Tuesday, September 28, 2010

The Effects of Manifest Destiny

Once again, I saw Stef’s “Make It Up Monday” post and have decided to partake again. "Make It Up Monday" is an exercise in which she posts an image and readers are told to observe the image carefully and then write a caption, an explanation, or a story for it.

This was inspired by the likes of Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter and any and all Dracula movies set in yester-year. I’m starting to hate the teen-vampire thing, and because of the prolific-ness of vampires in young adult literature, I’ve come to really appreciate the older stuff again. And I'm really starting to think I'm just hard-wired for science fiction, seeing as both of these I've done have been of the sci-fi persuasion.

The Effects of Manifest Destiny

The four young children perched in and on top of the wagon would not realize what a hellish journey they had set out on until it was too late. Though the three boys had boisterously agreed to the adventure, the young girl, hardly capable of speech let alone coherent compliance, had simply giggled at the prospect of a cross-country, family, vampire-hunting journey.

When questioned as to why they had taken up the whirlwind of Manifest Destiny after vehemently refusing to leave the coast, each of them would sigh in response and then mutter how something had come up that required they leave home immediately. Most assumed the farm had taken a southerly turn. Few listened when they complained about vampires destroying their cattle. None believed them when they said they were going west to take out those who had preyed on their loved ones.

Though there was the occasional passer-by who gave them a look… A bright-eyed look veiled in a knowing shadow. Though no words were exchanged, often they’d get a tip of the hat or a happy nod from these folk. It should come as no surprise that the vast majority of these folk were spotted more often than not bearing pitchforks and playing with fire. No one knew if the family would be successful. No one knew if they would die in their convoluted efforts.

A week into the family’s journey, no one would ever hear of them again.

Monday, September 27, 2010

Ensemble Casts, In No Way Are They Losers

This past weekend, after being advised by a fellow blogger, I rented The Losers. It was released in April 2010, and I certainly remember seeing previews last spring, but somehow I never made it around to seeing it. Imdb describes the plot as follows: “After being betrayed and left for dead, members of a CIA black ops team root out those who targeted them for assassination.” It's yet another comic book adaptation that hit theaters this year. Initially attracted by the cast, the review I read here on Blogger sparked my interest again because of the comments made on its style. While it does display some stylistic elements, I would argue it acts as a timid precursor to the likes of Scott Pilgrim and was nowhere near as stylized as earlier films like The Spirit.

So let me return to the cast. The three big names (to my knowledge) were Chris Evans, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, and Zoe Saldana. Morgan has been in his share of Grey’s Anatomy episodes and had the key role in Watchmen the year before. Saldana had just come off of Avatar and Star Trek. Evans had been in Fantastic Four and would be named as the future Captain America. There were other faces I recognized but didn’t know the background for as well. Point? This is the very definition of an ensemble cast. Actors who can hold their own and whose characters get a share of the screen time equal to their fellow actors.

I enjoy ensemble casts in movies because it allows audiences to look into each of the lives of the characters and safely deem any of the characters as their favorite. They also let any of the characters interact with each other, which can lead to a huge variety of comedic encounters and/or dramatic outcomes. It’s interesting to watch how one character plays off of another but could then turn around and be a completely different person with another.

In The Losers, there were several pairings that were heavily emphasized. (And on a side note, all of this is making me think about when I was a kid playing Super Smash Bros…I would play as one character and pick another, say Link and Fox, and make up some fictional back story on why they would be fighting together.) Morgan and Saldana’s characters—Clay and Aisha—were one for sure, and then there was a fantastic scene partnering Cougar (Oscar Jaenada) and Jensen (Evans). Actually, Jensen was a moderator for all of the characters and played off each of them very well, though there was a definite negative vibe between him and Aisha, and thus the two were never seen alone.


But really, if you think about it, The Losers employing an ensemble cast is really just part of a bigger picture in which I’d argue that all comic book movies employ ensemble casts to ensure the movie sells. Really, just think about it for a second!

