REMINDER RELOAD: First 'Sarah Connor Chronicles' of '09 to reunite lead Terminator heroine with an old love

Kyle Reese (Jonathan Jackson) will return to "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" during the Feb. 13 season two episode "The Good Wound," newly released photo stills reveal.

TV.com's episode overview shows that Kyle will return as a hallucination during Lena Headey's Sarah Connor's recovery from a gun shot wound sustained at the end of the Dec. 15 episode "Earthlings Welcome Here."

Though this is not Kyle's first appearance on the TV series, it is the first time the two characters have been on screen together in more than 20 years since 1984's "The Terminator" at least in terms of official canon. 

"The Good Wound," which might end up having a tragic love story motif, was likely postponed until it could be aired close to Valentine's Day. 

Indicated from the episode overview is that Sarah will use the hallucination to gain emotional strength the way Linda Hamilton's interpretation of the character would have done in 1991's "Terminator 2: Judgement Day" if the scene in question had not been deleted.

Nothing new in terms of story plot should be revealed by this Kyle given that he is just a hallucination, so he will probably simply remind her of something she has long since forgotten.

Perhaps he will represent a more level-headed approach to fighting SkyNet than the progressively more militant approach she has adopted in the TV series.

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REVIEW RELOAD: James Bond takes a 'Quantum of Solace' away from caring about anything but suspenseful mayhem

What could have been another character-based, 007 mission with a fair amount of impressive exploits in "Quantum of Solace" is reduced to nothing more than an needlessly stylistic action-centered movie that stifles its cast.

As in "Casino Royale," James Bond fans find their favorite MI6 agent (Daniel Craig) in a chase sequence early in the film, only this one takes place on a precarious hillside two-lane highway somewhat restricted by traffic. With the tables turned this time around, Bond appears to employ a few evasive driving techniques to thwart his pursuers, though the chase is comprised of so many quick cuts that it is difficult to discern what happens.

"Quantum of Solace" Director Marc Forster apparently realized that a mainstream audience might not enjoy this highfalutin film school car commercial, so he quickly follows up with a more intense chase in which Bond runs down a double agent through a crowded racetrack, on to rooftops and into a construction area in the somber, yet complex Sienna, Italian cityscape. The film's trailer provides the gist of the proper pace utilized in this particular chase.

Thereafter, the action sequences become nothing more than another reason for Bond to highjack some means of conveyance that he will completely destroy in order to create unnecessary moments of suspense characterized by abrupt endings.

Stringing together these high-adrenaline moments is a simple plot in which Bond has sparing information with which to track Mr. White's organization. He stumbles on to a wild lead that lands him in the middle of a Quantum member's bid to topple the Bolivian government to acquire a nearby desert.

In any other film, the happenstance course of events that drive "Quantum of Solace" would be too convenient to accept, but they fit well given that Bond works for M16, which is as much an intelligence agency as it is responsible for training super spies. Plus, the two-hours-or-less film format does not lend itself well to following a lot of dead-end leads before one finally pans out.

Particularly clever about the story is how it integrates the changed relationship between the U.S. and British intelligence agencies in a post-Cold War era in which natural resources, not territorial supremacy, are major nations' modus operandi. 

Also worth mentioning is the manner in which the seemingly unassuming members of Quantum meet in venues open to the public as opposed to in a boardroom on an unchartered volcano island. Anonymity, not physical deformities, is the trademark of these highly influential Bond villains. 

Craig as Bond is noticeably more cold and reserved in this latest outing, only letting down his guard when the need arrives to be arrogant or charming. Though this is the natural transition of the character after "Casino Royale," Craig is left with very little to say in between continuous action beats when the supporting cast asks him to care about the dead Vesper Lynd or provides the audience with exposition. It makes Craig come off as though he is in "The Transporter" on a grander scaler as opposed to being on a soon-to-be classic 007 mission.

More dialogue for Craig alluding to the hinted revenge his character is said to crave by Judi Dench's M, who trusts her rogue agent for no apparent reason, might have gone a long way to remind moviegoers of the character development he apparently went through judging by the film's end and that this new interpretation of the famed secret agent is more than just a blunt, relentlessly amorous instrument in a tuxedo.

Dench is reduced to an interpreter, providing the only engaging dialogue in the 106-minutes long "Quantum of Solace" that happens to hint at what is going on in 007's mind, Mathieu Amalric's Dominic Greene is perhaps the least memorable villain thus far in the franchise, Olga Kurylenko as Camille Montes is essentially a not-so-exposed Bond girl that is strangely meant to reflect Bond's inner lust for vengeance.

Missing is the smart and witty interplay Bond enjoys with M, his leading lady and other supporting characters in "Casino Royale" that is primarily replaced in this film with nothing more than a few nonchalant three-to-five-word lines.

"Quantum of Solace" simply does not try hard enough in terms of development of its main characters and tries too hard with needlessly suspenseful events to tell a story about James Bond learning not to take his duty as a spy too personally that was already told on the silver screen in 2006.

Popcorn rating:

(3 1/2 out of 5 pieces)

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REACTION RELOAD: Top 10 reasons The CW's show about Robin The Boy Wonder, his family will fail to take flight

Why is The CW's next superhero drama about the life of circus acrobat Dick Grayson before he became The Batman's sidekick? 

Kelly Souders and Brian Peterson, the show's executive producers, are looking to tell an original, untold chapter in the life of a DC Comics hero that will appeal to a young demographic like "Smallville" did, but they are working with a falty premise for the following 10 reasons.

1. Dick Grayson's age poses a problem. DC Comics canon dictates that Boss Zucco whacked Dick's family when he was eight years old, which means he will either be in diapers at the beginning of the show or late into adolescence when he finally becomes Bruce Wayne's ward.

2. Dick Grayson cannot carry an entire show. Even if Dick is portrayed as a pre-tween, swinging from ropes, going out on a first date, or taking on bullies, this should only provide at most one season worth of TV meant to appeal to parents and their toy and video game-crazy children.

