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.
Not really much of a week for this dork. Did a bit of reading, a bit of watching, a bit of biking, and a bit of cooking. But nothing amazing on the nerdy front.
Oblivion: If you’re looking for a reinvention of the wheel, or a profound and transformative experience, you’ll be sadly disappointed. If you’re looking for a solid, slick, visually impressive science fiction adventure movie, this has plenty to offer. It has an epic quality, and draws on some of my favorite elements of the past, with robots, ultra-tech, and a hefty dose of post-apocalypse. There are a couple ‘twists’ that change the lead character’s journey, but don’t pivot the whole plot. Sadly, too much was (as is all to often the case) given away in the trailers. Still, the trailer didn’t give everything away or spoil every dramatic cue. This is the kind of movie I’d like to see being done on a more regular basis. This should be an average entry in the genre, but as it’s one of the rare entries, almost by default it’s one of the better. Though set on Earth, it creates a world unlike our own and doesn’t shy away from the weird ideas that were so common in the literature but commonly absent from film. Some aspects of the finale could have been handled better, but they weren’t so bad as to mar the overall film. As I mentioned, it’s visually striking, but also has a good electronica score, reminiscent of the director’s previous film, Tron: Legacy. And here’s the greatest part of the whole thing: No flippin’ shaky cam! I could tell what was happening throughout the movie. The camera stayed a respectable distance and didn’t jitter about to the point I felt sick. What a welcome change from so many recent movies.
Tron: Legacy: “You’re messin’ with my whole Zen thing, man.” Dang it, I don’t get tired of this movie. After watching Oblivion, I thought I’d throw the director’s first movie back in the DVD player. He has an excellent visual style and manages to meld computer and practical effects extremely well. If you ignore the fact that it’s supposed to take place inside a computer network, the world of the Grid would make for an excellent execution of one of those crazy ultra-future worlds you normally only read about in sci-fi novels. It reminds you that we have the capability of putting beautiful and powerful images on screen when there are artists at work. And dang, I love that score. I was going to just throw this in as background noise, but ended up getting sucked in once again. I’m still frustrated with America for not embracing this movie.
Django Unchained: “I’m not from the South.” Christoph Waltz is so devilishly charming in this movie. A gleefully civilized, deadly bounty hunter. When he teams up with Jamie Foxx, they make for a fascinating and compelling pair. The relationship that develops between the two is great, as is the montage type scene of them in the mountains during winter could have been the basis of an awesome movie in its own right. I could watch a whole movie about that winter. Every copy of Birth of a Nation and Gone with the Wind should come with a copy of this film. It’s a great inoculation against their BS. Dr. Scholtz’s horror at the madness of slavery and his righteous fury is beautiful to behold. Django is a stark fist of vengeance on a quest for his wife. And the blood is worthy of the craziest samurai film. Those aren’t squibs but hoses and bladders pumping and blasting like a gory water-balloon fight. And that Fred Williamson smile. Glorious.
Tokyo Joe: “We were over 18 when we were 15.” What a mess. Poor Joe. He ran a business in Tokyo, but then that danged war broke out. So he signed up with Uncle Sam and fought the good fight. Now he’s back in town, looking to pick up the pieces of his pre-War life in a post-War Japan. And things aren’t going well. It’s perfectly understandable why this isn’t one of those Bogart movies you hear people talk about. It’s enjoyable, but also forgettable. There are some hints of story, but not much really happens. It seems like the filmmakers were reaching for threads of Casablanca and some other War tie-in and/or Bogart movies. But it doesn’t come together. Still, it was nice to see Asian actors in the roles. And while forgettable, it’s not bad.
Dishonored Lady: “I got a rule about women. They ain’t breaking the law, let ‘em alone.” A tempting harlot (I think she even votes! For shame!) lures men by standing around and trying to do her job, sometimes even saying hello. Things go from bad to worse when every man around her can’t help but be completely seduced by her, even when she’s just having a drink or calling for a cab. But then the greatest, smoothest, sagest shrink ever to slick back his hair sets her on the straight and narrow by getting her to give up the high life, live in a dive, and paint. OK. It’s a weird thing for me to notice, but Hedy Lamarr’s outfits in this movie are kind of ridiculous. They look like adult versions of a little girl’s ‘pretty little princess’ kind of thing. She’s a beautiful woman, but she’s dressed like a child. It’s weird. The movie is melodramatic crap, really. But it’s watchable crap.
