Aquaman (2018) Jason Momoa, Amber Heard and Patrick Wilson

For New Year's Eve, the family decided to take a trip to the movies to see Aquaman.  What a fun ride of a movie this was.

Jason Momoa is having the time of his life playing Aquaman - intially a surprise casting choise in Batman V Superman and Justice League.  While he may not look exactly like the comic book character, he has the spirit of the character down pat. 

With a touch of the bad-ass "I have a hook for a hand" version of the nineties with a pinch of the blowhard character seen in Batman Brave and The Bold, Momoa nails the character, a child of two worlds, scared of the destiny to unite them both.

There are a couple of intertwining plots - the movie starts with Aquaman foiling a pirate attack on a Russian submarine and a decision he makes causes the creation of one of his arch enemies.

The second plot involves Arthur trying to claim the throne of Atlantis, there are some gorgeous underwater scenes then a quest arounf the world to find the trident of the last great Atleanean king. 

The whole thing ends in a giant underwater battle with sharks with 'friggin' laser beams and giant seahorses and a big ass sea monster.

The search for the trident was a fun Indiana Jones/Tomb Raider/Uncharted style adventure (with a generous side of Disney's Atlantis THe Lost Empire) 

[As an aside - this movie has probably ruined the chances of a live action version of Atlantis: The Lost Empire or  The Deep, - but damn it made me wish for them]

Then the movie did the most awesome thing the quest for the trident ended in the lost sea in the hollow Earth - they went to Skartaris.  And queue the blank looks, for newbies to the worlds of DC Skartaris is the centre of the Hollow Earth created by Mike Grell (also known as the greatest writer on Green Arrow ever)  for the comic book known as Warlord. Skartaris has appeared in a couple of episodes of Jusice League Unlimited.  Could this be a set up for a Warlord movie?  Oh I hope so.

The whole movie was so much fun to watch from start to finish that everyone left with a big grin on our faces.

Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001) starring Angelina Jolie, Jon Voight and Daniel Craig

Tomb Raider Poster

I remember back in 2001 being quite excited to see this in the cinema.  However, the ENTIRE 97 minute run time my wife payed out on Angelina's breasts.  There had been articles in the paper about how the star had a C cup and Lara Croft had a DD cup and they compromised with padding Jolie up to a D cup and my wife (and I'm pretty sure her sister was there too) nothing but comments about how fake the breasts looked.  Kinda took me out of the movie.

Fast forward a few years and I get the DVD and my wife and I watch the movie with one of her friends - if you guessed another 97 minutes commenting on Jolie's breasts, you'd be right.  So the other night I watched this on my own.

Each time, I've enjoyed the movie as an action adventure movie.  Had this been Indiana Jones and the Triangle of Light - I still would have enjoyed this.  It's not a great movie but it's fun.  Jolie sets up her action cred which allowed her to do films like Salt and Wanted.  The aerial ballet scene was a great set piece showing us Lara using her brains and athleticism to take down a number of heavily armed intruders intent on stealing the mystical McGuffin she's found.  Because Jolie did a lot of her own stunt work I believed in her as Lara Croft - perhaps slightly more Goth version with black hair and outfits but it worked. 

I was intrigued by the idea that some of these artefacts can only be accessed during planetary alignments - because magic?  Which meant that Lara was literally racing against time as the next alignment wouldn't come for another 5000 years -  however at one point had Lara let them make the error they were going to make it would have solved her problems but wouldn't have made for much of a movie.  I could nit pick more but those things came after the movie was finished and I was following along the adventure as Lara proves herself smarter that the Illuminati and their henchmen.

I also enjoyed Christopher Barrie's Hillary the butler and Noah Taylor's techie Bryce.  Both offered support and light relief to the movie and I especially enjoyed Hillary's donning bulletproof vest and slippers while loading the shotgun during the invasion of Croft Manor. 

The movie still holds up fifteen years later and is worth watching if you enjoy the Indiana Jones or the Brendan Fraser Mummy series as I do.

What I bought November 2016

Okay a couple of days late, but the order came in on 1 December.

Vigilante: Sounthland #2 by Gary Phillips & Elana Casagrande

After the first issue I was a bit hesitant to read this but this issue was definitely better and I followed it better.  We're still in the origin arc and it seems that there were other heroes who have operated here in the past including one who operated as The Eastsider.  I'm really starting to get into this story and I'm looking forward to the next issue.

Red One #3 by Xavier Dorison and Terry and Rachel Dodson

Colour me as sucker for female spies - Danger Girl, Black Widow, Modesty Blaise.  I was intrigued by this title produced for two issues a year.  I'd found issue 4 a couple of months ago and said lots of naughty words when no one had issue 3 - so I'm grateful to Secret Identity comics for ordering this in for me.  The idea of a Russian spy acting as an American superhero as a propaganda tool is unusual and I'm keen to see what next year's issues bring. 

Peepland #2 by Christa Faust and Gary Phillips and Andrea Camerini

A solid follow up to the first issue.  New characters and complications get added to the plot and I'm really enjoying this series.


James Bond: Eidolon #11 by Warren Ellis and Jason Masters

We're in the final stretch of this arc and Ellis is ramping up everything for a final confrontation.


20 Years of Tomb Raider by Meagan Marie

Wow it's been 20 years since the first Tomb Raider Game.  This is a beautiful overview everything Tomb Raider.  The Game not surprisingly take up half the book but Marie examine Books, Comics, novels, movies, cosplay, and the various fan activities such as Fan fic, fan art, fan films.  The various models, voices and musicians for the game are also looked at.

Even cooler is the fact that there is a flip book effect as various incarnation of Lara run,  jump and shoot as you flick though the book.

It's a big book and the type of companion that I love to have in my collection.