So last time we looked at the events of Melemele Island, the good, and the bad. However, the island ended off on a good note on one of the game’s most unique new additions, the Mantine Surf minigame.
On Akala Island I found some good parts, some bad parts and some really samey copy/pasted parts. It was on this island that my team for the game began to take shape and I had decided to try all new Pokémon at this point. I’d gone from a Rowlet to an interesting mish-mash of Pokémon I’d never even considered using before – even if some of those were sneakily transferred over from Pokémon Sun via PokéBank. My justification of this was the game was already being samey enough I may as well throw a curveball and shake up the game a bit.
My team at the start of Akala Island
So, much like last time I will list my good points and my bad points of this island and try to explain my reasoning of each part. I will be comparing this game to Pokémon Sun because it is a retelling of the story and like all interpretations should stand up to the original or even improve upon it.
In Sun & Moon I wasn’t a huge fan of Mallow’s Grass type Island Trial in the Lush Jungle. In Ultra Sun I found myself quite liking it. It felt like the Lush Jungle was bursting at the seems with wild and interesting Pokémon and having a chance to interact with them in a game of chance added a slight hint of tension to it. If you picked the wrong item that a wild Pokémon had its eye on, it would come and fight you for it just before the Totem arrived so the pressure was on to get them right. I got one right and had to fight two Fomantis before the Totem Lurantis came.
Totem Lurantis
It was a beast in Pokémon Sun, it was a monster in Pokémon Ultra Sun. I actually lost to this thing the first time I fought it. It’s the only time I lost to a Totem Pokémon in Sun, Moon and Ultra Sun up to that point and it brought back that drive to progress in this game and take it down. That difficulty spike I mentioned in part 1? It reared its head again here, and it was very welcome.
Kaiwe’s Trial
Trial Captain Kaiwe
While this happens before Mallow’s Trial I have it after that in my notes, so I’ll go with that. In Sun, Kaiwe’s Trial was a light-hearted pain in the back end. The dancing Alolan Marowak always seemed to jumble around for me and I could never get the right differences between them. In Ultra Sun I got all of them right first try and it made me feel more accomplished, that I’d grown more observant since last time. The Trial itself was very samey though. Totem Marowak provided some challenge though.
Ultra Recon Squad
As I said last time, when this game tries to be its own thing and not just copy/pasting Sun & Moon, it’s actually really good. Better than Sun & Moon in some accounts – it’s just a shame this is the 3rd time I’ve sat through it this year. When we encounter the Ultra Recon Squad on Akala Island they battle us with a Pokémon from their world – a Piopole. In the lead up to these games this new Pokémon had gone completely over my head so I had no idea it existed. I freaked out a little with glee. That was the most fun moment of the game at that point.
One thing I was sad about missing out on in this game was the boat ride to Akala Island with Hau & Lillie. In Pokémon Sun there was an exciting cutscene showing their journey and setting up the characters you’d be going through the game with a bit more. It was a nice little cinematic that established a friendship between you, Hau & Lillie. It was cut from this game in favour of introducing the Mantine Surf but I won’t complain about it too much because it’s only a small detail that was replaced with a fun and exciting new minigame.
The Zygarde Cell Quest – Or Lack Of
When we arrive in HeaHea City we’re approached by Dexio and… *Googles* Sina who challenge us to a battle. At this point in Sun & Moon they give us a Zygarde Cube and tell us to collect the Zygon Cells to give us a side-quest that goes on for most of the game. This time, however, the entire Zygarde Cell collection side-quest is taken out of the game and replaced with a Totem Sticker quest, which just made their appearance in this time a bit pointless. Furthermore it makes the Zygarde Cell quest in Sun & Moon seem unnecessary and redundant.
Lana’s Trial
Trial Captain Lana
Tried to be different, was slightly different, didn’t work as well as in Sun & Moon. Still interesting though. Totem Aquaranid didn’t fit the scene as much as Totem Wishiwashi. Of all the Totem changes in these games this was the most unfitting.
Too Much Exposition
When you’ve beaten Mallow’s Trial you are required to return to HeaHea City for the biggest exposition dump of the game. In Sun it was interesting and I enjoyed reading it. In Moon it dragged on a bit but I was still engaged enough to be reminded of everything that had happened so far. In Ultra Sun I spammed the A button until I stopped seeing text screens and was allowed to leave the building. There was nothing different to the other two games and it seemed never ending.
Olivia’s “Grand” Trial
Kahuna Olivia
Imagine this, you’re the top of the leader board in your home town. Everyone who comes there to win a challenge has to go through you to proceed on their journey. What do you bring with you to have in your team? If you said a Lilleep, an Anorith and a Lycanroc get out. Lycanroc, fair enough, it’s a good showcase Pokémon for the 7th Generation… But Lilleep and Anorith? Really? In a Grand Trial? Talk about a disappointment. I JUST defeated a hard-as-nails Lurantis and now I have to take on a Lilleep and an Anorith. That’s progressive.
So on that rather disappointing note Akala is mostly exactly the same in both tellings of the Alolan story. There are a few new differences but nothing big enough or different enough for me to justify saying that it felt like I was playing an intentionally different game.
By the time I defeated Totem Lurantis and knew I then had to go to HeaHea City and sit through a load of exposition for the rest of the Island I kind of game up on the game for a couple of weeks. If I played it, it was only for a few minutes and then had to stop again. I knew I had to get through it to proceed with the game for this review but I wasn’t looking forward to it whatsoever. I eventually forced myself to sit through it and meekly trailed off to the Aether paradise to sit through that mountain of exposition which was exactly the same as Sun & Moon’s mountain, even down to setting Lusamine up as the villain and battling Nihilego before meekly being dragged along to Ula’Ula Island.
I include to visit to the Aether Paradise here because there would be no point whatsoever in making a review part for that and that alone so there it is.
My team by the end of the Aether Foundation visit
Pokémon Ultra Sun – Part 2: Akala Island gets another 4/10.
So on November 17th 2017 the newest main series Pokémon games were released. Pokémon Ultra Sun and Pokémon Ultra Moon. The 2nd additions to the 7th generation of Pokémon main series media. These titles had something different in store though. In a similar vein to Generations 2, 3 and 4, Generation 7’s latter games were “Perfected versions” of the games prior. Generation 3 had Ruby, Sapphire and then perfected the story of those two with Emerald, for example. Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon are the “Perfected versions” of Pokémon Sun & Pokémon Moon released in 2016. Nearly 8 years after the last time we had a “Perfected version” game in Generation 4’s Pokémon Platinum. It was once the tradition of the main series of Pokémon games to have the third version of the story but in the most recent games, Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon acted as the 3rd & 4th versions of the Sun & Moon storyline.
If that made sense, well done, it’s a strange one to explain. Anyway, when Pokémon Ultra Sun & Pokémon Ultra Moon were announced at the beginning of last year I was excited. I hoped they’d follow the example of Generation 5 and have them be direct sequels to Pokémon Sun & Pokémon Moon (Just like Generation 5’s Black/White & Black2/White2) but it was revealed shortly after that the new games would be an “Alternate telling” of the events of Pokémon Sun & Moon. I freely admit I was slightly disappointed by this as when main series Pokémon games do direct sequels they tend to be fan favourites (example: Gold/Silver/Crystal) but I was willing to give these new game’s the benefit of the doubt. It was entirely possible that an “alternate telling” could be radically different enough to feel like a brand new game and now just another version of Sun & Moon.
When release day came I awaited patiently for the post to arrive and then it happened. I tore the packaging open and there it was, Pokémon Ultra Sun in all its glory. I booted it up and began playing. My heart sinking slowly as I progressed through the exact same story points that Sun & Moon had began with. Being the optimist I went on believing the game would diverge from the Sun/Moon themed railroad and move on to be its own thing.
I decided to begin taking notes of things I liked and disliked in order to make a review for this blog but as I progressed I decided this would be better as a miniseries of reviews. Each part focusing on the events of each of the four (technically five, or even 6) islands of the Alola region. So, this is part one of however many parts that I require for this review – Melemele Island.
Aside from a few differences Melemele Island of US/UM is very similar to the Melemele Island of S/M. From here I will list my good points, then my bad points and try to explain my feelings toward them as best I can.
As I was playing I was getting more and more nervous that this was just Sun & Moon again with new things thrown on at the end and then the Ultra Recon Squad showed up. It was nice to have something at least a bit different at that point as I’d already played the events of the game twice already in completely different titles. They weren’t in it for long though, which disheartened me and enforced my hypothesis that all the new stuff would just be crammed on at the end.
Totem Gumshoos:
I don’t know why, but I found the Totem Gumshoos really hard and only won by the very marginal amount of HP I had left on my last party member. It was nice to have a challenge in a Pokémon game again – though it may have just been because I was under-levelled from trying to get through Melemele Island as fast as possible.
Difficulty Harder Than Sun & Moon(?)
I’m not sure of the truth of this, but in the early game it felt as if it were harder than Sun & Moon, akin to the difficulty spike of Generation 5’s Black 2/White 2 sequels. It made me remember when effort was put into a sequel to a main series Pokémon game.
4: Rotom Dex:
Early in the game the Rotom PokéDex seemed to interact with you. It’d ask you questions and seem like a travelling companion you’d share your journey with. It was something a bit different and interesting but it seemed to fizzle out after Melemele Island. Fun while it lasted, I guess.
