Haiku Book Review - Rocket Man by William Elliott Hazelgrove

A well written book,
Tale of suburban ennui.
I quite liked this book.

I Watched the Watchmen

I've been eagerly awaiting the arrival of this film since seeing the trailer last summer. Well, it has arrived, and while I think the movie has its flaws, overall I enjoyed it very much.

My primary complaint is one that I've been anticipating since seeing that first trailer. What's with all the slow-motion? The use of slow-motion in various places throughout the movie was a stylistic choice that I found a little annoying. To be fair, it didn't bother me quite as much as I would have expected, but still, I could have done without it. I also felt that the pacing of the movie got a little bogged-down in the middle section. This is where I think the reviewers who have complained that the movie was too faithful to the book may have a point, because there are places where the pacing feels more like that of a 12-issue comic series than of a 2-hour (or whatever) movie.

Those complaints aside, however, I'm very pleased with how the movie turned out. The cast was spot on and the art direction and costumes were great. I have to give credit to director Zack Snyder (and whoever else may be responsible) for the biggest deviation from the original story. Without getting into spoiler territory, I think the change in the ending works quite well, and I think I may even prefer it to the original (maybe, I'm still working it over in my mind).

The movie certainly matches the source material for denseness (in a good way), so much so that it will probably only be after additional viewings that I'll be able to solidify my thoughts on it. As I said, I definitely enjoyed it, though I'm not sure I'd recommend it to anyone who hasn't already read the book. If you have read and enjoyed it, then the movie is probably worth a look.

Movie Review: Seven Pounds

I wasn't sure what to expect going into "Seven Pounds", largely because of how vague the ad campaing had been, but I did know that it had a solid cast. So, I went to see it.

It turns out that this is the sort of film that it's difficult to write about. I didn't hate it. It was entertaining enough and I didn't find myself checking my watch in the middle. However, I wasn't really engaged emotionally by the film either. Part of the problem is with the structure of the film. It begins with a scene that, chronologically takes place toward the end of the movie and the rest of the story is told in flashback. Unfortunately, this is not a story suited to this sort of structure. Too much is given away in that first scene, the trajectory of the main character made a little too obvious. It becomes an obstacle to any emotional investment in the character.

The other thing that the film was missing was a powerful score. Nothing can push emotional buttons quite like music, so a particularly moving score may have been able to compensate for the weaknesses created by the structure. Sadly, the music that was in the movie wasn't quite up to the job.

As I said at the top, "Seven Pounds" isn't a bad move, but niether is it an especially good one.

TV Review: Crusoe

Friday, NBC premiered its new show, Crusoe. Apparently it's a limited run, thirteen hour series. If the first two hours are any indication, the remaining eleven won't be worth the trouble.

Last week, I read a commentary on Ain't It Cool News about the current state of Heroes. The writer brought up the idea of the "idiot plot" (a plot that only works because the characters behave like idiots). Crusoe seems to have fully embraced the "idiot plot." My favorite example of this comes near the end of the episode. The combined forces of the pirates and Spanish sailors lay siege to Crusoe and Friday in their massive tree fort (I'll talk more about this place later). I didn't count how many of these guys there were exactly, but they had to outnumber Crusoe and Friday by at least five to one. So, what's there plan for dealing with our heroes? Constructing a trebuchet and lobbing lit barrels of gun powder at them.

What could possible go wrong with a plan like that? Well, you've probably already guessed what goes wrong.

Now, I might just chalk this flawed planning to the bad guys just being stupid, but these are the guys that were able to construct a working trebuchet out of available materials.

Speaking of construction, lets talk about that tree fort Crusoe lives in. It appears to be a pretty impressive feat of engineering. It begs the question, if he's had the time, material, and know-how to build this thing, so why doesn't he just build a freaking boat and get off the island.

There are so many things that don't work with this program that I could keep going on and on, but I've already expended far too much thought on this show. I'll just leave it at this: If you've been waiting for a faithful adaptation of the novel, you'll be waiting a while longer.

