Conclusion of Dune

At long last the story ends... that's one hell of a long story. I remember when I wrote, 'It's not a Dune Novel if Duncan Idaho isn't in it.' Or something like that. Of course that doesn't include those where he wasn't born, yet. Anyway. Duncan Idaho is the Final Kwisatz Haderach. I never would have thoght of that. Though ghola's of Paul and Leto II were there, they weren't the Final ones.

It was pretty exciting for me, at least. There were the gholas of the prominent characters; of course, Duncan Idaho, Miles Teg (more of a clone), The Tyrant Leto II, Lady Jessica, Alia, Liet-Kynes and Stilgar, Chani, Two Paul Atreidieses (one is more of a clone), Barron Harkonnen, Doctor Yueh, Tufir Hawat, and the almost completed gholas of Gurney Halleck, Serena Butler and Xavier Harkonnen. There was also the creation of the Seaworms, which produces more potent spice known as ultraspice.

It didn't really end with a big bang. It's more of a.. how should I say it?... A "mental / intellectual" ending. Read it for yourself.

That brings the story 15000 Standard Years in length... at least. With 15 books... at least. With the coming of the Heroes of Dune trilogy, that would be 18 Dune novels. And there might be more to come. The good thing is we already know how everything started and ended. At least as far as the Final Kwisatz Haderach.

Undergoing MyBlogLog Verification

A Lot of Movies Over the Weekend

So it's been a while since I saw a movie. What did I do? I watched a lot of 'em through the weekend. Actually, five of them.

Let's start with Wanted.

This stars James McAvoy, Angelina Jolie, and Morgan Freeman. Neat-o cast so far. The plot: A freternity of assassins who keeps the balance. They get the names of their targets through binary code hidden in fabrics. Interesting. James is the newbie. Angelina is the veteran. Morgan is the boss. There are tiwsts and turns in the movie and the narration is quite ammusing. "What have you been doing, loser?"

Neat tricks with the curving bullet. Some might not like the ending just because the assassins die at the end. That includes Jolie but not the main guy, McAvoy. Yes, Freeman dies, too. Spoiler.

Next up would be the comedy movie, You Don't Mess With the Zohan.

This is one of Adam Sandler's happy-go-lucky movies. He just usually goes with what he has and never really thinks of what might come out of it.

This stars his usual cast of characters. Yes, Rob Schneider is here. He always is in every Sandler movie.

The plot: The best Israeli counter-terrorist has a dream of becoming a hair dresser. And his arch-enemy, Phantom, the Palestinian terrorist, played by John Turturro, has a dream of becoming a shoe salesman. Quite unique.

Overall, it's a funny movie. But I'd only watch it once.

Next is the attempt to put into shame the super-hero genre. Well, not real shame, but to give a human side to it. Hancock. As far as I'm concerned, giving a human side to super-heroes was done in Spider-Man.

This stars Will Smith as the super-hero, Hancock. Not his real name.

The plot: He's not really the most responsible super-hero. He does more damage than good. And he doesn't give a f*** what people think. Yeah.

However great the plot is, it fell short in the story-telling department. The story went from A to B in the blink of an eye. Not much there.

Next is Jules Verne's Journey to the Center of the Earth. Well, not exactly Verne's version. This is modern and the people in the movie, all three of them refers to the book. The book is more of their map.

Brendan Fraser is starting to become a houshold name when it comes to adventure movies. With the string of The Mummy moveis and this one, he's like a modern Harrison Ford.

The effects were so-so and the story quite fast. Well, there were really just three of them for the most part of the movie. It got a little bit boring as it went on with just the journey in and out of the Earth.

Finally, The Increadible Hulk.

Interestingly, this movie follows the movie, Hulk. However, it does not exactly pick-up where the last movie left off. Hey. It may be a stand-alone move altogether even without the previous one. Heck, the entire cast is even new. No Erick Bana, no Jennifer Connelly, and no Sam Elliot. Now there's Edward Norton, Liv Tyler, and William Hurt.

Comparing with the previous movie in terms of story, this one's a tad bit better. The effects, this is newer so this is better. Story's still fast like the last one. Overall, they're both pretty much the same.

I like the clincher at the end though. Tony Stark, Iron-Man, with Ross. Does this hint a team-up to capture the Hulk or does it hint the formation of the Avengers? We'll know in time.

There you go. Five movies over the weekend. . . That's quite a lot.

Juken Sentai Gekiranger Vs. Power Rangers Jungle Fury Part 2

Wow. . . A whole month without an entry. Almost two months if I didn't put this one up. Just busy, I guess.

I may have have said 'kudos' to PR Jungle Fury on its first few episodes, giving the US version a wee bit of original touches. Everything would have been nice until I saw the episode where they turn into Jungle Fury version of Super Gekiranger. Seriously. You'll get yourself a Super Geki-Claw when you battle your inner fears. It would have been a lot better if the Masters would have given them the Claws.

Next up. The arrival of the Wolf and Rhino Rangers. The wolf's entry was better than the rhino's. I guess the Power Ranger franchise still can't get enough of its "copying". Neil Patrick Harris look-a-like, Rhino Ranger, did the same trick Ken (Geki Chopper) did in Gekirangers, an orange blade from his fingers.

