The secret circle - episode one to nine

#1: We’re introduced to the characters, and to magick, perhaps a little too fast.

Dawn and Charles have drastic plans, so drastic that they murder Cassie’s mother to get her to move to town. What these plans are remains a mystery.

Cassie is a take charge girl, changing tires on her car and stuff, but she is lonely, a breed apart long before she comes to town.


#2: The binding of the circle. Again I feel they are rushing things, that they miss much in the terms of interesting development by not postponing the binding a few episodes.

I love that they don’t really like each other, but still go through with it. There is clearly a sense of at least awkward destiny around the fire.

Dawn is shown to be both caring and ruthless. She prevents her daughter from becoming a murderer, but kills her father in law, the daughter’s grandfather without a second thought.


#3: Zachary was evidently wrong. It wouldn’t be sufficient just to kill one of them. As long as there is another family member of the same generation to take the dead one’s place, the circle will prevail.

And was Zachary scared to death, enough to stay away? It seems that way.

Nice to see how the possible new love interest for Cassie was introduced this episode, knowing that she will kill him, burn him to a crisp.

The writers seem to reinvent the show every second episode or so, but there is a plan behind it, it seems.


#4: Heather Barnes, the girl possessed by a demon. Cassie (and Faye), through their rash act doomed not only Heather, but Nick as well.

Faye (to Cassie): «I’ve never understood why we’re not better friends».

«Do you have a broom»? Adam

«Sure, I’m a witch». Cassie


#5: The demon’s overtaking Melissa was well done, but Nick possession wasn’t. it was too quick.

I don’t care much of the existence and nature of the crystals. I prefer the power to be from within, not something to be removed or taken away or bound.

The dynamics between Dawn and Charles remain unclear.

The death was useful, even though forced, spurring the story forward.


#6: Introduction of Jake was fairly well done. I am also struck by a notion probably true that the story won’t be predictable, which is great, of course.


#7: The Halloween party was great, a grand visual of a culture. It should have been even greater, though, more thorough. Luke, Cassie’s prospective boyfriend revealed himself as the asshole he was. He got what he deserved.

«Dark magic» is mentioned for the first time and it is revealed that Cassie is the daughter of John Blackwell, a dark mage and that she indeed is even more powerful because of it. I don’t enjoy stories making magic about dark and light, but perhaps the show’s creators will make a better job of it than anybody before them have.

#8: They are Travelers these boys and girls, travelers of the mind, on a journey of discovery, indeed witches true. But they are also teenagers, jealous and vindictive. An explosive mix to be sure.

I’ve decided I like the fairly fast development.

After this it is hard to think of anybody else but Faye being Cassie’s sibling. Of course, as I’ve stated before it could be more than one or all of them, but only Jake has done magic on his own after the binding.


#9: If Faye should ever find out that her father isn’t her father (and she will), she will be enraged. The question is what she is capable off in dealing with that rage.

Cassie let herself be overpowered easily again. This one and the last time could be said to be due to her inexperience, the next will be ridiculous.

The six is in the same room. They don’t need to look at each other, but they still know where the others are, with a glance or not, feeling each other’s energy from far away.

And now Cassie knows who and what she is, both a Balcoin and a Blake, clearly the most powerful witch there is.

One film

I paid for seeing one film in 2008, the new version of The Day the Earth Stood Still, and it was well worth it. that single movie was the only truly great movie last year. It reached and even exheeded my expectations.

We don't own the Earth. It belongs to itself, to nature, to the Universe. We have hurt it, hurt ourselves and we're not its caretakers, but its enemy. That's what we've become. We're about to ruin The Earth, our home, and we have to stop.

In the film there are beings powerful enough to stop us. We throw everything at them, and they just shrug and move on with their task, and they're the heroes and it's good, and when they're done The Earth belongs to humanity no longer.

Not for people with a short attention span

Heroes is back on nbc after the holiday break.


There have been twelve episodes so far, and it's still not showing any signs of slowing down.

And they take their time developing the story, and the story takes unexpected turns, and these facts are yet more great, great facets of it all.

As others have pointed out: everything isn't necessarily explained the first five minutes. This series is made for those with a longer attention span. The first in a very long time.

Hopefully the first of many.

Some people claim it's just a matter of having patience, but I don't think so.


Niki is still crazy (crazier than ever), and thus a very valuable character.

Peter is still the troubled "hero". He seeks to end his power, but will only serve to enhance it.

