Insurgent - Overraskande

Den populære sjangeren post-apocalyptisk tenåringsdrama ser ikkje ut til å gå på tomgong heilt enda. Kvart år kjem det ny film i ein allereie populær serie og iallfall ein ny film som prøver på det same. Det dei alle har til felles er at dei er basert på populære bøker om unge mennesker som lever i onde verder. "Insurgent" er ein av dei som er oppfølgjer, og er heldig nok til å ha fleire av dei mest lovande og populære skodespelarene med seg på laget. Men koss er den samenlikna med "Divergent" som var hakket over berre grei?

Overraskande bra, må eg ærleg talt seia. Som sagt var den førre litt meir enn heilt grei, men ikkje med mykje. Den var god nok for meg til å ville sjå kva som hendte vidare, men eg kan vel ikkje seia at eg har tenkt på den eit sekund sida kvelden eg fyrst såg den for eit år sida. "Insurgent" byggjar bra på det som "Divergent" allereie har etablert, til det punktet at det nesten verkar som ein eigen film. For denne filmen er så annleis som det går an å bli frå "Divergent" mens den enda kan dele same sjanger, kjensla, og univers. Me har ikkje lenge sjenerte og uvante Tris, me har Tris som får fart på ting. Tris som veit kva som må bli gjort, og gjerne gjer det så fort som mogleg. Kjæresteforhaldet frå førre film tar ikkje berre andre rad, det havner langt bak mot bakerst i salen. Me får nok til å forstå at dei enda er kjærestar, men ikkje noko forbi det. Dette er ikkje ein kjærleikshistorie.

Det er vel det som er den største fordelen denne filmserien har over den største konkurrenten "The Hunger Games". Som ein som likar båe bøkane og filmane veldig godt, kan det der fort bli gamalt når me heile tida må følgje med på kven det er Katniss er glad i av Peeta og Gale, nett som med Bella, Edward, og Jacob. Dog klarer ikkje "Insurgent" å matche dramatikken i actionscenane på same måte som "Catching Fire" eller "Mockingjay Pt. 1", men den prøvar heller ikkje så veldig mykje på det. "Insurgent". Fokuset i filmen ligg åleine på Tris og koss skal kome seg dit ho treng å vera. Det skjer gjennom nokre få, kraftige, actionscenar, men for det meste lengre gjennom dramascenar.

Alt i alt er dette ein veldig lovandes film som byggjar opp mot enda større oppfølgjare, men den er ikkje heilt på nivået med "The Hunger Games" og "Harry Potter" som den klart blir samenlikna mot. Filmen er dog faktisk så underhaldande og spennande at eg ved filmens slutt trudde me så vidt var kome halvvegs. Ikkje fordi historia slutta brått, men fordi tida hadde gått så fort. Viss du allereie likar filmar som dei nevnde over, eller til og med "The Maze Runner", så kjem du til å like denne. Men ikkje forvent at det er noko du kjem til å snakke om i lange tidar framover.

Chappie - Grei underhaldning

Eg ville veldig gjerne seia enten at "Chappie" var crappie, eller at den gjorde meg veldig happie, men verken eller er sant. Det er ein heilt midt-på-treet film som verken fortener slakten eller skryten den får. Hadde det ikkje vore for at regissøren etterkvart er blitt nisjekjendis blant vitsjonfans for "District 9" hadde den filmen blitt mottatt mykje meir lunkent.

"Chappie" er satt til Johannesburg og viser ein by så oppslukt av kriminalitet at robotar blir satt inn som politistyrke. Me følgjer nokre ansatte frå firmaet som lagar robotane pluss nokre småkriminelle med planar om større brekk. Chappie sjølv blir til når ingeniøren Deon installerer eit eksperimentelt AI-program (kunstig intelligens) på ein øydelagt politirobot, men Deon får ikkje behalde ham då dei småkriminelle har planar om å bruke ham til å foreta ran av pengebil.

Konseptet må eg seia er ganske kult, og relativt bra gjennomført der kor det teller mest. Å sjå Chappie lære seg kva det er å vera i live frå sør-afrikanske gangstere er smått fantastisk. Han lærer seg å gå som dei, snakke som dei, elske dei, men aldri heilt å vera som dei. Deon smett innom frå tid til tid når han kan, håpande på at han kan få Chappie til å bli eit vidunderbarn av dikt, maleri, og sang, men Chappie vil heller vera litt meir som dei kriminelle. Med unntak av faktisk kriminalitet.

Der filmen fall samen er på skodespel, manus, og effektar. Animatørane har gjort god jobb på Chappie (for det er faktisk animatørar, og ikkje motion capture-artistar som står bak) og Sharlto Copley får mykje fram med stemma si, men dei andre er langt frå så gode. Mykje er berre overdramatisert, til tidar verker det som om folka i filmen kan enten berre skrike eller hviske. Historien slik den spelar ut er heller ikkje fantastisk, og dialogen som følgjer er heller ikkje mykje å skryte av. Som eg sa, konseptet er kult, men dei kunne brukt meir tid på å faktisk få vist koss Chappie går frå punkt ein til punkt to. Det er relativt humpete slik det er, og av og til forandrer han seg litt vel mykje, litt vel kjapt.

Alt i alt så er dette ein fin film å sjå på Netflix ein kveld, men du treng ikkje å gå på kino for å sjå den. Sjølve roboten Chappie er den einaste som er verdt å sjå, men det kan vente på seg for det er ikkje noko banebrytande.

Aftershocks - Fullt tilbake

"Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." er tilbake for fullt etter ein lang juleferie som sluttet på eit ekstremt spennende punkt. "MAOS" er kanskje enda mest kjent for å vera nokså treige til å kome i gong, og heller keisamt i lengda, men her bevisar dei at det er fjernsyn som er den mest spennende utposten for Marvels filma univers nett no.

I denne episoden hoppar me noko fram i tid frå i fjor. "What They Become" slutta med døden til sesongens dittil hovudskurk, Skye sine nye kreftar, og Trips død. "Aftershocks" bryr seg ikkje med å handtere den direkte ettermatten men går heller fram til når det er litt meir spennende, etter karakterene har hatt litt tid til å rydde opp etter all faenskapen. Skye er låst i eit glassbur for frykt av smittande utanomjordisk virus, Simmons ryddar opp den underjordiske byen og klargjer for oversvømming, Fitz slit med å fikse Skyes biometriske klokke, og Mack slit med alt som skjedde mens han var påverka av kva enn det var som fekk ham til å angripe sitt eiga lag.

Ein av dei verste og beste delane av denne episoden er at den berre byrjar "midt i", me får ikkje egenleg vite at dette er ei lita stund etter førre episode, og i nokre minutt verkar det nesten som at det har vore fleire vekar eller månedar. Eg likar det fordi me slipper den ganske vanlege catch-up-episoden som mange serier med midtsesongsfinaler har, den kor dei går gjennom heile sesongen opp til no og med får ikkje vite noko nytt før mot slutten. Her held det med ein kjapp recap av førre episode, etterfulgt av meir naturleg dialog som visar til kva som har skjedd opp til no.

Men min favoritting med episoden er at dei ikkje er redd for å bli rare. Serien har fått god tid til å modne seg etter halvanna sesong. Me har sett haugevis med filmar satt i same univers, me veit at det er ein rar verd, og no får me sjå den óg i "MAOS". Raina er no fullt mutant, med alle dei rare protesene som følgjer. Torner på hode og hendar, grøn hud, augelinsar, heile sulamitten som kven som helst kjent med fjernsynsvitsjon som "Stargate SG-1" og "Babylon 5" er godt kjente med.

Marvel har endeleg tatt det store spranget med seriane sine. Med "MAOS" i primetime på nettverksfjernsyn, "Agent Carter" i juleferien, og om ein måneds tid kjem óg "Daredevil" på Netflix som seinare óg får partnerseriar. DC har lenge eid fjernsynsmarkedet for superheltar, men no er det ikkje lenge før Marvel tar over alt her óg, og det passer meg heilt fint.

Jupiter Ascending - YEAH!

It seems that every year there's some giant science fantasy type film that I just end up adoring a lot more than everyone else. "Green Lantern", "John Carter", "Cloud Atlas", "Snowpiercer", and now "Jupiter Ascending".

I am not going to lie. Even though it wouldn't surprise me even a little if this popped up on my top 10 of 2015 list in January, it's not a good-good film. There are a lot of things wrong with it, but it is insanely fun. There isn't a single dull moment in over two hours, which is an amazing accomplishment. I found myself actually thinking it was a bit rushed sometimes, but that could be just because I've gotten so used to films spending far too much time on so little recently. From start to finish this film is on its feet, running around showing you as much of its universe as it can. Which it does magnificently. You really get a sense of scale, even though they actually show you very little of the giant universe they talk about.

