While 1998 will be most noted by historians as a year our nation was paralyzed by a presidential sex-scandal, the film industry managed to make some headlines and snoozers of its own, especially in the realm of science-fiction/fantasy.

JANUARY

Usually a low point for films, troubled productions tend to get dumped here while hold-overs are campaigning for Oscar consideration. We saw Denzel Washington battle the forces of evil in Fallen, a murky thriller that wound up getting buried under its own faulty logic. Denzel and supporting players John Goodman and Donald Sutherland were solid, but the bleakness of it all made Fallen a joyless affair. Meanwhile, Star Kid was avoided at all costs. And in horror, Phantoms and Deep Rising retread old plots in a less imaginative manner. Four genre films, four bombs.

FEBRUARY

The Borrowers wound up being a mild hit thanks to word-of-mouth. There were some imaginative effects. The big sci-fi release that wound up being a huge disappointment was Sphere. Not only did it not topple Titanic, which kept going and going, but critics viciously skewered it as well. (I didn't think it was that bad though there were a few plot points that didn't make sense.) The most interesting release was Dark City, a surreal noir thriller from Alex Proyas (The Crow). Though it didn't fare well in theaters, it's developed a cult following, and film critic Roger Ebert recently dubbed it the Best Film of 1998.

MARCH

Nothing much for science-fiction/fantasy in theaters this month. The closest was The Big Lebowski with a few dream sequences. That hardly counts. Or perhaps The Man in the Iron Mask which fulfilled the fantasy of many teen girls to have two Leonardo DiCaprios on screen.

APRIL

Lost in Space was the big release, with high aspirations to become a franchise a la Star Trek. Though it did topple Titanic, LIS barely broke even, and while Gary Oldman may have been delightful as Dr. Smith, some major science was ignored for the sake of fiction and it overall disappointed movie-goers. I kinda liked it, but it was a see-once. Species 2 was more gory and less successful. The hit of the month was City of Angels, a fantasy about an angel who falls in love with a human and risks immortality to be with her. Personally I found the premise difficult to swallow, even by the rules the movie gave me, and Nicolas Cage tried way too hard to appear angelic.

MAY

Up to this point, Godzilla had the best marketing campaign of 1998. it was highly anticipated and was expected to be another home run for the ID4 team of Devlin-Emmerich. Instead it was a film low on imagination, with cardboard characters and action sequences borrowed from The Lost World. Word of mouth killed this one quickly. The real hit was the first comet movie of the year - Deep Impact. Millions flocked to see a tidal wave bury New York, and yet the emphasis of the actual story was not on special effects but on mankind's reaction to their imminent doom.

Also in fantasy we had the animated dud Quest for Camelot, which featured a spunky heroine (aren't they all?) and a two-headed dragon. Nobody came.

JUNE

A wonderful month for releasing films, The Truman Show was a morality tale about a man raised in a studio, unaware his whole life is false. Praised by critics as a landmark, it has since faded, but it's still worth a watch. The X-Files was another attempt to transition from TV to big-screen. THe conclusion? It didn't win over any new fans, but it was successful enough that another may be attempted. Maybe when they cancel the series. Another June release, Doctor Dolittle, was a family hit, about a man who can talk to animals.

JULY

The other comet movie, Armageddon, was an even bigger hit, high on noise and star power. Small Soldiers was a little sci-fi film about military toys with built-in munitions chips that wind up trying to take over a neighborhood. Disturbing Behavior bombed for teens about high-schoolers that are behaving in Stepford fashion. THe fantasy Ever After: A Cinderella Story wound up being a sleeper hit when people realized it wasn't going to be another punk Romeo & Juliet.

AUGUST

The other dumping ground month for movies, The Avengers tried to mix 60's campiness with sci-fi action and it wound up being a discombobulated mess. Sean Connery has never looked less comfortable on screen. Blade wound up being the hit of the month, all about a vampire slayer. The fights were fast and furious, the blood flew, and style won over substance. if you want a movie with substance, you're not hunting for Blade.

SEPTEMBER

Another dead month for the realm of sci-fi/fantasy, though the horror flick Urban Legend was a small hit.

OCTOBER

A very full month. Robin Williams died and went to heaven in What Dreams May Come, a movie that wound up being overshadowed by Antz, the first CGI-animated ant movie of 98. Two weeks later we had the witch fantasy chick flick Practical Magic starring Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman, and the killer-doll movie's fourth chapter Bride of Chucky.

Then we had the critical darling Pleasantville, about two kids zapped into a 50's TV sitcom. Kurt Russell fought in the future in Soldier, and james Woods fought bloodsuckers in John Carpenter's Vampires. Which of these came out on top? Antz.

NOVEMBER

Meet Joe Black was a three-hour trial of patience with Brad Pitt as Death. Babe: Pig in the City was praised by critics but ignored by audiences. The big hit was the second CGI-animated ant movie A Bug's Life. Twice this year Disney had the second movie of its kind, and twice their movie was the bigger hit. To date, A Bug's Life has grossed over $150 million, compared to Antz's $85 million. What was the really big story of November? The 2-minute trailer of Star Wars: The Phantom Menace was released.

DECEMBER

Michael Keaton's career continued to sputter when he came out with Jack Frost, about a dead dad reincarnated as a snowman. Star Trek Insurrection limped on to become one of the lower-grossing installments in the franchise. Atheists would lump The Prince of Egypt into the fantasy genre, one of the most successful non-Disney animated movies ever. Mighty Joe Young was another remake that didn't quite make its money back, and The Faculty was a small hit about aliens invading a school.

There's the run-down of the year's happenings. More genre films failed than succeeded, which means we'll likely see less big-budget FX films. For 1999, we've already had Virus infect a theater near us, but this summer looks especially promising with The Wild Wild West, Deep Blue Sea, and most importantly Star Wars: Episode One.

Hits	Misses	In-between
City of Angels	Fallen	The Borrowers
Deep Impact	Star Kid	Lost in Space
The Truman Show	Phantoms	Godzilla
The X-Files	Deep Rising	Practical Magic
Dr. Dolittle	Sphere	Bride of Chucky
Armageddon	Dark City	Pleasantville
Ever After	Species 2	Star Trek Insurrection
Blade	Quest for Camelot	Jack Frost
Antz	Small Soldiers	The Faculty
A Bug's Life	Disturbing Behavior
The Prince of Egypt	The Avengers What Dreams May Come Soldier Vampires Meet Joe Black Babe: Pig in the City Mighty Joe Young