Film Review: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens

"The light — It's always been there. It'll guide you." - Lupita Nyong'o
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It's easy to become burned out over Star Wars. 38 years ago, the original film whetted audiences appetites for escapist adventure and fantasy, with spectacles the likes of which had never seen before. The original magic and charm became buried beneath the vitriol and controversy surrounding the sequels, prequels, revisions, spin-offs, and more. With George Lucas selling his company to Disney in 2012, the floodgates suddenly opened for a wave of new talent - writers, directors, actors, and more - to pick up the legacy of this troubled series and take into the next generation.

The Force Awakens is certainly the experience Star Wars fans crave. It has spectacular action - it starts off hard and fast with stormtroopers razing a village and fighters clashing in the skies. The most spectacular sequences include a breakneck chase scene over deserts and through the heart of a crashed spaceship. The last act is an all-out battle that shows X-Wings battling TIE fighters while the characters duke it out with blasters and lightsabers. It's all fast and it's some of the biggest scenes in the series.

Fortunately, it's not all that exhausting either - the film finds a decent balance between the spectacle, humor, and rolling the story forward. Most reviewers have generalized this as a remake of A New Hope. Undeniably, the film banks quite a bit on nostalgia, and it does repeat the broad story beats of the original films. Despite the notable similarities, I never once felt that I was being beaten over the head by nostalgia. It's merely a knuckle in the overall fist that smashes the face of Star Wars apathy. Even with familiar faces returning, the film's focus is firmly set on new characters, and they are truly a lovable bunch. Finn and Rey are heroes who elicit great empathy in their struggles, and show a lot of personality and character through their various nuances (which is especially phenomenal given the short amount of time they actually have to develop in the midst of so much action). Kylo Ren may come off as a whiny emo kid, but he is far more volatile than any before him, and he's clearly a conflicted soul with depth to him that's begging to be explored. Once the motivations are clear for these characters, one can't help but to wonder what directions they will go next.

Unfortunately, that leads me to wonder what else is left unsaid in the film. Many questions won't be answered until the next episode. Others can only be speculated in the gap between this and Return of the Jedi (I personally wish more was said about the New Republic, the New Order, Snoke, and other odd things). Characters like General Hux and Captain Phasma are great to behold, but are the shallowest characters of the lot and receive very little screen time.

Despite the even flow and attention to characters, the plot itself is fast and loose (come to think of it, all of JJ Abrams' films are like that). There are a few gaps and plot holes that can either be shrugged off, or may become points of contention for fans.  Parts of it seem to be rushed.  The film's biggest issue is that, like a Marvel movie, it is built to bridge a franchise, rather than to craft an original story. It requires knowledge of what happened before, and it sets up what will happen next. The film does its job admirably to revitalize the series with new faces, an expanded universe, and the old-fashioned sense of adventure. With recycled scenes and archetypes, however, some audiences won't be so easily swayed.

Of all the Star Wars films, this may be one of the best-looking ones of the lot. Filmmakers took great care to craft a plethora of authentic new creatures, sets, props, weapons, vehicles, costumes, and more. The film is packed with real-looking places and things, lending it the same sense of realism that made the original so jarring. What computer-generated effects the film has are spectacular and take nothing away from the experience. An even more pleasant surprise is in the acting and the script. Dialogue is often sharp, witty, and provides enough depth to make the story feel more relevant (even if it is a retread). Daisy Ridley brings Rey to life beautifully, with a commanding presence and emotional range. John Boyega's performance is superb and fun to watch. Oscar Isaac is surprisingly playful as Poe Dameron. Adam Driver portrays rage and tragedy very well in his part. Despite his age, Harrison Ford inhabits the body of Han Solo like wearing an old jacket, and he's surprisingly endearing that way. Carrie Fischer still plays it tough as Leia. Lupita Nyong'o plays an alien, and it's interesting. With so many players going all at once, what matters the most is that all of them pull their weight so that every little face, gesture, and word contributes to their respective characterization, giving much more depth to them through the art of showing more than telling. John Williams' music score is notably different, but I believe it lends the movie its own unique style and feeling.

Some might call this an unoriginal sellout, lacking in the boldness that the other films presented. However, it is a well-crafted crowd-pleaser. It entertains not only through its action, but also captivates with its characters. What I like about it the most is that, like many of my other favorites (including the original Star Wars), its nuances show more than tell, to capture and let our own imaginations fill in the gaps. With my own imagination filling with the possibilities of what could happen next, my appetite is now whetted for the next episode, and any Star Wars fatigue I had is gone.

4.5/5

Book Review: Catch-22 (Joseph Heller)

Catch-22.  Noun.  A singular term signifying a paradoxical situation that one cannot escape from.  Pretty much the same as "damned if you do and damned if you don't." Catch-22 is also a very bizarre war novel by war veteran Joseph Heller, in which he therapeutically channeled all his experiences and turned it into poignant satire.

To be fair, Catch-22 is quite the funny book at times.  It is loaded with kooky characters, who often speak in funny circles and engage in some totally random shenanigans.  The humor, especially in the form of circular logic, becomes a common thread that weaves through the whole book.  Eventually, it builds up to a rather darker, bleaker portrayal of madness in the time of war.  It doesn't get more bittersweet than this.

Despite its strengths, I personally found the book to be a bit of a chore.  In between the sharp dialogue and humor, there are pages and pages of prose that drone on.  What bothers me the most is that the plot offers little forward momentum - entire chapters go on where little actually seems to happen and characters don't really say anything of relevance.  The matter is further exacerbated by the mixed-up narrative and the way it goes back and forth through time.  After the first few chapters, I felt the book became tiresome, and were it not for providing a more grounded viewpoint through the protagonist, I probably wouldn't have cared for anything that happened.

Joseph Heller's writing can be quite wordy and meaty, but it is pretty easy to digest.  Dialogue shows a lot of character.  Characters are quite uniquely described and detailed (who wouldn't love people like Major Major or Col. Scheisskopf?).  What stands out the best will be the quirky way words are manipulated circularly and paradoxically to coincide with the central concept behind the book's title - it can be rather ingenious.

This book is worth reading for its notoriety alone - it is considered one of the great modern classics, and there is value in the humor and the terror the book portrays.  I just wish it could have been trimmer, more to-the-point, have more to the plot.

3/5

 

Novel: Rider of the White Horse Now Available!

Rider of the White Horse was the first novel I've ever written.  It was published in 2002 by Authorhouse (formerly 1st Library), and is now being prepared in a new edition for CreateSpace.

It is now available and can be purchased on CreateSpace or Amazon.

Synopsis:
The Earth becomes a wasteland, following an onslaught of nuclear war and environmental disaster.  Most of the world is conquered by the mysterious Klokan Empire.  With advanced technology and an army of clone soldiers, they systematically exterminate all remaining human beings in a terrifying holocaust.

