Saturday 19 January 2013

Films

Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Part II (2013)
[#7 in 100 Films in a Year 2013]

I liked Part 1, but this was excellent. And I got it early: it's not officially out in the US until the 29th. No UK date set yet, but they released Part 1 so I assume it'll follow at some point.

Non-Fiction

Bond on Bond by Roger Moore (with Gareth Owen)
Introduction
Bond on Beginnings
Bond on Villains
Bond on Girls
Bond on Gadgets
Bond on Cars


(or, pretty much exactly half the book)

The suavest Bond of them all, Sir Roger Moore, is our inimitable guide (well, ghostwritten by Gareth Owen) for this lavishly illustrated whistle-stop overview of the entire Bond film series, occasioned by its 50th anniversary last year.

Organised thematically-then-chronologically (rather than the usual guidebook style of chronologically-then-thematically), Moore shares his thoughts on (most of) the series' villains, girls, gadgets, and more. Naturally the strongest memories come from the seven films he starred in, and it is a quick and idiosyncratic tour -- while some topics are afforded lengthy recollections, others get a cursory line or two, while still others get no mention at all.

But it doesn't aim to be a thorough, all-inclusive guide -- it's not written by a fan or an academic who's devoted decades to cataloguing the films' minutiae -- these are Moore's personal memories and opinions; like having a genial chat with the man himself, I shouldn't wonder. For his anecdotes and many of the pictures, that makes it an essential read for fans.

Comics

Star Wars #1 by Brian Wood & Carlos D'Anda

Dark Horse have published dozens -- probably hundreds -- of Star Wars tie-in books down the years, but this is the first simply entitled Star Wars. (So people keep saying, but it isn't. Still, that was 10 years ago.)

Set immediately after the end of A New Hope, it's the further adventures of Luke, Leia, Han and Darth Vader (and the rest). Despite opening with a slightly dull three-page dialogue scene, the rest of the issue is content-packed and largely entertaining. A promising start.


The Superior Spider-Man #1 by Dan Slott & Ryan Stegman

So the controversial new era of Spider-Man begins… and I thought it was really good. So there. Great twist at the end too.

Collection Count

Collection Count tracks my DVD/Blu-ray collection via a number of statistics every week.

This week, I upgraded my Jaws DVD (to the BD digibook, mmm), acquired Dredd, finally got the Doctor Who Legacy Collection box set, and received Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Part 2 nearly two weeks before its US release date.

Only a handful of changes mean the numbers look... completely normal, though weirder things happened before the Who set and Batman turned up. Ho hum.

Number of titles in collection: 1,525 [up 3]
Of which DVDs: 1,146 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 379 [up 3]

Number of discs in collection: 3,841 [up 5]
Number of films in collection: 1,603 [up 2]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 5,710 [up 10]
Number of short films in collection: 374 [no change]

See you next week, faithful reader.