wafblog v3.0

So, I want to quickly get out some thoughts on DH before I go reading everybody’s reviews.

Overall, I was quite impressed.

Needless to say, HBP to me, was by far the worst book. Influenced greatly by my dislike of the R/Hr and H/G ships… I’m glad that the series has been redeemed by a very fitting ending. The book was fast-paced, I was literally clutching the pages in suspense quite a few times.

I was so impressed that JKR managed to tie up so many loose ends, touched upon every book so far and managed as well, to wrangle out some twists on things that we had previously read about. I’ll try to break up my thoughts into proper topics…

BEWARE: Spoilers contained inside!

(more…)

You know what’s awesome? I’ve now seen the Transformers movie TWICE, and it hasn’t even been released elsewhere in the world. How awesome is it that we got to see it a week earlier than everyone else? Considering movies are always released like 2-3 months late in Australia… I think this made up for it. Yes, it was that good, I saw it twice. So far, it’s definitely the movie of the year (we’ll see how I feel after HP – OoTP).

I’m not sure what I expected, I’ve been burned too many times by movies based on a comic/book/tv show. The trailer had looked pretty good, but that’s never clear indication (Spider-Man 3 anyone?). Needless to say, I was completely blown away. I think I was shell-shocked for like 5 minutes afterwards. From the beginning scenes with Blackout and Scorponok to the final fight between Optimus Prime and Megatron – the special effects were just amazing. And the storyline was actually decent with no major plotholes (I noticed one blooper on my second viewing… but eh!). To be honest, I hadn’t thought it would be as funny as they made it. There was a good sprinkling of humour with jokes and gags, almost poking fun at the idea of the Transformers without crossing the line into parody or spoof. Michael Bay did an excellent job of bringing these guys to life, and if you don’t expect the movie to be exactly like the cartoons and you’re not a fanboy with major issues then you’re gonna LOVE this movie. The amount of detail paid to seeing these robots transform from their vehicular form and back again is just staggering. You could literally see the little gears in Prime and the paint job that had been scratched off during his fight. To be honest, I love his new flames (= And just wait until you see Starscream’s manoeuvre in the sky against the other fighter jets. Possibly the BEST action sequence in the entire movie (although I may revise this statement on subsequent viewings), it was amazing to see him transform, shoot at a few jets, transform back, fly around.. transform.. shoot a few more. Absolutely breathtaking.

My main gripe was Frenzy. This character reminded me of ‘Jar Jar Binks’, and anyone would know – that is not a good thing! He didn’t seem very Decepticon-like and I think he was used as a plot device more than anything else. All of the others were cool. Sure, Bumblebee is no longer a VW, but hey… he looks hooooot as the Camaro. In the car chase scene with Barricade, I think it’s fairly obvious why they changed him and I’m glad now that they did. Quite frankly, Bumblebee is ‘da bomb’ :D I guess my only other gripe is that the Autobots seemed a lot smaller than the Decepticons, and the vehicles they chose were not as.. ‘cool’? I dunno – why do the Decepticons get to be tanks and fighter jets? And the Autobots get to be firetrucks? I just don’t understand.

So if you’re having reservations about seeing this movie – I will say that waiting for it to come out on DVD or whatever will not do it justice, unless you happen to have a projector and awesome stereo of some sort. I really doubt you could re-create the effects of a cinema though. And this is one movie that has to be seen in the cinema to fully appreciate it’s awesomeness. Now I’m off to find the soundtrack :D

Wow. Comment moderation actually WORKS in Wordpress. So if your comment doesn’t automatically appear when you submit it, it’s cos I have to approve it. I think there is a way to make it appear automatically, but I’ve yet to work it out and I’m scared to do so in case I get lots of crap suddenly appearing. Anyways, keep commenting and I’ll make sure the right ones actually show up :P

I didn’t end up meeting Manda for drinks on Friday as she decided to stay home. Instead, I was invited to drinks with the first year RailCorp graduates. The undergraduate that replaced me at North Strathfield met one of the grads at a training session and he invited her, but she was too shy to go by herself LOL. Not one to turn down drinks or the chance to meet new people I went along anyways. I now know one more person in this building (his name is Moscow, which is rather unusual I think) and one of the other guys was an undergrad when I started as well. It was an enjoyable afternoon, although I felt a little out of place but it was good to test out my meagre social skills and meet more people my age working in this organisation.

