Game of Thrones “Kissed by Fire”

I’ve been waiting for this day all week.  Game of Thrones is my favorite show on television, with Walking Dead at a close second, and is the only reason I will agree to pay for HBO.  This week’s episode wasn’t as amazing as last week, but comparing yourself to Daenerys’ destruction of Astapor is always going to be tough.

The third of George R.R. Martin’s book is fantastic.  “A Storm of Swords” is filled to the brim with awe inspiring moments so I was excited to delve into this season and see how my imagination compares to David Benioff and D.B. Weiss’.  I’m going to warn you now that I’ve worked all day and am very tired with a long day ahead of me tomorrow so I’m going to jump right into SPOILERS.  Without warning.  Because I’m unpredictable…and tired.

One of the most shocking moments of the book was the trial by battle between Beric Dondarrion and Sandor Clegane.   I mean seriously, who saw Beric coming back from the dead?  Nobody, that’s who.  I was reading along and all of a sudden he gets a sword slicing through his shoulder, arterial spray everywhere.  He’s a goner.  Then, he’s alive.  When I was reading the book I had to go back a few paragraphs to make sure I’d read everything correctly.  The guy gets a mortal wound and just comes back and it is awesome.  Last week they left this story before the fight which drove me crazy, but I was excited for this episode to roll around so I could finally see this battle come to life.  The best part of the fight is Beric lighting his sword on fire, which is visually really F-ing cool, just so you know.  The choreography was fantastic and the battle got even more epic than it was in the book.  The only problem I had with this scene was the directing.  The fight was almost incomprehensible.  Maybe he was trying to convey the chaos of battle, but it doesn’t apply in this fight.  These are seasoned warriors, I want to be in their shoes while they fight, which means there isn’t chaos, but strategy.  There were some really cool moments in the fight, like when Beric Dondarrion lifts the fire sword up in a striking position during a respite in battle.  That was a visual feast, but then they start fighting and you don’t know exactly what’s happening again. 

A weak scene for me was the bath scene between Jaime and Brienne.  Well, I guess I can’t say that exactly.  Jaime’s monologue was fantastic.  I’m pretty sure the camera didn’t cut away for a good two minutes, but he was so captivating in his telling of the slaying of King Aeris that I didn’t even notice.  What happened next might be described as the worst faint ever, and that kind of ruined it for me, but the scene as a whole was good.

The best scene in the episode was the meeting between Tyrion, Tywin, and Cersei.  The camera work was phenomenal, which one would think would be easy in a dialogue scene, but I thought the decision to slowly dolly in during certain parts of the scene was very effective.  Plus, Charles Dance’s performance was superb. 

Is this the best episode in the season?  No, but in this episode’s defense what has happened and what is about to happen are too great.  This episode is setting up what is to come and cannot possibly be as good as the last episode will be.  I can’t wait.

The Awakening

Nothing is better than a good ghost story.  I love sitting in a dark room holding my breath waiting for that scare that will spike my heartbeat, that eerie tone that will send shivers down my spine, that frightening image that will stick behind my eyelids like an illustration on silly putty.  Sadly, “The Awakening” offered very few of these moments.

That’s not to say the movie is all bad.  The bleak cinematography lent the movie an eerie mysterious feel.  The acting of Rebecca Hall was fantastic.  She gave skeptical Florence Cathcart gravity and sometimes a playfulness that drew me in.  In fact, I thought over all the acting was great.  Top that off with a captivating first scene where Florence exposes a fake séance, which opens an interesting question; Should one lay-bare the deceit of a con-man or should they allow the living to have closure even if the closure is a lie?  That’s an opening to remember, but the film unravels from there.

For one, some character behaviors or decisions go unexplained, even if they are integral to the plot.  When Robert Mallory, a teacher of the boarding school where most of the movie takes place played by Dominic West, tries to convince Florence to investigate the possible supernatural murder of a student she laughs him off.  Robert then offends her by using information from her rough childhood to persuade her she kicks him out, but then takes the job.  Why?  Where did she change her mind?  Was she swayed by his reference to her past?  What happened?  Later, Robert is giving Florence a tour of the school and he suddenly acts ill and runs to his room where he has a shaking fit.  Not quite a seizure, but something along those lines, but this is never brought up again.  His fit of the shakes has no consequence on the story.  Why did we see that?  Surely there is a better way to show that he is a broken man without forcing such a weird scene on me then never saying anything.   Add an eclectic plot and my mind starts wondering.

