Webcomic Review - The Dreamland Chronicles

I spent my whole afternoon reading this webcomic called The Dreamland Chronicles.  I don't know what about it caught me this time around, since I've had people point me at it before and didn't pay attention to it, but somehow after reading the first fifty pages yesterday it managed to invade my dreams (which is unusual).  At the moment it holds the rank of #7 on Top Web Comics, and it deserves that position.

It's the story of a guy who travels to Dreamland whenever he sleeps and how he gets caught up in saving it while trying to help his friends and lady love.

Dreamland Chronicles has been updating on a regular, every weekday basis since 2006 and is done with 3D computer animation technology, which is a ton of work.  It has a grand scale of plot and action with good characters.  Over the years the art has gone from pretty good but stiff CG to having panels that look like they came out of a legit Dreamworks or Pixar movie.

The beginning is a bit rough for the first 2-3 chapters, but that tends to be the case with a lot of webcomics when they're starting out.  Some of the character interaction didn't make sense, but once the rough patch was over the characters stayed truthful to themselves and made a lot more sense.

Go check it out!  It's got romance, adventure, beautiful hard work, and fantasy all rolled into one story.  It also manages to stay pretty clean and family-friendly as well!  I give it four stars out of five.

Despicable Me 2 Review

I had the great fun of going to see Despicable Me 2 on the 4th of July.  It was fantastic.

The humor wasn't the same as the first one, but still very good, and there's much more minion madness and shenanigans.  It deals with different issues than the first one, so it's not the same, and that's good.  All of the characters get to be more developed.  The girls are well on their way to being awesome and cool, especially Edith.  I now want a story about Edith as a teenager.  She would rock so hard.

Illumination Entertainment stepped up their game on this movie.  The quality and detail of the computer graphics along with the compositions in some of the shots impressed me with their epic-ness.  Also, the water was mind-blowing.  Beautiful.

Granted, there are things I would have done different and jokes I didn't find funny and stuff I found pointless about the movie, but those things are more than made up for by the rest of the movie.  After all, no movies is perfect.

This is another sequel that is at least as good as the first one.  It's definitely worth a watch!  I give it four out of five stars.

Monsters University Review

I went and saw Pixar's new movie Monsters University recently, and I have to say it's amazingly good. The characters are deep, the action fun and exciting, and there's plenty of humor to go around.  It doesn't have the same feeling as Monsters Inc.  It's very different, but I guess that should be expected from a story about two guys becoming friends instead of trying to send a little girl home.  It's fun to see how Mike and Sully's personalities grew and changed from when they were in college compared to when they were working at Monsters Incorporated.

This movie has a ton of new, cool monster designs and beautiful textures.  I'm amazed at how some monsters managed to look scary when their designs were all cute and cuddly.

Mike Wazowski gets to shine in this movie, and Sully doesn't do too shabby either.  There are plenty of nods to the first movie and some things are explained or connected to the other one.

Overall, Monster's University is just as good, if not better than, Monster's Inc.  Go watch it!  It's awesome!  Five out of five stars!

Epic Review

Today I saw Epic by Blue Sky Studios.  It was pretty good.  I'll give it four out of five stars.

Epic is a beautiful movie.  The designs of the creatures and characters are brilliant and detailed with beautiful colors and shapes.  The characters were good and there was a decent amount of humor.  I heard some people complain that it had little plot, a symptom of most Blue Sky movies, but I thought it had enough.  Actually, I think it had more plot than most of the Blue Sky movies I've seen.  There was a little something from it missing that I couldn't put my finger on, (maybe the word is depth?), but it didn't detract too much from the movie for me.  The ending wasn't what I was expecting, but it ended well.  It had good themes, some of which were more obvious than others, such as we're all connected and you should never give up on your dreams or ignore the things that are most important.

If I could describe Epic in one word, it would be "pretty."  There's more to it than beauty, though, and I found it a very enjoyable movie.  It's definitely worth a watch.  I saw it in 2D, but I could tell that it had great potential as a 3D movie.

I want more stories from this world.

Star Trek Into Darkness Review

I finally got to see Star Trek: Into Darkness on Saturday, and I do have to say... it was amazing!  Five out of five stars for that movie.  It had character development, tearful moments, kick butt moments, awesome action, and a few laughs.  There are several nods to the original Wrath of Khan movie some of which could be considered cheesy, but I think it was good cheese.  Not that you have to see Wrath of Khan before you see Into Darkness, but I feel that it's a better experience if you have.  I actually watched Wrath of Khan the weekend previous since I'd heard that you should see it before, because somehow, in my life of being raised on Star Trek and Star Wars, that was the one Star Trek movie I hadn't seen.

Scotty gets to be a bigger part of this movie and do some cool stuff, poor Chekov has a hard time doing important stuff, McCoy gets some danger, Uhura is brave, and Kirk and Spock become better friends and both become more human/easier to connect to.  In a way, they all get their chance to save the day.

And Benedict Cumberbatch makes a fantastic Khan.  He does Khan the way I think Khan should have been done in the original movie.  Cumberbatch's Khan is brilliant, arrogant, conniving, and a perfect beast.  He's not a rabid, hurt beast, but a deadly predator waiting for the right moment to make the kill.

This is definitely up there in quality with the first movie.  Into Darkness gives Star Trek a run for its money.  I'm not sure which one I like better, but right now they're tied for me.

I hope this review was helpful!

Iron Man 3 Review

I went with my family today to see Iron Man 3 and I loved it.  We get lots of Tony Stark, Pepper has a couple chances to be awesome, Brody gets to be a much bigger help than ever before, and the action was intense!  The new characters were also great and there's lots of good interactions between everyone.
This movie is more character and action driven than it is story/plot driven, so there are some missing details that would help things make sense, but not enough for me to find it concerning.  Enough was hinted at that I was able to fill in the blanks, but it bothered my husband.
And after all of the movies, including Avengers, Tony is still finding ways to grow and be a better person.  He's even more lovable by the end of this movie.
Overall, Iron Man 3 was a fun, action-packed film that I greatly enjoyed.  Iron Man is still my favorite of the series so far, but Iron Man 3 is just after it.  I give it four and a half stars out of five.

And you have to wait until the end of the credits.  The hidden scene at the end almost tops the shwarma one at the end of the Avengers.

I've decided I'm going to give reviews on movies, games, and books on here whenever I finish one and feel like it.  If there's anything you want me to pay attention to or things you think could help me improve my reviews and make them more helpful, please let me know so that I can think about it and improve.  :)