Movie Monday: The Devil's Backbone

Sorry it's getting late, so I'll make this short.

Pan's Labyrinth encouraged me to go check out The Devil's Backbone.

Very good movie. Pretty creepy, but still really great.

Watch it.

Gaming Thursday: Civ Rev

I don't play many strategy games, so when Civilization Revolution was suggested to me, I was pretty hesitant getting started.

It's definitely a game with a learning curve. You can easily pick it up and play through an entire game just by making random decisions (that's what I did), but what makes it so good is the amount of decisions available to you.

I began playing with a focus on winning the game through domination (conquering the other civilizations), but on subsequent plays, I've enjoyed working on a peaceful solution. Both paths are difficult in their own way. Maintaining peace with other civilizations that would prefer to attack you becomes more and more difficult as the game goes on because peace doesn't come cheap from the warmongers.

What makes the game so addicting to me is that every time I've played it, there has been a totally different outcome, no matter how similarly I've been playing my civilization the others do their absolute best to make me think differently. Plus, there is something to be said about a game where I can be beaten soundly and yet still come back to play the next day.

I guess the best recommendation I have for playing Civ Rev comes in the fact that I bought the 360 version, and wound up buying the DS version less than a week later, just so that I could play it more.

Movie Monday (Tuesday): Star Trek

I'm not much of a Star Trek fan, I've seen some of the older movies here and there throughout my life, but I never really sought out the story and I much preferred the galaxy far far away in the past over these stories of the future.

However, when Simon Pegg was cast as Scotty and J.J. Abrams was set to direct the reboot of the franchise, I decided to set aside my differences and go for it.

Turns out this was a good choice because it seems that Abrams would rather Star Trek be Star Wars too, and made this new movie as such. For those who doubt, go see it and you'll know what I'm talking about as soon as Kirk gets booted to Hoth.

Outside of all my baggage, it turned out to be a really fun movie. There was plenty of good one-liners and some fun action, although I do think that they could have slowed the movie down at a couple of points to give it some real time to delve into the characters. Not that they didn't do well enough establishing everyone in their positions on the U.S.S. Enterprise, but the movie was spent going at breakneck speed from one point to the next so that even at a two hour running time, I felt like I could have used more from the characters.

Overall, I enjoyed the movie a lot and it even got me interested in watching the old series (and subsequent movies), but I don't really know how long this interest will last considering it also made me really want to watch the Star Wars trilogy.

Religion Friday: Cop Out

Here for your consideration, are the lyrics to quite possibly my favorite song of all time. Take a moment to listen, read along, and relax today:

When I was young, the smallest trick of light, 
Could catch my eye, 
Then life was new and every new day, 
I thought that I could fly. 
I believed in what I hoped for, 
And I hoped for things unseen, 
I had wings and dreams could soar, 
I just don't feel like flying anymore. 
When the stars threw down their spears, 
Watered Heaven with their tears, 
Before words were spoken, 
Before eternity. 

Dear Father, I need you, 
Your strength my heart to mend. 
I want to fly higher, 
Every new day again. 

When I was small, the furthest I could reach, 
Was not so high, 
Then I thought the world was so much smaller, 
Feeling that I could fly. 
Through distant deeps and skies, 
Behind infinity, 
Below the face of Heaven, 
He stoops to create me. 

Dear Father, I need you, 
Your strength my heart to mend. 
I want to fly higher, 
Every new day again. 

Man versus himself. 
Man versus machine. 
Man versus the world. 
Mankind versus me. 
The struggles go on, 
The wisdom I lack, 
The burdens keep pilling 
Up on my back. 
So hard to breathe, 
To take the next step. 
The mountain is high, 
I wait in the depths. 
Yearning for grace, 
And hoping for peace. 
Dear God... 
Increase. 
Healing hands of God have mercy on our unclean souls once again. 
Jesus Christ, light of the world burning bright within our hearts forever. 
Freedom means love without condition,
without a beginning or an end. 
Here's my heart, let it be forever Your's, 
Only You can make every new day seem so new.

Movie Monday: Wolverine

My expectations were low going in to Wolverine, sadly they weren't low enough. It's not that it disappointed in the action department. Wolverine was full of useless explosions and people standing in positions that would result in a quick death during any fight, but nonetheless look "cool" to the person behind the camera.

The problems came in that the movie felt almost completely unfinished. There were moments (bathroom scene, I'm looking at you) where the CG effects seemed either unfinished, or crafted by a team working on a movie made for the Sci-Fi channel. Alongside this, the script was ridiculous. Things that might seem okay in a speech bubble in a comic book do not work out well in a movie with live humans. I take that back, that previous sentence was an insult to comic book writers. The lines given to characters were plain bad... and trying to add in a love story that gave no meaning to the movie, aside from giving Hugh Jackman one more chance to look constipated and yell, was a terrible idea.

Also, the movie suffered from a lot of the problems of the third X-Men movie (aside from sucking). By trying to toss in as many mutants as possible to appease the fanbase, they wind up ruining all of the fans' beloved characters instead of just one or two. The biggest example of this was Gambit. People have been clamoring for him to appear in an X-Men movie ever since the first one came out almost 10 years ago. But, when you take someone who looks vaguely like the character but has no charisma or actual Cajun accent, Gambit falls apart.

I don't want to say that Wolverine was completely terrible. It was actually fun to watch, and was at least as "good" as Dragon Ball: Evolution. Pick it up on DVD.

Religion Friday: Making Choices

After being accepted this week, I have decided that I will be attending Columbia Theological Seminary this fall.

It's been a long road to come to this point. After originally being accepted at Candler, I thought my whole quest was pretty much at an end, but when I saw the price tag for the school, I realized that I was nowhere near done. Once I had completed a ton of scholarship applications, someone mentioned Columbia to me. I filled out their application without honestly expecting too much.

It was through this that God really showed me where I was supposed to be. I went to visit both schools last Friday, and pretty much the minute I stepped onto the Columbia campus, I knew where I was supposed to go.

It really shouldn't surprise me how twisted and difficult this trip has been. God has been pretty active in letting me know that changes come within my life pretty often. On the other hand, all of my worrying about what is the right decision is also made pretty clear when God wants me to know what to do.

I guess that is the biggest lesson learned throughout all of this. Even though I was constantly worried about what the next step would be, God was already 500 steps ahead and was leading me on the right direction. Now, if only I can remember this and stop trying to figure everything out before it's time.