John Berry
9-26-09
---------Yesterday I caught a double feature matinee of Surrogates and Pandorum. It’s been a little while since we have had a good sci-fi offering and I was looking forward to two on the same day. I wish we could get a new awesome sci-fi or super hero movie every week. Who knows, with CGI technology becoming more accessible, this could come to pass.
---------The first movie was Surrogates. Now I missed the first five minutes so if something really cool happened in that time I missed it. Yahoo Movies and the theater’s schedule didn’t jive and I was left holding the bag. No Big Deal I’m sure I’ll catch the beginning on DVD some day. I found this movie to be entertaining, but not necessarily an instant sci-fi classic. We are not talking BladeRunner here. Special effects were on par. Story was entertaining. Early on in the film they addressed the whole Cyber Tranny phenomenon. That kept it real since you know those dudes are out there. Best quote, lets see if I get it right, “ I don’t know what you are lady. For all I know you could be some fat guy sitting in a sim-chair with his dick in his hand.”
----------One thing that bugged me was the premise that they hadn’t had a homicide in several years. That just seemed unrealistic. Sure people don’t leave their houses anymore, but so many murders occur inside the home. I didn’t see any special sci-fi door improvements. If somebody pisses you off what is to stop you from having your robot body kick in their door and killing them in their zombied out sim-chair? The one guy they had monitering millions of surrogate feeds? I don’t think so. And if that was enough to keep you from using your surrogate I’m sure that somebody has gotten pissed off enough to go into somebody elses house and kill them while they zoned out. It just defies human nature to think that this invention could end murder. Don’t they watch Law and Order?
----------I don’t know how they got Bruce Willis to look so young when he was out and about with his surrogate body. It was either really good makeup or CGI. I couldn’t tell, which is a good thing. Suspension of disbelief 4TW!!! It was funny seeing Bruce Willis with a full head of hair.
----------In the end I liked it. Would I recommend seeing this movie? Sure. But don’t feel like you have to race out to the theater to see it. It’s not like there is any big reveal or twist at the end and its not like the special effects are so epic that you must see it in the theater. If you are bored and you want to go to the theater, then check it out. Otherwise catch it on DVD when it comes out.
----------Next up was Pandorum. Now this one was pretty damn good. I really enjoyed it. I found it to be innovative. There was some shaky cam action that I could have done without, but other than that it was two thumbs up. The story was suspenseful and it kept you guessing. It had a few nice action sequences and a couple cool plot twists at the end. I would recommend this movie in the theater to hard-core sci-fi fans.
----------Dennis Quaid did an OK job, however whenever I looked at him all I saw was General Hawk from G.I. Joe. On the other hand I recently caught a movie with Randy Quaid as the bad guy. It was called The Ice Harvest. And Randy did a good Job as a fat Gangster. I guess this is old news, 2005, but it was new to me and it helped cement Randy in his ranking as the greater Quaid.
----------It wouldn’t be a Peoples Comics column without a little comic book discussion so today I am reviewing Wolverine Noir and Thor Ragnarok. I have access to them both right now and have prioritized them.
----------Let’s start with Wolverine
Noir. This four part limited series takes place in the Bowery circa
1937. Jim Logan is a detective with a thing for knives. He was trained
in the art of knife-work by the gardener as a boy. There is some drama
with his partner dog that goes back to his childhood. I would say it
was well written. The art is dark and cool. It’s a good read.
Wolverine’s claws are two sets of three knives attached to handles
that fit in his palms. When armed they look exactly like Wolverine claws.
There is however no mutant healing factor or heightened senses, only
a bunch of preacher talk from his father about the differences between
man and beast. Guess what… Logan is a beast. Who woulda thought?
-----------Thor Ragnarok is a six part story arc that concludes with the end of the Thor comic book. It encompasses issues 582-587. That is quite a run. Now we all know that they brought Thor back recently with a new series that the started back at number one. It gets about 13 issues and Bam we are up to issue 600. Marvel’s weird like that.
-----------Those who know me know I am a true fan of The Mighty Thor. The most recent Ragnarok storyline came during a time when I was not collecting comic books. I had heard it was awesome. So now having access to a loaner set I finally get to read it. The first couple pages describe the creation of Mjolnir and already I am seeing discrepancies. One according to this new version it was created before Thor and Loki. If that was the case how did Loki manage to trick the dwarves creating the hammer into making the handle too short? Two the making of Mjolnir was so dramatic they had to destroy a star and a planet to do that. So why was it so much less dramatic when Odin had Stormbreaker forged? Stormbreaker is Beta Ray Bill’s hammer and is considered the equal of Mjolnir. I know this stuff seems a little nitpicky, but come on here. The job of editor in chief of Marvel Comics is a highly sought position, and that guy should be on top of continuity. Either way I look past this and continue with the story.
----------After reading the Ragnarok story
line my first thoughts are that I would like to reread the newest Thor
series from book one. I’ll have to get to that at a later date;
don’t really have the time right now. Ragnarok started out strong
lots of action and hot god death. Issue four ended with the appearance
of Beta Ray Bill, always a treat. However the conclusion seemed a little
overly profound. Still there was some cool stuff there. You might want
to check it out.