Alien, Aliens, and the Art of the Sequel (a review)

This week, I continued to chip away at the list of Movies I Have Not Seen And There's No Excuse For That. There's still a lot of films on this list, notably the Tim Burton era Batman films (and The Dark Knight Rises, I mean, come on, what am I doing with not seeing that?). But this week managed to knock two glaring entries off the list: Ridley Scott's Alien and James Cameron's Aliens. I've been meaning to see these for a while, especially because they've been in the pop culture consciousness a lot recently. Alien consistently shows up on lists of the scariest films ever made, I've read a lot of articles about this series on Cracked.com, a lot of discussion about the merits of Avatar include references to Aliens, and in the past five years we've seen not just a recent prequel to Alien but also the sequel to Alien vs Predator, and when they make sequels to crossover movies from overexposed franchises, not seeing the originals becomes akin to mortal sin for a film enthusiast like me. So when a friend of mine offered to show me both Alien and Aliens, I couldn't turn down her offer.

Before I continue forward, I should probably make good use of a SPOILER WARNING in case you, like me, have waited too long to watch these movies.

But that might not be terribly necessary for discussion of Alien, at least. There's not much I can say about this film that hasn't already been said. It is a very tight, very well-crafted horror film. The villain(s???) are threatening, the suspense is well done, the atmosphere is rarely broken, and except in one or two cases, the plot does not rely on characters making idiotic decisions. So you're not going to hear anything particularly novel on the topic of Alien from me.

No, what I really want to discuss is Aliens. A straight sci-fi action contrast to the first installment's Gothic-horror-in-space, I've heard a lot of opinions on this film in a number of directions. I mean, it's certainly classic: a lot of the mainstays and iconic moments come from this film rather than the predecessor. But there's a lot of discussion on whether this film is good or bad, better or worse than the original, an example of James Cameron as a good director or a bad director, etc.

I think there's a very strong reason for such split opinion. When this film is good, it is excellent action with high stakes. When this film is bad, it is cheese and schlock and questionable one-liners. Let's not be mistaken: this film has flaws. Space Marines are often kind of hit or miss, especially being everywhere these days, and Aliens has them in all their meatheaded, obnoxious glory. You won't feel for the ones that get killed off early, and you likely won't remember any of their names. The young actress who plays the little girl Newt is not very good at all, though at least she feels important. More than a bit of the dialogue is bad, many of the line reads are either flat or hammy, the list goes on and on.

I would argue that these flaws to not prevent it from being a good movie. But even more than that, I would state that this film is an example of how to make a fantastic sequel.

Sequels can fail for a lot of reasons. Airplane 2 made the mistake of trying to be exactly the same as the original. Indiana Jones 4 was hated because it wasn't enough like the originals. Iron Man 2 is unsatisfying because the stakes feel too low. Pirates of the Caribbean 2 and 3 spiral out of control by raising the stakes too high and too fast. A sequel has to have enough continuity without being a carbon copy, and it has to feel bigger while not getting away from itself. This has often been a difficult thing to do. Some times sequels are studio-slaughtered abominations of filmmaking. And even when a sequel is a great movie, like The Dark Knight, it can still be an ill-fitting sequel. So the balance between respect for the original and creating something new can be incredibly touchy.

Aliens hits this balance almost perfectly. James Cameron couldn't have possibly captured the same sense of suspense and terror that Ridley Scott managed in Alien; no one could have. So he made the right decision and didn't even try. Instead of focusing on the isolation and fear of a small group of untrained survivors fighting off a single unknown foe, Aliens brings in a squadron of marines with guns blazing against an army of hivemind xenomorphs. But at the same time, Cameron manages to hold back, showing the aliens in surprisingly few shots, much like the original. Additionally, Aliens expands on a lot of concepts and story presented in the first film, while never really contradicting existing mythos or derailing the one recurring character.

In Aliens, the stakes are higher and the action is grander. More people are involved, more lives are lost, but also more is risked on a personal level for these characters. The insider isn't acting merely on orders, he's acting out of self-interest, as idiotic as it might be. Ripley isn't just fighting for her life, she is fighting for the lives of the colonists and, when that doesn't work out, for one colonist in particular. There is a sense of pathos on some levels of this film that doesn't get achieved in many sequels, and indeed in many films in general.

