- You play some kind of cool board or card game.  Might I recommend Sid Meyer’s Civilization: the board game by Fantasy Flight Games or the always engaging Sumo Ham Slam by Gameswright.  But hey, it’s your game.  Play whatever you want.  Even *shudder* Munchkin, if you are the sort who can enjoy that terrible, terrible game.  Not that I’m judging you.  I leave that to The Mighty Robot King, may he have mercy on your soul.

- You watch a monster movie.  It Came From Beneath the Sea or Godzilla: All Out Monster Attack are both excellent.  But if you prefer your monsters less city stomping, you can always go for Predator or Night of the Lepus.  You are also allowed to substitute a superhero or animated movie.  For best results, go with The Incredibles which is animated, has superheroes, and a giant robot attack for the A. LEE MARTINEZ APPRECIATION DAY!! trifecta. 

- You push my books on somebody.  Friends, family, strangers, mole people.  I don’t care who.  Just spread the word, if you don’t mind.  Much appreciated.

But enough about A. LEE MARTINEZ APPRECIATION DAY!!  It’s time to talk about important stuff.  It’s time to talk about the death of the traditional action film.

Action adventure is dead.  At least, as we might traditionally define it.  Or as I might.  And since it’s my site, I get to set the terms.

In fact, I predict (perhaps prematurely and foolishly) the death of live-action adventure in a few years.  We’re already halfway there.  Movies like Tron Legacy and Clash of the Titans are as much digital animation as live-action.  And while neither is a great film, they still are just part of a continuing trend.  Iron Man and Iron Man 2, both Hulk movies feature cartoons as their stars.  Well, not really.  Because live-action directors don’t generally enjoy working with cartoons, so we end up with films that feature actors delivering clever lines with bits of superhero cartoons thrown in reluctantly.

It’s not hard to figure out why.  Live-action directors like working with live actors.  They just aren’t comfortable with cartoons.  And who can really blame them for that?  All their experience, their training, their comfort zone is built on working and relating to real living people.  And there’s nothing wrong with that.  It’s a great skill, and I in no way want to fault traditional acting and directing.  They are fine traditions and will continue to be so.  But they really don’t serve us well in the action adventure film genre anymore. 

Some might argue that we don’t want cartoons, but that’s only because they aren’t being honest.  There’s a little film called Avatar that made a gazillion dollars at the box office, and for all its hype, for all its talk of revolution and cutting edge, Avatar is just a really, really expensive cartoon with a few live action shots spliced into it.  The bulk of the film was created on computers.  It’s true that James Cameron used a lot of motion capture on the actors as sort of a crutch for him and the audience, but Avatar could’ve easily been done entirely via animation and it wouldn’t have suffered for it.

Well, it wouldn’t have made as much money.  I’ll admit that.  But the days of animation as a sub-genre, as a very specific type of film, are rapidly drawing to a close.  Every year, we get more and more animated films.  Sure, they continue to pretend that they’re not cartoons, but they are.  And there’s great reason for that.  Animation gives us tremendous creativity in direction, especially in fantasy realms.

I was thinking this when I watched Megamind.  Why would anyone bother making a live-action superhero film?  Everything about superheroes works in animated form.  In live-action, it tends to look silly.   And while Megamind is a fun film, The Incredibles remains the greatest superhero movie ever.  Don’t even bother arguing with me about that.  The Incredibles has everything a great superhero movie should have.  It has adventure, great characters, an engaging storyline, robot fights.  And the acting in the film, from voice to animation, is topnotch and more subtle than anything you’d find in any of the Spider-Man films.

It’s time to admit that virtual acting is just as powerful and legitimate as the tried-and-true flesh-and-blood version we’re accustomed to.  And that as we continue to wade deeper and deeper, as the line between live-action and digital become murkier and murkier, that there’s really nothing live-action can do that animation can’t.  Especially in terms of fantastic realms and unbelievable action.

Live-action will remain viable.  It’s fine for producing most types of stories.  But if you want to do a kick-ass lightcycle race, a giant robot fight, or go to Mars, animation is the way to go.  And since animation can produce brilliant acting too, I just don’t see why we can’t admit this.

Naturally, there’s resistance.  Most of it comes from the studios themselves, who are so accustomed to marketing via famous actors that they really aren’t sure how else to get people to see a film.  So they’ll make a big deal about the voice actors because that’s something they can grasp.  Yet Pixar continues to shine as the preeminent animation studio and rarely, if ever, resorts to this promotional tactic.  They’ve proven that animation can be hugely successful without having to rely on go-to marketing ploys.

Once the studios relinquish their reliance on “movie stars” (which is still a long way off, I’ll grant), as a new generation of animation directors continue to push the boundaries of digital adventure, and as animation technology continues to advance, we’ll really have no choice but to move forward.  Live-action will always have a place.  It works beautifully for most stories.  But the second you throw a giant robot on the screen or have a horde of aliens or decide to blow up a planet, well, it’s time to think about whether or not you’re making a cartoon.  Because you probably are, and that’s not a bad thing at all.

Fighting the good fight, Writing the good write,

Lee

Yes, my friends, it is indeed.  A. LEE MARTINEZ APPRECIATION DAY!! is upon us once again, and while I’m sure all of you are up on the traditional festivities (play a board game, watch a monster movie, push A. Lee Martinez novels on friends / family / loved ones / strangers / enemies), not everyone knows that, by The Supreme Directive of The Mighty Robot King, you are required to read any blog post I write on this day.

