MOVIES

The lone movie adaptation is “The Damned United” based off of the novel “The Damned UTD.” It might have what it takes to be more than a cliché sports movie. At the very least it’s british and about soccer, not to mention it has the wonderful Jim Broadbent casted.

VIDEOGAMES

“Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Republic Heroes” is a game based on the animated television show. It is being released on everything, and it will probably suck on everything, let’s be honest.

“Saw: The Videogame” is a game based on the movies (you know, the ones that haven’t been good in years). Let’s give them the benefit of the doubt and assume they have been slaving over a hot computer since day one to release this work of art.

That be all this week. Side note, I saw Whip It, and I loved it. If I ever get around to reading Derby Girl (and I have heard that it is very good) I’ll throw out a review. Stay solid internet.

Adapted to…

Surrogates (2009 Film) Directed by Jonathan Mostow, Written by John Brancato and Michael Ferris, Starring Bruce Willis, Radha Mitchell, Rosamund Pike, Ving Rhames.

Surrogates is an intriguing story featuring a dystopian future where most Americans live there life through an artificial “surrogate”: robots that are controlled remotely from the users bedroom.

The Original

The Surrogates takes place in the year 2054. The story begins with one Lt. Harvey Greer investigating the mysterious destruction of two surrogates. Greer and his partner Sgt. Peter Ford question the two operators of the destroyed surrogates, and this eventually leads Greer to discover the perpetrator of the assault: a masked man with glowing eyes. Greer names him Steeplejack, and Greer’s surrogate is destroyed by him.

Now surrogate-less, Greer visits a man called “the Prophet” on a reservation made for people who believe the use of surrogates is an abomination. The Prophet leads these people, and he has a history of violence against surrogates in the past. The Prophet denies any relationship, so Greer must investigate further, while at the same time fighting with his wife over how much time she spends operating her surrogate.

The Surrogates is well written and very well paced, with a interesting text piece at the end of every issue. Venditti shows great talent for the medium.

Weldele’s art is very good. It is surreal and stylized. When he shows Steeplejack destroying a surrogate, the arcs of electricity coming out of their eyes is beautiful. The problem is that his style is not perfect for the story. He uses a lot of darkness and shading, and the differences between the “perfect” surrogates and regular people are not as starkly defined as I believe they should be.

The Adaptation

Surrogates (the film dropped the “the”) takes place in the year 2017, a good deal earlier than the comic. Instead of taking place in the future, instead the film takes place in an alternate reality where in the 90s surrogates started being developed and by 2017 they were widespread.

The story begins with one FBI agent Tom Greer (Bruce Willis), a switch from just being a police lieutenant. Greer and his partner agent Jennifer Peters (Radha Mitchell) are investigating the destruction of two surrogates. When they go to question the operators, they discover that both have are dead, apparently killed by whatever killed their surrogates. This is the major change in the movie, the ante is up, now, Steeplejack is no longer just destroying surrogates, but purposefully killing their operators. But much of the film is similar. Greer makes his way to visit the Prophet (Ving Rhames) and his marital problems are with his wife (Rosamund Pike) are very intriguing.

The story is very similar, but with some changes, both sensible and odd. First they diminish Steeplejacks role, who some might argue is the symbol for the comic, certainly the most iconic of the characters. And why change Greer’s partner from a man to a woman? Certainly, Radha Mitchell is an attractive woman, but no teenage boys are going to be drooling over her like she was Megan Fox.

Willis is in his element here, chasing bad guys, getting into fights and so on, and he does an excellent job. A standout performance was that of Rosamund Pike, who played Willis’ wife. She looked excellent as a surrogate, like she had just stepped out of the Stepford Wives, and she really sold her role as the surrogate addict she played.

The Score

The Surrogates (Comic Book) is a great read with fun art and an interesting take on the dystopian future with themes similar to Fahrenheit 451 and Brave New World. I give it 7/10.

Surrogates (Film) is an enjoyable movie with decent action and acting, but nothing groundbreaking, which might have to do with changing the plot of the source material. If you like Bruce Willis, or the comic book, it’s worth a watch, but probably just a rental. I give it 6/10.

