Film Reviews

Spies in Disguise – It’s both rather fitting and yet distinctly depressing that this is almost certainly the last ever Blue Sky film. It’s fitting because it’s an energetic, often good-looking, fitfully amusing film that could sorely do with a lot less puerile humour and a lot more plot and character substance, which sums up much of their output. It’s depressing because their next film, an adaptation of the comic Nimona, created by none other than Noelle “She-Ra” Stevenson, could have redefined and revitalised the studio, much in the way Into the Spiderverse was a game-changer for Sony Pictures Animation, and shattered boundaries in the process with its non-binary lead and queer romance. Sadly, new owners Disney have decided to shutter the studio, and killed the film – only ten months from completion – as a result, and that’s a genuine tragedy. Blue Sky is ending with a whimper, when it could have been a bang. 6/10

Arlo the Alligator Boy – This film starts so strongly, with lovely animation, engaging character designs, an irresistibly pure lead character, wonderful energy and fantastic music, but sadly isn’t able to maintain that level. The plot’s a little too thin, the supporting characters lack real depth and purpose, the songs are increasingly less enjoyable variations on the same structure – the last one particularly underwhelming – and the writing too on the nose come the end. How much of this is down to the undoubtedly detrimental effect of the pandemic, and how much to simply not having things fleshed out enough to begin with, I can only guess. A lovely, charming film that does a lot right, but also falls distinctly short of what it could have been. 7/10

The Mitchells vs the Machines – Somehow, this film manages to be delightful, underwhelming and just a little infuriating all at the same time. It’s delightful because it has all of the energy and spirit and invention we’ve come to expect from a film with the names Lord and Miller so prominently attached, has the imperious Olivia Colman making a fun villain out of very little material, manages some genuinely stunning imagery, and has a brilliant score from Mark Mothersbaugh that frequently channels Vangelis. It’s underwhelming because the core thrust of the film, a dysfunctional family coming together, is far too familiar – not least thanks to 30+ years of The Simpsons – and not nearly enough is done to distinguish it, make that concept its own. It’s a little infuriating because the means to do that is right there in the film, but almost entirely ignored, which also results in one of the most egregious bits of queer-baiting I’ve ever encountered. The weak area is that main character Katie’s creative, film-making ambitions aren’t given enough weight, are never properly crystallised; they needed personification to balance out her family and especially her father, and could have had it in the girl at the college it’s hinted Katie has feelings for, but instead of potent emotional weight and conflict and palpable motivation, we get two or three blink-and-you’ll-miss-it teases that amount to nothing at all, while her kid brother gets a stronger romantic subplot, and that’s still little more than throwaway. Either the creative team lacked the guts to truly follow through, or, more likely, executive interference heavily compromised the original ideas, and ultimately the whole film. We could have had a ground-breaking queer lead in a major animated film, but instead we got a gesture so token it’s almost insulting, and that badly undermines an otherwise really good film. 7/10

Jigsaw Review

Brand: Innovakids (Ravensburger)

Title: Canalside Memories

Artist: Trevor Mitchell

Piece Count: 1000

Price New: Unknown, likely no longer available

I Paid: £4.24 (free P&P, multibuy discount) for a second-hand one from eBay

Box: Good size, nice clean design with pleasant pastel colour scheme, but not the sturdiest, flexing more than is entirely comfortable when handled.

Image: Another highly engaging piece from Mitchell, with more variety of colour and texture than might initially seem to be the case.

Pieces: Even better quality than the last Innovakids jigsaw I reviewed, largely a result of having been looked after more by its previous owner, and the shaping of the pieces is actually distinctly different, narrowing and widening in something of a ripple effect. Really nice to work with, despite, like before, the pieces not gripping each other much at all.

Overall: As with the last Innovakids jigsaw, a couple of small weak points, but still a really enjoyable, not-too-challenging puzzle that’s great to just relax with for a while. Again recommended with no hesitation.

