Attempt 1

A few months ago a friend bought me a jar of sweets from Scotland, I decided to keep the jar. Now you see the jar filled with dirt, but that's not all, yesterday I bought some seeds, I got carrot seeds, basil seeds, and the ones I planted in this jar of dirt, poppy seeds. Funnily enough I planned to plant an apple seed in there, but then realised how that would get out of control, so I went with something smaller, a lot smaller, the seeds were tiny. Now there's a couple of seeds in there, with dirt and bonemeal, now I guess it's leave it by the window and water it regularly, hopefully it will grow into a bunch of poppies, if it doesn't, this post is called attempt 1, I guess I'll try again.

Doctor Who series 9 Before the Flood review

Spoilers ahead for Doctor Who.
Here's what you need to know; the Doctor is forced to leave Clara behind, and travels back to the village before the flood to unravel the mystery and stop the ghosts.

Where do I begin. I'll start with what I like, I thought the Fisher King was awesome, he was huge, menacing as all hell, and pretty well designed, definitely not the scariest Doctor Who monster ever, not even close, but he's pretty unsettling. Now for the characters, because my god, Prentis, he is the most wretched little mole man, he's on screen for about 4 minutes and that's enough for you to hate him, intensely, he's so fucking annoying. The crew of the mining base are also annoying, there's not 1, but 2 really sloppy romances, both of which weren't even hinted at in last week's episode. Also, the mute one, is she deaf or is she not, she seemed to understand Clara just fine, but then can't hear an axe being dragged across the floor, a very loud one. And then she narrowly escaped having her head caved in by, get ready, sensing vibrations in the floor and being able to predict exactly when to evade, Daredevil style, using some super sensory form of vision. Yep, it is that fucking stupid. Then there's of course the stupid bootstrap paradox that is the Doctor's plan, it makes no fucking sense, that or it's explained extremely poorly, either way it makes no sense, and the amusing explanation of the bootstrap paradox at the beginning really doesn't help, maybe I'm stupid, or maybe it's stupid, I'm going with the latter. At least the Deus Ex Machina in The Witch's Familiar made some kind of sense, this one just doesn't, and to top it all off, the ghosts aren't explained, at all, and the Doctor's ghost is explained so dreadfully that they shouldn't have bothered.

This episode is a mess, it's story is confusing and poorly explained, as are the ghosts, it's ending is pure crap, a bootstrap paradox that makes no sense at all, even for a paradox, and it's characters graduate from flat do down right fucking annoying, I actually might write a follow up to this review if my mind changes or I manage to make more sense of this thing, but currently, I have a strong dislike for this episode.

Abandonment

Here we have some more from my extensive archive of toy photography, here we have a silhouette photo of Godzilla's spines, a very simple photo, but I like it, a photo of one of my Mega Bloks Halo figures with a sniper rifle, not a very creative photo, but I think it looks cool, and another silhouetted, though less so, photo of Godzilla, probably the one I'm most proud of since it was taken on the top of a mountain during a sun set, happy times. and finally the photo that was me trying to be creative, this one had a name when I used it in my exam, it's name was Abandonment, and it's a very dark photo of a dead Dalek on a rainy night. enjoy.

Mad Max Fury Road movie review

Here's what you need to know; Max survives alone in the post apocalyptic wasteland, haunted by the ghosts of his tormented past. He gets a chance for redemption when he is swept up in a daring escape, now on the run from the maniacal warlord Immortan Joe and his horde, it's all out road war for the road warrior.
I went to see this film twice in cinemas, and I recently got it on Blu-ray, so let's review this monster of a movie.

