This is the fourth film outing of the Terminator film franchise, and despite McG at the helm I was rather excited about it. The trailers looked fab with a gruff Christian Bale as an adult John Connor. The John Connor of Terminator 3 and the Sarah Connor Chronicles were rather emo in nature, a lot of moping about and listening to My Chemical Romance. Salvation's John Connor is the man of the myth in the thick of the war but he is not in charge of the Resistance, and that could have been an interesting theme to explore but McG merely dipped his feet in it.
In Terminator Salavation John Connor is trying to find his place in the war, and the Marcus Wright character is trying to discover who he is. Ultimately, the Marcus story is more interesting and surprisingly Bale is acted off the screen by Sam Worthington. That may have more to do with Wright having an actual story rather than Connor plodding along butting heads with the leaders of the Resistance, and broadcasting his soap box sermons on the radio. The plot is the same as the other movies and TV series - SkyNet trying to kill John Connor and/or his parents (in this case his papa). There were lots of things I liked about the movie: Marcus Wright character, the dialogue and visual touches that give a nod to its predecessors, Anton Yelchin as Kyle Reese, Bryce Dallas Howard as Kate Connor and the stunning Moon Bloodgood (she made me miss Journeyman). However, the film didn't really move the mythology of the franchise on and I would have like more on the about the relationship between Kate and John, and more about the contention between John and the leaders of the Resistance. McG handled the special effects well but I wish it had been darker and be warned whenever a British actress appears as a scientist they will bring civilization to its knees (here we had Helena Bonham Carter and in I am Legend it was Emma Thompson doing the same).
Yesterday was a spectacularly crappy day. The cumulative effect of lots of little things that added up to a bad day, which then bled into my dreams. It was the type of day that makes you think about updating your resume and trying to get a job as an ice road trucker. Ah the silence of the empty road just me and the Discovery Channel camera crew. One reason why I was prone to being more irritable than normal is the lack of sleep. Alex is on a project that is an awkward distance. Not quite far enough for a hotel but far enough for to him waking up at 5:30am, and since he's waking up (and because it's light so early) I am getting up at the same time. I just can't bear to think of him heading off to the wilds of the tri-state with out some breakfast. Today was a much better day (even if I was side tracked for most of the morning) and it probably had something to do with it being Thursday. That and we've decided to head to Philadelphia for a mini-break in June. I cannot wait and will be re-watching National Treasure in preparation.
Love
- Yoga, yoga, yoga
- Greek drama reading list (17 plays - yikes!)
- Almost empty DVR
- Netflix
- Short week
- Vacation planning
Loathe
- The dishwasher and kitchen sink entered into a suicide pact on Friday; maintenance tried to fix it today but had no luck
- My FSA account needs muchos proof of the RX I got on them months ago
- Being chased for a co-pay that I have sent the payment forms in twice so now I'll have to call them and speak to a person! (Why don't they let you pay online?)
- 5:30am wake-up call so I can have breakfast with Alex
- Thigh muscles are screaming because of all the yoga, gym and tennis in the last few days
In order of sheer awesomeness:
Chuck
Let's just say that "Chuck me" nicely sums up the last two episodes of the season. Awesome and the Buy More gang had Casey pegged as Chuck's stalker (love it!). Awesome found out that Chuck was a spy. Sarah and Chuck very nearly got it on. Chuck got the intersect out of his head, and quit Buy More. Ellie and Awesome got married. Chuck got intersect 2.0 in his head, and now has download-able 'Matrix' style skills. Though his kung-foo style fighting was more Roger Moore than Jason Bourne I can't wait to find out where they take this in the third season, and hopefully over the long break Chuck will be able to brush up on his marital arts.
Supernatural
Everyone is double crossing each other. It would appear that the angels want Lucifer to rise as much as the demons, though their thinking is that humankind needs this wake-up call. Thankfully the most dishy of angels, Castiel, woke-up to smell the roses (or should that be cheeseburger?) and is back on track helping Dean. Not sure how the rift between Sam and Dean will be healed but I for one am very excited about the next season. As much as I love this show I hope that they end after five season so that the-powers-that-be have a real chance to tie all the mythology together.
Doll House
The first season has been very patchy but towards the end things started to come together and I feel a certain amount of commitment to supporting Helo. We finally got a glimpse of Alpha and discovered what really happened during the lead up to his breakdown. Echo is becoming more and more self aware, and well Doc Saunders is a doll. We shall see how they manage to develop this next season.
House
Loved head Amber, the alternate reality that House spun out for himself and I can't quite believe that he is actually heading to rehab. Could House really have found his tipping point? Part of me is hoping that whilst House is detoxing Foreman and Thirteen magically vanish, and that Cameron and Chase magically come back to the fold. Physician heal thy self over summer break!
NCIS
The plot got a little murky in the last few epsiodes what with sleeper cells, Mosad agents in the US trying to gather intell and sleep with Ziva. Kinda glad that Ziva is "gone" as her dynamic with Tony was getting tiresome. Not sure for how long Ziva is gone, and who is holding her in Africa.
Lie To Me
If Tim Roth wasn't in this show I am not sure if I would stil be watching it. That being said it's quite a fun show, though I do find the plots not all that memoriable. With the introduction of a permanent FBI agent to the team it would appear that the-powers-that-be have decided to position this show as a bog standard procedural crime show - *yawn*.