I could’ve forgiven these transgressions if the movie succeeded in scaring me or at least given me the chills, but that rarely, if ever, happened.  Then the ending was so needlessly convoluted and pointless I’m just left with annoyance that another seemingly promising ghost story has failed to deliver.  Even the love story, which I don’t feel needs to be there but it could’ve been another good point, feels forced.

Some great moments do occur in this movie, so by all means watch “The Awakening,” but they aren’t enough to save this meandering somewhat predictable story.

Hannibal “Coquilles”

Even though I admitted to liking Hannibal last week I wasn’t one hundred percent sure.  I found the show generally good, but I wasn’t quite ready to fully accept the show into the universe of the movies.  After spending the last few days thing about Hannibal and where the show would take us next then intensely enjoying this episode I have to admit, I’m invested.  I accept the show into cannon.  Maybe the character’s draw me in or possibly the mysteries, my fascination with the macabre could even be the culprit, but whatever the reason (or mixture of reasons) is, I’m in.  I want more.

“Coquilles” opens with a tortured Will Graham sleepwalking down a country road.  Lecter surmises that Will is sleepwalking because he feels a loss of control.  His recent cases have opened a dark part of himself, he’s even seeing himself as Hobbs in his dreams.  He feels trapped by Crawford into entering the minds of psychopaths.  I’m still unsure about the symbolism of the crow-feathered stag, but I’m starting to believe he has something to do with his feeling of helplessness or the darkness of being in criminal’s minds.  I’m not sure yet.  I could be totally wrong.

Anyway, Will is further challenged when a new killer emerges.  This killer displays his victims as angels with the skin of their backs pulled up to act s their wings.  The killers in this series don’t take the spotlight though, which I really like.  Graham and Crawford work on cases that act to reinforce the themes that occur in their personal life.

The fourth, or fifth, episode (depending on where you live) keeps up the high standards set forth in the prior episodes.  The writing is superb, with absorbing character arcs and an intriguing villain, and the visuals are stunning, the praying angels in this episode are breathtaking in their gruesome beauty and terrifying in their brutality.  I’m excited for next week, the teaser promises Hannibal is going to be brutal; I can’t wait to see Mads Mikkelson finally get violent.

ON TO SPOILERS

Earlier, I said that the serial killers enhance the themes of the episode.  In “Coquilles” is losing control.  The serial killer is suffering from a brain tumor that will kill him.  He’s lost control over his life.  The tumor causes him to see flames around peoples’ heads who he believes are evil so he kills them and turns them into angels (his tumor is surprisingly accurate at finding bad people which I find highly unlikely, but anyway).  In the end, he takes his own life, turning himself into an angel; taking control of his death.

At the beginning of the episode Will Graham is sleepwalking (which Lecter says is because he feels he’s lost control).  Then Will has trouble sleeping because he’s afraid of sleepwalking, he’s afraid of losing control.  All of this is the reaction to him entering evil people’s minds in order to catch them.  At the end of the episode, he goes against his normal anti-social behavior and offers to listen to Crawford as a friend, essentially entering the mind of someone who isn’t evil counter-balancing the darkness of his job.   He’s taking control.

Crawford’s wife is dying of lung cancer, which scares her because she doesn’t control her fate (much like the serial killer), and she’s afraid to talk to her husband because she doesn’t believe he has the time for her.  Crawford senses that something is wrong and feels his wife emotionally distancing herself (losing control).  At the end of the episode he confronts her and offers to stand by her through her illness, taking control of his situation the best he can.  

Person of Interest “In Extremis”

Person of Interest caught my attention before it aired.  The show is based on a screenplay by Jonathon Nolan, who I really respect as a screenwriter as he’s helped his brother, Christopher Nolan, write most of his films.  I don’t know if you understand this about me, but I enjoy Christopher Nolan’s films immensely.  The show started with a cool premise and has taken this idea to some cool areas within the last two seasons. 

One of my favorite aspects of the show is the multitude of different genre episodes you can have with the format provided.  The show is essentially a mystery/crime drama, but instead of rehashing the same kind of story every week, variations on who the Person of Interest is (either a victim or perpetrator) and the moral angles of the story provide many interesting directions for each episode to go.

