Our company had a free screening of Jurassic World yesterday evening – interesting. It was harmless fun but for the money the studio likely spent, they could have worked far harder on the plot. The movie was well made but offers nothing new in light of three previous JP movies as well as the whole ‘dystopian theme park goes very wrong’ theme done first (and arguably best) by Westworld. Ironically, that movie was written and directed by a 31-year old Michael Crichton, the original author of Jurassic Park. Amusing.

Chris Pratt is the main ‘reluctant hero’ star, and while this movie is nothing to write home about, his career will not be hurt by it, either – he’s definitely the most interesting thing in the movie, despite the writers’ efforts to turn velicoraptors into CP’s trained posse. I’ve liked Vincent D’Onofrio since his Private Pyle days, but here he’s just a cheesy fat ham (in more ways than one). Most of the rest of the actors are unknowns or on their way up (Bryce Dallas Howard, Irrfan Khan and BD Wong) – probably how you keep costs down with so much expensive, extensive CGI in nearly every scene.

I kept also thinking of Futureworld, the even lamer (than this JP sequel) Westworld sequel from the mid-70’s. It’s kinda sad how Hollywood just keeps betting that sequels will do more than trick people into movie theaters expecting the same magic as the first time. That’s only happened a FEW times, guys and you are paying these lazy writers WAY too much in the meantime!

other voices:
Seattle Times
Metacritic
Rotten Tomatoes

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So finally saw the new Avengers movie Sat evening. I liked it, despite my causing us to get there late and having to sit way up front (never optimal) – there were a number of funny parts and as always, the effects were well done. Definitely an entertaining movie overall.

But there were a number of things that definitely make this a lesser movie than the first one, much the same way the two Iron Man sequels are definitely lesser movies than the first one – to wit (Spoiler alert):

1) This movie follows on the timeline from Captain America: Winter Soldier, so SHIELD is dead yet Hydra still somehow exists (if memory serves, they still had Loki’s sceptre at the end of that movie) – and this gets to the first problem – how many big, secret conspiracy orgs STILL exist in the world, for pete’s sake? Especially those claiming to have existed since WWII (started by the Nazis – who else)? So that’s a bit farfetched to begin with.

2) Ultron is a good bad guy, even if a bit too sardonic (James Spader, eat your heart out) but he ‘springs into being’ a bit too quickly for the plot – one minute he’s parts on a series of tables, the next he is a fully-formed, morphable android with hundreds of copies? Where are the Koch Brothers who bankroll all this? Too fast.

3) Why is Thor the only ‘god’ seemingly interested in getting Loki’s gem back? Wouldn’t Loki himself have an interest in it? Wouldn’t Odin have a way to ensure Loki helps Thor and takes the gem back to Asgard where it belongs?

4) As pointed out by Kerewin – Scarlet Witch fulfills the role of ‘Storm’ in this movie – seeming a wimp, then at one point seems to be among the most powerful of all? You can’t have it both ways, guys.

5) The whole fight between Iron Man and Hulk was silly and a distraction. Why didn’t Hulk just run away? And it’s getting WAY too convenient for Tony Stark to just whip yet more Iron Man suits, ever more custom and more powerful, just out of nowhere whenever the plot demands it? Lame.

6) I liked the attempts to give these characters more than one dimension, but really the only three that have their heads on are Cap, Hawkeye and Black Widow, and the latter two are just badasses, not even enhanced. And of course the appearance of SLJ helps right the ship (mentally and then later, literally).

I think the main thing about these comic movies is whether or not they make you want to watch them multiple times. The first Iron Man – definitely yes, have seen it several times. The first Avengers – same. This one, like the recent CA movie and the Iron Man sequels – not so much.

Still worth a watch though….

