Timothy Callahan

Captain America, I salute you!

One of the key elements to any good Super Hero movie is this, does the movie hold true to the character? One of the issues I had with the Fantastic Four movies was that they didn't seem to hold true to the comic renditions of the Fantastic Four. There were some elements but for the most part what you saw on the big screen was only a shadow of what was in the comic. One of the things that made the first two Spider-man movies a success was the Spider-manness of the movies. I also think that's what made the third movie a bit of a letdown, it didn't feel like a Spider-man comic through most of its running time. In fact, the times it felt like a Spider-man comic were the best moments in the movie to me. Sandman's transformation, Spider-man and Sandman's first fight, and when Peter Finally got rid of the costume, those felt like Spider-man moments and I enjoyed them. Dancing Peter Parker? Emo Parker? Peter hitting MJ, even by accident, the final fight? Those didn't feel genuine, they didn't feel like Spider-man and I think people picked up on that.

This all brings me to Captain America. They could not have put a more perfect Captain America movie on the screen, not now, not ever. This felt like a Captain America movie, this felt as if they took all the World War 2 Captain America stories, studied then, then placed them on the big screen. Captain America has always been a better character when they focused on his World War 2 days, he was a superhero born in the 40's when it was okay to publish comic books with the main superhero punching Hitler on the jaw and when they place him in the era it's a perfect fit. When I first heard they were making a Captain America movie I thought to myself, "I hope they set it in the second world war" cause that's where we need to be to be introduced to this man. When I found out that's what they were doing I was sold on the movie and looked forward to seeing it.

Personally I think they should set all Captain America movies in the Second World war, I understand they can't cause of the Avengers movie but how cool would that have been?

If I had one complaint about the movie, and this really did kind of bother me, was the it didn't really have a plot. It seemed to be just a series of scenes strung together to get more action, which isn't a bad thing for a superhero movie, but I wanted a little more depth. We had events, things that happened, but the plot was pretty much "go to this location and destroy this base, fight this cool bad guy, talk about it later, rinse and repeat." The acts were really easy to see: Act one: Steve gets his powers. Act two: Steve learns how to be Captain America by going on tour. Act Three: Steve Rogers becomes Captain America, war hero, selfless defender of the American Way. As a writer this structure bothered me, but not enough not to love the movie.

As for everything else I loved it. Chris Pine, an actor I thought was great in Fantastic Four and his cameo in Scott Pilgrim VS the World, was pitch perfect as Steve Rogers.

The Red Skull, Hugo Weaving, perfect, just how I pictured him.

Action was perfect as well. Loved the shield effect, especially the sound it made when being thrown.

I'm looking forward to the Avengers movie, and the trailer at the end of Captain America made me want to see it even more. I can only hope it feels like and Avengers movie cause if it does it'll be one of the best Super Hero movies of all time.

Transformers 3: Dark of the moon or, they blew up Chicago real good

Let's just get one thing out of the way. I enjoyed this movie a whole lot more than I enjoyed the last one, but not as much as I enjoyed the first and I think I liked the first one more because of the novelty of the whole thing than it was a really good movie. In the long run I think this is the movie that will stand the test of multiple viewings.

If I were to sit down with Michael Bay to ask him one question I think it would be, "do you hate Chicago?" cause that city got beat up real bad in the last hour or so. Seriously, was Roget Ebert's reviews of your movies so bad you decided to destroy the city he lives in? I visited Chicago, I liked Chicago, and to see it trashed the way it was, seeing places I had visited was just brutal to watch. Seeing is citizens vaporized like that was harsh. Seeing both Autobot and Decepitcons trashing buildings without a care, well, what can I say, next time I visit the city I'll place a wreath next to the building that fell over in honor of all those fake people who lost their lives.