This week Reese and Finch are trying to save a successful doctor, but they are too late.  The doctor is poisoned by radiation and has only 24 hours to live.  In a cool turn on the usual stories they tell, Reese and Finch help the doctor hunt down the person responsible for his murder.  Meanwhile Fusco is under investigation by Internal Affairs for the murder of a fellow officer.  This story arc was the focus of the episode and it delivered on some emotional punches. 

I was happy to see into Fusco’s past in this episode.  We knew he was a dirty cop from the beginning, but there was always a good side to him.  When he joined Reese and Finch and became one of their men inside the police force you could tell he was proud to not be a corrupt cop anymore.  This always brought up interesting questions about his past for me.  If he is a good person, and I felt he was considering how loyal he became to Reese and Finch, how did he get so bad?  This episode explains it with flashbacks to 2004-2005 when his wife kicked him out of the house and he was offered friendship by Stalls, a fellow officer.  When he learns that Stalls is crooked he is at first uneasy, but Stalls talks him into it and he spiraled out of control.  In this episode we see the quilt he feels about his past.  Then the twist ending was a real shocker, but that’s spoiler talk.

SPOILERS

At first I didn’t really believe Carter’s reaction when Fusco told her about his past crimes.  I understand she’s THE quintessential cop and she believes that once a dirty cop always a dirty cop, but I think that she’s worked with Fusco enough to realize that he’s not a bad guy.  I don’t know.  I can understand kind of, but I have a nagging feeling they had her react that way in order to hide the fact that she was going to dig up the body and save Fusco.  I like the idea of her moral dilemma, but I didn’t find it honest.   It’s possible that I’m adding my own knowledge of Fusco into the equation and maybe she hasn’t seen how good he can be, but her job entails reading people.  I think she had to see.  But that’s a good topic for discussion.  Did you find her reaction honest, or a ham-handed way for the writers to hide their big twist?

Special Edition Paul’s Birthday Post!

Star Trek: The Next Generation “The Best of Both Worlds, Parts 1 &2

Today is a special edition of Watch It-Talk It!  My Roommate’s birthday is today, so Happy Birthday Paul Evans!  As a gift to Paul I took him to see the one night only theatrical release of Star Trek: The Next Generation’s “Best of Both Worlds” episodes.  Paul loves Next Generation and a one night event of one of his favorite shows on his birthday was too much to pass up.  So I’ll be reviewing the Star Trek episodes tonight instead of Madmen.  To incorporate this switch into my schedule I’ll be watching Madmen next week on Tuesday instead of going to the theaters in a simple trade with tonight.  So, if you are waiting on bated breath for my review of Madmen I apologize for the delay, but I’m sure you will understand.

On to the review.

I’m not a big Star Trek fan, I’ve watched a couple of episodes of the original series and I’ve seen bits and pieces of next generation, but I never got too into the franchise.  Of course, I loved the J.J. Abrams movie.  Please Trekkies, hold your death threats until I’m done.  You might like to hear what I have to say.  Going into this movie I didn’t really know what to expect.  Paul told me it would involve The Borg, which I’ve seen a little bit of The Borg before and I find them interesting so I went into the theater with moderately high hopes.  After watching probably my first full Next Generation episode(s) I have to say I enjoyed the experience.  It was a well told story with plenty of tension and character conflicts. 

Sure, there were some cheesy moments, but they didn’t detract from the show as a whole.  I’d almost say they added a level of charm.  I chuckled every commercial break because I noticed there are only two ways to cut to commercials in The Next Generation.  You can either do a low angle dolly into someone making an intense face, or you can have a spaceship flying away from the screen past a terrifying visual (destroyed starships or The Borg’s ship flying past Saturn on the way to assimilate Earth, or as I like to call it: Borgify something.)  Also, I still don’t understand what Whoopi Goldberg is doing on that ship, but God bless her she can do whatever she wants apparently.  I’ve never watched a full episode, but she always seems to randomly pop up whenever Paul is watching an episode in the living room.

My favorite character through line was Riker’s.  A normally success driven man has been turning down offers to captain his own ship.  Then, in the midst of this episode he’s forced to deal with Commander Shelby who intends to take his job.  Riker is forced to deal with whatever inside him is causing him to refuse a captain’s rank on another starship.  By the end of the two episode arc he’s had to captain the Enterprise, when Picard is captured by The Borg, and successfully rescues Picard and destroys The Borg’s ship.  I don’t know if it was ever explicitly said in the show, but I think Riker sees that he’s integral part of the Enterprise team.  If Picard had been captured with anybody else as first officer they all very well could have died.  He might not be the captain of The Enterprise, but he is just as important to their crew.  Also, if he would have taken the captain’s chair on The Melbourne, where it was stated he would go, he would’ve been killed when The Federation attacked The Borg’s ship.  So The Enterprise is his home and he is where he belongs.  That’s what I took from it anyway.

