When Star Trek: Enterprise was cancelled after four seasons, it left several story-lines hanging. Many Star Trek fans, myself included, had been hoping that Enterprise would one-day chronicle the events of the Romulan War hinted at in episodes of the Original Series. (And, indeed, several episodes from Enterprise’s fourth and final season hinted that the show might indeed be heading in that direction.) Fortunately, Michael A. Martin (along with, on the first novel, Andy Mangels) has been telling the story of the Romulan War in a series of Star Trek novels. (Click here for my review of the first novel in that series, Kobayashi Maru, and I’ll have reviews of the other two novels in the series coming soon.)
But there was an even bigger story-line left painfully unresolved at the end of Star Trek: Enterprise. Ever since the show’s pilot episode, “Broken Bow,” we’d been hearing about a mysterious Temporal Cold War, apparently being fought throughout time by time-travelers from the future. Factions of this Temporal Cold War were repeatedly seen to be interfering in events of Captain Archer’s time, but to what end was never clear. We saw some apparently heroic characters (Daniels, who appeared to be from a future Starfleet), and apparently villainous characters, such as the mysterious figure glimpsed throughout the series whose identity was never revealed (leading to his being nicknamed “Future Guy” by many fans). I write “apparently” since various episodes offered sometimes contradictory information as to who was really trying to do what. (At one point Future guy helped Captain Archer, and at other times Daniels appeared to be less than totally truthful.)
I have been waiting for the Star Trek novels to address this enormous dangling story-line, and I am very pleased to report that Christopher L. Bennett has done so with gusto in his latest novel Star Trek Department of Temporal Investigations: Watching the Clock. (It’s a lengthy, sort of confusing title, but I gather that the hope is that there will be future installments of novels, under the Department of Temporal Investigations heading. I join in this hope!)
The Department of Temporal Investigations is, of course, an agency seen in only one single Star Trek episode: the Deep Space Nine episode “Trials and Tibble-ations,” in which Sisko & co. accidentally travel back in time to the events of the Classic Trek episode “The Trouble with Tribbles.” In that episode, we were introduced to DTI agents Lucsly and Dulmur, who were sent to investigate the time-travel events on behalf of their department, which was the Starfleet agency tasked with protecting the integrity of the time-line. Agents Lucsly and Dulmur didn’t have a lot of screen-time, but they … [continued]
I saw Se7en on the big screen back in 1995, and it freaked the hell out of me. I’m not sure what prompted me to go see it in the first place, but I know that I was entirely unprepared for the brutal film that unfolded before my eyes. It was tough, shocking stuff, and while I really respected the film I never felt any desire to go back and watch it again.
Almost a decade and a half later, Zodiac, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, and The Social Network have cemented my opinion of David Fincher as one of the finest American directors working today. With the release of Se7en on blu-ray, I thought it would be interesting to give the film another look.
Even so many years later, Se7en remains as punishing a movie-watching experience as it was back in 1995. There is some truly vile, stomach-turning stuff on display in the film. Some of which we see on-screen (I remember my first glimpse of that horribly obsese corpse — the first murder victim discovered at the start of the movie — from 1995, and I found it just as unsettling the second time around), and some of which is just discussed (such as the terrible fate of the prostitute). But the two blend together into an almost unrelenting parade of horrors, from the first frame to the very last.
All of which, of course, was certainly the intention of David Fincher and his collaborators. Watching the film, today, I can step back a bit from what I’m watching on-screen to recognize the extraordinary skill on display by the filmmakers. On crisp blu-ray, Se7en is absolutely beautiful in its unremitting ugliness. The filmmakers have created a word of unending gloom, from the seemingly never-ending rain in the unnamed city in which the action takes place to the sickly yellow light of Detective Somerset (Morgan Freeman)’s refrigerator. The oppressive urban decay and the constant rain remind me distinctly of Blade Runner, and there’s even a great shot of Brad Pitt running across a street and jumping over cars, his weapon drawn, while the rain continues to pour down, that is a direct quotation of an iconic shot of Harrison Ford from that film. But Mr. Fincher and his team have gone beyond homage to create a distinctly real, potent environment that is unique to this film. This city breathes and sweats, and we (and the film’s characters) feel it as an oppressive force. In Se7en, the city is as much the enemy as the serial-murdering John Doe.
