Great though Star Trek was, if anyone had any problem with the movie at all it was that a few things, Nero for instance, really could have used more fleshing out. Well it seems that Nero actually got the backstory he needed… but only in an earlier version of the script.

TNMC got their hands on the Trek script which they say contains a whole host of deleted scenes which never made it into the movie. Here’s a quick breakdown of some of what they found, if you haven’t seen the movie yet stop reading now to avoid spoilers. read this entry »

No surprise here, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen was the number one movie at the box office this weekend and it made a ridiculous amount of money. $112 million just over the three day weekend. Add in the film’s totals from earlier in the week and it made more than $201 million in only three days.

It’s already the biggest movie of the year and the biggest opening ever to happen in June. It’s also the biggest ever movie in IMAX, having made $14.4 million in IMAX showings, more than any other IMAX film has ever opened with.

Cameron Diaz’s touchy feely cloning movie My Sister’s Keeper fared less well, and debuted at number 5. Here’s the full top ten:

Weekend Box Office June 26 – 28
1. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen – $112 million
2. The Proposal – $18 million
3. The Hangover – $17 million
4. UP – $13 million
5. My Sister’s Keeper – $12 million
6. Year One – $6 million
7. The Taking of Pelham 123 – $5 million
8. Star Trek – $4 million
9. Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian – $4 million
10. Away We Go – $2 million

In case over the past few months since the last new episode you’ve forgotten just how brilliant David Tennant is as The Doctor, this weekend BBC America brought us a stop-gap, a mini-movie, another Doctor adventure with Tennant called “Doctor Who: The Next Doctor”. Like every Who episode with him in it, it’s brilliant.

In “The Next Doctor” Tennant’s Doctor encounters another man who also claims to be The Doctor. Is this another Time Lord? Some regenerated version of his future self? Find out out.

If you haven’t seen it yet, “The Next Doctor” wil be playing throughout today and probably the rest of the week in repeats on the BBC America. Savor Tennant while you can, it won’t be long till the show returns with his Doctor replacement. Luckily, there’s still at least one more mini-movie planned featuring Tennant. “Doctor Who: Planet of the Dead” debuts a month from now on July 26th. read this entry »

It’s the biggest movie of the summer, which means that after a hot summer weekend like this one, almost all of you have seen it. The critics have trashed it, the pundits have questioned it, but what did you think of it?

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I still remember watching the first Transformers movie. It was in a packed theater, one of those screenings put on by radio stations. This usually results in an audience skewed towards the station’s demographic rather than one composed of movie fans but in this instance, a quick look up and down the aisle revealed an audience packed with Transformers geeks. Optimus Prime t-shirts were in heavy evidence along with the usual geek accoutrements present at any special nerd-friendly event. And when the movie played, there was an audible reaction. They laughed at all the obscure, inside jokes. They applauded in all the right moments. The first time Optimus Prime rolled on screen there was a gasp, a ripple of emotion which seemed close to collapsing into tears as thirty year old men relived that moment when as a kid, Optimus Prime died on screen and left them there all alone.

Shortly after that screening Transformers debuted to mainstream audiences and powered by incomprehensible special effects it became huge. The film transcended any and all possible boundaries of fandom to become something loved not just by fanboys, but by everyone who likes to buy a ticket for spectacle.

Enter Transformers 2, an inferior film by any measure yet one, inexplicably loved by audiences while utterly loathed by nearly every type of film critic. It’s on it’s way to becoming the second biggest film of all time and, those who reviewed and hated it are looking for scapegoats. How to explain this impossible success? How to explain the determination of audiences to like something which is, so obviously, a pile of dreck? Never before has the divide between audience and critic been bigger, and that’s left us all looking for answers. The one landed on most frequently by pundits is this one, espoused by Roger Ebert: “It has little to no appeal for non-fanboy or female audiences.” The implication here is that the film made $60 million dollars purely on the money eagerly handed over by nerds who, of course, will watch anything featuring robots without discrimination.

