Mankind Through Alien Eyes (Graphic Novel Review)

 

The Uprooted by Fred Duval
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I'm still quite new to Graphic Novels as a genre (format ?), so I never know exactly what to expect. But upon receiving my free copy of Renaissance: The Uprooted from NetGalley in exchange for my honest opinion (which is what you know you always get), I was very pleased to receive a "comic book" (which is what they were called in my day) made for adults.

Although it has no profanity, graphic sex, and only mild violence and is therefore okay for pre-teen or sensitive readers, it deals with the themes of marriage, family, death, loyalty, greed, individuality, and mankind's' future, even though the story is about aliens. All of these are cleverly woven through an interesting, quick-paced, and complex plotline.

The illustrations are lush, detailed, and set a perfect other,-worldly yet familiar ambiance, while the written words do exactly the same. In fact, it's a rare case where the different contributors each add their uniqueness to telling the story, yet work so well to enhance each other that it's hard to believe we are dealing with more than one writer.

I'm grateful to have had the opportunity to review it and happy that "Renaissance" was so enjoyable that it's certain I'll be continuing to read more Graphic Novels in the future.

Thanks for reading another one of my reviews.

Sincerely, Laura-Lee

View all my reviews

The Walking Dead : mid-Season FINALLY!

Technorati Tags: AMC,The Walking Dead,The Talking Dead,pro-life,pro-choice,abortion,Norman Reedus,Jeffrey DeMunn,Steven Yeun,Zombies,Bible,Christian,Christian Reviews,Andrew Lincoln,Horror genre,cult films,cult classic,TV shows,mid-season finale,after death,Centre for Disease Control,Atlanta,CDC,Jenner

 

If you have been reading my critiques of the second season of the AMC show, '”The Walking Dead”, you will know that I have not been singing it’s praises as much as I did last season. In fact, this season I’m not singing at all! But I am still watching , although for very different reasons and motives (after all everyone needs a good Sunday night gripe session). I usually say most of negative comments to the TV during the broadcast (or should I say broadcasts) of the episode. But there are a few things that have me quite upset and so  must “spill over” into my blog.

1)  I am tired of the people at AMC calling their reruns “an encore presentation”. When one episode has been played over and over so that AMC can wring every inch of advertising revenue out of it, it’s just called plain, old reruns.

 

2)  In all my many decades of watching TV I have never heard of a mid-season finale. What that basically means is that all the people who make the show want to head off for several months of holidays. They simply call it a “finale” so that we won’t realize that it is actually the first episode this season that actually included something HAPPENING. Do you believe that 1 hour TV shows used to actually be shot live, lasted 57 minutes long and included 46 episodes per year. Ah, the gold ol’ days.

 

3) You cannot force something to become a cultural phenomena or have a cult following. AMC feels that by following “The Walking Dead” with a show called “The Talking Dead” they will be able to build this show into another Star Trek or any one of dozens of other movies and TV shows that developed cult followings. I’ll let them in on a secret, “those shows were good”.  If they make great entertainment and do their jobs well, this show will live on indefinitely. This entire direction of PR might actually backfire on them. Simply because the show “The Talking Dead” is more interesting and exciting then the show they are suppose to be promoting. Oops!

 

4) As for Sophia being one of the “Walkers” in the barn … my 70 year old mother had that one figured out the moment it was revealed that there were “Walkers” in the barn. Actually, Mom has come up with some really interesting plot lines for this show. I enjoy her story lines more than the actual ones. Maybe I should send in a resume to “The Walking Dead” on her behalf. I hear there’s good money in TV writing and maybe I’ll be able to get her my allowance re-instated.

 

5) This one will probably meet with the most resistance. We know that the character of Lori is pregnant, took some “morning after” abortion pills and then threw them up. So now her husband, Rick, comes trotting over to “have it out” with her. He’s got his nerve. After all, he’s only the baby’s father ! So after some “Blah blah blah” back and forth Rick states, “Did you really think I would make you have a baby you didn’t want?!”

Lori replies, “Oh sure! Then it would be on my conscience.”

(Now forgive me for being my ‘naive’ little, pro-life self but ) It seems to me that if a woman states that it’s “her body” and “her decision” and “solely my choice what I do with my body” then, yeah, it would be on her conscience! I’ve known about the tenants of the pro-choice movement for a long time, but do they really expect to let no one participate in that decision and then require them to carry the blame AND the consequences for actions they had no say in?

