Movie Review: Krull

First of All:  Last night, as I was bashing my mind against a paper I had to do for class (the paper was winning), a friend of mine called me up and said "Hey, we're having a movie night, it's a great old film, one of the first ones to have Liam Neeson in it."   Well, me being a huge Liam Neeson fan, I jumped at  the prospect and ordered a tactical retreat from the paper, which laughed scornfully at me while I ran.  When I got there, they revealed the movie was Krull.  I'd never heard of it before, which isn't surprising, since the movie is older than I am, but the cover had that sweet bladed throwing star of death thing you can see in the picture, so I figured "How bad could it be?" and sat down to watch.

Second of All: It's hard to fit Krull into a specific genre...it's got splashes of science fiction, a whole ton of fantasy, a little humor, and a tender part that almost makes you cry (it involves a little kid and a puppy, so you know how that kind of thing goes).  I'm not sure what to call it...science fantasy?  Fantasci fiction?  I dunno.  Anyway, so the movie opens with a giant, mountain-like spaceship (no, really, it looks like a mountain) flying down to this planet--called Krull, hence the movie name--and landing there, quoting a prophecy that the princess will choose a husband, who will become the ruler of the world, and their kid will become the ruler of the galaxy.  So this big mountain thing lands and tons of guys in black armor ride out on horses with spears.   Yeah, spear-wielding horsemen come out of a spaceship.  You see why it's hard to place the genre.

The plot revolves around the princess--who gets kidnapped by the alien bad guys so that the big evil nasty can marry her and be the one who rules in the prophecy--and her prince fiancee, who is desperately trying to get her back.  The prince, in order to save her, has to go find an ancient artifact called "The Glaive" (no, not the European weapon that's a spear with a longer blade), which is the pointy star of death on the cover.  After that, he has to actually find the bad guy spaceship, which is hard because at dawn every day, it teleports to a new location on the planet.

Third of All: The review!
To be honest, I'm not quite sure what to think of this movie.  It was a complete genre bash, where dudes with swords and axes were fighting aliens with laser spears, and they had magical horses trying to chase down a spaceship.  It was a bit...odd.

I have a few other eyebrow-raisers, too, but I won't be too hard on it, since it is an old movie from a time when directors didn't need a perfect script to make a movie.  First, the kingdoms where the prince and princess came from were these ancient enemies who hated each other, but as soon as the prince and princess are about to get married, they're suddenly totally cool with each other.  Of course, it doesn't actually happen, since the princess gets kindapped by evil space aliens, but what really kind of bothered me was that both kingdoms are never mentioned again in the whole movie--other than the prince suddenly becoming king when his dad dies in the fighting.  The new king-prince person also spends a remarkably short time grieving after he wakes up in a courtyard full of his dead family and friends.

Also, regarding his quest for The Glaive, he defies death by climbing steep mountainsides and lava, but when he gets it, he never uses it the entire movie until the end.  It could have completely owned so many of the bad guys they faced throughout the movie, but no, he kept it all tied up on his belt while swinging swords at them. Also, at the end, once he does pull out this awesome--and I mean awesome--weapon, which is thrown and can be controlled with your mind to whack as many bad guys as pop up, it gets under five minutes of screen time, and it only takes down about six or seven aliens before proving ineffective at killing the main bad alien boss guy.  If it's worthless against the Beast--as he's called--then why did they go after it in the first place?  And if it's ultimately only effective against his minions, then why wasn't he using it the whole movie?  It makes me sad when a movie doesn't use a sweet weapon's ultimate potential.  It turns out it's some kind of magic wedding fire that can kill the Beast, which I definitely didn't see coming.

Aside from other guffs I have, I think the greatest of them all was the lack of Liam Neeson.  He was the reason I agreed to watch the show, but his screen time fit into about fifteen mintues, and--Spoiler alert--he dies a redshirt's death at the evil spaceship.  Granted, it was really early in his career, but it's still pretty obvious--in the bits of glances we see of him--that he's a much better actor than 90% of the cast.

As far as content goes, it was very clean, and I guess you could pull out a message about love persisting against all odds or something, but I'll leave that up to your interpretation, if you ever choose to watch this movie.

All in all, I'd have to say I give this movie 3 out of 6 Nerd Stars.

