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The Blog That Wouldn't Die
Aug. 1st, 2007
06:46 pm - Babylon 5: The Lost Tales
For a few years in the mid-1990s, Babylon 5 was the best TV show around. Its epic plotlines that slowly unravelled over several years made it feel like the televised equivalent of a long sequence of science-fiction novels, and the CGI effects made it look better than any other SF show of the time. Sadly, it couldn't last; after the planned five-year storyline was hastily wrapped up at the end of the fourth season, the fifth year was a mere shadow of its former self, with spin-off series Crusade and various dodgy TV movies only serving to make me lose all interest in the franchise. But now it's back, with an all-new straight-to-DVD production.
( Spoilers )
Jul. 28th, 2007
07:34 pm - Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows
I've just finished the final Harry Potter book, about twice as fast as I would normally have read it, but I thought I'd better get through it before I was accidentally spoiled by some idiot comedian on TV or something. Fortunately I survived unscathed, not that there were any really big twists or anything. As with the last two books, I've been writing down my thoughts after every few chapters to give a sort of running commentary, so here goes...
( Spoilers within... )
Jul. 7th, 2007
Jul. 6th, 2007
07:24 pm - Doctor Who season 3 overview
So, the third season of New Doctor Who has come to an end. As with the first two, the quality was highly variable, going from over-the-top nonsense to top-quality drama, sometimes from one minute to the next, but still managing to be highly entertaining throughout. David Tennant really came into his own as the Doctor, and it's hard to imagine who could possibly be an adequate replacement; while Freema Agyeman proved far more appealling than Billie Piper ever was, though Martha was saddled with a pointless "unrequited love" subplot that was highly annoying.
( Spoilers within... )
Jun. 29th, 2007
07:11 pm - DVD reviews
The Science Of Sleep: Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind proved that Michel Gondry could work his magic on full-length films and not just music videos. Unfortunately his latest film The Science Of Sleep is nowhere near as good, perhaps because it was written by Gondry himself and not Charlie Kaufman. It focusses on Stephane, a Mexican in Paris, whose frustrations with his mundane job and unrequited feelings for his neighbour lead him to take refuge in his dreams, until he can't tell the difference between dreams and reality. The dream sequences are stunning, full of visual imagination, stop-motion animals and buildings made of cardboard boxes; the problem is there isn't enough of a storyline to go around them, so it all seems a bit self-indulgent. It's also hard to sympathise with the lead character, who at first seems artistic and imaginative and dynamic, but as the film goes on you realise he's just a mentally ill stalker fixated on a woman who doesn't want anything to do with him. Bit of a disappointment overall - hopefully Michel Gondry can get someone else to write his next film.
Black Snake Moan: Despite the sexploitation vibes given off by the pre-publicity (which screamed "Watch this film! Samuel L Jackson chains Christina Ricci to a radiator! Phwoarr!" or words to that effect) this actually turns out to be a sweet and uplifting character drama. Jackson is Laz, a man whose wife has just run off with his brother, who then finds Rae, the town slut, who has been in an accident, and decides to take her into his home to cure her of her wicked ways. Rather than a sexual relationship, the two form a surrogate father/daughter bond which is really very touching. Samuel L Jackson gives one of his best performances yet, which is saying something, dominating the screen throughout and even getting to sing and play blues guitar a bit. Christina Ricci as a nymphomaniac may seem like every man's fantasy (certainly is mine) but she's given dirty blonde hair, oily skin and various cuts and bruises so as to appear not nearly as attractive as usual, and she does a fine job of playing a complex, abused character with many layers. Even Justin Timberlake does well, with a sensitive, subtle performance as Rae's boyfriend, who's just as screwed up as she is. The direction is noteworthy too, creating a great sense of place with much use of old blues music. The story may seem over-the-top, but you come to care about all the characters, and the happy ending is genuinely moving. Great stuff.
Jun. 17th, 2007
11:25 am - Doctor Who - "Utopia"
The last three episodes of Doctor Who have been so unbelievably good, it was impossible to form any sort of detached critical opinion about them beyond slack-jawed wonderment. Fortunately this one was written by Russell T Davies, who can be relied on to provide plenty of things to criticise. Having said that, it was still a very strong episode, just not quite up to the dizzy heights of recent weeks.
( Spoilers within... )
May. 20th, 2007
03:10 pm - Doctor Who - "42"
After Chris Chibnall's appallingly bad Torchwood scripts, I wasn't expecting much from his Doctor Who episode. As it is, this turned out to be a damn sight more watchable, though still short of brilliant. The real-time element was pretty irrelevant, as it was no more fast-paced than any other episode this season, and the lack of any split-screens meant there was no real sense of everything happening at the same time. More worryingly, the constant peril meant the characters remained undeveloped, with no time to explain their backstory or relationships, and the prologue on the BBC website gave more insight into the characters than the actual episode did. It didn't help that the tough starship captain was played by Michelle Collins, one of the seemingly endless string of actors who apparently only get jobs because they used to be in Eastenders.