I beg to differ. read this entry »

You’ll hear a lot of talk over the next few days about Michael Jackson’s contributions to music, his problems as a human being. What you probably won’t hear a lot of people talking about is his place in Science Fiction.

But in 1986 Captain EO debuted at the then still new Epcot Center at Disney World. It was, for its time, a groundbreaking adventure film in breathtaking 3D. The kind of 3D you could only get at a theme par back then, the kind of 3D that’s now almost commonplace in movie theaters. It starred Michael Jackson as a daring space Captain who in the end, defeats an evil Supreme leader played by Anjelica Huston, by singing.

Maybe it wasn’t the greatest of sci-fi conceits but the 3D sold it and the Captain EO adventure played iat Disney for more than a decade until it was removed in 1998. Now it lives on only in YouTube. Watch: read this entry »

The winners of the 35th Annual Saturn Awards were announced tonight and as it should have, The Dark Knight won big with 5 awards.

The Saturns are the alternative awards for genre entertainment which is, almost reflexively, overlooked by other awards like the Oscars. They’re the place to go if you want your awards ceremonies hosted by Leonard Nimoy. Here’s the full list of this year’s Saturn Award winners:

Best Science Fiction Film: Iron Man
Best Fantasy Film: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Best Horror Film: Hellboy II: The Golden Army
Best Action/Adventure/Thriller Film: The Dark Knight
Best Actor: Robert Downey, Jr. (Iron Man)
Best Actress: Angelina Jolie (Changeling)
Best Supporting Actor: Heath Ledger (The Dark Knight)
Best Supporting Actress: Tilda Swinton (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button)
Best Performance by a Younger Actor: Jaden Christopher Smith (The Day the Earth Stood Still)
Best Director: Jon Favreau (Iron Man)
Best Writer: Christopher Nolan and Jonathan Nolan (The Dark Knight)
Best Music: Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard (The Dark Knight)
Best Costume: Mary Zophres (Indiana Jones & the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull)
Best Make-Up: Greg Cannom (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button)
Best Special Effects: Nick Davis, Chris Corbould, Timothy Webber, Paul J. Franklin (The Dark Knight)
Best International Film: Let the Right One In
Best Animated Film: Wall-E
Best Television Series: Lost
Best Syndicated/Cable Television Series: Battlestar Galactica
Best Presentation on Television: The Librarian: The Curse of the Judas Chalice
Best Actor on Television: Edward James Olmos (Battlestar Galactica)
Best Actress on Television: Mary McDonnell (Battlestar Galactica)
Best Supporting Actor on Television: Adrian Pasdar (Heroes)
Best Supporting Actress on Televison: Jennifer Carpenter (Dexter)
Guest Starring Role on Television: Jimmy Smits (Dexter)
Best DVD Release: Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer
Best DVD Special Edition Release: Stephen King’s The Mist (2 disc Special Edition)
Best DVD Classic Film Release: Psycho (Universal Legacy Series)
Best DVD Collection: The Godfather-The Coppola Restoration
Best Series on DVD: Moonlight
Best Retro Series on DVD: The Invaders
The Life Career Award: Lance Henriksen
The Lifetime Achievement Award: Leonard Nimoy
The Visionary Award: Jeffrey Katzenberg

The first review of the script for Tron 2 has arrived and the verdict is, somewhat mixed. The good news here is that this particular review is based only on an earlier draft, which means they may have fixed some of the problems since then.

You can read the full Tron 2 script review over at CC2K, but here’s some of the highlights. Stop reading if you’re afraid of possible spoilers: read this entry »

We have two brand new images from the upcoming computer animated movie Astro Boy. Set in futuristic Metro City, Astro Boy is about a young robot with incredible powers created by a brilliant scientist named Tenma (Nicolas Cage). Powered by positive “blue” energy, Astro Boy (Freddie Highmore) is endowed with super strength, x-ray vision, unbelievable speed and the ability to fly. Take a look: