All I Want For Christmas...

And now for your listening pleasure, is the first official year of the "All I Want For Christmas" playlist. Same idea as the Halloween one; Christmas themed rock that will be up on the site till the end of the month. Yes, it's largely dominated by Trans-Siberian Orchestra and Gary Hoey but that's largely because they both do awesome Christmas music and because it's hard to find good Christmas themed rock that isn't raunchy (such as "Mistress for Christmas by AC/DC, "Killing Myself for Christmas" by Sick Puppies and others. Granted, these are good songs, but not quite what I'm going for in this list.)

Anyway, enjoy the list! Next week's Revolt Against Radio should also be Christmas themed. Have a Merry Christmas!

This Is Halloween

You may have noticed the new gadget at the top of the site that makes heavy, spooky music emanate from your computer's speakers. This is the first official year of the This Is Halloween playlist: a playlist dedicated to Halloween themed metal. I technically created Version 1 last year but had nowhere to put it since it wasn't embedding in MySpace (no one would have seen it there anyway) and because Facebook wasn't allowing such things. Well screw Tom and Mark Zuckerberg, I have a blog now! Besides, this year's version is better anyway. Better songs, better arrangement, fixed links, awesome background image.

Yes, there's some notable artists missing from the current list. Some I want to add in the future include Ozzy/Black Sabbath, White Zombie, Slipknot, Korn, Five Finger Death Punch, Killswitch Engage and more but I haven't found suitable songs yet and I'd like to keep the playlist to about 15 songs so I have room to grow each year.

So may your nights be filled with metal. At least until shortly after October 31st when I'll be pulling it down and prepping the upcoming Christmas playlist =D

Happy Halloween! \m/,

Rating System

After thinking long and hard about this, I finally decided on a rating system to steal adapt for all my reviews.

Using a 1 to 10 system, or the ultimately equivalent 1 to 100 system, gets too caught up in the minutia. Besides, at that point anything 5 or under sucks and then there's a detailed explanation of why it sucks but maybe why it sucks a little less then something else.

Then there's the simple Yes/No, Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down, Happy Face/Angry Face system. Way too simple although it does then allow more focus on the review itself.

I'm going to land in the middle. A 5 point system. Only I'm going to actually add another layer to it; instead of just 1-5, mine will be 0-5.

5 - Fantastic! Absolutely without flaw or with minor, negligible flaws. A must see. As near perfection as you could ask for.

4 - Very good. Minor flaws or other small reasons that keep it just out of the realm of perfection. Highly recommended.

3 - Average. Fun but nothing special. Probably worth seeing if you're into that sort of thing.

2 - Poor. There were things that should have been done differently that were a detriment to the film. Still watchable but take caution.

1 - Lame. They did not accomplish what they set out to do. Multiple flaws. Possibly watchable but not as what it was intended to be.

0 - Oh God... In the rare occasion you see this, stay far, far away. Your hours are more valuable then this.

So there it is. I will shortly be re-doing the The Last Airbender review. Until then... go do something else.

Movie Review: The Last Airbender

So I just saw The Last Airbender and I thought to myself, "Self... why not review it?"

To preface this review, I have not yet watched through the original show. I have seen a few of the important episodes near the end of Season 1 and a couple other episodes from elsewhere in the series but I have seen enough to get the basic plot and a basic understanding of the characters. I am not going to spend time attempting to explain all of that at this time, however.

Plot:
This movie series is apparently going to follow the same format of the series as this first movie encompassed "Book 1: Water." Now, some may immediately see the red flag this raises. Yes, they did try to shove an entire season's worth of story into an hour and 43 minute movie. Because of this, parts of the story seemed very accelerated. The best example of this, although the most disappointing example at the same time, is the love story between Sokka (the brother from the Southern Water Tribe) and Princess Yue (princess of the Northern Water Tribe.) She is introduced once the main characters reach the Northern Water Tribe and then there is basically a time warp to sometime in the near future where Aang has pretty much finished all his water bending training and Sokka and Yue now have this relationship. In literally about the time it took you to read that.