Having said all that, the direction was excellent, typical of Graeme Harper, and it's always good to see them do an all-out hard SF episode, though this was far less gripping than the Satan Pit two-parter. And the parts with Martha's mother were very intriguing, setting up the season finale quite nicely. Overall, flawed but entertaining, like most of this season has been. In fact the only real standout so far has been "The Shakespeare Code", otherwise this season has been pretty unmemorable. Fortunately next week sees the adaptation of one of my favourite Doctor Who novels, Paul Cornell's "Human Nature", and there's also another Steven Moffat episode to come, so it could all turn around in the second half.
May. 15th, 2007
07:01 pm
Currently watching: The Venture Brothers, which has got to be the best cartoon since Futurama (temporarily) ended. It's like an insane blend of Marvel comics, James Bond movies and Scooby Doo cartoons, with hilarious scripts and fantastic characters. Animation is a bit two-dimensional, but certainly better than South Park and with a distinctive style of its own, and the music and voice acting are consistently excellent. The first series was a bit hit and miss, but they're firing on all cylinders with the second series, every episode is absolutely top notch. Of course I didn't realise Bravo were showing it until after I'd already bought the DVDs, but what the hell, there's commentaries and deleted scenes to make it more than worthwhile.
Currently reading: The Book Of The New Sun by Gene Wolfe. Always hailed as one of the best fantasy novels ever, I wouldn't go that for but it's certainly an intriguing reading experience. It starts out like any other fantasy novel, with the main character growing up in an enclosed environment then being sent out to explore the wider world, but after that it gets increasingly surreal and dreamlike, with a succession of bizarre events and colourful characters preventing him from even leaving his home city. The language is a bit off-putting, full of obscure vocabulary used without any explanation, and a glossary would have been helpful; I'm hoping some of the more frequently-used words might become clear in context later on. Certainly there are enough exquisitely-crafted turns of phrase to make up for the obscure parts. There's definitely a lot of layers to it, and it seems like the sort of book that will make more sense the more times you read it, so the first reading is necessarily the most difficult, but I'll plough on nonetheless.
May. 4th, 2007
06:59 pm
Don't seem to have updated this for a while, but then I haven't really had anything worth saying, so no great loss. This week, I've got myself a car - a Renault Clio Grande, and at £3000 the most expensive thing I've ever bought. As I haven't driven since January it might take a while to get back into the swing of things, but I'm sure it'll all come back to me. It does feel a lot more comfortable than any of the other cars I've driven, so that should help.
On other topics, Heroes is fast becoming the best show on television, while Lost and Battlestar Galactica (courtesy of dailymotion.com, as the Sky vs Virgin battle still goes on) continue to deliver too many dull-but-worthy character-development episodes, but make up for them with some jaw-droppingly insane twists that make you wonder if the writers have any idea what's really going on. And Doctor Who's third season had a great first three episodes, but fell down on the Dalek two-parter - hopefully they'll give them a rest now. I've also got my Wii online, and am enjoying playing Super Mario 64 and Mario Kart 64 after downloading them on the Virtual Console. Seems a bit wasteful to play ten-year-old games on a brand new machine, but I'm sure they'll bring out updated versions sooner or later...
Mar. 1st, 2007
07:02 pm
So Virgin's dispute with Sky has come to a head, and Sky have pulled all their channels off cable. Personally, I'm not all that bothered, as the only shows I watch on Sky One are Lost, Battlestar Galactica and 24, and they're readily available to watch online on various Youtube-style websites of dubious legality, so I think I'll just do that for the time being - not worth switching to Sky just for three shows a week, especially when that will drop to zero in a few months. Besides, Virgin have dropped the charges for their TV On Demand section and added dozens of new shows to it - I'm currently working my way through season 5 of Alias, which I was planning on buying on DVD at some point, so that's saved me £30 at least. And if they keep adding new shows, I may never have to buy another DVD boxset again!
Meanwhile, I've finally finished playing Zelda: Twlight Princess, having played it for a total of fifty hours over the past three months. It was a bit disappointing to start with, with weird washed-out graphics and a tutorial section that doesn't give you any clue what to do next, but I persevered and it was well worth it, full of variety, fiendishly intricate puzzles and satisfying challenges. Buying the Wii was worth it for that alone, even though it doesn't make much use of the motion sensor, just aiming and swishing the sword about. Still, now I've got Super Monkey Ball, which seems tailor-made for a tilt-sensitive controller, so hopefully that will be just as good.
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