Book Review: Authority

    The second book in Jeff VanderMeer’s Southern Reach Trilogy pulls out of the first person, expanding the world beyond the borders of Area X, and taking us into the workings (not workings) of the shadowy Southern Reach.  Following Control, a man with plenty of skeletons in his closet, as he is brought in to assess and fix the entropic decline of the people in charge of holding back Area X’s advance (is it advancing?).  That’s right.  Office politics.  Mixed with an almost Cold War paranoia and the alien horror of …whatever it is that’s happening beyond the Border.  Mystery piles on mystery.  Riddle on riddle.  And revelation upon Revelation.

    This is certainly the kind of thing that could be stretched out too far.  Knowing that there’s a third book made me a bit nervous that this book would simply create more and more questions, only to have them half-heartedly resolved in a third book.  However, VanderMeer doesn’t seem afraid of shaking things up, of defying expectations.  And by the end of the book, nothing is the same.  I have no idea where he’ll go with the third, and I love it.

    Several interesting characters pepper the weirdness, and Control himself is quite a ball of human frailties.  Like a Kafka character, or one of those dupes in a spy novel, he’s in over his head, working with too little information, running to keep up, and almost certainly being used and lied to at every turn.  But that doesn’t mean he’s passive or weak.  He’s curious and driven, and has a very interesting arc.  And what of the Biologist?

    This is definitely a must for fans of cosmic horror and weird fiction.  It’s Lost done right (look, I loved the show, but they dropped a lot of balls through the seasons).  For tabletop gamers, this is excellent Delta Green material.  It’s a quick read, but gets to you.  I found myself slack-jawed at several spots along the way.  And after reaching the end, I can not wait to see what the deuce happens in the final book.  I have NO idea what’s coming.  By the end of the book, I was reminded of some of the coolest apocalyptic stories, of the sense of rolling dread, of things winding down.  There’s a disquieting sense of doom hanging over everything, until it isn’t hanging anymore.

“Thank you for your service, for your many years. Now take your weird art and get the fuck out.”

(See Annihilation review: here).

Authority
Author: Jeff VanderMeer
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ISBN: 978-0-374-10410-8

-Matthew J. Constantine

Book Review: Annihilation

    Who the heck is Jeff VanderMeer, and where the heck did he come from?!  Well, turns out, he’s been around for a while, working frequently as an anthologist, and penning a few stories as well.  And he’s been garnering some acclaim for that.  But, due to my general disappointment with the state of science fiction today (I’ll go out and wave my cane at whippersnappers later) I’d never heard of the guy.  Now I have, and I won’t soon forget.

    Did you like Lost?  Do you like weird, challenging stories that hint at much bigger things?  Do you enjoy that unsettling feeling created in the best horror (not the jump-scare/gore horror that is so common, but the real, intellectually terrifying stuff)?  I do, and this delivers.  Alienness and the slow, creeping madness it instills in people gives the book a terrible menace that builds and builds.  What could possibly be worse or more shattering than the previous discovery?  Try the next one.

    The book unfolds like a puzzle.  It’s the journal of a biologist, recording her part in an expedition into a corrupted landscape called Area X.  What is it?  Who made it?  How long has it been there?  Why?  So many questions and too few answers.  But it is the questions that linger.  And who is this biologist, anyway?  Is she a reliable narrator?  Why did she sign up?  Who are these other women on the expedition?

    Annihilation is the first part of the Southern Reach trilogy, which will be completely published before the end of the year (no waiting years on end for the next part of the story).  It should appeal to fans of Lovecraft and his disciples, fans of Lost and Fringe, and fans of mysterious adventure.  I was frequently reminded of the strange science fiction that trickled out in the late 60s and 70s, and of the works of Robert Charles Wilson.  I’ve heard good things about the second book, Authority, which has recently been published.  And I understand that it is stylistically quite different, giving more indication as to why this was split into three books.  The final book, Acceptance, is due out in September.

Annihilation
Author: Jeff VanderMeer
Publisher: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux
ISBN: 978-0-374-10409-2

-Matthew J. Constantine

Brad's Week in Dork! (6/2/13-6/8/13)

This was a great week of consumption.  The Wife & I are still plugging away at LOST, and we're finally starting to hit the place that absolutely giddies my brain - The Barge!  With last week's screening of 8 1/2 I plunged back into Roger Ebert's The Great Movies, and I continued that trend this week with Werner Herzog's Aguirre, The Wrath of God.  It's a damn good movie; I'm committed to the rest of the Herzog/Kinski collaboration box set and I've only got three left, but so far, so damn brilliant.  Klaus Kinski, the beautiful monster.  Every expression is a painting for my wall, a grotesque ripped from the finest Renaissance creation.  I also got serious about my Scorsese-A-Thon, cranking out three more of his classics - and yeah, all three are classics.  The De Niro era somewhat comes to a close with After Hours which in turn leads to another grab at the new mainstream of the 1980s, The Color of Money.  The Griffin Dunne nightmare adventure is often forgotten in the canon, but I (& Ebert) consider it to be a highlight within a flood of highlights.