I'm having a really hard time coming up with an opinion on this movie, mostly because if you see it excepting something other than large robots fight each other and destroy a city you won't get it. All the same stuff from the other two movies are in this one (minus the racist robot siblings, thank goodness.) Will Sam's parents embarrass him? Check! Will Sam's girlfriend get in trouble and he'll need to rescue her? Check! Will Megatron be a total wuss? Check! Actually, that last one angers me more than the racists robots. In the cartoon Megatron was the man, he was a bad ass who could go toe to toe with all the Autobots save Prime and come out on top. In the first movie he's beaten by Sam! In the second he bows down to another Decepticon, in this one he's a brain damaged robot who follows orders from yet another bad guy! I mean, whatever happened to the Decepticon who, when Unicon tells him he was summoned his reply is, "No one summons Megatron!" Heck, even Starscream had a better badass moment that Megatron and that's just sad! As you can tell, Megatron is my favorite, followed by Starscream.

Okay, so, might as well just go with the highlights then in nice, handy dandy list:

Things I liked:

The best scene in the entire movie was the paratroopers flying through Chicago. The shot was simply amazing and what made it even more amazing was that it wasn't a special effect, it looked like they just but winged suits on a bunch of guys and dropped them from a plane and filmed them flying over Chicago. Sure, I knew some of the shots were effects but I'd say about 80% of the sequence was really happening as it was being filmed and that really made it amazing.

Really, the last hour or so when the battle of Chicago started was really cool. The pacing felt just right and some of the stuff that happened was fun. From the tilting skycrapper, to the fighting in the streets, to the scenes of Decepticons hanging from buildings waiting to go into action, it all felt right and it felt like an epic Transformers movie.

Laserbeak, what a great addition to the franchise. Loved him in the movie, I'm just wondering where Soundwave was.

Rosie Huntington-Whiteley: Nuff said!

Things I didn't like:

Most of the humor sucked as normal. The parents, not funny. The small robots, well except for one line, not funny.

All the Star Trek nods because Lenord Nemoy was one of the voices. I thought the first one was fun, when they were watching the Star Trek Episode when Spock goes nuts. The second one, not sure if it was a nod or not but it felt like one, the third one was kind of "wha?" But, okay, the forth one was pretty good I thought. I think that was the only one we needed cause it was funny and it made everyone who got the joke laugh so, instead of four how about just one really good one next time, huh?

Except for a few robots most of the Autobots and Decepticons were hard to keep track of, when are they going to fix that?

Megatron being a wuss, see above.

Transformers 3 really does deliver on what you'd expect. I sometimes find it amazing as I watch Transformers repeats on Hub that the silly cartoon I loved as a kid is now a movie franchise making billions of dollars world wide.

Movie Review: Green Lantern, the greenest movie ever!

Watching Green Lantern was such a strange experience. It was as if I was watching two or three different movies on one. One movie was really awesome and I would watch again and again, the other movie was kind of okay and I would probably catch it every now and again in cable, the third movie I hated and wished it would die.

The awesome movie was pretty much everything that had to do with the Green Lantern and the Green Lantern Corps. I sat watching the mythology being built there, the ideas behind the Corps, the aliens, the way the ring was used and loved every minute of it. Watching those parts had me thinking that I haven't seen a good, pure Space Opera movie in a while and made me miss those kinds of movies. The kinds were ships and people would just fly through the great expanse of space fighting with everything they got. I loved stuff and I wished they had spent more time in space building on the history of the Corps. Which brings me to the second movie, or, everything else that happened on Earth.

Pretty much everything on Earth had me wishing we'd go back to space. Not that it was all bad, the dogfight between Hal and the drones was very nicely done and very fun to watch. The creepiness of the badguy, Hector and watching him become something really weird was a lot of fun. Actually, I sort of felt bad for Hector and could understand why he turned to evil. Seeing Green Lantern learn his powers and show off for his girlfriend was kind of fun too. (Although I do wonder, how many superheroes learn of their powers by beating up Rednecks? It's happened to often I'm wondering if it's a cliché by now.)

But, then we have the actual bad movie, the third one, which was pretty much everything that had to do with Hal and his girlfriend Carol Ferris. Except for one scene (which, I'll admit, was a pretty funny scene) I just didn't believe these two would be together. There just wasn't much chemistry between Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively. They went through all the motions, all the clichés that make comic book movies boring and makes me want to wait for the next scene without them. Everything about it felt shoehorned, as if the writers were like, "well, he needs someone to save and someone who will save him late in the movie."

