Poised to be one of the early treats of 2011, the new film from Simon Pegg, Nick Frost and director Greg Mottola, Paul arrives in the UK on 18th February, and in the US on March 18th. And it's the new US trailer for the film that's just been released, and we have for you here.

We'll be talking about Paul a lot more in the weeks ahead. But for now, here's that trailer...

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Breaking news: Kinect is very, very popular. According to Microsoft, it’s managed to sell 8 million units since its launch two months ago - not bad for a peripheral some commentators had consigned to the scrapheap before it even went on the market.

I’ve been trying to avoid Kinect like Pac-Man avoids ghosts. I saw an Xbox 360 with one of the infernal devices strapped to it at a Sega press day about five months ago. People were flailing their arms to Sonic Free Riders, and it looked terrible. I studiously ignored both the game and the Kinect, choosing to play Vanquish instead.

Kinect is like the Wii, only worse. With Nintendo’s pale wonder, you only have to move your arms about a bit to play a game. In the case of the Kinect, your entire body is an ungainly, shuddering, vase-breaking controller.

Kinect reminds me of several things I dread most: public humiliation, accidental injury and street performers. For me, they all amount to the same thing – mime artists, buskers and close-up magicians, for a reason I’ve never fathomed, always pick me out of a crowd. Even though I’ve spent countless years perfecting a fixed facial expression that says, “Go to hell”, still they pick me.

Kinect, which requires extended periods of arm flapping, jumping and shouting to operate, reminds me of being chosen to participate in dreadful magic tricks against my will. Picture the situation: in the midst of a drunken revelry, someone has the bright idea of firing up the Xbox. With a flash of horror, you notice the tell-tale signs: the sofas pushed to the edges of the room. The cracked windows. The scratched wallpaper. The pets cowering in the corner. Your hosts have purchased a Kinect.

“Go on! You’ll enjoy it!” They’ll say, as something called Dance! Dance! Humiliation boots up on the screen. Before you know it, you’re shuddering and jerking around somebody else’s living room, upsetting furniture and terrifying the cat.

Having managed to avoid Kinect for months, I was finally cornered by one on New Year’s Eve. With only a few hours left of 2010, I found myself trapped in a friend’s living room with one of the infernal devices jutting out from under a television the size of a squash court. From the corner of the room, I could feel the robotic eye of Microsoft staring at me with a detached air of evil.

Still recovering from a bout of manflu, I sulked, arms folded, through a bout of Dance! Dance! Humiliation while everyone else flailed their limbs to Lady Gaga like evangelists dropped from an aeroplane.

Then on came Kinect Sports, and after much cajoling, I reluctantly joined in. I played table tennis, waving my arms around like I’m trying to catch bees in a wind tunnel. Gradually, I notice something: a weird, warm feeling. Not enjoyment, exactly, or even excitement, but a vague feeling of surprise. I’m actually impressed: Kinect works.

We have a bout of boxing. It’s quite good. The track and field mode, with its hurdles, javelin throwing and 100 metre sprints, is very good. Regardless of whether you particularly like these hand-flapping peripherals or not, there’s no denying that the piece of hardware Microsoft has produced is mightily impressive.

My first experience of Kinect therefore left me with a feeling of grudging respect. It’s still not a peripheral I could imagine working with most kinds of game (and if I were to buy a Kinect of my own, I would never, ever play the thing with the curtains open), but Rez creator Tetsuya Mizuguchi has Child Of Eden on the way, which looks genuinely fascinating. It makes me wonder what other developers could come up with if they were given the time and funding.

Nevertheless, there’s still something vaguely sinister about the Kinect. I think it’s the thought of that single, watchful eye recording your every ridiculous move. Who’s to say it’s not sending that data back to Bill Gates’ retirement home for his dubious viewing pleasure?

Worse still, the thing could suddenly become sentient and take over your entire house like that crazy machine in Demon Seed. You’ll be sitting there one evening, watching EastEnders, when all of a sudden the lights will go dim, the doors and windows will lock, and a pixelated, malevolent-looking face will appear on your television screen.

And from the Kinect, in a voice as cold and grating as a rusty wheel, a despotic voice will ring out, “Dance. Dance for my pleasure...”

See Also:

• When cute graphics mask evil games
• The top 10 celebrity appearances in videogames
• Videogaming’s most athletic protagonists
• Gaming's greatest antiheroes
• The majesty of ZX Spectrum loading screens

Ryan's Twitfeed of gloom and surreal malevolence can be found here somewhere.

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This review contains spoilers.

Have you ever played Warhammer and wondered what a Slaan would look like in 'real life' (okay, CG)? Well, this week's monsters of the week show that the visual effects team are obviously fans of the tabletop fantasy games, as the 'tree creepers' bear an uncanny resemblance to the reptilian-men race from the game.

While the design guys go all out special effects-wise, with the creepers and the whole Forest Of Doom thing, as well as giving a little nod to Ray Harryhausen's Valley Of The Gwangi, the actual writers of this week's episode should hang their heads in shame, as things were just so incessantly dull.

What could have been a great idea seemed, to me, to be wasted. It seems the anomalies are not recent events and that those pesky things have been popping up across history for many years, and its not just dinosaurs that have come through. People, too, have ventured from one side to the other (and vice versa), transporting themselves through time, whether they want to or not.

While this was explored a little last season, with Helen managing to pilot herself through various time periods, it seems that there are those who, like Abby and Connor last week, are trapped, not only in the past, but now also in the future. And those who cannot make it home have set up shop in a nightmare future filled with the tree creeper creatures.

However, it's not just these reptiles that provide the problems. Those stuck in an another time become a little broken inside, which is where we kick things off, as we are introduced to Emily, Ethan and Charlotte, three escapees from the future who themselves come from the past.

What a good idea, you may think. Some new characters with some new knowledge of the anomalies and first hand experience of passing through them and the worlds in which you can pass should be a great addition. But this opportunity is wasted. While it might be that Emily will return in a later episode, Charlotte dies nearly instantly, and Ethan cracks, killing those around him for no real reason.

We don't get any real reason for this, especially his disposing of the homeless man at the end. Is he grieving for Charlotte? Why are they there and what is the motivation? There just isn't anything here at all to get your proverbial narrative teeth into and things just turn into another chase and capture montage, which all feels like its been done before.

Now, I am not saying everything is bad this episode, just a little lazy. It may well be that there has to be an obligatory chase scene in every episode by a contractual thing or something to keep kids watching, but it seems that twenty minutes trying to catch two lizard men is a little much and is not anything more than filler.

On saying that, if this is, indeed, aimed at kids, it's gruesome stuff. As mentioned last week, the little blink and you'll miss it death of the construction worker was a little grisly and the 'kills' this week are also a bit on the harsh side. It seems that things are not child-friendly enough to allow your littleuns to watch it, or adult enough to make for a compelling story.

Still, there are some positives overall, though. While Abby is assigned with Matt and Becker to work out in the field, Connor is given a new role as ‘a glorified button pusher', working with Philip on developing the ARC's computer systems, going as far as to nearly inadvertently kill Philip in the process, by accidentally shutting down the ARC into lockdown.

With the prospects of something shady going on with Philips 'New Dawn' project and a nice new chemistry with Jess, there is a lot more going on here than the usual chase, tag, and bag dino hunting that took up most of the episode's plot.

