Avengers Infinity War Film Review

Aboard The Grandmaster's spaceship Thanos and his henchman, The Children of Thanos, have slaughtered the remaining Asgardians fleeing from a destroyed Asgard. He has traced Loki there, who is in possession of the Tesseract which contains the Space Stone, one of six stones Thanos needs to wield the Infinity Gauntlet. Thanos kills Loki after imprisoning Thor and defeating the Hulk, but a dying Heimdall manages to open the Bifrost one last time to send The Hulk back to Earth. He lands at the Sanctum Sanctorum in New York City where he warns Doctor Strange and Wong about Thanos' impending arrival. Back in space Thanos destroys the ship using the Power Stone hurtling Thor through space, but he is saved by the Guardians of the Galaxy who received a distress call from the ship. Knowing that Thanos already has two of the stones the separate groups go about trying to stop the increasingly powerful villain from obtaining the others in order to disintegrate half the universe.

With such a large amount of characters to deal with there was always going to be some that featured less prominently than others, but for the most part the film balances them well. The film partciulary excels at grouping them into several sub-plots as to allow specific characters to bounce off each other.

Robert Downey Jr. is as solid as ever as the playboy genius Iron Man, and is paired well with the very similar Benedict Cumberbatch's Doctor Strange. They are joined by the enthusiastic yet naive Peter Parker. Tom Holland can do no wrong, and is particularly strong in one of the films closing scenes; his character a perfect balance to the hardened thespians of the franchise.

I found Chris Hemsworth's Thor to have become uncharacteristically funnier, in the same manner of those aforementioned, in his previous film Thor: Ragnorak and was concerned that trend would continue here. The beginning of the film sees Thor suffer a terrible loss and which could have easily seen him transformed into a dour character to deal with, which is again perfectly rectified by having him joined by The Guardians of the Galaxy, particularly Rocket and Groot, to counteract this with their funny banter. Their humour doesn't always fit in with the rest of the Avengers, though, with both Drax and Mantis finding little to do.

Gamora, on the other hand, is extremely instrumental to the film, with Thanos's daughter providing some much needed pathos to the villains motivations. He's surprisingly likeable as a villain because of this, although ultimately he's world destruction agenda still falls flat despite an attempt to character a relatable backstory for the troubled family.

Back on Earth, Paul Bettany and Elisabeth Olsen's Vision and Scarlet Witch are the most focused on characters, due to Mind Stone being his life source. Their relationship has never felt understandable to me, so it's a hard sell here, but it's hard to care too much when longtime fans can't help but get excited when the Avengers and constantly reuniting with long separated friends (I'm looking at you, Steve Rogers with that impressive beard), or even meeting each other for the first time.

The only real problem the film has, as it has been for majority of Marvel's phase two films, is that believable and the motivation behind a lot of the characters actions. The franchise has been running for ten years, so fans gain a greater sense of what they think characters will do, and when they don't it becomes difficult to believe. Loki, God of Mischief has escaped death numerous times, so his demise here - trying to foolishly stab Thanos - is annoying (as is the fact that if he hadn't stolen the Tesseract from a collapsing Asgard none of this would have happened). Despite knowing where the Soul Stone is and asking Quinn to kill her so Thanos can't get it, Gamora not only tells Thanos where is it after her sister Nebula is tortured, but she foolishly doesn't realise Thanos's plan to kill her to get the stone until too late. The moment The Children of Thanos come to Earth to retrieve the Mind Stone from Vision he knows the solution is to kill himself for the greater good, yet Scarlet Witch only agrees to this until it's too late. The most ridiculous of all is Stephen Strange giving Thanos the Time Stone in exchange for Tony Stark's life, a man who he's just met and openly expresses that he doesn't like, the only understandable explanation being that when he calculated the future possibilities the only one in which they win featured Tony playing a significant role, which is why he would save him. One understands that quickly addressing these dilemmas significantly shortens and changes the story, but that doesn't make them any less frustrating.

The movie is fast-paced, has high-stakes, and is surprisingly emotional amongst the abundance of action, while still managing to retain its humour. While it is the longest-running Marvel film to date, fans of the franchise will not notice its longevity in the slightest, and in fact while be left wanting a lot more due to its cliffhanger ending.

