Up Without People

Heading into another busy time at work, and guess what? I've been writing as well, so not as much time for blogging. Also sort of dating someone, and fucking generally beats blogging. So just some quick thoughts.

Star Trek - One nice thing about dating is I'm going to the movies more. I used to watch old Star Trek reruns with my mom, and occasionally her (late) best friend Diane if she was visiting. We also had a regular thing with old Nigel Rathbone Sherlock Holmes movies. Anyway, I was never too obsessive about 'Trek, but I remember Christopher Pike and tribbles and that lasagna monster thing. The new movie looked cool and J.J. Abrams has a pretty good track record with me, so what the hell. And it was really good. I was actually kind of moved by the senior Kirk's sacrifice, and Chris Pine's Kirk is just the right combo of swagger and actual competence and bravery. Zachary Quinto's Spock takes on the human vs. alien personality conflict better than that character probably ever has before, and with a bit of romance, too. While as characters there's not much to Sulu, Scotty, Uhura, Bones and Chekhov--especially since having Spock and Kirk as co-male leads is tricky and enough of a time-eater as it is--at least the supporting cast are all written so as to be intrinsic to either the Kirk or Spock stories. They all get to be an important part of their first great adventure. Kind of liked that it was a Romulan rather than Klingon menace for the first one as well. And how great was it that Leonard Nimoy got so much more than just a cameo--he gets to do some of his best acting of his career.

Dwayne McDuffie - I guess I shouldn't be surprised when comics fans are outraged at absolutely normal, everyday business decisions. I remember a month or so reading one of McDuffie's comments about how he didn't enjoy writing JLA and that he was forced to rewrite some dialogue at the last minute due to editorial fiat and he wasn't happy about it. And at the time, I thought, Well, he'll be off the book soon, because a) his comments make DC editorial look dumb in public and b) clearly he wants to be off the book, anyway. That he apparently made many more such comments over the past few months makes DC look dumb in a different way--why put up with this public complaining for so long? Nothing against McDuffie, and it's not like I want him to lose work. But to me, he was really asking to be put out of his misery and I have no doubt this was no surprise to him at all. By all means, say what you want, but when you makes those comments in public about your employer, there can be consequences, and certainly a guy like McDuffie, who's worked for many comics companies and WB Animation and other corporations knows the score.

Up! - Does this movie have an exclamation point or not? This is the new Pixar film, and while they've got an incredibly high batting average for quality films, I confess the previews for this one didn't absolutely grab me. The old guy with the floating house and the Boy Scout stowaway--okay, that's funny, but then what? What's with the big, rainbow-colored bird? The evil, Kirk Douglas-looking guy in the airship? Well, I can now say that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, or more importantly, the stuff that can't be shown in a short preview is what really makes the movie special. For while it's typically well-animated and funny and sweet, what really got me was how well the characters fit together. As in, they all need each other. The old guy, Carl, lost his wife, a childhood sweetheart seen in a lovely opening scene and then through a gorgeous montage of their life together. You really feel for the guy, especially as he's voiced by Ed Asner, an actor I've liked pretty much my whole life. The fact he's cast in this, when obviously Ed Asner's dance card isn't exactly full these days, is a clue that the filmmakers here have a story to tell about how we treat our elderly. And bless them for not making it gross or cutesy--there's a real moment of horror when Carl takes his curmudgeonliness a step too far and actually hurts someone, and you realize how quickly things can turn for a person, especially when there's no one to stand up and defend them.

But that's not all the movie is about. It's about father figures, and keeping promises, and knowing that sometimes it's better and more important to help someone else than keep an old promise. In some ways, the filmmaker's have it easy here. With animation, it's pretty easy to make a cute dog suddenly pathetic, and especially when he can talk. That's a can't miss. And what's not to like about a pudgy, never say die Scout with an absentee father? Or a mother bird missing her babies? When one writes it out like that, it seems almost cynically put together, and yet it really is warm and winning.