Maybe I am being a little harsh, but there is so much potential here. There are hints about a traitor in the ARC, new characters and situations to explore and a whole potential evil conspiracy to uncover. We are three episodes in now and these should be looked at and taken further.

There are high hopes for the show and ITV should look at its investment. A lot of money and time was taken to make this and it could have a roaring success (sorry for the pun) on its hands. It's just a shame that things are not as tense, exciting or action-packed as they could be, and there is a serious threat that those liking the show will drift off if things don't get a little more pacy. Still, the Slaan were good though.

Read our review of the series premiere here.

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This review contains spoilers.

7.1 As Good As It Gets

Is it me or is this show now starting to feel tired and mechanical? Perhaps.

The first story of season 7, As Good As It Gets, wasn't classic Hustle, but it was generally entertaining in a very light entertainment manner. But then, I guess that's what most of the audience tune in to see. So, there's a paradox to it returning, but without contributing anything especially new.

The story is stand-alone, in that it doesn't really brush any of the story arc points that have previously been used, and, in fact, longer plot elements have all but been erased from the narrative entirely since season 5.

The barman Eddie asks the team to help solve a family issue when his niece is ripped off by a devil-in-Prada modelling agency diva, Wendy Stanton, played consummately by TV and film veteran, Anna Chancellor. In terms of my personal enjoyment, it was Anna's performance that actually brought me the most glee here, because her facial twitches that accompanied any money discussions were downright hilarious. She was so good as a comic actress that I'd definitely go see her in farce, if she took that option.

On the other end of my enjoyment scale was the way they tied in the original three marks at the end, which was horribly contrived and obvious from the outset. There also wasn't enough Robert Vaughn's Albert Stroller for my liking, as I find him also endlessly watchable. Adrian Lester seemed to be enjoying his opportunity to be camp as fashion guru, Hilary King, although with Louie Spence occupying so much TV time these days, he did seem rather subdued in comparison.

What did impress me was the Liverpudlian accent that Kelly Adams produced, which considering she's from Lincolnshire (and I'm from the latter region), wasn't half bad.

Overall, this episode was rather too by the numbers, which concerns me that the whole of season 7 is likely to be relatively surprise-free.

I'd also like to mention a very obvious gaff that appeared in the later part of the show, which caught my eye only because usually Hustle is created to a very high standard. There's a scene where Mickey is trying to convince Wendy that she should part with some money, and she's been primed to respond to spilt milk, which is something he does by knocking over a small jug of it. Except when we come back to the wide shot, the milk jug was upright and the milk unspilled. Oops.

As much as I generally enjoy Hustle, perhaps it's time that either they mix things up more than they did in this story, or retire this format after this season. I'd miss it, but those behind the scenes appear to be treading water compulsively, from this reviewer's perspective.

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This review contains spoilers.

3.12 Nightsisters

Before I review the latest installment of the Star Wars animated series, I should say that now is the perfect time to hop on. This episode sees the start of a new trilogy and also sees an end to the rather repetitive political and trade nonsense that has marred much of Season 3.

It's also the perfect time, as Nightsisters is not only a classic Clone Wars episode, but it contains many set pieces that your average action flick would kill for. This is the most exciting thing on television at the moment.

The story starts with your typical two-on-one lightsaber showdown. Hot lady Sith Asajj Ventress is at it in the most aggressive fashion with Obi Wan and Anakin.These opening moments, set aboard a battling spaceship, are very reminiscent of the excellent opening to Revenge Of The Sith, hugely entertaining and stunning to the eye.

But rather than your usual battle, The Clone Wars has rather elegantly added another dimension.

Dooku, or Lord Tyrannus as he's called here, is contacted by Darth Sidious, who has sensed that Asajj Ventress is growing too strong with the dark side of the Force and commands her death.The once hated villain now becomes a more complex and sympathetic character, as her 'boss' destroys the ship she is currently fighting the Jedi on. A fight, it should be noted, that Ventress had the upper hand in, using some extreme Force moves on Obi Wan and Anakin.

Thankfully, the bald assassin survives these attacks and returns to her home planet, Dathomir, and all within the opening five minutes of the episode. It's storytelling at its most economic and incredibly pleasing.

Dathomir, factoid fans will note, made its first appearance in the Star Wars novel, The Courtship Of Princess Leia, back in 1994, and is home to the titular Nightsisters, 'witches' who have Sith-like powers, to put it simply. It is here that the backstory for Asajj Ventress (now celebrating over seven years in the Star Wars galaxy) is laid out for the viewer in a startling flashback akin to Anakin's visions in Episode III.

It's refreshing to see a character continually being built on and fleshed out and her story continues. Now she is hell bent on revenge on Dooku. And Mother Talzin, leader of the Nightsisters, is only too happy to help out.

What follows is an astonishingly well realised attack on Dooku, the likes of which the Star Wars universe has never seen. Who would have thought we would see the Count fighting in his jim jams?

Nightsisters is bookended by two glorious lightsaber battles, is filled with many memorable moments and begins an exciting new trilogy of stories for the series. The denouement will leave some viewers slightly agasp as to what's to come next (or, rather, who), as Dooku is served up a new apprentice by the Witches of Dathomir.

Of course, the trailers for Season 3 have already revealed Ventress' replacement, but that revelation is for next week....

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If there's one horror author whose work deserves a decent mainstream cinema adaptation, it's that 30s master of tentacle-filled fear, HP Lovecraft. Something of a specialist in short fiction, At The Mountains Of Madness was one of Lovecraft's longest and most highly regarded works.

Published in three consecutive issues of Astounding Stories in 1936, Mountains is a finely wrought masterpiece of icy fear, and sees Lovecraft's distinctive, florid prose at its most potent. Set among the freezing wastes of Antarctica, the story is told from the perspective of geologist Dyer, a professor from the mythical Miskatonic University, whose quest for knowledge brings him into contact with terrifying beings older than humanity itself.

Mountains' perfectly realised atmosphere could be due, at least in part, to Lovecraft's physical intolerance to cold. The author once collapsed in the street due to a sudden temperature drop, and had to be dragged to the safety of a nearby shop to recover.

That Lovecraft's magnum opus has never been adapted into a film before is unsurprising given the grand sweep of the source material. To really do the story justice, huge sets and matte paintings would have to be built in order to depict the gargantuan city the author describes:

"The effect was that of a Cyclopean city of no architecture known to man or to human imagination, with vast aggregations of night-black masonry embodying monstrous perversions of geometrical laws. There were truncated cones, sometimes terraced or fluted, surmounted by tall cylindrical shafts here and there bulbously enlarged and often capped with tiers of thinnish scalloped disks; and strange beetling, table-like constructions suggesting piles of multitudinous rectangular slabs or circular plates or five-pointed stars with each one overlapping the one beneath."

While At The Mountains Of Madness has, for decades, remained as words on paper, the story's influence is all over John W. Campbell, Jr.'s short story Who Goes There?, already adapted twice as The Thing From Another World in 1951, and The Thing in 1982, with a prequel/remake (again called The Thing) due out later this year. Also set in the Antarctic, both the short story and John Carpenter's classic 1982 film evoke a similar air of creeping dread found in Lovecraft's novella.

Some 75 years after Mountains' publication, director Guillermo del Toro is adapting Lovecraft's story for the big screen, with Hollywood mogul James Cameron stepping in as producer.

