Have you seen this?  Jon Hamm (Mad Men) plays Lex Luthor in this short from Funnyordie.com, asking for bailout money for Luthorcorp.  Genius!

Out-there director Spike Jonze (Being John Malkovich, Adaptation) is making a film of Maurice Sendak’s beloved childrens’ book, Where The Wild Things Are?  What an insane, inspired notion.  Check out this wondrous trailer.  This is a movie I need to see.

Speaking of trailers I really want to see, I didn’t know anything whatsoever about Sam Mendes’ (American Beauty) new film, Away We Go, before I saw this new trailer (mentioned at the Motion Captured blog over on HitFix.com).  It stars John Krasinski (Jim from The Office) and Maya Rudolph (from SNL), and now that I’ve seen the trailer I am very excited for this film!  

I love this new poster for J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek movie.  I need this in my home.

Speaking of Trek, there’s been some interesting pieces posted on-line lately about the use of Bryan Tyler’s magnificent score for Children of Dune in the trailers for the new Star Trek film.  This article summarizes the confusion nicely.  I am fascinated by this stuff.  Tyler’s score was also used extensively in the first trailer for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.  I loved both of the Sci-Fi channel’s Dune mini-series, and it tickles me to hear snippets of the score being used all over the place these days!

Come back here tomorrow to read my thoughts on a terrific older film from director Guillermo del Toro, The Devil’s Backbone!

“Delirious, I saw that hell-bound ship’s black sails against the yellow Indies sky, and knew again the stench of powder, and men’s brains, and war.”

So begins the Tales of the Black Freighter, the famed “comic within a comic” from Watchmen by Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons.  It’s one of my favorite elements of the graphic novel, and also one of the most bizarre (which might be why I like it so much!).  Starting in the very first panel of Watchmen’s third chapter, and then recurring periodically throughout the remainder of the story, the horrific narrative of this pirate comic (being read by a young boy hanging out by a street-corner news-stand) weaves in and out of the larger story being told.

In the Black Freighter story, we follow the ordeal of the lone survivor of a sailing ship that has been ambushed and destroyed by the pirates of the Black Freighter.  Fearing that the pirates’ next target is his home of Davidstown, where his wife and children live, the survivor (whose name is never given) goes to desperate efforts to make his way home before the Black Freighter arrives.  Needless to say, things don’t go well.

In my review of the Zack Snyder’s movie adaptation of Watchmen, I wrote how I found it hard to believe that I was actually watching a Watchmen movie.  Who’d have believed that this brilliant, violent, weird graphic novel had ever been made into a film — and, even more incredibly, one so faithfully translated from the source material??  Well, as much as I had doubted that a Watchmen movie would ever come to be, it was positively inconceivable to me that Tales of the Black Freighter would EVER be included in such an adaptation.  In bringing such a large and complex work as Watchmen to the screen, surely the first thing to be done would be to determine what elements could be jettisoned, and surely the Black Freighter digressions would be at the top of that list!

And, indeed, the version of Watchmen released to theatres last month did not, in fact, include the Tales of the Black Freighter.  But, bless their hearts, Snyder and his team did actually adapt the Tales of the Black Freighter.  In order to capture the “comic within a comic” and differentiate it from the rest of the movie, they made the savvy choice to create it using animation.  And so the twenty minute Tales of the Black Freighter short film came to be.  It was released to DVD this past week, and it will be edited back into the Watchmen movie for a super-duper special edition DVD to come.  

So how is it?  Pretty good!  The brutality of the tale is rather remarkably preserved.  I had a few moments of quite giddy joy at watching iconic moments from the comic (such as the vicious shark attack) brought to life before my eyes.  

Gerard Butler (300, RocknRolla) is perfect as the voice of the sailor — grim and foreboding and increasingly desperate.  A phenomenal choice.

The quality of the animation, though, was a little disappointing.  The colors are gorgeous and the characters and backgrounds are very detailed and well-designed, but I found the character animation to be a little stiff.  Having so much detail on all of the characters probably made animating them smoothly more of a challenge.  (Part of the reason that Bruce Timm’s Batman: The Animated Series designs worked so well was their simplicity — with so few lines on every character, they looked great even on episodes where the animation was sub-par.) 

The tale also loses some of its power when taken out of the greater Watchmen story and presented on its own.  Much of the meaning of the Black Freighter story lies in the way it provides a parallel (or, one might argue, a counterpoint) to the story of a major character in Watchmen.  (I am trying to avoid spoilers here, so forgive my vagueness!)  Black Freighter presents a hard to resist argument that sometimes the best of intentions can lead to the foulest of results, and that dovetails beautifully with the story of Watchmen.  On its own, Black Freighter loses that potency.

Also, in the graphic novel, a great part of the fun is the way that Moore & Gibbons wove the Black Freighter comic in and around the other events being told in their story.  In a striking example, the stranded sailor remarks about the wooden figurehead of a nude woman, broken off from the bow of his destroyed ship, that had saved his life by keeping him afloat: “I could not love her as she had loved me.”  In a playful bit of business, that caption is placed over a panel of Dr. Manhattan and Laurie making love, an event which is interrupted by Laurie’s horror at Manhattan’s growing distance from him.  Manhattan is unable to love her the way she had (once) loved him.  As I watched the animated Black Freighter, I often found myself distracted, imagining the animated scenes inter-cut into Snyder’s live-action movie, and how they would play.  (I can’t wait to see that version!)

There are other fun features on the DVD, in addition to the animated Black Freighter short film.  Under the Hood is about 40 minutes long, and is a faux 60 Minutes/Charlie Rose style TV special about the super-heroes of the Watchmen world.  Under the Hood is the title of Hollis Mason’s tell-all biography about his life as the first Night Owl.  This is mentioned a few times in the Watchmen movie, but it’s a much larger element of the original graphic novel, in which several lengthy “excerpts” from Mason’s text are included in- between the early chapters.  In the comic, these excerpts help flesh out the back-story of the world of Watchmen, giving us additional insight as to what prompted some people to dress up in costumes in order to fight crime.  The fake Under the Hood TV special does a lot of the same things, as we get to watch lengthy interviews with Stephen McHattie as Hollis Mason, Carla Gugino as the first Silk Spectre, and several other actors reprising their roles from the Watchmen film.  The special is a little dry, but then, that’s exactly what it was designed to be.  Nothing revelatory here, but it’s fun.  

There is also a night featurette with behind-the-scenes commentary on the making of these two supplemental pieces of the Watchmen story.

If you’re a Watchmen fanatic like me, the DVD is definitely worth your time.  If you’re not, then hold out for that eventual super-duper edition!

In movies, in TV shows, in books, and in comic books, a big cataclysmic event is always a lot of fun.  But it only becomes meaningful and worthwhile if that big event leads to great new, interesting stories about the aftermath of whatever has happened.  

Did something BIG and DRAMATIC happen in some show’s season finale or season premiere?  Well, great!  But is everything back to normal in the very next episode?  Or are the repercussions of the exciting event explored in the episodes that followed?  Since, as you can tell from the headline, we’re talking about Star Trek today, let me give a Trek example: “The Best of Both Worlds” is possibly the high-point of Star Trek: The Next Generation.  (As anyone reading this article is probably aware, it’s an amazing, action-packed two-parter in which Captain Picard is assimilated by the Borg.)  But, for me, an enormous part of what made that event so great is the episode that follows, “Home,” in which we explore Picard’s attempt to recover from the intensely traumatic event that he went through.

David Mack’s trilogy of novels, Star Trek: Destiny, (which I reviewed here) was an incredibly exciting, ambitious story that left the established Star Trek universe in chaos.  I enjoyed Destiny thoroughly, but I was even more excited about that story’s follow-up: A Singular Destiny, written by Keith R.A. DeCandido.  That many of Mr. DeCandido’s books rank among my favorites of the recent Trek novels certainly added to my anticipation, but mostly I was just excited to see what sorts of new, exciting stories the Trek authors would be able to tell in this brave new post-Destiny world.

I am happy to report that A Singular Destiny is a terrific read, and that this new novel continues to contain all of the elements that I have so throughly enjoyed in so many of Pocket Books’ recent Star Trek novels.

As the book begins, we are introduced to a new character: Professor Sonek Pran.  Once a valued advisor to a series of Presidents of the United Federation of Planets, he has fallen out of favor and settled into a life of teaching University students on Mars.  But he is called back to service to help with the diplomatic situation within what’s left of the fractured Romulan empire (the result of the events of Star Trek: Nemesis as well novels such as Death in Winter by Michael Jan Friedman and Taking Wing by Michael A. Martin & Andy Mangels).  Needless to say, what seems like an isolated incident turns out to be only a small piece of a larger, galaxy-wide puzzle.  Before long, Professor Pran (and the readers!) have witnessed the emergence of a new, dangerous threat to the beleaguered Federation of Planets.

A Singular Destiny is an epic tale, spanning many worlds and involving many characters (plenty of familiar faces as well as a number of new DeCandido creations).  Although the main thrust of the novel follows the journey of Professor Pran, many chapters jump away from his story in order to give us a taste of events happening in a variety of different planets in the Federation, as the known galaxy tries to pull itself together following the massive destruction that occurred in the Destiny trilogy.  (I am being purposefully vague about the events of Destiny, so as not to spoil those wonderful novels for anyone!)  In addition, DeCandido utilizes a clever device of beginning each chapter with a letter, a news report, a starship log entry, or some other form of correspondence.  Some of those texts connect to the stories of the main characters in the novel, though many do not.  Their purpose is not so much to advance the plot but to give the reader additional information about the events transpiring all around the galaxy, and the personal costs and impacts of those events.  

