Film Review: Jurassic Park III

"On this island there is no such thing as safe." - Sam Neill
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For a third time, dinosaurs terrorize people. This time, the people stumble across Site B (from the second movie), finding it a derelict place overrun by prehistoric wildlife, including bigger, badder, and smarter creatures.

There are a few good thrills to be had with Jurassic Park III. At this point, the special effects have been refined to look sharper and smoother, and there are still some huge animatronics being employed. Thus, you get a lot of good-looking dinosaurs running loose chasing people all over the island. This includes the epic Spinosaurous, which makes its introduction by fighting and defeating a T-Rex in mortal combat. There are also raptors everywhere, which use more cunning than before to hunt down their prey. On top of that, there's also some Pteranodons in a giant "bird cage" (from a scene that was in the original novel but never used before). The dinosaur action is modestly satisfying and pretty fun.

Unfortunately, the story leaves much to be desired. It is great to see Dr. Grant returning as the protagonist (and Dr. Sattler in a smaller role), but he winds up being surrounded by a bunch of the dumbest dorks imaginable. The whole plot revolves around an estranged and dippy couple that lost their son; they go so far as tricking and manipulating Grant and his protégé to the island. Once they all finally get there, it's just one dumb move after another, followed by lost of running and screaming. The film becomes a bit more endearing with the chase scenes, and the characters' human sides become apparent, but there are still some dumb things that happen that ruin all creditability (including watching a smartphone travel through a dinosaur's digestive system and somehow work underwater to relay an unintelligible message that somehow prompts the military to show up in the end...yeah right). Of all the faults with this film, however, the one thing that's always bothered me the most is that there's nothing new involved; it's just another island adventure with little connection to previous events, and nowhere else to go. The movie doesn't advance the arc of the series at all (though I haven't seen Jurassic World just yet, I have a feeling you can skip this one no problem), so it comes off as a mere throwaway adventure.

This film has good-looking photography, including some decent POV shots. Editing is solid. Sam Neill is as fun to watch as ever. Laura Dern is barely in the movie; what little screentime she has is fine and dandy. William H. Macey and Téa Leoni are excellent at playing the dippiest characters imaginable; Trevor Morgan does a fine job in his role; all the mercenary characters are fun to watch, and everybody else is just peachy. Writing is pretty weak, and there's hardly any dialogue that stands out. This production uses decent-looking sets, props, costumes, locales, and special effects. Music rehashes all the old themes.

This film has its share of cool action, and it often tries to recapture the same sense of wonder and whimsey that made the first film endearing. However, the plot doesn't hold much water, the characters are frustrating, and the whole movie doesn't leave as much of a lasting impact as the last two.

3/5 (Experience: Average | Story: Marginal | Film: Pretty Good)

Film Review: The Lost World: Jurassic Park

"What you study, you change." - Jeff Goldblum
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In the events of Jurassic Park, an entrepreneur's dream of a living biological attraction ended with bloodshed and terror. Despite the threat of dinosaurs rampaging out of control, businessmen would still vie to reap the benefits of genetically-engineered beasts from "Site B."

This follow-up to the hit 1993 film aims to provide more of the same - wit, color, and action - but on a bigger scale. There are more dinosaurs to behold. People deploy more cool vehicles and weapons to hunt and capture them. More people get eaten, more are chased across the jungle, and it all leads up to a crazy finale where a T-Rex runs amok in San Diego. There are a lot of fun setpieces to behold.

There are a few things that mar the experience a little. Characters aren't quite as likable as in the first film; everyone's favorite chaotician returns and delivers plenty of sarcasm, but the family dynamic that's built around him doesn't congeal quite as well as it did with Dr. Grant and the kids in the first film. A lot of the characters in this film seem to make even dumber mistakes than in the first film, and many are unlikable. Some scenes are rather daft. Despite these issues, the plot takes off in interesting directions, showing how far a corporation will go to exploit nature. These events bring the threat of the dinosaur breakout to the civilized world in the end; the T-Rex's downtown carnage tends to be rather silly, but it does expand on the original theme that life cannot be controlled or tamed.

This film sports pretty good-looking photography and editing. It is a much more drab and darker film, with a lot of nighttime photography. Acting is okay for what it is: Jeff Goldblum returns with his signature wit, but his character isn't always likable as he's always yelling at others trying to get them to listen to reason. Julianne Moore is playful in her role, but her character makes a few dumb decisions. Peter Postlethwaite is cool, Arliss Howard plays a dork we love to hate, Peter Stormare is the same, and everybody else I could take or leave. Writing is okay; there are amusing lines, but the dialogue is not as effortlessly colorful and fun as the first film. This production uses top-notch sets, props, costumes, and special effects. John Williams' music score takes the original theme and transforms it into a wonderfully adventurous tune; I almost like it better than the first movie's theme.

