Essays, Not Rants 018: Legend’s End This weekend the conclusion to Christopher Nolan’s epic Dark Knight Trilogy was released. His was a new Batman, one that took place within the confines of our world rather than some dark/campy alternate. Nolan sought to not only retell the Batman story, but to elevate it from just a story to a legend. In telling the story of how man became myth, Nolan took each aspect of Bruce Wayne’s journey and centered a movie around it: overcoming fear, resisting evil,
Essays, Not Rants! 017: Worlds Need Rules I like writing. No, not just my weekly essay (which is certainly not a rant), but fiction. Sometimes I write stuff grounded firmly in this world, but I really enjoy building worlds of fantasy or science fiction. I’ve got a science fiction side project I like to fiddle with here and there and I run a fantasy RPG with some friends. For both of these I’ve made intricate worlds with some semblance of a history and culture. But just as important as the sett
So I saw The Dark Knight Rises at the midnight showing last night (er, this morning?). Went with some friends and though we weren't quite as elaborate as The Avengers, we just dressed to the nines like rich Gothamites. Though that would probably make me the guy that Batman forcibly extradited from Hong Kong in The Dark Knight...and then gets burnt alive on a pile of money... Ah well. How was it? Dude. Just dude. This is how you end a trilogy. Not really gonna say much else about it, haha
Two years ago yesterday I was told I had a very potentially fatal heat condition. Several doctors later and here I am. I’ve got a bar in my chest and my heart seems to be fine. Yes, like Iron Man. So here's to two years of amazing grace. Your move, heart disease.
Essays, Not Rants! 016: Thrilling Heroics Every boy has his favorite superhero. Doesn’t matter if they’ve never read a comic; pop cultural osmosis will take care of that. Growing up, my favorites were Batman and Iron Man. My brother was a Spider-Man fan. I’ve got a buddy who loved Green Lantern and another who liked Robin. But why is it that we love heroes (super or not)? Whether they’re named Tony Stark, Luke Skywalker, Frodo Baggins, Buffy Summers, or Atticus Finch, we have our heroes. But w
I've loved Marc Webb ever since I saw (500) Days of Summer three years ago (and subconciously since I saw his video for Dare You To Move). I really liked Andrew Garfield in The Social Network and even more after Never Let Me Go. And, like most every other boy on the planet, I grew up with a knowledge of the Spider-Man mythos. Simply put, The Amazing Spider-Man was very amazing. The focus was not on Spider-Man, but rather on Peter Parker. You got to know the kid, understand who he was and w
Essays, Not Rants! 015: Abed, I Know What We're Gonna Do Today! My favorite show this past season aired on Thursdays at 8pm on NBC. This was, of course, Community. It also happens to be one of my favorite shows of all time (up there with Firefly, Lost, and Chuck). It’s smart, excellently written, and consistently hilarious. I’m not sure when my favorite cartoon airs. I know it’s on Disney Channel, but I just watch it on Netflix. Phineas and Ferb, my favorite cartoon, is smart, excellently writ
Essays, Not Rants! 014: Why Science Fiction Science Fiction is a setting (not a genre) that frequently gets written off and ignored because it’s deemed inept to deal with more serious topics. But science fiction has leave to deal with heavy subjects in a way ‘regular’ fiction only wishes it could. Science fiction - good science fiction - has and will always be about people. The world will change, but people will always stay the same. People will always want to control, people will always wan
Essays, Not Rants! 013: The Prequels Aren’t So Bad One of the most controversial series of films released within the past twenty years is the Star Wars Prequel Trilogy. In all seriousness, the Star Wars prequels do get a lot of flak for not living up to the precedence of the Holy Trilogy. But I'm here to say they're not the travesty of film that a lot of us make them out to be. By no means am I saying they're flawless. I grew up with Star Wars and can't recall a time in my life where I didn
Essays, Not Rants! 012: Unawarded Merit I love The Avengers. I’ve seen it five times (no regrets) and it’s probably my favorite movie in the last few years. If you follow this blog you’ve heard over and over again why I love it (great script, excellent direction, etc). The Avengers is a movie that shows how good not only a superhero movie can be, but a summer blockbuster. Yet for all that it won’t get an Oscar or any serious recognition. Okay, so it may get an Oscar for Sound Editing or Visu
Essays, Not Rants! 011: What Makes A Good Sequel Sometimes, it feels like everything’s a sequel. Last year we got no less than twenty-eight sequels. In one year. Heck, all but one of 2011‘s top ten blockbusters (that one is Smurfs, but we won’t talk about that) were sequels. Well, this veritable deluge of sequels wouldn’t be that bad if it weren’t for the fact that so many sequels flat out suck. The mentality behind so many sequels seems to be something like “hey, that worked so well the fir
Essays, Not Rants! 010: On A High Note There’s this quote I read once but for the life of me cannot find (no, not even on the legendary internet). Well, starting an essay with a quote is pretty trite and I think I’ve averted that, so there. Anyway, CS Lewis was once asked why he chose to end The Chronicles of Narnia after ‘only’ seven books. He essentially said that it was better to end it when people wanted more than to end it when people were tired of it. Y’know, end on a high note (title
Essays, Not Rants! 009: Doth Mother Know You Weareth Her Drapes? Yes, another entry about The Avengers. I’m fully aware it came out two weeks ago and I should probably stop going to watch it every so often, but, well, no. The movie is, simply put, great. It sets a new standard for comic book/superhero movies and, more than that, proves that a movie of this nature can be of the same caliber and quality of those dainty arthouse dramas. ‘cause yes, the script is exceptional, acting top notch, and
I'm gonna be upfront with all of you: my mom is way cooler than yours. I'm not going to detail history (years in India, on a ship, etc) or the fact that she's someone I can have long Skype calls with. Nah, instead I'm gonna do a quote compilation. I'm fully aware this puts me in a fairly dorkish category. But honestly, I don't mind. =P
Essays, Not Rants! 008: The Artificial Family I grew up on a ship. Well, not really grew up exactly, more spent four very key years of my youth onboard a ship. It’s a long story. The thing about living on a ship, though, was that with only two hundred people on board it was a small community. Smaller still were the number of kids on board. I’m not kidding when I say there were a handful. Out of necessity we became more of a family than a group of friends. Life’s changed and gone on, but even t
As promised, here are a few more shots from the midnight showing. Looking important Pepper helping adjust the repulsor arm Just plain cool So hard to resist
Essays, Not Rants! 007: Perilous Tension Tension tends to drive a story forward. Well, tension and characters. But this is about tension (which relates to characters). Anyway, one source of tension, especially in movies that can be classified as action and adventure, is peril. Everybody loves peril. We see our characters and we ask ourselves “dude, what happens next?” And that, dear reader, is an excellent question. See, depending on your personal literary philosophy it’s wondering either
Essays, Not Rants! 006: Why The Avengers Will Be Awesome Note: I know I wrote something like this a few weeks ago. Consider this a more in depth take on that. In a little less than a week, a movie I’ve been waiting a long time for will finally be released. No, not The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (though that looks like fun), but The Avengers. Understand, I’ve been waiting for this movie since the stinger attached to Iron Man four years ago. I saw each of the ‘prior’ movies (except The Incredi
