Most of the sci-fi franchises that I grew up loving haven’t been doing too hot this past decade.  The lame AvP movies.  The disappointing Star Wars prequels.  And there hasn’t been any truly great Star Trek around since Deep Space Nine (by far the best series of the franchise) went off the air back in 1999.

So it was with some trepidation that I approached The Sarah Connor Chronicles.  I caught a bunch of the episodes last spring, and this week watched (in pretty short order), all nine episodes now available on DVD.  My reaction?  Well….sort of middle-of-the-road.  Actually, I feel about this series almost exactly the same way that I felt about the third, James Cameron-free Terminator film: there’s a lot to enjoy, and it wasn’t nearly as bad as I’d feared, although its still a long way from the brilliance of the first two films.

The series starts off with a bang, with a cool apocalyptic vision of what will happen if Sarah and John fail to stop all the robots — nuclear armageddon, with a metallic Terminator robot, wreathed in flames, choking the life out of Sarah after having just shot John.  Of course, its just a dream — but its a pretty great way to kick off the series.  Not only does the sequence clearly remind the audience of what the stakes are, but its also a chance for the show to showcase some pretty snazzy effects.  I was rather impressed with the visuals throughout the first season — there’s a lot of great action stunt work (car chases, Terminator battles, etc.), and the show is able to show the fully robotic Terminators (as opposed to the ones clothed in flesh that can be played by an actor without special effects) a lot more often, and more convincingly, than I’d expected.  (I have no way of knowing, but I wonder if the show’s effects artists haven’t been able to capitalize on the groundbreaking work in this area done by the folks over at Battlestar Galactica.  They’ve been able to beautifully incorporate the full metal “toasters” into their live action shots for years now.)

Unfortunately, after the kick-off, things slowed down for the next several episodes.  We spend time with a computer programmer Andy Goode, whose chess-playing computer nicknamed “the Turk” may or may not be a first step on the road to Skynet…and with John and Cameron (his female Terminator protector, played by Summer Glau from Firefly) in school…and none of that really held my interest.  While there was some interesting serialization beginning to happen (Andy and the Turk’s storyline played out over several episodes, for example), there was also a paint-by numbers “adventure of the week” vibe starting (this week our heroes need to deal with a sketchy con-man in order to obtain new documentation for their new fake identities…this week our heroes need to stop a Terminator trying to stockpile metal that will be used by Skynet in the future to build mroe Terminators…etc.).  There were some nice connections to the Terminator movies (I was pleasantly surprised to hear the familiar drumming music whenever a Terminator is on the hunt), but also some pretty on-the-nose obvious references that didn’t really endear the show to me.  (Hey!  The new Terminator character is named Cameron!  Like James Cameron!  Get it?)

But then a terrific one-two punch of episodes 6 and 7 made me sit up and re-evaluate the show a bit.  Episode 6, Dungeons and Dragons, delves into the character of Derek Reese — brother of Kyle Reese, who in the first Terminator movie came back in time, fell in love with Sarah Connor and fathered John.  The character of Derek could have come off as a somewhat desperate attempt to add to the Terminator mythology (Hey, remember that beloved character?  Well he actually had a brother no one’s ever mentioned before!), but as executed he wound up being a terrific addition to the dynamic of the show.  This episode spends a great deal of its run-time in the future, as we see some of Derek’s background and find out how he wound up traveling to the past.  Its a risky gambit, trying to show us some of the much hinted-at future war on a TV budget, but they manage to pull it off pretty well through some great CGI and practical effects.  But more importantly, this vision of the future war really amped up the narrative intensity of the show…AND it gave us some good character back-story for Derek… as well as, surprisingly, for the Terminator Cameron.  

That episode was followed by The Demon Hand.  I mentioned above that the early episodes contained some halting references to the Terminator films, but here the show jumps into the Terminator continuity with both feet.  Agent Ellison, the FBI agent tracking Sarah and John, gets ahold of the tapes from Sarah’s psychiatric incarceration, depicted in T2.  The show marvelously recreates the look of the psychiatric facility, and Lena Headey, who plays Sarah, has some great moments playing the desperation of the caged Sarah that Linda Hamilton so iconicly portrayed.  Then, Ellison goes to visit Sarah’s psychiatrist, Dr. Silberman.  Silberman was a very memorable character in the first two Terminator movies (and he has a cameo in the third), played by Earl Boen (thank you, imdb).  Here, the role is re-cast, and filled by Bruce Davison (Senator Kelly from the first two X-Men films).  Davison does a marvelous job inhabiting the role, and there are some real dramatic sparks between Silberman and Ellison as Ellison tries to find out what Silberman knows about just what the hell is going on with all the robots and freedom-fighters from the future, and Silberman tries to do whatever he can to prevent the nightmarish things he’s seen in the first two Terminator films from coming to be.  Not only was this a great, dramatic, involving episode, but I was really impressed by the way the show utilized all the interesting back-story and continuity from the films (not ignoring Sarah’s time locked up in the psych ward, not ignoring the character of Dr. Silberman) but was also unafraid to run in different directions with those story-lines (re-casting the role of Dr. Silberman, and changing him from a disbeliever into someone absolutely terrified that everything Sarah used to rant to him about is actually true).