The visuals are stunning. They aren't great in the same way that the visuals of "Gravity" and "Interstellar" are great, but they have a feel to them. They add to the universe they are in, instead of just adhering to it. We get a handful of different types of aliens, some worlds, a lot of ships, and of course downtown Chicago.

The bad parts of this film are mostly due to the acting and dialogue. Sometimes it just gets too cheesy, even for a film about an alien wolfman who comes to save the human beequeen. The love subplot between Jupiter (Mila Kunis) and Caine (Channing Tatum) feels so forced that not even the characters themselves feel like it's right. It just pops up here and there and makes the characters behave wildly different from how they do otherwise in the film. Suddenly they talk only in riddles and metaphors, and Jupiter becomes totally uninterested in the amazing situation she has gotten herself into. Which leads me to the second thing that is a bit offputting in hindsight, but not so much when you're watching it. The sense of time. Looking back, it feels as if the entire film took place over just a few hours. Maybe a day. But it is very evident by the film that more time has taken place. They have made the story so efficient, cutting so many unnecessary things, that they've completely forgotten that often the unimportant things in films are there just to make time go. Both for the audience, and the characters.

All in all I truly adore this film. I love everything it's trying to be, and I love everything it actually is. But I am a huge sucker for science fantasy film, big space operas with a lot of aliens and interplanetary politics are just my cup of tea. I would have been surprised if I hadn't liked it. If you feel like what I've talked about is the kind of thing you would like, then this is something for you. If, on the other hand, you don't really care one way or the other, you will probably not like this. It's not for everyone, that is for sure.

DW: Flatline - Keeping It Up

"Doctor Who" does yet another monster-of-the-week style episode, but it's very good.

One of the things I've come to really enjoy about "Doctor Who" is the way they take seemingly unconnected concepts and strings them together to make a sci-fi adventure. This week's episode is about beings from a two-dimensional universe coming into ours wrecking havoc. Are they as evil as their actions suggest? Or are they just being misunderstood by creatures who've never experienced their reality?

There is little to no advancement in any of the series wide arcs this episode, except from a few throwaway lines here and there, but that is totally fine. This is the kind of episode that people will use to introduce their fans to "Doctor Who". It perfectly sums up what it is about, and how the series' universe works. You have the Doctor being stuck in a weird situation, alien monsters hunting down humans, and the various dragged-alongs who have to deal with what is going on. It's perfectly capable of standing on its own.

I still have some trouble with the kind of VFX they are using from time to time. Some simple stuff look very bad, whilst other seemingly more complex shots look above passable. It's not bad enough for me to get thrown out of the story every time it happens, but it's bad enough that I start to wonder why they are prioritising they way that they are. Do they have too small a budget? Are they saving their money for a big episode down the line? I don't think it's anything other than them not being able to present the material the way they want to, but the questions still linger.

DW: Mummy on the Orient Express - Monster Madness

We're at the eight episode of the eight series of new Doctor Who (or NuWho as it's sometimes called by its fans). We're over halfway through the first series of a brand new Doctor. In the newest episode, "Mummy on the Orient Express" we move both forwards and backwards in "Doctor Who"'s history, but it eventually lands on being an episode better than the average of its series.

"A Mummy on the Orient Express" is about a mummy on the Orient Express, to make it even more interesting the mummy can only be seen by the people it is about to attack, and the Orient Express is in space. This is the Doctor's and Clara's last hurrah. Clara wants to settle down with Danny, and can't quite handle darting off with the Doctor on adventures all the time any more. She wants a more quiet life, a stable life, one where she can know more certainly that she won't die the next time she steps through a pair of blue doors.

This is definitely a step up from last week's episode, and the one before that, and the one before that. It's the best of the series since "Listen", and there aren't many episodes before that's better than "A Mummy on the Orient Express" either. This episodes has almost everything I look for in an episode of "Doctor Who". A wacky premise, a skewed theme, funny one-time characters, and the continuing of a plot larger than any single episode. One of the best things this episode did was keeping the Doctor and Clara separate throughout most of it, we get to really see the new Doctor on his own. See how he deals with things without having his companion constantly by his side.

The episode also limited itself to almost just one set piece, a train car. We do get to see some other sets, but only briefly, and to show the viewer that there is more to the train than just this one cart. It makes the monster-of-the-week all the more scary and intriguing, the characters cannot just escape it. They're stuck on a train in the middle of space. The monster itself it not as much scary as it is interesting. It has some interesting abilities, but not once when I saw it was I scared. It was too much of a monster-monster, it wasn't like the Silence or the Angels who have traits of normality in them, the mummy was just a mummy. Kind of a setback.

Overall this episode was good and exciting. One of the most entertaining episodes of the series, in terms of just entertainment value it might even out-rank "Listen" (which wins on having a lot more value than just being entertaining). It was also fun to see the Doctor acknowledge so many things that's been happening to him before, and who he was before. He seems to be a Doctor who is much more aware of his past selves than he has normally been since the relaunch. It isn't too much, it doesn't come off as too self-referential, but they are nice nods and certainly gets a giggle from a fan who knows just the right amount of trivia to recognise it when it comes.

DW: Kill the Moon - On the Shoulders of Giants [Spoiler levels: High]

The Doctor boasts about being able to see all of time and space unfold in front of him, but there are certain times he cannot see. Grey blobs when big decisions are being made. "Kill the Moon" is about just such a time.

In "Kill the Moon" we follow the Doctor, Clara, and her student Courtney to the Moon in the year 2049. There is something wrong with the Moon, something big, something that's making the tides of Earth go haywire, and has strengthened the Moon's own gravity to the point it's as good as equal to Earth's. What exactly is it that's happened?

It's hard to discuss this episode without giving away the major reveals of it, so I'm not even going to try. If you haven't watched the episode, and you don't know what's going to happen, stop reading. I'll give you a few sentences worth of fluff so you don't accidentally see the next sentence and end up being spoiled. Are you gone now? You should be. It turns out, the Moon isn't a moon. It's the egg of a giant, celestial being, and it's about to hatch. This brings an important ethical question to the table, do they kill it to ensure life on Earth continues on? Or do they risk it in favour of not instantly killing what might be the most amazing life form in the universe? The initial plan was to blow pieces of the Moon off, decreasing its mass and hopefully causing its effects on Earth to stabilise.

Although there are a lot of fluff and uninteresting bits in this episode leading up to the reveal of the egg (giant germ spiders, the Moon not containing any minerals, and more) this is a really great episode. The Doctor gets his regenerational definition in terms of how he deals with humans, each regeneration deals in their own way, albeit mostly just minor differences between them. This Doctor likes to let the humans decide a lot. He won't let his own interference mess with the decisions that will lay humanity on its path for the next several millennia, he wants us to decide for ourselves, set our own paths. But in doing so he loses Clara. She's all of a sudden slung into making history altering decisions, she's literally hovering her finger above the button that will change it all, and she despises the Doctor for it. He's always been there for her, and when she needs him the most he's gone. It's a nice exploration of what might be to come. The first moment where Clara realises that the Doctor won't always be there, that he won't always be nice to her, or necessarily do what is best for humanity. And she can't handle it.

Overall this is a good episode, but perhaps not an overly rememberable one. The goofy b-film plot of the first half, with a deserted Moon base overrun by alien bugs, doesn't quite set the viewer up for what they're going to get. It seems like it will be just another monster-of-the-week story, when it really isn't. They should've spent more time on the egg, revealed that early and made the rest of the story deal with them dealing with it. It would've been a lot more interesting.

MAOS: Heavy Is the Head - A New Show

"Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." (referred to as "Agents of Shield", "MAOS", or just "Shield" from here on out) came back for its second season last week. It managed to carry on the excitement from the ending of last season very well.

"Agents of Shield" had a bumpy start last season. They lost a lot of viewers due to a slow start, valuing establishing their concept and characters instead of starting right off with a bang. I have to admit, I was disappointed as well, it just didn't live up to anything else in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) up to that point. Luckily that all changed when they got their tie-in with "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" and discovered what their strength truly was. Serialised television.

The show did improve some from just after the winter break, to be fair, but how they dealt with the outcome seen in "The Winter Soldier" was what really proved this show could be great. Many, including me, were worried the show would struggle to bring that feeling over to a new season, one that wouldn't have the possibility for a tie-in until the very end of the season with the second Avengers film "Age of Ultron". 

