John Carter – A review

My bus got me home for 7 and I ust finished supper.  This might be shorter than I intended.  Asides like this and the next won’t help either.

I’ve got a lot of ideas this week and a half finished blog about Tim and the crocodiles, but talking about John Carter seems more timely.

It was, apparently, a box office disaster.  Underservingly so.  This was a solid, fun, entertaining action/sci-fi flick.  I can heartily recommend it.  It isn’t without its flaws, but they are not huge.

John Carter is the newest Disney movie.  Directed by Andrew Stanton (Finding Nemo and Wall-E) although this is a far different beast.  It is filled with actors you probably don’t know – although the supporting cast is an incredibly solid mix of Dominic West (The Wire – Det. McNulty), Mark Strong (Sherlock Holmes – Moriarty) and James Purefoy (Rome – Mark Antony).  The trailer looked like a very generic mess.  And now it didn’t do well at the box office.  This movie needs saving.

John Carter is a former calvaryman from Virginia.  As he searches for a rumoured gold mine and outruns a posse, he is transported across space to the planet Barsoom.  But this isn’t a made up planet – it is the one we can see in our night sky.  The red planet – Mars.  Waterless, filled with giant plains and looming canyons, but with less gravity.  John Carter finds that a simple step turns into a leap and a single blow of his first can cave in a chest.

That’s right because Mars is populated with Martians.  The martial and savage, but honorable Tharks.  The human looking resident of the two cities in an ongoing civil war – Helium and Zodonga.  The mysterious Therns.  And a variety of both vicious and loyal beasts.

Carter is quickly embroiled in the civil war.  He befriends the Tharks and involves them as well.  The Therns seem to be manipulating events from the sidelines.  But the core plot is about Carter fighting for the love of the Martian princess of Helium – Dejah Thoris.

Intriguing, if a bit conventional, plot – check!  Interesting characters?  Check – especially Dejah Thoris and the Thark Jeddak (general/leader) Tars Tarkas.  Cool effects?  Yes.  Exciting action?  Yes – including fight scenes, chases, and environmental hazards. An emotional through line?  Yep.

It is rated PG although there are some scenes of combat that might be intense for younger kids – a villainous Thark is beheaded and a vicious white ape is disemboweled.  (I thought the later was a bit gratuitous in a PG movie, but if the kids are fine with the Rancor’s death this isn’t far different.)  It won’t insult an adult’s intelligence to watch it.

Plus the movie is just fun.  Fun.  Fun. Fun.  It has a brave, solitary hero.  A brave, intelligent, beautiful martian princess.  A brave alien leader – Tars Tarkas.  It isn’t a funny movie, but it doesn’t lack wit.

Here are my quibbles;

• John Carter speaks with a gravelly “Batman” voice.
• The sci-fi aspects – the ravaging city of Zodonga – the planes that fly through the air – the power of the ninth ray – not enough time is spent on these for my sci-fi bred interest.  (YMMV)
• Dejah Thoris may be too beautiful.  Her character is complex with a number of layers, but the camera lingers on her gorgeous eyes.  (It doesn’t ignore her stunning legs either!)
• It has a ‘princess must marry to save her people instead of for love – oh the injustice!’ subplot.  This is just one of those plots that annoys me – like a carebear stare ending.
• The villains are played by two awesome actors who get almost nothing to do.  That made me sad.  Sure they get to be villainous, but not – not interesting enough.
• 3D does the movie no favours.  It is filled with vistas of Mars that are all blurry because they are in the foreground of the 3D shot.  It was really annoying. See this in two-D if you can.  (I spent $19 on an Imax ticket when only 5% of the huge screen was in focus at a time.)

None of these are a reason not to see the film.  If you can’t see it, rent it or buy it, VOD it or PVR it.  Figure out how to go watch it.

This movie owes a lot to Star Wars.  You’ll see touches of it here and there.  But, it is trying to do the same thing as Star Wars – have fun, entertain and thrill.  In many ways it succeeds.  It is no Star Wars, but it aspires to be.  That is pretty nifty.

 

Locke and Key

I’ve been a bit weary of many comics these days.  I’m on the lookout for something new and interesting.  Locke and Key fits.

An IDW comic by Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez, it follows the travails of the Locke family while they sojourn at Keyhouse.  I’ve read the first two arcs and the fifth is now seeing serialization.  The first arc is almost straight up horror.  The second has more of a Grant Morrison tinged weird fantasy touch.  The first arc was suspenseful and scary and horrifying.  The second wasn’t quite as good, but features some just stunning visual metaphors.

