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Dodge Magnum via Enterprise

Reviewing cars can be downright disappointing!

As the part time and on-a-budget auto reviewer, I am often relegated to reviewing cars as a fringe benefit of going about my day job.  So one source of material for my car reviews is the occasional car rental when I head out on business trips.  I rent cars from my local Enterprise establishment (My Enterprise has the BEST customer service bar none, but that's for another review story).  While I know I don’t get the cream of the crop of new cars it does provide me with a model that more or less represents what the average driver may end up purchasing, so I find it a good source for review candidates.

On a recent business trip I was picked up by my Enterprise agent in a spanking new Dodge Magnum.  For those who don't know the Magnum it’s Dodge’s effort to resurrect the dying breed of car known as the station wagon.  No illusions, here… the Magnum is a station wagon labeled as a “sport wagon” - an effort to erase the memories of those adults now at car-buying age who remember their childhood experiences of the very uncool and unhip family hauler their moms used to drive around and embarrassingly pick them up in from school.

One of the main differences between this sport wagon and a station wagon is Dodge’s ultimate wisdom to put under its hood a spankin’ HEMI powerplant dolling out 340 horsepower and 390 lb./ft. of torque.  All this power comes in handy when passing up the big yellow schoolbus and powersliding into the school parking lot with the kids before the 1st period bell rings.

Now the 5.7 liter HEMI would be an awesome monster to bridle.  However, my rental version of the Dodge Magnum opted for the more docile and mainstream 2.7 liter V-6 putting out 190 horsepower and a matching 190 lb./ft. of torque.  Lest we forget, most drivers may not have the desire nor the experience to harness the full fire-breathing supernova that is the HEMI.  The V-6 brings the car down to the level of your average driver.  At a cost.

Response in the V-6 was lackluster.  Mashing the gas got me a tiny surge of acceleration but it felt like it took a while to get there.  While the Magnum felt fairly secure aggressively plowing into corners, the steering felt light and inaccurate.  I felt like I had to work hard to get the car to move into a turn smoothly.  But what can you expect from a 3,800 pound behemoth.

Acceleration frustration might have been less if there was an inviting interior to lounge in while cruising down the highway.  Unfortunately, the Magnum’s insides are a temple to those Revel car model kits you put together as a boy.  Plastic, cheap and abundant adorn the cabin.  

And while the gauges are fairly well visible, one of the most annoying interior pieces were the left hand stalks for both the turn signal/lights and the cruise control.  First, these stalks were placed much lower than in other cars requiring a fairly unnatural twisting of the wrist to engage the left turn signal.  What’s more, the cruise control was relegated to a position far down the stalk.  Very hard to reach, and the required combination for switching, twisting and flipping the stalk just for simple cruise on/off and set/resume features were downright unnecessary.

Overall, if the Dodge Magnum is on your list, please be sure that you pony up the extra money for the HEMI.  It’s the only engine that can motivate this car.  However, the interior is enough to make you want to take this car off your shopping list altogether.

posted by Michael Velasco @ 11:27 PM 1 comments

"Serenity" a Great Movie to Watch and Review

Just got back from seeing “Serenity” in the theater and all I can say is "wow!" Whether you are a fan of the series or are seeing the movie uninitiated, you'll be in for a good time.

If you’re like me you never watched the show when creator Joss Whedon put it together and it aired back in 2003 on Fox. Earlier this year I saw a movie trailer for “Serenity” and was intrigued so I caught the re-airings of the show this summer on the SciFi Channel. I enjoyed it so much that I decided that I couldn't wait for all the episodes to replay, so I purchased the DVD boxed set of all the episodes and spent the weekend watching it in preparation for the movie.

I grabbed a bunch of friends and then saw the movie. I was the only one of my group to have seen anything to do with Serenity, but that did not make the movie unenjoyable for my friends. Not only was it filled with witty dialogue, a strong protagonist/antagonist dynamic, stunning visual effects and plot, but the characters each have their moments to shine.

