DVD, Smallville S6 (Phantom)
You can never say their season cliffhangers are boring, and this time it also has a lot of interesting developments beyond the usual question of who will survive and how they'll escape the situations they're put in by the end. There's the return of Phil Morris as Kal-el's protector, the leaving of Martha for her new post as senator in Washington, the apparent death of Lana Luthor, nee Lang, Clark having that conversation about who he is with her (before she died, obviously), Lionel turning out to be Kryptonian-influenced for the good - all this and the revelation of Chloe's meteor power too! There's a lot to go at here, and I've probably forgotten other things, but I'll do my best to get down what works, what doesn't, and where this leaves the series.
The teaser and other parts of the episode are brutal even for 'Smallville' standards with a horror film style, from the quivering priest, the cramped wooden cabin and the old man with black eyeballs. It's not necessarily a criticism because through many episodes I haven't felt that chill of anticipation of something bad, so at least when the Zoner launched out of the old man's body it had some build up that gave it a slight shock and you don't see much detail. Even so, there is a lot of blood and gore for a TV episode, with the Zoner going round ripping people's innards out, which I didn't really understand the significance of since it needed a new body to exist in. Fortunately the violence didn't take away from a few nice scenes and that so much is let loose in terms of secrets and developments that have been awaited, if not eagerly then certainly needing a bit of closure.
I almost felt that all the characters were used well with a good balance of the story for each, but Chloe drew the short straw with only a small contribution to the episode. She gets to tell Lois to give up on the fight against Lex, then stupidly believes that her few words of wisdom have changed her cousin's mind enough for her to drop her crusade! Then she gets to listen to a tentative Clark who admits he's told Lana everything and she didn't mind about him being an alien. And finally she saves Lois' life. Why Lois didn't call an ambulance, police, etc, is, I suppose, a testament to her high regard for Chloe, and as it turned out saved her life. For not only is Chloe a great friend, she also has the power to save lives by… ahem, crying on people. Yes, not the best as superpowers go, but it could be useful. Not that she's the crying sort, but she did think her cousin was dead so it's not farfetched. I fully expect her to wake up in Season 7 (since I know she'll be around a while longer).
The knowledge of cast changes that seeps through, even though you're not watching this at the time it came out, does undermine the drama a little, but sometimes it can also be a bit indistinct in my mind. I knew Chloe would be around, but when it comes to Martha Kent and Lana, I'm not so sure. I don't know if they're coming back and that gave their scenes a finality that didn't exist in previous seasons. Martha's talk with Clark before she leaves the farm for a new life did feel quite sad and the way it was played seemed like she was being written out. I liked that she said Clark needn't stay on the farm and could get someone else to run it, and it does make sense that Martha wouldn't want to spend the rest of her life on a farm that was worked with Jonathan. A nice touch was the photo of Jonathan with Clark as a child, and though her story may have concluded at least it doesn't preclude the possibility of cameos. It's a shame there was no leaving do for her and a fuss made, but the characters are so fragmented and the community non-existent any more so it would have been difficult to seem real, unlike, say, the engagement party Clark and Lana have in the alternate reality last season.
Lana is the one I'm much more uncertain about, but one thing I was pretty sure of was that she wasn't dead. Sure she wants out of the marriage, and sure I could see her going off to Europe or somewhere (as she did in Season 4), but never for an instant did I believe she'd really died. Lionel was shocked, Lex was shocked, it only added to my belief that Lana staged the whole thing. She's not stupid and she would have known that blame and counter-blame would have circled the Luthors like flies and the only way to truly break her ties was to fake her own death. It's also something that was done before at the end of Season 3, where Chloe and Dad Gabe were apparently killed in an explosion only for us to find out it was staged for their protection (although the number of times Mr. Sullivan's been in the series since then he may as well have been dead!). So no, Lana's not dead - we didn't even see her get into the car. Whether she'll be back for Season 7 is another matter, but I could certainly see her making a cameo in future. Perhaps the writers deliberately left it a little open so they could resort to her again, but I await the outcome with interest.
Another scene I liked, though with slight reservations, was the one in which Clark super-speeds past her and all pretence or misdirection was dropped between them. It was a visual reminder of all those old episodes where she'd come to the barn with the sun streaming in, a nice remembrance of happier times. Lana did know for sure about his powers, and now he lets her in on the equally big secret of his extra-terrestrial parentage. I was pleased that this had been definitively addressed at last, but there was the glaring omission of Clark's issues of guilt over the death of Lana's parents, something that was an important motive for keeping his secret right from the early days. I can see that it wasn't really an appropriate time for such a discussion, but I hope Lana does make a comeback so the issue can be brought up. As it stands, Lana just smiles and kisses Clark without seeming that surprised, but with all she's been through, seen, and heard, few things would probably shock her at this stage. Even though Lex seems so evil now I couldn't help feeling sorry for him for once in the way she announces their parting.
It's been a long time since I've felt Lex might be misjudged, (perhaps a little in 'Nemesis' when he comes back to help Clark), but this episode came the closest in reviving sympathy for him. Yes, he's got a clone army, he wants to experiment on the Zoner and doesn't care who gets killed in the process, but I did get a sense that he was doing this because he wanted to protect the Earth from these threats. An odd thought after all that's gone on this season, but maybe it was his lack of control and surprise at things that happened to him in this episode that made him seem less the evil genius and more like the old Lex.
I almost believed him when he professed no knowledge of Lana's artificial pregnancy, and I still can't recall exact evidence that says it was his plot, though I'm pretty sure there was dialogue to confirm that. Is he a really good liar or has he convinced himself? He does hit Lana which was surprising and uncalled for, but he truly seemed shocked at Lana's death and his arrest. He let those assistants die to effect his escape from the Zoner but we already knew he doesn't care about his minions. The truth is he was manipulated by Lionel, or at least his marriage was a false one crafted by his Dad for his own benefit or the benefit of humanity by keeping track of his plans and I always felt that when he realised Lana was playing him that it would be the turning point which shoved him over the edge where good motives became nonexistent and he hated everyone. Ironic that it didn't seem to happen and that he seemed more real than he has done for quite a while.
I'm still not sure whether Lionel is trustworthy, despite finding out he's been influenced by Jor-el for the good of Clark, but it would be interesting to watch the season again with that knowledge. Jor-el has often been portrayed as bad, and it's hard to accept the retcon of Phil Morris' character of the Kryptonian who has always been watching out for Clark from a distance, without feeling a tiny bit suspicious of him, especially as the only Kryptonians that survived so far have been criminals. The explanation that Lionel somehow called him in at last because he drew the Kryptonian word for power was a very weak way to explain away Lionel's drawings over the season as if they never really knew where they were going with him and only just decided 'okay, well actually he was drawing those things to call this other guy.' Yeah, whatever. I did like Morris' character (didn't catch a name for him), even though, as Clark says, where's he been all his life? There are plenty of times Clark needed protecting!
There was always going to be something big happening in this episode, but actually the story feels much smaller than some of the other season-ending episodes. I think this works to the good of the series because its size and scope can be stretched rather thinly sometimes. This was about giving us answers to so many things that have been waiting to be resolved and doesn't leave us in quite the same way as most cliffhangers do. There are the usual difficult spots for various characters: Lionel's unconscious in the broken dam with water pouring in on him, Lois is healed (I really thought the creature was going to take over he body and Clark would have to fight her!), but Chloe's stricken down from the effort, Lana's dead, Lex has been arrested for it, and Clark now has to contend with an evil double of himself. They don't like Clark flying so I suppose that was the reason they took the opportunity at the end with evil Clark flying at the camera, because it was something they only do when he's not the real Clark (like when he was 'Kal,' infected by red Kryptonite, or fighting Zod).
I liked the reference to 'Superman III' (which I consider the most underrated of the series), by having Clark fight his double, but with all those superpowers why does it always have to come down to one person throwing the other across a room to smash into something? Why can there not be more variety? It was interesting that Dark Clark or Mirror Clark or Evil Clark or whatever you want to call him was able to absorb Kryptonite as if he was the opposite of our Clark. I thought Lionel had the rock to use against Clark in case he was going to kill Lex, but I wasn't sure after seeing him thrust it into Dark Clark's chest. For me, apart from being reminiscent of 'Superman III' this was the least interesting part of the episode, but I would say that Season 6 has, if not rejuvenated my interest in the series, then certainly been improvement enough as a whole to warrant continuation to the end of the series, though I've been warned Season 7 isn't very good. That will remain to be seen. I'd like them to bring back Green Arrow and get more of the compelling story lines back into it as they've done for the most part this season and then there's always a chance it could keep improving.
***
Monday, 23 January 2012
Prototype
DVD, Smallville S6 (Prototype)
Project Aries comes to fruition with Wes Keenan, the husband of that woman who kidnapped Lex a few episodes back, tested and found to be a useful super-soldier thanks to the Titan material used in his creation. But there's still some humanity left in him, enough that instead of killing Lois in the back alley when he assassinates the crooked Senator (foolish enough to threaten Lex and plan to shut down the project), he kidnaps her to the place they met years ago - amazing that there should be a connection between them which leads to a showdown where Clark gets walloped across a room, then beats the 'baddie' because Wes is no match for the Man of Steel - he was only a real danger to normal humans. But this wasn't really Clark's story as such, he was just a part of it, there to save Lois after she conveniently and predictably became unconscious - I'd love to see a bit more invention in how Clark handles things in front of people that don't know his secret instead of them just getting knocked out. I think back to that Season 1 episode where he arrives at a building in time to see the bad guy shove Chloe (or whoever) over a balcony, superspeeds up there to punch out the villain, then pushes a sofa under her to cushion her fall, rushes out and runs in at normal speed!
There are a lot more people that know Clark's secret than don't these days, and one more is 'officially' added to the list in Clark's eyes: Lana gets to tell him she knows, though I suppose that could have been interpreted differently, that she knows something, unfortunately there's no time for a definitive chat on the subject because Lex enters, but I certainly got the impression this was the big moment and that she has now admitted her knowledge to Clark. It wasn't the amazing scene it should have been, but it does leave us wanting more: will she and Clark ever get to sit down and talk about it? Will Lana be in grave danger when Lex inevitably finds her spying for his Dad? Is Lionel the one really pulling the strings? Take Martha for instance: the murder of Senator Burke leaves a slot open for her to fill, move to Washington and become a real force in politics. That's all very nice, but I sense a conspiracy both from the writers and Lionel. It feels like she's being set up to be written out as a regular, something I'm not surprised about because she hasn't been well used in recent seasons. Lionel on the other hand, whom both Clark and Martha have admitted they don't trust, fully endorses this, so it can't be good.
Clark even goes as far as threatening Lionel that if he finds out he had anything to do with forcing Lana to marry Lex, the gloves will be off, whatever that means. Lex himself seems to have no redeeming features with his army of super-soldiers waiting in the wings, although even now he spouts rationale about this being necessary to counter the increasing levels of criminals with special powers in the world. It was a rather weak argument in the face of a lack of proof for his claims and he seems to be aping Emperor Palpatine of 'Star Wars' in his plots. It will be difficult for Lana to innocently collect information on his secrets now that she's promised not to eavesdrop, but really, what does Lex expect her to do with her time? She's got this huge mansion to wander around in and that's it, she doesn't have much of a purpose any more, and when that happens it often heralds the beginning of the end for a character.
There's a much broader canvas to the story, but that's not necessarily a good thing. We keep hearing about Oliver and his team taking out 33.1 franchises throughout the globe, but what is it they're actually defeating if the super-soldiers aren't actually up to much? Are they just tearing up research establishments and causing headaches for LuthorCorp? We see the footage of the Phantom Zone creature attacking the couple again, only this time it's Lionel who's watching it, and continuing to draw Kryptonian symbols. What is it with him? I guess we'll find out in the last episode of the season, but I do feel the promise shown in the first half has dropped off to become like other recent seasons. In other words not very good character development and same-ey storytelling with a constant bid to suggest great things could be around the corner without showing them. Jimmy wasn't in it, he was off on his assignment, I assume, which means Chloe is reduced to melancholy and not much else. I did enjoy her little comedic moment when Clark dashes off once again while she and Martha are in mid-sentence and they both look a bit put out. "Do you ever get used to that?" How rude.
I just felt this episode didn't really achieve much. It tells us that Lex is willing to have people killed, that he has a host of super-soldiers (the CGI was very good in that shot that shows a huge chamber full of them ling in rows). Lana continues to spy on him for Lionel, Clark continues to dash hither and thither trying to do good. Lois keeps up with her reporting gig, and there's a nice scene where she recalls Wes to the time they met and that that's the reason he brought her to the abandoned base, but the death scene was standard fare. We don't know him well enough to care, even if Lois does. So the episode had that scene, the moment when Clark knows Lana knows, and the end scene where the farm side of the story seems to be sadly coming to an end with the possibility of Martha going to Washington. All the rest was so-so, and even some of the CGI which I would praise in terms of the invisibility and the clone room, didn't look real when it came to the satellite or the LuthorCorp building looming over the Daily Planet.
It was good to have a few references thrown in when Wes is compared to Alicia (who could teleport), or Graham Garrett (who could be invisible), and Titan is mentioned too. There's also the idea of Lois getting so worked up by her former friend's death in the experiments of Lex that she's vows to take him down and stop these things. And there may have been an attempt at some kind of message at the end when Clark talks about how soldiers who just want to serve their country end up as pawns, but it was very brief passing thought. When you have to rely on super-soldiers to advance your story perhaps it's a sign your series has had its day?
**
Project Aries comes to fruition with Wes Keenan, the husband of that woman who kidnapped Lex a few episodes back, tested and found to be a useful super-soldier thanks to the Titan material used in his creation. But there's still some humanity left in him, enough that instead of killing Lois in the back alley when he assassinates the crooked Senator (foolish enough to threaten Lex and plan to shut down the project), he kidnaps her to the place they met years ago - amazing that there should be a connection between them which leads to a showdown where Clark gets walloped across a room, then beats the 'baddie' because Wes is no match for the Man of Steel - he was only a real danger to normal humans. But this wasn't really Clark's story as such, he was just a part of it, there to save Lois after she conveniently and predictably became unconscious - I'd love to see a bit more invention in how Clark handles things in front of people that don't know his secret instead of them just getting knocked out. I think back to that Season 1 episode where he arrives at a building in time to see the bad guy shove Chloe (or whoever) over a balcony, superspeeds up there to punch out the villain, then pushes a sofa under her to cushion her fall, rushes out and runs in at normal speed!
There are a lot more people that know Clark's secret than don't these days, and one more is 'officially' added to the list in Clark's eyes: Lana gets to tell him she knows, though I suppose that could have been interpreted differently, that she knows something, unfortunately there's no time for a definitive chat on the subject because Lex enters, but I certainly got the impression this was the big moment and that she has now admitted her knowledge to Clark. It wasn't the amazing scene it should have been, but it does leave us wanting more: will she and Clark ever get to sit down and talk about it? Will Lana be in grave danger when Lex inevitably finds her spying for his Dad? Is Lionel the one really pulling the strings? Take Martha for instance: the murder of Senator Burke leaves a slot open for her to fill, move to Washington and become a real force in politics. That's all very nice, but I sense a conspiracy both from the writers and Lionel. It feels like she's being set up to be written out as a regular, something I'm not surprised about because she hasn't been well used in recent seasons. Lionel on the other hand, whom both Clark and Martha have admitted they don't trust, fully endorses this, so it can't be good.
