I am not a fan of Roland Emmerich. The case against him: Godzilla, The Patriot, The Day After Tomorrow, and 10000 BC. I have mildly enjoyed some of his films (Universal Soldier, Stargate, Independence Day, 2012, Anonymous), but not enough to give a rat's ass about his next movie. Then last week I saw the final theatrical trailer for White House Down attached to This Is The End. I lost my mind with laughter. This does not appear to be a simple Olympus Has Fallen siege film - the White House is certainly down, but so is The Capitol! Air Force One! All of Washington D.C.! The only thing standing in the way of total American devestation is Jaime Foxx's four-eyed POTUS and his super hunky body guard Channing Tatum. Their buddy cop banter makes Shane Black squirm, but it's just cheezy enough for me and my giggles. However, my real question is, can Jaime Foxx's President Sawyer stand proudly next to this fictional Hall of Presidents?
5. President Lindberg (The Fifth Element): In the 23rd Century if you're the President, and you can't get the crew of the USS Enterprise, than you better call on your top agent Korban Dallas to take down the evil corporate scumbag Zorg and his partner-in-galactic-crime, The Great Evil. Of course, citizens of the Earth are never too worried when Tommy "Tiny" Lister is your chief. Even if Dallas couldn't pulverize The Great Evil, you know Lister could shake him outta orbit with just a simple stare.
4. President Jackson Evans (The Contender): Jeff Bridges's sandwich loving negotiator feels like the most accurate representation of the job on screen. He's a guy who at one point was full of heart & idealism, but slowly compromised his way to the top. When his nomination for Vice President is discovered to have a deep dark sexual secret he does everything in his power to backpedal and circumvent. He's all charm, but also rather pathetic. One of Jeff Bridges finest performances.
3. President Merkin Muffley (Dr. Strangelove): "Now then, Dmitri, you know how we've always talked about the possibility of something going wrong with the Bomb..." And here's the President you most certainly don't want at the helm of your nation. The world is going to hell in a hand basket and he can't even stop the fighting in The War Room. Painfully, bitterly funny.
2. President James Marshall (Air Force One): "Get Off My Plane!" If you can't get President Lindberg on the line than your next best bet for Presidential Asskickery is Indiana Jones. When a group of Russian Thugs led by Gary Oldman (him again!) take control of Air Force One, it's up to President Marshall to Die Hard their asses. Harrison Ford brings the weight of his two great franchises wherever he goes, and it packs a powerful wallop when Han Solo bashes a chair over your head. Just a great crowd pleaser.
1. Dave Kovic (Dave): Shhhhhhhh! He's not actually the President, just a guy who looks like him. For whatever reason, Dave had a tremendous impact on me when I was a teenager. When the real POTUS dies mid orgasm, his henchman have to scramble to find a look alike to fill his remaining term. Enter Kevin Kline's Unemployment Agent with all his bright, brash, & hopeful idealism. Ivan Reitman's comedy manages to balance cynicism with optimism. As the credits roll I become hopeful that out there, somewhere in the thunder dome of the two party system, is a guy like Dave. A Dreamer. A Believer. A Good Guy.
The first ten or fifteen minutes of the Tron Legacy are designed to quickly get you from where the first film ended, up to speed with where this new film’s story begins. It’s fast paced and packed with a bunch of exposition that isn’t too weighted down with character names or extraneous info. Basically, Kevin Flynn had a kid, his wife died, he got really weird and started talking about lots of crazy stuff, then he disappeared. Years later, his son Sam is something of a trouble making recluse. Kevin’s old partner Alan is only nominally involved in their Microsoft/Apple type tech company, and everyone is living in the shadow of Kevin Flynn. It also features the most wonky bit of CG in the film, which is made worse by the scene not being totally necessary. CG ‘younger Flynn’ looks awful. When you see him again on the Grid, it works because it’s supposed to be a digital representation. But when he’s in the real world and talking to his kid, it just looks creepy and weird. Combined with Sam’s rebel without a cause attitude, the wonky effects made me wary. 30 years of waiting for a sequel was starting to look a bit like Star Wars all over again. But after these problems, things improve dramatically.
“You’ve done enough, already. Sam, you’re really…You’re messing with my Zen thing, man.”
