TV & movies:Sanctuary, Bones, Burn Notice, Lost in Austen & Indiana Jones 4
Sanctuary.
I've started watching Sanctuary. I'm up to episode 7 of the webisodes.
Blurb: Sanctuary follows the adventures of the beautiful, enigmatic and always surprising Dr. Helen Magnus, her new recruit, forensic psychiatrist Dr. Will Zimmerman and her fearless daughter Ashley. Together they track down, study and protect the strange and often terrifying creatures that secretly populate our world and live among us.
Although dismissed as monstrous figments of our imaginations and the stuff of our childhood nightmares, Magnus recognizes that the world is full of nature’s mistakes and triumphs and has the spectacular proof that they are indeed real.
Will, an insightful psychiatric profiler with a knack for finding the strange and curious, reluctantly joins the team to aid in the study of beings he can hardly believe himself. Together, Magnus, Will, Ashley and quirky tech-whiz Henry, use their unique combination of instinct, medicine and cutting edge technology to find the creatures that lurk in the corners of our civilization and protect us from those too dangerous to be roaming free.
Sanctuary stars Amanda Tapping as Dr. Helen Magnus (Stargate SG-1), Robin Dunne as Dr. Will Zimmerman (Dawson’s Creek), Emilie Ullerup as Ashley (jPod), Christopher Heyerdahl as the sinister John Druitt (Stargate Atlantis) and Ryan Robbins as Henry Foss (Battlestar Galactica).
*
So far the show is ok. Not great, but watchable and it's kind of cool to see our buddies from Stargate Atlantis.
In the first webisode, we meet Dr. Helen Magus who is Sam Carter in Stargate and Ryan Robbins (Ladon Radim) from Stargate Atlantis. In the same episode, we meet John Druitt played by Christopher Heyerdahl who plays Halling and Todd the Wraith in Stargate Atlantis. Also having appearances in the series are David Hewlett, Paul McGillion, Kavan Smith and Chuck Campbell.
The show is a little bit gimmicky because at first the episodes were delivered to the public via the Internet. Webisodes of approximately 15-20 minutes in duration were sold directly to viewers via the official website. The show apparently encouraged fans to be actively involved in a variety of ways, including:
The series has now become a more conventional 13-episode season and the first four webisodes have been rewritten as a two-hour premiere episode. I've decided to finish watching the webisodes first and then move onto episodes 1 and 2 of the television series.
Some random thoughts.
Bones. I'm still watching Bones every week and still love it, but have decide that seasons 3 and 4 (barring a few occasional episodes), have not quite lived up to the magic that kindled in seasons 1 and 2.
Season 1 and season 2 were positively chockers with gorgeous moments - Brennan/Booth aside. It was warm, it was funny, it was quirky. The show remains interesting and fun, but something has gone a bit wonky along the way.
Burn Notice. Season 2 of Burn Notice doesn't QUITE have the same wonderfulness as season 1, BUT it is still an excellent show. What was with the cliff hanger at the end of episode 9 (The Good Soldier) though? When does the series start again? Why are all shows now going for the mid season hiatus? The Beijing DVD pirates have of course already released what they are calling 'season 2' of Burn Notice when it is really just 'part 1 of season 2'.
Lost in Austen. I have tried on no less than 3 occasions now to watch Lost in Austen. I might try again later but at this point I just can't get drawn in. Partly because I really don't like the character of Amanda Price. She seems so vapid, empty-headed and blank to me. The scene in episode 1 where she seizes Bingley and kisses him and then blathers on in an empty-headed fashion horrified me. I just don't see how she is comparable in any way to the charming delight of an Elizabeth Bennet. Perhaps that's the whole idea of it i.e. Mary Sue fantasies of putting yourself in the place of Lizzie Bennet.
Thing is, I don't really identify with Amanda Price at all so as a Mary Sue substitute, she doesn't work for me ... I've still got all the episodes though, also in iPod format - so I shall perhaps try again if I run out of all else :)
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. OK, while I really enjoyed Mamma Mia, quite liked The Dark Knight, as mentioned, I HATED Mummy 3 and after watching the new Indy movie, have decided that I really didn't like that either! It was sooooooooooo bad. My expectations were extremely low but I still managed to be disappointed.