This Pretty Much Sums Up The Night

I made it out to the theater for a pair of Ethan Hawke performances: Before Midnight & The Purge.  Could there possibly be a better example of Night & Day as far as quality is concerned?  Don't think so.  Hawke is an interesting actor - you can't really love the guy, but I'm hard pressed to think of a time in which I utterly loathed a performance.  His tour with Lionsgate is fun even when it's forgettable.  The guy just likes to work.  Respect.

LOST Season 3:  The second season dipped its toe into the pool of genre crazy, and Season 3 wades on into the deep end.  It's a little bit of a slow start as Jack, Kate, & Sawyer bang upon their cages, but once they worm their way out and into the barrack world of Dharma (or the Dharma that once was), LOST finds its story and finally stretches its science-fiction setting.  Michael Emmerson is a great nemesis for Flight 815 and Elizabeth Mitchell's Dr. Juliette is a welcome addition to a cast of morally broken people.  And let's not forget Nestor Carbonell's Richard!  What's his deal?  It's only going to get weirder and more ancient from here.  Plus, just when the flashbacks start to get stale (seriously, at this point, who cares what Sun & Jin were doing in Korea or how much of a tool Charlie was before getting to Gilligan's Island?), the writers find an exciting new device to launch us into the next season.  Finally, we have "Not Penny's Boat!"  Outsiders are on their way and the battle between 815 & The Others barely has time to breath before an even larger threat crests the horizon.

Raging Bull:  "I don't trust you when it comes to her.  I don't trust nobody."  This is a frustrating film for me.  Obviously, the craft and performances are stunning.  Robert De Niro's Jake LaMotta is a hateful brute and he's surrounded by corrupting influences.  Family, friends, lovers.  Everyone wants a piece and he's ready to take a bite.  Martin Scorsese shoots boxing like the horrific ballet that it is, a black & white bloodsport unfit for this "civilized" world we pretend to inhabit.  I could watch those bouts all day long.  But De Niro's LaMotta?  I hate him.  Cathy Moriarty's Vickie is the worst kind of victim, a woman asking for the punishment that is her life.  Joe Pesci's little brother appears good hearted, but he's little more than a punching bag for the bull.  I hate these people.  I recognize the craft of the film - the cinematography, the direction, the performances, the script - but the problems of these mooks are are boring to me.  I imagine a world in which the cast & crew remade Robert Ryan's The Set-Up, and it's a beautiful nirvana filled with heinous blows of genre.  Raging Bull is trying to get to the truth of a man, but Jake LaMotta is a jackass and I don't like living in his skin.

Aguirre - The Wrath of God:  "These savages are hard to convert."  And here is another character filled with hate & violence but one that is absolutely not boring.  Klaus Kinski is Aguirre, the second in command of a doomed expedition through South America in search for the fabled city of gold, El Dorado.  His men follow the conquering footsteps of Cortes, slashing their way through the jungle, capturing the natives, bashing the word of God into their brains, and falling victim to Mother Nature as well as their own black hearts.  What are Aguirre's desires?  I'm still not totally sure.  Domination does not appear to be one even as he sets up a noblemen as the puppet emperor for their expedition.  He appears to be solely concentrated on the destruction of others.  He stands upon a raft of corpses, leader of the dead and the dying.  Success?  I think he may see it that way.  This is certainly a film I'm going to have to go back to a few times.  It's an assault on the senses, but unlike Raging Bull, I enjoy the idiocy of the brutality.  Most must be contributed to Kinski's mad performance.  Is the character off?  Or is the actor the true madman of myth?  How rare to have an actor that convincing.

Aquaman Vol 2 - The Others:  I really, really, really enjoyed Geoff Johns' first entry into the New 52 Aquaman.  It was a fun, frothy story in which the king of Atlantis struggled to find his way between the two worlds of his parents.  Unfortunately, Volume 2 squanders all the high adventure of the first book for some shockingly dull Super Hero brawl.  Some time ago a pirate called Black Manta killed Aquaman's human father and in retaliation Aquaman killed Black Manta's father.  Here we get the very worst imitation of The Wrath of Khan and muddled in the middle are a team of 90s runoffs called The Others.  The book introduces six new characters but only gives you fistfights as a means of character development.  We get beats but not story.  And The Others just get in the way of the characters we actually care about - Aquaman & Mera, a husband and wife super team struggling to make life on dry land.  I know we have to have punch ups but it would be nice if the story didn't Schumacher it up with dead weight villains.  I don't think I'll be going any further with this series.

Before Midnight:  Richard Linklater gives us the third, but possibly not the last chapter in his romantic saga.  I don't want to go into specifics, just know that Before Midnight contains a lot more of walking & talking to camera.  If you've seen the first two then you know the deal.  Honestly, I absolutely adore the first film but was somewhat dismayed by the direction taken by Before Sunset.  Having now just spent six years in absolute bliss with my own significant other, I respond deeply to the heart & romance of Before Sunrise, but Sunset breaks down the "reality" of love, and it tasted cynical rather than truthful.  And Before Midnight continues that trend.  It's impossible to separate my own relationship and my own ideas of love from these films, but I find the conversation to be fascinating and absolutely worth the return trip.  Also, where else (outside of genre) can you find three films that follow the same two actors in the same two characters?  At the very least, the Before films are a magnificent exploration and I look forward to watching them as a whole.

