So over the past few years I’ve seen an increasing trend (news to nobody I’m sure) of retro art inspired by previous art. That is, you have ‘fake’ movie posters or wholly new ‘ads’ for TV series re-imagined, like the book imaged below, which I saw in a Barnes & Noble recently (and was able to resist buying it, even!).

I’m sure the myriad of artists on Etsy have long been in this game, came across some cool recent examples there, too:

The Geekerie

Sci fi movie pulp covers

Star Trek: The Art of Juan Ortiz

(a few more pics)

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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!

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Just finished Benedict Jacka‘s Fated novel today – the first in his Alex Verus series. Definitely an engaging read!

While I’m not a big fantasy person – about the closest I usually come is time-honored (but sadly still far too obscure) Clark Ashton Smith and HP Lovecraft (neither of which aren’t strictly fantasy – CAH is equally sci-fi in his weird way; HPL is much more horror-tinged than straight fantasy), this was a fast and fun read. I have read at least one Harry Dresden novel, in the same ‘modern magic’ category and liked it, but then forgot to go back to read more – my bad.

Mr Verus is a modern mage (wizard or warlock) that lives in London and tries to keep to himself and out of trouble, given his sordid past. But like all such anti-heroes, he gets drawn in anyway, much to the reader’s delight. I liked the mix of descriptive prose vs. action, and the pacing of the novel keeps you rolling right along until the penultimate stages, to be sure. I liked the effort to paint the Dark Mages as a mixed bag, not quite just straight evil as they could be in a simpler tale, but certainly very dangerous all the same – and the Light certainly not being what they seem either. I’m not going to reveal any more plot but there were some good twists in there too.

I guess I’ll have to go back and read more Harry Dresden now too – but first to finish the other three AV books! 🙂

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(finally) saw Iron Man 3 tonight. As noted before, I personally think the first Iron Man is by far the best of the so-called ‘comic book’ movies, but this one wasn’t bad. In this go-round, our hero begins his march down the road of anxiety and self-doubt, just as Guy Pearce shows up in his next star turn as another super-evil bad guy (not too far removed from his role in Prometheus, if you think about it).

The usual amount of wise-cracking is had – truly only Robert Downey Jr. could play this role the way its’ been mapped out in the Iron Man and Avenger movies – and Gweneth P. is given more to do this time around than in the past, so that’s good. Special effects are their usual high quality, too, especially in the attack on Tony Stark (resulting obviously from Tony Stark’s media challenge) by The Mandarin. Also always fun to see Miguel Ferrer in a movie, even if he’s sadly underused here. And Ben Kingsley is also great.

Now, the nits and spoilers – be forewarned:

1) if the USA was being threatened by ‘Osama x 10’ which is implied by The Mandarin’s character – I find it hard to believe that NO ONE ELSE but Iron Man has to save the day? Where the heck is SHIELD and the rest of the Avengers – Bermuda? At minimum you’d think the guy with the word ‘America’ (first name: Captain) would be involved? Hmmmmph.

2) The ‘fall apart’ Mk 42 suit flying from Tennessee to Fla. in the space of a few minutes when called remotely from The Mandarin’s hideout – a wee bit unbelievable, to put it lightly. And the ‘falling into a flying suit’ trick that Tony Stark does repeatedly in the midst of crazy mayhem gets a bit overused.

3) Iron Man seems all but outmatched in several fights with Guy Pearce’s Extensis people – yet in the last movie he was able to knock Thor around more than a bit? Come on. I *have* to believe Thor is tougher than any of these Extensis ‘burning mutant’ people? Please.

4) What is actually *powering* all those suits? In the first movie they go over and above out of their way to show how the arc reactor in TS’ chest is powering his suit. Yet apparently this applies to no one else (because no one else has one in their chest) and in this movie’s last fight there are Iron Men flying all over the place – Hmmmm?

5) Tony Stark gets the shard(s) finally removed at the end of the movie – Really? If it was that easy, why not do it three movies ago? And that’s a major break from the comic in so doing….?

All in all, an entertaining ride. Not quite the bruiser villain that Mickey Rourke could have been in the second one – Guy Pearce is more of a James Bond-style ‘master’ villain by contrast. The kid is good, even if his character is a bit cliched, but they have fun with it.

Onwards – likely Pacific Rim or Elysium next. Oblivion isn’t in the theaters around here anymore so that’s waiting for video – doh!

Or maybe the disastrous….

to the sublime…

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So, first up, (was) the new Star Trek movie this past weekend. In a nutshell – Very good!