What I’ve seen as something I enjoy in movies is a grand scale – a larger setting of events and locations in which the main characters of the movie exist and where the specific moment of the movie transpires and affects. Movies set around World War II, or ancient Rome so often take advantage of this, as do sci-fi movies set against a sweeping backdrop (see “Casablanca,” “Ben Hur,” and “Star Wars” as examples). In “Serenity” events take place 500 years in the future and after Earth has been “all used up.” Colonists fled to other star systems and settled either on habitable worlds or terra-formed ones made viable for human life.

The movie’s main characters are the crew of the space ship Serenity – hence the movie’s name. The movie’s events transpire several years after a bloody “unification war” where the Alliance, the ruling political body fought against the Independents. The Alliance ultimately prevailed. Key characters in the movie fought on the losing side, but often we see that might doesn’t always make right, and victory even less so. It seems the Alliance is in pursuit of “perfection” and works to make a "perfect life" for its citizens -- a theme not unfamiliar to science fiction fans. In the process, the Alliance has taken away some freedoms of the average man, and use a doctrine of “the ends justify the means.”

Central to the film is the struggle of River Tam, a 17-year-old girl that has been experimented on by the Alliance. The movie starts when she is broken out of an Alliance facility by her older brother Simon, a respectable and talented doctor. We experience this as the antagonist of the movie the Alliance’s “Operative” is reviewing a video recording of the escape long after it has happened. We join up with the present to see that Simon and River are now part of the Serenity’s crew.

Serenity is a not-so-pretty cargo ship of the “Firefly” class. In its exterior shots it does look like a cross between a firefly and a bird, very different from the gleaming starships science fiction fans are used to (with the exception of the Millennium Falcon). Serenity’s Captain, Mal Reynolds is a charismatic and driven man. He fought against the Alliance and while he tries to stay out the Alliance’s way, doesn’t mind sticking it to them from time to time. One could say that he takes on Simon and River to the crew for that specific reason. However, we find throughout the movie that Mal is not so cynical and callous as he might seem. We glimpse this in contrast to how he does “jobs” for which he is hired, as well as in the relationships with his crew portrayed skillfully on-screen.

One such relationship is the Mal/Inara one that is very well played here, from both a first-time viewer and the fan perspectives. There was just enough history laid out in the movie that when Mal and Inara interact in the movie, you see the fire the characters have for each other, as well as the self-restraint. It’s a strong interaction that really adds to both characters and is enticing to watch. On a personal level, the fact that Inara handles a longbow as her weapon of choice is fantastic.

One character that is very interesting is The Operative. As the antagonist he chases the Serenity and its crew through the whole movie. The Operative is the essence of controlled brutality and is dispatched to retrieve River for what she is and what she knows. What is amazing and ironic are the similarities between The Operative and River. In these characters you almost see the ultimate evolution of what River could have become had she been left in the Alliance’s hands.

River isn’t the only character that The Operative parallels. Although I thought Book was a bit underutilized, and in a way token, ultimately his role in the drama that unfolds, as well as some of the other characters’ more desperate moments add a good degree of emotion and poignancy that creates attachment to the characters. Talk about similarities, the hints to Book’s past before meeting Mal and the rest of Serenity’s crew, as well as Book’s fate could be close to the Operative’s own past and future.

Another great element is the presence of the Reavers in the movie. Left to the fringes of the galaxy they are humans that are too far from civilization and have changed grotesquely because of it. They are introduced to us as violent, non-men, but grow to something even more horrific throughout the movie. Indeed, it is the Reavers that propel the movie to its ultimate climax and extraordinary and exciting final act. Unlike many science fiction movies and series, “Serenity” really ups the stakes of emotional content and action and by using the Reavers as not just antagonists, but vitally important plot elements that really justifies their involvement and conflict with the characters well.

With all this going on, it could be easy to lose track of things happening on screen, but Whedon manages to hold the story together very well. At times the action seems zoomed too close in to make out and follow the moves and intricacies, but it doesn’t detract too much from the actual storytelling. It is this storytelling, combined with the complex character dynamics and pathos that makes this movie succeed.

The big question is whether Fox/Universal sees any success of this movie as the impetus to bring it back. Many fans would like this. I guess that brings up another question: if the series does come back will it be called “Firefly” as it once was, or “Serenity?” Either way would bring a shining star to the somewhat empty space of today's sci-fi.

posted by Michael Velasco @ 4:47 PM 2 comments