Movie review: "Clash of the Titans"

I have been thinking about watching "Clash of the Titans" for some time, now. I like Greek myths in general, and I vaguely remember the original as being a nice movie (though, I was a kid when I watched it). On the other hand, comments on the Internet were not very grateful about the movie. But, with no idea what to watch last weekend, girlfriend and I decided to give it a try.

I was ready for Hollywood's butchering of the original myth, but I must say I was surprised (in bad way) about the extreme of it. There is original Perseus and Andromeda story behind it, but buried very deep. In this version, Perseus is son of Danae and Zeus, but the reason for Zeus' advance on her was because Zeus wanted revenge on her husband Acrisius, for leading a rebellion against gods. Later, after his mother, foster-father and sister end dead, Perseus gets involved with the city and king of Argos, who is current leader of rebellion against gods. He will be semi-involuntary sent on quest to get a head of Gorgon, which is the only thing that can stop the Kraken, a creature that is threatening Argos. There are lots of crazy things inserted in the plot, but the Djinns were most offending. There is also a travel to underworld, giant scorpions, Hades' plot to overthrow Zeus, flying lizard-men...

I would stomach all this if the movie was any good, but it's not. For me, it was just a jumble of scenes with not much connection between them. Effects were nice, and action too, but it was all a bit overdone. Characters were one-dimensional and uninteresting and plot was surprising only in meaning that things didn't follow logically.

I presume I am a little biased here, but "Clash of the Titans" really isn't good. It wasn't worst movie ever, but it really failed to keep me interested. I can't really point anything that can attract a viewer to it.

Book review: "Stonewielder" by Ian C. Esslemont

"Stonewielder" is a fairly new book by Ian C. Esslemont (November 2010) and third book in his "Malazan Empire" series. His first book "Night of Knives" was short and, in my opinion, only testing work, which depicted events and characters most fans of MBoF knew very good already from Steven Erikson's books. In his second book, "Return of the Crimson Guard", Esslemont used concepts, themes and settings Erikson already presented (Esslemont had full right to do so, since he is a co-creator of them), introduced some new (or "new") characters and then worked on them in completely new plot-line (but parallel to Erikson's). Result was very action-packed and intense book that I enjoyed very much. His third book, "Stonewielder", is again completely different book, but I'll say it immediately: I loved it!

In this book Esslemont does for the first time something Erikson has been doing in his every book: introduces new stuff. Particularly, sub-continent of Korel and its unique peoples and nations. It also clarifies some history between Malazan Empire and this place. There are several plots we follow in the book. Main one is Malazan second invasion of Korel. Here we have some "old" Esslemont's characters (Greymane, Kyle, Rillish), but no Erikson's; and whole new and unique cast. Exception are some gods that appear in both Erikson's and Esslemont's book. I hope this will become a trend; each of them developing his own cast and plots in common world, with occasional mixing!

(Again, what's with the boats??)

Back to the book... As I said, main plot is Malazan second invasion. We follow it from several viewpoints: Fist Rillish (character from RotCG), Cadre mage Devaleth (I think this name is a blunder; it sounds too Tiste Andii) and Suth, the common soldier. All three levels are done very good, but Suth's especially. I usually like the look from view of "ordinary" Malazan soldier (Fiddler, Hellian and bunch of squad's from "Dust of Dreams"...). Suth did some real growing up in this book; from self-centered youth searching fights to prove himself, to experienced Malazan veteran looking after his comrades. Then we had Ussü, one of leaders of Malazan first invasion, who are not very happy for the arrival of their successors. We also have Bakune, a judge from city of Banith. He is really honest man, although somewhat blind to reality of the world. His stubborn investigation of suspicious deaths will put him in position opposed to Church of the Blessed Lady, which is a very dangerous position on Korel. Fact that his city will be overrun by Malazan's will not be helpful, also. Next is Hiam, Lord Protector of the Stormwall and leader of all Korelri. He is uncommonly wise and thoughtful man, but share's a flaw of Korelri: belief in their total supremacy in both martial and moral aspects; also a belief that no one would be crazy enough to attack them, when they and the Wall are the only thing that stands in the way of dreaded Stormriders. They are in for few surprises... In Empire of Jourilan we have Ivanr, who is half-Thelomen ex-champion now sworn to pacifism; he is being pushed to position of a leader of religious uprising against the Lady and he doesn't really like it, but he doesn't have much choice. At last we have Corlo and Shell, both members of the Crimson Guard; Corlo is prisoner on the Wall, while Shell and her squad are coming to Wall to free him and his co-prisoners. Not, these were only the POVs; we have a bunch of crazy Malazan (world, not the empire) characters that give these books their flavor. Overall, plot is good; there were two or three big surprises and multitude of smaller ones.

