Pan's Labyrinth
Greetings, Pan’s Labyrinth is a Mexican-Spanish film from 2006 which was written and directed by Guillermo del Toro. Del Toro has worked on many famous movies in his career including Pacific Rim, the Hobbit trilogy and the Kung Fu Panda series. Due to the film’s place of origin, the main cast would be mostly unknown to English speaking audiences. The lead actress, Ivana Bacquero, was eleven years old at the time of filming. Other actors and actresses include Sergi Lopez, Maribel Verdu, Alex Angulo, Ariadna Gil and Doug Jones. The music was conducted by Javier Navarrete who has mostly composed scores for Spanish films but also worked on the American movie, Wrath of the Titans.
In the introduction, a fairy tale is told about princess Moanna, daughter to the king of the underworld. The princess visits the human world and in doing so she loses her memory and becomes a mortal being. It is revealed that Moanna would ultimately die from illness but the King believes that her spirit will one day return to the underworld. The majority of the plot takes place in 1944, when Spain had fallen to Franscico Franco after his victory in the Spanish Civil war in 1939. Ofelia, a young girl who is yet to enter her teenager years, is taken by her pregnant mother Carmen to live with her step father, a man named Vidal. Captain Vidal is the father of Carmen’s unborn child and serves in the Francoist military by hunting down the remaining members of the resistance to Franco’s regime. Ofelia soon learns that that her new home is located next to a labyrinth which appears to be an ancient construction.
Ofelia encounters a stick insect that leads her to the entrance of the labyrinth but the girl is prevented entry into the maze by the house keeper Mercedes. In reality Mercedes is actually an informant for the rebels and uses her position to spy on Vidal as well as passing on important information. At night, the same stick insect from before flies into Ofelia’s bedroom and transforms into a fairy while she is still awake. It leads the amazed child through the labyrinth to meet the Faun, a goat-like creature, who is situated underground. Once the Fauna sees Ofelia, the creature comes to believe that the girl is the reincarnation of princess Moanna as told about in the introduction of the movie. The Faun then promises to give Ofelia the gift of immortality if she is able to complete three challenges before the return of the full moon.
Overall, this was an enjoyable movie that has received critical acclaim and won numerous awards since its release. I should also mention that the film is subtitled for English audiences rather than having dubbed voiceovers and that Spanish is the language spoken in Pan’s Labyrinth. I believe that this gives it an authentic feel due to its setting and provides the film with some charm. I would recommend it to you if you haven’t already seen it previously.
I don’t normally post about personal matters on this blog, normally using it for reviews or as a platform for my up and coming stories but I am making an exception for today. As you already know by now, one of our cats had recently passed away in a tragic accident. This will be the first blog update that I have written without her so I would like to leave a small tribute on this blog for Holly. She joined the family in December 2012 and had kept me company through the years ever since she had first arrived. Holly would often lie on my bed as I was writing for this blog or for my many Write Wise entries. Her absence is very noticeable, despite the fact that we still have two cats in the household. Holly will be missed and fondly remembered by the whole family.
Plot=8/10
Characters=7/10
Special Effects=9/10
Overall=8/10
Quote of the Day
And the moral of the story; appreciate what you've got, because basically, I'm fantastic!
Holly
Red Dwarf
The Godfather
Greetings, the Godfather is a crime novel published in 1969 and was written by an Italian-American author named Mario Puzo. The book started the Godfather series of novels as well as providing the framework for the iconic 1972 film adaptation of the same name and its subsequent movies. The book was followed by several sequels with Puzo’s ‘The Sicilian’ being released in 1984. To my knowledge, this story is centred on a protagonist that isn’t in the original book but it heavily involves Michael Corleone, a primary character in the Godfather. After Mario’s death in 1999, other writers continued his legacy by writing the Godfather Returns in 2004 and the Godfather’s Revenge in 2006. These were written by American author Mark Winegardner. Ed Falco had also contributed to the Godfather by writing a prequel to the original novel, entitled the Family Corleone, by basing his story on an unproduced screenplay by Mario Puzo.
The story begins in the 25th August of 1945 at the wedding of Connie Corleone and Carlo Rizzi. Connie is daughter of the influential and respected Don Vito Corleone, head of the Corleone family crime syndicate. The marriage scene sets up a lot of important storylines that occur throughout the course of the book and serves as an introduction to most of the main characters. For instance, the sons and potential heirs to Vito’s role, Michael, Sonny as well as Freddy are among the characters that are present. The plot picks up after the wedding when the Corleone family are approached by Virgil “The Turk” Sollozzo, a drug dealer hoping to strike a deal with Vito. The Turk, backed by a rival gang called the Tattaglia, wants to win over the Corleone’s ties to influential people in political offices so that he can sell narcotics without fear of persecution by the state. Vito, who would have received his slice of the profits, declined the offer as he doesn’t want to be involved in the narcotics trade.
