New Release Tuesday!!! (1/7/14)

As is often the case with The New Year, there are not a lot of new releases worthy of your attention this week.  That being said, Drafthouse Films has an astonishing film, Criterion has a disc for every classroom, and a personal favorite gets trudged through yet another Director's Cut.  The next few weeks promise a lot more Classic Cinema, but 2014 is taking its time in bringing the Essentials.

MUST BUY DVD OF THE WEEK!

The Act of Killing:  Despite ranking #2 on my Top Ten Films of 2013, I was not originally planning on purchasing this brutally painful documentary.  It's not really the type of movie you drop in the player on Saturday Night; Joshaua Oppenheimer's inside look into the mindset of torture & murder during the 1960s Indonesian communist exterminations is probably the most disgusting thing I've ever subjected myself to, and it's a harrowing experience.  I certainly recommend every human on the planet to participate.  But do you need to own it?  Does it need to sit on your shelf?  Will high definition add to the experience?  Well, what really sends this into the MUST BUY category is the producer's commentary featuring the great mad director Werner Herzog.  I don't just want to hear what Herzog has to say in regards to the emotionally undercover filmmaking Oppenheimer had to commit, I need to hear the documentarian overlord assault these fiends with his beat poetry logic.  This is one of the rare occasions (especially these days) in which a commentary necessitates the purchase.  At the very least, you should find a copy to rent.  Again, not a fun-time movie, but one of those rare "important" documents that's worth the unease as it inspires serious conversation.

BUY!

The Wicker Man - The Final Cut:  I'm not really sure the world needs another cut of The Wicker Man (especially considering I just suffered through an abysmal Director's Cut of The Warriors - see next Week in Dork for details), but I'm certainly curious.  Director Robin Hardy claimed in an Entertainment Weekly interview that the restoration is "100 times better."  Bold talk.  I can't imagine anything revelatory here and reviews of the film have been mixed, but is that backlash on the new edit, or can modern audiences even tolerate an oddball pagan film with such murky morals?

Throne of Blood:  Criterion's first big release of 2014 is this blu ray upgrade of my favorite Macbeth adaptation.  During that brief & wild time in which I taught 8th grade English, I discovered that the best way to get kids pumped on Shakespeare was to attack them with some badass samurais.  Toshiro Mifune dips into madness with Rashomon, but his General Washizu is the ultimate expression of power lust CRAAAAAZY.  Sure, it doesn't help that his beast wife Isuzu Yamada cracks so easily herself.  Macbeth is an ugly little tragedy, accentuated to perfection by Kurosawa's grand vision.

RENT!

We Are What We Are:  This one slipped by me in 2013, but as I saw it pop up on multiple genre Best Of lists, I found myself drawn in by their lurid praise of the slow burn.  From the director of Stakeland, We Are What We Are sounds a lot like the "Home" episode of The X-Files, a cannibal tale that gives me nighttime shivers to this very day.  What is it about the consumption of human flesh that drives us all so buggy?  I can chow down on cow all day long as long as it's compacted into a nice, clean Big Mac.  But the very idea of snapping into a real-deal finger sandwich gives me the no-no-no-nos.  Uck.

--Brad

Comic Review: Saga Volume 2

    Sometimes, I just don’t get other people.  Look, taste is taste.  I get that I like things that others don’t like.  I get that others like things I don’t like.  But sometimes the disconnect, especially when it comes to people with whom I share similar views, is rather profound.  Many science fiction fans, for example, put Terminator 2 on their list of best sci-fi films.  Huh?  Getting past it being a shallow remake of the first film, it also manages to do all the things everyone hates about the Star Wars prequels, nearly a decade earlier (read: make everyone and everything cool into someone or something stupid and lame).  This struck me again when I picked up the first trade of Saga.  Here was a comic being hailed as one of the best new series, as a great science fiction epic, etc.  Well, everyone who said those things is wrong.  Not saying they can’t like the book, but they’re wrong to claim it as a) good or b) good science fiction.  And as I read the second volume (for a graphic novel club), my bafflement at the love and my general distaste for Saga crystallized.  What Saga is, is not a grand science fiction epic.  It’s a bland retelling of Romeo & Juliet, filtered through years of wink-wink snarky Joss Whedon dialog.  This feels like something a teenager would scribble on the back of her English Lit notebook after discovering Piers Anthony.  It’s like Jewel poetry turned into a comic.  And this from the guy who wrote one of my all time favorite comics, Y: The Last Man.  I don’t get it.

