Friday 22 July 2011

Miracle Day.

A quick update on my past opinion of Torchwood:-

The first series was pure character assassination. Simple. While RTD was trying to make them diverse and flawed the end result was no one came out of that with an ounce of likability. The acting was nothing to write home about either. Heck, half the time it even seemed like Barrowman, a man that could give Shatner a challenge chewing scenery, was phoning it in that year. We had so much sex, gay innuendo and pointless bodily fluids that it came off like three teenage boys giggling behind the bike shed. It wasn't grown up, wasn't adult. Just some kid that found their dad's copy of FHM and thought it was the most graphic thing since Lemon Party . Org.

The second series approached things as if the first hadn't happened. We had reasonably adult humour, a few good storylines and the characters were the well rounded and down to earth, flawed, people they were supposed to be. We got some good back story and development for the team and opened up the can of worms that was Jack's backstory for the overall plot. It could have been a lot better, and I found killing off two of the gang rather pointless, but they were niggling doubts all in all it was leagues ahead. If the first year was scored one out of five, the second was a solid three.

Then came Children of Earth. This was a deal braker for me. Quite simply it had a lot of promise and would have made either a nice three parter all on its own, or an arc for a series. They knew these aliens were coming back, people all over the world would be beginning to panic and it was up to Torchwood to try and stop it from happening again. Jack could have been wracked with guilt over what he was forced to do and it could have been a nice Torchwood on the run against the conspiracy thing. The once proud, secret, organisation that had influence at the highest levels reduced to the end of it's rope. Old favours vanishing and allies turning on them. A real draconian menace from a corrupt and desperate cabal of officials trying to hide mistakes made fifty years earlier.
Unfortunately what we got was a disaster. An over bloated arrogant mess that needed someone with the guts to tell RTD to scale back, and stop trying to rewrite the end of New Doctor Who's third year
I've already outlined how I would have fixed this Here. Much to some people's dislike.

Now comes Miracle Day. It's either going to be a carbon copy of Children of Earth with some of the bad bits iron-ed out, some more development and a bigger punch to it. Or it's just going to be a damp, predictable, squib that lasts five more episodes than CoE. Dragged out to the point where even the most avid fan throws their hands up in disgust.

I've seen two episodes so far, and I have to wonder if it was written by a first year script writing student. A director that's qualifications were that they watched Twilight one time and an editor that has a YouTube account. I might be a bit harsh here, but it really feels like a Mickey mouse operation. The villains would be better hidden if they had top hats, moustaches and capes. Along with a neon sign flashing "smarmy gits" and their own marching band.
There is no real drama here. The acting is on par with the first year and it just feels like everyone with any acting skill are just working for pay checks.
Including Dichen Lachman, Dollhouse's Sierra. Just one of the many guest stars they've got coming.

Unlike Transformers 3 I have an open mind for this one, please RTD don't disapoint

Sunday 3 July 2011

Green Lantern

I want to make a point. I have ranted, twice now, about the third transformers film and how much it doesn't appeal to me.

I realise that you you might think I'm a prone to knee jerk reactions over very little evidence, or that I'm just a mean jerk that hates things for very little reason, so I think I better share my experience with Green Lantern.

Oh - Kay I did not have very high expectations for this film going into it. The umpteen million different trailers, the really bad CGI suit and the plot re-write rumours I knew going into it it was going to be a mess. It was, but in the film's defence it was a difficult birth. There was a lot of difficult things going on in the background and no one really knew where they were going.

The acting was ropy, the editing just bad, the plot holes so immense they rivalled the Matrix trilogy and the CGI was never fixed. Everything you hear about this thing is true it is that bad. But still, and this is a big but, you can just sit back and enjoy. It's not offensive, it doesn't out right insult the fans of the source materiel and it feels like a film.

If it had come out, maybe, ten years ago, even with the effects of the time, it would have been alright. That is because it's main problem was its formulaic structure. Every character, plot twist and development has been done before, ad infinitum. It comes across as if the writers just watched Iron man, the original Superman and then Van Helsing. Threw the scripts into a blender and then use a Find / Replace function to get the cast names right. There was nothing new or original here.

And again, as predictable as that is the film was an enjoyable way to spend an afternoon. I had fun in the theater, even all alone I sat back and watched. Coming out I didn't feel robbed or disappointed that I spent money on it. I liked it.

And this is my problem with not wanting to watch Transformers 3. My expectations are so low and even then I'm afraid I can be disappointed. That takes an epic amount of effort. If a critically panned film, accused of destroying the Comic Book movie itself, can entertain someone like me how bad must Transformers be?

In summation Green Lantern, if you know you're going to a generic comic book superhero movie and with everything you expect from that, is a fun way to kill a lazy afternoon. As long as you don't take it too seriously, and know a little about the comic.