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4. Film

Hobbit: Lots of films this year: but also the threesome/sequel factor: from Pirates of the Caribbean to Spiderman and Shrek. Not to mention Fantastic Four, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Which were worthy of your attention?

Robert: Because of our son, my wife and I rarely go out to the theatres anymore, so we have to wait until they come out on DVD. Of the ones we’ve seen so far, Spider-Man 3 was a huge disappointment, Rise of the Silver Surfer was better than the original but still nothing special, Shrek 3 was fun but forgettable, and Ocean’s Thirteen was okay though not as good as the first one.

Conversely, I actually liked At World’s End, the best out of the three Pirates movies and I thought the new Harry Potter was the strongest movie of the bunch so far. It’s funny, actually, of all the Potter books, The Order of the Phoenix was my least favourite, but I really liked what they did with the adaptation. Obviously it wasn’t perfect, but I’m glad the franchise is going in more of an adult direction and I hope they bring back the director for the next one.

I also just saw The Bourne Ultimate. I really like the character. The story was kind of a letdown, but the hand-to-hand fights and the car scenes are brilliant!

Anyways, for me, these were my favorite movies (DVDs) of the year (in alphabetical order):

28 Weeks Later, 300, Afro Samurai, Black Book, Hostel II, Live Free or Die Hard (aka Die Hard 4.0), Pan’s Labyrinth, Paprika, Peaceful Warrior, Planet Terror, Renaissance, The Fountain.

…and I’m still waiting to see Stardust, Sunshine, 30 Days of Night, Beowulf, The Golden Compass, I Am Legend, Sweeney Todd, Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem, National Treasure: Book of Secrets, etc…

Adam: Not much, to be honest. Spiderman 3 was too convoluted and messy, with too many villains and a flabby narrative with lots of pointless retconning. Pirates of the Caribbean 3 had some good ideas but buried them under tons of CGI excess and had no idea what tone it was aiming for. Shrek 3 had one or two laughs in the whole film, confirmation that this franchise needs to be shot and buried (Surf’s Up was frankly a far funnier and much more accomplished family movie). The outstanding film of this year for me was the superlative Sunshine, which - despite a dubious late-stage plot twist - became one the most visually beautiful SF movies since Blade Runner and proved once again that Danny Boyle is a most versatile and intriguing film-maker.

Aidan: Harry Potter was good, though not nearly as good as the novel. I still haven’t seen any part of Spiderman besides the totally awesome dancing scene…. I think the most noteworthy of the year was Stardust and the upcoming adaptation of The Golden Compass.

It’s finally nice to see the success of The Lord of the Rings paying off with good movies. There’s some interesting projects in the pipeline that excite me as well. HBO working on an adaptation of George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire has me more excited than any wet dream. I also have a lot of faith in the Warner Bros. adaptation of Terry Brooks’ The Elfstones of Shannara, which was penned by a good friend of mine, Eldon Thompson.

Rob Bedford: The only sequels I saw in theatres were Spider-Man 3 and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.  I think they both suffered from the same problem – trying to do too much within the confines of their respective films.  Spidey ignored the three-villain rule and Potter seemed to choose inconsistently from the book what to show on film.

Graeme: This year has been a really bad one for getting to the cinema; I’ve only managed to see Transformers (brilliant), The Simpsons (good but it just felt like another TV episode) and Ratatouille (laugh out loud funny). They were all good though so can’t complain! Stardust and Thirty Days of Night are still on the list of films to see (if they’re still on) and I’m debating whether to go and see ‘Beowulf’…

Mark: Actually, not been to the cinema as much as I thought I would this year. There’s a lot on the way as DVD’s for Christmas! The Transformers movie was LOUD but fairly entertaining: the script was as bad as I expected, the effects were so much better. Spiderman 3 also. I do feel the villains were weaker this time around and not as much of Bane as I expected. Stardust was entertaining, though clearly not the book. Harry Potter was well-liked in the Hobbit household by some, but there was a lot missing. 

[Later EDIT:] My personal highlight has been the re-release of the many versions of Blade Runner, something I have been waiting a long time for and rather suspected it would never happen. Does a 25-year-old film merit commenting as a highlight? In this case, yes. Ridley Scott’s tidying up may be a little revisionist, but the overall effect is still stunning. 