Mantine Surf
Finally, something substantial that is also new! At the very end of Melemele Island you seem to be given the illusion of a choice: Take the boat to Akala Island with Lillie and Professor Kukui, or partake in a Mantine Surf contest against Hau to reach Akala Island that way. An illusion of a choice because it seemed obvious to me whether I picked the Mantine Surf or not I’d end up being railroaded into it. So I hopped on my Mantine and surfed through the crashing waves of the Alola region doing flips and tricks the entire way. It was a fun little minigame that fit very well with Alola’s Hawaiian/tropical theme and I loved seeing the distant Akala Island grow closer and closer with each stunt. An approaching view that offered me hope I’d find something new on the next leg of my third time around the Alola Region in less than a year.
I can kind of understand this one because Kukui, Hau & Lillie’s stories are the same as Sun & Moon to this point and have yet to diverge from the Sun & Moon version of events, but if this is an alternate version of the characters they COULD be different. Hau could be less happy-go-lucky, Lillie could be a trainer in some way, etc. Just small things that could have made the game at least FEEL different from the get-go. They didn’t even have different designs. I think this cemented the feeling of “This is exactly the same” for me more than anything else. Especially when your character had a different style than in Sun & Moon.
Your Character:
One of the things I disliked most about the original Sun & Moon was my character. I’ve seen this complaint a lot so I won’t linger on it. You show no emotion whatsoever no matter what happens outside of a goofy grin. No matter the circumstances going on around you, you just smile blindly and it’s really, REALLY distracting.
The Trial:
It was exactly the same and it was at this point I was certain the only changes I’d find for the first half of the game would be menial and barely worth noting down.
Customization:
Blocking off certain customizable options on which version of the game you have and how far you’ve progressed through the game is a unique idea on paper but it’s rarely appreciated in practise. Generation 6’s Pokémon X and Y had full customization and wasn’t severely hindered like it was in Generation 7. I don’t understand why wine red hair can only be unlocked in the post-game. It was annoying in Sun & Moon and it was even more annoying they didn’t do anything different in Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon. I also found the hair styles you began with to be the best options available.
The Grand Trial
The difficulty spike I had suspected in the early half of this island was shattered when I reached the Island’s Grand Trial against Hala. With a party consisting of three Flying type Pokémon against his Fighting type Pokémon the battle was over with before I could let out a sign of dissatisfaction. And the difficulty spike was never seen or heard from again. It was also the exact same as Pokémon Sun & Moon’s.
The Pokémon/Trainer Photo Club Minigame
Pokémon Photo Club
After the Grand Trial, or before, I can’t recall, I was railroaded to the new Pokémon Photo Club. It was alright. Killed the pacing and extended my stay on this island a little longer. Not exactly the innovative new feature that was promised though. I found myself never returning to continue playing this minigame, unlike Mantine Surf. Shame really as this minigame showed at least some potential in the lead up to the game’s release.
Ultimately I was a little underwhelmed by Melemele Island in Pokémon Ultra Sun. I understand it is a retelling, but it is because of it is a retelling I compare it to their predecessors. You may think it’s unfair to compare Pokémon Ultra Sun to Pokémon Sun but this was the angle Nintendo were aiming for when they announced they would be retellings so I see no reason why NOT to compare the two.
Melemele Island in Pokémon Sun was a fantastic way to introduce us to the Alola region and its unique customs and scenery. It had colourful characters and an interesting set up as you learned the new rules and meet all the newly introduced Pokémon, as well as encountering some old favourites along the way.
Melemele Island in Pokémon Ultra Sun is exactly the same. And that’s the problem with it. It plays it safe. Too safe. Pokémon Ultra Sun came out just under a year after Pokémon Sun and Pokémon Moon, so there hasn’t been enough time for the dust of those games to settle or to forget some of the more unique aspects of those games. When Ultra Sun is trying to be its own thing with the Mantine Surf & the different way to encounter your starter – moments that visually took effort to make and weren’t just copied and pasted were excellent and I really enjoyed them. It’s just a shame those new things only amounted to about 33% of the first act of the game.
Pokémon Ultra Sun – Part One: Melemele Island gets a 4/10.
I intend to do these reviews for each of the other three islands of the Alola region, and then perhaps one for the Aether Foundation and another for the post-game when battling Team Rainbow Rocket. As for release times of these review parts, I have no idea. One a month perhaps? Or whenever I get time? Or every week? Who knows, stay tuned though, because next time we’re off to Akala Island.
Hello and welcome to 2018! Hope you had a fun week doing whatever it is you’ve been doing but it’s back to the usual routine now, I suppose. Don’t be sad, it’ll be Christmas again in 356 days.
2017 was an interesting year for film, so I was wondering, if I could sum up my thoughts on each film I’d seen in the cinema that year, it might do for a blog entry, don’t you think?
I’ll go in chronological order of when I saw them and I may as well date it too, ey? So, let’s get started!
A Monster Calls – 7th January
A deep exploration of a young boy’s mind in turmoil. It was interesting to see the way the story panned out over the duration of the film and the acting from every one involved was simply top notch. Even if it did lose itself a bit in its own narrative toward the end
Rating then: 9/10
Rating now: 8/10
The Lego Batman Movie – 18th February
Fun, Lego action with everyone’s favourite overrated mental patient, Batman. A good story in its own right, as its own thing and still gets quite a few laughs out of me but I feel the very climax of the film was a bit of a let down. Hold hands to stop Gotham tearing in half? Really? It’s fine, it’s fine! It’s a kid’s film after all and there is a level of suspension of disbelief to take into consideration.
Rating then: 10/10
Rating now: 8/10
Logan – 2nd March
Hugh Jackman’s swansong (Maybe) Wolverine escapade. A dark, gritty and realistic portrayal of the final days of the mutants. Logan is one of those films that people will be talking about for a long time – and it earned that recognition. Some say it’s bad, some say it’s a masterpiece. I’m in the middle. It’s a really well made film, but it was too drastic a change from the X-Men franchise. Personal opinion, don’t torture me. Seeing the Charles Xavier in the silo having gone mad at the start hurt my childhood though.
Rating then: 9/10
Rating now: 7/10
The Great Wall – 7th March
One of those whitewashed films that was doomed to fail. It was alright I guess. Nothing to write home about, but fun enough to watch if you just want to switch off for a couple of hours and watch some urban historic fantasy.
Rating then: 6/10
Rating now: 6/10
Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol 2 – 29th April
The Guardians of the Galaxy return in my most anticipated sequel of the year, and proved to be ever so slightly disappointing. It was great and I loved it, but the first one is still my preferred venture. I think splitting the team up for so long is to blame for my preference of the first, but I enjoyed the two intertwining stories told throughout and Ego is by far easily one of the best villains of the Marvel Cinematic Universe so far. Can’t wait for Infinity War though.
Rating then: 8/10
Rating now: 8/10
Wonder Woman – 11th June
With the advent of the Justice League monstricity, Wonder Woman stands as a beaming light of what a DC film could be. By no means the best film of the year but definitely earned a spot in the top 5 of a lot of fans’ lists. The trench scene alone perfectly captures Wonder Woman and showed an audience how little modern superhero films focus on actually actively going out of the way to save people.
Rating then: 9/10
Rating now: 8/10
Spider-Man: Homecoming – 8th July & 11th July
Saw this film twice, actually. Easily the nest of the three MCU films to be released in 2017 as it once again focused on the littler stories. No world-ending disaster plot or subjugation for all mankind. First time I went to see it the cinema ticket cut of “Spi” and “Home” so on the ticket it looked like I was going to see Der-Man Coming. It has been referred to by that name ever since.
Rating then: 8/10
Rating now: 8/10
Kingsman: The Golden Circle – 23rd September
Elton John. Enough said. What a great adventure from start to finish. It was funny, sad and engaging all at the same time. Though the start was a little too trigger happy with established characters in order to shoehorn in the American version. Elton John though.
Rating then: 8/10
Rating now: Not out on DVD yet so would be unfair to judge *Sad face*
Thor: Ragnarok – 28th October
The weakest of the three MCU films this year, for me. It was great fun and I enjoyed every minute of it… But as a trilogy the tone and pacing of this one doesn’t match Thor or Thor: The Dark World in any way whatsoever. I get it was trying to be its own thing but at the expense of everything to happen prior to Ragnarok?
Rating then: 8/10
Rating now: *Patiently awaits DVD release whilst listening to Led Zeppelin*
Pokémon the Movie: I Choose You – 6th November
Pure untainted nostalgia and a treat for the soul. After 14 years of not being in the cinema Ash & Pikachu exploded back onto the silver screen in marvellous fashion. I already did a review of this film which I’ll attempt to link in here but yeah, I really loved this one.
Rating then: 7/10
Rating now: I keep checking Amazon every week for a DVD release date but it never has one. This makes me sad.
Justice League – 19th November
From sheer nostalgic beauty to tainted nostalgic dread. This is another film I reviewed at the time of release but I will never stop hating this filth. As a film, it was stupid, as a comic book story, it was badly done, as a superhero film it was insulting and there are no redeeming qualities in this thing whatsoever. Avoid at all costs. Linking the review in if possible here.
Rating then: 2/10
Rating now: Negative 2/10. Not wasting any more time or money on it.
The Disaster Artist – 9th December
Oh hi Mark. An interesting look into the filming process of one of cinemas greatest duds – The Room. It was light and entertaining, silly and serious, and had the ever loveable Tommy Wiseau in the end credits. It makes me so happy, and I love Lisa so much.
