My Doctor Who Christmas Special and Twelfth Doctor Whishlist

Having just seen the Day of the Doctor, we are now without doctor who for about a month, and following that, several more. With all this spare time and anticipation to both Matt Smith's final episode and Peter Capaldi's debut as Twelve, I decided to come up with a few things that I want to see in the Christmas special and next series.

1. Mark Gatiss to write Matt Smith's final farewell and to take over as head writer for the next series- Despite Stephen Moffat being the head writer and the inevitability of him writing the Christmas special, I really do think that Gatiss is the superior writer and that he deals with the more emotional side of the Doctor far better. Not to mention that he is an actor himself and is therefore more likely to write a more convincing Doctor in Eleven's final moments.

2. Clara to stay on as the Doctor's companion after he regenerates - I'm not a big Clara fan. However, I do feel that it's important for a new Doctor to come into our lives with something familiar coming with him. I also feel that both the Doctor and his companions benefit from staying with each other after his regeneration because, in the past it has generally been the case that companions grow closer after seeing something as personal as a regeneration. I never particularly liked Rose as a character either, but I feel that after Nine regenerated into Ten, her relationship with the Doctor was much more interesting to watch.

3. Capaldi's Doctor to act like a grumpy old man - I was particularly excited when the BBC announced that Peter Capaldi would be playing the twelfth Doctor. I loved his performance as Malcolm Tucker in The Thick of It and In the Loop and that particular character was a very grumpy (and potty mouthed) Scotsman. I think that a grumpy, no nonsense Doctor would be so much fun to watch and would contrast excellently with Matt Smith's rather silly (but outstanding) performance.

So there you have it, my hopes and dreams for the near future of Doctor who. Happy anniversary, and here's to another 50 years!

Day of the Doctor - Review

Wow! Just wow!  As much as I have complained about Stephen Moffat in the past, one thing must be said in his defence: he certainly knows how to put on a show.

Day of the Doctor is a special episode of Doctor Who to celebrate the show’s 50^th anniversary. As an enormous fan of the series, I and all of my friends have been anticipating this episode since the first trailer was shown in July. I’m not going to bother warning you about spoilers in this review, because if you haven’t yet seen the episode and are reading this review first, I seriously doubt your sanity.

Before I talk about the many things I loved about Day of the Doctor, I’m going to have to wade through the sizable puddle of faults that the episode had.

Firstly, the plot of the episode was extraordinarily weak. Aside from all the exciting time war and past Doctor awesomeness, there was still around 45 minutes of boring zygon invasion storyline to sit through. As much as I love the zygons as monsters, I think that this was the wrong time to bring them back. Their only purpose was to facilitate a rather pretentious plot point about Gallifreyan art. Furthermore, the inclusion of Queen Elizabeth I was irritating and totally unnecessary. I’m sure Moffat could have come up with a much less annoying way of bringing the three Doctors together without reinforcing the illusion the David Tennant’s Doctor is only there to get the girls.

There were a few things that I was relieved about though. Firstly, I’m glad that they didn’t actually bring Rose back as Rose. As popular as she is, I never really liked Rose’s character and her eventual romantic relationship with the Doctor’s half human clone, and I think that bringing her back would have brought with her some unwanted baggage. I’m also relieved that Moffat didn’t completely change the show’s mythology as many of us were expecting (and dreading). I think that the way the Time Lords were saved was in excellent taste, as well as making Doctors 10 and War forget about the events of the episode, as having them remember would have been confusing and annoying in the long run.

This next paragraph concerns all the things that caused me to physically ‘nerd out’ on the sofa, so, what follows may be a little erratic and perhaps slightly confusing…

First of all, John Hurt’s performance as the War Doctor was enchanting. He was every bit as dramatic and mysterious as we’d hoped. Not only that, but he was also charming and funny and as curious as the Doctor should be. Secondly, the interactions between the three of them were fantastic. I loved how judgemental Tennant was of Smith and his characteristics. The best parts of the episode however, were all the bits of fan service that were thrown. There were perhaps too many to talk about all of them in one review so I will list my top five (in no particular order):

1. Tom Baker as the ‘Great Curator’.
2. Tennant’s TARDIS transforming into the current one.
3. 13 TARDISs!!!!!
4. The War Doctor’s Regeneration.
5. An appearance from Peter Capaldi as the 12^th Doctor.

