E.R. Torre's Blog, page 70

Ready Player One (2018) a (mildly) belated review

One of the nice things about going on a trip like I did (sorry for sounding like I’m rubbing it in… I honestly don’t mean to!) is that if you’re lucky and, like me, you travel via “regular” class (ie, not first class), you’ll find yourself traveling in an airplane that offers individual monitors filled with diversions during your long trip.

That was the case on the way to California: Each seat had an individual monitor on which you could watch TV shows, movies, play games, etc. etc.  The first film I saw via this device was A Quiet Place (reviewed here).  The trip proved long enough to allow me to see another recent release, the Steven Spielberg directed Ready Player One.

Based on the 1980’s nostalgia heavy novel by Ernest Cline, the movie is filled with references to -natch- movies, TV shows, video games, and general pop culture, much -though not all- of which is heavily 1980’s oriented.

If you’ve read the book (I have not), there is an interesting review quote on one of the edition’s covers…

I know it’s tough to see, but on the upper left hand corner of this cover is the following quote from USA Today:

Enchanting.  WILLY WONKA meets THE MATRIX.

This quote essentially gets to the heart of what Ready Player One, the movie, is.  Here’s the trailer:

plays Wade Watts, a young man who looks curiously like a young, beardless Steven Spielberg…

…who, in the year 2045, lives in your typical concrete and metal degrading city-hellscape and, like most of the people, longs to live there as little as possible.  Like many, he often heads out to the “Oasis”, a virtual reality playground wherein people can do all sorts of things with their Avatars, from playing games to participating in any sort of events (nightclubs, dances, romance, etc.).  This, obviously, is the Matrix-like part of the movie.

Oasis, we find in an exposition heavy first 10 minutes or so of the film, was created by an eccentric -and deceased- man by the name of James Halliday () who has hidden in this vast virtual playground 3 “keys” which, if found, will entitle the person who gets them control over Oasis.  And there, ladies and gentlemen, is your Willy Wonka element.

As you can guess, Wade Watts and his friends wind up chasing down the keys while an evil/no-good/bad industrialist tries to get the jump on them.

And… and…

It’s okay, I suppose, but the movie, on a whole, left me more underwhelmed than it should have.

That’s not to say there aren’t some delightful sequences, the biggest/best of which involves the hunt for the second key.  I won’t give the elements of this away, but it involves recreating key sequences from a very famous film originally released in 1980, a film which was directed by a person many, including myself, feel is one of the greatest directors there ever was.  I’ll say no more.

The problem with Ready Player One is that the film moves along at a rapid pace but doesn’t allow us to get sufficiently invested in the characters.  The fact of the matter is that they’re barely that: They’re the “good guys” and that’s that.  They’re up against the “bad guys” and that’s that.

Yet as a viewer I never felt they were in any big danger.  The film simply never makes us feel like there are real stakes involved, even though some ancillary characters are eliminated in “real life”.

Again, though, the film isn’t a total bust.  Along with the hunt for the second key, I did find myself laughing at a few sequences/jokes here and there, and it was kinda fun to try to spot all the “easter eggs” this film is filled with.

I also thought it was kinda fun that the film’s climax makes reference to the very first video game that did indeed feature an easter egg (as a long time video game player, I was aware of the game and the egg, so this stuff wasn’t a huge surprise to me).

Yet I can’t help but return to my main complaints: The movie never drew me in as much as I would have hoped and there is never a proper sense of suspense regarding the adventures shared.  We’re also, unfortunately, dealing with characters who are two dimensional and hard to care for.

(I could also get nitpicky and note the way the first key is found seemed waaaay too easy, especially when the movie notes how for so many years people going to Oasis were unable to “solve” it.  Considering the types of easter eggs found by people in all sorts of video games -some deviously well hidden, including that “first” easter egg- this “solution” was… lame).

So…

The bottom line is: The film has its moments and, as spectacle, is interesting.  But it could, indeed should, have been more.  I’d recommend it to those who are fascinated with video games and general pop culture.  Others may want to stay away.

Sketchin’ 87

Yeah, just posted one picture but, what the heck, why not go ahead and post another?