3. Dick Grayson and his family are too sunny to be compelling. Keep in mind that Dick only encounters substantial tragedy when his family is murdered so far as comic book fans know, so he is no Hamlet. Even if he does deal with serious business, how much adversity a kid can realistically endure before it comes off as televised abuse is limited. 

Shared family tragedy would not be so limited if one of Dick's brothers fails to catch a rope and takes a fatal fall, provided someone removed the landing nets underneath. Maybe the young acrobat is the one who forgets to put the nets up. Good luck driving the plot forward after that. 

4. "The Graysons" might have to be watered down to include stories with which American families can very closely relate instead of uniquely creative accounts of what it means to be a family working in a traveling circus. The nickname "DJ" is an early indication that Dick Grayson and his family will appeal to the lowest common denominator. 

5. "The Graysons" belongs on Disney programming for reasons already mentioned.

6. Comic book geeks dislike Dick Grayson, which is why director Christopher Nolan did not include the character in his Batman movies and why fans did not line up around the block to buy "Nightwing," the now-cancelled comic book series about the character's life as a crime fighter after parting ways with The Dark Knight. To them, Dick Grayson is nothing more than a pretender to the mantle of The Batman that he was never worthy of wearing on a permanent basis.

7. No one cares about Dick Grayson's fall from grace. He was introduced in "Detective Comics" to appeal to kids and ended up serving as someone off of which The Batman could bounce dialogue when he went on his nightly patrols of Gotham, so a TV show about the young acrobat is unnecessary unless it also features someone more interesting. 

Expect a bunch of future Teen Titans to make cameos during sweeps week.

8. DC heroes and villains will have to carry the show because the premise on its own is weak.

9. Dick Grayson will not have many friends to talk to because he is a part of a constantly traveling circus. Any acquaintances he makes will have to be a part of the circus. 

Beastboy as a misunderstood sideshow freak, Zatanna as a magician's assistant, or a young Stephanie Brown as a runaway might work. 

10. Interesting villains will be hard to find. Other than Boss Zucco, Dick Grayson could conceivably combat villains that are not worth watching for very long such as The Shade, Giganta, Cheetah, a collector of animal oddities known as Professor Milo, or a young Penguin as a sideshow freak.

Killer Croc might prove to be fun to see in the flesh for the first time if the show's budget allows for convincing makeup, though that might pave the way for the "meteor freak of the week" formula that soon made the first few seasons of "Smallville" dull.

What is tricky about utilizing rogues from other heroes' galleries is finding a long-standing reason for them to pose a threat to Dick, his family, or their circus throughout the show's run.

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REACTION RELOAD: Top 10 ways Steven Spielberg, George Lucas 'raped' Indiana Jones in 'The Kingdom of The Crystal Skulls'

"Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of Crystal Skulls" on DVD and Blu-ray will allow fans to process the movie for what it is now that South Park helped heal the wounds of disillusionment from its overall substandard quality.

The following are 10 specific ways in which Steven Spielberg and George Lucas in a crusade to make a quick buck raided and defiled a sacred temple of a movie franchise that should have remained locked away in the memories of 1980s moviegoers.

1. Indy should have hung up his bullwhip because the nearly 20 years that it took to bring this adventure to theaters was enough to make it seem too far apart from the rest of the movies, and the dramatic jump from Indy meeting and adventuring with his father to doing the same with his son was too much to digest. This latest adventure would have worked if it occurred after two more movies in the 1990s, but Harrison Ford understandably did not like crystal skulls.

2. Indy should not have told fans what he did the last 19 summers. He should have simply beat up or fled from the bad guys in "Kingdom of The Crystal Skulls" the way Jennifer Love Hewitt did in the two slasher movies in which she starred.

Filmmakers find creative ways to reveal background information, but Spielberg and Lucas relied solely on exposition to tell moviegoers Indy served as a pre-CIA spy after "Last Crusade," got into several tight spots with a partner named Mac, and that his father and Marcus Brody (Denholm Elliott) have since died. They essentially subscribed to the anime storytelling technique of providing answers to questions no one asked and that have no place in what is meant to be realistic movie dialogue.

3. Indy should not have sought out aliens, or rather the quartz skulls of aliens. Part of what made the archaeologist's past adventures so exciting was the sparing magic realism that was never fully exploited, but provided them with that extra specialness.

Moviegoers already knew Indy would ultimately find legendary artifacts such as The Lost Ark or The Holy Grail, but what was most appealing were challenging obstacles he would have to encounter and overcome by the skin of his teeth, not the MacGuffin. Roswell Grays - if that was not enough, it turns out they were from another dimension - were simply too big of a shark for fans to jump, let alone for a relatable not-so-super protagonist. 

This is a much bigger shark that was presented than when a much younger Indy, known then as Belgium Captain Henri Defence, ended up being the one to finally stake Dracula in "The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles." If Steven Spielberg and George Lucas insist on remaining loyal to the show's canon, every frivolous part of it will be mentioned and seriously judged.

4. Indy should not have sought out aliens from South America if it was impossible to film at the actual location, not in front of a green screen. 

Not only do the "Kingdom of The Kingdom Crystal Skulls" special effects make the look of the movie inconsistent with its predecessors, but they also provide the same overwhelming sense of vertigo and subsequent discomfort reminiscent of watching George Lucas' new Star Wars trilogy. How moviegoers kept from vomiting when the Temple of The Crystal Skulls was broken apart and flew around in pieces in a fast, circular motion is anyone's guess. 

Too much CGI simply makes movies look fake and cheesy. A computer-generated jungle populated by cannibal fire ants simply looks like a computer-generated jungle populated by cannibal fire ants.

5. Indy should have went after a more personal MacGuffin for once. Every artifact Indy found but ultimately did not bring home in his first three movie adventures were at the bequest of someone else such as the U.S. government, an Indian village, or his father. 