Hobbit: Can a sequel be too much of a good thing?

Robert: Absolutely. Sequels rarely, if ever, live up to the original, and more times than not, they end up souring the experience of the first one…at least it does for me. Obviously it’s a business decision, but I think the film industry needs to shake things up…

Adam: Yes. Too many pointless sequels existing only to make money made this year fairly depressing at the box office.

Aidan: Definitely. I think the most guilty of this were the two Pirates of the Caribbean sequels. While I enjoyed both of them, I found that the writers/director tried to focus too much on repeating the success of the first film and not enough time crafting a strong movie.

Jack Sparrow was terrific in the first movie, but I felt like they were trying too hard in the second and third iterations to make him just as entertaining an it felt forced in a way the Curse of the Black Pearl didn’t.

It’s always good to shake things up a little.

Graeme: I didn’t see any of the sequels this year so that’s a tough one to answer. I guess all I can really say is that there are plenty of examples where you can just tell that the studio should have just quit while it was ahead. There’s always a danger that the formula might not work the second (or third) time round or that cinema goers might just get bored and want something new…

Rob Bedford: Yes, it was obvious that Shrek 3, at least from the marketing was made solely for the money.  At least with Spidey, Potter and The Fantastic Four, a great base of source material exists as a basis for the films.

Mark: I yearn for some intelligent, literate SF/Fantasy at the cinema. This wasn’t the year for it, though there were genre elements that did well.

Hobbit: And then there’s the franchise movies. Transformers the Movie seems to have been one of the surprises of the summer. Anyone like?

Robert: I actually went and saw this in the theatre. (grins.)  One of only two movies in fact, the other being Spider-Man 3…regrettably. Anyways, I thought it started out well and liked the sense of realism that Michael Bay brought to it initially, but eventually the movie deteriorated into popcorn fare and left me feeling dissatisfied. I should have went with my first instincts and watched Live Free or Die Hard. (grins.)

Adam: I missed this one as I loath Michael Bay films and hated the thought of what he’d do to Transformers, the toys and particularly comics of which were a very important part of my childhood. Nevertheless, I’ll try and watch it at some point.

Graeme: I loved it! It’s never going to win any awards but it does have thirty foot robots beating the stuffing out of each other and then transforming into cool vehicles. That’s worth a lot in my book. Cinema gold…

Rob Bedford: After seeing Armageddon in theaters years ago, I refused to pay to see anything Michael Bay foisted upon the public.

What about Neil Gaiman?  He had a pretty good year in theaters this year, no? 

Stardust was received pretty well and made a profit at the box office. As a fan of Gaiman and the book, I enjoyed the film very much but feel some viewers may have been slightly misled by the comparison to The Princess Bride, not exactly a fair thing to do to any film.  

Beowulf, scripted by Mr. Gaiman, was (and is) a pretty big success.  Critical acclaim and boatloads of cash at the box office.  I haven’t caught the film yet, but I’m happy to see success for Mr. Gaiman.

Mark: See comment above. Better than expected, though expectations were not that high to start with.

5. TV

Hobbit: Some series this year seem to have gone from strength to strength: others clearly peaked. Agree?

Robert: Its how the industry goes. There’s a limited shelf-life with how long a show can last. I mean a lot of different elements factor into it—the writers, the actors, the audience, etc.—but at some point a show just isn’t going to be as good as it once was, and it’s the same this year…

Adam: Definitely. Battlestar Galactica’s third season was somewhat disappointing, with a strong opening giving way to lots of irrelevant filler and an ending that lacked the punch that was required, despite the ‘twist’ nature of it. Heroes also failed to maintain the momentum it built up over the first half of the season (broadcast in 2006) and made several missteps, most notably in its lacklustre finale. Season 2 of Heroes has been fairly weak so far as well.

Aidan: Lost got back on track in a big way and I couldn’t be happier about that. After a mediocre second season, it was good to see that they were able to get me to care about the characters and the story again. I really like the idea of doing shorter, quicker paced seasons for the rest of the series and can’t wait to see what the future holds.

I didn’t get into Heroes when it first showed, planning on picking it up on DVD before the second season ended. Then I kept hearing about how much it went downhill in the second season and my interested in the series has dropped.

