X-Men Days of Future Past - My Review

Today I went to see X-Men Days of Future Past with a group of friends at the Arclight theater in Sherman Oaks. This is based off an extremely popular storyline that the Uncanny X-Men comic book published back in 1981.

If you've been living under a rock here is a synopsis: The X-Men send Wolverine to the past in a desperate effort to change history and prevent an event that results in doom for both humans and mutants.

(If you haven't seen the movie I'd avoid this review)

I'll start off by saying I LOVED THIS MOVIE. I loved the story, the special effects, the acting, the emotion.. everything was just so good.  It was great seeing the old crew and the new crew on the same screen.

My favorite scene in the movie is alot of people's favorite scene and I just have to say two words.. Quicksilver and kitchen. Everything about that scene was incredible, especially the way it was shot. Visually it's amazing. But I have to be honest and say every scene with Quicksilver was amazing. They so nailed this character.

The other breakout character for me was Blink. I'd had never heard of her before but I loved her look and her power to produce portals, the effect was amazing. Definitely gonna find out more about her character. I also really enjoyed Bishop, they did a great job with him as well. I'd definitely would want to see a movie based on those characters at the beginning/end of the movie.. lots of cool mutants.

I think it's funny that they made 3 X-Men movies then (soft reboot) with X-Men First Class and introduced an entirely new cast of characters and now most of those characters are dead before this movie starts and we wind up negating the first three movies and create a whole new timeline ending with the entire original cast back again. Don't get me wrong.. I'm extremely happy with the decision as I love the original X-Men cast but it just seems weird to me.

Even before this movie was out they announced a sequel to this movie called X-Men: Apocalypse. Again this is from a very popular storyline from the comic books. Can't wait to see who shows up in that one.

I'm seeing this movie again tomorrow on the Fox lot and I can't wait. I'm definitely going to be buying this movie on blu-ray and I give X-Men Days of Future Past a very solid A

After the movie the gang went to Denny's to grab some dinner. We had some great geeky conversations, not only about the movie and it's franchise but so many other geeky things... it was awesome.

Thanks Dallas, Jes, Chris, Adam, Scott, Katie, Aaron and Andrew for sharing in this fun experience with me.

Webseries, Mustaches and Friends

Today Chris and I worked on revamping our web series GE3K'S Company. We initially had written 6 of 10 episodes for season one and each episode was about 10 minutes each. But I spoke with several "seasoned" web series creators who said that for a first season they'd suggest that we keep the episodes to 2 to 3 minutes each. And once we establish a fan base then we can do longer ones.

So we took our idea and refined it down to just one storyline. We actually took the first episode and half of the second episode and re-wrote them into the new season one (which is now only 5 episodes). We kept alot from the original scripts as we did like alot of what we wrote but somethings had to change since it's a much shorter season now.

In the end I'm very happy with the final result. So far Chris and I are the only ones who have read the season but I do plan on opening it up to some friends for notes. Still don't know when it will be filmed but it's moving forward... slowly

Since Chris is visiting for the extended weekend he put together a gathering of his friends.

Earlier in the day Chris and I went shopping for mustache/beard wax as now that my mustache and beard are getting longer I wanted to see if I could shape them. So I had a bit of fun twirling my stache. I think it turned out pretty good.

First to arrive at my place was Arron, then Rupert and Luis. We all took a shot of Jameson before heading out to Pitfire Grill to meet up with Jes and Dallas. On the way over I realized I forgot my phone and ran back home to get it while everyone waited for me. While at home I took another shot of Jameson. The five of us got to Pitfire and met up with Jes and Dallas. We hung out there for a bit and had a few pitchers of beer (I tried three different kinds) I also had a glass of Sangria (which I had never had before).

After Pitfire we headed over to Jes and Dallas' place to pick up a new card game that Jes had gotten from Wondercon called Superheros. We then proceeded to my place to grab some beers but then got a message from our buddy Will who was now home so we ventured over to his place and met up with him and Becca.

