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Reviews
Game of Thrones: Oathbreaker (2016)
No Joy in this Tower
After last weeks shocker of an ending anticipation for this episode and the follow up to Jon Snow's resurrection has been off the charts. Getting right to it.
Final Opinion
Let's start with the TOJ scene. Many depictions of this scene have been produced however this version will be the only one that counts. Having said that, it disappoints me that only 2 of the fabled king's guard were portrayed. I'm not sure if we are missing Oswell Went or Gerold Hightower, it doesn't help that neither of them are mentioned, nor do they match their book descriptions. *SIGH* You might say, what does it matter? Well it just shows a lack of respect towards the fan base. As for the portrayal of Howland Reed and Ned, I could take it or leave it. The swordplay itself was enjoyable and well choreographed. In the original scene their was quite a bit more of initial negotiation, alas I can always count on HBO to cut to the chase and eliminate context and back-story.
Another big disappointment comes from the non portrayal of Arthur's legendary steel sword: Dawn. Not even the tiniest hint of attention was given to this detail. Again, count on HBO to strip away all of the refinery. Perhaps they tried to make up for it by giving him 2 swords? Who said 2 swords are better than 1? *SIGH*
This all leads me to insist that it should have been done with a movie size budget.
Unsurprisingly the scene ends abruptly without the big reveal. Bran's complaints lend credence to the audience, letting them know that there is as a lot more to that event than we bear witness to, and that it will have some impact on the current state of affairs.
Overall a lackluster TOJ scene that did not live up to the hype.
All the other scenes in this episode were mostly fillers and pretty darn straight forward.
It was refreshing to see some good progress with Arya. That was a great action montage really demonstrating her skill. Although, is she really going to be using a Bo staff to kill people? She's finally beyond the point of Wax on / Wax off. I'm eager for more.
Episodes like these leave me really complacent. I don't like not being able to tell where things are going. The story has a lot of convincing to do.
What did you think of the Tower Of Joy scene?
Game of Thrones: Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken (2015)
The point of no return
GAME of THRONES SEASON 5 Episode 6 In Depth Analysis
Near Valyria: While searching for food & a boat, Tyrion and Jorah share their back stories. Tyrion lacks faith in the supernatural but Jorah has seen such wonders up close & personal. Tyrion doesn't seem convinced that Daenerys will make a good ruler, nor is he concerned about her chopping his head off, but when Slavers appear, Tyrion quickly sings a different tune. Save me oh Save me because I'm a dwarf and my cock is good as gold. Where Tyrion boasts of his appendage, Jorah tells of his own experience & skill. On the plus side, they both get a free ride to exactly where they needed to go: the city of Mereen, on the down side, they will be headed there in shackles.
In Braavos a girl (Arya) is becoming frustrated and anxious. A girl learns that in order to lie you must also tell some truth. A girl tries to sing a song of lies but her face betrays her. A girl tells someone a lie and gives them the gift of death. A girl has served the many faced god. A man is pleased by this. In order to master the lie, a girl must become the lie. In order to live a life of lies a girl must change her face.
In King's Landing: Cersei summons Littlefinger , the originator of the Tyrell-Lannister alliance, to her office. Cersei presumably seeks his aid with her recent entrapment & disposal of the Tyrell's. As in the past when Cersei has relied on LF to thwart several of her enemies, she still believes he is her pawn, a role that LF has used to his advantage. Cersei judges his opinion of her moves against the Tyrell's and doesn't seem to care that he disapproves. Cersei is so quick to pass the blame. LF sees how Cersei mistakenly takes the game too personally by grudging and demon-izing her rivals. Cersei reveals that she's about to start a war with the Tyrells, so she tries to make certain that the knights of the Vale will support her, but LF doesn't exactly guarantee it. His answer to her merely suffices.