In this week's episode we get to see Coulson deal with being the new director of what the public view as a terrorist organization. We also get to go further in on the new additions to the roster, and some further exploration into the new state of affair for several characters. It's kind of amazing what the runners of the show dares to do. We're never formally introduced to the new character, not are we ever explicitly told what's happened since we last saw the rest of the characters. There are no exposition scenes, the information we get is for the most time given to us through natural conversation and our own conjecture. One of the new main characters is still very much a stranger, but it feels like he's been part of the team for as long as they say he has. Throw that on top of them mixing up the entire dynamic of what the show was in the first season, and you almost have a brand new series.

Unfortunately there are some VFX shots in this episode that are really poor, dragging down the overall impression of the new season. It's understandable that they can't have as well-crafted effects as the big-budget films set in the same universe, but they still stick out from an otherwise visually pleasing episode. They couldn't haveexcluded the shots as they were important to the general plot, but they should have done something different to make sure the shots didn't stand out in the way they did. There are however, some VFX shots that are very good. The most important shots that were both crucial to the plot and were relatively close to the camera were all very good, especially considering the format. They clearly had some prioritisation going on and knowledge of what they could and couldn't afford, which again excuses the poorer shots to a limited degree. 

Overall I really enjoyed the episode. It was a continuation of the last episode, which hopefully shows that they're wanting to keep the heavily serialised tone of the post "The Winter Soldier" part of the first season. This type of show clearly benefits from a bigger overarching plot, it just gets too repetitive and almost boring under a monster-of-the-week format. When you base your show on the inner working on a multi-national spy organisation the viewer wants something more than what they could get from almost any police procedural show. I'm looking forward to see how this season plays out. 

DW: The Caretaker - A Necessary Evil

"Doctor Who" has been mostly been increasing in quality as the current season has passed by, unfortunately tonight's episode is a bump down on the same graph.

In this week's episode the Doctor goes deep undercover at Clara's school, Coal Hill, as the caretaker. He's learned there's an alien killer robot hiding somewhere close by and he needs the school to trap and get rid of it. The story itself is no doubt a "Doctor Who" story. It's wacky, it's sci-fi, it's got the world by a thread, and only the Doctor can save it. But it still falls short of being an actual good episode.

First of all, the alien robot suffers from some of the weakest effects the show has had since the early days of the relaunch in 2005. They decided to go for special effects as they tend to do with most robots and aliens on "Doctor Who", but they didn't get it right. The robot never looked like an actual robot, it looked like a toy, like someone's plaything, it was hard to find it as menacing as it was supposed to be. Even when it started shooting deadly plasma beams all over the place I found myself not even flinching at its sight. We know the special effects team on "Doctor Who" can do good stuff. Just look at the Silence for example. They're just humans with a big mask and long-fingered gloves, but they still manage to be scary. This time they dropped the ball big time, hopefully it's due to them saving their production budget for something grander.

Secondly the sub-plot is tiring. It's once again centered around Clara and Danny and their relationship, making it absolutely cemented that Danny is going to stick around for a while. This episode marks the half-way point in the current season and despite Danny's promised big role the character is still rather unfamiliar, almost a stranger still. That's where the best thing about this episode comes into play. We absolutely need this episode if Danny's story arc is to lead to anything significant, or just long-standing, at all. We get to know Danny a lot more than we did before. We get to look more into his relationship with Clara, and we get glimpses of what the Doctor thinks of him. Hopefully this will mean there can be less get-to-know-Danny episodes in the future, and we can instead focus on the things that seems to be the main arcs of the coming seasons. Mainly the one about Heaven.

DW: Time Heist - Good But Forgettable

The Doctor still hasn't stopped running, and is going full speed in this action-packed adventure where time is of the essence.

In "Time Heist" we follow the Doctor, Clara, and two others whilst they're trying to rob the most secure bank in the galaxy for reasons they can't even remember. It's going back to the same sort of episodic theme that we first saw the Capaldi Doctor experience in "Into the Dalek". The episode is set in the distant future on an alien world inhabited by mostly humans who are living in a society that's a coin toss between a utopia and dystopia.

In this particular episode they stray away from the more heavy sci-fi tones that "Into the Dalek" delved into, and instead focuses on the people living in such a world. We're introduced to Psi and Saibra who in this episode are more or less as instrumental as the Doctor and Clara. They all have stakes in the robbery of the planet-wide bank, although they don't know for sure. At the beginning of the story they're greeted by a recording of themselves stating that they voluntarily wiped their own memories in order to go on the mission they had been handed. At the bank they face several obstacles, including a giant stalk-eyed alien who can remind you of the minotaur from "The God Complex". A big hulk of a creature walking slowly through hallways while showing you your deepest fears and secrets.

I thought this episode was rather fun. There were elements I'd wish it had gone more into, but in doing so they did manage to keep a concise and to-the-point story that kept me entertained and interested from start to finish. The new characters, Psi and Saibra, could have used some better writing or acting, they didn't feel as real as the other characters. They were there for their very specific purposes, and it seemed as if the writer didn't bother doing anything more with them. Because of this there were some troubles with their respective character endpoints, but I won't go too much in on that other than to say that they didn't feel quite satisfactory.

Overall I liked this episode. It's light, it's got action, and it's set in the future which is one of my favourite episode formats in "Doctor Who". Unfortunately it's a bit of a step down from last week's "Listen", but given just how great that episode was it would have been overly optimistic to expect anything as good or better. "Time Heist" is an episode that will keep you entertained when you watch it, but it's probably going to end up as that one episode you never think of when looking back at the series.

DW: Listen - The Sound of Awe [Spoiler levels: Medium]

The Doctor is back again with an episode which's trailers send you down memory lane in search of the classic NuWho episode "Blink". But I think "Listen" just might be better.

I feel that for every new episode of eight series of Doctor Who I've written about how it's gotten better, how I like it a lot more now than last week, and this week is no different. I genuinely think "Listen" might be my new favourite episode of the show. At the very least the best in a few series. I realise how uninformed and easily won-over I sound, but to be fair that is true. I had no real idea of what to expect from the Capaldi Doctor, and it would almost be impressive if this early in his tenure the episodes started to get worst. Almost every time there's a new Doctor it takes a little time to get going. A few episodes to really kick in. They have to go through the different themes Doctor Who has added to its rolodex over the years. A funny one, a periodic one, a future one, a scary one.

This episode is a scary one. It is all about what's underneath your bed. About what it is that you glimpse in the corner of your eye. What's making the foot step you hear right behind you. What makes you talk to yourself late at night. It's back to what Tennant had done with the Angels and what Smith had with the Silence, but this time for Capaldi's run. I feel it's done a lot better this time in terms of scariness. We never really get to know what it is the Doctor is looking for. Is he looking for something at all? Is something really there? Or has the Doctor just gone off to the really deep end?

Integrated into the main plot is the plot of Danny Pink, Clara's new romantic interest. They're sent back and forth in his timeline because of a malfunction happening when Clara got to telepathically interface with the TARDIS, effectively rendering her in direct control of the TARDIS itself. We get to see the past of Danny Pink, and the future. We get to speculate on whether what the Doctor and Clara does is what made Danny the man he is in present day, and whether or not what Clara is doing in the present day is what's reflecting into the future. It's a very interesting way of handling the romantic aspect of the show. Instead of constantly having scenes that's just showing them being lubby dubby, we get to explore their relationship through other means.

What really gets me about this episode is the feel and theme. It's still not the super gritty and ultra serious feeling that I felt we were promised over the last year and a half or so, but I don't mind that anymore. The Capaldi Doctor has shown himself in several different episode types and theme aspects. He's starting to really become a fully fleshed character. You can start to understand why he's doing what he's doing, and you're not as surprised by how he handles things. I still think I was right when I said last week that "Robot of Sherwood" would be referenced to as a classic Capaldi episode, but "Listen" will be the one talked about the most. It will be the one people say really sold them on Capaldi as the Doctor. It's now that it got good. It's now that he's the Doctor.

The Maze Runner - Surprisingly Good

At least once a year there's some new fantasy and/or sci-fi film about a bunch of kids in a messed up world. It's almost always based on a "best-selling novel" that's "captured the imaginations of teens everywhere", and is set to have at least two sequels before the first film is even filmed. Last fall it was "The Mortal Instruments", this spring it was "Divergent", and now it's "The Maze Runner".

I had never heard about this film until the teasers and posters started popping up here and there earlier this year. It both sounded and looked completely generic. Two kids in some kind of dystopian world, seemingly pre-destined to change it for the better. I didn't think anymore of it until just yesterday when I noticed it was having a pre-premiere the following day. There was nothing else of interest screening, so I just into it with the thought that I'd at least be somewhat entertained for a couple of hours. And I'm happy to say I was.

