Jodorowsky's Dune: "You can't make a masterpiece without madness."

So says Jodorowsky, the infectiously enthusiastic focus of the new documentary, Jodorowsky's Dune. 

He and his vision were at the heart of a quixotic 1970's effort to produce Frank Herbert's labyrinthine novel. Supported by an elite team of 'spiritual warriors' that Jodorowsky assembled, they'd create an epic without ever reading the source material.

Details.

Jodorowsky has the kind of irrepressible passion and sense of wonder needed to sell a crazy project to Hollywood. Think Reading Rainbow but with everyone on LSD. This is a man who can present a series of static storyboards in such an enthralling way you feel like you've seen the film.

No wonder he was able to put together such a talented crew.

And what a team it was: he brought together leading artists such as Moebius, Dan O'Bannon (pre-Alien), H.R. Giger (also pre-Alien), and Chris Foss. He's got taste.

That being said, I am dubious about the choice of Dali to play the Padashah Emperor. But who knows? If anyone was going to get a great performance out of Dali, it was Jodorowsky. He has a knack for inspiring people. He got great work out of his dream team, from character designs (Moebius) to ships (Foss) and architecture (Giger).

Visually, there isn't much middle eastern influence as I'd have expected, but it's wonderful stuff regardless.

Of course, Jodorowsky decided to rewrite the ending of Dune. That's just the way he rolls. And why not? He didn't read the book anyway. He has an endearing penchant for new age themes and stories where the human spirit triumphs over all. Cosmic stuff. Good vibes. That sort of thing. Just with lots of sex and explosions along the way.

Many of the ideas he injected into Dune, like the miracle child's immaculate conception, would pop up in his later work. Reuse, recycle. Nothing wasted. Dune was the spring board that launched his future.

Ultimately the major studios rejected his ambitious film project, possibly because of Jodorowsky's eccentricity, it's wild scope, and even crazier cost.

But Jodorowsky is not a man to be kept down. The weight of the universe couldn't do that, and undaunted, he channelled all that imagination and work into comics, producing the sci-fi acid trip The Incal with Moebius. It confirms Jodorowsky as one of the most wildly imaginative writers out there. Of course it doesn't always make sense. Who cares? It's more fun than a barrel of drunken flying monkeys on laughing gas. It'll blow your mind.

He has some outrageously funny quotes ("I was raping Frank Herbert") that only he could get away with and still seem endearing.

More about Moebius and Dune can be found here, including more storyboards.

By the end of the film you really wish he'd made his movie. But The Incal is a pretty amazing consolation prize, deserving of a film of its own, if it could be trimmed down and rejigged to make sense to a mainstream audience that wasn't stoned. It's filled with his groovy, positive spiritual concepts, the same sort of ones he brought to Dune.

He's all about the collective unconscious and dreams.

Jodorowsky gets even more cosmic with his next work: Metabarons, illustrated by Juan Giménez. It contains many elements from Incal, only weirder. Same goes for Technopriests. They're both beyond epic. The scope of his imagination is truly breathtaking. There can be no doubt that Jodorowsky is still in touch with his inner child, and a sense of unbridled enthusiasm and uninhibited creativity suffuses his work.

The collapse of the Dune film left Dan O'bannon broke and sleeping on a friend's couch. That's where he wrote Aliens. It must have been some couch. He hired an artist he met while working on the Dune project to design the xenomorph: H.R. Giger.

The rest is cinema history.

O'Bannon went on to write the whacky Lifeforce (1985) about hot naked space vampires, the B-17 sequence of the Heavy Metal movie (the only memorable bit), Blue Thunder (1983), Total Recall (1990), Alien vs. Predator (2004), and Invaders from Mars (1986). He also directed the cult classic Return of the Living Dead in 1985.

H.R. Giger worked on a number of films, but is best remembered for Alien and his atmospheric and disturbing paintings that tortuously merge human bodies with cybernetic parts. He's also known for referring to himself in the third person.

Foss' art graced the covers of an entire generation of sci-fi novels. He worked on the 1980 Flash Gordon film, and illustrated The Joy of Sex, although there are no spaceships in it.

The documentary finishes with some inspirational comments by Jodo, as he's known to his friends.

I left feeling uplifted.

Tim's (Wonderful) Vermeer

Tim Jenison and the producers, only really really tiny.

TIFF is in full swing here in Toronto. Saw Tim's Vermeer; it's excellent.