Nosferatu - Phantom Der Nacht:  "Give me some of that love."  Werner Herzog & Klaus Kinski reteam to bring us this romantically haunting remake of the silent classic, this version containing much more of Bram Stoker's original source material minus the drab narration.  Kinski is exceptional in his portrayal of the undead Count and his droopy stares into camera are hypnotizing.  The man is a living sculpture!  Also, Bruno Ganz might very well be the only version of Jonathan Harker I've ever found sympathetic, and Isabelle Adjani is the most pained Mina (or Lucy as this film swaps her) ever filmed.  She is wide-eyed gorgeous, a tragic pet for Kinski's monstrous longings.  And have you ever seen a vampiric seduction of a town so mournfully shot than the one Herzog depicts here?  The town square rat feast!  Terrifying in its banality.

The Vampire Lovers:  "Put some blood back into her."  When I think of the quintessential Hammer Horror I think of The Vampire Lovers.  Sure, the adaptations of The Horror of Dracula or The Curse of Frankenstein might be a touch more iconic thanks to the performances of Christopher Lee, but what I really want from Hammer are the busty ladies tortured by the supernatural.  No one quite does pulp cheesecake quite like Hammer, and Ingrid Pitt is their ultimate pinup girl.  A cheap retelling of Sheridan Le Fanu's Carmilla, that short story donates heaps of sexual subtext to exploit in the world of B Movies, but the success of The Vampire Lovers is Pitt & company's full-hearted acceptance of the material.  There is no sheeping here.  It's cheese - bloody & booby - no apologies.  It's the perfect gift for 13 year old males or the stunted 30 year old.

Blade 2:  "Lock up your daughters, boys and girls, The Dark Knight Returns!"  This is a special film and I don't think enough people give it the credit it so rightfully deserves.  Dropped into the middle of a crappy comic book franchise is a classic of genre filmmaking.  I would go so far as to argue that Blade 2 is the finest hour in Guillermo Del Toro's career and one of the Top 5 comic book movies ever concocted.  Not satisfied with the mewling dreary whelps of the Anne Rice generation, the director set out to return the monstrous to the vampire, and in the process Blade 2 became an epic Blaxploitation remake of The Dirty Dozen.  This is the very finest of kitchen sink cinema.  Coming off of the disastrous Mimic & the rejuvenating Devil's Backbone, Guillermo Del Toro saw this sequel as his great grab at big time Hollywood filmmaking, bending David Goyer's script to his will.  Thankfully, it was a success.  I adore Blade's descent down the villain food chain, exploding a traitor in his midst, punishing an army of security guard lapdogs, slicing racial hate into Ron Perlman's Nazi, buffooning the vampire count, and eventually going toe-to-toe with Luke Goss's genetic abomination.  And each stop along the way of neverending set piece is peppered with winks and nods to comics, movies, and classical illustration.  Del Toro has absorbed it all, but his pop references manage to be more fluid and natural than anything found in the very best of Quentin Tarantino or Martin Scorsese.  Of course, this is just Blade 2 - a violent action film sandwiched between two slices of moldy bread and therefore it will never get the rightful appreciation.  And as much as I love Del Toro, I don't think he's ever come close to capturing the perfection of this film.  Deluded blogger praise?  Maybe.  But you should watch this film again if you doubt me.

The King of Comedy:  Ugh, this film is painful.  Funny at times.  But mostly painful.  Robert De Niro gives his finest performance as Rupert Pupkin, the wannabe comic who kidnaps his way into primetime legend.  Jerry Lewis is the hapless celebrity navigating the cost of fame, and failing his audience's impossible expectations.  The King of Comedy feels like its coming from a great sadness buried deep within its creators, but its beauty is that it never feels like "Woe Is Me" cinema.  This is truth via absurdity.  De Niro's Pupkin is just another sadsack living in his parents basement who fills the void in his life with delusions of celebrity.  If he could only get his act on TV than the high school dream girl would be his and the world would accept his comedy genius.  The film marches to a dark tune and each chuckle that escapes lands with a sick thud.  It's an uncomfortable watch, but one worth having every few years.  It's certainly a great reminder of De Niro's skill, and in the current era of cash-in action/comedy roles The King of Comedy reminds us just how the man got to his iconic status.

Star Trek - "The Cage":  Can you believe I had actually never seen this pilot episode before?  It's true!  Previously, my only connection to "The Cage" were the snippets seen within "The Menagerie."  Jeffery Hunter is a great Captain of the Enterprise.  Don't worry, I'm not ready to abandon Shatner, but I have to admit cool where cool exists.  Pike is certainly a more introspective Starfleet officer than Kirk.  He's been around the rings of Saturn a few too many times and fantasies of Orion Slave Girls plague his mind.  He's ready to toss in the towel.  Then comes a distress signal and the lovely captive Vina.  The Telosians are not the type of villains you punch, they're the type you strangle.  Using their big brains to keep Pike & Vina imprisoned, they desire to breed a perfect race of man but you get the idea that perfection is a mask for simple sandbox play time.  What would the world be like if Hunter remained on the bridge?  Hmmmm, it's an interesting thought.  I certainly think there was a great show here, and maybe not that different from the Star Trek we eventually got.  My whole reasoning for sitting down for the first episode was The Mission Log podcast, a detailed breakdown of every Star Trek episode.  It's prodeced by Gene Roddenberry's son and it's fun Trekkie stuff.

