Welcome to the world of Andrew Vaillencourt’s science fiction!
Here you will find two-fisted tales steeped in the competing flavors of rage and redemption, vengeance and vice, and of course, profit and loss. It’s a rough place. Not big on niceties or manners unless you are the kind of rich that lets you get away with murder.
It’s a rough-and-tumble galaxy out there. Making your way takes more than gumption. You’ll want a granite chin and a nimble gun hand if you find yourself too far from the safety of the closest shining metropolis. If you have the cash, go ahead and hire that genetically enhanced bodyguard you saw an ad for. At least check in with the local fixer, a retired special forces cyborg, before you wander out into the streets by yourself.
Because sometimes the universe decides that today is not your day. When that happens you will need people like the ones in these books . People with the guns, the tech, and the skills to tell the universe to go bother someone else.
They aren’t pretty. They aren’t nice. Some of them are barely even people. But when push comes to shove, these are the ones that are only too happy to push back.
These are their stories.
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Roland Tankowicz arrives in Dockside for the first time. Broken, haunted, and lost, the young cyborg finds himself in the middle of a brewing gang war. Can one good cop and one angry young cyborg killer prevent the endless waves of criminals from ruling the streets?
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Established as Dockside’s premier fixer, Roland’s life gets twisted into unrecognizable chaos by the arrival of a mysterious woman with a connection to his past. She was looking for a hero, what she got was a weapon.
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John Sullivan didn’t ask to be born, and he certainly didn’t ask to be crazy. But that’s what happens when somebody else gets to pick out your DNA. Even worse, under the Genetic Equity Act of 2141 all artificial modifications granting ‘unfair advantage’ belong to society. As the genetically engineered son of a famous mobster, Sullivan’s physical gifts and illegal provenance condemn him to a life of government service hunting and apprehending others like him.
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Aloof technological beings with godlike powers have left administration of the galaxy to an elite caste of powerful constructs. With iron fists, these constructs stamp out anything that looks like evolution or high-end computing.
When a random genetic anomaly sets off a massive galactic manhunt, the fates of entire planets hang in the balance. An enigmatic warrior, a miracle child, and a contentious collection of wizards will have to decide if it is time to embroil all freedom-loving worlds in a massive civil war.
MOVIE REVIEW:
The Crow (2024)
Before I begin, I have to point out that I consider Alex Proyas’ original to be one of the best pieces of cinematic storytelling ever made. I have watched it dozens of times and still love it. Because of this, I kept my expectations for the remake very low. I know how things work, and all I needed from the new version was an interesting take on a beloved character and story.
And Hollywood did exactly what we all knew they would. They took a swing at a tough pitch and whiffed hard. Very little of what happens in this film works in any sense. The screenwriters took the material from James O’Barr’s frankly BRILLIANT graphic novel and said, “nah.” They looked at Proyas’ interpretation, a very film-friendly take on the source material that still kept the feel of the books despite a lot of changes, and said, “nope.”
At its core, O’Barr’s “The Crow” is the story of a man so sad and angry about a senseless act of violence that he cannot even die. His body will not rest until the people who created his pain are all punished. He slogs through enemies, killing with a sadistic glee bordering upon mania, until no one is left and he moves on. O’Barr’s orignal story presented Eric with no real threats. He was invulnerable and unstoppable and that WAS the story. The disgusting characters populating this world never had a chance. Proyas added a sense of stakes and risks by making the bad guys a little more cohesive and credible as threats, but the core mechanic did not change. AND WE LOVED IT.
This latest iteration? They swap a colorful detroit street gang for a weird Eurotrash immortal with mind powers whose deal with the devil requires the sacrifice of innocent souls. No David Patrick Kelley chewing the scenery as the delightfully deranged T-Bird. No Michael Wincott to lend his chilling gravitas to Top-Dollar. No Fun Boy, no Skank, nothing to give the bad guys any flavor at all. Just a generic “Highlander” villain (not one of the good ones, either). Imagine a baked potato with no butter or salt and you will understand.
I knew this flick was in trouble when both Eric and Shelly were still alive forty minutes into the runtime. No one who goes to see “The Crow” wants or needs to see that romance blossom in real time to understand that Eric’s love for Shelly is what drives his transformation into and undead avatar of vengeance. No previous version of this story put us through that. It’s like Uncle Ben dying: We already know this part, don’t retell it any more, please. Both O’Barr and Proyas handled this with brief flashbacks at key moments to establish their relationship, and then got back to the real story: Putting the wrong things right. BUt no. We have to sit through their meet-cute at a psych facility (what?), and their subsequent escape and time spent partying somewhere that is probably supposed to be America but was clearly filmed in Europe. By the time Shelly’s past comes back to haunt her, we are more than half-way through the runtime. Eric doesn’t even paint his face until we are almost 80 minutes into this 102-minute slog.
And slog is what it is. The pacing is BRUTAL. Both the graphic novel and original movie kept action at the core of the narrative. Neither were excessive in the way of “John Wick,” but the violence in both came hard and fast. This version leans heavily into the romance of Shelly and Eric, and then spends much of the second act on Eric not being very good at getting his vengeance. This is where the movie packs on an unnecessary resurrection arc for Shelly, with Eric returning ad nauseum to a limbo-like space where a mysterious guide gives him (and us) exposition as needed. Except we don’t need it. At all. Get to the real story, please…
Finally, about 90 minutes in, Eric goes on the offensive and we get one very nice (but not great) action sequence. It’s gory and brutal and actually quite satisfying… mostly because at this point in the movie you are just plain desperate for ANYTHING interesting to happen.
The final showdown with the big bad is dumb and indecipherable, but I was so happy the movie was ending I did not mind at all.
This film failed on almost every level one could fail a movie in the “Crow” universe. I am frankly astounded, considering how much good source material there was to draw from. Obviously, this was a conscious decision on the part of producers to create something “new” from an old franchise. However, they forgot to do any of the things that made the franchise successful in the first place.
Wait, you know what? It got one thing right: It is beautifully shot. Cheers to the cinematographer, I guess.
