My favorite movies of 2011

            I’m going to go with favorites instead of must-see for this list.  The reason for this being that, while I’ve certainly missed plenty of games this year, I’ll probably get to those sooner than I’d ever get to the vast amount of award-season movies I’ve missed.  Also, the numbering’s a...bit odd on this.  There are just too many movies that would be a shame to leave out, or even place in the runner-up category.  If it’ll make you feel better, put 3 of the runner-ups (your choice) into the main category.  Starting again with the runner-ups:

-Thor: Thor may have played it a little safe in the Marvel movie realm, but it was a fully enjoyable summer blockbuster that I could easily sit through again.

-Rango: I feel that making animated movies that don’t target kids is one of those arts we rarely see.  Yet Rango did something with a movie that took an intelligent look at the Western genre as a whole, with a movie that both parodies it and clearly loves it.

-The Adventures of Tintin: Fully brought Hergé’s work to life, and easily provided the action and adventure quotient for the year…

-Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol: At least, the parts of it that weren’t fulfilled by a movie that brought Brad Bird’s direction to a franchise that needed a shot in the arm, and got it with wit, tense action sequences, and—perhaps most importantly—fun.

7. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2: Believe me, I’m sure there’s some people who would put this at the very top of their list for the year.  For me, while I enjoyed the movie and understand exactly how good it is in many ways, the full realization of a franchise…it wasn’t necessarily my favorite of the year.  I’m not even sure it was my favorite Harry Potter movie (clearly a marathon is in order).  But it fully deserves a place here just for being one of those events.  And if I had gone with the must-see list, I’m pretty damn certain this would be at the top.

6. Winnie the Pooh: Disney screwed this one up.  A mere 70 minutes, releasing it against Harry Potter…these are rookie mistakes, signs of a movie being thrown out with no thought.  Which is a shame, because those 70 minutes may very well have been the most enjoyable 70 minutes in a movie theater I had this year.  It may not have the emotional complexity of pretty much any other movie on this list, but it has joy.  And sometimes, that’s all you need.

5. Rise of the Planet of the Apes: To my knowledge, before Rise, Planet of the Apes was a franchise that was dead and buried.  But those damn dirty studios just can’t keep their paws off it (sorry, I didn’t write the review so I had to get this joke in sometime), and…what do you know, it was a good thing they brought it back.  Bringing together excellent special effects with a great motion-captured performance, Andy Serkis’ Caesar was easily one of the best characters on-screen this year, and worth seeing the movie just for that.

4. Moneyball: When is a sports movie not a sports movie?  When it’s not focused on the team, but on the manager and the creation of a whole new system in choosing players.  It’s intelligent while still being entertaining.  It engages the audience even through exposition, thanks to Aaron Sorkin’s script and some wonderful performances from Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill.  It’s just a great movie.

            3. X-Men: First Class: This list is full of franchises that were gone or dying up until the right people came along and did the right thing.  In this case, X-Men got a full facelift that took it back to the 60s, brought in a whole new cast, and changed the movie from summer action to a character study framed with a James Bond-style plot.  And it worked in ways that so rarely do, with a movie that’s thrilling and thoughtful.

            2. Hugo: In a time when Alvin and the Chipmunks gets a third movie and Cars 2 forgoes anybody who doesn’t buy the toys, it’s nice to see a family movie that doesn’t aim for the kids, but actually aims for the whole family.  And Hugo is everything you’d want out of Martin Scorsese doing a family movie.  Great performances from actors that range from Ben Kingsley to Sacha Baron Cohen, a use of 3D which has been widely applauded, and a history lesson in silent cinema all wrapped up in one movie.  Does it get better than this?  Well, there’s still that last slot…

           1. The Muppets: I was hyped for The Muppets from the moment it was vaguely talked about by Jason Segel.  There was always this lingering doubt that maybe it wouldn’t deliver, maybe all the excellent parody trailers would be wasted for nothing.  But it delivered.  It’s a movie that’s as heartfelt as it is hilarious.  It touched my heart, that part of me that’s been a Muppets fan for years and just couldn’t wait to see these characters again.  And I swear, I could’ve just sat there watching them be for hours.

Five comics that stuck with me through 2011

This list is a little different, for one main reason: I don’t really keep up with comics on an issue-to-issue basis.  Most of these I’ve read in trades.  So what I’m doing here isn’t necessarily the best comics to come out in 2011, but the best ones I read in 2011.

5. Bakuman. It might be weird to start off a best comics list with a manga.  But Bakuman is something addictively different.  There’s no superpowered fights, no magical worlds, nothing you’d expect out of a Shonen manga.  From the creators of Death Note, you’d expect anything but the ordinary.  Hell, if you know Death Note, but not Bakuman, your jaw might drop like I did when you find out it’s about…two teenagers creating manga.  And it is fascinating.  They make the exposition of the inner workings of Shonen Jump interesting, and it pays off when you’re on the edge of your seat just to find out if their manga gets cancelled.  Combine interesting characters and art that’s been perfected, able to show drama and comedy easily, and…dare I say it?...this might just be one of the best manga I’ve ever read.