The Purge:  I really love the concept behind this flick - one day a year, the US Government legalizes all forms of crime.  Murder, Rape, Riot.  It's all cool as long as you don't use a weapon classified above a level 4 (whatever the hell that means, no bazookas I guess).  That's a very twisted Twilight Zone kinda thought and I had hopes that this B Movie would do something special with it.  Unfortunately, The Purge never quite rises above the typical stalk & slash and nearly every character falls into those Horror movie tropes we were warned about in the Scream franchise, "I'll be right back!!!!!"  The best moments happen early one before The Purge goes into full effect.  Ethan Hawke's daughter looking down into her neighbor's backyard and seeing him sharpening his machete.  That's damn creepy.  The Haves locking up their doors while the Have-Nots scurry for a hiding place.  There could have been a great film here.  Instead we get a forgettable dolt.

Action Comics - Superman vs The Men of Tomorrow:  Zack Snyder's Man of Steel is nearly upon us, and as the week came to a close I found myself hunting for the perfect Superman comic.  We all know that's Grant Morrison & Frank Quitely's All-Star Superman, but I'm holding off on that till next week's book club.  So, instead, I though I'd give Morrison's New 52 relaunch a try.  It's not as dull or painful as some would have you believe, but it's also nothing more than routine super heroics.  Frankly, I'm tired of being introduced to this character.  Secret Origin, Superman For All Seasons, Red Son, Birthright.  Why do all the classic stories center on his beginnings?  Morrison attempts a half-ass origin here with Lex working for the government, Clark Kent bumbling about The Daily Star, Brainiac bottling cities, and Superman rocking jeans rather than spandex.  The action scenes are solid enough and the dialog all works in that Morrison nostalgia kinda way.  But there is nothing special.  I hear it gets better before it all comes crashing down so I'll stick around for the next volume.

Woyzeck:  "All things of this world are evil."  Of the three Herzog/Kinski collaborations I watched this week, Woyzeck was the one that I found the most punishingly effective.  The story of a meek soldier slowly deteriorating over the course of several days as his wife openly lusts for another man, his doctor makes mockery of his exasperated state, and his commanding officer belittles his uncontrollable rushing.  Klaus Kinski has played brute & monster before, but with Woyzeck the actor reaches new depths of victimization.  Aguirre may have been The Wrath of God, but Woyzeck is the puppet of the Earth, hearing the planet's demand to stab the life from his bride.  Death is on the wind, prick up your ears.  The film's 80 minute runtime is busting with dread; almost from frame one you're waiting for catastrophe to strike.  No wonder the original play was transformed into Opera, Woyzeck is beauty through tragedy.  Not for the Saturday Night crowd, but the cineaste looking to wallow in despair will find plenty of misery to envelope them.

After Hours:  Griffin Dunne is just one more mindless cubical worker, a cog in the machine of capitalism punching his keyboard with as little mental effort as possible.  One night he leaves his office building, finds a diner to read his book, and strikes up a conversation with Rosanna Arquette.  Their brief flirtation sparks a Kafkan quest through the dirty heart of New York City.  Dunne bumps against the stupid and the absurd:  Linda Fiorentino's dominating artist, John Heard's grieving barman, Catherine O'Hara's vigilante ice cream trucker, and the dynamic duo of Cheech & Chong.  It's a gut-bustingly funny saga, but like The King of Comedy, it's often more sad than not.  The circular torment bestowed upon Griffin Dunne is uproarious and I often found myself shaking my head at the horrors forced upon him.  In a lot a ways, After Hours would be the perfect companion to John Landis' Into The Night, another neglected classic centering on the nighttime exploits of an anonymous data head.

--Brad

Book Review: Fringe: The Zodiac Paradox

    I’m a surprise fan of Fringe.  I heard about it, but thought it sounded like a crappy X-Files riff; another of so many shoddy TV shows that recycle ideas with a couple of semi-novel ‘twists,’ last a season (or in truly dire situations, more than one season), and fade into justified obscurity (see every show featuring a vampire in the lead, with the possible exception of Dark Shadows).  And this time, one of those goofy dudes from Dawson’s Creek was on the team and Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz.  Still, I am not made of stone (though I do have a piece of coal where my heart should be), and eventually I listened to one of the many voices singing its praise and gave it a try.  Glad I did.  It is like X-Files.  Except that instead of one in five episodes being pretty good (with the rest being forgettable or bloody awful), Fringe was fairly consistently good and thematically focused.  And what’s more, the Dawson kid was good (?!).  But the best character, the most fun to watch, the one I found myself paying attention to, empathizing with, and wanting to know more about, was the resident mad scientist, the drugged up nutter Walter Bishop.

