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Monday, June 30, 2008

Wall-E

Well, here it is: The first near-silent, post-apocalyptic, anti-consumerist animated film of the 21st century. Is it good? Oh yeah. Is it great? I was blown away.
Wall-E pushes the purist aesthetic of Pixar animation to the borders of the avant-garde. It's a largely dialogue-free story set on a planet Earth nearly devoid of organic life, and its view of humanity's future is about as dark as dystopian get. Yet Wall-E is an improbable delight, a G-rated crowd-pleaser that seems poised to pack theaters as efficiently as the titular robot crams his chest cavity with rubble.
Wall-E is the 2001 of animation. It’s a sci-fi masterpiece. R2D2 hits The Road. Screw polar bears! The new empathic face of global warming is a sweet little trash compactor called WALL-E. The Waste Allocation Load-Lifter Earth-Class lives in Chapin-esque silence in what was once New York City. He’s all by himself, save for an unnamed cockroach and a well-loved tape of “Hello, Dolly!” WALL-E’s cute factor goes to 11 – every gaze from those lonely metallic peepers makes me want to give him a hug.
New York is a sea of Big N Large products, clearly Wal-Mart expanding to world domination. Fred Willard is the president and we see via leftover TV screens how too much trash forced the human population onto a giant spaceship called Axiom. It was meant to be for five years, but 700 years later morbidly obese humans float along with screens in front of their faces, eating constantly, waited on hand and foot by machines.
It’s pretty gross. And ironic, considering most of the film’s viewers are sitting on their duffs shoving popcorn, candy and soda into their mouths as they watch the giant screen in the theater. (And they’ll either leave their junk food packages on the floor or dump them in the overflowing trash bins – we’re coming soon, Axiom!)
The opening scenes establish Wall-E and the roach's world with such economy and wit that it's almost a letdown when a third party shows up to complicate things. Eve is an Extraterrestrial Vegetation Evaluator, an elegant white robot—she looks like a cross between an iPod and an egg—who's been dispatched to Earth to find any evidence of returning plant life. Though they can communicate at first only by speaking their own names, Eve and Wall-E begin an unlikely courtship. This idyll is lost when a smitten Wall-E shows her his latest find—a tiny plant that he's transplanted into an old boot—and Eve's prime directive is activated. She snatches the sprig away, stows it in her storage compartment, and blasts off for the Axiom, a kind of floating resort in space that houses the remnants of humanity.
You shouldn't go into Wall-E knowing much more than that, the better to be surprised by the visual, verbal, and conceptual treats the movie has to offer. Every detail of the design, from the contents of Wall-E's revolving shelf of knickknacks to the layout and function of the Axiom's central "Lido Deck," has been thought through with the compulsive perfectionism that must make Pixar Studios an insane place to work. Wall-E generously dispenses one sight gag after another, but it also expects a lot of its audience.I don't think really young children will 'get it'. Space out for a moment, and you'll miss a laugh. The story is unmistakably an ecological fable, though its tone is more wistful than preachy, more The Lorax than An Inconvenient Truth. 9/10
Recommendation: You may find yourself completely in love with a tiny robot with a big heart and even bigger dreams. ::whisper:: I even cried at the end. Yes, in an animated film.
Wanted

Wanted opens with bloody murder -- an assassin assassinated. There's a secret society of killers known as The Fraternity, who kill based on the prophecies of a mystic whatsit called The Loom of Fate, a clattering apparatus that spits out the names of targets encoded in the warp and woof of the cloth it makes. The Fraternity's always been convinced that the targets are deserving victims, named so that the balance of the universe might be maintained by the deaths The Loom commands -- "Kill one, save a thousand" -- but there's some bad blood, and bloodshed, between the Fraternity and its former top assassin Cross, who seems to have some quibbles with the status quo and is running through his objections, with the bullet points of his argument actually being bullets.

Wesley (James McAvoy) is a cube-dwelling drone whose life is a mix of Office Space, Fight Club and some unknown circle of hell with fluorescent lighting. Crippled by self-loathing and panic attacks, Wesley is found and swept away by Fox (Angelina Jolie), who explains to Wesley that he's got a secret link to The Fraternity, and that makes him a target. The only way for Wesley to live is for him to kill the person who wants him dead, who also killed the father Wesley never knew. Wesley wants no part of this, even after being told he's heir to some traits that had made his father, a king among killers, so fearsome. His panic attacks? Turns out they're the unfocussed manifestation of a hyperspeed heartbeat that can be focused in the name of lethal accuracy and inhuman clarity. Soon, Wesley is willingly, gladly embracing his new life and new friends and new talents. ...

