Movie review: CHAPPiE

I recently had the chance to rent this from RedBox, and unfortunately it was a waste of time and money. I wrote this review first over at Favslist and decided I might as well post it here because this blog has been left to the dust. Btw, spoilers ahead.

As for my other blog, I've ended it. I may write a book, album, or movie review here but I don't have any plans to put a lot of effort into this blog.

Blomkamp seems really hellbent on letting the world know that Johannesburg, South Africa, is one of the worst places to live. Not only was it mentioned as a bad place in District 9, here he goes so far as to say that not even the police can handle being there and they need robots to fight crime for them. When watching it you first get a sense of it being like Short Circuit, a robot gaining self-awareness and this is his journey. Nope. More than halfway through you get another sense of this being about self-preservation, "what is a robot to do when faced with its own mortality?" Nope. And then by the third act its an action movie and you're so damn tired of Die Antwoord's horrible acting you may just cheer when they finally bite the dust. The ending is the ultimate letdown when you realize that its recycled from District 9.
Chappie doesn't grow as a character because he's not allowed to grow, Blomkamp as the writer didn't want him to grow, his potentials for learning and comprehension are only mentioned in passing. He's not allowed to think for himself even after gaining access to the internet, which could open up several thousand new cans of worms. He learns, for sure, but its about how to be angry. Any attempt on playing on the emotions of the audience are interrupted when Ninja opens his mouth (you may need to watch this one with subtitles just to understand him) and spouts about how he wants a murdering robot. Whereas Ex Machina was about a robot wanting to be human, Chappie is only given the opportunity to ask about his existence only to have it shrugged off. He's just a robot and the film does everything in its power to remind you that that is all he will ever be.
The action sequences are one of the few cinematic saving graces with great direction, clear visuals, and nice CGI. The designs of Chappie and the Moose are decent but awfully barebones in detail. There's not much science in describing how they work. Most of the movie seems to take place in Die Antwoord's hideout and almost feels like the office scene was rented for three days so they had to shoot quickly. That's enough of that, back to the abandoned factory!
During the last action sequence, when the gang's third wheel gunman meets his demise at the hands of the Moose, you don't feel for his character AT ALL. At one point he mentions "I can go back home now!" He means to Mexico. Does he have a wife and kids? Did he get mixed up in all this and get deported? Oh I'm sorry now he's a splatter on the wall. Thanks for watching. Die Antwoord's reason for being criminals, "because we're bad guys, and bad guys are criminals, and criminals steal stuff." A background motive would have been greatly appreciated. What's even worse than Die Antwoord being criminals is that they owe money to someone else who is an even worse character. "I want everything" is his motive and you feel no justice when he meets the business end of a shovel. Yes, a shovel. A nice analogy that even though this movie is about high concept technology its very savage and simple in its execution.
Like an unknown boy band playing a state fair in the late 90s, Chappie has the potential to make you take notice of what its doing but its ultimately ignored in favor of others that have gone before and have done so much better. Chappie is Crappie.

Wonder Momo: A small serving of NOPE.

 

Wonder Momo is so incompetent that the first episode, which was released only a couple days prior to writing this, actually hurts to watch. Uninspired art, phoned-in voice acting, and terrible story pacing all culminate in quite possibly one of the worst animation shorts that have come from Japan in a while.

Anime this day and age has something good to offer in terms of art and design, its practically its own genre because of this thought. Whether it be a new direction or a classic re-imagined, anime can be amazing to see. Wonder Momo is instead colorful but flat with no lighting effects, no animation tricks, and no real detail. It can be likened to watching something in SD on an HD TV: you're not going to see a whole lot.
It appears that the voice actors weren't given a chance to practice their lines, or were even given a general direction, so they did it all in one take to rush the series out, because that's what the upper management wanted.
Speaking of rushed, the story is so rushed that you'll never see it coming. It just happens. No time or chance to explain what's going on. Get in loser, we're going to fight aliens! At one point, Momo says "So like, is this where I transform into a superhero?" and that activates her powers. I facepalmed so hard I think I left my face red. There are other characters but you may not want to stick around to get to know them since they are of no consequence to anything that happens. The cast is unnoticeable; character designs that we've seen before so in this case you may not want to bother to try and remember any names. Wonder Momo has no redeeming qualities as a character: she's not overly polite, she's not the most good-looking, she's not the smartest student. What we learn about her is that she's a high school student and a popular idol, and now she has super powers. That's it.

The length is only a little over 7 minutes so I get that there's not much time to flesh anything out and that's where this entire disaster fails. Rather than making it an honest anime at a normal length of time, its just a cartoon that would be shown during a Saturday morning kids program. If that's what they were going for, then that's fine. But the huge press event that was held says otherwise.