    Take my favorite character from an excellent show and put him into the hands of one of my favorite active writers, Christa Faust?  Sounds like a good recipe.  And so it is.  A prequel story about Walter, William Bell, and Nina Sharp and a protracted battle with the Zodiac killer.  Sign me up.  But media tie-in novels are a tricky thing.  I’m a long time Star Trek fan, and have read my fair share of Trek novels…a few of them were even good.  I’ve read some Farscape books, Indiana Jones, Star Wars, and others.  More often than not, they’re not very good.  By which I mean they’re garbage.  The key problem is writing characters that sound and feel like the ones you’re used to from the show/film.  Why was The Wounded Sky a good Trek novel?  Because Kirk spoke and acted like Kirk, and McCoy spoke and acted like McCoy.  Once a writer does that, I’m much more willing to sit through whatever story they might wish to tell, but if a writer can not do that…I’m out.  All that is a long way of leading into  the strength of this book.  When Faust puts words into Walter’s mouth, I hear and see John Noble.  When she puts words into Belly’s mouth, I hear and see Leonard Nimoy.  After that, it’s all gravy.

    The story deals with early stage explorations into the mind altering drugs and reality breaking research that is the backstory of Fringe.  Bishop, Bell, and Sharp come together in the early 70s and lay conceptual groundwork for their lives, building the foundation of all that will lead to the events of the TV series.  And this is the stuff I loved about the show.  I’m really fascinated by all that post 60s, post hippie Utopian insanity.  Like the Dharma Initiative on Lost or The Arboria Institute from Beyond the Black Rainbow.  Or experimental hospitals in movies like Rabid and The Brood.  People with nothing but the best of intentions, trying to craft a new, better world, but with dire and sometimes apocalyptic consequences.  Some combination of drugs, the Cold War, profound social change, and wild tech growth created a weird time where almost anything seemed possible.  A time when two science nerds tripping balls in a park might just open a rift to another world, or find a way to boost human evolution.  I’ll admit, the Zodiac killer didn’t particularly interest me.  This is largely due to my ambivalence toward serial killer history and fiction.  It’s well handled, and I think the scenes written from his point of view are appropriately creepy and disquieting.  But due to my own interests and prejudices, I kept wanting the scenes to end so I could get back to Walter, Nina, and Belly, or the student researchers, or even the psychedelic rock band trying to change the world with their music, man.  I can’t imagine there are a lot of people like myself, who would love to read a novel about the founding of Massive Dynamics, and their early research work, without need of a monster or villain.  I should probably just pop on a few more prog-rock albums, watch Videodrome, and be content.

    If you’re a Fringe fan, absolutely check this book out.  It’s nice supplementary material that builds the world a bit more and gives details on the early lives of some major players.  If you’re a Christa Faust fan, you should enjoy her typical cracking action, natural dialog, and uncomfortable violence.  It is a tie-in to a PG-13 type show, so the violence is more restrained than in Choke Hold or Money Shot.  But it doesn’t feel false or too sanitized.  If you’re like me, and a fan of both, this is a no-brainer.  Read it.

-Matt

Brad's Week in Dork! (5/12/13-5/18/13)

Sigh.  Let that be your warning - there be ranting blogger rage here.  From the very first set photo leaked from Star Trek Into Darkness, we here at ITMOD expressed reservation about the follow-up film to JJ Abrams' rather clever 2009 relaunch.  If you've read more than one of our posts here, you know that we're a pair of serious Trekkies - and it's hard to impress us when the crew of the USS Enterprise is involved.  Hell, we've hated on the original film series, the Next Gen crew, DS9, Voyager, and those bloody Bakula nimrods.  But for the most part, it comes from a place of love and we can find joy in even the weakest of Trek entries (I for one am a serious defender of Shatner's Final Frontier).  Star Trek Into Darkness marks the first film in the franchise that I full-on hated.  Nemesis & Generations might be weaker entries, but even in those lamebrain scripts you can find fleeting moments of character to latch upon.  Into Darkness is a remake in the guise of split-time sequel, and it preys upon your memories of the characters and the iconic events that shaped previous films.  If the last time you watched Star Trek II - The Wrath of Khan was a few years ago, and you casually think of yourself as a "Trekkie" cuz being a nerd these days is cool than you probably loved Into Darkness.  If you can check off your brain, ignore the craters of logic that obliterate the screenplay, and have no problem with 9/11 conspiracies or racial white washing than go have fun at the movies.  But if you ever bitched about Indiana Jones & The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull or Prometheus or The Dark Knight Rises but thought Into Darkness was a rollicking good time, than you are fooling yourself - or are completely ignorant to the idiocy assaulting your senses.  Whiz, Bang, Flash is not Star Trek.

Ok.  Have I insulted you yet?  Have I properly expressed how much your enthusiasm for this new Trek makes you an idiot?  Do I sound like a big enough asshole?  Smug enough?  Righteous enough?  Good.  Let's continue.