Score: 8/10

Jigsaw Review

Brand: Innovakids (Ravensburger)

Title: At the Seaside

Artist: Kevin Walsh

Piece Count: 1000

Price New: Unknown, likely no longer available

I Paid: £4.24 (free P&P, multibuy discount) for a second-hand one from eBay

Box: Good size, nice clean design with pleasant pastel colour scheme, but not the sturdiest, flexing more than is entirely comfortable when handled. This also undoubtedly contributed to minor damage incurred in transit.

Image: A lovely, classic British seaside scene, bustling with interest, that’s clearly and vividly printed. Very satisfying to puzzle together.

Pieces: Good quality, nice to handle, lots of shape variety, and a neat if not tight – the pieces barely hold together at all, so moving them en masse isn’t possible – fit, but like the box not the sturdiest. In this case, though, that means they’re pretty easy to smooth back into shape should they become warped or buckled. There’s also a little glare, but nothing too distracting.

Overall: A couple of small weak points, but still a really enjoyable, not-too-challenging puzzle that’s great to just relax with for a while. Reccommended with no hesitation.

Score: 8/10

Jigsaw Review

Brand: FX Schmid (Ravensburger)

Title: Canalside Chaos

Artist: Geoff Tristram

Piece Count: 1000

Price New: Unknown

I Paid: £6.99 (free P&P) for a second-hand one from eBay

Box: Bright, smart, appealing design, and sturdy with it. The little section giving details on the image is an especially nice touch.

Image: Well-drawn cartoon tableau, with lots of detail and colour, and many sly little gags, mostly funny labels and signs, hidden throughout, only readable on the puzzle itself. Chaos seems an exaggeration, though, as it’s a little static, not that much life in the characters or events depicted.

Pieces: Great quality, feeling and sounding good, with vivid and clear image reproduction and a fantastic variety of shapes, to the point there may not actually be two pieces exactly alike. The one issue is an inconsistent fit, some pieces fairly tight, others quite loose, something undoubtedly exacerbated a little by it being second-hand.

Overall: A really nice puzzle, that’s fairly easy, and thus best as a relaxing distraction for a few hours. The image may leave you a little wanting, especially if you’ve ever built a Mike Jupp or a Jan Van Haasteren, and the erratic fit may cause the odd frisson of irritation, but these are minor niggles. Happily recommended.

Rating: 8/10

Jigsaw Review

Brand: Blatz (Schmidt Spiele)

Title: Historical Map of the World

Piece Count: 1000

Price New: Unknown, likely no longer available

I Paid: £7.99 (free P&P) for a second-hand one from eBay

Box: Simple, clean, sturdy. Some might consider it dull, but I like the minimalism of it.

Image: I’m a real sucker for mappa mundi, loving their richness, detail and colours, and this is a particularly fine example, a pleasure to peruse and to build.

Pieces: Easily on par with Clementoni and FX Schmid for quality, really nice to handle, sound great when running your fingers through them, and fit together pretty tidily, and the image quality is stellar, as crisp and clear and bright as I’ve ever seen. The relative lack of shape variety – at least two thirds of the pieces are the traditional two-knob, two-hole style, while three other shapes make up the rest – gave me pause at first, but they’ve been arranged cleverly, and little overlaps and alignment shifts throughout add a nice extra layer. A few were peeling slightly, but this is a second-hand puzzle, so some wear and tear is to be expected.

Overall: A really enjoyable, satisfying puzzle to build, quality throughout, with a nice balance of challenge and reward. Great to take your time with, to let yourself be lost in, and the finished image is a sight to behold. I will happily build this again, and buy more Blatz/Schmidt Spiele puzzles, and don’t hesitate to recommend them.

Rating: 9/10

Jigsaw Review

Brand: Corner Piece Puzzles (The Works)

Name: All Aboard at St Pancras

Artist: Trevor Mitchell

Piece Count: 1000

Price New: £7.00 (£2.99 P&P)

I paid: £7.25 (free P&P) for a second-hand one from eBay.