Another short post tonight, but I must go celebrate my friend’s birthday.  He only gets one a year I have to make the best of it.  Thanks for reading, and tell me your thoughts below!

Community “Digital Exploration of Interior Design”

I was extremely excited to get back to the adventures of my favorite study group.  Since I started watching Community about a month ago I haven’t gone more than a couple of days without watching at least one episode.  In most cases I watched three or four at a time, don’t judge.  The show is that addicting.  To be honest, if it wasn’t for this blog I’d still be watching right now.  Hooray for productivity!

One of the aspects of the show I really like is how the show remains character driven.  Community isn’t just about the antics of a study group at Greendale Community College.  Their antics are always driven by the characters. 

In this episode Greendale opens a Subway in their cafetorium, which sends Shirley and Pierce on a war path to shut it down since they had wanted to open their own sandwich shop in the cafetorium.  Britta is dragged into their scheme when the gang learns that one of the students has changed his name to Subway, which allows Subway to open a branch at the school.  Britta, being Britta, is outraged that a corporation would be allowed to turn a person into a puppet of their corporation and wants to rebel against them.

Another story line emerges when Troy and Abed, recently kick out of their apartment which is being fumigated, decide to build a pillow fort, but when Troy wants to turn their pillow fort into a blanket/pillow fort to beat a world record they turn against each other.

Meanwhile, Jeff realizes, after two and a half years, that the students have lockers.  When he and Annie open his locker for the first time they find a hate letter to Jeff.  He spends the rest of the episode trying to come to terms with being disliked by “Kim,” who left him the letter. 

All of these storylines lead to crazy antics including Pierce, played by the great Chevy Chase, drinking ink from pens because he thinks they’re mini-flasks, Troy and Abed starting a war between the pillow fort and the blanket fort, and Jeff hunting down Kim to learn about how inconsiderate he is to people. 

As always, this episode is very well written.  The writers always amaze me with their ability to structure an episode, which I respect because that is something I would like to get better at in my own writing.

This post is abnormally short, but Community has only half hour episodes so I don’t have quite as much to say other than I can’t wait until next week when I get to watch “Blankets and Pillows,” in which the blanket and pillow war will come to a climax.

Oblivion

Over the past few days I’ve heard the same story about Oblivion from many different critics: Fantastic first half followed by a lackluster second half.  So, for my first trip to the theaters with this blog, I decided to check Oblivion out for myself.

Coming to this movie I wasn’t sure what to expect.  The concept looked cool, and the visuals were great judging from the trailers, but I never really trust movies the Tom Cruise is in.  I’m saying Tom Cruise is a bad actor, on the contrary I enjoy most of his work, but some of his movies blow.  Let’s be honest.  Take Knight and Day for example, loved his character, but found the movie pretty boring.  On the other hand, he’s done some fantastic movies: Top Gun, Collateral, Mission Impossible.  When it comes down to Tom Cruise, I just never know.  To me, this movie encapsulates all of my feelings about Tom Cruise’s career.  Oblivion is both good and bad, but overall enjoyable.

As promised, this movie starts strong.  We’re introduced to this future Earth that was attacked by aliens called Scavengers…I think.  Throughout the movie they’re referred to as “scavengers,” but then you find out the scavengers are…you know what?  Screw it. They’re scavengers.  Anyway, they blew up our moon (the debris of the moon is starting to form a ring around the Earth which creates one of my favorite visuals in the movie) which causes massive earthquakes and tsunamis to wipe out most of our population.  Then they sent in their ground troops to finish us off.  In a last ditch effort to stop them the humans use nuclear weapons to win the war which leaves most of the planet uninhabitable.  Needing a new place to live humans built a humongous space station called the Tet that hovers over Earth’s surface and acts as a platform for sending surviving humans to Titan, Saturn’s moon, where the human race now lives.  Jack Harper and Victoria Olson work as a team, technician and communications officer respectively, to maintain the drones that protect the power generators, they collect energy from Earth’s oceans for the colony on Titan, from the scavengers that remain on Earth’s surface.  All of this is set up with a voice-over from Jack Harper at the beginning of the movie.  Talk about an impressive beginning to a story.

