Norway Trip

Day One:

After missing our first flight (who knew we needed to be two hours early for international flights?) we finally got on a plane to Norway the next morning.  Our first stop was Seattle, Washington.  It doesn't make sense to me why we flew west to just turn around and fly east again but whatever.  We had an 8 hour layover and since I'd been to the city before we decided to head into the city for a little while to kill some time.

We didn't have a lot of time in the city because we were nervous about getting back through security and ready for our flight but we did go to Pike's Place Market for a little while and visited the first Starbucks (picture below).  I wanted to walk to the Space Needle but Lindsay and Preston were too tired (I was pretty tired too) so they decided that it was enough to see it from the metro rail on the way back to the airport.

Just by chance we happened to walk by the Hard Rock Cafe in Seattle.  We went in there for a while too.

We got back to the airport with plenty of time to spare and finally got on the plane to Amsterdam.  The ride was 10 hours long, most of which I slept through off and on.  The airplane food was pretty gross.  I wasn't expecting that.  Luckily I had a few snacks of my own and I was also able to plow through a couple of movies.

The layover in Amsterdam was blessedly short, however, the Amsterdam airport is the coolest airport I've ever been to so far.  Once we arrived in Oslo, the drama didn't stop.  I had a feeling that this would happen and low and behold, Preston's bag was left in Seattle.  Supposedly the airport will be delivering it tomorrow.

The Birkeland's gave us a warm welcome and a very comfy bed to sleep on (thanks Stephan!).  We planned to sleep in the next morning before hitting the big city after our 18 or so hours of airports.

Day Two:

We slept in today as planned and got going around 10 or 11.  We had a traditional American breakfast of corn flakes and milk.  Oslo is about an hour or so away from Sarpsborg so a few of us fell asleep on the ride over (me included).

First we met up with Sarah's parents and walked over to the beautiful opera house.  We didn't go inside, but it was fun exploring the outside of the building because you can walk straight up the side of it.  Here is a picture:

After that we did a little walking through a nice shopping district.  Street performers and old cobblestone streets made the experience fun.  We also stopped by the Hard Rock Cafe in Oslo.

Our goal at the end of the trip was the Royal Palace.

I am so glad we decided to tour the palace!  It was quite interesting and informative.  Apparently the royal family goes on vacation every summer, so we got to see a lot more of the palace than you would in the regular season.  It was very cool because it is a functional palace, used for daily official business in rooms that we actually got to view.  I also learned a lot about the history of Norway and the royal family.  Of course some of the others got bored by the end of it, but I was honestly interested the entire time.  Besides, the tour was only about 1 hour or so.

We were super hungry when we got out of the tour so we went down to eat at TGIFriday's.  Since when does a burger cost $30.00 and a coke cost $7.00?  Things cost a lot more here in Norway!

After eating we walked over to something called the Akershus Fortress.  We were too late to get into the buildings, but it was still fun to walk around and see it.  They had some real cannons there that were a couple hundred years old.  Here is the main castle building.  More pictures will come later of the rest of the fortress (it's huge!).

After the fortress we decided to walk back to our car and go home, but we stopped by the main Oslo Cathedral on the way (also closed) and stopped into a few stores.  The girls shopped forever but we did get a few cool souvenirs.  Oddly, the souvenirs weren't as overpriced as I was expecting them to be.

Day Three:

Today was a lazy day.  We stayed up way too late, slept in way too long, and watched way too much TV.  In the way of being somewhat vindicated, it was raining pretty bad all day long.  We woke up around noon and spent a lot of time just watching TV.  Sarah, Lindsay, and Preston went on a little drive down to the old part of Fredrikstad, which is the next town over.  By the time they got back Preston's luggage had finally arrived at the house and Susanne and Elizabeth (Sarah's friends) came over to hang out.  We spent a lot of time getting to know each other and saying lots of things in different languages.  We spoke a lot of English, Norwegian, Bulgarian, French, Spanish, and a little bit of German and Russian.  Elizabeth seemed like a really cool person and I wish I could have talked to her more.  She grew up in a country left behind in the wake of the Soviet Union (Bulgaria) and her boyfriend was an East Berliner before the wall fell (he was about 5 when it fell).  I got a taste of the interesting perspectives and stories that she has to tell but it would be cool to hear a little bit more about it.  We would have stayed up late again last night but the internet went down so we couldn't watch Netflix anymore and we decided to go straight to bed.  By the way, the selection of movies and tv on Netflix in the U.S. is much larger than the selection in Norway.