Clark even goes as far as threatening Lionel that if he finds out he had anything to do with forcing Lana to marry Lex, the gloves will be off, whatever that means. Lex himself seems to have no redeeming features with his army of super-soldiers waiting in the wings, although even now he spouts rationale about this being necessary to counter the increasing levels of criminals with special powers in the world. It was a rather weak argument in the face of a lack of proof for his claims and he seems to be aping Emperor Palpatine of 'Star Wars' in his plots. It will be difficult for Lana to innocently collect information on his secrets now that she's promised not to eavesdrop, but really, what does Lex expect her to do with her time? She's got this huge mansion to wander around in and that's it, she doesn't have much of a purpose any more, and when that happens it often heralds the beginning of the end for a character.
There's a much broader canvas to the story, but that's not necessarily a good thing. We keep hearing about Oliver and his team taking out 33.1 franchises throughout the globe, but what is it they're actually defeating if the super-soldiers aren't actually up to much? Are they just tearing up research establishments and causing headaches for LuthorCorp? We see the footage of the Phantom Zone creature attacking the couple again, only this time it's Lionel who's watching it, and continuing to draw Kryptonian symbols. What is it with him? I guess we'll find out in the last episode of the season, but I do feel the promise shown in the first half has dropped off to become like other recent seasons. In other words not very good character development and same-ey storytelling with a constant bid to suggest great things could be around the corner without showing them. Jimmy wasn't in it, he was off on his assignment, I assume, which means Chloe is reduced to melancholy and not much else. I did enjoy her little comedic moment when Clark dashes off once again while she and Martha are in mid-sentence and they both look a bit put out. "Do you ever get used to that?" How rude.
I just felt this episode didn't really achieve much. It tells us that Lex is willing to have people killed, that he has a host of super-soldiers (the CGI was very good in that shot that shows a huge chamber full of them ling in rows). Lana continues to spy on him for Lionel, Clark continues to dash hither and thither trying to do good. Lois keeps up with her reporting gig, and there's a nice scene where she recalls Wes to the time they met and that that's the reason he brought her to the abandoned base, but the death scene was standard fare. We don't know him well enough to care, even if Lois does. So the episode had that scene, the moment when Clark knows Lana knows, and the end scene where the farm side of the story seems to be sadly coming to an end with the possibility of Martha going to Washington. All the rest was so-so, and even some of the CGI which I would praise in terms of the invisibility and the clone room, didn't look real when it came to the satellite or the LuthorCorp building looming over the Daily Planet.
It was good to have a few references thrown in when Wes is compared to Alicia (who could teleport), or Graham Garrett (who could be invisible), and Titan is mentioned too. There's also the idea of Lois getting so worked up by her former friend's death in the experiments of Lex that she's vows to take him down and stop these things. And there may have been an attempt at some kind of message at the end when Clark talks about how soldiers who just want to serve their country end up as pawns, but it was very brief passing thought. When you have to rely on super-soldiers to advance your story perhaps it's a sign your series has had its day?
**
Texas Longhorn
DVD, Starsky & Hutch S1 (Texas Longhorn)
This was one I didn't really remember too well before watching it again, but I knew I'd liked it and for some reason felt like I might not like it as much this time. I was wrong, it was a very well balanced episode, not radically different from the other stories in that it's about S&H chasing about town meeting various characters in order to work out whodunnit and where they are now, before finding and bringing the perps to justice, unsurprising as they are detectives and that's what they do, but I've realised what I like about episodes like this that make them stand out from others which can be mundane. The essential ingredient is that which decides whether the story is bleak, miserable and unpleasant, or sad, heartbreaking and perhaps hopeful in some way. Episodes that dwell on the 'toilet bowl' view of the city (as they coined it in the first episode), make you feel down, and while it can draw you closer to the main characters by them being alone against the world (successfully achieved as their introduction in the pilot), liking them is not dependent on this and I would argue is achieved better in the scenes where they feel pity for a victim of society even if that victim is a criminal.
This one pulls off the pathos superbly, and my favourite scene has to be when they visit the Angel, someone who can point them in the direction of the villains. Her life story is laid out on the table by her side: the pictures of her fifteen years ago as a famous singer sit right next to a used syringe. At first S&H expect trouble and are very cautious before they enter, but when they see it's just a lady lying back in a chair they come in and take in the room. The moment when she breaks into song is so sad and stands out in a generally enjoyable episode as being a real 'moment' and the kind of thing they didn't reach very often on the series. I couldn't help noticing what a mobile face the actress had - she scrunches it right up at some points and opens it wide at others, but it was an excellent performance, perhaps the most affecting so far on the series.
They deal well with the moments of pity, reflected again in Zack Tyler's attitude to losing his wife Emmy Lou. It's a story of revenge and tragedy as two men thoughtlessly ruin two lives, raping and killing the wife and bringing out the worst in Zack. There's a moral issue at the heart of it - taking the law into your own hands, and it definitely comes down on one side: that it can only lead to tears. Zack had to die for his crimes, but at least he goes out in a good way, telling S&H the story of the scorpion and the frog and claiming he couldn't escape his nature to be vengeful. Whether he could have tried harder and made the right choice is a moot point, but he's a devious man, lying about Chako being one of the two who attacked him so the man will be released and he can bring down summary justice on him. Yet you also feel for him, and his story explains, if it doesn't excuse, his behaviour.
Zack was a very real character for the series, full of nostalgia, a good old boy, a Texan cowboy-type who utters every word with a touch of regret in his tone - not surprising when he's just lost his wife, but he doesn't fit into the usual 'quirky' category of many people S&H come into contact with. There are plenty of them in this story! We meet Ray, a fag-chomping, croaky-voiced female tattooist, the wrestler who S&H have to fight, the angry nurse at the blood donor centre and the man sitting in front of her who gawps fish-like at S&H when they announce they're police and continues gawping with eyes and mouth agape until they leave! Returning from the pilot is Fat Rolly (also called Smelly Rolly in this episode), and Huggy's barmaid Diane is in the background at his place again. I don't think Rolly made any other appearances after this, probably because he was going to prison, by the sound of it, but I like that they were at least attempting to build up a city populated with people we know.
The wrestling sequence is one of the comedy moments despite the violence, with S&H having difficulties with the big guy (played by Butcher Brannigan which makes me think he was a known wrestler, perhaps a bit of stunt casting - either that or his parents had a sense of humour when naming him!), getting chucked around and then the cuffs don't fit. It turns into a nice tag scene at the end when he turns up at Huggy's to apologise and reels off this fancy wine that he'd like. The nurse was in the tradition of difficult people S&H have to deal with, but I can understand some of her frustration as the running gag this time is Starsky having trouble with machines - the phone booth takes his change and doesn't work, the phone at HQ gets a crossed line, and when he tries to get a candy bar out of the dispenser at the blood donor's it also eats his change. I like it when they have a running gag, and this time it was even more of a sore point as everything goes right for Hutch, increasing Starsky's annoyance.
He's actually in a pretty good mood though, going off into his bright, sunny monologue about how their mission is just like Cinderella (they've got to travel the city to find the boot which is missing its silver toecap). Another pop culture reference (if you can call Cinderella one in the first place) is mention of Hemingway and Joe Greene - I don't know Joe Greene, but I imagine he would be a name people would recognise (a boxer, maybe), since Huggy's talking about how he feels meaner than him. Huggy gets to be in it a bit more, first being really irritated, then switching and being really jolly at the end which must have given the actor a bit of fun. He makes a bizarre sight at the end when he sort of pulls back his head and flaps his long arms in front of him in a delighted clap in a frog-like way that shows he had a unique physicality to him, something else that endears him to us.
S&H pull the same hard cop/hard cop thing on Rolly that they did in the pilot, not giving him any leeway because they know the kind of man he is, what he deserves and how best to get information out of him. I like the way Rolly's security man is shoved through a door then lies on top of it for the rest of the scene while they talk to Rolly, preferring to be down there rather than getting up and possibly having to contend with the invaders. They are uncompromising against villains, but spare kindness for the victims of society which makes them so much more interesting as characters. It also seems fair for the world they live in with people like Chako and Harris going around doing whatever they want, the city needs S&H to fight back, a bit like superheroes, but within the law. Although they do things sometimes which would be frowned upon in modern society such as Starsky wapping Chako with his file when the man refuses to talk. But even Chako had some kind of moral code, horrified to learn the woman they killed was Zack's wife, not just some girl he'd picked up (as if that distinction would have excused their actions!). He seems to have some kind of religious conviction or something that gives him a line not to cross.
Harris on the other hand is completely without morals from what we see of him. He's a sailor that has no real place to call home, drifting through life doing what he wants. It makes me wonder if the attack on Zack and Emmy Lou was an unplanned spur of the moment thing. He seems like the kind of guy that would see something and take it, with Chako a willing accomplice. Charles Napier (who died last year) makes a good villain, though he doesn't get a star turn until the end when both Zack and S&H come after him. He's not one to be taken unawares and pulls out a rifle of some kind, and the action scene with him running and shooting as he's chased is really good, capturing the moment of instinctual fight or flight, outnumbered he retreats to an iron box that's as impregnable as a tank, as if he'd thought ahead that he might need protection sometime. It also shows he shortsighted as he thinks he can hide in a box and shoot everyone that comes after him! I like the way Starsky uses the environment to his advantage and I actually thought he'd killed him when the crushing claw slams down on the box. It's quite brutal the way he lifts it up and drops it from a height, but fortunately Harris was only injured, not killed.
There's a very good mix of action, from the wrestling fight and the shootout at the end, drama with Chako threatening to cut the waitress, humour (Starsky finally writes a report, but embellishes it so much Dobey tells him it reads like a comic book!), and poignancy, that it could well be the most well written episode up to this point. There's even some nice directing with shots such as the reflections as Harris chases Emmy Lou through the puddle, and the excellent transition using the pit head (or donkey head, or oil head, whatever they're called), to go from night to day as it moves up and down. The usual stunt guy gets a couple of bits of business when he rolls down the stairs as Chako (his curly hair looks nothing like that guy's straight hair, but it happens so fast you wouldn't notice), and even more difficult to spot is when he doubles Starsky, rolling over the car's bonnet in the chase after Harris. It's noticeable that nobody mixes up S&H's names this time, but they do end with the traditional funny scene when Hutch says he was beginning to think he and Starsky were the only sane people in the city and his partner replies he was beginning to wonder about Hutch. A nice way to finish a beautifully rounded episode.
***
This was one I didn't really remember too well before watching it again, but I knew I'd liked it and for some reason felt like I might not like it as much this time. I was wrong, it was a very well balanced episode, not radically different from the other stories in that it's about S&H chasing about town meeting various characters in order to work out whodunnit and where they are now, before finding and bringing the perps to justice, unsurprising as they are detectives and that's what they do, but I've realised what I like about episodes like this that make them stand out from others which can be mundane. The essential ingredient is that which decides whether the story is bleak, miserable and unpleasant, or sad, heartbreaking and perhaps hopeful in some way. Episodes that dwell on the 'toilet bowl' view of the city (as they coined it in the first episode), make you feel down, and while it can draw you closer to the main characters by them being alone against the world (successfully achieved as their introduction in the pilot), liking them is not dependent on this and I would argue is achieved better in the scenes where they feel pity for a victim of society even if that victim is a criminal.
This one pulls off the pathos superbly, and my favourite scene has to be when they visit the Angel, someone who can point them in the direction of the villains. Her life story is laid out on the table by her side: the pictures of her fifteen years ago as a famous singer sit right next to a used syringe. At first S&H expect trouble and are very cautious before they enter, but when they see it's just a lady lying back in a chair they come in and take in the room. The moment when she breaks into song is so sad and stands out in a generally enjoyable episode as being a real 'moment' and the kind of thing they didn't reach very often on the series. I couldn't help noticing what a mobile face the actress had - she scrunches it right up at some points and opens it wide at others, but it was an excellent performance, perhaps the most affecting so far on the series.
They deal well with the moments of pity, reflected again in Zack Tyler's attitude to losing his wife Emmy Lou. It's a story of revenge and tragedy as two men thoughtlessly ruin two lives, raping and killing the wife and bringing out the worst in Zack. There's a moral issue at the heart of it - taking the law into your own hands, and it definitely comes down on one side: that it can only lead to tears. Zack had to die for his crimes, but at least he goes out in a good way, telling S&H the story of the scorpion and the frog and claiming he couldn't escape his nature to be vengeful. Whether he could have tried harder and made the right choice is a moot point, but he's a devious man, lying about Chako being one of the two who attacked him so the man will be released and he can bring down summary justice on him. Yet you also feel for him, and his story explains, if it doesn't excuse, his behaviour.
Zack was a very real character for the series, full of nostalgia, a good old boy, a Texan cowboy-type who utters every word with a touch of regret in his tone - not surprising when he's just lost his wife, but he doesn't fit into the usual 'quirky' category of many people S&H come into contact with. There are plenty of them in this story! We meet Ray, a fag-chomping, croaky-voiced female tattooist, the wrestler who S&H have to fight, the angry nurse at the blood donor centre and the man sitting in front of her who gawps fish-like at S&H when they announce they're police and continues gawping with eyes and mouth agape until they leave! Returning from the pilot is Fat Rolly (also called Smelly Rolly in this episode), and Huggy's barmaid Diane is in the background at his place again. I don't think Rolly made any other appearances after this, probably because he was going to prison, by the sound of it, but I like that they were at least attempting to build up a city populated with people we know.
The wrestling sequence is one of the comedy moments despite the violence, with S&H having difficulties with the big guy (played by Butcher Brannigan which makes me think he was a known wrestler, perhaps a bit of stunt casting - either that or his parents had a sense of humour when naming him!), getting chucked around and then the cuffs don't fit. It turns into a nice tag scene at the end when he turns up at Huggy's to apologise and reels off this fancy wine that he'd like. The nurse was in the tradition of difficult people S&H have to deal with, but I can understand some of her frustration as the running gag this time is Starsky having trouble with machines - the phone booth takes his change and doesn't work, the phone at HQ gets a crossed line, and when he tries to get a candy bar out of the dispenser at the blood donor's it also eats his change. I like it when they have a running gag, and this time it was even more of a sore point as everything goes right for Hutch, increasing Starsky's annoyance.
He's actually in a pretty good mood though, going off into his bright, sunny monologue about how their mission is just like Cinderella (they've got to travel the city to find the boot which is missing its silver toecap). Another pop culture reference (if you can call Cinderella one in the first place) is mention of Hemingway and Joe Greene - I don't know Joe Greene, but I imagine he would be a name people would recognise (a boxer, maybe), since Huggy's talking about how he feels meaner than him. Huggy gets to be in it a bit more, first being really irritated, then switching and being really jolly at the end which must have given the actor a bit of fun. He makes a bizarre sight at the end when he sort of pulls back his head and flaps his long arms in front of him in a delighted clap in a frog-like way that shows he had a unique physicality to him, something else that endears him to us.
S&H pull the same hard cop/hard cop thing on Rolly that they did in the pilot, not giving him any leeway because they know the kind of man he is, what he deserves and how best to get information out of him. I like the way Rolly's security man is shoved through a door then lies on top of it for the rest of the scene while they talk to Rolly, preferring to be down there rather than getting up and possibly having to contend with the invaders. They are uncompromising against villains, but spare kindness for the victims of society which makes them so much more interesting as characters. It also seems fair for the world they live in with people like Chako and Harris going around doing whatever they want, the city needs S&H to fight back, a bit like superheroes, but within the law. Although they do things sometimes which would be frowned upon in modern society such as Starsky wapping Chako with his file when the man refuses to talk. But even Chako had some kind of moral code, horrified to learn the woman they killed was Zack's wife, not just some girl he'd picked up (as if that distinction would have excused their actions!). He seems to have some kind of religious conviction or something that gives him a line not to cross.