Rating: 4/5

Unreal S02E07 Review: Ambush

Deciding that she needed to get rid of Coleman in order to reclaim her title as show-runner of Everlasting Quinn called in last season's suitor Adam in an attempt to drive Rachel away from her new lover. Initially, his return didn't seem do too much - Rachel was adamant that she had moved on and wanted nothing to do with Adam (despite a steamy bathroom make-out session) and neither Rachel or Coleman took the bait when network owner John Booth approached Coleman solo about some of their ideas at Quinn's behest. Quinn had tried and failed to manipulate them, although potentially that it not how she sees it. As she posed to Coleman, 'I keep her in line here, do you really want to be on a full-time bomb squad?'. She thinks she's doing what's best for Rachel, in an obvious self-serving way, and as Coleman tells her, 'Rachel's fine Quinn. Turns out her big problem is working for a controlling manipulative bitch.' This is not a new conversation on Unreal, and the question has been raised for a while, what are Rachel and Quinn to one another? Can one survive without the other? The series is at it's best, for me, when it focuses on its dynamic and dysfunctional leading ladies so I don't mind it being repeated, but unless the series goes about trying to give us some sort of answer it'll become tedious. 

For a while it looked like this episode, Ambush, was going to do this. While behind the scenes Quinn tried to store up trouble with Adam on the cameras of Everlasting Adam helped Darius choose a date hosted by one of the ladies, which ended up being a romantic gondola ride with Chantal - until she tried to prove her love to him by throwing her dead-finance's ashes and through the magic of television ended up going all over Darius. It was all pretty boring until Darius - fed up with the way Rachel has been treating him - went for a joyride with his recently returned cousin and manager Romeo, as well as a drunken Yael and Tiffany. Seeing it as an opportunity to make the show she's being wanting to make (and no doubt as a way to get back at both Quinn and Adam who have been telling her that she's delusionsal) Rachel calls the police and reports the car as stolen. In an unexpected turn of events Darius gets pulled over, but when the situation quickly escaletes Rachel tries to stop it, only for one of the officer's to shoot Romeo. It was a surprising end to an otherwise uneventful episode but what made it truly enjoyable was the irony of the outcome.

Quinn was right - Coleman let Rachel run with her idea and someone ended up shot. Quinn wasn't on the set of Everlasting to stop her because of an earlier scene in which Rachel told her that she needs to stop being so obsessed with her and to get a life. So when Gary, the president of the network, interrupts her romantic date with John to tell her what has happened she has achieved what she wanted - Coleman is no longer show-runner of Everlasting. Accept that she hasn't. An emotionally distraught Rachel kicks Adam out of her trailer and calls her mother, who promptly takes her to a psychiatric facility and drugs her. Despite Quinn's aforementioned self-serving behaviour the series has also previously shown that at least she's treated Rachel better than her own mother has - who seems to think the only way to deal with such a difficult person as Rachel is to drug her. Quinn wanted Coleman gone to keep the Everlasting family together. And now it's daughter is gone. So can one survive without the other? 

Rating: 4/5

American Horror Story: Hotel 5.11 Review - Battle Royale

In a series like American Horror Story in which several characters can die and come back to life in the span of an episode it's always hard to build anticipation with life-threatening cliffhangers. So when, at the end 'She Gets Revenge', Iris and Liz burst into The Countess' room guns a-blazing an observant AHS viewer would probably have assumed that The Countess would survive. And she did (and miraculously managed to crawl out of the room somehow), but poor Donovan did not, and before he died from the bullet wounds his mother accidentally inflicted on him he asked her to drag him out of the Cortez before he would to live there eternally as a ghost. It was a tender moment for the pairs confusingly under-developed relationship considering the amount of drama it's caused over the season. Am I sad that Donovan died? Not really, no. Much like the relationship his mother, his character motivations changed drastically episode to episode, so he was very hard to like.

What worked so well for this episode though is that all it's characters seemed to have a singular goal -  albeit with varying motivations - that The Countess had to die, and it made for compelling viewing. So yes, with Sally's help, and the blood of her baby vampires The Countess was able to survive. Sally wanted her to lure John back to the hotel so that be could be killed and forced to stay there with her forever, and that was after telling her and giving us a painful flashback to 1933 where she sewed herself to a couple before they unfortunately overdosed. But much like us, The Countess was not very interested in Sally's problems. One of her favourite boyfriends (the only surviving one at this stage, so I guess he was important) had been murdered and she had to kill her own children to live. She was not in a good place, and props to Lady Gaga who has been great all season, but definitely brought it in 'Battle Royale'.

