Kelson Reviews Stuff - Page 33

We saw Cirque du Soleil’s resident Los Angeles show last weekend. Cirque is always impressive, and Iris has the usual collection of trapeze artists, contortionists, tumblers, ribbon flyers, and elaborate costumes you’d expect from one of their shows. This one stands out for several reasons:

• I like the history of movies, so all the thematic references to early cinema and classic movies were fun. The Dolby Theater is a great match for this look.
• They did a great job of mixing live performances with live and time-delayed video, giving it a very different look from most shows. (And as the program pointed out, the video effects react to the performers, not the other way around.)
• This is the first Cirque show I’ve seen in a long time where I enjoyed the clown performances as much as the acrobatics.

Some highlights:

• The filmstrip act, where the performers walk through a series of identical rooms, each performing an action for a camera that plays back on a short delay, and each interacting with the previous performer’s recorded action.
• The soundstage number at the opening of act two. I think the entire cast was onstage, all doing something different, all at the same time. An incredible illusion of chaos.
• A film noir-style fistfight turned into a tumbling trampoline act.

The only disappointment was that act two felt a bit short, probably because the individual numbers were so long.

Incredible views of the Pacific Ocean and Catalina Island. Also easy to get to and park. I haven’t tried any of the hiking trails in the area yet, but I keep meaning to.

The best comic store I’ve been to in Orange County. The staff is friendly and helpful, and the selection is incredible. Some stores focus on Marvel and DC and just a smattering of other material. These guys carry everything down to the obscure indie books that you’ve never heard of. I can think of several occasions on which I found out about some obscure book from a publisher I didn’t even recognize, figured I’d have to hunt around for it, then came here first…and found it immediately.

They have a wide selection of graphic novels, manga, T-shirts, trading cards, and as the name suggests, collectible toys (mainly action figures relating to comic books, anime, and sci-fi TV and movies).

They also have the biggest collection of back issues I’ve seen outside a convention in the last decade or so, mostly from the mid-1980s onward.

Starborn is one of three series BOOM! Studios launched in 2010 with ideas by the master of Marvel storytelling, Stan Lee himself. This one comes with an intriguing premise: Benjamin Warner is an unpublished writer, who has been building a science-fiction world ever since he was a child. He finally sent off his first novel to a publisher…and suddenly discovers that what he thought was science-fiction — not to mention all in his head — is in fact very real. And because of what he knows, it wants him dead.

The first issue is mostly exposition, but there’s enough action at the beginning (in the sci-fi setting) and at the end (in reality) to keep things moving. Some elements seem a bit too familiar for someone who’s read a lot of science fiction, but there’s enough going on…and enough left unexplained…to be intriguing. The art style doesn’t really grab me, but I do like the contrast presented between the sci-fi elements and the ordinary world. It may grow on me.

Verdict: Definitely worth a look! I’d like to know more about the world, and the lead character’s role in it, as well as where the story might go.

CBR has a preview of the book.

Starborn #1
Concept by Stan Lee
Written by Chris Roberson
Art by Khary Randolph

Update: The series ran for 12 issues. I don’t remember how far I got or why I stopped reading it.

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World is a fun, funny mash-up of movie, comic book and video game sensibilities. The story combines a romantic comedy with a fighting video game, and the film just runs full-tilt with the idea.

Every new relationship comes with baggage. In this case, the baggage happens to be Ramona Flowers’ seven evil exes, who all want to fight Scott Pilgrim if he’s going to date her. Fights are staged like video games, with “X vs Y” captions, physics-defying moves and special powers, and defeated opponents transforming into coins. Caption boxes provide extra information. Flashbacks are illustrated in comic-strip form.

Its biggest flaw, IMO, is that it tries so hard to fit all the battles into one movie that it forgets to slow down and show us that Scott and Ramona actually like each other (most of the time). There’s no real sense of time, and it feels like the whole thing could happen in a week. So when the supporting cast starts asking Scott whether being with Ramona is really worth all the effort, it’s a good question, one that makes the ultimate ending a bit less satisfying than the one in the original graphic novels.

The original comics tell the story over six volumes, which take place over roughly a year. Obviously side characters are developed a lot more. More importantly for the lead story, Ramona is developed a lot more, and you get to see the two of them dealing with an actual relationship, rather than simply “You’re hot, wanna go out?” “Oh, okay.” You get much more of a sense that the fights mean something. The later volumes also focus heavily on people growing up and growing apart, something which there really isn’t time for in the movie.

They also make it clear that Scott isn’t as great as he thinks he is. He does have the potential to become the next evil ex, after all.

The movie is great fun. If you liked it, I absolutely recommend picking up the graphic novels. If you liked the idea, but not the execution, or if you can’t stand Michael Cera (I know that’s a consideration for some people, and I had my doubts when I heard that he’d been cast in the role), I recommend picking up the first volume or two to give it a try.