Bode, Kinsey and Travis are the Locke children.  The comic opens with a pair of psychopaths attacking first their parents and then the children.  As a result the family moves back to their Dad’s childhood home – a mansion on a promontory called Keyhouse.  In addition to their Uncle Duncan, Keyhouse contains doors, keys, locks and mysteries.  Including a malevolent spirit in the wellhouse.

The first arc plays as a children in peril horror story.  It works well both due to the creepiness of the house, the implacability of their tormentor and the fact that they DO go to adults for help.  I’m often annoyed at this type of story because the kids never do the obvious and tell an adult or parent of the threat.

What makes this work?  The characters are well drawn – in multiple sense of the word.  They are distinct and interesting.  They have backstories, emotions, and beleivable reactions.  The Locke kids in particular seem like the kind of people you might like to know.

The mysteries of Keyhouse are intriguing and fantastic.  The core conceit is that there are keys that allow for incredible events if used properly.  The number, kind and true purpose of the keys and the house is the central mystery driving the series.  The house, the keys and their effects are all portrayed niftily.  The normal people and events are shown in a cartoony, but grounded style.  The fantasy sequences are just fun and astounding.

A horror comic isn’t for everyone.  But if you have any interest in the genre…Locke and Key is just awesome.

AvX

Ignore this post.  It is an indulgence in high geekery.

The big summer comic event from Marvel is Avengers vs. X-Men.  CBR did an article about the four ‘generals’ of the two teams.  I think they got it wrong.  Which is unfortunate since the folks giving the details were two of the key writers (both of whom I like) and the Avengers editor (whom I also like).  So I’m going to re-hash it out Todd-style.

We will evaluate by these criteria on a four star basis:

• Strategic Thinking
• Tactical Thinking
• War time experience
• Ability to fight for ones passions
• Ability to inspire others

The four captains are:

• Captain America (Steve Rogers) – leader of the Avengers
• Cyclops (Scott Summers) – leader of the X-Terminators (X-Men)
• Luke Cage – leader of the New Avengers
• Wolverine (Logan) – leader of X-Force and headmaster of the Jean Grey Academy

Not to leave you in suspense… Cap is going to win.

Strategic Thinking

• Captain America – * * *
• Cyclops – * * * *
• Cage – *
• Wolverine – * *

Cyclops wins.  He’s been studying strategy for years and deploys his people in the field with a purpose.  Cap is arguably his equal here, but I rank him less because the Avengers often don’t deploy with a strategy.

Tactical Thinking

• Captain America – * * * *
• Cyclops – * * * *
• Luke Cage – * *
• Wolverine – * * *

Wolverine has equal training and experience in this area to the top two, but I rank him lower because he is often single-minded on the battle-field.  It is often just him and the foe rather than the rest of the team.  Cap has an edge at the four star level.  This is his metier.

War Time Experience

• Captain America – * * * *
• Cyclops – * * *
• Luke Cage – *
• Wolverine – * * * *

Wolverine has the most experience here due to his long life time, but Cap has always been a Captain and leading troops.  Cyclops would rank four stars in this if Cap and Wolvie weren’t here.  In addition to leading a paramilitary unit since his mid-teens, he spent years in the future training his son.  Poor Luke loses every category due to this fact – he has never been a soldier.

Ability to Fight for Ones Passions

• Captain America – * * * *
• Cyclops – * * * *
• Wolverine – * * * *
• Luke Cage – * * * *

I’d rank Cap just a hair lower.  He’s often found other solutions than fighting (see The Captain and the end of Civil War).  Really this is what makes a super-hero.  I’d have to rank them all lower if Spidey was in this ranking, but otherwise…

Ability to Inspire Others

• Captain America – * * * *
• Cyclops – *
• Luke Cage – * *
• Wolverine – * *

Wolverine’s inspiration generally comes in mentor type relationships (see Kitty and Jubilee and others).  On the field of battle he’s always scary.  This is Cyclops’ big drawback.  His leadership is always questioned.  He leads through reasoned argument (or fiat) – not because he inspires.  I wonder about moving Cage higher on this one.

Total Stars

• Captain America – 19
• Cyclops – 16
• Luke Cage – 10
• Wolverine – 15

Poor Luke.  Wolvie comes higher than I’d expect.

And that is the tale of the tape.

 

 

Downtown Abbey

Typing on the iPad. Who knows how well this will work.