"The Maze Runner" is more or less all I look for in a film with a genre like this. It has a mysterious plot, a bunch of kids who don't really know anything, a main character who's unique from the rest, and a web of inter-personal politics and teenage emotions. It's not going to win any awards for directing, acting, or writing, but it's fun and entertaining from beginning to start. I was worried that there would be a lot of downtime, as other films of the genre often have. They stop the plot to focus on a romantic relationship, some unimportant squabble between self-declared leaders, or anything else that's not overly significant to the overall plot. "The Maze Runner" contains all these elements, but it does a very good job at controlling them in its own best interest. They don't take over the film, they don't stop it in its tracks to show off what they've got. They're just there, in the background, waiting for a slight lull in the action so that they can be noticed. The romantic relationship is perhaps the best handled, as in there isn't one. There is one girl/woman within the first few circles of characters, and there isn't a single line or look where some romantic intentions are implied. It's refreshing really. The only downside is that she's got very little to do compared to her apparent role in the overall plot, she doesn't even show up until halfway through the film. But it seems that she's going to be a lot more important in the upcoming films, so it's excusable. 

The core concept of the film itself is also very intriguing. A gang of kids are sent to the middle of a giant maze, left to fend for themselves. Every month a new kid is brought to "The Glade", as they call it, bringing with them fresh supplies of food and equipment. None of them remember anything except for their names, so they have no idea what they're doing there or who sent them. Surrounding them on all sides is a gigantic maze towering tens of metres into the air. Thick concrete walls shift every night, making the maze nearly impossible to navigate at any given time. This is where the titular "Maze Runner" comes in. A squad runs out in the maze every morning when the walls shifts to allow them entry, and stays out all day in the search of a route that will lead them to the other side. If they don't make it back by nightfall there's no getting back to The Glade all. No one has survived a night in the maze.

Overall I found much enjoyment in this film. It's not overly original or special, but it's fun and exciting from beginning to end. I cared about the characters, I wondered what was going to happen with them, and how they were going to react to what was happening around them. The almost two-hour runtime went by a lot quicker than I'd expected, and I was left wondering what was going to happen in the next installments. Not in such a way that I was frustrated, it felt like it had an actual ending, a place where you could be fine with there not being anymore films, but I was excited and happy by the prospect of getting to revisit the universe and tumble even further down the rabbit hole. 

DW: Robot of Sherwood - Doctoring History

As I made clear in my posts about the two previous episodes starring the Capaldi Doctor, I wasn't overly keen on him. He didn't feel quite right, he fell between a few cracks that made him seem not quite like the Doctor. This episode changes that for the better.

"Robot of Sherwood" will go down as the episode that really cemented Capaldi's Doctor. There's no dillydallying about past episodes or events, they just get on with it, much like in last week's "Into the Dalek". However, unlike "Into the Dalek" this episode didn't feel like it was written for a different Doctor. This felt completely like a normal Doctor Who episode tailored to this new man we got to meet last year.

The most interesting this about this episode is perhaps the relationship between Robin Hood and the Doctor himself. Robin Hood acts much like Smith's Doctor in this rendition of the character. He always laughs in the face of danger, believing it much more wise to live life in enjoyment rather than bitterness. But he also knows how to deal with seriousness and drama, feeling like the same character despite the contrasting emotions. This episode feels very much like Capaldi's Doctor squaring off against Smith's Doctor. From the get-go Clara is excited about Robin Hood, much in the same way as she was about Smith's Doctor. She looks at him like a hero, and loves how he stands for what he does, and how he acts to defend it. Capaldi's Doctor sees this as a kind of unwelcome memory. He knows he's not quite the same as when he first met Clara, but he is the same. It hurts to see her act with someone else like she used to do with him. He starts trying to impress her, show that he can still be the person that he used to be, but in the end he doesn't have to.

The episode itself is very fun and an interesting turn on the regular period pieces Doctor Who does. The Doctor is adamant in his belief that Robin Hood is just a fictional character, and spends the episode trying to figure out what exactly he is, and where he comes from. The way the Doctor hypothesises aliens, robots, amusement parks, and all kind of weird scenarios make the episode feel a lot more science fictiony than your typical period piece (yes, even the ones containing cyborgs and dinosaurs), which in my book is a big bonus. I really love the episodes when the Doctor go full sci-fi, travelling far into the future or to distant alien worlds.

Overall I really enjoyed this episode, a lot more than I thought I would. It's satisfying to finally see Capaldi's Doctor settle in as his own character, and have him face off against someone so much like himself. I wouldn't be surprised if this ends up being one of the episodes remembered as a classic Capaldi episode.

DW: Into the Dalek - The Doctor Is In!

I wasn't quite sold on the new tone set by the new Doctor in last week's premiere episode, but Into the Dalek goes a long way in getting me interested in buying.

This episode really doesn't mess about when it comes to the story and plot. There's nearly no mention to this being a "new" Doctor, or how he's now almost completely different from before. They've done the wise decision of jumping ahead a bit in time in order to establish the feeling that this Doctor and Clara has been on their own fair deal of adventures. That they've gotten to know each other, that they have developed their own rapports and there's no need for dilly-daddling around the non-issue. Leaving the question about what kind of person he is now available to more fun ways of addressing it than just having two characters sit down and talk about it every episode.

There was however some, I felt, developmental problems. There's a new character introduced, Danny Pink, who works alongside Clara at Coal Hill School. They're adding him because there will be no romance or flirting between this Doctor and Clara, so Danny gets to now act as the romantic aspect of the show. This is completely fair, it's been done before in the show, many times. Most recently with Amy and her would-become husband Rory. But they didn't successfully sell Danny Pink as an actual person. He seems a bit too constructed and flat. First of all, they didn't give him much screen time. He was basically there only for the first and last segments of the episode, acting as a kind of grounding element in Clara's life. The little alone time we do get with him is really odd, it feels like they tried to cram far too much backstory into the character right off the bat. Within just a couple of minutes we know that he was a solider in the war, and that he's killed someone who wasn't an enemy soldier. They way they chose to show this was to first have him tell his class that he was a soldier, and when prompted if he'd ever killed someone who wasn't a soldier they did a sudden close-up of his face to reveal a single tear rolling down his face. It was just too much.

The Doctor, though, was just the right amount. From the moment we first see him he's right on key. He feels like he's already been through a couple of years as a character, he acts like he's always had the exact personality he has now. Peter Capaldi just generally sells his incarnation of the Doctor as a real person. The part I still haven't entirely bought into yet is how silly his adventures seem in terms of the apparent seriousness of the character. Don't get me wrong, it's not like he's portrayed even half as serious and moody as the teasers and trailers lead us to believe, but there's still somewhat of an offbeat gap between him and his situations. Into the Dalek is basically a retooling of the 1966 film Fantastic Voyage where people shrunk down in order to be sent into another living being's body, in the case of Into the Dalek a Dalek. It's a silly, b-film concept which I normally love, but I don't quite like it in the context of Capaldi's Doctor. It feels much more like something Smith's Doctor would've happened onto. I can practically hear his Doctor oohing and aahing at the marvelous technology, and how fantastic even the evil Daleks are. Instead we got Capaldi's Doctor walking briskly around lecturing everyone on what everything is.

There are some nice themes in the episode, we get to know the new Doctor a lot more than we got to during the last episode. We get to see him react to an entirely different environment and see how he interacts with new characters and threats. They also help spring what seems to be the overall theme for this new series: "Who is the Doctor?" Not necessarily who he is as in what his name and nationality is, but as in what kind of man he is. Why is he the person he is? Where does his faces come from? What makes him him? It's a common and oftused theme in the Doctor Who franchise, but it's for a good reason. It's always exciting to get to know the Doctor, to peel back even more layers from him. See what's underneath, what has lead him up to this point in time. I think we're in for a treat.

But who is Missy?

Doctor Who Series 8 Premiere: Deep Breath - He Still Carries On

Just shy of a year ago the Doctor Who 50th Anniversary Special screened on cinemas all across the world at the same time. Bringing the entire world together in a collected moment. It was such a huge success that this year they decided to do it again, in the episode properly introducing the latest incarnation of the Doctor. The one played by Peter Capaldi.

