Author thegeekregistry

Captain America: Winter Soldier

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Hey guys! This week I’m reviewing Captain America: Winter Soldier, one of my all-time favorite movies.

I have never trusted and loved a pair of directors more than I do the Russo brothers. This movie was absolutely outstanding. It could be debated that it was better than the first movie. The fact that the Russo brothers completely understand that it is a lie that every movie needs to have a romantic lead to be a good movie is refreshing and fantastic.

How every character was written was amazing, but I feel like Natasha/Black Widow’s was the best. She’s an existing character, but we didn’t really get a lot of her personality from the Avengers movie and Iron Man 2, and the fact that they were able to give her a great and real personality but also still be what she was before is amazing. She’s absolutely terrifying as Black Widow, calling to soldiers saying “Hey sailor” and looking like she’s going to eat them alive is truly just Black Widow. Natasha is one of Steve’s close friends, she’s playful, she has a great sort of dry humor, and even though she has a dark past, it does not make her personality gloomy and negative. There is a difference between Black Widow and Natasha and Captain America: Winter Soldier illustrates that greatly.

Sam Wilson couldn’t be any better, honestly. He is an amazing character, being a bit funnier than the others but not becoming just a comic relief character. He’s very sweet to Steve and Natasha, especially when they showed up at his doorstep – just having dealt with a confrontation/action scene with the Winter Soldier – and he just let them right in. He’s mischievous but not overly so, he’s very caring for his community, and he has so much courage and heart, he’s a very lovable character. I would personally love to see him take on the role of Captain America, but Chris Evans is doing such an amazing job, I certainly don’t want to see him leave soon.

Steve Rogers is one of my favorite characters and in the Captain America sequel we learn more about him – his mother died while Bucky and Steve were fairly young, that he makes friends insanely easy, that he’s still trying to catch up on seventy years, and that he isn’t dependent on being Captain America. We also learn that he is a good person but not a rule-following robot. He understood that what S.H.I.E.L.D. was doing was wrong, that ‘this isn’t freedom, this is fear.’ This is the Steve Rogers I absolutely love. Steve is just an amazing person, and out of all the male characters I can think of he is one of the most well-rounded. I’m so glad that we got to see him in the world of 2014 and to see him work through all of it very well.

Steve is incredibly smart too. Remember when he broke into the ‘Captain America Museum’ and stole his old uniform? That wasn’t just suppose to be a cool moment – even though it was. Steve was using his old uniform to trigger Bucky Barnes’ old memories. He knew that they had guns, and yet he still wore this uniform that made him completely vulnerable – but he did it to trigger Bucky’s memories. He risked his life just to get to Bucky. We see in this movie, not unlike in the first movie, that he is so very smart and cares so very much. Bucky is obviously Steve’s absolute best friend, and Steve is risking his life for him – just so he can get Bucky back.

Bucky Barnes is so very valuable to Steve Rogers. Bucky was probably the kid that was there for him when other kids bullied him, he was there for him when both his parents died, he was there for him in the war. Bucky isn’t just Captain America’s side kick, he’s Steve Rogers’ best friend, and could even be called his brother. When Steve says, while Bucky is beating the life out of him, ‘I’m with you til the end of the line’ Bucky’s impulse to protect him is so much stronger than the command wired in his brain to kill him.

I’m definitely glad that we got to see Bucky Barnes so much and so prominently in this movie. Yes, he is the protagonist of this movie so of course we’ll see him enough, but I was worried that we wouldn’t get to see Bucky and that’d we just see the Winter Soldier. What Bucky went through is absolutely horrible, and one of the first things that happened was that he was brainwashed – so when people say that he is the villain of this movie it’s technically incorrect. He is a victim playing the villain. None of what Bucky does in this movie is of his own free will, except for saving Steve at the end of the movie. Hydra has completely brainwashed Bucky to do what they want. He has been repeatedly frozen and refrozen for the past seventy years, and almost every time they wipe him and wire in commands to kill more people. If he was doing all of this by himself, if he was trying to kill Steve Rogers and countless others in his past consciously, then you could call him a villain. But he did not, so he is the victim of this story. I can only hope we see him in the next movie and see some of the process to getting him back to Bucky Barnes.

This was such a great movie, and I am so so glad that the Russo brothers will be directing the next movie and taking over the Infinity Wars. I am absolutely positive that Captain America: Civil War will be absolutely outstanding.

WS

Being a fan

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Being a fan of anything is an interesting process. It stems from the word fanatic and there are times when you realize that is very apropos.

For myself, I am a big fan of four things: Phoenix Suns, Indianapolis Colts, WWE, and Star Trek. These are the four things I would say I am the most into, but there are many other things I enjoy immensely as well including Star Wars, anything comic book related, collecting sports cards, and the list goes on…

Being a fan can be very rewarding in the pleasure it can bring you. Watching a great wrestling match, enjoying a Star Trek marathon, seeing the Colts and Suns win, etc…can bring an immense sense of joy. Collecting merchandise that ties into these things can be very fun as well.

Sometimes being a fan can provide some sad moments as well. Watching your favorite team lose is simply not fun. Even though it shouldn’t, it can slightly ruin your day when your team gets knocked out of the playoffs. With fiction it is quite different since it is essentially make-believe. WWE is story line driven and the outcomes of matches are pre-determined so even if your favorite did not win you know they will win again soon and are happy if the match they lost was at least highly entertaining. They may kill off your favorite character in Star Trek, but there will always be new characters to come along and become your new favorite.

There are downsides to this fandom though. I consider myself well balanced and knowledgeable enough to get over things quickly, but some people are the complete opposite. They become so obsessed they cannot function normally in life. They stalk their favorite athletes or actors. They do not have the ability to function normally in life without those things they enjoy. Sometimes these individuals just do not know what to do with their lives without these ‘things’.

I consider myself a very well functioning fan. When my teams lose it bums me out for a bit, but I get over it pretty quickly. I am able to find the most joy in my family and being able to share the things I love with them puts a huge smile on my face.

I do wonder what it would be like without my favorite things. I would have more room in my house and more money in my bank account, but I cannot help but think things would be a little more boring. I do not ‘need’ these things, but I do get a big smile on my face watching the next Star Trek movie or seeing the Phoenix Suns win a big game.

What is nice though is knowing that without this stuff I would still feel immensely satisfied and happy with my life since I have my wife and daughter by my side. Without them things would be much different and not for the better. Enjoying things is fine as long as you have bigger priorities in life.

Being a fan is okay, just don’t become a fan-atic!

Sidelined

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I am a big Indianapolis Colts fan. Even though I am not from the state and have never even visited Indiana, they are my favorite NFL team. I was introduced to them through my wife (nope, not from the state nor has she visited as well) and at some point I will probably explain our love for the team, but for now I wanted to talk a little about their current head coach’s memoir Sidelined: Overcoming Odds Through Unity, Passion, and Perseverance.

In 2012 Chuck Pagano was hired as the Colts new head coach after a tumultuous season of only 2 wins for the franchise and the loss of one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time, Peyton Manning, to the Denver Broncos. There was optimism though since they received the top draft pick that year which turned into Andrew Luck. With a mostly new team coming off a poor season they needed a coach who could quickly turn things around and Pagano was the man for the job.

The season started slightly shaky, but looked promising until Pagano was diagnosed with leukemia. It hit the franchise, the fans, and all of the NFL very hard. Despite losing their head coach for most of the season the team still finished 11-5 and made the wild card round of the NFL playoffs under interim head coach Bruce Arians (who also won Coach of the Year for his team’s success).

Pagano came back from his fight with leukemia with a major victory over the disease and has coached the team to the playoffs the past 2 years.

This book covers his hiring by the Colts and his battle with cancer. It is filled with tremendous inspiration and is a book that should be read not just by football fans, but by anyone who has battled cancer or has a loved one who has dealt with the disease as well. It is well told and will leave you in tears on a few occasions. It is a quick read, but well written.

I cannot recommend this book enough. For anyone who watched the story unfold that year this is a great in depth telling of what went on behind the scenes and is truly inspirational.

Guardians of the Galaxy

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Hey guys! I’m here with my review of Guardians of the Galaxy, even if I am a little late.

Chris Pratt’s performance as Peter Quill/Star Lord was fantastic. We all already knew he could act, but I hadn’t really seen him in anything other than the comedy show ‘Parks and Recreation’. I was worried that the character might come off too funny, or too dry-humor if Chris Pratt was trying too hard. Peter Quill came off very naturally, and that was really great to see.

Peter Quill/Star Lord is a great character, he’s funny with a serious sort of side, and we see in the movie that he isn’t just a human, but in fact has part of a very ancient alien race within him. His mother dies in the very beginning of the movie when he is very young, and even though we’ve seen that in every Disney movie, it’s given a different twist when he runs outside and gets abducted by a mysterious alien spaceship, and that his mother was most likely dying from whatever Star Lord’s father gave her.

David Bautista’s performance as Drax was surprisingly amazing. He had been with WWE wrestling since 2002 until 2010, and that does require a fairly reasonable amount of ability to act, plus he had already acted in two movies beforehand. He was always a great wrestler, and a great character, but it was surprising to see that he truly could act and be a detailed main character.

