What would happen if the Atlantis writers decided to make their season a little darker, a little more dramatic, and a little more gritty? You’d get this season. Unfortunately, the season finale was formulaic, predictable, and once again, abusing time travel as a patch in the plot instead of the physics-shattering craziness that it actually is. I really dig the plot with Tayla and her baby… it pulls the heartstrings, it raises serious questions about the team’s future, and makes everyone confront just how risky that galaxy is. And then someone decided to PHONE IN the finale. The finale is the only reason that this season didn’t get five stars. It got four.
You can get a Master’s degree in the interplay of Western and Japanese philosophies, or you can watch this movie. I’m estimating that at least 75% of the dialogue was subtitled in quotes, and I really have no idea who the characters were quoting. The action was top-notch, the appearance of the Major was excellent, and once my mind wrapped around the philosophy involved, I was verrah happy to have watched it. It really is taking the questions and the action and what the world is becoming in the first movie, and elevating it to the next level. Four stars.
Disappointing is all I can really say about this one. Over-milked the time travel business, which they had really already done in Season 10. Can you over-milk something that’s been over-milked? My guess is no, and it really showed up in this. STOP ABUSING TIME TRAVEL. NAO PLZ. I’m really hoping that the writing quality either goes back up for these movies, or they stop writing them. Otherwise, the SG-1 crew has jumped the shark, in my oh-so-humble opinion. Three stars.
Tag Archives: Netflix
Battlestar Galactica: Season 3, American History X, and This is England
Character death? Did someone say character death? Did someone let George R. R. Martin into the writer’s room? My guess is that yes, he was there, talking about football and when to destroy the dreams and potential of whichever particular character that you were just starting to like.
Make no mistake, I loved this season, and that’s part of why. I really dislike kid gloves, and Season 3 takes off the kid gloves, takes off the adult gloves, and peels off three layers of skin from the hands. And then, at the very end, it chops off your hands, slaps you with them, and then takes you out to a movie and buys you dinner.
There’s not much that I can say about this season without spoilerizing it. I’ll just leave this little teaser for you. At least four of the last five Cylons are revealed. Five stars. And I have it on good authority that Season 4 is even -more- screwed up. I can’t wait!
I’d never pictured the dude from Fight Club, Edward Norton, as a tough guy. Really, as a muscley guy at all. And as a skinhead? Woah. This movie was truly amazing, and nailed nearly every single thing I look for in a movie. I was caught up, I was emotionally involved and invested in the characters, and the ending wasn’t rushed and didn’t take the easy way out. I really didn’t expect to see the girl from The Craft there, either. If you get the chance, see this movie. Five stars.
Apparently, I was on a bit of a skinhead run. Maybe I’m trying to figure out my cousin. Who knows? This one was recommended to me a while back, but I don’t remember who did it. This one’s got a bit more of an innocent cast to it than the other, due to the age and circumstances of the main character. Again, I was invested in the characters, and it was a great film. You could tell that it was an independent film, but the actors were amazing. The actor that played Tommy in Snatch was another surprise showing. That man can play really diverse roles. The ending was inevitable, but not labored. Four stars.
Avatar: The Last Airbender: Book 1
This is something that I’ve wanted to see for a while, after seeing it show up in
*blink*
So, I finish with the first DVD, and all I can think is, “How cool would Transformers have been if they’d paid that much attention to the quality of the animation? The frame rate? The art? The physics? The way bodies work? Just watching the benders go through their various katas (is that the correct word?), and start understanding what kind of motions are related to which element, and wow, that really -does- make sense.
It’s difficult to let the next season make its progression through my queue. Four stars.
An Inconvenient Truth
I’ve been wanting to see this one for a long time, and I’m glad it’s finally come up in my queue. In the end, it’s a straightforward piece that presents its science and facts upfront, without any obfuscation. Plain speech, for once. Sure, there are the emotional cues and it is skewed toward its premise – humanity is causing an unprecedented rise in CO2 in the atmosphere, and the link between CO2 level and global temperature.
I’m going to do what I can. Four stars.
Battlestar Galactica: Razor
Ahh, the classic tool of the flashback. This made-for-TV movie fills in more detail about Pegasus, about Lee Adama’s new position on that aforementioned shiny ship, the last Cylon war, and the development of the humanoid Cylons. My favorite part had to be the surprise appearance of the old-school “BY YOUR COMMAND” Cylons. They had the old-school Cylon ships! Hell, the humans even blow up god! Or, um, something like one. That’s still pretty unclear. Genetic dead-end, or the origin of the Cylon religion? I’ll tell you what it is! It’s juicy plot awesomeness!
It strikes me that in reiterating that Boomer is hot, I may be neglecting the cuteness of Cally. Okay, fine, fine. I really should also be noting that while both Boomer and Cally (thanks to the casting of their extremely talented and drool-worthy actresses) are distracting to the eye, they portray three-dimensional characters. Their performances are nuanced, emotional, and show us exactly how normal people can become extraordinary in the most dire of circumstances.
Five stars, of course!
Battlestar Galactica: Season 2.5
There’s usually a tendency in series writers to keep a status quo. Sure, small things can change, but they usually only change for that episode, or to teach the important lesson. This is standard operating procedure for most TV series, right?
Not so for BSG, especially not so for this season. Blowing up ships, people, more ships, a new humanoid Cylon revealed, a Presidential election, and a planet that can support life! I think that my enthusiasm for this show should be clear, due to the amount of exclamation points that I seem to be using. Oh, and since I’m keeping track…. Boomer = still hot. Five stars.
Update: I had a few details confused between Season 3 and Razor. These should now be corrected.
Battlestar Galactica: Season 2.0
You know, I thought that it couldn’t get any more “OH MY GODS THEY DID NOT DO THAT!” after Season 1’s finale. I was wrong. I know that it’s rare to hear me say that, but I say it here with a clear conscience. I was wrong. I want to create a writer’s equivalent of the master/apprentice system just so that I can apprentice under these writers. I did not expect to see Ensign Ro from Star Trek: The Next Generation show up as the Admiral. The SciFi channel keeps up its tradition of hiring fantastic actors from other popular science fiction TV shows, and I really dug her performance. Also, the other Six that shows up… yeah. If Baltar was crazy before…
Oh, and Boomer? Still hot. Five stars.
Stargate Atlantis: Season 3
I had seen nearly all of these episodes as they aired. I was not bored or disappointed, though, as they were well worth watching again. As I got closer and closer to the end of the season, I got more excited, because I knew that something big was going to happen to the city, and that something big was going to happen to Dr. Carson, who is one of my favorite Atlantis characters.
I will not provide spoilers. I will just say that yes, I cried. I cried like I did when I watched Pay it Forward. The end of the season had a very Voyager feel to it. And no, I don’t mean that in a bad way. Four stars.