As always with his work, DeCandido fills the novels with a number of “easter eggs” and cameos of familiar names and places.  These are carefully done — they don’t intrude upon the story being told, but they will surely bring a smile to the faces of long-time Trek fans, and they help add to the sense of the Trek universe as a large, connected tapestry.  

Speaking of which, it is clear that this novel is just one piece in the growing tapestry of Star Trek novels.  In my previous articles about Trek novels I have mentioned repeatedly how much I have enjoyed the way the last few year’s worth of Trek books have all fit together into a larger, connected universe of developing characters and stories that move forward from book to book.  A Singular Destiny is no different.  The novel’s main focus, in its second half, is to introduce us to The Typhon Pact, a new coalition of foes that looks to be giving our heroes significant trouble for the next year or two’s worth of novels.  There are also a lot of little hints about other story-lines that I am sure lie ahead in future novels.  For example, one chapter in the middle of the novel begins with a lengthy list of casualties from the fighting in one sector of Federation space.  When I was first reading the book and I got to that list, I read the first few names then skipped the rest and moved on.  On a lark, when I was done reading I went back to that list to read through it.  I’m glad I did, because there were some real shockers in there.  It seems that several pretty major Star Trek characters have met their ends — I am sure those stories will be told in future books.

A Singular Destiny is exactly the type of Star Trek story that I love (no matter what type of media it is in): a BIG, galaxy-spanning tale filled with real dramatic stakes that is filled with connections to and explorations of many of the different characters, worlds, and races that have been developed by the previous Trek movies, TV series, and novels.  It’s a winner.

Last week I waxed poetic about my favorite TV series finales.  Today let’s examine the other side of the coin — what I feel are the three WORST series finales that I’ve ever seen!

One quick note, before we begin: St. Elsewhere is renowned for having one of the most ludicrous series finales ever, in which it was revealed that the entire show was just the dream of an autistic child.  However, since that wasn’t a show that I ever watched, it’s finale isn’t on my list.

So what is?

The West Wing — “Tomorrow” — I thought the show would be lost after the departure of Aaron Sorkin at the end of season 4, and the limp season 5 didn’t do much to discourage me of that notion.  Season 6 started off just as badly, but about halfway through that season the show completely reinvented itself.  Suddenly the story focused on the race for the White House, following a variety of characters, new and old, through their involvement in the primaries and, ultimately, in the Presidential election.  Not only did this change bring a lot of new energy and intensity to the show, by moving the show outside the confines of the White House and into new territory, it made it easier for viewers to stop comparing the new episodes to the Sorkin classics.  I got really into the show again, and was very excited for the finale to wrap things up in grand style.  Sadly, what we got was a tepid, boring hour in which nothing really happened.  The much-heralded return of Sam Seaborn (Rob Lowe) turned out to be barely more than a cameo.  Many long-running characters and storylines were ignored entirely (Toby doesn’t appear at all??  No resolution to the long-simmering Charlie-Zoey romance?) or handled in an entirely trivial, superficial manner (Gee, President Bartlett sees Charlie as his son?  That was obvious ever since the first season!).  Most disappointingly, the first episode of season seven had opened with an intriguing “three years later” flash-forward.  It had seemed clear to me that the questions raised in that scene would be addressed in a book-end scene at the end of the finale.  And yet, nothing!  Why include that scene at all in the season premiere if they weren’t going to go anywhere with it?  What a let-down.

The X-Files — “The Truth” — Although the show definitely should have ended after the seventh season, when David Duchovny (who played series lead Fox Mulder) left, I’m not one of those fans who thought the final two seasons to be entirely without merit.  There were still a lot of great spooky adventures to be had, and I thought that the two new leads, Agents Doggett (The T-1000 himself, Robert Patrick) and Reyes (Annabeth Gish) were both surprisingly compelling.  Like The West Wing, The X-Files was a show that was clearly past its prime in its final couple of seasons, but I still found it solidly enjoyable from week to week.  Until the staggeringly boring final episode, that is, in which Mulder returns and is put on trial by the military.  The extended trial is a pretty feeble excuse to show a lot of clips from previous episodes of the show.  The idea of putting all of the weird and mysterious events that we’ve witnessed into some sort of context is a good one — but unfortunately, by this point the mythology of the show had grown so convoluted that even attentive viewers like myself had grown disinterested in all the talk of alien-human hybrids, abductions, shape-changers, genetically engineered bees, and all of rest of that stuff.  Worse still, the trial and its accompanying clips just re-showed us events that we’d already seen, and pieces of the puzzle that we, the viewers, had already put together for ourselves.  There was nothing NEW learned — no surprises, no revelations.  My attention did perk up, for a brief moment, when series villain the Cigarette Smoking Man re-appeared towards the episode’s end.  I had hated the way he had been apparently killed off in an earlier episode, and was thrilled to see that event undone.  But, after 5 minutes, they went and killed him off again!  What a waste.  So sad to see this amazing, ground-breaking show end with such a pathetic whimper.

Seinfeld — “The Finale” — Here’s another example of a show that made the terrible decision to hang the story of its finale around a clip-filled trial.  Ugh.  There was some fun to be had in the first twenty or so minutes, as some old story-lines were revisited (Jerry’s pilot, the contest, etc.) and they played with the audience’s expectations for a dramatic series finale (There’s ALMOST a plane crash!  Elaine ALMOST professes her love for Jerry!).  But once the gang found themselves stranded in Massachusetts and get arrested, things came to a screeching halt.  The lengthy trial is entirely without humor, and all the clips just serve to remind viewers of how much funnier the show used to be.  I love the idea of bringing back a lot of familiar faces from the run of the series, but I found the trial to be a pretty clumsy way to do it.  It just got very dull, very quickly, to watch one old character after another walk through the courtroom doors.  Furthermore, sending the characters to prison at the end seemed to be quite an outlandish break from the show’s famous “show about nothing” mantra.  And frankly, the whole idea of punishing the characters for all of their pettiness seemed like something developed by someone who’d never actually watched the show.  Of course I know that the finale was written by Larry David, but had he forgotten that the characters seemed to suffer at the end of every episode for their mis-deeds??  Did George’s schemes not always blow up in his face?  Was Jerry not dumped repeatedly by beautiful women like Sidra (”they’re real, and they’re spectacular”) or Mulva?  Did Elaine not continually drift from job to job and weird boyfriend to even weirder boyfriend?  No additional punishment was necessary!  Sending them to prison just seemed ludicrously excessive.  But of course I would have forgiven that device had the lengthy finale actually been any funny.  Which it was not.  What a disappointment.  I much preferred the wonderful retrospective “The Chronicle” (filled with wonderful montages of clips as well as out-takes, etc.) that aired right before the finale.  Now THAT was a nice send-off to this classic series.  

Do people agree?  Disagree?  What other series-ending clunkers have I neglected to mention?  Let me know!

Did you know that this past Sunday, March 22, was International Talk Like William Shatner Day?  Let the incredibly talented voice-artist Maurice LaMarche (the voice of The Brain from Pinky and the Brain, numerous characters on Futurama, and an incredibly long list of other credits) tell you all about it!

Have you ever heard Kevin Pollak do his famous impersonation of William Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk?  BEHOLD!

So, it’s over.

I can count on one hand the number of truly great science fiction TV shows.  As I look back at Ron Moore’s reimagined Battlestar Galactica, there is no question that this epic tale is high on that list.  Seeing the show come to a close is a great loss — although I am comforted to know that in the often-brutal TV marketplace that’s out there, Moore & his team were able to end the show on their own terms, when they felt their story was finished.  This is a saga that I am certain I will revisit many times in the year to come.

It is staggering to consider all the little choices that Moore & co. made correctly, right from the beginning, that all came together to make BSG such a masterpiece.  The brilliant casting of the enormous ensemble.  The decision to forgo most of the Star Trek ideas that were so innovative 30 years ago but that have become such sci-fi cliches over the past four decades (such as aliens with strange foreheads in funky suits, magic transporters, view-screens, a bridge with a big captain’s chair in the middle of it, super-duper shiny computer consoles everywhere… I could go on!) and create a retro look for the show.  The fearlessness with which the writers tackled the inherent darkness of the premise — the near-total annihilation of the human race — and all of the logical questions and struggles that would come out of that apocalyptic event.  (What will our society be like?  Will we have a government?  Courts?  Freedom of the press?  Where will we get fuel, or food, or water?  What happens when we start running out of supplies like medicine, or toothpaste?  Who will be in control, the military or the civilians?)  And finally, the choice to center the stories not in sci-fi mysteries (no time-travel, no alternate universes, no weird astrological phenomena to investigate, no aliens to make contact with) but in characters.  There were no cardboard cut-outs, perfectly moral characters to be found on this show.  No, everyone (even the robots!) were completely human — flawed, imperfect, and capable of making terrible decisions (even our most heroic characters!).