Rating then: 8/10
Rating now: It’s bullshit, I don’t have it yet. It’s bullshit. It is not! Oh hi Mark.
Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle – 9th December
So what happens if you put Jack Black, Dwayne Johnson, Karen Gillan and Kevin Hart in a game of Jumanji? A lot of controversy and needless hate. I liked this film. It wasn’t perfect but give me it over a lot of other films *Cough*JusticeLeague*Cough* any day. While not every joke hit the mark it got a few laughs out of myself and the people I was seeing it with (One a die-hard cynic of the thing) and all in all it was a bit of harmless fun.
Rating then: 7/10
Rating now: You know the drill by this point.
Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi – 16th December
Following on from the Force Awakens a lot was expected to be revealed in this installment of the Star Wars saga. In the end not a lot was actually revealed and the film suffered from existing in the Star Wars universe. Had it been its own one-off film, yeah, it could have worked, but as Episode VIII of a 9-part saga… It left a lot to be desired. It wasn’t all bad though. Mark Hamill gave the performance of his career and it was interesting to see Rey & Kylo Ren’s relationship grow throughout the film.
Rating then: 8/10
Rating now: Blu-Ray. Surprise! Nah, I’ll be getting the DVD… Whenever that comes out.
Caught up in the now. It’s interesting looking back at the films you saw over the space of a year. Almost all of them [NOT YOU JUSTICE LEAGUE] were good and I don’t regret seeing any of them. Barring the black sheep of the universe. There were of course some films I had wanted to see but never had the opportunity for one reason or another – Murder on the Orient Express, Blade Runner 2049, It, War for the Planet of the Apes etc but nothing to be done about that now.
As for 2018 there are a few films I’m looking forward to seeing. Avengers: Infinity War, The Incredibles 2, Black Panther to name a few but others I’m slightly dubious about… Looking at you Solo: A Star Wars Story. I suppose there’s one way to find out though, ey?
Thank you for following my posts in 2017, next year will continue on as usual, posting on Wednesdays with reviews, look-backs, top 10s or whatever takes my fancy during the week. Should probably get around to finishing my reviews of the David Tennant Doctor Who Big Finish audio stories though.
Hoping you had a Qwark-tastic new year and are settling into the first year with an 8 in it since 2008.
Christmas 2017 has been and gone. Wasn’t it a cracker? We got a new Star Wars film, Moffat leaving Doctor Who and Jodie Whittaker… But we also lost Peter Capaldi’s incarnation in the trade off…
I still remember, crystal clear, my reaction to his announcement way back when in 2013. It was one of giddy excitement and enthusiasm. I knew Peter would be a great Doctor the moment he walked out onto that stage and I was not proven wrong. From day one of filming series 8 Capaldi simply radiated the Doctor at its purest. He’d meet with fans and go out of his way to help children to understand that Matt (Smith) said it was okay for him to take over being the Doctor. His charasmatic nature and sheer thrill at being able to play his childhood hero was infectious and he truly brought his A-game to the role.
However, like all good things, his tenure had to end and on 25th December 2017 it happened. Peter Capaldi’s (questionable) “12th” Doctor regenerated into Jodie Whittaker – the 15th incarnation of the Time Lord… Lady… Gallifreyan in Doctor Who: Twice Upon A Time.
Spoilers ahead.
PLOT SYNOPSIS
So following on from the cliffhanger we left off on in “The Doctor Falls we find the current Doctor meeting up with the first Doctor (Played by David Bradley who previously played William Hartnell in the excellent “An Adventure in Space & Time”) and shortly after they find themselves thrown into one final adventure for each of them.
Time has frozen and a captain from World War I is stranded at the south pole with the two Doctors. A mystery has surfaced and this time it’ll take two Time Lords to solve it. What follows is a ridiculously fun back and forth through space and time to figure out the mystery of the captain and to fix time.
The captain warns the two Doctors that a race of glass-people are after him and soon after they are abducted by Testimony. The glass-people, the Testimony, offer the Doctors Bill – The former companion of the previous series – in exchange for the life of the captain. The current Doctor immediately identifies Bill as a false duplicate but he manages to escape with his prior self, the captain and Bill.
The Doctor takes the other three to the centre of the universe. There he confronts Rusty (The Dalek from “Into the Dalek”) and learns that the Testimony is New Earth technology dedicated to preserving the memories of the deceased. No big, evil doomsday plan whatsoever. The Testimony glass-person Bill convinces the two Doctors to put the captain back in his allocated time of death and they oblige.
On the way back to the battlefield and the captain’s fatal standoff the Doctor tweaks it slightly so it is somehow Christmas 1914 and the Christmas truce is about to begin. The captain, accepting his fate, resumes his position in history, forgetting any of his sidetrack adventure even happened. Before time recommences he asks the Doctors to look after his family, revealing himself to be Captain Lethbridge-Stewart and by extension a relative of the cherished and sorely missed Brigadier of Classic Who. Captain Lethbridge-Stewart takes up position in the trench as time resumes but is saved when the Germans begin carolling, the English joining soon after and the truce takes effect.
The first Doctor accepts he has to change and asks the current if he feels the same way to which he replies he will find out, the long way around. The first Doctor then departs, meeting back up with Ben & Polly at the closing moments of “The Tenth Planet” and regenerates into the second Doctor (Patrick Troughton).
The Doctor then says goodbye to glass-people representations of the memories of Bill, Nardole and Clara before stepping foot into the TARDIS for the final time. He resolves to regenerate on the logic that the universe will do it wrong without him to save it anyway. Before giving into his regeneration though he provides some advice and relays some rules to his next incarnation before vanishing into a void of yellow regenerative light.
A new Doctor stands in place of the previous. New possibilities cloud the minds of the viewer (Singular) who didn’t know what was coming next. The Doctor adjusts one of the TARDIS monitors to get a good look at herself but shortly after the TARDIS veers out of control, resulting in the central console blowing to smithereens and the Doctor being flung out into the skies above a city that’ll probably end up being London again.
GOOD POINTS
The cast. Peter Capaldi, David Bradley, Mark Gatiss & Pearl Mackie gave it their all. Every one of them were perfect and it really was a treat. Capaldi, in particular, really shone through in this episode. His last scene in which he departs his advice to the future Doctor is one of the best performances he has ever given and this episode as a whole I’m confident in saying was his best performance to date.
The two Doctors had such a magnificent chemistry and they worked so well off one another. The interactions between the two easily overshadow the rather tame “I-guess-I-have-to” interactions between David Tennant & Matt Smith’s Doctors in “The Day of the Doctor”
There was no big, doomsday, death to all, evil plot this time. It was really refreshing too. It’s one of those things you don’t realise you’d like to see happen until it actually does and it was a great light-hearted story to just bask in the original and the most current incarnations of the Doctor interact.
One thing I really am glad they kept is the original footage of the first Doctor’s regeneration. I’d have been fine with them re-doing it with David Bradley’s version but it was fantastic to see William Hartnell appearing on broadcast television in one of his most iconic roles again – as it always is whenever he turns up.
On one hand, yes, I love it. On another… Just… Why? The Brigadier twist. You know when you have an idea what something is but you don’t want to say anything because it’s so ridiculous and unlikely that there’s no way it’ll be true and it’ll be a spot of ridicule for you thinking such a thing if you were to tell anyone? That was the Brigadier twist for me. Ages and ages ago I had a passing thought Mark Gatiss’ character could be the Brigadier’s father but I dismissed it. Turns out I was pretty much right on the money. It’s nice Moffat’s last contribution to the Brigadier isn’t sticking a middle finger up at him and converting a hero to so many into a run of the mill Cyberman. Never. Forget. But at the same time… Why?
A minor good point here but I really liked it. Remember in “The Day of the Doctor” when we got out first glimpse of Capaldi? When his eyes lit up the screen and we knew for certain the future of the programme was in good hands. Yeah, they paralleled that in “Twice Upon A Time” by having the last shot of Capaldi’s Doctor focus on his eyes. Symmetry.
Something I didn’t expect to see in this episode was Rusty, the first Dalek Capaldfi encountered in his second episode – “Into the Dalek”. It was a nice addition, though ultimately unnecessary. I like it when a Doctor’s era comes full circle. Tennant had Ood Sigma, Smith had… Best we forget Time of the Doctor, ey?
Speaking of Time of the Doctor, remember when Moffat shoehorned in Amy for no reason other than for closure? Remember how it made no sense whatsoever in the context of the story? This episode did that again, but it made sense! Clara, Bill & Nardole returned to bid the Doctor farewell in the shape of the Testimony. It was so much better than Karen Gillan showing up to wish Matt Smith goodnight from out of nowhere and vanishing in the blink of an eye.
Speaking of Steven Moffat – the Moffat Era is over and the Doctor Who universe can finally breathe a sigh of relief. It started out amazing in series 5 and then slumped to the worst in the show’s history in series 6, crawled back to a respectable place in series 7 and then just freefell at the reveal of John Hurt’s “War” (9th) Doctor from which it never truly recovered from until this year’s series 10. Like a phoenix from the ashes. Moffat’s era had some ups and some downs (Mainly downs, hence why this is in the good points section – it’s finally over!) but at the end, the crazed Scotsman with writing issues pulled it out of the bag to give Capaldi the best send off we could have hoped for.
