Undecided/Undeclared Anteaters Blog

Hey everybody!

Alec here, after a nice relaxing, well-deserved break.  And how did I spend my break? by watching and catching up on all of my shows, movies, and music. Ahahahah College can be quite a busy experience, and thank goodness we have these breaks to keep our sanity.

So, keeping with my ususal theme of art, I’ll tell you how I spent my 3 weeks watching and reviewing movies and shows and music

First up: movies. I’ll just list a few:

1) Tron: Legacy.  I don’t know how many of you have actually watched the original Tron, but this was a nice modern improvement. Seeing as how the original was created in the 80′s, and, compared to now, lacked the technology necessary to make it even more amazing than it already was in its’ time, this sequel to the original, is a vast upgrade.  There is no need to watch the original Tron, but if you do happen to watch the first one, it lends a bit to the story.  Anyways, my critique: The movie had a very basic plot, and had me bored at times, but the soundtrack+the visuals/graphics+the action, made for some very ecstatic moments in the film. If they had seriously just made the movie some crazy trippy music video with lots of fighting and high tech stunts and the soundtrack (YOU NEED THE SOUNDTRACK) you would get an AMAZING film. So yea. The acting (in my opinon) was subpar and the plot left much to be desired, but the aesthetics of the film had me drooling and begging for more.

2) Black Swan. VERY good. Yes, it had some very explicit scenes and themes, but the film was INTENSE. Okay, so I heard stellar reviews and when I started to watch it, I was disappointed and I sort of wanted my money back, but then the halfway point was reached and things started to get REALLY trippy.  And then 3/4 of the way in, cue the on-the-edge feeling and gaping mouths, because it just got AMAZING. Downsides were that it was a pretty graphic film (which lent to the intensity however), it took a while to get me astounded, it was sort of predictable, and it was a dance film. However, I used to dance, so I wasn’t too bothered by this fact, but I could imagine some people who are not attracted by lots of ballet, become a little tired and annoyed by the amount of dancing they do. Not a lot…but I guess enough. OH! lots of parrellelism and stuff in the film if you’re into looking for that type of stuff in films and media.

3) Tangled. Another good film by Disney. The art had me lassoed into the world of Tangled, and I loved the songs (fav was the Mother Gothel song. It just made me laugh a lot), and the story was pretty original, along with the characters.  Ahahah it was pretty funny and sad too, and even my Dad (someone who is a HARSH critic of movies) said it was a pretty good movie. Ahahah aka, go watch it if you haven’t and you’re open to the disney type of movies.

Next up: Shows. Just a few:

1) Gurren Lagann. A pretty good show…I only got bored of all of the constant upgrades (sort of like Dragon Ball Z, if you know what that is), but I didn’t get annoyed for once. Let me explain that last line: I usually see a character/listen to how they talk for a while, and if they fit a certain stereotype, I will get annoyed. However, this anime (yea, it’s an anime) had a few characters who surprised me and had me attatched to them. So I watched this anime with a weird type of begrudging respect. Ahahah it’s cause I usually don’t like popular animes (this was sort of popular) but this one surprised me.

2) Samurai Champloo. Ahahah another anime. BUT. it fit the type of anime I like. The art was unique and VERY different from normal animes, and the action was actual shot by shot (no constant flurry of swords or anything like that), which was totally gripping and different from what I was used to. I actually didn’t watch the whole series like I did with Gurren Lagann, but I was very tempted to. The music was also to my liking and I wanted to download a couple of the songs featured.

3) Young Justice. I watched the premiere of this new Cartoon Network show that premieres….this FRIDAY! Ahahah the show premiered early…november? and will re-premiere this friday (the 7th) with BRAND new episodes starting on the 21st. I always liked Teen Titans, and this is another series similar to that, so of course I was attracted to it. The art is very different and is apparently modeled to a new generation of audience, along with the story line and heroes, the only ones that people are REALLY familiar with are Robin and Superboy. And neither of those are supposed to be the leader. ahahah I have this thing for breaking the stereotypes, and the fact that the leader is a character who people say has no real power/is lame, makes me enthralled and I want to watch it really bad. Also they made this leader character (Aqualad, if you must know) really cool and stuff, so needless to say, I’m eager to see what they do with this show. The voice talents are also something of note, many of them being famous voice actors (Aqualad is Cyborg from Teen Titans, and Robin is Jesse McCartney. Get that huh?)

Lastly, music:

1) Kanye West CD. Okay, I don’t really like Kanye. Mostly because he’s so egotistical, and also because so many people make a big deal of how egotistical he is, but you can’t deny his talent. And I’m not that into rap/r&b/whatever you could say his new CD was, but honestly…..all but two of the tracks had me on the first listen. Pretty good Kanye, pretty good.

2) Train–Shake up Christmas. I heard this first on the radio, thinking it was Coke’s new theme, only to find out that Coke bought it from Train. Congrats to Train for not only fooling me (I seriously thought Coke had thought up the song themselves/the song had a “coke” feeling to it) but also for creating such a good song.

3) Dev and the Cataracs–Bass Down Low. This song just makes me want to go to a club. or some type of dance. or anything like that. hahahaha

4) Nicki Minaj–I haven’t heard her whole new CD, but the songs I have (fly and right thru me), I really like them. So…again….congrats to Nicki. ahahah

5) Daft Punk–Tron: Legacy Soundtrack.  SO good. however, most of it needs to be watched with the movie, but some of them are good tracks by themselves. I hope they get nominated for something.

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