[Comic Review] - Justice League : Dark - In The Dark (#1-5)

 Justice League : Dark - In The Dark (#1-5)

The premise of Justice League : Dark is very simple both in an conceptual way as well as from a publishing stand point. The thinking going around the board meeting was probably something like this.... "Lets get these popular but underused characters in the DC pantheon and give them some face time and in doing so we can also explore aspects of the DC universe that may be harder to fit into a traditional superhero comic like Batman or Wonder Woman!"

The conceptual idea is demonstrated early on in the book by having Superman, Wonder Woman and Cyborg spectacularly fail at facing a supernatural threat. Demonstrating to the reader that the traditional aspects of the super hero has no sway here, Speed, Strength, being a warrior and so on is not going to help, and just for icing on the point Cyborg is there to show that technology is pretty useless as well.

The problem is that the idea of a "Justice League" but one focused on the supernatural isn't exactly a difficult concept to sell. There is strong narrative reasoning for these scenes to be including to demonstrate why a universe like DC would need another "group" but as I was reading I just felt like I was being talked down to a little, spoon fed. It just felt  tacked on and forced and honestly a waste of pages.

Once the clumsy set up gets out of the way, the story has to go thorough the laborious process of introducing the players. Xanadu, Deadman, Constantine, Shade, Zatanna and Mindwarp as well as a story to connect, bind and focus them. It is an extremely difficulty task for a book of this type. Some characters obviously need more introduction than others and the story becomes crowded and full of exposition. There is a definite sense of orientation here, the book is more concerned with getting everything in place, than actually telling a boss story.

This is the biggest failing in the start of this series. The actual story is a mess with a mash of personalities, that the reader may not be failure with leading to confusion and a feeling of pointlessness regarding the action. With out any connection the reader is left looking at a mass of colour where the dialogue has no real meaning. Some of the more famous characters shine through, grasped onto by the reader from the very fact that their personalities are solid and thus give their actions meaning, still for the majority of the cast this is not the case.

Once the laborious task of "starting the engine" is done with so to speak the story actually settles down into what is in actuality a pretty cool story. Xanadu and Constantine particularly stand out with a extremely strong character driven conclusion to the tale and a great reveal about why these events happened at all.

In fact the final books of this story were so good it really sold me. Making me not so much forget the terrible start but be more forgiving, as it really is a huge ask for a writer to do what has been attempted here. The ending though, really shows how Dark can differ from the standard Justice League. While "black ops" style teams are nothing new, good guys that do the dirty work that the prissy heroes wouldn't dream of, this is another thing entirely.

The supernatural aspect gives the book a little schizophrenia as well. Some of the ideas are down right horrific, yet it still has that action "hero" book feel to it were consequences are nearly irrelevant. Is this is a horror or an action mag? I think at this stage the people making it do not even know themselves, or probably in actuality the writers know, but that may be a bit different to what the guys in suits were told when they set it in motion.

Nothing is what it seams, let alone motivation or meaning. There is some extremely fertile ground here for some really awesome stories and while I think this was a very rocky start there is a spark here that could very well develop into something very, very readable. Ultimately its reliance on the "Justice League" analogue could be its downfall.

I expect the team members to stay in flux for a while. Shade and Mindwarp are prime to be replaced, and probably shouldn't have been in the mix to begin with. It would have made the start of the story so much better if it didn't need to introduce and integrate them into the plot.

Recommend, with a Warning. 

 Still, I have a good feeling about this.... and will be reading more..... .  Besides.. Constantine is in it.

[Comic Review] - Courtney Crumrin: The Night Things

 Courtney Crumrin: The Night Things

Recently I stumbled onto a comic which I have since found out is quite famous.Courtney Crumin.

