Blogcation

I was hoping to have reviews of this week's comics up before I took an official, planned, no, honest, holiday from blogging for a week or so, but it was not to be. The carpet in the flat needs removing and new floor needs laying, so I need a week to do this (and probably another week after that to recover). I doubt I'll have the energy to read comics or books or watch films or TV, but I definitely won't be able to write about them afterwards. Anyway, you'll be too busy talking about whatever news comes out of HeroesCon, so it won't be too much of a struggle for you. See you soon.

From A Library: Catching Up With Some Trade Paperbacks

For as long as I've been a member of my local library (about three years now), it has been free to reserve a book using their online system and I have used that to the full – the library is part of the London borough libraries, so I could get books from all over London even if my own didn't have it. If you look at the 'From A Library' tag, you'll see the extent to which I have taken advantage of this. However, as of this month, they are charging £1.20 per book to reserve an item online, which isn't a huge sum but it feels enormous after getting it for free. Therefore, I've been cramming in as many books as I could get my hands on before the deadline. Here are a few.

JLA: That Was Now, This Is Then (JLA: Classified #50–54) by Roger Stern & John Byrne

This is some old school comic books, as if Stern dug up an old script and dusted it off without changing it much. There are narrative captions explaining 'J'onn J'onzz, the justly famed Martian Manhunter from Mars' is 'altering his density ... like a ghost' while the picture shows exactly that. There is ropey dialogue (Wally West: 'I'm just quick – like a flash! Ha! I made a funny' [Erm, no, you didn't]) that feels at least 20 years old; I'm not sure if it's supposed to be deliberately old-fashioned or not. Byrne's art, once cutting-edge, is no more and he seems to deliberately reference old comic book art – like the last page of the second issue, with the disembodied faces of league members shocked at seeing Superman being knocked down by their foe. Byrne is still a good artist, but his stock bodies and faces peek through more than normal, and the grimaces on his characters' faces are starting to look ludicrous. He can design a good page but they've gone overboard for the last issue, where the two different time frames of the story switch and juxtapose and mirror each other to the point of confusion – it's ambitious but slightly annoying. They don't make them like they used to, for a reason.


Red Razors by Mark Millar and Steve Yeowell – so ho-hum, it's not getting a complete entry. For Millar completists and people who want to see Millar's development (if you can call it that) and his early obsession with pop culture infusing everything (I'm sure he gets Yeowell to draw one of the characters like Eminem ...)


Ultimate X-Men Volume 9: The Tempest (Ultimate X-Men #46–49) by Brian K Vaughan and Brandon Peterson

In his proposal at the back of this collection, Vaughan states that he wanted to make Ultimate Sinister 'the scariest character in the Ultimate universe'. I'm afraid he didn't – Sinister is still silly, he just has some defined and dangerous powers. We are led to believe that he hallucinates Apocalypse, who tells him to kill mutants for him, only for the reveal at the end to be that he is supposedly real. Which doesn't work as well as Vaughan believes. The stories in the Ultimate universe are supposed to be new with no link to the old, but they still feel like minor tweaks on old tales: Storm goes leather and gets a haircut, just like in the 616 universe, but here because Beast died; Dazzler is still whiny and annoying, although she is drunken and tattooed; Northstar is still annoying but at least he is allowed to be openly gay now. This is a small story trying to be bigger – Vaughan wanted to create a good impression so people would read Runaways – but it doesn't succeed, particularly the anti-climactic last chapter, which has some preachiness thrown in to remind you of the Claremont days. Peterson provides strong art – slick, smooth, dynamic, pretty, although he draws women's legs too long (there's a panel of Kitty, in a completely inappropriate bikini for swimming laps in the mansion's pool, in which her teenage legs appear to be responsible for three-quarters of her body), but the rest of the work is nice superhero comics.


