Help Prioritize Upcoming Reviews

As some of you already know, I tend to collect things. As a side effect, I buy movies, novels, comics, and video games faster than I can review them. Since I can’t keep up, I need you to tell me which reviews are of greater interest to you. Details are below.

Some reviews are guaranteed: when someone sends us a free copy of something specifically for us to review, we make sure we review it. (For example, I expect to have a review of X-Rated Bloodsuckers by Mario Acevedo up this weekend.) Reviews I’ve already committed to will also be done, such as the Civil War reviews. Beyond that, I’d like your help to set priorities.

Movies

Starting this weekend, I’ll be reviewing one James Bond movie each month within the Saturday movie reviews until we’ve reviewed the entire series. They’ll be done in the order of release, starting with Dr. No, and running up to Die Another Day. (We’ve already reviewed Casino Royale.) Beyond that, we’ll review the major summer releases, but the reviews of old materials need to be prioritized. I’ll be maintaining a list of my DVD and Blu-Ray titles here in Microsoft Excel format. The feature film section is up to date, though the TV and short film sections are not even close. (I’ve catalogued 14 out of 201 television collections, and only 1 of 51 short film collections.) If you go to the tab named “Feature Film Selector Chart” and filter the “B42 Rating” as “(blank),” then you’ll generate a list of movies eligible for review that haven’t been reviewed. Double click on a number to generate a new tab that lists the movies and the details that are counted in that number. (At the time of this writing, you can click on the 307 grand total in the lower right corner to generate a list of all eligible unreviewed movies.) You’ll probably want to sort that list once it’s been created.

Comics

The comic book catalog is about as complete as the DVD catalog. I’ve catalogued 3 out of 6 long boxes storing comics, a few of the Essentials, and just a couple of the digests and hardcovers. In several cases, primarily those from the DVD-ROM collections, I’ve filled in placeholder issue numbers without the complete details. Between all of those unreviewed back titles and the large pull list I’ve got, that’s a lot of comic reviews. (I need to average just over two reviews per week, reviewing the TPB collections only, if I want to keep up. That’s not enough to catch up.)

The comic reviews that are planned and committed for sure are as follows. I will finish the entire Civil War set by reviewing the Moon Knight crossover when it wraps up next week (though I’ll be out of town again, so it’ll be a weekend review), as well as the Ghost Rider crossover when it finishes (either today or next month.) I’ll continue to review Fallen Son as each issue comes out in April and May. Once those are done, I’ll review all seven issues of the main series, and end the whole thing off with a recap column detailing the most and least worthwhile crossovers. I’ll also be reviewing the upcoming World War Hulk event in a similar fashion, reviewing each issue of the main series as it comes, and each crossover and related miniseries as it wraps up. I’ll likely pass on the upcoming X-Men event this fall. Those events aside, I’ll be reviewing the new Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight series from Dark Horse on an issue by issue basis. Between the Essentials, DVD-ROM, and J. Michael Straczynski selections, I’ve reviewed every issue of Amazing Spider-Man ever published, so I’ll keep those up to date reviewing the issues in the manner in which they’ll be collected in TPB format. Finally, with Joss Whedon taking over the under-recognized Runaways, I’ll be doing a series of reviews of those digests, starting next Wednesday. (This will be similar to Timeshredder’s Batman reviews, but will cover digests 2-7, as digest 1 has been reviewed and digest 7 should be out the same day digest 3 would be reviewed.) Beyond that, I need feedback to decide what to prioritize.

The Essentials I own but haven’t reviewed or catalogued are as follows (with volume numbers omitted if there’s only one volume):

  • Captain America Vol. 2, 3
  • Conan
  • Defenders Vol. 2 (Vol. 3 is unsolicited but on preorder with Amazon)
  • Dr. Strange Vol. 2
  • Godzilla
  • Incredible Hulk Vol. 4
  • Iron Fist
  • Iron Man Vol. 2
  • Killraven
  • Marvel Team-Up Vol. 2
  • Marvel Two-In-One Vol. 1 (with Vol. 2 on preorder)
  • Monster of Frankenstein
  • Moon Knight
  • Ms. Marvel
  • Nova
  • Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man Vol. 1-3
  • Luke Cage, Power Man Vol. 1-2
  • Savage She-Hulk
  • Spider-Woman Vol. 1 (with Vol. 2 on preorder)
  • Supervillain Team-Up
  • Thor Vol. 2, 3
  • Tomb of Dracula Vol. 3-4
  • Werewolf by Night
  • Wolverine Vol. 4
  • X-Factor Vol. 2