The mysteries that crop up at the beginning of the movie drive the first half.  What’s Jack Harper’s past?  (Jack and Victoria were required to have their memories wiped when they took the job.)  Who is the woman in Jack’s dreams?  What happened to the missing drone?  There are more, but I don’t want to spoil the fun for people who haven’t seen the movie.  The point is, I was really digging this movie.  Then the second half, while a logical and enjoyable continuation of the story, seemed predictable and shallow.  I guessed one of the biggest twists in the movie within the first 10 minutes. 

SPOILERS!

Jack and Victoria are clones.

SPOILERS OVER.

That being said, I still really enjoyed this movie even though it devolved into something predictable.  If I had a star system I would give it 3.5 out of 5.

SPOILERS!

Okay, let’s talk spoilers.  I want to discuss some inconsistencies.

1.    When Jack is flying to his cabin at the beginning of the movie, why did Victoria ask where he was going?  He’s obviously been there tons of times; he built a cabin for Christ’s sake.  Sure, when he enters the canyon where he’s built his cabin Victoria can’t see him on their G.P.S. (or whatever the aliens use to track Jack’s craft), but she would’ve seen him disappearing off the radar in that area enough times she would’ve asked him sooner.  Doesn’t make sense.

2.    How did Malcolm Beech call down The Odyssey by broadcasting coordinates into space?  Was the Odyssey just floating around waiting for coordinates to land?  If so, how would Malcolm know this?  The humans don’t exactly have a bunch of technology.  How did he get this information?

3.    Supposing Malcolm found out how to call down the Odyssey, and he knew Jack’s wife was onboard (which I’m assuming was his main reason for calling the ship down in the first place.)  why did he act surprised when she introduced herself as Jack’s wife?  I guess if he didn’t know Jack’s wife was onboard the ship he was hoping the ship itself would jog his memory and Jack’s wife was just a happy accident, but if he knew how to call the ship down from space I figure he would probably have access to a roster of who was onboard.

Other than those qualms and the over use of common sci-fi tropes (i.e. Jack and Victoria being clones and the destruction of the mother ship finishing the smaller drones) I enjoyed this film.  The cinematography was beautiful and the action was fun.  I’ll probably watch it again.  By the way, one of the best one liners before a character kills the main villain: “fuck you, Sally.”

Also, what was with the blatant rip off of HAL 9000?  Fuck you Sally, indeed.

Game of Thrones “And Now His Watch has Ended”

DISCLAIMER:

I’m currently reading The Song of Ice and Fire series and at the moment I’m in the middle of the fourth book.  That being said, I don’t want to spoil either the television or the book series for anyone, but, because I love discussing this story, a lot of what I want to talk about will cross into spoiler territory, whether that includes discussing specific scenes in the show, how the book differs from the show, or what I’m excited to see in the future.  SPOILERS WILL MORE THAN LIKELY LIE AHEAD, READ AT YOUR OWN RISK! 

Okay, I’m glad we got that out of the way because I’m super excited to talk about this episode.

     “And Now His Watch has Ended” might be among my favorite episodes so far.  Many of the moments in the book that I loved were brought to life in this episode, and some moments that I don’t believe were in the book, but are amazing none the less.

     First off is the introduction of Beric Dondarrion.  Dondarrion leads the “Brotherhood Without Banners” which, for me, was one of the most shocking story-lines in the book and I can’t wait to see how people react if they don’t know what’s coming.  In this episode Arya and Sandor Clegane are brought to the cave the the “Brotherhood Without Banners” operate from.  There, Sandor is held to court for his killing of innocents and is offered a trial by battle.  Next week we get to see Sandor face off against Beric for his freedom which leads to one of the more shocking moments in the book.

     In the continuing journey of Brienne and Jaime to King’s Landing a scene occurs that I don’t remember directly from the book, but worked wonderfully.  Last episode Jaime and Brienne were being held captive by The Brave Companions, who are in the service of Roose Bolton.  Jaime, in one of his first steps to becoming a character I actually like, saved Brienne from being raped and paid for it when Vargo Hoat cut off his hand.  In this episode he is further persecuted, having to wear his disembodied hand (his sword hand, by the way.  That is important) around his neck and is tricked into drinking horse piss when he collapses of dehydration.  Jaime tries to fight back, but being in bad health and without his sword hand, he is quickly beaten.  After this ridicule he is ready to give up and die.  When Brienne learns of this she tells Jaime that he has gotten his first taste of the real world where everyone has important things taken from them and he whines, cries, and quits, she tells him to stop being such a bloody woman.  That was just a fantastic scene, well written and well acted by both Gwendoline Christie and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, and it really put Jaime’s struggles in perspective.  So good.  I want to eat it with a fork.