I think the biggest problem a TV show can face (similar to series of novels) is when they get too popular for their own good. Once a TV show starts trying to please the moneyhats instead of crafting a good story, no matter what, that’s when we start seeing a decline in quality.

Graeme: I’ve got to be honest and say that the only sci-fi series I watched were Primeval and Dr. Who, both of which had their ups and downs and probably need a lot of work ahead of their respective new series. I really enjoyed Primeval but couldn’t get away from the feeling that there wasn’t too much to the show other than the ‘monster of the day’. Dr Who felt a lot more consistent but episodes like Gridlock and Daleks in Manhattan were a let down. Next year’s looking good though…

Rob Bedford: There seems to be an online backlash focused on Heroes.  I was glued to the set every week.  Sure it was a bit inconsistent at times, but I think too many people were comparing the second season to the first.  That isn’t a fair comparison considering the first season seemed to take so many by surprise.

The SciFi Channel continues to be a frustrating network: a quirky entertaining show like Eureka is given a chance and gets good ratings.  The adaptation of Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files, while a slow starter, evened itself out into a entertaining show doesn’t get a second season.  On the flip side, they have the audacity to slap the name Flash Gordon on that show they air on Fridays and allowed another perfectly good American Fantasy icon (The Wonderful Wizard of Oz) trainwreck with Tin Man.  Not surprising since the same people behind it were also behind the trainwreck of Earthsea from a couple of years ago.

Mark: Doctor Who is still phenomenally popular here in the UK. I’m still less impressed than many, though there were episodes that were OK (but perhaps not as good as some of the comments would suggest.) Torchwood seems to have gone down well in the US and Australia, but from me I wasn’t impressed. Lots of clichés abound, but perhaps that’s me in grumpy-mode.

Hobbit: Favourites in 2007?

Robert: Heroes is definitely at the top of my list. Last season blew me away, and while this year started kind of slow, the last few episodes have been excellent!

Of the newer shows, Chuck is easily my favorite. It’s just a lot of fun! I tried watching Bionic Woman and Pushing Daisies, but I just couldn’t get into either one…

Adam: Unexpectedly, I found that Lost had regained a lot of my affection this year. Clearly aware that they’d padded Season 2 out with filler, the writers took the bull by the horns, cleared out some of the fat, and started drawing the storylines together more tightly and pushing the boundaries of the concept in far more intriguing ways. After two-and-a-half variable seasons, Doctor Who (new version) finally gave us a dramatically powerful and satisfying story as the Master was reborn and conquered the world. Finally, Life on Mars delivered the most ambiguous ending to an SF&F series since The Prisoner, literally leaving the audience scratching their heads in befuddlement (and far more so than The Sopranos’ ending). Whilst a sequel series, Ashes to Ashes, will apparently shed light on the confusion next year, Life on Mars was a show with heart, humour, social commentary and powerhouse performances from John Simm and Philip Glenister, and is my vote for personal favourite of 2007. Lord knows what the forthcoming US remake will be like!

Rob Bedford: Heroes.

Reaper surprised me quite a bit.  Each week the show is consistently solid, entertaining, and within the structure set up for the show, innovative.

Graeme: I really wish I’d started watching Heroes when it first came out in the UK, I don’t think I’ve heard anyone say a bad thing about it. I’ve got a bad habit of leaving TV shows until it’s far too late to get into them (I’m so far behind with Battlestar Galactica that it’s just silly…)

Mark: Finally caught up with Season 1 of Heroes in the UK, and can see what the fuss was about, though it may have been a victim of its own success here. I loved Battlestar Galactica, which I think has been my favourite.

Hobbit: What do you wish you’d started watching this year?

Robert: The one show I really wish I could watch is Dexter but I’ll just have to pick that up on DVD. Other than that, I’m interested to see how The Sarah Connor Chronicles turn out…

Adam: Thanks to SFX Magazine, I discovered an interesting South Africa/Canadian production called Charlie Jade, which had an intriguing premise (Blade Runner meets Sliders in South Africa) and some fantastic design work. It only lasted one season but is worth tracking down.

Mark: Season 2 of Heroes. I am quite looking forward to the Bionic Woman remake, the Terminator Chronicles and Battlestar Galactica:Razor, due here soon in 2008.

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