Ding ding ding! We have a winner!
It’s official: the Syfy channel’s “Alphas” is my new favorite show on TV after last night’s stellar Season 1 finale, which blew the lid on the show’s universe with a trip to the U.S. Senate.
Archive for Sci-Fi Reviews
A Terra Nova Review, or, Why The Teenage Kid Gotta be so Predictably Annoying?
Dear Hollywood: despite what you may think, not every teenage boy out there is an annoying little prick suffering from uncontrollable, mysterious teen angst. And certainly not after you’ve sent him a gazillion million years into the past through a fancy schmancy time portal/gateway doohickey, and to a world surrounded by mysterious wonders, dino-friggin’-saurs, and the like.
Syfy’s Alphas Goes on my DVR List
Looks like I’ve found a new show to add to my DVR list, and it’s the Syfy Channel’s original show “Alphas” from writer Zak Penn. I had my doubts about the show from all the commercials (the production looked somewhat cheap), and overall the promotion Syfy was doing for the show really left me underwhelmed. The show itself, though, is much better than I had expected.
A Quickie, Barely Proper Review of Torchwood: Miracle Day Pilot Episode
Let me preface this review/non-review by saying that I wasn’t really going to review the episode, since “Torchwood” is such a big thing in the sci-fi community right now that anyone and everyone will have already reviewed it once or twice and gotten their grandmothers involved. So, who needs one more review? As such, I’m going to eschew the proper reviewing format, and just go with bullet points. If you don’t like that, tough nuts. So, here goes.
Battle of Los Angeles (2011) Movie Review
It’s an intractable law of the cosmos; being that for every massively hyped blockbuster, some low rent studio will crank out a hideous product in hopes of riding the coattails of a hit to some success. So it’s probably of little surprise somebody would insert an “of” in “Battle:Los Angeles”, trying to convince viewers their film’s as good as the theatrical film. It’s not.
Godzilla: King of the Monsters (1977) Movie Review
Thanks to Rialto and Classic Media, fans everywhere know of the classic monster movie that was previously elusive before the early 1990s. Oddly, Italian producer Luigi Cozzi’s cut remains consigned to obscurity. On second thought, maybe that isn’t so strange….
TV Review: Doctor Who – A Christmas Carol
It’s been announced that new episodes of the fave Time Lord will be hitting screens April 23rd, an eternity for fans who’ve been facing withdrawal symptoms that rival those endured by heroin addicts. At least they have the latest Christmas special to ease their suffering, released in BBC logic shortly after Valentine’s Day. It’s not a perfect offering, but it is an entertaining spectacle to while away an hour or so.
Book Review: Old Man’s War
John Scalzi’s 2005 sci-fi/war novel “Old Man’s War” made news recently when it was optioned by Paramount Studios, with director Wolfgang Petersen (“The Perfect Storm”) attached to direct. While it has shades of Joe Haldeman’s “The Forever War”, Scalzi’s novel is, for the most part, a wholly original work that will both intrigue and entertainment with its fictional, but very well-realized future.
TV Review: Doctor Who: Music of the Spheres
It’ll be at least three more months until fans get a new episode of “Doctor Who”, but they’ll be relieved to know there’s still some hidden nuggets that’ll help tide them over until the annual Christmas episode. “Music of the Spheres” is just one of those, an entertaining eight minute short created for the 2008 “Doctor Who Prom” held at the Royal Albert Hall. One of the least seen performances by David Tennant as the 10th Doctor, it’s certainly one fans will enjoy.
Book Review: Star Wars — Millennium Falcon 3D Owner’s Guide
Remember how cool it was to be a “Star Wars” fan in the late 90′s, that gloriously heady period between 1997 and 1999? Between the special editions raking in cash hand over fist in theaters and the flood of anticipation over the new film, fans who had over a decade of famine suddenly had more than they ever dreamed of. That all vanished like the morning dew at first light when “Episode 1″ unspooled, and fandom spent the remainder of the summer taking anti-depressant and making frequent calls to the local suicide hot line.
Book Review: All You Need is Kill
In a lot of ways, Hiroshi Sakurazaka’s “All You Need is Kill” reminded me of John Steakley’s “Armor”, one of the very first sci-fi novels I ever picked up (completely on a whim, natch), and ended up enjoying the hell out of. There is a lot of “Armor” in “Kill”, in that both books deal with futuristic warriors in, essentially, personal “mecha” suits (in “Kill” they are called “Jackets”, but they’re essentially the same things), and the enemy is, quite literally, an alien infestation that refuses to yield, negotiate, or indeed, communicate.
Book Review: I Am Number Four
The truly great “teen” novels transcend age limits. “Harry Potter” is probably the best example of a book written for young adults with true imagination that attracts readers of all ages like moths to a flame. “I Am Number Four” won’t have to worry about burning insects falling about around it, because it never threatens to be anything more than a novel to be appreciated entirely by a teenage audience. The novel is a decent read, but it becomes forgettable just as quickly.