The film follows eccentric genius Tim Jenison in his quest to paint a Vermeer, inspired by David Hockney's book, Secret Knowledge.

And he does.

Paintings from the Atelier Museum

There was a tragic story around the model below. That's all I remember now...

Locomotive hits Metro Toronto Convention Centre during Fan Expo

Fan Expo was almost engulfed in disaster when a locomotive was driven right onto the convention floor, presumably after running out of control from the neighboring rail yard.

I stood my ground, took out my camera, and fearlessly snapped this picture before it bumped into my table and came to a stop.

And checked out some comics.

Whew.

Akhenaton

From the British Museum. Had this image in a colouring book when I was a kid. Such a pleasure to see the original.

Rebel Angels has LAUNCHED on Comixology!

Rebel Angels has LAUNCHED!

Available now as a digital download on Comixology... for FREE.

That's right: FREE.

Support an indie artist: download a copy today!

It's good luck. Every time you buy a copy of Rebel Angels, an Angel gets their wings.

http://www.comixology.com/Rebel-Angels-1/digital-comic/47398

Sand sculptures at the Canadian National Exhibition

Really striking work, particularly the first piece. Always something to see at the CNE.

Princesses in Peril: Hostages of TM

Interesting article.

It focuses mostly on the use of trademarks to monopolize the presentation of a public domain character, strangling usage by independent artists. It effectively preempts copyright. You'll be beaten down by trademark infringement claims and never even get that far.

When large corporations build their revenue flow on characters that will eventually enter public domain, it means... they will never enter public domain.

My understanding is that copyright was meant to protect an author's revenue during his or her lifetime, and for a period after. Then the property would enter public domain, giving it new life and adding to the cultural stew.

Instead, laws will be changed. Not only that, corporate legal teams will work to nail down and monopolize as much material as possible, including public domain characters.

They will bully and intimidate independent voices into silence, which is unforunate to say the least.

If the article is correct, corporations are just expanding their arsenal by misusing trademarks.

More on the difference between copyright and trademark here.

Nature

 

Rebel Angels Poster: Diving into the Phlegethon before DIs

Behold, mighty Balthazar leaping into the River Phlegethon, before the City of Dis.

Image from the Rebel Angels, the upcoming satirical graphic novel by James Turner, of Nil: A Land Beyond Belief and Rex Libris fame, about the beginning of a counter-revolution in the Infernal Realm. Find out if Hell really is other people in this instant classic comic book. The first 70 pages are available right now for FREE from Comixology here.

Available next spring from your local comic book shop.

Fridge Chess Set

Packaged set of button magnets, including board and turn indicator to remember whose turn it is between trips to the fridge.

Second Printing reviews Max Zing

Graig Kent over at Second Printing give Max Zing, my latest book, a gander.

"His Warlord of IO characters are perfect fits for the three and four panel template giving a quasi Peanuts-meets-Calvin and Hobbs-meets-Flash Gordon feel."

Exactly what I was aiming for! Very gratifying. This calls for a drink on a patio.

Take a look at what else they had to say while I'm gone.

Huggamugga

Look! It's me in the morning.

Life Drawing

TED talk by Ken Robinson: Do schools kill creativity?

They do if they churn out future factory workers.

Sir Ken Robinson decries the censorious nature of mainstream schooling and the crushing of eccentricity.

School is often a conformity factory, shoving round pegs into square holes, pushing until they fit.

Instructors have a my-way-or-the-highway attitude, and they're up front and belligerent. Do it their way or get out. Others take it upon themselves to 'cull the herd' by being as vicious and discouraging as humanly possible. They even take pride in their self-appointed role of eliminating the weak.

Thank goodness for open minded teachers, who try to excite and encourage students, rather than blinker them. Schools note aberrant behaviour (too active, too eccentric, too this, too that) and suppress it.

Robinson's talk presents some excellent reasons why this can be counter-productive.

There are many ways to go about things. People think differently and approach problems in a multitude of ways and from wildly different perspectives. You have to leave people room to 'breathe' mentally, as it were. Humans vary to such an extent that a one-size-fits-all education system will never be able to accommodate the breadth of human diversity.

The question, I suppose, is how can discipline be imposed and costs kept within reasonable limits without stunting the intellectual growth of students or neglecting their potential.

Kick-Ass 2: Threat or Danger to Civilization?