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Metacritic
Rotten Tomatoes

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Go inside this Seattle architect’s ultimate Lego paradise

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Saw this fri night with Kerewin. I love the fact that they made a movie making fun of (well, not completely but mostly) LARPing. Which surely is ripe for satire by its very nature. Always great to see Steve Zahn in anything too, although I didn’t even recognize him until the credits. And a great central character by Jackal Onassis! 🙂

The movie itself is kind of a cross between Scream (being not quite as ‘self-aware’ as that movie but definitely in that vein) vs. Fanboys (arguably much better than this movie for a number of reasons, but also more cutting in terms of satirizing the nerd fanboys therein).

Still, not horrible with some key funny moments, just a bit uneven.

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Rotten Tomatoes
Metacritic

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Annoying – I find yet ANOTHER great animated series, only to determine that it’s already been CANCELLED – argh! So just finished watching the last episode of Sym-Bionic Titan, made by one of my fave animators – Genndy Tartakovsky, you may know him for Samurai Jack, Dexter’s Laboratory or even one of the early Clone Wars animated series.

So apparently this series came out a few years ago but was ultimately cancelled after its first year of 20 episodes in part because there were no TOYS associated with it? Sometimes I really think Cartoon Network has its head up its collective TV set on this stuff?!?

This series is really well-done – it has the always incredible art and design by Scott Wills (also of Samurai Jack fame among others); it has engaging stories that while in some cases a wee bit repetitive (they do generally fight one monster a show) still move a multistory plot along in the background and have the characters actually *develop* along the way. Astute viewers will notice sly visual pop culture references hidden in most episodes or in some cases, dialogue, but ths show doesn’t go out of its way to be ‘hip’ in that respect, which is nice.

One thing that’s very different about this show vs. say, Samurai Jack, is that the violence is definitely more pronounced, definitely more anime-inspired. While in watching some extras about Samurai Jack, they talked about how they could never actually kill a ‘person’ onscreen in that show – so they slice and dice robots and robot kaiju all over the place instead – here, they definitely left that rule behind, sometimes in a big way (the large battles of the ‘Escape from Galaluna’ episode especially).

But like happened to TRON:Uprising – I guess hollywood can’t appreciate (and RENEW for another season!) quality when they see it. Hopefully Mr. Tartakovsky will keep up the great work and using the same animators and art team – amazing stuff, this was…..

Other voices:
Metacritic

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Some time ago I found a page that went into exquisite, delicious detail in ripping on Challenge of the Superfriends episodes. I mean, this would put even Roger Ebert to shame in its level of detail. Having been a huge fan of StompTokyo.com for years now, it’s the same thing – take (largely kids) shows that are starving for lampoon, and send them up by simply using logic and plain observations of what actually happens in the plot. And THEN throw in the frequent slam, comparison or grammar analysis that further pummels the show into the dust. 🙂

So as per usual, a random memory came into my head of reading these (whenever it was in the past) and looked them up again – it turns out there are actually 3 sites devoted to this, and they are all hilarious! Of course it helps if you are 40+ and spent way too many saturdays watching the original cartoons on TV in the mid-late 70s. If you aren’t, or didn’t (or simply didn’t watch ENOUGH of them) – you can catch many on YouTube now (of course).

here are the sites:

Seanbaby.com – The Superfriends

Jabootu – Challenge of the Superfriends

Roger Wilcox – The Challenge of the Superfriends

and here’s my fave quote so far from the first one (talking about Grodd, the evil-super gorilla from the Legion of Doom):

“….He comes from a secret invisible village of talking gorillas, but that’s not that big a deal. I describe my hometown of Baker City, Oregon exactly the same way. At least the people in my town all had rifles. Grodd doesn’t even have pants. But to be honest, even a non-talking gorilla is tougher than most of the people on the Legion of Doom….”

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Finished the novel Civil War a few days ago. It is based in the Marvel universe, with Iron Man, Spider-Man, The Fantastic Four and Captain America as its central characters, amid a cast of many, many more minor hero (and villain) characters.

