Month: January 2025

Hitting an Ice Bird: a review of The Penguin

I mentioned The Sopranos, and I will also mention Breaking Bad, because both have the same elements that propel The Penguin: an exceptionally strong, large cast, a unique and compelling world, and a lead character whose performance is utterly incandescent. Farrell’s performance is right up there with Gandolfini or Cranston. It is utterly amazing.

Ghosts in the Machines: a review of Pantheon

Pantheon is solid, intelligent, probing science fiction, as good an example of the genre as you can hope to encounter. The scientific literacy and verisimilitude will remind you of Andy Weir or Peter Cawdron, and the moral and ethical complexity and ambiguity is straight from the pages of Harlan Ellison or Phillip K. Dick. Yes, it’s that good.

Calamari in New York: a review of Watchmen Chapters I and II

With the two part Watchmen movie, there would seem to be little to upset Moore. The dialogue, line for line, transitioned wholly intact from graphic novel to animation, right down to Rorschach’s use of “Herm.” It faithfully recreated every scene from the graphic novel. Dave Gibbons, who drew every panel of the original, oversaw the animation art from start to finish. The only element missing was Moore’s often-brilliant use of segues from one scene to another. And I’m not sure that could translate well.