Drax himself is an absolutely great character. Even though he does have, like Starlord, a stereotypical sort of past, he’s well-written. His wife and daughter were killed, and yes that can be a very common past for a lot of male characters, I feel like it works well with the story. He is a very vengeful character, but he does have a goal. I hope they do something good with the character once Thanos is out of the picture. I can understand it being difficult, since a large part of his character is just about getting to Ronan and Thanos and avenging his loved ones’ deaths.

I have no complaints about Zoe Saldana’s performance, but I already knew she was an amazing actress. I’m glad she didn’t disappoint, and I’m happy that she got this role.

Gamora is wonderful. At the beginning of the movie, she’s very cold and stoic, she has a goal and it’s definitely not to make friends. By end of the movie though, we see she’s very compassionate and caring but can still destroy anyone who harms her friends. She’s definitely a lot more violent in the comic books, but I feel like keeping her a little more calm and more human is better for the character and the audience. Overall, she’s a great character, and I hope they can do more with her in the next movie.

I was worried with Groot and Rocket Raccoon, like anyone would be really. I mean, it’s a talking tree and a talking raccoon with a gun. I was worried they would take it way too seriously. Everyone did an absolutely amazing job with both characters. Vin Diesel’s performance as Groot was amazing. It felt like every time he said ‘I am Groot’ he was actually saying something different. That’s what the director wanted, and Vin Diesel gave him that. Bradley Cooper didn’t even sound like himself, his performance was also surprising like Bautista’s. I really felt for Rocket, and by the end of the movie I absolutely loved him just like all the other characters.

Groot is the Monarch of Planet X (“His Divine Majesty King Groot the 23rd, Monarch of Planet X, custodian of the branch worlds, ruler of all the shades”) and his language is kind of like a dog whistle- only his kind and other closely related species/races can understand it. That’s why Rocket could have conversations with Groot and truly understand him. Groot is a fantastic character, he’s very loyal and sweet. At the end of the movie he sacrifices himself for his friends, and it shows that he isn’t just a talking tree, he’s just like Drax or Peter, he just can only say ‘I am Groot’.

Rocket Raccoon was based off of the Beatles song ‘Rocky Raccoon’, and a lot of things surrounding the character are also based off the song. Rocket, like all the others, is a fantastic character. He’s a surprisingly well written character, and you feel for him a lot of the time. “I didn’t ask to be made” was such a saddening line along with the whole speech in that scene. It gave the character a lot of needed depth.

Both Nebula and Ronan are fantastic protagonists and great characters. Nebula is Gamora’s adopted sister, daughters to Thanos. They were both tortured and trained to be assassins, and it’s implied that Nebula got the worst. The fact that she wasn’t really killed, and the implied idea that she can’t be killed in a conventional way, we could easily see her in a future Guardians of the Galaxy movie, and I would love to see her again.

I was worried about Ronan the Accuser, like how I worried about Rocket and Groot, being too cheesy. Ronan the Accuser is a bit of a silly name, and in the comic books with that green and yellow color pallet, I was just wondering how they’d change that. Switching his colors to black, red, and eventually purple was a good decision. They’re all very dark yet sharp colors, and it worked better with the character. Ronan overall is an intimidating, scary character. He’s a character I’d be okay with Marvel reviving in maybe Infinity Wars or another Guardians of the Galaxy movie. For the sequel they should explore other options before going back to previous protagonists.

Thanos’s first real scene was fantastic, and was what was needed for the movie. For him to have a role but not really a dominating one was perfect. We know he’s going to show up and have that dominating main role in Infinity War: Part 1 & 2, so giving him one in a movie before that would be pointless. His scene fit very well into the movie too, and how he was designed was great, and somehow managed to look realistic yet true to the comic book character.

From Peter being abducted to the Milano flying off, this movie’s CGI is absolutely stunning. Every single scene with CGI was amazing, stunning, and absolutely beautiful. The special make-up effects department did an absolutely amazing job too, Drax doesn’t even look like Bautista, he looks like Drax, and if I hadn’t been immediately alerted Karen Gillian was playing Nebula, I wouldn’t have figured it out. Until two weeks ago I didn’t even know Lee Pace was Ronan! They did an amazing job and I can’t wait for the sequel and to see it all again.

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Roman Reigns

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The WWE has been in the bad habit of late of leaning too heavily on long established talent such as John Cena and Randy Orton. While both are great talents and legends it gets a little old seeing the same handful of guys at the top week after week. The last half of 2014 the WWE has been making a point of featuring more of the younger and less featured talent. Because of this the future is truly bright for the WWE.  Once a month I am going to discuss one of these exciting new talents.