Is Aliens as good or as tight of a film as Alien? Certainly not. Have better science fiction action films been made before and after it? Goodness me, yes. But Aliens succeeds on possibly the most important front for a film like it. It expands upon the original while keeping true to its roots as a story. Aliens is a fantastic sequel. And that, for me, is enough.

A Summer Reading List, Part 3

Seeing as classes start tomorrow for me, I cannot think of any better time to finish up my thoughts on the books I read this summer. Part 1 is here, Part 2 is here.

15. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

I already explained how I feel about this book earlier, but I figure it cannot hurt to gush a little more. For those not in the know, this is one of my favorite novels of all time, and this summer was probably my fourth time reading it. It's interesting that I haven't read this book as many times as some others of my favorites – Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card have been read five or six times already, and nothing comes close to the number of times I have read Jurassic Park and The Lost World by Michael Crichton. But that doesn't mean I love this any less than them. The perfect blend of ridiculous sci-fi, insane humor, and the most logical faulty logic in writing anywhere come together to make this one of the greatest books ever written. I also hope to reread the rest of the series soon; I've read Restaurant at the End of the Universe a couple times, but I've only read all the others once each. It's possibly because the series takes on a very different feel in the fourth and fifth books. They're still good though! They're just a little more cynical than even the others.

16. Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman

After reading Good Omens, I knew I had to find some more stuff by Neil Gaiman, and my eyes naturally settled on his well known works American Gods and Anansi Boys. On the recommendation of a friend, I started with the latter. At first, I wasn't particularly sold on it. It wasn't bad by any means, but I couldn't get into it. The first half of the book took me about two weeks to read. But then the second half of the book took me about two hours. Once this book gets going, it really gets going. It's fun, it's fascinating, and the characters are great. I've always been a sucker for mythical themes in fiction, and this is certainly no exception. A great book, and I recommend it highly.

17. 1984 by George Orwell

As an English student in years past, people had always been shocked by some of the books I haven't read, the two chief ones being The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald and 1984 by George Orwell. People have been pressuring me for years to read these books, saying that I couldn't truly call myself a student of literature without reading them. And since I eventually read The Great Gatsby at the beginning of this year, I decided it was time to finally get around to reading 1984. I'm glad I did. For me, it wasn't the most gripping book. I didn't particularly like or even care for any of the characters. But the book was tight. It was so well thought out, so thorough, that it almost felt real. There was some distance, obviously, but so many of the things that happened in this book seemed so logical that you couldn't help but wonder if these could be the natural progression of things. In my mind, of course, it would be basically impossible to pull off a society like that in today's world, and the book seemed to leave out exactly how a government like that could fully come to power. But in the world of the book, it is watertight in a way that is thoroughly impressive and terrifying. And when the events of the book are explained, when someone finally says why this all is happening, it's the most unsettling reveal I have ever read. This is a very, very good and thought-provoking book, but you probably did not need me to tell you that.

18. Henry IV part II by William Shakespeare

If you are a consistent reader of this blog, you might remember my thoughts on reading this play. But if you are not a consistent reader, and statistics indicate that you are not (Hello, Russia! I don't know why you are reading this!), then allow me to reiterate. I hated this play. I generally do like Shakespeare, and I enjoyed Henry IV part I, as difficult as it was. But I sorely disliked Henry IV part II. Perhaps some of the fault goes to the Shakespeare class I took recently, which informed me of the popularity of the character of Jack Falstaff, the charmingly insolent ruffian sidekick of Prince Hal (later King Henry V). Knowing that he was so well received makes me awfully suspicious of the merits of a play that gives him a much expanded role, similar to how a Hollywood studio might conceive of a sequel where a popular bit character is given greater prominence to the point where they focus on nothing else. In any case, the biggest problem with this play is the fact that almost nothing significant happens until the fifth act. That's honestly too much time to spend with nothing but Falstaff being sassy. It'd be like making a sequel series to a groundbreaking cartoon fantasy epic with a well-developed mythos and beloved characters and then spending half of it on playing sports and unjustified love triangles.

