Coulson’s Secrets Come Out From “The Writing On The Wall!”

The Good: Moments of character, Decent performances, Good plot progression
The Bad: Still a bit light on the character front
The Basics: "The Writing On The Wall" affords viewers some decent answers regarding the alien writing Coulson has been plagued by, while setting up the next big conflict for his S.H.I.E.L.D. team!


The return of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. comes at the right time; Marvel and DC’s entertainment divisions have been doing a press war for the past two weeks with almost daily announcements about their upcoming projects. Perhaps the most hopeful rumor for fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe comes from the branch that is most likely to affect Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.. Captain America 3 is currently slated to be Civil War, based on the graphic novel by the same name (reviewed here!). For those of us who are fans of that corner of the Marvel Universe, the idea that the Civil War plotline might begin in Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. adds a fun new dimension to watching Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.. Watching for clues is a joy, though as “The Writing On The Wall” begins, it is clear that the show is not there yet.

Instead, “The Writing On The Wall” focuses on resolving or progressing some of the big, enduring mysteries of the series. Given that Ward managed a pretty obvious escape at the climax of “A Fractured House” (reviewed here!) and Agent Coulson has been suffering from the effects of being resurrected in order to make Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. work (with a recognizable character). “The Writing On The Wall” is a tight episode that moves things forward for Coulson and his storyline, while still relying heavily on serialized elements from prior episodes. Indeed, those who might not have seen “T.A.H.I.T.I.” (reviewed here!) and “The Magical Place” (reviewed here!) from season one, will be largely lost watching “The Writing On The Wall.”

While May is out hunting for Ward, Skye monitors Coulson as he once again carves the alien symbols on the wall. May and Tripplett actually manage to find Ward, but he is carrying C-4 in a public place when they track him down. Skye and Coulson’s search for the truth behind his experience with the GH serum leads the pair to upstate New York, where Janice Robbins is murdered and crime scene photos show the alien writing carved into her body. Robbins is actually a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent named Stevens and Coulson quickly discovers that she, too, was a test subject for GH-325. With May using Morse and Hunter to actually tail Ward, Coulson uses her absence to Stevens was one of six patients who Coulson monitored as part of the T.A.H.I.T.I. project. Pushed near his breaking point using Raina’s memory machine, Coulson recalls how all six patients reacted after the alien blood was administered and what happened when each started writing the alien text or even seeing it. Dr. Goodman advises Coulson to simply wipe the memories of each of the patients. Coulson and Skye realize that there are only two T.A.H.I.T.I. patients left; one who is the next victim and the other who is the killer erasing the evidence of the GH-325 tests.

As Ward meets with the H.Y.D.R.A. hierarchy, Skye tells Coulson that Hank Thompson is the nearest surviving T.A.H.I.T.I. patient and Coulson locks her in Ward’s cell and runs off to find Hank. As Coulson tracks down Hank, May’s team gets Whitehall’s right hand man. Coulson, though, finds himself at the mercy of Sebastian when it turns out he made it to Hank first. Sebastian tortures Coulson to try to find out the secrets of the alien writing. Hank is given information on his former identity, Cameron Klein, after Coulson and Sebastian actually achieve their goal!

“The Writing On The Wall” is very focused on revealing the plot secrets that have existed beyond the simple mechanics of how Coulson was resurrected. Coulson’s resurrection had to be explored in season one, but the answer for the first season was simply to explore the mechanics of how Coulson was returned from the dead. The second season is working harder to explore the effects of the resurrection. “The Writing On The Wall” continues the assertion that the GH-325 used to resurrect Skye and Coulson comes with a disastrous price. Coulson is getting worse and worse, while Skye’s immunity to the side effects raises more questions about her identity.

When it is not focused on Coulson, “The Writing On The Wall” is very plot-centered on Ward the escapee. With Ward in the wind, it is refreshing that the show devotes so much time to hunting him as he represents the greatest traitor to Coulson’s team so far and May has a personal stake in recovering him. In the process, the episode peppers the new tech team dynamic; with Simmons back and estranged from Fitz, Mac acts as Fitz’s best friend. And Mac is cool in “The Writing On The Wall;” he realizes that Fitz should still have all he needs in his head, even if he can’t access it now. Of course “The Writing On The Wall” begs the question: why hasn’t Coulson and his team used the memory machine on Fitz?!