I really don't like being a hater.  My problem is that, when it comes to all things dorky, Star Trek is my one true love.  I love Westerns.  I love comic books.  I love Planet of the Apes & Magnum PI.  But above all else I love Star Trek.  It's why JJ's 2009 film is such a damn miracle to me.  He managed to make a flick that pleased mass audiences as well as basement dwelling trolls like myself.  Star Trek '09 is a great action movie that plays off the Kirk vs. Khan scenario that plagues all cinematic Trek films, but still delivers strong emotional character beats as well as winky callbacks to the original series.  And it's shimmering success really had me pumped for Into Darkness, even though the trailers & posters often gave me pause.  My joy for that movie, as well as the Universe it inhabits, ranked Star Trek Into Darkness as one of my most highly anticipated films of the year.  

As I often do, I decided to get serious with my preparation.  Watching all of Abrams's films prior to the new release as well as finishing off the second season of Lost with The Wife.  I really do dig his work prior to this latest abomination.  Despite whatever narrative balls get dropped in LOST, it still ranks as one of my favorite television shows.  Mission Impossible III revived a floundering action franchise for Tom Cruise's psychologically strained career.  Super 8 is a gorgeous love letter to all things Spielberg.  And Star Trek '09 is....well, you know already, just a geeky gem.  Hindsight being what it is, I can start to get cynical about the man.  His career does seem to prey, or at least leech upon nostalgia.  And since my brain is in a fairly dark place at the moment, it's easy for me to think of JJ Abrams as a monstrous money maker taking advantage of this Golden Age of Nerd, grabbing for our dollars by playing with our most beloved properties.  I am certainly curious to see what he does with Star Wars - Episode VII.  If this blog post proves anything, it's impossible to please all the geeks, and his Star Wars will surely grab the attention of haters everywhere.  The nice thing about that though is that George Lucas has pretty much killed that franchise already, and Abrams surely cannot do any worse than what the father has already committed.   

Below you will find hate for only one film.  I dig the others in varying ways.  Also, despite all this Trekkie ranting, the Week was filled with other great bits of dorkery as well.  Lots of comics.  The new issue of Fatale was amazing.  The Age of Ultron continues to exist.  I finished my blitz through Homicide - Life on the Street.  And The Ultimate Justice League of Extraordinary Book Club celebrated it's one year anniversary.  Star Trek Into Darkness might have put a damper on things, but lets' face it, I obviously love bitching about it, and at the end of the day new Star Trek is a good thing.  Live Long and Prosper, folks.

LOST - Season 2:  This is the season in which most of America jumped ship.  Not me.  I was enjoying the first season's mysterious island with its sadsack flashbacks and roaring unseen monsters - but! from the moment they found Desmond at the bottom of the hatch & the introduction of Dr. Marvin Candle & his Dharma Initiative I was truly obsessed with LOST.  Terry O'Quinn's John Locke spends much of this arc analyzing or confusing the messages being sent his way by The Island.  Push the button, don't push the button, push the button.  And what does it all have to do with Hurley's numbers.  As per usual you get more questions than answers, but they are some pretty damn fun questions.  Michael thankfully spends much of the show off screen screaming for "WAAAAALT!" and when he finally returns he brings a whole lot of crazy and death with him.  The new additions to the cast are all enjoyable, even Michelle Rodriguez's tough girl is a fairly interesting character and just when you're getting tired of her...well, The Island has an answer.  Of course, Season 2's greatest new character is Michael Emmerson's Henry Gale.  A real asshole who has a mess of fun twisting Lock's brain around; even if that's pretty easy, it's a heck of a lot of fun to watch.  It is odd watching it a second (or is this a third) time around.  I used to love Mr. Echo so much, but knowing how his story ends makes it easy to gloss over his character.  He's just one of many threads that leads to a brick wall of pointlessness.  Still, I love Dharma.  It might not go exactly where I want it to lead, but how can you not enjoy a shadowy organization messing with magnetic fields and trippy 1960s psycho-babble experiments.  Technology-gone-by, I eat that stuff up.

Mission Impossible III:  Coming at a point when it was popular to bash Tom Cruise for his whackjob beliefs (I recognize the man as crazy, but he's the pure embodiment of "A Real American Hero" - Hollywood's GI Joe), MI3 revitalized a franchise left on the killing floor by John Woo and his unnecessary pigeon explosions.  This is also the only film in the series to feel remotely like the TV show with its rube-goldberg action set-pieces and oddball collection of IMF agents.  Phillip Seymour Hoffman remains the only real memorable villain of the quadrilogy, even when he's phoning it in he's bringing 110% of rage.  Granted, I'm not crazy how Bad Robot injects the Alias subplot of the husband hiding his Secret Agent status from friends & family, but it was obvious from the previous films that some form of humanity needed to be injected into Ethan Hunt.  Sure, I have no idea what an Anti-God device is or why I should care, but when Tom Cruise is hurtling down the backally's of Hong Kong all you need to know is that he's gots ta smash Hoffman's face.