One clone soldier becomes gifted with an insight and spirit that sets him apart from the others, and he sees the Klokan Empire for the evil it is.  He defects and becomes Kurt Stone, a deadly agent for the last human nation on Earth.  He turns the tide of every battle, pushing the Klokan Empire back while confronting political schemes and civil unrest.

As Kurt's battles take him across the world and beyond, he follows in the prophecy of the Rider of the White Horse:  a warrior who will defeat evil and save the human race.

This account of post-apocalyptic war features big-scale battles, explosive action, suspenseful drama, endearing romance, and gripping emotions.  This grand tale is now presented in an all-new edition, with improved quality and new notes on the creation of this epic adventure.

Background:
In the 8th grade, I came up with my first truly original novel idea.  It came to me when the class went on a field trip to the Anne Frank exhibit in York.  I was (am) interested in WWII history, and I knew all about the holocaust.  In fact, I had the sobering experience of listening to holocaust survivors speaking at our school.  But it wasn’t until this field trip that I learned of the term “Aryan,” and realized that Nazi Germany was basically a huge-scale (and very scary) eugenics program. 

The biggest lesson about the holocaust was that it happened once, and history can always repeat itself.  Next time, it could be worse yet.  I had a scary notion I had that I was compelled to explore:  if Hitler had cloning technology, then he could have abused it to create his “perfect” race, and he could have truly taken over the world.  The genocide, and the purposeful reshaping of the human race, would have been terrible.  I suddenly had scary visions of a post-nuclear-war landscape, where clone armies were marching around and slaughtering every living thing.

My first few drafts for this story were pretty awkward; it’s hard to find the right starting point and the right voice sometimes.  In those first attempts, I approached my ideas in a straightforward fashion, using literal Nazis as the villains.  I took a lesson from existing science fiction, and made an attempt to veil Nazism with other names and concepts.  Thus, I made them into the Klokan Empire.  The term Klokan was originally a name I designated for a race of aliens, who would have had boney claws and spikes sticking out of their skin.  Since I abandoned those story ideas, however, I cannibalized the name “Klokan” for this story.

Something was still missing, however.  A certain theme, and plot structure, was lacking, and it got to the point where I didn’t know how to proceed with this story.  One Easter, I was reading the Book of Revelation, just out of interest, and that’s when I came across the passage regarding the Rider of the White Horse.  Many of the passages in Revelations interested me, for their metaphorical ideas and intense imagery.  When I read this specific chapter, I realized that it could align perfectly with my story, and I sought to marry them together.  I found ways to connect characters and ideas from the book in with Revelations, to the best of my ability.

From then on, the book pretty much wrote itself.  I barely even remember putting that much effort into it; you know something is good if you have fun doing it, and it all flies by without much struggle or second-guessing. 
It took about a year or two to draft this entire story, and it was all finished shortly after I graduated high school.

Publishing this story was another animal entirely, and I had absolutely no clue as to get any kind of professional writing career started.  When it came to querying or submitting works for commercial publishing, I was totally lost, I didn’t know where to start, and I never found the motivation to invest much research or effort into it.  After some brief research, however, I did come across some new Print-On-Demand companies, and felt they were easy and fairly risk-free.  I was sold on the concept of it, I went through the process, and I got this book published by 2002.

I made very few sales; probably 100 or so altogether.  Publishing was easy through these companies, but promoting these books was entirely up to the authors, and I was terrible at self-promotion.  I tried to host a book signing at the local library, but only had one person stop by.  In the end, it was just friends and family who invested in this book, and maybe a few random strangers.

What few readers I had before enjoyed the book, regardless of its issues.  Now that I’ve taken the time to fix up the wording and grammar, I expect that I’ll be happy and proud of this creation again, and can present it to willing readers with confidence.

Redux Edition:
Starting in 2012, I went through the whole text line-by-line to fix numerous issues with the text.  Most of the wording was re-arranged and re-written for better readability.  The text is no longer so plain and flat.  Redundancy is reduced, grammar mistakes are fixed, and the dialogue is sharper and flows better.  A few chapters were merged together, one scene was cut out, some scenes were made longer, and a few really cheesy parts were rewritten so they work better.  The whole thing is revamped so that it reads better and is more creditable.

In preparing for a new print edition of the book, some new notes were made outlining the book's creation and history (most of which is in this post anyway), and new cover art was made by artist Keyvan Ebrahimi.

Inspirations:
I was inspired by the various stories and films I was exploring at the time:  L. Ron Hubbard’s Battlefield Earth, James Bond movies, and the film Soldier, have all inspired this story.  The name Kurt Stone was inspired by the actor Kurt Russell.  To help visualize and design the various forts and bases that are attacked throughout the book, I designed them with a level editor for the video game Star Wars:  Dark Forces II:  Jedi Knight; doing so allowed me to map out exactly where these characters go and what they experience when traversing through the high-tech Klokan facilities.

There was some music that helped inspire me during the drafting and designing process.  In those days, the film scores for 1997's The Saint and GoldenEye were the biggest things I listened to; they were both quite moody and had a mystique to them, and Eric Serra's music in particular was very appropriately modern.  I discovered that certain CD-ROM video games had music tracks on them, so I listened to the Mechwarrior 2 music all the time; a lot of that has been inspiring for finding the right tone and atmosphere.  As time went on, I acquired more James Bond soundtracks - Tomorrow Never Dies and The World is Not Enough - and select songs, including Rob Dougan's "Clubbed to Death," which I first heard on a Nissan commercial and might be the song that I associate the most with this book.  Other fine songs that have inspired me include Rob Dougan's "Furious Angels," Dave Matthew Band's "When the World Ends," Moby's "Everloving," Sting's "A Thousand Years," Apollo 440's cover of "(Don't Fear) The Reaper," Billy Joel's "Leningrad," Live's "Forever May Not Be Long Enough," PPK's "21st Century," and most recently, Imagine Dragon's "Radioactive." A collection of this music can be heard on 8tracks.

In Conclusion:
The first time I do most anything is usually the worst.  It feels like I've spent more time and effort on this book than any other, because it came out so flawed on the first try, and I had to go back and fix some things.  Now that I've cleaned the work up, I feel more confident in presenting it to readers as a grand piece of post-apocalyptic adventure.  If you do order my book, I hope you'll enjoy it as is.

