Jones: Moon and Source Code

Before paying good money in a couple of days to watch possibly the worst movie ever made, I'd like to first praise two really good movies made by the same director, Duncan Jones.

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First in 2009, is Moon, starring Sam Rockwell. In this indie sci-fi movie with cheap but excellent effects, Sam is finishing up a three-year mission on the moon. With only a few days left, while longing to return to his family, things start to go wrong.

Before The Martian had even started to be written, this movie came out featuring a scientist using hard science to survive. This movie is a must for anyone interested in sci-fi in any way, shape, or form.

Be aware, though, that F-bombs abound. I'm not sure why, as the plot is really PG-13. Yet somehow, Sam Rockwell has a cute, funny way of dropping those gems. My more conservative friends may consider trying the movie out on VidAngel.com for a dollar or two, which will silence all 35 bombs, and help you enjoy the story.

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Then, two years later, Jones released Source Code, starring Jake Gyllenhaal. This movie takes on time travel with a cool twist. Not only does it provide fun action, but it's also very good science-fiction in that it actually finds a way to make time travel work. It really makes you think, even years after watching.

I'd say more, but the trailer attached above pretty much says it all. It's cool. It's fun.

I watched both of these movies about the same time back in 2011, and was impressed with the high level of intelligence, exciting action, effective exploration of human interactions with very likable characters, and very intriguing sci-fi concepts.

I was so impressed that I vowed to watch his next film, whatever and whenever that film would come out. I looked forward to that awesome third movie from an uprising and promising director. And that movie comes out in a couple of days ... Warcraft. Yes, you read that right -- the film that's panned by so many critics before it even comes out of the gate.

So, in a couple of days I'm going to watch, hoping to see a little of what I saw in these two great movies. It can't be that bad ... right?

Jim Butcher: Storm Front

After having watched the Dresden Files on Syfy a decade ago, I decided to give the books a try. Storm Front is the first in Jim Butcher's series.

Harry Dresden is a wizard, who also happens to be detective. Why one would want to be the other, I'd never guess, but it sure makes for interesting reading. It provides the noir feel mixed with fantasy, featuring vampires, fairies, demons, ghosts, and even a guild of wizards.

The book is nonstop, giving no time for boring bits. It has a perfect mixture of humor and action. It contains a full cast of characters, but don't expect too much in the way of character development, as seems normal in noir novels.

Butcher provides a very imaginative backdrop for an exciting case to solve. He goes into great detail to explain how the magic works, and often why it doesn't. However, I struggle to picture consistency in the rules. It seems that the characters are either too powerful at times, and impotent at others, much like those alien battle scenes we see in several movies where the good guys would be dead in a matter of minutes, but somehow seem to last hours. Then again, this has never really bothered me before - just a funny observation.

If you're looking for fun light reading that'll give you both noir and fantasy, then read this book. I promise an enjoyable read.

Double Feature: Civil War and Jungle Book

Today I'll review two movies I've watched recently.

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Overall, the 2016 reincarnation of The Jungle Book was a fun ride for the whole family. The live action animals were well done, even looking natural as they spoke. Successfully capturing the spirit of the Kipling books, the movie provides a story full of action, entertainment, and lessons learned.

Cub Scouts, in particular, should love the inclusion of Akela and a version of the Law of the Pack. Throughout the whole story, we learn some of the other laws the different animals live by, which some try to subvert and/or bend.

The man-cub, Mowgli, gets stuck in the middle, as he embarks on an adventure to escape the evil tiger, Shere Khan.

My only complaint is that halfway through the movie, the writers/directors thought to bring in songs from the Disney animated movie released in 1967. I thought the movie was doing fine without them. Sure, the songs are cool and catchy, but as soon as I heard the first couple of notes, the memories of the cartoon took me out of the experience completely. With that said, I'll concede that it was still a pretty darn good rendition of "I Wanna Be Like You."

In the end, my children liked the movie so much, they decided to add the name of Bagheera to our black cat's already long name.

This is a good movie to catch while it's still in theaters.

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The third Captain America movie, Civil War, was also a fun ride, but not really too much of a departure from the MARVEL movie formula. Like all other Avenger movies, it has its superhero action, conspiracies, twists, "tough" decisions, silly excuses to explain the absences of certain players, misunderstandings, and so on.

In a sense, this movie is Batman v. Superman except with many more superheroes, and much better done. Both movies have similarities, such as Batman/Ironman having stupid reasons to fights Superman/Captain America, and the addition of one or more super characters with no real development, who exist only to provide eye candy. And a couple of weeks after viewing, the plot begins to leave me, with some confusing parts diffusing away into nothingness.

Some people ask why this isn't an Avengers movie. The answer is simple. The writers choose two regulars to sit this one out (remember the silly excuses I mentioned earlier?), as if every Avenger were to be accounted for, then it would be an Avengers movie.

Still, it was fun watching the big fight. It made for a good date night.

