I don't miss doing
two separate blogs, but I'll still keep you updated on what I'm seeing/reading/hearing because of a long-ago request from RuffRyder.
Let's start with the movies...
Tron: Legacy...zzzzzzzzz
Sorry, I must've fallen asleep there.
The new Tron is boring. Yeah, it's pretty enough, but much of the film is nothing revolutionary, nothing that you couldn't see in dozens of other sci-fi films every year. Those visuals might have been more interesting if there was a story even remotely engaging on which to hang them. Instead we get a bland son-finds-long-lost-father tale in which Jeff Bridges returns to the role of Flynn but adds in a whole lot of 'dude's and 'hey, man'. It's like he forgot whether he was supposed to be playing Flynn the computer programmer or The Dude, stoner/surfer extraordinaire. He apparently chose some lame middle ground.
Throw in a chase scene without any urgency whatsoever ('we have to race to the gateway...' so let's hop on a slow-moving laser beam freighter and stand around talking for a while...yeah!), a boring performance by Flynn's abandoned son, a whole lot of latex, and an incomprehensible plot about Olivia Wilde being some sort of spontaneously generated computer program organism, and the whole thing isn't even interesting enough to be a mess.
The only two things that are worth recommending in the film are the performance by Michael Sheen as an over-the-top, traitorous bar owner and the neat special effect of seeing an aged Jeff Bridges on screen acting opposite a de-aged version of himself. That last part is admittedly pretty cool to see, but it wasn't nearly enough to hold my attention through this snooze-fest.
At this point, I'm not sure Disney has made an interesting movie without Pixar in a decade. Have they?
The King's Speech was at least better than
Tron, not that that's all that high a hurdle.
Actually,
The King's Speech is a very well-made film, full of Oscar-bait performances from pretty much everyone involved. Collin Firth is excellent as the titular king (at least by the end of the movie, he's a second prince as the story begins), and Geoffrey Rush, Helena Bonham-Carter and all the supporting actors who are apparently big deals in British theater or movies or something.
The set dressing is well done, drawing us successfully into the 1930's and 40's as Britain is drawn into World War II by the little Ratzie, Hitler, himself. Everything, in fact, is well done - the sound, the costumes, the cinematography.
The problem is that it all feels just so well done. There's emotion here, but it's predictable, reserved emotion that just never connected with me. We know well in advance that our titular stammerer is going to overcome his impediment to rally the country. It's all so predictable and reserved and, well, British.
Hancock was better than I expected. I hadn't heard good things about this one, and it turned out to be pretty entertaining.
Will Smith's Hancock - he doesn't remember having a last name - is a super-powered drunk with no social skills whatsoever. He's a jerk, insensitive to any of the non-supers around him (and since he's the only super guy, that's a lot of non-supers). His take offs and landings destroy roads; his rescues do more property damage than the robberies would've done in the first place; and he doesn't give a crap.
In the course of his daily savings, he happens upon Jason Bateman, a PR freelancer in need of a break. For some reason - the film doesn't necessarily stand up well on this aspect - Hancock agrees to work with Bateman to better his image to the world. Sure, we get a few knowing glances from Hancock to Bateman's wife Charlize Theron, but there's not much other reason for Hancock to throw in with Bateman.
It works, however, as Bateman's changes force Hancock to be a better person little by stubborn little. Hancock's image rehabbing goes as far as even seeing him awkwardly thank the non-super police officers for securing a crime scene before Hancock comes flying in. The secrets between Hancock and Theron a revealed a good bit sooner than I expected and turned out not to be what I saw coming, so that was a plus. Once the secret is out of the bag, the movie's real drama comes in with Hancock having to fight for his reformed life, involving a dramatic last minute save of all the folks involved.
I appreciated the twist on the superhero-as-jerk trope as well as the explanation as to Hancock's unremembered back story and the explanation for his apparent amnesiac past. It all worked for me as a story hook, and I'll admit that the three leads are all pretty solid, personable movie stars. Smith and Theron are practically movie royalty at this point, both able to carry a movie mostly on the strengths of their personalities and screen presence. Bateman provides just enough everyman to balance out the two movie stars.
It's a fun film and was actually far more enjoyable to me than was
The King's Speech.
Fables: Vol 15: Rose Red keeps
Fables rolling along and surprised me with its outstanding, climactic issue #100. This issue leads up brilliantly to the milestone issue with a wonderful revelation of Rose Red's backstory full of lots more than the jealous little sister sniping that we might've expected from Rose's morose, self-loathing that we've seen from her since Boy Blue left the series a few trades back.