Nathan is a strange contradiction. He uses his power, but still won't acknowledge it.

Hiro is about to find his sword, his destiny.

Children of Men

This is yet another film that everybody should be forced to watch at gunpoint.

There is despair here, desperation, from the very beginning. We are presented for the stark reality of a humanity unable to reproduce. When the film begins there haven’t been any newborns in twenty years. This is a very realistic scenario for anyone that has researched the matter, and everyone should.

Hope and a minimum of decency have long since fled these streets and very few are still looking for it.

There is hope, sparely used throughout the film, but it is never ascending, never taking the center stage we see in the usual run-of-the-mill «upbeat» film. The ending is left open to interpretation. There is no emotional payback at the end. The horror of a world without children remains at the front of our mind. The solution, if it exists anywhere, isn’t found in the course of the story. No matter where Theo (Clive Owen) and Kee (Claire-Hope Ashley) turn they are betrayed and hope is, if not dead, very ill, very much dying.

It’s England twenty years from now. The rest of the world is practically in ruins, and England isn’t far behind.

Michael Caine is in this film. He’s one of those actors that can dominate a film even in a smaller role. The casting of the others is also great. There are no models here, no prettier than life characters. They are people, struggling to survive in an insane world. It’s not a pretty picture.

Director Alfonso Cuarón has made a very violent film, and it hits us like a sledgehammer. As stated, this isn’t a film hiding reality from us, but one revealing it, exposing the world as it is to us, and we can’t look away.

Very good.

There is no sense of relief when we leave the theater. Even though we have been entertained by a great story, it sticks in our minds and hearts… like a vice.

Very good!

Bold television

It sounds like a contradiction in terms, doesn’t it? Fortunately there are exceptions to the great rule of mediocre television.

I’ve watched two great «science fiction/fantasy» TV-series lately: 4400 and Heroes.

4400 has so far run three seasons, and thirty episodes. Heroes is new last fall, and NBC has so far aired eleven episodes.

They are fairly similar thematically. It’s about the Mutant, the X-Factor, the X-Man, the man apart, a part of storytelling stretching back thousands of years. But while 4400, though a good, solid story is quite traditional in execution, Heroes is clearly making new ground both visually and in the Storyteller tradition. Each frame in Heroes is like poetry, like music visualized. And it’s rough, brutal in a way hardly before shown on television. This is not your parents’ fairy tale television, but very real and down-to-Earth.

Re-watching the first eleven episodes and rediscovering the series is a great experience, in some ways even greater than watching it the first time, since we can enjoy it more. Once again we know nothing of what is coming (even if we do). We witness Peter’s insecurities. We don’t know what the deal is with Niki, or Isaac or Peter… or Sylar. Is Isaac nothing more than a drug addict or is he able to paint the future? Is Peter nuts, or can he truly fly? What does it take for a person to throw herself or himself off a tall building the way he did? We didn’t really know if he would fly or leave a splash on the pavement, and it is great. Sylar is just a name at first, at homicide sights and written in blood on walls. We know nothing, and we speculate and find out as we go along.

So, we are introduced to the characters, and to the story, and we grow to like them, like it. And it keeps building, keeps developing, while staying grounded in its foundation.

Amazing.

Tim Kring, the executive producer and driving creative force behind the series has evidently planned ahead. He writes crucial episodes, and make sure it’s seamless from his vision when he leaves the writing to others. He’s doing or planning to do a Babylon 5, a five-year arc. Hopefully, he will succeed and even exceed that series. Fortunately Heroes lacks the boisterous innocence of Babylon 5 and will surpass it in every way.

We watch Peter fly (sort of), and discovering his true Power. We live with Isaac as he learns to handle his talent. And we experience the emotional rollercoaster, the ups and downs of Hiro’s journey. We are with Niki as she realizes to her horror what she is. We witness the long awaited confrontation between Peter and Sylar, and we wonder what the significance of it is.

It isn’t really about heroes. It is about people, real and believable. Heroes might be described as a comic book for adults. Fortunately it has already transcended that limited label, like it has so many things.

An Inconvenient Truth - a passionate review

«You look at that river, gently flowing by, you notice the leaves, rustling with the wind, you hear the birds, you hear the tree-frogs, in the distance you hear a cow, you feel the grass, the mud gives a little bit on the river bank, its quiet, its peaceful, and all of a sudden, its a gear-shift inside you, and its like taking a deep breath and going... oh yeah - I forgot about this.»