If Spielberg and Lucas wanted to do something original, they should have had Indy go after an artifact he always wanted to find such as some mystical bobble from the lost city of Atlantis, The Hand of Midas, Shangri-la, the location of a relocated Library of Alexandria, or something other than a crystal skull that looks like he could have purchased it at a Universal Citywalk store.

6. Indy should not have entered The Cold War because he is too universal of a character for which to provide an overwhelming sense of patriotism against The Soviet Union. Rest assured that Russians did not rush out to see "Kingdom of the Crystal Skulls."

Yes, he fought against the Germans in World War I and  took them on again when they became Nazis in World War II, but they were arguably the most evil force in history, so patriotism might have had little do with his military service. A lack of creativity in finding antagonists that would not upset profits outside of the Western world was apparently impossible or too hard to do. 

How Indy's patriotism further detracts from the true essence of the character is that he spent most of his life in other parts of the world to have developed a great love for America and expresses cynicism toward the government that takes away from him The Lost Ark. He is a man of the people who believes artifacts belong to their rightful owners or museums, not as a potential weaponry for the military or as personal collection pieces for the wealthy.

7. Indy should not have entered that refrigerator for obvious reasons. Maybe Spielberg and Lucas will cut the scene in several possible special edition collections. 

Steve Carell's Michael Scott from The Office would say this is a stark contrast from the protagonist in "Lost Ark," who was a normal guy that was barely able to fight off Nazis, but who in "Kingdom of the Crystal Skulls" could bullwhip away an assault rifle, survive a jet engine-powered ride through the desert and several waterfall drops, not to mention surviving a nuclear blast. Talk about an active senior citizen.

8. Indy should not have gotten hitched because his nuptials detract from the bull whipping, thrill-seeking macho essence of the character. 

"Kingdom of The Crystal Skulls" robbed male fans of the fun prospect that Indy might one day include them in one of his adventures and robbed female fans of the dream that they might ground him in an adventure known as Holy Matrimony. Indy's son, Mutt Williams (Shia LeBeouf) was already born out of wedlock, which fits into the playboy aspect of the character's personality, so the marriage was simply unnecessary. 

Him marrying Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen) seems like nothing more than an explanation as to how he fathered the children mentioned in "The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles."

9. Indy should have let his bullwhip do the talking, not George Lucas. His signature choppy dialogue could be detected in the less-than-one-minute scene in which Indy rediscovers his love for and successfully woos Marion Ravenwood. 

Nowhere in this movie was there any indication through dialogue of how the character's personality has changed in the last 19 years other than that he misses his dead loved ones and hates Communists. The entire screenplay depended on nothing more than nostalgia and running gags from previous films such as Indy's fear of snakes and use of the word "Junior."

10. Indy should not have recalled his youth on ABC because a lot of people likely did not know he once met Pancho Villa in "The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles" and could care less whether the show's canon dictates that he eventually has to conceive children. 

Moviegoers were interested in knowing about Indy's exploits, not his entire life story, especially not his improbable encounters with almost every influential person that was alive during the early 20th century, and an infamous not-so-alive character as well.

What can be seen from another viewing of "Kingdom of The Crystal Skulls" is that it is a very late, uninspired continuation of Indiana Jones' adventures, the plot and dialogue of which portray a familiar, but contrary version of the original character, abuse the degree of creativity and reality to which fans of the franchise became accustomed, and necessitates a visual style that makes the movie appear alien from its predecessors.

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REMINDER RELOAD: HBO orders second season of new show that breathes life into the stagnant vampire genre

What would happen if vampires "came out of the coffin" to expose their existence to the world is the unique premise of an already very successful new cable drama series.

"True Blood," which HBO recently renewed for a second season after the airing of its first two episodes, is set in a world in which a Japanese company develops a synthetic drink that provides vampires with the dietary requirements they attain from sucking the blood of humans to survive, so it allows them to live openly among prejudice humans.

A promising spin on the longtime vampire genre, the new show is like "Buffy The Vampire Slayer" in that it is about a seemingly normal, yet ditzy young woman, Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin), but who has a not-so-secret extraordinary ability that makes it possible for her to become infatuated with a tall, dark and brooding newcomer in town with unusually long canines, Bill Compton (Stephen Moyer). 

Sookie likes the more than 100-year-old creature enough to invite him into her home. Like in "Angel," he cannot come in otherwise.

The show is also like the continuation of New Line Cinema's "Blade" movie series in that these silver-fearing vampires find a final solution to their need to hunt humans for sustenance. Not only that, lobbyists argue in support of equal treatment for these former neck biting creatures, an accusation they confidently deny because of a lack of evidence.

Though she does not set out to slay all of his kind, Sookie connects with Bill in that she is unable to do to him what she unintentionally does to others, that is, read the thoughts running through his mind. If anything, her open-mindedness allows her to defend Bill, and vice versa, from people looking to hurt or exploit him in Bon Temps, a fictional town no doubt placed in Louisiana because of how writer Anne Rice made the region a vampire haven in her novels.

Suffice it to mention that the vampire in question is suspected when the police find a woman's dead body in her home.

Add to the aforementioned premise that humans secretly find the prospect of having sex with vampires very alluring, and because it is an HBO series undead prostitutes provide them with their unique services. 

Sookie's brother, Jason (Ryan Kwanten), in particular, is so fascinated with the act that he watches a vampire porno tape while he has rough sex with a woman of the breathing variety, which makes him another prime murder suspect when police find her body.

Not yet halfway through its first season, "True Blood" is an auspicious cable series that exploits the campy Hollywood vampire stereotype to explore the touchy subject of confronting bigotry in the South. That and more than sexually suggestive interaction between Sookie and Bill should make for at least two seasons of riveting television. Bill himself and the long life he has lead as a vampire should prove to be interesting.

What threatens to drive a stake through the heart of the new HBO drama is a reason to exist beyond having an original spin of a hackneyed premise and the potential loss of the romanticism associated with vampires in a world in which they have nothing or no one from which to hide. 

Viewers might tune out if if becomes a vampire version of "Days of Our Lives."