Ultimate Annuals Volume 1

Ultimate Fantastic Four Annual 1 by Mark Millar and Jae Lee; Ultimate X-Men Annual 1 by Brian K Vaughan and Tom Raney; Ultimate Spider-Man Annual 1 by Brian Michael Bendis and Mark Brook; The Ultimates Annual 1 by Mark Millar and Steve Dillon.

Millar provides two annuals in this collection, both of which are supposed to be more substantial than they actually are, and both of which are worth reading for the art. The Fantastic Four story is the Ultimate Inhumans but it's a bit dull, and it's only Lee's stylings that making it interesting to look at. The Ultimates story is a non-story about Nick Fury, to show how bad ass he is, but as an excuse to examine the behind-the-scenes of the Ultimates world. Dillon's art is the usual high quality but his superhero work never seems as strong as his non-superhero art. The X-Men story is a very silly story about Rogue and Gambit, with Ultimate Juggernaut attacking them and Gambit sacrificing himself to get Juggernaut, which doesn't feel remotely like his character, before Rogue kisses him and then absorbs him (like the 616 universe equivalent with Carol Danvers). Raney's art is okay but but doesn't have the pizazz of his earlier work. The Spider-Man story makes up for all of this by being a totally adorable and charming story that you wouldn't believe came from the computer of Bendis. Kitty Pryde and Peter Parker go on a date and start their relationship, with some superhero hijinks along the way, of course. It is quite, quite delightful and leaves you with a great big smile plastered across your face. Brooks isn't an artist who I've seen before but he does a great job here, especially as he draws his teens as actually teens, rather than small adults.

That's enough to be getting on with. Lots, lots, lots more to follow, so prepare yourself.

Films: Telling You What I've Seen Recently

Apart from not having the ability to write about films every week, I don't know if I have enough to say for a post dedicated to the film. So here are a few thoughts on films I've been watching in the cinema lately, with more to come (at some point).

State of Play

Although I am British, I never saw the original television mini-series, so I came to this completely fresh. It is a well-made thriller, with a crusading journalist (Russell Crowe with silly long hair and a messy car and desk, apparently requirements for a job in newspapers) helping his former room-mate, Ben Affleck (who are obviously not the same age), who is now a senator whose aide has died while Affleck is heading an investigation into a suspect company with government connections and it leaks that he was having an affair with her, despite being married to the beautiful Robin Wright Penn. It is updated by having a journalist who does the newspaper blog (Rachel McAdams) becoming part of the investigation, and Helen Mirren does her normal accent even though it is set in Washington, DC. There are nice turns from Jason Bateman and Jeff Daniels, in addition to all the leads turning in good performances, and Kevin Macdonald handles everything with aplomb, confirming his move to mainstream cinema after the documentaries and The Last King of Scotland. The only thing that disrupts the flow is the presence of Brennan Brown in a small role – British audiences are so used to his role as the Hollywood Producer in the Orange mobile phone cinema adverts that you expect him to sell you video messaging in the middle of the film.

Rating: DAVE


I Love You, Man

Because I have what is effectively a season ticket to a cinema chain, I try to watch a film in the cinema every week. Times and availabilities of films can affect my choices, which is why I ended up seeing this. It had got okay reviews, and I like Paul Rudd, but I rarely see comedies in the cinema – humour is very subjective, and trying to make everybody happy with jokes is not going to work. It was a similar feeling here – I could tell when the jokes arrived but I didn’t guffaw, and neither did most of the audience. The story was a little different – a man (Paul Rudd) who doesn’t have what the Yanks determine as a ‘best male friend’ (although he has always got on well with females), and therefore no option for best man when he proposes to his girlfriend, meaning he has to find someone to fit the position. After ‘man dates’ that go awry, he finds Sydney (Jason Segel), with whom they bond over the music of Rush, and Rudd spends more time with his new mate than his fiancée, thus providing the film with some sort of dramatic plot device. There are some chuckles here and there, and a surprising number of faces you know (Jaime Pressley, Jon Favreau [who is looking big], JK Simmons, Jane Curtin), but it’s not a film that merits going to the cinema to see it. There are no huge laughs, no big moments, and the story feels forced – Segel’s character is a cipher who just exists for the sake of being in the movie and allowing Rudd to have his story arc. Not awful but not great.