I love Downton Abbey. I mentioned it the weekly recap on Monday but I got the name wrong. How embarrassing. They are doing a profile of me at work. I need to fill out this survey thing and one of the questions is “Favorite Tv Show”. Normally this would be a toss up of either the Wire or Care Bears (one of those is fake and should be replaced with The West Wing). But after only four episodes I’m all about Downton Abbey.

But none of you care. Is anyone else watching this? Season three has just finished. Is you take the murder mystery and the Altman flourishes out of Gosford Park, Downton is what you have. But it isn’t just taking away elements. A series can push in closer on all the characters. And instead of a murder mystery, Downton exists as part of history.

It has an ensemble cast of at least 18 primary characters. It is a period piece set in 1912 for the first season. It is about a noble British family, their servants and their estate, Downton Abbey. It is funny, kind, mean, serious, and mostly awesome. But I don’t know anyone else who would like it.

I finish this now to go watch another episode. Let me know if anyone else is watching.

Before Watchmen

Before I talk about Before Watchmen -

Congrats to my friends who just delivered a new baby girl last night!  Yay!

DC Announced a series of Watchmen prequels today.

Am I interested?  Yes.  But only because of the talent.  Brian Azzarello, Darwyn Cooke, JMS and Len Wein writing.  Darwyn Cooke, J.G. Jones, Amanda Conner, the Kubert brothers, Adam Hughes, Lee Bermejo and Jae Lee on art.  Many of these creators are on my ‘always buy’ list anyway.  That is just a solid list of creators.  Some are brilliant.

Will it be any good?  Trickier.  Moore and Gibbons didn’t really leave a lot of room for prequels in the story.  The individual characters all had their origins and early histories told in the original story.  Can you tell different plots, use different themes with the same characters? Sure and they might be good.  I’m not sure if it will really be Watchmen though.

Will it be as good as Watchmen?  Who knows.  Not likely.  25 years later and I think there have been several comics better than Watchmen.  Watchmen isn’t my favorite book.  Often a new distillation of previous ideas can result in something better.  More often you just get something watered down and wanting.  It can’t help but be compared to the original, but I’ll be happy if it is good on its own terms.

Should DC publish it? Sure.  It will probably make them money.  And it might be good.

The Interwebs are abuzz.  Twitter is twitterpated.  Most of the talk I’ve seen, including the PR announcement, takes a different view than my quick analysis above.  The questions asked are: Does DC have an ethical responsibility to follow Alan Moore’s wishes and just leave the property alone?  Are the creators crazy to get involved in such a project?  Will an updated project make Watchmen relevant to people today?

Bah.  Either it is good or it isn’t.  Look at those creators!

Or you can skip buying it.

Wahorse – A review

Spielberg and war movies: Band of Brothers, Amistad, Schindler’s List and, of course, Saving Private Ryan.  There’s a little bit of magic there.  Always with a strong anti-war theme, but recognizing the courage of people in battle alongside the horrors they face.

Still I was wary of Warhorse.  I loved animal movies as a child.  Benji is particular is one for which I have fond memories. (I wonder how it would hold up?)  Plus it was released as a family movie.  In my mind that somehow is a red flag.

I needn’t have worried.

The movie is essentially a series of short films.  Each centres on the horse, but each also shows the triumphs and failings of people.  The horse is always stalwart and strong.  The people are by turns courageous and cowardly.  Kind and cruel.  Three times the film evokes the passion from Saving Private Ryan.  Twice during a charge across no man’s – once by people and once by the horse.  The third time is a moment of quiet reflection and cooperation inspired by the horse’s bravery.

Not all the scenes are as successful, but none are failures.  I’m least satisfied with the film’s ending.  Although I don’t have a better in mind.

We had a discussion the other night about the horrible things people do to each other in movies.  Some movies contain people whose pretty face conceals a character of malignant cowardice.  Warhorse certainly has horrible things (though no gore).  But the pretty faces don’t conceal – they reveal.  And in general they reveal courage.

That sure ain’t all bad.

Midnight in Paris – A review

This is the best movie I’ve seen since Drive.

Midnight in Paris is the most recent Woody Allen comedy.  Ever since he stopped acting in his own movies, I’ve started to enjoy Woody Allen movies much more.  It may appear that as a romantic comedy this isn’t really my thing, but I’m like an ogre.  I have layers.

The movie is also a bit of a time-traveling sci-fi thingy.  It has clever dialogue.  It shows a lively and exciting Paris.

