Spectre

Greetings, Spectre is the 24th film in the James Bond series which was directed by Sam Mendes and serves as the latest instalment since 2012’s Skyfall. It sees the return of Daniel Craig as 007 for his fourth portrayal as the character, while Naomi Harris is back as Moneypenny and Ralph Fiennes reprises his character as the new M following the events of the previous movie. Other actors and actresses include Lea Seydoux as the female lead named Dr Madeline Swann, Ben Wishaw as Q, Andrew Scott as C, Dave Bautista as henchman Mr Hinx and Christopher waltz as the primary antagonist. The song ‘Writing’s on the wall’ was performed by Sam Smith as the introductory theme to the movie but it is rather unremarkable song and pales in comparison Adele’s ‘Skyfall’ in my opinion. The soundtrack was composed by Thomas Newman who had previously worked on Skyfall, as well as other projects such as the Shawshank Redemption and Wall-E.

The plot begins in Mexico City during the Day of the Dead with Bond hunting down an assassin by the name of Marco Sciarra as a last request by his former and deceased boss, M. 007 retrieves the assassin’s ring after he manages to kill Sciarra, causing havoc in Mexico City while he does so. James notices that the ring is carved with the image of an octopus, the symbol of the secret organization to which the hitman belonged. When he returns to London, the current M is furious with Bond and suspends him from any other missions as he was acting without M’s approval. Mallory, otherwise known as M, is under pressure due to the possibility of the 00 section begin shutdown by C for being an outdated system. C wishes to join the British intelligence service to other national intelligence agencies to create a global surveillance movement known as Nine Eyes. To ensure 007 doesn’t make any further movements and damage his chances of saving his department, M orders Q to inject Bond with a substance that allows MI6 to track his every move.

Bond disobeys the orders and attends the funeral of Sciarra in Rome to further the investigation. During his time there, he manages to seduce the assassin’s widow, called Lucia, and foils an attempt to murder the widow. She is played by the Italian actress Monica Bellucia, who at 50 years of age is the oldest Bond girl to appear in any of the films to date. Lucia informs 007 of the shadowy organization called Spectre to which her late husband worked for. The British agent then infiltrates a secret meeting of the organization where he identifies the leader as Franz Oberhauser, who was thought to already be dead, but he is also identified in return. Once his identity is blown, Bond makes his escape from the area but is pursued by Spectre henchman Mr Hinx.

I believe that this film suffered from a few issues, namely having a weak plot that was rather complicated at times and neglecting to explain aspects that were never really clarified. The movie also lacked any scenes that were particularly memorable or of any noteworthy mention. Many of the characters such as Lucia were simply throw a way characters that didn’t enrich the story and I found that the villains, as well as their deaths, to be somewhat dull. For instance, Mr Hinx does not have any personality traits such as those of Jaws or Odd Job that would make him stand out as a classic Bond antagonist. I felt that the surprise twist surrounding the identity of the villain was rather lazy and the connection could be made from the trailers. I also felt that the idea of the 00 programme being outdated was simply too repetitive of Skyfall’s themes but despite its down comings Spectre has some good points such as its strong intro scene and that it was visually pleasing to watch. Overall, I believe that Spectre was a step back from Skyfall but was still better than Quantum of Solace and Casino Royale.

Plot=6/10

Characters=7/10

Special Effects=8/10

Overall=7/10

Quote of the Day

History prefers legends to men. It prefers nobility to brutality, soaring speeches to quiet deeds. History remembers the battle, but forgets the blood. However history remembers me (if it remembers me, at all) it shall only remember a fraction of the truth.

Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter

The Quiz Part 7

Greetings, it is that time of year again. As per tradition, I have a made blog update marking the month of November with another quiz to test the blogging community. This is the 7th version of the annual quiz which contains 10 questions based on various media such as films, television series, books and games as well as general events. As always, the answers will appear below the questions at the bottom of the updates. It will be interesting to see if you can top your scores from last year in which Joh received 8 points, Bris managed to score 7 and Aaron answered 5 questions correctly. I hope you enjoy the latest quiz.

