June 2012

SF/F Commentary

Movie Review (Preliminary Thoughts): Snow White and the Huntsman

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(These are my early “just got home from the movie” thoughts.  They do not represent my final verdict on the film, which will come when I’ve had time to let things stew.  That said, I don’t expect my opinion to change terribly much over time, as they did for The Happening, which I would now give a 1/5 if I were to review it again.) Here goes: A super great awesome movie? No. A terrible film, a la Rotten Tomatoes critics? No. There’s a lot of really interesting twists in this movie. They take the basic concept of Snow White that we are familiar with (Disney’s version, more or less) and completely flip it on its head. There are some unique plays on magic, the idea of balance in nature, and so on. In some ways, it reminds me of George Lucas’ Willow, but with a noticeably less campy tone. The film does suffer from lack of characterization for certain characters, a few pacing problems, and some icky cut scenes, but I absolutely loved how they tried to give us a look into the evil Queen (Theron) and her motivations. I even thought their attempt to make Snow White more than just some pretty chick who sings to birds and makes squirrels clean dishes and their attempt to challenge the traditional royalty marriage paradigm refreshing, even if they didn’t quite succeed at what they set out to do. (Also: Kristin Stewart actually shows emotion in this movie. Twilight has definitely wasted her…) So, it was a decent movie as far as fantasy flicks go and might be worth seeing as a matinee. My score after these early thoughts: 3.25/5 (not great, but far exceeded my expectations). Anyone else seen it who wants to offer their thoughts?

SF/F Commentary

Adventures in Worldbuilding: Early Mapping My World (or, Fun with Generators)

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I’ve been playing around with a lot of different mapping software lately, in part because the epic fantasy series I’m working on has need of a map and I haven’t a clue what to do.  I’ve wandered around through all of the various programs for creating maps and the best one I’ve found that takes into account things like temperature, geographic features, etc. is one called Hero Extant (mostly because it’s free and doesn’t crash; suggestions of better programs are welcome). In any case, these are what I’ve come up with so far.  I’ll likely decide on one that gives me most of what I want and then re-map from hand to rework the mountains and other features to fit what I need.  But for now, preliminary mapping is necessary! Feel free to poke through and let me know what you think! Here goes:

SF/F Commentary

Adventures in Worldbuilding: Questions I ask myself (because I’m mental)…

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1) How the heck do I write a mystery story involving a framing of a drug dealer in a fantasy world? 2) Is it possible to have a continent that spirals out from a central point with three arms (kind of like a galaxy), or is that just fantasy nonsense? Something like this: 3) How much information is too much for a short story set in a fantasy world? In a novel, you would have the option to spend a considerable amount of time establishing scene, but not so in a short story. Confusing. 4) What is it like being a giant frog person? How do I get in the head of such a person, considering that I have never been a frog before (though I may have dressed up as one when I was a youngin’)? 5) What is the best beverage for stirring the creative juices? Hmm… Thoughts? (This whole “Adventures in Worldbuilding” thing has become a real feature, hasn’t it?  So be it.  I like talking about what I’m doing in the writing world, even if it’s completely random and weird.)

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