wkrpinlouisville

Only an occasional audio book 'reader', to this point I thought Willem Defoe's 'Langoliers' couldn't be topped for quality, but this rendition of another Amazing Andy Weir novel has taken that title. I had read the book so had doubts that the technical aspects of the story would be too much for a narrated version to convey. Ray Porter knocks it out of the park. Just amazing. His normal tone is so spot on - but where he hits the stratosphere is in the dialects and voices for other characters. Just a stellar performance, that makes the story flow to an amazing level. As always, it's hard to gauge if it would have been better to 'read' this version before I'd read the printed word, but I think anyone coming into this cold would be more than satisfied whichever way they approach this.

I see what they were trying to do - make a 70's kung fu movie with Batman splicing Enter the Dragon, Shaft and Kung Fu Panda together. In some scenes it almost works - but here's the big problem. When I'm watching a Batman movie - I want to see Batman or Bruce.. and neither one is the star of this movie. The main protagonist is Richard Dragon. Bruce is a side character at best and Batman has a couple of cameos. The mantle of the bat is treated like dress-up time for Bruce who 'becomes a different person' while wearing it.. not really.. His fighting skills get slightly better for some reason - but there's none of the cold calculating detective to be seen. I didn't see - but wouldn't be surprised if this 'Batman' IS wearing hockey pants.. Such a shame because I know the creatives behind this are capable of so much better.