ScottSevener.com

Relax.
So this weekend Sara and I went over to Disney for some very much needed R&R. Despite the threat of black bear attack, ultimately it was just really nice to get away for an evening and get out of our usual limited pattern of TV / Movie / etc… for the minute amounts of recreational time that we seem to get together these days. A lot of good stuff happened in 48 hours – it was really nice to reconnect with my own wife, even if that sounds kind of weird from the outside. 😉

DisneyQuest.
The original intention was to go over Saturday night and then spend Sunday at Epcot, however 95 degree temperatures do not make for a fun day at a theme park, so instead we decided at the last minute to give DisneyQuest a try because, well, it’s indoors and air-conditioned. We’ve been talking about checking it out for a while because it’s on the increasingly small list of things that we haven’t yet done around Walt Disney World, so carpe diem, we did…

Very mixed feelings about DisneyQuest, even though ultimately we agree that we had a good time and would consider going back. The place is basically a giant arcade with 5 stories of attractions and games – maybe about half a dozen Disney themed “attractions” and the rest are all classics like you would expect to find in any arcade. The main problem was, all of the attractions sucked … really bad. The main focus is on VR, which would’ve been cool if it was still 1992. They all just felt really outdated, with horrendous controls that are easily dwarfed by your Wii-mote today, and overall they just didn’t make for a very fun experience. I spent most of the Aladdin’s Magic Carpet Ride running into walls, most of Ride the Comix hitting myself in the head with my own laser sword (literally, not virtually!), and Sara somehow managed to get wet on the Virtual Jungle Cruise … go figure!

The only redeeming attractions were CyberSpace Mountain, where we got to design our own rollercoaster and then ride it in a simulator, which was neat, albeit somewhat gravity-defiant thanks to my wife’s suicidal tendencies, and the Pirates of the Caribbean ride where we took to the cannons of a pirate ship to shoot down other ships for their gold, which was fun but incredibly exhausting! The saving grace of the day, though, were the arcade games because we spent time in between all of these blunders playing classics like Pac-Man and Qbert and Space Invaders and Donkey Kong. Sara kicked some major ass in pinball, I played skeeball for the first time, we got a little Guitar Hero in, played some air hockey that I actually enjoyed for a change, and it was all great! It might be debatable whether we actually got our $40’s worth for the ticket price out of arcade classics, but if I was stuck in a rut with enduring horrendous weather as the alternative, I’d probably go again.

Besides, now I know to just skip all of the other stuff and head straight for the arcade sections!

Iron Man 2.
The second half of our Sunday highlight consisted of finally getting around to seeing Iron Man 2 and, well, I suppose it was pretty much as I had expected. The film was totally watchable and had some great action sequences, and ultimately it just did not stack up to its predecessor … which sadly, one tends to expect when it comes to superhero sequels. And while I wouldn’t necessarily call Iron Man a one-trick pony, I do have to say that I always tend to compare things back to Spider-Man because I actually think that all three of those movies were great and unfortunately, this one just didn’t entirely make the grade.

Also, I was more than a little disappointed with the teaser for Thor at the very end, basically just because they did such a piss-poor job of it by keeping the hammer on-screen for roughly 1.5 seconds. At least with the previous movie, pretty much anyone – comic fan or not – could take from it that eventually there would be another movie where a bunch of superheroes formed a team, even if they weren’t familiar enough to make the connection to The Avengers. This time, my wife looked at me afterwards and asked, “What was that???” because the hammer wasn’t even on the screen long enough for anyone other than the already knowing to know that it was intended to be Thor’s hammer to tease the upcoming Thor movie. Bad execution – simple as that.

P.S. That Sandra Bullock Flick.
…but if you want to talk about a great movie that will leave you welling up at random moments, then look no further than The Blind Side. You might have heard of it – apparently she won a bunch of awards from it, and after you watch it, you’ll see why anything she got was well-deserved. I’m not much a fan of football movies, but this one didn’t even feel like a football movie … really good stuff.