Spiderman: Brand New Day and 44th Birthday

My wife and I watched Spiderman: Brand New Day in the theaters, and it was really good. There is criticism that MJ and Ned returning undermines the ending of the previous Spiderman film, but I was fine with it. From a story perspective, it is not particularly unusual for them to move back to New York. The thing that is important though is how the writers and director made Peter Parker/Spiderman react to their return. I thought that Peter reacted realistically in consideration to the circumstances. He is hurt, still traumatized by his friends not remembering him, and putting so much into crime-fighting as his coping mechanism. Them coming back into his life and the changes happening with it coincide with his new spider transformation. The action was really well-done for this movie. Jean Grey being one of the villains-turned-allies had some fans questioning this choice, but it looks like it was done to formally introduce “mutants” into the MCU, and by extension, the X-Men. The partnership with the Punisher was fun, even though this was a much toned-down Punisher. This was a much-needed outing for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, especially with Avengers: Doomsday coming out in a few months. Their previous offerings for this phase have quite honestly been sub-par, so this movie needed to be a home-run.

On the same day that we watched Spiderman was also my birthday, on a weekday. My wife also gifted me a really thoughtful and considerate yellow Brazilian Jiu Jitsu gi fashioned from Bruce Lee’s Game of Death outfit. Before the movie, my wife, my parents and I went to eat Mediterranean food at a place called Istanbul Grill. We always passed by it, and we were feeling Mediterranean food that day. Thankfully, it was good with some of the best Peta bread and chicken that I had. On the weekend, my wife, friends and I ate Korean BBQ, which is always good. In a sense, it was two birthday celebrations in one week. We then watched the UFC Fight Night: Gamrot vs. Salkilld, and Salkilld looks like he will challenge for the UFC Lightweight Title sooner rather than later after a very strong performance against Gamrot.