From Zombos Closet

July 25, 2011

Captain America
The First Avenger (2011)

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Captain america
Zombos Says: Excellent

My favorite comic book character, Captain America, is the perfect superhero because he’s not so super. He doesn’t fly, he’s not impervious to harm, although his body can regenerate when damaged, and while he’s a lot stronger than any other normal man, he’s not Spidey-strong. He’s just a tough scrapper, a formerly scrawny guy from the East Side of New York (or Brooklyn, as he says in the movie) who does good because it’s simply the right thing to do. And when he gets his chance to serve his country after being labeled 4F five times, to fight a clearly defined and very evil foe, he takes it without batting an eye. He doesn’t like anyone getting pushed around, let alone himself.

Looking a lot like the “Hey, Skinny!” weakling in the Charles Atlas comic book ads, he knows a lot about getting beat up, but he never quits, even after losing his parents, not getting the girls, and constantly being bullied because he’s small. That speaks volumes to the American spirit that won World War II after getting knocked down hard in Hawaii. With all this patriotic symbolism, and the many pitfalls inherent in handling it today, it’s very gratifying to see how well Joe Johnston and the writers of Captain America: The First Avenger guietly acknowledge its power by underemphasizing it, keeping their story simple, the dialog chipper and in period, and the characters determined. There’s an old time serial movie mood that permeates every scene, and honey-gold tones to color it nostalgic. There are clear cut heroes and villains to root for and hiss at, and they’re simple but believable within the comic book context. This movie gets the job done as well as Cap does, without inane, loud clashing robots, and pandering to the popcorn rows.

Captain america serial
Steve Rogers (Chris Evans, the Human Torch in the Fantastic Four movies) takes it on the chin mentally every time he gets denied enlistment in the army. He’s sickly, fragile, and determined to show that’s only his body, not his spirit. He gets his chance when Dr. Erskine (Stanley Tucci) offers him super strength, strong stamina, and a chance to finally knock some Nazi heads together. Colonel Phillips–the surly Tommy Lee Jones and his patented army role go together like bread and butter–deadpans his disagreement with the doctor’s choice for volunteer, but Rogers shows his ingenuity and bravery, making the Colonel give up by saying “he’s still skinny.” But not for long.

The doctor’s process of chemicals and Vita-Rays transform Rogers into a brawny hunk. The transformation is startling because the CGI is seemless. Shrinking Evans’ real body into the smaller Roger’s one is uncanny because it’s believable. The initial plan of using a smaller person with Evans’ head superimposed didn’t work well because the body movements  between Evan’s and his stand-in didn’t match up. The downsizing tweak left space in the scene that needed to be filled, so you can imagine the complexity of getting it right. A spy kills Erskine, leaving Rogers the only super-soldier the army’s going to get. So they put his newly endowed powers to good use:  by selling war bonds. A clever set up for the eventual costume and the name ‘Captain America’ evolve naturally from his touring for the war bond effort.

When his best friend, Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) goes missing in action, Rogers breaks ranks, with the help of Howard Stark (Dominic Cooper doing a mean Howard Hughes riff) and Carter (Hayley Atwill), to go after the power-mad Red Skull (Hugo Weaving) and his HYDRA minions, whose advanced weaponry and technology stump even Stark. In possession of the Cosmic Cube, the Red Skull has unlimited power at his disposal to accomplish his plan of world conquest.

Although the movie begins in the 1940s, it ties into The Avengers movie being released next year. You can catch a glimpse of it if you wait for the credits to end. I strongly recommend every congressman watch this movie. It might help them remember what they seem to have forgotten about the American spirit and getting the job done.

What to Write About
By Scott M. Baker

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Hemingway_at_his_writing_desk_
Okay, I get it. If I write one page a day, in a year I’ll have a novel. My problem is I have no idea what to write about.

You’re sitting on a mother lode of ideas. You just haven’t mined them yet.

A good story, no matter what the genre, is about conflict. It’s about developing your main character(s) so that the reader likes (and hopefully can relate) to them, and then placing obstacles in the way of obtaining their goals. The story is not so much about the challenges as it is how the main character(s) confront these challenges by overcoming their weaknesses and expanding on their strengths. The story is not about the conclusion. It’s about the journey to that concluding page, and what the main character(s) learn about themselves on the way.

Think of how boring The Lord of the Rings would have been if Bilbo had decided to keep the ring for himself rather than give it to Frodo to return to Mount Doom. Or if Ralphie’s mother had acquiesced in the opening scene of A Christmas Story and agreed to buy him an official Red Ryder carbine action 200-shot air model range rifle. Or if Shelby from Steel Magnolias did not have a medical condition that endangered her life during pregnancy.

Such stories come from within us. There’s no one reading this blog who hasn’t experienced some type of conflict, whether it’s as simple as a troubled romance, as life altering as death or illness or surviving combat, as traumatic as disloyalty or loss of honor, or as frustrating (or comical, depending on the situation) as a dysfunctional family. Tap into those emotions and build your story around them. Will it be painful or uncomfortable to bear your soul like this? Probably. But if you can be honest to your emotions and successfully weave them into your novel, you’ll relate to your readers. That’s what writing is all about. So if I may use an old clichéd phrase, write what you know.

Write what you know? You write about zombies and vampires. What do you know about them?

Good question. I asked the same thing years ago of Brian Keene, author of The Rising, the novel that launched a new wave of zombie apocalypse stories. The Rising is about Jim Thurmond who lives on the West Coast. As civilization crashes around him, Jim gets a phone call from his young son on the East Coast asking his father to come rescue him; he sets out on foot across a zombie-infested country in a desperate journey to save his son. Prior to writing the novel, Brian had received a phone call from his ten-year-old son whom he had not seen since infancy and who wanted to meet. He made the trip, all the while wondering what their meeting would be like. Brian later wrote about that emotional turmoil in The Rising, and then added some zombies.

Brian’s advice helped me to find my focus for The Vampire Hunters. At its essence, the story is about the war on terror and how those fighting it deal with the reality that for every terrorist brought down, ten others take his place. My main characters embody the three primary outlooks of any long-term struggle: Drake Matthews, the gung-ho commander who’s in the fight for the long haul no matter how long it takes; Alison Monroe, who follows Drake willingly but who, at some point, wants to put down her weapons lead a normal life; and Jim DelMarco, the young kid drafted into the conflict who does not want to be there, but who fights anyway. The trilogy deals with how each of these characters handles the stresses of combat, and how their experiences prepare them for the final battle. Then I substituted vampires for terrorists.

So write what you know, but don’t be afraid to embellish a bit.

A final note: One thing that every publisher and agent has told me is not to write your own iteration of the latest blockbuster. The DaVinci Code and Twilight were overnight phenomenons because they were new and distinctly unique, which is why they sparked the public’s imagination. After each of these novels went to the best seller list, publishing houses and literary agencies were inundated with knock-offs, most of which were not very good, and many pushed the bounds of copyright infringement. Sure, some of them got published. But rarely did any of these enjoy the success of the original works. Your goal should not be to write the next Harry Potter. Your goal should be to write a novel so unique that five years from now other writers will want to imitate you.