I had read lots of negative comments about the movie but had thought: "Come on, it's an Indy movie - it's bound to be fun".
1. It was forced and contrived
2. The chase and fight scenes went on for too long with no real sense of suspense
3. Shia LaBeouf as "Mutt" Williams was tolerable, but not great
4. I couldn't understand why they kept around the traiterous George "Mac" McHale even after he had proved that he couldn't be trusted except so that he could suffer a punishing end?
5. I did love Cate Blanchett as Colonel-Doctor Irina Spalko though - she was probably the best part of an otherwise bad moofie. Over the top, evil and a caricature, she was still a lot of fun. Not surprisingly, many Russians were offended, but Russians, Chinese, Koreans and so forth should be used to being villified these days :P Oh and Brits, too - so many evil British villains :D
6. I was a bit shocked by how bad the special effects were in this movie
7. The alien storyline had me going: "Huh?????"
I've started watching Sanctuary. I'm up to episode 7 of the webisodes.
Blurb: Sanctuary follows the adventures of the beautiful, enigmatic and always surprising Dr. Helen Magnus, her new recruit, forensic psychiatrist Dr. Will Zimmerman and her fearless daughter Ashley. Together they track down, study and protect the strange and often terrifying creatures that secretly populate our world and live among us.
Although dismissed as monstrous figments of our imaginations and the stuff of our childhood nightmares, Magnus recognizes that the world is full of nature’s mistakes and triumphs and has the spectacular proof that they are indeed real.
Will, an insightful psychiatric profiler with a knack for finding the strange and curious, reluctantly joins the team to aid in the study of beings he can hardly believe himself. Together, Magnus, Will, Ashley and quirky tech-whiz Henry, use their unique combination of instinct, medicine and cutting edge technology to find the creatures that lurk in the corners of our civilization and protect us from those too dangerous to be roaming free.
Sanctuary stars Amanda Tapping as Dr. Helen Magnus (Stargate SG-1), Robin Dunne as Dr. Will Zimmerman (Dawson’s Creek), Emilie Ullerup as Ashley (jPod), Christopher Heyerdahl as the sinister John Druitt (Stargate Atlantis) and Ryan Robbins as Henry Foss (Battlestar Galactica).
*
So far the show is ok. Not great, but watchable and it's kind of cool to see our buddies from Stargate Atlantis.
In the first webisode, we meet Dr. Helen Magus who is Sam Carter in Stargate and Ryan Robbins (Ladon Radim) from Stargate Atlantis. In the same episode, we meet John Druitt played by Christopher Heyerdahl who plays Halling and Todd the Wraith in Stargate Atlantis. Also having appearances in the series are David Hewlett, Paul McGillion, Kavan Smith and Chuck Campbell.
The show is a little bit gimmicky because at first the episodes were delivered to the public via the Internet. Webisodes of approximately 15-20 minutes in duration were sold directly to viewers via the official website. The show apparently encouraged fans to be actively involved in a variety of ways, including:
- discussions in the for a or blog;
- creating and sharing their screen captures and artwork
- creating remixes of the videos etc.
The series has now become a more conventional 13-episode season and the first four webisodes have been rewritten as a two-hour premiere episode. I've decided to finish watching the webisodes first and then move onto episodes 1 and 2 of the television series.
Some random thoughts.
- I rather like Dr. Magnus, although Amanda Tapping's English accent seems to slip and slide
- the first mutant of the series is like my nightmare come true i.e. things that can eat your brain. There's a kid who goes around eating the brains of unfortunates using this kind of tentacle thing that comes flying out of a cavity in his chest! I kid you not.
Notionally the brain sucker only comes out when he senses fear, which doesn't really make sense because in webisode 1, the cop lets his guard down, is smiling indulgently and paternalistically as he crouches down to coax the kid out from under the bed. There's no fear/adrenaline yet the kid sucks his brain out anyway. Urgh.
