Last of the LOST

Just a fair warning before I go into this post: If you live in a small grass hut out in the woods of Montana with no phone or electricity and have yet to see the final episode of LOST, you'll not want to read this post because it is just busting at the seems with spoilers just waiting to crawl up your open cavities and lay eggs.

Also, if you've never watched even one episode, this post will make no sense to you whatsoever.

So away we go...

It's almost been a week since the final episode of the penultimate mystery-fest that was the TV series LOST aired it's final episode. Within its 6 season run it's changed its focal point a few times. It started out with a number of survivors of a plane crash stuck on a tropical island that had a few oddities about it. (Polar bears? A smoke monster?), then it switched gears into a war between the survivors and the mysterious "Others", then it was about time travel and finally it was revealed to be about one man's entrance into the afterlife.

That is a lot to shove into the minds of the million plus viewers, such as myself, who invested a heck of a lot of time into the series. But, the series succeeded in the same way crack-cocaine can hook you. It gives you a little taste of greatness then after a while it throws you for a complete loop, but you're hooked and don't want to stop.

LOST started with great character development, excellent story telling and just enough sense of mystery that it snagged a huge viewership and following.

The characters were all intriguing. Jack, the surgeon who's just trying to get home. Kate, the beauty with a mysterious past. Lock, the oddball with a strange spiritual sense about him. Hurley, the lovable guy with some pretty bad luck. Sayid, the mysterious assassin. Sawyer, the wise cracking con man. We learned about them through their interactions on the island as well as flash backs to their pre crash lives. The ensemble cast was phenomenal!

The plot itself started as a survival story, then moved on to be a fantastical mystery, then moved on to be...well.....pretty out there. The 5th season brought tales of time travel between the here and now and the '70's. Then things became even more frustratingly weirder! To say the final season of LOST was heavily driven by existentialism as well as other philosophical ideas and nods to spirituality as well as religion would be an understatement.

Many of us fans were ready to give up. It was starting to become apparent that there was not going to be any kind of brilliant M. Night Shyamaian type twist that would explain everything at the end. Too many questions were being thrown at us with very few answers being given out. Drat!

In the end, was it worth it? Well, I was glad that I stuck through to the end, but many questions still are quite unanswered. I wouldn't call it a lackluster ending to the series (like the last episode of "24" was), but the head scratching continues for me, even though the show and story are now "complete".

After having time to mull it over and discuss it with other fans here's my conclusion to how it all ended.....

Most of the series took place in our own reality. The plane crash on through to the rescue on through to the return to the island on up until the flash-sideways which is the pre-afterlife.

The pre-afterlife (purgatory?) was portrayed as modern day times with most of the main characters taking on persona's and side stories as if they'd never been in the plane crash and had never met each other before. This seemed to be a second chance world where people can redeem themselves before moving onto the last destination. With only slight hints that something may have come before, the island was never experienced by any of them in this realm.

This pre-afterlife takes place far in the future, well after the time spent on the island. Whether the characters died on the island or at some point after the events on the island, in this particular time and place all of them have died at some point. (by old age, natural causes or fates never revealed in the series) Their souls have all come here.

In the end we learn that though the TV show had an ensemble cast, the main story revolved around Jack and it is about his moving from the pre-afterlife on to his spirit's final destination.

WTF?

Though the series ended on an intellectual note (a far cry from the seemingly Sci-Fi mystery we were all introduced to at the beginning) I do have to acknowledge the thing about the show I liked the most. During their time on the island there would be flashbacks to their lives on the mainland. Each episode the flashbacks would revolve around one of the characters. Some of these story lines where written so well and with such heart there were times that I would have a lump in my throat. They helped me understand and care for the characters.

I'm still not convinced the "pay off" was fully worth the build up.

The writers of the show have said that they're going to wait for 2 years, at which point they'll have a reunion show which will reveal all the answers we fans are looking for. It has also been said that they came up with the ending of the show first and wrote the story backwards. Which poses the question, how many Amazonian toads did they lick to come up with this story?

In any case, my head now hurts and I've tapped out my amount of intellectualism for the week, if not the year.

So I'll let you dear readers try and figure it all out on your own.