"Kick-Ass 2: Unpleasantness at its worst," blares The Globe and Mail's Adam Nayman. "It’s a big story that Jim Carrey withdrew his support for Kick-Ass 2 based on its violent content. One wonders if the actor – whose role in the sequel as a star-spangled sociopath is really just an extended cameo – was ready to stand behind the scene where high school girls projectile vomit after being zapped with cattle prods. Or the one where a super-villain comes up short in his attempt to rape his nemesis’s lover due to a case of erectile dysfunction."

New York Post critic Kyle Smith writes, "Twenty-five years ago a film like this would have inspired sober op-eds and congressional hearings. Today we realize the fall of the Republic is not going to ensue, but that doesn't mean the movie's frantic lunges at the inappropriate don't become tiresome at times."

Moviefone's Sandie Angula Chen claims "the extreme violence and that one sexual assault joke are inexcusable."

'One of the stupidest sequels ever, ' adds Susan Granger of SSG Syndicate.

Apparently she's never seen Batman and Robin, Superman IV, or The Phantom Menace. 

Whatever.

Obviously this film has ruffled the feathers of critics; it currently averages 28% on Rotten Tomatoes. 

Ouch.

Yet I enjoyed it. 

What gives? 

Am I  a tasteless, uneducated, plebeian boor too unsophisticated to know I should be in a state of perpetual, sanctimonious outrage?

Well, probably, but that's another issue entirely.

Make no mistake: Kick Ass 2 does aim to provoke, shock, and transgress. It's excessive and far from perfect. But inexcusable? Unpleasantness at its worst? Stupidest sequel ever?

Really?

Is the film in poor taste? Frequently.

Savagely violent? Repeatedly.

Vulgar and offensive to Bourgeoise sensibilities? Definitely.

Some of the opprobrium directed at Kick-Ass 2 may be out of fear that it will inspire copycats in the real world. That I can understand, and it seems to have been Jim Carey's concern. The film will mostly be watched after theatrical release on DVD by male teens too young to get in the theatre.

It's R-rated, and appropriately so.

Yet Kick-Ass 2 has more heart than the by-the-numbers Wolverine or Man of Steel, more emotional resonance than the ponderous, turgid Pacific Rim, isn't as clunky as the earnestly didactic call to class war Elysium, and makes more sense than the senseless Star Trek: Into Darkness. Those films all felt like they were churned off the same studio assembly line, just painted in different colours. 

Action in the Kick-Ass franchise proceeds from character, as it should. Some blockbusters forget this. It's not always easy to do. Remember Prometheus. 

Dave (also known as Kick-Ass) is secondary this time around; the real standout is Mindy (Hit Girl). Dave's eager to get back out and play superhero. Mindy, on the other hand, really is one, but struggles not to be. She tries to fit in, to be normal. She isn't: she's superlative. It makes her one of the more compelling female characters this year. 

These two kids, in spite of everything around them, seem more like actual people than anyone in Wolverine. 

Dave, for example, behaves abysmally towards his own father, exhibiting selfishness that gives him greater depth and horrible regrets. But he comes across as a teenager, not a demigod.

Even the villain is, comparatively, well rounded. Chris, The Mother•cough•, is the pathetic, wimpy antagonist who aspires to be a super villain and is entirely unequal to the task. His desire to be bad-ass is well founded and motivated: he's out to avenge the death of his dad at the hands of the hero. Frustrated by his own inadequacies he proceeds anyway, out of sheer determination, anger, stupidity, and narcissism.

In a drama, his inadequacy as a villain would be a flaw. Here, it's a feature. He's a more interesting villain than, say, General ZZZZod or that inconsistent guy whats-his-face in Wolverine. 

Anyone actually find ol' Zod compelling? And I'm not talking about Terrence Stamp. In Man of Steel Zod's a cardboard cutout, there to punch and be punched, so constrained by movie structure that he couldn't do anything unexpected or even interesting. At one point I thought he was on the verge of doing something different, of breaking the mold, before sinking back into the same old, same old. 

The villain in Wolverine is so forgettable I don't remember his name. He didn't have a single memorable line. Chris 'The Mother*cough*'? He's got several, including a great one: 'Like an evil Jesus.' That got a laugh out of me.

Going to Hell, yeah, I know.

