Sometimes I start my writing because I have an idea for a cool moment where even I want to be jumping in my chair. Once I write it down I start working backward to figure out hot to get to that moment. Sometimes it helps to see my writing from a backwards POV. I've even considered doing a story something like the movie Memento where the whole thing is done with the scenes in reverse order.
Minor correction: Leslie What's short story collection, Crazy Love, published by Wordcraft of Oregon in a small first edition, was named one of the ten best sf books of 2008 by Booklist. Sorry, I goofed.
Great tips! As much as I personally dislike McDevitt's novels, he keeps getting published (and nominated for Nebulas), so he must know what he's doing.
On another WisCon tack: Cheese & Macaroni Pizza, is it as totally awesome as I suspect?
@Grey_Area: It is totally awesome and insane. Although right now I am full of gelato and other stuff... and the thought of eating mac and cheese pizza is making me ill...
@Grey_Area: I rather enjoyed some of McDevitt's earlier work, but began to find him very tedious. For one thing it seems to me he habitually has his characters take ridulously stupid risks - with the obvious consequences - in order to propel his stories. Seems like a lazy way to tell a story and illuminate a setting. On the other hand I haven't read any of his most recent work.
@Mathmos: As it happens, I'm just about to finish Deepsix, and while I count myself a McDevitt fan, his novels do have some major flaws. I think I like his sci-fi mystery novels best.
It's worth mentioning that he's a really nice, down-to-Earth guy. We once had an interesting email correspondence regarding Abraham Lincoln and the morality of the Civil War.
I'm still trying to determine whether its worth my time even downloading this movie to review much less pay money for it. I already have a huge problem with the fact that Child Wolverine has claws as, well, child Wolverine. As for a reshoot, I dunno about that. They've already had one controversial reshoot. When will studios learn that these spin-off franchises never work? It didn't work with Catwoman or Elektra, why should it work for Wolverine. Sure, Wolverine is a really cool character, but I get the feeling that that that's all the studios are banking on to make this successful- Wolverine's coolness versus an actual semi-decent script. [www.igp-scifi.com]
@IGPNicki: The rough print is definitely not worth spending two hours of your life on... Your time is more valuable than that. It remains to be seen whether the finished version will be worth seeing, either in the theater or on DVD. I still have some hope that they'll upgrade it somewhat.
Words cannot describe how badly they raped Deadpool. It's overkill at this point to say that it's inexcusable. For those who haven't seen it, heard of it, or care about Deadpool to try to understand, let me make an analogy:
They're making a new Batman movie. Things are looking great, Christian Bale signed on again, and we all are rapt with anticipation for a hell of a superhero movie. Suddenly, a rumor pops up that Bane is going to be in the movie, only instead of being a juiced up maniac in a luchador mask, he ends up being a half-man, half-gorilla hybrid who uses magical runes to make himself grow, and in the end, instead of fighting Batman as a big villain, he gets run over by a car.
@Courteous_Gentleman: Actually that sounds kind of awesome. Especailly if it all happens in the first five minutes. "Ha ha ha! I will defeat Batman with my magical gorilla runes! Nothing can stop me!" (sound of brakes squealing and then a car runs him over.) "Oh crap!" (Roll opening credits.)
@Lassus: Deadpool is not as famous as Batman, but he's got a pretty huge fan following. It helps that he's starred in some of the funnest comics of the past decade or so.
@steampoweredboy: weirdly, I cared about the old couple more than I did anyone else in the movie. Maybe because they actually had hints of personality.
Even in its rough form, it was better than X3. That is to say, it wasn't a terrible movie that made me want to bash my head against a movie theater seat, or this case my office chair, but it was still felt like a really mediocre movie in terms of the story they were trying to tell.
Also Charlie, I think all the suggestions you made (save for the love story and Deadpool remote control angles) are pretty much the opposite of what I think this movie needs or needed.