Box: Tidy, appealing design and sturdy construction; it looks and feels really good.

Picture: I own an FX Schmid puzzle that features an amazing Carnaby Street image by Trevor Mitchell, so I rate him highly. This isn’t to that level, but still provides ample colour, detail and texture to enjoy, only let down by a bit too much samey grey that can be a little frustrating to deal with, something exacerbated by another, bigger issue.

Pieces: They make a good first impression, thick and firm with great shape variety, a snug fit, bright, clear image quality, and an interesting touch of the company logo repeating on the undersides, adding a potentially pretty useful extra guide. However, they don’t feel or sound quite right, and it doesn’t take long for a fairly serious problem to become clear: they lack durability. Combine that with the tight fit, so tight I was able to lift the complete puzzle up as one sheet, and the result is much anxiety-inducing twisting and flexing as you struggle, and often fail, to separate pieces without damaging them. Not neccesarily a fatal flaw, but certainly pretty detrimental.

Overall: So near, yet so far. This gets so much right, only to sour things with the double-whammy of underwhelming piece quality and a fit that might actually be too tight. It being a budget brand does not excuse this; I’ve built other budget jigsaws that even with thinner pieces have had more durability and longevity, while this one is showing wear and tear after just two builds – one by the original owner, one by me – and a third would very likely do more serious damage. Even with the low price I’d hesitate to recommend buying a Corner Piece puzzle unless you really like the image, and can tolerate the not-insubstantial shortcomings. If only the puzzle was as nice as the box it came in.

Rating: 6/10

Overrated Movies

Movies I believe the critics overrated. As always, this is just one person’s opinion.

Super 8 – I recall the critical reception for this being quite strongly positive. I saw it in the cinema, but struggled to form an opinion; I knew something was off about it, but I couldn’t figure out what. I still liked it enough to buy the blu-ray, and watching it at home the problem came into focus: the alien. Not only does it have an unmemorable design, a variation on the design of the Cloverfield monster, it’s never anything more than a plot device, only ever doing or being what the plot needs it to do or be at any given point. By turns a mysterious shadow, a horror movie monster, a brutal killer, and an eater of humans, it’s therefore extremely jarring, and entirely unbelievable, to then try and make it sympathetic, just a misunderstood victim and fugitive. This, and other details like gratuitous and disgusting projectile vomiting, make for a tonally jumbled, actually pretty unsatisfying film that fails to recapture the spirit of the 80s adventure movies it’s trying so hard to follow in the footsteps of.

Black Panther – I’m of the mind that most if not all the Marvel movies are a bit overrated, but this one feels especially so. True, I could be regarding it a little harshly because I was genuinely looking forward to it, whilst most Marvel, and indeed superhero movies, draw mild interest from me at best. Black Panther was the best character, for me, in Captain America: Civil War, so a whole movie about him was something to be excited for. I’ll also note my dislike of R&B and hip-hop, two musical genres the film’s soundtrack is dominated by, would also have been a factor, not least given how important music is to me in a film. However, I contend there are real issues with this movie, prime among them a lack of depth. The Wakandan culture, and city, isn’t much more than a generic futuristic techo-state with a light African overlay. The characters, too, are pretty two-dimensional with little emotional range or personality, main villain Eric Killmonger in particular underwhelming, and Panther’s a near-monotone shadow of himself. In other words, it’s the standard Marvel template, just made more apparent by its failure to fully embrace the incredibly rich African cultures. Mix in CG that ranges from floaty, unreal Spider-man-esque digital doubles to one jarringly terrible moment in the final fight, and you end up with a film that’s not nearly what it could and should have been.

Avengers: Endgame – Take that Marvel template, soup it up to 11, thickly layer on self-serious self-regard, mix in tired time-travel elements, drag out over three full hours, and you get this bloated, self-indulgent, overblown slog. Marvel movies are production-line exercises in hitting demographics, hollow confections with pretensions of more, and Endgame is the ultimate example of that. This is the film that’s pretty much turned me off Marvel forever; the only thing that might bring me back is a Squirrel Girl movie or series, and we all know the chances of that happening.

