I was not going to watch this because I’m not really into horror but I decided to give it a look.   Four episodes later, I’m still watching.  Something about the show is compelling.  Watching the characters deal with what’s going on in the house draws me in.  The show follows the Harmons as they have made their move from Boston to the Los Angeles to get a fresh start after a miscarriage and Dr. Ben Harmon’s extramarital affair with a student.  The house they purchased is known locally as the “Murder House” because of all the murders that have occurred there since it has been standing.

As the weeks go by, you start to figure out who is real and who isn’t really there.  It’s interesting that the maid Moira looks like an old lady to women, but to men she’s a hot young number who can’t keep her hands off Dr. Harmon.  Dr. Harmon is treating a young man who seems to be a part of the house, but Dr. Harmon thinks he’s an actual patient.  Ben and Vivien’s daughter Violet has bonded with the young man, Tate Langdon who isn’t all that nice a person.

If you like horror stories you’ll like this show.  The subject matter in the show creeps me out just a bit.  That’s why I watch it during the day time.  Not that I’m scared, I just hate having bad dreams.

“Once Upon a Time” is a new show that premiered on ABC on Sunday night.  The show follows bail bondsman Emma Swan as she comes to a town called Storybrooke to bring the son, Henry,  that she gave up for adoption back to his adoptive family.  According to Henry, the book of fairytales that he’s carrying around actually happend and the evil Queen cursed them all to forever live in Storybrooke as regular people.  We learn that Emma Swan is the daughter of Snow White, now a teacher Mary Margaret Blanchard, played by Ginnifer Goodwin, is the only hope from freeing the characters from Storybrooke.

I thought the show was fairly entertaining and thought that some of the performances are great.  Robert Carlyle as Rumplestiltskin and Tony Amendola as Gepetto are the highlights of the cast.  The writers would do well to keep them as involved in the story as possible.  The effects were good and I like how they flashback to before the curse and to the present time.  The only problem I think this show will have is that I don’t think it’s going to garner the ratings numbers that it will need to survive on ABC.  It’s a shame because on a channel like Syfy or USA or even a comparable show on the BBC would do well.  But a big network like ABC is going to demand to big a number.  Sunday night is a good night for the show especially since it might be able to pull some of the Desperate Housewives viewers.

I think the show is worth a look even if you aren’t into fantasy.

Last night, Fox premiered yet another science fiction show, Terra Nova.  The show has a lot going for it; the main thing is that it’s produced by Stephen Spielberg. (side note: Brannon Braga is also a producer and show runner, and I won’t count this against it)  The show starts out in 2149.  Earth is dying due to pollution and overpopulation.  Fortunately, scientist discover a rift in time leading to an alternate Earth timeline 85 million years in the past.  So, we decided to save humanity by sending qualifying humans through the rift to resettle in Terra Nova.

I can tell the producers put emphasis on the production value of the show.  There aren’t any standout stars so you know salaries are low.  Stephen Lang might be the biggest star, but he is basically reprising his fantastic character from Avatar, with a few tweaks.  I’m not going to compare the show to Avatar, because that’s not what this show is.  The set is gorgeous and the effects are nice.  What bothers me most is that they decided not to use well known dinosaurs.  Apparently, they thought it’d be more interesting to create dinosaurs “that might have existed” as opposed to ones that we know, especially due to Mr. Spielberg’s Jurassic Park movies.  I know I wasn’t the only one thinking, “I’ve never heard of that dinosaur.”  It took a little will power to not get on the internet to look up these “new” dinosaurs.

For a premiere show, I thought the story was well done.  Luckily, they did explain that it was a separate reality from the future they left, which easily dismissed the complaints that people like me who overly criticize time travel in movies and T.V. shows in a couple of lines.  A couple of the reveals in the show, which I’m not going to spoil here, were obvious and I wish that they weren’t.   My hope is that this show doesn’t turn into Lost where more questions are raised than answered, or The Event where questions are asked and answered every episode, but the story never gets developed beyond the first episode.

All in all, the show was good and worth tuning in next week.  We’ll see if it has longevity.

 

Every since I got the Xbox 360 up and running, I’ve been playing the heck out of video games.  Mainly, I’ve been playing Mass Effect 2.  Deus Ex: Human Revolution is the only game I’ve played that I felt like I needed to write a review.  I’m not fan of pure RPGs but Human Revolution isn’t a pure RPG in my opinion.

You play Adam Jensen head of security for Serif Industries.  Serif is a company that provides augmentations to individuals. There’s an explosion and your girlfriend and her research team are killed and you’re left for dead.  You awaken and because of the extensive damage you suffered Serif has decided to give you augmentations to fix the physical damage.  After you get back to work, your goal in the game is to find out who was behind the attack and who killed your girlfriend.

As a player you can decide what type of character Jensen will be.  It isn’t as simple as choosing a class in most RPGs, but there are basically 3 types of play.  You can be a Hacker, Stealth player, or you can blast your way through the game like an FPS.  The best thing about this is that it lends itself to tons of replay value, which is always good for games.  You don’t have to commit to anyone of these since I found myself doing a combination of Hacker and Stealth.  It’s important to at least think about it because you upgrade you augmentations using Praxis points.  I’ll just say that you should get the Icarus landing upgrade quickly because any fall from any height will apparently kill you.

I like the openess of the game.  The augmentation system is realatively easy to understand and not that complicated, especially if you decide early how you want to play the game.  The game rewards you for exploration.  You can avoid conflicts and get through an entire area without ever having to put someone down.  The graphics were good, and the voiceacting was passable…..except Letitia the Trash Lady.  Just watch for yourself.

The only major problem  deals with the boss fights.  The game gives you a lot of opportunities to avoid conflict either by stealth or talking someone down.  But then the developers put you in a locked room with a boss that you can’t reason with or conversate with.  I thought that this would have been a perfect opportunity to show off the games’ Social Enhancement augemtation.  It would have bneen cool to be able to at least have the chance to talk your way out of the fight.  Players who chose to go either the stealth path or hacker path of augmentations will find all the boss fights difficult since you will be outgunned.  One thing I did, which I don’t know if the developers thought of this, is that I would take hacked turretts with me whenever I could and put them in a room with enemies and let the turrent take them out.  I even took a turret into the next to last boss fight and being outgunned was no longer a problem.  That’s another great thing about the game; it rewards you for thinging outside of the box.

Except for the boss fights, Deus Ex Human Revolution is a great game with stunning visuals.  The gameplay is nice and the artwork is good.  If you have the chance to play this game you should.  I would even recommend it as a purchase.

 

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If you haven’t seen Game of Thrones, don’t read my review because it will have SPOILERS. 

Sunday night, the highly anticipated fantasy series Game of Thrones premiered on HBO.  I thought the show was great.  The acting was excellent as were  the sets.  The actors all played their roles close to the characterizations of the novels.  The ages may be off a bit.  For example, Eddard Stark, played by Sean Bean, should be in his mid-thirties.  All is forgiven because Sean Bean is fantastic as Eddard Stark.  Peter Dinklage as Tyrion was cast brilliantly. 

The little bit of CGI didn’t bother me because there probably aren’t that many walls covered in ice that they could have used for the film.  I was concerned that the incest scenes would make me uncomfortable.  However, I didn’t feel anymore uncomfortable than when I read the book.  Indeed, this is one of the few fantasy series that I’ve actually read and had hoped would get the Lord of the Rings treatment, but a television series is just as good.  The story elements they used for this first episode were so well done that I didn’t notice any of the elements that they left out.