I haven't been a fan of Doctor Who for very long, I'm afraid. I didn't get on the hype train until just three years ago. August 25th, 2011 I first really watched an episode of Doctor Who. I had promised myself I would watch it from the beginning, watching all of the classic episodes before embarking on the post-relaunch, but I just couldn't help starting off at Eccleston's first episode "Rose". I was hooked from the beginning, plowing through the post-relaunch series in a month, despite pulling double-digit hours at college most days. Ever since then I've watched every episode the moment I was able. Be it on iTunes the following day, or in later cases on iPlayer Live just as it was airing on television. I almost feel like it all lead up to this, the first time I had to see a Doctor really go. I had seen Eccleston and Tennant go, but just in the flash of a month. Matt Smith will always be my Doctor. He's the one who was on when I started watching. He's the one I watched for three more years. He's the one I met! He's the one I loved. And now he's gone.

I didn't really know what to expect going into this new series of Doctor Who with a brand new Doctor. I knew that this new Doctor was allegedly going to be far more serious than Smith and Tennant, but that was more or less it. But I still got my ticket the moment they were made available, and got in my seat even earlier than I used to. I wasn't going to give up on the show I loved so much just because there had been a change in cast. I still wanted to be blown away. I wanted Peter Capaldi to show me that he's just as good as my Doctor. I wanted the show to live on. But I'm not entirely convinced he managed to show me that.

Don't get me wrong, the episode wasn't bad. But it was very different, more different than I had expected. Why I hadn't expected more of a difference I don't know, but I hadn't. It took a while to get into it. An entirely new Doctor amongst all these familiar characters. A Doctor who isn't sure who he is, or what anything or anyone else is or are. When he first walked into the scene it was weird. He acted somewhat like Smith did as his Doctor. He flailed a bit around. He made funny remarks, funny faces. But every other character seemed to have the same kind of dumbfoundedness as I had. Something just didn't feel right. It walked like the Doctor, it quacked like the Doctor, but was it the Doctor?

The episode's main plot is the Doctor figuring out who he is, and generally how to deal with his new face and the people closest to him not recognising him, but it's set around a series of murders in Victorian London. And I have to say, I'm not overtly found of Doctor Who episode sets in Victorian London. It seems like such a waste to me. Put a man of his genius and advancement in the middle of a backwards backwater. I like having the occasional period piece in Doctor Who, seeing him walk around through history, but Victorian London has been done to death for me. Luckily this just didn't feel the same. Maybe it's because there was a spanking new Doctor, but it felt fresher and different from the other times. It was more enjoyable. There was less of a focus on the fact that it was set in Victorian London, it just happened to be.

I am going to get a bit deeper, not into the plot exactly, but into what results from the plot. So if you for some reason is reading this without having watched the episode yet, you might want to close this tab now. 

The apparent plot to start with is the appearance of a giant dinosaur in the Thames in the middle of London. Madame Vastra, Jenny, and Strax immediately appear at the scene to investigate what exactly is going on. They soon find the Doctor's TARDIS being coughed out of the dinosaur's throat. The entire plot of the dinosaur stranded, lost and alone in London is just a way of dealing with the Doctor being stranded, lost and for all intents and purposes alone, in the universe. I found it to be at times a bit too on the nose, having the Doctor actually say what the dinosaur is feeling in a way that makes it obvious that it applies to himself as well. It just came off as a bit too obvious, especially considering how short-lived the dinosaur plot was.

Turns out it wasn't just a front for the Doctor's emotions, it was also a way of setting up the main plot. A rogue cyborg on a killing spree. I liked this part of the episode a lot better. It wasn't as in your face about what it was, and most of the time it actually ended up on the backburner. Serving as purely a way of getting everyone together to figure out who the cyborg was, and what he wanted. During it we learn a lot about the new Doctor. What he's capable of doing, what he thinks of himself, what he thinks of others, and just overall development of this new sub-character. We start to really see who Capaldi's Doctor is. The mannerisms left over from Smith slowly fade away, and he starts picking up his own, and before you even realise it there's a brand new Doctor in front of you.

I liked that they also mentioned the Doctor having seen his new face before. For those of you might not know, Peter Capaldi has previously acted in the Doctor Who universe. Both as a multi-episode villain in Torchwood, and as a single-episode character in Doctor Who (different characters, just to be clear). Showrunner Steven Moffat has said before that this will be addressed, that the Doctor will at least try to learn where his faces come from. Why they look the way they do when they come. How he can renew himself but end up with an old face from seemingly nowhere. But it wasn't too obvious. It was a bit obvious for those who might follow the surroundings of production, but generally it was just enough to implant the idea that there was something important about him having seen his face before. It neatly sets us up for a new long-arc that might not even be resolved in just one series.

At this point I rather liked the episode, but I wasn't entirely sold on the new tone quite yet. I was still getting over my Doctor being gone. I was still kind of expecting Matt Smith to show up. Which is why I was completely caught off guard when we all of a sudden hear his voice over the telephone. There he was again. Telling us, telling me, not to worry. That the seemingly new man is still him. It's the same Doctor, he just looks and acts a bit different. I almost teared up at it. The idea that the Doctor had the foresight to call Clara, to make sure that she was okay after he was "gone", it cemented how nice and caring he really can be. Especially after an episode where that is really brought into question. It warmed my heart.
Still not entirely sold though. It might have been a good ending, but the preceding episode still left me feeling odd and uncertain. I am still not entirely sold on it. I don't know how long it will take. I don't know if I will ever get over it. My Doctor is gone, but he still carries on.

Guardians of the Galaxy - Hell Yeah!

I knew little about Marvel outside of X-Men and Spider-Man when the Marvel Cinematic Universe started up. I had never heard about Iron Man, and Captain America and Thor I'd only heard about in passing. But after I watched Thor, and then Captain America, and started to get really into the MCU I looked for all the information I could find. I watched all the cartoons, read the wiki articles, watched the live-action films of course, I even read some of the comic books (although, to this day, I just can't get into them for some reason). Whenever a new film was going to come out I knew almost everything about it beforehand. That all changed with Guardians of the Galaxy.

To my credit, this really was Marvel Studios throwing everyone for a spin. A film about a raccoon, a walking tree, a human kidnapped from the '80s, and all set in outer space with no other humans? It was as different as it got for the MCU. Every film in the franchise so far was grounded in humanity. Stark struggled with the burden of saving people while still being only a human, Banner tried his best to hold onto his humanity, Rogers is the most man man you can find, and Thor was all about him learning humility through humans. Then comes the space flick where the most talked-about character is a raccoon in space.

Don't get me wrong, it's not like Guardians of the Galaxy is about how stupid humans are, and how awesome being baddies is. It just doesn't have that same groundedness the prior films did. Everything is awesome from the get-go, everything is magical and amazing. There's no struggle in being only human, they're all "just people". That's what makes this film so different, and therefore so great. I never knew what to expect around the corner. Even though I hadn't actively steered away from new info and trailers, more so I tried to get all the information I could up front, I was still surprised. Still I was left in wonder at what was happening. It was all just so crazy.

That's maybe what frightens me most about this film, as well. That it's so crazy and different. I'm not suggesting that people don't like different and crazy things, but people have come to expect a certain standard from Marvel and superhero films in general. And this is very different from that. I find it hard to even call it a superhero film. It's a film about heroes, and most of them are physically superior to ordinary humans, but it's no more a superhero film than Star Wars, Avatar, or the Matrix. It's an adventure film at its heart, it's easier to compare it to Indiana Jones than to Iron Man, and maybe the audience isn't expecting that. I am however glad that Marvel is willing to take that risk. Its Thursday night opening was the biggest of 2014 so far in the USA, so the fans are at least turning up in the beginning. And if this goes out and makes the same kind of money as the other MCU films, that is going to spark a new type of film, both from Marvel and others. This will be just the beginning of Marvel playing around in the so-called "cosmic Marvel" and "magical Marvel" worlds. People will see that once and for all that "superhero" films aren't just about people in tights and capes flying around saving damsels in distress, they can be nearly anything. They can be political spy thrillers, comedic heist pictures, magical fantasies, or crazy space operas. The only limit is on what people actually are willing to watch.

Guardians of the Galaxy rekindled my love for Marvel Studios. It brought me nothing but joy from the second it started to the second it finished. I'm just hoping people are willing to take that leap again and again for Marvel. Next year's Ant-Man might be even more different, at least in terms of superhero films. It's going to stretch our definition of on-screen superheros to the limits. And if Doctor Strange comes after that, then it will be stretched again. Even farther. Marvel isn't slowing down the least, they've only just begun. They've given us the "standard" superhero films. They've given us the brutes and brainiacs who fight for the good of mankind. Now they're giving us the oddballs who aren't necessarily as guided and centred. They're going to keep on expanding and expanding their universe until it encompasses all of it, all at once. And I can't wait until they've done so.





