The Best Guardians

With Guardians of the Galaxy hitting theaters, I thought I would look back on several other groups who called themselves Guardians. Because really, is there any better name for a group of heroes than Guardians of [insert name here?] It's a perfectly fine name for a group of heroes as far as I'm concerned, which is why I think we should take a look at other groups who've used that moniker.

Guardians of Childhood
(from Rise of the Guardians)

If you're looking for heroes, who better than the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, The Sandman, Jack Frost, and of course, Santa Claus. These five legendary figures do more than deliver holiday presents, take teeth, and give you sweet dreams. They also protect children from the dark dangers of the world.

After all, Santa only works one night, what's he doing the rest of the year. Apparently, slaying monsters. While I like the idea of a tatted up Kris Kringle, I just hope he doesn't start experimenting with gauges. That would just look silly on that jolly old elf.

While the movie itself was a bit underwhelming, the book series is worth checking out. (And for a great alternate take on what these icons of childhood are really up to, I highly recommend The Discworld book Hogfather. Or the movie, which is utterly fantastic.)

Comparing the Spider-Man movies

I'm a huge fan of the Sam Raimi Spider-Man trilogy, and by that I mean I loved the first two movies and pretend like the third one didn't happen. I am in the camp that approves of the reboot, and I thoroughly enjoyed The Amazing Spider-Man despite having to sit through yet another origin story. If you're wondering whether to see it in 3D, I'd recommend it.

Rather than offer an ordinary review of this new film, I thought I would get into the specifics and talk about what exactly worked and the few things that didn't. I also wanted to compare this film to Raimi's first Spider-Man, since they both deal with the origin story, though they tackle it very differently.

Be aware that there's going to be massive spoilers below, so don't read this unless you've already seen the movie or don't mind spoilers. So yeah, consider this a huge SPOILER WARNING!