The Maze Runner
is not a great movie, but overall it was enjoyable. Of the current run of post-apocalyptic-dystopia-future-young-adult-literature-adapted-to-film,
I actually enjoyed this more than The
Hunger Games. However, this movie isn’t without flaws. The plot feels like it has a lot of holes,
but at least the reveal at the question of how much is plot holes and how much
was intentionally misleading. The main character
was pretty bland. But overall I enjoyed
the concept and watching them figure out the puzzle of the maze and how to
escape. Overall, I enjoyed watching it,
but not enough depth to want to see it again.
Mutant Lemon
A blog analyzing stories to learn about storytelling. Currently examining all the Disney animated films.
Wednesday, October 29, 2014
Thursday, October 2, 2014
Long Beach Comic Con
I went to the Long Beach Comic Con this past weekend. It’s a nice mid-size convention. It’s small enough to see everything in a day,
but big enough to still attract some nice talent. I’ve enjoyed attending for the last few
years, but this year it was a bit of a last minute choice when other plans fell
through.
I had fun at the convention, but couldn’t shake the feeling
of not making the most of my time there. I usually go into these things with
more of a plan of what I want to do and see and buy. But this time I was pretty much just winging it
and that threw me off. I suppose that
just speaks to how much I like to plan things.
Anyway, here’s my swag from the convention. I got the first volume of the X-Men trade
paperback and liked it enough to try out the next one too. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen has
been on my radar to get for a long time, and decided to finally go for it. And Shrugged is something I’m unfamiliar with,
but looked like an interesting concept so I’m giving it a shot. I like to look for comics I’m not familiar with
at conventions like this. Hopefully it’s
good.
Sunday, September 14, 2014
Extradiegetic: Sleeping Beauty
Sleeping Beauty was Disney’s return to the
fairytale formula that had served him so well just a few years before with Cinderella and jump-started animated
cinema with Snow White. Once again there are the usual fairytale trappings:
a princess, a prince, magic, etc. But
the story of Sleeping Beauty presents a problem for a movie retelling; watching
the title character sleep does not make for a compelling movie. The story also involves a large time gap that
needs to be bridged, between the princess being cursed and the curse being
fulfilled. Disney solved this problem by
shifting focus to more of the characters, so the titular character wasn’t carrying
the entire film. We see more of the
Kings and the Prince, but the real stars are the fairies.
Flora, Fauna and Merryweather provide a stable group of
character for the movie to focus on.
They are there at the beginning, providing a crucial role of bestowing their
gifts on Aurora, most notably altering Maleficent’s curse. They also conceive and initiate the plan to
keep Aurora hidden until after her 16th birthday. Though they seem to serve primarily as comic
relief, they are actually the ones driving the story forward.
Aurora has her brief period of action as she meets the
prince, falls in love, finds out she’s a princess and then fulfils the curse
and falls asleep. But from there the
focus is fully back on the fairies as they realize Prince Phillip’s kiss will
break the curse and mount a rescue. Then
do all the heavy lifting as he escapes and slays Maleficent. Ultimately Prince Phillip does little more
than act as a warm body to hold the magical weapons they conjure up. Even the death blow against Maleficent in
dragon form is more Flora casting a spell on the sword, than the actual
flinging of the sword. The only reason
he’s useful at all is the curse-breaking kiss.
But even as the action follows the fairies, they maintain
the feel of side characters, operating just off to the side of the Prince and Princess;
giving the feeling the movie is still more about them. The way they are used in this movie in
general demonstrates how a story can still be made to work by still providing
interesting characters to support it, even if they’re not the characters that
are expected. The fairies are what hold
this movie together. Without them it would be a disconnected series of scenes
and lacking in much of the depth and humor.
Monday, September 8, 2014
Extradiegetic: Lady and the Tramp
Lady and the Tramp
runs counter to the conventional wisdom that the protagonist needs to change
over the course of a story. In this film the protagonist is clearly Lady. The story follows Lady throughout the film. She is clearly the protagonist. Usually as such she would be expected to
change and grow over the course of the story.
But that’s just one way to tell a story. There’s also the reverse were the hero is
challenged with temptation and threat to compromise their beliefs. But they remain steadfast, and in the end
they change others by their conviction. Lady and the Tramp is this type of
story.
Lady believes in being part of a home and family. Early in the film she’s very proud when she
receives her license, showing it off to the neighbor dogs. This scene is an efficient setup,
establishing the beliefs of Lady and also introducing the characters of Jock
and Trusty. When her belief is first
tested by the reduced attention caused by Darling’s pregnancy she is presented
with two conflicting philosophies. Her
friends reinforce her belief in loyalty to home, as they explain what a baby is
and how nice they can be. Their point of
view is rebutted by the Tramp who shows up and tells her “when a baby moves in,
the dog moves out.”