I'll give you an example about what I mean. Hal has just returned from training on another planet, he goes home, sleeps, then goes out with Carol to talk about their relationship. I'm in the theater thinking to myself, "dude, you were just on another planet and this is what you want to do!? The first words out of my mouth would be, 'Hey! You'll never believe what just happened to me!'" The last thing I'd want is to spend time with my girlfriend, heck, I could make my own girlfriend! (I know, that's gross and she'd be green but really, who hasn't thought about that before?)

Anyway, the Green Lantern was good movie, I look forward to watching it again and I would recommend it, as long as you can overlook the boring parts cause the good parts are really, really good.

Super 8 was Super Gr8!

Sometimes when you see a movie you just have to go with your heart. Sometimes movies just sort of hit you in a sweet spot that makes you smile, makes you wonder why there aren't more movies like this, and makes you just ignore all the clichés and stuff you've seen a hundred times before. Super 8 was one of those movies, one of a short list of movies I've seen that makes one part of my brain yell "shut up!" to the part of my brain that's thinking, "you know, we've seen scenes like this a hundred times before."

After watching it I left the theater with a little smile on my face. Yes, as one of my friends said, it was sort of ET meets the Goonies or, as my girlfriend said, reminded her of Stand by me and I can see all three of those comparisons. When you get a large group of boys, with one girl, together for an adventure it's going to draw comparisons to all movies that use that formula, Goonies being the most famous. The only thing with Goonies was, you knew those kids were never in any real danger. With Super 8 you worry that one of them is going to be killed and on multiple occasions they almost were.

Okay, so a quick summary of the plot. A group of boys are making a zombie movie (which you get to as the credits roll so don't leave too soon.) when they witness a horrible train crash. After the crash strange things start to happen near the town and only the kids know something's not right. Also, they may have captured what's causing the oddness on their camera. What follows is a group of scared kids trying to piece together a mystery based on what little information they have. But really, the movie is more about the bonding of the boys and girl through danger, mystery, and even a little romance.

That's what really got to me in the movie, the kids acted like real kids. Sure, there was some Hollywooding of their actions but for the most part they felt like kids, not adults in kids bodies which a lot of movies sometimes make children. They were scared, determined, loyal, afraid to get caught in some lie, and scared to death of adults. It all felt real and that made the impact of the ending that much more touching cause you felt these kids could be your friends, or the friend of your child.

Was it a perfect movie? Well, no. The mystery was kind of lame cause anyone who's seen these kinds of movies could figure out what the monster was. The clichés did run thick some of the time, from the military jerk who was covering things up, the scene where a lighter wouldn't start until the most dramatic time possible. They had a drunk Dad who was redeemed at the end and the sheriff didn't have too much depth. Most of the character depth went to the kids which was more than enough to carry the movie. Oh, and there was a really sugary sweet part near the end that, even though it was as cliché, nearly brought me to tears. Damn you soft heart!

So, in conclusion, see the movie! See it! See it! See it! You'll think it's gr8 also!!

Tron Legacy: Pretty, pretty colors

Movies are a visual medium. Which means I just heard everyone out there saying, "Well duh!" But, how many good movies really take advantage of that concept? I mean, really take advantage of it? For every Transformers there's about a hundred Julia Roberts movies. For every Scott Pilgrim there's ten Adam Sandler comedies. You can't really appreciate Scott Pilgrim or the Transformers movies as anything more than visual candy there to make you go "ohhh," and "ahhh." And now, with the advent of computers, the visual candy is oh so very sweet.

Tron Legacy was the best eye candy I've seen this year. Heck, it could be the prettiest live action movie I've seen in a very long time. The colors, even in useless 3D, which tends to dim the image a bit, were vibrant and really struck a chord visually. Everything was look fantastic and even when the action got too out of control I could still easily enjoy what I was looking at. I loved the look of the movie, the glossy veneer on just about everything inside the grid was very appealing. The costumes, the action, the sets just popped and sparkled on the screen. I loved every single minute of that world, heck I want to build a teleporter and live in that world!

Yeah, the story was kind of dumb and didn't make much sense once you thought about it but the same could be said about the first one as well. We really only showed up to see the light show right?

