Writing Update: Nostalgic Trends (Including ReCore!)

Well well, it's been a little longer than I'd like here on the blog, but I suppose that's how it is when you start a full time job. Thankfully, I haven't stopped writing altogether, and here's a selection of what I've posted around the web.

From Rare to 'ReCore': Can Xbox Attract Nintendo Fans?
This story was written before the release of ReCore but I like to think it's interesting as a history of Microsoft's efforts to create an identity that might attract old-school game fans.

Four Games That Could Make Stronger Movies Than Uncharted
Fun fact: shortly after finishing this story, the fourth entry, Monster Hunter, was confirmed to be an actual Hollywood project by Capcom. I'm still trying to campaign to write the sucker.

10 Single Player Games to Look Out For In October
October is a month so packed with games that I changed up our usual format and went with ten games instead of five.

Four Nostalgic Trends We Want To See (That Aren’t From The 90s)
Being Gen-Y, I have plenty of nostalgia for the nineties in games, but here are four trends that would be great to come back that aren't strictly about nineties nostalgia.

Writing Update: Telltale Episodic Games and Forgotten PS4 Exclusives

13 Properties We Would Like Telltale To Adapt Into Episodic Games
Here's a really fun article we put together at GoombaStomp (I wrote on Thunderbirds) about the television, movie and book properties we would like to see Telltale develop into episodic series.

Five Upcoming PS4 Exclusives You Might Have Forgotten About
Sony always seems to sign the weird and interesting platform exclusives -- whether they are actually good or not is another matter -- and some of them (like No Man's Sky) get much more press coverage than others. Here are some that haven't had as much time in the spotlight.

Mini Review: The Shadow of the Torturer (The Book of the New Sun #1)

In the past I've made no secret of my appreciation of the wilted beauty of Dark Souls: a video game portrait of high fantasy that has come to ruin; regal, majestic worlds that have met with slow, inevitable decay.

It seems grim -- to want to see magical kingdoms hurtling through their end times -- but ultimately the death of an imaginary realm fits into the greater story that we like to hear: the promise of rebirth. We like to anticipate something wonderful beyond the spectre of destruction. I will be writing more on that topic later on, but for now understand that this is the context in which I approached Gene Wolfe's The Book of the New Sun (which I discovered during my search for more fiction like Dark Souls).

Taking place on "Urth", a world under a dying sun, the series tells of Severian. He is taken in as a baby by the Guild of Torturers, in an alternative version of Buenos Aires known as Nessus. Throughout the first book, there are hints that there will be a "New Sun", signifying the end of Urth and the beginning of something else. I will leave the rest of the details of the plot, as -- much like Dark Souls -- part of the fun for many fans is figuring out what is actually going on. Reading the setup for the rest of the series spoiled me on several big plot reveals to come, and I don't wish to propagate that.

As to this book, The Shadow of the Torturer is an intriguing first step into the greater journey Severian undertakes, written in a lyrical style that is (believe me) far too difficult to replicate. Gene Wolfe must be commended for presenting just the right amount of information about the world, the events of the plot, the backstory, and even the apparent intelligence of the protagonist in tantalisingly vague terms. Each discovery only grows the mystery as you learn more about the world, with the reader's mind filling in the blanks.

Unfortunately, this vagueness also makes the book a difficult read at best. With only the promise of further ornate mystery to come, there isn't much to hook the reader except for Wolfe's style of prose. Fans of Dark Souls are probably the best prepared for this solemn doling out of story breadcrumbs, especially as the characters also act and think in a very alien manner. Readers seeking high-octane action or quality drama will be disappointed.

I enjoyed The Shadow of the Torturer as literary example of wilted beauty, and will be continuing through the series. However, I am wary that the narrative's opacity might begin to drag, because just like in movies, I come to a story for the characters and the plot, not just aesthetics and feelings.

I listened to the book on audio. The performance was good enough to elevate the book from 3 / 5 up to 4 / 5 stars.

Harmony of Heroes: The Legend of Zelda

You can download this massive album here. As it is fan work and therefore free, I have no problem recommending that you search the track names on YouTube if you can't download them.

Previous post: the Donkey Kong tracks

The Legend of Zelda series introduced me to high fantasy, steampunk, and 3D adventure games all at the same time -- so as you might guess, I have a lot to say about the music of Zelda. This had better be good!

17. High Roller's Castle (Georg-Christoph Schlee)
For me, at least, having the hiss and pop of vinyl opening this track sets a distinctive (and very good) mood. From then on we enjoy an improvisational, high-class lounge interpretation of the original Hyrule theme for piano and xylophone. Just like Sunset at Mushroom Castle, I like how this style pays homage to Nintendo's jazzy roots while also sounding rather unlike most of the video games.

18. El Pájaro es la Palabra (Laura Intravia feat. Davey Patterson)
Spanish name, snappy flamenco guitar, seductive colours? Surely this must be Gerudo Valley, right? Nope.

For the second time in a row, we hear it first through a vinyl filter (probably to establish a certain prestige or maturity) but it isn't Gerudo Valley at all, it's Dragon Roost Island!

This theme from The Wind Waker was so good that they included it without changes in Brawl. With such expectations, you expect a certain level of quality from a new version, and this track does not disappoint. Jumping from wind to strings to wind again, with plenty of scene-setting percussion (I particularly enjoy the maracas) El Pájaro es la Palabra makes you want to get up and dance, without getting too energetic and ruining the melody.

Oh and don't forget the bass guitar -- priceless.

19. Behind Pillars of Marble (Chris Hunter)
Now, the polar opposite, this epic track takes some of the series' least celebrated music (Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link is still an outlier and wasn't scored by Koji Kondo) in one of its most exciting forms (the Melee track was my first exposure to it) and plays around for over six minutes. Not much more to say except that they are fantastic melodies shown off in an excellent fashion.

20. Wind in the Sail (Soleviio)
I have to admit that, at first, I wasn't a fan of this very synthy version of The Great Sea from The Wind Waker, but it definitely grew on me. The original is a fun, adventurous piece, so the decisions to go first in a more relaxed, sparkly direction, and then secondly add in an electric guitar, are strange ones. On the whole, it works, but it isn't my favourite interpretation.

21. Mirror of Twilight (Sean Haeberman)
Another great fantasy piece, this time using the extremely fertile ground of Twilight Princess's main theme. Each component of the melodic identity in the theme is given its own style, meaning that rather than just a ride across Hyrule Field, we are treated with royalty, danger, adventure and eventually a very heroic rendition of the original Hyrule theme. It isn't perfect, but it captures the game it's referencing much better than the more experimental Wind in the Sail did.

22. Cucco Revenge Squad (Jonathan Peros)
For a track called Cucco Revenge Squad, you might be surprised to hear the harp-like-guitar sounds often associated with Lake Hylia at the start. However, very soon we get the Dark Mountain theme from A Link to the Past, combined with little filigrees that acknowledge the flamenco and country/Western feel that is always bubbling below the surface of Zelda.

I can't get enough of the Dark World music in A Link to the Past, so combining that with Westerns is a win for me.

23. Saria's Fairy-Go-Round (ZipZipper)
Most of the themes from Ocarina of Time were designed to fit together, so it's interesting to hear one performed inside the wheelhouse of another. Here we have Saria's Song, but at first you might think you're listening to the Song of Storms, given the carnival atmosphere. Your ears don't deceive you; it's just yet another ascending, three-four time melody played in a music box. I think it's pretty fun, if ultimately not as memorable as the pieces that flank it.

24. Beyond the Chasm (Erik Sceri)
With deep colours and several core themes of Zelda tossing around at the start, it's another bait-and-switch with regard to which track is being adapted here. Then, soon enough, we are offered an incredibly cinematic rendition of the Gerudo Valley theme.

Like with Dragon Roost Island, the melody is so good that any adaptation of the original needs to work hard to stand out. And this track certainly works hard -- if it weren't for the slightly awkward time signature change in the middle, I'd award this piece top marks.

