Cynics have long contended that in Stephen Spielberg’s E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial (1982), the titular alien could be replaced with a dog and the fable would remain intact. In CJ7, schoolboy Dicky jubilantly shouts “an alien dog!” when first setting eyes on his new pal. While it remains a mystery whether CJ7 - with its Ewok [...]

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Science Fiction movies have always had a big problem: most Science Fiction movies are adapted from Science Fiction books, and this isn’t exactly a good thing. Science fiction novels and graphic novels tend to have very ambitious storylines full of intricate plot. Characters have complex motivations and relationships and frequently, things are not always as [...]

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As the world’s eyes turn to China this month for the 2008 Olympic Games, Hollywood offers a distinctly naive and romantic view of the Far East, grafted onto one of its most successful franchises. The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor mercifully lets Imhotep - who terrorized Brendan Fraser and Co. twice already - stay [...]

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In a summer of no less than five superhero movies, Hancock is the only original screen creation, not taken from the pages of a comic book. Key traits of the lead character might seem familiar, since we are now accustomed to superheroes who drink (Iron Man), rage (Hulk), wise-crack (Hellboy), and remain at odds with [...]

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Dark Knight is the first movie I’ve seen in about 10 years where no one’s cellphone went off during the movie. In a theatre of nearly 350 people, the dull din of conversation through the previews was constant, but when the opening credits started to roll, the crowd was eerily hushed. The hype, the money, [...]

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The Twelve Kingdoms is rather unique - while most anime is based on Japanese comics or graphic novels, the Twelve Kingdoms anime series was based on full-fledged fantasy novels. The Twelve Kingdoms are considered “light novels,” more akin to our own Young Adult genre, and feature Japanese teenagers spirited away to a parallel world resembling [...]

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Hellboy II: The Golden Army would seem to boast the same director & writer as Hellboy, the 2004 adaptation of Mike Mignola’s graphic novels. Yet Guillermo del Toro has since undergone a metamorphosis from respected but relatively unknown genre geek (working on Mimic and Blade II) to widely acclaimed art house auteur on the strength [...]

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When I was a little girl, a relative gave me a beautiful book filled with illustrations of unicorns and blank facing pages to write on. I wrote a story around each illustration, trying to tie all the different unicorns and locations together. When I was older, I read this story to some girls I babysat. [...]

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Everyone panned the Matrix sequels and groaned at Speed Racer, but it’s not that bad. At the very least, there’s value in seeing the eye-popping art direction, even if the flimsy story doesn’t grip you. With V for Vendetta, the Animatrix, and the collective experience of John Goodman, Christina Ricci and Susan Sarandon behind their [...]

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In King Solomon’s Mines, the 1885 adventure novel introducing Allan Quartermain (a definite proto-Indiana Jones), the quest for the ancient mine’s diamonds concludes with our heroes unable to transport all the treasure home - but rather, just enough so that each is able to live comfortably to the end of their days.
Indiana Jones and his [...]

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