Story is Everything

This blog comes about after watching Indy 4. My beef with this fourth edition wasn't that they used CGI, but abused it, again. They just throw it in there because they can not because it is needed or useful. Like the animal gawking for the camera before the movie even started. And the directors storytelling is getting so sub par. Shia LaBeouf swinging with monkeys. Seriously, was that necessary? The original films effects are far more convincing than some of what goes on in the new one. It's not that the CGI effects were noticeable, but in Indy4 they were so blatant that they occasionally broke the emotional connection I had with the movie, which is very disappointing. Just because you can use CGI to render landscapes or gophers does not mean you should.

CGI can ruin some movies. For many directors, most notably George Lucas, CGI has replaced story and character development (Jar Jar Binks vs Gollum). It's all about the story and characters. There's a time and a place for everything and I think that's what makes a good director these days is the ability not to lose sight of the story. Story is everything. Walt Disney knew this better than anyone. Why have we gotten away from it?

Forecast

Weatherman was to be the only job where you can be wrong 80% of the time and still have a job. Can you think of any others?

Ride ON!

The lady and I went to Cedar Point on Saturday, first time I've been there in a bout three years. The weather forecast wasn't promising but it turned out to be a pretty decent day, a little chilly and windy. We rode all the major coasters. The only major rides I had never been on before were Maverick and Skyhawk and we got on both.

Ride ops were really good, the one on Maverick was asking everyone if this was their first time and my girlfriend and I raised our hands. The op responded "the couple in the back, aww!" It was just little things like that which make the day more enjoyable.

Only real complaint was the outrageous food prices and poor quality. $10 for a 22oz soft drink that was all ice and cheese fries that were bad. The counter service was slow. We ordered TWO things and the dude forgot our drink.

Also, has anyone noticed a different in Power Tower launching up side? To me it felt really weak, no where near as intense as say Indiana Beach's shot tower.

Here is a video I made of our day:

ThrillScore

I found a fun new website today for all you fellow ride nuts out there who like to keep track of your stats. It's called ThrillScore.com. The website will let you keep track and log all your roller coasters, thrill rides, water rides and more. Each ride is given a ‘score’ and the site will calculate your total score. You can then go to the leaderboard and compare your stats to other coaster fans around the world. You can also upload your own pictures. Check it out!