This is a very interesting book I feel. The author seams to be a little confused as to what kind of book he is trying to write. There is a strong vibe here of a fairy tale. A Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe type thing, were a young woman comes to a new location and finds a hidden, magical world. This is a fantastic fiction you would expect form say Niel Gamin and is by far the most interesting and engaging part of these books. Yet, slowly over time starting at the second book the magic has fallen away to full blown fantasy. Courtney is no longer a explorer of the bizarre, experiencing it with the reader, but instead is a initiate into an entire world whom the reader just follows.

Think of the difference between Harry Potter and the Sorcerer Stone and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

Now, the main character is so alike to one of my girls it is kinda spooky. So maybe I enjoyed this book so much because of that but even so I think this is a pretty exceptional book. At least at the first one was.

Most stories write from a adult perspective, again think of Harry Potter, those kids don't behave like kids. You can feel that it is an adult writing how kids could behave and talk, but it feels false. This story writes the children in a similar was as fully developed people. There is no dumbing down or trying to write form a child's perspective. Instead it is written with the main character possibly being the most clued in and "adult" of the lot. This in turn gives her real credibility as a character and I feel that this kind of writing always makes children not only more believable in stories when they are the main protagonist, but also allows adults to relate to them easier, thus making able to relate to all ages.

Now these are not exactly horror tales, but they are relatively macabre and in that lies the genius of the book. Kids and many adults, love spooky stories. For example there is a goblin in this book that lives in the forest that gobbles up children and this happens in the stories, it is not implied. Yet I use the word "gobbles" deliberately as it is not a horrific word. In fact it is a kind of cute word. Children are completely accustom to it, the troll under the bridge, the witch in the ginger bread house, the big bad wolf. These are all ideas used in famous tales for children and for some reason many modern kids stories are so gentrified now, power ranges, the TMNT cartoons and stuff that it is easy to forget that kids love this kind of macabre shit.

I found this series to not only be extremely enjoyable, but I felt it is the kind of book that could transcend the comic community. You could buy this for literally anyone, especially a little girl or say a girlfriend / wife. I think this could very well be one of the better "gateway" comics I have come across in a while. A comic that taps into very well understood story tropes that we all understand as they have been heard and retold for 100s of years. Story frame works that appeal across the board.

I strongly recommend this book, very much so the 1st one, but I really did feel much of the gloss wore off after the first volume due to the change of tone, and disconnect in the narrative. In the 1st volume there is a clear progression of the character, but volume two reads like "2 years latter" or w.e. Things have moved along greatly that I felt we missed so much stuff. The feeling of exploration as the main character discovered the world was lost to her simply moving though it.

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*  Strongly Recommended *
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[Comic Review] - Batman/Superman/Wonder Woman: Trinity 1-3

 Batman/Superman/Wonder Woman: Trinity 1-3

Superhero comics are a mixed bag for me. There is such a fine line between fine works and pap rubbish. Rubbish that is exactly what the non-comic reading public thinks when they imagine what comics are. Comic artists and writers have been working hard to move soups from the corny and childish golden age into comics that have more to say to the adult reader. Yet soups by definition have to be kind of corny and childish, and no amount of modernisation can really remove that without drastically changing them.

This leads to some of the best soup comics being post modern re-imagings of what superheros are. The most famous example of this is Watchmen, which for all its greatness is at its core a distorted mirror of typical superhero comics. Still with Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman the writers do not have the luxury of changing them in some kind of re-imagining, unless the alternative setting is the point of the book. No alteration to the costumes and setting, or whatever to try and bring these large characters into some kind of believable reality from the often naive and simplistic origins they were birthed from so long ago while retaining their classic shape is allowed.

So it is that Superhero comics can often be so terrible that you wonder why you even read comics. For every stack I read, only a few stir me. For only a few are able to walk this line of classic cartoonish revelry in the childish absurdity of what Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman are yet still be able to use them to paint a book with deeper meanings and interesting interactions that can engross an older mind.

Batman/Superman/Wonder Woman: Trinity is what I would consider to be right on that line. This is a great example of a book that is true to the nature of what a soup comic is, without apology for its ridiculousness yet still, without compromising that true nature is able to bring a more adult narrative to us.