Book Review: Steelheart

First of All:  I am a huge Brandon Sanderson fan.  Ever since I first read his novel Elantris, I've been fascinated by his vast creativity and in-depth world-building.  What is so intriguing to me about all of his books is that they're fantasy books (which definitely falls under the nerdy categories appropriate for this blog), but he's not content with sticking to traditional fantasy tropes like spell-casting and dragons and trolls.  He starts from the ground up, constructing entire worlds from scratch, each with their own rules of how things work, their own completely original creatures, and very real-feeling political and economic systems.
Now if that wasn't enough, the vast majority of Brandon Sanderson's works are all tied together in the same universe called the Cosmere, where there's a much bigger cosmic plot running above what most of his characters ever experience.  Some fans might get a bit frustrated that he jumps from one world to the next so rapidly, but I for one am glad to get a consistent stream of his books, even if he does have to take a break from his big projects to work on something smaller.  It keeps him from burning out, which works just fine for me.

Second of All:  The book!
I was a bit sad that Steelheart turned out to be one of the books he writes that isn't set in the Cosmere, but he more than made up for it with one big thing: super powers.  Heck yeah super powers!  I'm a big fan of anything super-human, and so I was jazzed right from the start at seeing my favorite author taking his turn at the super-power batting cage.

As you can find out from the teaser text on the back of the book (or the inside flap of the cover), Steelheart is set in a somewhat futuristic Chicago, where every non-organic substance has been converted into pure steel by a superhuman--or Epic, as they're called here--named Steelheart.  These Epics first started showing up when a huge star-like object called Calamity started floating above Earth, granting certain people superhuman abilities similar to what you'd find in comic books.  The only problem is that every person who turns into an Epic also becomes an evil, power-hungry thug.  Within a few years, Epics have taken over the world, and now fight for dominance over scraps of territory all over the globe.

The story is told from the perspective of David, a young man who watched as the Epic named Steelheart killed his father and then took over all of Chicago, transforming it into a totalitarian state deemed Newcago.  Driven by his desire for revenge and the fact that he's seen Steelheart bleed--though the Epic is supposedly completely invulnerable--he begins collecting information on every Epic he can find.  He stumbles across a group of resistance fighters called the Reckoners, and convinces them to join on his quest for revenge.

Third of All: The review!
I went into the book expecting Brandon Sanderson's typical detail-ridden style, and was surprised to see it much more basic in feel than his normal books.  It is definitely written for a young adult audience, rather than his usual more grown-up readers, and so it reads accordingly.  Those who are expecting something with the feel of The Way of Kings or Mistborn will probably be disappointed and maybe turned off by the simplistic style that he employs here.  Young adults, on the other hand--or those who read at their level--will probably love it (not to mention the super-powers, tons of awesome guns, lots of explosions and the feel of a spy-action novel).

Plot-wise, I rather enjoyed it, as anyone who loves a good underdog story does.  There were plenty of twists and turns, tons of plot twists, a slightly kid-ish love story, and--as with all of Brandon Sanderson's books--a huge climax that doesn't stop till very near the end, leaving you hanging on the edge of your seat to find out what comes next.  I loved most of the characters, though there were only a few who we really get to see in-depth, as far as why they're doing what they're doing.

The only thing that I could really say that I didn't enjoy about it was the lack of explanation about how things work that usually comes with a Brandon Sanderson novel.  In most of his books, the huge climax at the end is so gripping not only due to the events in the book, but also because he drops a huge realization about the workings of the world that explains so much about all of the little clues you've been picking up along the way.  This one did have some big reveals about several characters, but not about the world as a whole, which did leave me a bit disappointed.  Just a bit, though.

Overall, I would give this book a 5 out of 6 Nerd Stars

Last of All: Thank you for getting this far.  Lots of text can be intimidating to some, but not to you, dear reader!  

Let me know what you think of the book in the comments, whether you agree, disagree, and also--perhaps most importantly--if you're as psyched as I am for the next Stormlight Archives book to come out early next year!

Welcome, one and all!

First of All:
I am so glad you've found your way here, and I hope the time you choose to spend here will help you out on your own journey in some small way.

Second of All:
I've been kicking the idea of this blog around for a while, and finally decided to just jump in and get started.  Just so that you understand, I am a nerd.  I love things that help me escape to a wonder-filled world for a while, be it science fiction or fantasy, video games or novels, movies or role-playing games, you name it.  I may not be good at all of them, but as far as I know, there isn't a rule that says that you have to be a master of something to enjoy it.  As I've gone through life, there's been a lot of things I've experienced that I've loved, and also some things which I didn't like so much.
The idea behind this blog is that, as I stumble across different things on my own journey through life, I can help you see my perspective and opinions about any of a variation of mediums that I may encounter.  You may have your own views about the things I talk about here, and that's totally alright, but I hope that each and every one of you can come away from reading these posts with a better understanding of some aspects of the nerdy culture that is suddenly becoming cool.

Last of All: Have a fantastic day!