For those of us who have been waiting patiently for a serious, sympathetic Lovecraft adaptation to appear in cinemas, the interest of del Toro can only be a good thing. His knowledge and appreciation of Lovecraft has been seen time and again in his earlier films. The tentacled Behemoth that appears at the conclusion of Hellboy, for example, appears to have sprung directly from the author's Cthulhu mythos.

The presence of Cameron is similarly positive, from both a financial and creative standpoint. With his name attached to the picture, the Mountains film will get the requisite budget, and will, we hope, encourage the people in suits to leave the story's bleak conclusion intact.

Last Thursday, Cameron talked enthusiastically about the film's progress, and his own appreciation of Lovecraft. "We're both Lovecraft fans," Cameron said. "Me from my college days, when I discovered Lovecraft. I think I read everything he wrote in about a month. I powered through it. And if anybody can bring Lovecraft to the screen, it's gonna be del Toro.

"He's got a real vision for the film. It's very, very well developed in his mind. You know, I'm just there to facilitate his vision. I don't have any strong sense of authorship, zero sense of authorship. I'm just there to try to get it made and help him do the movie that's in his head."

At almost exactly the same time, Ron Perlman, promoting his latest film Season Of The Witch, talked about what could be his next role, a "dog sled dude" called Larson in Mountains.

"The movie takes place in the North Pole, and so I'm on board as this sort of dog sled dude. I spend my entire life with these dogs. So, I'm a rough guy, among all these scientists," Perlman told io9.com. "I'm a contrast to the deeply intellectual world that's being explored. I live outside all the time. I live in the elements. I'm a no-bullshit kind of guy in a world of guys who just live in their heads. So, it's a beautiful role to play, given that backdrop. I kick some butt. I hope we get a chance to do it."

Given that both del Toro and Cameron are fans of Lovecraft, and that the former's artistic style and temperament mesh perfectly with the author's atmospheric writing, there's every reason to be hugely optimistic of the Mountains Of Madness movie being a great one.

There's a possibility, I suppose, that it could all go dreadfully wrong. One of the wonderful things about Lovecraft's work was the formless nature of its unspeakable creatures and weird architecture. There's a chance that, once realised with computers and models, del Toro and his effects team's interpretation of the author's otherworldly monsters will lose some of their exotic allure.

At the same time, we know that the legendary Dennis Muren, whose pioneering work has appeared in Star Wars, Terminator 2 and Jurassic Park, is in charge of the special effects on Mountains. I can't wait to see what tentacle-laden abominations he comes up with.

It's thought that At The Mountains Of Madness will commence shooting some time this year. del Toro himself has said that, with this film, "I'm putting all the chips I have accumulated in 20 years as a director, betting them on a single number. [...] It's do or die time for me."

We hope the gamble pays off for del Toro, and await the finished movie with fingers and tentacles firmly crossed.

io9

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Let's do the shooting locations first. Last week, it was confirmed that the upcoming Batman sequel, The Dark Knight Rises, would be shooting in Los Angeles, the UK, and a further unnamed city. There was some chatter, therefore, about whether Christopher Nolan and his cast and crew would return to their Gotham City for their first two Batman adventures, Chicago. Yet, it turns out that the windy city is off the list.

Instead, The Dark Knight Rises has opted for Detroit instead, which will inevitably mean that we'll get a different looking Gotham City this time around. Although we'd wager that won't make a massive difference. It's some coup for Detroit, though, which has just seen the shoot of Hugh Jackman vehicle Real Steel leaving the city.

Christopher Nolan, meanwhile, has been chatting about his decision to not shoot the film in 3D. Chatting to Deadline about Inception, The Dark Knight Rises inevitably came up, and here's what he had to say:

"In the case of Batman, I view those as iconic, operatic movies, dealing with larger-than-life characters. The intimacy that the 3D parallax illusion imposes isn't really compatible with that. We are finishing our story on the next Batman, and we want to be consistent to the look of the previous films."

Continuing on the 3D theme, Nolan added that "There was more of an argument for a film like Inception. I've seen work in 3D like Avatar that's exciting. But, for me, what was most exciting about Avatar was the creation of a world, the use of visual effects, motion capture, performance capture, these kinds of things. I don't think Avatar can be reduced to its 3D component, it had so much more innovation going on that's extremely exciting. 3D has always been an interesting technical format, a way of showing something to the audience. But you have to look at the story you're telling: is it right?"

You can read the full interview with Nolan over at Deadline, here.

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Given that Ghostbusters 3 still seems a little way from getting before the cameras, it's perhaps unsurprising that rumour and Bill Murray quotes have been filling in for fresh news on the project. Yet, as he does the press rounds for his new film, No Strings Attached, director Ivan Reitman has been giving an update on the project.

Chatting to ComingSoon, Reitman moved to nix the many rumours about the film and the casting that have been appearing online. "There is almost nothing that is accurate online about that film," he told the site, adding, "There is nothing... I mean, all these stories... there has been a ton of stuff about casting, about who's in... none of it is true."

That's interesting. Because it was Dan Aykroyd, for one, who fuelled some of the stories about Anna Paris, Bill Hader and Eliza Dushku appearing in Ghostbusters 3, calling them "strong possibilities". To be fair, though, "strong possibilities" does not equal "definitely cast".

Reitman went on to confirm that Bill Murray has now been sent the finished script for the film, saying, "He hasn't read it. There has been all kinds of chatter online about him reading it and not liking it. He has not read a thing. He's never read anything. And I just sent it to him. So, we'll see."

Finally, Reitman confirmed that all the original characters will have a role in the movie (although it's unlikely that that will include Rick Moranis' Louis Tully, we'd argue), signing off the interview with, "It's got a really good story, this one. Maybe the best of the series. I hope we get to do it."

That last sentence, then. Not wishing to contribute too much to the art of over-analysing every interview quote, but does "I hope we get to do it" still suggest that there's some doubt over the project? Just saying.

Read the full interview over at ComingSoon, right here.

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Seattle-based publisher Fantagraphics' second volume of the collected Prince Valiant by series creator Hal Foster is a sumptuous package bringing together the Sunday strips that were published during 1939-40.

This second volume finds Foster's titular 5th century hero in typically adventurous mode as, in the space of roughly 100 pages, he (take a deep breath now):

• Helps fight off a Saxon invasion of England.
• Is knighted by King Arthur to become a Knight of the Roundtable.
• Goes off in search of adventure and ends up embroiled in a campaign against the vile Huns.
• Helps found the city of Venice.
• Is implicated in the murder of the Roman Emperor Valentinian.

It would be fair to say that, while lacking in some sophistication and nuance, Foster managed to cram more story into four of his single page weekly narratives than many contemporary comic book creators manage to achieve in the space of a six issue mini-series today. 

That said, Foster's work, in terms of storytelling, was very much of its time and it's interesting to compare these strips with the early superhero comics that were being published at roughly the same time. The early Siegel and Shuster Superman stories and the initial Bob Kane, Bill Finger and Jerry Robinson Batman strips all have a similar furious pace and energy to them that is clearly influenced by both Foster's work on Valiant and his earlier Tarzan strips.

Despite those similarities, there are also a couple of major differences that set Foster's Valiant apart from the superhero strips of the day. Firstly, the superhero stories were longer, usually somewhere between 6-12 pages, and they eschewed the text only/no-dialogue approach that Foster favoured in his storytelling and instead opted for a narration/dialogue style. In my opinion, Foster's approach is the only element of the strip that appears overly antiquated, as it's a distancing device that will inevitably stop some modern readers from engaging with the material. That said, these slight narrative shortcomings are made up for in spades by the quality of Foster's artwork.