The highly controversial rape joke emphasizes how inadequate Chris is as a super villain. It fits with his character. His imprisoned uncle calls him 'special', and not in a flattering way. He tries to box and gets his ass whupped. Ultimately he realizes his superpower is being super rich, so he sets about buying his way to infamy.

Chris is the flip side of the flawed, wannabe heroes. All these people are striving to be something they are not. Except Hit Girl. She's the real deal, the only one who is, at heart, a superhero, and the only one trying hard not to be.

Adam Graham of Detroit News claims "Kick-Ass 2 is and joyless exercise in brutality dressed up as a Comic-Con fever dream... How’s this for fun: In one scene, 10 police officers are brutally murdered on a suburban street in broad daylight by a costumed villain known as Mother Russia. Each is disposed of in an increasingly intricate way, capping off with a pair of cops being chopped to death by a lawnmower that smashes through the front windshield of their vehicle."

Quelle Horreur! Over-the-top deaths in cinema. Unheard of! How odd I seem to remember Steve Buscemi being shoved into a wood chipper in the critically acclaimed Fargo. Not enough? The entire Saw franchise is built on torture porn. Six Feet Under began every week with a gruesome death; one man was shredded to bits in a dough mixer. James Bond films feature innovative, macabre deaths accompanied by a flip quip. Death played for laughs precedes Kick-Ass.

And what about Game of Thrones, one of the top shows on television? 

Well, let's take a looksie:

A character is tortured for an entire season in one of the most prolonged examples of on screen sadism and torture ever filmed. It culminates in the victim's member being lopped off, which segues to a scene in which his tormentor eats a sausage before him, hinting that that's no sausage. 

A sadist forces a prostitute to torture her peer. With growing horror, she's forced to escalate from spanking the girl to striking her with a horned implement (and worse); she's later killed by the same sadist, slowly, with a dozen carefully placed crossbow bolts while she's tied to a bed.

A fellow has a hand cut off and then hung around his neck to torment him. He's then given piss to drink.

A father has sex with dozens of his own female children, who give birth to further inbred, grandchildren; he gives the boys away to monsters for likely unspeakable purposes.

A young girl brutally stabs an adult in the neck repeatedly with a knife.

People are decapitated, burned alive, abuse animals, engage in sex with siblings, their own children, murder their guests, prostitute out their own sisters to warlords, have orgies, curse, graphically give birth to nightmarish shadow creatures that crawl out of their wombs, are given molten crowns, kill prisoners by letting starving rats eat into their chests, and generally behave deplorably. 

Kick Ass 2, ''the year's most unpleasant movie,' pales by comparison. 

And what about Boardwalk Empire? Or the neck-snapping sex scenes in True Blood? 

Or STARZ's Spartacus: Blood and Sand?

How about some choice Spartacus dialogue:

"A gladiator does not fear death, he embraces it, he caresses it, he fucks it. Each time he enters the arena he slips his cock in the mouth of the beast, and prays to thrust home before the jaws snap shut."

"Tit size and cunt all appear to be without disease or deformity, which tells me the fault is not in the flesh but in the bitch."

"The gods have seen it fit yet again to spread cheeks and jam cock in ass."

Charming.

And I'm supposed to get worked up over Kick-Ass 2? Seriously?

TV has worse language.

KA2 will not appeal to everyone, not by a long shot, but if you enjoyed the first film, you'll likely dig the second. I did. And I'd rate it higher in entertainment value than the majority of this summer's blockbusters.

No, it's not politically correct. Very much the opposite. And it does indulge in gratuitous violence. 

Chloe Grace Moretz was excellent in the first film but I'd be hesitant to let her watch it at the time.

It's an adult film that pushes buttons and which, ultimately, will be mostly viewed by male teens on DVD.

But that doesn't mean it's an abomination. The kids are already watching cable.

ComicSpectrum reviews Rebel Angels Issue One

Great review by Ian Gowan over at ComicSpectrum of the first issue of Rebel Angels, including a pull quote to die for: "The comic Rebel Angels is as if 15th century's Hieronymus Bosch came back to life today to do a horror/humor comic strip."

Heironymus Bosch reference up front and centre.

Aim high, I say. And Hieronymus is pretty up there in my book.

There are a few caveats, of course, but Gowan got a lot of laughs out of the material and has some very high praise for the artwork. Satire, action, comedy, demons, and mind blowing architectural set pieces. What more could you want? A story? Got that, too.

