Friday, April 26, 2013

Every New Beginning Comes From Some Other Beginning's End

It's so weird to think that I will be graduating in a month. Right now I have mixed emotions on the subject. On one hand, I am really going to miss all the friends I have at WCA. On the other hand, that school is stressing me out. I am definitely not going to miss fundraising, or annoying teachers (although I will probably have my fair share in college). Westpark has become sort of a security blanket for me though. I'm not really sure what else is out there in the world. The last time I used a legitimate textbook was 4 years ago and I kind of miss them.

For my graduation ceremony I was selected as my class salutatorian. So now I've got to write a speech. Right now I've got a few ideas floating around in my head, but I still haven't started writing yet. I can't really write with my family constantly bugging me so someday I'm probably going to have to send them all off to the grocery store. I want my speech to be different, not cliche, and very personal. Really hoping I'll be able to write something decent...

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Wolverine and the X-Men Review

Hello there Blogverse. I recently completed viewing the 2009 TV show Wolverine and the X-Men. Now I've decided I need to write a little review. So here it is.

To start here's a rundown of the characters.

Archangel-In the past series' Angel has only been a supporting character, it was great to see him as (almost) a full-fledged X-Man. Loved the storyline between him and his father, and the whole Mr. Sinister stuff.
Beast-Not a lot of screen time, but a great characterization of the real McCoy. Also, it was nice to have every other word that left his mouth not be a Shakesphere quote.
Cyclops-At first he was a little too whiney about Jean's disappearance, but once he got over that he was the good ol Scott Summers we all know and love.Wasn't a huge fan of the trench coat though.
Emma Frost-So SO glad Emma was finally introduced as a full team member.In some ways she is actually more interesting than Jean. I was really surprised when they revealed she was a double agent.
Forge-I'm really glad the producers decided to include him in this series. Haven't really seen a lot of him before except for like 2 episodes of X-Men Evolution. Although his presence was much-enjoyed I thought his mechanical arm could've been a little more powerful.
Iceman-A little goofy, and I would have liked to have seen a little more development. But other than that he was pretty cool (get it).
Jean Grey-Jean was absent for most of the show, and once she was introduced there wasn't really much character there. I wasn't really that impressed with how Phoenix was handled. For me, it seems like it should have been a little more big and exciting.
Nightcrawler-Would have liked to have seen them go a little more in-depth into his past, and a mention of his religious beliefs
Rogue-In the beginning it was a little confusing having her switch back and forth from the Brotherhood and the X-Men, and once she actually remained on the team she was a little under-used. But I thought it was a nice characterization of her. Although there's the matter of her transparent hair...
Shadowcat-Didn't see a whole lot of her, but I guess she as done okay. Definitely a step up from the valley girl from Evolution.
Storm-Didn't like Storm ion this series AT ALL. She was completely under-utilized and I didn't like her circular hair either. Only had one centric episode which was pretty boring.
Wolverine-Even though he was undeniably the star of the show, there weren't a lot of Wolverine-centric episodes. Which, for me, was really nice. Still Wolverine as the team leader felt a little iffy for me at times. Really liked the voice actor though.

Overall, I really liked it. The animation was superb. Voice acting spot-on. The story-arch was amazing and it was great o see all the little pieces of the puzzle fall into place. The whole Days of Future Past thing was pretty cool, although I would've liked to have seen the Professor actually talk to some of the other X-men besides Wolverine. There were a lot of characters that haven't been seen a lot before like the Scarlet Witch, Polaris, and Marrow that were great to see. There was even a flashback which showed the original 5 X-Men. However, my favorite moment in the entire series was the scene in the last episode with Emma Frost (if you've seen the show you'll know what I'm talking about). All I have to say about that is: WOW!

The only real negative about this show is its cancellation after only one season. Especially with the Age of Apocalypse teaser we got at the end. With a second season there probably would have been more character development too. I've never really been too impressed with any of the X-men movies. It seems like television is where America's favorite mutants seem to really shine the brightest. All three shows have been great in their own way; the original remained faithful to the comics in both story and design, the second (Evolution) was great as a serialized series, and the third (Wolverine and the X-Men) had all the positive elements of its predecessors.

Here's a little ranking of the shows:
1. X-Men (original 90's series)
2. Wolverine and the X-men (would be number 1 if it would've lasted longer)
3. X-Men Evolution
4. Pryde of the X-Men (couldn't forget about that now could we...)