Day Four:

It was rainy again today, which worked out perfectly with our plans.  Sarah's family lives close to the border so we decided to hit up the mall.  Apparently a lot of Norwegians do this because things are a little bit cheaper there (not much though!).  Preston and I broke away from the girls pretty quickly in the mall and got ourselves lost.  I'm not sure if Preston realized that I got us lost on purpose.  Anyway, finding them was trickier than I thought it would be with spotty wifi, but eventually we met up again in the candy store.  We bought a lot of Norwegian candy and some American candy too.

After our little jaunt to Sweden we came back home with out Crisco and set to work on making some snickerdoodles.  When I say "we" set to work what I mean is Sarah and Lindsay of course.  Everybody loved them.

A little bit later we went out with a bunch of Stephan's friends for bowling.  When I say a bunch, I mean we took up four lanes.  We played a few games (I bowled horribly as usual) then Lindsay got hustled by some Norwegians at pool (don't worry, no actual money was involved).  Tomorrow I think our plans are to go to the family cabin so I don't know if I will have wifi access for blogging for the next few days.

Day Five:

When we woke up this morning we packed for a few days and headed straight for the family cabin about an hour away.  It is a nice cabin, situated so that you can't just drive up to it or walk on paved paths.  You actually have to walk through wooded pathways to get up to it.

  It was pretty cold when we got to the cabin because it was windy.  It warmed up a little bit, but we are all a bit leery of Sarah's offer to go swimming later.  It was only about 60 degrees and the water was colder than that.  Preston and I decided we needed to go swimming in Norway so we decided to jump in.

After jumping in that first time (Lindsay was so gracious to film it) we jumped right back out, but then we got back in and swam around for 5-10 minutes or so.

We went back to the cabin after swimming and just chilled and ate candy.  Preston, Sarah, and I went to the store to get some stuff for dinner and when we got back Lindsay was playing guitar hero.  Sarah made tacos and we all ate a yummy dinner.  After Sarah's dad came home and ate we were going to head out on the boat.  By now it was significantly colder than before so we bundled up like it was winter.

 The boating was fun and we got to see the bridge from Sweden to Norway from a totally different angle than when we drove across it the day before.

 It started raining while we were out boating but we got back before it got very bad.  For most of us that was the end of the day.  We chilled on the couches until Stephan's guitar playing put us all to sleep and the next thing we knew we were being woken up to go get in our beds.

Day Six:

Today was another lazy day because it was raining at the cabin.  Our plans to go water skiing were foiled.  We did go down to the nearest town for pizza and there was some kind of festival going on so we got some live music in the background.  We tried to get some card games going but nobody was really interested.  The boys did their own thing while the girls headed off to Frederikstad to party.  Hopefully we will have a bit better weather today.

Day Seven:

The weather was fantastic today!  It was beautiful.  We decided to go boating to a Swedish little town called Stromstad.  We got some ice cream there and walked around a little bit before heading back. 

The boating trip was what occupied most of our time out today but when we got back to the cabin we decided to go crab fishing.  In order to do this we had to collect some clam thingies which definitely took some time.  We couldn't find any but right when we were about to give up we found some!  Unfortunately we couldn't catch any crabs.  Sarah said it is probably still too cold for them and that they usually come out later in the summer.

After crab fishing we packed up and left the cabin and we are now back home.  Tomorrow is our last full day here in Norway!

Day Eight:

This morning we woke up early (well, early for us) and headed to Tusenfryd, which is an amusement park a lot like Lagoon.

 

For a while there we thought it might rain on us but it cleared up and actually got pretty hot by the afternoon.  Luckily it wasn't very busy so we didn't have to wait in very long lines to get onto the rides.  My favorite ride (even though it made me dizzy) was called the spider wheel and I have never seen anything like it before.  It goes HIGH!

Our last ride on the way out just before we left was the Merry-Go-Round which was a double decker.  We thought that was pretty cool. 

