Favorite films of 2014

Hi all, thought I'd throw together a little post about my favorite films from last year. Admittedly I have somewhat juvenile taste in films. I like action flicks, especially those based on comic books. So sue me :P


1. Guardians of the Galaxy

This was a tough call to make, as Marvel had a couple of really excellent films last year. But  I give the nod to Guardians for being generally funnier.

Chris Pratt was hilarious as Han Solo's nephew Peter Quill/Star-Lord, the group's leader. He always manages to step into trouble, and usually has some quip prepared for it as he tries to then dig his way back out. Bradley Cooper voices Rocket, an anthropomorphic raccoon with a bit of a foul mouth and some anger issues. On the note of anger issues is former WWE wrestler Dave Bautista as Drax the Destroyer, who seeks vengeance for the death of his family (and has some unintentionally hilarious moments as he is incapable of understanding metaphors). Uhura Neytiri Zoe Saldana is Gamora, an assassin raised by Thanos (still currently a background player, and is the Bigger Bad for this film as he was for The Avengers. He gets lines this time though). Finally we have Groot, a humanoid plant voiced by Vin Diesel (who surprisingly can say a lot despite only being able to say "I am Groot"). Somehow this motley bunch has to learn to work together to stop the villain, Ronan the Accuser of the Kree Empire (played delightfully hammy by Lee Pace).

2. Captain America: The Winter Soldier

This was Marvel's other excellent film, with a darker tone than Guardians, hence the 2 spot.

Chris Evans reprises his role as Steve Rogers/Captain America, now working for S.H.I.E.L.D. in preparation for the next Avengers film. Scarlett Johansson also returns as Natasha Romanov/Black Widow, and Samuel L. Jackson also also returns once again as Nick Fury. New to the franchise is Anthony Mackie as Sam Wilson/Falcon, an Army veteran with an experimental exoskeleton capable of powered flight. Robert Redford appears as Alexander Pierce, a senior S.H.I.E.L.D. official, and the Winter Soldier is played by Sebastian Stan. Nasty things are happening within S.H.I.E.L.D., leaving Cap and Black Widow on the run trying to stop it...

3. How To Train Your Dragon 2

I am a huge fan of the first film, and went into this bracing myself for Sequelitis. Fortunately, the film did not disappoint.

The cast from the first film reprise their roles, now set 5 years later, with all the kids grown up. Hiccup went through a mighty growth spurt, and while still very lean (by Viking standards), he is no longer a scrawny weakling. Things are great in Berk, with the dragons fully assimilated into the Vikings everyday lives. But all this about to be shattered by a new threat, as someone is out to gather an army of dragons, which means capturing as many as possible. Naturally this includes the dragons of Berk. there are a couple of surprises in store for Hiccup, not all of them good. There are some terrific action sequences in this film. It can get a bit predictable but is no less enjoyable.

4. Transformers: Age Of Extinction

I might take some flak for this one, but I love Transformers. As a child of the '80s I grew up watching the cartoon, and back when the first live action film was in production, my skepticism ended the moment Peter Cullen was announced as the voice of Optimus Prime once more (this is arguably the moment the series became a financial success). I realize the scriptwriting can be brain-dead at times and the plot rarely makes sense (seriously? Why is Earth always the center of the damn universe???). But I watch these movies to see giant robots voiced by Peter Cullen smash giant robots voiced by Frank Welker (the original voice of Megatron, and many others, for those not in the know). This entry FINALLY brings us the DINOBOTS, my all-time favorite Transformers. Sort of, anyway, as Michael Bay likes to dick around with things. While Grimlock was a, well, lock to return, and Slag He's Slug now He'll always be Slag That's a bad word in England so he was renamed Slug the Triceratops one (my favorite) is present, Swoop (the pteranodon) is replaced by totally-not-Swoop Strafe )the difference being Strafe has two heads), and a Spinosaurid Dinobot named Scorn. Snarl, the Stegosaurus, gets left out (again), as does Sludge, the sauropod (but I doubt anyone misses him).

Anyway, giant robot dinosaurs, smashing stuff, explosions, YAY!

5. Big Hero 6

This was a pleasant surprise. I took my 6-year-old son to see this and he absolutely LOVED it.

So this tech-genius kid Hiro gets accepted to a rather prestigious tech school (his older brother, Tadashi, who is also a student there, is instrumental in this; he mainly wants Hiro to stay out of trouble). Shortly thereafter, Tadashi is tragically killed, and Hiro uses Baymax, Tadashi's robotic nurse project, to try and find his killer, teaming up with Tadashi's friends along the way. OK, that may not sound impressive, but go watch it anyway.

Trying to get back on schedule

OK, so producing videos has been tough lately.

Every year around this time, my employer initiates what is known as "inventory". This isn't a simple matter of taking stock of the company's product, it's a comprehensive cleanout of all work areas. In order to expedite this, we are expected to work 5 days at 10 hours each for two weeks, and usually some time on the weekend as well. As I work third shift (10pm-6am), weekend work usually means 8 hours Friday night into Saturday morning. So added up, that's 58 hours. Add to that my family obligations, and I wind up working close to twice as much as sleeping.

Typically I leave at 6, and arrive home shortly after 6:30, so I'm in bed by 7. I usually get up at 2, shortly after my wife leaves for work. The last two weeks I've been at work until 7 or 8 (there are a couple of days I was able to get in by 9; I had one day each week I was able to go in for 8) and still generally needed to be up by 2 (although if my daughter was all set and still napping I would doze on the couch until I needed to get up to get my son off the bus).

So averaging 5 hours of sleep during the week did no favors for my YouTube channel, especially when it's right after the holidays, which in itself makes it tough to produce videos.  But barring the occasional Friday night I should be back on regular 8 hour shifts now.

I have been able to play some World of Warcraft, which lately has been mostly about leveling my Death Knight. He is level 91 now with his level 1 garrison featuring a barracks and a forge (his professions were originally skinning and mining, but recently I dropped skinning for blacksmithing). I had also built a forge in my warrior's garrison, but it turns out the only gear i can produce out of it is part of the Warlords Crafted set, which is limited to 3 items worn. As a jewelcrafter, I already had a necklace and 2 rings on, so no level 630 weapons/640 armor for me, and I replaced the forge with an alchemy lab. Back to my Death Knight, I also changed his specializations. While his off-spec remained Unholy, I dropped Frost in favor of Blood. I think I just like using 2 handed weapons with a Death Knight, and Blood offers pretty good survivability for leveling (I originally ran him as Blood back in Wrath of the Lich King, though that was before Blood became the dedicated tanking spec).

Also I was rather disappointed with the release date for the PC version of Grand Theft Auto V being pushed back to March. I was initially excited at the prospect that Rockstar was offering $1 million of in-game currency if you preorder it, and now they are also offering a free game (from a small list, but free is free); however, the way it works is they charge a 15% non-refundable deposit at the initial time of order. This is at least partly because you get your bonus game at this point, but also makes it so you think twice about cancelling your preorder if they push the release back again, as you are now out that money either way. Anyhow, I will now not be preordering. Hopefully when I put the money on my Steam account I will not blow it on a sale that pops up before March 24th.