Before I leave you I want to remind you that at some point this weekend we all need to remember what our past and present men and women in uniform have done for this country to allow us to blog, play video games, watch TV shows that blow our minds and just plain enjoy what freedoms we do have. Happy Memorial Day folks!

Zangz.

A moment of silence for the Man on the Silver Mountain.....

Gone but not forgotten! One of the greatest voices in all of Heavy Metal, let alone Rock 'N' Roll passed away of cancer yesterday morning. Ronnie James Dio was a class act and will be missed by many.

Ronnie James Dio
1942 - 2010


\m/ "We're all a rainbow in the dark" \m/

Short and sweet, just like RJD himself.

Zangz.

Reviews.......

Here's something I haven't done in a while. Howz-a-bout a bunch of geek-minded reviews?

First let's hit some movies and why not start with the big gun of the summer block busters...

Iron Man 2 - I loved the first one, even though it majorly focused on Robert Downey Jr's portrayal of Iron Man's alter ego, Tony Stark while Iron Man himself took a bit of a back seat. There was still enough action in it to give us fan boys something to be in a bit of awe with. Iron Man 2 pretty much continues this formula with mixed results.

You'd think the script writers had solidified the Tony Stark story enough in the first film so that we could see more of Iron Man kicking ass in the second adventure. Not so. This movie is also all about Tony Stark, thus Iron Man is seen only a few times in the film. But, Iron Man's presence is a bit more balls out action oriented than he was in the first film. Also Robert Downey Jr's portrayal of Tony Stark is just as good, if not better than it was in the first film. This makes the lack of Iron Man in this film a bit more tolerable. As flawed as Tony Stark is in this film, Downey Jr has a way to still make him very likable!

Though, a lot of the story and action is a little over the top, even for comic book superhero movies there are some great things this movie has going for it.....

- The action sequence where Iron Man teams up with Don Cheadle's War Machine to bring on the pain to a small army of fully armored robots.

- Robert Downey Jr's fun but slightly dark portrayal of Tony Stark.

- Sam Rockwell's portrayal of evil corporate yuppie genius, Justin Hammer.

- Samuel L. Jackson returns as Nick Fury with a bigger role and more is revealed on The Avengers (wait until the end of the credits, true believers!)

-Scarlett Johansson in a tight black suit!

The only disappointment I had with this movie was that the final battle with the main baddie, Micky Rourke's Vanko, was a completely anticlimactic compared the the aforementioned robot battle which takes place right before Vanko's final fight.

Some may feel that this wasn't quite as strong as the first film. I, however, enjoyed this one just as much and feel it's a solid geek-a-fied fun frackin' time! SEE TRAILER HERE!


Sherlock Homes - SEE TRAILER HERE! Since we're on a Robert Downey Jr. kick. I found this retelling of the Victorian England detective series absolutely fun as hell. It's as pulpy as hand made orange juice and that's the way I like my Sherlock Holmes. Instead of a snooty, stogy long nosed, goofy hat wearing traditional Sherlock, Downey Jr gives us a more ruff and tumble while slightly heavily medicated Holmes who has a few odd habits, but can still beat some ass quite well when in a fight.

Almost all the characters shine in this film. Jude Law as Dr. Watson is a formidable straight-man partner who tries to keep Holmes in line. The movie is almost about their relationship as best freinds as it is about the mystery. Mark Strong is the somewhat stereotypical megalomaniac villain Lord Blackwood, but still puts on a menacing act and is beginning to be one of my favorite bad guys. Kelly Reilly is Watson's fiance who's sweeter and smarter than she first seems. The only weak link in the cast is Rachel McAdams who plays the female lead. I find it more of a writing flaw than anything else. There's nothing about the character that really shines. In fact you could have put any actress in that role and it wouldn't have made it any worse or better. The character is void of anything real interesting save being the damsel in distress. This isn't as much of a flaw to ruin the movie. Her character leads us to a sinister character cloaked in shadow and mystery who we only learn very little about once the film ends. In fact the ending opens itself up for a sequel which promises to delve even deeper into the Sherlock Holmes legend. Here's hoping it comes to theaters more sooner than later! And since I'm on a Mark Strong kick.....