The movie from square one shouldn't have been a run of the mill action film with more funny bits and a reduced running time. If anything this movie needs another 15 or 20 minutes of scene's dedicated to character development for Creed, Fox, the 'team', and Stryker in addition to what's already here cause there is no emotional or dramatic gravitas (oh god I actually used that word, thanks Keifer) to any of the conflicts in the movie; every action scene felt gratuitous and pointless to the characters' arcs.
However, regardless of the 15 minutes of past and future reshoots and edits omitted from this cut which could make the movie into a more coherent 'action' film, the movie has some serious fundamental flaws in the way they approached the characters that will piss off any 'hardcore' Wolverine/ X-Men fans.
@omgwtflolbbqbye: Actually, I did say they should try to deepen the relationship between Logan and Victor, which is paper thin in the current version. And I said the first 20 minutes need to be a lot longer and more developed. (And then a lot of the rest of the movie needs to be tighter.)
After seeing the print yesterday and giving it a night's rest, I have made my decision: It wasn't really bad.
I agree with the 10 ways the movie could be improved, as most of those are basic story elements. Relationships (Creed/Logan, Logan/Silver Fox/ "Secret team"/everyone else) need to be improved. Hopefully with the reshoots they added these elements. I'm not complaining as a fan of comics and why they were a disservice, but as a movie fan wanting a good movie.
I groaned with the interface and the typing. Ugh, takes it completely out of the moment. Make him say it if you want to keep that point.
The CGI is clearly not done, and I didn't mind; I wanted to see the story. Ditch most of the minor characters that don't move the plot along (OMG, we got "White Queen" in there for three seconds, fanboys will love us). More Wade please; there's a reason you don't see Ryan in ads, he's in the movie for one sequence.
While I wasn't going to see it in theaters (It was about as well as I thought it was going to do), I am going to rent it again, hopefully as an extended director's unrated cut. WB doesn't have to worry about losing business from me from this fiasco (though I see it as karma for Watchmen).
Final thoughts: Better than X3, but could be better than the first X-Men if they fix things up a bit. I won't bad mouth it, but I'm not counting down the days either.
@Guyinthe$5000Suit: I agree 100%. The movie shines when the scene is Logan/Creed/Stryker. All the other characters are one dimensional and a complete distraction. Jackman and Schreiber sell it in every appearance.
Unfortunately I found myself unable to care about any other character because of their short screen time, lack of dimension, or both. Scenes with these characters were fine when they truly were cameos and the intention was to build up Wolverine, Sabretooth, or Stryker. When it was those characters on their own, I didn't care.
Zero shooting up the guards in Africa? Whatever. Deadpool cutting up all their bullets (wtf?), didn't care. Zero and Logan trading verbal jabs at the logging camp? Interesting.
I'm sorry if this offends anyone - no, actually I'm just saying that - but only the kind of idiot who secretly unwraps their presents a week before Christmas would download an incomplete cut of a film. I can only conclude that choosing to be disappointed in advance is a nasty habit picked up in childhood.
So your only reason not to watch the pirated version is because it will look better on the big screen? What about the whole FBI investigation you could get arrested part?
10 ways to make a 'x# of somethings to do something' list better: 1. Use a number other than 10 2. Make sure at least half of the listed 'ways' are really just the same thing with slightly different phrasings V. Contradict yourself early and often 10. Do less research and include more pictures. 1001. Change the way you say things to the complete opposite of what you said before more than 50% of the time. 1010. Switch number bases frequently.
@silver-bolt: I'm pretty sure Reynolds only played Wade Wilson... not "Deadpool". I heard they got someone else to do that part.
But yeah. That was utter crap. Maybe these 'more deadpool' reshoots weren't in this version... so we'll at least get more than 4 minutes of light chuckles at his antics before an hour and a half of Wolvie Angst.
11/20/09
11/20/09
11/20/09
05/23/09
Minor correction: Leslie What's short story collection, Crazy Love, published by Wordcraft of Oregon in a small first edition, was named one of the ten best sf books of 2008 by Booklist. Sorry, I goofed.
05/24/09
05/23/09
On another WisCon tack: Cheese & Macaroni Pizza, is it as totally awesome as I suspect?