I thoroughly enjoyed the Day of the Doctor, but not because of its story. It was a fun adventure with plenty of fan service and excitement along the way.

Scores:

Story – 5/10

Fan Service ∞/10

Time Lord Children Saved – 2.47 Billion

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire - Review

WARNING – MILD SPOILERS!

If I’m being completely honest, I wasn’t planning on going to see Catching Fire. I thought that the book, whilst having a good premise, was not written at all well. I had mixed feelings about the film adaptation of the first book, and was rather apathetic and not at all confident that Catching Fire would be any good, especially since they had to change directors from the first film. However, when my friends asked me to go and see the film with them, I decided that it couldn’t be that bad and went along with them.

I’m so glad that I did. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire was phenomenal. The new director brought so many improvements over the last film, not least the removal of shaky cam. One of my biggest gripes about the first film was the over use of shaky cam during action sequences to the point where it was hard to make out what was going on. To my relief, the use of this technique was practically non existent in the action scenes, which made the actual ‘hunger games’ section of the film so much more enjoyable.

The other element of the film which I think was handled better was the world outside of the games. Not only was this done better than in the previous film, but it was much more enjoyable than that part of the book. At the end of the first film, main characters; Katniss and Peeta, attempted to kill themselves rather than kill each other in the arena. But, rather than allowing them to do so, the game makers let them both live and have two victors. Unbeknownst to Katniss, her act of rebellion was seen by the other districts as a sign that they could rebel against the Capitol and win. The first part of the film deals with the aftermath of the first games and the methods the Capitol uses to quash the rebellion, much to the horror of Katniss and Peeta. This sequence is handled incredibly well in the sense that it was so much more emotionally involving and it really made me feel sorry for those who died or were punished for speaking out.

The film looks incredible too. The costume and set design looks exactly how you would expect it to from the way things are described in the book, and the CGI was impeccable. I especially enjoyed the design of the new arena. I won’t give away the secrets of the arena that made it so enjoyable, but I will say that it was really interesting and the many horrible things that the tributes have to go through inside it are very clever and serve not only to provide fun action scenes, but also to advance the story.

The games themselves take up the bulk of the film, and whilst I enjoyed the world building elements in the first half, the games are going to be the parts I will remember when I think about the film. As previously said, the arena was fascinating and the action was very exciting. I especially enjoyed the combat between tributes in this film since all of them were winners of previous Hunger Games. And the new characters that were introduced into the arena were far more memorable and fun to watch than those in the first film.

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire was amazing. In fact, I think it might be my favourite film of 2013, only perhaps coming second to Iron Man 3. The Hunger Games is one of very few franchises that actually improve, not only from the first film to the second, but also from book to film, and I’m very much looking forward to the two part final chapter of this series.

9/10

Hiatus and what's to come

So I had all these big plans for this blog. I posted a review schedule and I was determined to stick to it. But I've been very busy recently with exams etc. and I've had next to no time for reviews.

My plan now is to carry on writing reviews, but they will be far less frequent.

What's to come:
- Day of the Doctor (50th anniversary episode) - Review
- I have pre-ordered a Playstation 4 and will be giving both my impressions of the console itself and any games I purchase with the system.

This is only a rough plan and may not happen exactly as expected but I hope to deliver these reviews before the end of 2013.

The Walking Dead Season 4 Premier - Review

Season four of The Walking Dead had a really excellent premier. It made the walkers feel scary again after their almost non existent threat towards the end of last season, and it put us in a place where I honestly can’t imagine all of the immensely exciting things that could happen this series.

After the attack by the Governor on his own people, Rick and the survivors have welcomed the remaining survivors from Woodberry into the prison. The group is much larger now and it gives us several new and interesting characters who we will undoubtedly end up loving before the creators of the show decide that they will die horribly and tear our hearts out in the process. One of these new characters is former army doctor, Bob Stookey. He is going to be a main character this season and from what we saw of him this week, seems to have some exciting secrets that will unfold throughout the season.

The returning main characters have gone through some changes since season three. Rick seems to be turning into a little bit of a pacifist. He has taken the responsibility of farming the land and appears reluctant to take responsibility as a leader, a job that has fallen to Daryl and Hershel. This is an interesting change for Rick and I think that this change is possibly just the next step in Rick’s slow descent into madness in the wake of all the awful things he’s had to do, an issue which was directly addressed this episode. Carol has also changed. She is probably the most developed character in the series. She has changed from the always terrified, abused wife and mother from season one into a hardened, brave and confident survivor at the start of season four. This is a change that I really enjoyed; one of my favourite scenes from the premier was a scene in which Carol was showing the larger group of children in the group how to wield a knife. This was a scene that really highlighted how much Carol has changed from season one.