LF proceeds to point the finger at his targets ( the Boltons & Stannis) and gives Cersei good reason to hate them, so that she will pick them off for him,thus allowing him to choose whichever alliance best benefits serve himself. He's knows exactly how to push Cersei's buttons and which buttons to push and when the time comes he will push her self destruct button unless she has already done so herself. Cersei meets with Olenna as the two square off. Cersei puts on her best game face and Olenna realizes trying to negotiate with Cersei is pointless. Loras, Margaery, and Olenna fall into Cersei's trap & Tommen is much too meek and mild to do anything about it. The faith Militant has enough evidence to stage a trial against Marg. & Loras without the outcome looking very grim for the Tyrells. What could lady Olenna have up her sleeve that might save her grandchildren? You will note that Lord Mace Tyrell was conveniently sent away by Cersei rendering him incapable of assisting his children. However, one must wonder if LF will allow the alliance he used to bring down Joffery, to spoil?
In Dorne: Chaos! but no ladder climbing. Arianne/Ellaria's scheme to stronghold Myrcella is in full effect, with her sand snakes striking at Ser Jaime & Ser "of the Blackwater" aka Ser Sings a lot. One of the sand snakes manages to cut him, but the fiasco is brought to a close when Doran sends his guards to intervene, and apprehend the treasonous Ellaria. However another of the 3 sand snakes has made off with Myrcella. I have to wonder if by protecting Myrcella, Doran actually intends for his son to marry her. Could this really be his master plan? Does he seek to make peace with his sworn enemies, the Lannisters, or is this a ruse to ultimately get his revenge? I have no doubt that Jaime will pursue Myrcella but , Jaime's henchman; Ser sing us a tune, will be sick with poison from the blade that cut him in battle, leaving 1 handed Jaime to fend for himself. Will his golden hand be enough to save him this time, or will he find himself face to face with Areo Hotah's fabled Axe?
A Wedding @ Winterfell Myranda tries her best to scare off Sansa, yet Sansa remains determined and rebuffs Myranda's fear tactic. Sansa marries Ramsay, much to Myranda's jealous disapproval. Ramsay & Sansa together as man and wife consummate the marriage with Theon Greyjoy bearing witness. My interpretation of the scene is that Sansa is partly crying because she knows she is consenting to this, that it needs to happen, there's no way around it, and she can't claim to be a victim this time. Ramsay acting of a gentleman in a way makes it even worse for her because she knows he is deceiving her into a false sense of safety. This is horrible act for Sansa to endure yet she does so without protest. The binding process of man and woman to each other is what Littlefinger implied to Sansa was a necessary part of getting revenge.
My question is, is the revenge something that Sansa truly wanted or was it something LF put in her heart? As for Theon, well this could finally be the trigger he needs to break his chain to Ramsay. This could be enough to snap him out of his trance and guide him to save someone from the horrific torture that he went through, and thus he can truly make amends for his crime against the Starks. Here's hoping.
Godzilla (2014)
"The fans wanted Godzilla, but what we got was Saving Private Ryan."
Well what do we have here? A super summer movie blockbuster? or A desperate attempt by Hollywood to cash in on a foreign franchise with mainstream appeal? Let's find out, as I go skin deep into this monster of a movie.
-GODZILLA PURISTS BEWARE - Whenever a "Murican" attempt at Godzilla is addressed fans automatically get up in arms about the disaster piece that was Godzilla '98, but hope among hope that something more along the lines of Godzilla 2000 is released on a bigger scale. Back then, mistakes were made,and hopefully lessons were learned when it comes to adaptation and homage. Godzilla fans know that TOHO co. is Godzilla & that all the rest are merely imitations but one can't help but admire the attempt to finally get Godzilla right in his journey to an over seas audience. However the fear and of the failure from 98 still looms large.
The Trailers and advertisements for this film gave us such hope and filled our hearts with anticipation, but how did it pay off? Well for all the fancy effects,big budget design, cutting edge state of the art technology,and over paid, super educated film makers that Legendary Films threw at this, you would think it would be a sure fire success, but the devil is in the details, and it's best not to count your chickens before they hatch.
This movie somehow failed to utilize the main ingredient...Freakin Godzilla ! "Hello Mc Fly !" Ya know the guy on all the posters?, the name on the ticket?, the whole reason people stopped their busy lives ,drove to the theater, and emptied their wallets? "Do You understand the words that are coming out of my mouth?" Yet the developers managed to screw up the single most important aspect.
