The Legend of Korra: Reunion

As the title would suggest, this episode was all about reuniting ¾ of the Avatar Gang, with a bonus kidnapping and rescue mission. The B-plot dealt with the hijinks of Bolin and Varrick as they struggle through the wilderness, and a final Stinger reveals that Kuvira is making the humongously bad decision to deforest the swamp in her search for potential spirit-weapons.

Perhaps Toph's involvement in this season isn't over after all...

Review: Maleficent

I watched Maleficent on a flight from Sydney to Christchurch, so at least half my attention was devoted to the usual "What was that noise? Is that normal? Are we going to die? Why'd I agree to air travel?"  train of thought, and the sound quality of the iPad we hired was just terrible. There's nothing like the roar of static in your ears to accompany the rapturous thrill of a winged girl soaring through the clouds.

But I've seen it now, and naturally I have thoughts.

Sleepy Hollow: Heartless

Aaaaaaaand, I think I'm done here.

If watching Merlin and Robin Hood has taught me anything, it's that when a show goes south, it's better to bail out sooner rather than later. This doesn't mean I won't be watching the rest of the season, but I won't review any more individual episodes (except maybe the one where Mrs Mills turns up, because Abbie and Jenny deserve that at least).

This, you see, was the succubus episode. You've only seen it about a million times before, though the word "succubus" can be interchanged with a rich variety of other terms. All you need is a sultry femme fatale who sucks out the energy of men after reeling them in with her super-hot-evil-sex appeal.

On Merlin it was Lamia, on Smallville it was meteor freak Desiree, Buffy the Vampire Slayer had Inca Mummy Girl, Torchwood had an alien that possessed a teenage girl and forced her to have sex with all kinds of men, Charmed had the one that involved Prue turning herself into a man (seriously), and by all accounts every third or so episode of Supernatural deals with one of these.

As sexist and clichéd tropes go, it's up there with – hey, what do you know! Mystical pregnancies.

Sleepy Hollow doesn't do anything particularly creative with the character (well, I guess they went for a mild subversion when she targeted a lesbian, but that murder wasn't even mentioned after the fact). Her eyes glow red. She smiles coyly. She's got the whole "sucking of a person's life-force out their gaping mouth" symbolism going for her. But ultimately she's just a tool to provide Baby Voldemort with energy that for some reason looks like dry ice under florescent lights.

I will however, give the actress credit for channelling the body language and voice modulation of Abbie and then Katrina when she faced Hawley and Ichabod respectively. It was subtle, but it was definitely deliberate.

And she did allow for the inclusion of this screen-cap,
which belongs in one of those "write your own caption" competitions.

If there was a theme to this episode it was getting people who exist at odds with each other to work together to destroy the separate parts of the slutty soul-sucking demon (aww). It came down to Abbie and Katrina searching for the succubus's heart and Ichabod and Jenny Hawley trying to kill the succubus's body, each team grappling with distrust and unease.

I'm thankful that the tension between Abbie and Katrina wasn't based in either jealousy over Crane's attention or whatever the female variant of dick-measuring is, but rather the very real issue of Henry. Katrina is convinced he can be redeemed; Abbie doesn't much care one way or the other, not while he's leaving a trail of bodies behind him. If conflict must exist between these two women, making it Henry is the best option.

Even though this shot tries to convince us it's Ichabod.

I'm tired of talking about Katrina, as it's usually to complain about her when I'd much rather be gushing over Abbie and/or Jenny, but the truth is that deep down I don’t want this character to fail, nor do I want the writers to take the lazy option and kill her off. Right now she's a flip-flopping cypher that still manages to eat up too much screen-time, though no one would be happier than me if the writers found a way to integrate her into the proceedings that make her useful to the team while not impinging on the partnership of Ichabod and Abbie.

Hawley on the other hand? Get rid of him.

Miscellaneous Observations:

So tired of every episode starting with Ichabod making portentous out-of-context statements that end up pertaining to something completely mundane. Still, I wonder how self-aware the show was by having Ichabod and Katrina discuss the artificiality of reality television just before diving into a pretentious discussion of their own relationship.