In this case, I’ve moved away from movies and actors that fascinate me and into something far more personal.

As I’m getting closer to finishing my Corrosive Knights series of novels, I’ve been considering re-doing some of the covers of previous novels.  One of the ones I’ve considered re-doing is Nox (Book #4 in the series) and this is a quick and dirty piece which… well, I’m not sure I’ll use it, but it was a fun exercise to do nonetheless.

Here then is the Mechanic known as… Nox!

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Sketchin’ 86

First off, its great to be back.

The reason I haven’t posted all that much of late is because for the past two weeks I’ve been on vacation in lovely California.  It’s the first time in a VERY long time I’ve had that much free time in a row and I feel rested and refreshed and ready to get back to work.

Before I took off on vacation, I posted my very positive impression of the recently released Annotated Big Sleep, a book which features Raymond Chandler’s classic 1939 novel along with plenty of annotations (natch) offering information on the novel, Los Angeles back in the 1930’s (this information proved fascinating considering the first few days of my vacation were spent in LA), along with other great bits of information regarding the novel (you can read the whole thing here).

Even though I was on vacation, I couldn’t help myself and, inspired by that book, had to take on the famous Humphrey Bogart/Lauren Bacall movie version of that novel.  As much as I like the movie, it doesn’t hold a candle to the Raymond Chandler novel (either the original cut of it, which featured less of Bacall, or the eventual theatrical release… both are available on the DVD).

Having said that, you truly should not only read the novel, but see the film.  They’re both worth taking in!

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A Quiet Place (2018) a (mildly) belated review

It’s a strange thing to find yourself enjoying, indeed, enjoying quite a bit, a film that by all rights should have triggered all kinds of logic problems in one’s mind.  Logic problems that, in a lesser film, would have made you walk away shaking your head and/or laughing at the silliness of the story you just witnessed.

A Quiet Place is just such a film.

[image error]Released earlier this year to great acclaim, A Quiet Place stars and was co-written and directed by John Krasinski (best known -at least up to now and that may well change!- for The Office).  His real life wife Emily Blunt co-stars in the film playing his -what else?- wife and Millicent Simmonds, Noah Jupe, and Cade Woodward play their children.

The scenario is a frightening one: Strange, murderous creatures with hides as tough as metal and claws which can pierce through metal have appeared on Earth in the not too distant past.  These creatures have decimated humanity, appearing mysteriously and wiping out anything they can get their claws on.  Thing is: The creatures appear to be very sensitive to sound, so Earth’s only survivors are those who have been able to not make noise while trying to find a way to fight these seemingly indestructible monsters.

At the start of the film we are introduced to the Abbotts, the family we will follow through this movie.  I’ll tread very carefully here regarding spoilers, but suffice to say they lead a very quiet life, aided to a great extent by the fact that their eldest daughter is mute and thus had already developed the ability to communicate with her -and among each other- through sign language.

We follow them during one trip to the city for supplies and then a short time later during one fateful day where Mrs. Elliot, pregnant with child, and the family confront their worst nightmares.

It is terrific, suspenseful stuff and, wisely, John Krasinski knows how to build tension without going into gore.  This is an elegant film, a film that shows Mr. Krasinski’s a student of the masters.  His work here reminded me, quite positively, of Alfred Hitchcock.  The suspense at times was that good.

However…

As I said before, the main problem one might have with the film depends entirely on how willing one is to forgive the film’s many logic lapses and allow the work to, well, work for you despite these lapses.

I suppose if I get into them I’ll have to deal with SPOILERS so let me do so in a moment.

Before I do, let me say this: The problems I’m about to note below didn’t diminish my enjoyment of the film.  Despite these problems, the film works, and works quite well.

Very much recommended.

Now then….

SPOILER ALERT!!!!

 

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!!!

Still there?

Welp, don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Now then, as I said before, the film involves these mysterious monsters who are apparently blind and hunt their prey purely through sound.

In other words, you make a noticeable sound and… bang, you’re dead.

Which begs the question: Why the heck didn’t humanity simply create a series of noisemakers to draw these blind creatures to where they want them to be then rain hell upon them?

How about leading them like lemmings after, say, a remote controlled vehicle and over a very high ravine?

