Daredevil Series Review (Season 2)

Released: March 16th 2016 (All episodes at once)

Created by: Drew Goddard

Number of episodes: 13

Where to watch: Netflix (All regions)

Starring: Charlie Cox, Elden Henson, Deborah Ann Woll, Jon Bernthal, Elodie Yung, Stephen Rider, Rosario Dawson and Scott Glenn

The Kingpin may be behind bars, but the fight for Hell’s Kitchen continues in season 2 of Daredevil, an outstanding second offering that goes deeper, darker and more deadly.

With his recent success both in and out of the courtroom, Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox) along with his closest friends “Foggy” Nelson (Elden Henson) and Karen Page (Deborah Ann Woll) are continuing to serve New York with their law firm. While the company appears to be doing well, things are thrown into disarray with the arrival of new would-be vigilantes; The Punisher (played by Jon Bernthal) and Elektra (Elodie Yung). With this comes a new breed of crime twice as difficult to stamp out. Between the Punisher’s ruthless take on killing and Elektra’s often manipulative demeanor, Daredevil must carve his way through a collection of shadowy assailants and hidden corruption as his personal relationships are pushed to the breaking point. But with such heavy adversaries, can the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen stay true to himself and his morals? This is one of the primary themes dealt with in Season 2 and the ways in which Daredevil plays off of these new characters and their own agendas makes it a treat to take in; you feel a real sense of strain being put on the characters this time around and this envelopes both sides of Matt’s persona. The season features far more manoeuvring around the law as well as time in the courtroom with a snide district attorney (Michelle Hurd) out to get Nelson and Murdoch as a company; this relays a sense of tension into a place that was previously calm and subdued. Like any great action successor, Daredevil ups the grittiness of its world exponentially, keeping the interest levels high as a result.

The new actors for Daredevil Season 2 are all incredibly memorable, often serving to get across a bleak tone that hangs over the personal struggles of their characters. Jon Bernthal has a real knack for playing gruff, renegade types and his rendition of the Punisher is easily one of his best portrayals yet. Frank Castle is a damaged individual but once again the series prides itself on peeling back the layers to create deep characterisation; the specifics of which are best left to discover on your own. On the other Elektra is a seductive show-off, with a personal past that creeps into play as the thirteen episodes roll on. Backstories are interwoven to a greater degree than before, binding many of the characters together in a web of intrigue that enhances the plot even more. Having grown into their respective roles, Cox, Henson and Woll are all excellent once again; with so much pressure placed on their characters, you’ll end up caring for them far more than in the original season, particularly as events go sideways and control spirals away from them.

Season 2 is incredibly unflinching in that its often brutal violence gets across the sheer viciousness of Daredevil’s adversaries. The makeup team deserves massive praise for this season in the way they have delivered often sadistic injuries that will no doubt make you cringe. It emphasises the towering stakes just as well as the narrative does.  The fight scenes are just as impactful as they were before, only this time there’s more variety in their execution. The Punisher brings an immensely impactful set of gun fights to Hell’s Kitchen, highlighting his unrelenting efficiency as a marksman. Daredevil and Elektra get their own tag team battles, incorporating a range of hand-to-hand combat styles.  Then there’s the stairway fight, a fantastic single take sequence that blows the first season’s fights out of the water from the get-go. Upping the ante from Daredevil’s first season was no easy task, but the second outing has managed to exceed it brilliantly.

Daredevil Season 2 undoubtedly maintains and continues what the original so enticing, but it’s the thunderous arrival of the Punisher, Elektra and other figures that raise it to another level entirely. Be prepared for high stakes, tension and drama like nothing you’ve ever seen from Marvel.

Rating: 5/5 Stars

Star Trek Beyond Movie Review

Released: July 22nd 2016 (UK and United States)

Length: 122 Minutes

Certificate: 12A

Director: Justin Lin

Starring: Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana, Simon Pegg, Anton Yelchin, Karl Urban, John Cho, Sofia Boutella and Idris Elba 

With thirteen main entries over half a century, Star Trek has enjoyed a strong success on the big screen. The reboot series (which began in 2009) has proven to be an imaginative and thoughtful update. Putting aside much of the celestial extravagance of the first two films in favour of mostly planet side action, Star Trek Beyond is a wildly enjoyable flick which successfully avoids the number three curse.

