alobear | Reviews Catch Up

I seem to have got behind on reviews, so I'd better catch up before it's time to do the stats on Friday!

The Prince of Egypt:
This animated film got five stars from Empire and an enthusiastic review from a friend, so I was looking forward to seeing it. It turned out to be somewhat of a strange beast. The first half was a very silly, action-packed musical, detailing the youth of Moses as a prince of Egypt, involving comedy sheep and camels, destructive chariot races, and mean pranks pulled on priests. Then came an abrupt shift to the evils of slavery, the calling down of plagues on Egypt, including of course the deaths of the first born sons, followed by the dramatic parting of the Red Sea and the drowning of many Egyptian horses. Now, I know the story of Moses is necessarily going to have to include all this second half stuff - which is why it seemed an odd choice for an animated musical - and the two halves really didn't go together well at all.

The Green Lantern:
I really wasn't expecting much from this film at all, which is probably why I enjoyed it as much as I did. It managed to succeed where Thor failed, in making the central premise of an alien police force credible, and it mostly hit the right tone on the humour front, with several welcome light touches. In discussing it with Dave afterwards, though, I had to agree that the character development of Carol Ferris was fairly poor (ace fighter pilot/business woman to weepy danger magnet), and I had issues with her anyway, since I can't take Blake Lively seriously in most film roles (probably not her fault - blame Gossip Girl). I also probably agree that making the villain physically deformed and wheelchair-bound might not have been the best choice, though I have to admit this didn't occur to me at the time. Plus, having to recharge the rings via the lanterns seems highly impractical to me - what happens if they run out of juice half way through a major battle? Still, for the most part, I thought this was quite fun.

The City of Races by Simon Amey:
I came across this when I was sorting through a whole load of files and papers a couple of weekends ago. It's a series of short stories, written by my boyfriend at university, which adds up to a short novel when all put together. It's set in a fantasy world, where Elves, Dwarves, Humans and Giants vie for power in a city at the centre of their neighbouring homelands. It mostly follows the adventures of the human spymaster, Alban, and his attempts to keep his position in a society based on lies and deceit. It's a little rough around the edges, but has vivid characterisation, an immediately engaging and wonderfully detailed setting, plus a very entertaining and largely very clever plot. It does get a bit repetitive by the third section, but some of the repetition is entirely deliberate and quite effective. It does hit a few off-key notes (particularly in terms of racial stereotyping and an attempt at satirising sexual politics), but what ultimately holds it together is an excellent example of the anti-hero in Alban. He schemes ruthlessly, is wholly amoral and seemingly almost entirely devoid of human feeling (but not quite, which is pivotal), and yet you just can't help rooting for him.

Gloom Cookie by Serena Valentino & Ted Naifeh:
I really liked the concept for this graphic novel, parodying goth conventions and characteristics, but I felt the execution wasn't good enough to do it justice. It would make fun of a stylistic point and then use it seriously itself some time later. More importantly for me was the incorrect usage of your/you're and there/their/they're (I might have been less bothered if it had at least been consistent misusage, but sometimes it was correct, and sometimes it wasn't) - I find this really rather distressing in a published book, and it really pulled me out of the narrative. Still, some sections were very clever, and some were a lot of fun, plus I liked a lot of the characters. It was just a shame the overall quality didn't quite live up to the premise.

The Hare With Amber Eyes by Edmund de Waal:
I have a new obsession. It all started with a visit to the V&A Museum, where I first came across the wonders that are netsuke - little carved wooden or bone people/animals/objects that the Japanese used to secure things to their belts before they had pockets. The Hare With Amber Eyes purported to be about one family's collection of netsuke and its origins, and the preface was delightful, giving details of some of the netsuke, and describing them in such a tactile way that I decided I must start my own collection (my first arrived in the post today!). However, the main section of the book isn't actually about the netsuke at all - it's much more about the rise of anti-Semitism in European high society at the turn of the twentieth century. There were tantalising glimpses of the netsuke (old man horribly embarrassed by cuttlefish), but not enough to satisfy my interest, and the other topics discussed weren't really what I was looking for in this book.

God Save The Queen by Mike Carey:
This is a short, stand-alone graphic novel by my favourite graphic novel author. It's about a battle for the throne of Faerie between Mab and Titania, and how various hapless humans get caught up in the struggle. It was well put together, intriguing and quite sad, but not overwhelming. Just enough entertainment value for the half hour it took me to read, but no more.