Frozen 2 – While not as lauded as the original, critics were still pretty gushing about this film, and I don’t believe it truly warrants that. The story is thin, under-serving the characters, who are less enjoyable and compelling as a result; Kristoff is especially short-changed, given a warmed-over reworking of the proposal thread from Rescuers Down Under and not a great deal else. They feel like they’re going through the motions somewhat, being led by the plot rather than leading it. The songs aren’t as good as the first film’s, either, only two really working, though neither is made great use of. Ultimately, this film wasn’t created because there was more story to be told, but because there was more money to be made, and it shows.

Shazam! – While this film is undoubtedly a lot of fun, the climax especially, it unfortunately rings hollow in some fundamental ways, and thus isn’t as worthy of praise as the critics seemed to think. There’s a strain of cheap, crude humour; oh, for a film that finally realises how overdone and redundant that kind of thing is. Mark Strong isn’t given much substance to work with, resulting in a pretty underwhelming villain. The biggest issue, though, is Billy Batson, an unappealing cynical street-kid stereotype very much in the vein of the New 52 version of the character. Both characterisations seem born of the same belief: that classic, upbeat, lovable Billy wouldn’t work any more. I disagree, and in fact believe that classic Billy would have been a more interesting, more engaging and, given current trends, more distinctive take. It saddens me that even one of the most famously optimistic heroes isn’t allowed to be so any more, instead reduced to a shallow formula that’s becoming quite hackneyed, and the film is lessened a fair amount as a result.

Underrated Movies

Movies that I believe are generally underrated, especially by critics. As always, this is merely one person’s opinion.

Earth To Echo – This film, I believe, had two big strikes against it before a critic even sat down to watch it. One, that it uses the same base plot as ET, in that a friendly alien crashes to Earth, and human kids safeguard it from government agents keen to exploit it; ET is such a beloved movie, and such a critical darling, that anything even close to it is going to be looked down upon. Two, that it comes under the genre of found footage, a genre that has produced such a morass of dross, and so little of real merit, you can to a degree understand the dim view. However, in this instance, these two things have generally blinded the critics to a little gem, a variation on ET‘s theme with a nice, well-used framing device and plenty of charm, energy and heart. Yes, the lead kids could have more depth, but this film has more than enough invention and spirit to not really mind that. It certainly does a far better job of recapturing the feeling of ET and The Goonies than the tonally-discordant misfire that is Super 8.

Clue – This film isn’t a straight murder mystery, and it isn’t a spoof of them, instead occupying a tongue-in-cheek, larger-than-life, wilfully off-kilter world of its own, and I can’t help thinking that’s the main reason critics didn’t enjoy it; it didn’t fit their expectations, didn’t cleave to any of the moulds they knew; the age-old resistance to anything different. It has its flaws: the dog poo gag at the start is poor and is dragged on far too long, and the in-cinemas gimmick of different ones getting different endings was a huge misjudgement, as the first two don’t stand up too well alone, instead only really working as build-up to the third, real one. Mostly, though, it’s 90 minutes of an amazing cast, snappy dialogue, inventively mad situations, and the peerless Tim Curry in quite imperious form. Genuinely a hoot.

Twister – I’m honestly not sure why critics are dismissive of this one. The cinema-going public clearly enjoyed it, as it was one of the most successful films of 1996. It does have flaws: a scattering of stiff dialogue, mostly technical stuff, some weird pacing at the start, everyone rushing off excitedly only to stop for no apparent reason, as if something was cut out, some painfully unsubtle product placement – “YOU CAN REALLY FEEL IT WITH A TELEPHOTO LENS!” – and Cary Elwes is given little to do as main human antagonist Jonas. However, this is far outweighed by the strengths: fluid, vigorous, often technically stunning direction from Jan de Bont (who knows what he could have gone on to do without the dreadful double-whammy of Speed 2: Cruise Control and The Haunting), a strong, engaging cast, fantastic tornado effects that really give the storms variety and personality, from exhilerating to utterly terrifying, and a wonderful Mark Mancina score. Forgive it its flaws, and it’s a sweeping, spirited rush of an adventure that manages genuine emotional heft at one point, and is far superior to recent copy Into the Storm and any of the Peyton/Johnson by-the-numbers disaster flicks.