All in all, I thought the show was fantastic and it pleases me that HBO has already decided to do a second season.  If you aren’t watching, I suggest you do so.

All-Star Superman is the 10th movie in the DC Universe Animated Original Movies line. It’s based on a 12-issue series of the same name written by comic book fanboy favorite Grant Morrison. The previous movies include, Superman: Doomsday, Batman: Gotham Knight, Green Lantern: First Flight, Superman/Batman: Public Enemies, and Batman: Under the Red Hood.  Basically, the story is about Superman’s impending death due to some maneuvering by Lex Luthor and how Superman/Clark Kent is dealing with it.  Sounds like that could be a potentially great story.

Let me start by saying that of the previous 9 releases, I liked each and every one of them. They were all animated well and the voice acting was great. For some reason, this movie was a miss for me. It might be that I don’t like the story, because I didn’t like the series it was based on. However, I think it’s more than that. The animation was fine, but I’ve seen better. The voice acting was okay, but it could have been better. Edward Asner as Perry White and Anthony LaPaglia as Lex Luthor were great, but it seems as if everyone else was either phoning it in or half-asleep. Maybe there wasn’t as much enthusiasm from the production team for this movie as it has been for the previous ones. It seems that this might be a theme of DC Comics. Start great with something and once fans get interested and excited about it, don’t work as hard on it anymore because fanboys will still buy it. I’m not saying it’s bad, it’s just not as good as the other movies have been.

DC has been getting a lot of props for these animated movies. They do them so much better than Marvel, but this movie shows there might be a few kinks in DC’s armor. If you’re a die hard DC fan or Superman fan, you’ll probably love this movie. Most people should just skip it.

Last night ABC aired the first episode of the highly anticipated No Ordinary Family. The show stars Michael Chiklis (The Commish, The Shield, Fantastic Four) and Julie Benz (Angel, Dexter). The Powell family take a trip to Brazil and the plane crashes into a river filled with luminous "stuff" that wasn’t fuel, since it didn’t float on the surface. When the family returns home, they have developed powers. Here’s a summary of their powers: Jim Powell is Mr. Incredible. Stephanie Powell is Dash, JJ is a genius, and Daphne is a telepath.

As far as origin stories go for superheroes, it was pretty straight forward. Weird lights in water caused random mutations in family. Sounds an awful lot like the Fantastic Four. A family on a space ship zapped with weird lights which caused random mutations. The writers get no points for originality. I’m sure the source of the mutations, yes I’m calling them mutations (what else could they be), will be a source for future story lines and is probably going to be explained at some point.
I didn’t care for the therapy like session as an introduction to the story. It would have been better as just voice overs. Voice overs are tried and true, and couple’s therapy as a story telling device is a gimmick.

They choose five of the basic superheroes/villains to showcase: the Superman (minus the flying), the Speedster, The Mindreader, The Genius, and The Teleporter. And the obvious Master Villain is, of course, the boss of one of our heroes. When the bank robber was revealed to also have a power and saying, "you don’t think you’re the only one" to Jim Powell, I was surprised. I guess I wasn’t expecting super villains so soon. As we all know, a great superhero is defined by his or her nemesis, so I hope that whoever becomes the main antagonist, which will probably be Stephen Collins, will be a bad ass.

I liked that ABC spared no expense with the effects. Also, I’m glad a network is doing a light hearted drama. Shows with dark themes are getting old and tired.  It has been a while since there has been a good show that has action, drama and some family fun.  I enjoyed the episode.  The dialogue could be better, but that’s to be expected as the writers begin to explore the characters and the actors grow into their roles. 

Despite the obvious comparisons to other superheroes and shows of that ilk, I think this show has potential. The writers have a lot of angles they can work, the main one being how the powers affect family dynamics. I hope this show stays around.

I’ll reserve my rating for a couple of more episodes; if the show lasts that long.

Undercovers premiered with solid ratings numbers. However, solid ratings numbers for a season premiere of a new show doesn’t mean much. A writer’s strike isn’t going to kill this show like Bionic Woman, which premiered with a high ratings number as well.  Let me get the bad things out of the way.

The plot line was thin for a J.J. Abrams show.  It is hard to believe that this show came from the same person who brought us Lost, Alias, and Fringe.  He somehow managed to pull the things that people liked about the soapy Felicity and tried to insert it into Alias.  Those episodes of Alias were the worts ones where he had Sydney channeling Felicity.  Here, he takes it to another level creating a Felicity styled Alias..  He tries to capture us with an opening action sequence, but it doesn’t even involve the lead characters.  If I remember correctly, Alias began with an action sequence and a ragged Sydney Bristow walking into C.I.A. headquarters.  That may not be how it began exactly, but it was a sequence that stuck with you and hooked me into the show.  Our introduction to the lead characters in Undercovers was a catering discussion.  The setup action sequence was wasted.

Action sequences abound, but it doesn’t make up for the weak plot.  So, the C.I.A. needs to bring them back into the fold by finding a missing agent, who may or may not be selling secrets.  And we follow the Blooms, as they globe trot (but yet still manage their catering business) tracking down leads.  They went through each “locale” at a dizzying pace.  I barely had time register what was happening.  Only in the end did I realize that not only had the agent they were looking for had been undercover for 5 years, but that he somehow stole some DOD (Department of Defense) documents and was planning to kill the main bad guy by setting up a sale of those documents.  I don’t even know why he wanted the guy dead and why the agent went rogue.

What did I like about the show?  The production value was high.  I am sure they didn’t actually film in all the foreign locations, but they tried really hard to make it look like it.  I think Boris and Gugu have great chemistry and they look good together.  I like the little moments they have when you are reminded that they are married.  They were believable as a couple who had never worked together as spies before, so the viewer got an insight into the growing pains they are going to have as they explore this new aspect of their relationship.  Finally, there isn’t anything that I haven’t like Gerald McRaney in.

To sum it all up: I like the show and it’s potential.  There are some kinks that the writers need to work out.  I think the second episode will tell us a lot more about how the show is going to play.  NBC isn’t known for sticking with shows that underperform, so let’s hope the ratings stay solid.

This fall there are five new shows that I am definitely interested in watching. I already feel like I have entirely too many TV shows on my viewing schedule this fall with the final season of Smallville, Supernatural, The Amazing Race, Hell’s Kitchen, Chuck, Human Target, House, Castle, Glee, Mentalist, and Fringe. Those are the shows that I can think of off the top of my head and I’m sure there are more. These five shows are definitely going to be squeezed into my viewing schedule one way or the other. My DVR will be working overtime. (Not to mention all the football I’m going to be watching Saturday and Sunday.)

Undercovers and Nikita

I put these two shows together because they are sort of in the same genre. Undercovers is about a married couple and former C.I.A. spys (Boris Kodjoe and Gugu Mbatha-Raw) who are pulled from their catering business back into the espionage trade. My interest in this movie doesn’t revolve around the fact that they are spies because I have had just about enough of spy shows, (Alias, Burn Notice, Rubicon, Covert Affairs). The fact that this is a prime time show on a major Network which has two people of color in the lead roles is the reason I am going to watch it. Hopefully, since this a J.J. Abrams production, the show will have good story lines. The only thing that worries me is that J.J. Abrams has said that he wanted to have fun energy and be a bit more comedic. I don’t know how a funny hour long spy show will play in primetime on NBC.