The succubus being defeated due to Abbie destroying her misplaced heart isn't as contrived as you might think – there's a long tradition of evil monsters increasing their power by removing their vital organs. Just off the top of my head I can think of the heartless giant from The Storyteller and the warlock with the hairy heart in The Tales of Beedle the Bard.

Abbie successfully reading the magic spell to destroy the heart once again makes Katrina totally obsolete, though I wonder if Abbie was successful because of the spell itself, or because of her own innate power as a Witness.

Favourite scene: Katrina and Abbie desperately trying to out-casual each other when faced with their fears in the heart-holding jar.

HA! Well played, ladies.

Downton Abbey: S05E08

Another day, another season finale. Like Doctor Who, this was a fairly ho-hum offering and I was reminded that emotionally disengaging myself from both shows was a very smart decision. As always I enjoyed the frocks, the intrigues, the occasion witticism, and a couple of legitimately tender scenes, and simply glossed over the rest.  

It's off to London so that Rose can marry the man she met five minutes ago in the most perfunctory way possible (seriously – for most of this episode I was under the impression that they were attending an engagement party, not a wedding). This allows for Thomas to partake in an "out-con the card shark" ploy that was reheated from the days Gregson was still around, and for Daisy to shut yet another door on herself when Mrs Patmore's tears made her decide to forego a London adventure to continue life as a drudge in a basement kitchen.

Most of this episode felt like it was marking off time, with plenty of unresolved issues that will no doubt be resolved in the Christmas Special (if then). Anna's arrest, Violet and Isabel's marriage prospects, Edith's secret, Tom's departure – none of it went anywhere.

Susan MacClare is this episode's designated antagonist, and she's certainly a piece of work. Thankfully less one-note than Lord Merton's piggish sons, she's still a nasty creature who uses "love" as her excuse to try and sabotage Rose's happiness. Love had nothing to do with her actions here, and neither did whatever qualms she may have had over her daughter marrying a Jewish man. The actress's performance reveals her motivation as a miserable woman who is desperate to share that misery with others, which allows the audience to feel some degree of detached pity. Thankfully the characters who had to deal with her drama responded by deciding to fiercely ignore her rather than concocting some elaborate scheme to punish her, knowing that some people just aren't worth the effort.

Still, she did at least provide the episode's best scene: the verbal parry and thrust across the dinner table with the Aldridge family, as barbed comments were made by some and smoothed over by others at a breathless pace.

The unveiling of the war memorial was a nice end-note to finish off the season, and Lord Grantham gets to be both compassion and observant for a change, first in establishing a memorial for Mrs Patmore's nephew, then in realizing that Marigold looks like Gregson (even though the casting agent undoubtedly picked this particular child to match Laura Carmichael's colouring).

Mabel Lane Fox gets her man and Gillingham gets a dignified exit. As I was hoping for something completely different from Mary's story-arc this year, all I can feel is relief that the love triangle has finally come to a close. She was somewhat back to form in this episode – a GIF set was doing the rounds that cast her "even you Edith" comment into the realm of verbal abuse, but it wasn't as bad in context. Still, I'm disappointed that there wasn't more emphasis on sisterhood this season. I felt sure that all Mary's disparaging comments were somehow concealing a forthcoming demonstration of solidarity to Edith, but apparently not.

Still, at least she got another lovely scene with Tom and some long overdue interaction with Carson. I haven't seen their rapport for a while.

Fellowes wrote himself into a bit of a corner regarding O'Brien, requiring him to quickly relocate her from the MacClares to another family. It's a pity Siobhan Finneran wasn't available for a one-off reappearance – it would have been nice to see a confrontation between herself and Cora.

Prince Kuragin is a much more hot-blooded suitor to Violet than Lord Merton was to Isobel, and I loved that Violet had to sit herself down in the face of his declarations.

So Anna gets raped by Mr Green and is then arrested for his murder. Gross. Nevertheless, I'm sure Mr Bates has something stupid in store when it comes to rescuing her.

With both Doctor Who and Downton Abbey coming to an end (and it becoming increasingly unlikely that I'll continue much longer with Arrow or Sleepy Hollow), I find myself with a lot of free time on my hands. The Fall is starting very soon, so there's that to look forward to, but I think I'm going to turn my attention to films and books. When I look back over the past two years, it feels like most of my free time has been spent on episode reviews – it's time for something different. 