Check it out.

Find out the truth about hell at your local comic shop next spring when the paperback is released.

AtomicSam reviews Rebel Angels Issue One

Sam Aguirre over at AtomicSam takes a gander at Rebel Angels and likes what he sees. He notes that the book "deals with many of the hot-button issues that plague our world today. Immigration reform, civil unrest, and a disillusioned populous are all touched upon in the first issue of the series."

"Turner's work in Rebel Angels is clever, and sometimes poignant."

High praise indeed!

Regarding the art, Aguirre says, "Just about every page could be a print, worthy of framing and hanging in your living room. The kind of art that your friends would look at and say, 'Wow look at that! Where did you get that interesting work? Clearly you have good taste when it comes to these things."

Nice.

He has some caveats, but honestly, I couldn't hope for a more positive review.

Rebel Angels will be released online via Comixology this month.

Graphic Policy reviews Rebel Angels Issue One

The verdict?

Rather lukewarm endorsement.

Sean A. Guynes didn't dig the story much (at all), but did enjoy the art work, comparing it to Craig McCracken's (Powerpuff Girls).

Check it out.

WIRED's 101 Signals: the best writers, thinkers, and reporters on the net

Well, so they say. I am conspicuously absent. But it's a great collection of links; no matter what you're into, there's something here for you.

The net reduced to 16 pundits.

Check it out.

Spin VFX Game of Thrones Effects Work

Great video showing the 3D and compositing work Spin VFX do for Game of Thrones.

The results are amazing.

Feature film quality every week.

Check it out.

Demon Statues

Bronze ones based on the etchings of Louis Le Breton, and resin ones of Bosch's creations.

Just in time for Christmas.

Map Heaven

Twisted Sifter has compiled an absolutely awesome collection of maps. Here are just two. There are 38 more.

We don't need no stinking elevator!

Apparently the Intempo skyscraper in Spain has no functioning elevator, after being expanded from 20 to 47 stories.

No worries.

I'm sure they'll be able to sell this as a fitness feature.

Roll with the punches.

Stereo

Open Top

Eureka!

A Loving Lord

For The Globe and Mail

Best of the Top 50 Highest-Grossing Films of All Time

The top 50 highest-grossing films of all time includes such eyeball pummeling fare as Transformers, The Hobbit, and Pirates of the Caribbean. 

It's no surprise that franchises with pirates, superheroes, spaceships, dinosaurs, or wizards dominate. They're either huge action adventure flicks or 3D kids films.

Does this mean the ultimate blockbuster would pit evil space pirate dinosaurs against an adopted superhero wizard?

Or is that a jump too far?

The one oddball in the group is The Da Vinci Code. It really sticks out.

But there are some gems. Out of the top fifty, these are the 10 best, the ones I'd take to a deserted island that inexplicably has a widescreen TV, power, and a DVD player:

1) Star Wars (Episode IV)
2) The Lion King
3) Jurassic Park
4) Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
5) Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
6) Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
7) Finding Nemo
8) The Dark Knight
9) Shrek 2
10) Lord of the Rings: Return of the King

Warlord of Io Promo Video Number Deux

Another silly promo video for Warlord of Io. Whut can I say? I like silly. Warlord of Io is a graphic novel by James Turner, of Rex Libris fame, about a rich kid who inherits a planet, but he only wants to play video games. Can the space empire survive? The book merrily mushes and stomps together sci-fi tropes into a fine wine of bubbly retro-future goodness that hits the palate with delight, humour, and a touch of oak. Check it out. Published by SLG under the fearless leadership of Dan Vado.

Hell Lost Wraps Up

Hell Lost: Book One is done. Finished. Written in virtual stone with an emboss filter. Give it a look, a like, a tweet, a blog; thanks to all who gave it a read.

Now it is time for a vacation.

As a door closes, new ones open...

Hell Lost: The Penultimate Page

Check it out. Thermidor lies in ruins as the War Party (BYOB) dies down. Lots of elements to linger over, and a few references. Can you spot them?

Killer

Broken Frontier Interview

Levi Hunt interviews yours truly over at Broken Frontier about my new graphic novel: Rebel Angels.

Check it out, give it a read, a pin, a like, a tweet.

Pick your social media poison.

There are pictures!