My personal highlights are the jaunty, piratical strings that end the A section, the airy pipes in the B section and the subtle but strong brass around the three quarter mark.

25. Tal Tal Ranger (Mesmonium)
What if Zelda were a really, really good Sonic level? Or perhaps this is just what you hear when you're at the Hyrule racetrack. No matter, this track is over in a flash but it leaves a big impression as an argument for why adapting 8-bit music can absolutely rock (or jive, or roll).

26. Tune of Tempests (Stephan Wells feat. Christopher Woo)
Queen Rutela's theme, itself an adaptation of the Serenade of Water, sets a melancholy stage for what is ultimately more action packed than you might expect. It's like something Andrew Lloyd Webber might write for A Midsummer Night's Dream, if it was also an action movie.

Um ... can someone please make that, like, now?

27. Mechanical Steed (Steampianist)
I was always going to be harsh on a track that starts with what might be my favourite Zelda piece ever, the Morricone-inspired The Hidden Village, so let's start with the positives.

The steampunk/weird-West angle works, mostly, since Zelda has always been a little off-kilter, and I always wished that they used trains in a core series title (rather than just Spirit Tracks). I love that the melody itself still gets to shine, and the twangy guitar walks the line of serious and silly quite well.

However -- in the middle section this track takes a left-turn into Kookyville with a theme that I can't place my finger on. It's not poorly done, it just misses the point of the original in my opinion. I don't expect a cool gunslingin' adventure to suddenly turn into vaudeville, but that's kind of what it feels like.

Still, the arranger Steampianist is very talented and clearly had a lot of fun putting this track together, so I'm glad it exists -- it's just like Wind in the Sail, where the style just doesn't do it for me.

28. Dark Horizons (Sam Dillard)
A great way to end the Zelda tracks, with the groundbreaking and epic Dark World theme from A Link to the Past, and a liberal sprinkling of Dark Mountain too. The vocals are a perfect addition, with the other instruments doing their best to elevate what is already excellent material.


The Zelda tracks of Harmony of Heroes are so much fun, whether you're a fan picking up references or just want to listen to some great fan music. Despite some tonal divergences, they do a good job of celebrating the source, as well as being a credit to the musicians who took on such tough work as re-arranging beloved tunes. But there's no stopping, because next time we have a less-well-known series, but with just as beloved music, Metroid.

I can't wait.

Writing Update: Games of August and Games Ignored At E3

Single Player Games in August
Here are five interesting entries into the early beginning of the Season of Too Many Games. There are so many in August in fact, that I had to name some more at the bottom.

Games Ignored at E3 That Shouldn't Have Been
What it sounds like: these are the titles that were showcased at E3 but still managed to slip under the radar. By no means an exhaustive list, there are plenty more where these came from.

Review: Warcraft

That's more like it!

Each year it's the same story: there are genre movies I like, genre movies I hate, and several that I thought I would enjoy but instead just end up being disappointed. And rather than the bad movies, the third category is the worst because articulating why something is disappointing to fans of a franchise is maddeningly difficult.

Movies like Days of Future Past, or the empty Oblivion, or even the recent Hobbit films, mostly enjoyed by my peers but relatively unimpressive are likely to make me question whether I really do enjoy movies, or if I'm just a grumpy, critical curmudgeon.

However, there is a fourth, much rarer type of movie that comes out every now and again that solves this problem. They can remind me why I love movies so much in the first place.

2016 has been unusually rich in this prize category: 10 Cloverfield Lane and April being two wonderful films, though entirely different. Now I can add Warcraft to that list.

Make no mistake: Warcraft is nowhere near to the level of quality that the movies above have reached. Like the similarly messy Prometheus, this is a franchise-starter that's filled to the brim with ideas but chopped up mercilessly to achieve an under-2-and-a-half-hours running time. By the end of the first hour, all of the little time-saving cuts add up, resulting in an unfortunate feeling of story whiplash.

If you can get over the pacing, Warcraft is creative, thrilling and thoroughly enjoyable, because, thankfully, the characters are nowhere near as doofy and lifeless as the cast of Prometheus. But before I dive into why Warcraft was so pleasing, let's take a look at the basic premise.

Based on the first game in the long running series, 1996 strategy title Warcraft: Orcs & Humans, the film portrays first contact between (you guessed it) Orcs and Humans. I have never played the games, but I gather that the story was originally a fairly basic "good guys, bad guys" affair -- one that Duncan Jones has expanded and re-interpreted into something less black-and-white.

Echoing 2014's Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, the true battle is against conflict itself, with the orc protagonist Durotan (Toby Kebbell, playing the inverse of his role in Apes) and human protagonist Lothar (Travis Fimmel, trying his hardest to be Viggo Mortensen) struggling to end the war before it begins. As you may have guessed, they might not be entirely successful in a series with "war" in the title.

So if you couldn't tell from my tone at the start, I really liked Warcraft and was willing to accept some of its flaws. There are a few that are unforgivable though: Lothar's son Callan is a characterless non-entity, robbing the human side's fatherhood story of any gravitas. Additionally, the greater cast is sorely lacking in age diversity: it seems like everyone on Azeroth was born within five years of one another (perhaps in an effort to represent the median age of World of Warcraft players?).

Still, while the human side has its complaints, it isn't enough to drag down the excellent orc story. The movie's high quality performance-capture animation brings to life creatures never before seen in "live-action" and, unusually for such depictions, I didn't immediately wish it was done with puppetry instead.

Toby Kebbell's Durotan is brilliantly portrayed: emotionally affecting and given some of the best dialogue in the film as he stands amid the sadly misled Orc Horde. The Horde is misled by the orc shaman Gul'dan, who has been twisted by evil "Fel Magic". As great a hero Durotan is, Gul'dan is a thoroughly terrifying villain, standing out in an otherwise brightly coloured fantasy film.

I have to mention the palette: even when it comes to the villains, it's much grander than your standard modern blockbuster, filled with glowing rings of magic and wide, unrealistic vistas (by which I mean fantastical, as they should be!). At times it made me wish I was watching an adaptation of any of the great fantasy novels of my adolescence, but even one step removed from them, the derivative world of Azeroth is like a breath of fresh air in a Hollywood dominated by superhero films.

The colours aren't the only visually interesting part, either. Duncan Jones has to be commended for his quietly audacious authorial voice: like George Lucas, his acting direction could use some work, but the creative ideas herein are presented unadulterated. Big special effects scenes, intimate character scenes, funny background events and well staged fights prove his talent. We would be privileged with a series of movies like this -- and the film's success in China particularly seems to suggest we will see at least the one sequel. Please, Legendary keep the same director at the helm!

Finally, I must restate the tragic evisceration of the theatrical cut of this film. By no means perfect, the original director's cut may not even be substantially better than this version, but at least it would have been complete. Even if Duncan Jones doesn't return for Warcraft 2, the least they can grant him is a release of his director's cut on home video.

Fresh, messy, colourful, impractical and layered, Warcraft gets 3.5 / 5 stars but with a strong recommendation to fantasy fans.

Writing Update: Games of July and Top Single Player Games

Single Player Games in July

I'm excited to get stuck into the games of this month because they aren't your usual big-budget action games. Here are five to keep an eye on.

Top Single Player Games of 2016 (So Far)

A few other OnlySP writers and I collaborated on this list of what we think are the best games of the year so far. Expect to see most of these in the discussion for Game Of The Year.

Review: Sicario

According to the start of "What I Want From Movies", readers probably won't be surprised that I tend to avoid these sorts of movies. It's mostly a combination of lacking the three elements that I like in movies, as well as the highly graphic violence.

Despite that, last year's Sicario is very notable to genre fans because -- shortly after its release, to critical success -- the film's director Denis Villeneuve was attached to the upcoming Blade Runner sequel. It isn't hard to see why he was picked for the latter movie, based on his skill with this one, but the films' tones are likely to be very different.

The Setup

During an FBI raid of a suspected cartel hideout, Agent Kate Macer (Emily Blunt) and her team discover a horrifying cache of corpses in the walls of the house. After two of her fellow officers are killed by a booby-trap, her boss recommends her for a task force assembled by the DoD to implicate those responsible.

