[Movies] Alien 3 (1992)

As a movie franchise expands further and further, the likelihood that subsequent sequels will get worse and worse and worse. When a franchise gets past the trilogy mark, it tends to be pretty much assured of total failure unless something radically different comes along or something.

And thus I always feel that the third film is key to its future. There's just something about how our brains are wired that we like movies to come in threes and thus the third movie is the pivotal third act, the movie that is supposed to wrap things up somewhat neatly and yet leave the door open for more movies as is the Hollywood desire. How to balance those two goals without just making a blatant rehash of the previous movies is a trick in itself and yet some people manage to pull them off gracefully.

While other movies just totally bomb and make us regret ever hoping for the franchise to extend further.

[TV] Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles - Season 2

All good things must come to an end, they say, and this is even more true in the harsh cutthroat environment of network television. The very best shows get to create a legacy than spans several years. Some are able to get past the mythical 100th episode mark. Some are killed before the show even fully gets off the ground. Some never even see the light of air time and remain to be unreleased pilot episodes, lost in the archives of the studios.

So in way, one has to be thankful when a show even manages to decently complete a single season. That's an achievement in itself to make it that far and to be able to get a story really out there. Of course us fans rarely see that at the precise moment when a show's cancellation is announced. We just end up feeling bitter and angry about it and it prevents us from enjoying the run of the show as best as we can.

So let's celebrate the final season of another great show. Yes, it was killed off too soon but then it doesn't mean it didn't have a great exit.

[Books] Everfree

All good things must come to an end...more or less. In my case, it's coming to the end the books that I have in a particular series or by a particular author. If I'm lucky, the last book will mark a logical conclusion for this segment of the story or at least a good resting point of sorts. You know what I mean right?

Or there are those times you get left hanging and you feel slighted and annoyed that you can't continue on. It's like being a junkie in search of the next fix and finding out that your dealer has skipped town. This is why I try to avoid reading books in a series when I don't have all the books yet.

Well, the operative word here is try.

I'm not sure if this particular books marks an end to a major chapter in the characters' lives, but it was a good enough stopping point, I suppose. However you can never really and this won't be the first time that success has driven additional books to be written even when the original story can be considered "over". Ugh.

[Entertainment] Oscar Winners 2010

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

So the 2010 Oscars are over and here are the winners:

1. Best Picture: The Hurt Locker
2. Director: Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker
3. Actor in a Leading Role: Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart
4. Actress in a Leading Role: Sandra Bullock, The Blind Side
5. Actor in a Supporting Role: Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds
6. Actress in a Supporting Role: Mo'Nique, Precious
7. Original Screenplay: The Hurt Locker, Mark Boal
8. Adapted Screenplay: Precious, Geoffrey Fletcher
9. Animated Film: Up
10. Foreign Language Film: The Secret in Their Eyes (El Secreto de Sus Ojos, Argentina)
11. Original Score: Michael Giacchino, Up
12. Original Song: "The Weary Kind," Music and Lyrics by Ryan Bingham and T Bone Burnett (Crazy Heart)
13. Art Direction: Avatar
14. Cinematography: Avatar, Mauro Fiore
15. Costume Design: The Young Victoria, Sandy Powell
16. Makeup: Star Trek
17. Film Editing: The Hurt Locker, Bob Murawski and Chris Innis
18. Documentary Feature: The Cove
19. Documentary Short Subject: Music by Prudence
20. Animated Short Film: Logorama
21. Live Action Short Film: The New Tenants
22. Sound Editing: The Hurt Locker
23. Sound Mixing: The Hurt Locker
24. Visual Effects: Avatar
25. Governors Award: Lauren Bacall, Roger Corman and Gordon Willis

The big winner, obviously, was The Hurt Locker taking home 6 Oscars out of 9 nominations, I'm just glad that Avatar didn't sweep the awards this year. If it had, well, then my faith in the Academy would definitely be diminished significantly. I mean, like in a really, really bad way.

[Movies] Aliens (1986)

In recent times, sequels tend to be almost synonymous with failures. We know that Hollywood forces franchises to continue in order to rake in more revenue with minimal creative energy expenditure, even when it no longer makes sense to the plot. And thus we now greet sequels with a certain degree of skepticism and doubt - and you can't blame people for reacting that way.

But it wasn't always like that. And yes, I also acknowledge that there are still some pretty wicked sequels out there.

The best most people expect from a sequel is that it'll be as good as the first movie and that's about it. It's very rare that movies consistently reach that level of potential, what more getting all the way to being truly successful - I mean better than the original movie.

For me, this will always be one of those movies that helped define that kind of a sequel for me.