Nikita is sort of a follow-up to the French film Nikita and its remake Point of No Return (and the series La Femme Nikita). Nikita having now escaped the Division, the organization that turned her into a ruthless assassin, has come back to help others like her to also escape and to bring the Division down. The show stars Maggie Q (Mission Impossible III), Shane West (E.R., Echelon Conspiracy) and Xander Berkley (24: Day 2). Maggie Q looks good in this role and its great to see her finally get a chance to show off her talents that made her a star in Asia.  If the first episode is any indication, then the CW has a pretty good show to possibly pick up the slack when Smallville and Supernatural leave the airways.

The Event

The Event stars Blair Underwood (L.A. Law, Set It Off), Laura Innes (E.R., Deep Impact), and Jason Ritter (Joan of Arcadia).  There isn’t much to say about this show other than it stricks the same vein as Lost.  The mystery surrounding the show is going to make this show good.  I like the fact that Blair Underwood is playing President of the United States.  You can always count on him to give a good performance.

Hawaii Five-0

Hawaii Five-0 is a remake of the classic 60s/70s TV show of the same name that starred Jack Lord.  The remake stars Alex O’Loughlin (The Back Up Plan, Midnight), Scott Caan (Oceans 11-13), Daniel Dae Kim (Lost) and Grace Park (Battlestar Galactica).  I wasn’t a hug fan of the original TV series but my father was.  Networks have done a great job of bringing back classic series and making them modern in recent years, so that’s reason enough to give this show a try.  It helps that it’s a pretty good looking cast, too.

No Ordinary Family

Superheroes in primetime and on network television.  I am so there.  Who cares if it looks like The Incredibles or the Fantastic Four.  The promos look like fun and the show looks hilarious.  Definitely a must see.

Persons Unknown followed the story of seven people who were abducted and placed in a seemingly abandoned town in the middle of nowhere. They wake up in a hotel with no knowledge of how or why they are there. The hotel, the streets of the town, and the other buildings are all filled with cameras and microphones. During the first few weeks of their captivity, they are subjected to psychological and physical stresses (torture). They also try to escape several times without success since the town is surrounded by some sort of impassable microwave energy wall. Once, they actually make it through the wall only for all of them to pass out, possibly due to an implant, and awaken back in the town.

The secondary plot follows Mark Renbe, a journalist and the ex-husband of one of the abductees, Janet Cooper. Renbe is attempting to find Janet to not only investigate the unusual circumstances of her disappearance but to also reunite her with their daughter, Megan. Another subplot involves Joe Tucker who at first seems to be an abductee like the other six people but is later revealed to be an agent of “The Program,” those responsible for the abductions and what is going on in the town.

Now that I’ve explained the important plot details, let me explain why I think the show failed in the end. Initially, the show was advertised as a mini-series event and that “All will be answered” at the end of the summer. The only thing that the show didn’t do was to provide answers, or at least the answers for which I wanted answers. 1) How did they decide who to abduct? 2) What is the purpose of “The Program? It has to be more than just finding individuals who show great promise. 3) What is The Program? 4) What’s going to happen to Kate Damatto and Ambassador Fairchild? Those are just a few of the questions that I have. These questions wouldn’t be so bad if I knew that there was going to be another season.

I will commend the writers for creating a show with an original premise. The series finally was a well written episode, if they were setting up more seasons. Am I supposed to just assume that The Program continues on? Why not go out with a bang and have the characters that we (the audience) grew to care about escape and somehow expose The Program, or find a way back to their lives, or even make new lives, instead of being stuck in a loop. Usually, when a series or mini-series comes to an end, there is closure. Fans of this show, however few there may be, won’t have any closure. The conspiracy continues and the plight of our characters isn’t changed. It would be like Battlestar Galactica ending after Crossroads Part 2 with the revelation of who the hidden cylons are. Or it would be like Lost ending after the fifth season finale The Incident when Ben kills Jacob, Ilana opens the metal crate to reveal Locke’s body, and Juliet smashes the nuclear core and detonates the bomb. You can’t end a series that you know is coming to an end with a cliff hanger and not expect people to be a little perturbed.

Maybe it was a case of the writers not knowing how to end the show, but that’s ridiculous. You knew going in that it was going to end. There really isn’t any excuse. I might have been happy with just showing Joe and Mark in a new town starting the cycle over again, but you also show me our original abductees (minus Joe) in a hotel built into a ship out at sea in the middle of nowhere (incidentally the ship is named Almas Perdidias which translates into Lost Souls). They are then told “Welcome to Level 2,” by a now sinister looking Night Manager. What the hell is Level 2? Why didn’t they just scrap this group like the normally would do? If The Program is trying something new, what exactly are they trying? The writers seem to have no problem with raising even more questions.

Maybe I’m being too hard and literal. I actually did like the show, and if there were going to be more seasons, I would watch. But the ending bothered me. I dislike false closure on my TV shows. Maybe this’ll spawn comic books or webisodes, or even some decent fan fiction. One can only hope.

Sherlock

Sherlock is a modern day version of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes.  The show is brilliant.  I love the production quality of the show.  So far, each of the first three episodes have been 90 minutes long and that’s great. There is more time to watch Sherlock work through a case and still have time to explain how he comes up with much of his conclusions.  I also love how they display the information that comes through on mobile phones like text messages, caller IDs and web searches on the television screen.

The great thing about this show is how Sherlock (played by Benedict Cumberbatch) is really a modern day version of the sleuth.  Of course he chronicles his exploits in a blog and possess an iPhone. from which he deftly sends text messages and does internet searches for information that isn’t readily available in that big brain of his.

To me, the true gem of the show is Martin Freeman as Dr. John Watson.  Like many of the Dr. Watsons before him, he is a perfect complement to the self-described “high functioning sociopath”.  He’s a marksman and former soldier, and a medical doctor.  He’s proving himself to be down right dependable, a trait common in all versions of the character.  We also get to meet the devious and manipulative Moriarty.  I haven’t decided if I like this version of Moriarty.  He seems more like the Joker than the Kingpin, not that the Joker isn’t brilliant, but he is crazy.  However, I’m not entirely convinced that the man we saw as Moriarty might be him at all.  Sherlock might or might not be in your local listings, but you should watch it if you can.

UPDATE:  BBC announced that Sherlock would get a second season in the fall of 2011.  Man, that’s a long time to wait for a good show.

Haven

Haven is loosely based on Stephen King’s “The Colorado Kid”.  The first season is trucking right along on SyFy.  I can’t say that I am a fan of the show even though I’ve watched every episode.  The show is like Eureka with a supernatural twist.  Unfortunately, it’s not the only show that fits that description that started this summer (see The Gates).  I don’t think there is any chemistry between the 3 leads and that’s why the show isn’t pulling me in.  I keep watching each week thinking something is going to kick in but it hasn’t.  I can tell where the show is going, and the writers aren’t really giving me anything that would make me want to keep watching.  The long arc has something to do with the main character Audrey Parker trying to find out about a woman in an old newspaper article from Haven that looks just like her, who could be her mother.  However, we haven’t been given a whole lot to go on as far this storyline goes.  If you aren’t watching it you aren’t missing anything.  There are no main characters of color on this show.

Persons Unknown

I like this show.  If you haven’t been watching it don’t start now, you pretty much have to start from the beginning.  It’s much better than AMC’s remake of The Prisoner.  A group of people were kidnapped by a group known simply as The Organization, and dropped into a town that they cannot leave.  The actors in the cast are all believable and they all have good chemistry together.  There aren’t any big names in the cast, so that probably helps.  The secondary arc follows one of the persons uknown’s ex-husband journalist who’s trying to find her for the sake of their daughter.  The show is like a dark version of CBS’s Big Brother (a guilty pleasure of mine) which is probably why I like it.