The show has made some mis-steps over the course of its run, there’s no question about that.  I, for one, felt that it nearly lost its way in the latter half of season 2, after the Pegasus three-parter concluded.  There were a couple of stand-alone episodes there that were weak in the extreme, particularly the notoriously terrible “Black Market” (by the way, if you haven’t heard it, Ron Moore’s brutally honest mea culpa podcast for that episode is a must-listen).  But as I look back over the run of the show, despite a couple of clunkers here and there, BSG had a hit-to-miss ratio of episodes that was truly ASTONISHING.  And when it was great — as it oh so often was — ho boy, there was just nothing better on TV, sci-fi or otherwise.

So what did I think of the finale, already?

Well, I’ll try to keep my thoughts as spoiler-free as I can, but if you’re someone reading this who hasn’t seen the finale yet — or, if you’re someone who is watching BSG but is behind, OR if you’re someone who MIGHT SOMEDAY choose to sample this amazing, incredible show, then let me kindly invite you to GET LOST NOW.  Believe me, you don’t want any surprises spoiled for you in any way.  Enjoy today’s cartoon, and then come back tomorrow when I discuss International Talk Like William Shatner Day!  (I’m not kidding about that.)

Ok?

Great!

I thought the first hour and a half of the finale was pretty much perfection.  

This show has been astounding me, ever since the original mini-series, with the beautiful, feature film quality of its visual effects.  It seems that every week they give us some incredible sequence that tops everything that has gone before.  And then they go ahead and top that the week after.  The assault on the Cylon Colony was one of the most magnificent sci-fi action sequences that I have ever seen, on TV or at the movies.  If the new Terminator film has robot-on-robot action that is half as amazing as what we saw here, with centurian battling centurian (and the old-style 1970’s centurians, no less!!), then I will be very impressed.  The entire extended sequence was the type of nail-biting action spectacle that BSG has always done so peerlessly.

There was also a lot of humor (Tigh’s remark about it not being too late to throw all the Cylons out the airlock), great character moments (Boomer’s choice, Baltar and Caprica Six realizing that they each see “head” versions of each other), and a healthy dosage of the type of “holy shit” moments that, like the epic sci-fi action, has always been such a hallmark of the show.  The realization, at long, long last, of the Opera House visions (that had been a mystery of the show ever since the season 1 finale) was just perfect, a spine-tingling moment.  The Chief’s final reckoning with Tory — wow, did that get me!  Ron Moore has stated, in some post-finale interviews, that the writers purposefully did not mention the Tory-Cally stuff recently, so that they would surprise viewers who had thought that story-thread forgotten.  I’m usually pretty attentive about these sorts of things, but they got me good.  I also loved the revelation as to the ultimate purpose of “All Along the Watchtower” — I thought that was just about perfect.  And the twist about Earth, and the charred cinder of a world that we’d seen in the mid-season finale — well that was brilliant as well!  I’d been thinking about that a lot, actually, in the last few weeks, as I contemplated where the show was going to end, and I’d become more and more dissatisfied with the revelations we’d gotten mid-season about Earth.  It had seemed a bit anti-climactic, and so I was really, really glad to see that there was a lot more to the story of Earth than what we’d seen to that point.

The last 40 or so minutes of the finale, after Kara jumps Galactica… well, I am a little bit less enthusiastic about that.  I do really love that they took their sweet time with the ending, although I also wish that, after such an intense, amazing first hour-and-a-half, that a little something more had actually HAPPENED in the final 40-45 minutes.  I sort of like the inevitability of ending up on “our” Earth in the past (which was something that I had guessed as a possible ending of the series way back when I first saw the miniseries, and started wondering about where their quest for Earth would take them), although, again, I must admit to having hoped, as I watched the end of the finale unfold, for some sort of additional twist on that.

But what we got instead was a slow, elegiac goodbye to all of the (surviving) characters that we’d grown to love over the course of the show.  I can’t really complain about that.  This sort of closure is a key component of a successful series finale, and it was great to see everyone get a little attention.  I was very worried that poor Helo wasn’t going to make it through to the end (particularly after Athena left him bleeding out in the hallway, and then WE DIDN’T SEE HIM AGAIN FOR LIKE AN HOUR!!), so I was particularly happy to see him get his happy ending with Athena.  The death of Laura Roslin, which we’ve known was coming ever since the mini-series, was tender and moving.  Her final flight, and Adama putting his wedding ring on her finger (echoing Laura’s vision from “The Hub”), were powerful moments.  And thank the gods that we got to hear Adama and Starbuck give their familiar “nothing but the rain” back and forth (that was first introduced all the way back in the miniseries) one final time!  I was waiting for that for the whole episode, and was starting to doubt that we’d get to hear it again!  Whew.

I’ve read some grousing on-line about the final revelations about Starbuck, but her disappearance worked for me.  That wasn’t something that I needed totally resolved.  However, I will admit that I would have liked a LITTLE more information — like, if she was a “head” character like Six and Baltar after all, then what the hell was the deal with her Viper??  And who exactly was the figure who’d been guiding her all along (taking the form of Leoben back in “Maelstrom,” the episode in which she died in the nebula, and the form of her father the piano man just a few weeks ago in “Someone to Watch Over Me”)?  And was she connected to the mysterious missing Cylon Daniel, or not?  If her father didn’t have a Cylon (or “head” character) connection, then how/why did he teach her that song when she was a little girl?

My main dissatisfaction with the ending has to do with its pat, simplistic nature.  For a show that always addressed the realistic details and problems that the “ragtag fleet” faced, this just seemed too easy.  There weren’t ANY Colonials who wanted to stay on their ships?  There wasn’t ANY dissent about destroying ALL of their technology?  It’s all well and good to see everyone frolicking in the grass and on their respective cabin-site hilltops — but what about a month later when it gets cold, and people start getting sick, and going hungry?  I would have liked to have seen at least a scene or two addressing some of those possible concerns.  (And speaking of simplistic, is Adama going to build that cabin all on his own??  Come on.  I would have liked to have seen one final scene of him and Lee reuniting, after both losing their respective ladies.  That would have felt a bit more “right” to me than having both Bill and Lee left alone.)  I also, frankly, was a bit distracted by the similarity between this ending and that of Douglas Adams’ novel Life, the Universe, and Everything.  Maybe that’s just me!

But I am starting to nitpick here.  The final scene, 150,000 years later, was wonderful.  I enjoyed both the connections to our modern world (on-the-nose though it was) and to the mini-series (echoing Six walking unnoticed through the bustling streets of Caprica).  Who knew the famed One Year Later jump at the end of season 2 was just the beginning of the show’s time-jumping!!

I think any lingering dissatisfaction that I feel rests not with the finale, which (nit-picks aside) was really a magnificent episode, and more with some of the storytelling decisions made during the course of this last season.  Ever since Kara’s “death” (and I guess now I should remove those quotation marks, huh?) towards the end of season 3, the show became much more about the various mysteries that were being presented than it ever had been before.  Questions such as what happened to Kara, what was her destiny, who was her guide, how did she survive… who was the final Cylon… what was the nature of the final five, how could they be cylons, what was their history… what, in fact, does it mean to be a “Cylon”… who was Daniel, and what, if any, connection did he have to Starbuck… what really happened back on Earth, and on Kobol, 2-3,000 years ago…???  Etc etc etc.  For most of its first three seasons, BSG wasn’t really a show about mysteries (the way Lost is), but I felt that these questions came to dominate the show during its final year.  I would have appreciated it had more of them been answered, in more substantial ways, before we even got to the finale.  

Does any of this dilute my over-all love for this show?  No, it does not.  In fact, I can’t wait for the eventual DVD release, so that I can re-watch this final batch of episodes and see, in hindsight, how I feel everything fits together.  

There have been very few television shows as relentlessly challenging, thought-provoking, and just ridiculously entertaining as Battlestar Galactica.  To Ron Moore and everyone involved in the creation of this show, you have my thanks.  

Say it with me now, folks:  So say we all!

The great Battlestar Galactica saga comes to an end, tomorrow.  I am trying to be brave!  In preparation, I have been thinking about some of my favorite series finales.  Click here to see numbers 10-6.

5.  Arrested Development — “Development, Arrested” — Cut down before its time, creator Mitch Hurwitz and co. at least had enough notice to be able to craft a fantastic finale.  Structured to echo the events of the pilot (I love it when series finales bring things full circle like that), it’s another momentous party-boat ride for the Bluth Clan.  Young George Michael confronts his feelings about his cousin Maeby (Michael:  ”How long has this been going on?”  George Michael: “I don’t know… about 53 weeks?”).  Lindsay stresses about getting older (”I’m going to be 40 in three years!”  Michael:  ”You know, being twins, our birthdays are pretty close to one another…”).  Tobias… well, remains Tobias (”Perhaps I should call the hot cops and tell them to come up with something more nautically themed.  Hot Sailors.  Better yet, hot se–” Michael, interrupting: “I like hot sailors!”  Tobias: “Me too.”).  And many, many long-running jokes are revisited (”Ann.”  ”Her?”  – “That was a freebie” — “I think I’ve made a terrible mistake” — “Annyong!”)  You might have noticed yesterday in part 1 of this list that I focused a lot on the final scene as the true measure of a series finale’s worth.  No surprise, the geniuses behind this show bring it all home in a note-perfect epilogue, in which Maeby attempts to sell the Bluth family story to Ron Howard (who was, of course, the narrator of the show for its entire run).  Says Howard: “I don’t see this as a series.  Maybe… a movie?”  We can only hope!!