Today was also our day to say goodbye.  Suzanne's family came over to say goodbye to us and we met another one of Sarah's friends.  Strangely enough, their foreign exchange student from France actually is leaving on the same day as we are, but not at the same time.  So there were a lot of goodbyes today.  No tears so far, we will see what happens at the airport!

Thanks to the Birkeland's for making this such an awesome trip and treating us like family and a big thanks to our own mom and dad for making the trip possible!

Man of Steel

I

It's been a while since I've done a review on my blog but hey, it's never too late to start back up again.  Let me begin by saying that I give the movie an 8 out of 10 overall.  

Portraying Superman is difficult and I think the franchise has struggled for a while with this.  How can you have an unbeatable man, then create a BELIEVABLE situation where the hero really struggles?  The creators of this version of Superman tried to overcome this problem by providing a rich back story which they spent a good amount of time on.  In my opinion they were probably as successful as they could be with this and I liked the focus on the back story before Superman even gets to Earth.

I liked the beginning part of the movie (after the back story) very much.  Superman jumps from scene to scene, trying to stay under the radar but unable to overcome his urge to help people.  This part of the story is aided by flashbacks to Clark's childhood which I think effectively add to the back story.  The only part about this that I wasn't impressed with is that I didn't respect and care about the Kent's as much as I have in other incarnations of Superman.  Martha and Jonathan Kent are supposed to be a huge part of what/how/why Superman is and I just didn't feel their contribution much in this film.  I hate to say it, but I didn't really feel the loss when Jonathan Kent died and the scenes with Martha I couldn't help but feel annoyed with her for some reason.

They throw Lois and Clark together in a twisty sort of way that was surprising and refreshing.  I like the fact that Lois knew who Superman was even before Superman fully knew who he was himself.  Amy Adams made a great Lois Lane.  

The villain was powerful, believable, and unknown, keeping even big Superman fans interested and guessing at what exactly was going to happen.  Obviously we missed Lex (noticed the few nods to Lexcorp in the film) but I actually preferred that Lex was not the villain of this movie.  

The action was great even though some of the scenes were a little unbelievable (particularly very tall buildings toppling over like trees when in reality they would collapse downward).  I don't feel like the action was forced at all and the scenes flowed very naturally.

I know that we've already established that the council of Krypton are morons, but if their prisoners escape their planet's destruction, couldn't they have escaped the destruction somehow?  Anyway, just a little confused about that.

The biggest drawback in this movie (in my opinion) is that it wasn't funny.  I understand that this movie was not meant to be a comedy, but superhero movie fans have come to expect punny, cheesy moments as well as well-constructed wit but this movie lacked a lot of that.  There were really only a few moments where this was felt, and only briefly.  The best of these moments was the last two lines of the movie which were just great.

Overall I liked the movie and I would watch it again.  I will plan on buying it this Christmas as a stocking stuffer for myself.

Timberline

I have never been to Timberline but I am so glad I had the opportunity.  I had a great physical, emotional, and spiritual week with the staff and participants up there.  Timberline really does work magic on people.  I know it did for me.

Saturday - In the afternoon I arrived at camp after a rainstorm had just ended.  We spent the time preparing for the participants and setting up camp.  This was the only night that we got plenty of sleep!

Sunday - On Sunday we had the rare opportunity to attend church in our Class A scout uniforms.  We only stayed for sacrament meeting but we learned a lot about adversity.  Little did we realize we would be facing quite a lot of adversity the very next day.

Monday - The day started off just fine and as the participants arrived we got them playing games and getting to know each other.  We also had a few lessons, including mine.  I was prepared for it, but after having seen the other scoutmasters present their lessons, I wish I would have done it a lot differently.  The downside is that it starting pouring rain that afternoon during the lessons.  It rained so hard that some of the tents were getting flooded so some of the staff had to go out and dig ditches.  It was pretty miserable but we tried to keep the boys in good spirits.  That night some of the staff had a very fervent prayer that we would be able to have good weather for the rest of the week.  It was one of the most powerful prayers I have ever been a part of and let me just spoil the surprise right now.  Our prayer was answered.  It did rain the following two nights but only lightly and during times where we didn't need to be outside.

