Brooklyn Knight

Henderson's pulpy debut tries to cover up its flaws with a fast-paced narrative, but there's no hiding the emotionally distant characters, plot missteps and sketchy setting. Professor Piers Knight, a curator of paranormal artifacts at the Brooklyn Museum, is introducing his new summer intern, Bridget Elkins, to an incorrectly described New York City, when they are caught up in the efforts of astrally projected thieves, a fire elemental and a Syrian terrorist to steal the mysterious Dream Stone. Pyrotechnics abound, with a double climax featuring a military battle against a bigger elemental and a ghost-aided confrontation with interdimensional evil in Brooklyn's Green-Wood Cemetery. Stock characterizations, a multiply implausible plot and stilted faux Noo Yawk dialogue (“We're talkin' four goddamned dead bodies. Blown to mother-humpin' little gooey bits!”) give a grade-C movie feel. (Jan.)