Rating: VID


12 Rounds

In addition to the excuse for I Love You, Man (re: unlimited ticket), this article [LINK] where Shane Black lays down the rules for a good action film is also to blame for me seeing this in the cinema: it is worded in such a way that it makes you think there is a connection between Black and the film. There is not. This is a real throwback to 1980s action flicks, which uses the tropes from such films as Die Hard (ordinary cop has to battle criminal mastermind using one crime to disguise a heist), Die Hard With A Vengeance (criminal mastermind has a personal grudge against cop) and Speed (cop is constantly running around to criminal’s plan – the cop in this film even wears a similar ensemble to Keanu in Speed, with a white t-shirt under an open shirt and dockers). The Die Hard connection is apt because it is directed by Renny Harlin, who directed the lesser Die Hard 2: Die Harder (but he also directed a Shane Black film, The Long Kiss Goodnight, so we can forgive his poor resume), and he throws the camera around and blows things up in a workman-like fashion. The ‘star’ of the film is John Cena – a WWE wrestler who, his backers at WWE hope, is going to be the next Dwayne Johnson. He is not. His acting range includes the screwed-face of anger all the way to showing emotion by closing his eyes and tilting his head downwards. Not for him the charisma of The Rock. The freakiest thing about him is the size of his hands – they’re enormous. When he holds his girlfriend’s head in his hands to kiss her, they are bigger than her head. It’s made worse by the fact that he has to spend a lot of the film with a mobile phone in his hand – it just highlights the great big flappy enormity of his mitts, making it look like he’s holding a child’s toy. The rest of him is big, too – there’s no getting over the fact that he looks like a wrestler. Actually, his facial features had me disconcerted for a while before it hit me, halfway through the film: he looks like a steroid-pumped version of Matt Damon, particularly in The Bourne Identity, with the cropped hair; if you inflated Damon’s head and bone structure, you would have Cena. It’s bizarre. As for the film, it’s pretty mindless nonsense, with an insanely detailed plan from the villain to cover up his even more complicated scheme to rob stuff – you are given an idiotic short-cut as to the level of his planning genius when he identifies the winning moves in a chess game he walks past in the street with one glance before explaining it to the players. I felt sorry for the actress playing his girlfriend, who is kept hostage throughout the film as the impetus for our protagonist to jump through hoops, and it looks like the filmmakers felt the same way because they give her some ‘tough chick’ stuff at the very end of the film – for some reason, she can fly a helicopter, which is key to the villain’s plan. However, as she helps her man take down the crim, she says some of the most stupid things imaginable when you are flying a helicopter as your boyfriend fights your kidnapper in the back, and doesn’t seem to realise that the reason where headphones with communicators in helicopters is because they can’t hear what you are saying due to the noise of the enormous rotors above them. A very silly film that I’m slightly embarrassed to admit I saw on the big screen.

Rating: DA

Comics I Bought 11 June 2009

More comic book reviews – it's like they keep publishing them on a regular basis or something. At least there are only three this week, I think I can cope with that.

Fables #85
Part 7 of the The Great Fables Crossover, which at least means that this is nearly over. This issue is all about Jack: meeting his son, Jack meeting Bigby and Snow's kids, Jack being revealed as not being the reincarnation of Blue, Jack, Jack, Jack – thank God the next Fables issue will be back to Fables. Jack is so irritating I'm amazed that Willingham and Sturges can bear to write him, let alone think that people want to read him. I don't blame you for trying, guys, but I'm not going to be buying Jack of Fables.

The Unwritten #2
After the excellent first issue, Carey and Gross keep up the good work with a strong second issue: our protagonist, Tommy Taylor, seeks out information to understand what's happening, visiting the woman who was having an affair with his father; another Tommy Taylor novel appears at its publishers; we see hints of bad guys and mystery to the past of Tommy's father. The blurring of reality and fantasy is great, and geography of fiction is fascinating. This is a good comic book – more please.