Kate quickly realises how ill-prepared she is for the border warfare that the DoD and CIA are involved in, with the team led by agent Matt Graver (Josh Brolin) and the soft-spoken Alejandro Gillick (Benicio del Toro) immediately crossing into Juárez, Mexico in order to extradite one of the men high up in the cartel. It only gets worse from there.

Combining a disturbing original score, graphic content and mostly unlikable characters, this movie made me angry in a way that the film makers probably intended. The entire point of the film is to show the dirty work the CIA get into, and at the same time follows the growth of two characters whose motivations couldn't be more different.

"By the end, you will understand." -- Alejandro Gillick

Part way through Sicario, viewers begin to suspect the real meaning of Alejandro's words, and the movie transforms into something new. I won't spoil what, suffice it to say that the first half was better from a narrative perspective, but the second half makes the movie complete by satisfying the thematic perspective. These kinds of movies (ones with a particular thesis that they wish to convey) aren't the sort of story that one watches for narrative catharsis, so the switch in perspectives is understandable.

Creative, Terrible Horror

While juggling the movie's thesis with Kate's character development, and showing the brutal nature of the job, Sicario goes about telling smaller, intimate stories through various visual storytelling techniques, particularly inspired by comic books and anime.

Shots are happy to cross the line if it makes for a better effect, and ambiguity abounds in realistic scenes of underworld crime and violence. Much of the movie happens without dialogue, and tone is often established not by the score (which is generally, as stated above, at the same disturbing level throughout) but by the inserting of different ideas and tableaux. One recurring visual is that of a character washing their hands and looking in the mirror -- an on-the-nose idea, but used in the right quantity not to feel overdone. Another scene early on inter-splices images of the corpses with the discovery of the cartel's explosive booby-trap.

I eagerly await his new Blade Runner, because Villeneuve's directorial choices make for nail-biting tension scenes and creative metaphorical ideas. Combined with the learned eye of cinematography legend Roger Deakins, there is always something interesting happening in frame.

Unfortunately, despite an excellent command of visual language, the movie's colour palette is as suffocating and drab as the score -- again, like the tone these are intentional decisions, but a movie can be beautiful and disturbing at the same time (see my review of The Conjuring, coming soon). I won't take the opportunity to complain about colour timing in modern films, instead I will borrow the illustration a friend of mine used, that the film "looks like it was filmed through somebody's urine sample".

The Verdict

As a narrative hound there are certainly problems to be found in the story of Sicario -- especially after the half-way point -- but they aren't the rushed-script problems of the latest overwrought foreign-appeal-bait movies (Orci and Kurtzman really need more time to work on their scripts). Rather, they are the kind of deliberate decisions one makes when trying for a war story with this much verisimilitude. As such, I cannot fault the movie for being itself, just because I might not like a story with dark characters, gore and unsettling music.

Sicario has a lot to recommend it: it's a suspenseful thriller that tells a haunting story. However, it's not recommended if you like the kinds of movies that I enjoy. Yes, not every movie has to "entertain" or be "fun" -- some are made to move you emotionally -- but the truth about movie magic is that so much more can be done with the medium than simply try to depict realistic events, especially in such a gruesome way.

Sicario gets 3 / 5 stars. It's a very good film, but not for me.

Writing Update: The Quiet Month and E3 Links

Since I've been busy writing for the sites Goomba Stomp and OnlySP, I haven't had as much opportunity to write here on my blog this month.

More reviews are coming down the pike, but until then, here are this week's posts about E3 (I'll keep adding them as they are published):

JRPG Watch: E3 2016
These are the Japanese RPGs that are either confirmed or likely to get a look in at E3 this year. I love JRPGs, so the fact that it is a long and varied list is a big plus.

Titanfall 2: What Does the Single Player Trailer Say?
Some unnecessarily in-depth analysis of the recent trailer for the solo campaign in Titanfall 2.

Another Top 10 E3 Trailers
Because you can never have enough top 10 lists, this is my alternative list of best E3 trailers.

Why You Shouldn’t Be Worried About the Kingdom Come: Deliverance Delay
There have been plenty of delays recently, so here's why you shouldn't be worried.

Harmony of Heroes: Donkey Kong

You can download this massive album here. As it is fan work and therefore free, I have no problem recommending that you search the track names on YouTube if you can't download them.

Previous post: the Mario tracks

Continuing our dive into Nintendo fan music, the next section of Harmony of Heroes adapts the wonderful music of the Donkey Kong series -- mostly the Donkey Kong Country games -- with one glaring exception at the end.

12. Jungle Swing (Stephan Wells, featuring Camoshark)
If you know the Donkey Kong Country BGM at all, the opening to this track is filled with teasing anticipation. When the main theme finally hits, it feels fantastic.

A combination of live instruments (or at least a very convincing combination of live samples) and a broad assortment of sound effects make this an incredibly fun track, especially in the second half that includes a lot of free-styling guitar and brass.

13. Rhythm of the Kong (Sean Haeberman)
True to its title, this track is filled to bursting with percussion, mostly playing around with the Map theme (parts of which are also present in the previous track). Compared with Jungle Swing, there are a lot of deeper colours in the drums that give it a more masculine feel, despite the flighty melody.

14. A K.Rool Pub Crawl (Sebastian Mårtensson, featuring Christopher Woo)
Moving on to Donkey Kong Country 2, this is another program piece beginning with a pirate, probably K.Rool himself, walking into a bar (ouch!). The entertainment for the evening begins with a surprisingly warm rendition of Ship Deck 2.

I absolutely love folksy pirate songs so this one gets me pretty well. It even manages to make K.Rool's boss battle theme sound less menacing, and that's not a small task.

15. Rush of the Rainforest (Buoy)
Propulsive and adventurous, this track takes the hands-down best BGM from DKC2 (that would be Stickerbush Symphony) as its source. The track actually turns it into a sort of video game level of its own, complete with A B A structure, a little insert of the DKC theme when it hits it stride, and then some very welcome freestyling in the last third.

16. Kong Kollektive (Sebastian Mårtensson, featuring Harmony of Heroes)
...
Can't I just listen to some more of Rush of the Rainforest?
...
Oh, alright. This is a re-imagining of the DK Rap from Donkey Kong 64, and if I give them their dues, it could be a lot worse. The artists clearly love this track (honestly or ironically, it's up to you) so there's nothing that needs aggressive criticism. I'm just glad I don't have to listen to it again after this.


Well, the Donkey Kong tracks started wonderful and ended in a weird place. That's okay, because coming up next time is over an hour of The Legend of Zelda music. Yummy ...

The Great Cow Race Ch2: The Cave

Synopsis
After the encounter with the bee, Fone Bone discovers what Phoney has been up to all this time and chides him for his schemes. Fone is convinced that Phoney had something to do with the attack on the farm by the Rat Creatures, but Phoney promises that he is innocent, something that's rather hard to believe.

That night, Thorn has another dream, this time of a cave filled with dragons. She remembers that she drew the very map that led the Bones to The Valley in the first place, but decides not to share her concerns with Gran'ma, so that she doesn't throw off her game before the Great Cow Race.

Pros
This is an incredibly well written chapter, showcasing the personalities of all three Bones and diving into Thorn's (possibly imaginary, but that's pretty unbelievable) backstory in Deren Gard. The pages are divided equally into three scenes: the first with Fone and Phoney arguing about the latter's terrible get-rich-quick schemes, then a little bit later with Phoney as the "mystery cow".

The second scene then shows Thorn as a very young girl being led far away -- we soon find they're going to Deren Gard, the home of a motley assortment of multicoloured dragons.

Although Thorn is being kept safe in her dream, she wakes up and treats the memory with fear; telling Bone that she wished she could leave. She even drew the map so that it might lead someone to save her. This third scene is filled with great midnight lighting and a sense of something big and/or horrible on the horizon. When Thorn decides not to talk about it with Gran'ma, we can see the idea of dragons existing still weighs heavily on her, and she doesn't want the same concern affecting Gran.

