Monday 15 February 2016

Deadpool Review


Deadpool follows Wade Wilson (Ryan Reynolds), a former mercenary who spends his time in New York threatening unfavourable people for money. At the beginning of the film he is known as Deadpool, an antihero with accelerated healing powers and agility. He is also permanently scarred and therefore wears a red suit to hide his face (as well as the blood he is prone to stain his clothing with). He is desperate to find the man responsible for his disfigurement and acquisition of superhuman powers, Francis Freeman (Ed Skerin), in an attempt to regain his looks, and as he hunts the man down we are shown through flashbacks how Wade Wilson became Deadpool.

The film manages, for the most part, to skillfully weave in between the present and the past with ease without it becoming tedious. A lot of that has to do with the breaking of the fourth wall. Deadpool often turns to the audience and talks to them directly, a different and daring approach to the standard superhero movie. It's also very self-referential, with Deadpool discussing the movie, the Marvel franchise, and even Reynolds himself. It instantly disarms the audience in the best way, ensuring that wherever the story takes them that they're still in on the joke.

Speaking of jokes, Deadpool is funny. I'm not too much of a fan of the smart-ass superhero (I'm looking at you Tony Stark), but Deadpool does it so well to an unrelenting script and Ryan Reynolds who has never been more charismatic. He's not the only one though, the film is inundated with hilarious characters. Morena Baccarin is surprisingly effective as Vanessa Carlysle, Wade's girlfriend, and a lot of the enjoyment of the earlier part of the film and the flashbacks has to do with the chemistry and humour she shares with Reynolds (even if her character is underdeveloped and has little to do later on). There's also Weasel (T.J. Miller), a bar owner and Wade's best friend, Blind Al (Leslie Uggams) Deadpool's roommate in the later part of the film, and Dopinder (Karan Soni), a taxi driver, who all have varying degree of importance in the film but are all memorable and also exemplify  the film's humour.


Not every character does though. Francis and Angel Dust (Gina Carano) aren't compelling villains in the slightest, besides the fact that they run the Weapon X program that resulted in Wilson's transformation into Deadpool. Similarly, the writers decided that Deadpool needed some other mutant friends and subsequently inserted Colossus (Stefan Kapičić) and Negasonic Teenage Warhead (Brianna Hildebrand) into the film. Although the film is very self-aware in this regard it's still painfully jarring visiting Charles Xacier's School for gifted youngsters and only being privy to these two X-Men.

It's from the point where the aforementioned characters become prominent parts of the film, and after Wade's intriguing backstory has been fully divulged, where things start to unfortunately return to a stock-standard Marvel movie. Francis and Angel Dust kidnap Vanessa to lure out Deadpool, and he, along with Colossus and Negasonic Teenage Warhead have to go save her. What makes matters worse for the traditional third act showdown is that the stakes are so very low. Sure, it's nice to have a more grounded and smaller Marvel film for once (a la Ant-Man), but with all the interesting plot out of the way the ending has nothing left to really on but the film's humour, which by that point surely would have grown old of majority of the more mature audience members.

It's a small price to pay though for an otherwise surprisingly enjoyable, often meta, and constantly funny film.

Rating: 3.5/5

Sunday 14 February 2016

The Big Bang Theory 9.15 Review: The Valentino Submergence


With Valentine's day approaching Sheldon, Leonard, Howard and Raj discuss their romantic plans for the day. Sheldon and Amy are putting on a special live show of Fun with Flags, Leonard and Penny and dinner reservations at a fancy restaurant and Howard and Bernadette are going to break in the new hot tub. Raj tells them that he is spending it with Emily, although he is not too excited about it, having become interested in Claire after their coffee date. Raj, after getting some advice about from Penny, tells Emily that he wants to break up and she can't believe he has chosen to do this right before Valentine's day. He then calls Claire and asks her if she has plans, but she has just gotten back to together with her ex-boyfriend and Raj is left alone for the holiday. I'm glad that the writers have decided to move on from Emily but the problem I have with this is that they've basically wiped the slate clean and re-set his characters' relationship status (and any growth that comes with that) back to zero. They always seem to be trying things with Raj and when it doesn't work out it the end it turns out to be a huge waste of time.

Sheldon surprises Amy by putting her name in the title of Fun with Flags , it now being called 'Sheldon Cooper and Dr. Amy Farrah Fowler present Sheldon Cooper’s Fun with Flags'. During their live broadcast they ask people to call in with flag related questions. A depressed Raj rings asking them what is wrong with him beginning a prolonged discussion about relationships, in which Barry Kripke, another lonely watcher joins in (oh how I wish Stuart had joined them). While Sheldon is annoyed that Fun with Flags has resulted in minimal flag talk Amy reminds him that he knows how hard it is to break up with someone, and Sheldon admits that he was glad they broke up because he then realised how much he missed and needed Amy - a similar sentiment to what was attempted to be done at the end of the last week's episode 'The Meemaw Materiaization'. I personally think it worked better here because Sheldon wasn't coerced into saying something nice and genuine about Amy like he was last week my Leonard and Penny in front of his Meemaw.