  • X-men: Hugh Jackman, Halle Berry, and Ian McKellen were the top billed actors. But Patrick Stewart and Famke Janssen had respectable careers before, too.
  • Spider-Man: Tobey Macguire, Kirsten Dunst, and Willem Dafoe. James Franco and the gang got a fair amount of fame on top of what they had already done in Hollywood, and I’ve seen J.K. Simmons around a lot more since the trilogy.
  • Batman: Michael Keaton, Jack Nicholson, and Kim Basinger. Tim Burton (who directed the first two) gained considerable attention after the films as well.
  • Hellboy: Ron Pearlman, Selma Blair, and Jeffrey Tambor.
  • Watchmen: it’s difficult to pick the top three billed, as the producers wanted unknowns for their characters. But again, Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Jackie Earle Haley had some semblance of a career before it.

Those that only banked on one, two, three actors have tended to do more poorly at the box office or were more poorly received. Nicolas Cage seemed to be single handedly carrying Ghost Rider, though I enjoyed Sam Elliot’s performance much more than Cage’s. The film was regarded as a huge fail, save for the effects. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen rested on Sean Connery’s broad shoulders (and proved to be his final movie before retiring). It only made $68 million in the US and Canada. I’m still undecided on Daredevil, because I feel like the casting choices weren’t the best. It seemed to very well and solidified Marvel characters in Hollywood, but the reception wasn’t the most assuring. (Elektra on the other hand, was disastrous, making less than $60 million worldwide, banking on the Daredevil connection and Jennifer Garner’s attempt at a Grecian assassin.)

As much as I’d like to say, “Come on, Hollywood, take a risk…we don’t need A-list stars playing the not-to-be-taken-seriously B-movie comic characters,” I’m just going to keep my trap shut. History has proven that having the respected actors and having lots of them is the way to keep the franchises alive. Its just a sticky situation, thinking that someone out there may be able to embody the character better than say, Hugh Jackman, who will undoubtedly draw in the crowds and the money. So, for now, I’d rather the casting directors get it half-way right and the studios keep making the movies, if only for the possibility that we may realize someone may play Character X just right, than the movies not be made at all.

(It’ll only take one screw up for me to retract that entire last paragraph…one royal screw up for me to be out for someone’s blood… X3 comes to mind, but it wasn’t the actors who were primarily to blame there.)

Sunday, September 26, 2010

Decorating

Seeing as I’m a fan of movies, it should come as a surprise that I often consider movie memorabilia to fall under the category of “décor” and that I often times see movie posters as art.

I moved into my first apartment back in August and still haven’t done much as far as decorating goes. The kitchen and living room area are done in red and black, and my room is white and turquoise. Thus far my room has a painting I did several years ago of a V for Vendetta poster. I’m torn between keeping things minimalistic and going all out.

But what really concerns me are the actual living spaces…where the walls are a flat white and have…nothing on them at all. Last year I picked up a beautiful poster from The Spirit that I intend to hang, but because of how much space is available and the location of the light switches on this one wall, I’m thinking of getting another poster to go with it to space across the wall next to the dining table.

Now, The Spirit wasn’t a particularly great movie as far as story goes, but I enjoyed the warped humor and the stylization. It did poorly for a comic book adaptation; it didn’t make money at the box office two years ago, but I still saw it the day after Christmas 2008 or some where in the vicinity there. Then we bought the DVD and I’ve probably watched it three times since it came out. (I think I just wait long enough to fool myself into thinking that it wasn’t nearly as bad as everyone says.) But forget the story—the art and the stylization was what drew me in.

Again, the living areas are done in red and black. Now I just need another poster to go with the one I’ve got. I’ve looked at the other Spirit posters (actually I’ve posted half of them here) but I’m not certain about having multiple posters for a movie I didn’t really like. Then I’m not sure if these are too busy or aren’t strong enough next to the “my city screams” image. I took a step back and googled black and white posters for an hour or two over the weekend, and the best ones I could come up with are below:

Now these three are all from movies I really like. Chicago was probably the first musical with real live people that I saw (both the movie and some months later I saw the theater performance). The music’s good and the story’s (corruption in criminal justice) great. I haven’t seen it in years because we lost the DVD, but I do remember enjoying it. Good Night and Good Luck I saw two years ago I believe, when I was trying to get into watching the award-winning movies. I’m a little fuzzy on how the story goes (it involves the government and early television broadcast medium), but I remember that the final speech by David Strathairn was incredibly powerful and moving. I intend to buy the movie as soon as I come into some extra money. Then there’s Sweeney Todd, a dark musical about a murderous barber featuring Johnny Depp and Alan Rickman—two of my favorites.

