Graphic Novel Review: NANJING: THE BURNING CITY

During World War II, the Imperial Japanese Army entered and seized the Chinese capital after the bombs fell and shook the walls of Nanjing.  In Ethan Young’s Nanjing: The Burning City two abandoned soldiers are trapped and desperate to find a way out of the city before they are discovered by Japanese soldiers.

In Young’s wartime nightmare the soldier Lu and The Captain are on a mission to simply survive but when they witness atrocities done to the people that they refuse to help a sense of honor and duty becomes more important to them than just simply surviving.  The characters go tremendous turmoil and tragedy as they think they get closer to freedom and an escape of Nanjing that crumbs around them.

Young’s black and white art focuses on visuals to move the story forward and it is truly a remarkable feat.  War has never looked so harrowing as it does in Young’s story.  This is a great graphic novel for readers who love these type of stories about characters trying to overcome unspeakable odds and human tragedy.

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: BLOODSUCKERS (aka VAMPIRE WARS: THE BATTLE FOR THE UNIVERSE) (2005)

Just when humans are learning to get around in the universe they discover that the universe is more crowded than they could have imagined.  It is crowded with a plethora of vampires.  This is the premise behind the action/horror/sci-fi hybrid that is Bloodsuckers (aka Vampire Wars: The Battle for the Universe)(2005).  The universe is overrun with different types of vampires who ravage human settlements on planets throughout the galaxy.     It takes a special kind of soldier to hunt and kill vampires which is where the V-SAN (Vampire Sanitation) come in.  They go wherever the vampires are spotted and eradicate them. 

On their latest mission, the V-SAN realize that something is different about the vampire attacks and fear that the different vampire races may be working together as well as with a rogue group of human vampire activists with a nefarious goal that may threaten humanity all across the galaxy.  Now the V-SAN group must learn the truth and stop their greatest threat before it is too late.

This film doesn’t pretend to be anything other than what it is – an outer space action film that happens to have vampires.  It’s a fun romp through sci-fi chaos and war and is entertaining from beginning to end.  Being the type of film that it is it can’t help but be a little campy and the addition of Michael Ironside in the cast just confirms it.  This film may not be the most intelligent vampire action film out there but it sure is one of the most entertaining and if you miss that then you’re missing the whole point of the film.

Film Review: WAR OF THE DEAD (2011)

The walking dead has taken over just about every genre of film from comedy (Shaun of the Dead and Zombieland) to period film (Fido) to action (World War Z) to drama (AMC’s The Walking Dead) and now with war as seen in the film War of the Dead (2011).  Now zombie-war films are nothing new (and you can even call World War Z a modern zombie-war film) but war takes center stage in War of the Dead. 

During WWII a platoon of American and Finnish soldiers are driven into Russian territory where they discover that they have more to worry about than just the enemy as the dead begin to return to the living with a ferocious appetite for the living and for war.  As the platoon’s number dwindles with each invading attack they soon discover the truth about the dead uprising and must decide who their true enemy in this new war is. 

This film is more in the vein of an action film but director Marko Makilaakso knows how to throw in the scary and gore moments (something missing from World War Z) making this the perfect film for gore hounds.  War films don’t always successful mix with the zombie genre but, in my opinion, this film has enough to satisfy.  What may be a detriment to the film is the more elaborate liberties taken with these zombies as they are reminiscent of the undead found in Verses (200) or Dance of the Dead (2008) or the bonkers Day of the Dead (2008) remake that seem to defy gravity and can do supernatural things but I’m a huge fan of Verses and welcome zombies with more menace.

War of the Dead is definitely not for everyone especially those zombie fans who want a little logic to go with their zombie film but if you liked Dead Snow (2009) or Braindead (1992) then you’ll enjoy entering combat in War of the Dead.

Film Review: THE REVENANT (2009)

Zombie films are nothing new and have become even more popular now that AMC’s The Walking Dead has become one of the most popular cable shows on the air.  The Revenant (2009) tries to add something new to the zombie genre.  In this film Bart Gregory (David Anders) is a fallen soldier that when his body is returned to the U.S.A. he suddenly awakens to discover that he is among the undead.  With the help of his best friend he realizes that the only way he can survive is from the intake of human blood.  Being a soldier of war Bart refuses to kill in order to survive but soon realizes that he can survive by killing those who are criminals and commit crimes so he sets out to clean the streets of Los Angeles.  But returning to the land of the living is not what it’s cracked up to be when the woman he used to love realizes that he has returned and his best friend soon becomes a revenant just like him. 

The film has its moments and at times is funny but the gag of a creature returning to life to kill criminals in order to survive and seek redemption has been done before (i.e. Joss Whedon’s Angel and the Blade trilogy) and the film loses its momentum halfway through.  The relationship between Bart and his girlfriend is a background story when it should have been brought to the forefront.  

As written and directed by D. Kerry Prior the script has its moments and its actually well directed but like I said the comedy is like a re-occurring gag that gets old very fast.  Anders does his best to bring Bart to undead life but the film’s tone shifts in the last third of the film to a more serious film and tries to take itself too seriously which is far too late.  This being said there are a couple on new ideas about the nature of these revenants not seen in other zombie films that is revealed in the epilogue (info that should have came much earlier in the film) but this will become nothing more than another zombie film on an already overpopulated shelf of zombie films.