So is Peter Jackson going to direct The Hobbit? Or will it be his protege Neill Bolmkamp, who directed District 9? Who knows — I just hope this mess with MGM gets sorted out soon.  I’m still getting over my enormous disappointment that MGM’s financial situation resulted in Guillermo del Toro’s departure from The Hobbit films.  But boy would it be great to see PJ take the helm once again…

Great new trailer is up for The Social Network, the new film about facebook directed by David Fincher and scripted by Aaron Sorkin.

So, we finally got out first glimpse at The Green Hornet and… I’m still not quite sure what to think.  This film is either going to be awesome or a total catastrophe…

This is a cool poster.

CHUD’s list of the Worst CGI in Film History continues, and it’s well worth your time.

Will we ever get another decent X-Men film?  I loved X-Men and X2, but X3 was a crushing disappointment and the less spoken of the abominable X-Men Origins: Wolverine, the better.  I hate prequels, as a rule, so when word came out last year that the next X-film would be a prequel entitled X-Men: First Class, I thought that was a big mis-step.  So what now gives me hope?  Director Matthew Vaughn (Layer Cake, Stardust, Kick Ass) and stars James McAvoy (Children of Dune, Atonement, Wanter) as Professor X and Michael Fassbender (Inglourious Basterds) as Magneto.  An ember of hope is fanned…

Are we about to finally get another decent Predator film?  The first Predator is awesome — one on my favorite movies ever.  But the second one (set in the future with Danny Glover as the lead) is weak, and the less spoken of the two Alien Vs. Predator films the better.  But Robert Rodriguez and Nimrod Antal’s Predators is set for release in just a few short weeks, and damn if this new trailer isn’t pretty awesome.  An ember of hope is fanned…

It’s hard for me to believe that a new Planet of the Apes film is really happening.  And now I read that John Lithgow and Freida Pinto (Slumdog Millionaire) have joined the cast?  Um, okay… An ember of hope is… well… we’ll see…

It’s been a bit of a while since my last review of a novel in Pocket Books’ Star Trek: Titan series, chronicling the post-Star Trek: Nemesis adventures of Captain William Riker and his new command.  After reading the first four novels when they were originally released, earlier this year I realized that I had fallen behind on the series.  Since a few years had passed since the series began (the novels have been published at a rate of about one or two a year), I decided to go back and re-read the first four novels before moving on to the fifth and sixth installments (which were published this year).  However, after finishing book three, Orion’s Hounds, I got a bit distracted by my project to re-read all of Arthur C. Clarke’s Odyssey series, and various other things.  But now I’m back in the saddle!

Entering a region of space never-before explored by manned Federation starships, the Titan encounters the planet Orisha, whose denizens have been menaced for centuries by a celestial phenomenon that they call “the Eye” which periodically wreaks havoc on their planet.  Many Orishans worship “the Eye” as a deity, one which sits in judgment of their society and regularly punishes them for their sins.  As the Titan crew attempt to investigate this phenomenal, things (predictably) go awry and the landing party is separated from the Titan and presumed dead.

Far from being deceased, the landing party find themselves stranded on the surface of a planet Orisha that seems much different from the planet they had observed from orbit.  As the crew (both on the planet and back on Titan) attempt to extricate themselves from the situation in which they have become enmeshed, they must struggle with aspects of the Prime Directive while also confronting questions about fate and destiny.

Sword of Damocles, written by Geoffrey Thorne, is another strong, enjoyable installment in this series of novels.  I’ve been pleased by how well the different authors have been able to maintain consistency in the voices of the many new-to-the-novels characters that make up the diverse Titan crew.  Mr. Thorne has a terrific grasp on the characters, giving each of them a distinct personality even as he weaves scores of alien Titan crew-members in and out of the narrative.  It was nice to see several members of the Titan crew — such as science specialist Jaza Najem, chief engineer Dr. Xin Ra-Havreii, and head of Stellar Cartography Melora Pazlar — get a lot of attention in the story, though I must confess some disappointment (small spoiler alert!) that one intriguing character was written out of the series by the novel’s conclusion, just when I felt that this crew-member was becoming a fascinating, fully-realized member of the ensemble.

What elevates Sword of Damocles above many other Star Trek novels are the magnificent final two chapters which bring resolution to a whole host of character threads without actually using any character’s name.  It is up to the attentive reader to determine which character is being referred to at which point.  That could easily have wound up being a jumbled mess, but Mr. Thorne’s strong prose turns those chapters into a beautifully poetic conclusion to the novel.  I don’t recall anything like that ever having been done before in a Star Trek novel, and Mr. Thorne (and his editor!) deserve great credit for his/their bravery.

