A Geek Dad’s Thoughts on The Dark Knight

Batman, in his bat armor, stands in front of an office building. Smoke, ash, and cinders swirl through the air.

The Dark Knight is brilliant. It’s intellectually challenging. It’s psychologically terrifying. And there’s a damn good chance it’ll scare the living daylights out of your 13-year-old. This shouldn’t come as a surprise to those who saw Batman Begins. The movie hews close to the comic books, which have run to the dark side ever since … Read more

LOST Jumps Back

I remember when LOST jumped the shark. It was the episode dedicated to the mystery of Jack’s tattoo. It was an inane episode, one that existed entirely to buy time for the writers, while simultaneously keeping a popular character on screen for the majority of an episode. The episode could have been good – after … Read more

DVD Rack: Buffy Season 4, Live Free or Diehard, Battlestar Galactica: Razor

The cast of Battlestar Galactica: Razor.

With November’s Herculean feat of creativity behind me, I’ve turned my tired eyes back to the DVD player and the stack of Netflix envelopes that piled up during my self-imposed exile to my third-floor office.

Included in this horde of discs was the first disc of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 4 (in which Buffy and the Scooby Gang go to college), the Bruce Willis action flick Live Free or Diehard (in which technophobe John MacClane must save the world from hackers) and the one shot episode Battlestar Galactica: Razor (which tells the story of the Battlestar Pegasus’s escape form the Cylon’s burtal assault on the 12 Colonies).

Muddling through X-Men 3’s Final Stand

When Bryan Singer left the X-Men franchise to direct Superman Returns, I couldn’t help but feel a little dread. The first X-movie got off to an uneven start (mutagenic wave? killing off Senator Kelly?) but was ultimately satisfying. X-Men 2 succeeded on all fronts, evoking the comic books, introducing new characters, and telling a satisfying … Read more

X-Men 2 Mutates Past Original with Solid Story, Fan Perks

X-Men 2 surpasses its predecessor by telling a tight, fast moving story while simultaneously giving fans almost everything they wanted. The story picks up shortly after the end of the first film. The X-Men are back at Xavier’s mansion, dabbling with normalcy. Rogue, life-force absorbing, power-stealing teenager, has a boyfriend in the form of the … Read more

Radio Active #4: Dreamcatcher, Finding Serenity, KODT #100 and a Geek Dad on the Xbox

Radio Active #4 reviews Stephen King’s alien invasion novel Dreamcatcher and the movie adaptation, discusses the new essay collection Finding Serenity, about Joss Whedon’s Firefly series, talks about Knights of the Dinner Table Magazine #100.  finally offers some thoughts on gaming when you’re a geek dad. Getting the Podcast You can get the podcast in two … Read more

Murky, Boring Underworld Not Worth Fighting Over

Underworld is the story of the secret war between werewolves and vampires, a war that humans have been blissfully unaware of for years, but which now threatens to erupt into our consciousness. It was also the subject of a lawsuit by White Wolf Games, who claimed that the vampires-vs.-werewolf storyline infringed on its copyright. Having … Read more