Let’s talk about Jodie. It’s too early to have an opinion of her Doctor, but she’s given a good impression so far. She’s kept the accent – which is all I really wanted from her – and the cliffhanger she leaves us on is one of the more “How will they resolve that?” cliffhangers of recent years!
BAD POINTS
The Dalek hive mind is more knowledgeable than the Matrix of Gallifrey? Really though? Really? Don’t do that, Moffat. Honestly, you were doing so well.
I feel I need to mention to mention the sexism. People seem to be having a problem with it, and I totally understand why. It wasn’t necessary and it didn’t add anything. But the first Doctor was written in a time when things like that were perfectly normal. I’m not saying it was right, but it was the accepted social norm. I promise you if you go back and watch some of Hartnell’s or Troughton’s episodes you’ll see other sexist comments, intentional or no. Obvious or no.
Can we just make not of how badly CGI’d the Testimony glass-people were? There were moments where they moved in a certain way that made them look like early 90s attempts at visual effects…
As much as I loved Capaldi’s regeneration… The children comments whoffled on a bit didn’t they? You could cut the whole “Children can hear your name” bit entirely and the scene would actually benefit from it. If you were determined to include some of it, just leave it at “Oh, and you mustn’t tell anyone your name. No one would understand it anyway.” I don’t know. It just took away from the emotional gravitas of the scene for me.
Whilst we’re on about the regeneration scene, let’s move onto Jodie’s half of it. Wasn’t it remarkably similar to Matt Smith’s entrance into the series? Regenerate, first line, TARDIS veers out of control, bang, bang, boom, cliffhanger – next series begins with the Doctor hanging in the air in some way whilst the TARDIS crashes about and will require a new ‘desktop setting’ for the new Doctor to use.
Murray Gold is leaving the series after twelve years of amazing musical scores, but this episode just seemed like a “Greatest Hits of” rather than any effort put into it. It was very distracting and look out of the moment at times. The example that sticks in mind is this:
The Doctor has just regenerated, it’s all mystical and mysterious, the audience doesn’t know what’s coming. What will this new Doctor be like? What does this new era of the programme have in store for us? I wonder what her unique theme will be – David Tennant’s Doctor’s theme blasting away. Well that’s fitting.
CONCLUSION & RATING
All in all a fitting end to the Moffat era. Ups, down, laughs, cries, anger, joy. A perfect summary of his work. As Capaldi’s swansong, it’s not perfect, but damn it’s a good send off for the man.
This episode left me feeling like Capaldi’s era was complete, in a way Time of the Doctor failed to deliver on a massive scale for Matt Smith’s Doctor. It’s because of this, I don’t think I’ll miss him too much. I mean, I will miss the guy, but his time is done now. The story has been told. Any more would just be meaningless add-on fodder. All wrapped up in a neat little package with a Jodie Whittaker-shaped bow on top.
I’m eagerly awaiting September to see how Jodie does in the role and I wish her all the success and love that Capaldi received during his tenure. The Doctor is dead, long love the Doctor.
With all of this in mind, Doctor Who: Twice Upon A Time, Peter Capaldi’s swansong episode, gets a very impressive 9/10 from me.
… I have no ideas what to do next week… Should probably get on that…
Every year since 2012 my friends and I have made plans to go and see a film at Christmas. It began when various members of my college class wanted to go and see The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey in 2012 so we decided to all go and see it together one day after college was over. This quickly became a tradition and since then we’ve always seemed to put in a bit more extra effort into making ourselves available for the Christmas film. This year was the turn of Star Wars: The Last Jedi (Episode VIII) and with a party consisting of nine people including myself we were a Force to be reckoned with.
I was a tad apprehensive about going to see the newest instalment of the Star Wars saga as I had been exposed to spoilers about what happened in the film about a week before we went to see it. I was so very relieved to discover these supposed spoilers were not true whatsoever! I’d managed to go into the film totally blind, which is an achievement in modern times.
The false spoilers I had been told involved discovering Snoke to be a kind of Force Vampire who sought after Luke’s Force energy and was using Kylo Ren & Rey as pawns to lure Luke to him. There were a few other things but they’ve all managed to successfully escape my memory.
However, before you read on, this review is going to be rather spoiler-heavy so read ahead at your own risk.
BRIEF SYNOPSIS
The Last Jedi opens up with the Resistance on the run from the might of the First Order through space. Due to technological advances the First Order can now track the Resistance freighters through light-speed jumps so that the Resistance cannot escape the pursuit.
Finn and newcomer to the series, Rose, team up to try and disrupt the tracking technology on Snoke’s Star Destroyer to allow the Resistance to make their escape whilst Po stages a mutiny on the Resistance ship after Leia is wounded in battle and is replaced by a woman who seemingly has no long-term plans outside of running away.
Rey manages to convince Luke to train her but the training sessions don’t go over too tell and Rey learns the truth of what happened the night Kylo Ren slaughtered Luke’s Jedi protégés.
Rey and Kylo Ren discover they have been connected by the Force and begin to talk with one another, learning of each other’s lives and ambitions. Rey even managing to convince Kylo Ren to open up to her about his conflicting feelings between the dark side and the light. In doing so Luke confronts her and he and Rey have a brief battle which results in Rey leaving Luke to go to Kylo Ren and try and convince him further to join the Resistance and betray Snoke.
Kylo Ren captures Rey and she is taken to Snoke who toys with her, displaying his abilities with the Force and demonstrating that he is a force to be reckoned with. He commands Kylo Ren to kill Rey but Kylo Ren does indeed betray him and he is killed. Kylo Ren then offers Rey the chance to join him in taking control of the First Order and ruling the galaxy together but she refuses and escapes, Anakin’s old lightsaber being broken in the process.
All three stories converge in act three when the Resistance manage to escape to an unused and abandoned Rebel base on Crait when the First Order stage an attack against the remaining Resistance fighters. Po, Finn & Rose fighting to protect the base while Rey and Chewie offer aerial support. Things look hopeless for the Resistance but Luke appears and offers them a distraction so that they can escape through the base’s cave network.
Luke and Kylo Ren face off against one another in a climactic lightsaber battle but the fight ends when Luke reveals he was a Force Vision he projected to Crait from his island solitude and the Resistance have been given plenty of time to escape and be rescued by Rey & Chewie.
GOOD POINTS
The humour was a surprising addition to the film but it fit well enough when it was used and never felt forced. There were a few laughs through the run time of the film and it got positive reactions from the general audience.
Mark Hamill rules in this film. It is one of his best performances and he is the driving force of the film. He had the best one-liner running gags and his story was one of the more compelling of the fourney.
Kylo Ren & Rey’s relationship during the film felt very natural and was an interesting development that I didn’t expect to see the full brunt of in this film. Adam Driver & Daisy Ridley compliment one another brilliantly in the roles and their scenes together are charged with tension and genuine mystery to what could happen next.
It is revealed that Rey’s parents are just nobody junk peddlers who sold her off as a child to afford a ticket off-world and left her. As sad as it is, I really like this development because for two years now everyone has been trying to figure out how Rey is connected to Luke, or Obi-Wan or Palpatine, when in actuality, she’s no one special whatsoever. It’s one of those “It’s so obvious it’s brilliant” solutions that makes it clear that anyone and everyone in this universe can be important, regardless of their history.
Porgs – I liked them. They were rumoured to be as bad as the Ewoks but they’re a cute non-imposing little bit of comic-relief that never gets in the way of the story whatsoever. More of that, less of Ewoks, please.
After Rey abandons Luke on the island, he is visited by Yoda, and that I did not see coming whatsoever. Yoda was a treat and he was as bat-shit insane as he was in the Empire Strikes Back, which is perfect. He burns down the first Jedi temple and declares the era of the Jedi is over, which is a bit odd, but I’m sure it will be explored further in the as of yet untitled episode VIX.
Speaking of the end of the Jedi, the film strongly hints at the convergence of the dark side of the Force and the light side, making the Grey. Grey Jedi and Grey Sith are extremely cool, so if that is where the story is heading and Kylo Ren & Rey end up bringing full balance to the Force via merging the two sides into one, I’d be pretty down with that.
Crait was fantastic. I did not expect the salt planet to be the location of the third act. It was visually stunning and it set a good backdrop for the last stand of Luke Skywalker. It’s such a unique concept for a planet that I’m surprised hasn’t been done before now (At least in my knowledge)
Of course, a major good point of this film was that none of the spoilers I had been led to believe to be true were actually false. That’s not an observation of the film, I was just glad to realise I knew nothing of what I thought I knew a lot of. If that makes sense.
BAD POINTS
How much of a let down was Snoke? Throughout the Force Awakens and since its release he has been hyped up as the big-bad of the new trilogy and he went down so quickly and easily it was blink and you’ll miss it. I suppose they’re planning on making Kylo Ren the big-bad but… Why? Snoke was fine. He was intimidating and interesting but now he’s dead and we still know practically nothing at all about him and it’ll probably stay that way now… *Sigh*
As with Avengers: Age of Ultron I came out of this film feeling like it was an episode from a TV series, which I suppose is good in its own way, especially with Avengers as a lot of comics is indeed rather episodic. Though for Star Wars it just felt… Odd. It felt more of a serial than a film, multiple episodes each with a small plot leading up to a larger series finale. Dare I say “pacing issues”?
