Caddickisms

I’ve fallen really behind on posting lately. Given the upcoming holiday there probably won’t be much for the next few days either. But I wanted to quickly throw a few things out there in Sci-Fi and Entertainment news.

Hobbit films (report stolen from Slice of Sci-Fi):

Director Guillermo del Toro told reporters during a Hellboy press junket that his first “The Hobbit” movie will stick strictly to J.R.R. Tolkien’s original “The Hobbit” material, however, the second film will take in a wide range of materials from the Tolkien universe inlcluding many of Tolkien’s own notes.

It will be interesting to see what happens with that second movie. Do we have a screenwriter who can take those notes and other materials and make a script that feels Tolkien-ish?

Doctor Who: Parts 1 and 2 of the season finale were extremely good. Like everyone else, I’m waiting with very little patience for the final installment (I hope the Sci-Fi channel runs it in its entirety when it’s their turn - it’s a super-sized episode at 65 commercial-free minutes). Then I intend to be very annoyed next year when we only get a few specials. I’ll do another review of the season after it’s over.

Batman Begins: Heath Ledger continues to get rave reviews on his Joker portrayal. I hope the movie lives up to the buzz.

Starship Troopers 3: Three? Really? Do we need three of these things? Wasn’t one painful enough? If you really want to see the trailer, it’s out there.

Hancock: Apparently this has a pretty short running time. And it’s getting middling reviews. Apparently the first half is pretty good, but then it falls apart. This is really driving me nuts. The more I see of clips and trailers for this, the more I want to see it, but then I find out it’s short and may not live up to expectations? I don’t know if I can throw my money and time at that. I really want to see it, though… blah.

Star Wars: Clone Wars - The new trailer is out there! It’s a bit moodier than the others. I think I liked Trailer #1 better. Still on the must see list, though.

The Prisoner: AMC is remaking 60’s TV show “The Prisoner” in a 6-part miniseries with Jim Caviezel and Ian McKellan. Top notch actors, ground-breaking original… I hope it turns out well!

Dr. Horrible’s Sing-along Blog: Joss Whedon, the creator of Buffy, Angel, and Firefly, has got himself a nice little humorous project with some familiar faces. Looks intriguing.

And finally…

Bruce Campbell, who “starred” in all three Spider-man movies and my favorite western-sci-fi TV show (The Adventures of Brisco County Jr.) - and a few well known cult classics - is coming out with a new film in which he plays himself. Sort of. Looks really good to me…

In case I’m too lazy to blog again before the weekend, have a great Independence Day (unless you happen to live in a non-US location, in which case, have a nice normal weekend.)

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There really isn’t much I can say about this… it’s one of those painful things that happens at sci-fi conventions. But you gotta see the third act.

Sometimes I miss going to conventions…. other times, not so much.

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Back in April I wrote a list of the movies I want to see this year in the theater. So far I’ve seen all the ones I called as a must-see and missed all the others (which, so far, is just Speed Racer).

When I go to the theater, I love to see the previews. I consider them an art unto themselves. It can’t be easy to tease an unfinished movie by pulling out the enticing bits and telling you just enough to get you interested in the story without revealing the whole thing. Good editors can even make a bad movie look great. Conversely, great movies can be hidden behind a poor trailer. But a great movie with a great trailer makes you sit up and go, “wow!”

The problem with seeing all these previews is that they are essentially commercials. Commercials are made to make you want to purchase something you didn’t know you needed. They are there to separate you from your money. So for me, loving trailers is a two-edged sword.

Case in point: when we saw our double-feature, I saw trailers for movies I somehow hadn’t heard about before, and newer trailers for movies I was already somewhat interested in. Then I read Lee’s review of The Incredible Hulk. I thought I was set with my list for the summer, but now it seems I have some revision to do.

