Quicksilver

By now, anyone who cares has seen Avengers: Age of Ultron. If, for some reason, you haven’t and don’t want major plot points ruined, you can read this spoiler free review. You’d also be best served by staying off the Internet completely at this point. But now it’s out and people have had the opportunity to see it, I’d like to take some time to analyse some of the bigger plot points that I couldn’t include in the overall review.

Let’s talk about Pietro Maximoff. The character was always going to be difficult to pull off given that Evan Peter’s depiction of the character in Fox’s X-Men: Days of Future Past is widely touted as the best scene in the entire movie. I wasn’t as impressed as some people. The scene itself is neat but the circumstances surrounding it feel contrived to give us the scene. And the character quirk of the character thinking and speaking at superspeed became a little annoying. But Marvel had the challenge of distinguishing their Pietro Maximoff from Fox’s Quicksilver. I just didn’t think they’d meet the challenge by killing him.

Aaron Taylor-Johnson does a very good job in the role of Pietro Maximoff. Johnson is probably best known for his portrayal as costumed super-hero, Kick-Ass, in the film of the same name. Because of Johnson’s strength in the role, Pietro Maximoff never feels like Kick-Ass. It’s easy to believe that they are separate entities despite being played by the same actor so I really have to give kudos to Johnson for his work. That’s part of why I would have liked him to stick around. But I would also have liked to see more of the character. Imagine how his relationship with Wanda might have developed now that they were no longer waging an underground war against Tony Stark.

Not faster than a speeding bullet.

What bothers me more is that, of all the people who could have saved Hawkeye, Pietro’s death is the least sensible. One of the most poignant moments in the film is when Clint Barton takes the team back home to meet his wife and kids. Barton has a conversation with his wife about whether the team has his back as much as he has theirs. It seems like it is setting up a heroic sacrifice or that someone from the team will save him. But no one does. The guy that saves him is Pietro Maximoff, the new guy who never visited Barton’s wife and children. Sure, Pietro and Barton have something of a rivalry throughout the film but it would have been so much more meaningful if Captain America or Thor had taken the bullet. Instead all we got was a humorous one-line call back.

Of course, no one could have saved Barton and died except for the Maximoff twins or Black Widow. Wanda was otherwise preoccupied though and I can imagine the feminist uproar if Marvel killed Black Widow and replaced her with Wanda Maximoff. Such an action would seem to imply that there only needs to be one token female in the group to maintain diversity. So it had to be Pietro who died. Iron Man has his suit and Captain America, Thor and Hulk can all survive bullets. But even if Thor had taken the gunfire and just been out of commission for a while, the effect would have been the same. Barton would have realised how close he’d come to dying and seen that the team truly cared for him.

Speaking of diversity though, the largely male, all white Avengers team is no more. With the inclusion of Falcon, WarMachine and Wanda, the team has become much well rounded in terms of sex and race. Wanda is Russian too, so there’s some cultural diversity in there too, although some might complain about the actress not being a Russian national, but hey, baby steps. And the team is set to get a lot more diverse with the upcoming inclusions of Black Panther and Captain Marvel. You could also say that as an A.I. in a synthetic body, Vision rounds out the diversification by not even being human at all.

Looking a little sparse…for now.

The new squad will create fresh stories and keep the drama interesting without relying on the same characters with the same powers. It seems like Pietro’s death was a necessity to create that new squad. Even with Stark and Barton retiring, Thor off doing research and the Hulk gone AWOL, the team is looking crowded. Captain America and new recruits, Ant-man, Black Panther and Captain Marvel are all getting their own releases. Had Pietro survived he’d likely have gotten lost in the shuffle, like Falcon or WarMachine might.

I like Falcon and WarMachine but they aren’t Tony Stark or the Hulk. Both are just normal men made super through technology. Unlike Stark though, both have a military background. They’re both known for their witty one-liners as well. I’d almost have preferred to have Pietro survive in the place of one of them because they’re so similar and the Avengers team doesn’t really need both of them. It’s entirely possible that they won’t stay that way for long with Captain America: Civil War just around the corner. Could we see Falcon take up the shield in future Avengers films?

Avengers:Age of Ultron was a good, enjoyable film. But I am disheartened that I won’t get to see more of Aaron Taylor Johnson’s Quicksilver and that the new Avengers have lost much of their scientific and otherworldly minds. Again though, and this really can’t be overstated, the new team will allow for fresh interactions and plots. Fans were worried about getting tired of the Avengers but if they keep refreshing and cycling through team members, Marvel have a means of bringing back audiences time and time again. Despite my disappointment, I can’t stay mad at Marvel.

Originality

The main selling point of Game of Thrones season 5 is the departure from the A Song of Ice and Fire source material. The HBO show is rapidly approaching the threshold where all five of George R.R. Martin’s book are adapted. Rather than distilling the secrets of the plot from Martin, David Benioff and D.B. Weiss have elected to fill in the blanks themselves, creating a sort of alternate universe, similar to when Biff took the Almanac back to 1955. This, coupled with Martin’s confession that he has no power over who lives and dies in the show, and we have a season that promises to be fresh and exciting for readers and non-readers alike.

That promise is a long way away in the season 5 opener, “The Wars to Come”. Very little of the episode is original. Dialogue sees the most change but much of what is depicted is the same. The fallout of Tyrion Lannister’s murder of his father, Tywin, dictates the episode, whether it be Cersei cursing Jaime for freeing him or Varys’ attempts to coerce the Imp into helping Daenarys Targaryen ascend to the throne. Readers of the books will recognise much of what happens and what it’s leading to.

To say that season 5 is the season where the show will split from the books is misleading. The show has often changed details for dramatic or visual purposes. An early change was that Robb Stark did not wed Jeyne Westerling, but instead falls for a woman named Talisa Maegyr. This is important because the Westerling family are Lords of The Crag in the Westerlands, making them sworn to the Warden of the West, Tywin Lannister. Thus Robb’s marriage to Jeyne is not just disrespectful to Walder Frey but is also a betrayal of the Westerlings against Tywin Lannister. By naming the girl Maegar, this aspect of the marriage was removed. Furthermore, Robb didn’t bring Jeyne to the Red Wedding so she actually survives whereas Talisa Maegar was killed.

