Once Upon a Time Finale Spoilers Expected

The Finale of Once Upon a Time was on Sunday and I missed it, but I just caught up on Hulu. The third season's Peter Pan arc has been what feels like a meager attempt for the writer's to glean what's left of a faltering storyline. The first season there was this beautiful premise of a town locked under a curse by a wicked queen and now the inhabitants of Storybrooke can't remember who they are or where they came from. The first season was phenomenal to say the least, but then it did something unexpected and broke the curse right at the end of the season. The huge mistake at the end of the first season was that the inhabitants of Storybroke were still stuck in the town and were unable to return to their true land. While this may have been an interesting premise it had the writers scrambling for a new and very weak plot arc. The town is threatened by an outside source and Emma, who suddenly remembers she has magic, and Regina save the town and get their son back. The third season left the audience gasping for air as the story fumbled through the sweltering jungle Neverland Arc for one too many episodes and when the season at last took its first big gulp of air by returning to Storybrooke it felt like the show could be redeemed. Finally after an entire season it feels that the show can and will be saved. On the Finale of Once Upon a Time our heroes are struggling against Pan who plans to enact the same wretched curse that Regina put on the town in the first place, which was the same curse that was broken in the first season.

This idea of reenacting the curse felt like the writers weak attempt and ultimate way to clamber out of the huge hole they dug themselves into after two seasons, a way to end and reset everything. A way to return everything to the way it should be.

In the dramatic conclusion Pan sacrifices the heart of the thing he loves most and rips out the heart of his loyal friend creating a curse, that will not destroy memories, but instead kill everyone and all the inhabitants in Storybrooke. In a desperate attempt to save everyone Neal, Hook, and Tink go on a side quest to retrieve the black fairy's wand. Its mentioned the black fairy was this super evil woman and the Blue Fairy had to take away her wand and perhaps her wings to stop her. With the recent promo I'm assuming the Black Fairy is none other then the most notorious children's villain ever, the Wicked Witch of the West.

After a bout with Pan's shadow Tink believes in herself floats up catches the shadow in a magical coconut (not the best plot device ever, but I'll go with it) and redeems herself. She tosses the holy coconut and incinerates it into a holy fire. Taada the Blue fairy reveals she's not dead and somehow her shadow returned to her body. If this is true does this mean that Greg and Tamara are still alive? After this the Blue Fairy gives Tink her wings back.

They return to the shop and Rumple uses the Black Fairy's wand to expel Henry's soul from Pan's body. Everyone leaves Rumple alone with Pan because that's always the smart thing to do and they go in search of Henry. Pan wakes up back in his body with a magic bracer on his wrist so he can't use magic. Rumple confronts him and they have it out with angry words. Pan compares Rumple to a "wriggling pink worm" and then reveals he made the bracer. Whapow he blasts the bracer onto Rumple and renders him incapable of using his magic. Pan promises to let him suffer by watching everything he loves die.

Pan goes back to gang and freezes them confronting them in a slow dramatic twist promising them that they will all die as soon as the curse dissipates throughout the town. Just then Rumple comes back and Pan is somehow not threatened by him because let's face it Rumple doesn't have any powers so he is useless. Rumple reveals that he is finally willing to accept the prophecy and he doesn't need magic to defeat pan. Enter Rumple's shadow. The shadow throws Rumple the Dark One's dagger and Rumple embraces pan literally stabbing him in the back. I'm assuming the sword went through Pan's shoulder and into Rumple as well. Rumple sacrifices himself and the two burst into magical powdery dust. We know that Pan is dead, but we are not sure if Rumple is truly dead, he might be redeemed for performing a selfless act.

After this brave act of sacrifice everyone weeps and its very heart wrenching. Grumpy runs in and tells them the curse is closing in all sides of them. Regina tells Emma that Henry can't go to the magical land with them because he was born in our world and rules of magic state that he must stay in his world. Because Emma is the savior and she is of both worlds she can choose to go or stay with Henry. Regina is no longer the evil queen and she urges Emma to stay with their son and she explains that by returning to their world the town will cease to exist and therefore their memories of the town will be now more. Snow and Charming exclaim that right after they get their daughter they lose her again. Regina further explains that she will create new memories for them. They somehow make it to the border even though grumpy stated the curse was closing in on all sides. At the border Emma bids everyone goodbye. She climbs into her yellow bug Volkswagen and she drives off while Regina uses her magic. The green curse cloud of Pan turns purple and swallows the inhabitants of Storybrooke right as Emma's car crosses the boarder.