The producers promise that all questions will be answered at the end of the series.  I like the idea of having a series with a definite ending.  I kinda felt that this is how Lost should have been (no nasty emails please).  It is apparent that this show couldn’t go longer than 13 episodes or even more than one season.  For some reason, this show makes me miss Defying Gravity.

Again, don’t watch Persons Unknown now if you haven’t been watching it all season.  NBC moved the show to Saturday night which means they have given up on it and are just trying to get rid of it, but to tell you the truth, how many episodes of Dateline NBC can one watch in a week?  Hulu and NBC have a few episodes, but not all of them.  I don’t understand why the network did that, but there are probably other ways to find all the episodes online. Chadwick Boseman (Lincoln Heights) and Kandyse McClure (BSG) both star as Persons Unknown.

Before reading this, if you haven’t read Batman: A Death in the Family this review will contain POSSIBLE SPOILERS.  If you haven’t read it and you are a fan of Batman or DC’s animated movies then you will enjoy this movie.  For those of you who have read it please feel free to read on.

In stores today, Batman: Under the Red Hood is one of the darker stories in the DC universe.  As everyone knows (so it’s not a spoiler) that the Joker killed Robin, Jason Todd, because of a telephone poll done by DC in 1988.  Subsequently, Jason Todd was “resurrected” in the DC universe.  This movie is the animated version of that story.

Bruce Greenwood (Captain Pike in Star Trek) voices Bruce Wayne/Batman instead of Kevin Conroy, the voice that we all know and love.  Greenwood does a fabulous job.  Neil Patrick Harris voices Dick Grayson/Nightwing and Jensen Ackles (Supernatural) voices the Red Hood/Jason Todd.  Both of them were also very good.  I missed Mark Hamill as the Joker but John DiMaggio did well enough.

The story is not unfamiliar to fans of Batman.  I thought they may have glossed over Jason’s resurrection a little fast in order to put in more action sequences.  I would have thought more interaction between him an Ra’s al Ghul would have made for a great subplot.  I really liked the team up with Batman and Nightwing, and how the writers were able to show how it differed from when Batman and Red Hood teamed up.

The animation to me was not as good as DC’s previous animated films, but the story made up for that.  I say see it and enjoy.  Just a reminder, it has graphic violence even for DC animation; it is rated PG-13. (It really is PG-13 and would probably be an R if it were live action.)

The Jensen Project is the second movie from Walmart Family Moments. The movie centers around The Jensen Project which is basically an independent think tank of geniuses gathered on a compound researching and developing projects that can save the world.  The movie stars Kellie Martin (E.R., Life Goes On), Patricia Richardson (Malcolm in the Middle), and LeVar Burton (Roots, Star Trek: TNG).  It was also a backdoor pilot for a possible television series for NBC.  It aired this past Friday night.

Let me start by saying that the only way I knew anything about the movie was from LeVar Burton (@levarburton) on Twitter.  I don’t think NBC or Walmart promoted this movie.  I didn’t see any ads online, on NBC or in any magazine or newspaper.  Which is odd, because NBC is notorious for promoting their productions across all NBC/Universal media.  Apparently, NBC wasn’t going to give Walmart and P & G their money’s (or is it monies’) worth.  Mistake 1: Lack of promotion. 

Mistake #2 is dumping it on Friday night.  Friday night and Saturday night are for shows and original movies to go and die in peace, unless you are the SyFy network, which leads me to….

Mistake #3:  Scheduling it against  SyFy Friday.  I will go as far as to say that most of the people who would watch The Jensen Project are also Eureka fans and are probably going to watch Haven (Based on Stephen King’s The Colorado Kid). I will not assume that everyone has a DVR.

That being said, I think the movie was actually not bad.  It was the type of movie that a family could sit down together and enjoy, thus the whole “Walmart Family Moments” theme.  The writing could have been a little tighter and the characters could have been developed some more.  Personally, I would have introduced The Jensen Project first and began the movie with the dramatic departure of Dr. Edwin Jensen stealing all the projects from the compound, instead of a less significant scene that happens more than half-way into the movie.  I don’t like movies or T.V. shows that start out with a scene that is going to occur later and then jump back with a title card that says “5 Days Ago.”  It only ever works when there is some sort of twist involved, like a main character about to die, or a character doing something that is not in their nature.

The effects weren’t bad considering they probably didn’t have a whole lot of “resources” to produce top flight effects.  The product placement for Walmart’s Great Value brand was entertaining as well as the showcasing of Microsoft’s Kinect (the motion sensor add-on for the XBox 360) All the actors delivered and sold me on their roles despite having mediocre dialogue, but they did as good as you can do with bad writing.  I was completely sold on LeVar Burton as a former NSA operative and Kellie Martin as a genius mom who wasn’t sure of herself.

Should you see it?  If you like shows like Eureka, Chuck, Jake 2.0, and a movie like Spy Kids, you might enjoy this with your kids.  I’d give it 2 1/2 raised fists, but I don’t have any 1/2s, so I’ll give it 3.

The first Iron Man movie was an almost perfect example of how to do a superhero origin movie should be done.  It is easily one of the top 3 comic book movies off all time.  Robert Downey, Jr. returns as Tony Stark.  No the whole world knows that he’s Tony Stark, and as he says in the trailer, “He has privatized world peace.”  He has two villains this time around.  Mickey Rourke plays Ivan Vanko, a Russian scientist who’s plotting his revenge, and Sam Rockwell as Justin Hammer, a business rival of Stark’s.  Scarlett Johansson plays Natasha Romanoff, and Don Cheadle has replaced Terrence Howard as Jim Rhodes.  Samuel L. Jackson returns as Nick Fury and Gwyneth Paltrow is back as Pepper Potts.

The movie is not as good as the first.  It’s more action packed and has a bit more drama.  But to me it lacked a clear direction in the plot.  The movie does tighten up in towards the end.  I think the problem is that in the first movie, Tony Stark had purpose.  In this movie, there is no real clear purpose in Tony Stark’s actions.  I’m not saying the movie doesn’t have a plot.  It’s just that the movie had scenes that were maybe a little longer than they should have been.

The effects were excellent.  My only problem was that most of the climatic battle was reduced to points of light zig zagging across the screen.

Overall, the acting was good.  Sam Rockwell’s characterization of Justin Hammer was the weakest of the performances.  I know he was going for a little comic relief but he played it over the top in the wrong direction.  He wasn’t smarmy enough and he was way too goofy/silly.  I like Terrance Howard, but he isn’t even in the same acting category as Don Cheadle.  In my opinion Cheadle played Jim Rhodes closer to the comic book than Howard did.  I would have liked to have seen more scenes between Rourke and Downey.  I think not having together a lot more was a waste of talent.  I think one more confrontation between the two of them without suits would have done it for me.

This week Halo Legends was released on DVD and Blu-Ray.  I must admit that I don’t really play first person shooters.  And everyone tells me that Halo is the best of the best.  I have dabbled in the Medal of Honor and Call of Duty franchises and I even downloaded N.O.V.A. for the iPod Touch.  They are fantastic games, but I can’t play them more than 20 minutes at a time.  However, I do watch the cut scenes for many FPS on YouTube.  So, when I heard about this, I thought that it was just going to be a collection of new Halo cut scenes, until I heard it was going to be similar to how Animatrix was to The Matrix.  That got me interested.

