New Blog – New Start
Hey guys,
So I’m starting a new blog!! In this one, I’m going to talk about absolutely anything I want, be it movies; news; video games; politics or even the weather. Hope you all enjoy it!! Stick around, it’ll only get better from here!
David
After taking a quick look at the films that are coming out over the next 9 months or so, I realised the huge amount of blockbusters that are still to be released. 3 Marvel films, a Justice League movie, a handful of animated movies and the cash cow that will be Fate of the Furious.
However, where should your time go?
I loved the first two films in this trilogy, so I’m super excited for this one. With Woody Harrelson joining the cast, this will be a summer film not to be missed.
Edgar Wright is one of my favourite directors, and the trailer for this film makes it seem like it’s going to be up there with his best. His use of music is always on point. You can watch the international trailer (in my opinion, the better one) here.
I hope this movie continues on from the excellent work in the first, both in terms of good action scenes and a total sense of unpredictability. At this stage, we know almost nothing about the plot other than the Kingsmen will be teaming up with their American counterparts, the Statesmen; but this is all I need to know to be seeing this film very soon after release.
Aliens is one of my favourite films of all time, so I immediately have a soft spot for this franchise. With a welcome return to a more ‘slasher horror-in-space’ film, Alien: Covenant should be the addition to the Alien saga that fans have been waiting for.
The previous two Thor films have been good, but not amazing. However, with the current synopsis we have, this film definitely excites me. That, along with the fact that Thor: Ragnarok is being directed by another of my favourite directors, Taika Waititi, cements this films place on the list.
I want Christopher Nolan’s new film to be the Saving Private Ryan of the 2010s, and the trailer is every bit as tense and beautiful as I could want.
I was scared this movie would suck. Now with the first trailer being released, I’m just scared.
With Spider-Man finally getting his standalone film within the MCU, and with a trailer that ticks all the Spider-Man boxes, this is a summer film that I can’t wait for.
I just love Star Wars. That is all.
The first Guardians of the Galaxy is possibly my favourite Marvel movie and I can’t wait for the sequel. It’s a film that I could watch every day and still enjoy it, and I’m hoping that the sequel will be the same.
The Dark Tower – This is a film that I think could go one of two ways: it’ll be great; or it’ll suck majorly.
Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets – Once again, the trailer really hyped me up for this film. I feel as though Dane DeHaan is one well received film away from cementing his position as a leading actor, and this could be it. With this being a film that Luc Besson, director, has been wanting to make for years, it should definitely be worth keeping an eye on.
Blade Runner 2049
King Arthur: Legend of the Sword
Wonder Woman – This would be higher on the list, but I’m concerned it could be almost a Captain America: The First Avenger rip off. That, accompanied by DC’s fantastic track record with live action films, means that Wonder Woman will have to settle for a mention.
Justice League – Again, this film is being hampered by the past releases by DC; but the recently released trailer made me grow hopeful. You can watch it here.
So what do you think of my list? I know, I know, it’s very sci-fi based but what can I say? I’m a sucker for a super powered guy in spandex.
Let me know if there’s any movies you’d like to see this year, I’m sure there’s some I’ve missed entirely.
David /
I’ve been playing a lot of Terraria recently. For those who don’t know, Terraria is an 2D sandbox adventure game, that can be played both single-player or multiplayer. Consider it similar to a two-dimensional Minecraft, if you will.
This is a game that is incredibly easy to pick up. The controls are simplistic; yet, once mastered, allow the player to run, jump, climb and fly their way through a huge and expansive world.
Terraria is a lot of fun. The amount of content within this game is staggering, with opportunity to explore, fight, create and collect thousands of different combinations. In games like this, the saying ‘if you can think it, you can build it’ and for the most part, this is 100% true when it comes to Terraria.
My current world play time is probably somewhere around the 20 hour mark, and I’ve barely scratched the surface of what this game has to offer. At the moment, I’m focusing on preparing myself and my settlement for the game-changing event, Hardmode. This amps up the difficulty enormously, and causes the game to become a challenge even to players who think they’re pros. Due to this, Terraria doesn’t get old. It doesn’t get boring, and with the game being super simple to grasp, it’s very easy to jump into your world for half an hour and smash a couple of zombie heads together.
For a game that costs less than a tenner, Terraria offers countless hours of gameplay, allowing your imagination and creativity to run wild across the forest/snow/desert/underground/hell landscapes. I’d definitely recommend picking it up.
10/10
So I’ve been gone for a while. I took some time off to do some uni work. I did no uni work.
But I’m back!! I’m actually making another blog post????? I’m amazed.