    In skimming the first volume again, as I prepared to read the second, I was struck anew by how uninteresting most of the characters are.  The introduction of The Will and The Stalk made me wish the story would immediately change directions, dropping the sappy love story and turn instead into some science fiction adventure tale.  Alas, by the end of the first volume, one of the only interesting characters to come along was dead.  In volume 2, the other interesting character quickly gets tied up in a creepy anime-vibe storyline I’d rather not dwell on.

    As my comment about the 16 year old girl might indicate, I found this whole thing to be quite childish.  There’s even a lot of ‘shocking’ stuff, that feels like it was thrown in by an adolescent in the hopes of getting a reaction (see: the film career of Lars Von Trier for an example of this on a larger scale).  I was not shocked, but mildly annoyed by obvious stunt writing.  And the narration.  The narration.  Ugh!

    I’ve read worse comics.  Astonishing X-Men, Young Avengers, etc.  These are worse.  But I’ve read few things that make me more angry.  So much wasted talent on such a juvenile and hackneyed series.  And people are eating it up?!  I feel like I’m taking crazy pills.  It’s like when I tried to watch an episode of The Big Bang Theory, and I felt like I was being punked.  Certainly it is not one of the most popular shows on TV, right?  Someone is was having a go.  Alas, it is popular.  And Saga is, unaccountably well received by people who otherwise seem to have a functioning sense of taste and quality.  I don’t get it.

(edit: After the group discussion, I understand more of the reasons why other people like the comic.  From its exploration of parenthood to the 'fun' things it does.  I can't join in on the love; and I am glad I don't have to read any more of it; and I still don't think it's one of the best comics out there.)

Saga Volume Two
Author: Brian K. Vaughan
Artist: Fiona Staples
Publisher: Image
ISBN: 978-1-6070-6692-7

-Matt

Matt’s Week in Dork! (11/10/13-11/16/13)

    I’m still working on several books, but at least I finished a couple this week.  Otherwise, I’ve been continuing my Criterion kick, with a few others to spice things up.

The Uninvited:  “Dinner will be late.  It’s the lamb being awkward.”  There’s something very strange about this ghost story.  A brother and sister buy a house with a bit too much character.  There’s a long, slow build to strange events, and a most British way of dealing with things.  And there are deeper layers to what’s going on.  An interesting film, if not an amazing one.

Coriolanus:  “Make you a sword of me.”  Ralph Fiennes is an engine of hate that grinds the enemies of Rome beneath his booted feet.  When politicians turn their backs on him, depths of revenge he will descend to will shake the very foundations of the world.  This adaptation of the Shakespeare play takes place in a modern-combat world that resembles the worst of the Balkan fighting.  Vile hate, bloody vengeance, and the passions of angry and proud men.  It’s Shakespeare, man.

Repo Man:  “I blame society.”  Punk rock meets weird in this wild, strange, and totally 80s flick.  A lot of philosophy and surrealism, as strange people of all sorts come together in a search for a mysterious car with a trunk full of…something.  Obviously, not a movie for everyone, this is a must see for those willing to try something unusual.  The music is great, the performances fun, and the whole movie is, uh, special.

Crash and Burn:  In a grim, wind swept desert of a future, conspiracies and danger abound in an outland TV station.  There are hints of The Thing, as tests are done to try to figure out who is a synth and who is human, who might be an shadow agent for the obligatory evil government.  This movie was from the golden age of Full Moon, when the low budget studio seemed like they were still trying, presenting some interesting ideas that were more ambitious than successful.  And when it comes to science fiction movies, I’ll take ambitious failures over lackadaisical successes.

Robot Wars:  I respect the ‘go-for-it’ attitude of this film.  However, the script isn’t good.  And the acting…well, it’s even less good.  I think, when all is said and done, it’s more of a robot tiff, than a robot war.  But it’s OK enough to get through the fairly short runtime.  The lead male feels like a half-assed Rowdy Roddy Piper.  And the two ladies are kinda terrible (including the relatively un-surgeried Lisa Rinna and Re-Animator’s Barbara Crampton).  An OK entry in the Full Moon robot based science fiction file, but not one to stress out about seeing.

