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galaxyofstories · 4 years

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Just ‘cause we can, does that mean we should? - An Altered Carbon (S1&S2) Review

Stories of immortality, the fountain of youth, and shapeshifting are throughout our stories. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde explores the idea of staying young and the corruption of the soul. From Bram Stoker's Dracula to every other vampire story told we see those ideas played out repeatedly. These ideas even come up in folklore from around the world. So needless to say, humanity has always wondered about immortality, youth, and shapeshifting.

Before we start, I have some questions for you. You don't need to answer them, instead, think about them. I mean really consider what it would mean.

What if we could live forever? If death is a part of life, and death is removed, is that really life? But what if there was still a possibility of death, but could technically (under the right circumstances) live forever, would birth and eventual death even matter? What if we could change our faces? Our bodies? If we can change our bodies, should we still worry about illness and disease? If we can change what we look like and we can live forever, does money and power still dictate us? What would humanity be like? How would we change with time as a species? As individuals? Would it be worth it? Does anything matter if our physical does not matter? Just because we can, does that mean we should?

This is Altered Carbon's universe. Humanity has moved beyond Earth (in fact, I think Earth is mentioned only once... and it's pretty far into the series) and we have found a way to become basically immortal. Cool, right?

There are spoilers approaching. Get Ready.

You're immortal, as long as you don't get your stack busted. The stack holds everything that makes up a person (experiences, memories, feelings, thoughts... everything). Stacks can be moved from sleeve (body) to sleeve with very little consequence. Well... That is if you're a Met, a rich person. And the poor... Well... If your stack is intact, you're still a live, but not physically there. Sometimes the poor can afford to rent a sleeve, but the series hints that even renting is a luxury. So what now? We don't die unless our stacks are destroyed, and we can look like anybody we want to look like. What do we do as a species?

Do we socially evolve? Yes and no. Yes: No longer is skin color a factor in a person's worth. Which, honestly, is really fucking awesome. You can go from being born Japanese/Russian to being a Caucasian guy to being a black guy. Since anybody can look like anybody, racism isn't a problem. Yay! Since racism isn't a problem, we see diverse families and relationships. So, point for AC! However, I did wonder what that means in reality. I'm sure there were people complaining about changing the main character's race from Asian descent to Caucasian. I understand why it is a problem when this does occur in other stories, but the changing of race is part of the series. It again, shows that in AC's universe you can look like anybody! I wouldn't have been upset if they stayed with an Asian actor for the whole series, but the dramatic change just drives home that race isn't important in AC.

No: Humans have not socially evolved as far as the economic classes are concerned. There is still a "1%" which holds all power and all the money and they still only care about themselves. The poor are nothing to them. There is no problem, unless it threatens them or their way of life. I'm glad this was in the series because it makes AC's idea of a future more realistic as a possibility for us. Granted, it's more than likely not going to happen, especially with the fact that we haven’t even been to Mars... Mars is 106 million miles away, but C'MON! In the 60s they thought we would have colonies all across the galaxy! Or at least on the Moon. In all honesty, I'm disappointed that we aren't even living on the moon in this day 'n' age. That's beside the point. The point is, the idea some people have that they are better than other people persist even in a universe where none of that should matter. Maybe the creator was hinting at the idea that greed and lust of/for power is a part of the human condition.

Has the human condition changed? No, besides the fact that in the previous paragraph I basically said it does not, there's another example. In AC, as humanity spread out in the galaxy seeking new home planets, we did what humanity historically does... We assumed we were more important beings. Killed indigenous life. And stole their secrets and their lands. Humanity might not be a lot of things, but we are damn predictable. Woo!

Oh. And by the way, just in case you were wondering, sex still sells. In fact, I'm pretty sure it’s one of the main industries on many planets in AC. And it's actually a large part of the first season's story line. Without it, there would have been no motivations for certain characters to do the things they did and the whole season would be like three episodes. With that being said, in season 2 there is less sex. So, at multiple times while watching season 2 I had to wonder, just for a hot minute, if the show's writers and creator added all the sex and nudity just to get their show sold on Netflix. Upon reflection, I decided that yes, some of the sex and nudity (seriously halfway through the first season you see multiple breasts, butts, vaginas, and 1 penis) but I also really think it was an important aspect to the story.

Are you guys ready for my opinion about the show?

If you haven't guessed it, I really enjoyed it!

I didn't think I would like it at first. Sex and nude bodies within minutes of the first episode of shows usually don't grab my attention. Like, I came here for a story! Not soft porn! (Which is why I never got into True Blood despite the fact I love vampiric stories!) However, I love stories that are intricate webs. Almost like spiderwebs. If you touch one thread, the whole web vibrates. And that is what Altered Carbon is. It is a complicated web of mystery, interesting characters, and emotions.

For some, it could be hard to get into because it is so complicated and honestly a bit weird, but if something isn't complicated and weird is it really worth the time?

I also really liked this show because the cast is very diverse!

So all those hypothetical questions I asked at the beginning are questions that I feel like Altered Carbon is trying to answer through the story of Takeshi Kovacs. He's been away from the world for more than two centuries. Hired by a Met to solve the Met's death, which is the main mystery and even though it seems like an obvious whodunit, it is more complicated than it seems. And so is Takeshi.

He's not just a fantastic martial artist and weapon's expert. He is a brother, a friend, and a lover. (And let’s be honest, crazy attractive no matter the sleeve!)

Thinking back, none of the characters are one dimensional. Each one has their own motivations, past, and does the one thing that is important in storytelling, each one grows (whether good or bad). I’ll do a bit about some of the characters, but not all.

Takeshi Kovacs When we first meet him, he’s a dick that hallucinates. I mean, he’s always a dick, but we don’t know why he’s such a dick or why he hallucinates (my money had been on the drugs…). He just wants to find a place to lay his head, maybe get his rocks off, and drink. That’s all he is in most of the first episode. By the end of the first episode you’re left wondering who the hell this guy is! And why the hell is he such a good fighter even though he hadn’t been in the physical plain for more than two centuries! As the series progresses you learn bits and pieces here and there. By the end of season 1, you know who he is. He is Takeshi Kovacs, The Last Envoy.

Kristin Ortega My first thought was either she needed to hop on that dick or go fly a kite. Honestly, I don’t like that that was my first impression of her. She grew on me a lot. In fact, her storyline brought the religious aspect into the story. If we can live forever, would God be okay with that? It was really interesting to me to think about that. Anywho, back to Kristin… There are times that I think her character gets away with more than she should, but again, it fits in well with the whole plotline of the show.

Quellcrist Falconer THIS BITCH RIGHT HERE. HBIC! UGH!!!! She is so cool!!!! I love this character so much! A little less in season 2 because she doesn’t come off as strong as she does in season 1, but it is explained why she’s not as boss bitch. Aaaannd, it’s understandable. But seriously! She is really really awesome! Leader of a rebel cause, extraordinary fighter, master of her world… SO GREAT. And honestly she has some of the best philosophical one liners.

Poe Probably the most human out of all of them. I really enjoy the character. He’s sweet, kind, and smart.

Reileen Kawahara I’m going to let you decide. I haven’t decided for myself yet. Jaeger A fucking asshat. I’m just going to leave it at that. So, this is where I will stop (partially because I've been working on this for days and I just want it posted!) The main takeaway is that IF YOU LIKE STORIES THAT ARE DEEP, COMPLICATED, AND WEIRD WATCH THIS SHOW!! YOU WILL BE SO GLAD YOU DID! And please let me know what you thought of it! I would really love to talk about this show more! If I think of anything else to add I shall post again! Thank you!