Super 8:  The first half of this film is nearly flawless in its recreation of a period.  Abrams certainly understands what works in those early Spielberg films; the man pulls all the family drama he can from Jaws, E.T., and Close Encounters of the Third Kind.  But it only works because Abrams has gathered an exceptional cast of child actors - you're lucky enough when you find one kid who can emote, but when you've uncovered half a dozen?  That's nearly unheard of; set these guys right next to  The Monster Squad & The Goonies.  Elle Fanning gets the most critical praise thanks to her stirring "performance" before the train explosion, but this is Joel Courtney's movie and all of Super 8's fantasy and heart rests on his shoulders.  The best bits are the moments between the kids, the ridiculously massive train collision is fun and the monster terror is exciting enough, but if you removed the interplay between the kids or even their Super 8 contest film, then all that's left is a mediocre monster mash.  The back half of the film is solid spectacle, but like LOST, the mystery box is much more interesting than the contents desperately hidden inside.

Fatale #14:  "The man who isn't a man at all..."  Ed Brubaker & Sean Phillips' third arc of seemingly stand-alone stories comes to a close with a doozy.  We've been given glimpses of Josephine's WWII history before, but here we get a real nitty gritty insight into the depths she plummeted during the Nazi's European reign.  Fans of Indiana Jones & Hellboy will dig the references to the Thule Society, and the Lovecraftian tentacle demons get plenty of panel time this issue.  Also, we are actually given an opportunity to understand Walt Booker's human monster, and it makes me wonder how our hero Nicholas Lash will be left at the end of the series.  My guess is haunted and mutilated, if not simply a corpse.  Fatale remains my favorite monthly comic.

Age of Ultron #8:  The first half of this series spent its time wandering the Post-Apocalypse of an Ultron ravaged America.  Bryan Hitch's art was amazing so it was easy to miss the fact that the plot was barely moving forward.  Now we're two issues from the conclusion and the plot is rushing by at a breakneck pace.  Of course, the whole "Age of Ultron" conceit has gone by the wayside and the real narrative of a time hopping Wolverine & Sue Richards reveals itself as a fun if disposable mirror universe tale.  I dig the technology ravaged Tony Stark and his buggy Defenders, but I have no idea who or what Morgan Le Fey is within the context of the Marvel Universe.  Nor do I care since it's all gonna get reset anyway.  I'm not hating this series, but it does leave me with something to be desired.

FF #7:  Another month, another amazing issue of FF.  The Future Foundation travels to the Negative Zone to rescue Bentley-23 from his clone daddy and free the super villain from the mind of Medusa.  Mike Allred kills it on art, and there are several Ant-Man panels I want mounted on my wall pronto.  The only way you cannot be enjoying this series is that if you have no soul.  Right now, FF is the best book of the Marvel Now relaunch with Thor - God of Thunder trailing closely behind.

Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #23:  Miles Morales has had to deal with death in the past, but the tragedy of the last issue truly rocked him to his 14 year old emotional core.  This issue jumps ahead one year and even though I'm not usually a fan of that kind of thing, I gotta admit that it works here.  We find Miles sans costume.  He's a year older, and in teen years that's practically a decade of emotional intelligence.  His relationship with his father seems stronger, he has a girlfriend in the Ultimate Universe incarnation of Kate Bishop (YAY!  HAWKEYE!  FU Matt!), and Gwen Stacey waitresses at a crappy Chinese Restaurant.  I really have no idea how he stayed out of the costume for a whole year, but it doesn't look like that's going to last much longer with Jessica Drew hounding him to join the Ultimates.  If you are at all annoyed with the Dock Ock silly of The Superior Spider-Man than it's time for you to jump realities.  Miles is where it's at.  

Star Trek:  "I dare you to do better."  As I stated in this week's A Fistful of Star Trek, my Trekkie heart is devastated during the opening destruction of the USS Kelvin.  I've watched this film a half dozen times now, and every time during the final exchange between Mr. & Mrs. George Kirk I well up with tears.  And I really do dig how the death of James Kirk's father alters his personality if not his destiny.  This is not William Shatner's Starfleet Captain.  Fitting into JJ Abrams' Lucas/Spielberg obsession, Chris Pine is much more Indiana Jones or Han Solo than Tiberius.  An idea I struggle with to this day (see below), but find myself open to in this action film franchise refit.  And torturous emotional blows like the Kelvin attack, the destruction of Alderaan - I mean Vulcan, the parenting of Christopher Pike, and the presence of Leonard Nimoy's Spock help the film to make it's play for mainstream dollars.  2009's Star Trek managed the impossible, grabbing new fans to a dead franchise while still pleasing the fanboys of yore.  Allow it.

