CANCER

You are torn between work and play today, and finding balance between the two can be difficult. On one hand, you are quite optimistic about fulfilling your obligations and taking care of business, even if it's just doing chores around the home. On the other hand, potential pleasures lure you into social realms and you don't want to turn down an invitation from your friends. Avoid making an either/or decision; instead, choose both.

Today I turned down 2 1/2 invites and stayed home to make nutella banana muffins and clean the house. It looks really weird but tastes alright. Last night, I turned down 3 invites and went last minute go-karting with my lover and my lover's lover.

To lover's lover: get this weird Shao Yang dude to leave me alone.

People who've talked to me about Spider-Man 3 have had nothing but good things to say about the movie. I admit, it was ALRIGHT. I've waited til now to talk about it so that the majority of people would've had a chance to watch it by now. But this, my very limited remaining friends, is a comphrensive number of reasons why Spider-Man 3 disappointed me (SPOILER WARNING).

• Bad acting. They're all fairly talented actors in their own respect, given the right roles, but this time, they just all over acted - BIG time. If you know me, you know that I used to worship Tobey Maguire back in the early highschool days, so there's very little chance of me ever criticising his acting - but he STUNK up the movie. I guess this ties in with bad casting and the fact that he is an old man, making him an unbelievable Spider-Man. Spider-Man is supposed to be a confident, wise cracking, good-looking sort of guy. Some may say that that is just not how Tobey is, but this is the very essence of acting. It's to play a part beyond your comfort level and try to become someone you're not. It just seemed as if he tried too hard. And oh my god, when Harry dies in the end - THE QUIVERING AND THE TEARS from Tobey and Kirsten - HORRIBLE, HORRIBLY ACTED! Oh god, the quivering...
• Horrible dialogue. This is even worse than the acting. During the movie, I shouted "who the fuck wrote this?!" In particular, the dialogue between MJ and Pete when she was "breaking up" with him on the bridge. Too soap-operaish, much
• Unfunny, childish, outrageous, embarassing, hard-to-watch awkward scenes. When Peter gets the black suit and he starts walking like a gay-ass (it was bad enough in the second movie, but still tolerable and even cute. This time, I wished and wished for the madness to end) and starts dancing everywhere and everyone thinks he's a creep, because he's acting like a real creeper. At least try to make the guy look a little cool, he's Spider-Man for god sakes. Oh god, the jazz bar where he's going nutso and flying everywhere like a freakazoid was adding insult to injury
• Gwen Stacy's existence. There was a lot of talk about her in the first Spider-Man and Sam Raimi, the director, specifically mentioned that he was not going to introduce her character. Then all of a sudden, they introduce her in the THIRD one, AFTER Mary Jane. If you know Spider-Man history, Gwen Stacy is supposed to be Peter Parker's first love. She's the perfect girl for him but then Green Goblin throws her off the bridge, and Spider-Man shoots out his web in attempt to save her. When he recovers her, he realizes that she's dead and he has to live with the question of whether or not it was him who was the cause of her death. How is she going to die now? Pretty powerful stuff, could have been awesome. But Spider-Man 3 fucked up the beautiful story of Gwen Stacy. And why the hell was she at Harry's funeral?
• MJ bitching about how it was "her kiss" - but she didn't even know it was Peter Parker back then and wasn't she with Harry when she kissed Spider-Man in the rain?
• Peter Parker becoming overwhelmed with fandom and acting gay-ass
• Little scrawny Eric from That 70's Show as the infamous Eddie Brock, aka Venom. Eddie Brock is supposed to be a macho looking guy, not a scrawny little kid. I had no problem with Topher Grace and his acting, but he was just miscast. I mean, I could even see Topher Grace as a good Peter Parker because he can pull of that kind of humour Peter has convincingly. But in the movie, there were parts where Venom talked and you could hear Topher's prebuscent girly voice, and it was so inappropriate for Venom - the disputed greatest villain of all time
• Mary Jane Watson's character. This is actually not Spider-Man 3's fault, it all stemmed from the first movie. We all know that Kirsten Dunst is used to playing goody-two-shoes characters, but like I said, acting is supposed to be when people act out of character. MJ is supposed to be spunky, hot, wild and vivacious, not the sweet girl-next-door type. And in the entire movie, she did not once say "tiger!" (Peter did, though: "Go get em, tiger?")
• Harry Osborne all of a sudden turns good? They've been building up his hatred and anger for three movies, after all the animosity between him and Peter, the evil should have completely poisoned him by now by comic standards. But all of a sudden, his irrelevant butler or whatever, Bernard, tells him that "over the years, I've seen things" and can all of a sudden vouch for Peter Parker.
• The ending. I liked the actual scene, I thought it was very sweet. But it should not have been the ending - it left me feeling completely dissatisfied. I know it's supposed to be a foreshadow of potential future sequels, but it should have at least put a wrap on things and left some sort of thrilling cliffhanger. Like show the symbiote creeping up or something...

Things I liked.

• The action. All of the action bits were perfect, completely enrapturing and full of energy. I loved the choreography (as always) of Spider-Man swinging through the streets, the acrobatics were smooth and flawless. I actually did like the tag-team, although a lot of people didn't. It looked fun and entertaining, even though Sandman's existence was not important and you could swear by the end of the battle everyone forgot about him and that's why he wanted to turn good - you know, for attention. And my favourite part was when Peter was going all psycho on Harry and he took his bomb and threw it in his face! But I seriously thought Harry died then, I actually would have preferred that
• The tension between Mary-Jane and Peter Parker. They got angry at each other a lot but it was believable how lonely MJ was feeling and it was believable how Peter was getting angry at the world. I like them better apart
• The supporting characters. J. Jonah Jameson. All of his scenes were perfectly hilarious! J.K. Simmons plays that role perfectly, no complaints at all. Incorporation of Dr. Connors aka future Lizard aka Spiderman's next villain is brilliant too, nicely written into the script.

So in the end, I did chose both