Otherwise, as far as my limited knowledge goes, it stuck to the basic plot of the show. Aang's the Avatar who can master all the elements. The Fire Nation wants to control everything so they're the enemy, but Aang never did learn all the elements aside from his birth element of Air so he now has to go around and learn them all. It does kinda make sense, trust me.

Acting:
This was kind of a problem. But actually I'd go so far as to say it wasn't the acting that was inherently bad but the script writing. Sorry, I've never been much of an M. Night Shyamalan fan and that was one of my initial trepidations in the first place. In fact, considering the script and dialogue they all had to work with, I'm surprised the actors were able to do that well. The dialogue was often stale and unnatural; not unlike the dialogue in a silent movie occasionally.
(Ok fine, Sixth Sense was good, whatever.)

Effects:
This is basically what redeemed the movie. Some reviewers and people don't like when the visual effects machine is turned to high notches but I would submit, if it looks good, what does it matter? The fighting scenes in the movie were all fairly spectacular and the air, fire, water, and earth effects were definitely cool to look at. And for that matter, I never looked at the flying lemur thing or the floating buffalo thing and ever thought to myself, "that's some obvious CG animation on this thing." Everything, both the animals and the elements, all looked very good and very natural. I believe that will be crucial for the overall success of this movie because otherwise the veil of suspension of belief would be broken and then the bad script writing and whatever else would all become instantly more apparent and break the spell.

Also, I don't remember if in the show, the bending techniques involved that much kung-fu dancing but regardless, watching actual people do it seemed a little strange with the more elaborate motions.

There was one strange part regarding the visuals near the beginning of the film. Katara (the sister from the Southern Water Tribe) is practicing holding an orb of water that she pulls out of a stream or a brook or something and it drips at a rate that could practically be considered a "pour" yet the orb never loses any mass. You'll always see it whenever you watch it now.

I should also mention in this section that I did not see it in 3D. (That's a whole different rant.) I've never really had a good 3D experience that would make me want to have tried this movie in 3D but I think it might make some of the fights and scenery even cooler because the graphics were already so good. But I don't think it's necessary.

Closing:
Having gone in with somewhat low expectations, I found the movie fairly enjoyable. I think fans of the original show will be able to enjoy it but might stick to it that the show was better. I'll eventually get around to watching the show and will post a comparison. I don't have a scoring system or anything like that set up yet so for now I would recommend it if you're a fan of the show, are looking for a movie with some cool visual fights, or if there's nothing immediately better playing. I don't regret seeing it but I'm also glad I paid the cheapest admission price.

I've seen worse.

The Blog About Nothing

They say Seinfeld is a show about nothing. This is an inspiring concept to me. I can just imagine the meeting where this show was pitched.

NBC: So what's the name of this show?
Producer: We're going to settle with 'Seinfeld' after the show's star and main character.
NBC: Who?
Producer: Jerry Seinfeld. He's a comedian.
NBC: Never heard of him.
Producer: Nor should you have.
NBC: And what's it all about?
Producer: Well that's the beauty; it's about nothing...
NBC: Nothing?
Producer: Yes.

Seinfeld went on to run nine seasons, pull in millions upon millions of viewers, win multiple awards, and is generally considered one of the best shows in television history.

As such, I present to you the blog about nothing. Nothing in particular at least. Sure, you can expect to see movie, music, book, television, and even video game reviews from time to time, other kinds of assorted prose, and whatever else I feel like writing about, but that's not to the exclusion of anything else. I am an aspiring writer and I plan to use this as a place to voice thoughts and assemble words as an exercise to keep me fresh for working on bigger projects.

Disclaimer: You will not always connect with my humor. If you expect regular updates, you will probably be disappointed. You may not agree with my opinions.
My Answer: I understand differences of opinions and I respect discussion over issues and the ability to agree-to-disagree. Keep in mind, no one is forcing you to read this. So if any given posts cause you to become so filled with rage that it cannot be contained; stop reading. And please take your negativity elsewhere.

Now that that's out of the way, let the mayhem begin.