Owen Wilson plays Gil Pander.  He is vacationing in Paris with his fiance Inez played by Rachel McAdams.  The visit is a mix of pleasure and vexation.  They are there with Inez’s parents who rub Gil wrong.  They hang out with Paul and Carol.  Paul is described in the movie as pendantic, but in earthier language, he is a complete ass.  Most troubling is that Inez just doesn’t appreciate the same things about Paris that Gil does.

And Gil loves Paris.  He is a Hollywood screenwriter who is working on his first novel.  The mystique of Paris, especially the ex-pat writers who prowled the left bank in the 1920s enrapture him completely.  That is when he begins to time travel.  Each midnight he is transported back to the 1920s where he meets his idols.

The movie is funny.  Consistently funny.  And smart, but not too smart.  It assumes you know who Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald are plus Ernest Hemingway and Gertrude Stein, Pablo Picasso and other luminaries of the 1920s in Paris.  Missing a few of the references and inside jokes probably won’t ruin the movie, but it would probably be frustrating is you don’t get a little thrill when Gil meets Cole Porter or Salvador Dali.

Ernest Hemingway, played by Corey Stoll, is particularly hilarious.

If the description appeals to you at all – run out and see this movie.  It is worth it.

The new 52 – end of month one

DC released 52 new number one comics in September.  I have read somewhat more than a quarter of them.  (um – looks like I’ve read 21 of them.)

DC divided up  the titles into families:

• Superman (4 titles – read 2)
• Batman ( 11 titles – read 2)
•  Green Lantern ( 4 titles – read 2)
• Justice League (11 titles – read 4)
• The Dark ( 7 titles – read 6)
• The Edge (9 titles – read 2)
• Young Justice (6 titles – read 2)
• Hmm – that add up one short – ah because I never received one comic.

The reboot is much software than I imagined.  In many cases, such as the Green Lantern series, there is almost a direct continuity with what came before.  They’ve set a firm line on Superman being active for about 5 years, but he seems to have had all the same adventures during that time.

I’ve not read a lot of the core titles.  I’ve played around more on the fringes – you can see that the DC Dark line is what I’ve read the most of.  Some of those are net new concepts, but even those generally build on what has come before.  Really, the changes could have been done simply with new creative teams.

For the long-time fan, such as myself, there turns out not to be much new about the new 52.

If asked to recommend titles I’d give strong recommendations to Swamp Thing, Wonder Woman and Batwoman.  I’d give recommendations to Green Lantern, Batman, and Action Comics.   None of the rest really struck me as awesome.  Some work for fans of what they are: Justice League, Hawk and Dove, I, Vampire and Animal Man.  And some didn’t work that well for me at all.

I’m hoping with the big launch out of the way that things will settle down to telling some nifty stories of the next few months now.

 

 

Reamde – A review

On my scale of Neal Stephenson books, Reamde ranks near the bottom.  On my scale of all books, it ranks near the top.

Anathem was one of the most innovative books in that last several years.  Reamde resembles Anathem in its weird name, but Reamde is no Anathem.  But what is it?

Reamde is a page turner.  900 pages of “I can’t put this down.”  It is an action adventure story.

In chapter one we meet Richard and Zula Forthrast.  Richard is a Steve Jobs type computer company owner.  He has one product, a giant MMOPRG, called T’Rain,  that competes with WoW.  Zula is one of his nieces – twice orphaned and a former refugee from Eritrea – now she is a recently graduated university student who comes to work for her Uncle.

In chapter two, we find out a bit more about each character.  Richard has always been a bit uncomfortable in every role he’s occupied and has an incredibly colourful past.  But it is Zula’s choice in her most recent boyfriend that will drive the plot.

In chapter three, the action starts.  It never really stops for the rest of the book.  Peter and Zula become involved with Russian mobsters and Chinese fraudsters.  The MacGuffin is a file encrypted by the virus REAMDE that all three groups want.

The rest of the book?  Running and guns.   Explosions and hostages.  In addition to the Russians and Chinese layer on a bewildering array of Islamic Jihadists, American survivalists, Canadian bike gangs, British spies and one Hungarian hacker.  The first half of the book, novel length in its own right, deals primarily with the Russians and the encrypted file.  The second half, also book length, shifts to the Jihadists.

Stephenson has always loved geeks.  They get a lot of love here.  The staff of Richard’s company, Company 9592, is a lineup of interesting nerds.  Add in the Chinese virus writers, Zula’s boyfriend Peter and the hacker, Csongor and there is a lot for fans of Stephenson’s work to enjoy.  His use of action and technology is also exciting and familiar.  (Although I think Cory Doctorow’s For the Win dealt with the Chinese gold farmer is a more in-depth manner.)  But there is no science-fiction here.  It is set firmly in a present day world.