#altered carbon #ac #gos review #netflix original #shows

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oosteven-universe · 4 years

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ROM: Dire Wraiths #1

ROM: Dire Wraiths #1 IDW Publishing 2020 Written by Chris Ryall Illustrated by Luca Pizzari Coloured by Jim Boswell Backup Illustrated by Guy Dorian Sr. & Sal Buscema Coloured by Ross Campbell Lettered by Shawn Lee “Inhumanauts,” Part 1: In 1969, two American astronauts became the first humans to set foot on Earth’s moon... but they found something inhuman waiting for them! With Rom the Spaceknight nowhere in sight, can even the Earth Corp help prevent one giant leap for Wraithkind? Plus! Find out where Rom is in a special back-up story with art by Guy Dorian Sr. and Rom legend Sal Buscema! Okay I love this book! That we are now seeing more stories based on someone's villains or adversaries and getting a better all around look at them it has this amazing effect on the reader. This gives us a chance to really understand how dangerous they are and just how powerful someone like ROM is when dealing with them. The spotlight here shows us more of their nature, how they think and how they interact with one another and this is a very good, strong, powerful thing to see. The way that this is being told is sensational. The story & plot development we see through how the sequence of events unfold and how the reader learns information is laid down incredibly well. I am a huge fan of learning alongside the characters that we meet, it keeps the element of surprise as well piquing the curiosity. That Chris understands this and can still set up a confrontation between the Dire Wraiths and the humans but still keep it as simple as possible until that one moment showcases some incredible talent and skill in his writing. The character development here is extraordinary to see. These are brand new folks, even if some of em are historical, so the way we start out seeing them be fleshed out is really nicely done. This allows us to see them change, evolve and grow through the circumstances and situations that they find themselves in. The pacing is superb as it takes us through the pages revealing the twists and turns. All of this works together to create a fabulous ebb & flow to the book that extends into the back-up feature. Just a note here and that's the fact that while the back-up is intended for a supplemental story it actually ties into the main story in ways that make you feel as if it's just part of the story as a whole. Meaning that you don't notice it's even a back-up at all. That my friends is amazing for me to see and feel considering it may be the first time I have felt that way. The interiors here are utterly, sensationally bloody brilliant! We always judge what we're going to see based on the first page, it's a simple fact that no matter who you are it's going to hold weight. To see the inside of the capsule that the astronauts are in and to see how detailed that space is blew my mind. Would I have liked to see that in those three head shots, you betcha. Regardless this panel alone shows us how limited their space is and how near claustrophobic the setting is. The linework is phenomenal and the way that varying weights are being utilised to bring out and showcase the attention to detail that we see is genius. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show this masterful eye for storytelling. The composition we see in the panels with the utilisation of backgrounds that bring us depth perception, scale and that overall sense of size and scope to the story is beautifully done. By the way this also includes the illustration in the back-up feature as well. The colour work is beyond sensational and you really see how the understanding of colour is utilised to it's fullest here. The hues and tones within all the colours as the show the shading, highlights and shadow work is extraordinary. This is an exciting, fresh and interesting book based on a race, species or whatnot that we never have known enough about. We know they are dangerous, cunning and bloodthirsty but to see them in action and planning that's a whole new ballgame. You owe it to yourself to check this one out because it'll surely be that surprise hit for you too!

#comic books #comics reviews #IDW Publishing #chris ryall #luca pizzari #jim boswell #sal buscema #guy dorian sr #shawn lee

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emperorsfoot · 6 years

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Can we talk about how Kevin has never had a stable Father-Figure

Seriously.

Kevin Levin has never had a stable or consistent (or even really very positive) father-figure or male role model in his life. Don’t believe me? Lets take a look at his life!

Harvey Hackett

Kevin’s step father.

Admittedly, very little is known about Harvey since he only appears in one scene in one episode. But what we don’t know of him first hand, we can infer from dialogue.

In Harvey’s exchange with Kevin in “Ultimate Power Part 2″, we learn that even though Kevin was an 11-year-old child when they lived together, Harvey was afraid of him. Imagine what they must be like, to be a child that young and one of your two main care-givers, one of your parents is afraid of you. That would totally mess with a kid’s head. And -clearly- it did when in the exact same conversation Harvey says that Kevin destroyed the house and ran away from home. And before any of you say “well, doesn’t that just prove Harvey was right to be afraid of Kevin?”, let me remind you that KEVIN WAS A CHILD AT THE TIME!

He was only 11-years-old (or younger, we don’t know how long he was living on the streets). Children that young need care, understanding, encouragement and support! Especially special needs children. Say what you will, but a pre-pubescent kid with superpowers counts as a “special need” child. Children like that need their adult care-givers to understand them, or if not understand them, then at least make adaptations for them to better thrive. Not only did have clearly NOT do that for Kevin, but he also went one step father to openly admit to rejecting Kevin.

To a child that young, being fearful of them is indistinguishable from rejecting them. Kevin picked up Harvey’s fear and only saw a parent who didn’t want him.

So, he had a mental/emotional breakdown, used his unnatural super-powers to destroy their house, and ran away from home.

Or, from Kevin’s perspective based on what he told Ben in “Kevin 11″ from the Original series, his parents threw him our because they didn’t like having a “freak” for a son.

Kevin would see Harvey’s fear of him as a rejection and might run away from home imagining they would kick him out anyway. While Harvey would interpret Kevin’s destructive tantrum and running away as Kevin proving how “bad” a child he was instead of the cry for help that it actually was.

Both characters’ stories are true.

But that doesn’t change the fact that Harvey was a terrible parent and father-figure to Kevin.

Now, lets look at his second male role model and father figure.

Kwarrel

The inmate whom Kevin met in prison and took him under his wing.

I could argue that Kwarrel is Kevin’s most positive male role model. Because, honestly, in the short time that they knew each other, Kwarrel did more for Kevin than any other adult figure he ever met.

When Kevin first met Kwarrel he was newly trapped in the Null Void and newly sentenced to the prison Incarcecon. He was physically deformed by the Omnitrix and -as far as Kevin knew- permanently disfigured. Understandably, Kevin was angry, resentful, even hateful. One of the first scenes in the flashback that introduces Kwarrel is one of Kevin beating the crap out of other inmates and then asking for more.

Seeing through Kevin’s rage and hostility, Kwarrel approaches him and strikes up a friendship. Through their friendship Kwarrel helps Kevin, not only, let go of his anger, but also helps him learn how to better control and use his powers.

In the entire franchise, Kwarrel is the ONLY adult who works with Kevin constructively to develop and control his powers.

We also see that Kwarrel is the one who taught Kevin to absorb matter so that he wouldn’t have to rely on absorbing energy and rest madness, or disfiguring mutation, or both.

Sadly, Kwarrel was only with Kevin for less than a year before he was shot in the back and killed.

All of this can be seen in “...Nor Iron Bars a Cage” in the Ultimate Alien arc of the series. I highly recommend you go and give it a rewatch. It is one of my favorite episodes.

After Kwarrel dies helping Kevin escape from Incarsecon, he ends up running headlong into the path of our next terrible father-figure, and -quite possibly- the most toxic of all...

Proctor Servantis

A power-mad Plumber with much too much influence and privilege compared to moral fiber.

I could write chapters on this guy. But for this post, I’ll try to be brief.

When Kevin first meeds servants, he’s a ordinary human that’s employed by the Plumbers and stationed on the Null Void. He rescues Kevin from a pack of Vulpimancers that attacked him when he was wandering the Null Void an unknown amount of time after escaping Incarsecon (it could not have been that long since Kevin looks to still be between the ages and 11 and 12).

Saving Kevin’s life was great and all. I would not like the Ben 10 franchise nearly as much as I do if Kevin stopped being a character after the age of 12.

But almost immediately after meeting Kevin, Servants started manipulating him and using him. First just using his powers to conduct inhuman experiments on other children and aliens. Using Kevin’s Osmosian powers to graft alien DNA onto the genes of otherwise perfectly ordinary human children.

That quickly escalated into sending Kevin and the other children on black ops missions that would have been dangerous even for adults. He basically turned Kevin into a child-soldier and used him to make other child-soldiers.

Then, when Kevin and his team failed in one mission (the mission to kill Ben) Servants threw a juvenile tantrum and used the powers that Kevin gave him to wipe everyone’s memories and then ABANDON them to wander the Null Void alone.

Oh, but wait, not only did Servants wipe Kevin’s memory and abandon him to the equivalent of a Turkish prison/space Australia, but Servants ALSO created false memories to replace Kevin’s real one. There by erasing part of his past and part of his identity in the process.

And that leads me into our next weak and inconsistent father-figure...

Devin Levin

Our super-sexy space daddy that I just wanna... uh...

Anyway...

If you only ever watched Ben 10 up to the end of Ultimate Alien and nothing past it, then you would know Devin as a pure-blood Osmosian from planet Osmos V, whom married a human woman, Mrs. Levin, and had Kevin. And, from all appearances, did manage to live and be present in Kevin’s life for some time.

At least, there is a photo of Kevin with Devin in Kevin’s house. Its always hard to tell cartoon ages since they’re cartoons, but Kevin looks to be about 4 or 5 years old. That’s old enough to have vague memories of his father.

From the ONE and ONLY flashback we get of Devin, he appears to deeply love his son and wife and is not only willing to die for them, but in fact DOES die for them. He dies protecting Earth from total planetary destruction, and as Devin dies in Max’s arms his last words are to tell his wife and son that he loves them.

That sounds like a really great father-figure, right?

Except that he died when Kevin was 4. So, its not like he was ever actually present or active in Kevin’s life.

But worse than that, if you DO watch beyond Ultimate Alien and into Omniverse you will see that they ret-con Devin. They ret-con him OUT! Now, Devin never existed in the first place. Instead, he was a false memory constructed by Proctor Servants and implanted into the minds of Kevin Levin and Max Tennyson. In Kevin, so that the Osmosian would have a motivation to become a Plumber, team up with Ben and Gwen, and become a sleeper agent poised to spring when Servants reappeared. And, in Max’s mind so that Max would accept Kevin on the team without question and look out for him.

So, not only did Devin die, not only did Devin not exist, but Devin was just some little flourish to further nefarious schemes, a conspiracy, and an assignation plot.

So... fuck Kevin. Am I right?

But I’m not done. I saved the best for last. Are you ready for number five?

Max Tennyson

That’s right, Max mother-fucking Tennyson!

Now, before you all get angry and rage replay that I’m just a hater who hates Team Ben, please remember the Original Series. Please remember Max’s backstory. Please remember how they develop Max’s character of the course of the franchise, all the way from the OS, through AF/UA, to the end of Omniverse.

Max raised two children of his own. He is helping raise three grandchildren. He has LOTS of experience with children.