The Lost World has plenty of thrills and fun, some of which is bigger and bolder than in Jurassic Park. It's only hampered a bit by a few characters making a few dumb decisions, and a few silly scenes here and there. I always felt it was a fun follow-up, and if you enjoyed the first film, this should be worth seeing once.

3.5/5 (Experience: Pretty Good | Story: Okay | Film: Good)

Film Review: Jurassic Park

"Life, uh... finds a way." - Jeff Goldblum
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Genetics can unlock the secrets of creating and growing biological life; we've already used these secrets to clone a sheep, to alter our crops, and it may allow us to repopulate endangered species. In his novel, Michael Crichton explored the unique and harrowing possibility that genetics could bring the dinosaurs back. When entrepreneurs try to turn the miracle of dinosaur cloning into a theme park attraction, chaos theory kicks in, proving that nature can't be tamed that easily.

Stephen Spielberg's adaptation of Crichton's novel takes the original premise, complete with its cautionary warnings, and delivers it as a fast-moving adventure film full of color, wit, and thrills. There are moments where the film emphasizes the whimsy and wonder of creation, but when the deadliest of predators are unleashed, there are a fair amount of harrowing, suspenseful chases that follow. One of the most chilling scenes shows the dreaded Tyrannosaurus Rex breaking loose from its paddock and laying waste to a pair of jeeps, threatening to crush and eat everybody trapped inside. Velociraptors rush through the jungles and buildings, threatening to devour human prey. What starts off as a wondrous "what if" scenario eventually devolves into a struggle for survival and escape; occasional bursts of comedy keeps the film lightweight, but with groundbreaking special effects, carefully-staged action, and characters worth caring about, the film offers a grand spectacle and a perfectly-entertaining blockbuster experience.

Much of the story is altered from the original book, but it's hardly an issue. On its own merits, the film tells the story it wants to and it does it well. It flips a few of the characters around so that there's a family dynamic at work. Most of the characters are likable, and the film sets them up so that we can understand and care for them when they're in danger.  Some of them make very bad decisions, but even the dumbest characters are endearing, because the film shows them as being very human and prone to mistakes; these faults ultimately contribute to the plot's progression.  The plot unfolds spectacularly, continuously building in tension and action. Throughout the picture, the characters speculate and dig up fascinating themes about playing God with genetics; the film's events prove that all human attempts to control nature and force a structure will never work, and life will always find a way to break free and thrive on its own. These themes carry both wonder and terror, and the film emphasizes both aspects aptly.

This film is made with really good photography. Editing can be a little weak at times, but it is often punchy and good. Acting is pretty over-the-top, but it produces expressions and emotions that fit in perfectly with the film's tone. Sam Neill and Laura Dern are perfectly likable in their roles. Jeff Goldblum steals the show repeatedly with his character's wit and wisdom. Richard Attenborough has a great presence and personality as John Hammond. The kid characters put their best into it, and they do have some endearing moments that gives the film a more emotional punch. Bob Peck is cool, Martin Ferraro is a dude we love to hate, Wayne Knight is an even bigger dude we love to hate, Samuel L Jackson keeps it real, and everybody else is decent. This script is full of great lines, but some dialogue can be rather random, and it's all really low-key. Despite one or two shortcuts, this production uses good-looking sets, props, costumes, and creature effects. Special effects were fantastic for its time, and most of them still hold up to this day. John Williams' music score is catchy and emotional.

Jurassic Park is easily one of the best blockbusters, not only because of all its visual effects and thrills, but also because it has heart, and it has themes worth thinking about. It's a must-see.

4.5/5 (Experience: Perfect | Story: Good | Film: Good)

Book Review: Foundation (Isaac Asimov)

If you know sci-fi, chances are good that you would have at least heard of Asimov's Foundation series; it is one of the man's most celebrated works.  The first, original book in the series dives headlong into the distant future of our galaxy, which is turned into a sprawling space-faring empire.  The novel presents the interesting premise that the Empire is collapsing, and it's up to a group of scientists to lay down the foundation of a new era on a couple of backwater planets.  Upon doing so, the Foundation encounters one crisis after another, the resolutions of which will shape the way the future inevitably unfolds.

To be fair, the book has a very interesting premise, and it's the politics and social themes that make it worthwhile.  The story borrows much from historical references, such as the fall of the Roman Empire, to illustrate that social ruin can occur at any era.  The problems of the Galactic Empire in Foundation are pretty simple - the Empire simply spread itself too thin and was too centralized.  The Foundation provided a solution for long-term sustainment, not with the benefit of rich resources, but with the creation of a new religion that ultimately wins over the population and helps the Foundation resolve each new crisis.  Thus, the book provides interesting themes worth exploring, regarding the relationship between society, religion, and science.

Unfortunately, despite having a great setup and interesting content, I found the book's emphasis on politics to be extremely dry.  The book covers hundreds of years of events, so characters tend to come and go without receiving much development or investment.  There is no pathological or emotional anchor involved with the story to make me care for the events, outside of the social aspects.