A mysterious message leads Sam to his dad’s old arcade where he gets himself shot onto the Grid. The original film created a fantasy world, this film builds on some concepts and takes it to whole new places. This isn’t the same world we saw in the original film. It’s a new Grid that has been left to its own devices, without outside input for 20 years. Cities, arenas, badlands, and more. It’s gorgeously designed and flawlessly executed. The images remind me of book covers from classic science fiction novels. Dramatic black buildings with intense lines of light, alien landscapes and unusual vehicles. It looks amazing. After a run-in with the authorities in this digital world, Sam is rescued by a Jules Verne loving program, the adorable and knowledge-hungry Quorra. And through her, he finally comes face to face with his father. The distance between the two remains, and each struggles with their past, with the crisis at hand, and with world views.
“Every idea Man has ever had about the universe up for grabs. Bio-digital Jazz, man.”
While the villain of this piece is ostensibly a computer program gone mad, Clu isn’t evil. He’s a reflection of Kevin Flynn’s own quest for perfection in a world of chaos. With the help of Quorra and Sam, Kevin comes to understand that chaos is an essential element, that perfection is a trap. But Clu is incapable of accepting that. There is a tendency in people to compartmentalize. The physical or intellectual. The visceral or the ethereal. Science or art. Good or evil. Emotion or logic. But that’s not what life is; it’s synthesis, not antithesis. One can strive for perfection while embracing imperfection, just as one can be logical and passionate. Too often we’re trapped in a post-Zoroastrian dualism, propagated by the religions of Abraham, that dictates an either/or situation in all things, and this infects the general zeitgeist of our culture. Where I see it most often is in the spiritual person asking how I can feel awe or wonder when my worldview is dominated by science. But for me, there’s more poetry in a sunrise or a nebula than in all the sacred texts of all the religions that have ever been. And I think that’s what this movie is striving for, a vision of a world where order and chaos, light and dark, logic and emotion blend and fuse. Not a conflict between body and mind, but like the moral of Metropolis, both brought together by the heart. Even the final conflict isn’t about crushing an enemy, or destroying a monster, it’s about coming together, blending, and rebirth.
“The Old Man’s gonna knock on the sky. Listen to the sound.”
I would be remiss in my duty if I didn’t mention the kickass electronica score by Euro-club favorites Daft Punk. I am curious to hear what they might do with other movies in the future, though I don’t know if that’s something they will pursue. Director Joseph Kosinski certainly has an eye for stunning visuals, and the taste to skip the annoying shaky-cam syndrome that has so affected Hollywood for the last decade or so. Jeff Bridges and Bruce Boxleitner return, Boxleitner as a sort of catalytic conscience for young Sam, and Bridges as the Yoda-like digital deity trying to reconnect with his son and save the potential of his creation. And the wide-eyed, wonderstruck Olivia Wilde plays Quorra, the program with a game-changing secret. I especially enjoy Wilde in her role. It’s actually one of the better roles for women I’ve seen in recent films; curious, pro-active, self-sacrificing, and heroic, without being shrill, overly deferential, or faux-tough. Garrett Hedlund is a serviceable pretty-boy lead, not especially interesting or charismatic, but not off-putting, either.
“We’re always on the same team.”
Clearly, I do not have my finger on the pulse of a nation. I frequently enjoy movies that are either hated or ignored by the general viewing public (Cloud Atlas, Robot & Frank, Hanna, Moon, Watchmen, Hulk, etc.). This is no different. It’s not even that people don’t like Tron Legacy, it’s that nobody cared enough to see it. Tron was something of a cult favorite, which hardly lit the box office on fire. But I had high hopes this new film would capture attention. It’s slickly made, a story well told, and very entertaining. However, it hasn’t achieved much success that I’ve seen. And three years later, I think I’m the only one talking about it. Alas. If nobody else out there will get on board, I’m still going to sing its praises. And if you haven’t seen it, I would recommend it. While seeing Tron isn’t a bad idea, you don’t need to in order to enjoy this film.
When you look back on this film, of course, there are elements that can’t help but be dated. Much of the technology was cutting edge, or looking forward to what might be right on the horizon. But it was 30 plus years ago, and the cutting edge cut a long way since then. Nor did technology go in the directions we expected (as usual). But it’s more than a time capsule of an era when arcades were still popular, when Jeff Bridges was young, and when the internet was little more than a dream in the heads of scientists and science fiction writers. Yes, this is a kid-friendly film. But like a lot of Disney films before it, that didn’t mean condescending or simplistic like so many since. And like a lot of science fiction films, it’s got more than its fair share of fantasy dressed up in scientific trappings. But it’s also concerned with issues that are still with us, and it still challenges us to look at our technology, what it means to us, and how we should relate to it. Essential questions like what it means to be alive and what it takes to stand against evil. We still wonder about machine intelligence, what it will look like, what it will want, and even if it’s possible at all.