The first on my list is Roman Reigns who debuted with the WWE in 2012.

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At the age of 29 he has a ton of upside and has been brought up in the WWE quickly, but not too quickly in my opinion. For the most part his rise to the top tier has been done well. He was built up slowly and not thrown into main events right after his debut.

He started becoming a name with The Shield (along with Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose). During the 2014 Royal Rumble WWE had Reigns eliminate 12 men which broke the long standing elimination record held by Kane for several years. The fans responded quite well.

When they split The Shield last summer there was concern that one or two of them could have suffered. Amazingly enough all three of them have excelled and really found their niche in the WWE. Roman Reigns was immediately over with the WWE audience.

Recently they have paired him in a feud with The Big Show which has not been well received by WWE fans and his promos (which are heavily scripted by WWE’s writers) have been ridiculed of late because of the silliness of them. Despite this fact he still gets great reactions from the crowds since he has a natural charisma similar to his real life cousins The Rock and The Usos. As he gets more experienced on the mic he will get to the point where he can go off script more comfortably and not be stuck saying things like “sufferin’ succotash” (yes, he really said those words).

There are heavy rumors that he will win this year’s Royal Rumble and main event Wrestlemania for the world title. I would be thrilled at this point to have almost anyone with the title besides Brock Lesnar who has gone 5 months or so without defending the belt since he apparently has a non work clause in his contract. Roman would be a great pick as champion since he has a great look, solid in ring talent, natural charisma, and is over with the crowd.

No matter who winds up winning the Rumble, Roman Reigns is proof that the WWE has a bright future ahead of them and there is no doubt he will be a champion sooner rather than later.

Disney Infinity

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Disney-Infinity

Ever since Disney Infinity came out in 2013 I found myself interested in the game since I am a big Disney fan as is my whole family. I am an avid gamer and a collector of many things, including toys, so the combo of the two with a property I enjoy seemed a no-brainer. I just never got around to buying the game.

This past Christmas I got a big surprise from my wife under the Christmas tree of the 2.0 Marvel Avengers starter set. Now I have a copy of the original game to go along with it and way too many figures, power discs, cases, etc…

To say I enjoy the game is an understatement. It has become quite the hobby for myself and my family. We all enjoy it immensely and wish we had gotten into it sooner.

The game itself includes two main modes…Adventure and Toy Box. Adventure contains your basic gameplay of beating up the bad guys, collecting things, achievements, etc…It is very basic and made for a general audience, but is still fun for a casual gaming session.

The best mode though is Toy Box. You build your own world through unlocking features in the game itself and the purchase of power disc booster packs ($4.99 for two randomly packed discs). The possibilities for customization seem endless. They have all the Disney themed stuff you can think of with the addition of the world of Marvel with Disney Infinity 2.0. Combining the two worlds can be quite fun. Captain America riding a surfboard with Stitch on the front through it’s a Small World is one of the truly simple pleasures in life. There are also tons of mini games to play and keep you interested for many hours.

I enjoy the multiplayer aspects of this game since it has proven to be fun for not just myself, but my wife and daughter as well. It is really a big thrill when my wife gets excited to buy a video game.

I hope in the future they will add the Star wars universe to Infinity since Disney owns that huge property as well. Chewbacca fighting with Thor against Captain Hook would be a blast.

This is a game/toy that is perfect if you have a family that likes to join in your gaming sessions and you are looking for something simple and just plain fun.

Agent Carter

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Hey guys! I apologize for not posting here for what seems like forever, I’ve been a bit busy, and right as I was writing a new post, I came down with a cold. But hopefully I can come back full time.

As I said before, I was going to review Captain America: Winter Soldier. I’ve decided against that, considering Agent Carter has just aired a week ago and has been the center of my attention.

I won’t say I was sure that Agent Carter was going to be amazing, that it was going to do Peggy justice, that she wouldn’t be made into just another “strong female character” who had more than two lines and said things like “Man up,” and “You hit like a girl”. I was fairly nervous at first, but I was overjoyed to find out that I had underestimated Marvel’s writing team.

Agent Carter is absolutely amazing, and her fighting skills are a dead giveaway that if they had given her the Super Soldier Serum, she would have taken down Hydra in two days. Her fighting techniques are completely brutal. She does not fight like Natasha/Black Widow does, which is more acrobatic, graceful and, in a way, more feminine. Peggy absolutely dominates her opponents and obstacles she faces, throwing them out windows, stabbing them in the hand against a truck, knocking them out with a stapler, pointing a gun at a man and threatening both their lives, and most importantly, threatens to kill them for being misogynistic. And not just the new show put that in light, in the first Captain America movie, she punched the first man to question his authority and charged into the final battle against the Red Skull, guns blazing. She even almost shot Steve when he made out with a random woman. She is brutal, and she is unapologetic about it, which I absolutely adore.

