I recently started reading the sequel to the The Name of the Wind. This being: The Wise Mans Fear by Patrick Rothfuss. Let me preface this by saying "I couldn't finish this book." (Or have yet to depending on if I can grit my teeth for that long without requiring dental reconstruction.)
The story is told from Kvothe's point of view. He, as an older man is telling us the tale of his youth and how he becomes a wizard of Gandalf-like proportions and all the drama that goes hand in hand with such a story. Mostly it is told first person from Kvothe as a lad with occasional forays into the "present".
I have two big problems with the book, world building and characterisation.
The world building is cut and paste fantasy. Over the course of our adventure our protagonist Kvothe(pronounced Quothe for some reason) pinballs around his generic fantasy world. (Under some farily flimsy pretenses I might add.) None of these locations are connected to one another, he spends two pages on a boat for his longest journey (which from the state of the character at the end of said pages was action packed) and yet a section trekking into the forest lasts roughly 50 pages and all we learn is that two of the guards travelling with him are oafish and that the grizzled old tracker is both grizzled and old.
The big spooky, secretive university (while it has some interesting moments, specifically the engineering/smithy type area) is basically Hogwarts, but with 20 year olds. The cities are all the same albeit with different numbers of taverns, the outposts and towns could be in any number of high/low fantasy series. Its terribly boring.
The world building is second to characterisation in terms of the amount of blistering rage I feel. Kvothe is a Mary Sue I scrape to find something the character is weak at. He is effortlessly brilliant, a genius lutist, he has untapped magic SUPERpowers (THE MOST MAGIC), he's the best magic duelist at the normal "anyone can do it" magic, he doesn't ever break his stupid fucking neck when hes climbing on wet/icy roofs in the middle of the night AND all the ladies love him. Women, actual female characters with an attempt at more than one dimension are all over him. On account of him being the dogs bollocks you see? The icing on the shitcake is of course, that he's 15. Fifteen. I could barely tie my own shoelaces at fifteen. The very suggestion of female interaction broke me into a sweat. Study? At fifteen? Whenever I thought about studying I quite sure I climbed a tree instead. Now Kvothe is suitably bashful with all this female attention, that is of course until he meets the Felurian, now Felurian is some kind of fairy siren, who lures men to her with the her supa-hotness and keeps them with her because you know she's lonely or some shit. It was at this point that my eyes could roll no further. I may have permanently damaged my vision. Kvothe, our now sixteen protagonist. Has a mindblowing fairysexfest with the Felurian. He does sex, does it hardcore. (THE MOST SEX). This was the scene where I put the book down. (Another four hundred or so pages to go.)
Rothfuss is not writing a story. He is writing horrible wish fulfillment fantasy. Kvothe is a paragon and every other character is merely there to be in awe of him.
This style of character development can work. A good example to my mind (and keeping things fairly recent and within the "genre") is the character of Locke from Scott Lynch's The Lies of Locke Lamora. Locke is similar to Kvothe in many ways. He's described as slight, below average height, handsome in a sharp kind of way. He is extremely quick when thinking on his feet. He is an actor beyond compare (unless one is to attempt to compare him to Kvothe of course omigawd **Kvothe**). He is undoubtedly a genius and he is immensely strong willed. Of course, Lynch had the good sense to make Locke a character with a few foibles. He is utterly useless in a physical confrontation. Locke makes (avoidable) mistakes that cause him and those around him grief. The list of character flaws could continue for another few hundred words. The point being made is that the flaws lend depth an otherwise "unbeatable" character. (Unbeatable due to always having a trick up his sleeve. The only character who gets away with this sort of thing is Batman, on account of all the brooding.)
Finally, there is the hype surrounding The Kingkiller Chronicles. I'm a big picture kinda guy and I was of the opinion that from the insight we get into Kvothe as an older man during the occasional 3rd person scene would be part of the big pay off. How does this arrogant snotty punk become the emotionally/magically crippled wreck that is telling us this tale? My original thoughts were that the author was going for a grandiose rise/fall style story. This may still be the case by the time book three comes along. I maybe right. However I won't be reading it. If it was Rothfuss' intent to create a dislikable character that grows into the sort of guy we can get behind, albeit at a glacial pace, then he has been too successful. His paragon is intensely dislikable. I'm not even going to go into detail on the equally hateful love interest, Denna. We are never given sufficient explanation about what makes her great enough to put up with her shit. Denna's a massive bitch, all the time why are you chasing her you moron? Shack up with one of the half a dozen other floozies who are pining over you and have done with it.
