Category Archives: Fantasy

Other People’s Shoes

Many years ago, I had a roommate who was into geeky things this same way I am. One day, because odd questions are always coming to me such is the mind of a writer, I asked him if he had the chance for 24 hours to have his mind transferred into a woman’s body would he do it?

His answer was a resounding, explicit, and definite NO.

This surprised and shocked me. Given that the question is a fantasy, mind transference is an impossibility not a science-fiction that is possible, I would leap at the chance to, quite literally,  live, briefly, in someone else’s shoes.

I asked this question of several other male friends. (At the time there we no regular women as friends or otherwise in my life. I was working nights at a lab and had zero social life and my circle of even acquaintances had grown quite small.) All them reacted pretty much the same way, not even for a day would they live as another gender.

I think there are two principal drive factors in why they all refused to entertain even in speculation a willingness of cross that boundary.

First is our culture’s pervasive homophobia. The mere thought of having to experience even a slight sexual attraction, without acting upon it in any way, towards men must have seemed frightening.

Second is a recognition, even they were not consciously aware of it, how poorly treated women are in our society.

The idea of living briefly as another gender or race is a question that I ponder from time to time. Myself, I am insatiably curious and I always am wondering what life is like from another perspective. I find it difficult to envision a mindset that rejects that speculation.

 

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HBO’s Watchmen

So with my expectations appropriately low I have begun watching HBO new series Watchmen. In this review I will fullyspoil both the comic and 2009 adaptation of Watchmen.

Why am I setting expectation low for this alternate history super hero series? The answer is one name, Damon Lindelof. Lindelof has been a writer if television and feature for a number of years and his name is attached to some major projects, Star Trek: Into Darkness, Prometheus, World War Z, Cowboys and Aliens, and the recently delayer and/or canceled feature film The Hunt. With the exception of that final entry which I have not viewed, all of these projects not only left me cold but I felt assaulted by intelligence with gaps in logic that no suspension bridge of disbelief could span. Given that history as a writer I expect very little from a Damon Lindelof project.

However I am a fan of Watchmen  both the original comic and the Snyder feature adaptation and I heard enough about this set up and premise of this series to genuinely intrigue me.

Watchmen  is in an alternate time line where costumed heroes began appearing in the streets sometime in the 1940s. For both the comic and the 2009 feature this leads to a radically different 1980s, Nixon is never forced out of office by Watergate, a god-like being Doctor Manhattan transforms science, technology, and world events by being a patriotic ‘superman,’ figure, and the US Constitution is amended to allow unlimited terms for a president. One of the more revered heroes, Ozymandias, convinced only he can save the world from impending nuclear annihilation fakes a catastrophic event to create species wide unity. In the comic he stages an inter-dimensional attack on Earth from giant squids, and in the 2009 feature he frames Dr. Manhattan for the attack. In both cases half of metropolitan New York is killed. The remaining, having failed to stop the attack, commit to keeping the secret giving Ozymandias’ plan a chance of success except for the manically committed Rorschach. In order to maintain their conspiracy Dr. Manhattan murders Rorschach but a by Rorschach journal detailing his investigation into the plot is published and the world continues to teeter on the brink of global nuclear war.

The series Watchmen  take place 30 years later in a parallel 2019 but it is not clear if it has followed the comic’s reality with monstrous being from another dimension having ‘attacked’ the Earth in the 1980s or the 2009’s Dr. Manhattan hoax timeline. Given Manhattan’s known presence on Mars and a rain of tiny squid in episode one I am inclined to believe that Lindelof is extrapolating from the comic’s history.

Episode one opens with a heinous event that tragically is not part of some dark alternate timeline but rather a part shameful American History, The Tulsa Race Massacre, when rioting white slaughter the residents of the Midwest’s ‘Black Wall Street.’  We follow the survival of one young boy as the rioting and murders exterminate the town around him. The story picks up some ninety-odd years later with our lead character Angela Abar. Angela is a police detective but following an earlier terrorists campaign police are masked adopting like super heroes secret identities. The terrorists that waged their war on the police were the Kavalry, a virulent racist organization that idolizes the murdered Rorschach. When the Kavalry resurfaces Angela’s world is turned upside down and she quickly becomes entwined in a new conspiracy with roots stretching back to the 1921 massacre. Simultaneously on a distant English estate Ozymandias lives in retired seclusion pursuing his own unrevealed plots that involve genetic engineering and artificial people.

