THE RECONCILERS #1

I know, I know. We only do book reviews around these parts once every blue moon. And never, NEVER do we review comic books! All these things occurred to me as I was reading The Reconcilers, the latest from actor/writer/producer/superman Erik Jensen. But then I thought, if you don’t like it, you can LEAVE! But please don’t leave. We value our readers. Especially the girls.

The Reconcilers takes place in a dystopian future in which the world is ruled not by governments, but by corporations. This is kind of like a game of Fortunately/Unfortunately, because unfortunately, no governments means no corporate bailouts whenever a company runs into trouble (topical!). Fortunately, no governments means corporations are instead free to turn to all sorts of hardcore badassery to solve their problems. This is where the titular reconcilers come in. To settle their problems, a company keeps a team of gladiators on hand to compete in a bloody free-for-all that’s broadcast all over the world. The last man standing wins.

This is where we find ourselves when Maximillian Sokor, the grand poo-bah of Earth’s corporate fiefdoms, tries laying claim to the mother of all ore deposits discovered by Sean Hexhammer and the “ore jockeys” of Hansen Lunar Engineering. Not content to be pushed aside and have their find taken out from under them, Hexhammer and company challenge Sokor Industries to full and total reconciliation — which they’re almost certain to lose. And we’re off.

I’ll admit that I was a little iffy on this one when I first opened it up. Televised death matches are a trope of dystopian fiction I’ve never really been able to get on board with. And books like Hunger Games haven’t really done them any favors. But I have to say that I got hooked early in. The book’s secret weapon is its writing. Erik Jensen is one of those jack-of-all-trades bastards we love to hate. When he’s not on TV or producing plays, he’s writing comic books. You want to know what I’ve been up to? I rearranged my living room. It doesn’t even look good. Anyway, Jensen really makes these characters come to life. There are a lot of great little beats, off-hand remarks that really bring them up off the page, which already puts it above a lot of the stilted dialogue we read in today’s better comics. It’s also a story in which the stakes seem high right from the start. I’m not really sure what to atribute that to. It may be because this is our first time being shown this world, so there’s no feeling that this or that character is immune from having anything happen to them. It was enough to keep me guessing, which is really all I can ask for.

The book features some interesting character and technology designs, but other than that is probably best described as barebones, with maybe just a little bit of retro thrown into the mix. It’s not flashy, which I think is to be appreciated. I would say the words do all the talking, but there’s got to be a better way to write that sentence.

My copy says #1 on the cover, which oftentimes is followed by a #2. It’ll be interesting to see The Reconcilers develop into a series, as it works perfectly as a one-shot. But if subsequent stories are as well written, count me in. The book isn’t as hardcore as your Scalped or your 100 Bullets, but once you’re drawn in, you’re there until the end.

The Walking Dead, “Days Gone Bye”: Where’s my horse?

How many different zombie stories are there really? Five or six? And those are all pretty repetitive. Every now and then, one will come along and put a different spin on things, but for the most part it’s the same old thing. Zombie apocalypse. Survivors come together. Some die. Some don’t die. Roll credits. Wash. Rinse. Repeat.

After careful and thoughtful study, I’ve come to the conclusion that I don’t care. I don’t care if I’m watching the same movie in slightly different packaging. I love them. There’s something about that story that keeps me coming back every single time. I’m not sure if it’s the people from different walks of life coming together, the visions the story conjures up of society crumbling before our eyes, or all the zombies being shot in the head. It’s probably that last one. Because I’m young, and guns make me feel like a big man.

So you can imagine my excitement when I heard that AMC had picked up ‘The Walking Dead’ as their fourth scripted television series. First, it’s got zombies, which we’ve already talked about. And second, it’s AMC, who’s really become the go-to place for good television these days (HBO’s making a comeback, but that’s a different story). If anyone was going to do a story like this justice, it would be them.

And I was not disappointed. The pilot episode was written and directed by Frank Darabont, of Shawshank Redemption and Green Mile fame, and his work on the big screen has really made for an amazing looking TV show. And while we can thank Darabont’s vision for that, we also have to give the network its due for pulling out all the stops with this thing. I mean, everything here looks gorgeous. The sets, the makeup. There are a few effects shots that mix in with the action pretty seamlessly. I really don’t want to think about what a show like this costs to produce, not to mention market, which AMC also did a great job with. And it all looks to have paid off. The pilot drew in more than five million viewers (more than the Mad Men finale! (I think I’m the first person to say that)), making it the most watched premiere in AMC’s history. So myself and everyone else who pays attention to these things is just waiting for a second season pickup.