Let's start with the characters, and the film does characters pretty well. First off there's Mad Max, played by Tom Hardy, Max is a really interesting character, even if the freaky visions he keeps having are never really explained, the film does a good job of establishing that he is troubled by his past. He's a man of very few words, but that's fine, because from what I've been told the Mel Gibson Max didn't talk much either, and he always says what needs to be said and little more, funnily enough he spends the first half an hour or so in a muzzle, so he talks even less. When push comes to shove Max is completely badass, and it's really fun watching him throw down, though of course those action scenes aren't the ones you remember, more on that later. Furiosa is, like Max, a complete badass, though she has more backstory to her character, and she's a tiny bit less crazy, that said she's still very damaged. Nux is also a very interesting character, he serves as the film's philosophical element, and he's probably the most sympathetic character in the film. He also has a pretty cute relationship with one of the wives, which brings me onto the 5 wives, who I found less interesting. They weren't particularly unlikable characters, I just didn't find them very interesting. Now for the husband, the crazy bad guy Immortan Joe, while not a terribly interesting character himself either, he is a superb bad guy, being less of a character and more of the very fucked up face of the menacing war party constantly on Max and Furiosa's tail. On the subject of Joe, the world in which he lives is a fascinating one, he's a tyrant, ruling over his cultish followers and broken peasant subjects, I feel like this film barely scratches the surface here, but this broken and insane society is something I wanted to know more about. The film's plot's pretty weak however, serving literally as an excuse to get the characters from A to B, but as I'll go into later, that's not exactly a bad thing, and I suppose criticising a dumb and nonsensical plot in a film with crazed war boys who spray chrome on their mouths and scream "Witness Me!" before riding to Valhalla shiny and chrome is a bit pointless.

Yes, the film's plot is nothing but an excuse to get the characters from A to B, but the journey from A to B is probably the most glorious and insanely awesome time in action movie history. You've heard it before, so I'm not going to hold back, this film is all about the car carnage, and it is amazing, watching cars explode and fly through the air in a ball of flame and metal in the midst of the vehicular mayhem is insanely awesome, made all the more glorious by director George Miller's sparing use of CG in the action scenes, the action is heavy, brutal, violent, and so much fun to watch, and it doesn't stop either, the action practically doesn't stop, there are slower moments, but they're brief, and between them is action scene after action scene that, far from becoming boring, only becomes more insane and more fun. George Miller also directs these scenes brilliantly, so as to show you the best angle every time with no obstructions or shaky cam to be found anywhere, it's a film that doesn't stop, and Miller does an incredible job of keeping you glued from beginning to end. CG is used here, but it's used very infrequently, and when it is used you'll never notice, the only times in the film that are clearly CG is the citadel and the sandstorm, and none of the vehicular destruction is CG, it's all real, and the effect this has is something CG will never achieve.

Mad Max Fury Road has some fun and interesting characters, as well as some that are less fun and interesting, and it has a story that makes no sense and is pretty dumb, but when shit hits the fan, none of that matters, all that matters is the ridiculously fun and gloriously insane carmageddon, it's what you'll remember, and it's what makes this film one of the most fun and memorable action films I've ever seen, and an absolute must watch.

planets and sciency stuff

Space is cool, really cool, and since watching The Martian, I've become interested in alien planets, and I've found some really weird ones. The picture above is a picture of a planet called TrES-2b, this planet is a gas planet 750 light years away that is officially the darkest planet in the universe. It's so dark because it's atmosphere reflects less than 1% of the light that enters it, and from what I understand, like the lunar eclipse a few weeks ago, only red light makes it through, so the planet glows a very dim red, which is creepy as hell, but crazy cool. Another planet doesn't make a lot of sense, Gliese 436 b is a planet that supposedly is covered in ice, but has a surface temperature of over 400 degrees, how's that for weird. Apparently the gravitational pressure on the planet is enough to stop the ice from evaporating, even at the crazy high temperatures. Gliese 1214 b is nicknamed the Waterworld, it's a planet with a surface that is completely covered in an ocean, and not just any ocean, but one that's hundreds of miles deep, take that Mariana trench. Still, this one in particular interests me because life on Earth started in the oceans, so what if maybe, just maybe, there's some form of aquatic life there. Finally we have another planet that may just support life, Gliese 581 c is about 20 light years away, and it's a planet that's tidally locked, meaning only one side of it ever faces the sun, so half of the planet is always on fire and the other half is always frozen, but in the middle there is a zone of permanent twilight that is more habitable, though life there would be extremely different, any plant life would need to use infrared light for photosynthesises. In 2008 a message was sent directly to Gliese 581 c in an attempt to contact alien life, the message will reach the planet in 2029. A bit hopeful don't you think. So there are 4 weird planets I've been reading about in the past week, it's fun, and there's science involved, which makes it even more fun.

