Quick Reviews

Just a few quick notes on things I've read/watched lately.

Last week's 30th Anniversary show of Inside the NFL was a classy bit of television. There were a few looks back, but mostly, it was a tribute to a show that has become must-see for me (and I don't even care about football).

I love the Wallace & Gromit "shorts" and the feature length-movie, so I used my "daddy persuasion" (not too much as my kids enjoy them as well) and chose Aardman's (with Dreamworks) new feature Flushed Away as a movie to watch with the kids. The movie was made using CGI as opposed to the "Claymation"-style of other Aardman pieces, but the look was the same as Wallace and Chicken Run.

It was a fun movie. Smart for adults, and they didn't dumb it down for kids. Check it out.

Happy Feet on the other hand, was a freakin' mess. It was at least three, distinct movies, and the end sucked ass. The animation was pretty good, but this movie had the biggest thing I hate about the mainstream animated feature business: they got a bunch of "name" actors who had no reason playing voices in this movie.

Pixar movies and a few select others can get away with it because the actors and the characters mesh so well, but many movies just use an actor's name to sell the studio and the audience on a film. There are fantastic voice actors that could have done the voices-- and made them their own.

Okay-- rant over. Anyway, Happy Feet had many more problems than the voices, and I apologize for getting on my soapbox.

Ultimate Fantastic Four Volume 5 "Crossover" also had the good and the bad of the "Ultimate" Marvel Universe (which was designed to use characters/concepts that are 40 years old and reinvent them as if they were created today). It was good, even great, but it took the equivalent of six issues to tell a story that original Fantastic Four creators Stan Lee and Jack Kirby would have taken two issues to tell. At least that's cut down from the first few issues of the titles telling a story over six issues that Stan and Jack would have knocked out in one.

"Crossover" is broken into two stories: the first is one where Reed opens a portal to a universe that looks very similar to the one in the regular Marvel Universe (the one fans have been reading about since the '60s), but it's all a trap to lure Reed to a world where the superheroes are actually zombies. It leads to a harrowing adventure (and led to the blockbuster Marvel Zombies mini-series of 2006).

The second tale is about the finding of Atlantis. And the introduction of Namor to the Ultimate Universe. This Namor looks and acts the same, but his background is much different than the regular Marvel's King of Atlantis. I did like the end of the story where the terribly over-matched Fantastic Four ended the fight in an unusual way (and established the Ultimate Namor as a total prick in a different way than the regular Marvel Namor is).

All in all, this is a good read. Mark Millar's story and dialogue were above par. I just wonder why some of the changes between the two universes have to be made. Some changes are so abrupt, it's as if he's painting himself (and others) into a corner. But then again, this is supposed to be a new universe where anything can happen. One change I do like in this "universe" is the attempt to make the fantastic a bit more realistic. Sure they still do crazy stuff, but time is taken to explain the principles of the power/ability whereas in most comic books, things that are just taken for granted "just because" (the team can go deep into the ocean due to a combination of powers-- without Johnny-- whereas the Marvel Reed would just whip up a submarine that would do all the work).

Not to knock Millar, but the stars of this book are penciller Greg Land, inker Matt Ryan, and colorist Justin Ponsor (and Laura Martin). My God, were the pictures gorgeous (as is beginning to be expected of Land). This is some of the most photo-realistic artwork I've ever seen in a comic book. Many, many panels had me stopping (many to say, "Damn, Sue is HOT!") just to take it all in.

The downside to the artwork is it looks as if Land used a number of sources for reference (one is an obvious reproduction of Jessica Alba as Sue from the movie of last year), and a number of times, the same character just didn't look the same (I noticed it mostly with Sue, but then I paid the most attention to her). But, let's face it, that's a pretty small complaint.

Ta Ta for now...