I don't know how ashamed I am to admit - my brain went through this exact same sequence.
Sorcerer's Stone & Chamber of Secrets: Set the look and feel beautifully, the kids acting was pretty terrible, but all in all these first two movies captured the whimsy of the books the best. They might not have been 'well made' movies per se, but they just worked, and they actually captured the books very well.
Azkaban: My favorite, the most well made out of all the movies. It actually felt like a movie, everything sat well in it, it just felt RIGHT. Also, Cuaron is the only director who was able to keep Michael Gambon (Dumbledore) in check. Gambon turned into a psychopath after this movie.
Goblet: I hated this one the most for a long, long time. Just bizarrely directed, (Angry abusive Dumbledore WTF) and the acting all over the place. Putting the whole series into perspective though, this one is a bit charming. Also Voldemort's entrance was well done.
Phoenix: Eh. Stale, humorless, Yates can't direct, I'm sorry :-/ Fucked up my favorite 2 scenes in the ENTIRE book (Dumbledore escaping his office, and Dumbledore dueling Voldemort). They messed up the final duel so bad. In the book, Dumbledore knows he's fighting the most powerful dark wizard on the planet, and he's fearlessly speaking to him like a person, and fighting him at the same time, KNOWING he can't kill him. It's fucking incredible. And in the movie it's just a bunch of nonsense magic and grunting.
Half Blood Prince: Awful, joke of a movie. Beautifully shot, silly acting. Dumbledore still silly and unlikeable. Snape is merely a small, small part of this movie. And if you know the books, it's unforgivable how little attention they paid to him, considering, well... spoilers.
Deathly Hallows 1: FINALLY, HP getting his groove back! Excellent first half! Holy Scrambling to Tie Loose Ends We Neglected for 6 movies, however, Batman.
Deathly Hallows 2: Bullshit. Every single important scene ruined. Every other vital scene not even included. Just awful. I will never watch it again. It's honestly as if they have NO idea what was important to this series.
The thing that made the books so good was that they were about the characters, more than anything. They were so beautifully and vibrantly fleshed out, and when certain characters went head to head (Snape & McGonagall, McGonagall and Umbridge, Dumbledore & Voldemort) fucking sparks flew. Rowling is a fantastic writer, I don't care what anyone says. Her characterization is up there with the literary greats. And the movies after #3 just shat on all of it, and made these boring, washed out, decent special effects shows. Adult actors get minimal screen time, and when they do they chew the dialogue so hard it's just silly. Anyway, yeah, Harry Potter. fav book series of all time. I apologize for this rant.
Super Mario World plays like a dream. I can pick that game up after not having played it for years upon years, and fly through levels like a pro in minutes. Seriously one of the pinnacles of platforming in my opinion.
never change, Youtube. IMDB & Yahoo Answers will never take your crown.
On the sidescrolling front I completely agree with you, Super Mario World might be the greatest sidescroller of all time. For 3D though, I did feel Mario Sunshine was a fantastic game.
Honestly, my only problem with the New Super Mario Bros series was the super slippery controls. The levels were alright, but hot damn I felt like it was impossible to smoothly navigate mario across platforms.
I'm a film student, and I used Megaupload EXTENSIVELY to send big audio/video files back and forth for film projects; it was great cause their cap was higher than yousendit. So my gaming life isn't affected, but my college one is for sure. There are others, but Megaupload was just so easy and simple.
Oh my God, IMDB message boards are insufferable. You'd think it would be a community of intense movie discussion, and instead it's just "WHY does everyone like this GARBAGE movie?" or "Most OVERRATED movie of all time!" and "Is TIN TIN gay? He lives alone with a dog and has flippy hair!" (yeah, that was a real one.)
COMPLETELY UNRELATED, but I just finished reading the BFG yesterday, and I've decided there should be a movie, directed by Michael Gondry or Spike Jonze, with Christopher Lloyd playing the BFG. The giants would be practical effects, like Hagrid in Harry Potter, no CGI. Now someone lend me $100 million to make it, plz.
Forgive me, I promise I'm not trying to be a jerk, but I think you guys are a bit spoiled. While I don't really go to Joystiq or any other gaming blogs that often, in the grander scheme of things, Kotaku easily has the most well behaved comments of most of the sites I frequent. Youtube, IMDB, Digg, movie fansites, imageboardthatwillnotbenamed, etc, it's a goddamn circus out there. On Kotaku you never see "FIRST!" or any of that garbage, spam links, etc. Kotaku comments are, on the whole, a pretty nice place to be.
Forgive my ignorance, but wasn't DOTA created completely from WC3?
Damnit... that sounds somewhat appealing.
ah, I'm not the only one.
At least Toy Story 5 will probably be very good. :-)
They're one of the most solid rock bands to come out in the past few years, but personally I find them kinda boring.
For the sake of argument, let's say it IS dishonest to use those codes, what alternative do you suggest? Because the only other option is the code goes in the garbage.
without getting into this whole can of worms, Steve Jobs didn't 'invent' most of the things he's credited for inventing, and he's overrated, sure, but not a hack man. Not even close. He revolutionized multiple industries.
Ah damn, I meant master sword.... erm.... well hopefully they'll put one in a game and my comment will be relevant in a few years.
"You have found the Master Shield! To equip - INCOMING CALL - "
"Mario! I've got the princess and you'll neve- INCOMING CALL - "
"Leon! Help m- INCOMING CALL - "
No thanks.
"Mario! I've got the princess and you'll neve- INCOMING CALL - "
"Leon! Help m- INCOMING CALL - "
No thanks.