Hotel Chevalier:  A short film, and first chapter to the full length film The Darjeeling Limited, this takes place in a hotel room in France, where a lost guy is found by a former love.  The relationship isn’t fully clear, but it’s not good.  There’s not a lot to it, but the music is nice, and it’s full of little Wes Anderson quirks.

The Darjeeling Limited:  “Where’s those nuts at?”  Three cracked brothers meet up on a train in India, for what’s supposed to be a spiritual journey.  But that doesn’t really pan out.  As they travel from one site to another, having little adventures, each one tries to fix their relationship.  But none of the brothers has any idea how to fix themselves, much less a tattered fraternal love.  Outside of a James Bond movie, I don’t think India has ever looked more beautiful, or more like somewhere I’d want to have an adventure.  And while the train, The Darjeeling Limited, feels like a typical Wes Anderson hyper-artificial set, it’s interesting seeming him filming on real locations, taking his odd style to places that aren’t built from the ground up for his purposes.  The movie is cute, sad (very sad), funny, and of course, exceptionally bent.

Godzilla VS Biollante:  The 90s Godzilla films (this 1989 film was the second in the run) were not good.  They’re cheaper looking and sillier, but silly in a not so fun sort of way.  I like that, starting with The Return of Godzilla (aka Godzilla 1985), they tried to bring it back to its monster movie roots, making Godzilla a force of nature, not an ally of humanity.  Sadly, they’re just not good, and this is no exception.  I like the monster design, if not the execution.  A weird plant-Godzilla hybrid is seriously weird, and seeing it shuffle across the countryside makes me wish the movie was better, because that could have been terrifying.

I Declare War:  “I have killing techniques.”  Visualizing the imaginative and violent play of childhood, this film feels like something out of my own youth.  I used to play ‘guns’ with kids in my neighborhood.  Of course, we didn’t have a sociopath playing, so it never got this dark.  In fact, I think we always kept things pretty civilized.  The movie is certainly interesting, and I’m sure will stir up some controversy because of the portrayal of kids and violence.

Prince Avalanche:  “I’m pretty optimistic about next weekend.”  2013 seems to be the year of the lone wo(man).  Being alone, being lonely, or being separate has been a key ingredient of many of the year’s films.  Two guys, working together out in the middle of frickin’ nowhere, deal with various versions of being lone and alone.  Products of the City, they’re finding a slice of something (happiness? peace?) out in the Wild.  The movie isn’t amazing, or especially profound.  But it’s an enjoyable watch, funny in its way, and worth checking out.  It also looks very nice.

Barbara:  I’m still fascinated with the Cold War, likely because of growing up in its shadow, and my odd feelings toward the 50s and 60s that I won’t get into here.  I’m also interested in different perspectives on events, places, or times.  This drama focuses on a woman living under scrutiny in East Germany, while she tries to work at a hospital, and seems to be planning some kind of escape to the West.  She’s a cold figure, beautiful, but unapproachable and reserved.  But as the film progresses, I became more and more curious about just who this woman was.  Seeing a more idyllic, less industrial nightmare version of East Germany makes the ever watchful Big Brother that much more sinister.  What seems ubiquitous in an urban sprawl seems horribly out of place in the green and beautiful countryside.

Thor: The Dark World:  I continue to scratch my head as I watch this massive Marvel comics mythology building on the big screen.  As far as I can figure, it’s unprecedented.   Multiple series, all connecting into a greater whole.  It’s madness, and it’s wonderful.  And I’m not even a Marvel fan.  The second outing for the God of Thunder isn’t quite as cohesive as the first film, and I don’t think it’s overall, quite as good.  However, it’s still a great deal of fun.  I love that the movie spends relatively little time on Earth, cranks up the mad sci-fantasy, yet still keeps those little bits of awkward humor (the scene on the subway cracks me up).  I’m not sold on the style of filmmaking, which feels a bit too shaky, and blurred.  Which in this day and age means kind of generic.  Though that was hardly so extreme as to ruin the film.  It’s hard for me to review the movie, honestly.  I’m just dumbstruck by the fact that this is happening.  There’s a Guardians of the Galaxy film coming.  They’re really doing it.  How has this come to be?

