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danielsteadman99
Reviews
Doctor Who: Flux: Chapter Six - The Vanquishers (2021)
Not great, but great
This is a weird one for me. My first episode was World War Three (2005), when I was 5. I've grown up with this show and have watched every episode countless times since its broadcast. The same goes for 13's era, however I've definitely found myself less inclined to rewatch a number of episodes from this era (which can't be said for anything 2005-17), despite there being a dozen or so that I'll happily go back to. While there's some great ideas, nice stories and moments where it feels very Doctor Who, the overall quality just isn't there like it used to be - in every department. But fundamentally, I'll still tune in every week because it's 45 mins of escapism in my favourite universe.
'Flux' was weird, but personally, good weird. It was refreshing, did some great things with the Sontarans and Angels and genuinely had me excited for the next episode for 6 straight weeks (something which the last 2 seasons failed to do). Dan was an entertaining and harmless addition, while Yaz felt quite fresh and had a lot more character. I was really impressed with the guest cast and thought everyone did a great job, even if their scenes were brief. The Ravagers were a fascinating idea, felt genuinely menacing at points and looked great, even if their plan felt somewhat insignificant by the end. As for what was explored regarding the Timeless Child twist - which I don't love, but am happy to accept - I appreciated the development and the scenes with Tecteun, given that the pandemic chaos behind the scenes probably meant Chibnall had significantly less time to explore this thread (giving him the benefit of the doubt, I know). It's a shame we won't get to see this explored further as I'd love to know more about the crooked house and see what impact the knowledge that they're technically immortal has on the Doctor. Alas, what we got amongst the otherwise entertaining 'Flux' story was satisfying enough. Overall, you could tell that despite the difficult circumstances that it was conceived and produced in, a lot of hard work and passion had gone into the project and everyone really was doing the best with what they had.
In another universe, 'Flux' might have been a true television epic in the hands of another writer, under a studio with a bigger budget, in a different situation with no pandemic etc. And admittedly, what we got was a jumble of plot threads, characters, monsters and randomly interlinking locations. This finale, in my opinion, didn't successfully tie everything together into one satisfying conclusion: the Grand Serpent/UNIT plot should have been a full-season thing as this was a great concept; the Sontaran invasion felt like it came out of nowhere and left with little impact; the scenes in the Passenger with Vinder and Diane were bizarre and weirdly edited; the Williamson tunnels were a brilliant way to tie everything together, but glossed over far too quickly; for what purpose did Jericho and Claire head to the Sontaran ship?; it felt like the Ravagers didn't really have anything to do with the Doctor and seriously, is most of the Universe just in bits now?
And yet, having said all that... this is the most re-watchable episode of 'Flux' for me. Since it aired I've watched it about a dozen times (by comparison, I haven't revisited 'Legend of the Sea Devils' once in 2 or 3 weeks and don't intend to anytime soon). It's full of Chibnall's worst tropes and inconsistencies and it feels like 4 or 5 episodes worth of story crammed into an hour. But it's weirdly fun. It looks really, really great. The Sontarans are plain fun but still dark as anything, wiping out the Lupari fleet. I quite like the resolution with the Passenger and Bel felt like a surprisingly natural fit to the TARDIS. The Daleks and Cybermen getting wiped out was a cool touch, if a bit brutal on the Doctor's part (to be fair it seemed like a long day). It's campy in all the ways DW actually should be. It feels like Doctor Who! And personally, this is one of my favourite performances from Jodie. She really sells the character here and is a joy to watch, bringing life to every scene she's in - which is most, thankfully. I'm not her biggest fan but I've come to appreciate her take on the Doctor and this episode was her tour de force.
So yeah, overall it's not great. You'll have to watch all of 'Flux' and probably know the entire intricate and messy history of the show to maybe understand it, and even if you do you probably won't be satisfied with the conclusion. But personally, it's good fun. It made me excited to watch and I'm still going back to it. That's all I need from Doctor Who.
Game of Thrones: A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms (2019)
Thrones delivers the character piece we've been waiting for in the calm before the storm - and it's beautiful.
I see complaints from people that this episode was boring, did nothing to further the plot, was just setup, etc. To me this is ridiculous - this episode is crucial if next week's is going to be as good as they're saying it will be. Next week is the spectacle, this week was the heart.