There is also one more sub-plot, following Kiska (from NoK) and Jheval (new/old character) on their quest in Shadow Realm. I must say I am a bit confused about the meaning of this course of events, both in itself and in greater scheme of things. So, even though there are some interesting and funny scenes here (I was surprised when it was revealed who the priest is!!!), I will ignore this for now (for now being until the next book that explains it).

As I said, characters in this book are all Esslemont's, and most of them new. Only flaw is that there are actually not much of them. Dramatis Personae is only two and half pages long, and I got used to five or more. But on the other hand, book itself is not long: only 640 pages. What matters is quality, not quantity. And there are no flaws is this section. There are bizarre, there are serious, there are funny and there are sneaky characters. And not one of them is single-faceted.

Writing is better than in "Return of the Crimson Guard"; it is light-years away from "Night of Knives" writing. I am glad Esslemont more often uses inner-monologues and philosophical musings; it is one of key characteristics of "Malazan brand". Although, I must say that he still lacks Erikson's edge. Erikson drives his characters much more to extremes. On the other hand, Esslemont's writing is much more focused and followable. In the immediate start of the book, there were few blunders that made me wonder of quality of it, but they don't repeat later. Example of this was Greymane/Kyle sequence with school of martial arts, which was very un-Malazan, in my opinion. Also, there is a name of Beneth, which made me wonder for a time.

I must point out one thing: the Wall. Even though it was mentioned long ago in Erikson's books (not so long in time, but long in number of books; I can't say exactly where), I never expected it to be so similar to George R.R. Martin's Wall from ASoIaF. Korelry Stormguard and Night's Watch are also very similar; especially in the beginning. I am curious who invented which first. Erikson and Esslemont invented their world quite a long time ago, but are only now revealing the details; on the other hand, "A Game of Thrones" is out since 1996.

For conclusion: "Stonewielder" is a great book and a recommendation to all Malazan fans. Esslemont's books are steady getting better and better. For those who never heard about Malazan, go start one of best fantasy series with "Gardens of the Moon".

Future is bright for this series. Next month will see the publication of "The Crippled God". But then it's not over; Erikson will write a bunch of novels and novellas (according to Wikipedia). Esslemont will write at least three more, "Orb, Scepter, Throne" being the first.

Also, a note. From now on I am going on self-proclaimed ban on reading. I have two important PhD projects to finish in next few weeks, so I will not start reading until they are done (Because I know they wouldn't get done then). And after they are done, I plan to do a reread of whole "Malazan Book of the Fallen" series, so I can be ready when last book gets out.

Anime review: "Ayakashi - Japanese Classic Horror"

I stumbled across this anime few times before, but first time I seriously considered watching it was after watching "Mononoke". AniDB article about it claimed it shared one of the characters. It is relatively short (11 episodes), so I watched it last week, between "Daggerspell" and "Stonewielder" (post about it will be next).

"Ayakashi - Japanese Classic Horror" is 2006 anime adapting three Japanese classic horror stories. The three are completely different in setting and style, even in animation, so I will describe each of them separately.

"Yotsuya Ghost Story" is based on "Yotsuya Kaidan", Japanese most famous ghost story (at least according to Wikipedia). It is a tragical story about Iemon and Oiwa. Iemon is a ronin who wants to marry Oiwa, despite opposition from her father. He slays him and then uses his death as a mortar for his marriage, claiming he will help Oiwa as a husband to revenge her father. Everything is well for some time, but slowly Iemon's true face starts to show. He finally abandons Oiwa for richer and younger woman, who poisons Oiwa. This is the start of tragedy where everyone connected to two of them will end dead. Iemon refuses to admit any guilt and slowly sinks into madness, seeing Oiwa everywhere. There is also a parallel tragic story, about Osuda and Yomoschichi, which is interwoven with the first plot.

