Thoughts on Marvel 1602 Trade Paperback

When Neil Gaiman came up with the idea of Marvel 1602, it was shortly after the events on 9/11. Gaiman did not want to make a story that involved guns or war, he figured there would be enough of that already. Instead he made a comic that takes place in a different time. I think he felt this would take people out of that takes that mindset. Marvel 1602 has the benefit of being one of the most engaging retellings of heroes I have ever read. The idea of Daredevil, Nick Fury, and Spider-Man in the 1600's is a fascinating premise. I honestly could not put the book down.

Cover art is amazing by the way

I don't want to give any of the story away, but it does have a great plot. Doom is involved, so you know the world is probably ending which is pretty usual for a Marvel short series. however, there will be many inferences and interpretations making it stand out. There will be many twists which keep the story fresh, but the real strength is the writing. Neil Gaiman is best known for his work on The Sandman, but he has helped to write many essential stories for Marvel and DC. There are a lot of provocative ideas like having mutants be branded as "witch breed" and being burned by the Inquisition. Thor comes into the story which this brings up a question of too about the strength of the Catholic Church. Instead of being planted in our time and our problems, it deals with issues of the time. The message, however, is something to take away. All the characters in the story have to sacrifice a lot to save the world. There are many things that will happen that are plan awful. While this is true, it shows that even the most noble of efforts are the hardest to attain.

The use of the Marvel characters is profound. I love seeing them in the 1602's interpretation. Daredevil is a blind bard who is also a very skilled agent of Fury's. The Fantastic Four were a group of explorers headed to the new world when they were hit with a mystical force making them the embodiments of earth, air, water, and fire. The X-Men are "witch breed' and like their future counterparts, they are shunned for their appearance and abilities. It's nice to see how everything translates. There will be many times you find a name you recognize and smile when you make the connection. This is why multiverse books are so great. As a reader, you get the same characters you love; they just get a new perspective.

Marvel 1602 is a rich and imaginative universe to read about. While Neil Gaiman only wrote this series, there are plenty of other spin-offs like Marvel 1602: The New World and Marvel 1602 Witch Hunter Angela. The universe is ripe with intrigue and even though Gaiman leaves many new things unfinished on that last panel, hopefully a spin-off series will give more answers to those questions. With that said, this book is an amazing read if you love comics and you appreciate history. Check out Marvel 1602, it will be worth the afternoon you read it in. I give it eight ships headed to the new world out of ten.

Good review, now I won't have to kill the writer

The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958) *spoilers*

It's amazing how far special effects have come. Hard to believe a time where producers looked at a script and said, "Excellent idea, but we have no way of doing this". Today, if there is something impossible to be made, it it's done with CGI. Anamatronics. miniatures, perspective, over exposure and a good costume are used out of aesthetic and not practicality. When movies like The 7th Voyage of Sinbad came out; they didn't have CGI. Luckily, a man by the name of Ray Harryhausen had a unique claymation style known as "dyanamation" which made him a must have for any scifi or fantasy movie. He made the impossible possible and worked on like films Jason and the Argonauts and Clash of the Titans. However, competing with movies today; does "dynamation" stand a chance against modern day effects?

This looks interesting

The 7th Voyage of Sinbad is about a sailor and his crew. They happen upon and island where a man is being chased by a monster. After rescuing him, Sinbad finds out he is Sokura; a powerful magician. They bring him back with them to Baghdad to meet the Caliph. Sokura requests a crew to go back to the island and gain the treasures he lost there. Sinbad and the Caliph both agree that such a mission would be too dangerous and denied Sokura's request. As an act of retribution, the magician comes into princess Parisa's room and shrinks her down to the size of a mouse. When she is found in that state, Sinbad implores the help of Sokura, The magician explains that she can only be transformed back if they get the egg shell from a giant mythical bird known as a roc found on the island he came from. Sinbad agrees and gets a rag tag crew together for a mission back to Collossa. Unfortunately, this trip will be more difficult than Sinbad realizes. Sokura has alterior motives and with an untrustworthy crew; Sinbad has his work cut out for him.

The reason this movie is to be watched is for the claymation monsters. The plot isn't excellent but it offers great set up for the effects. There are engaging fights between people and monsters alike. There is an especially excellent scene were a dragon and cyclops battle to the death. Harryhausen was a genius and it's wonderful to see he gets so much recognition. It took him 11 months to film the movie and some scenes that take moments took up to 3 weeks to animated. It's this dedication which makes watching a movie like this worth it. The cyclops, the dragon, the snake woman, and the roc are all animated very well. There is also a great fight with Sinbad and a skeleton which was so popular, Harryhausen did it again in Jason and the Argonauts. While claymation is big in this movie, the other part to "dynamation" is superimposing the foreground into the back ground shot making the scene look seamless. There are scenes where Princess Parisa is small and the set is made gigantic to accommodate the perspective. Dedication like this is what put the movie in the National Film Registry based on the film being "culturally, historically, and aesthetically significant" in 2008.

I'M SIGNIFICANT!!!!

This is not a movie for everyone. The effects look great and do stand up to even monder effects, but we have come too far for main stream to find this enjoyable. There is a time and a place for these effects, but with movies like Avatar and Peter Jackson's King Kong do everything that Harryhausen did, but they look much more realistic. With that said, this movie still holds it's own. Movie goers of all ages can enjoy this classic if they are willing to give it a chance. Overall, the story is simple yet engaging and keeps the audience interested.  It's movies like this that keep film history exciting and wonderful. Personally, I would watch this movie again right now if I didn't have a thousand more to watch. I give The 7th Voyage of Sinbad eight magic lamps out of ten. If you have never seen and consider yourself a movie buff, then give this one a watch immediately. I doubt you will be disappointed.

