The Sting of the Green Hornet....

So, yeah, just got back from the movie.

I didn't bother with the 3-D version this time. For the type of movie this was supposed to be I felt like it wasn't necessary.

Anyway, as something of a Green Hornet fangirl (was listing to the radio shows back when I was about 17 and I own one of the old serial movies which were produced) I was..... surprisingly okay with this film.

The Green Hornet was created for radio -- station WXYZ in Detroit to be specific -- and so didn't really have much of an origin story to begin with. No tragic background, no real, defining moment -- just a young man who decided to do something about crime and corruption.

In the original stories Britt Reid was the son of Daniel Reid, newspaper publisher. Daniel, getting up there in years, decided to semi-retire and put his son Britt in charge of the paper. When Britt chose to become the Green Hornet he intended to be a hero but due to some people mistaking the Hornet's motivations and thinking that because he wore a mask he was a criminal he got branded as such. Initially, he tried to disabuse people of this notion but he soon quit and decided to embrace it. And he later learned he was following a family tradition of sorts because Britt himself was the great-grandnephew of the Lone Ranger.

So this new movie really did have a chance to start with a clean slate. And it does -- taking twists and turns that the original radio writers probably would have been scandalized by. And you know what? I don't mind. The movie is it's own thing.

Maybe because the Green Hornet is a character that has lain fallow for so long that's why it feels more open to reinterpretation. Unlike characters like Batman or Iron Man which have been published at least in monthly comic books for years if not actively appearing in cartoons or live action on a regular basis the Green Hornet doesn't have any recent mythology that people would be familiar with and therefore be offended by.

For me, personally, I just see it as a kind of reboot of the character. Seth Rogan and director Michael Gondry have taken elements of the original -- Britt's father as a respected newspaper publisher and editorialist/journalist, the newspaper's name of the Daily Sentinel, Kato, the sleeping gas gun, and the costumes, the desire to do go and save the city from it's own corruption, and being considered villains instead of heroes -- and mixing it together with a bit of tongue-in-cheek humor and some good-natured ribs at superhero comic books and movies.

Make no mistake about it -- there is cheese here -- enough cheese for a fondue party that serves 100. There is also a lot of humor -- little is taken seriously. But at the same time there is a lot of humanness. Rogan's Britt Reid doesn't become a badass fighter overnight (or with the help of a ten minute training montage either) nor once he and Kato decide to do all this do they immediately and automatically know what to do or where to go. There is some real humanity in this as you have two characters who are fumbling their way toward destiny.

It also helps that Rogan and co-star Jay Chou (Kato) have good onscreen chemistry and the movie wisely spends quite a bit of time setting up their friendship, their brotherhood, and the ups and downs it faces. Despite the presence of Cameron Diaz in this film she's not the girlfriend or the love interest here. The relationship at the heart of this film isn't a romantic one -- it's a friendship based one. And THAT is honest-to-God refreshing for a change!

There is also a nicely conflicted relationship with Britt Reid's father. James Reid is a jerk and we dislike him from the start but later revelations begin to change at least some of those beliefs. This is reflected by Britt as well. There are things his father did that he can understand and other things that are going to take a little longer to sort out but he reaches a kind of peace with the man -- a complex, not simple peace. And that's refreshing as well since most superhero parents tend to be portrayed as near-saints when they are tragically killed and which then enshrines their saintliness. Not so much here.

In all fairness, there are some jokes that fall a little flat and the villain, crime boss Chudnofsky, doesn't really work for me... not in the way he's intended to. In point of fact, I actually find him rather boring in almost every scene he's in. Also, there is a "plot twist" that if you honestly don't see coming you're not paying attention. There are also scenes which are so over-the-top they break your suspension of disbelief.

I also have to say that, on a personal level, I have a little problem with the body count. The Green Hornet and Kato seem a bit loo casual about killing. Avoiding killing people was a hallmark of the original character and I know, you're going to say that it was a different time period and a different audience and that is true; but it also played into the character -- the Green Hornet liked to out-think and out-swindle his enemies rather than engage in big shoot-outs with them.