Puss in Boots – my recollection is of the critics giving this a general shrug, dismissing it as a rote, standard-issue Dreamworks movie, but Turbo this definitely isn’t. It’s a lower-key movie than usual for Dreamworks, on a smaller scale, but that works in its favour, putting the focus squarely on a charming central trio of characters, Puss (the best character in the Shrek movies, for me), Kitty Softpaw, and Humpty Dumpty. Antonio Banderas, Salma Hayek and Zack Galifianakis have great chemistry, and are given strong dialogue and character arcs to work with. The result is a character-driven, warm, whimsical, richly funny adventure with a vibrant, Latin-leaning score, the dance-off between Puss and Kitty a real highlight of that. In my humble opinion, a better, more engaging, more rewatchable movie than the Shrek series it spun off from, and I hope the sequel sees the light sooner rather than later.

Ratchet and Clank – All the reason the critics seemed to need to dismiss the film outright is that it’s based on a series of games. True, game-based movies usually run a gamut from barely tolerable to utterly execrable, but this one is a real exception. The Ratchet and Clank games have a serious spirit about them, a zippy, self-aware energy that’s highly engaging, and the relatively recent trilogy of games, Tools of Destruction, Quest for Booty and especially A Crack In Time, married that to strong characterisation and genuine emotional heft. The film recaptures all of that, greatly helped by quality, good-looking animation and an impeccable voice cast, including the four main voices from the games. I’m undoubtedly biased, loving the games, the named trilogy especially, as much as I do, but I really believe this is a much better film than the critics were able or willing to see.

Robin Hood – Honestly, I could have picked any one of a number of Disney films. Most of the 70s and 80s output is sorely underrated; The Black Cauldron is the only one that might accurately be termed bad, but that’s more of a noble failure than anything else, and films such as The Rescuers, The Great Mouse Detective and The Aristocats are truly delightful. More recently, The Rescuers Down Under seems to have gotten lost between The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast, a shame given that, dated CG aside (something Aladdin shares) it’s a lovely film, with some breathtaking animation. Bolt is an overlooked one from the early 2000s, lost in a sea of actual mediocrity. For me, though, Robin Hood is the most critically underrated of them all. Yes, it reuses animation, but that was standard practice at Disney and elsewhere, and it frankly feels a little petty to dismiss it because of that. This was a formula-breaking film for Disney and Hollywood in 1973, and sadly remains one now, and that’s almost entirely because of its lead; Robin is not a traditional, macho, fist-flinging, weapon-toting hero, instead being charming, graceful, warm, open, witty, clever, resourceful, emotional, and even vulnerable. He’s more feminine than masculine, and simply amazing for it. Neither is Marian a traditional female lead, having a quiet strength and rich humour you rarely see even today, and as to their relationship, this video from Culturally F’d on Youtube explains beautifully why it’s so brilliant. Even now you won’t see a relationship with this history, depth and meaning, and the Love sequence remains one of the most purely romantic I’ve ever seen. Add in all the other vibrant characters, a battery of sparkling voice actors – Terry-Thomas and Peter Ustinov the irresistible standouts – great music and songs and a soaring, free-wheeling, exuberant spirit I’ve yet to see matched anywhere else, and you have my favourite Disney movie of all time, and a solid-gold classic the CG remake, if it actually happens, will have a heck of a job to even get close to.

