Musings of a Rambling Man

“Warm Bodies”

The Admirable: I didn’t go into Warm Bodies expecting much, but left rather pleased. Sure, it wasn’t a strong story, but it was quite entertaining. Mostly because of the tight and witty script and strong acting. Nicholas Hoult delivered a great performance as ‘R’, the zombie who falls in love with a human girl named Julie, played by Teresa Palmer. Having said that, the best part of the entire movie was the the first ten minutes which kind of made me wish that the entire movie hadn’t been focused on the love story, but rather a comedy based on zombie life.

The Terrible: Yes, the writing was quite good, but some of the characters fell more than a little flat, especially Julie, the love interest. Apparently the writers felt that writing her character as a hipster made up for lack of real characterization and let all the good pop songs that littered the movie be a suitable substitute. Also, Julie’s father played by John Malkovich was portrayed as the almost-villain of the piece even though all his motives were completely normal and justified. They tried to make his character sound like a bad man because all he wanted to do was protect his daughter and the colony from brain eating zombies. Really? Sometimes Hollywood doesn’t make sense. Apparently all we should do is listen to hipster teenagers and everything will work out okay.

The Appalling: Somehow the power of love is able to restore humanity to the undead. The premise isn’t a very good one, but acceptable. However, the zombies regained their humanity far too quickly. It would have been better if they would have showed the zombies fighting to regain their physical faculties. At the beginning, R made it sound like they could hardly talk at all, but quite quickly, the zombies were talking like it wasn’t a big deal. They should have focused more on the transformation and why the power of love was able to bring them back. Bad CG for the creepy ‘Boney’s’ doesn’t help things.

Rewatchable: Saw it twice in theaters and found it quite enjoyable both times. Redbox a must, but definitely not a BluRay purchase.

• 20 Feb 2013
• 2

Awake and Sleeping

I just had a dream about staying up all night because I couldn’t sleep. Worst dream ever!

• 3 Feb 2013

“Mama”

• The Admirable: Genuine scares that focus on atmosphere and good/decent acting.
• The Terrible: Most horror movies are scary because they don’t show the creature until the very end because … you know, it’s scarier that way. But Mama doesn’t hesitate to show the ghost from the get go which, even though the movie is still creepy, robs itself from some of the moments that could have been scarier had it been more coy in how it presented the titular character.
• The Appalling: Bad CGI for the Mama ghost doesn’t help things. Not to mention the bizarre ending that is anti-climactic and confusing. I guess it was supposed to be poetic or something.
• Rewatchable? Netflix, possibly Redbox.

• 2 Feb 2013

48 Frames Per Second

Sometimes people make a big deal out of nothing. All the critics I read talking about the Hobbit made it sound like the new technology that allowed Peter Jackson to shoot The Hobbit in 48 FPS versus the traditional 24 FPS made it look like a cheap Soap Opera. I had already seen the Hobbit twice in the traditional format and noticed that some of the panning shots, especially in the prologue, felt choppy and blurry. Then I went to see it in the 48 FPS and the movie flowed like silk. The colors were rich and vibrant and were no more distracting than the rise of High Definition video in the last couple years. Needless to say, I’m a fan of the new technology and I hope that it catches on in the future.

• 30 Jan 2013

Why are Query Letters terrifying?

I just had my older brother review my query letter for my new sci-fi novel, Zero Hour, and it turned out great. He had some great suggestions to make it more gripping and powerful. I’ve done some revising and I think it’s almost ready. Now the hard part is making a list of appropriate agencies to start sending my query to. This is the hard part. It’s a scary thing at first because it’s totally unknown what is going to happen. What if they all reject me? What if someone is interested? I try not to think about it too much and just focus on getting it done. I think that’s the best course of action at this point.

• 26 Jan 2013
• 1

J.J. Abrams does Star Wars Star Trek style

Feeling good about J.J. Abrams directing the next Star Wars movie. At first I was torn because I’ve always been a huge fan of Star Trek, and I loved his reinterpretation of the Star Trek franchise. However, Star Wars is a totally different animal than Star Trek, and J.J. Abrams has established himself as one of the best filmmakers of the modern era. I think one of the few people who could have pulled off the Avengers would be J.J. Abrams, and I think he can do the same thing with Star Wars. The tone of Star Wars is totally different than Star Trek, and Abrams has already shown that he can do different when he directed Super 8 which was a totally awesome film. Pretty soon, Abrams will have more power over the geek world which is a good thing.

• 25 Jan 2013

Orson Scott Card is a genius

I just recently finished reading Shadow of the Hegemon by Orson Scott Card. I had read Ender’s Game and Ender’s Shadow years ago as a teenager but never got around to reading Speaker for the Dead and it’s sequels or the Shadow series. But reading Shadow reminds me why I loved Ender’s Game in the first place. Orson Scott Card is a little full of himself, but there’s no denying that he’s good at what he does. The plot was intriguing and the politics and military stratagems were realistic and gripping. Now I’m more excited than ever for Gavin Hood’s film version of Ender’s Game that is coming out this fall. Can’t wait!

• 25 Jan 2013
• 1