The look and feel of the movie is unique and strange. In some ways, it’s almost an animated film, and not just because it uses a great deal of early CGI, but because much of the movie was hand tinted, with lighting effects and colors made like you would in animation, frame by frame. It lends the whole a strange, unreal element that helps you know you’re in another world. The actors, in the weird, tinted black & white look kind of like silent film stars. The world created is a fantasy realm, where Programs secretly worship Users as gods. Where bubbling brooks of pure energy trickle through jagged caves of shining data. Video games exist as dangerous regions of a digital country, ruled by a powerful Master Control Program, which intends not only to control all of the computer world, but the world of flesh and blood as well. There is the obvious religious parallel between programs and users (worshipers and gods), and the subversive realization that gods are nothing more than other beings we don’t understand, powerful perhaps, but not really all that different. Flynn shakes the core of the programs’ faith by simply being. Reality rarely lives up to the imagined. This spiritual concept will be explored to a greater extent in the long delayed sequel.
It’s a work of grand and far reaching vision. And though the virtual reality world foretold in movies like this never really came to be, echoes of its warning still sound in the then only dreamed of internet, the world of corporate espionage, game design, artificial intelligence, and more. Amazing sets, even more amazing animated extensions, strange design, beautiful use of color. Sometimes the script isn’t as good as it could or should be. The pacing is a bit wonky in that 70s Disney kind of way. But it is a real achievement. And a cool, entertaining science fantasy adventure.
No one in Hollywoodland seems to want you to know that M Night Shyamalan has a new movie out this weekend. Shhhhhhhh! Don't mention The Last Airbender. No, what we have this weekend is the new Will Smith movie. But the more I see and the more I read about After Earth the less interested I become. It doesn't look like much of a Will Smith movie anyway; it's really Jaden Smith's show, and frankly, I think that kid stinks. I guess he was ok in that boring Karate Kid remake, but he almost single handedly brought forth my rage in The Day The Earth Stood Still remake (Keanu gets a chunk of the credit). Such an annoying brat, and I really want nothing to do with him now. Sure, that sounds pretty harsh and totally unfair. But this is my blog; let me have my irrational, hypocritical opinions. You know I'm gonna drop my cash for After Earth, and maybe - just maybe - it's a solid post-apocalpse flick, and my mind will be forever altered in regards to all Smith offspring. After all, Hollywood has produced a lot of talented babies...
5. Jason Robards: The son of Hope Maxine Robards & Jason Robards Sr, Junior here eventually surpassed his father's notoriety as a stage actor with a little help from Eugene O'Neal (Long Day's Journey Into Night, The Iceman Cometh, Hughie, A Touch of the Poet). From there, Robards found his way onto television, lent a little credibility to Roger Corman's The St. Valentine's Day Massacre, and found critical nirvana through Sergio Leone & Sam Peckinpah. His performances in both Once Upon A Time In The West & The Ballad of Cable Hogue are what lands him on this list, but I would be lying if I neglected his minor turns in Ron Howard's Parenthood or Quick Change - both were absolute staples of my youth. Also, his final credit as the neglectful dad Earl Partridge in Paul Thomas Anderson's Magnolia will rip out your heart, and his work there granted Tom Cruise his finest hour.
4. Nicolas Cage: His grandfather was composer Carmine Coppola, his uncle Francis Ford Coppola, and his aunt Talia Shire. If written a few years earlier, Cage would have easily landed at the number one spot of this list, but his special brand of mega-acting has not been kind to his career lately. After winning my heart with a few brilliantly bonkers performances (The Bad Lieutenant, Kick Ass, Drive Angry), Cage has pretty much sunken into the bland Direct-To-DVDers (Trespass, Seeking Justice, Stolen). It might be easy to write him off thanks to all those bees in The Wicker Man remake, but let's not forget the classics - Raising Arizona, Red Rock West, Adaptation, Matchstick Men - these are some powerhouse performances not to be mocked. And I'm betting Cage has a couple more surprises left up his sleeve.
