Rainy Day Diversions
So what to do when it rains all Memorial Day weekend? Read manga
and watch movies, of course.
First off, my wife and I made a stop at Half Price Books, where I
picked up the first volumes in two manga series I had heard a lot about
but never read before:
Love
Hina: I remember seeing this title mentioned again and
again whenever ICv2 discussed Bookscan's graphic novel bestseller
lists. I suppose I can see why this PG-13 sexual innuendo sitcom
is popular with young boys (hey, I thought
Three's Company
and
Zapped! were great when I was in grade school) but I
found
Love Hina extremely tedious. How many times
can we watch the klutzy Keitaro bumble his way into yet another awkward
misunderstanding? I'm glad I decided to wait until I'd read the
first volume before buying the second book, which was also available,
since this is a series I have no interest continuing with.
Blade
of the Immortal: Blood of a Thousand: Not sure how
I feel about this manga series yet. I loved the art, especially
the softer-looking scenes rendered in pencil. But the narrative
flow seemed choppy (insert joke about
cut-and-paste
job done to reformat the manga into left-to-right format here) and
the anachronistic slang dialogue kept throwing me out of the
story. I know these were both creative decisions made by the
creator himself, but I'm thinking they may have been bad
decisions. Still, the premise is interesting (Manji, a ronin
warrior in feudal Japan, must kill one thousand evil men in order to
have his curse of immortality lifted) and the details are inventive
(Manji's immortality, for example, does not mean he is invulnerable to
harm), so I'll probably give the series one more chance to win me over.
As for movies:
The
League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: I know, I
know: I only have myself to blame for renting this abomination,
which was loud, dumb, and dull. My wife was the one who pushed
for this movie, despite my objections that it wouldn't be faithful to
the source material(s). She fell asleep midway through while I
endured the whole thing. I'll be using that against her the next
time we go to pick out movies.
The
Day After Tomorrow: Ignore
all
the critics panning this cheesy disaster movie. They simply
didn't get that it's a comedy. Granted, it's a comedy that looks
a lot like a high-budget, special-effects-laden summer blockbuster, but
that's just to trick the audiences who have been conditioned to expect
that sort of thing around this time of year. Trust me, this movie
is
hilarious. It's a brilliant send-up of the typical
over-the-top action movie. How else to explain a film where nerds
yell at each other about "CRITICAL DESALINIZATION LEVELS!" and argue
about whether Nietzsche was a misogynist or not (because if he was it's
okay to burn his books to stay warm, but the Bible can't be burned no
matter what)? I was laughing out loud throughout this movie and
the final line (I won't spoil it here) had me on the floor. I
think in a few years
Day After Tomorrow will be
recognized as the comedy cult classic it is. There'll be
Rocky
Horror type midnight screenings where devoted fans come dressed
in arctic gear and throw fake snow every time a character mentions the
Atlantic current.
And not technically a movie or manga but:
Alias
- Season Two: I came to this series late (my wife
watches it regularly but I only caught up with it on DVD) but I enjoyed
the first season enough to seek out more. I imagine this is a
series that would resonate with superhero fans, given all the play that
occurs around the concept of secret identities. (For those
unfamiliar with the show's premise, Jennifer Garner plays Sydney
Bristow, a double agent who works for both the CIA and one of the CIA's
primary targets, SD-6.)
Alias takes the convoluted
scenarios common in superhero comics to a new level: Not only
does Sydney have to lie to her friends about her double (triple?) life,
but she also has to track who knows what lie as she shifts from one spy
organization to the other. In a break from superhero comics,
Sydney's parents are not only aware of her secret but they're also
spies themselves -- spies who may know more about the truth behind
Sydney's past than she does. It's a fun twist on the spy genre
and Jennifer Garner generally does a good job in the role (although
there are many times when Sydney comes across as much too gullible for
a top spy).