Believe me, I don’t like it any more than you do.  But trust me, you do not want to get on The Mighty Robot King’s bad side.  Before you know it, you’ll be up to your elbows in avenging dinobots and wrathful planet-devouring androids the size of the moon.  And nobody wants that.  So just sit back.  Relax.  Read this post at your leisure.  And know that in doing so, you’re placating the wrath of our all-powerful mechanical deity.

I’ve said it before, but I find that as I grow older, I have more and more appreciation for the absurd and the fun.  This is probably why I’ve outgrown so many things I used to love.  Although thinking about it, “outgrown” is probably the wrong word.

Take comics.  Modern comics are so dark, mature, and convuluted that they take all the fun out of people with strange powers beating each other up.  The most powerful villain in Marvel Comics at the moment is a beauracrat.  The stories of late resolve around mega crossover, soap opera style events that tie every single comic together into one giant story.  I won’t comment on the qualities of these stories because that’s fairly subjective.  But I will suggest that very few comics are actually fun anymore.  The reasons for this are way too complicated to get into, and I don’t even know if this is a good or a bad thing.  But it’s just the way it is.

The best comics I’ve read in the last year were Atomic Robo, We Kill Monsters, Lockjaw & the Pet Avengers, Beasts of Burden, and Casper & the Spectrals.  Of these comics, Beasts of Burden was probably the most “adult”, and it’s about a group of dogs and a cat who fight supernatural evil.  Both Lockjaw & the Pet Avengers are all ages.

Oh, and there was Dr. Doom and the Masters of Evil.  I think that came out last year.  It was the best thing produced by Marvel Comics in a long, long time.  An epic 4-part limited series focused on Dr. Doom’s quest for ultimate power.  It managed, through a rare kind of magic, to be dark, brooding, fantastic, mature, and fun without resorting to swearing, gore, or anything even remotely edgy.  This was an all-ages comic that manages to explore a genuinely dark protagonist with more subtlety and intelligence than pretty much anything else out there.

Although Lockjaw & The Pet Avengers had a group of super animals fighting a giant red dinosaur.  So maybe it’s a toss up for greatest comic of all time.

Video games are the same thing to me now.  I notice that the games that get commercials on TV and exposure on G4 are all the dark, grown up games.  I got a Wii this Christmas, and right now, I’m enjoying the heck out of Super Mario Galaxy and Little King’s Story.  Neither game features realistic graphics.  Both are absurd adventures.  Whether you’re playing as a plucky Italian plumber facing off against an obnoxious, fire-breathing turtle tyrant or taking on the role of a boy king sending his army of grunts, miners, hunters, carpenters, and chefs into battle against a clockwork knight, there’s something unique and wonderful about these games.

It’s not that I’m a prude.  I don’t care if there’s swearing and blood in my media.  But I’m definitely over blood and profanity for their own sake.  Too often they’re crutches.  They’re used to present the illusion of sophistication, but sophistication isn’t found in making superheroes swear or the number of polygons that make up a video game sprite.  If only it were that easy to quantify.

So I finally saw the preview for the Percy Jackson & the Olympians movie, based on the books.  The strange thing is that I wrote this story already.  Several years ago.  Okay, technically I only wrote half of it.  And I never published it.  But just watching the preview, I saw things I’d put in my own reluctant demi-god story.  In my demi-god story, a character is attacked by an old lady who is actually a harpy in disguise.  In my demi-god story, the hero has to fight a hydra.  In my demi-god story, demi-gods are hunted by dark forces.

Similarities are inevitable when stories draw on similar source material.  I certainly can’t suggest that the Percy Jackson story was stolen from me (unless they were able to burrow into my dreams), and I can’t say that my ideas were stolen from them (unless I have amazing powers of foresight).  It’s just coincidence.  I say this because too often people are accused of stealing popular ideas when it’s just as likely that someone just came up with something similar, drawing on similar ideas.

Finally, I’d like to take a moment to reflect on just how lucky I am to be here.  Sure, I’m talented, intelligent, witty, able to bend spoons with my mind, and capable of levitating a few feet off the ground for several minutes at a time, but I am still basically a guy who is paid to make up stories.  I’m good at it, but being good at something doesn’t always mean you are fortunate to get paid for it.  I’m pretty good at thinking up cool nicknames for people, for example, and I can stick my whole fist into my mouth.  Yet nobody seems ready to pay me for these things.

So thanks, gang.  I’ve said it before.  I’m sure I’ll say it again.  But I’m grateful for all your support.  Now go enjoy your A. LEE MARTINEZ APPRECIATION DAY!! monster movie (might I suggest Godzilla 2000 or It Came From Beneath the Sea?).  Have fun with your board game (Small World anyone?).  And push my books, gangs.

There.  End of the official A. LEE MARTINEZ APPRECIATION DAY!! blog post.  You’re free to go.

Fighting the good fight, Writing the good write,

Lee

Where does the time go?  Has it really been a year since Jan 12th, when all the people in all the world gather together, watch monster movies, play board games, and push great A. Lee Martinez novels on friends, family, and strangers?  You betcha!  And that means that once again, the second most wonderful time of the year is upon us.

(The most wonderful time of the year is, of course, Activation Day.  That glorious day when we celebrate The Mighty Robot King completing the work on the Grand Schematic.  Or maybe it’s Arbor Day.  Trees are pretty cool, and since I breathe oxygen nearly every day, I gotta salute them too.)

Everyone loves A. LEE MARTINEZ APPRECIATION DAY! ! Even communists and Eskimos!  Because A. LEE MARTINEZ APPRECIATION DAY!! means fun for everyone.  So celebrate.  And buy an A. Lee Martinez novel to give to someone you love.   You’ll be glad you did.  They’ll be glad you did.  Everybody wins!

Fighting the good fight, Writing the good write,

Lee