4.  The Wire — “-30-” – As the fifth and final season of The Wire unfolded, I was petrified as to what would happen, in the end, to all of the beloved, damaged characters on this take-no-prisoners show.  Would ANYONE get a happy ending?? Somehow this finale managed to bring proper closure to almost every member of this amazing, one-of-a-kind sprawling ensemble cast.  Without breaking from the tough, down-beat tone of the series, I still felt throughly satisfied with where everyone wound up — quite a feat.  This episode is filled with all of the intensity and emotion that made this series such a powerhouse.  In particular, the Irish wake for one of our good friends was a profoundly effecting scene.  And the finale montage of life in Baltimore?  Phenomenal.  Makes one want to watch the entire series through again.

3.  Quantum Leap — “Mirror Image” – To be honest, while I really enjoy Quantum Leap, I can’t say that I’m an enormous fan.  I’m sure I haven’t seen every episode.  I know the finale was controversial, but I have to say, it is by FAR my favorite episode of the series, and one that I have found myself revisiting many times.  Sam Beckett (Scott Bakula) leaps into a strange bar… and discovers that rather than leaping into someone else’s body, he seems to actually be himself, on the day of his birth.  The bartender (Bruce McGill) who may or may not be God gives Sam some answers about his leaping and offers him a momentous choice.  The closing words of the episode, written across a black screen, give us one of the saddest endings of a TV series that I have ever encountered: “Dr. Sam Beckett never returned home.”  Brutal, and yet, somehow — perfect.

2.  Star Trek: The Next Generation — “All Good Things…” – As with the Quantum Leap finale, this final episode of Next Gen stands as one of the finest of the entire run of the series.  Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) finds himself moving backwards and forwards through time — living parallel lives in the past (just a few days before the series’ pilot episode, “Encounter at Farpoint”), the present, and the future.  Providing us with a poignant look back at the characters as they were when the show began and intriguing hints as to where they might all wind up, “All Good Things…” is also a sci-fi brain-puzzle of the best kind as the viewer races along with Picard to solve the mystery of the paradox that, apparently, threatens humanity’s very existence.  A return visit from Q, who was the main villain of the pilot, also provides us with a nice bookend to the start of the show — and he gets to deliver some of the episode’s best lines.  Also, there is some slam-bang action with the three-nacelled Big E in the future.  Finally, it all comes down to a marvelously written and performed final scene, as Picard finally joins the rest of his command crew — his family — in their regular game of poker.  ”Nothing’s wild… and the sky’s the limit.”

1.  Babylon 5 — “Sleeping in Light” — I wasn’t a fan of B5 when it originally aired.  I only discovered it when it was re-run in syndication on the Sci-Fi channel a few years after it ended.  I have seen the show through in its entirety three times now, and while it has its flaws (and I still prefer Star Trek: Deep Space Nine when it comes to my favorite sci-fi show set on a space station), I have tremendous respect for the achievements of J. Michael Straczynski and the rest of his team on the creation of their “novel for television.”  Without question, the series’ finest hour is this, its final episode.  I am not embarrassed to admit that each of the three times that I have watched “Sleeping in Light” it has reduced me to a sobbing mess.  In this episode, twenty years have passed since the events of the series, and Captain John Sheriden summons his friends together for one last time before his death.  There is no action in this finale, no sci-fi shoot-’em-ups, just potent emotion and a sad, somber meditation on life and death.  The episode is a masterpiece of writing and acting, with so many powerful scenes and moments: The toast at Sheriden’s dinner in which everyone names their absent friends; the simple act of Delenn turning towards the empty spot in her bed; Ivanova’s voice-over line: “but I never saw him again in my lifetime.”  I get a little chill just typing that.  Not just a satisfactory ending to the show, “Sleeping in Light” almost feels to me as the story that the entire series has been building to — it’s reason for being.  It is a masterpiece.

So there you have it!  Ronald D. Moore, show-runner of the new Battlestar Galactica, was a key player in two of the finales on this list — that of Star Trek: The Next Generation, and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.  Will he and his team give us a finale to BSG that deserves a place on this list?  Or will the entire thing turn out to be the fever dream of a young, autistic Zak Adama?  We’ll see!!  I’ll be back here on Monday with my thoughts.

And maybe next week I’ll also post my thoughts on some of the WORST series finales that I’ve ever seen…?  Could be fun!

As I prepare for this weekend’s series finale of Battlestar Galactica (and contemplate life without that brilliant show, one of the greatest of the last two decades), I’ve been thinking about some of the great series finales of the recent past.  Here are some of my favorites, counting down from ten!

10.  Cheers — “One For the Road” – Diane Chambers (Shelly Long) returns in an attempt to re-kindle her romance with Sam (Ted Danson) in this extra-long finale.  To be honest, it’s been years since I’ve seen this one, but my recollection is of really enjoying it.  Bringing back Shelly Long, who was pretty much the star of the show (along with Danson) for the first half of its run, was a brilliant idea.  And the final scene is perfect — Sam waving away a customer while saying “sorry, we’re closed.”  Sniff!

9.  Star Trek: Deep Space Nine — “What You Leave Behind” — I am giving props here to the entire 10-hour, 9-episode “final chapter” of this, the greatest of the Star Trek series.  The show finally becomes what it has always flirted with — a true serial, as seven seasons worth of storylines come to fruition over the course of this magnificent final epic run of episodes.  The Dominion War escalates, a secret section of Starfleet’s complicity in attempted genocide is revealed, and Captain Benjamin Sisko must finally fulfill his destiny as Emissary of the Prophets (a story thread begun in the series’ pilot episode). The show was notable for its enormous cast of recurring characters, and everyone gets his/her due here (with quite a number of popular characters meeting their demise!).  The show gets bumped down a bit on my list because the actual final two hours isn’t quite as great as the episodes leading up to it (it looks like they used up their special effects budget, as one of the major battle sequences is composed almost entirely of recycled footage, something that eagle-eyed fans like me noticed).  Still, the melancholy tone (so unusual for a Trek series) and the sad, final shot of Jake Sisko looking out the window for his lost father as the camera pulls back and the station slowly fades away into the blackness of space is just perfection.

8.  Justice League Unlimited – “Destroyer” — Classic DC Comics villain Darkseid launches a full-scale invasion of Earth, and even the combined might of practically every character (hero & villain) who ever appeared on this amazing animated show are powerless to stop him.  In an epic battle atop the ruins of the Daily Planet building, Superman ultimately falls before the might of Darkseid.  (That sequence, by the way, is a showcase for the stupendous character designs and action animation that made this show so great.)  Ultimately, it is Lex Luthor himself who offers Darkseid a deal in order to spare the Earth.  Has Lex actually done something heroic, or has he doomed the entire universe to save himself?  In a surprising move that I just love, the show does not answer this question.  

7.  Mystery Science Theatre 3000 — “Danger: Diabolik” – As the Satellite of Love hurtles back to earth, the gang takes the time to heckle one last movie.  And what a movie.  This 1968 Italian film follows the elaborate exploits of a supremely skilled thief who likes to dress in skin-tight black leather and lives in a gaudy underground lair.  However silly you think this film is, rest assured it is even sillier, particularly the ludicrous ending.  All in all, this is a classic MST3K installment, and having Mike and the robots finally escape the satellite, only to get an apartment and spend their days watching old movies, is brilliant.

6.  The Office Special — This conclusion to the original British version of The Office jumps ahead three years after the last episode of series two.  Many of the folks from Wernham-Hogg have moved on (although Tim and Gareth are still there), but pretty much everyone is re-united for a Christmas party by the original documentary crew.  This 90 minute special captures everything that was great about The Office — no show captured cringe-worthy moments of painful humiliation quite as well — while also providing a lovely, emotional ending for Tim and Dawn.  

Click here for numbers 5 through 1!

Two rather high-profile new direct-to-DVD animation projects have been released recently — but are they worth your time and hard-earned dollars?  Well read on, true believers!

Futurama: Into the Wild Green Yonder — And so, once again, we bid farewell to Futurama.  Matt Groening’s lunatic sci-fi series was brutally cancelled by Fox back in 2003 after only four seasons.  Luckily, after several long years of waiting, the series was resurrected for a series of four direct-to-DVD feature-length animated films, of which this is the last.  While these new movies haven’t quite reached the high-points of the series’ best episodes (I’m thinking about episodes such as The Farnsworth Parabox, Roswell That Ends Well, Love and Rocket, War is the H-Word, Amazon Women in the Mood, The Bird-bot of Ice-Catraz, The Problem with Popplers, or The Day the Earth Stood Stupid), they have been very, very good.  The strongest, in my opinion, was The Beast with a  Billion Backs, in which David Cross (Arrested Development, Mr. Show) plays the alien Yivo who attempts to mate with every creature in the universe, while the weakest was Bender’s Game (as I found the extended fantasy sequence in the middle of the film to be a bit dull).