So here’s the new list, in order of release, with release date (and my thoughts, if I’ve seen it). Boldface indicates movies I will not miss in the theaters. Italics are the ones I’m going to whine about incessantly if I miss in the theater - the ones that it hurts me to not put in bold. The others I will be disappointed if I have to miss for one reason or another, but once I see them on video I’ll be okay:

1. Iron Man - May 2 (review)
   
2. Speed Racer - May 9 (judging by general reaction, glad I missed it)
3. The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian - May 16 (review)
4. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull - May 22 (review)
5. The Incredible Hulk - June 13 (This is so close to being in bold it’s not even funny)
6. Get Smart - June 20
7. Wall-E - June 27
8. Hancock - July 2
9. The Dark Knight - July 18
   
10. The X-Files: I want to believe - July 25
11. The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emporer - August 1
12. Star Wars: The Clone Wars - August 15
    
13. City of Ember - October 10
14. Quantum of Solace (James Bond) - November 7

The astute among you (i.e., the ones who have nothing better to do but follow the minutiae of these posts) will notice that City of Ember was added to the list. Bill Murray and Tim Robbins in a sci-fi adventure movie. I love Bill Murray and Tim Robbins, and I love sci-fi adventure, but I would not be sold by that pairing. It’s on my list. That’s the power of a trailer.

Hancock has also been upgraded to painfully close to a must-see (as has Hulk). When I saw the first trailer, it looked like a fun, but relatively light, superhero movie. This most recent trailer shows that it actually has a plot of redemption and seems well formed. (And they even surpassed the whale bit for funny. Jason Bateman is perfect for this movie.)

So many movies… so little time.

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Cheap trick. No, not the band. Seems like Deanna has the same sense of humor as Brother Cavel.

But… we get another week of voting in, and everybody’s back in play! Pick your pony!

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The preview makes it look like Roslin is the last Cylon, but is that just trailer-trickery?

Get your vote in now, before all is revealed next week! (A few names on here are pretty much out of the running now… this is an old poll with Agathon newly added as a possibility.)

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Don’t forget to tune in to Battlestar Galactica on Friday night (as if I have to remind you).

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The networks released their schedules for next year this week. No surprise: Smallville and 24 are both reappearing in the schedules. However, there has been surprising news/rumors about both shows…

24

Jack is back, and as an appeasement from the long wait since last season, we get a 2-hour movie on November 23rd:

24 is also scheduled to return full time in January of 2009. (A spoiler is below.) However, to reward fans who have not seen a new episode since May of 2007, there will be a 2-hour special on 11/23. According to Kiefer Sutherland, they are scheduled to start filming in the next few weeks in south Africa.

“Set and shot on location in Africa, Jack Bauer battles an international crisis, while here at home the nation prepares for a new president on inauguration day. Taking place just a few months before the new day dawns, this story will set the stage and raise the stakes for Season Seven.”

Day/Season 7 spoiler: Tony’s back. Wait a minute… is this a sci-fi show now?

Smallville

We already knew that Kristen Kreuk and Michael Rosenbaum were leaving the show as regulars. Apparently, that fact gave Allison Mack, who plays Chloe Sullivan, the guts to try renegotiating, since that would leave her as the only regular (other than Tom Welling) to have been on since the beginning. However, it looks like those negotiations may be going poorly, and Chloe may be on her way out.

So that would leave just Clark, Lois, and Jimmy as the only regulars. Hmm…. seems like we’re really leaving Smallville behind and just going straight to Superman. I don’t know - I really like the show, but I’m really worried that it’s going to suffer greatly without Lex. I’ve heard Lana will become recurring…. and I don’t care. She’s over, as far as I’m concerned. They ran out of good stuff to do with her character a few years ago. She only really had a couple good episodes in the last few seasons. Lex is the one that’s got to come back from time to time, if you ask me. Besides….