Doctor Who: Death in Heaven Part II

Well, that was that. Looking over some of the other reviews and reactions of the fandom, I'm rather bemused at the huge discrepancy between how Death in Heaven was received. Long-time Doctor Who blogger Paul Sandifer loved it; the commentators on Previously TV hated it. 

Personally, I was a little underwhelmed, but like I've been saying all along – I have no real personal investment in Doctor Who at this stage. It's a shame, as I could watch season one to five back-to-back for days on end, but there's been something missing – either in the show or in me – throughout the past three seasons that leaves me completely uninterested in re-watching.

Strangely enough, the connotation that sprung to mind when watching this, was the terrible movie-within-a-movie in Bowfinger called Chubby Rain. This low-budget sci-fi nonsense had aliens fall to Earth by hiding themselves in raindrops – thus the name, chubby rain.

Yeah, that's really the most profound statement I can make about this episode. I'm sitting here, twiddling my thumbs, trying to think of something insightful to share, but am coming up empty. So I'm afraid I'm going to have to resort to bullet points.

* Clara insisting that "Clara Oswald does not exist!" was all over the previews for this episode, and was ultimately just her casually buying time. The only real purpose it served was as a comparison to Osgood attempting a similar tactic with the Master later, only her name isn't in the opening credits so she failed.

* So, that's it for Danny? I didn't dislike the guy, but I was hardly invested in him either, so his heroic sacrifice was met with a hearty shrug from me. Does this mean that Clara is already pregnant, or will future Oswald Pink from Listen never exist?

* Michelle Gomez was the high-light, though it's funny to think she wasn't particularly popular in the lead-up to this finale. At least, not from what I was seeing. But here she embodied the Master to perfection: the over-the-top yet casual delight in her own cruelty, her twisted obsession with the Doctor and her need to make him see the similarities between them, and her theatrical physicality (if you haven't seen her as Sue White in Green Wing, you've only seen the tip of the iceberg in regards to what she's really capable of).

* And of course, the deranged Mary Poppins act was taken to its logical extreme when she uses an umbrella to float down to earth.

* As soon as the Doctor told Osgood to put "all of time and space" on her bucket list I knew she was a goner. Given she was something of a fan-girl substitute (the bowtie, the glasses, the dorkiness) I'm going to assume a lot of people are upset, though I'm glad Moffat actually stuck to his guns when it came to killing characters off. It would be hypocritical of me to complain when in the past I've been annoyed at him constantly pushing the reset button on character deaths.

* In saying that, I'm glad Kate made it through, and though I've never watched a single old episode that featured the Brigadier, I knew of his reputation and figured that he'd get some degree of participation when Kate mentioned that her father always wanted to be saluted by the Doctor.

* The reveal of who "the woman in the shop" was came as a baffling anti-climax. I mean, we all knew it would be Missy, but I haven't the faintest idea what the ploy was behind her bringing Clara and the Doctor together. Apparently the Doctor would have no interest in the subject of the afterlife until he was paired up with a control freak of a Companion whose boyfriend would die in a freak car accident and thereby force the Doctor into discovering the Nethersphere and walk straight into the Master's trap? That was the gambit behind giving Clara the Doctor's phone number all those years ago? Moffat has pulled some anti-climactic guff in the past, but this really takes the cake.

* As ever, Moffat's love of banter is so annoying. Characters are so concerned with being clever that they make no sense at all.

* And during the final confrontation in the cemetery, most of this season's themes were wrapped up. The Doctor answers his own question about what kind of man he is (answer: not good or bad, just an idiot passing through who tries to help as best he can), and Danny embraces his career as a soldier to saves the world just in time for Remembrance Day (in hindsight, this is no doubt the carefully-timed reason behind why the season-long soldier subtext was brought up in the first place).

* I doubt this is the last we've seen of Clara, but it was a reasonably affecting scene to watch her and the Doctor lie to each other so skilfully about Danny's death and the return of Gallifrey respectively.

* So a sci-fi fairy tale becomes something of a sci-fi zombie movie, and all the soldiers who died in WWI are commemorated with a story that involves robots blowing themselves up in the clouds to diffuse the cyber-pollen that threatens the entire human race. Doctor Who, everyone!