Assessing the DC TV Shows

My thoughts on the DC superhero shows I’ve watched. As always, this is purely one person’s opinion, and in addition, for a number of reasons, the pandemic prime among them, I have yet to watch the latest seasons of the shows discussed here.

Arrow

Oh, boy. Rarely has a show displayed so much promise, only to squander it so completely. Season 1 was solid, a good foundation. Season 2 built on that extremely well, with the aid of a great villain in Manu Bennett’s Deathstroke/Slade, and it really felt like things were going somewhere, that Oliver was progressing nicely from Arrow, ruthless vigilante, to Green Arrow, stalwart hero.

Unfortunately, season 3 fumbled; badly. To be fair, from what I understand, a big reason for this was out of their control: they were unable to use their first choice villain, Harley Quinn, thanks to Suicide Squad. The replacement, Ra’s al Ghul, was a poor choice poorly executed. He’s a largely one-note, predicatable antagonist whenever and wherever he appears, always retreading the same path, and this was exacerbated by dull dialogue and an actor seemingly devoid of charisma and presence. He, and the entirely uncompelling, rote relationship between Oliver and Felicity, weighed the season down.

Season 4 seemed well aware of this, and was keen to show off its cracker of a villain, Damien Darhk, as played by Neal McDonough at his scene-stealing, screen-commanding best. Sadly, they came on too strong with him, both in terms of early presence, and his sheer power; inevitably, he faded away at the midpoint of the series, leaving it to sag, and a magical villain of such strength was a bad fit for the grounded Arrow. Another big error was the recurring coda of Oliver visiting a grave, and the question of who was in it; it was a cheap tactic, rendered even more so when it was finally occupied by the second Black Canary to die in the show, another female character death, and one who’d been noticeably sidelined in season 4 so her departure would cause the fewest issues. It left a bad taste in the mouth, but nowhere near as bad as the last two episodes of the season. In them, Darhk’s plan was revealed to be a tired rip-off of Stromberg’s from The Spy Who Loved Me, contrivance saw Felicity the indirect cause of tens of thousands of deaths by nuclear annihilation, and the clumsy thread of giving Oliver mystic powers of his own with which to combat the now ultra-powerful-thanks-to-enslaving-all-the-spirits-of-those-nuked-to-hell Darhk culminates in an entirely unbelievable street battle. It’s awful, a bungled, tone-deaf mess that leaves you wondering what the showrunners were thinking, or if they were even thinking at all.

Season 5 just seems to give up. It has no main villain, but a series of identikit murderous vigilantes alternating small massacres with Oliver, no impetus, no life, no nothing. It’s a dreary, leaden, cynical, disturbingly brutal slog, made even more so by the flashbacks. The latter had always felt a little gimmicky, and became increasingly tiresome in seasons 3 and 4, but here they’re almost intolerable, just one repetitive burst of grim violence after another. It sort-of addresses the town-nuking, in the form of a new character, but it’s not nearly enough, especially given how little it seems to affect Felicity. As an aside, it’s also notable how that’s not acknowledged at all in any of the other shows, especially in the closely connected Flash. It’s almost as if the nuking was a cheap shock tactic they had no intention of following through on in any truly meaningful way. This season also indulges in the wearying cliche of a token gay couple breaking up, because queer people can never be happy. I stuck it through to the entirely unsatisfying finale, then vowed never to watch another episode outside the crossover events. At the end of season two, this show felt like it was seriously going places; turns out, it was face-first into the murk, to fumble aimlessly around. A depressing failure.

