Swamp Thing (1991)
This is the kind of series I watched as a kid on TV with overwhelming glee. These days there’s not so enthusiasm for that kind of entertainment left. Taking elements from the comic series but remixing it too look and feel a bit like Captain Planet, one of these worst animation series to ever have grazed television screens. Gone is the brooding and dark atmosphere of the comic, instead we get a Swamp Thing with a cheerful attitude, annoying sidekicks, a seriously dumbed down Arcane as a megalomaniac villain and his evil and stupid henchmen. All in all it’s quite dumb, the dialog is wooden and ridiculous, the characters are cardboard and the plots can be summarized in one-liners. Basically Arcane is trying to become immortal through various means and Swamp Thing has to stop him in every episode. Thankfully they only made five.
Eureka S2 (2007)
Not much has changed with season two of Eureka. The same basic structure, with a bit more emphasis on developing a bigger story arc about the ongoing events around the artifact and due to last season’s finish Henry’s obsession with Kim’s death. The rest is the same old same old. Carter has to solve a mystery involving superscience every week. I think Eureka, despite not a show I would really call good, has become something of a guilty pleasure for me. I find most bits involving science annoying, but I like the characters and the show entertains me. I just wish someone would make an Eureka-like show involving real science.
Reaper S1 (2007-2008)
I think part of why I enjoy Reaper so much is that does what I wanted from Dead Like Me, but didn’t got. Dead Like Me was about a girl that got herself killed and ended up as a grim reaper, escorting souls to their afterlife. I thought the show had so much possibilities, but as it went on, the supernatural aspect became downplayed more and more, as if the makers were embarrassed of those aspects. It became a mildly entertaining slice-of-life show that meandered aimlessly around until it was cut down. There were so many chances to build on the idea of the grim reapers, to built a complex and interesting mythology. Never happened.
Reaper on the other hand completely embraces its supernatural elements. The show is about a guy whose soul has been sold to the devil by his parents and who has to work for him as reaper, bringing back escaped souls. There are demons everywhere, the devil is a regular character and the souls that escape from hell are quite fantastic too.
I like the show because it takes one concept and explores it from every angle, building an ever more complex mythology in the process. It doesn’t try to be something else than what it is, which is light and fun entertainment most of the time. But when it needs to be it, can be quite serious, without losing all the elements that make it fun too. It’s one of those rare shows that can do both, comedy and drama, well, sometimes at the same time, by using its supernatural elements to the fullest instead of forgetting them.
Rating: 5/5
Eureka S1 (2006)
Eureka is about a small, secret town that is stuffed full of brilliant scientists who work at building at better tomorrow. While this is a neat concept, its also the main reason that on one level Eureka is a completely failure. There is so much you could do with such a high concept, but since obviously no one making this series cares about real science or has a clue what science actually is, all we get is comic book science and a show that follows a monster of the week formula, which monster substituted by some technological gizmo.
First and foremost, science and technology is used interchangeable. In reality they are not. Second, nothing made in Eureka seems partially useful for bettering the world. A show that would have dealt with some more realistic advances like future data storage devices or brain-driven prosthetics or a realistic depiction of nanotech (not the magic dust that turned up in one episode) could have been fascinating and still left room for interesting stories.
And yet, it’s still fun to watch. It’s not the show I wanted it to be, there was potential for it to be much more. But I like most of the characters and following them dealing with magic-science gizmos can be fun to watch.
Rating: 4/5
Doctor Who S4 (2008)
Like the other three seasons of the latest Doctor Who series, season 4 follows the same formula. A new companion (with the exception of season 2), some episodes in the past, some in the future, some dealing with threats in the present time. There are some hints seeded for future seasons as well as the big finish, that awaits the end of each season. Most of the time Doctor Who is completely over the top, campy, loud, ridiculous, even childish. This is a science fiction series whose science works like magic, whose technobubble is bullshit to even the most dense of its viewers. The historical episodes are pain-inducing to everyone who takes his history seriously, the future episodes are a thinly veiled present-day reality stuffed full with SF-gadgets that can hardly conceal that most visited futures don’t make a lick of sense. Despite all this, each and every season so far has successfully sucked me in and each time when the finale came around I sat there, watching like an awestruck kid. Its pompous, full of comic book science, but man can it be fun.
