Audio Corner: World War Z Audio Book

World War Z – Audio Book

A review by Darth Thought

4 out of 5 Stars

I normally don’t pick up audio books.  I can’t stand someone reading to me; but Max Brook’s World War Z is not just an audio book, it’s as close to an audio drama as you can get without having to buy a Big Finish CD Set.  It boasts a full cast of character’s all connected to Max Brook’s voice acting career and I would be lying if I said I didn’t know a lot of them specifically Jürgen Prochnow, 

Mark Hamill, Alan Alda, Carl Reiner, and Bob Reiner.  They all do spectacular jobs at giving voices to the characters in my head, and for the most part this is a better version than the book itself.

Now this isn’t going to be a big article like all my other’s because, it’s an audio book and I’d be lying if I said I knew a lot about it.  But as a casual listener, and an honest to god fan of the other book, I can tell you this:

It does a great job of capturing the atmosphere of the interviews, having a full voice cast helps this along a great deal.  My problems with the book are done away with in so much as that it is an actual abridgment and for the most part does away with some of the tedious stuff I talked about the book having.  It flows better, they’ve cut out a lot of the meaningless interviews, and the actors do a good job encapsulating the feel of the book while making the characters even more alive.

So you’re saying ok you’ve given it praise why isn’t it a 5 out of 5?

Well that can be summed up in the simple words, while it cut out some meaningless interviews it also cut out some of the greatest interviews, gone is the interview with a survivor of one of the church mercy killings, gone is the otaku who survived most of the war in his house and didn’t even realize what was going on.  That and while it is good the interviews are sterile; sure you have the interviews but the problem is that most of the interviews took place in public places where there would have been noise.  It’s not there, and while the voice cast can draw you in, it’s still distracting not hearing the actions. Instead you’ll have Max Brooks reading out the directions as the interviewer put them down.  Maybe it’s just me and I’m being overly picky about the fact that this is an audio book and I expect something like an actual radio drama, but still for something like World War Z to be so sterile sounding and only have sound breaks between the interviews for the introductions, seems well a little lacking.

All in all if you are a fan of the book you should give this a listen.  If you are someone who doesn’t really read books(shame on you but I digress), pick this up you’ll have a great time and hey it’s a great way to gear up for The Walking dead!

Scott Pilgrim Vs The World Review

Scott Pilgrim Vs the World (2010)

Written by Edgar Wright and Michael Bacall

Adapted from Scott Pilgrim Graphic Novels by Brian Lee O’Malley

Released by Universal

5 Out of 5 Stars

Oh boy did this movie surprise me. It really did; I’ll make no joke about it, I don’t like Michael Cera. When that’s the only credit I actually recognize besides Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, and the mock trailer for Don’t in front of Grindhouse), I honestly didn’t go into this expecting much, let alone because reviewers that I trust were split down the middle (Brad Jones AKA The Cinema Snob,and Noah Antwiler AKA The Spoony One) I was cautious. Let's just say, out of all of the movies to come out this year: this movie surprised me the most.





First off a little background: Scott Pilgrim was a series of digest style comic books to come out over the span of the last six years. It was written and drawn by Brian Lee O’Malley (To date the only book I have read is Scott Pilgrim’s Precious Little Life). The style of the books is simple and cartoonish, borrowing heavily from Japanese Manga artists such as Kiyohiko Azuma, and Osamu Tezuka. Having read only the first volume I’m not about to review that part until I finish them. But for a basis I did enjoy the first volume and found it cute. Its humor is very hit and miss, and often times can only be understood in the subcultures the books are aimed at really. But over all I liked it and I am looking forward to when I can get my hands on the last four volumes. After the first volume was published, the publisher Oni Press (a Oregon based company) contacted Marc Platt to talk about a film adaptation, which the writer of the novels was a little put off about stating:




"Expected them to turn it into a full-on action comedy with some actor that I hated...I didn’t even care. I was a starving artist, and I was like, 'Please, just give me some money.'"