Carl is also a changed character. In the premier we see him struggle to work out whether he is a child or an adult. His confliction is really interesting to watch as he shows such delight when Michonne brings him new comics and yet he wants to help his dad secure the prison and gets really angry with the other kids when they start naming the walkers. Last season Carl killed a man in cold blood, and it is strange to see him not affected by it at all now. He still wants to help and fight, and from the brief trailer at the end of the episode, it seems that he is going to further struggle with morally grey situations this season.

My favourite scene in this episode was a run that Daryl took a few people on to a Costco like shop to gather supplies. This scene alone made me actually scared of the walkers for the first time since season two. The suspense was really intense and the walkers dropping through the ceiling one by one was a really scary situation.

I loved this episode. The Walking Dead is my favourite show on television at the moment and the first episode of season four did not disappoint. I honestly can’t think of a single thing that happened that I didn’t like or at least understand why they included it. I continue to be impressed by the production quality and the high calibre of acting that TWD has to offer.

10/10

Grey's Anatomy Episode 200 Audio Review

9/10

Unfortunately, I did not have enough time this weekend to review episode six of Legend of Korra. Hopefully I will have time next week and to review Walking Dead tomorrow.

Arrow Season 2 Premier - Review

Arrow is without a doubt in my opinion, the best superhero comic based T.V. show around. Unlike Smallvile, which had a very over the top feel to it (which isn’t necessarily a bad thing for a series about Superman), Arrow is very grounded in realism despite being a series about a man who dresses up in green leather and a hood and goes around shooting arrows at criminals. Season one was really enjoyable. The vast majority if the characters were interesting and well developed throughout the series, and the story, whilst having its occasional weak points, was exciting, dramatic and full of emotion. The finale was full of action suspense and drama. It also left us at a great position to start season two.

Episode one of season two entitled “City of Heroes”, was just as exciting. It picks up five months after the events of season one which was a great decision seeing as having to start watching straight after the earthquake would probably have felt a little forced in terms of how much action they try and fit into an episode. The plot for this episode was very simple, which turned out to be a very good thing. Oliver returns to starling city after having returned to the island for five months in order to get away from the guilt he felt. On his return he finds four copycat vigilantes who have been murdering city officials and are now targeting the Queen family.

However, the most interesting aspect of the episode is seeing Oliver having to step up to run his family’s company. Queen Consolidated is going bankrupt and Isabel Rochev (a business woman played by Firefly’s Summer Glau) is about to buy it out. It was really interesting to see Oliver finally become as serious in the public eye as he is as the Hood.

As ever the acting in Arrow was great. Stephen Amell does a great job as Oliver, managing to show the emotional stress he feels upon his return to the city, but Emily Bett Rickards who plays Felicity is by far the most entertaining to watch. She has some really hilarious moments and pulls them off flawlessly.

As well is Isable Rochev, episode one introduces a mysterious new character at the end of the episode. Black Canary has finally been brought into the picture and I’m really interested to see what they will do with her especially since they are bring superhuman abilities into a series which prides itself in being as realistic as a superhero show can be.

Overall, I loved this episode. It sets up the rest of the series very well and I’m excited to se where they go with it.



9/10

New Review Schedule

A quick update - From now on I will not be reviewing Agents of Shield on a weekly basis. Instead I will be doing one overall review at the end of the season and my new weekly review will be of the Walking Dead.

The purpose of this change is to give myself more time between reviews. I will also be reviewing Arrow later this month and I want to be able to have a couple of consecutive days when I'm not writing.

Here is a rough timetable of my reviews:

Monday: Walking Dead (as of 14/10/13)
Thursday: Arrow (As of 10/10/13)
Friday: Grey's Anatomy
Saturday/Sunday: Legend of Korra

I also plan on writing a full series review of How I Met Your Mother when the series finishes for good later this year, and I will be writing reviews of any new films I see or particularly good games and comics.

If you like my blog, please leave comments with your opinions. I would love to hear them.

