I have to say, it’s nice to be back in Middle Earth. While The Lord of the Rings trilogy definitely left me craving more of Peter Jackson’s vision of Tolkien’s magical realm, I was worried that The Hobbit would be an epic letdown. Then there was all the talk about how they were going to…
Category: Fantasy
Rise of the Guardians – Movie Review
Just when you think that animated holiday films had run out of ideas, turning childhood imaginary icons like Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, the Sandman, and Jack Frost into magical super-heroes is kind of a surprisingly imaginative twist. That’s not to say that Rise of the Guardians doesn’t have its share of…
Fall TV 2012: Week Four
After the week-of-few-premieres, we wrap things up mostly with The CW and its “big” premieres. After having given up on Smallville halfway through its run, I think I would probably have overlooked The CW (I’m not exactly its target demo) if not for The Vampire Diaries, a show which I also gave up on until…
Movie #48: The Woman In Black
I think the biggest question on viewers’ minds was how actor Daniel Radcliffe (aka Harry Potter) would continue his career after playing the young wizard for a decade. I don’t know if anything was proven by his role/performance in the gothic horror movie The Woman In Black, but I guess it’s not a bad idea…
Movie #47: Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame
I debated not including this movie in my summer 50, because it’s so different (especially if you’re not used to this genre of quasi-historical Chinese martial arts fantasy epic adventure movie). However, the more I thought about it, the more Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame actually reminded me of a much…
Movie #43: John Carter
Hearing that there’s going to be a big-budget sci-fi-fantasy movie made, gets me pretty excited. But when the movie turns out to get bad reviews, I get a bit nervous to watch the movie for fear of how they’ve botched something that could have been really good. I was going to save John Carter for…
Movie #40: The Tempest
I’ve been fascinated by William Shakespeare’s The Tempest ever since I first learned that this “olde tyme” playwright (that our teacher was making us read) had written a tale featuring spirits, spells and sorcery rather than his usual cast of English kings and queens. When director Julie Taymor’s version came to the screen featuring actress…
Movie #38: Shrek Forever After
I’m not quite sure why I watched this movie. I was a big fan of the original Shrek; I liked how it upended fairy tale conventions and made a monster into a hero. The satirical, contemporary jokes played really well in a storybook context. However, Shrek Forever After comes three whole movies later, after the…
15 Flicks for Fall 2012
As summer is more than half over, it’s time to start thinking about movies for the fall. Sadly, I didn’t end up watching all of last year’s list (at least not in the theatres). Nevertheless, here’s what I’m looking forward to (in vaguely chronological order) for Fall 2012: 1. Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Pt. 2…
Alvin's Adventures in Pop Culture 