The Strange Woman: “A young man of fashion will be very popular in Bangor.” This time, Hedy Lamarr plays a dreadful child who grows up to be a dreadful woman in Hollywood’s version of my hometown; Bangor, Maine. She’s a danged devil. It’s bad when the creepy old perv who marries her seems somewhat sympathetic by comparison. Yet, somehow they weave in this story, as she’s pitting father against sun, about how she’s a philanthropist trying to clean up the rum-fueled lumberjack/whore riot that is Bangor. It’s like she’s got a good-evil switch, and some hyperactive kid won’t stop flicking it. When she’s not making sex-eyes at every strapping young sailor or lumberjack, she’s a tireless champion for the poor. When she’s not half praying for her older husband to die, she’s staying up with him all night trying to save him from a fever. She’s so crazy her crazy has crazy. She’s not the kind of woman your mother warned you about. She’s the kind of woman the kind of woman your mother warned you about would warn you about. Bangor looks like a frontier town from a Western. I think the house I grew up in would already have been standing when this movie took place. The movie is somewhat difficult to watch. Lamarr plays such a madwoman that the waves her character makes seem to disrupt everything about the film. You can’t root for anyone, and only feel those who die are lucky enough to be out of her dastardly clutches.
Emperor: In the aftermath of Japan’s defeat, an American general with pre-War ties is called upon to help with the occupation. The movie deals with a lot of cultural confusion, the clash of two very, very different world views. The cult of the Emperor, a tradition of duty and devotion going back into deep cultural time, being crushed by the an ideology of individualism and personal ambition. I find Japanese traditionalism to be as inscrutable as religious fundamentalism, for pretty much the same reasons. As one old soldier says in the film, the Japanese are a people of great selflessness, but also capable of shocking atrocities, and both stem from the same world view. This too puts me in mind of the deeply religious, who can be at once profoundly kind and appallingly evil. Matthew Fox has the look of a WWII vet, with his golly-gee good looks made a bit ragged and weathered by hardship. He puts me in mind of so many of those early 50s movies where the actors looked middle aged, but would only be 25 or 30. War, smoking, drinking, and hard living. It’ll get you.
The Shadow Whip: “If you don’t tell us, you’ll have to face our Serial Bombs.” The Martial Arts world was a difficult place. Even more prone to take offence and get the itch for trouble than the typical gunfighter of the Western, the kung fu warrior had to be on constant alert, because a fight could erupt at any moment. Woe to the innkeeper or clay pot salesman. I love the superpowers of martial arts masters, those little things that tip you off to their amazing skills. Walking on powdered snow without making imprints. Awesome. I like watching these movies that feature unusual weapons, but I have to admit, the whip doesn’t work all that well. When fighting large numbers of spearmen, it looks extremely awkward. It might just be a problem with fight choreography, but I think it’s more than that. The movie does feature one of my favorite martial arts tropes, the inability or unwillingness to use doors. Why use a door, when you can burst through a window? Why use the gate when you can leap over the wall? This film is fairly typical of the Shaw Bros. It’s well produced, action packed, perhaps a bit convoluted in plotting.
The Mind Snatchers: “I don’t care if you’re a girl. I’ll punch you right in the mouth.” Christopher Walken looks like he’s maybe 18 in this. The transfer on this DVD is appalling. It looks like something recorded off TV with a bad signal. The fashion and hair in this is shockingly ugly. Was this the look in Europe at the time? It makes the worst sins of the Mod movement and the Hippies look like child’s play. The music is also dreadful, sounding like something off a 70s sitcom. Walken plays such an insufferable jackass that I kept hoping one of the people he ticked off would just put a bullet in his head. It reminded me a bit of his performance in Communion, where he’s supposed to be the protagonist, but I kept wanting the aliens to stick a probe in his mouth instead of his ass. There’s also a hindsight issue with the movie. It’s basically an anti-science film based on early research on the brain. The film implies that conditions like schizophrenia are just part of being human, and that treating them is tantamount to removing a person’s humanity. It relies on the visceral horror of opening the skull and putting wires inside, which it assumes the viewer will be repulsed by. Of course, 40 years later, great strides have been made in the treatment of many brain related ailments, and yes, sometimes those include putting electrodes inside. I don’t think that very many of the people who once suffered from serious problems, nor those today who may soon be cured, would feel the same horror. For example, all those def people now able to hear thanks to cochlear implants.
