The Pull List: 31 August 2016, Part 2

The fate of the Earth hangs in the balance as Rai challenges Father for the future of New Japan. It's the fourth and final issue of Valiant's excellent miniseries 4001 AD, by writer Matt Kindt and artist Clayton Crain.

What is perhaps most surprising about this issue is just how little of it is dedicated to the climax, and correspondingly just how much is devoted to its epilogue. I actually think Kindt has it the right way around. Action is just action: we don't need to see a blow-by-blow account of the climactic battle, but we do need to see what happens to those who survive the final battle of New Japan. What we are left with is something grounded and quite uplifting, and more importantly something that lays the groundwork for future storylines - either in Rai or in new Valiant titles to come.

Clayton Crain's work is mostly exceptional, although there is a small sense that some of the later pages may have been rushed a little. It's all solid work, but for some reason the first half feels visually stronger than the second. Altogether it has been an absolutely gorgeous series, and I strongly recommend people check it out when the collected edition gets published. (4/5)

4001 AD #4. Valiant. Written by Matt Kindt. Art by Clayton Crain.

Under the cut: reviews of Ms Marvel, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Universe, and X-Files Origins.

Crimson Peak (2015)

Bookish heiress Edith Cushing (Mia Wasikowska) is swept off her feet by the suave English Baronet Thomas Sharp (Tom Hiddleston) when he arrives in America seeking investors for his clay mining operation. After the sudden and violent death of her father, Edith marries Sharp and accompanies him and his sister Lucille (Jessica Chastain) to their crumbling estate Allerdale Hall. There Edith begins to witness supernatural apparitions, and grows to suspect her new husband and his sister's motives.

There are no huge surprises in Crimson Peak, but then with a film like this that is hardly the point. It is a lush and colourful gothic romance. It ascribes to a series of well-worn genre conventions, and plays them out in exactly the manner in which it expected. As a result I suspect any viewer coming to the film expecting or desiring a twisting narrative with surprises and shock reveals is going to walk away disappointed. The destination is almost irrelevant with a film like Crimson Peak: instead it is all about how stylish a ride it is along the way.

The Witch (2015)

New England, 1630. A puritan farmer named William (Ralph Ineson) and his family are banished from their village and build a new home on the edge of the forest. That winter, their infant son Samuel is snatched from in front of their eldest daughter Thomasin (Anya Taylor-Joy). Her younger twin siblings begin to talk with the farm's black goat. Her brother Caleb (Harvey Scrimshaw) goes missing in the woods. As the paranoia rises, the family begins to turn on one another.

The Witch landed at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival with an explosion of critical acclaim and gaining a lucrative international distribution deal. That early success may hamper it with audiences, since it is far from the edge-of-your-seat period horror that its marketing actively suggested. Instead this is a slow, oddly sedate film that sits rather uncomfortably between supernatural horror, period drama and paranoid thriller. Very patient viewers may find it to be exceptional stuff. Personally I found it too frustrating to sufficiently work.

Beyond Beauty: Taiwan from Above (2013)

There seems to be a specific sub-genre of documentary film dedicated to rolling aerial vistas of landscapes. Slow drifting shots of mountains and fields, crashing oceans, lush forests, and so on. They are usually edited together with rich musical scores, often-times ones based around world music. These films can be quite pretty to watch, but also relatively hollow and vacuous.

In a few months I am travelling on a holiday to Taiwan, and seeing there was a documentary feature titled Beyond Beauty: Taiwan from Above I figured I could get a head start in seeing what parts of the Taiwanese landscape would be worth visiting myself. The film opens pretty much exactly how one would expect it to: beautiful vistas of Taiwan's mountain ranges and thick forests. Lakes, rivers and waterfalls. Soporific orchestral music backs it as the helicopter-mounted camera captures the idyllic landscape, and a soothing voiceover waxing lyrical about the beauty of the natural world. Yes?

No!

