Schlotzsky's and Spoilers

Time for an update on my bad habits.

The Schlotzsky's pastrami and swiss on rye is not as wonderful as I remember it being from back in the day. Did you know they have a drive-thru? There's something special about the sponginess of Schlotzsky's bread, but the sandwich overall was a bit bland.

Kevin Smith, though. This man is anything but bland. His show on Hulu Plus, Spoilers, is a lot of fun, expanding on the director/fan repertoire Smith has established through other forums. From the fan discussions of movies to the "sponsored by" Criterion Lounge moments where Smith talks about a movie of the day from the Criterion Collection, the show is laid-back and enjoyable. But, most of all, Smith's chats with other folk in the movie business are illuminating and, for me, the main draw of the show. Take his interview with Damon Lindelof, for example. Despite my dislike for Lindelof's hokey mysteries in LOST, what I assume must have been his idea to blow up the planet Vulcan in the Star Trek reboot, and his many plot-holes and desperate stabs at profundity in Prometheus, his chat with Kevin Smith allowed to to appreciate what he did accomplish as a writer in those instances. With LOST, Lindelof helped Abrams to turn a studio joke project (the dramatized version of Survivor) into the most intriguing show on television... for a time, until its beautiful mystery boxes turned out to be empty. With Prometheus, Lindelof turned Jon Spaight's script from a straight prequel to Alien with Aliens-style action (and no potential surprises to be found since the audience has presumably seen Alien) into a potential new franchise containing unfamiliar elements... albeit one we didn't really need. There is, however, no good reason given for the destruction of Vulcan. Because there isn't one.

Holy Granola, Batman!

So, Granola. So good. So crunchy. I typically put a little soy milk over top and maybe throw in a few berries, usually the blue kind. Why granola and Batman? No reason, unless you decide to eat some while reading Grant Morrison's Batman Incorporated, which you should - just be careful not spill on your comic.

However, you'll have to wait til Aug. 22 to pick up the new issue, which was delayed due to the tragedy of the Aurora shooting and what artist Chris Burnham called, "a specific scene that made DC and the whole bat-team say 'Yikes,' too close for comfort."

Grant Morrison is, of course, an A-list comic book writer, though Batman Incorporated is unabashedly pulpy and nostalgic for past eras of The Batman. Yet, for me, this is one of the greatest attributes the comic has going for it, not to mention Burnham's great artwork, which is reminiscent of Frank Quitely's work with Morrison on Batman & Robin. That is by no means a bad thing, and Burnham sets himself apart from Quitely, reminding me on occasion of a toned-down Geoff Darrow. The story starts out focusing on Bruce Wayne's project of corporatizing the idea of the Batman as a world-wide security force, but the more recent issues have narrowed the plot from its large cast of every former-Robin, sidekick, and Batman spin-off character, down to Bruce's immediate family. And it's a blast.

Speaking of pulpiness, I really enjoyed The Dark Knight Rises. Enough to see it twice, though the second viewing suffered from some diminishing returns. Alex Vo over at Rotten Tomatoes gives a review which more or less sums up my own feelings about the movie:

"This is one pulpy movie. Not campy, mind you. The Dark Knight aimed to button the superhero down to reality, but TDKR functions on a grander physical scale. It embraces the outsized comic elements, things like a nuclear bomb plot, a gassy masked villain, and a man who is snapped in two, spending months in the desert to discover his power again. These things are believable, but not particularly realistic (in contrast to TDK being both at the same time). In doing so, the film exits our world and begins to operate on a mythical level. It's really quite easy to escape into this movie. "

