Author: Shmee

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Join The Resistance With The Dark Crystal!

I am not sure how to write this review. I love puppets, and The Jim Henson Company is the best in the business. What I am saying is that there are some serious biases here, but that aside, you should watch The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance. Puppets or otherwise, the show is an amazing original high fantasy epic that doesn’t require you to have watched the movie from thirty years ago (though you still should, but maybe after watching the show).

The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance takes place quite some time before the movie. The show never says exactly how long, but I am guessing a few decades at least. The world of Thra is being ruled by the exploitative and cruel Skeksis, and the peace loving Gelfling are oblivious to the Skeksis crimes. Until Rian (Taron Egerton) witnesses their evil first hand and seeks to start a rebellion.

The first thing you will notice about Age of Resistance is that everything looks ‘real’. Computer generated imagery has become so ubiquitous, that seeing real sets and characters is a breath of fresh air. The next thing you will notice is how great the world of the Dark Crystal is. Yes, it is dark, but not overbearingly so. The darkness allows the light to shine brightly. All the creatures, languages, social structures and everything work so well and are well thought out. This was clearly an act of love by all involved.

The vocal cast pretty much includes everyone. It is just top talent from start to finish, and they all do marvelous jobs, but the real heroes are the puppeteers who bring this TV show to live. The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance wouldn’t work without them, and the fact that there are still so many talented puppeteers out there is amazing.

I could gush about this show for a long time, and I kind of want to, but it wouldn’t be adding anything of value to this review. It looks amazing, sounds great, and the world is fantastic, so you should watch The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance. Though keep in mind due to the puppet violence, it may not be suitable for younger viewers, but being scared stiff by The Dark Crystal at a young age is something that happened to all kids of the 80’s, and it now can and should happen to a new generation.

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‘It’ Overate In Chapter 2!

It was no surprise that ‘It‘ was a hit for New Line two years ago. It was a much-needed update to a movie that was a rite of passage for kids of the 80’s. The problem is that It: Chapter 1 got to cover the more interesting child years of Stephen King’s classic, so Chapter 2 is tasked with making something out of the weirder and longer adult years. The result is predictably weirder and longer, and while not as good, still a fun popcorn horror flick.

It: Chapter 2 takes place 27 years after Chapter 1. The Losers have all grown up and moved on with their lives. They are all surprisingly successful. With one exception: Mike (Isaiah Mustafa) stayed in Derry to watch and wait to see if ‘It’ (Bill Skarsgård) was truly destroyed, and when the killer clown resurfaces, he needs to get the Losers back together to take down the clown once and for all.

It: Chapter 2 has a few problems: One, we are all wise to Pennywise’s antics; Two, there is something about adults that make their fear less relatable than children’s, and three, it is too long. That being the case, director Andy Muschietti puts together some really effective horror sequences, and the cast is great, so they sell what they are given to work with.

The casting was just about perfect for It: Chapter 2. All the older versions of the Losers look and act like their child counter parts. Bill Hader and Jessica Chastain were standouts, but the whole cast did a good job. It would be hard coming in to a movie where everyone knows they are going to be judged against the great cast from first movie, but they manage to hold their own. Obviously without Bill Skarsgård’s wonderful turn as ‘It’ the rest of the performances would have been for naught. He is otherworldly as Pennywise the clown, and an excellent counterpart to Tim Curry’s version of the sewer dweller.

It: Chapter 2 is not as good as Chapter 1, and that is a shame, but considering how bad the second part of the old ABC miniseries was, the fact ‘It’ is still so much fun is a miracle. So, while yes, It: Chapter 2 is overstuffed, and Pennywise uses the same bag of tricks, they are good tricks, and it is a lot of stuff that I liked. If you were a fan of Chapter 1, you will probably be happy with It: Chapter 2. Until next time, keep floating everyone!

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Did Control Come Out Too Early On Consoles?

I am a big fan of Remedy Entertainment. They continue to make groundbreaking games that push narrative and graphics technology to their limits. Remedy’s newest game, Control, is being hailed by some as a modern masterpiece, but not on original Xbox One or PS4 hardware. The game has massive stutters and framerate drops to the low teens, and as low as 10FPS on the PS4. You can watch the whole graphical run down on Digital Foundry:

If you watch the video above, you can see that the game runs ‘okay’ to acceptable on the mid-generation consoles with just small short framerate dips. With the Xbox One X fairing the best, but man it is hard to watch what happens once the analysis gets to the base consoles. I would argue that at that low of a framerate the game is unplayable, and it never should have passed QC.