Even as “The Writing On The Wall” resolves a decent chunk of Coulson’s mystery, it peppers the new direction for Ward. The moment Brett Dalton was retained on the cast for Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D., it was pretty obvious that Dalton’s Ward would not remain a prisoner of Coulson’s team for very long. Now running around free, Ward is not given the chance to develop or grow, though the seeds of his arc seem to be planted in “The Writing On The Wall.”

Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. has a mediocre record with resolving its lingering mysteries, but “The Writing On The Wall” has a satisfying pay-off. The alien writing idea came up exceptionally late in the first season and the final resolution to the concept is pretty cool. That makes “The Writing On The Wall” a worthwhile episode of the series, even if it is not the most intense episode on any front.

For other works with Joel Gretsch, please visit my reviews of:
V - Season 2
V - Season 1
Push
The 4400 - Season 1
Minority Report

[Knowing that single episodes are an inefficient way to get episodes, it's worth looking into Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. - The Complete Second Season on DVD or Blu-Ray, which is also a better economical choice than buying individual episodes. Read my review of the sophomore season here!
Thanks!]

6.5/10

For other television reviews, please check out my Movie And Television Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2014 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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The Lost Return Changed And Worth Watching In The 4400 - The Complete First Season

The Good: Excellent direction, decent plot, interesting characters, good acting
The Bad: Cliche moments, Build-up to the season finale.
The Basics: When 4400 people who have vanished over the years return to Earth without aging, two investigators set out to learn what happened to them.


Several people I respect recommend The 4400 to me and I'll admit that I originally resisted giving it any attention because it was produced around the same time as the other "alien abduction" stories like Taken and I thought it was merely an offshoot of that brief fad. Having given it a chance with the ridiculously inexpensive The 4400 - The Complete First Season on DVD, I'm happy to say I was wrong to hold off so long. This is a series that is worth time and attention, but it requires both. The 4400 is not a show for a casual watcher; it is heavily serialized and each episode builds on the one before it.

When a comet that is about to pass Earth makes an abrupt course change, the Department of Homeland Security in Seattle is put on high alert. When the comet is revealed as a ball of light that deposits 4400 people who have disappeared over the years in the woods near Seattle, Agents Tom Baldwin and Diana Skouris are put on the case to investigate who - and what - the 4400 are. They encounter a creepy girl who unabashedly predicts the future, a young man (Tom's nephew) who has the ability to heal people, and a man who disappeared from Korea who finds a reincarnation of the white woman he loved back then. Baldwin and Skouris find their personal and professional lives put in jeopardy by members of the 4400 who manifest telekinetic powers, superhuman strength, and a serial killer who appears to be able to plant himself in other people.

The 4400 may instantly seem like a weird knockoff of The X-Files (reviewed here!) where the "creature of the week" is always one of the 4400 and the mythology episodes are always a part of ongoing storyline, but The 4400 manages to be distinctly different. The 4400 has elements of a political thriller combined with the science fiction mystery of who the 4400 are. In short, more than simply a "here's an interesting twist on humanity" story each week, the stories continue to build on one another to explore the consequences of who the 4400 are. And that's pretty clever and it is what makes the show work.

The strength of The 4400 is that it - especially in the pilot "The Return" - simply allows some moments to be, without explaining them or insulting the audience by repeating them. This is especially true of the character of Richard Tyler, who was a black man in the military in the '50s and returns to a world far more integrated than he ever suspected it could be. As he sits and observes the world around him, the viewer understands what he is going through, without it having to be explained more.

And in one of the clever aspects of the first season, Richard's alterations as a returnee are not revealed. He is one of the characters to watch, whose presence on the screen energizes the show. He is well-portrayed by actor Mahershalalhashbaz Ali who plays him with a humanity and truth that is very real and often vulnerable. Amid all of the other character conflicts and supernatural exploits being portrayed, Ali creates a character who is perhaps the most human of the lot.

At the other end of the spectrum is Conchita Campbell, a young girl who is given a supreme acting challenge of portraying a returnee who appears to have an incredible gift while caught in a child's body. Conchita delivers a performance that is a perfect blend of innocence and creepy. She modulates between a girl with the impressive power to simply know the future and a little girl who just wants to be a little girl. And it is the actress who makes the character work here.

