The Biggest disappointments of 2008

12/28/2008

INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL: We waited nearly two decades for this? This is the best team Spielberg-Lucas could come up with - angry aliens, a lost civilization, and a lead-lined refrigerator that can survive an atomic bomb blast? If so, please don't do us any favors with an Indy 5 - let the aging archeologist die with dignity. - K.B.

THE Wii: It's the bestselling console the last two years running and may have saved Mario's boss, Nintendo, from the same ill-fate as Atari and Sega. So where are the great games to go with the revolutionary motion-control Wii-motes? How long does Nintendo expect Wii owners to bowl, swing, and throw with Wii Sports, the system's pack-in title, before we grow weary of the game and want more? - K.B.

HEROES: The show about "ordinary people with extraordinary powers" to me is the psycho ex-girlfriend you know you should dump but just can't. For whatever reason - probably you've got no other options - you stick with her, even though all of your friends say good riddance. Perhaps I'm hoping Heroes will change; that it will return to its first-season goodness, when things were hunky-dory between us. Until the show is canceled, though, I'm mired in this dysfunctional love-tolerate-hate relationship. - K.B.

BECK: I'm tired of Beck being a mopy alt-rock whiner. There's no other way to put it, unfortunately. His "Modern Guilt" disc this year was a bummer from the title down to the 33 minutes worth of songs about polar ice caps melting and his general angst. Bring back the two turntables. - R.L.