Netflix

Image via CrunchBase

Netflix is one of the greatest inventions ever. When I first heard about it I was skeptical, mainly because I was one of the few who enjoyed going into a Blockbuster store and wandering around until I found something I wanted to watch, reading the back covers of all of the DVDs. I enjoyed talking to employees who would give me recommendations and knowing that my movies were being returned to an actual store.

My favorite part of Netflix is the streaming video. More and more titles are becoming available to watch directly on my computer so I don't even have to wait for a DVD to ship to me. Talk about instant gratification. Plus, this way I can watch as many movies as I want for less than $10 a month. Even when I do have the occasional movie shipped to me, it only takes 1 business day. Granted, I can only have one movie sent at a time, but thats ok because I don't use that service very often.

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Upcoming Comic Book Movies

I am always excited when I hear a new movie based on a beloved comic character is coming out soon. Now several are on their way, including Captain America, Thor, Green Lantern, and the Avengers, so I'm even more excited than usual. A lead in to Thor was featured after the credits of Iron Man 2, where a SHIELD agent finds Thor's hammer Mjolnir in a crater in the desert.

I do think its a little odd to have the same actor play more than one character, though. For example, Chris Evans played the Human Torch in The Fantastic Four movies and is set to play Captain America in both The First Avenger and The Avengers movie. Ryan Reynolds has played Deadpool in X-Men Origins: Wolverine and is set to reprise the role in a Deadpool spinoff. He has also played Hannibal King in Blade: Trinity and is set to play Hal Jordan in the upcoming Green Lantern film.

I've also been enjoying the direct to dvd animated movies being put out by Marvel and DC and am looking forward to more. Upcoming titles include Superman/Batman: Apocalypse, All Star Superman, Green Lantern: Emerald Knights, and Batman: Year One.

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Comic Series I Am Currently Reading

Image by sandooches via Flickr

The following is a list of all comic book titles I am currently reading. The list is quite extensive.

Superhero Titles

Green Lantern (before seeing the movie)

Batman (after watching Batman Begins)

Superman
Hulk (after watching 1st Hulk movie)

Spider-Man
Avengers

Superman
Wonder Woman

Green Lantern Corps (before seeing the movie)

Nightwing (after reading Batman)
Robin (after reading Batman)
Batgirl (after reading Batman)
Punisher
Deadpool
Detective Comics
Action Comics
Runaways
Wolverine

Image via Wikipedia

Misc. Titles
Fables
Ex Machina

100 Bullets

Jack of Fables (after reading Fables)

Transmetropolitan

Hellboy (after watching both Hellboy movies)

Witchblade
The Walking Dead
Spawn

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Inception

I saw Christopher Nolan's Inception the other day and was pleasantly surprised. The only problem I had with it was that it ran a little long (about 2 and a half hours). Then again, that is typical of any movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio. I guess he figures the longer the movie, the more he gets paid. Based on the previews, I thought the movie would be a lot harder to follow.

The idea of the movie was quite original, with the idea of planting ideas in people's heads via their subconcious through their dreams, which could be manipulated from the outside. The special effects were mind blowing (literally) and the plot was fairly interesting, especially with the dream within a dream within a dream sequences.

Like many directors, Christopher Nolan cast actors he was already familar with from his Batman franchise, including Cillian Murphy, Ken Watanbe, and Michael Caine. The only actress from the movie who I felt didn't add anything by their presence was Ellen Page. She is too young and innocent looking for this type of movie in my opinion.

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Iron Man Movies and Action Figures

I for one thought Iron Man 2 was a much better film than the original Iron Man movie. Granted, the original established the origins of the character and had some cool special effects, but didn't do much else. Robert Downey Jr. was the right choice for Tony Stark/Iron Man in both films.

The 2nd film had a more menacing villain in Ivan Vanko/Whiplash, played by the intimidating, scary looking Mickey Rourke, better action sequences and special effects, more characters from the Marvel Universe including the Black Widow (who Scarlett Johansson portrayed beautifully even though her acting skills are usually subpar), Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell), War Machine (Don Cheadle, who was a better choice than Terrence Howard, who is a terrible actor) and Nick Fury (played by Samuel L. Jackson to match his appearance in the Ultimate Marvel Universe). All in all, Iron Man 2 took place on a larger scale than the original and was a more entertaining film because of it.

That said, Hasbro's line of action figures based on Iron Man 2 are a tad disappointing. They lack the detail of the figures from the original movie and are much smaller, not fitting in with the rest of my rather large action figure collection, which is in the 5-6 inch scale or larger.

Predators

I just saw Predators and was pleasantly surprised by the quality of this entry in the Alien/Predator series of films. Then again, AVP: Requiem was not exactly hard to surpass. Both franchises had numerous failures, starting with Alien: Resurrection. Predators was reminiscent of a couple of movies: The Condemned (the stranded criminals/mercenaries angle, Predator (of course), Aliens (the second movie in the Alien franchise), and Alien vs. Predator.

I didn't expect Adrien Brody to be able to pull off the tough guy mercenary role as Arnold Schwarzenegger did in the original, but he managed, even managing to throw in the gruff Christian Bale Batman voice. Topher Grace was his usual annoying self with a touch of evil thrown in for good measure, taking his role as bad guy Eddie Brock/Venom from Spider-Man 3 a step further into villainy.

Predators was definitely a Robert Rodriguez kind of film, using his filming style, some of the same actors that he always uses (mainly Danny Trejo), and the same type of humor. He executive produced the film.

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Lego Video Games

I grew up playing with Legos like most kids and I always loved getting a new lego kit to put together. I still enjoy Legos to this day, but they are far

too expensive for me to continually invest money in.

The recent wave of Lego themed video games are some of the most addictive games I have ever played, namely Lego Star Wars and Lego Batman. They are so cute and fun and have hours and hours of gameplay with a high replay quotient.

Most games take me no more than a week or two to beat, but with the fun side missions including collecting all the coins, finding and collecting minikits and red blocks all while unlocking a vast amount of new characters and vehicles these games last a long time and I don't want to return them or trade them in for something better when I'm finished with them.

I'm definitely looking forward to playing Lego Harry Potter and to reexplore Lego Indiana Jones as I ran through it as fast as I could the first time around since it was a rental.