Let Sleeping Dragons Lie.

Another change, though somewhat less major, was the encounter between the Hound and Brienne of Tarth. That fight, as awesome as it was, never happens in the novels. Brienne never came that close to finding Arya, with the Hound dying from a wound he received much earlier. Purists might reject the change but the scene was very enjoyable. The only problem is that a change like that has consequences. Arya refuses to go with Brienne, causing the latter to lament her efforts in the season 5 opener. Brienne is essentially directionless now. Perhaps she can go looking for Sansa but that will involve rewriting a lof material that does exist. Brienne’s story continues in the novels but much of it concerns her search of Arya and the Hound. That’s not really something she can do now that Arya she knows Arya doesn’t want her help.

So viewers haven’t had to wait five season to see original stories. Changes have been made here and there. Perhaps they mean wholly original and not scene or character changes. But even if that is true, there’s still plenty of material to work through. The only character whose story will really start to diverge this season is Bran’s. The crippled Stark boy was last seen, in both book and screen, beyond the wall, conversing with a greenseer. What’s next for him is entirely up to Benioff and Weiss.

That doesn’t mean, however, that this season will be similar to seasons past. From here onwards, there is a geographical shift out of Westeros. With Arya, Tyrion and Daenerys now all in Essos, there will be more stories to tell on the exotic, eastern continent. The culture is different there and the tone of the scenes set there reflects that. It’s much less dark ags, medieval fantasy and more intrigue and politics. Dany remarks that she’s a Queen, not a politician, but she might be on the wrong continent if that’s how she plans to rule.

This is what happens when couples can’t compromise.

Even back on Westeros, the story is becoming much less centralised to King’s Landing. This season will see focus turned on Dorne and the Iron Islands, both of which we’ve seen little of thus far. Neither appeared in the opener, but that’s a case of catching up with the old guard before introducing fresh blood. Basically, if you enjoyed the antics of Oberyn Martell last season, there is plenty more where that came from. Viewers with good long term memory (or those who recently rewatched season one) will also remember that Cersei’s daughter Myrcella was shipped off to Dorne to ensure the Martell’s support. In season five, Dorne is the place to be.

In many ways, “The Wars to Come” was the perfect name for the opening episode. It might not have been the most exciting or eventful premiere in the history of television but what it did was set up new storylines. Tywin Lannister’s death has caused a great shift in dynamic. Characters who were once loyal to each other, such as Jaime and Cersei are now at odds. It’s been building for a while but Tywin’s death was the final straw. Even as far out as The Wall, Stannis can be heard proclaiming that the Iron Throne will be his now that Tywin isn’t alive to hold the kingdom together.

“The Wars to Come” was a strong episode but it was a quiet strength. Some viewers might have found it dull but looking ahead to the second episode tonight, or the end of the season even, I suspect that this might be looked back upon as a necessary evil. The leak of the first four episodes didn’t hurt the premiere, which accumulated a record rating. But with an appetite whetting first episode, will audiences have been able to wait the whole week to watch Arya in “The House of Black and White” or have they succumb to online temptation? My guess? Game of Thrones is headed towards being the most illegally downloaded television programme for a fourth year running.

Strangled

BBC Two’s Northern Irish crime drama, The Fall  is now two weeks deep into the second season. When we last left Belfast, Gillian Anderson’s DSI Stella Gibson had failed to catch the woman killer, Paul Spector, played by Jamie Dornan. Spector himself had made some mistakes, having failed to kill one of his victims. That and a former girlfriend who knew him under a pseudonym gave the police an accurate and detailed description. Under those circumstances, what would you do? Spector runs to Scotland. That doesn’t quite seem far enough but, as the second season begins, he’s on his way back to Belfast.

Returning to the scene of the crime, or in this case the country of the crime, is always the stupidest move a killer can make. On the one hand, it is easy to understand why. Spector returns to wrap up loose ends, such as the ex-girlfriend, and deal with a teenaged admirer. That and he had a daughter whom he cares about. While the series creator believes that Spector is incapable of love, Dornan disagrees and the argument could go either way. In general, he seems to have a soft spot for children to point where he will pal around with the kids of his victims, even at the sacrifice of his own survival. To the surprise of no one, the child tells the police.

The series seems to be clearly winding towards Spector’s capture or death. They’re on his trail and closer than ever, it is just a matter of whether or not he is willing to go quietly. I would guess not but I was surprised that Spector evaded capture in the first season. What bothers me is that Stella will probably get the credit for his capture when Spector’s own actions have really led to his defeat. I get that calling the police with the kidnapped woman’s phone is a display of power, a psychological presentation of his control over the situation, but expecting the kidnapped woman’s daughter to kindly keep her mouth shut is just sloppy.

Bondage has always been part of his M.O. but it seems more intentional since the announcement of Dornan as Christian Grey.

I still haven’t warmed to DCI Stella Gibson’s character yet. The character is not quite as sexually active as she was in the first season, although that might have something to do with her one night stand buddy being dead, but she still strikes me as boring. Between Stella and Spector, there’s no real emotion to story, outside of grieving victims and their families. Stella is just as cold to the world as Spector, and even he has the characteristic of being nice to kids. Even when Stella was being promiscuous, she approached it with the same systematic mentality that she does police work. She is depicted at times as more sociopathic that the killer. If the show came to an end and she tore off her face to reveal a robot underneath I would not be surprised in the least.

Some people will say that DCI Stella Gibson is just a strong female character. That’s fine but they really don’t need to try so hard. Trying too hard is generally better than not trying hard enough. At least when trying too hard there is a visible display of effort. But when it comes to storytelling, focusing too much on one area can cause other aspects to suffer. It is a common criticism of fan fiction, where fans either write their favourite characters or original creations in a way that makes them look superior to characters that the writer does like. This is not simply a case of a character being written as more competent. Areas in which a character was skilled are taken away and the fan favourites are written to be more talented, better looking and a superior person in very well.