Harris on the other hand is completely without morals from what we see of him. He's a sailor that has no real place to call home, drifting through life doing what he wants. It makes me wonder if the attack on Zack and Emmy Lou was an unplanned spur of the moment thing. He seems like the kind of guy that would see something and take it, with Chako a willing accomplice. Charles Napier (who died last year) makes a good villain, though he doesn't get a star turn until the end when both Zack and S&H come after him. He's not one to be taken unawares and pulls out a rifle of some kind, and the action scene with him running and shooting as he's chased is really good, capturing the moment of instinctual fight or flight, outnumbered he retreats to an iron box that's as impregnable as a tank, as if he'd thought ahead that he might need protection sometime. It also shows he shortsighted as he thinks he can hide in a box and shoot everyone that comes after him! I like the way Starsky uses the environment to his advantage and I actually thought he'd killed him when the crushing claw slams down on the box. It's quite brutal the way he lifts it up and drops it from a height, but fortunately Harris was only injured, not killed.
There's a very good mix of action, from the wrestling fight and the shootout at the end, drama with Chako threatening to cut the waitress, humour (Starsky finally writes a report, but embellishes it so much Dobey tells him it reads like a comic book!), and poignancy, that it could well be the most well written episode up to this point. There's even some nice directing with shots such as the reflections as Harris chases Emmy Lou through the puddle, and the excellent transition using the pit head (or donkey head, or oil head, whatever they're called), to go from night to day as it moves up and down. The usual stunt guy gets a couple of bits of business when he rolls down the stairs as Chako (his curly hair looks nothing like that guy's straight hair, but it happens so fast you wouldn't notice), and even more difficult to spot is when he doubles Starsky, rolling over the car's bonnet in the chase after Harris. It's noticeable that nobody mixes up S&H's names this time, but they do end with the traditional funny scene when Hutch says he was beginning to think he and Starsky were the only sane people in the city and his partner replies he was beginning to wonder about Hutch. A nice way to finish a beautifully rounded episode.
***
Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol
cinema, Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (2011) film
What did I know about this film before I went in?
I tried to be aware of as few details as possible because I wanted to be surprised and impressed with what they came up with. Even so, I couldn't help reading or hearing the synopsis that the IMF was implicated in the bombing of the Kremlin and has to clear their name. I imagined this would have happened before the film started or maybe would launch the film, but it actually came a little way into the film.
I'd seen a clip of Ethan running down the side of a glass building, though I had only seen it imperfectly out of the corner of my eye, and I'd seen a few bits from the trailer which kept coming on TV - someone rolling away from either an exploding car or just falling to the ground in a cloud of dust (the sandstorm as it turned out). I'd seen and been mildly critical of Ethan in a tuxedo with the long hair from 'M:I2' which suited leather jackets and motorbikes, but not formal attire, but I had hopes that with the return of the long hair it would mean the film would, like 'M:I2,' be letting its hair down for a stylish thrill ride rather than a convoluted story. I knew Benji was to be in it, and from seeing the poster of the four of them I realised he was going to be one of the team. I was slightly worried that his character would be painfully irritating over the course of the film, but it wasn't so. Also in the poster the darker-skinned woman with shades on might, just might have been a return of Nyah from 'M:I2' although I didn't really believe that, it was just a far-fetched hope. I'd also seen a clip of Tom Wilkinson talking in the back of a car and imagined he'd be the current boss.
I'd found out rumours that Luther might have a very small role in the film, though he wouldn't be co-starring, and that Jeremy Renner, the up and coming action star, was set to take over the action scenes from Cruise. I heard that it was going to be a reboot and not have any connection with past adventures so there would be no mention of his wife, Julia. I'd also seen a picture of Hunt with goggles and gloves on, climbing a glass building with reflections either side of him, which looked fantastic.
With all these little hints and drips of information I was slightly excited about the film, and I never really get excited about new films any more. I was hoping, though not too hard, that it would be full of the hair-raising stunts, the brilliant twists and clever bluffs and double-bluffs that I love the film series for, I was especially on the lookout for how they were going to use the face masks in a new and innovative way and make the five year wait worthwhile.
What did I think of the film?
I don't think I'm ever going to love a new film again, and that knowledge is sad and frustrating. I wanted to love this film, I wanted it to be the film I could embrace and the film that didn't jiggle the camera around like JJ Abrams did in 'M:I3' and I wanted it to redeem the series after the third one fell a little more flat than I would have liked. But it didn't. The best I can say is that it made me appreciate 'M:I3' more and that's no compliment.
But first, how did it improve on the previous film?
The one major thing is that it's about something real, a physical, manifest threat, not a vague 'Rabbit's Foot' in a bottle. It is no less than the threat of nuclear destruction, and the plot of a madman to set the world afire. Another thing is that it doesn't deal with the mundane, everyday world that 'M:I3' dealt with. There are no parties of people just having fun (yes there's a party, but it's a full-on, lavish Indian party and there's a mission going on during it), there are no scenes of Ethan going to buy ice at the local convenience store, and no rubbishy disposable camera in which to get his mission briefing. The gadgets are generally first rate with some great ideas, my favourite being the screen projector that follows a target's eyes to fool them into thinking they're seeing the perspective of a corridor when actually Ethan and Benji are working away behind it. It has a few things I'd never seen before, such as the bullets speeding through the water after the car crash (which was the only time that made me jump, coming as it did after a long and boring conversation - whoops sorry, this is supposed to be the positive paragraph!), the climb up the massive glass tower (which at the time of viewing I didn't realise was the tallest building in the world), some good colour (mainly in the Dubai sequence), and crucially some links to continuity:
Luther Stickell does appear as he was rumoured to, albeit in a very brief scene reminiscent of the ending of the first film, and looking bizarrely younger than his last two appearances thanks to ditching the moustache! He was great, but he should have been in the film properly, but instead Simon Pegg's Benjamin Dunn took his role of back-up/computer expert/source of humour. Sad. Although I'd hoped Julia, Hunt's wife from the last film, would not be in this one because I didn't want it to become a spy soap, I also didn't want them to move on as if she never happened or it would completely undermine the third film since that all hinged on Hunt's love for his wife. Thankfully I was not disappointed and although I was sad that they had apparently fobbed her off with an offscreen death, at least she'd been mentioned. It became even better when it's revealed at the end that she did not in fact die (a key ingredient in the turmoil of Renner's character as he believed her death was due to his failure to protect her), but it was staged so she'd be safer, and she makes an appearance from a distance, though I was confused by it: did it mean that Hunt can never see or speak to his wife and that's why he looks slightly wistful at the end, or just at that moment he couldn't talk to her because of a mission? I also wasn't sure if it was indeed Michelle Monaghan back as Julia because I didn't see her name in the credits, but then I didn't see Ving Rhames' either so maybe the roles were too small to credit?
The other major link was the guy from the first film who Hunt meets up with to meet Max, the arms-dealer. As I saw this long-haired guy right after Hunt had lit another guy's cigarette, I thought how funny it was that he looked like the heavy from that film, and then he does look like him even more when Hunt goes up to him, then he pulls out a balaclava and I was excited! I thought they were going to bring in Vanessa Redgrave for a cameo, although that wouldn't have made sense because Hunt got her arrested so she'd hardly be friendly. So was it the same guy with the balaclava and the 'Max' arms dealer organisation was now run by the relation of Bogdan or was it supposed to just be an in-joke for the observant among us? Whatever the truth is, it was a summing up of the whole film for me: promising something, seeming to give it, then snatching it right back. That's how I felt.
I hate to say it, but I was almost never excited. Those that have claimed this is a thrill a minute, action scene after action scene showboat must be easily pleased. Or maybe I'm impossible to please (but this is 'Mission: Impossible' so it should seem more impossible). There was that moment with the balaclava, there was the car crash, and there was the building climb, but I wasn't thrilled, I wasn't worried about anybody's safety. Towards the end of the film the thought that they might kill off Hunt did cross my mind, just as it did in 'M:I3,' but if they hadn't earned the right to do it in that film, they certainly hadn't in this one so I was relieved that it didn't happen. Why was I on the verge of boredom for much of the first half? Have I seen everything that could ever impress me? Surely not, I can't believe this to be the case. So why wasn't I engaged and enthused? Partly I felt it was so underwhelming and partly it wasn't as clever as I was anticipating.
Like 'M:I3' before it I didn't care about the new characters of Agent Carter and Analyst Brandt. Benji was fine, but he wasn't the same character, out of necessity for the irritation factor, but there was no progression for him. He was a bonkers technician in '3' and now he's a fully paid up agent, speaks multiple languages, can handle a gun and wants to wear a mask. I didn't quite know how to react to him. I was glad he wasn't as annoying as I'd feared, yet I didn't warm to him. I was really hoping he wasn't going to be messing things up through the film, but one moment that was possibly the funniest for me was the brilliant mistake he makes with the aforementioned screen projector, getting his mug in frame so it fills the corridor and looking so surprised and horrified I couldn't help chuckling. Just thinking about it now makes me break out in a grin!
At least there weren't any of the team that I actively didn't like (whereas in '3' I didn't like the Irish guy), but neither did I warm to them at all. Carter was this impossibly cool agent that at least balanced the series out after all the useless female agents we've seen (I'm thinking primarily of the first film where two of them get killed so easily and another turns out to be evil), but we never got to know her properly and she seemed to have super-strength by all the ways she knocked around the big guys as she did. We're supposed to care because it was her boyfriend that was shot so unimpressively in the pre-credits sequence. I thought he was Jeremy Renner so was a bit confused, but what a let-down of an opening sequence. Does it compare to the other films' openings? Not even the low-key torture moment from '3'. It's a guy running out onto a roof and jumping onto an airbag then getting shot by a female assassin. And then you get the prison break - Ethan going against the plan to go back for his mate Bogdan should have been a super-cool heroic sequence, surviving by the skin of his teeth, but there's very little threat or precision in the prison doors opening and closing. At first I thought he was going back to help the prison guard who'd been attacked, but his humane character seems to have diminished in this film, although to be fair he didn't kill those people (Serbians was it?), who'd killed his wife, after all.
I was so sure Bogdan was going to be a major plot point later in the film and that he'd rip off his face and turn out to be someone else, but I was giving the writers far too much credit. The only time the essential ingredient of the masks was used was in the bad guy, Cobalt, pretending to be an underling. That Cobalt guy must really work out because Ethan could barely keep up with him in the sandstorm chase and when he fights for the case that can stop the nuclear missile inside that Indian car factory the old guy leaps around, beats up Ethan and dashes upstairs like a goat, belying his slightly podgy shape. He was a forgettable villain, and that goes for all of them too. He was a madman that wanted nuclear annihilation, he had people working for him, presumably for the same reason and apart from that he was pretty nondescript. Owen Davian in the last film was far superior, and as for the great Sean Ambrose in '2' he doesn't even come close to that intensity.
His underling was a similar nonentity, and as for the Russian Kremlin or police leader, whatever he was, he had no real story except for seeing Hunt and chasing him which left the scene at the end where there was supposed to be a meeting of the minds and showing how the US and Russia can still be friends against the common enemy of anarchic terrorism, fell flat - his character is just there throughout the film and has nothing about him to make us care in the slightest. There was also the female assassin whose character was only the extent that she was female and an assassin and liked diamonds. Why would she help Cobalt if she knew he was going to blow up the world for the next stage of evolution as he claimed? She wouldn't be alive to enjoy her diamonds - payment would be irrelevant. I don't want old-fashioned Bond-style female villains in my 'Mission: Impossible.' Keep her, but give her a character and a motive.
Maybe the series is getting too long in the tooth now and maybe they should have stopped at '3' (or even '2'), but the expectations of certain lines and visuals can only be fresh by going wrong it seems: the phone box in Russia where Hunt gets his briefing is supposed to self-destruct, but this time Hunt has to go back and hit it to make it work (a subtle dig at Russian technology or am I analysing too deeply?), which was funny to a degree, yet it was continued through the film making Ethan and his team look a little incompetent. The sticky gloves go wrong, but that's alright because it creates tension and I wanted Hunt to lose the other one too and show his free climbing skills as he did in '2.' The masks go wrong, paint spatters all over them and instead of the fantastic visual and plot twists of the other films they became a bit of a running joke. One that fell flat. Cobalt uses one to pretend to be his underling, but so what?
There were also moments that were supposed to be a bit dramatic and a bit funny such as the silly chase alongside the train carriage where the secret IMF cache is located. Hunt and Brandt have to run along typing in the code or using the retinal scan to get in, all the while dodging posts every few seconds. Did Carter and Benji not have CCTV and see them outside? There are always holes in these kinds of film, but you just have to go with it, although I think when Ethan drives the car off the ramp to crash into the floor at the end and it starts with no problem and has petrol in the tank, it would have been more exciting if he had to push it off and jump in. And nuclear annihilation prevented by dropping the missile in the drink? And Ethan going on about how they're now alone with no outside help - that's how the films always work!
I have to mention the musical score. They really should have got someone new to do it, and not stick with Giacchino who reuses some of his own score from '3' and although there is a new variation of the main theme I didn't particularly like it and it didn't get my blood pumping as it should. I was also disappointed that the theme didn't belt out during the action sequences which was something I really wanted for this film. And lose the Russian opera in the end credits and let's hear more of the theme please! I also wasn't taken with the montage, though I was very pleased they bothered with a credit sequence since so many films just start, in some cases (the Batman films), without even showing a title. I wanted a thrilling montage like the first film, but this wan't even as effective as '3'. I also must mention the shameless Apple product placement. I use Apple myself, but it's going to date this film like nothing else to see iPads, MacBooks and iPhones so blatantly used, the killer being the end sequence when Hunt hands out iPhones like Pick and Mix! I also hope the organisation mentioned at the end isn't a setup for the next film, because 'Casino Royale' did that and look how Ellipsis fizzled out.
Jeremy Renner. It seems like he's been set up to be the next Ethan Hunt (he's already taken the role of the next Jason Bourne), and while I didn't dislike him neither did he make an impression on me. I was ambivalent to him. I didn't care about him when he was an analyst, I wasn't gasping in amazement when he turned out to be this incredible ex-agent, and his most important connection with Ethan didn't even register at first as I zoned out when he was talking and then woke up when I realised he'd been talking about Hunt. It was great that Julia wasn't dead after all, but I can't help thinking that Renner's story could have been told so much better. I didn't hate the director Brad Bird on his first live-action film, but neither did I think much of him. There was the one shot of the glass tower in Dubai, when we fly towards it and see right over, but generally it was bland direction, I felt. Bring back John Woo! Or even Brian De Palma! I will say there was less shaky-cam than Abrams uses and the camera did take time over some shots, such as Ethan walking along as the fake Russian general, or when he was running full pelt at the camera (one thing that has to be in every 'M:I'!), but I was not impressed and the action scenes were still too juddery to appreciate what was going on, a disguise so that it seems more exciting, but fails.
What of the future?
It seems to me that they've set up this team as one that will continue, although I really hope not because part of 'M:I' is that it's supposed to be different team members each time, just as it's a different director and a different vision. If this is to be a series of Ghost Protocol films (bad name, should have stuck with 'M:I4'), in terms of continuity then I'm not hopeful that it will ever regain the verve and intelligence and style of the first two films. Will Hunt become the Jim Phelps figure which he seemed to take on here, and sit back while Renner does the stunts? Brandt assumes the 'position' seen in the three previous films, usually accompanied by a rope dangling a guy down, but this time a magnet holding his metal suit up and this could be seen as a symbolic gesture of passing the action man torch to him, which would be a real shame.