We did a few more shots and beers before starting up a game of Superheros. About halfway through the game Jen woke up and came downstairs to join in. It was some good times.

I got back to my place around 1:30am and didn't feel so well. I spent the next few hours running back and forth to the bathroom thinking I might throw up (which I never did). I feel asleep sometime after 4am... it was totally worth it.

Toys, Walk and Wars

I finally finished my guest/toy room. I also managed to clean up the living room area but there are still 25 toy bins left over. It's a far cry from the 60 that I had but still way to may to keep in the apartment. There are also about ten boxes in my bedroom that will need to be gone through as well. I'm not really sure what I'm going to do next. For now I'm ready to host my buddy Chris for the weekend.

I picked Chris up just before 4pm, we came back to my place to hang before heading out for dinner. Chris picked a new "local" Chinese restaurant. I'm apprehensive when trying new places as I'm a creature of  habit and I know what I like but he wanted to try this place, it's call Hot Wok. I am very happy that he did. I not only enjoyed the food but it's my new favorite Chinese place in town.

While there our friend Dallas contacted me and asked if I wanted to walk around the park with him. Chris and I both agreed that we'd like to join him so we did. Also joining in the walk was our buddy Robert and Doug. We walked around the park three times (about 3 miles) but it felt like forever and I think that's because we did a lot of talking and walked extremely slow. Afterwards the gang came to my place to hang for a bit.

In geeky news I came across this video on Facebook and had to share it there and figured I'd post it here as well. It's an interesting look into the influence/creation of Star Wars.

Marriage, Justice & SW Charity

Spent all day working on my toy/guest room. My buddy Chris is staying with me for the extended Memorial Day weekend and arrives tomorrow around 4ish. By the end of the night I was about 2/3's done but luckily I have a few hours tomorrow to finish up. I'm really liking how things are turning out.

I still have way to much stuff to display and I  know I'll have to make some hard choices on what to get rid of or sale. The point of renting a two bedroom was that I wouldn't have to rent a storage unit. Hopefully I can stick with that plan.

I want to congratulate Pennsylvania on becoming the 19th State to legalize Gay Marriage. They join California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington.

It's been 10 years since Massachusetts was the first to legalized gay marriage back in 2004 and since then 18 more states have followed suit. It's a far cry from 50 but it's progress.. baby steps.

In geeky news.. two very cool things were released today, the first was a logo & title for the upcoming Man of Steel 2 movie. The title is Batman v Superman "Dawn of Justice" and the new logo is below. I like both the logo and title. Obviously it's setting us up for a Justice League movie. Besides Batman and Superman in this movie we are also getting Wonder Woman. Can't wait to see how this all plays out.

The other very cool geek news was a video that was released by J.J. Abrams while on set on Star Wars Episode Seven to promote Star Wars: Force for Change, a brand new Star Wars initiative from Disney and Lucasfilm, in collaboration with Bad Robot, dedicated to finding creative solutions to some of the world's biggest problems. The first Star Wars: Force for Change campaign will raise funds and awareness for UNICEF's Innovation Labs and its innovative projects benefiting children in need. For every $10 you donate you get a chance to win the grand prize of getting a walk on role in the next Star Wars movie, currently titled Episode Seven.

Besides the awesome charity event a lot of buzz in the geek world was when a "practical" non-cg character showed up on screen with J.J. He has said in the past that he plans to do as much practical effects as he could. I think he purposely had this character on screen to prove a point. To show fans that he wasn't just blowing smoke. Can't wait for more SW news, you can watch the video below.

Roller Coaster Fun

I got to meet an online friend (Michael) today. We actually met through our love for The Guild. We chat from time to time on Facebook and he was visiting from Kansas this week and wanted to know if I wanted to join him for a trip to Magic Mountain. I said yes of course as I love Magic Mountain and have a season pass.

We got to MM around 10am, got his ticket and got in the line to get in, it opened at 10:30. Once inside we made our way to X2 but it was closed for the moment, we then went next door to Viper and it too was closed. The day wasn't started off that great... We continued up the hill to Tatsu and this one was open so our first roller coaster of the day was Tatsu.