I mean, there seem to me to be a number of ways humanity could -indeed should- have been able to use the monster’s main attribute against them.

The movie’s climax does feature a use of this, effectively finding a noise that bothers/freezes the creatures so they can be picked off, but, again, if sound is their way of hunting, why not put speakers all over a city and blast music 24 hours a day to disorient and draw them in?

But that’s just one logic issue.  Here’s another: How exactly did the Abbots have electricity in their farm?  The movie shows they have lights and a camera system which they use to watch their property.  It’s all well and good, but how do they have this?

If they’re using a generator, it would make noise and that, naturally, would attract the monsters.  I didn’t see any solar arrays, so that seems out.  This is presented in the film but never explained in any way.

Finally, the movie’s climax features a very emotional scene in which the head of the family sacrifices himself for his children, who are pinned down inside a truck while one of these monsters are attacking them.

The monster had attacked and injured the father and he makes eye contact with his children, tells them through hand signs that he loves them, then yells out loud drawing the monster to him and getting killed.

Pardon my French here, but this scene was the one that bothered me the most of all the ones I’ve presented so far.

Why the fuck did he yell?

He had an axe in his hand.  He could have tossed it against the metal shack to his side to make noise to draw the creature away.  Why did he choose to yell and draw the creature right at him.

It was an emotional scene.  It was a scene that ratcheted up the already near unbearable tension… yet it was a scene that made little sense.

IF, of course, you let it.  That one, as I said before, bothered me more than the others, but even it wasn’t enough to make me hate this film.

Congratulations, all involved.  You took a somewhat flawed/illogical concept that could have failed pretty spectacularly in lesser hands yet delivered a first rate suspense/horror film.

As I said before and I’ll repeat again: Recommended.

Corrosive Knights, a 8/2/18 update

And so it ends.

Today and just minutes ago, I finished the rewrites/revisions on the computer for draft #7 of Book #7 of the Corrosive Knights series.

[image error]The process has been difficult to this point, made even more so because, as can be seen from the graphic above, Book #7 in this series is meant the conclusion of the Corrosive Knights series as well as the conclusion of over 10 years of very hard work.

I want this book to be special.  I want it to wrap everything up in a way that’s going to leave everyone who’s followed along on this magical ride, from the beginning or beginning now, left more than “just” satisfied.

I want you to leave happy.

I want you to feel like the time you’ve gifted me for my writings, the faith you’ve put into my story telling, is more than “just” rewarded.

Mind you, the book isn’t done quite yet, though I feel this latest draft represents something I’ve been longing for: The point where I feel I’ve finally, finally put in everything I wanted to put into this novel.

Every story element is there.  Every story beat has been addressed.

Going forward, there may be some very minor things I may add and/or subtract, but the next drafts, #8 and on, will focus almost exclusively on grammatical and spelling issues.

Basically, the car’s built.  Now its time to polish her paint and clean her interior until she sparkles.

I’m likely repeating myself, but I couldn’t be more proud of what I’ve done here and I truly, sincerely, can’t wait to get it into your hands.

Soon, my friends.  Very soon.

Disney and Fox

A few days back it was announced that Disney and Fox shareholders approved a deal in which Disney would essentially buy up Fox.  (You can read the New York Times article about this here).

For those into movies like I am, this means that Disney now owns pretty much ALL the Marvel Movie properties.  For those unaware, Marvel Comics was in trouble in the 1970’s and going into the 1980’s and wound up selling the rights to many of their then biggest properties (Spider-Man, The Fantastic Four, X-Men) to keep afloat.

When Marvel’s magical movie win streak started, they had the rights to what were considered “ancillary” characters but not the “big” ones like those I mentioned above.  Yet the movies were good and audiences loved them and they made a ton of money and, quite suddenly, “ancillary” characters like Iron Man, Thor, Black Panther, etc. became BIG characters.

And yet there was, I strongly suspect, a desire to have all the major characters and their various rights (film, TV, etc.) to be under one house.

Understand, I’m not saying the only reason Disney bought up Fox was to get their hands on the Marvel movie properties they own (X-Men, Fantastic Four, and the characters tied in to them.  Spider-Man’s film rights are owned by Sony and they have come into an agreement with Disney to allow them to make movies with the character).

