“The Killing” wrapped up its first season on AMC recently and unfortunately it did not end on a good note. When “The Killing” premiered the premise was simple. Here is a murder mystery and here are the characters that we will learn about over the course of the season. It was an attempt to take the formulaic crime dramas and merge them with shows that have a season long mystery. The premiere setup a world and a mystery that I thought would be something that could handle those nicely. Unfortunately as the season progressed the show failed at doing both of these things.
If the show was going to have one mystery that was going to continue throughout the first season then it needed to rely on heavy character development to engage the audience enough to not realize that they have been throwing out red herrings all season long. There are several characters that they attempted to do that with. First the two main characters, Linden and Holder. Linden was the true lead character and we were given the chance to build a relationship with her. Unfortunately, part of her arc had the character leaving for California every other episode, when, due to the nature of television, we knew that she wouldn’t be leaving, with half of her development coming from this all of her interactions with other characters felt temporary. Her partner, Holder, had a much more interesting storyline but the finale takes the character and twists him into a villain, this made me not trust the show. The only other characters that we stuck with throughout the show were the Larsons, who were so stuck in grief I found myself wanting to fast forward any time they were on screen because they were so depressing, and the political candidates and the only likable one of those was turned into a villain in the end as well.
With little to hold onto character wise it was up to the mystery to hold my attention. The mystery focused around the death of Rosie Larson. What the show failed to do here was make us care about the character. Looking back at the season the only thing I really know about her is that she was a prostitute on the side. Not enough to make me care about her. The actual mystery took place over three distinct arcs, one for each suspect. At the end of each arc the character that had been suspected was exonerated and the detectives found a new clue to the murder mystery leading them to another suspect. What this means is that with Richardson being thrown out as a potential suspect during this season finale, most of the first season now means nothing as we will start season 2 with a new suspect and a new set of clues.
The writers for this show seem to have audience contempt. They don’t want to like their audience. This can be a good thing as the audience can be surprised by something the writer will do, but it only works if there is something for the viewer to hold on to. After the twists presented by the season finale I don’t have anything left to hold onto for this show and that click you hear is me deleting it from my TiVo forever.
Thursday, June 23, 2011
X-Men: First Class - New Movie Review
Reboot, ret-con, continuity. These are all words that any comic book would know. In the world of comics all three of these things have to work together to bring in new readers and excite old ones. With some comics having almost 80 years worth of storytelling behind them it can get very confusing to know where things started from and who did what to whom. One of the biggest franchises that uses these terms is the X-Men franchise. With so many characters and titles, trying to keep everything straight can be very difficult. It’s fitting that the first comic book franchise to pull this off on the big screen is the X-Men because they are very good at doing it. And they succeeded quite well with “X-Men: First Class.”
The last two X-Men films, “X3: X-Men United” and “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” were garbage. They threw out character development and interesting storytelling for big action sequences and crappy special effects. “X-Men: First Class” was made so that Fox could maintain the movie license. The entire movie was conceived and shot within 1 year and to be honest I thought it was destined to fail. But it didn’t. How? By following the three words I first mentioned. Reboot, the entire movie restarted the X-Men movie franchise from the beginning, everything felt fresh and new. Ret-con, by changing how small things happened in the past, viewers were able to take a new view on how things have happened in the movies that have already happened. Continuity, except for a few small differences the movie fits in with the first two X-Men films, it doesn’t fit in at all with the last two, but it’s probably better to pretend that those don’t exist anyways.
“X-Men: First Class” is setup as a period piece. Taking place during the Cuban Missile Crisis, it explores a world were mutants are not yet hated, but actually aren’t yet even known to exist. A good portion of the movie is dedicated to what we in the comic world refer to as “Assembling the Team.” Every once in a while a new issue will come out that is designed to be a jumping on point for readers where a new status quo will be established. In team books this is known as the “Assembling the Team” book. Most of the time it works because it is fresh and exciting. During these issues we get to see small vignettes of each of the team members that let us know why they are here and what they can do without making it feel contrived. This is what the movie did. The actual plot about trying to end the world was probably the weakest point of the movie. It was the character growth and interactions that really powered this movie and that is what made it great. By taking place in the 60’s the movie was able to capitalize on an era that thanks to “Mad Men” is very popular right now which added to my enjoyment of the movie.
On an acting standpoint this film had two breakout performances and one that was just garbage. January Jones has had to play the emotionally dead wife on “Mad Men” for years. Apparently that hasn’t been acting. Her role as Emma Frost here was terrible, the only dark spot on the movie. James Mcavoy as Professor X was fantastic. He added new dimensions to the character that I would never have expected. But it is Michael Fastbender as Magneto that owns this movie, whether it his portrayal as a Nazi Hunter, friend of Professor X or as the leader of the evil mutants he keeps putting on a great show.
This movie really highlighted some of the interesting things that someone can do with a comic book franchise movie. It gets 4.5 out of 5 stars.
The last two X-Men films, “X3: X-Men United” and “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” were garbage. They threw out character development and interesting storytelling for big action sequences and crappy special effects. “X-Men: First Class” was made so that Fox could maintain the movie license. The entire movie was conceived and shot within 1 year and to be honest I thought it was destined to fail. But it didn’t. How? By following the three words I first mentioned. Reboot, the entire movie restarted the X-Men movie franchise from the beginning, everything felt fresh and new. Ret-con, by changing how small things happened in the past, viewers were able to take a new view on how things have happened in the movies that have already happened. Continuity, except for a few small differences the movie fits in with the first two X-Men films, it doesn’t fit in at all with the last two, but it’s probably better to pretend that those don’t exist anyways.
“X-Men: First Class” is setup as a period piece. Taking place during the Cuban Missile Crisis, it explores a world were mutants are not yet hated, but actually aren’t yet even known to exist. A good portion of the movie is dedicated to what we in the comic world refer to as “Assembling the Team.” Every once in a while a new issue will come out that is designed to be a jumping on point for readers where a new status quo will be established. In team books this is known as the “Assembling the Team” book. Most of the time it works because it is fresh and exciting. During these issues we get to see small vignettes of each of the team members that let us know why they are here and what they can do without making it feel contrived. This is what the movie did. The actual plot about trying to end the world was probably the weakest point of the movie. It was the character growth and interactions that really powered this movie and that is what made it great. By taking place in the 60’s the movie was able to capitalize on an era that thanks to “Mad Men” is very popular right now which added to my enjoyment of the movie.
On an acting standpoint this film had two breakout performances and one that was just garbage. January Jones has had to play the emotionally dead wife on “Mad Men” for years. Apparently that hasn’t been acting. Her role as Emma Frost here was terrible, the only dark spot on the movie. James Mcavoy as Professor X was fantastic. He added new dimensions to the character that I would never have expected. But it is Michael Fastbender as Magneto that owns this movie, whether it his portrayal as a Nazi Hunter, friend of Professor X or as the leader of the evil mutants he keeps putting on a great show.
This movie really highlighted some of the interesting things that someone can do with a comic book franchise movie. It gets 4.5 out of 5 stars.
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