Review: Franklin and Lucy by Joseph E. Persico

I've always found Franklin Roosevelt to be the most interesting of our former presidents. He presided over not one, but two national crises (the Depression and World War II), was elected to an unprecedented four terms, was a powerful and inspiring speaker, and he did all of this while concealing the fact that he was crippled as a result of a bout with polio. In Franklin and Lucy, Joseph Parsico looks at FDR's relationships with the women in his life. This, of course, includes his mother, his wife, and his eldest daughter, Anna, but equally important to him it seems was Lucy Rutherford. Persico, through the use of letters and other documents, that theirs was clearly an affair of the heart even if it is unclear if there was every any physical infidelity. It would be easy to judge Roosevelt harshly for the long term relationship he had with Lucy, and certainly the hurt he caused Eleanor was unconscionable, but Persico doesn't offer us any villains in this story, just human beings with the regular compliment of needs and foibles. It just so happens that two of these human beings, Franklin and Eleanor, were major historical figures. That's really the strength of this book, the way it depicts the Roosevelts, for all their power and influence and greatness, as people and not the icons they've become. I'm left wondering, if Eleanor had found happiness in her marriage, would she have been half as accomplished a person as she ultimately was? What of Franklin? Persico does a fair job exploring why FDR needed the other women in his life, that Eleanor, while being an ideal match intellectually, was incapable of providing him with the emotional nourishment that he needed, but for as much genuine affection as he shows to Lucy and others such as Missy LeHand (sometimes called his "surrogate spouse), there's also a selfishness to it all, he doesn't seem to be able to give all that much back. Does he get a pass, as some quoted in the book seem willing to give him, because of the suffering he endured or the great pressure he was under? It's not for me to judge, but it was certainly interesting to read about.

Movie Review: The Dark Knight

As the end credits began to roll and the house lights came up, I stood up to make my way out of the theater and I was shaking. This movie was that good. Quite frankly, I'm not sure any world that can produce a Batman movie as bad as 1997's Batman & Robin deserves one this good, but fortunately we've been blessed with it anyway. The old guard from Batman Begins is back and have upped their already considerable game. Christian Bale once again does a fine job as Bruce Wayne, at this point I'd have a hard time accepting anyone else in the role. Michael Caine is once again amazing, capturing the essence of Alfred: unflinching loyalty and a biting wit. Morgan Freeman is still a great Lucius Fox. There's a moment at the end where we see Lucius reacting to something he's seeing (I won't spoil it) and he flashes one of those great Morgan Freeman smiles and I was right there with him, part of me wanted to stand up and cheer. You'll know the moment when you see it. Then there's Gary Oldman. Words cannot do justice to how much I love Gary Oldman in this role. He is Jim Gordon straight from the comics page. The look, the voice, the attitude, this is the man who cleans up the Gotham PD.

The newcomers do good, too. Maggie Gyllenhaal steps into Katie Holmes's thankless role from the first film and really makes it her own. Nothing against Holmes's performance, but I think Gyllenhaal does a much better job with world weary. Aaron Eckhart is perfect as Harvey Dent. I totally believed in him as Gotham's white knight, but from the beginning the seeds of his fall were clearly planted. Anyone with a passing familiarity with the Batman mythos knows where Harvey ends up, but the cruel inevitability of it doesn't make it any less devastating to watch.

That brings us to the Joker. The only word that can describe this film's depiction of the Joker is "perfection." I always liked Tim Burton's Batman, but I'm not sure I'll ever be able to watch it after this. Nicholson's Joker was a gangster with a skin condition. Yes, he was crazy, but amid the craziness were understandable human motives, money, power, recognition. Heath Ledger's Joker is a force of nature. Money? Who cares. Power? Eh. Recognition? Not the point. As Alfred puts it: "Some men aren't looking for anything logical. They can't be bought, bullied, reasoned or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn." The Joker in The Dark Knight is truly scary, not because he's insane, though he clearly is, but because he's the smartest, most ruthless guy in the room. Every second he is on screen is filled with tension. There's a moment early on where the Joker does a "magic trick" and the audience will laugh when it happens. It's not an "Oh, isn't that funny" laugh, it's a shocked laugh, the sound of the tension being involuntarily released. It's sad that Heath Ledger didn't live to see the reception that his performance in this film, because this is probably some of the best work of his career.

The central question of the film is a particularly relevant one: If you're faced with an evil that can't be contained, that you can't intimidate or reason with, then what do you have to become, what compromises do you have to make, what lines will you have to cross in order to stop it? It's really always been the central dilemma in the Batman/Joker relationship. It's a conflict Batman can't win, he can only minimize his losses. Batman can catch the Joker, but the Joker will eventually escape (it's what he does) and go right back to causing death and destruction. If Batman kills the Joker, the Joker still wins because Batman will have compromised himself. The Joker will have proven his point, that rules don't matter, that when the chips are down, morality is the first thing out the window.

