Food For Thought

Thursday, 19 May 2011

  • Thor

    I find that life (at this moment) keeps me much to busy to write much. Alicia is pretty sick from morning sickness, and so I'm having to pick up a lot of the slack around the house to make sure things get done. Not that I mind, but getting a meal ready/eaten is more important than blogging. However, I felt the urge to write a review of the recent release, Thor, after seeing it.

    Thor Odinson, powerful, arrogant, strong. Given the mighty Thor's Hammer as a weapon, he wields it with great ferocity and strength. Thor lives in the realm of Asgard, home of the Gods, with Odin, his father, and Loki, his brother.

    When the time had come for Thor to succeed his father on the throne, the ceremony is interrupted by an intrusion of some of the Frost Giants, seeking to steal back their source of power. Thor wants to teach them a lesson, and travels down to the realm of Jotunheim (Yoh-tun-hime). Once there however, Thor and his friends find themselves outnumbered and out matched by the Frost Giants. Odin comes in to the rescue and brings them out, but strips Thor of his power and his hammer, casting them down to the realm of Midgard (Earth).

    Thor is discovered by Jane, an astronomer. After convincing her of his heiratage, Thor and Jane sneak back to the landing site of the hammer, an area cordoned off by the secret government agency called SHIELD. Thor fights his way in, only to discover that stripped of his power, he is not strong enough to lift the hammer.

    Humiliated and depressed, he vows to help Jane recover the data and research confiscated by SHIELD. When Thor sacrifices his life to protect Jane from a killer sent by Loki, he is given back his power and the Hammer of Thor is his yet again.

    Thor is rated PG-13 for violence (and a few curse words), but not much of it is any more gory than Lord of the Rings. I really enjoyed watching it, and thought that the plot was well played out. Being that it is based on the comic book series The Avengers, I think that Thor is likely the beginning of a series and will probably have forthcoming sequels. Yeah.... it's a good guy movie.

     

    Protecting the Village,

    Brian Jones

     

     

Monday, 28 February 2011

  • The Grace Card

    This past Sunday, Alicia and I went to see a new movie we had heard about. I watched the trailer and thought it seemed like a really great story.

    Once we got seated, through the commercials/other trailers, it began.

    Mac McDonald is a policeman in Memphis, TN. He joined the police force seventeen years ago after his oldest was killed by a runaway drug dealer's car at the age of five. Filled with bitterness and anger, he seeks to rid the city of other like people so that no one else will have to suffer as he did.

    When a promotion lands on a younger, less experienced officer named Sam Wright, Mac is furious--only more so when he finds out that they're being put on patrol together. Sam is a part-time pastor at a small church and is struggling to find God's call for his life and to love the irritable and hateful Mac. He preaches to his congregation that while grace is easy to receive, it's very difficult to give to others.

    When Mac's only son goes astray and ends up in the hospital with a life threatening wound, only forgiveness and grace will bring healing and save his son--and himself.

    Many hard questions are raised in The Grace Card, and not all of the answers are easy, or understandable. God is big--more so than we can imagine. Why He does what He does no man can say. But through it all He is there for us.

     

    I don't know if The Grace Card will be out in theaters very long, but if you have the opportunity to see it, please do. And if you leave the theater with a dry eye, let me know. I know I didn't.

     

    Protecting the Village,

    Brian Jones

Sunday, 26 December 2010

  • Inception

    Can an idea, once planted, become reality?

    Can dreams be penetrated by those outside?

    Can ideas be planted in a dream by someone who is not the dreamer?

    Dominick Cobb is a professional dream thief, applying his skills to corporate espionage. By entering a subject's dreams, he can extract information from deep within the subconscious. Working with a team of his partner, an architect, forger, pharmacist, and financier.

    Cobb is challenged with something new though, and unheard of. He is to enter the mind of Robert Fischer, the heir to an energy monopoly, and commit inception--planting the idea to break up his father's empire. The only problem is this: if Fischer becomes aware that his mind is being infiltrated, his subconscious will attack and the dream will fall apart. To hide the infiltration, Cobb and his team set up a complex series of dream layers--dreams within a dream. As they descend into each lower layer, the perception of the passage of time slows. A few hours in reality provides days in the dream, and days in the dream provides months in the next layer down, and so on.

