by Daniel Erenberg

So, it seems that Slow Century Magazine has taken the entire month of May off. Co-founders Joe Ireland and Janna Washington have spent the month packing up their shit and shipping it out west, as they now reside in Eugene, Oregon. Danielle Berg has spent most of her time working on The Quilt Project, a wonderful Community-building non-profit, which hosted a very successful fundraiser on May 9 (which I couldn’t attend, due to Star Trek-related prior commitments). And my laptop has been broken, which has given me the excuse to ignore my journalistic commitments and, instead, sit in my Slanket and watch Gilmore Girls DVDs. But, of course, I have been keeping up on everything pop culture-related, so I have to play catch-up. I thought it might be a good idea to put together a collection of mini-reviews in case our many, many readers have been wondering what Slow Century’s official take on the happenings of early summer are. And I might even have collected my thoughts on the broadcast network upfronts in time for Summer Press Tour in July. Maybe.

FILMS

 X-Men Origins: Wolverine

This was, simultaneously, a missed opportunity and a mistake from the get-go. I suppose a good film could be made based on the origin of the most mysterious of the X-Men. There are certainly good comic books having to do with it (just check out Barry Windsor-Smith’s “Weapon X” and Paul Jenkins’ Origin). But, one of the main strengths of the Wolverine character is how shrouded in mystery his origin is. I, for one, really don’t want to know about it. Why not make a modern-day Wolverine film or, if the producers were really so hung up on the origin idea, why not make a Wolverine film about the days just before he joined the X-Men? But these ideas are meaningless. What we’ve got is this fairly terrible, far too angsty action film with dialogue entirely composed of exposition, and a series of overhead shots of Hugh Jackman crying out, “Nooooooo!!!” What’s even worse is that the casting is uniformly spot-on, particularly Liev Schreiber as Sabretooth, but no one is given anything remotely interesting to do or say. The first big summer movie is the first bad movie of the summer.

Grade: C-

Star Trek

I’ve never been a Star Trek fan. I watched a handful of Next Generation episodes, when reruns used to air alongside Buffy the Vampire Slayer and I’ve seen a few of the movies. I was interested in this film because J.J. Abrams was at the helm, and I’ve liked all four of his TV series (Felicity, Alias, Lost, Fringe). So, I went to see this at the Ziegfeld with a massive crowd of ridiculously nerdy Trekkers, and I had a really good time. It’s a hell of a fun movie, completely well cast, with a light tone and a whole bunch of terrific action sequences. And I thought it was completely charming that Abrams thinks “Sabotage,” by The Beastie Boys is still going to be a relevant song hundreds of years in the future. And I didn’t catch the subtle Trek references that my friends did, but I did catch the Abrams-verse references (Slusho! Amanda Foreman! Greg Grunberg’s voice!), and those satisfied my geek cravings far more than seeing Emma Frost for two seconds in Wolverine.

Grade: A-

 The Limits of Control

Enjoyment of The Limits of Control depends entirely on one’s ability to stand Jim Jarmusch. I happen to be a huge fan and, having enjoyed all nine of his previous films, I managed to enjoy this one as well. But the film is something of an endurance trial. The pacing makes Dead Man, Jarmusch’s previous meander-fest benchmark, look like a Michael Bay film. But there is something quite mesmerizing and beautiful about the whole affair, and the soundtrack, featuring such favorites as Earth, SUNN O))), and Boris is the best of the year so far.

Grade: B

Music

Veckatimest, by Grizzly Bear

This is Grizzly Bear’s best release to date and, while being a completely satisfying, near-perfect recording, it still hints at even bigger and even better things to come. It retains the spacy, atmospheric dread that the previous Yellow House captured so well, but it adds a newfound interest in melody. First single “Two Weeks,” with its jaunty piano lead, overactive drums and Beach Boys-like harmonies is my pick for song of the summer, not something I would have expected from a Grizzly Bear album. “While You Wait For The Others” is equally enchanting, running up and down the scale with a brilliant bass-line and some more wonderful harmonizing. And, for the angstier Yellow House fans, there’s some more entrancing atmospherics, especially on tracks like “Cheerleader,” the sometimes cacophonous “I Live With You” and the absolutely beautiful closer, “Foreground.”

Grade: A

 Outer South, by Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band

This is Conor Oberst’s second album with his non-Bright Eyes band, and it’s a halfway good album, with a load of filler. He lets various band-mates sing lead on roughly half of the tracks, but there are 16 songs, so there’s still a full-length Oberst album in here somewhere. The best of the three non-Oberst singers turns out to be drummer Jason Boesel, mainly because his deeper, more gravelly voice is a nice break from the generically whiny indie rock of the other two. Oberst, predictably, has most of the best songs, including the fun sixties pop-folk of “Nikorette” and “Slowly (Oh So Slowly),” the meandering, but emotionally satisfying “White Shoes” and the rage-aholic political deviation, “Roosevelt Room.” But the other guys bring some decent stuff too, especially “Big Black Nothing,” by Nik Freitas and the synth-led “Air Mattress,” by Taylor Hollingsworth. So, there’s a good album to be found in this sprawling collection of songs, but far too much filler to make it a fully satisfying release.