Cruise still does a lot of stunts, but they're more Bourne-like, flipping over a railing to get to the lower floor or using his belt to zip-wire down onto a moving van's roof and his role is too much about running the team. We don't even get to see a proper boss (not that I wanted Fishburne back - you wait five years to find out what the Rabbit's Foot was and they don't tell you!), except for Tom Wilkinson as the Secretary of State (who I'd assumed was the current head of IMF), who dies very quickly. No, they need to keep Ethan going, bring back Luther and get more people like him that we actually care about. But it will be Benji in 'M:I5' you can be sure. I expect it will be the others also, and that fills me with utter ambivalence. I won't be going to see a fifth film at the cinema, but I want the DVD to come out soon so I can see it again and reevaluate it and find out if it was just my first impression or whether it will still be disappointing.
**
What did I know about this film before I went in?
I tried to be aware of as few details as possible because I wanted to be surprised and impressed with what they came up with. Even so, I couldn't help reading or hearing the synopsis that the IMF was implicated in the bombing of the Kremlin and has to clear their name. I imagined this would have happened before the film started or maybe would launch the film, but it actually came a little way into the film.
I'd seen a clip of Ethan running down the side of a glass building, though I had only seen it imperfectly out of the corner of my eye, and I'd seen a few bits from the trailer which kept coming on TV - someone rolling away from either an exploding car or just falling to the ground in a cloud of dust (the sandstorm as it turned out). I'd seen and been mildly critical of Ethan in a tuxedo with the long hair from 'M:I2' which suited leather jackets and motorbikes, but not formal attire, but I had hopes that with the return of the long hair it would mean the film would, like 'M:I2,' be letting its hair down for a stylish thrill ride rather than a convoluted story. I knew Benji was to be in it, and from seeing the poster of the four of them I realised he was going to be one of the team. I was slightly worried that his character would be painfully irritating over the course of the film, but it wasn't so. Also in the poster the darker-skinned woman with shades on might, just might have been a return of Nyah from 'M:I2' although I didn't really believe that, it was just a far-fetched hope. I'd also seen a clip of Tom Wilkinson talking in the back of a car and imagined he'd be the current boss.
I'd found out rumours that Luther might have a very small role in the film, though he wouldn't be co-starring, and that Jeremy Renner, the up and coming action star, was set to take over the action scenes from Cruise. I heard that it was going to be a reboot and not have any connection with past adventures so there would be no mention of his wife, Julia. I'd also seen a picture of Hunt with goggles and gloves on, climbing a glass building with reflections either side of him, which looked fantastic.
With all these little hints and drips of information I was slightly excited about the film, and I never really get excited about new films any more. I was hoping, though not too hard, that it would be full of the hair-raising stunts, the brilliant twists and clever bluffs and double-bluffs that I love the film series for, I was especially on the lookout for how they were going to use the face masks in a new and innovative way and make the five year wait worthwhile.
What did I think of the film?
I don't think I'm ever going to love a new film again, and that knowledge is sad and frustrating. I wanted to love this film, I wanted it to be the film I could embrace and the film that didn't jiggle the camera around like JJ Abrams did in 'M:I3' and I wanted it to redeem the series after the third one fell a little more flat than I would have liked. But it didn't. The best I can say is that it made me appreciate 'M:I3' more and that's no compliment.
But first, how did it improve on the previous film?
The one major thing is that it's about something real, a physical, manifest threat, not a vague 'Rabbit's Foot' in a bottle. It is no less than the threat of nuclear destruction, and the plot of a madman to set the world afire. Another thing is that it doesn't deal with the mundane, everyday world that 'M:I3' dealt with. There are no parties of people just having fun (yes there's a party, but it's a full-on, lavish Indian party and there's a mission going on during it), there are no scenes of Ethan going to buy ice at the local convenience store, and no rubbishy disposable camera in which to get his mission briefing. The gadgets are generally first rate with some great ideas, my favourite being the screen projector that follows a target's eyes to fool them into thinking they're seeing the perspective of a corridor when actually Ethan and Benji are working away behind it. It has a few things I'd never seen before, such as the bullets speeding through the water after the car crash (which was the only time that made me jump, coming as it did after a long and boring conversation - whoops sorry, this is supposed to be the positive paragraph!), the climb up the massive glass tower (which at the time of viewing I didn't realise was the tallest building in the world), some good colour (mainly in the Dubai sequence), and crucially some links to continuity:
Luther Stickell does appear as he was rumoured to, albeit in a very brief scene reminiscent of the ending of the first film, and looking bizarrely younger than his last two appearances thanks to ditching the moustache! He was great, but he should have been in the film properly, but instead Simon Pegg's Benjamin Dunn took his role of back-up/computer expert/source of humour. Sad. Although I'd hoped Julia, Hunt's wife from the last film, would not be in this one because I didn't want it to become a spy soap, I also didn't want them to move on as if she never happened or it would completely undermine the third film since that all hinged on Hunt's love for his wife. Thankfully I was not disappointed and although I was sad that they had apparently fobbed her off with an offscreen death, at least she'd been mentioned. It became even better when it's revealed at the end that she did not in fact die (a key ingredient in the turmoil of Renner's character as he believed her death was due to his failure to protect her), but it was staged so she'd be safer, and she makes an appearance from a distance, though I was confused by it: did it mean that Hunt can never see or speak to his wife and that's why he looks slightly wistful at the end, or just at that moment he couldn't talk to her because of a mission? I also wasn't sure if it was indeed Michelle Monaghan back as Julia because I didn't see her name in the credits, but then I didn't see Ving Rhames' either so maybe the roles were too small to credit?
The other major link was the guy from the first film who Hunt meets up with to meet Max, the arms-dealer. As I saw this long-haired guy right after Hunt had lit another guy's cigarette, I thought how funny it was that he looked like the heavy from that film, and then he does look like him even more when Hunt goes up to him, then he pulls out a balaclava and I was excited! I thought they were going to bring in Vanessa Redgrave for a cameo, although that wouldn't have made sense because Hunt got her arrested so she'd hardly be friendly. So was it the same guy with the balaclava and the 'Max' arms dealer organisation was now run by the relation of Bogdan or was it supposed to just be an in-joke for the observant among us? Whatever the truth is, it was a summing up of the whole film for me: promising something, seeming to give it, then snatching it right back. That's how I felt.
I hate to say it, but I was almost never excited. Those that have claimed this is a thrill a minute, action scene after action scene showboat must be easily pleased. Or maybe I'm impossible to please (but this is 'Mission: Impossible' so it should seem more impossible). There was that moment with the balaclava, there was the car crash, and there was the building climb, but I wasn't thrilled, I wasn't worried about anybody's safety. Towards the end of the film the thought that they might kill off Hunt did cross my mind, just as it did in 'M:I3,' but if they hadn't earned the right to do it in that film, they certainly hadn't in this one so I was relieved that it didn't happen. Why was I on the verge of boredom for much of the first half? Have I seen everything that could ever impress me? Surely not, I can't believe this to be the case. So why wasn't I engaged and enthused? Partly I felt it was so underwhelming and partly it wasn't as clever as I was anticipating.
Like 'M:I3' before it I didn't care about the new characters of Agent Carter and Analyst Brandt. Benji was fine, but he wasn't the same character, out of necessity for the irritation factor, but there was no progression for him. He was a bonkers technician in '3' and now he's a fully paid up agent, speaks multiple languages, can handle a gun and wants to wear a mask. I didn't quite know how to react to him. I was glad he wasn't as annoying as I'd feared, yet I didn't warm to him. I was really hoping he wasn't going to be messing things up through the film, but one moment that was possibly the funniest for me was the brilliant mistake he makes with the aforementioned screen projector, getting his mug in frame so it fills the corridor and looking so surprised and horrified I couldn't help chuckling. Just thinking about it now makes me break out in a grin!
At least there weren't any of the team that I actively didn't like (whereas in '3' I didn't like the Irish guy), but neither did I warm to them at all. Carter was this impossibly cool agent that at least balanced the series out after all the useless female agents we've seen (I'm thinking primarily of the first film where two of them get killed so easily and another turns out to be evil), but we never got to know her properly and she seemed to have super-strength by all the ways she knocked around the big guys as she did. We're supposed to care because it was her boyfriend that was shot so unimpressively in the pre-credits sequence. I thought he was Jeremy Renner so was a bit confused, but what a let-down of an opening sequence. Does it compare to the other films' openings? Not even the low-key torture moment from '3'. It's a guy running out onto a roof and jumping onto an airbag then getting shot by a female assassin. And then you get the prison break - Ethan going against the plan to go back for his mate Bogdan should have been a super-cool heroic sequence, surviving by the skin of his teeth, but there's very little threat or precision in the prison doors opening and closing. At first I thought he was going back to help the prison guard who'd been attacked, but his humane character seems to have diminished in this film, although to be fair he didn't kill those people (Serbians was it?), who'd killed his wife, after all.
I was so sure Bogdan was going to be a major plot point later in the film and that he'd rip off his face and turn out to be someone else, but I was giving the writers far too much credit. The only time the essential ingredient of the masks was used was in the bad guy, Cobalt, pretending to be an underling. That Cobalt guy must really work out because Ethan could barely keep up with him in the sandstorm chase and when he fights for the case that can stop the nuclear missile inside that Indian car factory the old guy leaps around, beats up Ethan and dashes upstairs like a goat, belying his slightly podgy shape. He was a forgettable villain, and that goes for all of them too. He was a madman that wanted nuclear annihilation, he had people working for him, presumably for the same reason and apart from that he was pretty nondescript. Owen Davian in the last film was far superior, and as for the great Sean Ambrose in '2' he doesn't even come close to that intensity.
His underling was a similar nonentity, and as for the Russian Kremlin or police leader, whatever he was, he had no real story except for seeing Hunt and chasing him which left the scene at the end where there was supposed to be a meeting of the minds and showing how the US and Russia can still be friends against the common enemy of anarchic terrorism, fell flat - his character is just there throughout the film and has nothing about him to make us care in the slightest. There was also the female assassin whose character was only the extent that she was female and an assassin and liked diamonds. Why would she help Cobalt if she knew he was going to blow up the world for the next stage of evolution as he claimed? She wouldn't be alive to enjoy her diamonds - payment would be irrelevant. I don't want old-fashioned Bond-style female villains in my 'Mission: Impossible.' Keep her, but give her a character and a motive.
Maybe the series is getting too long in the tooth now and maybe they should have stopped at '3' (or even '2'), but the expectations of certain lines and visuals can only be fresh by going wrong it seems: the phone box in Russia where Hunt gets his briefing is supposed to self-destruct, but this time Hunt has to go back and hit it to make it work (a subtle dig at Russian technology or am I analysing too deeply?), which was funny to a degree, yet it was continued through the film making Ethan and his team look a little incompetent. The sticky gloves go wrong, but that's alright because it creates tension and I wanted Hunt to lose the other one too and show his free climbing skills as he did in '2.' The masks go wrong, paint spatters all over them and instead of the fantastic visual and plot twists of the other films they became a bit of a running joke. One that fell flat. Cobalt uses one to pretend to be his underling, but so what?
There were also moments that were supposed to be a bit dramatic and a bit funny such as the silly chase alongside the train carriage where the secret IMF cache is located. Hunt and Brandt have to run along typing in the code or using the retinal scan to get in, all the while dodging posts every few seconds. Did Carter and Benji not have CCTV and see them outside? There are always holes in these kinds of film, but you just have to go with it, although I think when Ethan drives the car off the ramp to crash into the floor at the end and it starts with no problem and has petrol in the tank, it would have been more exciting if he had to push it off and jump in. And nuclear annihilation prevented by dropping the missile in the drink? And Ethan going on about how they're now alone with no outside help - that's how the films always work!
I have to mention the musical score. They really should have got someone new to do it, and not stick with Giacchino who reuses some of his own score from '3' and although there is a new variation of the main theme I didn't particularly like it and it didn't get my blood pumping as it should. I was also disappointed that the theme didn't belt out during the action sequences which was something I really wanted for this film. And lose the Russian opera in the end credits and let's hear more of the theme please! I also wasn't taken with the montage, though I was very pleased they bothered with a credit sequence since so many films just start, in some cases (the Batman films), without even showing a title. I wanted a thrilling montage like the first film, but this wan't even as effective as '3'. I also must mention the shameless Apple product placement. I use Apple myself, but it's going to date this film like nothing else to see iPads, MacBooks and iPhones so blatantly used, the killer being the end sequence when Hunt hands out iPhones like Pick and Mix! I also hope the organisation mentioned at the end isn't a setup for the next film, because 'Casino Royale' did that and look how Ellipsis fizzled out.
Jeremy Renner. It seems like he's been set up to be the next Ethan Hunt (he's already taken the role of the next Jason Bourne), and while I didn't dislike him neither did he make an impression on me. I was ambivalent to him. I didn't care about him when he was an analyst, I wasn't gasping in amazement when he turned out to be this incredible ex-agent, and his most important connection with Ethan didn't even register at first as I zoned out when he was talking and then woke up when I realised he'd been talking about Hunt. It was great that Julia wasn't dead after all, but I can't help thinking that Renner's story could have been told so much better. I didn't hate the director Brad Bird on his first live-action film, but neither did I think much of him. There was the one shot of the glass tower in Dubai, when we fly towards it and see right over, but generally it was bland direction, I felt. Bring back John Woo! Or even Brian De Palma! I will say there was less shaky-cam than Abrams uses and the camera did take time over some shots, such as Ethan walking along as the fake Russian general, or when he was running full pelt at the camera (one thing that has to be in every 'M:I'!), but I was not impressed and the action scenes were still too juddery to appreciate what was going on, a disguise so that it seems more exciting, but fails.
What of the future?
It seems to me that they've set up this team as one that will continue, although I really hope not because part of 'M:I' is that it's supposed to be different team members each time, just as it's a different director and a different vision. If this is to be a series of Ghost Protocol films (bad name, should have stuck with 'M:I4'), in terms of continuity then I'm not hopeful that it will ever regain the verve and intelligence and style of the first two films. Will Hunt become the Jim Phelps figure which he seemed to take on here, and sit back while Renner does the stunts? Brandt assumes the 'position' seen in the three previous films, usually accompanied by a rope dangling a guy down, but this time a magnet holding his metal suit up and this could be seen as a symbolic gesture of passing the action man torch to him, which would be a real shame.
Cruise still does a lot of stunts, but they're more Bourne-like, flipping over a railing to get to the lower floor or using his belt to zip-wire down onto a moving van's roof and his role is too much about running the team. We don't even get to see a proper boss (not that I wanted Fishburne back - you wait five years to find out what the Rabbit's Foot was and they don't tell you!), except for Tom Wilkinson as the Secretary of State (who I'd assumed was the current head of IMF), who dies very quickly. No, they need to keep Ethan going, bring back Luther and get more people like him that we actually care about. But it will be Benji in 'M:I5' you can be sure. I expect it will be the others also, and that fills me with utter ambivalence. I won't be going to see a fifth film at the cinema, but I want the DVD to come out soon so I can see it again and reevaluate it and find out if it was just my first impression or whether it will still be disappointing.
**
Descent
DVD, TNG S6 (Descent)
It's not the cracking finish to the season that you'd hope for and maybe even expect. On paper the episode sounds faultless, it had all the ingredients for a strong end to a not-bad season with Data experiencing emotion (even though he'd lost the emotion chip to Lore back in Season 4 - a little clue there), the Borg attacking again and Picard put in the same situation as he was in 'I, Borg' by the uncompromising (or should that be compromised), Admiral Nechayev in one of her sternest moods. Surely it couldn't fail to be an exciting, action-packed conclusion? It has its moments, but it falls down on some major issues: the Borg, losing their teeth by this point in the series, to a point, the issues not really going anywhere, and too much talk, not enough action.