The two leads of the show, Joel Gretsch and Jaqueline McKenzie as Tom and Diane are the actors who bear the most burden for making the show credible. Ironically, it is Tom and Diane who are the most cliched characters in the ensemble. Tom is in the middle of a divorce, Diane is single and assertive, compassionate and wow, they get paired together. The implied sexual chemistry writes itself, but is unactualized in the first season. And McKenzie takes the cliche of the single woman working a career path who does not have time for a social life and makes it work only through her performances in scenes with Conchita. McKenzie and Conchita Campbell play off one another in a way that makes Diane's character seem more than simply a stereotype.

Joel Gretsch seemed to me from the beginning to be a poor man's Mark Valley, an irony considering that Mark Valley appears in the series in the latter two episodes of the season. Gretsch is the kind of generic good looking guy who barely breaks that mold and is only able to in the context of his character dealing with his comatose son. How Gretsch is billed over McKenzie is baffling to me.

And that brings us to the real weakness within the first season of The 4400; the series exchanges its early brilliance of showing, not telling, for a series of cliches. Jordan Collier, a 4400 businessman who seems to want to protect the 4400 and fight for their rights, becomes a cliche of a ruthless businessman within his three episodes in the first season. The season climaxes in a witless chase scene and a shooting that is fairly hackneyed.

But what overcomes all that is the humanity, especially in the character of Richard (and, by extension, the performance of Ali), who continues to be subtle and who takes all of the big things happening in the world of the 4400 and makes them personal and real. And it is that that makes the first season of The 4400 worth watching.

And where it is going from there is what makes me look forward to the second season of the series.

For other science fiction television shows, be sure to check out my reviews of:
Heroes
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Fringe - Season 1

7/10

For other television reviews, please check out my Television Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2012, 2006 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Cancelled Well Before It Ought To Have Been, V Season Two Impresses!

The Good: Decent character development, Much of the acting, Special effects, Great storyline
The Bad: Character inconsistencies, Little bit of acting, Lack of resolution.
The Basics: With only ten episodes, V Season Two ramps the viewer up to . . . an abrupt end.


Stylistically, I am deeply tempted to begin this review and then, mid-way end it without explanation or a final rating. That would mirror what, quite unfortunately, happens with V Season Two. My wife and I recently rewatched V Season One (reviewed here!) in advance of her presenting me with season two as an Easter gift. While this usually would be considered a great gift, the two-disc Blu-Ray set left both of us ultimately depressed. While I missed the first few episodes when they originally aired, the entire season was new to my wife. As the show progressed and after virtually every episode, my wife turned to me and said, “This show is so smart, why did they cancel it?!” to which I always responded, “Wait until you see where they left it!”

The thing is, when the season gets to its abrupt conclusion, it is hard not to feel sour, especially when one considers that shows like Gray’s Anatomy stay on the air for years and new shows like GCB and Don’t Trust The B In Apartment 23 are nowhere near as smart as V was. And the cliffhanger makes it impractical to simply finish the series off with a single movie, a la Firefly and Serenity. The result is a pretty wonderful ten-episode season that is virtually impossible to recommend as enthusiastically as it ought to be.

Picking up shortly after where the first season ended, Anna’s release of a compound that is turning the sky red has the world on edge. After a week of Red Sky, a rain falls and while it does, Erica Evans uses her son Tyler to get her aboard the New York mothership and establish contact with Anna. Anna reveals Red Sky to be a way for the Vs to revitalize the environment of Earth and strengthen the biosphere. Erica is, naturally, skeptical and it does not take long for her to confirm that the Red Sky boosted the potassium in the food chain, which the rebels, now aided by a scientist Sid, soon learn means that the Visitors will be able to breed in humans.

As Tyler continues to distance himself from Erica, Lisa takes more risks for the humans and Ryan comes under the thumb of Anna, who has the now-resurrected Joshua give his baby an illness only Anna’s bliss may cure. But even as Chad Decker joins the fight on the ground and inadvertently plays Anna’s pawn in a mission to keep the Catholic Church from endorsing the Visitors, Anna’s control begins to waver. Locked in the bowels of the New York mothership is Diana, Anna’s mother and when Lisa learns she is still alive, the Resistance has real hope for the first time in a long time. But that hope is quickly jeopardized when Anna realizes the true strength of Ryan’s hybrid child . . .

Even writing about the second season of V is enough to get me riled up. The show, heavily serialized, built extraordinarily well upon the first season and upon each episode in the second season. With twists and turns around almost every virtual corner, V was getting better and better when it was abruptly canceled. And, on the subject of the virtual corners - V employed mostly virtual sets from Zoic Studios – the special effects in the show continued to get better and better as the season progressed, making it even more gripping as it fleshed out a disturbing new reality.

