The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian

Prince Caspian follows very much the same vein as the first film. This changes a bit more and here and there with the the adaptation, naturally focusing more on the final battle, however still nothing overly dramatic. As with the first film everything is just fine really, though it has one major nice addition in Peter Dinklage's grumpy dwarf its falters with very underwhelming if not downright boring villains. The film trudges along well enough but never with any daring to really give the source material any extra umph to it. The dramatic beats are okay, the battles are decent, everything is okay, but nothing is great. It isn't a film that truly underwhelms yet it only ever seems like it is just enough, no more, no less to be deemed a minor success. The material itself perhaps is not as strong as the original leading quite naturally for this film to be not as strong either.
3/5

Breaking Bad Season 1

With Breaking Bad Season 1 began what has come to be known as the greatest television drama ever made. Although it is interesting to see that this perhaps stemmed from the growth in the use of telling a continuous story, rather just a slight, if any, continuity with an eventual sometimes arbitrary end. Breaking Bad makes wholesale use of the concept starting with the concept of turning Mr. Chips into Scarface, which effectively grants a different sort of flavor for every season. The first season is the initial turning point where we see our main character Walter White, played brilliantly by Bryan Cranston, meekly enter into the drug trade through his knowledge of chemistry and the aid of a junkie former student of his Jesse Pinkman, played brilliantly by Aaron Paul. The first season is almost a series of unfortunate events from White's diagnosis of lung cancer to his rather hapless foray into the dark world of drugs as he attempts to change himself to become more like the men he ends up having to kill to save his own life. There is no reason to go episode by episode as there actually is only a single bad episode of the entire series, and it's not in this season. That isn't to say there are not a few weak points, the show seems to have no idea what to do with its female characters in this season other than have them complain, but one can almost forget that given the strength of the rest of the season. The series effortlessly balances comedy with drama, as even as dark as it eventually becomes there are still laughs in the series that feel natural to the story. The funny thing is this season is even incomplete, accidentally so do to the writer's strike, but that hardly matters. The thing is everything that happens in the pilot might be what another show might cover in 8 episodes. Breaking Bad doesn't take a break, yet never seems rushed. Here we are given the proper introduction to our main protagonist, his sidekick, and the underworld of old sunny Albuquerque.
5/5

Slumdog Millionaire

Slumdog Millionaire is the film that one almost everyone's heart when it steamrolled its competition to its Oscar victory. I would say that it has faded a great deal from the collective memory. The film frames its story of a young Indian through how he learned a series of questions on "Who Wants to be a Millionaire". The first time I watched the film I was utterly detached from it despite wanting to see what everyone loved about it, and I pondered why. Now the acting for the most part isn't anything outstanding, but that was not the reason for its lack of success. Danny Boyle's kinetic style as usual I did not find it particularly appealing, which also was not helped by the often ugly choices in terms of the film's cinematography. Finally there's the story which is the rags to riches story, many describing it as Dickensesque. The problem with that comparison is largely the lack of any interesting characters here. It has the bland lead, and love interest you might find in some Dickens, but it forgot the colorful supporting characters. The brother is wasted as they severely underdeveloped that relationship, and then the villains are all one dimensional. The film wishes to be all about heart in the end, but it's hollow to its core.
2/5

John Adams

John Adams takes upon the life the second president of the United States of America, and he is certainly a most interesting figure to examine to start with. He's the man among greatness yet never seems to be the one considered great from being instrumental in the creation of the Declaration of Independence, yet did not write it himself, being the president yet being the first one term president. It's an excellent series as it examines the man in detail from his political and personal successes and failures throughout his life. It does a terrific job at keeping it at a rather intimate level yet still making the grander achievements of the story still readily apparent. It's notable as it keeps the historical inaccuracies to the minimum, and captures both what made John Adams a great but still flawed individual. Each episode deserves special mention since each one is paced in a way to be really film of that given segment of Adams's life. The performances are uniformly strong, and unlike Tom Hopper's later cinematic work it actually is visually compelling.
5/5

The Dark Knight

The Dark Knight takes the super hero genre dead seriously not by trying to make high flying super heroes believable, but rather taking Batman even more down to earth by putting him into a crime thriller. As a crime thriller it is superb in not only creating some thrilling action scenes it develops a surprisingly emotional story behind it. The film I feel earns is extra plot line at the end as it is the necessary crux to carry the thematic weight of the story. Oh yeah plus it has one of the great villain turns of all time.
5/5