From the very first view of the river and Al Gore’s voice the clarity and passion rise in us, and don’t let go.

An Inconvenient Truth is on the surface about Global Warming, but to me it’s just as much about waking up, and stay awake, taking a good, hard look around you, and smell the stinking coffee.

We experience one man’s passion juxtaposed with the no longer so cold chill from the Artic and Antarctica. This is the man once described as «wooden». But the change is more than skin deep. It is as if he has found his true calling, somewhat free from Washington DC’s dank corridors.

This is a systematic, thorough investigation of Global Warming, leaving far fewer unturned stones than any other before it. This is a great movie. The important theme makes that fact no less, no more true. The man is cautious, in a way, speaking in a somewhat low voice. In a way his voice is low-keyed, and so is the film, and its truth is still shouted like thunder across the world, across every corner of current human society.

We see India, the San Francisco Bay, Ground Zero, the Netherlands and several other coastal areas drown in the rising sea. Al Gore, the great man is making his case, An Inconvenient Truth, the great film is making its case. I knew most of the facts before I watched the film, but it still moved me. Like a soft glove in the face, like a hammer to the head, making my heart beat faster, making my breath quicken. I felt the Quickening, the fire of the human soul ignited.

We experience how Al’s basically optimistic view of the world is challenged, by indifferent politicians, by an unmoved and shrugging world. How baffled and downright stunned he is by this, and other insane workings of current human society. Al is still a believer in current mankind, how common sense will prevail against horrible odds. And we believe that, too, at least while watching the movie.

This is by far the best documentary that is ever made. It’s not instantly apparent why this is so, but it grabs hold of us from the very first moment and never let go. One hundred minutes vanished like the snapping of fingers, and we wanted more.

Every man, woman and child on this Earth should be forced to watch this movie repeatedly for at least twenty-four hours uninterrupted, and they shouldn’t be allowed sustenance while doing so. Fasting is good for the soul, they say.

After that they should be forced at gunpoint back into the theater…

I can’t praise it enough, really. It begins slowly, and builds from there, into a crescendo of mind and thought and soul. As stated, I don’t agree with everything Al says. I agree with his facts, his observations, but not with his philosophy or conclusions, not even with his basic, fundamental principle that civilization should be saved. In other words: I don’t think he goes far enough. But I still admire and respect him. In the most cynical parts of our hearts, he continues to speak to the hope in us all. I’m not certain that is a good thing, at least not completely. But I listen to his passion, and his fire, and that is Human, that is Life.

And fire and shadow both are yet again rekindled in my gut.


10 of 10

What's wrong with Smallville - Late September '06 edition:

The whole «feel» of the series is wrong.

There should have been no violations of the mythos.

That means no lex, no lois, no chloe in smallville.

Practically everybody in smallville will recognize Superman.

Clark should have been made long ago. People in smallville are very, very stupid.

In my eyes the very foundation for the story is wrong.

The story should be story driven, not event driven.

They've jacked up the drama for every end of season, and we thought they would finally arrive at something, and everything just fizzed time and time again.

I would have simplified it from the start. Made it story driven. Made Clark less normal. «Normality is overestimated». Story arcs turning into one single story arc.

No meteor shower. He should have arrived in the space ship, totally silent and unnoticed.

Lana should have been done totally different.

A lot less emphasize on relationship and more on the story.

In other words: no soap opera and more story.

Worked out much better dialogue. Worked more with the actors.

Told them this is real. This is really happening.

I would have strived for realism. Instead of hundreds of weird incidents, I would have settled for a few, and worked more with them, to make them work.

«Less is more».

He should have flown fairly early, during the second season or so.

There should have been no Jor El, except as a voice, a recording, played once.

Most of the extensions should have been dropped. Too much is happening, too many distractions from the actual story.

«Less is more».

It's all too neat. Lex Luthor is wrong. Everyone is off from what they should be.

The only one that isn't, is Lois, really.

Instead of writing one and one episode separately, they should have written the entire story before even starting the series, the story and the various arcs within the story.

It seems to be like they're sitting in a chair throwing the dice often, way too often.

One writer or at least a group of writers should do everything in advance, making it into one, cohesive story. Of hundred episodes perhaps about ten should have been «breathers». No more.

And they, too should have moved the story forward one way or another. As it stands now, it's the other way around. Most of the episodes are totally unnecessary. If I had a time machine and went back in time for the sole purpose of remaking smallville (stupid, I know, I would have done something far more important), I would have kept only ten episodes and discarded the rest.