Grade: B-

 21^st Century Breakdown, by Green Day

I’m not quite sure how Green Day became one of the biggest bands in the world, but they are. 21^st Century Breakdown, their second political rock opera in a row, after the more creatively successful American Idiot, has a much more vague storyline than its predecessor, but the same sense of overblown, epic pop punk. The obvious influence here is Queen, with Billie Joe Armstrong’s reaching vocals and seventies-style guitar leads, and it’s absolutely packed to the brim with memorable melodies, but the main problem here is the lyrics, which are, at times, offensively stupid. Armstrong, a strong craftsman when writing songs about jerking off or smoking weed, was quite at home on American Idiot discussing modern suburbia and disaffected teenagers, but 21^st Century Breakdown is a more overt political statement. But, all the statement is saying is that the government is, like, totally lame, broseph. And we need to, like, do something about it! What should we do? Well, the best Armstrong is able to come up with is “Rally up the demons of your soul.” Awesome. It’s a decent Green Day album, if you like that sort of thing. But nothing more and nothing less.

Grade: C+

 Yours Truly, The Commuter, by Jason Lytle

When Grandaddy broke up, it seemed as though I was the only one that was upset. The press didn’t cover it much, and that includes the Pitchforks of the world, and there was no spike in sales on their excellent farewell record, Just Like The Fambly Cat. But, still, when frontman Jason Lytle announced his intentions to release a solo album, I was excited. And, though the album is nothing new for him, it’s a satisfying release precisely because of that. It sounds like a solid Grandaddy album, and I’m happy that those are still getting made, even after the break-up. The lyrics are less about technology and the great outdoors now, and more about Lytle’s recent break-up and move to Montana, but there’s the same electronic sheen and rustic beauty of the best Grandaddy albums. Just check out the beautiful “Birds Encouraged Him” and the title track, which begins with the statement-making verse, “The last thing I heard I was left for dead/I could give two shits about what they said/I may be limping, but I’m coming home.” The album ends with a song called “Here For Good,” and I’m extremely glad that he is.

Grade: B+

Television

Glee

FOX tossed us a bone a few weeks ago. After the second-to-last episode of American Idol, they aired the pilot of a new fall series called Glee, about a high school glee club, and the young, idealistic male teacher (Matthew Morrison) who runs it. I can’t fathom that there is a better pilot on any network’s fall schedule. It has an insanely large cast of immediately engaging actors (especially Morrison, Lea Michele and Jayma Mays, who I am considering proposing marriage to) and, seemingly, a lot to say about growing up, even in adulthood. Sure, it sometimes hearkens too close to its influences, which obviously include Freaks and Geeks and Election, but that isn’t too bad when your influences are as wonderful as Freaks and Geeks and Election and, besides, even Freaks and Geeks and Election didn’t have incredibly charming song-and-dance sequences set to songs as far reaching as “Don’t Stop Believing” and “Rehab.” Also, it made me cry. Just for the record. And I watched it twice in the same day, which I don’t think I’ve done with any pilot ever.

Grade: A

 The Goode Family

This is a new Mike Judge (Office Space, King of the Hill, Beavis and Butt-Head) animated series, and it’s as good an excuse as any for him to rip on liberals. It’s got a few funny bits (especially the meat-craving vegetarian dog and the heartthrob teen, who makes documentaries and puts them on YouTube), but it doesn’t add up to much more than a time-passing summer diversion to break up Wednesday nights a bit.

Grade: C+

DVD

Caprica

Hot on the heels of Battlestar Galactica ending (mostly unsatisfyingly), here we have the Battlestar prequel show, whose pilot the Sci-Fi channel saw fit to release on DVD a year prior to the premiere of the actual show. It’s very promising, certainly as smart and intriguing as BSG was in its early days, and it’s more down-to-earth to boot, with a solid lead performance from the reliable Eric Stoltz, and an even better supporting one from young Alessandra Torresani. It also has about 1000% more boobs than Battlestar did in its entire run, if you’re into that sort of thing. It captures virtual reality better than Harsh Realm ever did (that’s right, a Harsh Realm reference), and there are geek-out references to the early stages of Cylon creation. So Caprica is good. More next year, I guess.