This novel is a very mixed bag for me. On one hand, it’s interesting to see these characters applied into a semi-real world situation (the ever-expanding American Police State we live in – the novel is set just after Obama’s election, even though he’s not mentioned in the story). On the other hand, I really find it hard to believe that Captain America would be the only ‘main’ hero with serious problems about the main plot of the novel (which I won’t spoil for you) – and Reed Richards in particular seems a complete sell-out from the first page, almost like he was drugged or something (cult follower). Just not believable based on past stories from these various characters. And fine, Tony Stark is leading the compliance charge, but that itself flies in the face of immediately recent past stories too – heroes just don’t lie down and give up like seen in this novel.

Finally, this novel completely demonstrates a fundamental problem with superhero stories as a genre: They really only work well when you have ‘one’ team of them that are the good guys, amid a possible sea of villains or indifferent others. When you have too many, it just doesn’t work well because the story has to pay homage to all of them and in the end, shortchanges nearly all the characterizations and plot in the doing. I thought the X-Men movies in the past (not all of them being very good, of course) effectively walked this line, because most of the X-Men aren’t heroes and aren’t interested in being mutants much for that matter – they just want normal lives. So having a bazillion of them all over the world isn’t near as much an issue as most aren’t going to be putting on spandex anytime soon. Here, it seems like there are so many superheroes that its hard to see how there COULD be any crime (save possibly white collar – but for that, we have The Punisher anyway) because there are so many of them.

Moreover, SHIELD ends up in a villainous role here too for the most part, and given their historical role, that’s fairly unbelievable too. Yes, Nick Fury isn’t running the show here either, but they just seem like high-powered vigilantes that effectively force the human govts to kowtow to them too.

Basically, this story is a big disappointment, even if the ending does ring a bit true for Captain America’s fate – he is effectively painted as the one true soul throughout the book, and remains that way.

Sigh…..

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I honestly don’t remember the original of this song, but heard the cover on KEXP this am while driving to work – very cool! The band is Tame Impala, but this cover isn’t on any of their current records, apparently, it’s more recent.

here’s the original (from 1996, which is probably why I never heard it the first time, wasn’t paying any attention) – actually pretty good…even if he’s doing his best Diana Ross look in this video:

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Finished the (currently) last Alex Verus novel, Chosen, a week or so ago. And then found out that this novel only came out this past August, which means i’m in for a wait on any future books – doh!

The book continues the saga of Alex Verus, London-based mage and diviner extraordinaire, and his growing posse of friends/apprentices, Luna, Anne, Sonder and Variam, with some of the usual nemeses, and some new/old ones to be reckoned with.

Again, no interest in spoilers here, so what I will say instead is that this seems the grittiest of the four novels so far. Alex is forced into some harder choices than seen previously and confronts several demons/skeletons in his closet along the way. And some of the mental expectations you have of the story at the start take some definite twists and turns you may or may not expect. A great continuation of the series and VERY much looking forward to the next one!

In the meantime, the next Clone book is coming out at the end of the month from Steven L. Kent; and I found The Dresden Files on DVD at the library which I can watch in the meantime, too. 🙂

candybowl

As noted previously, I am now offiically addicted to Alex Verus books – just finished the 2nd (Cursed) and 3rd (Taken) books, awaiting the fourth, Chosen. I just can’t put these things down once I start them – very entertaining and engaging!

As before, Alex Verus is a mage (wizard or warlock) who lives in London and walks a fine line between Light and Dark mages (and other occasional magical entities who pop in) while trying to keep out of ‘magic politics’ and train his apprentice and friend, Luna. The books have a good level of back-story without getting to the detail level of say, Lord of the Rings, where you then have to go into epic backstory and bog things down too much. I like the way details are revealed as needed, which if not used carefully can look too convenient (side rant – Star Trek holodeck screenwriters, I’m talking to YOU) but here Alex is portrayed as many times out of his league compared to other mages and also battling with self-esteem and confidence issues along the way.

Check out the books – you won’t be disappointed!

candybowl