Carl Alves's Blog, page 22

Movie Review: Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2

I had lowered my expectations for the second offering in the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise for the reason that most sequels fail to live up to the original movie in the series, especially when the first movie is exceptional. As it turns out, there was no need to lower expectations, since this movie knocked it out of the park.

The best Marvel movies are the ones that mix in humor, great action and effects, along with a compelling story line. This movie had all three of those elements, most notably humor. Ninety percent of the comedies I watch don’t have me laughing the way this movie did. The star of the show was Baby Groot. He had me cracking up in almost every scene that he was in. The opening sequence was terrific where the Guardians were battling this interdimensional monster while Groot was dancing to Star Lord’s mix sequence. The scene where he is helping Yondu and Rocket escape from a jail cell is absolutely classic.

The plot was strong as well featuring Star Lord finally encountering his dad—a Marvel character that doesn’t have anything to do with Star Lord. He goes to Ego, his father’s planet, which is an extension of his father. Drax was terrific in this movie. I also like how they expanded Yondu’s character, and really gave him some depth to his character. He was more of a generic bad guy in the previous movie. There were some awesome cameos in this movie, including a return of Stan Lee, who was absent from Logan. I’m not ready to say that this was better than the first movie, but it is clearly worth watching.

10 Questions with TJ Weeks

1. If you could only read one book for the rest of your life, what would it be?



Deadlock by Iris Johansen



2. Tell me more about your story Site 48 in the Crossroads in the Dark 2 anthology?



It’s a story I came up with about the legendary monster Wendigo. It’s about a group of kids that go camping in a childhood forest one last time after losing their parents, but what awaits them is something else entirely.



3. What current writing projects are you working on?



I’m working on book 4 of my series ‘The Horror Squad’, which is in the process of becoming a movie that’ll be released May 2017 by FoxTrot Productions.



4. How did your time in the military affect you as a writer?



It affected me greatly. You can find many clips from my books that are from actual experiences that I had overseas. It also helped make up my mind to publish my work. Get busy living or get busy dying.



5. What type of scenes do you most enjoy writing?



I enjoy writing twists more than anything.



6. Out of all of your published works, what are you most proud of?



I’m proud of all of my work, but my favorite would probably be ‘The Horror Squad’.



7. What made you want to start writing horror?



Horror has always fascinated me. It brings in fear, shock, suspense & unsettling urges of everyday life that you get to relieve on paper.



8. What is your best quality as a writer?



That would probably be a more appropriate question for my fans to answer, but if I had to break it down I’d say my ability to dip into a mixtures of genres.



9. If you could pick one other author to collaborate with on a novel or story, living or dead, who would it be?



There are too many authors out there that I thoroughly enjoy to list just one. Besides, I’ve learned over the years that no matter how awesome an author is, doesn’t mean your style of writing will mesh well with their style of writing.



10. If you could invite five people to a dinner party (alive or dead, real or fictional) who would you invite?



Thomas A. Watson, Tina Watson, Allen Gamboa, James Wallace & Lisa Marie Williams. (We would probably need bail money.)

10 Questions with WJR Parks

1. Who has been your biggest influence as a writer?



I couldn't put one single author as my influence. Multiple writers have influenced me. Perhaps Edger Poe would be the one that started me in writing. Poetry captured me when I was younger and I wrote hundreds of poems. Mostly, I kept to dark poetry so I didn't win very many competitions or get published since there isn't a demand for it. Most people like to read light or inspirational poems.



Other writers such as Shakespeare, Ann Rice, Steven King, Dean Koontz, Lee Child molded my style of writing and taught me about scenes and action. I will say, my biggest influence for action scenes is R.A. Salvatore and his Drizzt books.



2. Tell me more about your Raven’s World series?



Well, Raven will start with the first three books focusing on her creation, but I plan to grow her world. I do wish to branch off into the stories of my vampires and half angels.