I’m excited to have finished re-reading the four Titan novels that I’d read before — now it’s time to tackle the two latest books!  I’ve already started reading book five, Under a Torrent Sea, and I hope to be back here with a full report soon!

Previous Star Trek novel reviews:

Star Trek: Titan —  Book 1: Taking Wing, Book 2: The Red King, Book 3: Orion’s Hounds

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine – DS9 relaunch overview, The Soul Key, The Never-Ending Sacrifice,

Star Trek: The Next Generation – The Sky’s The Limit, Destiny trilogy, A Singular Destiny, Losing the Peace,

Star Trek: The Lost Era — Book 1: The Sundered

Star Trek: Voyager — Full Circle

Star Trek: Mirror Universe (Books 1 & 2) — Star Trek: Mirror Universe: Shards & Shadows — Star Trek: Myriad Universes (Books 1 & 2) –

Beyond the Final Frontier — Josh’s favorite Star Trek novels

I can’t believe it took me this long to get to the 2008 HBO miniseries John Adams!

This seven-episode miniseries introduces us to John Adams as a prominent lawyer in Boston, defending the British soldiers who shot and killed several Americans in the so-called “Boston Massacre.”  Throughout the rest of the series, we follow John Adams’ long and eventful life through the American Revolution and the fifty years of American history that follow.

This miniseries is a monumental achievement.  Each episode is truly a mini motion picture.  (And not so “mini” at that — most episodes run WELL over an hour in length.)  The production design, the costumes, the sets, and the visual effects that filled in the environment beyond the sets all combine to create an astonishing recreation of pre-and-post-Revolutionary America.

I happen to be fascinated by the American Revolution, ever since taking a class back at Brown with the scholar Gordon Wood (author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning book The Radicalism of the American Revolution, as well as one of the writers quoted by young Will Hunting in the “how about ‘dem apples” scene of Good Will Hunting), and I really enjoyed seeing that period of history brought to such vivid life.  Based on the book John Adams by David McCullough (another extraordinary writer and historian), the miniseries is filled to overflowing with fascinating historical details both large (for instance, I had no idea that Mr. Adams spent so much time abroad, working to garner international support for the fledgling nation during its revolutionary conflict with Britain) and small (I was intrigued to observe the changing fashion in wigs of American intellectuals and politicians).

The sprawling cast is top-drawer.  The series is headlined by several “big name” actors who are, to no one’s surprise, quite terrific — but the cast is also filled out by some very talented lesser-known faces.  The series rests, of course, on the performances of Paul Giamatti as John Adams and Laura Linney as Abigail Adams.  The two are absolutely wonderful, capturing the fierce intelligence and stubbornness of both Adamses, as well as the tender love that they shared throughout their lives.  I wasn’t expecting this miniseries to present a portrait of such a strong marriage, but that is a strong through-line to the story.  David Morse creates an exceptional George Washington (ably assisted by some terrific hair and make-up).  Morse’s Washington might be the most idealized character in the piece, but this ideal come to life is so much fun to watch that I have no complaints.

The biggest surprise of the miniseries, for me, was the quiet, underplayed performance of Stephen Dillane as Thomas Jefferson.  I can’t speak to the historical accurateness of his portrayal, but his Jefferson is an endlessly enigmatic, fiendishly intelligent man, one who also happened to be just as stubborn as his friend John Adams.  I also must make note of the great performances of Danny Huston as Samuel Adams, Tom Wilkinson as Benjamin Franklin, Rufus Sewell as Alexander Hamilton, and Zeljko Ivanek as John Dickinson.  Take my word for it that for every actor I am mentioning, there are scores more just as impressive.

If I have any complaint about the miniseries, it’s that it peaks too soon.  There’s a tremendous intensity to the first two episodes (set in the days leading up to the American Revolution) that the remaining five installments never quite match.  I rather wish that the creators had given a little more time to the events of those first two episodes, and perhaps condensed the rest of the story a little more.  (The events covered in the last episode, in particular, could probably have been told in half the time.  The extended sequence dealing with John and Abigail’s daughter’s breast cancer is heartbreaking, but felt to me like a weird digression from the main narrative.)

No matter.  I’m thrilled to have finally had a chance to watch this epic miniseries.  The DVDs sit proudly on my shelf, and I am certain that this is a story that I will return to soon.