The Strain season 2 The Born review

Spoilers ahead for The Strain.
Here's what you need to know; Fet and Dutch's relationship hits a roadblock. Meanwhile Fet and Abraham investigate one of Palmer's abandoned factories and make a grim discovery. And the mysterious new player shows his face at last.

This episode had me interested in the first few seconds, with the 'Born' as he's apparently called in Rome, fighting in the coliseum, it's really interesting to see this world in more depth, because really the show doesn't do that much, and when it does, I am engaged. What I'm really not engaged with is the drama with Fet, Dutch and her lesbian lover, I know this show is supposed to be a drama, but the drama is by far it's weakest element, and I just don't give a shit about Dutch being reunited with her girlfriend, or Fet getting all jealy over it, which is really odd since he's one of my favourite characters, sorry to drag this point out so much, but I really don't care. Speaking of not caring, Palmer and the French chick finally went and did it, and yes, in that sense, if anything it's creepy, not because of the age gap, but just because Palmer is creepy. On the character front Eph is back in New York, and he is far more interesting, there's a scene with him in a bar which has more development in it than the last few episodes combined, and half of it is him standing in front of a mirror, not sure if that's good for this episode, or bad for the last few. The Born finally throws down here, and it is awesome, he is awesome, when he tore the stinger out of a feeler's mouth was badass, then cut one in half and stood on it's intestines to stop it crawling away, he's just cool. And his confrontation with the Master is also cool, The Born's reasons for hunting the Master are alluded to, and I want to know more, they have a history that I think may just be badass. Finally, Fet has another one of his Fet moments, and moments like them are why he's one of my favourite characters, it's like he finds true happiness in blowing shit up, he's great.

This episode has high highs and low lows, but it's by far the best episode of The Strain for a few weeks now, I am completely uninterested in Dutch and her lovers, and Palmer's still a complete creep, but The Born who's name I'll try to remember next week was all badass, and it's good to see Eph be interesting again. And when he's not getting all jealous and needlessly confrontational, Fet is awesome, I'm finally interested in The Strain again, and I'd recommend this episode.

Thunderbirds Pit of Peril review

Here's what you need to know; things go very wrong during a US Army test when their new walking war machine known as the Sidewinder is seemingly swallowed by the Earth. With no means of recovering the Sidewinder themselves, the Army calls in International Rescue to save the stricken machine and it's crew.
This was for a long time my favourite episode of Thunderbirds, and it's almost certainly the reason the Mole one of my favourite International Rescue machines, so now, with my more critical eye, let's review Pit of Peril.

This episode starts off brilliantly, with stock footage of jungle animals running in terror from the Sidewinder, though the stock footage actually looks pretty comical now, it perfectly introduces the Sidewinder. Similar to Trapped in the Sky before it, you don't see the Thunderbirds for some time, and the first portion of the episode consists of the Army trying to save Sidewinder themselves, and just like Trapped in the Sky, time is spent with the crew of the Sidewinder, time to develop them and make you care about the situation. That said I do think the characters are less interesting here, meanwhile I was interested in the story, which is probably on par with Trapped in the Sky, the army angle adds a very interesting element to the episode, and the Sidewinder is awesome, again with the brilliant introduction. When International Rescue finally show up things get even cooler, even with the goofy 60's sci fi sounds the camera drone makes, it was the 60's, so that point is null. This episode's rescue is less intense than Fireflash's final approach, but the rescue itself is a more interesting, what with Brains along for some added sciency stuff. As I said the rescue is far less intense than Trapped in the Sky, and that does make it weaker, even if I was more interested here. The machines, as ever, were awesome, the recovery vehicles were cool little things, and then there's of course the Mole, looking back I don't actually know what attracted me so much about the Mole, but even now I love seeing it roll out of the transport pod and start drilling, for some reason it just never gets old. Speaking of shots, this episode has some really good ones, by far the best is the one I used for my taster image, it's great stuff, and the splosions, particularly the one when Sidewinder falls, are very meaty, as good as CG looks, old fashioned pyrotechnics will always be better in my opinion.