    On Friday night, we met again for the graphic novel book club.  This time around we discussed Boxers & Saints, a historic fiction (with fantasy elements).  The group had a lively discussion, with lots of different opinions considering everyone seemed to like the book.

Summer with Monika:  A young woman trying to find love in the world, and a young boy with his head in the clouds come together for a bit of romance.  Their awkward awakenings to sex and love are charming and melancholic in that Bergman way.  And their adventure on a boat is full childlike wonder on the one hand, and emerging sexuality on the other.  Unlike so many movies of this type, it shows the consequences of actions.  There are several moments when you feel like the movie is going to end, when it reaches the point a movie normally would cut to credits, but then it tortures you with an ‘and then…’  It’s rough when things go from idyllic and pretty to…well…not.

Bad Day at Black Rock:  “I live a quiet, contemplative life.”  A guy gets off a train at a town full of secrets.  Things don’t go too well after that.  Spencer Tracy seems a bit too old for the part he’s playing, but he’s quite good.  And as he and Robert Ryan face off, it gets uncomfortable.  Lots of good character actors play goons of one sort or another.  It gets mean.  Real mean.

Rules of the Game:  They didn’t have to deal with the Hayes Codes in France, I guess.  This funny, but ultimately somewhat tragic examination of upper-class twits is sometimes disconcertingly contemporary.  It’s funny, it’s risqué, and it works well as a time capsule from another time.  The director, Jean Renoir, also has an important supporting role in the film, and is quite good.

    So, over the course of the week, I was able to finish Boxers & Saints, and A Manual for Creating Atheists.  Both were pretty good in their own way.  Not too much else going on.  But by next month’s graphic novel club meeting, I’ve got to come up with my choice.  I’m weighing some options.

-Matt

Movie Review: Forbidden Planet

    It doesn’t get much better than Forbidden Planet.  Taking inspiration from Shakespeare’s The Tempest, it pushed special effects technology to whole new levels, and set the stage for science fiction to come, especially and particularly Star Trek.  This wasn’t, as so many other 50s movies, about a rocket ship to the Moon, or even a first voyage to Mars.  This was set in a future where those things had already long been accomplished.  This was the sort of future history Asimov and Heinlein were writing about, where Humanity was living among the stars, finding all sorts of marvelous things.

    Our crew of 50s military types, led by a slightly stuffy Leslie Neilsen, take their flying saucer past the speed of light, out into the universe.  There they are tasked with finding the fate of a long lost space ship, Belerephon.  The only survivors are a scientist and his daughter, who are less than welcoming.  The mystery of the Belerephon’s crew and their fate, as well as the secret of Dr. Morbius and his daughter’s success, and their robot servant Robby, make up a large part of the film.  That, and the nature of a strange killer that hunts Neilsen’s crew upon arrival.  Technologies that seem far in advance of what Morbius should have is a hint that something deeper going on.

    The make-up of the crew, the general look, and the future setting where some faceless organization sends ships out on missions of discovery would all serve as inspiration a decade later for Star Trek.  There’s even a bit of the triumvirate, the Executive Officer, the Doctor, and the Captain, going off to explore while the rest of the crew stays behind.  Walter Pidgeon is hostile, yet charming as the good doctor.  He’s perfectly civilized, if unhappy for visitors.   Anne Francis is cute as heck as his young daughter, Altaira, who is desperately hungry for experience with new people.  It’s still the 50s, so there’s obligatory drunk humor involving the ship’s cook, and awkward, somewhat rapy romantic fumbling on the part of the crew when they meet Altaira.  Lieutenant Farman out skeeves the worst Kirk pawings by a mile.

    Once the first death happens, things get rolling pretty fast.  Ancient civilizations, strange monsters, budding romance, and some cool super-tech.  And that’s where the special effects really shine.  Deep under the surface of the planet are vast complexes brought to life in an excellent mix of model work, animation, and live action.  Few science fiction pictures before this grasped at anything like the scope.  Things to Come, maybe.  But not much else.  I can only imagine what it must have been like seeing it in the theater on its first run.