Also, one quick note about 3D, I had to see the movie in 3D since it was the first show and I needed to get home before 1:00 and the none 3D show started too late. I really didn't know what 3D brought to the plate here, outside of maybe a few scenes I hardly even noticed the movies was in 3D (and I'm not talking about the parts before and after they entered the grid, which was filmed in normal 2D, the movie only became 3D when he was in the computer world.) Really, I can't wait for the 3D fad to end, I want to see my movies in 2D and if I never see another 3D movie again I don't think I'll miss it.

Scott Pilgrim VS the World: Just go with it

Can you fall in love with a movie even before the movie starts? When the 8 bit version of the Universal theme song played before the movie even started I knew I was in love and that love lasted me well into the movie, hours after it was over and even now as I write this the love for this movie is still there.

The movie, based on a comic book which I need to read now, is about Scott Pilgrim, a 22 year old man who meets Ramona and instantly falls in love with her. The problem is, she has 7 evil ex's who now have formed a league of evil ex's and they now want to kill Scott Pilgrim so he need to 1.) deal with the evil ex's, 2.) deal with the fact they're trying to kill him, 3.) he has to deal with everything else going on in his life at the same time (17 year old ex girlfriend, his gay friend wanting him to move out, his band and how much they suck, stuff like that.)

The movie is pure fun filled with tons of imagination. Since I've never read the comic I can't be sure which parts were comic based and which parts were made for the film. Wherever the inspiration came from it translated perfectly to the movie. It had kinetic motion that made the time fly by, there wasn't a moment in  where I was looking at my watch to see when it ended because I couldn't keep my eye off the screen. There is a lot of stuff going on, but not enough to distract you or make you feel uneasy. In a way, it sort of reminded me of a lesser version of Speed Racer, which had so much going on it was hard to follow! But no, Scott Pilgrim had the perfect amount of stuff on the screen at one time.

I'm not a huge Michael Cera fan, I liked him well enough in Arrested Development but his movie rolls don't seem to take him any further than his George Michael roll, seems like he plays a variation of that character in every movie I've seen him in. In Scott Pilgrim you can still see that roll but for this movie is seems to work. I don't think he was perfect for the roll but he was very good. In fact, most of the actors were very good. I've always love Mary Elizabeth Winstead after seeing her in Sky High so seeing her in this movie was a treat. I wished she'd do more movies or shows so I could see her more often! Also loved Chris Pine in his role as an evil Ex, even thought the fight didn't last long it was very fun to see him ham it up the way he did. Not sure how well he'll be as Captain America, guess we'll see.

Which brings me to the fights themselves. It seems that the movies are always trying to bring video games to the silver screen and most of the time they fail. I may be wrong but I believe this could very well be the first video game movie not based on a video game. From that 8-bit start to the very end you feel as if you're watching someone playing a video game and each ex was just another boss you needed to fight to get to the next level. That is genius! Each fight took on a different feel and each battle ended in a different, unforeseeable way. There was no way Scott could beat the boss' with strength alone, he needed to use his brain and his smarts and some of the solutions were very clever. Personal favorite was the battle of the bands, not only because it was simply fun to watch but Scott needed his friends to help him win.

I do want to point out that this is a very strange movie, but in a good way. It doesn't really explain how Scott knows how to fight (I guess it's because of the video games he plays with his girlfriend Knives) but you know, I didn't care. I just went with it. This is the kind of movie you just need to go with. Why didn't Scott die when he was thrown through a wall? Just go with it. Why did the first Ex summon demon cheerleaders? Just go with it. Why do all the Ex's turn to coins when they're defeated? Geez, stop asking questions and just go with it, okay!?

Inception, it was a dream come true

Inception may be the first movie I've seen this year that will be nominated for best picture and, considering that there haven't been too many great movies released this year, it could very well win. So far it's the best movie I've seen this year and unless something else comes along to blow me away I can't see there being any other movies that could beat it. It probably won't win, Science Fiction hardly ever wins Best Picture, but that doesn't mean it shouldn't win.