Eventually werewolves will join along with witches and other hidden groups. I have outlined various characters in her world, but for now I'm just trying to get her books out which is a journey in itself. I'd like to have stand alone novels of her come out every couple years if I can that will lead into the future a few hundred years in her story.



3. What current writing projects are you working on?





The second book in Raven's series. I have many stories stored on my computer along with characters and drawings, but I usually take on one main project at a time and roll with it until it's finished. I do have another big project I eventually hope to make into an epic series. Solare is more of a fantasy based world and will be my main world that I plan to keep working on till I'm dead and gone. It will be filled with gigantic dragons the size of mountains, wizards, warriors, assassins and all the things readers would come to expect from such a world.



4. How has role playing games influenced your fiction?



Well from all the games I played since 14 years of age, I made journals and timelines of the world I created for Dungeons and Dragons. From that I created Solare and outlined my characters from the friends that played in it. I also have about 500 pages worth of gods, characters, events and history of Solare. So with that, when my Raven series is taking a break, I aim to finish my first three books of Solare. Playing role-playing games helped me add color and depth, because well my friends made all the characters unique with their own personalities.



5. What type of scenes do you most enjoy writing?



By far, action scenes are my favorite. I would like to say that I have lots of action in my writing and it keeps me interested as a writer as well. I can't have my stories slow down too much or I lose attention. I try to study authors that create great actions scenes in their writing and take what I can and add to my own stories.



At the same time, I also try my best to bring out the people and subplots. I hope the story grips readers and they become emotionally involved with the characters. So, I have to make sure I don't go overboard with action and also remember to give life to all other elements of story.



6. What made you start writing?



I was trying to draw comic books since 4 years old. I learned that I hated drawing, inking, coloring and creating the stories for my comics. I actually got burnt out on drawing and only once a year do I get the drive to pick up my pencil. Now writing, well that really captures my attention and I can write a story faster than I can do all the drawing and everything else involved with comics.



7. Is there any subject that is off limits for you as a writer?



I don't think there is, well that I know of yet. I mean Raven is fantasy based, but eventually I do plan to delve into serious issues that our world faces. For me, the first books are just testing the waters and honing my writing. But my hope is to be able to write subject matter that may make people angry or shock them. I'll use my vampires as tools to say something to the world.



8. What is your best quality as a writer?



I'm not really sure, I think perhaps that I try not to keep going back and fixing my story once I start. I just write to the finish, even if there are typos, broken scenes, dialogue issues and what not. Nearly every writer friend I know keeps going back to what they have already written and begin to doubt or change scenes, then they go back again. I like to finish the story, then go back and polish.



9. If you could pick one other author to collaborate with on a novel or story, living or dead, who would it be?



It would have to be R.A. Salvatore, I just trust his way of writing action and his stories keep me interested.



10. If you could invite five people to a dinner party (alive or dead, real or fictional) who would you invite?



I would have two characters from my worlds for dinner. I would invite Raven from my vampire series and Perserphina from Solare series, Drizzet Do'Urden from Forgotten Realms, The Mother of Dragons from Game of Thrones. My last one would be a close tie between Lestat De Lioncourt or Niklaus from The Originals.

Movie Review: Logan

Logan is not your father’s Marvel movie. Following in the trend of releasing an annual edgier, more adult oriented movies, in this movie set in 2029, Wolverine is breaking down physically—apparently because of the adamantium in his body—something that doesn’t make any sense considering by this point he’s almost 200 years old and it hasn’t ever been a problem before, not to mention Wolverine is supposed to be completely indestructible. He’s become an alcoholic, a broken down mutant who is secretly caring for Professor X, who is now in his nineties and is dealing with Alzheimer’s—something that is especially dangerous considering his mental powers. The state of the mutants is not good. Almost all of the mutants, other than the few in this movie, are dead, and no new mutants have been born naturally in decades. When a girl mutant, who is a young, savage version of Wolverine, shows up begging for passage to Canada to meet up with the other mutants who have also been genetically created, a tired and broken down Wolverine must make a final stand against the forces of evil.