Cons
None, really. Despite not having a lot of action, this is an exemplary chapter of Bone that conjures fun, seriousness, mystery and warmth all in equal measure.

This chapter's lesson
A small one but a good one: in the first scene of this chapter, Jeff Smith is using classic filmic blocking to separate and rejoin each of the three Bones in order to draw reader attention to different sides of the conversation and interpersonal conflict.

At first, Phoney is haggling with one of the farmers, reminding the reader of his plan to fix the Cow Race. When Fone arrives and is suspicious, Phoney leaves his betting stand and the "camera" moves to hold Fone and he in the frame as they argue. When Smiley as the mystery-cow comes into frame, Phoney then takes him aside, and the "camera" moves again, keeping him and Smiley as the two central figures and leaving Fone off in the background.

After the banter between the two about the cow suit, Fone re-enters the frame and our attention returns to Phoney and he having their argument about Phoney's schemes. At the end of the scene, Smiley then re-asserts himself with a message for Phoney, who then exits to the right.

Rather than make the reader focus on three characters for the entire duration of the scene, Smith figuratively juggles our attention with most of the dialogues happening between only two of the three characters. It's simple movie-making stuff, but it's really cool to see it used like this in a comic book.

Review: Eye in the Sky

"Never tell a soldier that he does not know the cost of war." 
-- Lieutenant General Frank Benson (Alan Rickman)

As a fan of epic fantasy stories, the son of an army officer, and a Christian, the role of war has been an issue I've had to grapple with my entire life. Sure, people around the world are conflicted on the morality of war, but just as many -- if not more -- see violence as a necessary evil in the pursuit of the greater good.

Eye in the Sky, from South African director Gavin Hood, does an exemplary job of presenting a clash of ideologies. Multiple viewpoints on conflict, casualties, collateral damage and politics are brought forward and substantiated, but none are presented as the definitive answer to the questions raised in war. This is cemented in the film's ending: rather than follow Hollywood formula and create a "new stability" (that is, a final way of solving the conflict of the story), Eye in the Sky leaves the audience hanging, because the ideological conflicts within this thriller haven't been solved.

Of course, these debates would be pointless if we had no dramatic buy-in, and the good news is that Eye in the Sky is also a tremendous story, well told. In any other decade, it would be a visionary science-fiction yarn, similar in dramatic scope and "big ideas" to the book behind Hood's previous film, Ender's Game. Today, with the exception of some visual shorthand for the benefit of the audience, it is instead a very contemporary story dealing with real world issues and realistic technology.

Taking place all around the world, Eye in the Sky centres on a mission to capture Al-Shabaab extremists in Nairobi, Kenya. Colonel Katherine Powell (played by Helen Mirren) commands from Northwood Headquarters in England; pilot Steve Watts (Aaron Paul) in Nevada flies a drone as the titular "eye in the sky"; and Jama Farah (Barkhad Abdi) works on the ground in Nairobi for undercover surveillance, among dozens of other characters including the late Alan Rickman's Lieutenant General who supervises the mission from London.

At first, the expansive stage and large cast feels very Steven-Soderbergh-ian, particularly like Contagion. As the situation on the ground develops, the protagonists are forced to make more and more difficult decisions. Discussions about ethics, politics and the chain of command are so tense that it begins to feel more like 12 Angry Men.

One could be concerned that as a thriller the story gets bogged down in these politics and turns into the dreaded "people talk in rooms" kind of drama that bad imitators of 12 Angry Men might produce -- but the quality of acting and firm grasp of visual storytelling is actually more comparable to sci-fi anime like Ghost in the Shell. This is probably not an accidental similarity as Japanese movies have explored drones and the dehumanisation of war for decades. For the same reason, Eye in the Sky comes in highly recommended to fans of Metal Gear Solid.

The movie is not, however, easily recommended to audiences seeking escapism, and nor should it be. The aforementioned open ending is going to be a turn-off if one expects a perfect resolution, but that is part of the point. Eye in the Sky is solid, thrilling entertainment with an effective original score to boot, but like some of the best science fiction it is equally interested in exploring questions of humanity and ethics that might not have definitive answers. It just so happens to be less science fiction and more science fact.

For accomplishing everything it set out to do, Eye in the Sky gets 5 / 5 stars.

Harmony of Heroes: A Nintendo Franchise Fan Spectacular

You can download this massive album here. As it is fan work and therefore free, I have no problem recommending that you search the track names on YouTube if you can't download them.

An awesome, 7-hour-long fan project from 2014, Harmony of Heroes is a collaborative re-imagining of the soundtracks to Super Smash Bros. Melee and Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Like the games themselves, this means the album is a celebration of all things Nintendo, this time from the fan art perspective.

One thing to keep in mind with any fan work is that, as a response to an original work (rather than the work itself) there are lower stakes. At its best, this allows fan work to go places that the original creators won't or can't, whether for the sake of a Brand™ or because the creator simply intends to take their vision in a different direction.

On the other hand, something as popular as Nintendo has as many interpretations as there are people on the planet, so some of these fan responses aren't going to "get" the source material in a way that appeals to everyone. At its worst, you might get something that entirely misunderstands a work.

Lucky for us, Harmony of Heroes is produced by people who really knew what they were doing, all for the love of Nintendo. So let's take a look at this monster of an album, starting with the "Super Mario" tracks.

Super Smash Bros.

1. Challenger Approaching (Rozen et. al.)
This is not actually a Mario track; like an overture, it features the a combination of main themes of the Smash Bros. games as an introduction to the album. The opening echoes Icarus from Deus Ex Human Revolution, which is really epic and atmospheric -- segueing into the thicker, choral style of Nobuo Uematsu's original Brawl theme.

Even though the first three games in the series are represented well, my favourite part is the inclusion of the latest game's theme, which has less operatic flair and instead emphasises the sporty, high-energy nature of Smash Bros.

Super Mario Bros.

2. Sunset at Mushroom Castle (Bernardo Limon)
This track takes inspiration from the orange-and-brown sunset version of the Mushroom Kingdom from Brawl, but while that was still an upbeat piano piece, this interpretation plays like mellow lounge music with a jazzy, improvisational flavour. Very appropriate for Mario music.

3. Stroll through the Mushroom World (Andrew Lim)
Adapting the Super Mario Bros. 3 theme, this track is both the first stand-out and also one of the straightest of the Mario pieces. Not too much variation on the melodic formula and a swinging, big band attitude make it great easy-listening.

4. Sad Underground (Forgotten Dawn)
In contrast to track 3, this track is a conceptual re-imagining of the "underground" theme from Super Mario Bros. for piano and strings. It's a nice idea and executed pleasantly enough, but doesn't really leave much of an impression. This artist's other tracks on the album are much more interesting.

5. A Twisted Carousel (Steampianist)
Another stand-out and one of my favourites because of its use of a Super Mario Land theme (specifically the Pyramids, strangely enough) here instead representing a kind of horrible circus of crazy performers -- hence the Twisted Carousel. Given comments by Nintendo that the Mario series was intended to feel like a troupe of actors putting on the same show in different ways, this Carousel image seems pretty appropriate.

6. Shining Path (prophetik music)
The lead up to the main tune in this track (the Rainbow Ride theme) is quite sedate but as it goes on, it adds interesting layers in techno fashion. Being a bit of a melody hound I'm disappointed there isn't a grander use of Rainbow Ride, but that is no failing of the track.

7. Cleanse the Sun (Dare to Oppress)
This is more like it. A shorter lead up before the main theme (in this case, Delfino Plaza from Super Mario Sunshine) and a more energetic pace make this electronica very worth listening to. As an interesting side note, the original Delfino Plaza music was not as crunchy and electronic, meaning this is the first track on the album that is less natural sounding than its source. On an imagination and listening experience level, this one is highly recommended.

