Sorry. This is really long overdue, so I'll make it short and sweet.I watched Star Trek the same weekend it came out, and boy, was I impressed. I'm not a Trekkie by any measure of the word. I've seen maybe 3 or 4 episodes of the original series, about 2 dozen each of Next Generation and Deep Space 9, and Season 3 onwards of Voyager, but only for lack of anything better to watch. I have seen all the previous motion pictures, none in the theaters, and the only ones I deemed to be rewatchable are Wrath of Khan and The Voyage Home (go whales!). I'm fairly well-versed in the geek cliches of Trek, however, and that's probably one of the reasons I loved the reboot movie so much. Same goes for my wife. She loved it and she's less of a Trek fan than even myself.The film managed to breathe new life and energy into an aging franchise while somehow paying more than commendable homage to everything that made the original series such a cult classic. The entire classic cast was there, and though history in the film was irrevocably altered, one could immediately see that this crew, on this starship, had a destiny together that was too strong for even a nutbar like Eric Bana to destroy.The verbal homages rocked. And most of them were in there, including "Dammit Jim, I'm a doctor, not a..." and "I'm givin' it all she's got, Captain!" Portrayals of the classic cast were spot on, from their personality down to the classic lines that would never grow old, and this despite giving new elements and dimensions to each character. If some of the cast seemed like cardboard cutouts in the TV series, the crew in the film had life. Why else would I have been cheering so often in the film?Best film moment, hands down, was when future Spock, reprised by the immortal Leonard Nimoy, said to Kirk, "I am, and always will be, your friend."If I wasn't so busy applauding, I would have shed a tear.Now, if for some odd reason, you haven't seen this film yet, find time to watch it. It will make a diehard of even the most casual fan. Bring on the next on, Mr. Abrams. I'll be waiting.---Addendum: Meanwhile, watch out for Chris Hemsworth. He did an incredible job as James Kirk's father, George Kirk, in the opening minutes of the film. Now, he's been cast to star as Thor in the 2011 movie helmed by Kenneth Branagh. Good luck, Chris. Do the role proud.
Some quick hits for now, just to offload all that stuff that's buzzing around in my head these past few weeks. There comes a time when due to my diverse interests, I supersaturate my brain, and I wanna write about everything.Of course, there's no way I can do that, so I instead end up writing about nothing.I suppose I'll be writing entries like these more often in the future.---Secret Invasion - I'm holding off on writing a review of Secret Invasion 7. It's a brawl. The tiny bit involving Spider-Man is the only truly amusing bit in the whole comic, with the rest being a mindless, stupid, senseless fight with no sense of tension whatsoever. People, this is how NOT to invade another planet. Take notes. Given this, I'll wait till the final issue before rendering judgment, on the slight chance that this pointless charade is actually leading to something profound. I'm not hopeful though.Gundam 00 (season 2) - Macross Frontier's wondrous mecha design and CG sequences have spoiled my brain, to the point where watching Gundam 00 is an arduous experience. The mecha design in Gundam 00 isn't bad, taken in a void. Problem is, I end up comparing it to both Macross Frontier and Gundam Seed/Seed Destiny, and by comparison, 00's mecha SUCKS. The only truly aesthetically pleasing mecha in both seasons for me was the Gundam Kyrios, and they stuck a knife in me by wrecking it at the end of season 1. The remaining mecha range from decent (Gundam 00-Exia Fusion), to hideous (Gundam Seravee and its giant Gundam head... don't get me started). Add the fact that Gundam 00 hosts a set of jaded main characters who are even more boring than Hiro Yui and Judo Ashita and we have ourselves a problem.Star Wars, the Clone Wars - No, this is the CG series, not that disgusting second Lucas movie. It is shockingly entertaining. Likely because Lucas isn't writing the dialogue. Watch a few eps and see for yourself what a wonderful world Star Wars could be when its creator takes a few steps back.Batman RIP - Is this bit of Morrison confusion over yet? Because I'm waiting for Neil Gaiman to take over. Seriously.US Presidential Election - Congratulations, President Obama. You deserved it. You're inheriting a nation that's sliding downhill. I hope you realize you won because you're the only one capable of saving that country. Godspeed.Super Robot Wars - Look! Bandai made something with CG mecha! Lots of CG mecha! Why is Gundam 00 so crappy then? Ugh. Here I am ranting about 00 again.
