Super "Official" Date For Movie Reviews

OK, there's been more delays to my movie reviews and it's all thanks to the Giants being in the World Series and my moving back in with my parents. As soon as my computer is moved in I'll get back to my regular posting.

"Biggest Opening Night in NBA History" Hot For Lakers and Celtics, Ice Cold For the Heat

The Lakers ring ceremony and banner raising was incredibly well done, showcasing not just a repeat championship team, but a large group of family and friends acknowledging each others' talents.

Today, the 2010-11 NBA season kicked off with 3 games, the Miami Heat @ Boston Celtics, the Phoenix Suns @ Portland Trailblazers, and the Houston Rockets @ Los Angeles Lakers. Last season if someone told you that the Celtics would beat the Heat or Lebron's team, the Trailblazers would beat the Suns at home, and the Lakers would beat the Rockets, would you have been surprised? Of course not, and that's exactly what happened in the season opener. Erik Spoelstra utterly lacked the qualities to be a head coach (unchanged), Lebron James had to bail out his team to not be completely embarrassed by a clearly superior team (unchanged), the Trailblazers dominated at home (unchanged), the Suns lacked defense (unchanged), the Rockets relied far too heavily on their smaller players to score (unchanged), and the Lakers won a game in dramatic fashion thanks to a play by a non-black player (unchanged). Sure, names have changed across all 6 teams (less so on the Trailblazers), but on the first day it quickly became apparent that nothing has changed.

The Boston Celtics made 2 notable moves in the off-season, signing the two O'Neals (unrelated), Jermaine and Shaquille. While questionable how helpful either would be, Jermaine demonstrated that when he isn't being a hothead he can still be a quality bench player, while Shaq showed that age may be making him run slower, but he is still 7'1" and over 300 pounds. Even more impressively, Shaq held Chris Bosh to under 10 points while also getting 7 rebounds and 9 points all while playing under 20 minutes. The big question though is "does Shaq's presence even matter?" With Kendrick Perkins out for a few more months from his injury in Game 6 of the NBA Finals, Shaq and Glen Davis are going to be playing center to make sure the Celtics' record starts and stays excellent.

If the season opener can predict how a team will do for the rest of the season, then the Miami Heat are already a colossal failure. Of course, it's completely unfair to judge a team by their 1st game, but when Lebron James says "this is a work in progress," he isn't kidding. With all the star bench players hired in the off-season, clearing salary cap room to hire Lebron and Bosh, and making sure to keep Dwyane Wade, the Heat as a team failed in every aspect... with the notable exception of Lebron James who performed at his normal level other than more turnovers than usual due to sloppy play in the 1st half. If the Miami Heat want to not only win games, but win a championship, they need to fire Erik Spoelstra and replace him with Pat Riley who will be able to decide a far more proper substitution pattern.

Although slow to start, Lebron James eventually showcased exactly why he is the reigning 2-time MVP while Dwyane Wade utterly failed to make any impact and Chris Bosh was outplayed by 38-year-old Shaquille O'Neal.

The Lakers began their night by receiving their championship rings and raising their 16th championship banner in one of the better championship ceremonies I've seen in a long time. Still high on emotion from last season and the ceremony, the Lakers played pretty badly in the 1st half only to come roaring back in the 2nd half. The biggest question asked by fans in the offseason was probably "why did we get rid of Jordan Farmar to sign Steve Blake?" Blake managed to answer every question by scoring the game winning 3-pointer with a pass from Kobe that at first appeared to be planned for Pau Gasol. By keeping their starting five of Fisher, Bryant, Artest, Gasol, and Bynum, the 6th man Odom, a stronger bench replacing DJ Mbenga, Jordan Farmar, Adam Morrison, and Josh Powell with Steve Blake, Matt Barnes, and Theo Ratliff, and the 2 rookie gold mines of Derrick Caracter and Devin Ebanks, the Lakers have all but assured that not only will they reach the NBA Finals for the fourth time in a row, but will more than likely win yet another three-peat.