Red steps strongly back into Farm leadership in the later issues and reasserts her position as one of the more interesting characters in this outstanding ensemble series. Her ties to Flycatcher, Snow, Bigby, and so many more characters has made her a bit of the lynchpin around which the tale turns, and having her back and strong makes things that much better.
When Frau Totenkinder comes out in full battle mode in the final issue of the series, we see the power that has belied the frail old woman for a hundred issues, and that power - and the associated cunning - makes for an excellent climax to the first century of issues. The final reveal that the Fables might not have gotten away scot free, then is more than a little disappointing but promises that things haven't wrapped up as neatly as we might've hoped.
Fables continues to impress. It's one of the finest series ongoing right now (probably right there with
DMZ.)
Captain America: Patriot was surprisingly entertaining what with the whole no-Steve-Rogers-thing going against it. See, this isn't the story of the Captain America that we all know and will see in the theater this summer (shut up, you know you're gonna be in the theater for that one, eh - along with Thor this past weekend). It's the story of Jeff Mace, one of the replacement Captain America's while Steve Rogers was trapped in the ice of the North Sea.
I'll admit to having never heard that Marvel actually told stories of the various replacement Captain Americas much less having read any of the Jeff Mace stories, but this one was impressively engaging, casting the quite old-school, square-jawed characters in a much more modern light, exploring contemporary issues - homosexuality, political vs private responsibilities, the red scare - within the golden-age framework.
It's worth a read.
Batman: Unseen was horrible.
No, it
is horrible.
It's an art style that drives me nuts (heavy blacks; ridiculous, inhuman poses and musculature; awful, stupidly gothic everything), and I should have known better.
Kelley Jones's Batman drives me to anger every stupid time I pick up one of his books, and the combination of him with Doug Moench is simply too much for me at every turn.
It's Batman & mysticism in most of their volumes, but this one at least avoids that stupid trap. Instead, we get Batman with the invisible man. Ah, bad sci fi/horror instead of mystical/horror. So much better...
There's a scientist trying to invent an invisibility serum who falls in with Black Mask. Turns out the serum works, but the scientist is testing it on himself, driving himself nuts and murderous in the process.
It's a simple trope and one everybody should know. You fight the invisible guy by throwing paint on him, or tracking him in the snow, or throwing a curtain over him.
Nope, not this Batman.
The Batman takes the invisibility serum himself, giving himself absolutely no advantages in catching the guy. But then he wears his gloves, cloak, and cowl while he's invisible.
They aren't invisible, thus negating any possible advantage Batman might've gotten.
That's just the last, dumbest twist. The rest leading up to it is equally horrible.
Steer very clear and do what you can to make sure Kelley Jones and Doug Moench never work together again.
Batman Beyond: Hush Beyond wasn't too bad. I'll admit to digging on the whole conceit of
Batman Beyond and to owning the entire series on DVD. (Still need to get
Return of the Joker, but another day perhaps...)
I especially appreciate it when they bring back some of the original Batman supporting cast to see where the various folks have ended up down the line. Commissioner Barbara Gordon...Amanda Waller still heading up Cadmus...
In this one, we get Terry squaring off with some who's killing aged Bat-villains and making like it's the return of Hush to torture his mentor. But Hush died years ago? How could this be?
It turns out that there are more twists in store, and the wrap up lets us know that this is firmly within the run of the television series (before the coda at the end of the Justice League series in which Terry confronts Waller) but that ties in very tightly to that finale, making for a richer reading experience if you know all the history.
It's easy enough to read without that history, however, and I'd recommend this one for all the Batfolks out there.
Batgirl Rising brings Stephanie Brown back into the fold, this time fully integrating her as Batgirl.
For a character - Stephanie Brown - who has been nothing but a screw-up (
caused War Games, failed as Robin, failed as Spoiler, died at the hands of Leslie Thompson), this iteration of Stephanie Brown is surprisingly engaging. She's hilarious and refreshing, in fact.
I'll admit that I have doubts about DC's choice of shifting away from Cassandra Cain (who I think is an awesome character, by the way, but whose storyline which largely ended in
Batgirl: Retribution was leading in lots of dead ends) and back to a Caucasian Batgirl. I've stated those, and I still believe that if DC courts only their white readers, that they're in trouble in the long run.
That being said, this new Batgirl is a blast to read. The uncertainty of Brown in trying to live up to the legacy - especially with Oracle looking over her shoulder electronically - makes for a very engaging character, and the interplay between her and Damian - two new teen heroes trying to find their ways in the world - is nothing short of brilliant.
This one's a must read for anybody in the DC camp, one of the best new series in a long time.