Pit of Peril may have become less awesome as I have grown, but this is still a very enjoyable episode, it has some awesome machines, a cool story, and some fun interesting stuff, and a brilliant introduction, plus splosions. This episode does however have less interesting characters and a rescue that, while more interesting, is a step down from Trapped in the Sky. It is still brilliant though, and it's absolutely a must watch.

The ribbon by the river

Here are a few more photos I took on my latest photo excursion. The ribbon by the river refers to a red ribbon I found tied to a tree by the river, I thought it sounded kind of poetic. So here we have the sun poking through the trees and shining through some plants, a patch of moss and  fungus growing on a dead tree by the river, and the already mentioned red ribbon. And finally a photo I took while cutting through a crop field on the edge of the forest, the flare from the sun really makes it for me personally, enjoy.

Pacific Rim movie review

Here's what you need to know; in it's war against a race of invading alien monsters called Kaiju, humanity built an armada of giant robots called Jaegers to combat the Kaiju. But the Jaegers are losing, and now retired Jaeger pilot Raleigh Becket has been called back into action to join the final offensive against the invading Kaiju.

I'll actually start with something that isn't the film's strong point, the characters. Raleigh Becket is a very serviceable main character, he's not annoying, but he will not have any kind of impact on you. It's actually a shame because this film has a solid supporting cast, his co-pilot Mako Mori is more interesting, and has a really cool backstory, the other Jaeger pilots that matter are the Australian pilots who's names I don't know, one of them is a complete dick, the other is fairly likable, but they, like the other Jaeger pilots, don't get all that much development. Here's something funny, I thought the scientists were ok, they make decent supporting characters, and in moderation I thought they were funny, I'm happy with the amount of screen time they got, because any more and they might have been annoying. I'm leaving the most interesting character till last, Pentecost is cool, he is just cool, and that's because he's Idris Elba, and it doesn't matter what he's in or who he plays, he'll be awesome, and he's awesome here, he has some really good lines, and an interesting relationship with Mako, he is the best character in the film. The story is also not really a strong point, it's a very straight forward story where giant monsters are attacking and we're fighting them off with giant robots, but then there's all this other stuff going on about the Kaiju being an invading force for some alien race that tried to invade before, stayed for about 130 million years and then left because the conditions weren't right or whatever shit it was, it's really dumb. That coupled with the characters makes many of the characters/story scenes are a bit of a drag, unless they have Pentecost, the scientists or Ron Pearlman, then it's pretty good.

So far in this review I've been less than favourable, but that will now change, because the characters and story really aren't supposed to matter here, they're just there to facilitate the absolutely pure fucking awesome fights. This movie has Kaiju blood flowing through it's veins, the only difference between this and <insert name of Toho film here> is that this is a big American movie with state of the art computer effects and a massive budget. This is probably del Toro's most visually stunning film to date, not because of the beautiful imagery or the cool practical effects, but because of the sheer size and scale of this film, and the colours, which are beautiful, there are times when this film literally explodes with colour, the Hong Kong fight in particular is just beautiful, how many times have I used that word today. The visual effects really are incredible, and the fights are, I don't think filmed is the right word, so we'll go with framed, the fights are framed perfectly. Because of this the fights really feel tangible, which makes the harder hits all the more glorious. This film also holds nothing back, there's a big fight in the ridiculously long prologue, and it's the 2nd best fight in the film. But there isn't just glorious Kaiju combat, this film has 1 scene in particular that I really didn't expect when I watched this film for the first time, I won't spoil what it is, obviously, but it was a really dark scene, like potentially nightmare inducing level dark. del Toro films have creeped me out in the past, but watching this scene in the cinema was the only time a del Toro film has actually scared me, and I will admit that. The design is also cool, the Jaegers look awesome, so awesome in fact that I have a figure of one on my shelf, and the Kaiju are also badass, some look cooler than others, but the cooler ones are completely awesome, and what practical effects are here also look really cool, obviously though they take a bit of a back seat.