Glad to see that the people running the New York Public Library have a sense of humor.  This is worth a watch:

Visit nypl.org to support the New York Public Library.

Has the pain of the end of Lost faded yet?  (Click here for my thoughts on the finale.)  Wanna rub some salt in the wound?  Then be sure to check out this video compilation of all the questions Lost left unanswered.

Here’s another great video from collegehumor.com: a Star Wars google ad parody.  SO FUNNY!!  This is well worth two minutes of your time.

Movie adaptations of Philip K. Dick stories have a pretty terrible track record.  But I’m pretty excited about this one.  Click here for a trailer for The Adjustment Bureau, starring Matt Damon and Emily Blunt (who really should have been the Black Widow in Iron Man 2).

Has Rob Reiner finally made another good movie?  Check out this trailer:

I’m intrigued by that sweet trailer.  Rob Reiner had one of the great winning streaks of all time when he directed This is Spinal Tap, The Sure Thing, Stand By Me, The Princess Bride, When Harry Met Sally, Misery, and A Few Good Men.  But with the exception of The American President, it’s been a long, loooong dry spell since then.  Here’s hoping that Flipped represents the master’s return to form!

Whee, still more great trailers to see!  Here’s the second peek at Scott Pilgrim vs The World (about which I must admit I know very little, but these trailers have hooked me), as well as our first glimpse at Part One of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

CHUD is running a fantastic list of the Worst CGI in History that is sad, funny, and well-worth your time.

See you all back here tomorrow!

During the production of the final season of Battlestar Galactica, word broke that show-runner Ronald D. Moore was developing a two-hour pilot to a new sci-fi TV series for Fox called Virtuality.  This was exciting news.  Mr. Moore is an extraordinary writer, and I’ve been a fan of his ever since noticing that I always liked the episodes he wrote for Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine better than any of the others.  Then came Battlestar Galactica, a series which — despite the problems I have with its final season — stands definitively as one of the best dramas of recent memory (and certainly one of the finest sci-fi series ever made).  With BSG winding down, I was very pleased to hear that Mr. Moore was developing a new series (in addition to the Battlestar prequel Caprica, which was in the works at around the same time.)

But then, sadly, Virtuality went nowhere.  The pilot was produced, but Fox decided not to go forward with a series.  The pilot was aired once last summer, and that was that.

Recently, a DVD of that pilot episode was released, and having seen it I now have one more reason to hate the Fox network.  Seriously, Fox has created and then cancelled so many great shows that it’s crazy (Arrested Development, Firefly, The Tick, Futurama, Andy Richter Controls the Universe, Undeclared, I could go on and on…).

Virtuality introduces the story of the twelve men and women who crew the experimental space-ship Phaeton.  It’s the near future, and the Phaeton has been launched on a ten-year journey to explore a nearby star-system, Eridani.  Shortly after launch, the mission turns from one of exploration into something much more critical, as environmental catastrophes begin wracking Earth.  The mission to Eridani now represents the best hope for the survival of the human race.  Complicating matters somewhat is that the conglomerate funding the mission is paying for the massive undertaking by recording all of the footage of the mission — and the going-on of the Phaeton’s crew — and presenting that footage as a reality show to viewers back on Earth.  The pressure of having cameras constantly monitoring their every move adds, as you can imagine, to the tension level of the crew.

To combat that, the Phaeton comes equipped with extraordinarily sophisticated virtual reality systems for the crew.  On their off-duty time, crew-members can put on a VR visor and enter a completely three-dimensional and life-like computer-created environment.  (Star Trek fans recognize the familiar concept of the Holodeck.)  However, even this recreational device soon becomes problematic for the Phaeton crew, as one by one the crew-members discover that a mysterious man has infiltrated each of their VR programs.

I quite enjoyed the Virtuality pilot.  It’s nowhere near as gripping as the opening miniseries of Battlestar Galactica — but I enjoyed it far more than the dull pilot episode of Caprica (a series that, interestingly enough, deals with virtual-reality stories of a type similar to what one imagines Virtuality would have grappled with had the show continued).  If the pilot has a sin, it’s that perhaps the first hour is too leisurely paced.  Things really pick up in the last thirty minutes, when a series of Really Bad Things happen very quickly to the crew of the Phaeton.  It’s those intense last thirty minutes — and the many intriguing story-possibilities raised by the events depicted — that really make me regret that there will not be any TV series to tell those stories and to answer the questions raised.