Likes:
– Villain, (Benedict Cumberbatch, the next Alan Rickman);
– special effects (the new ‘warp’ light effect is very cool);
– the interplay between the main characters;
– Spock (simply kicks a**)
– Karl Urban as McCoy
– definitely good to see Peter Weller in anything, it’s been too long!

Nerdy Nits to pick:
– The need to turn every stressful scene into The Poseidon Adventure;
– The underlying, unstated (but must exist?) competition between Joss Whedon and JJ Abrams to one-up each other with these movies (See my Avengers commentary from last summer, and of course now that JJ Abrams is doing at least one (likely more) Star Wars movie, the gamesmanship may never end;
– a few plot holes I won’t spoil for you (we can argue about them over beer later)
– the lack of much for McCoy to do in this one vs. the last one
– Transwarp beaming? It was bulls*** in the last one, still a plot dodge bigger than a galaxy full of Holodecks (thankfully not in either movie);
– Chris Pine still looks too young to be Captain Kirk, although he does a great job in the role generally – maybe some Dippity-Do in the hair area would make him look older?

Go see it! Next up, Oblivion, Iron Man 3, Elysium, Pacific Rim, and several others…exxxxxxxxxxcellent!

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I would namecheck 2001, however instead of TRON… candybowl

ISS Startrails – TRONized from Christoph Malin on Vimeo.

Well, it’s been awhile since I watched any anime – but what’s cool is that despite having thought I had watched most of the ‘really’ cool series (Initial D, Ghost in the Machine, Cowboy Bebop, etc.) there was still at least one more great one out there – Samurai Champloo. Just watched the last episode today, sad to end it.

This is the next series done by the director of Cowboy Bebop, Shinichirō Watanabe. Completed in 2004, it tells the story of a young girl, Fuu, seeking a ‘samurai who smells of sunflowers’, accompanied by two master swordsman – Mugen (a fairly wild man/criminal type who literally lives on the edge nearly the entire series) and Jin (reserved, quiet dojo master fighter who says little but can clearly handle himself). The two effectively act as Fuu’s bodyguards (not always successfully) for the interesting and sometimes crazy situations that crop up along their journey. The story is set in Japan’s isolationist Edo period (late 1600’s to 1800’s) so it’s a very rural society with only basic firearms becoming available, possibly through limited European influence/trading. The travelers journey for a long time across Japan, ending near Nagasaki.

There are a number of interesting parallels with Cowboy Bebop, if you pay close attention. The three main characters vary wildly in personality and are largely thrown together by circumstance, much like the crew of the Bebop in the earlier show. While the journey of the Bebop is a bit more disjointed, an overwhelming sense of wandering without knowing why, where or how is a strong influence on both series. And the characters of both seem to be running from their past lives while somehow circling back to confront them at the same time. Finally, in thinking about it, I can see where Mugen and Jin are arguably the two halves of Spike Spiegel from Bebop – the crazy wild side that loves to fight and thrives on excitement and conflict (Mugen); and the measured, calculating, quiet side that still retains an edge (Jin).

But there are plenty of new things to enjoy about Samurai Champloo, too. The pervasive influence of music and specifically, hip-hop in the theme and at various intervals where you least expect it. The ability of the stories to relate history while putting a new (sometimes blatantly fictional) spin on it. Ultimately, taking a rather simplistic concept that’s been arguably done many times (Kung Fu, the original Hulk tv series, even Samurai Jack) yet still creating something new and very entertaining.

Like most anime, we don’t get to see *all* the motivations of the main characters – many are left to the imagination. And in the usual anime way, there is endless posturing and one-upmanship that I’m starting to think is just a facet of Japanese society (old or new) – but never having been there, i’ll have to take that one on faith for now. And there are a few cliff jumps in this show that are unbelievable (meaning not possible to survive if you did it) but i’m picking nits here.

In summary, I’d have to conclude Samurai Champloo was a very pleasant surprise as to the quality and entertainment value and ranks among the best anime I’ve seen to date, surely up there with those mentioned above – Check it out if you get the chance!

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So finished watching (the original) House of Cards series this past week. These were done in the early/mid-90s (there are three – House of Cards, To Play the King, and The Final Cut) and describe the tale of an increasingly corrupt and ruthless Prime Minister’s rise to power in the UK, Francis Urquhart. All three series have four episodes of one hour each, for a total of 12 hours of delicious evil and political intrigue. The first series describes Urquhart’s rise to power, the second his political battles with the King of England as he consolidates power and eliminates rivals, and the third, his increasing isolation as the wolves circle to drive him from power while he strikes back hard and repeatedly until the end.

