Let off some steam

      Lately, I've been thinking about the action-classic "Commando".  A movie I've watched dozens of times over, but then went several years without viewing.  It had been long enough that I went back to it, just recently, with fresh eyes.  I had always known it as king of the dumb action movies, but never fully appreciated the depth to which that's true.
     When you talk about what makes a movie entertaining, there are several measures.  Some of these are subjective, we don't all have the same tastes.  However, even if a movie falls short in those areas (acting, plot, characters, etc.), there are a few objective measures too.  Basic crew competence (camera operating, lighting), art assets (cg, matte paintings, costume design) post-production (foley, editing) and other nuts-and-bolts areas of production can elevate something that lacks otherwise.

     When a movie meets the objective criteria but not the subjective, you get a standard Summer blockbuster or average Marvel movie;  looks good, totally forgettable.
     When a movie meets the subjective but not the objective, you get into the realm of cult/b movies.  Sam Raimi, Roger Corman, people making movies that are charming as hell on a shoestring budget.

     So what happens when a movie fails both measures of quality, and is still amazing?
     I call this "The Commando Effect".

     I am completely unable to get bored of Commando.  Boom mic dips, continuity errors, cranes visible within shots, clunky dialogue, erratic characters, unimportant.  What is important is that you please don't disturb John Matrix's friend, he's dead tired.  Did you know Matrix eats Green Berets for breakfast?  Or that he can ram a car head-on into a telephone pole at 90 km/h, without being buckled in, and survive without a scratch? 

     I could probably write an extremely long essay on exactly what is going on in Commando, or any other movie this amazing.  An alternate name for this phenomenon could be "The Dolemite Effect".  What it boils down to is this;  yeah, these movies are dumb, but they're confident as fuck.  Nothing in this world is more persuasive than a confident idiot, so much so that I'm willing to believe Bennet, who spent the entirety of the movie talking about how Matrix is too dangerous to fuck with directly, could pull an unprompted 180 and decide that yes, I'm just going to knife fight this guy who just murdered 400 people.


     So anyway, speaking of objectively and subjectively bad

      I just said fuck it and went full scratchy on thumbnailing panels out.  I'm actually pretty close to finishing the first pass of the first story, this is a scene that has the beats worked out from start to finish.  Some of these went up in a previous update, but I included them here for the sake of clarity.  It starts off after the three characters have fucked up by staying up too long and drinking too much, and passing out, missing their opportunity.

      Sometimes thumbnailing just means nothing but stick figures, baby

      Coil rifles are an actual thing, but they're pretty impractical and usually not all that powerful.  I just like the idea of a home brew railgun.

      They did good for once

      That's probably still confusing and unclear to you, but at least I know what's going on.  After the thumbnailing pass, I'll probably find it  a lot easier to progress.  I'll still have to switch some things around or redo some ideas, but it won't be long before a tale of fat men failing come to life.

Bweeeeeeeeeeeeeeee