The cast for V remained fairly stable, though there were significant casualties, mostly in the climax of the series. To better understand how the show gripped its audience, it helps to know who shaped the world of V. In the second season, the principle characters include:

Erica Evans - A smart FBI agent, she is now the head of the Anti-V Task Force, which roots out threats to the Visitors. It does not take long before she discovers that her partner is a Visitor and after dispatching her, she is troubled when an old friend joins the team and potentially makes her life more difficult. Feeling her grip on Tyler slipping, she calls in Tyler’s father as an act of desperation. Following a disastrous hostage situation, she finds herself in command of the worldwide Fifth Column defending the planet against the Visitors,

Ryan Nichols – Utterly trapped by Anna, he is forced to work against the Fifth Column in order to try to save his daughter’s life. When he betrays Erica, Erica kicks him to the curb, giving him very little to fight for other than his daughter’s life,

Father Jack Landry - A Catholic priest, he brings Chad inside the Fifth Column. When his anti-V rhetoric leads to a suicide bombing that kills Visitors and humans, he is laicized. Living in Hobbes’s bunker, he remains the heart of the Resistance and does what he can to keep Erica focused and human,

Chad Decker – Having seen that the Visitors are torturing those who are a part of the Live Aboard program and discovering that the Visitors themselves have a resistance movement, he joins Erica’s Fifth Column cell. Still using his access to get close to Anna, when his show’s ratings begin to slip, he gladly takes on a co-anchor who helps him get the truth out,

Kyle Hobbes – The arms dealer continues to dig into why the Visitors want him out of the way and he searches for Sarah, the woman they claim is still alive and they have access to. He helps Erica fight against the Visitors with an appropriately brutal sensibility,

Tyler – Now eighteen, he becomes the first human to pilot a Visitor shuttle. But his genetic irregularities are soon revealed to be not only the result of Visitor tampering, but a key part of their longterm goals on Earth. As he romances Lisa, he unwittingly performs a vital function for Anna. Rejecting Erica, he spends most of his time on the New York mothership,

Sid - A young scientist who discovered a Visitor body that was over fifty years old, he is up to speed on what the Visitors seem to be doing on Earth. His studies allow Erica to sabotage a Blue Energy reactor and almost keep up with the Visitors as they harvest human DNA,

Joshua - The Visitor medic appears to have no knowledge of his life before being shot. As a result of forgetting his time as a Fifth Column member, he aids Anna in accelerating the growth of her final Queen Egg and unleashing her progeny,

Lisa - Anna's daughter, she has real love for Tyler. Bearing the fear that Joshua might remember her part in the destruction of Anna’s army, she leaves the ship as often as possible. Upon witnessing Anna returning from the dungeon, she finds a surprising ally in Diana,

Marcus - Anna's ruthless security chief and chief lieutenant. He watches Anna lose her grip on more than one occasion. Believing she is being corrupted by human emotions, he bides his time, trying to keep her focused on their mission,

and Anna - The leader of the Visitors, she has the ability to tap into the Visitors' hive mind with a Bliss that keeps them in line. Following the outburst that led to Red Sky, she moves Concordia ahead and prepares to land the cloaked ships which will be the final part of the invasion of Earth. All the while, she torments Diana, keeps a close eye on Lisa and takes Ryan’s daughter in in a way that makes the child identify her as its mother!

The acting in the second season is largely excellent. Charles Mesure and Christopher Shyer stand out for their performances as Hobbes and Marcus. Shyer does cold and creepy with an expertise that makes me eager to find other things he has been in. And while Mesure is clearly used sometimes simply to appear without a shirt, his portrayal of Hobbes as the ultimate pragmatist is excellent.

Much of the show hinges on Elizabeth Mitchell and Morena Baccarin. Mitchell, unfortunately, plays Erica much the way she played her character on Lost, so she alternates between talking in whispy, quiet tones, shouting and emoting simply by opening her eyes very wide. Baccarin, on the other hand, gives Anna a decently long arc. She is not simply presenting Anna falling apart and thus, the character works exceptionally well because she slowly peels back the character’s resistance to human emotions. It is the slow burn of Baccarin’s performance that makes Anna’s character move in the final episode one that it makes sense for Lisa to buy into.