I have no complaints about the writing; Asimov's prose is to-the-point and has decent dialogue.  This book doesn't have much description for the settings, which can make it a little harder to visualize, but it does paint a few fantastic planetscapes.  I personally would have appreciated more exposition with the events, since the story seems to jump ahead with little indication of what's exactly going on; you have to read the dialogue to get the gist of things.

Foundation is a book worth reading, so long as you don't mind a story that's politically-dense.  As a highly-tutted sci-fi classic, sci-fi fans should give it a try.

3/5 (Experience:  Poor | Story:  Pretty Good | Book:  Pretty Good)

Film Review: Tomorrowland

I expected this movie to suck. Most reviews I see have written this off as just another fluff piece with too much CGI, too little story, and a message that seems to make everyone sick. Given all the negativity, I got the impression that I'm not supposed to enjoy this.

And yet, I found myself captivated by the film, and I became enamored by the escapist experience.

You could write this off as just another advert for a Disney theme park. The film definitely strives to wow the audience with fantastic visions of futuristic cities, rockets, jetpacks, flying cars, robots, laser guns, and more. In between all this utopian scenery, the film maintains its pace by constantly putting the characters in peril, forcing them to run from one dangerous situation to another. Action scenes are pretty frequent, and include such cool things as laser-gun firefights and robots with martial arts, all of which are captured in very solid and steady photography. In between the action, the film maintains a light and colorful tone, with plenty of snappy dialogue and humor.

The story is brimming with adventure, the likes of which would be on-par with The Neverending Story or Last Action Hero, or something along those lines. It plays into the standard scenario of a kid finding out that there's another world, and sets out to find it. The actual plot doesn't have a whole lot of dots to connect; much of the runtime is devoted to the characters leaping from one peril to another, to the point where it becomes one thing after another. There are a few parts that are unbelievable, and there may be some plot holes, but given the fantastic nature of the story, the creditability of various scenes seems to defeat the point of the picture. As far as characters go, I grew to love them; the main character is a perfectly lovable kid with passion that drives the plot, and it provides an apt reflection on the other characters, who in turn have their own motivations that make them compelling.

Plotting is not so much the highlight of the film, as it is the ideas. Tomorrowland offers a pretty fun sci-fi scenario in which the world's greatest and brightest built a utopian paradise of innovation, hidden from the rest of the world. As the characters work to find their way there, an even greater theme emerges, and all of the film's conflict becomes hinged on pessimism versus optimism. The film asserts that our world is so full of doom and gloom, and our future could become a self-fulfilling prophecy of disaster if we let it. Naturally, the characters' struggle sides with optimism, to the point where it seeps out of the picture and becomes infectious. The theme resonates with me personally, because I am a firm believer in what the film says - that the future is what you make of it. In the end, I personally found the film's message inspiring, and moving in its own way. Walt Disney himself originally built Tomorrowland into his theme parks with the motive to foster inspiration, imagination, and invention.  That same spirit permeates through the Tomorrowland picture; many folks find it distasteful, probably because the film wears its heart on its sleeve all too well.  I realized that this is something you won't find in any other movie this year; for once, this is a movie that made me smile, and left me feeling hopeful.  Movies don't usually set out to paint a pretty picture or tell the audience that you can make things happen through your actions; this one does, and I personally find it refreshing, inspiring, and moving.

This film has good-looking photography and editing. Acting is good for what it is: Britt Robertson is perfectly colorful and fun in her role, George Clooney plays it pretty grumpy most of the time for decent effect, and Hugh Laurie is awesome. Writing probably could have been a little sharper, but I appreciated most of the dialogue. This production spares no expense on the sets, props, costumes, and special effects. Sound design is great. Music is alright.

A lot of people won't be so easily charmed by this film, maybe finding it sappy, messy, or stupid. I think this attitude only proves the film's point; if you feed the negativity, you will hate the film. If all you see is shallow CGI, then you won't care about anything the film has to say. If you can approach this optimistically and become swept away in this adventure, then maybe the film will speak to you the most. As such, I can only recommend it as a rental to those interested. I think it's a perfectly good family film, and its message is far more inspiring than anything a Marvel film or a Michael Bay film can provide.

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

Gods Among Men: Excerpt Chapter 11

With the recent release of Mad Max:  Fury Road, I thought it would be fun to look back on a manuscript I've written and post this thrilling action scene, inspired by the original Road Warrior.

My novel, Gods Among Men, depicts a future in which superheroes started appearing around the world, and they fought a major war against the human race.  In the aftermath, they built a huge walled city, where heroes serve to protect men.  Outside of the walled city is a lawless wasteland.  In this setting, Troy Gaines is a man who wants to become a superhero, but has no special abilities; he relies on an invention to teleport himself, and to prove his worth, he goes on an investigation that leads him to the desert.  Inevitably, he and his partner are captured by a violent wasteland gang.  After surviving an arena fight, the two heroes hijack a vehicle and flee.  What follows is a sprawling chase scene with vehicular carnage.  Hope you enjoy it and have a lovely day!