Logan is a gritty and intense movie. It’s also a bit depressing, seeing Wolverine in the state that he’s in and the mutants having been wiped out. Laura, the young Wolverine girl, is like a little animal. It was fun to see her interaction with Wolverine. Hugh Jackman displayed some diverse acting chops in this movie and showed his range as an actor beyond just hacking and slashing his way through a movie. The movie was long, but unlike X Men Apocalypse, it didn’t feel long. The ending didn’t ring true to me. It felt more like a convenient way out for Disney and Marvel, and was about the only downside to the movie. Otherwise, this was well worth watching.

10 Questions with John Dixon

1. Your background as a boxer, youth services case worker, and prison tutor all seem to influence your novel Phoenix Island. Specifically, how did your background help you write the novel?



It’s funny. When I was writing, I didn’t put much thought into my past experiences, but all of those things clearly played a big role in every step of Phoenix Island, from premise through marketing. I’ve always loved fighting, and I’ve spent my life trying to help kids and adults who’ve gone astray, so it makes sense that I ended up writing about an incarcerated boxer. It was fun to create Phoenix Island, the nightmare cousin to real-world teen boot camps, and I loved writing the fight scenes, which played out in my head like movies.



2. If you could only read one book for the rest of your life, what would it be?



It would have to be the Bible, which I read every day, though I would go insane without fiction. On that side of the fence, I would choose The Stand by Stephen King, my favorite story, a sprawling epic that I return to time and time again.





3. Your fight scenes are wonderfully written. How much did you draw upon your own combat sports experiences in crafting these scenes?



Thanks. Fighting has always been a part of my life. I come from a family of fighters – though I was the only boxer – and a town full of fighters. In elementary school, the boys would run to the back of the recess yard, slip behind the pine tree hedgerow, and toss knuckles. It was sort of two-thirds play, one-third serious. We’d get black eyes and split lips, but nobody was out to kill or anything like that. Middle school, things got more serious, as the various elementary schools came together, and we got bigger and cagier. Fewer fights but more serious. High school, it was serious business, though by that time, I was boxing and no longer interested in fighting outside the ring. Boxing became the center of my life for quite some time, and I trained in and hung out with practitioners of various other martial arts. I’ve always been interested – okay, obsessed – with fighting… so when I write fight scenes, I’m drawing on a lifetime of experiences… though I’m not fully aware of it, if that makes sense. It’s not like going to a dusty filing cabinet for the right details. Those scenes write themselves. I have a lot of fun writing them, especially if they’re emotionally charged, and they tend to rush out of me in a flood. Emotional charge is a really big deal. Too often, writers focus on fighting technique, describing specific attacks and defenses, sometimes in excruciatingly precise detail. Without emotion, these fight scenes feel choreographed and antiseptic.



4. What current writing projects are you working on?



I just finished the first draft of The Point (Del Rey, 2017), about a top-secret training program at a near-future West Point for cadets with extra-human abilities. It’s basically the X-Men go to West Point, and I had a blast writing it. Now I’m waiting on editorial notes and working on two books: a gritty crime thriller called Closing Time and Rolling Thunder, the first in a series of thrillers starring Jud Rawlins, a two-fisted drifter who helps people who can’t help themselves.



5. When you started writing Phoenix Island, did you intend for it to be a series, and how many additional novels will be part of that series?



I had intended to write several books about Carl Freeman, but the series landed on the back burner. Phoenix Island and Devil’s Pocket have done far better than I ever expected, garnishing wonderful reader reviews, winning back-to-back Bram Stoker Awards, and inspiring a major CBS TV series, Intelligence, but they still haven’t “earned out” their advance. I was only under contract for the two books, so once I’d delivered those, I had a long talk with my agent and decided to pause the series for the time being. I have a six-month-old daughter, so I have to focus on projects that will pay the bills. I do hope to come back to Carl, though. I miss hanging out with him, and there’s a lot of story left to tell.