At the very start of the film Po Dameran leads an attack on a Star Destroyer and manages to blow it up, costing the Resistance half of their fleet and all of their bombing ships. That’s not an exaggeration. And in the end, it meant nothing anyway because for a majority of the film the two ships are in a stalemate anyway, so the whole opening scene was rather pointless and only really there so they could say they have a space battle in the film, as per Star Wars tradition.
When Finn & Rose decide to disable the Star Deswtroyer’s tracking systems so the Resistance can escape through hyperspace, they end up having a mini adventure through a casino planet and through the Star Destroyer itself… But then the entire sub-plot is made meaningless when they’re captured and the Resistance escape via escape-pods to Crait anyway. Waste of time, really.
Something I noticed early on in the film, it’s a bit of a nit-pick but I couldn’t help noticing it every time it came up. In the third act of The Force Awakens Kylo Ren runs his lightsaber up Finn’s back, taking him out of the battle and leaving him in critical condition. However, in this film Finn is sporting the same jacket he received from Po which he was wearing when Kylo Ren slashed his back but the jacket has no marks on it whatsoever. Bit of a continuity error. It could be a new jacket, but it’s already worn down by the start of the film, which is set almost immediately after The Force Awakens, and is exactly the same one that should be two halves of a jacket with nasty burn marks on either side of the splits.
One of the more interesting things to come out of the Force Awakens was the chemistry between Finn & Po. A lot of fans wanted them to become Star Wars’ first gay couple and whilst I was neither necessarily for or against it, it was a tad disappointing to see that Finn & Rose seemed to be creating romantic tensions, whilst not sharing as much chemistry as Finn and Po. But what can you do?
Captain Phasma was wasted in this film, again. Admittedly, she did about twice as much as she did in the Force Awakens and her fight against Finn was pretty awesome. But she’s a fine example of the film unnecessarily killing off major players in the story for unexplained or underwhelming reasons. Didn’t even get to see her without her helmet on. That at least would have been better than, as Finn puts it, “Chrome dome”.
The very obvious similarities to The Empire Strikes Back. From the opening scroll, it seems like we’re in for another repeat of the original trilogy, but when the film tries to be its own thing, it really works. When it’s just copying Empire Strikes Back, it’s very obvious and distracting. Another example of it is when Luke warns Rey if she leaves before finishing her training she’ll regret it and will be more at risk of falling to the dark side.
One thing I didn’t realise until a short while after is the complete betrayal of Luke’s character. Think back to Return of the Jedi. Luke went to Hell and back to bring Vader back from the Dark Side because he could sense there was still some light in his father. Yet he tried to slaughter his nephew in his sleep because there was an inkling of darkness in him? How do you get a character so fundamentally wrong?
CONCLUSION & RATING
All in all, I really liked the film. It was by no means perfect, but it was very good nonetheless. I understand why people would dislike it, but I understand why people would consider it the best of the saga.
I’m looking forward to seeing how Rey and Kylo Ren’s stories progress in the future and 2019 cannot come fast enough! Though I am slightly concerned with what will happen with Leia now. After Carrie Fisher’s unfortunate and untimely passing, it leaves an open ended plot for Leia which will more than likely never be fully resolved. If they kill off Leia in episode VIX it has to be in good taste, they’ve already stated that they will not be CGI-ing her face onto a body actor as they did with Peter Cushing in Rogue One, so I honestly don’t know what to expect.
A fantastical star-spun adventure into a galaxy far, far away that’s a valued addition to the saga, Star Wars: The Last Jedi gets a 6/10 from me. I’d go see it again. It’s certainly a film that warrants a second viewing, so maybe that’ll be on the cards at the turn of the New Year.
Until next time though, have a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everyone and I shall see you after the festivities are done when I shall be reviewing Peter Capaldi’s swansong Christmas Special of Doctor Who – Twice Upon A Time.
If you know me, you’ll know I’m a big Doctor Who fan and have been since 2006. If you don’t know me, surprise! Whilst anyone who does know me will tell you I don’t hide my distaste for some stories/episodes in more recent years. Namely episodes written by Steven Moffat, but that’s a post for another day.
In July(?) 2008 series 4 of the new run of Doctor Who had just ended and I intended to binge the entire series in one day on BBC iPlayer, as was a tradition of mine (Until series 6 made that impossible). Whilst searching through iPlayer I caught a glimpse of an image of Paul McGann’s Doctor and thought that the TV Movie was on for some reason.
I quickly discovered it wasn’t the TV Movie. It was a full cast audio drama called “Max Warp” featuring Paul McGann’s Doctor and a companion I hadn’t heard of before… Lucie Miller made by a company that I, yet again, had never heard of. Naturally, I was curious and gave it a listen. I’ve been addicted to Big Finish ever since. When TV Doctor Who has let me down, Big Finish has always been there to give me a satisfying counterpart to the drab, Moffat-ised crap on the telly. So, since then my Big Finish collection has simply grown and grown to the point where I’ve had to acquire additional storage space to hold them all and need to start giving serious consideration to going fully digital with it.
So, with that in mind, I recently downloaded my free digital copy that comes with every physical purchase from the official Big Finish (Who aren’t sponsoring this, in case you were wondering) website of the Tenth(?) Doctor Adventures Volume 2 featuring David Tennant & Billie Piper as… Her.
Yes, David Tennant’s arguably canonical 10th Doctor is back with Rose Tyler at the helm of the TARDIS for three exciting new audio dramas by Big Finish Productions and I decided to share my love for this little company by sharing my honest thoughts on these three stories:
Infamy of the Zaross – by John Dorney
The Sword of the Chevalier – by Guy Adams
Cold Vengeance – Matt Fitton
So today I’m going to review the first story of this box set – Infamy of the Zaross and then I’ll see when my reviews for the other two stories manage to surface in the future. Christmas time in retail, not a lot of time for things.
Also, should mention, spoilers ahead. Read on at your own risk!
PLOT SYNOPSIS
So we begin with Jackie Tyler who’s having a bit of a holiday to Norwich to stay with an old friend but when a race of warthog-like aliens calling themselves the Zaross invade she calls in the A-Team. The Doctor & Rose then work together with Jackie & her friend’s daughter to save the… City of Norwich. Turns out the aliens are only invading Norwich.
The gang do their usual sleuthing around getting clues and figuring out the mystery and discover the Zaross are, were, a peaceful race who got fed up of being ignored in the universe. The Zaross reveal they are under the employ of an intergalactic scripted reality programme, currently on its third series, called Take Me To Your Leader where they are getting their just recognition to invade lower-levelled worlds and make it look like they have conquered the planet using clever editing tricks and kitting the natives out with war-gear to make it look like a battlefield. The only difference being that the Zaross are kitted out with actual weaponry whilst the humans are unknowingly using fake guns.
Now, with their eyes set on the puppet masters, the Doctor, Rose, Jackie & Jess head to their ship as the “Invasion” continues. They try to reason with the director and the other crew members but none of them will listen to their pleas for mercy. They manage to discover that the programme is on its tenth series, contrary to the Zaross’s earlier statement, and as a result figure out that the Zaross replaced their previous conquering race three series’ ago, who replaced the conquerors three series’ before that. Meaning that the Zaross would be replaced sooner rather than later. The Doctor gets the Zaross on his side when he tells them the truth about the programme & their fate. The Zaross then drive the crew off and then leave the world in peace.
GOOD POINTS
We’ll start from the start here, Jackie Tyler has had a breath of fresh air with Big Finish. Back in the day, 2005-8, Jackie was just… Kind of there to be a pest. She was developed, sure, but nowhere near as much as she is with Big Finish. In her appearances so far in the audio medium she’s grown on me so much as a char
acter it’s insane, and she’s on top form once more in this story. It was also quite nice to hear Jackie & Rose talking with each other again. Jackie Tyler – MVP.
At one point Rose mentions the Cybermen, meaning this episodes takes place more than likely after Age of Steel, which was a good area of series two, it fits in well with that time slot too and it doesn’t drench you in forced, unwanted Doctor/Rose shipping… Ah, the good old days…
The Zaross themselves are a pretty cool race and they lead to a few funny moments throughout the story. Their story is a bit exaggerated but it’s not beyond the realm of possibility. Ignored race only wanting recognition by other races and are at the point of doing anything they can to get said attention.
David Tennant & Billie Piper are on point in this story and it’s like they were never apart. David & Billie really work well together and it’s nice to have a story from an era where their will-they/won’t-they was just a twinkle in the collective eyes of squealing fangirls everywhere.
Alien invasion programme called Take Me To Your Leader. Yes. More of that.
Tennant’s last line. Love stuff like that. Not spoiling that one.
BAD POINTS
Ever read the 9th(?) Doctor novel Winner Takes All by Jacqueline Rayner? This episode strongly reminded me of that book. It was an alright book, but I didn’t want an audio dramatisation of it… With the wrong incarnation of the Doctor.
This may just be because I was reminded of Winner Takes All but I found this story very predictable. I picked up on the Zaross saying series three and then the director saying series ten and knew instantly how the entire rest of the episode would go down. Until that point though it had me pretty interested in the unfolding of events.
A pretty interesting plot hole I discovered whilst writing the plot synopsis is if they only invade a small part of a planet and make it look like a planetary conquest… How did they manage to wipe out the last army which the Zaross replaced? And the army that was replaced by the army before the Zaross? May just be me overlooking a detail or over-thinking it, but what can you do?
CONCLUSION
All things said I enjoyed this audio, my only major complaint is that I predicted it to the finest detail rather early into it, but there are more good points than bad. I’m looking forward to listening to the other two stories in this Volume, especially the last one, Cold Vengeance. Oooooh, Cold Vengeance has me excited even more now.