- I rather like Will as well. I'm not sold on Ashley the daughter. It's not that she's overly kick-ass and feisty - it's just that she's not a very good actress and her hair is really bad and eighties. I've read that they have toned down her character for the television series, too which I suppose is good
- Helen's manservant looks like a cross between Vincent from Beauty and the Beast and Joshua (Dog Boy) in Dark Angel
- some of the special effects are really, really bad :)
Bones. I'm still watching Bones every week and still love it, but have decide that seasons 3 and 4 (barring a few occasional episodes), have not quite lived up to the magic that kindled in seasons 1 and 2.
Season 1 and season 2 were positively chockers with gorgeous moments - Brennan/Booth aside. It was warm, it was funny, it was quirky. The show remains interesting and fun, but something has gone a bit wonky along the way.
- I was outraged about Zack in the season 3 finale
- although not an Angela/Hodgins shipper, I really don't like the fact that they have been broken up just for the sake of creating romantic tension. I love them separately as characters but first of all, their relationship was extremely unprofessional. I had no problems with their seeing one another, but the sex in the workplace was just kind of tacky.
I object more to the fact that in an attempt to manufacture conflict and tension, they've been broken up, presumably so that they can find their way back to one another. I object to this in many television shows and sequels. It seems to be a given that happy romantic relationships are dramatically interesting, so whenever a series returns to the romantic couple, something seems to have gone awry along the way. Even in Hellboy 2, there is conflict in the relationshp. There's always a Manufactured Tension whether by way of groundless jealousy or the romantic couple are divorced husband/wife etc. It's all very artificial.
- I'd be really happy for Bones to focus on the storylines and the Squints as a whole and just throw in tiny snippets of shippiness. I don't like the fact that while they're not emphasising Bones/Booth, we still have to endure petty jealousies and other romantic entanglements. The episode where Brennan is dating two men at the same time was just bizarre :P This season so far has been too much of Brennan and Booth having romantic flirtations with other people.
- I can't help wondering if things went a little awry when Emily Deschanel and David Boreanaz started getting more involved in the production/storyline side of things?
Burn Notice. Season 2 of Burn Notice doesn't QUITE have the same wonderfulness as season 1, BUT it is still an excellent show. What was with the cliff hanger at the end of episode 9 (The Good Soldier) though? When does the series start again? Why are all shows now going for the mid season hiatus? The Beijing DVD pirates have of course already released what they are calling 'season 2' of Burn Notice when it is really just 'part 1 of season 2'.
Lost in Austen. I have tried on no less than 3 occasions now to watch Lost in Austen. I might try again later but at this point I just can't get drawn in. Partly because I really don't like the character of Amanda Price. She seems so vapid, empty-headed and blank to me. The scene in episode 1 where she seizes Bingley and kisses him and then blathers on in an empty-headed fashion horrified me. I just don't see how she is comparable in any way to the charming delight of an Elizabeth Bennet. Perhaps that's the whole idea of it i.e. Mary Sue fantasies of putting yourself in the place of Lizzie Bennet.
Thing is, I don't really identify with Amanda Price at all so as a Mary Sue substitute, she doesn't work for me ... I've still got all the episodes though, also in iPod format - so I shall perhaps try again if I run out of all else :)
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. OK, while I really enjoyed Mamma Mia, quite liked The Dark Knight, as mentioned, I HATED Mummy 3 and after watching the new Indy movie, have decided that I really didn't like that either! It was sooooooooooo bad. My expectations were extremely low but I still managed to be disappointed.
I had read lots of negative comments about the movie but had thought: "Come on, it's an Indy movie - it's bound to be fun".
1. It was forced and contrived
2. The chase and fight scenes went on for too long with no real sense of suspense
3. Shia LaBeouf as "Mutt" Williams was tolerable, but not great
4. I couldn't understand why they kept around the traiterous George "Mac" McHale even after he had proved that he couldn't be trusted except so that he could suffer a punishing end?
5. I did love Cate Blanchett as Colonel-Doctor Irina Spalko though - she was probably the best part of an otherwise bad moofie. Over the top, evil and a caricature, she was still a lot of fun. Not surprisingly, many Russians were offended, but Russians, Chinese, Koreans and so forth should be used to being villified these days :P Oh and Brits, too - so many evil British villains :D
6. I was a bit shocked by how bad the special effects were in this movie
7. The alien storyline had me going: "Huh?????"