The real acting winner, though, is Joel Gretsch. Gretsch plays Father Jack Landry and in the second season, he steps out of any lingering shadow he was in from The 4400. Gretsch alternately plays a priest with an iron backbone and a deeply hurt man from whom everything he cares has been stripped. The way Gretsch looks at Mitchell’s Erica speaks so much about his humanity and the longing he has to cling to all that is good. Gretsch makes Landry the one to watch over the course of the second season!

Now on Blu-Ray, V Season two comes loaded with deleted scenes, a blooper reel and two featurettes, none of which satisfactorily explore how such an amazing show could get shitcanned. Usually, I would advocate waiting until the whole series is out or a film follow-up was being developed to purchase a season like this. But, with ABC Productions holding all the cards in this case, that possibility seems exceedingly remote. Buy it while you can find it!

For other parts of the V Saga, be sure to check out my reviews of:
V
V: The Final Battle
V: The Television Series

8/10

For other television reviews, please visit my Television Review Index Page for an organized listing of all the shows and seasons I have reviewed!

© 2012 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Push Not The X-Men Rip-off I'd Feared, But Not Good Either.

The Good: Moments of concept and execution, Moments of character/acting
The Bad: A lot of the editing, Predictable character arcs, Some truly lackluster acting, Ultimately: mood.
The Basics: An average film, Push disappoints those who enjoy films about extraordinary people hunted by sinister conspiracies.


When I saw the lone preview I saw for Push, I immediately became concerned. Having generally enjoyed the films in The X-Men Trilogy, I became concerned that Push would simply be a cheap Rip-off. In all honesty, with so many "common people are superheroes" stories out there - like Heroes and The 4400 on television - it is a tough sell to try to fit into that niche and in the first trailer for Push all that impressed me was that Dakota Fanning looked nothing like the cherubic girl who had blown away audiences with her earliest performances for her maturity.

Still, as I arranged my schedule for a three-movie day, Push became the first film on my docket to take in. And truth-be-told, I was eager. I had only seen one trailer and I was ready to be surprised. So, I went into the theater fresh and ready . . . and when I left almost two hours later, I was so ambivalent it took me several minutes to realize I was disappointed. Truth be told, I am not even certain why I was so letdown by Push, as I had no real expectations for it. Still, at the end of the viewing experience, all I felt was unsurprised and unimpressed and I wanted my money back.

Ten years ago, Nick was abandoned by his father, a telekinetic being hunted by the infamous Division, in a bid to save the boy's life. Told only to expect a girl who would give him a flower at a point in the future and to save the world with her, Nick is shoved away and he witnesses a powerful Division Pusher, Carver, apparently kill his father. Ten years later, a young woman breaks out of a Division facility after being injected with a serum intended to boost superpowers in those who possess them. And two days from now, all hell breaks loose in Hong Kong as a deeply in debt Nick finds himself on the run from both Division agents and the Chinese mob.

But Nick's troubles are only just beginning, as he is met by a Watcher named Cassie Holmes, who sees a dark future for those who possess powers like she and Nick do. Nick, rusty with his own telekinetic powers as a mover, begins to trust Cassie when what she draws begins to come true and Nick's shortfalls with the Chinese mob begin to take a decidedly more dangerous and supernatural turn as they send Bleeders after him and Cassie. As Cassie begins to do battle with her Chinese counterpart, Nick finds the woman who supposedly possesses the case everyone is searching for and it turns out to be his old girlfriend, Kira. In a deadly game of cat-and-mouse, Nick and Cassie call in every favor and use every resource to save Kira, who appears to now be the first potential supersoldier for the U.S. government, and stop Carver from getting his hands on her and the serum that made her the way she is!

First, what Push does well is establish the precepts of the universe it takes place in. As the opening credits roll, a handy "history of psychic warfare" presentation is given by Cassie. Cassie informs us that it all began in 1945 with the Nazis attempting to develop psychic warfare. Those experiments continued after the war and powerful first generation Watchers, Movers, Pushers, Bleeders, Sniffers and Stitcher have given rise to second generations of the same, though many of them are rusty with their talents because they have been on the run from Division Agents. As Cassie ominously states, the problem is the psychics Division has access to just keep dying as lab rats in their attempts to create a standing army of psychic warriors.