Following 2013’s Into Darkness, Star Trek Beyond picks things with up with the crew of the Enterprise as they traverse through space on an exploratory mission. Three years into its latest voyage, the ship suffers a devastating attack by a vicious swarm of vessels, crash landing on an unknown planet which stands on the other side of a perilous nebula. With most of the crew rounded up and captured by a sinister alien race, Captain Kirk (Chris Pine) and company must find a way to reunite, rescue the crew and put a stop to the enemy race, led by an imposing leader named Krall (Idris Elba). Star Trek Beyond plays like a classic episode of the TV series; any pre-conceived notions that the film would be too action heavy can be put to rest. In between the many roaring action scenes, there’s a sense of mystery and intrigue that builds for the villain and his band of green suited brethren. With the crew of the Enterprise forced to improvise after losing their ship, the tension brought in by the film’s predecessors is still on top form as well. Star Trek Beyond certainly has plenty of action but it also remembers that the series goes further than that, maintaining the formula of exploration and wonder that has persisted for decades.

The characters of Star Trek Beyond don’t falter one bit for this outing; Captain Kirk’s dutiful attitude, Uhura’s (Zoe Saldana) considered approach, Chekov’s (the late Anton Yelchin) quick thinking, Scotty's (Simon Pegg) fiesty quips and Sulu’s (John Cho) collected mannerisms. They’ve all become staples of the reboot series and the ways they play off another once again work to keep things engaging. They are played relatively safe for this film in that the characters aren’t all that progressive in this iteration, not really having particular arcs or conflicts to keep track of. That is except for Spock (Zachary Quinto) who is having a few personal doubts, having learned that his senior counterpart has passed away. This in itself is a poignant tribute to the late Leonard Nimoy which hangs over specific scenes.  Instead the cast falls back on some charismatic banter to keep the audience engaged and this works very well, thanks to Simon Pegg’s brilliant writing. Spock and Bones (Karl Urban) in particular make a great duo, bouncing between logic and sarcasm with humorous results. Newcomer alien Jayla (Sofia Boutella) is a brilliant addition to the cast; she brings both fierceness and a well-developed backstory to bear and is never shoe-horned into a romantic subplot. Kraal is heavily imposing both in appearance and look, even if his motivations feel rather basic at first; he’s the kind of villain that you have to stick with all the way to the end, rather than writing off at first glance.

There are definitely a few hints of Justin Lin’s bombastic action to be found in Star Trek Beyond, particularly with one explosive scene involving the 1994 Beastie Boys song “Sabotage” but for the most part Beyond remains faithful to the source material. Dazzling effects are still just as effective as they ever were and there’s also an incredibly creative set of shots and transitions at play that the previous two films didn’t really have, often shifting and twisting to convey the feeling of space. Combine this with a diverse range of environments on the alien planet and things become that much more engaging. The designs and makeup work on the alien characters and their technology are spot-on, particularly on Jayla and Krall who make their presence felt throughout the film. Michael Giacchino returns to compose the score for Star Trek Beyond and much like the plot; it’s able to move past the somewhat lacklustre promotion, providing another fitting backdrop to the sci-fi action.

Star Trek Beyond is another brilliant entry in the long running sci-fi franchise; one which proves doubters wrong while also making a strong case for reflecting on the franchise’s fiftieth anniversary. It’s only real drawback is the static character development which makes it significantly less accessible if you haven’t seen the first two films in the reboot series.

Rating: 4.5/5 Stars

The Pokemon Go Craze: My thoughts

Pokémon Go; it’s a bona fide phenomenon, snagging thousands upon thousands of players who are all running around on their smartphones continuing that twenty year old tradition of “Catching them all”. What started off as a simple April Fool’s joke has transformed into something that could completely turn things around for Nintendo, who have been struggling in the game industry and it all came down to moving a popular handheld franchise over to the vast mobile market.

Pokémon Go is focused on geo-caching and augmented reality using your phone’s camera; to find the best Pokémon you have to go outside, explore around (sometimes during the right time of day or night) and flick the screen (Very much like Paper Toss) to chuck a Pokeball to catch the coveted creatures. For example you may find a water type Pokémon near a lake or pond whereas ghost Pokémon only really show up at night. You can then go to designated Pokestops to trade items and as your collection grows, you gain levels and can eventually join one of three teams, battling at Pokémon gyms just as you do in the original Nintendo titles.

