We Won't Stop Until Somebody Calls the Cops

What up loyal readers ...

Finally, the weekend is here, and it's a 3-day no less. God bless you, MLK. Looking forward to some R and R, seeing Cloverfield tonight, etc.

Overall, it's an interesting time for movies. I feel like there's a ton of material over the next several months that promises to make for one of the most geek-out worthy first halves of a year for film fans in quite some time. Cloverfield, Rambo, Fanboys ... Indiana Jones, Hellboy, Dark Knight, Iron Man, Hulk, X-Files ... that's a pretty impressive lineup ...

On the TV front, I haven't watched much other than basketball and news / politics this past week, but thought I'd quickly weigh in on the 2nd episode of ...

THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES ...

- Overall, the optimisim I had after seeing the pilot was slightly lessened by round two. The action quotient was still there on Monday's ep, but there just wasn't enough spark to really keep things interesting. I think part of that is that this version of John Connor is still kind of a blank slate - he's kind of just there, and little has been done to really make him pop as a character. He's barely reacted so far to having a robot that looks like Summer Glau assigned to protect him, and he doesn't really have any of the punk-ish sensibilities of the younger version from the now-classic T2. The other thing here is that the plot really needs to kick into overdrive - right now I'm still at a loss at the show's direction other than it's Sarah and John on the run from Terminators. I had been hoping that the time travel element would have created some cool sci-fi plotlines, and there WAS some interesting stuff here, especially the nod to T3, acknowleding that by traveling to 2007, Sarah has effectively leapfrogged over the events of T3 and created a new, divergent timeline. So, as before, there's a lot of potential here, but I don't think anyone wants a Terminator show that is glacially-paced. Business needs to pick up soon.

My Grade: B

- Meanwhile, some stuff in the world of comics I thought I'd give a shout-out to. The first is the latest ish of BOOSTER GOLD, which I named best new series of 2007. This was the ones fans have been patiently waiting for - the return of the late Ted Kord, via an entertaining series of time-travel shenanigans, with Booster and a trio of Blue Beetles saving Ted before he was killed at the hands of Max Lord. Of course, it remains to be seen how permanent Ted's return is, and if it does stick, how will all of the contiunity problems that such a return presents be dealt with? The good news is that we are clearly in great hands with this story - Geoff Johns is at the top of his game, and is mixing humor, emotion, epic storytelling, and great character moments with his usual ease. When a story is this entertaining, I'm willing to just let things play out and enjoy the ride. My other shout out goes to ROBIN, which this week saw longtime scribe Chuck Dixon, one of the definitive Bat-writers of the modern era, return to Tim Drake, a character who he helped mold for years as the title's regular writer throughout the 90's. Simply put, it was great to have Chuck back. Robin was one fo the first titles I began to collect as a kid, and the best part about it was that Dixon gave Tim Drake such a strong and unique voice - you really got to feel that you knew him as a person and as a character, and it's been sad seeing so much of that distinct voice get lost over the last few years. Now, it's like suddenly that same character has returned, and there's all kinds of great potential in a reinvigorated Dixon tackling Tim again and setting right some of the mistakes of previous runs (a return for Spoiler, perhaps?). Great stuff.

Alright, that's it for now -- back soon with more, and have a great weekend!