COMICS-

Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep #4 (of 24) : The 24 issue limited series adapting the novel by Phillip K. Dick that has been previously adapted into the film “Blade Runner.” Publisher Boom! Studios seems to be showing a lot of respect for the story by giving it 24 issues. It certainly appears to be worth picking up.

MOVIES-

Whip It: Whip it has three things going for it: the directorial debut of Drew Barrymore, the always lovable Ellen Page, and the writer, Shauna Cross who is also the author of the novel the movie is based on, Derby Girl. The film stars Drew Barrymore and Ellen Page as members of a roller derby team. I’m excited.

That be all folks! Real light this week, for better or for worse. I watched Surrogates, so watch out for that review. Until then, stay solid.

&

Civil War (2006-2007 Comic Book Miniseries) Written by Mark Millar, Penciled by Steve McNiven.

Adapted into

Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2 (2009 Videogame) Developed by Vicarious Visions, Savage Entertainment, and n-Space.

Secret War and Civil War are two comic book series that have been combined to make a bulk of the storyline in Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2.

The Original:

In Secret War we discover the government of Latveria (Dr. Doom’s home country, of which he is currently absent) is providing super villains with advanced technology and weapons. Nick Fury, the Director of S.H.I.E.L.D., believes Latveria to be a serious threat to America’s national security. He believes the government there needs to be dealt with, but the U.S. government disagrees, and takes no action. Fury recruits Captain America, Spider-Man, Daredevil, Black Widow, Luke Cage, Wolverine, and Daisy Johnson to secretly overthrow the Latverian government.

In Civil War we find the superhuman community at war with one-another after the Superhuman Registration Act is signed which forces superheroes to reveal their powers and identity to the government and to become certified and trained super powered agents. The act was pushed through Congress after the inexperienced New Warriors corner the Super-Villain Nitro, goading him into blowing up the area, killing over 600 people. The Pro-Registration heroes led by Iron Man are tasked with taking in rogue superheroes, led by Captain America.

The Adaptation:

Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2 follows Secret War and Civil War relatively closely in the first two acts, but the third act of the game follows a brand new story wherein (***SPOILER***) nanites (essentially nanobots) have been spreading across the earth taking over the consciousness of everything in its path.( ***END SPOILER***)

When the Civil War starts in the game, the player is forced to choose either the pro or anti-registration side of the war. As the Pro-Regs you get the exclusive characters Iron Man, Mr. Fantastic, and Songbird, and as the Anti-Regs you get Captain America, Luke Cage, and Iron Fist. The game boasts other characters in its roster including popular characters Spider-Man, Wolverine, and The Hulk, as well as fan favorites Deadpool and Gambit. We are also treated to relatively unknown Heroes like Songbird and Penance.

The gameplay  consists of you and up to three friends playing as four heroes of your choice that run through various locales in the Marvel Universe beating up hundreds of minions, robots, and thugs, with each level containing a number of superhumans, both superheroes and supervillains. The game contains a fusion system where, in addition to your heroes’ normal powers, every character has a fusion power that combines the heroes’ abilities to perform a powerful attack.

The Scores:

Secret War was an interesting read with gorgeous art by Dell’Otto that is worth the price of the comic alone. The story is also notable because it is the last time we see Nick Fury before he goes underground for the next four to five years.

Secret War: 8/10

Civil War was a fantastic series, but it was better as the crossover event it was. Countless other comic books told different parts of the Civil War, but the main series had the core story, and seeing those heroes in battle (beautifully rendered by McNiven) made for quite the entertaining read.

Civil War: 8.5/10

Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2 has a few bugs and camera issues that are annoying, and the character roster is a little light, but it is worth buying for the replay value, and additional DLC with new characters is likely to become available in the coming months.

Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2: 7.5/10

In comics we have Anita Blake: Laughing Corpse: Necromancer #5 (of 5), an adaptation of the Novel “The Laughing Corpse.” I can’t say I have read the series but Chris Sims over at the Invincible Super-Blog has an excellent page-by-page review of the series.