In conclusion, Patrick Rothfuss tricked me into buying his latest book by having lots of respected authors/reviewers praise him. The Wise Mans Fear is adolescent wish fulfillment written by a cloistered manchild.
P.S Kvothe has red hair and we all know what they are like.
Saturday, August 27, 2011
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Sucker Punch or: Why I hate Zack Snyder.
I knew within the first 2 minutes of this movie starting that I would hate it, but I watched the whole thing anyway.*
Sucker Punch is directed by Zack Snyder and is populated with Utterly Forgettable Hot Girls, That Chick from High School Musical, Scott Glenn and Don Draper.
Zack Snyder, if you are not familiar with him is best known for bringing two classic comics to the big screen. The not terribly complex 300 and the actually rather complex Watchmen. Both are pulpy and visually arresting, however both also suffer from being made by Zack Snyder.
I'm not reviewing either of these movies but they both have the same symptoms of Snyderitis that make Sucker Punch a roiling wave of shite.
Here are things that Zack Snyder puts in his movies that I hate.
1. Slow motion in fight scenes.
2. Tarantino-esque placing of his favourite songs over particular scenes, usually the dramatic ones. (I don't hate when Tarantino does this, atleast his musical taste is reasonably obscure)
Neither of these things should ruin a movie on their own, both have been used to tremendous effect by other directors over the years. Zack Snyder uses both of these things, in all his movies - constantly. Every fight scene has slow motion. Every wide shot, sweeping shot or scene that should have some kind of emotional integrity to it has a well known or popular song overlaid. I point you straight at the funeral scene in Watchmen here.
"Oh funerals are sad what song will I use... The Sound of Silence by Simon and Garfunkel! Could I possibly choose a more obvious choice?" Zack Snyder never answered his own question as he was too overwhelmed by his own inanity. This is lazy film making.
Sucker Punch opens with what feels like 20 hours of slow motion footage of a hot girl with pigtails getting involved in the events that lead to her being imprisoned in hot girl asylum. The opening slow motion scene also has no sound, just a song playing over it. I can't remember which song this is (And I refuse to look it up).
An evil man, her step father has her sent to the asylum where she soon plots her escape with a five day time limit. In five days Don Drapers coming to lobotomise our heroine. The storyline finishes here and we are subjected to approximately 90 minutes of cartoonish, slow motion action sequences and the occasional piece of plodding exposition. Scott Glenn pops up in spirit guide mode in the guise of various soldiery types from different eras. Glenn is reliably grizzled, this being his 9 billionth time playing a soldiery type.
John Hamm is perfectly functional as the surgeon charged with lobotomising Babydoll (I failed to mention earlier that none of the girls have real names just nicknames.) Having roughly five minutes of screentime and less than an A4 page of dialogue worked out well for him.
The girls are all that is demanded of them. Sassy, vulnerable and capable by turns. It is difficult to fault them, as all of the failings of this movie can be pinned on one man.
The faults of Sucker Punch are numerous however one thing over shadows the whole film. Wasted potential, this movie wants to be so much more than what it is. Mostly it wanted to be an 18 rated film. It badly wants to be pulpy and exploitative and empowering in the vein of Kill Bill but it simply can't be. It was made to be accessible to the only demographic who will take the content in anyway seriously, 13 year old boys. The film has pretty girls alright, but they are the least sexually charged cast of hot girls I have ever seen. The film has fights alright, but they are the least violent battles I've seen in a a high budget blockbuster in years.
Zack Snyder has vision. He wanted to make his very own mind fuck action film so beloved of Japanese animation but the whole thing was castrated before it was even begun.
So that one man that the films failings can be pinned on, is it Mr. Snyder or is it some faceless film executive? I'm inclined to feel it was the latter at this stage. Zack Snyder has always taunted me with the kind of movie I want to revel in. The closest he has come to that at this stage is 300. If someone could edit out all of the slow motion I'm sure the running time would fall to around 45 minutes but it would be a better film for it. The problem with Sucker Punch and its contemporary action films is really what is wrong with Hollywood and western cinema in general, a movie will not get greenlit unless it is sure to bring in a minimum of profit, leading to only sequels and mindless childrens films being made. Hollywood does not produce media for an adult audience, it hasn't done so for a long time.
In conclusion, I really didn't like Sucker Punch. I found it toothless and boring. Brimming with minor cinematographic annoyances. Dreadful.
