Much Apologies to My One to Three Fans . . .

Sorry, guys. I know, in the beginning, I discussed the possibility of doing some movie reviews, but I don't think that'll actually happen.

The Return of the Heroes of Kelmarane . . .

Well, it's been about a month or two since I've last ran a game of D&D/Pathfinder/M&M/etc, and then tonight happened. The group and I were discussing the idea of doing a western game mixed with the superhero genre. We had some good ideas, but were all too attached to our old campaign to start anything new. The result was the return of the Legacy of Fire featuring Trevvis the priest, Draiden the monk, and Rooster the bad-ass.

When we last saw our heroes they were either parting ways or settling into their roles in the town of Kelmarane. Rooster opened a gunworks in the town, and supplied most of the firearms to the town guard. Trevvis took a role in the local churches as a figure of guidance as his vision slowly began to fade away, and Draiden went off to resolve some loose ends with the organization that originally sent him after Rooster. The return began with our heroes finding themselves as the respected guests of honor at the thirty second decennial Ruby Phoenix Tournament, held every decade in honor of the lost priest of Abadar.

The tournament went off without a hitch until a group of thieves and assassins working with the Council of Blades stormed the arena in our airship and began to wreak havoc on the village and it's festivities. The vagabonds fired down upon the celebration with ballistas and fireballs. The heroes sprung into action and stormed the ship, now joined by one of the competitors, Leserpherif, a monk/sorceror from the lands of Qadira, currently being portrayed by Ryan Gosling.



With their new ally at their side they set to work towards stopping the thieves and grounding their transport. Leserpherif brought down the ship with his magical might, but presented some problems in trusting the abilities of the other heroes without consenting them before recklessly firing at the scoundrels, putting Draiden in harms way.

After proving himself in defending what was left of the town from the invaders, the group found that the first airship was just a distraction from the other ship that was already getting away with the vault in the temple of Abadar that held the prizes to the tournament's winner(s). The group rallied again, and set towards the other airship. They followed the ship for two days to Hellmouth Gulf in the northern nation of Cheliax. The second ship made its way to the harbor, though the cargo quickly vanished into the gulf as the crew changed to more civil disguises.

The group split up in search of the remaining crew and their leader, but were met with little success until Draiden found an aristocrat with the help of a tip from a tavern owner. Draiden tracked the man down to his room and confronted him with violence. After besting him in combat, he used his clerical skills to force the truth from the stranger. This is when he learned the truth behind the attack on the tournament, and the possible whereabouts of the cargo. The man revealed himself as Ormak the Dawnstalker, currently being portrayed by Cillian Murphy from the Christopher Nolan Batman series.



After some exchange with Ormak, Draiden agrees to follow him to the location of the vault with an understanding that Ormak will betray him the first chance he gets.

All in all, it was a wonderful return session to a memorable campaign. The players enjoyed it, and the musical selection was a wonderful compliment to the atmosphere. Each player seems to have high hopes fro the future of the campaign, and I'm hoping to see some big developments as it unfolds.

This Year In Movies . . .

So it's been a fairly alright year for movies so far. I've only seen five new releases this year so far, but I've enjoyed the majority of them, and the rest of the year seems pretty promising.

I believe the first movie I saw this year was The Hunger Games. This is the first of the two movies that I didn't care for too much. I have yet to open the books from the series, but I've heard that they have a pretty strong following. The movie in itself presented a fairly neat concept, but it didn't give me enough of the history to really get sucked in, and a majority of the movie felt forced. When a moment presented itself that I knew was supposed to be emotional, I just couldn't get into it, and the action scenes were just awful.

I think the second movie I saw this year 21 Jump Street, and it was definitely one of my favorites this year. I didn't really know what to expect from the Tatum/Hill duo, but they really brought the film to life. It was definitely the second funniest movie that I'v seen this year.