Next up was Apocalypse, every time I ride this coaster I swear it gets faster and faster. Afterward we rode Gold Rusher and were the only two people on it. Next was The Riddler and then Green Lantern which is always a blast.. we were really spinning on that one.

Batman was next and for the first time they were running it backwards and it's a completely different experience.. crazy fun.

We stopped to enjoy some lunch before getting on Wonder Women Lasso of Truth, then we rode Lex Luther's Drop of Doom and boy was it windy so we were swaying quite a bit at the time.

Colossus was next and once again it was going backwards, they have done this from time to time but I had never ridden backwards.. again it was crazy. We then did Scream and Goliath.

Full Throttle was next and I think that was the longest we stood in line.. a little over an hour. The rest were less then 30 minutes each. We made our way back to the front of the park and rode Revolution.

We checked out X2 but it was still closed. We then walked up the hill and rode Ninja before going over to Superman but that too was closed so those were the only roller coasters that we were not able to do. We still had an hour and a half before the park closed so we re-rode Apocalypse and Goliath.

Afterwards we grabbed some fudge and then headed to dinner at Islands (my favorite burger joint and Michael had never been to one).

Back at my place Michael and I hung out and I found out that he had not seen Sherlock so we watched season one, episode one.

Around 10:30pm we said our good nights. It was a fun day, I got to know Michael better and rode lots of roller coasters.. doesn't get any better then that.

Building a Toy Room

Today was all about my toy room. I spent the entire day on and off working on the room. I have several large book shelves downstairs in the garage area that needed to be brought up. I knew there would be no way I'd be able to bring them up myself I instead I disassembled them and brought them up piece by piece. I have to say that was the best idea I could have had. It was so easy and they were disassembled and assembled within 15 minutes.

Spent the day going through bin after bin trying to organize and figure out which figures I wanted to sale. I'm also discovering quite a few "toys" that I had forgotten that I purchased. Some of them are really cool.

I'm super excited to get this room up, it's been years since I've seen some of them. I've also decided that if it can't be displayed and has to stay in a plastic bin then it has to be sold. I'm sure I won't sell everything but still have a few bins to store but there is no point in having something if it's can't be displayed and enjoyed by all.

The Toys, The Race and The Roundtable

Spent today working on my guest/toy room. As I said earlier it's taking me a lot longer to unpack everything and figure out where things are going. I seem to get a full steam and work for about two hours and then hit a wall or get frustrated that I just have to much stuff and I don't have a clue where everything is going on.

So I stop for a few hours until I get motivated again for a few hours until the same thing happens again.. it's a viscous cycle.  As my buddy Erik says.. you have to make a bigger mess to clean everything up and that's exactly what I am doing. There are plastic bins and boxes all over the apartment. Which again leads to adding to my frustration. But it's coming along, at least it's starting to look like a toy room.

Besides working on my toy room off and on today I also watched the season finale of The Amazing Race All Stars. I was rooting for two of the three teams so the odds were good that the team I disliked the most would not win and I'm happy to say that they did not win. Though I would have preferred the two country girls to win, I'm happy the dad and son team won, especially since the way they went out during the last race due to an injury. So another season is done.. I enjoyed this all star season. Most of the crappy teams were eliminated early on. I would say that this finale race in Vegas was kind of lack luster but other then that it was another fun season. Can't wait for the next one.

I finally started moving forward once again on my general "geek" podcast, The Geek Roundtable.. I've been wanting to this podcast for the past four years. I had this idea way back in 2010 with a different co-host and title but things never really moved forward. It saw the light of day a few years ago with a new co-host and title but once again life got in the way so nothing happened. Well I'm dusting it off once again, still with the same co-host and title. But now I'm determined to actually start recording in June and have my first episode out by July. I'm going to do it this time.. no more delay. Follow @Geek_Roundtable for more info about this new geeky podcast.