The Flash

This show started brilliantly. Great cast, great energy, some actual imagination, invention and humour – such rare commodities, these days – and a sterling villain in the Reverse Flash. Unfortunately, it hasn’t quite been able to maintain that level, mostly through a succession of underwhelming villains, from Zoom (who wants to Take Over The World, but somehow entirely misses or disregards Darhk’s simultaneous attempt to wipe it out) to the Thinker, but also through the odd misjudgement, like Team Flash unhesitatingly taking lives in season 2, but that never going anywhere, in fact being entirely forgotten, serving only to undermine future reiterations of his reluctance to kill. There also are times you think Central City is trying to compete with Star City to be named Most Likely Place for a Security Guard or a Police Officer to Die Horribly to Make a Supervillain Look Appropriately Nasty; put the two shows together and the body count of people in uniform has to be well into triple figures. It’s a good show, often really good, and sometimes fantastic, but you can’t help yearning for more consistent writing and a properly meaty villain. Also, for such a famously upbeat and cocky hero, it’s amazing, and a little saddening, how few opportunities the perfectly-cast Grant Gustin gets to actually show that. Give it kudos for making its main relationship one of the few half-decent ones in the DC shows, though, and Tom Cavanagh will never not be worth watching.

Legends of Tomorrow

A frustrating show, in that while it has a great cast and endless inventive energy and can be absolutely brilliant at times, it has one big issue that compromises it pretty badly – tonal jarring. This is a nutty, almost cartoony show, broad and bright and unashamedly silly, yet also feels a need to keep throwing in moments of darkness and usually graphic violence that clash really badly with the overall tone. The episode in which flesh-eating unicorns run amok at Woodstock is a prime example – a supremely daft idea rendered jarring and near-unpalatable by how needlessly gory it is. True, my general aversion to explicit violence undoubtedly plays in, here, but it still feels like an object lesson in how the ever-increasing indifference to violence in US TV can result in heavy tonal conflict. It also plays really fast and loose with its own rules, distractingly so, to the point of contradiction. It does deserve kudos for its strong queer energy, even if that is slightly undercut by the standard US TV need to sexualise everything. Ultimately, a good, often really good, show that has a bad habit of shooting itself bloodily in the foot.

Supergirl

This show gets off to a solid, if not terribly promising start. Season 1 is decent, serviceable, but no more. Seasons 2 and 3, thankfully, improve noticeably, if with the odd misstep, like Supergirl using a Green Martain superweapon to go full Rambo on a group of White Martians, a hugely out-of-character moment that’s tellingly entirely ignored afterwards, but, like Flash’s lethal lapses, does undercut future moments a little. True, not every character engages – looking at you, Mon-El – but it definitely feels like it’s finding its feet. In season 4, it soars.

Season 4 is comfortably, for me, the best season I’ve seen of any of the DC shows, compelling, exciting, powerful, progressive – a trans superhero, played by a trans actor, who is entirely and unflaggingly wonderful – and brave. Giving an entire episode over to detailing a major antagonist’s shift from family man to dangerous, murderous zealot, showing how disturbingly slippery a slope that can be, is courageous and brilliant story-telling. Then they unleash the best Lex Luthor since Lois and Clark‘s John Shea, in the thoroughly relishable Jon Cryer. They even manage to recapture some of the spinning-out-of-control compulsion of the seminal Babylon 5 episode Severed Dreams, with the aid of John Sheridan himself, Bruce Boxleitner (ironically in the role of the corrupt, compromised President). It’s phenomenal stuff, and it really feels like its building to something Big, something Special, but instead…instead the finale drops all the themes so brilliantly explored in favour of Supergirl trading blows with an evil clone then Lex in Generic Power Armour #45569891, and a ‘shock’ cliffhanger twist that feels the worst kind of cheap.

It honestly feels like they copped out at the last minute, and that’s painful. A season that damn good deserved a far better finale than what we actually got. If season 5 picks up on those themes again, and actually makes something worthwhile of them, then that goes a long way to balancing things out, but if it doesn’t, it would be a serious failure. Also, after poleaxing the one truly good relationship in all the DC shows – Alex and Maggie – for no apparent reason other than to again reuse the queers cannot be happy trope, it better not screw up Alex’s new relationship.