This tends to happen less in published works of fiction and television shows because those writers have matured enough to know how to balance characters. Every character is a person, with all the inherent flaws and shortcomings that come with that but they’re also talented in their own way too. Yet, it still happens but more so in the way that Stella is portrayed in The Fall. The writers are directing all of their focus on to making a character appear to be a certain way that it actually makes them less of a person. They become a caricature of what they were intended to represent.

We limit women by deciding what constitutes strength and what embodies weakness.

In fiction nowadays there seems to be an ideal of what a strong woman is and it’s just as limiting to gender equality as the false perception of women as weak willed and docile from years past. Consider Friends. Friends and The Fall have very little in common but Friends had three very clear, strong women characters all with their own strengths and weaknesses. No one could ever have called them emotionless and yet they had careers, Sometimes they were silly, sometimes they were serious, sometimes they were the butt of the joke and sometimes they were creating the laughs. They were equal to the male characters but beyond that they were strong, well rounded characters. Strong, well rounded characters that just so happened to be female.

There is a difference between displaying emotions and being a slave to your emotions. Women were once considered to be the latter by society but The Fall displays a turn to the opposite extreme. The only female characters who display emotion in the show are the female victims. The main female characters are much more reserved and restrained with their feelings. It isn’t an accurate portrait of real life and results in rather flat, two dimensional characters. It has some similarities to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. In it, a female sociopath aided in the capture of a sadistic woman killer. The difference is that The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo had Mikhail Blomkvist who acted as the emotional centre of the novel and films.

There’s still a level of depth that is missing. Stella is dull, as mentioned above, while Spector’s actions are basically explained by way of him wanting control. But that’s not a very informative answer. Despite watching seven episodes of police tracking this killer I still feel like I don’t know any more than I knew from the first episode. I mean, other than that he has a family and likes tying women up and strangling them in his spare time. It might be good practice for Fifty Shades of Grey but it makes for very shallow viewing. It’s dark for the sake of darkness. The Fall is one of the better original dramas on British television but it is still a far throw from greatness.

Women

There seems to be little doubt that Gone Girl will be one of the most talked about films of the year. Even as February of next year rolls around, audiences will still be talking about whether the film deserves the Academy Award for Best Picture or whether David Fincher got overlooked again. And it’s easy to see why people are talking about the film. Gone Girl is one of the best thrillers in years; the kind of dark, morbid mystery that Fincher excels at and that we’ve seen him do before with the movie adaptation of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

Nowadays though, being good is rarely enough to inspire conversation. Films also have to be controversial, and, boy, is Gone Girl controversial. It’s controversial for the normal reasons such as gore and sex, some of which I really can’t talk about without spoiling the third act of the film, but it’s also drawn a lot of attention due to it’s depiction of women. I know what you’re thinking. Here’s an intelligent thriller written by a woman (Gillian Flynn) and featuring a woman as it’s main character, how can it be anti-feminist? But that hasn’t stopped a lot of readers from suggesting that Mrs. Flynn is misogynistic in the writing of her characters.

Firstly, as almost any writer will tell you, just because a novel is written by a woman doesn’t mean that their female characters are going to be stronger any more that you could expect a man to write great male characters. If that were true there would be no great depictions of robots or aliens because no robots or aliens have written books and I think Philip K. Dick proved he could write a compelling android despite having no mechanical parts himself. In the same vein, people often congratulate George R. R. Martin for his strong, female characters. And if a man can write strong women in his books, it’s feasible that a woman could write weak female characters because the ability to write well or not has no relation to gender or sex.

Male fantasy or male nightmare? It’s still a male perspective.

However, I don’t think that Amy Elliot Dunne, played wonderfully by Rosamund Pike, is a weak female character. She is a well written, complex character who does some bad things but it made sympathetic by the actions of her husband. The first half of the film is borderline cliché. Ben Affleck’s Nick Dunne comes home after meeting his sister one morning to find his wife missing and an overturned table. Further investigation by the police uncovers blood on the kitchen floor and a half burnt journal written by Amy detailing her husband’s detachment and anger issues. And…that’s maybe as far as I can go without ruining the rest of the film.

I will say this, neither Amy nor Nick are reliable. That seems to be the main reason why some viewers and readers accuse Flynn of misogyny. Not all of her claims about Nick in the journal are true which paints her as a bit of a nag who tries to gain favour by being sympathetic. It is very manipulative and deceiving and confirm all the bad attitudes that men have towards women. But that’s unfair to the writer because not all women are good. Gillian Flynn herself addressed the issue in an interview:

“Is it really only girl power, and you-go-girl, and empower yourself, and be the best you can be? For me, it’s also the ability to have women who are bad characters … the one thing that really frustrates me is this idea that women are innately good, innately nurturing. In literature, they can be dismissably bad – trampy, vampy, bitchy types – but there’s still a big push back against the idea that women can be just pragmatically evil, bad and selfish”

One villainous woman does not a make her a misogynist. It is unfortunate that the other female characters in the movie all tend to be gullible and underhanded as well with the only exception really being Nick’s sister. Even that doesn’t bother me because I don’t think the writer was trying to say ‘look how stupid and evil all women are’ but maybe because I’m a writer myself I’m giving her more benefit of the doubt. That said, while she’s not a weak woman for possibly all of the wrong reasons, I don’t think that she’s a strong female character either.

I’m Batman.

Amy Dunne’s methods utilise sex and sympathy to paint a picture of herself that makes her husband appear a lot more despicable than he really is. Getting Affleck to play the part probably helped viewers find the character unlikable but it bothers me that Amy’s method are basically using men’s perception of women against them. Men perceive Amy to be weak so she pretends to be weak to get her way but to me that’s just being strong within the confines that a male dominated world allow. The type of woman that men think uses rape as a weapon and babies as a bargaining tool. It’s the reason that I prefer Arya Stark and Brienne of Tarth as strong women over Cersei Lannister, because they’re strong in a way that makes them equal to men and makes men feel uncomfortable. Amy’s strength won’t make men uncomfortable, it’ll just make them point and say ‘look, I was right.’ But it’s not misogyny; the character is just complex.

