Ultimately Off-Topic

Honestly, I forgot about Captain America: The Winter Soldier's villains while talking about the villains. I'll start with the easiest one: Batroc. He isn't really in it much and he felt very much like a pawn in the greater sense. I didn't care for him and didn't find him a strong villain as he was pretty easily dispatched by Captain America in the first twenty minutes of the film.

Crossbones was...okay. I didn't hate him and I really liked the origin that they gave him but he wasn't really full villain status. I didn't consider him a strong villain as it was unclear why he was with Hydra. Was everyone's motivation for being with Hydra to eliminate threats so that the world would be safer? And when, exactly, did this evolve to that from "I want to be a god among men"? I'm sure the answer is in the recording but I haven't seen it since the end of April so my memory will be a bit fuzzy...

As for Pierce, he was the real one that was given clear understanding of what he was doing. He was a villain to protect the world and he exercised a more extreme world view than that of, even, Nick Fury. Nick Fury and Pierce weren't standing in a funhouse mirror just on different sides of a line. Nick Fury was not ready to yet make that more extreme jump but he was close. Pierce was. It made sense but I felt like a fabulous villain, like Pierce, shouldn't have died at the end as it takes away what could've been a fantastic villain.

But the best villain of that film, and, in my opinion, the whole universe so far, is Bucky Barnes A.K.A. the Winter Soldier. This guy has a real tragedy behind him and, although the motivations are clearly not there, those are accounted for in another sense. I can't wait to see where they go with this character. If one villain deserves a spin-off, it is Winter Soldier, not Loki.

I meant Drax.

Depends. Before Ravencroft, he is a horribly cliched villain with a dumb origin story worse than any of the villains in any "real" Marvel movies. However, after Ravencroft, he is truly a force to be reckoned with and really feels dangerous. Unfortunately, the fight becomes anti-climactic. RHINO is awful, truly something straight out of the Schmucher era of CBMs. But DeHann's Osborn is truly awesome. I would say he rivals my appreciation for the Winter Soldier in terms of how good a villain he is. Again, though, the fight was too anti-climactic and fails to color him as an actual threat to Spider-Man. Hopefully they buff him up in future films. So, SONY is doing a just as bad (if not worse) job of making good villains than Marvel Studios. Which is ironic considering that SONY's Cinematic Universe literally depends on their villains. Hopefully they can make Ock and Vulture strong so that we at least have a 50/50 record in terms of strong villains.

I did not like Electro at all. Rhino was awesome. He was supposed to be very cheesy and not much of a threat.

Drax is very that and more in the movie. He gets a lot of development. Everyone does. This movie has so much in it but never once does it feel stuffed.

Would you say he was...electrifying?

Aren't we getting Sinister Six before the new Spider-Man movie now? Or did I read that wrong?

Finished season one of Arrow. Laurel is easily my favorite character (the episode started falling apart about halfway through but she was awesome in Home Invasion), Felicity finally became useful, Ollie got funnier out of costume (now if they could just make him funny IN costume), John Barrowman is still not actually in that costume (probably should have just made him a corporate bad guy rather than Merlyn. He's just not believable), and Tommy ended up being a really damn god character before he died. Overall I ended up really enjoying it this time around and am looking forward to the next season and watching season three with all of you. For season two I only want four things: Green Arrow in costume during the day, a funny Green Arrow (seems like they're moving to this), no hoods (I know it doesn't happen but he does get a mask so I'm hopeful for season three), and some really awesome stuff for Laurel.

Yeah, for me they have a Spider-Man that acts like Spider-Man in costume and it was really fun and entertaining (as long as the bad guys weren't there. That little montage and the little kid were my favorite parts) it's everything else that fails.

I don't know if everything else fails. I think the best thing this franchise has going for it is the fact that they portray Spider-Man like Spider-Man. Peter Parker, though, has not been fully captured in this new one as well as the old ones. The most we've seen of Peter's character and his social interactions are when he wasn't yet bit by the spider which is also when he is morally wrong in many different respects in the way he treats people. Sure, it is always good to see how he interacts with his girlfriend but that isn't how he interacts with his friends. They seemed to be doing fairly well with that with Harry Osborn but they only gave the two two scenes to really interact. Peter's social life is hardly touched in so far in this franchise as it is so much entrenched in the parental mystery of it all and, basically, Peter being Spider-Man and not Spider-Man being Peter.

I will say that one thing this franchise really had going for it was the beautiful and realistic love story between Gwen and Peter. The chemistry between the two of them is absolutely electrifying and the romance had real weight to it unlike the one in the Raimi trilogy which felt shallow and unreal. This is one of the greatest benefits that we get from having a director like Marc Webb. However, one of the disadvantages is that Webb has never had to handle making villains in (500) Days of Summer, his only other film before this franchise. We really see the amatuerity in the development of these villains as, I feel, the only villain who is any good is Green Goblin and they botched his payoff by making him weak.

