The Rise of the Planet of the Apes. Another franchise being revisited by the Hollywood machine. I have seen the original movie and Tim Burton's interpretation. I haven't watched every movie in the franchise. However, I don't think there are any Planet of the Apes purists out there who will be overly critical about the movie.

While the this is an origins movie, the filmmakers were omniscient enough to include elements that indicated how Earth might be populated by apes. I remember watching the trailers thinking that we could easily kill a hundred apes. The same kind of thinking people had after watching Avatar.

I really enjoyed the development of this movie. I didn't know what the ending would be and how effective the ending would be. I can happily report that the ending made sense.

I also have to add that I liked the CGI motion capture performance of Andy Serkis. I wanted to those apes to succeed. That's probably the most important thing about the movie. If you can't connect to them then the movie falls flat.

I would say it's my second favourite movie of the Summer.

Captain America is the third and final Marvel movie of the Summer. After watching both Thor and X-Men: First CIass I find it difficult to compare this title with the others. Thor attempted to create an epic, but had a rushed ending. X-Men: First ****was simply a great movie with little irritants involving certain characters, but the plot and some of the main characters was truly great. Captain America, on the other hand, had nothing wrong with it. In many ways, it was a well crafted movie. All the main characters were pretty truthful to the comics and were well portrayed.

It should have been one of my favourite of the three movies, but I still preferred X-Men: First CIass As the movie was progressing toward the end, I was still waiting for the big gambit for world domination from the Red Skull until I realised that the movie was ending. Everything about this movie is great except that part.

I suppose that this is similar to Iron Man. In all honesty, Iron Man's villain was pretty tamed. What made Iron Man great was Tony Stark's wit not the hero-villain dynamic.

Today, I have posted my 60 000 message in this fair site.

Heh. Thanks to my previous blog, I can calculate how many months have passed since reaching 50K. It took me over a year to reach this point. It also resembles it. 60K at Level 63 instead of 50K at Level 54.

P.S: Anyone else seen Harry Potter 7 pt. 2?

I also saw Transformers: Dark of the Moon. While I wasn't hyped for the movie, I did want to watch it as early as possible. I looked at my blog about the previous movie. Apparently, I liked it a lot. Hmm...I think discussing it helped me point out the flaws about the movie. At this point, Transformers has lost much of its originality. As a Bay Blockbuster, it promises action sequences and a long running time.

Plotwise, I don't think the movies was too bad. The problem is there is too many unnecessary side plots. They should have kept things simple: Autobots, Decepticon, Human involvement, and problems. However, Sam has his own personal problems that are tied in. They aren't as interesting as Transformers 1.

For the record, if you didn't like the humour in Transformers 1 than you probably won't like the humour in this movie. It's not as low brow as Transformer 2. I was suprised to see Ken Jeong in the movie. You know what to expect from him.

As for Rosie Huntington-Whiteley replacing Megan Fox, she was a decent choice, but her character is inferior.

I went to see Super 8 this afternoon. I remember watching the early trailers thinking that this movie would be great. However, when new trailers began to appear, I changed my mind for some reason. I was no longer compelled. Yet, today I got the opportunity to watch the movie before it left the cinema. I figured that I had nothing to lose.

I have to admit. I thought this movie was going to be an alright affair, but it was actually quite good. It's been a while since I have seen a suspense monster flick. I think the last one was Cloverfield. I think the best aspect of the movie were the kids in it. Not annoying and not stiff. They really made the movie worth the watch. I was also surprised that Elle Fanning is in the movie. I haven't seen a picture of her since she was probably 6. The monster is revealed at the best opportunity, which keeps the suspense. There are moments of predictability, but that's half the fun with any movie. Trying to predict upcoming events. There are also two moments of sheer impossibility: 1) a train wreck; 2) surviving said train wreck. The ending was slightly unexpected. It just finished.

I heard critics compare it to ET, but I don't think that's a fair comparison. Only in the simplest sense. But I suppose it could be Abrams' version of ET. If Spielberg made an alien movie as a children fairy tail then Abrams made an alien movie as a suspense-monster movie.