    The production design is amazing, with cool sets, beautiful backdrops and mat paintings, and good costume work.  No surprise Robby became an iconic movie robot.  He’s quite striking.  And the weird electronic music gives the movie an otherworldly flair.  This is one of the big ones.  You have Metropolis, Things to Come, and Forbidden Planet.  There were other science fiction films, like Woman in the Moon, The Time Machine, etc.  But when it comes to tectonic shifts, I think it falls on the former.  Until everything changed with 2001, they were the top of the line.  I love that it creates a universe with a history, without ever explaining most of it.  Who were the Krell?  While the question is central to the film, it is never really revealed, only implied.  Part of me thinks they were amorphous, the Lovecraftian in me hopes they were cephalopodish.  But who can say?

-Matt

"We Are The Only Love Gods" - Joss Whedon Adapts Shakespeare for Much Ado About Nothing

What does Joss Whedon do for Christmas Vacation?  Well, apparently he assembles all his friends for a little movie making.  Constructed during his holiday break from The Avengers, Whedon put together a jazzy adaptation of my least favorite Shakespeare play.  I'm more of a tragedy/history kinda guy.  But I'll suck it up to see more Nathan Fillion & Clark Gregg on the big screen.



--Brad

Matt’s Week in Dork! (9/30/12-10/6/12)

    Though starting slow, the week built up to HestFest 2012.

Starship Troopers: Invasion:  Look, I hated the original movie.  I hated it for a lot of reasons, and the fact that it was an atrocious adaptation of a good book wasn’t anywhere near close to my biggest problem.  But the CG TV series was shockingly good, even though the animation was pretty primitive.  This, however, is like the worst of the movie, mixed with cut scenes from a Japanese video game.  You know the script is ‘adult’ because they swear a lot and there’s nudity that looks like the animators have only ever seen a naked woman in the pages of Playboy.  It’s not well written, or especially interesting.  The voice acting is very meh.  I wish this was better.  I’d love to see more animated science fiction.  But like so many of these tie-in animated projects, in spite of the work that must have gone into this, it’s lazy.

Resident Evil: Dangnation:  A made-up Eastern European nation is the setting for this CG film based on the venerable, if not always especially good, Resident Evil franchise.  It’s sure a heck of a lot more like the video games than the Milla films.  Is that a good thing?  I don’t know.  I can say that this is a MUCH better movie than the last CG one done a couple years back.  And it has some genuinely cool bits.  When that zombie’s head bursts into a mass of whipping tentacles.  Frickin’ awesome.  The action scenes in the third act are pretty crazy.  It’s OK, and frankly, that’s surpassing expectations.

Looper:  Anyone who ever actually messes with time travel has clearly not watched many movies.  It’s just a bad idea.  It will not go well.  Also, don’t trust mutants.  They’re probably better than you.  Life lessons aside, this was a pretty cool, weird time travel story with some solid performances and lots of cool visuals.  The script is pretty clever, even if a few of the ‘twists’ are pretty obvious.  It kept putting me in mind of the really frickin’ brain breaking novel The Chronoliths by Robert Charles Wilson, which if you value your sanity, you shouldn’t read (but if you’re not a wimp you’ll check out).  If you’re familiar with science fiction or can listen, this shouldn’t be too hard to follow.  People unwilling to pay attention to a movie may experience dizziness.  Everything is spelled out for you pretty clearly.  Definitely one of the better films this year (admittedly, it’s been a bad year) and one I’m sure I’ll enjoy watching again.

Torchlight:  Don’t freebase, man.  Don’t do it.  Especially if a sexy, sweaty Ian McShane (in a bathrobe?) is pushing the pipe in your face.  Steve Railsback LOVES the pipe, but Nancy Drew isn’t into it.  That spells marriage trouble.  This movie sucks.

    On Thursday night, I got an early start on HestFest.

Touch of Evil:  Orson Welles is so mumbly and disgusting as a beast American cop who comes into conflict with an idealist Mexican cop in a sleazy border town.  So many nasty characters do so many bad things.  And it’s all exposed in lurid detail by the mad genius director Welles.  And man, he is not afraid to make himself look so terrifying and so repulsive.  Every time I see this, the attack on Janet Leigh becomes more and more disquieting.  And the blaring music combined with jarring images will rock your socks off.  I’ve seen some folks give Heston guff for playing a Mexican cop, but that doesn’t hold any water with this guy.  First, there are a heck of a lot of Mexicans who are as European in descent as any Chicago born actor.  And secondly, unlike other actors from that era, he doesn’t ham it up, put on a crappy accent, or do any over the top mannerisms.  Died black hair is the extent of it.  Otherwise, it’s a perfectly respectful portrayal of a cop dealing with an international incident.