I think the Sweeney Todd image fits well as far as style goes, but I don’t like the blue in it and I’m not so certain on having a poster about a bloody musical next to the dinner table. It could unnerve guests. Chicago’s poster is a bit more yellow than The Spirit, but there’s some yellow elements in the kitchen as well. I personally like Good Night and Good Luck the best of the three movies, I think simply because of the message in it, but I don’t think the poster is stylized enough.

Anyone have any opinions on the matter? I’m happy to listen to suggestions, or other black/white/red posters I may have over looked.

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Handy-Dandy Trailer

Once again, I just wanted to alert the Interwebs to the fact that I am not dead... Perhaps it's just me but this week is taking forever. I have three papers due tomorrow, only one of which I haven't completed at this point (as of yesterday morning, none of them had been started).

I kept trying to think of something that wouldn't require much brain power and also wouldn't suck...so here's a video that has come up in my film classes twice now.



Huh? Yeah. The first time we saw it it had to do with three-act structure. This semester it pertained to the literalness of film. I think it's awesome something made by a bunch of 20-somethings that was likely done for fun is showing up in my lectures and is actually relevant.

Sorry I am so lame. Life is busy and I don't have a ton of free time to write (probably has something to do with those 18 hours of classes). Happy Wednesday, regardless!

Sunday, September 19, 2010

How Pirates Introduced Me to Some of My Favorite People

Let me start this off with a little music, feel free to watch or let it run in the background.

And now that my heart has swelled with love for the movies of my adolescence… Happy International Talk Like a Pirate Day!

Now, Pirates of the Caribbean, I would argue, is one of the best Disney movies. The first one. It’s a freaking classic already. The story is fantastic—a hoarde of skeletal pirates looking for the sole child whose blood will reverse their fate, while one of the crew, previously left to die on a rock, stumbles drunkenly into them in the middle of all this mess. I personally really enjoy 2 as well, and 3 has its good parts but it was horrifically confusing at the time.

When Curse of the Black Pearl came out in 2003, I was 12 and fresh off of watching Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. (Again, Lord of the Rings was one of those things that I refused to watch because I thought it was either too scary, too old-timey, or something, but then fell in love with.) For me, the preteen, the selling point of this movie was, without a freaking doubt, Orlando Bloom. Of course at the time I still preferred his long, blonde tresses to the mess of hair he sported and the silly English outfit, but still. Orlando Bloom, people. But even before Curse of the Black Pearl hit theaters, I remember very, very clearly seeing a teaser trailer for it and turning over to my friend and saying, “That looks scary.” I’d made up my mind I wasn’t going to see it, and then shoved it to the back of my mind while watching whatever movie came on.

I am so glad I changed my mind.

I went into the films with a crush on Orlando Bloom and thoroughly enjoyed the first in the summer of 2003. I came out of it just so thoroughly impressed with Captain Jack Sparrow’s character…perhaps impressed isn’t the right word…perhaps infatuated would be a better choice. (Regardless, by the time the second one came around, I was so ridiculously envious of Kiera Knightly’s role.)

Curse of the Black Pearl also marks the first time I actually saw Johnny Depp perform. I vaguely knew his name but couldn’t really put a face to it when the previews were circulating, but boy howdy did I learn who he was. Capable of playing characters on one extreme end of the spectrum to the other, I have always been impressed with Depp’s ability to take on such massive characters. And though Jack Sparrow may be a drunk, he’s still nice to look at and laugh at. With. …mostly at. It’s hard not to like Sparrow. He commands the screen and the character constantly demands attention, even in situations when it would be better for him to keep his trap shut. It's like Depp made pirates sexy. Look at who he’s surrounded by—a bunch of really not all that attractive shipmates: Barbossa, Gibbs, etc.

So there was Depp, and then there was this producer—Jerry Bruckheimer. Now, to be honest, I’m still a little fuzzy on what all producers do. They cover a lot in the filming process and evidently have the power to fire the director if they so choose. They are usually the ones putting their own money on the line to get the movie up and running and can choose to end it if they wish. So really, by that definition, the Pirates trilogy belongs to Bruckheimer. One thing I’ve noticed with producers is that they tend to carry a certain style or feel with them from one movie to the next, like Pirates and Prince of Persia, both are overseen by Bruckheimer and both have that action/adventure with a wily character and a damsel-thing going on. Also, both films have a vague Indiana Jones feel to them in my opinion. I love it. I’ve thought on it more and more as time’s gone on, and its almost like Bruckheimer is the new version of Spielberg or George Lucas, and I’m more than happy to watch any films with his name attached.