So, overall good story, well acted and a treat for any 10(?) & Rose fan, I’d easily give this story a 7/10 and strongly recommend it to anyone who is a fan of either David Tennant’s Doctor or a fan of Billie Piper’s eventual train wreck of a companion, Rose Tyler.
Forewarning, probably going to have spoilers in this, so if you really want to see the film, go ahead, but I honestly wouldn’t waste your time.
The “Justice League” we’re stuck with for the foreseeable future.
DC holds a really special place in my heart. The stories, the characters, the world(s) that make up the DC Universe are important, and a major player in the comic book industry. DC make some great TV shows like Legends of Tomorrow, Smallville & the entire DC Animated Universe, but their fortunes don’t run so well when adapted to the silver screen. In recent years DC films have bombed critically and it’s not hard to see why. Be it chasing the success of rival company, Marvel’s, cinematic growth to the nth degree or just making bad decisions on story or characters. There’s a wealth of lore and stories to tell in the DC universe’s long history, so why are the films failing to badly? The answer to that can be summed up in three simple words.
Batman versus Superman.
Moreover what the words means for the universe. In the comics, Batman and Superman have been allies since the Silver Age and whilst there have been conflicts over those following decades, none of them have been particularly jaw dropping. So to base the foundation of an entire cinematic universe on a plot idea as uninspiring as the concept of Batman and Superman punching one another for a few minutes is frankly preposterous. Going on from that it can only get worse – at least without some major effort into making it watchable is applied (Thank you Patty Jenkins).
2016 is where it belongs though, the dark recesses of the past so now we look forward to Justice League! The major motion picture we’ve eagerly awaited since we discovered that Zack Snyder planned to use Man of Steel as the kick off to the DC Extended Universe (said no one who actually saw the result of that decision).
That’s right, the Justice League film came out on Friday 17th November 2017 and it’s no secret the reviews have been less than stellar so far.
I purposefully stayed away from reviews of this film including any specific details so that I could give this film a fair try. I had zero hopes for it, but I was willing to give it the benefit of the doubt and surprise me. I owe the DC pantheon of characters that much at the very least. A Justice League film is something generations of comic fans have wanted for decades and we finally got one. I couldn’t get to see the film until two days later so on Sunday 19th November 2017 my friends and I (Affectionately dubbed “the Suicidal Squad” in honour of the quality and respect of DC’s most decent bomb (Because Wonder Woman didn’t make us want to rip our eyes out) headed out to our cinema of course and took our seats in a surprisingly empty cinema screen for what promised to be an interesting visit.
Justice League – The movie we don’t deserve, but the one we’re stuck with right now.
Admittedly, the first 20 minutes or so were tolerable. They weren’t excellent, nor were they terrible, they were just… There. Setting up the characters was a tad rushed but that was to be expected considering 97% of the characters in the film were being introduced for the first time properly in the space of 120 minutes. Almost as if they should have put more effort into establishing who the characters were and not rely on general audiences to just know who they are. This became a recurring niggle I had with the film. When it was over I challenged some of my friends to tell me personality traits of the Flash, Aquaman and Cyborg and they struggled outside of generalised stereotypical responses. These were heroes we had no idea about, and that immediately soils any emotional connection you could have with any of them right from the get-go.
Aquaman has long hair and lives in the water so he must be a surfer, duuude. Also, one of the first things he does in this film is throw a bottle in the ocean. Aquaman pollutes the ocean. Let that sink in.
The Flash can’t have any friends because he has super powers and no one can ever lead a double life in a comic book franchise.
Cyborg is a robot, physically, mentally and that is not a good thing.
Batman becomes DC’s biggest moron for no actual reason.
Wonder Woman is female, so she MUST be a maternal figure, there’s no negotiating that. Women HAVE to be the maternal figures of any group.
Superman is… *Sigh* Superman is there because Justice League. He has even less involvement in this than he did in Batman v Superman and that is saying something.
Great League, guys, really thought it through.
So the story, if you’ll call it that, of this film is Steppenwolf, who is an alien who wants to make Earth like his own planet (Man of Steel, anyone?) for no particular reason outside of for the sake of conflict. How does he manage to achieve this? Well, remember how in Avengers we had the blue cube thing opening portals up into the sky so that an alien one-shot-one-kill race could fly out into the sky and take over the world? Yeah it’s basically that but with Parademons (Which are never properly explained) and three, count them, THREE cubes this time. Gripping original storytelling right there.
As a side note, I’ve only encountered Steppenwolf once in the comics and that was in the New 52’s Earth 2 run which was decent but without my knowledge of it from that series I’d have had no idea who Steppenwolf is, what his whole deal is, or his connection to Darkseid who’s involvement in this film is literally an easy to miss name drop. Excellent use of world building there – well done. Really sucks you into the lore, am I right?
So Steppenwolf goes around Earth trying to collect the Motherboxes – the three Tesseracts of this film – one guarded by the Amazons, one guarded by the Atlantians and one in possession of Victor Stone’s father. How did that happen? Never explained, of course! The Amazons lead an attack against Steppenwolf but he takes down the entire batallion without even flinching and makes off with the first Motherbox. He then goes to Atlantis where Mera has a glorified cameo before he wrecks her and Aquaman with little to no resistance whatsoever. Second Motherbox obtained. Yey.
It’s at this point Batman unites the League and he, Cyborg, Flash & Aquaman decide to resurrect Superman for the lols. Wonder Woman protests but they end up doing it anyway. This is where the film truly lost me, irreversibly. The method of bringing Superman back to life was absolutely ridiculous. It’s almost the exact same way Lex Luthor created “Doomsday” [Nuclear Man] in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. Remember the ship that crashed in Metropolis nearly 4 and a half years ago? It’s still there. Why? Never explained. Put Clark in the Kryptonian birthing water, charge it up, hope for the best but this time use the Motherbox and a picture of Jonathan Kent to bring him back to life. Someone at Warner Bros is probably going to say that it was because Lex put blood into the fluid which caused the Doomsday mutation but that is frankly a lie as it’s never explained that it was that which caused the mutation. So Superman is back, and in glorious technicolour! He flies off into Metropolis and sees that his monument that was smashed up in Batman v Superman is still smashed up, his statue’s head is till lying on the ground next to the plinth – why!? Someone would have cleared that up by now and it would be getting restored.
It was at this moment I noticed Clark was somehow, without explination, shirtless in this scene. In the scene before his body had been wearing a rather fancy looking blue suit but now it’s nowhere to be seen. Over sexualisation of men, anyone? Haven’t seen many arguments about that yet. Film specifically went out of its way to make that happen, so where’s the outrage for equality? But anyway-
Superman, understandably, is a bit out of it so when the League all approach him in a defensive formation telling each other not to attack him, that’s not a red flag at all is it? They try to reason with him but from out of nowhere Cyborg’s body forces him to shoot Superman, why? You know the answer by now. Obviously this peeves the boy scout a bit and he goes on to begin attacking them. This is the point the film lost all credibility for me. Superman sees Batman, asks if he bleeds, echoing Batman’s comment in their previous misadventure, establishing that he sees the Batman as a villain and punches him. In the face. Knocks him back, flies a few feet away. Wait for it… Isn’t immediately dead. Superman punched Batman full force in the face and Batman struggled it off. Are you kidding me? Bruce Wayne would be a puddle. He didn’t have any prep time for it either so you can’t argue that.
Of course, whilst all this has been going on Steppenwolf has casually strolled in and picked up the last Motherbox without any of them realising and strolled off again. Our indomitable heroes, everyone. *Slow clap*
So Scooby and the gang all manage to figure out Steppenwolf is planning on using the cubes in a small nameless town in an unidentfied place we’re lead to assume is a small village in Germany. Why? You guessed correctly, never explained. Was it a significant place on the world to operate your takeover from? Does it have any kind of importance to the Motherboxes? Nope, it’s just there. I suppose at this point I should explore the civilian subplot so we know who we’re going to be saving with the League in the 3rd act. Near the start we’re introduced to a nameless family who are sitting eating a family meal in their hom in what seems like a deserted village. The Parademons begin attacking and we cut away. Half an hour later we see the family have boarded the windows and doors and the father is loading a gun to shoot any Parademons that manage to get in. In the 3rd act, when the “Justice League” turn up the family decides to suddenly leave for the sake of added drama and start driving away from the chaos. Flash races to them to help them get away in a few minutes later Superman catches up to him when he is running, challenging him to a race afterward. Surely in the act of Superman catching up to Flash is proof enough that he is faster. I don’t understand why that was a thing.
Anyway, the “Justice League” who are never actually called that throughout the duration of the film, make their way to unidentified potentially German ghost town and engage in Steppenwolf and his legion of Parademons. A majority of the final battle is Wonder Woman v Steppenwolf with Cyborg & Superman seperating the cubes, Batman & Aquaman fighting Parademons and the Flash running around trying to look like he’s actually doing something until Batman tells him to get his shit together and save the unidentified random family we’ve been following throughout the film. If you’d taken out the Parademons from the battle it’d have been over in an instant as Wonder Woman on her own was defeating him – despite an entire legion of Amazon warriors going down like flies in the first act.