GoT in its first few seasons often had episodes where most (or all) of the screentime would literally just be various characters talking with very little action, and that's what made the show. Because then when the characters die so brutally, it actually hurts, and our characters were real, flawed and complex people, changed by their experiences and relationships. It's what makes every scene of this saga so compelling to watch. And now there will be little or no more of this in Game Of Thrones; we have four eps left, one of which is the Battle Of Winterfell and one of which is the finale. We can assume that we're going to be seeing a hell of a lot of action over the next four weeks, so this episode was the last chance for our characters, who have all travelled to the farthest reaches of Westeros and Essos and all the way back, to do what is the only natural thing for them to do on the last night of their lives: sit and drink and talk. And it was goddam beautiful. It's thanks to this episode's time spent with characters that next week's episode is going to hurt so much, when we see some of them fall at the hands of the Night King and his army.
So many beautiful moments came from this: Davos' heartbreak at seeing the strong little girl with grayscale and remembering his Princess; Theon finally coming home; the reunion of the Night's Watch brothers, all still with one mission in mind; Jorah showing his worth to Dany and receiving his own Valyrian steel sword for his service to Westeros; Pod's unwavering support to his mentors and good heart; Tyrion's self-doubt but honest loyalty (and love for wine); Arya and Gendry finally together on what could be their last night; Missandei and Grey Worm planning their life together; Arya, the Hound and Beric contemplating their fate; and finally pretty much any interaction Jaime had with another character, finally rounding off his redemptive arc in the most poetic of ways (Jaime and Brienne are golden in their scenes together) and paying off 8 years of character development, bad choices and a good heart. Everything here feels earned, natural and necessary. This may be the last episode we spend hearing many of the characters speak their hearts and minds, and to me it feels like the conclusion of many of GoT's greatest characters arcs and plots. It's not even fan service; it just feels right.
I also have to give huge praise to the scene in the crypts with Jon and Dany at the end. Mirroring last week's scene down there brilliantly, with the camera now focussed on Dany as she hears the news (credit to Emilia Clarke there). Interesting that this scene came shortly before the battle and in the same episode that Dany admits she really does love Jon - it'll be interesting to see if this has any repercussions next week. Also this episode is hardly without excitement. The comedy is very well placed and made me laugh unusually hard for GoT (again, just so it hurts more when next week takes some of these guys from us), and the tension in Winterfell as Jaime arrives is tremendous. Furthermore, the way this thing builds and builds until the dead arrive on the rise beyond Winterfell, you can literally feel time ticking away as the characters accept their fate. It's haunting to watch, and I honestly believe that it'll all pay off in the most explosive, epic and painful way next week and in the weeks to come.
This episode is not filler. It's not boring if you care about the characters. It's not simple. It's not even slow even though it never leaves Winterfell and all takes place in one day and night. It's perfect character drama and the calm before the storm. It's a beautiful conclusion to years of journies, ordeals, betrayals, heartbreak, wars, oaths and reunions. And if it weren't for this episode then next week would just be another Thrones battle - but this is the Battle Of Winterfell, and everything and everyone is at stake. This is probably Game Of Thrones' last great character piece and it's a joy to see such talent come together and pay off their years of hard work and incredible storytelling. We'll cry even more tears because of it.
Doctor Who: Hell Bent (2015)
It's a brilliant episode, but not the finale this series deserved.
I honestly want to like this episode so badly. I'm the guy who 10/10s every episode and even likes Love & Monsters. And to be fair I do like this episode because it's enjoyable Who and I think this series really was a high point for the show. Also with the incredible set-up from Heaven Sent this episode couldn't possibly be a dire one. Trouble is there's just something nagging me that I can't shake, even 3 years on, which is why I always revisit Heaven Sent over this.
Firstly, some good points. Peter Capaldi, once again, is nothing short of incredible as Twelve, portraying the Doctor's grief, anger, determination, fear, sorrow (and so on) with absolute perfection. This man will always be one of my favourite Doctors and there are few actors I am genuinely stunned by and respect more. I also liked returning to Gallifrey here, in that it was enjoyable to see the Doctor on his home planet for a while in New Who and it was very respectful to the Gallifrey we know and love. Every detail looked beautiful, the lore was spot on, Rassilon was fantastic (if a little brief) and it was nice to explore a bit. I'd also like to praise the Sisterhood, the old TARDIS, the beautiful scenes in the diner and the inclusion of Ashildr (portrayed wonderfully yet again by Maisie Williams), all of which I thought were very thoughtful and fun additions to the story which made it feel very grand and, in some ways, reflective.
