Best of 2012

After almost a week of pure laziness, I've finally decided to post my Best of 2012 list! I'll be naming off movies, people, and music that impressed me in 2012 in this thrilling, gripping!......Okay, maybe not all that, but finally, it has been unleashed!

Favorite Movie

 The Avengers wasn't just a pleasant surprise for movie-goers and comic book fans; it was a smashing surprise! It was more than what I hoped it'd be; it was funny, emotional, and managed to give every star their due. It doesn't hurt that there were a ton of hot guys to go around. Joss Whedon did a great job of answering the fans with this one, and I haven't been this excited for a sequel since....hm, I can't remember.

Honorable mentions: The Dark Knight Rises, A Royal Affair

 Favorite TV Show

 Without any surprise whatsoever, Game of Thrones is my favorite tv series of 2012. My step-mother introduced me to the show and it has more than hi-jacked my brain and fantasy fangirl. Season one was great, and season two was even better! This has everything a girl like me could want: magic, fatal politics, beautiful men and women to drool over, and so much bromance I've lost the ability to squeal at anything else. The sets are gorgeous, the cast delivers strong and touching performances, and the level of tension and urgency just keeps rising and rising. Season three, we eagerly the coming of winter!

Honorable mentions: None. Seriously.

Favorite Artist

 I can't believe I'm even posting this, but it's true: Maroon 5 is my pick for artist of 2012. They conquered my year with hits like "Payphone" and "One More Night", even though the latter is becoming a victim of radio overplay. I've jammed in my car, I've replayed on my iPod, and I've belted while trying to get over a heartbreak this year, and I'm only a little ashamed.

Honorable mentions: None. Music wasn't very good in 2012, sadly.

Favorite Thespian

This is 2% bias and 98% completely deserved, because Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen has had a great year in 2012. First, his gripping drama The Hunt earned him the Best Actor award at Cannes this year, then his historical drama A Royal Affair was nominated for numerous awards and is representing Denmark in the Foreign Film category at the Oscars, and he landed the titular role of Hannibal Lecter in NBC's newest crime drama Hannibal. He also got my attention and now my other objects of desire will probably never get a look from me again. Not only is he drop-dead sexy, but he's a fantastic actor with a fun range of projects in his history and has a penchant for playing memorable characters, even if they are supporting. Well done, love, well done!

Honorable mentions: Peter Dinklage, Sean Bean, Liam Cunningham, Eva Green

Favorite Newsmaker

If you think she only made this list because of your pregnancy, you're half-right; she's Kate Middleton, so that's half, and then it's her pregnancy, which is the other half. The world didn't end purely because the universe needs to witness the birth of Will and Kate's creation. I love Kate, obviously.

Honorable mentions: None. I'm telling you, this year was boring.

There's my list, which is a bit longer than last year's. Maybe next year I'll be more prepared! Until next time, everyone!

Paranormal Activity Bore (I mean, 4)

I just finished doing what I swore I wouldn't do: watch Paranormal Activity 4, a.k.a the scariest series I've ever seen aside from the Grudge. I cried at least once during the previous three installments, and with this one being an actual sequel instead of a prequel, I figured this would kill me too. To my surprise (and slight relief) it didn't, nor do I think it will haunt me.
This one centers around a rich (you know they are) family of four with a semi-absent father, a mother, a cute, teenage daughter named Alex, and their adopted 6-year old son, Wyatt. Alex, of course, has a fetish for recording everything, and so we have our Micah. Alex's funny and likeable boyfriend, Ben, is also frequently present. They recently had some odd new neighbors move in across the street; a creepy boy around Wyatt's age named Robbie and his single mother, who has never been seen. One night, his mother goes to the hospital and Robbie has to stay at Alex's house for a few days since he has no one else, and thus the trap is set.
Toby, our resident demon, is much less malicious as he started off as in the first two movies, and has become more "child friendly"; he's typically, um, sensed playing with Robbie and Wyatt as he was with Kristi in PA3. Most of his hijinks are basic pranks, such as stealing a knife while the mom has her back turned, or moving chairs, never really doing anything harmful. Robbie is the odd one, and he becomes an influence on Wyatt. Of course, Alex catches some of the weird behavior on camera and begins to investigate, eventually coming to the conclusion that they're being haunted, and weird-ass Robbie has something to do with it. Of course, she tries to tell her parents, but no one believes her. Katie makes her triumphant return, and in typical PA fashion, the worst of Toby is unleashed at the end.
It's a slow ride to the climax, that's for sure, and aside from the occasional jump-scares, is not really scary. It's not until the last two or three minutes of the film that anything really bad happens. It's the same PA formula we've seen before, but now it's trying the patience of the audience. Toby seemed like a grown demon with bad intention when we first met him, but now he seems like a cackling pre-teen with an obsession with pranks. There doesn't seem to be much of an escalation of his machinations and it makes the ending seem random and uncharacteristic.