The last two episodes of the season were a bit of a let-down after those two terrific episodes…in particular, the season-ending cliffhanger was a bit lame.  I’m not concerned about Cameron’s surviving that car-bomb, and the “revelation” that the mysterious Sarkissian is — gasp! — someone else we’ve never seen or heard of before didn’t exactly blow my skirt up.  

So — overall?  I’m sort of middle-of-the-road on this series, as I wrote at the beginning.  I love continuity and serialized storytelling, which this show already seems to have in spades.  The action is great, and while I don’t think there are any particular stand-outs amongst the cast, everyone does a solid job inhabiting their roles — both the ones we’re familiar with (Sarah and John Connor), and the new inventions of this series (Cameron, Agent Ellison, Derek Reese, Dean Winters as Charlie Dixon, etc.)  My biggest fear is that the show has already started to get a little crowded with time-traveling Terminators and freedom-fighters.  Just how many people did future-John Connor and Skynet send back in time, anyways?  On the one hand, I’m sort of intrigued at the idea that the Terminator films only gave us a glimpse of a much-larger time-travel war going on, between Skynet and John Connor’s future freedom-fighters.  On the other hand, all these visitors from the future are already starting to get a bit silly, and we’re only 9 episodes in.  My other fear concerns how to keep the Terminators dangerous, when Sarah and John have to, obviously, keep beating them or at least escaping from them every week.  The show did a decent job of this in the first season, with one Terminator (inexplicably named Cromartie) menacing them throughout the season, and still at large by the end of the finale.  On the other hand, there were a few others that appeared that were beaten pretty easily (such as the one they trap in the episode Heavy Metal, and the one whose control chip Cameron removes in Vick’s Chip).  The lame Star Trek: Voyager took the great villains of the Borg and made them look stupid by having the crew of Voyager keep beating them over and over again.  I hope that doesn’t happen here.

Bottom line:  There’s enough that I enjoyed about this short first season that I’ll definitely be tuning in for season two.  Let’s see where the show goes.  And hey, I hear there’s this fourth Terminator movie happening…

I’ve been perusing my copy of Entertainment Weekly’s “Fall Movie Preview,” and there are some really interesting flicks coming our way in the next few months.  Here are some of the films I’m looking forward to:

Burn After Reading — It’s the next Coen Brothers movie, and it stars George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Frances McDormand, Tilda Swinton, and John Malkovich.  It looks like the Coens are in goofy comedy mode with this one, which suits me just fine.

Appaloosa — Its a cowboy movie with Viggo Mortensen and Ed Harris.  Don’t know too much about this one, but I’m interested.

Body of Lies — Director Ridley Scott is responsible for some of my favorite movies ever (Alien, Blade Runner…I’m even an enormous fan of the longer director’s cut of Kingdom of Heaven), so he always has my ticket.  This one has to do with CIA operatives, and its headlined by Russell Crowe and Leonardo DiCaprio.

Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist — After Arrested Development, Superbad, and Juno, I think I’ll watch Michael Cera (who plays Nick) in pretty much anything.  Nora is played by Kat Dennings, who was very funny as Catherine Keener’s daughter in The 40 Year Old Virgin.  This could wind up being a generic two-teens-looking-for-love chick flick, but the cast (and the sort-of bizarre title) has me interested.

Changeling — Babylon 5 mastermind J. Michael Straczynski wrote the script, and I’m eager to see how his distinct writing translates to the big screen.  It has nothing to do with sci-fi, but I’m still curious.  Its directed by Clint Eastwood, which helps.  

Zack and Miri Make a Porno — I love Kevin Smith, and this one features Seth Rogen and Elizabeth Banks, both of whom are funny in pretty much everything.

RocknRolla — I’m still waiting for Guy Ritchie to make a movie half as good as Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch.  Maybe it’ll be this one?

