Up, Up, And Away! ... Pun intended...

Wow. Just wow. "Up", the new animated film by Pixar, was just indescribably and unbelievably amazing. I just saw it at a local mall, in fantastic 3D, with my parents, and it was mindbogglingly spectacular. I can continue coming up with synonyms for incredible, or I can do my best to actually talk about the movie's contents.
It's about an old man who, along with his future wife when they were children, aspired to be an explorer of South America, just like some particular famous explorer he admires. The first ten or fifteen minutes is a well-timed sequence summarizing his life up to being an old man as he is for the rest of the film: being a young boy who aspires to explore South America, meeting a girl who shares his aspirations and love, marrying her, and growing old with her until she tragically becomes ill and passes away. This is a major theme throughout the remainder of the story, as Carl, the old main man, tries to fulfill their original goals of living at a particular South American waterfall and exploring together. He's about to have his home repossessed and be forced into a nursing home when he, a popular neighborhood balloon salesman, uses hundreds to thousands of helium balloons to float his house away, soaring towards South America, and abandoning those who wanted him to move out of his house and into a nursing home. From there, the grand adventure begins! I wouldn't want to give away too much, now would I?
Trivia: The explorer Carl admires is voiced by Christopher Plummer, who played Dr. Rosen in A Beautiful Mind, the Ron Howard film that was musically scored by James Horner.
More Trivia: Speaking of score, Up's music was composed by my second favorite movie composer: Michael Giacchino, J.J. Abrams main composer. As I recall he's scored everything J.J. has been an involved leader in except for J.J.'s TV Show "Felicity", which aired before J.J. discovered Giacchino.

I was feeling bored and unwilling to create a new E3 Predictions video on my Youtube; this movie's so great that I'm reinvigorated with inspiration that makes me want to create that video wearing my cool new 3D glasses... lol. Look for my E3 '09 Predictions video within the next 60 hours... Maybe even less than 24. UPDATE: I was unable to record an E3 Predictions Video; I apologize.

Well, that's almost all I might have to say about Up. Go see it with your girlfriends, your families, or yourself as soon as possible. Probably right after you finish watching Star Trek or Terminator to lighten the mood...

Thanks for stopping by.

nintendude794

Metroid Gets Primed, And So Should You

Enough with the stupid jokes about Metroid Prime Ribs; we've got some serious business to talk about here.

Nintendo has announced that on August 24, 2009, the remakes for Metroid Prime and Metroid Prime 2: Echoes headed for the Wii are going to be included with Metroid Prime 3: Corruption on a single disc that will be called the Metroid Prime Trilogy.

Here is a part of IGN's article covering the details about this breaking news:

Don't say Nintendo didn't do anything for you: on August 24th, the publisher will release Metroid Prime Trilogy for the Wii. Metroid Prime Trilogy, releasing almost to the day of Metroid Prime 3 Corruption's two year anniversary, is a jammed to the brim package that combines all of Retro's first-person adventure games for the GameCube and Wii, on a single disc. And the two GameCube games – Metroid Prime and Metroid Prime 2 Echoes -- have been reworked with full widescreen, 480p support and feature the same awesome Wii Remote/Nunchuk control that made Metroid Prime 3 Corruption so tight.

Source - IGN

This is amazing, considering the Metroid Prime and Metroid Prime 2: Echoes remakes in Japan are sold separately from each other. North America gets all 3 awesome titles for $49.99, the same price as a normal Wii game, all in one disc. This is a must-have for all Metroid fans.

Personally, I'm very excited for this release, even though I own all 3 titles. This must have been what Retro Studios was working on, but I have my doubts. I'm holding out for E3 '09 for an announcement on the next Metroid game; which the hinted title for is Metroid Dread. (The hint is somewhat hidden in a particular scan in Metroid Prime 3: Corruption.)

Until next time, play nice.

WiiGamin

___________________________________________________

I also own all three titles and I look forward to purchasing this amazing bargain of a collection when it releases on the beginning of the last full week of August. I believe the hint of "Metroid Dread" WiiGamin's referring to is in the opening sequence of Prime 3, when it's scrolling all of that data; if you snapshot the screen and examine it later, there's (as I recall) an excerpt of the code that says "Project Metroid 'Dread' nearing completion", or something like that.

I'm also excited for Nintendo's E3 plans this year, and have hopes that this year's showing will defeat any doubt of whether or not Nintendo cares about it's hardcore fans with enough big announcements to make more than just our heads spin... In five days, we'll only have five days left to wait...