My biggest concern with making a show about zombies is what it chooses to focus on. With a movie, you’ve got about an hour and a half and you’re out, so you don’t really get a chance to delve into all those nice character beats we love so much. Obviously, you’ve got more time in a TV series, so it’s really got to be character driven. Of course, we want the zombies, the frantic running, the headshots, the kill shots, the whiskey shots (when they’re celebrating after killing the zombies), but you really can’t see this stuff every week. After a while it just grows stale. ‘Friday Night Lights’ couldn’t do a football game every week. And that’s applicable here, too.

Luckily, this doesn’t seem like a problem the show’s going to struggle with. There were parts of the pilot that were surprisingly emotional. One scene, in which protagonist Rick Grimes (played by that dude from Love, Actually) tracks down a zombie he saw after stumbling out of the hospital he woke up in, may have been one of the best sequences of the entire show. That, intercut with Lennie James trying to kill his wife, herself a zombie, really took it a level that I can’t remember seeing in many other shows. If the show continues to strive for that level of emotional involvement, I think we’re all in for a treat.

Of course, it’s still early days, and there’s still a lot about the story the show has yet to introduce. While much of the pilot follows Rick alone on a Castaway-esque journey through this strange, new world, there’s still a group of survivors, including Rick’s wife, son and ex-partner we only caught a small glimpse of. So there’s a lot of character interactions we haven’t seen yet. Readers of the comic will know how things there pan out, and I’m looking forward to seeing how the show handles them.

The show’s ensemble seems like it’s up to the challenge. Andrew Lincoln performed much better than I thought he would, although the verdict is still out on Jon Bernthal, who plays his ex-partner, Shane. He’s a good actor, although I think he may be pushing the southern, good ole’ boy thing a bit too far. And if anything has to be viciously taken down by a pack of zombies, it should be his southern accent. For those of you who love the blood and gore, don’t let all this talk about emotional BS turn you away, because there’s plenty of that here, and in stunning HD, too.

Fun! Amirite? I don’t know exactly what kind of voodoo magic AMC is playing with over there, but I wish I could grind it up and stir it in my Kool-Aid. They really do seem to have another hit on their hands. Which makes me happy and nervous at the same time. Happy because this is truly great television. Nervous because how long can they really keep up their record? The other foot’s got to come down sometime. I’ll wait until they announce ‘Hunger Games’ the TV series before I get too worried, I guess.

What do you do when gods make war? Thor!**

**Although I’m not exactly sure how you would “do” Thor, and what good it might do when gods are making war. Perhaps some of my female readers can enlighten us after they’ve watched a few minutes of hunky Chris Hemsworth dressed up as the God of Thunder.

But anyway. I know what you’re thinking. Comic Con sucks. But there were a few things to come out this year that were pretty cool. One of those is the trailer for next year’s Thor, which has a surprisingly good cast for what could easily be the weakest of the Marvel films leading up to The Avengers. Take a look below.

You wouldn’t like me when I’m angry.

It’s official. Ed Norton will NOT be coming back to the role of Bruce Banner for Marvel’s Avengers, which will be hitting theaters in a little under two years. But along with this sad (?) news comes something potentially MUCH more awesome. Right now, there are rumors going around that former actor and Matisyahu impersonator Joaquin Phoenix will come on board to take over the role! Isn’t that great? Awkward Letterman interviews aside, Phoenix is a pretty good actor and could probably bring a certain je ne sais quoi to the film. The Incredible Hulk was a good movie and I liked Norton in it, but I don’t feel particularly attached to him.

Go ahead and file this one under rumor, but run out and tell your friends that it’s a done deal.

“There will be blood in the water.”

When did we begin demanding so much from our comic book movies? I think one of the major complaints when books are adapted for the big screen is that they aren’t always faithful to the source material. But because so many comic books — especially the ones they’ve been turning into movies lately — are so unrealistic, when they are faithfully adapted we see them as over the top. Even The Dark Knight, which is probably the best comic book ever made, couldn’t help from doing this when Batman started using that weird dolphin-vision sonar weapon toward the end.

The Dark Knight is actually a good movie to compare Iron Man to. Sonar vision aside, The Dark Knight is probably the grittiest, most realistic (think real-world) portrayal of a superhero we’ve seen on film. Iron Man doesn’t live up to that level of realism, although it’s still a very, very good movie. So which one do we want? Would we rather have realistic, believable characters who could fit into the real world, or would we rather they were faithful to the comic books, over the top though they may be? Are the two mutually exclusive? Do we even need to choose between the two? Given the success of both The Dark Knight and Iron Man, probably not.

Still, after seeing clips of Tony Stark and his crazy briefcase armor and Minority Report computers, I tried to temper my expectations for the second film. Because the first one was so good, I didn’t think there was really any way Iron Man 2 could match it. And you know what? It didn’t. But it came really, really close. I don’t know if it was because the movie is really trying to advance the Avengers part of the Iron Man story, but such a large cast and so many big characters could really have screwed this thing up (Don’t believe me? Go watch Spiderman 3).