Mr. Fincher has come to be well-known for his meticulous attention to detail, and that is on fine display throughout … [continued]
Stephen King waited a long time — six years — between writing the fourth book in the Dark Tower series, Wizard and Glass, and writing book five. I didn’t take that long of a break, myself, but after reading the first four novels in the series last summer and early fall, I decided to stop for a bit, so I could give myself time to read some other books that interested me.
But once summer arrived again, I knew it was time for me to return to the Dark Tower. In my review of book four, Wizard and Glass, I wrote that I felt that novel was my favorite of the series to that point. That opinion still stands, but Wolves of the Calla made it a VERY close call!
I’d heard some complaints, over the years, from folks who felt that when Stephen King returned to the Dark Tower series after a lengthy hiatus to finish the saga (books five, six, and seven were published in very short succession between 2003 and 2005), that those later books weren’t quite the same as what had gone before. I can’t say that I agree with that assessment, at least not so far. Wolves of the Calla is a ripping page-turner and an extremely strong installment of the series.
I will admit to having been a bit worried, though, going in. Something about the cover art to the edition I read, and the title of the book, made me suspect that this was going to be something of a stand-alone adventure. (“Wolves of the Calla” just seemed so RANDOM to me — What was this story about? Werewolves? What did that have to do with the gunslinger and his quest??) I worried that the book would just be killing time before we got to the “good stuff” and the climax of the story in the final book.
No fear. Wolves of the Calla is completely of a piece with the novels that preceded it, and the action of the book is not only exciting in its own right, but compelling in the way it moves forward the stories of Roland and each member of his ka-tet: Eddie, Susannah, and Jake. (And Oy!) The events of this tale affect each character in critical, pivotal ways, and one can feel the story moving at a rapid clip towards the end-game.
But while all that is happening, Wolves of the Calla also gives me what I’ve been asking for since the start of the series: an exciting adventure story set firmly in Roland’s world. Part of the fun of the Dark Tower series is the way in which the characters and story-lines constantly … [continued]
In the biting, acid film Roger Dodger, Campbell Scott stars as Roger, a handsome, well-off, and very arrogant New York advertising executive who seems able to use his sharp tongue to talk any women he wants into having sex with him. One day his 16 year-old nephew, Nick (Jesse Eisenberg) shows up in his office. Nick is in town looking at Columbia, and while he’s there he wants his smooth-with-the-ladies uncle to teach him how to talk to women. Although he’s at first put-off by the idea of having to deal with this kid, Roger quickly agrees to school Nick in That Which He Knows Best, and the two begin a crazy night that will take them all over the city and in and out of the lives of several fascinating and beautiful women.
I don’t know what on earth prompted me to rent this film on DVD five or six years ago, but it really blew me away as a unique, hard-to-define, I can’t quite believe what I’m watching film. I’ve been meaning to see it again for ages.
Written and directed by Dylan Kidd, Roger Dodger is an extraordinarily well-written and well-made film that demonstrates the skill of an artist in his prime. (I really want to know what the heck Mr. Kidd has been up to since 2002!! I wish he’d made six movies in that time!) The script is exquisite, with rat-a-tat dialogue that is fiercely intelligent, funny, and very biting. If you told me that David Mamet had scripted this film, I would easily believe it.
