Fantasist’s Scroll

Happy birthday, Bond!
Well, it’s more accurate to wish his creator, Ian Flemming, happy birthday.
Yes, today is Ian Flemming‘s birthday, according to the Wikipedia. Born in London, England in 1908, Flemming wanted to be a diplomat, but he failed the Foreign Office examination and decided to go into journalism. He worked for the Reuters News Service in London, Moscow, and Berlin, and then during World War II, he served as the assistant to the British director of naval intelligence. After the war, he bought a house in Jamaica, where he spent his time fishing and gambling and bird watching. He started to get bored, so he decided to try writing a novel about a secret agent. He named the agent James Bond after the author of a bird-watching book.
After a several books that sold less and less well, Flemming started to write with the movies in mind. He wrote more sensational books filled with a larger than “normal” helping of psychopathic killers, beautiful women and bizarre plots to conquer the world. Though his books began to sell better, it was only years later that the movie industry took an interest, thus sealing the hopes of budding novelists everywhere of selling the movie rights to their novel.

Well, happy birthday anyway.

Oh, these are strange, but good.

Here’s a link to a DefenseTech article about the CIA’s Online “Personality Test” which is supposed to open our eyes to what it’s really like to work for the CIA. Apparently, it’s not ALL like James Bond. Who knew?

And, in a totally different vein, this is the most disturbing wallpaper I’ve ever seen. Look really closely at it. Hmm, maybe for one of the guest rooms…

But, finally, for the geeks, How to Make StarTrek-style LCARS Panels. I cannot make this stuff up!

So, go, link and enjoy. It is, after all, Friday! Whoops! Now, I’m late to work!!

How to Be a Villain: Evil Laughs, Secret Lairs, Master Plans, and More!!!
Yes, this is a real book. No, it is not serious. However, if you’re designing a villain, it’s not a bad place to start. No, seriously! Here in one book are the collected cliches of bad guys. Everything from talking when you should be shooting to the “Rube Goldberg” killing machine. You name the tragic mistake that any and all James Bond villains have made and it’s in this book somewhere. So, in a humorous way, it’s a guidebook for what NOT to do when creating your literary villain. In fact, part of the book is a warning to up-and-coming super villains on what to watch out for in heroes and the big mistakes that the “average” villain makes that costs them their victory.

Over all, not bad.

Okay, I have to admit that I didn’t read the comic book on which this was based, but it was still an enjoyable movie. The basic plot, without giving too much away, is a mad genius is out to cause world-wide chaos and mayhem and, somehow, plans to turn a profit off it all. To thwart this madman’s nefarious schemes, a group of quite unusual adventurers are gathered together. Adventure and mayhem ensue.

The characters are well developed, and unique even though they’re based on existing literary figures. The writers manage to make these characters their own fairly well. Of course, that means making some changes to them. The most disturbing of the changes, I found, was making Captain Nemo Indian. Not that I have anything against Indians, and certainly, the character in the movie was great, but it really has nothing to do with the literary character at all! But, once I set that aside, I’d say that Nemo became probably my second favorite character. My third favorite is a tie between Dorian Grey and Skinner, the second invisible man. Both were well thought out and “real” in a way that such gimmicky characters rarely seem to be in movies like this.
My favorite character, however, was the aging Alan Quartermain. And, that, of course, was due to Sean Connery. I’ve loved him as an actor since he was James Bond.

There were only a few internal inconsistencies that were troubling. The first being a vampire walking about in the sunlight. The second being the aforementioned Nemo changes. And, of course, there was all of Nemo’s technology. It was far, far in advance of anything even thought of at the time. It relied on concepts not even dreamt of yet.
The other thing I found both troubling and intrigueing was totally personal. There was quite a reference to Freemasonry in the film, not all of it flattering. But, that only bothered my because I am, in fact, a Freemason.

Over all, a good movie, but hit the matinee and save a couple of bucks.