Battle of the Geeks: Chuck vs. Reaper

Geek seems to be chic this season on television. Inspired by the success of shows like Lost, Heroes and Battlestar Galactica the networks are creating shows directly at what they see as the “geek market” I assume. Two shows that fit this trend and are premiering this season are NBC’s Chuck and The CW’s Reaper. After viewing the pilots for each you have to wonder if the writers were sharing notes.

Back in Action: Heroes Returns

So the second chapter in the Heroes saga began Monday night. The series continues to follow the comic book mold by leaping four months ahead of the season one finale. This sort of device was employed by DC Comics last spring as all their titles were under the banner of One Year Later. This literary device can prove very effective because it takes our characters to a new place quickly and also creates some mysteries about what happened in that lost time. The premiere of Heroes definitely threw the viewers for a loop by putting many of its characters in new situations and surprising us quite a bit. Beware! Spoilers beyond this point.

Housekeeping

Just doing some housekeeping here:

As for the Tell Me What To Read Results (also posted on Livejournal and Facebook) it looks like Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro won. Will be getting the review on here as soon as I finish it.

Also, with this week being premiere week on television I’ll be looking at some returning shows and the first episodes of the new ones. The shows I’ll be reviewing will be:

Heroes, Bionic Woman, Reaper, Kid Nation, Chuck, Journeyman, The Office, and Family Guy. I also hope to write some time this week about the new seasons of two great Adult Swim series; Frisky Dingo and Lucy, The Daughter of the Devil.

Keep an eye out!

Trailer: Southland Tales

I’ve been waiting for director Richard Kelly’s follow up to Donnie Darko since I first heard about it in 2004. Kelly billed it as a sci-fi action comedy musical and claimed Andy Warhol and Philip K. Dick as influences. In intereviews he said the script had been written pre-9/11 as a parody of the Hollywood system but in the wake of that event an the Patriot Act it began to evolve into a commentary on the surveillance culture we live in now. Take a look at the trailer below:

Review: Captain America

At the start of the year the death of a beloved American comic book icon got a lot of press coverage. It was the death of Captain America, a figurehead in the comics world since his creation in 1941. But this was just the beginning of new chapter with the series still continuing after his death in #25. There’s a lot of players involved in this storyline and they all have an interest in control of a possible new Captain America.

Tell Me What To Read!

So I’m trying to figure out what book to read next and once read I’ll post my thoughts about. However, I can’t decide so I’m wanting you to decide for me. Here’s the three I’m eyeing with basic plot descriptions. Just reply to this with a comment with the title of which you think I should read. I’ll give this about a week and whichever one has the most I’ll read and report back to ya about:

Looking at Darren Aronofsky’s The Fountain

Science fiction is a messy genre. Much like comics, its become hemmed in by the public as escapist fare. When you think sci-fi images of Star Wars, Star Trek, and convention centers full of awkward costumed pubescent males come to mind. The Hollywood studios seem to be stuck in that mindset as well putting out pastiches of the previously mentioned franchises. For the well-read science fiction fan, its easy to tell the space opera/blockbuster is merely one sub-genre of science fiction. There’s some very profound philosophical and metaphysical sci-fi out there as well and it seems to have not gotten its due. Darren Aronofsky’s The Fountain is a great example of something following in the footsteps of writers like Harlan Ellison and Ray Bradbury and a definite successor to Kubrick’s 2001. Despite these roots, The Fountain was not well-received by the audiences and many of the critics.

Review: DMZ

In the wake of 9/11 the major comic book companies put out tribute books featuring their heroes present at Ground Zero, partaking in the grief and pain of the moment. Much like the citizens of America, as the agenda of the current adminstration became apparent and the country began to experience quite an ideological divide it became a matter of time before the comics reflected that. The most mainstream example would be Marvel’s Civil War event of last year wherein the heroes are divided into one government-supported team while the others must live in the shadows. It was a good story but definitely very cautious of stepping over any sort of line. DMZ is definitely not afraid of that.

Movie Trailer Round-Up – 9/14/07

Juno (dir. Jason Reitman)
I was definitely NOT a fan of Thank You For Smoking, Reitman’s last film. However, from the looks of this trailer and the cast (Ellen Page, Michael Cera, Jason Bateman, Rainn Wilson) it looks like it could be one of those great Fall indie pics.

There Will Be Blood (dir. PT Anderson)
This is a much meatier trailer than the last one . Definitely getting a Flannery O’Conner vibe from the prescence of the boy-minister. I also didn’t realize it was based on an Upton Sinclair novel, I’ll have to check that out.

Iron Man (2008, dir. Paul Favareau)
This looks to be an okay comic book action film. Nothing that makes it stand out from the crowd quite yet. I just hope that Black Sabbath’s “Iron Man” isn’t actually used in the film. That would guarantee its cringe-worthiness.

Youth Without Youth (dir. Francis Ford Coppola)
Coppola can be good or he can be terrible. This one look intriguing. I’ll definitely give it a shot.

Review: Shoot ‘Em Up

I went into Shoot ‘Em Up with fairly high expectations. I’m big fan of those stylized sorts of action films like Sin City and the Kill Bill series. When I saw the trailer to this film, directed by Michael Davis, I was expecting something along those lines. Its fairly transparent that this film wears its influences proudly as it references action classics like John Woo’s Hard Boiled and the spaghetti westerns of Serigo Leone. However, the filmmakers here don’t have that deft touch that takes the film from being another generic action film and make it a visually-stunning piece.