Legend of Korra Book 2 Episode 5 Review

I’m so happy to see that with each episode of Book 2 there is improvement. Episode five had some very strong aspects to it that have been a little absent in the past few episodes. There were a few weak points, but these were not major enough to ruin the episode and are problems that can be easily corrected and will hopefully be addressed.

Episode five saw Korra and friends arriving back in republic city in order to find allies to help fight off the Northern Water Tribe forces. One of the issues I’ve had over the past few weeks is the lack of Lin Beifong in the series. However, this week we saw her again, if briefly. And as usual, every scene that features Lin is enjoyable. I’ve also realised that Bolin is no longer the most humorous character on the show. It seems he has been knocked off the top spot by new-comer Varrick, whose hilarious brain storm scene was my personal highlight of the episode.

One of my favourite additions to Legend of Korra in season two is that of Eska and Deska. In this episode, the terror twins were particularly interesting. After the traumatic incident of Bolin leaving her, Eska has gone crazy, and I have to say, super crazy angry Eska is just as entertaining as emotionless yet entertainingly witty Eska. These two further helped this episode by providing the best fight scene yet this season. I really enjoy fights involving water benders. Water bending has the best animation second only to earth. I was however, disappointed when this well animated fight was interrupted by a giant dark spirit.

Their return was inevitable. As mentioned in previous reviews, I do not like spirit fights. They are not entertaining and the benders seem so futile against them not to mention that the only way they can end is if someone knows how to use ‘spirit bending’. I certainly hope that the series writers have something interesting planned concerning the spirits since their story has, for me, taken a back seat to Tenzin’s.

Speaking of Tenzin, this week we saw him helping his young son Meelo to train a friendly lemur in the southern air temple. It would seem that Meelo has a talent for training things as he managed to train an entire fleet of lemurs to fly in formation. This was perhaps my favourite segment of the episode. I find Tenzin’s family life and his parenting difficulties to be endearing and interesting to watch. Tenzin is probably the most developed character so far this season and his story really helps to create a fully formed world in which all of these characters live.

Overall, episode five was very enjoyable and possibly the best episode so far this series. I’m certain at this point that Book 2 is definitely improving episode by episode. I can only hope that the spirit storyline gets more interesting and that Korra developes a little more. It is unfortunate that the main character of the series can be so unlikeable.

8.5/10

Grey's Anatomy Season 10 Episode 3 Review

There has certainly been an improvement from the first two episodes to this one. Most of the gripes that I have are no longer existent barring one or two, and the ideas that this episode introduces set up some interesting plot points for the rest of the series.

Most importantly, the over dramatic feel of the premier has been toned down an awful lot, allowing more focus on the individual characters and their stories rather than a huge traumatic event. I feel that these events such as the plane crash and the shooting are entertaining and engrossing, but they also detract from one of the best things about Grey’s Anatomy: The characters. When the pace of the episodes begin to slow down, the quality of story telling increases as we get to see how the individual characters are growing and developing. What I loved about the season nine finale that sets it apart from the others is that despite the huge raging storm and it’s affect on the hospital, the pace was slow enough to focus on the individual dramas of the characters. Pacing was the premier’s biggest issue. Despite having two hours to spend, they decided to focus on the storm and the big trauma surrounding Brooks and Webber. Even though Grey’s is a show about surgery, it’s biggest strength lies in the relationships between characters, which is why episode three was such a vast improvement.

In this episode we got to see how Callie was really reacting to Arizona’s betrayal and this played out really well over the course of the episode. It’s in traumatic moments in Callie’s personal life that Sara Ramirez really shows her skills as an actor. There was a really great moment towards the end of the episode where Callie and Arizona are standing outside a couple’s therapy office and Callie explains how she really feels about there relationship and for a moment I seriously did think that things would work out between the two. But of course it didn’t come of anything because we know how much Shonda Rhimes likes to torture her characters in order to bring out the best in them.

Another great aspect of this episode was Webber’s story. We saw the beginning of his recovery and his motives for putting Meredith down as his family member. It was really interesting to see how different his character was after being electrocuted. He was more aggressive and less careful about what he said. His conversation with Meredith at the end of the episode was really emotional and left me wondering what the future of their relationship would be and whether or not he would be in the picture for much longer considering how he hostile he has been to the rest of the characters in recent seasons.

