The Walking Dead: “Them” Review

OK, not quite as boring as this screenshot

 

Something interesting cant happen every episode I suppose and Walking Dead has been killing off main characters this season like they’re going out of fashion. In what was perhaps the most ‘filler’-ish episode ever broadcasted by AMC, the group battled mild thirst and hunger before some light binge drinking and spending the night in a barn. Yep, thats pretty much exactly how it all played out. Meeting Aaron at the end promises a much more enticing episode next week.

This episode seemed like it was trying to get the emotional blowback from all the deaths over and done with, when instead the directors/writers should be trying to insert it in organically with the overriding plot. Also am I super perceptive or was the walker in the trunk an issue that will return? For it to be tied, gagged and placed in the boot it must have been human when it was placed in the boot and then left there to die and zombify. PErhaps it was a detail that wasnt thought through, but it seems unlikely; AMC writers are pretty sharp.

We finally got the whole; “We are the Walking Dead,” quote from Rick which was pretty cool.

Overall it the episode was enough to entertain me whilst waiting for Better Call Saul, but not much else. The primary Walking Dead plot resumes next week.

Better Call Saul: “Uno” Review

After a one and a half year hiatus in the Breaking Bad universe, Better Call Saul premiered on pirate bay early today to much anticipation. Apparently set as both a prequel and sequel to the show which it appropriated from, it primarily follows Saul as a struggling and independent barrister in 2002. The setting is familiar as is the unique style of cinematography, and we even spot 2 familiar faces (aside from Saul, obviously). The very dry and sarcastic humour of Breaking Bad appears more frequently in BCS than it did in its predecessor, albeit somewhat less dark (it is now a legal drama, not a crime drama although Breaking Bad fans know the line will eventually blur). For me the only thing I miss are the early season Jesse-Walter moments where Walts sarcasm and seemingly Omnipresent knowledge clashed with Jesse’s absurd confidence and Naivety, but Pilot episodes often arent funny as the audience are not familiar with the setting.

Overall I think Better Call Saul shows alot of promise for all (both) kinds of viewers. For Breaking Bad nerds, Gilligan has inserted alot of dramatic irony to feed their (our/my) egos ( Saul: “I don’t go looking for guilty clients.”) but it has also been written so that no prerequisite knowledge is required to understand or enjoy the show.

Remember spinoffs arent always bad; Futurama was better than the Simpsons, Torchwood was better than Doctor Who and Korra was better than ATLA. I doubt Saul will top Breaking Bad, but it doesnt have to in order to be a fantastic show.

Film Review: There will be blood

There will be blood follows the life of a miner turned oil oligarch over the course of 30 years. Initially poor and self sufficient his dream of a better life becomes corrupted by greed and revenge and, like a parasite, inadvertently corrupts the pure(ish) ambitions of those around him.

The movie for me shows the ugly side of the American Dream; whereby ceaseless upwards social motility does not prevent, but can be a catalyst towards moral decay and alienation. The film is shot largely in silence, both prognosticating and later embodying the disability he inflicted on his son. The creepy and dissonant string music along with the makes the audience as nervous as they would be in a horror movie.

The movies most interesting power struggle is that between Eli and Daniel. Eli comes off as pleasant, polite and soft spoken, but a different side of him is seen when he is preaching at his church. In a small and close knit community he is revered as a god in his own right and he screams at and abuses his loyal followers. After many public snubs and Machiavellian tactics between each other Eli catches Daniel at a weak point and performs a baptism on him in front of the whole town, taking primal pleasure in humiliating, beating and insulting him reassuring his own role as the dominant figure. In the ritual he forces a grieving Daniel to admit painful things (‘I abandoned my son’). Later (as in 20 or so years later) Eli, now related to Daniel through marriage, arrives at Daniels mansion asking for money for his church. Daniel performs a second ‘baptism’ on Eli making him admit painful things (I am a false prophet, god is a superstition), makes him kneel, humiliates him and beats him to death with a bowling pin. The purpose of this ‘baptism’ is not to accept god, but to accept money.

In the end both men had their visions tainted beyond repair. Daniel’s vision of wealth was tainted by god, and delusions of god-like grandeur; Eli’s vision of God was tainted by money and delusions of the value of his assets.

Overall this was an awe inspiring performance by Daniel Day Lewis and a brilliant film all round. I highly recommend it.

 

Film Review: Let the Right One In

I feel uneasy about summarizing ‘Let the Right One In’, because while I can beat around the bush all day regarding what it’s ‘about’; it is, when push comes to shove, a vampire romance (and horror) involving (pre) teens. I almost feel embarrassed reviewing it because of that. It is also a fantastic movie.