The Marvel Digests I haven’t reviewed are all three Emma Frost volumes, the aforementioned Runaways volumes, the first two Sentinel volumes, and Spider-Man / Human Torch: I’m With Stupid. The DC Showcase Presents volumes still unreviewed are as follows:

  • Batman Vol. 1
  • Brave and the Bold: The Batman Teamups Vol. 1
  • Green Lantern Vol. 2
  • Justice League of America Vol. 1-2
  • Superman Vol. 1-2

Finally, there’s my rather long pull list, which I’ll break down by company. From Dark Horse, I’m only collecting the new Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the upcoming Serenity title, both of which will be reviewed by the issue as they come. From Dynamite Entertainment, I’m getting all four Battlestar Galactica titles, two of which have story arcs eligible for review now, and one of which will be eligible after today. From DC, I collect Superman/Batman, The Brave and the Bold, Green Lantern, and Green Lantern Corps. My Marvel list is quite long, and is as follows:

  • Amazing Spider-Man
  • Astonishing X-Men
  • Cable/Deadpool
  • Captain America
  • Civil War: Fallen Son (miniseries on review schedule)
  • Criminal – not sci fi or fantasy
  • Daredevil
  • Exiles
  • Fantastic Four
  • Friendly Neighbourhood Spider-Man
  • Ghost Rider
  • Heroes For Hire
  • Incredible Hulk – I started collecting with issue 100. My DVD-ROM is in the mail, so I should be able to review the entire “Planet Hulk” story before starting the “World War Hulk” set.
  • Iron Man
  • Mighty Avengers
  • New Avengers
  • New Avengers: Illuminati (miniseries)
  • New Warriors (launches in June)
  • Nova (launches today)
  • Runaways (discussed above)
  • Sensational Spider-Man
  • Silver Surfer: Requiem (JMS miniseries to come)
  • Squadron Supreme and all spinoffs
  • Thor (launches in July, written by JMS)
  • Thunderbolts
  • Ultimate Fantastic Four
  • Ultimate Power (miniseries crossing over the Supremeverse with the Ultimate universe)
  • Ultimate Spider-Man (reviewed up to issue 71; the same creative team of Bendis and Bagley will be together until Bagley’s final issue, number 110, which should come in three months. I’m inclined to review issues 72-110 with both annuals at that time.)
  • Ultimate Vision (miniseries)
  • Ultimate Wolverine vs. Hulk (amazingly late miniseries)
  • Ultimate X-Men
  • Ultimates (I’ll review all of Ultimates 2 as a set when the last issue ships in May.)
  • Uncanny X-Men
  • World War Hulk related titles

Novels

When the comic and DVD catalogs are finally up to date, I’ll create a novel and textbook catalog. In the meantime, I’ll just keep reviewing movies, comics, and occassional novels. Upcoming reviews include X-Rated Bloodsuckers and possibly Zig Zag.

Video Games

I’m currently playing through Final Fantasy 3 for the Nintendo DS and Marvel Ultimate Alliance for the PS3. Once those reviews are done, I’ll go to work on a video game catalog to list other options. (Expect a lot of Final Fantasy and Mega Man on that list.)

So, those are the options. What should I prioritize?

13 replies on “Help Prioritize Upcoming Reviews”

  1. You asked for it…
    Although I can appreciate the effort that goes into your reviews of older material, that isn’t the primary reason I visit the site. I come for the reviews and discussions in regard to current TV shows and movies. I don’t plan on running out and buying older comic books (anymore) so those reviews are right out for me. I tend to get my novel recommendations from other sources as well. Most older movies, especially main stream such as Bond, I already know about and have probably either seen or didn’t want to see.

    So my recommendation would be just stick to the current TV and movie releases with an occasional new novel or comic book release. Let the older stuff go unreviewed.

  2. not quite what you asked
    For the feature film data, 878 films are on the list, 680 either have no score or NA. At one a week, that would be 13 years to review the 680 assuming no new movies are added. If you just viewed one a day, you would need just under two years to see them.

    If each of the 878 films are on a separate DVD and cost an average of $5, that works out to ~$4400. Do you have your collection insured?

    -vc

    • Re: not quite what you asked

      For the feature film data, 878 films are on the list, 680 either have no score or NA. At one a week, that would be 13 years to review the 680 assuming no new movies are added. If you just viewed one a day, you would need just under two years to see them.