Now’s a good time to discuss Steppenwolf. Who is he? Where is he from? What exactly was his goal? None of these questions are adequately answered, if answered at all, and we’re supposed to be opposed to him just because the film needs a villain and Hippalita says he’s a bad guy at the start of the film. The League figure out his plan exactly purely through complete guess work. Educated guesses perhaps, but guesses all the same. I don’t think any more than 5 lines were exchanged between him and the “League” throughout the course of the film. Asd for his abilities, inconstatant is the word of the day. When he attacks Themyscara he carves down the Amazons like paper in a furnace. When he attacks Atlantis Aquaman and Mera barely make it out of there alive and only do so because Steppenwolf gets the Motherbox. Then in the final conflict he can’t take out a lone Amazon, a clumsy kid who runs quickly, a robot literally standing there ready to be picked off at any moment and an idiot in a bat costume whilst backed up by an entire army of Parademons. Superman turns out but doesn’t really help much anyway, so as I said, there’s actually no point in him being in this film.
So in the end Superman uses his freeze breath to freeze Steppenwolf’s axe and then Wonder Woman hits it with her sword and it shatters. This immeditaly makes Steppenwolf quake in his little boots because how he doesn’t have a pointy object to throw around and the Parademons sense his fear. The Parademons then begin attacking him as he screams and the League make a terrible one-liner in his general direction. He gets beamed off the planet but his helmet falls to the ground. Does this mean he’s dead? Or did he just drop his helmet? Why did every Parademon end up in the portal as well when there were some miles away chasing the unidentified family? Who knows… and at this point who cares?
So then we get our hero pose. Everyone will look back at this moment in the future and have it as a desktop wallpaper forever more. Except… Flash is looking at Cyborg as if he’s a long-lost lover. He’s not looking at where the rest of the “League” are, so it ruins the image for the sake of a fist-pump subplot running between him and Cyborg. Why?
So after that we see Bruce & Alfred walking through the abandoned Wayne Manor discussing plans to make it into the Hall of Justice. Yeah, that’ll definitely keep your identity hidden, Bruce. Turning your parents house into the base of the Justice League. Clever. And then it just kind of fizzles out into nothing… The world is saved, but there was never any actual sense of danger to begin with because the plot was so badly explained and realised you just didn’t feel anything for it, the characters or anything you were seeing.
Post credit scene #1 had Flash talking tough to Superman about how he’ll beat him in a race, even though we know Superman is faster at this point, and they begin racing and it cuts out immediately, because why actually show the Flash get it handed to him? Even though Flash is faster than him in the comics. Post credi scene #2 features “Lex Luthor” on a yacght with Slade setting up either the Injustice League or the Legion of Doom which is all fine and good BUT a Flashpoint film has been confirmed. So what is the point of beginning to set up the Legion of Doom if you’re going to erase it from your universe shortly afterward? If it’;s before, then why are they still making these plans? It’s a different reality after Flashpoint, you can’t carry over plots from then to now and let them be a thing.
As a special note, let’s look at the music. The classic Linda Carter Wonder Woman these plays at the beginning of the film when Wonder Woman is saving people from bank robbers. Orchestral, not the full on “Wonder Womaaaaaan!” lyrics. That’s all fine and good and was a nice nod to the legacy of the character. Superman’s classic Christopher Reeve era theme plays as he savagely beats down the rest of the League, because that’s fitting. Finally, Batman’s 1989 theme plays during the third act, which doesn’t really fit the overall tone of the scene and distracts you from it, I mean – more than the indecipherable quick-cut action scenes do.
My thoughts on Justice League were mixed at the start, but then paved way for unrelenting distaste for what I was seeing. The characters were flat, 2D caricatures of what they should have been, the villain was a joke, the pacing was abominable, I didn’t care about the family, or the ghost town they seemed to live in. Batman surviving a full blown punch from Superman without even as much as a flinch was an abomination, the plot was barely existent and what there was of it was a beefed up, worse version of the plot of the first Avengers film. Story by Joss Wheadon? I can tell, and I’m very disappointed in that man for allowing this to happen the way it did.
Undoubtedly within the next few weeks we’ll get an announcement of an extended edition of this film but I won’t be purchasing it. My reasoning for this is Man of Steel and Wonder Woman don’t have extended versions, so why should Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Suicide Squad or Justice League require them? Don’t give the studio more money and encourage them to deliver half-made films to the theatres, because that is one of the reasons cinemas are dying out. The reason no one seems to acknowledge because piracy is easier to pin the blame on.
The first 20 minutes of this film admittedly had me wanting to see where it was going with this film, but everything after that was a gradual slide into disparity I hope DC never present to us again, but who am I kidding? It’s because of this that Justice League (2017) gets an overall rating of 2/10 from me. Better than Batman v Superman, but only marginally.
The best course of action for DC would be to end this extended universe right now and start again, making sure not to fall into the pit trap of trying to do so much in so little time it just becomes a mess. The MCU works so well because we’re introduced to the majority of their pantheon slowly and deliberately. Not in a 5 minute long scene of 20 second video clips on a laptop at the and of act 2. Don’t rush it, DC, your fans want to see you succeed and we frankly deserve better than this. Rushing it just makes it disjointed and unfocused. We deserve better, the Justice League deserve it more.
As you’re probably aware by now, I’m a big fan of the Pokémon franchise and have been for a large majority of my life. I have fond memories of my childhood playing the games, watching the anime, and as a special treat, once a year going to the cinema to see the newest Pokémon film!
So, now a 25 year old adult, when the 20th Pokémon film was revealed to be having special screenings in my local cinema, I knew what had to be done. I made contact with my usual cinema-going friends and other fans of the franchise to find out if they wished to join me in seeing it but due to work and other boring commitments, all but one was unable to go.
Cut ahead to the 6th November 2017 and the day had arrived. My friend, Gavin, and I headed to Newcastle for the 4:30pm screening of Pokémon The Movie: I Choose You. Gavin’s motivation for going to see the film was similar to mine, but unlike me he had fallen out of favour with the series during the beginnings of the 3rd generation (Ruby & Sapphire) and had not ventured very deeply into the franchise in over 10 years, so the nostalgia was a big part of his wanting to see it.
We took our seats in the surprisingly full screening and (as a sidenote, I overheard a tid-bit of a conversation going on in the row behind us about rumours of an Alolan Oddish debuting in Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon – Watch this space) were soon greeted by trailers for Pokémon Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon. Seeing those on the big screen was enough to get me even more hyped for the film than I already was and then, quite suddenly, we were faced with a Pidgeot soaring through a valley and the adventure began.
I’ll try and keep this review spoiler free, sorry in advance if anything slips under the radar, though.
Part Two – Animation & Music
Ash & Pikachu look over the mountainous landscape of Kanto.
From the very first shot of the Pidgeot soaring through the valley and opening up onto the coliseum I knew we were in for a treat with the quality of the animation. The Pokémon films always seem to be that little bit extra effort into making the films the best animation quality they can get at the time and this one really showed that off. The movements of the characters and the lighting effects were perfect throughout the entire film and the background, scenery and… “Vibe” of the Pokémon world were perfectly realised.
The stellar animation was only complimented by the music, which I feel was one of the stronger parts of the film. The soundtrack alone stirred feelings of happiness and sadness at the perfect times and stirred into the happenings on screen so perfectly you were barely aware of it some of the times but you felt its effects all the same.
There’s a small melody throughout the film that I really liked, it had the chimes tingling through it and it played in the calmer moments of the film. If anything, that’s the tiny but of music that’ll stick with me the most but it’s hard to describe from memory. I’m looking through YouTube for it as I write this but having no such luck. May have been and English dub addition. I’m sure I’ll find out in time.
Of course, I have to acknowledge the re-mastering of the original Pokémon theme song from the anime. It was perfect, seeing Ash going through his early travels with Pikachu with the instant classic blasting throughout really drove home the nostalgic feelings in both myself and Gavin. Is it better than the original? Nostalgia says “Of course not” but a more level headed opinion may give it some serious consideration. Which am I? I’m on the fence. I’d have to listen to it again to be sure but I’ve never been the most nostalgic person… For the most part.
Part Three – Story & Pacing
The story, while entertaining, was not perfect. In recent years the Pokémon film stories have been very lack-luster, slightly forced or just plain boring (ie. Hoopa & the Clash of Ages, Zoroark: Master of Illusions & Kyurem & the Swords of Justice) so to have a pretty decent story in a Pokémon film was actually much more of a breath of fresh air than I anticipated.
Ash & Pikachu find the Rainbow Wing after seeing Ho-Oh at the start of their journey.
The thing I enjoyed the most of the story of this film was that it was simple. There were no doomsday plots, or magic floating castles that ran on ancient gear-based Pokémon, or some madman trying to capture God for the badly conceived lols. It was just Ash, Pikachu, Verity & Sorrel out looking for Ho-Oh after Ash was gifted the Rainbow Wing at the beginning of his journey. Catching glimpses of Entei, Suicune & Raikou through their travels as the legendary beasts seem to be keeping an eye on Ash and the others to report their progress back to Ho-Oh. Of course, there are other elements to the film than a simple search quest. Cross, a trainer who believes the best way to train Pokémon is to be a drill sergeant and not a friend is out to find Ho-Oh, battle it, and prove he is the strongest trainer of all.
However, a legend says that should the Rainbow Wing be touched by the “Heart of Evil” it shall lose its colour and fail to summon Ho-Oh, enter Marshadow – the Generation 7 Ghost/Fighting Mythical Pokémon debuting in this film.