Into the Wild Green Yonder contains all the crazy zaniness, wild side-stories, and obscure sci-fi references that I have come to expect from the series.  The plot is almost beside the point, but I will attempt a summation.  The story begins on Mars, where the construction of a new Mars Vegas is disrupted by a band of eco-feminists.  Pretty soon Fry has been declared the savior of the universe by a bunch of telepaths wearing aluminum foil hats, Bender arouses the wrath of the mobster Don-Bot for making out with his wife, Leela goes under-cover with the feminists, and it all builds to a massive space-ship battle in the middle of an intergalactic mini-golf course.

The DVD is very solid — the animation is GORGEOUS, as always.  The story, despite some digressions, works well as a movie.  There are very few lulls between big laughs.  As for the ending — well, the original Futurama series was cancelled without any time to produce a final episode, so with this being the final DVD (for now, at least — hope always springs eternal that these will have proven profitable enough for more to be on the way!), fans wondered if we’d get some sort of “finale” to the over-all story.  Well, I think they got things just right.  The last scene is just terrific, with some nice closure that doesn’t close the door on further adventures.  And the very last shot?  Perfection.

If this is the end of Futurama then I will consider us lucky at being given the incredible gift of these four direct-to-DVD movies.  BUT… come-on… there’s a lot more mileage left in this series, right?  Let’s see four more DVDs!!

Wonder Woman — The enormous success of Bruce Timm’s Batman: The Animated Series lead to several other Bruce Timm-lead DC animated series: Superman, Batman Beyond, and Justice League. Marked by gorgeous animation and adult storytelling, it was intriguing the way all four of those animated series seemed to share a larger universe, with characters and story-lines carried over from one series to the next.  When the door closed on this DC Animated Universe with the end of Justice League in May, 2006, it seemed like the end of a remarkable decade of entertainment.  But soon-after, DC and Warner Brothers delighted fans by announcing that Bruce Timm would be spearheading a new line of direct-to-DVD animated films based on DC comics.  These would not be set in the shared universe of Timm’s TV shows — rather, they would each be stand-alone adventures, many of which would be adapted directly from seminal comic books, and they would be aimed squarely at adults.  Wow!  I’m sure I wasn’t alone at being overwhelmed with excitement at the thought that Timm would get to cut loose with some high-quality PG-13 animated films.

Unfortunately, the track record of this series has been pretty mixed so far.  The first project was an adaptation of the multi-issue Death of Superman storyline that made such waves back in the 90’s.  I don’t have great affection for that sprawling tale, but I was impressed with the way that Timm and co. condensed it into a pretty solid hour-and-a-half film.  Adam Baldwin (Jayne from Firefly) did terrific work as the new voice of Superman, and there was some pretty spectacular action.  The next film was adapted from a much higher-quality piece of source material, Darwyn Cooke’s retelling of the Golden Age origins of DC’s superheroes, The New Frontier.  Sadly, while there was clearly a lot of love on display in the animated adaptation, I found it to be pretty flat, missing a lot of the fun and dramatic energy of Cooke’s original work.  The third project was an anthology of Batman stories called Gotham Knight, with each short story created by a variety of different animators of wildly differing styles.  An interesting exercise, but not that compelling to me.

Which brings us to Wonder Woman.  I am pleased to report that this is a solid little adventure.  As always with these DC animated projects, the voice-cast is stellar.  Keri Russell is fabulous as Wonder Woman — tough but also able to bring a lot of humor to the role.  Speaking of humor, Nathan Fillion (Captain Mal from Firefly — I guess the casting director liked that show, huh?) is as reliably great as he always is as Steve Trevor, the pilot who crash-lands on Wonder Woman’s home of Paradise Island.  Fillion’s energy lifts every scene that he’s in, and he effectively walks the fine line between being a bit of a cad, but a lovable one.  Alfred Molina gives good menace as the villain, Ares, and Rosario Dawson, Oliver Platt, and Virginia Madsen also turn in fine work in supporting roles.

The design of the characters — the look and feel of the world — is very well done.  The design of Wonder Woman herself is particularly good.  She is strong and feminine without looking silly, and they gave her a slightly exotic look to her face that gives her a distinct, unique look, as opposed to appearing like a generic super-bimbo.  The animation is solid but not spectacular.  The film builds to a particularly carnage-filled battle in Washington, DC., which is cool, but the animation doesn’t quite sell the scale of things.  I think about an animated film like Akira, released back in 1988, that so gorgeously captured the enormous devastation that would result from the clash of super-powered beings.  In comparison to that, Wonder Woman’s final battle looks pretty small.  (Although, to be fair, so too does almost EVERY American animated film released in the intervening years!  And this certainly isn’t a big-budget theatrical release.)  I suppose the problem is that live-action super-hero films have gotten so good at bringing the world of super-heroes to extraordinarily vivid life that it’s hard for these modestly-budgeted animated efforts to compete.  For many years, these animated adventures could show us the type of spectacle that a live-action movie could never possibly capture.  But having just watched a film like Watchmen, it is now clear that the sky’s the limit in terms of what those films can accomplish with their visual effects — and these sorts of animated projects really need to raise the bar in order to compete.

I also found myself distracted by some pretty large plot holes in the film.  Who the heck were Steve Trevor and his fellow pilots fighting in that first aerial dog-fight?  After the other pilots are killed and Steve is rescued by Wonder Woman, he goes off on an adventure with her following Ares for the rest of the film.  But, um, doesn’t he have to check in with his superiors in the military, to let them know that he’s alive?  During the final big battle in DC, the President orders a nuclear strike on Paradise Island.  Cut to a missle shooting out from right over the Washington Monument.  Um, hasn’t it been established that Paradise Island is somewhere over by Greece?  Don’t we have some missiles closer to that part of the world that we could launch?  Do we really have a nuclear silo right by the Washington monument?  These sorts of lapses are distracting.

I sound like I’m being very critical of Wonder Woman, and I don’t mean to be.  It really is a nice rousing adventure story.  I really appreciated the more adult areas that the PG-13 rating allows this film to explore.  The combat sequences are pretty violent, and Wonder Woman and Steve Trevor’s banter is allowed to be a bit more risque than one otherwise might have expected.

Ultimately my disappointment is that this type of story isn’t where I wanted DC’s direct-to-DVD series to go.  The original announcement had seemed to indicate that the series would focus more on adaptations of classic comic stories as opposed to this sort of one-off origin story that isn’t based on any specific source material.  This is the sort of thing that most of the live-action super-hero films do, creating a new story that is sort of a “melange” of various bits of story-lines and background from the many years of the character’s history.  It’s not what I was hoping for from these DVDs.  (To my dismay, the preview included on the Wonder Woman disc seems to indicate that the next DVD, a Green Lantern adventure, will be exactly this same type of not-based-on-anything-specific tale.)  Where is my epic animated adaptation of The Great Darkness Saga?  Or Batman: Year One?  Or Kingdom Come?  How cool would that be?

Maybe someday…

Tropic Thunder was one of my favorite films of last year.  It made my Top 10 Movies of 2008 list, and you can click here to read my original review.

The two-disc special edition DVD is pretty snazzy.  It contains a pretty thorough series of featurettes that cover many of the aspects of creating the film (shaping the script, casting, the visual effects, etc.).  There is also an extended, director’s cut version of the film with a lot of new material added in.  (This is neat, although in my opinion this longer, slower version is inferior to the original theatrical cut.  That the theatrical version is not included on this DVD is disappointing.)

But let’s not focus on the negatives.  The highlight of the DVD, and the thing that I want to bring to your attention, is a special feature called Rain of Madness.

Some background: As you all probably know, Tropic Thunder is a parody of a number of different war films, including Francis Ford Coppola’s sprawling Vietnam War epic Apocalypse Now.  Quite a lot of the imagery in Tropic Thunder is clearly inspired by that film, specifically the helicopter attack opening sequence.

Several years after Apocalypse Now was released, Coppola’s wife Eleanor was involved in the creation of a documentary about the making of that film called Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse.  It chronicled the numerous and mounting problems that beset Coppola during the production of Apocalypse Now – problems that lead to his, basically, falling apart.  

Seeing as Tropic Thunder is a parody of Apocalypse Now, Ben Stiller and his company had the inspired idea to create a “behind the scenes” look at the making of Tropic Thunder (that is, the fictional Tropic Thunder film within the film) that is itself a parody of Hearts of Darkness.  You with me?  The result is this brilliant little DVD special feature entitled Rain of Madness.  It features a TON of new footage that focuses on director Damien Cockburn (played by Steve Coogan)’s descent into madness during the trying first few, um, day of filming Tropic Thunder.  There is a lot of hysterical new material included (scenes shot specifically for this fake documentary) including a series of Cockburn’s passive-aggressive battles with star Tugg Speedman (Ben Stiller), and Kirk Lazarus as Sgt. Osiris (Robert Downey Jr.) coming down with P.P.S.T. (Post Platoon Stress Disorder) and melting down completely during a visit with the real Osiris’ family.  