So, about ten percent is good, as I see it. The rest is totally forgettable.


The sixth season began as all seasons before it: with the resolution of an impossible situation (a cliffhanger) set up at the end of the previous season that should have taken countless episodes to resolve or remained a somewhat permanently new status quo. Yet another nail in the coffin. These people don't even have basic storytelling right. Incredible.

Poetic Justice

One piece of news that brightened my morning and made my day. I laughed and laughed and kept laughing. I still do.


From BBC News Text-TV:

Filmmaker knocks out his critics

A German filmmaker repeatedly panned for his work has quite literally hit back at his critics… in a boxing ring in the Canadian city of Vancouver. Director Uwe Boll took on four of his critics in a boxing match after he became so annoyed at their criticism. One said the horror moviemaker was «one of the most inept filmmakers ever». But it was the director, now dubbed Raging Boll, who emerged victorious in the boxing ring, watched by a crowd of 600 people.

Boll is just one of several filmmakers that in various ways has hit back at the critics lately. Among them is M. Night Shayamalan that incorporated the theme into his latest great film Lady in the Water.

Critics are basically the leeches and parasites of art, and they deserve all the payback they get…

Boll’s films are not great, but they are fairly good, and he does in no way deserve his bad reputation.

Lord of the Rings

A horrible story, both novel and movie revisited:

I suffered through all three films (the last I downloaded).

Some years ago I didn't quite manage to read all the three books.

Lord of the rings has been hailed as The literary work for half a decade. There are some of us who are completely baffled by this, this hysteria. My conclusion is that this story is celebrating tyranny, hierarchy, racism and attacking basic feminism. And that’s why it is so popular. People like to have a mirror of their own daily life, a life they desperately claim is a good one. It is the defense of a world filled with ignorance, injustice and intolerance.

So, when the source material is this bad, the movie couldn’t really be much to speak of. And it isn’t. From the first moment we’re confronted by the old, trite ideas of good versus evil, foreigner versus patriot, and so on. This story could just as well have been used and written as a propaganda tool for old Britain, and it was, and it is. So old fashioned and so supportive of strong «leadership» that one wants to puke.

Tolkien supports strong leaders, a hierarchical society. Doing the good vs evil illusion. Two countries going to war, generally speaking are basically equally bad.

The village is presented as a kind of ideal life. Yet, they are kind of simpletons, who enjoy village life and don't want to take part in ruling society. They leave that to the kings, the lords and such. Life, society in his stories is basically fair. Sauron (outside influence) and "traitors" make it bad. Nothing about society itself being bad.

Agriculture is hailed as a paradise. Nothing about the amount of pollution and poisons being produced by it.

Even the virtual complete lack of blacks in the story is proof in itself that it is racist. The orcs are another telling example.

Women, in the sense they are present at all, are merely ornaments. The worst part is Arwen, who is sacrificing immortality to follow a man and his preferences. And this story is hailed as some of the best of the previous century?

Unbelievable.

The reason intelligent men and women dislike the story isn’t really because of the action, but because it is an insult to their intelligence.

Let me point out that I have respect for the amount of work Tolkien put into it. Or would have had, if the end result had been better, if he wasn't soiled in conservatism.

As stated the emperor has no clothes.

One ring to bore us all.

Watched/upcoming movies 2006

Movies I want to watch and/or have watched in 2006 at this point:

x Bloodrayne
+ Underworld: Evolution
Eternal
Night Watch
x The Fog (2005)
The Gathering
x Poseidon
Chaos
* V for Vendetta
x Aeon flux
Spirit Trap
The Fountain
Shooting Shona
The Passing
The Kovak Box
x Cry Wolf
Rise
In a Dark Place
An American Haunting
Superman Returns
* X-Men 3
The Gravedancers
Tamara
The Return
Ultraviolet
* The Hills Have Eyes (2006)
Lucky You
Lady in the Water
The Eye
Capote
Hostel
Hard Candy
The Secret
x Silent Hill
Moonshine
The Illusionist?
Premonition?
x The Omen (2006)
The Woods
Basic Instinct 2
A Scanner Darkly
Wild Country
Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon
Stay Alive
Pulse
Southland Tales
Crazy Eights
An Inconvenient Truth
The Night Listener
The US vs John Lennon
Next
Deja Vu
The Prestige



- disappointment
+ exciting
x seen
* extraordinary


Yeah, I favor the existential horror story. It's the only one truly worth watching/reading/experiencing/writing/making these days, in my opinion.