This is all still part of the rough draft, and may be subject to change.  I'm considering making one of the enemy vehicles an ice cream truck.
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    Pushing as fast and far as he could, Troy [teleported] himself and Victor to the other side of the camp.  They materialized in a penned area, where a number of motorized vehicles were kept.  Most of the cars were broken and run-down, left as rusty wrecks sitting in the dusty ground.
    Victor took the time to run by the vehicles, and he took in whatever electric energy he could from the batteries left in the cars.  Troy ran to a buggy at the far end of the pen; despite its crude construction, the vehicle looked rugged, durable, and more aerodynamic than most of the others.  Its wheels were well over two feet wide, with massive heavy treads.  The canopy was well-enclosed, and appeared to have a roll-cage installed.  Pleased with the vehicle, Troy jumped into it and regarded the dashboard.  It was fully-fueled and charged; all he was missing were keys.
    Then, a thug came up to the vehicle, dressed in filthy overalls.  Troy looked up at the enemy; he was surprised to see that the mechanic was a woman, but even more shocked to see a full beard on her face.
    Holding a wrench in her hands, the bearded lady demanded in a husky voice, “Where do you think you’re going, boy?”
    Troy smirked and said, “It’s been a charming carnival, but it’s time for us to leave.”
    “You’re going nowhere!” the enemy shouted, swinging her wrench at him.
    The wrench made contact with the car’s frame, making a loud reverberating clang.  Troy seized the mechanic’s hand and pulled on it, slamming her body into the vehicle’s side.  While she was close, he reached into her front pocket and pulled out a set of keys.  He then shoved her away, and she stumbled into the ground.
    Fumbling the keys into the ignition, Troy turned it and started the vehicle up.  After several seconds of sputtering, the car hummed to life.  Victor ran up to the buggy and exclaimed, “They’re coming, Troy!”
    “Get in,” Troy said. “I know I’ve had enough of this place.  I never liked the circus anyway.”
    Victor hopped into the passenger seat, and Troy rammed his foot into the gas pedal.  As the tires spun, they kicked up a huge puff of dust.  Jerking forward, the buggy raced through the camp.  Driving the car south, Troy ran down several smaller tents, their fabric crumpling beneath the buggy’s huge wheels.  Smashing through crates, tables, chairs, and chests full of junk, torrents of broken debris flew off of the buggy’s grille as it plowed forward.
    Finally, the buggy cleared the camp and raced toward open land.  A pair of towers made of crude scaffolding overlooked the southern border of the camp; snipers in each tower aimed carbines at the buggy as it rushed across the desert.  Their shots rang out in the open air, and their bullets ricocheted off of the car’s armor plating and steel framework.
    Driving forward for several seconds, the camp fell behind Troy and Victor and became a diminished cluster of specks in the distance.  Patting Troy on the back, Victor laughed and said, “Man, that was crazy! I never thought we would have survived that!”
    “That makes two of us,” Troy smirked. “How much electricity did you gather back there?”
    “Maybe five kilowatts.  It’s a little hard to draw power from vehicles that aren’t running.”
    “What can five kilowatts do?”
    “Aside from running a few cars? It could give a bad guy a good shock, or run a good-sized electric appliance.  It could fill up your teleporter’s power reserve a good ways.  Should I give you a charge?”
    “Sure,” Troy said. “But I plan on saving it for when we really need it.”
    Victor planted is hand on Troy’s chest, and transferred electricity into his vest.  With electricity gently leaking from Victor’s hands, Troy squirmed and said, “It tingles.”
    “So, do you have any idea where we’re going from here?” Victor asked.
    “Anywhere but the Carnival.  I’m hoping the Tierra de Muerta is ahead.”
    Suddenly, loud gunshots could be heard echoing through the air behind them.  Turning, Victor saw a narrow hovercraft gliding over the desert toward them.  As it zoomed over the flat land, it left a trail of dust in its wake.  The vehicle was as crudely-built as the other Carnival vehicles, and there were several gangsters lined up along its railings with guns in their hands.
    Looking in the rear-view mirror, Troy saw more dust trails in the distance behind them.  Even though they had a strong head start, the Carnival was relentlessly chasing them with their full fleet of vehicles.  It would only be a matter of time before they caught up to them.
    Pulling ahead, the hovercraft kept pace with the buggy, while the goons onboard started shooting at Troy.  A hail of bullets rushed at the buggy, ricocheting off of the metal plating and framework with loud snaps.  One shot came close to Troy’s head, whistling past his ear.
    Swerving away from the hovercraft, Troy gained distance from it.  The buggy suddenly rolled over a hill; the vehicle bounced heavily as it jumped from the hill and landed on the ground again.  Troy and Victor were roughly jostled in their seats.
    Watching the hovercraft, Victor said, “Take us closer.  That thing is producing a good amount of power.”
    Steering the buggy toward the hovercraft, Troy brought the vehicle side-by-side with the hovercraft.  As he came closer, one of the gangsters jumped over and landed on the buggy’s roof.  The enemy held on tightly to the frame, fighting against the rushing air and the buggy’s movements.