So, what went wrong then? On the face of it I do like this episodes, but it p***es me off beyond belief when it comes to the plot. And please understand that I am very lenient towards Moffat and have always respected the ingenuinity of his arcs even if I felt they didn't quite work. I even managed to follow the arc of Eleven's era perfectly, even if no-one else I know personally, even to this day, understood half of it! But this hybrid arc really intrigued me for the whole series and I was so looking forward to seeing where it went, especially given that it was allegedly the reason the Doctor left Gallifrey - Moffat was clearly feeling brave here if he was going to change Who history so drastically, and when this was revealed I really respected that decision despite my apprehension.
But it just doesn't pay off, at all. Which means that such a huge revelation about the Doctor, such a pivotal aspect of his life and of the show, is reduced to literally nothing. The Doctor left Gallifrey because he was scared of being involved in creating a hybrid being so powerful that it would stand in the ruins of Gallifrey and would tear time and space apart - okay, cool, I get that. But this hybrid is clearly the Doctor and Clara, and it comes about purely by chance and because she dies one day (bearing in mind that the Doctor left Gallifrey almost 1200 years before ever meeting Clara and almost 2000 years before her death) and he decides to save her but he can't. It just feels so lacklustre and convoluted. So apparently the fact that the two of them act so recklessly together (and we never even see a single one of the ramifications of their "drastic" actions in this episode despite a few out-of-character moments for the Doctor which makes it a hard idea to get behind) is essentially the reason that the Doctor decides to leave Gallifrey all those years ago, and the two-reckless-time-travellers-doing-reckless-things-together-even-though-they-shouldn't-because-it's-dangerous-to-time-and-space-even-though-there-is-no-proof-of-that "hybrid" is apparently capable of destroying Gallifrey and scares the Time Lords enough that they trap the Doctor for 4 billion years and it's one of their greatest fears... right... yeah I'm not buying it. Moffat has even established previously that fixed points in time can be changed, which sort of
takes away from the potential severity of this situation.
The first 30 minutes or so of this episode were so badass because it really was the Doctor going mad with grief and being incredibly dangerous and unpredictable, banishing Rassilon (a plot point that shouldn't have been dealt with so lightly!) and shooting a friend just to escape. But once he'd rescued Clara it just went downhill. If we'd seen him literally tear Gallifrey apart, almost devastating it to the same extent the Time War did, just in order to save Clara then I would've totally bought the "hybrid" thing. If he'd have had to completely (or even just nearly) wipe out half the life in the universe just in order to save her and then realised what he was doing just before he became a mad god and put things right, I could've bought that too. But seriously, they just legged it from Gallifrey, Clara was alive enough that she was basically saved and then they realised they'd done something potentially dangerous and concluded that if they'd stayed together they would devastate the universe - probably. Sooooo close, Moffat! Soooo close! The ideas were there, the build up was there, the actors and characters were there, the emotion was there... but then the emotion just kept coming and the action just sort of stopped, and I was already pretty emotionally invested in this whole thing after Heaven Sent so I just wanted to see the Doctor go apes**t and become some sort of angry god. Ah well, at least everyone lived happily ever after! Aapart from Donald Sumpter - poor guy's just floating about in space now probably.
A great episode bogged down by unnecessary emotion, a lacklustre climax to a pretty ballsy and lore-changing arc and a waste of an incredible preceding episode and cliffhanger. Lovely character moments though, great acting and visuals all round, lovely score and a semi-satisfying send-off for Jenna Coleman. Kudos to everyone involved for making the show's most annoying anticlimax ever still enjoyable to watch.
Godzilla (2014)
King of the Monsters, King of the Movies
This film is an absolute masterpiece. Not once did I find myself getting bored or losing track of the plot - something that happens commonly when I watch longer movies - and I was gutted when it was over. Not because I was disappointed, but because I desperately wanted more. Gareth Edwards' film takes monster movies to a whole new level, with some nice twists to the usual "Godzilla" story lines, a fantastic cast and some of the best action sequences I have ever had the pleasure of seeing.