The only problem is, now, Webb doesn't have that romance to demonstrate one of his strengths as a director. Unfortunately, it appears we will be getting more villains (which I think is clear that Webb doesn't know how to work with properly) in the third one and less of the stuff that makes Peter tick. I think it'd be a good idea to focus on Peter's loss but I think, while Webb is director (and he appears to understand Spider-Man much better than Peter), that it might be time to do a "Peter Parker No More" story to demonstrate Peter's mindset to save everyone from his life as Spider-Man.

I barely have money to eat, so I don't know lol. 

I don't even have enough money to afford to have children some day. Which is a shame because I'd be a great Dad.

And life will only get more difficult as our nations plunge more and more into debt. Food prices will continue to rocket upwards, even though we have an abundance of precious minerals, soil and land all around us.

We need to put an end to the monetary system before it's too late. Our unquestioning faith in the profit-based economy will cause us to consume this Earth until there's nothing left, which is exactly what we're doing now. And if America alone want to carry on the way they are, they will need EIGHT EARTHS to sustain themselves. That's how rapid we're consuming everything. And all whilst our production runs at a snail's pace and as we take a blithe approach to sustaining people's needs. Scarcity > Deprivation > High Demand > Profit. The sustenance of basic human needs goes against the continuous income of the banks and the war economy.

But don't get worked up about it. There are solutions available.

Don't listen to the politicians. They don't know what they're talking about. Tell me, when has a politician solved anything in the past 100 years? Listen to the scientists and technicians, people. I don't know why they keep being ignored. Look into the academics of resources and production, don't listen to the political opinionated bias of "oh I think we should do this" "oh I think we should do that". It's about doing what MUST be done to save the Earth and everything in it.

Listen to the scientists who want to save this world. Not the politicians that don't give a fuck and haven't got a clue about what they're doing or saying.

Science is lawful understanding. It does not come with an opinion.

/rant.

Convinced my mom to go see GOTG with me on Friday. I need to see it again. Not just because it was awesome, but because I feel like a really good movie experience was robbed from me.

I see Much is still doing rants .... Nothing's change 

Why do you need money to feed yourself, doesn't your church do food drive? I know a catholic church that does a food drive on Tuesday and another one ... Methodist that does a food drive on Friday. Another one that feeds the hungry on Saturday. If I was more interested, I would probably find a church that does a food drive on every diffferent day. 

Not to mention your in college. If you play your cards rights, you can at least be able to 'crash' a banquet at least twice a week. (I know, because I did it  and there's a story out there about a graduate student who never paid for a single meal)

There's no such thing as a free lunch ... unless you live in AMERICA!!! where we can eat all we want and then take all we want with no consequences whatsoever. 
 

My Facebook Friends:

OMG HOW AMAZING WAS THAT AFTER-CREDITS SCENE

Me:

Which reminds me, I've been meaning to post this if anyone brought it up.

Guys. Sorry about potentially coming across as intense. I promise you, I am fully aware of my approach, it's just that I have a tendency to go deeper into a subject. I often go into the functions of a subject because I believe it's a good way to learn about it. I'm also a very pragmatic person, so regardless of what other might think, I feel I should teach, provide and exchange information with others without worrying about opinionated interpretations and just continue to debate and exchange information as we teach each other new things because that's pretty much what a discussion is anyway. But I'm a lovely guy. And I always post to discuss with others. And everyone should have the confidence to question what they don't understand, and in every way they can, because it's how we learn best. You should question everything. You really should. So if you disagree or are confused about anything I say, I implore you to question me. Find out everything you can so that YOU understand and can know for sure. Don't listen or believe anything I say on blind faith. Look into it yourself. Don't ever take my word for it.

And here I go again going deeper into a topic. I always feel the need to explain myself. But even now, I feel I haven't explained myself very well. I probably sound like a pompous proud pr*** but I'm honestly not. I find it difficult to explain in written or typed words and I always type long posts because of the difficulty I have in explaining thoroughly and clearly. I wish I could make smaller posts but I can't sometimes. So when it sounds like I'm "ranting", I'm probably not in the way you think I am. Does anyone else have that problem?


But now that you've said that, I'm beginning to wander which posts of mine you see as rants. Isn't a rant supposed to be heated? When you see a long descriptive post do you automatically assume it's a rant? All I'm doing is trying to explain as best I can. If anyone doesn't understand, they should ask a question, but they don't, so I feel the need to explain thoroughly. I want to communicate clearly, but at the same time, I want to explain what others might not understand otherwise.

Ah, Jer. You're bustin my balls here man, your bustin my balls.



No consequences whatsoever? It's that sort of attitude that will lead to China and Russia starting a world war with you guys. Then we're all dead.

Is this what you meant by a rant?

America is consuming and wasting more than any empire in history. It's rapid. And at this rate, America will be the shortest lived empire that's ever existed. America is a big place. It needs to start sustaining itself with all the land, soil, sunlight and production it has. It can be done. If all that money spent on your military was spent on your agriculture each year, the world would be far safer and richer for it, including America.

I'm just being accurate. Making a good point. People shouldn't be ignorant about this. Pick up a history book and you'll see that every single empire has diminished the same way, except now it's happening faster. The environment, soil, renewable energy.. is there anything more important to the sustenance of the human race? I know you were just making a joke, but people are creatures of influence, so I was worried others might take the ignorant approach seriously.