Henry Imler May 4th, 2008

No, this is not a post about the perils of media consumptions, just some spastic comments touching some of the media I have consumed recently.

Iron Man - Wow, great summer superhero movie.  The folks contributing to Rotten Tomatoes got it right, this one is a gem. From the effects to the story to the the dialog, everything was very well done.  I went with a large group of friends late Thursday night to see the opening.

JR, Jake, Grant, Q, Meredith, and others went with me.  Jake’s wife, Dawn, was too sick to go Thursday.  On Friday Meredith was out of town helping with a wedding shower, so I invited Jake and Dawn to go see it with me Friday.  Jake replied to my offer saying that Dawn was still sick and therefore could not make it.  So, I bought my lone ticket to the 10:45 showing thinking that it was better than sitting around preparing for the review session I am teaching Monday.  About 5 minutes later, I get an email from Jake saying that Dawn urged him to see the flick a second time.  And so we went and reveled in the glory that is Iron Man for a second time.  Afterwards, we got to thinking and happened upon a funny, yet sad fact: we entered into Friday watching Iron Man in the theater and we exited Friday watching Iron Man in the theater.

I appreciated all of the small tie ins to the comic.  From the mentioning of the ten rings to the War Machine plans in the credits, there were lots of little things to notice and look for in the sequel.  The final scene after the credits?  Perfect.  Although, if Fury is Samuel Jackson, then the suit is all wrong and Stark should have been bald and blue-skinned in his young pictures. (i.e. should have been Ultimate Iron Man to go with Ultimate Nick Fury)  However, anything is better than Baywatch Nick Fury.

Fear Agent - This campy, grisly space comic is well worth your while.  As my friend Jake says, it is a 1950’s space comic.  Buy this now.

Super Mario Galaxy - I bought this game with Christmas money.  I played it some over Christmas break and loved it.  After leaving it at my in-laws for 4 months, I am playing it every once and a while.  It is truly a great game in all respects, save one.  The graphics are gorgeous; the game play and storyline are imaginative and fresh (for a mario game).  The one problem is the boss battles, which are often repetitive and simple to beat.  Beyond that, however, the game is spectacular.

Mario Kart - Everything they say is true.  At once, the same is immaculate and ridiculous at the same time.  The new courses are beautiful.  The multiple control schemes allow for fun for everyone.  The only problem?  Item bloat.  The items are simply punishing.  You can go from 1st to 8th in a matter of seconds.  This is all fine and dandy when you are racing your friends, but when you are trying to unlock Daisy for you wife and all you need is to finish Rainbow Road in the top three, getting bombarded with a redshell, lightning, blue-shell and the pow block in a 10 second span on the last lap becomes rather irritating.  Group play?  Fan-tastick, with a k.

Justice League/ Justice League Unlimited - I watched this series the last couple of months while working on Greek or preparing to teach.  It follows the creation and exploits of DC Comics’ Justice League.  The first few seasons only deal with the 7 founding members (in this incarnation, anyway), Superman, Flash, Martian Manhunter, Batman, Wonder Woman, Hawk Girl, and the Green Lantern.  In the last few seasons, they expand the universe to include all of the members of the Justice League.  Because of this, the last few seasons are great if you want little side stories on minor DC characters.  However, this also has the side effect of series loosing focus.  It is at its best when mantaining a cohesive storyline with the main seven characters.  Overall, it is worth watching on netflix, but not collecting the DVDs.

• Media , Video Games
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