Synecdoche, New York — Charlie Kaufman (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) wrote and directed this film that, according to EW, “follows a frustrated theatre director who sets out to create a masterpiece to impress his estranged wife.  His project?  A life-size recreation of New York City, with thousands of actors all contained inside an improbably large warehouse.”  Um…okay.

What Just Happened? — The book of the same name that this movie is based on is sitting in my to-read pile, and I’m eager to get to it.  Its a Hollywood satire, and the film stars Bruce Willis, Robert DeNiro, and Sean Penn.  

Religulous — Bill Maher and Larry Charles take on religion.  I’ve mentioned this movie before on this site, and if I’m not mistaken it looks like its getting released in October.

The Road — Viggo Mortensen stars in this adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s postapocalyptic novel.

Frost/Nixon — Adapted from a play of the same name, this film deals with the 1977 TV interviews between David Frost (Michael Sheen) and Richard Nixon (the great Frank Langella).  Even better, the movie also stars one of my favorite actors, Sam Rockwell (Galaxy Quest, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind).

The Spirit — Frank Miller (the comics superstar who wrote and illustrated Sin City, 300, The Dark Knight Returns, and many many other towering works) directs this film version of Frank Eisner’s crime-fighter from the 40’s and 50’s.  The first trailer was less than stellar, but I am most intrigued to see what Frank has cooked up.  The great cast (Samuel L. Jackson, Scarlett Johansson, Eva Mendes, Jaime King) is also encouraging.

Quantum of Solace — The new James Bond movie.  There’s never really been a Bond movie that was a direct follow-up to the one that came before it, so this should be interesting.  (Diamonds are Forever SHOULD have picked up the story-threads from the dramatic cliff-hanger ending to On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, but sadly that film is one of the great missed opportunities of the Bond franchise.)

Whew!  That’s probably WAY more movies than I’ll ever get to see this fall, but they all sound good.  Can’t wait!

Well, the summer is winding down, but I’m taking advantage of the lull to catch up on some movies!  Here’s what I’ve seen lately:

Tropic Thunder — Just saw this tonight, and let me tell you it is phenomenal.  Ben Stiller stars in and directed this tale of a group of self-absorbed hollywood actors filming a big-budget Vietnam action-adventure movie called Tropic Thunder who, through a ludicrous series of circumstances, wind up in an actual Vietnam action-adventure.  (Hmmm, that description makes it sound sort of like Space Camp, but rest assured that it is not.)  The movie is hilarious, and I mean every scene is hilarious.  The cast is terrific.  Ben Stiller is Tugg Speedman, the action movie star looking for some respectability after the flop of his oscar-bait role as the mentally challenged Simple Jack…and Stiller plays forlorn self-absorbtion to a tee.  Jack Black plays drug-addled Jeff Portnoy, known for playing all the roles (in a variety of fat-suits) in the obese family movie series The Fatties.  As you’ve probably read by now, Robert Downey Jr. keeps his summer of success rolling (after Iron Man) with his portrayal of Kirk Lazarus, an actor so devoted to Method that he, well, transforms himself into a black man to play African-American Sgt. Osiris.  Those are the stars, but there are so many other juicy roles that are very winningly embodied by a variety of other talents.  Brandon T. Jackson plays rapper-turned-actor Alpha Chino (I laughed and laughed at that rapper name), and Jay Baruchel (so great as the lead in the great-but-cancelled Judd Apatow TV series Undeclared) is the requisite baby-faced soldier, Kevin Sandusky.  Danny McBride (who’s also having quite a summer, with the long-awaited release of his feature film The Foot Fist Way a few months ago, as well as his role in The Pineapple Express) is the somewhat psychotic pyrotechnics expert Cody.  Steve Coogan (Coffee and Cigarettes, Tristan Shandy, and the upcoming Hamlet 2) plays the desperate director Damien Cockburn trying to get his spoiled stars to behave.  Nick Nolte is genius playing… well pretty much himself, or at least the world’s perception of Nick Nolte, as the addled “Four Leaf,” the man who wrote the book Tropic Thunder being adapted by these Hollywood dim-wits.  And, of course, I cannot forget Tom Cruise, under a you-need-to-see-it-to-believe-it bald cap and hairy chubby suit, playing the gleefully profane studio mogul financing the production.  OK, do you want to see this movie yet??  Let me just add that this film is also enhanced by a trio of fake trailers even more enjoyable than the ones in Quentin Tarantino’s Grindhouse from last year.  (Speaking of which, will that movie ever see a DVD release in its theatrical form???  Sheesh!)