Besides, the film has problems other than its depiction of women. Marriage is said to be hard work but no couple in the film works at it. It’s just a power play. On a very basic storytelling level, there are problems too such as how the police never analyse the blood splatters and no mention is made of how the wounds on Amy’s body are inconsistent with the crime scene. That disappointed me because I expected more from Flynn due to her police reporter background. Furthermore, without going into detail, the plot falls apart right around the climax, where it just sort of pitters to its end.

It is unfortunate that this movie and the book are so wrapped up in whether it is feminist or not because it takes away from just how good a thriller this film is. David Fincher is the perfect director for this type of film and Flynn’s story is a great modern mystery, even if it falls short of brilliant. It gets a little risqué at times but if you can hold your nerve it’s a highly entertaining thriller that keeps the audience guessing right until the absolute last moment.

True

If there is one thing that a writer needs to be able to do, whether it is in literature, television or films, it is kill their characters. It is fine if the creator doesn’t want to kill their beloved creation, in fact I suspect that the only character any author really wants to write out is the villain, but it must be done. Especially in large ensemble casts. When you have a large group of characters in a storyline over a long period of time and none of them die it devalues the threat. The Walking Dead recognises this and has a noticeably high death count.

Of course there are some formats where it isn’t suitable to kill characters off. Literature for young kids might deal with death in a kind of soothing, abstract manner of comfort but it would be horrific for Fluffy the bunny to begin slaughtering his friends like he just walked into a slasher film. Can you imagine In The Night Garden if Upsy Daisy had a mental break and started saying ‘pip pip onk onk’ to all her friends? It might liven up the show for adults but it would traumatise children. So in some cases it might be acceptable to safe guard your characters. This isn’t about those cases.

For example, consider True Blood. Fair warning, I’m going to talk about the most recent episode so if you haven’t seen it but plan to then maybe come back later. Don’t worry, I’ll wait. Anyway, in the premiere episode of what will be True Blood’s final season, long standing character Tara Thornton was killed. Tara’s actor, Rutina Wesley, has gone on record saying“I think somebody had to go. To have a main character right off the bat go, that’s gonna bring everybody into the show”. In many ways, I agree with her. I just think it should have happened sooner.

In True Blood’s seventh season, Sookie comes out as a mutant.

It’s not that I have anything against Tara, although she’s far from my favourite character on the show. The character however had increasingly less to do on the show. Her personal story always seemed to have little to do with the main plot and making her a vampire in the first episode of season five did nothing to rectify the problem. Instead, her storyline became whatever Pam was doing. Perhaps that’s what bothers me more about Tara’s death. They already tried to use her death as a shock and revived her just to do it again two years later.

This isn’t just a problem with Tara. It is an issue that has always plagued True Blood. Season seven boasts a total of twenty-one main cast members or twenty if you subtract Tara due to her most recent death. Compare that to Heroes which began with a cast of twelve regulars, half of which were dead by the end of the first season. Nine of True Blood’s twenty one cast were main characters in the first season, another three are guest stars who were promoted and one was a main star who got demoted and then raised back to main for the final season. That means that thirteen of the twenty one have been around since the first season and survived threats from the Fellowship of the Sun, The Authority and Russell Edgington. It really just makes those villains and antagonists look incompetent.

Characters have died in True Blood but they’re always seasonal or side characters that don’t have much impact on the overall story. Perhaps the biggest deaths in True Blood’s seven seasons have been Tommy Mickens and Terry Bellefleur. Neither death was part of the main story though. Tommy was beaten to death by werewolves and Terry arranged his own assassination due to being unable to live with his own actions during the the time he served in the military. Tommy’s death crosses over slightly with Alcide’s involvement with werewolves whilst Terry’s wife Arlene uses a vampire to glamour her husband. Outside of those two incidents, neither death nor the surrounding storyline has much to do with anything else going on in Bon Temps.

Expect Sookie to go all bad wolf and resurrect her.

Not every death has to be by the villain and it is important for character’s to have their own issues and problems within the wider world. I get that. But for True Blood’s biggest kills to both be from personal issues says something about level of threat. Wesley’s suggestion that Tara’s death will bring people into the show is right. It instantly makes the vampires that killed her appear to be a threat. Previous seasons had some interesting antagonists but the fact that the same bunch of characters who went in came out again makes them look weak. Furthermore, I’m not sure that these infected vampires deserve to look stronger than Sookie’s previous adversaries.

As important as the personal storylines are, the larger story arcs should cause the characters to put aside their issues to deal with the life-threatening danger. In Lost, each character had their own problems but island wide events would impact everyone. If the seasonal big bad doesn’t affect more than a few characters they come across as very ineffectual. Again, I agree with Rutina’s sentiment but this should have been happening in seasons two and three. It has taken seven seasons for the True Blood writers to understand that death increases the stakes.

Yet, I may be speaking too soon. While all signs point to Tara being dead the audience was denied a visual of the character meeting the true death. Rutina talking about the character’s death would seem to cement it but it was only two years ago that True Blood pulled the same stunt with the same character. Deceiving the viewer by using a death for shock value rather than meaning and then revealing that they are still alive is a great way to annoy a lot of fans. Of course, with this being the last season, perhaps they’re feeling brave enough to actually kill off more of their core cast. Just please let Eric live. Please?

Revelations

Tonight is the beginning of the end. It seems to have taken an age to get here, but finally part B of Breaking Bad’s fifth season has arrived. While I am so ready to see what Vince Gilligan has in store for the final eight episodes, I am so not ready for it to end. Understandably, Gilligan wants to end the show before it becomes irrelevant and the story of Walter White is tarnished. It is better for the show to end now and allow the character to pass into the realm of TV legends. But the show has been incredible over the past four and a half seasons and I am not quite ready to see it go.