Unfortunately, I still had a few issues with this week’s episode. The first, once again, being the soundtrack. It really irritates me that the music they have chosen to accompany the scenes rarely represents what is going on in them. It really took me out of the experience. When I watch a television show, I don’t want to feel like that’s what I’m doing. I want to feel like I’m there with the characters experiencing everything with them. When I hear upbeat hip hop music during an important heartfelt moment it takes me out of it. The other issue I had is the way that they are trying too hard to further include the interns in the story. Especially Leah who is way past annoying and is also completely irrelevant.

Thankfully season ten episode three was very enjoyable. Not only was it better than the premier, but it set up the rest of what looks to be a great series. It was by no means perfect, but it was a great episode all the same.

7.8/10

Legend of Korra Book 2 Episode 4 Review

I thought I would try something a little different this time. Here is an audio review of Legend of Korra Book 2 Episode 4.

8.5/10

Grey's Anatomy Season 10 - Premier Review

I’m going to be blunt. I did not enjoy the season 10 premier of Grey’s Anatomy. I feel like there was a lot of overacting and dangerously high levels of cheese. Everything felt a little forced and very predictable. As much as I love this show, I’m not confident that the series is progressing in the way that it should. I won’t say that I hated the episode, but there were so many things that could have been done better. I sincerely hope that the rest of the series gets better because I really don’t want to see one of my favourite series feel like it has been on too long.

If nothing else, this is one of the most drama filled season premiers in the show’s history. It deals with the aftermath of the storm and we get to see how the Doctors of Grey Sloan recover from it. However, they still have to deal with further problems that the storm has caused, the most pressing of which being the electrocution of both Dr. Webber and Dr. Brooks. This leads me to my first problem: The overacting.

One particular scene sticks out in my mind, it’s a scene where Bailey is asked to reassure Christina while she is treating Webber, and both Chandra Wilson (Miranda Bailey) and Sandra Oh (Christina Yang) were being way too over dramatic for me to take them seriously.

This wasn’t my biggest issue with the episode though. One of my favourite things about the last nine seasons of Grey’s was the soundtrack. It was understated and the music always fit the mood. Unfortunately, it would seem that they have changed the music, and not for the better. Instead of the classic MerDer theme we’re all used to hearing during a tense moment, we get more upbeat music that really breaks the mood.

I really enjoyed some elements of the episode though. The first being the way they dealt with the Calzona break up. I love the way that Sara Ramirez and Jessica Capshaw act together, even when they are at odds with each other. Some of my favourite Calzona scenes are when they are fighting, and last season was a gold mine of that. Season 10 seams to promise more heart wrenching fight scenes between the two.

I also loved the way they dealt with Heather’s death and how that brought the interns together. Despite my initial opinion of the new interns, I really think they fit in well with the rest of the cast and I think the show would be a lot less interesting without them. Especially Camilla Luddington (Jo Wilson) as I think that her character is just what was needed in order to fully develop Alex’s character. I have very high hopes for those two characters this season and I hope that Shonda explores their relationship thoroughly in season 10.

The premier for season 10 of Grey’s Anatomy wasn’t brilliant. But, Shonda and the rest of the Grey’s team always pull it together in the end and I expect it will be no different this time around.

6.5/10

Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D - Pilot Review

COULSON LIVES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

When I heard that ABC was creating a television show about S.H.I.E.L.D, I was excited. When I found out that it would star Clark Gregg as Agent Coulson and would be produced by Joss Whedon, I was ecstatic. And to top it all off, the series would be taking place after the events of The Avengers meaning that Coulson survived! This combination of announcements led me to believe that this new series would be the best comic based television show of all time.

I was not disappointed... too much.

I loved the pilot episode of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D (which I shall now be referring to as AoS so that I don’t have to type out all of those full stops). The episode had just the right balance of action, suspense and humour to keep me invested in the characters and both curious and excited about what would happen next.

One of the things that I was most worried about going in was whether or not the production levels would be high enough to make a series set in the Marvel Universe work. Thankfully, everything was sleek and high-tech enough to make everything seem as realistic as possible without forgetting that this is series is being incorporated into the Marvel cinematic universe and needs to still feel like a superhero film to some extent.

There were a couple of disappointments though. Firstly, Coulson was about the only character that I cared about during the episode. He is the same guy we remember from The Avengers and that is why we like him. The other characters were pretty forgettable, and the likelihood is, that I won’t remember their names or faces from one week to the next. The other thing that bugged me was that the villain of the episode was so boring. His story was unoriginal and predictable to the point of disbelief.

