Review: Nathaniel by John Saul

An illustration of a farm at night with a tombstone in the foreground that reads, "Nathaniel," and a rundown barn in the background.

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

An interesting premise marred by one-dimensional characters, half-baked ideas, a lack of horror/suspense, and an ending that falls flat.

In John Saul’s Nathaniel, Janet Hill and her son Michael move to her husband’s farm town following his death.

Everyone is friendly, but Janet and Michael soon learn things aren’t as they seem.
Michael begins hearing the voice of Nathaniel, a local boogeyman, and Janet learns the women in her husband’s family have a disturbing number of stillbirths that they blame Nathaniel for.
Nathaniel then tells Michael his grandfather and Doctor Potter have been killing the babies.

Whether this is true, and if Nathaniel is real, drives the story. However, Saul stretches out these mysteries way too long and the ending doesn’t give a clear answer to either.

If this weren’t bad enough, the story moves at a glacial pace, doesn’t pick up until two-thirds in and lacks any sense of horror or suspense. I kept waiting for it to get scary and it never did.

I’ve read and enjoyed other books by John Saul, but this isn’t his best work. Nathaniel reads like a first or second draft. He doesn’t develop any of the characters at all and they are instantly forgettable.

As for the plot, what little there is, isn’t fleshed out.

Saul introduces ideas and plot points without fully developing them, and then drops them. Was Shadow, the stray dog Michael adopted, just a regular mutt, or was he supernatural? Did Michael wish Ames Hill, his grandfather, dead, or was it an ordinary heart attack? Was Nathaniel real, a ghost/demon, or a figment of Michael’s troubled mind? Did Ames Hill kill Janet’s husband and try to kill Michael, or were they accidents? Is Michael the new Nathaniel?

Your guess is as good as mine as Saul never tells the reader one way or another, which I found infuriating.

Overall, I didn’t enjoy this book and don’t recommend it. I give Nathaniel 2.0 out of 5.0 stars.

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Review : X-men Days of Future Past

Xmen Fifty years into the future mutants are hunted to the point of extinction by sentinels. As a last resort the remnants of the X-men and the brotherhood of mutants join together to hatch a plan to time travel to the past to stop the assassination of Trask and the creation of the sentinel program.

Initially Professor Xavier is chosen to go to the past but it is revealed the only one who could survive the trip is none other than Wolverine. Using her powers Kitty Pride sends Wolverine’s consciousness to the past while his body remains in the future.

The Good Honestly the best part of the movie was Quicksilver and the slow motion fight scene other wise I have nothing to say about this horrible film.

The Bad

To begin the entire premise of the movie was flawed from the beginning. Time travel is difficult to do right because of all the inherent problems with paradoxes and logical inconsistencies associated with it.

For starters if you travel back in time and change the past then there would be no reason for you to travel to the past and it’d be as you never went to the past at all.

Furthermore even if you could change the past it wouldn’t have any effects on the future because you would in effect create two parallel time lines. One in which the future is unchanged and one in which it is changed, unlike in this movie where the parent time line is altered by changing the past.

the other issues I have with this movie is that it’s supposed to be set in the 70s yet we’re supposed to believe that computers of that age and genetics where so far along that Trask could build the prototypes of the sentinel program. It was completely unbelievable.

Moreover, when Mystique shots magneto in the neck he doesn’t even so much as says ouch, let alone react like a man who was just shoot by his close associate.

The Verdict

Pass on this boring tripe and see Dead Pool instead.

Review Justice League Vs Teen Titans

Justice-League-vs.-Teen-Titans-charactersWarning: spoilers ahead

Introduction

Justice League Vs Teen Titans is the latest feature length movie released from DC Comics and centers around Damien Wayne being shipped off to the Teen Titans to learn how to work in a team. At first he treats the titans with disdain and picks a fight with Blue Beetle resulting in him almost dying. He recovers thanks to Raven’s healing abilities and learns to get along with them.

As this is going on Superman and the other members of the Justice League become possessed by emissaries of Trigon and seek to bring him to Earth using Raven as the key to an ancient satanic temple. Seeing no other alternative Raven gives herself up to the Justice League and brings Trigon to Earth.

With team work Raven is able to re-imprison Trigon in a shard of crystal, which she keeps with her as a bindi and the movie ends with her rejoining the titans on Earth.

The Good
I really like the character design of the titans and would so totally watch a reboot of Teen Titans or Young Justice staring them. I especially like Starfire and Raven’s design as it suited them well.

Over all the movie was enjoyable and kept me invested in the characters through out and I especially liked the montage where Down to Nothing plays. It really made that scene and was a catchy tune.

I have to say I loved Damien Wayne in this. Yeah he starts off as a huge ass in this, but grows softer over the course of the movie. I find him to be a more interesting Robin then either Tim Drake , Jason Todd or Dick Grayson.

The Bad

The biggest sin this movie commits is being too predictable. Within thirty seconds of seeing people get possessed I called it that the movie would about Trigon trying to come to earth and Raven trying to stop him. And sure enough that’s exactly what happened.

I also had issues with the Superman/Robin fight. Let me preface this by saying in no way am I a Superman fanboy, but even with Kryptonite Damien took down him way too easily.

Another issue I had was with Blue Beetle. His character came off as too much of a wannabe Cyborg for my taste. Sure his powers were nice to look at but I couldn’t stop thinking he was just a rip off of Cyborg the whole time he was on screen.

Another issue I had was when the titans went to Trigon’s home dimension and Beast Boy transforms into a demon. It came out of nowhere, was never explained and no one brought it up after it happened. It was a total big lipped alligator moment for sure.

The Verdict

If you’re looking for something to kill 80 minutes and aren’t too pressed for good story telling give this movie a watch. It’s not the best but if enough people buy it maybe we’ll get another movie starring these titans. Even with its flaws this was an enjoyable watch and you should totally check it out.