The Garrison: Excerpt Chapter 6: The Strovnik Army Arrives

Below is a small part of my novel, The Garrison, a fantasy epic about a small castle struggling to hold out against a huge invasion force.  If you like what you see here, buy the entire book on Amazon!
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    Seth, Ghorman, Fastblade, and Leon were at the gatehouse, observing [the Strovnik army's] activity.  Seth had a torch ready at the gatehouse. He hoped that the oil he laid on the grass earlier in the week had not evaporated completely.  As the sky grew darker with gray clouds, he also hoped that it would not rain.
    Seth noticed Harmony standing at the walls.  He wondered if she could she command the skies and hold back the rain.
    His thoughts were interrupted by General Grumman’s approach. Reaching the base of the gatehouse, he shouted, “Defenders of Myriam! I am General Grumman of Strovnik! King Dorrel has sent us to claim what is rightfully ours, and if you hand it over now and surrender everything to us now, you will all be spared!”
    “You shall never have the greater half of the Dark Stone!” Seth taunted. “Nor will you ever see any of us surrender to you! This castle is the final line of defense for Tennence, and it will stand against your entire army!”
    “This is folly! Do you not understand that if you hand over a simple little rock, you will keep your lives, and ensure that you are treated well in Dorrel’s new kingdom! Do you all have a death wish?”
    “There shall be no new kingdom! This is where we draw the line!” Seth shouted back.
    “Be aware that this is your final chance–”
    “No! This is your final chance!”
    “So be it, defenders of Myriam! This castle shall fall!”
    Retreating to the ranks of his men, he raised the Strovnik flag.  As he did so, the entire Strovnik army erupted, clamoring for blood.
    The catapults were set into place, each one loaded with a giant boulder.  Seth knew that it would take many boulders to take down the walls of Myriam, but they were still the biggest concern.  He withdrew his longbow and nocked an arrow on the string.  Fastblade, Ghorman, and Leon did the same, all four of them dipping their arrowheads in oil and setting them ablaze.
    Seth sent an arrow soaring into the air, and it landed on the army below.  It fell on the oiled grass as he had planned, but failed to ignite the grass.
    Seth was perplexed.  Ghorman, Fastblade, and Leon followed suit, with perfect landings on the oil-soaked grass.  The flaming arrows lay burning on the ground, but the grass still failed to ignite.
    “This plan of yours is not working,” Ghorman complained.
    Without a response, Seth nocked another arrow, lit it afire, and released it.  As it plummeted to the ground, it was intercepted by the arm of an enemy soldier, setting him ablaze.  The Strovnik footman tried to flee from the flames, only making the burning worse.  He was forced to the ground by another soldier, who helped him extinguish his burning flesh.
    By that time, the two enemy catapults had fired their first rounds.  Their huge slings hurled the boulders soaring in the air like rockets.  The first boulder hit the base of the castle’s wall, producing an earsplitting crack, but the wall still held together.  The second boulder soared over the wall, clipping it and sending rock chips crashing down its side.
    Seth reloaded his longbow, lit it afire, and attempted to ignite the grass again.  The arrow flew wildly into the enemy formations and hit one of the catapults, lodging itself in the wooden frame.
    Fastblade and Leon unleashed a torrent of arrows onto a group of enemy footmen as they were lugging a battering ram towards the castle’s gates.  Two of were killed, but more men took their places and picked up the ram.
    Seth fired another arrow towards the catapults, killing one of the workers who was loading a boulder into the machine’s giant sling.  Crashing to the ground, it pinned another worker beneath it, killing him instantly.
    The boulder started to roll.  A few nearby footmen stood fast against the giant rock to keep it from rolling.  The stone gained momentum and flattened them as it sped through enemy lines.
    Most of the footmen were able to dodge it, clearing a path for the rolling boulder.  Several of them were still crushed by it.  Those carrying the battering ram were directly in the rock’s path.  Abandoning the ram, they darted out of the way as the boulder snapped it in half like a twig.
    The impact made the boulder stop.  Several footmen tried to salvage either the rock or the ram, but with the ram broken and the boulder so far away from the catapult, they didn’t bother to move them.
    Seth fired a flaming arrow at the fallen battering ram.  The arrow soared towards the log, but instead it ricocheted off of the boulder and it landed at an enemy soldier’s foot.  The Strovnik soldier stamped on the arrow, trying to beat out its flames.
    Suddenly, an explosion of flames burst from the arrow.  The oil had finally ignited.  Fire spread across the grass, encircling the castle.  Dozens of Strovniks were caught in the blaze.  Chaos ensued, as entire squadrons of soldiers were burned alive.
    Several footmen were trapped between the flames and the castle.  Fastblade and Leon showered them with arrows.  The rest of the Strovnik army retreated away from the fire, to their encampment nearby.
    Seth, Leon, Ghorman, and Fastblade joined the rest of the garrison on the wall walk.  A cry of victory resounded through the air as they witnessed their enemy’s demise.
    Seth’s victory cry was brief, however.  The dark sky threatened rain.  How long could the fires last, if dampened by a summer rain?

New Fantasy Novel: The Garrison Now Available!

One of my earliest fantasy novels, The Garrison, is now available to buy on Amazon and CreateSpace!

Synopsis
This short, breezy fantasy epic is all about one small castle with a small group of defenders, all struggling to hold off against massive waves of infantry and siege warfare from an invading nation.  Within the small castle is a relic - half of the mysterious Dark Stone - which the evil King Dorrel covets above all else.  After waiting for years, he launches an all-out invasion on the nation of Tennence, slaying their king and subjugating the kingdom.  One paladin - Seth Chamberlain - collaborates with the wizard Rellore and the garrison of Myriam Castle to muster a defense.  For weeks, the small garrison uses all their might, wit, magic, and strategy to ward off waves of enemies.  In the midst of the combat, Seth falls in love with a witch named Harmony, which strains the tension among the garrison even further.

This novel is briskly-paced with lots of combat and action, scenes of war, drama, romance, magic, and more.

This novel contains quite a bit of graphic violence.  Cursing is mild and there's one sex scene that doesn't go into too much detail.  I would think that teenagers and young adults can handle it, but for all intents and purposes, it's meant for mature audiences.

Background
This novel was originally drafted in 2002.  At the time, I visited Helmsley Castle in England, where they had a medieval reenactment to demonstrate how medieval life, combat, and warfare would have occurred.  This included some fighting demonstrations with daggers, swords, clubs, and bows.  Among the things I learned, it was mentioned that castle garrisons were not all that big at all:  small groups of men could fend off against huge odds using the natural defenses, strategy, terrain, weather, and resourcefulness of a castle.  Sieges could linger on for months like this, and history is full of cases where small groups of men had to fend off against attackers.

In high school, I learned about the different tactics used during siege warfare.  The objective was to force a surrender through attrition; attackers would surround a castle to block it off from the rest of the world.  They could raze all the surrounding farmlands and villages, further separating the castle from resources.  Attacking armies used to use all manner of siege weapons to take down a castle wall or gate.  Catapults and trebuchets would not only hurl stones, but could also toss filth and cadavers into a castle to spread disease.  Siege towers were built as moving towers on wheels, allowing infantry to gain access to the castle's ramparts and interior.  Siege ladders could do the same.  Battering rams could knock down gates.  However, defenders had the ability to throw anything they had at their enemies:  rocks, hot oil, etc.  Castles were often designed to deflect catapult bombardments, usually by making the towers rounded.  Gatehouses served as a highly effective killzone by trapping enemies in between gates and providing vantage points for archers to shoot down on them.  In any given battle, the weather and terrain can affect how armies approach a castle, or how effective the defenders are.