6. What made you start writing?



I first started writing stories in third grade, thanks to my wonderful teacher, Mrs. Wolfe, who allowed me to write about all kinds of crazy stuff and who typed up one of my stories – I still have an original copy – and told my parents that I would be a professional author when I grew up. I can’t exaggerate the impact of her allowing me to write what I wanted to write, no matter how weird or ghoulish. I wrote a crazy story, over ten pages, about vampires and werewolves that I’m almost certain culminated in a crucifixion. Weird for an eight-year-old, right? But she was cool. I thanked her profusely at the end of Phoenix Island, and last year, when I wrote a novelette called “Chop Shop” for V-Wars: Shockwaves, I had to grin. I’d come full circle. It was the first time since third grade that I’d written about vampires and werewolves… and man, was it fun.



7. If you could choose one boxer who has ever lived to watch your back in a tense situation, who would you choose?



Jack Dempsey. Dempsey certainly wasn’t the best fighter of all time, but he led a rough-and-tumble life and fought with a brutally abrupt aggressiveness that would have translated well outside of the ring. Plus, I think of Jack Dempsey when I’m writing my new character, Jud Rawlins, so it would be cool to hang out with not only a boxing icon but also, kind-of-sort-of, one of my characters.



8. What is your best quality as a writer?



I work hard. I’m a blue-collar writer… not the most talented, just really, really determined.



9. If you could pick one other author to collaborate with on a novel or story, living or dead, who would it be?



Elmore Leonard. He was my favorite stylist, I loved his characters, and his books always make me laugh. Also, he was a fantastic human being, from what I hear, so it would’ve been fun, learning from him.



10. If Hollywood was making a film adaptation of Phoenix Island, and the director asked you to cast the role of Carl Freeman, who would you choose?



Not Josh Holloway. He’s a great actor and a nice guy, but when the producers of Intelligence, which was based on Phoenix Island and my pitch for the series, cast him, I was simultaneously thrilled and befuddled. On one hand, we’d just landed a top talent – probably the top available talent in TV at that moment in time – but on the other hand, Carl was sixteen, and Josh was in his early forties. Ultimately, the show ended up being way, way different than the book. I have my rights back now, though, so I do think about the question. If Hollywood makes a feature film, sticking closer to the book, I’d like to see someone younger in the role, like Taron Egerton, who played Eggsy in Kingsman. Ultimately, I’d want a tough-looking kid who could throw a convincing combination.

Phoenix Island by John Dixon

In Phoenix Island Carl Freeman is an orphan and champion amateur boxer who can’t stay out of trouble because he refuses to stand by while bullies hurt other kids. All of this leads him to Phoenix Island, a place outside of the United States, where a paramilitary mercenary organization is training kids like Carl to join their force. Those who don’t make the cut find themselves dead. There’s no going back from Phoenix Island. On the island Carl finds his mentor, the Old Man who runs Phoenix Force, but can he actually kill people on their behalf, especially when he finds out just what type of sinister operation they are running.



Carl stands out as a strong character in this novel. He’s had his share of troubles, but he’s the hero of the downtrodden, the voice for the voiceless. He holds onto these ideals even if it means big trouble for him as it does in this story. The one thing I had a hard time with this novel is the believability. The concept of Phoenix Island and the things that happen are a little hard to swallow considering that these are all minors and citizens of the United States. If you can get past that, you find a novel packed with action and intrigue. What I liked most about this novel were the fight scenes. From someone who thoroughly enjoys writing fight scenes and appreciates a well crafted fight, I admire the way Dixon choreographs these scenes. They are realistic, visual, and well described. I would probably not recommend it for younger readers, but for teens and older, this is a good read.