First, the Borg. With 'I, Borg' making the galaxy's most feared race into a cuddly ally, and on viewing that episode on this run-through I must admit to liking it more, despite the sad defanging, the race would have had to do something even greater than trying to destroy the centre of the Federation, Earth, to match up to previous appearances. Instead they're used for a far smaller, if effective, pre-credits cliffhanger. Attempting to destroy Earth. Jumping out from behind a door. See the difference in scale? It's not just that they've been reduced in motive (they do make up for it with Lore and Data telling us they plan to destroy the Federation), but they no longer have the same physical menace. Hiding behind a door fits perfectly with their old image - they were the scary monsters that wanted nothing more than to turn you into one of them, you could imagine in every dark corner. Now they can run, they can jump, they can leap athletically around and fire bursts of energy (like the phasers in 'Star Trek XI') - I don't watch horror films, but I imagine it's akin to zombies suddenly starting to run instead of their inevitable shambling towards their victim. There's no time for anticipation, no building of tension, just an action sequence.
I liked the action sequence, it was well done, there were Borg flying all over the place and bolts of green energy bursting across the screen, Data having a battle of strength with a Borg, then showing an uncharacteristic and worrying sign of pleasure at his conquest, right after losing his cool and showing how dangerous he could be to his enemies if he didn't have the cold restraining heart of an android to keep him reined in. All of that stuff is great, and a real surprise if you don't know it's coming. But almost all the shock value is used up in that short scene leaving the episode dry until the end, with only the worrying potential that Data could become angry and tear someone's head off to keep a measure of unease further into the episode. But it does diminish the Borg further from their unstoppable menace of 'Q Who' and 'The Best of Both Worlds' to have them acting so un-Borg-like, even while it throws up questions as to why they seem to have individuality.
I noticed the oddly shaped Borg ship (definitely not Queen sanctioned I'm sure as she always prefers proper shapes), was only on the viewscreen for a moment as if they didn't want viewers to think 'hey that looks vaguely Borg-like' and be surprised when the Away Team beams down to the station to be ambushed by the enemy. I also noticed a lot of recycling going on. There's often a degree of that in most episodes of 'TNG,' but in a big-budget end of season spectacular you don't expect it so much: the station looked suspiciously like a redress of the lab or room set deep in the belly of the Enterprise that's been seen occasionally, with its grille-like walls and multiple screens. The matte painting for the planet it was located on was also used in an episode this season, I think, and then there was the oft-seen shot of an Excelsior-class ship cruising alongside the Enterprise as the vessel which the Admiral came from, which was first seen back at the beginning of Season 2 or 3 and has definitely had its money's worth!
The second thing that prevents the episode from reaching a potential that can be clearly projected from the ingredients are the issues that are dealt with. The main ones are Data dealing with his mystery attack of emotion, and less obviously in Picard's discomfort over Admiral Nechayev's order that if he captures a Borg as he did with Hugh, he is to carry out the original plan of infecting it, sending it back to the collective and destroying the Borg once and for all. Data's confusion over his outburst is interesting, but not compelling, although it gives Troi something to do in an episode where otherwise you wouldn't expect a counsellor to feature much. In fact she gets more to do that Dr. Crusher, whom, although she's left to captain the Enterprise at the end, or examine the Borg (a scene later recalled in 'Voyager' episode 'Unity'), is almost absent from the episode in general. Troi's assertion that emotions aren't good or bad seemed baseless as jealousy and hatred don't seem to have any good side to them, but it was an interesting discussion. There was a small level of wondering if Data might go crazy and attack someone, as I mentioned before, but it's not enough to sustain the episode between Borg encounters.
Picard's issue with authority over the moral choice he made with Hugh isn't even properly addressed. He's clearly not happy with the Admiral's order, but seems to have come round to the same point of view as her that if the Federation is threatened all bets are off and they'll do anything to survive, even genocide if need be. It's not expressly stated that way, but he certainly doesn't react well to Crosis. Because Crosis uses his special emotion button to get Data onside we never find out how far Picard would have gone and if he really did regret making the moral decision with Hugh. The point is he couldn't have made any other decision, but this would have been a fascinating and deep look into the Federation's values: would they commit genocide to protect themselves? The question is mirrored in Crosis' question to Data: would he kill his best friend Geordi if he could experience emotion again?
Again, the question never has a chance to be addressed because we don't see Data and Geordi alone together. If there had been another scene in the Holodeck where Data was ruthlessly killing Borg and enjoying it thanks to Crosis' influence, and Geordi came in then, that would have sizzled with tension, but instead Data and Crosis escape without us even seeing them leave. They could have done something like in 'Brothers' where Data is circumventing every security measure and they simply can't stop him, but they wanted to keep the surprise of his helping Crosis until the end. But it shouldn't be a surprise to us because we already saw him being emotionally manipulated by Crosis.
So that's where the episode falls down: it tells instead of showing, and doesn't explore the issues fully, preferring instead to make it into a short-lived chase. There's not even the building atmosphere of threat so strongly exhibited in 'The Best of Both Worlds,' the Enterprise just flies around on patrol with the occasional false alarm. The threat level doesn't build to any degree of danger, even when the Borg ship swings around and comes in for an attack - it looses off a volley, leaves a couple of drones aboard and scarpers. It's good to have the transwarp conduits come into it at last, something 'Voyager' built heavily on (while getting caught in the transwarp wake was used excellently in 'Star Trek: First Contact'), and the Delta Quadrant connection is shown on a visual, but sadly there's no dialogue to confirm the Borg are going to or coming from that Quadrant. I'm not even sure we knew about their Delta Quadrant connection at this point, so it could have been spelt out better.
There are a few points of contention for me: why didn't the lights go out around the holding cell when the forcefield was taken down? Why didn't Picard sense the Borg at all? You'd think after being assimilated by them he'd instantly recognise even the hint of a Borg design. There is the line about the ship possibly not being built by them, but it certainly looks similar to their other vessels. The redshirt that goes down to the station in the teaser gets killed, but someone that looks just like her later appears on the bridge guarding the turbolift in the background. And why does Lore want to destroy the Federation anyway? You'd think he'd have some greater goal than revenge. Then again he is Lore, and not that intelligent or sensible, allowing his emotions to rule him. I thought Data's line about the Sons of Soong was a very good moniker however, and the ending was suitably exciting when a swarm of Borg rushes in on Picard and his team. I can't remember if the robotic hand logo had been used before, because if it had then it makes Picard looks awfully stupid. It's clearly a Borg hideout so why hang around to be caught?
There were some nice touches including Nechayev's ship being named as the Gorkon (after the Klingon leader of 'Star Trek VI'), it was pretty cool to see the shuttle on the planet's surface as that's not a common occurrence (though I could have done with a better shot of it sitting there with the Away Team around it like they sometimes did on 'Enterprise'). And long before 'TNG' magically becomes widescreen (surely it will happen one day), Picard gets to watch episodes in that aspect ratio thanks to his desktop monitor. Although technically he's watching it three hundred years in the future so by then every episode will be widescreen, 4D, smell-o-vision. But then the events of the episode only happened a few months ago for him, so the episodes must have gone back through time to get to us. It's all so confusing.
Even though the Borg had lost their teeth, and there's a slightly cheap feel in the way certain elements had been used before, and even though the issues that promised so much weren't properly examined… even with all these things I actually enjoyed it slightly more on this viewing. It may be because I've gotten over the way the Borg lost their power and am able to just take the episode for what it was, accepting the time it was made in, or perhaps I appreciated the nice look of the outdoor scenes, but for whatever reason I did warm to it a little more than I used to. It doesn't conclude the sixth season as well as the season deserved, but it's fine. It's enjoyable enough.
***
It's not the cracking finish to the season that you'd hope for and maybe even expect. On paper the episode sounds faultless, it had all the ingredients for a strong end to a not-bad season with Data experiencing emotion (even though he'd lost the emotion chip to Lore back in Season 4 - a little clue there), the Borg attacking again and Picard put in the same situation as he was in 'I, Borg' by the uncompromising (or should that be compromised), Admiral Nechayev in one of her sternest moods. Surely it couldn't fail to be an exciting, action-packed conclusion? It has its moments, but it falls down on some major issues: the Borg, losing their teeth by this point in the series, to a point, the issues not really going anywhere, and too much talk, not enough action.
First, the Borg. With 'I, Borg' making the galaxy's most feared race into a cuddly ally, and on viewing that episode on this run-through I must admit to liking it more, despite the sad defanging, the race would have had to do something even greater than trying to destroy the centre of the Federation, Earth, to match up to previous appearances. Instead they're used for a far smaller, if effective, pre-credits cliffhanger. Attempting to destroy Earth. Jumping out from behind a door. See the difference in scale? It's not just that they've been reduced in motive (they do make up for it with Lore and Data telling us they plan to destroy the Federation), but they no longer have the same physical menace. Hiding behind a door fits perfectly with their old image - they were the scary monsters that wanted nothing more than to turn you into one of them, you could imagine in every dark corner. Now they can run, they can jump, they can leap athletically around and fire bursts of energy (like the phasers in 'Star Trek XI') - I don't watch horror films, but I imagine it's akin to zombies suddenly starting to run instead of their inevitable shambling towards their victim. There's no time for anticipation, no building of tension, just an action sequence.
I liked the action sequence, it was well done, there were Borg flying all over the place and bolts of green energy bursting across the screen, Data having a battle of strength with a Borg, then showing an uncharacteristic and worrying sign of pleasure at his conquest, right after losing his cool and showing how dangerous he could be to his enemies if he didn't have the cold restraining heart of an android to keep him reined in. All of that stuff is great, and a real surprise if you don't know it's coming. But almost all the shock value is used up in that short scene leaving the episode dry until the end, with only the worrying potential that Data could become angry and tear someone's head off to keep a measure of unease further into the episode. But it does diminish the Borg further from their unstoppable menace of 'Q Who' and 'The Best of Both Worlds' to have them acting so un-Borg-like, even while it throws up questions as to why they seem to have individuality.
I noticed the oddly shaped Borg ship (definitely not Queen sanctioned I'm sure as she always prefers proper shapes), was only on the viewscreen for a moment as if they didn't want viewers to think 'hey that looks vaguely Borg-like' and be surprised when the Away Team beams down to the station to be ambushed by the enemy. I also noticed a lot of recycling going on. There's often a degree of that in most episodes of 'TNG,' but in a big-budget end of season spectacular you don't expect it so much: the station looked suspiciously like a redress of the lab or room set deep in the belly of the Enterprise that's been seen occasionally, with its grille-like walls and multiple screens. The matte painting for the planet it was located on was also used in an episode this season, I think, and then there was the oft-seen shot of an Excelsior-class ship cruising alongside the Enterprise as the vessel which the Admiral came from, which was first seen back at the beginning of Season 2 or 3 and has definitely had its money's worth!
The second thing that prevents the episode from reaching a potential that can be clearly projected from the ingredients are the issues that are dealt with. The main ones are Data dealing with his mystery attack of emotion, and less obviously in Picard's discomfort over Admiral Nechayev's order that if he captures a Borg as he did with Hugh, he is to carry out the original plan of infecting it, sending it back to the collective and destroying the Borg once and for all. Data's confusion over his outburst is interesting, but not compelling, although it gives Troi something to do in an episode where otherwise you wouldn't expect a counsellor to feature much. In fact she gets more to do that Dr. Crusher, whom, although she's left to captain the Enterprise at the end, or examine the Borg (a scene later recalled in 'Voyager' episode 'Unity'), is almost absent from the episode in general. Troi's assertion that emotions aren't good or bad seemed baseless as jealousy and hatred don't seem to have any good side to them, but it was an interesting discussion. There was a small level of wondering if Data might go crazy and attack someone, as I mentioned before, but it's not enough to sustain the episode between Borg encounters.
Picard's issue with authority over the moral choice he made with Hugh isn't even properly addressed. He's clearly not happy with the Admiral's order, but seems to have come round to the same point of view as her that if the Federation is threatened all bets are off and they'll do anything to survive, even genocide if need be. It's not expressly stated that way, but he certainly doesn't react well to Crosis. Because Crosis uses his special emotion button to get Data onside we never find out how far Picard would have gone and if he really did regret making the moral decision with Hugh. The point is he couldn't have made any other decision, but this would have been a fascinating and deep look into the Federation's values: would they commit genocide to protect themselves? The question is mirrored in Crosis' question to Data: would he kill his best friend Geordi if he could experience emotion again?
Again, the question never has a chance to be addressed because we don't see Data and Geordi alone together. If there had been another scene in the Holodeck where Data was ruthlessly killing Borg and enjoying it thanks to Crosis' influence, and Geordi came in then, that would have sizzled with tension, but instead Data and Crosis escape without us even seeing them leave. They could have done something like in 'Brothers' where Data is circumventing every security measure and they simply can't stop him, but they wanted to keep the surprise of his helping Crosis until the end. But it shouldn't be a surprise to us because we already saw him being emotionally manipulated by Crosis.
So that's where the episode falls down: it tells instead of showing, and doesn't explore the issues fully, preferring instead to make it into a short-lived chase. There's not even the building atmosphere of threat so strongly exhibited in 'The Best of Both Worlds,' the Enterprise just flies around on patrol with the occasional false alarm. The threat level doesn't build to any degree of danger, even when the Borg ship swings around and comes in for an attack - it looses off a volley, leaves a couple of drones aboard and scarpers. It's good to have the transwarp conduits come into it at last, something 'Voyager' built heavily on (while getting caught in the transwarp wake was used excellently in 'Star Trek: First Contact'), and the Delta Quadrant connection is shown on a visual, but sadly there's no dialogue to confirm the Borg are going to or coming from that Quadrant. I'm not even sure we knew about their Delta Quadrant connection at this point, so it could have been spelt out better.
There are a few points of contention for me: why didn't the lights go out around the holding cell when the forcefield was taken down? Why didn't Picard sense the Borg at all? You'd think after being assimilated by them he'd instantly recognise even the hint of a Borg design. There is the line about the ship possibly not being built by them, but it certainly looks similar to their other vessels. The redshirt that goes down to the station in the teaser gets killed, but someone that looks just like her later appears on the bridge guarding the turbolift in the background. And why does Lore want to destroy the Federation anyway? You'd think he'd have some greater goal than revenge. Then again he is Lore, and not that intelligent or sensible, allowing his emotions to rule him. I thought Data's line about the Sons of Soong was a very good moniker however, and the ending was suitably exciting when a swarm of Borg rushes in on Picard and his team. I can't remember if the robotic hand logo had been used before, because if it had then it makes Picard looks awfully stupid. It's clearly a Borg hideout so why hang around to be caught?
There were some nice touches including Nechayev's ship being named as the Gorkon (after the Klingon leader of 'Star Trek VI'), it was pretty cool to see the shuttle on the planet's surface as that's not a common occurrence (though I could have done with a better shot of it sitting there with the Away Team around it like they sometimes did on 'Enterprise'). And long before 'TNG' magically becomes widescreen (surely it will happen one day), Picard gets to watch episodes in that aspect ratio thanks to his desktop monitor. Although technically he's watching it three hundred years in the future so by then every episode will be widescreen, 4D, smell-o-vision. But then the events of the episode only happened a few months ago for him, so the episodes must have gone back through time to get to us. It's all so confusing.