So what have I been up to?? Honestly nothing much. I’ve been up and down from home to uni quite a few times, for various reasons; as well as making a pretty great start into my “2017 in Film”.
I’m planning on watching as many movies this year as I can. For the month of January, I hit 30 films. Not all of these were new watches, but the vast majority were. In terms of new films, in my opinion the best film of January was Hunt for the Wilderpeople. This film was incredible, I loved the writing, the acting and the direction. As a result of this film, I’m even more hype for Thor 3, also directed by Taika Waititi. I’d recommend this movie for anyone, especially to watch with family.
The worst film of January was by far The Pyramid. I just didn’t understand it. Scary? Yeah, it had a few jump scares. But these seemed incredibly cheap and expected. I scare easily so things are going to make me jump, but I knew when everything was going to happen. This, accompanied by the fact that I can’t take James Buckley serious as all I can hear is Jay from The Inbetweeners, means that this movie just… Sucked. I don’t even know what was going on for a lot of it. It started off being filmed in first person, which made sense. Then all of a sudden, we’re third person. This totally pulled me out of the film. I understand why it had to happen? But it just wasn’t good.
I’m going to wrap this up because I’m about to get off the train. I’m really going to make a push to post more often. I can’t promise daily posts? Sometimes I just do nothing. But I’ll be more active for sure.
Talk to you guys later, have a great day.
Merry Christmas to everyone!! Hope you’re all having a great day so far and that you’ve eaten enough food to last a whole week.
Happy Holidays,
David
This week has been filled with quite a bit of Netflix. Due to being away from home, I’m watching mostly back catalogue shows. I’ve also been restricted because my girlfriend hates superhero tv shows (sad, sad times).
Family Guy has been a key feature this week, with us watching at least a few episodes per day. Most of these have been pretty great, especially the earlier seasons (before Stewie went from funny-evil baby to gay-evil baby). “Petarded” (Season 4, Episode 6) is one of the best episodes this series has ever aired. In this, Peter finds out that he is technically mentally retarded, and decides to exploit the situation. This results in him hospitalising Lois and losing custody of the children to Cleveland. This whole episode is classic Family Guy at its prime.
American Dad (Seth MacFarlane week over here in South Hill) has been another show we’ve been watching. I love the characters in this show, none more so than Roger. His flamboyant and overly dramatic character and endless supply of costumes and disguises provide laugh after laugh. Furthermore, Stan and Steve are great characters; my boss has compared me to Steve on a number of occasions – I don’t know if this is a good or bad thing??
I’ve something to admit. Star Wars: The Clone Wars is a television series I have never seen, although it has been on my watch list for practically forever. Before you all leave in disgust and despair, I’m changing this, and fast. So far I’m up to Season One, Episode 11 and it’s been amazing. It’s crazy that an actor who only plays the voice of a character can do a much better job than the person who plays them in films. Yes, I’m looking at you, Mr. Christensen. I’ve been binging this show over the past few days, usually while Abbey does her make up or other things that don’t involve me too much. I can’t wait to watch the rest of this show, and expand my knowledge of the Star Wars universe.
Any ideas on other shows I could watch? I’m open to any ideas, so shoot me a comment or two.
If you’ve made it this far once again, thanks for reading and I’ll see you again soon.
As I’m in America for the next three weeks, Dota is unfortunately taking a back seat. With the new 7.00 update dropping so recently, this isn’t the best time; but oh well, my trip will be worth it.
7.00 looks… Interesting. Having playing zero games on the new patch so far, I can’t say for sure how I feel about the changes but things definitely look interesting. The talents trees look good, especially when it comes to support heroes who can benefit hugely from the extra XP available. These could, and very well will, be game changing.
The backpack is another interesting update, allowing less restriction when it comes to item combinations. Choosing between items is tough, but having three extra slots you can switch between on the move will be invaluable.
For my trip, I treated myself to Pokemon Moon, the latest version in the Pokemon franchise. Before release, I was skeptical. Things look different. Too different. The island trials seemed strange and unknown. The Alolan variants seemed laughable in some cases.
However, I’ve been pleasantly surprised. The story is engaging and actually interesting for once. I feel invested in the characters I’m playing with. This is definitely an improvement. The island trials are challenging as well, even with the EXP share being gained towards the beginning of the game. I find myself levelling my Pokemon to a high enough level above those I’m challenging, and still finding things kinda tough in cases. This is definitely a good thing.
Down sides would be typical Pokemon problems. The story is slow to start, with the tutorial dragging on, teaching you each and every mechanic of the game. For new players, this is obviously of benefit; but for veterans of the franchise, this is somewhat of a bore. The characters help, but can only lessen the pain.