A sophisticated draftsman and a mature professional illustrator even before he began working on Tarzan and Valiant, Foster was a consummate artist, whose strip is a masterclass in the use of colour, character, texture and composition.

Whereas the Batman and Superman strips of the day were drawn by teenage boys with all the attendant energy and enthusiasm (and flaws) that youth brings, Foster's art is controlled, mature and powerful, with depth and range. In his mid-30s when he began work on Tarzan, and a keen outdoorsman, the physical actions of the characters have an integrity and verisimilitude to them that the work of proto-geeks like Siegel and Shuster clearly couldn't compete with.

Lovingly reproduced in an oversized format and digitally re-coloured from the original proofs (luckily donated to Syracuse University by Foster himself), this restoration of one of the most influential comic strips of all time takes its place alongside other recent high quality restorations of works such as Chester Gould's Dick Tracy, Milt Caniff's Terry And The Pirates and George Herriman's Krazy Kat as an essential purchase for anyone interested in the history of the American comic strip.

Prince Valiant Vol.2: 1939-1940 is out now and available from the Den Of Geek Store.

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A host of new details about Torchwood's upcoming fourth season have been released, starting off with its brand new name. Previously known as Torchwood: The New World, the show's fourth run will now go under the moniker of Torchwood: Miracle Day.

The show's creator, Russell T Davies, revealed that The New World was always a holding title at the US press launch for the show that took place at the end of last week.

Furthermore, new details surrounding the plot of Miracle Day have now surfaced too. And if you don't want to know what the outline story is, then look away now.

It's being reported that the show will kick off with Bill Pullman's character being given a lethal injection for his crimes. Only for him to survive. From the official press release, then:

"The plot of Miracle Day is the most explosive Torchwood storyline yet. One day, nobody dies. All across the world, nobody dies. And then the next day, and the next, and the next, people keep aging - they get hurt and sick - but they never die. The result: a population boom, overnight. With all the extra people, resources are finite. It's said that in four months' time, the human race will cease to be viable. But this can't be a natural event - someone's got to be behind it. It's a race against time as C.I.A. agent Rex Matheson investigates a global conspiracy. The answers lie within an old, secret British institute. As Rex keeps asking "What is Torchwood?", he's drawn into a world of adventure, and a threat to change what it means to be human, forever."

The shoot for the show, which will see the return of John Barrowman as Captain Jack Harkness, is due to start in Los Angeles tomorrow. We'll keep you posted...

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Now, you might have to correct us on this, but our memory of J R R Tolkien's The Hobbit (and the tie-in text adventure on the ZX Spectrum that always left us killed by the "pale, bulbous eyes") does not feature Frodo Baggins.

We're not going mad, though, because Frodo never appears in the book. But he will be appearing in the pair of films of The Hobbit that Peter Jackson is about to start shooting in New Zealand.

The news has been confirmed over at Deadline, although it's unclear at this stage just how and where Frodo will be fitting into Peter Jackson's films.

Production is set to begin shortly on the movies, and it's also suspected, although not locked, that Orlando Bloom may return. Sir Ian McKellen and Andy Serkis are believed to now be back on board.

More at Deadline, here.

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Director Joe Johnston is currently hard at work finishing up The First Avenger: Captain America. Yet, in an interview over at Comic Book Movie, he's been looking back at the underwhelming movie of The Wolfman that appeared around this time last year.

The Wolfman was, of course, a troubled production. Originally, Mark Romanek was set to direct, before departing the project and ultimately heading off to make Oscar-possibility Never Let Me Go instead. And thus, Joe Johnston came in at the last minute to steer the film.

He told Comic Book Movie, "I had three weeks of prep on Wolfman, a ridiculously inadequate amount of time to try to bring together the fractured and scattered pieces of the production. I had taken the job mostly because I had a cash flow problem, the only time in my career I've ever let finances enter into the decision process."

He continued, saying that "Money is always the wrong reason for doing something that requires passionate devotion. The production was a leaky, rudderless ship in a perfect storm suffering from bad decisions, infighting, reluctance of the powers-that-be to take responsibility, and too many under-qualified cooks in the kitchen. The good news and bad news about directing is that, when the picture works you're showered with all the credit and when it doesn't work you're dumped on with all the blame. Both scenarios are undeserved. I take full responsibility for The Wolfman not working because it goes with the territory."

He did add, "There were wonderful aspects of The Wolfman experience. I inherited a crew that was the best of my experience, including a first assistant director without whom I could not have made it through the first two weeks. I had the immense pleasure of working with a cast that was as diverse and multifaceted as it could be. I rediscovered all that I love about London and its environs and I made some lifelong friends, on and off the crew."

The full piece, where Johnston also talks about working on Captain America, can be found here. And if Johnston captures some of the tone of his terrific movie of The Rocketeer, we maintain that Captain America may yet prove to be the finest film of the upcoming summer season...

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Some really sad news here to start the week. Peter Yates, the director of Bullitt, Summer Holiday, Breaking Away and The Dresser, has died at the age of 82.

Nominated for four Oscars across his extensive career, Yates started off working with Cliff Richard before taking on a diverse collection of movies across his 40 years of directing movies and TV.

He also helmed a real Den Of Geek favourite, Krull (a film that this writer enjoyed more than once at the cinema), as well as episodes of the TV shows The Saint and Danger Man.

Plus, spare a moment for the likes of Robbery, The Hot Rock, The Deep and Suspect. Few directors can jump genres convincingly, yet over the course of his career, that's just what Yates managed.

Peter Yates died yesterday, the 9th of January. Rest in peace, sir.

Shunted to a January release slot, beset by stories of poor preview screenings and reshoots, and generally surrounded by negative buzz for many months, we’d wager that most of you are expecting to read a review here that says The Green Hornet is the first outright bomb of the year.

But here’s the thing: it isn’t.

It’s muddled, certainly, and it struggles with an identity crisis it never comfortably resolves. But for around two-thirds of its admittedly bloated two hour running time, The Green Hornet is an enjoyable splash of Hollywood fun, and a welcome entry into the superhero genre.

The film is quick to put its foundation blocks in place. Seth Rogen (who co-wrote the script) is Britt Reid, the hard-partying layabout son of disapproving newspaper proprietor James (played by Tom Wilkinson). Yet, Britt’s life turns around suddenly when his father dies, leaving him in charge of the newspaper (with the help of the underused Edward James Olmos), and suddenly having to work out what to do next. The answer lies in the form of mechanic Kato and his quite brilliant DIY coffee machine. And once the pair meet, via a couple of plot stops, a crime fighting team is forged.

To an extent, it’s a crime fighting team that steps in slightly familiar waters to Kick-Ass. For here, the protagonist is no superpowered freak, rather an unlikely human being who, through assorted circumstances, ends up fighting crime. Albeit backed by a large budget, which is where the Kick-Ass analogy falls apart.

Still, Rogen has quite a bit of fun with the role, here, tempering the excesses of his comedy schtick, although not to the point where you’re ever in any doubt who you’re watching. The action is primarily carried by Jay Chou’s Kato, meanwhile, and it’s generally very good to watch. Director Michel Gondry is, wisely, no fan of over-heavy edits, and he stages quality action scenes, holding his shots long enough for you to appreciate and enjoy what’s going on.