     A scene that surprised me was the scene between Varys and Tyrion where Varys tells of how he came to be a eunuch.  A sorcerer cut off his testicles and used them to communicate to a phantom voice through a fire (which, ew and ouch and holy freaking shit are words that come to mind).  Varys has built himself up from nothing and gained a seat in the small council of the king to exact revenge on the sorcerer that did this to him.  After this speech, which disturbed me and at first I felt it was a little forced, he reveals that he has the sorcerer in a box and he will get his revenge soon.  I don’t remember this scene from the book.  I vaguely remember hearing a back story for Varys, but I don’t remember anything about sorcerers so that’s strange, but holy freaking shit was that scene cool.

     Speaking of Varys, he actually has a lot of scenes in this episode.  We learn about his back story with Tyrion (still, ouch and ew) then he uncovers a plot being hatched by Petyr Baelish concerning Sansa Stark.  He proceeds to play detective and visits Olenna Tyrell, brilliantly played by Diana Rigg, to hatch a scheme to save Sansa from Baelish.  I really liked spending more time with Varys.  He’s an interesting character who is very good at scheming and playing this “Game of Thrones,” even though I don’t believe he wants the throne for himself.  Watching him manipulate people is always entertaining, and watching him being manipulated by Olenna Tyrell was hilarious.

     Along with all the other great scenes in this episode (this includes so many that I’ve left out of this blog) comes a scene I have been waiting almost a year to see, Daenerys’ slave up-rising in Astapor.  Daenerys shows how much of a badass she is when she buys 8,000 slave soldiers, The Unsullied, from the slaver Kraznys for the price of her biggest dragon.  When they meet to complete the deal Daenerys hands over the dragon to Kraznys and gains the whip that allows the master to control The Unsullied.  Then she reveals that she knows Valyrian, which Kraznys has been degrading her in this language for the last three episodes and I believe in the book one actually had to know Valyrian to control the slaves so he was going to basically cheat her out of a dragon, and commands her dragon to kill Kraznys. Then she tells the slaves to kill all of the slave owners and sack the town, freeing every slave they find.  When this is done, she frees the slaves and offers them a place in her army only if they want it and, because she is such an ultimate badass, every single slave joins her army.  How freaking badass is that?  Have I said badass enough?  I’ll say it again, because that was B.A.D.A.S.S.

     I could go on about this episode for another 1,000 words, but I have things to do.  If anything else jumped out about the episode that you want to discuss, or if you want to talk more about anything Game of Thrones I’m down.  Leave a comment.  Just please, please, PLEASE don’t ruin anything in the book series for me.  Pretty please.  With sugar on top.  Okay, I trust you guys.  Don’t let me down.

Les Misѐrables

     Les Misѐrables, directed by Tom Hooper, is an emotional powerhouse supported by A-list actors: Anne Hathaway, Hugh Jackman, Russel Crowe, and I suppose you could add Amanda Seyfried in that list.  I expected them to steal the show, but to my surprise even the lesser known cast members knock it out of the park.

     During the Academy Awards, and the weeks leading up to the awards, all I heard about was Anne Hathaway’s performance of “I Dreamed a Dream,” and how amazing she did (and believe me, I don’t disagree.  She did a phenomenal job throughout the whole of her surprisingly short role.), but nobody mentions Samantha Bark’s “On My Own” (which I will admit damn near broke my heart), or Eddie Redwyne’s “Empty Chairs At Empty Tables,” or the unbridled fun of “Master of the House” performed by Helena Bonham Carter and Sasha Baron Cohen.  I can’t think of one bad performance in this movie except for Prisoner #36 in the first scene.  He has obviously never pulled a boat into a dry dock before. Ass.