Max is a Plumber. He’s a space cop. An alien police. He has lots of experience with people with extraordinary and super-human powers. He knows how to deal with them, how to de-escalate situations with them, how to keep them from using their powers to hurt others. (Or at least, one would assume he knows these things since that’s a Plumber’s fucking job!)

So, what does Max do the first time they meet?

Abandons him! That’s what!

At the end of the episode “Kevin 11″ the first episode where we ever meet Kevin, the fight between Ben and Kevin doesn’t “conclude” so much as it just ENDS. There’s an explosion and -at first- Kevin is buried under a bit of rubble, which gives Ben the opportunity to return to Max’s side. But Kevin craws out pretty quickly after that. He’s conscious and ambulatory. Ben, Gwen, and Max SEE him. He’s just on the other side of the train tracks. Its not like its impossible for anyone to get to him. So, what does Max do?

He takes his own children and WALKS THE FUCK AWAY! He -literally- turns his back on Kevin the first time they met.

At this point in the franchise, Kevin is a homeless, rejected, unloved child with special needs, that no one in his life has ever tried to understand.

Max is a grown adult who has experience with both children and people with extraordinary powers. He is the best equipped person (possibly in the world) to be a care-giver to Kevin. But Kevin’s not his, so why the fuck bother!? Right?

Even when Kevin keeps showing up.

In “Framed” when Kevin is stalking Ben, posing as Ben, and committing crimes to frame Ben (which is, by the way, a cry for help), Max has another opportunity to help Kevin. And he wouldn’t even have to take care of the kid himself.

In “Framed” there was this other group tracking Kevin. Some kind of SWAT team that specialized in extraordinary cases. All Max had to do was tell those guy that “hey, this monster here is really just a disfigured child, you should take care of him” and then be on his way. But Max didn't even do that!

Just mentioning to that group which was clearly well funded, well equipped, and well trained, that this one monster they were trying to subdue was an unbalanced child who needed help would have been doing the BARE MINIMUM to help Kevin. Literally, the absolute minimum.

But Max wouldn’t do even that!

In fact, Max didn’t begin to give a rat’s ass about Kevin Levin until Proctor Servants had to alter his fucking brain! and give him fake memories of a partner who never existed.

Even then, Max STILL agreed with Ben when Ben decided it was better to kill Kevin than rehabilitate him during the Ultimate Kevin arc.

In short,

ALL OF KEVIN’S FATHER-FIGURES/MALE ROLE MODELS ARE TERRIBLE!

Its actually amazing he managed to become as well adjusted, helpful, constructive and GOOD, a person as he has.

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geek-patient-zero · 5 years

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Part 1, Chapter 1

Or: Big Detective

Blood War: Masquerade of the Red Death Trilogy Volume 1

There are some secrets which do not permit themselves to be told. Men die nightly in their beds, wringing the hands of ghostly confessors, and looking them piteously in the eyes--die with despair of heart and convulsion of throat, on account of the hideousness of mysteries which will not suffer themselves to be revealed.

“The Man in the Crowd”

Edgar Allen Poe

I’ve heard people say that beginning stories with quotes like this is pretentious, but I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t considered some for stories I’ve been thinking up. I’m partial to the “feel for your hatchet” quote from The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe for one of them. As for how this quote relates to the story, I guess it’s a good way to describe the Masquerade, or the World of Darkness in general, or as a fancy way of hinting to the audience about the nature of the story’s mysteries. Or it just sounds cool?

St. Louis—March 10, 1994

Missouri isn’t the place I’d expect a vampire story to be set, but I guess everywhere has its shadowy underworld.

Two years after the prologue, we’re introduced to the first of the main viewpoint characters. He realizes he’s being followed, thanks to “A sixth sense, the result of years of detective work...” He pretends to scratch his foot and casually scans the crowd.

It was late, nearly midnight, but in St. Louis’ ‘adult’ entertainment strip, things were just starting to happen.

Dozens of people crowded the sidewalk. Men and women, black and white, they were all part of the usual weekend crowd. Cheap whores in black leather outfits that exhibited all of their charms mixed with high-class hookers dressed in silks. In a tough economy, both were anxious for business. Teenagers and college students hunted for drugs, bargaining with street dealers for the best price. Red-faced drunks begged for quarters. Young kids, dressed in rags and violating the curfew, danced on street corners, looking to grow up fast.

A hellhole full of life, in other words.

Young and old, they shared one trait in common. None of them expressed the least bit of interest in the motionless figure of Dire McCann.

We get the full name of our first main POV character. It reminds me of when one of the Penny Arcade guys named their D&D character “Jim Darkmagic”, but without the self awareness.

Dire had been traveling around America for the past few months, so he doesn’t know who he could have pissed off enough recently to get someone to track him. He’s recently been working for Alexander Vargoss, “a rich and powerful industrialist”, and, unsurprisingly, a vampire.

McCann couldn’t believe that his missions for Vargoss had anything to do with his tail tonight. Nobody with any intelligence, even major crooks, hassled the secretive industrialist or interfered with his plans. Besides being incredibly wealthy, with connections in both the police department and the mayor’s office, Vargoss was also the most powerful vampires in St. Louis. In the argot of the Kindred, he was the Prince of the city. And, like the medieval princes of old, from whom the term had been taken (yeah, no shit), Vargoss ruled with an iron hand. Any Kindred or kine (human) foolish enough to cross him ended up dead. The permanent end of the Final Death.

The narrator tells us a little about McCann.

Mysteries annoyed McCann.

Then you’re in the wrong profession, buddy. Wrong franchise too, come to think of it.

Especially when they revolved around him. Though he possessed extraordinary patience, the detective never delayed the inevitable, As he repeatedly told acquaintances, he liked to face the devil straight up.

I’m now picturing McCann as one of those guys who force a catchphrase and annoy those acquaintances by trying to insert it into everything as the whole room groans.

“Beer shouldn’t be green, even when it’s St. Patrick’s Day. But I’ll try one anyway, cause as we all know... I like to face the devil straight up.”

Luckily for the other characters, he doesn’t actually use that phrase in the story.

Oftentimes, that policy lead to bloodshed. But McCann, though he deemed himself the quiet type, was no stranger to violence. When necessary, he was quite deadly.

It’s mentioned that McCann’s carrying a stack of letters and a small box, and goes on to explain McCann’s mail collecting habits; how he collects from an all-night delivery center because while it’s more expensive he at least doesn’t have to worry about clerks stealing anything valuable.

The certainty of being watched had not started until after he had retrieved his mail. That perplexed McCann. A stakeout meant a long-term commitment of time and resources. He wondered who was after him? And why? The detective meant to find out.

We’ve safely established that Dire McCann is one of those old hard boiled mystery novel style private eyes. One who occasionally does jobs for a vampire. Nowadays private detectives are usually portrayed as weird creeps who bug phones and peek in windows to take photos of cheating spouses, like paparazzi for normal folk. More realistic, sure, but not a portrayal that’d last long in this setting. They’d end up seeing much more than they should, and being weird creeps with a borderline illegal profession instead of quiet but deadly badasses with careful mail collecting habits, they’d be easily killed to uphold the Masquerade.

McCann decides to face the devil straight up and heads into a nearby alley that he’s familiar with, preparing a trap. As he goes through the alley, we’re told that McCann is a great big slab of meat of a man.

A big, broad-shouldered man, standing four inches over six feet and weighing near two-fifty, the investigator moved with astonishing swiftness.

Guess he’s called “Dire” because he’s to a normal dude what a dire wolf is to a normal wolf. Still a goofy name.

The alley is dark, no lights except for moonlight, and there’re rats and trash everywhere. Time for some social commentary.

McCann stifled a snort of disgust. So much for keeping the neighborhoods clean. The main streets looked fine, but out of sight, just beyond the bend, urban decay ruled. Decades of graft and corruption had taken their toll on basic city services. St. Louis was no different from every big city. The rich and famous received all the benefits of modern life, while the poor and middle class suffered with the crumbs. Things never really changed, McCann decided, his gaze searching the walls. At least not in his lifetime.

The story is peppered with bits like this. The World of Darkness is a Harsher, Crueler Version of Our World, but sometimes it can get a little too real. You’ll see. Oh, and don’t think I missed that ominous last line about his lifetime. The narration insists that Dire McCann is human, though...

McCann hides in an alcove a dozen steps away from the twelve-foot high steel privacy fence the alley ends at, out of sight from anyone following him. From his topcoat (all the implied hard-boiledness of a trenchcoat but without looking like a hobo) he pulls out his gun. Vampires are hard to kill and most guns are useless against them, but since it takes time for them to heal enough force can immobilize them. That’s why the narration, somewhat over dramatically. reveals that McCann’s gun isn’t a .45 automatic or a .375 Magnum, but an Ingram MAC 10, whose bullets “could rip any normal man to shreds and smash a vampire flat.”

Eventually, the guy tailing McCann shows up.

Hugging the shadows, the newcomer was a short, stocky man in his mid-thirties, with swarthy, cruel features.

