Star Wars Movies Franchise

Star Wars was the first of the “modern” science fiction and fantasy movie franchises, and only the second (after “Planet of the Apes”) to find a semi-permanent home in the theaters. But whereas the original five-movie “Planet of the Apes” franchise declined in quality with each release, “Star Wars” managed to come back from a drop in quality with the fourth theatrical film, “Star Wars: Episode I, The Phantom Menace”. Despite the nonsense you see published across the Internet today about how “The Phantom Menace” is the worst of the SW movies it is actually the highest grossing Star Wars movie of all time. You don’t achieve that kind of success by degrading the quality of your product; rather, you achieve it by improving the quality. Of course, the last two Star Wars movies were not very good, but now that George Lucas has sold the entire franchise to the Disney Company fans are hoping to see new life seep into the franchise.

Check out our reviews of all six George Lucas films and the first three television specials. We also have a fan films section where you can watch innovative fan productions.

Visit our Star Wars Movies Portal now …

Marvel Movies Franchise

The Marvel movie universe has become the most successful film franchise in history. Starting with Sam Raimi’s “Spider-man” in 2002, film studios began taking comic book characters more seriously and producing better movies. But the Marvel franchise faltered because the film rights have been handed over to several studios. Now that the Disney Co. owns Marvel they are concentrating on building a huge franchise that will span as many of their major storylines as possible. Xenite.Org is collecting trailers and tidbits for fans of the Marvel universe. This is an ongoing project that may never be fully complete.

Visit our Marvel Movies Portal now …

Middle-earth Movies

Did you know you can watch a full eight movies that are set in Tolkien’s Middle-earth? Read about all eight movies based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, watch videos including trailers, behind the scenes footage, and video blogs from the producers. Many hours of footage will keep you entertained and then you can also read offsite content including reviews by Xenite.Org founder Michael Martinez. Our Middle-earth movies portal makes a great supplement to the broad variety of Tolkien-related content published across the Xenite.Org network, including our Tolkien Studies on the Web site and the Middle-earth Blog itself. J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth has excited the imaginations of whole generations of scholars, readers, and film-makers. Despite the legal barriers to producing more films, fans can expect to enjoy the cinematic creativity of this franchise for a long time to come.

Visit our Middle-earth Movies Portal now …

John Carter (of Mars)

Taylor Kitsch led an all-star cast in this brilliant update on the classic Edgar Rice Burroughs story of swashbuckling adventure set on a Mars that science proved never existed. Although the movie was one of the highest grossing films of 2012 “John Carter” was considered a failure at the box office because it was so expensive to make. Browse our archive of information about the world of John Carter and keep up hope that maybe one day we’ll get another chance to see the full franchise done right. Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote 10 books featuring his heroic Earthman-on-Mars and unfortunately died before finishing an 11th story (The Skeleton Men of Jupiter). His son John Coleman Burroughs wrote the last authorized John Carter story, “The Giant of Mars”. Fans had hoped to see all 11 ERB stories made into films.

Visit the John Carter of Mars Website now …

Pirates of Venus

In 2007 Angelic Pictures contacted Xenite.Org with news about their proposed movie, “The Pirates of Venus”, based on the Edgar Rice Burroughs book of the same name. Xenite was able to publish an exclusive interview with the company. Unfortunately, the project appears to have stalled out, perhaps in part because of the financial difficulties that Disney incurred with “John Carter (of Mars)” in 2012. If we should hear any more about the Pirates of Venus film project we will share the news here. Meanwhile, we invite you to browse the information about the proposed movie that we were able to share. Carson Napier — the protagonist of the five Venusian novels — is part of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ expanded fiction world which also includes Tarzan, John Carter, and David Innes (played by Doug McClure in the 1976 movie “At the Earth’s Core”).

