Titans Terrors and Toys

Well, we've finally done it--the Mrs. and I finally got around to watching the series finale of Dollhouse , "Epitaph Two". (We would've done it sooner, but we had to track down on DVD the episode "Epitaph One" in order for "Epitaph Two" to make sense.) I'm sad to see the show end so soon but given its troubled production history and low ratings, I'm just glad that the show made it to the air at all. Dollhouse , Joss Whedon's most ambitious work so far, was unlike any other science fiction TV show I can remember: In contrast to other shows in the genre which take sophisticated technology for granted (space travel, artificial intelligence, advanced medical tools, etc.), Dollhouse traced the development and abuses of a new technology and its impact on both individuals and society at large. It explored themes similar to movies such as A.I. , Dark City , Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind , and Total Recall and pushed them into w...

I've frequently heard over the last few years that in the realm of electronic entertainment, video games are flying circles around movies in terms of revenue. While I can understand why this is, what I have yet to comprehend is the economics behind product longevity when it comes to video games. Read on . . .  

I was looking around YouTube the other day to find some tracks from the Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem soundtrack to listen to (because I was to cheap to buy a copy of my own) when I found this video . I think the song is called "No Peace on Earth", but it's in Russian so I can't tell you if I'm right--I can't even tell you the name of the band itself. According to the person who posted it, MoscowGolem, this was part of the Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem soundtrack when it was released in Russia. Be sure to watch the video: The song has got a great beat, and the video cleverly incorporates footage and themes from both AvP movies into the band footage. For example, there are a few shots of the Russian band rocking away while viewed through heat-sensitive Predator vision. Nice!

Being the devout lover of oddball animation that I am, I've been spending the last few weeks catching up on Duckman , one of the best--and most overlooked--prime-time cartoon shows from the immediate post- Simpsons era of the mid-1990s. While it only aired in obscure time slots on the USA Network from 1994 to 1997, Duckman was an animation pioneer in many ways: It featured two characters, the androgynous talking teddy bears Fluffy and Uranus, who were killed in horrible, absurd ways in almost every episode, years before South Park did the same to thing to Kenny. It featured an episode-length parody of/tribute to Star Trek , complete with original Trek cast members, years before Futurama did the same thing. It featured an episode-length parody of Hope/Crosby "Road To . . . " movies, years before Family Guy did it too. While it was excessively raunchy in episode after episode, it never veered into the unbearably nauseating--quite an accomplishment for a show with ...

In case you haven't heard by now, Deadline Hollywood has reported that the rights for the Terminator franchise have been acquired by the Santa Barbara-based hedge fund Pacificor, which out-bid both Sony Pictures and Lionsgate to the tune of $29.5 million. While io9 has subsequently reported that Pacificor is in talks with Sony and Lionsgate about future installments of the Terminator franchise, the overall future of this time-travel epic is still quite uncertain. Personally, I don't see this as a bad thing. Don't get me wrong--I'm a rabid, drooling fan of all things Terminator , largely due to the fact that the idea of futuristic killer robots (especially ones that wear human flesh like cheap suits for the purpose of infiltration) never gets old for me. I loved Terminator Salvation , particularly because it had some of the best Skynet machine designs since Atari's Terminator 3: The Redemption video game in 2004. Furthermore, the ending where Skynet--while wea...

Hello, and welcome to Titans, Terrors, and Toys , a blog I'm putting together as part of my ongoing appreciation of the horror and science fiction genre and the fan cultures that keep them interesting. This blog will take a nostalgic look at stuff from the past, make informed observations about events in the present, and eagerly contemplate future possibilities for horror/sci-fi entertainment. In short, I'll be rambling a lot, and hopefully some of it will be amusing and enlightening (if not coherent). So pull up a chair, grab some popcorn, and enjoy!