For the battle of Myriam Castle in the book, a whole plethora of these techniques are utilized, in addition to equipping the attacking army with grappling-hooks, and granting liberal use of magic among the defenders.  It took a year or two to draft this novel.  In 2004, I attempted to get the book published through an agent; it went so far as getting edited by a company called My Saint Is An Editor.  I backed out of a contract with the literary agency, after doing more research and finding that the agency didn't necessarily guarantee results.  The book remained in my files for the longest time while I kept busy with my day job and worked on various other projects; only within the past few months did I manage to put the finishing touches on the book by doing more editing passes and getting the graphics finalized.

I drew up maps on MS Paint originally, and they were always rather plain and dorky.  Last month, I posted a contest on Freelancer.com for graphic artists to take my maps and make them better.  After a number of great entries, I picked Sandra Sreckovic's entries as the winner.  Her work is featured in the first few pages of the book, showing in stylish detail how the lands of Tennence and the Realm of the Allied Kingdoms are laid out.

I published the book through Amazon and Createspace.  It took a matter of days to format the book properly, for both print and kindle.  Even though I could probably hire an artist for really good cover art, I opted to make my own cover using a photo I took a few years ago from a MacBeth play in Ripley Castle.  It was a picture of a man sitting by a tree, with a sword sticking up from the ground; I used Corel software to make it black-and-white, to blur out much of the background, and turn the photo into a type of pencil art.  Amazon's cover art software had a theme that cropped and framed the picture with black on the top and bottom of the cover.  This is probably not the best cover in the world, but I felt it was eye-catching, and I did it for free using my own files.

Inspirations
This was the first fantasy novel I attempted, but I had plenty of influences to draw upon at the time.

I've always been a fan of films like Braveheart, which may have subtly influenced my imagination to begin with.  The Lord of the Rings:  The Two Towers was newly-released at the time, so watching the Battle of Helms Deep was quite the inspiration for writing a book based entirely on a siege.  The film The Craft gave me the idea to include four witches in The Garrison, with each one representing a different natural element.  I tried to replicate the events of the novel using the level editor for the video game Warcraft III, but I could never get the scripts to work all that well.  I got to admit that King Dorrel may have been inspired by Arthas in the Warcraft series.

While writing, a few pop songs (primarily Seal's "Kiss From a Rose" and Christina Aguilera's "Beautiful") and a lot of orchestral music provided some ample inspiration (especially the film scores for The Lord of the Rings and Requiem For a Dream).  For some odd reason, Enya's brief track "Epona" is one of the tracks I attribute the most to the project; I think it's a very lovely melody and sound that matches up well with the book's setting.  You can listen to select tracks that inspired me on 8tracks.com.

That's just about all there is to the novel.  It's not the biggest or best thing I ever wrote, but I think it came out well and it is something I'm proud of.  I hope you'll give it a chance and enjoy it.

Film Review: American Sniper

It's easy to romanticize about soldiers, but snipers have their own unique and alluring shroud of mystique. Any gamer can tell you how cool it is to play Call of Duty and be the hotshot camping out on some rooftop picking off bad guys all day long. In films, you can look at Enemy at the Gates or Barry Pepper's character in Saving Private Ryan and marvel at a sniper's deadly prowess. Far be it for me to comment on what experiences soldiers of any kind go through, I have no doubt that the reality of being a sniper is nowhere near as glamorous as the media makes it out to be; it's a burdensome duty in which one has to take lives indiscriminately in order to save lives. I can't even imagine the stress of having to evaluate who lives and who dies - to include women and children - in the heat of the moment.

The deadliest marksman in US history - Chris Kyle - is the focus of this film: the real-life Navy SEAL who served four tours of duty in the Iraq war. The movie tracks his career across all four tours, with occasional breaks where he reunites with his wife and has difficulty adjusting to civilian life. Thus, the film dishes out two different conflicts: the fight against al-Qaeda on one hand, and the struggle to adjust to life after war on the other hand. Both narrative strands offer their share of compelling scenes; the combat is quite intense and harrowing, while the family drama emphasizes stress and emotion aptly. Together, it's a consistently-engaging experience that will truly underscore the intensity of war, and the hardship of overcoming post-traumatic stress.

I have no idea how close the film adapts real-life events, but a few contrivances can be spotted easily. It is quite the black-and-white film that glosses over the complexities of the war. I almost pegged it as a pro-war movie, until the last act started to emphasize the futility of the war effort and illustrate the hardships of veterans. The film does outright refer to Iraqis as "savage;" it's probably meant to label the regime rather than the entire country or culture, but it can be taken the wrong way easily. There are strands of jingoism that will rub some viewers the wrong way.

All that being said, I was personally enamored by the characters; I found them easy to follow and relate to, and it made their journey in and out of war a compelling one. The film sets up an actual villain sniper that Chris has to take down; I don't know if this was invented for the movie or what, but I thoroughly enjoyed the sniper-vs-sniper plot. The film has its fair share of messages; on one hand, the film does emphasize the "this is why we fight" message, but on the other it digresses into the physical, emotional, and psychological damage on the characters and their families. These aren't subtle themes at all, but I felt the two together formed a point and counterpoint that keeps the film rather well-rounded.

This film uses good-looking photography and punchy editing. Bradley Cooper is excellent as the main character, and the other actors aren't too bad either. Writing is okay. All the sets, props, and costumes look authentic and creditable. Special effects are sparingly used, and mostly okay. Sound design is superb. Music is okay.

American Sniper is for snipers what The Hurt Locker is for guys who defuse bombs. I favor American Sniper more though, because it doesn't have nearly as many stupid parts as The Hurt Locker, and Chris Kyle is a far more compelling character. The character is ultimately what makes the film most watchable, and with quality acting, it is well worth seeing.

4/5 (Experience: Good | Story: Good | Film: Good)

Novel Excerpt: Dark Fairy Chronicles

My latest project has been a rather bizarre and experimental idea.  The novel I've started working on now has two plots:  one in the past (1999) and one in the present (sorta:  it's 2009).  Together, they constitute the Dark Fairy Chronicles:  the outlandish case of a fairy and her daughter from another world crossing over to modern America to escape persecution.  In the past, the young daughter faces the hardships and pressure of high school, and begins to dabble with the lore and magic of her home world to overcome the challenges, and to perhaps seek vengeance against those who hurt her.  Ten years later, the town has been consumed by the dark forces of magic, with the town in ruins and overrun by vicious monsters.  In all that time, the military has been struggling to quarantine the corruption.  To end it once and for all, they launch an operation to exterminate the Dark Fairy.

Much of this writing as been touch and go for me, but over the past several months it's been coming along smoothly.  I find myself most comfortable in the 2009 scenes, where everything is pretty wicked and it's been playing out like a modern-day war story with a fantasy aesthetic.  I have a pretty good idea as to how these scenes will roll.  The 1999 plot is being laid out in a kind of flashback fashion, and I've always been weary that I may not be able to piece this together right (because high-school drama is something I never really wrote of before).  It's been coming along little by little though.  In a way, it's a bit like Stephen King's Carrie (or, cheesy as it may seem, the film The Craft), but coupled with an overarching quest plot; I don't even know how to describe the present-day story, except to say maybe it's what you get if the Shadow of Mordor video game was crossed with Saving Private Ryan.  The Dark Fairy herself is heavily inspired by characters like Maleficent.