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REACTION RELOAD: Top 10 ways 'Spider-Man 3' gets tangled in a misfired, convoluted web of contradictions

With two more Spider-Man movies possibly in development comes the question of what might be in store for the Web-slinger after the third installment, which more or less ties up the major story arcs in the series.

"Spider-Man 3" complicates matters in that it is jam-packed with characters in promising story arcs that are never effectively utilized before their exploits are concluded. The following are 10 points for consideration should Columbia Pictures make another film in the series.

1. Spider-man/ Peter Parker has too much to do in two hours.

Not only does Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) plan to propose to a girlfriend who is too bitchy to approach and has to compete with an ambitious photographer for a job he has long wanted, he as Spider-Man also has to contend with a new Goblin, take down the mugger who really killed his Uncle Ben (Cliff Robertson) and fight for control of his personality with an alien symbiote.

In other words, the movie is jam-packed with six subplots, one of which is unnecessary and many of which could have been introduced and later developed in another sequel.

2. Venom is horribly utilized.

Moviegoers meet the Venom symbiote when it inexplicably and opportunely lands near where Peter Parker and Mary Jane (Kirsten Dunst) just happen to set up a hammock made of webs. Never mind that in the comics it hitched a ride to Earth from The Moon on a space shuttle flown by J. Jonah Jameson's son, John, who was introduced in the second movie as an astronaut.

Spider-Man uses the symbiote's enhanced abilities to seemingly kill The Sandman (Thomas Haden Church) for his role in the murder of Uncle Ben, yet it takes a spirited dance number and inadvertently knocking down Mary Jane to show him that the alien symbiote is something more sinister than a cool new super suit. Peter's new killer dance moves in public are apparently more startling.

When Peter makes the decision to sever his physical bond to the symbiote, he for some unexplained reason decides to go to a church where a giant bell and Eddie Brock (Topher Grace) just happen to be waiting to take the suit off his hands. After Eddie Brock/Venom and Sandman later take MJ hostage, a goblin bomb kills Venom and thus Carnage's future.

Director Sam Raimi said he did not like "the lack of humanity" of Venom, so it is not surprising how mercilessly he misuses and kills one of Spider-Man's main villains.

3. The Sandman is too abstract to carry most of the movie.

Director Sam Raimi's only criteria for including The Sandman in the movie was that he liked the visual appeal of the character. 

Yes, Raimi liked The Sandman even though he was unknown to most fans and had very little to do with the pathos of Spider-Man or his alter ego Peter Parker. But Raimi made Flint Marko partly responsible for the death of Uncle Ben, a bold move that did nothing to make the character menacing enough to be taken seriously as a villain or interesting enough to carry most of the movie. Awesome special effects, though. They were also great when they were in "The Mummy."

4. Spider-Man lets a bad guy get away.

Though the plot of the movie teaches about forgiveness, Spidey lets an escaped prisoner get away.

Yes, Flint Marko became a crook to acquire money to help pay for the health care of his sick daughter, but he is a convicted criminal nevertheless and likely returns to crime after Spider-Man forgives him for killing Uncle Ben.

How Peter Parker differentiates Flint's motivation for being involved in theft, grand theft auto and murder from that of his partner in crime is that he assumes the latter was inherently evil. Maybe the carjacker that shot Uncle Ben has a sick daughter too. Peter seems to allow an emo moment of self discovery cloud his better judgement.

What is also deplorable about Spider-man letting The Sandman get away is that it is a contradiction from what he learned after having let Uncle Ben's killer go, that is, that with great power comes great responsibility. How many more people will die because Peter lets The Sandman go is any one's guess and should weigh on his conscious.

5. Venom/Eddie Brock somehow knows about Sandman's sick daughter when they decide to team up to take down Spider-Man.

Peter Parker learns about the desperate condition of Flint Marko's daughter long after his separation from the alien symbiote, so it is curious how Venom/Eddie Brock know this information when he uses it to enrage The Sandman enough to join him in destroying the man who stood in the way of stealing enough money to help her, Spider-man.

6. Peter Parker already got over Uncle Ben's death.

When he first got his powers, Peter Parker dressed up in his pajamas to chase and cause the carjacker he thought killed Uncle Ben to trip out of a warehouse window. He was the same man Peter refused to stop earlier that night from robbing a greedy wrestling promoter, so Peter felt guilty, acted emo in the second movie, but got over the trauma.

Channeling The Hulk, Peter breaks out in a fit of rage when he finds out it was Flint Marko who actually fatally shot his Uncle Ben , so he uses his new black suit to find and kill him.

Luckily, Peter as Spider-Man cannot harm the man who killed his uncle because he has since become a creature made of sand. He thus learns through killing not to kill.

In the fourth movie, Peter might find out Uncle Ben thought his nephew was too emo, leading to the creation of a villain from his neogenic tears dripping into someone's coffee cup.

7. Mary Jane is overly bitchy.

Mary Jane loves Peter Parker, yet she runs to the arms of Harry Osborn (James Franco) when Spider-man starts receiving more positive press than her critically panned debut on Broadway.

Peter tries to reach out to MJ, but instead of listening to reason she goes on a rant about how he does not understand what she is going through and misinterprets his friendship with Gwen Stacy. She looks for any reason to break off the relationship so that she can go live it up with a wealthier, seemingly more dim-witted Harry Osborn.

Instead of telling Peter that a true husband places the needs of his wife first, Aunt May (Rosemary Harris) should say, "You gotta let her whip you if you wanna hit it in Holy Matrimony."

Nothing is wrong with portraying Mary Jane as too hot to trot as in the comic books, but it is not necessary to interpret her as a gold digging bitch to accomplish that goal.

8. Harry Osborn's split personality does not make sense.

The second movie featured Harry encountering an image of his father in a mirror speaking as The Green Goblin (Willem Dafoe), which demands that his murder be avenged. Moviegoers are to assume that Harry was exposed to the same hallucinogenic green gas that drove Norman Osborne crazy and to develop the goblin persona.