The release is comprised of 7 animated short stories.  Each story delves into part of the Halo canon.  Fleshing out some things, and shedding light onto others.  Each episode was done in a different animation style.  Fans will appreciate that the material in the stories are canon.  Fans will like the episodes The Package and The Babysitter since they add to the mythos of the Spartans.  My favorite episode was The Duel.  I liked the animation and the story was a classic.  The Duel also gave you insight into the workings of the Covenant.  But I believe that most fans already know that the Covenant is not as monolithic as one would think.

Overall, I enjoyed watching it and I think anyone whose a fan of animation will appreciate this collection of stories.  I know most of the fans of the game will already have this, I would still recommend it for everyone else.

Okay, so I’m late on this review.  Overall, I liked the movie, but I wouldn’t recommend you pay theater prices to go see it.  Wait till it comes out on video or cable.  I really was excited when this movie was announced and that Denzel was attached to the project.  Even the first theatrical trailer had me hyped about it. Book of Eli is about a lone man traveling across a post-apocalyptic world with a sacred book.  When asked where is he taking it, he answers, “where it needs to be.”  Cryptic.

I thought Denzel performed all his stunts exceptionally.  I also think that the Hughes Brothers did an excellent job adapting it for the screen.  The pyrotechnics were great.  I like to see things blow up.   My main problem with the movie is length.  The Hughes Brothers spent a tremendous amount of time showing us how bad ass Eli was.  They also spent time showing people doing a lot of traveling: walking, driving, etc.  I could have easily cut out about 20-30 minutes of the movie.  I have been a fan of the Hughes Brother’s work, From Hell, Menace to Society, Dead Presidents, but all of those movies were tight.  Book of Eli seemed like they tried to make an Epic with less than epic material.

This will be quick.  The Mayans predicted that the Earth has an expiration date. (Unfortunately, some people went and talked to some Mayans and they looked at them like they were crazy, so apparently the Mayans have no idea what we are talking about).  The best thing about this movie were the effects.  The amount of detail that was put into the destruction of some of our treasured landmarks was some of the finest special effects I have seen in a long while.  If you are a fan of catastrophe or disaster movies, then this movie will be right up your alley.  There are many explosions, crashes, and even a dog (a must in good disaster flicks.).

Let me start this review by saying that I liked the movie.  It was a fun ride.  Plenty of action, explosions, and effects.  Now, that being said, I had some issues.  But let’s start with the good things.

The effects were good.  I thought the action was well paced, and the story line was easy to follow.  I have to eat crow on something.  I had said previously that I the Waynans brother was going to make the movie unwatchable.  He didn’t do too bad of a job.  He wasn’t over the top as he is prone to be, and his comic relief didn’t take away from the story or anyone else’s screen time. The movie benefits from a plethora of sold performances led by Christopher Eccleston as James “Destro” McCullen,  Ray Park and Byung-hun Lee brought some excitement with all their scenes, together and separate, as Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow.  All the cool tech, especially the holographic communicators.  The S.H.A.R.C.s were cool, even though there was no Deep Six.

Problems:  The Cobra Commander’s mask at the end: Lame. The obvious nods to fans (Look at that. Real American Heroes…It comes with Kung-fu grip) Lame.  For fear of spoiling too much, there is a character who switches sides and loses everything that ever made that character appealing.  I could have used more characters mentions or cameos, like Deep Six, Shipwreck, Flint, etc.  The accelerator suits. Lame and unnecessary. Oh and as Lobo pointed out to me, the obvious Star Wars references especially towards the end of the movie.  Lame.

Overall, I enjoyed watching the movie.  And I would recommend it for anyone who was a fan of the cartoon series or the toys.  But don’t expect too much when you go see it.

It’s taken me a few days to get my thoughts together.  Actually, I enjoyed the movie so much that I didn’t think it would be fair to write a review so soon after seeing the movie.  So, I waited until now since I have had time to digest everything and for the initial shock to wear off.  Let me start by saying it was difficult to not get hopes up for this movie. Star Trek wasn’t completely original (time travel, Khan-like revenge), but it did it in such a refreshing way.  Let me get to it.

Casting was perfect.  Chris Pine didn’t try to imitate Shatner’s Kirk, in fact, he made the role his own.  Zachary Quinto shed his Sylar skin, and became Spock.  The best casting, however, was Karl Urban as McCoy, and Simon Pegg as Scotty.  Karl Urban had the mannerisms and the vocal inflection down.  It went beyond an imitation. Simon Pegg brought his quirkiness and comedic timing to a character that always seemed to bring humor the crew.  Any movie with Bruce Greenwood (Capt. Christopher Pike) is automatically 10 times better.  He brought a gravitas and authority to his role as the no nonsense Captain/Academic .Without going on about everyone, everyone performed their roles well.  Oh, Eric Bana’s measured performance as the snarky villainous Nero was scary. 

The effects were great.  ILM who provided the effects didn’t any models in the space scenes.  If I didn’t know that, I wouldn’t have been able to tell.  The only problem that I had was J.J. Abrams overuse of flare.  I know he was going for a style, but after so many, it wasn’t special. 

Star Trek, to me, is the best Sci-Fi movie since the Matrix, and the best action movie since Transformers.  I expect there will be more.  And I can’t wait.

This was one of the most anticipated movies of the Spring/Summer movie season.  I’ll make this review short.  Fanboys are going to hate it.  Fans of the Wolverine comics aren’t going to like it.  Fans of the X-Men series of movies are going to like it.  As far as the story goes, its fits into the story line of the X-Men trilogy of movies.  It gives the origin of our favorite mutant, Wolverine.  Questions about his past that were raised in the first movie are answered.  As with most origin stories, the action sequences were spread out by exposition.  But, when there was action, it was impressive.  Its easy to tell that they spent much time on getting the effects just right.  Hugh Jackman was his typical brooding Logan.  Liev Schrieber was excellent as Sabretooth.  Most of the other acting was okay.  However, Will.i.Am’s performance left little to be desired.  I was looking forward to him as Wraith, but he just didn’t do it for me.   One performance that stood out to me was Taylor Kitsch as Remy Lebeau/Gambit.  When I first saw him as Riggins on Friday Night Lights, I thought to myself, “He’d make a great Gambit.”  He did.

Problems:  No matter how good CGI gets, you can’t take years off an old man’s face and make him young again without it looking wierd.  No matter how far the stories of the X-Men are off base, at least they try to stay true to characters and their powers; however, Deadpool was so far off base as to make me almost completely dismiss Ryan Reynolds performace in the first part of the movie.  How do you have that much destruction at a Nuclear Power plant and not upset one of the reactors?  If I use an adamantium bullet and put a whole in your head, how do the wholes get filled in with adamantium?  I could go on, but I said I’d be short.

Fans of the series of movies and who have less than a passing knowledge of X-Men and Wolverine will enjoy the movie.  Everyone else, its going to be hit and miss.

I have dogged this movie since it was announced.  I saw the movie, and was told by The Powers That Be that there wasn’t going to be a quick review.  I don’t write reviews but here’s one that sums up my general feelings. There are spoilers and some bad language, so be advised.  This guy is hilarious.  Even if you aren’t interested in the movie, this is entertaining.  Also, we should get him to do reviews here.

I thought the movie was good.  I thought the acting was solid, the effects were done well, and I thought it stayed true to the comic.  The ending in the movie was much more believable than the ending in the comic.  My expectations weren’t that high.

Zach Snyder shows that he knows how to turn a graphic novel into a movie.  He takes the panels, as he did in 300, and makes them his story boards.  I did have a problem with a couple of scenes of Dr. Manhattan (no, not the blue dongle, that was more or less a slightly humorous distraction).  There were a couple of scenes where he looked like glowing blue modeling clay.  But it was okay since it had to be difficult to make him believable on film.  The makeup making the young actors of the Minutemen look older, didn’t bother me either.

