Breaking Bad Season 5

Breaking Bad Season 5 is split between two segements essentially being the reign and fall of King, though drug kingpin would be more accurate. The show, even after finding quite the climax in the faceoff between Walt and Gus finds new ground through Walt and Jesse seeming to finally become the drug lords of Albequreque while dealing with the fallout of their previous actions. Again the show fires the proverbial cylinders in terms of the acting, the directing, and the writing. It is remarkable as it continues to avoid a rut, and not only that brings some much needed energy somehow avoiding becoming overly dour while not being tone deaf either. There is fun to be had still particularly with the train heist set piece in the first half of the season. The major of theme that crime does pay, just not in the way you want it to, though is still prevalent as effectively tests all the major characters, even those who seemed almost blissfully unaware of the world until this point. Now this season does have the one bad episode of the series, the aptly titled "Rabid Dog", which halts the narrative with frankly a ponderous series of scenes. The episode though shows the strength of the series because it stands out since it shows just how well paced and compelling every other episode is. When Hank finds out some pivotal information he doesn't wait a season to confront Walt, he does it the very next episode. The show doesn't waste time yet it never feels rushed. It always find the right balance with plot progression, character growth, and those moments you describe as "cool" or "badass". The series in its climatic season continues the progression to leave on an incredible high note that is funny, entertaining, harrowing yet so satisfying in the end.
5/5

Prometheus

Prometheus is another film I also might have benefited from having not seen the previous films in the series before I saw the film. I had no real connection to the Alien series therefore my expectations were fairly non-existent. Well again  I enjoyed this film even if there are abundant problems.  Many of the character actions make no sense, there are a few questionable performances, Guy Pearce as Mr. Burns (mostly for  the casting) and Tom Hardy's clone (just without the acting talent). The film though  worked for as just a rote sci-fi thriller with splendid visuals, which is elevated by a strong leading turn from Noomi Rapace and a memorable  supporting performance by Michael Fassbender. Ridley Scott's actual  direction is on point for the most part the problem with the film is the problematic script. It just  is  rife with plot  holes and  underwritten characters. The film though has  enough thrills to make  up for it, and I  found it paced fairly  well even though  it doesn't build  to the sort of stunning conclusion you'd expect from an Alien film.
3.5/5

The Master

The Master stands as a pure Anderson film, as the only way to describe would as a Paul Thomas Anderson film. This is a purity of the style he had been fashioning over his previous films. Although there is perhaps a growing split with this film, and particularly the next film I'll be getting to, I fall firmly on the positive in terms of appreciating Anderson's unique vision. This film is a fascinating examination of a battle scarred war veteran Freddie Quell (Joaquin Phoenix), and his run in with a religious cult leader Lancaster Dodd (Philip Seymour Hoffman). Along with Dodd's wife Peggy (Amy Adams) the three seem to represent the Id, Super-Ego and Ego respectively. Nothing about the film's plot or even storyline exactly results as one might expect, or some might even want as the three have curious struggle of powers of sorts as the cult tries to help Freddie and Freddie tries to help the cult. The film is fascinating in this examination of this relationship, but this is never clinical as it might sound. It goes so much further in its depiction of the broken Freddie, and how this relates to Lancaster Dodd whose own relationship with the cult is not an obvious one. The film develops never as you quite think it will yet it never stops being intriguing and engaging through its portrayal of Freddie's difficult journey to discover some sort of peace in himself.
5/5

