I watched Dracula Untold. I jokingly referred to it as "Dracula Undone" because I had a suspicion that it would "undo" everything about the character. It didn't, but at the same time, it didn't add anything either. It's just kind of...there.
It's a limp, uninspiring, and relatively inoffensive work. I'd make more puns about its general lifelessness (because vampires are dead), but I'll spare you the shenanigans. I have an appreciation for movies that are neither good nor bad. It takes a great combination of lost ambition and narrow avoidance of being terrible to arrive at that middle ground. I can't pinpoint any mistakes in the movie, and there are a couple of neat sequences, but all in all, it doesn't move the heart.
My friend got confused about the time between XD and regular showings, so we chilled at Starbucks before going in. There was a lot of talk about credit cards, but with my current currency flow, such topics were lost on me. Don't you hate it when you're stuck in a conversation you have no interest in but the wheels keep spinning and spinning regardless? I listened patiently and inserted a remark here and there to maintain presence, but most of my effort went into sucking my green tea frap dry.
There was also talk about getting promotions. If my friend gets a promotion, we're getting treated to a steak dinner (tentative suggestion). We're rooting for you!
After the movie, my friends and I ate at a chicken bowl place and talked about movies. One of them brought up Ultraviolet which I knew starred Milla Jovovich. I only watched it because it was directed by Kurt Wimmer, who did Equilibrium. I think Ultraviolet destroyed his career because it was the last movie he directed. He's still got writing credits on recent releases though. It wasn't until after I got out of the shower that I recalled Aeon Flux with Charlize Theron. My friend confused it with Ultraviolet. Funny how things you can't remember suddenly strike you later in the day.
Once I got home, I watched the original 1931 version of Dracula. It wasn't until after I finished the movie did I realize that I watched it with an alternate soundtrack composed by Philip Glass. I was planning on praising the soundtrack, but in hindsight, I think it ruined a lot of the atmosphere granted by silence. I might have to rewatch it in its original form.
I enjoyed it more than Frankenstein. The primary conflict between Count Dracula and Professor Van Helsing was more interesting than Henry Frankenstein versus the Monster. It's dated and the ending was abrupt, but it's nice to see what the original was like. I view it as an academic exercise rather than a piece of entertainment. It's just too bad that vampires can never be scary again. It's permanently ingrained into pop culture as an icon, and I'm not sure if that icon is even associated with horror anymore. Hollywood needs to come up with some new monsters. I'm tired of the same old same old.
To finish the night, I completed bounties and played PVP in Destiny. In one game, I got 20+ kills with an 11 ratio or something ridiculous. The next game, we spawn on the bad side of the map and I can't get to my sweet spot. I get a .7 something ratio and we lose. Some guy sends me a message on PSN telling me that camping will give me a negative KD and lose the match. I don't think he was on the other team since I didn't recognize his name, so I assume its one of my teammates.
The guy has no idea what he's talking about. Proof? Next match, I get 25 kills with a 12 something ratio. Camping is the best tactic in a game where people's natural instincts tell them to rush with a shotgun in hand. I camp with a sniper rifle. You do the math.
At first, I lamented how the maps encourage shotgun play, but now I'm genuinely thankful for it. There's only a handful of spots in each map where I can actually snipe from, but if I'm there, I essentially remove that entire part of map from enemy play. They can't go there because I'll pop their heads in one shot. It's total map control. My strategy is defend two points and stay back.
Earlier, I played Rumble, which is a free for all mode, and sniping is impossible since people attack from multiple angles all the time. I can't really hold a position on my own without support, at least with a sniper rifle.
That's why I prefer playing Control, a team mode. My camping skills are solid, so I have to learn to be more mobile. Since I don't go out of my way to chase kills, I don't always get first place. The top spot is usually for high volume players. They get more kills but they die a lot too. It's not strange to see the top place guy with 28 kills and a 1.5 ratio while I'm underneath him with 20 kills and a 10 ratio. At least I'm not feeding the other team with easy points.
I deleted the message since I have no plans to reply to him. I'd rather leave him hanging than give him the satisfaction of acknowledgement. I've learned that the best way to deal with such messages is to never reply to them. Ever.
/eventlog
