DUNE: The Graphic Novel - Books I, II, III (2020-24)

DUNE: The Graphic Novel - Books I, II, III

Adapted from Frank Herbert's original novel by hack authors Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson | Illustrator: Raúl Allén | Colourist: Patricia Martín | Page Count: 180 / 179 / 204

'He must find something that will inspire him.'

A three-part comicbook adaptation of Frank Herbert's first DUNE novel. My original plan was to give each part of the trilogy its own post, but my feelings about each one are largely the same, so I've combined them into one post. It'll be shorter and mean less repetition.

I won't give a synopsis because I've did that at least once before. I'll concentrate on the adaptation itself, which is variable but mostly not very good.

01. Book 1: DUNE (2020) is the worst of the three volumes, in both its writing and its art, but the early part of Frank's novel is at its weakest there, too, so I trudged on through, page after boring page, in the hope that things would get better once [spoiler] entered the open desert. I'm saddened to say that they rarely do.

What We Left Behind (2019)

Looking Back at Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (2019)

Dirs. Ira Steven Behr + David Zappone

A crowd-funded documentary that examines the legacy of DS9. There's some fan-input, but the bulk of it comes from the people who made the series what it was, from the traditionally unseen producers and crew to the onscreen cast.

The man on the cover cradling the station in his hands is Ira Steven Behr, whose role as show-runner from 1995 onwards was instrumental in shaping how DS9 evolved in its later years. The documentary feels very much driven by him, too.

That's not a criticism; the film is an engaging exploration that highlights the creative scope and accomplishments of all concerned - provided you like DS9. If you hate it or feel that it deviated too much from Gene Roddenberry's original vision, then you'll probably want to warp past WWLB.

The Chronicles of Narnia: Live Action Films (2005-10)

The Chronicles of Narnia: Live Action Films

Dirs. Andrew Adamson (Films I + II) / Michael Apted (Film III)

01. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005). Aside from a few minor changes and a couple of newly written action scenes — because it's Hollywood and they just can't help themselves — the WMG + Disney version of C.S. Lewis' beloved children's novel is better than I expected it to be.

The first third is excellent, including each of the young actors. Lucy (Georgie Henley) is particularly good, in that she successfully embodies the sense of wonder that a child should feel after finding another world in the back of an old wardrobe.

Things only really begin to slide when the talking CGI animals appear. The great lion Aslan should have a splendour that eclipses all else, but his being rendered in boring CGI most of the time means that he might as well not be there at all.

The unnecessary use of such across the board is a stain on what I feel is otherwise the best filmed version of the novel, to date.

At the Earth's Core (1976)

At the Earth's Core (1976)

Dir. Kevin Connor

A subterranean fiction story in which a senescent British scientist (Peter Cushing) and his American sponsor (Doug McClure) tunnel through a hill in a Jules Verne-esque contraption dubbed the Iron Mole, which would be a good name for an album by a stoner doom band, if it isn't one already.

The duo go way off course and end up far beneath the Earth's crust, wholly unprepared for the dodgy FX that they find there.

The draw for me was Cushing and Caroline Munro, but he'd little of value to do and she disappeared for about half of the movie.

The bizarre flora was fun, but the fauna was bad. The rubber-suit flying things could've had some menace if the lighting had worked in their favour, but it was bad, too. Overall, the movie was a bag 'o shite, even by Amicus standards. It was just about worth it to hear Cushing say, "You cannot mesmerise me, I'm British!" right before getting totally mesmerised.

Alice in Chains: Dirt (1992)

Alice in Chains: Dirt (1992)

It's impossible to put into words the connection I feel with Dirt. It was released in September '92, and by the following year I was obsessed with it.

For a multitude of reasons, '93 was a hugely pivotal year of my life. The shit that occurred in that 12 month period influenced my life's course everyday thereafter. It's been 30+ years since then, but the album is still as important to me now. I consider it a masterpiece, without question and without equal in the 'Grunge' genre.

It's a fairly long album, not far off an hour, but the cohesive musicianship and quality song-writing is of such a high standard that it never drags its heels. By comparison, the band's previous full-length album, Facelift (1990), had a shorter runtime but felt longer.

The Midwich Cuckoos (1957)

The Midwich Cuckoos (1957)

Author: John Wyndham | Page Count: 241

"You know, my dear, while it's proper for us to be concerned, the responsibility for a remedy isn't ours. If it ever was, and that is highly questionable, the authorities took it away from us a long time ago."

Wikipedia classes the 1950s as a 'transitional period' in the history of science-fiction literature, sitting between the 'Pulp' of the 20s and 30s and the 'New Wave' that gained popularity in the 1960s and 70s. It may lack a classy name, but the 50s wasn't short of genre classics.

Isaac Asimov's I, Robot (1950) and its first two sequels; Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 (1953); Arthur C. Clarke's Childhood's End (1953), Alfred Bester's The Stars My Destination (1956); and Wyndham's own The Day of the Triffids (1951) are some examples. Sci-fi literature fans will probably recognise them all.

I don't feel that The Midwich Cuckoos is quite as good as most of the books mentioned above, but it's certainly worthy to occupy a shelf directly adjacent them, as its enduring popularity proves.

The Lost World + Return to the Lost World (1992)

The Lost World + Return to the Lost World (1992)

Dir. Timothy Bond

One of my favourite books as a child was a 1981 Ladybird Children's Classics edition of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World (1912).

It was a small hardcover edition, heavily abridged (52 pp) with storybook illustrations by Martin Aitchison throughout. I must've read it at least 40 times over the years. The edition I had came with an audio cassette of someone reading the book aloud, with music and sound FX at appropriate times - meaning everyone in the household could 'enjoy' my reading of it, too.

It didn't birth a lifelong love of dinosaurs, which is something that many kids from my generation have, but it did contribute to a lifelong love of books and of storytelling, in general.

That in itself is reason enough for me to want to feature the story on the blog in some capacity.  I chose a movie version, for reasons. And for additional reasons, it was the 1992 version.