Now, before I go ahead and give my review, I’m going to warn you – SPOILERS AHEAD!! HEY YOU!! AT THE KEYBOARD!! IF YOU DON’T WANT THE MOVIE RUINED, READ NO FURTHER!! IF YOU KEEP READING IT WILL BE SPOILED, SO DON’T COMPLAIN IF YOU’RE TOO DUMB TO READ THIS MESSAGE!

*ahem* Okay now that that is taken care of…on to the review:

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

Obviously just came out this year (2008). The last time we saw the great Dr. Jones was Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, released in 1989. So it’s been about 20 years since our last adventure, and everyone has grown up quite a bit, our star included. Now, when I first heard that this film was being made, I had the same thoughts as many – “Indy 4? But…Harrison Ford is in his sixties!! That’ll never work!!” However, for the most part, I was proven wrong. Harrison Ford was by far not the problem at all with this film – George Lucas was. Quite a bit of the movie is great, fun, and exciting, but once in a while it becomes clear that George got his hands on it and just went nuts.

But Harrison Ford, as I said, is great. He feels and looks like Indiana Jones, and they don’t ignore the age factor – they play on it. There are jokes at his expense, almost a few too many. They, in general, handle the age factor pretty well.

And Shia LaBeouf? I like the kid more and more each time I see him, though I will admit to being incredibly jealous of the fact that he got to be in movies with both Indiana Jones AND Optimus Prime. The jerk. However, he is likeable in the film, and he didn’t bother me, all in all I’d say a good addition to the franchise.

Now, the story. The movie starts off with a bang, Indy being kidnapped by Russians (who, it turns out, were just as bad shots as the Nazis) and being forced to find a Crystal Skull in a warehouse (which gives us a nice glimpse at a hint of the Ark of the Covenant). Now, this is a pretty exciting opening, but only a few moments into the film, we get the first “What the hell?” moment. After escaping from the Russians, the great adventurer finds himself trapped in the middle of a nuclear test site. Now, theoretically this wouldn’t be too bad, there would be some daring escape. This escape, however…involves a refrigerator. That’s right folks, our fearless hero escapes by climbing into a fridge and getting launched miles as the bomb goes off. Now, I try to tell myself that this was some reference to the original ideas for “Back to the Future”, where getting back to 1985 involved originally driving into a nuclear bomb, or the original concept being a fridge. However, even with those ideas, it still is stupid. I have a high suspension of disbelief – I can believe a lot while watching a movie. But this? Ten minutes into the movie and already I was thinking “Yeah….not buying it.” However, it did get better.

For the majority of the film, I have only one major complaint – things were too easy. Part of the joy of the old films was watching Indiana solve the clues, figure them out over time. In Raiders, he had to figure out where so many things were, using the staff at the right time of day to get it to point to the right spot. It was great, because nothing was easy. In this one, he gets a piece of paper from and old friend, which is written in a language that no one speaks or reads. In the period of about fifteen seconds, he realizes he can translate it using Mayan, and then realizes it is a riddle, which he also then solves without blinking an eye.

Oh.

Great.

Things like that happen quite a bit throughout the film. But I suppose those are a bit nitpicky. The action is fun, most of it is pretty good (there is a terrible terrible moment where LaBeouf swings on vines like Tarzan…) but the ending is just…not Indiana Jones. I don’t even know how to go on to explain it other than there are aliens and a flying saucer. In Indiana Jones. Read that again. Done yet? Okay. Mr. Spielberg and Mr. Lucas: FLYING SAUCERS DO NOT BELONG IN INDIANA JONES! I should rephrase that…THE WAY YOU HANDLED FLYING SAUCERS DOES NOT BELONG IN INDIANA JONES! I mean, if they could have handled it tastefully, not flat out come and shown it to us in all it’s cgi glory, maybe a hint…it would have felt more like it belonged. But the way it was handled was just poor. I was greatly disappointed by the ending.

So, I would say that perhaps the latest Indy movie is worth a rent. It wasn’t great, but it kept me entertained for the most part. And honestly? It was great seeing Harrison Ford don the fedora and whip once again.

-Pittsburgh Geek Out

In order to make up for it, I decided to share with you something really really cool.

R2-D2 Projector

That’s right everyone – a projector in the form of R2-D2, the loveable droid from the Star Wars Saga. NOw, it seems a little stupid at first “Oh, it’s just a damn projector, who cares?” But wait, there’s more. Not only does it make the same sound effects heard throughout the trilogy (possibly it’s most useless feature), it also has the capability of playing DVD’s, plugging in an iPod, plugging in video game systems, memory cards, and tons of other types of media. Also, it’s on wheels. And it can lower or raise itself, so you could conceivably have your projection on the ceiling.

And did I mention that the remote is the Millennium Falcon? No? Oh…well it is. All in all, if you have tons of expendable cash, it just looks too damn cool to pass up. Go ahead and watch the video, I guarantee you’ll drool.

And in just regular news, the Pittsburgh Penguins are going to the Stanley Cup finals I’ve just recently become a hockey fan, and I’m very glad I did. I can’t wait to see what happens.

