A Few Diverse Movie Reviews

This week was an interesting one, to say the least.

My parents went out of town for my aunt's engagement party. It was, in actuality, a bachelorette party, solely because it was in New Orleans. I'm a bit glad I wasn't there because I really don't want to witness the adults in my life getting trashed in New Orleans. They brought back gifts though!

While they were out of town doing interesting and new things, Sam and I had a Torchwood: Miracle Day marathon, went out once to see the new James Bond Movie! and slept. It reminded me of how much I simaltaneously love and hate the most recent Torchwood series. Have you ever watched a show where you know that it has the potential to be something incredibly good, yet at the same time, you know that, somewhere along the way, someone has royally screwed up? Torchwood: Miracle Day is like that.

Regarding Torchwood:

The actors are all stunning. The script is quite good as well, sometimes. But the storyline, story progression, and overall composition of the piece is blatantly terrible. And what makes it even worse is that the series itself is not blatantly terrible. It's not even really that hateful. It's just that there are these moments on screen where everything comes together, and you can just see all of it, how wonderful the actors are, how much they can do when everything comes together. Then, in the next breath, it all falls apart. Sometimes it's that something that was meant to play well on screen doesn't. Sometimes its a plotline that has no ultimate relevance to the story, and so leaves the audience hanging in anticipation, a feeling which eventually dies out and putrifies. And it doesn't make the series bad, it doesn't make the series not worth watching. It doesn't even make everyone on screen not brilliant. It's just.... dissappointing.

All the power we've grown used to being engaged with in the series is un-present. Torchwood: Miracle Day is only as strong as it's weakest link, which I would say is the useless and overplayed storyline of Oswald Danes. Everything else may have been reconciled with a little work. But Russel T. Davies is trying to do too much. Rather than containing the story and making it into something genuine and honest that the audience can connect to, Miracle Day becomes an overdramitization of unbeleivable events. What the creators of the series seem to be reaching for here is a message, a dogma. They want to make a statement, and, in striving for that, they lessen the effectiveness of their story.

Regarding James Bond:

"Skyfall" seemed to be to Sam as "The Dark Knight Rises" was to me. She wanted to see it again as soon as we exited the theatre. Actually, before we exited the theatre. Once the credits started rolling.

It was similar to "The Dark Knight Rises" in many ways. Veteran actors Daniel Craig and Judi Dench provided brilliant and unnerring performances, yet it was nothing we hadn't seen before. As with the third Batman movie, what we really came to see was the new story. We wanted Bond and M to be placed in new, even more challenging circumstances--ones that would test the limits of their endurance and strength. Ones that go beyond anything we've seen them endure before. In order to still get a thrill out of their character, we still have to truly doubt that they'll survive this time.

After everything their characters have gone through before, amping up the danger and maintaining a high level of tension in the story is a tall order for any writer/director--yet this is exactly what the new story manages to acheive. Somehow, even after seeing Bond "die" and come back to life thousands of times, we still manage to doubt his survival. We still manage to fear. We still think "maybe this time." Maybe this time, he really is dead.

Perhaps it's our suspension of disbeleif. Maybe part of it is our willingness to buy into the story. After all, I found this movie a bit more trite than "The Dark Knight Rises" simply because I'm not as much of a fan. Yet still, it's not all our willingness to beleive. The creators of the movie have to give us something to beleive in. Devotion to the characters and loyalty to a story isn't enough to make a movie good. "Skyfall," however, does give us something to beleive in. They succeed. They give the audience one hell of a story.

By the same token, if you're expecting something radically different from the other James Bond films, think again. "Skyfall" is no better or worse than any other Bond movie. It's not an intensely emotional film, or an intensely moving film. It won't bring you to tears or change your life. It doesn't really leave you with a lot to think about.

The Bond franchise follows one of the prime rules of Hollywood--if you hit upon something that works, use it. "Skyfall" follows much the same pattern as prior Bond movies: it has intense and visually stunning action, a beautiful woman turned asset and lover, a sembelance of romantic tension between Bond and his female coworker, a mission vital to the security of England, and a desperate, large-scale fight for queen and country.

The tradition of this movie provides a comforting security in it's infallibility. Still, the director doesn't let any of these comforting patterns stagnate--he refits them, tries to make them new, and better. There are some interesting twists and turns in the movie. For one, the entirety of the film, rather than just the action, is visually stunning. There is one shot in particular that strikes me. Toward the end of the movie, certain unamed characters are going on a bit of a road trip through the English countryside. The veiw captured on camera is incomparable.

I love "Q," the new tech guy. He reminds of me of Reid, from Criminal Minds--a young genius, not overconfident in his abilities, but still snarky. There's some hilarious dialogue and tension between him and Bond. The opening to this movie is one of the best openings I've seen... basically ever. It's the hook to end all hooks. And the ending... well, my best advice is to watch it.