CASE IN POINT!

There's others I've come to love through Pirates, too, like Geoffrey Rush, who plays Barbossa. His character is just killer! I absolutely love Barbossa in At World's End, his relationship with Jack Sparrow akin to brotherhood and everything. It's always nice to see a villain go good, too. Jack Davenport (Norrington) grew on me in the last two films as well, and I enjoy watching his British comedies.

Why make such a fuss over people? Well, I am only trying to get a film degree. These are the kinds of films I want to be involved with—those adventures where things can go horribly wrong, things happen that make the audience laugh until they cry, romance is right around the corner and things have a happy (or at least acceptable) ending. Dramas are great and everything, but I enjoy telling stories and I think in this day and age escapist films are pretty important. Everyone needs something fantastic in their lives, and the movies can fill the void. I love it when I walk out of a film and feel the need to sword fight or stunt drive. It’s amazing what a good movie (and good casts and crews) can do to their audiences.

Friday, September 17, 2010

Nine Years of Neopets

If you’ve used the Internet for a significant amount of time, especially in the early 2000’s, if you have a child or a young relative, there’s a good chance you’ve heard of it. Neopets is the virtual pet site that’s been up and running since November 1999.

As of September 14th, 2010, I’ve been on the site for nine years.

...Rachel. You’re a college student. Why on earth are you playing that game…still?

The short answer is simply that it’s addicting. Is/was. I certainly don’t play it like I used to in elementary/middle school, when I easily blow hours at a time on the site. Nowadays, I couldn’t tell you last time I spent an entire hour in one day with it.

It is a virtual pet site yes, but it’s also a game arcade and a social medium as well. The site has over 180 million accounts today. It’s coming close to having one trillion page views. It’s fantastically popular. The creators were heavily involved, they had accounts of their own and were known to interact with regular users. Many, many "plots" have been spawned since it's inception, some as hunt-and-gather type of things where clues are spread out for you to unlock some secret. Others (my favorites actually), were actual wars where you got to pick a side and fight against baddies to see whose side could get more points. But the site's gone through some massive changes in the last few years. Not all I’ve particularly agreed with or even appreciated, but the general public claims it’s been for the better overall. I don’t keep up with the politics so much anymore, now that I’m in college and I have other stuff to keep myself busy. But I was very active in the day of the sale—when Viacom bought Neopets in 2005. This led to a plethora of changes and a huge spike in users as well as an eventual site-makeover.

One of the biggest changes involved a ton of redraws of pets and the ability to 'customize' them, or dress them with clothes and...stuff. The pets pictured overhead are called "Lupes." The first pet I ever made was a blue Lupe and originally looked like the top one.

I know I’ve taken a couple hiatuses, but somehow, I’ve managed to come back, and I’ve kept the same 2-3 accounts the whole time. (Those unfamiliar with the site, the Neopets Team…the rule makers, essentially, have said that one human being is allowed to have 5 accounts to accommodate all the Neopets you make or adopt.) My first account was made September 14th, 2001, and my second about six months later. I use the second the most.

Originally, when I was still a little kid, I played the site daily. I made and adopted pets. I opened a shop and sold spare items, I explored far and wide, I played their arcade games so much that I made enough money to buy “paintbrushes” to change the color of my Neopets. When I painted all of the pets on my first account and had 300,000 Neopoints (their currency) I thought I was hot stuff. I might have been in 6th grade by the time this occurred.

But then...I actually learned some stuff. In the first two years for sure, I taught myself HTML on the free “pet pages” each pet came with. I made up back-stories for my pets. I joined “guilds,” which were essentially just clubs of people, and in my first few years, it was essential to me to be a part of a worthy guild and to socialize with its members. When I turned 13 I played around with their chat boards, which were really more like forums. There, I learned about role-playing for the first time.

