Guardians of the Galaxy Full Trailer

The full Guardians of the Galaxy has finally arrived! Wow! That was awesome! It was hilarious and it looks so cool! It looks witty, fun, and entirely different than anything else I have seen; Guardians of the Galaxy has risen up my list of most anticipated movies of the year list. The tone and look is different than any other comic book movie out there and I hope the movie does well because this looks more like Star Wars combined with Doctor Who and other sci-fi franchises than the usual comic book movie. And that music is great, who doesn't love some good old 70s music! The humor is spot on  with comments like "what a bunch of A-holes" and "I'm Star Lord man, legendary outlaw...." and the "Obscene Gesture" blocker. My only disappointment is that we did not get to hear Rocket Raccoon's voice! Why?! I need to know if the movie is going to have a cockney accent! Also, the lineup reminded me a lot of The Usual Suspects, which I watched recently. If, for whatever reason, you do not know, Guardians of the Galaxy is apart of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which means they could make an appearance in the upcoming Avengers: Age of Ultron. Closer to the time of when the movie is going to be released, I will review the first issue of the new Guardians of the Galaxy comic book. My first impression of the trailer is that it is impressive and I give it two thumbs up! What did you think of the trailer? Please comment below and check back tomorrow for my review of Pacific Rim. 

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Guardian of the Galaxy Trailer is Coming

Marvel's Guardian of the Galaxy trailer is going to be released tonight on the Jimmy Kimmel show! In preparation of the the new trailer, here are a teaser pictures that were released. My first impression of the pictures is that they actually look kind of cool! The effects for the fully CG characters are top notch and Chris Pratt looks very cool in his Star Lord costume. Groot, the tree guy in the back, looks significantly shorter and smaller than his comic book counter part, but other than that, he looks almost exactly the same. While I will have to see Rocket Raccoon in action before making any final judgement, he actually looks well done. I just hope he has a cockney accent! From what little is shown, the sets looks great and they have a Star Wars Original Trilogy feel to them. What do you think of the new pictures? Are you excited for the new trailer? Please comment below and check back tomorrow for the trailer, Thursday for my review of Pacific Rim, and Friday for my review of Neon Genesis Evangelion. 

Here are the Guardian of the Galaxy

This is their spaceship.

This is obviously Chris Pratt as Star Lord.

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Top 10 Novels: Part 1

You voted for it, so here it is, my Top 10 Favorite Novels.

Before we had movies to tell us epic quests to save the world or whodunit murder mysteries, there were books and novels. While not the earliest form of storytelling, literature, particularly fiction, has captivated the masses for centuries. Novels are not really my area of expertise. Even though my ability to decipher an author's meaning and better analyze literature from a critical perspective has certainly improved since taking English 2 in college, which I received an A in, I am not particularly experienced when it comes to literature. While I am no expert on movies, having seen around 800 movies and having written well over 100 reviews, my knowledge of what defines a "good" movie is most definitely higher than my knowledge of books. Why am I telling you this you may ask? Unlike my list of favorite movies, this list of my favorite novels is heavily based on my personal preference and the fact that I am a fan of certain franchises, however the top three on my list are undeniable classics. Also, unlike movies, reading highly recommended books is not an easy task. Reading a book takes a lot of time that I simply do not have. Ever since I started college, all of my book reading has been relegated to the Bible and the tons of textbooks. If I wanted to read more books, I would have to stop writing this blog and stop reading your blogs, and that is not something I would ever want to do. I know a lot of avid book readers follow my blog and basically all of my friends are aspiring authors (online and real life), so I do not have anything against reading books in the slightest. That being said, I much rather watch 6 movies than read one book because reviewing movies and other visual media is my passion. One last thing to keep in mind while reading my list, I am a massive Star Wars fan, and even though some of the Star Wars books are not necessarily "great" books, they are the ones that I typically enjoy more because they are about some of my favorite characters in all of fiction. I have read a few "classics" but few have interested me to a great degree. If most of your favorite novels are "classics" that is great, but they are not my favorites. Keeping all of that in mind, here is my list.

At Number 10: Sherlock Holmes: A Study in Scarlet

"A Study in Scarlet" is currently the only Sherlock Holmes story I have read to completion in recent years. Despite the odd side story with the Latter-day Saints and the lack of clues given to the reader to solve the mystery, "A Study in Scarlet" is a fun origin story of sorts for the iconic detective. Reading how Sherlock and Watson got started is fun, which, as a fan of multiple adaptations, is a lot of fun to read.

Note: I did not read the graphic novel of A Study in Scarlet, but I could not find a good cover picture for the book.

