Graphic Novel Review: I KILL GIANTS

Joe Kelly and JM Ken Nimura’s (writer and artist, respectfully) graphic novel I Kill Giants is part family drama and part fantasy epic in it’s scope of following a young girl Barbara who believes that it is her destiny to rid her town of giants and the even larger gods Titans.

Barbara is a young girl with no friends and a recluse from everyone in the town who believes she’s crazy because she believes in giants and that it is her job to hunt and kill giants.  Most people can’t see them and don’t believe they exist as the damage they cause is usually thought to be the cause of major disasters natural or otherwise.  With her trusty weapon Coveleski she hopes to vanquish the giant she knows is coming even if no one else believes her.  She also has to contend with a school bully, a new school psychology that just wants to get to know her, an indifferent brother and sister who have her own issues, and the appearance of new girl in the neighborhood that just wants to be her friend.

Kelly’s script gets to the heart of an adolescent girl growing up and learning to navigate grief and life and family and friendship even when she believes she has a higher calling.  Barbara isn’t the most likable young girl, but Kelly manages to push the boundaries with his writing of the character.  Nimura’s exquisite drawings perfectly capture the fantastic world that Barbara lives in while balances the real-world elements so audiences don’t realize where reality ends and fantasy begin.

I Kill Giants is filled with characters you will grow to love and respect and at times empathize with.  Kelly and Nimura’s collaboration will leave you going back to re-read the book many time just to get all the subtle nuances of the characters and the world that has been crafted and it is a wonderful world to visit time and time again.

Film Review: MONSTERS: DARK CONTINENT (2014)

Ten years after the events depicted in the original film Monsters (2010) the “Infected Zones” have spread over the entire world creating a global epidemic.  In Monsters: Dark Continent (2014) the Army must put together a new type of soldier to combat the growing threat but the soldiers in this film who are sent into the Middle East to help stop the problem have more than just giant monsters to contend with as dangers lurk in every corner and in every shadow in this war film in which the giant monsters take a back seat to the insurgency of man. 

Written by Tom Green and Jay Basu this is a film that puts the audience right in the middle of the war in the Middle East.  The group of soldiers is made up of mostly rookies who have never spent a tour of duty facing the giants head on.  Leading the group is Noah Frater (Johnny Harris) who volunteers to go on yet another tour avoiding to return home to his family because the only war he knows how to deal with is on the battlefield.  But as he and his group of men go deeper into the trenches he soon learns that everything that he has ever known both in terms of the giant monsters and the human monsters that he’s used to fighting is about to be turned upside down.

As usual, the biggest problem with the film is the fact that the cast is huge and for the most part they are all cannon fodder.  Unlike the original film which was very intimate and focused on the two main characters for most of the running time of the film, this film has too many characters to get to know (at least until most of them are killed off).  The film also tries to use the monsters as a background element forcing you to follow the more human conflict in the film.  This tactic worked well for the original film where the cast is much smaller but here it seems like the monsters are a wasted element.  Now the monsters are seen more in this film than in the previous film but its more as a sense of “awe” and “wonder” but in a war film this is lost (at least until the cast is dwindled down to a handful of characters).

Directed by Green himself, the film is not an entirely bad film but it does lack the ambiance and awe of Gareth Edwards original film even as it opens the possibilities of future films set in a world of giant monsters.

Film Review: CROCZILLA (2012)

The Chinese have now entered the giant killer monster race with Croczilla (2012), the latest in giant crocodile films.  What makes this film different is that the said crocodile is giant because natural causes instead of biological weapons or toxic spills or something similar.  The giant crocodile is named Amao who has lived its life relatively uninterrupted in a zoo that is slowly going out of business.  The only person who sees Amao as an animal to behold is a small boy by the name of Xiao who has just learned that Amao and the rest of the crocodiles at the zoo have been sold to a ruthless gangster who plans on serving up the crocodiles as a meal to his high priced clients but Amao escapes captivity and wanders throughout countryside.

Amao makes small meals out of the random people who come across his path but he also makes a meal out of one woman’s purse containing $1 million and when word gets out that there is a dangerous animal out there worth a million dollar some people flee while others go on a search and destroy mission.  Now Xiao and his father must find Amao before the whole countryside is thrown into chaos.

This may all sound like the makings of a good giant killer animal film but it really isn’t.  The film is badly written with a tone that borders on slapstick from the awkward scenes with naked young boys skinny dipping to the woman with $1 million verses giant crocodile antics.  There is also no logic to why Amao kills some people while leaving others alone and the gangster that plans to feed Amao to his high paying clients is among the most ridiculous ever portrayed.  The film has very little going for it and comes off as a subpar sci-fi disaster.  This is one of those films that you can completely pass up.

Movie Review: SPIDERS (2013)

Spiders (2013) is one of those films where the trailer advertises it in 3D and its gets you excited because giant spiders coming out of the screen is the perfect way to spend an evening.  Too bad all the excitement was left in the trailer as this is a subpar horror film mainly because the film makers forgot that any film about a giant spider should first be fun and entertaining.  

 

When a Russian lab in space comes crashing down to the city a deadly breed of spider that has been genetically altered takes up residence in the city sewers and subway system.  The spider starts to breed uncontrollably feeding at first on the street people before moving onto bigger prey.  Only an estranged husband (played by Patrick Muldoon) stands in the way of a military cover-up that will see the birth of a super-spider which will advance military weapons division by decades (by producing virtually indestructible webbing).  Sounds like B-movie giant spider goodness to me except the film makers decide to play the material too serious by making Muldoon’s character trying to save his wife (Christa Campbell) and teenage daughter before the giant spiders completely over take the city.  

What’s missing from the film is any sense of fun – it’s a giant spider movie!  The breed of spider crafted for the film is actually interesting but like the remake of Piranha (2010), which was a fun movie, there has to be more than just a cool creature to carry the film.  There was lots of entertainment and fun to be had in the Piranha film but here the whole film is uninspired and cliché with very little thought put into crafting interesting scenes.  This is surprising considering that the director Tibor Takacs was the man behind the better than expected The Gate (1987) and I, Madman (1989) which were both fun and entertaining.  Even Takacs subpar sequel The Gate II (1990) was more fun than this dud.

Another annoyance is that the film is filled with dumb characters that do dumb things which if it happens once it’s fine but if it continuously happens throughout it’s just the film makers being lazy and not dotting the “I”s and crossing the “T”s.  A case in point is the fact that the main characters are constantly passing by guns and weapons left behind by dead soldiers (killed by the spiders) but never picking any of them up to defend themselves from the spiders.  The main character also continuously enters into the subway where he knows the spiders are breeding with complete disregard and let’s not forget that by the end of the film the city should be ravaged by giant spiders but once the big bad mama spider is defeated the rest of them just disappear as if it was all just a nightmare.  Where did all the other spiders go?  These may seem like small details to some but it’s these small details that become more annoying as the film drags along (and it does drag).  The CGI is laughable at times, which means that the 3D version probably wouldn’t have been that good and to make matters worse is the fact that none of the actors seem like they’re having fun in the film.  The film is about GIANT SPIDERS!  How can you not see the fun in that?  Eight Legged Freaks (2002) and Tarantula (1955) and even Arachnid (2001) were more fun that this film and if you want normal sized spiders then there’s always Kingdom of the Spiders (1977) and Arachnophobia (1990).

This is a film to bypass and just wait for the more fun and entertaining (at least title wise) Big Ass Spider (2013) which will see release later this year.