    One member of the team is left in each layer of the dream, to aid the others in reawakening into that layer from deeper down. However, they are constantly under attack from Fischer's subconscious, putting them in a time pinch. To make matters worse, a new member is added from Cobb's own subconscious; his deceased wife, Mal. Plagued with guilt about her death, and the reasons behind it, Cobb tries to subdue his thoughts about her, but she appears in the dream, trying to sabotage their efforts.

    Cobb and Ariadne (his dream architect) must enter the deepest level of the subconscious, referred to as "limbo," to rescue Fischer and defeat Mal. But getting out of limbo, well... is easier said than done.

    Inception is a beautifully crafted story that is more complex than anything I have seen or read in quite a long time. While the prolific profanity is a problem, and the fact that there really isn't a "good guy" in the story is an ethical paradox, the film is one worth watching time and again. Be ready for mind stretching, great action, and tons of slow motion to enjoy it all in.

    Below is a really cool graphic I found that seems to make a little sense of all the dream layers, who's dreaming them, and when everything happens. Amazing. Right click it to view a much larger detail.

    Protecting the Village,

    Brian Jones

Saturday, 25 December 2010

  • The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

    "I'll smash the rotten picture!" Without realizing what he's doing, Eustace--the selfish, despicable cousin of the Pevensies--hurls Lucy, Edmund, and himself into the magical world of Narnia. Landing in an ocean in the path of an ornate, dragon-shaped ship, they reunite with an old friend, King Caspian. He is on voyage to the end of the world, seeking out his father's friends and the magical swords they bear. Along the way, the meet pirates, slavers, dragons, and the being of a star.

    Though many who see this film may feel cheated due to omissions or additions to the storyline, I feel that in the interest of keeping the story moving (and within the time limit) many of the changes were beneficial. Some of the adventures were combined, while others, like the Dark Island, were used as a theme throughout the movie. Speaking of, I particularly liked the representation of the Dark Island and the evil it stood for. The director makes it clear: evil is very tempting, and it can sneak in like a mist when you least expect it. To Edmund, the evil takes the form of the White Witch, trying still to corrupt him and regain power over Narnia. Edmund must defeat her if the evil is to be felled.

    The end of the film, with the return to England and the realization that Lucy and Edmund can never return, we feel remorse that their adventures are ending in Narnia, but are given hope that, "In your world, you must learn to know me by another Name." Aslan is there. All we must do is find Him.

    Dawn Treader is an exciting, fast paced film that will keep you interested the whole time. I do recommend a bit of viewer discretion though--not everything in this movie will be suitable for young children. The scene at the Dark Island, with the sea serpent and the White Witch is one that seems more fitting in some kind of sea-horror film than a kid's movie. The serpent is large, nasty, and nightmarish. Perhaps that's appropriate, given that it was "Nightmare Island," but some kids might have trouble with this one. In fact, it reminds me a LOT of a creature in the movie, 9.

    Needless to say, I greatly enjoyed the movie (both times I saw it) and would add this to my favorites list.

     

    Protecting the Village,

    Brian Jones

Sunday, 10 October 2010

  • I made it!

    Dear friends,

    I'm sure it's been a little frustrating to have not heard from me in a while, but I must admit to having things in my life a little interrupted of late. Namely: I got married. While that is a story unto itself, I have decided to leave that for the moment and instead leave you with some pictures from our honeymoon to Florida. I tried to log in my Xanga a week or two ago, but was dismayed to discover that I couldn't. The login page kept refreshing and would never let me in. Finally, this afternoon, a thought occured to me and I used my handy-dandy browser-rendering-engine-switcher (IE Tab Plus) to emulate MicroSoft's Internet Explorer. In other words, I have a FireFox addon that tricks websites into thinking that you're using Internet Explorer instead of FireFox. For some reason, that made the difference and I'm now allowed to login. Dumb website.

    Without further ado, my pictures.

    On the beach of the Atlantic, in Jacksonville Beach, FL.

    We ate at Joe's Crab Shack one evening. Delicious.

    An adventure grilling on the beach--with rain threatening!

    A drive and visit to Johnson Space Center.

    Sunrise on the Atlantic.

    Prayers in the St. Augustine Cathedral, St. Augustine, FL.

    An opportunity for a kiss. We found lots of them.

    If you're interested in seeing a more complete selection of pictures, I do have an album up on FaceBook that can be accessed by clicking here.

    Additionally, Alicia has started a new blog for our family, which can be found at this link.

     

    Protecting my own Village,

    Brian C. Jones