My suggestion is don’t go see this movie if you want to see a superhero movie.  To me, that’s not what it is.  Its just like the comic.  More or less a discussion on the failings of human nature and how it affects anyone calling themselves a hero.  Watchmen is always hailed as a “deconstruction” of comic book superheroes, but I don’t think anyone who says that even knows what literary deconstruction is, but that’s a discussion for another time.

BTW:  Two black people.  One died and the other was a psychiatrist.  I consider that a wash.

Acacia is about the assasination of King Akaran by the Mein as part of their attempt to overthrow the Empire and to claim what they believe is rightfully theirs.  However, King Akaran has long put into place contingencies for his children for such an event.  Contingencies that would lead them down the path to maybe relcaim the throne.  My one complaint is that somewhere in the last third of the book, it turned into Dune.  The story is about redemption and family.  There is magic and there are monsters, though far a few between.  Magic and monsters are lost in legend, and for the characters in this story, this introduction to this series is more for them than it is for the reader.

Acacia:  Book One: The War With the Mein by David Anthony Durham is my third venture into fantasy written by a minority.  It took me a while to read this book.  Normally, I can finish just about any good sized novel in a week, or maybe two.  But this book took me the better part of a month to read.  Why?  The depth and complexity of the writing is something that I honestly haven’t come across since Lord of the Rings.  Don’t think I am saying this is like Lord of the Rings.  The only thing they have in common is that they could be considered fantasy.  However, Acacia is like the anti-fantasy.

I have read a lot of fantasy, and have at times complained about how they are all the same, or are similar to Lord of the Rings that they aren’t enjoyable.  I would say that Durham has gone out of his way to make this book as unlike conventional fantasy as he could.  It actually read like a fictionalized version of the fall of some historical empire.  Durham seems to be more fascinated with the corruption that underlies a slightly unstable political structure.  There are no dwarves, elves, or orcs.  The world that Durham builds is filled with differing cultures of people.  Its more like a fall of the Roman Empire than anything else.  He takes great pains in describing the History of Acacia and the people who live their.  He makes you feel like its more important to understand the political environment than the story itself.

I recommed it for those who are avid readers of fantasy.

Eleventh Hour is based on the BBC show by the same name (BBC America was nice enough to show it).  One problem I have is that it is completely exactly like the BBC show.  I mean the dialogue is the same minus the British accent.  So, CBS loses points for lack of originality.  Now that that’s out of the way, I liked everything about the show.  This show plays more like the X-Files then any other show that has ever tried to copy Fox and Scully.  The show doesn’t leave you asking more questions than when it began.  Its like what Fringe would be if it were streamlined and you combined Joshua Jackson and John Noble’s characters.

I don’t normally mention this but I do read message boards.  There seems to be a lot of people out there on the net who don’t like this show.  They fall into two categories, those who like Fringe (and are J.J. Abrams die-hard fans) and calls this a rip-off, and those who are former X-Philes who are still searching for that perfect replacement.  As a fan of genre shows, I think this is the best new genre show on T.V.  It gave me a self-contained story with an ending, plus planted a seed for a long arc story.  Rufus Sewell’s Dr. Jacob Hood is obviously a brilliant scientist, but he isn’t all knowing.  I say watch this show, and see how it plays out. 

Friday night the highly anticipated Star Wars: Clone Wars animated T.V. show aired two episodes on Cartoon Network.  I’ll make this brief.  The movie that was released this summer should have been the aired on the Cartoon Network first.  That movie was much more suited for T.V. and not the big screen.  But that’s beside the point.  I liked it.  There was enough of Lucas’s classic heroes in distress to keep me on the edge of my seat.   The one thing that I am looking forward to is how the writers have given the clones identites and personalities.  I think this is what is going to drive the show.  I also like Yoda, but then again, who doesn’t.  The one thing that bothers me, even though I know its for the kids, is the corny droid humor.  I can do without it.  But overall, it was entertaining.

I don’t care what you are reading or doing right now.  If you have not picked up this issue, then you need to get on it.  The Secret Invasion tie-ins are all pretty good, but I think that the Secret Invasion story in Black Panther is a cut above the rest (there might be some bias here, but that’s beside the point)  Between issue #40 (also a must read) and issue #41 you get everything that we like about T’Challa.  Not for once was I ever worried about the King and Queen of Wakanda.  Okay, maybe I was a little worried at the end of #40.  But after you read this issue, you will know that there is never any reason to doubt T’Challa’s resourcefulness, intelligence, and military savvy.

Previous Black Panther Secret Invasion Posts

Black Panther #39:  Black Panther vs. The Skrulls

Wakanda vs. The Skrulls

As part of my ongoing quest to discover minority fantasy and scifi writers, I have found another gem that I am going to recommend.  I just finished the book Wind Follower by Carole McDonnell.  The story follows Loic, the first born and heir to the Warrior Chief of the Doreni Pagatsu clan, and Satha, the daughter of one of his father’s oldest friends.  Loic sees Satha one day and demands that he marry Satha.  What follows is a quest by Loic to find the Creator and bring him back to the three tribes who thought that he had abandoned them.

The story concerns four tribes.  The Ibeni, Theseni, Doreni, and the newly arrived Angleni.  It seems to me that the story is a retelling of African history and colonization by the English.  The backdrop of this is the spiritual journey that both Loic and Satha take separately.  When  I first began reading the book, I was distracted by the new vocabulary I had to learn.  But the further into the story I went, the more I was drawn into the world that McDonnell had described.  The characters and their personalities came alive.  This is the second book that I have read (see The Alchemist) that has given me a visceral emotional response.  The Christian themes are very apparent in the book, but the story is not meant to be preachy.  The characters and their motivations are not hidden and aren’t impossible.  Without spoiling the ending, I was taken by surprise.   However, in retrospect, I realized that Loic and Satha’s story could not end any other way.  The amount of research that the author put into this book must have been daunting.

As far as Christian fiction goes, I thought this was a very interesting and thought provoking book.  Am I a fan of Christian fiction?  Not really.  I read the entire Left Behind series and found that series of books to be over written, drawn out, and preachy, which most Christian fiction novels tend to be.  Not so with Wind Follower. 

The best thing that I liked about the book was that it was one fantasy story that began and ended in one book.   Most of your Fantasy stories take place over several novels.  Lord of the Rings had three volumes.  We followed the adventures of the Shannara decendents in 12 novels; The Belgariad and the Mallorean were 12 novels.  Not that I don’t like series like that, but it’s nice to have a story begin and end in one novel.  Though I do see where she could write a prequel or two.  And I wish I had known about the glossary before I finished the book.

True Blood is about  a psychic waitress named Sookie Stackhouse, Oscar winner Anna Paquin, who lives in a small town in Louisiana.  She meets and becomes interested in Bill Compton, a 176 year old vampire.  An interest that is magnified by her inability to read his mind.  At the same time Bill comes to this small town, strange things begin to happen, and being the only known vampire, he’s the obvious choice for the source of those bad things.  The most interesting thing about this show is the social backdrop.  The Chinese have created a synthetic blood.  The synthetic blood is being bottled and sold as “True Blood.”  Because of this, vampires have come out of hiding and have staked, no pun intended, a claim for equal rights.