Pacific Rim is an interesting film, if you only like films that are heavy on character and story and where those 2 elements really leave an impact on you, this film is not for you, but alternatively, if you just want some awesome fun, this film is brilliant. When Pacific Rim gets it right, you won't find it better anywhere else, and that alone, at least for me, is enough to recommend this film, definitely give it a shot.

The Scorpion and the Rhino

Just for fun, and to end the streak of reviews, here we have, together, my 2 Mega Bloks Halo tanks, the UNSC Scorpion from the Scorpion's Sting set I reviewed earlier, and the UNSC Rhino that I got a few years ago. What should be immediately evident if how much smaller the Scorpion is compared to the Rhino, the Rhino dwarfs it in length and width, but interestingly they're about the same height, with the Rhino being just a bit taller. What else should be evident is that the main cannon on the Rhino is far bigger than the main cannon on the Scorpion, the Rhino is just all around a bigger vehicle, which is no surprise, I mean the Rhino has 6 pods, an obvious size difference to the Scorpion with 4 pods. Now for which one I prefer. If you've not played Halo Wars, you might not even know what the Rhino is, it's nowhere near as iconic as the scorpion, plus the Scorpion is now a lot easier to get than the Rhino, which has never happened once since the Rhino was released, and it's cheaper, at full price the Scorpion is £30 cheaper than the Rhino was, bear in mind the Rhino came with a structure piece. But for the cheaper price you're getting a more iconic vehicle, that is much better designed than the Rhino, not to say the Rhino is bad, because it absolutely isn't. There's the fact though that the Rhino is massive, so for it's presence on the display I'd say the Rhino, but for the design I'd say the Scorpion, really they are both great, but they both have their own strengths. Either way they're both in my display, so that says something, I like them both, and now I've seen them together, they look great together.

Mega Bloks halo Scorpion's Sting set

It's funny that after making Halo sets for more than half a decade, Mega Bloks has only made 3 Scorpion tanks, and that this is actually the first and only one I own, this set contains 616 pieces, and includes 1 Scorpion tank, 3 mini figures, and 1 plasma cannon.

So let's start with what I like here, and I'll go straight in with the design, I had a lot of fun putting this thing together, not just because to me just sitting down and building a big Mega Bloks set is euphoria, I really liked the design, putting it together, rather than specialised parts, this set has a lot more standard parts and is much more built up, it took about 2 and a half hours to put the tank together. When it's all put together the thing looks cool as hell, it's not a particularly big vehicle, but it's bulky, kind of how you'd expect a tank to look, it has a very funky asymmetrical design in the body and cannon, which I like a lot, and it's got a very nice set of colours on it, mostly green, with some silver, black, and praise the lord, no stickers, all the cosmetic detail is painted on, which is absurdly cool as shit. It's a tank, so this set really should have some playability, and it does. All 4 of the treads can move independently and the pods can all be rotated independently, if you'd rather display the set than play with it, the pods have enough friction to stay still, so you can pose it how you want, say you want to have it rolling over something in a diorama. The main cannon can be rotated 360% and be aimed up and down, and again there's enough friction for some cool poses, and the anti personal cannon can also be aimed up and down, and is mounted to the main cannon, allowing for 360% rotation. The machine gun can also look up and down and has 360% rotation, though the rotation is hampered, and it has a position to display 1 mini figure operating it. From a design expect this is my only real problem with the set, the MG sticks up too much, and it looks a bit off, it also hinders both it's own movement and the main cannon, which isn't brilliant. There's also a cockpit big enough to seat 1 mini figure, and a hatch on the back than opens to reveal a compartment, I haven't seen what can fit in there yet, but it's there, should you want to store things like weapons or mini figures.