All-in-all, an entertaining film with some real room for growth if it earns enough money to warrant a sequel. There is a lot of humor, some really great action sequences courtesy of Jay Chou, and a heavy dose of humanity. I can't see that springing the extra dough for 3-D is worth it and if you're on the fence about this one see it in matinee or rush hour showing for cheaper.

NBC's "The Cape"

So, yeah, I had nearly forgotten about this new show until someone reminded me. An unabashedly superhero live-action show? And featuring an all-new character? That intrigued me enough to check it out.

And the verdict.....

It's not *quite* there... yet.

A little basic plot information for those of you who haven't heard about this series....

Vincent Faraday is a good cop among corruption in Palm City. Most notably, Palm City has a new criminal in town -- a flamboyant, masked mastermind called Chess. Wealthy businessman Peter Fleming, however, thinks he can save Palm City by having his own company, ARK, provide police services -- making it the first city to have a private police force.

Vince, however, stumbles onto Chess's secret and for that Chess punishes him by framing Vince as Chess. Believed dead and his name ruined, Vince is driven underground where he finds allies willing to help him survive. But are they willing to help him get justice? Vince has a crazy idea -- to show his young son that heroes still exist and to stand up to Chess and clear his name by taking on the superhero identity of his son's favorite comic book hero -- the Cape.

Palm City is about to find a new kind of defender....


And if all the above sounds cheesy, well.... it is. But you know what? It's cheesy in a good way -- in a surprisingly charming way. But it still has a lot of problems.

Let's get the the good first.

The show is unashamedly superhero. Unlike shows like Heroes or Smallville who wanted to explore superhero dynamics in the "real world" without "silly" costumes (or at least Smallville felt that way up until several years ago when everyone started breaking out the costumes) "The Cape" comes right out and puts it's main villain and it's hero in costumes. Good for them; it reminds me of the live-action superhero shows that were on TV when I was a kid.

The series also decided to create it's own hero and mythology from scratch. There are a ton of superhero comic books out there. Not just the ones you've heard of from movies and TV like Batman, Superman, Spider-Man, Wonder Woman, and Iron Man but also the likes of Invincible, Darkhawk, the Black Coat, Toy Boy, Captain Spectre and many, many more. The show creator's however, decided that instead of licensing something they would create something new using bits and pieces of the past. Excellent! And, well, not so excellent. But we'll get to that later. For now, I applaud these guys for stepping out on a limb and creating something original when they could have saved time and effort by licensing something already created.

The cast. Okay, so there's nothing too stellar here per se but David Lyons as Vince/the Cape is easy on the eyes and in the first two episodes (which were apparently mashed together to form a "two hour pilot"...yeah, more on that later) spent a lot of time wearing tank shirts. Yeah, I'm a chick, I'm entitled to oggle the beefcake once in a while -- sue me! The other nice thing about the cast is Keith David as Maxamillian. David's name is probably not so familiar to you but you're probably more familiar than you know with his voice...



Yeah, it's THAT guy.

Anyway, David is clearly having a ball here and his charm, good humor, and great voice allow the character of Maximillian to steal every scene he's in.

And now for the bad.

The show *is* pretty cheesy. It goes over the top in some places and stretches suspension of disbelief to the point where the cables snap. Not good. For shows like this cheesy is okay but you have to shoot for what writer/producer Carlton Cuse once called "Just under over the top". The writers here have not yet learned how to do that. If they don't it will turn the show into a joke before it even finishes it's first season.

The "original mythology" they're going for is not really all that original. We've got a former Special Forces operative turned cop turned superhero who trains to learn stagecraft magic, misdirection, slight of hand, hypnotism, and more to become a hero. That's Batman right there -- ordinary guy who learns things and trains his body to become a superhero and then fights crime with nothing more than some props, his wits and his fists. We've got a hero who decides to base his superhero ID on a superhero from the comic books he used to read with his son. So, yeah, in the fictional world of The Cape the Cape is a comic book superhero whom Vince decides to bring to life in himself. No matter how metatextual that may seem Gardner Fox got there first in 1956 -- the Silver Age version of the Flash -- Barry Allen -- was inspired to become a hero and took his superhero name from the character of the Flash who appeared in the comic books he read. Then we've got a guy who is presumed dead and, in order to protect his family, decides that he has to remain presumed dead. That's the Lone Ranger. So, you see, a lot of the character beats are cobbled together from a lot of sources and then strung together. Some of them work, some of them don't but the whole thing feels more like a patchwork than a coherent whole.

