Ironman 3 Movie Review

Some friends and I went to see Ironman 3 this past weekend and I'm still really trying to figure out my feelings on it. I'll give you hear what I can form together into a good opinion.

So here we go. After the 1st and 2nd Ironman movies I think I may have come into this movie with too high expectations. I did enjoy it but I left feeling a little let down and I feel the marketing of it is to blame.

On the downside.

1. They built up the relationship between Tony and Pepper and made it look like there would be some intense drama between dealing with how much they care for each other and that Tony couldn't live without Pepper. Well, they did hit at that point some but it was like a 2yr old punching you in the stomach the hit was there and it connected but it didn't exactly floor you. The words that were spoken were not backed up with a show of action or emotion when the possibility of loss came.

2. They built up the Mandarin as the main villain. They showed his face, they showed his threats, and they showed his rings. They just do not deliver on this point at all. The Mandarin who is one of Tony/Ironman's archenemys is reduced to a laughable comic relief point.

3. They showed the Iron Patriot and built up that he is great protector. I can't give them any credit in this area either. They basically do nothing with his character at all.

4. They did not follow through well with the character build up and explanation of the villain. Now I'm all for giving clues and letting the viewer fill in the blanks with imagionation but the way they did it left me feeling more "what was that about?" then  "so this is why they were doing that? Ah ha!"

5. They made it out to be a real Action Drama but in reality it felt like it was more of a comedy.

6. There were also plot holes and the storyline in general was lacking something but I can put my finger on exactly what.

On the upside.

1. Tony Stark was back to being his arrogant, egotistical self and also showed his witty, sarcastic side, both of which Robert Downey Jr. played to perfection. This led to some great boneheaded moves that caused some action and drama. It also let to some great one-liners as well.

2. There were some good scenes of action, fighting and things blowing up.

3. We get to see a pretty cool concept for Tony's latest design of the Ironman armor.

4. The acting was good and I thing each person played their part very well.

5. The special effects again were fabulous and help the story more than hinder it.

6. We get to see a comic come to life on the big screen.

Like I said in the beginning overall I did like the move but I did come away a little disappointed, however, I think if I see it again I may like it a little bit better knowing certain things were not the way I was expecting them to be.

My rating for the movie out of 10 I would give it a 7.

Have you had a chance to see it let me know, what did you think of it?

Star Wars Galactic Battle

Last night a friend came in from out of town and stayed with us. When he got here he said the he had something for me that he got at a yard sale or swap meet and it was in his garage for a long time just waiting for me. So he pulled it out and it was the Star Wars Galactic Battle game which is basically Electronic Battleship with the Star Wars Motif.

It is from 1997 and all the pieces were there with the exception of 1 ship and 1 base which doesn't affect the game play since it comes with 20 ships and you basically play with 10 most of the time. The game is set up with one side as the Rebel Alliance and the other the Empire. The ships that are included in the set are: The A-Wing, X-Wing, Y-Wing, Rebel Transport, and Star Cruiser for the Rebel Alliance and the TIE Fighter, TIE Bomber, TIE Interceptor, Victory Star Destroyer, and Imperial Star Destroyer for the Empire. You get 5 extra ships and bases on each side because there is a game level that allows you to deploy new ships during the battle.

We set it up and began playing and some of the cool things about the game are: You get 10 miniature ships from the Star Wars movies for use with the game. There are actual quotes from the movies during game play. There are 3 levels of game play that you can choose from. There are laser blasts and explosion sounds for your shots. Some of the things that could be better are: The container spaces to put the hit and miss pegs in are not square and are small so it makes it very difficult to get the pegs out to put in the board during the game. The grid is set up with hexagon spaces and therefore you cannot place a ship horizontal, only vertical or diagonal. The ships are all small. They aren't even as long as the peg base that you place them on. The only ones that look correct are the 2-peg ships which are the TIE Fighter and the A-Wing Fighter.

So, we played 2 games with me as the Rebel Alliance and him as the Empire and I lost both games. I told him that I was being a gracious host and let him win so he could have a great time during his visit. Today I played with my 9yr old daughter and I lost to her as well. That makes me 0-3 and therefore I'm no longer allowed to be part of the Rebel Alliance. Overall I think its a pretty cool twist on the Battle Ship game and look forward to playing it many more times and hopefully winning some along the way. Aside from playing the game we had great time seeing our friend and look forward to seeing him and his family very soon

Have you played this game before? If so let me know what you think of it.
Also do you have any games that have added the Star Wars motif to them?