The Pineapple Express — Not quite the home run that Tropic Thunder is, but this film from the Apatow comedy troupe (The Forty Year Old Virgin, Knocked Up, Superbad, Forgetting Sarah Marshall) is still pretty funny.  Its also exceedingly weird, as the stoner comedy turns into an action adventure, or at least a sort-of parody of an action adventure.  Watching the somewhat rotund Seth Rogen take an action super-hero leap off a balcony to tackle Gary Cole (who is just great as the drug-lord bad guy here) is one of the more memorable shots in a movie this summer.  The Pineapple Express hangs on the buddy pairing of Seth Rogen (as the mild-mannered Dale Denton) and James Franco (as Dale’s drug-dealer, Saul Silver), and in that respect it succeeds well.  Both Rogen and Franco are exceedingly likeable and funny, and watching them joke around with one another (as they do for much of the film) is a lot of fun.  There are also a number of fun, familiar faces filling out the cast here, such as Bill Hader (involved in my favorite sequence in the film, an opening that reveals the real reason why marijuana was made illegal), Craig Robinson (the always-exasperated Darryl from The Office), the afore-mentioned Danny McBride, Ed Begley Jr., and Rosie Perez.  I will comment, though, that the film feels a little long.  I have often heard reviewers complain that Judd Apatow’s movies are all about 15 minutes too long…and I’ve never agreed with that (if the movie’s funny, then who cares how long it is?) until now.  Since this isn’t a “laugh in every scene” type of movie, it does start to feel a bit stretched towards the end.  But then you see a pants-less Seth Rogen carrying James Franco out of an exploding building, and I can’t say anything too bad about the movie.

The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor — Now this movie, I can say something bad about.  Ugh.  Just terrible.  I know Brendan Fraser has been criticized before, but I’ve always found him to be an endearing, energetic lead.  But here he just seems bored.  Perhaps because he read the script?  Maria Bello, one of my favorite actresses (The Cooler, A History of Violence), is just dreadful — utterly unconvincing in every scene.  Is it her attempt to pull off an English accent that undermines her?  I dunno, but my goodness.  The great action hero Jet Li is wasted, seeing as how he is played by a CGI molten-rock creature for most of the movie.  The wonderful Michelle Yeoh doesn’t have much to do except get stabbed, not die, deliver some exposition, and then die later.  Are you starting to get the idea?  Go rent the first Mummy film… or better yet, just go watch Raiders of the Lost Ark.  I will say one thing, speaking of Indiana Jones (whose character and style of archaeological adventure was so shamelessly cribbed from by this franchise when it began)… this film was less painful than The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.  But only very very barely.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Could it be that the theme song for the new James Bond film, Quantum of Solace, has already leaked?

Well, no. But this is still pretty funny!!

To all the Battlestar Galactica fans out there who, like me, are very sad to see the show come to a close with the 10 remaining episodes (to air on Sci-Fi later this year) — rejoice!

In addition to the much-discussed and finally green-lit Caprica TV-movie (set 50 years before the show — watch a trailer here), an additional BSG prequel TV-Movie has just been announced — one with much closer ties to the show. It’ll feature many actors from the series (announced so far: Anders, Chief Tyrol, and Cavil), and it’ll be directed by Edward James Olmos. Check out the details here!

Also! Rumor has it that the final BSG episodes will air in “extended” form — longer than the regular hour (or approx. 42 minutes without commercials). Read what Executive Producer David Eick has to say on the matter here!

LOTS of fun stuff continuing to hit the interweb in this past week, after the San Diego Comic Con.  Check out these links:

Creepy new trailer for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince can be found here!

Is the new Terminator movie going to be any good?  I doubt it.  But is this poster pretty cool?  Why it surely is.

Speaking of posters, some gorgeous new posters for the Watchmen movie can be seen here.

The entire hour-long Battlestar Galactica panel from Comic-Con (hosted by KEVIN SMITH!) is on-line here.

If you’re going to go see the next X-Files movie, this somewhat humorous recap of the final two rather lame seasons of the show can be found here.  Of course, the movie doesn’t deal with any of that stuff.  But its a fun trip down memory lane, as well as a reminder of why I haven’t rewatched any of the episodes from those final years of the show recently!

And finally, who better to sum up the entire Comic Con experience for those of us who couldn’t attend than Triumph the Insult Comic Dog.  He is merciless.

OK, that should keep you all off the streets for the next little while…