All I can say is, “Beam me up, Lord. It’s getting really weird down here.”

 

Not Always anti-Dead

I know I've been trashing this season of "The Walking Dead" but I want you to see the video I made when I started watching it last year. And as a Christian I was seriously putting my reputation at risk by what I say. I mean, Jesus knows what I am, but I'm not sure my fellow church-goers knew how dead was my strange-ness went.

William Shatner School of Acting: CLOSED !

The first time I watched an episode of Star Trek (the Classic one), I was sitting in my diapers on the floor in front of our black and white TV in Alberta, Canada. I had no idea what I was watching but my mother, in her mid-20s, had become an avid fan of the show. She was an attentive mother; seeing to our every need, but for 1 hour a week we were not allowed to interrupt her unless we were on fire. I may not remember the first broadcasting of those original Star Trek episodes, but it went deep into my impressionable little mind. In fact, since my father’s name was also William (Bill) and absent from our home, I was 3 years old before I realized that William Shatner was NOT my “daddy”.
Now over the years, since those first days of Star Trek in the 1960’s, William Shatner (now known as “The Shat”), has gotten a reputation for over acting. Hamming it up , if you will. But whether you think he was merely doing a great job of acting or over-acting, you must agree that all eyes were on him. He is electric, full of life and definitely has “IT”, if anyone can figure out exactly what “IT” is.
Now let’s warp forward into our recent past. A few years ago some very talented and ingenious people realized that special effects had grown to a point where just about anything could be visually represented, by just about anybody, in a very cost effective way. So they went back over all the episodes of the Classic Star Trek and “ramped up” the special effects. They didn’t change the look of the ship or star bases or aliens, but they were able to change the space, planets and Enterprise manoeuvring to make them more accurately represent what the script was depicting and how the actors were reacting. Basically, they took cheap-o effects and made them more realistic, while still staying true to the original Star Trek stories.
Now enter actor William Shatner. When the actors were performing their roles they had to use their imaginations for everything. There really wasn’t anything on the screen, they really weren’t flying around in space and what we saw at home was never there for them to react to. It was all in their imaginations.
Now I’m watching these episodes with the new special effects and I see Captain Kirk react to them and he seems to be doing so very appropriately. It’s not OVER acting at all.
For example:
In the episode, “The Squire of Gothos”, the Captain and crew believe they have just escaped a very dangerous alien and are high-tailing it out of there as fast as possible, only to discover that the planet is following them. They try 90 degree turns (a hard left), but the planet is still in front of them and accelerating towards them. Then a hard right, then a 360 degree turn (which is a complete spin in  a circle) , yet the planet is still in front of them and they are about to splat right on it, like a fly on a newspaper. When Mr. Spock declares “Cat and Mouse” you feel the frustration and fear of being trapped and unable to get away. With Captain Kirk’s ship and crew’s life hanging in the balance, no escape possible and death very probable, is any reaction too much?

It’s the same with “The Doomsday Machine” (aka. The Planet Eater). You finally see how tiny the Enterprise is in comparison to this massive planet-eating carrot and that no matter what  weapons they hurl at it, they make no more dent than a mosquito trying to penetrate a suit of armour. So, I ask you again, is it possible to over react to watching your ship and crew being dragged into this device to their absolute destruction?
   Doomsday: Old Effects
                                              
  Doomsday: New Effects

I submit to you, that William Shatner never over acted or “hammed” it up, but that it simply took all these years, and advancements in special effects for the rest of us to catch up with his imagination. He, as an actor, was imagining and reacting to situations and threats that were so lame when it came to the final depiction of them that his performance seemed out of proportion.
So, I also submit to you , that William Shatner has never gotten the accolades he deserves and that the jokes about his acting should cease and desist. From here on out, the William Shatner School of OVER acting is now CLOSED!

P.S. If the Enterprise really is being whipped around like the Special Effects now make it appear, it certainly would explain why all those crew members are falling out of their chairs and being flung around the bridge. But as my Mom said, “That’s still no excuse for not having seat belts.” And after all, she was a Star Trek fan before I was. When we first watched the episodes together, she understood them, I was drooling and pooping my diapers. I bow to her experience.