Grade: B+

Books

Columbine, by Dave Cullen

Cullen achieves something truly remarkable and rare here. It’s a non-fiction account of a fairly recent event that somehow manages to work both as surprising and informative journalism and completely riveting and page-turning storytelling, in the vein of Capote’s In Cold Blood. It’s the best non-fiction book in ages and really makes you realize that everything you’ve previously read about the Columbine tragedy is dead wrong. Even that Michael Moore movie, and especially that Michael Moore movie. Cullen manages to make the true-life characters so fascinating and engaging that you’re dying for a sequel when the book is over. But there is none waiting. And thank god for that.

Grade: A

New Mutants #1, by Zeb Wells and Diogenes Neves

I’m not exactly sure who was clamoring for a New Mutants reunion, but Marvel Comics is banking on some nostalgia for that 100-issue “X-Men in training” eighties superhero book with this one. The characters are certainly as good as ever, and Zeb Wells is obviously having a ton of fun writing them (particularly Sunspot, more wisecracking than he’s been in ages, and Cannonball, taking on a leadership role that has seemed inevitable for decades). Still, there’s a sense of the inconsequential about this book. I feel like I should care more. For now, it’s a quick, fun read, but it better be headed somewhere.

Grade: B

The Unwritten #1, by Mike Carey and Peter Gross

Ah, now this is a comic with a lot on its mind. It’s about Tommy Taylor, whose father once wrote a massively successful series of 14 books about a boy wizard named Tommy Taylor.  He’s lived for the last several years as a pseudo-celebrity, cashing in on his MIA father’s books, but now he’s beginning to wonder whether he’s a real person or, simply, a character made flesh. The expressive art of Peter Gross brings Mike Carey’s fast-paced, cerebral writing to life, and the quick scenes we see of the Tommy Taylor films satirize and pay tribute to the Harry Potter series perfectly. The finest first issue of a comic I’ve read in a while.

Grade: A

Tags: capsule reviews glee comic books wolverine star trek grizzly bear
June 2, 2009 at 1:28am ∞

by Daniel Erenberg and Joe Ireland

Joe: I think I should start out by saying that I’m no expert when it comes to comics, though I’ve read several series and enjoyed most of the ones that I’ve read, some of them quite a bit. Watchmen is hands-down my favorite comic, so I was super excited when I heard that an adaptation was going to be released, and only slightly less excited when I heard that said adaptation was going to be directed by Zack Snyder (director of 300). I have to say that I enjoyed the movie, though I recognize its flaws (of which there are many).

Daniel: I am an expert on comics, I guess. I’ve been reading them since I was a wee young lad in Brooklyn. My first was a Chris Claremont X-Men book, bought for me by my grandfather when I was 4. I read Watchmen for the first time when I was about 12, and starting to get a little jaded about superhero books. And Watchmen isn’t a superhero book. No, really. It isn’t. It’s a book about how writer Alan Moore sees the world, and what would make it “a stronger, loving world to die in,” as John Cale is quoted in the book. That’s the real problem with Zack Snyder’s bold, but woefully misguided film. He made a cool, flashy, superhero film and ended up with a heartless, if occasionally fun, early summer blockbuster that’s gonna be forgotten in less time than it took the comic to come out in serialized form. Fanboys used to argue on the internet about whether Watchmen should be a film or a TV miniseries, but that’s missing the point. Watchmen is as perfect as comic books get, and no filmed adaptation could replicate it. But I’m a fanboy too. I got excited when I heard about it. I was super-excited when Paul Greengrass (Bloody Sunday, the last two Bourne pictures) was set to direct. And I got choked up at the trailer in front of The Dark Knight last summer. But Watchmen is now a great comic and a very, very bad film. Bummer.

Joe: Something that interests me is that numerous critics have suggested that Watchmen actually suffers from its faithfulness to its source material. It seems to me that Watchmen is a film that was doomed to fail from the start. Other comic book adaptations—most notably The Dark Knight­—are much looser in their interpretations. I can’t imagine that, had Snyder taking a more interpretive approach, it would have been received much more warmly by fans of the comic.

Daniel: Snyder took an odd approach to the film. In some ways, it’s completely faithful. The characters, the plot, a lot of the dialogue and pretty much all of the set design are taken directly from the comic. But, I’ve rarely seen the director of an adaptation so misread a comic. The reason the faithfulness of the film is a hindrance is that the pacing is so bizarre and insane and wrong for a film. Snyder spends about forty minutes on the first issue of the comic, and twenty minutes on the second, and then must race through the rest of the book, giving the film that odd Cliff’s Notes quality that the weaker of the Harry Potter films seem to have. Snyder also gets the film completely wrong tonally. The film is dark, cool and choreographed. There’s something really awkward and real about the comic that is just not captured here at all. The film feels completely wrong. Maybe a more interpretive approach would have been shit on by fans of the comic (and Greengrass had planned on setting the film in present day with a major middle east conflict going on, so he may have been crucified), but Watchmen, a great comic book, which was so prescient when it was created, should be a great and, more importantly, significant film. But Zack Snyder’s Watchmen is a trifling and, worse, forgettable annoyance, destined to be a footnote in comic book history, the way Michael Steven Johnson’s Daredevil or Snyder’s own 300 have become. A lot of people are going to own Watchmen T-shirts now. That’s about the extent of the film’s significance. Whereas the comic is on Time Magazine’s list of the 100 best English-language novels since 1923, the film will be lucky to get a Best Visual Effects nomination at next year’s Oscars.