Second, Push sticks to those precepts pretty well. Writer David Bourla and director Paul McGuigan do a decent job of creating a well-rounded universe and then playing by the rules they laid out, instead of simply ignoring them when they become inconvenient. As a result, there are some genuine twists and turns that work and Bourla does not fall back on too many of the obvious standards. For as little as I ultimately enjoyed Push, I was pleased when Nick's father did not resurface and many of the deaths that happen on-screen would be virtually impossible to undo. As well, there is some decent conceptual comedy in that Cassie admits that sometimes she gets things wrong and that while her ability to see the future manifests itself in drawings, she is quickly revealed to be a poor artist. This adds some texture to the movie that it might not otherwise have and that level of detail is decent.

In that regard, Push pulls a number of its punches to get the PG-13 rating. For sure, the inebriated thirteen year-old scene works, but a number of the deaths - like a Division Agent who blows his own brains out in the background - are relegated to background scenes or off-camera work. Arguably, more disturbing than the lack of blood and the on-screen deaths is the length (or lack thereof) of Cassie's skirt. For a thirteen year-old, Cassie is sporting a lot of leg and there is no real good reason for it.

That said, Push breaks even at best. As the movie began, I kept waiting for a moment when I would actually start caring about the characters. Unfortunately, Bourla and McGuigan fail to convince the viewer that any of the characters on screen deserve the lives they are fighting for, when they bother to fight at all. The best "common person superhero" stories make the viewer care by making a statement and expanding a concept outside the usual plot-driven story being told. So, for example, the films in the live-action X-Men saga easily use "mutants" as a metaphor for homosexuals and the struggles that gays, lesbians and bisexuals go through to live their lives, even ordinary ones. An episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation (and now Heroes) took the superhuman and mulled the consequences of mass producing him for a slave race or a standing army of disposable individuals. Push is nowhere near as clever.

Lacking in metaphor, lacking in a broad social context or even a statement that psychic warfare is somehow wrong, Push falls down as a terribly banal action-adventure flick. At no point do any of the characters distinguish themselves from the regular humans, outside the simple use of their abilities. Similarly, the end result, which is stated in the beginning as creating a branch of warriors with psychic abilities that would be virtually unstoppable, is never judged or adequately explored. "That's bad" might have been a good way to go about addressing it. As it is, Nick lamely declares himself apolitical at one point and the result is that Carver actually looks somewhat reasonable when he demands Kira be turned over; after all, she is the property of the U.S. Government. In other words, Push uses characters of extraordinary ability and it makes little or no statement on what their abilities mean.

At its worst, Push is utterly ridiculous. So, for example, when one Agent leaves the bathroom in Hong Kong and puts a bullet in his partner's brain, the entire establishment clears out. No one calls the police or tries to stop him in any way from going back into the bathroom from whence he came. So, while there is some attention paid to the survival instinct of the psychics, none of the mundane humans - if there even are any in the movie, which is up for debate - are defined with any realism.

None of the characters truly "pop" either. They are virtually all defined by their abilities. The sniffers are pretty dumb and their attempt to bring in Kira is so witlessly lacking in safeguards or precautions that they don't deserve to be on the federal payroll. The result is that a number of fine performers are given little or nothing to do. Djimon Hounsou plays Carver with a generic villainous quality that those who know his work have seen before. Camilla Belle is woefully miscast as Kira, at least once one knows that she and Nick had a relationship in the past. She looks far, far too young for the part.

Dakota Fanning does a decent job or a decent job with the material she is given. She enters the film with a decent presence and her delivery of lines like "I'm getting sick of drawing dead bodies" has a real resonance. Moreover, she is not playing on being cute or overly mature. Here, she plays a girl who has some real emotional damage and a similar reservoir of strength to call upon, which she does. Fanning adds a more edgy role to her repertoire as Cassie and she is almost convincing in her drunk scene as well. Much of the film rests on her performance and she plays the uncertainty perfectly.

At least as much rests on the back of actor Chris Evans. Evans, possibly best known for his role as Johnny Storm - the Human Torch - in the cinematic Fantastic Four endeavors (reviewed here!), is either unfortunately cast or unfortunately used as Nick. Evans plays the everyman fine for a few moments, but largely, his performance seems to be attempting to repress his winning smile and not always succeeding. Instead, he trolls through much of Push appearing more sure than his character is supposed to be and generally more quick-witted and unshaken than his character. In other words, Evans appears to certain through too much of the film, something his character is not intended to be. Evans never seems genuinely shaken and that becomes more of a liability to the story as it progresses.