I praised the story for its simplicity, but it is also its weakness. The motivations of the characters were a tad weak, I thought. There’s nothing driving them forward other than the off chance they might possible have a slight chance of battling Ho-Oh at the end of it all.
As for the pacing, it is a tad rushed at the start, but I understand why. It wants to get Ash up, out of bed and Pikachu on the clothes line getting dragged out of Pallet Town ASAP but there’s not a lot of breathing space for the first 5 minutes of so of the film. That changes once Pikachu electrocutes the Spearow and he and Ash start to become friends. The time lapse with the aforementioned re-mastered original theme song playing over it shows their friendship growing as time passes and then the pacing evens out considerably as it moves on from recreating the first episode of the anime into telling its own story.
Toward the end of the story there is an obvious call back to Mewtwo Strikes Back involving Ash & Pikachu. It wasn’t really necessary and it didn’t really make as much sense as it did in the original film but it was a heartfelt moment nonetheless, though I totally and fully understand those people who disliked that particular moment of the film because it was admittedly a tad tacked on. Anyone who has seen this film will know what I’m talking about, especially if they’ve also seen Mewtwo Strikes Back.
The pacing keeps a steady track of itself throughout the remainder of the film and no moment feels like it’s trying to fill in a runtime quota. Even the calmer moments where Ash, Pikachu, Verity and Sorrel are travelling throughout Kanto manage to have relevance to the plot as they take those moments to develop the characters and enrich this new take on the Pokémon world. Enrichment that really, really paid off.
Part Four – The Human Characters
Ash was, well, Ash. Not much more to say. Hot headed and eager to go on an amazing adventure, but with a good enough of a heart to make him likeable. His arc in this story was one I did not see coming whatsoever and one I wish the anime had included a bit more of. It’s no spoiler to say Ash wanted a Squirtle for a starter, failing that a Bulbasaur or a Charmander and Pikachu was a Pokémon he never even considered. In the later half of the film when Ash is under the influence of the Heart of Evil he makes reference to this and almost destroys the friendship he and Pikachu had built up throughout the entire film, but their bond wins through and Pikachu saves him from the darkness of the real world. That isn’t a metaphor.
Sorrel & Verity
Verity and Sorrel’s stories were pretty simple but they did the job well enough. Sorrel wanted to study legendary Pokémon and joined Ash & Verity to get a good look at Ho-Oh. Raikou, Entei & Suicune were just icing on the cake. Verity’s story was a tad more interesting as she had escaped from her home in Twin-Leaf Town, Sinnoh, to get away from a negligent mother. In the end her seeing the bond of friendship and love between Ash & Pikachu inspires her to return home and work on her and her mother’s relationship. Simple, but effective.
Team Rocket on the hunt for Entei
As for Team Rocket, well, they didn’t get built up to be much of a threat at all BUT I’m fine with that as they added some great comic relief which never felt forced or out of place. Jessie, James & Meowth got up to their usual antics but instead of going for Pikachu their focus was on Entei until they caught wind of Ash & co seeking out Ho-Oh & as a result shift their kidnapping schemes to the legendary phoenix. To disastrous, but amusing, effect.
Part Five – The Pokémon & Acknowledging Death
Butterfree leaving Ash & Pikachu behind to live a new life.
One of the things I knew was going to happen when I ordered the tickets to see this film was that I’d be seeing a recreation of the scene Ash has to say goodbye to Butterfree. I knew it was coming, but that did not stop the tears. Gavin had been crying through a majority of the film at that point but it was the “Bye Bye, Butterfree!” scene that pushed me over the edge. The Pokémon were handled really well in this film. Ash was reduced to having only Pikachu, the Charmander line & the Caterpie line throughout the film as to not make it overcrowded, as much as I’d have loved to see the Squirtle Squad, I understand why they weren’t included.
Pikachu was undoubtedly at its cutest in this film, Caterpie was as eager as its anime counterpart to fly in the skies and when it finally did so, the goodbye scene was emotional and fantastically made all round and Charmander’s story got some improvements which effectively made it feel more genuine.
On the topic of Ash’s Charmeleon & Charizard obeying him as I know that’ll get fans riled up and throw hissy fits because it didn’t follow the anime to the letter. My opinion is this – So what? It’s a retelling, not a remake. Ash’s Charmander evolved in the anime he was at a point of skill where the resulting Charmeleon didn’t respect him and later Charizard only grew to do so after Ash proved he was capable of greater things. It always niggled me in the anime that the cute little Charmasnder Ash saved from certain death would grow to resent him for so long, so to have their bond actually grow with the evolution made more sense to me. Also, from a storytelling point of view should Charizard have shown no respect for Ash throughout the film it would have made the narrative very jarring and made the entire Charmander sub-plot pointless.
Lapras transporting Ash & co to Ho-Oh
Verity’s Piplup & Lapras were great additions to the film also. It was great seeing newer generations of Pokémon taking up larger roles in a film set when there were only 150 known Pokémon so Piplup, and Sorrel’s Lucario, were very welcomed – Gen IV remake hints anyone?
In regards to Sorrel’s Pokémon though, I’d like to take a moment to acknowledge that we, as an audience, had definitive confirmation that a Pokémon can die of hypothermia. Sorrel’s Luxray succumbed to the cold after keeping him warm in a blizzard all night and we actually got to see the corpse. For a kids film that’s pretty ballsy and I applaud them for not cutting it out of the dub.
Image found here: https://otakukart.com/animeblog/2017/08/31/find-raikouentei-suicune/
It’s always great to see Raikou, Entei & Suicune in the films too. They tend to get overlooked in recent generations so it was nice for them to make appearances, especially in a film focused on Ho-Oh – even if Raikou’s inclusion was very little more than a glorified cameo. #JusticeForRaikou
Part Six – Fan Nostalgia
As a long time fan of the franchise having gotten into it during “PokéMania” in the late 90s/early 2000s I noticed a lot of very small references throughout the film. Like how in the coliseum at the beginning the trainers battling were the trainers that made it to Mewtwo’s Island in Pokémon The First Movie: Mewtwo Strikes Back.
Or, indeed, that the film seemed to be trying to have an appearance, however brief, of all of the original 149 Pokémon throughout the film. From the inclusion of a Paras watching Ash & Pikachu train in the woods to a Voltorb impersonating a PokéBall in the end credits. That was a fun little thing to look out for throughout scenes with crowds in them. The only ones I didn’t spot were the Dragonite line but I could have missed those before I realised what was happening.
I mentioned before, the recreation of the original theme song played a big part in the nostalgia of the film and was what set Gavin off on the nostalgic bender that we both embraced for the entire film.
The showing of affection that began it all.
One thing that I did pick up and thought “Hold on, that’s not right” in the film was near the beginning when Ash was battling Erika, the Celadon City grass type gym leader. Once she was defeated (A feat anime Ash failed to accomplish) he commented that this would be his 3rd badge. Hold on, wait a minute, 3rd badge? Third? Not sure if this was a dubbing error but a Google search will tell you Erika is the 4th gym leader in the Kanto region. Nit-pick, but a valid one.
As I said previously, I’m not the most nostalgic person for the Pokémon franchise because I never got out of it long enough for it to become nostalgic but there were a lot of moments which cranked it up to 11 in the nostalgia department, even for me. Ash saying goodbye to Butterfree, finding and saving Charmander, even Ash & Pikachu meeting for the first time. The stories I grew up with and cherished as a child
Part Seven – Future Hopes
My cinema ticket
Another thing I praise in this film is the lack of sequel bait. With so many modern films (Avengers: Age of Ultron, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice) foreshadowing to events of future films is jarringly forced into the narrative, disregarding any kind of pacing and themes they had going in the film so far at that point. So it was refreshing to see an open and closed story.
That being said, though, I’d love for the creators to follow this reimagining in future films. I want to see how this Ash & Pikachu continue to grow in their travels. Imagine seeing a alternate take on the Team Rocket/Mewtwo story? Or the strange new things that could evolve from the knowledge of 7+ generations worth of myths, legends & Pokémon. It could really be a recipe for a unique take on the universe.
Part Eight – Conclusion & Rating
As you can probably tell, I like this film. I like it a lot. It made me laugh, it made me smile with sheer giddy joy at some points and at others it made me cry, seeing things that made me cry as a child 20 years ago. It was a powerfully nostalgic experience and it had just the right amount of mix between new things and old things which really made it that much more special to me, as a seasoned fan of the franchise.
The franchise has a very dear place in my heart, I’ve come to meet new people because of it, made friendships that endear even to this day through our mutual love of those pocket monsters. I’ve had arguments about it, I continue to get as excited as I did 20 years ago when new information about new games is announced and I always go out of my way to see the newest Pokémon film in some way or another, even if I know it’s going to be a bad film… *Sigh* Hoopa… Why?
With this now behind me, my excitement for Pokémon Ultra Sun & Pokémon Ultra Moon has gone into the overdrive and in 9 days time, I’m going to journey back to Alola and take on Rainbow Rocket like it’s no one’s business. Who knows? I may take a certain cap-wearing Pikachu along for the ride.
Perfect for a long or short term Pokémon fan wanting to relive the glory days but not without its problems.
Pokémon The Movie: I Choose You! gets my final rating of 9.5/10. Nothing’s perfect, but this was damn close.
This is a very nostalgic Spectacled Observer signing out.
INTRO
CONCLUSION & RATING
The Spectacled Observer 