Campy fun time! The movie’s keeps fairly light despite the danger. I guess it keeps to the same vein as Richard Donner’s Superman: The Movie in that sense, and all the better for it. The angst-ridden Peter Parker is getting a bit lost, Batman is a totally different animal, and Singer’s Superman pretty much described cardboard. So campy fun time! The actors are easy and loose, comfortable with their characters and showing a lot of camaraderie on-screen. The plot is basic, and Dr. Doom is pretty fun now that he’s just Doom and not going through some vain phase about his looks, and they go all over the world to save the world from the Devourer of Worlds.

And this is where this movie really bites. Galactus, Devourer of Worlds, does not speak, does not manifest into a human form (you know, he manifests into a form similar to the natives of a planet — only BIGGER), and the Surfer becomes an improbable Deus Ex Machina. This is the only bit that sucks, and it being the climax, it was a real downer for the nerd in me.

Still, a matinee ticket is worth it.

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Worse than the previous two outings. The movies were like the books in many ways. Horribly written, badly paced, yet magical in its sense of innocent wonder (the real assholes would say ignorant wonder, I’m not quite there). As Rowling became a better writer (or found better editors, say they), the world became more complex and to be honest, I think her early plot devices began to conflict with the maturation of her world and her storytelling. The movies suffered from too much faith in the book. The same bad pacing transfered to film (how long did it take for the first two movies to get through their “”climactic”" battles?) and by the third movie, when the books were too thick to transfer verbatim and edits were needed, you start to see the movies be better than the books. Well, I saw it that way.

The third and fourth movies I found the best, even if there were numerous scenes that could have been cut, or certain character’s roles could have been extended. I’m sure there’s some control exerted by Rowling as the story has yet to finish and certain edits shouldn’t be made because they foreshadow a plot in a future book, but as the directory and screenwriter don’t know what that plot point is, they can only shove the scene in the movie and make it fit somehow. Awkward, but necessary.

This fifth movie suffers mostly from direction. I can’t really argue about the plot or the cutting (or remaining) of certain scenes, not forcefully anyway. But it just seemed dull. And once more, the climax was just a mess.

It’ll make buckets. It’s Harry Potter. Go see it. Everyone else will (and has).

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Han said it best, right as we walked out of the theater over at the Mann Village in Westwood, and here I paraphrase because it’s been a couple weeks since then, that that was the best 15-year-old’s movie ever, complete with car-porn, nerd-porn, mil-porn, and girl-porn; you have the Camaro concept, the Ford Mustang, a Solstice and maybe you dig the flames on Optimus’ carriage; you have, of course, the robots and the techno-McGuffin in the cube or All-Spark, plus the voice of Optimus bringing you back to your childhood as he gruffly tells his Autobots to roll out; you have a big fucking gun sniping from the sky; and if you didn’t like the unbelievably hot blonde Aussie nerd hacker girl, you have the cradle-robbingly desirous greasemonkey bad girl teen brunette. This is all in there and more.

I have to say that I enjoyed the campy teen stuff more than the robots. The soldier stuff… well, there was this big fucking gun shooting from the sky!

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I enjoyed this movie. Not much blood and gore, a lot of moments of imagined terror. There are slow parts, and the ending takes more time than it should, but overall a good movie. Certainly worth the price of full admission.

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Before the move we scheduled our utilities’ transfer requests a week ahead. We moved in and everything looked good, lights on, gas on, except for the phone. Our old line disconnected, and dialing the new line now produced a ring instead of a number unknown, but it wasn’t ringing in the new place. And no DSL. Hmm. We’re already peeved we couldn’t keep the same number since it was a different control box even though we just moved across the street (Venice Boulevard must be the demarcation line), but now we’ve got people calling us to speak to someone who no longer lives there and a new line going to who knows where.

The phone company sent over a guy, he switched the lines and bravo, we have our number. But no DSL. Nevermind that we requested the transfer a week ahead, that didn’t matter. But here’s a $25 credit to your account. Well, I guess that’s a “we know we messed up but let’s not say we did and you take this credit”, then. The phone guy basically confirmed that it didn’t matter, it would always be at least a week later, even though no one has to physically be at the location to activate it. The modem shows up in the mail and that means it’s activated. We already have a modem, I countered. He shrugged and said, “They always send a modem. eBay it or something.” Funny guy.

A day later, the phone line died. Now we have no phone again, and this time they’re telling us it’s probably a short inside the apartment. Sun reminds me to be grateful that we purchased insurance on the lines as part of our plan, as otherwise we’d be hit up for the repair bill even though we just moved in.

Then the power went down. Apparently, LA DWP received, two weeks after the previous tenant moved out, a request to turn off power and terminate the account. So they cut our power. A guy physically went to the main control box for the building and cut the power. I called DWP up and asked why they did that and they told me it was because the previous tenant had it cut. I told the rep well, gee, we’re the new tenants and we requested to have our old account transfered. The rep tried to blame it on me, asking if I called it in. I responded, “Why should I when I requested it ten days ago?” It took a couple more back and forths before she finally got it: I requested the transfer, I have a confirmation number, why don’t you look it up. She did, and suddenly apologies are floating in my ear. Clerical error. Lost somewhere with some computer malfunction or whatever. Right. At least they apologized… along with crediting us $25.

Just to make sure, we called SoCal Gas. The rep was a bit annoyed, saying why confirm when it’s all confirmed and processed. Sun told him about the phone and the power, and he sort of chuckled and said, “I understand. Don’t worry. It’s all good.”

The lesson?

No real lesson other than even after you process a transfer or activation, call the day you move in and fucking confirm it again, which is a shit lesson.

Well, it’s entertaining enough if you walk in with the low expectations I had. The oneliners from the trailer are still awful (and honestly, if they were cut the movie would have been that much better) and there were a few scenes where the looped audio absolutely did not sync with the actor’s lips (a rare event in almost any modern movie), but it was at least entertaining.

Justin Long isn’t that annoying, in fact, he’s actually decent. Bruce Willis’ appearance is a little off, seeing as John McClane is supposed to be your everyman stuck in a situation where you have to be “”that guy”" (the movie spends a fiar amount of time explaning why McClane is “”that guy”"). While he still does the whiny talk to oneself when in real big trouble bit, it just looks off coming from a musclebound, mean-looking bald dude with a gun.

You know what? Matinee for sure, but if you liked ALL the Die Hard movies, this one’s worth the full price to you.

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Yep, moving again. As part of the move and the inevitable lack of connectivity for a few days, I rummaged through my bookshelves and decided I’ll try to finish The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. It’s pretty bad when you never finished it and when you see the saved game last saved four years ago. I started over, no way I remember what to do from back then.

I have to say, it’s a fun game. Still a bit hard for me, as I despise targeting with a thumbstick (I despise because I suck), and I didn’t restart Resident Evil 4 for that very reason, especially since I just ordered the Wii version which uses an actual pointing reticle.

So as long as there’s power, and there always is since the DWP leaves that stuff on as a “courtesy to the next resident”, I’m good for electronic gaming. I probably won’t have much time, anyway, seeing as I’ve got unpacking and decorating and building closet shelves and so on, plus a contract gig to do. Still, should I need a fix, I’ve got options, even without the series of tubes.

On a much more interesting note, here I go again, still unable to break the three year barrier. So close! Just like Brookhaven, so close! Maybe next time.