Christopher Nolan has raised the bar with this film. It'll be tough to match the level of quality here.

I feel like I should say something about the Watchmen trailer that played before the movie, but I'm still chewing on The Dark Knight, so I'll have to save that topic for a later date.

Movie Review: WALL-E

I liked WALL-E, but I didn't love it. Saying that makes me feel like I just walked in a room and kicked a puppy. The love for this movie among critics and friends is overwhelming, I'm just waiting for someone to ask, "Jonathan, why do you hate love?" It's a good movie, a very good movie; Pixar's perfect record remains intact, but I just wasn't able to connect with it enough to really love it.

The visuals in the film are spectacular, in fact, I'd say this might be the best looking Pixar movie yet. The characters of WALL-E and EVE were great characters, and I find I came away with a special affection for MO, the cleaning robot. The character problem I had was with the humans. I really just didn't care about any of them and the screen time spent with them felt like a waste; time I'd rather be spending on the robots' story. The story itself was fun, but I felt like I was two minutes ahead of the plot at every twist and turn, no surprises whatever. That made it hard for me to fully engage with the story. That's not to say it's a bad story, I thought the love story between WALL-E and EVE was very sweet and charming, and the basic story form here is a classic one for a reason, but there was nothing to really wow me. In the end, the movie just didn't feel complete to me, like there was more to the story to tell and that I'd just gotten the Cliff's Notes version. Like a snack when I was looking for a meal; it was very enjoyable, but not completely satisfying.

I must reiterate, I did like the movie; how could anyone with a heart not like it? I'm just not as over-the-moon for it as everyone else seems to be and the above negativity was just me trying to explore why. If I'd hated the movie I doubt I'd spend this much time thinking about it.

The movie was preceded by a short "Presto". That, I did love. A great bit of slapstick goodness more in line with the old Warner Bros. tradition than Disney.

Movie Review: Hellboy II: The Golden Army

I confess, I've never read a Hellboy comic (except for the Hellboy/Starman/Batman mini-series years and years ago). It's not from lack of interest, the premise of a demon working for a covert organization charged with dealing with supernatural threats is right up my alley. I've just never gotten around to picking up any of the trade collections to read. I did, however, see the first Hellboy film and liked it a great deal. So, when I saw that a sequel was coming this summer, I knew I'd be going to see it.

In Hellboy II: The Golden Army creatures of myth, such as elves, trolls, even tooth faeries, are tired of humans controlling most of the world and plan to go to war against humanity using an indestructible Golden Army. Hellboy and his comrades at the B.P.R.D. are charged with stopping them. It should come as no shock that a movie by Guillermo del Toro is spectacular to look at. The visual style and imagination on display is truly impressive. Interestingly, the first Hellboy film was on TV over the weekend and I ended up watching it. I couldn't help but notice how different the color pallets of the two movies are (isn't that a really geeky thing to notice? I'm kind of proud of that). Now, some of that might be attributable to the difference in quality between a TV screen and a movie theater screen, but I do think that there is a real difference and I think it was a very clever choice. In the first movie, the story revolves around a Lovecraft inspired mythology and the movie looks very dark, lots of blacks and grays and dark blues. Hellboy II is dealing with creatures of European mythology, an earthier, more nature-based mythology. Appropriately enough, there are lots of browns and greens in the sequel. The tonal difference in color seems to mirror a difference in the emotional tone of the films as well. The first movie felt a little heavier, a little darker. Hellboy II seemed to have lightened up a bit. That's not to say that the movie is light-weight, not at all, there's plenty of action and drama to keep things interesting and exciting.

So, did I enjoy Hellboy II? Absolutely, I had a lot of fun and, if the applause I heard at the end was any indication, so did the rest of the audience.

Review: Y the Last Man vol. 10 - Whys and Wherefores

I discovered Y the Last Man in trades, so when the series ended a few months ago I knew I'd have a bit of a wait before I could read the grand finale. The wait was excruciating. At last, the final trade was released, was it worth the wait? I'd say yes and no (way to be ambiguous, eh?)