19. Steam Ticket: A Third Coast Review Volume XII Spring 2009

This might not completely count. This is a volume of a national literary magazine that is produced out of my university. I hope to get on the staff before I graduate, so I figured I should read some of it before I apply. It was good! I mean, there's not much else to say about it. There was an especially good story that imagined what R.L. Stine must be doing with his life now. It was equal parts depressing and hilarious. But there was a great mix of enjoyable poems and memorable stories. I look forward to looking into this magazine further.

20. Frankenstein by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

Every English program everywhere has that one book that shows up again and again in the curriculum. At my school, that book is Frankenstein. A friend of mine had to read it five times before she graduated, and I myself have been assigned it twice. It's kind of a bad thing, then, that I'd never read it all the way through. Oh sure, I read parts of it, but I jumped around a lot to catch up in class, filled in some blanks with SparkNotes. I even wrote two papers on it without ever reading it all the way through. So naturally, I decided that it would probably be in my best interest to finally read the whole thing from front to back. This decision was aided by a particularly inexpensive hardcover edition I found in the Barnes and Noble clearance section. I like this book. It's dense, it moves too quickly at times and too slowly at others, but all things considered, I like this book. The nice thing about it is that it lends itself to so many different readings, messages and explorations. As long as I'm going to have to study a book over and over again, it's nice to know that it's a book that can be taught in a number of different ways. It's not light reading, not by any means. But if you have the guts and the fortitude, it's a pretty damn good book.

21. The Importance of Being Earnest, and Four Other Plays by Oscar Wilde

Ah, Oscar Wilde. This collection, featuring The Importance of Being Earnest, Lady Windermere's Fan, A Woman of No Importance, An Ideal Husband, and Salomé, has been sitting on my bookshelf for a while. I had been meaning to read it for the longest time, since the little I had read of The Importance of Being Earnest was fantastic. I finally did, and I must say it was a good decision. There is a reason Oscar Wilde is so well-regarded: his humor is incredibly tight and incredibly influential. I'd wager that the writers of Monty Python, Douglas Adams, and many others owe at least some of their inspiration to the man's writing. Granted, some of the quips get a little predictable after reading four comedies in a row, but the characters remain charming, the plots (while not necessarily groundbreaking) remain entertaining, and the plays remain thoroughly enjoyable. This collection also includes the tragedy of Salomé, the story of the daughter of King Herod and the death of John the Baptist. Some critics hate it, but as for me... Biblical themes? Again, I'm sold.

22. Selected Poems by Langston Hughes

If there is one poet who can challenge Billy Collins for the position of my favorite poet, it is Langston Hughes. His work is just so phenomenal, working in a number of recurring themes that overlap just as easily as they work on their own. This collection was selected by Hughes himself, arranged in several sections by either recurring themes or continuing stories. I've always loved his work on its own, and in this collection, it is absolutely sublime. The poetry I write has borrowed a lot from his style and influence, and his work will always be close to my heart. I may not be able to relate to the oppression and striving that he encountered and his poetry describes, but I will always, always love it. I thoroughly recommend this book, and all poetry by Hughes in general.

And here, with 22 books, is where my summer draws to a close. Tomorrow, I begin classes in my third from final semester as an undergraduate. I've changed a lot over the past year, and I've changed the way I view my work as recently as this summer. I've never read so much or written so much as I have in 2012, and a great deal of that is thanks to the reading and writing I have done almost every day this summer. I recommend all of these books very highly (well, except Henry IV part II, which I hated, or Kingdom Hearts, which was all right but not astounding) and I would love to hear what you think of them or what you have been reading lately.

A Summer Reading List, Part 2

Continuing from Wednesday, here's part 2 of my thoughts on all the books I read this summer.

8. Brooklyn, Burning by Steve Brezenoff

One of my weaknesses is young adult literature. Even better when it's kind of a romance. I can't help it! I've always really liked the way that sort of thing goes. Brooklyn, Burning is a really unique example of YA romance, however, and I really especially loved it. The romance isn't the only point in the book, large amounts of it concerning an arson investigation. Also, the main character's relationships with their parents, peers, and adult friends are very much important parts of the novel. A lot happens in a short space, and it happens really well. Plus, this book just hits a lot of the right emotional chords with me, with a lot of emphasis on music, movies, cities, and poetry. It took me a bit to warm up to everything, but when I did, I found myself engrossed in this book. A wonderful example of young adult, romance, and LGBT literature.