Right away from the opening scene it’s clear that this is a movie unlike many others. The film opens with a lengthy post-meal conversation over drinks and smokes between Roger and his friends. In between some light banter with the people around the table, Roger unloads a lengthy monologue describing how he feels that evolution and technology are combining to gradually render the male species obsolete. Roger’s dialogue demonstrates his keen intelligence and verbal skill, and also his arrogance and his close-minded, gender-focused worldview. The scene is shot in a fascinating style that Mr. Kidd will utilize throughout the film. There are never any master shots used (wide shots that show us the setting for a scene and where all of the characters are in relation to one another). Instead, the scene plays out through a series of close-ups, filmed with a hand-held shaky cam that is continually moving around and observing the central characters through visual obstacles (over the shoulder of another character, obstructed by a glass or a table center-piece, etc.). It’s a bit disorienting, but also extraordinarily vibrant and energizing, and a terrific way to … [continued]
Last spring I wrote a very positive review of the latest Star Trek: Phase Two episode, Enemy: Starfleet!, which was written by Dave Galanter. (If there are any Star Trek fans reading this who have not yet watched this awesome completely fan-made episode, you should do so immediately!) After reading the review, Mr. Galanter was kind enough to drop me a line. In the course of our e-mail exchange, he asked if I had read his latest Star Trek novel: Troublesome Minds. I admitted that I had not. Though I’d purchased it about a year ago, I kept putting aside this stand-alone adventure, set during the Enterprise (no bloody A, B, C or D)’s original five-year mission, in favor of the Trek novels that were pushing the Star Trek story forward with adventures set following the events of the 24th century-set movies and TV shows.
But after that e-mail exchange, I decided that I should really find the time to give Troublesome Minds a read. I’m really glad I did, because it’s a ripping Star Trek yarn and a really great novel.
In his e-mails to me, Mr. Galanter described Troublesome Minds as the Star Trek episode he’d always wanted to write. That’s a great description of the novel. I could totally see it as an episode. (And damn, would it make a GREAT Phase Two episode! Are you listening, Phase Two folks??) The story is a completely stand-alone adventure, unburdened by any involvement with long-running story-lines. It requires no detailed knowledge of other Star Trek novels or adventures. It’s just a fun, fast-paced piece of speculative fiction, with some great sci-fi concepts, tough moral dilemmas for Kirk & co., and some tense action. As I said, it would have made a terrific episode!
Captain Kirk and the Starship Enterprise respond to a distress call and rescue the life of an alien named Berlis, whose ship was about to be destroyed. This simple act of kindness turns incredibly complicated, however, when it is discovered that Berlis belongs to a race of powerful telepaths known as the Isitri. Every several generations, an Isitri emerges whose telepathy is so powerful that, without intending to do so, he/she can control the minds of every other Isitri he/she comes in contact with, thus mentally enslaving an entire race until that Troublesome Mind dies or is killed. Berlis is just such a mind. Will Captain Kirk and the Enterprise crew follow the wishes of the Isitri ruling council, and murder the man they just saved? Or will they allow him to return home, and thus enslave an entire planet for a generation?
It’s a wonderfully inventive, thorny sci-fi dilemma that Mr. Galanter has … [continued]
Despite the silly title, I had pretty high hopes for Cowboys and Aliens. The idea of uniting Daniel Craig (James Bond) and Harrison Ford (Indiana Jones/Han Solo) is genius, and the film boasted a strong supporting cast, a solid director (Jon Favreau, who directed the magnificent first Iron Man film), and the trailer boasted of some nifty special effects and fun sci-fi action.
But in the end, I was disappointed. Cowboys and Aliens isn’t terrible, but it’s pretty mediocre. Though Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman have a great eye for material (they have been involved with a number of geek properties that interest me, including Star Trek and Transformers) and they seem like nice fellows, I have not liked any of the scripts that they have written. And I’m starting to wonder if I haven’t over-estimated Jon Favreau in my mind. He’s a terrific actor and a very funny guy, but in the end he’s really only directed one film (the first Iron Man) that I’ve really loved.
The main problem with Cowboys and Aliens is that the movie has no teeth. The first 20-25 minutes promise us a confrontation between two tough bad-asses, Craid and Ford, in the midst of some crazy sci-fi mayhem, but that never comes.
The opening scene to the film is terrific, and it immediately establishes Daniel Craig’s character as a dangerous, kick-ass dude. We open the film at the moment that Daniel Craig wakes up, in the middle of the desert, with a bizarre technological device attached to his wrist, and no memory of how it got there or of any events that happened before he woke up. He can’t even remember his own game. Moments later, some tough guys find him and threaten to kill him, but in a quick, brutal action scene, Craig wipes them out. It’s a great set-up to his character, and a terrific way to open the movie.