Don’t let this put you off though, this generation of games are incredible. Pokemon is a franchise that I love, and a franchise that I’ll continue to love if they keep this up.
Rating: 10/10 – Incredible
What’s going on in the world? Every single day we hear of more terror attacks being committed, and it seems almost random. Just this week, we’ve had the shooting of the Russian ambassador to Turkey; the terror attack in Germany; the shooting in Switzerland. This shit has to stop.
We need to come together and work together to stop the hatred that’s infested within today’s society. Theres enough problems being faced by people without us blowing each other up for the sake of ‘religion’. A number of sources are reporting that up to 5,000 Islamic state terrorists could be in Europe after returning from Middle Eastern training camp [1]. That’s like a large army.
This isn’t a problem that can be easily sorted. With 24 hour news coverage, and the media seemingly moving towards a more clickbait approach, its hard to see how there’s any way to stop the spread of fear and terror around the world. I think changing media would be the number one method of cutting down on attacks. How can you be a terrorist if there’s no terror involved? Terrorism feeds on fear. Cutting out the widespread reporting of undetermined facts and rumours would reduce the amount of damage these attacks cause, and would cut down on the amount of hatred and fear for certain cultures that is present within our society.
It’s not an easy topic to talk about, or to deal with. Needless violence can’t be allowed to continue. We need to be more accepting and understanding of everyone, regardless of race, religion, cultural background or anything.
Needless to say, I could be wrong; and if i am, I’d like to hear it. Shoot me a comment or two with your thoughts on the matter.
Thanks for reading, and have a great day.
David
I recently purchased a Joby GripTight GorillaPod Stand, one that I could use with my iPhone to shoot some sick vids.
I’ve had it for about a week now, and it’s definitely living up to its expectations. It’s super easy to set up; super sturdy; and super compact. For less than £20, it’s great value too.
I feel this product is a definite must for anyone trying to shoot video on their smartphone, especially longer still shot videos.
Pros:
Cons:
All in all, this product is something that I’m sure will become even more essential for me as I try to grow my blog.
Rating: 8/10
This week saw the release of one of my most anticipated movies of 2016, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.
Set between Episodes 3 and 4, the film tells the tale of how the Rebel Alliance managed to steal the plans for the Death Star, as well as the growth of the rebellion against the Empire. Directed by Gareth Edwards (Godzilla; Monsters) and starring Felicity Jones, Diego Luna, Alan Tudyk and Donnie Yen; this film is up there with the Star Wars greats.
The casting is amazing. Each character plays their role very well, with Yen and Tudyk being very memorable characters. Chirrut Imwe (Yen) played a warrior monk style character, who seemed to have some sort of connection to the Force. This character was very well written, as was Tudyk’s K2SO, providing much of the comic relief for the movie. This droid was a drastic change from C3PO, being a much more practical member of the team. Darth Vader’s cameo was epic, really showing off the strength and power of the character in a way that we haven’t seen before.
Rogue One contains many memorable scenes; scenes that will remain up there with classic Star Wars scenes. This space battles are well shot, as are the ground battles; and CGI and practical effects blend effortlessly.
This movie was engaging the whole way though, although at two hours and fifteen minutes, it was quite long.
Rogue One was another step in the right direction for Star Wars films. Bring on Episode VIII.
So this week started stressfully and then ended very chill-ly.
Three pieces of coursework to be finished by Wednesday was an arduous task to say the least. It meant late nights in uni for Monday and Tuesday. Slither.io and Pottermore (of all things) proved to be distractions that only lengthen the process. At least I was sorted into Ravenclaw, so it wasn’t all bad.
Wednesday evening saw me rushing from Portstewart to Banbridge. All too stressful a journey for the distance travelled.
Thursday and Friday were home days, finally getting to see my dog, Molly again. She’s still a bitch but she’s the best dog.
Saturday began my travels again, heading from Northern Ireland across half the world to Virginia, USA. I enjoy travelling a lot, so this was a pretty enjoyable experience. Upon finally arriving in Washington D.C., Abbey and I hit up McDonald’s, being asked for change with a variety of reasons by the herds of homeless that surround the station. I think I come across as an easy target.
Sunday was again a good day, with lunch at Nando’s being a highlight. We strolled around the city, taking our time between sights as we really were in no rush to get anywhere. Ending the day with a train journey from D.C. to Petersburg, before a short car journey to South Hill, VA, and Abbey’s house; my home for the next three weeks.
This next week should be great, with the lead-up to Christmas always proving to be an eventful time.
Thanks for catching up with me this Sunday evening. Stay classy, San Diego.
DTRlife 