TV REVIEW: BLACK MIRROR, WHITE CHRISTMAS

Black Mirror, a show that regularly applies imagined technology from the not-so-distant future against the cracks of human weakness. In Charlie Brooker’s dystopian British Christmas special, extrapolates how Google Glass and implanted tech might dilute our sense of humanity in the most disturbing of fashion. Black Mirror episodes usually run around forty-five minutes; just enough time to introduce characters, and delve deeply and thoroughly into one central concept. At nearly twice that length, “White Christmas” has more space to kill. splitting up the running time into three interlocking tales and a frame story. All of which ultimately connect together to tell one big story. We learn the consequences of humans using technology to reform how we see the world and to force those closest to us into new roles or contexts. This special is supremely disturbing but necessary holiday viewing.

As sad-sack Joe wakes up, dazed, in a snowbound cottage, with the radio and Jon Hamm (Mad Men’s Don Draper) preparing Christmas lunch. You want to know what on earth is going on?

Seems these two people have been stuck with each other in a desolate place of the earth. There uncomfortable body language and dull conversation gives a sense that they have both done something wrong if their former lives. Being Christmas Matt (Jon Hamm) a good-looking man with charisma. Feels they need to open up and conversate more. Joe is hesitant about making conversation at all. So Matt open up first proceedings , explaining that he used to have a hobby helping men attract women, counselling them in real time. This segment introduces augmented Google Glass. People now have Z-Eye implants let them control and share what they see. 

 It’s in this kind of technological advance - one that doesn’t seem far off in the realm of possibility but that has the potential to shatter human relationships. We learn that Matt is a dubious character, he is a seedy pickup artist, who coaches loser into getting woman. All while conducting to a voyeuristic choir of online pervs. Yet one of his clients, upon meeting a glamorous but severely disturbed woman at a Christmas office party, had unwittingly persuaded her to kill both him and herself – to silence the voices in their heads. We saw the fellow vainly insisting that the voice in his bonce was real. “No one understands what that’s like!” she smiled, as her fatally spiked drinks claimed them both.

Hamm gives Matt this atmosphere of being all nice, friendly and good-natured. Both those facts make you want to trust him. He is also has this perfect kind of swaggering, smug Yank. That first story helps breakdown his character. You become invested in this story. Like Joe you become more intrigued about this what this handsome man has done. Where lured into his story web. As he asked Joe “What do you think my real job was ?”

The next interwoven story. Tell us of his previous actual job. Starts of in a hospital with what seem like a simple procedure. Then turns all kind of dark and twisted. We are introduced to a beautiful porcelain-skinned spoilt brat. That has make a cookie of herself in order to run her digitally controlled house. Trouble is the copy is completely sentient. Matt job is to break this digital doppelgangers into obedient slaves. Forever trapped in the dwelling’s circuitry with nothing to do but draw blinds and make toast. What are our responsibilities to the people who provide our consumer luxury? And is digital enslavement something we should be signing a petition about anytime soon?  You’ll never again take your phone’s “intelligent personal assistant” for granted again. This was the darkest of the 3 stories. At this point in proceedings, Matt is the villain of the piece. He’s manipulative, deceitful and views people by category.

We jump back to the cabin in the snow. With Matt confessing all this horrible sins. Joe finally open up about what he did. Turns out that the former’s girlfriend fell pregnant, had permanently blocked him and vanished. Why? Because, as he eventually learnt, in an appallingly tense scene, the baby wasn’t his. Joe kills the grandfather and left the tot to freeze, he had been found by police, unwilling to talk. The slack is quickly picked up by the final segment, which ties all the elements of the previous hour with deft efficiency, twist and unblinking bleakness.

If you thought there was something fishy about Matt and Joe confines, you were right. This was in fact an artificial construct. As Matt being digitally sent in by police to tease a confession out of Joe’s cookie. Like an episode of any procedural cop drama. Matt was only helping to gain freedom. Although he might have gain it, he’s still being punished for his previous, illicit hobby. Now being universally blocked, reducing the rest of humanity to indistinct, inaudible pixels. But, as the real Joe languished in jail, his cookie had a yet worse deal, incarcerated for millennia in the digital snow-globe in which it had been all along, with I Wish it Could Be Christmas Everyday playing on a never-ending loop.