Much of this is done by focusing the text on interactions between the characters. The narrative switches from a narrator to internal dialogues split among the three main characters. This is done in a way that allows us to really see past the actions. Superman may be catching a plane on fire in the panels but he is thinking about something more. This "something more" is what makes this comic stand out among its peers. We feel so much more connected to them and understanding of their feelings. This allows interplay between the characters to really shine. There is some fantastic back and forth dialogue that is sure to raise a smile, dialogue set up and put into perspective through these internal narratives.

Even so, it dose not skimp on the core of what a soup comic is. In our hearts we all want Superman to be super, Batman to be sneakily one step ahead and Wonder Woman to be awe inspiring. This comic delivers all that, and again much of this is though the narration as each character becomes aware of the greatness of the others as they get to know each other. Seeing Joe Blog being impressed by Wonder Woman has no meaning, but Superman being impressed?

There are some problems in this one though. One is just a simple typography thing. In more recent comics that have adopted this idea the internal narration use colour coded boxes, Say Yellow for Wonder Woman, Black for Batman and Blue for Superman, in this book unfortunately there is no such visual distinction. Sometimes you need to re-read a bit to work out who is thinking what if the context is not clear or if it is the 4th voice, the narrator.

The other thing is that as a Wonder Woman fan I felt while she did some cool stuff, she is a little under utilised in this story. I am trying hard to keep as much as possible a surprise, but I felt that much of the series could have been done with out her. She isn't exactly shoe horned in, but I left with a slight feeling that I wished she had a more epic moment than she got, moments on par with the men. These two things are small grips though.

The art is off the chain awesome. I think it is telling that they went for a more cartoonish style. It fits perfectly the clash of styles between the story, the superheros and the words. I miss the "art" in comics. Why is it suddenly so that everything needs to be digital painted into some kind of sudo-photo-real look. This comic has stylisation in the art that I found incredibly charming.

There are some adult concepts of rape that I felt a little out of place in such a classically fun book that while are completely justifiable in the story would make this one a comic I wouldn't show my 10 year old just yet. Still, the story is in fact very good. It splits between the three characters giving each there time to shine as well as showing us how a super-villain behaves, in all his "bbwaahaha I will destroy the world and rule the ashes" way. Yet, like how the heroes are handled, it works and it is fun. Your not sitting there going "this is stupid". You are going "this is awesome" the total re-donk-culous idiocy of it completely escapes you as you accept reality as a given allowing you to focus on the tale itself.


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* Highly Recommended *
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[Comic Review ] - Sing no Evil

Sing no Evil

Sing no Evil is a very interesting comic from Finish Legends J.P Ahonen and KP Alare. Never heard of them.. well not surprising this is there first graphic novel to make it to an English print but that hasn't stopped them from causing a huge splash in the independent comic scene. If I was going to liken it to a popular western comic I think Scott Pilgrim might be a good choice. Not that they are really comparable in most ways but there are some similarities that a newcomer can latch onto.

The most obvious links is that they are both about youth culture. While Scott Pilgrim is really about kids becoming Young Adults, See no Evil is at it heart about Young Adults becoming Adults. They both have a strong musical aspect to them revolving around friends who are all in a band together and they are both cartoonish in their presentation. Also, like Scott Pilgrim they both add a touch of fantasy to the mix.

That being said this is NOT Scott Pilgrim. I feel this is a more sophisticated attempt to explore similar ideas about the growth of personality that occurs as you age. The main drive of this division is the age of the protagonists. They are older and face older people problems and this translates into, for me at least, more interesting situations than I saw in the Pilgrim books.

I absolutely loved the character of Lily

The story dose have more traditional "comic-booky" type stuff going on in the form of magic and the supernatural, but for now I would like to look past that. The real gold in this story is in the relationships and the activities of a small group of friends. In my mind the supernatural elements in some way distracted from the comic witch reads kind of like a quirky romcom.