In a way, Neopets taught me a lot. So the long answer here is that I keep coming back to the site because I have a nostalgic spot for it. It’s taught me a lot about Internet politics, about business, about how people fuction, about websites, about storytelling. It gave me so much practice in writing and drawing that I’m grateful to have found the place. It is just a game, the pets are just pixels, but when you invest so much time into it all, it becomes more than that. It may just be a website that only exists in the invisible space that is the Internet, but it’s become something of an actual place to me. Of course it’s changed and I’ve not kept up with the news or the politics of it lately, but back in the day, it was like sliced bread. Not only could you play games and be imaginative, but you could meet (presumably) real people who liked it as much as you did.

Again, even though I’m pessimistic and old-fashioned and prefer the old site with its real sidebar (and not this top bar that I still don’t like the organization on), I’m glad its still around. It’s been a pretty great nine years, and I’m perfectly content to keep coming back, even if it’s only to play the arcade games between classes.

Now wait for it...old school ad time!


Wednesday, September 15, 2010

An Early Look At "The Tourist"


Hmph.

Two things you should know: I dislike Angelina Jolie, not because I doubt her acting ability, not because...not really for any one particular reason, but I just don't like her. She seems snakelike. Then, there's the simple fact that I love Johnny Depp.

The trailer's not bad, however from all the hype I had been reading, I was expecting something more...serious. More dramatic and less windows-exploding-in and less of Depp acting silly. I don't know why, given his recent list of characters, but perhaps I thought the mood of Public Enemies was going to carry over into The Tourist given it has the--let me quote--"king and queen of Hollywood" in it. Let me put it this way: I like the music.

Honestly, from this alone, the movie looks like an updated version of North by Northwest (which I conveniently watched this semester for a class!). Depp's got a case of mistaken identity and has a run in with a shady femme fatale. If not that, then it reminds me of the trailers for Salt where Jolie plays some secret double agent type yet again, only this movie has a significant other for her to exchange witty banter with. (Let it be known I did not see Salt.)

I want something else from both of these actors. They're fine people, and I know they're capable of a lot! But another secret agent-esque role for Jolie? And a virtual nobody (as far as we know) character for Depp? Seriously? I want--I expect a hell of a lot more from Depp after falling in love with both Edward Scissorhands and Jack Sparrow. He makes characters his own. He needs something more than supporting male role to the suspicious female. And that's another thing, I think because of his lack of character Jolie is the one commanding this movie when recently Depp's been the name-sake heavyweight (Alice in Wonderland). Although it will be interesting to see if the power balances or shifts at all, given both Depp and Jolie have been given the title of "sex symbol."

Regardless of whatever reviews, previews or what ever else may surface between now and December 10th, I'm seeing this. It's a hobby of mine to attempt to see any and all Johnny Depp movies, and so far I've probably caught about half of them. I think I'm more excited for Rango, not only because it's animated and looks cute, if not quaint, but also for the second year in a row I'll be getting a Johnny Depp movie on my birthday!

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Um, hi?


Holy crud. I just wanted to say I've not fallen off a cliff or jumped off the face of the earth or anything like that. My internet, since I returned to the apartment on Sunday, has been completely out. It just came back today about 20 minutes ago.

And here's the thing: the internet for the past two weeks has gone down nearly everyday for about 2-3 hours in the evening. But nope, mine just went kaput entirely. (But now its baaaack yaaay! It really makes me rethink and almost take back everything I said about wanting to live in the 80's. If I was born today and was somehow time-travelled back, I wouldn't make it for more than a couple days. I'm terrible.) The manager said our provider was renegotiating stuff, and when they did that it knocked a few of the Mac computers completely offline.

Greaat. I said.

So I went and bought two routers and fought with them, had a horrible day yesterday, so horrible in fact I thought it was Murphey's Law day (anything that can go wrong, will most definitely do so in epic proportions). It was just the most frustrating thing--knowing that I'm a tech-savvy person and that if I was at the house, I could have fixed this...but here I was helpless without access to the apartment's hardware. I finally called the Internet provider myself today and they said they'd send someone, when my roommate called after a measly one day of no service and they reset the modem and everything came back.

I promise a more meaningful post will come tomorrow. Until then, I have to work my tail off on dinner (fish tacos!) and writing this film paper I have due in 2 days (but couldn't even attempt because of the downed Internet).

Happy Tuesday!

Friday, September 10, 2010

An Early Look at "Buried"



What.