Shortly after, Vito Corleone is gunned down in an ambush which he ultimately survives. While Vito is in hospital, Sonny becomes the Don as he is the eldest child and seeks revenge for the attack against his father. It is revealed that the Turk along with the Tattaglia family were behind the attempted assassination as they wished to remove Vito and persuade Sonny, as the newly appointed Don, that the narcotics business is the future of crime. Some corrupt police were also involved in the plot to kill Vito, particularly a man named Captain McCluskey who had attempted to finish off the job in the hospital until Michael Corleone interrupted his plans. Sonny, along with advisors like his adopted brother Tom Hagan, begin to scheme with the intent of killing Sollozo and certain members of the Tattaglia family. Michael suggested that he should be the man to kill both the Turk and police officer McCluskey as he was least likely to be suspected of pulling off a murderous stunt due to his disinterest in the family affairs. He is warned that he would have to lay low in Sicily until the incident had blown over after a few years if he was to follow this course of action. Despite this, Michael still insisted that he be the one to personally kill the Turk.
The book and the film do differentiate somewhat as the novel focuses more on characters that were minor in the movie’s version of events. For instance, Johnny Fontane, a singer based on Frank Sinatra, and Lucy Mancini, Sonny’s mistress, are largely ignored in the film but receive their own story arch in the novel. On the other hand, less time was dedicated to Vito than I had expected him to have as I was previously basing my expectations on his presence in the first film. Overall, I enjoyed the Godfather and was interested in how it differed from the film adaptation. I am eager to read other stories centred on the Corleone Family, especially Mario’s the Sicilian, and how other writers have continued the Godfather series.
Plot=8/10
Characters=9/10
Wording=8/10
Overall=9/10
Quote of the Day
See, it's all about control with you! I don't control the raptors, it's a relationship. It's based on mutual respect. That's why you and I never had a second date.
Owen Grady
Jurassic World
A Good Day to Die Hard
Greetings, Die Hard: A Good Day to Die Hard is the fifth instalment in the Die Hard series and was directed by John Moore. It should be noted that Moore has not previously had a role in the other four movies. A Good Day to Die Hard was released to cinemas back in 2013 which means that 25 years had passed since the original film was launched in 1988 and the fifth film’s unveiling. Among the main actors are Bruce Willis as he returns to his iconic role as John McClane and Jai Courtney as Jack McClane, son of the protagonist. Other performers include Sebastian Koch as a Russian political prisoner called Yuri Komarov and Yuliya Snigir as Yuri’s daughter Irina. Mary Elizabeth Winstead, best known for her roles in Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter and Scott Pilgrim vs the World, briefly reprises her role from Die Hard 4.0 as Lucy McClane.
The film starts in Moscow with Yuri Komarov, a whistleblower on the Russian government, is going to stand in a rigged trial. The trial was set up by corrupt Russian official, Viktor Chagarin, as he believes that Yuri has incriminating evidence on him hidden in a secret file. Viktor is unaware of the location. Jack McClane, a CIA operative, has also been arrested after a failed assassination attempt and tries to get a shorter prison sentence by making a deal to testify against Komarov. In America, it is revealed that John McClane has a difficult relationship with his son and has not been in contact with Jack for several years. John learns that his son in is trapped in a troubling situation and he decides to travel to Russia to fix the problem.
Once McClane arrives in the country, he makes his way to the courthouse were Yuri is on trial and Jack is also being held. An explosion rocks the courthouse as part of an attack by an enforcer known as Alik shortly after John arrives at the scene. During the assault, Jack manages to free Komarov and escape the building at which point John is briskly reunited with his son. The three have to quickly escape Alik’s forces as they flee to Jack’s hideout. It is then revealed that Jack had been working undercover for the CIA to free Yuri and use the criminal evidence to bring down Chagarin. Komarov had agreed to the deal if he and his daughter Irina were given safe passage out of Russia in exchange for the document. John McClane is reluctantly pulled into the plan and placed into a dangerous situation once again.
Due to the success of the original trilogy and the first film in particular, A Good Day to Die Hard had a great reputation to live up to. It wasn’t able to do this in my opinion and the series continues to decline in quality. While some of this is to do with Jai’s somewhat wooden performance, the main problem in my opinion is that no villain in the series has been able to surpass or be on par with the character of Hans Gruber. The late Alan Rickman brought charisma to the character and all other foes seem to be a poor substitute for McClane to fight against. Overall, it is an okay but generic action film to watch which can stand on its own without the audience to needing to know about John’s previous escapades. There are also plans for a sixth film that will be a prequel set in 1979 when John McClane is still a young cop. I don’t place too much hope on Die Hard: Year One being able to recapture the feel of the first film but believe that it will be better than the last two instalments.
