Caddickisms

I was giving Heroes the benefit of the doubt. Sure, they’d stumbled. The brother/sister Mexican road trip last season was a big mistake. This season was an improvement for a while (well, it had promise, anyway), but there have been noticeable issues. But I was willing to gloss over them because I like the characters, and I still think the story has potential.

This week, they lost me. And Hiro is the most obvious example of why.

Hiro was the coolest (along with Peter and Sylar). He was excited, and eager, and had a really cool power. Even last season, while I wasn’t totally happy with it, I ended up liking where the trip to feudal Japan ended up taking us. Putting Adam in that casket was just stone cold awesome.

This season they’ve made a series of missteps with him. But this week took the cake. They finally went from confusing to idiocy.

• Ando can get Hiro’s power to kick in by manually blinking Hiro’s eyes?! WHAT?!
• Hiro is now mentally an 8 year old because Mr. Petrelli sucked his memory instead of his power?! And he still recognizes Ando anyway? And doesn’t freak out? WHAT!?!?!?

Who thought these things were a good idea? I certainly hope it was the two writers who got fired recently. That would give me hope for a better story going forward. These things are not just stupid, they are mind-bogglingly stupid, inconsistent, and a complete admission to the audience that the writers don’t have a clue what to do with this show anymore. Next up, cute kids and robots. Oh, wait, we’ve already had cute kids. At least they weren’t there solely to be cute, though. Cue the robots.

Bleh. It’s painful to watch Ando train Hiro. Hiro yelling “I did it!” all the time in that episode underscored the fact that they just don’t know what to do with him. Almost as if the writers were yelling “I did it! I turned a cool character into a joke!” So disappointing.

I still see some hope for the show, but it’s now a dim light in the corner of the screen, ready to wink out of existence. If they don’t turn this thing around real quick, there will be no chance to do so.

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Warner will follow Marvel model to develop new superhero films : Slice of SciFi

Superman Returns darker

Ever since Superman Returns was released, rumors were flying about the sequel. Would it happen? Would Bryan Singer return to helm it? Would anybody watch it?

Not long ago (May 7th, in fact), we were hearing that Bryan Singer would be getting Superman: The Man of Steel to theaters in 2009 with wall-to-wall action in a sequel to Returns. Personally, I was pretty happy with that news. I really think Singer knows how to pull off a movie that’s both intelligent and action-packed, and respects the source material.

But now we hear that in the wake of the success of The Dark Knight, Warner Bros. will be putting a darker focus on all its superhero properties.

For fans, this means that the sequel to “Superman Returns” won’t be happening. Instead, the studio will look to take a page from this year’s “Incredible Hulk” and reboot the franchise. Part of this is a need to freshen the franchise, but part of this can also be attributed to the fact that “Returns” struggled to make back the investment Warner Brothers put into the movie.

[...]

Mr. Robinov wants his next pack of superhero movies to be bathed in the same brooding tone as “The Dark Knight.” Creatively, he sees exploring the evil side to characters as the key to unlocking some of Warner Bros.’ DC properties. “We’re going to try to go dark to the extent that the characters allow it,” he says. That goes for the company’s Superman franchise as well.

That’s disappointing. While I get treating superhero movies as real world and serious is important in creating believability, forcing a dark tone on everything is, I think, a mistake. It’s completely appropriate for Batman, but Superman’s main character traits are hope and optimism, and a bit of naiveté (at least on the surface). It is possible to go darker with him temporarily - and I think it could be done really well - but I really think it has to be in a sequel to be good. The character has to be developed as an incorruptible, “thank God he’s here” kind of character.

Plus, I gotta imagine this new direction means a significant delay before the Boy Scout graces the screen again. So that annoys me, too.

On a side note, the linked article also mentions the other properties under development: Green Lantern, Flash, Green Arrow, and Wonder Woman. I’m excited about each of them. All could translate very well to the big screen.

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SciFi opens a new Stargate : Slice of SciFi

As I mentioned in my last post, Stargate: Atlantis has been cancelled and will be wrapped up in a 2-hour movie. I also referred to a third potential Stargate series. That’s now been confirmed, and the title is Stargate: Universe.

The plot:

“Universe” introduces a team of explorers who find an ancient unmanned ship called the Destiny. Unable to return to Earth, the crew must fend for themselves aboard the ship, which has a preprogramd [sic] mission taking them to the far reaches of the universe.

Sound familiar? A group of explorers on a spaceship trying to get home? Wonder if it will have a female captain?

Anyway… as usual, I’ll watch it when it airs next summer. I’ll probably even like it. Then they’ll rip it away because it didn’t do American Idol numbers in its first 15 minutes.

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Doctor Who — Theories, Facts, Speculations - Slice of SciFi

Over at Slice Of Scifi, they’ve got a post (linked above) that lays out a lot of evidence gathered throughout the last 3+ seasons of the show, and comes up with this hypothesis:

Overall for the Season we will witness the return, in some form or other, of Gallifrey and learn of how the Time War really ended.

I gotta admit, that’s a real possibility, and the author lays out a decent argument. He even goes so far as to make a guess that we will see pieces of the Time War, and that the current, 10th incarnation of the Doctor has a role to play in it. Not sure I buy that, but I’m also not going to dismiss the idea out of hand. He makes a decent case for his position.

It would be a pretty cool thing to see, and it would make sense for Russell Davies to end his involvement in the show on that kind of a note (Davies is rumored to be leaving at the end of next year’s three specials, and Tennant’s tenure as the Doctor beyond that time is in question as well).

If you go through to read the article, which I recommend, be aware that there are spoilers for just about every episode from the first episode of the first season (of the reborn series) thru the fourth episode of the current season.

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