Movie Review: Life

After watching the movie Life, my first thought was why do aliens hate us so much? When was the last time there was a movie with an alien encounter, and the humans totally got along with the aliens? This movie just goes to show you that you can’t trust aliens, even when they start off as cute single-celled organisms and you give them a human name, like Calvin. Aliens and humans just can’t coexist so that get too attached to them.

This movie didn’t offer a whole lot in terms of novelty. It seems as if I’ve seen more than my share of horror movies set on space stations and horror movies featuring aliens as the bad guys. All the same, this was a quality horror movie. The movie starts off innocently enough, as the astronauts on the space station are enamored with little Calvin until he broke one of the astronaut’s hands into a million pieces and left it looking like something more appropriately on a rag doll instead of a human being. From there on it was all out war against Calvin, an intelligent jellyfish like creature that kept growing in size, and was more resilient than his human foes. As the movie goes along, Calvin becomes this indestructible wrecking machine, destroying everything in sight.

The cast in this movie was strong. Even Ryan Reynolds played his brief role well. I didn’t find the movie to be especially scary. It was more thrilling than anything else. The killings were also particularly gruesome, so if you’re someone with a weak stomach, then this movie wouldn’t work for you. The astronauts pitted wits against a creature that was far more formidable physically than them. They used the tools they had available on the space station to fight against Calvin, but that did not leave them with many options, especially with a creature that was able to survive outside of a space station, which would have killed the humans. I won’t spoil the ending, other than to say it wasn’t a typical movie ending, but I did see it coming, so they could have done a better job of camouflaging their intentions. On balance, this was a good sci-fi horror that you will want to watch if you are into either genre.

The Walking Dead: The First Day of the Rest of Your Life

I didn’t make many predictions prior to this episode, but within the first ten minutes of The First Day of the Rest of Your Life, I was able to figure out the three main things that happened in this episode: Sasha’s death – they spent far too much time focusing on her in a finale episode for it to result in anything other than her death; Jadis and her followers would turn on Alexandria – in retrospect this should have been obvious; the episode would end with Negan and the Saviors -they sure as hell weren’t going to end with a repeat of the previous season finale where Negan delivered his own version of justice on one of the Alexandrians via Lucile.

Sasha
As I mentioned above, there was no way Sasha was going to live through this episode. Besides just the amount of time they spent on her, it was also the strangeness of the scenes where she is in the dark listening to an iPod and her dream sequences with Abraham. What I didn’t see coming was that she was going to use Eugene’s suicide pill to turn herself into a zombie. In an episode where I was able to see most things coming, this was a genuine surprise and a good one at that. RIP Sasha.

Jadis
It really doesn’t make sense that Rick would enlist this group of automatons as their allies in the fight when they knew absolutely nothing about them. How could they possibly trust this group? The answer is they couldn’t, and it was dumb to try to do so when they had the Hilltoppers and the Kingdom on their side. Granted, they were reluctant to join the fight, but at least they knew that these were decent people and not a group of mindless robots. All I can say is, thank God Jadis and company aren’t fighting alongside the Alexandrians because there was no way in hell I could root for these people.

Ezekiel
The Kingdom came out with guns ablazing and saved the day along with the Hilltoppers. When things were at their bleakest for Rick and company, I figured that was exactly what was going to happen because Carl wasn’t going to get brained by a barbed wire baseball bat in this episode. On the one hand, it was a bit cheesy that both the Hilltoppers and the Kingdom coming at the exact moment that Carl was about to get killed. On the other hand, as an author, I’m guilty of doing this exact thing in some of my stories and novels, so who the hell am I to criticize?

Rick
This time Rick was able to stay strong in the face of adversity from Negan. Even with Carl’s impending execution, he stayed strong and told Negan this wasn’t going to change anything, that someday, somewhere he was going to kill him. Kudos for Rick. What I don’t get is why doesn’t Negan just kill Rick? That would make more sense. Michionne almost bites the dust here. That was an incredible makeup and effects job making her look convincingly as if she had been beaten to a bloody pulp.

