Why My Con Was Super

All right my lovelies, gather round and I’ll tell you a story. I’ll give you a more detailed Con goings-on Thursday, but today is about adventure. It all started on Friday.

I showed up to the Con decked out in my Lara Croft costume. I was going for a cross between classic Lara and new Tomb Raider game Lara. One of my favorite moments was when this other Lara called out to me, saying, “Hey younger me! Come here, let’s take a pic!” So we did.

I have to admit, I’m jealous of her sweet, sweet belt and holsters. But I have cool fingerless gloves, and that’s something. Right? Right?

After going to a friend’s panel on the video game he helped design for, Animal Jam, my geek gals decided it was time to get Dean Cain’s autograph. Did I want his autograph? Certainly! But having paid for Comic Con and dropping another large chunk of cash on my upcoming writer’s conference, well… Let’s just say cash was not as free-flowing this month.

I told a friend I would just be going along for moral support and to possibly meet Mr. Cain, which is when he said, “Oh? You want an autograph?” And then handed me some Comic Con vouchers—specifically good only for celeb autographs and photos. Say whaaaaaat?!

Now I had a dilemma before me. Get an autograph or get a photo? Decisions people, decisions!

I joined up with my geek gals already in line for the autograph, still trying to decide which I preferred. Sure, it’s cool to have an autograph, but a picture, I decided was worth more to me. So I just stood by as moral support while they got their autographs.

But here’s the thing about Dean Cain, he’s an incredibly nice guy. So even though I didn’t have anything to autograph, he still made it a point to say hello, even standing to shake my hand.

Friday Flix: Man of Steel

It’s that time of the week again. This week with Friday Flix we go super—at least Superman is in this one. Was I excited for a new Superman movie? Definitely yes! Did the movie live up to my expectations? Well, let’s just say Man of Steel was Man of Stilted. Disappointed? I was too.

I mean something produced by Christopher Nolan should be awesome, right? That’s what I thought, too. Let’s just say if you like spectacle more than you like story then this movie is for you.

The description from IMDB.com :

A young itinerant worker is forced to confront his secret extraterrestrial heritage when Earth is invaded by members of his race.

Kind of sounds boring already, doesn’t it? So what is it about Man of Steel that was Man of Stunk? Let’s get started!

THE THING ABOUT BACKSTORY

Backstory is not a bad thing. If you have been in writing long enough you understand that while backstory is necessary you don’t want to clutter up the beginning of your story with a lot of flashbacks and info dumping. If you caught any of the previews, you know Man of Steel will do a little bit of backstory because it’s necessary to understand where Superman is coming from—especially those who don’t know much about the Supes.

However, the problem with backstories or flashback is that it slows the story down. You’ve got to know when to put it in and when it’s appropriate. If you just put it in there willy nilly you’ll bore your readers and your story won’t have much meaning.

The issue I had with the backstory in Man of Steel was that the writers spent hardly any time having us get to know Clark Kent in the present. We see a lot of scenes of him rescuing people, and an awful lot of brooding, but there weren’t very many of those getting-to-know-you moments except in flashbacks.

I guess the point they were trying to make the movie is that he was kind of a misfit/loner in the beginning, uncertain of himself. But it doesn’t work well for a movie if your main character is just breathing and not interacting because we can’t see what’s inside of his head on screen.  We didn’t really get to connect with Supes and so when supposedly important battles would happen, I found myself not caring because they hadn’t created any real meaning. The only affinity I had for Supes was young Supes. In fact, part of me wished we could just watch that part of the movie instead.

Oh wait, they’ve done that.