In fact, there’s a strong argument that Gondry is the real star of the show here. On paper an unlikely choice to helm a $100m blockbuster, the director (currently mostly appreciated for the wonderful Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind) does find the space to put his stamp on the film. Anyone who wants to see the difference between a standard Hollywood hack job, and a genuinely visually strong director making a superhero movie, should take a look. It’s far from Gondry’s best, but he takes every chance to inject some coherent visual flair into the proceedings, not least a terrific flashback-y scene, the kind of which Michael Bay's computers couldn't think about matching.

The film is hobbled slightly, though, by Rogen and Evan Goldberg’s script. The Green Hornet, even in its previous guises, has always struggled a little to balance its comedy with its action and drama, and the screenplay here fails to convincingly tackle the obstacle. It's not a bad script (far from it, in fact), but surprisingly, it’s the comedy that rarely sparks into life, with many of the lines and asides landing flat.

There’s also the aforementioned bloat. One action scene in the middle of the film in particular feels like it goes on too long for little reason, while the number of potential endpoints for the film begin to rival Lord Of The Rings: Return Of The King by the time the credits roll. The third act on the whole is the only part where the film really feels like it’s going through the motions at times.

With regards the supporting cast, Jay Chou certainly holds his own, while Cameron Diaz does her best with what little she’s given. The same can be said of the tonally-uneven villain of the piece, Christoph Waltz’s Chudnofsky. Waltz was a late replacement for Nicolas Cage here, and while he does make some immediate impact (in a suitably sinister opening), the script does feel like it was penned around the madness of The Cage in full flow. Waltz certainly does the sinister side of the character justice, but the comedic elements really fall a little flat. That said, the idea of Nicolas Cage playing Chudnofsky with a Jamaican accent, as was apparently the actor's wish, is unlikely to have been much better (even if it would have kept YouTube fed for years).

We should also note that the 3D is a waste of space.

Yet, all those grumbles taken into account, the positives corner still wins out here. Gondry stages some terrific sequences, Rogen and Chou make a solid double ace, and for once, it really does feel like every cent of the $100m has made it to the screen (not least in some Crank-influenced action near the end).

The end result? The Green Hornet's got problems, but it also feels like a perfectly entertaining summer blockbuster, just one that’s happened to land in the middle of January.

The prospect of a sequel, with a more even villain, is really quite a pleasant one.

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For more than a decade now, Marcus Hearn has established himself as one of Hammer's chief archivists. As editor of UK Marvel Comics, he set up the excellent and much lamented Hammer Horror Magazine. His Hammer Story is still one of the best and most lavishly illustrated overviews of Hammer Films that he recently followed up with his tomes on Hammer Glamour and The Art Of Hammer (all by Titan Books).

Though he is predominently known as a Hammer author, he has also written about a wide variety of other subjects such as Star Wars, Doctor Who, Gerry Anderson and The Beatles.

Add to this now The Avengers: A Celebration focusing on "50 Years of a Television Classic".

To get this out of the way, yes, this is first and foremost an illustrated coffee table book and, as such, missing out on in-depth analysis of the cult show. For this it has been unfairly criticised, though it never set out to be an entire history of the series, but a beautiful pictorial accompaniment to the über-stylish 60s classic. And this goal it achieves rather well.

Most episodes are represented by, at the very least, one photo, often more. Even some of the rarer and lost early episodes are featured amongst the plethora of images on display:  publicity shots of some of the episodes' action sequences, behind-the-scenes pics, pre-season promotional material  and press releases, even images from fashion shows in Avengers-inspired haute couture.

I love the fact that even discarded ideas are prominently featured and am, indeed, wondering how the series would have looked with Elizabeth Shepherd as Emma Peel. And, yes, I had completely forgotten that in Season 2 Steed didn't just have one, but two co-stars. Apart from Honor Blackman's Cathy Gale, we also had Julie Stevens' Venus Smith in six episodes.

The quality of the photos are absolutely superb. It's an indication of the show's meticulous love for detail that even the on-set photographers were first class. At least in their later seasons, The Avengers can probably lay claim to being the very first TV series to be filmed just like a feature movie.

Patrick Macnee provides a foreword, and comments that some of the published photos are new even for him. Each season gets a special chapter with a short general overview of its production history. Each photo then also receives a descriptive comment, enabling the reader to get a better understanding about various aspects of the individual episodes shot.

What is missing in this otherwise superb book is anything to do with The Avengers outside of the original series. As a result, you won't find anything about The New Avengers, the 90s remake or radio and stage shows. As indicated in the introduction, this was done on purpose, though I still believe there should have been some space, however small, dedicated to those incarnations.

As such, the book is a fun ride through the series' classic phase, from dark black & white TV noir to the psychedelic lunacy of the last couple of seasons, The Avengers: A Celebration makes you longingly look at your Avengers DVD boxsets and ponder to take them for a little ride through the Avengers-verse yet again, a country so far removed from real life that the producers refused to even feature a football game in there for fear of it being too mundane an activity.

This surreal approach to story telling, still unusual for current TV fare, but highly revolutionary for the 1960s, ensures that this show stood the test of times so very well and is still ferociously admired to this very day.

Oh, and as usual with Titan Books, you may find that the front and back cover images hidden behind the dust wrapper may be even more appealing than the regular main cover shot.

The Avengers: A Celebration: 50 Years Of A Television Classic is out now and available from the Den Of Geek Store.

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A cursory glance to the lower, learned reaches of your EPG will confirm there is currently no shortage of World War 2 documentaries available. Every facet of the deadliest war in human history has been explored in minute and forensic detail, making any further additions to the existing swathe of in-depth accounts require something new and unique to garner any kind of hype.

Apocalypse: The Second World War has succeeded in this respect, however, and the most eagerly-awaited WW2 account of 2010 has now arrived on Blu-ray and DVD.

Almost three years in the making, its trump card is in its use of hours of previously unseen footage, which has been painstakingly restored and colourised, giving the events portrayed a sense of clarity, realism and immersion rarely before seen in a World War 2 documentary.

Seventy-eight percent of the footage has never been released before, and through it we are given unparalleled access to one of the darkest periods in our collective history. The footage used was all recorded by the soldiers, civilians and journalists of the time, and the complete absence of re-enactments or genre stalwart taking heads immediately gives the series a sense of pacing that makes it feel much more accessible than some of the more esoteric accounts of the war. And the variety and quality of some of the footage the producers have managed to piece together is, at times, startling, removing the veil of distance that has allowed us to forget the gruesome realities of a conflict we still, as a culture, know so much about.

The six-part series documents the entire war, from Hitler's exploitation of a splintered Germany leading to the rise of the Nazi party in the early 1930s, through to the only aggressive deployments of nuclear weapons in all of human history at Nagasaki and Hiroshima in 1945. The over-arching scope of the series means the six 47-minute episodes whiz by at a frenetic pace, whilst managing to cram in a commendable level of incidental detail along the way.

Footage of a cosmopolitan, pre-war Germany and sinister scenes of a laughing Hitler entertaining children at parties and playing with his dogs are two of many inclusions that add unexpected depth to what, at heart, is still a strictly procedural account. Never forgetting the human impact of the escalating atrocities, these events are always brought down to the level of an individual. After all, our brains automatically disassociate us from the sheer number of casualties discussed and 50 million dead can seem like something of an abstract concept when discussed arbitrarily.