One reason why the story of Walter White has been engaging and continues to draw drones of fans back year after year is because of the character’s transformation. Rarely in television do the viewers get to experience the development of a character as they challenge their own morality and legacy. Plenty of characters change over time but it generally more subtle and less overarching. Spike, a vampire in Joss Whedon’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer, slowly became a force of good rather than evil as that series progressed, but he still loved fighting, especially for a passionate cause. The only real distinction that can be made is that he once fought for lust (Drusilla), but eventually fought for love (Buffy).

Jesse with a gun – but who is on the other end?

Walter White takes the literary concept of character development to an entirely different level. It is difficult to believe sometimes that the same meek, bungling science teacher who had to moonlight as a car wash attendee is the man who became the manipulative, murderous emperor of meth. And really they aren’t the same character. It was a sort of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde arrangement, where Walter would don the hat and the name Heisenberg whenever he had something dangerous and immoral to perform. Slowly, over the seasons however, the Heisenberg persona has seeped into the man who was Walter White. Even when he is playing himself, Walter is often still playing a role. He is nowhere near as awkward as he once was and had graduated onto manipulating and misleading his own family members. The question that remains is ‘does he even know how to be Walter White anymore?’

The answer to that question will likely be addressed in the upcoming season, as Walter’s brother-in-law, Hank now knows who the elusive Heisenberg is. Hank has spent the entire series tracking the man known as Heisenberg and trying to stomp out the powerful blue meth. But every time he has gotten close, Walter has found a way to not only escape but to make his empire even bigger. And everyone around him has suffered the consequences while Walter has evaded punishment. Jesse Pinkman, his partner in crime, was brutally beaten and held at gun point numerous times, Gale Boetticher was killed, Gus Fring was blown up, Combo was shot and most recently Mike Ehrmantraut suffered a gunshot wound to the gut and bled out. Even Hank himself was nearly crippled as a result of Walter’s actions. Whatever sympathy or understanding Hank has for Walt will likely go out the window as soon as remembers that little connection.

There is one spanner in the works for Hank though. He may have the book and he may know that Walter White is Heisenberg but he can’t prove it. All the evidence surrounding the blue meth has been accumulated and there has never been any mention of a Walter White. The closest that they came was Gus’ laptop but Jesse’s big ass magnet idea put an end to that swiftly enough. Hank has already come under fire from his superiors for wasting resources in regards to Mike, and at least Mike’s name was related to the case. Using police resources to tail his own brother-in-law likely won’t go down well with the DEA, and, possibly, Hank may be reluctant to involve the authorities where his own family is involved.

This is my reaction everytime George R.R. Martin kills a character.

He may also find it difficult to gather any new evidence given that both Walt and Jesse are out of the business now. We have all heard that before. Walt briefly quit in the third season before being coerced back into cooking by Jesse and Gus and also considered stopping in the second season before he found his normal life unfulfilling. It is slightly more believable that Jesse would actually stop because he has actually lost more. In the course of the series, he has lost friends and loved ones. Not to mention, last time Jesse was on screen he was absolutely terrified of Walt. For Jesse, the meth business was always a means to make money and in the beginning that coincided with Walt’s desire to care for his family after his death. Maybe Jesse will go back to cooking but I would be surprised.

So what is the fate of Walter White to be? Even if he is out, there will likely be some opposition from Lydia and Declan, who were profiting from his scheme. Saul Goodman will be relieved, however. If he manages to free himself from those deals unscathed, and this is Walter White so anything is possible, the most probable outcome is that Hank will find some kind of evidence against him. Knowing Walter though, if the DEA come for him he won’t be taken alive. That said, there are a few revelations that have still to come out, such as ‘how did Jane really die’ and ‘who knows how to poison children with Lily of the Valley’. If the answers to those questions come to light, even Heisenberg may not be able to appease the wrath of Jesse.

Whatever the outcome, these final eight episodes are going to be an awesome ride. Gilligan has created an absolute classic story that was brought to life fantastically by Bryan Cranston, Aaron Paul and Dean Norris. All three of those actors deserve all the awards that could possibly be thrown at them.

Honour

Welcome to the review of The Wolverine, otherwise known as the film where Logan falls down a lot. Seriously, Logan, played by Hugh Jackman as always, topples over at least half a dozen times. The writers seemed to have thought that Logan’s imbalance would be a neat way to portray his mortality but most of the time it was used to transition from one scene to another, which is rather sloppy. Once is fine, maybe twice at a push, but overusing fainting as a scene transition can get rather old very fast. In fairness, Wolverine was bleeding profusely from several different wounds for about two thirds of the film, so his light-headedness is understandable, but it did seem worn-out by the end.

For example, consider Wolverine’s invasion of the Yashida Corporation research centre, where he attempts to storm the building but is met by the Black Clan, a group of ninja’s sworn to protect the Yashida family. Logan fends off a few of them then takes about fifty arrows and one poisoned arrow to tether him down. Naturally, he faints and when he awakens…he is inside the research centre. That seemed like a complete misuse of the fainting to transition from outside the centre to inside the centre. Rather than allowing Logan to battle his way through the streets and into the centre before being captured by someone like Viper, we get t see him taken down outside, faint and then appear inside. It creates a lack of motion and instead generates a sensation of jumping from one point to another. Since it was already suggested that going to the centre was a trap, if they wanted Wolverine in the research centre so badly, then why not even just let him walk in then be captured?

Speaking of jumping around though, the fight sequences in The Wolverine are really fun, especially the sequence on top of the bullet train. Everyone has seen train fights before, where two or more characters will battle on top of a speeding train. In Japan though, they have a rail line called ‘Shinkansen’, otherwise known the ‘Bullet Train’ because the trains are similarly shaped to a bullet and because the top speed for the train is 320 kilometres per hour. Unlike the traditional train fight scenes, you can’t even stand on top of the bullet train at top speed. It makes for an extremely interesting fight to see Logan and some random Yakuza thug jumping and sliding along the train, using knives and claws for grip.

Faster than a speeding Bullet Train!

