It's great, although it is definitely predictable, especially if you are at all familiar with the stories it draws upon for inspiration.  That's an observation, though, not a criticism.  The movie still tells a solid story, and it entertains from start to finish. I can confidently say this is superior to the 2009 entry.  

There's definitely some fan service/curtain calls, as the review said. A few felt forced, but I think the overwhelming majority worked well.   

Hopefully people who hated on 2009 Trek will give this movie a fair shake and not just hate on it to hate on it because JJ Abrams made it.  Yes, there's action. Yes, it's flashy.  But I think this one definitely hits on some of the core Trek themes and ideals that some people felt were lacking in 2009.  In fact, I would say those things are actually the central focus of the story and they drive much of what happens.

If you liked 2009 Trek, go see this movie.

If you didn't like 2009 Trek, go see this movie.  

Kaziklu, I think the B&W aliens shouldn't make this list because they actually served the very specific purpose of showing how incredibly stupid and arbitrary racial discrimination actually is.  1960's America was very racist.  While the significance of that episode may have diminished with time, it was a pretty big deal in its proper historical context.  

So are the aliens kinda dumb?  Sure, but that's exactly why they are a perfect vehicle for commenting on the racism that plagued the US at the time, which is the very reason the episode exists.

Hanso, I was under the impression that the head lost boy was Peter Pan.  I just thought he was referring to himself in the third person when he had that line about failing.  

I think Hook is highly entertaining and does a very good job of doing what it sets out to do.  I would say Lost World, AI, and War of the Worlds are all worse efforts than Hook.  I think The Terminal might also be worse because it was so generic and forgettable.  Of course, none of those movies are terrible (or even bad), which goes to show you how amazing Spielberg is.  

I presume Shawshank is the best King adaptation because it's one of the greatest films of all time.  I suppose, having not read it, that it could be an amazing movie that's actually a poor adaptation of the source material.  Regardless, it's certainly the best movie based on a Steven King book.

Did the Mania staff really not know that the Ender books have a huge following until posting that teaser poster? That just seems hard to imagine.  

Anyway, I'm super excited for this movie.  I know when I saw Orson Scott Card speak in college (maybe 6 years ago, now), he indicated that he was directly involved in adapting the story for the big screen, which gives me hope.  He also said that the movie would weave together both Game and Shadow, which I think is absolutely critical to successfully adapting this story for a  movie.

It's a shame Jennifer Lawrence is tainting her career with these movies.  The first book is fine, but the last two movies will be crap without major changes to the books.  Especially the third, which is a steaming pile of poop.

I will say the movie drastically improved on the first book so maybe there's hope for the sequels.  But it will be very hard to overcome the dumb that is books two and three (especially three).

This doesn't bother me too much since the only good SW games in recent memory were not made by LucasArts (KOTOR).  I do feel bad for all the folks who lost their job, though.

Force Unleashed was okay, but it was only about 15 minutes long. Really, you have to go back to Rebel Assault/X-Wing/Tie-Fighter era games to find anything good from LucasArts.  I also loved the SNES games.  

Licensing is definitely the smarter move.  Let the developers who are actually good at making video games handle the franchise. 

Haven't watched this show, but the comments here definitely have piqued my interest.  I'll try to check this out somewhere.

Couldn't they not kill Ahsoka but make it so that Anakin believes that she was killed?  Then everyone seems to get what they want out of the story.  She survives to maybe appear later on in Star Wars stories, but Anakin thinks he saw her die some terrible death pushing him towards the dark side.  

Just a thought, although I have no idea if it makes sense since I haven't been watching the show.

Wouldn't Smallville season 11 just be Superman?

I don't know how I feel about this project.  The X-Files mythology became so convoluted and screwed up that I'm not sure it can be saved.  Although, I didn't see the second movie so I don't know what, if anything, it did to help.

I was convinced he could act well enough when I saw him in Be Cool.  Sure the movie sucked, but he definitely did not.  I like the guy a lot, and I hope we have a chance to see some quality movies from him.

Oops...Reel = Reek.  Sorry about that.  

Also, I'm not knocking JGL in the previous - just observing that his name seems to pop up for just about everything these days.