Movies offer us a more substantial offering:

The Surrogates, based off of a comic book mini-series of the same name, is starring Bruce Willis and directed by Jonathan Mostow. The trailer for The Surrogates has me very intrigued, but the quality of the film is still up in the air. It looks like at the very least the film will be a fun action movie. Expect a review of this one in the near future.

Fame is a movie that I have never seen, but I have heard much about it. This remake looks like your standard musical, and I think I might have to throw the original on my Netflix queue to see how it compares.

The Damn United, based off the novel The Damned Utd byDavid Peace is a British film starring Michael Sheen and Jim Broadbent. After Broadbent’s spectacular role in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, I am anxious to see more.

I Hope The Serve Beer In Hell based on the book of the same name based in turn on the stories by Tucker Max on TuckerMax.com. If you haven’t read these stories and have some time to kill, I highly recommend them, and a review for this film is definitely in the future. I do wonder how the film will tell Tucker Max’s reportedly true stories about him and his asshole friends without making us hate every character in the film.

Brief Interviews with Hideous Men is a film about a woman interviewing ugly men for her graduate degree. The film wouldn’t attract me much except for the fact that John Krasinski, of The Office fame, has written and directed this adaptation.

The Boys are Back is based on the novel The Boys are Back in Town, and is starring Clive Owen. Clive Owen plays a man who recently lost his wife and must now struggle as a single father. Sounds a little boring, but Owen may put on the charm and pull out an enjoyable movie.

So that’s it this week. Highlights being I Hope The Serve Beer in Hell and The Surrogates, both could suck, but I have high hopes.

Adapted to…

Ender’s Game: Battle School (Comic Book 2009) written by Chris Yost, illustrated by Pasqual Ferry

Ender’s Game, an adaptation itself from an earlier novelette also authored by Orson Scott Card, is one of my all-time favorite sci-fi books. It was one of the books I read when I was about thirteen that cemented my love of books. At that age I could not get into the novel’s sequels (I now think they surpass the original) but Ender’s Game was the height of Sci-Fi to me at that time.

Ender’s Game takes place in a world that has suffered from a war with the aliens known formally as Formics, but are commonly referred to as buggers, probably due to their insect-like appearance. The war with the Formics has ended, but the threat of a Formic attack is still high. The world has formed an alliance to work toward defeating the buggers, and in preparation, the most promising and gifted children from around the world are being trained at the Battle School. Ender Wiggin is one of those gifted few who have been chosen. At six years old he is incredibly intelligent, and the high command at Battle School believes that Ender will grow and turn into the leader they need to combat the Buggers in their next encounter, whenever that may be.

The comic book Ender’s Game: Battle School adapts the first half of Card’s novel, and it looks brilliant. The visuals are both realistic and accurate to the novel, and Ferry takes things a step further and makes everything from the style of clothes that the characters wear, to the technology used at Battle School his own. Ferry’s illustrations are not what I imagined in the book, but it was probably necessary to update the visuals from those described in 1985 for today. The imagined future of today and twenty-five years ago are probably a bit different.

Chris Yost faithfully recreates the story of Ender’s Game, hardly missing a scene from the original, but the details of the novel cannot be given justice in five issues of a comic book. Unfortunately the story feels very brief when read in this form. Every major scene from the novel is included, but there are many of them and each only gets a page or two. To be fair to Yost, the dialogue in the comic is very natural sounding and true to the characters. The problem is not with Yost, but with the medium of comics and their short nature. In the 1980’s and before, comics were still in the compressed age. Alan Moore and Dave Gibbon’s Watchmen is told with very small panels and a whole lot of dialogue, and as such they were able to tell a long story in only twelve issues. The world of comics has evolved to a point where the illustrations are larger, and the dialogue is shorter, creating a decompressed comic that has difficulties telling a long story. If Ender’s Game was adapted twenty years ago, it may have worked out better, but then the visuals may not have popped like they do.

There has been a lot of rumors of adapting Ender’s Game into a film, usually combined with Ender’s Shadow, the companion novel that runs parallel with the Ender’s Game story. Card has stated in interviews regarding the comic that he believes comics are a great place for filmmakers to see how the novel would work visually, and that releasing the story in this format makes a film more likely to happen. I would warn a potential filmmaker of the time it takes to tell a story like Ender’s Game. The second half of the book is to be adapted into Ender’s Game: Command School, and I might recommend two films be made from the book as well, especially when you take into consideration the addition of the storyline from Ender’s Shadow.