Star Trek Into Darkness:  "You should have let me sleep."  Spoiler Warning for those worried about the precious Mystery Box of JJ Abrams.  If you're looking for a more in-depth look at my histrionics and hyperbole than please feel free to read my full, raged-out review of Star Trek Into Darkness HERE.  But if I were to boil this film down into one word it would be "Dumb."  The film completely squanders the good will committed in the previous movie, practically ignoring the split-timeline conceit by white washing the North Indian sikh known throughout fandom as Khan Noonien Singh into the pasty, growly Benedict Cumberbatch.  Is that a Trekkie nitpick, or simply racist?  It's certainly the action of someone who never liked Star Trek or it's philosophy (see heinous Jon Stewart interview HERE).  But let's move past that, and let's even move past the fact that we're doing another Starfleet Revenge story immediately following the one told in the last film.  Let's even try to ignore screenwriter Roberto Orci's ham-fisted attempt to shoehorn his Truther agenda about the 9/11 Attacks into the mouths and actions of Admiral Peter Weller.  Star Trek Into Darkness is simply a bad movie.  A script that often has to tell you why so & so is bad (dial up BFF Spock Prime), and painfully relies on your fond memories of Star Trek's greatest cinematic adventure to wring the tears from your sockets.  Is it clever to reverse Wrath of Khan's climax, or just lazy?  It's certainly lazy to telegraph the action halfway through your film with Kirk's "I Suck At Being Captain" speech and the awkward "Hey Bones, what ya doin' with that dead Tribble?" tension breaker.  And where exactly is the Star Trek universe left at the end of this film?  Well, it's now a world that no longer needs starships thanks to portable transwarp beaming units.  And Khan's "super blood" has cured death.  Yes.  No one can die again in Star Trek.  I know tension is a ridiculous concept in a sequel filled franchise, but COME ON!  You cured Death!!!!!  What the hell?!?!?  Screw you.  But don't worry.  The super blood will be quickly ignored the next time around.

Homicide - Life on the Street Season 7:  The final season certainly lacks without the presence of Andre Braugher's Detective Pembleton.  Kyle Secor attempts to fill the void with his zen investigator, but he's just not Frank.  And it's obvious that NBC was drilling the producers with notes as more and more sexy cops are added to the cast and romantic interludes begin to invade the crime sprees.  I do really like Agent Giardello's introduction; Giancarlo Esposito is a perfect foil to papa Yaphet Kotto and it's a shame he only got one season to play sonnie.  There are not as many memorable cases this season - there's the extremely dated Internet Killings for Baylis to loose his mind over, and Detective Shepherd's beatdown brings an interesting dynamic to the squadroom.  But where are the White Glove Murder cases?  How 'bout a great guest star standalone?  Not really.  Season 7 is solid television, but it's also easily the weakest entry in the series.

The 1 Year Anniversary Meeting of The Ultimate Justice League of Extraordinary Book Club:  Man, just look at that cake.  Absolutely stunning.  Crafted courtesy of longtime member Jill, that delectable chocolate cake also represents every title we covered this year.  Can you spot my favorite marzipan decor?  Well, obviously it's the Blacksad piece that reigns supreme on top.  I really cannot believe this book club lasted a year.  When The Wife told me she wanted to start it, I thought it was a great endeavor but I just didn't think folks would last...especially after the heated Habibi meeting.  I am so happy to be proven the needless doubter.  Every month I greatly look forward to the gathering, and I though this week's Massive discussion to be one of the best yet.  Most folks seemed to be lukewarm on the material, but that lone enthusiast kept the conversation going.  By the end of the night I went from completely exhausted on Brian Wood to ready to pick up the next volume.  Thanks William.

The Massive:  This was the fourth post-apocalypse story we read this year (Get Jiro, Y The Last Man, & The Walking Dead being the others), and it was easily my least favorite.  A great earthly cataclysm sparked by global warming has left the planet practically covered in water.  The treehuggers that pilot The Kapital are on a mission to find their sister ship The Massive.  Along the way they encounter pirates, pirates, and more pirates.  The narrative simply wanders from one conflict to the next, and I'm never quite sure why we should care about the missing Massive or why even these characters think it's still floating around out there.  There seems to be some mystical mumbo jumbo at play in the background, but it's so slight that it fails to illicit any kind of wonder from this reader.  This could be one of those books like The Walking Dead or Preacher that needs a couple volumes to really heat up, but I'm barely interested enough to wait for the next volume in December.

Homicide - The Movie:  When Yaphet Kotto is shot during a political rally, all the detectives from season's past (even the dead ones) appear to hunt down the assassin.  This is much more the satisfying conclusion than what we got in Season 7, and it solidifies Homicide as the greatest Detective program to grace the boob tube.  However, it also proves that one time rookie cop Tim Baylis is a true whelp and never should have walked through those squad room doors.  His first case, the Adena Watson killing, ruined him and his downfall is the great tragedy of Frank Pembleton's life.  I still crave another look at these characters lives.  Where is Frank now?  Is he still teaching?  How's his relationship with his wife and kids?  I have a feeling that Tim Baylis destroyed him mentally, and whatever his future transformed into, it's a dark and sad place.  Homicide was never a happy go-lucky show.  It was a challenge.  The characters were fallible and often infuriating.  But it was rarely boring.  I miss it.

The Fast and The Furious:  With Star Trek crashed and burned behind me, it's time to shake off the fanboy pity and dive into an epic example of franchise stupidity.  The Fast and The Furious is a film that takes itself way too seriously.  Vin Diesel & Paul Walker are so desperate to be cool that they fail miserably with their stern staredowns and flailing fistfights.  Director Rob Cohen tries to sell you on the badass of car racing with horrendous CGI glimpses of carburetors and pistons.  The film is laughable and often boring; how this led to the mondo glory known as Fast Five is beyond me, but I'm so glad the teenyboppers kept showing up for these idiotic flicks, cuz The Rock would transform this saga into a beautifully sweaty exploration of beefy machismo.

--Brad