Saturday 4 October 2014

Captain America The Winter Soldier: best super-hero movie ever?

NOTE: Read the Captain America: The Winter Soldier comic book run before you watch the movie, and before you read the book familiarize yourself a little with Captain America's history, I don't know if you'll understand the book or not if it's the first Captain America book you read, but I DO know that the book is excellent on the premise that you do understand it. Also watch the Captain America The First Avenger movie before you watch The Winter Solder.


  Anyway, I haven't enjoyed any superhero movie more than I enjoyed the Winter Soldier. It had more than just amazing action sequences and Captain America kicking ass (which, don't get me wrong, were both very prevalent elements in the movie); it had emotion. For those who aren't familiar with the Winter Soldier comic book run, it's a series that tells an innovative, heart-felt story that re-writes elements of Captain America's history in a captivating tale that did excellently in comic-book form and possibly even better on film.

  This movie is fantastic in action and in story, and I would not only recommend watching this movie, but I would, on the assumption that you read the bolded note at the top of this blog post, recommend buying and reading the Captain America: The Winter Soldier comic book run that the film is based on. The book is definitely worth reading, and the movie is possibly even more amazing.

I give this film a 10/10!


Monday 29 September 2014

Naboo Starfighter (LEGO MOC)


For those who don't know what an "MoC" is, it basically means I designed and built this. It's based loosely off of the LEGO set 7877, but designed and built mostly from scratch.



Review: The Amazing Spider-Man 2


I know, this is a very late review, but I still see this film as worth reviewing because this is the first Spider-Man film to:

1. Be a sequel to a Spider-Man film where the actor of Spider was swinging in real life as opposed to CGI (very impressed with that), so this film is sure to also use a huge amount of practical effects.

2. Accurately portray Spider-Man's costume.

Those two things combined alone make this one of the most important movies. Ever.

Anyway, there were a lot of awesome/badass moments that Spider-Man had in this film. The action was fantastic. The action sequences and the whole film were based around what (I think) many fans believe to be one of the underlying premises of Spider-Man: he saves people. Spider-Man comics, from my small experience with them, put a lot of focus on him not just defeating super-villains in huge, epic battles, but also saving innocent New York citizens from these super-villains. This was one of the things they nailed in the film.

Another thing that they got right was that Spider-Man has a bad reputation. James J. Jameson is only mentioned in the film, and it's been a while since I watched it, but if I recall correctly you still get the idea that Spider-Man isn't getting a good reputation.

And of course there's one last thing which a Spider-Man movie always needs: Spider-Man's quips. And  he does (if I recall correctly) make quite a few jokes in the film, and to be honest though i appreciated that they put them in there, some of them felt a little bit forced.

Still a pretty great film though, I'd give it a 7.5/10.

Tuesday 9 September 2014

Review, Iron Man: The Secret Origin of Tony Stark, Parts 1 & 2

Review of this book and this book.

These two books are phenomenal. I was on the edge of my seat while reading them, and they were a total thrill. The story is fantastic. The art is top-notch. Although the first book lacks very much action, the second book makes up for it with a huge breath-taking battle near the end, and the plot twist (or is it a "reveal"? I'm not sure) is excellent.

This could be the greatest comic book story I have ever read.

By the way, each book has at least one amazing two-page spread (the best one's in Part 2).

Highly recommend, 10/10.

Tuesday 19 August 2014

My visit to Miniatur Wundertland In Hamburg, Germany

Miniatur Wunderland is astounding. Measuring over 1300 square meters with moving trains (the largest miniature train track in the world, actually), moving cars and trucks, over 215000 individually sculpted figurines, and many functions which range from a crowd doing "the wave" to a working roller coaster, Miniatur Wunderland takes your breath away in a way that only LEGOLAND can (when it's one of the better LEGOLAND's).

Anyway, I know if you're anything like me you're aching to see that miniature working roller coaster, so I'll give you the video right now so we can get that out of the way:


Crazily amazing, right? I mean, I know the mechanics are probably fairly simple, but for some reason a miniature roller coaster really blows me away.

Then there's stuff like this, a functioning depiction of people doing "the wave" at what appears to be a rock concert or something:

Phenomenal. 

And then you come across simple things like this, a train crossing a bridge, that really are beauty in motion:



And here's one of two trains:


Some nice pics:









An astounding place to visit!

Friday 1 August 2014

Comic books are mind-blowingly amazing

I love comic books, specifically trade paperbacks. I love action in comic books most of all, artwork is almost equally important to me, and story matters to me too, but not quite so much as the action and artwork.

I mean, stuff like this is just breathtaking:





I really cannot emphasize enough how awesome all of those are... just.... just wow.

I think my favourite character of all time is Red Hulk. He's like the hulk, expect an intelligent strategist who's fully aware of what he's doing while in Hulk mode (which is actually all the time, but you get my point). And red somehow looks even better on a Hulk than green does, especially with that haircut of his.

I would say my all-time favourite arc is the New 52 Batman vol 1 & 2. So awesome, with an amazing climax.

I think my second favourite arc would be Captain America: The Winter Soldier, however I can't be sure of that, because I was just getting into comics then and wasn't really paying that much attention, and i think I may have delayed finishing it for a while, but I think I still remember being really impressed.

I love comic books almost as much as I love Star Wars (and I love Star Wars a LOT).