The first thing to mention about this film is its cast and its focus on the human characters, played mainly by Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Lieutenant Ford Brody), Elizabeth Olsen (Elle Brody, Ford's wife), and Bryan Cranston (Joe Brody, Ford's estranged father). Bryan Cranston is only really in the first half, portraying his character as a very outcast, yet very determined former nuclear engineer who is searching for the truth about his wife's tragic death. His theories beautifully foreshadow the events to come, and he drags his son, Ford, right into the heart of the trouble. Thankfully, this means that we get to see lots of the brilliant Aaron Taylor- Johnson, a courageous explosive ordnance disposal technician who comes face-to-face with Godzilla several times. Literally. Aaron Taylor-Johnson really is the star here, and the scenes with his wife, Elle, and son, Sam, before any of the action starts makes his actions later on all the more respectable and courageous as he risks his life to save them and the entire city. Elizabeth Olsen isn't used as much as I would have liked, as she is fantastic in the scenes in which we see her. Having said that, she does appear a fair amount, as the strong wife and mother holding back her terror in order to stay and help. Her scenes with Aaron Taylor- Johnson are great too, and make for some very believable characters. The other main character is Dr Serizawa (played by Ken Watanabe), a scientist monitoring Godzilla and the MUTOs. He doesn't really do much apart from look very worried in every shot and say tense or shocking one-liners, but Ken Watanabe makes sure that it's never cringe-worthy or boring.
Secondly we have Gareth Edwards' directing - wow! I need to see more of this guy! Every shot looks as good as it could possibly be, and the first reveal of Godzilla is brilliant (SPOILERS COMING UP). There's a MUTO smashing up an airport. Cue plane exploding, followed by the one to the right, and then the one to the right, and then
a foot. Silence. Another foot. Cut to a shot of the MUTO roaring, and then back to the feet. Up the camera pans (for quite a long time!), leaving us with a beautiful high-angle shot of the beast himself. And then comes the roar. There's another great shot of Godzilla making his way across the Pacific to San Francisco, and another in the city itself of
well, there's no other way of putting it – Godzilla and a MUTO having a good old' fashioned fistfight, which culminates in a pretty fantastic and well-timed tail slam from the big guy. The skyscrapers don't really bother them. It's just a long shot, and in it we see two giant monsters ripping each other to shreds and obliviously destroying the city below. Another great shot (or shots) is during the HALO jump, as we see the city in flames, the men falling through the clouds and the burning skyline and a close-up of a Godzilla vs MUTO fight.
Now I'll move on to the plot and the headline acts – the MUTOs and the big guy himself, Godzilla. The plot is very straightforward. A MUTO hatches in Japan, one hatches in Nevada next to Las Vegas, and this is all because they've been feeding on humanity's nuclear waste and radiation. Oh, and by the way, the MUTOs look brilliant. Imagine a metal praying mantis crossed with a four-legged spider, as tall as a skyscraper. That's a MUTO. Anyway, Ford joins the fight to stop the creatures, and as they make their way to San Francisco the military plan to destroy them with their most powerful nuclear weapon. Godzilla is closing in too, and when the pesky MUTOs steal the nuke and build their nest around it, Ford and a group of soldiers must go into the city to detonate it. However, Godzilla and the MUTOs are also in the city, smashing everything (including each other) to bits. It's very odd that, for once, we end up cheering Godzilla on, as the two MUTOs begin to overwhelm him as he is seemingly hurt. And then he is actually made out to be the good guy (a twist I enjoyed), as he saves Ford in a spectacular way from a MUTO and the media call him " the saviour of our city?". 'Zilla looks amazing too. "Massive" is probably an understatement, but the spikes on his back, the battle scars on his body and his terrifying face make him look awesome. Also, his roar had me jumping up and down with excitement, as did his surprise for the MUTOs: his atomic fire breath.
All in all, "Godzilla" is one fantastic movie. No longer a mockery, but terrifying, tense, and, unlike many monster movies, it is complex. Complex in that it has multiple characters with interesting back-stories (that are all explored) and gives Godzilla a new personality and purpose. Everything looks great, it feels epic, and I enjoyed every moment. This is a movie that would appeal to anyone, and you have to see it. Godzilla is bigger and better than ever.
Best moment: Godzilla vs the MUTOs - this was the most intense thing I have ever seen.