There is a very strong moral ambiguity to the show. The Kavalry are presented in a no redeeming method but the police, our protagonists employee torture to achieve their means and that is never good.

Watchmen  the series in its first two episodes presents a number of interesting and compelling character but also displays a few typical Hollywoodisms that usually mar action sequences with events that simply defy any understanding of how the physics of the world actually work but so far nothing that has dissuaded me from watching further episodes.  All in all Lindelof’s show is interesting, complex and may still prove that more than The Fonz can jump a shark.

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Movie Review: Fast Furious & Presents: Hobbs and Shaw

I have never watched, in whole or in part, any installment in the Fast & Furious franchise, so why did my Sweetie-wife and I go see this spin off from that popular series? The simple answer is we enjoyed the trailer. The joyous, funny, and decidedly over the top tone of the this movie’s preview promised the sort of ‘don’t take this seriously’ fun that can make for great escapist entertainment and that it is exactly what was delivered. We got what was listed on the tin. Now, the best frame of mind to enjoy this movie is not to go in thinking of it as an action film but to rather think of it as a super heromovie. The action, the stunts, the stakes, and the plotting are all much more in line with the lighter comedic styles of many modern comic book movies than anything as mundane as super spy James Bond. Approach Hobbs and Shawfrom that perspective and I think you’ll be ready to appreciate this enterprise.

The set-up of the movie is simple. Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) an elite member of the Diplomatic Security Service and Shaw (Jason Statham) a outcast outlaw are forced to work together when Shaw’s sister Hattie (Vanessa Kirby) an MI6 operative is framed for stealing a super virus capable of wiping out humanity when in fact she secured the sample to protect it from Brixton (Idris Elba) a cybernetic enhanced mercenary worked for the shadowy organization Eteon which has the goal of saving humanity by eliminating ‘the weak’ and taking control of the planet. On the run and pursued by this ‘black superman’ Hobbs and Shaw must work together and learn the meaning of family.

Directed by David Leitch who also helmed John Wick  and Atomic Blonde this movie is naturally heavy on fights, stunts, and action with an emphasis on comedic turns.  Both of the leads, Johnson and Statham, have shown the comedic chops and timing to carry the movie and joined by Kirby the trio is a powerhouse of charisma that carries the audience over and through the movie’s incredible story and sequences. Personally I am quite happy to see that Kirby is getting a wide variety of roles. She first came to my notice as Princess Margaret in Netflix’s terrific historical drama series The Crown and in everything else I have seen her in she has never disappointed. Idris Elba is much better served by this role than he was in the forgettable Star Trek: Beyond.

Over all if you can suspend disbelief and simply accept the wild premises and action Hobbs and Shaw  is an excellent entry into escapist fun.

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Movie Review: Once Upon a Time in Hollywood …

Quentin Tarantino’s films for me are a hit or miss affair, some I adore, some or passable, and with some my suspension of disbelief is shattered rendering them pointless. Of the nine movies directed, so far, by Tarantino, my favorite three arePulp Fiction, Inglorious Basterds, and now Once Upon A Time in Hollywood ….

Once  is centered on the relationship between Rick Dalton, (Leonardo DiCaprio) a television westerns actor whose career has begun to fade and his Stunt Double/Driver/ and friend Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt.) Set in 1969 a period where the former glory of Hollywood had faded away with the collapse of the studio system in the 1950s and just before the rise of personal filmmaking of the 70s that would usher in the likes of Scorsese, Coppola, Lucas, and Spielberg, With his western series Bounty Law  canceled Rick has turned to guest appearances on other shows, often playing the heavy, as his prospects continue to dry up while Cliff, dogged by an unresolved scandal, finds work as a stuntman difficult to book. In this dying and decaying period with the blush vanishing from the Free Love Hippie movement Rick finds himself suddenly neighbors with Hollywood’s latest Golden Couple, Roman Polanski, still riding high from his smash success Rosemary’s Baby and his actress/wife Sharon Tate. Throughout the film the audience is given three storylines to follow, Rick’s struggle to remain relevant and find his voice again as an artist, Sharon’s satisfaction in his art and at the prospect of becoming a mother, and Cliff’s course crossing paths with the dangerous and murderous Manson Cult that has taken up residence on an abandoned western movie ranch.  The film’s final act deals with the tragic events that for many shattered Hollywood’s illusions of safety and privilege in a rapidly changing culture.

