Well, we don’t get Kate Beckinsale, but it’s more than made up for with the presence of Rhona Mitra. That should make any viewer happy. Filmed in New Zealand this 3rd entry in the Underworld franchise is surprisingly good. Len Wiseman (and Beckinsale’s husband) is in the producer’s, rather than the director’s chair. However, Patrick Tatpolous fills in without missing a beat. Tatopolus was the main man responsible for the gothic look of the first two films and his style matches what Wiseman set up rather well. The story is old-school, literally. There’s typical medieval elements such as a nasty king, a princess in love with the enemy, slaves and two warring races. The goodie werewolves (or lycans) and the baddie vampires are the difference though, and there’s a lot more lycans in this film, as the title, Rise of the Lycans suggests. As a prequel, it sets up up things nicely. Mitra plays Sonya, the daughter of vamp elder Viktor (the always delightfully oily Bill Nighy), and her love for Viktor’s fave lycan slave Lucian, played by Michael Sheen (from the excellent Frost/Nixon) is the film’s driving force.Viktor keeps lycans as his oppressed guard, rather than killing them. There is a Romeo and Juliet factor to the film, complete with a depressing ending and it looks very – blue. It’s great to see the blend of CGI and creature effects of the many lycans that show up. I was impressed and touches like Beckinsale’s bookend narration, and the greater inclusion of hulking actor/comic book writer Kevin Grevioux (who helped create the Underworld mythos) as recently turned lycan, Raze is also neato. The Underworld trilogy has been remarkably consistent.
Sadly, I can’t say the same about the Transporter series. Transporter 3 is directed by a man who sounds like a French Transformer – Olivier Megaton. Every Transporter film has the same plot. Frank Martin, played by buffness personified, Jason Statham agrees to deliver a package and against his better judgement opens it, the ruthless men who gave it to him chase him down and over the top fighting ensues. This film’s predecessor was a letdown, whereas the first film was a breath of fresh air. Of course, there’s some unique action scenes, in the vein of Jackie Chan, thanks to fight choreographer Corey Yuen, but the whole film just lacks sparkle. First time actress Natalya Rudakova appears as the damsel in distress and at first her freckley face is somewhat distracting, but you get used to it. It’s a poor man’s Bond with far less glitz, but a little more playfulness. Robert Knepper (Prison Break) and his wrist bomb explosive tech makes for a good enemy, but when it’s all put together it’s just not enough. I am happy to see the French (writer/director Luc Besson is the co-creator of the series) give Hollywood a run for it’s box office dollars however.
There are so many good indie publishers that fly under the radar. 
His name may be familiar to some, thanks to all the Star Wars novels he has written, but he’s also written his own works, plus novels set in the world of Dune, and even a few comics. I recently finished his book, The Last Days of Krypton, which is about , well, the last days of Krypton. I was pretty impressed by it. There’s a few things that puzzled me, such as a few grammatical errors and the use of other characters names instead of Non and Ursa. You may remember those characters primarily from the first two Superman films starring Christopher Reeve. Perhaps due to copyright reasons, their names are changed, but their personalities are clearly those of the fesity woman and brute mute. No-one but hardcore Superman fans will notice however, and the replacement names Aethyr and Nam-Ek belong to a pair of characters from earlier episodes of Smallville, taken from the comics from decades ago. However, it’s not a biggie really. General Zod is a manipulating genius who uses fear tactics to get what he wants after Braniac shows up and takes the whole city of Kandor away. The budding romance between respected (for the most part) scientist Jor-El and artist Lara is handled beautifully. The age difference between the pair and the fact that they’re newlyweds before shuttling their baby Kal-El off to Earth seemed somewhat unusual, but only because I’ve never seen them portrayed that way before. 
This is a book for Superman fans, or at least those vaguely aware of the character’s origins. Anderson is a good writer, and I felt at times like I wanted to wring the necks of the stuffy Council for ignoring Jor-El’s pleas and ultimately giving rise to Zod’s megalomania. Most of the characters are fully developed, though Anderson has the uncanny need to describe everyones hairstyles. He does take this vague knowledge of Superman’s distant origins and throw in nice cameos such as the Phantom Zone, and Martian Manhunter, and even hints at the Green Lantern Corps. Comics scribe Geoff Johns has taken these concepts and run with them with his Last Son arc and the more recent New World of Krypton maxi-series that has most of these characters appear once more. Plus the cover by Fables cover artist James Jean is grand. If Warner Bros. ever wise up and give writer Mark Millar his dream job of creating a Superman film trilogy, this book would be an awesome opener. There’s no Superman in sight, yet it is a surprising and often riveting sci-fi tale.
