A Nice Long Blog Filled with Four Movie Reviews, Two Book Reviews, a Game Review and Some Insight on a Touchy Subject

This week was pretty much a bust when it comes to writing, due to spending 24 hours alone flying back to Canada, and then two days recovering from the jet lag. It is a bitch getting back to the usual sleep pattern, dealing with the 14 hour difference.

I was still able to get two critters posted for New Mutant Monday series two – the Brain Drainer and the Unhurried. Believe it or not the latter was NOT inspired by the movie Zootopia, although I can see how people might have thought so.

I saw that movie on Friday, and I’ll share my thoughts on it later on in this blog.

Again due to my travelling and recovering, I only wrote up a pair of new creatures for the conversions – the Bone Snatcher and the Burning Zombie. I’ll try to get more written up over the week but I’ve got a lot of real life issues to deal with, such as getting a will written for my mother and speaking to her doctor to find out how long she has.

No, I’m not looking for sympathy or anything, just stating the facts of life.

Only two weeks until the 11^th annual Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo. This is the first time in many a year it’s been so close and I’ve gone to see about tickets and they even have VIP passes left for sale.

I have a feeling this year there will be a drop in the number of attendees, which may not be all that bad a thing when you consider how packed the place gets!  Last year they had 103,000 people show.

And unlike so many years past I’m only getting a couple of photos this time around, instead of the dozen or so that I got previously. It’s cool, I’ll make up for it when I head to Houston for Comicpalooza in June.

I can hardly wait for that, as I’ll be able to get my colonial marine armor signed by 7 more of the actors from Aliens. Gonna cost, but that’s cool – just increases the value of my armor. I’ve even gone as far as to get it insured so that if anything happens to it during the flight, I can get it replaced.

It is now time for my usual plethora of reviews. I’m going to start with the movie Zootopia and the go straight into my personal views, and then I will continue with the reviews.

It was cute.

The movie was, however, far too preachy. It was essentially all about racism and stereotyping, and it was REALLY bloody preachy. The basic premise was that a rabbit wanted to become a police officer, something which has never happened before. She had to overcome the prejudices against her being a cute little bunny (even went as far as using a line which stated ‘we can call each other cute, but you can’t’ at one point).

The basic plot was how a group of predators have gone missing, and she takes the case in order to prove herself, putting her new career on the line doing so. I won’t spoil it other than to say she partners with a Fox, who she has her own prejudices against in order to crack the case.

Let’s take the whole issue of racism and wrap it up in a cute movie that is supposed to appeal to kids.

Did I enjoy it? Yes. Was it too preachy for my liking? Again, yes.

Now for my personal view.

I try, sometimes succeeding, often failing, to not be racist or to ignore stereotypes. I fail miserably with the latter as I have a lot of prejudices against the stereotype gamers and table-top gamers. So much so that I go out of my way to ensure I do not fall into the habits many of them do.

Also I try to look past ethnicity, skin color, and sexual orientation. It can be pretty damn difficult at times, especially when some people tend to fall into the stereotypes. I would love to see a world where like-minded people can live in peace, but that is a pipe dream. There will always be prejudice attitudes towards different cultures, different skin tones and so forth.

Always.

All I can do is try to treat people with respect and look past the differences. Some folks like to use the term ‘color blind’ but I think many people are starting to look down at that terminology. I could be wrong, and I have been many times in the past.

I would love to see a world where people get along. Sadly it’s in our nature, a few of us can, but there is always that ‘us versus them’, be it ethnic issues, country, province / state, city, hell even neighborhoods in cities.

Seems we always need barriers and competition in one form or another.

Anyhow, on to the rest of the blog. I watched three movies on the flight back home, and finished two novels this week. I have started a third but I’m barely a quarter of the way through it right now.

First I read the Aeronaut’s Windlass by Jim Butcher. It’s the first in a new series he is writing and it’s Steampunk.

If I wasn’t a fan of his work I’d have never read it, as I am certainly not a fan of this genre. The book did nothing for me. I’d like to say it was because I don’t like the genre, but I’m reading a steampunk series by another author I am very fond of and that series I am enjoying.

Intelligent talking cats, all the typical trappings of Steampunk, half-feline, half human warriors, and characters that I found rather cliché. Oh and the whole intelligent cat thing, my niece, she is reading a series of books called ‘Warriors’ which is about tribes of cats.

God I miss Dresden.

If  you like descent action, and if you love Steampunk – hell if you even just like it, read this book. Don’t let my jaded view detract from you picking it up and reading it.

When I first heard of Taken 3, I decided I was going to avoid it. I did not want to see yet another person kidnapped and Liam Neeson having to rescue them. I was really wrong. The movie had nothing to do with kidnapping and everything to do with a murder being pinned on Neeson’s character.

So as it turns out I enjoyed the movie. A few unexpected twists, although it was quite predictable, I still had fun watching it.

The other novel I finished this week was The Last American Vampire’ by Seth Grahame-Smith. It is the follow up to the novel Abraham Lincoln, Vampire hunter and it was an enjoyable alternate history romp where the main character who worked with Lincoln reveals his origins and all the encounters he had with various famous historical figures from the 16^th century all the way up to the year 2000.

It was well written and very entertaining; although I am sure there are people out there who would argue differently with me over this. I enjoyed it and I hope to see more novels in this vein – pun intended.

Upon returning to Canada I was pleased to discover the last expansion I was missing for Descent was restocked at my local game store. I picked up the Trollfens, and now I am missing six of the lieutenant packs, and hopefully it won’t be long before they are available for purchase.

Also released this week was Talisman Cataclysm. When I first read about the expansion, I was intrigued by the concept, and when the publisher mentioned they were changing the center board, for some reason I thought it was the inner and middle regions of the game board. As it turns out the entire board was changed.

I haven’t had a chance to play it, but I have looked it over and it really does bring some serious changes to the game.

If you’re a fan of Talisman, by all means, buy it!  Expect the average game to last about 4 plus hours however, especially if you own all the expansions like I do.  

The other movies I watched returning home were John Wick and Wrath of the Titan’s. The latter, avoid it. Dull and absolutely uninspired, although I think a few conversions might be showing up from the movie.

Its greatest sin was the fact it was BORING!  Did nothing for me, and although the effects were pretty cool, effects alone cannot save a poorly written and acted movie.

John Wick on the other hand was a great action flick. Keanu Reeves plays a retired bad-ass hit man, who has recently lost his wife, who was the reason he got out of the profession to begin with. In the first twenty minutes his car is stolen and his dog is killed and this sets him off to extract revenge on the Russian mob.

Cool action and it was fairly well acted. Unlike Wrath, I was not bored.

And there you have it. Another longer than usual blog, but I hope you don’t mind.

Until next week, stay happy and continue to enjoy life!