Daily Archives: September 14, 2013

TV Premieres (part 1)

TV

Sons of Anarchy- The drama continues to rumble down the street for the Sons. Season 5 was rough for the club, there’s a bunch in jail (oh Otto!), one who is thinking of leaving the club, some who may not be able to be trusted. Jax is basically just trying to hold things together in any way he can. His wife is in jail and doesn’t even want to see him, Clay is a huge problem sitting in jail and the ex-FBI guy is whipping things into a frenzy behind the scenes. Plus he’s trying to get some cash flow back into the club and that will probably come slamming back into his face soon enough.

There’s a lot of drama going on and we’ve been introduced to a blonde haired kid with some serious issues. He crosses the paths of a few characters as they go about their business in town and the whole time I’m wondering what’s up with him. The show ends with him walking into a school with a gun. It seems really out of left field and unnecessary, but Kurt Sutter doesn’t just throw people and situations into his story without an end game. Clearly he’s just a kid that no one is paying attention to (just like the real life shooters who are unknown and ignored until they hit the news). He’s alone and ignored in every scene he’s in, he floats from space to space until the end of the episode. It’s controversial for sure, but so much about SoA is, so that’s not exactly surprising. We can only wait and see how this unfolds, but now that the ball is rolling it’s up to Kurt to show his viewers that he has a full and well meaning story to tell through this season with this plot line.

The Adventures of Korra- It’s been more than a year and Korra is finally back on. This has to be the best looking and sounding cartoon being made today. Some of the animation is down right amazing and the action sequences are always some of the most enjoyable to watch. The colors are sumptuous and the soundtrack is epic. Book 2 starts not too long after last season. Korra still has a lot to learn (air bending apparently) and the spirits of the north pole are causing up in arms. Korra’s uncle shows up and tells her it’s her job to head north to handle the situation, she is the bridge between the spirit and physical world. Her first meet with an angry spirit doesn’t go well, she gets tossed around like an amateur until her uncle steps in with his spirit management techniques (it looks really cool). So now Korra sees that she has a lot to learn…from someone who doesn’t already call themselves her teacher. There’s a lot of push back at this, but Korra sticks to her guns and manages to turn things around in the north. Now the question is, what are her uncles true intentions? It was a nice hour introduction to new characters and events, I think we have a lot to look forward to.

My Review: Now You See Me

Movies

Now You See Me is a really good, bad movie. It’s in my wheelhouse, I love heist movies. It’s a new twist on heist movies which gives the movie a few more points from me as well. The thieves are master illusionists! So you have the combination of theft and magic, but the problem is you can’t mix magic like this with a Hollywood movie. All the major tricks come down to the explaination of “that’s computer generated”.

The magic of magic is seeing something unbelievable happen in front of you and it looks completely legit. You struggle to figure out the trick. When people are disappearing, floating around or throwing clearly digital objects, that needed suspension of disbelief is gone.

That’s not to say the actors aren’t doing any slight of hand, it’s just that the pay offs of the big “illusions” don’t hold any weight because so much was done in post production. You see three major heists and the main beats of how they were done are explained. Clearly a lot of consultation from magicians was done as the planning and complexity of the illusions are great and plausible (there’s a lot of built sets, forced perspective, misdirection, mirrors and the like shown) but there’s always that “computer generated” out for everything (the giant mirror used for one of the heists is broken and it’s clearly CG).

Even as I could never get passed all of the above, it’s still a fun movie that I enjoyed. The Feds chase after a group of illusionists (dubbed The Four Horseman) who steal money in their live performances and give it away to the audience. It’s a wild concept, taking bank heists and Robin Hood to a new level. The cast is good, although Jesse Eisenberg falls into his Social Network smarmy act and while Dave Franco is pushed to the back for the most of the movie, he gets far and away the best action set piece. Morgan Freeman is also Morgan Freeman, not sure why they wanted him to play himself.

The reveal at the end of the movie is more of a shoulder shrug than a twist. I don’t think it was necessary. You could have had that character be known from the start and change the beginning of the movie to accommodate that and you’d wind up with a better movie in the end. There is a set up for a sequel and there has been industry talk of one…despite all the complaining I’m doing, I’d watch it.