Visit the Pirates of Venus Website now …

The Mothman Prophecies

In 2002 Xenite.Org was invited to help promote the movie starring Richard Gere and Laura Linney. We asked for and received permission to use the film’s production notes and full publicity still portfolio. Our resulting customized Mothman Prophecies Website then became and has remained one of the most popular special feature sections on Xenite.Org for more than a decade. Read all about the movie and the mysterious Mothman himself. The movie tells the story of a man (John Klein, played by Richard Gere) who experiences unusual events after the death of his wife, and his investigation leads up to his witnessing something extraordinary. Falling Skies fans will be interested to know that Will Patton has a role in this movie, too. Xenite’s Mothman Prophecies Website is a great example of how film studios can enhance their marketing by cooperating with hobbyist Websites.

Visit the Mothman Prophecies Website now …

Harry Potter Movies and Books

J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter books are unquestionably one of the top most popular fantasy franchises in history, if not the most popular franchise, surpassing even J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings in sales at one point. This enchanting story follows the adventures of young wizard Harry and his friends Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, and others as they gradually learn that Harry is the one person who can save mankind from a dreadful fate at the hands of the evil wizard Voldemort and his followers, the Death Eaters. The film franchise was ground-breaking in many ways, not the least for finding young actors and retaining them in the lead roles of a movie franchise that required 10 years to make. Although marketed as fiction for children, Harry Potter won a huge worldwide audience among people of all ages.

Visit our Harry Potter Movies and Books Website now …

Star Wars: The Phantom Menace

“Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace” was George Lucas’ masterpiece in film-making. He has never surpassed this movie for story-telling. Although many people on the Internet did their best to rip into the movie and destroy its credibility, their arguments fell flat because they had to ignore so many of the clear details in Lucas’ story. From the five plot-lines to the deep insights into how over-confident the Jedi Order had become, “The Phantom Menace” provides a full backdrop against which all the future Star Wars “episodes” are told. It is a great example of how to retroactively invent a world that has already existed on film for 16 years. Lucas has been ridiculed and mocked for tampering with his original three films but he has always explained himself as feeling frustrated with the film-making technology of the late 1970s and early 1980s. In “The Phantom Menace” Lucas finally proved to the world that his vision went far beyond crude matte paintings and plastic models.

Visit Xenite.Org’s “Phantom Menace” tribute section now …

“Practical Magic” starring Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman

Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman starred in this summer blockbuster film from 1998. Stockard Channing and Dianne Wiest lent their talents in two major supporting roles. “Practical Magic” was one of the very first movies ever reviewed on Xenite.Org and it was the absolute first movie to get its own dedicated fan section. Although the original Website has now been retired the content has been preserved in this delightful essay. In the film, based on a popular novel by the same name, Sally Owens and her sister Jilly face a centuries-old curse that has prevented the women of their family from enjoying true love with any man. When Jilly and Sally meet men from two different ends of the spectrum, sparks fly in all directions. You will really will believe in the magic of love after watching this delightfully entertaining movie. If only they had made a sequel.

Visit Xenite.Org’s tribute to “Practical Magic” now …

1997 “Kull the Conqueror”, starring Kevin Sorbo

Xenite.Org was launched in 1997 as a new home for four disparate Websites and online documents, one of which (and the most popular section for many years) was Xena Online Resources (now a custom search engine).  Xena: Warrior Princess was a spinoff from the hit television show Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, starring Kevin Sorbo.  Sorbo led the way for a new generation of television action actors and shows (mostly distributed through syndication) that combined humor with higher production values than TV audiences had been accustomed to for “barbarian television” (for lack of a better term).  These action shows were usually better quality entertainment than the absolutely awful low-budget fantasy movies that had been produced in the 1980s.  One of the most well-received 80’s barbarian movies, however, as “Conan the Barbarian” (although hard-core Robert E. Howard fans absolutely hated the “Conan” movies and TV show).  Kevin Sorbo was tapped to play Kull, another Howard character, in a movie with a colorful history.  We documented that history in these articles.

Visit our section on “Kull the Conqueror” now …