* Sorry if you turned up to read some sort of in-depth commentary on this episode, but it just didn't do much for me. I watched on auto-pilot, and even the scene in which Danny opts to return the young Afghan boy that he killed in combat back to life was too manipulative to make me feel anything.

So I'm not having much luck with my shows at the moment. I watched Doctor Who and Downton Abbey out of habit, Sleepy Hollow is getting progressively worse, my interest in Arrow and The Flash is on the wane, and The Legend of Korra (though it's as good as it's ever been) is ending soon. I'm gonna need some better material, and fast.

The Legend of Korra: Battle of Zaofu

Well, if you were hoping that this would be a no-holds-barred, full-length battle sequence involving the citizens of Zaofu and the army of Kuvira (guilty) then this was not exactly what you got. Yet at the same time, foregoing a giant battle for the sake of a one-on-one brawl between Kuvira and Korra was a predictable substitute.

Not that this is bad, by any means. This showdown is one of the highlights of the episode, in which we learn that Kuvira can easily hold her own against the Avatar (at least until the Avatar State kicks in) and that Korra is still being haunted by her Dark Self. The moment in which she might well have pulverised Kuvira with that giant rock was halted when Kuvira took on the appearance of Korra herself, shocking the Korra out of the Avatar State.

But what does this mean? I had assumed that Dark Korra was the embodiment of Korra's mental state, one that was vanquished when she removes the last of the mercury from her body. Clearly that is not the case, and in hindsight, it doesn't account for the fact that the spirit (little white pup) could see Dark Korra. Whatever this thing is, it's not just in Korra's head. So what is it?

And how interesting that it appeared superimposed on Kuvira's face. I'm beginning to suspect that it isn't a coincidence both characters have a name that starts with K. It's to draw attention to the fact that there may be a "two sides of the same coin" deal going on with these two. A part of me hopes that all this will in fact end with the two coming to peaceful terms, though this show does love its action sequences, and I don't think Western storytelling has yet managed to wean itself off the need for a clear villain.

The problem (if you want to call it that) is that throughout most of this episode Kuvira was talking perfect sense. Suyin did try to attack her while a ceasefire was going on, and she did win the Combat by Champion fair and square. The decisions made by Suyin and Korra deprived Zaofu's citizens of the chance to fight for their independence on their own terms, and as a result they've been occupied by her army. Kuvira not only emerges as the victor, but the moral victor as well.

Thing is, we're meant to distrust and dislike Kuvira because she's building a super-weapon and has "re-education camps", but most of this falls under the category of Off-Screen Villainy. That means that most of what she does throughout this episode feels justifiable ... she's just acting like a bit of a jerk whilst doing it. And when it comes down to it, I'd rather have a snotty leader who knows what she's doing than a charming one who's completely useless.  

My issue isn't that there's nuance; that's great. It's that the writers seem to be making Kuvira a villain based on her attitude and a few informed crimes rather than the actions she's taking in the here and now. I don't blame the Beifongs for being mightily ticked off that their city has been conquered, but so far Kuvira is playing by the rules. All her verbal jabs at Suyin and Korra have held the element of truth. She didn't cheat or use underhanded tactics in any of their dealings together. She kept her cool and took no unnecessarily cruel actions.

Obviously the super-weapon is leading up to something, and Opal accusing Kuvira of caring only about controlling Zaofu is meant to be an opinion that the audience shares, but for now I feel discontented by the fact this is not so much a portrayal of a good woman slowly being compromised and corrupted by the demands of her position, but of an evil woman whose true crimes (which will inevitably justify the need for the good guys to thoroughly defeat her later) have yet to be revealed. I live in hope that the situation will prove more complex than that.

***

 

Meanwhile, Varrick has taken matters into his own hands by rigging the train to blow up, taking the spirit vine experiments with it. This subplot was mainly played for comedy, but it ends with Varrick and Bolin presumed dead and the super-weapon technology more-or-less destroyed. He's certainly come a long way since series two, when he made a veiled but serious threat to Mako concerning Asami's safety, complete with an evil shadowy smile. He's practically a different character now.