Alex and Ben, our main protagonists, are very likeable kids. I enjoyed their parts of the film the most and wish there were more scenes with them and Wyatt, the adorable tyke. This was probably the first movie where I wasn't like "Yeah, wipe that family out." Alex's parents seemed distant and flat. The mother kind of reminded me of Terri Schuester from Glee, oddly enough. Robbie's weird, if I hadn't said it before, and I definitely wouldn't let that child stay in my house for days at a time. I wouldn't even let him inside to use the bathroom. I believe the family occasionally uses a camcorder and the laptop recorders as well, and I think Alex was using her phone at the end to film stuff. They also use the Xbox Kinect for those tracking dots ALL THE TIME. I've never hated little dots of light so much.

If you're dedicated to finishing the series or just want to stay caught up, then yeah, go watch it. If you're one of those people I don't understand that actually like being terrified and losing sleep, then this isn't for you. Trust me, you're adrenaline will not get pumped at ALL.

My Music & Boredom Rant

I need new music. I'm going through all 100 or so of my mix CDs and can't find any new music to upload to iTunes. My iPod is becoming one of the most boring things I have, and that makes me incredibly sad. I'm tired to listening to 'music' from this generation, so I'm searching for songs from 1999-2006 and awesome Disney covers I haven't heard yet. But since I've done this several times in the past year already, my search is yielding very few new results. *sigh* The boombox in me is crying a little every day.
I really don't want to go back to my jr. high years, because those were an obvious cry to be different. Good Charlotte, Simple Plan, My Chemical Romance, and HIM just seem so childish to me now, so I have a hard time listening to them seriously. I feel a little lame, but I'm craving some boyband music. I miss fun, decent pop music about teenage love and friendship, but it seems like I made up half of that music in my childhood and it never really existed.
This is also the day that I have no friends. My roommate is at work for six hours today (cries in jealousy and loneliness), one friend has no minutes on her phone, and I'm having a super-spy text war with another. My roommate has the car at my insistence, and now I'm seeing how much of a mistake that was.
Writing's hard right now, and all I want to do is watch Mads Mikkelsen and cry about how I can't have him. I'd try to work on research for my stories, but our libraries have no books for my kind of research and I don't have money to order them on Amazon. Or anything on Amazon. My life suuuucks.
I need a job so I can buy Christmas and get excited over that. And then buy stuff for me! I need so many books and home decor it's not even funny.
I guess I need to discover new music and movies. Yeah, that's what I need to do. And think of better blogs.

Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Disappointment (a little)

 
Okay, I'm not a hardcore gamer or anything, but I am a massive fan of the Kingdom Hearts series. I don't care for the gameplay or anything, I just love the storyline and half of its characters; I even adopted Roxas in one of my fictional works. So anytime they put out a new KH game, I'm watching the cutscenes on YouTube. Guess what I did this weekend: watched the cutscenes for Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance. I'll be honest, some of the things they wound up doing pissed me off a bit, and I'm here to rant about it.
Warning: This is going to be a spoiler-heavy post.