X-Factor #44
'There's no crying in noir.' Peter David keeps things funny and moving, switching between the future story and the present – I'm not quite sure what happened at the end (are we supposed to recognise the transformation?) but it did ruin the hotness of 'Dirty Sexy Monet'. This is a book that enjoys the month-to-month dynamic of a comic book rather than the 'write for the trade' approach to arcs that are more prevalent, and I'm enjoying proceedings.

DVDs: Telling You What I've Seen Recently

As I continue to catch up, I turn my attention to some recent DVD viewing. I used to review DVDs more often but have got out of the habit of late, so think of this as a warm up to more (depending on how this turns out).

Twilight

I am now up to date on what the kids are all crazy for now; I mostly saw this because I wanted to know what all the fuss was about, but also because I enjoy genre films and was genuinely interested to see the film. Leaving aside the accusation of setting back feminism many years, the film itself is poorly put together. It feels like a very amateur production, bad music, feeble dialogue, wooden acting, bad make up for the vampires – I was surprised by how weak the movie is. The story itself is slow and uninteresting, with very little going on, and the central characters are so insipid you don't care; Kristen Stewart as Bella is a strong character (intelligent, independent, doesn't care about the high school cliques) but then acts limp and pathetic when in the presence of the dull heartthrob Robert Pattinson. The sad thing is that there is an interesting idea hidden deep, deep in there somewhere, but this film isn't it.

Rating: DA


How To Lose Friends & Alienate People

Funny story: a friend of mine gave me the book as a birthday present, saying that it reminded her of me; the book is about a pompous and annoying English man who loves celebrity and goes to America, makes an arse of himself and returns after getting the boot. Thank you, friend ... I liked the book, despite the author and my friend’s unintentional snub, but the film is only loosely based on the book because it has evolved into a romcom about the ridiculous English person making a tit of himself in New York. I watched it because of Simon Pegg, who is good in it, but it’s nothing more than a by-the-numbers romantic comedy with added cringe. I only laughed at two incidental things (Pegg singing ‘Eng-er-lund!’ at a Fourth Of July party, and the fake trailer for the biopic of Mother Theresa, called Mother Theresa: The Making of a Saint), which isn’t a good hit rate. It’s fairly harmless, but it’s a bit of a failure if the romance and the comedy aren’t doing their jobs.

Rating: VID


The Day The Earth Stood Still

This might be against popular opinion but I thought that Keanu was good as the alien pretending to be human in this updating of the well-known (I’m not sure I’d use the word ‘classic’) 1950s sci fi – you can tell that he’s acting in a different manner to normal, and he gives the distinct impression of something non-human inhabiting the skin of a human. The build-up of the story and the special effects are very good (the spaceship, Gort and the swarm in particular), examining the story from the angle that we humans are destroying the Earth so don’t deserve it, but the film falls down in the emotional turning point, as Klaatu (Keanu) comes to the realisation that humans are worth saving – the film doesn’t sell this moment, so we don’t feel anything or connect to Klaatu’s change. The most annoying thing is the young kid, played by Will Smith’s son Jaden, who really gets on your nerves and wish that his character wasn’t in the film.

Rating: VID


Get Smart

Despite its status in the US, this didn’t really catch on in the UK (as far as I’m aware). I only remember it from the early days of Channel 4 (I think), when I was a teenager and would watch any old rubbish, and Channel 4 used to fill up their daytime schedule with old shows from the 1960s (such as Bewitched, another show that is remembered with sufficient affection that it also got a big-screen remake, although the less said about that piece of dreck the better – Nicole Kidman shows she can’t do comedy, bringing down Will Ferrell with her). This film works around Steve Carrell’s personality rather than a straight updating, with Anne Hathaway, Alan Arkin and Dwayne ‘I must be the villain because I’m not the main character’ Johnson mixing action and laughs to minimal effect. You won’t poke your eyes out for watching it but you’ll never feel the urge to see it again.

