Film Review: Where The Wild Things Are

Before going into this movie I really didn’t know what to expect; as a child I was never exposed to the book, and never had any casual run-ins with it as I got older. So when I found out they were making a movie of it, I didn’t really pay much attention to it.
However, that all changed when the release date for the movie grew close, and it started to garner a lot of good press. Needless to say, I went into this movie with a certain sense of intrigue – and rightfully so; this movie had me completely captivated from the very beginning. Director Spike Jonze has done a great job of adapting what is essentially a fairly simple coming-of-age children’s book into a full-length movie, and Where The Wild Things Are is clearly far more than just a kids movie.

Comic Review: Batman – Hush

Batman: Hush is the second Batman comic I’ve ever read, the first being Batman: The Dark Knight Returns. I’ve had a hard time getting into superhero comics, especially the tried-and-true old timers like Batman and Superman – I just feel like I know their stories already. Batman: Hush is unique in that it brings together just about every Batman villain for a romp through Gotham, while adding a new villain, Hush, who is unique to this 12-issue story arc.

Jeph Loeb (who wrote another lauded Batman story arc, The Long Halloween, which is next on my reading list) gives us a fitting tone for this series – at its heart it is a detective story, with everything unfolding in the last couple issues. The whole thing had me guessing (granted, I’m not the most informed comic reader, so I was still grasping at a lot of plot elements and characters), although I was disappointed with the very end. Altogether, though, it’s the best DC comic I’ve read that’s come out in the past decade (it ran from 2002-2003), and definitely worth flipping through.

TL;DR – Two Great Tastes That Taste Great Together

For a very short time I worked in a white tablecloth restaurant that could be called “fine dining”. It was known for its high quality dry-aged beef and took special pride in the wine pairings. For anyone who’s not familiar with it, the goal of pairing is to find the right wine for the right steak. E.g.– Cabernet Sauvignon ages well in oak and often has a sweet, smokey taste. This flavor goes perfectly with red meat but not so much with poultry of fish (which are usually paired with a white wine).

Why is this important? The idea of pairing is that by combining two ingredients the attributes of each will compliment the other and turn a plate of food in to a one of a king meal. Let’s see how this applies to video games.

A few months back I read The Road by Cormac McCarthy. At about that same time I also dove back in to the Capital Wastes with the new DLC for Fallout 3. I was halfway through this bleak, depressing book when I loaded up my old save and– The Pitt never looked so full of despair. It was like I’d been playing the game with blinders on up until that point. As much as I love playing Fallout, my mind can drift when I play it (specially during the long treks to those un-quicktravelable locations). At the same time, whenever I let my mind wander – in traffic, at work – it was always The Road that I thought about.

We’ve all read a sad story, or a tense chapter and felt affected after we put the book down– it’s the same as playing too much Tetris and seeing falling blocks everywhere. Perfect example; pull an all-nighter with Left 4 Dead, then read some of World War Z and tell me if the next day you don’t absent-mindedly examine your workplace for prospective safe houses. A good book will refuse to let you keep your mind off the story after you close the cover, and a good game will refuse to let you take your eyes off the screen while you play it. The Road had put me in the headspace of characters in a post-apocalyptic world. By doing that it gave more of an impact to playing Fallout. I guess I started taking the game a little more seriously.

After that I turned the difficulty up a little to make it feel like there was more risk to my actions. I started playing it smarter, like the Father character in the Road. I checked 360 degrees every few paces conserving as much ammunition as I could and bypassing every enemy that didn’t detect me. Instead of seeing Fallout from the perspective  of “I can do anything to anyone and just reload the game”, I saw it closer to “anything can happen to me, I should be careful”.

Comic Review: Y – The Last Man

I’ve spent the past couple weeks reading the entire Y: The Last Man graphic novel series. And that isn’t a casual reading adventure, friends, the series consists of 60 comic books.

The story follows a poor, sorry sap named Yorick that happens to be the only male survivor of a strange plague that kills every male of every species on the planet. And although you’d think that would be heaven on Earth for one lucky guy, things don’t turn out that way. The series follows poor Yorick as he travels around the world (over the course of years, mind you, since most pilots were men) trying to reunite with his girlfriend and also try and get some answers along the way.