CSI - Both Grissom and Warrick are leaving now? Can Lawrence Fishburne really take over, or is this show finally jumping the shark? We'll have to see.
Next Generation Console - Yes, I still want a Wii, but I'm so caught up in retro-gaming at the moment, I probably won't bother yet. Besides, no one can find a Wii. All of them have been presold till next year. Someone said that right now, Nintendo could put its name on a bag of dirt and it will sell. I kinda agree. Ah, poor Sony, how far you've fallen.
Avatar - Have they cast Aang yet? PLEASE don't let it be some white kid.
On the Rain-slick Precipice of Darkness, Episode One - The name says it all. I never thought a game co-developed by Penny Arcade would be so good. It's fun. Seriously. Play it. You can spare the 750php.
World of Goo - See what I mentioned about the game above? This is different. But still addictive. Horribly addictive. And sticky.
Hand-Made Greeting Cards - Wow. Our little home business is picking up. Orders are starting to come in. Must be the Christmas season. Anyone else want some handcrafted greetings?
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That's it. Back to watching Clone Wars.
After 25 episodes, Macross Frontier has finally ended. Let me get one thing across right now, because it's important: it was much, much better than Macross 7, the last full Macross series (which was a horrible piece of work barely lifted past mediocrity by the presence of Max and Milia).That said, it must also be mentioned that it was not better than the original Macross. Even comparing it to the OAV series, Frontier still ranks below Plus and Zero. But that still makes it good, overall.Was I entertained? Yes. Especially during the first two-thirds of the series. After that, the story quality dropped, and I can tell you why. The pace felt too fast, character development stalled with some characters while it was rushed in others, and some technical aspects of the story lacked exposition or justification. The reason behind this is the 25 episode limitation the makers of the anime placed upon themselves. In an effort to exagerrate the whole "Macross 25th Anniversary" theme, they placed numerous 25s in the series, both within and without. This included the 25 episode limit, which, quite frankly, SUCKS.The original series was great, and though it had flaws of its own, had a fully developed plot and character development. Despite the relatively simple plot, it spanned a glorious 36 episodes. Frontier was hamstringed by limiting it to 25 episodes, depriving viewers of desired subplot coverage, closure on multiple elements, and action scene length. I wasn't expecting another 36 episodes, but they could have surely increased the number of eps to 30+ if they hadn't gone with the stupid 25 theme.The combined traditional + CG animation elements, especially for mecha battles, was a wonderful touch, but the times when I wanted to see long protracted dogfights felt like paying for a bucket of popcorn and getting a bare cupfull instead. Ozma versus Alto? One single kharmic pass. Brera vs Alto? Let's blow the guy up please, ASAP. NUNS and SMS vs. Ghost v9.0's? No. A few scenes, but nothing definite.Ugh.Lost potential. It could have been so good.On other things, the ending was actually good, ignoring the fact that it was rushed. I liked the maintenance of the Archie-Betty-Veronica triangle between the three lead characters, and the fact that Alto was no longer a TOTAL wuss. Leon's dying horribly was denied to me, but at least Grace got annihilated. Damn. Do I HATE clones. I hate borg clones even more. A lot of things were left hanging, but the closure on the Vajra-Birdman-Protoculture metaplot was nice.If I were to rate this I'd still give it a 7 of 10. That's a pretty good rating considering I'm so critical. Time to look forward to the movie. If they make it a pseudo-continuity retelling of the series, like they did with Do You Remember Love?, I'd be overjoyed. That would mean it gets chance to correct some of its errors.