For the uninitiated, Y tells the story of what happens when a plague kills every mammal with a Y chromosome except for Yorick Brown and his monkey, Ampersand. The series followed Yorick's adventures as he and his companions searched for answers about the plague and attempted to reunite him with his girlfriend who was on the other side of the globe when the plague struck. The tenth trade collects the final six issues of the series and does a pretty good job of wrapping up all of the loose plot threads. Beth, the girlfriend, and Yorick are reunited and we get to check in with all the important characters that have come and gone throughout the course of the series. We even get to jump ahead and time 60 years to see what becomes of the world. All the bases are covered, and overall it's an enjoyable read, but I was left feeling a tiny bit unsatisfied. Something's missing and I'm not sure what. I think part of it might be that there wasn't enough of a wind down to the story, I could have used an issue to decompress between the end of the main story and the epilogue. Part of it also has to do with the fact that it would be hard for any ending to live up to the build up we've had over the past nine trades (or 54 issues).

Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra (along with the rest of the creative team) have done really good work producing 60 solid issues of comic goodness. I'm sad that it's over; I got to really love Yorick, 355, Dr. Mann and the rest and I'm going to miss them now that their story is done.

Movie Review: Hancock

So, my summer of superhero movies continues as I went to see Hancock. I really wasn't sure what to expect from this movie. The premise sounded like a promising one, and Will Smith is always entertaining, but the review have been a bit mixed. Rotten Tomatoes has it rated at 37% on its Tomatometer, meaning that the majority of the critics were not kind to the film.

After seeing the film, I have to admit that my own feelings on it are mixed as well. I'll say upfront that, overall, I enjoyed the film, I just felt it wasn't as good as it could have been. The movie starts off well with Hancock the drunk screw-up of a superhero we've all seen in the ads. And as he starts down the road to redemption with he help of the Jason Bateman character everything is humming along smoothly. I thought the scenes in jail worked pretty well, other than some questionable physics in how Hancock deals with a pair of hostile fellow inmates. Then, after Hancock has his first adventure as a proper superhero, the wheels start to come off. There's a revelation at this point about Hancock's origins and nature, which I won't spoil here, that just was not particularly satisfying and relied a little too much on coincidence. And so, through the middle of the film, I started getting a bit restless. The narrative was losing me, and that was a shame as there was a lot of talent up on that screen. Then we got into the third act, and the movie started to win me over again. Yes, they were still dealing with the ramifications of the earlier revelations, but I didn't care anymore. The stakes had been raised and the movie seemed to be moving forward with a purpose again. I was once again entertained.

So, the movie began well; it ended well; it just got a little muddled in the middle. Overall I'd say that there was more of it that I enjoyed than there was that I didn't, still it was a mixed bag.

Review: Ex Machina Vol. 1: The First Hundred Days

I'm a little late to the party when it comes to Ex Machina. The series flew completely under my radar when it first came out in issues. Since that time, I've frequently heard good things about it and thought, "Hm, I should really pick that up," but with all the other titles I follow regularly, I just never got around to it. Then, a couple of weeks ago, I had a Borders gift certificate burning a hole in my pocket and there it was, sitting on the shelf, the first trade. I bought it, and now I've read it and I'm hungry for more.

The story of Ex Machina is about a super-hero, calling himself The Great Machine, who decided to give up the costumed life and run for mayor of New York. And he won! Now he's mayor and forced to deal with problems ranging from the murders of city workers to an offensive art exhibit. Interestingly, the super-hero aspect of the story takes a back seat to the political angle. It's a fantastic decision, and makes for a very compelling story. Meanwhile, the hints of our protagonist's career as The Great Machine is given to us in drips and drabs in flashback, small bits to whet our appetite without distracting from the main story (in fact the flashbacks work in service to the main story). What's really impressive is how much the politics in the story is steeped in the real world politics of New York City. It serves to place this story in an almost real world setting.

Five Comics for People Who Don't Read Comics

I've always loved trying to recommend comics to people I know who don't read them. Unfortunately, it can be hard to work naturally into a conversation. So, rather than try to force-feed recommendations to friends I think I'll just put some up here from time to time. This is by no means a comprehensive list, just the first five that occurred to me.

1. "Bone" by Jeff Smith
I've seen this series get described as Disney meets Lord of the Rings (in a good way). I think a more accurate description might be Walt Kelley's Pogo meets Arthurian Legend. The great thing about Bone is, that it's accessible to younger readers, but has enough complexity to it to be a satisfying read for older readers as well. I read this comic years ago as it was coming out in individual issues. It was bi-monthly for most of its run and the wait between issues could be excruciating. At some point I'm going to have to get the One Volume Edition and see how the series reads all at once.

