drink about 2-4 cups of tea a day. 70% being green tea. It not only tastes good, but also contains cancer-preventing antioxidants. I had my tea with about a teaspoon of honey since I have a slight sore throat. Tazo’s green tea has a mild flavor with a miniscule amount of bitterness that doesn’t overwhelm the rich taste of the tea. They brewed it pretty well at Starbucks and I’ll say it is worth the $1.27 I paid for it.

3/5 Rating.

I met Kevin Rose today! I can die a happy man. He signed my ipod and gave me a digg shirt. Kevin Rose sir, you are my hero!

A day I’ll never forget!

Check out this great tea blog I found today. It has reviews of all kinds of teas, especially oolongs. They also feature tea ware and techniques.

http://multipleinfusions.com/

Okay so by the end of this summer I will have about $3500 to spend from interning at Merck and working at the restaurant on weekends. I know I may be counting my chickens before they hatch, but it’d be good to have a plan of what to do with my money. So I have outlined a couple ‘needs’ that I have, as well as some ‘not so much needs’.

I. Firstly, I am in need of a new laptop to use during college. I have always used secondhand laptops bought off eBay or refurbs. All of which die on me frequently or have defective components that just add to my headaches. Although I have learned most of what I know about hardware and software from fixing my broken computers (sometimes it’s fun), right now I just want something that WORKS out of the box. The form factor I am looking at is a 15″ or smaller notebook that is portable yet productive. I’m also taking my Dell XPS laptop to use as a desktop. It’s a real powerhouse that I’ll use for gaming and multimedia. The one I want to buy will mainly be for word processing, web browsing, and carrying from class to class. I’m also sick of windows, so I have my eyes on an Apple notebook with which I can take advantage of Apple’s student discount. However even with a student discount, there is no avoiding the fact that Apple computers are expensive. So these are my options I have come up with concerning laptops. I REFUSE to buy any computer with Vista pre-installed. OSX is preferred. I’ve bolded the ones that look best to me.
1. Macbook 13″(brand new $999 retail with student discount + free ipod)
2. Macbook 13″(used $600 - $800 from ebay)
3. Macbook Pro 15″ (brand new $1799 retail with student discount + free ipod)
4. Macbook Pro 15″ (used $900 - $1100 ebay)
5. Macbook Air 13″ (brand new $1699 retail with student discount + free ipod)
6. MSI Wind 10″ (brand new $499 with Ubuntu or Windows XP sp3)
7. Dell Studio 15 ($1099)
8. Lenovo Thinkpad X61 12″ ($1,020)
9. Dell XPS M1330 13″ ($999 Alex Albrecht’s red diggnation laptop)

II. I would also like to buy a television and spend 500ish on a flat screen plasma or something for my dorm room.
III. Or I could just save the money for a car or something. Instead of using my current Accord..

Thoughts? Ideas for laptops?

Pay a visit to my boss’s site. lifesabirch