Movie Rating Mania: This is the End, Iron Man III, and Haywire

This is the End

Affable, comedian doofuses try to survive The Apocalypse. It's a plotless, self-indulgent home movie pumped up with blockbuster quality effects, but also intermittently hilarious in a juvenile, crude way.

Better watched with beer, pretzels, and some buddies. That's how they wrote it. Well. Plus pot. And maybe some coke. Not sure if prostitutes were involved, but it is Hollywood.

Cinema Worthiness: 3

Character: 6.5

Story: 4

Action: 2

Costume Design: Whatever was on hand

Production Design: 5

Visual Effects: 7

Plot holes: Just add to the fun

Funny: 7.5 

Iron Man III

Where The Avengers was two thirds punching and one third wit, Iron Man III is two thirds wit and one third punching. Robert Downey Junior owns the role and elevates this effects-fest above the competition almost single handedly.

He excels at being a charming, brilliant, flippant dick.

Cinema Worthiness: 7.5
Characters: 7 (Robbie 9)

Story: 5
Action: 7.5
Costume Design: 7
Production Design: 8
Visual Effects: 8.5
Plot holes: Large but you can weave between them
Funny: 6.5 (Mostly Downey, but others get some precious lines)

Haywire

Bare bones revenge plot serves as an excuse to serve up fight scenes. You get plenty of them, and lead Gina Carano is convincing as a tough, sexy, female assassin. When she beats someone up, you can believe it.

Stylish but forgettable.

The material doesn't give Carano much chance to act, but if she can, she'd be a great Wonder Woman.

Cinema Worthiness: 5

Character: There were characters?

Story: 3.5

Action: 9

Costume Design: 5

Production Design: 5

Visual Effects: 7.5

Plot holes: There was a plot? Oh yeah...

Funny: 3

14-Year-Old's Photo Manipulation

BuzzFeed posted a set of great photo manipulations by a high school student, Zev, titled "This 14-Year-Old Boy Is Kicking Your Ass At Photo Manipulation."

And he is.

Once upon a time, Photoshop was a college level undertaking.

Now experts can be found in high school. Grade school is next. Software engineering will be arriving in kindergarten within a decade.

Change.

Movie Rating Mania: The Hunger Games, The Pirates, Men in Black III

The Hunger Games

Cute kids fight to the death and slit each other's throats for the amusement of post-apocalyptic America in this dystopic epic starring Jennifer Lawrence, based on the uberpopular young adult book by Suzanne Collins.

Mostly shot in verdant forest (cheap to shoot but spectacular), it's like happy-time-summer-camp movie meets Death Match. 

Kids can relate to competing for position, and feeling helpless in a mad world run by manipulative adult hypocrites. It's emotional truth over rational perspective, but it resonates. 

The twist, and every film ending these days worth it's salt seems to have one, is actually pretty good. Enjoyable and primal, Hunger Games may be too intense for smaller younglings.

Cinema Worthiness: 7

Character: 6

Story: 7

Action: 8

Costume Design: 7

Production Design: 7

Visual Effects: 7

Plot holes: Nothing that derailed the flow 

Funny:3

The Pirates

Aardman's first film since Wallace & Gromit: The Curse  of the Were-Rabbit, it starts with promise but never delivers. So visually scrumptious you can serve it as a dessert, it lacks both heart and conviction.

A real shame, given the craft behind it.

The jokes are limp and the film drags.

Completely inoffensive, Pirates is torpedoed by its own good natured blandness.

Even the voice acting of Brian Blessed can't save it. 

Cinema Worthiness: 4

Character: 6.5

Story: 4

Action: 6

Costume Design: 8.5

Production Design: 8.5

Visual Effects: 8

Plot holes: Don't care 

Funny: 5

Men in Black III

After the cataclysmic cinema disaster that was MIB II, no one expected anything from this effort, but MIB III delivers in spades. It even has heart. Barry Sonnenfeld unexpectedly returns as director, and Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones reprise their roles in spite of it. Well. Mostly. Tommy is replaced by his younger self, Josh Brolin, much of the time. His impersonation of Tommy Lee is freakishly uncanny. Maybe Tommy Lee Jones has secretly invented time travel and brought his younger self forward to co-star. Two paychecks. Booyah!

Tommy Lee/Josh Brolin's Agent K must stop the repulsive Boris the Animal (Jemaine Clement) from going back in time and destroying the world in the future. Whatever. It sets up lots of action and jokes. Clement is criminally underused here, after his brilliant turn in the otherwise disappointing Gentlemen Broncos. Perhaps the director's cut will give him more screen time. As it is, the film focuses on Smith and Brolin's relationship. Michael Stuhlbarg's precognitive alien Griffin has some fun with time travel tropes.