3. David Carradine: The son of John Carradine & brother to Keith & Robert. The man pretty much ruled my childhood with Kung Fu & it's crappy sequel show, The Legend Continues. But it wasn't until Quentin Tarantino reintroduced him to the world in Kill Bill that I truly discovered the genius of his massive body of work. Death Race 2000, Boxcar Bertha, Bound for Glory, The Warrior & The Sorceress, The Long Riders, Q The Winged Serpent. The man was the king of B movies, and he was working like a beast right up to his sad end. And as a result, we're going to be getting Direct-To-DVD appearances for at least another ten years.
2. Robert Downey Jr: The son of independent filmmaker Robert Downey Sr; it's hard to remember the dark days of Soapdish & Chances Are (two charming films made in a haze of sex and cocaine), this former Brat Packer was well on his way to obscurity before Marvel's Iron Man launched his career into the stratosphere. But before he donned ol' Shell Head, Robert Downey Jr was already making quite a buzz in the small movie racket. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is an amazing bit of noir wit from Shane Black. Downey expertly charmed as the jittering literary agent in Curtis Hanson's Wonder Boys. And he scored big points reaching into his drug fueled past to portray the doomed reporter Paul Avery in David Fincher's painfully overlooked Zodiac. He might be forever assembled an Avenger, but Robert Downey Jr earned his Blockbuster status, and I hope he finds some tiny gems amongst his continuing franchises.
1. Jeff Bridges: He's The Dude. 'nuff said. Oh, you want more? The son of Lloyd & brother of Beau, Jeff Bridges has rarely been on the bottom of creativity. I'd love to tell you that he had it from the start, but, gulp, I've actually never seen The Last Picture Show. No, my love for the man started with the King Kong remake (a terribly mediocre film in hindsight), survived on the original Tron, and became the god of drifter cool in The Big Lebowski. Along the way he played boy cub to Clint Eastwood's hardass in Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, straight man to John Heard's psychotic do-gooder in Cutter's Way, and my all time favorite sandwich eating POTUS in The Contender. And oh yeah, FTW, he schooled John Wayne in The Coen Brothers' far superior True Grit. Done deal. Jeff Bridges is the king of Hollywood offspring.
Slash Film references Men In Black in their trailer post, and I can't help but agree with them - RIPD looks like a big steaming pile of Will Smith/Tommy Lee Jones wannabe comedy action. I really don't like hearing the Rooster Cogburn voice coming out of Jeff Bridges during all this awkward Heavenly Kid banter. And frankly, I still haven't forgiven Ryan Reynolds for his part in the Green Lantern abomination. At the very least, RIPD supplies everyone's favorite David Lo Pan (James Hong) with a little work. I loved his bit part in Safe last year, and maybe he'll get a few moments to shine in this misguided comic book adaptation. And who knows? RIPD might reveal itself to be a fun, goofy time out at the movies. Not holding my breath though.
A good week, I guess. More comics. More movies. Some Lovecraft dramatizations. Good stuff.
The Black Hole: A science fiction film based on Heart of Darkness? That could be awesome. Sadly, while kind of fascinating, this movie isn’t all that great. It has some fantastic production design and an interesting cast. But the script is only so-so, and the ending doesn’t make a lot of sense. Still, it’s worth a watch. The model work is very good. This came out in the wave of post Star Wars science fiction, but I think owes much more, stylistically, to Forbidden Planet. It feels much more old school. If I didn’t know better, I’d probably assume it was made in the late 60s, not the very early 80s.
Tron Legacy: “Bio-digital jazz, man.” The original Tron was an interesting and ambitious film that presaged films to come, while still being firmly rooted in moviemaking techniques of the past. A strange and wondrous world, existing within the world of computers, peopled by programs of various powers and degrees of sentience. This film extrapolates on those ideas to create a grand adventure, steeped in history and mystery. Gorgeous visuals and a powerful electronica score from dance favorites Daft Punk help carry the viewer into the Grid, where Flynn’s right hand man, C.L.U., has taken over, driving the Creator into the wastelands. His champion, Tron, now serves a new master. The games have evolved, the programs have taken over, and something has emerged that was never intended. With the exception of the fairly bland lead (he’s not bad, just dull), the cast is excellent, selling the insanity of the world and the story. Just a really, really fun film.