Instead of giving us demonstrations of coloured arrows moving around on maps, this show reminds us that it was the lives of real people, of families, that were either irreparably damaged or stolen altogether, and is infinitely more powerful as a result.

We are not limited to accounts from Allies either, and details of opposing views within the German ranks, as well as the atrocities committed by both sides, attempt to portray the real human cost on each nation involved. Harrowing footage of concentration camps and brutal anti-Semitic attacks is presented alongside accounts of rape and torture committed by the Soviets, or the British and American use of phosphorous and Napalm on civilian targets in Dresden and the wooden houses of Tokyo.

The series knows that we are already aware of the inherent evil of World War 2 fascism, and instead attempts to paint the overall picture of the worst things mankind has ever done to itself, instead of focusing solely on those committed within the concentration camps. The show, through the mere presentation of factual evidence, still shows Hitler to be a paranoid, maniacal racist, and the acts perpetrated against Jews as the most abhorrent ever committed, but it also shows this to be a conflict with no real winners in the end.

Bearing in mind this is all done through the use of actual footage, it may go without saying that some scenes are difficult to watch, yet it may need to be said anyway. Family viewing some of this most certainly is not.

At times verging on the sensationalist (which is due more to the biased original photographers than the producers of the programme) but never the voyeuristic, the show does not shy away from showing us the horror of its subject matter. Visceral battles and horrific executions are shown with an almost cold, objective eye, one that serves to bring home the reality of events, but can still occasionally catch you off guard with the remorseless brutality of war.

With the broad brush strokes necessary to cover the entire conflict in six episodes, there are some omissions that are still quite strange, however. The Battle of Britain, the D-Day landings and Japan's entry into the war are all mentioned in passing, but are not expanded upon, despite all being fairly major events.

Instead we see ample time devoted to Charles de Gaulle and France itself (due to the show's French origins), and while these too are important details, they are not, truth be told, as interesting, from a non-Gallic perspective, as some of the events glossed over as a result.

The French to English translation occasionally results in some clunky dialogue, too. One scene began, "1942...A little French town, full of little French children," in an introduction that probably sounded a little less hammy in its original tongue. And while intimate footage of Churchill, Hitler, Roosevelt and Goring is extremely interesting to see, having some of their major speeches read by the narrator instead of using the actual recordings seems incongruous with the show's otherwise unflinching desire to use original footage, and removes all the power and resonance from some of these iconic orations.

And while the quality of most of the footage is testament to the hard work of the team who spent two and a half years smoothing out each and every frame, it has to be said that the Blu-ray release of this programme is fairly pointless, as, despite the efforts of the programme makers, nothing you will see will even be approaching 1080p (apart from the front menu or the odd map which do, admittedly, look lovely).

The sound also does not benefit at all from the move to Blu-ray for the same reasons, and if you are planning on a purchase, the limitations of Second World War recording equipment negate the need to spend an additional ten pounds on the high definition version.

Mostly, however, the show succeeds in bringing the Second World War to life in ways few programmes before have managed. It sometimes seems unbelievable that someone would have thought to film some of the events here, and some of the footage is genuinely breathtaking. No amount of Hollywood gloss can ever truly portray the impact of a Japanese fighter pilot's kamikaze nosedive into the bough of an American warship, or the shuddering impact of a V1 rocket into a row of London houses.

It is the civilian drama that unfolds which is the most powerful, however, and it is this footage which brings the realities of war home. War, death and hostile occupation do not affect nations, they affect individuals, and the programme understands this perfectly, which makes the series a must-see for history buffs and recommended viewing for just about everyone else.

Extras

Two features are included as extras on the disc. The first is a 'making of' featurette, in French, but subtitled, comprised of 50 minutes of interviews with the writers, producers, and technical team. Occasionally insightful, you get the impression that everyone involved is extremely proud of their accomplishments on the series. However, ten minutes of this inclusion is spent trying to plug the accompanying book for the series, and another ten is taken up with an interview with the chap who did the French narration. Disregarding these, the most interesting aspect of the 30 minutes remaining is a brief demonstration of the painstaking cleanup process that the footage underwent before it was ready to be shown.

The second extra is an hour's worth of French wartime news footage. This is the kind of propaganda-based reportage that depicts soldiers smiling and joking, as well as speeches from French wartime leaders, and is something for Second World War buffs, but will not be of interest for the majority of non-French viewers.

The extras, too, seem disappointing for such a lavish production, as in the interviews with the producers we were told that, originally, there were 600 hours of footage that was edited down into the six episodes on the disc, and surely, out of 600 hours there was something else that could have been included for those who took the trouble to go out and buy the discs. The footage used in the newsreel featurette is standard definition and in black and white anyway, so they needn't have restored the footage for any additional extras.

Feature:
Disc:

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Following on from the recent piece looking at John Barry's musical contribution to the Bond franchise, I thought it would be suitable to look at the man who has taken charge of scoring duties for the modern Bond movies, David Arnold.

Arnold worked extensively for TV, prior to working on movies, and composed a fine score for one of 2010's finest new series in BBC's Sherlock. His first exposure on the big screen came through his work on Young Americans, for which he provided the score as well as co-writing the rather wonderful Play Dead with Bjork, and it was the success of his work here that would bring him to the attention of Roland Emmerich, whom he would go on to work with...

Stargate

One of my favourite of Emmerich's movies, Stargate, is a solid piece of sci-fi action with elements of mythology thrown in. For his score, Arnold delivers a piece of work in a similar vein to John Williams' great scores for similar films with Spielberg, but adds his own twist to proceedings by incorporating elements of middle eastern folk music.

The deluxe edition is a score that comes highly recommended for fans of sci-fi scores. It's an extensive collection of material that shows the inventiveness of Arnold's work here.

Last Of The Dogmen

Like a few scores that will be covered later in this piece, this is a score that seems indebted to the works of John Barry, particularly the scores the great man composed with a western feel. The score very much has a feel that it's from the golden age of Hollywood, epic in scale with lush orchestrations courtesy of the London Symphony Orchestra.

It's an interesting piece as, for me, this represents one of the finest scores he has produced throughout his career, but he hasn't really explored this approach to scoring since. Instead he has opted for up-tempo action numbers with a modern techno edge.

Independence Day

Like the film it accompanies, Arnold's score is serviceable, not spectacular. It hits the right beats at the right times, but doesn't offer up anything particularly groundbreaking or memorable, especially when compared to the score for Emmerich that preceded it.

Heroic fanfare typical of this kind of film are present and correct. The most enjoyable aspects are the different leitmotifs for key characters and events and, in particular, those for the president and the aliens.

Tomorrow Never Dies

After Eric Serra's lacklustre effort for Goldeneye, Arnold was brought in to provide music to effectively accompany the franchise and match the output of Barry in his heyday.

As a debut score to the series, this is an outstanding piece of work that doesn't stray too far away from the Barry blueprint, but does enough to update the feel and sound as well as containing a few flourishes that are unmistakeably Arnold.

It's a shame that the film carried such a weak song, especially considering the quality of the Arnold and KD Lang effort Surrender, and Pulp's rather excellent proposed lead song that was later released as a B-side.

Still, overall this is a fantastic piece of work that showed that the franchise had found their Barry for this generation.