    Reaching out, Victor sensed the hovercraft’s battery and drained it of its power.  Electricity streamed from the vehicle’s hood and into his hands, blasting a smoldering hole in its chassis.  When the vehicle ran out of power, its motors stopped working, and it slammed into the ground.  Hitting the hard dry ground, the vehicle’s hood was crumpled in, before its body spiraled and spun in the air.  All of its passengers were flung off, to land roughly on the ground.
    Crawling on the buggy’s roof, the last goon appeared over the vehicle’s canopy.  Taking a grenade from his vest, the villain pulled out its pin and dropped it into the buggy’s seat.  It landed directly in Victor’s lap; he frantically grasped it and held onto its safety spoon tightly, to keep it from exploding.
    With his free hand, Victor pointed to the thug on the roof and released an arc of electricity at him.  With a short, high-voltage burst running through his body, the enemy shivered uncontrollably and lost control of his body.   Unable to hold onto the buggy, he slipped off and tumbled into the ground behind the vehicle.
    Still holding the grenade, Victor frantically cried, “Holy sh&t, what should I do with this?”
    “The longer you cook it, the less of a fuse you have,” Troy warned. “Whatever you do, don’t let go.”
    Ahead, there was a mesa that rose up sharply from the ground.  Troy angled the buggy to the right, hoping to loop around the giant stone mound.  As he curved and approached the stone, he saw that their pursuers were cutting across at an angle, trying to flank the buggy.  It took only a matter of minutes for the swarm of Carnival vehicles to gain up on the buggy.
    One enemy car bounced across the desert and cut in front of the buggy.  As the car straightened, it fishtailed erratically, throwing a plume of dust up in front of the buggy.  With the cloud stinging his eyes and filling his nostrils, Troy veered out of the car’s trail and pulled up beside it.  With the car driving in between the buggy and the mesa’s cliff face, the car was sandwiched.  Troy veered into the car and sideswiped it, sending it careening into the cliff side.  As its side scraped against the rock, its panels were crunched in, before the car flipped and landed on its roof.  The car skidded to a halt upside down.
    Looking into the mirror, Troy saw several other vehicles chasing him; they all rolled in line behind him and started driving parallel to the mesa’s side.  One of the trucks rammed into the crashed car, making it spin and throw shrapnel all around.
    As the enemy vehicles chased the buggy, a number of goons stood and leaned out of their vehicles and fired their guns at Troy.  Bullets zoomed past the buggy, occasionally ricocheting off of the buggy’s side and blasting holes in the side of the mesa.  Troy weaved the vehicle side-to-side to evade the gunfire.
    Still holding onto the grenade with one hand, Victor used his free hand to peel off a part of his rubber suit.  He carefully wrapped the piece of rubber around the grenade, so tight that it kept the safety spoon depressed.
    An enemy vehicle sped forward and pulled up beside the buggy:  a windowless car rigged with large wheels and heavy armor plates.  It veered over and rammed the buggy; the impact jerked the vehicle sideways toward the mesa wall.  The buggy came within inches of hitting the stone surface; the stone howled past Troy’s ear.
    Victor chucked the wrapped grenade at the vehicle; it bounced over the hood and landed directly in the driver’s lap.  Panicking, the driver took his hands off the wheel to handle the grenade; the vehicle drifted toward the mesa wall, until the corner of the hood scraped against the rock.  As the vehicle fell behind the buggy, the grenade went off, engulfing the entire chassis in fire.  Pieces of metal flew from the explosion, bouncing off the ground and landing in the dirt.  One metal plate spun into another vehicle, cleaving into the hood and rupturing the engine; the vehicle drifted away with smoke and liquid leaking from its ruptured front.
    The buggy continued to drive around the base of the mesa, looping around it until it headed south.  Pulling away from the rocky formation, Troy stamped on the gas pedal, and the buggy rocketed forward.  The vehicle bounced roughly as it tumbled over rough ground and small hills.  As all the enemy vehicles followed Troy in a line, they struggled against the uneven terrain to keep pace.  One enemy car launched itself off a small hill and landed on top of a boulder; its front grille flew off as the chassis crunched against the stone.
    One of the enemies pulled out a bazooka and aimed it at the buggy.  With the rough movements of the cars, the enemy’s aim was erratic.  When Troy saw the bazooka’s rocket pointing at him, he slammed on the brakes, and the buggy slid on the dirt.  The other cars sped past him, just as the goon fired his bazooka.  His rocket blasted away with a plume of smoke, and it struck the ground with a thunderous boom.  The projectile left behind a crater, with pieces of dirt and rock raining all around it.  One of the other enemy vehicles drove over the hole, causing its wheel to bounce up and send the car rolling onto its side.
    Pressing on the gas again, Troy tried to pick up speed again.  As the buggy started to roll forward, an enemy jeep rammed him in the rear, causing the buggy to lurch forward.  More gunfire erupted, rattling against the buggy’s chassis.
    Turning in his seat, Victor leaned his torso out of the window, and reached out toward the vehicle behind them.  An electric arc sizzled between his fingers and the jeep; with its power drained, the jeep’s engine died with a sputter.