Iris (after briefly mourning her son by rolling around on the bed with his ashes) and Liz stayed in the hotel despite knowing that The Countess would come for them once she had healed, but I guess they thought they would be fine once they freed Ramona and got her to help them kill her. Unfortunately Ramona was very malnourished from being trapped in that cement hallway with only vampire children as food, and also wasn't very happy with Iris for helping putting her there, so her and Liz had to go out in search for food. But as tends to happen with the Hotel Cortez, guests seem to arrive just as someone decides they need to do some murdering, and this time the victim was none other than Coven's Queenie. Although overall this episode was great I could potentially go into great detail here about the writers tarnishing previous seasons of AHS by haphazardly inserting a major character from Coven and unceremoniously killing her off here, but I won't. After some forced exposition about witch bloodlines and her voodoo doll nature March is able to kill her (because he cannot be harmed) and Ramona gains insumountable strength for drinking her blood. It turns out Match too wants The Countess dead - so that they can finally be together instead of having dinner once a month.
Ramona confronts The Countess in her suite and flirtatious, yet threatening, banter ensued between the two until a mournful Countess apologised for all the horrible things she had done to Romana and offered the Hotel Cortez to her as compensation, which Ramona agreed to for some reason (SHE DIDN"T EVEN NEED WITCH POWERS AFTER ALL THAT! QUEEN DIDN'T HAVE TO DIE). All The Countess wanted to do was take her son and leave the Cortez behind.

Elsewhere, John and Alex's poor attempt to have a normal family by keeping their never-aging son aware from grandma's eyes and kidnapping randoms to bring home to eat was put on hold when John returned home to only a Hotel Cortez key waiting for him. He goes to the Hotel and Sally tells him March kidnapped his family for breaking his promise and not fulfilling his Twelve Commandment killings, he still needs a 'Thou Shalt Not Commit Murder' trophy, and it beautifully fitting act he guns down The Countess as she is about to leave the hotel. It's the sort of moment the season was rockingly building towards, The Countess being the final victim of the Twelve Commandments killer, and I don't think its a moment that'll be surpassed in the remaining episodes.

Although it didn't really need it, 'Battle Royale's final scene was a revealing epilogue as March tries to ensure that Ms. Evers helps him accommodate The Countess, who is now a fully formed ghost. March tells The Countess he forgives her for turning her in all those years ago but its okay because they're together now. Ms. Evers cracks, telling The Countess she should have died outside of the hotel and telling March that it was her who tipped the police off about him all those years ago - knowing that he would kill himself rather then get caught. He is dumbfounded and banishes her from his sight, but returns to a cheerier mood as he toasts to his and The Countess her (after)life together while she cries.

It was a surpassingly fact-paced and emotional episode overall, but I'm worried that after this there is little for AHS Hotel to do. John is not that interesting a character, we don't really care what happens to his family, and I can't imagine March's plans for him are all that exciting. Iris, Liz, and Ramona have sort of been extraneous characters all season and they all lack motivation now that The Countess is technically dead. And everyone else is just resentful ghosts, surely there's not too much they can do? Although, as 'Battle Royale' expressed, AHS does still have the ability to surprise us.

Rating: 4/5

World War Z Movie Review

When an unknown virus spreads across the world turning people into zombies, Gerry Lane (Brad Bitt), his wife Karin (Mireille Enos), and their two daughters Rachel (Abigail Hargrove) and Constance (Sterling Jerins) barely make it out of Philadelphia alive when the city is overrun by the infected. They are aided by Thierry Umutoni (Fana Mokoena), the UN Deputy Secretary-General, and Gerry's former boss, and taken to a U.S. Navy vessel off the coast of New York City, where a team of analysts and military personnel is analysing the scope of the worldwide outbreak. When there, Umutoni asks Gerry to help investigate the virus and assist virologist, Dr. Andrew Fassbach (Elyes Gabel), find the outbreak's source, because of his expertise as a former UN investigator.
Under duress for his family's safety, Gerry reluctantly agrees to fly to Camp Humphreys, a military base in South Korea where the word "zombie" was supposedly first used in reference to the outbreak.