We then spend a while hearing about Harrison Ford’s character, Colonel Dolarhyde (but don’t call him Colonel!). He is built up as a man to be feared, and when we finally meet him in the flesh, we see Dolarhyde mercilessly torturing an unfortunate soul who Dolarhyde believes has betrayed him.
We all know that these two characters are on a collision course, and when the sci-fi menace (that we know is coming) rears its ugly head, I was excited to see these two take-no-prisoners mean bastards, played by two movie icons, collide with one another.
That would have been an awesome movie!! But that’s not at all what we got. The film immediately backs off from the toughness of those two characters, and quickly shows us that they’re both really softies … [continued]
Do you only know Titus Welliver from his role as the Man in Black on Lost? The man is a terrific actor and comedian. Check out his Christopher Walken impression:
http://youtu.be/OOMUeMWv8y4
That was pretty good, right? But it’s nothing compared to his staggeringly spot-on impersonation of Al Pacino, at three different phases of his career. Check this out, you won’t be disappointed:
http://youtu.be/5q9TpdUPYLU
Those two clips are both from Kevin Pollak’s Chat Show. I had no idea this existed until a few weeks ago, and now it’s just about my favorite thing ever.
The great Kevin Pollak (who is a terrific actor, comedian, and impressionist of his own) has been doing (for quite some time now!) a weekly on-line chat show, in which each week he interviews a different guest. Many of his guests are famous actors and comedians, though Mr. Pollak has interviewed fascinating folks from other fields as well.
I’ve fallen in love with Kevin Pollak’s Chat Show not only because of the guests (take a look at the show’s archive page to see that Mr. Pollak has interviewed a staggeringly phenomenal list of amazing people), but because each interview is nearly two hours long! The conversations are extraordinarily in-depth — this is a far cry from the five-or-so-minutes that you see guests interviewed on the late night talk shows these days. Mr. Pollak is a great interviewer — his relaxed style gets the guests to open up, and he’s able to keep his conversations interesting and very, very funny. (Again, it helps that many of his guests are hysterical people in their own right.)
I discovered Kevin Pollak’s Chat Show when I saw a link on TrekMovie.com to Mr. Pollak’s interview with Damon Lindeloff. I was engrossed by the conversation, and reminded just how likable and intelligent Mr. Lindeloff seems to be, despite his staggering cluelessness as to the total and epic failure of the final season of Lost.
Then I made my way to this interview with Eddie Izzard, one of my very favorite stand-up comedians, and I was hooked.
In the past few weeks I’ve watched Mr. Pollak’s interviews with Rob Reiner, Nathan Fillion, and Andy Richter, and each one was better than the next. I am working my way through the archives of the show — there are SO MANY amazing interviews that I can’t wait to watch! (I need more hours in the day!)
Readers of this blog will LOVE this on-line chat show, I promise you. Check it out without delay.… [continued]
Last month I wrote about season one of Garry Shandling’s magnificent HBO series from the ’90s, The Larry Sanders Show. Season one had been previously released on DVD, so I’d seen all of those episodes many times. But NONE of the subsequent seasons had ever before been released on any home video format (except for a few episodes in the series-spanning best-of DVD collection from a few years ago, Not Just The Best of The Larry Sanders Show), and I didn’t start watching The Larry Sanders Show when it aired on HBO until around season four, so there were a TON of season two episodes that I’d never seen before. So I was VERY EXCITED to finally have the chance to dive into this season! The Larry Sanders Show is one of my favorite TV shows of all time, and suddenly having new episodes to watch that I’d never seen before was something of a small miracle for me.
Security Expert: “I’m just trying to give Mr. Sanders the cold, hard reality of the situation.” Artie: “We don’t usually operate that way around here.”