Saw another movie on Saturday – “The Covenant”. Admittedly, I didn’t know anything about this movie. Mike said it was about vampires, which it isn’t. I didn’t bother to read anything about it before seeing it, as it seemed both Manda and Mike wanted to see it. Touted as being by the people who made ‘Underworld’ I figured it would be decent enough. Suffice to say, lucky it was the cheapo movie of the week. I would’ve felt really jipped if it wasn’t. The premise of the movie was decent enough, although probably more interesting to those who did ‘The Crucible’ in high school as I did (twice) but it’s not necessary to get into the story. I just found that it dragged on and on. Considering I thought it was ultra short when hearing it only went for 1.5 hours, it seemed to go on forever when we were sitting in the theatre. Too many of the scenes were just fluffy filling, and some scenes weren’t needed altogether. The best line was right at the beginning, and said by a boy that I reckon would do well as a grown-up Draco – “Harry Potter can kiss my ass!” hehe. I will have to find a decent picture of him. Ah. It was all downhill from there. So verdict? Don’t waste your time. Or your money.

We headed off to the James Squire Brewhouse for dinner after that. I was quite impressed with the food, although it was a little bit pricey. Considering it’s at King St. Wharf though, can’t expect too much. It was a shame that all the specialty beers had run out, but that couldn’t be helped I guess. Not sure if I would eat there again, but I’ve had my fill of steak now so that’s good :D Went to karaoke as well, which was amusing as always.

Hrm, currently waiting to see how much of my ‘junk’ Travis sold at Supernova… I need to pay off my credit card. Not sure what I’ll do with the stuff that didn’t sell – maybe wait till next year otherwise I’ll try to sell it on eBay I guess.

I’ve been debating on whether or not I should go to the Motorshow this year. The last time I went was two years ago, and it was really disappointing. But the ads I’ve seen for this year look promising and it seems like there’s a lot more concept cars as well. Plus there was that ad for the SAAB (I think, else it was Subaru) car where the doors and the windscreen lift up and that looked particularly awesome. But then, I’m not sure if it justifies the exorbitant entry fee and I’ll probably pick up a bunch of useless pamphlets/magazines/advertising that I don’t need either. Maybe I should just wait for the next motorcycle show to roll around and just go to that.

One of the great things about the Veronica Mars is its huge roster of recurring guest characters. Seeing the same students, teachers, and towns people over and over again helps add a sense of realism and familiarity to the show. There have been a total of 87 guest characters who have appeared on the show two or more times. That averages out to almost two returning guest stars per episode!

1) Name three of your favorite recurring characters and tell us why you like them.
1. Cindy ‘Mac’ Mackenzie. In many ways, she matches Veronica’s smarts and to me, is a pretty good friend to Veronica. Being a bit of a geek myself, I love her techno-savviness and some of the quips she has. The episode where Mac and Veronica go to see Vincent and Veronica calls her “Q” and in turn gets dubbed “Bond” really made me laugh. I also loved the development of her character through Season 2 – she’s dealt with the bombshell that Veronica discovered quite well and she seemed quite happy with Cassidy. I also like ‘no questions asked’ way she has of dealing with Veronica’s requests, it’s an interesting friendship they have and I’m glad they can count on each other.

2. Van Clemmons. It’s a very amusing sort of interaction that Veronica has with Principal Clemmons and I enjoy his exasperation when dealing with her. I was rather impressed at the way he completely manipulated Veronica into discovering her mother’s past at Neptune High and for revealing who Trina’s father is (despite the continuity issues in that storyline). Considering the number of times Veronica’s pulled one over him, it was nice to see him get the better of her. Plus, as much as he may have trouble keeping her in line, he trusts her judgement and knows that he can count on her. I’m fairly sure we won’t be seeing anymore of him in the next season though.

It was pretty difficult to decide who to pick for the third character. A couple of people come to mind: Cassidy, Casey Gant, and Meg. Considering two of them are dead it doesn’t really bode well.

