Review: Much Ado About Nothing (the Joss Whedon version)

Much Ado About Nothing is a modern retelling of the Shakespearean play by Joss Whedon and his crew coming out as a limited release (one theater in San Francisco, two in LA, and two in NY) for a couple weeks until June 21st.  I was fortunate enough to have a group of friends to go with to watch a viewing in San Francisco.  All of the dialogue in the movie is the exact dialogue from the original play.  So if you've already read/watched the play or seen the 1993 version then you know the plot.  If not, it's mostly about two different couples: a pair of people jaded and cynical of love whose friends conspire to get them to love each (Beatrice and Benedick) other and a pair whose love is put to the test by a villain spewing a string of lies to tear them apart (Claudio and Hero).

So, the reason to watch this movie is because the actors are all top notch and the modifications to the scenes outside of the dialog are great.  For example, when Benedick starts to try to woo Beatrice, during the entire conversation he's just doing super awkward workout exercises/poses to try to show off.  And of course, there's Nathan Fillion, who plays the not so intelligent policeman, Dogberry.  I really don't want to describe much because words can't express the humor of how good Nathan's comedic timing and delivery of the lines works.

I was definitely surprised by how much I ended up liking Alexis Denisof (the actor who plays Benedick here, Sandy Rivers on How I Met Your Mother, and Wesley in Buffy/Angel).  His performance is spectacular and even further makes me want to actually watch Angel.  This is surprising because Wesley was one of my least favorite characters on Buffy.  But other than Dogberry, Benedick was my favorite character in this movie and as much as that can be attributed to the dialog written by William Shakespeare, I would be remiss to not give much of the credit to Alexis himself.

Jules Verne

I blame high school for my fear of the word "classic".  Nearly every English class forced me to read really boring classic books and then analyze them to death probably reading in all sorts of meaning the original authors never intended.  Thanks to that practice, I gained the incorrect assumption that all classic books were just as boring and hard to read.  It wasn't until after League of Extraordinary Gentlemen came out that I started to break that assumption.  I wanted to know the backstories to all (or at least most of) the characters to see the source material.  This led to some very hilarious discoveries like Mr. Hyde is actually smaller than Dr. Jekyll, not a big hulking brute, Mina was not a vampire, and (unfortunately) that 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea is the most boring book I have ever read.

There is one single action scene in that book that lasts all of a single page.  The rest of the entire book is just long descriptions of various fishes and how horrible civilization is and thus Captain Nemo must destroy it (which makes him better, how?).  But, as with most media, I decided to give Jules Verne three chances to get me interested.  So I read Journey to the Center of the Earth, which was slightly better, but still just a lot of nothing happening with long descriptions of geology this time.  The one action scene in that didn't even really involve the humans, they just watched it happen.

But a few nights ago I finished The Mysterious Island.  I don't know if I just love castaway stories or something, but this book was much more enjoyable.  There are still long descriptions of science-y things, but this time it was on how things like gunpowder, telegraph wire, hydraulic lifts, and other scientific innovations were created.  There also was more than one action scene and the main characters actually were involved in them.  They still magically get saved (twice) in no part thanks to them, which is kind of lame, but at least they did something this time.

So Jules Verne has had his three chances and thanks to The Mysterious Island, he has slightly redeemed himself in my eyes, but I doubt I'll be reading any more books of his in the future.  It's not that he's a bad writer by any means, but his books are not my style.  Just like character movies - Napoleon Dynamite, Best in Show, A Mighty Wind, etc - his stories are all about a journey with no real goal in mind.  I have nothing to look forward to, I don't know what anyone's motivation is.  People are just kind of doing a bunch of stuff just because.  I have never liked stories like that.  At the same time, I'm glad I gave Mr. Verne two more chances.  Now I have more ideas for board game premises.  :)