Now we get to the extras... the family. It's a point of the series that Vince had a wife and son whom he loved. Both remain a part of the show as we see them grieving for their loss, trying to adjust to life without Vince and also trying to deal with the stigma and problems created by the fact that the world believes that Vince was the villainous Chess. Now, on the one hand, having the family is a nice departure from the comic book world. Comic book writers often shy away from having married heroes for various reasons -- although the top two are that many writers feel that they can't inject the right amount of drama unless the characters are free to date around and they just don't know what to do with the spouses. There are a few comic book couples who have managed to get married and stay married (Reed Richards and Sue Storm-Richards of the Fantastic Four being one and Lois Lane and Clark Kent being another) but by and large if a superhero gets married nine times out of ten they will sooner or later end up in divorce court or else the significant other (usually female) will end up dead by the hands of the hero's arch enemy thus causing the hero to go out seeking vengeance. And that kind of storyline tends to suck rocks. Personal opinion of course. And kids! Don't even get me started on superheroes having kids in comic books. It's pretty much a nightmare. The big problem is that comic books kind of like to pretend that time doesn't pass for their characters. Batman, for instance, by and large, has remained perpetually around 35-37 years old. Kids, however, cannot remain kids forever. Sooner or later writers succumb to pressures to start having the kids grow up. But this means that their heroes are growing old as well and if the heroes are growing old then that means they could, theoretically, reach a point where it isn't believable for them to be doing what they're doing. Thus, timelines become a problem. The solution for most writers is to either not introduce children or else get rid of said children when their presence starts becoming problematic. While there are some benign ways of getting rid of the kids (sending them into the future where they grow up and then time travel back to the present as adults, splitting up the parents and having the non-superhero half get custody of the kid, etc.) but there are also some not-so-benign ways of getting rid of kids... like killing them. Yes, I'm looking at YOU DC and Marvel. You know what you've done and shame on you!

Anyway, back to The Cape. So, on the one hand, it's nice to see a show willing to play with a family dynamic when it comes to superheroes. It won't really have to suffer too much from the "aging" problem because we're dealing with real people here and they'll age over time where fictional characters will not. The potential problems are with forward momentum. It isn't necessarily logical to assume that Vince's beautiful wife, Dana will remain single forever when she believes herself to be a widow. And what about Vince? He loves his wife but he cannot be a part of his life and sooner or later will he meet someone who he can be with and can share his life with? Fans won't be happy with getting hung out on a wire if the writers stretch this out too long. It's a variation on the old sexual tension, will-they-won't-they ploy and that gets old after a while and sooner or later something has to be done about it.

Then there is Chess. Flamboyant style, has supervillain written all over him. And that's part of the problem. Back in the Silver Age of comic books it was okay to have a villain who wanted to rule the city or take over the world or whatever "just because" but today we expect more out of our villains. We want motivation, we want to dislike them, to boo and hiss whenever we see them. Or else we want to feel like they're a real threat -- like they can screw up the hero's life so bad that you want to see his get thrown in a dark hole and the door locked and the key thrown away. Or else we want to be conflicted -- feeling a certain amount of sympathy or understanding but at the same time hating them for how they are going about things. No matter what, though, we have to feel something! And right now the writers haven't really given us much reason to hate/fear Chess. Sure, he's doing evil, diabolical things but to what end? Why does he want to control the city? What does he really get out of this? Throw us a bone here!