1. Which actor played the protagonist, Michael Corleone, in the Godfather trilogy?

2. Who said the following quote? - “What I try to tell you? This country, you gotta make the money first. Then when you get the money, you get the power. Then when you get the power, then you get the woman. That's why you gotta make your own moves.”

3. Which country will host the next summer Olympic Games in 2016 after London held it in 2012?

4. How many films are in the James Bond series know that Spectre has been released?

5. What is the name of Illya Kuryakin’s fellow agent in the Man from U.N.C.L.E?

6. Telltale’s ‘The Walking Dead: Season 2’ was released between which years?

7. Name the character.

8. Which main actor is missing from the Star Wars: The Force Awakens poster?

9. What is the exact date that Marty McFly and Doc Brown from the Back to the Future trilogy arrive to in the year of 2015?

10. Which cast member from the Lord of the Rings sang the “The Last Goodbye” from the Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies?

Spoilers!

1. Al Pacino

2. Tony Montana/ Scarface

3. Brazil

4. 24

5. Napoleon Solo

6. 2013-2014

7. Owen Grady

8. Mark Hamill

9. 21st October 2015

10. Billy Boyd

Quote of the Day

There is no escape! Don't make me destroy you. Luke, you do not yet realize your importance. You've only begun to discover your power! Join me, and I will complete your training! With our combined strength, we can end this destructive conflict, and bring order to the galaxy.

Darth Vader

Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back

The Scoundrel Squad

Greetings and Happy Halloween! I’m celebrating the holiday by releasing my latest Write Wise entry, the Scoundrel Squad. It is my 22nd entry overall and is a horror themed story set during the Vietnam War. It has been a while since I had written a horror entry, the last being the Julian Crowe series from a few years ago, so I felt it was time to revisit the genre to celebrate Halloween. The Scoundrel Squad was going to be planned out as a trilogy at one point, with this story being divided into two but I decided that it flowed better as a continuous storyline. I have a rough idea in mind for how I would want to end this series but I won’t go into any further details at this time.

As for the Christmas Write Wise, I have toyed with the notion of writing a prequel to Cogworld based on the adventures of Peter, Winston and Cog’s father who was mostly absent during the original story. I already have a plot in mind for that entry but am not sure if I’ll get around to writing it for a while. I would have to read over the original story to remind myself of the lore, in order to keep a continuous world. If it were to go ahead then the main characters form the original book would be in it briefly or only mentioned in passing. I would also like to explore further into the Death and Life of Ellen Smith. I have a few ideas of what Ellen and Bart’s lives would be like after their original adventure but have no main storyline in mind for the time being. After all, it is difficult to raise the stakes after Mercer the Vile tried to destroy the entirety of existence and of course, an omnipotent God could always dispose of threats easily.

I do have a rough plan for a new Christmas entry that is unrelated to any previous instalments or series. I can say little on my project nor can I promise that it can be written in time for the deadline. I intend for it to be a light-hearted story full of quirky characters and inspired by Back to the Future. As for now, I hope you enjoy the Scoundrel Squad and have a happy Halloween!

Quote of the Day

Put Captain Solo in the cargo hold.

Boba Fett

Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back

Sympathy for Lady Vengeance

Greetings, Sympathy for Lady Vengeance is a South Korean film from 2005 that was directed by Park Chan-Wook. It is the concluding instalment in the Vengeance trilogy which consist of three narratively unconnected stories. While separate movies, the three do share similar themes or subjects such as revenge, graphic violence and psychologically dark matters. The first film, Sympathy for Mr Vengeance, was released in 2002 and was the weakest entry in the list in my opinion. Lady Vengeance would be my second choice in the series with the cult classic Oldboy being my personal favourite. The trilogy uses many of the same actors such as Choi Min—Sik playing the protagonist in Old Boy and a main character in Lady Vengeance. The two leading actors in the first film have a smaller role in this movie while the main actress of Lady Vengeance, Lee Young-ae, was not involved in the previous instalments in the series.