Tuesday - It was a long day, especially when it came to the lunch planning challenge when the boys got pretty frustrated but then we got to make water balloon catapults and the boys were able to launch hundreds of water balloons at the staff members.  The boys had a great time and as soon as we were done with our activity it started raining.  That night we also got to watch a great movie called October Sky.  I love that movie and it seemed like a lot of the boys really learned a lot from it.

Wednesday - This day was jam-packed with fun!  The kids did a round robin with 6 or 7 teamwork activities.  It was hilarious to watch the boys fumble their way through the activities and it was also inspiring to see them work together to accomplish greatness.  That night we did a mock disaster where the boys had to react as quickly as they could to what they thought was a real ax accident.  Afterward we taught them how to create fake wounds.  As you can imagine, they loved that!

Thursday - By far the best day.  Wednesday was pretty fun but Thursday was fantastic.  The boys learned how to use GPS coordinates to find geo caches that the other patrols had hidden.  Later on they hiked to a location using their GPS and camped there for the night.  Each patrol held a devotional that night.  I was with the Purple Ninja patrol and it was an intensely spiritual experience.  One of the boys shared a scripture about rising up from the dust from 1st Nephi and later on I bore my testimony about that scripture and what the boys were accomplishing at Timberline.  Later that night the staff had a testimony meeting and that was also pretty powerful.

Friday - The last full day was a lot of clean-up but we also had a few lessons and by the end of the day we sent the boys on a commitment trail that was the culmination of what we had been trying to teach them all week long.

Saturday - The boys parents were able to come pick up their kids and got to see a lot of what the boys did at Timberline.  They were very proud of their boys and they definitely had a right to be.

Having been to Timberline I can testify that there is no better camp within the scouting program to prepare young men to be leaders in their own lives and the lives of others.  Timberline will help them be better men, better missionaries, and better fathers and husbands.  I saw these boys grow so much from day 1 to day 6.  They were completely changed.  Apart from their own lives, they also changed my life and I will be forever grateful for that.  Also, a huge thanks to the staff for making this week possible and a big thank you to Ryan Finch for asking me to be on staff this year.

Thank you!

Lake Powell Trip

First off let me say a big thank you to Heather Taylor, Cheryl Taylor, and Roger Taylor for inviting me on this trip, a thank you to Aubrey Sorensen for going on the trip with me, and a thank you to RJ Taylor and his friends for making the trip happen.  I have never been to Lake Powell before and it was absolutely amazing.


The first day, apart from boating of course, we got to see come pretty fantastic scenery, including Rainbow Bridge.  It was a short hike to the bridge and well worth it.  We got some great pictures and there was even a dinosaur footprint there too.

We also explored a cool cave one day with the boats and went swimming inside of it. 

The second day we drove A LOT to get across the entire lake.  We wanted to see the Anasazi ruins at a place called Defiance House.  It was very cool although a lot of it was obviously restored.

It was an amazing experience and I will definitely take any opportunity I ever have to go back and visit Lake Powell.  If you want to see more pictures of my trip check out my Facebook album.

Mistborn Fantasy Cast

Alright!  It is about time I put together a fantasy cast for Mistborn.  It would be near as detailed as my Wheel of Time cast but it will still be fun!  I will possibly add/change things frequently as I think about this more.

Vin - This was not a tough choice.  Ellen Page has been floated around as a potential for Vin ever since the book came out and I have never thought of anybody else to play her.  Ellen would do an excellent job.

Elend - I struggled to choose this character.  Elend is my favorite character in the books and I had a few people in mind.  Eventually I chose Freddie Highmore although he might be too old now to pull it off.

Kelsier - Again, this is someone that many people have talked about for playing Kelsier.  Nathan Fillion is a great choice.  Kelsier is a fun-loving, go with the flow type of guy and sort of eccentric.  Nathan Fillion fits this bill perfectly.  I would be open to other choices, but I am all for this happening.

Kelsier - I know a lot of people are going to be haters and I'm generally not a big Tom Cruise fan but I just think he could pull off Kelsier.  Bouncing from serious to spontaneous with a touch of crazy.  I just think he could pull it off well.

Marsh - I am definitely open to different suggestions on Marsh but I think that Christopher Eccleston could pull it off.