The Bullet Train fight is probably one of the most enjoyable fights in the film, but Wolverine’s battle with the Silver Samurai is cool too. It is the only fight where he really gets into a sword fight, whereas I would have liked him to take up the sword and really embrace the samurai culture. Hints are dropped, which seem like foreshadowing, such as Wolverine being called an Rōnin (a samurai without a master) or being given a sword on two occasions and even being taught how to hold it. The teaching comes back to help him in one instance but after so much build up, I was expecting more sword play. He also doesn’t get to fight Viper, so there is no opportunity to get even after she suppresses his healing factor.

Surprisingly, this film isn’t all about action and attempts to really get into the mind of The Wolverine. The Rōnin title that he is given by a sickly old man that he once saved was originally a term of disgrace. It was a samurai who had not committed ‘seppuku’, or ritual suicide, following their master’s death. The Rōnin was then meant to suffer great shame, much like the great shame that Wolverine suffers following his killing of lover Jean Grey in X-Men: The Last Stand. Many people would love to forget that atrocity, but The Wolverine does a fine job of dealing with its aftermath. Famke Janssen returns as Jean Grey, speaking to Logan in his dreams as he struggles to accept her death. He even takes a vow not to hurt anything but that doesn’t last very long. He has no long dilemma like Superman though. Someone is in trouble and the claws come out.

Themes of life and death run throughout, as the main plot centres on Logan being invited to say goodbye to an dying friend. The old friend incidentally was a soldier during the second world war who, rather than commit seppuku like his superior officers, is saved by Wolverine. So that would actually make him the Rōnin, not Logan, but I digress. After surviving the blast of a nuclear bomb, Logan goes on his merry way, only to be called back when the man is upon his deathbed. Instead of just saying his farewells, the old man, Ichirō Yashida, head of the Yashida Corporation, begs Wolverine give his healing power to Yashida, thus making the titular hero mortal. Wolverine, of course, declines, citing that Yashida would not want what he has. You can guess how the story progresses from there.

Tao Okamoto’s performance stands out, even beside Hugh Jackman.

Honour has a strong presence in this film and it feels connected to the themes of life and death. From the very beginning, honour is a reason to die and an honourable death is good. It is when people decide not to die, or can’t accept death, that they begin to act without honour and go so far as to hurt kith and kin. However, the film does have a positive message, as Wolverine finds honour in life by finding a reason to live.

Outside of the strong action scenes and overarching themes, the supporting cast help to really make this one of Fox’s best superhero films, along with X-Men: First Class. Rila Fukushima as Yukio is believable beside an actor of Hugh Jackman’s calibre despite not having starred in much herself, and brings a little sister vibe to the character, similar to Rogue from the original X-Men or Jubilee in Fox’s X-Men cartoon. She is more badass than either though. The real standout is Tao Okamoto as Logan’s love interest and Yashida’s granddaughter, Mariko. Opposite Jackman, she gives an endearing performance and her character manages to come across as both strong and conflicted.

Thankfully the door is left open for both of those characters to return. Speaking of the door being left open, stay after the credits. The Avengers really seems to have inspired Fox with what they can do with their characters. The build up for The Avengers made every preceding movie a must see event, and the same goes for The Wolverine. Seeing this film made me so much more hyped for already hotly anticipated X-Men: Days of Future Past.

Fallen

On paper, new British drama, The Fall appears to have found a desperately wanting audience. It boasts the best ratings of a BBC Two drama in recent memory, stars award winning actors from around the globe, including Gillian Anderson and manages to be set in Belfast without being ostentatiously about the Troubles. And, in many ways, The Fall does live up to the hype because no one take anything that has just been mentioned away the studio or the programme and they should be very proud of what they have accomplished in their first run. However, in many other ways, the show falls flat.

Gillian Anderson, as good an actress as she might be, is playing an extremely boring character. Her two main characteristics seem to be that she knows how to catch killers and that she’s a strong woman. That strong woman characteristic comes up time and time again, with her staring down superiors, calming out other superiors in the face of violence and having casual sex. The writers seem to enjoy having her character, Detective Superintendent Stella Gibson, rub her promiscuity in the faces of others. Not literally, because that would be weird, but she actually does say to one officer that if she was a man that she would be applauded. It is at that point which the show crosses from strong woman into something more like a feminist tract.

Are they trying too hard to make Stella Gibson a strong female character?

Perhaps the writer or director has personal grievances with this issue, and while it’s true that in the year 2013 not all gender politics are entirely equal, but the existence of feminism in the show doesn’t actually elevate the character or the storyline. The character is in no way stronger for having casual sex and it has little bearing on the main story of catching the killer. In the real police force there are many women in the service, and many that hold high level positions and they are strong women without necessarily being casually active sexually. It is disappointing that they had the opportunity to create a truly strong female character and opted instead to make her a walking feminist protest, shaming any viewer who disagrees. I don’t think this is Gillian Anderson’s fault either. She was certainly better in The X-Files where she was equally as strong without being half as brazen about it. Perhaps it helped for her to have another character like David Duchovny’s Fox Mulder to bounce off of but in this series that might be considered weak.

Rather than invest time in a characteristic that does little to progress the story, more time should have been devoted to her history of catching another killer. So far it seems to have come up twice; once when she is introduced and a second time when she is asked about interviewing the killer, at which point she admits that she didn’t actually sit in on the interviews. Compare Stella Gibson with Ryan Hardy, Kevin Bacon’s character from U.S. crime drama The Following. The Following had its own fair share of flaws but if nothing else it did a superb job of establishing that Hardy knew what he was talking about. He had written a book about the capture, he demanded to be in interviews, he had a drinking and heart problem because of the job and even though he was no longer FBI, he was brought in simply to consult because they needed his expertise. Conversely, Gibson is brought in to review the case file of a victim and the superior officer immediately shoots her down. Uh, what is the point of bringing her in and then not listening to her? That would have been the perfect moment to demonstrate that she is a strong female character and develop her back story by having her persuade him because of something that happened from her last case. Instead, she goes off and has casual sex with another officer.