From the very beginning the film is action packed and suspenseful, showcasing brilliant scenes of mass chaos and destruction. If the film wasn't in the middle of a suspenseful action sequence, the plot was moving just as fast with Gerry Lane doing plenty of globe trotting throughout the films 116min in order to find the origin of the virus and a possible cure. Although some of the situations Lane's character finds himself facing are borderline absurd, as are the zombies abilities at times, you're willing to maintain your suspension of disbelief for the entertaining action sequences. Similarly, the film starts to get slightly repetitive when characters continue to make the same mistakes again and again when faced with the zombies, but again they are forgivable.

The film also doesn't seem to define itself to a particular genre of apocalyptic film, with cities in chaos, military action, and scientific investigation all playing major parts in the film. Some my argue that this gives the film a lack of cohesiveness, but the tone always remains intact, and having the different aspects played out ensures that the film never gets stale.

While all this was done extremely well, it's safe to say it leaves the film with little room to do much else. If your after the thinking man's zombie apocalypse this movie isn't it. There's no time left for the development of the characters and their relationships, let alone time for a discussion of philosophical ideologies among them.

The ending is very sentimental and a little anti-climatic considering some of the more exciting scenes that preceded it, but it does it's job in providing a satisfying conclusion to the movie.

Overall, a thoroughly enjoyable action film, with great pacing and plenty of suspense thrown in to keep the majority entertained.

Rating: 4/5

True Blood 6.2 Review: The Sun

True Blood got back to basics this week, while still managing to intrigue with new characters and deepening plotlines. Arlene finally called Sookie up on not being at work (when has she ever been there, ever?), but of course she is Sookie and she can't even make it to Merlotte's before literally stumbling into supernatural beings, this one being a  Halfling fairy hybrid like herself named Ben. He's been injured by a vampire and despite her willingness to move past the supernatural and to stop inviting handsome stranger's into her house, she does so anyway because she's Sookie. When he recovers she tells him about the safe place for faeries, the faerie safehouse/ club. She starts to take him there, but when he reads her find and hears the name Bill, she senses gather, and she returns home, directing him the rest of the way, alone. Of course, because it's Sookie, when she returns home she is yet again confronted with the supernatural in Jason bearing their faerie grandfather Naill, who, as it turns out, is not actually Warlow. He tells them that he's there to kill Warlow and that there's a power in their bloodline that allows them to create an orb of light that can kill any vampire it touches, but that Sookie can only ever use it as a last resort because it would drain her fae powers completely. While the verdict is still out on what role Naill will really play for the course of the season, Rutger Hauer is an enigmatic actor, and having him as a parental figure towards Sookie and Jason made both characters a little more tolerable because they were finally being given some strong direction.

Meanwhile Eric was forced to take charge of the Governor Burnell situation after the incident at Fangtasia in which Tara was shot with a very painful to vampires UV light bullet. Pam made it abundantly clear that there were more humans then vampires, and that with weapons like that maybe they should be afraid. Eric was not going to stand by and watch this happen, so hilariously disguised man meant to be discussing a bill about the extinction of the whooping crane with the Governer. Eric tries to glamour him, but they've made contacts that prevent you from being glamoured (wow, who knew humans could actually do stuff?), and Eric is about to be taken away by armed guards when he flies away. Later on  Eric flies up to the room of the Governor's daughter after she has taken off her contacts, and glamours her to let him in. Clichéd, but effective.

Over at Bill's he has an episode in which he can see and feel various vampires being tortured by humans now that they have no rights in Louisiana, and falls into a comatose like state, much to Jessica's dismay. While comatose he has a vision of Lillith who tells him he proved himself worthy as he won the battle for her blood. He asks if he is God to which Lilith says that no he is not god just as she is not god although some will come to worship him as a god just as they do Lilith herself but there is no god but god. Meanwhile, in an attempt to wake Bill from his coma Jessica orders a blonde meal on wheels, and while it initially doesn't seem to rouse him, before the woman can leave Bill opens his mouth and siphons her blood through the air from her mouth. Back in the vision Lilith then tells Bill to trust what he knows and trust what he sees, and when the time comes he will know exactly what to do and she then disappears and he wakes from the coma. The TV in Bill's office turns on as he does so, and Jessica returns at the noise. On the television is a news report highlighting one of the tortured vampires Bill experienced previously, and Jessica exclaims that he can see the future. At that moment Bill has another vision. He sees Jessica, Tara, Eric, Pam, Nora and other vampires standing in what looks like a gas chamber before the roof opens revealing the sun, which precedes to burn all of the vampires.