3. Casey Gant. I think we only saw Casey twice? Once when Veronica investigated the cult, and again in ‘A Trip To The Dentist’. For me, I found it interesting that Veronica was able to get along so well with him once he’d given up the money and decided to stay at the collective. He was really nice to her and I think as a viewer we get the impression that whilst the 09ers can be horrid, there is hope for some that they can see the more important things in life.

2) Name the one character that you would most like to see added to the main cast.
I’m not really fussed – I like having new characters on the show, and I think the nature of the stories told require that there will constantly be new people so it’s not a big deal. Keeps it interesting though, and ensures that I have to remember lots LOL.

Explanation of the Vlogathon can be found here. I’ll be trying it out for a couple days, see how it goes. Missed the first one, but seeing my reviews of Seasons 1 and 2, I think I answered the question anyways.

Name three instances where the song selection did a particularly good job of enhancing a scene.
Hrm, in some ways it was kind of subconscious for me. One of them is “Hear the Bells”. I’m not sure if that’s cos Veronica actually draws your attention to it by saying ‘I like this song’, or just because the song is actually good.

I suppose it’s a bit of a cop out to choose the karaoke scene considering that the point is the song :P But, Kristen Bell did such a good job singing “One Way Or Another”, I couldn’t go past mentioning her performance.

And yes yes, I can’t leave out the balcony scene. The music here was totally awesome, it fits the scene and even the lyrics suit! Definitely one of the more memorable kisses in a tv series :P Plus, now whenever I listen to the soundtrack and this song comes on, I can remember how it all started!

What are some of the musicians that you have become a fan of because their songs appeared on the show?
Hum, I haven’t really investigated any of the artists beyond the songs that appear on the soundtrack. If I was to, I’d pick “The Perishers” and “Adrienne Pierce” first because they play my fave songs on the soundtrack.

Yeap… That’s right.. Veronica Mars *again*. Needless to say, the PSA still holds. Really, I probably should have put up a SPOILER ALERT for those Aussie folks who haven’t seen all of VM yet because Channel Ten keeps screwing around with the time.

Hum, this turned out to be a lot longer than I expected. Really, I’m just writing it all down because I don’t have anyone to discuss it with, and I’d like to be able to come back during Season 3 and see how I felt earlier.

So I once again have deprived myself of sleep to watch the sassy blonde solve petty crimes and other mysteries. Generally, if I like a TV show or movie I can be fairly lenient towards any obvious plot-holes, plot-devices and bad acting. I think though that I’m slowly learning to be discerning with my viewing. I have limited time so I want whatever I watch to be awesome.

In general, Season 2 didn’t live up to the same level of greatness that Season 1 achieved. There’s several reasons for this. In the first season, the Lilly Kane murder case has a deep, personal affect on Veronica and she has a vested personal interest in solving the case. In many ways, I think solving that crime is the driving force behind her going to school and helping out other people. Now that she’s solved it and despite it not being fully resolved as a story line, the first 10 or so episodes are not very engaging. The bus crash just isn’t as interesting a mystery. The only person on the bus that Veronica knew was Meg, and they weren’t exactly close friends. Besides blaming herself for it, there wasn’t really any reason for her to be interested beyond that she’s a slave to her curiousity.

Coupled with the (really poor) pregnancy storyline which I think they ‘resolved’ too early in the season, it made for some dull episodes between some very good ones. The kidnapping episode was great and I was mildly amused that they had decided to show it the way that they did. Essentially playing the viewer just as the characters were. It was touching the lengths that Veronica went to in assisting Duncan despite him having kept secrets and lied to her. I found Teddy Dunn’s acting to be slightly uh… wooden but sometimes it’s hard to tell if it’s just poor dialogue or poor acting. However, I don’t think the relationship between Duncan and Veronica was built up well enough to have us believe the amount of trust the two of placed in each other. Hence, I think this ep would have had more effect if placed later in the season after the relationship had grown. Plus, what was with getting rid of two of the characters for the majority of the season? I mean, the actors were still in the credits but Wallace and Duncan had less air time than Dick Casablancas! The only other thing I wondered was whether or not Wallace was affected by the fact that Veronica lied to him as well. Considering her father’s outburst that she ‘played’ him, and that he couldn’t trust her, Wallace would have had to feel somewhat put out that she didn’t tell him either. He tried very hard to make sure that she wasn’t moping around and being depressed (but then, I’m betting she was – just for a different reason). Although, I get the impression that Wallace very much accepts that Veronica does what she believes she has to do and for her own reasons. Considering that we’ve seen it before (in ‘A Trip To The Dentist’) when she finally told him everything she’d been hiding I’m guessing he’s wise to the fact that sometimes it’s better not knowing. Then again, we see that he’s not always happy to just ‘live in her world’ and have everything ‘be about her’. Guess she’s just really lucky to have him as her best friend (:

I did find it rather odd that Duncan didn’t tell Veronica anything about Meg being pregnant. I do wonder if he knew before we see the letter. It seems logical to believe that’s the reason he kept going back to the hospital. This rings a little false for me, as Duncan claims to really love Veronica yet he keeps so much for her. It made it hard for me to believe that she would risk so much to help him. Then again, we’ve seen before the lengths she’ll go to for the people she cares about. I really kind of wish that Meg had told Veronica she was pregnant as she reverted straight back to being a 09er bitch – even if Duncan and Meg didn’t get back together at least it would have been a nicer ending.

The other episode that I think really stood out was the Magic Mountain one. I like the growing interaction between Veronica and Weevil. She doesn’t trust him, but she’s gone out on a limb for him more than a few times and as such, I’m fairly sure that he trusts her. This is despite her accusing him of murder or larceny every other episode. He is the perfect fall guy though huh. In fact, the main reason I liked this one was because she blamed him and she was right – he was just one step ahead of her! Plus, their banter is usually quite amusing.

I suppose I should at some point mention Logan :P But really, he kind of deserves a whole section to himself. I wasn’t surprised that he was the one on her porch. Neither was I surprised that she was with Duncan by the end of the summer. Why? Too much foreshadowing. She wasn’t over him, he wasn’t over her, they weren’t siblings… all good! I did like the way they threw in all these twists though, kept you guessing a bit before the end of the first ep. I did feel sorry for Logan, particularly when they reveal that Veronica broke up with him. And the reason for it. But it felt justified and fairly realistic. I will say, he’s snarky, sarcastic comments about D/V did start to get tiresome but as he says to her later in the season, “you’re so cute when you’re jealous”. I was kind of waiting for him to have some sort of breakdown but I suppose the whole sleeping with your friend’s stepmom works too. The scene where he comes to save her from the Fitzpatricks and her resulting breakdown was a great showcase of the chemistry between Kristen Bell and Jason Dohring. It’s a shame there wasn’t more of this in the season. Having watched too many teen soaps it is often very easy to predict the romantic tangles that the characters will get into. I loved Logan’s tortured appeals to Veronica to help him prove his innocence. I loved that he was protective of her. And I really loved that she got all jealous when he was with Hannah. I did have some trouble believing that she wanted to get back together with him – considering how cut she was when Duncan left. But I think that she’s given up ever seeing Duncan again and it’s obvious that she still has some feelings for Logan. She pretty much admits that. It should be interesting to see where this goes in the next season.

I have mixed feelings about the season finale. I did not like the chlamydia revelation. Maybe because I actually MISSED the revelation as the file I had cut out a few minutes from the beginning of the ep where that was revealed. Apparently this happened to a few people ): But yes, I didn’t like that revelation… and once it was revealed that Woody had the clap, then it was really just trying to work out how it got to Veronica. I didn’t like the way they used the STD revelation in the trial either, but it was obvious from the get-go that Aaron Echolls was going to be acquitted. There’s no drama otherwise. It’s a shame they didn’t keep him around to stir up more trouble, but he sure went out in style.

The graduation ceremony was alright. I liked that the other students did cheer when Veronica walked across the stage. I hope it goes some way to helping her realise that not everyone hates her. She does have friends. Clemmons’ short farewell to her was a nice touch as well – I’m guessing we won’t really be seeing him again. I should say at this point, that I found the scene (from the previous ep) where Wallace says he’s glad he got taped to the flagpole somewhat flat. I mean, it was a nice scene as we haven’t seen enough Wallace/Veronica friendship-building this season but more that she doesn’t say anything to him and it makes it seem like they’re going to walk out of school and never speak to each other again. Considering they’re best friends this seems rather unbelievable. Maybe I read it wrong?