4. Green Lantern. I couldn’t have cared less about Green Lantern until I read Rebirth.  Suddenly this guy was the coolest character in the DC Universe, and Geoff Johns has just made a huge saga of Hal Jordan’s time as Green Lantern.  The new colors, the Blackest Night, everything just goes to the next level.  As I understand it, this year’s big event was War of the Green Lanterns, which I’ve read, and it was pretty damn big.  With the series taking another sudden turn just in time for the New 52, it’s clear that there’s very little slowing down for the corps.

3. Unknown Soldier.  Unknown Soldier is a bleak comic.  Well, really, it’s about the Lord’s Resistance Army in Uganda, and that alone does not make for happy times.  And then you add in brutal violence, dark moral choices, a world of black and grey morality…it’s not exactly a pleasant read.  An incredible comic, though?  That it is.  Unfortunately, the series got an early cancellation, so it doesn’t exactly feel like all its plot points are wrapped up in the end, but it’s still one of the must-read comics from recent years.

2. Scalped. I swear I didn’t plan to put two incredibly dark comics filled with moral conflicts right next to each other.  And the honest fact is that I was lukewarm to Scalped when I first read it.  By the third volume, though, it didn’t just grow on me; it hooked itself in and hasn’t let go since.  I never thought that I’d constantly want to go back to the violent, drug-fueled world of The Rez.  But every time I’m greeted by the characters that are always on that line of doing the right thing and destroying their world that much more.  And every time they choose the wrong choice, it breaks my heart.

1. Invincible.  It’s funny that Invincible is almost uplifting after having to write those previous two descriptions.  I pretty much gushed over Invincible in my Super Dinosaur review, and it’s for good reason.  Each time I read it, I don’t know what to expect.  There could be sudden, gory violence or warm family moments.  The villain of the issue could be weak and ineffectual, or he could be powerful and dangerous.  The character who died 10 issues ago could turn out to be alive all this time.  It sounds schizophrenic, and yet in Robert Kirkman’s hands, it’s a fascinating story of the full career of a superhero.  I’ve seen Mark Grayson from his inception as Invincible to him fighting the Viltrumite War.  And I’m always curious what he’s going to do next.

The five games you should've played in 2011

            So, it’s not too late to do “Best of 2011” lists, is it?  We haven’t even hit the Oscar nominations yet, so I’ll assume I’m still in the free here.  I’ll start with video games.  Even though there are several games I haven’t yet gotten to that I plan to play fairly soon (Rayman Origins, Skyrim), I still have a pretty good grasp on what you should’ve played this year.

First up, the runner-ups!

        -Dead Space 2: There’s something about the Dead Space series that I can’t figure out, but it just really hits me with how good it is.  Horror gameplay that still gives you enough of a feeling of power?  Maybe that’s it.

         -Ms. ‘Splosion Man: I can still hear her high-pitched screams of ALL THE SINGLE LADIES.  But the excellently-done, hard-as-nails platforming is what really stands out in this game.

         -Deus Ex: Human Revolution: Deus Ex was a dead franchise after Invisible War.  Human Revolution gives us an interesting cyberpunk playground and plenty of choices, from the moral to how you play the game.  A stealthy hacker or blasting away every guy in the room?  Even I was surprised when I ended up choosing the former.

        5. LittleBigPlanet 2.  I think the main problem with this game and Dead Space 2 is that they came out in January, so I keep forgetting that they actually came out this year, but that doesn’t lose it a spot on this list.  If the first LBP was a wonderful platforming game, LBP2 was a wonderful game.  Adding in enough full customization tools to allow people to make any game they wanted really showed.  Browsing the community levels you can find rhythm games, racing, shooters, any genre.  While this does deafen the top-notch platforming of the original some, it doesn’t prevent it from being an excellent game.

        4. Saints Row the Third.  You know that one level in every game where you just go “Holy crap, I’m doing WHAT?!”  That’s pretty much the effect of the entirety of SR3.  This is a game that features you skydiving through debris before you kick through a plane’s windshield…and this is one of the game’s first missions.  You take place in Professor’s Genki’s Super-Ethical Reality Climax, a mix of The Running Man and a Japanese gameshow.  You head into cyberspace, including having to go through a text adventure.  You fight zombies.  You can get Burt Reynolds in your gang.  Not a character played by Burt Reynolds, but BURT REYNOLDS.  If there’s any flaw, it’s that it’s all so ridiculous at some point it becomes almost normal.