Ultimate Comics Spider-man: The World According to Peter Parker sees Marvel relaunching the flagship of it's Ultimate imprint to try and tidy of the ten years of continuity that had built up. I've not gotten through all of Ultimatum (the cross-over event designed to wash away all that decade of assembled history for the line) because the library hasn't gotten the issues, and I can't find 'em in the bookstores in already opened copies, natch.
Ultimate Spider-Man had been the most impressive and consistently well-written title in the run, never having had a significant delay in production during its run. So, of course, they started it over again.
Luckily, the magic has continued as BMBendis has continued with the title as well. He writes a knock-out teenager book, and that rolls onward with Peter Parker trying to figure out what it means to be a hero in the city (as opposed to the quasi-menace that he'd been painted as thanks to JJJ and
The Bugle) and hanging with Gwen Stacy (a even trade from the teen MJ). In this volume, Aunt May also opens her home to Bobby Drake and Johnny Storm, turning the home into - as Gwen refers to it - their very own Avenger's mansion.
Bendis continues to write an outstanding teen-centric comic that is enjoyable for all ages. If you've got a teen comic fan (or a reluctant reader), give 'em this series to get 'em hooked. If you don't have one of those around, read this yourself.
Four Lions was described (on the back of the box, take that with a grain of salt, natch) as a dark comedy. In answer to that, I'd say this is one of the darker comedies that I've seen in a while. There are certainly some gut-buster comedic moments in the film about four Muslim would-be-terrorists from and in Sheffield, England, but there's a lot more exploration of the confused motives and actions of people who find themselves radicalized in their own native land.
The moments of humor are well written if occasionally juvenile as the clearly incompetent and in over their head group of Muslims looking to enact their own form of jihad within England's borders. When they begin looking for targets, they suggest in turn
the internet, a local pharmacy (because they sell condoms), a mosque (to radicalize the moderate Muslims), and a local marathon. The character suggesting that the group bomb
the internet plays it entirely straight, pleading his case because of what his mum said.
As the film allows each of the idiots to find their own creative flaws within their plans, the film heads to a more sobering conclusion in which the motives and effect of each bombing comes into drastic question. This isn't to say that the movie isn't funny; it is. It's just that the humor is often sophomoric and didn't provide an equal weight to the film's more heavy subject matter.
It's worth a watch, but it's not one to rewatch.
As opposed to
Thor which was an absolute blast to see in the theater.
From the opening scenes and the immediate flashback to the 600s Norse life all the way through to the climactic battle on the Bifrost Bridge, this movie is a blast. Kenneth Branagh does a masterful job balancing the world of Midgard and Asgard, presenting the two as drastically oppositional but intimately connected via the titular god.
That god runs off in a fit of pique against his father's wishes, drawing his kingdom nearly into war and getting himself depowered and banished to the Earthly realm where our opening scene finds him. The film is ostensibly Thor's search for redemption, for the growth and maturity that will let him earn his place back into Asgard. But it turns out that the movie isn't remotely about that growth.
This is a film about the badguy, the treacherous, brilliantly underplayed Loki. J Michael Straczynski's
take on Loki was masterful, admittedly among the finest and most devious takes on villainy I've ever read. The Loki here isn't given the scope to work with that he is in that comic run, but Tom Hiddleston's Loki owns this film. His performance is spectacularly understated with absolutely none of the snearing, mustache-twisting, cackling laughter that I think all the
comics readers were kind of expecting from the trickster god brought to life. Instead, Loki here tells chosen truths and plays into the other characters' fears so subtly that it's not even until halfway through the movie that I knew for certain that he was our villain.
The movie also does an impressive job making an Asgard that is gorgeous and over the top but as filled with treachery and familial infighting as any of the Shakespearean works on which Branagh cut his teeth. It's in Asgard, in fact, where the film truly shines. The sets are appropriately mythic (surprisingly reminiscent of a
Flash Gordon, in fact) and spectacularly fun to watch. The interpretation of the rainbow bridge, in particular, is mesmerizing, placed right on the edge of the world and site of the final confrontation between the good and evil forces of Asgard.
The film is also funny when it should be - particularly when Kat Dennings is on screen and singularly when Natalie Portman mentions her old boyfriend (I was apparently the only one in the theater to find that one funny enough to laugh out loud), but the Earth scenes do pale in comparison to those in Asgard as they feel like little more than original story getting us one step closer to next summer's
The Avengers.
And in the long run, I'm just fine with that. If this is the quality of the run up, I can't imagine what the main event is going to be like.
Go out and see this one in the theater, folks.