Tarantino has love been hailed and derided for his scripts’ ubiquitous cinematic and pop-cultural references and here with a subject matter firmly set in the middle of that melting pop he does nothing to restrain those impulses. That said it is clear that this reflects a deep and committed love for movies and for this film the references and the nods and the adoration deepens the story’s reality even as the director takes significant liberties with the historical record. Even as the plot drives relentless towards an evening that has become seared in popular consciousness for it’s brutality and its horror Once  never loses sight of the essential humanity of its characters, both fictional and historical. In the end the resolutions is not so much about cults and mad insane violence as it is about the deep emotional bond between two men who have lived entangled in each other’s lives.

This film is not for everyone. For some the long diversions into the minutia of the character’s lives, scenes that simply illustrate their lived experiences without advancing narrative of ticking off plot points may seem to drag and bore but for me I could spend several more hours following Rick and Cliff as they navigate a difficult friendship and the industry’s ever changing structure. Like most Tarantino films when the violence does erupt it is bloody, visceral, graphic, and even somewhat cartoonish, however if your knowledge of the real events on that isolated drive give you hesitation about seeing this movie, I certainly felt that, set your concerns aside. This is a love letter to a lost period, to an art form, and not a celebration, veneration, or even exploitation of Manson and his ‘family.’

 

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Movie Review: Maleficent

With the trailers for Maleficent: Mistress of Evilplaying in theaters and online prompting some interest from me I decided it was time to see the 2014 feature starring Angelina Jolie.

According to the Wikipedia entry the script for Maleficentwent through 15 drafts and in my opinion it needed 15 more.

The movie is a retelling of Sleeping Beautybut centering the story on the original’s villain, Maleficent. Beginning with a ponderous voiceover narration that suffers from all the worst aspects of prologs the film laboriously goes through the motion of establishing its central characters motivation but devoid of any real characterization. A good half of the movie is spent just establishing elements that have no emotional weight. This is made worse by sub-standard CGI that extends the ‘uncanny valley’ from characters to actual valleys, as the virtual sets never allow a full suspension of disbelief.

Perhaps most damning is that Maleficent herself is a terribly passive character. Yes they give her villainy a reason but she has no goals in the film, there is nothing that she is desperate to achieve and no consequence of failure. By the time the film rolled into its third act I found it impossible to care about the curse, the fairies, or anything at all taking place on the screen. And rather than give us an evil character with understandable motivations and goal Maleficentends with redemption making the transition to the sequel problematic. As with Alien 3you can only get to the sequel by insisting that anyone who did invested emotionally with the previous story were suckers. A sequel should never put the audience in the position of having to discard what they cared for in the previous installments.

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Movie Review: Aladdin (2019)

Disney continues their adaptations of classic animated feature into live actions productions with Aladdin from 1992 now exploding across silver screen as a ‘bollywood’ inspired musical staring Will Smith and a cast of new faces. I am a major fan of the original animated Aladdin, I was blown away in the theater, grabbed the soundtrack at once, added to that with an album from Lea Salonga who provided Princess Jasmine’s singing voice, and of course the DVD. To give the 2019 feature a fair shake I did my best to set aside expectation and memories, judging the film on its own merits but the very nature of the movie and its production history makes that nearly impossible.

Perhaps the most famous stand out element of Aladdin 1992 is Robin Williams’ memorable vocal performance as the fantastic Genie but critical to that character and its integration is that fact that writers from the very start envision Williams performing the part and when he signed to do that molded more of the script as well as allowing serious latitude in Williams famous propensity for going off-script, something that became a seri9ous challenge for the animators. The match of concept to performer is a large part of the alchemy of film production. Will Smith in Aladdin 2019 has been hampered by the fact that not only will his performance be compared to Williams but that too much of the original Genie character remains in the script, forcing Smith to perform a character that was designed for a singular performer. At times this is a great weight holding back Smith from his own winning charm and screen charisma and at other points in the film he’s given a character more tuned to his performance and there he soars but the see-sawing between the two styles hurts the overall production and is unfair the Smith.