Rating: DA


Quantum of Solace

I really enjoyed Casino Royale [LINK] and thought that Daniel Craig made a good Bond, although the film felt like such a reboot, getting away from the traditional elements of the franchise (gadgets, innuendo, villain bases), it doesn’t feel like a ‘proper’ Bond but a new idea in old clothing. Even though I can never get the Joe Cornish (of Adam & Joe fame, now on 6 Music) Song Wars version of Quantum of Solace [LINK] out of my head whenever I hear the title, I was still looking forward to it. The film continues on from Casino Royale, which is a different direction again for the Bond franchise, but it seems to lose a lot of what worked in the first film. Craig is still good in the role, mixing the good looks with the acting chops to take the character into darker territory, and there are well-filmed set pieces – the chase in the early part of the film, ending in dangling from ropes in the old building (How did they film that? It must have been storyboarded to within an inch of its life), is very good – but the moment the film is over, it evaporates from memory, a pretty-looking but inconsequential piece of entertainment that doesn’t hold together as an engaging narrative.

Rating: DA


The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor

Or, How to waste having Jet Li and Michelle Yeoh in your cast. The Mummy films were never great by any stretch of the imagination, but they were enjoyable enough hokum (if you can ignore the horrible CGI in the second). This third film loses all of the appeal in what looks like an attempt to pass on the franchise to the younger generation. However, the son is a charisma-free zone, so there’s no hope of that, and this entry is rather bland, despite having CGI yeti (about the only thing of note in the film). Poor Maria Bello has to step in Rachel ‘I’ve got an Oscar so I don’t do these sort of films any more’ Weisz’s shoes and her accent is strangulated to say the least. Dull and forgettable.

Rating: DA

Comics I Bought 4 June 2009

Continuing my catch up with posts I should have been doing over the past two weeks, I'm condensing the time frame between the purchases of my comics and 'reviewing' my haul for last week the day after the haul from the week before. A lot of comics

Astro City: The Dark Ages Book Three #2
I like how the cover to this issue has been shaken so much by the punch that, in addition to the title and names being moved, even the Direct Sales bar code is misaligned. Nice touch. Royal Williams is keeping low after the raid on Pyramid by EAGLE and Charles Williams is in danger of being kept out of the loop because he no longer has Royal as an inside man. As always, Busiek tells a good story from street level, although I'm missing on the connections to the Marvel 1970s stories that he's riffing on. I still don't like Brent Anderson's art style, but I can't imagine Astro City without it.

Batman and Robin #1
I liked this: Grant Morrison doing straightforward superhero and Frank Quitely doing his usual stellar job, adds up to good comic books. The idea itself is fun: Dick Grayson taking up the position of Batman and joined by Damian, Bruce Wayne's kid with Talia Al Ghul, as his Robin, with Alfred helping out. It's a good set up, and a good first issue, which is then twisted at the end with some Morrison weirdness to keep us on our toes. I'm glad I decided to buy this in the singles.


The Boys #31
In which we reach a point of no return, as The Female is dealt with under orders from Voight-American. There has been an element of comfort to the series, with the ridiculing of superheroes and the burgeoning relationship between Hughie and Annie, but with the occasional burst of darkness and violence. However, Ennis has turned the road into the endgame and the beginning of everything reaching its inevitable and gruesome conclusion. This issue sees art from the 2000AD stalwart Carlos Ezquerra; like John McCrea in Herogasm, his linework seems to have been softened for this book. Or perhaps I'm too used to his black and white art on Judge Dredd and Strontium Dog.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Tales of the Vampires
I was going to give this a miss because it wasn't part of the Season Eight story arc; however, it was kept aside by my comic shop and I though I'd give it a try. It is based within the framework of the current storyline, where vampires are the hip new thing and accepted in society, and is the story of a boy in a small town and his dealings with local vampires and his desire for more. The art is nice and moody, not the normal slick artwork in a mainstream book, with unusual linework and colouring. I've never read anything by Becky Cloonan or Vasilis Lolos but it's a nice package and I'm glad I picked it up.