At Merlotte's Sam is approached by a woman who openly addresses him as a shifter. He takes her to his back office where she introduces herself as Nicole Wright, co founder of the Vampire Unity Society and tells Sam she wants to help Sam come out as a shifter to the world. Sam obviously objects to the idea but Nicole tries to convince him that once humans are done with vampires they'll come after shifter's next and the only way to win would be if all supernatural beings came out publicly in a unified front. Sam is still not interested and she leaves. Later on Sam returns home where Lafayette has being looking after Emma. Martha, Alcide, and Danielle show up asking for Emma now that Luna is dead, but Sam refuses to giver her to them. A fight ensues and the wolfs beat up Sam and Lafayette before taking a screaming Emma. All the while Nicole and three of her friends watch from the bushes filming the incident.

An a very intriguing episodes with majority of the plots moving forward swiftly and some even unexpectedly, I hope there's more episode like this to come.

Rating 4/5

Damages Recap & Review (5.2: Have You Met the Eel Yet?)

Ellen's not having the easiest time trying to represent Channing McClaren, mostly because he refuses to listen to or do what Ellen and Rutger, his chief adviser at McClarenTruth.org, tell him. During an interview McClaren publicly admits that his organisation made a mistake by publishing Noami Walling's personal communications. As Patty watches online McClaren receives a subpoena she served him while onstage, ensuring that he cannot leave the country while she tries to build a case against him by proving McClaren knew Walling personally and had intent to harm her. She asks Bill to find her proof that the pair knew each other.

Back at McClarenTruth.org Ellen questions Channing McClaren about Naomi Walling. He claims he never met her in person and that all their correspondence occurred online. As Ellen is leaving Rutger tells her that the company is having cash flow problems since the Naomi Walling story came out. Ellen tells him to find the money to pay her or hire another lawyer, and he questions her ability to represent McClaren, considering she does not appear to have much experience and has no staff. She informs him she is starting to hire, and that he should be more worried by the fact that the Judge assigned to their case favours Patty.

As Ellen has a name plaque installed outside her firm, an older woman named Kate Franklin approaches her with her resume and additional anecdotes. While Ellen accepts the resume she seems uninterested but later reads it and discovers Kate worked with Patty decades ago when Patty was establishing her legal practice. Kate also approaches Patty at Hewes & Associates and tells Patty she wants a job, and that Ellen as given her one, but she wants double the money to work for Patty. While Patty notices the proposition is out of character for Kate, she agrees. Kate returns to Ellen telling her that Patty was willing to pay her double the amount, revealing that she definitely doesn't want Kate working for Ellen. Ellen tells her she passed the test, but asked why she wouldn't want to work with Patty, to which she replies that she doesn't like her.

Despite being told to stay out of the public eye, Channing leaves the confines of McClarenTruth.org to meet with a man who claims he has more information about what happened with the Princefield leak. He asks Channing for money, which he refuses to give, saying he has never paid for information. After the man leaves and McClaren is kicked out of the bar for smoking, he is followed out by a brunette who recognises him. The pair start to flirt, and soon find themselves out the front of her apartment building, kissing, unaware that a man is watching them from the shadows. She asks him if he wants to come up, and after hesitantly looking at the security camera above the entrance to her building, he puts on a long black wig and agrees to come in.

At McClarenTruth.org, Rutger gives Ellen a USB containing damning evidence against Judge Haring. While she is hesitant to take it from him, they are both desperate to win the case, so she's takes it and approaches Haring outside his house. He initially doesn't believe that Ellen has anything on him, but when she produces the USB he agrees to step down as judge on the case, citing that his wife has become ill.

Later, the man that was watching Channing and the brunette them from the shadows arrives unannounced in Ellen's office. It is revealed he is a friend of Chris's, who Ellen hired to keep an eye on McClaren. He reveals that he has proof that McClaren meet with Naomi Walling at a hotel, using the hotel security footage and a photo he took of McClaren putting on the wig before heading into the brunette's. Ellen realises that this means McClaren is lying to her.

At Hewes & Associates, Bill is awoken by a drycleaner as he sleeps on a couch. After he tells the drycleaner he's wearing all the clothes he owns, he grabs out a flask from the side of the couch and starts to drink. Patty continues to ask him how his investigation into finding the link between McClaren and Naomi Walling is going, but it is obvious he has been half-heartedly doing the work, getting other employees to do most of it for him. Bill reviews the hotel security that Ellen also receives, but doesn't pick up that the man in the wig is McClaren and tells Patty that he can't find any evidence McClaren and Naomi ever met.

