This time next week, I will be in Mystic, Connecticut for a family reunion. That means I might not have a lot of time for blogging, if I have any at all. So, I’m running up the white flag and asking for a bit of aid in keeping the daily delivery of blog-flavored goodness.
Got something you want to say about storytelling in general? Did the story of a particular film or game piss you off, earning a place in your personal “How not to tell a tale” pantheon? Hell, did something I do piss you off? What makes good speculative fiction? Why do you love/hate/feel indifferent towards/want to hump IT CAME FROM NETFLIX! every week when it shows up?
Toss ideas at me in the comments, if you have any. I’m looking for three gems for next weekend. I’ve got Friday covered, of course.
Back to work for me. Head going under water. Glub, glub, glub.
I suppose I will toss in a little bit of conversational hors d’oeuvre.
I recently saw Watchmen for the first time. And before anyone finds that odd, I will preface by saying that I recently saw Heat for the first time. Onward…
Knowing nothing about Watchmen before viewing it, I was amazed to discover that in lieu of being a cookie cutter superhero movie, it was more or less a philosophical challenge of finding one’s place in the world with a heavy dusting of human nature.
I found that I rather enjoyed the occasional non sequitur of deep thought moment to bone crushing violence. It was certainly a far cry from the norm and anyone that knows me knows that I love me some innovation on existing genres. It felt like I was watching an illegitimate love-child of the X-Men and The Incredibles and I rather enjoyed it.
The character “Dr. Manhattan” weirded me out a little. While he was purported to be an omniscient being albeit only to himself, he was still taken advantage of in multiple ways, causing him to simply teleport to another galaxy. It begged the question, why had he even joined a “side” in the complex turmoil involved amongst the world’s nations. It was said over and over throughout the movie that he simply didn’t understand humans. As a super-set to all the other superheroes he just didn’t seem to fit among the story at all while still playing a crucial role in its development.
I loved Rorschachs. He was a character that I simply wanted to be. He overcame a childhood of extreme negativity and used it to fuel not only his abilities, but his commitment to truth and justice. His superhero persona was absolutely perfectly fitted to him and wasn’t indicative of the usual “Awesome Man” super-being nomenclature.
All around I’d call it a very fun watchable good movie, although the Dr. Manhattan thing still doesn’t sit very well. That introduced more philosophy than I cared to think about.
This is a good place to start. Want to expand on it and email me the result?
If I can find some time, I will spit some Loomis on it and give it a thorough rub-down. HEY-O!!!
I do actually have two things I’ve been meaning to talk about, even if it’s not to your liking than at least for myself.
The first would be a sort of informal movie review of Knight & Day. I say informal because I think that it would appear to be a sort of response to MovieBob’s review on Escape to the Movies in which he dismisses the film right from the start. Between his recent Game Overthinker Episodes and certain installments of Escape to the Movies, I’m seriously beginning to dislike his work. But that is neither here nor there. The gist of it would be a Knight & Day movie review with an emphasis on what constitutes good quality summer entertainment.
The second idea is some thoughts on the mechanics of Red Dead Redemption, a game I’ve been playing quite a bit recently. I would be talking about the ending bits mostly, which I won’t spoil here just in case that would sour someone’s day. My thought and ideas are less assembled on this subject, so I’m leaning more towards doing the former. The core of this piece would be something along the lines of “gameplay should be consistent with the game’s world.”
If you’ll have any piece, I’d be more than happy to sort it out tonight through to tomorrow. Frankly, I was planning to review Knight & Day tomorrow anyway. Contrary to what MovieBob would have you believe, I’ve been able to remember the film well over a week after walking out of the theatre.
Again, let me know what you think and I’ll do my best.
Ideas:
Zen writing. The art of non-attachment in writing.
Multiple Personalities. Idea from actors and shrinks in developing and controlling your characters.
Getting out there. A recent experience forcing myself to take a break from writing and being social, only to meet a character I had in real life that I had been struggling with.
I have a potential repost from an amazing introduction to a 1989 cross genre anthology that you would absolutely love.