But it certainly must have been at least one reason they were interested in this purchase.

Some comic book fans are elated at the prospect of seeing all the Marvel characters interact on film, especially if the quality of the films are on the level of the current Marvel works.

Me?

I guess it could be fun and all, but…

We have another massive media company becoming all the more massive.  Recently, AT&T bought Warner Brothers.  Now Disney buys Fox.

I’m going to be blunt about this: It makes me uncomfortable.

Success is wonderful.  Monopolies, less so.

As a consumer, one should welcome competition among companies.  Competition makes companies innovate, effectively try to “one up” their competition.  The result is better product often at lower prices.  A win-win for consumers.

But with monopolies, there are far less competitors.  Further, do you want to live in a world where all your entertainment is provided by only a select few companies?  I can’t help but think it will mean less variety.  And will a “wholesome” company like Disney continue to release R-Rated Deadpool type films, or will they shut that down?

As I said, it bothers me, though given the era we’re living in and unless we have a serious look by politicians into the current monopolistic business practices we’re seeing, it likely won’t change.

Corrosive Knights, a 7/30/18 update

The start of another week so let’s get to it: This week I will be done with the latest draft, #7, of the 7th Book in the Corrosive Knights series…

[image error]The work has been to date more involved than I thought it would be, particularly the second half of the novel -and I still have some 50 pages to go!

But the work has been productive and the end result, in my opinion, has been quite good.  This draft of the novel will be that much closer to the final draft.

As I mentioned before, I’m getting to the point where I can look at the series as a whole now, seeing as how I already have Book #8 -the Epilogue- in a rough form, already written but only needing some revisions.

Back to work!

Mission: Impossible – Fallout (2018) a (right on time!) review

As I’ve mentioned too many times before, I don’t get much of a chance to go out and see films when they’re first released.  I wish I did, but that’s the way it goes.

But I do try to make time to do so and, once in a while, actually manage to see a film while it is in theaters.  So it was with the latest Mission: Impossible film, Fallout, released last Friday.  Here’s the movie’s trailer:

I’m a fan of the Mission: Impossible films, though I would quickly state that they haven’t all been winners.  Starting with film #4 in the series (Mission: Impossible: Ghost Protocol) the last three of the six so far released have have developed a certain style and have been successful following that style, and this extends to the latest film in this series.

Having said that…

Sometimes I feel like I’m “that guy”, the one who reacts negatively to things when everyone else views them as positive.  Likewise, there are times I’m positive about things when everyone else is negative.  I am that fool that really liked Batman v Superman when  so many dismissed the film as dark and dull.  I’m the guy who didn’t like Guardians of the Galaxy when everyone seemed to go ape… uh… crap over it.

And here I am telling you Mission: Impossible – Fallout is a very well made action/adventure film… that in the end left me wanting more.

Let me explain:

The movie presents us with nothing we haven’t seen before.  Yes, the movie moves and most of the stunt work is extremely well done.  And you once again have to give credit to Mr. Cruise for pushing the boundaries and doing some really crazy stuff on his own.

But the film offers a muddy story which doesn’t really surprise you all that much (if you can’t figure out who the bad guy is, you simply haven’t seen many films).  We have ancillary characters doing odd things to keep the story going, and the bad guys are presented as being unbelievably knowledgeable about everything going on and manipulate everyone so well yet of course manage to fail in the end.

Look, this is a good film.  A pretty great, in fact, summer popcorn film.  You will be entertained and there isn’t anything presented here that will make you groan of feel like the movie’s makers really screwed up.

However, this is not “game changer”.  Rather, it is the third film in a row of well done Mission: Impossible films and, alas, not much more than that.

And that, to me, is a shame.  Perhaps I was hoping the movie’s makers would push the envelope more than they did.

Still, don’t get me wrong: It’s a good film and worth seeing.  Just don’t go into this expecting anything vastly superior to the two MI films that came before it.