Rather than talk about the plots directly and risk spoiling them, it may be of more interest to discuss the character traits seen here at intervals throughout the main players.

First, you have the corruption of power – which even Francis Urquhart admits will overrun and consume literally anything in its path (and in his case, it certainly does). People are attracted to him throughout the series because of it, his earlier, squeaky-clean reputation is what enables him to take fullest advantage of it, and in the end, it makes him over into its ever-more-shrill and strident pawn.

Second, naivete and idealism. Two central characters, Mattie Storin in the first series and then Sarah Harding in the second, most obviously fall victim to it in a number of ways – some of which the cynic might not take seriously, but it’s important to remember that as the viewer, you are getting the inside scoop on everyone’s thoughts and machinations to which the characters don’t have access. But these two aren’t the only ones to end up far differently than they expected – in some ways that can even be applied to old ‘F U’ himself. Even FU’s longtime friend and ally Tim Stamper pays a heavy price for his beliefs, despite cynically playing the game almost (not quite) at FU’s level all the while.

Third, ambition. While this one follows from the corruption of power – this is most notably seen in the third series, where everyone is jockeying for F U’s succession and/or his approval. While there are more benenolent-minded main players in each series (FU himself seems to start out as one, after all) this key trait serves to put nearly everyone at loggerheads fairly quickly, and even the more fair-minded players end up being reduced to the same political games and back-door dealings in the end – Not sure if the series’ are trying to point out ‘everyone’s human, no one is above reproach all the time’ but even if just seeking to entertain, that’s a key takeaway.

Finally, cynicism. To varying degrees, it affects eveyone in all three series, although certainly the paramount character showing this throughout has to be FU’s wife Elizabeth – and certainly she’s just as good, arguably better than FU at the Machavellian gaming by the end.

Each series draws you in for somewhat different reasons, and I was simply unable to stop watching it until the end. Netflix has now redone the first series with Kevin Spacey in an American context – i’m definitely interested in checking it out. But Ian Richardson has set a very high bar in this series as FU, and the supporting cast(s) are equally good, so the Netflix series will have to be very, very good to measure up. I simply hope in the end that this stuff isn’t as close to the truth as I suspect it might actually be…….

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So apparently a few years back, Joss Whedon (of Firefly, Buffy and recently, Avengers fame) wrote an X-Men series for Marvel, called Astonishing X-Men, which has since been taken up by other writers in the later years (still ongoing afaik). More recently, a group called Marvel Knights have committed several of these to animation, in what they call a ‘motion comic’ – I would call it a cross between the South Park style of crude paper-type animation with some anime influences but far better art in most cases than either of these. It’s not full-on animation though – it’s more like moving pictures matched with dialog. Different, but pretty effective when watched.

So there are four DVDs/Blu-Ray out now (for Astonishing X-Men, there are other shows done by Marvel Knights too, see above) – the series starts with Gifted (2009); Dangerous (2009); Torn (2012) and the most recent, Unstoppable (late 2012). Each disc contains a series of interconnected stories that have many, many side plots, subplots and in some cases, peripheral characters coming and going all over the place. Naturally it helps if you are very familiar with the X-Men already, and with other Marvel heroes too (because many outsiders also pop in from time to time).

While this isn’t Pixar or Dreamworks cgi-style animation, I have to say I liked the style here. Because the animation isn’t intended to carry the story, they can spend far more time on dialog, plot points and character development, and in most cases, they succeed. There are sometimes where this falls down or the pacing is a bit too slow, but overall these are solid entertainment and if you like the comic stories but don’t really get into reading comics otherwise – this is a nice way to go. And unlike the crapshoot that live-action comic movies can be from time to time (all the early Batman movies prior to Batman Begins, many of the Marvel one-off comic movies, i’m talking to YOU), here the writers and art don’t have to veer so far away from the comic stories as in live-action. They can stay far truer to their roots and just go big on over-the-top scenarios that work well in the comic world but can start to look fairly ridiculous when live-action movies are made (see comments on the Avengers movie on that score).

I also liked that they changed the characters around a bit from the X-Men movies and even vs. the traditional X-Men team, but still kept a core team consistent from show to show (Wolverine, Cyclops, Beast) and added a few new/returnees along the way (Emma Stone, Kitty Pryde, Colossus) to mix it up. And it’s not all centered on Professor X or regularly recurring bad guys like some of the older stories or even the movies, e.g. no Magneto. Additionally, SHIELD and SWORD have an increasing role as you proceed through the series – which opens up more tangential plot holes if you care to analyze too closely – so just don’t – roll with it and enjoy instead… 🙂

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