So, in this game, Yen Sid decides to make Sora and Riku take the Keyblade Mastery Exam to become Keyblade Masters (Yes, Riku's hair is shorter). I was thinking 'Sora's already a Keyblade Master; he'll ace this.' Their test was to awaken seven sleeping worlds (don't ask, I didn't care enough about this part) and off they went, separately. During their journeys, they both run into a younger version of Xehanort (the baddie of the series) and either Ansem, Seeker of Darkness, or Xemnas, former leader of the previously destroyed Organization XIII, were in his company. As we go on through the game, we realize that Xehanort and his various forms are still out there and there is a plot afoot, aided by time travel (yes, I said time travel). Well, we get to the end of the exam and the end of the game, and by some stupid crap, Sora wasn't made a Keyblade Master and Riku was. I'd totally let Riku have it, but I went through three games of Sora proving he was boss and the main character, only for him to not get a damn title. Screw you, Yen Sid, screw you. Merlin was better.
Also, there are clips of certain former Organization members waking up. My first thought: 'Yessss! My favorite characters are coming back!'Then, things start to get a little weird. Axel is one of the ones revived, and his tattoos are missing. Later, you find that the former Nobodies are complete again; therefore, Axel is now known as Lea. Another thing about Lea? He can use a keyblade. Yes, you read that right. Don't believe me? Get to YouTube. It turns out, when someone loses their heart and they get a Nobody, that Nobody starts to immediately try to make a new heart as quickly as possible. That means Xemnas lied to every poor soul in that black-cloaked organization, including Demyx! That boy goes through enough! So Zexion, Vexen, Lexaeus, and Xaldin were restored to their original selves, along with Axel, because their hearts and nobodies were both destroyed. I'm slightly confused as well, everyone. I don't care; I just want the Organization of Hilarious Hotties to come back.
Oh, Xehanort's plot? Star a keyblade war. How will he do that? Well, it turns out the Organization was actually made to create thirteen vessels for different pieces of Xehanort's heart to be the thirteen darknesses to fight the seven pure lights a.k.a. the Princesses of Heart. Seven keyblade users will rise up to protect the lights, thus, starting a war. There: the plot for KH3.
I flipped out that Saix was also revived and was alright. Sure, he's one of the thirteen darknesses and the last thing I want is for him to become a Xehanort clone, but the fact that he's alive means he stands a chance to escape!! I love that sexy, sexy man, even though his name is Isa now. I hope he gets out of KH3 alive.
I've pretty much decided that this series constantly plays a game of "Let's see if we can make this Xehanort character even hotter", and they usually succeed. I don't know what to make of Tetsuya Nomura's road with this storyline and its details, but at least he keeps his female audience in mind.

Mahbu vs The Night!!

Everything kind of went to hell for me around midnight.
I was sitting on my front porch with one of the stray cats that adopted my house, Francesco (don't let the name fool you, it's a girl), when Zazu, another cat that loves to lay all over our lawn and I'm pretty sure raped Francesco before, decided to drop by. Francesco hates Zazu like a feminist hates any year before 1920, and proceeded to express her ill-feelings for him by bitch-slapping him in the face when he got too close. Usually she just hisses, but this time she felt the need to get violent, and I can't blame her; for some reason, Zazu wanted to violate her personal bubble no matter what kind of fit she was throwing. He proceeded to stalk her around the porch, and when she finally tried to slink away along the house, he pushed her against the wall and chased her to my backyard. Now out of the demons' presence, I ran inside and jumped into bed, a little scarred from witnessing that.
This, however, was not to be my final trial of the night. I heard a rustling, and, after looking at my roommate on the couch, I could eliminate her, since she was napping. I was the only other alive thing in my room that I was aware of, and I wasn't rustling anything. It could only mean one thing.......bug. Slowly, I turned my head to the Walmart plastic sack by my night box (a nightstand for poor people and people who are too lazy to unpack) and there it was, a cricket. My reaction? Quietly grab one of my work shoes and beat the living crap out of the rude bastard. I don't recall extending a friggin' invitation to the creatures of the outside world. After I went Conan on it, I scooped him up and drowned him in the toilet before sending his carcass to Bane or anyone else living in the sewers as a message: try me, sucka.
Yeah, tonight wasn't exactly my night. *sigh*