Breeze - Perfect.  Just take a look at his role in MI3 to see his pompous attitude. Phillip Seymour Hoffman is a great choice to play Breeze.

Clubs - I was thinking Jason Statham could play either Ham or Clubs but eventually I settled on Clubs because I think the personality matches better.

Spook - Honestly, I don't know if he could pull it off but I always imagined Spook kind of like this picture of Logan Lermon.  Again, kind of unsure about this one but I'm gonna stick with it for now.

Underworld Awakening

Kate Beckinsale + vampires = yes. The fourth installment of the Underworld saga was violently great. I would probably give it about an 8.

This fourth movie follows up where the second one left off. The humans have finally caught on to the fact that there are lycans and vampires around them and have "purged" what they could. I thought this was a great twist because I've always wondered what would happen if humans caught on to the supernatural things going on around them in a lot of movies. The lycans and vampires were treated like a zombie outbreak or something and I thought it was fantastic.

For those of you who don't like violence stay away. It is by far the most bloody and violent movie out of the 4. There is one part where Selene breaks a guy's arm and the bone comes out of his arm. It says the F word twice but there is no nudity in this one (I think there was in the 2nd one).

Overall it was my favorite Underworld movie. It moved a lot faster than any of the other three and it wasn't boring like the 2nd movie. It was left pretty open so it is possible that another Underworld might be on the way in the next few years. Hey, I'll take Kate Beckinsale over Kristen Stewart as a hot vampire any day.

Breaking Dawn Part 1

If you are looking for a teen sex movie with no plot, go see Breaking Dawn Part I.

I have to say that I expected more out of this movie. After Eclipse, which I thought was brilliant (see my review) I thought the Twilight Saga movies had finally taken a turn for the better. Unfortunately, Breaking Dawn Part 1 harks back to the bad acting, shallow plot, awkward blocking, and poor characterization of Twilight and New Moon, in fact surpassing Twilight and taking the title of worst movie in the Twilight Saga. Overall I give it a 4 out of 10.

Right from the beginning I could tell that Breaking Dawn wasn't going to fit well with the rest of the series. The director chose to create odd scenes that really didn't fit with the rest of the series.

In Eclipse, the directors focused on characterization and because of that, the plot naturally flowed. In Breaking Dawn it fell like they focused on plot and forgot the characters (the most important part) and because of this the plot felt haphazard and forced.

Bella was flat and emotionless throughout most of the movie, but it was most noticeable at the wedding. She seemed forced and it really made it hard to connect with Bella at all.

The scene where the wolves were all talking to each other and Jacob creates his own pack was not done very well and that was really a shame since it is one of the climaxes of the story.

I expected them to do very well with the birthing/transformation scene since this director seems to enjoy presenting shocking and/or surprising shots. It was pretty gory, but again they failed to capture the emotion of what actually was going on in the book. They talked about a delicate balance between getting Renesme out and changing Bella but when it came down to it Edward almost ignored Bella until she was already dead. I was okay with them changing the storyline a little to integrate Jacob into the birthing scene but the fact that they butchered it made me upset anyway.

I expected them to do a horrible job with Jacob's imprint on Renesme and I was dreading the moment but when it happened I was happy with it. It wasn't too cheesy and they didn't drag it out too long. This was probably one of the best scenes in the entire movie (sadly).

The nudity was not necessary for little kids to see and it did nothing to further the plot.

On a superficial note: If you are going to make a crappy movie at least have some hot chicks in it. Bella was pretty nasty the whole time and Alice lost her pixie-like allure with her poor new haircut and bossy/mommy attitude.

In short, we already know that Breaking Dawn Part II will be better since it can't get much worse than that. Besides, Alec and Jane (two of my favorite characters) will be there. Breaking Dawn was my favorite book in the series and I hope they wrap up the ending of this series better than they started it.

Real Steel

I realized I haven't done a post since Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II came out. Perhaps it is because I am lazy and perhaps it is because nothing was worth talking about until now. Nobody will ever know.

I decided that I really needed to do a post about Real Steel because I feel like it is the most underrated movie of the year. Reviews were terrible and I didn't even get an "it was okay" from any of my friends. This was a real bummer because I was looking forward to this movie. After seeing Real Steel (finally!) I have to give it a 9 out of 10.