But the parody goes even further.  The faux documentary is narrated by a fake pretentious German documentarian named Jan Jurgen, a biting satire of Warner Herzog.  Have any of you ever seen Grizzly Man?  It’s a documentary about the grizzly bear activist Timothy Treadwell, who was killed by bears while living among them in Alaska in 2003.  It’s actually a powerful film that I would recommend, but Herzog’s style of making himself a (seemingly impartial) participant in his documentaries has been seized upon by Stiller and co.  They even directly parody the most iconic scene in Grizzly Man, in which Herzog and Treadwell’s mother watch, on camera, the video of her son’s death (as Treadwell’s camera was left on and captured the whole thing).  In the scene we, the viewer, don’t see the footage — we just see Herzog and Treadwell’s reaction to watching it.   Well, of course, Rain of Madness features a scene staged exactly the same way in which Jan Jurgen watches the footage of Damien getting blown up by a land-mine.

This is such an obscure, specific reference, that I am completely bowled over by the audacity of the film-makers.  Just how many people buying the Tropic Thunder DVD have seen Hearts of Darkness and Grizzly Man??  But Stiller and co. didn’t seem to care, and god bless them for that.  

The result is Rain of Madness: a short film of absolute genius.  Check it out.

It’s been a busy month here, but that hasn’t stopped me from checking out a bunch of DVDs recently, new and old:

The Conversation — Released in 1974, this masterpiece was written and directed by Francis Ford Coppola between The Godfather and The Godfather Part II.  Gene Hackman stars as twitchy, secretive surveillance specialist Harry Caul, whose life is up-ended by a seemingly-innocuous conversation that he is hired to record.  Confidently directed by Coppola at the height of his abilities, the film is a perfect study of a slow burn as we watch Hackman’s character gradually fall to pieces.  This is Hackman’s film, without question, but it’s also fun to see the great John Cazale (Fredo in The Godfather) and an incredibly young Harrison Ford in supporting roles.  The film is also notable for the contributions of master editor Walter Murch (American Graffiti, Apocalypse Now) who created an incredible sound-scape that plays with sound and dialogue in some incredibly inventive ways.  The bravura opening sequence, in which Caul and his team records the titular conversation, is staggering — like Caul, we attempt to follow the couple and their conversation, but keep getting distracted by people talking, music playing, and a myriad of other background noises, with the conversation itself flittering in and out of our perception.  It’s really quite astonishing.  Everybody loves The Godfather these days, but I feel that The Conversation is a film that has fallen out of the popular consciousness.  Do yourself a favor and help remedy that by checking out this brilliant film!

Band of Brothers — Speaking of masterpieces, there is this 2001 HBO miniseries executive produced by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks.  Adapted from the book by Stephen Ambrose, the series follows the men of Easy Company (of the US Army 101st Airborne Division) from their training in 1942 through to the end of the second world war.  I have watched this series through four times now since it was released, and each time I watch it I am just as over-come by the power of the story of these extraordinary heroes.  The production quality of this mini-series is unbelievable — each episode is really its own mini-movie.  The vistas are stunningly beautiful, and the action is gut-wrenchingly intense.  There are few movies. let alone TV shows, that are able to stage combat sequences with as much ferocity.  Over the ten episodes we follow and grow to love an enormous ensemble of characters: Damian Lewis as Richard Winters, Ron Livingston as Lewis Nixon, Donnie Wahlberg as Carwood Lipton, Scott Grimes as Donald Malarkey, Michael Cudlitz as “Bull” Randleman, James Madio as Frank Perconte, Neal McDonough as “Buck” Compton, Frank John Hughes as “Wild Bill” Guarnere, Peter Youngblood Hills as “Shifty” Powers, Rick Gomez as George Luz, Robin Laing as “Babe” Heffron, Nicholas Aaron as “Popeye” Wynn, Ross McCall as Joseph Liebgott… I am barely scratching the surface.  (Just typing out those names gives me a bit of a chill, as I consider the real young men who were so potently depicted by these actors… and also brings a smile to my face as I consider these great characters who I grew to love so much over the course of the series.)  Band of Brothers is brutal at times, make no mistake.  It is unflinching in its depictions of the horrors of war.  But it is also unflinching in its depictions of the remarkable heroism of these men.  It is an important work of television, and one of the most compelling mini-series I have ever seen.  

High Fidelity — What a marvelous little movie.  John Cusack plays Rob, a listless, thirty-something owner of a small record store.  When he gets dumped by his girlfriend, he begins a winding self-examination of his life and all of his failed relationships.  The central conceit of the film, that it is basically structured as a series of Rob’s musical top-five lists, is inventive and clever.  This is one of my favorite Cusack man-boy roles.  He’s sort of the “straight-man” here, at least when compared to the two fellows who work with him in his store (played by Jack Black and Todd Louiso), but he’s still plenty messed-up and funny to watch himself.  Speaking of Jack Black, this is the film that introduced me (and, I think, a lot of people) to his work.  A quick glance at imdb reveals that he had a pretty lengthy filmography prior to appearing in this film, including quite a few things that I’d seen him in (one early episode of The X-Files, Mars Attacks!, and Enemy of the State), but nothing that really left an impact on me until seeing him in this.  Black is a manic live-wire here, absolutely hysterical, and he is beautifully contrasted by the quiet, introverted performance of Louiso.  Joan Cusack, Tim Robbins, Catherine Zeta-Jones, and Lisa Bonet all shine in supporting roles.  (Especially Tim Robbins, who is marvelously bizarre — what the heck is he even doing in this movie??)  This is one of those films that I watch every few years, and it’s just as funny every time I see it.

There’s a lot of other fun stuff that I’ve seen recently, including the first season of Mad Men, DC’s new animated Wonder Woman film, and the final Futurama adventure, Into the Wild Green Yonder.  I look forward to telling you all about them next week!  See you then.

So have you all seen Watchmen yet?  I am eager to hear people’s thoughts.  Roger Ebert has seen it twice, and after his first review he felt he needed to go back and write about it again.  Pretty interesting.  Speaking of Ebert, I really loved reading his recent tribute to his partner, Gene Siskel, on the tenth anniversary of Gene’s death.  Don’t leave that page without watching the video of the two of them on the Howard Stern show, which is posted at the bottom.  

George Lucas has apparently begun casting his Star Wars TV show.  Be afraid.  Be very afraid.

Have some money to burn?  Then have you considered adorning the wall of your home or office with this damn dirty ape?

In anticipation of the new Star Trek movie, Devin Faraci over at CHUD has been reviewing every single original Star Trek episode.  (Or, at least he was, before the pace of his articles slowed to a crawl.)  But he seems to be back with his review of episode 17, “The Squire of Gothos.”  This episode is, for some reason, considered a classic of the Original Series, but in the cold light of 30 years of hindsight, we must acknowledge that it’s pretty bad.  Anyways, Devin’s reviews are always HYSTERICAL, and this one is no different.  

Let’s end where we began, with Watchmen.  Was my lengthy pre-movie-release dissertation on some of the themes of the graphic novel not in-depth enough for you?  Well then have I got the web-sites for you.  Clear your afternoon’s schedule, and the click here and here.

Don’t forget that, since January, I have been on a new schedule in which I ALWAYS post a new blog on Friday (even though there is no new cartoon on that day).  So don’t forget to check back every Friday to see what’s cooking here!  Coming up tomorrow is a look at some of the great DVDs that I’ve been watching recently.  See you then!

So, showing in front of Watchmen in many theatres across America right now is a new trailer for J.J. Abrams’ upcoming Star Trek movie.

Holy shit!

You can also check it out in glorious Quicktime here.

You can never be certain, from a trailer, just how good the actual movie will be.  (Remember that stunningly awesome first trailer for Star Wars: Episode I?)  But HOLY COW that trailer was awesome!!  

I have actually been quite impressed with every trailer for J.J.’s new Trek film that I have seen so far, even that short teaser with Leonard Nimoy’s voice-over that was attached to the release of Cloverfield way back in January, 2008.  Even so, while I have been very, very excited by the prospect of a new Trek movie on the horizon — particularly one masterminded by as high-quality a talent as J.J. Abrams, and with the backing of such a substantial budget from Paramount — I have remained quite dubious about the project.

First of all, I find prequels to be, for the most part, pretty dumb.  I’d rather see the Trek story moving FORWARD.  (Maybe it’s time to jump the story ahead by another 100 years or so past the time-span of Next Generation/Deep Space Nine/Voyager.  I’ve always sort of thought of Star Trek as being like Asimov’s Foundation novels, which spanned thousands of years.  I wouldn’t mind if every decade of so the folks behind Star Trek put aside everything that had come before and moved the story even further into the future, thus creating new characters, conflicts, and situations for new movies or TV shows.  But anyways…)

So, OK, I don’t really like prequels.  But, if you’re going to do a prequel, it seems to me that you are obligated to be faithful to the already-established continuity.  And, to put it mildly, from what I have seen the makers of this new Trek film are doing no such thing.  The glimpses we’ve gotten of the bridge of the Enterprise look nothing like the classic bridge design — as many on-line commentators have remarked, it looks more like an apple store!  I have already whined in-depth about the re-design of the Enterprise exterior.  And where is Kirk’s best-friend Gary Mitchell?  The Enterprise was constructed on Earth?  Did the entire Enterprise command crew all go to the academy together?  Ridiculous.  I could go on.

But.

But!!