The World Is Not Enough

Where Tomorrow Never Dies saw Arnold make his introduction to the franchise with a Barry-esque score with his own modern flourishes. Hhis work here finds him in a more experimental mood. Clearly comfortable with his remit, he expands on themes established in his previous score and melds together a number of moods into a fantastic score that, again, outshines the film itself.

Also, he helped pen the rather fantastic title song for Garbage and an excellent closing track for Scott Walker, who was in contention to record the lead song at one point.

Listeners to Mark Kermode and Simon Mayo's film reviews show would have recently heard Arnold perform the song originally intended for Walker live on air.

Die Another Day

Arnold's score here, for the most part, sees him tone day his modernistic approach to the Bond score template and, as such, it seems like a much less confident piece than his previous two outings. It also sees him reuse a couple of the queues from previous works. But, overall, in moving away from what he established previously, it affects the dramatic impact of the music and alongside a lacklustre film and a car crash of a title song nothing seems to sit right.

As covered in the Barry piece, the great man had a few clunkers along the way, so it would be wrong to dwell on this too much.

Casino Royale

For me, this represents the finest work Arnold has contributed to the franchise and is up there with the best pieces of his career. Taking the character back to his first mission and stripping away many aspects of the series that had become far too predictable and clichéd allowed the filmmakers and Arnold to truly revamp the character.

Casino Royale is a massive success that may have taken inspiration from a certain other modern action franchise, but the inspiration clearly worked wonders and this stands as one of the finest Bond movies, and Arnold's score ranks among the finest composed for the franchise.

The highlight, for me, is African Rundown, a relentless action number that utilises African percussion and heightens the tension and suspense. The score is packed with equally impressive numbers, not only from an action perspective, but also the more reflective and introspective pieces are also incredibly well judged and executed.

Quantum Of Solace

Silly title, atrocious theme song and a bit of a mess of a film, and kind of like how Die Another Day saw Arnold's score take a dip in quality hot on the heels of a fine piece of work, the score here takes a similar path. It's not that bad, however, and references back to the Casino Royale score.

There's the usual deft handling of action sequences that Arnold is so adept at, but overall, like the film itself, it can seem quite messy at times and it isn't the strongest standalone listen.

• See all the Music in the movies

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DC Comics’ expansive roster of superheroes, so resplendent with their muscles, good hair and tights, have been beloved by readers since the company’s inception in the 30s.

Their fortunes in the world of videogames, however, have been rather mixed. As the stupendous looking DC Universe Online launches a legion of heroes and villains into cyberspace, we take a look back at a few of DC’s characters and their starring roles in videogames gone by…

Batman

The Caped Crusader has, for some reason, always fared surprisingly well at the hands of game alchemists. Maybe it’s because his status as an ordinary mortal (albeit one with an entire belfry full of psychological hang-ups to contend with) makes him the prime candidate for a videogame – genre staples like power-ups, three lives or a steadily depleting energy level are far easier to apply to the character than to, say, Superman, who should be able to cruise through most game scenarios without harm.

Since the earliest days of the medium, Batman has therefore featured in all manner of corking titles, beginning with John Ritman and Bernie Drummond’s marvellous 8-bit isometric adventure Batman in 1986. The Dark Knight looked rather paunchy and odd (like a Japanese Super Deformed caricature of himself), but the game itself was an 80s classic, requiring the player to collect the pieces of Batman’s knackered Bat hovercraft (or Batvercraft, or something) and rescue Robin from the clutches of the Joker.

Batman: The Caped Crusader, which followed two years later, was even better. Taking the form of a sides-scrolling action adventure, the player fought against the Penguin and the Joker, solving fiendish puzzles along the way. For the time, the graphics were stupendous, with a big, imposing Batman sprite trudging around the play area, cape swinging.

The side-scrolling Batman games that tied into the release of Tim Burton’s film were also quite good, albeit in a slightly unimaginative kind of way – the Mega Drive version programmed by Sunsoft was perhaps the pick of the bunch, with fast-paced platforming action and moody 16-bit graphics.

Batman games then went through a rather derivative patch through the 90s to the new millennium, with the character attached to middling, forgettable sidescrollers such as Batman: The Animated Series on the Game Boy and repetitive brawler Batman Beyond: Return Of The Joker for the N64, PlayStation and Game Boy Color in 2000.

Most recently, Batman: Arkham Asylum surprised almost everyone by being both thoughtfully put together (as opposed to thrown together during a gin session, as many licensed games appear to be), and an enormous amount of fun – a combination of action adventure and button-mashing brawler that romped home with BAFTA Game Of The Year in 2009.

Batman: The Brave And The Bold, a platformer/brawler released last September, failed to provoke the same rapturous response, but gamers everywhere are awaiting this year’s Arkham Asylum sequel Batman: Arkham City with eager thumbs.

Catwoman

Another superhero, another movie tie-in, this time released to coincide with Halle Berry’s award-winningly awful Warner Bros film from 2004. Essentially Prince Of Persia in a leather bra, Catwoman was the kind of game you’d forgotten almost before you’d turned it off. Visually, it looked the part, but its mixture of tedious combat and platform leaping was alarmingly generic, while the game’s cut-scenes were simply inept.

The Flash

One of DC’s longest-serving but less well-known heroes, The Flash has made occasional forays into the world of videogames, starring in the largely forgotten title of the same name on the Sega Master System in 1988, before making an appearance on the Game Boy three years later. They were both fairly generic platform games, but Justice League Heroes: The Flash, a scrolling brawler for the Game Boy Advance, was a good deal better. You could even punch a gorilla in the face.

Superman

DC’s Man of Tomorrow has always suffered mixed fortunes in the realm of videogames, despite the fact that he’s been a regular industry fixture for over 30 years. He first appeared in an almost recognisable form on the Atari 2600 in 1978 (complete with a flickering cape depicted by four pink pixels) in a game simply titled Superman. The object was to fly around Metropolis capturing Lex Luthor’s goons before beating a hasty retreat to the offices of the Daily Planet before a timer ran out. The life-threatening effects of Kryptonite could be reversed, oddly enough, by planting a kiss on a blocky Lois Lane.

Superman: The Game arrived on numerous 8-bit systems in 1985, and pitted the Man of Steel against Bronze Age nemesis, Darkseid. Strangely, the bulk of the game involved flying around and collecting diamonds.

In 1988, a Superman game arrived on the NES courtesy of Nipponese developer Kotobuki Systems. Like almost every game for Nintendo’s big beige toaster, it was a side-scrolling platform adventure. It was also absolutely dreadful, though this Japanese-style rendering of the Statue of Liberty is unbearably cute:

Taito’s Superman arcade machine, which appeared in smoke-filled arcades in the same year the hero arrived on the NES, was actually rather good, with colourful, chunky sprites and gameplay that flicked between side-scrolling beat-em-up and free-scrolling blaster. Its creators cheated by giving the hero a depleting life bar, but it was nevertheless an entertaining coin-op, though it failed to create much fuss at the time.

Superman: The Man Of Steel arrived for almost every computer known to man in 1989, and featured some quite pleasant Space Harrier-style pseudo 3D flying levels. Like most games of the late-80s, the rest of the game flicked frantically between styles, presenting the player with sidescrolling brawler levels, and top-down shooting sections.

Some three years later, Sunsoft created a Superman game for the Sega Mega Drive, a platformer alarmingly like the studio’s Batman title released a short while earlier, except with added blue tights. There were also some quite nifty side-scrolling blaster sections like the 1988 arcade game.