In Emma's new memories she decided to keep Henry after all and not give him up. They live a happy life in New York eating scrambled eggs, pancakes, and hot chocolate with cream and cinnamon on the top. It seems too perfect and right on cue there is a loud knock on the door. Emma opens it to find Hook and he tells her that her family is trouble assailed by a new threat. Emma tells him that her family is right here and Hook explains that he knew she wouldn't be able to remember so he hopes a kiss will help jog her memory. Emma knees him in the crotch and slams the door on his face. When she returns to Henry he asks if everything okay and Emma simply replies that someone must have left the door open downstairs and basically let all the crazies in.          

This new premise changes everything. This means that last three seasons haven't existed. If that's true then does that mean that Rumple never died? Basically the finale makes up for all the mistakes, hits the reset button, and sets everything back right where it should be with huge sacrifices involved proving that villains are only what we make them to be. So does this mean Regina is now a good queen or is she back to her old ways? In fact does she even remember or know that Storybrooke existed or are her memories reset as well?

1# Movie Review - The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug

Courtesy of http://www.comingsoon.net

I got to go and see The Hobbit on Saturday and to tell you the truth I was quite impressed. The first film fell flat for and while their were assorted musings throughout, but the overall adventure felt a bit forced. **Spoiler alert** The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug started off in the little town outside of the Shire called Bree with a short cameo of Peter Jackson in his second walk on role since the first Lord of the Rings. Peter Jackson was attempting to recapture the glory of the previous Lord of the Rings films by revisiting the place where the adventure started, the Prancing Pony. This time there were no Ringwraiths in search of an all powerful ring. However there were two assassins in search of a lone dwarf king named Thorin Oakenshield. As Thorin sat alone at his table ready to act before the assassins did Gandalf arrives. Gandalf urges Thorin to reclaim his homeland and be king under the mountain . Months later Thorin, Gandalf, Baggins, and dwarf company are sharing in an adventure. They've just climbed down a giant peak, which the eagles left them on at the end of the last film. Those eagles aren't very helpful. Why couldn't they just drop them off at the foot of the Lonely Mountain? Here's why and while this is not a very good excuse in the book the reason is that the eagles worry men will fire at them because I guess they men fear giant flying creatures ever since Smaug. Anyways back to the adventure the gang is outrunning Azog the Defiler, the one with the egg beater for a prosthetic and his gang of orcs atop fiendish wolf-hyena crossbred Wargs. They seek refuge in the home of the bear man Boren. Boren admits to them that, "I hate dwarves, but I hate orcs more." With a strange snaggle-tooth smile he let's them take some horses to the edge of the dark forest of Mirkwood. Gandalf tells them to follow the straight and narrow path and Bilbo asks why they can't go around. Gandalf argues that if they go around it will take them 200 miles out of their way. Gandalf leaves them to pursue a side quest. The dwarves go into Mirkwood, lose their mind, and start running in circles. While they are at each other's throats Bilbo is keen to strum a spiderweb, which send shock waves through the entire forest alerting these huge elephant sized spiders. After a near death experience with spiders, they are confronted by the Mirkwood elves, Legolas, a female version of Legolas known as Tauriel, more orcs, and then a dragon named Smaug, who got up on the wrong side of the treasure trove.

I never thought that you could take a simple 300 page novel and make into three movies each averaging about three hours. I guess what Peter Jackson attempted to do was put 100 pages into each film, glean from the appendices and the Smiliron, and then add extra characters to fill in the gaps. The thing that Director Peter Jackson does best is giving us a sense of awe and wonder as he stands by his 48 fps. The second entry into the Hobbit films is a stunning visual and digital masterpiece. This is special effects at its best.

By far the greatest sequence of the film was the barrel ride. This barrel ride is ten times better and scarier than the River Run Rapids at Disneyland. The barrel ride is the quintessential action sequence for 2013. There has never been an action sequence like this before on screen, each moment is filled with nonstop action, an ever building tension with the constant threat of death. The scenes moves quick as the surging white water rapids and the horde of orcs pursuing the dwarves.  

The other great scene in this movie would have to be Smaug. When we get our first glimpse at the massive treasure horde under the mountain it is absolutely breath taking, in fact it has been said they used up all the gold paint in Hollywood just make it look realistic. When we first see the treasure there is no sign of the dragon and Bilbo believes the dragon Smaug is no more until a pile of coins moves revealing Smaug's closed eye. More coins move and we are given an idea to the enormity of Smaug.