The Annotated Big Sleep (2018) redux

A couple of days ago I noted the release of The Annotated Big Sleep, a new printing of Raymond Chandler’s masterful noir crime tale originally released in 1939 which is presented here with a multitude of footnotes explaining the ins and outs of this novel.

I’ve read the novel at least three or maybe more times before and re-reading it with the footnotes proved a great delight.  There was one thing, however, more than any other thing that really stuck with me, and has stuck with me, since finishing reading this Annotated edition a few days before, and its worth pointing out.

The footnote in question involves an overview of the novel itself and the novel’s place in comparison to  other similar novels.  It involves the novel’s end and, therefore, involves elements which are clear SPOILERS.

Still, I want to write about this but, if you haven’t read the novel and want to give it a read, look away from here and get the book and read it.  It’s worth it.

Otherwise…

 

SPOILER ALERT!!!!!

 

 

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!!!

 

Still there?

After the novel’s conclusion and in the second to last footnote presented in the Annotated Edition of this novel, we’re presented with this summary of The Big Sleep’s story:

“What Happened?” Carmen asks (protagonist private detective) Marlowe after trying to kill him.  “Nothing,” he responds.  Raising the question: What actually has happened in The Big Sleep?

There follows a description of the various story elements and characters presented in the novel.  What is astonishing is that you come to realize in this notation that so many things happened before Marlowe but could well have happened with Marlowe there as well as not there!

Characters are killed before Marlowe can “save” them… indeed, other than the one person Marlowe himself kills toward the end of the book, every one of these deaths would have happened whether Marlowe was around or not.  There’s even one notable killing, the chauffeur’s, which is famously never satisfactorily resolved at all!

Further, Marlowe never really “helps” anyone and, despite the book’s opening hinting at Marlowe being a Knight who will perhaps save a damsel in distress -we are presented a painting depicting such a thing- ultimately Marlowe becomes, at the book’s climax, the tied up “damsel in distress” who is saved by a woman!

And if you think even more about it, the mystery presented in The Big Sleep is not such a big mystery to just about all the major ancillary characters in the book.  In the end, the people who don’t know what’s going on are Marlowe, the man who hires him, and the reader.  By the end of the story the reader and Marlowe finally know what’s happening.  However, the man who hired him, the man who desperately wants to know what happened to another person, is left in the dark as Marlowe decides the truth would be too much for him to know.

As the footnote concludes:

Even the dead body, the traditional beginning point of so many murder mysteries, is only located at the end.  The genre has been turned -not so much upside down as inside out.

That last bit really hits home: The genre has been turned -not so much upside down as inside out.

A number of years ago I first saw the Alfred Hitchcock film The Birds.  Considered by many to be a stone cold classic, I didn’t like the film.  In fact, though a huge fan of Mr. Hitchcock’s films, I thought it was a bust.  Then, a few years later, I saw the film again and it hit me: The Birds was Mr. Hitchcock taking on the very popular 1950’s monsters-on-the-loose genre… but inverting every cliche there was in it.  Instead of “giant” insects or animals, we have a common bird as the threat.  Instead of an army coming in to fight them off, we see no sign of any armed forces.  Instead of a dashing lead man and woman who live to triumph, we get barely alive survivors and a leading woman who is near catatonic.

So it is with The Big Sleep.  The main mystery involves the disappearance of a person yet our protagonist, for much of the novel, isn’t really looking for him.  As mentioned above, the dead body is located at the novel’s very end.  The protagonist, as mentioned above as well, is in the dark and, like the novel’s readers, trying to figure out what many/most of the other people within the novel already know.  Though he discovers the truth of the matter, he doesn’t reveal it to the person who hired him.

Coming away from this latest reading of The Big Sleep leaves me even more in wonder of the novel.

It bears mentioning again: Get your hands on this book.  Read it.

You’ll thank me later.

Sketchin’ 85

Released in 1954, the movie Them! (with or without the exclamation point) was a very effective giant-monsters-on-the-loose feature of the type that was all the rage in the 1950’s.

This one, of course, involved giant ants and was played remarkably straight and, despite some by today’s standards not all that great effects, it built up a decent amount of suspense and thrills. A few years later Alfred Hitchcock would turn the creatures on the loose formula around and inside out with The Birds.

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