"To Him, Life is a Great Big Bang Up"

I finally got around to seeing The Amazing Spider-Man. Which is weird considering how excited I was for the first movie a mere ten years ago. (Shit, I suddenly felt old. It doesn't seem like that long ago.) I remember I made a special trip to an 11am show the day it opened in order to see it before I went on a plane for the first time. (Yes, it took me a while to get on a plane.) I thought I was going to England, but now that I see the date, it must have been my trip to San Francisco.

The point is, I was excited to see it. I had to see it! And it wasn't just that I feared dying in a plane crash and wanted to make sure I saw it before that happened. It was a movie I was legitimately excited to see. I was floored when the first clips of Spider-Man web-slinging through New York appeared. It was topped by a second movie, then the whole franchise seemed to fall apart with the third. (I don't even want to talk about it.)

So, here we are watching what is basically a reboot of a still young franchise. I wasn't excited about this one as much because I figured it was just going to be another dumb origin story with very little action. And it was going to tell the same story I already knew. BUT it turns out I was only partially right and the origin story was my favorite part of the whole thing. (Spoilers ahead.)

The Sam Raimi movie kept very close to the comics origin story. He becomes a wrestler. He tries to make money. He gets screwed. Robbery. Uncle Ben dies. Great power...etc., etc., etc.

This new version though follows a similar vein. He gets bitten by a spider, but everything around that is a little different. Peter Parker's parents are involved a lot more. Peter is actually a genius and figures out how to develop web-shooters. (I always loved the idea of physical web-shooters because it shows the audience that Peter is actually smart.) He doesn't get involved in wrestling. (Which is great because I didn't think that worked by today's standards.) Uncle Ben still dies as a result of Peter's inaction, and that's when he starts to become a vigilante. He doesn't have much of a purpose until The Lizard shows up. That's when he realizes he's a hero and the only one to save people from the monster.

I'm good with the movie up until this point. Actually, you know what, while I was figuring out the next part, I realized I liked the rest of the movie quite a bit. It didn't blow me away, but it was a great story to show how Spider-Man affects the city and how the city comes to respond to him. It also shows his building of a "Spider-Man family" with Gwen Stacy and Captain Stacy helping him along the way.

Spider-Man unlike most other heroes, is very much the story of how being Spider-Man affects Peter Parker and the people around him, as much as it is about superheroes versus supervillians. And I think it was best proven here with Marc Webb directing the talents of Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone. 

I do have a couple complaints though and this is kind of nit picky. The first is that Spider-Man needed to quip a lot more in the fight scenes, but that leads to my second complaint - not enough action. In the second one, I'd like to see more action scenes with more clever Spidey quips thrown in. But honestly, if anyone hasn't seen the movie, I recommend it. Keep in mind though, I think this was definitely made targeting a younger demographic - high school to early-20s. But it's definitely worth watching. I'm looking forward to the next one in a couple years.

...

WARNING: I'm about to get on a soapbox. This is the only way I know how to deal with what I'm seeing. I don't have the answers, but I don't pretend to. If you don't want to know my thoughts or you don't have an open mind, please don't read on.

After two major shootings this week -- today's incredibly disturbing and unsettling -- gun control is about to become a major issue. And that angers me. I'm not a "gun nut." But I'm not anti-gun either. Guns are not the reason for tragedies like the Aurora shooting in July, the Clackamas Town Center earlier this week, or the horror unfolding this morning in Newtown. It is not a direct correlation between guns and these events.

What we should be talking about, is a serious and legitimate examination of what is causing these events. What is the root cause that would make someone to commit these random acts of violence? I don't want to hear people just say that it's violent video games, or violent movies. I want a real examination. Let's get psychologists and FBI profilers together to examine what caused the shooters to commit these acts. Maybe there's something these people have in common that can be prevented in future cases. 

Gun control may be part of the solution, but gun control for the sake of gun control is not the answer. If someone has in their mind to commit these atrocities, then they will find a way. We need to find a better way to actually prevent this from happening again.

Let's not argue about this. Today, let's actually try to do something real.

Assassin's Creed III: Now With Bears

I finished Assassin's Creed 3 and I'm going to talk about with as few spoilers as possible. If you want to go in completely fresh and you've been avoiding reviews for it because you're waiting for Santa to drop it down the chimney, then don't read on.