Make no mistake. I loved the Avatar finale, and I thoroughly enjoyed the ending. Now that I've descended from the post-Comet high, I spent some time reading what other people had to say about the ending. No surprise, most everyone loved it... Except for the Zutarans. Many of them disliked the ending to varying degrees, ranging from mild frustration, to outright hatred. Why? Well, they "lost." Katara loves Aang. Zuko loves Mei. To them, that's sacrilege. Especially after all the Zutaran hints in the final six episodes. I mean, look at Southern Raiders? That's true love right there, right? And Ember Island Players? You guessed it. Definitely a Kataang breakup. Zuko saving Katara and vice versa during the fight against Azula? We're talking MARRIAGE, baby. Of course, not all Zutarans took these signs to this extreme, nor did they all call Sozin's Comet a piece of garbage. But when so many of them criticize the finale with such fervor, with a few even declaring that they would have had the same criticisms even if Zutara won? Hmm... For the sake of argument, I took a look at some of their more sterling complaints and wondered what they're getting so worked up about. I started writing about it, but surprise, my comments about their comments were LONG. Hence the Part 1 above. Take a look with me, if you will. You may agree or disagree. Heck, I even agreed with a few. But not many...---Aang, the Last EnergybenderMain argument here is the deus ex point of the story. So what was the point of Aang learning to bend the other elements, if he was only going to go Avatar State and proceed to CHEEZ Ozai to defeat? While in the Avatar State, the Avatar can already bend all 4 elements with the greatest of ease, after all. Seems like they treated the whole learn-all-4-elements as a glorious waste of time.Well, no. It wasn't a waste of time.You must realize that before he went Avatar State, Aang DID use all 4 elements in dueling with Ozai. He’d be dead many times over if he didn’t know how to bend everything. Without the stuff he learned from his mentors, the fight would have been over much faster. Char-grilled Avatar.Yummy.The other rage-bit about this was how Aang returned to the Avatar state. After all that time spent by Pathik teaching about chakras and letting go, after the Azula strike which shorted out his connections, a little rocky bump fixes everything. Whoop. This is a criticism I agree with, especially since I considered the Azula-Zuko fight much better, but my agreement comes from a different rationale.One of the Zutaran stances about this is that if Aang re-entered the Avatar State, he must have done what Guru Pathik did and "let go" of his love for Katara, paving the way for a glorious Zutara ending.*cough*My issue is that, from a story POV, it was a major lost opportunity. Aang managing to get back into the Avatar State could have been presented in a more meaningful fashion than a lucky rocky spike. Even something as cliche as Aang desperately drawing on all his memories of his friends and the people counting on him in order to break the Chi block would have been a thousand times better than the Kharmic Rocky Bit of Amazing Fortune.Bah.More to follow.
[Warning: Spoiler images and statements follow. But at this point, I don't really care. Wahahaha!]---It's taken me this long to actually blog about Sozin's Comet for the simple reason that I've been high on the ending all the way up to this point, and now is the only time I've settled down just enough to put something down in words.This was an incredible last four episodes. It's hard to find the right words. I think it's important to say that I am a very satisfied fan. Analytically, there were some points in the ending that they could have improved upon or done better, but on an emotional happy-happy-joy-joy level, I am grinning from ear to ear and sighing happily. I also appreciate the fact that the authors gave the series closure, but not 100% closure, leaving just enough open elements for speculators to dream of the possibility of Brian and Mike venturing once again into this wondrously rich setting. Also keeps the fanfic writers happy.Cheers guys! Best series ever. It's been a wonderful ride.---
Part one of Sozin's Comet was all about fan service in some ways. We get to see Suki in swimwear for example.
Did I mention Suki in swimwear?
I know a lot of people who leered at this pic. Not often you get to see Toph in a bandeau. Yep. I do think she's turned 13 by this time. We get to see a precious hint of her future figure. She's gonna be a babe when she grows up. 
Meantime, she gets to shout to the world: "I am not Toph! I am MELON LORD!!!"