X-Men - The Last Stand

I’m at a loss of words. This is indescribable.

X-Men - The Last Stand is high drama, a wonderful and immense story.

First of all: to all those that enjoyed the first two movies: this one is just as good, at least, at least that.

One second in this one is more intense than hundreds of the many crap films released today put together. It’s palatable, visible in the very air, just like Phoenix’s godly Power.

It is a different film compared to the first two, with a different emphasis. Brett Ratner and a practically entire new behind the camera team have, inevitably a different focus, approach than Bryan Singer and his team. It’s more brutal, less comics-like, consequently even further removed from the comics’ story than before.

But it’s all still there, the familiar faces, characters, from the opening sequence and onward, coming to life, a fact still amazing to me, five years after the first movie.

The younger Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart) and Eric Lensherr (Ian McKellen) working together finding the young Jean Grey, the Phoenix-to-be, realizing immediately that they are in way over their heads.

Jean is a Class Five mutant, as far «above» (power wise) the other mutants as they are «above» the other humans, and now, when her power is emerging fully, there is no place for her in the world.

A «cure» is found for mutants, one changing their genetic make-up, one removing a crucial part of themselves, and rage is rising from the deepest of dark corners.

The stakes are clearly higher in this one, right from the start. We are shown that early, with the first fatality, with the first death, and it only gets worse (or better) from then on. Many have stated that this should have been an R-rated film, and I, since I want films to be made solely for an «adult» audience, certainly agree with that.

It centers on Phoenix. Almost all plots and characters touch her in some way, and this is a very good thing. The X-Men comics would have been lesser without her, in so many ways, and so would the films. Famke Janssen does a great, beyond great job playing her in quite the minimalist way. Less is more.

Storm gets more screen time this time, but she’s not really taking center stage in any way. The three main characters are Phoenix, Magneto and Wolverine (Hugh Jackman), and that is also how it should be.

If I wanted to do some nitpicking, there are a few things I could point out that I would have changed, but I won’t. The only fact I will mention is that the movie is at least half an hour too short, but that is true for every great film. We love what we see and we want more.


Yet another 10 of 10 X-Men movie.

Coming Up: An Inconvenient Truth

This is a film and fact presented by Al Gore, directed by Davis Guggenheim, about the human-created excessive Global Warming, about its ultimate consequences.

It won’t be as bad as we see in the film…

It will be far worse.

Gore says there might be a hundred million refugees. There will be close to seven billion or more…

But this will be the closest so far we’ve seen in established media of what will happen. Hopefully it will be a wake-up-call for the entire world… though I very much doubt it. What I can say about it, though, is that I didn’t expect it to be this daring and frank. But it is.

Go see An Inconvenient Truth on May 26 and onward, touch the world and see what’s truly coming up.

The Hills Have Eyes (2006)

Censorship, if not dead, is clearly half buried after this film gaining wide release. It’s such a pleasure experiencing how people clinging to a mundane life, receive one kick in the face after another throughout the span of this movie.

There are rapes, graphic murders, a dog walking around killing and eating people, dishonoring of the american flag, and a lot, lot more. And this isn’t stylized «movie violence» but full-blown reality blowing out our eyes. I mean, it was intense, and they didn’t shy away from any taboo, at least not many. I just love that.

The sense of relative normality at the start of the film is turned totally on its head.

It had to be made by a Frenchmen or two (the director/writer Alexandre Aja and writer Grégory Levasseur) visiting the United States…

There has been released a number of brutal and real to life films like Hostel, Saw and others lately, but this is truly the icing of the cake at this point. And it surpasses the previous version of The Hills Have Eyes by far.

This is Aaron Stanford’s film, really. The transformation he goes through, throughout the story is just phenomenal, and if I believed an Academy Award was worth shit, I would say he should have received one. At first he’s just the run of the mill tamed civilized male, but that eventually changes dramatically. After a while he’s covered in blood and guts and brain matter. Absolutely amazing. This is a beyond great movie, but for a person as anti censorship as I, it’s an absolute gem.

Aaron (Pyro from the X-Men, or rather X2, totally unrecognizable) plays Doug, a young, indifferent husband, and son in law of a peaceful family lured into the wilderness by a tribe of «brutal savages» (no, it isn’t what you think, not quite). To survive each and every one of them has to go deep into themselves, and find whatever courage, desperation and «murder impulse» they possess. It’s great.