How friggin’ cool was that trailer???  Spectacular.  There is some phenomenally gorgeous imagery in the trailer (the shots of Vulcan, of Starfleet Academy, and of course all of the fast-paced starship combat).  The new actors continue to impress me with the way they look, feel and sound remarkably like the classic cast yet are avoiding falling into mimicry.  (The shot of Kirk sitting in the command chair for the first time is intended to be one of the “money” shots of the trailer, but my favorite Kirk moment is when he wags his finger at Uhura as he walks through what looks like some sort of shuttle towards the end of the trailer.  That little moment has all the classic Kirk confidence and swagger, without being arrogant or annoying.)  Most importantly, there is emotional weight.  I loved the moment when Captain Pike describes to young James Kirk the death of his father, George, and issues his challenge: “Your father was captain of a starship for twelve minutes.  He saved 800 lives.  Including yours.  I dare you to do better.”

But my favorite moment, the one that sent a shiver up my spine and made me think, holy shit, this movie just might actually be good, is towards the very end of the trailer.  We hear an off-camera voice — which I am pretty certain is Leonard Nimoy — say, “James T. Kirk was a great man,” to which Eric Bana’s villainous Nero responds “That was another life!”  It’s a chilling moment, and one that I think sheds a lot of light on the film-makers’ intentions with this film — why they’re claiming that the film is totally in-continuity when much of what we’ve seen seems to indicate that this is not anything like the familiar past of the Trek universe.  It’s curious that they are still choosing not to show Leonard Nimoy as old Spock in any of the trailers, since Nimoy’s participation in the film was one of the first bits of official casting that was announced by Paramount, two years ago!  I have tried my best to avoid major spoilers for this movie, and I will not post any here.  But when you consider that Nimoy as old Spock is definitely in the film, it is not a great leap to imagine a time-travel storyline that results in a changed time-line, which would allow the film-makers to go off in their own direction with this film (and, hopefully, lots of sequels) without having to worry about hewing to 30 years of established continuity.  It’s a bold plan, and if done right will please both the purists (who don’t want to see all of the established Trek continuity just ignored) as well as those who couldn’t care less about references in 30 year-old Trek episodes but who just want to see some great new stories.  Of course, if done poorly, then it will piss off EVERYONE, so we’ll see!  

I, for one, don’t think it’s too much to ask that the film-makers behind this new Trek film give us BOTH!  I want to see a great new adventure that also fits into established continuity.  I guess we’ll find out in May just what J.J. and the gang have created for us.  For now, this bold, exciting new trailer gives me great hope that, for the first time in far too long (over a decade!!) we’ll soon be seeing a really awesome new Star Trek movie on the big screen.  I hope so!  I can’t wait!

It’s a bit hard to fathom that I live in a world in which there actually exists a film version of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbon’s magnificent epic Watchmen.  

Long considered completely unadaptable, Watchmen (originally published as a 12-issue limited-series by DC Comics back in 1985-86, and re-printed countless times in the subsequent two decades in collected “graphic novel” form) is a staggeringly intricate, layered work that is at once a ripping super-hero yarn and, at the same time, a complete deconstruction of the entire idea of the super-hero adventure comic.  

What is fascinating is that the film version of Watchmen arrives at a unique time.  Over the past almost-decade (since the release of Bryan Singer’s X-Men in 2000), we have seen a flood of super-hero movies (a great many of them dreck, and a great many of them of pretty high quality).  This past summer alone saw the release of The Dark Knight, Iron Man, and Hellboy II, among others — three very different films, yet all examples of super-hero movies that were quite extraordinarily well executed.  We’re at a point now when the general public has become very familiar with a lot of the tropes of the super-hero movie genre — and so are perfectly primed t0 see those familiar characters and themes and story structures completely up-ended by the movie of Watchmen, the same way that the comic book audience had all of their familiar super-hero comic ideas up-ended by the original Watchmen comic.  This movie, I think, is being released at just the right time.

And it is magnificent.

It’s hard for me to imagine what someone who has never read Watchmen would think of this film, because I have read the comic so many times that it is impossible to imagine not knowing (and revering) the story beat-by-beat.  But it seems to me that director Zack Snyder has done an extraordinary job of maintaining a great deal of the depth and complexity of the comic, while also making it very accessible to a first-timer.  That is no easy feat.  

Those of you who, like me, worship the source material, can rest easy.  Snyder’s film is a breathtakingly faithful adaptation of the comic.  The structure and story-line of the comic is replicated in great detail; almost all of the dialogue and narration has been lifted right out of the comic; and most importantly, the tone and atmosphere of the world that Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons created has been brought to life in a powerfully real, visceral way.   

To begin with, the film is a marvel of casting.  Thinking about Watchmen in the months leading up to the release, there were a lot of elements of the comic that I felt would be an enormous challenge to capture on-screen.  But watching the film unfold, I realized that the biggest challenge was the character of Rorschach. And holy cow did they nail him.  The way he talks.  The way he looks in his dirty trench-coat, mask and fedora.  (Quick aside:  has there EVER been a film, until this one, in which a character whose face was fully hidden behind a mask hasn’t looked awkward any-time he had to speak dialogue?  I’m looking at you, Spider-Man films!  I don’t know how they created Rorschach’s ink-blot “face” in this film, but the work is stunning.)  The way the he walks.  The way he eats beans.  The way he says “hurm.”  So many of my favorite scenes in the Watchmen comic involved Rorschach, and every single one of those moments are perfectly captured in the film.  Rorschach’s angry retort to Dan, “you quit.”  His snarled challenge to the imprisoned cons: “None of you understand.  I’m not locked up in here with you.  You’re locked up in here with me.”  His powerful final scene.  Jackie Earle Haley has done the impossible with his portrayal — in lesser hands Rorschach could have easily been laughable or ridiculous.  Instead, Haley has created an indelible, layered performance, menacing and also a little bit sad.  His delivery of the line “a pretty butterfly” is just perfect.  Everything I could have hoped for with this character is right there in that one moment.

The closest thing to an “everyman” character to be found in Watchmen is Dan Dreiberg, the second Night Owl.  In the comic he was a lovable schulb, a man who had gone soft ever since the super-heros were outlawed by the Keane Act.  In the stills released prior to the film’s opening, I was worried that the film-makers had turned Dan into more of a traditionally square-jawed heroic figure.  But those worries were instantly put to rest by Patrick Wilson’s performance, right from his very first scenes.  As with Rorschach, the costuming is critical — Dan’s little paunch, his big glasses, his bad hair, his sweaters — all of these little elements, combined with Wilson’s honest, open performance, creates the character who is in many ways the heart of the film.

If I write a paragraph about every character in the movie we’ll be here until doomsday, so let me try to be more concise as I proceed.  Billy Crudup is wonderfully ethereal as the only truly super-powered being in the story, Dr. Manhattan.  Malin Akerman has been getting some criticism for what some see as awkwardness in her role of Laurie, the sexy Silk Spectre, but I enjoyed her performance.  She certainly captures the kinkiness of a super-heroine in tight leather, and while some of her line-readings might be a bit flat, I think she brings a lot of soul into a character who could easily be whiny and unlikable.  Carla Gugino plays Laurie’s mother, the original Silk Spectre.  She is absolutely dynamite in the flashback sequences (particularly the awful moment with the Comedian, a tough scene that the film HAD to get right in order to work), although I thought the bad old-age make-up in her present-day scenes was a bit of a distraction.  Speaking of the Comedian, Jeffrey Dean Morgan is incredible in the role.  This is a theme to my review, but I’ll say it again here: I couldn’t believe the way he so perfectly brought to life the character from the comic, capturing his rakish charisma and his horrifying brutality and callousness.  Matthew Goode’s portrayal of Ozymandias has been the most controversial among comic fans, as this is the character who has been tweaked the most from the comic, but Goode’s version of Ozymandias as David Bowie really worked for me.  He is the super-hero as super-star, and some of his weird mannerisms and affectations seemed so true to the bizarre nature of our real world’s celebrities.  I also found myself to be pleasantly surprised by how much excellence was brought to the ensemble by some of the really minor supporting players, particularly Matt Frewer’s aging super-villain Moloch, Laura Mennell as Dr. Manhattan’s former girlfriend Janey Slater, and Danny Woodburn (Mickey from Seinfeld) as Big Figure.  

The only off-note among the group?  Robert Wisden as fifth-term president Richard Nixon.  As with Carla Gugino in her present-day scenes, I think Wisden is let down by some pretty bad make-up.  Nixon should come off as cold-hearted, but instead he seems a bit clownish.  

Beyond that minor complaint, I have nothing but praise for all of the artists and craftsmen who so attentively brought the world of Watchmen to vivid life.  There is a seemingly endless number of iconic locations in which the story is set — Night Owl’s lair, Dr. Manhattan’s lab, that iconic street-corner, the prison, Ozymandias’ arctic retreat, Mars, etc. — and each one of them has been lovingly replicated on-screen.  The wealth of detail is astounding — like the comic, this is a film that cries out to be re-visited so that you can soak in the insane level of detail in the background.  Even on my first viewing, so many little elements caught my eye — the ads for Veidt’s Nostalgia cologne, the “obsolete models a specialty” sign outside of Hollis Mason’s apartment, Moloch’s refrigerator, Rorschach’s grappling gun, the 1940’s Minutemen photo… etc…  To fans of the comic all of these little tiny details are beloved, and it is an absolute delight to see them all on-screen.  But more importantly, it is the accumulation of these details that brings the entire world in which the story takes place to life.  It is the viewer’s belief in this world, and our engagement in it, that is critical to the film working as a whole.  (I would draw a comparison to films such as Blade Runner and the Lord of the Rings trilogy, in which it is the creation of a fully-realized original, unique universe that makes those films so effective.  So too here.)

