Batson's Blog

As if he doesn’t have enough advanced weaponry, Tony Stark created a lot of new weapons for his arsenal – thanks to the high level of stress that kept him up for nights on end. The coolest of them was probably the sensors he installed into his arms and legs. When he put his arms out, it triggered the Iron Man suit parts, which came flying across great distances and assembled together on Tony Stark’s body. He also rigged up a way to make the Iron Man suit maneuver without a body being inside of it. All Tony had to do was wear his headpiece and he could control the suit from a different location. Iron Man may be the king of super-cool technology, but there are a few other super heroes who have a pretty wide arsenal of weapons, machines and gadgets:

I reviewed Iron Man 3 yesterday, but one thing I didn’t mention was the fact that the previews leading up to the actual movie were almost as entertaining as the movie itself. It was basically 10 minutes of fast-paced action movie previews. Star Trek: Into Darkness Watch the trailer I was anxious to see Star Trek before I saw the preview, but even moreso now that I have. It looks like Captain Kirk is really going to have his hands full with this new villain. Like with other trilogies and multi-film movies, there’s usually a darker movie – one where the super hero faces very threatening foes and not everyone makes it out of the film alive. The Dark Knight was that movie in the Dark Knight trilogy. Iron Man 3 was that movie in the Iron Man series. Spider-Man 3 was that movie in the Spidey movies starring Tobey Maguire. Into Darkness looks to be aptly named, as there are shots of crew members jumping off large buildings, falling towards the ground below. It will be inte...

Can we talk Iron Man 3 ? I was told by a friend of mine on Twitter that Iron Man 3 stopped being cool on Sunday. True, I was not one of the many people who saw it opening weekend, but better late than never right? The third installment in the Iron Man series (and the sequel to The Avengers ) was definitely very cool! I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I had high hopes after the first two Iron Man movies, Thor , Captain America and The Avengers . Marvel has been on a role the past few years, so I was hoping they’d deliver a kick-ass movie in order to keep that momentum going. Based on the one trailer I saw for Iron Man 3, it seemed that Tony Stark faced a threat like never before. The preview I saw showed some of the Iron Man suits getting blown up. Iron Man 3 almost immediately started with that very same image. It wasn’t all explosions though. In fact, perhaps more than in the previous Iron Man appearances, this movie had a back-story, characters with different al...

Jack Reacher is available on DVD today. It's one of the few recent DVD releases I'm intrigued by. Tom Cruise is not my favorite actor, by any means, but he does a decent job in certain roles. It seems this could be one of them. The Jack Reacher character is the main reason I may have to make it a Redbox Tuesday tomorrow. Reacher is a character from a book series by British author Lee Child (real name: Jim Grant). Here's the back story: Reacher served 13 years in the Military Police, but eventually became part of the 110th Special Investigations Unit. He's no longer with that group though. Now, as an ex-military investigator, he gets roped into a plot that requires his military skills to get out alive. Sounds like it could be a decent action movie. Will it be a one-time role for Cruise or will the movie turn into a trilogy or series? There are apparently several Jack Reacher books out there already. I'm sure some could be adapted to movies as well. Of cour...

This week I went to The Bakery Shoppe in Huntersville. I called ahead because I didn’t know if they had cupcakes there. They said they’d just put about two dozen cupcakes out 15 minutes before, so I was in luck. I used the GPS to get to there, but there’s a series of mini-malls in the same parking lot. There is no sign on the building – just one on the window – so the shop doesn’t jump right out at you. Basically, if you’re going to The Bakery Shoppe – look for Showmars and then go South, across the driveway. It’s a quaint shop inside, with some tables to sit at and a couple of large armchairs that look like a nice spot to relax if you have a smart phone to keep you entertained or some reading to do. There’s a wide variety of pastries, cookies and cakes in The Bakery Shoppe, but not a wide variety of cupcakes. Although the shop spruces up their cupcakes and offers a variety for events , there were only two different flavors in the case, so it made my selection easy enoug...

I had wondered why Flight didn’t do better at the box office. It seemed like it had a decent enough plot – a pilot saving a crew in dire situation. Turns out it’s no hero movie. After watching it, I can understand why it didn’t do well at the box office. It isn't exactly the kind of movie a family would go to. Although the story wasn’t at all similar, it kind of reminded me of something along the lines of Girl Interrupted . There were a couple moments that made me laugh, but overall it was a slow and fairly depressing movie. It started with Whip Whitaker (Denzel Washington) in a hotel room with a flight attendant, who goes full frontal for the camera. As Whitaker and his lady friend make their way to their flight (despite being hungover and coked up), the movie shifts focus to a red-headed druggie ( Kelly Reilly ). She and Whitaker eventually cross paths, but they don't know each other at this point in the movie. I assume someone with decision-making authority ...

It was Redbox Tuesday for me this week. That’s the day when they update their machines with new releases. I was in the mood to watch something new, so I made a trip to Walgreen’s to check out what Redbox had to offer. I didn’t have a particular movie in mind. I really wasn’t impressed with Tuesday’s releases, so I got one that’s been out for a while: Taken 2 . Except for the bad acting on the part of Maggie Grace, Taken wasn’t too bad. It wasn’t amazing, but it was a new concept and, really, any movie where Liam Neeson is kicking someone’s ass can’t be that bad. As you can probably guess (or maybe you’ve read already), this movie is about the family of the men who were killed in the last movie. Now that family wants revenge. They track Bryan Mills (Neeson), who ends up on assignment in Istanbul. He offers his ex-wife and daughter a trip there, to help them cope with a few things. It’s not long before Mills realizes he was tracked, which results in a car chase. There...