Granted, the only reason I started watching it was because I was up, bored, and recently enjoying HBO & Cinemax for free for 3 months (thank you FiOS!).  But in hindsight, unlocking a few more levels and extras in Lego Batman would have been a more enjoyable use of my time.   And yet as much as my summary review is that this movie was not even worth what I paid for it (time counts), I still found myself watching it to completion – which suggests there was something redeeming about it … somewhere.

I missed the intro due to timing of my channel surfing and came into it with Brendan Fraser and his nephew already introducing themselves to their near-future travel companion.  Luckily it was not hard to get up to speed.  The action was compelling, some of the humor was mildly witty, and the underground world was certainly a spectacle.  But I think what made this movie more pyrite than gold was that it was merely beyond belief.  Sure, I expect a certain level of hard-to-swallow in a sci-fi flick – it goes without saying.  But there are levels and costs and I think there should be a point system setup to pre-determine whether such a film will succeed.

For example, the latest Indiana Jones movie was not nearly the best in the series – quite possibly the worst.  But I personally was able to overlook a lot of its flaws due to the franchise to which it is associated (as were many other fans).  But I couldn’t  do the same for a film with no street cred.  The Matrix had no street cred, but was so compelling it almost pulled off a hat trick (then managed to trip and fall on its face).  Journey has a minute amount of cred due to the book association, but not enough to forgive the lack of a believeable plot.  An unknown world filled with unusual and long extinct creatures miles below the surface of the Earth – expected and acceptable.  Falling into/flying out of said realm at break-neck speeds and landing in a pool of water/hillside vineyard without, um, dying – not so likely.

Anyway, bottom line is that I need some new hobbies and to learn not to rubberneck when it comes to movies.  Besides, I’m sure there was something equally badly written with way more redeeming qualities at that hour on one of the Cinemax channels.  But sometimes curiosity can get the best of me – and you know what they say about that.

As if they haven’t given me enough reasons in the past, Fox seems to have issues the final straw this time around.  Over the years they’ve canned and/or moved around a number of shows that I’ve attempted to enjoy.  But this year they’re about to go too far.  My particular concerns are with two shows that are in danger of cancellation this season that I believe are the only worthwhile sci-fi themed shows on television:  Terminator: the Sarah Connor Chronicles and Dollhouse.  In both of these cases, the writing and the action this season – especially in the last couple of months – has been sensational.

With Terminator, I am baffled as this show ties into a movie that will soon be in theaters.  It has obviously been used as a promotion vehicle for the movie, and the success of the movie should lead to increased interest in the show (were it to be continued).  And with that a cascade effect could continue with promotion of future movies from the continuing saga and a possible spin-off show to address elements of this saga away from the Connor family.  But given what I’ve read, none of this will likely come together and the franchise as a whole will likely suffer from it.  The biggest downside for the fans will be the lack of any resolution to the cliffhanger left off from this season finale and how things could possibly resolve to what the movie portrays.

Regarding Dollhouse, granted I am and have long been a fan of all things Joss Whedon.  And as a result I’m sure I’ve given this new show a lot of bias.  But the show has proved to be excellent regardless of this bias and deals with some great moral ambiguities while developing some fastinating characters.  If this show gets canned, I don’t know how Joss would have any desire to write for television ever again (as it is, I’m surprised he resolved to try again after Firefly – which was a magnificent show that was poorly treated).

Based on these possible decisions, I can only come to the conclusion that Fox doesn’t care about good television and doesn’t fully understand the implications of their apathy.  I understand that money is the driving force behind ANY industry, but the primary purpose of television is entertainment.  And to continually kill off entertaining shows in favor of a better bottom line is frankly not good for the bottom line.  Having such a high turnover rate and so frequent schedule adjustments to their programming staves off faithful viewership.  I know that I personally my develop a much stronger bias against this network if these cuts end up being exercised.  While there are several other Fox shows that I follow and enjoy (e.g., House, Bones, 24), if they cancel both of these shows I will likely stop watching any of their programming and encourage others to follow suit.  Maybe if enough people consciously boycott this network for such poor decision-making, there ratings will point out the error in their ways.  Maybe.

We will see what decision they make soon enough.  When they do, I will make it clear where I stand on this matter.  And this stance may lead me to rally behind a cause.  Fox – the ball is currently in your court.  Hopefully you make the right choice.