2 weeks my butt. Doing this in 2 minutes

Swamp Thing (1982) Review *spoilers*

Wes Craven passed away recently and it is a shame to say goodbye to the Master of Nightmares. He was famous for many movies like Last House on the Left, The Hills Have Eyes, and the Scream franchise. Of course, his most well known work was Nightmare on Elm Street which birthed one of horror's most frightening characters, Freddy Kruger.  However, not every movie Craven did was specifically horror. He directed a movie known as Music of the Heart which got Meryl Streep an Oscar nomination for best actress. While Swamp Thing isn't as far out as Music of the Heart, It still stepped outside of Craven's comfort zone. This movie is more towards the scifi and action genres, but is it one of his stronger films?

For the last time! I'm not Toxic Avenger

The story is about a scientist by the name of Alec Holland (Ray Wise) who is working on a formula to splice plants with animal DNA. The idea is to help plants survive in harsh environments and, hopefully, make food more available. However, a man by the name of Anton Arcane (Louis Jourdan) wants to use the formula in order to give himself eternal life. While Holland is working, Arcane sends his men to get the formula and scientific journals. Unfortunately, while the lab is getting ransacked, Alec is set ablaze from his formula and runs into the swamp in order to stop the flames. When he jumps into the water; a transformation occurs. Holland's DNA is mixed with the plant life around him changing him into the plant behemoth known as Swamp Thing. Arcane has all he needs except for one last journal, which holds the key to the formula's creation. Luckily, Alice Cable (Adrienne Barbeau) was able to stow away the last journal. Arcane finds out and proceeds to have his men hunt her down. Cable is in for some trouble, but Swamp Thing will stop at nothing to protect her. Will Cable survive? Will Arcane get what he wants? Will Holland be able to turn himself back into a human? Well you'll need to watch the movie to find out.

This movie's biggest strength is the action. There are many times where Swamp Thing will take on a hoard of bad guys and come out unscathed. He is seen punching boats out of the water, stopping trucks with his body, and taking bullets while running head long into the enemy. The movie may lack excellent story telling, but it did what comic based movies were doing at the time; focusing on the action. This was before the time of Marvel Studios and Christopher Nolan's Batman. Superhero movies weren't what they are now and the only one that truly stood out were Donner's Superman movies. With that said, Swamp Thing had the advantage of being a rather obscure comic book character which probably helped him in the long run. It also didn't hurt that Swamp Thing's creator, Len Wein, helped co write the script with Craven to make it feel more comic based.

My spot bro!

Ray Wise was an excellent choice as Alec Holland and even though he isn't in the movie for more than 10 minutes; his character is easy to like. It's his charismatic nature that really makes you invested in the character. Louis Jourdan is a very good villain. His looks, his mannerisms, and accent scream villain. Adrienne Barbeau as Cable was a good choice, but unfortunately they made her too weak. Barbeau went from beating up bad guys to consistently stumbling while trying to run away. An argument can be made that the swamp is treacherous which is why she falls a lot. I can abide by that since it happens way too often to be accidental. Swamp Thing always manages to come to the rescue, which is good, but it undermined her feministic and strong character. Eventually, Arcane captures out hero.  First thing he does is put cable is put her in a dress with a lot of cleavage and over sexualize her. I get it, Adrienne Barbeau had big boobs and movies she was in focused on that, but it does take away from a otherwise decent movie.

Sir! My eyes are up here.

Even thought the action is great and the characters are well thought out, there are problems in the special effects department. Anton Arcane's character will eventually transform into a monster, but it looks like the Creature of the Black Lagoon with a wolf head. I don't understand the choice of costume. Holland makes a point to say that the potion amplifies the strongest parts of you. I still don't understand Arcane's transformation into monster mashup. It feels like they scanned a costume warehouse and found the two closest things they could and said. "That's the monster we've been looking for!" There is also a part where Swamp Thing's arm gets cut off and later it grows back, but it looks like someone was pushing a piece of paper mache out of a garbage bag. This movie was made in 1982, the same year John Carpenter came out with The Thing. That movie, by far, had some of the best special effects of the 80's and all scifi movies of the time should've looked like that. I do understand that this budget was a fifth of Carpenter's, but still Swamp Thing looks like a guy in a rubber suit with roots glued on. If someone wasn't paying attention, one could certainly mistake watching Swamp Thing for someone watching Toxic Avenger. The only effect I found exeptional was when Arcane's henchman, Bruno, transforms and his skin starts to bubble and explode. That was a quality effect.

Wes Craven did a lot of good things for the horror franchise, but Swamp Thing wasn't as a blessed. This is a guilty pleasure more than Oscar bait and should be watched as such. This was a time before Alan Moore took the reins of writing Swamp Thing and before the character became main stream. This movie actually relaunched interest in the character and a new comic strip was started after the movie. This also got a sequel seven years later called The Return of Swamp Thing. There were also two TV series: a cartoon and live action. Wes Craven may have had an alright movie, but he helped Swamp Thing become more well known and comic fans should be grateful.

Holy 90's Batman

Mr. Craven, we will miss you. Thank you for all your movies and you'll never be forgotten. As for Swamp Thing, not the worst and not the best. It gets away with falling into the category of so mediocre it's enjoyable.  I give Swamp Thing four punched fan boats out of ten. Have a good day and please check back for more reviews.

RIP 1939-2015