        3. The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword.  I feel odd putting this game on the list considering I’m pretty sure I’m not even halfway through it, and I’ve heard it falls apart in its final act.  But this is a list of the games you should’ve played, not necessarily the best games.  And if there is any game that has to be played, it’s the one that finally shows what we wanted the day the Wii came out: motion-controlled sword-fighting.  You stab the controller, do a horizontal slice, lift the controller up into the air, and Link does the same thing.  And it uses motion throughout the game, from flying to swimming.  Just to show what motion-controlled gaming can do when it’s done right, this is worth playing.

       2. Portal 2. Yes, this list is full of sequels.  I’ve been ruminating for a while on why sequels are accepted so well in the gaming industry, yet are met with fear and derision in films.  I think it’s because when films hit something really well, there’s really nothing to change, while even the best game can have something that needs to be tweaked.  And while Portal became an instant classic, it needed those tweaks.  Which is what you get with Portal 2, which pretty much hits the biggest mark on the video game sequel checklist: “More but better”.  A longer campaign, funnier and more clever writing, more puzzle elements, a fully-done co-op campaign.  Great games come around every year.  It turns out that a game like Portal comes around twice in a lifetime.

         1. Batman: Arkham City. I can’t begin to describe the feelings with Arkham City.  That open-world that’s constantly giving you Riddler trophies to try and puzzle out.  Bringing back all those cool gadgets, and then giving you new ones.  Plenty of classic Batman villains for you to face.  Just making you feel like Batman again.  I may not be the best Batman ever, but damn, I had a fun time being him.

The Adventures of Tintin

            This was the year for my childhood at the movies.  We got Winnie the Pooh, The Muppets, and now Tintin all in the same year?  It’s wonderful.  Tintin is likely the one the mainstream knows the least about, but to me, it’s a mixture of comedy and adventure that’s just plain enjoyable to read.  And Spielberg knew exactly what he was doing when taking it to the big screen.

            Tintin (Jamie Bell) picks up a model ship from a street market, shortly before an American and Sakharine (Daniel Craig) come around trying to buy it from him.  Getting Tintin’s interest, he starts to investigate, only to get kidnapped by Sakharine’s goons and put on a ship with Captain Haddock (Andy Serkis), who just happens to be the descendant of the owner of the real owner.  Naturally, they team up to try to solve the ship’s secrets.

            Now, I’ll admit outright that it’s been quite a while since I read the original Tintin comics by Hergé, and this is important because, throughout the movie, I thought it was a pretty straight adaptation of the “Secret of the Unicorn” story.  It was only afterwards I realized it was a combination of two completely different Tintin stories, with plenty of changes made along the way.  I say this because that is how perfectly this movie captures Hergé’s tone.  Remember that mixture of comedy and adventure I mentioned?  This movie hits it spot-on.  With a script that had Steven Moffat’s (of recent Dr. Who fame) and Edgar Wright’s (Shaun of the Dead, Scott Pilgrim) hands on it, it’s really to be expected.  The movie will give you an absolutely thrilling action sequence, only to turn around and make you laugh at the next instant, usually without even switching scenes.  It gives the audience a lot of exposition at one point while balancing it out with Haddock’s drunken antics.  And it’s all in the spirit of Hergé.  You can practically see his simpler versions of the characters in the places of the movie’s characters.

            That’s not what you see, of course.  Instead, the movie uses the motion capture work that was also used for The Polar Express and A Christmas Carol.  This is one of those animation techniques that’s easily a love it or hate it thing, mainly thanks to the easy possibility of the uncanny valley, but it works well here.  The characters and environments look perfectly realistic, but there’s still some cartoony features around, like Haddock’s huge nose.  And you get the idea that Spielberg had a lot of fun with his first animated film, especially on some of the “single-take” shots.  He’ll zoom out on a small boat in the middle of the sea until the sea becomes a puddle, and suddenly you’re in the middle of the street.  And there’s an absolutely jaw-dropping action sequence that’s done start to finish with one shot.  Possible in live-action?  Of course.  Easier when animated?  Yep.  Still impressive?  Definitely.

            The Adventures of Tintin isn’t just the Tintin film I was hoping for.  It’s the rollicking adventure that it should be, with mystery, action, comedy…and most importantly, it never stops being fun.

Super Dinosaur Volume 1

            Robert Kirkman has pretty consistently entertained me with both The Walking Dead and Invincible, the latter of which I could probably write a whole editorial on why it’s one of the best comics out there right now.  He knows how to write a good, long-term story with big payoff, he knows the exact moment when he needs to drop the hammer and shock the reader.  What I’m saying is I had high hopes before I even started reading Super Dinosaur, and what I got wasn’t quite what I was hoping for.