The movie is about a team lead by Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) who had the ability to enter people's dreams. They do this on a as hire bases so they can extract information from the person's mind. Normally they're hired but rival companies to get insider secrets from the company rivals. But one man, Saito (Ken Watanabe) wants to his Cobb and his team to plant an idea into a rivals head. So, instead of extraction it's an inception that he needs. The idea is a simple one, Sabio wants a rival energy company to break up before they become too powerful to compete with. So, Cobb assembles his team (which includes Ellen Page as a new member of the team, a brilliant architect who they need to help construct the dream land they need to infiltrate, she also acts as an audience surrogate so we can learn as she does.) gets the plan together so they can enter the mind of Fischer ( Cillian Murphy) who's father is on the verge of death. He'll take over the company when the father dies (he's on his deathbed when the movie starts) so there would be no better time to make their move right after that happens.

And, of course, Cobb has a secret he won't tell anyone, a secret that could kill him and anyone else while in their dream state. What I do like about the movie is the rule that if you die in your dream all you do is wake up. I always hated the idea that if you die in your dream (or if you're connected to a complex computer matrix *cough*) that you die in real life. Seriously, I've died in my dreams and I've either woken up, not actually died, or returned as a ghost. The ghost thing has happened to me in at least three dreams I remember, but mostly I just wake up.

To make things more tense in the finale they sort of drop that rule a bit and instead of dying in real life you fall into Limbo or a permeate sleep state that you can't wake up from.

This is a movie you need to see a few times I think to really understand it. The plot was pretty easy to follow, it's pretty much a complex caper movie, but there were things along the edge that need to be examined further. Cobb's relationship with his dead wife, Mal and how he perceives her in him subconscious is really complex. The idea of limbo and dreams within dreams within dreams is fascinating. I loved how they played with time, how five minutes on the real world equals about one hour in the dream world and how as you dive deeper in the levels that 6 to 1 ratio follows you so that if you're three levels deep five minute would equal six months on the third level. The way that played in the climax had me glued to the screen (not even the laughing teens behind me, who obviously were not interested in the movie other than some explosions, didn't bother me much.) Just like the dreams they were infiltrating this movie had many layers that could only be understood with multiple viewings.

I saw Grown Ups and cried. . .

Mostly I cried cause I can't believe I paid 9 bucks, well 18 since I paid for Debbie's ticket as well, to see this piece of crap. If you see just one unfunny movie this year go see Grown ups!

Okay, okay, okay, I'll admit it, I'm a movie snob. I try to give movies like this a chance, I try to come into the movie with a sense that maybe I'll be surprised, maybe this movie will be funnier than it looks, maybe this will the Adam Sandler movie I actually like! But, half way thought I thought, "Well heck, if the makers aren't going to try why should I?"

I have never seen a movie more lazy than this. It's like the writers didn't even try, it was like they had a checklist of things that they thought people would find funny:

Old people humiliated? CHECK!

Fat person humiliated? CHECK!

Little kids who are annoying yet are supposed to be funny? CHECK!

Body function as humor? CHECK!

Gross out moments that no normal person would get involved in? CHECK!

It's like, they didn't even want to make a funny movie, I think Adam Sandler just wanted to get his friends together at a cabin near a lake and hang out. I mean, there's nothing wrong with that but why did I pay 18 bucks to watch that! I wanted stand up and yell, "Come on guys, at least try!" Or, as Homer said, "Be more funny!"

It's really not that hard to make me laugh. I laugh a lot, I laugh at everything, in fact, it's really hard to get me not to laugh so to have a comedy not make me laugh is a real accomplishment. I think I might have laughed once during this movie, maybe twice, and actually now that I think about it they laughs were pretty much the same joke, Rob Schinder's character have two very hot daughters. That was funny, that was kind of inspired actually, that seemed like a joke that someone worked hard to think of and you know, it worked and it was funny! But the joke wasn't worth 18 bucks!

That it's, that's all I have to say, movie sucked, won't see it again, wouldn't recommend anyone else seeing it, I'm done.

I saw Toy Story 3 and I cried

Okay, maybe I didn't blubber like I did at the end of Marley and Me but I did get emotional when the movie was getting close to an end. Now, I know these characters will always be with us in one form or another but to me the only place they really exist is on the screen and seeing the final adventure of Woody, Buzz and the gang was a bitter sweet moment.

