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Monsters University, a review by Dragonfire

Monsters University



I went to see Monsters University last Friday when it opened.  It is the newest movie from Pixar, and the first prequel that the company has done.  It is set before Monsters, Inc. and tells how Mike and Sulley first met when they were at college.  Mike spent most of his time studying, determined to make it through the scare program.  Sulley is a member of the Sullivan family, a family well known for scaring, so he is accepted from the first minute he arrives.  He thinks he can just coast through because of who he is.  Things go horribly wrong during a class.  The only chance that Mike and Sulley have to finish the scare program is to work together with the unpopular Oozma Kappa fraternity.

The movie is cute, fun, and entertaining.  It is nice to see the monsters again, and see them in a different situation.  Some other characters that were in the first movie are also in this one.  Randall isn't as bad, though there are hints of his true nature popping up every so often - and I don't mean his tendency to go invisible.  Much of what happens at the college is a lot like Revenge of the Nerds, but it manages to work.  Some people will probably be disappointed that the plot isn't more original.  Adults will probably find the movie predictable, but children probably won't.  The movie does have a message tied to working hard and working with others. There are some serious moments here and there and a few that are touching, though nothing to the degree of some of the previous movies like UP or Toy Story 3.  The humor works without resulting to all the gross humor that so many of the other animated movies resort to. 

The animation is gorgeous, with bright, vibrant colors in some scenes, and duller more subdued colors in others.  A lot of the scenery looks fairly realistic - the grass and trees.  Sulley's hair continues to look amazing, though it does have a slightly different look than it did in the original movie. 

The movie is showing in 2D and 3D.  I saw the 2D version.  The short before the movie, The Blue Umbrella is very well done.  It is a little different from the others Pixar has done, but it is great.  There are a lot of different looking monsters around the campus.  Some of them are very unique looking.  I really like all the different monsters. 

Overall, I really enjoyed Monsters University and think it is a good, interesting prequel to the first movie.  It isn't quite as good as the first movie, but it is still very good and way better than most other animated movies. 

I did post a longer review at Epinions if anyone wants to take a look.  I would have rated the movie 4.5 stars there if I had the option.  Since I don't, I decided to round up to 5.

Monsters University


(From Monsters University on June 29th, 2013)

The Crazies, a review by Jon

The Crazies
2 out of 5



I recently reviewed Let Me In from scene one. Let us just reverse engineer it for a moment: why make The Craziesbalanced reviews... balanced reviews

(From Jon's Horror-thon 2010 on November 1st, 2010)

"Stargate SG-1" Marathon, a review by DJ Doena

I have bought the first nine seasons of Stargate SG-1And it does look nice. I will chip the first nine seasons on eBay.



Synopsis: The defence of the Supergate ended in a slaughter of the defenders. The four Ori ships had no problems with breaking through. Aboard one of these ships Vala has just given birth to her daughter. But she is growing very fast and she is supposed to become the leader of all Ori troops in this galaxy.

My Opinion: The more often I encounter the story it the less interesting it gets: chosen childs. Offhand I can recall: Gabrielle's daughter Hope (Xena: Warrior Princess), Xena's daughter Eve/Livia (Xena: Warrior Princess) and of course Angel's son Connor (Angel). If we add movies, we can also add Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader (Star Wars).
I was also a bit disappointed that Bra'tac has learned very few since he first encountered G_1 over eight years ago. Back then he also wanted to prepare for death after they had successfully sabotaged Apophis's ship.

Synopsis: SG-1 visits one of the planets where they hope to find Merlin's weapon. But there isn't a single living being, not even animals. But the inhabitants of the village seem to have died peacefully in their beds.
In the meantime Vala has to undergo a psychiatric examination before she can join the Stargate program.

My Opinion: This episode was literally soporific.

Synopsis: Daniel hopes to find more information about the location of the weapon in Atlantis. And Carter has developed a plan to render the Supergate useless with the help of a black hole in the Pegasus galaxy.

My Opinion: This episode I liked again. McKay was great and the way Daniel and Vala blew the cover of the Ancient "Morgan le Fay" was also good. While there are significant difference the Ancients and the Ori strongly reminded me of the Vorlons and the Shadows (Babylon 5) in this episode. All four are far superior to the normal Humans and within their universe they have a mutual exclusive point of view on how to interact with the Humans. Although the Ancients are the only ones of the four that don't intervene at all (with the usual exceptions to that rule).
The "phone bill" of this episode could be interesting. Atlantis in the Pegasus galaxy calls the SGC who in turn call Teal'c at the Supergate and he relays the message through the open wormhole to the Odyssey in the Pegasus galaxy.

Synopsis: The allegedly real Ba'al comes to Earth and offers his help to find the weapon. But for this, SG-1 would have to kill all his clones who have uprisen against him. But every clone insits on being the real Ba'al and soon the SGC is swarmed with Ba'als.

My Opinion: Oh Sam, come on! Have you learned nothing from the RepliCarter disaster? I am annoyed that this highly intelligent woman falls for such plans. Yes, granted, she was in a hostage situation but how many lives will it cost when Ba'al is successful?

(From "Stargate SG-1" Marathon on May 2nd, 2008)