Early

I keep forgetting I live a lot closer to Edmonton now.  Before, when I'd plan a day in the city, I'd leave at 8AM, and roll into town at around 10.  Now, I leave at 8AM, and get into the city shortly before 9.  This left me with a whole hour to kill before pretty much anything opened up in West Edmonton Mall.  I like being at the mall so early.  It's so empty and so quiet.  However, there's nothing to do.  So I asked myself the question many a mallrat had been asking for the past few months.  "Hey, I wonder if Target's open yet?"

Yes.  Yes it is.  The much ballyhooed Target is upon us.  Finally, we can see what inspired Dragonette to cover the Mr. Rogers theme.

And...it's a department store.

I don't know what was so special about it.  It's just a department store.  I will admit, when I first heard that Target was coming to Canada, a small part of me was excited, if only because I remembered all those old articles in ToyFare magazine that highlighted certain collectable action figures as being available only at Target.  So, yay, those exclusives are finally coming to Canada and I won't have to pay too much money for them on eBay.  I did spy some Target exclusive Justice League figures, but nothing really that made me want to shell out money.

So that's Target.  A department store.

After that, most of the mall was open, so I was off to Chapters.  I had resolved to finally pick up a book I had my eye on for about a year now.  As you know, I'm a fan of Kevin Smith, so I figured it was finally time to pick up his memoirs, Tough Shit:  Life Advice from a Fat Slob Who Did Good.

Smith had a few books published before, but he regarded Tough Shit as being his first real book.  I mean, his first few books were just compilations of magazine articles and blogs he'd written.  But Tough Shit was where he actually sat down and wrote a book.  And boy, did he have a lot to write about.

The past five years have been tumultuous for Smith.  Starting with Zack and Miri Make a Porno failing at the box office, followed by his feuding with Bruce Willis while making Cop Out, going back to his indie beginnings to make Red State, and then finally saying, "Fuck it all," and walking away from film-making.  I'm really looking forward to it.  I think it could be good, and watching him melt down a little bit on Twitter and in his podcasts, I'm finally ready to see him peel back his own layers and get to the root of what was going on.

A quick trip over to HMV, where I was a little let down.  Being a fan of both Star Trek and Michael Giacchino, I was hoping to pick up the soundtrack for Star Trek Into Darkness.  Not finding it on the shelves, I remember from some Star Trek websites that the actual physical album release isn't until Tuesday.  So instead, I was going to get the Wreck-It Ralph soundtrack, having fallen in love with it now that I've seen the movie on Blu-Ray a few times.  But, they were sold out.  So I figured I had to leave HMV empty handed this time.

Then I finally went to see Star Trek Into Darkness.  More on that later.

After I had my fill of the mall, I had to stop by Best Buy on my way out of town.  For the past couple of bill paying days, Quicken has been flashing all kind of error messages about how they're about to stop supporting the 2010 version of the program, and I'd better upgrade to 2013 if I want to keep using their software to keep track of my shrinking bank account.  So I figured I should pick that up.  I mean, hey, if my bank account is about to shrink to oblivion, I may as well track that shit in real time, right?

But in the middle of all that, I finally saw my most anticipated film of the summer, the latest Star Trek film, Into Darkness.  I'm going to get pretty spoilery as I talk about the film, so turn away now.  Well, that shouldn't be a problem for most of you.  From what I gather online, I'm the only of you guys who didn't see it on opening weekend last week.  No, instead of going to see it, I went home to spend time with my folks.  Because I care about family more than some stupid movie.

Are you done rolling your eyes?  Good.  Click away now if you're in the minority that hasn't seen it.

Still there?  OK, let's do this.

First up, he's Khan.  Worst kept plot twist in movie history.  Or at least since, "Miranda Tate is Talia" from The Dark Knight Rises last year.  Why they had to try to make this some big mystery, I don't know, but there it is. 

And with all the Khan stuff...ugh.  I mean, I know they wanted to parallel the end of The Wrath of Khan, but I'm sorry.  When Kirk died behind the glass, and Spock yelled out in anguish, "KHAAN!!" I wasn't feeling awe or appreciation that they referenced the original.  I was laughing, because it seemed so awkwardly shoehorned in. 

And the way Kirk is resurrected, using Khan's healing factor powers.  It is set up in such an obvious way that there's very little suspense in how they pull it off. 

That being said, though, some references and respect for canon I appreciated.  Revealing that the resurrection of Khan and the creation of their super-mega-ultimate battleship was a Section 31 project made me geek out no end. 

All things considered, I did enjoy the hell out of this film, just as much as I enjoyed the first one.  Again, we're given a truly epic Star Trek tale...never have we seen Star Trek rendered so large.  Great action sequences, great space battles, everything was good.

Probably my top complaint:  needed more Bones.  It's nice that Kirk and Spock have their bromance going on, but we've got to start getting McCoy in there more for the Kirk/Spock/Bones trinity once again. 

But yeah.  I enjoyed it...if the references to other facets of Star Trek seemed humorously out of place.