There are also Chess's henchmen. So far we've seen two -- one, a Budget Rent-A-Car version of the Batman second string villain Killer Croc (and if you don't know who he is Google him -- I've already gone off on too many comic book tangents here) and the other a... well... honestly, I can't pin him to a single comic book villain but he seems a bit of a mash-up of several. Either way, we get some hints of a 'henchmen of the week' villain format potentially for the show and that may prove problematic over time as well if people grow tired of a constant parade of henchmen. And also if the henchmen continue to be both one-note and derivative as these first two have been it will not endear the show to viewers.

And then there was the pacing. The idea of sticking the first two episodes together makes no sense. Since I caught the show late I watched them online and could not imagine them fitting together cleanly. They are what they are -- two separate episodes. If you watch them that way they make a lot more sense.

Even with that, though, the pilot episode has problems. The pacing is off -- the ending comes up too quickly and there are things mentioned which the audience never sees at all and things shown which are never given adequate explanation. This would seem to indicate that the original pilot was probably much longer and then cut down. But then that doesn't make any sense with sticking the second episode with the first to make a two hour opener. If they had a two hour pilot they should have just aired the two hour pilot.

So after rambling on far too long about this the final verdict is: It was fun. It appealed to me as a comic book geek girl, there were enough good performances and enough charm to carry the story over the weaker points, it reminded me of the shows I watched as a kid only with better production values and better written scripts, and most of all it was FUN! The writers still have some bugs to iron out but if they can do so I wouldn't be surprised if this show found it's audience. Of course, I could be wrong and the whole thing could end up falling flat on it's face and being cancelled in six weeks. In the meantime if you're a fan of superheros give this a looksee you can get caught up online through either the network site at NBC.com or on the free video site Hulu.

Grab Bag Reviews: Tomb of the Cybermen

And I'm back from holiday hiatus. And what better note to come back on than a Second Doctor story?

"Tomb of the Cybermen" was originally considered as the final episode of the 1966-1967 season but the decision was quickly made to push it back to become the opening of the 1967-1968 season. As such "Evil of the Daleks" became the season finale for '66-'67 and "Tomb" would become the first regular episode for the new companion Victoria Waterfield, played by Deborah Watling.

One of the biggest things "Tomb" is notable for is that it is one of the few "lost" stories to be found in whole. Due to the BBC's tape wiping destruction program (which I've mentioned elsewhere) "Tomb" was one of those stories which had been destroyed. In 1991, however, complete film copies were found in storage at a Hong Kong TV station and returned to the BBC. "Tomb" would also be the last complete story to be found. Single episodes of some serials have been located and some surviving clips have cropped up in the years since but "Tomb" was the last serial where all parts of the story were located.

So now shall we venture into the Tomb of the Cybermen?

The Plot: An archaeological team on the planet Telos uncovers the remains of a Cyberman civilization. The Doctor arrives with his companions Jamie and Victoria and insists on joining the expedition -- afraid that the Cybermen may not be as long gone as thought.

It soon becomes apparent that there is a saboteur among the team -- someone with an ulterior motive. When that motive is finally revealed the Doctor finds himself the last line of defense against the Cybermen and a madman. Will even the Doctor's intelligence allow him to save all the lives in his hands?

My Take: Okay. Elephant in the room. Let's get this out of the way first. Toberman. Toberman is a black, nearly mute, servant to Kaftan, one of the members of the archaeological expedition. To American audiences in particular Toberman checks off the boxes on a number of uncomfortable stereotypes. I am not, however, familiar with race relations in Great Britain so I am going to reserve judgement. Also, reportedly, the character of Toberman was supposed to be seen wearing a hearing aid -- indicating that he might have had some other physical disabilities. We'll just leave it that Toberman is likely to make most viewers cringe. Including me.

Now that we're past that....

The story itself is nothing particularly new but script writers Gerry Davis and Kit Pedler give viewers a story packed with wit and one liners and the Doctor getting to really do what he does best -- be the smartest guy in the room effortlessly. They also showcased something new from the Cybermen -- a new leader known as the Cybercontroller. Bigger, stranger, and harder to stop, the Cybercontroller became like the villain in a horror movie -- no matter what you throw at him he keeps getting back up.

