My Neighborhood Spiderman

I'm tired, so this post will have to be short.

I went to see Spiderman 3 today on an impulse with Kris, Sam, Tyler, and Maggie at the local UA.

Let me first say that this is probably the last time I go to the local theatre on opening weekend to see a big blockbuster movie. The crowd was awful behind the common bounds of courtesy. People were talking throughout the movie, random kids were screeching at random times, and people were playing with their phones (text messaging other people, I assume). Even worse, some guy's phone went off near the end of the movie and started to hold a conversation loud enough for the whole theater to hear. Even after a million laughs, shushes, and various prods and pokes, this guy kept talking instead of hanging up the dumb phone. Idiots.

There are probably some spoilers ahead, so if you want to stop reading, you can. I'm just going to vent a little bit.

As for the movie. It definitely wasn't at the same level as Spiderman or Spiderman 2. It wasn't awful, but it's hard to say that the plot was "good". The pacing and the tone was just too uneven. At some points it'd try to extremely dramatic and emotionally gut-wretching, at others, the movie would try to be light-hearted and absurd. The problem was that the light-hearted and absurd moments overshadowed the dramatic ones, dampening the real effect of the movie. The character development of minor characters, especially Eddie Brock and Sandman was rushed and poor. The direction was too grand and the screenplay was too bloated. There wasn't any real angst, any real sympathy for the bad guys, or any real compassion for the heroes.

I personal believe that a better development of Sandman (especially about his daughters illness) and darker and stronger conflict between Harry and Peter, and a more dynamic relationship between Eddie Brock and Peter would have been better than the "climactic" fight scene at the end. Also, I think that the focus should have been on Green Goblin and Sandman and Spiderman's inner battle with his symbiotic self. It also should have come to a stronger and more definitive conclusive for Sandman instead of what they did, ending with a not only a victory against the bad guys, but Spiderman's victory over the symbiote. The movie would then end with Peter banging the bell in the church to rid himself of the symbiote and Eddie Brock turning into Venom, just as the movie fades black. That would set Spiderman 3 as a solid independent film, while giving that redeeming "awesome" at the end to drive the plot of Spiderman 4 (i.e. The battle against Venom, then Venom turning good as Carnage comes into play).

Still, despite the flaws for the film, the action was definitely great and the cinematic effects were exceptional. The movie had its moments, and it's still better than Fantastic Four and most other superhero films. The only disappointing thing is how much better it should have been. Alas, we'll have to wait for HP5 for something better.

Just Some New Things

I added a new calendar to the sidebar just so you can see what I do everyday. It's not much, but hopefully it'll be incentive to keep my schedule updated since I'm trying to blog at the same time. It'll be a reinforcement of both agendas.

Anyways, not much new today. Second to last lecture for T/Th of the semester...

GOP debate was tonight. Realized that most of the Republicans are unwavering idiots (perhaps it has to do with their contingency). I hope that they don't win. For the sake of personal freedoms. Please. Do your part. Disable Republicans. Cut off their hands.

Btw, I had a great idea. Everyone should get a Google Calendar and share it with friends. That way, we can invite people to invites without needing to deal with facebook or last minute calling. And, it'll be an incentive to start organizing our lives :P Let me know what you think. PLEASE.

Woohoo, I'm done for the next week!

I'm officially done for the next week, except for some random studying and stuff.

I finished my lab exam, I'm done, and I'm happy! Happy!

Wasn't as hard as I thought it would've been, could've been easier, could've been tougher. Feels good to be done though.

Unfortunately, I also have some bad news. I'm not going to Maryland for the summer. I didn't end up getting the call from anyone over at NIH, so I'm kind of "stuck" here for the summer, which actually works out better for me (sort of). I'm taking MCB102 over the summer (currently waitlisted, but I'm sure that'll be ok) and working on a project that I should start soon...

Good times.