I swear, I'm still America-Proud

I've been watching the XXX Olympics (I'm snickering as I type this; I'm so immature) and while I'm proud to be an American citizen and all, I find myself rooting for other teams. I'm rooting for other teams, because I want to live in their countries. I want to live in their countries because either I'm a total Graecophile(sp?) or...well, there are hot guys from that country. So my top three countries are Greece, Japan, and Denmark. Yeah, Denmark's that random one most people wouldn't expect from me, but Mads Mikkelsen is too gorgeous for words.
I'm too involved whenever it's on. I started screaming at the rowing teams yesterday before I started running errands, which I usually save for NBA games (by NBA, I mean Lakers) and wrestling (by wrestling, I mean WWE). Yep, I've become that sports fan whose life depends too much on the games I watch. I sure do jump levels like a champ when it comes to fandoms.
I'm excited to see men's basketball. Kobe's playing for the US, and my Gazelle (Pau Gasol, for those who don't know my nicknames personally) is playing for Spain, so I'm looking forward to my little NBA reunion on-screen. I'm a little sad that Lamar isn't playing, but mostly because he was signed to the Clippers this season instead of the Lakers, so I won't see him much unless I watch the Kardashians. Ugh.
Was this a pointless post about my occasional viewings of the Olympics? Yes. Am I apologetic? Not really.

The Dark Knight Rises

To my complete surprise, I managed to see The Dark Knight Rises on opening weekend. And I got to have popcorn. Score!
Let me say this: I believe anyone who didn't think this film was good was expecting too much from it. I didn't expect it to be as good or better than The Dark Knight, but it was still pretty bad-ass and I loved every minute of it- until the end.

This is probably the first time I've ever been attracted enough to Christian Bale to where I'd lock him up in a closet for a week and not share him with the rest of the world. Man was hot in this one. Bruce Wayne wasn't as Bruce Wayne-y as he usually is, but the man went through a lot in the last movie. I actually like this broken version of Bruce. It was weird watching him get beaten up so much, but at the end, he reminds us all why there's only one true Batman. But enough about my ramblings on how hot this man is.
So let's talk about how hot Bane was. And before you ask, yes, the muzzle enhanced Tom Hardy's sexiness. Yes, I'm aware of how creepy I am; my brother keeps me very informed of this fact. He wasn't as charismatic as Heath Ledger's Joker, but he wasn't supposed to be. Bane's sheer size scared the hell out of me and his nonchalant way or killing whoever stops being useful at the time made me determined to always be useful in his presence. He seemed intelligent, and I definitely don't want to play mind games with that....colossus.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt: love you, good sir. He plays a cop-turned-detective named Blake who pretty much takes over Commissioner Gordon's spot as the regular-guy helping-hand of Batman, and was pretty fabulous at it. The entire time I was watching him, I was thinking "Dammit, Nolan, make another Batman movie so he can be Robin! I love him!"  Smart kid, good heart, deserves "sidekick" promotion immediately.
Anne Hathaway got major props from me for her portrayal of Catwoman a.k.a. Selina Kyle. She seemed like a hard girl, and was very badass, yet slinky and sexy at the same time. I loved watching her gradual turn-around in the movie, and how she looked bent over that bike.
With everyone else, it was like a friggin' high school reunion. I kept recognizing people and had no wifi to check imdb to remember who they were. Marion Cotillard was in this, and so was the guy who plays JJ's baby daddy on Criminal Minds. Also, Scarecrow makes a cameo. Yeah, that man can't leave this series alone. Neither can Liam Neeson, though I believe Aslan can come and go whenever he wants. And our other celebrity face for God, Morgan Freeman, is of course back to grace us with his Foxy charms.
Speaking of Lucius Fox, Batman's gadgets and rides are to die for! Of course, we see the Batbike again, but we're also introduced with another new mode of transport. I was there were more Bat toys as well, but I can forgive that.
I was very mad to find out Christopher Nolan doesn't want to do another Batman movie, even though Christian Bale would do it if the director was on board. I'd really, really like to see another one, but this time with more Batman. I'd love to see a Nolan-directed movie with Robin, maybe Batgirl, Mr. Feeeze, Penguin, Poison Ivy, and the Riddler. Yes, I want my corny Batman villains back! I'd just love to see how those characters would come about in Nolan's universe. Plus, I'd like more chicks that aren't trying to sleep with Batman.
This movie was better and sexier than I expected, and with The Avengers and Magic Mike, has officially joined the 2012's Porn for Women list. Everyone should buy a ticket to go see it. Warning though, don't drink anything before the second half of the movie. This bitch is long.