Every year on my GS anniversary, I post some half-asssed or short anniversary blog. I'll make this anniversary a little more special. You may read it all, parts of it, or none of it. While I know a couple of Gamespot users who have already reached 6 years or more on Gamespot, it is still something to think about. I joined this website when in the summer of my 10th grade at 15. I don't remember why I joined. I can only speculate that I might have used this websites for cheats.

Statistics

• Profile views: 17321 (+ 2 new)
• Friends: 123
• People Tracking Me: 379
• Forum Posts: 57927
• Total Messages Read: 217997189
• Level 63
• Comments: 4212
• My Blog Posts: 162
• Union Blog Posts: 422
• Rated Games: 58
• Videos Uploaded: 64
• Images Uploaded: 166
• Tags: 2814

Below are images from the statistics that I posted on my 5th and 4th anniversary. I should have put more stuff last year. I see it took more than 2 years to double my TMR. I have slightly more friends than two years a go. Slightly more people are tracking me. My comments haven't changed in a year. lol I probably didn't post on union blogs. I deleted some blogs. I did quite a bit of tagging. My profile view barely moved because I've neglected my blog.

Let's see if I can trace my posting speed. On July 1, 2011, I have 57 927 posts. On July 1, 2010, I had 52211. Wow. That's barely 5 700 new posts for an entire year. I reached 50K on May 11, 2010, where I was a level 54. I was a level 50 on January 8, 2010. That's about 5 months to complete 4 levels. During my 4th (July 1, 2009) anniversary, I had 42 019. posts. That's a difference of 10K. That makes sense. Looks like my activity did decrease and it's not just my imagination. On February 7, 2009, I hit 30K. Looks like I didn't bother blogging about my 40K. Nevertheless, that's 12K in 4 months. Damn. I was a first year university student at the time. Damn. On September 2, 2008, I hit my 20K. Hmm...that's 10K in 6 months. I don't have my blogs to build my analysis. I might be a good lurker, but I would never look at my posting record to retrieve other dates. I don't think anyone else would do it...except raim. It looks like my posting peak was in the Fall of 2008 (or all of it) until Fall of 2009. It would be interesting to analyse during which season my posting peak. I have a feeling that the majority of my posts have been in the Summer since the last two years.

Blog

I have neglected my blog for the better part of two years, but I've met good people through blogging. Some of them I have no idea how I met. lol Some are active. Some are inactive. I'll name a few of them in their honour: gamer_girl15, trystkl1826, kingkilla3, herviross_2, staindcoldlp, queen_valentine, Princess_peach, Bloodbath_87 (who had another account that I forgot), and jpgalindo

I basically took the names of people found in some of blogs that I used to backtrack my stats. People who I firstly or mainly interacted through blogs. Don't feel left out. :P

Union

This might be a long section. I've been part of many unions over the years and some for many years.

The Naruto Board Union, The James Bond Union, The Inuyasha Union, and The Dragonball Z Union
If I was to believe one of my blogs, I would have thought that I posted for entire year in these unions. Truth is that I have very little posts in here. :lol: All them are dead. While some new members might post in the union, the officers have clearly abandoned the union. All of them were more or less established unions at one time.

Fullmetal Alchemist Union
I joined this union toward its death, but I met some good individuals (Full_Metal1923) through this union. I can't link it since it got destroyed.

Worldwide Gamers Union
I'm not going to go over my whole history with it, but it was my first officership. Met some good people. Some that joined Toonami (Grottek, asvicj, Regor, Viveck). Most left GS.

The Nintendo Union
Before all these other newer and more succesful Nintendo unions. This was one of the biggest. Once again, I have the talent to join barely active unions. Met some more interesting people. All of them are inactive.

Final Reunion
I joined this union to interact with Full_Metal1923 since he closed down a union for friends only. Once again, I joined a dying union. But I learned a lot about old unions there. It was the result of three unions merging together. I have yet to learn about more unions merging together. Met some more interesting people (iloveflash, xVxObliVioNxVx, Honenheim).

Marvel Union
Another dying union for my collection. I got another officership there in 2007. I stuck around because I knew it had potential, but the leader just stopped dedicating his time there. I can't say I met anyone. The leader, Cheezyfrog was cool, but not cool enough to stick around. I already knew nav_auron. Still, I really like being an officer there. :P I only resigned in 2010.

