Gone Girl

Gone Girl directed by David Fincher, starring Ben Affleck, Rosamund Pike, Neil Patrick Harris, Tyler Perry, Carrie Coon, and Sela Ward.

David Fincher is one of best directors out there making movies right now.  This movie only further cements his status.  He is a master of using conversation, instead of all out action set pieces, to create tension and build suspense.  I don't find many directors out there who even compare to what he does.  His editing is also some of the best and he doesn't get cared away with quick MTV style of edits or cuts, he actually directs movies - which seems like a rare feat in Hollywood today.  This movie is about 2 and 1/2 hours long but feels like 2 hours, that takes a good director to do that, not to many directors today can get away with this.  I can't say enough about the pacing of this movie, it never slows down nor does the twists and turns of this movie feel cheap or forced, everything flows with an organic speed not found in movies now.

The story itself works with a inner logic that would have made Hitchcock proud.  It is a wonder lust of a good story, with good characters, good acting, and a solid production design to fully back up everything that happens within the movie.  This is a full out, onslaught commentary on marriage and media, which has a no holds barred approach that will either infuriate people or make them happy.  I don't think there will be much of a middle ground here on this movie.  Fincher does a great job of not finding that middle ground with an ending that gut punched everyone but one that is true to the story line and doesn't feel cheap in anyway possible.

I also loved how my perception of characters changed, for good or bad, in this story as certain information was revealed.  This was a bold move that I don't find in a lot movies but one that Fincher has handled well in a lot of his movies: The Social Network and Fight Club being two of them that maneuvered around this shifting of perspective with some great ease.  I'm also glad Fincher isn't afraid to do this and challenge his viewers to think outside of the standard box Hollywood has set up for every movie being some sort of variation of a popcorn movie. 

A perfectly cast, perfectly acted, perfectly directed, and perfectly designed film, well worth seeing, time will not be wasted.  But be warned it is a little disturbing and violent but not in a exploitative or shocking way but one that works within the narrative of the film.

The Maze Runner

The Maze Runner directed by Wes Ball, starring Dylan O'Brien, Aml Ameen, Ki Hong Lee, Blake Cooper, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, and Kaya Scodelario.

The one thing, for my anyway, that kept me intrigued with this movie was the mystery of what the hell was going on?  This one hook was enough to make this movie good.  Along with a good production design that fully supported the mysterious nature of the story, thus making it a watchable movie that I didn't feel wasted my time.  A way better teen-the-world-is-an-apocalypse type of movie that normally comes out and there isn't some kind of love triangle either, for that it also gets another bonus.  I just wish the characters would have been more interesting and less cliched.

Having said all of that though, I found most of the characters motivations and inner logic completely dumbfounded and stupid.  Their choices seemed based on cliche elements from thrillers and suspense movies than anything from the circumstances surrounding the characters in the movie.  This is a shame though because if these things could have been better ironed out this movie would have been a seriously good movie verging on great where as now it a sub-par movie verging on almost good.  It did interest me enough that I might go out and read the books, such was the pay off the mystery, that I didn't feel let down buy it.  That is saying something in a world where good movie endings are few and far between.     

The Frozen Ground

The Frozen Ground directed by Scott Walker, starring Nicolas Cage, John Cusack, Vanessa Hudgens, Dean Norris, and Radha Mitchell.

I've got admit the trailer for this movie was much better than the movie turned out.  This is one of the worst cop/serial killer movies I've seen.  I would only watch this movie as an example of how not to make a cop/serial killer movie.  The pacing was slow, the detective work was minimum, there didn't seem to be any characterization of anyone which makes these movie hard to get into.  The main character has to be the focal point because it's because of him that we are immersed into this seedy, dark world.  I just didn't get any kind of feel for the main character in this movie nor did I get any kind of psychological feel for the serial killer.  I've seen too many good movies and TV shows of the cop/serial killer genre to know bad ones when I see them.  This one does not hold upon seeing it.

Watchmen

Watchmen written Alan Moore and illustrated by Dave Gibbons.

I honestly don't know what more can be said about this book and yes I use the term book because it isn't just a comic.  This comic transcends comics in ways that boggle the mind.  I've read this book about 6 or 7 times and each time I get something new out of it and am completely amazed by the sheer volume and brilliance of what Moore has written. 

It was written in 1985 and is still as powerful now as it was when it came out then.  I can't even imagine having read it in 1985 and having to wait each month for the next issue to come out.  I find myself wondering how that would have been as an experience?  I don't know but for now all I can do is binge read the whole series in about a week or so.  This time around?  The story is as brilliant and amazing as it was each time I read it before.  There has never been a comic since that has compared to the impact of this comic. 

This comic is on my top 10 list of books of all time.  I consider this the best comic ever written, nothing I've read even compares to it.  On my top 10 list of comics ever created it comes in number 2, The Sandman series is number one but if the list is the best comic ever created not a personal basis, this comic will always be number one. 

Characterization on a level I don't think was ever seen before until this book came out and its even better than most books that come out.  Moore made these superheroes real.  He gave them a past, a present, and a future.  Any twists that abound in this book buck the trend of normal twists and turns in superhero books in that they don't feel cheap, they always feel earned.  His heroes act like they would act if they had the kind of powers they do.  They feel like they live in a real world.  Even his world building of an alternate history feels unlike most Marvel and DC universes.

Gibbons art is simplistic when first looked at but upon further watching his art it is the highly complicated details lurking in every panel, on a microscopic scale, that rises his art to a the height of this medium.  This is the perfect marriage of writing and art.  How Gibbons maneuvers through the panel layouts provided by Moore is a lesson unto itself even if you don't read the comic just to see how the panels are laid out then follow the action with the panel.  Even the lettering of the panels have a rhythm that I don't find in comics now-a-days.