     I find Hooper’s decision to use hand-held cameras throughout the movie really interesting.  At first I didn’t like how he was using this technique.  Unwarranted use of hand-held cameras can get on my nerves quickly.  When I feel like the characters are experiencing an earthquake while they nonchalantly discuss sandwiches it takes me out of the movie.  It shatters the magic of the movie.  As I watched this movie, though, I began to realize the brilliance of this strategy.  I began to feel like I was watching the action in a theater, but instead of being in the audience I was on stage with the actors, seeing their performances from an intimate distance.   It was a cool experience that I don’t think I’ve felt while watching a movie.

SPOILERS

This strategy didn’t always work, though.  The sword fight between Valjean and Javert felt too shaky.  I was no longer watching this action on a stage, or in the hospital where they fight, I was again sitting in my living room watching my TV which, oddly, is the last place I want to be while watching a movie.  I want to be whisked away.  I want magic, damn it.

SPOILERS ARE DONE.  YOU ARE SAFE.

All in all, I really enjoyed Les Misѐrables.  It was dark, it was emotional, and it was spectacular.  I’d recommend it to anyone with an open mind for musicals, and those of you who aren’t I would make you watch it anyway.  You might walk into this movie thinking musicals are dumb, but I would bet money most would walk out liking this one.  So there you are. Go watch it.  Then don’t tell anyone you cried.  Or tell your girlfriend, I hear they find that cute.

Hannibal "Potage"

     Everybody remembers Anthony Hopkins as the famous Dr. Hannibal Lecter.  That is fact.  In 1991, when he won an Academy Award for his role as the sociopathic doctor, he engrained himself in our culture as the epitome of fear.  Hopkin’s portrayal of Hannibal was even chosen by the American Film Institute as the #1 movie villain.  Empire magazine lists him in the top 5 Greatest Characters of All Time.  I will speak for everyone on this.  If you watch Silence of the Lambs you will get chills when Hannibal looks out at you from your screen, looming over you (if you have a large enough TV), staring directly into your soul (no matter the screen size).

           

     I watched these movies growing up and I’ve always thought Hannibal Lecter was the most chilling movie villain ever.  The Best.  Hands Down.  Shut up Darth Vader fans, he was good, but Hannibal Lecter would have Vader crying in a corner before ripping off his face and eating his liver…with some fava beans…and a nice chianti.  Sorry, couldn’t reasist.

            

     You can understand my apprehension when I learned NBC was creating a Hannibal Lecter series without Anthony Hopkins.  How could they pull this off with THE Hannibal Lecter??  To say the least, this was a show I had to watch even if I thought the show was destined for disaster.

            

     The daunting task of filling Anthony Hopkins’ shoes rests on Mad Mikkelsen.  LE CHIFFRE!!  I loved him in Casino Royale so I had faith in him as an actor, but come on,  Anthony Hopkins.  After watching the first three episodes, to be honest, I’m still not sure.  What Mikkelsen brings to the character is different than what Hopkins brought.  Hopkins had a magnetic aura that filled you with unease, but drew you in against your will.  He would look into your soul and become your fears, but he was so damned well cultured.  Mikkelsen is still cultured, but that magnetic aura is only reserved for instances and fleeting moments.  On one hand, I miss that intensity in the character, on the other hand I believe Mikkelsen’s character more as a human because he seems more natural.  The fact that he can be so charming and normal is, in some ways, more frightening.  He lures you in with charm, but you know that he kills and eats people for the love of power.  For these reasons I’m choosing to withhold my definite opinion on Mikkelsen until I see more of his performance. 

            

      With that being said, I actually do enjoy the show.  The fact that NBC would give this show thirteen episodes on the strength of the script alone, along with the 10 o’clock slot, which puts it just out of the safe harbor hours, makes me think that this show could be heading really cool places.  To me the most interesting part of the show are the character arcs so far. 

SPOILERS

For instance:  Will Graham, played by Hugh Daney, develops paternal feelings toward a serial killer’s daughter after he shoots said serial killer.  I don’t think I’ve seen a character arc take this turn, but it’s completely justified within the character.

SAFE AGAIN

     These character arcs, great dialogue, and enough twists and turns to keep your head spinning make “Hannibal” extremely fun to watch.  Some of the most fun for me are the scenes where Mikkelsen gets to stretch his legs as Hannibal.  His best line so far: He tells Agent Crawford, played by Laurence Fishburne, that he would love to “Have you and you mother for dinner.”  That is classic Lecter.  Mikkelsen doesn’t deliver the line like Hopkins would, but it’s unsettling how he almost slipped that line by me and I was looking for it.  He says it with a sense of nonchalance and pleasantry that you almost don’t catch the double meaning.  That, to me, is great.