Aside from the MG, I'm very happy with the vehicle in this set, it's very well designed, has a good use of parts, it has plenty of playability and it's just cool to look at. This set also includes 3 mini figures, 2 of which I really like, even if they're not terribly unique figures, the first is Spartan Buck, who uses the new figure design and removable and interchangeable armour. He comes with an assault rifle and has a few nifty details, like a knife sculpted into his chest plate, and a bright green visor which I'm guessing is supposed to be iridescent in the game. The other Spartan here is less impressive, he too has interchangeable armour, but the armour looks ugly, at least in my opinion, he comes with an SMG. The last mini figure is an elite minor, he's got the ever awesome new design, which also means interchangeable armour, and he looks pretty cool, not as cool as Jul 'Mdama, who has similar coloured armour, but he looks cool, he comes with a storm rifle. Finally the set comes with a plasma cannon, which are like fusion coils and weapon containers, you can't really have too many of them, but this one is particularly cool, it's painted.

So overall this set isn't bad, it has some serviceable mini figures, but they're not what's important, what's important is the completely badass Scorpion tank, which more than warrants purchasing this set on it's own, so I'd say that if you like Mega Bloks Halo sets, here's another good one for you.

Doctor Who series 9 Under The Lake review

Spoilers ahead for Doctor Who.
Here's what you need to know; the Doctor and Clara find themselves aboard a mining station on the bottom of a lake where strange things seem to be happening, when the night comes, it seems the dead come back to life, the Doctor becomes determined to uncover the source of these mysterious ghosts.

So let's start with what I liked, I liked the ghosts, I thought that they are cool, that said, if we're comparing them to monsters from series 8, they're not as cool or creative as some of them, like the mummy or those weird 2D aliens, and they aren't really explained here, it's a 2 parter, so maybe they'll explain next week what these ghosts are, but for now they're not really all that interesting to me. If I wanted interesting I'm more interested in the ship and those symbols and what is inside that coffin, and by extension, what the signal the ghosts are transmitting means. I want to know what is in that coffin, and why it's broadcasting. The underwater base setting sounds cool, but it isn't as cool as it sounds. A thought just came to me, I just watched the Martian before watching this episode, so the underwater base did kind of not have the same coolness, a more fair and relevant comparison would be the base from The Satin Pit, but even then this base isn't actually that cool looking, I think windows would have helped a lot. Now for the characters, who are a bit flat in my opinion, none of them stand out or are memorable, and there are a few things I don't get, like why can one of them only communicates with sign language, and why is that one guy all about the assets, to a cartoony degree, he was a cartoon, and he was a bit annoying.

Coming off last week and the week before, this episode just isn't as cool, it has some sort of interesting monsters, and there is a cliff hanger that makes me want to see what's next, but it didn't make me mad that I had to wait a week like the first episode did, and the characters and setting just aren't that interesting. This isn't a bad episode, but it's not on the same level as episode 1 and 2.

The Martian movie review

Here's what you need to know; the crew of the Ares III mission to Mars is forced to abort the mission when they are hit by an intense storm, in their attempt to escape, one of the astronauts; Mark Watney is hit by debris and killed, and the crew leave without him. There's just one problem, Mark Watney didn't die, and he's now stranded on Mars. With any hope of rescue years away, Watney must figure out a way to survive on Mars while NASA races back on Earth to bring him home.

Let's start as usual with what I liked in the film, which typically starts with the characters, or in this case, character, Mark Watney. Mark Watney is a very likable character, it would have been very easy to make him and the movie as a whole very depressing, given that it's about a guy who is alone on a dead planet with practically no chance of survival, but Watney stays positive, he keeps up with the belief that he will survive, and his positive attitude really lightens the mood. That's not to say he hasn't got some tough scenes, because he absolutely does, one of the first things he does in the film is perform surgery on himself, that was a tough scene to watch. The rest of the characters on the other hand, none of them were particularly bad, it's just that I didn't care about them anywhere near as much as I cared about Watney, I cared about what they were doing, but they weren't as interesting on their own as Watney, the Ares III crew are more interesting than the Earthlings, but they are still nothing on Watney. This film's plot is fairly straight forward, there's a guy stranded on Mars who has to somehow stay alive while everyone tries to get to get him back to Earth. What really makes this awesome is the science. It's been a while since I've done a sciency post, so for anyone who's new here, I love science, and yeah, this movie is crammed full of crazy awesome science, it's not boring at all, it's just awesome. However, I said previously that by far the most interesting thing in this film is Watney and his science on Mars, there is a sequence near the end when Watney kind of takes a back seat to the Ares III crew, I'd rather the film really spends more time on Mars with Watney than it did, for reasons I've already said. I think it's a lot more minor than every review I've seen so far for this film, but I do at least partially think they're right.