Real Steel tells the story of a washed up boxer who now does a poor job of training boxing robots. When his ex-wife of 11 years dies unexpectedly he ends up spending the summer with a son he never knew. Max loves boxing robots and the two help each other be successful as they make their way to the biggest robot fight ever.

Hugh Jackman did an excellent job. He was true to his character and the dynamic between father and son was different than any I had ever seen in a movie before. Rather than one person trying to build a relationship and the other evading, neither character tried to get to know the other but they were brought together by a common interest. They inevitably grew together along the way.

I have heard that many people think that the boxing robots were kind of cheesy and lame. On the contrary, I thought it was interesting and exciting watching the matches. Having never been a boxing fan and being a little sick of robots (mainly from the last 2 Transformers movies which were fails) I expected to be a little fed up with this. I looked forward to every fight and I was never disappointed.

The supporting characters had just enough involvement to be "supporting characters" but most of the time was saved for Max and Charlie to develop their relationship. I enjoyed a movie that was more about character than about plot and that presented it in a new way for me. The movie is definitely not for everyone, but I think it makes a great film that guys and girls could agree to watch together.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II

Brilliant. Absolutely bloody brilliant! Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II represents to me the culmination of my entire childhood. I have looked forward to this moment for over a decade now and it has finally ended. It comes with a mix of sadness as well as content. It could never be any other way. I do not remember who introduced me to the first book as a child (probably my parents) but I do remember the impact it had on me. Chamber of Secrets scared me so bad that I had to sleep on the floor in my parents' room until I finished it but I would not put it down even though my mother asked me to. At school while other kids played soccer or basketball I spent my time browsing the books, writing down every spell and its effect and committing them to memory in order to play wizards with my friend Seth. The writing in the books improved as I grew up and my reading level increased, keeping me interested. The seventh book was and is my favorite. That is probably how a series should be. Ron, Harry, and Hermione have been with me practically my entire life and to see them on the big screen in these vivid scenes was more than a dream come true.

Now for the actual evaluation of the film. Hehe . . . . sorry for getting distracted.

The beginning of the film was a perfect transition from the first half. After that it had a few rough transitions that were choppy and I felt like they rushed just a couple of things. For instance, the scene with Aberforth was not fulfilling enough. The transition when Harry gets to the Room of Requirement and Ginny announced that Snape knows that Harry was spotted in Hogsmeade is abrupt and choppy. From the reaction of the audience they felt the same way.

When Harry steps out from the crowd and calls Snape out and the Order steps through the doors I just about peed my pants. It sent shivers up my spine. It was all about to begin. The epic continued with McGonagall facing down Snape. When the castle comes to life and the good guys begin preparing for the defenses I was tingling.

The battle itself, as expected, was amazing. It did not disappoint in any way, although they changed a few things about the way it all went down. I never felt like it dragged and I was genuinely concerned about nearly every single person shown in the frames.

Snape's death was well done and garnered a lot of sympathy points for the half-blood prince. This was closely followed by a quadruple combination of scenes that eventually made me teary. I was glad that the director chose to make the scene short where Harry sees Fred, Tonks, and Lupin. That scene led to Snape's memories where his love for Lily is clear and poignant. Immediately after that Harry knows what he must do and that he must go alone. As he leaves his friends Hermione wishes it could be any other way, cries, and offers to go with him. That nearly got me there. When Harry uses the resurrection stone to speak to his parents, Sirius, and Lupin I finally shed the tear that had been welling up over the past fifteen or so minutes. It was very touching to me.

Epic scenes unfolded from there. The death of Harry, Molly and Bellatrix, Neville and Nagini, and finally Harry and Lord Voldemort.

My friends will probably say that I am eating my words here but I enjoyed the epilogue and felt like it was very much needed. In the book I didn't really think we necessarily needed to see it and it didn't do much for me then but the movie really needed that boost of happy and alright with the word to counter all the pain and suffering that had just happened. The victory over Voldemort, at least in the movie, was not enough alone. I felt a lot of strength when Harry spoke of Snape's bravery to his son Albus.