Kick Ass - This may sound cliche, but this adaptation of the Mark Millar comic does just that... kick ass!!! (ewww...even I got a little nauseous with that unoriginal play on words). Seriously, this movie has tons of geekosity going for it. It's a send up of comic books and a great uber-violent action flick. What happens when a few people with absolutely no superpowers who are sick of their humdrum lives decide to don superhero costumes and fight crime? That's what this movie examines in an unrealistic, yet action packed way. Mark Strong is the crime lord who's business and life are plagued with the do-gooding actions of costumed vigilantes Kick Ass (Aaron Johnson), Hit Girl (13 year old Chloe Moretz) and her father Big Daddy (Nicolas Cage).

Those of a lesser mindset may find this movie void of responsibility once the high velocity action kicks into gear. The argument being that this movie will inspire people to go out and fight crimes in real life. I found the movie to be a little too over the top and more of a homage to comic books than to be a blue print for mentally unstable people to take up arms in spandex and fight criminals.

There are some really excellent action sequences in this movie, some of which make it the price of admission alone. This will definitely be in my DVD collection. If you're a comic book and brutal action fan. This is a must see! SEE TRAILER HERE!


Terminator: Salvation - As interesting a story as this is by adding on more of a history to the whole Terminator franchise, I found it quite blase. Sure it was entertaining, but it didn't have that kick in the ass that the previous movies and TV show had. It failed to pull me in, even when "Arnie" made a "guest appearance". An ok film, but doesn't the Terminator franchise deserve more? A bit of a yawner, but worth the rental. SEE TRAILER HERE!


Let's move on to video games........

Red Faction: Guerrilla - This was a game that was under the radar of most gamers. Simply seen as just another sequel to the first person shooting Red Faction franchise it kind of got pushed aside by a lot of other top name games that came out at the same time. That is a sad shame, since this game delivers in many different ways. Fist of all, instead of it being another first person shooter, it goes a completely different direction and is presented as a third person viewed full open world action game.

The next best thing about the game is the fact that 95% of the open world is fully destructible and you can use many different weapons, vehicles and tools to do your destructive bidding. It is quite the adrenaline rush to be able to tear down an entire enemy facility with some well placed explosives and a powerful hammer!

The storyline is slightly cliched, but the fun as frell game play makes up for any cheesiness of the story line.

It is the future and you've just arrived on the planet Mars which has been colonized and terraformed. It is here where your brother seemingly works as one of the many miners who are foraging the planet for it's resources. Just after you meet up with your brother, you find out that he's joined a resistance group that is trying the topple the powerful Ultar corporation that seems to have taken over Mars. As he takes you on a mission he is gunned down by Ultar's militaristic forces, leaving you to take up his fight.

The open world is the planet mars which is divide up into different regions. Most regions are nothing more than dust and mountainous terrain which can get a bit repetitive after a while. But as the game progresses you come across greener pastures as well as snow covered mountains. All inhabited with buildings and strongholds that are just waiting to be destroyed.

It's game play is also very pro open sandbox. Meaning you can follow the missions you are sent on or play the side quests or goof around with some challenges. You get to do what you want when you want.

The developer of the the game, Volition, are also the ones who brought us the equally as fun Saints Row 1 & 2. So they know how to put together several hours of mayhem!

There are a few sticky parts that I found a little fault with. Sometimes the game throws so many bad guys at you at once it becomes frustratingly impossible to complete your task. Once I found myself completing a mission, but I still had so many adversaries on top of me I still got killed and had to start the whole mission over. Also, following the marker mapping lines that lead you where you want to go can easily lead you off track. It'll point you in a direction that will be blocked by mountain range. It's not exactly the longest open world game out there either.

But, these are small prices to pay when you look at the game as a whole. The whole time I was playing through it I was reminded of other addictive open world games. Especially Crackdown. A game I've played through 3 times now.

I'm glad I took the chance and grabbed this puppy up off of the store shelf because I had a real great time playing it.....while destroying most of the planet Mars. SEE TRAILER HERE!


Before I leave you all for a quick cigar, I'd like to throw this message out into the realms of the Internet. This goes out to all of the actresses and models out there who are wasting their time with the pretty boys, the bad boys and the jocks. Ladies... GEEKS DON'T CHEAT!

Stay vertical everybody.

Zangz.