Hunger. Games. Both at the same time.

McK and I went to see The Hunger Games last Saturday. Personally, I'm of the opinion that they did a pretty brilliant job with the film. I wasn't crazy about the shaky cam that wandered through District 12 at the beginning, but I think it made sense for the battle scenes. A couple of the places I wander around the internet took issue with the movie, but I think they missed some of the point. First, partially due to said camera, the violence was never glorified. You weren't really given a chance to "enjoy" the fights which would have been counter productive to the point of the whole film.

I've also managed to come to some sort of terms over the whole Hunger Games/Battle Royale thing. At least as far as the film is concerned. There's certainly a lot of overlap in the stories, but Hunger Games gets spun through a more American perspective where Battle Royale is certainly more Japanese.

I managed a victory over lovely wife at Summoner Wars the other evening. The game should have been much shorter than it was, but after my initial couple of turns (where I had her Summoner down to a couple life points) I could not roll a three or higher to save my life (or more appropriately end hers). But in the end the Swamp Orcs declared victory over the Benders. So yay for that I guess. I'm looking forward to the eventual release of this game on the iPad.

Speaking of, 100 Rogues was free the other day and is once again filling me with roguelike glee. I still enjoy Shiren a touch more, but this is a pretty decent game for the iPad. And we're still pretty far down the Draw Something rabbit hole. We have lots of colors now...

I took G and M to the Library on Saturday for the Dinosaurs and pizza story time. It was pretty fun, even if it did take the kids a few minutes to get over some of their shyness. It's so amusing watching them in groups of people. Not that I can fault them really, I suspect a decent amount of my own introvertedness has rubbed off on them.

We watched Tintin over the weekend as well. I felt it was ok for the first two thirds. The last third suffered from existing (movie felt a little long) and some silliness. (A crane fight? Really?) I'd watch a sequel though, so that says something.

Managed to earn $10 in iTunes through that Viggle app. So yay for rewards for watching TV. Especially as we don't watch much.

I need a nap...

Your title could be here

I seriously hate making titles. It's like those quotes at the beginnings of the Myth books' chapters.

Finally had my first win at Summoner Wars. It was most certainly not due to having played the game a couple times and playing against the letter 'r' who had never played. Or being at least somewhat familiar with the army I had. Nope not at all.

Watched the original Japanese version of Godzilla. I'm glad that movie is running around on DVD. Good ol' Criterion Collection. I was a little worried it would be horrible after all this time, but it really wasn't. Oh sure, it was a little slow, but it was still pretty fun. The destruction of Tokyo was still thrilling. And it was neat to see the old special effects.

I have given up on reading Liars and Outliers by Bruce Schneier. I had hopes that it would be interesting, but it really wasn't. That and I took issue with most of his premise. So, well, there you go. It deals with trust in societies and why we behave the way we do and the little tricks societies use to build trust in a population that would rather kill each other off and take what they want. Like I said, issues.

Written in Bone, the second Simon Beckett book was also a fun read. I'm currently on the third one. Mostly as the end of the second one was a pretty big cliffhanger (well excepting the existence of a third and fourth book) and I wanted to know what happened.

Got in a game of 7 Wonders over the weekend and somehow McK managed to win that one. I suspect even after trying to account for some cheating that was going on.

And speaking of McK, this weekend we will be off to see The Hunger Games. Saturday morning in fact. Can't be bothered to deal with opening day crowds. At least we have reserved seats...

C'mon Toby

Paranormal Activity 3 was great. Absolutely, thoroughly enjoyed it. Very spooky and the story it told was also really interesting. So many good creepy moments! My hair stands on end just thinking about it. If you've not watched the series yet and are fans of spooky over gory, this is the set of films for you.

I'm just going to leave this here without comment. Other than holy crap the choreography. I can't imagine how much practice went into that.

Puss in Boots was mostly ok. Certainly the most tolerable of the Dreamworks does Disney films. Although the pop culture references are still a little too much. Fight Club? Really?