I think everyone has a history with these movies. Now, I wasn't that young when the first one came out and, actually, I sort of missed it when it was first released. I thought it was neat that they had made a totally computer animated movie but it didn't strike me as being any good. I was wrong, of course, and when I did see it a few years later (as I was getting ready to see Toy Story 2) I really regretted not seeing the first one when it was in the theater. And the second one, well, it was just masterful. I can't even think about Jessie's song without feeling it in my gut. I think the movies tap into a fear everyone has, the fear of being abandoned and that scene, that song, that moment is just a perfect way to showing what that feeling is like.

I was excited when I heard they were making a Toy Story 3 but I kept wondering how they could top 2. If we never had another Toy Story movie I think the way 2 ended would have been easy to accept. Andy was going to grow up but he'd have his pals with him until he did, we could fill in the blanks but I could easily see Andy giving his toys to his kids to play with and that would have been fine. I knew the third one was going to be good but could it have be as perfect as 2? Well, I got good news and bad news.

The good news is, Toy Story 3 is just about as good a movie as you'll ever see, the bad news is it doesn't reach the same perfection as Toy Story 2 but that's okay, not too many movies did. (Wall-e is the only Pixar movie better than Toy Story 2)

I loved where they took the story, Andy is going away to college and he needs to either take his toys with him, throw them out or put them in the attic. A misunderstanding with him mother puts the toys on the fast track to the trash but they manage to escape and are very angry at Andy for throwing them away so they jump in a box going to a day care center for a donation, that's when the movie really takes off. The jokes come pretty quickly and, like all other movies, some are meant for kids, some for adults. I mean, really, how many kids are going to understand that they're basically watching a Prison break movie? The new toys, including a metro-sexual Ken doll, are a welcome addition to the Toy Story group. I personally like the triceratops Trixie, she didn't have many lines but she few did were very funny and made me laugh.

Okay, I'm about to get into spoiler territory here to be warned. I want to talk about a scene near the end of the movie. So, if you don't want to know about it stop reading . . . right. . . now!

 

There's a very powerful scene near the very end and had me wondering how the kids were taking it and also making me admire the guts that Pixar has in trusting it's audience. Near the end all the toys are being pulled a pile of trash into a massive incinerator. They've exhausted all their options, there isn't anything else they can do to save themselves. Jessie looks at Buzz and yells, "what are we going to do?"

Buzz looks at her, then reaches his hand out for her to hold. Soon all the toys are holding hands with each other accepting their fate, there isn't anything else they can do, they are going to die and they've decided to die together. These seems to go on forever until they're finally rescued.

I think that scene is not only one of the best in the Toy Story movies but probably one of the best Pixar has ever done and I have to give the creators credit for going there, it took a lot of guts I'm sure.

I wouldn't mind seeing another Toy Story movie but they'll have to work really hard to come up with a better way to end the series. I still think that if Toy Story 3 never came about the ending in Toy Story 2 was good enough of a ending for our characters but, that said, the ending of three, and hopefully the franchise, couldn't have been better.

Creative choices

Writing is lonely. You need to write in a vacuum, you need to trust your own instincts and trust that what your brain is telling you is the right choice for your story. But, what if you're mind is trying to fool you into thinking that writing choice you've made is the correct one? Or, what if it is and someone else tells you something different and you go with that or, what if you just come up with some really bad ideas and there's no one around to tell you it's a bad idea or, they're all yes men who tell you your crap doesn't smell.

I think of this as I write, I also think of this as I watch movies or read books. I wonder why the writer made certain choices with the film or story. I will read or see something peculiar and think, "Why did they go that way?" or, "wasn't there someone in charge who told this person this was a horrible idea?"

The most recent example of this came from the movie The Watchmen. I really did love the movie, thought it was almost perfect except for maybe a few things. The one creative choice I couldn't understand was the use of music which seemed to distract from the scenes instead of enhancing them.

