There could be no more apt description of the film based on Bryan Lee O’Malley’s comic book series than the phrase “style over substance”. For Scott Pilgrim vs. The World has style coming out the wazoo. From the opening credits to the end credits it is a unique, visually brilliant film, well worth watching for that very reason alone. But its style with a capital “S” magnifies the weak script and leaves the viewer wondering what could have been had the story been penned by someone with the writing chops to match the visual splendor.
Even before the release of The Return of the King in theaters, the die was cast: I would forever proclaim myself to be a fan of Tolkien as author, and Peter Jackson as film maker. While I waited to read the trilogy for the first time after I had seen all the films, I did not wait to begin collecting a host of nonfiction books about J.R.R. Tolkien and about the process of making this epic film trilogy. One of the books that I was hesitant to get, once it was released, was Sean Astin’s memoir about his involvement in the making of the Lord of the Rings trilogy; the reason being that so many of the reviews I read on Amazon painted Astin as an egotistical, largely negative and overly neurotic individual. Having watched the ‘making of’ documentaries on the extended editions over and over again, which presented a largely positive spin on the process, I was loathe to pick up anything that might tarnish my own fantasies about what to me has always seemed a dream opportunity. I always knew, in the back of my mind, that temptation, and the lack of new print material about the films, would eventually drive me to pick up Astin’s book. That conundrum was taken out of my hands this past Christmas when Jeff gave me the audio copy of this book, read by the actor himself. As I was perusing my to be read shelf last week I came across this audio book and felt such a strong urge to listen to it that I put it in the CD player in the truck that very morning. What followed was a very engaging and emotional experience as I listened to Astin’s recollections over the next couple of days.
Is there any more perfect time than summer to find ones self swept up into hours of gaming? Heck yes, any time is a perfect time to do so, at least for gamers like myself who grew up during the Pong years and, instead of falling away (i.e., maturing) have instead spent many more hours playing “video games” over the last 15 years than over the previous 25. I won’t spend a lot of time on justification here. Regular readers know that on occasion I’ll bust out the video gaming review, to great throngs of crickets chirping and tumbleweeds blowing by in the wind. That’s okay, honestly. This blog is primarily about experiencing story and art and so I get just as much joy prattling on about enjoyable gaming experiences as I do book and film, and it is okay if that is not your thing.
–published 2009
–It Books
–240 pages
–Rating of art quality in the book: 3/5 stars
–Rating of written material: 5/5 stars
–Overall rating (factoring in Carl Math): 4.5/5 stars
Though still technically a month away, I found myself pouring a bit of lighter fluid on the flame that is beginning to grow for the R.I.P. V Challenge, when I discovered Coraline: A Visual Companion while wandering around the reference section of my local library this past Monday evening. I haven’t watched the film since just after its DVD release last summer, and haven’t read the novel since the inaugural R.I.P. Challenge in 2006, but when I saw the spunky heroine from Henry Selick’s incredible stop-motion adaptation on the cover, all my love of book and film came flooding back and I knew that my first act upon returning home from the library would be to crack it open.
Despite evidence to the contrary, I was not abducted by covert government operatives for indoctrination into a super secret black ops program designed to replace water-boarding with sweet pickles as the preferable method of torturing suspected terrorists. No, not at all. Sweet pickles have been torturous (to me anyway) from the moment some demented soul decided to subject an innocent cucumber to their sick and twisted experiments. Nope, they didn’t need my help with that.