So what is it about Pokémon Go that has people playing it so religiously? While it may dumb down and simplify the gameplay usually associated with the series, it has one thing that its Nintendo handheld counterpart doesn’t; a sense of personal engagement. Rather than controlling a young boy or girl in a fully virtual environment, you feel as if you yourself are embarking on your own little journey rather than simply controlling a nameless character. Then of course there’s the smartphone market which comprises millions of users all over the world; with that comes a compulsion to best your friends and catch the rarest Pokémon. By putting the game on smartphones, Pokemon is now more easily accessible than ever before; which is quite unthinkable considering where the series came from originally.

Back when Pokémon was first sweeping through the playground in the nineties and early 2000s, I looked on with envy at the other kids who were lucky enough to own Game Boy Colours and copies of Pokémon Red, Blue and Yellow; heck I even had a little handbook (See above picture) with all 150 of the original pocket monsters. When I was seven or eight years old, my imagination ran wild at the perfect team of six and how I would go about catching each of them. I also got into the Pokémon Trading Card game at the time, despite my deck (the best of which being a simple Machamp) being hopelessly outclassed by the likes of rare shiny cards and other powerful Pokémon. It wasn’t until around 2010 when I played through a Pokémon game, Platinum on my little brother’s DS to be exact. The formula has gone unchanged over the years and yet it still stands as one of the most addictive formulas in gaming history. With Pokémon Go just about anyone can jump in and play; in that sense people have pointed out the app’s potential to bring people together while also gamifying things like tourism with the incentive the series has always capitalised on over the years.

Sadly it’s not all good news. While the app itself does give fair warning to stay alert to its users, there’s no doubt that Pokémon Go has already resulted in more than a few injuries and questionable incidents. A US Holocaust Museum had to tell players to stop playing the game at an inappropriate location. One man in New Zealand literally quit his job to play the game full time and another young girl even found a dead body while roaming around in the States. These incidents are quite telling to me; people were already using their smartphone frequently for Candy Crush and now we have a game that almost constantly focuses your attention on the screen. Does this kind of game have the potential to completely change the nature of modern society?

Because of this I’m not planning on getting into Pokémon Go myself; I already use my smartphone enough for watching YouTube videos, checking Facebook and reading my emails. I don’t need another reason to be glued to my devices. A friend of mine from university recently called it a drug and I’m inclined to believe him. As for the game itself it will no doubt continue to carve a swath through the population and Nintendo is probably breathing a sigh of relief as its shares jumped 70% in just one week. It may be wildly popular and fun for those who play it but it’s also an app that should definitely be watched closely as time goes on, especially for the effect it has on the overall populous.

The Legend of Tarzan Movie Review

Released: July 1st 2016 (United States)

Length: 110 Minutes

Genre: Action and adventure

Certificate: 12A

Director: David Yates

Starring: Alexander Skarsgard, Margot Robbie, Christoph Waltz, Samuel L. Jackson, Djimon Hounsou and Jim Broadbent

It’s been more than a decade since we last had a film adaptation of the vine swinging ape-man from the books of Edgar Rice Burroughs. Directed by David Yates of Harry Potter fame, The Legend of Tarzan attempts to be a grandiose adventure into parts unknown, but comes up somewhat short of its contemporaries.

TLOT is very much a what-if scenario and in this way it reminded me a lot of Stephen Spielberg’s 1991 film Hook. Tarzan (Or John Clayton III as he’s known played by Alexander Skarsgard) has left the jungle behind, living as a lord with his wife Jane (Margot Robbie) in London. In his absence, a number of rulers have laid claim to the continent for its rich deposits of diamonds and ivory, the biggest of which being the King of Belgium. He has sent a calculating captain named Leon Rom (Christoph Waltz) to lay the groundwork for a takeover involving industrialization, armed intervention and slavery; it’s up to Tarzan to return to his wild ways, stop the plot and rescue his wife, with an American professor named George Washington Williams (Samuel L. Jackson) in tow. It’s extremely linear and gives you exactly what you’d expect. Tarzan must journey across the landscape, coming across all kinds of animals and African tribes along the way; he swings around the trees, gets into all kinds of scrappy fights and also jumps into flashback mode from time to time where we learn more about his past. In that sense it’s unremarkable, not really taking any risks with the story; there are no major twists or turns, making for a fairly safe film experience which plods on without many detours.