The next morning Channing returns to McClarenTruth.org and tells Rutger they need their employees back, after having angrily fired them earlier, because he knows that there is still more information to uncover about the Princefield leak and they need to get to work.

Ellen quietly celebrates back at her office with a glass of bourbon, but she is interrupted by a phone call from Patty Hewes. Patty congratulates her on removing the judge from the trail, but tells her that paranoia can lead to one seeing things that aren't actually there. Patty reveals that her conversation with Judge Haring that Ellen saw after the first hearing was misinterpreted, and that when Ellen sent Kate to Hewes & Associates she asked her assistant to lie and say she was receiving a personal phone call from Haring, to give Ellen the idea they shared a personal relationship. Patty tells Ellen that they actually didn't like each other, and he would have made her case very difficult, but the judge replacing him, Richard Gearheart, are on good terms. In court, Judge Gearheart tells them that Haring was not going to allow Patty to continue the case against McClaren, but that he thinks otherwise and will let Patty establish her case against him.

Three months in the future, Ellen stands and watches a pigeon on the top of a building, seemingly waiting for someone. The pigeon is suddenly flustered and flies away, and Ellen turns to see what caused that reaction. At the police station, a phone is given to Patty in the interogration room for her to make her call. As Ellen lies lifeless in an alleyway, her phone starts to ring. Presumably it is Patty calling her. Above, an unknown man looks over the edge of the building down at Ellen's body.

While again Patty bests Ellen in the match, the game is only just beginning, and now that Ellen has Kate on her side she might be a formidable force. Patty has problems on her hands with the lacklustre Bill, but because McClaren is such a loose cannon, and obviously lying to Ellen, it will be interesting to see which one is able to overcome and remove their obstacles before the other one gets the better of them.

Rating: 4/5

Damages Recap & Review (5.1: You Want to End This Once and For All?)

The setup of the McClaren case so far has been good. I was hesitant that the show was again using parallels from current media headlines to form the shape of the main legal battle this season, and it's obvious corporate America is once again in the spotlight, as well as Wikileaks founder David Assange. However, at this stage, the case has yet to be clearly defined, and there are still plenty of questions that need to be answered about what happened. Did Noami willingly give information about her company to McClaren, if so, why? Or Did McClaren steal it? Or someone else? And again, why? And why add all the dirty details of Noami's sex-life too? I love that guilty and innocence are relative terms in the world of Damages, nothing is that simple, and I hope, in terms of the characters involved in the legal battle, at least some ambiguity remains.

Noami's death was certainly shocking, and while Damages has never shined away from violence, I found myself feeling squeamish when the two masked men ambushed her in her bathtub and slit her wrists with a box cutter. It'll be interesting to find out who did it. While the obvious answer is Patty, as usual, you can't be certain.

Obviously, the courtroom confession of Ellen had to wait, but the custody of Catherine storyline seemed to fall by the wayside as the episode progressed and as Bill suggested, what is the point of keeping it around? I hope Michael starts to become a more aggressive character rather then just acting like an immature smart-ass. I can see him trying to dig up inofmration about his mother to build his case, possibly from Ellen. I hope this occurs, after all he's Patty's son, he's not just going to let her take his child. Hopefully Catherine is used more to, she provoked some very entertaining emotions from Patty during her dream.

While I understand the need for Patty and Ellen to have people to confide in, the inclusion of Bill and Chris respectively as the people they turn to to discuss their problems doesn't excite. At this stage, we know little about Bill, other than his loyalty to Patty. I could see him easily getting his hands dirty, but he pales in comparison to Pete. I'm hoping that he'll develop into a more three-dimensional character and not just be Patty's lackey, I'd love to see him start to question her as the season goes on, possibly even betray her. As for Chris, he's a liability to Ellen if there ever was one, and I can see a David-esque situation occurring all over again. Obviously the longer he hangs around, the more he's going to learn about Ellen and Patty's relationship, and that can't end well. He's just a distraction Ellen doesn't need. She's thinks she can do it all, be a successfully lawyer, have the perfect relationship, but she's needs to learn she can't.