The action sequences however, were well thought out and very entertaining, yet they weren’t thrown in your face to fill up screen time (I’m looking at you Man of Steel). The script was great - par the conversations including the two scientists on the team – and the parts that were meant to be funny, were in most cases. I particularly enjoyed as certain ‘poop joke’ made by Clark Gregg early on in the episode.

Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D is an interesting spinoff from the cinematic universe and certainly shows potential in becoming a great series. All it needs to do is throw in some character development.

7/10

Why Treasure Planet is an Underappreciated Masterpiece

Treasure Planet is my favourite film of all time. However, my extraordinarily high opinion of it is not shared by many others. Described by A. O. Scott of The New York Times as "not much of a movie at all" and a "brainless, mechanical picture", many have asked me why I love this film so much. I am here today to offer an answer to that question. Here are the top five reasons why I think that Treasure Planet is an underappreciated masterpiece:

1.      The Story – Treasure Planet is based on Robert Louis Stevenson's brilliant pirate novel Treasure Island, so the story is pretty self explanatory. Jim Hawkins is the troublesome only child of single mother and land lady Sarah Hawkins who sets out on a ship full of pirates (unknown to him) to find the fabled Treasure Planet. Treasure Island is one of my favourite stories, and you can’t go wrong with one of the best loved novels of all time. What is so refreshing about this film is that it is a Disney movie in which the most important relationship is not a romantic one, but one between a fatherless boy and a stranger who becomes a father figure, and this relationship is absolutely delightful to watch unfold. What gives this version of the story an edge is its style. The two things I love most in a story are pirates and space. This film combines the two seamlessly, without tarnishing the work of Robert Louis Stevenson.

2.      The Visuals – If one thing can be said for Disney, is that they know how to do animation. The art style in Treasure Planet combines old and new in two very important ways. The first of which being that the artists operated on what Disney call the “70/30 Law”. What this means is that 70 percent of the art is traditional (e.g. Pirate galleons and rickety wooden inns) and 30 percent Sci-Fi. This is balanced exceptionally well and it gives the world a very endearing look that keeps bringing me back to watch it over and over and over…

The second way is that they used a similar principal to balance traditional hand drawn art with CGI, creating astoundingly beautiful scenery with intricate detailing abound.

3.      The Voice Acting – What truly amazes me about the standard of voice acting in this film is how it can be so fantastic despite the fact that only one of the main characters is voiced by an experienced voice actor. Yes Emma Thompson (Captain Amelia) and Joseph Gordon-Levit (Jim Hawkins) are great actors, but neither of them had any voice acting experience prior to recording this film. It’s astonishing how they can convey so many things without the audience ever seeing their faces. By far my favourite performance in this film is that of Brian Murray (John Silver). His exchanges with Jim are some of the most beautiful scenes in the film.

4.      The Soundtrack – Once again Disney employs the “70/30 Law” with Treasure Planet’s soundtrack. 70 percent of the film is accompanied by the beautiful bluegrass style score by James Newton Howard (whose work you may have heard in Atlantis: The Lost Empire and Disney’s Dinosaur). The score is complemented by two more modern songs by John Rzeznik, one of which (I’m Still Here) is the back drop for one of the most meaningful scenes in the entire film.

5.   Morph -

                     

      Need I say more?

Avatar: The Legend of Korra Book Two - Episode 3 Review

Last week’s episode of Legend of Korra was a little disappointing for me, but it left me hopeful that the rest of the season would be better. This week’s episode entitled “Civil Wars Part I” showed me that I was right to be hopeful.

I thoroughly enjoyed episode three. Many of the problems that I had with the first two episodes were not present this time around. For example, there were no spirit battles this week. All the action was focused around the Northern Water Tribe’s conflict with the South. This resulted in a lack of action all together, allowing the episode to focus on some of the series’ stronger points.

The focal point of episode three was the Southern Water Tribe reacting to the Northern invasion, and Korra’s attempts to stay neutral and prevent the outbreak of civil war. Despite the fact that Korra is now able to bend all four elements, this is the first time she has ever felt like the avatar. In the past Korra has usually been the source of conflict, but on this occasion she is the one trying to resolve the conflict before it worsens. It seems that the show’s creators were saving the moment when Korra’s character development would kick in until this episode.