9. Rhinoceros and Other Plays by Eugene Ionesco

When I was in high school, I only ever got to perform in one play. And if it could only be one, I am glad it was Ionesco's Rhinoceros. Avant Garde absurdity about people turning into rhinoceroses? I'd never have looked at it before, but it exposed me to a lot of the things I love in studying literature. Plus it was just a hell of a lot of fun to perform. This was my first time rereading it since then, and it was such an enjoyment. This edition also includes The Leader, which is a lot of fun and not subtle at all, and The Future Is In Eggs or, It Takes All Kinds To Make A World, which is.... weird. But that's the point! Social commentary through batcrap craziness is something we could use a lot more of these days. Worth a read, but not for the faint of heart.

10. Looking for Alaska by John Green

There's that young adult stuff coming up again. This was great. After a long time of being told how awesome John Green is, I finally decided to see for myself. I watched some of his famous YouTube videos, and I really loved them, so it was only natural that I decided to go pick up some of his books from the library. I decided to start where he started, with Looking For Alaska. This is an excellent book. It took me a moment to get into it, because the characters were not what I was expecting. The biggest problem I've often found with YA literature is that my teenage years were rarely like it. But once I got past some of my preconceived notions, I actually found a lot in this book that hit home with me. I'm honestly kind of envious of the way John Green writes his characters: recognizable and consistent, very likeable, but also with a lot of realistic depth. This will certainly be one of my inspirations as a writer.

11. Ballistics: Poems by Billy Collins

My first exposure to Billy Collins was through his appearances on the incredible radio variety show, A Prairie Home Companion. My second exposure to Billy Collins was through his wonderful book, The Trouble with Poetry and Other Poems. My third was through so many literature classes. He's a fantastic poet, and he writes meaningful, accessible poems in a literary climate that doesn't like to call someone a true poet unless they deliberately obscure any sense of actual point in smug, jumbled pretense. That might be a generalization, but I assure you, Billy Collins is still a breath of fresh air among a lot of today's poetry. This particular collection does seem much more melancholy than usual, but melancholy has never been something Collins has shied away from. I might not recommend Ballistics as much as The Trouble With Poetry, but I assure you that reading it would not be a mistake.

12. The Fault In Our Stars by John Green

Well, I can't acquaint myself with John Green without reading his most popular book, now can I? The Fault in Our Stars was one of those books that really appealed to me as a reader and a writer. It has this wonderful focus on literature and the way people can develop personal relationships with books, which probably is a good part of what makes this book so beloved. Besides that, the main characters are very enjoyable, and their unique insight to the nature of mortality doesn't take away any of their familiarity at all. Plus, who can resist a novel that discusses the nature of Swedish hip-hop? (protip: check out Movits!)

13. Happy to Be Here by Garrison Keillor

This is a collection of short stories by one of my heroes: Garrison Keillor, the creator of A Prairie Home Companion. It was something of a slow read for me, as short story compilations tend to be, but I very much enjoyed it. A great mix of subtle comedy, absurd humor, and distinct melancholy fills this volume, just like all the best things Keillor has done. The best stories in this volume are the ones about radio – well, they were to me – but the others are good as well. There's a story that wonders what Washington D.C. would be like if it were more like Hollywood, there's a staff report for the world's least qualified baseball team, and there is a great tale about a young man in a high school punk band as they debate whether or not they should bite the head off of a live chicken. It's a great book, and even if you just read it a story at a time, I recommend it.

14. The Raven and Other Poems by Edgar Allen Poe

I was browsing the “Last Chance” bargain bin in a Barnes and Noble when I came across this really lovely publication of some of Poe's poems. I really liked the visual style, and I knew I needed to further acquaint myself with this legendary writer, so I picked it up. Though it wasn't the best book I read all summer, and wasn't the best poetry collection I ever read, I still very much enjoyed it. I don't really have much to say about Poe's poetry - I like it, but I'm not in love with it. Besides, what can I say here that hasn't been said much more eloquently by people who studied his work much more thoroughly? I will say that it definitely piqued my curiosity to further experience his writing. And again, it was very attractive, visually.