Even though the Borg had lost their teeth, and there's a slightly cheap feel in the way certain elements had been used before, and even though the issues that promised so much weren't properly examined… even with all these things I actually enjoyed it slightly more on this viewing. It may be because I've gotten over the way the Borg lost their power and am able to just take the episode for what it was, accepting the time it was made in, or perhaps I appreciated the nice look of the outdoor scenes, but for whatever reason I did warm to it a little more than I used to. It doesn't conclude the sixth season as well as the season deserved, but it's fine. It's enjoyable enough.
***
Noir
DVD, Smallville S6 (Noir)
I like old films, so it was good fun to have a bit of Humphrey Bogart and even more fun to have a shift in style and go black and white, but, but, but… the noir story was so incredibly contrived, self-indulgent and completely pointless. You can cite the fact that it gave Jimmy the clue he needed to work out the crime in the real world, but why waste the majority of an episode with an unrelated fantasy simply to indulge the writers, actors and director? Because they had their fun the real story was crammed into the last few minutes with Lana admitting to Chloe that she's been working for Lionel against Lex, that she's been protecting Clark from Lionel, and then Chloe intimating the vague details to Clark himself when he pries into her lack of determination into getting to the bottom of who shot Lana. The story hasn't been moved along and in a series which is pretty much a serialised narrative it feels like a waste of time. If the noir thriller of Jimmy's dream had meant something, if there had been some clever explanation tying into the real world, if it wasn't all so aimless, I could have forgiven this.
At least Jimmy gets his episode. He may not be the most compelling character, and doesn't really work without Chloe around for us to care about, but it was a change. The episode seemed to be a tribute to the noir genre, but I wondered if it was also a nod to the original Superman TV series. I don't know enough about it to spot the clever references or know when bits were taken from films, but I did spot a few shots that looked a little too authentic in that they must have been actual clips from old films. It was great seeing Clark Kent as he used to be portrayed, and Welling seemed to be doing an impression of Christopher Reeve, even down to the jiggling of the glasses, which almost made up for the lack of direction, if only he'd been playing that character more. Once each of the characters had been introduced and some of them had no purpose in the story at all, the story became boring, a waiting game for a reason to care. At least make a tribute to the old classics in a good way, don't perpetuate the myth that they're all dull and interminable without any interest. The black and white stuff looked beautiful, but that wasn't enough to give this story reason to exist.
I imagine the writers came up with this as a fun late-season story to relax a bit before the big, important (and generally disappointing), build up to the finale. Instead the fun wasn't sustained and when it became clear there was going to be no rationale for having Jimmy knocked on the head and dream all this stuff, and he wakes up and we're back in the real story, it became a joke, the punchline being Jimmy pointing out how crazy the mind is to make up all that stuff about Lana working against her husband and Clark having a secret, crime-fighting identity, then Chloe just laughing along with him. I will say I enjoyed the moment Chloe falls over backwards and plummets down the stairwell at the Daily Planet only for Clark to catch her at the bottom, she having phoned him up shortly before, but it wasn't enough to make the episode worthwhile. It was a party the makers and artists were invited to, but sadly not the viewer.
**
I like old films, so it was good fun to have a bit of Humphrey Bogart and even more fun to have a shift in style and go black and white, but, but, but… the noir story was so incredibly contrived, self-indulgent and completely pointless. You can cite the fact that it gave Jimmy the clue he needed to work out the crime in the real world, but why waste the majority of an episode with an unrelated fantasy simply to indulge the writers, actors and director? Because they had their fun the real story was crammed into the last few minutes with Lana admitting to Chloe that she's been working for Lionel against Lex, that she's been protecting Clark from Lionel, and then Chloe intimating the vague details to Clark himself when he pries into her lack of determination into getting to the bottom of who shot Lana. The story hasn't been moved along and in a series which is pretty much a serialised narrative it feels like a waste of time. If the noir thriller of Jimmy's dream had meant something, if there had been some clever explanation tying into the real world, if it wasn't all so aimless, I could have forgiven this.
At least Jimmy gets his episode. He may not be the most compelling character, and doesn't really work without Chloe around for us to care about, but it was a change. The episode seemed to be a tribute to the noir genre, but I wondered if it was also a nod to the original Superman TV series. I don't know enough about it to spot the clever references or know when bits were taken from films, but I did spot a few shots that looked a little too authentic in that they must have been actual clips from old films. It was great seeing Clark Kent as he used to be portrayed, and Welling seemed to be doing an impression of Christopher Reeve, even down to the jiggling of the glasses, which almost made up for the lack of direction, if only he'd been playing that character more. Once each of the characters had been introduced and some of them had no purpose in the story at all, the story became boring, a waiting game for a reason to care. At least make a tribute to the old classics in a good way, don't perpetuate the myth that they're all dull and interminable without any interest. The black and white stuff looked beautiful, but that wasn't enough to give this story reason to exist.
I imagine the writers came up with this as a fun late-season story to relax a bit before the big, important (and generally disappointing), build up to the finale. Instead the fun wasn't sustained and when it became clear there was going to be no rationale for having Jimmy knocked on the head and dream all this stuff, and he wakes up and we're back in the real story, it became a joke, the punchline being Jimmy pointing out how crazy the mind is to make up all that stuff about Lana working against her husband and Clark having a secret, crime-fighting identity, then Chloe just laughing along with him. I will say I enjoyed the moment Chloe falls over backwards and plummets down the stairwell at the Daily Planet only for Clark to catch her at the bottom, she having phoned him up shortly before, but it wasn't enough to make the episode worthwhile. It was a party the makers and artists were invited to, but sadly not the viewer.
**
Endeavour
TV, Endeavour (2012), TV pilot
The only reason I'm writing about this at all is because of the wonderful ending when Thursday asks Morse where he sees himself in twenty years time and he looks in the car's rearview mirror and John Thaw's eyes stare back at him. A profound moment in an otherwise standard period detective episode. This is, if you haven't heard about it, a prequel to 'Inspector Morse,' the best known contemporary detective of them all. It shows his first case as a young man working with Thursday who I believe had been established in the parent series.
It's quite amazing that a detective series that ended twelve years ago should have two spinoffs going ('Lewis' is the other one), but it's a testament to the appeal of the characters. While I can't exactly imagine a 'Detective Hathaway' spinoff in twenty years, primarily what draws me to these programmes are the characters which are so well written. If you're wondering why I've given this pilot such a relatively low mark, I have to say that even 'Morse' wouldn't have rated particularly highly, except for the occasional story (such as 'Masonic Mysteries'), as I don't really watch them for the story or to work out what happened, why, how and who did it. I prefer 'A Touch of Frost' which is much more character-based, with less of the clue-finding and intellectual puzzling.
The period of this piece was achieved quite well and the lead did a good job as a young Morse, considering how difficult it must be to recreate the mannerisms of another actor (especially one so highly regarded as Thaw), and even more so to regress those mannerisms twenty years. He looked more like David Tennant than the famous detective, but he was fine and I'd be happy to see this become a series. Thursday was the biggest draw for me, taking the older Morse role while Morse was pretty much in the Lewis role. Thursday had a lot of depth to him, he looked like he could be a great man to watch and guide the young Morse, moulding him into the man he became.
One thing the episode was lacking was in beautiful environments, something 'Lewis' has taken to a fine art, and which the original 'Morse' also tended towards. If they do more I hope they pay as much attention to the landscape as the period detail. And I certainly would watch more 'Endeavour,' though if it came down to a choice between this and 'Lewis' I'd go for the latter because it's more established, and again, while the stories don't pull me in, the music, environment and characters do the job nicely.
**
The only reason I'm writing about this at all is because of the wonderful ending when Thursday asks Morse where he sees himself in twenty years time and he looks in the car's rearview mirror and John Thaw's eyes stare back at him. A profound moment in an otherwise standard period detective episode. This is, if you haven't heard about it, a prequel to 'Inspector Morse,' the best known contemporary detective of them all. It shows his first case as a young man working with Thursday who I believe had been established in the parent series.
It's quite amazing that a detective series that ended twelve years ago should have two spinoffs going ('Lewis' is the other one), but it's a testament to the appeal of the characters. While I can't exactly imagine a 'Detective Hathaway' spinoff in twenty years, primarily what draws me to these programmes are the characters which are so well written. If you're wondering why I've given this pilot such a relatively low mark, I have to say that even 'Morse' wouldn't have rated particularly highly, except for the occasional story (such as 'Masonic Mysteries'), as I don't really watch them for the story or to work out what happened, why, how and who did it. I prefer 'A Touch of Frost' which is much more character-based, with less of the clue-finding and intellectual puzzling.
The period of this piece was achieved quite well and the lead did a good job as a young Morse, considering how difficult it must be to recreate the mannerisms of another actor (especially one so highly regarded as Thaw), and even more so to regress those mannerisms twenty years. He looked more like David Tennant than the famous detective, but he was fine and I'd be happy to see this become a series. Thursday was the biggest draw for me, taking the older Morse role while Morse was pretty much in the Lewis role. Thursday had a lot of depth to him, he looked like he could be a great man to watch and guide the young Morse, moulding him into the man he became.
One thing the episode was lacking was in beautiful environments, something 'Lewis' has taken to a fine art, and which the original 'Morse' also tended towards. If they do more I hope they pay as much attention to the landscape as the period detail. And I certainly would watch more 'Endeavour,' though if it came down to a choice between this and 'Lewis' I'd go for the latter because it's more established, and again, while the stories don't pull me in, the music, environment and characters do the job nicely.
**
Mission: Impossible
DVD, Mission: Impossible (1996), film
This film was not my first encounter with 'Mission: Impossible,' I'd seen bits and pieces of the occasional episode and had a general idea of what it was about, but 'M:I2' was the first film in the series I actually saw and it blew me away with itself. It's a tribute to the quality of this first film in the series that watching it on video after seeing the sequel at the cinema was almost as powerful an experience. It was also a deeply confusing experience and is possibly the only time I watched a film twice in two days because there was so much I didn't understand. Even now I don't quite grasp every detail (how the Bible was the 'great' clue about Phelps still doesn't penetrate my skull), and this is one of the films I've seen the most, along with 'Star Trek: Generations' and the original 'Star Wars' trilogy (the first Special Editions of the late '90s to be exact - it's important to stake out your territory when it comes to 'Star Wars'!). I wouldn't say it stands up to repeated viewings quite as well as those films, but it's very close and proves that the 'M:I' series wasn't like most trilogies in that two out of the three are fantastic, with only one being merely enjoyable. I await the fourth film in great excitement, something I rarely experience now.
Watching the previous films in preparation for the new one is the reason why I happen to be reviewing or commenting, and I have to say I really did enjoy it all over again. For one thing, I haven't seen it on widescreen DVD as much as fullscreen video, and the proper ratio does produce a more cinematic experience. It stood out for me in such scenes as Ethan's meeting with 'Max' - he's seated at one end of the screen, she's at the other with the dark coat of a henchman in between. I wonder what that scene looks like on video, but I bet it's not as well framed. One scene that actually lost a little of its power in my eyes with the move to DVD was when Ethan is being interrogated by Kitridge (a character I would have loved to have seen again in subsequent films). He pulls his hands over his hair in the midst of the tension as he's accused of being the mole, but in the widescreen version you don't see so much of his head and I think it doesn't have the same impact as the fullscreen version. This may simply be an error of memory and for the rest of the film widescreen was absolutely the best way to see it.
I'm not going to note down every inconsistency or odd thing I noticed or this will end up like my 'Star Trek: Generations' review which ran to three long entries, but there are a few that stand out: one is that much of the plans in this film rely heavily on no one interfering and nothing going wrong. Another is the ridiculousness of having a high-security room which requires a key code, a passkey and a retinal scan to enter, all so some guy (we'll call him William Donloe), can tap in some stuff on his terminal. Not to mention that there's an extremely low-security room right next door with access to the air-con system which is big enough for a large grown man to crawl around in, and the noise this man and his smaller leader (we'll call him Ethan Hunt), can make is never heard. Let alone that there are rats running free in there! I bet Donloe was a terrible nuisance to the rest of the building, constantly setting off his alarm, and when you look at it like that you realise Kitridge's bitter dismissal of him is more understandable than a single breach of security.
Why does that woman (we'll call her that woman), walk right into the knife of the enemy when she's seen him stab the other guy to death? The square holes in the gate are so small that she needed to be right up close against it for him to stab her. I guess he deliberately left the knife so Ethan's prints would be on it (all adding up to framing him as the mole), but he must have a whole set of identical knives since he also loses one in Donloe's office in what is one of the moments I find funniest: the poor guy walks in and finds this knife stuck in his desk and doesn't have a clue how it got there. That whole break-in sequence was so wonderfully executed, the acrobatics, the tension, the setup for the story, it was all beautifully done, and is only rivalled by the Biocyte break-in of 'M:I2' or the whole island sequence (from Hunt climbing up the rocks at the back to the motorbike chase out of there), also of that film.
The train sequence still thrills to this day, who would have thought a train could play host to such strong action scenes? I still can't tell what's real and what's not. They can't have flown a helicopter into that tunnel the way they did, certainly the stuff inside must have been done on a stage, but the outside sequence with Cruise's face rippling in the intense speed on top of the train's roof looks real to me. I remember being so confused about whether it was Phelps or Kitridge who was the real baddie, mainly thanks to Cruise's mumbling in the scene where he meets up with Phelps and goes over what must have happened in his mind. They're talking about Kitridge, but he's seeing Phelps and I wasn't sure if Phelps was confessing or not. Then we see Job on the train without revealing his face, and he's wearing the same coat as Kitridge. That was the first time I saw it, not now.
I like that they had Ethan go to London, even though it wasn't as definitively England as in 'The Bourne Ultimatum,' and it could well have been a fabrication, but it puts the characters and some of the story in my country and that's great! I wonder if Clare's marriage to Jim had been part of the plan to get rich from the start so that they never really wanted to marry, but were colleagues planning this audacious plot against the IMF. She was much younger than Phelps and they didn't seem to care too much about each other. I guess he shot her for using her charms on Ethan, but their pairing never worked for me. It's a shame that ten million looks so inconsequential in bearer's bonds or whatever the paper was as it seems like almost an aside to the story.
The technology of the day doesn't bother me - there's something claustrophobic about using a phone box that couldn't have been achieved with a mobile phone (unless he went and hid in a cupboard to make the call), because he's dazzled by the light inside, yet he's lit up for anyone miles around to see, which makes his desperation even more true. I don't like it when he puts the little bug device in his mouth though - I imagine it's been used in public phones before. I only hope he cleans his equipment thoroughly after use! Bulky computers aren't too awful either as you get swept along in the story.
I felt Luther was used quite well, and a real friendship springs up between Ethan and he, one that was capitalised on in the second film and almost abandoned in the third. What wasn't played up in the sequels was Luther's genius hacking ability, which is kind of swept under the carpet with each subsequent film. It's amazing how young Ving Rhames looks, but his was such a good character, and I especially love the informal ending with music playing out of the building behind them, and a hopeful mood of going separate ways to live new lives. I also like the insight into Ethan's character, his Dad died from cancer, his Mum and Uncle Donald are embroiled in the plot, if only distantly, and I'd have liked to have learnt more about him over the course of the films.
Of course they are primarily action thrillers, not character pieces and the point of the TV series was that each story was different in style and tone, even with different characters with different skills and that certainly carried on into the other films. This may not have been where one of my favourite film series' started for me, but I can appreciate it just as much. I never had a connection to the 'franchise' before the films so I wasn't bothered at all that hero Jim Phelps could be turned into a nasty villain. It was a subversive film in some ways, setting up the audience to believe they were going to get what they expected: a likeable team of people pulling off daring escapades against enemies of the state. Instead it broke the mould, pushed the envelope, shocked and surprised, and that spiral of uncertainty, events out of control, only makes Hunt's victories the sweeter. The Bourne films may have taken the reigns of the cinema thanks to shorter delays between the films, and Bond remains a roller-coaster of quality, but this started the 'M:I' films on the best road and remains a greatly enjoyable, even tense watch that I'd recommend to anyone.