Adverse affects of the gas does not make sense because it is unlikely that it produces two separate split personalities that both know Spiderman's secret identity and hence that of his loved ones. Emergence of another Green Goblin villain should include a reasonable explanation for the origin of the figure as a dual identity for both men.

Fans were expecting the revelation that Norman Osborn's Green Goblin survived being impaled by his own glider and that he was exploiting Harry to do his dirty work, especially after Dafoe reprised the character via cameos twice. Such a revelation was seemingly on the horizon, but the comic book source material was scrapped.

9. Harry Osborn switches sides too many times.

Blaming Peter Parker for the murder of his father, Harry sustains an amnesia-causing hit to the head while battling Spider-Man on his goblin glider that causes him to forget he hates his former best friend. Letting bygones be bygones, Harry again suddenly remembers the treacherous rat that killed his father, so he forces Mary Jane to break up with Peter. Again battling Spider-Man, The New Goblin gets his ass handed to him and realizes he has to help his buddy Peter save Mary Jane from two villains.

If a sequel ever materializes, Harry is going to come back from the dead, crash Peter and MJ's wedding on his goblin glider and say, "Guess what guys? I'm bad once again!"

10. Harry Osborn is too messed up in the head. 

His father's death and exposure to green gas sparked in Harry a need for hallucinogen-driven blood lust against Spider-Man, but he is not crazy enough to convincingly forgive Peter Parker and befriend Mary Jane in a plot to "attack the heart" of the man underneath the mask. Temporary amnesia is hence required to make the plan seem cooky enough.

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REVIEW RELOAD: SG-1 goes on one more decent adventure through time in 'Stargate: Continuum'

Fans of "Stargate SG-1" may not love "Stargate: Continuum," a feature-length DVD adventure in stores on July 29, but they may like that it provides closure for the show's 10-season run. 

"Continuum" takes place on the Tok'ra home planet, where SG-1 has traveled to witness the extraction from its human host of the last system lord Goa'uld larva, Ba'al (Cliff Simon). The team is joined at the ceremony by Major General Jack O'Neill (Richard Dean Anderson), who with the help of SG-3 escorted the prisoner to the planet to ensure nothing goes awry, but of course something goes wrong.

After Tok'ra elders read an extensive list of Ba'al's offenses, he tells the SG-1 team they made a terrible mistake. The arrogant system lord says the Ba'al from which he was cloned is still at large, and that he is about to enact a fail-safe plan that will change everything. Vala Mal Doran (Claudia Black) and several Tok'ra begin to disappear into thin air. O'Neill, who is stabbed in the heart by Ba'al after he demands an explanation, orders SG-1 to immediately go home.

Lt. Colonel Cameron Mitchell (Ben Browder), Colonel Samantha Carter (Amanda Tapping) and Dr. Daniel Jackson (Michael Shanks) end up gating to the cargo hold of the shipwrecked Achilles, the freighter ship that in 1939 transported the stargate from Egypt to prevent the possibility that the Nazis might find and use it as a weapon. But the original Ba'al traveled back to this time period and slaughtered the crew before they could get the gate back to America. This means The U.S. Air Force never started a secret program that resulted in a flagship team of space explorers defeating The Goa'uld System Lords.

"Stargate: Continuum" tells the story of how what remains of the SG-1 team tries to once again restore an altered timeline.

While "Stargate" cannon shows that all Mitchell, Carter and Daniel have to do accomplish their mission is travel through the gate when a solar flare passes through an established wormhole, U.S. government officials will not let them. 

Major General Hank Landry (Beau Bridges) says it is unlikely that Ba'al will attack Earth 70 years after he changed history. He also takes issue with SG-1's intent to change billions of people's lives, so they are relocated to live separately as private citizens.

What detracts from "Continuum" is that a lot of the 99-minute movie is devoted to introducing the conflict, and a roadblock in the way of its resolution, before more exciting events take place.

How the long setup works is that it creates the sense that the timeline will not be restored and that The Navy, which recovers the gate located in Antarctica, will take charge of creating a stargate program with entirely different people. Some of the setup also explains why Mitchell is literally a "grandfather paradox," a successful attempt at a joke and to closer associate the character with the history of the stargate.

Ba'al finally show ups in Earth's orbit after having defeated the rest of The Goa'uld System Lords and made them his minions with the help of the Jaffa, who are loyal, not obedient, to him. 

Though their new sovereign has an ingenious plan to stifle the fighting spirit of his opponents on the planet, Ba'al regrettably does not cause havoc for very long because someone more ambitious at his side intercedes, but that is a surprise.

Another surprise is the appearance of one of the SG-1 team's enemies from the show's past.

"Stargate SG-1" was a show produced by a crew that did not take itself too seriously, and they continue this tradition in "Continuum."

Though it is brief, O'Neill and Ba'al share some lighthearted dialogue before what would normally be a grim, serious extraction ceremony at the beginning of the movie.

In another scene, Daniel walks into a bookstore with the use of both his legs even though he earlier lost a leg because of frostbite. Inside the store, Daniel finds a book, "Mysteries of the Pyramids," the jacket of which shows an amusing photo of what appears to be a paranoid crackpot version of his other self in that timeline.

At the end of the movie, Carter jokes with O'Neill about reviewing with him design plans for the new moon base, though it is not clear whether she is joking.

"History May Never Repeat Itself Again," a tag line on the DVD cover, also pokes fun at the show because the movie marks the fifth time SG-1 has time-traveled.

They journeyed to or found themselves in a different time in the "Stargate SG-1" episodes "1969," "Window of Opportunity," "2010" and the two-part episode "Moebius."

With "Moebius," the team accomplishes its standing order to procure advanced technology to help in the defense of the planet from Goa'uld attack. This would have sufficed as an appropriate bookend to the science fiction series if it ended after the eighth season, but it did not.

"Continuum" serves as a decent end to the SG-1 story after the 10th season simply because the team attends the execution of the last of The Goa'uld System Lords, their primary nemesis. It is basically an above average three-part episode that ties up one last loose end, Ba'al.