Birthday Girl: “Thank you. I think that’s very fair.” A lonely dude in England breaks down and tries an online service to find a mail-order Russian bride. Maybe not a great idea. But he picks a winner. She’s pretty and sweet. Sure, she was supposed to be a non-smoker and speak English, but you can’t have everything, right? The awkwardness between them is painful but charming. The bits where they explore John’s kinks are weirdly cute. (The scene where she’s on the bed, playing with his tie? Not my cup of tea, but I’d be willing to try a different brew. Ya dig?). Maybe things aren’t so bad…then Vincent Cassel and his buddy arrive, and things go bad fast and hard. I have a weird thing about Nicole Kidman. Clearly, she’s a beautiful woman. And sometimes, in some rare movies, I find her very sexy. But usually, she makes me think of a porcelain doll, something pretty to put on a shelf, but avoid touching for fear of damage or smudge. This film falls on the sexy side. Maybe it’s the dark hair? Or just my natural inclination toward women I clearly know are trouble. It’s weird having two French guys and an Australian woman play Russians. But that’s the movies, I guess. Though it features none of the signature style, the plot of the film could have dropped right out of a classic Noir. John is the sap, Nadia the femme fatale. But in spite of everything, it manages to be a cute romance along with the dangerous crime caper. It also manages to capture some of the pain of being an everyman. The montage featuring John’s boss reading aloud from his employee review is crushingly accurate and painful. The corporate speak that manages to makes to make him feel like crap, even though it’s a positive review. Spot on.
Doctor Who: Ambassadors of Death: “Right! Cut it open!” It’s weird going back and watching stories from this era. The Doctor is trapped on Earth, with parts of the Tardis set up in a swanky lab. This story begins with a manned probe returning from Mars, running silent. What happened 12 hours after the men landed? Why haven’t the communicated? Who…or what is in the returning pod? As a conspiracy builds, you know you’re in for another invasion of Earth story (90% of Jon Pertwee’s stories). Another issue with many of the Pertwee stories is the color. It would probably look better in black and white. The color is uneven, bleeding, faded, and grainy. This story arc is extremely long. Seven episodes is long, even for an arc of Pertwee’s era, already frequently over-long. Even so, I somehow didn’t think it felt as bloated as some others. It wanders a bit, but remains fairly interesting.
“Shoot it? Major, that horror is made of people!” More Swamp Thing. I read the final two volumes of Alan Moore’s run on the series. Darn it, but that’s an interesting character, with a lot of potential. I’m curious to see what other authors have done with him. Like where did Rick Veitch go with his sci-fi bent?
In just over a week I read 97 issues of Robert Kirkman's Invincible. I did very little else. It was a feast. And one of the best I've ever partaken in. The first two Ultimate Collection hardcovers are a lot of fun. Marvelesque super hero comics with a little taste of brutality. But with Volumes 3-7, Invincible becomes something more akin to an epic poem. Think Beowulf with a few more dudes in spandex...and a lot more Grendels getting torn to shreds. Absolutely painful melodrama, something I really wish could occur in Bendis' Ultimate Spider-Man. If you've been reading Kirkman's Walking Dead, but skipping Invincible than you're missing out on the better book. Sorry folks, but that's the truth.
The Black Hole: This is a boring movie. Birthed from the same era of live action Disney that brought us the cult of Tron. But, dang, it's a real snoozefest...with a crazy cast that includes a whole bunch of actors I love: Robert Forster, Ernest Borgnine, Anthony Perkins, Yvette Mimeux, and Maximillian Schell. It's got crazy robot gunslingers, goofy R2-D2 wannabes, and the Heart of Darkness personified in a beautifully 80s swirling Black Hole effect. None of that matters though, cuz the screenplay is lifeless. A real missed opportunity.
Tron - Legacy: I dig the original film (definitely more than Black Hole), but I don't drink from the digital Kool-Aid. I do, however, love to get drunk of the bio-digital jazz of the sequel. Not sure when Jeff Bridges' architect transformed into The Dude, but that groovy psychedelic philosophy feels like an appropriate addition to this family friendly cyberpunk. Garret Hedlund is a serviceable son and Olivia Wilde a fine program, but it's director Joseph Kosinski's fanboy infatuation of the universe that's truly infectious. Too bad the world didn't seem to respond to this world with the same enthusiasm cuz I would have been perfectly happy with a new trilogy. If for no other reason than to see Cillian Murphy's villainous offspring go off on the hippy dippy Flynn family.
Invincible Volume 3 Deluxe Hardcover: Just when Mark's settling into the life of Invincible, his psycho evil father Omni-Man reappears and he's got a whole new world to save. Can Mark handle the idea that his pa might have had a change of heart? Well, he doesn't have much time to contemplate as three sentries from the Viltrum Empire arrive to smash some traitor's faces. And if that super villain asskicking isn't enough, than the dimension hopping Angstrom Levy arrives to torture the Grayson family. And oh yeah - Science Dog!