            Super Dinosaur follows Derek Dynamo (who thinks everything is awesome), the young son of Doctor Dynamo, and the titular Super Dinosaur, a talking T. Rex with power armor.  They fight against Max Maximus and his army of other evil dinosaurs for control of the ore Dynore.  If this is sounding like a Saturday morning cartoon, that’s…about what it is.  Believe me, I was expecting more.  I kept expecting the Robert Kirkman twist, the sudden shock of violence or darkness or…anything.  But no, it’s a cartoon in comic book form.

            This isn’t to say it’s a bad cartoon.  Robert Kirkman showed that he can create a full world from the ground up with Invincible, and he’s taken that same process here.  A few minor characters like Squidious, an evil squid who Super Dinosaur has apparently fought in the past, show both his imagination and his world-building.  And it never becomes a parody of the concept.  There are definite flaws here, like the fact that Derek is too perfect and borderline annoying.  But overall, it’s very straight-forward yet entertaining, and would be perfect for kids to get into comics and have a fun story…

            …Is what I really want to say.  But I’m worried.  I think back to Invincible, and how the first volume was fairly standard superhero stuff, only for the twist to hit hard in the second volume.  I’d hate to think that this is decent G-rated stuff from the first volume, only for the second volume to have Super Dinosaur biting Derek’s head off.   But if that does happen, it seems like it really wouldn’t work.  The comic just isn’t smart enough here to match even the levels of the better cartoons on TV right now.  Would a quick change really make things that much better?

            In the end, I really don’t know what to think.  It’s an easy read, basic but fun, but it’s not the most fun comic out there and definitely doesn’t show off Robert Kirkman’s real abilities.  Young kids would probably like it just fine, but anybody older can easily pass this by. 

           Thanks to Net Galley and Image Comics for letting me review this book.

Aliens: Fast Track to Heaven

            Aliens is an interesting franchise, mainly because it always falls on that line between horror and action.  The first two movies are complete genre shifts between the two, and they’re both considered two of the greatest movies in their genres.  There’s the fear of a single xenomorph slowing picking off a crew one by one, and there’s the swarms of them that can be fought off with the right tactics.  No matter what, though, the biggest fear of the Aliens franchise is how the xenomorphs can come anywhere, anytime.  They crawl through vents, come in where you should be safe, and you never know where the next one is going to be.  Fast Track to Heaven just does not hit this concept right.

            The story has a crew working for the Weyland-Yutani at the Heaven station, a space station attached with a space elevator to Hell, the surface of Jupiter’s moon, Europa.  The elevator has been stopped midway, and they investigate to figure out why.  Turns out there’s a xenomorph on-board, who proceeds to slaughter them as they try to fight it off.

            Problem number one of this book is simply that it does not have the length to tell a complete story.  It’s a mere 38 pages, which is less than the length of two standard-size comic books.  It has to rush through characterization and some of the deaths, which hurts it.  We don’t even see one crew member’s death, despite the rather meager cast.  Aliens is also a franchise that tends to distinguish itself with its characters.  There’s a reason Ripley appeared throughout all the non-vs-Predator movies.  Yet I really couldn’t tell you much about any of these characters at the end of the day.  In Alien and Aliens, they gave us plenty of time to know the characters and care when they die.  We don’t even get a moment to do that here.  The 38 pages also results in an absolutely disappointing ending, with a splash page and a wall of text.  I couldn’t believe it had ended that way.

            Now, to get back to what I was talking about with not knowing where the alien comes from.  The problem here is that the alien pretty linearly follows the crew.  It doesn’t hide and creep around and pick them off.  The crew moves forward, the xenomorph moves with them.  Although it’s always nice enough to give them time if they need to talk about anything.  I wanted some tension here.  I guess it really comes back to the length.  With more pages, there would’ve been more time to rack up the suspense.  Instead, it’s just ho-hum, xenomorph killing people.  That’s how I feel about it.  I wasn’t left with anything memorable at the end of this book.  Just an absolutely standard Aliens story.

            The one thing I did really like was Liam Sharp’s art.  It’s a pretty rough art style, but I feel it fits the book well, and he can hit the violence spot-on.  The elevator-turned-xenomorph-home is an absolutely wonderful example of gruesome, creepy imagery.  Sadly, I can’t say the same thing about the coloring.  It’s rare to have a book where the coloring is so very obvious, but the panels are just covered in single colors.  Characters will be red and the backgrounds will be blue.  The few panels where he uses the full palette of colors to make it look like it would are significantly better-looking.

            I really can’t recommend Aliens: Fast Track to Heaven.  It’s just too short, to the point where it noticeably affects the book.  Across a mini-series, this might’ve been a good story.  Across 38 pages, it’s scrambling to get the bare bones out there.  And for $11?  There are far meatier books you can spend your money on.

            Special thanks to Net Galley and Dark Horse Comics for letting me review this book.