I've read a lot Moore since I first read this comic.  This is by far the best thing he's written but even most of the books he writes for now are some of the best the medium has to offer.  He has truly mastered the medium of comics.    








 

Batman: The Dark Knight Returns

Batman: The Dark Knight Returns written and illustrated by Frank Miller.

I haven't read this series in a long time but I  just had a sinking feeling that when reading it this time around I wasn't going to like it as much as I had before.  The main reason is, is that I've read a large volume of comics since then, so I have more to compare this story to than ever before.  I can honestly say the over all story, or more importantly the execution of the story, is over rated.  There are at least five plus books I would put a head of this comic in the over all story line.  But the idea of the story and what it represents to Batman is what keeps this comic holding on strong to its sure influence of the comic medium - that can't be denied and I won't even try to deny that.

I believe the over all execution of this this comic pales in comparison to some other comics out there but when this comic is compared to the superhero genre is stands as a literary masterpiece.  There's certain comics this can be compared to and then there's certain comics this can't be compared to because it fails in comparison.

I just wasn't as impressed with this comic, this time around.  I felt the narrative was stilted and fractured, which hurt the pacing of the story. The news broadcasts woven throughout the story became a hindrance to the pacing, they were more annoying and seemed more in vain with a typical superhero comic than in what Miller was trying to do here. I also felt the characters weren't fully explored like they could have been and Miller leaned too heavily on Batman mythology to earn anything that followed with his story.

The overall theme and arc of Bruce Wayne and Batman in story is what carries this comic from beginning to end but a lot of what happens in the middle gets jumbled.  I did like how this story brought out the grittiness of Batman, something that is truly there in his nature and fits like a glove.  The Batman and Superman fight was epic in all sense of that word.

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (comic)

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen written by Allan Moore and illustrated by Kevin O'Neil.

This is the comic series that got me back into collecting comics after about a 10 year hiatus from the world of super heroes.  The only bad thing about this comic series was that I could never find any comic to even compare to the greatness of what Moore and O'Neil did - about 75% of all other comics that came out around the time of this stood in its shadow.

Essentially this is just a great adventure story with a collection of late 18th century figures in literary books assembling to defeat an evil that is poised to take over England.  That's it, there's not much more to the story than that.  It's simplicity is something to marvel at and the the execution of that simplicity is even something more to marvel at.  More to the point it's an Avengers style comic - a super hero comic - only written with more grace, wit, and intelligence than anything found in all Marvel and DC super hero comics combined. 

Moore is at some of his best with this comic not just with the writing but with the panel layouts that are simply amazing.  He's not afraid to have characters talking about things for pages up pages.  He doesn't get caught up with the whole "there has to be an action sequence every couple of pages" or some big reveal ever couple pages.  Nothing in the story feels cheap or forced everything is written with the ability of a writer who is easily in command of the comic form - there's  not too many writers out there that I can even compare to what Moore is doing and has done.  One thing I've always liked about Moore is how his comics have a literary feel to them that seems wholly divorced from comic books in general.  His comics seem the perfect balance of comic and book.  I've only found a few comics writers to even compare with him.

Then there is Kevin O'Neil whose art is perfectly married to Moore's writing, creating a beautiful world for the eye to feast on.  He captures the feel of the time period of the story with an uncanny visual sense: from costumes to architecture to just how the people in the story pose - everything seems completely set in that time period.  His small panels details only make the larger panel or full page lay out sparkle and assemble all better when they happen.  Everything in this story is about details from the art to the writing.  Unfortunately this is also the comic that started Moore's decent into the everything has to have a sexual reference or subplot going on somewhere.  Here those sexual parts serve the story but after reading all the League comics I can see the seeds of those sexual scenes in this issue. 

Penny Dreadful Season 1

Penny Dreadful Season1 created by John Logan,  starring Timothy Dalton, Eva Green, Josh Hartnett, Reeve Carney, Rory Kinnear, Bille Piper, and Harry Treadaway.


Not a great show but a very watchable and entertaining show.  It has the production budget and mindset of Game of Thrones in that the world on screen feels very real and all the more believable because of the production.  I liked how the show played around with vampires, Frankenstein, witches, were wolves, and other characters and creatures of that time period.  It's all blended together in a way that is highly entertaining.  The main story line of fighting a daughter drives the story forward then various characters pasts are unearthed with each episode giving more weight and depth to characters and the story as a whole.

I must admit I really like the cable shows over the main network non-cable shows.  I like how a season isn't dependent on the standard 22 episodes but seems to be much more comfortable in the 10 to 13 episode time frame.  Personally I find this more rewarding over all as the stories have a quicker pacing to them and don't feel as strained as a 22 episode season.  Penny Dreadful takes full advantage of this format making a perfect case against non-cable shows long running seasons.  A longer season would not have benefited this show as I'm sure the story would have seemed to be grasping for straws at certain points in a long season, as it stands how each episode of the season builds towards the end game - nothing feels wasted.

The actors in this show also rose to the challenge to flesh out the characters giving them a very believable life and world weariness.  This is by far some of Josh Hartnett's best work.  Eva Green continues to amaze in anything she does, proving once again that with some good scripts she is by far one of the better actresses working out there.  Even with a poor script she can make the story even that much better just by her mere presence but here she is afforded a far better story than normal and rises to the challenge wonderfully.  By the end of this season I was extremely looking forward to the next season.