I liked the show, but there are some things that irritate me a little.   For one, Rutina Wesley, who plays Tara Thornton, Sookie’s best friend, is so abrasive that she’s almost impossible to watch.  Nelsan Ellis plays an over-the-top homosexual chef Lafayette Reynolds in the bar where Sookie works.  He doesn’t bother me, but he is so funny and good in this role that he’s a distraction and seems to be the only actor on the show who is believable.  I guess that my other problem with the show.  There are some talented actors, but they don’t seem to be selling their roles.  After 2 episodes, I don’t feel any connection with any of the characters.  Maybe its too early.  Maybe it’s because it feels like HBO wants to try and cash in on the rising popularity of Twilight.  Who knows.  But I guess I’ll watch it since there really isn’t anything else on T.V. Sunday nights.

I thought it was a mixture of Lost and Alias.  There were too many questions for the first episode.   The stuff about the mysterious corporation sounded too much like Dharma.  The “Pattern” sounded like the Dharma Initiative.  The weird things that were happening sounded like Rambaldi devices and inventions run amok.  I liked Alias during the first three seasons of its run until it got too convoluted.  I liked Lost before it got weird and I had to go on the internet after every episode to understand what was happening.  I will probably watch this until it gets weird or convoluted, whichever comes first.

It took a while to get around to seeing this movie.  Too bad I could have just avoided it all together.  I can’t possible spoil anything for you about this movie since we know how the clone wars end, and since it takes place between Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith, we know that none of the battles will have dire consequences.  That being said, I was disappointed in all aspects of  production of this m0vie.  Let me start by saying that I was trying to be optimistic about the animation but in the end it was exactly as I expected.  It looked like a Playstation 1 game extended cut scene.  Its funny how the stuff that Pixar has done has spoiled us all as to what 3D animation should look like.  In a word, it was terrible.  The characters were stiff and unrealistic.  The fight action scenes (clone/droid battles, and light saber duels) were like watching old video game sequences.  There seemed to be no care taken in trying to make the mouths match the voice actors.  The voice acting is a different issue unto itself.  The voice actors seemed to be sleeping through their roles.  The story line was predictable and formulatic. (isn’t that repetitive?)  I am going to cut this short because I could go on and on.  George Lucas should have just used this as a pilot for the TV show., instead of trying to make one last money grab from rabid loyal Star Wars fans.  Save your money and don’t waste your time.

No Rating.

Not long ago, I complained to someone that there aren’t any minority Science Fiction and Fantasy writers.  That person looked at me and said that I wouldn’t know since I haven’t tried to find any to read.  So, with my foot in my mouth I went to the bookstore with the intention of reading as many minority Sci-Fi and Fantasy writers I can.  I will try to read two or three books a week (once I pay my library fine) and post a review here picking one.  This week I only read one, The Alchemist.  Next week, I’ll do better.  If anyone has any recommendations you can email us at blackgeekdom@gmail.com, or send a message using the Contact Us link.

The Alchemist is a novel written by Brazilian author Paulo Coelho.  It follows the journey of a young shepherd named Santiago as he pursues his dream of finding treasure in Egypt near the pyramids.    I first heard about this book when Lawrence Fishburne was attached to direct, produce, and star in the film version of the book.   (Also, my nephew chose this as his summer book to read for school, so I was going to read it in case he didn’t.)    The overall theme of the book is that a person should pursue his or her soul’s desire, or what the author calls one’s personal legend.  Many people will have different reactions when they finish the book.  But for me, I found it inspirational.

The O’Connells return for the third installment of the highly anticipated third movie of the Mummy series.  Rick and Evelyn O’Connell return to face the Dragon Empreror  Han (Jet Li) who was raised from the dead by a now adult Alex.  There were many things wrong with this movie but I’ll start with what was right.  Jet Li was good in his role……….That’s it.  What was bad?  Where to begin?  The special effects were mediocre, the acting was subpar.  And the thing that made the first two movies good was the chemistry between Rachel Weisz and Brendan Frasier.  The chemistry was nonexistant between Frasier and Mario Bello.  Weisz’s interpretation of the sexy librarian/bookworm is almost iconic.  So, it stands to reason that an average actress of Bello’s calibur would not stand up to Weisz’s portrayal.  If you are a fan of the series you will leave the movie feeling less than satisfied.  But Jet Li was good.

This will be the easiest review that I’ve written so far.  Simply put, this is the best comic book movie ever.  Everything was exactly as it should be.  The acting, the minimalist effects, the pacing and the writing were all superb.  Heath Ledger’s Joker was terrifying.  He was exactly as the Joker is portrayed in the comics, a brilliant looney bird who does what he does for one reason:  Chaos.  Aaron Eckhart was great as both Harvey Dents.  Christian Bale, Morgan Freeman, and Sir Michael Caine continued their portrayals from Batman Begins.  The only flaw was that I still wasn’t hot on Rachael Dawes presence or Maggie Gyllenhaal’s characterization.   This movie makes me even more excited for the next Batman film.

Another thing I liked is that you can tell we are still early in Batman’s career.  He still makes mistakes, and everything isn’t perfect.  We are watching him become the hero that we know from the comic books.  He doesn’t quite anticipate his enemy’s next move.  He isn’t the detective that figures everything out.  He doesn’t put down bad guys in seconds (though he did take out two S.W.A.T. units).  It’s still an origin story.  Bruce Wayne is finding out what it means to be Batman, and what he’s giving up.  Right now he isn’t Batman because he wants to be, he’s Batman because he has to be. 

Not to be esoteric or anything, but the thing that has always intrigued me about Batman is that I always believed that Bruce Wayne was the secret identity and Batman was who he really was.  But Christopher Nolan’s characterization shows us that Bruce Wayne is trying to hold on the being Bruce Wayne.  The Batman persona hasn’t quite become dominant, but it’s clear in this movie that he is on that road.

The only thing is that we won’t get to see this version of the Joker ever again.   Now I see why there is talk of an posthumous Oscar nomination for Ledger.  At first I thought it was just promotional propaganda because of his passing, but after seeing the movie, I realize that the talk was justified.  With Heath Ledger’s passing, I don’t know if they are going to revive the Joker character with another actor, but if it were me, I wouldn’t want to try to follow his performance.  Most people liked Jack Nicholson’s Joker from Batman, but even he doesn’t compare to Heath Ledger.  What makes a comic book movie, or any movie with a hero really good is the quality of the villain.  For me, Heath Ledger’s Joker is right up there with Darth Vader, Hannibal Lecter, and Norman Bates.

I saw Hancock the other day, and there’s no doubt in my mind that Will Smith is now the biggest movie star on the planet.  Even a mediocre film such as this drew huge crowds and posted huge numbers.  I went on Tuesday afternoon at 2:00 PM and the theater was packed.  Go figure.  The movie was just okay.  It was different for a superhero movie, but that’s just it, it was different, not special.

On the bright side, there were 3 things that were great about the movie:  1) Charlize Theron, 2) Jason Bateman, and 3) the soundtrack.  I forgot how good looking Charlize Theron is, and she was perfect for the role that she played.  Jason Bateman is probably one of the most underated actors in Hollywood.  And finally, soundtracks are supposed to not really be noticed, but I noticed this one, and I didn’t mind it.  The special effects were good.  The plot was just okay, and as much as we like Will Smith as a genre actor, I just didn’t buy him in this role.