The hidden gem among the big names however, was the Houston Rockets. Yao Ming is back to a team that is very different than the one he last played on in the 2009 playoffs. No longer is Yao the center-piece, but part of a larger scheme excellently coached by Rick Adelman, probably the greatest coach in recent memory to not have ever won a championship. Even with Yao on the bench replaced by Brad Miller, formerly of the Chicago Bulls, the Rockets operate as a well-oiled machine. Later this season when Yao is better conditioned after having missed all of last season and hopefully playing far more than 24 minutes, the Rockets will be a serious contender in the West, far more than the unbelievably over-hyped Mavericks that always fail to deliver or the Thunder that made no move to get a better center in the offseason.

They have some kinks to work out, but the Rockets showed they are still a threat even without Yao.

Assuming nothing changes between now and the end of the season, the Lakers and Celtics are going to be playing a rematch Finals. Of course, some team that is rebuilding could shock everyone with a key trade in the middle of the season and take them to the brink of a championship. Stranger things have happened.

Giants Do It Again!

I almost shit my pants watching this game. Starting off with quite the fuck up in the 1st inning, the Giants managed to pull off this win by the seat of their pants. I couldn't believe Bumgarner and Lincecum both came out to relief pitch just to assure victory.

Needless to say with the Lakers season starting and the Giants in the world series, I won't be posting anything for a good while.

Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep - The Best Kingdom Hearts Since the Original

This review is truncated to avoid spoilers.

Gameplay: 10     The new Command system works absolutely beautifully with Kingdom Hearts' style of play. MP simply does not work in an action RPG and recharging abilities, both physical and magical, makes complete sense. Gameplay-wise, this is the best game in the series.
Story: 8.5     Clearing up several plot holes, loose ends, and partially setting up the events of Kingdom Hearts 3, Birth by Sleep also remembers it is the beginning of the story and makes sure (almost) everyone gets a proper introduction. Some problems arise by introducing new loose ends, most notably never giving any context behind the Keyblade War and an incredibly vague explanation as to why the Keyblades even exist. Despite that, knowing how KH has handled previous loose ends, Kingdom Hearts 3 will answer them just finely.
Presentation: 9.5     Put simply, other than Dissidia: Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep is the best looking and sounding game on the PSP. The only thing stopping it from getting a higher rating is having to listen to Aqua's voice actor for 40 hours. Willa Holland, a voice actor you ain't. Jason Dohring does a stellar job as Terra while Jesse McCartney continues to be excellent as Roxas Ventus. Nothing negative can be said about Mark Hamill as Master Eraqus and Leonard Nimoy as Master Xehanort. Haley Joel Osment does a surprisingly great job as the sinister Sora Vanitas.
Replay Value: 7.0     To see the ending of Birth by Sleep, you need to beat Terra's, Ventus', and Aqua's storylines, all taking anywhere from 20-40 hours each. A 60-120 hour game? You better believe it. Birth by Sleep is incredibly lengthy for a handheld game, utilizing recycled enemies and recycled environments with each character visiting one or two unique areas within each world. The next time I play through the entirety of Birth by Sleep is the next time I decide to play through Final Fantasy XIII in its entirety.

Overall Score: 8.8     Despite a few flaws in length and storytelling, Birth by Sleep proves to be more than just a cash-in and a wise decision by Square Enix to stop making games for mobile phones and develop them on more mainstream handheld devices. Easily the best game since the original, Birth by Sleep fixes problems in the gameplay that should have been fixed with the 2nd installment, but it isn't something that was fixed too late. Hopefully, Kingdom Hearts 3 will also use the Command system while fixing Birth by Sleep's story pacing issues. If you have a PSP and enjoy slashing the shit out of bad guys, Birth by Sleep is a must-buy.

Double Movie Review Coming This Week

I missed last week's movie review of the 40-Year-Old Virgin due to my trip to Kentucky, but I'll make sure to do a special double dose of Steve Carrell with the Virgin review as well as my Little Miss Sunshine review coming up later this week.