    On Friday night Brad, Lisa, and I got the festivities started with a double shot.

Gray Lady Down:  A great cast is squandered on a rather boring film.  Tension should be ramping up, but it feels like they keep hitting the snooze button.  Sacrifices are made, but I don’t care.  Triumphs are achieved, but I still don’t care.  The actors all do fine jobs, but blah.

Mother Load:  Heston is the Miner 49er, drawling out a wonky Scottish brogue while two young folk look for their lost friend in the lonely mountains.  Heston directs too, and the movie does look good.  But the two leads (Mancuso and Bassinger) are kinda awful.  To the inexperienced eye, it might appear that Brad and I fell asleep during this movie (Lisa having bailed during the opening) and that it auto-played three or four times while we slept.  This is of course not true, which is why in the morning, we didn’t bother to replay the ending to find out what happened.  We were just concentrating so hard it looked like sleep.

    The main event began Saturday morning.  It was just Brad and I for some time.  Then Lisa joined, and around 6, others began to arrive.  Ben, Sarah, Paul, and Robert helped make for another good night.  Food, drinks, and some more good conversation.  I’ve got to entertain more often.

El Cid:  One of the good ones, this doesn’t suffer from sloppy pacing like Ben Hur, or just straight-up dull scripting and acting like Ten Commandments.  This is one of the better Heston epics.  El Cid is a complicated man, and no one understands him…especially his woman (the fickle shrew Sophia Loren).  Everything he does, he does for the greater good of Spain, and idealized vision of a united and peaceful country (that probably did exist a couple hundred years earlier, but would never exist again).  It was more historically accurate than I expect from Hollywood of that time (or any other).  He isn’t simply portrayed as a Christian warrior bent on driving out the Moors, but as someone willing to work with whoever if it furthered the purpose.  Granted, he’s also shown as much more of a devout idealist than the mercenary he really was.  Still, pretty grand and a very cool ending.

Julius Caesar:  Shakespeare’s play gets a pretty good adaptation, with an excellent cast.  Though Jason Robards does NOT work.  Look, I think Robards is an excellent actor of his type, but his type doesn’t work for Shakespeare.  He’s too low talking, too grumbly, too mumbly, and too deadpan.  Still, Heston and the rest are all great.  Heston’s ‘Friends, Romans, Countrymen’ speech is badass.  And Robert Vaughn’s cornucopia of facial expressions is worth every penny.

Antony and Cleopatra:  Heston is in the directing chair, as well as one of the titular roles in this follow-up adaptation.  Sadly, unless they simply botched it hard, it seems like this play is one of the Bard’s weaker.  The movie looks great and the cast is top notch.  But it’s dull, dull, dull.  And the last act/post climax seems to go on FOREVER!  I hardly think it would have fixed the film, but apparently Heston wanted Diana Rigg for the role of Cleopatra, and I think that would have made it more watchable at least.

The Omega Man:  HestFest favorite, this pretty terrible adaptation of Richard Mathison’s I Am Legend is also probably my favorite Heston film (though my favorite movie he’s in is probably Planet of the Apes and the best movie he’s in is probably Touch of Evil).  Crazy, crazy music, a bunch of quotable lines, and lots of Heston being awesome.

Planet of the Apes:  “It’s a mad house!  A MAD HOUSE!!!”  One of the best danged movies ever, it starts off as a science fictiony exploration film and becomes a colossal bitch-slap of social commentary about science, religion, the treatment of animals and men, heroism, the human condition, logic, faith and even a little sex.  One of Jerry Goldsmith’s more experimental and extreme scores drives the action as Charlton Heston tries to survive in a world so close to his own, but so alien.  Science fiction allowed writers to talk about things they couldn’t talk about in more typical dramas.  Still does.  And this is one of the best examples of that.

    I watched a few more episodes of The New Avengers.  The show is OK, but lacks something.  I think part of it is Joanna Lumley, who I don’t find attractive (like Steed’s previous partners), and who has a rather drab personality.

    And after much prompting from Brad, I finally started watching season 4 of Fringe.  Good show.  I love how much the cast is able to play with variations on their characters, and how nutty things tend to get without blinking an eye.  The first few episodes, though good, and with some bits of story building, do feel a bit like filler.  One episode could probably have covered all the story arc material.  The rest of it, this late in the game, felt distracting.  I don’t want monster of the week stories this deep in.