My advice: catch it in the theater. Take a date. Have fun.

Two Month Update - Checkpoint #2

Here I am again, reporting on my progress on 2016 goals. This is number 2 of 6.

For blog writing in the past two months, I've slowed down to an average just a smidge above one post a week, either in this blog, or in one of my other three blogs. This is fine as I try to concentrate on other efforts.

I performed slightly better in the area of editing my novel Justice. In the past two months, I've edited six chapters, bringing me up to Chapter 13. I had hoped to be up to Chapter 16 by now, but I'm still well on track to finishing by October. Plus, I'm starting to hit the really exciting part of the novel, where it appears I had been more engaged, and where it appears to need less editing.

For magazine submissions, I only submitted to three more in the past two months, bringing me up to a total of five. It's kind of funny, but I'm starting to have to wait for responses. I currently have only four marketable short stories (that haven't yet been published anywhere), and three of them are tied up under consideration. I suppose that could be a good problem to have?

The next two months: I could feasibly finish Justice. I have ten more chapters left and nine weeks. If there are two particularly short chapters next to each other, I could do both in one week. But I need to work more on my music publishing company, so I'll back it up to eight chapters, bringing me to Chapter 21, and leaving the last two chapters for July.

I'll try to catch up with the magazine submissions by submitting one each week until I have all four stories tied up. Then when one becomes free, I can send it off the next week. (Or maybe one will be published. That would be cool.)

I'll also keep up with the one-post-a-week rate in my blogs.

How are you doing on your writing goals?

The Dark Forest: The Epic Continues

Cixin Liu does it again in the second book of his Remembrance of Earth's Past trilogy. The one word to sum up The Dark Forest is "epic."

The first book establishes that an advanced race has started a 400-year journey to our planet with the intention of wiping us out. The second book covers the first 200 years, detailing how the Earth prepares for the oncoming onslaught.

Just like with the first book, it took me about 70 pages to finally get a grasp on what was going on. The first pages are spent presenting the main characters with vignettes that don't seem to connect with each other. But then it all starts to come together with Luo Ji emerging as the main character, someone who unwittingly finds himself at the center of Earth's strategy.

Not only do we get a story of Earth coming together to fight a common enemy, but we also get the stories of individuals who struggle with their missions, who wonder if the Earth is really worth saving, and trying to live a normal life.

The book is full of epic imagery, and it does a wonderful job of staying within the realm of "real" science. The images were so vivid and believable that I often had to remind myself, as I went around doing my daily duties, that there was not indeed a group of aliens headed our way.

The book comes to a satisfying end and sets the stage for the next 200 years. Unfortunately, we English readers will have to wait till September 2016 for the translation of the last novel. Or, as my Cambodian friend tells me, "You could always learn Chinese."

I strongly recommend this series. Pick it up and prepare to be amazed.

Batman v Superman: Not That Bad

Critics hated Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, but it's making a killing in the box office.

Sucks to be a critic.

It wasn't so bad. I at least felt like I got my money's worth. It was mostly everything I expected. In some areas, it delivered more, and in others it delivered less. The CGI was fantastic. The usual Snyder comic cinematography was awesome, both in visual grandeur and in emotional content. The darkness was refreshing after seeing so many MARVEL movies. The big fight was fantastic and worth the money all by itself, thus answering a decades-old question. And the plot ... well ... not all movies can be perfect. At least it was Shakespeare compared with Jupiter Ascending.

Batman's story was a little disappointing. It started out very well with Bruce living out the death of his parents, and then experiencing the Kal-el v Zod showdown with strong overtones of 9/11. That part pulled me in. But his hatred of Superman felt like a stretch. Why didn't Bruce fall in line with most other people realizing Zod was the baddy and Superman was saving their butts? Bruce's dream sequences were confusing and sometimes misleading.

Overall it painted a nice, dark picture of Batman, but it no longer pulled me in. I wanted to yell, "Come on, Affleck. Stop being sad and get over it!"

Jessie Eisenberg was ... different ... playing Lex Luther. It was almost as if he was trying to out-Heath the Ledger. He somewhat pulls off crazy, but he comes off as very harmless until you realize later in the movie exactly what he's capable of.

And did you notice that if you took Wonder Woman out of the movie completely, it would make the movie about 20 minutes shorter, but change nothing else? In one of the trailers, Superman (or Batman) says, "Who's she?" The other says, "I don't know. I thought she was with you." And that's how I felt. But then again, I didn't hear too many people complaining.

My recommendation: Big Fight. Big Screen. Loud Sounds. See it now.

With the movie's success, we are sure to get more DC/Snyder movies. Yay!

10 Cloverfield Lane: See It While You Can

To be honest, when I saw this Super Bowl trailer, I though 10 Cloverfield Lane was going to be a remake of The Amityville Horror. Sure, the house looks nothing the same, but I didn't know what else it could be. The name "Cloverfield" in the title clued me in that this was some kind of horror film by J. J. Abrams, similar what he released eight years ago.