But the cast really worked in the movie’s favor, and looking back on it, almost gave us two movies at once. Sure, there are plenty of bad guys for Iron Man to fight, but at the same time Tony Stark is forced to confront the fact that his egotism may preclude him from joining Nick Fury’s team, although most would argue that the point is ultimately lost on him. But you don’t really realize how much movie you’ve just watched until the whole thing is over.

And again, Robert Downey Jr. steals the show. Seriously, can you imagine anyone else in this role? I have a feeling that if Tony Stark were a real person, we’d all be amazed by his iron men, but we’d all call him an asshole behind his back. Mostly because he was rich and slept with all of our girlfriends. But we’d still hang out with him, you know…if he ever wanted to hang. Anyway, the only real weak spot in the movie was Scarlett Johansson, and that’s only when compared to everyone else. I don’t know, there was just something a little boxy about her that I don’t usually see in her other films. But wait. What was that? She’s Scarlett Johansson? You make an interesting point. All is forgiven.

Many of you probably know that Nick Fury makes another appearance in the film. Actually, Samuel L. Jackson’s portrayal of the S.H.I.E.L.D. director is a perfect example of how a realistic depiction of the man can help overcome the character’s sometimes-unbelievable superhero trappings. When he popped up at the end of the first movie and said, “I’d like to talk to you about the Avenger Initiative,” I saw visions of Mace Windu all over again (the horror). With more than ten seconds to work with, he was able to flesh the character out a little bit. I was surprised at how much he sounded like Jules Winfield, and I can guarantee that if Iron Man had been given an R rating, we would have heard an f-bomb or ten.

There are a few things keeping Iron Man 2 from being as good as the first film. For one, I think the filmmakers were a little too eager to introduce War Machine into the mix, and the entire thing ends up feelings a bit shoehorned. Although I will say that I much prefer Don Cheadle to Terrance Howard. Also, for a movie in which Mickey Rourke is clearly the bad guy, I thought he really got short shrift there in the end. In all fairness, there was a lot there to make up for it, including Sam Rockwell — who in a bold move for an actor has foregone making bad films — and Scarlett Johannson in a catsuit.

While almost everyone will probably come out of this movie thinking that the first one was better, I think most of those people are going to be very happy with what director Jon Favreau has given us, and with Thor and Captain America on the horizon, we’ll only look forward to Iron Man 3 (not to mention The Avengers) with more and more anticipation. Oh, yeah. Whatever you do, stay after the credits.

Chris Hemsworth as Thor!

Well, here he is. The iconic Norse thunder god who, next Summer, will either bring Marvel’s Avengers movie one step closer to completion, or ruin the entire thing forever. It’s going to be interesting to see how TPTB introduce the supernatural into a universe that so far has been based so heavily in fancy robots and giant, green monsters.

Photo credit goes to Yahoo! Movies.

More of this, please.

New Iron Man 2 pics, courtesy of io9.

I am Iron Man. 2.

Here’s the new trailer for Scarlett Johansson’s latest, Iron Man 2. Wait. She wasn’t in the first one? What the hell was I watching?

Spiderman Getting the Reboot Treatment

Do you remember how excited you were when you heard that Sandman AND Venom would be in Spiderman 3? Do you also remember the movie being so incredibly bad that it gave you kidney stones? Well, take a deep breath and know that all is right with the world. Sony Pictures announced today that the planned Spider Man 4, starring Tobey Maguire and directed by Sam Raimi had been scrapped. Instead, the studio has decided to reboot the franchise and take Spiderman back to his roots: as an angst-ridden teenager coming to terms with strange new powers. That’s right. Emo Spidey is now a thing of the past. Wait. What?

This from Amy Pascal, co-chairman of Sony Pictures Entertainment…

“A decade ago we set out on this journey with Sam Raimi and Tobey Maguire and together we made three ‘Spider-Man’ films that set a new bar for the genre. When we began, no one ever imagined that we would make history at the box-office and now we have a rare opportunity to make history once again with this franchise. Peter Parker as an ordinary young adult grappling with extraordinary powers has always been the foundation that has made this character so timeless and compelling for generations of fans. We’re very excited about the creative possibilities that come from returning to Peter’s roots…”

Oh. Now I’m depressed again.

I am Iron Man. Two.

It’s finally here! As expected, Iron Man 2 looks both bigger and badder than its predecessor. I can’t believe how awesome these special effects are. Did you see how weird and out-of-proportion Mickey Rourke’s face looks? Wait. What?