Despite having dinner reservations Leonard and Penny's wait it still going to be an hour long. Penny convinces Leonard to try and bribe the maître d', but his attempt fails. She then tries to flirt with him, but when he calls her 'ma'am' she takes it as a reference to her old age and she decides that her and Leonard should leave. As they eat takeaway in their car (that sounds like a great Valentine's Day to me) Penny expresses her concerns that time has moved so fast since they've meet and they're getting old. Leonard suggests they do something to make them feel young. After being thankful they couldn't get tickets to a 12.00am Moulin Rouge sing-a-long, the pair burst into the apartment where Sheldon and Amy where filming Fun with Flags dressed as cupid and throwing confetti everywhere wishing them a Happy Valentine's Day. It's storylines like this in which it becomes glaringly obvious to me of Leonard and Penny's differences and why I don't like them together. Leonard is a optimitic romantic, appreciating the little things, while Penny is a self-absorbed cynic, at least when things don't go her way. I don't really understand why Penny would have a mini mid-life crisis on Valentine's Day, but it's hard to watch Leonard try and fix imaginary problems Penny has caused in her own head. And I wouldn't really clarify dressing up as cupid as making one feel young again, but you know, whatever works. At least Sheldon seemed to annoy it.


At Howard and Bernadette's they are about to take a spa when they find what they initially think is a rat in the water. They fish it out inly to realise it's a rabbit and they quickly look up on Howard's phone how to make sure it's okay. While nursing it back got health they name the rabbit Valentino (it may be cliched, but I loved that they did this) and it's bites Howard. Howard is concerned that it might have rabies, and despite it not showing any symptoms, he wants to go to the emergency room just in case. As he leaves the room Bernadette tells Valentino, 'we'll have to find another time to tell him I'm pregnant.' It's been a long time coming, but there it is, awkwardly revealed to the audience by Bernadette talking to a rabbit. It was just such as odd way to reveal it, you think that the writers would want to go for something bigger but I guess I should also commend their self-control on deciding for a more subtle reveal.

Rating: 3/5

Sunday 7 February 2016

The Big Bang Theory 9.14 Review: The Meemaw Materialisation


The longer a series runs, the more opportunity viewers have to gain insight into its characters and their histories. One of the major problems of The Big Bang Theory that I've had for a while now is the writers' inability to make the most of the show's longevity by introducing more members of the characters' families. I think the only real family member that has been used to great effect up until this point is Leonard's mother to be honest. So when it was announced that Sheldon's often mentioned 'Meemaw' would be making an appearance, and was being played by June Squibb, it was hard not to get excited. Unfortunately, because of the amount of time we've had to wait to meet her character and the expectations that come with that wait I think I was always going to be disappointed.

Sheldon's grandmother randomly decided to visit her grandson in Pasadena, but as we quickly learnt she was actually there to size Amy up and ensure that she's good enough for her 'Moonpie'. Sure, Sheldon's over-protective grandmother wants to size Amy up, that's fine as a plot, but as i've often thought about some of The Big Bang Theory's most recent episodic plots - it's something that could (and probably should) have occurred five seasons ago when they started dating, or even more recently when they broke up. The timing just seemed a little odd to me, although I guess it shouldn't be that surprising that the writers were desperate to introduce a new conflict into Sheldon and Amy's relationship since they've been so happy recently. Regardless, Meemaw's two-faced nature - being the sweetest old lady imaginable to everyone, yet being hard-nosed behind their backs to Amy - was a boring cliche of a character. Once it got out that the pair weren't very find of each other the drama was wrapped-up fairly quickly. While Sheldon's declaration to his Meemaw that he's been working on improving Amy throughout their relationship (just as his Meemaw had done with his Pop-pop) may have been good for a cheap laugh, I really would have preferred if he had uttered Amy's sentiment that they have both helped each other grow into better people. It's an idea the episode seemed to ignore about Sheldon as the appearance of his Meemaw reverted him to a frustrating man-child that the character has slowly been growing out of. Ultimately, though, him telling his Meemaw this convinced her to accept Amy if Sheldon felt so strongly about her and that she would let him give her her ring (which Amy now knows about!).


It's rare that I find an episode's B-plot more intriguing then the main one but Raj's internal struggle about meeting a woman he potentially has more chemistry with than Emily was fun to watch. Him and Howard met a woman named Claire at the comic book store and she, wanting to interview Raj for his astrophysicist knowledge for a scripts she was writing, gave him her number. It was fun watching Raj ask Howard and Bernadette for advice while quite obviously ignoring them and going off into his own tangents about how it would look to have a family with Claire. Who knows if anything will come of this, B-plots are rarely used for plot development in sitcoms and are more just there to be funny, but I really wish the series would focus some more time on Raj and his relationship (whoever that may be with).

Rating 2.5/5