Though his plan didn't pan out exactly as he intended. Bataar finally proved himself a worthy partner for Kuvira by memorizing most of Varrick's movements in putting together the spirit vine experiment, leaving open the possibility for a weapon of mass destruction to be developed. So far he's been more of a trophy husband; something that Kuvira could flaunt in front of Suyin, but here he came into his own.

Miscellaneous Observations:

Zhu Li, what are you up to? Last week I was convinced she was just putting on an act for Kuvira's sake; now I'm not so sure.

Can't read my poker face...

Perhaps because I've been knee-high in Frank L. Baum lately, I now can't help but feel that Zaofu and its citizens were based on the styles and colours of Emerald City.

Face it, Kuvira knows how to work a crowd. She insists that her invasion of Zaofu is to share its technological resources with the rest of the world, promises that she plans to treat its citizens fairly, and announces that by fighting Korra she's proving that she wouldn't send her army to do anything she wouldn't do herself. And I couldn't help but feel that even if Korra had beaten her in combat, Kuvira would have still come off as a sort-of victor for having the guts to go through with it in the first place.

Pity that Kuvira's army was all masked, robbing them of their humanity.

Varrick's frustrations at Bolin not knowing what "the thing" referred to was hilarious, culminating in: "Unhook the cars, oh come on, that was an easy one!"

Urgh, can we please ship Meelo back to Air Temple Island?

Really missing Asami, but so far I'm loving this season. I've no idea where things are headed.
 
 

Trailers: Into the Woods and The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies

Trailers are movies unto themselves. Okay not really, but they can be fascinating things. An editor has about three minutes to convince a viewer to spend ten dollars on seeing a film, and by this point there's a definite technique behind how they present their material.

Count on seeing an atmospheric beginning, a brief introduction to the film's main characters, the establishment of its general premise, scenery porn of the big set pieces, a few lines that were written especially for the trailer (and may not even make it into the film's final cut), focus on the best-looking/most famous actors, BIG LOUD ACTION SEQUENCES, all the best gags, a faint gist of the ensuing plot, and then the title appearing slowly/spectacularly/perfunctorily in an appropriately-themed font.  

In the last twenty years, trailers have changed totally. Back in the Nineties (which wasn't that long ago, little 'uns) film trailers were remarkably different, often with voiceover narration from some random guy to explain the plot and introduce all the characters. Don't believe me? Here's the original trailer for Interview With The Vampire:

These days we're given a tad more benefit of the doubt when it comes to figuring out what's going on; furthermore, someone somewhere also twigged to the idea that it probably wasn't such a good idea to give absolutely everything away in a trailer, months before the movie is actually released.

Of course, there are some that would argue that trailers have become more spoilerific in recent years, casually giving away major plot-points or assuming that the audience has already read the book (it's bemusing that The Two Towers initially tries to hide the fact that Ian McKellan is in it, since the trailer sure as hell didn't bother).

What I'm trying to say here is that trailers are mini-movies in themselves. They have something important to tell you (watch my big sister when she's released!) but they have to be very careful about what it is they want you to see.

Two new trailers were released today, for movies that I'm almost certainly going to see on the big screen, so just for fun I thought I'd break them down. First up is Into The Woods:

I know very little about Into the Woods beyond the fact it was a Broadway show in the Eighties that deliberately subverted the "happily ever after" of most fairy tales: the first act was all about characters finding their traditional happy endings; the second act had everything fall to pieces. And it was a musical.  

So this trailer, first and foremost, wants you to know that Meryl Strepp is in this movie. MERYL STREPP IS HERE AND SHE SINGS.

As for the rest, it's a bit of a jumbled mess. The focus is on the ensemble cast, in which Anna Kendrick looks the most interesting, James Cordon is somehow married to Emily Blunt, and Johnny Depp appears to be playing himself playing all his roles of the last decade simultaneously.

Storywise, you'd be hard-pressed to figure out just what's going on here, beyond the fact that everyone goes into the woods. The opening sequence (characters whispering "I wish" to varying degrees of acting talent; side-eying you Jack) and the tag-line ("be careful what you wish for") provides a clue as to the subversive nature of the story, but the only real evidence we get of this is in Anna Kendrick's Cinderella scenes.