Spaced Out: A bit of cheeky goofiness from those blokes in the UK. A bunch of dolts wander onto an alien craft that has stopped off on Earth for some repairs. Culture clashes, biologic surprises, and boobs, boobs, boobs. I can’t say this movie is good. It’s not. But dang, it made me laugh on several occasions. Track-suited letch guy has some of the best scumbag expressions I’ve seen. It does prompt me to ask, why would anyone in a dead-end job with no prospects even think about turning down a ship full of wanton women begging you to travel the galaxy? Just doesn’t make sense. And what’s with the end?
Pride and Prejudice: Oh, those upper class twits. They do get up to such nonsense. Stiff upper lips, social climbing, and the petty difficulties between the rich and the not so rich. A world where honesty and forthrightness are vices. I can’t even imagine what romance must have been like from the inside during this era. I see people going through the motions, but it seems like a religious ceremony; actions with meanings I find obscure. As far as the film goes, it is very pretty, and you can see the early stylistic flourishes of director Joe Wright. And I feel so danged bad for Tom Hollander’s priggish parson. He doesn’t seem like such a bad chap; just horribly awkward. But at least this movie shows the truth. You can be terse, difficult, abrasive, and aloof and women will still find you charming and take the time to see the inner you, so long as you’ve got money.
My mansion makes me charming!
Drive: A quiet loner does what needs to get done. Made vulnerable by feelings for a woman, he gets into some trouble. Not really a new story. But with stylistic flourishes and a slow burn build-up to terror and violence, it rises above the simplicity of its plot to become compelling cinema. Heck, it’s 40 minutes in before you get a hint that the Driver isn’t quite what he seems. It feels like a movie from another era, the late 70s or early 80s. In look, sound, and pacing, it doesn’t feel modern at all. The characters are surprisingly complex and sympathetic, even when they shouldn’t be.
Kiss Kiss, Kill Kill: Wait, Germany had an ‘answer to James Bond?’ I guess so. Kommissar X is the slick 60s hero with all the tricks. But why is he American? The bad dubbing and shoddy quality make it a bit rough. I’d like to see a cleaned up, subtitled version. Except that the movie is also pretty dull and generally not well made. So watching it again isn’t on my ‘to do’ list.
So Darling, So Deadly: “All right, let’s stop talking about bananas.” Kommissar X is back, this time in Asia to paw and leer at a new bunch of women. More bad dubbing. Truly awful music. And lots of awkward action. Then there’s something about a shipment of bananas.
Death is Nimble, Death is Quick: Gah. By the third film, the smarmy shenanigans of Kommissar X have long since warn out their welcome. Germany may have had an answer to James Bond, but it was the wrong one. These movies are craptastic. And did he just make a pass at an elephant? I think he did.
I started watching the Logan’s Run TV show. It’s something I’ve been wanting to watch for a long time, though I’ve heard little but bad about it. Still, Logan’s Run is one of my favorite films and I was curious to see how they tried to translate it. It’s odd seeing the first two thirds of the film cut down and repackaged into the first ten minutes of the first episode. At about that point, things go off in a new direction. Not one I’d take, but potentially interesting none the less. Though, of course, an atomic war made DC look like Southern California (see also, the Planet of the Apes TV series). The design work draws heavily from the film, but is a bit more conservative. And the actors, while OK, are no Michael York and Jenny Agutter.
“I’m good at platonic. It’s my default sexual setting, after nervous.” I finally started season 3 of Bored to Death. Man, I love this show. It’s so much fun. So many evil people trying to do good things. Sort of. The crazy misadventures these folks get into are so nuts. And holy crap, Dick Cavett is still alive?!
On Sunday, as I was waiting to give a brief presentation at my job, I listened to the H.P. Lovecraft Society’s ‘radio drama’ of The Shadow Out of Time. It’s a good adaptation of an awesome story. On the surface, Lovecraft looks like a horror writer, but his work is generally more science fiction. This one features time travel, aliens, archeology, cults, and a grand scope of time.
I also listened to their adaptation of The Dunwich Horror, which was pretty good. Though I didn’t like it quite as much as The Shadow Out of Time. The voice work is mostly good, but there are some wonky bits. The New England accents are spotty, sounding more like North Dakota than Massachusetts. It’s a cool story, though. Danged inbred freaks and their black magic.
The adaptation of At the Mountains of Madness wasn’t quite what I wanted, but I think my love for the story made me a bit more harsh on it that I should be. The radio broadcasts in the first chapter went on too long. What could have been very effective became tiresome. But once it got past that part, things got better. In fact, everything after the radio snippets is excellent. Once it moves into the straight up narrative of what the second party discovered at the camp, and the exploration of the titular mountains, it became nearly as fascinating as the story. Like The Shadow Out of Time, this story does a lot to give Lovecraft’s ‘mythos’ a solid basis, a faux history.