Peggy has been absolutely amazing, and if she was a man, she would be everyone’s favorite character. She’s shown weakness but has not become sniveling, she’s very human and I’m so glad to see that. I am so glad that she has her own show. I was fairly upset that Black Widow was not getting a movie, and Agent Carter is a good way to fix what they cannot fix with a relatively progressive show. (We certainly do need to set our standards highers though, we needs shows like this but in a modern setting. The 40’s were a long time ago, but we need shows that present the complicity of sexist acts nowadays, and women overcoming them.) I definitely want to see more female agents working with her, being just as great.  It would really say something, but I understand that it could be hard to write.

The writing of the characters on this show is absolutely fantastic. All characters have caught my attention, and this last episode, showing the blonde woman being removed from the Griffith, I wanted to know more about her. Even the antagonists are interesting.

The cinematography is beautiful, and the clothing/set design couldn’t be any more perfect than it already is. It looks more like the 40’s than the actually 40’s looked like. Marvel always lives up to the standards they’ve set with their past movies, and they just keep getting better and better. Agent Carter has definitely reassured me that the shows coming out on Netflix are going to be fantastic.

I can only hope Agent Carter either stays amazing or gets better.

NXT

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NXT-Logo

If you are a fan of pro-wrestling, the type that watches at least a few PPV’s a year and views the weekly programs as well, then you are doing yourself a disservice if you have not yet subscribed to the WWE Network.

One of the big reasons to subscribe is NXT. Even if you used to watch the WWE regularly, but have lost interest of late, NXT will make you fall in love with wrestling all over again.

Basically, NXT is sort of a farm league for the main WWE roster. A place where men and women can develop gimmicks and overall wrestling skills before being sent to the WWE. The way things have gone though is that NXT is most often putting on better weekly shows and special events than the main roster is.

The overall talent is amazing. With guys like Adrian Neville, Sami Zayn, Finn Balor, Kevin Owens, and Hideo Itami (to name just a few) putting on great match after great match it is impossible to get bored.

The female talent is equally incredible with Charlotte, Sasha Banks, and others leading the charge in proving that women can put on great, athletic wrestling matches as well as the men and not just be reality show participants or regulated to escorting the male wrestlers to the ring.

I highly recommend searching for NXT on YouTube and getting yourself a sampling of some of the matches. There is rarely a stinker and you will start realizing that if Raw and Smackdown were booked this way wrestling would be the most popular form of entertainment out there today.

2015

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The New Year is finally here and with it comes promise, hope, and a ton of untold surprises for all of us.

I do not believe in making New Year’s resolutions since they seem to never be held to so I just promise to continue on my path to being a better, happier, and more successful person.

One of the most popular resolutions involves weight loss. Since I have been on that journey for 2 years now my goal has not changed.

In February of 2013 I weighed 267 lbs. and I am now down to 196.  I got back to slightly over 200 during the holidays, but made sure to get back on track and continue to get myself to my goal weight of 185. Only 11 lbs. to go and I have no doubt I will get there by next month.

My main health related goal this year is to get myself in the best shape possible. Even though I am very close to the appropriate weight for my age and height I still would not look good on the beach sans shirt. I did not work out the last 2 weeks of the year, but have gotten myself right back on track with DDP Yoga 3 days a week and weight lifting 2 days a week. My family and I always spend a few days in San Diego on the beach around July and I want to be comfortable doing the one thing I have never done at the beach and that is go swimming without a shirt. I am aiming for a Shawn Michaels type of physique, fit but not overly muscled:

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I used to be in fine shape when I was in high school, but never Shawn Michaels-fit so it will be interesting to see if I can get myself to that point at age 40. It has been hard work, but fun and worthwhile at the same time. My weight loss has improved my stamina, my athleticism, made it so I can fit comfortably on amusement park rides, and improved my overall self-confidence.

There is part of me that wishes I did this sooner, but I am glad I finally convinced myself to do so now since this has improved my life in so many ways.

My only bit of advice for anyone who wants to do the same…if even I can do it, then anyone can!

 

Merry Christmas!!!

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I just wanted to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year!!!

I am going to be on vacation for the rest of the year and returning to active blogging on January 05 with plenty to say on a wide variety of topics.

This has been a crazy, yet somehow great year and I am looking forward to 2015!!!