Swarthy, huh? As descriptions go, swarthy is like the evil twin of “olive-skinned”. Both are used by fantasy writers to describe people of color, but in a vague way that doesn’t tell you their actual ethnicity so sometimes they could just be white people with tans like the Dornishmen in A Song of Ice and Fire. While “olive-skinned” is generally a catch-all term, “swarthy” is more negative. Which is unfortunate since swarthy literally means “dark skinned”. Now, I don’t want you to think I’m accusing Robert Weinberg of being racist. I’ve heard people say that they thought swarthy meant something like “roguish”, like a thief or pirate or something. But I wouldn’t recommend using swarthy as a description when writing.

Also he’s called “swarthy” like five goddamn times.

The tail realizes he lost McCann and goes to examine the fence at the end of the alley, walking past McCann’s hiding spot in the process. Trap sprung, McCann steps out behind the tail MAC-10 aimed at him. After some back and forth (“Lose something, brother?” “McCann, right?”) McCann tries to ask who-

The detective never completed the sentence. The stranger’s right hand twisted unexpectedly. As if by magic, a thin cord flashed out from beneath the man’s arm and-wrapped whip like around the Ingram. McCann was caught completely by surprise. Before he could squeeze down on the trigger, the gun went flying from the detective’s hands.

Phhhhthahaha, that’s great! After all that build-up over how he uses a kickass MAC-10 instead of a Magnum like that pussy Dirty Harry, he’s immediately disarmed. By a guy who turns out to be a regular human, too.

Free of the threat of the submachine gun, the swarthy man attacked with a ferocity that had McCann reeling. A series of savage karate kicks to his chest sent the detective stumbling backwards. Steel-tipped boots felt like hammers striking McCann’s body. Growling deep in his throat, the assassin leapt into the air, aiming a sideways thrust for the detective’s head. Enough force propelled to crush McCann’s skull like an eggshell. But it never connected.

McCann grabs and twists the leg, breaking the assassin’s kneecap, then knocks him out with a wooden box. After a few minutes of searching, McCann finds his gun and the assassin’s rope.

A long thin strand of black fiberglass it was knotted in three places to crush to crush a man’s windpipe on impact. The weapon successfully melded melded modern technology with ancient sacrificial ritual.

Huh. Sounds like an interesting weapon for a guy who’ll turn out to be an unimportant throwaway assassin.

You ever heard of the inverse ninja law? How the more enemies the hero has to fight at once, the easier they are to defeat, while just one guy is a real threat? There’s a related trope that this scene reminded me of; the more unusual an opponent’s weapon is, the harder they are to defeat. A ninja wielding a katana is gonna be a chump, but the guy with the chain with a scythe at the end? Watch out for that guy. It would explain how the assassin could instantly disarm McCann like some sort of kung fu lord but go down in one move not long after he throws the rope away.

Course, that’s just tropey shit. The more practical reason the assassin lost was because he didn’t just shoot McCann after disarming him, instead resorting to riskier physical combat. But that’s why tropes like the inverse ninja law exist. They typically make the fight scenes more exciting and varied depending on context. It wouldn’t be much of a story if McCann lost his gun and then got shot in the head.

Still kind of funny how eccentric the guy’s weapon is and how much of a physical threat he briefly posed compared to how he’s about to be described. Reminds me of something I wrote during my teenage online role playing story days, where two of the protagonists fought some nameless generic guard and I made it weirdly dramatic and over the top.

McCann ties the assassin’s hands behind his back, with his own fiberglass rope to add insult to injury. He attempts to interrogate the assassin, who responds by demanding to be taken to the police and given a lawyer.

McCann smiled. “Funny thing about this part of town. Cops don’t come around here very often. They figure anyone crazy enough to wander about deserves what they get.” McCann rapped the muzzle of the gun against his prisoner’s undamaged knee. “You’re on your own, my friend. Back here, we’re isolated from view. Nobody can see or hear a thing. There’s no cops, no lawyers. Just you and me. And my gun.”

MAC-10 shots echoing out of an alley would get some attention, but the threat works. The assassin starts sweating and flickering his gaze between McCann and the gun.

Mentally, the detective shrugged in disgust. (Don’t ask me what a mental shrug is) He was wasting his time threatening this clown. It took a lot more than a veiled threat to worry a true professional. The swarthy man was cheap talent, hired merely as a diversion.

A cheap talent clown who was kicking your ass a few minutes ago, you smug meathead.

This bit highlights the problem with the previous fight scene. This assassin was shown just a few paragraphs ago to be an expert with an unusual weapon who could turn the tables on McCann even though the detective had snuck up on him and had a submachine gun aimed at him, and a good enough physical fighter to overpower McCann with karate kicks and nearly cave his head in, but now he’s presented as an incompetent and disposable pawn who whines about wanting a lawyer. The scene could have just had the assassin pull a gun on McCann, who quickly subdues him. It’d fit the assassin’s later description as unprofessional and amateur better. Instead, Weinberg tried to go for “cool’ but ended up with “silly”. So remember, writing something just because it’s cool is fine, but try to make it consistent with the rest of the story.

Now what was that about the assassin being “hired merely as a diversion?”

A decoy! The thought slammed through McCann as the sensation of being observed suddenly flared. Instead, the big detective flung himself flat on the ground in the darkness.

I like the needless qualifier that McCann is a big detective. There’s something cute about it.

The realization that this assassin was a decoy apparently triggered a sort of spider-sense. The moment McCann, who is large, dove to the ground, a second assassin opened fire at him from the corner of the alley. They missed McCann, despite his above-average size, but killed the first guy. McCann fires back, but the new assailant already fled.

“Strike quickly, then move. That was the operational procedure of a true professional. Never waste time on meaningless chatter or second tries. Mistakes like that were for amateurs like the dead man sprawled against the wall.

Oh what the hell is this? McCann was the one caught off guard by “meaningless chatter.” He was disarmed by the first assassin while he was talking to him. The guy was easily bamboozed by McCann’s “hide in an alcove and sneak up on him when he passes” trap, but McCann totally blew that advantage by talking so it doesn’t really count. The guy’s just blaming the poor dead man for his own screw ups. “A true professional wouldn’t have let himself get hammered in the chest by karate kicks, unlike this dead clown who totally got karate kicked and not me. Also wouldn’t have been disarmed by my, not his, weird rope thing that’s totally mine, not his.”

The big dick thinks “the real assassin” was gone.

A short, muffled gasp and a flash of white leather indicated that McCann jumped to the wrong conclusion. The detective shook his head in disbelief. The night held more surprises than he liked.

Three figures stepped into the moonlight.

We finally meet some goddamn vampires.

Their leader was a tall, aristocratic man with a face that appeared to be carved from weathered stone. He wore a black tuxedo with a ruffled white shirt, a red bow tie, and a matching red cummerband. To McCann, it was a costume right out of a wedding. Or a funeral. The detective, though, knew better than to speak his thoughts. No one dared insult Alexander Vargoss, Ventrue Clan elder. And the vampire Prince of St. Louis.

Gotta say, despite him being a Ventrue, I can respect the man for not being above walk down a filthy rat infested alley wearing a fancy wedding outfit just to dramatically reveal himself to the big oaf he occasionally employs.

A step behind him stood two nearly identical platinum blondes. White leather jumpsuits clung to their voluptuous figures like second skins. High cheekbones, pitch black eyes, and wide sensuous lips gave them a predatory look.

Well yeah, it’s a 90′s dark fantasy novel. Of course they’re hot.

McCann had encountered them before. They were Fawn and Flavia, Vargoss’s twin bodyguards. Silent and deadly, they never spoke. Or acted without direct command of their Ventrue employer. Assamite assassins, the twins enjoyed their notorious nicknames as the Dark Angels of the Kindred.

A name like ~*~The Dark Angels~*~ seems quaint nowadays, but again, 90′s fantasy novel. But hey, maybe they were named by a Toreador.

Fawn’s holding the corpse of the second assassin, a “horrified expression frozen on his face.” She has blood on her upper lip like an old “Got Milk” ad.

With a flick of her long tongue, she wiped it clean. Then, mischievously, the vampire smiled seductively at McCann.

The detective shuddered. Though she looked to be in her early twenties, McCann knew the girl and her sister were actually hundreds of years old. Oftentimes, the pair mocked him with suggestive gestures. They enjoyed pretending that passion still stirred within their perfect forms. But McCann wasn’t fooled. Along with food and drink, vampires no longer craved sex. For them, hot blood was the ultimate high. Carnal pleasures meant little to them. However, McCann had heard tales of Kindred who had taken human lovers in a desperate attempt to regain some of their lost humanity. The notion made his flesh crawl.

Way to be judgmental, investigatore grande.

There aren’t any actual sex scenes in this book, but trust me, the subject of undead sex will come up again.

Vargoss gives one of those humble little “we were just in the neighborhood” explanations. Specifically, they were on their way to McCann’s office to be haughty little undeads to their human freelance employee in a proper setting when they saw him enter the alley followed by “two lowlife scum”. They figured McCann wouldn’t want their help, so they stayed hidden.

“However, when your adversary chose to flee rather than fight, I demanded he stop.” Vargoss shook his head in mock despair. “The fool chose instead to pull his weapon on me. Fawn, of course, reacted.”

McCann loots the bodies, finding some money and a billfold he’ll examine later. There’s a paragraph giving us another glimpse at how cruel the world (of darkness) is, telling us that the assassins will be mistaken for vagrants and that since there’s fifty unexplained deaths in St. Louis every month, two dead bums won’t be mentioned in the newspaper. McCann says that Vargoss could’ve warned him before the second assassin started shooting.