I have to admit I sat there in my chair, more than a bit surprised, jumping up and down in joy, as yet another person was added to the body count (and the way it happened). Don’t get me wrong (as they say, excusing themselves), Films don’t have to be violent for me to enjoy them, and I don’t really like Splatter movies much. They tend to be quite phony, not really that brutal at all, but this one is real.

And I «have to admit» that it a lot of moments in the course of the story appealed to my always good sense of gallows humor, such as when good ol’ Aaron buried the pole with the american flag in the skull of one of the savages…

It reminded the audience of all the unpleasant truths in the world, everything they don’t want to think about, everything they hide right there, under the surface of their lies, pretence and self-loathing. Everything was present in their faces as they were leaving the theater. This isn’t «gratuitous violence» (whatever that is), but reality head on, controversial art at its best.

So very, very gratifying.

Doug, burying the hatchet in one of his enemies...

So, what’s next? An imaginative artist like myself can easily imagine this film being even more brutal. There is a lot of unplowed territory and unused possibilities here.

I’m so looking forward to hear about squeamish reviewers, supporters of censorship, outstanding citizens and so called highly moral people choking on their morning coffee in the years to come.

The Best Films of 2005 (finally)

I’ve picked the four best films of the previous year, all heavily underestimated among reviewers and audience alike. They all have quality, depth and excitement, what is sadly missing from most other current films.


A Sound of Thunder


«So, who gave that to you?»
«I did.»

By far the best movie of 2005. It has taken so many hits, from just about everybody, and from every angle, all totally undeserved. It shows yet again that very few great and deep stories become «hits». Not among a mass audience and not among reviewers.

It got to the point that I and many with me, didn’t really have much expectation left, but stubborn as we are, we went and saw it anyway… and we loved it, totally amazed by both the film itself, and the stupidity of both reviewers and moviegoers in general.

Peter Hyams, the maker of Capricorn One and 2010 is finally back.


In 2055 time travel has been invented, and it’s all in the hands of a greedy industrial entrepreneur, a project guarded by a corrupt government official, all presented very believable and true to life. One of the greatest inventions known to mankind, and a man uses it to make money, lots of money. The corruption of mankind is there, in the film, right from the start, told in an albeit poetic way, but tangible. We follow the increasingly worse corruption of nature, of its delicate balance throughout the story, until it becomes unavoidable.

A brief digression: Idiots have claimed that this film disgraces the original Ray Bradbury short story. That is like saying that the moon-landing vessel disgraces the first frail flying machine. Bradbury's story is okay, but it's not exactly a very complex scenario. This is so much more, so far beyond it that it can't really be said to be the same story anymore, and make no mistake about it: that is a very, very good thing.

How much should humanity change nature? How much is too much? This is one of those rare films that succeed in being political, philosophical and interesting beyond belief without being preachy. And it deals with themes way too rare in today’s films.

A Sound of Thunder is the end of the world.


Serenity


Joss Whedon has grown up as a filmmaker. Or at least that’s what a professional reviewer would have said, if he or she, at least to a point, agreed with me. I prefer to say that he has taken his ability as a Storyteller to a new level. He has learned to write dialogue, for one thing. And Serenity (and the Firefly TV-series) is also «lacking» the silliness often dominating and ruining Buffy - The Vampire Slayer, and especially Angel.

Serenity is a totally different story. The entire «feel» is different. It’s also different from any other story you may have enjoyed. Joss has always been quite the creative guy, and now he has finally learned to utilize it in full.


It’s River’s story, really, like it was from the beginning. Young River, the Prodigy River tortured and brainwashed by tyrants to serve their purpose, escaping from their «care» by the help of her brother. River is a girl that through pain and loss learned to touch the Universe.

Malcolm is a veteran of a lost war, and has been lost since. He has been numb for so very long, and slowly, painfully he has pulled himself up from the mire of his defeat.

This is not a film for everybody. It’s too good, too original for that. But for those that keep seeking gems in the garbage heap, the pop culture the modern culture has become, it is invaluable beyond words, because beyond those words you glimpse something truly precious.


The Island


First I would like to give you fair warning: The Island is directed by Michael Bay. Yes, the Michael Bay. You will find a lot of bad, of truly horrible films under his name. Which proves yet again that the world never runs out of surprises. Because this is his film from start to finish. This is his masterpiece, his jewel in the rusty crown. He makes sure of that, sidestepping commercial opportunities repeatedly, to the point of making it quite indigestible to the general audience, quite unfashionable in the current global climate of mediocrity.