Again, Mega Drive Superman’s creators ignored the obvious fact that the hero’s meant to be invincible, and gave him a steadily depleting power bar, along with a super punch that had to be recharged.

Sunsoft, along with Blizzard (who had yet to bring the planet to its knees with World Of Warcraft) created The Death And Return Of Superman for the SNES and Mega Drive, which was basically Final Fight in a red cape. It wasn’t a bad game, but failed to retain many of the powers that make Kal-El such a memorable character – instead, he spent the entire game punching people in the face like a belligerent Friday night lager warrior.

From here, darkness descended on Superman’s videogame adventures. His appearance on the N64 in 1999 was greeted with critical dismay, and still tops “worst game ever” lists over a decade later. The game involved flying through hoops and protecting civilians from Lex Luthor. It looked and played a little like Starwing on the SNES, only far, far worse. It’s one of the few titles where, mid way through playing it, you pause to wonder whether the people who made it were actually insane.

The largely forgettable Superman: Countdown To Apokolips (which I always misread as Countdown To Alcopops – a far more interesting sounding game) followed in 2003, featuring a starry cast of voice actors and some iffy collision detection.

The release of Bryan Singer’s ponderous Superman Returns movie in 2006 hastened the arrival of an equally somnambulant videogame tie-in of the same name. The game started as a tedious flying/floating brawler, continued along the same lines for a few hours, and concluded with the Man of Steel fighting a gust of wind.

Teen Titans

DC’s troupe of junior superheroes got its first videogame outing in 2006, in a joypad-battering brawler for the PS2, GameCube and Xbox. It didn’t set the industry on fire critically, but it certainly wasn’t the worst superhero videogame ever released, and its roster of 36 playable characters added to its longevity somewhat.

Watchmen

Alan Moore’s Hugo-winning, fiercely intelligent creation was distilled down into a shadowy brawler to tie in with Zack Snyder’s film adaptation. Watchmen: The End Is Nigh was met with a mixed reception, but its hectic combat provided a few hours’ entertainment before the spectre of tedium descended.

Wonder Woman

That one of the most famous heroines in comics has never had her own solo videogame is perhaps down to the medium’s largely male dominated audience, though in fairness, that hasn’t prevented developers from making truckloads of cash from games like Tomb Raider or Mirror’s Edge.

Thus far, Wonder Woman has had to make do with guest appearances in Mortal Kombat Vs. DC Universe, Justice League: Injustice For All on the Game Boy Advance, and a walk-on part in Justice League Heroes: The Flash.

Aquaman

Nautical superhero Aquaman has appeared in but one solo videogame, and given the woefully sub-par way he was treated in Battle For Atlantis, it could be some time before he features in another.

Released for the Xbox and GameCube in 2003, Battle For Atlantis was a debacle equalling Superman N64 and E.T. on the Atari 2600 in terms of critical derision. A jarringly basic button-mashing free-floating brawler, the game’s most notable aspect was the fact that Aquaman looked like Van Halen’s David Lee Roth being given the Heimlich manoeuvre (or worse) by the Invisible Man…

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There's something reliably satisfying about watching smug, successful people come horribly unstuck, and television comedy is full of characters who exist to suffer for our entertainment. In Episodes, we watch as the dreams and aspirations of husband and wife comedy writing duo Sean (Stephen Mangan) and Beverly (Tamsin Greig) go horribly awry.

Within minutes of winning a BAFTA for their comedy, Lyeman's Boys, the couple are accosted by a slick, enthusiastic LA television executive, Merc Lapidus, who wants to adapt their show for an American audience.

Seduced by a basket of loganberries and dreams of insane wealth, Sean and Beverly waste little time on mulling over their options, and before long they've exchanged the rain and gloom of London for the blue skies of Los Angeles.

Predictably, things begin to go wrong the second they get off the plane. Far from the straight adaptation they were hoping, Sean and Beverly soon discover that their friend and series star, Julian (Richard Griffiths), will have to audition for a role they'd assumed was already his.

Little by little, the couple's work is taken apart and rearranged, as erudite thespian Julian is first humiliated and then replaced by the entirely unsuitable Matt LeBlanc (who plays himself).

As a setup for the six episodes that make up the rest of the series, this first instalment in Episodes works well enough, introducing its almost unbearably smug protagonists before gradually chipping away at their confidence over the course of the show.

Unfortunately, many of the situations that Episodes presents are all too predictable, and most of its events can be guessed several scenes before they actually occur. While pleasantly entertaining, there are also surprisingly few genuine laughs. Aside from a brief incident with a polystyrene doric column (a scene that perfectly epitomises the superficiality of Hollywood in general), Episodes sits more comfortably in the genre of drama than comedy.

This is further underlined by the apparent brevity of the show's format. When the closing credits roll after half an hour, it feels as though the story's barely got into its stride, and this opening instalment may have been better served with an hour long special.

Nevertheless, Greig and Mangan are watchable as the bickering lead couple, and David Crane and Jeffrey Klarik's material doesn't exactly provide much of a stretch for their talents. They frequently carry this opening episode through its leaner moments.

Given that Crane and Klarik's previous work includes Friends and Mad About You, it's perhaps a little surprising that Episodes isn't more reliably amusing than it is. All too frequently, the show achieves the awkwardness of, say, Extras or The Office (both of which appear to have influenced it to a minor degree), without their distinctive, comedic bite. But still, we're only at episode one.

Thus, it's quite likely that, with the Episodes premise now established, the series will provide more laughs as it wears on. And with Matt LeBlanc playing a far more prominent role in future episodes, it's just possible that his addition to the mix will set off the comedy fireworks the show needs.

Episodes airs on Mondays at 10:00pm on BBC2.

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If I were to attempt to shoot my own instalment in the Bourne franchise, the result would probably look like a You've Been Framed outtake, only with extra plastic guns.

Fortunately, Matt Damon has director Paul Greengrass to fall back on, and Damon, still seemingly unhappy with the manner Universal went ahead with the idea of The Bourne Legacy (the fourth Bourne movie, that won't feature Jason Bourne at all), is reportedly thinking of making a Bourne picture without the studio's involvement.

First things first: we should point out that Matt Damon had said he wouldn't press ahead with Bourne 4 himself if director Paul Greengrass wasn't involved. And when Greengrass passed, it was understood that so had Damon. Hence, Universel brought in Tony Gilroy to put together a new Bourne film, without the involvement of either.

Damon's still not particularly happy about how Universal went about all of this, either. "No one told me, literally nobody called me," he told Empire. "People think I have inside information, but you can get a sense of where I am in the pecking order."

Damon points out that Universal doesn't directly own the rights to the Bourne property, leaving the door open for the actor to, say, go to a rival studio and create a sequel himself, with Paul Greengrass at the helm.

"I'd do it again with Paul," Damon said. "Universal doesn't actually own the Bourne character, the estate does. So, technically, I could go to Warner Bros... and Universal could read about it online."

As things stand, then, Bourne Legacy is pressing on with Michael Clayton director Tony Gilroy holding the megaphone, and an as yet unnamed actor in the lead.

Will Greengrass and Damon team up to make a Bourne movie away from Universal? We wouldn't place much money on it, and strongly suspect that this is Damon making a point. But if they did press ahead, given the strength of the pair's previous films together, the results would almost certainly be worth watching.

Empire

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