The characters of TLOT are relatively simplistic and some are performed better than others. The biggest problem with the film is Tarzan himself. When your main character is often overshadowed by those around him, that’s a pretty big problem and aside from cracking a few small smiles the title character doesn’t have much to show in terms of emotion. Skarsgard may have the physicality to embody the character but he never really owns the spotlight. He takes on the same blank expression, always having a serious look on his face. Margot Robbie fares better as Jane who is often daring in the ways she defies her captors whilst Christoph Waltz once again delivers a charismatic performance as the villain; definitely a step up from his basic appearance in Spectre last year. Of all the big name actors in The Legend of Tarzan, it’s Samuel L. Jackson that ends up stealing the thunder; he’s genuinely having a good time with the whole thing and his comic relief, despite teetering into modern day lingo at times, is still very enjoyable. The extras playing in the tribes are fairly typical and while they do draw the viewer into the African setting a bit, they aren’t all that developed, making their predicaments harder to sympathise with.

TLOT is a technically sound production; the African Congo portrayed looks superb with a range of mountains, gorgeous savannahs, dense jungles and watery passages; combine this with the changing weather and you have another visually stunning location that manages to be both inviting and dangerous throughout the film. The costume designs and steam powered hardware are also quite authentic, working to produce the feel of the 1800s. The same can’t be said for the animals though; The Jungle Book spoiled us rotten with its breath-taking creatures a few months ago and the effects here pale in comparison; the Ostrich pack and Wildebeest stampede are especially lacklustre, failing to convey the believability to the same level as the environments. At least the music from Rupert Gregson-Williams makes up for it; booming drums brand the action with a thunderous impact while the flashback scenes feature a surprising amount of poignancy in their arrangements.

The newest film incarnation of Tarzan is serviceable at best; it gives you some good action scenes, a few token performances and a dazzling world to contain it all. Unfortunately a bland lead performance and some weak computer effects bring it down from the sweeping epic it could have been; a shame considering the director’s past flair for adapting literary works to the screen.

Rating: 3/5 Stars

Jessica Jones Series Review (Season 1)

Released: November 20th 2015 (All episodes)

Created by: Melissa Rosenberg

Number of episodes:13

Where to watch: Netflix (All regions)

Starring: Krysten Ritter, David Tennant, Mike Colter, Rachael Taylor, Wil Traval, Erin Moriarty, Eka Darville and Carrie-Anne Moss 

Jessica Jones is the latest of many aggressive forays into the small screen from Marvel which taps into some of the more obscure names from the company’s long line of comics. It’s also one of the more unconventional products put out by the company, melding a more down to earth storyline with engaging characterisation.

Once again taking place in Hell’s Kitchen, Jessica Jones (Krysten Ritter) is a retired super heroine who starts up her own private investigation business to get by; her first investigation into the young Hope Shlottman (Erin Moriaty) brings Jones into contact with Kilgrave (David Tennant), a sinister man with the ability to control the actions of those around him. Kilgrave has a personal interest in Jessica and she (along with her closest friends) makes it her mission to bring him to justice and clear Hope’s name. Jessica Jones certainly has powers including heightened strength and near invulnerability but they’re rarely placed at the forefront and this is what makes for a strong central conflict; how can you stop someone who challenges mentally rather than physically? Similar to The Dark Knight in 2008, Jessica Jones is an intimate crime drama, taking plenty of time to provide character development and drama; the traditional superhero sequences are the icing on the cake here. There are also a few nods to the Avengers woven in as well for those familiar with the source material. The subdued nature of the premise allows the series to delve into some more realistic, often darker facets of the human condition; drug use, rape and sexuality are major themes but they never become gratuitous. Instead they enhance the plot and characters, carving out an identity for the series as a whole. The show does have one major weakness; in the second half of the series, a major event occurs which dramatically simplifies Jessica’s goals and this does reduce the excitement a fair bit. It’s still worth sticking around to the end, but the series is at its best when Jessica is initially following the trail and deducing the facts.