The Unit:
Honestly I am amazed that it lasted as long as it did, and it looks as if they kinda wrapped things up at the end of the season. There was a low key wedding, Molly left Jonus, and Jonus couldn't quite manage to The Unit. I am hopefully that Mammet might do a film to really tie things up.
Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles
I actually liked the season finale with them skipping to the future, and I am curious has to how they would have rolled it out.
Finales to be watched: The Mentalist, Little Dorrit, Life, and Fringe
The summer stretches out beyond and I intend to spend it growing out my bangs and reading Swedish detective novels. Oh okay I have a few more things planned:
- Drink many iced lattes at the movies
- Take lots of yoga classes so I become super bendy
- Spring clean the flat corner by corner
- Take in some comedies on Broadway
- Cook lots of new recipes
- Catch-up with everyone I neglect during school time
- Read 50 books and try to whittle down by to-be-read list
- Improve my non-existent backhand
- Try to read all 17 Greek plays on the Greek drama course reading list
- Read about Pompeii
- Fret about my exam results
Oh my this was a poor adaptation, two thirds of the way in I was quite bored and started checking my text messages. Having read 'Angels & Demons' just over a week ago I had assumed that it would be a fairly easy book to adapt what with Dan Brown's writing style pretty much being the transcript of a movie. I am not saying Brown is a bad writer just depressingly uninspiring. Yes, he writes page turners packed with action and skewed factoids but he doesn't even attempt to write well and his foreshadowing is ham fisted at best. However, Ron Howard et al stripped back the plot so much that it ended up being dull and dumb.
My biggest complaint (other than having to see Hanks in a Speedo) was that it lacked the pace and drive of the novel. Our "hero" Prof. Langdon plods along, and he doesn't really give deep insight into anything. A half way decent tour guide could have got us from the Vatican to the Illuminaties' secret lair with a little less fuss and a little more background information. The b-plot of the BBC reporter has been cut as has the back-story of the scientists at CERN, and they leave to gaping holes that are "fixed" by the addition of some police officer. They must have sedated Ewan McGregor and cut most of his good speeches for fear of him stealing the show from Hanks. The Powers That Be changed the fanatical assassin into a straght-up mercenary who turned out to be one of the more interesting characters. (Probably because he was cute, and talked in complex sentences.)
It's really not worth watching in the cinema because, amongst other things, they don't manage to do justice to the beauty of Rome so you lose nothing watching it on the small screen. I really wish I'd gone to see Wolverine.
Good
- Post yoga donut
- Light in the evenings
- Long weekend is imminent
- Chuck got renewed
- Tim Roth on Lie To Me
- Swedish detective novels
- Kenneth Branagh as Wallander (thank you Masterpiece Theater)
- Wentworth Miller has finally been released into the wild again and can hopefully start making good tv again
Not so good
- No more Life or Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles
- NBC have given up on drama for their fall schedule and are solely relying on Jay Leno (this makes no sense I tell you!)
- Falling asleep during the last few minutes of a tv show
- Latent jet lag
I was trying to sleep in this morning but from 5am onwards I had a series of disturbing dreams (one where my wallet got pinched and the other where I sat an exam that had a maths section containing differential equations), and eventually I gave up trying to sleep because who knows not what I would dream of next. As much as I try to purge myself of post-exam anxiety I keep catching myself thinking about how I should have answered one question or another. Overall my exams went well, and I feel that my time spent hauled up in my mum's spare room was not wasted. Though after two weeks I was starting to climb the walls. Don't get me wrong I love studying, and two weeks reading my ass off about Augustus' reorganization of the senate and Roman theatres was bliss but I do like a bit variety in my life. I did manage some nice excursions but the bulk of my time was spent balancing on an air mattress surrounded by paper listening to BBC Radio 4. I think there should be a daily limit on the amount of Radio 4 one should listen to in any given day. Twelve hours is probably a bit excessive and would explain why I started to go a little stir crazy. After two particularity intense days I went to meet friends for dinner on the Southbank and the only way to shift me from my funk was to listen to The Killers track 'Human' on repeat from London Bridge to the National Theatre. The sun was shining, my iPod was blasting and by the time I met my friends I was human once again.
The problem with being away for nearly three weeks is that your DVR explodes. Whilst I was gone I'd get these texts from Alex asking me what he could delete - the whole third season of Weeds that has been on the DVR for over a year, Daily Shows & Colberts were watched without me, and then the DVR starts deleting. So now we are stuck having to watch earlier episodes on Hulu (or IMDB) before watching the more recent ones that are clogging up the DVR. This is causing me first world anxiety, and now after getting in late from Star Trek I am propping my eye lids up with matchsticks so I can can watch something so I can delete it. Really looking forward to vegging out tomorrow night and being able to start cleaning up the DVR.
Woo hoo
- Tuscan blue skies
- Warmth
- Museums and coffee in piazzas
- Exams being over for another year, & looking forward to exciting topics for fall
- Lots of quality time with friends & family
- Seeing Judi Dench on stage
- Back to yoga
- Expansive summer before me & being able to do stuff on the weekends/evenings(!)
- Seeing/speaking to Alex for the first time in 18 days
Meh
- Back to the daily grind & counting down to the next public holiday
- Leaving friends & family
- Post-exam anxiety
- DVR stress
- Jet lag