I'll update this post with updates or confirmation as far as whether or not I'll be Twittering announcements as I watch the press conference, once said confirmation is available.

Also, just a notice, in case you haven't noticed. I've struggled to update the blog everyday this week, as our first post says I would; so, I need to present the solution: I'll now do my best to post at least once per week. I apologize for any disappointment and hope you continue to enjoy our blog regularly.

And in case I don't see ya, good afternoon, good evening, and goodnight!

nintendude794

nintendude794's Top 5: Hollywood Composers

As of last summer, my fascination with music has grown uncontrollably to become a career possibility; it's currently my second occupation choice, number one being a job in the video game or computer industry. This is due in part to my discovery of how awesome the music in movies and TV Shows can be, and I've began studying Hollywood composers and their movie music; I've began memorizing who scored what as far as about a dozen composers. The purpose of this post is to list my top 5 favorite cinema musicians , and they are:

5. Klaus Badelt - I pick this guy because he laid an amazing foundation for the action of the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy's themes. He's a student/apprentice of Hans Zimmer's, who scored Pirates 2 & 3 after Klaus composed the music for Pirates 1. One of my favorite movie soundtracks of all time is that of "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl".

4. John Williams - The absolute most famous Hollywood musician of all time, who wrote a piece for Obama's inauguration since Obama picked him as the one to do so. He's known for scoring all but three of Steven Spielberg's films, including Indiana Jones, Jaws, Jurassic Park, E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, and many more; films not involving Spielberg include Star Wars, Harry Potter, Richard Donner's Superman movie (the old one), and several, perhaps dozens, others. Some of my favorite movie themes of all time are from Jurassic Park, Indiana Jones, and Star Wars.

3. Hans Zimmer - I know him for scoring Christopher Nolan's "Batman" saga reboot (Batman Begins & The Dark Knight) alongside James Newton Howard, the second two Pirates of the Caribbean films, Broken Arrow, Ron Howard's Da Vinci Code movies, The Lion King, Gladiator, and Pearl Harbor. He's a very humble and talented German composer who's known for combining electronics and orchestra for most of his soundtracks. One of my favorite movie soundtracks of all time is that of The Dark Knight.

2. Michael Giacchino - Giacchino actually started out scoring video games, something I might want to take part in as a career. I mentioned him in the J.J. Abrams post for scoring most of J.J.'s work, including the movies Cloverfield, Star Trek (2009), and Mission: Impossible 3, as well as the TV Shows LOST, Alias, and Fringe. He's also scored numerous Disney animated films, including The Incredibles, Ratatouille, and the upcoming project Up, which releases this summer. He conducted the orchestra at the latest Oscar Awards Show, and is probably best known for his LOST music, which uses pieces of an airplane for percussion and has become famous for obnoxious downward trombone glissandos for LOST's many cliffhangers. Some of my favorite music to come out of Hollywood is LOST's vast array of many cool themes.

1. James Horner - Although a controversial composer who's been accused of steal musical ideas and passages from other people as well as his own work (I can prove he's reused elements of his own music, but I like it and think it's a cool concept), James Horner is an amazing musician. He's scored many of Ron Howard's films, such as Cocoon, A Beautiful Mind, Apollo 13, and Willow; otherwise, he's scored the movies Radio, Titanic, Jumanji, Casper, Braveheart, Legends of the Fall, Clear and Present Danger, Searching for Bobby Fischer, The Pelican Brief, Field of Dreams, Glory, The Land Before Time, Aliens, and Something Wicked This Way Comes. I haven't exactly seen all of these movies, although I've seen several of them. My absolute favorite movie soundtrack of all time is... the soundtrack of A Beautiful Mind.

And those are my top 5 favorite Hollywood composers. I'm still updating this post with links, and when I'm done, this sentence will be gone.

nintendude794

Introduction and More Coverage Info

Hello, and welcome to Silicon Strategists! I'm the other guy who will be posting to this blog, but I might be a little more in the background.

My name is Kyle, but I will be going by the alias WiiGamin. I'm a hardcore gamer, intermediate hardware tweak/repairer, and a learning programmer.

I will mainly be covering the following:

• Reviews (Pre and post play. Includes various Nintendo platforms, PC, and iPhone.)
• Video Game News (Nintendo-based, but will include PC gaming as well. More details later.)
  