Shifting the focus away from typical superhero fare, JJ puts its characters and the situations they encounter first. Krysten Ritter (of Breaking Bad fame) is great as Jessica Jones; she has this roguish, rebellious personality mixed with a pessimistic outlook that highlights the disappointments she’s been through. Her friends and colleagues are also well portrayed; Carrie Anne Moss as the often ruthless attorney Jeri Hogarth, Rachel Taylor as Jones’s closest friend Trish and Mike Colter as the laidback yet fractured Luke Cage. Each character has their own motivations and desires which deepen their bonds as well as contribute to the central goal of bringing the central antagonist to justice. While he’s the only real opponent in the series, Kilgrave is an immensely devilish and often sadistic villain; he takes such pleasure and glee when toying with his victims and David Tennant does a fantastic job of making you detest him. Again as with the other characters, Kilgrave has his own reasons and dark secrets that make him equally engaging.

Despite taking place in a realistic setting, Jessica Jones firmly roots itself into the noir style; cinematography gels with a minimal use of computer effects to create a highly dynamic presentation. A moody setting and atmosphere hangs over the series, particularly during the scenes at night, reinforcing the mature themes of the story and the often grim events that take place. The costume design also ties in with this; it’s very rough around the edges, bringing identifiability to the characters and their background. While Jessica Jones doesn’t adopt the more extravagant aspects of the comics (there’s no purple skinned Kilgrave to be found here), the series succeeds in placing the viewer into Hell Kitchen, emphasising that it isn’t a typical superhero tale.

While it doesn’t manage to maintain its momentum all the way through, Jessica Jones is still another worthwhile television offering from Marvel; much like Deadpool it makes a real effort to set itself apart from the countless other superhero features. The greatest achievement though lies in its characters which are some of the best realised in the genre.

Rating: 4/5 Stars

Daredevil Series Review (Season 1)

Released: April 10th 2015 (All episodes at once)

Created by: Drew Goddard

Number of episodes: 13

Where to watch: Netflix (All regions)

Starring: Charlie Cox, Elden Henson, Deborah Ann Woll, Vincent D'Onofrio, Toby Leonard Moore, Vondie Curtis-Hall, Bob Gunton, Ayelet Zurer and Rosario Dawson 

Marvel’s Daredevil is the opening effort in bringing its superhero flair to the small screen, focusing on one of its more popular characters. Following a mediocre reaction to the character’s film adaptation back in 2003, the blind lawyer has leapt out of the shadows with a superb thirteen episode offering.

Taking place in Hell’s Kitchen (A district in New York City) Daredevil follows the events of 2012’s The Avengers. Matthew Murdock (Charlie Cox) is a blind lawyer who starts up a new attorney business with his best friend Franklin “Foggy” Nelson (Elden Henson) and eventually Karen Page (Deborah Ann Woll), who ends up wrapped up some nasty business after accidentally uncovering a financial scheme. What Foggy and Karen don’t know is that by night Murdock ventures out to fight crime with little more than his bare-knuckle combat skills, enhanced senses and a black mask to hide his identity. His ultimate goal? Bring down Wilson Fisk (Vincent D’Onofrio), an overlord of crime within the city. Fisk has a web of organised crime at his fingertips alongside payments and bribery to the courts, media and police. Daredevil is a very straightforward affair, with regular action and conversing alongside flashbacks occasionally entering the narrative to shed more light on the characters. Several allies and enemies enter and exit the proceedings as things go on and what makes it all so engaging is the back and forth exploits of the two sides; While Murdock’s small band navigates the precipice of fighting a man at the top, Fisk and his circle of crime organises and collects itself to respond, often with brutal efficiency. It keeps you invested all the way to the end where an explosive series of set pieces rounds it all off with a bang. One deviation from this thread does stick out however, when a particular face from Murdock’s past almost hogs an entire episode; it was the only point for me where the series paused for a moment.