This is being written as an epistolary novel, patched together from faux journal entries and memoir excerpts from the different characters involved.  Later on, I hope to include news reports and official documents as well.  This style of writing is great for giving a book a more realistic texture, but I believe it's ideal for showing multiple viewpoints and insights on the characters, making things well-rounded.

Below is the first major segment of the book, told as an excerpt from the memoir of a sergeant in the National Guard (his name is currently Jake Gildenberry, but his name is subject to change, because it does seem a little silly to me).  It jumps right into one of the major battles between the Guard and the Dark Fairy's forces; as such, it is a pretty grim and gnarly battle scene.  I hope it captures the horror and inhumanity of the battle, while stimulating interest in the rest of the tale.

WARNING:  This story contains liberal amounts of blood and gore.  Cursing is censored.

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July 10th 2009

                The Dark Zone:  the place didn’t get its name for being all flowers and sunshine.  At one point, maybe it was.  All that changed ten years ago, out of some crazy circumstance that nobody in the world truly understood.  Somehow, the small, sleepy town of Clearmont had turned into a Hell-on-Earth.  And I was standing right at the brink of it, along with several hundred other Guardsmen, just waiting to slaughter whatever it was that was stirring deep in the corrupted landscape.

                I had always heard stories about the DZ, but none of it could have prepared me for this.  There was a definite line in the grass where the world as we knew it ended and the corruption began:  it was fresh and green where I stood, but just a few feet away, it was all black as ink.  There was a line of dead trees in front of us; from the gnarled branches, scores of bones and skulls hung from twisted ropes.  Most of them weren’t human, but the ones that were undoubtedly came from our own countrymen, who fought and died to contain the corruption ever since it started.  God knows how many men died fighting in the DZ.

                The sky above the black land was always dark; gray clouds always swirled over the area ominously, and sunlight hasn’t even touched the land in years.  Several UAVs circled around the edges of the perimeter, scanning the dense mass of twisted trees and thorny underbrush.  They fed intel back to the forward operations center; command made their final decision based on the drones’ readings.  Moments later, the first stage of the attack commenced.

                From the distance, five A-10 Thunderbolts appeared and zoomed over our heads, their twin engines leaving behind a deafening roar.  Soaring over the DZ, the planes launched a myriad of air-to-surface missiles.  Upon hitting the tainted land, the missiles exploded in giant plumes of fire that ripped through the trees and set the grass on fire.

                Through the roaring of the flames, we could hear shrieking:  hundreds of vicious, inhumane shouts.  We all became tense and alert, gripping our rifles and waiting for the enemy to be flushed out.  This was my first engagement with the enemies of the DZ; I had always heard stories about them, and I read the reports, but even when knowing what to expect, I couldn’t stop the anxiety.  I watched intensely as the foliage ahead of us moved, and the enemy surged out of the woods with renewed rage.

                Suddenly, there was one monstrous roar that drowned out all the other noise of the battlefield.  From the middle of the forest, we all watched in awe as a huge monster rose up over the burning trees and took flight.  It was a black dragon, well over a hundred feet long.  Its scaled, spiny body glistened like oil in the daylight; its huge leathery wings flapped with enough force to produce a strong blast of air on the ground.

                The A-10s circled around the DZ and started another run.  Three of them continued to bombard the ground, but two trained their cannons on the dragon.  A constant stream of bullets ripped into the beast.  Some of them tore holes in the beast’s wings, and some cut through its thick hide, but most bounced uselessly off of the thing’s body.  Thousands of rounds were pumped into it within a matter of seconds, but the dragon showed no sign of being affected at all.

                Then, the beast lunged at one of the planes.  With a quick flap of its wings, it zoomed into the aircraft with a swift burst of speed; its talons clamped onto the fuselage, and it snapped at the cockpit with its jaws.  The plane’s canopy was crushed; pieces of glass and metal flew from the crunched hull, and the pilots inside were smashed to a bloody pulp.  The dragon swung its body before releasing the plane’s wreckage; the wreckage flew toward one of the other planes, but it banked and narrowly avoided a collision.  Falling into the woods, the destroyed A-10 slammed into a cluster of trees, becoming nothing more than a twisted heap of smoldering metal.

                Ahead, the foliage continued to move, as the enemy’s ground units drew closer.  I could tell that we were all disturbed after seeing the dragon; it was just a small taste of the madness that we were about to see coming out of the corrupted land.  No level of training and experience could prepare us for the unnatural things we were being asked to fight.   The fear in all of us was so palpable, it hung in the air around us like a dark veil.

                Next to me, a fellow guardsman couldn’t take it.  In a panic, he turned and fled.  Our unit commander shouted at him to fall back into formation, but he continued to run.  Some of the other men exchanged looks, clearly wondering if they should also take a chance and desert, rather than to face the terror of the Dark Zone.  The bravest ones merely shook their heads in pity and kept their guns pointed forward.

                Finally, the enemy broke through the line of trees and foliage in front of us.  The first one we saw was set on fire from the planes’ bombing run; the creature was nothing more than a short, black humanoid shape with charred skin, and an unnatural shriek coming from its lips.  Several of us opened fire immediately, putting the thing out of its misery.

                As the burning creature collapsed, with black blood gushing from its wounds, dozens of them rushed out at us.  They were orcs:  a vicious and ugly rabble of gray, green, and black-skinned monsters.  They were the size of normal men, but nearly twice as bulky in muscle.  Their bodies and faces were strangely gnarled and twisted, to the point where no two were alike.  They are all clad in various forms of crude, makeshift armor; some were made of wood, others pieced together from metal scraps.  They all had crude weapons in their meaty hands; jagged swords, warhammers, and huge clubs.

                In one huge wave, the orcs rushed at us screaming their inhuman war cries.  We fired on them, sending a volley of bullets that cut through their entire front line.  The sounds of endless gunfire filled my ears, and orc bodies collapsed in front of us on a pile.  More of them continued to come out of the forest, jumping over their fallen comrades and rushing toward us in a blind rage.

                From overhead, the four remaining A-10s made another pass.  Their cannons pelted the battleground, with thousands of bullets streaming into the creatures and ripping their bodies to pieces.  Even the most heavily-armored orc became riddled with holes; they all collapsed in front of us in a bloody heap.  The planes continued to circle around, and the black dragon followed.

                There was a short-lived boost in morale as we watched the monsters fall before us.  More of them came out of the woods, and we opened fire again.  More of them were shot down, but some slid and took cover behind the bodies of the others.  From there, they brandished crossbows and fired arrows at us.  One of the men next to me was hit in the face, an arrow sticking out of his eyeball.  His body slumped to the ground; watching him, I realized right away that there was nothing I could do for him.