• Tech News (Updates from this category will be less common than the others)
• Tech DIY/How-To (This will range from hardware repair to gaming tips. More details later.)
• And more

I will kindly listen to any and all comments, opinions, and suggestions that YOU have. We need to know what everyone thinks so that we can make improvements to the site. We hope the site will eventually grow to include other things such as forums so that we may become a large, friendly community. So contribute and follow our blog! We will reveal more later!

Until next time, play nice.

WiiGamin

"Celebrating Celebrity" 1: J.J. Abrams

As I listen to Coldplay's "Clocks", I feel I've picked a perfect topic considering this celebrity has had a few major happenings in the past week. J.J. Abrams (or Jeffrey Jacob Abrams) is a well-known television and film producer, screenwriter, director, actor, composer, as well as the founder of his studio, "Bad Robot Productions". Movie-wise, I know him for co-writing "Armageddon" (starring Bruce Willis); directing and co-writing "Mission: Impossible 3" (starring Tom Cruise); producing "Cloverfield" (starring a digitally animated monster that J.J. intended to become America's equivalent to Godzilla, however this monster looks to me kind of like a bulldog); and finally, directing and producing the latest "Star Trek" film, which released in American theaters a week ago when I saw it with some friends and really enjoyed it as an action-packed digital effects masterpiece. TV-wise, I know him as the co-creator, writer, executive producer, and director of LOST (currently my absolute favorite TV Show, until the Heroes plot improves; the Heroes season finale was great, compared to the rest of this season at least) and co-creator, writer, and executive producer of Fringe (of which the few episodes I saw I really liked and I intend to buy Season 1 DVDs when they come out), although I know he's worked on several other TV shows as well. For most of his Hollywood career, his work's music has been composed by a man named Michael Giacchino, making Abrams and Giacchino partners of sorts. I'm also a huge fan of him and his music, so he'll get his own post soon enough.

Now for J.J.'s accomplishments within the past week. Last Friday, as mentioned in the previous paragraph, his Star Trek reboot film launched here in the States, and it's an amazing feat of film-making. Sometime this week, the man who played Spock in the original Star Trek TV Show, who also reappeared as senior citizen Spock in the new movie, agreed to play a "major role" (said Abrams, as I saw on an IGN article) on the season finale of Abram's show Fringe; and that just sounds so awesome compared to the most famous actors they could get to play roles on Heroes, which are probably Greg Grunberg as Officer Matt Parkman and the guy who played Peter and Nathan Petrelli's father, Mr. Arthur Petrelli, an awesome villain for the first half (referring to "Volume 3: 'Villains'", since the second half of season 3 is "Volume 4: 'Fugitives'") of season 3. And finally, a couple nights ago (Wednesday), I was watching the Season 5 finale of LOST (I'll talk about LOST theories sometime!); I can't wait to see what season six is going to be about, and it's unfortunate for hardcore fans like me that next season is the end of the saga...

I'm a fan of J.J. Abrams and his accomplishments.

nintendude794

[Thanks to "gordonandthewhale.com" for the good picture]

My First Post

Welcome to Silicon Strategists! I'm Hunter, and this is my first post to a blog that discusses all kinds of cool stuff:
-Video Games = State of The Industry; discuss fun/favorite Games; Awesome Developers
-Music = My Favorite Artists, Genres, CDs, and songs; Music Theory; What do y'all listen to?
-Movies = Movies out lately; My Favorite Movies; Movies I happened to watch recently and my opinion of the particular film's quality
-TV Shows = Discussion of TV shows such as LOST (ABC), Heroes (NBC), Castle (ABC), Attack of The Show (G4), X-Play (G4), Good Eats (Food Network), and Feasting on Asphalt (Food Network)
-"Celebrating Celebrity" = I talk about some of my favorite people in the world
-"Top 5 _____" = my top five favorites of a particular material, such as the above topics.
-I'll come up with more creative and interesting topics for posts

I'll also discuss anything you'd like to hear an opinion on, or just say what I have to say about anything you're interested in. I'll do my best to post at least one entry per week and possibly eventually come up with a better name for our blog.

Thanks!

nintendude794

Note: On Friday, May 22, 2009, this post was edited to say that you can expect at least one post a week as one a day was quickly becoming overbearing. Please forgive us. Also, the segment names will likely change from those listed in this post, and I might just edit this post again later.