I wasn’t fond of Yorick at the beginning of the comic, because he was your typical whiny, comic-book reading cliche. But by the end of the series, the character (or the writer) grew up a bit and made him a somewhat interesting and jaded guy. And because the series takes so long to read, I like that it spreads itself out over the course of about 4 years, because you really feel like you’ve grown up with the characters after a while.

If you’re looking for a self-contained and complete storyline and you’ve got some time in your hands, I recommend sinking your teeth into this series. It has some cheesy moments (sheesh, just because you can cuss under the Vertigo imprint doesn’t mean you have to all the time), but worth it in the long run.

iPhone App Review: ComicZeal

I’ve recently started reading comic books – I like the art and the fact that they’re quick and easy to read – but one thing that’s stopping me from getting more into them is their price. I could go broke in one hot minute, and that’s just by buying the collections/trade paperbacks.

Enter ComicZeal, a comic book reader app for the iPhone. It costs $3, but allows you to load any comics you have (.cbr files are the most common) as well as download a butt-ton of old, Golden Age comics. It couldn’t be simpler: you download a free program called ComicZeal Sync onto your computer, drag your .cbr files into the program (sorting and tagging them as you please), and then sync it with your iPhone through the ComicZeal app (wirelessly!). The app itself lets you sort and group your comics in any way you please, making navigation a breeze. It has all the features you’d expect from an eBook reader, like pinch zooming, swiping to the next page, saving your spot, etc.

I’ve already loaded dozens of comics onto my phone. It’s pretty awesome. You can download it here.

Book(s) Review: His Dark Materials Trilogy

Last year, I found myself enjoying The Golden Compass movie, more than I expected to. The film is based on the first of a trilogy of books called His Dark Materials; and considering the fact that the movie is the second biggest domestic box office bomb in history (#1 is Alexander), I figured the other two films will never get made and my only means of finishing the story would be through the books they’re based on.

I started right in on the second book, and I feel like I didn’t miss much by skipping the first one. The story gets much wider in scope right from the beginning of the second book, culminating in an epic tale that still remains focused on the little guys. One thing I like about this series is that it’s a meat-and-potatoes affair; there isn’t a lot of meandering for the sake of elongating the story. Every twist and turn seems logical and necessary. Although the intended readership of this series is definitely young (you can find the books in “young adult” sections of bookstores), its content is surprisingly deep and complicated. Most of it is centered on Catholicism and breaking down the early stories of the Bible. The story itself is actually a retelling and inversion of Milton’s Paradise Lost. It’s some heavy stuff, and it left me thinking about it for a few days after finishing the series. It definitely has an anti-religion take on life, which was thrilling for me to see something different than the typically-conservative tone of most books aimed at younger audiences.

If you’re willing to jump into some easy-to-read books that are akin to the Chronicles of Narnia or A Wrinkle in Time series, this is right up your alley. Personally, I plan on keeping these books on my shelves for my son to discover 10-12 years from now.

A Quick Note About The Wanted Comic Book

Tyler did a thorough, cussword-laden review of the Wanted comic, movie, and video game so I don’t want to step on his toes, but I wanted (pun totally intended) to sound off a bit on it, too.

I read it a few days ago (right after Kingdom Come), and it’s definitely a quick read, like Tyler asserted. But he also asserted that the movie was bad by comparison, and I have to somewhat politely disagree. I really enjoyed the movie, because I liked the flawed and hesitant anti-hero main character, the almost-too-gradual build up of his self-confidence, the betrayals, and the movie’s constant conflict with morality and the definition of “good”. And the special effects were pretty good too, if not a little generic.

The Wanted comic has a great premise – an underground “fraternity” of supervillains that run the world in a behind-the-scenes manner – but its execution is pretty shallow and predictable. Granted, I don’t know much about comics and any precedences that this one follows, but I felt like this graphic novel failed to truly define who Wesley Gibson is. I thought the film did a much better job of expressing the unseen talent within himself and his struggle to identify, accept, and run with it. Instead, we get a few panels describing him running amok and doing senseless violence, and it ultimately serves as a distraction from really getting to the heart of our main characters. I’m all for nihilism and destruction, but it never felt like it had a sense of meaning to it. A good comic, just like a good anything, doesn’t need to have a whole lot of action or events; what it needs is an honest and understandable portrayal of its characters and the circumstances they live through. Oh and Wesley Gibson in the comics looks a lot like Eminem, which is very distracting and annoying.