                More of us were hit with the arrows.  Our barricades and body armor were able to repel a lot of them, but some men fell with arrows in their arms, legs, and heads.  Despite the losses, we maintained the suppression, firing thousands more bullets into the woods and slaying more of the orcs.

                One group of orcs rushed out, holding up a large metal shield.  Our bullets ricocheted off of the metal wall uselessly; the creatures crept closer to us with while holding up the barrier.  As they encroached, one guardsman tossed a grenade, which landed at their feet.  The explosion ripped through the orcs; frags shredded their flesh, splattering their blood all over the place.  The shield fell to the ground uselessly.

                Our commander shouted words of encouragement, and we continued to hold the line.  The orcs seemed to continuously spawn out of the woods, throwing themselves at us in a blind, animalistic rage.  I started to wonder if there was more to their strategy; even primitive brutes like these must know that we had the upper-hand in sheer firepower.  Even the dumbest of enemies would know by now to spare their men in a senseless frontal assault and seek an alternative, but the orcs just kept coming.  They had to have been up to something, using this attack and throwing away their most disposable soldiers as some kind of distraction.

                I wondered if command would be considering the same thing.  Just as soon as I contemplated these things, our unit was ordered ahead.  There was a break in the enemy waves, and we needed to push forward into the woods and start our incursion into the DZ.  All at once, we ran from the cover of our barricades and charged forward.  More orcs appeared in front of us, but were quickly cut down in a barrage of bullets.

                Pushing through the first line of trees, we found ourselves treading across a gnarled landscape of thorny bushes and dense underbrush.  Ahead, we could see the remains of the orc burrows, collapsed and set on fire from the bombings.  Dozens of burnt bodies were strewn around the surrounding woods.

                Our objective was on the other side of the burning settlement:  a glade that we could use to set up a base camp.  We traversed around the burrows, trudging through a thicket of gray prickly bushes.  Just as we stepped through the tough foliage, an orc jumped out from behind a tree and swung a warhammer.  The massive weapon smashed into the man in front of me; I could hear the brutal crunching of bones.  The soldier collapsed, coughing up blood, and the orc raised his weapon up to deliver a fatal blow.  I didn’t even stop to think; I squeezed the trigger and shot the enemy in the head.  A hole exploded in the creature’s cheek, gushing black ooze.  He staggered and fell, making grotesque gurgling sounds.

                Somebody crouched down by our fallen comrade, and started to deliver first aid.  Then, we heard noises ahead of us:  moving foliage and the grunting of orcs.  Knowing that this was not the time or place to help our man, two of us picked up the wounded soldier and hauled him back out of the woods.

                The rest of us pushed forward.  After just a few steps, arrows started whizzing through the trees.  Some of them hit the men behind us, who were carrying out our wounded comrade.  If that man had a fighting chance to live, that chance was obliterated, as an arrow struck him in the gut.  Men were falling all around me, with arrows sticking out of their bodies.  I took cover behind a tree; I heard a hard thunk as an arrow wedged itself in the bark.

                Several others took cover, behind trees, hills, and rocks.  I peered cautiously from the side of the tree, to see if I could spot the enemy.  An arrow grazed the tree close to my face, and I had to withdraw.  Others took a chance to fire their guns from behind cover; our bullets cut through the foliage and hit a few of the enemy.

                While the guardsmen continued to fire, I realized that they were drawing the orcs’ attention away from me.  I took a chance to run from cover, moving deeper into the woods.  I dived into a cluster of bushes, just as an enemy spotted me and let loose an arrow.  It flew over my head, as I took cover in a shallow ditch.  I remained prone and flush against the soil, well out of sight from the enemy.

                We heard the A-10s overhead again.  One of them made a pass over the forest, and launched ground missiles into the enemy lines.  The forest ahead of me became engulfed in flames; a dozen orcs were incinerated, and they shrieked in pain.

                As the planes passed by, the dragon continued to chase them.  The beast closed in on one of them and snapped its jaws at the plane’s rear wings.  Its teeth crunched the metal, and the dragon yanked away a huge chunk of the fuselage.  Out of control, the A-10 spiraled and plummeted to the ground some miles away.

                As the fire and smoke cleared, the land ahead of us was scorched, and parts of the woods were still ablaze.  All of the guardsmen regrouped and pressed forward, cautiously treading over the charred land and passing by the burning woods.  I tailed behind the main group; we moved for another fifty yards, before reaching the clearing.

                The glade was circular and flat.  There were some wrecked cars along the edge of the woods, but were completely covered in vines and overgrowth.  As we stepped on the grass, our unit commander started giving orders to secure the perimeter.

                Suddenly, an arrow flew into his back.  Its shaft pierced through his body, and the arrowhead poked out of his chest.  He didn’t even stand a chance, as the arrow punctured his heart; he collapsed, with blood spilling on the grass.

                We all ran retreated to the woods, but it was too late; in the clearing, there was no cover, and no time to find cover.  Arrows criss-crossed each other in the air and landed all over the glade, turning it into a confined killzone.  Dozens of us were caught in the cross-fire, with arrows cutting through our bodies.  We all fired back into the woods, but it was impossible to see where the enemy archers were.  They had us surrounded and outnumbered; we had stepped heedlessly into a trap.

                None of the arrows hit me, and I considered myself lucky.  The enemy stopped their attack briefly, before they came out of the woods all around us.  There were maybe twenty of us left in the glade, and the orcs formed a circle around us.  They closed in, wielding bows, blades, and clubs menacingly.  We held up our guns, but hesitated.  It was a brief and uncertain break in the fighting, and nobody wanted to make the first move that could get us all killed.  After all, they had us outnumbered now, and it looked like they wanted us alive.

                One of the orcs stepped closer to us, cocking his ugly brown head at us and sizing us up with his blood-red eyes.  He barked at us, “Stupid humans! You dare trespass on tainted soil.  Don’t you know that corrupted lands belong to us? You will all pay for your insolence!”

                In the heat of the moment, one of the guardsmen shouted back, “F#&k that! This is American soil!” He held up his gun and was about to shoot the orc in the face.

                In one swift move, the orc closed in on the soldier thrashed his arms out, pushing the soldier’s rifle to the side.  He then slashed down with his sword, cutting the guardsman’s hands off.  As the man’s hands and rifle fell to the ground, he screamed in agony, regarding his bleeding stumps in disbelief.

                “Anybody else want to be a hero?” the orc seethed. “I eat heroes for breakfast!”

                With the orc formation closing in on us, there was little more choice.  Fighting back would only get us killed; one by one, we all surrendered, dropping our weapons.  Regarding the ugly faces that closed in, I asked, “What are you going to do to us?”

                “That depends on what the Dark Fairy says,” the orc spat.  Turning to the others, he shouted a phrase in the strange, foreign orc language.

                In the next instant, the orcs were upon us, pushing into us harshly and clubbing us with their weapons.  A mace came down on the back of my neck; I felt a sudden stab of pain, before everything went dark.