Epilogue:

Do you want proof of how crazy Marvel is willing to get? Do you really want to know? You can either watch the best MCU film there is, Guardians of the Galaxy, or you can click below to read a sentence that might just change the course of your life.

Click the button ->:

Howard the Duck is now an MCU canonical character.

Transformers: Age of Extinction - Transhitter

It's easy to talk smack about Transformers films. It's easy to say Michael Bay just throws a lot of guns, explosions, and hot women around. It's easy to say these things, but now, more than ever, are they completely true.

     I had low expectations going into Transformers: Age of Extinction (or Trans4mers as it really should be called), lower than low. I found the first Transformers film to be totally acceptable. It was funny, it had action, sexy ladies, and at the very least a decent story. Over the next two films this was gradually "refined". Each film was less funny, had more action, more sexy ladies, and less and less of a decent story. I still went, though, because I liked the action and the sexy ladies. And the story was passable enough for me to get through it. Not every film needs to be a Citizen Kane or Schindler's List, we need the popcorn blockbusters as well. They help us unwind, just get out of the real world's worries for a bit. Let someone else worry. Then we have Age of Extinction.

     When I first saw the run time of the film, 165 minutes, I thought: "Okay, sure. That sounds a bit long, but I'm sure they have their reason." Coming out of it, I'm not sure they did. The film as a whole seems like a whole bunch of ideas crammed together to get as much bang for their buck as possible. The entire last hour of the film (and yes, I checked the clock, I was already getting antsy at that time) seems like it's a film on its own. They more or less closed up the story that started the film, and they enrolled on a similar, but still different mission. It's not the typical "oh, we were doing the wrong thing, now let's fix it" type of scenario, it was more of a "oh, we did a bunch of things, but now we're in a different film so let's do them again". I remember hearing about Michael Bay wanting to make a second trilogy of Transformers film, the fact that the first installment in it has two films worth of stuff makes me question that.

     Alright, I've done the obligatory spiel on how long the film is, now what about something a bit more important. The characters. The human characters of the film are all new, and considering the greatness of some of the new actors (Mark Wahlberg, Stanley Tucci, Kelsey Grammer) you'd think they'd be at least decent. They aren't. They are your run of the line characters. You have the troubled father, the rich maniac, the CIA agent out of control, the hot daughter, the shady boyfriend, and a whole lot of people not even worthy of mention. Sometimes in films like these that's all you need. You stick a few stereotypical characters in between a bunch of robots and you're good to go, but we have to spend three hours with these people. Three hours of them running around trying to do what the story tells them to do. The fact that I by the end of the film can't even remember their names, speaks volumes of how they are treated. The characters are all over the place, they're brave when the story wants them to be, stupid when the story wants them to be, scared shitless when the story wants them to be, they're just following the by-the-book story. You don't actually believe that they're real people, they don't seem like they're actually in the situations they are in. They seem far too comfortable with what's going on, and breaks down at the littlest of whims.

     If you've read this far and you still want to watch the film you're probably thinking "eh, the others were alright, it's not like I had high expectations anyway", am I right? I had the same thoughts. The film has been out for two weeks in the USA as I'm writing this. I've seen the reviews coming in. Hating on it. Saying its horrible. I've even seen the hardcore Transformers fans in my twitter feed almost in tears over how badly executed it was, fans who were all over the third installment of the franchise. Still, after all that, I too thought "how bad can it really be?" The answer is simply "that bad". It's not worth your money. Wait till it's on Netflix, wait till it's on some shady cable network, wait till it's out on Pirate Bay, I don't care. It's just not worth your money. During this film I was for the first time, in my life, considering walking out. At the two-hour mark I had to talk myself down, I had already spent the money. I wish I hadn't talked myself down.





Epilogue:

Oh, by the way, remember all those dinosaur robots from the posters and trailers? If that's the only reason you're going, don't. Just don't, it's not worth it. Wait for it to be on YouTube.

Pacific Rim - Newt and Han: Super Drift [Spoiler level: Low, but cautious)

I know a lot of my audience probably already have seen Pacific Rim (you lucky bastards), but it just premiered in Norway yesterday so here are my thoughts.

Pacific Rim was one of those films that debuted in the USA long before any other part of the world, personally I had to endure three weeks of tweets telling me how awesome the film was, and how important it was. Because of this, I actually started to have low expectations, having been hyped up for so long it's pretty hard expect those hypes to be met, but boy, was I wrong.

First of all, Pacific Rim, yes, it was hyped out beyond compare, at least for me. Few of the tweets I've seen have reflected the same enthusiasm I had for the film, and that's kind of sad. It's sad that when a huge film market gets a film before the rest of the world and all the rest of the world hears is how amazing it was. We live in the information age, it's all but impossible to not hear news about this kind of tentpole if you're in the scene, or at least vaguely paying attention to it. On the positive side, however, it might have brought a bigger international market to the film. All those film buffs in the US who watched the film spread the word to film buffs in other countries, and they spread the word to their friends. We knew people had watched it and liked it, not like in the US were people was just hoping it would be good. It's amazing how much better and more convincing a "I heard this guy really liked it" is than a "from what I've heard of what's leaked it could be pretty good". All I know is that all the theatres at my local cinema that screened Pacific Rim were full. I've attended my share of screenings at that cinema, and I did not at all expect that kind of a turn out for this type of film on a Friday night with thirty degrees in the air (that's a lot where I'm from, I mean, a lot).

For the first few minutes of the film, I have to admit, I wasn't very impressed. It seemed to be just another run-of-the-mill, cliché action film. All of the praise I had heard, I just couldn't see where it came from. But the more the film went on, the more I got it. I think maybe what made it so ordinary in the beginning is that they begin with an origin story, and I am really starting to get sick of origin stories. Personally I think this film would've been better off with just bypassing that entirely and feed the needed information to the public gradually when they need it. The main character, Raleigh, starts off the film with his brother. They fight a kaiju (the monsters) and the brother winds up dead. This is what's going to work as Raleigh's trouble and misunderstandings for the rest of the film, and it really didn't have to be shown. In fact, I think it would've worked better if we didn't know about it at all. Make Raleigh a bit more mysterious and interesting, because as he is right now he's one of the most forgettable and unlovable main-characters I've ever seen in a film.

Throughout the film Raleigh proves again and again that he's just another action hero, he's not a real character with any significant depth. He spends his time either fighting, loving or saving. To be frank, there were points in the film were I actually forgot he existed. And that brings me to another point. In the set-up of the film, the period that's supposed to tell you what to expect from the rest of the story and how the film works, is more or less completely centred around Raleigh. Making it seem like the film is supposed to centre around him, he's the main character and we're supposed to root for him. However, fairly quickly after the set-up we start to drift away from him. We start exploring other characters and actions unrelated to Raleigh's. This isn't in itself a bad thing, but because they've set it up for me to expect to follow Raleigh every step of the way it's kind of confusing. It makes Raleigh even less of a likable protagonist, because honestly, most of the other characters we explore are tenfolds more interesting and lovable than he himself is. 

And that brings me to the parts that I really loved about the film. The monster fighting is great and all, but what's really interesting (to me at least) was the way society outside of the jaegar program worked. Newton and Hannibal are perhaps the two most well done characters of their class I've ever seen. Every second of them on-screen were pure bliss to me, and I can already imagine a potential sequel revolving around either or both of them (Hannibal in particular). Newton seems at first to be a really standard, geeky scientist, the must-have of any sci-fi blockbuster these days. But the way he evolves throughout the film is just amazing, all the things he is willing to do - not just because he wants to save the world, but because he just loves doing them - is inspiring. He seems much more real than most of the other characters. The jaegar guys are too shallow, they are all about defending the Earth at what ever cost, and we know little to nothing about any of them. And what we do know, just reinforces how badass and military they are. They don't feel like real people to me, and that's a shame. Hannibal is an example of how they should have done badass and military. Even though he is a bad guy he is more likable and relateable than any of the robot jocks. He dares to show his real self, he isn't just about selling black market items, he cares for himself and have real-world worries. 

I think it speaks mountains when I can tell you, right now, that even though I can barely remember a single main-character, the two characters of Newton and Hannibal - on their own - make me love this film. If I could have talked to Travis or Guillermo before they made this I would tell them this: "Please, let Newton and Hannibal be the main focus. You can have the jockeys there still, but make them less important, let them be the tools of Newton and Hannibal, not the other way around." But I fear, if they did that, the film would have been too awesome for anyone to have ever survived a screening. 