Reading the comic as someone who is already familiar with the story, it is easy to follow and very fun to read, but I fear that it lacks quality as a standalone project.

I give the original Ender’s Game an 8.5/10

The comic, Ender’s Game: Battle School, deserves a 6.5/10

Adapted into…

9 (Film 2009) Directed by Shane Acker, Written by Shane Acker, Pamela Pettler, Ben Gluck, Starring the voices of Elijah Wood, John C. Reilly, Jennifer Connelly, Crispin Glover, Martin Landau and Christopher Plummer.

9 (2009) is one of the gutsiest movies I have seen in a long time. It incorporates hardcore science fiction elements (post-apocalyptia, robots taking over the earth) with wildly imaginative fantasy elements (burlap-sack robots complete with cute zippers and buttons). This, combined with the lack of animated family films in theaters, makes 9 the likely choice for family outings. But let’s be clear here: 9 is by no means a movie made for kids.

The “9” are the nine doll-sized robots that make up intelligent society of this future. Each robot, 1-9, all have different personalities. Their purpose in life seems to be to escape from the giant-by-comparison robot that is hunting them for what appears to be whatever energy source is powering them. The story falls the robot numbered 9, and his introduction to this small society.

The imagery in 9 is stunning. There are few clues as to the cause of the lack of humans, but you can see that our extermination was not so long ago, with fresh corpses still found around the city, and traces of human civilization can still be found in the knick knacks and trash that the nine robots live in.

9 (2005) was very similar to its bigger budget brother. Almost all of the plot elements in the short film (fighting the robot, exploring the world) are incorporated into the adaptation, and all of the added elements are sensible extrapolations of the small plot in the short film.

One major difference between the films is the acting. In the 2009 film, all the 9 are voiced by an actor or actress. The short film had completely silent characters, and while I understand that it was necessary to voice the 9 to advance the plot and to flesh the characters, I loved how they worked silently, the muteness of the characters gives us a greater appreciation for the animation and the subtle movements within. The creepiness factor is also ratcheted up without voice acting because the music and ambient noise really fills out the film. For a movie that is already very high concept and non-mainstream, I would have enjoyed seeing the film done completely without voice acting. Regardless, the acting in the movie was solid, but the celebrities were superfluous. I had no idea any of these actors were in the film before the credits rolled.

9 (2009) is a fantastic adaptation, and the ending had all the mystery and mystique of the latest Harry Potter film. It is an excellent flick that can stand next to District 9 as one of the years (and possibly the decades) best sci-fi films.

9 (2005) is given a 7/10 for its imagination.

9 (2009) is given an 8/10 for the realization of that imagination.

Adapted to…

Legend of the Seeker (2008) Television Series created by Sam Raimi, Starring Craig Horner, Bridget Regan, and Bruce Spence

The Sword of Truth series was the first major fantasy series I read growing up, and I am still quite a fan of it. That is why when I heard that the series was going to be adapted into a television series with Sam Raimi involved, I was very excited. Unfortunately, perhaps paradoxically, I don’t think it was made for fans of the books.

Both series have the same premise: Richard Cypher, the protagonist, is a woodsmen in Westland. One day in the woods, he encounters a beautiful woman in a white dress who reveals to him that she is Kahlan Amnell from the magical Midlands, and she has come to Westland to find the great wizard from her land. It is revealed that this wizard is an old family friend of Richard’s. This wizard, Zeddicus Zu’l Zorander, has been observing Richard and has decided that he is worthy to be the Seeker of Truth, an ancient post, and one that is now destined to destroy the evil empire of D’Hara and its ruler, Darken Rahl. So Richard, along with his Sword of Truth, ventures forth through new and unfamiliar lands with Kahlan and Zedd at his side.