Yep, I drew this from the above scene.

UPDATE:
I recently received some feedback from a friend, who was formerly in the National Guard.  He informed me that it is highly unlikely that an A-10 can be taken down by a dragon; the planes' guns would likely rip the beast to shreds.  However, the A-10s are not the fastest and most maneuverable, so it is still possible for a dragon to latch onto one, possibly from behind and over the dorsal side so it's out of range of its guns.  The issue also came up concerning radar, but there are ways for a dragon to evade detection.  It will either be the case that the dragon is cold-blooded and doesn't emit enough heat to be picked up.  More than likely though, I will need to explain that the entire DZ dampens and disrupts radar and other scanners due to the presence of magic (although that will mean that the UAVs at the beginning will also be affected).  Also, the A-10s should deploy countermeasures (probably flares) to ward off the dragon; I imagine that a flare could cause some harm to the creature.

I will plan on revising this scene with the above considerations in the rewriting phase, to improve creditability.

Film Review: Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

After the apes rose up in rebellion and fled San Fransisco, a plague descended on mankind, setting the stage for the inevitable clash of two cultures.  With human civilization in decline and ape culture on the rise, it is a fragile and fearful time for all.  It would only take a few bad misunderstandings to set off an all-out war between men and apes.

That's pretty much what we get in this follow-up to Rise of the Planet of the Apes.  It starts off a bit slow, but builds momentum and tension as the two sides of the conflict rub together.  By the last act, it becomes a shooting war.  It's not quite as tight as the first film, especially since your enjoyment could hinge on whether or not you care for the human and ape characters.  However, the film doesn't linger too long on the drama, even though the film is attentive to all sides of the conflict.

What matters the most is the story.  Not only is is a sequel to Rise of POTA, but it also borrows the plot and ideas of Battle for POTA (which, ultimately, remains the weakest of the franchise thanks to its cheap and dated look, and poor execution of the story).  Dawn improves on Battle substantially, if for no other reason than it gives the characters a fresh new life and emotional anchor that audiences can latch onto (specifically, regarding Caesar and his ape tribe; the human characters have their moments, but never really take the spotlight enough to make us care).  The story proceeds to underscore the key themes behind the apes' civilization - the moral battle between taking action or enforcing pacifism - and it's a struggle that endures for the entire picture and drives the characters.  It all builds up to a moving tale of treachery; the ultimate turn of events mirror the takeovers and oppression of typical human dictators, and the film provides a stark reflection on how the rage of a few unchecked individuals could ruin peace for everyone.

This film is crafted with decent photography.  Acting is not bad; the ape characters easily steal the show, with Andy Serkis and Toby Kebbell bringing their characters to life marvelously.  Gary Oldman is as great as ever, although his role is pretty small.  Jason Clarke is okay.  Writing is good.  This production uses quality sets, props, costumes, and special effects.  Music seems quaint, but it works.

This sequel continues the chronicle of the new POTA saga sublimely, and for anybody who enjoyed Rise, Dawn should satisfy.

4.5/5 (Entertainment:  Good | Story:  Very Good | Film:  Very Good)

Film Review: Edge of Tomorrow

What if, in an almost video-game-like fashion, a soldier could respawn after death over and over again and relive the same day? Surely, he would learn and alter the events over and over, and continuously hone his skills until victory is achieved.  Based on the Japanese novel All You Need is Kill, this film brings this unique premise to life on the big screen.

The film wastes little time in the set-up, before the big battles commence that pit armored men against crazy tentacled aliens.  It is a pretty hectic and hard-hitting struggle as is.  You'd think these scenes would get repetitive if the main character keeps having to relive this, but the film keeps the backtracking short, so that it always explores new directions in the narrative.  As a result, the action remains frequent, but is always varied.  All the different tangents lead to a suspenseful and satisfying finale.

Given the film's premise, it is an inherently interesting idea.  It probably could have come off as generic, cliched, or repetitive in lesser hands.  Fortunately, the story is well-built and well-told in this film, not only because it keeps things brisk and varied, but also because it has endearing characters and a strong attention to detail.  There are a few instances where I questioned the plausibility of certain things, but it doesn't stop the plot from holding up.

The film features good and straightforward photography.  Editing is pretty good, especially in the way it can string together multiple recurrences of a scene (to show progress, or sometimes for humor when the character dies a stupid death).  Acting is not bad; Tom Cruise isn't always endearing to watch, but he does have moments that help us sympathize with his situation.  Emily Blunt delivers a solid performance.  Everybody else is alright.  Writing is not bad.  This production has pretty good and gritty-looking sets, props, costumes, and special effects.  Locales are surprisingly interesting.  Music is alright (the end credits song seems out of place though).

This is kinda like what you get if you cross The Source Code with the Resistance:  Fall of Man video game.  It's a pretty solid piece of military sci-fi that's certainly better than average, offering its fair share of intriguing storytelling and rip-roaring action.

Recommended!

4/5 (Entertainment:  Good | Story:  Good | Film:  Good)

Film Review: Godzilla (2014)

60 years ago, a monster rose up from the depths.  Godzilla, a gargantuan beast borne from nuclear fire, invaded the monster movie scene in 1954 and gave us a terrifying vision of Tokyo's destruction.  Godzilla's reign persisted through nearly thirty movies, seeing the titular monster as both villain and hero, pitting him against a whole universe of monsters, aliens, armies, and machines.  Then, after running through a whole gauntlet of battles in Godzilla:  Final Wars, the beast was given a good ten-year rest.

In 2014, Godzilla rose up again with a fresh new look and fresh talent.  Even though the beast has been rebooted repeatedly before, he has never before hit the western shores as hard.  In this American production, great care and detail has been given to provide a hard-hitting thrill ride that will remain true to Toho's original vision.

In a somewhat Spielbergian fashion, Gareth Edwards' vision of Godzilla purposefully builds tension before giving us the actual monster combat.  Much like Jurassic Park, the film steadily builds up the suspense with tremors, sound, and focus on subtle details.  Much like Jaws, the actual monsters receive limited screen-time to maximize their impact when you do see them.  And much like 2005's War of the Worlds, much of the action is subdued to the background, with a firmer focus on the characters' drama.  Above all, Godzilla represents an evolution of Edwards' debut film Monsters, which accomplished all these same techniques on a more limited scale.

What this amounts to is a film that builds and builds, taking its time on character-building and plotting before giving us what we really want:  all-out monster bashing and city stomping.  When you finally get to it, the mass destruction is modestly satisfying.  Special effects are top-notch throughout, giving us an intense and epic vision of creatures smashing into each other and smashing into buildings.  However, the action is not overblown or overdone, and it never overwhelms the plot.