Story is interesting but not especially original. Probably you even saw it or parts of it, since it was adapted and partly used numerous times. It is not really scary also. Animation is decent, although looking older than 2006. Most interesting details it the way it is represented: story is narrated by the "original" author of the story, who claims he was inspired by Oiwa's ghost to write it. He also claims that the story is cursed and everybody who takes part in screening, acting or writing it ends dead.

"The Legend of Tenshu" is completely different kind of story. It is a love story between Himekawa Zusho-no-Suke, a young falconer, and Tomi-Hime, ruler of Forgoten Gods, kind of powerful and scary demons that feed with human flesh. This a complete mini-anime and I am wondering why is haven't been expanded to full-sized anime. It even has comedy-relief characters. Story is interesting and tense; there is action, comedy, romance... Again, animation is a bit weak, and design of characters could have been more original. But story is definitely good.

Last, "Bakeneko" is a star of this collection. It features the medicine-seller from "Mononoke" in one more exorcism adventure. Or better to say, this is the original story, that was later extended to whole series. It has original animation, original characters and great story. I loved it. This was only really scary story; not in visuals, but in setting and style. For those who didn't watch "Mononoke"; don't be put off by seemingly archaic animation. Definitely a recommendation!

My next post will be about "Stonewielder" by Ian C. Esslemont.

Movie review: "Shutter Island"

I did a stupid thing. I watched the last fifteen minutes of "Shutter Island" trough sleep. I wasn't actually sleeping, but I wasn't really awake. I was conscious enough to know what is going on, but not enough to fully appreciate it. It was not because of the movie (on the contrary, movie is very good), but I was lying under blanket with my girlfriend, it was very cozy and warm and I was sleepy. Those who watched the movie will understand how stupid my falling asleep was, and you who didn't will just have to take my word about it being a very stupid idea.

Although I don't plan to reveal any spoilers, conception of this movie is such, that less you know, the movie will be better. So think twice before reading this review.

Now, back to the movie... The movie starts with Teddy Daniels, US Marshall, meeting his new partner on a ferry to Shutter Island. Two of them are going there to investigate disappearance of a woman, patient of mental institution for violent criminals. This institution is actually the only building on the island and the ferry is only way from it. Immediately after arriving, they will start to suspect something is amiss: guards on the edge, cowed patients, sneaky doctors... But even their wildest imaginations will be far from the truth!

"Shutter Island" is very disturbing movie: atmosphere is dark and stormy and all people are very nervous. Especially patients, who look like they are in fear; some of them are deformed or show signs of physical abuse. Events in movie are taking place in fifties and scenes from WWII are very often, showing Teddy's coming to Dachau concentration camp. All this serves to make viewer a bit uncomfortable (it was a bit inappropriate to watch this movie from bed). Combine that with pictures of lobotomy, electro-shocks....

Cast is good; Teddy is played by Leonardo DiCaprio; movie also stars Ben Kingsley and Max von Sydow. Somewhere at the middle of the movie you start guessing what is going on. I had two theories, my girlfriend also two different ones; in the end, we were both very, very off. It is just this kind of the movie.

I liked this movie very much, but it is not for everybody. It is a serious and violent movie dealing with psychology, and it asks concentration from viewer.

Book review: "Daggerspell" by Katherine Kerr

"ENTER A FANTASTICAL WORLD WHERE EVEN DEATH ITSELF IS COWED BY THE POWERS OF PASSION AND HIGH MAGIC"

Key word in his paragraph is "passion"... If I noticed this before and gave it attention, I probably wouldn't buy this book. Few months ago I was browsing Amazon and looking for a new series I could start. WoT and MBoF are close to finish line and who knows when next ASoIaF book will come out... All other series I am currently reading are trilogies and quadrologies. I plan to start "The Stormlight Archive", but that's only one. So I am constantly in look for long epic series and have few candidates already: "The Second Apocalypse" by R. Scott Bakker (6 books; I read first two but own none), "Wars of Light and Shadow" by Janny Wurts (11 books), "Saga of Recluce" by L.E. Modesitt (16 books), "The Three Worlds Cycle" by Ian Irvine (14 books) and "Shadows of the Apt" by Adrian Tchaikovsky (at least 8 books). I prefer series that are near the end, so I don't have to wait long for next books.