All together, this was a strong finale, certainly better than last season’s awful finale. As Negan closed with, the next season will see war between these two sides.

The Walking Dead: Something They Need

The episode prior to the season finale is typically a fast paced one with lots of action and the occasional death or two of a significant character. Something They Need was more of a table setting episode. I can only expect that the finale will finally be the start of the war between the Saviors and all of the rest of the communities minus the Oceansiders. The positioning going on is reminiscent of the Allied forces in World War 2 aligning to take on the Nazis, with some participants being more reluctant than others.

Sasha
Surprise. Surprise. Surprise. I would never have guessed that Sasha’s ill-conceived attempt at assassinating Negan would result in her being captured. This whole story line has reeked of utter stupidity, and it is one of the weaker ones in the show’s history. Now Sasha is behind bars. She tries to trick Eugene into giving her a weapon, but instead he gives her pills to kill herself. So much for that plan. Sasha’s best move is to cozy up to Negan and bide her time until Rick and company attack.

Tara
Tara finally spills the beans about Oceanside. She kept that secret for like all of a week or so in the show’s timeline. At least they managed it without killing anyone. On the other hand, they did leave a community full of women and children without any weapons to defend themselves against the zombies.

Maggie
I will say it again, how the hell did Gregory become the leader of the Hilltoppers? What group of people would actually get this useless idiot to be their leader? If there was an election for the head of the donut committee, this dude wouldn’t win. This is probably the dumbest thing in this show’s history that he would actually be the leader of a group of people. It almost seems impossible that he hasn’t killed a zombie yet. Maggie should be smart enough to know that she can’t trust him and that he’s going to give her up to the Saviors.

Dwight
I like the fact that Daryl wanted to tear Dwight’s throat out and had to be restrained by Rick before killing the bastard. He so has it coming to him. On the other hand, I do believe that his defection from the Saviors is genuine and that he wants to kill the Saviors.

Can we get to some actual fighting, for the love of God? This has been a bit of a slow build, but I can only hope that when it happens, it will deliver. I’m hopeful and crossing my fingers.

The Walking Dead: The Other Side

The Other Side was a bit of a slow episode. I imagine this will be the calm before the storm of the last two episodes of the season, which I would imagine will have some more explosiveness. I’m willing to sit through an episode like this one, but there had better be a pay off.

Gregory
What a loser. I had mentioned in my last blog post about how utterly weak some of the leaders of the various communities were in the zombie apocalypse, but holy crap, Gregory is by far the weakest. How the hell did this guy get in charge of the Hilltop? Don’t they have elections? It’s hard to imagine that any community, even one of second graders would accept this jabroni as their leader. He let the Saviors take their doctor and didn’t even try to negotiate, like hey, how about the Saviors have him five days a week, and we get him on the weekend.

Maggie
Maggie, by contrast, seems to have gotten over her grief for the most part and is busy preparing the Hilltoppers for battle, providing them weapons training and fabricating new weapons. She even managed to make peace with Daryl, who for obvious reasons blames himself for Glenn’s death. I think they’ve been a little heavy handed with the whole Maggie is going to be the leader, she’s our future. I would rather that happen organically, without the show having to overtly say this over and over again.


Sasha and Rosita plotting and then going to assassinate Negan was the focus of the episode as well as its weakest aspect. They had a lot of slow moving, somewhat dull dialogue scenes with a lot of crying and hugging it out, leading up to their encounter with Eugene. Speaking of Eugene, his actions in this episode would suggest that he actually wants to be part of Negan’s camp, but I’m not ready to buy into that yet. I really didn’t get Rosita wanting to be the one who was suicidal about killing Negan and Sasha being reluctant and cautious, only to see Sasha locking Rosita out so that she could take on this suicide mission. I don’t think it was a well-setup swerve and it didn’t make much sense to me.

Yeah, this episode was a little on the dull side, but I’m confident the action will pick up in the next two episodes.