I initially had my reservations about this movie.  After seeing it, I was really impressed with the action stunts.  First, let me get the comparison to the graphic novel out of the way.  The movie deviated from a good deal of the story without actually changing the main overall plot and theme of the story.  I credit the

screen writer for pulling it off.  For the most part, the first 20 minutes and the last 20 minutes are just like the story in the graphic novel, with a few small minor changes.  They even managed to work in an aspect of superpowers into the movie.  Secondly, I want to commend the casting.   James McAvoy, Morgan Freeman, and Angelina Jolie all turn in spectacular and convincing performances.  The thing about the rest of the cast is that they spoke few words, which was quite effective since the movie was more about feeling and emotion than words.

The effects were solid except there was one scene on top of a moving train where the CGI looked rushed and unfinished, but over all everything looked realistic.    If you’re looking for a good summer action flick and a solid story that doesn’t require that much thinking then this is for you.

I saw The Happening around the same time I saw The Incredible Hulk, but chose to not do a quick review at the time. Now that I’ve had time to process the movie, I feel like I have to say something about it. There is nothing wrong with a director doing a message movie. But to me, the mark of a good director and writer, which Shayamalan is both, is the ability to convey your message subtly. There are subjects that as a viewing public, in my opinion, that we can deal with being slapped in the face with. Those would be topics like racism, sexism, child abuse and rape. Environmentalism is a serious subject no doubt, but for the most part everyone cares about the environment. But to me, its one of those things that if you’re going to make a horror movie about, you’ve got to shock us or be more creative. There are hundreds maybe thousands of movies about the danger of our advancing technology. Isaac Asimov, Carl Sagan, Philip K. Dick and Michael Critchton (I can’t believe I put him in the same sentence with those giants of science fiction) made careers out of warning us about how great and terrifying technology can be, but they didn’t sacrifice good story telling just to make their point. Simply having people drop dead from toxins released by plants is not going to cut it.

I just heard an interview with M. Night Shayamalan and he had the audacity to not only compare his movie and story in one breath to The Birds, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and Night of the Living Dead. He says the goal was to create a “B-Science fiction movie about a subject, where you have a great ride, you jump and you’re scared, crying and you do all those things as an audience member, and then at the end, the themes of the movie have you thinking of something a little deeper.”

The thing is that to me those movies dealt with those underlying issues in a more subtle way. (And honestly, I have no clue what the underlying theme of the Birds was) His movie was an in your face message movie. I don’t have a problem with that, but I do have a problem with him thinking that his film making is anywhere near the caliber of the other directors and writers of the movies that he mentioned. His movie is more like Spike Lee, a message. We can argue of the execution of getting his message across, but I have seen Hitchcock movies, and Shayamalan is no Hitchcock, despite what he thinks.

And unfortunately for him, if The Happening had been done by a first time director, many people would have been okay with it, but Shayamalan’s success means that we have come to expect better than average for him, and soon his credit from his early successes are going to run out, and he’s going to have a hard time getting anyone to come to his movies. Between Shayamalan and Tim Story (director of Fantastic Four and Rise of the Silver Surfer), minority directors are going to be told to stay away for Science Fiction.

I said before and I have told people not to waste time seeing it, but I think I’ve changed my mind.  I am not going to tell people not to see the movie, but just be aware when you go into it that there are no surprises, there is nothing being hidden from you, nothing to figure out, and there is nothing unexpected happening, no pun intended.

Wow. Marvel knows what its doing.  I thought it wasn’t going to get any better than Iron Man, but guess what, it did.  Okay.  Maybe they are both about the same.   Once again they give you hints of the Marvel Universe, and they tie the two movies together along with setting up other elements of the Marvel Universe.  Half the fun of watching the movie was trying to pick up on all the different hints and easter eggs hidden. You already know about the Tony Stark cameo, but that’s not the only thing in the movie.  I am sure I didn’t catch them all, but the ones that I did spot wowed me.  (Is that a word?)  Just like I said about Iron Man, go see this movie now.  Do not hesitate, do not stop at go.   A more detail review to come later. 

Also, I saw The Happening.  Don’t waste your time on that movie.

Okay, I really like this book.  It’s one of the few that I make a point to read every month.  In the current story thread, Superman has decided to rid the Earth of all Kryptonite with the help of Batman.  What he found out in the last issue was that there is way more Kryptonite on Earth than it should be and most of it was located in a bunker in Smallville.  When they got there, Superman and Batman ran into Amanda Waller and the Last Line, Waller’s  government initiative to deal with Superman if he ever became a threat.  The Last Line was outfitted with Kryptonite weapons.  That issue ended with Waller about to unmask Bruce, and Superman facing off against a human/Doomsday/Kryptonite monster called the All-American Boy.  In this book, the knock down drag out fight between Superman and Doomsday is recalled and reenacted in Smallville as opposed to the original battle being in Metropolis.   The fight is well drawn and easy to follow.  I do wonder why it takes Waller so long to unmask Batman, but I am even more surprised that a person with her resources and intelligence has never figured out that he’s Bruce Wayne, but that’s beside the point.  The fight is personal for Superman, and this issue reminds me why I never tire of Superman.  And the writing is good enough to make you really feel how vulnerable Superman can be.  Pick it up if you haven’t already.

Maybe my expectations were too high.  Maybe I let all the hype and buzz around the movie get to me.  Maybe it was remembering how the previous movies made me feel.  Maybe it was nostalgia.  Maybe it was Lucas and Spielberg together again.   I don’t know.  The movie wasn’t what I hoped it would be.  It was just okay.  It didn’t have that sense of adventure from the other movies.  The heroes were in sticky situations, but they weren’t ever in any real harm.  The age jokes were okay.  There was one chase too many.  The story, as fantastic as it was, was predictable and not very compelling.    No wonder Lucas didn’t care about the script leakage.  It’s going to make a lot of money, but not because of how great it is.  If you like Indiana Jones, you’ll probably like the movie.  Don’t get me wrong; I liked the movie, it just made me feel…unsatisfied.

I finally got to see Speed Racer this past weekend.  And there really isn’t that much to say.  I never saw the cartoon, and I can’t claim to be a fan.    I thought it was okay.  The kid in me hated all the exposition and the adult in me thought that Spittle and Chum-chum were an unnecessary distraction.  But both could agree on one thing:  the movie was beautiful and the effects were great, and the races were excellent (okay, I know that’s three but who’s counting?).  Overall, the plot was thin and predictable and the writing seemed lazy.  The box office receipts reflect how this movie was received.   Don’t expect a sequel.  Unless the Wachowski Bros. can somehow find a way to get Neo involved, this franchise is DOA.

Okay, this was the best superhero movie since Spider-Man.  It was filled with action and laughs.  Robert Downey, Jr. was the perfect person to cast as Tony Stark.  I can’t think of anyone who could have done a more convincing job playing the billionaire playboy.  The overall casting of the film was excellent as there were five Oscar Nominees/Winners who took their roles seriously.  The icing on the cake were the nods to the Marvel Universe such as Rhodey looking at the Mach II and saying, “Next time.”  The kidnappers being called the “10 Rings,” an obvious reference to the Mandarin (which wasn’t so obvious to me) and the annoying Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division Agent Coulson.  There were probably others that I missed or didn’t mention.(stick around for the after credits scene.)

The effects were flawless.  The Iron Man’s different versions of the armor were an amalgam of CGI and models, but you couldn’t tell the difference.  The fight between the Iron Monger and Iron Man was epic.  What I really liked about the movie was that the story was accessible to everyone.  The writers didn’t come out of left field with some far fetched abstract villain, or pit the hero up against a natural disaster.  Here was a story about a flawed man deciding to change his life and make a difference in the world and a man who wanted to make a profit at any cost.  That’s as real as Democrats vs. Republicans. 

Do yourself a favor and go see this movie….Now.