One last shot for the Zutoph shippers. Toph certainly seems happy.
Anybody who still doubts that Katara is Filipina should look at this pic. Scary.
I wish I could say this pic is for drama purposes, but it's not. A quick glimpse at the background shows Sokka, covered in drool after he slipped from Appa's mouth. Typical behavior for him, sadly.
Firelord... I mean... Phoenix King Ozai. And his ridiculously large helm. I still wonder how he got his beard to be so nicely pointy.
More fan service. One last shot of June. 
This is a geekgasm moment. The Order of the White Lotus is supposed to be filled with old guys. Well, these old guys are some of the most powerful people on the planet. And this shot doesn't even include Iroh. The five Old Masters and a few dozen other Lotus members pretty much took Ba Sing Se by themselves. 
Aang calls upon his past lives for advice. From top to bottom: Avatars Kyoshi, Kuruk, and Yangchen. I didn't bother with Avatar Roku. We've seen him enough, I think.
Remember those old guys? Well, King Bumi's among them, and on the Day of Black Sun, he took back Omashu by himself. The guy's so powerful he hurled entire buildings away from the city. Violating Ozai's statue was icing, but funny icing.
Nobody does emo better than Zuko. This is his final emo moment. After this is repentance and redemption. I'll miss the self-flagellation, but it's nice to see him grow out of it at last.
It's about damn time. 
You'd think that being appointed Firelord by her father would improve Azula's disposition. Seems like finally being on top of the world unhinged her mind completely. Can you say "paranoid schizophrenia?"
Even totally crazeeee and with her hair self-mutilated, she's still a sexy bitch, ain't she?
This was the real ultimate battle of the finale. Zuko vs Azula. Fire vs fire. Agni kai. This screenshot is only one of the many incredible action sequences in that fight. 
Leave it to the girls to ruin a good fight. Zuko sacrifices himself to save Katara from Azula's lightning. Rushing to intercept the bolt resulted in not-so-perfect form for Zuko however, leaving Katara to finish the fight she inadvertently interrupted.The Ozai-Aang fight was over-the-top, yes. But it was either Aang running from Comet-Pumped Ozai, or Ozai running from Avatar State Aang. Can't say I blame the dude. This shot proves that the Avatar can bend all 4 elements simultaneously.
Looks like Katara's gambit worked. Two girls frozen in ice, and only one can bend water. Guess who wins? I suppose it ruins the moment somewhat when you think about it and realize that they were frozen in sewer water.
One good turn deserves another. A little water healing and Zuko recovers enough to say thank you. Katara does the same. This marks the final Zutara moment of the series. 
Ozai learns here that you can't sneak up on a guy who had Toph for a teacher. Looks like Aang learned how to see through Earth-bending too.
Spiritbending the big bad. At least it doesn't kill him. This proves that bending is linked to spiritual strength. 
Okay. After all is said and done, this is the one scene I've been waiting for since I saw the awesomeness of Mei in The Boiling Rock. 
Haha. Yeah. I'm a Meiko shipper. Take that Zutarans. I could have shown them kissing, but I think this pic is better. Why? I've never seen Zuko look happier. Or Mei for that matter.
Congratulations Sokka. Now that Ty Lee's a Kyoshi Warrior, you get to have her AND Suki. You DA MAN.
I appreciate seeing the cast in casual Earth Kingdom garb again. I still prefer the Fire Nation fashion, but the green does look nice on them.
One parting gift to the canon Kataang shippers out there.
