The Dork Review: Megamind

So I really needed to get out of the apartment tonight. My friend Jeff suggested going to see Megamind, and while I wasn't all hot and bothered to see it, I figured what the heck. At worst I'd have a story to tell about how awful it was.

It was actually pretty good.

Let me set this up for you though. Honestly, I think the commercials for this movie don't sell it that well. I mean, I'm not fond of Will Ferrell as an actor. When he's funny, he's bloody hilarious. When he isn't, which is most of the time, he's just bloody annoying. Annoying beyond the scope of everything else annoying on the planet.

So yeah, not a lot of Will Ferrell movies in my past. What can I say.

However in Megamind he hits just the right note of over the top without going too far. It helps that he's surrounded by a great cast, including Brad Pitt (who's actually a much better actor then his looks might suggest - Check out Twelve Monkeys if you don't believe me), and Tina Fey (a geek goddess and sexy beyond belief - ok, yeah, minor celeb crush). David Cross is in it as well, who when I hear his voice I always think it's Patton Oswalt, as Minion, Megamind's henchfish.

The movie's funny, playing around with a lot of the tropes of super-heroes. While this is well trodden ground I think this movie is a nice addition, with a few twists to some traditions. However I would never really describe Megamind as all that evil. He's more frustrated and lonely then anything else, and acts out knowing the hero will stop him. When he actually wins a fight he can't believe it, and has no idea what to do with himself. He has completely based his identity on being opposite to the hero, and has to find another way to define himself when the opposition is gone.

Don't worry, I haven't given away that much. There are still plenty of twists in the movie that will surprise, including a take on the traditional reluctant hero trope.

I recommend going to see Megamind. Not strongly though. It was fun, but if you miss it in theaters you can always rent it later.

First Chapter Done!

Yea! I've gotten the first chapter of Transmission written with the over 1200 words I've done so far today. I think I'll take a break and get some lunch, and then maybe reward myself with the Scott Pilgrim Blu-ray that just came out his week. Hmmm....

The Plot Thickens

The plot of my novel to be that is. Just finished the rough outline tonight, after spending the week on it and the characters. I'm actually really, really happy with what I've got. I've tried to make the characters each unique and not exactly what you expect.

I'm still not sure how much I actually want to reveal about my novel or even my writing on here. It seems that some people think that anything put on the Internet is public domain. (Oh Cook's Source, you are so going to get owned by your editor's colossal stupidity). Also, I don't want to give away too much because the novel is dependent upon revealing things at a certain pace. It starts with third person narration, switches to first person in a kind of flashback explaining how things got to the point we see in the beginning, before switching back to third at the very end. The thing I like about it is that there is a story contained in the prologue and epilogue that then encapsulates the rest of the story. And it actually will make sense in the end and help to setup the main story I want to tell.

Will it work? Well the only way for me to know is to write the dang thing and then get someone to read it. All I can do is my best, and if this doesn't get published then I move on to the next idea and start writing, and keep writing until I make it or keel over, whichever happens first.

Novel in November

Ok, so it's Nov 1. Time to start a novel.

First off, I'm NOT doing NaNoWriMo this year. As I've stated elsewhere I do want to write my first novel without the added pressure of an artificial goal on top of it. I'd much rather take my time on the first one as I'm still figuring out my process and what works for me. Also, I still have a novella and two short stories in various stages of completion and waiting on feedback, so I may be interrupted to work on those and get them out to be published (hopefully).

So what's the plan? Well, this week is going to be spent getting characters and plot squared away. I have an idea about what I want to do with both but need to get them written down so I have something concrete rather than the random fuzzy firings of my brain. Once I've got the characters sketched out I can get a rough idea of the plot for the book and then start writing to fill it in.

I don't know if this will ever get published. I may write this and then hide it somewhere to never be seen by others, or it may be the first thing of mine that actually gets published. All I know is that I have to do this, I have to do it now, and I have to keep at it. I want to be a writer, and the only way to do that is to write.

The Dork Review: Red

Meant to put this up on the weekend but better late than never. So last Friday I went and saw Red with my friends Jeff and Gary, and you may be asking what we thought of it. Well, I guess there's only one way to put it:

Freaking awesome!

Ok, first off let me be blunt. This movie is over the top. How do I know this? Well, it's spelled out in the trailer when Bruce Willis' character WALKS out of a moving, spinning car and isn't immediately turned into roadkill. That being said, it's over the top in just the right way.

The basic story is a bunch of former spies get together to find out why one of them is being targeted for death, and end up causing massive amounts of mayhem and property damage along the way. The scene stealer of this movie is definitely John Malkovich, playing a paranoid former operative that thinks satellites and helicopters are out to get him and has faked his own death numerous times. The scene where he's running with the bomb strapped to his chest is hilarious.

All three of us enjoyed the movie and ended laughing our butts off. If you've had a bad week and need something to cheer yourself up, go see Red.