Alien Resurrection Film Review

by The Wanderer 

Director: Jean-Pierre Jeunet

Cast: Sigourney Weaver, Winona Ryder, Ron Perlman, Dominique Pinon, Gary Dourdan, Michael Wincott, Brad Dourif, Leland Orser, Dan Hedaya, J. E. Freeman, Kim Flowers, Raymond Cruz

Series: Alien

MPAA Rating: R

Length: 109 minutes

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Alien Resurrection

(Spoilers for the previous three Alien films are below).

The ending to Alien 3 was conclusive…until Hollywood decided to make this movie.  Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) is back, despite having jumped into a vat of lava in Alien 3, and is now a clone mixed of Ripley’s memories and alien genetics… she’s super strong and nearly immune to physical pain …Oh Boy!

Alien Resurrection proves that the Alien franchise should never have been brought back from the dead.  It’s not due to having a lack of talented people on hand to make this film, its the fact that the Alien franchise, or at least the parts concerning Ripley, have no room to breathe and develop as a story.

Cowboys and Aliens Film Review

by The Wanderer

Director: Jon Favreau

Cast: Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford, Olivia Wilde, Sam Rockwell, Adam Beach, Paul Dano, Noah Ringer

MPAA Rating: PG-13

Length: 118 minutes

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Cowboys and Aliens feels like a worlds collide type of film.  The western meets science fiction, Indiana Jones meets James Bond, and cowboys battle aliens – this film has the potential to be seriously entertaining, and at times it is just that, but its attempts to make a more serious character driven movie fall flat.

All things considered, Cowboys and Aliens is well acted (by most of the cast), it has a good amount of action film related humor and one-liners, and its action scenes will keep you on the edge of your seat.  This is a film with a mostly great cast, a great premise, and a great mash-up of genres that had all the marks for being a success, but unfortunately it falls well short of the mark.

All-New X-Men: Here To Stay Comic Review

by The Wanderer 

Authors: Brian Michael Bendis
Illustrators: Stuart Immonen
Publisher: Marvel
Genre: Superhero

Series: All New X-Men Volume 2

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(Spoilers for All-New X-Men Volume One are below).

Yesterday’s X-Men brought the original five X-Men into the future where they’ve met the current X-Men. Taking place after the Avengers vs. X-Men sequence, the younger X-Men learn about their future fates, and they make a surprising decision at the end of the first volume and choose to stay in the future.

All-New X-Men: Yesterday’s X-Men Comic Review

by The Wanderer 

Authors: Brian Michael Bendis
Illustrators: Stuart Immonen
Publisher: Marvel
Genre: Superhero

Series: All New X-Men Volume 1

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It’s another rehashing of one of Marvel’s most lucrative (and largest) franchises … the X-Men.  I count myself amongst the skeptical readers when hearing about this relaunch, but I will say I was pleasantly surprised.  All-New X-Men comes out of the Avengers vs. X-Men story and continues from there.  You don’t have to pick that up before hand, I certainly didn’t, but it will fill in a lot of what’s going on currently at the start of the comic.

So spoilers for Avengers vs. X-Men are below ….

Watchmen Comic Review

by The World Weary  

Authors: Alan Moore
Illustrators: Dave Gibbons

Publisher: DC

Genre: Graphic Novel

Series: Watchmen

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A Stronger Loving World

 

Watchmen is the single greatest achievement in the comic book medium of all time. The brilliantly layered story, told through the eyes of the characters, news articles and books, and the fictional comic Tales of the Black Freighter is stirringly relevant. Alan Moore’s writing is astoundingly beautiful, and his ability to capture the voices of humanity makes the book breathe life into a tale that begins as a simple murder mystery, but becomes an unflinching and morally ambiguous discussion of our species’ self destructive nature. Dave Gibbon’s art perfectly blends with the narrative to create powerful, iconic imagery that makes almost every panel totally unforgettable. If you ever read one comic, read this one, as it is not only the greatest superhero story ever told,  but also one of the greatest pieces of literature of the twentieth century.

When Superman rose to fame in the 1930’s, I’m sure many Americans wondered what it would be like to don a costume and roam their towns and cities looking for wrongs to right. The idea must have been wondrously intoxicating, as it most assuredly is today. But what if? Alan Moore tackles that question with eloquent grace in his limited series Watchmen. Yet, there are many other questions that Watchmen asks, and each one has a relevant and totally morally ambiguous answer that might just leave you asking questions of your own like, “How much evil does it take to move someone to do good?”