"Deverry Cycle" by Katherine Kerr was one of such candidates. It has 15 books, all published. When I did the research (on Wikipedia), I found out that it was set in world based on Celts. It sounded quite the ordinary setting: barbaric humans, long-lived and rare elves, some dwarves and something like orcs. Also, short synopsis didn't sound very innovating. But the comments looked good and the name Katherine Kerr is quite famous in fantasy circles, so I decided to give it a try.

First I want to complain about the price! Smallish paperback edition I bough, 450 pages long, was priced at 13 GBP (20 USD). "Toll the Hounds", a brand-new top-seller book, in really good paperback edition 900 pages long cost the same when I bought it.

As you can assume from my complaints, I didn't like the book. It is a story about Jill, who after her mother's death starts to travel around with her dishonored father Cullyn, best fighter in the kingdom of Deverry. At the same time, Jill is being sought by sorcerer Nevyn, who wants to help her to discover her own magical skills and thus repay the debt he owns her from their prior lives. They will meet while helping Rhodry, a young noble who was connected with them in past lives, to break the rebellion in his mothers county.

Past lives have a large role here: in their first life Jill was Nevyn's fiancée whom he left because of his wish to learn dweomer (magic). She then ended tragically, being in incest relationship with her brother (now reborn as Cullyn), who because of her killed his best friend, past version of Rhodry. Nevyn never died because of his magical (or dweomer) vow to repair the evil he was root. This scenario played few times between first version and present Jill, always unfortunately.

Although the plot is not bad, it's too straightforward and simple. Also, it is the only one; there are no multiple plots, hidden meanings, sense of wondering what is going on.... There are few characters and you have no problem following them. You know who is who, what is going on, and it is not hard to guess what will happen next. As I said, world is based on Celts, but in advanced Dark Age: complex hierarchy between nobility, feudal system, no science, strong influence of church, constant feuding between nobles... Magic and other races are known only as terrible legends among humans. Only partly they are present in this book; I understand that they play much larger role in later books. World-building is nice and one of better parts of the book, but I am accustomed to much more complex worlds and setting. Also, Kerr's insisting on using Celts words is a bit off-putting.

Characters are what probably ruined this book for me. They are too simple and one-sided. All men in this book are occupied by only one thing: their honor. Including Nevyn, who is half a millennia old wizard and should definitely know better. Even while giving over to sin, they are lamenting inside how terrible persons they are and how they have no honor. And women... In one scene, Jill is "feeling like a slut" because she has sexual desire while object of her desire has smarter things to do (in this case fight). This is not a first book I have read where women are in inferior position, but this is the first book where everyone (including characters, narrators and the writer) are acting like this is OK.

While it is true there is passion in "Daggerspell", it is a passion that belongs in cheap love-stories. Main characters are having worst times of their lives and it leaves me completely indifferent - this is not a mark of a good book. Only surprising thing for me was Cullyin's conclusion.

This book was simply not good enough for me and I am sorry that I bought it. On the other hand, series is well known and sounds like it gets more complex later. So, if you like this book, I can only presume you will like sequels even more. On the other hand, I double I will continue reading this series; it belongs to category with "Sword of Truth" by Terry Goodkind, only other series I gave up. I don't recommend this book to fans of epic fantasy.

Movie review: "Inception"

This weekend I watched "Inception". It was one of the most-talked-about SF movies this year, so I knew quite a lot about it. I knew that main actor was Leonardio DiCaprio and that movie was something about memory theft and implanting new memories. All of my friends that watched it said it was worth watching.

And it turns out they were right. This is one very exciting movie; it doesn't matter if you are SF fan or not - this movie is generally good. Main character is Cobb (played by DiCaprio), who is a criminal specialized in extraction of secrets from his victims' mind. His and his partner Arthur's last job is stealing information from mind of Saito, rich Japanese business man. After this job fails, it turns out it was only a test: Saito wants to hire them for something else. Although inception (implanting an idea; opposite to extraction) is considered impossible by most, Cobb decides to take the job...