Mario Kart

8. Who Will Win the Race? (Andrew Lim)
Of course a Mario Kart track applies liberal organ and pad sounds. The thrill of the racetrack is plain to hear, but this jazz fusion style sits in a weird half-way space between live and synth, just like the recent Mario Kart scores.  The fact that the Mario Kart Wii themes just aren't the most memorable in the series doesn't help. Over all it's not bad, but it feels less effective than something that tries to sound like a real live performance or entirely synthesised.

9. Baffle Ball (The Fishhead)
Much more overtly synth than the previous track, Baffle Ball is an entertaining listen that doesn't really go anywhere. Probably most exciting for those who love the Mario Kart Wii music and want to hear it with really high quality synthesisers. For the rest of us, it feels like a Sonic the Hedgehog piece. Casino Night Zone, probably.

10. A Vivid Cruise to the Finish (Andrew Lim)
The use of Rainbow Road in this track makes it much more delightful than this artist's other Mario Kart track. Otherwise, the techniques applied are much the same. Goes to show how much a great melody helps a composition to rise to the top.

Luigi's Mansion

11. Bros. before Ghosts (Konrad Petersson)
Structured like a program-piece, and including lots of creepy sound effects, this track is a great (if slightly noisy) representation of Luigi's Mansion and its "Resident-Evil-meets-Tim-Burton" ghostly charm. It's the last Mario related track for a while and a good reminder after the synthy Mario Kart tracks that Mario is at its best with jazz and swing.

Next time: Donkey Kong!

Impressions: Salt and Sanctuary

Since about 2013 (around the release of Naughty Dog's genre-defining survival story The Last of Us) I've found more video games that I actually enjoy in the independent releases, rather than the big-budget publishers.

Maybe it was because the clever justification of the player's actions through the narrative of The Last of Us just hasn't been improved upon since. Maybe it's the new generation of consoles and the big-budget developers haven't properly settled in yet. Maybe I'm getting picky as I grow up.

In any case, one exception to this rule has been the Dark Souls series and related titles that From Software has been steadily cranking out (I was late to the party by a few years but I'm catching up with Dark Souls III's release last week). I haven't finished them all, due to their punishing trial-and-error difficulty and monstrous length, but I've put enough time in that I can confidently say I really enjoy their atmosphere, monster design and show-don't-tell style.

Salt and Sanctuary is a tribute to the Dark Souls games, one of several that will release in 2016 including Eitr and Below. It is developed by an independent couple whose previous games I haven't played. Thanks to what I've played so far of this one, they've earned a place on my radar.

For starters, Salt and Sanctuary is without a doubt Dark Souls in 2D. Covenants, messages on the ground, giant bosses, mystery and a helping of horrifying undead are all present and accounted for. The controls are rearranged for the side-scrolling perspective, and jumping on platforms (reminiscent of classic SNES games) ironically adds another dimension to mobility. This is important to keep the positioning challenge that would otherwise be lost in the move from 3D to 2D.

Some aspects don't seem as well translated in the early parts of the game. The game world tries to keep the melancholy and subtle lore of Lordran but also mixes in the more American styles of heavy metal and adult (graphic and gory) animation. Though it's a distinct look and feel, it just isn't as memorable.

So far though, I'm really enjoying the familiar cadence of learning an area, then learning a boss, trying again and again to beat it and being rewarded with a brand new area and even weirder bosses. All of the important parts of this engine still work, even in a smaller, flatter package.

Review: The Huntsman

It's obvious to say it, but expectations can have a huge effect on how we receive a movie. Expectations were not high for the original Snow White and the Huntsman, which may have helped its success -- it wasn't as bad as yet-another-Snow-White-adaptation could have been, and included some really nice visuals around a collection of bankable actors.

Even with low expectations, however, I felt that it was unimpressively bland enough to characterise with the "genie's wish gone awry" kind of story: "Oh, you want more epic fantasy movies? Here's yet another gritty re-imagining of a done-to-death fairytale. You want a strong female lead? Sure, but we'll slather her arc with generic Chosen-One portentousness and cast Kristen Stewart."

As you might be beginning to tell, I wasn't a fan. Still, including the aforementioned big-budget visuals, there were aspects to the movie that were quite good -- such as Charlize Theron's scenery-chewing Evil Queen or James Newton Howard's magical score. Not enough to raise my hopes high for The Huntsman: Winter's War, but enough to get me into the cinema.

The story of The Huntsman opens with a prologue establishing the Snow Queen (a naked attempt to rip off Elsa from Frozen) showing us why she steals children to create an army of huntsmen with which she can TAKE OVER THE WORLD. Going on for about ten minutes too long and broken up with Liam Neeson's overly explanatory narration, the film then awkwardly leapfrogs the events of Snow White and begins in earnest.

Positives, Mitchell, stay on the positives. Like last time, JNH's original score sets the mood appropriately and has some beautiful stand-out moments. What's more is that, with some exceptions, the colour palette is wider -- including a creative twist on the enchanted forest of the previous film that adds an Amazonian flavour. The costumes again, like last time, are all detailed and interesting in their own ways and the computer generated effects have a baroque kick.

So it's safe to say that the MVPs of The Huntsman are the production designers, because once you move past the look of the film it gets a bit murkier. At times, I would have said this movie felt like it came out of 2008 or 2009 in the wake of the Writer's Guild of America strike: the actual script of The Huntsman feels written without writers. Here and there are some good ideas but they are strung along with the most basic Joseph Campbell drudgery without any of the finesse required to turn it into an actual narrative. Hero? Check. Conflict? Check. Retrieving the Sword (or Mirror, as it is)? Check. Symbolic Death? Check. The Road Back? Check.

These are milestones intended to guide the story, not to make up the substance of it. The Huntsman is clearly trying at points to create a screw-ball rom-com atmosphere a la The Princess Bride, but without compelling characters and the growth thereof, the script is so inconsequential that there is no depth for the leads to find in their roles (Chris Hemsworth and Theron are back as the Huntsman himself and the Evil Queen respectively, with newcomers Emily Blunt as the Snow Queen and Jessica Chastain as Sara, the Huntsman's lover). The fact is, none of the characters have any perceivable character arc.

This is kind of essential in an adventure story.

I don't ask for anything major, just any change at all (and falling in love doesn't count: that's practically law in a fairytale). The Huntsman? Same at the end as he is at the start. Sara? She appears to have been on a journey, but it's just running in place and she ends the movie the same way she started. The villains? Emily Blunt at least has some kind of drama, but it's so telegraphed beforehand that even the characters don't seem to treat the twist as very much at all.

The worst part of this is that it's actually making me pine for Snow White from the previous movie. It may have been a generic Chosen One arc, but at least she grew and changed over the course of the story. Of course, this leads us to the elephant in the room that even the movie thinks is an elephant in the room: the missing major characters from The Huntsman's predecessor. Every time someone mentions Snow White's kingdom, the movie suddenly turns into a made-for-TV spinoff. "That stuff totally happened, it's just off screen!"

Not helping the made-for-TV tone, the action scenes are so perfunctory as to be almost non-existant. Forget the most boring use of a "rickety rope bridge sequence" that I can think of in an adventure film, the fist fights and clashing swords are cut as though to obscure each action as much as possible.

Don't get me wrong: I don't mean the incomprehensible shaky-cam nonsense of dudebro action flicks -- the actual framing of The Huntsman is decent. No, what this film does is more perplexing.

In a normal fast-cutting action scene, the idea is to draw the eye to an action by setting it up, and then follow it through, using the momentum to draw the eye to the next action. What The Huntsman does is like the opposite.

Instead of cutting from action to action, the actual actions themselves take place between the cuts and we're left with just the setup and the results. This seems to be a symptom of the greater issue at play where in The Huntsman there just isn't a lot of variety in shot length -- it's like the filmmakers were worried that the audience would get bored if there wasn't a completely new frame every few seconds.

Even given all these complaints, the movie isn't the absolute worst. It's inoffensively okay, not bad. In a world where Batman v Superman is so divisive, The Huntsman at least tries to please.

I only wish it had tried harder.

Being charitable, I'd say The Huntsman earns 2 / 5 stars.