“Nonsense,” said the Prince, smiling. “I had absolute confidence in your ability to deal with the situation. Circumstances proved that my trust was not misplaced.”

“That first fight, however, there I overestimated you. A shorter man with a rope was taking you to school for a while. No, don’t pull the stoic grumpy private eye act and deny what happened. We all saw it.”

“And if you were wrong?”

“There are other humans, McCann,” said the Prince. “Never forget that. I find you vastly entertaining. And quite useful despite your mortal limitations. I would mourn your passing. But you are not indispensable. There will always be others to take your place. In five hundred years, you will be no more than a pleasant memory. I will still remain.”

Vampires are to other monsters what elves are to other fantasy races: smug little shits. It’s why more people fantasize about banging werewolves and fish people these days. But Vargoss is talking down to McCann of all people here, so I’ll let it side.

“What a cheerful sentiment,” said the detective. He picked his words very carefully. Vargoss appreciated his honesty and his sarcasm—within limits. No vampire in St. Louis mocked the Prince of the city. Much less a human, no matter how entertaining. McCann tiptoed on a tightrope where undead horrors feared to tread.

“Ah, McCann. What a scamp he is with his silly first name and his sarcastic barbs. But not too sarcastic. He knows I can make him defecate in his hands and throw it at other people like the big ape he is.”

“I cannot afford the luxury of emotions,” declared Vargoss, almost wistfully. “We Kindred are an ambitious race. It is part of our heritage. More than a few of my loyal subjects believe that they should rule this city, not I. Too many of my nights are spent squelching their ill-conceived plots.”

I’m imagining Vargoss being voiced by David Warner here. You know, the guy who voiced Ra’s al Ghul in Batman: The Animated Series, The Lobe in Freakazoid, and that one crappy villain from Gargoyles.

“Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown,” said McCann.

“Shakespeare understood the politics of power,” said Vargoss. “He should have been one of us.”

As long as he wouldn’t be made a Toreador, ‘cause then he’d spend his eternal life writing just the shittiest plays and sonnets imaginable. Also, careful there, Mr. Weinberg. Remember than Edgar Allen Poe is your dead poet waifu. You don’t want to make him jealous.

Vargoss has had enough witty back and forth and commands McCann to come to his club around midnight. He has a guest from overseas with news of “extremely disturbing events” from the former Soviet Union and for whatever reason he wants some human detective’s opinion on it.

“I’ll be there”, said the detective . “At midnight.”

“Because as we all know-”

“McCann, no-”

“I like to face the devil straight up.”

“Damn you, Dire McCann... Who’s even the devil in this context? What’s going on overseas? Me?”

Vargoss and the ~*~Dark Angels~*~ leave. As the chapter ends, McCann is standing alone in the alley with the two corpses.

Holding in his hands a small box and a stack of letters, several with foreign postmarks. And an enigmatic smile on his face.

#vampire the masquerade #vtm #vtmb #world of darkness #vampire: the masquerade #blood war

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artforartssxke · 6 years

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{LIVE THEATRE REVIEW}

On the 3rd of February 2018, I saw the production of ‘The Wedding’ by internationally acclaimed theatre company, Gecko. From the moment they came on stage I was sat in amazement. This performance was about the idea of being married to our society and not being able to file for divorce without having some sort of backlash. “Led by Amit Lahav, Gecko’s latest creation is inspired by the complexities of human nature: the struggle between love and anger, creation and destruction, community and isolation. In a blur of wedding dresses and contractual obligations, our extraordinary ensemble of international performers will guide audiences through a dystopian world in which we are all brides, wedded to society.” (www.geckotheatre.com , Accessed 6/2/18)

This company used a wide range of contemporary movements and techniques including physical theatre, dance, synchronisation, imagery and provocative narratives in true Gecko style. The development of the show began in 2015 and has taken Amit Lahav 3 years to perfect his show. He began working as a collaborative with his actors and had said in a panel on 2nd February 2017 at the Nottingham Playhouse, that the actors had ‘artistic reign over the movements and speech that they used’ he believed that having his actors be a part of the devising process would allow them to have more of a personal inclusion with the show. Amit had also been meeting and researching with diversity and racial equality professionals in order to take his shows further into real life. Gecko are aiming to take their shows to new cities and towns across the globe and to spread the message of their currently touring three shows across the world to new people, whether that be adults, children, locals, migrants and show everyone the importance of understanding what his shows are about and how they relate to everyday life.

The mere abstract nature of this play was particularly inspiring as I have never seen anything like this. Lahav spoke about the nature of the play in a panel after its showing on the 2nd February 2017, and addressed what made him chose to have this show in another language, for us to find out later that there was not one language used but 7, as he advised the actors in rehearsal when they asked him for advice on their delivery of his written text, to “say it however it comes naturally to you, speak using your mother tongue” made me as an audience member think about the effect that using multiple languages would have had in my own work. As an English audience member, it was harder for me to understand what was being said during the play however, the words were not crucial as I was still able to follow the story without following it word for word. The elaborate movements and dances that they used to accompany the words were what made me understand the story more clearly. Often the way they delivered their text was also a factor that helped. Their use of tone and volume and the way they pronounced certain words with a certain power of their voices really helped me join some of the dots together and make sense of the narrative.

Relating to Schechner’s 7 functions of performance (Schechner 2013:46) the company Gecko, embodied a full sense of post-modern techniques including ritual and ceremony looking in depth about marriages from different cultures. For example, they performed the traditional Jewish marriage ritual of stamping on a glass under a white piece of cloth. A traditional English wedding was also insinuated where confetti was thrown over the married couple.

All the moves that the company delivered to us were done with conviction and passion behind them as they moved with a certain authority and power. Their movements to the eye looked very simple but as they were used so powerfully and delivered with such passion they created more of an illusion to the naked eye and came across as they looked harder. For example, there was a moment in the first section of the show where they had just welcomed a new member to their work place and three already members of the workplace came out of a door to greet the recruit. A Spanish song began to play and the three men began to dance around the recruit using an ‘appell’ which is a movement commonly used in Paso Double where the foot is stamped and the hands are clapped which displayed a sense of excitement for the new guy.

There was another moment where the main character ‘Sophie’ who from the beginning had shown signs of rebellion against this whole demeanour, where she was pleading for help from someone to help her get the divorce from this robotic life that stayed the same throughout every day. She would raise her volume and would make direct eye contact with audience members as she tries to plead for us to help her. She eventually convinces another one of the recruits to help her in her rebellion and they showed this progression of the revolution in a ‘hacker’ styled dance where they hit their legs with force, stamped their feet on the floor with angry facial expressions. They also used some audience involvement as, as Sophie tried to build her rebellion she would give everyone who agreed for the divorce a yellow flower and leant down, down, centre stage and to reach out to an audience member to give him a flower too. She then purposefully did not let him take the flower and let if fall so that it would suggest to an audience the revolution could fall.

Dance was used throughout the performance to represent a sense of community. As most of the devisors and actors in this production had been professionally danced trained by the likes of practitioners Hofesh Shecter and Akram Kahn, there was no surprise as to why their dance moves were delivered with such conviction and power. The end piece especially connoted the sense of community as all nine actors lined their chairs up at the front of the stage and began to clap and stamp vigorously to the final song. Lahav told an audience in the panel that he does not know what that song means and why it is so powerful as it is not written in a specific language, it is a made up language, a universal language but Lahav said “ask any of those actors what it means and they will be able to tell you straight away its meaning as it means so much to them”.

One moment that was significant to me was the man and his family in the suitcase. This created quite a comedic effect on the audience as he was a homeless man trying to fend for his family by dancing on street corners. There were other connotations as we saw they could have been illegal immigrants as they had to keep showing their ID’s to the authorities. They showed their journey of living on the streets in a fast-paced way as when they had to run away from the police and move from place to place they would all run as fast as they can on the spot down stage centre to show their journey in a more theatrical and contemporary way rather than running around the stage which would usually be done in a more dramatic piece of theatre. This was very engaging to an audience as we had developed a connection with these characters as they became very funny and likeable throughout their scene. Their synchronised movements that connotated to their escape was very effective as they came across united as a family and no matter what they would always be together as their journey became more dangerous and the suggestion that they couldn’t run forever came across we saw the fast pace draw to a close and the main guy trying to provide eventually conformed and married to society to save his family.

Overall, for me ‘The Wedding’ was an exquisite performance full of powerful movements and narratives. They did not just go with the usual way of portraying things and instead went beyond the norm to create the effect that they did. Gecko are a highly successful theatre company in creating abstract theatre and heart wrenching theatre and the moment that they created at the end of the show really plunged me into a pool of emotions and I also felt triumphant with the actors that they had completed the rebellions and bought down the monarchy and that they had given us such a wonderful and enthusiastic show.

Bibliography;

Gecko Theatre, (2016) The Wedding [WWW] Available from: http://geckotheatre.com/the-wedding/

Schechner, R. (2013) Performance Studies. Third Edition. London: Routledge

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scifitalk · 7 years

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Official Synopsis:

Fueled by his restored faith in humanity and inspired by Superman’s selfless act, Bruce Wayne enlists the help of his newfound ally, Diana Prince, to face an even greater enemy. Together, Batman and Wonder Woman work quickly to find and recruit a team of metahumans to stand against this newly awakened threat. But despite the formation of this unprecedented league of heroes—Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Cyborg and The Flash—it may already be too late to save the planet from an assault of catastrophic proportions.