It was thrilling stuff: escapist entertainment with a very real-world sting in its tail. Like the stronger of the previous Black Mirrors, it exaggerated present-day technology and obsessions to subtle but infernal effect, a nightmare-before-Christmas reminder that to revere our digital gizmos is to become their pathetic slave

5 out of 5 dystopian Christmas waffles

MOVIE REVIEW: THE HOBBIT- BATTLE OF FIVE ARMIES (2014)

Concluding the second trilogy set in the Lord of the Rings universe, the question is: does The Battle of Five Armies provide a satisfying conclusion to The Hobbit trilogy. Added to this, there is the added pressure of providing a conclusion that lives up to the previous Lord of the Rings trilogy. Under all this pressure, The Hobbit unfortunately buckles, often feeling bloated and full of pointless action sequences while missing the emotional investment necessary to make the action sequences worthwhile.
 
The Battle of Five Armies picks up where the previous Hobbit movie lets off, with the dwarves awakening the dragon and failing to kill it, setting it on a rampage on the human settlement close by. Gandalf has also just been captured by the Necromancer and an army of Orcs is ready to march upon the good people of middle earth. Add into this an army of elves and dwarves coming to try and claim the treasures in Smaug's horde, it appears as if all the pieces are in place for a grandiose conclusion to The Hobbit Trilogy.
 
And this is where the movie begins to fall over. With a rampaging dragon serving as the prologue and the titular Battle of Five Armies, this movie has allot of action. It begins with the dragon fight, with Smaug rampaging through the human settlement. This battle scene starts the movie on the right path, as the characters and emotional investment has been established from the previous movies. After this, we have Elrond, Saruman and Galadriel stage a rescue of Gandalf and defeat of the Necromancer which is also really cool.

And then there is a giant lull in the action as we are teased with a possibility of the dwarves fighting the elves and humans, which we know is never going to happen. This part is meant to establish the characters involved in the final battle and their internal struggles, but it just feels bloated. And that is exactly how the final battle feels. The Orcs never feel as a threat as main characters just seem to go through them like a hot knife through butter. It doesn't help that most of the main battle sequences are concluded off screen. This is because the movie often focuses on individual characters that we don't care about. This movie feels like it goes out of its way to show how cool all there characters are as opposed to showing the characters and the battles progress more naturally.
 
This is a movie that the Lord of the Rings production crew seems to have used to take a victory lap of showing characters being cool and pandering to them. It tries to do major battle sequences, but it never feels like the characters are in any danger. Compared to Return of the King with its tighter focus and much more engaging battle sequences, the Battle of Five Armies feels like an unsatisfying conclusion to the Hobbit trilogy. Even as a standalone movie, it feels like an over bloated action movie that is ineffective in establishing an emotional connection with the audience which is only saved by a couple of cool sequences towards the beginning of the movie.

2 out of 5 Dragon-toasted Waffles.
 
 

COMIC BOOK REVIEW: MEMETIC #1

This week, along with a hefty stack of all the other comics I’m reading, I picked up Memetic #1 from Boom! Studios. I remember reading about and the premise of a weaponized meme that destroy civilisation and bring about the apocalypse as pretty interesting. Actually a suck for apocalypstic story. That was the whole reason I saw Mel Gibsons ‘Apocalypto’, which was a great movie and you should check it out. Memetric does well at building spense and intrigue. Only a 3 part mini series so establishing world, character and atmosphere is critical special in the first few pages of a comic book. The visual sell that before moment of everyday life. With our protagonist Aaron following an argument with his boyfriend,all done via texts or facebook messenger. Aaron finds unable able to sleep so he starts scrolling through Raddit (That world version of Reddit) in his room rather than going to sleep. Not long into Aaron internet procrastinating that he comes across a picture of a sloth, smiling and giving a thumbs up surrounded by trippy circles and colours. A Raddit post author insists that the image makes them “feel amazing”. Due to Aaron all too human mutant ability to distinguish colour (other than blue). Think that Aaron having a hearing aid will play an important part of the story.