She isn’t the only character that disappoints though. The lesbian police officer and the pathologist both feel as though they are only there to support Gibson but Jamie Dornan’s Paul Spector fails to be an interesting killer. This is no criticism of Doran, because his performance is sufficiently creepy and intense but rather the story treats him as an elusive killer but shows us evidence to the contrary instead. Aside from being handsome, there doesn’t seem to be anything that makes him different. Gibson gives a generic profile of a killer based off the three current murder cases that somehow manages to be spot on. That scene didn’t help either Gibson or Spector because it seems like she pulled that profile out of her ass and he is made less special by it. Furthermore, his history is barely referred to either. I understand that Gibson shouldn’t know his motivations but part of the reason for showing the killer’s perspective is to allow the viewer to get into his head. It isn’t meant to be a fun way of showing the viewer all the dark and strange things he does. If the killer isn’t going to be developed in some way because of what the audience sees then they may as well not show the killer’s point of view at all.

Sex and violence go hand in hand in this Britsh crime thriller.

Aside from the main plot of the killer, there are a few sub plots, one regarding a drug and prostitution ring and the other concerning the death of the man Gibson slept with. Neither of these two storylines appears to have much relevance beyond padding out episodes and showing that the police do have other things to take care of besides catching serial murderers. Maybe the drug and prostitution gig will have more importance in the second season but neither looks like it will have much influence on the main storyline. Another missed opportunity, as Gibson could have been suspended for her actions, creating more tension for the finale as she hunts the killer without the support of the police force.

Deeply dark and horrifyingly intense at times, The Fall has shaken off all comparisons to Broadchurch and The Killing within the first four episodes. With only one episode left in its current run, The Fall seems satisfied to tell the story that it wants to tell, regardless of entertaining it is or how difficult the viewer finds the subject matter. And yet, while it is good, there is something missing; something which will keep it from being as pervasive as The Killing was. However, with a little poise and control and a tighter script, the second season could be great.

Great

To call Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby a great movie would be akin to saying that Microsoft’s new X-Box One is a revolutionary new console. Sure, the casing has been given a sleek new design and comes with improved specifications such as an 8-core CPU and a 500 GB hard drive, but the outer appearance and the technical aspects, the machine leaves a lot to be desired. The machine requires Kinect in order to play any game, even if the game in question doesn’t use the movement sensor, Microsoft are heavily promoting internet use and connectivity so while it may not strictly need to be connected at all times most games will probably make use of the function which will in turn require constant internet connection. Finally, there is a lot of confusing discussion about used game fees which basically seems to boil down to paying sticker price to play a used game unless someone is using your account or through Microsoft approved online trading, the specific details of which are still to come.

Likewise, The Great Gatsby is very much all style and no substance. Luhrmann certainly seems to enjoy making a spectacle out of F Scott Fitzgerald’s work but tends to get carried away. For instance, when Nick Carraway, played here by Toby Maguire, first attends Gatsby’s party there is some eccentric loose descendent of Beethoven playing on a organ high above the party, while dancers  shake and jive on stages and then just as Nick meets Gatsby finally it is to the backdrop of a long and powerful firework display like a parody of a meet cute in a Romcom. That isn’t to say that it isn’t impressive but rather that the Luhrmann moves from one spectacle to the next without really allowing any of it to sink it.

Debicki manages to out perform 4 out of 5 of the main cast.

In the novel the parties are just as rambunctious. There are multiple rounds of drinks, two suppers, a full orchestra, a celebrated tenor and the playing of a famed Jazz composition. What is clear, however, is that Luhrmann has read the book but not quite understood that all of the above is merely a backdrop to Gatsby. He fires the party at us in massive sweeping images, trying to encompass the atmosphere of the party but in doing so loses the fluid movement and ethereal feeling of Fitzgerald’s words. Gatsby’s parties were like a wonder dream in the novel but Luhrmann presents them as cars would be presented in Fast and Furious 6. There is a clear appreciation for the subject but little subtlety.

Leondaro DiCaprio on the other hand helps to bring Jay Gatsby to life. The same boyish charm that made him charismatic and enigmatic as Frank Abagnale in Catch Me If You Can presents itself again. It is a pity though that the screenplay and direction aren’t as powerful to create the same compelling drama in this film. Despite being hampered by Luhrmann’s narrow, attention deficient disordered direction, DiCaprio still manages to bring some of the same mystery and poise awarded to Gatsby in the novel. Some have suggested that DiCaprio will get an Oscar nomination for this role. While it is entirely possible that he will get a nomination I would be extremely surprised if he won. He was good but this is far from his best work.

The only other character that really did justice to their character is likely the least known. Elizabeth Debicki hasn’t been in very much at all but her performance as Jordan Baker is just as frivolous and bubbly and confident as the character warrants. She is nothing short of superb and for an unknown actor that really is quite terrific. Amitabh Bachchan is similarly unknown, at least outside of India, but also manages to be more sinister in two lines of dialogue compared the to the lack of emotion most of the cast can squeeze out of the entire movie. The flighty nature of the film means that most of Fitzgerald’s significance seeps out of his words.

Of the other cast members there is little to be said. I am not Carey Mulligan’s biggest fan but she has impressed me on occasion, such as in Steve McQueen’s Shame, alongside Michael Fassbender. However, I think she acted better in the one episode of Doctor Who, Blink, than in this entire movie. Again, I feel that some of that failure can be contributed to Luhrmann not quite understanding the source material. Daisy appears rather innocent in the film and it is easy to sympathise with her as she seeks solace in an old flame because her husband is having affairs. But that characterisation lacks the same complexity of Daisy from the novel that married Tom to gain independence from her family and seemed on the verge of an affair before Gatsby is even introduced. Luhrmann appears to touch on these aspects when Gatsby is told that Daisy cares about money and that she just wants to run away but in an ideal of example of the film’s downfall, he fails to deliver these aspects in any real depth.

And who has to water all these flowers when Gatsby leaves?