In particular I enjoyed the long suffering girlfriend who supports her obsessive boyfriend in his quest for musical greatness. Yet she is not depicted as some perfect girlfriend, or as the devil incarnate. She is as flawed and just as capable of jealousy or anger as anyone in real life, but also is good and understanding. This comic has situations form actual life that is rare in western comics.

Band practice with the new singer is on another level

The composition in this comic is as good as you will ever see. The art is cartoonish but I feel this gives it a charm that would be lacking if done in a realistic way. He uses very strait forward and easy to follow panel layouts. Nothing tricky, block to bock. Sometimes using a two stack block now and then. This is his representation of real life. The inevitable progression forward. Cold and hard like reality. Then when the music plays he lets it all go. A cacophony of images curved and busting though the panel leaving a broken scaffold on the page witch the dancing notes have busted though into a curved, intertwining mess. This is one of those comics you realise you have been looking at the page for a few minuets and not even bothered to read a words yet.

The magic of music, vibrations that effect the very strings of reality

On top of the ultra-awesome relationship stuff between the characters are in this fantasy backdrop. The lead guitarist is in tune with the music of the earth, the Bass Player is an immortal(?) who as mastered and forgotten magic, their drummer is a bear, there are monsters stalking the town at night... and so on. The magical aspects appeal to me as there is an attempt to explain them using existing scientific theory. The idea of music vibrating and all matter vibrating and things like that. Yet I feel that the supernatural aspects really detract from the core of this book. It simply didn't need it to be good and I'm not a fan of "random character is something crazy" type thing with the drummer.

That being said it didn't annoy me much either as the rest of the comic is so good. It reminded me a little bit of iZombie. Where what drew me to Sing no Evil was the characters and the story of their lives, even the magic I really loved. Yet the supernatural elements become strong and stronger towards the end of the comic. I fear that as new volumes come out the core of what makes this comic great could be lost amongst fighting monsters and casting spells.

The burdens of genius

Yet the supernatural aspects are what elevate this story into something not only consumable by the average comic reader but also give the writer a angle to explore some interesting things. It allows the writer to discuss the mystical power of music on the soul in a "real" way. The characters can experience it and with them the reader and draw philosophical inferences about art, and obsession as well as a host of other themes that are never directly spoken of in the comic. So there is no preaching making you want to throw your book across the room here, but at the same time larger issues can be personified in the comic for the characters to interact with.

It is probably becoming clear I only write a review if I really like the comic, and this is no exception. I think it is firing on all cylinders and is a must read for anyone interested in non-super hero comics. The characters are likable, well written and the art is engaging, though I did have some difficulties determining the female characters apart and while at its core it is a relationship comic the supernatural aspects really give it a neat gimmick that totally works.

The only real detractor is that it ends so abruptly and yeah it is nearly 200 pages. Trust me it ends to soon. I hope that there is more coming.


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* Highly Recommended *
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Not sure how he drew me and my apartment from Finland

[Film Review] - Brick (2006)

Brick (2006)

Every now and then a film comes along that makes you wonder exactly what the makers were thinking when they produced it. What possessed them to do something this way, when that way would do. Brick is one such film.

It is written and directed Rian Johnson whom I found because I read an article that he had been given one of the upcoming Star Wars films to direct and after looking at his IMDB profile I got interested in "Brick" becasue it was his first outing in feature film. There is a trend in Hollywood at the moment, one of which I approve, for the most part, of major studios hiring young talented indie directors to cover their super-mega projects. Monsters -> Godzilla... Super / Slither -> Guardians of the Galaxy... Chronicle -> Fantastic 4... that kind of thing.

It is hard to talk about Brick because at it's heart it's a mystery film, a well written and convoluted one though not exactly a baffling one. So there is very little you can really discuss without ruining the mystery. Though the interesting part is that the mystery isn't the point. This is more of a ride, it's main purpose is the experience delivered through the films style, this is what is important. So while the mystery and the discovery about it drives the story, the mystery is almost irrelevant to the films real focus. Nostalgia.

