Exploring Stuff That Makes Life Great
Today’s entertainment is brought to you by Peoplejam and Saveology, via Evolution of Dance 2. Yes you heard me right. The official sequel to what has been the #1 all-time YouTube video for years has been released to the masses and it even has some sponsors. Continue reading “Evolution of Dance 2”
Guess the number. It’s a game show. Continue reading “Guess My Number: Extended and Unrated Numbers”
January isn’t a month known for its films, but here’s a look at our picks for the top films coming to theaters this month. Continue reading “Top 5 Most Anticipated Films of January 2009”
After watching the first two episodes of Wolverine and the X-Men, a shocking revelation has struck me: I’ve realized that I actually have grown up on X-Men cartoons. I saw each of the two series and one failed pilot on TV, and I still do own each animated adaptation Pryde of the X-Men, X-Men: The Animated Series and X-Men: Evolution via VHS and DVD copies.
I still enjoy watching X-Men: The Animated Series on Toon Disney (soon to be Disney: XD) – If for only one thing: the opening intro. The intro’s to the X-Men animated series’ are iconic.
Pryde Of The X-Men:
Pryde of the X-Men is hilariously cheesy. The animation looks top-notch aiming for realism.
X-Men: The Animated Series:
X-Men: The Animated Series has the most well-known intro out of the X-Men series. When you think of the X-Men this is the music that you think of.
X-Men: The Animated Series (Japanese Intro):
The Japanese took an already cool intro and made it 1000x more cool. Well I think this trailer has mixed in music by a fan. Still really cool though.
X-Men Evolution:
X-Men Evolution is slightly generic, but it does have relatively memorable music.
Wolverine and the X-Men:
Now in the 21st century, Nicktoons will begin to air all 26 episodes of Wolverine and the X-Men.
To me the music feels a lot more somber, as if the X-Men and mutants are really fighting for their survival and losing the battle. It is a different tone than any of the previous cartoons. I really cannot tell if that’s a good thing or a bad thing because I have been so brainwashed by the X-Men: The Animated Series theme song.
Fan-mix – X-Men: The Animated Series theme:
Compare this fan-mixed intro that uses the X-Men: The Animated Series theme to the previous Wolverine and the X-Men theme song. Which would you prefer? You probably know where I stand. (get it X-Men: The Last Stand – nerd joke? no? ok fine moving on.)
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Now that I’ve gotten that issue out of my system let me get into actually reviewing this show based on the first two episodes.
The premise is that one day an attack from an unknown enemy occurs at Xavier’s Mansion. Professor X and Jean Grey are abducted to an unknown location. The school shuts down and a year later Wolverine decides to bring back the X-Men. While this is happening, the Brotherhood is trying to kill Senator Kelly as he unveils the Sentinel program. In the mean time, references to Magneto’s Genosha are placed throughout the story.
If you have no idea as to what I’m talking about, you’re not an X-Men fan. If you are a fan, then you should be drolling all over yourself! Wolverine and the X-Men‘s story begins right in the heat of the battle. This is the juicy stuff that still never took place in the trilogy of films. It’s fantastic that Wolverine and the X-Men is not a retelling of the same old origin stories that we all know well.
These two episodes were pretty serious in tone. There wasn’t much, if not any, comedy to talk about. It was story and action driven. I don’t really know if everyone out there will like this show because of that.
Bottom line is that I do recommend that comic book fans check out this series on Nicktoons when it premieres on January 23 at 8pm. I definitely would like to know whether or not you would keep watching this show after the episodes air. Right now I’d say that I would, but I don’t know if I could stick through all 26 episodes.
Here’s another Barack Obama collectible for everyone to enjoy, and this one actually worth buying. Obama will be featured in The Amazing Spider-Man issue #583.
In what Marvel is calling a ‘bonus story’, here’s the synopsis: while taking pictures at the inauguration Peter Park spots a Barack Obama double. The only way to figure out who the real Obama is for Spider-Man to play basketball. Apparently the real Obama is actually good at playing basketball, while the double ain’t got no moves.
This $3.99 special issue comes out on January 14th and is sure to be sold out everywhere.
I’m sure DC Comics is kicking themselves in the nuts right now for not coming up with such a simplistic storyline that will sell millions of comics. Bummer.
The future of the web video is a on demand network that you can watch anywhere at anytime. Well at least that is what I’ve heard it to be. The Roku Digital Video Player expands that anywhere to one more location, the living room television. Right now that video is limited to Netflix and soon to include Amazon’s Video On Demand service, with the possibility of more video channels in in the future.
At its core the Roku Digital Video Player is only a streaming video server. It does not feature a harddrive. So you can never retain a digital copy of the video.
Streaming up to 720p HD video with Netflix only takes a minute at most. You’ll need to buy an HDMI cable and update the box to software version 1.5. The video playback runs smooth and looks great. In the standard definition modes of both 16:9 and 4:3 aspect ratios, the video quality is fuzzy and soft. It looked much worse than DVD resolution. If you enjoy watching your cable provider’s On Demand videos then maybe you might be fine watching Netflix in standard definition.
Another issue with the way Netflix works on this set top box is that it requires users to still interact with their computer. Users have to add movies or TV shows to their Netflix queue via a computer and then that information is instantaneously received by the Roku Digital Video Player. This two step process defeats the purpose of having a separate box in the first place. It would be much better to be able to search for content directly from the box without having to access a computer.
The nice thing about the box, from a design standpoint, is that it is pretty tiny. It’s much smaller than the standard cable DVR box. It features built-in WiFi and also includes an ethernet port. The remote itself is easy to use as it only has 9 buttons total. The worst part about the remote is taking off the backside for the batteries. The backside literally engulfs the remote and becomes a hassle to take off.
It is peculiar as to why Roku did not try to offer more with this device. Their SoundBridge devices are great music players that allow you to stream music from a computer to a sound system. Why not merge this capability with the Digital Video Player, especially when its competitors like the Apple TV offer music playback in addition to video?
$99 for the Roku Digital Video Player is a pretty nice deal. However, for right now, don’t buy it unless you do have a Netflix account. If you do have a Netflix account, be sure that you don’t already own a device that can also be used to stream Netflix video like an Xbox 360. Other than that the Roku Digital Video Player is a solid product.