I guess when it comes down to it, there’s no comparing the movie and the comic. Aside from the opening sequence and similar characters, they’re distant cousins at best. I liked them both for their own reasons, but if I had to choose between reading the comic again or watching the film, I’d pick door number two.

Comic Review: Kingdom Come

None of us here at Threevue HQ are the most knowledgeable comic book readers, and I’m probably the least educated of the three of us in this area. That being said, I’ve had a hankering for a good graphic novel for a while (chock that up to the fact that the only two I’ve read – The Ultimates and Watchmen – were great), and I thought my upcoming flight to Hawaii was an ideal comic-reading opportunity. So I took the advice of a friend and bought his favorite comic of all time: Kingdom Come.

I don’t know much about comic book authors, but the guy who drew this series (Alex Ross) did an awesome job. The whole thing is done with paint, and some of the panels are just plain breathtaking. It’s so good that the story itself loses its importance by comparison; hell, it could have been the Alf storyline, for all I cared. Luckily, the plot is pretty intriguing as well.

This DC-Universe comic is set a generation in the future, where Superman has gone into seclusion and the world is being threatened by superheroes who have no regard for civility and a common good – they just like to beat each other up. From there, we see what all the now-old-school metahumans have been up to and what they plan on doing to straighten these young whippersnappers up.

What I like about this story is that it remains focused on the old has-been superheroes and not this new generation. Much like in Watchmen, the idea of aging and becoming obsolete work well here, although there’s still a lot of magic/superhero cosmic stuff in Kingdom Come and it doesn’t quite hit home as much as seeing real human beings deal with their mortality.

My biggest gripe about the comic is that there is a lot of assumed knowledge that comes into play, and for your average Joe it gets a little confusing. For instance, apparently there have been several Robins. Who knew.

Kingdom Come‘s artwork is worth the price of admission alone, but thankfully its story is a keeper, too. If you’re okay with not understanding every nuance in every panel because of all its self-referencing, there is no reason you won’t enjoy this comic.

I Like The Name “The Misplaced Logo” A Little More

Apparently, books still come in pa-per form. Who knew? Not me. That’s why I was so surprised to see that Dan Brown’s next loosely historical clue-’em-up, and follow up to The Da Vinci Code, The Lost Symbol, is coming out on September 15th in such an archaic, tangible form.

I, for one, really liked TDVC, as well as Angels & Demons, and can’t wait for the audiobook to come out so I can get it from the internet, for a bad movie to be made from it and get it from the internet, to just read the damned book. You can pre-order it on Amazon now and save yourself about $20.

iPhone eBook Apps Roundup: eReader, Stanza and Classics

When you think of the iPhone, you probably think of lots of things: calling people, sending text messages, listening to music, playing games, downloading apps, and surfing the internet for porn sports scores. Right? Something that seems a little counter-progressive is the growing list of eBook apps. Three such apps are eReader, Stanza and Classics, and they’re getting the Threevue review/comparison treatment.

eReader is a free app, and the first eBook app that I downloaded when I got my iPhone last year. It works in sync with eReader.com. The problem is, you have to set up an account with the website and add each book to your collection before syncing with your iPhone. They have about 20 free ebooks to choose from, with your standard classics like The Count of Monte Cristo and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. The rest of the books you have to pay for. The app sports all kinds of cool features like bookmarking and the ability to switch between a white/black screen. Unfortunately, the extra step to adding books to your profile makes this app a little too much work.

Stanza, on the other hand, lets you add books right from the app itself, from several different collections. All in all, one shopping spree netted me over 75 free books, ranging from Dostoevsky to Vonnegut. In some collections you can search by author while shopping which is pretty awesome. This app features thumbnails, cover flow browsing, local network book sharing, font variety, and white/black screen swapping.

Classics is a $.99 app that comes pre-loaded with about 20 classic novels. The books are basically the same standard classics that you can find on eReader without having to set up an account or do any real work at all. Problem is, this convenience will set you back a whole dollar. The app doesn’t really have any features other than bookmarking.

In conclusion, I would say that Stanza is the way to go. I hadn’t tried it out until today and I am now planning on deleting the other two from my iPhone. Get!

