Writer's Block

I have terrible, terrible writer's block. Claim whatever I may, it's probably most of the reason I'm not writing much or doing comics anymore. It's not even that I don't have IDEAS, because believe me, I have like six. I lack the physical ability to force myself into a seat and put my ideas on the page. That's not uncommon, but it's certainly an unwelcome change for me. So, until I get things back on track, I think I'm going to commit to rambling incoherently here as frequently as possible to ensure that I'll be able to ramble incoherently elsewhere in the future.

Hey, here's something fun! SUMMER MOVIE ROUND-UP!

Protip: Don't see Cars. I'm a big Pixar fan, don't get me wrong. Nemo and Incredibles both worked for me in a big way. Cars, while occasionally showing the near-obsessive attentiveness to visual minutia that makes Pixar movies so mesmerizing, feels more like Disney's paint-by-numbers animated efforts for the past decade. Characters are reduced to catch-phrases, uninteresting ones at that. It doesn't help that the character models are boring too. It was going to be a hard sale to get me to care about talking cars regardless of what they looked like, but the over-emphasis on visual continuity between characters robs them of personality. Most of the cars shine like they're fresh off the factory lot, despite the fact that most of the supporting cast supposedly has more than a few miles on their odometers. Animation allows for the unsaid to be visually represented with extreme clarity, as the artists can exaggerate elements of the mis-en-scene to achieve dramatic or comedic effect. In spite of their googly-eyes and awkwardly placed mouths, the cars in Cars move with the rigidity of their literal analogs. Coupled with their emotional flatness, the generic physical manifestations of the characters make Cars the first Pixar movie where talking objects are more reminiscent of tangible ones than human beings, a huge step in the wrong direction for a production company that made its mark with Toy Story. For all its product tie-ins and on-screen sales pitches, Toy Story was about more than the gimmick of its premise; the emotional weight of the relationships kept it fascinating and funny. Cars is about cars from beginning to end, which proves to be its greatest failing. In eliminating drivers from the picture, Cars fails to give the audience anything worthwhile to latch onto before the checkered flag.

Also, X-Men 3 was incredibly shitty. But I'm sure you could figure that one out on your own.

I'll probably go into more detail there later, and maybe I'll share a few words on MI:3. Those flicks are really second-fiddle to my upcoming Superman/Pirates back-to-back showdown, but there's probably something to be said about every movie, even ones with time-traveling mailboxes.