    Issue 2 of Archer & Armstrong has more weird cult stuff, a bunch of secret history, and the seeds of some kind of messianic devilry.  Mostly, I’m curious where they’re taking this story.  It feels like it should build to something big and specific.  What will that be?

    Rocketeer: Cargo of Doom’s second issue is more high-flying fun.  Betty is such a bitch, though.  You really have to wonder what Cliff sees in her, or is it just what he sees that’s the issue (‘cause she looks like Betty Page).  She just continually berates him and denigrates everything he loves, and constantly believes he’s cheating on her even though he’s shown no indication of doing so at all, then complains that she might be loosing him.  Ugh.  Otherwise, the insanity of the revealed enemy plans is totally turning things to 11.  Wow.  And the potential for some fun action is certainly there.

    The second issue of Godzilla: Half-Century War annoys me a bit with its stereotypical portrayal of the American general, and his assurance of 100% victory in spite of all evidence.  Still, the arrival of Anguirus, the favorite whipping boy of the Godzilla universe was nice.  Plus, it looks like next month, Smog Monster!!!

    Issues 4&5 of X-O Manowar are more of the same.  The story seems OK, but it’s moving at far too slow a pace for the monthly format.  The brief chapters barely push things forward before ‘next issue…’  And what’s up with Ninjak?  It’s a lame name, and he looks super 90s.  Still, it’s not bad.  And where’s Cary Nord on issue 5?  Has he already left the comic?

    I’m pretty shocked at how much I liked issue 1&2 of Bloodshot.  That was a comic that didn’t look even a little interesting to me in all the previews and write-ups, but it’s actually pretty good.  The titular character has potential to be interesting, and the events circling around him complicated and dangerous.  And it’s SUPER violent, with people getting faces and arms ripped, shot, blown, and punched off.

    Issue 10 of Winter Soldier is mostly about picking up the pieces after a nasty betrayal.  But what worries me is that they seem to be hitting another of those irritating comic ‘reset’ buttons on a character, so all the recent stories about said character (read it; I’m not giving anything away) won’t matter anymore.  My guess is they’re going to take that character in a new direction and don’t want baggage.  Lame.  Issue 11 moves on to the chase, as the Winter Soldier hooks up with…Hawkeye (ugh) to try their target.  Is this building to something?  Something that will reflect relationships in a certain popular movie?

    Throwing lots of swearing and sexual references isn’t enough to call your comic ‘adult.’  But that seems to be the case with The Victories issue one.  Nothing especially interesting.  Just a Batman type vigilante in a Gotham type city…with swearing and prison rape.  Not very impressive.

    At Brad’s fevered prompting, I read Wolverine and the X-Men #17.  Doop, huh.  That’s a thing.  I don’t know what the crap is going on in the X-Men universe, but this is one weirdass comic book.  Some special guest stars and a lot of head scratching.  Comics, man.

    Still reading a few issue zeros.  Teen Titans is a line I won’t be reading, but its issue Zero is more of the story of how Tim Drake became Red Robin (later a member of the Teen Titans).  So, it fits more with the whole Batman thing.  It’s OK.  His parents are a little too nice.  OK, a LOT too nice.

    Issue zero of The Flash is…well, it’s The Flash.  Like Green Arrow, this is a character that has never, even for a moment made me care.  I mean, I liked the TV show, but mostly because I had a crush on the lead actress (from her time on Max Headroom…and yes, in Leviathan).  OK, he’s fast.  But with a seemingly pathetic and lame rogues gallery, not much in the way of interesting background, and a pretty wooden personality, Barry Allan, the Fastest Man Alive is trapped in the amber of disinterest.

    Superman issue zero is more ‘back on Krypton’ with Jor-El trying to wake people up to the end of the world, and being thwarted by some kind of doomsday cult.  And then there’s some weird monster blowing a horn.  OK.  The art is more manga than I like, though not terrible.  The page layout is sometimes interesting and creative, but occasionally too clever for its own good, so it’s hard to follow.  But the coloring is really pretty.  Some of the better I’ve seen in a while.  Overall…well, I still just don’t care about Superman.

-Matt