And I was not disappointed! Season two of The Larry Sanders Show is, I believe, the longest of the show’s six seasons. It clocks in at seventeen episodes, and the season premiere is actually a double-length episode. That’s an impressively-sized season for a cable show, and as with season one, there really isn’t a clunker in the bunch! The hour-long first episode, “The Breakdown,” is a terrific way to kick off the season. Larry’s wife is divorcing him, which sends Larry into a spiral of misery. The only woman he finds himself able to connect with turns out being his first wife, Francine, much to Artie and Hank’s horror. (In the next episode, “The List,” Artie remembers in shock how Francine once destroyed Larry’s People Choice award trophy. Larry points out that this was only because she found out he’d cheated on her. Artie’s response: “So you cheated. Don’t take it out on your People’s Choice award!”) That episode, “The List,” is one of my favorites of the season. Larry and Francine decide to undertake the (foolhardy) plan of each creating a list, to share with one another, of all the people they’ve slept with since their divorce. Needless to say, that doesn’t go well.
“The Hankerciser 200″ blesses us with another great Hank Kingsley product endorsement — that of an exercise system that turns out to have the nasty habit of nearly crippling those who use it. This is a great highlight in a season that features a year-long storyline about another crazy Hank scheme — the street-level revolving restaurant (“Hank’s Look-Around Cafe”) … [continued]
When I first started to read about the possibility of a new Planet of the Apes film, a few years back, I thought the central concept was at once incredibly gutsy and yet at the same time quite boringly predictable.
The idea of remaking not the first Planet of the Apes (the way Tim Burton catastrophically attempted to do, ten years ago), but rather the FOURTH one — re-telling the story of Caesar and his ape revolution — seemed to me to be a rather gloriously insane notion. Who would be interested in such an “inside baseball” approach (exploring this obscure piece of Apes lore, from Battle for the Planet of the Apes, that I suspected few had ever heard of)?
On the other hand, since Hollywood seems insistent on churning out prequel after prequel these days, it also seemed very boringly of-the-moment to do a Planet of the Apes “Begins” story. Urgh, when separated from the loopy time-traveling fun of the circular narrative of the original Planet of the Apes films of the ’70s, what was the point? Did we really need yet another prequel explaining how a beloved fantasy world came to be?
Well, my friends, I am extraordinarily pleased to report that director Rupert Wyatt, along with writers Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver, have managed to create a new Planet of the Apes film that is the best of both worlds. Set in the present day, the film succeeds as a totally accessible, stand-alone piece of speculative fiction that can be enjoyed by anyone, even if you’ve never seen a minute of any other Planet of the Apes film. But for those of us die-hard Apes fans, Rise of the Planet of the Apes is a wonderfully engaging, clever re-imagining of the series, and one that fits shockingly well into the continuity of the original 1968 film.
James Franco plays Will Rodman, a brilliant young scientist whose passion to create a drug that can repair deficient brain cells is based on his desperate need to help his father (played by John Lithgow), who is suffering from Alzheimer’s. As the film opens, Will believes that he is on the cusp of incredible success, because one of his ape test subjects has demonstrated enormous leaps in mental cognition after taking Will’s drug. But things quickly turn sour, and Will’s project is shuttered. His apes are put down, but one of Will’s co-workers is able to save one baby ape. When Will discovers the remarkable intelligence possessed by this ape, who he names Caesar, he begins to suspect that maybe his drug was a success after all. But his noble efforts to cure a terrible disease might have catastrophic … [continued]
My friends and I discovered the Planet of the Apes films in college. We’d taken to visiting the local rental store, trying to fill in the gaps in our movie-watching histories. Basically, we rented films that we felt we really SHOULD see, since we considered ourselves movie-fans. When we realized that none of us had seen Planet of the Apes, we decided to give that a viewing. Suffice it to say, we LOVED it, in all its silly/serious glory. When we realized that there were actually FOUR MORE Planet of the Apes films, we decided, well, we’d better watch them all too! We had a great deal of fun watching the entire series, and the Apes films quickly became the movies we were prone to throw on, late at night, when in need of some entertainment.