I almost passed it up until I read that this was actually a sequel to Cloverfield ... well ... kind of. So, I went and was surprised at how good the movie is.

John Goodman plays a man who takes in an injured woman, locks her in a cellar with him, and nurses her back to health. He says the world has come to an end, and she needs to stay inside. However, she doesn't know what to believe, and senses that he may be crazy. A third party also stays with them, adding to the whole mix.

The direction, by Dan Trachtenberg is superb, very much like Alfred Hitchcock, but better. The acting is good from all three main actors. John Goodman is freaky good. At times it got a little slow, but everything seems to fit the story as a whole. Also, it shows you don't need to breach Rated R territory to be scary.

My recommendation: go see this movie before it leaves the theater.

Serafina and the Black Cloak

Have you ever come across a relatively unknown book that was so good that you wondered why most people haven't heard about it? This may be one of those books. Serafina and the Black Cloak by Robert Beatty is new, just published this past July 2015 through Disney's Hyperion line. I only came across Serafina when I went to a local book festival. The author Robert Beatty described his novel to an audience of about fifty, and practically all of us were hooked in a matter of minutes.

Serafina is a young girl with interesting talents. She's good at catching rats, she's sneaky, and she has yellow eyes. She lives with her poor father in the basement of the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, NC. When a mysterious man comes to the Biltmore with a mysterious black cloak, children start disappearing. Serafina decides to come out of hiding and see if she can help find the missing children. Along the way, she comes to learn of her unknown past.

The main target of this book seems to be middle-school-aged children. It's a little too dark for younger kids -- similar to Harry Potter. The writing style is very simple and effectively stays out of the way of the story. Sometimes it gets a little too simple, but the story is so interesting that it's hard to notice. The use of the Biltmore estate is both interesting and daring, even though a few times I found myself thinking, "I heard about that in the tour." At least Beatty did his research. The Biltmore Estate did approve his use of the house and the Vanderbilts as characters. The house fits the story well, and the interactions with the Vanderbilts seem believable.

Overall the book has good pacing and a satisfying ending. Plus it sets up nicely for a sequel (which will come out this July 2016).

I highly recommend Serafina to anyone with children in the 11-18 age range, and for adults who happened to like reading the Harry Potter series.

Two Month Update - Checkpoint #1

In January, I set some goals for the year and promised to check in every two months. Now on this wonderful leap day, I give this first report.

In general, I have increased the amount of writing, compared with before. I've written a few posts in this blog as well as a couple on my other special-interest blogs. I'm also doing more editing of my book than before.

However, I'm still behind in my goals.

The novel Justice: I had to go back and fix some earlier chapters, and I had a few struggles with scheduling and technology, but I did finish everything up through Chapter 7. I expected to be closer to Chapter 10 at this stage, but I'm still on target to finishing way before October, so I won't try to catch up. By next check-in (April 30), I should be up to Chapter 16.

Short-story submissions: I had set the goal for 26 submissions this year. The good news is that I got one out there two weeks ago. Bad news is that I should be up to 4 already. I'll shoot for 6 submissions over the next two months to start catching up.

How are you doing on your writing goals?

Pratchett: Going Postal

Terry Pratchett's recent death reminded me that I had yet to read one of his books. I had tried The Colour of Magic a couple of years ago, but couldn't get past the first couple of chapters. Back then a friend said, "Perhaps you should try Going Postal." At first I thought she was crazy, as I couldn't do that to my friends, but then I realized she was saying the name of another Discworld book.

Hearing of the author's death, I finally took up my friend's suggestion, and was pleasantly surprised. Well, maybe not that surprised. Could all my fantasy-loving friends be so wrong in their love for him?

Going Postal is full of out-loud laughing moments, so be careful reading around solemn people. Even though this book is written late in the whole slew of Discworld books, I only came across a couple pieces of mythology I didn't understand. I've found that my friends were happy to explain without spoiling anything.

The book features Moist Van Lipwig, one of the most successful con artists ever born. This is until he was caught and hanged, and then ... brought back to life? I'm not sure how that part worked, but Lord Vetinari, the Patrician of Ankh-Morpork, saved his life so that he could be voluntold into becoming the new Postmaster. The only problem? The Post Office had gone defunct decades before, with letters piled high, busting through walls, and all that good stuff.

Moist comes across a motley crew of unforgettable characters, a sorting machine no one can touch because someone accidentally built it such that pi equaled only three, golems who never sleep, and even a cat.

Torn between trying to find a way to escape and actually wanting to do some good in his life, Moist tries his best to resurrect the past, even if it means using his awesome con skills.

Overall, it was a satisfying read, though I thought the ending was a little too easy. Maybe it was just that I didn't want it to end.

If you're looking to enter the worlds of Pratchett, I concur with my friends. Going Postal is a good place to start. Plus ... I just learned that there's a TV series based on the book, and with high-ish ratings. Maybe I'll check it out ...