Hook (1991)

Corporate lawyer Peter Banning (Robin Williams) flies with his family to London for an event honouring Wendy Darling (Maggie Smith), the woman whose orphanage sheltered Peter as a child. When his children are kidnapped Peter learns that he is actually the grown-up Peter Pan, and that they are now prisoners in Neverland of the pirate Captain Hook (Dustin Hoffman).

Hook is a film that was a long time coming; so long, in fact, that by the time it had arrived it was too late to function. Director Steven Spielberg first discussed the idea of a Peter Pan live-action film back in the early 1980s, when he had just directed E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and was looking for a family film to produce with Walt Disney Pictures. By the time he finally made the film, it had transformed from an adaptation to a sequel, moved from Disney to Tristar Pictures, and Spielberg had directed the likes of The Color Purple and Empire of the Sun. Put simply: he had progressed too far as a filmmaker to comfortably direct an all-ages whimsical fantasy. I think you can see that in the film production, which is handsomely framed and costumed, but narratively a bit weak. You can sense a sort of bored cynicism behind every scene.

Roadies: "The Load Out"

It is 28 August 2016, and time for the season finale of Roadies.

At a memorial concert for Phil (Ron White), the Staton-House Band road crew take stock of their lives and make decisions for the future. Shelli (Carla Gugino) is surprised by the arrival of her long-absent husband Sean (Michael Passmore). The cast learns of the impending break-up of the band. Reg (Rafe Spall) prepares to return to England. Kelly-Ann (Imogen Poots) struggles to comprehend Phil's dying words.

"The Load Out" finishes off Roadies with a combination of plot resolutions, musical performances, and one massively stupid climactic scene. It is certainly an above-average episode for the series, but in many ways it showcases all of the ways in which the series has struggled over the past ten weeks. It is, in effect, Roadies in microcosm: good actors reciting bad scripts, and a lot of potential squandered.

The Pull List: 31 August 2016, Part 1

Another hiatus has passed, and Saga returns for its seventh six-issue story arc. Recent arcs have seemed to take a few issues to build momentum and get up to speed, and this looks to follow in the same vein. It's solidly entertaining science fiction drama, but there is a lack of urgency about things. It is all set-up without any real explosive moments in it.

To be honest there's an awful lot of formula to Saga these days. The scathing, verbally abusive dialogue. The growing raft of characters chasing circles around each other across the galaxy. The sniggering moments of frontal nudity or sex. The entirely untrustworthy narration by the book's ultimate protagonist Hazel. It is all nicely presented, and enjoyable to read, but the urgency that led me to read the comic's earlier issues has pretty much gone. The spark feels very distant now. This is not a case of criticising a book for being bad; it's more a case of of criticising a good book for not being brilliant any more.

Hopefully this arc will pick up as it goes. Certainly the last two did. I'm figuring that's part of the formula now too. (3/5)

Saga #37. Image. Written by Brian K. Vaughn. Art by Fiona Staples.

Under the cut: reviews of Doctor Who, Silver Surfer, and Spider-Man.

The Angriest: August 2016 in review

Thanks to the Melbourne International Film Festival, I got to see a whole pile of new and recent feature films in August, and my review of Olivier Assayas' Personal Shopper was the most-read post for the month. This surprised me; not because Personal Shopper is not worth reading about (it is outstanding) but because generally speaking reviews of foreign and arthouse films have never been that popular on this blog. Not as popular as reviews of comic books or old TV episodes at any rate.

Speaking of old TV, August saw me conclude my reviews for Crusade and Penance, as well as the first series of Colditz - I will get to the second season sooner or later. Beyond Personal Shopper, the most popular posts last month included reviews of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, Beware the Slenderman, and the excellent zombie thriller Train to Busan.

Altogether last month The Angriest featured reviews of seven 2016 films, 17 older films, 22 TV episodes, and 44 comic books, as well as one opinion piece about Doctor Who. The full list of August posts is included below the cut.