Crazy, Stupid Love was recommended by a co worker at the Library and it is indeed pretty darn funny. Not quite sure I liked the ending, but there are some truly hilarious bits. I really like Steve Carell. Which is funny as I can't really stand The Office...

Managed another game of Summoner Wars, this time with Lovely Wife. Got stomped on again. I really dislike the Shadow Elves... You certainly need to take the time to understand the various factions and how best to use them, that's for sure.

Well the weather has certainly turned rather Spring-like. I expect snow soon. Hard to believe we're already half way through March.

If any of you lot are playing Draw Something feel free to start up a game with me. My account name is dkun.

Oh, I should probably mention Quaranteen. It's ridiculous. Readable, sure, but ridiculous. There, consider it mentioned... (What you want more info? Think Lord of the Flies where the kids are locked in a High School building. Only ridiculous. And not really the good kind.)

Movies! Games! Film at 11!

Shark Night was horrible. Fortunately it was so horrible that it was still enjoyable. But mostly it was horrible. Why are they referring to the bayou as a lake? Why is Donal Logue in this movie? Why are the swampbillies philosophizing about the varieties of sharks? Why are you not watching this? So many questions, so few answers.

The Thing (the recent prequel) was fine. I'm not sure why there's a ton of backlash against this movie. I suspect it's because they're calling it a prequel (it is) instead of a remake/reboot of Carpenter's flick (which it sort of also is too). Admittedly it hits all the notes from the previous film, but you know what? That's ok. It's still enjoyable. And some of the effects are pretty good. Gruesome little Thing-lets... At least they nailed the ending (with the dog running off and the helicopter giving chase).

Roll Through the Ages is a fun little dice game with a light civ building theme. It offers some pretty interesting choices over the course of the game. Obviously there's a fair amount of luck involved (dice game) but it's offset some by the things you can do - get more dice to roll thus increasing your odds of getting what you want, add improvements that let you alter/supplement the rolls you have, etc. It's also nice to know that I'm not the only person to get rules wrong when learning a game.

Had a fun visit with littlest sis. Games were played, food consumed, etc. The big winner over the weekend was Wits and Wagers family edition. Decent little party game. Everyone seemed to like it. Alas, we have to return that one to lovely wife's sister. I did manage to snag a copy of Summoner Wars though. (The recently released Master Set) M and I managed a game over the weekend and she eked out a victory there at the bitter end. Now that I have a better grasp of how things go I will crush her next time. Next time...

Quick media update

So, somehow I suffered through Breaking Dawn. The parodies pretty much have it, Breaking Yawn indeed. So horrible. Apparently the movies are worse than the books. I cannot fathom such a thing. This might be the first literary/cinematic black hole in existence. Never mind that literally three things happened in this movie. Never mind that the pacing was barely sufficient for one viewing (I can not imagine trying to sit through that again - so slooooooooow). Let's just talk about Bella's sippy cup shall we? Exactly what is the point of this? Why is she imbibing blood? Don't give me that crap about the baby wanted it. Fine. Why exactly is she drinking it?! The baby is not attached to her stomach. She needs blood in her bloodstream so she's drinking it?! As opposed to, oh I don't know, an IV? The stupid. It burns. Words fail...

The remake of The Crazies was pretty decent. It's a horror film whose conceit is relatively timeless. Although the ending is just a touch silly. I get what they were going for, but still.

X Men First Class was better than it had any right to be. I would probably watch sequels with these characters. Maybe. Although the beginning was once again giving me retcon whiplash. Why do they feel the need to monkey around with backstory continuity so much? (This mostly refers to the magic helmet of telepathic invulnerability +1 and Cerebro) Especially after using the footage from the old X Men movie.

Heat Rises was fine. Ends on a cliffhanger reminiscent of season 3 I believe it was. Still fun to read.

Speaking of Nathan Fillion, this is awesome and hilarious. And if you don't understand why he puts a hammer on the table, begone and never darken my blog again.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes was good. It suffered a touch from the fact that it was a prequel, so you knew where things were headed, but it still managed to be pretty interesting. I'd watch more of these.

Anyway, littlest sis is in town this weekend and there will be some board games. This is good.