Some say that Power Rangers are better than Super Sentai maybe bacause it's the second time around and some bumps are buffed. I beg to differ. Or maybe because a lot more people understand English than Japanese. This makes more sense. I've said it before and I'll say it again. One thing's for sure. There would be no Power Rangers without Super Sentai.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

After a very long time, another Indiana Jones film has come. Everyone thought that the Last Cruisade would be the last one. Well, here's the fourth.

This fourth installment of the series is more of a combination of quite a few legends, old and urban. Let's see; El Dorado, Area 51, Ancient civilizations (which is always the case)... You get the picture. The Nazis are no longer the antagonists considering that WWII is over. Now, the cold war. Vis a vis, Russians with their research on the paranormal as weapons (like the Nazis).

Ford still stars as Indiana Jones. It wouldn't be the same if it's not him. Shia LaBeouf, the Transformers lead man, also stars as Indiana's son. Yup, that's right, son. Kate Blanchett stars as the villainess.

The CGI of the movie is a wee bit overdone. I mean they could have at least made it look more "realistic" rather than CGI-looking. You know what I mean. But the puching sound effects sound like the old Indie films. Overall, the fans would love this new installment but I guess the geeks might not really like it. I mean they are so critical that they point out each and every detail that is out of place.

We'll see if there would be a fifth. Enjoy.

Oh my Tortillos

This entry is not really a review but more of a commentary. But then again, it is entitled Canned Thoughts so here are some of my thoughts.

Lately, URC has purchased the Granny Goose brand. That includes my favorite snack ever, Tortillos. Hey, I am a URC employee but I've been a Tortillos fan ever since I was a kid. There's no way I'm replacing that with a mediocre, Taquitos.

Now that Tortillos is owned by URC, what will happen to it? Will it get bad. I don't know. I sure hope not. If Tortillos does bad and would eventually taste as bad as Taquitos, then I'm sorry. I'm still not switching to Taquitos. I guess It's time for me to switch to potato chips. I heard Eaji Potato Chips are good.

Sorry URC, I may keep trade secrets but no way I'm patronizing mediocre snacks... I am for C2 though. That I like.

Iron Man

Iron Man. The latest Marvel Super-Hero to grace the big screen. Next up would be The Incredible Hulk. I think the Hulk deviated a wee bit from the first movie, with a new cast and all. But enough about the Hulk, we're here for Iron Man.

If you don't know about Iron Man, try the search engines. They'll give you a lot about Iron Man as a topic. Anyway, the movie is not really about how Iron Man kicks butt (and he does) but how Tony Stark's eyes are opened to the reality of what he has done. Reaping what he sowed. It's more of a self-realization kind of thing. It doesn't have that inner dark-self that Spider-Man 3 had.

As for special and visual effects... Pretty nice. It has the Transformers kind of feel; The shine on the metal.

The movie was witty for the normal movie goer. I'd recommend you see it.

Dexter in the Dark

I consider myself a fan of the Jeff Lindsay's Dexter series. It has a wonderful premise and it's witty.

In this third installment, Dexter kinda lost his "shadow"; the Dark Passenger. The Dark Passenger was scared out of its wits. Dexter lost his cool. He now felt emotions. He felt fear.

It was a little bit of a let down. Take note, I said a little bit. In addition to the first person perspective of Dexter, there were other perspectives in the novel. I think there were three; Dexter's, the Watcher, and the narrator, written in italics.

It also had a feel of the supernatural. It says that Dexter's Dark Passenger came from a supernatural entity and not psychological. Psychological would have been a lot better.

All in all, it was still entertaining.

PB Phils... see the pic

What can I say? I bought myself a copy of the Philippine version of Playboy; May 2008 issue. I can't say much about it. It pretty much bored me. It came short on the visual department, not to mention the content department as well, the lay-out could do some more work, too. It wasn't worth the Php 199 I spent for it.

FHM is still the better one.

Don't get all excited with the magazine title. There's not much Playboy Philippines could offer that FHM already has. But then again, they're still in their second issue. There's still a long way to go. Maybe they'll live up to their title come a year.

Mythbusters

The Mythbusters. A show on the Discovery channel that tests the validity of the stuff that's been going around. May it be a rumor, a belief, an urban legend, and other what nots.

This show stars Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman, both special effects specialists.

I first saw an episode of this on one of my travels, in my hotelroom. Being that I don't have cable at home, I am only able to watch this during one of my trips. This one has become one of my favorite TV shows.

Give it a try and watch an episode. You might like it.

The Invasion

The Invasion stars Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig.

I didn't see this on the big screen, just on DVD. A friend of mine told me that it got her scared. Scarier than I Am Legend. Well, I Am Legend was a wee bit disturbing but not all that scary. I watched The Invasion in the hopes that it is scarier than I Am Legend.

Anyway, the movie wasn't that scary. It was more of a combination of those biological-apocalyptic themed movies like I Am Legend, Resident Evil, 28 Days/Weeks Later, and the like. But its the melowed down version. It's more like the Bodysnatchers if you asked me.

All in all. The movie's not that bad. It's pretty much ok to pass the time when you have nothing else to do on a weekend and a little bit on the lazy side.