This entire film is throw back to the film noir. In some ways it is even more of a recreation of the classic black and whites that form the Golden Age of Cinema than China Town, before it. All the familiar cliches form the fem fatal, to rebellious tough guy shamus, the underbelly of crime stretching from fancy parties to criminal masterminds and the language.

The entire film is written as if it came directly from an Edward Robinson or Humphry Bogart film. "You set that poor kid up! You held Dode like a card 'till you could play him.".. this is an actual line from the film. Now, you could be mistaken in thinking that sounds really corny, because it kinda dose. Yet the film's director, who is also the writer fully commits to this. It is 100% deadpan, no mocking, no cynicism. It is presented as the reality of the world and as the reality is held true through out, it just works. So like when watching a Shakespeare play the use of unusual language in this film fades into normalcy going undetected, even become... well, just cool.

Still the most audacious thing is this is not a film set in the mean streets of Chicago but set on the campus of a high school staring high school children. This is the baffling part.  Imagine if White Heat was set in a highschool and it was the exact same film just that setting change. This is what Brick is trying to be.

Is it a calculated move to get a film done at a much reduced cost? Is their a metaphor about school kids and their melodramatic problems, as the Golden Age films seam almost naive and silly to many now? Is it a commentary on how ideas recycle, and only the very young can truly believe that love is forever and that an idea is ever original? Is it because the setting takes some of the edge off the realism allowing the viewer to accept this strange fantasy version of how people behave more readily?

I'm not really sure, behind the reasoning of why this setting is chosen, this is why the film is so odd. Though I am absolutely sure this film could have been done with adults, even set in 40s Chicago and it would work, with nothing more than changing some of the names in the script. Like VP (Vice Principle) to PC (Police Chief) and the like.

I thoroughly enjoyed this film. What it shows is that even with young adult actors not quite being able to pull off the requirements of the script, that a story purely character and plot driven can still be very enjoyable. This is more than a nostalgic look at scripting and characters. It is a comment on films. On what we have lost and what kids may never know.

Highly Recommend

[Comic Review] Star Wars (Marvel 01 - 05) Comic Review

WARNING: I have not bothered with spoilers in this.. I mean this is Star Wars for fuck sake!

Star Wars (Marvel 01 - 05)

Star Wars is Star Wars is Star Wars. We all know it, we all lived and breathed it as children and for those of us in our middle ages it was more than a film. This movie changed things, not only in popular culture but in us as children. Would I be such a scifi fanboy if these movies didn't warp my mind as a kid? I dunno... all I do know is that I loved these movies and still do, though I have a fatigue about Star Wars now. The modern films and TV Shows and all that.. I couldn't give two shits about.. but the Original Trilogy? That is a different story.

If this is a counsellor ship.. then where is the ambassador?!

What intrigues me about this particular story is the history behind it. This was released months before the actual film as part of the advertising push for the feature. So the artist Howard Chaykin (legend) and the "editor" (firmly placing the writing credits with Lucas)  Roy Thomas didn't have a film to base this comic on. This was the 70s, there was no easily transportable and playable media to share dailies or anything. All they had was 3 different scripts, none of which is the script that ended up in the film and some photos of the cast as well as some concept art.

So what we get here is a very unique entry into the Star Wars lore.. one that has officially been removed form the "cannon" but shows a version of the movie that is less of a copy and more of a creative "version" of the film.

Biggs! The unsung legend of the Alliance!

When I was a younger I always wondered how the cut sequences were so well know. It turns out that what I didn't know was that this comic, which was a massive MASSIVE hit had permeated the consciousness of the fandom so deeply to the point that we all knew about these extra scenes, but people like me never knew why. Kinda cool, eh?