 As the day progresses all of his friends, and soon the entire world becomes infatuated with the ‘Good Times Sloth’, with everyone reporting euphoria and a general feeling of happiness.to the point where many as it a sign from god. Really like how the sloth is taking of the background of the whole book. From giant TV to community billboards. You start not being able to unsee the it. Only those who can’t see the picture, like Marcus, the blind former head of US Military Intelligence, or unique cases like Aaron aren’t infatuated. Artist Eryk Donovan does a excellent job of setting up the atmosphere of uncertainty and mystery. He captures the invisible thread of information following on top our world with bold text message blocks. Give a sense of movement having the Sloth showing up everywhere not just in the background. Show how the image has affected the person.Either by having the image set in the character eyes like it was burned in, to just being happy/crazy by thrusting the image on everything like the crazy cat lady from the simpson. 

All it excellent service to Writer James Tynion IV. The character are relatable and fauld to begin with. Then in a few short pages there breakdown into crazed killers. If his point was to ponder if a meme spread destruction worldwide would it be very successfully. Than I would answer yes it would.Memetic delivers it’s first issue in style, with a truly gripping and unique storyline brought to life with stylish visuals which help subtly illustrate the direction of the plot, this series is a must buy, departing from the traditional superhero genre commonly associated with comics to something a little more intriguing and unique.









 4 out of 5 ‘Good Times Sloth’

MOVIE REVIEW: JOHN WICK (2014)

Keanu Reeves is back to his action roots in his latest offering, John Wick. An pure-bred action movie that excels in driving home a relentless pace above all else, John Wick sees Keanu play the titular hero, a retired hitman who just wanted to be left in peace following the death of his wife (by cancer). Unfortunately, life has other plans. Unfortunate for life, that is.

His wife's dying gift to him is a dog, which he takes care of. That is, right up until some Russian thugs break in, beat him up and kill his dog. Still grieving, Keanu then decides to track down the thugs and make them pay for killing his dog, stepping back into the hired killer game. And because you know it is one of those movies, the thugs just happen to be involved in the Russian mob (one of the thugs is the head guys son),

What follows is a rampage of revenge as Keanu takes up the mantle of professional hitman once again and carves a bloody swathe through the Russian mob. He has nothing to gain from his rampage, but for the next 80 minutes we are taken with him through slick gunplay and hand-to-hand combat sequences. From the first time he glares at the camera following the death of his dog, you know it has hit the fan for the people that had the gall to cross him.

In that firs glare, you see that Keanu Reeves has nailed the part of John Wick, He has the action chops and the detached coolness that is so often misused in other movies put to great effect here. He is also backed by a stellar supporting cast playing mobsters and other hitman out to get the bounty placed on his head as everyone is caught up in a frantic pace with just enough quiet moments to let the audience catch its breath.

After every quiet moment, we get a slick action sequence where Keanu does his stuff. These action sequences feel gritty and dirty. This is because every encounter feels like anything could happen. As opposed to one character being a superhero, there is always a threat of danger and henchmen aren't treated lightly, always posing some threat to Keanu during the hand-to-hand fighting or gunplay.

John Wick is a really good action movie. It never tries to be anything more than what it is and drives a relentless pace forward. It also puts in enough quite moments so that the audience isn't too overwhelmed with a cacophony of noise.

5 out of 5 Wick'ed Waffles.

Sword Art Online

I used to love anime when I was youngling, from pokemon to evangelion and everything in between. The shows were completely different from the usual cartoons I would watch. Was the main reason I became curious about japanese culture. As I grew older I found that anime was just the same stereotypical characters placed in another different setting. My interest in the medium dried up, except for Miyazaki films. My recent trip to japan and the advent of site that stream anime has seen my enjoyment of the medium return.One thing I learnt is that there is a massive amount of anime. Was a rather daunting task, trying to pick one to start watching.

The premise of Sword Art Online is instead of being stuck in the matrix your were instead trapped in World of Warcraft.  Our story follows Kirito, one of the 10,000 lucky people to log into Sword Art Online, a new, highly anticipated virtual reality MMORPG. Eventually  the players discover that they cannot log out when the creator of the game, Akihiko Kayaba issues them an ultimatum: if they die in the game, so will their bodies in the real world. The only way out is to pass all one-hundred floors—each a self-contained world in and of itself—and defeat the game's final boss.