The scene that really sticks out in my mind was the first appearance of Doctor Manhattan during the Vietnam war. He was about fifty feet tall walking across a field killing all the enemies and, while they were showing this they were playing "Ride of the Valkyries" which, while a really cool song, didn't seem to fit the scene and I thought it was a bad song choice.

Another example from the movie was them playing "Purple Haze" when pulling back from the bad guy's lair (non-spoiler alert, not going to tell you who the bad guy is!) again, it seemed odd to me and just distracted from the scene. I wondered if anyone stopped for a moment to say, "maybe this isn't a good choice" or if they just went with it.

I think probably the biggest mistake ever made in a movie, book, or tv show, took place over the summer of 1999. We all waited in grand anticipation for the release of Star Wars: The Phantom menace. I could probably write an entire entry on bad choices that were made during the second trilogy but I think I'll just focus on the one that most people agree was simply a bad, bad idea. Midi-chlorians. (Bet you thought I was going to say Jar Jar Binks, didn't you?) I mean. . .what the heck was George Lucas thinking!? At what point did he wake up and say, "Hey, you know, this whole Force thing needs to be explained on a biological level." Maybe it was just the creator over thinking something. Maybe it was something that had bothered him for years, the inability to explain the force, and he needed to do that to clear his own mind, or maybe it was just a really horrible idea. Whatever the case I wished someone had just stopped him and said, "George, you can't explain the force, it's just there and people have accepted that so why can't you?" But, no one did (or they did and he ignored them.) and there you go, we now have Midi-chlorians in the Star Wars universe.

I sometimes wish I had a staff of twenty to tell me if I had a bad idea or not but I don't, I need to judge for myself if an idea I had is bad or not and I always struggle with trying to filter them out in my own writing. I don't want someone to read or listen to my work and say, "well, that's just stupid." Unless I've said it to myself a few dozen times. I can think of a more than one example of my own writing where I knew the idea was kind of out there but went with it anyway for either dramatic reasons or I just couldn't think of anything better or, in a few cases, because I just thought it was a neat idea.

In my novel Ida I had the main character hitch a ride on a comet as it made its way around the sun. I did this by having him and his crew construct a giant net which would wrap itself around the comet, his life pod would be attached to the end of the net and when the comet was caught it would carry him along for the ride. When I came up with the idea I knew it was kind of silly but I decided to see if I could pull it off. I did a lot of research and found that you know, it's not impossible so I did it. The creative reason for it was to get the hero away from the Space Station while all hell broke loose so he could return to become an even greater hero. I do sometimes wonder if I made the right choice there because a re-write would take an awful long time to complete.

In the Arwen Season III: Armada I wrote a scene that still sort of bothers me today. In it the Earth is about ready to be attacked by a large alien force. The Earth fleet was decimated in an early war and they needed the perfect plan to defeat the bad guys. In the story I had Vice Admiral Cook in charge of the defense of the Earth, he and he alone came up with the brilliant plan to save the planet. I knew, even as I writing it, that this was impossible. There would be no way that one man would be in charge of coming up with a plan to save a planet, it would be a committee of highly trained officers and they would spend weeks coming up with the perfect defense but, I didn't have the time nor did I feel like writing page after page of Generals, Admiral, Presidents, and anyone else who needed to be in the room talking about the best way to defend the planet. Not only would that have bored me to tears the reader and listener would have zoned out after a while wondering when the action was going to take place. So, I made a creative choose to have one man come up with the plan knowing someone might say something about it. So far this seems to bother no one other than me.

Right now I'm struggling with a choice I made in the sixth Arwen story. I'm dealing with a thinking computer and I can't decide if it's going to be completely sentient or not. The problem is the sentient computer who is trying to figure out how to act human is so old and has been done so many times I can't add anything new to it but, it's still a pretty cool idea that I'd like to explore in my own writing. I've decided that's the path I'm going down, that the computer is trying to figure out what it's like to be human, it'll make mistakes, it'll act on instinct, and in the climax it'll do something that it thinks is the right choice but in the end it could kill everyone. That's what I'm going with now but the more I think about it the more I wonder if it's a good idea. Again, wish I had a team of 20 to help me with this decision but, as it is, it's something I need to decide for myself.