So yeah, after all of that bashing on shallow characters, and that the monster fighting wasn't really my main love - it was just filled with weird choices (seriously, if the swords were that effective, why the hell didn't they use them all the time before?) - I sit here and I dare to tell you to go watch this film. It is amazing. I don't think it's stretching it too far to say that this is this generation's Jurassic Park. It is without a doubt the most fun I've had at a cinema this entire year, and I can't wait to go watch it again.

The Wolverine - Watcher of Man

People keep saying that Robert Downey Jr. is Tony Stark, but no actor is a character like Hugh Jackman absolutely is James Howlett.

Hugh Jackman has portrayed the Wolverine in six films (seven as of next year's release of Days of Future Past) since the year 2000. I read somewhere that that's a record for a superhero character, but even if it isn't that's a pretty decent run. The original X-Men film was what got me into live-action superhero films to begin with so long ago, and the Wolverine has followed me ever since. It's funny, because I can't say that the Wolverine has been one of my favourite superheroes for that long. In the beginning he was more like a watcher, he was always there, always watching over man and the films. I knew of him, but he never really stood out. I can't pinpoint a moment where that changed, but somewhere over the last thirteen years it did, and the Wolverine began to be one of my highlights in superhero films.

Many people despised X-Men Origins: The Wolverine, the film that was set to launch an entire new series of X-Men films for Fox. So much they despised it, that four years later no other film in the series has dared emerged, and instead a new series was started to wash away the foul taste that was Origins. I, on the other hand, never had much trouble with the film. I thought it was good fun, and I kept waiting for other films to follow. Back in late 2009 or 2010 I heard about an entirely new film, simply called The Wolverine. Its title alone suggested that it wanted to erase the previous Wolverine centric film, which most referred to as just The Wolverine. I was wary at first, in the early days it sounded like they wanted to reboot the character to an extent. Erasing past events and putting in new as they saw fit, and the wariness never completely faded.

I was never really looking forward to The Wolverine as I've been with many other superhero films, it was more of a piece of knowledge in the back of my head that knew it was coming and that I wanted to see it when the time was here. Then all of a sudden I received an e-mail from my local cinema that tickets now were available for purchase. I was quick to jump online and reserve my seat, quicker than I had thought I would be. Finally there was but only a week till I could watch the film. The knowledge in the back of my head spurt forward and my eagerness grew each day. It was like all the desire to watch it came out at once, it had hidden for so many years but could not wait a second longer. And it was a week of torture as I waited for the screening.

Today finally came, and little over four hours ago I got in my car and headed for the cinema. On my way I kept going over all of the X-Men films in my head. Both the ones I had loved, and the ones... I had loved less. I couldn't make up my mind of what exactly I thought this film would be, or even what I wanted it to be, I just wanted to see it for myself. And I have to say, whatever my expectations were, they were not disappointed.

I left the cinema with a feeling of relief. They had managed to make a really good Wolverine centric film, sure Origins was fun, but this was a genuinely good film. I'm sure there are people out there right now screaming at me, saying that it wasn't good, but I don't care. In my eyes this was good.

Almost every film featuring the Wolverine to this point has been centred around his origins, figuring out where he came from and why he is like he is. And that's why this film is so refreshing, it's about Logan as he is now. It's his present and he's trying to figure out what he wants to be, not what he used to be. Before you shout your eyes out, yes, there were flashbacks, and Logan did reminisce over old times. But it wasn't the same as before. It used to be that the whole idea of Logan was his past, he's old, he's lived through a lot of things, and he remembered little of it. But now he knows who he was, he doesn't care about the past, it's the future that worries him now.

The film has everything you'd want and expect from a Wolverine film. We have Logan running around being badass, kicking people's asses using both his claws and wits. We have the occasional burst of anger, revealing the real beast that is beneath him everyday. And we have the ongoing signs of compassion and love, showing that even though he is more animal than most, he still loves and cares for others. There is one point in the film that shows this that I particularly liked, it's not really a spoiler, so you should be fine. We have Logan out on a balcony, and a vision of Jean appears. Logan has just been running from the yakuza, saving a woman who's being chased. Jean says: "I thought you were done being a hero." Logan simply replies with: "She was in trouble."
That one line is probably my favourite line out of all of the X-Men films, the very sentiment that lays beneath it. Even though he didn't want any part of heroics, he saw someone in trouble and didn't think other thoughts than to help them.

I think The Wolverine is the best superhero film of the year so far, and in my opinion one of the better ones ever made, period. But don't let my words and thoughts mean everything to you, just go out and watch it. You might hate it, you might love it. All I know, is that I loved it.

The Name of the Doctor is...

Hey, you. Go away, this post is riddled with, in the words of River Song, spoilers. If you have not yet seen The Name of the Doctor, I need you to stop reading. I normally don't mind spoilers, but this is a biggin, you don't want it, trust me.

Now that the rest is gone, let us talk about The Name of the Doctor.

So I just watched the latest episode of The Name of the Doctor. I went into it with little expectations, I didn't really know much about it part from what I'd seen in the trailers, I thought they were pretty revealing, they were not. I never really thought we'd get to know the name of the Doctor, why would they reveal it now after fifty years, and just before the fiftieth anniversary. But what they did reveal was in my mind greater than I would've ever dared imagine. I cannot believe how they manage to keep all of this a secret. The big reveal, the big stakes, the big changes. If for some bizarre reason you are still here, and have not watched the episode, this is your last chance. I cannot believe that they've managed to disguise and hide the death of a Doctor this well. But I'm getting ahead of myself, let me start from the beginning.

I wasn't sure how I felt about the pre-title sequence at first, I felt it was a bit lame, and that the way of including past Doctors seemed weird and weak due to the difference in film quality and grain. Clara running around seeing all the Doctors, talking about how she's always saved him. How she's always been there, but he's never seen her. Never noticed her. Mostly. The pre-title sequence's role in film and TV is to set the tone for what you're about to watch, some sets of terminology call it the "teaser". It is best recognised in crime procedurals where the first few minutes of every episode is showing the crime, setting the stake for the episode and often actually setting it a bit too high. But it's more important that it teases the audience enough to sit through the episode than not. The Name of the Doctor's teaser really did tease the episode, but in no way will you understand how and in what way till you've seen the entirety of the episode. That's what makes it so great, unfortunately it can mean that some more casual viewers will tune out and not bother watching the rest and get the greatness that is The Name of the Doctor, but I am so glad that they went for it.

There's then a small post-title teaser setting up a bit more, it starts with Vastra speaking to a prisoner, he warns of the Doctor's secret. He must go to Trenzalore.

The real episode starts Clara making a soufflé (wink, wink; hint, hint; nudge, nudge) when she gets a letter which seems to be very old. This immediately reminded me of that moment in Blink (you know the one), it's from Vastra and is inviting her to a conference call. Vastra, Jenny, Strax and (yay!) River Song all meet in a inter-timular psychic meeting. Vastra is warning them all about the news from the prisoner, and they are all worried (well, Strax isn't strictly worried, but what ever goes for worriedness on Sontar he is portraying it). 

Now one of my favourite parts of this episode happens, and it is great. Jenny starts talking about how she forgot to lock the door and that she thinks someone is there. 

"Sorry, ma'am, sorry, so sorry. So sorry, so sorry. I think I've been murdered."

The fact that's she's "actually" sitting there reporting that she's been murdered before quietly fading away is very disturbing and emotional. This was the first time in the episode I was close to tears. I don't even have a close relationship to this character, she's been cool, but she's sort of just been the sidekick of Vastra with a few surprises up her sleeve. This moment, however, is one of the most captivating I have had in any Doctor Who episode I've watched. The only thing that weakens this moment is the fact that they copped out and gave her back her life with the wave of a wand ("Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."). It ruined the moment for me, I wish they could've just let her die.

At this point River demands everybody wake up so they can face their attackers, but before she manages to wake Clara up (or even trying to be honest (it's complicated)) she is awakened by the sound of the Doctor's voice.

It's been a long time since I've seen the Doctor as grave as he was when Clara told him about Trenzalore and the meeting. But I were not prepared for what I would see only two cuts later.

He looked devastated, defeated, he was balling his eyes out, he looked scared out of his mind. Seeing the Doctor like this was a much a shock to Clara as it was to the audience, the Doctor is normally so held together, so courageous and brave. The fact that something could put him this far out, beat him this far down is evidence of something truly horrific and painful. He quickly pulls himself together and starts, scarcely telling Clara just what Trenzalore is, what he thinks. That it is where he is buried. 

"[We all have a grave] somewhere out there, in the future, waiting for us. The problem with time travel you can actually actually end up visiting."