Certainly the movie had other flaws and favorable features but to value them higher would be like scraping the crust from underneath a pie.
-WHO LEFT SUCH A BIG PLOT HOLE? - The beginning of the movie is a real puzzler. It really fails to establish much of anything & that which is does establish gets erased within 20 mins. It reflects a deprived use of popular actor Bryan Cranston whose character is so detached that it's absurd and quickly gets lost in environmental conspiracy a la "2012". The subplot of the need of the son to unite with his father is so quickly swept out from the audiences feet it will leave you looking like actor Ken Watanabe as he stares dazed and confused. This character delivers the awe struck and utterly bewildered look so many times you begin to wonder if you missed something important or if that was his only direction as an actor. Seriously how many times can he appear to be so lost in thought just before muttering a whisper of some half coherent Japanese philosophy. Likewise, the female lead couldn't have been more oblivious.
After a ton of hyperbole, we finally get a vague description of what's been happening. At this point I was almost beginning to wonder if Godzilla was even in this dang movie.
I can't for the life of me understand why the director chose to spend so much time on vague., monotonous military Ops. , and pointless filler of , non recognizable characters, with little to no dialog whatsoever.
- THE GOODS - Aside from all that I will say the movie did manage to get some things right. The few passing moments that did include Godzilla were rightfully epic, thrilling, and inspired. They nailed the look & feel of the King of Monsters, which unfortunately makes it all the more bittersweet that they didn't actually feature him more , but instead chose to beat around the bush, hide the camera behind crowds, and clutter the view with windshields wipers on high.
They also felt the need to pull the cam completely away from the incredible giant monsters fighting back towards the empty streets or broken buildings.
Furthermore , Godzilla's adversaries, while impressive in their own right, needlessly stole precious screen time from our main attraction. After what seems like endless minuets of further military run around, the movie shifts focus to the other giant monsters. This becomes the emphasis 3 quarters of the way through this slow moving, misguided movie, while Dr. Japanese (Watanabe) has an astounding epiphany: "Let them fight." uhh duhh? How were you going to stop that anyway?
At this point you think they are saving all the Godzilla scenes for the very end, until you inevitably realize all those scenes are going to be spliced and short. However, the brief battles were worth their weight. I truly enjoyed the action. Godzilla was in top form: glorious and awe inspiring. Not only did he look astounding, he fought impressively. The hope and expectations of Godzilla lore were embarrassed and well represented as his dominance became clear from the devastating atomic energy breath, to his un mistake ably recognizable roar. I for 1 was wonderfully thankful for that.
The final moments of this film were basically it's only redemption in an otherwise meandering prelude of emptiness.
- THE ROARING CONCLUSION - If only they had spent more time & creativity building up to & towards Godzilla, this could have been the epic awesomeness we were all hoping for. ( 2005's King Kong was better)
Perhaps next time Godzilla returns from the land of the rising sun, his presence & purpose will be the main focus and biggest priority of the story. Until then we have the dozens of Toho classics & modern movies to fill our hearts with epic roars, tail swipes, and super atomic flame breath!
I'm Jesse, I'm a professional writer, and I love movies.
Escape Plan (2013)
emotionally locked up
Hold your horses, before you go judging a movie based on its poster, trailer, or stars of the show, take a step back, because it's probably not what you'd expect.
Now, what do I mean by that? Well it's not your typical action movie, with running, gunning and tough guy saves hot girl while beating up the bad guys. No. It's also not a crime drama full of murder and mystery. Again, it's not a psychological thriller that keeps you guessing at motives and personality disorders. Nope, try again. Furthermore it's not a paranoia flick that teases your fear of claustrophobia, solitary confinement, or people out to get you. Unfortunately it's none of those things.
So what exactly is it? It's a strange mesh of "smart guy gets himself in over his head and makes an unlikely friend" and "a sporting egotistical game of cat and mouse."
The movie doesn't take a straightforward approach to action like the majority of Stallone or Arnold films, instead it skirts into a subtle or nuanced sub category. Unfortunately I don't think that helped the film, but rather confuses or disappoints the audience. Granted most ticket buyers would prefer to see Arnold and Sly kicking ass on a battlefield or going head to head but what they get instead is a movie starring Stallone that happens to have Arnold thrown in and the 2 of them awkwardly and too conveniently hook up, becoming BFF's on the spot.
