There's been a lot going on with new releases in the theaters, video, books and TV. Too many, in fact, to try to catch up at this point. However, I'll run down a few highlights and bring us up-to-date.
There were a few movies out that failed miserably at the box office but were actually good sci-fi stories. Oblivion, with Tom Cruise and Morgan Freeman, was an original story that reminded me of an Arthur C. Clarke tale. While the pacing was slow the first half of the movie, it really gained some momentum and ended up with a great sci-fi ending. It's worth a look now that it's out on video. The other movie that was completely reviled was the M. Night Shyamalan flick, After Earth, starring Will Smith and his son. I think good speculative fiction story telling has been lost in the flash of Hollywood special effects. This movie had a good plot, but it didn't have enough eye-candy to win audiences over. I think people were expecting something else from Smith, and Shyamalan has fallen out of favor after a couple of perceived 'stinkers'. As with Oblivion, this movie is now on video and there are worse things one could do with their time than watch it. Ender's Game is pretty good but has been totally overshadowed by the new Thor release (more about that later) and The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. Look for 'Ender' to be out on video after the first of the year if you can't make it to the theater.
Now, when new movies come out I tend to categorize them in to three groups;
1) See it in the theater
2) Wait for video
3) No thanks
Now You See Me falls at number 2. With an ensemble cast that included Mark Ruffalo and Woody Harrelson, this was a 'heist' movie that had Vegas magicians and illusionists perpetrating the crime. It was fun and had a few neat twists but I still feel that a video viewing was the right choice. Star Trek Into Darkness was definitely in the number 1 category. This latest vision of the rebooted franchise revisits many of the themes of Star Trek II, much to the discouragement of some fans. However, I found that this is something that needs to be recognized. These characters may be in a new timeline, but they will still experience many of the same challenges and villains, and it will happen in a different fashion. This movie did a good job of demonstrating that. I look forward to a 3rd installment.Other theatrical releases of note, all of which have made it to video now, include World War Z, Epic, The Croods and Pacific Rim. All were very entertaining and well worth the time to check out.
Most recently, I've had the opportunity to see Thor: The Dark World. This is the second Thor story as well as the second post-Avengers one, and part of Marvel's "phase 2" movies. It is really a much larger canvas and tells a more epic story than the first. The cast is great... again, and Tom Hiddleston's Loki has some great one-liners... again. However, in the first of 2 post-credit teasers, the Infinity Stones are introduced and they are supposed to come into play in a later movie (Guardians of the Galaxy most likely). This is way out of context, though, as they are never mentioned anywhere else in the movie. They assume the audience already knows what they are. More of an explanation to non-Marvelites would have been warranted, but, overall, it's a great sequel.Meanwhile, on the television front, a whole new season has been in progress. Favorite picks on new shows so far; Sleepy Hollow, The Blacklist, Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Dracula and Almost Human. Returning shows of note; The Walking Dead, Person of Interest, Revolution and Elementary.
In the literary world, the big release, for some, over the summer (actually May - my how time flies) was the new Dan Brown, Robert Langdon novel, Inferno. Much better than The Lost Symbol, the plot finds our hero running around Italy again. Although Brown approaches this story from a different angle, the constant art and history lessons he tries to inject gets a bit old after a while. Overall, it's a good book and would probably make a great movie. Hollywood should skip The Lost Symbol, though... yuck.Well, I think I've rattled on quite enough, so for now, That's all folks! (Bonus Content Below)
Here's a link to a video of some Doctors who didn't make it into the 50th Anniversary movie. ...or did they?