Cabin in the Woods was the third, and by far my favorite. Joss Whedon put together a hilarious satire on the classic slasher situation that included many hilarious references to classic horror films. I sort of felt awkward at certain moments in the theater though since I knew I was one of the few laughing at scenes that would otherwise hold very little comical value.

The long awaited Avengers movie was fourth. Ever since we saw Samuel L. Jackson at the end of Iron Man we've been awaited the arrival of this one. It did a great job of making a team of supernatural heroes working together despite their differences and inner turmoils believable, and the action was just wonderful.

The most recent movie that I've seen is probably my least favorite so far. Snow White and the Huntsman left me leaving the theater with very few good things to say. The film lacked continuity, proper dialogue, and any sort of believable plot. The entire thing did a great job of showing just how much money we're trying to milk out of old titles that did well back in the day. This movie will probably be the first in my series of video reviews, and I apologize again for the delay. The only excuse I can really give is that I'm incredibly lazy.

Now let's talk about some of the movies coming out later this year, starting with the three that I'm most excited about: Prometheus, The Dark Knight Rises, and Les Miserables.

Ridley Scott has released so much footage for Prometheus that I sort of feel that I've already seen the movie. It's presenting itself as a prequel to the original, and that has me more excited than anything since the original is one of the best in the series. In all honesty though, I'm trying to hold back my excitement. I'll just say that it's good so long as it's better than Aliens 3.

The Dark Knight Rises is the third, and final, installment in Nolan's trilogy. With a strong villain like Bane coming to the screen and some potential involvement with the League of Shadows from Begins, I think this movie will be pretty awesome. Nolan's realistic take on the franchise has done a lot to breath some fresh air into the character, and it'll be nice to see a broken bat on the screen to hopefully get rid of some of this "In Batman We Trust" (not an actual title for the hype) nonsense that we've seen all over the internet.

I didn't know what to expect when I heard that Hugh Jackman would be taking the lead role in the new Les Miserables production set to hit theaters this winter, but after seeing the trailer on the big screen, and hearing Hathaway sing I can completely say that this movie is going to be just wonderful. See for yourselves:



There are many other films set to release this year that have me pretty excited, but none as much as the above three. Pixar's new feature, Brave, releases later this year, and it looks visually astounding (eat it Avatar. You never impressed me anyway). I haven't seen anything else by the directors, but Lawless and Great Gatsby have me a little excited. The new Bourne movie with Jeremy Renner looks like a fun sequel in the franchise, and I'm hoping to see a Damon Renner team up in the future.

I'm certain there were more releases to discuss, but I need to get some rest before work. I apologize again for the delay in the reviews, and the sudden change from Kick Ass to Snow White, but I'll do my best to set some solid deadlines and adhere to them once I get a couple videos under my feet.

Why Do I Keep Doing This?

The title is in reference to the fact that I only seem to deprive myself of solid sleep during work nights. I've been doing this for about a month now. There is no good excuse for the fact that I'll be running on four hours tomorrow aside from the fact that I'd rather hang out with friends than sleep.

 In other news, I bought a cheap camera to use in place of my webcam for the reviews and what-not. This means that the Kick Ass blog should be up by this Friday. My plan is to review my notes, read the comic again, review my notes, go to Ray's for brainstorming, review my notes, film the review, edit, and then upload. Assuming I don't break too many copyright laws then the video should be up by the new deadline. I'm sorry for the delay (I have two fans now).

In comic book news, DC revealed that Alan Scott, Green Lantern of Earth 2 and first person to use the title, is going to be their new gay character. I sort of figured it'd either be a GL or a villain. I guess they chose the best one for the job. Alan Scott has two kids that I can remember (before the retcon), Jade and Obsidian (Obsidian already being a gay character). I don't understand why DC feels the need to "re-boot" every so often. They should focus on developing their characters to save sales rather than rebuilding them all together.

 I become distracted too easily. The only real downside to this is that I forget to inhale my cigarettes and the flame goes out. I need to work on that. This post has no real point aside from serving as another distraction for sleep.