Another great thing about this episode was that we got to see more of Tenzin’s relationship with his family and we learned of what Aang was like as a father. This was perhaps my favourite part of the episode, because the writers were doing what they do best: creating and expanding an extraordinary universe. I’d like to point out at this point that I love Lisa Edelstein’s voice acting as Tenzin’s sister Kya. She seems very sincere and her character was one of my favourites this episode. Unfortunately, all of the great character revelation here was put in the back seat to a less intriguing story element, meaning that we didn’t get all that much of it.

There only a few complaints this time. Firstly, Unalaq is still a terrible character and hasn’t become any more convincing despite the fact that he is so obviously the villain of the story. Secondly, there were two things missing from this episode that left some holes in the plot. The main one was Jinora’s storyline that was so interesting from last episode. Towards the end of the season premier, Jinora was seen exploring the hall of statues in the air temple. She found a strange looking statue of whom we can only assume is the first avatar. But at the beginning of episode three, we see Jinora after this event with no explanation as to what the statue was. The other thing missing was Asami. We know from the last episode that she is still in the Southern Water Tribe, yet we don’t see her at all in this episode.

Overall, I loved “Civil Wars Part I”. It really feels as if the series is getting back on track. And with eleven episodes left, I have a feeling that it will be a really great one.

8.5/10  

Avatar: The Legend of Korra Book 2 - Episodes 1 and 2 Review

Last year’s Avatar: The Legend of Korra is one of my favourite animated T.V. shows, and I was incredibly excited for the release of book two. The first two episodes of this series had their ups and downs, but overall, left me hopeful for the rest of this season to be great.

As usual, Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko have done an excellent job introducing their audience to the beautiful world they have created. Book two takes place six months after the events of book one the scene is set pretty well. Bolin has put the Fire Ferrets back together (minus Mako and Korra), Mako has joined the police and is working towards becoming a detective, Asami is running Future Industries and Korra is still practicing her air bending with Tenzin who is planning a trip to the four air temples to help Korra with her spiritual training.

Unfortunately, despite everything she went through in book one, Korra has had next to no character development, meaning that she is still a hot-headed, impatient and selfish character who has no time for anyone else. This is particularly frustrating considering as it seems that the lack of character development is to server the purpose of moving the main plot in the direction that the writers want it to go. What this means is that the start of book two is way too similar to that of book one which makes the story telling feel very lazy.

This laziness is further shown in the presentation of Korra’s uncle Unalaq. Unalaq is the chief of the Nothern Water Tribe who is visiting the Southern Water Tribe for the spirit festival. Korra and friends are also visiting the Southern Water Tribe at this time. Almost immediately, Unalaq seems very similar to one of last season’s villains: Tarrlok, not least because they look very similar. But the strained relationship he has with his brother, his cold demeanour and mysterious form of water bending he uses later in the episode shows just how lazy the story telling really is.

Despite the lack of original ideas, the hour long season premier is still very enjoyable. For a start, the animation as perhaps even better, than that of book one. The dark spirits are beautifully drawn and the fight scenes that include them are very pretty despite the fact that action scenes in the Avatar universe are much more entertaining when humans are fighting each other. I feel that the fighting scenes have much more depth when two benders are locked in combat.

Also enjoyable, was the high calibre of voice acting. Pretty much the entire cast of season one, (barring characters like Amon, Tarrlok and Mr Sato) reprise their roles for book two. The only let down in this aspect, is that Lin Beifong is not featured at all in the season premier. Lin was one of my favourite characters from book one and it seems pretty unlikely that she will appear much this season.

Despite all the letdowns, there are a couple of things that leave me hopeful that the rest of this season will be good. Firstly, Jinora’s story is very intriguing and I am excited to see where they are going with it. It seems pretty likely that Jinora and Korra’s stories will come together at some point and this is exciting.

The other thing that peaks my interest, is the parallels between the Northern Water Tribe invasion at the end of episode two and the 100 year war with the fire nation. This seems to be a good way of giving Korra some character development this series and sewing the seeds for a wider story that may extend into next season.

Overall, I really enjoyed the start of book two and I’m excited to see where the series will go. There were a few weak points, but not enough to ruin the experience.

8/10

Gone Home Review

Gone Home is an adventure game developed by The Fullbright Company that is entirely focused around story. All the game play elements in this game are centred on piecing together the next part of the story. The way in which this is presented is so interesting and different from anything I’ve ever played. To say that this game is good is a disservice to the developers. Gone Home is an example of what the gaming industry needs and why indie gaming has come so far in recent years.