At Number 9: Star Wars: The Old Republic: Revan

Being a massive fan of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic video game, which I still hold as the second greatest story ever told in video games, "The Old Republic: Revan" continues the story of the game and it provides a satisfyingly bittersweet conclusion to the character. The novel is far from a masterpiece, but fans of the video game and Star Wars will sure find something to enjoy. *Massive spoilers for the video game* Since you, the player, are literally Revan in the game, although you do not know it through most of the game, reading about what you basically did was a unique reading experience. That is particularly emphasized by the fact that I unknowingly made choices that fall in line with the cannon version of Revan's story, which made the connection even greater for me. *End Spoilers* 

At Number 8: Star Wars: Darth Plagueis

In Revenge of the Sith, Emperor Palpatine tells Anakin the story of Death Plagueis, a Sith Lord that had supposedly discover how to prevent death itself. The novel essentially tells this story in great detail. Darth Plagueis is an intriguing character with a lot of depth that could be explored in a film, if Disney so chooses. Since many of the events of the book affect the events of the Phantom Menace, reading the novel makes the Phantom Menace a better movie in retrospect since it fills in most of the plot holes from the film. Throughout the book, there are references to The Clone Wars and other Star Wars expanded universe works, which fans of the franchise will surely enjoy. 

Hopefully you have enjoyed the list thus far, even if almost no would rank these books so highly on their lists. Also, since I had such a long opening, I have decided to only three entries of the list on this post and have the rest on the next one so that the word count is even. 

If you want to contact us or have any questions please send an e-mail to johnstarslayer@gmail.com.

The Walking Dead: "After" Review

The Walking Dead finally returns after its mid-season break, but was "After" worth the wait? As usual with my TV episode reviews, massive spoilers about the episode are ahead, so go watch the episode before you continue reading.
*Warning Spoilers are Ahead*

"After" shows the aftermath of the prison attack and the shocking death of one of my favorite characters, Hershel Greene. As expected, the episode follows what happened to Rick and Carl after the group split, but unfortunately, the episode rehashes some old themes with the conflict between Rick and Carl. Most of the episode featured Carl brooding and being angry at Rick for not treating him like a man. Haven't we already seen this conflict resolved in previous episodes? Or am I forgetting something. I am debating whether or not Carl make sense since he is still a teen, or at the same time, he acted more mature in the past. In the end, some of the scenes worked, others did not; it was mostly a mixed bag for me. When Carl sees the video games and has a this moment of joy, but then returns back to his survival self was a very well executed scene. Also, the part where he eats all of the chocolate pudding was perfect! And kind of hilarious, especially the part where he tells Rick that he did it. Speaking of Rick, I kept thinking: "There is no way that he is going to die, but maybe he will." I do not know why, but the way the episode presented his character, it seemed as though there was a slight chance that he would die, but in the back of mind, I knew they could not actually do it. Even though Rick acting like a zombie was something that I expected when he would not wake up, seeing Carl breakdown, unable to shoot his father, was well done. The best part of the episode was most definitely Michonne's scenes. The trippy dream-sequence/flashback was filmed brilliantly, particularly the part where her knife turns into her Samurai sword. Considering what Michonne had said in the past, it was obvious that she once had a child, but I did not expect her to he so well off since she sounded as though she had a difficult past before the zombies apocalypse. Hopefully we will get to see more of her backstory since her character is finally starting to be fully realized. My only compliant with the Michonne part is that the zombies seemed surprisingly easy to tame considering that in season three Milton said that the lack of arms and other methods to attack made the zombies easier to tame. However, I wish she did not kill her pack zombies again since I really liked that about her character in the third season.

As usual with the series, the zombie action was suspenseful as ever some very tense scenes that reminded me why The Walking Dead is such a great series. With the exception of a few characters, no one is safe, therefore every zombie encounter is suspenseful and exciting! Also, as always with the show, the effects for the zombies and everything was top notch.

Opening with a clear picture of the Government with a clearly defined bullet hole in his head that confirms that we will not be seeing him return as a Walker, although that would have been interesting. Alsp, seeing Hershel's zombified head was unexpected for sure, but it was good to confirm that his body was, indeed, dead.

Overall: 7.3/10- "After" gave us a solid, albeit not fantastic, episode that showed the aftermath of the mid-season finale, hopefully we will get to see more of everyone's favorite character, Daryl, next week.

Note: The ratings for The Walking Dead are not relative to other TV reviews such as Agents of SHIELD.

Providing these reviews have a decent readership, I will continue to post them as I watch the series. One other thing, this episode almost topped the Olympics in terms of ratings, and it did topped the Olympics in the most desired demographic. Considering that the Walking Dead is on cable and the Olympics is on network TV, that is mighty impressive!

What did you think of the episode? Please comment below.

If you want to contact us or have any questions please send an e-mail to johnstarslayer@gmail.com.

Hilarious Sam L. Jackson Video

During an interview with Samuel L. Jackson on a news network about his upcoming movie RoboCop movie, the interviewer confuses Sam L. Jackson with Laurence Fishburne when he asks about Jackson's Super Bowl commercial, which he did not actually make. Even though Sam L. got a little too mad at the guy for confusing him with Fishburne, it was, nonetheless, the hilarious! If you are unfamiliar with Jackson and Fishburne, Jackson plays Nick Fury in the Avengers movie, Mace Windu in Star Wars, as well as many other great movies. Fishburne played Morpheus in the Matrix trilogy, and if you want to see the Super Bowl commercial that was referenced, you can watch it below. Even though the commercial was not particularly that great, being a fan of The Matrix, it was fun seeing Fishburne playing Morpheus again. What did you think of the videos? Please comment below and check back tomorrow for my review of the latest Walking Dead episode. 

If you want to contact us or have any questions please send an e-mail to johnstarslayer@gmail.com.