Introducing twelve major characters is a daunting task, but I was impressed at how well we’re able to get to know all of the characters over the course of this hour-and-a-half long pilot.  It’s an interesting array of personalities.  None are quite as flawed as the many broken characters we came to know and love on-board the Battlestar Galactica, but these people are all far more complex than the super-heroic characters found on the many Star Trek series.

The makers of Virtuality took an interesting tack in keeping all of the storytelling and visual effects grounded in the world of the almost-possible.  Yes, the show takes place in the future, when humanity has been able to create a ship capable of travel outside of our solar system.  But the show is filled with extrapolated science, rather than complete make-believe.  We get fascinating hints as to the scientific realities behind the Phaeton — just enough to ground the story-telling in the plausible.  (There are no magic transporters or warp-drives to be found here.)  On the visual effects end, there are absolutely zero “god’s eye” views of the ship (in which the camera pulls back so we can see the starship gracefully swoop by).  No, all of the exterior effects shots are presented as being footage from one of the many cameras attached to the ship’s outer hull.  This gives the show a sort-of “cinema verite” feel that is pretty unique.  (Though I must admit it did dilute, somewhat, the tension of the main space-ship-adventure scene, when the Phaeton makes its treacherous sling-shot maneuver around Neptune.  Keeping things almost-real also results in a number of the sets looking pretty dull.  We don’t get many fancy sci-fi gizmos and gadgets — just a lot of white and grey.  This is probably what a space-ship capable of traveling outside our solar system would look like.  It’s just pretty plain-jane, visually.)

Virtuality isn’t a radical reinvention of sci-fi television.  The pilot episode doesn’t strike me as the type of show that immediately presents itself as something unique and special (like Firefly or BSG).   But it was a solid effort, and it’s a shame that this story ends here.

OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies is a French film that lovingly parodies the 1960’s Sean Connery era James Bond films.  It got very little play here in the U.S., but if you’re a fan of the Connery Bond films then this movie is not to be missed.

OSS 117 actually began as a serious series of spy novels and films in the 1950’s (predating Ian Fleming’s secret agent by several years).  However, Cairo, Nest of Spies is anything but serious.  Now, this film isn’t total insane lunacy like the Austin Powers films.  Rather, this film represents a gentler form of parody.  In many respects, the filmmakers have lovingly recreated the world of 1960’s James Bond — through the sets, the costumes, the colors, the score, etc.  But when it comes to the story, everything is nudged several directions towards the silly.

Jean Dujardin stars as the titular OSS 117, Hubert Bonisseur de La Bath.  He’s a well-dressed, highly-trained secret agent, able of besting a skilled foe in hand-to-hand combat and wooing any lovely lady he sets his sights on.  Sound familiar?  But he’s also rather dim, ludicrously devoted to France’s president, and totally condescending to any culture and religion that is not French.  Dujardin is a riot, and the film succeeds primarily because he’s able to walk the tightrope between being an imbecile, but a lovable one.  He’s able to handle witty reparte as well as broad physical humor (the pose he strikes any time he fires his weapon made me laugh every time).

It can be challenging for a comedic film to work even when watched with subtitles, but despite that I still found Cairo, Nest of Spies to be very, very funny.  I’m sure there were a few jokes that would have worked better if I spoke fluent French, but not many.  It helps that many of the film’s best gags are visual ones.  My favorite moment: a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it gag about OSS 117’s bed-hair when he wakes up in his suite about mid-way through the film. (Though I will comment that I was disappointed that there were several spelling mistakes in the subtitles.  That’s unfortunately amateurish.)

This is an obscure film, but for a Bond nut like myself I am so glad to have seen it.  To any fellow Bond-fanatics out there, I highly recommend you track this down.  (And luckily, a sequel has already been made — OSS 117: Lost in Rio.  It hasn’t been released yet here in the States, but I eagerly await its arrival…)

I’ve been catching up on some wonderful comic books lately (as well as some books/publications about comic books).  Here’s some of what I’ve been reading and enjoying:

Do Anything: Thoughts on Comics and Things by Warren Ellis – This collection of essays (subtitled Jack Kirby Ripped My Flesh: A Grand Tour Through Comics & Culture As Seen Through a Burgled Robot Head) as a phenomenally entertaining madcap history of comics, specifically the work and influence of comic book master Jack Kirby.  Mr. Ellis is one of the very best comic book authors working today.  His work is usually characterized by a torrent of BIG IDEAS that tend to unfold at a rapid clip, and that quality has been embodied in spades in these collected essays.  Mr. Ellis bends language to his whim (turning, for example, the use of a parenthesis into an art form) as his thoughts pour forth in rush that is at once hilarious and insightful.  This tome is thick in “inside baseball” for the world of comic books, and there were a great many names and references that were unfamiliar to me.  But that’s part of the fun of this collection.  At its essence, Do Anything is a powerful exhortation for creative folk to make their own, original work.  I defy you to get to the end and not be filled with the desire to double your efforts in your own creative endeavors.