He explores the dynamics of a game company.  He looks at global terrorism.  He spends time with the MMORPG game world (but not in an Otherworld way).  And whenever something comes up that is important to the plot it gets described in detail: guns, treaded pickups, global flight paths, etc.  But most of the book is spent on the madcap action that spans the globe.  I think people will likely dislike the book for two reasons – the descriptive asides are either too frequent and distracting or Stephenson focuses too much on the plot and not enough on the exploration of these various topics.

Zula and Richard aren’t the only main characters either.  Zula drives the plot, but a vast array of people assume roles as important as Richard’s as the book progresses.  Stephenson gives each of them time in the spotlight.  The asides I explained above and the time spent with each character explain the book’s incredible length.

Why do I rank it low in the Neal Stephenson ouevre?  I miss the sci-fi.  I wanted more depth in the asides – I missed the insane detail into basically philosophy, logic and math shown in Anathem for instance.  But I was also disappointed in the end.  It surely pays out the main premise in a very satisfactory fashion.  There is a climatic gun fight that spans more than 100 pages.  But some plot elements seem to just get forgotten.  The biggest is that a war in the online world is left hanging with a game character literally wandering undirected through the game landscape.

This book most closely resembles Zodiac of Stephenson’s previous books.  That might help i the rest of my review doesn’t.  Of other writers, I don’t know of anyone quite like Stephenson.  If you have never tried him this is an easy introduction to his work.  It is hard to put down and that is trouble when there are 900 pages to turn after the first one.

But that is a good problem.

Note: I finished the book yesterday before supper.  This morning my e-mail informs me that a corrected version is available to download online.  I imagine that the revision corrects some typos, but if there is actually any major changes to the text, they are not covered in this review.

Drive – A review

Finally after a summer of big budget action comes my kind of movie.  Noir plus car chases.

Drive isn’t perfect.  I don’t understand either the musical score choices or the decision to use a pink cursive script for the titles.  I also think the violence was too graphic.  Once during a surprising and shocking scene the row behind me burst into laughter.  inappropriate laughter.  I think they were so shaken by the violence they didn’t know how to react.

In general, I think the audience didn’t know how to deal with the movie.  I think they were expecting the dreamy Ryan Gosling in a “Fast and the Furious” type pic.  That was not this movie.

Much has been said about Gosling’s decision to act the main character mostly silently.  His emotions were shown in the narrowing or his eyes, the grip of his hand on the wheel and often a slow smile.  The smile worked – it was spontaneous whenever he spent time with the child Benicio.  In fact, the relationship between the Driver and the child seemed to be the core of the movie – even more so than the romantic one between the Driver and the child’s mother, Irene, played by Carey Mulligan.  Little is spoken of Mulligan’s performance.  Like Gosling’s it existed mostly in silence as well.  I thought she was quite effective – and to my mind way dreamier than Gosling.

The plot, like most noir, is simply a structure in which the characters hang.  Driver drives.  He drives the getaway car.  He drives the stunt car in the movies.  He drives to relax and think.  When he isn’t driving, he works in a garage.  When he isn’t doing that he isn’t involved.  His apartment is barren.  He doesn’t help plan any heists or stunts.  Outside the car he barely exists – a ghost on the edges.

He makes a decision to befriend Irene and Benicio.  Because of the people that surround them a plot develops.  His boss at the garage is a penny ante con man with a history and dependency on two gangsters.   Bryan Cranston is effective as the garage owner – pitiful and cheap and desperate.  Albert Brooks and Ron Perlman play the gangsters.  Perlman is loud and large and grows more pathetic as the movie progresses.  Brooks is the opposite, but as he talks and acts, he grows more chilling in every scene.

Behind the wheel, the Driver is in control, but outside he struggles.  He struggles with a core of violence that can burst forth.   He wears the same jacket throughout.  It starts off bright and shiny and silver.  As the movie progresses it dulls and dirties and is splattered with blood.

The final catalyst is Irene’s husband, Standard.  A recently paroled thief.  A truly tragic character.  He wants nothing more than to love his wife and care for his son.  But the Driver is in their lives now.  And his criminal past just won’t leave.  Had he befriended someone else when things start to go wrong, he might go to the police.  Instead he turns to the Driver – the man who may have made him a cuckold.

Just in case it isn’t clear, this is a not a movie that will end well.

The character acting is all excellent.  The driving and chases is awesome.  The tension as things start to go wrong and you see the blackness at the core of the Driver is incredible.

I recommend this movie.  Go noir!