S. Lee Benedict's Blog, page 3

Batman: Arkham Knight. The Trailer We Deserve?

My favorite DC character is Batman. Hands down. The Dark Knight is mysterious, brooding, right in my milieu. When Batman: Arkham Asylum came out, I thought it was one of the best action games I’d ever played. I bought itstwo sequels Batman: Arkham City and Batman: Arkham Origins without hesitation.

But with each subsequent release, I started to become restless. While there were interesting elements in each game—new features, new weapons, new villains—I ultimately began to feel each iterationwa...

Lara Croft Reboot Is On The Move

I’ve been a Tomb Raider fan since its inception. I credit the first game with bringing me back into gaming after my chosen genre, adventure games, suffered a decline (which ultimately became its death, for all intents and purposes). Since that time, I’ve purchased every version of Tomb Raider, up until and including its most recent incarnation, which dealt with the character’s origins as a teenaged girl. I loved this new Lara with an unequaled fervor. And I’ve beenwaiting patiently (or not so...

Go, Go, Gadget Reboot!

When I was growing up, Saturday morning cartoons were a big deal. A big. Deal. For a kid back in the 80s, it was almost my soul reason for existing. Well, that and my ever-expandingStar Wars action figure collection. But while shows like Looney Toons and Superfriends were definitely on my weekend playlist, I was more attracted to animated storytelling that went a little beyond what was typical. I was all about dragons, and sci-fi, and robots, and technology, and mystery. I was constantly sali...

Wordslingers: An Interview With K.M. Alexander

I’m starting a new feature on this blog—a series of interviews with other indie authors like myself. I’m calling itWordslingers, and for thefirst installment, I’m featuring fellow horror/urban fantasy/lovecraftian fiction author, K.M. Alexander, author of The Stars Were Right and its sequel, Old Broken Road.

Until recently, I never read a lot of indie fiction, even though I’d been preparing to become an indie author/publisher for a couple of years before I finally released The Heart Thief. But...

Genre Fiction TV You Should Be Watching

While I love movies and they’ll always be my primary obsession when it comes to visual entertainment, a lot of quality fiction can be found on television. It’s hard to believe, I know, but it is true, nonetheless. The problem is when these storytelling gems can’t stay on television long enough to reach their true potential. So, the purpose of today’s blog post is to list a few genre TV shows you should definitely be watching. The more people who watch, the less likely these shows will be canc...

Into Every Generation, A Slayer Is Born

There have been a handful of television shows overthe years of which I consider myself a true fan. What exactly does that mean? Well, though for some it means going to every convention and collecting as much related paraphernalia as possible (I would certainly do that kind of thing if I had unlimited funds—I’m just a fan of too many things to be utterly devoted to each), for me it simply means loving a show so much that I go back to it again and again, rewatching the entire run of the series...

The Books of 2014

I’m going to take the lead of a favorite indie author of mine, K.M. Alexander, and do a post about the books I read in 2014 (oh, I also stole the idea for this post’s header graphic—I’m a shameless thief). For the last couple years, I’ve participated in the Goodreads Reading Challenge, where you can set a reading goal for the year and track it as you go. In 2013 I read 30 books. Not too shabby. But I considered the main reason I was able to read so many (mind you, I read slooowly) in 2013 was...

Ten Movies That Really Didn’t Suck This Year

Instead of reviewing the last couple of films I’ve seen, I thought I’d compile an end of the year Best of 2014 list. Really it’s not a true best of but, rather, a list of my favorite movies from the year. It’s highly likely I’ll leave off better films because, well, I live in a really small town and don’t have the opportunity to see every movie (like I did when I lived in Southern California). But of the movies I did see, several made the cut on my list of films I considered to be the most en...

The Walking Dead: When Will It Stop Killing My Soul?

The Walking Dead is one of the best things on TV right now. In a medium that is inundated by a plethora of been-there/done-that flesh-eating properties, it is the only one among them that keeps itself fresh and continues to be worth watching. It’s an almost perfect storm of great casting, stellar acting, top-notch writing and directing, and outstanding production values. But it seems like every time we come to one of these season/mid-season finales like the one that aired Sunday night, I go t...

Star Wars: The Force Awakens Teaser Trailer Is Here!

I may have mentioned it before, but Star Wars is my jam, yo. One of the first movies I ever saw that ignited my imagination as a young child. Seeing A New Hope in the theater isone of my earliest memories, and I have never stopped being a fan. I didn’t even hate the prequels like a lot of people. Sure, Jar-Jar is silly, but whatever.

Today, the first official teaser for Star Wars: The Force Awakens was revealed. And I have analyzed it, scene-by-scene, and want to offer my initial thoughts on e...