Anyways, I really wanted to get to the point of the season finale where we find out who caused the bus crash. I must say the episode was good in that it delivered what we wanted to know, tied up quite a few threads, and left enough teasers to keep us guessing till next season. (Lucky for me, I’ll only be waiting three weeks for it :P). I do believe the execution was not the best though. Some of things that happened could have been done better. The next part is a big big spoiler, so I really suggest anybody who hasn’t seen it stop reading now.

I was pretty surprised that it was Cassidy. He’s been a bit creepy lately, and some hints were dropped about him but I actually thought it would be something to do with Kendall and the Fitzpatricks. I’m not sure if that was a red herring or more foreshadowing in regards to Weevil. Anyways, Veronica’s discovery of Cassidy’s secret and her attempts to warn Mac seemed a little out of character. We’ve seen her worm her way in and out of some rather difficult situations and yet she just gave up after asking the hotel reception. I really believe she could have done a better job. Even worse, she then believes the SMS that “Mac” sends and goes up to the roof. Now the kick-ass daughter of a PI should know better than to go to somewhere so isolated, BY HERSELF without telling anyone. The following showdown however, was both intense, shocking and absolutely heart-wrenching to watch. I need to watch it again to see exactly how she kept her favourite gadget on her. This was especially useful of course in getting Logan to the roof. I found *this* hard to believe as well as we see Logan’s phone display a number not an address book entry labelled “Veronica”. Considering the amount of trouble Logan’s been in lately with the Fitzpatricks, the PCHers and life in general… it also seems a rather stupid idea for him to go to the roof alone. But moving right along, they needed some way for both of them to go to roof huh. I was reading at TWoP that quite a few fans couldn’t believe that Veronica survived three shocks from the taser and still managed to tackle Cassidy. Initially, I thought this as well. However, I remember in the dog-napping episode, the girl (I forget her name and she wasn’t memorable anyways :P) tasered Hans quite a few times and he was still able to yell out that the dog wasn’t dead. Really, it would depend on how long the taser is applied for and perhaps the voltage. I’ll give the writers the benefit of the doubt. Plus, she’s pretty emotionally traumatised at this time. Having worked out that she was actually raped (more on this later) AND having just seen Cassidy blow up a plane she thinks was carrying her father… her anger must’ve been channelled somewhere. I did like that it was ‘Logan to the rescue’ again. I think this was a nice throwback to the “Weapons of Class Destruction” episode. It was also a nice mirror to the beginning of season where Veronica was cradling a very beaten up Logan.

To be honest, I don’t think many viewers would have believed that Keith died. It was an interesting twist, and Kristen Bell’s acting was superb here so I can’t really fault it. I also like that she’s back with Logan. As I said before… excellent chemistry :P

So, the last thing to discuss really is the whole rape revelation. I really really disliked this. Sure, after re-watching “A Trip To The Dentist” I can now read into Cassidy’s scenes a bit more and maybe construe that he was lying. But having already dealt with this issue in what I consider to be one of, if not, THE best episode really kind of ruined it for me. It’s kind of ironic to note that Cassidy *is* both a murderer and a rapist. I do hope that we see more of Veronica dealing with this news in the next season then, if they’ve made such a point of returning to the storyline to drop a bombshell. I kind of preferred that she wasn’t raped and that she slept with Duncan willingly and yet couldn’t remember it. It was a nice reminder that as much as she’d like to be, Veronica isn’t in control of everything in her life. That sometimes she’s wrong. And sometimes she just can’t get revenge. Particularly the revenge thing cos it’s been touched on more than once that she has some sort of fixation on ‘making people pay’.

It’s a shame we won’t be seeing more of Cassidy. I liked him as a character, probably because he seemed like such a nice guy for an 09er. Maybe we should be pinning our hopes on Dick instead *cough*. I am wondering what will happen with the Phoenix Land Trust. Did Cassidy actually mean for it to be left to Kendall considering how much he disliked her? Seems like a bit of an oversight but we know there’s more to that story in the next season.

I’ve written a whole essay on this. Scary. Guess I’ll be getting back to my regular blogging program.