The beginning of the show is almost exactly like the book, but as the episodes go by, one realizes that the medium of television, and the necessity to deliver episodic content, means that the show must be drastically different than the books. The beginning and end of the story can stay the same, but the characters need things to do every episode, and the book isn’t segmented that way. It becomes obvious that Raimi and other producers wanted action and adventure in every episode, and as a result, new content must be fit into the story.

And this is what annoys the fans. Today, the fans want very close adaptations. While a reference to the books by the series is appreciated, if it is not used in the right context, it is just an insult to the hardcore fan. Every change in story or added subplot is met with scorn. Such massive changes cannot be abided by the hardcore fans, including myself.

Later, I watched the show again, from a different point of view. I decided to try and enjoy it as I would Hercules or Zena: as a simple fantasy series. I tried to forget any and all ties to the books and to think of it as more of an homage to the series rather than a full-on adaptation. And as it turns out, it is very enjoyable.

The Sword of Truth series as a whole: 8/10

The Legend of the Seeker series: 7/10

To

I am Legend (Film-2007) Directed by Francis Lawrence, Written by Akiva Goldsman and
Mark Protosevich, Starring Will Smith

When I first saw “I am Legend” in theaters, I had no idea it was an adaptation. Eventually it was revealed to me that it was based off of a book of the same name, and had been adapted for film two times previously. I had heard that the changes that were made in the movie were drastic, but I had no idea until I sat down to read the book myself.

In both the novel and the film we are introduced to Robert Neville, the last man left alive in his city after everyone has become infected with, and is showing the symptoms of, vampirism. The Novel Neville, located in  Los Angeles, takes it upon himself to study up on how these events came to pass, equipped with little but a barricaded house and a microscope to do his research. The Film Neville (Will Smith), located in New York City, is a fully educated scientist and has set up a lab in his barricaded house with which he does his research.

Novel Neville spends his days researching, scavenging, and hunting down sleeping vampires and shoving a spike through their sleeping chest. Film Neville kills vampires, but he doesn’t go looking for them, unless it is to capture one to study.

Both Neville’s run into a dog, but the movie makes the meeting more conventional: the dog becomes Film Neville’s best friend. Compare this to how Matheson masterfully authors a scene in which Novel Neville discovers a dog, a rarity in his world, and attempts to befriend it without scaring it off. It may sound bland, but it is some of the most intriguing and emotional fiction I have ever read.

So in passing, the stories sound familiar: Last man in city infested with vampires is on a quest to reverse its effects. But the meat is so very different. And then there is the ending. The ending explains the whole purpose of the story, its whole point of being, the theme. And if you have not read it, I encourage you to do so before I ruin it for you.

******STOP! THERE BE SPOILERS AHEAD******

So the ending is what people were talking about. The differences between the endings are night and day. They are so ridiculously different that if someone told you this is what the studios were planning, you would think it was a joke.

First, the ending of the novel: Neville discovers that not all the vampires are heartless monsters. In the years since they were all infected, they have begun to rebuild society. In the end he is captured and is to be killed for his crimes: the mass murder of their people during their daytime slumber. Hundreds were killed by Neville, he had become a genocidal monster in their community, hunting them down in their sleep, much like Dracula classically did to humans. He is the monster. He is Legend. Boom. Awesome. Great message that makes for beautiful science fiction. So, the movie has to follow this beautiful story right? Well, not really.

The films ending is as follows: Neville is cornered by the vampires who are much more freakish looking than described in the novel. The films vampires appear to be mostly mindless monsters, but do show some intelligence, as a trap is set for Neville, and one vampire in particular appears to be semi-intelligent, like that of a dog, or “Land of the Dead” smart zombie. But in no way does it seem really self-aware or human-like.

So Neville, in a selfless and heroic act to save a woman and child from the deadly hands of the vampires, grabs a grenade and blows himself up, taking as many vampires as possible with him.

That’s it. Neville learns no lesson. The vampires created no society. The title makes no sense.

The worst part of the whole development is that the original ending was kind of close to the novel, but it was reportedly changed after it tested poorly. It was included on the DVD and showed Neville that the vampires were attacking him because he had abducted one of their own, and as soon as he gave her up, they retreated. The vampires showed sympathy, and made Neville realize that they were more than just the monsters that they ended up being in the final cut.