Invincible Volume 4 Deluxe Hardcover: Mark finally goes toe-to-toe with the creator of the Reanimen. The Sequids puppet master army strikes! Omni-Man & Allen The Alien discover friendship. The Viltrums appoint Invincible conqueror of Earth. A whole lot is going down in the world of the Grayson family, but all this fun & adventure is just going to build to wretched agony. Volume 4 in the Invincible saga is another brick in the building. Love it, sure. But the real good stuff is just around the corner.
Invincible Volume 5 Deluxe Hardcover: After a savage battle with Doc Seismic, Mark Grayson discovers the dark methods at the disposal of the U.S. Government. Invincible strikes out against Cecil for employing both the murderous Darkwing and the not-at-all Super Patriotic Reanimen. Tossing in his yellow duds, striking out on his own, and trying to be a father to the young Oliver - the previous four volumes look pretty tame after the carnage born here. And it's only going to get worse for poor Mark. He might finally have relations with Atom Eve, but the little pleasures might not be enough with the return of his arch-nemisis, Angstrom Levy. War is coming. And it's gonna be red.
Lincoln: Here was a shock. After suffering the weak melodrama of last year's War Horse, I was not expecting much from Steven Spielberg's Abe Lincoln biography. Especially in a year when ol' Honest Abe slayed vampires amongst the Confederates. But damn. This was a great movie. Why? It's not a biopic. Focusing almost exclusively on the month of January 1865, depicting the beastly struggle to pass the 13th Amendment. This is not a sweeping, directionless biography desperately trying to capture the life of our most iconic President. And in narrowing the narrative we still get all the epic traits that make Lincoln the symbol we all know and love; it also offers a few extra morsels to ponder. Lincoln the father. Lincoln the old man storyteller. And Daniel Day Lewis is phenomenal. He steps right off the five dollar bill, gives you that Statue but also the humanity in the voice. He makes me love this man in a way I've never experienced before. I want to read Team of Rivals. I want to read Lincoln's Virtues. I want to read his speeches. That's a new desire for me. Thank you, Steven Spielberg. And you gotta love the rest of the cast. Tommy Lee Jones is so wonderfully self-rightous and cantankerous as the morally avenging Thaddeus Stevens. James Spader is a lovingly delightful rascal as the cunning vote-hunter Bilbo Not Baggins. And then you've got every other actor under the sun, sporting beards and looking like historical badasses. Tim Blake Nelson. Bruce McGill. John Hawkes. Jared Harris. Jackie Earl Haley. Hal Holbrook. The list goes on and on. Lincoln definitely turned out to be one of my personal surprises this Winter season.
Reservoir Dogs: I've bought every version of this film, from the original VHS release, to the gas can DVD, to the blu ray, and now this completely superfluous but somehow essential Tarantino Box Set version (honestly, I just had to own that Ken Taylor cover art). But Reservoir Dogs is a monumental film in my geek history. It represents my second mutation as a film fanatic. Before Dogs I was Star Wars, Star Wars, Star Wars, and a little Indiana Jones. But Reservoir Dogs opened up the world of cinema. It showed me that a conversation about Like A Virgin & the methodology of tipping could be as exciting as an epic gun battle. And it also pointed me towards other great films. From Tarantino I discovered the French New Wave, Spaghetti Westerns (the real stuff, not just Leone), and Hong Kong shoot 'em ups. I'm pretty sure I would have found all this stuff on my own eventually, but Reservoir Dogs sped the process along. For that I will always be thankful. And buy every damn edition of this movie I can.
Captain America #1: This is probably the Marvel Now book I was both anticipating and dreading the most. Ed Brubaker's run on Cap might have petered out, but at its height (The Death of Captain America) there was no better super hero book on the stand. Great War & Espionage stories packed with troubled philosophies and deep seeded emotional turmoil. So yanking the Captain out of our universe for the JRJR blocky Dimension Z? That just don't jive with me. Having now just finished this goofy book, I'm just really unsure if this is what I want out of this character. I'm going to give Rick Remender the first arc, but I really don't want to see one of my favorite comic book characters buried in tired Christ Claremont concepts.
Deadpool #2: There are some serious chuckles here. A zombie Teddy Roosevelt storms into the Brooklyn Zoo and starts blasting for Trophies. S.H.I.E.L.D sends in Deadpool to take down the mad Prez and his mighty big stick. As you know, I've never been a Deadpool fan. And I don't think I'm going to start. Posehn & Duggan are writing a very jokey-jokey book and it wins a good batch of chuckles but I'm mostly just left scratching my head. That being said, Tony Moore's art is kick ass for sure and I'll stick on for the first six issues.