Schedule Update: April 2016

Now that my final (for now) thoughts on 10 Cloverfield Lane are up, here's a look at what's coming next. 

Rather than giving dates and then posting too late or two early, I'm just going to stick to a regular release of two articles a week, with extras if I have more to share.

Coming up:

Review: The Huntsman: Winter's War

The first movie, Snow White and the Huntsman, felt like a C-minus effort. Not too bad, but not very good either, and mostly inconsequential. Will the sequel improve on the good parts of the original? I was cautiously hopeful that this was the case.

What I Want From Movies -- Part 2

A look at Terminator 2: Judgement Day -- the second of four movies that are currently my "favourites". This is a really fun one.

Bone Recap: The Great Cow Race Chapter 2

"The Cave": Phoney and Smiley's plot to rig the Cow Race is thickening and I'll have an analysis with writing lessons to go with it.

Not Happening:

Review: Agents of SHIELD Season 2

I wanted to review this, maybe even episode by episode, but I need to practice reviewing television shows with something else before I dive into a live action, plot-and-mystery dense second season like this.

In Development:

The Puppetheads

I said this would start in 2016 and I'm standing by it.

Untitled Serial

The main reason I didn't finish The Puppethead Saga originally was because the story ran out of steam before it reached the end. This new serial will be a single serialised novel with a planned ending.

Genre Thoughts: 10 Cloverfield Lane

Following my comment at the end of the review, the genre and context of 10 Cloverfield Lane is definitely a highlight. Who doesn't want a series of smaller budget, high-concept thrill rides with brand new worlds and characters every time? Of course, these would only be promising if the worlds and characters therein were actually interesting. Had this idea springboarded from the first Cloverfield, I would be worried, as the characters in that film were not particularly engaging.

10 Cloverfield Lane, on the other hand, actively highlights the progression of character arcs in a way that goes above and beyond both its predecessor and plenty of previous "claustrophobic thriller" films in general. 

Howard's back story, both those parts revealed and implied, jointly make him scarier and more human (in a way that might remind one of Norman Bates). Emmett's back story informs a shift in his attitude from having gratitude for Howard, then progressing to survivor's guilt (including his regret for never going far from home), and finally a little idolatry (hey, Michelle might be the last woman on the planet … as far as he knows). Michelle I will save for below in the spoilers.

This focus on characters in 10 Cloverfield Lane also belies its status, joining the modern trend seen in Ex Machina, Chronicle, Safety Not Guarenteed -- and to some extent District 9, among others -- where a B-Movie speculative short story or "Big Idea" is given a level of seriousness and human depth that was previously less prevalent.


*** HERE COME THE SPOILERS ***


What's so exciting about this is that actual, honest-to-goodness Science Fiction (the soft and hard kinds) is here combined with the compelling characters. Any decent film-makers could have aimed to forge their story into something like a competent mainstream thriller -- one that people might call "Hitchcockian" (and while I don't agree with the comparison, 10 Cloverfield Lane has been called such by several reviewers also). 

This theoretical movie would have left our protagonist, Michelle, outside of the bunker and facing only the possibility of a worldwide disaster after the movie's central disaster (her capture by Howard). Throw in some ambiguity (what really happened? Did Howard make it all up?) and you've got yourself a water-cooler ending worthy of discussion. That could have been enough.

But this is not the point! 10 Cloverfield Lane is not yet another thriller of escaping a villain. Remember the multifaceted character arcs? Naturally, Michelle's is the heart of the story, and if it doesn't work the movie falls down. If Michelle had entered the film by running from her boyfriend after the argument as she does, but then exited the film by running from Howard, the cathartic release wouldn't have been nearly as potent – her character was doing the same thing at the beginning as at the end, and we're right back with the character-shallow B-movies of yesteryear, existing mostly for the thrills, violence or sexual content and not actually telling a story.

What does the audience get instead? A well shown, if concise, explanation (oh, no! Aliens!) and a whole ten minutes or more of just how Michelle's experience of surviving the bunker has changed her. She hides, she improvises, and then finally, in a so-classic-that-maybe-it's-quaint-but-who-cares final shot, she comes to a fork in the road and chooses not to seek safety but to join the resistance against the invaders.

This is perhaps so wonderful a decision that it is actually difficult to see why at first. In fact, the original draft of the film was just as I described earlier, without the final confrontation and Michelle simply escaping from the bunker. Instead, as director Trachtenberg himself said, the final movie embraces the idea that

"it would be so cool if this really was … a badass little origin story …"
(io9, The Director of 10 Cloverfield Lane Explains All About That Wild Ending http://io9.gizmodo.com/the-director-of-10-cloverfield-lane-explains-all-about-1764626525)

So let's circle back around to this being "Genre Thoughts". You can pretty much understand the point of the film through Dan Trachtenberg's attitude to creating an interesting hero. Like Bad Robot's other most shining output Fringe, 10 Cloverfield Lane is by-genre-fans and for-genre-fans in a way that understands why we want to watch movies.

It's not about explosions (there are more than one in this film) and it's not about monsters (though it has plenty of those too). It's caring about the human beings enough that what they do matters, whether they are the villain of many stories beforehand (Howard!) or the hero of many stories to come. I really hope, too, that we haven't seen the last of action-hero Mary Elizabeth Winstead. She's really good at this stuff.

Where is Exhumana?

It has been nearly two years since my last progress update on Exhumana. I just wanted to leave some explanation here as to why that is, as well as where the project is going next.

There has been a script for a graphic novel called "Exhumana: Initiate" sitting on my hard drive in completed form since the end of March in 2014. However, following that year's pursuing (and ultimately abandoning) an entire potential career path and my subsequent return to writing, I realised that the work in evidence reflected neither my growth as a writer nor my actual creative intentions.

After this, I attempted to rewrite the entire story -- to reflect what I now thought was the true Exhumana story that I had wanted to tell. Readers have probably already guessed that this was a failure, especially if you yourself are a comics writer. Over all, it was an ill-considered plan.

I loved the world created in that story and was excited to continue narrating its journey to you, dear readers. Despite that sentiment, we have to learn when to cut our losses, and so I haven't done any major writing in comic scripts for months now.

On to the good news: Shauna O'Meara, a fellow member of the Canberra Speculative Fiction Guild, who I commissioned in 2013 for the cover images above and on my Twitter profile (as well as lots of other cool ideas for the AGCs on her Flickr profile here) is still on board for something related to Exhumana, once she has completed an assortment of exciting, high-profile jobs that she took on in the interim.

My intent is to reshape the world and ideas into a brand new story, something more mainstream -- not so to say, by "dumbing it down" by any means, but rather to sell the story as a more conventional magazine comic.

When the time comes, I also hope to open up about this process and remain accountable to readers on this blog for more updates, craft studies and so on. Being so fresh-faced, these will be more for my own development than for instruction, you can be certain.

That about wraps up this post -- thank you for reading. I'll see you in mankind's terrible and exciting future!

Review: 10 Cloverfield Lane

This will be the first of two posts on 10 Cloverfield Lane, first is a review of the film itself and the second will be a genre study. This first part is spoiler free and the other will have marked spoilers.

How you respond to Bad Robot's new production 10 Cloverfield Lane will almost certainly depend on how much you were expecting a sequel to 2008's Cloverfield.

First-time director Dan Trachtenberg's movie has little-to-no connection to the first Cloverfield, but it's also destined to suffer disinterest or even rejection from two extremes: anybody who was hoping to see the original story continued; and also haters of the original who are turned off by the use of the title for this new movie.

For what it's worth, I found some enjoyment in the original film but hoped that whatever Matt Reeves directed next wasn't as aggressively average and doused in shaky-camera antics (I was rewarded in 2014 with his flawed but great Dawn of the Planet of the Apes). If you were in the same camp, you probably weren't clamouring for Cloverfield 2. However, you might be better positioned to enjoy 10 Cloverfield Lane.