Directed by Timur Bekmambetov of the Night Watch series, Wanted is full of hey-ma-lookit-me! goofy, giddy directorial touches. We see so many scenes from the bullet's point of view that I swear I had the taste of gunpowder in my mouth by the end of the film. Just like Bourne Supremacy the director uses cutaway action for the chase scenes that sometimes leaves the viewer dizzy. But there are two very awesome 'backwards' scenes that bookend the film and those two moments will make it feel all worth it. Also, in the beginning of the film, McAvoy deftly relates his tale of woe and it is funny and sad all rolled into one, with incredible little effects that made the film almost seem indy.
Screenwriters Michael Brandt, Derek Haas and Chris Morgan wisely peel away from Mark Millar's original comic books early on and ditch his meditations on costumed super villainy so they might focus on plainclothes action; when Wesley goes from paper-pusher to death-dealer (and McAvoy goes from indie actor to action star), we're invited along for the ride. Sadly, the writers got rid of the plot along with the comic book ridiculousness and they left some of it in there. The Loom of Destiny is never explained and seems preposterous. There is no sub plot, and barely even a twist. Typical down and out hero, discovers ability, trains, and kills.
Wanted is, at its core, a deeply stupid movie, but its main players are more than talented enough to sell this brand of stupid. Many of the action sequences may be derivative of Matrix derivatives, but they’re well conceived and executed enough, and there’s at least a couple of really cool moments (including Wesley’s creative use of an ergonomic keyboard). But there are a few things I have questions about. If someone could explain a meat packing area in a textile factory, please let me know. 6/10
Recommendation: Wanted is an action packed, heart thumping, blood spattered, mess of a film, that is highly entertaining, wonderfully acted, and yet entirely forgettable.

Monday, June 23, 2008

Countdown

Well, grad school starts in two weeks and I am both full of excitement and apprehension. There are a wide range of people with different writing styles and interests which is exciting and also intimidating. I am afraid that my confidence in my own writing is not where it should be, for even if people think my stories are fun, what matters to me is if they are written well. This is the reason I don't have anything published, and of course there will be those at my residency who have been published, which is more than a little intimidating. I understand being excited about being published, I would be over the moon if it happened to me, but when others mention it, I have a tendency to feel threatened and throw up a giant wall. There is a fine line between excitement and bragging, and it is hard for me to distinguish between the two.So I am being oh so careful to not judge anyone, even by their intro emails, before I meet them in person. (and hopefully not judging even though)
I have received my first workshopping packet, and it looks like a nice mix of historical fiction, picture books, poetry, sci-fi, fantasy, and even non-fiction about a tsunami's. It should be interesting to see everyones different writing styles. It should be interesting to see what everyone thinks of my stuff.
As for my writing, in honor of grad school and beginning residency, I started a new story at the beginning of June. It was originally going to be a longish short story. It is now, most assuredly, a book. Having hit 167, and I am heading into the final chapters, it is just writing itself. That's right folks. I believe that I will have written an entire book in ONE MONTH! It needs some work, but honestly, not as much as my other one. It has restored my confidence in my writing abilities. It is so exciting to have a book just come together like this, with even sub-plots, sub-text, and characters falling into line with barely a thought. I quite literally did a little dance last night after writing one chapter, because it was perfect. Everything worked perfectly.
The best part of the book I'm writing right now is that it came to me in a dream. I love my dreams, they have been the inspiration for half of things I have written, and honestly, they have been my best stuff. I can only think that God sends me some awesome inspirations for some good stories.

Saturday, June 21, 2008

Get Smart

This contemporary remake of the iconic '60s TV comedy could have used more of the sly wit of show creators Buck Henry and Mel Brooks and less of the antic humor and overblown action sequences that typify Hollywood's summer output.
While the film is breezily entertaining, it also is surprisingly generic, despite the likable Steve Carell as Maxwell Smart. Carell does a fine, goofy job. But you wish he could have tapped into his nuanced and darker comic side. Anne Hathaway is about as effective as Agent 99 as can be imagined, short of the original, Barbara Feldon. But the sentimental facets of her character dilute her sardonic and sassy nature.
The hush-hush spy agency CONTROL employs Smart as an analyst, where he impressively deciphers suspicious "chatter" from surveillance tapes. But he longs to be where the action is as a field agent. After the agency headquarters is attacked and identities of key operatives compromised, the Chief (sharply played by Alan Arkin) promotes Smart to secret agent. Smart idolizes the brawny Agent 23 (Dwayne Johnson) but is paired with the sultry Agent 99. He's instantly attracted; she's resentful about getting such a nerdy and accident-prone rookie for a partner. The pair is sent on a dangerous mission to thwart a plot for world domination by spy syndicate KAOS. Smart has only his smarts and trademark gadgets to fight off the malevolent KAOS, headed by Terence Stamp. But his resourcefulness and enthusiasm take him far. As does dumb, bumbling luck.
The screenplay is peppered with such trademark Smart lines as "Sorry about that, Chief," "Would you believe …?" and "Missed it by that much," but they seem almost forcibly inserted rather than interwoven naturally into the script. (I did watch a few episodes of the show in order to be on the up and up on my Get Smartness)
On the plus side, the high-tech "Cone of Silence" sequence offers fresh laughs, as does Smart's arsenal of gadgets, including exploding dental floss and a flame-throwing Swiss Army knife.
This is a film that is keenly aware of its impending summer blockbuster status. And with that in mind, it can't decide whether it wants to be a thrilling action movie or a quirky comic spoof. The elements seem in conflict, rather than seamlessly blended. 7/10
Recommendation: It's bright enough, but stops short of being clever. Full of laughs, it will entertain, but in the end, may not be that memorable.

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

New Blog

I decided to start a new blog where I could put down everything that I am learning and studying about children's books and writing. I wanted a blog that had a cohesive element to it. If you are at all interested in children's or young adult books, or just looking for great books or authors to read in your spare time then please stop by. I plan on reviewing a picture book, intermediate book, and young adult book every week, mostly discussing writing styles within the books. I will also feature a 'Forgotten Author of the Week' as well as a children's book illustrator every Thursday. Any essays or news articles will also be there to read, and every Sunday I will put up children's books that are being published that week. Check it out:
http://childrensatheneum.blogspot.com/