It's definitely one of the best games, if not THE best, in the series. I played the first one and it was alright. Incredibly repetitive, but great concept. This one is a huge leap from that. With all the side missions, the homestead, the crafting, the trading, the recruits, and the naval missions, it keeps you engrossed in the world. And I love killing all those fucking bears. (Hint: Bear pelts bring a lot of money in the convoys.)

I wasn't sure how I would feel about the naval missions, but by the end I loved them. They were my favorite non-main-story part. I hope that future games have the naval missions, or better yet, an entire game using that naval battle system - interactive Master and Commander. I also really liked the way they revamped Assassin's Guild. It was nice to have before, but it was too time consuming. Now, things are a lot easier. The best part in this game, is that your Assassins don't die. They just get injured and sit out for a while.

We also get to spend a bit more time with Desmond. The first game, I kind of forgot he was who I was actually playing and in the most meta-video game ever, I was playing him, playing someone else. We've spent more and more time with him, but there were nice little interjections where you got to play him in the real world and see that he was actually becoming an Assassin.

Now, this is where it will get a lot more spoilerish. Story wise this outing was a little mixed. I love this game series because of the historical stories and their attention to detail. In talking about the Revolutionary War, they were surprisingly accurate aside from throwing Connor into huge moments. Assassins apparently helped a lot more than Miss Martin told me in fourth grade. Connor apparently helped Paul Revere on his ride. I like to think in an alternate universe, they were a buddy cop movie.

It was nice how they included historical characters to explain the other viewpoint of events. Why the Loyalists wanted to stay with England and why the War wasn't necessarily the best thing for everyone. It made you think.

 Outside of the historical story, this one left me wanting more. This game marks the end of the current story arc. If you've been playing the other games, you know there is a huge solar flare coming that is threatening to wipe out the Earth. Well, that happens at the end, so we know this little arc is over. But it was a little anti-climatic. I was hoping for more, but Assassin's Creed is too popular to just end, so I understand that they have to leave it open for more.

What I'd like to see, is maybe tackle the Civil War. There's a nice scene towards the end where Connor witneses slaves being auctioned off. Connor would be too old to get involved in the Civil War, but maybe he has an apprentice? Maybe even two Assassins on opposite sides of the conflict. Connor is still pretty young at the end of his story so I could see a sequel telling the rest of his tale - unless that will be addressed in DLC.

I also think Feudal Japan would be good. Take the story to Asia to get ninjas and samurais involved. The French Revolution might be a good time. Perhaps something in South America? Russia? I think enough time was spent with Ezio and Connor focusing mainly on the western world, that I'd like to see some time spent with Assassins in the eastern world. 

Achilles has also definitely seen some shit. Maybe it'd be cool to go back and discover his backstory. How he started as Assassin, how he came to the Colonies, then how he got to the Homestead. I'd like to see a young Achilles just butchering Templars. Whatever the next game will be. I imagine we'll find out soon. 

Hear more talk about Assassin's Creed 3 in Episode 48 of But You're Wrong: "Pigeon's Creed Part 1."

Why 'Star Trek: Into Darkness' Won't Feature Khan...

Or it won't feature the one we except. I'll admit up front, I don't think the villain will be Khan and I'll explain that reasoning later, but it's entirely possible that a very different type of character may be the villain, but will be given the name Khan. What I don't expect is an almost identical version of Khan to appear in this movie. I think that's what a lot of the internet is expecting.

LET'S LOOK AT THE EVIDENCE

First, Khan is the best known single Star Trek universe villain. People who don't really know Star Trek, will probably be able to name Khan. They might know a race of people, like The Borg, but when it comes to Lex Luthor-type characters, Khan is the guy. And he's so famous because of the second Star Trek movie The Wrath of Khan. Now with the release of this series second film, people expect it to be Khan.

When the official synopsis was released, some pointed to the villain being described as: "one man weapon of mass destruction." This does kind of describe Khan. Khan was a genetically engineered human who awake in the future and wanted to take over the ship and then the galaxy. He was incredibly strong, incredibly smart, so he could be a one man weapon.

Now that the teaser is released, there are those point to this picture. Seeing the ribbing on the collar of his coat? It's kind of like the costume of Khan in The Wrath of Khan. 

There are some other rumors being thrown around, but these are the arguments I see come up most besides the name just being "tossed around."

COUNTER-POINT

The fact that Khan was in the second movie in the first series, doesn't give much support he'd appear in this one. That's like when people said the villain in The Dark Knight would be Penguin and Catwoman. It was largely based on their appearance in Batman Returns. It was also based on how well known they are. But popularity doesn't necessarily equal proof either.