The Metal Union
Finally, I union that is not dead. lol I haven't been active in the last two years. I think it's because I don't listen to metal exclusively. The community got way bigger. Kuddos for cousin_eddy. Met some more great people.

Social Cafe Union
I think my boost in posting is directly related to joining this union in the Summer of 2008. I'm not going to name people. Too many of them. One of only two place that I continue to actively post in.

The Toonam Union
The other union that I still post in since 2007. I've posted with countless many people there.

So, here's to everyone that I posted with: the acquaintances, the friends, the bloggers, and the random users. Everyone who I shared my time with over the years whether it was a handful of weeks, a couple of months, or years. Equally important, to the newer users that I've posted with who continue to make my unions worth posting in when older users have departed.

To everyone, I'll say see you on the boards or in the next life.

Green Lantern is the first major original DC property to be developed into a movie after years of Batman and Superman. Its successes and failures will probably dictate the future of live-action DC movie. Initial reaction to the movie from critics and viewers alike borders between disastrous and disappointed. I was surprised to read about a general dislike for the movie. I thought the movie would be more or less successful. I began watching the movie with these thoughts in mind.

I judge the success of any action movie on the state it leave me in. In most good cases, the movie leaves me with a feeling of badassness or pondering its universe. Green Lantern did not leave me with anything. That isn't good. In addition, the movie felt long. You can't really point to something specific as bad. The problem with the movie is structural. The script is decent, but lacks excitement. The villain is basically a personification of Hal's personal problems. Everything about the movie is about making Hal a Green Lantern. Having a big fight is not necessary for superhero movie, but adversity is. Poor self-confidence doesn't make much adversity for a superhero.

Concerning the actors, Ryan Reynold did a good job as Hal Jordan. Blake Lively was forgettable, but her character was forgettable. I really liked Mark Strong as Sinistro.

Final Verdict: Watchable, but far inferior to X-Men: First CIass and Thor. It's not the worst superior movie, but it's not good. It's a decent watch made worst by the lack of excitement.

P.S: There is a scene somewhere in the credits.

Genre: Historical fiction

Creator: Neil Jordan

Staring: Jeremy Irons, Colm Feore, etc.

I've been watching this new television series on Bravo about the Borgia family. It's probably the best TV series playing that is not some sort of police police procedural. From the moment I saw the trailer, I knew this was going to be a good series. The Borgias, most popularly known from Machiavelli's The Prince, is tagged as the original crime family. While Cesare Borgia and his family is portrayed differently from The Prince, it does not reduce its value.

Trailer

It's my understanding that Showtime is a premium channel, but for those who can watch it I recommend you to give it a try.

The latest Gamespot blog fad made me recall previous blog fads.Truthfully, there hasn't been many of them. It has always been about making lists of some sorts (GS users that I admire the most, 25 things about me, ect) with various degrees of spreading across the Spot.This music fad was different, I believe, even if it did work by tagging people. Tagging people makes things too easy to spread. I prefer fads without tagging because it's a genuine social process, which isn't precipitated by outside compulsion. A user reads a blog than decides to do it for himself and the actiongoes viral.

Anyways, I wanted to see how remember a specific blog fad back in 2007. I suppose it can be entitled "Friends Cut". Bascially,a user realised that he had a lot mutual trackers and announces that users were going to be cut, which made everyone comment on the blog to avoid it. I know that I did it and posted in other blogs like it. I have yet to see Friends Cut blog since 2007. I remember back in the day thinking that was a normal thing to do.

Anyone remember it?

I finally got to see Inception. I'm not spoiling anything about the movie, but if you don't want to know what the movie is about or what it is not about then do not continue to read.

Truthfully speaking, Inception is a heist movie with a more flushed out lead actor and with a different approach. I read great praises from GS users about Inception and comments about high complexity. Anyone who was confused necessarily had difficulty situating himself. I didn't have that problem. Nolan is not trying to trick people. He's trying to pull a Sixth Sense on you or a Prestige. He made it easy to recognize where the characters were and what they were trying to do. I thought the movie was great. I was watching it with great interest and making little comments about what was going on.

Best movie of the summer? Probably, but there really hasn't been much competition.