Popcorn rating:

(4 out of 5 pieces)

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REVIEW RELOAD: Heath Ledger's creepy Joker wreaks sensational havoc in 'The Dark Knight'

One of Heath Ledger's final cinematic performances proves not only to be the definitive interpretation of the The Joker, but an improvement on The Batman's archenemy in the comic book movie adaptation, "The Dark Knight."

Ledger's take on the character applies his theory that the only sensible way to live in this world is to introduce chaos to the established order, allowing his opponents and competitors to destroy one another as they fight for control of Gotham City in this intricate and terrifying crime thriller that would be a tragedy if not for a few small victories by the protagonists.

Gotham citizens are divided about The Batman (Christian Bale) taking law enforcement into his own hands. Copycats support him, even try to help out, but everyone else wants him arrested. 

Though he is a vigilante, The Batman's ability to operate outside of the law is employed by Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart), the city's new district attorney, who asks him to bring a businessman who fled the country in to the custody of the Gotham City police.

The businessman, Lau (Chin Han), keeps the money of the city's mobsters in his own bank account in Hong Kong and outside of U.S. jurisdiction. 

Harvey's plan to take down the mob is to threaten Lau with charges for laundering their money, which would cause him to hand it all over. 

His theory is based on the assumption that Lau will not want his business compromised by the appearance of impropriety.

Batman's forces extradition of Lau convinces Gotham's mobsters that he is a substantial threat to their criminal empires that will supersede the law to bring them to justice. 

They accept an offer made by The Joker to kill the vigilante in exchange for half their money. 

Jonathan Nolan, who wrote the screenplay, improved on this aspect of the story of the comic book on which "The Dark Knight" is based. 

In "Batman: The Long Halloween," which was published by DC Comics in the late '90s, The Batman, Harvey and Lt. James Gordon (Gary Oldman) combat the mob by locating their money in a dock warehouse and burning it to ashes, but this aspect of the story compromised Dent's moral scruples. Their strategy in the movie allows The Batman to take all the moral risk and Harvey to remain the virtuous white knight that the citizens of Gotham, including Rachel Dawes (Maggie Gyllenhaal), believe in as a symbol of hope who can lock up the criminals that plague the city. 

Rachel not only believes in Harvey, she is romantically involved with the new district attorney. 

Though their relationship makes Bruce Wayne jealous, he comes to hopes that Harvey will one day make Gotham a city that does not need The Batman so he can be with Rachel.

Everything is thrown into disarray when The Joker shows up on TV, kills someone and says he will dispose of another person every day until The Batman turns himself into the authorities, utilizing the public's distrust of the vigilante to flush him out. The Joker is never shown killing his victim on TV, but the likely horror of the murder comes off convincingly with the unsettling sound of sadistic laughter after the broadcast goes black. 

Every moment throughout the course of trying to stop him is a surprising rush that results in The Joker coming out one step ahead of the best efforts of his opponents. True to the comics, he kills someone very close to the man underneath the mask of The Batman.

Somewhere amid all the delightful chaos is Bruce's struggle to define how far he can go as a crime fighter to stop this seemingly inexorable foe without killing him. He employs some impressive gadgets toward this end, one of which was not noticeably present in "Batman Begins," but it is there. 

His dealings with The Joker show Bruce that though The Batman fights for justice, he must be a renegade that surpasses certain moral and legal limitations to serve the greater good.

And a letter from Rachel alludes to an interesting aspect of Bruce's connection to The Batman that may be explored in more detail in a likely sequel. 

Bale does his usual best to represent this personal struggle in a two-hour-and-30-minute movie in which he is mostly underneath a mask.

Gyllenhall did the best she could with a limited role meant to illustrate how the almost repressed personality that is Bruce Wayne has feelings that conflict with his decision to dedicate his life to combating crime as The Batman. 

Ledger's Joker is the hallmark of "The Dark Knight," particularly in a scene in the Gotham City Police Department in which The Batman roughs him up for information. 

The Joker endures the physical abuse, but will not give in because, as he explains, he is an uncompromising menace with no personal ambition other than helping people abandon their personal ethics. His belief is that people are only as good as the arbitrary nature of the world allows them to be.

 

Suffice it to say that for this reason he also believes in Harvey.

Unlike in the comics, Ledger's Joker not only maintains he is not crazy, he comes off as though he is more enlightened than people because of a lack of moral constraints. 

He explains in one scene how he knows his victims better than close friends because of how they choose to struggle for their lives moments before their deaths.

"Would you like to know which of them were cowards?" he says to antagonize a policeman. 

How Ledger's Joker stands out from past interpretations is that he is not a completely over-the-top villain spouting out clown cliches and killing hoards of random people.

When this The Joker is about to kill someone, he is hysterically giddy, but he is nonchalant when everyone around him go nuts as a result of disastrous events that he sets into motion. Not a minute goes by when his actions or their aftermath let moviegoers sit easy.

Though this Joker denies planning things out, none of his murders are pointless. His victims are either a means to an end or in his way. In either event, he has no remorse in surgically implanting a bomb into the stomach of a deranged man or using the head of a mob henchman to make a pencil disappear in a sadistically amusing way. 

Like in the comics, The Joker provides conflicting, probably false accounts about his past, particularly about his father, wife and how he attained the scars that form the macabre smile on his face. These stories serve as a convenient segue from when he spots his victims to the unsettling moments before he uses his knife to cut into their bodies.

As for Harvey, Eckhart portrays the character as an all-American no-nonsense maverick who is willing to do whatever he has to within the limits of the law, including disarming and knocking out an assailant in court, to serve justice. 

He is the college jock everyone likes because he is willing to expose himself to physical harm from his opponents, which in this case are criminals and corrupt cops he imprisons, in the course of getting the job done.

Harvey's strong desire for justice is what ultimately drives him over the edge after a lot of personal misfortune, including the mutilation of his face.

