My review of The X-Files: I Want to Believe, appears today at Strange Horizons. Shockingly, it is not positive. If you've clicked through from there you might also be interested in my posts about Wall-E and The Dark Knight.
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It seemed like a combination of bad writing full of holes (self-link) and a willingness to simply go through the motions. And not even the distraction of eye candy to cut the tedium.
It was so disappointing, I did what I never do and went out the next night to see a movie that had a chance of being good. And Hellboy II was, at that.
A very nice review Abigail. Probably your best yet. I wondered what had happened to the movie (my fan friends hadn't said word one about it, which surprised me). Now that I read your review, I see I didn't miss much, and if all we have now are the good years, that's fine with me.
The first installment of the modern film incarnation of the X-Men franchise came out in 2000, and is generally held to have been the harbinger of the following decade's deluge of superhero and comic book films. I remember going to see the film several weeks after its US release had been greeted by effusive reviews, which praised it for taking the comic book adaptation an enormous step forward, and wondering what all the fuss was about. Even knowing next to nothing about the comics, it was clear to me that here was a complex setting that had been shoehorned into the standard Hollywood template of a single hero backed by a team. The creakiness of that process's result was only exacerbated by a dull story, thin characterization, and lackluster action sequences. I liked X-Men 2 a little better, but the third film was terrible, and X-Men Origins: Wolverine was even worse. The franchise, which never seemed to have much life in it to start with, was clearly on i...
"Eleventy-First Birthday" by Nicole Gustafsson He stepped down and vanished. There was a blinding flash of light, and the guests all blinked. When they opened their eyes Bilbo was nowhere to be seen. One hundred and forty-four flabbergasted hobbits sat back speechless. Old Odo Proudfoot removed his feet from the table and stamped. Then there was a dead silence, until suddenly, after several deep breaths, every Baggins, Boffin, Took, Brandybuck, Grubb, Chubb, Burrows, Bolger, Bracegirdle, Brockhouse, Goodbody, Hornblower, and Proudfoot began to talk at once. We begin the tale of The Lord of the Rings with a chapter that quite deliberately recalls and reverses the opening events of The Hobbit . Instead of an unexpected party, there is a long-expected one. Instead of Bilbo rushing out of his home towards adventure without even a single handkerchief, there is a minutely-planned and carefully-orchestrated plan of disappearance and departure. And instead of the incursion of weirdn...
Previously on AtWQ's adventures with Iain M. Banks: The Algebraist started out very strong but then descended into silliness (see review ). Consider Phlebas maintained a serious tone throughout, but was ponderous, overlong, and badly written ( review ). Feersum Endjinn was a hell of a lot of fun, not to mention very imaginatively constructed, but built up expectations of an explosive crescendo which it never paid off (no review, but check out item 3 on this recent reading roundup ). I'd like to report that Use of Weapons , by far Banks's most lauded SF novel, is Just Right, and in many ways it does answer my complaints about my previous forays into his back-catalogue. Unlike The Algebraist , it has the courage of its convictions, sustaining its theme of social commentary all the way to its end. Unlike Consider Phlebas , it is just about the right length, much better written, and manages to develop its characters and themes without stalling the narrative. Unlike Feer...
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It was so disappointing, I did what I never do and went out the next night to see a movie that had a chance of being good. And Hellboy II was, at that.
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