Gone Home’s story starts with Kaitlin Greenbriar who returns from a trip around Europe to her family’s new home to find the house empty and a note on the door from her younger sister, Sam, telling her not to look for answers as to her location. Obviously, the next logical step for Kaitlin is to search the empty house for clues to find out what happened. Sam’s story is one of the most beautiful, heart-warming and endearingly human tales in gaming. It is so unique in the fact that the game play is only there to compliment the telling of this tale, and strangely, it doesn’t at all bother me. In fact, I wouldn’t have it any other way.

As Kaitlin, you spend your time in the game exploring the house and finding little pieces of Sam’s life scattered around through which her story is told. When you find a key item, you hear an extract from Sam’s journal explaining the next chapter in her life. The voice actor who plays Sam does an outstanding job of conveying her emotions and the things that she is going through. But, the story isn’t just about Sam. While exploring, you find out about Sam’s parents and friends whose stories are also intricate and dramatic but in a beautifully subtle way that allows you to be interested without detracting from the main story.

The house itself is designed so well and the flickering lights and dark shadowy areas of the family home create an eerie yet warm atmosphere that sets the mood of the game perfectly. One of the great things about this game is that

It doesn’t treat you like an idiot or hold your hand. If you don’t spend enough time exploring, you’re not going to experience the whole story. You can’t finish the game without finding out most of Sam’s story, but there are many elements to it that are easy to miss if you weren’t paying attention. What this means is that you have to truly invest to get the most meaningful experience out of the game, and in no way is this a bad thing.

Gone Home is one of the most meaningful and fulfilling games I have ever played. It is a must play for anyone looking for a great story in a video game, or, just a great story in general.

10/10

Star Trek: Into Darkness - Review

WARNING – THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS

Star Trek: Into Darkness is the latest in the new Star Trek reboot series directed by JJ Abrams. The first in the series, Star Trek, is still one of my favourite films of all time.

I went into the cinema with high hopes for the sequel, especially since the cast is so star-studded. Returning actors Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto (Kirk and Spock) reprise their roles excellently and their characters’ relationship is once again one of the many highlights of the film. Also reprising his role is Simon Pegg (Scotty). Pegg’s character plays a much larger role in this film and I am certainly glad that he does since a huge amount the humour in this film comes from him. I also enjoyed Leonard Nemoy’s cameo as future Spock. Although, the main appeal of this film’s cast is the addition of Benedict Cumberbatch as the main villain – Khan.

The only real problem I had with the first Star Trek film was that the villain was so bland and uninteresting to the point where I didn’t care at all about his story. It takes some really bad writing and casting to make someone completely indifferent to the extinction of an entire race of sentient beings. But with Cumberbatch it’s a completely different story. Khan’s story is moving and compelling. It almost makes you want him to achieve his villainous goals if not for the amount of murder he commits throughout the course of the film.

Into Darkness is full of really great moments like heart warming scenes such as when Kirk ‘dies’ with Spock by his side, as well as adrenaline pumping action scenes like when Spock is chasing Khan through a bustling city in the wake of Admiral Marcus’ giant war ship crashing to Earth. However, there were a few moments that were rather uncharacteristic of Star Trek as a franchise and of the characters those moments involved. An example of this would be Spock’s “KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN” moment. As much as I love Zachary Quinto’s portrayal of Spock, I could never imagine Leonard Nemoy reacting quite like that.

Star Trek’s visuals are breathtaking. However much people whinge about the over use of lens flares in films by Abrams, it really does suite the sci-fi universe of Star Trek. The designs of classic elements of the original series we all know and love, such as the USS Enterprise, have been done exceedingly well, and as the friend with whom I saw the film correctly said “the space pictures were EPIC”.

I simply can’t talk about Star Trek: Into Darkness without mentioning the music. Michael Giacchino’s score is one of my favourites in any film. Every great moment in this film is brought to life by just the right piece of music for the occasion, and the main theme, ‘Enterprising Young Men’ is still without a doubt one of the best themes for an action film to date.

There is so much more that I could say about this film to show how amazing it truly was, but if I were to say all of it then this review would be way too long for anyone to bother reading. I definitely feel that this film is the best action film of the year so far, even surpassing Iron Man 3. I would definitely recommend this film and I am intending on going to see it again before it leaves cinemas.

8.8/10

Welcome

This website is dedicated to giving a reliable opinion on many films, television programs and games . Enjoy your stay and feel free to look around.