The next scene that follows is motion capture at its best and while the hobbit had the all too scary moment of Gollum and Baggins playing riddles, this scene had another element entirely. The first time Smaug spoke one of his best lines was, "You brought something with you, something gold, something that is precious to you." Smaug's deep smoldering voice can only describe as epic and how all dragons should sound. Bilbo and Smaug have a "heated" confrontation, which leads to the ultimate chase through the mines.

The other thing was Gandalf's side quest and while this does little to move the actual Hobbit story along, it tries its best to weave the Hobbit movies with the Lord of the Rings. Gandalf ultimately meets up with the necromancer a dark entity of lord Sauron himself imbued in the flames of the flaming red eye from the Lord of the Rings trilogy. I felt this scene was an unnecessary scene, throughout the movie we are aware of Sauron's ever growing presences and we don't need to be reminded that he is the one looking for his all powerful ring.

Overall the best part about the movie has to be the fast paced barrel ride and the grand appearance of the Smaug, king under the mountain. It is a move defiantly worth seeing, much better than the slow paced first Hobbit film, but the two prequels live in the shadow of the Lord of the Rings Trilogy and while it may never live up to the sheer grandeur of the original films it gives us insight into how the ring came to the shire and how the whole war started in the first place.          

Baer's Golden Age

Fall is over, but its never to late to enjoy a beautiful picture

I am back from my week long hiatus of finals and a crazy teacher. After my week I realize that I've now been writing for almost 10 years and I am finally seeing the eve of my Golden Age. A long time ago in the sixth grade I was a reluctant teen not wanting to write like a caveman caught in a cave grasping at sticks. Once I learned how to write, it started a small spark, a desire to try and write. You can't expect to sit down and write a great American novel, you have to start out small and eventually build up to that point. When you start, your short stories aren't going to be brilliant, mine have the consistency of a pictograph on a cave wall. My first story I didn't know anything about how to use quotes, apostrophes, comas, and such. My first teacher Mr. Rasch began to teach me all I know and soon I was on my way to the 7th grade. In the 7th grade I met the eccentric Ms. Villa a woman who had two loves in her life the color violet and Orlando Bloom. She saw that spark, the desire within me and she kindled the small spark into a burgeoning flame. She fed my desire to write taught me how to use quotes correctly and fix my run on sentences. I was afraid, but eager to try and I began my first novel 300 pages of absolute nonsense, but it did have a beginning, middle, and an end with a decent plot. Even though the novel was bland Ms. Villa told me how she loved it and wanted me to keep writing even though I was only beginning. After my year was over Ms. Villa asked me to stay on as her student assistant and in the slow moments she would teach me more. One Christmas she gave me the complete set of the Chronicles of Narnia and I devoured those books one by one learning from C.S. Lewis' writings. Near the end of the 7th during our annual writing tests I met Ms. Nanigan and she explained to me how I had the writing average of a 9th grader. She further encouraged me to keep going, to keep on writing and keep getting better. In the eighth grade I met Ms. Lewis and she knew there was something different about me when I was able to tell her the pantheon of the Greek Gods in one sitting and she further encouraged my writing. I was into musicals at the time and wrote my first lyrical, a terrible musical based on the Bride of Frankenstein. Even though she read it and I'm sure she didn't like it she told me to keep writing no matter how terrible you are because you'll get better. Then at the end of the eighth grade I learned I had autism and I feared that my gift of writing was only an obsession a symptom of my syndrome and not a unique talent. I faced my Dark Age and almost refused to write and then I went into high school and met Ms. Minter the teacher who would become a key figure in my writing career. If not for her I would still be caught in that Dark Age. Even after I gave her a 20 page paper, which she mentioned kept her up grading at night she encouraged me to join Yearbook classes and at first I was reluctant, but than I agreed to sign on. Three years later I became the editor-in-chief. I was afraid I couldn't do it, but I manged to do it quite well and Ms. Minter was confident in me. Her confidence in me helped build my self esteem. With four years of college now I've realize that being a writer is a very hard thing. You work long hours to make it perfect, but no manuscript is perfect. I've realized there are three kind of people who look at your work, there are those who are going to hate your work and feed it to the flames, there are those who will use your work to fan the flames, and then there are those who will pick up your work out of the ashes and dust it off. Now in my Golden Age I am finally getting to point where I am comfortable to share my work no matter if it is rejected or not.