Over on FaceBook, leswamp posted, "One of the most interesting things about facebook is the posts that garner huge reactions and the ones that don't. IME any post that mentions Harry Potter or religion or the civil war is a sure fire billion comments. I know! What side would Harry Potter take on the civil war and does Wizard count as a religion ( Read more... )

Or, Why The Dollhouse Fell Flat ( Read more... )

Genre labels like "Science Fiction" are marketing tools.  They aren't used  by writers to create stories, they're used by producers, publishers, and marketing departments to sell entertainment product.  I don't have a problem with that, as far as it goes, since selling entertainment product is what pays writers, actors, producers, et al.  As such, ( Read more... )

One of the more amusing -- and slightly frustrating -- things that comes up in Doctor Who fandom is canon.  Usually, canon comes up in the form of a question: "Is The Enemy Within considered canon?" or "Is there anything in canon that explains why the Doctor left Gallifrey?"  What's being asked is fairly clear.  It all comes down to a question of ( Read more... )

OK, I will concede that not all fantasy films do, in fact, suck.  The Lord of the Rings trilogy provide an outstanding exception to the general suckitude of fantasy film, as do Excalibur and... Willow?  Is that really the best I can do for a top three?  Now that I think about it, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe is a much better film than ( Read more... )

I'm sitting here watching Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (TSCC for short). Thinking about it, I think they've made a storytelling mistake in altering the rules of time travel. I'm not just talking about the idea that Skynet sent back more Terminators, or that the Resistance managed to send back yet another subverted Terminator. No, it's ( Read more... )

Cloverfield was a good movie.  It wasn't about the monster, the big beastie was just there to provide the crisis.  It was about a guy who decided to risk his life to help the woman he loves, and his friends who decide not to let him go it alone.  It's about what one does to make one's life worth something when everything goes to hell.  Here, in ( Read more... )

I've just finished reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Overall reaction: "Eh, it wasn't bad." The book could have easily had 200 pages trimmed from the first 350, and an entire plotline removed, and lost nothing. Mind you, I read the whole thing in the space between 8:00 PM last night and about fifteen minutes ago (allowing some time ( Read more... )

We saw Finding Neverland earlier today. Fantastic movie... and it made me cry. Of course, the good productions of Peter Pan always have.

Don't worry. There are no spoilers here.

Of course, various perfomances of Peter Pan are part of Finding Neverland. It was those bits that brought me to tears, two in particular. One was Peter sending Wendy ( Read more... )

A title like that deserves to be in all caps, doesn't it? Here's a spoiler-free movie review, fresh from my addled brain to your screen ( Read more... )