How long has it been since the first Alien movie with director Ridley Scott at the helm? It depends on when you are in time, but it’s really been a while as of this writing.

The first Alien movie was and still is an experience unlike any other, even at a time when there were no computer graphic effects. Ridley’s treatment of Alien was like Edgar Allan Poe’s writing—you actually feel the environment in the scenes which enhanced the believability of the film. It was serious entertainment without any pretensions.

The appeal of Aliens is all about the adrenaline-releasing horrific experience of being at the mercy of an environment where monsters are out to get you. It’s about surviving against all the odds. The movie Prometheus, originally envisioned to be a prequel to the Alien series, had evolved into something else entirely but still within the universe of the Alien franchise. It retains the look and feel of the original Alien movie with designs from Alien artist, H.R. Giger, who is famous for his dark and visceral art we now associate with all Alien movies.

Prometheus recalls the events in the first Alien movie. But it’s more about the race of the dead alien encountered in the first movie which is linked to secrets that concern the origins of the human race. As the movie trailer says, “They went looking for our beginning; what they found could be our end.” It’s a terrifying thought, but Prometheus is not exactly the kind of horror film like Alien. This is more science fiction than anything else which is designed to appeal to the old fans of the original movie. It even has a female character similar to Ripley in the first one, who starts out as a bit naïve but ends up as a fighting woman.

Those in their teens when Alien came out will surely enjoy Prometheus, especially with Ridley Scott directing again. After many ideas on the production of the prequel movie to Alien came out and didn’t make it—there was even one where James Cameron was supposed to participate in—it’s inevitable that Ridley Scott come back for a new science fiction film from that universe. It’s likely that in time, this one will also end up as one of the great classics to be enjoyed for generations and perhaps even when real aliens have been discovered.

Given the predominance of Hollywood movies, it would be easy to think that European characters aren’t as popular as those made in the USA; well, okay, maybe except for Harry Potter and Sherlock Holmes, both of which are British.

In terms of historical past, however, there has also been another European character who has achieved a certain degree of popularity: a young Belgian newspaper reporter named Tintin.

Granted, the character of Tintin might not be as well known as Harry Potter or have existed as long as Sherlock Holmes. Moreover, as a literary character he doesn’t have the street credibility that the other two characters have, as his medium is comics, the barely tolerated stepchild of Western literature.

That said, Tintin’s adventures are just as vibrant as those of any character in literature, ranging from diving into the depths of the ocean to traveling the heights of the Tibetan plateau and its mountains. While his early adventures were influenced by the cultural European myopia of the early 1930’s, when the comic book began, those written from the mid-1930’s onwards were culturally more evenhanded.

Give credit to Hergé, Tintin’s creator. After Cigars of the Pharaoh, Tintin’s creator, Belgian artist Georges Rémi, began using research and photographic references to fully develop the lands that Tintin traveled through from the mid-1930’s onwards, a method which future storytellers adapted. His ligne claire (“clear line”) style of drawing influenced such artists as Andy Warhol, who even made some paintings in this style.

Give credit, too, to Steven Spielberg, who’s bringing Tintin into the 21st century. The movie is based on the plotline of three Tintin books – The Crab with the Golden Claws, Red Rackham’s Treasure and The Secret of the Unicorn – and it will be presented, in the latest fashion, as a motion capture 3-D movie.

As a long time fan of the character, I can’t wait to see how well his adventures translate to the big screens of the 21st century.

Horror fans should already be familiar with the Final Destination series. They’ve come to expect the unexpected when it’s about death by the unknown. But now, the makers of Final Destination have come up with a movie where the cause of death is certain—by the jaws of a shark!

Shark Night 3D is all about a group of young people trapped in an island with a hungry shark that seems bent on tormenting the group and getting a bite or two out of the naughty kids. Yep, it’s always the naughty ones who get to die first in this kind of horror movie, and they have a whole lake house for themselves for the weekend. The shark on the other hand, has them all for itself. The group starts out as seven, but this number is fast whittled away and the group ends up with much less.

The Producers of the cult hit movie, 300, has come up with a new ancient period film that uses the same slick and dreamy movie experience that fans have come to expect from them.

What’s not to like about a crazy superhero that doesn’t even have super powers? In the movie Super, the story is all about a man whose hit rock bottom, and, in what may be the worst case of mid-life crisis, turns himself into a super hero out to get his life back by beating a drug lord who’s taken his wife away from him.

Why would Mars need moms? Well, you can ask comic book artist and writer Berkeley Breathed, who wrote the picture book titled “Mars Needs Moms.” If you haven’t read the book, you can always watch the movie adaptation directed by Adam Wells and produced by Robert Zemeckis, the guy who brought us The Polar Express.

Captain America is one superhero who’s had a number of movies and also appeared on television, but none of these appearances seems to have stuck in the consciousness of people like Spider-Man did. For some vague reason, Captain America seems not the kind of superhero that people would like to watch over and over again on the big screen. At least that was then. Now there’s a new movie with all the convincing effects and realistic circumstances surrounding the origin of the first Avenger. Will this movie finally give Marvel’s Captain America the attention it deserves?

Storm chasers are a rare breed of people who get a thrill out of heading right into the middle of a tornado in order to study it. Movies about storm chasers have been made, like Twister. Now there’s Tornado Alley, a documentary which is right up the alley of storm chasers.