Let's just cut to the chase, this film is fucking gorgeous, the Martian landscape looks amazing, photo realistic most of the time, and Ridley Scott put in quite a few sweeping shots just of the Martian landscape, and they're stunning. There's only so many times space can blow you're mind in movies, so the space sequences near the end I thought were less interesting, but like the supporting characters, there's nothing wrong with them, they're just in the shadow of something far cooler. Not since Mad Max has a wasteland looked so beautiful in a film, Mars really is a character all it's own here, and it's brilliant. The CG wasteland is blended seamlessly, Watney really does look like he's there, on Mars. The props also looks really awesome, or is just that I can't tell when real ends and CG begins, who knows, 90% of this entire film could have been CG and I wouldn't have known or cared, I can't stress enough how beautiful I thought this film was. I mentioned earlier that there's a scene when Watery performs surgery on himself, this film is directed by Ridley Scott, and if that wasn't evident from the trailer, it's evident in the movie, this movie has some very intense scenes, scenes which I won't spoil, it also has a few brilliant moments where something goes wrong, and on the opposite end, when something goes right, and it's just awesome either way, because you can really get behind Watney, you want him to succeed, so it sucks when he fails, but in the best way, and you just want to punch the air when he succeeds. And towards the end it shows a lot more of Earth and how the public is responding to Watney stranded on Mars, call me cheesy, but with how mad the world has become, it's cool to see something unite us all, even if it's just a film.

The Martian is incredible, it's stunning to look at, has some truly awesome moments, an extremely likable main character, a good supporting line up that is just not on the same level, but they're still good, and of course the science, holy shit, the science. This film is just brilliant, and it's absolutely a must watch.

Hellboy II The Golden Army movie review

Here's what you need to know; Prince Nuada has declared war on humanity, and plans to awaken the legendary Golden Army, Hellboy and the BPRD must once again protect the Earth from evil, but Hellboy's destiny still looms, and he may very well have met his match.

Hellboy was an enjoyable film, it had some awesome characters, cool effects and fun action, but it had a lot of other things that didn't really stand out, Hellboy 2 on the other hand, at least in my opinion, is on another level. Lets start with what I liked, everything I liked in the first Hellboy has returned, and a lot of it is even better than before, this is a much funnier film than the first, and it has some genuinely side splitting moments, a lot of that comes from the characters, who are improved across the board. Hellboy and Abe are still absolutely badass, Hellboy even more so if that's even possible, with Myers gone, this time a lot more screen time is spent with the freaks, and with the villain, more on that later. Manning is much funnier here, and Liz thankfully isn't on downers for the entire film like last time, her relationship with Hellboy gets a lot more time in this film, and she is a much more interesting character here, and a more emotional one too, she actually smiles from time to time. Abe also gets a lot more development here in the form of a love interest, he gets a lot more to do here, including a few throwdowns. Krauss is pretty cool too, the confrontations between him and Hellboy range from amusing to brilliant, and he too can really kick arse in a fight, which he does near the end, plus he's just a cool looking character, he's got a very interesting design to him. Of course Hellboy is the centre of this film, and yep, he's a badass, same as ever. Now for the elves, who are not the pointy eared variety here. Neither of our elves, Nuada and Nuala are particularly remarkable, but Nuada is a much better villain than Rasputin was in the first film, he has a motive that's much easier to get behind, and he has a few emotional scenes here that help to flesh him out, and establish his rather interesting bond to his sister. And he could probably kick the clockwork assassin's dusty arse in a fight, even if he'll lose in the creepy department. Hellboy 2 also has a much more interesting story then the first, a lot of that may be down to the better villain and more fleshed out characters, but I did get a lot more into what was going on in this film than in the first. It balances the characters and the action far better, in addition to adding more of those elements, and it makes the film much more enjoyable.