    Still accelerating, Troy kept the gas pedal depressed as he swerved away from the main group of vehicles.  As he arced further south, the enemies curved with him; one truck came up beside the buggy, armed with a 50-calibur machine gun on its bed.  One of the goons manned the gun and started pummeling the buggy with gunfire; with each thumping of the weapon, giant holes appeared in the buggy’s metal armor plates.
    Victor kept his head slumped behind the door panel, but he snaked his arm out the window and discharged an electric bolt.  Lightning shot from his fingers and touched the machine gun; electricity curled around the weapon and ran through the gunman’s hands, making him shudder and convulse.  As he shook, he fell to his knees, and swung the machine gun forward.  As his finger muscles contracted, he gripped the gun’s trigger tighter, sending gunshots into the driver’s seat.  A splash of blood shot across the hood, before the truck drifted away from the buggy.  Rolling over a hump, the truck flew briefly in the air, before it came down into a ditch and landed hard on its side.  The sounds of crunching, twisting metal filled the sky.
    “That felt good,” Victor remarked. “I’m out of juice though.  I need to drain more.”
    “Don’t worry, I have some ‘juice’,” Troy winked. “Take the wheel for me.”
    “What?”
    In an instant, Troy grasped Victor by the shoulder, and they both teleported to trade spots.  Finding himself in the driver’s seat so suddenly, Victor swore and frantically grabbed the steering wheel.  While he kept the vehicle straight, Troy returned to a vaporous form, and floated out of the buggy.
    Flying backwards, Troy’s essence free-floated for an instant, drifting toward one of the pursuing vehicles.  He appeared on top of the car’s hood, and he promptly kicked the driver through the open window.  Grabbing the steering wheel, Troy jerked it hard, and sent the car veering sharply sideways.  He vanished just as the car smashed into another vehicle; both of them rolled and tumbled over the dirt, with metal debris and broken car parts spraying all over the place.
     Only two vehicles remained, driving in tandem behind the buggy.  One goon stuck his head out of the window of one of the cars and started shooting at Troy’s misty body with a pistol.  The bullets pierced the air and passed through Troy’s cloud of particles.  Swooping down toward the enemy, Troy appeared for a split-second just outside of the car.  In that instant, he grabbed the gun out of the goon’s hands, and vanished with it.
    Pushing himself ahead, Troy flew in front of the car and appeared on its hood.  No sooner did he appear than the driver swerved the car side-to-side, shaking Troy off of the vehicle.  He slid off the hood and teleported before he could hit the ground.
    Moving ahead, Troy returned to the buggy and returned to human shape on the roof.  With his legs firmly clenched around the vehicle’s frame, Troy aimed his stolen pistol and shot at the car.  Sparks flew off the car’s roof as the bullets ricocheted off of it.  One shot penetrated the car, passing through the driver’s head and killing him instantly.  The passenger frantically grabbed the wheel to keep the vehicle straight.
    At that moment, the other enemy car veered in between the two vehicles, directly in front of Troy. Its passenger threw something into the air at Troy; it looked to be a crude pipe bomb.  Troy shot it in mid-air; the bullet struck the detonator and it detonated in the air.  A puff of fire and smoke filled the air, and quickly fell behind them.
    Aiming at the enemy, Troy fired his pistol.  Gunshots sparked against the car’s roof with loud pings.  After just a few shots, all the bullets ran out, and the gun stopped firing.  Tossing the weapon away, Troy teleported himself into the car’s seat.
    Appearing in between the driver and the passenger, Troy grabbed both men by their heads and slammed them against the dashboard.  While the driver was stunned, Troy seized the passenger and heaved him over the dashboard; he skidded across the hood and fell over the grille.  The vehicle bounced as the wheels ran him over.
    Recovering from the attack, the driver swung his arm into Troy.  Blocking the punch, Troy threw his fist out into the enemy’s cheek.  His leg stamped on the driver’s foot, forcing him to depress the accelerator.  As the car sped up, Troy grabbed the steering wheel and pulled on it suddenly.
    The combination of speed and the sudden turn caused the car to drift across the desert; a trail of dust billowed from the car’s tracks.  Its tires struck a large rock, causing it to jump in the air and roll.  Even when the car landed, it continued to tumble along its side, its chassis becoming dented and wrecked.  One of its tires was flung off, to land fifty yards away.
    Teleporting out of the crashing car, Troy strolled on the cracked Earth and watched the vehicle come to a halt.  Its twisted hulk made one last groan before it slumped on the ground; the driver hung out of the window with blood dribbling from his mouth.
    Turning around, Victor drove the buggy back and pulled up beside Troy.  Out the window, Victor said, “You do have this habit of leaping before looking.”
    “Nonsense,” Troy smirked. “I do both at the same time.”
    “How much power do you have left?”
    Checking his wrist meter, Troy replied, “None.”
    “I figured as much.”
    “Don’t worry, it’s power well-spent.  How much gas does the buggy have left?”