He was actually pleasantly surprised at the end result, though he did say no material from Scott Pilgrim’s Finest Hour the last volume of the book made it into the movie. This seems to be a growing trend with Comic book and Book movies, though where a studio will snatch up the rights to a book as soon as it’s done being published. I can’t comment on that because well looking at the two movies that are like that Kick Ass and this film, it’s pretty damn good thing to do, though it does leave me scratching my head and saying “Are we giving up on thinking about original ideas?”




So, I’ve given you a lot of details about the production, the comics, almost everything. But what about the movie? Well, the movie stars Michael Cera in the titular role of Scott Pilgrim (which again made me pause and think maybe I shouldn’t go to see this, but in the end they made a pretty good choice in the casting), a twenty two year old high school graduate who is a drift in that stage before really being grown up and still being a teenager (fun fact, in the book Pilgrim is actually twenty three). He plays bass for an indie rock band Sex Bob-Omb (seriously picture Dennis Hopper’s King Koopa from Super Mario Bros the movie saying that and tell me you don’t laugh). He is very much the archetypical slacker, who is going out with a Chinese high school student Knives Chau played by Ellen Wong (her first major film role might I add), who is very much an innocent naïve character who deserves better than Pilgrim gives her. The relationship is seen as what it is, a ‘safe’ relationship that he is comfortable in but nothing too serious. Things get complicated when Scott starts having dreams about a pink haired delivery girl named Romona V. Flowers portrayed by Mary Elizabeth Winestead. Scott gets way in over his head as he finds out that the girl of his dreams is real, he pursues her only to find out that she has seven evil exes that he has to defeat.

That is the basic premise to this movie, and the books. While it seems simple, the shear amount of things that I can compliment just astounds me. So here goes:

The fights are well paced and choreographed, you can clearly see who is fighting in each and every fight, plus they stick a whole lot of video game references into these small fights which seems to extend it but keep you interested at the same time. In a time where films are too concerned with getting you in the action Scott Pilgrim lets you be the spectator, which is as it should be for a movie of this type.

The sheer amount of referential humor is a plus and a negative in my book and is probably why some people decide to pan it instead of enjoying it. The movie spends a lot of time relishing in the fact that it’s made for such a small part of the audience that it can be lost on some people who have not been fans of these types of media. It’s a plus in the fact that I am part of the crowd it’s aimed at, I enjoyed and often times laughed at a lot of the genuinely funny parts.

Scott’s best friend Wallace Wells played Kieran Culkin (younger brother of Macaulay Culkin), is one of the first and only non flamboyant gay characters I have seen; this is refreshing and you honestly believe that he embodies the character he’s playing. A lot of people are saying “yeah but that’s the only character trait he has” to which I say no, he’s portrayed as a very caring friend, a flirtatious man chaser, and a deep and thoughtful character. One of my favorite scenes in the books and movies is where Scott is talking about Romona for the first time; I won’t spoil it but it seemed like a very cute scene to me.

Now on to the negatives. While the stylizing choice of it is inventive and all out fun, it can be frustrating and it often times reminded me of Speed Racer, which is not a bad thing but is sometimes grating. If you are prone to seizures I’m not sure if this is a film for you. The ending seemed not to want to make up its mind really and seems a little rushed for the film but considering there are two endings to the film (one that is in the theatrical cut and one I’m sure will make it into the DVD), I guess it’s to be expected.