Review: Wanted (Game, Movie and Comic)

So first there was the Wanted Comic penned by the awesome Mark Millar (Remember Superman: Red Son?), then Hollywood’s all like “We need moar coke! Let’s rape another artist’s life’s work!” and boom… Wanted the movie starring Angelina “I don’t make facial expressions” Jolie and James “I was actually pretty good in Atonement” McAvoy which just got turned in to the game Wanted:Weapons of Fate.

Here is all the stuff that you already know, they keep most of this in the movie too: Lifelong pushover Wesley Gibson lives a life of a doormat. Terrible Boss, cheating girlfriend, hypochondria and just all around, general pussification. Until he is informed that his absentee father was actually a world class assassin working in league with the unknown collective of Uber-villains that rule the world behind the scenery of modern life.

Read the Comic first! You can most likely get it for free, it only takes and hour to read and you will get a lot more out of it than the movie.

Everything is different when Wesley is asked to join the group as a super evil member of the organization. Not just kinda evil like in the movie. He full on kills random, innocent people every day. Strictly for the fun of it. He rapes A-list celebrities and murders entire police stations just because he’s had a tough day at the office. There is absolutely no moral ambiguity in this comic. The protagonist is a fucked up piece of work. Where the movie explains the cruelty it uses the maxim “Kill one to save 1000″, the book says “I eat your motherfucking motto for breakfast”.

It’s a little bit Fight Club, a pinch of Watchmen and a touch of Assassin’s Creed.

As for the game, it finishes what the movie does by disregarding most everything from the comic; what’s left is a fairly generic action shooter with a bullet curving mechanic (that crap’s not even in the comic, btw) which is pretty much the only thing that makes it different from the rest.

The story of Wanted is why it was any sort of success, the movie handily got rid of the one thing that made it interesting and replaced it with cars doing backflips and the game does pretty much the same thing.

Great, now we’re all up to date. Here’s my review:

Comic: Good, Game: Okay, Movie: Bad

Free iPhone App Review: Atomic Robo

With lots of spare time in the hospital (hey, I’m not the one doing all the breastfeeding) I’ve had some time to play around in the iPhone App Store. I found a free comic book app called Atomic Robo, which is the first of a six-series storyline.

The story so far is simple but nicely drawn, and it’s pretty sweet to be able to swipe through a brightly lit comic book on the go. And the price tag sure doesn’t hurt, either.

Let’s Destroy Metal Gear!

I recently found hiimdaisy’s livejournal which basically hosts a bunch of Metal Gear Solid recaps/comics that are pretty funny. She’s finished parts one and two and he’s currently working on Metal Gear Solid 3:

“Let’s Destroy Metal Gear!” (Parts One / Two / Three / Four)

“Let’s Destroy Metal Gear Again!” (Parts One / Two / Three / Four)

Real Ultimate Power

I am a member of Shelfari (here’s my profile page) which basically lets you make an online library of the books you’ve read. I also use GoodReads, which I happen to like better because it seems to update more quickly. I don’t actually maintain the library that well, but I can export my Delicious Library and that’s how I get my book profiles online without doing any actual work.

BUT THAT’S NOT WHAT THIS POST IS ABOUT!!!

I got a Shelfari friend request (with a nice personal message to boot) from the author of Real Ultimate Power. You know, the ninja guy, Robert Hamburger. I guess he also wrote a book called GHOSTS/ALIENS, too:

I took a minute and read through realultimatepower.net again, it’s still as funny as when I first read it five years ago.

Book Review: The Road by Cormac McCarthy

Cormac McCarthy is one of my favorite authors – his Border trilogy is just about awesome. I bought No Country For Old Men well before the movie came out, but never found the time to crack it open. After watching the very excellent film, I decided to make a better effort to read any book by my favorite authors before seeing it adapted into a movie. Fast forward a bit, and Cormac McCarthy’s The Road is set to be released as a film next year, which sped up its place in my reading queue significantly.

Don’t be fooled by the Oprah’s Book Club selection badge on the cover, this is pure McCarthy. Which means it’s dirty, stark, vast and beautiful. The novel follows a man and his son in a post-apocalyptic wasteland, surviving by any means possible. It’s a quick read (you can probably knock it out in about 4 hours), and worth every second of it.