First off, Trevor's knee surgery was moved from Monday to next Friday because of paperwork not being filled out correctly. So it'll have been about three weeks from the time he fell out of the tree to when they repair the meniscus.
Watched the 1983 movie WarGames with Matthew Broderick and Ally Sheedy the other night. It was pretty good. I enjoy most stuff from the 80's, so I liked it. The whole Cold War element that was very real; the fact that since hardly anyone knew about computers a high schooler could by luck break into a military database; and it was interesting watching how to research stuff in a library before there were computers. That part looked very time-consuming.
Then Friday night we went and saw Ant-Man at the Orpheum in Okmulgee. That's such a cool old theater. Mom, Trevor and Caleb loved the movie. Courtney liked it. I thought it was all right. It was pretty much what I expected it would be; which is always a strange feeling, because that doesn't happen too often. There were elements of Sam Raimi's Spider-Man, in some of the photography and lighting, and The Amazing Spider-Man movies in terms of writing quality; and some Fast and Furious as far as the plot goes.
The previews were for the hilarious-looking Adam Sandler and Kevin James movie Pixels, about aliens who attack Earth with video-game characters from 1982, and the arcade masters of Pac-Man, Centipede, Donkey Kong and Space Invaders have to save the planet. (I love the 80's. Siblings thought it looked incredibly stupid; Mom thought it looked funny). Mom also liked the preview for Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, because it stars Wonder Woman. It'll set up the beginnings of the DC Movie Universe, which might be interesting. (It doesn't connect to their TV universe, which is weird.) That title is awful, though...sounds like a court case. And it's about a million syllables long. Also previewed were a Disney movie about a wintertime Coast Guard rescue mission called The Finest Hours that looks dull and super-serious, and Star Wars: Episode VII: The Force Awakens, which Caleb, Trevor and Mom are now eagerly looking forward to.
Anyway, back to the movie...Scott Lang is played by Paul Rudd, leading to my questioning before the movie came out, "We're needing someone to save the world. And so we're looking for help from....Bobby Newport." Michael Douglas(of Romancing the Stone) played Dr. Hank Pym, and Evangeline Lilly(from Lost) played Hank's daughter Hope Van Dyne. Together, they need to steal the new Yellowjacket suit from Hank's former assistant Darren Cross. Then a little girl's bedroom is beaten up pretty severely during the major battle at the end.
At one point, the writers got stuck when trying to get the team to escape from a collapsing building, so they materialized a TANK from nowhere to get the job done. I heard several laughs from the audience(about fifteen people, guessing high) right there. I shook my head in amazement. (Though for Two for the Treasure I have had the main characters eaten by velociraptors when I was out of ideas. Turned out my cowriter Ashland loved it.)
The phrase that came to mind while the credits were rolling was that this movie was about as subtle as a graham cracker. There's a slightly nutty flavor; it's somewhat nutritious, and makes a good, filling, tasty snack. It doesn't feel very Marvel-ish. Everyone's character seemed fairly one-dimensional; the Criminal Seeking to Go Straight and Do Good, the Nefarious Businessman, the Very Strained Relationship between Father and Daughter.
Sunday morning I woke up early, so I watched Rocky III to kill time. It was pretty good; better than the first. (Skipped the second, cause it opened too slowly and I got bored.) Plus, it introduced "Eye of the Tiger" to the world, so that's cool.
Read Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing as part of skimming through textbooks for school; I think it might be my favorite of his plays, because of the insults between Benedick and Beatrice. Shakespeare's still rather hard to understand, sometimes, though.
Also read Harper Lee's Go Set a Watchman, which came out on Tuesday. It was also about like I expected; pretty good, but nothing great. And if it had been great, then we never would have had To Kill a Mockingbird. And there's a lot of little details that don't add up right if you look at Watchman as a sequel, which is mildly annoying. As a parent, though, it makes sense that details would be reshaped during rewriting. The third-person POV is clunky; constantly referring to the now-grown Scout as Jean Louise also gets a bit repetitive. This version of Uncle Jack is much weirder than the one we met later/before.
Headed for Missouri in the morning for SGYC; this will be the third time I've been a counselor; after five years of being a camper.
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