I understand that being based off of a 1980s arcade game and a webcomic doesn't give the creators much to go on but its apparent that a lack of imagination and corporate greed is to blame. If its an attempt to cash in on nostalgia, well maybe there's a reason the game wasn't so hugely popular: it sucked. If you're going to create a female heroine, you have to CREATE one. Not draw one and say she has powers. Wonder Momo is the worst thing I have seen in regards to anime, and I don't say that lightly. I'll be using this show as an example of the lowest point you can go in the future.

I almost posted a tweet that was so horrendous that anyone with a vagina would have wanted to have me quartered and splayed. It was that bad. I second guessed myself and I'm glad I did. All because the character of Wonder Momo is so infuriating. If this anime becomes popular then the last approximately 12 years of advancements that female characters have made in the genre will be undone.

Book Review: The Truth about Celia Frost (spoilers)

I find it confusing and frustrating that I would consider myself polarized by this story. On one hand I like the whole "one girl in all the world" idea that it turns into, on the other I just don't like the laziness that happens throughout most of it.
There's a background problem. Celia ignores it in favor of having fun with a new friend. She gets in trouble and the resolution happens very quickly.
Its so focused on the here and now that it forgets to TRY and have a big build up for the big reveal. From reading it you gather that Janice, her mother, and Celia are on the run from someone because Celia has a blood problem, and that's about it. It reveals all of the past in one chapter and honestly I was left disappointed and shaking my head at how much it didn't even TRY to amaze me. Celia is never positioned as the underdog and there's never much of a struggle or a major conflict. She goes about most of the book feeling oppressed by her mom but still gets her way. She does grow as a character and she becomes more bold but it never gives her a chance to grow up, to become more mature about her situation and reality. If I can explain that a little more, she learns to swim and for that she grows as a character, but its never presented that she has to learn what the panic of drowning feels like.

In that sense the characters are dry and stuck in their habits. Celia is just wanting her freedom and does some pretty stupid things; I gather this is from her not knowing much about how the world works and it never presents more opportunities for her to learn. Janice is an alcoholic that can never come to terms with Celia wanting freedom; in the worst moment of the book she decides to drink rather than acting like a real mother. Sol is a sidekick to Celia and, being shown as a pushover for most of the book, has his time to shine that happens at the climax. Frankie is portrayed as a guy with a good heart deep down and of course that means he turns into an ally. Doctor Hudson is given a noble stance behind what she's done but goes about her task in the completely wrong way, almost a typical antagonist archetype.
In the end, everything's peachy, everything turns out fine, and that whole small sci-fi angle is just a meaningless nod in the grand scheme of things.

Rawsthorne gives us no reason to like any of the characters. They are bland and hollow non-constructs with pre-scripted emotions happening almost as if on cue. We can't see ourselves in their shoes and we can't relate to any of them because there's nothing to relate to. Its like Rawsthorne did not care for her characters either, no emotional attachment. Just puppets in play. So why should we care either?

Its not very well written. There are letters and sometimes words missing, especially near the end. It seems as though Paula Rawsthorne was excited about the ending and rushed to get it done. I'm honestly surprised it took me a long time to finish reading it but then I think of just how bored I was with it. Its all tell, no show. Where time could be spent fleshing out characters, places, situations, histories, etc. it spends that time jumping between moments and characters, telling the reader what's happening.
Maybe I'm looking at it the wrong way. There are no holes in the plot, its fleshed out as well as it could be, and its not meant to be hard sci-fi. Its also certainly not meant to be a groundbreaking slice-of-life relatable story. Its just a story. It happens. You read it and put it on your shelf. You don't have to read it again after that. Like I will do. That's the only way I can look at it.

******

Above is my original review posted to GoodReads.com. I had just finished the book and, only a few days before, thought I was going to enjoy the rest of it.

But I was wrong.

As I was writing the part of the character not growing up, it occurred to me that a story series from years ago did just that but almost got it right.

Replica by Marilyn Kaye

Sadly, both of these books are mainly meant for an audience of teenage girls, but what I like is the story. I like the mystery of the past and the sci-fi angle. I don't "relate" to the stories, I just enjoy them.

Marilyn Kaye shows us how Amy grows throughout the series; we understand what she goes through. Meanwhile Paula Rawsthorne doesn't give any inkling that Celia understands her situation. She's never given time to allow it to sink in before she's suddenly in peril. Next thing we know, its all sunshine and the future is bright.

How is it that a book series from 1998 about a pre-teen girl in California almost got right what a book from 2011 about a teenage girl in the UK couldn't?

Yes Replica had more time to flesh things out because it is a series, but Amy is sometimes presented as a naive youth even in the most obvious of dangerous situations. She learns, she reacts, she grows, she's living.