Indestructible Hulk #1: Thanks to Daredevil and The Rocketeer - Cargo of Doom, Mark Waid is enjoying a new wave of enthusiasm from the comic book community. The idea of him bringing a whole heap of fun to the jolly green Mister Hyde is quite appealing, but it's too early to tell what this book is going to become. Bruce Banner pretty much forces the Hulk upon S.H.I.E.L.D and it looks like we're going to get a lot of strange bedfellows kinda drama (comedy?). Leinel Yu is not my favorite artist on the planet but no body can draw green rage quite like him. Hulking Out has never looked so good. But Banner & the other puny humans? Kinda ugly.
Red Dawn: Oh man. This was all kinds of useless bad. I'm not the uber fan of the original, but I can appreciate its Commie paranoia and machine gun fetishizing as much as the next John Milius fan. But the remake is an anemic adaptation that completely lacks the balls to be badass. Filmed well before Thor or The Hunger Games, you can still sense a good amount of charm in both Chris Hemsworth & Josh Hutcherson. And I've always had a hope for doomed Wonder Woman Adriene Palecki. But the PG-13 action is just a bunch of play, and nearly all the action is hidden within montage. A sadsack cash-in.
Invincible Volume 6 Deluxe Hardcover: This might be one of the most brutal collection of comics ever assembled. Everything leading up to this volume has been kiddie play. Invincible's apparent pummeling of Angstrom Levy only created a meaner, tougher, smarter monster. The super villain reaches across countless dimensions, gather an army of evil Mirror versions of Mark Grayson - and then he unleashes them upon our poor, unsuspecting Earth. The devastation they cause is world changing. But the war of the infinite Invisibles is just the beginning. Before he can even catch a breath, the Viltrum nightmare known as Conquest.
The resulting battle is some of the toughest panels I've ever experienced in a comics. Not just the beautifully splashy red but the tragic realization that Mark is just not ready to deal with the impending Viltrum takeover. And neither is the U.S. Government. It's time to look towards the Cosmos; a little help from troubled Pa Omni-Man & Allen the Alien. And then there's the Sequid uprising on Earth. BWA HUH?!?!? Seriously, just one of these events would be enough story for at least a year at Marvel or DC, but Robert Kirkman is throwing one brutal blow after the other. He's constantly punishing his characters, but they keep rising to the challenge.
Invincible Volume 7 Deluxe Hardcover: Ok. Remember how a few paragraphs ago I said that Volume 6 was some of the most brutal comics in the industry...yeah, that's still true, but Volume 7 is even worse. Mark & Oliver leave Earth and joins the Coalition of Planets. The Viltrumite War is here. You've got Allen the Alien, Omni-Man, Tech-Jacket, Battle Beast. Some of the toughest dudes in the universe and they're still no match for a handful of Viltrum scum. And the five issue battle makes the bloody beatdown at the hands of Conquest look like foreplay. I mean, I think the horror found within Ryan Ottley's art is ten times more horrifying than the goriest panels of The Walking Dead. Limbs get plucked. Jaws ripped from their hinges. Super Hero bodies just absolutely pulverized. And when the war comes to an end - or stalemate, Invincible has to encounter the devilish Dinosaurus. Could this scary ass Dr Jekyll/Incredible Hulk creation be an even bigger threat than those Viltrumite doomsayers? The build to issue #100 begins here.
Invincible Tradepaperback Volume 16 - Family Ties: Mark attempts to talk his way into the heart and brain of Dinosaurus, and an partnership seems to have been reached. Meanwhile in space, Allen the Alien & Oliver race to deliver the death of all mankind in the form of a Viltrum killing toxin. Sixteen trade paperbacks into the series, and Mark Grayson finally has to prove his understanding of "Right & Wrong" to his baby brother and the newfound leader of the Coalition of Planets. Basically, this is the book that shows off why mankind is so dang special. Of course, there's more cost for Invincible.
Invincible #91-97: Never been a big fan of powerloss stories, but don't worry, Kirkman knows not to dwell on it too long. That being said, Bulletproof has to strap on the suit to help Atom Eve with the Invincible, Inc side business. But Bulletproof might not be the most level headed guy...at the very least he doesn't know how to handle his parents. Most of these issues deal with what went down between Robot & Monster Girl in the Flaxxan dimension. It's fairly interesting, but it's also not my favorite stuff in this series. I really just want to get onto the Dinosaurus madness and the upcoming "Death of Everyone" story arc that's climaxing with issue #100. I'm kinda scared that Kirkman is going to deliver on the story title. Will Mark Grayson be around for issue 101? Hope so.
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.