Davis and Pedler also didn't forget the heart of the story either. There is a scene between the Doctor and Victoria that is rightfully heralded as one of the best bits of Classic Doctor Who. The Doctor comforts his companion who has recently lost pretty much everything she has ever known and at the same time offers one of those rare revelations about himself. The scene is not only perfectly pitched to tug on the heartstrings, it does so without becoming overly sentimental or schmaltzy. It is also played with a light touch by both Troughton and Watling.

The script also rather favors Victoria. Too bad it would be the last time viewers would ever see her so spunky. True, she does some boneheaded things but that is balanced by a determination to prove that just because she's a girl doesn't mean she can't handle herself, a little bit of snark, and even the ability to handle a gun (although it is strange that this sheltered Victorian girl could shoot so well right out of the gate). After this story, though, the character of Victoria would start a long, slow, slide into being mostly a screaming damsel in distress. Here, though, Watling manages to convey a young woman who is an odd mix of innocence and spirit. She also makes the viewers believe that, despite a wardrobe change, Victoria is and remains a Victorian lady.

And speaking of performances... Troughton, after a year on the job, is completely comfortable as the Doctor -- as is Fraser Hines as Jamie. The two actors present some of the best of their comedy double-team here with puns and jovial insults flying fast and furious. The rest of the guest cast has some problems, however. Actor George Pastell as Eric Klieg is delightfully smug and superior but Shirley Cooklin as Kaftan is a bit too much. She seems more like a femme fatale character who wandered onto the set of the wrong TV show. Plus the character is basically named after a loose, flowing article of clothing. It's impossible to be dignified and taken seriously when your character is named after an outfit. Most of the rest of the actors are serviceable and not particularly outstanding. A special place of ire, however, is reserved for George Roubicek who plays Captain Hopper. Roubicek's American accent isn't horrible in and of itself but he definitely is trying too hard at it and that makes it rather wince inducing.

The set design and special effects for "Tomb" were also pretty well done. Sure, the Cybermats are a bit more cute than frightening (seriously, I think I want a remote controlled Cybermat toy) but the Cybermen base and the tombs below have an alien look to them and the bas reliefs and other art decorations on the wall lend an air of looming menace. The tombs themselves are strange and intimidating but it has to be said that the Cybermen emerging through saran wrap is somewhat less than stellar. But who cares? Overall, the set design team really went above and beyond for this story.

Even with the uncomfortable stereotype of Toberman, "Tomb of the Cybermen" is still a fun romp and one of the Second Doctor's best stories. There is action and adventure, intrigue, madness, and high stakes all around. Who could ask for anything more?

Happy Holiday Season!

The Compound Geekery blog will be taking some time away to relax and enjoy the Holiday Season. Here's wishing you happy days ahead as well!

Talking Without Speaking

So I was re-watching bits from the Disney movie Wall*E the other day and again being amazed at how the characters expressed themselves so wonderfully without actually speaking many words.

This got me thinking about how, in many ways, human beings are pretty good at getting our point across without saying a single word... and yet we do spend so much time speaking.

In dance we can express an entire story with only music and physical movement..



In the days before movies with music actors got their point across with facial expressions and motion...



And then there's what was done with Wall*E -- creating a character with a whole sympathetic personality using only expressions grafted onto a non-human face and a few noises.



And all this ties in to how often we see people talking one thing but acting something else. "Do as I say, not as I do." "Actions speak louder than words." Maybe it's time we spent a little less time listening to people's words and more time looking at their actions, at the language their body speaks, at the 'words' in their expressions and the sentences in their eyes.

So.... "Tron Legacy"

So, I just came back from seeing this one and....

Eh.

I wanted better.

As someone who IS old enough to have seen the original Tron in theatres (and DID see it in a theatre) I was really disappointed and underwhelmed.

It wasn't bad enough to make me walk out of the theatre but it never got my blood pumping and I came to realize that I only laughed ONCE in the entire movie and I was the ONLY person in the theatre who got the joke.... and yes, it was a joke. The other scenes which you could tell were SUPPOSED to be jokes fell flatter than a pancake.