Giants Move on to NLCS for First Time Since 2002

Prepare your anuses, Phillies!

A Post About Sports? What!?

Yeah, it's been a while, but the world of sports has been incredibly slow, but October means EPIC SPORTS MONTH! The MLB Postseason begins later this week, we're 4 weeks into the current NFL season, and the NBA and NHL seasons begin later this month. As usual in the world of Enrique, 2 sports have me excited and the other 2 sports are either massive failures or are going to be massive failures.

In the world of baseball, the Giants have finally made the postseason for the first time since 2003. I'm not expecting them to reach the World Series, but at least making it to the NLCS would be great. I really don't expect them to be able to beat the Phillies, much less the Rays or Yankees, but hey, can't a fan hope?

He may be a pothead, but he could be the reason the Giants reach the World Series.

In football, the 49ers have been a massive disappointment. Even the sports "geniuses" over at ESPN can't explain why the 49ers are 0-4; most people predicted the 49ers to be 3-1 at this point of the season. The defensive line is as good as ever, the offensive line has been a huge improvement from last year, and Alex Smith has matured a lot as quarterback. The main problems have been Jimmy Raye's lack of desire to be on the sidelines during game time, needing to talk to the QB coach and then the QB coach speaking to Singletary, and finally Singletary talking to Smith. That problem was thankfully solved by firing Jimmy Raye. Although he was the best offensive coordinator the 49ers have had since 2002, he was also infamous for being difficult to understand by anyone other than his QB coach, who has become the new Offensive Coordinator in Jimmy Raye's departure. Another reason for the 49ers doing badly has been the Special Teams Unit. Ted Ginn Jr. did fantastically in the preseason, but the fucker just had to get injured for up to 2 months! In his place, a extremely mediocre wide receiver has been taking his place, where Michael Crabtree should be playing double duties of offense and special teams. Can the 49ers recover to win the NFC West, the worst division in football? It's possible if they decide to start caring!

Good riddance to you and your stupid hat!

In basketball, the Lakers are almost guaranteed to make it to the NBA Finals for a 4th year in a row. Despite all that, it seems that the regular season has been dubbed completely pointless with too many games and complete lack of concern as to how a team does unless they are in danger of not making the playoffs. This has been evidenced by Andrew Bynum putting off his knee surgery until after the World Cup and discovering his condition was much worse than anticipated and he will now miss the first 2 months of the regular season. As much as Lakers fans love Bynum, he's also incredibly frustrating because he keeps getting injured all the time! I really love Bynum's post play, but god dammit the kid keeps busting a knee! I'd love to replace Bynum, but the fact is that he is one of the last true centers playing basketball. He's proven his value as a traditional center by leading the Lakers to defeat 7 teams that lacked a true center in the past 2 postseasons and defeating one team that actually had a real center (The number would have been 6 teams if Yao hadn't gotten injured during the 2009 playoffs). Everything's going to be ok though, the Lakers got a much better schedule compared to last year where the beginning of the season was full of almost nothing but home games and the end of the season was almost nothing but away games.

It's a very bad thing that this image is no longer shocking. But, the kid got game.

In hockey.... the LA Kings are..... well, to put it simply, the Kings have never managed to match the success that they had in the Gretzky years. They've certainly improved their uniform since the silver & black days, but that's about all one can say about them. Sure, they make the playoffs every so often despite being a disappointment every year, but they've only made it to the second round once since reaching the Stanley Cup Finals back in the early 90s. Last year was probably the best the Kings have had since Gretzky's departure and there are some high hopes for the team this year. Unfortunately, they were not able to sign Ilya Kovalchuk to a contract during the offseason and he decided to sign a 15-year contract with the team he was already on, the New Jersey Devils. Despite all that, the Kings are still expected to make the playoffs for the 2nd year in a row, the first time they will have done so since Gretzky. I don't have any expectations for the Kings, but hey, if they can make it to the 2nd round, I won't hide that not only am I a hockey fan, but I'm a Kings fan.