Between the sight of her fleeing from the palace, admitting to Emily Blunt that "it wasn't quite what I expected" and her exchange with Prince Charming: "if you love me, why did you stray?"/"I was raised to be charming, not sincere", she emerges as the film's protagonist (even though it stars Meryl Strepp) by dint of having the most interesting lines.

And this film might just make me warm up to Chris Pine. I can only just tolerate him as Captain Kirk – though that's partly the fault of the scripts – but if you're going to play a douche, you can at least be a self-aware douche. Such seems to be the case here.

It's obviously a musical, though there's little indication that it's a dark comedy. The fact that it's coming out at Christmas time means they're pushing a family-oriented tone (I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that the line "if we're going to get through this, we're going to do it together!" is nowhere to be found in the original screenplay) so whatever teeth or claws the show once had will almost certainly have been filed right back.  

So the atmosphere isn't quite what I expected. It's like they're going for lightweight and spooky at the same time, to the point where it's a little surprising that Tim Burton's name isn't splashed all over it, and a few of these actors appear to be performing in a totally different film from the others (okay, just the one: Johnny, of course).

And then there's that ending. Treating Meryl Strepp in the same manner that our following trailer treats Bilbo putting on the One Ring (as the big draw-card), it fades out on a decidedly vague note, with the Witch singing to Rapunzel about being a child. Er, okay. Perhaps this scene has familiarity-with-the-source-material significance that I don't know about yet.

(Minor fun fact that I couldn't fit in anywhere else: this is the third time in her career that Lucy Punch has played Cinderella's wicked stepsister.)

Then there's The Hobbit: There And Back Again The Battle of the Five Armies:

Now this trailer definitely knows what it's doing, even if what it's doing has very little in common with Tolkien's book (but hey, it's the third instalment, we know that by now).

I found it interesting that the introductory sequence focuses almost solely on Thorin's pride and failings as a leader, suggesting that his choices are going to be a major turning point in the film itself. And sure, in the book this aspect was there and it was important, but because Tolkien stuck so closely to Bilbo's narrative, we never really felt its full impact.

Speaking of whom, would you believe that Bilbo is meant to be the protagonist of this trilogy? If the change in title hadn't clued you in, this trailer would have, though they at least give him the dignity of the opening voiceover and the closing shot.

What the trailer really wants us to focus on is the fact that this is the very last instalment in The Hobbit trilogy, the very very last instalment in The Lord of the Rings franchise, and it's going to be an all-out, no-holds-barred, CGI slugfest.

Tauriel's tearful face tells me that they're sticking with the book deaths (c'mon, you knew there was a reason they made Kili and Fili the cute ones) and that Tauriel herself may not make it out alive. Actually, scratch that, I think she'll be okay. The shot of her being flung by an orc into a stone wall felt too calculatedly present to be fatal.

Disappointingly little Galadriel (please tell me they're pre-emptively letting her destroy Dol Guldur) and Elrond manages to unsheathe his sword before disappearing entirely, leaving it to Thranduil and Legolas to represent the elves. I'm going to get lambasted for this, but between the damn moose and the dramatic posing, Lee Pace is only just managing to tiptoe along my suspension of disbelief.  

And of course, the portentous trailer lines set to blaring music and panning shots of CGI armies. I honestly think the actors themselves must know on receiving their scripts that these are the sound bites that'll end up in the promotional material, leading them to up their game accordingly. Which was your favourite?

This was the last move in a master plan; a plan long in the making.

These bats are bred for one purpose: for war.

You started this. You will forgive me if I finish it.

When faced with death, what can anyone do?

I will not hide while others fight our battles for us!

You have but one question to answer: how shall this day end?

 

***

 

Despite my snark, I'm looking forward to both films. Fairy tales and Tolkien, what more could a girl ask for? Although Peter Jackson's take on The Hobbit was never going to be the cultural milestone that the original trilogy was, I've enjoyed it as a prequel to The Lord of the Rings rather than an adaptation of the book, and however Into the Woods turns out, it's at least galvanized me to track down recordings of the original stage production. I'll sit on them for now, but comparisons will be imminent come the Christmas Day release.