What I WILL write about here, though, is this series in general.  I was introduced to it via a combination of having watched and enjoyed the TV series on the SciFi Channel and having gained access to the books through a friend of mine.  The general premise is this:  Harry Dresden is a wizard living in modern day Chicago.  He is a 30-ish, tall, thin guy who was born with innate magical abilities and uses these powers as a supernatural P.I.  Sometimes he works for a client and sometimes he works for the police as a consultant, but generally it seems that a lot of paranormal and magical badness seems to happen around Chicago and he often ends up in the middle of it.

While I did enjoy the TV show, it turns out that it wasn’t all that true to the novels (at least in the details).  It seems they took a lose interpretation and spun things a bit differently.  I was very upset to see the show canceled.  But I am now more of a fan of the books than the show.  What is great about these books is that it takes almost every type of fantasy creature and concept and blend them plausibly into the real world.  And what makes Harry a compelling and interesting character is not how well he handles these situations, but how badly – he is constantly getting in over his head and somehow manages to pull his ass out (or have his ass pulled out) of the fire – often literally.

So far in the 4 1/2 books that I’ve read, I’ve seen Harry face down demons, sorcerers, werewolves, vampires, fairies, ghosts, and all sorts of monsters.  On a VERY high level, Dresden is sort of Harry Potter meets John McClane.  And despite the fact that he often gets through things by the skin of his teeth, I have yet to see the author cross the line of credulity (given normal suspension of disbelief).

So in summary, Harry Dresden rocks and I look forward to reading more.  I will get into more detailed reviews of each book in the near future (and maybe the graphic novels as well when I find time to read them).  But if you enjoy sci-fi/fantasy, magic, vampires, and/or anything created by Joss Whedon, then I think you’d enjoy The Dresden Files.

Since I have kids that I had to get settled for the night, I DVRed it and started watching it a bit late, but even given the benefit of being able to skip the limited commercials, this extra long pilot seemed, well, extra long.  The story was both concisely arced (had a tidy-ish beginning and an end) and had the sense that there was realistic back-story and more to be discovered going forward.  But unfortunately it felt like there were points in the plot where unrealistic leaps were made or that things moved a little too quickly or worked out too perfectly.  I’m a fan of saying more with less, but there were times where they tried to convey things with expressions that really required words to seem realistic.

The cast isn’t bad – they seem to fit their roles well and seemed believeable as characters.  But some of the segments seemed a little too flat and formulaic (why did every guy in the show have to call the main actress “honey” or “sweetie” or “babe”?).  And while I can see that they are trying to make Jackson’s character into the new Mulder, in many points of the show he didn’t seem to have been given enough motivation to stay or be involved in the goings-on of this fringe-effort at subtle sci-fi drama.

I think that J.J. Abrams is a great writer and I like a lot of his work, but I’m not sold on this concept yet.  It seems like something that will probably garner a following, so it might last the season – maybe longer if they manage to make the normal-length episodes seem less tedious.  But they will need to try harder to keep me from being anything more than a fringe member of their audience.  Also, they need to use the 3-D location names a bit less ostentatiously in the future (seeing the B in Baghdad from beneath was amusing but a bit much).

I will say that knowing when it was written, I can see the insight in it.  But the writing style is a little odd to me.  The entire story is written from the perspective of the main character (who never is named) and supposedly written after the events described have unfolded.  So the book is littered with foreshadowing of what is to come, but much of it is very strange.  I’m ok with subtle foreshadowing, but when someone writes about meeting a couple on a plane and in the same sentence where he is describing how couples as close as these two often die close to each other that they would end up dying the same second, it is hard to know how to proceed.  There is a mixture of suspense and doubt about taking interest – while it might seem exciting to want to find out how they die, you haven’t yet had time to find the characters interesting enough to care about then that much.

The book is a fictional fantasy about how things could go terribly wrong based on a scientists pursuit of an extreme solution to a mundane problem in the era of nucleur proliferation.  The premise is very believable and barely crosses the line of science fiction (with exception to the invention of ice-nine).  I’m leanng towards liking it, but I don’t think I would call it a classic (cult, contemporary or otherwise).

I think in the end, it was a good book, but Vonnegut is turning out not to be my genre of choice.  The next book I read will likely be the second book in the Dresden Files series by Jim Butcher.  I read the first one about a month or so ago and finished it in a few days.  Maybe I should review it …