While of course, for the sake of the story, Ellen had to represent McClaren in order to set up her showdown with Patty, it still always annoys me a little when Ellen plays right into Patty's hands. She knows she is giving Patty exactly what she wants by doing this, yet she still does it because she seems to have the delusion that somehow she will be able to truly triumph over Patty. It's a self-centred move, and while I don't necessarily like it in her character, hopefully it will lead to a sense of self-realisation before the end of the season. Ellen can't beat Patty without becoming exactly like her.

Flash-forwards have always been a staple of Damages' storytelling, and they're the perfect way to entice viewers to keep watching. Unfortunately, the adds for this season spoiled what would have surely been the episode's main talking point: Three months later Ellen is shown to be lying on a road, dead, a pool of blood surrounding her body. So what lead Ellen to her untimely end? Or perhaps more importantly, how was Patty involved, if she indeed was involved at all. Other flashbacks within the episode show Patty being taken away in handcuffs, and interrogated about Ellen's disappearance, revealing that Ellen was meant to tesify against her in court that day. Given that Ellen agreed not to do that in this episode, either she changes her mind about representing McClaren, or possibly fails at doing so, and goes back to testifying for Michael as a last attempt to get Patty. Or there's the possibility that she's testifying against Patty for a whole other reason, perhaps she finds out Patty's responsible for Noami's death during her investigation for McClaren, and plans to reveal it to the court? Either way, despite the giveaway in the trailer, the flashbacks have certainly intensified the build up for the rest of the season.

A solid start to the season, the introduction of the McClaren case was perfect, and the tantalising flashbacks ensure us that the showdown betwen Patty and Ellen is not to be missed.

Rating: 4/5

True Blood Recap & Review (5.3: Whatever I Am, You Made Me)

I've always wanted to watch a major character on a television series go through the transformation of human to vampire, and now I get to do so with Tara, but are there senses really that good that they can see every star in the sky? Anyway what was more important was that Tara has become the thing she hates most, and has no idea what to do. She's turns to Sam, and for this episode at least, he's given the exciting storyline of harbouring a seriously confused vampire Tara from Sookie and Lafayette who are desperately looking for her. I love that when he discovered what Sookie had done that he understood, and didn't judge. I also like that Tara's relationships with Sookie and Lafayette seem to have been seriously hindered by her transition, I mean, she practically told Alcide what Sookie did. Despite all this interesting stuff though, Tara doesn't seem to be having a good time (Rutina Wesley seems to have an awfully difficult time adjusting to talking with her fangs out) and decides to try and suicide by solarium, which of course Pam will save her from.

Bill and Eric's own little plea to save themselves from The Authority by killing Russell needs to be thoroughly discussed apparently, and Roman is so uncertain they can keep Russell at bay that he calls upon Steve Newlin who, should he need it, will go on television and sell the mainstreaming initiative to humanity. To make sure Bill and Eric are both good little boys while they're out hunting Russell, they have iStakes attached to them. Ah, technology. And apparently a part of their psych evaluations involves Salome sleeping with them both, and afterwards tells Roman that neither of them are Sanguinistas, and that they can trust them both. He is unconvinced however, considering Nora, someone they all trusted, revealed under torture that she was a member of the Sanguinista movement.

Andy might have to be a bit more careful about who he trusts as well, considering his 'sleepover' with Holly has resulted in a naked picture of him ending up of Facebook. But for once on True Blood, the sexual antics of Bon Temps citizens must be put to the side because Debbie Pelt is missing, and her very concerned parents have come looking for her. Andy goes to Merlotte's and heavily questions Sookie, which I loved, and it seems that her and Lafayette are in way over their heads. I've never really understood all the Lafayette love until now, the way in which Nelsan Ellis portrays him when he's nervous or scared is absolutely hilarious, yet believable, and he was right of the mark as he eavesdropped on Sookie's interrogation. Anna Paquin, too, is finally getting to strecth her acting skills with this storyline.

Jason momentarily reverts to his playboy self when he bumps into his old high school teacher, Miss Steeler, at the grocery store. The pair is revealed to have had an affair when Jason was in high school, she supposedly having taught Jason everything he knows about sex and prematurely starting Jason's sex life. They return to her house and she apologises for their previous relationship. He tells her not to worry about it and they have sex, but once they're finished Jason has an epiphany and realises that they're relationship was wrong. Later, after smelling a very attractive man at the clothes store, Jessica arrives at Jason's and tries to have sex with him. Jason tells her that he's not a piece of meat and refuses to try and fill the void in his heart with sex anymore. He says he cannot be friends with girls because he immediately thinks of having sex with them. He wants Jessica to leave, but she doesn't. She demands they will talk about what happened to him, and assures him that they can be friends.