The plot is somewhat complex and is difficult to write about without revealing any spoilers. As with the other two films, the movie is quite a slow paced journey and takes place in South Korea during the noughties. The main character, Lee Gemu-Ja, is released from prison after serving her sentence for over a decade. She was imprisoned following a murder case that had reached national interest in South Korea when Lee was believed to have smothered a six year old child named Won-Mo with a pillow. She was twenty years old at the time of the murder. During her time in jail, Gemu-Ja had received a reputation of being altruistic and good natured by undertaking tasks such as taking care of the aggressive prison inmate or donating a kidney to a fellow prisoner. This was revealed to be only a ploy when she left prison as the favours would be repaid and included in her elaborate scheme for vengeance.

There are many characters in this film and various storylines to follow but most of them were mainly created to progress the main plot rather than to serve as complex characters in their own right. While setting her scheme into action, Gemu-Ja is employed in a local bakery and attempts to live the life that was stolen from her buts he is constantly haunted by the ghost of Won-Mo. A large part of the film involves Lee Gemu-Ja trying to reconnect with the one particular person from her past but I cannot delve too far into it as it risks spoiling the plot. Like Old Boy, the main villain’s identity, his nature and his motives aren’t revealed to the audience until later on in the film. Despite this, he does appear in one of Lee’s surreal dreams in which she gets her twisted justice and pay back.

Lady Vengeance is a visually colourful movie, at least for the first half of the story, and contains many well shot scenes as well as interesting imagery. Like the other two films, the music consists of memorable instrumental or orchestral pieces which fits in well with the violent and graphic scenes. It was composed by both Choi Seung-hyun and Jo Yeongwook, who had conducted the soundtrack for the previous instalment Oldboy. Overall, I really enjoyed this movie and the Vengeance trilogy as a whole but I realize these types of films would not be to everyone’s taste due to the dark tones.

Plot=9/10

Characters=8/10

Special Effects=9/10

Overall=9/10

Quote of the Day

Do you see what comes of all this running around, Mr. Bond? All this jumping and fighting, it's exhausting! Relax. You need to relax... Ah well, mother's calling. I will give her a good-bye kiss for you.

Raoul Silva

Skyfall

The Dark Tower: Song of Susannah

Greetings, Song of Susannah is the sixth novel in Stephen King’s long running fantasy series, the Dark Tower. The Dark Tower franchise contains eight books in total and chronologically concludes on the seventh one as the Wind through the Keyhole, the last novel to be released, is located in the middle of the series. It is a complicated plot to explain as its lore is expansive and it holds many storylines as well as having various themes. For instance, time travel and hopping from one dimension to another are important plot points in King’s novels. The genre cannot easily be labelled but it merges Western and fantasy themes together to form a unique setting. The Dark Tower series also serves as King’s main universe as characters from his previous books, such as Father Callaghan from Salem’s Lot, and the author himself are involved in the storyline. Song of Susannah was originally published over a decade ago in 2004.

As with the other novels, the gunslinger known as Roland Deschain of Gilead and his group of warriors are trying to reach the Dark Tower. The Tower is the centre point of the universe in which the gunslinger attempts to reach as the worlds around Roland seem to be dying and he hopes to find a way of stopping the catastrophe. It is connected to what King calls the beams, a force that holds up the universe and is represented by 12 different animals. The group of gunslingers are currently on the beam of the Turtle which is one of the few remaining beams still standing. The adventure has been a long one for Deschain as he has travelled for years and thousands of miles to reach his destination, encountering dangerous situations along the way. In this book, Roland is close to the Tower but his journey takes a turn for the worse when one of his companions, called Susannah, has been possessed by a demon named Mia. Susannah had struggled with split personality disorder before her possession but the demon manages to separate her from the group by taking her through a magical doorway and transporting her into New Yok City in 1999. The demon Mia had impregnated Susannah and promised to deliver the child to the Crimson King, a powerful entity whose motives are unclear but is a constant threat throughout the series.

The remaining gunslingers, Roland, a former drug addict named Eddie, a young boy called Jake and his pet creature Oy as well as Father Callahan attempt to follow their companion. They are able to use the magical doorway but find themselves separated from each other, an unusual occurrence as most of them had been travelling together for the majority of the books. While Jake, Callahan and Oy were transported to the same time and place as Susannah, the other two gunslingers were transported to Maine in 1977. Roland and Eddie are ambushed by the mafia, of who they had previous skirmishes with in the second book, when they are teleported there by the magic door. It is up to them to survive and locate Mia before she can hand over the demon baby to the Crimson King’s men.