*Bonus Opening line: The title of this movie is also what I'd like to do to the films director.
P.S Reading back over this I realise I'm incredibly wandering here and I haven't really covered everything that really bothers me in detail. Anyway first attempt at writing in a long time so I'm sure I'll warm up (I hope >.<)
Sucker Punch is directed by Zack Snyder and is populated with Utterly Forgettable Hot Girls, That Chick from High School Musical, Scott Glenn and Don Draper.
Zack Snyder, if you are not familiar with him is best known for bringing two classic comics to the big screen. The not terribly complex 300 and the actually rather complex Watchmen. Both are pulpy and visually arresting, however both also suffer from being made by Zack Snyder.
I'm not reviewing either of these movies but they both have the same symptoms of Snyderitis that make Sucker Punch a roiling wave of shite.
Here are things that Zack Snyder puts in his movies that I hate.
1. Slow motion in fight scenes.
2. Tarantino-esque placing of his favourite songs over particular scenes, usually the dramatic ones. (I don't hate when Tarantino does this, atleast his musical taste is reasonably obscure)
Neither of these things should ruin a movie on their own, both have been used to tremendous effect by other directors over the years. Zack Snyder uses both of these things, in all his movies - constantly. Every fight scene has slow motion. Every wide shot, sweeping shot or scene that should have some kind of emotional integrity to it has a well known or popular song overlaid. I point you straight at the funeral scene in Watchmen here.
"Oh funerals are sad what song will I use... The Sound of Silence by Simon and Garfunkel! Could I possibly choose a more obvious choice?" Zack Snyder never answered his own question as he was too overwhelmed by his own inanity. This is lazy film making.
Sucker Punch opens with what feels like 20 hours of slow motion footage of a hot girl with pigtails getting involved in the events that lead to her being imprisoned in hot girl asylum. The opening slow motion scene also has no sound, just a song playing over it. I can't remember which song this is (And I refuse to look it up).
An evil man, her step father has her sent to the asylum where she soon plots her escape with a five day time limit. In five days Don Drapers coming to lobotomise our heroine. The storyline finishes here and we are subjected to approximately 90 minutes of cartoonish, slow motion action sequences and the occasional piece of plodding exposition. Scott Glenn pops up in spirit guide mode in the guise of various soldiery types from different eras. Glenn is reliably grizzled, this being his 9 billionth time playing a soldiery type.
John Hamm is perfectly functional as the surgeon charged with lobotomising Babydoll (I failed to mention earlier that none of the girls have real names just nicknames.) Having roughly five minutes of screentime and less than an A4 page of dialogue worked out well for him.
The girls are all that is demanded of them. Sassy, vulnerable and capable by turns. It is difficult to fault them, as all of the failings of this movie can be pinned on one man.
The faults of Sucker Punch are numerous however one thing over shadows the whole film. Wasted potential, this movie wants to be so much more than what it is. Mostly it wanted to be an 18 rated film. It badly wants to be pulpy and exploitative and empowering in the vein of Kill Bill but it simply can't be. It was made to be accessible to the only demographic who will take the content in anyway seriously, 13 year old boys. The film has pretty girls alright, but they are the least sexually charged cast of hot girls I have ever seen. The film has fights alright, but they are the least violent battles I've seen in a a high budget blockbuster in years.
Zack Snyder has vision. He wanted to make his very own mind fuck action film so beloved of Japanese animation but the whole thing was castrated before it was even begun.
So that one man that the films failings can be pinned on, is it Mr. Snyder or is it some faceless film executive? I'm inclined to feel it was the latter at this stage. Zack Snyder has always taunted me with the kind of movie I want to revel in. The closest he has come to that at this stage is 300. If someone could edit out all of the slow motion I'm sure the running time would fall to around 45 minutes but it would be a better film for it. The problem with Sucker Punch and its contemporary action films is really what is wrong with Hollywood and western cinema in general, a movie will not get greenlit unless it is sure to bring in a minimum of profit, leading to only sequels and mindless childrens films being made. Hollywood does not produce media for an adult audience, it hasn't done so for a long time.
In conclusion, I really didn't like Sucker Punch. I found it toothless and boring. Brimming with minor cinematographic annoyances. Dreadful.
*Bonus Opening line: The title of this movie is also what I'd like to do to the films director.
P.S Reading back over this I realise I'm incredibly wandering here and I haven't really covered everything that really bothers me in detail. Anyway first attempt at writing in a long time so I'm sure I'll warm up (I hope >.<)
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