Despite my enjoyment of the film, it's badly flawed in a number of ways. This has been clearly pointed out to me by many friends and reviewers over the last week since the film was released. It can be downright dumb, full of plot-holes, and pandering - to the detriment of its very message. This is why I would slightly amend Neil Gaiman's assessment that, "I preferred the last movie, but this is a better Batman movie, and, I suspect, a better film." It seems more accurate to say that The Dark Knight was a better film overall, but The Dark Knight Rises is indeed the better BATMAN film. Whereas Nolan previously made the Batman universe his own, this time around he makes concessions to the mythic quality of the Batman stories. The movie ultimately succeeds for a number of reasons in addition to this. The film's opening sequence (much like The Dark Knight's opening heist scene) is flawless and riveting, while the movie improves upon the comic version of Bane to create a character who is more intriguing and menacing. Also, interestingly enough, the film's big twist/reveal relates quite nicely to the events occurring in Batman Incorporated. The shooting at the midnight premiere of the film in Aurora makes the film's questioning of the necessary evil of violence in the quest for justice resonate all the more. Though not one of the best films released this year, it is bound to be remembered as the most culturally significant.

Next Time, Maybe:
Steed & Mrs. Peel (another helping of Grant Morrison)
and/or
Some sort of home-cooked meal
and/or
The end of RASL (in stores August 1st)

RASL

As Jeff Smith's follow up to BONE nears its final issue, I think it's appropriate to post a little something about the limited-run comic series RASL (available at www.boneville.com)

The neo-noir tale of a scientist turned art thief who travels through multiple universes in order to counter the government manipulation of his scientific discoveries, RASL is a rad concept which ultimately comes across as meandering. Whereas the early issues of BONE profited from slowly revealing new characters and plot points while serving up punchlines at a steady rate, RASL seems to suffer from the same problems that BONE did toward the end of the series: random (though admittedly intriguing) references to ancient mysteries and symbols, inconsistently drawn characters, and dialogue that strains to be more "adult."

However, there's still one issue left. There's still a chance Jeff will tie all of the loose ends together as he did splendidly in the first story arc of BONE, rendering RASL pretty awesome.

One can hope.

John Carter of Mars

Jamie and I went to see Disney's John Carter on Tuesday night. Despite poor reviews, a rating on Rotten Tomatoes settling around 50%, and abismal marketing, I had hoped the movie would be some sort of awesome, seeing as it was directed by Andrew Stanton (Finding Nemo, Wall-E) and co-written by Michael Chabon. As John Struan, the blogger from Super Punch, points out - the movie contains action sequences, plot points, and set pieces almost identical to elements from the first two Star Wars prequels, but in the space of a single film rather than two. Perhaps it is a little sad that this story, which served as inspiration for science fiction novels and films from Dune to Star Wars to Avatar, comes across as derivative of those works. However, it a few key differences which make John Carter worth watching. Though the film suffers from occasional expositional troubles, Taylor Kitsch's silly growl, and scenes in which the "red men" of Mars work through dull political intrigue, the film succeeds in its light-hearted tone, satisfyingly gratuitous violence, and representation of the Tharks. Bryan Cranston makes an entertaining appearance as Colonel Powell and Willem Dafoe lends Tars Tarkas the tragic nobility of a pulpy King Lear. The implausibility of John Carter's situation and newfound powers are playfully mocked and the movie makes light of the various narrative conceits (treated with such reverence in other sci-fi). Finally, one of the best reasons to see the film is the Tharks, an effective antidote to anyone turned off by cloying representations of the alien-other/noble-savage (i.e. James Cameron's Na'vi). These aliens have a culture which is superficially frightening and inhuman in the eyes of John Carter but their "savagery" is presented as anthropologically necessary and reasonable, their nobility deriving from their very lack of sentimentality. The Tharks are more akin to the Fremen in their deep understanding of their own planet than they are to the ecological sentimentality of the Na'vi. Also, the Martian landscape as Wild West is visually stunning. This aspect of the film made me yearn for a new adaptation of The Martian Chronicles. One final point of interest is the inclusion of Edgar Rice Burroughs as a character in his own story, which was very likely Michael Chabon's invention seeing as he has a proclivity for meta-textual story elements. This aspect of the film, while overdone quite recently (see upcoming Poe-as-action-hero The Raven) works well for the ending of the movie. All in all, John Carter, though misnamed and mismanaged by Disney, is one fantastic failure.