Missing Eric, and possibly sentimental about becoming Tara's maker, Pam continues to have flashbacks to when she first met Eric. At her brothel Eric expresses his interest in her, and while initially she refuses, Eric tells her everyone has a price. Remembering one of her slaughtered working girls, she gets Eric to stop the vampires that are killing the women that are working for her, which turn out to be, Lorena and a newly turned Bill. After threatening them and spending them away, Eric and Pam have sex. Afterwards Pam asks Eric to turn her into a vampire, which he refuses. Pam then intentionally cuts both of her forearms and starts bleeding profusely.

This episode of True Blood greatly benefited from focusing of only a few key storylines, and having them cleverly linked together with several characters, rather than just having each character have their own annoying storyline. Terry's fire problems, and Alcide and Sam's wold troubles were gratefully put to the side for the time being, allowing the development of Tara's transformation and the beginning of the ramifications Debbie's murder will have. It was also great to have several of the characters interacting all together again and having Sookie back working at Merlotte's made me wish for the old days when True Blood was a lot more simpler and self-contained. While not a lot happened in terms of the progression of the storylines, by trimming away some of the excess characters this episode reminded me just how much of a good guilty pleasure show it can be.

Rating: 4/5

Prometheus Reveiw

On Earth in 2089, archaeologists Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace) and Charlie Holloway (Logan Marshall-Green) discover a star map among several unconnected ancient cultures. They interpret this as an invitation from humanity’s forerunners, or "Engineers". Peter Weyland, the elderly CEO of Weyland Corporation, funds the creation of the scientific vessel Prometheus to follow the map to the distant moon LV-223, in an attempt to find the Engineers.

The film has a long-winded setup explaining all this, but once arriving on the foreign planet, intrigue, great visuals, and plenty of science-fiction/ horror tropes occur to keep the plot interesting. Noomi Rapace handles herself as the female heroine, particularly in the heavy actions scenes, but unfortunately something about her demeanour is slightly off-putting. Logan Marshall-Green had potential, but the way in which his character was written didn't allow for anything spectacular had he was underused. Charlize Theron is excellent as Meredith Vickers, the Weyland Industries representative with a steely-resolve, but Michael Fassbender steals the show as the creepy android David.

The films' major flaw is its ability to maintain the audiences suspension of disbelief. The inclusion of film's time-period, 2093, draws instant speculations, because of the advancement of Prometheus as a man made spaceship that can travel to a moon in a distant galaxy. Because no further information is given about the world in which Prometheus exists, questions immediately are raised that are never given answers. Is this the first time humans have travelled into space? How does a private company like Weyland Industries get a trillion dollars to send a spaceship to a distant moon? How come this particular, somewhat flawed, crew get specifically chosen for the mission? None of these questions need to be necessarily answered to improve the film, but that being said, in terms of plot, the set up is rather long, and these questions continue to nag until the action begins with the discovery of an alien corpse on LV-223.

The film also tries too hard to spend time on trying to make itself a philosophical inspiring journey by raising questions of faith and the creation of human beings. While many discussions of this kind occur within the film, none are very entertaining, and only Michael's Fassbander David provides some really thought provoking dialogue. Otherwise, these conversations often seem filler. Something for the characters to do while their not running through the dark dank caverns on LV-223 or investigating the alien species.

Furthermore, there are a lot of revelatory moments that occur on LV-223 yet strangely only one or two characters are ever present for them, and oddly enough the film rarely shows where or when the other characters find out about what has happened or what is going on on the ship, or more importantly, how they react. The film progresses as if everyone knows and is aware of what is going on, when as audiences, we have seen that they do not. This also ensures that character wise, having a crew of seventeen members was completely unnecessary, when not even main ones were entirely well-rounded and three dimensional characters. Yes, the others were used as they should have been, as alien fodder, but not even any of there deaths were particularly entertaining.

These concerns become irrelevant however once Prometheus plot gets into full swing, and while some of things that occur aren't all that innovative, there's a lot of them and there entertaining. As the film builds towards the end Alien fans will think they know how everything goes, but the last twenty minutes are an unexpected and fitting pay off for the rest of the film.

Rating: 4/5