The Professional Gamer - May 30, 2014

This week I spent a lot of time in the garden, and didn't spend very much playing video games. However, I did watch a few geeky movies, and continued my most recent read through of The Hobbit.

Playing: I played a very little bit of Diablo 3 during the past week, but was generally distracted by other geeky pursuits, gardening, and running. I spent the morning of Memorial Day running 10 km for the Bolder Boulder, which is a hugely fun race.

Reading: I'm still working on reading through The Hobbit. I'm having a lot of fun with it especially as I look forward to the final movie. However, as I read through, I am feeling increasingly judgmental about the shortcoming of the Jackson adaptation and its unnecessary and unwanted additions to the story.

Watching: This week, I discovered that Star Trek: Into Darkness has been released to NetFlix streaming. So I sat down and watched it. I must say, that I was not terribly impressed: the plot was flimsy, and the action sequences where both gratuitous and difficult to follow. This movie attempted to retell much of the plot of Wrath of Khan, but did so without first giving Khan and the Enterprise crew reason to hate each other. Khan in this version of the story, seems to seek out death and destruction not because he has been wronged, but simply because he enjoys killing. In the older movie, although Khan was ruthless, his violence was motivated by a feeling that he had been deeply, and intentionally,wronged by Kirk. Long story short, I followed up my viewing of Into Darkness with Wrath of Khan, and was much more satisfied watching the 30 year old classic. The action is much more subdued, but provides considerably more suspense. The climatic battle in the nebula remains a great example of suspenseful combat. Overall, the only redeeming part of Into Darkness are the performances of Benedict Cumberbatch and Karl Urban.

That's all for this week. Game on!