This was a trainwreck of a  movie. Basically, it’s a bit after the end of the first Transformers. Sam is now getting ready for college. His girlfriend Mikaela is staying home, and they’re going to be long distance. Sam finds a chunk of the All Spark in his stuff and starts having visions. He’s also tempted by a sexy, agressive co-ed who is a robot in disguise.* I’m not exactly sure what happens next — it involves robots, explosions, and ...Read More

Reader Theora notified us about something interesting recently. A transcript has been released of the original Raiders of the Lost Ark story conference among Lucas, Spielberg and Kasdan. Here’s a segment, which I’ve trimmed slightly for relevance to the kind of stuff we discuss here. G = George Lucas, S = Steven Spielberg, L = Lawrence Kasdan.

For a while, they weren’t sure what kind of girl to have as a counterpart to Indy…

There was talk about a big name professor ...Read More

The main female character in Watchmen is Laurie Jupiter,* the second Silk Spectre. Her mother Sally Jupiter, the original Silk Spectre, was one of the first generation of costumed heroes. While Watchmen’s other “legacy hero,” Nite Owl, was inspired to follow in his predecessor’s footsteps, Laurie was pushed onto her path by her domineering mother.

One common complaint that I have heard directed at Watchmen is that Laurie is defined by her relationships to men, romantic relationships with first Doctor Manhattan ...Read More

Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ Watchmen is widely regarded as one of the greatest graphic novels ever written. Along with several other seminal works of the 1980s, it helped to change the way comic books were made and read. (Whether that is a good thing or not has been the subject of much debate.)

Now, after more than 20 years in “development hell,” we have a Wtachmen film courtesy of 300 director Zack Snyder.  Expectations were all over the place for ...Read More

This hit the screens a couple of weeks ago in Britain, and I understand it just has just come out in the US. It has the distinction of being the first James Bond film I was actually excited to see (I was interested in seeing Casino Royale because I knew it was a reboot and they planned several changes in tone; but it wasn’t until after, when I knew what they had done with it that real excitement could ...Read More

In most ways, The Dark Knight is a truly spectacular film. It is certainly the best Batman film ever made (better even than the animated Mask of the Phantasm), and one of the best superhero movies ever made. Almost every character in the film has great characterization and development.

But on the female characters, it gets a big fat zero.

In Batman Begins, Rachel Dawes (Katie Holmes) serves as the love interest, yes, but was still an active character. She dedicated her ...Read More