05/23/09
05/23/09
05/23/09
05/24/09
It's worth mentioning that he's a really nice, down-to-Earth guy. We once had an interesting email correspondence regarding Abraham Lincoln and the morality of the Civil War.
04/02/09
[www.igp-scifi.com]
04/04/09
04/02/09
04/02/09
04/02/09
They're making a new Batman movie. Things are looking great, Christian Bale signed on again, and we all are rapt with anticipation for a hell of a superhero movie. Suddenly, a rumor pops up that Bane is going to be in the movie, only instead of being a juiced up maniac in a luchador mask, he ends up being a half-man, half-gorilla hybrid who uses magical runes to make himself grow, and in the end, instead of fighting Batman as a big villain, he gets run over by a car.
Fucking. criminal.
04/02/09
04/02/09
04/02/09
04/04/09
04/02/09
Edit all you want, it's crap.
04/02/09
04/02/09
Also Charlie, I think all the suggestions you made (save for the love story and Deadpool remote control angles) are pretty much the opposite of what I think this movie needs or needed.
The movie from square one shouldn't have been a run of the mill action film with more funny bits and a reduced running time. If anything this movie needs another 15 or 20 minutes of scene's dedicated to character development for Creed, Fox, the 'team', and Stryker in addition to what's already here cause there is no emotional or dramatic gravitas (oh god I actually used that word, thanks Keifer) to any of the conflicts in the movie; every action scene felt gratuitous and pointless to the characters' arcs.
However, regardless of the 15 minutes of past and future reshoots and edits omitted from this cut which could make the movie into a more coherent 'action' film, the movie has some serious fundamental flaws in the way they approached the characters that will piss off any 'hardcore' Wolverine/ X-Men fans.
04/02/09
04/02/09
I agree with the 10 ways the movie could be improved, as most of those are basic story elements. Relationships (Creed/Logan, Logan/Silver Fox/ "Secret team"/everyone else) need to be improved. Hopefully with the reshoots they added these elements. I'm not complaining as a fan of comics and why they were a disservice, but as a movie fan wanting a good movie.
I groaned with the interface and the typing. Ugh, takes it completely out of the moment. Make him say it if you want to keep that point.
The CGI is clearly not done, and I didn't mind; I wanted to see the story. Ditch most of the minor characters that don't move the plot along (OMG, we got "White Queen" in there for three seconds, fanboys will love us). More Wade please; there's a reason you don't see Ryan in ads, he's in the movie for one sequence.
While I wasn't going to see it in theaters (It was about as well as I thought it was going to do), I am going to rent it again, hopefully as an extended director's unrated cut. WB doesn't have to worry about losing business from me from this fiasco (though I see it as karma for Watchmen).
Final thoughts: Better than X3, but could be better than the first X-Men if they fix things up a bit. I won't bad mouth it, but I'm not counting down the days either.
04/02/09
Unfortunately I found myself unable to care about any other character because of their short screen time, lack of dimension, or both. Scenes with these characters were fine when they truly were cameos and the intention was to build up Wolverine, Sabretooth, or Stryker. When it was those characters on their own, I didn't care.
Zero shooting up the guards in Africa? Whatever. Deadpool cutting up all their bullets (wtf?), didn't care. Zero and Logan trading verbal jabs at the logging camp? Interesting.
04/02/09
04/02/09
04/02/09
04/02/09
04/02/09
1. Use a number other than 10
2. Make sure at least half of the listed 'ways' are really just the same thing with slightly different phrasings
V. Contradict yourself early and often
10. Do less research and include more pictures.
1001. Change the way you say things to the complete opposite of what you said before more than 50% of the time.
1010. Switch number bases frequently.
04/02/09
1) More *True to Character* Deadpool.
Ryan Reynolds should be ashamed for letting this travesty surface. Hell, his Blade 3 character was more Deadpool like...
04/03/09
But yeah. That was utter crap. Maybe these 'more deadpool' reshoots weren't in this version... so we'll at least get more than 4 minutes of light chuckles at his antics before an hour and a half of Wolvie Angst.
04/02/09
04/02/09
04/02/09