Reflections on 2008: Movies
January 14th, 2009
This is the second in our three-part “Reflections on 2008? series. We asked all of our writers, both those on staff and our wonderful contributors a look back at the past year in comics, movies and television. In this edition, four of our writers reflect on the movies they saw and enjoyed (or detested) during 2008.
Diesel Micky Dolenz – Contributing Writer
The best movies of 2008 for me were Iron Man and The Dark Knight. Both were outstanding, though wildly different in tone. I eagerly awaited Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, and though I liked it better than most did, it paled in comparison with the first three (or at least first and third) films of the franchise. Cloverfield was a good watch, though I doubt I’d watch it again. I saw a lot of negative reviews for I Am Legend, but it didn’t suck. 10,000 B.C. did.
I hesitate to include these next two films because they never appeared in theaters, but I also saw Stargate: The Ark of Truth and Stargate Continuum. Ark of Truth was a steaming pile, but Continuum was fairly decent. Good enough, at least, to leave me looking forward to more Stargate on direct-to-DVD. Finally, it’s not exactly science fiction, but I enjoyed Quantum of Solace enough to not regret seeing it in the theater, rather than waiting for the Blu-Ray.
Reflections on 2008: Comics
January 12th, 2009
Here’s the first in our three-part “Reflections on 2008″ series. We asked all of our writers, both those on staff and our wonderful contributors a look back at the past year in comics, movies and television. In this edition, two of our writers reflect on the comic books they read and enjoyed (or detested) during 2008.
Waterloo – Contributing Writer
2008 was another banner year for the DC duo of Grant Morrison and Geoff Johns. Morrison put Batman through some of its best storytelling ever and launched Final Crisis while also completing his memorable All Star Superman run, while Johns rocked out Action Comics, Justice Society of America, Green Lantern, and numerous other side-projects. Marvel maneuvered itself into the playing field by putting Bucky under the cowl of Captain America while also launching strong runs of Incredible Hercules and Captain Britain & MI13 as well as the mini-series The Twelve. I don’t mean to say this was all that went on, but these were the biggest stories of my comics year.
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Star Trek: The Next Generation Post-Nemesis Novels
January 15th, 2009
This editorial contains spoilers for the following Pocket Books Star Trek: The Next Generation novels: Death in Winter, Resistance, Q & A, Before Dishonor and Greater Than the Sum.
I am constantly behind in reading the various Star Trek novels published by Pocket Books. Many years behind most of the time. Despite Pocket Books cutting back and releasing only one novel a month beginning a few years back, I simply never seem to have the time to catch up and thus my backlog never seems to shrink. Part of the problem, I’ve discovered, is that so many of the Star Trek novels are crossovers, making it difficult to stick to just the Star Trek: The Next Generation novels or just the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine novels, for example. Plus, Pocket Books continues to expand its “original concepts,” like Star Trek: Titan or Star Trek: Vanguard.
In any event, only recently was I able to finish the currently available Star Trek: The Next Generation novels set after Nemesis (unofficially known as the “TNG relaunch” novels). The first of these, Death in Winter, was published in September of 2005. But I didn’t get around to reading it until July of 2008! I read Resistance and Q & A (published in September and October of 2007) in October of 2008 and Before Dishonor and Greater Than the Sum (published in November of 2007 and August of 2008) this month.
I was not thrilled with what I read.
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