The Film is set in, shot in and spoken in Sweden and is based off a novel by Stephanie Meyers that is also set in and written in Sweden/ish. Oscar is the protagonist; a shy, bullied 12 year old boy who scrapbooks news articles about murders and genocides and likes to practice torturing his tormentors with a knife. Ellie is a lurky suspicious character and to the surprise of very few audience members a vampire. None of this dumb Twilight shit here though. When sun hits Edward he sparkles because hes fabulous. When sun hits these vampires they motherfucking explode.

Ellie is drawn to Oscars pre-school-shooting rage and teaches him how to confront his bullies (with a stick) and solve Rubiks Cube, while dealing with the guilt she feels over all the innocent people she and her guardian have killed to keep her alive. Both of them end up being confronted by the consequences of their actions but manage to save each other and end up eloping elsewhere.

Let the Right One In is a brilliant revival of the gothic genre with a delightful Scandinavian and Hans Christian Anderson twist. Dialogue is kept to a minimum leaving the audience guessing a lot as to what the characters are thinking, and perhaps a few more insights into the psyche of Ellie would have been nice. My only other criticism would be that alot of the side characters were introduced too late, with unclear or drastically unreasonable motives (the bully who wanted to cut out Oskars eyes: when does that ever happen?).

There are two ways to describe this film; one is as a R rated Scandinavian romance (which could be easily misconstrued), the other is as a teen vampire movie conjuring mental imagwa of sulking,sparkling fabulous male models. Neither seems appropriate for this ominous masterpiece.

‘Enemy at the Gates’ Legend of Korra Book 4 review

Korra tries to fix things in a boring, diplomatic way

Korra is finally back in action and Zaofu is her first port of call. She finds Kuviras army amassed out the front and fears the worst, however no invasion has formally begun. Tensions run high at the diplomatic attempts as we find out that Kuvira was Suyins protege who offered to bring order to Ba Sing Se when Suyin declined Raikos plea. Meanwhile Varrick accidentally creates a super-weapon out of spirit vines, and when he tries to close down the project on account of his recently discovered conscience, Kuvira threatens him and forces him to continue. Clueless and naive Bolin finally catches on to some of Kuviras dodgy practices and helps Varrick and Zhu li escape. Once recaptured Zhu Li shocks everyone and pledges allegiance to Kuvira, siting her mistreatment by Varrick as the reason. Bolin is sent to a ‘re-education camp’. In the final moments of the episode a shocked Korra discovers Suyin and her to beefy sons have gone out to assasinate Kuvira.

The first issue of contention is whether or not Zhu Li has legitimately joined Kuviras cause. If she is legitimately betraying Varrick, that is completely understandable. On the other hand I think its a fairly predictable plot twist that shes going to use her position of trust to help save Varrick. Im also interested to see what the re-education camps end up being like. Like the Dai Li Lake Laogai or more Fire Nation prison?

This episode was good although book 4 has been off to a slow start, and for not the first time I cant help but thinking and hoping maybe next week will be the week that shit starts happening.

‘Coronation Day’, Legend of Korra book 4 review

‘Coronation Day’ was set in two separate locations; as dictated by its two preceding episodes. In Republic City, Mako and Bolin reunited for Wu’s coronation, where Kuvira was supposed to hand over control of the ‘Earth Empire’ to the newly anointed Earth King. I imagine it would be quite a short season if that happened: instead she stated she wasn’t handing over her hard work to some idiot (reasonable) and will crush anyone who tries to stop her (less reasonable).

Meanwhile, in the foggy swamp Yoda/Hama/A Hobo/Toph tries to harden up the avatar who complains that she’s been defeated by reasonably unimpressive foes. After revealing to the ecstatic fans watching that she still ‘has it’, she reveals to Korra that she still has metal in her body that Korra could apparently remove herself if she was ready to resume her responsibilities and confront her fears.

Toph says it was because her daughters were never particularly good metalbenders (if Lin isn’t, then who is?) that Suyin failed to remove it all. No doubt the Red Lotus theories will reemerge there.

Overall this was a pretty good episode, although not quite as captivating as ‘Korra Alone’. At times it did feel like it was stalling for time, and was more of a filler episode. But definitely not as much as previous avatar episodes (Avatar Day anyone?). They clearly want to delay Korra returning to the modern world until a specific point, and presumably she will get the metal out before then so at a guess Id say theres at least one more episode with a split team Avatar.