    “About half a tank.  It’s a real gas-guzzler, and I doubt we’ll be able to find a usable gas pump anywhere.”
    “The nearest town I know of is Blood Gulch…probably a good five hundred miles to the east.  Do you think we can make it?”
    “Not in this beast,” Victor sighed. “No matter what we do, I think we will have no choice but to walk some of the way.  I don’t know about you, but my desert survivalist skills aren’t that great.”
    “Surviving in the wastelands isn’t hard, as long as you know what you’re doing,” Troy said, as he went around the vehicle and got in through the passenger door. “I grew up out here, so the desert doesn’t scare me.  If we want to preserve gas, I recommend putting this thing into neutral and letting it roll for a while.”
    As instructed, Victor drove the buggy a short distance before shutting off the engine and letting it run on neutral.  The vehicle traversed a good ten miles on its own momentum, treading on the flat landscape.  It rolled down a hill and gained substantial speed and distance.
    Crossing another flat stretch of empty wastes, Victor probed, “So, was gas rare in your home town?”
    “It’s rare everywhere.  Why else do you think all city vehicles run on hydrogen fuel cells?”
    “I mean, gas-powered cars are still used heavily out here, so you got to have a healthy supply of oil somewhere, right?”
    “It’s all mostly scavenged from pre-war reserves, ruined gas stations, or the occasional wrecked tanker.  Most of it is plundered by the various gangs and warlords all over the desert; another commodity they can control and sell to the various towns and settlements all over the place.  There was a community that once took control of a working oil pump, but it was overrun by a gang, and it fell under the control of a man named Gordon Thurgs.  He pumped the well completely dry, and that was the last of the oil that can ever be produced in this country.  Whatever is left to be found out there are likely hoarded by gangs, like these Carnival freaks, for their own pleasure.”
    “It makes me wonder what will happen when the very last of the oil in the wasteland is gone.”
    “You’d be surprised as to how well people can adapt in the wasteland.  Some of the cleverest people have already adopted electric vehicles.  There are plenty of talented inventors and engineers who have built solar-power or fuel-cell vehicles using only scavenged parts.”
    “Really?”
    “How do you think my teleporter was made?” Troy indicated. “Good old Nash, he could make something out of anything.  Some people called him the ‘Alchemist of the Wastes’ because of his skill.”
    “If this Nash guy was so smart, why didn’t he make your suit solar-powered or anything?”
    “This was the prototype, he said.  He wanted to develop this design further, to incorporate the possibility of alternate methods of power regeneration.  As it is, he said this thin, flimsy design only permitted dynamic motion generation.  At the time, I felt it was more than enough for me.”
    “You know, when I look back at what happened, I still feel a little p!ssed off that you led us all on,” Victor scorned. “If I knew that you were just another guy, we could have taken a Pantheon airship all the way out here.”
    “We probably could have taken one regardless,” Troy sighed. “I was a little overconfident in the integrity of my own equipment.  Understanding that none of us could have predicted what happened, I think it’s best to just forget about it, and focus on what we’re going to do now.”
    “What are we going to do? Even if we find this Tierra de Muerta, how will we ever get back to Theopolis?”
    “That is a question that is best left to fate, for we have no idea what we’ll find in the Tierra de Muerta.”
    “Things would be a lot easier if your teleporter got fixed,” Victor suggested. “Any ideas about that?”
    “We’d have to find Nash,” Troy explained. “I hope he’s still hanging around in Roswell.  Of course, that’s a good distance past Blood Gulch, probably a good six hundred miles away.”
    “There’s just nothing close, is there?” Victor sighed. “Alright, let’s just wait and see what comes up ahead here.”
     For the next few miles, Victor continued to let the buggy coast along the flat, arid desert.  When the vehicle slowed down too much, Troy and Victor both pushed in the buggy until it gained speed, and jumped into the seats.  They continued in this fashion for another ten miles.
    It was well after noon before they stopped the vehicle completely.  Coming up to a cluster of cacti, Victor pressed on the brakes, while Troy jumped out of the buggy.  He took the knife he had pocketed from the Carnival, and cut into one of the cactus.  Water spurted from the stem immediately; Troy gathered some of it in his hand and slurped it.  He then cut off a larger chunk of the stem and passed it to Victor, who sucked out its water and bit into its inside.
    While they rested and ate, Troy became aware of a noise from the distance.  It was the airy roar of a motorized vehicle, still far away from them.  Looking to the horizon behind them, Troy could see a small trail of dust rising from the horizon, coming from a large black speck.  The speck grew bigger as it came closer, and Troy realized with dread that it was another Carnival vehicle.  It was particularly large and fast, and grew more menacing in appearance as it came closer.
    Seeing the approaching vehicle, Victor immediately started up the buggy, and Troy jumped in.  They took off at full throttle, frantic and desperate.  Even after all the miles they had covered and all the enemies they eliminated, they were still being pursued.

