Good Grief, More Aliens

Spent the last two nights watching the featurettes from the Alien Quadrilogy set while Nikki's off in another room reading or doing school work. (Back in 2002, I subjected her to a marathon viewing of the first three movies -- no need to put her through it all over again, as she's already resigned herself to sitting through Alien vs. Predator with me, poor girl.) It's a great set, probably the most comprehensive box set ever released, with the possible exception of the new Dawn of the Dead box -- which should arrive next week (he says, salivating with anticipation).

I always thought James Cameron was something of a jerk, but after watching the featurettes on Aliens, I have to say that he's an even bigger jerk than I could possibly have imagined. Those interviewed talk about his "hands-on" approach to directing, which basically amounts to pushing everyone out of his way and doing their job for them. Everyone talks about what a genius he is, and what vision he has, but I think you can get your vision across without demeaning the people working with you. (Yes, with you, Jim. Not for you.)

And I know I'm in the minority here, but I think Aliens is the weakest of the series. I've never been one for war movies, though, so the whole "Marines In Space" thing never did much for me. That, and the fact that I wanted to see them all get chest-bursted make this a hard one to sit through. But maybe it's just me.

As for The Dark Tower, I gotta be honest... I haven't picked it up in days. Every time something pops up that's so jaw-droppingly idiotic (and I wouldn't be exaggerating to say that's about every third page) I think it can't possibly get any worse, one of the characters finds himself -- are you ready for this? -- in a gingerbread house which exists -- brace yourself -- only in the imagination of his dim-witted pal. Or King will drop yet another reference to one of his only-marginally-related-but-you'll-believe-it-because-I-say_so books. Or he'll introduce us to a character who forages through trash cans for booger-encrusted Kleenexes. (Note to King: The majority of your readers aren't fourth-graders. Stop that.)

Yet, I'm compelled to finish the book. I read the six leading up to it, so I feel almost duty-bound to make it to the end. But the truth is, I just don't care anymore. I only want it to be over. Nikki said something about The Return of the King when all the pre-release hype was still going on. She said she didn't really want to see it, but she wanted to have seen it. I feel the same way about The Dark Tower: I want to have read it so I can put it behind me and forget it ever existed. Then I'll go back and re-read The Stand, written during a period in the man's career when he still tried.