Now for the technicals, this film looks amazing, packing a ludicrous amount of special effects that all look great, stand out scenes include the Troll market, the fight with the tooth fairies, the fight with the giant plant monster, the film has great special effects, and this comes in handy in the film's various action scenes, which are all really fun to watch, perhaps most fun is the big final showdown at the end, but the film practically doesn't stop with the action, it at least feels like not even 15 minutes go by before some action starts, that's not a bad thing, because it never feels out of place. And also, I need to talk about the tooth fairies, because that scene is pretty creepy, I'm not going to lose sleep over it, but those things are creepy, plus the idea of small creatures scuttling all over me and burrowing into my flesh does get under my skin, pun intended. On the polar opposite end of the spectrum for this film, there's a scene with Hellboy and Abe that is pure gold, it really shines in it's writing, and the choice of music is either the dumbest or the best choice ever, I genuinely don't know which. As I said before, this film is a technical marvel, both with it's practical effects and it's computer generated effects, it's just consistently great to look at, it's not filled with symbolism like Pan's Labyrinth is, but it's still great to look at. There are, as well as the action scenes, a few more dramatic scenes, and I speak of course of the angel of death, every time I look at it, the way it moves, the way it looks, it just makes me think of Fauno from Pan's Labyrinth, I know it's the same actor, and it's a very cool creature that's in a very cool scene in the movie that I won't spoil.

Hellboy 2 is improved on Hellboy in every way, the characters are more fleshed out and the writing is funnier, the villain is far better, the Golden Army is badass, the action is more frequent and more fun to watch, and it has a few slower scenes that I can't help but love. I think it falls short of being a masterpiece, but I would very highly recommend Hellboy 2, I'd still call it a must watch.

The Strain season 2 Identity review

Spoilers ahead for The Strain.
Here's what you need to know, a mysterious new force is now in the fight against the Master, Eph and his new friends in Washington get to work on manufacturing his anti-vampire bio-weapon, but Kelly and her feelers are closer than ever to getting Zach. Gus is hanging with Angel, but now the two are at odds.
Yep, this review is late, promise this won't become the norm.

This episode has some really good shit in it, for example this new Vampire that's arrived to kill the Master, I really want to know more about him, and I want to see him in action, and I really liked the 2 scenes he was in, more so the one with the Ancients, I just hope they don't do what they did to Vaun to him and kill him off too soon. Speaking of killing people off, this episode actually had a fair few people killed off, 2 of which I don't remember ever seeing before, so they're in this episode, they're introduced in this episode, and they're killed off in this episode, well, that was eventful. I suppose them getting killed off is actually kind of a good thing, since Gus' story has really gone cold for me here, and the series doesn't need any more pointless subplots, though Eph's story in Washington has hit a bit of a dead end now, I don't know what will happen next. Lets get back to Gus, what is happening with Gus, he's hanging out with a retired wrestler who doesn't like him, he's flirting with a nice girl, but him and Angel are constantly butting heads because Angel doesn't approve of him, I've probably said this about The Strain before, but get to the point, I care about the war with the vampires, not Gus getting flirty, just get to the point, same with Angel, I just don't get it, get to the point. That scene in the church however, that could have been half the episode and I'd have enjoyed this episode a lot more, it was awesome, and they finally got somewhere with Kelly and her creepy fucking kid vampires. The church scene is probably the best part of the episode because for once the vampires were a threat again, they haven't really been a threat to any of the main characters for a while, I like seeing them as a threat again, and when you see the kid vampires scuttling up the stained glass, that was awesome, though personally, I wouldn't have just distracted them with the wardrobe, I'd have stuffed that thing with silver bombs and let them burn, would that have been hard, Nora, or was shooting them too difficult on it's own, seriously. That said, why did they kill Fitzwilliam, I mean, he finally decides to help Abraham, and an episode later he dies, I just don't know why they killed him off so quickly, from a story standpoint he's kind of significant, and now he's dead, great.

The loose threads are still loose, and some of the stories in the series have hit dead ends here, I liked the church scene, and I'm really interested in this new vampire that's out for the Master, but this episode wasn't one that really advanced anything, in fact it set a lot of things back, I can't say I didn't like the episode, but I can't say I liked it.