Plot=6/10
Characters=5/10
Special Effects=7/10
Overall=6/10
Quote of the Day
Most test subjects do experience some, uh, cognitive deterioration after a few months in suspension. Now, you've been under for … quite a bit longer, and it's not out of the question that you might have a very minor case of serious brain damage. But don't be alarmed, all right? Although, if you do feel alarm, try to hold onto that feeling, because that is the proper reaction to being told you have brain damage.
Wheatley
Portal 2
Brotherhood of the Wolf
Greetings, Brotherhood of the Wolf is a French film that was released in 2001 and was directed by Christophe Gans. Most of the stars would be relatively unknown to English speaking audiences due to the cast consisting of French or central European actors and actresses. The most recognisable celebrity would be Italian actress and model Monica Bellucci who plays the character of Sylvia, a courtesan from Italy working in a local French brothel. Bellucci would best be known for her role as Persephone in the Matrix franchise as well as playing Lucia Sciarra in Spectre. Her involvement in the latest 007 film made her the oldest Bond girl in the history of the series. Other performers in Brotherhood of the Wolf include Samuel Le Bihan, Mark Dacascos, Vincent Cassel and Emilie Dequenne. While the film is fictional it was inspired by events that occurred in the former province of Gevaudan. It is based on a mythical beast that was born from the local French population’s hysteria during 1764 and 1767 due to a series of violent deaths in the region. In reality, the savage attacks were likely to be an increase in wolf attacks on vulnerable humans.
The story begins in Gevaudan in 1764 where the protagonist, a man called Gregoire de Fronsac, has been sent by French monarch Louis XV to capture or kill the beast that has been terrorizing the local population. Gregoire is joined in the hunt by his friend named Mani, a Native American who is skilled at combat and hunting. Fronsac, a knight and royal naturalist for the king, is sceptical about the existence of the creature. His scepticism is fuelled when he talks to survivors and finds out that the monster would be bigger than any wolf he had ever come across. A large scale hunting force is formed to cull local wolves in the process of finding and killing the beast. Fronsac and Mani were a part of the aforementioned unit. They were also accompanied by Jean-Francois de Morangias, the son of a local count and a hunter who had put his skills to use in Africa until his arm was devoured by a lion.
The cull appears to have been a failure as other victims of the predator are discovered after the hunt had been called to a halt. Gregoire’s doubts increase about the creature’s existence when he finds another victim of the supposed supernatural predator and discovers that one of the beast’s fangs is made of iron. At this point Fronsac theorizes that there are more rational explanations than a paranormal creature roaming the land and comes closer to understanding the nature of the beast. Additionally, the failure to capture the animal has caused a book named L’Edifiante or the Edifying in English to start making its way around France. The books claim that God had sent the beast to torment the French population as Louis XV had been embracing science over Christianity.
The film is an enjoyable mix of genres with a colourful and unique style even if the characterization wasn’t of the highest quality. The music was composed by Joseph LoDuca, who is perhaps best known for his work in the Evil Dead series. While Brotherhood of the Wolf does has its flaws, it is a movie that I would call an entertaining watch. In other news, my latest entry and sequel to Cogworld has now been published on Write Wise. I hope you like reading Cogworld: Tales of Peter Jepson as much as I enjoyed writing it.
Plot=8/10
Characters=6/10
Special Effects=7/10
Overall=7/10
Quote of the Day
Hey guys, you ever see that really old movie "The Empire Strikes Back"?
Spider-Man
Captain America: Civil War
Now and Then
Greetings, today’s blog update is not a normal instalment in which I review a film, novel or video game as per usual. This is more of a general update in which I inform you of what is currently happening now and what will happen in the future regarding my blog as well as my involvement in Write Wise. At present, I write two blog updates a month and in almost eight years of the blog’s history there has only been four occasions were just one blog update was written for an entire month. I intend to ease off the amount of blog updates that I am currently writing by releasing one per month. This change is for a number of reasons. Firstly, I am not experiencing or consuming as much media to review for the blog that I had been able to do so in previous years. This is due to increased time constraints with work and exercise, among other things. I am hoping this relaxation on producing updates will give me more time to invest in writing new Write Wise entries as well as providing me with an opportunity to experience more games or other mediums. This in turn will mean that I will have a greater variety of items to choose from and review.
On another note, while I had been able to produce around four articles a month in the early years of my site, this has changed because of the growth in content. The modern reviews are a simplistic breakdown of the topic with my own verdict on the subject but the new ones are much larger than and more in depth to what I had been writing back when I started reviewing in 2008. Despite this, I intend to write the updates at the same pace or frequency until the end of this year as I have been so far and will start producing around one per month when 2017 begins. Of course, months like December will probably have more than one update due to the blogging traditions that I have created over the years. For instance, the last update in the year is when I review the year’s entertainment, meaning there are three blog updates that month rather than the standard two.
