Monthly Archive for May, 2010

My thoughts on the final episode of LOST

So the finale has had some time to sink in. My initial feeling when it ended was that it was self-indulgent and not that great. However, now that I have had some distance, I feel that the ending was appropriate and rather good. The Sideways was not real, it was a construct made by the collective consciousness of everyone on the island that had meaningful relationships. It absolutely had different elements from different philosophies and religions (I think Matthew Fox described it perfectly on Kimmel's wrapup).

The Sideways was out-of-time, and existed on a line that converged many different time streams together. IT was telling at the end when Ben said he wasn't ready to go and still had stuff to work out. Hurley said he was a good #2, to which Ben replied "You were a great #1." This implies that Hurley and Ben where on the island for a long time afterward taking care of it and it's various inhabitants and castaways. If there is ever an opening for more stories, it's there.

All the castaways came together in the Sideways to complete their circle and I think the island helped with that. There is no doubt in my mind that the island has some sort of mystical energy that was harnessed by a civilization eons ago. The island is a cork that golds that energy at bay, preserving some kind of balance (which was always a core theme in the show). I will probably post some more about this later as I get to mull it over some more, but overall I am satisfied with the entire arc.

The ending gave me closure for the characters. I am sure that it isn't what some people wanted. I mean, it was sad, yes they are dead – but as Christian said, some died before and some died long after. I think it was pretty uplifting, Jack was able to finally "fix" the ultimate break, and he gave his life in doing it. He reconciled the scientist and man-of-faith and he was happy. The ending to me was a wrap for the story AND in a meta way, a wrap for the show. LOST was always a character study and I think the ending did justice to the character's journey. Do I want some more answers, sure, but I like the ambiguity. It's something to talk about and discuss which I think we're going to sorely miss now that it's gone.

I'm anxious to hear what you think….

Posted via email from Chuck’s posterous

Iron Meh 2 (or a chink in Iron Man’s armor)

Ironman-crop

So you may have guessed from the title that I was particularly enthused about Iron Man 2. I hate to say it, because I was really excited about the flick, but at the end of the day the movie really didn’t deliver anything new. The first Iron Man took one of the less popular Marvel characters and turned him into a sensation. Jason and I have posted and spoke about Iron Man 1 already so I won’t wax triumphant about it now.

I guess it was really the story that fell flat for me. The best thing about Iron Man is the snarkiness in the dialog. Iron Man is the “smart” superhero movie and this second installment just felt like a plain, old superhero movie. Where the effects excellent? Yes. Was Mickey Rourke a bad-ass (yet again)? Yes. Did Scarlett Johannsen kick butt? Abso-f’n-lutely! Was Cheadle better than Howard? You bet. Was Sam Rockwell the best part of this flick? Have to say “yes” (but then again, he always steals the show).

What I’m saying is that Iron Man 2 was not better than the sum of it’s parts. By the end, the movie became about men in suits fighting other men in suits and we SAW that already in Iron Man 1. Whiplash was a good idea, but there’s a part early on which should have done him in, but it didn’t even leave a scratch. Sorry, I can’t suspend my disbelief here. Out of all the Marvel movies, Iron Man is actually the most plausible. So we when bunny hop the sand shark, I have a hard time staying in the movie.

iscore_6I’m sure Iron Man 3 will be made and I hope Favreau and Co. do what they did with number 1: Set out to make a “different” superhero flick (one that doesn’t climax with 2 metal suits fighting each other), because 2 was just “meh.”

Pitching for the win

I just signed up for the new “Creating Your Opportunity Contest” put on by Network Solutions and the new .co domain. The deal is that you pitch your business idea and if you get enough votes…you go to the next round (which is judging). If you win, you get some cash and development time and a brand spankin’ new .co domain name!

So, this is a SHAMELESS plug!

Go vote for me and my idea Mashbord: http://bit.ly/mbpitch

Oh, and after you vote, go check out http://mashbord.com and test out the beta :)

Thank You!
Chuck

P.S. Did I mention you can tell EVERYONE you know to vote for me to?

Posted via email from Chuck’s posterous