I... I Just Had To.

Star Wars.

Seriously, I just had to; how could I not? Who doesn't love Star Wars? Unfortunately, I actually know a decent few who don't, but... let's not talk about them. It was definitely interesting trying to watch one of my favorite series through an artistic lens, and I'll admit, at times I discarded it completely in order to better enjoy the movies, but here are some things I managed to gather.

First of all, you should know that I watched "The Empire Strikes Back", because it's far and away my favorite. As a child, I'd seen "crazy jungle world environment" (Return of the Jedi) way too many times in various other shows, and the desert/hardcore sci-fi environments of "A New Hope" never really struck me as awe-inspiring, just interesting. For whatever reason, I'd never seen an ice-themed environment/planet before, so the sheer novelty of Hoth just had me hooked. And you can't forget the Cloud City either; that whole bit was just gorgeous. The sheer amount of thought and care that radiates from every detail of Cloud City is almost enough to make me drop out of Ringling and pursue movie set design as a career.

Being more familiar with the creative process since joining the ranks of visual artists, I've been able to appreciate the environments of the Star Wars films to an extent that baffles me still. I always thought they were cool, sure, but to just pull something that feels so real and unified out of nothing like that, and have it feel completely original and owned by that franchise, distant from anything the viewer has seen before? Jaw-droppingly impressive.

And let's not forget about the writing. Whether it be for the cheesy, almost campy nature of the lines or the artisan perfection of them, I believe that episode five stands out among its colleagues as the champion as far as script is concerned. Leia and Han's arguments in the beginning of the film feel genuine and actually tempers the viewer's interest in their relationship, whereas, if you'll recall, the spats between Padme and Anakin in the prequels are little more than melodramatic drivel reminiscent of a 90's teen drama. And Lando Calrissian's betrayal of Han at Cloud City? Completely threw me the first time I saw it, not to mention his double-betrayal of the empire further down the road. And of course, I can't talk about script without touching on the little fact that "The Empire Strikes Back" contains one of the single most iconic lines ever spoken in cinema history; I don't want to spoil anything, though, so I'll leave it at that. Best. Space Opera. Ever.

--William Avery

A Matured Lens for Del Toro.

Pan's Labyrinth.

While I'd already had the pleasure of watching this movie once, I figured it was worth a "while the hell not" for this blog post. I was relatively young when it came out (or at least young enough to not fully understand what was going on and why), so I was also interested to see what I'd think of it the second time around. I definitely maintained my initial feelings of "what the hell did I just watch?", but all around I'd have to say I was much more entertained during round two.

First of all, there was much more to be entertained by. Seen through younger eyes, Pan's Labyrinth is a movie about a distant war and the two sides it involves, with a little bit of fantasy thrown in for good measure. I never really understood why the story had to be told from the perspective of a little girl who just so happens to be thrown into the mix due to her unfortunately involved mother; the real story being told was about the war, to me, so what was all of this fairy tale nonsense for? Why couldn't we just be told everything from a rebel's point of view? The maid seemed like an interesting character, being a spy and all. Hell, why not a story focused on Captain Vidal? He's awesome!

From the point of view of a student who's about 60% through his training as a Game Artist, though, it's a different story. Now that I've been taught to find significance in every single choice that an artist makes when producing quality work, I actually found myself a bit overwhelmed by all of the aforementioned choices. I see now that the whole point of the story being told from the perspective of a little girl is to have the viewer feel the events of the film more personally, and to have a sense that we would be incredibly vulnerable in this universe of both fantastic and real dangers. I remember thinking how ridiculous it was to open the movie with a lot of talk about myths and princesses of the underworld, then just go tell a story that's so heavy on problems based in reality. Now, however, I see that this introduction  (and rather unsatisfying ending) serves merely as an excuse to shepherd the viewer into a universe that, as I said before, seems daunting and foreboding. Without the fantastic elements, the tale becomes one that has been told many times before, and would be much more bland that the surreal thrill that Pan's Labyrinth is lauded to be.

--William Avery

Well, I Walked Right In to This One.

The Magicians.