Push is somewhat plagued by clunky editing and it is worth noting that director McGuigan does a good job with frenetic camera movements in some of the action sequences and they work wonderfully. But there are also some choppy edits that are more sloppy than stylistic. As well, too much of the story is telegraphed, like a flashback to the beginning the moment Cassie first mentions her mother (which visually implies something). Similarly, Bourla's characterization of Cassie involves some pretty sudden mood swings and because there is nothing bigger than the psychics and their immediate struggle, it is hard to care.

Ultimately, Push serves as entertainment and it flops by not being ambitious enough to try to be something more. Instead, those who enjoy superhero type films or stories of the extraordinary among us, are left feeling like they have watched a cheap knockoff of something much, much better.

For other films that focus on heroes in the process of becoming, please check out my reviews of:
Unbreakable
X-Men: First Class
Kick-Ass
Super
Green Lantern
I Am Number Four

5/10

For other movie reviews, please visit my Movie Index Page!

© 2012, 2009 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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A Wishy-Washy Future Is Nothing To Report Home About: Minority Report

The Good: Interesting concept, Interesting characters
The Bad: Direction, some acting, Thematically repetitive
The Basics: Steven Spielberg directs Tom Cruise in a middling film about a future where crimes are prevented by foreseeing them and stopping them before they happen.


Somewhere along the line, I began to associate Philip K. Dick with L. Ron Hubbard. Both science fiction writers seem to lend their work to big movies with lots of people running around in a world that looks nothing like what anyone would currently guess the future would look like now. As a simple example, in Minority Report (which was based on one of Dick's short stories), there is a sweeping, huge highway system throughout Washington, D.C. that would never have the funding to be built by today's Highway Departments.

Minority Report is set in the near future where crime in Washington, D.C. has been eliminated through the use of psychics and an advanced system wherein police arrest criminals before they commit murder. The head of the Precrime Division is John Anderton, a deeply scarred, drug addicted police officer who is very good at his job. He has effectively eliminated murder in Washington, D.C. and his system seems to be flawless. However, as Precrime prepares to go national, Anderton finds the office under investigation by a Justice Department investigator named Witwer. When the Precognitives (the psychics in charge of sensing the future murders) foresee Anderton committing a murder, Anderton starts to run, believing Witwer has set him up.

This little opus by Steven Spielberg is an unfortunate example of where special effects films go wrong today. In the pursuit of being bigger, faster and more, the directors somehow manage to forget "better." As a result, Minority Report is a chase film filled with quick shot images, fast camera moves and other jerky visual elements that keep the viewer off their toes and missing much of the rather large world being created to tell the story in. Thus, the first viewing of the film may inspire a headache or at the least bafflement as so much happens on the screen so fast it's near impossible to catch it all the first time. This is especially disappointing considering what an accomplished director Spielberg is; one might think he would like people to see the canvas he is painting on, but instead this piece substitutes creative endeavor with flash.

While the characters are interesting, some of the problem with the film comes down to the actors. Colin Farrell plays Witwer, the Justice Department investigator who is hunting Anderton. While Anderton tries to exonerate himself, Witwer gains access to all the same data. Farrell fails to portray Witwer in a menacing enough manner that the viewer actually believes he is the villain setting everything up. As a result, it's hard to buy any of Farrell's scenes, save his final one.

Similarly, Tom Cruise, who plays Anderton does nothing to differentiate this role from his Mission: Impossible persona. All he does is run, jump and defend himself. Cruise brings nothing to this role that is not in the script, not in the short story. He's become, in this context, something of a generic action hero and in Minority Report, the viewer wants something more.

In contrast, Anderton is an interesting character. He is fleshed out well with his backstory; he joined the Precrime program in its infancy when his son was kidnaped. He has some complicated relationships, with his estranged wife and the head of the Precrime Division, Burgess. The character's desperate attempts to prove himself make the film watchable.

Ultimately, the problem with Minority Report is that it wants to be a temporal thriller while being an engaging chase film. When certain fundamental principles are put into place, the film loses its edge. For example, the Precognitives predict that Anderton will commit a PREMEDITATED murder of a man he doesn't know. Given that fact and the supposed infallibility of the Precognitives, it is no surprise when the could-be climactic scene arrives. As well, the theme of predestination versus free will becomes rapidly and excessively beaten into the viewer.