Based on the order of the framerate going: Xbox One X > PS4 Pro > Xbox One (S) > PS4, I would guess this is a CPU issue. Since the PS4 does have the slowest CPU clock speed out of the bunch. Its faster GPU usually pushes it past the Xbox One, but in this case, there is something else going on that needs some serious CPU horsepower, and while I am ragging on the PS4, Control has a pretty poor showing across the board.

This all leads me to believe that Control is generation too early. People with beefy PCs are quite happy with Control, but people with mid-tier and lower PCs are feeling the pain as well, but that happens in the PC space from time to time, and it is more acceptable there because PC players have an upgrade path if they want to get the most out of Control. Not so much with console players.

If Remedy had waited a year, Control would have come out on machines with modern CPUs and stronger GPUs with a little ray tracing thrown in, and I am sure Control would have looked great in that environment, but as it stands now, it looks like you should skip Control if you didn’t get a mid-generation console, or you have a low spec PC. Otherwise I hear it is quite the game.

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Handmaid’s Tale Season Three Starts And Ends Well

The first few episodes of The Handmaid’s Tale season three are some of the series’ best. Adding new interesting characters, and seeming to start the Handmaid rebellion that was promised at the end of season two, but then it seems the writers struggled to find anything interesting to talk about for next four episodes, as the show adds a new subplot that doesn’t really go anywhere. Even at the end of the season it all seems like a waste of everyone’s time.

However, things do get back on track and June (Elisabeth Moss) the rest of her merry band get up to no good in the best possible way. If only the show had stuck with this instead of stretching for time. I guess they had to fill those thirteen episodes somehow. I also liked how The Handmaid’s Tale really started to focus on how all this was changing June, and not necessarily for the better. She is much different at the end of season three than rest of the series. Giving her probably the most of an arch she has had to date.

Over all I would say The Handmaid’s Tale season three was an improvement over season two, but it was still far from perfect. Next season I hope they can stay focused and not stop the action cold for a whole third of its episodes. Until then, “Under his eye”.

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Who Is The Favourite?

The Favourite a 2018 film by Yorgos Lanthimos is listed as a “black comedy”, but that doesn’t seem quite right. The film never goes out of its way to make the audience laugh. Nor does it seem concerned about ramping up the drama. It is just an odd movie about odd people during an odd time for the English Empire. The acting is wonderful and it is sumptuously shot, and that is enough for me, but others may be left cold.

The movie takes place in 1708 and Queen Anne (Olivia Colman)’s health is declining, so she is leaving the governing up to her top aid Sarah Churchill (Rachel Weisz), Duchess of Marlborough. Things are going great for Sarah until her cousin Abigail Hill (Emma Stone) shows up looking for a job because her father had lost the family fortune, and now Sarah will have some competition for who is the Queen’s Favourite.

The early eighteenth century is not really an important time for the Kingdom of Great Britain. It is mostly known for a pointless war and the rise of the two party system. In this case the Tories and The Wigs, but the scandal behind the throne of two women bucking for control of arguably the most powerful person in the world at the time is still a fun moment in British history, and The Favourite does its best to bring it to life. A lesser filmmaker would have made this unnecessarily dramatic and shown the fate of British Empire hanging in the balance, but ultimately it was about three women being very petty towards one another, and the odd and humorous clashes these women have. Lathinmos just lets it be odd and petty and unimportant.

Of course if a movie is mostly about three women, those women need to be able to carry a film, and Colman, Weisz, and Stone are more than up to the task. Colman so much so, that she won the Oscar for Best Actress, and she deserved it. The Favourite is mostly worth watching just for these three performances.

The other reason to watch The Favourite is that it is gorgeous. Every frame of this movie looks great. From the overly decorated palace walls to the British countryside. Not to mention all the panning and tracking shots that really do a great job capturing everything. Cinematographer Robbie Ryan was really working hard on this film, and that hard work paid off.

I thought The Favourite was great, but I hear others have had issues getting in to it. It is too odd and matter-of-fact for them, and I can see that. It definitely will not be for everyone, but if you like beautifully shot movies filled with talented actors doing petty things to one another, The Favourite is worth your time. A note for some, it does earn its ‘R’ rating for langue and nudity, so you have been warned. Emma this is not.