      NA means that the movie is not sci-fi, fantasy, or science, and therefore is not eligible for review, which cuts down on that a bit. I think it comes down to just below six years, actually.

      If each of the 878 films are on a separate DVD and cost an average of $5, that works out to ~$4400. Do you have your collection insured?

      This catalog exists because my insurance company asked for it. I just figured I might as well share the information with our readers.

  3. Gimme this week’s Doctor Who review already :)
    I’m in the "reviews of recent stuff fer discussion purposes" camp, I like the review of older things, but to a lesser extent (one without the benefit of user added value).

    As for comics, I buy by TPBs, so your ongoing reviews sorta give me an incling to things I ought to be buying, but I’m more interested in the reviews of TPBs I could be buying (like that batman stuff you recently made me crave) than of the reviews of ongoing publications I have neither the patience nor the budget to pursue.

    That being said, I vote for the essential Conan

  4. Movie Reviews
    What I like about the reviews of older movies is when they’re of movies I’ve never seen (or even heard of), yet the movies turns out to be good ones. Ginger Snaps was one such movie, and Freaks was another. Any movie on the list that I know well enough to rate is one I’ve probably already seen–so I wouldn’t want it to be reviewed. See the catch-22 here?

    So what I’m going to ask is that you choose which ones to review, based on your excellent knowledge of film. Try for ones that are more obscure or older, but still good.

    ____________________
    Check out Chad’s News

  5. TV + movies, more newer than older
    I’d suggest to focus on TV + movies, and on newer/current titles rather than the extensive back catalog. You might consider a 2/3rd ratio of newer to older, and 2/3rd TV+movies to other, would probably be a good ratio.

    It also has to be asked, how many hours per week do you think you can devote to reviewing materials? At one title per week you can forget about doing much other than barely keeping current.

    Something you should consider is doing reviews of season DVDs of shows you didn’t focus on, e.g. Supernatural – watch the entire season and do a review of how the 20-ish hours of story worked.

    Damien

    • Supernatural

      Something you should consider is doing reviews of season DVDs of shows you didn’t focus on, e.g. Supernatural – watch the entire season and do a review of how the 20-ish hours of story worked.

      And yes, I am recommending picking up Supernatural :)

      Damien

      • Re: Supernatural

        Something you should consider is doing reviews of season DVDs of shows you didn’t focus on, e.g. Supernatural – watch the entire season and do a review of how the 20-ish hours of story worked.

        And yes, I am recommending picking up Supernatural :)

        Damien

        That’s one of the 187 not cataloged. Duly noted. ;)

  6. Offering of help
    Just thought I’d mention it, but I’d be willing to help review movies and tv shows, especially older releases as time permits.

    I even own the entire Prisoner series which I think should be given at least a single series review.

    • Re: Offering of help

      Just thought I’d mention it, but I’d be willing to help review movies and tv shows, especially older releases as time permits.

      I even own the entire Prisoner series which I think should be given at least a single series review.

      A zip file containing the templates for reviews can be found at http://fiziko.bureau42.com/review_templates.zip while http://fiziko.bureau42.com/rubrics.pdf has the (incomplete) rubrics I use when reviewing things myself. If you or anyone else wants to give reviews a shot, just grab the files and submit the results to the "submit article" link at the left. I check the submission queue habitually when I’m not at work, and I’m sure a few others do too, so it’ll be posted or not pretty quickly. (When I choose not to post, I tell people why, as I did the time someone submitted a review of "Serenity" after seeing an advance screening four months before the theatrical release which spoiled every death in the "Low Point.")

      In short, anyone can give it a shot. After a few consistently good submissions, Dave can upgrade an account to an author, with the authority to post without using the screening process.

  7. My preference TV + Movies
    I don’t have a strong preference on the age of the movies (stuff in theaters for 2-4 weeks is nice though as it generates discussions). Though for older movies (20 years+) I tend to enjoy the reviews of classics more than genre stuff. TV reviews are very nice for discussion/interpretation as the series is ongoing.

    As for the comic and novel reviews I tend not to be very interested in those. For comics I personally just don’t read comics. For novels the combination of the number of novels out there, number of genres I read, and how many novels I’m able to read, it’s simply quite rare that I’ll have actually read a novel that you’ve reviewed. As for the recommendation value of novel reviews there’s usually already a number of other novels I’m already planning on reading so it’s unlikely I’ll read a novel due to your review.

Comments are closed.