Worth a watch.

Cinema Worthiness: 7.5

Character: 7.5

Story: 7

Action: 7

Costume Design: 7

Production Design: 8.5

Visual Effects: 8.5

Plot holes: Again, didn't care

Funny: 7

Barbie says storytelling is hard. No, wait...

Barbie says math is hard.

And that's true.

So is storytelling. 

Just ask a movie critic.

Big blockbusters these days look better than ever, but they aren't grabbing me emotionally in even the perfunctory way an action film should. 

The way Die Hard did, back in the day. 

Todays action films are superficial imitations, without the underlying meaning or heart. It's turning me off mainstream cinema, and it's a shame, because so much work and incredible talent is poured into them. I just gape at the production design of these magnificent cinema confections.

On a certain level, it feels petty to criticize such magnificent visual feasts. 

And there's a growing movement of Suck-it-ups out there who insist movies just be blindly accepted, without any critical evaluation by the audience: 'You'll take what's given to you, you ignorant, spoiled masses, and you'll like it. Biatch!'

Not the most appealing marketing slogan. 

We take our chances when we go to the cinema, as with most other things. Theodore Sturgeon famously claimed that ninety percent of everything is crap. We remember Casablanca, and think that era was better. Yet they churned out films by the dozen (hundred?) back then, with the same speed and efficiency they used to pump out of B-17 bombers and blockbuster bombs. 

Thousands of forgettable films have been rightly forgotten.

Movies are such massive endeavors now it's a miracle any of them turn out as hoped. Almost nothing in them can be criticized in isolation. Not the actor, the writer, the producer, the director, or the effects; everything is interconnected. Related. Sometimes these competing elements gel and it's magical. Most of the time, it doesn't, without even being the fault of anyone involved. It leaves everyone perplexed, wondering what went wrong.

Even The Man, Steven Spielberg, has made a dud or two. 

Wolverine

The characters aren't engaging, and the underlying emotional themes didn't resonate. On the plus side there's lots of decently choreographed action. 

To top it off, the ending has a lead-in to the next X-Men film. 

That's the best part.

Hugh Jackman delivers the usual gruff, tortured hero with aplomb, but only Tao Okamoto stands out from the supporting cast. The most intriguing thing about her character is that she seems surprised to be in an action movie.

Cinema Worthiness: 6.5

Character: 4

Story: 3

Action: 6.7

Costume Design: 4

Production Design: 6

Visual Effects: 6

Plot holes: Noticeable, but low expectations make them easier to ignore

Funny: 3

Man of Steel

This Superman cares about innocent bystanders as much as Joe 'Steel' (Stalin) did. Is it something about taking 'Steel' as a moniker? He used to care about innocents being killed in the crossfire.

No longer. 

And after the destruction and carnage finally end, we skip over the deaths of millions to a chipper fellow asking out a couple chicks to a ball game. 

Classy.

That being said, I thought it was a beautifully shot film; some sequences look like an expensive insurance commercial, they're so finely tuned and directed. On the other hand, Snyder can be heavy handed (such as placing Christ directly behind Superman in the church). 

Cinema Worthiness: 7.2

Character: 5.5

Story: 5

Action: 8

Costume Design: 8

Production Design: 9

Visual Effects: 9.5

Plot holes: Planet devouring, movie derailing singularities

Funny: 1 

Oblivion

Looks gorgeous. Jaw dropping good. Great effects, wonderful design work, fabulous sets, breathtaking vistas. Filming the post-apocalypse in Iceland was a stroke of genius.

Would make a lovely series of postcards.

Cruise jumps about and throws all his considerable energy into the role. He's always interesting to watch. Morgan Freeman pops up briefly to explicate, and manages to look even more bored than he did in White House Down.

I didn't think that was possible.

Cinema Worthiness: 7

Character: 3

Story: 3

Action: 5

Costume Design: 7

Production Design: 9.5

Visual Effects: 8.5

Plot holes: Sucked up the entire ending, then ate my brain

Funny: 2

Movie Review: Pacific Rim

Pacific Rim is Godzilla plastered in hundred dollar bills, from the tip of his steaming nostrils to the end of his armour plated tail. 