Team Avatar hasn’t really been as much of a team in LOK, they appear quite self focused (except Bolin and Korra) and don’t seem to have as much adhesion as the Gaang, happy to continue with their lives when Korra was out. Hopefully this will be resolved at the end in some way or another; I know Im pumped for the Bolin vs Mako showdown. Makos given every reason for Bolin to be distrustful of him in every season.

Final scenes reveal Varrick is developing some evil machine for Kuvira powered by spirit vines, and Tenzin is sending his children off to find Korra. Ten bucks on Jinora winning.

‘After all these Years’ Legend of Korra book 4 review

Korra is living in hiding, making money in underground earth bending cage fights

The final season began its online airing today with ‘After all these years’. Unless you’ve been living under a rock you’ll know about the controversial 3 year jump between last seasons intense finale and this installment. Todays episode jumped straight forward without any intermediate footage, suggesting there may be flashbacks later this season to tackle continuity and address Korras psychological progress.

The episode began in Republic City where Asami and Raikou are opening a new high speed rail platform linking RC to the earth kingdom. Mako has been forced out of being a detective and now serves as appointed bodyguard for Prince Wu a sleazy and easily spooked young man, and the heir to his equally obnoxious aunts throne. Everyone is anticipating the arrival of Korra, who noone has heard much from and she apparently hasnt left the south pole for 3 years. Meanwhile in the earth kingdom Opal and Kai fight a losing war in trying to save an earth nation state from gangs of bandits. The ominous Kuvira offers protection if the mayor swore fealty which he initially declines. Conveniently, the villages food supplies are then taken by a bandit  and the mayor signs the agreement and receives food (presumably the same food as was taken) and protection from Kuvira; who has 90% of the earth kingdom under her thumb now.

When a southern water tribe ship arrives at air temple island, everyone rushes to meet korra. But its Tonraq, and it is revealed that Korra has been missing for 6 months. A cut shows a glum korra receive her pay for appearing in a cage fight, which she lost quite conclusively. She dismisses her resemblance as the avatar and walks off.

I guess the first thing that really stuck out about this episode is that I was wrong about Bolin: he is part of Kuviras plot to rule the earth kingdom, although perhaps unknowingly. He has always had a gullible streak and a tendency to get on with antagonists.

We got to see Kuvira fight solo for the first time. She seems to use a fighting style similar to mai but with metal bending. Kuviras martial prowess, while …proficient, isnt as overwhelming as the last 3 antagonists. But I guess if she has a huge army behind her it doesnt matter anyway.

And finally the air nation isnt much of a nation anymore: it is spread all over the world, except tenzin and family who seem to stay on air temple island.

But the main point of discussion is over what this episode didnt show: Korra.

In book one Korra was proud to the point of boastful about being the avatar, but now (much like aang in final season of ATLA) she is travelling the world in disguise, although not through necessity like aang. Clearly up until book 3, being the avatar was the formative aspect of her self perception. This issue of Korras psyche was breifly touched on in book 2 when Tenzin told her something along the lines of ” you are not the avatar; you are korra”. It sunk in enough for her to cosmically project herself and fight unavatuu, but perhaps realising her identity is distinct from the avatar only started to happen after she was crippled 3 years ago.

I want to find out alot more about Korras emotional journey over these 3 years, before the kuvira plot kicks off.

Sinister review; and why I hate horror

So I watched my first real horror movie last night, the somewhat positively commended sinister. I thought Id share my thoughts about the movie as well as the genre in general.

Ahhhh!!! a cliche!

First off, age and gender taken into account, I have a reasonably low ‘scariness threshold’ in movies. For example I found batman relatively scary (in my defense, just the dark knight and specifically the moment when that police guy in the noose slams against the window)

60’s batman wasn’t quite as scary

Secondly, I dont like gore porn and while I also oppose censorship, I think that gore porn damages the fabric of society and is full of spineless sellouts looking for easy money (as opposed to someone with an artistic vision).

Thirdly, horror relies on heavy use of cliches (always) and belief in the supernatural (usually). I hate those things.

So why would I, someone who dislikes horror in so many ways, willingly watch what was described to me as the scariest most confronting movie ever?

Like William McKenzie of the inbetweeners, I am willing to throw away all my moral bearings and sanctimony once there is a girl involved. So I was asked by one of those if I wanted to watch it with her in the common room and I remembered I don’t actually have any morals.