Really, to me, that preview is both amazing and completely ridiculous. There is 2 seconds of an image on the screen, courtesy of a lighter. The preview, really, is a complete waste of a trailer. There is no visual. This thing is essentially a radio ad. And yet as much as that bugs me, I want to see it. About 60% of that has to do with the fact I enjoy watching Ryan Reynolds. The rest has to do with me being completely baffled as to how these people are going to pull off a full-length feature of a man trapped in a coffin. There might be a couple minutes in the beginning out of the coffin to provide backstory, and perhaps he gets saved in the end and we see the light of day again. But really, this movie is going to spend all it’s time figuratively six feet under.

People taking risks like this…Buried is likely to pull in big bucks, and a lot of that is due to the spectacle of it. A lot of it will be due to the actor we’ve come to love in the past year thanks to Wolverine and a little help from Sandra Bullock in The Proposal.

It just really amazes me how things like this come to be.

I’m looking forward to it—not because it’s a “thriller” (again, how on earth do you make that happen in a movie that’s completely contained in a body-sized box?), but because I want to know how this was put together.

Thursday, September 9, 2010

Three Quotes for Thurday: The Sarcastic Edition!

Here we are again on yet another lovely (if not hot and humid) Thursday. I've decided to mix it up a bit, going off of media I've seen recently and picking out my favorite sarcastic quotes to share. A bit of an expert on the subject myself, I love dry humor. I'm so damn good at it people sometimes have to ask me if I'm being serious...well, perhaps I'm good at sarcasm or they're not too bright. I have found that sarcasm is hard to communicate over the interwebs and text messages but I think these quotes are sharp enough to spell it out.



"I'm an immortal sir, not a gazelle!" - Dorian Gray (The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen)

Oh, of course you're not a quadrupedal animal, Dorian. You're funny. Geez, watching this again for the first time in half a million months made me realize how cheesy some of the dialogue truly was. But I liked the execution of this one.



"Dying people lie too. Wish they'd worked less, been nicer, opened orphanages for kittens. If you really want to do something, you do it. You don't save it for a sound bite." - House (House M.D.)

House, the terrific doctor who really never seems to have anything nice to say. Luckily for us he keeps opening his mouth and spouting off whatever it is he has to say, often times putting me in stitches (oh, ho, that's not at all a pun). I missed most of last season though...hopefully I'll find a recap here soon and can start back up again this year. But in all seriousness, this is one of those that resonates with me--if you want something, some success or positivity in life, run after it like there's no tomorrow.



"If the Pirates of the Caribbean breaks down, the pirates don't eat the tourists." - Ian Malcom (Jurassic Park)

Not unless they're also zombies. In that case, everybody would be screwed. Also, isn't it neat to think that a decade after this movie was put out that Pirates was made into it's own trilogy too? And the pirates didn't eat anybody after all :)

Looking Through a Gilded Glass at Alan Moore

I was happily munching away at dinner my roommate made for me when we discovered there was nothing on television, seeing as I really don’t watch TV anymore outside of the primetime lineups that haven’t started again, and she couldn’t find anything in the mess of reality shows that were on. I suggested a little movie I thought she’d like, given she has a wide array of films that she enjoys, among them the X-men titles and Van Helsing.

She put in my copy of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, yet another one of those movies that my mother suggested, she knowing my tastes before I even did, and I outright refused to watch it when I was younger. I constantly mocked it, frequently calling it “The League of Men in Colored Undies” because I thought it was about superheroes.

I knew it was a comic book movie, but I didn’t realize until this time around that it was based off the works of—guess who—Alan Moore. This is the third film inspired by his works that I just really, really love. The other two include V for Vendetta and of course as I’ve stated before, Watchmen. I will say that Extraordinary Gents is probably the weakest and cheesiest of the three, but it’s still got a place in my heart.

Now I will tell you, of these three movies, I only own two of the books and I’ve only read one. (This has something to do with me scoffing at the previews for Watchmen where it was said that the graphic novel was one of the best and most critically hailed of all time, and I hadn’t heard a lick about it before the movie trailer. The trailer was perfectly true.) So really, since I’ve not read but Watchmen of Moore’s actual works, perhaps I have no right to make this post about him. According to Wiki (because the internet is always true), there’s been a lot of hell in Moore’s life over his comics being made into movies. He claims he was doing all he could to make his comics a unique medium, to portray so much information in the panels that it couldn’t be replicated in any other media. I agree with him to an extent. I certainly get what he’s saying by trying to cram the huge stories into 2-1/2 hour film segments. Watchmen was pushing it. But between directors changing the story, falsifying statements of Moore’s endorsements and what have you, he wants nothing to do with any movie adaptations.