Modern Masters Volume 24: Guy Davis by Eric Nolen-Weathington — The continuing Modern Masters series, published by TwoMorrows Publishing, has been one of my very favorite comic-book related publications ever since their first installment (spotlighting the extraordinarily talented Alan Davis — no relation to Guy).  I have devoured each subsequent volume in the months and years since.  I was absolutely delighted to see the latest installment spotlight Guy Davis, whose wonderfully idiosyncratic work I discovered and fell in love with in the past few years’ worth of B.P.R.D. mini-series.  Mr. Davis’ work manages to be at once cartoonishly stylized — with the frequent use of simplified exaggeration in his characters’ expressions and poses — while also being extraordinarily detailed.  Mr. Davis is one of those rare artists who seems to be able to draw just about ANYTHING.  As with all of the Modern Masters volumes, this over-sized book consists of a long, in-depth interview with Mr. Davis by Mr. Nolen-Weathington.  The interview is far-reaching, covering Mr. Davis’s youth and start in the business, through his period working for DC (most notably on Sandman Mystery Theatre), up to his involvement in Mike Mignola’s Hellboy universe.  There is also a fantastic portfolio section at the back of the book, with a series of black-and-white and full-color reproductions of Mr. Davis’ work from throughout his career.  For anyone interested in learning about the best artists in the comic book business, this Modern Masters series is for you — and this spotlight on Guy Davis is a particularly wonderful edition.

Star Trek: Leonard McCoy: Frontier Doctor by John Byrne — I’ve written before about how much I have enjoyed Mr. Byrne’s recent Star Trek work for IDW, and this latest miniseries is a particularly terrific example.  There’s a slightly tongue-in-cheek quality to these stories (taking place between the original Star Trek series and the start of Star Trek: The Motion Picture).  They’re not campy — but they’re also not edge-of-your-seat intense either.  They’re just FUN.  Byrne has a great ear for the voice of the late, great Deforest Kelley, and as always his illustrations are of the highest quality.  He’s able to capture the “look” of the Original Series Trek universe — the starships, the sets, the costumes — really well.

The Terminator: 2029 by Zack Whedon & Andy Macdonald — I love the first two Terminator films, and I’m convinced that there is a fertile world of stories to be told set in this universe.  Unfortunately, while there has been some merit to each of the post-James Cameron installments of the official saga (T3, Terminator: Salvation, and the Sarah Connor Chronicles), all of them have felt wide of the mark.  So thank heavens for Zack Whedon.  Only two issues of this new mini-series, published by Dark Horse, have been out as of this writing, but I am totally on-board with this story so far.  They’ve really captured the elusive “feel” of the first two films, even while charting a wholly-original story set in post-apocalyptic 2029.  I can’t wait to see where this story is going.

S.H.I.E.L.D. by Jonathan Hickman, Dustin Weaver, and Christina Strain — Just as Nick Fury and S.H.I.E.L.D. have re-emerged in prominence, through their key roles in the recent Avengers comics as well as the Iron Man films, comes this series about S.H.I.E.L.D. — that has absolutely nothing to do with the Nick Fury and S.H.I.E.L.D. we all know.  No, this new series spans the time from ancient Egypt until 1953, detailing the secret story of the men who have always fought to protect humanity, from Leonardo DaVinci and Galileo’s quest to stop Galactus to the involvement of Howard Stark and Nathaniel Richards (fathers of Tony Stark and Reed Richards) in the fight against “the Dark Man.”  It’s a wonderful jumble of Marvel Universe history, gorgeously illustrated by Mr. Weaver.  Only the first issue has been published so far, but what a first issue.

Detective Comics Featuring Batwoman by Greg Rucka and J.H. Williams III — I’m not one for female versions of male superheroes.  Why not just create a brand new female character, as opposed to just adding “she” or “woman” to the name of a male hero?  But this story has been nothing short of a masterpiece.  Neither Rucka nor Williams III have ever been better.  This series was cut short too soon.  Sniffle.

I’m got more comic-book stuff to write about soon, such as my project to re-read all of the amazing superhero-gets-elected-mayor-of-New-York series Ex Machina, so stay tuned!