Mary Elizabeth Winstead is Michelle, who after an argument with her fiance leaves New Orleans and drives out to the country. She has an accident on the highway and blacks out, only to wake up inside an underground bunker owned by Howard (John Goodman). Howard is a conspiracy nut and disaster prepper who alleges that there's been "attack" above ground and, as far as he knows, Michelle, he and a third survivor, Emmett, are all that remain of the human race.

So begins a no-fat rollercoaster ride filled with mystery and tension, grounded in fantastic performances by the two leads. Goodman is intriguing (given the twisted story structure of reveal upon reveal) and is alternately welcoming and frightening. His potential untrustworthiness – whether intentional or simply by his being an "outsider" – is a good parallel to your reaction while watching the film. Has Howard rescued Michelle, or simply kidnapped her and invented a catastrophe? Is he the antagonist of the story? His he a "monster", much like the kaiju Clover? Is the movie even science-fiction? You won't get a peep from me.

Winstead, on the other hand, brings to life one of the best protagonists of the year so far. Her story-arc is core from minute 1 through minute 103 (the movie is 103 minutes long). It's uplifting to see a film whose production staff were dedicated to providing cathartic character growth and at the same time not shirking the horror of being trapped in a confined space with people you don't know.

The acting isn't the only thing that keeps you engaged. Battlestar's Bear McCreary provides a fitting original score, though you could say that it is closer to the Bad Robot "house style" than Bear's own. What his music truly succeeds at is blending into the sonic fabric of Howard's bunker. When Michelle is feeling emotional, that's the accompaniment. When she is surprised, the strings will sting.

Yes, there are jump scares in the movie. Yes, like many mysteries, once you know the outcome the tension will probably be deflated on future viewings. Despite this, I take issue at the idea that these will sour 10 Cloverfield Lane with time. Like Psycho (more on that in the next post) the world suggested within the story is layered and interesting enough that you will never be bored, even knowing exactly what happens next. In the end, the film is a high-quality experience either way, with great twists and believable characters.

But what about the Cloverfield connection? Do you need to have seen the first movie at all to get more out of 10 Cloverfield Lane? The answer is a resounding no. Abrams and company have made it clear with this sudden departure and subsequent interviews that the idea of a true sequel to Cloverfield is less interesting than using the strange, smaller-budget associations of that title to tell what amounts to a sci-fi anthology series, like a big-screen Twilight Zone. That might be the most thrilling part …

10 Cloverfield Lane earns 4.5 / 5 stars.

Stay tuned for another look at 10 Cloverfield Lane next, with a focus on how it fits into the cinematic canon of "high-quality B-movies".

Review: April and the Extraordinary World

If you grew up reading Asterix the Gaul or The Adventures of Tintin, you were probably intrigued by the trailers to Avril et le Monde truqué, or April and the Extraordinary World. The film, which uses a combination of computer-assisted hand drawn animation and CGI, is an original story based in a world created by bandes dessinées artist Jacques Tardi.

If you want the pure experience, go now, watch the movie and come back afterward. In a nutshell, if you enjoy Franco-Belgian comics, steampunk or Hayao Miyazaki's movies this will definitely be up your alley. I won't spoil anything major about the plot in the review below, but part of the fun in April is the thrill of discovery, much like the principles of science that motivate the characters therein.

There's a modern term that describes Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror (and Historical Fiction sometimes) collectively as Speculative Fiction. Stories about the "What If".

Existing in the space between futuristic, historical, magical and scientific, April is very much a speculative-fiction story. In this case: what if the Franco-Prussian War never happened? What if there was nothing more to stand in the way of the French Empire? Add to that: what if the world's scientists began to disappear?

Of these scientists, two happen to be the protagonist's parents. Left with a priceless snowglobe, a love for science and a cat who can talk as a result of a failed experiment, April spends ten years stealing, sneaking and generally waifing-it-up around Paris trying to recreate her family's secret serum (the relevance of which I will leave up to the movie to detail).

April is not a spunky, Barbie-doll teenager but a much more down-to-earth personality who bears the weight of an orphan but is also weighed down as a citizen of the disgusting capital that Paris has become. The might of the French Empire was so hungry for fuel to fight its wars that it deforested the entire continent, belching so much smoke into the atmosphere that most Europeans wear gas masks in 1941 and the countryside has been turned into a grey wasteland. 

For April, the loss of her family and the destruction of the natural world might as well be the same thing: her first hopeful encounter in years happens at a memorial to the last tree and the journey to find her parents takes her away from the smoggy horror she's known for years. Her talking cat, Darwin, is the closest thing she has to a family member, and the smoke in the air is likely to take him from her too.

April charts an alternate history that results in, thanks to the lack of scientists, a world where electricity was never discovered and the burning of coal and wood is the only source of energy. Combined with the oppressive French Imperial regime, you have a recipe for classic steampunk.

Much like The Matrix and the genre of cyberpunk back in 1999, readers already familiar with this kind of setting might find the opening narration somewhat over-explanatory as to why April's world is this way. Most movie-goers, however, are less likely to take the preponderance of airships and chunky wood-fired machines for granted -- in which case this is the best introduction that one could ask for. Instead of treating the aesthetic as a fashion statement, April does a remarkable job of exploring both parts of the term "steampunk": an empire that needs fuel for its machines of war (the steam) and a dismal world where the only heroes are the outcasts and abnormals (the punks).

While its exploration of steampunk politics is a rare occurrence on film, the actual plot of April is pure old-fashioned adventure-romance, meaning not the lovy-dovy kind of romance but the two-fisted, derring-do kind. Taking inspiration from Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, Howl's Moving Castle, Raiders of the Lost Ark and even James Bond and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles at times, the film-makers clearly knew what they wanted to produce and who they were making it for. Often, thanks to the nearly perfect pacing, exciting action and silly slapstick, the movie seems to be blossoming out of pure love right before your eyes.

Is the plot predictable? Mostly, with a few minor exceptions. Do the villain/s plans seem far-fetched? Quite. Will the protagonists find themselves in a beautiful natural environment after spending the first half of the story in a smog-choked, overcrowded city? You bet! But accusing April of being unoriginal in these ways is as pointless as doing so to any of the aforementioned properties. Part of what makes something a "genre" in the first place is a set of guidelines and touchstones that are familiar to the audience, and April is no exception.

That said, if you happen to be sensitive to what Doug Walker (of the Nostalgia Critic) calls the "liar revealed" story¹, it rears its head in April, though it is downplayed to an extent: it's only so important to the characters until they next get into trouble (which as you might guess is quite often in a pulp adventure tale).

Strangely enough -- though I cannot be certain of how and when the production of April lines up -- there are multiple reflections, plot points and even visual motifs that seem to simultaneously evoke and rebuke last year's Tomorrowland. Perhaps it is from the overarching premise of disappearing scientists and the imminent death of the natural world. Even the villain/s motivations seem to expound upon and better rationalise the kind of character that the former film's Governor Nix became.

Regardless, while there are certain logistical questions left at the end of April that even the film admits may have gone a bit too far, it manages to tell a complete story in the way that Tomorrowland failed. Rather than a protracted first act and rushed conclusion, April goes to great lengths to provide a full beginning, middle and end. This is a movie that understands that an adventure (rather than say, a mystery story) needs the plot details to be doled out over the course of the story rather than dumped on the audience all at once in the climax.

Many of the fantastically staged action scenes wouldn't have had as much impact if the secrets had been withheld in this way -- and they really are fantastic. The aesthetic of the film is hands-down the best translation to animation of Tintin artist Hergé's pioneering "ligne claire" style (of which Jacques Tardi makes ample use in his work) that I have ever seen. I have not read many of Tardi's comics but I understand that his style also makes use of highly detailed backgrounds, another beautiful component of April's visual identity. The few conspicuous uses of 3D CGI are integrated as well as they can be and mostly just to maintain sensible proportions when depicting vehicles.

The biggest negative I have about April and the Extraordinary World is akin to one of the villain's core motivations: prejudice. That is, prejudice in the anglosphere against French films, and especially animated ones. When I showed the trailer to a friend earlier in the year, he remarked, "oh, an art film."