Daredevil’s central characters are very well defined and performed. Charlie Cox sits at the centre, mixing great physicality with emotion. But the best aspect of his performance is a duality which reminded me a lot of Batman. The calm, cool and unassuming position he takes on as Matthew Murdock by day brilliantly contrasts with the gritty persona of Daredevil. The series cleverly presents the area between the two, a person who questions his morals while often underestimating his enemies. Murdock makes mistakes and often pays dearly for them, which adds an element of realism to his character. Over the course of just one season, you’ll feel Murdock and Daredevil are just as developed as the Avengers in Marvel’s big screen ventures and that’s a massive achievement. Wilson Fisk is also very well done, with an obsession for control and a brutish appearance delivered strongly by Vincent D’Onofrio. With perilous situations often at play, there’s a great sense of charisma from Foggy and Karen which works to get the audience rooting for them.

A dark and brooding tone hangs over Daredevil, matched only by the often brutal criminal activity and the religious undertones that creep in the main character’s motivations. But this is only a springboard for the real star of the show; taking some inspiration from The Raid films, Daredevil delivers some ferocious fight sequences that are exceptionally choreographed, fantastically shot and filled with tension. They really are capable of standing up to the likes of Captain America: Civil War, only here the more visceral nature of the storyline and tone allows them to have an even greater impact. Murdock flips, kicks and dodges gunfire but he’s far from invincible and the ways the narrative puts him through some horrible beatings emphasises the fact that he’s just one man desperately trying to rip apart a crime syndicate at its foundations. Even if you’re unable to get into the characters and their plights, the action presented in Daredevil is some of the best ever filmed for a television series.

Daredevil is by far the best series put out by Marvel; the vicious fight scenes, dark atmosphere and multidimensional characters, it all makes for a fantastic thrill ride all around. If you have any sort of interest in action and superheroes, it’s absolutely essential viewing.

Rating: 4.5/5 Stars

E3 2016 Post-Mortem Part 3: Final Thoughts and Summary

E3 2016 had a tough act to follow; after 2015 created an explosion of excitement, there was no way this year could match up to it. With that said, the press conferences were done to a much better level of quality and there were still a fair few games which kept things moving along. Exclusive content and mobile games, two major issues I had with the event last year were mostly cut out as well, letting the games make their impact. I’ll no doubt be streaming the show again next year.

Positive takeaways

• Most of the conferences were far better paced than previous years, cutting down on the filler material that slowed them to a crawl. EA’s conference was still the weakest of all the conferences this year, but they were still able to remove much of the boring talk on sports games among other components. 

• Variety was a great strength of all the conferences this year; pre-show talks and post-show discussions populated E3 2016 this year, giving the community a more down-to-earth set of material to take on-board. Bethesda including talks with developers, EA had a fully-fledged match of Battlefield 1, Ubisoft had discussions on both ends and Sony turned their entire conference into a more cinematic kind of experience. It was a welcomed that made the common corporate rhetoric more bearable.

Negative takeaways

• The gaming industry is changing from a business standpoint and nowhere was that more evident than at Microsoft’s conference. Their focus on putting games on both Xbox One and PC could seriously hamper the corporation’s gaming console by blending the two platforms together. It also speaks of the gaming industry as a whole. The rumours concerning the death of consoles may slowly be coming true; Nintendo’s future in the console business remains in question and Sony doesn’t exactly have a foot in the PC market. If these two companies go the route of Sega, there will be no competition for Microsoft and that often results in even more unethical business practices.

• The excitement wasn’t able to reach its highest level this year because companies made the decision to leave some major titles out; I’ve discussed many of these in the previous part of my E3 post mortem. Despite the announcement of new titles and the slow progression of virtual reality, there was still some disappointment to be had with several key absences, the biggest of which being Final Fantasy VII Remake and Crackdown 3.

Winners and Losers (My personal awards)

Best Conference: Sony

Most improved of the big companies: EA

Least progressive of the big companies: Nintendo

Most disappointing: Mass Effect Andromeda at the EA press conference

Biggest reveals and cheers: Sony

Biggest surprise: Call of Duty Infinite Warfare single player demo

Most awkward moment: Just Dance opening Ubisoft’s Press Conference

Strongest Return: Prey

Missing in action: Final Fantasy VII Remake (Among many others)

Game of the show: Horizon Zero Dawn

Honourable Mentions: We Happy Few, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Dishonored 2, God of War, South Park: The Fractured But Whole