****
This film was not my first encounter with 'Mission: Impossible,' I'd seen bits and pieces of the occasional episode and had a general idea of what it was about, but 'M:I2' was the first film in the series I actually saw and it blew me away with itself. It's a tribute to the quality of this first film in the series that watching it on video after seeing the sequel at the cinema was almost as powerful an experience. It was also a deeply confusing experience and is possibly the only time I watched a film twice in two days because there was so much I didn't understand. Even now I don't quite grasp every detail (how the Bible was the 'great' clue about Phelps still doesn't penetrate my skull), and this is one of the films I've seen the most, along with 'Star Trek: Generations' and the original 'Star Wars' trilogy (the first Special Editions of the late '90s to be exact - it's important to stake out your territory when it comes to 'Star Wars'!). I wouldn't say it stands up to repeated viewings quite as well as those films, but it's very close and proves that the 'M:I' series wasn't like most trilogies in that two out of the three are fantastic, with only one being merely enjoyable. I await the fourth film in great excitement, something I rarely experience now.
Watching the previous films in preparation for the new one is the reason why I happen to be reviewing or commenting, and I have to say I really did enjoy it all over again. For one thing, I haven't seen it on widescreen DVD as much as fullscreen video, and the proper ratio does produce a more cinematic experience. It stood out for me in such scenes as Ethan's meeting with 'Max' - he's seated at one end of the screen, she's at the other with the dark coat of a henchman in between. I wonder what that scene looks like on video, but I bet it's not as well framed. One scene that actually lost a little of its power in my eyes with the move to DVD was when Ethan is being interrogated by Kitridge (a character I would have loved to have seen again in subsequent films). He pulls his hands over his hair in the midst of the tension as he's accused of being the mole, but in the widescreen version you don't see so much of his head and I think it doesn't have the same impact as the fullscreen version. This may simply be an error of memory and for the rest of the film widescreen was absolutely the best way to see it.
I'm not going to note down every inconsistency or odd thing I noticed or this will end up like my 'Star Trek: Generations' review which ran to three long entries, but there are a few that stand out: one is that much of the plans in this film rely heavily on no one interfering and nothing going wrong. Another is the ridiculousness of having a high-security room which requires a key code, a passkey and a retinal scan to enter, all so some guy (we'll call him William Donloe), can tap in some stuff on his terminal. Not to mention that there's an extremely low-security room right next door with access to the air-con system which is big enough for a large grown man to crawl around in, and the noise this man and his smaller leader (we'll call him Ethan Hunt), can make is never heard. Let alone that there are rats running free in there! I bet Donloe was a terrible nuisance to the rest of the building, constantly setting off his alarm, and when you look at it like that you realise Kitridge's bitter dismissal of him is more understandable than a single breach of security.
Why does that woman (we'll call her that woman), walk right into the knife of the enemy when she's seen him stab the other guy to death? The square holes in the gate are so small that she needed to be right up close against it for him to stab her. I guess he deliberately left the knife so Ethan's prints would be on it (all adding up to framing him as the mole), but he must have a whole set of identical knives since he also loses one in Donloe's office in what is one of the moments I find funniest: the poor guy walks in and finds this knife stuck in his desk and doesn't have a clue how it got there. That whole break-in sequence was so wonderfully executed, the acrobatics, the tension, the setup for the story, it was all beautifully done, and is only rivalled by the Biocyte break-in of 'M:I2' or the whole island sequence (from Hunt climbing up the rocks at the back to the motorbike chase out of there), also of that film.
The train sequence still thrills to this day, who would have thought a train could play host to such strong action scenes? I still can't tell what's real and what's not. They can't have flown a helicopter into that tunnel the way they did, certainly the stuff inside must have been done on a stage, but the outside sequence with Cruise's face rippling in the intense speed on top of the train's roof looks real to me. I remember being so confused about whether it was Phelps or Kitridge who was the real baddie, mainly thanks to Cruise's mumbling in the scene where he meets up with Phelps and goes over what must have happened in his mind. They're talking about Kitridge, but he's seeing Phelps and I wasn't sure if Phelps was confessing or not. Then we see Job on the train without revealing his face, and he's wearing the same coat as Kitridge. That was the first time I saw it, not now.
I like that they had Ethan go to London, even though it wasn't as definitively England as in 'The Bourne Ultimatum,' and it could well have been a fabrication, but it puts the characters and some of the story in my country and that's great! I wonder if Clare's marriage to Jim had been part of the plan to get rich from the start so that they never really wanted to marry, but were colleagues planning this audacious plot against the IMF. She was much younger than Phelps and they didn't seem to care too much about each other. I guess he shot her for using her charms on Ethan, but their pairing never worked for me. It's a shame that ten million looks so inconsequential in bearer's bonds or whatever the paper was as it seems like almost an aside to the story.
The technology of the day doesn't bother me - there's something claustrophobic about using a phone box that couldn't have been achieved with a mobile phone (unless he went and hid in a cupboard to make the call), because he's dazzled by the light inside, yet he's lit up for anyone miles around to see, which makes his desperation even more true. I don't like it when he puts the little bug device in his mouth though - I imagine it's been used in public phones before. I only hope he cleans his equipment thoroughly after use! Bulky computers aren't too awful either as you get swept along in the story.
I felt Luther was used quite well, and a real friendship springs up between Ethan and he, one that was capitalised on in the second film and almost abandoned in the third. What wasn't played up in the sequels was Luther's genius hacking ability, which is kind of swept under the carpet with each subsequent film. It's amazing how young Ving Rhames looks, but his was such a good character, and I especially love the informal ending with music playing out of the building behind them, and a hopeful mood of going separate ways to live new lives. I also like the insight into Ethan's character, his Dad died from cancer, his Mum and Uncle Donald are embroiled in the plot, if only distantly, and I'd have liked to have learnt more about him over the course of the films.
Of course they are primarily action thrillers, not character pieces and the point of the TV series was that each story was different in style and tone, even with different characters with different skills and that certainly carried on into the other films. This may not have been where one of my favourite film series' started for me, but I can appreciate it just as much. I never had a connection to the 'franchise' before the films so I wasn't bothered at all that hero Jim Phelps could be turned into a nasty villain. It was a subversive film in some ways, setting up the audience to believe they were going to get what they expected: a likeable team of people pulling off daring escapades against enemies of the state. Instead it broke the mould, pushed the envelope, shocked and surprised, and that spiral of uncertainty, events out of control, only makes Hunt's victories the sweeter. The Bourne films may have taken the reigns of the cinema thanks to shorter delays between the films, and Bond remains a roller-coaster of quality, but this started the 'M:I' films on the best road and remains a greatly enjoyable, even tense watch that I'd recommend to anyone.
****
Retrogaming Review of The Year 2011
Retrogaming Review of The Year 2011
While the world becomes ever more enamoured with 3D, HD and any other expensive D's, I find myself drawn back to the games of the past, which in gaming means anything that came out before today, but for me means a little further back. I've picked out the main games that stick in my memory, so anything I played and forgot about probably wasn't worth making a note of, although some of what I do remember wasn't great! The ratings don't necessarily reflect the games as a whole, just the amount of enjoyment I felt I got out of them. So on with the list!
January - March: Metroid Prime 2: Echoes (2004, GameCube) - It's a Nintendo classic, and having completed the first one a few years ago I knew I wouldn't be disappointed. This game started me off this year and was perfect for the dark months, travelling into deep places alone with only my arm cannon for company - it was certainly the most atmospheric game I played all year. I only got properly stuck once and embarrassingly it was a result of not having understood the map icons correctly, but it was certainly worth playing for the first time, even so many years after release. ****
January - December: UFO: Enemy Unknown (1993, Amiga 1200) - The game I always play, every Sunday, like a ritual, so this year wasn't going to be any different. It's anyone's bet as to which will fail first: the monitor, the discs or the disc drive, but I had surprisingly few problems with my Amiga this year. It's a steady contender, not flashy or special, but a workhorse of a game that I feel incomplete without at least dipping into once a week. ***
March - May: Enter The Matrix (2003, GameCube) - I kind of knew what I was getting into when I bought this and it lived up to the positives written about it (the Bullet Time is impressive), as well as the negatives (dull to look at and a bit boring). It was one of those games I felt I had to finish even though I had no desire to get back to it. I got to the end of Niobe's story, but had no wish to return and play through Ghost's side of it. I sum it up by saying I bought it cheaply, played it, and sold it cheaply. *
March - May: Smuggler's Run (2002, GameCube) - A game suited to the lighter months thanks to its outdoor environments and fast gameplay, it reminded me of one of the bonus games on 'Excitebike 64' and it had enough fun to last a while, including a multiplayer, when I could get someone else to join in. Racing towards a distant plume of yellow smoke has never been more exhilarating. ***
May - August: Knockout Kings 2003 (2002, GameCube) - I mention this only in passing as it was a game I bought, played for a while and haven't gone back to. It's my own fault, as I don't really like fighting games, but I'd hoped this would be different enough, and it was, but not enough for me to play in depth and completely. **
May - December: Boxikon (2003, MacBook Pro) - A new Mac this year made me dig out my old cover CD's and look for games to play on it, and this free trial version was the one real find. It's a simple puzzle game, a bit like 'Tetris,' but more fun, and involves placing shapes on a square board to complete a line which then vanishes. I keep meaning to buy the full version, but as yet the trial has kept me entertained enough on its own. ***
June - July: V-Rally '64 (1998, N64) - The reviews and comments on this game made it sound like one of the biggest racing challenges of its day. While I would agree it was a tough game thanks to tight time limits and an unforgiving environment that meant clipping the side of the track made you spin out violently, and difficult handling, once I got the hang of it, I was able to complete everything in the game. The main thing was that I had a great time doing it and a real sense of achievement when each track and cup fell to me, and that level of satisfaction I haven't felt for quite a while. ****
June - July: Alien Breed II (1993, Amiga 1200) - I know I wasn't going to include games I'd forgotten about, but I have to mention this tough old nut to crack, which I finally triumphed over. The last months of 2010 had put me back in touch with Amiga games on the biggest scale for years so I went through the games I had to hand and this happened to be one that worked and that I could now use the CD32 controller on, which made a difference and gave me the impetus to complete it. It only took 10-15 years, but I finally did it! A bit like 'Enter The Matrix' it was something I needed to finish, and it was tough, but I never regretted spending time on it. **
September: Age of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties (2008, MacBook Pro) - I mention this only in passing because I wanted it, I played the first mission and then I got bored with it and never went back. Ironically this was the most contemporary game I played this year! *
September - October: The Settlers (1993, Amiga 1200) - This took up a good portion of last summer, and when I fitted a Hard Drive to my trusty Amiga I planned to gorge myself on a massive size 8 world, but never got around to it until it was too late and the Hard Drive broke down. This put me off playing what is probably my number 1 game of all time until this autumn when I got over my disappointment of having to remain satisfied with a size 5 world and just went for it. I didn't regret it and had plenty of enjoyment from this ancient game. ****
October - December: Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings (2001, MacBook Pro/ Powerbook) - After my Powerbook's DVD drive went kaput this year I thought I'd never be able to play the first two 'Age of Empires' games again (short of getting an expensive replacement drive), when I found my brand new Macbook didn't like them either (even though 'A of E II' is for OSX). Since both these games would probably rank in my Top 5 Games of All Time it was very disappointing. Until… towards the end of the year I found a patch that made 'A of E II' work on the MacBook, and while I love the original, 'A of E II' is superior, so I was overjoyed to be able to play it again. Not only that, but for the first time I was able to play link-up with my Powerbook which was beautiful. Not since before I sold my old PowerMac have I been able to play any 'Age of Empires' against a human opponent, and back then the PowerMac couldn't cope with 'A of E II' so this has given the game a new lease of life. Now I just need to work out why I can't save multiplayer games… ****
December: Perfect Dark 64 (2000, N64) - All year I had it in mind to get back to playing the single player game, but never got around to it, and just before Christmas I had a hankering for the old game. I also felt I ought to brush up my skills in case the multiplayer was required over Christmas so I played against the Simulants while listening to podcasts and I have to say I felt it was a limited game and so many of the problems haunted me: the slapping, the lack of intermediate AI (they're either rubbish or they don't miss), the missing game options (where's the one to give each player a set number of lives?), that I realised things have moved on since then. The game was fantastic when it came out, but with hindsight the cracks show much more. Saying that, it was still good to play, but it didn't encourage me to replay the single player. **
Next Year - What am I planning to play in 2012? Will I relent and buy an XBox or a Wii? I doubt it. Gaming still doesn't capture my imagination in the way it once did, and, as can be seen by the number of DVD episode reviews compared with game reviews on this blog, I continue to enjoy watching things more than playing them these days. But I will certainly be allowing some time for games:
- I really ought to get going on 'Asian Dynasties' as I don't want to waste it, even though it is a more restricted gaming experience than 'A of E II.'
- Talking of which, now I can play that again I might play through some of the campaigns on the hardest difficulty level.
- I've had 'Advance Wars' hanging around on my Game Boy Advance for several years now and never got into it. Maybe 2012 is the place to try?
- I've also had 'Star Wars: The Clone Wars,' 'X-Men Legends II' and 'Sonic Mega Collection' (all on 'Cube) for almost two years without really delving in.
- But enough about what I 'ought' to be playing, gaming is supposed to be fun, and I don't want to fall into the old trap of playing everything to completion even when the enjoyment factor has dropped near '0' so here are some games I'd really like to try on 'Cube: 'Dakar 2,' 'Mission: Impossible Operation Surma,' 'Starsky & Hutch' and 'Beyond Good and Evil.'
Happy New Year!
While the world becomes ever more enamoured with 3D, HD and any other expensive D's, I find myself drawn back to the games of the past, which in gaming means anything that came out before today, but for me means a little further back. I've picked out the main games that stick in my memory, so anything I played and forgot about probably wasn't worth making a note of, although some of what I do remember wasn't great! The ratings don't necessarily reflect the games as a whole, just the amount of enjoyment I felt I got out of them. So on with the list!