In Write Wise news, I am still writing the follow up to Cogworld and aim to release it soon. I hope you are looking forward to it and that you will enjoy the story when it is finally released in a short while. This is a notable instalment in my entries as it serves as a prequel, sidequel and a sequel to the original story that was released back for the 2012 Christmas challenge. As such, quite some time has passed as I was still a first year in Queen’s University when Cogworld was published but this new addition is a story that I have wanted to tell for a while and decided this was the year that I would write it. While the original characters play a role in the new novel, they are not the main focus of this plot. It is focused on a character from the first Cogworld and new individuals but the protagonist of this story was never really developed in the original.
During one of the final blog updates from 2015, I had stated that I was hoping to return to the Guardian series in 2016 due to its absence from Write Wise since 2014. This is looking increasingly unlikely considering that we are almost halfway through the year already. I always write the Guardian novels in batches of two due to the fact that it is one long overarching storyline that can be difficult for the readers to remember if the entries are too spaced out. I do plan to write the sequel to the Scoundrel Squad however, as well as continuing a Christmas entry for either the Death and Life of Ellen Smith or the Misadventures of Murdoch and McKenzie. I have yet to come up with a concrete plot for either at the minute but I am confident that I will have an exciting one as the time draws nearer.
Quote of the Day
I am going to die surrounded by the biggest idiots in the galaxy.
Gamora
Guardians of the Galaxy
Captain America: Civil War
Greetings, Captain America: Civil War is the third instalment in the titular heroes’ series and is the thirteenth Marvel movie to have been released since Iron Man first began the Cinematic Universe back in 2008. Civil War also started the third phase of the MCU which will see movies like Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Spider-Man: Homecoming and Thor: Ragnarok coming to the big screen in the years to come. It retains most of the cast from previous instalments of the Avengers as well as the first two Captain Americas but Mark Ruffalo as the Hulk, Chris Hemsworth as Thor and Gwenyth Paltrow as Pepper Pots were notably absent. Among new additions to the universe were Tom Holland as fan favourite superhero Spider-man in his long awaited debut as well as Chadwick Boseman who played the Black Panther.
The story follows on from the events in Avenger’s Age of Ultron and is set several months after the fictional East European Nation of Sokovia was attacked. Several members of the Avengers thwart the plan of Crossbone’s to steal a biological weapon in Lagos but things take a turn for the worst when the villain decides to take drastic measures. Crossbones, instead of admitting defeat, decides to detonate his explosives in the hopes of taking out Captain America as he is in the blast radius. Wanda quickly uses her telekinetic abilities and traps the explosive power in her force-field but she accidently destroys a nearby building, killing humanitarian workers from the fictional country of Wakanda. This accident is another event which causes the United Nations to consider passing the Sokovia Accords, an act which will keep the Avengers under check by a UN committee. It divides the Avengers with Tony Stark leading the side to follow the Accords and Steve Rodgers resisting attempts to be controlled or regulated.
The teams are divided further when the UN conference in Vienna is bombed while a committee is ratifying the Sokovia Accords. Among the casualties is T’Chaka king of Wakanda, the country the dead humanitarian workers were from at the beginning of the plot. This serves to motivate T’Chaka’s son, T’Challa, to take the mantle of Black Panther and seek vengeance on the terrorist responsible for the atrocity. It is soon revealed that Captain America’s friend and Hydra sleeper agent, Bucky Barnes, is thought to have caused the bombing. As such Steve Rogers attempts to find his old war comrade in Germany, with help from a CIA agent named Sharon Carter, before Bucky can be captured by government forces. T’Challa is also on Bucky’s tracks but all three are eventually arrested by German police during a fight, further accelerating the fragmentation of the Avengers and the formation of the two conflicting groups.
While I enjoyed the first two films in the series, I would say that this is my favourite of the three as it mixes humour and dark themes in a perfect blend. I believe that while it took a while to get going, Civil War has raised MCUs standards after it had faltered a little with Age of Ultron. One of the highlights was the introduction of Spider-man, who had quite an impressive impact on the film despite his short screen time. It was also interesting to watch protagonists fight each other rather than have them a united against an antagonist like Loki. Overall, it is a fun instalment in the series and staved off my concerns that the Marvel universe is getting oversaturated for now. I look forward to seeing how this story will continue.
Plot=8/10
Characters=9/10
Special Effects=8/10
Overall=9/10
Quote of the Day
Thats a stupid question Havoc. And when I'm Fürher, there will be changes. That day, all female officers will be required to wear... Tiny Miniskirts!
Colonel Roy Mustang
Fullmetal Alchemist