This is a movie that deserves to be as popular with kids and adults alike as any of the upcoming Dreamworks and Pixar projects, but like the stop motion extravaganzas of LAIKA is probably destined to be seen only as a cult classic. It has humour in abundance, wondrous sights, thrills and even manages to sneak in commentary on the importance of family.

April and the Extraordinary World is no Star Wars or How To Train Your Dragon -- the plot is maybe a tad too conventional -- but in a world with angry superheroes and lightspeed remakes or nostalgia grabs it allows the audience to have a different sort of adventure. It stands out from the norm, and that makes it extraordinary -- 4.0 / 5 Stars.

As they say in France, fin.

___________________________________________________________________

1 That is to say, the rather overused device where a hero is caught in a deceit, and subsequently ostracised -- causing emotional turmoil in one or more characters who thought they could trust them -- even though the audience is well aware that the heroes will kiss and make up before the finale.

The Great Cow Race Ch1: The Spring Fair

"The Spring Fair! Don't you just love it Fone Bone? The smells! The colors!"
"I have to admit -- this is a pretty good way to wind up our adventure!"

So what, Bone, in a few days you'll be headed back to Boneville?
BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Pros
The opening page of this chapter has some beautiful art showing off the Spring Fair, and as usual the facial expressions of the main characters are very effective. I also liked the introduction of giant bees as another emblem of the Valley's magical weirdness.

Cons
Sheesh, Tom -- you didn't win the good looks lottery, did you? Perhaps it's because he's such a bit-part character, but the hunk with the honey's first of several appearances in The Great Cow Race has a whole lot of derp-face going on. Sure, it's just one panel, and he's considerably more normal through his other scenes but ... good grief, maybe Jeff Smith just wanted us to dislike him from the start and went waaay too far.

This chapter's lesson
At the start of The Great Cow Race, I was reminded that, unfortunately, this and the fifth volume Rock Jaw are the least impressive of the series. They aren't bad by any means, but especially contrasted with the high action and drama in the surrounding volumes, the talking-animal antics and less interesting plot threads (oh no, Thorn is smitten by a jerk guy ...) come off as affected and unnecessary.

However -- and this is the lesson for today! -- the sillier tone of The Great Cow Race and the lower-stakes action is not a weakness from the standpoint of Bone as a children's series. Yes, it has a broad audience and is not intended only for kids, but it is of the same genre as Asterix or The Hobbit. Both books also make use of sillier breaks in between the more serious plots to keep the story from becoming too grim.

Think back to the episode "The Tales of Ba Sing Se" in Avatar: TLA. Our heroes have just been told that the city they spent the whole season trying to reach is basically a more affluent Airstrip One from 1984. Followed up with a collection of light or touching short stories! Not exactly the most narratively satisfying continuation, but necessary to downplay just how scary the situation truly is.

To fall back on the ever-present Tolkien example, these early hi-jinxes are like the Shire. Darker times ahead will be more bearable to struggle through knowing what lies behind the main characters and what they want to protect. Here, the Spring Fair is an example of that fun and happiness.

Review: Amulet Book One: The Stonekeeper

On the back cover of Amulet Book One: The Stonekeeper, by Kazu Kibuishi, are these words:

"Five -- no, three pages into Amulet and you'll be hooked."

-- Jeff Smith, creator of BONE

I ask, dear reader: how could I resist?

Note: while I'll try not to spoil major plot reveals, I recommend if you want to go in fresh that you leave now and come back once you've read the book. If you've already read Amulet, you probably have a much better idea of what I'm talking about!

The Story

Let's see. First, it's your standard kids' portal fantasy: something terrible happens to one or more family members of the protagonist/s and they enter another world filled with magic and wonder but also dangers, a terrible villain and a whole lot of saving to do. So far, so Narnia, so Pan's Labyrinth or anything in between (incidentally, doesn't Jim Henson's Labyrinth qualify as halfway between?).
It doesn't sound like a story that has much new to offer, right?

Wrong.

The Art
Amulet first shows its true potential through use of an evocative, chiefly grey-blue colour palette, shot through with other tones, similarly subdued. This is reflective of the nature of magic in the setting, also quite subtle but beautiful in its own way. Among these styles are characters who, frankly, took a while to grow on me visually. It's hard, for instance, to take the kids' mother's incredibly long head seriously.

But that's all okay, because the design of Amulet's world is the real draw. Already I can't wait to read the next book, because a plethora of giant molluscs, alien elves and intelligent teddy-rabbits show that Kazu Kibuishi tried his darnedest to separate his story from the pack. Along with these Lovecraft-lite monsters and cute robots, the entrance to the magical parallel world of Alledia is a spooky and original opening to Navin and Emily's adventure.

Laid out like a Zelda dungeon with less puzzles, there are the aforementioned molluscs, treacherous cliffs and strange fungi galore to feast your eyes upon. Then, we reach Charnon House in the middle of an underground lake. I can just taste the promise: every new location suggesting mystery, then when explored, new horizons are revealed. Kibuishi must have been taking notes from Tolkien for that one.

And this is all without mentioning the magic and technology. There are the robots like Miskit, flying machines, the actual house -- whose true nature I will leave for you to discover -- mixed in with the mysterious sorceries of the elf prince and the titular Amulet.

The Setup
We have to face it. This book is an adventure, certainly, but like all first books its true purpose is to introduce the struggle and enchant the reader; make them want to read more. There are plenty of interesting threads premiered -- the biggest of course is that Navin and Emily need to save their mother -- but of them all I was struck the most by the nature of the Amulet.

It's the primary plot device: the source of magic for the protagonists and apparently the means of defeating the Big Bad Guy, the Elf King. But immediately, it is treated with as much ominousness as it is with promise.

This is not your typical plot pendant, it's actually more like the use of alchemy in Fullmetal Alchemist. That is, for a story ostensibly directed at children, the magic of the Amulet is more ambiguous than usual. We're telegraphed from the word go that things are going to go wrong. Will Emily suffer a terrible fate for having bound herself to the Amulet? Are the protagonists even the "good guys" that Silas makes them seem in the first place? Such ambiguity is tantalising and I look forward to where Navin and Emily's adventure takes them next.

The One Big Con
Alas, very few if any stories are perfect and the rule is upheld with Amulet. You might think I have nothing but praise because it pushes all the right buttons on my story brain, and to a certain extent I thought that too. Except that there's one aspect of Amulet: The Stonekeeper that I cannot stand, and it's the pacing.

Now I'll be the first to admit that I absorb comic books in a less-than-ideal manner. Despite my love of visual art, my more primal reading tendencies take over. My eyes snap from balloon to balloon to eat as much of the story as possible, regarding the rest only so much as I might notice the paragraph breaks in a novel. Paradoxically, this means I occasionally take longer to finish a comic book because I like to go back and actually take in the illustrations properly.

Yet, even I noticed that the panels, page after page, were dreadfully decompressed.

I have nothing against decompressed comics per se. I just believe that manipulating the passage of time is a technique to be used across all comics. I'd go so far as to say that deliberately slow comics are less accomplished narratively than those that use a diversity of panel numbers, sizes and representations of time.

Amulet: The Stonekeeper covers maybe one third of the ground that Out from Boneville does and it does it with fifty pages more. That's two whole issues of a regular magazine comic! This is like one of those two hour movies that you just wish could have been edited to ninety minutes. True, when the inevitable Amulet movie is developed they could probably use these decompressed panels as storyboards, but that doesn't help when there's really only enough story content to fill two episodes of a half-hour cartoon.

Okay, that last part used a lot of comparisons to other media. Let's stick with comics: Amulet: The Stonekeeper feels like the beginning of an arc, not an entire arc unto itself. It's a proof-of-concept, and a great one. But that doesn't excuse it for taking its sweet, sweet time getting the story to where it needs to be for Book Two.

The Verdict
Well, I should probably start coming up with a rating system if I'm going to actually review stuff. Amulet is off to an exciting start and if the pace improves, it could easily be one of my favourite fantasy comics (there don't seem to be that many around, do there?).

Amulet: The Stonekeeper 
3.5 / 5