Well, Neil Gaiman helped write the screenplay for Stardust, and the movie still fell way short of the book.

Thanks. Wait… is that good?

very much liked the movies I, Robot, Starship Troopers, and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. The trick is to stop expecting the movies to be true to the books.

I just don’t understand the point of taking something people liked, and converting it into something completely different and inferior. They use the name just to get people into the theaters. It’s a cheap trick.

In the case of those three films, the stories were completely dumbed down. Troopers became “Our Fascist Future!”. I, Robot because a Wil Smith product placement extravaganza. League was the worst. In the book, Mina Murray was in charge (and wasn’t a vampire) of the group and Quatermain was a drugged out sot she had to drag out of an opium den in Cairo. You just know some tie wearing pinhead at the studio said, “Oh, my, we can’t have the woman in charge.”

Richard Dawkins stomped on the show once in an interview, though I can’t come up with in which, because in the X-Files Universe woo-woo explanations always win, scientific explanations always lose.

Well, I guess it’s a good idea neither Fox nor the shows creators ever tried to sell it as a science show, then!

Seriously, I am uberskeptic, but I DO NOT GET that attitude. It’s a science fantasy show. It’s make believe. As much as I respect the man for his works, I’m detecting a level of OCD or something.

until Orson Scott Card decided to write it himself.

Hmm. Maybe there’s hope then.

They’re going to need a “Crying Game” style disclaimer at the start to warn audiences not to reveal the ending.

The creators of LOST had the entire series mapped out before the show even went on the air. In the last 2 seasons, they had no concept of when the show would end so they had to add some filler into it that didn’t really add anything to the show.

Now that LOST has a definite end date, the creators can properly create the shows without the filler. I’m not getting my hopes up for TV nirvana, but I definitely think LOST will be better than ever from here on out.

So tune in again Phil!!

As far as I have been able to determine from lab tests, Richard Dawkins is chemically free from any trace of a sense of humor.

I’ll buy that, but it still wasn’t good filmmaking.

Also, once I realized that Chris had no idea where the story was going, I stopped watching the series. Maybe this film will work out, but I don’t know.

(Bet you didn’t see the comments being turned into a Lost-fest at the merest mention… )

^_^J.

The main thing that makes me look forward to the production of the Ender’s Game film is that they went through many different screenplays until Orson Scott Card (author of the novel) decided to write it himself. I agree that most screenplay adaptations leave much to be desired.

Check out the TV-shows “The 4400″ and “ReGenesis”.

Regards

Steven

Ps. In your review could you mention if it was hard to watch because of the shakiness?? I don’t want to be getting sick in the theater if it’s really bad.

PPs. Did you (or anyone) ever watch that Sunshine movie? I watched it last week and was just wondering what you thought about it.

Re: Lost: I don’t think I caught the meme. I heard the 2nd season made some progress, but I’ve only seen the 1st season so far. Battlestar had a brilliant 1st season. The first half of the 2nd season dragged, but was cool at the halfway point, and then fell apart as far as I could tell. I don’t need them to reach Earth in the 1st season, but I need for a show to at least make some sort of real progress, and instead of constantly moving toward something ahead, you need to actually reach something before setting a new destination. There wasn’t even a destination, as far as I could tell, in Lost season 1.

League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: QD- you are correct. Too bad about the movie. No wonder Alan Moore won’t let them put his name on any more of his movies (such as the upcoming Watchmen).

Stand Alone Episodes: Yeah, those were some of my favorite. I think both approaches can make good shows. X-files was one of the only to pull off both (for a while, anyway).

Uh, because it’s fantasy, and not the real world?

I’m a total skeptic but I like the show Medium. It’s well written, has good characters and the writers have set down a loose set of rules for her “powers” and have worked well within them. Each episode is a little puzzle. And I again reiterate that my total lust for Patrica Arquette has NOTHING to do with it.

What else are we not supposed to like? Lord Of The Rings! Wizards are impossible!

I, too, liked the stand-alone episodes, but those were always marginally plausible.

Really? Which one? The one where the mutant guy would eat livers and the cocoon himself away for several years? Maybe the one with the time traveling cruise ship? The shape shifter?

I don’t get the whole “nothing happened” attitude about Lost. Did you people watch the same show I did? That’s *totally* a meme. Seriously, everyone is entitled to their opinion, but if you think *nothing* happened in season 2, you need to adjust your attention span or something. I think some of you would have wanted the new Galactica to reach Earth midway through scene 2 of the pilot episode.

In fact, I blame viewer attitudes like this for the extreme lack of shows with interesting story arcs tying together a whole season. TV executives see the complaints from those who need instant gratification, and they give you more reality television. Gee, thanks. Oh well, it drives me away from the television, I suppose.

and will deliver us to a TV drama nirvana at the end

Not going to happen, and it’s silly to expect it. The fun of shows like these is the journey, not the destination. It’s almost impossible for the end to live up to viewer expectations, so you can’t rely on it. The end of season 1 of Heroes was lackluster, but I enjoyed the trip there, so overall I was happy.

Every episode can’t move the arc along. There are going to be standalone episodes because the shows are generally committed to a delivering certain number of episodes.

Patience is a virtue.

Personally, I’m anxiously awaiting Ender’s Game.

Personally, when it’s announced that a book is going to be made into a movie/miniseries/series, I’ve learned to have zero expectations. Look at what happened to Earthsea and I, Robot and Starship Troopers.

Hell, look what happened to the remake of Rollerball. Norman Jewison’s cautionary tale of ever escalating appetites for violence in a neofeudalistic corporate controlled future was completely defanged and intellectually raped by John McTiernan.

The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen was a fracking brilliant comic/graphic novel by Alan Moore in top form. You’d never know that from the movie.

When they announced a while back that Zelazny’s “Amber” novels were optioned, I shuddered in fear. Thank goodness that seems to have gone away.

Ah, what’s the point…

I, too, liked the stand-alone episodes, but those were always marginally plausible. The whole “abducted by aliens” storyline reached a point where I couldn’t suspend enough disbelief.