So, not to disrespect the author, I won’t insinuate that he approves the movies made after his work, nor will I say that the films come from solely his ideas, though I do believe the core of each of the movies did come from Moore. Of course, you say, because they share titles and major characters and entire story lines from their comic counterparts. There’s a difference. Maybe they’re not major differences, but there are going to be differences when someone outside of the author’s personal literary sphere comes in to make their own rendition of the work. They can’t possibly know what all is going on in the author’s head, especially not in the case of Alan Moore who has really stood at arms length (if not more) from these things.

However, I still love these movies. I love the stories they’re trying to tell. I’ve said before that Watchmen is just one of my favorite stories...well, ever. It’s a recent history tale of the deconstruction of the superhero and the minimalization of the human being. V for Vendetta is the story of a hyper-survelliance, hyper-political future in England and a man’s attempt to go against the common grind. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen takes beloved characters out of classic literature and pits them against a great force of evil for the sake of humanity’s longevity—much like Watchmen or perhaps, I noticed this time, Marvel’s Avengers?

Based on the movies, Moore’s stories are, for the most part, historical fiction. Even in V for Vendetta, set in the future, there are references to November 5, 1605. The story itself is an attempt to make a huge change in society and write the history of the time. Watchmen is set through the 1940’s to the 80’s and the story is promoted as the telling of an alternate history of America. Extraordinary Gents is most definitely historical fiction, taking characters out of classics like Dracula, the Picture of Dorian Gray and so on and so forth, and writing a future for them and rewriting a history for Europe (that is set in the late 18th to early 19th centuries).

I really like historical fiction. It’s something I’ve grown into, but I feel like it’s almost second to my like of science fiction. Probably has to do a lot with the fact I just like history. I, though you may find it strange and repulsive, have a great deal of interest in the WWII era and the Holocaust, because I find it incredibly appalling/curious/unbelievable that people that evil truly existed in real life. It’s always fun to watch historical fiction and just think about if these people had really existed…well then perhaps the movie would have been true! For better or for worse, I suppose…

So, given I’m labeling Moore as a historical writer, I just really appreciate him. It sparks my curiosity to think about these characters existing in our world. And to the girl that though for the longest time that vampires could have existed, ghosts probably walk our halls and somewhere out in space other life exists, its just nice to know that other people enjoy this kind of stuff too. Its even more incredible the time and effort people put into historical writing, what with the research and precision of dates and all.

Monday, September 6, 2010

The Disappearance of the Theater Junkie

Yay, short story time! I keep meaning to do more, but whenever I start work on a short story it just gets out of control and grows longer and longer and longer... This one however, is for Make It Up Monday on Stef's 52 Weeks of Wordage blog. The rules are easy, look at the picture she provides and come up with something witty in response. Entrants are supposed to leave their ideas in comment form, however I found mine to be too long (as always).

Here is the picture for this week and my response:


Gionove was, simply put, a theater junkie. His latest venture journeyed into the world of steam punkery, complete with gold-adorned everything. The theater was usually generous enough to provide their moderately sized casts with costumes, although the actors were always persuaded to construct their own, if they had the means to.

“Dear… Lord!

The actor in question was discovering how potentially hazardous his own creation was while pedaling at 15 miles an hour on busy downtown streets. The backpack he fashioned to be some sort of energy source for his elaborate gizmos was huge and hulking and with the slightest turn threatened to throw him off the bike. Alas, as he hopped onto a sidewalk and slipped off the bike, it was of his own accord to make sure it was locked tight for the afternoon.

Eager to show off his handmade wares, Gionove rushed around the corner and ran smack into half of the cast. The immediate thought that came to mind was not an apology, but rather on how fantastic their costumes were. As soon as his jaw slipped open in awe and wonder, he found himself at the end of four weapons raised in one simultaneous motion.

“Very nice,” he murmured, the actor’s eye flashing to the glittering gold of the sword that was held closest to his neck. It took a minute longer for Gionove’s eye to follow the arm of its holder, where he found a man decked in military ware and whose face he did not recognize.