Ultimately, her faith in home is reaffirmed when the baby finally
arrives and Jim Dear helps her get a look at the baby. She’s still part of the family; it’s just a
bit larger now. But soon after she is
challenged again as Aunt Sarah arrives to take care of the baby while Jim Dear
and Darling go on vacation. Aunt Sarah doesn’t want Lady anywhere near the baby,
and after being framed by a pair of Siamese cats Aunt Sarah takes Lady out to
get a muzzle. Lady panics and runs out, getting lost. She’s found by Tramp who begins to show her
how he lives without a home. He argues
that when he lives without a home, he gets only the best by visiting a
different home every night. Lady isn’t
immediately swayed by this argument, but neither is she clamoring to return
home immediately.
Tramps lack of commitment with a home is repeated in his
attitude toward dating many women. Also, despite the time they spend together,
he is still reckless with her safety, and endangers Lady by insisting they
chase chickens around for fun, only to end up getting shot at and Lady captured
and taken to the pound. While the
evening before showed the benefits of living untethered, this next day presents
the pitfalls. It also has Lady realizing
that she’s not the only dog in Tramp’s life, and he has a reputation as a
ladies man. Not only is some of the
worst of this lifestyle on display in the pound, but it also reinforces her
connection to home as it is her license that saves her from it. The dogs at the pound say they would give
their left leg for one to get out of there.
When the Tramp visits Lady to apologize she makes it clear
she’s not interested in his lifestyle or him anymore. That the Tramp tries to apologize at all is
significant. It’s unlikely he’s done
that in past relationships instead of simply moving to the next girl. He leaves, but returns when he hears Lady
barking at a rat. Chained to the
doghouse, Lady is unable to stop the rat from entering the house, so it’s up to
the Tramp hunt down the rat. Tramp manages
to kill the rat, but Aunt Sarah, not realizing the rat was there, thinks
Tramp’s just been wrecking up the place and barricades him in a closet before
calling the pound.
This moment was predicted earlier in the pound. Where the other dogs postulate that when the
Tramp does fall in love, he’ll get careless and dog catchers will finally
capture him. This indicates that the
Tramp is indeed in love with Lady and he has changed. Things happen very
quickly now as Jock and Trusty realize what happened along with Jim Dear and
Darling, who had just arrived back home.
Trusty and Jock are able to stop the pound carriage and save the days,
though Trusty does end up breaking his leg.
In the final scene we see that Tramp is now part of the family, with his
own collar and license. He has changed and
followed Lady’s example because of his newfound love for her.
Stories with a steadfast protagonist are less common, but it
is a useful form of storytelling. Seeing
a character withstand an assault on their values and remain steadfast can be
just as inspiring as seeing one swayed by those values. Lady
and the Tramp could’ve been flipped around so that Tramp was the
protagonist. But, they chose to focus on
Lady. Neither way is necessarily
correct, but each provides its own benefits and pitfalls. It’s important to remember that there’s more
than one way to approach a story.
Monday, August 11, 2014
What I Really Think: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
(Spoilers Ahead)
I’ve been a bit of a fan of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
most of my life. I liked the original
cartoon as a kid, and have kept one eye on the property since then. Trying to watch the new versions that have
come out along the way. The property has
had low and hight points it’s entire life.
There most recent outing is…okay.
Overall, I enjoyed the movie. It was fun to watch in the moment but it’s certainly
not a good movie. There were some missed
opportunities, and some interesting innovations. This movie’s base is with the original
cartoon. This is unfortunate, because
there have been a lot of interesting story innovations since then that I would’ve
liked to have seen used.
I liked that they connected to the turtle’s history to April’s
own. It’s an innovation that I’m
surprised hadn’t been used before. I’m
still disappointed they didn’t find a proper redhead to paly April, but her
yellow jacket was a nice node to the original yellow jumpsuit. April’s O’Neil is one of the aspects that
changes the most between TMNT incarnations.
And while I liked the new backstory, April herself wasn’t very
interesting.
The villains are a weak point as well. The plan doesn’t make much sense, but I could
excuse that. What really pains me is
seeing Shredder sidelined to boring side villain status. His mecha armor wasn’t quite terrible, but it
was really over the top. One of the strengths
of the TMNT story, especially over recent years, has been the dynamic and
history between Splinter and Shredder. There
was none of that here, they were essentially strangers. And that just left both of the characters
feeling flat. I really wished they would’ve
played up that emotional connection between the two, it could’ve added a lot to
the movie. They didn’t need this whole
plot to infect people and then cure them to make even more money. Money is not
an interesting motivation for villains.
The turtles themselves, I liked. They all had the expected personalities and
bounced off each other nicely. I do feel
like Donatello was underutilized though.
I liked the humor Michelangelo brought (as expected). A little more character motivations and
growth would’ve been nice, but as it was okay as-is.
Overall, I enjoyed the movie. I would be willing to see it again
sometime. But definitely not a high
point for the franchise.
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