For this post, I decided to do a review of sorts. The review for today will most likely be short and sweet. The game being reviewed is Peggle a puzzle game that can best be described as “Breakout” meets “Plinko” from the Price is Right. The purpose of the game is that there are blue pegs and orange pegs (also green and purple, but I’ll get to that in a moment, keep your pants on). In order to beat a level, you must hit all of the orange pegs. You have ten balls to do this in. Sounds simple right? Well, yes and no. Some of the levels come across as incredibly easy, and are easy to beat on one try. However, as you get later into the levels, things become far trickier. Parts of the level begin to move, which adds a new dimension into the game. Now, earlier I mentioned green and purple pegs as well. The purple peg – with each shot, the purple peg moves to a different location. In short, it is simply worth more points. That’s it. The green peg is what is interesting. There are different “characters” in the game, which during adventure mode you get to play as. Each one has a special ability. The green peg lets you use this ability, and there are two per level. My personal favorite – Zen Ball. Zen Ball is the last one you get to use. Basically, what it does is line up your shot, and then say “No, this shot is better, you’re taking it.” It makes minor adjustments to make your shot a whole lot better. All of the power-ups have their advantages, but that is just my favorite.

Now, the “Adventure” part of the game is still fairly quick to beat. There are 55 levels in adventure mode, which can be completed rather quickly (I think I did them all in an afternoon). Hearing this, you might be thinking “Well what’s the point Pitt Geek, it sounds like a really short game!” Wrong. After beating the Adventure part of the game, there are challenges to play. I will openly admit that I am still stuck on these challenges. There are tons of them, and they are rather difficult. Many of them require getting a lot of points, which requires earning many “Style Points” (getting points for doing cool shit).

So if you are looking for something to be a great distraction for quite a long time, this geek recommends Peggle. Go play.

END NOTE: It should be noted that this is a very frustrating game. It is the primary source of my swearing nowadays. Just a warning.

John Aaron

Possibly one of the geekiest on this list, John Aaron is a man who took his job incredibly seriously and threw himself into it entirely. For those not familiar with the story and who are too lazy to click on the wikipedia link, John Aaron was a flight controller and engineer for NASA. Working for NASA pretty much already makes you a geek, but this guy tops my list. He was made somewhat famous, and is getting put on this list, because of an incident involving the Apollo 12 mission. About 36 seconds after liftoff, the spacecraft was struck by lightning, causing all kinds of electrical problems. John Aaron was working at mission control and managed to keep his calm. He was a giant dork who had looked over most of the training manuals and knew almost everything there was to know about his job. The screens on the computers at mission control had all come up with weird patterns, and John recognized one of them. He remembered seeing it before in his extensive research. Knowing this, he knew that there was a switch labeled “SCE to AUX” that could be flipped, righting the problem. He said this over the microphone to the astronauts, most of whom had no idea what he was talking about. One did, and flipped the switch, correcting the problem. This geek goes down in history.

Gary Gygax

No list of great geeks is complete without the recently-deceased (RIP) Gary Gygax. He helped to co-create Dungeons and Dragons, something which has given many of us something incredibly fun to do on our weekends. Many of us can never think of dice the same way anymore, and spend hours arguing over rules thanks to this man. I don’t know what else to say, other than thank you Gary.

Bill Nye, the Science Guy

Never has one man taught me so much, such as the fact that inertia is a property of matter. Not only did his show have an incredibly catchy theme song, but it actually taught a generation of students quite a bit. In my senior physics class, we watched Bill Nye talk about various topics. It brings a smile to my face to know that he still works with the weather channel. It almost makes me want to start watching the weather channel.

Almost.

Anyways, Bill Nye is on this list because if your name has “The Science Guy” attached to it, let’s face it, you’re a geek.

Bill Haverchuck

The first fictional character to appear on the list, Bill appeared in the short-lived series “Freaks and Geeks”, which I highly reccommend if you haven’t seen it already. He was basically the stereotypical nerd – tall, gangly, big glasses, awkward around everyone, but he was also a great character that actually had more to him than just being a geek. If nothing else, he was possibly the only one of the geeks on that show who was really comfortable being a geek, and didn’t mind it at all. He’s on my list for just being a fun character to watch.

Professor Frink

From the Simpsons. If you don’t know who I’m talking about and why he’s on this list, you need to watch a lot more television.

Joss Whedon

Takes his love for all things geeky, creates three great television shows, writes comics, and still manages to be one of the coolest, laid-back guys around. This man has it made. I don’t know what else to say about him – he’s basically everything I wish I could be.

Randall Munroe

This guy manages to be both incredibly smart and incredibly funny, and finds a nice balance between the two. If you aren’t reading xkcd already, go, start now. It’s one of my favorite webcomics (perhaps that’s another list in the making…) and is worth perusing. Seriously, it’s wonderful and I don’t have enough good things to say about it.

These are some of my favorite geeks in history. Feel free to comment with your own, and perhaps at a later date I’ll do an updated list, adding more in.

-Pittsburgh Geek

Most of this blog will be spent discussing things in the “geek” world – sci-fi, comics, movies, video games, technology, etc. More or less anything I find interesting will probably end up on here. Other than that, if something interesting happens in my life you’ll all be privy to it, I promise.

For today, I have very little to share, other than the promise that I will change the layout to something more appropriate (and in my opinion cooler) soon. I just need to find something first.