21 June 2015

Jurassic World review

Dinosaurs are inherently cool. I don't know many people that didn't go through a dinosaur stage as a child, fascinated, intimidated and intrigued by the fantastical look and sheer size of creatures that once existed on the world we now inhabit. So when I say that Jurassic World is spectacular, I mean that in the strictest definition of the word - that it provides spectacle and scale and a sense of insignificance that is almost impossible to avoid when your film is about dinosaurs.

It is also amongst the most incompetently crafted films I have ever seen.

Set on the same island as the original Jurassic Park, Jurassic World follows a couple of kids as they travel to the titular theme park for a weekend with their aunt, Claire, who pretty much runs Jurassic World and is getting ready to introduce the Indominus Rex, a new dinosaur that has been created from scratch, to the general public. Obviously, everything goes according to plan, the kids have a great time and the no-one has to reset the parks 'Days since last accident' counter.


11 June 2015

Agents of SHIELD S2E22 "S.O.S Part 2" review

An immediate continuation of "S.O.S Part 1", "S.O.S Part 2" sees Hunter and May continue the search for Bobbi while Coulson and his team prepare to retake the SHIELD ship from Jiaying and the other Inhumans, who are planning to wipe out SHIELD with the artificial Terrigen Crystals that they have created. Meanwhile, Skye and Mac (who are already on board) attempt to disrupt the Inhumans plan from inside the ship.


8 June 2015

Community season six review

Community is kind of a hard show to talk about. Despite it's huge ambition and innovation, it feels like Community never reached it's potential due to a number of reasons, the largest being plain bad luck. It'd be hard to argue with anyone that stated that the show peaked nearly 5 years ago - it'd be even harder to argue against the idea that the show maybe should have been allowed to die at the end of season 3. Between Community dropping main cast members and failing to recreate the same sense of energy that the first three seasons have, lines from the theme tune ("I can't count the reasons I should stay. One by one, they all just fade away.") become eerily prophetic for anyone trying to figure out if this is a series as worth returning to as it once was.

That being said, it's a little hard to complain too much when Community is still funnier and more "out there" than many sitcoms airing today just because it used to be even better. Season 6 of Community has the remaining members of the study group joined by Frankie Dart, a consultant hired by Dean Pelton, and Elroy Patashnik, a failed inventor who enrols at Greendale as a mature student, as they form a committee attempting to improve Greendale.


1 June 2015

Agents of SHIELD S2E21 "S.O.S Part 1" review

Following on immediately from when last weeks "Scars" ended, "S.O.S Part 1" is the first half of what is meant to be viewed as a feature length finale, frustratingly split into two halves by Channel 4 for broadcast in the UK. We follow Hunter and May as they attempt to rescue Bobbi from Kara and Ward, while pretty much every other character attempts to deal with the fallout of Gonzales' death at the hands of Jiaying when the Inhumans vs SHIELD war begins in earnest.