That's part 2! Part 1 is A Summer Reading List, part 1. Part 3 will be up on Monday!

A Summer Reading List, Part 1

This blog has been a little bit neglected for the past couple weeks, much to my own disappointment. I've just been very busy with preparing for my return to school, and sometimes that got in the way of the writing and updating I've been meaning to do daily. I have been doing it some, though, which I am very glad of. And I know neglecting this won't be a habit; updating this blog and daily reading and writing have been a source of great pride for me this summer. I will continue to do so.

But since summer draws to a close, I figured it would be a good idea to share my thoughts on what I have been reading over the course of May through August.

1. The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle
2. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle

I've always really enjoyed Sherlock Holmes since I was a kid. Growing up, I read a short story here or there, watched adaptations on Wishbone, passively enjoyed a weekday morning cartoon that placed him in the 22^nd Century, things like that. And since then, I have loved the BBC's current adaptation, and have found myself pleasantly surprised by the films starring the incomparable Robert Downey, Jr. So this year, I managed to track down a few of the books and read them. Honestly, these two books could not be more different from each other. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes is a collection of some of the short stories, and each one is quick, direct, and concise. It's not bad, but sometimes it feels like the story ends just as it gets interesting. The Hound of the Baskervilles, on the other hand, wonderfully takes its time. There is a sense of enjoyment that comes from just the nature of the narration, the way words flow together and describe things in such a slow, lush way. This novel definitely takes the reader along with it, which stands in stark contrast to the short stories often featuring an arrest long before most of the evidence is even shown. I did enjoy both books, but it is not a stretch for me to recommend The Hound of the Baskervilles much more highly.

3 and 4. Kingdom Hearts volumes 1 and 2 by Shiro Ama

Not everything I read this summer was high literature. In this case, some of it was a manga adaptation of a popular video game franchise. In this case, it was Kingdom Hearts, a JRPG video game crossover between Square Enix's blockbuster Final Fantasy franchise and assorted Walt Disney films. If that sounds like an odd choice of things to crossover, it is. But the games work well due to enjoyable gameplay and beloved characters. You kind of lose the first half of that with a manga adaptation, though. But I can't really give this much of a review, since manga is a difficult medium for me to really get into. The way storytelling moves along in often cluttered pages is not something I find easy to read, at least when it comes to action series. But fans of the games and manga enthusiasts might have a different take on this.

5. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

I've been meaning to read this for the longest time, and I am quite glad I did. It was a very enjoyable read. It's always an interesting experience reading something that you know only from adaptations. I was surprised to find that Alice was not as sensible and blameless in things happening as some versions have suggested. Altogether it is a very fun children's book, and it can be read as a very interesting study on post-modernism, regardless of what the original intent was. Hey, I never said I wasn't pretentious.

6. Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett

Though I read a number of good books this summer, if it came right down to it, this would be my favorite of them. I adored this book from beginning to end, and I had troubles putting it down. When the final page ended, I went back and read the publication information, praise blurbs, and every single other word in the book, just so that I didn't have to stop reading it. I could get into the plot, but that would take so long, and there are probably many other places that can summarize it coherently. I can say though that the characters are fantastic, the plot is great, its interpretation of Revelations is really interesting, and it is extremely funny when it tries to be funny, incredibly exciting when it tries to be exciting, and incomparably heartwarming basically all the time. Read it, you fools!

7. The Intrigues of Haruhi Suzumiya by Nagaru Tanigawa

This is the seventh book in a series of Japanese light novels that I am thoroughly enjoying. There are actually somewhere around ten books in the series, but they are being officially translated into English and released gradually. In any case, this was probably the best entry in the series since the fourth book. The pacing was good, and I was pleased to see almost every character get some development over the course of the book. A lot of the books will focus on just a few characters, or feature stories that really only develop one, but this novel managed to grow the roles of each main character and even one of the minor characters. A lot of questions are answered in this volume, and more than a few more are raised. This is definitely a great book in a great series.

That's the first seven books on this list, making this part 1 of 3! I'll continue this on Friday.