Film Review: Mad Max: Fury Road

"If you can't fix what's broken, you'll go insane." - Tom Hardy
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The world of Mad Max has progressively become madder and madder; 30 years after the third film, Fury Road presents a fresh, new tale in the mythos of the legendary road warrior. This time, the picture the film paints of the future is far more vivid than anything that's come before. Against the backdrop of harsh desolation and vicious tyranny, the stage is set for a new round of intense vehicular carnage: what follows is a relentless onslaught of bullets, fire, and bloodshed.

This film starts off fast and furious, and it keeps the pacing up all the way to its finale. It can be generalized as one two-hour chase scene, but that's not to say that the action ever becomes dull, or that the film never takes the time to breathe; like any great blockbuster experience, it's a rollercoaster ride so full of ups and downs that it keeps the audience exhilarated constantly. The film's chases are the biggest highlights; there are a plethora of incredibly well-designed vehicles that crash and burn in phenomenal ways, while the characters fight and struggle across the moving cars. The film is consistently loud, explosive, and intense. When the characters do manage to catch a break, the characters struggle against each other and against the elements, so there's hardly any drag at all.

Within and outside of the action scenes, the film tells the story it needs to, and it does so with minimal use of exposition, very effectively showing more than it tells. In the same vein as The Raid, Dredd, or Duel, which were simple stories centered around the situation, so too does Fury Road use its central chase scenes as a basic skeleton from which to add on more to the characters and story. The characters are a compelling bunch; Max is reintroduced to us as a broken man, still haunted by events of the past (which are shown in rapid-fire flashbacks, and differ vastly from what's shown in Mad Max). Max's journey becomes entwined with that of Furiosa, a tough and brave woman whose motivations are revealed as the plot moves on. Together, Max and Furiosa represent two characters who are broken in some way, and join forces to fight their way to liberation and freedom. Some audiences have said that Furiosa is more the main character than Max, but I find that both share screentime equally, to complement each other the same way Max had to share time with everybody else in The Road Warrior. What might throw people off is that Max doesn't speak much in this film; what little he says is gruff and crude, and he fills the rest of the space with a few grunts and noises. However, Max remains the narrative focus of the film, as it tracks his journey in and out of bondage, and finally to liberation, to become a legendary drifter once more.

Few people have taken offense to the way the film demonizes men and emphasizes the struggle of women characters to fight them and free themselves, to the point where they feel Max is a diminished character and the film actively pushes a feminist agenda. I am of the mind that such complaints are unwarranted; even though the film is certainly about women struggling for freedom, they do so with the help of certain male characters, against a whole society that's been conditioned by a mad tyrant. If you replaced the women with men, the story would still hold water (except for all the bits concerning Immortan Joe's heirs). The narrative's focus on liberation is universal. It just happens to revolve around tormented women because that's the condition of the world they live in: a brutal place where women are mistreated and abused, solely to reap the benefits of their bodies. It also just so happens that the War Boys are conditioned to be berserkers who just want to fight, pillage, and plunder; they are not that way just because they're male, but because they're controlled, and effectively enslaved in their own way. Max enters this world unwillingly, and he helps in the fight against it because he shares a common goal with Furiosa. She might match his machismo, but she never undermines it, and Max remains just as heroic here as he is in the older films. If the film is anything, it's purely anti-dictatorship and pro-freedom, and I find it compelling that way.

This film is captured with fantastic photography and punchy editing. Color schemes are very bright and vivid. Filling in the shoes that Mel Gibson left behind, Tom Hardy plays Max Rockatansky with a phenomenal presence, and with blunt, animalistic dialogue, which is fitting for the primal world he inhabits. Charlize Theron plays it tough as Furiosa, but with enough distress to elicit sympathy for her struggle, and make her character well-grounded and well-rounded. Nicholas Hoult is surprisingly lovable in his role, and Hugh Keays-Byrne exudes a phenomenal presence as Immortan Joe, who stands as one of the most chilling villains I've seen in a while. Writing is concise and it gets the job done. This production has loads of superbly detailed sets, props, and costumes, all of which brings the post-apocalyptic world to life fantastically. It all contributes to showing and illustrating the culture of the War Boys, which shows plenty of well thought-out ideas and concepts. Most stunts and crashes were done practically; what few special effects the film has are used precisely and effectively, and are great. JXL's music score adds to the experience admirably.

Mad Max: Fury Road is easily the best-looking film of the series, and it boasts the biggest and most brutal action scenes. It's a perfect example of how a simple premise can be used to tell an invoking story and craft an exhilarating experience. Best of all, it does so using the power of images and sound, just as cinema should.

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