I have to admit how surreal it is seeing them on screen together after so many years of rivalry at the box office. It is a novelty that this film exploits but not quite in the way you were hoping. Instead Arnold and Stallone turn things into a weird buddy comedy, with Arnold being uncharacteristically funny and Stallone playing the usual tough and serious type. Arnold definitely takes a back seat to Stallone as a mastermind.
So for all you old school Schwarzenegger fans, you might be a little put off to see the Terminator playing second fiddle to Rambo.
Other than that, the movie is rough and tumble. Lots of testosterone and just pushing yourself to the limit. You can tell it's about going beyond your breaking point and finding the strength to overcome oppression.
The movie felt polarizing. There just wasn't enough time or reason to care about the protagonist, give the vague back story and rare moment of emotion from him. It felt a lot of times like he could care less how things went.
There just wasn't much humanity in this film. However there was good action and drama, just not enough to be this movie's saving grace.
The worst part about this was the non impactful ending.There was no light at the end of the dark tunnel, no life altering revelation or change of heart, just right back to the daily grind for our main character.
I wanted to like this film a lot more than I did. Still it had its fun moments, small twists and excitement.
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008)
Not quite what I expected.
The movie played out like a cheap thrill ride at Universal from moment to moment full of cheesy adventure clichés.
Ridiculous situations and events that just don?t add up realistically. Characters that were overly stereotyped. Dialogue that pays no attention to the plot except when it is the only means of telling the story. In other words the search and discovery puzzle solving felt and sounded utterly scripted and predictable.
It was surprisingly violent and at the same time family oriented. There were some scenes that felt misplaced and unnecessary. The ending didn't really do anything for me. Just you?re run of the mill happily ever after. The whole alien aspect of the film took away from its credibility and believe-ability. stretching it into a strange fiction fantasy, instead of a historical and geographical adventure.
Too many attempts at humor caused the action to become fool hardy rather than thrilling. Although it won?t ever become a classic, the movie can be described as fun filled for all ages, and a decent farewell for Mr. Jones.
Crank: High Voltage (2009)
wild
Wow somebody really knows how to go balls out over the top insane. Crank 2 High Voltage is totally drug inspired, drug induced, psycho craziness. It really does aim to be the mother of all action adrenaline flicks and it probably comes damn close.
Jason Statham as Chev Chelios is the ultimate in your face, no-nonsense, kick ass, anti hero with a bad attitude, and way too much motivation. If you think you're havin a bit of a bad day, this is the type of movie that vents all your frustrations or fires them back at the world, full blast, in the form of a flaming middle finger. This time Chev, is out to get his bloody hands on the bad guys that stole his heart, and left him with a makeshift replacement that he has to keep supercharged lest he drop dead. Talk about hot wired, just like a 57 Chevy, Jason's heart is running on a V-8 and turbo charged for overdrive.
If rage and intensity is you thing, prepare to eat your heart out. Crank 2 really turns up the voltage and volume from the original. The cast is back for round 2 and they deliver quite well with the extremes. A bit of an oddball cast this time as Effen Ramirez has been added to the group, as the Native American warrior seeking revenge for his father's death at the hands of the lead villain. As if that weren't enough, to add insult or depth to his character he suffers from a severe case of full body turrets, which causes him to randomly spasm violently; quite absurd. But in this crime centered scandalous film, everyone is dirty and either full of greed, or vengeance
The action is certainly unprecedented. There's so much violent action its laughable, for the pure sake of entertainment, and unbelievability, like when Chev instinctively picks up the disembodied head of his enemy and punts it into the ocean. The camera angels are out of this world, bizarre and deranged. I think the cast, the crew, and the director really did what they set out to do and that is to stun, shock, and amaze the audience with hardcore explicit material to keep them talking even after they've left the theater. Just like some foods are better with a kick, and some people love jalapeño peppers and Tabasco sauce, this movie is an acquired taste, one that's not for the sensitive consumer.