2. "Mouse Guard" by David Petersen
Mouse Guard is a lot like Bone in that, if you just take a surface glance at it you see a bunch of mice running around with medieval weapons and dress and dismiss it as a kiddie book. What keeps the book from being that is that Petersen takes his characters seriously. They talk and act like you would expect people to talk and act and they live in a deadly serious world with none of the silly conventions you might find in a typical "funny animal" book.

3. "Strangers in Paradise" by Terry Moore
Strangers in Paradise (or SiP as it is sometimes referred) is a difficult series to describe. Quite a lot happened over the course of the series, tragedy, triumph, flash forwards, flashbacks, bits of prose mixed in here and there, a side-trip or two outside the main characters, even an ongoing plot involving a powerful criminal syndicate. Ultimately, though, it all boils down to the relationship between the two main characters, Francine and Katchoo. This comics is all about the characters and their complicated, ever-changing relationships with each other.

4. "Sandman Mystery Theater"
I had a little trouble coming up with a "by" line for this comic. Over the course of its run, Sandman Mystery Theater had two different writers and at least a couple of different artists. That said, the quality of the series remained high throughout the run of the series. Sandman Mystery Theater straddles the line between noir-ish crime comic and standard superhero comic. The Sandman of the title is a costumed adventurer from the '30's (when these stories are set), who has what I think is the coolest costume in all of hero-dom (consisting of a fedora, gas mask, business suit and trench coat), but this series puts him in a very real, very dark and grimy world. Sandman is typically paired against serial killers and other "normal" psychopaths rather than the costumed loonies superheroes normally face, and true to its title, there is usually a true mystery to be solved in resolving the case of each storyline.

5. "DC: The New Frontier" by Darwyn Cooke
This comic is the closest to a traditional superhero story that I've put on this list. The story takes DC's Silver Age superheroes (Flash, Green Lantern, Martian Manhunter, etc.) and shows their emergence and coming together to face a threat to all mankind (like I said, traditional superhero stuff). The story is set at the time these characters originally made their appearances in comics, the 1950's, so it takes the light-hearted superhero adventure and layers on the troubles of the real world at the time; the Korean War, the Cold War, HUAC, racial discrimination, and instability in Southeast Asia. It makes for a wonderfully rich story and has already been adapted into an animated film "Justice League: The New Frontier."

Movie Review: Get Smart

I wasn't sure what to expect from "Get Smart" when I walked into the theater. I never really watched the TV show on which it was based and the trailers I had seen were fairly bland (though the clip they've been using as a "turn off your cell phones" ad is pretty funny). But the cast was really strong and the basic premise seemed like it might be funny. I'm happy to report that I ended up really enjoying myself while watching this movie.

Not to take anything away from the script, which shows some nice craft in the way it layers in little details that end up paying off later, or the director who did a good job of staging everything, but this one is all about the casting. Steve Carell wisely avoids an imitation of Don Adams and instead plays the character his own way. His Maxwell Smart is a super-competent analyst who is less incompetent than naive in the ways of the field agent (naivete of some sort seems to be a common trait of most of Carell's characters), and Carell brings his usual comedic charm to the role. Anne Hathaway is, of course, ridiculously hot, but she's also an excellent actress (see Brokeback Mountain) who, as it turns out, has some good comedy chops as well. And who knew that "The Rock" was funny? Are we still calling him "The Rock" or can I just call him Dwayne Johnson now, either way he was great in his roll as CONTROL's resident super-agent. And, of course, there's Alan Arkin. One of my favorite moments from the film is when Arkin's character gets into a rumble with the Vice-President at a national security meeting.

It was not a perfect movie by any means, but the flaws were all relatively minor, and the laugh to groan ratio of the jokes was very good. So, overall, I feel that "Get Smart" was well worth my time.

Book Review: The Translator by Daoud Hari

I received an advance reader's copy of the book The Translator: A Tribesman's Memoir of Darfur through LibraryThing's Early Reviewer's Program, and in the spirit of the program posted the following review on my LibraryThing account:

I'm at a bit of a loss for words to talk about The Translator. I could say that it is moving, powerful, and deeply personal, all of which is true, but those words all feel a little cliched, and don't adequately describe what makes this book so special. Reading this book felt different than most other reading experiences that I've had; Daoud Hari's style made it feel like we were having a conversation, and that, it seems to me, is memoir in its purest form. The skill of the writing coupled with the importance of the subject matter make this book an essential read.