Also, as they were working off a script and not the film, this comic has all the missing scenes, some of which are yet to be "returned" in modern cuts of the film. Famous scenes like Luke and his mates on Tatooine and Han and Jabba chatting outside the Falcon, but also some more obscure ones you may have heard whispered on the wind over the decades by fans you have met.

Integration Droid "Dr. Ball"

So lets talk about the comic itself. This is an old comic a book from the late 70s.

So there is an third person omniscient narrator. A device that is well out of style and morphed into the more common first person internal thoughts of a the main protagonist and this makes the book read like a script, complete with character direction. This was common for the time but I found this to be a slightly jarring and kinda ruined the reading experience. Now it is well know that comics often need exposition from some style of narration, but I feel there is a reason that this style is almost unheard of nowadays.

Jedi got a lot wrong, but Jabba sure as fuck wasn't one of them

Apart from that, this is a exercise in nostalgia. There are no surprises here, even with the additional scenes in this comic that would have been mind blowing only a few years ago, are now not only known to all, but most have been seen actually in versions of the film. We all know the story, we all know what the general look of things are and even with the artist and "editor" not having the true source to base things off there are few real surprises.

Still I found it very refreshing to read this. It is so easy to get jaded and cynical about all the new stuff but reading this was a real throw back to the time when it was all new and more importantly, all of it was actually really good and bursting with potential.

Then once you are done with the story of "A New Hope" (this comic was before that title existed) you are in "fantasy" comic world. Starting at 07 the book is now in pure imagination land, not even having a 2nd film or even a script to work off. This reminded me of when I was a kid, imaging all sorts of crazy stuff into this awesome universe which ended up being destroyed though the clarification of the latter movies

Not exactly a peck on the cheek!

This series continues for 107 volumes with Empire Strikes Back stretching across 39 - 44 and dose not even reach Jedi before the run ends. This is why this entire run is not considered cannon, as unlike the modern Star Wars comics it is really its own thing and I am not just talking about all the comic books (not just this one) basically having Luke and Leia fucking and then the editors doing some serious back peddling once Jedi came out!

There is a freedom to the storytelling here that I find feels very different to the modern Star Wars Universe comics I have read. No restrictions, no worrying about cannon and self-referential histories, just making shit up be cool and it is cool.

Can not be Recommend enough... A Must Read!

Oh yeah.... Only working of scripts.. never seeing the film.. Han shoots first... suck on that revisionist cunts!

[Film Review] - Jupiter Ascending (2015)

Jupiter Ascending is a odd film. I find myself torn between my desire to speak about what I consider to be some interesting facets of the film and the fact that this film which in many ways requires no thought at all on the part of the viewer.

On the surface this film appears to be a overproduced melodrama that stumbles over its own feet trying desperately to wrangle some meaning from the threads
of what I'll kindly choose to call; it's plot. Yet there is a far more important aspect to this film that is rooted in the sheer audacity of vision that the film makers have tried to assemble onto our screens.

This is an age when audiences are champing at the bit for original content amid the vast ever flowing downpour of reboots, remakes, re-imaginings, sequels and the seemingly endless deluge of repurposed media in the form of books, TV shows, comics, games and the like. So Jupiter Ascending stands as a ambitious attempt to bring a truly original fantasy adventure to the silver screen. A film created from scratch, specifically for the movies. We should have all loved it. After all, this is what we asked for, wasn't it?

The problem is that original stories are pretty darn hard to think up. So while this is not something that has existed before, the writers were unable to make it stand alone without it being a hodgepodge of half remembered scifi concepts form a myriad of old books and movies that most media junkies can instantly recognise and many non-geeks know through a kind of storytelling osmoses.

So in a time when this film should be lauded for giving us what we claim to want, original storytelling, the film comes off as a unoriginal mess that is less coherent than the most tentatively "based on" type film of an already established IP.  

One thing though. The film looks fantastic.