An American film set in Hong Kong and based on Japanese monster movies, it stars an international cast (Japanese, British, American, Australian, Chinese) and is directed by a Spaniard.

Talk about Globalization. 

The dialogue is perfunctory, and much of it was unintelligible due to poor sound quality. But are you really missing much?

Characters are over the top and drawn with broad brush strokes. One seems defined by his bow tie and mutton chops. There's not a lot of room for them, but there's an awful lot of punching.

The actors include Charlie Hunnam, who does a decent job as your typical, square jawed lead, and Idris Elba who brings his usual gravitas. Rinko Kikuchi deploys a devastating demure gaze. Caricatures make up the rest of the cast, as they did in the giant monster movies of old.
Obviously, the real stars are the monsters (Kaiju) and the giant robots (Jagers).

The props are impressive, and the design work impeccable. It has the feel of a real, lived in world, albeit one where the Laws of Physics have been beaten near to death.

It's fun, and if I were ten I'd have absolutely loved it. Unfortunately, I am no longer as enamored by giant robots pummeling gargantuan monsters for ten minutes at a time as I once was.

And this film has a lot of punching in it.

Did I mention the punching? Granted, that's a feature for many, but it went over my tolerance level and drove me into boredom. Just too much of a good thing. Because it's well done punching.

I must be getting old.

The fights are almost all shot in rain or underwater (They seem to forget they're underwater at times), making the effects work easier. Godzilla did that trick a decade ago.

For some reason I keep mentioning that big green lizard guy.

Unfortunately chaotic camera work makes it feel like Godzilla crashed The Bourne Identity and stepped on poor Jason. Shaky-cam vérité on an epic scale. It works for the most part, but I found it hard to understand what was going on as big, rain soaked and unidentifiable monster or robot parts flew by.
The giant robots were suitably magnificent, and much easier to interpret onscreen than their Transformer peers. Del Toro kept their surfaces much cleaner. Transformer bots look like massive jumbles of indecipherable machinery packed into a dense mass.

A rule of thumb I remember being put forward by an ILM alum is that the audience should be able to 'read' a shape within three seconds of it appearing onscreen. If it's more complex than that, you're going to confuse a lot of eyeballs.

The monsters had extra legs and arms and weird blue goo oozing nematocysts sticking out all over and didn't always fare as well on my retina, but the fundamental aesthetic of them was intriguing. Ace fantasy-anatomy artist Wayne Barlowe was behind many, and his genius shines through.

You can tell Guillermo Del Toro loves the whole giant monster genre, and he pours his enthusiasm into every frame. This is no hack job, but a real tribute. There are some wonderful touches and details to be found in the film. Far superior to the Transformer franchise. Just not quite my cup of tea these days.

Little boys will love it. Probably be video games and toys to follow.

There better be.

They have a 200 million dollar budget to recover!

But is it Art?

There's an interesting article at VICE about modern art. The author says he just doesn't get it. And you know what? I get that.

All the discussion makes me think of Piero Manzoni's canned shit pieces from 1961. In 2007, they commanded $181,374 per can. Unfortunately the methane build-up in the cans causes them to occasionally explode, covering the cognoscente with excrement.

How poetic.

I wrote about the friction between Fine Art and mere commercial art here. If you've ever had the displeasure of taking a Fine Art course at Guelph, you'll know what I mean.

More artwork made, quite literally, out of shit here.

Craft vs. Anti-Craft

James Kochalka argues with Jeff Levine and James Woodring about the need for craft in comics over at The Comics Journal.

Is craft the enemy? Is it holding you back? Or is it an enabler, once mastered? Or is it a yummy faux-cheese snack?

The Ancient Elite of Snobby Craft Lovers and the People's Revolutionary Craft Denialist Front are clutched together in a death grip argument that will outlive eternity (or maybe next Wednesday).

Visit the pot, cackle over the bon mots and angry denunciations, and then drink the tea.

Pacific Rim does Wallstreet

Chaos on Wallstreet, Godzilla style. I'd pay to see Bernie Madoff and the Stockbrokers flee. Be a good name for an industrial band that wants to strike fear into the middle class bourgeoisie.

Say... does Godzilla do Gungam?

Stock Head: The Ultimate Financial Advisor

Total immersion. For a magazine article.

Do you work here?

Illustration on chaos in the office place. Look familiar?