The fact that he is so upset over visiting his own grave (he claims it is because it's so dangerous, having travelled so much through time - probably more than any other - it is the ultimate point of time line crossings in the universe) is heartbreaking. The Doctor has lived for so long, he's been through so much, so many worlds are alive because of him, but he is still afraid of death. That it will catch up with him. This isn't specifically mentioned in the episode, but I'd like to believe that that is what's going through the Doctor's mind. He isn't worried about the universe being at risk, it's been countless times and he's saved it every time, he's worried that he will die. Maybe because he won't be around to save the universe anymore, maybe because he'll leave someone behind, but I think, that in all the years he has been running, all the running he's done, he's been doing it because he is afraid of what will happen if he stops. 

OFF TO TRENZALORE! Regardless of how afraid he is of his own death, his friends have been attacked and taken. If he does not go to Trenzalore to face his attacker they will be lost, and that is even worse than losing himself. The TARIDS is less willing to let the Doctor die, she can live without the friends he brings along, but she cannot bear life without the Doctor. So she sabotages their attempt to get to Trenzalore, but not so much that the Doctor won't manage to push her that final mile. The TARIDS even gets a tear falling down her cheek as she realises what will happen now that they are, indeed, on Trenzalore.

I know I'm being very freely analytical and poetic about this imagery, but I do believe it is meant to mean something to that affect. At any rate, I'd like to believe so.

The entire planet is a grave yard, the grave yard of a battlefield. 

"They're soldiers; bigger the gravestone, higher the rank."

The Doctor seems to know a lot about it despite having supposedly  never been there, you might say this is just because he's seen so much that he instinctively knows things, he recognises them from past days, from repeated history. But there is something to his voice, he knows exactly where they are and what has happened there, just like he knows exactly what he is going to find.  And what does he find? The biggest gravestone of them all.

Yup, the Doctor's TARDIS from the future.

It's not actually a gravestone, it's the real TARDIS. In the words of the Doctor, it had somewhat of a size leak. And in the future it serves its purpose as the Doctor's final resting place, his tomb. 

I probably should have mentioned this earlier, but seeing as you've already seen the episode you will know, the Great Intelligence is the one who summoned the Doctor to Trenzalore. He's the one who attacked the Doctor's friends, he's the one behind it all.

On their way to the tomb Clara starts remembering memories she shouldn't have, she knows that the Doctor has met her before. That she has died many times. That the Doctor is as puzzled by her as she is by him. Along with this I assume she also remembers the Doctor's name, as she learnt it right before the Doctor saw fit to erase history and let her live without the knowledge of past and future deaths she has never experienced. This leads up to a moment outside of the tomb, the Great Intelligence demands that the Doctor speaks his name as that is the key to the tomb. The only word in the universe known to no one (well, as good as seeing how many sentient souls there are out there). The Doctor does not in fact speak his name, but the doors do open. River Song who's still lurking around through a mental link with Clara from the conference call speaks it. No one except Clara can see her, and the fact that the door opened bewilders the Doctor. A clever way of avoiding the reveal of his name, but still open the door. Especially seeing as for a few moments the audience is left to believe that "Please" is the name of the Doctor. 

Inside the tomb a light is found.

"What were you expecting? A body? Bodies are boring, I've had plenty of them."

The light is a time tunnel, it consists of every second of the Doctor's life. Every place he has ever been, every person he's ever met, every second he has ever lived. The Great Intelligence is going through. He means to kill the Doctor at every single second at once. The Doctor is dying all at once, all times, all places, all regenerations, they're all dying at once and the Doctor suffers as he has never suffered before. He is screaming, he is wrenching, and it is revealed now through some miracle past-alteration-telling-machine that Vastra has that the Doctor has died in the Dalek Asylum, and then in London with Vastra and Jenny. The very places that Clara has saved him before. This is where the teaser kicks in, Clara is realising. At the same time as Vastra is witnessing the disappearance of hundred of star systems, Jenny and even Strax, Clara knows what she must do. She has to enter the tunnel herself.

The Doctor has already seen her do it, it has already been done. Clara is the impossible girl, born to save the Doctor at every time all at once. Millions of versions of Clara living only to save the Doctor. Clara herself, the real her, will die. But it is the only way to to save him. The Doctor pleads her not to go, but she has to.

"Run. Run you cleaver boy. And remember me."

The teaser runs again, slightly altered. She tells of what she has always done and will always do. She is born, she lives, she saves the Doctor, and she dies. She's been there since Gallifrey and will be there till Trenzalore.  Immediately on her entrance the universe is restored, Clara saved him, every single time. And now, just for once, just for fun, the Doctor has to save Clara. River Song, through the mental link of Clara yells at the Doctor, he cannot go through the tunnel, it will destroy him. She is about to slap the Doctor, that's when he reaches out his hand and stops her. He has always seen her. Always. He's always heard her, always listened. But he was afraid how much it would hurt to talk to her that he has ignored her. He doesn't like good byes, but River won't leave until he does, she has to hear it. Hear it as if he is to come back. 

"See you around, professor River Song."

Oh, and remember how she was there due to the mental link to Clara? How can she still be there if she's dead? River fades away, and the Doctor is left with only one option. He steps into the tunnel and finds Clara lying in a wasteland of time and space. A place where all of the Doctor's time is spread, where his ghosts roam freely and the universe comes to die. This is when Clara hears the Doctor's voice one more time. He contacts her through every day he's ever had all at once, the Doctor is reaching out to her, he wants to save her just once. She embraces him, weak through all of the lives she has just lived through all of time and space.

This is when it gets really interesting. The Doctor sees something that truly shocks him, that leaves him speechless. A man. 

Clara: "Who is that?"

The Doctor: "That is me, everything here is, that's the point."

Clara: "But how can he be? I saw all your faces and he wasn't one of them.

The Doctor: "I said he was me, I didn't say he was the Doctor. The name you choose is like a promise you've made, he's the one who broke the promise. He is my secret."

The Secret: "What I did I did without choice. In the name of peace and sanity." 

The Doctor: "But not in the name of the Doctor."

He turns around, and John Hurt is introduced as the Doctor.

This was just incredible to me. That through all of what's happened since the idea came up, through the BD leak and till today, I didn't get a single whiff of anything hinting at the 11th Doctor's adventure on television coming to an end and an old Secret stepping in to take us with. We all knew, of course, that John Hurt would be in the 50th special, there were apparently rumours that he would play a forgotten regeneration of the Doctor, that he had been involved in the Time War and therefore exiled from memory. That sort of died down when Hurt himself said his part in the special would be in a "kind of trinity".

He would play a part of the Doctor along with David Tennant and Matt Smith. I, along with others, figured it would be a kind of ghost of Christmas past, present and future thing going on. With Tennant being the past, Smith the present and Hurt the future. It seems however that some twisted version of that is what's happening. Hurt is Christmas past, how else would the Eleventh even know of him? People can scream that he was found in the time tunnel stretching all the way from beginning to end all they want, but the Eleventh knew who he was. And that means he's been him. He's not proud at all of that fact, he can't respect him, what he's done is horrible. 

If the rumours are to be believed, that has something to do with the Time War, and I wouldn't look past it. I believe that what will happen now is not the Eleventh dying, not an actual on-screen death at least, but instead of keeping up with the Eleventh and Clara we will start following the Secret. The fact that the episode introduces Hurt as the Doctor means that it isn't just a one-of thing for the anniversary or a mini-arc, at least not how I see it. I think that the entire series is being revamp again like it was when Smith took over. The entire feel and build of the show will become different. I doubt the Secret will bring many companions with him, it just doesn't seem like his style right now. And if we're going to see a man dealing with the concious of something so horrible on his back, I think we'll spend more time in gritty neighbourhoods feeling pain alone than jumping around bright star systems feeling wonder with friends. 

Many will probably dislike this, as they did when Smith came around, but I think it will certainly freshen up the show. A lot of people has started to dislike the episodes coming out, though no one will really say the show has changed or the quality sunk measurably. People have just grown to accustomed to a level of excellence and expect more. Maybe this new approach won't bring more, but it will certainly bring new. An entire new show is going to return after the 50th anniversary special. I don't know how the change will happen, and I'm having a hard time imagining it happening very smoothly. But I do believe and hope it will happen.

Epilogue:

There was just released an interview with Smith and Tennant on playing the Doctor, and they mention "another character" that they can't talk about. They say that he's bemused by how the Tenth and Eleventh act and behave. I hope it's done well, that they don't make the Secret seem too sad and unlikeable. I'm starting to get worried that they won't get something unconfirmed just right, that's how invested I am in this show.

No, I have faith in Moffat. I believe he can do this, that he can pull it off. We are really going towards a great new era of Doctor Who, and I'm looking forward to it.