Sigh. Another one of my childhood heroes gone. It speaks volumes of the man that he seemed to derive so much pleasure out of giving so much pleasure to Trek fans. Far too many actors whine and complain about being typecast. Doohan reminds me of comments made by Mark Hamill on a talk show a few years...

Well, I put the book on hold for a while, then jumped back into it (felt guilty, as it sat on my nightstand for a couple of months collecting dust), and am very glad I did. Especially now that "Pottermania" is back. I do think that the first third of the book drags, but it definitely picks...

After starting and giving up on Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell (got about a third of the way through and lost interest), decided to give it another go.

Very, very glad I did.

Rereading STARTIDE RISING. I seem to be off on a Brin kick.

My all-time favorite sci-fi book! I'd like to see a movie; CGI dolphins!

Have to say, though, that I was very disappointed with the sequel novels ("Brightness Reef", etc.).

Easy. The preview for "The Empire Strikes Back" - saw it when I went to see "The Black Hole" and the crowd went NUTS. It was the opening night for that movie and the trailer had not been seen by anyone prior. People were cheering so much that the projectionist stopped the movie, ...

Just started The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova; interesting take on the Dracula legend. There are comparisons to The Da Vinci Code but Ms. Kostova's writing style is far superior to Brown's - in other words, it doesn't read like a bad screenplay adaptation. Not fiction, but a really funny and occas...

Dang straight. It's going to be something very special. I dunno. Yes, it looked pretty cool...but we've seen CGI dinosaurs. Three times, in fact. And Kong looks...well, small. Mighty Joe Young-sized. (I know - in the 1933 original, he was only supposed to be 25 feet tall or so, but when people thin...

I think it was a wise choice to avoid the elaborately choreographed fight scenes (a la the Matrix flicks). One reviewer (forget who, might've been a fan review) said that the fight scenes reminded him of the Alien movies. I think that's a great comparison; again, it serves to highlight the theme tha...

Hmm why not? The entire subcontinent is in danger of being taken by the rebels, and the Goddess of the Whirlwind has come. There's actually a lot for the Empire to be afraid of. Regarding the violence: I guess it's a matter of what one can take. I wasn't too put off by it myself. I think for me thi...

Moving this over from another post... Just finished "Deadhouse Gates" by Steven Erikson. Frankly, I'm torn. There's a lot to like about it (and the preceding "Gardens of the Moon", which I actually thought was a better book). The characters were interesting, Erikson's "Warre...

guess my biggest beef is the camera work during the fight scenes - it was too close on the players. Was Batman kicking ass or getting his ass kicked? Who could tell with the camera right on his shoulder? See, I liked that aspect - it gave the fight scenes some added suspense and realism (again, I'l...

Here's the thing: "Batman Begins" makes the previous four films look really, really juvenile and silly. Yeah, Tim Burton, I'm talkin' to you. EVERYTHING is a vast improvement upon the others. Examples: Gotham City: Nolan's Gotham looks like it could be a real place, combining the worst ele...

I read a series of books where Luke and Leia had children together. What a load of rubbish. "Sister! So...you have a sister! Obi-wan's failure is now complete. Although I wish I had know that when I was, err, having my way with her back on the old Death Star, while the Torture Droid video'ed t...

I've had the same thoughts about the ambiguity of the jedi in terms of their rightness. Funny thing is, I don't credit Lucas with it. In fact, I'm not even sure Lucas was aware of what he was doing... Was he? I think yes. It's been reported that Lucas spent time hanging out with Coppola during the ...

Martin Freeman. Bilbo.

In his fight with Palpatine at the Senate, Yoda realizes pretty much what Warmark Jay said. He realize that the Sith had changed and become more powerful, and that the Jedi had remained unchanged and complacent. He realizes that the Jedi must change as an order. Yet Yoda and Obi-Wan do not consider...

All grousing about the "redemption" issue aside (and despite that, I still think it shows a higher level of thematic sophistication than most genre movies) - I was actually struck by the fact that Lucas doesn't cut the Jedi any slack about their complicity in Anakin's downfall. There's a l...

Certainly, Palpatine was his master even in the original trilogy, but despite that, Vader was always a master in his own right. Welllll...not really. In "A New Hope", Tarkin is Vader's boss. He orders Vader around (yells at him, at one point, when Vader is choking Smary Imperial Admiral -...

Darth Rage was actually just Darth Peeved until he went all the way over to the Dark Side.

Before he Fell, Darth Maul was known as Darth Zerbert.

Ah, but isn't that the point? The whole reason he ended up where he did was because he could never admit when he was wrong, or when he wasn't good enough. His scream is more for having lost Padme than for having killed her himself, I think. He was very selfish in his actions in this film - he tried...