Sadly the other weight dragging down this movie is Mena Massoud as titular character Aladdin. let me clear it is not because Massoud is a bad actor or even a bad singer, were he paired with actors and singer of a comparable quality I doubt I would have seen him as a fault in this movie but caught between Will Smith and Naomi Scott his performance suffers. Naomi Scott is the break out actor of this movie. She is compelling, convincing, and her vocal talents as a singer are on a par with Lea Salonga’s iconic and mesmerizing voice. She commands the scenes she appears in, delivers dialog that at time is written flat with a realized character’s voice, and project a charisma that filled the theater, compared to her quite a few actors would have been found wanting.

Aside from those hard to ignore elements Aladdin 2019 over all is a decent film. Not one that I loved but certainly an enjoyable evening at the movies. The major beats and story elements remain unchanged, though a few have been given a twist. Jasmine now instead of existing solely as a prize has her own goals and gifts beyond wanting select her own husband and the reason for her isolation in the palace is more fully developed as part of her back-story. Jafar is given a little more to want but frankly it wasn’t quit enough and I think another writing pass on this character, just a few lines here and there, would have done wonders for fleshing him out. The CGI animation is spot on and the CGI tiger and monkey are amazing. A new subplot has been added concerning the new character of Dalia, Jasmine’s hand maiden, but essentially this is the same story but expanded and now with impressive effects. Aladdin  2019 is worth seeing at least once but it is unlikely to find a home in my video library.

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The Obligatory Daenerys Targaryen Post

Naturally no one who cares about spoilers and who has not seen Season 8 Episode 5 should read this post.

 

I am of two minds about the events of The Bells  where Daenerys gives her rage and anger full reign destroying most of King’s Landing with dragon fire. (Along with the occasional sympatric explosion her father’s still existent stores of Wildfire cached around the city.) Quite a few fans are upset about this ‘turn’ where a character that

Photo Credit: HBO

they had looked upon as a hero, as a symbol of someone over coming tremendous adversity to achieve greatness suddenly is seen as monstrous, petty, and cruel. However to me this has been a moment of revelation where freed from the constraints of others Daenerys exhibits her true character, a character that is monstrous, petty, and cruel, a character that has been evident from the beginning of the series if you cared to pay attention.

When Daenerys was a pawn in her older brother’s schemes to regain the Iron Throne of Westeros, she showed no ambition for herself, accept that Viserys as the older and male heir had the legitimate claim to be the sovereign. However immediately upon Viserys’ brutal murder at her husband’s hands, a death she shed no tears at her lack of sorrow accepted because of Viserys’ own cruelty and stupidity, she begins asserting her claim as Queen of Westeros and attempts, repeatedly, to get his Dothraki husband Drogo to invade and conquer the seven kingdoms so she can take what is hers. At no point is she tempted to remain the Khalessi to a powerful Khal, to live within this new community with the love she has discovered, all that is to be tossed aside and used to achieve her desire of power and title based solely upon her name. Long before she claimed ‘Breaker of Chains’ she sought to establish herself as an absolute monarch. Daenerys’ lust for power has always been present.

For years Daenerys fought to claim her throne, suffering bitter losses including her husband Drogo, and repeated betrayals by those she trusted. It is important to note that at nearly every turn when faced with an enemy, traitor, or someone unwilling to accept her unquestionable authority, and with the power to inflict punishment upon them, Daenerys has chosen the cruelest methods available as punishment, and that method was often fire. Now my point here is not that Daenerys should have ‘turned the other cheek’ or otherwise forgiven those that robbed her of children, subjected her husband to a living death, stolen her dragons, sought to enslave her, or refused to bend the knee. Westeros is a brutal land and death to your enemies is a norm, it is the manner of those deaths that is the heart of her character. Burned alive upon funereal pyres or from the mouths of dragon are for the vast majority of people the most horrific death imaginable. Also note how throughout the series fire is a motif that is repeated and the use of fire by characters such as Daenerys father the ‘mad King’ burning suspected enemies alive in the throne room or seeking to burn all of King’s Landing, Gregor Clegane, burning and scaring his little brother Sandor for playing with his toys, or Melisandre, the Red Priestess, who burns children alive as sacrifices to her god. All character we are expected to consider as evil and yet when it come to Daenerys this propensity for execution by flame is excused.