Help us Dustin Brown, you're our only hope!

So there we have the prognosis of the Big Four sports. The SF Giants will at least make it to the NLCS, the 49ers have a shot of winning the NFC West as long as they start winning games, the Lakers are a shoe-in for a 4th consecutive appearance in the NBA Finals, and the LA Kings are more than likely going to make the playoffs for the 2nd year in a row. Sometimes, I hate that not all my teams can be as successful as each other. Such is the curse of being a sports fan in California...

Superman/Batman: Apocalypse

Superman/Batman: Apocalypse is a direct sequel to Public Enemies in the sense that the original Public Enemies story was issues #1-6 in the Superman/Batman comic. Apocalypse is better known as The Supergirl From Krypton, covered in issues #8-13, the post-crisis origin story for Kara Zor-El. It is also probably best known as the final major story arc Jeph Loeb wrote before his 17-year-old son died of cancer and changed Jeph Loeb's writing style for what has seemed like an eternity. Like previous DC Animated Originals, the art style is directly based on the artist who drew the original story; in this case, the art is based on the late Michael Turner's art. Although Turner's art style was incredibly questionable, his run on Superman/Batman: The Supergirl From Krypton is known for being the only time in his career he ever drew interior art outside of Top Crow Productions or Aspen MLT.

Apocalypse begins with a news show explaining to the audience the aftermath of Public Enemies, that Lex Luthor has been impeached as President and is in prison (for the first time in post-crisis continuity), along with parlaying to the audience that Kryptonite meteor showers have been occurring in the Gotham/Metropolis region (The distance between Gotham and Metropolis is usually described as being about the same distance between Los Angeles and San Diego). The meteor showers, of course, are setting up the arrival of Kara Zor-El. Batman investigates the most recent meteor shower, discovering a Kryptonian rocket ship with a message written in Kryptonian, but the passenger is missing.

Throughout the movie, Kara deals with learning English in the course of a week, learning that her baby cousin is now older than her due to her being in suspended animation for 30 years, and dealing with partial amnesia due to PTSD, only able to remember the events from shortly before Krypton's destruction, and adjusting to her new superpowers on Earth while learning to fit in with Earth society.

The story is.... well, to put it bluntly, Apocalypse has an incredibly boring story. What Apocalypse does do well are the fight scenes, by far the best fight scenes seen in any Bruce Timm production. The final fight between Superman and Kara against Darkseid is particularly memorable as being the single best choreographed fight in western animation. What's most distracting about this movie are 2 things that should have been ignored: Using Michael Turner's art style and recasting Darkseid's voice actor. Turner was well-known for drawing women exactly the same and hyper-sexualized while drawing men to look more effeminate; it didn't work in the original comic and it continues to not work in animation. Darkseid's re-casted voice actor, Andre Braugher, falls incredibly flat as the villain that was so evil, Batman had to kill him in Final Crisis.

Final Score: 4 Supergirl Bare Midriffs out of 5
Despite its shortcomings, Apocalypse accomplishes everything it set out to do while also improving the story of The Supergirl From Krypton. The biggest reason I gave this movie a 4 instead of a 3 is because of the included bonus features detailing the origins of the New Gods and Supergirl and a new DC Showcase starring the Green Arrow.


The next DC Animated Original is DC Showcase Original Shorts Collection, which will have a main feature of a 22 minute Superman and Captain Marvel short titled Superman/Shazam!: The Return of Black Adam, featuring the return of George Newbern as Superman and Jerry O'Connell as Captain Marvel from Justice League Unlimited. Also included will be expanded versions of the previous DC Showcases, The Spectre, Jonah Hex, and Green Arrow, all previously having a runtime of 12 minutes each. The release date is November 9th and possibly the biggest incentive for buying this collection is that each of the DC Showcase shorts are drawn in Bruce Timm's animation style.