What detracts from this great movie is a prolonged conversation between The Batman and Gordon during the last few minutes, which was likely included to make sense of all the tragic events that happened, but it lingers on so long that it only serves as a lackluster ending.

Popcorn rating:

(5 out of 5 pieces)

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REVIEW RELOAD: Hellboy's oversized right hook drives a funny, but very familiar sequel

Moviegoers who are bummed that the premiere showings of "The Dark Knight" this week are sold out can in the meantime enjoy an action-packed laugh riot called "Hellboy II: The Golden Army."

While the plot is unoriginal, the government-funded demon hero Hellboy (Ron Perlman) is challenged in different and amusing ways in this sequel to his first movie in 2004. And he kicks a lot more butt.

At the beginning of the movie, Professor Broom (John Hurt) tells a very young Hellboy in 1955 a bedtime story about Balor (Roy Dotrice), an elf king who once ordered the construction of an indestructible army of golden machines to wage war against power-hungry ancient humans. But the army's ruthlessness in battle caused the king to regret the decision, so he brokered a truce to divide the Earth into two realms. Humans would live in the cities and mythical creatures would inhabit the forests.

The Golden Army, which was controlled by whoever wore a three-piece crown, was locked away. Each side kept a piece of the crown to ensure peace.

King Balor's son, Prince Nuada (Luke Goss), who voluntarily went into exile because he did not agree with the terms of the truce, returns in the 21st century to take his father's throne by force and his piece of the crown to use The Golden Army to wage war against humanity. He believes humans violated the treaty by encroaching on the forests to build parking lots and shopping malls.

Nuada also steals a second piece of the crown from a charity house, where he later unleashes a swarm of carnivorous tooth fairies to cover his exit.

Driving the movie is The Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense team's mission to stop Nuada from awakening The Golden Army.

When they arrive at the charity house in question, Liz (Selma Blair) uses her pyrokinetic abilities to light up and kill the room full of carnivorous tooth fairies. Hellboy deliberately stands by a window and gets blasted down to the street where TV cameras expose his existence to the world.

Red seems determined to be acknowledged and accepted by the humans that he protects from the creatures that go bump in the night. Meanwhile, Liz is angry with him for being preoccupied with the outside world and not with her needs. Unbeknownst to him, she is pregnant.

If that was not enough, Hellboy encounters humans who treat him like a monster because of his demon appearance. Their reactions cause HB to consider whether he should continue to fight to defend them against otherworldly creatures with which he could better relate.

Shaking things up as well is Johann Krauss (Seth MacFarlane), a smoky essence encompassed in a special suit. Krauss, a German agent, is sent to the BPRD to lead the team and watch over Hellboy, who does not like how his commanding officer sticks to established procedure. Red also does not like Germans for obvious reasons. One of the funniest scenes in the movie occurs as a result of the two agents literally butting heads in the bureau's locker room.

Funnier is a scene in which Hellboy and a lovesick Abe Sapien (Doug Jones) get so drunk that together they start to sing Barry Manilow's "Can't Smile Without You." Abe quickly falls for Princess Nuala (Anna Walton). 

That she shares a psychic and physical link with her twin brother Nuada poses a problem for Hellboy, who challenges the prince's claim to lead The Golden Army but cannot kick his butt without harming Abe's love interest. 

But Nuada's moves are impressive enough to carry fight sequences in which his opponent is mostly on the defensive.

Throughout the 120-minute movie, HB sees a lot of action that pushes the plot forward. He battles a behemoth troll (Brian Steele), a forest god and many soldiers from The Golden Army.

Though so much action in a movie tends to detract from deep introspection of the main character, moviegoers get to see Hellboy grow up. Whereas the first movie showed what defined him as a hero, the sequel shows what matters to him as an individual.

What detracts from the movie is that the premise is very similar to that of 2005's "Blade II," which was also directed by Guillermo del Torro.

In both movies, the protagonist gets caught in the middle of a struggle between a father and son to rule a society of supernatural creatures who live in seclusion because of a treaty with humanity. The protagonist has to save the day after the son one-ups the father and sets his sights on conquering the world. But before this happens, the son entices the hero to join him because they are both outcasts.

Though the premise is unoriginal, it at least gives Hellboy something to fight against in the second of what seems likely to become a movie trilogy.

"Hellboy II: The Golden Army" introduces many different creatures that inhabit a visually unique world, so the comparison with "Blade II" is not as apparent. 

Most visually impressive is a blind, eerie creature that looks like a mix of an angel and a demon with eyes on its wings. It acts like a neutral Grim Reaper, allowing Liz to make a decision that affects Hellboy's ill-fated destiny. 

This decision, and what happens at the movie's conclusion, sets up a probable sequel. A safe bet would be to follow the Indiana Jones movie trilogy's recipe for success prior to "Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" by having Hellboy and the BPRD squad again fight some Nazis. Grigori Rasputin was revived in the first movie. Why not do it again?

Popcorn rating:

(4 out of 5 pieces)

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REVIEW RELOAD: Pathos, established animation style highlight 'Batman: Gotham Knight' anime

Fanboys and moviegoers who are on pins and needles waiting for the release of "The Dark Knight" in movie theaters can get a 75-minute anime fix of what is to come on July 18 with the new "Batman: Gotham Knight" DVD.

The DVD consists of six action-packed, interconnected stories set after the events of 2005's "Batman Begins" that provide a brutally honest look at the emotional stability of Bruce Wayne, use established story-telling techniques to show how different people see their city's protector, and showcase fight sequences with some of The Batman's most infamous adversaries and formidable monsters.

Brian Azzarello's "Working Through the Pain"

The Batman (Kevin Conroy) lies wounded on a pile of garbage in a sewer waiting for his butler Alfred (David McCallum) to come to his aid. When the vigilante finds discarded guns in the trash pile, he remembers the day when his parents were gunned down in front of him. Young Bruce Wayne knew he had to conquer and control the pain their deaths created in him before he sought to prevent further senseless tragedies in Gotham City as The Batman. Azzarello, who wrote the Award-winning comic book "100 Bullets,” tells the story of how he accomplished this part of his training to become a crime-fighter.