Joe: The pacing issue is a good point, but I wonder how much of that is attributable to the fact that so much material had to be cut in order to get the movie down to a manageable length for the big screen. It will be interesting to see how the director’s cut, set to come out on DVD sometime later this year, will look and feel, since so much crucial material was left out of the theatrical cut.

I guess I was just super happy to see that the film wasn’t drastically re-interpreted. It would be very easy to try to re-envision the film as, say, a 9/11 allegory, and I was almost sure that that was what was going to happen. I liked the care Snyder took to replicate the film’s look, something the participation of artist David Gibbons no doubt facilitated.

But I definitely agree that, tonally, the film was way off, at times. The fight scenes were particularly painful. One of the great things about the comic book is that the heroes and heroines—with the exception of Dr. Manhattan—are just people. In the movie, they’re all super heroes, or at the very least, possess superhuman powers. How ridiculous was that fight scene in the alleyway, in which Nite Owl and the Silk Spectre gleefully pulverize a gang of thugs?

Daniel: I think a lot of things built up to destroy the tone of the comic book. One of the major ones was the music. The score was melodramatic and silly. It’s most noticeable in the scene when Rorschach and Dan Dreiberg meet up for the first time. It kicks in like some strange relic from early ‘80’s TV, completely undercutting the emotional impact of the scene, which, in the comic, is stark and sad. The song choices aren’t any better, with the notable exception of Bob Dylan’s “The Times They Are A-Changin’,” which is used very effectively during the opening credits. “Hallelujah,” by Leonard Cohen is used during the Dan/Laurie sex scene really weirdly, making the scene a joke, as Dan is finally able to get it up after having been impotent in the film thus far. “Hallelujah,” get it? Genius. “All Along The Watchtower” is used to kick off the third act. It’s a song that was mentioned in the comic, so it’s an unsurprising choice for the film, but it feels tired and ridiculous here, narrating Rorschach and Nite Owl’s trip to Ozymandias’s “Watchtower.” The film ends with My Chemical Romance covering Bob Dylan’s “Desolation Row,” which I think serves as a wonderful metaphor for the entire movie. It’s a silly, stupid bastardization of something thoughtful and classic.

Joe: Well played. Anyway, the soundtrack was just atrocious—I’ll give you that. And speaking of the sex scene, how horribly awkward and out of place was that?

Daniel: Yeah, but it was hot, dude. I mean, Malin Akerman was giving the second worst performance in the film (after Matthew Goode’s weirdly Dutch-sounding performance as Ozymandias), so I mean, I was cool with her just getting naked and moaning for a bit. I’ve now seen Akerman in four films and she showed her tits in three of them (this, Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle and The Heartbreak Kid). If only she would stay out of potentially good movies, I’d be cool.

Joe: OK, Matthew Goode was terrible. Actually, Snyder’s whole conception of the Ozymandias/Veidt character was just way, way off. He’s charming and likeable in the early scenes of the comic book, whereas from his first appearance in the movie, he’s smug, preachy and clearly villainous. And at the end of the comic book, you actually sense that he regrets having had to kill so many people in the name of peace and international unity, whereas in the movie, he doesn’t seem to regret what he’s done at all.

I intended to defend the film, but I’ve spent more time criticizing it. Look, it’s not a good movie and it’s definitely not a good adaptation, but despite its flaws, I was won over by the stunning visuals, the visceral fight sequences (as tonally inappropriate as they were), and the outstanding performances by Jackie Earle Haley and Patrick Wilson. The movie was uninspired, yes, but there was also something touching about how much Snyder clearly worships the comic book. And some of the sequences (the one in which Jon Osterman transforms into Dr. Manhattan comes to mind) were so brilliantly realized, I simply can’t imagine it being done better by a Paul Greengrass or Terry Gilliam.

Daniel: Zack Snyder seems to be a nice guy, and a big comic book fan. And he gave us a very good remake of Dawn of the Dead, which inspired one of the funniest scenes in The 40-Year-Old Virgin. But now there is a bad Watchmen movie in existence. A really bad one. But, when I saw the film in theaters, during the scene where Rorschach cries out, “I’m not locked up in here with you, you are locked up in here with me,” some stupid bastard behind me, said far too loud, “I need to buy this book!” So there’s that. Maybe shitty movies will give comic books a bit more respect. That’s something I can live with.

Tags: watchmen point/counterpoint zack snyder comic books
March 14, 2009 at 2:37pm ∞