A very short review of Henry IV part II.

This week, I finally finished slogging through William Shakespeare's King Henry IV part II.  Now a class made me once again a fan of The Bard, and I have enjoyed a lot of what I have read by him over the years.  I even enjoyed Henry IV part I, despite having a bit of a difficult time reading it.  So it came down to reading Henry IV part II, because I felt like I should continue the story.  Granted, I probably should have started with Richard II, but I didn't feel like entrenching myself that deep without feeling out the rest of the series.

For some background, it should be mentioned that William Shakespeare had a very popular series of plays involving the histories of some of the kings of England.  Those plays were Richard II, Henry IV part I, Henry IV part II, and Henry V.  Each of these plays has about fifteen billion characters, and approximately 67% of these characters are named Henry.  They're not exactly the easiest plays to read, even by Shakespearean standards.

Anyhow, for more of my thoughts on Henry IV part II, here is my review from Goodreads.


King Henry Iv Part Ii: Second Series by William Shakespeare
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Far be it from me to say that a Shakespeare play is "boring," but let's be honest, not a whole lot happens in this play.  Half of the play is nothing more than Jack Falstaff being sassy, and the rest of everything else is rather drawn out.  Essentially only two things happen in this play - The rebels surrender and Henry IV dies to make way for Henry V.  And yet both of those things happen in the last two acts.  I realize that Shakespeare wrote in a five act structure.  I realize that his tetralogy was very popular at the time.  I realize that William Shakespeare is far more acclaimed by critics and professors and popular audiences than I could ever conceive of being.  And don't get me wrong, I like Shakespeare.  It's just that Henry IV Part II is kind of like Shakespeare's Pirates of the Caribbean 3: A needless extension of a previous story that only exists to get more mileage out of popular characters where plot threads are dropped unceremoniously.


View all my reviews

Perhaps I am being harsh.  There are people who would probably stone me to death for daring to criticize William Shakespeare.  But luckily, those people are in a presently shrinking minority.  There's no reason why we can't hold the authors of our classic literary canon up to scrutiny.  And not just scrutiny in the sense of dangerous themes that the present, like how Joseph Conrad is extraordinarily racist or how every female character in Frankenstein ends up murdered.  I mean that the literary giants, yes, even William Shakespeare, from time to time wrote things that just aren't good.

And that's all right.  Shakespeare practically invented half of modern English usage.  He wrote more beloved plays than I will ever draft.  His reputation not going to hurt from the criticism of a puny literature blogger.  And even if more people stop holding him as flawless, he'll still be a great playwright.  That's how things are.

Batman: Mask of the Phantasm review

Much to my chagrin, it will likely be a while before I'm able to see The Dark Knight Rises. Theater tickets cost a lot of money these days, and with 3D – it is in 3D, isn't it? It has to be – a trip to the flicks is now a significant chunk out of my non-existent paycheck. So in the meantime, I've decided to catch up on some Batman films that I haven't seen. Earlier this week, I watched Batman: Year One, which wasn't half bad. And tonight, I decided that if I can't watch the Batman film that everybody is talking about, I can at least watch the Batman film that nobody is talking about.

Allow me to clarify: for better or for worse, there at least is an opinion on most Batman films. Adam West's Batman: The Movie is talked about all the time for how ridiculous and idiotic it is, a fact that the film itself almost seems to understand. Tim Burton's Batman is held in fairly high regard among most people I have heard, and Batman Returns has a great deal of mixed reviews. Batman and Robin is reviled for both its cheesy campiness and the fact that, unlike its 1960s predecessor, it does not realize how stupid it is. Even Batman Forever, though nowhere near as good as Burton's films or as expressly bad as Schumacher's followup, is at least brought up now and then as That Time Jim Carrey Wore Spandex. And of course Christopher Nolan's trilogy is nothing short of a pop cultural phenomenon, even if sometimes people seem to forget that there was a first film in the series.