Warning: Spoiler statements and images follow. Like who cares right? Everybody's seen this, or you wouldn't even bother reading. I guess. Maybe. ---The Ember Island Players is what's known as a recap episode, which is meant to remind the audience of important facts about what previously happened in the series, lest they forget. Normally, recap episodes are done through a mixture of exposition or narration, mixed with a healthy amount of rehashed scenes from those previous eps. The average recap episode is at least 50% previously seen images and scenes.Avatar's authors did it differently, by presenting the recap in the form of a play "extensively" researched by its in-series author. When the viewer notices that the many sources of information used by the author are first-hand accounts that include pirates, soldiers and "a surprisingly knowledgeable merchant of cabbage," one anticipates that the play is anything but accurate. The viewer is thus treated to an amusing satire of some of the best that Avatar had to offer during the first and second Books, offering a chance to reminisce about favorite lines and scenes rather than being forced to relive them directly. A most unique method, and one very appropriate to this wonderful series on its penultimate episode.Plus, Avatar again doesn't disappoint on the value of its "filler" episodes, adding moments of important character development. This late in the series, that's not something you'd entirely expect. We get wonderful scenes involving Aang and Katara (sorry to the Kataang shippers out there), and Zuko and Toph --- icing to an episode with many a scene that left me laughing so hard I began to tear bend.On with the show...
Couldn't resist one more for the ladies. Zuko post-workout and shirtless isn't something you see often. Not very many 16-year olds have abs like that. Hmm... shouldn't he be about 17 by now?
I am so happy to see them back in fire nation clothing, now that they're hiding away at Zuko's Ember Island vacation house. Fire nation fashion is so attractive. This pic of course has Suki in fire nation duds for the first time. Looks mighty good on her.
The play begins! And this is... Aang. Played by a girl. Aang is shocked. You can tell he's never seen Peter Pan. Then again, Peter Pan's female actors were never this well-endowed.
I'm the Avatar! The trinity of the series meets for the very first time. Water Bend! Hai-yah!
Book 1's antagonist is introduced. Uhm... I know it's supposed to be satirical, but shouldn't the Fire Nation know which side Zuko's scar is on? Oh well. Maybe it's meant to be a deliberate insult by the play's author.
Suki got a real kick out of this scene. It's a lot more amusing when you think about what really happened the first time she and Sokka met.
This pretty much exemplifies what Team Avatar did half the time. Sneaking around and running away. Giant faux water bending scroll optional.
This is the real reason why the Blue Spirit was unstoppable. That mask can stop a freight train.
Aang and Suko have a typical reaction to a chapter in their lives that they'd rather not remember. 
Jet never looked so good. The pink shirt is a nice touch.
Making out with the Yue, the Moon Spirit, was one of Sokka's crowning glories. He'd have three people in his harem if Zhao hadn't screwed everything up.
Suki is awesome. We find out here that Sokka never told her about his first girlfriend. She's taking his previous conquests in stride. Sokka's a lucky bastard.
"They call be TOPH, coz it sounds like TOUGH!" Toph should feel proud. This is the reputation she's set for herself. Can't blame the author's sources. Who wants to admit they were solidly beaten up by a 12 year old blind girl?
Our favorite earth bender does us proud. She's the only one who thinks her portrayal in the play rocks. 
Initial fan reaction to Zuko's new hairstyle back in Book 2 might have been different had he sported Fabio-level locks like these. Thankfully the authors showed some restraint.
I'm glad that the real Azula wasn't around to see this, else the play might now have gotten past this point.
The most awkward moment in the entire series, and source of the shipping wars that defined its fans. One wonders though what source the play's author got this from. Was there a hidden voyeur in that cave? If there was, he was definitely a Zutara shipper.
They make a cute couple don't they? If only Sokka would stop thinking about food so much. Hello?! Hot ass-kicking martial arts babe leaning into you! Show some appreciation!
This is where it all changed. "Choose treachery! It's more fun!"
Mai and Ty Lee... sorta. The non-smiling emoticon on Mai was one of my laugh-till-I-dropped moments.
Awwwww. She likes you Zuko! After a heart-warming conversation, Toph gives Zuko a LURVE BRUISE. One for the Zutoph minority.
Could this be... THE FUTURE? I'm not sure about the accuracy of the play's ending, but anything that makes Sokka react this way has to be worth some minor consideration.Wow.Gotta stop laughing now. The comet's up next.