So back in 2000/2001, when we heard that there was actually going to be a NEW Planet of the Apes film, and that it was going to be a big-budget version helmed by Tim Burton (a filmmaker we all held in high esteem), we were pretty much blown away with excitement and anticipation. Though we were well out of college by then, several of us gathered together on opening weekend, to take in this new Apes film together.
Sigh.
I don’t think any of us HATED Tim Burton’s film, but we were pretty underwhelmed by what we saw. I had such a dim view of Mr. Burton’s movie that, despite being a huge fan of the Apes series, and despite the many times I have re-watched the original five Apes films during the subsequent decade, I have never once been driven to sit down and watch Tim Burton’s Planet of the Apes film again.
But I’d been having so much fun, recently, re-watching all of the Apes films in preparation for the new Apes movie that I decided, what the heck, it’s been ten years, let’s give Tim Burton’s Planet of the Apes film another go. Maybe now, removed from all of the hype and my built-up expectations, I’d think more highly of this film.
No such luck. Tim Burton’s Planet of the Apes is pretty much exactly the dud I remembered it being.
Things get off to a bad start right a way with a lugubrious opening credits sequence in which the camera slowly floats around an ornate object extreme close-up. Gradually the camera pulls back, and we see it’s an ape helmet. I thought this was cool when Mr. Burton did that with the Bat-Signal during the opening credits of Batman, but here it felt boring — been there, done that.
Things pick up somewhat during the sequence that … [continued]
Although I was a bit lukewarm on the first two novels in the four-book Star Trek crossover series, Typhon Pact, I loved the third installment (Rough Beasts of Empire, by David R. George III), and having just read the fourth and final installment, Paths of Disharmony, I am pleased to report that Dayton Ward stuck the landing. I thought this novel was a terrific Next Generation book in its own right, and also a compelling finale to this four-novel series.
Although I have complained, repeatedly, over the past few years about the dearth of new Deep Space Nine novels, I was thrilled by how DS9-centric this Typhon Pact series has been. The first novel focused on Ezri Dax and Julian Bashir, the third novel focused on Benjamin Sisko, and in Paths of Disharmony I was thrilled to discover that we were finally returning to the story-thread that was so-prominent in the early post-finale DS9 novels: the reproductive problems afflicting Andorian society (with fewer and fewer Andorian children being born each year), and the personal journey of young Andorian Starfleet officer Thirishar Ch’Thane.
It’s been many long years since Shar has appeared in a Star Trek novel (I believe his last appearance — certainly his last PROMINENT appearance — was in Worlds of Deep Space Nine: Andor: Paradigm, by Heather Jarman, from back in 2004). In the timeline of the Trek novels, it has been four years since the events of Paradigm. Shar has been working on Andor, and the need to solve his people’s reproductive crisis has only been exacerbated by the planet-wide destruction wreaked by the Borg during their invasion of Federation Space (in the series Star Trek: Destiny).
In this new novel, Andor’s story intersects with that of the growing Typhon Pact storyline. Captain Picard and the crew of the Enterprise E are sent to Andor to help ensure security for a conference of scientists working to solve the Andorian reproductive crisis. But Andor is still reeling from the havoc caused by the Borg attack, and the population is in turmoil over the various scientific solutions being proposed in order to attempt to solve their reproductive issues. Anti-Federation sentiment and anti-alien hatred collide with fears over scientific tinkering with the Andorian genetic code leading to the possible eradication of everything that makes Andorians, as a species, unique, and though the current Andorian Presider (their top governmental official) hopes that the conference will help spark a scientific breakthrough, the gathering also has the potential to turn into a flashpoint for violence.
In addition to complaining about the dearth of recent DS9 novels, I have also written repeatedly about how I felt the … [continued]
We have made it, at last, to the fifth and final film in the original Planet of the Apes series! (Click here for my review of Planet of the Apes, here for my review of Beneath the Planet of the Apes, here for my review of Escape from the Planet of the Apes, and here for my review of Conquest of the Planet of the Apes.)