But in 1993, hot off the success of the Animated Series and the disappointing returns from Batman Returns, there was another feature film release that is hardly mentioned at all – Batman: Mask of the Phantasm. Part of the highly acclaimed Batman: the Animated Series, Mask of the Phantasm came out about a year after the launch of the series and fits in as part of the story. But the weird thing is that nobody ever seems to talk about it. I don't know if I have even ever met someone who has seen it, and basically every single one of my friends loves Batman. I had to find out about this on the internet, where the few people who mention it assure me it is quite good.

And the thing is, they're right. It is a really good Batman film. It both fits within the established mythos of the series (at the time. Later seasons would retcon some things.) and tells its own story well. Not only that, but unlike some film entries of existing series like Trigun: Badlands Rumble, the film has fairly high stakes. Sure, some of the most important characters are introduced in the movie and never seen outside of it, but their arcs are compelling and affect established characters in a way that makes sense.

For those who have not seen the film, there are two main stories that go on in it. The main story involves a mysterious hooded figure – the eponymous Phantasm, though as far as I noticed, nobody calls it this onscreen – who is systematically hunting down and killing mob bosses. These murders are blamed on Batman, which is not an unlikely leap, what what with the cape and the mask and the unmistakable influences from Gothic horror.

The second story involves a former love interest of Bruce Wayne's, a woman named Andrea Beaumont. And love interest is not a loose term here: we see her relationship with Bruce unfold quite seriously through a series of flashbacks. This story is actually very interesting, as it has an enormous effect on Bruce and raises answers to some pressing questions. Couldn't more good be accomplished by Bruce Wayne through donations to the police and charities? If so, why does he choose to become Batman instead? Where is the line drawn between vigilantism and vengeance and has Batman crossed it? It's an origin story that doesn't involve his technology or his childhood or his fear/fascination with bats, and it works because of it.

Other than these, the rest can be summed up by saying it's a part of the animated series. It succeeds best in its unique mesh of time periods and art styles. It can be somewhat camp and cartoony but still dark and interesting. The cast is fantastic, with some great (though short) parts with Wayne's butler Alfred and of course Mark Hamill's endlessly entertaining performance as The Joker. Furthermore, the scenes with the Phantasm evoke a wonderful classic monster movie feel, and significant development is given to the character and motivations of Bruce Wayne. Sure, it suffers some from its relatively short running time, and the climax perhaps leaves a bit to be desired and a lot unanswered. But in spite of these flaws, Batman: Mask of the Phantasm still is a great film, and easily belongs in the Top Five film adaptations of the Batman franchise ever made.

Review of Batman: Year One

I just finished watching the straight-to-DVD animated adaptation of Frank Miller's Batman: Year One. It was pretty good. Granted, was certainly not the kind of film that could get a theatrical release. The pacing wasn't fantastic and the animation wasn't exactly studio quality. Additionally, at 64 minutes long, it isn't even as long as a Pokemon movie. But as a home release animated film, it worked quite well. It was certainly more interesting than some other comic book home releases like The Invincible Iron Man, which was surprisingly boring. And as far as Batman films go, it also was more coherent and engaging than Batman: Gotham Knight, the DVD release interquel between Batman Begins and The Dark Knight.

The film, for the uninitiated, follows both Bruce Wayne and Jim Gordon as they come to Gotham City in order to fight crime: Gordon as an honest lieutenant in a precinct full of dirty cops, and Wayne as a vigilante who soon becomes the legendary Batman. Interestingly, the film spends a great deal of time more on Lt. Gordon, as he deals with corrupt cops, his superiors, troubles with his marriage, and a so-called giant bat that seems to be attacking people.

Honestly, I suspect that the film would have been done itself a favor if it had stuck with this idea and run with it. It told a very interesting story about Jim Gordon, and a Batman story completely from his view would be fantastic. Additionally, by dropping the few, unsatisfactory parts based around Wayne – as well as the late-coming and quickly forgotten arc about Catwoman – the film could have had more time to develop a few of its plot threads that seemed rushed.

That was one of the biggest problems with the film: the pacing. While the first half had a great deal of nicely done buildup, by the end it seemed like plot threads were rushed to completion – like the aftermath of Gordon's infidelity – or dropped altogether – like the origin of Catwoman. I understand that this is a direct adaptation of an existing story, but many of these parts feel awkwardly forced in.  Other problems revolved around the voice acting  In many cases, it was fine, but some acting, notably Bruce Wayne himself, fell rather flat.