Taking a half step back, Gionove realized he did not recognize any of these people. Not the girl in the red peering at him curiously, not the short-fuse of a military man, nor the man in the suit holding a gun to his chest, not even the final woman whose dress he admired most, holding what appeared to be a small cannon at his face.

“Surely I’m not being…mugged,” Gionove choked out after a minute of staring silently. “This stuff isn’t worth anything, I made it myself…I’ve got very little in my wallet…” He started to reach for it, and the man in the suit fired just shy of his wrist when he made a move for his pocket.

Gionove loved theater, the limelight and the act, but as his face twisted into a pained grimace, he began to realize he had no idea how to act in the real world. Frozen into place, he looked between the four again.

The military man lowered his blade in the slightest. The others followed suit. Who was obviously the leader stepped a few paces closer, threw a narrow glare at the man wielding a smoking gun, and then cleared his throat. “Gionove, we are not from this time. However, we would greatly appreciate it if you were to join us in our return home.”

Gionove uttered a laugh simply out of reaction. In reality, the adrenaline pouring into his blood was screaming for him to run the other way. His muscles began to ache when panic suddenly flashed to life in his eyes. Not only were these people muggers, they were positively insane. He began to wonder why no one had stopped to help him, when he then realized the passers-by might think it just an act. They were only standing feet away from the theater entrance after all.

Then there was a bang and a flash and a whole hell of a lot of smoke, and Gionove’s senses were lost behind a veil of blackness. The woman closest to him knelt to catch his unconscious figure before he completely crumpled. She barked a cry of, “What? Did you want to tell him he’s the leader of the free world as we know it and he’s got no choice?” and tossed her used weapon aside.

The men exchanged skeptical glances while the woman behind them shrugged. In a high voice she concluded, “At least we found him alive. Now getting him home and explaining ourselves to the officials…that’s going to be a whole ‘nother thing.”

Thursday, September 2, 2010

Three Quotes for Thursday

Ahh. Busy busy. I’ve got about 5 chapters to read and then umpteenth documents on top of that for class. I think I’ve finally decided what my story will be for the black and white photos…most likely the adoption of my dog (because there’s this big backstory about how I was allergic to beings of the canine persuasion and then we got this sweet, quiet dog from the shelter and she turned out to be a defensive, loud beast that I still love). Need to start my short essay for this project and then another paper for the other film class.

Lost yet? Good.

Aw. Lost. I want to rewatch the seasons so bad…I think I’m doing that thing again where I’m putting something on a pedestal because I think that some how it’s either better or gotten better than it was the last time I saw it…

THIS IS BESIDES THE POINT!

Since I am so busy and I did want to do a post so it didn’t feel like I’d just abandoned the blog… I’ve been collecting quotes. My favorite quotes from all over. There aren’t that many, but I thought I’d share a few and maybe make it a weekly thing. Tah-dah: Three Quotes for Thursday. For now.

“I must not tell lies, Professor.” –Harry Potter (Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix)

I don’t remember if the quote’s in or if it’s even that simple in the book. All I know is that I watched so many Harry Potter movies so many times this summer that I’ve rememorized them. Professor Umbridge is just a horrible person, you want something bad to happen to her. I love it when evil people have their words backfire on them—not because I like seeing people fall, but because I like seeing justice served. Dun dun dun.

"The world isn’t perfect, and the law is incomplete. Equivalent Exchange doesn’t encompass everything that goes on here. But I still choose to believe in its principle: that all things do come at a price. That there’s an ebb, and a flow, a cycle. That the pain we went through did have a reward and that anyone who’s determined and perseveres will get something of value in return, even if it’s not what they expected." –Alphonse Elric (Fullmetal Alchemist)

I think this one can just apply to life. Though it does hang on the negative side, it provides us with hope that things can take a turn for the better.

Please! Don't all leave... Somebody has to do it, don’t you see? Somebody has to save the world…” –Captain Metropolis (Watchmen)

Strictly from the graphic novel, the quote brings up the uneasy feelings. Someone, some superhero or perhaps some government head needs to save the world. Are mere humans incapable of saving the very world we live in? The Watchmen think they need to do it themselves? What hope is there for humanity as a whole, then?

Ah. I need to get back to the laundry. Happy almost-weekend!