There's the plot description, but based on the fighting in the teaser, this villain is far stronger than Khan. Plus, Khan had a lot of help in the movie. This villain seems to be completely by himself. The synopsis also says: "After the crew of the Enterprise find an unstoppable force of terror from within their own organization, Captain Kirk leads a manhunt to a war-zone world to capture a one man weapon of mass destruction." My expectation from this description is that it will be a lot closer to Apocalypse Now and the hunt for Colonel Kurtz than anything else. The villain, whoever he is, is a crazed member of Starfleet with some kind of vendetta against them. For the record, I'd like to remind everyone Khan was not a member of Starfleet.

See the Starfleet emblem on his shirt? 

Ship crashing in a city? Based on everything in the teaser showing a futuristic city, I'm guessing the villain takes the fight to Starfleet. The movie's title in Russia is Star Trek: Vengeance. In Wrath of Khan, Khan was looking for vengeance on Kirk, not Starfleet. If he takes the fight to Starfleet - presumably because they send Kirk after him - his out for vengeance on them.

CONCLUSION

From everything I've read - which I'll admit is a small portion compared to what's out there - people are expecting a Khan similar to what we saw in Wrath of Khan. I don't think we'll be seeing that. Based on what I've seen, but also because that would be too obvious. This is J.J. Abrams we're talking about. And guys that worked on Fringe, Alias, and Lost. To simply rehash an old, expected character seems below their talents. Using Khan so soon in a reboot is too on-the-nose for them. If they use Khan in a way very similar to the first incarnation, I'd be very disappointed in them.

...AND THEN THERE's THIS...

This was in the extra 15 seconds in the Japanese Teaser. For anyone who's seen Wrath of Khan, this is pretty emotional. This is from the final moments. Spoilers. Spoilers. When after saving the ship, Spock succumbs to radiation poisoning and dies. He has this wonderful moment with Kirk where they touch hands through the glass before Spock dies. But this happens in Khan, so it's inclusion leads everyone to think something similar may happen in Darkness, or that Khan is at least the villain. I'm thinking this scene is included to make everyone expect Khan and talk about the movie more. I'm sure Spock won't die because that would be bad for the franchise. They would either lose one of the two most notable characters, or they would then have to go through a movie to explain how he comes back to life a la Search for Spock. And then it's two movies that are too similar to the original series. And I have no idea who could play Christopher Lloyd as a Klingon.

So, maybe the villain will be named Khan, but it won't be what we expect. I don't think he'll be named Khan, but somewhere a studio exec might have made a bad call. For whatever reason, people seem to be expecting Khan. Abrams and the gang know this and I think they're just playing with us to get us to write things like I just did. Dammit!

Walter White: I'm Back to Rooting for Him

WARNING: SPOILERS! This entry will no doubt contain many spoilers of the last 8 episodes of Breaking Bad, so if you're not caught up, save this page and come back later.

When this season started I wasn't sure what kind of man Walter White would become. He had done a lot of evil things for his own survival, but now he didn't really need to survive. Well, I got my answer pretty quick that Walter was going to become evil. He had found this power within himself that he didn't know was there and embrassed it. He stood up to people and got what he wanted.

To a degree, I can relate to this guy because things haven't gone his way in the past. He's gotten fucked out of a lot of money in his past, but he sees the ability to make up for that now. I'd probably do the same. Although we start to diverge when we see how Walter handles the power with his wife and their relationship. We see him kill more people. 

Some of what Walter did though, was still for survival. He was a guy that got in way over his head and found he had power when he came out the other side. He started to make use of the power and it corrupted him. He became evil, but when it was all said and done, he decided to try to get out of it. He realized he had enough. Maybe seeing the money stacked up, he realized his goal was long completed. (By the way, did anyone else think of Storage Wars in that scene?) 

Now I'm back to rooting for him. It appears he is making an attempt to go back to normalcy. I say "appears" because part of me is still suspicious this wasn't all an act. But it appears this way when the mid-season finale ends and everything changes yet again. Now he is going to go into survival mode more than ever with stakes even higher than before. I originally thought that something was going to explode at the end there, or there was going to be a shootout, but this quiet end was much better. 

Whether he actually got out of the business or not, we'll have to wait and see. That will play into whether or not I root for him in the last eight episodes. I'm sure I'll still be able to root for him and relate to his need for survival. I imagine I'll root for him, but Walter seems to have developed quite the talent for surprising me lately.