The animation itself was a bit of a mixed bag, though perhaps not quite as literally mixed as Gotham Knight, which was a series of shorts produces by different directors and studios, creating the effect of switching halfway through an episode of Samurai Champloo to watch a little Death Note. Year One seems to take some of its cues from the current trend of Motion Comics, adapting a comic book or graphic novel by putting limited animation into the existing panels. However, it becomes clear that this is mostly to save money for the fight scenes. The fight scenes are stunningly animated, which can provide a bit of a jarring contrast to much of the rest of the film, which thankfully found a bit of a middle ground between the limited style of some scenes and the glossy production of others.

But all things considered, this was a fairly enjoyable film. The story was mostly solid, the animation had some great scenes, and the voice acting was fantastic with only a few exceptions. Fans of Batman Begins or Batman: The Animated Series would probably enjoy this – it certainly has a similar ring to it – and it could even change the minds of those who have found previous DVD releases to be somewhat lacking. It definitely wouldn't win over anyone who doesn't like Batman, of course. But let's be real here: those people are quite beyond help already.

A small review of Bastion

Recently I came upon a rather impressive surprise in the form of a video game named Bastion.  It's a game I probably would never have discovered on my own: I became aware of it with the release of the most recent Humble Indie Bundle, a special offer name-your-own-price bundle of independently developed video games that is offered every now and then and is absolutely worth keeping an eye on.  I myself knew nothing about Bastion, but I had heard from a handful of blogs that it had a killer soundtrack and deserved paying attention to.  So when I bought the Humble Bundle, I decided to start with that game.

It of course had a lot of what I expected from the hype.  It had fantastic music, striking art, and a great deal of fun gameplay.  But in spite of it all, not everything I had come to expect would prove good.  I had assumed that it would be one of those games that was just too cool for its own good, too wrapped up in being impressive to actually deliver on anything substantial.

It's an easy assumption to make, because if one thing drives this game, it clearly is the concept of cool.  A soundtrack made from a damn good blend of blues, folk, electronic, post rock, country, sitar and atmospheric accompaniment.  A sole narrator describing your every movement with a voice like a blend of Keith David, Morgan Freeman and Barry White all sitting around a campfire, passing around a fifth of bourbon and trading tales of the Wild West.  A setting filled with an unexplained blend of fantasy, science fiction and steampunk elements.  Weapons like an automatic crossbow made out of a small reptile skeleton, a machete that can be thrown and split into three blades, and a bellows that spits flames.  A setting consisting of ground that flies up to meet your feet rather than staying in place.  It's easy to think that with this sort of disregard for logic in the face of greater awesomeness that things like story and character would take a back seat for smashing up “Gasfellas” and “Anklegators” with a hammer the size of the protagonist.  Which is why it came as a great surprise to me when the ending had me almost in tears.

The whole game has a shocking subtlety to it, and it develops the characters actually fairly well that they become worth saving, the efforts you put into building the eponymous Bastion seem hugely important, and your actions all feel like they have consequences.  For example, throughout most of the game, you're beating up outlandish creatures and plants that have it in for you and disappear as soon as they're defeated, like enemies do in most games.  But then, as you start to realize that the creatures have similar goals to you, the game hits you with a curve ball.  Without spoiling too much, the game eventually puts you against other humans.  And unlike the Windbags and Peckers and Pincushions that you battle most of the game, the humans don't disappear when they're killed.  It's subtle.  It's never mentioned.  It's possible to miss it completely.  But when you deliver a final blow on someone who's attacking you, and instead of flashing red and vanishing, they just fall to the ground dead, the gravity of what you've done hits you like a meteor hammer.   But you don't get to stay and contemplate it right away, because the next attacker is coming for you.

This game could have so easily been an excuse to destroy exotic enemies and customize ridiculous weapons like in Borderlands or the early stages of some Final Fantasy games.  But somehow, Bastion makes an enormous impression.  A phenomenal soundtrack, incredible voice acting, a unique visual style, and challenging and enjoyable gameplay all make this a game worth playing.  But its careful use of storytelling and consequence of action make this a game worth talking about.  And that, more than anything else, is what we need right now.