Captain Britain and MI:13 Annual #1
Oh dear, what an unpleasant cover, with such disturbing connotations. Unfortunately, Mike Collins' artwork on the interior isn't an antidote to Greg Land's tracing and plastic faces. The main story is about bringing back Meggan to the Marvel universe, just in time for Captain Britain to be cancelled so it won't mean anything. It's the first story that I haven't particularly enjoyed from Paul Cornell; it tries to encapsulate everything about Meggan in a single little story but he doesn't really sell it. This is a shame because I've always liked the character, but I can't object to her return to the fold. The back-up story is more fun – a look at Captain Britain using a cricket match (to balance for the nauseating amount of baseball the X-comics have foisted onto us). Adrian Alphona's art is more palatable than Collins', with his odd angular shapes and anatomy. This is a bitter-sweet experience, an annual for a cancelled series, and with a 50-50 hit rate, but I'm glad that we at least got to have the MI:13 team playing cricket.

Seaguy: Slaves of Mickey Eye #3
Although there are probably levels to this book that I am missing, it is still a very enjoyable and easy to follow narrative, as Seaguy saves the day and gets the girl, with a little help from said girl, She-Beard, and Doc Hero. It's actually rather charming, and leaves you with a smile on your face. Cameron Stewart draws a beautiful comic book, with some lovely linework and exciting action (I loved the smile on Doc Hero's face as he saves the day), meaning you have a complete package.

Comics I Bought 29 May 2009

And ... I'm back. Apart from my flat writing style and lack of innovative blog content, it is my inability to maintain a regular schedule that has hampered my desire to produce a consistent site. The worse thing is that if I miss a few days due to whatever reason, it makes me feel guilty for not posting and then anxious about my return. It's very complicated and slightly annoying. Not that anyone cares – I know I don't have a readership, but I'm doing this for myself more than anything else, and I do hate to let myself down.

So, to return, let's talk about the comics I've been buying – at least I've been able to buy them and read them while I haven't been blogging.

Ignition City #3
Jet packs! The clichéd line about people being angry about the lack of the things promised us by 1950s sci fi ('Where's my jet pack?!') springs to mind, but it is appropriate in a story about what happened to those men (and women) of tomorrow from yesteryear. The jet pack belongs to the Ignition City marshal, but this issue is mostly a conversation between bar owner (and former space hero) Gayle and Mary, daughter of a recently killed space hero, with a gun fight at the end to keep things spicy. Despite the problems I had with the first issue, this is shaping up nicely and Ellis could write an ongoing series quite easily in this city. The only qualms I have are with the art – it still feels off to me – and the lettering, which is a strange font, made more noticeable by the use of upper and lower case.

The Literals #2
We're past the halfway mark and I can't wait for this crossover to be finished and for Fables to be back on track. I'm getting bored with Kevin Thorn and his writer's block; this issue sees him being 'advised' by Sam and Hansel about what to do (before killing Writer's Block himself, which everybody could see coming), while the story is pepped up with a gunfight between the Genres and the Page sisters, and some jokes about genres and story ('I've always loathed fantasy' as she shoots a unicorn in the head). It's put together well but it's all rather pointless.

Usagi Yojimbo #120
If this was published in another company, reaching issue 120 would be an excuse for a silly anniversary issue extravaganza. Not Usagi Yojimbo: it's business as usual, with another quality issue, with great writing and art. The tale is more slender and the plot twist is more obvious than usual from Stan Sakai, but it's told with such consummate skill and wit and exciting swordplay that you're too busy enjoying it too notice. This is the 25th year of continuing Usagi Yojimbo stories, which means there is the scope for alternating the longer multi-chapter tales with these lighter done-in-one issues, allowing some humour and warmth to infuse into Usagi's life. I don't know how he keeps up the quality, but it's an incredible achievement and Sakai deserves more credit and recognition.