The disappointment in Celia Frost comes from the fact that it doesn't even try. We're given no time between the immediacy of the conflict and the last chapter that lets us know she's understanding of what's going on and what weight the world has placed on her shoulders.

Replica has readers caring about Amy, her mother, and her friends. Celia Frost has us wanting to know more about what's going on with them rather than just what's happening.

Album Review: Bush "The Sea of Memories"

Bush is definitely a different band than what they were 11 years ago when they last left us with 2001's Golden State. Their newest album, Sea of Memories, released in September of 2011, is also a completely different monster. Their sound is more mature and it shows through all aspects of this new record. There is less crunching in the guitars and less maniacal oscillating in the pitch. Its hard to take this album upfront without acknowledging the long history of Bush. Destined to be "just another post-grunge band," they've proven with this album that they're not content to be labeled in that category by reaching into the alternative rock atmosphere and bringing back some new tricks. I'm not going to BS my way through this review by trying to sound like a professional music reviewer, so yes, this will be mostly be an amateur critique as well as my thoughts on the album.

The opening songs The Mirror of the Signs, The Sound of Winter, and All My Life have lyrics similar to past Bush albums, while the audio shows that the band has matured not just musically but in life. With two new guitarists at the sides, they've settled down and are less teen angst and more "settled into a cubicle for a career." I can also best sum it as the day you finally looked past your awkward teenage years, accepted that life is life and that you have to push forward. This is music for that day.

I suppose this new-found maturity comes from the lead singer, Gavin Rossdale, having spent time doing solo work and attempting to grow musically. In the ten years since Bush's absence, Rossdale went on to form the short-lived (but one of my all-time favorite bands) Institute. There, the lyrics were still crazy, the guitars had a little less beef to them and it seemed Rossdale wasn't about to go forward in experimenting with a new sound. It was simply Bush with a different name. After Institute, Rossdale's solo career found him with only a few hits in "Adrenaline" (coming from the xXx movie soundtrack) and "Love Remains the Same." While his solo album WANDERlust was simply calmer Bush lyrics drenched in mild adult rock guitar harmonies, he couldn't escape his past and what the cult following of fans really wanted. Rossdale showed that he was willing to change the sound and presentation, but not the lyrics. If you're a fan of his nonsensical musings, then you'll feel right at home with Sea of Memories.

The other members are looking at the camera, but I bet Rossdale is only thinking of more weird lyrics.

If I were to pinpoint the highlights of the album it would be with The Sound of Winter and All My Life, where Rossdale's short verse singing and chorus-crooning coincides perfectly with the post-grunge guitars, crashing cymbals, and little post-production effort. The moment in the latter song where the music fades then hits with a guitar solo is definitely Bush's way of saying "Yeah, we've changed, but we still remember who we are."

The Afterlife takes the album one step further into the rock territory only to dip into the piano-backed All Night Doctors. Don't get me wrong: its a great slow song but for it to be stuck after four fast-paced songs is hard to ignore.

Baby Come Home is another rock ballad about missing someone and the emotions behind it. Typical if you've listened to any of the previous Bush albums besides their single releases. 

The rest of the album picks up from their and takes you on a trip down memory lane where the only feeling you'll have is longing to listen to their past albums.

Sea of Memories is definitely a change. Unfortunately most people hate change. There are still hints of proverbial past regrets but for the most part Sea of Memories shows what happens when a band lets go of angst and decides to grow up. If you've been a fan of Bush in past decades, you'll find something new to listen to here. Unfortunately if you've only liked one or two songs from them, you might be turned off by the different presentations that each song offers and I would suggest only buying The Sound of Winter and All My Life. At the same time, it works well if you're a complete newcomer to Bush's music. It has enough to it to make you want to listen til the end.

Lyrics: 3/5 This is the weakness, Rossdale sounds like he did before and the lyrics show little change. They're all over the place and make little sense. Its a trademark of Rossdale's but for once it would be nice if he ditched the poeticism and wrote a song like a story. I know he's capable of expanding that much.

Music: 4/5 Bush knows who they were and who they are now. The change is good. They show confidence in their sound but they're still a run-of-the-mill post-grunge band.

Presentation: 3/5 (This is the harsh part) The best part of the album is at the beginning but suddenly slows to rock ballads only to attempt to pick up again. Personally, I HATE when albums do this. You take me for a quick, fast ride then stop at the burger place for a bite for yourself only to take me back home to eat leftovers. What good is that? The slow songs would have been better left as the closing tracks. Also a little more post-production wouldn't have hurt, more variation in the guitar sounds, more definition in the drums.

Moods: Mellow to Rushed, Forlorn/Longing, Accomplished, Lonely

Overall: Give it a listen first.