Iron Man

What would you do if you were a weapons developer; find out that the weapons you manufacture are used to kill innocents and then learn that you have shrapnel near your heart that could kill you at any moment?

If you are anything like Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) you'd build a mechanical suit and fight to end your own weapons. And, to prevent your death, you'd create this little gizmo based on a new energy source to prevent the shrapnel from entering your heart. It's this energy that powers your suit.

But of course, the bad guys don't want you to succeed, so they'll build a gigantic robot to stop you.

This movie is packed with fabulous actors: Downey, Paltrow, Bridges, Howard, and Paul Bettany as the voice for Stark's butler, Jarvis.

I think this film is better than the Spider-man movies and just up there with Batman Begins. Everything about it is top-notch: acting, writing, chemistry, etc... Some of the best comedic moments are between Tony Stark and his robot assistance as he builds his updated Iron Man suit.

The bottom line for my experience of this movie was creativity. The creativity found in this

movie was astounding. Everything is crisp and great looking.

This is going to join my DVD collection. Can't wait for the sequel!
 

Halo: The Flood by William Dietz

I finished this book with no emotion whatsoever.

Well I take that back. After I told a few people that I was reading these books, I was ridiculed so I should clarify that I did feel some emotion.

William Dietz's attempt at following Fall of Reach receives an "okay" rating from me. I wasn't sure why this book needed to be written. For anyone who doesn't know, this book follows the action from the first Halo game for the Xbox. People who have played the game first will recognize the dialogue taken directly from the game and the scenes played out with more detail.

One big "kudos" that Dietz gets from me is his inclusion of the military stories outside of the Master Chief. When you play the game, you interact with the soldiers sporadically, but in the book, you find out the background and learn their side of the story.

So I guess I could say this is a good book for the Halo curious or just plain crazy fans. It may have been that they tried to treat this as a tie-in book like many publishers do for books based on a movie.

The Flood is not as good as Fall of Reach. But then this guy, Dietz, didn't have much area for creative license.

My library seems to have a problem with their Halo books so I don't know when I'll get to the third book in this series...