I worried that this film would be a giant disappointment, forever tainting my memories of the pure joy of reading the books. Not surprisingly, it failed to capture the falling out of your chair hilarity of its written counterpart, but it wasn’t half bad. I really liked the goofy flash-animated excerpts from the guide, they would provide a great foundation for an entirely different film that incorporated the guide but didn’t have the giant albatross of an unsurpassably hilarious written source holding it back from true greatness.

Nothing about this film is particularly exceptional, yet I enjoyed it thoroughly. I somehow came to care deeply for every one of the characters, even the ones with whom I was in violent disagreement. It no doubt captures and communicates something of the essence of modern humanity, and the schtick of having a grandmother in a coma to whom many of the characters come and pour out their hearts was surprisingly effective.

A fascinating and fractured narrative that won’t leave you knowing exactly what happened, but neither will it leave you dissatisfied.

An old Jet Li film with a good supply of hot martial arts action, but not much else to speak of.

A tour de force journey from the modern human back through evolutionary time to the origins of life. Along the way we meet representatives of every other form of life still at large today, many of whom have fascinating stories to tell. To read this book is to be fascinated and surprised by the diversity and ingenuity of nature’s solutions to the problem of survival and propagation.

Having refused to see this in the theaters owing to my profound disappointment with the second film, I finally acquiesced to a viewing with tremendously low expectations and was, in fact, entertained. It’s still a shame that The Matrix’s potential to be the Star Wars of our generation was squandered, but I can’t say that the film is wholly without value.

High quality 2D Zelda action. The switching between scales was well conceived and well executed and the standard Zelda complement of special items were equally innovative and well done. The dungeons sizable, the difficulty level smoothly increasing, the ending suitably challenging and the Minish super cute!

I have to admit to not having read all the graphic novels on which the film was based, but the adaptation for the screen stood well enough on its own as a fine piece of entertainment. Clearly the graphic nature of the graphic novels was preserved, it is a very visual film. It took a while for me to settle into the heavily lacquered style, but once I got my mind around it, the remainder of the film slid nicely into place, scene after scene.