As computer graphics have improved over the years we have been approaching a time where they fail to impress us.  When I was a small child, I went to see Star Wars and my brain exploded in awe as the Star Destroyer slowly moved across the screen. This was an effect that simply had never been dreamed of and the very real physical experience of simply not believing what I was seeing was a gift from those film makers to the world. It was a spectacle, like seeing the Aurora Borealis or an eclipse. An event like no other. The visual experience itself had entertainment value.

Audiences have spent decades absorbing the growth of special effects, and I am using the term "special effects" as a catch all for make up, sound and the like when creating a visual sequence. That growth has lead us to the point where literally anything a writer can communicate in sufficient detail can appear on the screen. The opening of Star Wars and the audience reaction to it can never be recaptured as the power of it and other early films effects were not in what the effect was showing us in relation to the narrative, but in the effect itself. The effect, just as a spectacle was entertaining.

Now of course we are no longer hindered by reality in the production of large scale films and the effects have gotten to the point where they are so common and at such a universally high quality that we absorb them as part of the narrative with little excitement. Special effects are an expected reality for film audiences. We have seen building explode, planets crumble to dust, men grow small, robots form out of water, cars drive up the side of buildings; ad nauseam. There is a real fatigue overcoming movie goers in regards to special effects. As the visual event itself is no longer entertaining. We now require meaning to justify the effects existence.

Yet there is still one type of film coincidentally of the same genre as Star War, fantasy; that can capture some of that jaw dropping excitement that comes from simply seeing something. Most films and therefore their effects are rooted in the mundane. If you set a film in our world our time, not only is the visual an extension of something we have most likely seen in our real lives, there is a very real chance that we have seen a very similar shot in another film already. It doesn't matter how good your effects are of that car jumping across a river spinning in circles while the hero is hanging onto the roof. We have all seen cars before, we understand crashing and there are a million films with people hanging off things.

Fantasy though, is unique as it offers artists a way to depict things that we have no frame of reference for. Things that are beyond our own imaginings. Things that we look upon and feel enjoyment simply though the act of seeing it. Fantasy is the last bastion for pure special effects. Effects that have their existence only justified by their beauty of design and imaginative innovation.

This is where Jupiter Ascending excels. The fantasy elements of this film look fantastic and the fantasy concepts are detailed and imaginative. The effects are effortlessly incorporated to produce a truly stunning visual feast were I was entranced by the very scope and detail presented of the universe was a dense textured layer of ideas. The internal logic of the film is tight and they really pushed the visual design towards what I would consider to be some of the best science fiction art I have seen on the silver screen. When was the last time you were just blown away by a space ship at the movies, just by looking at it? 

Unfortunately, this is just not enough. In a fantasy of this scope the complex plot feels disjointed and even worse unoriginal due to similarities to some of the scifi greats. I have heard a lot of people say the plot dose not make sense but this is not true. The film's plot is in fact coherent if you are paying attention, it is convoluted but it follows its internal logic closely and all the threads tie up.

So, this film is a hard lesson for the studio and for film goers. While we claim to want original programming on the scale of famous known IPs, the only attempt in decades to make a truly original blockbuster fantasy has failed in all the important ways. This could be the last time a studio tries this for another 30 years. In the narratives need to present so much information due to the viewer not having any pre-existing knowledge of the universe slows everything down to a series of setups and expositions that wear down on our patience. I feel the real problem this film has is the scale.

Yet, I personally did not hate this film. I found it far more entertaining than many of the large blockbusters it was in competition with. When you have films like Transformers or Fast and Furious stinking up the screen how can this film attract such scorn? It is an ambitious, even an audacious film and in my book that is a huge plus in its column. As a voracious consumer of fantasy and science fiction this film is right in my wheel house and the jumps of imaginative acceptance it asks of the viewer are easy for me to make.

I can't call this a good film with a strait face but I've already bought the blu-ray and getting the physical disk on my shelf is a badge of honour I reserve for only the selected few. 

If only this was a better film.

VERDICT: Give it a try, but be warned.