First twenty minutes of the movie are very confusing: gunfights on come cruise, not much is explained, two abrupt changes of scene... But it is exciting and it only makes the audience more curious. Later in the movie all concepts are explained in much detail, but easy understandable at same time. Time in the movie is present or very close future. Although there exist advanced technology, in this case device for entering person's mind, it is not widespread. This subject is very nicely elaborated, although there were some things that confused me. I am talking about those multiple "kicking" (or dunking, I forgot which term did they exactly use for forceful waking) near the end of the movie. I think the writers got a bit confused there as well. But this was singular case; rest of the movie fits very well.

All characters get good part of the movie, so you get to know them all (cast is not super-stars, but they are all very good). After thinking about it a bit, you realize that main characters are actually bad guys. It's easy to forget it. From one side, no one is actually evil, they just have different intentions. On the other side, they are doing something equivalent to rape, maybe even worst. Maybe the director could have made this point more noticeable, but then the movie wouldn't be so likable. Cobb is definitely the main characters. Even though movie sports much of action, main theme of the movie is about the difference between dream and reality. And Cobb definitely has problems with it. Best part of the movie is that he is aware of that and he actively fights against it. I really liked the final confrontation with his wife. I must say I was surprised and impressed with maturity and clear-headedness Cobb shows while dealing with the biggest challenge of his life.

There is one more flaw I can note: action scenes in later stages of the movie get a bit boring. Even though they are done nicely, they are secondary and not in a least important to the plot. Movie wouldn't lose anything by dropping these five or ten minutes of unimportant shooting.

Never minding these two minor flaws, "Inception" is a great movie for all types (well, not kids) of audiences. It requires attention while watching it, but you will be rewarded with one of better movies of this year. A recommendation.

Anime review: "House of Five Leaves"

After finishing "Towers of Midnight", I decided to take a short break of reading. I have read four books in a row and while I like reading better than anime or movies and TV series, I can't read all the time. One reason is that I don't have money for buying more than one or two books per month. And even though my private library counts more than sixty books now, that is not enough unless I want to reread half my books every year. Second reason is more important: I tend to neglect everything else when I am reading books I really like. So combining work, PhD and multiple hobbies gets hard sometimes.

Anyway, after ToM, I started watching "House of Five Leaves". I have been waiting long for this anime, since last spring. I haven't watched a good samurai anime for long time. In the end, it turned out this is not a samurai anime, not in the way most consider as such. It's true; there are samurai in this series. Also, it's true that there is swords-fighting here and talk about honor and samurai code... Just not in the way I would expect it. But nevertheless, this is one of better anime I watched this year.

Masa is a young ronin staying in Edo. He comes from province and he is totally unsuitable for samurai; he is shy and unimposing, which results in him being easily pushed around. By coincidence, Masa gets employed by member of criminal group called House of Five Leaves. The group is composed of four somewhat peculiar people and is centered on charismatic young(ish) man Yaichi. Yaichi gets intrigued by Masa's straightforwardness and innocence and invites him to join them, just for fun of it. Rest of anime consist of Masa's deciding to join or not while he explore past and motives or other members, but especially Yaichi's.

As I said, there IS swords-fighting here; I think there are three fights: one is off-screen and two consist of two or three moves. This is very infuriating, because it is implied on beginning (and orally confirmed later) that Masa is "unparalleled with his swordsmanship". Well, I don't actually object this, but I would have liked being able to see it. There is talk about honor and samurai code, but it consists of Masa musing whether he should join House of Five Leaves or not. He comes to see that these are actually good people (well, in some degree), but they are doing bad thinks and he is not sure can he incorporate being a professional kidnapper in his system of honor.

Personalities, pasts and motives of other members are gradually revealed by smaller arcs where they get in trouble and Masa tries to help them (and vice versa). Yaichi's story is implied throughout the series and finally revealed in last few episodes. Setting is historical and I would say mostly accurate: medieval Edo, wages in rice, whore-houses... Important motive in series is adopted children in richer houses. Main strength of anime is character-growth and unexpected turns this anime takes (I really didn't expect most of this anime).

Anime features very original animation. First two episodes I thought that characters are quite ugly, but now that I finished it, I get used to this design. Although I think that character are intentionally done a bit rougher in the beginning, just of the effect. I can't say anything on music and sound effects, but I am pretty sure they are decent.

In summary, "House of Five Leaves" is one very good short (only 12 episodes) anime with historical setting. It includes a bit of action, lots of mystery and anticipation, but mostly concentrates on exploring its eccentric characters. Definitely a treat for all seinen fans.