The rest of the characters are very flat. Nick is just a fly on the wall, as is his character from the novel, but not even the added dream of being a writer can make him more interesting. Tom is just a bully and Isla Fisher is completely wasted as Myrtle Wilson. Myrtle’s death in the novel is intended to signify the end of the Jazz Age, the cut off of a decade long party but Luhrmann manages to turn even that into a spectacle. Myrtle’s body is flung like a rag doll across the sky, falling like a feather to the backdrop of the so called eyes of God, an advert for an optometrist.

The entire film feels flung together as Luhrmann speeds from one scene to the next and in doing so makes adapts a strange and interesting social commentary on over indulgence into a dull film that doesn’t even seem to want to say anything about anything. Even each track from the mediocre soundtrack is given the briefest play before the next song is shoved into the background. Only on two occasions does the film really pause to give the actors time to really convey meaning to each other and the audience and on both occasions it is between Nick and Gatsby. Arguably, Gatsby is the only character that deserves such moments of importance and emotion but given the source material there are so many more occasions for all of the characters to come across with more depth and significance. Instead, Luhrmann chooses absolute style and brass unrelenting spectacle over any substance or meaning at all.

Nameless

Of the seventh season of Doctor Who the finale, The Name of the Doctor, has undoubtedly been the best so far. That should be the case for any show but for Doctor Who and this season it has been particularly true. Taking just this latter half of the season, the episodes have ranged from the good (Cold War, Nightmare in Silver) to the dull (The Rings of Akhaten) to the incomprehensible (Journey to the centre of the TARDIS) and everything between. The episodes have also been the most diverse, dipping their toes into genres such as war thrillers, paranormal ghost hunts and Victorian high society, almost to the point of seeming unfocused. However, Doctor Who has always been the type of show that builds towards an exceptional finish and this year was no exception.

The pacing and structure of the episode felt right and, although it could be argued there was a lot of exposition, I was on the edge of my seat awaiting each new piece of information. There was a lot to take on board throughout the episode but I think the episode allowed ample time for each slice of information to sink in before it fired out the next. There was a good, sustained threat throughout as well. The Great Intelligence and his Whisper Men goons were introduced early, subduing the Doctor’s allies and demanding his presence on the mysterious Trenzalore. And it wasn’t simply a physical threat but the tears cried by Jenny and especially by the Doctor added an emotional weight to the severity of the situation. It was extremely good storytelling.

At Trenzalore is the Doctor’s final resting place, marked by a giant, monolithic TARDIS. The size manipulator leaked when they grow old apparently. But it isn’t the physical body that The Great Intelligence is after but rather the time stream. Held within the TARDIS, which could only be unlocked by the Doctor’s name, was the Doctor’s time tunnel, an open wound of time representing all that he had done, is doing and will still do. It’s interesting that Steven Moffat decided to actually give the Doctor a grave considering that he may not even be around when the Doctor finally dies. They will probably never show that anyway.

The TARDIS is all grown up.

Perfect it wasn’t, but it was a very interesting episode and there was a great atmosphere and tension throughout that really made me anticipate each new scene with renewed vigour. The show had a certain power, thanks to both the writing and the acting. The new villains, the Whisper Men were intimidating, although they could have been better utilised. An early rhyme about not wanting to hear them didn’t actually seem to have any bearing on how they hunted their prey and didn’t explain their sudden appearance. It would be interesting to have them reappear in a later episode where their existence could elaborated upon.

How the Great Intelligence discovered Trenzalore is never explained, nor is it ever really explained why a time traveller should never travel to their final resting place. I have to assume that it does not apply to companions, since Clara walked right past the resting place of an earlier self at the end of The Snowmen, and both Amy and Rory were standing in their final resting place in The Angels take Manhattan. It’s probable that by time traveller they mean Time Lord but even at that, it must only be Time Lords who have travelled extensively through time. The Time Lords, before the Time War, had a strict policy of non-interference and opted not to affect the time lines, yet the time tunnel is explained by the Doctor as scar tissue caused by his time travelling. So, the Doctor should really be one of the few Time Lords to even have a time tunnel, or at least one with scars. The Master might have one too.

There is also a failure to explain why exactly there is a paradox killing the Doctor. Is it like Schrodinger’s cat in that time is confused because is both dead and alive? The paradox also seems to render the Doctor into a fit before the Great Intelligence even does anything but yet after Clara saves him, he’s able to stand up and kiss River Song without any trouble. I get that Doctor Who is soft science fiction but it wasn’t even abiding by its own rules there. That being said, I can look past those inconsistencies because the show did manage to answer some pretty major questions without making me weep.

Tell me where it hurts?

Clara, the Impossible Girl, turned out to be simply a human, scattered throughout the Doctor’s time stream by the time tunnel, saving him from the Great Intelligence (somehow), although it took him eleven incarnations to even notice. Talk about ungrateful. The time tunnel, or perhaps the psychic link with River, must have given her the power to override the Great Intelligence, such as was seen in The Snowmen. Thankfully, the bigger question of the Doctor’s name was never actually revealed. As I said way back on October 2, 2011, his true name must remain hidden. There is no name that they can append to the Doctor that would adequately encompass all that he has been over the course of both the old and current series.

Of course, it wouldn’t be Doctor Who if it answered all the questions without leaving us without a few more, such as; if the Great Intelligence went into the time tunnel to kill the Doctor and Clara followed to save the Doctor, what happens now that Clara has left? Probably nothing but it could come up again. However, the biggest question is what the hell kind of role John Hurt is going to play. I know he was introduced as the Doctor but we already have a Doctor and at the 50^th Anniversary, we will have a third. Hurt mentioned in an interview that he, Smith and Tennant will be a kind of trinity in the 50^th anniversary episode but the Doctor’s comment that he’s the one that broke the vow seems more similar to the Dream Lord, a manifestation of the Doctor’s darkness and self-loathing that appeared in the fifth season episode, Amy’s Choice.

The exact of role John Hurt’s character and whether it will be a benevolent or villainous role will likely be kept a tight lipped secret until the anniversary episode, much like Clara appearance in Asylum of the Daleks and his own appearance in this episode were kept hush-hush. That means we have a lot to look forward to but unfortunately means we also have to wait until the 23^rd of November. Six months will pass in no time at all…won’t it?