Overall

The defining feature of these shows has to be inconsistency, in tone, in character, in plotting. One finally overcame it in spectacular fashion, only to stumble at the last hurdle, one is regularly undermined by it, one is held back from its full potential by it, and one was entirely destroyed by it. Part of that has to be network pressures, but part also has to be showrunners who never seem to have a full grasp on what they want to do, and sometimes no grasp at all. From what I’ve heard Batwoman doesn’t buck that trend, and I don’t expect Superman and Lois (can’t help noting the reversal of Lois and Clark) to, either. There’s plenty to like and even love with these shows, but it’s all overshadowed by what might have been.

Film Reviews

Down Periscope – I recall this being dismissed pretty roundly by the critics when it came out, but it’s not as bad as they made out. True, there are no real belly laughs, but plenty of chuckles, and a great cast given mostly solid dialogue and most of all an engaging spirit and some actual heart. It’s an unpretentious piece of light fun that’s sparing with the crude humour and is content to do the simple things well, with a couple of nice touches. 7/10

Ladyhawke – Not something I’d ever thought I’d say about a Richard Donner film, he being one of my favourite directors and responsible for such delights as Superman: The Movie, The Omen and The Goonies, but this is a disappointment. It starts well, with gorgeous locations, a good pace, a sense of fun, and a nice, sparing setup with lots of intrigue, but by about a third of the way in things falter. The momentum fades, the plot thins out, and you’re left with little to hold the attention. That this film does barely anything with Michelle Pfeiffer – her character, despite being the source of the title, is never more than a plot device – and somehow manages to drain the charisma out of Rutger Hauer, reducing him to a monotone, vengeance-driven murder-machine, really doesn’t help. It ends up being listless and even a little dour at times, with a strain of distinctively 80s Hollywood bloodless (mostly) brutality I found off-putting. A nice, classic fantasy idea undermined by pacing issues, tonal problems and a serious lack of substance. 5/10

Meet the Robinsons – This is a film that really hasn’t aged well visually. True, neither has Toy Story, but that film has strong plot and characters, and this one…doesn’t. At all. It’s an over-kinetic, jumbled misfire that’s far more likely to draw headaches than smiles. 4/10

Atlantis: The lost Kingdom – A nice, very Verne-ian idea, a great voice cast, including Michael J Fox and James Garner, and impressive visuals, but little in the way of character or plot substance. The result is a by-the-numbers, unengaging adventure with quite a high body count for a Disney film. True to form for most late 90s, early 2000s films from the Mouse House, it leaves you wanting. 5/10

Onward – Taking classic fantasy races and dropping them into a modern setting is a fun idea, but it being such a generic, over-familiar American one just feels lazy. Add in pleasant but not especially compelling characters and a lightweight plot, and you have a film that, while not as underwhelming as Brave, is certainly a way short of vintage Pixar. It’s going through the motions, a bit, and does nothing to address the chronic shortage of decent female characters in Pixar films; Helen Parr, and maybe Dory, Riley and Joy, are about it. Points for an imaginative dragon visualisation, though. 7/10

Flora & Ulysses – Take some classic Disney live-action caper movie spirit, add in some hugely impressive effects work and winning characters, and you end up with this eminently enjoyable little romp. The only potentially questionable element is the ‘hysterically blind’ boy, a dubious source of humour. In marked contrast, and unquestionably the film’s star, is squirrel superhero Ulysses, a triumph of CG character creation, brimming with personality and seamlessly integrated throughout; he really feels like he’s there. This joins the first two Stuart Little films in being great all-ages entertainment, and proof of the value of heightening your filmic worlds, even if only slightly. 8/10

The Emperor’s New Groove – Mark Dindal proved with the underrated Cats Don’t Dance that he could recapture that classic Looney Tunes feel, and he does so again here. Snappy, clever, perfectly-timed, wonderfully self-aware, with a great voice cast clearly having fun – Patrick Warburton the scene-stealing standout – and unflagging energy, this is a knockabout romp more than funny enough to overlook a slightly undernourished plot. Oh, and it definitely grooves. 8/10