All in all, with those minor flaws I really recommend this film, on the caution that if you go to see this and don’t enjoy it, please don’t blame me. I really believe this to be the first cult classic of the ‘10’s. It’s not for everyone but it is an experience. I could honestly wax and wane on this film for longer but that is pretty much all I have to say about it. Uf you want to talk about it, I’m willing to. But I won’t let this drag on forever

Ciao

DarthThought

Heart Shaped Box Review

4 out of 5 Stars

- Minor usage of the word hang instead of hung

- Short chapters                                                                                                                                  

- Really talking about heavy metal, not death metal

Judas Coyne used to be the biggest thing in metal.  He had legions of fans and groupies That was before two of the band members died.  Now, he lives in his house and has collected one of the world’s largest collections of macabre and occult things ever seen.  He has a hangman’s noose that was used on a witch, a trepanned skull of another, and his most prized, an actual snuff tape. He has it pretty much easy. That is, until he finds a suit online that is supposedly haunted.  Once he buys the suit he learns that the ghosts of your past, they catch up with you.

In his debut novel, Joe Hill astonishes me.  He creates a backdrop of the ‘aged metal god’ so well that I have a hard time not thinking that it’s Ronnie James Dio, Ozzy Osbourne, Rob Zombie, or one of the many dark men that have populated the popular culture of metal for decades.  But I’m getting ahead of myself. You are probably wondering, just who is Joe Hill, and why should you care?

Well to put it simple Joe Hill is a pseudonym for Joe Hillstrom King. That’s right, the son, and heir to the throne, of Stephen King.  It seems that Mr. Hill wanted to get his own success before revealing who his parents were, and this was smart because while he is Mr. King’s son, this man knows what he’s doing and comparing him to his father is very uncouth.  Yes, of course, he has a lot of King’s writing style. But what he does, he does well.  It kept me turning the page and reading it ‘til the wee hours of the morning. So, my hat goes off to this man.  He has a strong start and I can’t wait to read his next one.

The story proper starts out introducing us to Jude, and his humble abode.  It seems he wants to live out the rest of his days in a rather quaint silence, with his two dogs Bon and Angus, his manager Danny (for the life of me I can’t remember the manager’s last name, and as far as I can recollect he only calls him Danny), and his girlfriend Marybeth whom he has nicknamed “Georgia” because that’s where she’s from. It seems he does this a lot with his girlfriends as he recollects the girl before her being “Florida”. Anyway the opening scene of the book revolves around Danny and Jude finding the suit of the dead man on an online auctioning site. It’s not ebay but for all intents and purposes it resembles it.  They automatically buy the suit and, trust me when I say, things get rather out of hand once the suit arrives. Really much of the story revolves around the suit and just who owns it.  I can’t help but think that Joe Hill did a lot of research into Heavy Metal’s past of groupies because this is a rather ingenious way to get back at a man.

Joe Hill does a masterful job of making us care for this group of misfits, even if it doesn’t seem like you would care for a guy who has a Snow White and the Seven Dwarves painting done by John Wayne Gacy. The one underlining thing I can say about Judas is the fact that you don’t really get to know that Judas isn’t his real name until later in the novel but you know his parents didn’t name him Judas that it was a persona that the man created.  Trust me when I say, the name comes into play in a lot of the main characters past. I can’t really go into it without giving away at least one of the most poignant scenes in the book to me.

Now that I’ve given you enough praise for the man there are some minor flaws, and to be honest I don’t know if it lies in the hands of Joe or his editor. The use of the word hanged instead of hung for instance. He might be right in using it and I might be wrong in thinking it would be hung instead of hanged but it still clanged in my head every time I ran across the word which was only every so often, so it’s minor really.  Another flaw that I found was his thing with death metal seemed to be more heavy metal. He doesn’t really go into the lyrics of the songs but it seems more like he’s talking about heavy metal than it’s darker brother, but that’s just me. Also when you get to the last act he seems to shorten the chapters down to half pages and I don’t get that but hey when you’re used to Tolkien lengths of chapters and when I’m really reaching far to say that the flaws are these three things? I honestly think that says a lot for an author when his only mistakes are one word, some chapter length issues  and maybe but not for sure the categorization of the music.

But putting those three things aside, the story is very moving, very haunting and actually pretty damn scary at times.  I can’t give enough praise to the man for adding something that will go down in my book as second only to his dad’s The Stand