Sing No Evil
By JP Ahonen and KP Alare
Abrams ComicArts, 181 pages, $24.95

Translating music, meant to be heard live, and print, meant to be imagined in one’s mind, is a challenging task. When the music is heavy metal, a very visceral sort of sound, the challenge is even harder. As a result, artist JP Ahonen and writer KP Alare are to be commended for trying but fail to achieve their goal. Sing No Evil, translated from NAME, is about music, friendship, love, rock, and sorcery. As a result, it wants to be too many things and falls short on every level.

The book is at its strongest when Ahonen fills spreads with the manic energy that goes into performing before a crowd. The words get out of the way and the pictures tell the story and we can imagine the chords and backbeat. Sprinkled across the book, they come as welcome breaks from a tedious story about a band that can’t get their collective act together even to perform at a local bar. We are meant to feel for Aksel, the guitarist who can’t sing and the stress his perfectionist attitude brings to his band Pekeros. The rest of the band — keyboard player Lily, bassist Kervinen and drummer Bear –cajole, support or scold Aksel. Lily is the most rounded of the characters in the story while there’s little appealing about Aksel. The dynamic should noticeably change when Lily recruits Aydin, the local pizza delivery guy, as their new singer, but he’s wallpaper. Kervinen is a seemingly ageless spiritual guide to Aksel but feels like a stock player.

Bear, by the way, is a real bear who fights off the urge to hibernate so they can make the band’s dream come true. Why the drummer is a real bear, who doesn’t speak but acts human in every other respect, serves to rob the story of feeling set in our world. And that’s before the demonic forces arrive in the final act.

The creators try too hard, stuff too much extraneous stuff into the story, robbing it of any real emotional depth so we wind up caring little for the band members or whether they achieve success or are another failed act.

The artwork and strong sense of color makes the book interesting to look at but just further emphasizes how weak the characters are and overall storyline is. I gather Ahonen is best known for Northern Overexposure, something I am unfamiliar with but I’d be interested in seeing what else he can do. Right now, though, this book is just plain disappointing.

When your father is a god, your life is bound to be pretty interesting. As a result, it is never less than astonishing how often the story of Hercules ignores the rich source material, transplanting the demigod to whatever environment is currently in vogue with diminished results. Twice this year, we were treated to variant interpretations of the Greek myth with vastly different results. Coming in second and by far the inferior of the two, Brett Ratner’s Hercules is one of the weakest films of the year. Once more one wonders how Ratner keeps getting hired since clearly his limited directorial vision has been spent.

The film, out now from Paramount Home Entertainment, claims to be inspired by Radical Comics’ The Thracian Wars limited series, but veers far enough from it to be another story entirely. Hercules (Dwayne Johnson), cursed by Zeus’ wife Hera, has completed his twelve labors but remains a lost soul, wandering Earth. Thrace’s King Cotys (John Hurt) and General Sitacles (Peter Mullan) hire him to train their army, preparing it for a forthcoming war against Rheseus’ (Tobias Santelmann) forces. Herc, accompanied by his nephew Iolaus (Reece Ritchie), the amazon Atalanta (Ingrid Bolsø Berdal), and  Autolycus (Rufus Sewell), and his own nephew Iolaus (Reece Ritchie). Here’s a chance for screenwriters Ryan J. Condal and Evan Spiliotopoulos to breathe life into these people, using the late, great Steve Moore’s comics as inspiration. Instead, they come from central casting and the actors do little to make them interesting.

There are some nice moments but they come few and far between mindless, violent action and flat by-the-numbers strorytelling. You are not surprised by the plot twists, robbing you of the cathartic thrills a movie like this should be delivering.

These sword & sandal epics always look great when shot right and here, the high definition transfer is crisp, clean, and colorful. It is equally paired with the DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 lossless soundtrack.

Among the extras is an extended cut that adds about three more minutes of vapid stuff, so you wonder why they bothered. Ratner and Producer Beau Flynn provide an audio commentary that acknowledges the dozens of previous screen incarnations and pays too little attention to the Radical publication. There’s An Introduction (5:32) from Ratner and Johnson; Hercules and His Mercenaries (11:07), which explores the supporting cast; Weapons! (5:24); The Bessi Battle (11:54), showcase the preparation going into filming the battle; The Effects of Hercules (12:28);  and an entertaining assortment of Deleted/Extended Scenes (15 clips, 14:38).

How to Train Your Dragon was an immensely successful adaptation of Cressida Cowell’s charming children’s book. The story ended nicely and had we never revisited the village of Berk, we would have been satisfied. However, in film, success demands milking the cow as far as audiences allow so we now have a sequel. Unlike so many other money grabbing attempts, this once actually advances the characters without rehashing the past.

Growing up is never easy, it has fueled countless movies and novels through the years so it is a challenge to effectively tell a sequel to a beloved children’s tale where the characters actually change. DreamWorks Animation, though, accepted the challenge when they green lit a follow-up to 2010’s smash hit. The sequel arrived to great critical acclaim in the summer and now, Fox Home Entertainment is making it available now via digital download with the Blu-ray edition to follow on Tuesday.

Everything about this film feels more grounded and more mature with the animators carefully aging our main characters five years so Hiccup (voice of Jay Baruchel)  is a hairy teenager. Having achieved the unthinkable, peace with the dragons, they have integrated to make the village of Berk a unique place in the world. As a result, we pick up and see Hiccup, aboard Toothless, as they go out exploring. The problem now is that Stoick the Vast (Gerard Butler) wants him to come home and succeed him as chief.

First, though, Hiccup and Astrid (America Ferrara)  have to prevent Berk from being destroyed by a dragon army led by the mad Drago Bludvist (Djimon Hounsou). Through convoluted means, he now can hypnotize dragons and winds up taking control of Toothless, leading the siege that claims Stoick’s life while Toothless remains a prisoner. However, he is far from alone as he also encounters Valka (Cate Blanchett), a dragonrider who is revealed to be his long-lost mother.

The story, from writer/director Dean DuBois, nicely parallels the further maturation of both boy and dragon. Toothless may have the harder experience to recover from considering he is coerced into attacking a place he calls home and being somewhat responsible for the death of Hiccup’s dad.

At story’s end, Hiccup has been through the emotional wringer although he fortunately winds up in a better place as a result of the experiences, making one and all proud. Now, don’t get me wrong, despite the heavier emotional tone, the movie still has plenty of action and humor with excellent animation.

Streaming this via Digital HD is clean and clear so if that’s your preference, you have little fear. Additionally, the digitals download and Blu-ray come chock full of extras. First up is the short, entertaining adventure Dawn of the Dragon Racers (26:37). The bonus features include Fishleg’s Dragon Stats (12:04); Drago’s War Machines (2:56), as Gobber the Belch narrates an inside look at the fierce creatures; Berk’s Dragon World (4:19); Hiccup’s Inventions in Flight (3:32), and an assortment of  Deleted Scenes (12:13). Additionally, there is some interesting commentary from the production team: Simon Otto, Bonnie Arnold, Dean DeBlois, and Pierre-Olivier Vincent. Where No One Goes: The Making of How To Train Your Dragon 2 (54:39)– Writer-Director DeBlois guides us through how this went from notion to film.