Tag Archives: hell

Lucifer: Inferno

Leave a reply

Here’s an irony for you. Despite being the book I finished most recently (and wrapping up today’s spate of reviews, in fact), it’s the one I remember least. Not, I’m pretty sure, as a reflection on Inferno‘s quality, either. I know I was liking it as I read. Anyway, though, I can say a few things about it. The first of which is that it feels like the second half of its predecessor, The Divine Comedy. And, okay, eponymously speaking, that seems apparent. But I still find it noteworthy because of the regularity with which graphic novel editors make a point of having standalone collections, as far as an ongoing series can accomplish that. And given the thematic divisions that tend to accompany plot breaks in Gaiman’s work and its spinoff here, it’s more noteworthy still. Which I guess is a lot of time spent to say, “Huh, it’s two halves of the same basic storyline, and that doesn’t happen often,” but like I said, it is unusual for the format.

Thirdly[1], I have a fair amount of respect for the character evolution that Carey has been giving Lucifer. He’s always been an interesting and occasionally, briefly, likeable anti-hero. It would be hard to publish very many months’ worth of comics without that much to recommend the main character. But at some point that has crept up on me unawares, there was a tipping point to a process I hadn’t really perceived before the fact: he’s been gradually infusing Lucifer with a certain nobility of spirit[2] to match his uncompromising (albeit typically self-serving) sense of honor, to the point where now, any time things seem to be going pear-shaped, I’m not merely interested to see the story of how he twists things to his advantage and wins after all. No, at this point in the tale, I unexpectedly find myself genuinely disappointed at the idea that he might not win through. Sympathy for the devil, indeed.

Also? Mazikeen[3] has surprised me once again, and I think before very long at all she will be my favorite character in the series, and maybe even retroactively a very strong finisher in Sandman itself.

[1] I know what you are thinking. I respectfully disagree.
[2] See also the impressive To Reign in Hell, by the always impressive Steven Brust.
[3] Who I see I have never previously mentioned is Lucifer’s one-time right-hand woman, and more recently (as the newly-appointed leader of her people) one of his many grasping adversaries. Though of course it’s more nuanced than that.

Doom 3

So, after that long Half-Life detour, I finally did get around to playing Doom 3. And then came a very frustrating interlude this morning when, less than 10 seconds from victory, my wireless/optical mouse crapped out and I had to start all over. (Well, okay, just the last battle all over. Still, though. It was stressful.) In any case, after a 20 minute struggle to fix the mouse and a 2 minute struggle to replay that end bit, I have now finished.

Was it exactly the same as Doom and Doom 2 and Quake and etc.? Well. It still didn’t have a story the way Half-Life does. I mean, it has a story, and a pretty good one. But it’s basically the story of everything that led up to the endoomening. Space marine wandering around the planet Mars shooting demons, that part is identical, but now it has prettier graphics and a backstory. Which is to say, the fun in the game is seeing the graphics, but not in seeing how it turns out. Still, the backstory part is an improvement over the original Doom. I’d compare it to Doom 2 as well, but that would require me to remember anything, anything at all about that game that would distinguish it from the original. As for the Quake comparison, well, Quake sucks as a single player game, so this is much better than that. So, to answer the actual question: it’s different, but only cosmetically.

That’s okay, though. Going into Hell with guns blazing to save humanity is its own reward. On top of that, the graphical and auditory enhancements have made it pretty spooky. Okay, there’s no good reason in-game why you can’t have the flashlight and a weapon out at the same time. But it would ratchet the tension way down, and the whole point of the Doom franchise is to be twitching around at every noise afraid of being blasted into a lava pit by a giant beholder (which we call a cacodaemon, because this isn’t Dungeons and Dragons, but I think I know a beholder when I see one, thanks). It succeeds masterfully at this aspect, and the backstory-gathering is all gravy on top of that.

I hope they wait for Doom 4 until we’re at another full leap forward technologically, because otherwise they’re really going to have to write an engrossing plotline after all, and id’s only real innovative strength (at least, that others don’t do as well at or better) is the iconic shock image, eg Doom’s missile-launching minotaur or Wolfenstein’s power-armored Hitler. Good Stuff, yeah, but only so good when games that are chock full of plot are in the same place on the store’s shelf, for the same price.

Constantine

When I first saw the preview for Constantine, with the hot Mummy chick getting pulled through a building and Keanu chasing after her, I really thought they were making another Matrix movie for some reason. This guess is not as far off the mark as you might think. It made about as much sense as Matrix Revolutions, but I feel better about it because of differing expectations.

Keanu’s acting worked pretty well for me in the John Constantine character, bearing in mind that I come to the movie untainted by the comic. Basically, his acting in any role (leaving aside the Theodore Logan aberration) works well, as long as the character is a cipher who never gets angry. He can emote detachment quite well, but detached shouting is oxymoronic. You may claim that ‘detached’ is not an acting skill, but there are a lot of characters in Hollywood with that as the defining characteristic, and actors have been filling those roles for all the years they’ve been written, some of them quite well. See also Charles Bronson.

Except for the part where lots of things were stated but not really backed up (Why is Constantine of so much interest to hell? What’s so special about this particular time that the neutrality thing is being breached?), the story was sufficiently comic-y to make me happy on that count. Also, Keanu has that look. Really tall, really thin, he just looks like a comic character. I’m sure a big part of that was the cinematography and wardrobe choices, but it was well-done enough that I want to emphasize it. For your comic movie to work, at least someone should look like a comic character.

Anyway: story, schmory. It had a good look, the Hell sets were really cool, and lots of demon-fighting. This is plenty to keep me happy with a February movie. Also, in a bow to gratuity, hot Mummy chick stayed soaked for the final half of the movie. That’s just good directing.