Though released only a year after 1972′s Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, this final installment is set ten years after the events of that film. In the intervening years, two key events have transpired: Caesar (Roddy McDowell)’s revolution of the apes has succeeded, and much of the planet has been laid waste by nuclear war. The mute apes we saw in Conquest have now all gained the ability to speak (though whether this is due to education by Caesar and friendly humans, or to mutation from the nuclear radiation, is never clarified). In a fairly primitive, jungle village, we see apes and humans living together, though tensions between the two species continue to run high. A gorilla general named Aldo opposes Caesar’s wish for peaceful co-habitation and plots to kill all of the humans and take control of the ape society. Caesar, meanwhile, is distracted by a quest to learn about his parents (the deceased Cornelius and Zira) by traveling into the radioactive Forbidden Zone and accessing the video-tape archives stored there. Will Caesar and his new society be undone by the violent gorillas, or by the mutated remnants of human society living in the Forbidden Zone?
After the society-shattering events of Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, Battle for the Planet of the Apes seems fairly small in scale. This is the cheapest-looking of the five original Apes films. I can imagine that, by this point, the law of diminishing returns had set in, and this film probably had a smaller budget than its predecessors. Battle also tells, to me, a far less interesting story than did Conquest. Whereas Conquest of the Planet of the Apes still stands today as a pretty shocking, envelope-pushing film, Battle for the Planet of the Apes covers pretty familiar ground: tension between the different species of apes, danger from radioactive mutants, and a few peaceful apes and humans who just want to find a way to get along.
That’s not to say that Battle for the Planet of the Apes is entirely without merit. The film still boasts an admirable willingness to address some interesting, thorny issues in the way that the very best science fiction does: by presenting real-world issues in a different setting, the better to make … [continued]
Lots of fun geeky goodness has been spilling out onto the nets recently, mostly because of the annual San Diego Comic-Con.
Did you miss the teaser trailer for The Avengers at the end of Captain America? Check it out here. Pretty sweet.
Speaking of teasers, here’s one for The Dark Knight Rises. I’m intrigued as to how definitive an ending Christopher Nolan is planning on giving his Bat-films.
Here’s another teaser for one of next summer’s big films — though this isn’t just a teaser, it’s a full-length trailer for the Spider-Man reboot, The Amazing Spider-Man. The trailer is well put together, but I still can’t muster up too much excitement for this film. I hate that they’re rebooting the series, and that we have to sit through another version of Spidey’s origin. Just re-cast the roles and tell a great new Spider-Man story. Why start over from zero?? Frustrating.
Now this is more intriguing: it’s the much-discussed abandoned introduction sequence to Bryan Singer’s Superman Returns, in which Superman explores the ruins of Krypton. I can understand why it’s not in the movie (the whole scene is perfectly summed up in Superman’s one line to Ma Kent, that all he found at the end of his long journey into space was a graveyard), but it’s still a pretty cool sequence. I love Supey’s crystalline Kryptonian ship, and I love the huge S.
It’s Peter Jackson’s third production diary from The Hobbit! Rejoice!
Oh, Lost, will you ever stop breaking my heart? If you are (or WERE once, like me) a fan of Lost, this hilarious “lost” scene from season one, that was unveiled at Comic-Con, is a wonderful piece of genius. (But Damon Lindeloff’s comments about why they didn’t answer one of the most annoying, to me, lingering questions from season 5 — just who was shooting at Sawyer and co. from the other boat — makes me CRAZY. CRAZY!!!)
Sooo… is Prometheus an Alien prequel or not??? AAARRGH!!! I’m desperate to know, but either way, a new sci-fi film from the great Ridley Scott has me excited.
We’ll see what people say about the set once it’s released, but for now I stand by my comments that I do not plan on purchasing the blu-ray set of the Star Wars films. Still, I did begin salivating at the report that the set will include never-before-seen deleted scenes from the Original Trilogy, and this teaser trailer for those deleted scenes is pretty awesome:
Speaking of George Lucas, it seems that he and his collaborators have FINALLY finished Red Tails, the film about the Tuskegee Airmen from WWII, about which Mr. Lucas has been talking … [continued]