           

     Another aspect of the story I was worried about was the visuals.  The Lecter movies have always been graphic in their depiction for crime.  I find the gruesome visuals important to solidify how bad these people are and how dangerous Hannibal can be despite his well mannered demeanor.  As it turns out, I worried for nothing.  “Hannibal” has some VERY unsettling and gruesome images.  (I’m talking to you human/mushroom farm.)  Sometimes I forget that I’m watching a show on NBC when I see a naked woman impaled on deer antlers. To my knowledge you only see this kind of graphic storytelling on AMC or other cable channels, not so much on a major channel like NBC. 

OKAY, WE’RE MOVING INTO SPOILER TERRITORY!  ARE YOU READY TO BE SPOILED?

            

     One of the more interesting character arcs is Hannibal’s.  He seems to be taking people under his wing and trying to turn them into killers like himself.  In the first episode he called Gareth Hobbs and warned him that Will was on his trail which caused a chain of events leading to Will shooting Hobbs.  This caused some commotion because this was Will’s first time taking another human life and Hannibal almost desperately gets Will to confess that he enjoyed killing Hobbs.

           

     In a similar fashion, when Abigail Hobbs (Gareth’s daughter) kills one of her father’s victim’s brothers Hannibal helps her hide the body and, very much like he did Clarice Starling, starts to get inside her head.

            

     My early theory is he’s trying to prove that everyone is a killer like him, therefore making him normal instead of evil.  This seems very un-Hannibal-esque, but he was so desperate to hear Will admit that he enjoyed killing Hobbs I started feeling like he needed to know that Will was like him and he wasn’t alone.  I get the same feeling with Abigail.

            

As a last and side note, how long do you think Freddie Lounds, the tabloid blogger, will last until Hannibal kills her?

He has deemed her as “very rude,” and everyone knows that Hannibal hates rude people.

Here's Some Knowledge

     So, I’m starting a blog.  I’m sure you realize this already considering you are on a blogging website and more than likely you came here because I posted this link of facebook and you are my dear friends.  The point is you are a smart person. 

           

     Are my compliments making you enjoy my first blog?  No?  Well, I guess I’ll get back to the subject at hand.

            

     I’m starting this blog to spur myself into writing everyday and to get over this unsubstantiated yet unwavering fear of putting my work in front of other people.  I will write a daily review over a television show or movie, depending on what day it is, and post it on here for you crazy kids to ingest with your eyes.  And because I like order and lists I’m making a schedule so you fine folks know what I’m going to write on any given day.  I’ll even take requests! 

Monday- Game of Thrones (duh, that show’s amazing.)

Tuesday- I’m going to the moving pictures building to scope out a new release

Wednesday- Community (POP! POP!)

Thursday- Madmen (in a tux, promise.)

Friday- Person of Interest

Saturday- Hannibal (Mads Mikkelson?  WHAAAT?)

Sunday- I’ll peep a Blu-ray…or Netflix…or whatever I want to do.  It’s my blog. Shush.

     Now, obviously, most of my attention is going to television shows so eventually one or all of them will be off air at any given time, in which case I’ll swap them out with other shows as needed.  And you can request any movies (some weeks are off the table in that regard: i.e. Iron Man 3 and Man of Steel just to name a couple) or TV shows.  TV shows will take me longer to get to, but I promise if you request a show that looks interesting I will give it a shot.

           

     As for other details, if I’m reviewing shows that I am current with, I will start with the newest episode.  In the case of Community and Madmen I will start where I am in the series.  In Community I am about halfway through the third season and I’ll be starting Madmen on Thursday when I watch it for the first time.  You get to see my opinion of a show from the very beginning, aren’t you excited?  I know I am. 

            

     As far as spoilers go, I will try to warn you fine readers before I delve into super-spoiler territory, but considering that I will spend a lot of time talking about story points and technical aspects spoilers are a given.  If I warn you and you tread into that territory anyway, it’s your own damn fault. 

            

     Other than that I hope you have as much fun reading my reviews as I will have writing them and I welcome your comments.  I love discussing movies so if you have a point to make that you feel I missed or if you disagree with me, let me know.  Leave me a comment.  I’ll type until I’m blue in the face…that analogy doesn’t work quite as well on a computer, but I will discuss movies with anyone interested.