I splurged for the 3-D but because I suspected the movie was going to probably not live up to my expectations I went to a matinee so I didn't pay full price.

I'm glad I didn't.

Although I have to say that, on one level, it was worth it to see it on the big screen with all the special effects.

But overall.... The original Tron was a lot closer to sci-fi. Yeah, it was fantastic but it was grounded in early computer programming and the way computers functioned. For Legacy they seemed to throw all of that out the window in favor os Sci-Fantasy. I'm no computer expert but I didn't hardly hear ANY discussion about the way all this stuff was supposed to be functioning in an essentially computer world. And then there was the stuff that just plain wasn't explained. Like Kevin Flynn existing in the computer world with food and water. Where did it come from? In the original movie Flynn drank what looked like liquid but was actually a form of electrical energy. Here they're chowing down on what looks like green beans... were these constructs? How were they created? Why "make" food like that? And that's just ONE problem I had with unexplained stuff. There were tons more and each one kept tearing me out of the movie. Like rain. It RAINS in a computer program world. How? WHY?!

And, getting back to the programming stuff -- well, all the rules in the first movie again were tossed away in favor of some kind of Hollywood Cinema Zen Buddhism Rip-Off. The Kevin Flynn of the first movie who was a rebel but still a logical, computer scientist is replaced by a guy who spouts hippie dialogue that was corny even back in the 1960's! Even figuring the idea of the years changing someone this just wasn't the same character.... at all.

Oh, and the plot twists? If you don't see every single one of them coming from a mile away then you're REALLY not paying attention. There was nothing surprising here -- not even the ending (and no, I won't spoil the ending all I'll say is that if you go into the movie figuring you know how it's going to end... you're right).

Perhaps worst of all, the movie feels like it's stolen bits and pieces from other (frankly better) movies and just sewen them together and put a new skin over them. The film hopes to distract you from noticing this but it just can't hold interest enough for you to NOT sit there and go: "Stole that from Batman Begins, stole that from Star Wars (they steal a LOT from Star Wars), stole that from A Clockwork Orange, stole that from Blade Runner, stole that from The Matrix, etc., etc., etc.

But the special effects and the action set pieces? Yeah... pretty good. The 3-D DOES add something to the proceedings and most of the action IS good, although again, it never quite grabs you and I think the reason why is that you never quite care enough about the characters. Sam Flynn is easy on the eyes (and they WAY could have used more shirtless scenes with him -- one was NOT enough) but you just don't CARE about him or his life. And Sam and Quorra, despite supposedly being the romantic center of the movie, have as much chemistry as the iceberg that sunk the Titanic. Virtual Jeff Bridges as the villain Clu? Again, you just don't care. He never seems.... villainous enough. So in order to care about the action you have to care about what happens to these characters and you just... don't.

And then there's the computer tricked out Jeff Bridges and Bruce Boxleitner -- made to look young again. This actually works most of the time. It looks pretty damn realistic and it's frankly a little scary. I mean, we're probably now only about one or two years away from actors, no matter how old, being able to play as young as they like thanks to special effects. All those rumors about George Lucas going to make a movie with dead actors now seems scarily plausible.

I also have to say that the movie is, in a way, mis-named. Although, in the original film, Jeff Bridges character of Kevin Flynn was certainly the focal point of the movie he shared the hero role with Boxleitner's character of Tron and, in the end, Tron was the one to destroy the bad guy. Here Tron is an afterthought. It's a name tossed around for most of the movie but he's not really a PRESENCE here.

It should be noted that the filmmakers also DO leave the door open -- and obviously so -- for a sequel and all things considered the film will probably do well enough for that sequel. But I, for one, don't hold out hope that they will bother to fix what went wrong here.

Long story short (too late!), if you liked the original, don't bother with this one. If you're looking for smart, original sci-fi, again, don't bother with this one. Save up your money for when something good comes along.

Personally, I'm hoping that The Green Hornet exceeds expectations.

Did I Ever Mention I Have a Minor Obsession With "Carol of the Bells"?