God DAMN this was hard to read -- this was one of the few times that I was glad I couldn't read much due to the famous GAD work load. I'll be more objective and analytical later on in this blog post, but for right now I've just got to let off some steam. If you want me to enjoy your work of literature, you've got to give me a protagonist that I actually care about, and not some whiny guy for whom dreams coming true isn't enough. That aside, there were indeed a few things that I ended up liking about this book. Let's talk about it, shall we?

A good thing: the universe that this story takes place in. Obviously, the actual "universe" is the one that you and I live in, but I mean the way that the author handles the story's integration into our universe. The fact that a book series that is essentially "Harry Potter" is present grounds us that much more in the book, and allows the readers to accept the universe as our own that much more. Also, from a storytelling perspective, the presence of a Potter-like book series that the protagonist wishes was real allows readers to empathize and care that much more about him. Quentin, while personally loathed by yours truly, probably resonates very well with Harry Potter fans towards the beginning of the book -- what Potter fan doesn't wish that they could be whisked away to Hogwarts to learn all about magic? It's a very common desire amongst the fandom, I'm sure.

That same desire that Quentin has, though, seems to me to be a bit of an exploitation of the fanbase on the author's part. This definitely falls under my personal opinion once again, rather than objective observation, but I've never been a fan of having the author/director/creator of a work of fiction use the tactic of having a character that's "JUST LIKE YOU, DEAR READER!" It's one thing to have a book about a Mary Sue (Stephanie Meyer, for example), but to force your reader into becoming a Mary Sue is a whole 'nother level of forehead-smacking disappointment. I realize that one of the rules in creating a successfully lovable protagonist is to have him/her be relatable; but I don't believe that that rule was followed in this particular case. Quentin, from what I've read, doesn't seem as much "relatable" to the book's target market as he is a carbon copy of the book's target market, and that's just a shame. I hate those people enough as is.

--William Avery

Originality is So Relieving to See Nowadays.

Warbreaker.
Every now and then there comes along a story that really captures my attention -- something that fills me a childlike sense of wonder that I rarely get to experience nowadays, in my cynical young adulthood. Unfortunately, Brandon Sanderson's "Warbreaker" didn't quite hit that sweet spot, but it's come the closest out of anything I've read in the past, let's say, two years? Also unfortunately, as has been the case with all of these novels, I was unable to finish reading it. I did, however, manage to get to chapter 8, which felt considerably further than I'd gotten in the other things I've read for this class.

There are two things I'd like to harp on, considering what I was able to read. First of all, breath. As anyone who's ever played a video game or watched a movie with me can tell you, I'm all about originality -- if I see something that's been done before, chances are good that I won't like it. There are exceptions of course, as there are with everything, but in general I'm just one of those people who must be kept entertained with a steady stream of original content. As you can imagine, this makes enjoying the entertainment industry a little frustrating at time. Now then, concerning breath, I have a hard time describing how impressed I am sheerly by how unique and solid this system of magic feels to me. I believe it was Orson Scott Card who said that all magics need a set of strict boundaries to be interesting, and having a system limited by something as arbitrary as color is a far cry from the standard of just being able to wrap your head around a spell. Hell, as soon as someone in the Harry Potter universe figures out the hand motion for "Avada Kadavra", he can become the great mass murderer ever known -- where's the interest in that? More than anything in this "Warbreaker" book, I laud the idea of BioChromancy and its extremely large array of uses, but extremely strict limitations. It makes meaningful interactions in the plot using "breath" that much more important and impressive.

The second thing I'd like to talk about is much shorter: I just want to mention how little I care about what appears to be the main plot. As a twenty-something year old male, I'm so much more interested in Vasher and his mysterious presence in Hallandren than Siri and... the older sister whose name escapes me. Vivian, perhaps? Anyway; I know it's just my extreme bias towards the brave adventuring alpha male archetype that makes me feel this way, but really, I'm just not that interested in the story of a sudden political weight that's been placed onto a young girl's shoulders. I'm interested enough in Vasher, BioChromancy, and this "Lightsong" character, though, to finish this over Christmas Break, so hopefully the main plot will be twisted in such a way that I can appreciate it more as I read on.

--William Avery