******SPOILERS END******

I am Legend is one of the poorest adaptations I have seen, because it retains almost nothing of what made the novel so fascinating.

That being said, the film was a decent action movie, and I give it a 7/10.

The novel is short, and can be read in a few hours. I would highly recommend it: 9.5/10

Adapted from…

Alive in Joburg (2005): Directed by Neil Blomkamp

District 9 is set in Johannesburg, South Africa, twenty years after the first human encounter with extraterrestrial beings. These aliens, derogatively referred to as prawns for their bug like appearance, appeared in the sky in a massive circular space craft. They made no movement, and sent no signal. Soon, humans made contact by forcibly entering the ship, and discovered more than a million prawns. Without any apparent leadership or purpose, the South African government took them in as refugees and set up a camp, District 9, for them to live in. Soon, the district became a slum and a hotspot for criminal activity.

Tensions have risen in the last two decades, and riots have broken out. Many citizens have been calling for a relocation of the prawns to a new location, outside of Johannesburg. A private military organization, Multi-National United (MNU), is hired for the relocation, and Wikus van der Merwe (Sharlto Copley) is picked to lead the project, which begins with a 24 hour notice of eviction, that turns out to be more difficult than Wikus had expected.

There are two main characters in District 9; two heroes. The first is Wikus van Der Merwe, whose name is pronounced in the movie as: Vik-us Vandermerva. Wikus is a shining example of the unlikely hero. He leads the project to evict these aliens, who are, by all appearances, sentient. The atrocities committed by both the soldiers of MNU and Wikus himself include murder, blackmail, and infanticide, all justified because these creatures, these prawns, are not human. The fact that they can speak and understand each other’s languages (in the style of Han Solo and Chewbacca) does not seem to bring them any closer to peace or understanding.

The apartheid allegory is clear: South Africa segregated blacks and whites for decades. The white controlled government would force blacks to stay in certain districts resulting in mutual animosity toward one another. But I feel that Nazi Germany is an even better comparison:  like the Jews, the prawns are tested upon, they are not given any rights, and the idea that they are worth feeling sorry for is laughable between those in power.

Virtually no human in District 9 is portrayed as a good person. They are shown as greedy, bloodthirsty, cold and unfeeling. That is not to say that they are not portrayed realistically, for they are. These people are real. They are the worst part of humanity, but a part of it no less.

The second hero of the movie is the prawn named Christopher Johnson. Christopher is different than the other prawns. He and his son have been working on something, showing initiative: a mysterious and rare quality among prawns that is never fully explained. He is the sympathetic hero, the being who we root for and care about, and he is completely animated. These aliens are CG at their best. They are beautiful and expressive. The prawns, especially Christopher, blend completely with their human counterparts. For the first time in any movie, I felt an immersive experience, where the aliens were real characters, where it didn’t matter that they weren’t being played by an actor. They were as real as anyone else.

District 9 is high on the list of great sci-fi movies. It has what most great sci-fi has: beautiful special effects, believable and sympathetic characters, thought provoking plot with ties to the real world. In short, District 9 is a must see for sci-fi fans, and a movie that will be talked about for decades.

District 9 rating: 9/10

———————————————————————————————————————————–

Alive in Joburg is a short film released in 2005. It is six minutes long, and contains what would become the premise of District 9.

Alive in Joburg is set in 1990 in Johannesburg, South Africa, during apartheid. The special effects, while well directed, were unimpressive. They contained a  few scenes of military action against an alien armored suit, and practical effects used for the aliens, who look quite different than they do in District 9. They appear has a face full of tentacles, though we aren’t given an extended or detailed look at them.

The short film is done in documentary style, like the first act of District 9, and includes interviews with citizens of Johannesburg and some military personnel, including  a soldier played by Sharlto Copley, in what appears to be a completely different role and character than that of Wikus van der Merwe in District 9.

Short and to the point, Alive in Joburg is a solid short film, but the lack of length makes it difficult to really deliver the message and impact that was later accomplished with District 9.

Alive in Joburg rating: 7/10