Dark Horse’s Rapture #1 tells the story of two lovers going through a time out in the middle of an ongoing superhero/villain war. This war has devastated America and the government has had enough. In this set up issue (with 5 more to come) the superpowered individuals are mere background characters. Their effect on the world at large is the pivot point. There’s no specific event alluded to that tipped the scales and made the costumed adventurers flee the planet, but it seems like one of those huge summer x-overs that Marvel and DC give us every year. We’ll probably never know anymore of the heroes than that in this series, but the lovers, namely Evelyn and forlorn muso Gil steal the show. The absence of spandex will not be missed as the shambles of a world that humanity now resides in is intriguing enough, with cannibalistic mobs and Spectre-like hero The Word’s mission to the weary Evelyn. Created by Mike Avon Oeming and his wife Taki Soma the fluidity of the script and visuals is daring. With newspaper clippings and handwritten notes between the separated lovers, it’s slightly different from Oeming’s usual work, but it works splendidly. It’s like Kingdom Come with hints of Civil War, in its use of themes if not superheroes, and the human element behind the superhuman reality makes for an intriguing tale. On the 
Image’s Chew is likewise a nifty concept. Created by John Layman and Rob Guillory it takes a few pages to realise why this cop tale is off-centre, and it’s this; due to bird flu chicken has been outlawed. Tony Chu is a cop who is also cibopathic. That means he gets impressions off everything he eats. One bite of an apple and he can tell where it was harvested and what pesticides were used on it, etc. He also is able to take that skill and apply it to human flesh. He uses this when he hunts down a serial killer at a “chicken speakeasy” and is rewarded with a job at the now powerful FDA (Food and Drug Administration). This 5 part series is off to a good start with it’s combination of whacky premise, great humour and violence. Layman and Guillory mention in the afterword how they were inspired by The Walking Dead’s Robert Kirkman’s video manifesto last year that urged artists and writers to risk producing more of their own creator owned ideas. Its good to see Kirkman’s sincere plea bearing such good fruit. Dare I say that Chew is a tasty morsel? Yes, indeed. That’s exactly what it is.
There’s a lot riding on this series, but I don’t think anyone would expect it to not be a success. Famed Scottish scribe Grant Morrison killed Bruce Wayne/Batman in Final Crisis #6 a few months ago, but as we all know the term “comic book death” exists for a reason. Bruce Wayne isn’t really dead though, just unseen, trapped in the past. He’ll come back at some point, but it seems DC aren’t in a hurry to do so. June brings a slew of new titles focused on the new Batman and Robin and how that affects Gotham and its unusual citizens. If you don’t know who that new crime fighting duo are, here it is; former Robin Dick Grayson has now replaced his mentor as the new Batman, while Bruce Wayne’s son Damian is the new Robin. Apart from the slightly improved costumes for both this is also a fresh start for the costumed pair. Really, Batman and Robin haven’t appeared together that frequently over the decades, especially in the last few years. This is due to the fact that both characters have had their own separate series, so it’s great to see them together in a regular monthly series. Not that Dick as Batman and Damian as Robin have ever teamed up as such, however. As Dick says, ‘This is it. Batman and Robin. Together again for the first time.”
This must be the funniest book I’ve read all year. 
Basically all you need to know about this series is that it is centered on The Plutonian. He used to be a great goodie and he’s turned into an evil baddie. It’s a great and simple premise, but writer Mark Waid has fashioned it into quite the complex tale. As any scribe knows, or is at least told, no-one wakes up in the morning and decides, “I think I’m going to be evil today!” Every well crafted villain, especially in comics is motivated by what they see as a genuine cause. Lex Luthor is motivated by his ego, Magneto is motivated by belief in mutant superiority, and so on.
I’ve been working my way through the excellent 8 disc Alien Quadrilogy box set as of late. Every film in the franchise is so distinct yet it manages to tie-in to an overall story structure, which is impressive. This year is the 30th anniversary of the first Alien film by Ridley Scott and to celebrate, long-time holders of the franchise in comics form, Dark Horse are releasing a new Aliens series. Written by John Arcudi (who also launches next month’s new Predator series), with art by newcomer Zach Howard, I was impressed by this premiere. It wasn’t until the last page that I realised, very little of the aliens were shown, yet I didn’t care. Arcudi creatively introduces us to a new crew and in a shock that made me laugh with its audacity, dispatched them all in a swift bloodbath. With its references to the events on the planet LV-426, where the first two films were set, it may very well become more closely linked with the mythos. It looks great, and as always in any Aliens story, the humans are the main players and there’s a scientific/military conspiracy at play, but this is only set up here. 
Olypmus is a new 4 ish mini from Image. Written by Nathan Edmondson with art supplied by Christian Ward, it’s focused on two brothers who are now eternal, thanks to the greek god Zeus. It reminded me of another new series by Image, the great Viking. That series also has two brothers coming to grips with the warring world around them and is daring in its visual approach. Whereas that tale is gritty and medieval, Olympus is light and sleekly modern. Some may be turned off by Ward’s art, which is kind of like Tommy Lee Edwards (who supplies the variant cover) in it’s sparseness, but it works well within the rambling, yet coherent, nature of the story.
Frank Miller is a legend in the comics biz, and rightly so. As writer/artist he re-invigorated Daredevil for Marvel and Batman for DC in the 80s then went on to give the world his own creations such as 300 and Sin City. The film adaptation of the latter is the most faithful comic movie ever made, and Miller used his co-directing credit to launch a career in Hollywood. With The Spirit, it’s Miller’s show all the way, as both writer and director he helms this film. The trailer made it look like Sin City 2, with it’s black and white imagery and over the top action. Sadly, that’s exactly what this film gives you. It’s not individual in its approach, because it’s been done so much better with Sin City. That film is fun, funny and adventurous. The Spirit has none of that. It’s just – dull.
At Broken Frontier is my review for this week’s Impaler #3 from the fine folks at Image. What’s it all about you ask? Basically, Vlad the Impaler comes to our century to help the overwhelmed military kill as many vampires as possible. This has been a great series so far, and certainly not one for the kids. Blood and profanity flow freely, and it looks superbly gothic thanks to artist Matt Timson. This is the kind of comic you read while listening to Metallica, if you’re into that sort of thing. Here’s a peek at my review.
As explained in Tim Buckley’s introduction, he’s been creating this webcomic since 2002 as something he was experimenting with for his portfolio. For the last few years, he’s been making his living from it. That’s mainly because his daily strips are full of geek in-jokes and we love them more than girls at the comic shop.
comicbookjesus 