Picking up shortly after we last saw Bruce and Diana go their separate ways, the story reconnects these two characters who may not always see the same road toward their shared goal. But it’s their shared motivation—to do right by the sacrifice Superman made—that allows them to find common ground very quickly in order to face Steppenwolf, an eight-foot-tall warrior from the nightmare world of Apokolips. He seeks the power to conquer the world and transform it into his own. He is no ordinary villain, and it will take an extraordinary force to defeat him.

Zack Snyder states, “Just the idea of getting the Justice League together on the same playing field, taking their place in the cinematic landscape as a team and embarking on an amazing adventure…the mere concept of it was awe-inspiring.”

In the film, the loss of Superman—of hope—is the catalyst for everything that happens, on both sides. But there is little time to mourn, and even less time to take action. Earth is vulnerable, primed for attack because of that void. And because the hero who stood for hope and justice is gone, the League must unite in his stead, to fight for the world he saved. Producer Deborah Snyder adds, “These characters all have such unique personalities, and such different powers and abilities, and the chance to pool them together to see how powerful they can be as a unit was such a thrill. Not to mention the urgency of their mission. There’s no time to practice. It’s game on from the moment they come together, because this is an extremely formidable enemy.”

To form the League, the story takes us to the ends of the Earth and beyond: from a gritty Gotham to Central City, the populous Paris to the frozen wilds of Iceland, from Themyscira to Atlantis, and from buzzing Metropolis to the serenity of Smallville. If Bruce and Diana can succeed in recruiting the others for this larger-than-life battle in which all their worlds are at stake, they will come together as the greatest team of Super Heroes in the DC universe.

Ben Affleck: “Batman still really resonates because on the one hand he’s a Super Hero, but on the other hand he is just like us,” Affleck states. “He feels vulnerable; he bleeds if you cut him. He is a real person on the inside and yet he is ‘super.’ There are all kinds of contradictions inherent in that, which makes for interesting storytelling.”

Gal Gadot: “Wearing my costume felt like the most normal thing because I had been doing it for six months before,” Gadot states. “But seeing everyone else wearing their own costumes was wonderful. I remember the first three days, I kept looking at all the guys and me in costume, and I just kept laughing because it felt so surreal. So many Super Heroes, standing together. It was really great to be shooting this movie.” “Wonder Woman is the greatest warrior.She has such amazing strength, but at the same time she can be very, well, human. She cares so much for people and she just wants to make the world a better place because she sees the world as very special. Life is so complicated and we forget about the simple things, but she always remembers them: love, hope, do good in the world. And I think that’s something that everyone can aspire to.”

Erza Miller: “The Flash is a scientist in the sense that a scientist studies the natural order of things, makes observations and performs experiments,” Miller explains. “But Barry’s inherently interested in quantum mechanics because he’s literally running into them. “When we first meet Barry in the film, he’s just awakening to his powers. He hasn’t really tested them out, he’s not yet breached the event horizon, as it were. But he’s starting to feel there’s an opportunity waiting for him.”

Ray Fisher : “Cyborg became the very technology that was used to rebuild him. The technology his father used was alien and it imbued him with super-abilities. He has super-strength. He can fly. He’s a technopath, which means he can interface with anything technological. He has worlds of information at his disposal, not just from our galaxy but also from other universes. But it’s all pretty new, so he struggles with it. It begs the question, ‘How deeply should you allow yourself to become entrenched in the idea of who and what you are? ”

Jason Momoa : “He’s the heir to the throne of Atlantis, but he’s not the king yet. So, as always, he’s between worlds. But here at the frozen ends of the earth, he has a purpose. Arthur is a good man, he helps people who genuinely need him, and he’s found a place where they accept and respect him. He can take off his ‘mask’ here.”

Henry Cavill: “There’s nothing quite like playing Superman, It’s still surreal.There was a moment where I was really tired near the end of a long day, and I was thinking ‘I’m hungry and I’m looking forward to getting to bed.’ And then I realized I had Cyborg, Aquaman, and Wonder Woman all standing in front of me, and they were in costume and it looked so fantastic. And all of a sudden, my fatigue went away. I just wanted to live in the moment and appreciate that I’m doing the thing that I wanted to do as a kid, but as real as it gets as an adult. You become very thankful for that kind of thing. Martha is seeing everyone mourning this Superman character, but she’s mourning Clark, her son. And she can’t tell anyone that Superman was her son. It’s a terrible loneliness and pain for her to go through. It’s excruciating for both Martha and Lois to see all these people mourning a man that none of them truly knew.””

Costume Designer Michael Wilkinson and his concept artists came up with an immensely detailed 3D model of Cyborg, defining the graphic language and textures of the alien world. They then handed it over to the visual effects department, who continued to develop Cyborg’s look under Snyder’s direction and guided by the actor’s performance. For the shoot, it was simply a matter of Wilkinson’s team sewing together Ray Fisher’s “pajamas”: the blue-dotted performance-capture suit that the skilled VFX artists would digitally replace, under the supervision of visual effects supervisor DJ DesJardin. Wilkinson also turned his attention to Superman’s suit, marking his third go ‘round. “This time, you’re going to see a Superman that’s a little more lustrous,” says Wilkinson. “We developed an extremely beautiful metallic chromed under-suit that Henry wears, using materials and processes that weren’t available for previous versions of the costume. And for the over-suit, we created a mesh that’s a slightly bolder blue than the last film, so he really jumps off the screen in such a heroic way. And Zack had the fantastic idea of incorporating some Kryptonian scripts throughout the suit, so we wove some of that language, which we’d developed for ‘Man of Steel,’ through the S, across the bicep, through the belt, and in the cuff details. It adds that extra layer of meaning and detail for the audience.”

The suit was created by screen-printing a dimensional print onto a thin mesh that is itself the latest in fabric technology. “It’s even more sheer and beautiful and lustrous than what you saw in ‘Batman v Superman,’” Wilkinson asserts, “but super strong so that it didn’t fall apart when it was stretched tight. We also found amazing new printing inks that make a very dimensional, high-raised surface, and new paints that make it appear almost chromed. All of these little tweaks add up to a bolder, more impactful costume.” Techniques aside, perhaps the newest territory for the “Justice League” costume department was in housing the entire costume crew under one roof. Normally on a film of such scope and scale, each main character’s costume is made by a different manufacturing company, under the direction of the costume designer. But this time, the filmmakers did something they’d never done before.

Finally, Wilkinson’s costumes also had to withstand the “tuning forks.” First developed for use on “The Matrix Revolutions,” they were introduced to the filmmakers by stunt coordinator Eunice Huthart. The device resembles a huge tuning fork, hence the name. The actor is strapped into the middle, and there is a counterbalance that enables him to mimic weightlessness, like being underwater, for example. Not only can he be rotated forward and backwards, but also on the y-axis. Just as Superman can fly, Aquaman can float.

The film also stars Amy Adams as Lois Lane, Jeremy Irons as Alfred, Diane Lane as Martha Kent, Connie Nielsen as Hippolyta, and J.K. Simmons as Commissioner Gordon.

The “Justice League” screenplay is by Chris Terrio and Joss Whedon, story by Chris Terrio & Zack Snyder, based on characters from DC, Superman created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. The film’s producers are Charles Roven, Deborah Snyder, Jon Berg and Geoff Johns, with executive producers Jim Rowe, Ben Affleck, Wesley Coller, Curtis Kanemoto, Daniel S. Kaminsky and Chris Terrio.

Justice League Preview Official Synopsis: Fueled by his restored faith in humanity and inspired by Superman’s selfless act, Bruce Wayne enlists the help of his newfound ally, Diana Prince, to face an even greater enemy.

#Ben Affleck #Erza Miller #Gal Gadot #Henry Cavill #Jason Momoa #Joss Whedon #Justice League #Michael Wilkinson #Ray Fisher #Zack Snyder

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ramialkarmi · 7 years

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Christopher Nolan explains the biggest challenges in making his latest movie 'Dunkirk' into an 'intimate epic'

From instant classics like “Memento” and “Inception,” to his flawless “The Dark Knight” trilogy, director Christopher Nolan has spent his career telling unique stories while pushing the medium. And for his latest movie, “Dunkirk” (opening July 21), he’s pushed it further than most ever have.

Recounting the evacuation of close to 400,000 British soldiers from Dunkirk, France during World War II, Nolan tells the story in three parts: soldiers on the Dunkirk beach trying to survive as German planes drop bombs on them, British Spitfire aircraft trying to shoot down the German bombers, and civilian boats taking a day trip to assist in the evacuation.

In typical Nolan fashion, he goes beyond the norms to depict the events. Filmed with little dialogue and a non-linear story, powered by the ticking clock score of composer Hans Zimmer, it’s the incredible images filmed on an IMAX camera that move the story.

Business Insider spoke to Nolan about the challenges of making “Dunkirk,” using as little CGI as possible to pull off the action, casting Harry Styles in one of the main roles, and why he can’t get enough of the comedy “MacGruber.”

Jason Guerrasio: One of the big things I took away from the movie was how intimate the setting and characters were compared to the subject matter and the IMAX format. I hope that reaction doesn't disappoint you.

Christopher Nolan: No. I refer to it as an intimate epic. That was very much my ambition for this film. To immerse the audience in aggressively human scale storytelling, visually. And by contrasting multiple points of view but each told in a disciplined way. Try and build up a larger picture of the extraordinary events at Dunkirk.

Guerrasio: So was that one of the biggest challenges of pulling off this project? Condensing the events at Dunkirk into intimate storytelling.

Nolan: Well, the tension between subjective storytelling and sort of the bigger picture is always a challenge in any film, particularly when you're taking on, which I never have done before, historical reality. So I really wanted to be on that beach with those guys. I wanted the audience to feel like they are there. But I also need them and want them to understand what an incredible story this is. I never wanted to cut out generals in rooms pushing things around on maps, so I settled on a land, sea, and air approach. I settled on subjective storytelling shifting between very different points of view. You're there on the beach with the soldiers, you're on a civilian boat coming across to help, or you're in the cockpit of the Spitfire dogfighting with the enemy up above.

Guerrasio: That's what's crazy, though the story is told on a huge IMAX screen, the shots from inside the cockpit of the Spitfire feel claustrophobic.

Nolan: What I love about IMAX is with its extraordinary resolution and color reproduction it's a very rich image with incredible detail. It lends itself wonderfully to huge shots with much in the frame. Thousands of extras and all the rest. But it also lends itself to the intimate, the small, the detail, incredibly well. The high aspect ratio on those screens, you're getting the roof of the set, the water creeping in from the bottom, you can get a very tactile sense of the situation we're trying to present.

Guerrasio: You've done more with an IMAX camera on this movie than anyone has yet, is there something you will never try to attempt again with this equipment in a future movie?

Nolan: I think, to be perfectly honest, everything we managed to do with the IMAX camera has encouraged us to try more and more.

Guerrasio: So there wasn't one thing you were like, "Nope, never again."

Nolan: No. I think in truth the only real limitation for me of those cameras is we haven't found a way to make them sufficiently soundproof to record dialogue. For other filmmakers this wouldn't be a problem, but I personally really like to use the dialogue that's recorded live on set. I don't like to ADR [additional dialogue replacement] things. I think you lose something in the performance. So that means that any time there's a really intimate dialogue scene, I need to use another format. In this case, for "Dunkirk," we used 5 perf-65mm. So our kind of smaller format was the format “Lawrence of Arabia” was shot on.

Guerrasio: What is your approach to editing? It's important for every filmmaker but your stories are often told in a unique way where editing really must be a high priority. Do you edit while shooting?

Nolan: My approach to the edit is I have a great editor in Lee Smith who I have worked with for years, he edits as we go along. He assembles the film. I tend not to look at any of that. I don't cut while I'm shooting. I'm too busy shooting. I watch dailies every day the old fashioned way, which I'm surprised so few filmmakers do anymore. It used to be a requirement of the job. But we project our dailies on film everyday and we sit there and talk about what we've done and sort of steer the ship. Lee goes ahead and edits but I tend not to look at those cuts unless there's a problem. If he sees a problem and thinks we've missed something at that point I'll go in and look at stuff. But generally what I do is I wait until filming has finished and then we get into the edit suite and start again from scratch. We view all the data and we start building it up from the beginning.

Guerrasio: Was there any specific sequence in this movie that was a challenge in the edit?

Nolan: The aerial sequences were particularly challenging because the reality of aerial sequences is they are tremendous eye candy. You watch the dailies you just want to use everything. But you have to be constantly aware in the edit that story drives everything for an audience. And if there isn't a new story point being made you have to be disciplined, so in the aerial sequences we were throwing away some of the most incredible aerial footage that I've ever seen and not putting it in the film because that's what you have to do. You have to trust that with what you are putting in there you are going to convey that sense of visceral excitement and wonderment that you felt in the dailies. That's always a challenge and it takes a long time to hone the whole thing down from a longer cut to a shorter cut.

Guerrasio: I couldn't tell what was visual effects and what was practical in this movie, particularly the sinking destroyers and dogfights. How much visual effects were used?

Nolan: I’m very proud with the visual effects being as seamless as they are. I worked very closely with my visual effects supervisor, who was there shooting with me on set. He basically was doing himself out of a job because he was able to help me achieve things in-camera that would have actually been visual effects and then didn't need to be. So, there's really nothing in the film that isn't in some way based in some kind of practical reality that we put in front of the camera. We didn't want anything to go fully CG and I'm very proud to be able to say that of my films this is the first time when we've been able to make a film that I actually can't remember which of the shots are visual effects and which aren't in some of the sequences. We've never been able to get to that point before.

Guerrasio: So the Spitfire doing the water landing, that was a replica plane?

Nolan: Yeah, we built a full size replica Spitfire and landed it on the water for real. And we actually strapped an IMAX camera to it for the crash and the thing sank much more quickly than we anticipated, because you never know, no one has done this before. And in the hours it took to retrieve the IMAX camera its housing, which was a big plastic barrel, actually had a hole in it and the entire thing filled with water. So the camera was completely submerged. But we called the lab and they clued us into an old fashioned technique that used to be used on film shoots. You keep the film wet, you unload the camera, and you keep it damp the whole time. We shipped it back to Los Angeles from the set in France, and they processed it before drying it out and the shot came out absolutely perfect and it's in the film.

Guerrasio: Wow.

Nolan: Try doing that with a digital camera! [Laughs]

Guerrasio: The scores in your movies are always so memorable, how did the second hand on a clock ticking theme come to you, and how did that evolve with your composer Hans Zimmer?

Nolan: The screenplay had been written according to musical principals. There's an audio illusion, if you will, in music called a "Shepard tone" and with my composer David Julyan on "The Prestige" we explored that and based a lot of the score around that. And it's an illusion where there's a continuing ascension of tone. It's a corkscrew effect. It’s always going up and up and up but it never goes outside of its range. And I wrote the script according to that principle. I interwove the three timelines in such a way that there's a continual feeling of intensity. Increasing intensity. So I wanted to build the music on similar mathematical principals. Very early on I sent Hans a recording that I made of a watch that I own with a particularly insistent ticking and we started to build the track out of that sound and then working from that sound we built the music as we built the picture cut. So there's a fusion of music and sound effects and picture that we've never been able to achieve before.

Guerrasio: You certainly gained your auteur status some time ago, but you also manned a huge Hollywood franchise, I want your perspective on today's blockbuster making. Has the director's voice been lost in today's blockbuster? It seems producers like Kathleen Kennedy at Lucasfilm and Kevin Feige at Marvel Studios are making all the creative moves.

Nolan: I think the Hollywood machine as an industrial process, there's always been a tension between art and commerce in Hollywood filmmaking, so the machine itself is often looking for ways to depersonalize the process so that it is more predictable as an economic model. But in truth, thankfully for directors it never works. [Laughs] Not long term. The director is, I think, the closest thing to the all-around filmmaker on set. You need a point of focus, a creative point of focus, through which the rest of the team's input can be focused on and I think the director is the best person suited to do that. At the end of the day, I think directors have always been absolutely driving the creative process.

Guerrasio: But the argument can be made that currently the producers on particular tentpole projects are the creative point of focus and they then hire a crew, including a director, who will follow that vision. I'm sure you had to listen to your share of notes from Warner Bros. while making your Batman movies, could you make a franchise movie in today's conditions?

Nolan: I think those conditions are being overstated. Like, everyone talking about "Star Wars" as an example are willfully ignoring what J.J. Abrams did in the process. Which isn't appropriate, J.J. is a very powerful creator. Not to mention, George Lucas, by the way. [Laughs] I mean, there is a bigger reality here in terms of where these things actually come from.

Guerrasio: Obviously, there's always the originator. Which, thankfully, is an individual and not something done by committee.

Nolan: Well, and I don't think anybody thought that Jon Favreau was doing a sensible thing by casting Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man, but what an incredible decision he made. There's an entire industry based on that now.

Guerrasio: Very true. And we can pivot that a little to you casting Harry Styles. Many were scratching their heads about that casting and I think many will see you’ve really discovered a talent. Do you pat yourself on the back with this one or was it casting director magic?

Nolan: Oh, I'm very much patting myself on the back. [Laughs] Well, I'm the guy who is always taking it on the chin if I make the wrong decision. The truth is ever since I cast Heath Ledger as The Joker and raised all kinds of eyebrows, I've recognized that this is my responsibility and I really have to spot the potential in somebody who hasn't done a particular thing before. Because whether you're taking about Harry Styles or Mark Rylance you don't really want to cast them in a position where they are doing something they've already done. You want to give the audience something different. So you're looking at their talent and how that can be used. The truth is, Harry auditioned for our casting director, he sent the tape along. The casting director rightly pointed out how good it was. We threw him into the mix with many, many other young men and he earned his seat at the table over a series of very hard-fought auditions.

Guerrasio: He's very good in the movie.

Nolan: I’m very excited for people to see what he has done in the film. I think it's truthful and it's a very tough role he's playing, too.

Guerrasio: Do you get to watch a lot of new releases? Do you try to keep up on everything?

Nolan: I do when I'm not working. It depends on what phase I'm working. Obviously, this year I've been very buried in my own process. But in between films I absolutely try to catch up on everything.

Guerrasio: When's the last time you've laughed uncontrollably while watching a movie.

Nolan: Oooo. [Pause]

Guerrasio: There has to be one.

Nolan: Oh, there are many, but I'm trying to think if there's a recent. You know, I've been outed in the past as a "MacGruber" fan and I have to say there are a couple of moments in that film that had been howling uncontrollably.

Guerrasio: Give me one in particular, I have to know.

Nolan: [Laughs] I'm not going to go any further!

SEE ALSO: The inside story of how "Spider-Man" star Tom Holland went undercover in a NYC high school to prepare to be Peter Parker

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mdye · 7 years

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Warning: Some spoilers ahead.

There are three leading men at helm of “The Handmaid’s Tale,” a show that centers more frequently on the horrific experiences women endure in a theocratic dictatorship known as Gilead.

Each male character probably consider himself a “good” man: The commander (Joseph Fiennes) would argue that any his so-called faults ― and there are many ― pale in comparison to his devotion to a greater future, which he is engineering for all of humanity. Nick (Max Minghella) would claim powerlessness, for he is, after all, just a driver, incapable of truly saving the woman he’s falling in love with. He might be a spy for the men who’ve made this hellish existence reality, but he chooses not to inform on Offred (Elisabeth Moss), or June as she was once known.

And then there’s Luke.

Luke, played by British actor O.T. Fagbenle, has escaped the dystopia that’s ensnared his wife June and turned her into a sexual slave for fearful misogynists. He reluctantly crossed the U.S. border into Canada, nearly dying in the process, eventually finding his way to a settlement known as Little America. By Episode 7 of the series, he’s lost his partner, his daughter, and ― unable to be the savior he’d probably imagined he could be; escape was his only means of reuniting with his family ― he’s stuck in limbo. In Canada, he’s begging officials to update him on the status of June, to help him locate her and their daughter, rescue them, bring them to safety.

In Margaret Atwood’s book, the source material for Hulu’s series, Luke is but a figment of Offred’s memories. The Luke of the TV adaptation, however, has been given a heftier storyline, a little bit more agency in this stomach-churning universe that’s made life an existential nightmare for nearly everyone involved. Still, showrunner Bruce Miller and the series’ writers held back ― they didn’t turn Luke into a hero. In fact, even in Offred’s memories, he’s the imperfect feminist ally. He, like so many others, turned a blind eye to the creeping acts of sexism and violence around them. He wasn’t painted as a key member of the resistance; instead, when the world was falling apart, he attempted to quell June’s fears with the standard motto of masculinity: “I’ll take care of you.” These murmurs of imperfection are hardly indictments. “Good” men can be patronizing, the series makes clear. “Good” men can be fail to be heroes.

Ahead of Episode 7, which was released on Wednesday, HuffPost spoke to Fagbenle about his character’s evolution. Check out our conversation about male feminists, Little America and populism below.

What was it about the character of Luke that drew you to the show?

To be honest, my first draw to it was the source material and the script that’s so profound, so important, so beautiful. And then to work with Elisabeth Moss, Bruce Miller, Reed Morano. I was like, I’m a fool not to be a part of this journey. But Luke is the one guy you meet outside of Gilead, and represents the counterbalance to the men who’ve bought into that system. I was really intrigued by that.

We experience Luke in two ways throughout the series ― first, through Offred’s memories, which seem dream-ified, maybe a little bit idealized; second, through the scenes that show Luke’s perspective on what happened during and after he and June are separated. As an actor, did you approach these scenes differently?

I think I had to approach each moment as if I was there and responding to everything, because there’s no real way of me playing someone else’s dreams, that you don’t know about. I just have to play my truth in that moment and hope that reads. For me it was more of a continuum.

Having read Margaret Atwood’s book, were you happy about the ways Bruce Miller adapted Luke’s character for the show? Were you excited about anything in particular?

You know, I’m an actual fan of the book. I can’t recommend enough to your readers to actually go and read the book. Don’t worry about spoilers, just go and read the book, because it’s amazing. It’s nourishment for the soul. So as a fan of the book, I’m very protective of it as well. What’s amazing about what Bruce and his extraordinary imagination has done is it’s taken the book and I think in ways fulfilled it visually. In terms of Luke, he’s taken scant lines, little whispers of Luke from the book, and helped create something ― along with Lynn [Renee Maxcy, who wrote Episode 7] ― and expand on Luke and the world in such a satisfying way. That’s one of the things I enjoyed so much about reading the script, because I have so many questions about this world and I’m so excited about this world. I’ve still got more questions I want answered and luckily we live in an age where there is a medium that can help fulfill my infatuation with the novel.

Episode 7 is such an intense episode for your character. How did you conceive of the emotions Luke’s going through at the time of his and June’s separation, when he’s forced to cross the border into safety himself, leaving his family behind?

I think the two main tools actors have are the imagination of what other people have gone through, to connect with and through research, and there’s one’s own experience. I think what was challenging about Episode 7 was trying to draw on everything I could to try and navigate my way through each scene. Fundamentally, that’s when you’ve got a great script and a great director and a great crew and actors opposite you.

Did Bruce Miller or any of the directors/producers prep you and the rest of the Episode 7 cast on what this “Little America” represented to the story? In terms of what morale would be like there, what quality of life looked like, what the goal of the establishment was?

There were discussions about that. Luckily, Floria [Sigismondi], our wonderful visionary director, her and I would sit in this cute vegan diner in Toronto and hash over our ideas about what Little America was and how long Luke had been there and what he’d been doing ― why he was there ― and kind of emotionally fulfilling what that place is. Ultimately, I think for Luke and others like him, it turns out to be a very well-funded and resourceful place for refugees. And unfortunately, a lot of the refugees in our world don’t get such a haven.

A lot of Americans today are drawing pretty frightening parallels between the show and what’s happening in politics today ― as a Brit, do you see parallels between the show and real life beyond America?

There are so many things to take from the show. I think there’s questions of populism and charismatic leaders, and what happens when we abandon logic and empiricism about fundamental principles about creating a society, and instead, attach ourselves to fear and xenophobia and non-rational principles. And we can see consequences of that in lots of societies around the world. We can see the consequences of that inside families. I think there’s lots to be see in terms of the dynamics between the powerful and the powerless ― how structures can maintain those and normalize those, to the extent that we actually think those imbalances and inequalities in our society are inherent in them, when actually they’re not. They’re created by powerful people to maintain their power. It’s important for all of us to recognize and fight against those forces.

Another one of the interesting aspects of “The Handmaid’s Tale” show I wanted to talk to you about is how the show is able to explore this idea of “good” men as “bad” feminists. There are a few scenes that stick in my mind: For example, when June and her college friend Moira are panicking after they’ve been fired from their jobs and lost access to their bank accounts, Luke says to June, something along the lines of “Don’t worry, I’ll take care of you.” He doesn’t mean in it a malicious way at all, but it is, in a way that Moira points out, dismissive of what’s really happening. Later on, when Luke asks June if she and Moira ever fooled around in college, it’s posed as an innocent question, but certainly a problematic one ― and you can tell that’s the case by June’s incredulous and amused response. Ultimately, the show allows Luke to be this imperfect character. So I’m wondering, when you were preparing for the role, was this something you thought about? About how a lot of “good” men would potentially fail to become heroes when a regime like Gilead first took control?

Right. We all fail and we all have weaknesses. I think that’s what helps us relate to characters we see on TV or read in books, is that we recognize our frailties within them and maybe don’t feel so alone. We get learn from their mistakes. Talking about that scene, when he says “Don’t worry, I’ll look after you,” I really love that scene as well, because it’s tough sometimes for men to know how to talk about feminism. It’s also sometimes hard for people to talk about the prejudices against minorities ― any number of things that you’re not necessarily experiencing yourself. But that doesn’t mean the conversation can’t take place. I find that very interesting, because we see how difficult it is [in the show] and also how incumbent it is on men ― and all of us, really ― to become more aware of the historical and present social context of what you say. The context of Luke saying, “Don’t worry, I’ll take care of you,” is insensitive and betrays a lack of understanding about what real women around him are going through. It’s so exciting to be able to explore those things and share them with people who I’m sure can relate.

Hulu has renewed “The Handmaid’s Tale” for a second season. What are you most eager to see as the series moves beyond Atwood’s book?

There are so many questions raised in the book. I want to know ― and this is personally, I don’t know if this will be in the second series ― I want to know about the colonies. I want to know more about the outside world. I want to know more about Canada and the world outside of Gilead. And, of course, just give me more Elisabeth Moss, please. Because I could watch her for weeks, months.

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ramialkarmi · 7 years

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Christopher Nolan explains the biggest challenges in making his latest movie 'Dunkirk' into an 'intimate epic'

In typical Nolan fashion, he goes beyond the norms to depict the events. Filmed with little dialogue and a non-liner story, powered by the ticking clock score of composer Hans Zimmer, it’s the incredible images filmed on an IMAX camera that move the story.