Francis of Assisi (1961)

Francis of Assisi (1961)

Dir. Michael Curtiz

Francis Bernardone is remembered for a great many things by scholars and Christians, but to the average person he's known mostly as the religious figure who preached the gospel to birds, and persuaded a wolf to stop attacking people.

The film acknowledges his patronage of animals, but it's more concerned with his transformation from a privileged silk-merchant's son to a man penniless but infinitely rich in spiritual matters.

The journey from one state of being to the other is treated with respect, but the acting is so often devoid of any kind of passion that it can feel like watching a rehearsal, not an actual final take.

It proffers a romantic view of poverty, with the suggestion that it brings one closer to the godhead.

While outside of the movies poverty more often tends to lead to sickness and death, it's an inspiring notion, which may serve to remind those obsessed with material wealth that happiness need not be reliant on having a fat bank balance.

Yonggary (1999 / 2001)

Yonggary (1999 / 2001)

Dir. Shim Hyung-rae

Alien intervention on Earth causes a 250 million-year-old creature estimated to be around fifty times the size of a Tyrannosaurus to go on a wild city-smashing rampage.

It's a South Korean monster movie with a plot that's objectively no worse than some of Japan's lesser works in the same genre, but the acting is mostly awful and the creature effects are an utter travesty. And even though it's an East Asian production, the spoken language is English, so every face-palm bad one-liner from the militia hit my cringe-meter directly.

Wikipedia reports that the creature scenes were filmed with suit actors but replaced with CGI in post-production. To me, that's like swapping a potentially worthy vinyl record collection for mp3 versions of the same. To carry the analogy further, the cartoonish look of the CGI is the audio equivalent of a 128 kbs encode, at best. It's doubly depressing when you consider that the miniatures (e.g. city buildings and alien space craft) are pretty good.

The Legend of Zelda Manga: Legendary Ed. Vol. 01 (2016)

Ocarina of Time: Parts 1 and 2 (2000)

Author and Illustrator: Akira Himekawa | Page Count: 378

"You're certainly popular with the ladies."

The first TLoZ manga from Akira Himekawa* was a two-part work based on the excellent Nintendo 64 game of the same name. The Legendary Edition reprint collects both manga into one larger format HB book, with better paper and some additional colouring.

It essentially tells the same story as the game but there are some differences in how characters are introduced, none of which I found to be in any way disrespectful to its source. In fact, I feel the opposite was true - the narrative makes new connections between existing characters, enabling some very successful emotional moments to surface as a result.

The drama is never underplayed but nor does it take itself too seriously; it has an occasional playful laugh at its own expense (e.g. see the quote above).

The artwork is excellent; even the rough sketches that are included are fantastic! Child Link world has a different feel than Adult Link world and the danger level in each reflects that.

Stargate Origins: Catherine (2018)

Stargate Origins: Catherine (2018)

Dir. Mercedes Bryce Morgan

If you've watched the Stargate (1994) movie, you'll maybe remember the little girl at the story's beginning that gets given an ancient gold amulet by her father, or the elderly woman that likewise gives a gift to archaeologist Daniel Jackson before he sets out on his journey.

In both cases it was Catherine Langford, played by Kelly Vint and Viveca Lindfors, respectively. Stargate Origins: Catherine has that same character, but is set ten years after the little girl receives her gift in the movie's timeline.

Her father, Professor Paul Langford (Erik Holland in the movie, now played by Connor Trinneer), is still trying to figure out what the circular device he found at Giza was used for. SGO's Catherine (Ellie Gall) is helping out.