This only scratches the surface of the strange universe that is the Dark Tower series. It is full of mythological creatures such vampires, witches, robots and mutants to name a few of those that roam the world. The writing is easy enough to follow even though King does insert random, nonsensical sentences between other sentences for reasons that I don’t fully understand. While I did find the book a bit slower and shorter than some of the early novels, I still managed to enjoy it. King had previously mentioned that he was writing the story as he went along, having no ending planned out beforehand but problems in continuity are more noticeable in the earlier novels. I have no idea how the series will conclude but I am eager to find out when I finish the series next year with his final book. There are also plans for a Dark Tower film that will be released in 2017 and I am looking forward to see how that will be carried out.

Plot=8/10

Characters=9/10

Wording=8/10

Overall=8/10

Quote of the Day

Can I say that curse word now?

Anger

Inside Out

The A-Team

Greetings, the A-Team is a film from 2010 which is based off of the original television series that aired during the1980s. The main cast consists of Liam Neeson as Colonel John “Hannibal” Smith, Bradley Cooper as Templeton “Face” Peck, Quinton Jackson as B.A. Baracus and Sharlto Copley as “Howling Mad” Murdoch. Some members of the original show such as Dirk Benedict and Dwight Schultz have a small cameo roles in the movie as new but minor characters. The music was composed by Alan Silvestri who is known for his work on films such as Back to the Future, Forrest Gump and the Mummy Returns.

The plot begins in Mexico, where Hannibal has been captured by two Mexican police officers who are working for a renegade general known as Javier Tuco. Hannibal manages to break free and runs to the rescue of his fellow soldier, Face, who is about to be executed by Tuco. Peck is saved when Smith and Baracus drive to Javier’s ranch, who manage to halt the killing by dragging Face into the van during the conflict. Despite the rescue, Tuco is still at large and follows them to an army hospital with the intent of killing them. Hannibal had taken this into account while previously scheming the rescue operation as he had planned on travelling to the hospital to recruit one of the patients there. He wanted to enrol the services of the eccentric H.M. “Howling Mad” Murdock in order to fly them out of Mexico. The newly assembled A-Team attempt to escape Tuco’s men by travelling in a medical helicopter in which Javier follows by flying in his own helicopter, only for him to be shot down by the US when he crosses into American soil. The dogfight and Murdoch’s erratic flying leaves B.A. terrified at the thought of flying.

The real storyline begins eight years after the A-Team initially met and takes place in Iraq. Hannibal is recruited by a CIA agent named Lynch to retrieve stolen U.S. Treasury plates and $1 billion from Iraqi insurgents in a black ops operation. The A-Team are given the go ahead by their commanding officer known as Morrison and are ultimately successful in their task as they bring the plates back to base. The situation turns when Morrison’s vehicle is destroyed in an explosion and with their only alibi dead, the A-Team is court martialled as well as jailed in separate prisons. The attack was believed to be carried out by Brock Pike, leader of a private security firm called Black Forest as he desired to have the plates for himself. Lynch, the CIA operative, believes this to be the case as he contacts Hannibal six months after Smith’s incarceration and makes a deal. The A-Team would be fully reinstated after their dishonourable discharge and given clear records after the plates are returned. Hannibal agrees to the deal and plots to bring his old team back together so he can clear their names.

While I found the movie to be generally entertaining, I felt as though the plot could have been stronger and it could have introduced more interesting villains. The writers attempted to develop their characters, which is especially noticeable in Baracus’s sudden pacifism after years of killing people but it seemed forced and proved to be ultimately unnecessary. There was an interest in doing a sequel among main cast members such as Neeson and Bradley but plans were cancelled after it was decided the first one didn’t generate enough profit to warrant any continuation with the property. The actors gave a solid performances but the film was let down by its uninspired storyline. Overall, the A-Team isn’t a must watch experience for viewers but is an okay flick if you want to watch some mindless action in my opinion.

Plot=6/10

Characters=7/10

Special Effects=7/10

Overall=7/10

Quote of the Day

I'll be back.

The Terminator

The Terminator