Rating: 4/5
The Dark Knight (2008)
directed by Christopher Nolan
When it comes to TDK I feel like I’m missing some crucial piece. I can’t say I disliked it, but neither can I say I really liked it. It was a competent action movie that, while entertaining at times, left me mostly indifferent in the end. That’s partly due to Batman being more of a supporting character than the focus of the movie. The Joker reminded me too much of Nicholson’s Joker and felt like a cheap surrogate. As for Two-Face: I loved Aaron Eckhart in Thank You For Smoking, so I expected from him an excellent performance in TDK. Which, reading reviews all over the net, seems to have worked for many people, just not for me. The love between his character and Maggie Gyllenhaal’s one had no chemistry, his subsequent slide over the edge and transformation into Two-Face wasn’t realistic or emotional convincing at all. Maybe I like the third one better.
Rating: 3/5
Hellboy 2: The Golden Army (2008)
directed by Guillermo del Toro
The same thing that stopped me from enjoying the first part too much rears its head again. Hellboy and his companions looks so much like their comic-counterparts, but characterwise the movie misses the mark completely. The comic-Hellboy is a smart and self-independent investigator, at times he feels like an old noir detective at work.
The movie hellboy is a goofy and not too smart buffoon. Sure, he can fight and looks impressive, but underneath there’s a teenager who hasn’t grown up yet. This sadly is also true for his companions. And what’s with this stupid the-BRPD-must-remain-secret idea. Nobody cared about Hellboy and the BRPD remaining a secret in the comics. That’s just stupid.
That said, when it comes to monsters and other fantastical creatures, Hellboy 2 is far more varied than his predecessor. There’s a certain opulence to the fantasy elements that reminds me of old, stop-motion fantasy movies. And while the characters never really worked for me, I did enjoy the movie to a certain extend for its pure entertainment value, a mindless but occasionally fun action-adventure. If they tone down the soap-opera elements a bit, the third part could be even more fun.
Rating: 3/5
Juno (2007)
directed by Jason Reitman
While Juno doesn’t feel like a realistic depiction of a young girl who is suddenly confronted with an unwanted pregnancy, because of how nonchalant she and most people around her react, it’s a fun and at times also inspirational movie. Perfectly played by lead actress Ellen Page, Juno is like a small tornado that flattens everything in her path. Her snarky, self-assured manner, while just hiding a teenager who’s not as much on top of things as she tries to make everyone believe, makes for some extremely fun scenes and also makes her instantly likeable. The other characters are likeable too, the competent stepmother (it’s good too see someone portray a positive stepmother instead of the old-fairy tale cliche), the father, her girlfriend and all the others.
Not unlike the previous movie by Reitman, at times you might feel like the style of the movie is far too light for such a grave situation, but while it’s a fun and light movie, it doesn’t presents its main theme as a laughing matter. It’s a question of perspective, just because people aren’t spouting doom and gloom with every sentence, it doesn’t mean they don’t take it seriously. It’s just that they haven’t lost the ability to see some of the absurdity that lives dishes out in it. And instead of feeling sorry for themselves (which makes far too many serious movie an experience in boredom and annoyance), they deal with the situation in their own way.
Rating: 5/5
Tokyo Godfathers (2003)
directed by Satoshi Kon
Another movie with a baby in a central role. Three homeless bums find a baby in a dumpster and try to find out why it has been abandoned and by whom, while fostering it for the time being. While the movie makes the life of homeless look far too easy at times, even if it tries to display some of its elements correctly, its an engaging piece that tries to make its main character seem genuine and human. Those three have found in each other a second chance, a second family, after they left their original one for reasons of their own. During their odyssey through the city to find the mother of the baby, all these things come out and each of those three has to face their past. Mind you, this is not a movie about redemption, but about three people who are lost and get a chance to reconnect to some of those people from whom they are running away. While there’s too much coincidence involved to make the plot feel realistic, the reactions of every character and their stories ring all too true and make you feel with them. And it can be quite funny at times.
Rating: 4/5
Shoot ‘Em Up (2007)
directed by Michael Davis
A highly violent action movie/dark comedy mix about a bum who eats carrots and shoots like the devil. When a women with a baby is followed by some gunmen, he helps her, only to get her killed in the proceedings. He flees with the baby and is followed on every step of the way by people who want to kill him, or rather the baby, to be more specific. During his attempt to preserve the life of the baby, he slowly finds out the (completely inane) backstory and has to shoot somebody nearly every ten seconds. While I do like violence in my movies, its just a bit too overdone here to be completely enjoyable. Not just the action, also the attitude of everyone, gangsters and good guys. It feels like everyone is trying too hard to be cool and funny. And the violence is so numerous, so ubiquitous in every scene, that it becomes boring.
Rating: 3/5