10 does not even begin to describe this film. It undoubtedly joins the ranks of my all-time favorite movies. I feel it is unfair to judge its place in those standings just yet until this euphoria wears off. Otherwise, I would make it my #1 movie of all time this instant.

I hope everybody enjoys the movie. Here and a few pictures of my friends and me from the theater.

Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon

I will admit, I was not looking forward to this movie very much. After the disappointment of the second movie I wasn't sure I would even go see it. Alas, fate had something else in mind for me and a friend invited me to go. It actually wasn't as bad as the second movie but is was still kind of awful. I am giving it a 6. First I will cover the big, overarching things that they got wrong then we can talk about a few little things. I will say it was pretty cool how they used actual footage from Kennedy and Nixon's presidencies as well as casting Obama and Buzz Aldrin as themselves.

Plot was a lot better in this movie than in the second one but it still could have been better constructed. It seemed like they just threw characters in at random when they didn't have to. However the biggest problem (same as in the second movie) was that the producers and writers must have been confused about what kind of movie they were making. The first Transformers had a great plot line, great action, and it was funny. The two sequels were crudely strewn-together comedies with action going on in the background. A LOT of scenes were simply thrown in to get a cheap laugh and did not further the plot or characterization AT ALL. (The action was fun to watch though).

A few little things:

What the heck with the colored blood/liquid crap oozing from wounds that the transformers get? Apparently they didn't bleed at all in the first two but 2011 hit them all like Y2K or something and changed their genetics to have blood. Whatever.

The girl's accent was pretty annoying.

As much as I love John Malkovich and Ken Jeong and as funny as they are . . . all they did was detract from the film.

Last but not least, the redhead general who died in the first movie is back again! He was in the second movie too. Since nobody believes me about this I have attached a video for your viewing pleasure. Nobody survives the attack on Qatar except the small team. Yet the general magically does. Hmmm . . . continuity issues people.

Transformers - Attack in Qatar - Watch more amazing videos here

Super 8

More like Super 10. This movie definitely deserved my highest rating. I was a little leery of my good old J.J. Abrams after the disaster of Cloverfield but he began redeeming himself with Star Trek and Super 8 has more than fully restored him to my good graces. I remember them released a cryptic 20 second trailer of Super 8 last year before it even had a title and I have been waiting for it ever since. Without further ado, my review.

This movie was hilarious. It reminded me of Goonies and Sandlot which isn't surprising considering it follows around a group of kids. It is set in a charming late 70s town in the midwest and the feel of adventure that the kids bring is instant and intoxicating. The storyline unfolding at a quick pace but without leaving much out. It followed a logical progression and didn't leave the viewer feeling like he or she was missing anything. The romance was well-played, keeping the innocence of the the main characters. The kids did an amazing job.

My only complaint about the move was the language. It was necessary for some foul language, but I felt like the F-word was unnecessary and they could have toned down the kids' swearing a little bit in some scenes. Other than that the movie was fantastic. As my second 10 of the year, I would readily recommend Super 8 to anybody who needs a good laugh and loves childlike adventure.

Makin' Mormon Jello

In preparation for a Memorial Day work party I joked about bringing Mormon jello because we had been talking about the billboard in Provo that proudly features green jello and carrots with the slogan "Some things just go together." I figured that I might as well learn to mix green jigglyness with vegetables and fruits someday since I will inevitably be expected to make it at some point. Heather was brave enough to volunteer to help me give birth to my first jello conglomeration.

First we had to dissolve the jello mix in a few cups of hot water then mix in some cold water. We figured it would be a good idea to wait a little while until putting the fruit in (we used bananas and pineapple). I am still working on when to put the fruit in (the bananas all floated to the top rather than being suspended) but I think I have the basic idea of Mormon jello-making down thanks to Heather, the creators of the instructions on the jello box, and a lady at the grocery store who told us how much of the mix we would need. It tasted delicious and I can't wait for my next jello experience.

Pirates of the Caribbean 4: On Stranger Tides

I know it has been a few days. So sue me. I went and saw Pirates of the Caribbean 4: On Stranger Tides Thursday night at the Orem theater and even though most of you have probably already seen it, I decided to do my review.

