Last night I found myself in charge of the 5/6th grade building at the school campus where I work after 2-3 months of the lackluster care of a former employee. I wasn't surprised when she put in her two weeks notice although I was surprised that she saw it to the end; in the past, some employees would put in their notice and leave whenever they wanted to. My boss had me check up on the building after she had finished and for those last 2 weeks, there was always unfinished work. Usually she would stay long enough to empty trash, vacuum rugs/carpet and sweep, then it became two of those, then one of those nearer to the end. I was getting overtime hours making sure her building was up to snuff for the next day but it was such a hassle that I wondered why she didn't just outright quit. Does she actually want to my employer as a reference? That won't work out well.
Anyway, for the few remaining weeks of of the spring semester, the building is back in my care. It should be easier since all sporting events are done and done as of last Thursday. The only thing I need to worry about now is the graduation ceremony (this Saturday) and the end of the semester where all the teachers and students start cleaning out their rooms and leaving behind ungodly amounts of trash. Not looking forward to the latter but it's going to happen. But I digress: I no have to longer worry about that sorry excuse for a worker. I can make sure the building is ready every night.
Also, why does my school have a soccer program? It doesn't bring huge numbers to the games and I have no idea if the teams are any good or not. I don't know. I just wish all sporting events ended with basketball. It would lighten the load.
I saw Avengers: Age of Ultron last weekend and I've had some time to think about it. I still think it's a blast and about as good a sequel to that juggernaut of a comic book film but it narrowly missed a bullet here and there in terms of a sequel. It got so close to the trap that Amazing Spiderman 2 fell into when it came to too many characters (and not enough time for all), an onslaught of spectacle and setups for future movies. Joss Whedon did the best he could to spin all these plates and craft a tale that touched upon an idea handled much more sloppier by The Dark Knight Rises: the idea of an expiration date for superheroes/crimefighters, of having an exit strategy, of knowing when to walk away.
It made my heart sink to read about how Whedon had to fight for certain scenes to stay in the cut, such as these sequence at the remote countryside residence. I've heard some grumblings of certain fans about this sequence, like it killed the pace or something. It's actually one of my favorite sequences and a bit of relief from the mixture of action and exposition. If it was taken out, AOU would've been non-stop action beats, which would've been exhausting. Every action film worth its salt finds it necessary to take a breather before the final showdown. The way that sequence addresses the personal goings-on for each of the Avengers were poignant in their own unique way.
The hoopla regarding Black Widow is to me, blown out of proportion and utter bullshit. It's a gross misinterpretation and I love the relationship between her and Banner. And James Spader did fantastic mo-cap work as Ultron. The final scene between him and Paul Bettany's Vision was so moving and memorable.
For some critics, some franchise/formula fatigue is setting in (if it hasn't already) and while I feel these films are entertaining, I hope the rest of Phase Three yields some surprising, game-changing moments. I hope the same for D.C. Cinematic Universe.
I saw Blackhat, the recent Michael Mann tech thriller via VOD last Saturday. I missed it during the theatrical run; poor box office performance resulted in the film lasting only 2 weeks before it was pulled. It was also released in early February and who the hell sees any film during that time? I don't, apparently. It wasn't positively received from critics but I think the film is better than its reputation suggests. Sure, it becomes a little far-fetched in the last 25 minutes but it never loses its entertainment value. If you can buy/accept/tolerate Chris Hemsworth as a buff, macho computer hacker (he does have charisma to spare), the film is a smoother ride. There's excellent support from Wei Tang (who was amazing in Lust, Caution), Viola Davis (amazing in pretty much everything she does), Holt McCallany (dependable character actor who helmed the short lives tv series Lights Out; he's appeared in The Losers, Alien 3, Fight Club, Three Kings) and Yorick van Wageningen (just as creepy here as he was in The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo remake). Excellent digital photography, good use of locations in Hong Kong and Jakarta, Indonesia.
I can't believe Mad Max: Fury Road is out this weekend. OMG.....
Gaming-wise, I played more Diablo 3: UEE but I finally got a chance to play DmC: Devil May Cry Definitive Edition when the rental copy came in. I enjoyed the game on the PS3 and the 60 fps looks fantastic. I like how they added all the DLC and rebalanced the gameplay. I may purchase this when it hits the $30 mark.
That's all for right now. I'm glad it stopped raining for once; that's what its done for the past 4 days, on and off. Bring on the sunshine. I could use it.
I think the whole Avengers stuff has been blown out of proportion, both what you mentioned and that prima nocta joke. Like it's so hard to believe a drunk guy always trying to be hilarious would say something like that without meaning it. But pretty much agree with your opinion on the movie.
I liked Avengers too. People just like to complain about bullshit, mostly people who have never created anything themselves. I thought it was a great movie. Could it have been greater? Sure! But it was still good.
I'm surprised it was as good as it was. Can you imagine trying to follow up the first film as well as everything that's happened since?
I think it was cool how it rewarded people who had watched all the other movies and stuff, maybe to the detriment of people who haven't. There were a lot of inside jokes and stuff, and I appreciated that.
Where do these former janitors end up?
If they can't make it as janitors, who knows? Walmart door greeters?
I enjoyed the movie but I don't think it was better than the first, just more of the same. But the first was a fun action flick so that made this one fun, too. Although if you showed me a clip from the first movie and a clip from the second, I probably couldn't tell you which one each clip was from. Kind of like the Lord of the Rings movies.
I don't know who is in charge of the Avengers, whether it be Captain America or Eye Patch Man, but they need to make a new rule. They need to require all new recruits to the Avengers to wear name tags that say "Hello, my name is..." That way, I won't have to make up my own names.Also, I kept wanting to call it “Age of Voltron.”
Of course, know that I'm not big into comic books and all my Marvel knowledge comes from Marvel vs.Capcom and LEGO Marvel Super Heroes video games.
Speaking of the Avengers, you've got to go to YouTube and do a search for The Aveggies: Age of Bon Bon. I liked that better than the movie!
I'm not even going to pretend...I really enjoyed Age of Ultron. Sure, It wasn't a perfect movie, but ndoes such a thing really exist? I thought the safehouse scene added more humanity to the grouip that could have easilty been overlooked (and it almost was based on what you said). Granted, I can see howwhy some may be tiring of the Avengers and other notions of team-up movies. Let's facing it, the novelty heroes from different comcs starring in one movie wore off after the first Avengers film.
Even so, I personally just enjoy seeing Marvel movies on the big screen.
but..but...but soccer is the new football?!?! everybodies playing it. really.
It's funny how the Joss Whendon was the man who could do no wrong in the first avengers movie, only for him to be railed against over the second.
we are indeed living in a mad, mad, mad world....
and let's not get started on Mad Max.....