Take a pinch of Alien, a dash of Creature From The Black Lagoon, a page or two from the Cthulhu story of your choice, and some vague references to humans destroying the environment, mix it all with an attractive cast and voila: Underwater. It looks like the critical community is split almost exactly down the middle about whether Underwater is a hit or a herring, I suspect … [Read more...]
The Sanctum Sangiacomo’s Holiday Guide for Giving Gifts to Comic Geeks
By Michael Sangiacomo Comic fans would be the first to admit that we are a picky bunch, especially at Christmas. Spouses and family members think we will be easy to buy gifts for, but that is not the case. The reason is simple, it takes a comic fan to know what another comic fan wants. Should they go on Amazon and buy some super-overpriced hardcover Superman book … [Read more...]
The Sanctum Sangiacomo: The Rise of Skywalker!
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is a brilliant tale of redemption, rebellion and resurrection, as the original Star Wars story cycle comes to a satisfying conclusion with this ninth installment. Rise, which opens Friday, is a bit long at 2.22 hours, but director and co-writer J.J. Abrams creates a welcome Christmas package that wraps up decades of stories and dangling … [Read more...]
The Sanctum Sangiacomo: He Wrote THAT, too?
To most comic readers, the writers of the books they love are faceless and formless. This is fine; the writer’s works should stand alone. In the case of J. Michael Straczynski, it turns out that the challenge that is his life is the most riveting story of all. Becoming Superman is the frightening real story of a man who was constantly beaten and abused by his … [Read more...]
The Sanctum Sangiacomo: Ad Astra, Ad Patrem
Ad Astra may span light years of space and time, but the bottom line is that the movie is a story about a world-destroying mystery and a hero with deep-rooted daddy issues. The movie, which opens Friday, is ostensibly about an astronaut asked to travel to the end of our solar system to stop a force that has been used to disrupt electrical activity, a galactic … [Read more...]