SPOILERS FOR SMALLVILLE SEASON 7 FINALE

… what are they going to do, leave him dead under the ice, buried in his attempt to kill Clark? Obviously Clark will be back somehow, and I really hope the season premiere resolves the whole Clark/Lex fight adequately. I kind of feel like the rug was pulled out from under me for this finale, and not in a good way. This show has had some great finales, but this one just seemed a bit anti-climactic to me. We saw almost the entire end of the show in the previews! Where was the big fight? Where was the surprise? Where was the “holy cow! Who’s gonna survive this?” moment? We know Clark’s going to survive so no drama there. Lex is going to survive somehow too (to do otherwise would really be a kick in the face to the fans). Lana healed (whoopie.) and left (Yeah!), though she’s open to come back (eh.). Jimmy and Lois were never in danger. Chloe was the candidate for cliffhanger-ness, but they gave her a totally happy ending. I guess Kara is still floating out there…

…but that leaves me with another question: what was the deal where Kara/Brainiac collapsed at the end of the previous episode after Kara’s “return”. It would have worked if Brainiac were controlling her, but if it’s really Brainiac, what’s with the weak collapse, and then all powerful for the opening of this episode?

Next season’s premiere better pull out all the stops, as I assumed this finale would.

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Star Wars: Video

Catch the trailer for the August 15th Clone Wars movie. This debuted with Speed Racer tonight.

This.

Looks.

Awesome.

Click through and watch it.

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Lots of news and some rumors hitting the net lately… here are the best of the bunch for Sci-Fi and comics lovers:

The next Stargate SG-1 film titled Stargate: Continuum now has a July 29 DVD release date.

Marvel has announced that Iron Man 2 has been confirmed for release in 2010, in addition to a movie about Thor. Also reported: the Avengers and Captain America (with Matthew McConaughey as the lead?) in 2011.

Also announced by Marvel: an Ant Man movie, though the timeline for the film is unknown. (This is where they start to lose me… Ant Man? Seriously? I think they’re stretching to reach a mainstream audience with that one. My guess is his popularity in the Avengers movie will determine if this one really gets made.)

Iron Man, Tony Stark, will make a cameo in The Incredible Hulk.

Superman: Man of Steel will now not be delayed due to the “Justice League of America” film but is geared up for a 2009 release with Brandon Routh back as Superman.

Both Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and The Dark Knight will run over 140 minutes. In fact, The Dark Knight may run close to three hours.

Speaking of The Dark Knight, director Christopher Nolan has signed on for a third Batman feature, and Christian Bale has expressed interest as well. Details of plot are even starting to circulate - apparently the film will focus on Two-Face and may introduce Robin, following the plot of the graphic novels “The Long Halloween” and “Dark Victory” for a rough outline.

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It’s been quite a while since I found some worthy Babylon 5 geeking. Check this out.

An impressive job. He fits a huge number of major points from the show into that song.

For those who want the lyrics, there’s a normal and annotated version.

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Lots of movies are coming out this year that I would love to see in a theater, rather than waiting for DVD.

Here’s the list, in order of release, with release date. Boldface indicates movies I will not miss in the theaters - the others I will be disappointed if I have to miss for one reason or another:

1. Iron Man - May 2
   
2. Speed Racer - May 9
3. The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian - May 16
   
4. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull - May 22
   
5. The Incredible Hulk - June 13
6. Get Smart - June 20
7. Wall-E - June 27
8. Hancock - July 2
9. The Dark Knight - July 18
   
10. The X-Files: I want to believe - July 25
11. The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emporer - August 1
12. Star Wars: The Clone Wars - August 15
    
13. Quantum of Solace (James Bond) - November 7

Hmmm… 13 nights of babysitting to line up, plus approximately $234 in movie tickets (assuming $9 per ticket, and that my wife will accompany me). That’s gonna screw up my budget a bit. If I keep it to the essentials, that’s still $90. At least it’s double digits.

Okay, let’s say I get discount tickets for $6 through work and go after the restrictions are lifted (which may be too difficult a wait for some of these, but let’s just assume I can hack it): cost for all = $156; cost for the essentials = $60.

Of course, that doesn’t include the concession stand….

Sometimes I hate loving movies.

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