In addition to the faithful rendering of the characters, and the costumes, and the sets, I was stunned by how many of the particular idiosyncrasies of the comic have been translated to the screen — many of the digressions that flesh-out characters and back-story; the intricate narrative structure of flash-backs and interwoven reminiscences; and, oh yes, the sex and the violence.  I am sort of gleeful at the thought of someone who has never read Watchmen and is expecting just another super-hero movie having his/her head spun around by some of the craziness to be found in this film.  Heh heh heh.

I think the standard-bearer now for all super-hero films, the one to which they all must now be compared, has to be The Dark Knight.  So how does Watchmen measure up?  It is difficult to say.  Part of what made The Dark Knight so effective, I think, is the way it jettisoned so many of the more outlandish elements of the standard super-hero movie, choosing instead to tell a gritty, street-level crime film.  Watchmen, in many ways, is the exact opposite.  This film features characters in colorful spandex, a big blue super-human, locations all over the planet and in outer space, and a “super-villain” with a “master plan.”  What the two films have in common, though, is the complete and utter seriousness with which they approach their characters and their story — and both share a gloriously dark, cynical heart.  Both push the idea of a super-hero movie far beyond anything we’ve ever seen on-screen before.

In the final calculation, is the film as perfect as the original graphic novel?  Not even close.  But it is still an astounding achievement, and I can say without hesitation that I loved every single minute of it.  It is a film that I can’t wait to see for a second time.  This movie is not for everyone.  But if you’re looking for something that is a little more complex, a little more intense, and a little more thought provoking than your average big-budget blockbuster — while at the same time also being, just like the comic from which it originates, a ripping super-hero yarn — then you owe it to yourself to go buy a ticket to see Watchmen.  Ideally on IMAX.  

So what are you waiting for?

In case you haven’t figured this out by now, I am an enormous Star Trek fan.  But I have lamented before on this site that, for a number of years now, there haven’t been any new Star Trek TV shows or movies to entertain me.  (And frankly, I wasn’t that wild about the last two Trek movies OR the last two Trek TV series, so it’s been even LONGER since I was able to enjoy any consistently GREAT official, live-action Trek.)  However, I have been really digging Pocket Books’ recent Star Trek novel releases (just recently I reviewed the spectacular trilogy Star Trek: Destiny)… and there has been some UN-official Trek product out there to enjoy, as well, like the terrific fan series Star Trek: Phase II (which I discussed here, and I reviewed its most recent episode, “Blood and Fire” Pt. I, here).  

Today I’d like to discuss another notable Star Trek fan production, albeit one with a pretty remarkable pedigree — Star Trek: Of Gods and Men.

Inspired by the success and near-professional quality of Star Trek: Phase 2, director Tim Russ (who played Tuvok on Star Trek: Voyager) and his team have assembled a group of film professionals to produce this feature-length project (which was originally released on-line in three 30-minute installments).  In front of the camera, Star Trek: Of Gods and Men stars a rather remarkable assemblage of former Star Trek actors: Walter Koenig (Pavel Chekov), Nichelle Nichols (Uhura), Alan Ruck (Captain John Harriman of the Enterprise B from Star Trek: Generations), Grace Lee Whitney (Janice Rand), J.G. Hertzler (Martok from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine), Garrett Wang (Ensign Kim from Star Trek: Voyager), Ethan Phillips (Neelix from Star Trek: Voyager), Cirroc Lofton (Jake Sisko from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine), Chase Masterson (Leeta from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine), and many others.  

A number of the above actors (like Koenig, Nichols, and Ruck) reprise their roles from the shows, while others play entirely new characters (Hertzler, Wang, Lofton, Masterson, etc.).  Either way, one of the great joys of this film is getting to see this terrific group of actors again on screen, interacting with one another and a lot of other familiar faces from the different Trek series.  Special props to actor Gary Graham, who has played a variety of roles on the different Trek series (most notably Vulcan Ambassador Soval on Enterprise) for his dynamic turn as Chekov’s partner Ragnar — it’s a small role, but it’s one of the most compelling performances of the film.

But without question the stars of the film are Koenig, Nichols, and Ruck, and they acquit themselves very well.   All three are fine actors, and as the leads they get a lot of screen-time and some meaty scenes.  Ruck completes a thorough redemption of Captain Harriman (who was depicted as a pretty pathetic figure in Generations), and his energetic performance steals every scene that he is in.  In addition to directing, Russ does a great job as Tuvok (a character who I always felt had the potential to be a lot more interesting that the material he was usually given on Voyager).  J.G. Hertlzer plays another Klingon, a new character named Koval, and he chews the scenery like nobody’s business — he’s a lot of fun to watch.  I also really enjoyed Garret Wang’s performance as Commander Garan (another new character).  I thought Wang was criminally under-utilized on Voyager, and it’s nice to get to see him have a little bit more to play here.  (A third character from Voyager, Ethan Phillips, has a very small role but is also way more entertaining than he ever was on Voyager — leading me to be even more annoyed than I already was at the way that Voyager wasted these talented actors).

In case you couldn’t tell from that cast, this is an ambitious epic.  It takes place on a variety of different planets, space-ships, and other environments.  For the most part, the production team did a great job in creating all of these different alien worlds, many of which are familiar to Trek fans (Vulcan, etc.).  It helps that a lot of time is spent on the bridge of the S.S.S. Conquerer (an alternate-timeline version of the Enterprise).  The team was able to make use of Phase 2’s terrific Original Series Enterprise bridge sets, so those sequences all look great.  The over-all look of the film is top-notch — not quite professional, but still of a very high quality.  The make-up is great, the costumes are great.  This isn’t some slapped-together, no-effort production, by any means.

Unfortunately, the film’s script is its weakest link — it doesn’t really live-up to the potential of having all of these amazing Trek actors involved.  The story starts with an interesting idea — an old, vengeful Charlie Evans (the super-powered youngster from the early Classic Trek episode “Charlie X”) returns, and uses the Guardian of Forever to erase Captain Kirk from existence.  This creates an altered timeline in which we see the chaos that the universe has fallen into without the heroics of James T. Kirk to put things right again and again.  The galaxy is in disarray, and old friends have become the bitterest of adversaries.  But this is a familiar Star Trek idea, and the film doesn’t really take us narratively anywhere that exciting or different than any one of a dozen other Trek altered-timeline stories already have.  (See: Classic Trek’s “The City of the Edge of Forever,” Next Gen’s “Yesterday’s Enterprise,” DS9’s “The Visitor,” Voyager’s “Year of Hell” and many, many others).  As a result, once the initial excitement of seeing all of the great actors again dies down, it becomes apparent that we’re treading in familiar waters and I must admit that some boredom sets in.

There are some fun surprises as the film unfolds (the revelation of the Classic Trek character who is the big villain was great, and I won’t spoil it here), but for the most part it’s pretty predictable.  The film is also weighed down by some cheesy dialogue, and some fairly significant plot-holes.  (As an example: the film is set twelve years AFTER the events of Star Trek: Generations, even in the alternate timeline.  So it’s pretty ridiculous that all of the Federation starships look like they did back in the Original Series.  The reason for this is of course so that the production team could use the Phase 2 Enterprise sets, which replicate the look of the Original Series, but the one line thrown into the script about Federation technology having regressed is a pretty poor cover.)

I was also surprised to note that the film stumbles with its visual effects.  Perhaps I have been spoiled by the terrific visuals of recent episodes of the fan-made Star Trek: Phase 2, but I was expecting a similar quality here.  Instead, most of the space-ship effects look rather simplistic and pixelated.  The film culminates in what should be an epic space-battle, in which fleets of ships of a variety of different races converge.  But the weak effects make these sequences confusing and dull.

Am I judging Star Trek: Of Gods and Men too harshly?  Made on a tiny budget, the production team had no-where near the resources available to an actual, professional Trek episode (and CERTAINLY nothing compared to a Trek movie), so maybe I shouldn’t be holding it to professional standards.  But with such talented people involved, it seems to me that the folks behind Of Gods and Men WANT their effort to be seen as a professional-quality effort.  And after enjoying the astounding efforts of Phase 2 in producing episodes that are just-a-hair-short of being at the level of actual televised Star Trek adventures, I don’t think my standards are too high.  

So, in the end, Star Trek: Of Gods and Men isn’t quite the triumph that recent Phase 2 episodes have been.  But every single person responsible for it should still be commended for their efforts at putting together a tribute to everything they (and so many fans world-wide) love about Star Trek, in all of its incarnations.  While it won’t be something that I’ll revisit as readily as I have the last few Phase 2 episodes, if you are a Star Trek fan then Of Gods and Men is definitely worth your time to check out.  

I love that these days there are so many avenues for Star Trek stories to be told, other than just through official Paramount Pictures productions.  I really hope that all the fans and industry professionals out there who love Star Trek will continue creating Trek adventures, in whatever format they can.  I can’t wait to see what’s next.  

(And I’m still hoping that J. J. Abrams will soon show us all how it’s done with his big-budget, official new Star Trek movie opening in May!  Cross your fingers!)