The good news to people like me is that the plot of sinister doesnt threaten me individually. Like in the majority of horror movies if you: have no kids, dont move house, dont go investigate noises you hear at night and call the police if you find murder evidence then youll be fine. However, if logic alone dictated how scared we were of things we would find ourselves unwilling to drive cars but fine with swimming with sharks.

I dont want to ruin the plot of a movie which relies fundamentally on the element of surprise, however I will say that I left the movie scared shitless, with severe PTSD and pleasantly surprised (in a very unpleasant way). Sinister had good acting, decent multidimensional characters and fantastic music and cinematography. While I still dont like horror (or dont gain joy from watching it), I have grown a grudging respect for it as a genre.

The Walking Dead: Inmates review

Inmates followed the ‘other groups’ being the first episode without Rick or Carl. I dont feel like the episode was a particularly memorable one other than for that. Carol is back as well, but anyone genuinely surprised by that should feel embarrassed. I feel like the walking dead, in this episode at least, has become stale and repetitive. Character development, with the exception or Carl and Rick,  hasnt happened much since season three and alot of characters have made reverse progress. Beth for instance is an incapable sobbing mess just when I thought the show had found a purpose for her as a surrogate mother. She travels with Daryl who has gone back to being an unfriendly recluse. I dont like to break the chronology of the episode in my reviews usually, but at the very end I felt the biggest sense of de ja vu. Glen and non discernible new chick run into a military vehicle full of tough, clean healthy looking men. Seargent something introduces himself with some lame excuse for a one liner, and it is so painstakingly obvious that hes just a second governor. Walking Dead, dont make yourself an ‘enemy of the season’ show; and if you do, try and make them a little different. Also having angry characters not talk for episodes and then violently lash out on a zombie has become something of a cliche now. I mean which character hasnt done that at least once?

Tyreese and the four most dispensable characters decide to travel together. (I wonder which group wont reach the others)

Back to present, the group with the most interesting dynamics is the Tyreese-Judith group. Tyreese drew a horrible short straw when he ended up escaping with a baby and two little girls to look after, only to be joined by Karens confessed (but not to Tyreese) killer. When Rick (or Maggie, or Daryl) tells Tyreese, one of Tyreese and Carol has to die. Carol has overlived her comic book character tenfold so a betting man would side with her dying. However there is a theory circulating that carol didnt kill Karen, but rather is covering up for Lizzie who is known to be a crazy borderline psychopath. (she enjoys torturing rats and bunnies, and shot down Alisha in the prison war).

Glenn and new girl hopefully wont become the next Andrea and Michonne, as the Seargent has become the next governor. I suppose that will become more clear next episode

The Walking Dead: after review

Carl tries to be a normal teenager.

The wait is over, and this returning episode focused primarily on Carl and the relationship he has with his father. This episode saw Rick and Carl struggle with the dynamic of a father-son relationship in a world where society has collapsed and lifestyles drastically shifted. Rick tries to tell Carl off for ‘normal things’ like swearing, backchatting and the like however this reprimanding feels pointless. Rick hasnt adapted socially to the new world, and learns to accept that protecting Carl from all danger is not a realistic practice and may prove to be more of a hindrance than a benefit. Carl has conflicted feelings; deciding he is ready to ‘move out’ and be an adult, whilst simultaneously trying to hold onto the childhood he never really had. A perfect example is when he walks into a teenagers bedroom; he looks happy and excited, seeing the way his life should have turned out. However, like the ‘stag moment’ in season two, his innocence and bliss is shattered. He rips out the console, using the cords to seal the door shut. Rick admits to Carls shock that life can never go back to the way it was; that was a stupid belief he held on to for Carl and Judith’s sake.

I am an enormous fan of Michonne, however despite her solo screentime I feel like I didnt learn much about her. Flashback/Hallucinations/God-knows-what show she had an infant son, a lover, and some odd third wheel who followed the young couple around everywhere, but the lack of dialogue, means that alot of this was just wasted airtime. Think of the potential; Daryl hunting Squirrels, Tyreese not dying in a spectacular and uncoordinated miracle, more Rick-Carl time…. the possibilities were endless.

Overall, I loved this episode alot. Carl is overdue for character development, especially given the shit he has been through as a child/teenager. I want to end this review with an open letter to Carl:

To Carl. 112 ounces of pudding is over 3 kg ($ of cocaine, to give you an idea of portions): like your life expectancy wasnt shit enough already without you developing morbid obesity, high cholestrol and diabetes. Also, for fucks sake, learn to shoot.

– Sincerely, Earth.