The idea a might not have been very original but I thought there was a lot they might be able to do with the series. The first few episode are a bit flat, as the character and the world are only just started to be fleshed out. The series shined from around episodes 4-13 and I wish they would have kept with that pace. I was totally loving the show in those episode, watching Kirito go from noob to badass was great. 

 Seeing how others character adjusted to their new lives inside the game drew me in. The psychological implications of being in a virtual reality for so long that you start to wonder if the real world even exists. And if it does exist, should everyone still be trying to get back to it instead of giving up and starting to make new lives for themselves inside the game world. That was so smart and played out in the background of the shows main story. Allowed the creator time to play with different story ideas. Sometime  it's a mystery; sometimes it's a love story; sometimes criminal suspense; sometimes supernatural horror; and sometimes it's a straight-up fantasy adventure.

It was such a disappointment that halfway through the series they resolve the main arch of getting out of the game. Which would have been fine, if they decided to focus their attention on the players adjusting back into the real word. It was so frustrating to watch the show just repeat itselfs. I wanted to know how Kirito would handle being powered down to normal human after being a super saiyan ninja warrior. Do we get that explanation ? Nope. He just wakes up and moves on to finding his girlfriend. It was such a missed opportunity. The show just feels like it became a wish-fulfillment drug for male teenagers and adults who are addicted to online gaming and can't deal with real-life challenges.

Really annoys me that they went in the same direction. Would have been great for the show to talk to its audience about an issue that relevant to todays society. As gaming addiction is real, I myself have had a good friend lose themselves to it. More important to show these issue and how they affect people. If handled well it could have been a better story then the fantasy one. Highly suggest watching the first 14 episode, they’re highly enjoyable. After that just take sometime to think about the message the shows is talking about.

3 out of 5 virtual reality super saiyan ninja warriors.

Exodus: Gods and Kings

While sporadically stirring, and suitably epic in its ambitions, Exodus: Gods and Kings is uneven and lacking in emotion. The real shame is watching famed British director Ridley Scott, the visionary behind such classics as Alien, Blade Runner and Gladiator. In a creative dead zone. The movie hits all the major points, like checking off boxes on a list, yet tells its tale at an arms-length with paper-thin characters. I would actually suggest watching DreamWorks, The Prince of Egypt to get a more nuance and emotional oomph then Exodus.

Exodus is one of the most telling examples of storytelling mediocrity .Which is completely overshadowed by amazing  production values. The visual are clearly lavishly splurged upon . From the monuments through to the slums of the slave's right down to the extra clad streets, Exodus brims with life and a detailed and often incredible visual palette. What’s the point to all these amazing production values if the script never engages it’s characters. Feels like Scott has become more concerned with spectacle than story.

Before seeing the movie, the media were making a lot of noise around the casting of actors in Exodus. I honestly don't care, Hollywood been making biblical movie with high profile actors since forever. What’s more important to me is if the cast can turn that performance into something. That’s their job. Christian Bale fairs the best, only because he’s imitating Russell Crowe from Gladiator. His incarnation as Moses is unbalanced, they’re moments of

humanity but he feels more a like BC batman. You never really feel the weight of Moses actions and as a audience you don't care what he does. Because you are never given a reason why Moses care about his people. Bale is also the only character in the film that looks like he ages or gets hurt. Everyone else just seems to get sand or dirt on themselves.

Joel Edgerton general looks confused. Like he not sure what to do with his character. The performance is decent but lacking. He plays Rhamses like a confused child with

eyeliner and grizzled looks. It would have been better to just do full over the top villain. The rest of the cast is sadly mis handled. Signorine Weaver is in this movie. She literally does nothing. Then disappears into the background never to be seen again. Aaron Paul's Joshua and Ben Kinglsey's Nun do nothing memorial. They occasionally get to make a face between angry, confused or battle mode. The film has a few genuine moments of memorability, that being all largely related to the onset of the plagues. 

These really are the set piece for seeing the movie. The impressive visuals, stunning sets and genuinely wow moments concerning the plagues lift the movie up. Shows off Scott’s masterful direction of his production department. Like a conductor of biblical mayhem. It’s not enough to save this emotionally void epic from a giant wave of the mundane. 

I hope he can break his slump and remember how to portray his characters actions. Rather than relying on visual effects.

2 out of 5  confused actors with eyeliner and grizzled looks.