The actual story involved is pretty much on-par with the older Godzilla films; most of these give us a handful of military and scientist characters who figure out what's going on, then behold some massive monster battle.  This film stays true to this formula, but the focus is constant on the characters and their struggles, whether it be the struggle to deal with the monsters, or the struggle to save loved ones.  The film definitely tries to pull at the heartstrings by showcasing a father trying to reunite with his family, while also trying to save his father and fulfill his mission.  While this can be a bit contrived and sappy, the film does have a little more depth and power to it than the older kaiju flicks.  All that being said, the characters are still not huge stand-outs; their emotional struggles are pretty much the only thing we can latch on to, but they remain pretty shallow and flat.  Plotting suffers a little as well, given that some parts don't always make sense, and characters don't always make the best decisions.  Much like the older films, the story overall conveys a strong theme about the folly of messing with mother nature and abusing nuclear power.

The film is competently made, with quality photography and editing.  It is especially noteworthy in the way it masterfully reveals just what it wants to when it wants to, to draw out the suspense and make each monster's presence more powerful.  Acting is okay from the whole cast; Aaron Taylor-Johnson is a pretty average everyman hero character, Elizabeth Olson is a pretty average as the guy's wife, Ken Watanabe is an average scientist dude, and Bryan Cranston steals the show in an all-too-small part.  Writing is so-so.  This production has some great-looking sets, props, costumes, locales, and special effects.  Sound design is phenomenal, with monster roars that's guaranteed to make the entire theater shudder.  Music is pretty interesting.

Finally, this has got to be the most intense and hard-hitting Godzilla movie since the original.  Storytelling and characters aren't a big standout here, but never were in the older movies anyway; this version still offers a phenomenal build-up and a satisfying payoff, and anybody wanting a good monster-movie fix should be pleased.  It'll be thrilling to see what directions modern film-making like this will take Godzilla next.

4/5 (Experience:  Good | Story:  Average | Film:  Good)

Book Review: The Children of Húrin (JRR Tolkein)

"Then Mablung said bitterly: 'I also have been meshed in the doom of the Children of Húrin, and thus with words have slain one that I loved.'" - JRR Tolkein

Here it is, decades after the passing of JRR Tolkein, and eons after his epic sagas of The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings left their mark on fantasy literature.  Fans wanting more could always fall back to The Silmarillion.  Now, after all this time, Tolkein's son collected, edited, and released this collection of tales to provide even more Middle-Earth action.

Does that mean this book is inherently awesome? Perhaps for diehard Tolkein fans, but I found the book to be a total chore to go through.  Even though it's a pretty trim tome with only 257 pages, it is completely saturated in names, places, and folklore that mostly goes way over my head.  I personally found it tiresome to flip through so many proper pronouns and trying to keep track of who was what and where they were and what they were doing.

Part of the problem is the prose, which I felt tried so hard to be extravagant and grandiose that it felt like Tolkein was trying to rewrite the Prose Edda or something.  As such, it came off as being extremely stiff and dry.  It made it hard for me to personally connect to the characters or the plot, and combined with the onslaught of namedropping, I found myself trudging through the book, going through the motions of reading without truly becoming engrossed in it.

I understand that the book is compiled from various other bits and pieces, which have their connections to The Silmarillion, and parts of this may have been published before in other volumes.  The story is a huge, sprawling, somewhat random saga that includes all manner of war, drama, orc and dragon-slaying, and adventuring.  There are familiar elements, but a lot of it is fresh and new, covering areas and events that are otherwise far from the classic Lord of the Rings era.  In the end though, Children of Húrin is less of an actual story and more of a compendium of background legends and history in the overall lore of the Middle-Earth.

In the end, if you're a huge Tolkein fan and can absolutely dig deep into all the names and history of the Middle-Earth without much reservation on the author's prose, then the book will likely be a total winner for you.  For casual reading, I felt the book was dry, convoluted, and way too dense.

2.5/5 (Entertainment:  Poor | Story:  Marginal | Book:  Average)

Film Review: Lord of the Rings: Return of the King

After the last two Lord of the Rings films, the journey of so many heroes has come so far, and it all leads up to this.  Darkness falls upon all of Middle-Earth.  Huge armies of orcs march upon the kingdoms of men.  The One Ring comes closer to its evil master.  Could this be the end of the world, or the start of a new beginning?

This final chapter in the film series starts off with an incredibly moving sequence:  the heartbreaking tale of Gollum's origins.  From the on, it picks right back up where the last films left off, chronicling the journey of Frodo, Sam, and Gollum as they tread in dark and dangerous territory, combating orcs, one giant spider, and ultimately themselves as they approach the threshold of Mount Doom.  At the same time, the film presents some of the biggest and most epic scenes ever committed to film:  the Battle of Minas Tirith.  It is a huge spectacle that fills up the entire screen with thousands and thousands of orcs, men, war machines, lumbering beasts, Nazgûl, cavalry, massive elephants, and even ghosts.  It is a long struggle that fills up most of the movie's runtime, but it's always awe-inspiring.  As if that's not enough, the film then brings the battle to the gates of Mordor, for one grand climax.  Even in the calm before each battle, the film remains as captivating as its predecessors, thanks to its style and storytelling prowess.  If there's anything to truly complain about, it would be the lengthy denouement.  Overall, however, the experience of The Return of the King has never failed to invoke feelings of awe.

At this point, the characters of the film are well-established and intimately familiar, but the film does take its time to explore more of the familiar faces and elaborate on fresh new characters.  They all come together to contribute to the multiple conflicts, tying every strand of the plot to one epic climax; it's a sublime union that makes everything in the three movies relevant, and provides satisfying closure all around.  Many liberties are taken from the original novels, but for the big screen, it works to generate the best possible spectacle and make the plot work evenly.  Themes of war, corruption, addiction, good and evil, and adventure all prevail.

As before, this film is crafted with excellent photography and editing.  All the major players return and contribute fantastic performances in their respective roles (especially Viggo Mortensen, who stands out more in this film than before, but it is always a pleasure to watch Ian McKellen as Gandalf, along with the rest of the fellowship and all their allies).  Writing is superb.  This production boasts some excellent sets, props, and costumes.  Special effects are huge; at its time, it was most groundbreaking for generating the biggest armies ever seen on screen all at once.  Despite aging a bit, the effects are still impressive.  Howard Shore's music score is as masterful as ever.

Return of the King delivers the best possible payoff for the Lord of the Rings trilogy (and it might even outshine the Hobbit saga in the end).  Not only does it boast some of the biggest battles, but it is also a film with power and beauty.  It has cemented itself as one of my all-time favorites (was my number-one favorite for quite a few years), and the Lord of the Rings saga overall remains one of the most sublime marriages between spectacle, storytelling, and style.

If you watch the Extended Edition of this film, you will be treated to about an hour of bonus scenes, which offers a lot of excellent substance.  Among the additions, there are longer battle scenes, a scene showing the fate of Saruman and Wormtongue, an extended encounter with the Army of the Dead, a parley with the Mouth of Sauron, and more.  I think most of these scenes are really awesome, and this version of the film is definitely worth seeing.

5/5 (Experience:  Perfect | Story:  Perfect | Film:  Perfect)