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

The Hobbit An Unexpected Journey marks the beginning of the Hobbit trilogy which has been compared to the Star Wars prequels, which is not a good thing. It's rather interesting to examine the series of films to see where it is they fall short against the strength of the original Lord of the Rings trilogy. One major aspect is found in the tone, which might be a natural problem for any prequel, since how does it distinguish itself from the original("sequel") while still being part of the same universe. Well that's problem one as the book itself is more lighthearted than the Lord of the Rings trilogy. The film suffers in that it partially embraces this at times, particularly in the hijinks of the dwarves and Radagast, while attempting to replicate the harsher tones of Lord of the Rings in its focus on the Orc's chasing the Dwarves, Gandalf and Bilbo throughout their journey. Now past the less refined tone, which does coincide with the Star Wars prequels problem though in far less extreme of a manner I feel, one obvious similarity is in the film's use of CGI. Now this seems stranger though in that the original LOTR trilogy used it heavily as well. The differences can be found though as LOTR utilized it with an effective mix of practicals where there is a far greater over reliance particularly in the villains, which takes a great deal of weight from their presence particularly in the chief Orc, who stands a lame villain throughout the three films. One element where it clearly is not the Star Wars prequels are the performances, which for the most part are quite strong, Martin Freeman in particular, and they in no way show a going through the motions the same way Peter Jackson's direction sometimes feels like. Now all films should be adaptations of the material, but the odd thing here is if they had gone to the letter of the page it would have been shorter. The choice to lengthen as long as possible was not a wise one on a whole, but the idea for a two film Hobbit made sense, three just was more than stretching. There are moments we a bit extra was more than appreciated, the misty mountain song is nice atmosphere building moment, a few instances with the individual dwarves to build character are needed, but there is plenty that is not needed. The flashbacks with Thorin could have been left implied, the story of the Necromancer should have been left off screen as it was in the novel since there's no reason to set up a film we've already seen. The film is messy in that there are scenes that find the right tone, and story elements to focus on but then there are complete wastes of time. For almost every riddles in the dark sequence there's the laborious council of Elrond scene. There are plenty of good scenes, but the film is fundamentally flawed.
3/5

The Dark Knight Rises

The Dark Knight Rises is a curiosity in that it appears what you get when it seems like the creative team had no one on oversight and they were just brimming with so much self confidence from their last foray to the point that it feels like they did one screenplay draft and called it day. The writing is very sloppy all over the place not only in terms of plot holes, which are the kind you do notice while watching for the first time, and just some particularly strange dialogue. The opening sequence alone is kind of how marvelous in how really ridiculous the whole thing is set up and written, to the point I must admit I get enjoyment out of just watching the absurdity of some of it. A film can have a few of these things, but this one is just brimming from ear to ear with them. John Blake figuring out Batman's identity, Gordon instantly losing his confession, the line " would somebody get this hothead out of here", the central idea behind Catwoman's motivation (so she just took Dagget's word for it?), Bruce Wayne's instant arrival back in Gotham, the list goes on. Nolan's direction though still is on point as there are still some outstanding visual sequences. The film even works emotionally much of the time even if it is overwrought in more than a few ways. The film's bloated in its attempt to top the Dark Knight's stakes, really an impossible task so they just went for an extreme. There are too many plot lines for its own good, to the point that there is a character in John Blake who could have been removed and nothing would have been lost, the same really goes for the film's last minute villain since it seems everyone felt Bane was good enough for a solo act. It takes someone as talented as Nolan to make a film like this because as an underwhelming sequel it's like none other. It does not falter in the ways you'd expect but in entirely different ways that often seem bizarre. The film I'm forced to describe not as bad because there are genuinely good elements, but even in the less successful elements still manage to be interesting in their own way.
3/5

Game of Thrones Season 2

Now the challenge after season 1 comes in terms of making a cohesive whole at of many lingering threads that sprout up. There's not too much reason to mention the technical elements as they remain unchanged, and always impressive except the notable extra of actually depicting a grand battle which is rather remarkable. This season can also be noted as successful in keeping every thread alive while keeping all of them appropriately connected to another, well almost all of them. It's best to look at story by story. Jon Snow and the Night's Watch journey beyond the wall I always find engaging, and I love that throughout the show you see the maturation of Jon, partially through Kit Harington apparently becoming a better actor each season. There's excellence to be had in the King's Landing story centering around Tyrion's try as Hand of the King as again the show even in the grand scope of battles, always keeps the personal relationships pivotal. My favorite thread though is Theon Greyjoy's betrayal of Robb Stark, that ends up being surprisingly moving tale of a man losing himself. Robb Stark's own story I suppose is mostly a standard romance but it works. Arya Stark own story is particularly good as she runs upon a peculiar assassin, Tywin Lannister, and begins a certain descent towards a darker path. There is also the introduction of Stannis who is apparently such an inherently great character he still is compelling despite the show runners apparent hatred towards him, and his steadfast righthand man Ser Davos who is one of the most likable characters in the series. The weak link is Daenerys Targaryen, whose story worked in the first season, as she not only seems detached from everyone else, but her story is pretty weak amplified by Emilia Clarke's performance which lacks the needed charisma for the character. Even that is not terrible though, and the season is still stellar.
5/5