January - March: Metroid Prime 2: Echoes (2004, GameCube) - It's a Nintendo classic, and having completed the first one a few years ago I knew I wouldn't be disappointed. This game started me off this year and was perfect for the dark months, travelling into deep places alone with only my arm cannon for company - it was certainly the most atmospheric game I played all year. I only got properly stuck once and embarrassingly it was a result of not having understood the map icons correctly, but it was certainly worth playing for the first time, even so many years after release. ****
January - December: UFO: Enemy Unknown (1993, Amiga 1200) - The game I always play, every Sunday, like a ritual, so this year wasn't going to be any different. It's anyone's bet as to which will fail first: the monitor, the discs or the disc drive, but I had surprisingly few problems with my Amiga this year. It's a steady contender, not flashy or special, but a workhorse of a game that I feel incomplete without at least dipping into once a week. ***
March - May: Enter The Matrix (2003, GameCube) - I kind of knew what I was getting into when I bought this and it lived up to the positives written about it (the Bullet Time is impressive), as well as the negatives (dull to look at and a bit boring). It was one of those games I felt I had to finish even though I had no desire to get back to it. I got to the end of Niobe's story, but had no wish to return and play through Ghost's side of it. I sum it up by saying I bought it cheaply, played it, and sold it cheaply. *
March - May: Smuggler's Run (2002, GameCube) - A game suited to the lighter months thanks to its outdoor environments and fast gameplay, it reminded me of one of the bonus games on 'Excitebike 64' and it had enough fun to last a while, including a multiplayer, when I could get someone else to join in. Racing towards a distant plume of yellow smoke has never been more exhilarating. ***
May - August: Knockout Kings 2003 (2002, GameCube) - I mention this only in passing as it was a game I bought, played for a while and haven't gone back to. It's my own fault, as I don't really like fighting games, but I'd hoped this would be different enough, and it was, but not enough for me to play in depth and completely. **
May - December: Boxikon (2003, MacBook Pro) - A new Mac this year made me dig out my old cover CD's and look for games to play on it, and this free trial version was the one real find. It's a simple puzzle game, a bit like 'Tetris,' but more fun, and involves placing shapes on a square board to complete a line which then vanishes. I keep meaning to buy the full version, but as yet the trial has kept me entertained enough on its own. ***
June - July: V-Rally '64 (1998, N64) - The reviews and comments on this game made it sound like one of the biggest racing challenges of its day. While I would agree it was a tough game thanks to tight time limits and an unforgiving environment that meant clipping the side of the track made you spin out violently, and difficult handling, once I got the hang of it, I was able to complete everything in the game. The main thing was that I had a great time doing it and a real sense of achievement when each track and cup fell to me, and that level of satisfaction I haven't felt for quite a while. ****
June - July: Alien Breed II (1993, Amiga 1200) - I know I wasn't going to include games I'd forgotten about, but I have to mention this tough old nut to crack, which I finally triumphed over. The last months of 2010 had put me back in touch with Amiga games on the biggest scale for years so I went through the games I had to hand and this happened to be one that worked and that I could now use the CD32 controller on, which made a difference and gave me the impetus to complete it. It only took 10-15 years, but I finally did it! A bit like 'Enter The Matrix' it was something I needed to finish, and it was tough, but I never regretted spending time on it. **
September: Age of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties (2008, MacBook Pro) - I mention this only in passing because I wanted it, I played the first mission and then I got bored with it and never went back. Ironically this was the most contemporary game I played this year! *
September - October: The Settlers (1993, Amiga 1200) - This took up a good portion of last summer, and when I fitted a Hard Drive to my trusty Amiga I planned to gorge myself on a massive size 8 world, but never got around to it until it was too late and the Hard Drive broke down. This put me off playing what is probably my number 1 game of all time until this autumn when I got over my disappointment of having to remain satisfied with a size 5 world and just went for it. I didn't regret it and had plenty of enjoyment from this ancient game. ****
October - December: Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings (2001, MacBook Pro/ Powerbook) - After my Powerbook's DVD drive went kaput this year I thought I'd never be able to play the first two 'Age of Empires' games again (short of getting an expensive replacement drive), when I found my brand new Macbook didn't like them either (even though 'A of E II' is for OSX). Since both these games would probably rank in my Top 5 Games of All Time it was very disappointing. Until… towards the end of the year I found a patch that made 'A of E II' work on the MacBook, and while I love the original, 'A of E II' is superior, so I was overjoyed to be able to play it again. Not only that, but for the first time I was able to play link-up with my Powerbook which was beautiful. Not since before I sold my old PowerMac have I been able to play any 'Age of Empires' against a human opponent, and back then the PowerMac couldn't cope with 'A of E II' so this has given the game a new lease of life. Now I just need to work out why I can't save multiplayer games… ****
December: Perfect Dark 64 (2000, N64) - All year I had it in mind to get back to playing the single player game, but never got around to it, and just before Christmas I had a hankering for the old game. I also felt I ought to brush up my skills in case the multiplayer was required over Christmas so I played against the Simulants while listening to podcasts and I have to say I felt it was a limited game and so many of the problems haunted me: the slapping, the lack of intermediate AI (they're either rubbish or they don't miss), the missing game options (where's the one to give each player a set number of lives?), that I realised things have moved on since then. The game was fantastic when it came out, but with hindsight the cracks show much more. Saying that, it was still good to play, but it didn't encourage me to replay the single player. **
Next Year - What am I planning to play in 2012? Will I relent and buy an XBox or a Wii? I doubt it. Gaming still doesn't capture my imagination in the way it once did, and, as can be seen by the number of DVD episode reviews compared with game reviews on this blog, I continue to enjoy watching things more than playing them these days. But I will certainly be allowing some time for games:
- I really ought to get going on 'Asian Dynasties' as I don't want to waste it, even though it is a more restricted gaming experience than 'A of E II.'
- Talking of which, now I can play that again I might play through some of the campaigns on the hardest difficulty level.
- I've had 'Advance Wars' hanging around on my Game Boy Advance for several years now and never got into it. Maybe 2012 is the place to try?
- I've also had 'Star Wars: The Clone Wars,' 'X-Men Legends II' and 'Sonic Mega Collection' (all on 'Cube) for almost two years without really delving in.
- But enough about what I 'ought' to be playing, gaming is supposed to be fun, and I don't want to fall into the old trap of playing everything to completion even when the enjoyment factor has dropped near '0' so here are some games I'd really like to try on 'Cube: 'Dakar 2,' 'Mission: Impossible Operation Surma,' 'Starsky & Hutch' and 'Beyond Good and Evil.'
Happy New Year!
Death Ride
DVD, Starsky & Hutch S1 (Death Ride)
Each new episode brings more pictures to the title sequence, this time featuring a shot of Starsky from a future episode ('Pariah,' I think). The series itself continued to play to its strengths with this action-packed chase story with S&H having to stay out of contact thanks to a leak in the department (yes, another one!), forcing them to return to their previous motto, that they can only really rely on each other. That's not quite true, as we get scenes of Captain Dobey anxiously rueing his decision not to tell them the truth about their mission (although we don't realise that is motivating his outbursts at the time), and he seems much more caring about his men than we've yet seen. We also see what would become another running theme when S&H get angry at the police outsider who comes in and tells them what to do, and Dobey too gets annoyed by this man giving his men orders in his own office. After the nasty police guy from the pilot they have good reason not to trust anyone outside of the triumvirate.
Huggy's role has steadily increased with each episode, though he's mainly used for comic effect in this one and to conclude the theme of the episode, something else which they tended to have running through the story. This time it's Starsky's new watch and you just know that something's going to happen to it. It becomes a 'Legend of Zelda' swapping game - they trade the watch for security on the taxi, then the taxi for security on the battered old van, then it turns out Huggy sold Starsky the watch and it was 'hot' property! The other running gag is also present and correct as the evil secretary gets their names confused when handing out the air tickets (you'd think they would have noticed her mass of curly hair and bright office clothes when they drive to pick up the gangster at the hotel and she's outside hanging around by a public phone booth so she must be one of those people that fades into the background).
The attack by two people on a motorbike wielding a shotgun was exciting, though the moment when the cars sloooooowlyyyy driiiiive out of the hotel grounds felt like slow motion it took so long, the fact that the cars are so big and long only increasing that impression. It may have been because they didn't want to jiggle the moving camera too much so they had to go slow, as later we see much more dynamic shots of cars speeding past a stationary camera or the excellent in-car shots of Starsky driving through the cornfield. The dubbed line where Hutch radioes in to let them know about the cycle goons before heading to Memorial Hospital (for its first appearance on the series), was necessary to explain why they just left these criminals who were probably in need of medical attention from the way they flipped off their bike. Sometimes the added lines seem really obvious as an afterthought, but in this case they worked.
The house they drive by in the neighbourhood to pick up the supposed daughter of the gangster looked very much like Lynda Carter's house in 'The Las Vegas Strangler,' and while there was a future element like this, there was also a link back to the previous episode as we see the green Chevy again! Maybe it was a popular car and a popular colour, but right after an episode where it blows up they use one again? The sequence in the cornfield is the best action sequence of the episode, preceded by an intelligent scene between the four occupants of the taxi and covering various story points: Starsky isn't happy about the woman (though he's never had any reservations until this point - maybe the ride gave him time to think), she tries to justify the position of the woman she's playing, and 'her' Father's, while Hutch takes her side and George the driver tries to get some friendly conversation going and can't, the beginning of a bad day for him. They then wrench off the road into the field as two cars and four 'hoods' come after them.
My question is what happened to the fourth man? There are two men in each car, the Chevy crashes into the rusting shell of an old car and later only three of the men show up at the petrol station. Was one of the men in the Chevy killed on impact? I love the bit where George gets chucked around and the sequence where they all run through the tall corn is really well shot. It gets even better when Starsky, after holding the baddies off, leaps back in the taxi and speeds into the corn, with a fantastic view of corn zipping past the window as he gains and eventually catches up with his fleeing comrades. If only there could be more of this stuff in the series. The tension of being chased is carried over when they stop at the petrol station - we get another quirky character in the old pump manager who smells a quick buck (more than a few, in fact), and the gag of Starsky eating any old rubbish when he chooses the meatloaf against the old man's advice, while Hutch can't stand it.
The poor owner of the diner must have been a bit bewildered - he takes the meatloaf back to put gravy on it then when he returns Starsky slings the cups and saucers right on top of it, leaps over the counter and is gone. My favourite comedy moment comes in the midst of the danger, with Starsky taking the initiative and hiding under the old van when the bad guys come calling. Banging the vehicle with his magic fixing rock doesn't seem to do much good, but I love his line "don't tell me your troubles, I don't even work here!" and the injured way he says it. The chase with the van was another good sequence, especially the moment he realises they aren't going to outrun them so they might as well play chicken. I'm not sure if the bad guys survive, but they seem to be moving after the crash into the post. The dark-haired guy at the end that tries to take out the real daughter was the one the evil secretary spoke to and he was in the action so she must have been talking to one of these guys at the end unless the organisation is much bigger.
It doesn't end quite as well as the rest of the story played out, but it's a good twist when you don't know it. The dark-haired goon at the end who dresses as a surgeon is the same guy who played one of Tallman's men in the pilot and doubles for Starsky, most notably in the previous episode leaping out of the car. This is his most visible role so far so I imagine he won't be used so much for a while. Dobey's thing at the end was kind of odd - it looks like he wants to start a game of ring a ring o' roses when he comes over to S&H and holds out his hand with a big grin on his face! The pop culture references this time were James Bond (Dobey talks about disliking the James Bond antics, or something), and S&H play the computer game 'Pong' at Huggy's.
So far this was the best for action, but maybe it wasn't as well balanced as 'Savage Sunday,' although it remains one of my early favourites.
***
Each new episode brings more pictures to the title sequence, this time featuring a shot of Starsky from a future episode ('Pariah,' I think). The series itself continued to play to its strengths with this action-packed chase story with S&H having to stay out of contact thanks to a leak in the department (yes, another one!), forcing them to return to their previous motto, that they can only really rely on each other. That's not quite true, as we get scenes of Captain Dobey anxiously rueing his decision not to tell them the truth about their mission (although we don't realise that is motivating his outbursts at the time), and he seems much more caring about his men than we've yet seen. We also see what would become another running theme when S&H get angry at the police outsider who comes in and tells them what to do, and Dobey too gets annoyed by this man giving his men orders in his own office. After the nasty police guy from the pilot they have good reason not to trust anyone outside of the triumvirate.
Huggy's role has steadily increased with each episode, though he's mainly used for comic effect in this one and to conclude the theme of the episode, something else which they tended to have running through the story. This time it's Starsky's new watch and you just know that something's going to happen to it. It becomes a 'Legend of Zelda' swapping game - they trade the watch for security on the taxi, then the taxi for security on the battered old van, then it turns out Huggy sold Starsky the watch and it was 'hot' property! The other running gag is also present and correct as the evil secretary gets their names confused when handing out the air tickets (you'd think they would have noticed her mass of curly hair and bright office clothes when they drive to pick up the gangster at the hotel and she's outside hanging around by a public phone booth so she must be one of those people that fades into the background).
The attack by two people on a motorbike wielding a shotgun was exciting, though the moment when the cars sloooooowlyyyy driiiiive out of the hotel grounds felt like slow motion it took so long, the fact that the cars are so big and long only increasing that impression. It may have been because they didn't want to jiggle the moving camera too much so they had to go slow, as later we see much more dynamic shots of cars speeding past a stationary camera or the excellent in-car shots of Starsky driving through the cornfield. The dubbed line where Hutch radioes in to let them know about the cycle goons before heading to Memorial Hospital (for its first appearance on the series), was necessary to explain why they just left these criminals who were probably in need of medical attention from the way they flipped off their bike. Sometimes the added lines seem really obvious as an afterthought, but in this case they worked.
The house they drive by in the neighbourhood to pick up the supposed daughter of the gangster looked very much like Lynda Carter's house in 'The Las Vegas Strangler,' and while there was a future element like this, there was also a link back to the previous episode as we see the green Chevy again! Maybe it was a popular car and a popular colour, but right after an episode where it blows up they use one again? The sequence in the cornfield is the best action sequence of the episode, preceded by an intelligent scene between the four occupants of the taxi and covering various story points: Starsky isn't happy about the woman (though he's never had any reservations until this point - maybe the ride gave him time to think), she tries to justify the position of the woman she's playing, and 'her' Father's, while Hutch takes her side and George the driver tries to get some friendly conversation going and can't, the beginning of a bad day for him. They then wrench off the road into the field as two cars and four 'hoods' come after them.
My question is what happened to the fourth man? There are two men in each car, the Chevy crashes into the rusting shell of an old car and later only three of the men show up at the petrol station. Was one of the men in the Chevy killed on impact? I love the bit where George gets chucked around and the sequence where they all run through the tall corn is really well shot. It gets even better when Starsky, after holding the baddies off, leaps back in the taxi and speeds into the corn, with a fantastic view of corn zipping past the window as he gains and eventually catches up with his fleeing comrades. If only there could be more of this stuff in the series. The tension of being chased is carried over when they stop at the petrol station - we get another quirky character in the old pump manager who smells a quick buck (more than a few, in fact), and the gag of Starsky eating any old rubbish when he chooses the meatloaf against the old man's advice, while Hutch can't stand it.
The poor owner of the diner must have been a bit bewildered - he takes the meatloaf back to put gravy on it then when he returns Starsky slings the cups and saucers right on top of it, leaps over the counter and is gone. My favourite comedy moment comes in the midst of the danger, with Starsky taking the initiative and hiding under the old van when the bad guys come calling. Banging the vehicle with his magic fixing rock doesn't seem to do much good, but I love his line "don't tell me your troubles, I don't even work here!" and the injured way he says it. The chase with the van was another good sequence, especially the moment he realises they aren't going to outrun them so they might as well play chicken. I'm not sure if the bad guys survive, but they seem to be moving after the crash into the post. The dark-haired guy at the end that tries to take out the real daughter was the one the evil secretary spoke to and he was in the action so she must have been talking to one of these guys at the end unless the organisation is much bigger.
It doesn't end quite as well as the rest of the story played out, but it's a good twist when you don't know it. The dark-haired goon at the end who dresses as a surgeon is the same guy who played one of Tallman's men in the pilot and doubles for Starsky, most notably in the previous episode leaping out of the car. This is his most visible role so far so I imagine he won't be used so much for a while. Dobey's thing at the end was kind of odd - it looks like he wants to start a game of ring a ring o' roses when he comes over to S&H and holds out his hand with a big grin on his face! The pop culture references this time were James Bond (Dobey talks about disliking the James Bond antics, or something), and S&H play the computer game 'Pong' at Huggy's.
So far this was the best for action, but maybe it wasn't as well balanced as 'Savage Sunday,' although it remains one of my early favourites.
***
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