Scarlett Johansson and Evan McGregor, and also other actors are doing an excellent job here as well.


This is about identity, about freedom, about standing up for oneself, about the modern human society totally out of whack with itself, about horrors hidden behind locked doors and thick walls.

People do their chores behind these walls, longing to break out, dreaming of being sent to «The Island», a world promised them in a lottery, a reward for their service and continuing obedience. But the dream is revealed to be a nightmare of torture and death, and a few dreamers of the thousands inside rebel against their predestined path.

This is a radical film, both in form and content. Very few of the usual action trappings are present, and they are rarely pervasive. The actors are actually…actors, and the characters are neither heroes nor brave. It’s inborn curiosity and desperation born of the situation that is making the story move forward. It’s about the inevitable ghastly horrors of genetic manipulation (GM), about technology gone wrong, but also about what is lurking beneath the smooth surface of a seemingly well-ordered society. It starts very formal, very contraceptive, but ends very messy and dirty. Order turns to Chaos, and the world moves on.


The Descent


The Descent is savage and raw. The Wild is present, resting within all of us. It just lacks the proper primer to break out.

A group of women, somewhat shaken by life’s cruel coincidences, heads for the wilderness in an attempt to rekindle old friendships and sense of camaraderie. Things are not right among them, and they are desperate, perhaps too desperate to heal the wounds.

This isn’t the typical run of the mill heading for the wilderness story. That becomes clear quite early. Things are not right, and they are not getting better. There is a cynicism present not there in most similar stories. The threat described in the film, even though it seems to be external, isn’t, really. It comes from within, within the group and each individual character.

Excellent!

They descend into a system of unknown caves, but the descent is really into their own depths. They go there, taking with them all the baggage, the rivalry, envy and contempt dominating their previous existence. They can’t let go of the past, and thus they are lost.

To survive they must go deeper within themselves than they ever thought was possible, and still it isn’t enough.

Go there with them, and you, like them, will never be the same.


Batman Begins



Batman Begins also belongs here. Even if the tension and intensity fall a bit when he puts on the mask (as expected) it’s still a great film. This is the first, true Batman film. The director Christopher Nolan and writer David S. Goyer understand and respect the source material, a simple task, really, seemingly way too trying for most filmmakers. Christian Bale makes a tremendous effort. He is Bruce Wayne, and also his dark mirror image, hardly even glimpsed in daylight. Yes, this is Batman the way he always should have been made and always should be made.


«You fear what's inside you.
You fear your own power.
You fear your anger,
the drive to do great and terrible things.»

Ras Al Ghul

V For Vendetta - A «Review»

His name was V, and he may not have existed at all, except in the deepest recesses of our hearts and minds, a flicker, a faint memory of our distant past.

This is a great film, from the first to last image. We are sucked into the great and controversial story from the very first moment, and every second from that point we are pulled deeper and deeper and deeper into it. It’s not strange that religious people and people in high places dislike this film so much. It exposes them ruthlessly, in every aspect of their sordid existence. The story is very, very thorough. It includes many of the current injustices of the world. In fact one major theme is the situation in most western countries right now, about the government staging terrorist attacks in order to be able to legislate oppressive laws. It goes right at the jugular and don’t let go.

But most of all it’s about empowerment, empowerment against fear.

It’s about Evey that doesn’t want to be afraid all the time, but is. V rescues her as three «fingers», government secret agents, ambush her after curfew, and from that moment on their fate, and that if Britain itself is entwined. It’s about V, a victim of horrible government experimentation ultimately killing hundreds of thousands of people. An act blamed on foreign, Muslim terrorists. Sound familiar, doesn’t it?

It’s about everybody suffering under the heel of tyranny, about how we all can free ourselves from enslavement and dependency, if we choose to.

I sat there, in the theater, enjoying every second of it. It was so thorough, so much going deep into the material, not avoiding any unpleasantness, any controversial subject. 9/11, 7/7, the bird flu, wire-tapping, government surveillance and tyranny, and numerous other current events, are all pulled into one, coherent, powerful story. Its themes are contemporary, but also timeless, valid way beyond the current world events, rebellion for all ages.

10 of 10

X-Men 3 - The Last Stand

No further comments necessary. This is monumental!