Also, ignore this, I'm hiding it in segments so I can use it later if I should see fit. You can see digg about it, but I'm not going to explain it in case google finds me and punishes me.

Paul Kariya's number was 09 I'm sure that f9 key meant no harm on the 11 th of June in the year 02 It's quite an accomplishment, that 9d but not quite as good as that 74 This year's e3 is smaller and going to suck, but 5b ucks says that d8 could be better than two or 41 or 56 But c5 geese in a row over there they've been alive since way back in 63 their mother's were born some time in 56 with 88 sisters and c0 brothers.

I Should Study More

And I've been studying most of the day too.

Lab exam is tomorrow and I've been studying for most of the day, reading, re-reading, looking at slides, timing myself, speeding through a practice practical. All told, I know I'm not ready to ace it. But I think I'm in a solid enough position to get an A, so that's all I'm really gunning for. I hate classification...

I did get to take a break in the middle of the day. Asian Studies was very fun as we got to watch clips from a few Korean movies. I really liked JSA and the other one (Spring, Summer, Winter, Fall, and Spring?) and everyone had a good time with My Sassy Girl. Of course, the professor publically lamented the prospect of an Americanized version; but, it's got Elisha Cuthbert and she was mighty fine in The Girl Next Door...

Also, great game tonight. What a nailbiter. What a comeback. Ducks win in Vancouver 3-2 in overtime after looking lackadaisical the whole game, the roar back with two goals in the 3rd (the last with little over three minutes to play) and a quick goal in overtime off a rebound. Great game.

Oh, and the Warriors lost despite having the lead with a minute left. Sucks to them.

Spiderman 3 on IMAX?

I want to see Spiderman 3 on IMAX. Go with me. Please. It'll be awesome.

I basically spent the day studying for the bio lab exam with Maggie, so nothing new to report. Sorry.

So I've Been Busy + Video of the Week: Hide and Seek

First up is the video I promised. It's an SNL Digital Short from a couple weeks ago parodying the season 2 finale to the OC. It's a little slow at first, but just watch it. Keep watching it. Then watch the real episode in the video responses. It's crazy.



Ok, so my life has been a huge hectic mess the last few days for a number of reasons. I've been writing my psych paper (which is almost done), studying for my bio lab exam (which is three days away), celebrating David's birthday, and taking a practice MCAT.

On Wednesday, I had a biological diversity lab where they brought in a lot of live animals and stuffed models to look at and play with. I got to play with a snake, a gecko, and a chinchila. Also got to watch them try to feed a rat to a snake, but the mouse wouldn't say die, and it started jumping around like crazy to evade the snake's lunging. He ended up getting pulled out. Go rat.



Super cute.

Thursday, I went over to David's apartment and we had some cake and watched a movie (something with Steven Chow).



That's Coral attacking Yuan with a Redoctave guitar.

Then, on Saturday (not sure what happened to Friday, I think I lost it studying...) Maggie and I took a practice MCAT that PReview was proctoring. Of course it ended up being their own online demo, instead of a real MCAT, and almost no one else was there, but it was useful to see where my baseline would be without preparing. It was long, but surprisingly not that difficult. I didn't realize there was a periodic table at first, so I started guessing pretty early in the physical science, but then I saw the link in another frame when I went back to review my answers. Found out that I was really off on a lot of my answers at first. Fortunately I fixed that. Still, despite how relatively simple the questions were, I didn't do extremely well. The grading is tough and the questions can be ambiguous at times. Even though each section is worth 15 points, the curve is very steep, so there's not a lot of room for mistakes. Perfection is going to be key. With that said, I finally got my essays scored today and I managed a fairly decent 32R (10 Physical, 11 Verbal, 11 Biological, 10 Writing [6/4]). What that means is that I can really try to stretch my score up to 40, if I try really hard. I think it's possible, and if I can do that, then I can be pretty comfortable when I apply for Med Schools. If I'm stuck at 32R, then I'll be extremely dissapointed...