Overall I gave the movie an 8.5. I struggled with how I should grade this movie because it was not very good as a sequel but it was entertaining as a stand alone movie. Even though I hate Penelope Cruz I think she did an excellent job and so did most of the other actors. For some reason I was mostly just annoyed with the priest. There were very few things which harked back to the first trilogy. I think that was a smart move. This movie was funny without needing to take everything from the first movie and reusing it. I think that Jack should have "lied by telling the truth" at the end of the movie with the two cups simply because it would have been a funny joke considering that Cruz's character had done that to him earlier in the movie. I don't know why the writers didn't take that easy joke but whatever. Overall, I would buy it and watch it multiple times which is much more than I can say for the 2nd installment in this trilogy.

Thor

Yesterday I decided to go see Thor after work. I was pretty tired because I had only slept four hours the night before and just worked a ten hour shift but I wanted to see it anyway so that nobody would ruin it for me. Surprisingly, I had no trouble at all staying awake. The movie was hilarious and and the casting was great, even for the supporting characters. The story pulled me in and made me almost forget about the upcoming Avengers movie. It was so good that I would want to watch it over and over even if the other Avengers movies hadn't been made. Natalie Portman was gorgeous as usual. I thought the acting was pretty good. Loki was fantastic at the end when he is battling Thor. One thing that bothered me was the opening scene. I was okay with how it started but the cut to the opening credits came at an odd moment I thought. Other than that I mostly loved the movie. I gave the movie a 9.

Wheel of Time Fantasy Cast

The Boys

Rand al'Thor
Garrett Hedlund
This was a tough call. I needed to find someone who would look good with red hair, tall, could pull off both farmer and blademaster, and handsome. I was thinking about this when I watched Tron and Garrett Hedlund really impressed me. I have no doubt that he would do a great job with the role of Rand al'Thor. You may also recognize him from Country Strong, Eragon, and Troy.




 
Matrim Cauthon
Andrew Garfield

I recently changed my choice of Mat after seeing the new Spiderman movie.  Andrew Garfield has the perfect personality and facial expressions to play the Prince of Ravens.  You may recognize him from The Amazing Spiderman or The Social Network.










Perrin
Adrian Grenier
After seeing this picture I did not consider anybody else for Perrin. He has the perfect curly hair, good guy feel, and he is handsome. Those eyes would look great as golden wolf eyes and I could see him as a blacksmith. He also would look good with the character I chose for Faile. You may know him from Entourage, The Devil Wears Prada, and Drive Me Crazy.




 

Lan
Liam Neeson
I am pretty surprised that I have not seen this suggestion on any of the other fantasy cast lists. He is tall, strong, and epic. Lan is also all of those things. He looks like the character I chose as Isam as they are both from Malkier and he would play well with the characters I chose for Nynaeve and Moiraine. He can be strong and stiff and silent but we have seen that Liam can have a soft side as well. You may know him from Unknown, Taken, Star Wars, The A-Team, Clash of the Titans, Batman Begins, and Love Actually.

Thom
James Cromwell
I considered many people for this role. At first I liked Ian McKellen for the role but then I realized that he would make a perfect Pedron Niall. A friend of mine suggested James Cromwell and I was sold immediately. He would play the secretive Gleeman well. You may know him from Pope Pius XII, Secretariat, Surrogates, W., 24, Spider-Man 3, Dante's Inferno, The Queen, The Longest Yard, I, Robot, and more.



 

Gawyn Trakand
Alex Pettyfer
Gawyn needed to be handsome, blonde, and strong. He has great chemistry with Dianna Agron who I have cast as his sister. I think he would also do well with the character I chose for Egwene. Gawyn is probably my favorite male character in the book and I definitely took a long time on this choice because I wanted to be sure that it was right. Alex could play frustrated Gawyn, loving Gawyn, and everything in between. I love Alex Pettyfer for this role. You may know him from Beastly, I Am Number Four, and Alex Rider: Operation Stormbreaker.

Loail
James Earl Jones
They would only need his voice for this role and James Earl Jones has a fantastic voice. It is deep and rumbling, exactly how Loail is described. You may know him from from narrating in Click, Scary Movie 4, Star Wars (voice of Vader) as well as playing in The Sandlot and other movies.