And I managed to listen to the adaptation of The Call of Cthulhu. Another pretty good adaptation. It’s a strange story, and this dramatization kind of revels in its oddness. Told in a collection of flashbacks, narratives, and fragments, it creates a larger story mostly through implication. This isn’t the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society’s first go at The Call of Cthulhu, of course. They were behind the excellent silent film adaptation from a few years ago.
Continuing with the pile of comics Brad pushed into my hands last week, I read All New X-Men #1. Couldn’t be much less aptly named, as it’s exactly the same as X-Men has always been, going round and round the same idea over and over again with little indication that anything will change or develop in any meaningful way. It feels a bit like watching a soap opera, where every episode features a birth, a death, a court case, a wedding, and an affair. Each issue of X-Men features a good guy working for the bad guys, a bad guy working for the good guys, a thinly veiled social issue, a mutant ready to give up, and some normal humans causing trouble. If my keen sense of Marvel’s stock storytelling is accurate, this arc will end with Beast sacrificing himself in some way to save everyone. Check back in two years and let me know. I won’t be reading to see if I’m right.
Marvel Now! Point One seems to be some kind of set-up for the whole Marvel re-start. It intros several new series and hints at some larger story ideas. What’s up with Miss America and her weird dimension? Who the crap is that alien kid living in Wisconsin? And Forge. He’s crazy, huh? But Nova seems really lame and Ant Man? He doesn’t just seem lame. Bah.
The third issue of The Creep continues the mystery of the missing grandfather and the dead teens. Our ugly, pill-popping hero takes a bus into the country to aid in a missing persons search, wandering the snow covered forest. It’s an odd comic. I want it to be more interesting, but it’s still well written, I guess.
Winter Soldier issue 12 finds my interest in this series waning, to say the least. What I liked about the early issues was the way the Cold War hung over Bucky’s life the way World War II had hung over Captain America. But, though still rooted in that era, its shadow seems to have departed. Instead, we’re subjected to appearances from incongruous members of Marvel’s usual cast. Wolverine, Hawkeye (seriously, Hawkeye? Ugh), and now Daredevil. Groan. I’m done. F this series.
Fantastic Four #1 shows a lot of potential. Getting once more to the core of my problem with comics from the Big Two, a world where Reed Richards exists should probably be a technologic utopia within a decade. That it’s not is part of the whole status quo thing in mainstream comics. Still, with this issue they imply that the Richards about to take a fantastic journey, putting them out in the crazy cosmic universe they should always inhabit. I am curious to see where things go. The Fantastic Four are science fiction characters stuck in a non-sci-fi setting. It looks like this series may take them in the right direction…for a while.
I like Boom! Studios. They publish a lot of interesting comics, frequently some good ones. But, they also put out some dogs. Though I gather it’s achieved some success, I really, really didn’t like Fanboys VS. Zombies, as a recent example. And I felt much the same about Freelancers issue 1. I like girls with guns. But this is brutal. It’s trying to be funny and hip. It’s neither. The art is simplistic when it’s not ugly. And the overall effect is that of a child telling a boring story.
X-O Manowar issue 6 is something I read. I can’t say a lot more than that. The art is fine, but where’s Cary Nord? The writing is meh. The story feels too small. In movies, I have always been frustrated by the budgetary constraints that force the story into the modern era to save money. Well, a comic isn’t constrained by budget. They could be illustrating nearly anything, but instead, we’re on earth in a jungle with a ninja. Yawn. This could be a really fun series, but it’s not.
I read the second John Grimes book by A. Bertram Chandler, To Prime the Pump. Great classic space adventure. Once again it makes me wish there were more examples of this type of science fiction on film or TV. Will Disney’s recent acquisition of the Star Wars franchise help to bring science fiction back into the mainstream?
And I read Avengers: The Children’s Crusade, which I’ll hold off on discussing or posting my review of until after the next meeting of the Justice League of Extraordinary Book Club. I’ll only say that it didn’t win me over to Marvel’s way of doing things.
And man, after watching Tron: Legacy again this week, I got totally hooked on the score for that film again, along with some of the other excellent electronic scores from the last couple years, like Hanna. And it all goes right along with the soundtrack I’ve been building for the story I’ve been working on.