It is a tribute to the writing and to Emile Clarke performance that we empathize with Daenerys so completely through the years that her repeated acts of cruelty as dismissed with the simple thought ‘They Deserved It.’ Of course that is the crux of the matter, with all these other character, their use of fire and flame is seen as horrific acts, at best misguided as they obsessively chased goals that they have deemed sufficient to justify these barbarous actions, but with Daenerys we are in her point of view, not watching horrified from some other character. It is no surprise at all that Daenerys, stripped of her trusted advisors, thwarted in her life’s consuming goal, and crushed by the twin revelation that the man she loves can’t love her in return and like Viserys has the more legitimate claim on her treasured prized, lashes out, giving in to her well shown nature of punishing with fire and blood. Her slaughter of innocents at King’s Landing is no ‘turn’ it is the culmination of years of character and if you loved Daenerys as she crucified hundred perhaps it would be best to look and understand how easily we are lead astray from what we consider good and just. The same is true for Daenerys lust for power. Never has she offered compromise, she had been pleaded and wheedled into it from time to time but she offers nothing to others except her terms. The North cannot be allowed to be free, even if such freedom would acquire her allied against her war with the Lannisters. Daenerys gives up nothing and makes enemies where should win friends because it is her destiny by birthright alone to the absolute monarch of all seven kingdoms. Despite he constant tirades against tyranny she is blind to the fact that she herself is a tyrant. The Bellsis the logical culmination of Daenerys’ choices and personality.

I said I was of two minds about this episode and here’s my other mind.

While the conclusion of her arc is on point the execution is flawed. Bereft of GRRM’s books as guidance the shows writers have fallen back in tricks, tropes, plot driven coincidences, and hand waving more typical of television scripts. Vital information is withheld to create ‘surprises’ that are in actuality lies to the audience, time is compressed in the sake of speed versus more credible world building, and characters have lost all subtlety and this episode parades these flaws, undermining the powerful commentary of the slippery nature of righteousness into evil that Daenerys’ arc has provided.

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The Last Ringbearer – Final Thoughts

Yesterday I finished the massive apocryphal novel The Last Ringbearer  which retells the War of the Ring with the premise that everything you learned from The Lord of the Rings  is  the victor’s propaganda.

Man, I really enjoyed this book!

To the terror of many a Tolkien purist I enjoyed this book much more than I enjoyed The Lord of the Rings.While to book is not without it’s flaws, towards the middle the plot becomes quite tangled with a vast cast of characters working on wildly different agenda. In its themes, the love of reason and science over magi and superstition, it’s commitment to competence over heredity and lineage, and it’s steadfastness to the reality that wars make monsters of us all, this tale spoke to me and many of my core philosophies. Written by Kirill Eskov a Russian scientist who started with his dissatisfaction at Tolkien’s geography and geology he explored his own world building albeit via revisionist version of Tolkien’s grand construction. I found Eskov’s interpretation of the likely type of interaction between immortal Elves and mortal men much more ‘realistic’ than Tolkien’s smug and wise benefactors. It was quite amusing that in many ways the author painted the Elves, their methods, and their motives much like the Communists that rule the USSR.

Depending on how deeply beloved The Lord of the Rings  is to you will be the principal factor in how much you may enjoy this novel. There are those, and I an no way disparage these people, who adore tales of the ‘chosen ones’ like Aragorn who is who is destined to be out unquestioned ruler by right of birth, or who despise the reveal of Rey’s parentage in The Last Jedi  because she comes from no noble bloodline but I find such ideology    at odds with my passion for equality and that brings The Last Ringbearermuch more inline with my commitment that all persons can be great or greatly evil and that the heroes and villains lie within us all.

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