Invasion of the Body Switchers


Avatar is back in theaters with extra footage, exclusively in 3D. I saw it a couple of weeks into its original release and have been waiting for just such an opportunity to re-publish my thoughts here.

Human and Na'vi faces, both shaded blue, in the sky above Pandora landscape

Most of the talk when the lights went up at my screening, positive and negative, was about the technology behind the film. And one has to wonder if that fact alone doesn’t make the movie something of a failure by James Cameron’s standards.

Red Letter


The bloody good news is that I was house-sitting this past week and caught up with
the current season of True Blood via HBO On Demand.

Young vampire Jessica looking offscreen as she records video diary

I’d just recently finished Season Two on DVD, and I was really bummed about having
to wait for a whole year to see where things went in Season Three (dodging spoilers all the while). As I’ve mentioned here before, True Blood is a pulpy kick.

Last Lost Look


Wreckage of Flight 815 on beach
Screencap © 2010 ABC Studios.

This post is currently down for maintenance.

Hero Subs


Composite shot of Captain America from 1940s serial with stand-ins for Thor and Iron Man from other period films

I praised the inventive “premake” trailers of Ivan Guerrero six months ago, but have neglected to keep up with his work. My friend Stefan Blitz, proprietor of Forces of Geek, luckily keeps up with dad-gum near everything — so when I’m able to peruse that site I find gems like Guererro’s trailer for The Avengers (1952).

Great Scott


Bryan Lee O’Malley’s Scott Pilgrim graphic novels started up during my unfortunate disconnect from the comics world. I still have yet to read even the first volume, despite strong recommendations, and so was part of the vast majority of the audience coming to Scott Pilgrim vs. the World as just a movie.

Scott Pilgrim, with arms folded in front of Ramona Flowers, images of her seven exes fanned out behind them

It’s a hell of a movie.

A Wing and a Prayer


I may have scared off most readers, understandably ignorant of and disinterested in
the intricacies of DC Universe continuity, with yesterday’s post on Batman’s status quo. Which I’m loathe to do when recommending accessible graphic novels to civilians — but I wanted to properly set the backdrop for my review of Neil Gaiman and friends’ Batman: Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?. Since I don’t really consider the tales contained therein accessible, though, I suppose it’s all good.

Dead Bat Dad


Batman rising up, cape swirling, with only his mask/head, cloak, and insignia visible
Alex Ross cover to Batman #676 [digital] © 2008 DC Comics.

Last May brought the 70th anniversary of Batman’s debut in Detective Comics #27,
as I wrote around the time of the actual event. DC marked the occasion by killing him, during a storyline called RIP, not terribly long after introducing his son.

Or did it?

One to Tentacle


The plural of “octopus” is not, I was reminded at a recent family gathering, “octopi”.

octopus on the ocean floor
Image via National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration Photo Library

I’ve written before about how consulting the Dictionary app in my laptop’s “dock”
has become a slight addiction. While I don’t mull over things to look up merely to give
it some exercise, the fact that it’s so handy and that it searches not only The New Oxford English Dictionary but The Oxford American Writer’s Thesaurus, Apple’s tech dictionary, and Wikipedia (at least if you’re connected to the Internet) means that I do look up more than I need to — and I practically itch to get at it when a question that it could answer pops into my head away from the computer.