Young Bruce seeks out the help of an Indian woman named Cassandra (Parminder Nagra) who helps in training his mind to resist the physical pain that his opponents may inflict on his body. 

Though the disillusioned young billionaire succeeds in blocking out this suffering, he fails to move beyond his emotional pain. Instead of learning to control it, Bruce utilizes the trauma his parents' murders created in him to fight against something he cannot control and that may eventually destroy him: The Batman's war on crime. 

What is most notable about this short film is how Azzarello illustrates that while Bruce Wayne is noble to dedicate his body, mind and wealth to prevent any other kid in Gotham from losing parents to criminals, he is a disturbed man who cannot or will not come to terms with what happened and thus will never move beyond the hurt he felt on that one bad day. All that matters to him is his mission. This is a stark contrast to past animated accounts of his training in which teachers encouraged his drive.

Josh Olson's "Have I Got a Story for You" 

Gotham kids hanging out at a skating warehouse share their individual accounts of The Dark Knight (Conroy) fighting it out with a formidable thief (George Newbern) wearing a green suit and red goggles malapropos known as The Man in Black. They fight from a building's rooftop down to one of the city's docks. 

The kids' accounts illustrate how Gotham citizens first see The Batman as mysterious figure for justice that seems to live within the realm of the imagination or the supernatural. They are not certain.

One of the skaters describes him as man-sized bat creature flying over downtown Gotham that ultimately rips the head off his opponent in front of bystanders, though her friend interjects that The Batman does not kill the criminals he brings down. Other accounts depict him as a living shadow or an automaton, an apparent nod to Killer Croc's theory in "Batman: The Animated Series." The robot theory, again? Well, they say he could be.

Olson, who wrote the screenplay for 2005's "A History of Violence," tells a story very similar to "Legends of The Dark Knight," which is a "BTAS" episode about three Gotham kids who tell their versions of the crime fighting exploits of Batman and his sidekick Robin. In fact, the kids in the "BTAS" episode relate to one another campy and post-Apocalyptic interpretations of the characters created by comic book legends Dick Sprang and Frank Miller. 

The "BTAS" episode in question is included in the two-disc and Blue-Ray editions of "Batman: Gotham Knight." Like in "Have I Got a Story for You," one of the kids theorizes that Batman is a man-sized predator. He is "a giant pterodactyl beast with big fangs and talons, and when he sees a bad guy he swoops down from the sky and carries him off," the kid says. 

Though "Have I Got a Story for You" is similar to "Legends of The Dark Knight," it is a welcome, more action-packed homage to a definitive animated series that showed respect to the nearly 70-year-old comic book legacy of The Batman character. Besides, it is very difficult to develop a Batman story that has not already been conceived. 

The "BTAS" episode itself is an inadvertent recreation of a comic book by artist and writer Frank Robbins. How the short film works best is as an explanation as to why the masked vigilante will not be treated as an urban legend used to scare criminals straight in "The Dark Knight." People have seen The Batman, but they do not know what he is or from where he came. 

Greg Rucka's "Crossfire" 

Detective Crispus Allen (Gary Dourdan) of the Gotham City Police Department's new Major Crimes Unit feels as though all he does is play courier to The Batman, who drops off The Man in Black in the office of Lt. James Gordon (Jim Meskimen) for he and his partner to escort to Arkham Asylum for imprisonment. The detective is also soar because he does not trust a masked man who operates outside of the law.

Allen and his partner Anna Ramirez (Ana Ortiz) get caught in the crossfire of a turf war when they arrive at the asylum, all of which now encompasses the entire Narrows island. The shootout is between the Sal Maroni crime family, which is now run by Sal Maroni (Ron Paulsen), and the gang of a new rival known as The Russian (Corey Burton). The Batman ultimately saves their butts.

It is similar to the "Superman: The Animates Series" episode "Tools of the Trade" in which Lt. Dan Turpin (Joseph Bologna) of Metropolis Police Department's Special Crimes Unit feels that his job is threatened when Big Blue (Tim Daly) gets more results catching bank robbers that carry some high-tech offensive hardware.

"Looks like Superman has turned the SCU into a cleanup crew," one of the reporters on the scene says. At the end of the episode, weapons dealer Bruno Mannheim (Bruce Weitz) is about to kill Superman with a powerful blaster from Apokolips when Turpin tackles him to the ground. The two men later become trusted allies.

The theme of the short film indicates that it should have been called "Trust" instead of "Crossfire," but the latter title must have sounded more appealing. Anyways, it is a minor complaint about an appropriately violent story about how the city's altruistic cops come to rely on The Batman based on no more than an unspoken understanding of solidarity. After all, it is not who he is underneath the mask, but what he does that defines The Dark Knight."

Field Test," written by Jordan Goldberg, briefly explains the moral reason why Bruce Wayne does not utilize what could be a very useful technology developed by his company to combat criminals. 

"In Darkness Dwells" by David S. Goyer and "Deadshot" by Alan Burnett are even more action-based short films in which The Batman fights the criminal Killer Croc and the hired hit man Deadshot respectively, so fanboys should get a kick out of that. 

Goyer, who wrote the screenplay for "Batman Begins," tells a story about what happened to The Scarecrow after the movie."Batman: Gotham Knight" has many amazing visual elements that cannot be accurately described with words such as the menacing, demon-like look of The Batman when he walks through fire to rescue Allen and Ramirez in "Crossfire;" the gritty, Gothic images in the church and sewer of "In Darkness Dwells;" the refined, intense look on The Dark Knight's face before he wallops Deadshot.

While the six films tell stories indicative of certain aspects of Bruce Wayne's transformation into The Batman and of his exploits from certain perspectives, they show how much depth of character may be missing in “The Dark Knight," as the movie seems to focus mainly on him trying to decide how to defeat The Joker's destructive rampage in Gotham City.

Popcorn rating:

(4 1/2 out of 5 pieces)

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