Falling Down

The Storm

The Angel

Shadow And Light

Fury

Fire and Blood

Between Light and Darkness

Upcoming potential great movies in 2006

Movies I want to watch in 2006 at this point:

Bloodrayne
Underworld: Evolution
Eternal
Night Watch
The Fog (2005)
The Gathering
Poseidon
Chaos
V for Vendetta
Aeon flux
Spirit Trap
The Fountain
Shooting Shona
The Passing
The Kovak Box
Cry Wolf
Rise
In a Dark Place
An American Haunting
Superman Returns
X-Men 3
The Gravedancers
Tamara
The Return
Ultraviolet
The Hills Have Eyes
Lucky You
Lady in the Water
The Eye
Capote
Hostel
Hard Candy
The Secret
Silent Hill
Moonshine
The Illusionist
Premonition
The Omen (2006)


Yeah, I missed The Fog and a few others the previous year. I will get to them eventually, either at the theater or watching dvd's or downloads.

Films watched in 2005

Films I've watched, in the theater, on DVD or downloaded, in 2005.
It hasn't been a good year. It lacked greats like The Village and King Arthur.
But it wasn't bad either. There have been quite a few stories inspiring my imagination and stoking my fire.

x Alone in the Dark
+ Elektra
x The Grudge
- Constantine
x Assault on Precinct 13 (2005)
x White Noise
x The Jacket
- The Amityville Horror
x Cursed
* A Sound of Thunder
x The War of The Worlds
+ Batman Begins
x Sin City
x Fantastic Four
* The Island
x Skeleton Key
- The Devil's Rejects
+ Star Wars 3: Revenge of the Sith
* The Descent
+ A History of Violence
x The Goblet of Fire
x Revolver
x Dark Water
* Serenity

- disappointment
+ exciting
x seen
* extraordinary

X-Men 3 - Phoenix Rising

The trailer to X-Men 3 is out. They call it a teaser, but it’s so filled with information that it can safely be called a trailer. The two first X-Men movies brought the engaging comic book characters to life, and were two of the best films ever made, and this looks even better. Bryan Singer directed X-Men and X2, and when he left there was a lot of speculation on how the new director (the poor guy ending up doing it after several choices had declined) Brett Ratner would do it, but it seems like those concerns were totally unfounded. This looks absolutely fantastic.

I think the subtitle should be Phoenix Rising, because that’s what’s happening.

Even more of the old and dear people we have come to love for decades are brought to life this time, including Beast, Emma Frost, Angel, Juggernaut… and Moira McTaggart. This is the third film in the trilogy. In the first Jean Grey was still an uncertain young woman. In the second we see her grow out of her shell and into her Power. In the third we see her rise from her ashes, assertive, confident… and dangerous.

This is it, really, people, a film not to be missed, not at any cost. Only twenty-four weeks left to wait.




Discuss the upcoming X-Men 3 movie at www.imdb.com.

December Update

Update of movies I've watched so far in 2005 and an ever-growing upcoming list of promising movies for the rest of the year and beyond. The 2006 movies are now making their presence felt in earnest. So far The Fountain, X-Men 3 and Superman Returns are those I'm currently looking most forward to.

+ Elektra
- Constantine
- The Amityville Horror
A Sound of Thunder
x The War of The Worlds
+ Batman Begins
x Alone in the dark
x White Noise
x Sin City
x Cursed
Underworld: Evolution
x The Jacket
x Fantastic Four
Eternal
* The Island
x Skeleton Key
Night Watch
The Fog (2005)
- The Devil's Rejects
+ Star Wars 3: Revenge of the Sith
* The Descent
Revolver
The Gathering
x Dark Water
Poseidon
Chaos
V for Vendetta
Aeon flux
Spirit Trap
The Fountain
Shooting Shona
The Passing
The Kovak Box
Cry Wolf
Rise
In a Dark Place
Serenity
An American Haunting
Superman Returns
X-Men 3
The Gravedancers
Tamara
The Return
Ultraviolet


- disappointment
+ exciting
x seen
* extraordinary


Those below are television series, miniseries and ongoing I watch or want to watch (or not).


x Charmed
x Smallville
+ Five Days to Midnight (miniseries)
Wolf Lake
Category 7
x Threshold
- Invasion
- Human Trafficking
x Masters of Horror

Both Charmed and Smallville have moments/episodes/stories of greatness. I do watch and look forward to each new episode.

I just wish they were better.

The Five Days to Midnight miniseries was very good, with the suspense constantly rising/building, even though it crumbled a bit there, at the end.