In the end, that was what pushed me over into the "not recommend" camp; Minority Report is an average film that tries to be new, different and cutting edge and instead ends up beating the viewer over the head with some rather elementary concepts, making it visually difficult to watch and auditorily failing to stimulate enough to keep the viewer engaged. If you want fair science fiction where everything is handed to you, this is a fine film. I, however, know you can do better.

For other movies featuring Colin Farrell, check out my reviews of:
Horrible Bosses
The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus
Daredevil

4.5/10

For other movie reviews, please visit my index page by clicking here!

© 2011, 2003 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Smart, Tense And Predictable To Science Fiction Fans: V Season 1 Is A "V" For Our Time!

The Good: Excellent plot, Interesting characters, Good mood, Great acting, Decent effects
The Bad: Somewhat predictable to seasoned science fiction fans.
The Basics: V is reimagined in contemporary times where aliens visit Earth for sinister purposes only to have a resistance learn that they have been among us for some time!

I'll admit it, I was one of the many who let out a big groan when I heard that V was returning to ABC as a weekly television series. Don't get me wrong: I love the original mini-series V. I even like V: The Final Battle. But my experiences has been so soured by the 1980s television series V that did not want to see just how ABC would butcher the mythos of the classic science fiction series. After all, one of the hallmarks of V was that it was smart science fiction, not special-effects-driven sci-fi. So when the pilot episode aired and it was clear that the new television series V was not a continuation of the classic V, but rather a complete reimagining of it, I warmed up to it very quickly.

Even so, the first season of V on DVD and Blu-Ray reveals for fans of the series and science fiction in general its true weakness, which is that it hinges on a few key reversals which fail with the element of surprise. Indeed, when the resistance within the Visitors society - the Fifth Column - is introduced, I called one of the most important members of that group and as the season was coming to a head, my wife turned to me and said "Hey, you were wrong." As the last frames (literally) of the season played, though, she turned to me and said "Oh my gosh! How did you know?!" Quite simply, the first season of V is working on a pretty tight formula which is likely to be familiar to fans of genre works as opposed to truly audacious or original.

That said, V The Complete First Season is entirely enjoyable. The first aspect that makes it such a winner is that it is surprisingly smart. Far too often in science fiction film and television today, stories are driven by special effects and they fail to tell a truly compelling story. With V, the producers have tapped into the paranoia of the day and crafted their story around current issues, most notably paranoia about terrorism. While this might make the current incarnation of V dated in twenty years, right now it remains cutting edge and the overall story feels fresh even if some of the reversals and attempts to thrill the audience are not.

Erica Evans is an FBI agent working in a counterterrorism task force in New York City, raising her son Tyler on her own. While she and Dale work to expose terrorist cells planning subversive activities, Tyler acts out as most teen boys do. But then giant ships enter Earth's atmosphere and begin hovering above major cities, like New York, Tokyo and Moscow. Erica is immediately suspicious, especially when she notes that terrorist cell activity plummeted, save one group which actually became exceptionally more active when the ships arrived. Also on edge is Father Jack Landry and Ryan Nichols, a newlywed man who has intimate knowledge of both the cell Erica is investigating and the spaceships which have arrived. Almost immediately, the people of Earth are contacted by the ships.

The aliens look human and they call themselves the Visitors. Led by the charming Anna, the Visitors seeks to replenish their ships' stores in exchange for the humans using some of their technology. But Landry has his doubts about the Visitors and he and Erica end up at a meeting led by Georgie Sutton, who reveals that the Visitors have been here for quite some time and that their agenda is a sinister one. The meeting is broken up by a Visitor device which kills almost everyone and exposes Erica's partner as a Visitor. While Anna launches a charm campaign, primarily using news reporter Chad Decker, Erica, Father Jack, Ryan and Georgie establish a resistance cell to try to learn about and thwart the Visitors.

This soon becomes a two pronged war for Erica, though, as Tyler becomes smitten with Anna's daughter, Lisa. While Erica is forced to work with the Visitors to protect them and she is disgusted by the way humans are being manipulated through free healthcare and other technologies, Anna and her lieutenant, Marcus, begin eliminating the threats to the Visitors, from human terrorists like Kyle Hobbes to Visitors who have human sympathies. While Erica tries desperately to stop her resistance cell from being exposed, Anna decides to make an army of Visitor soldiers to prepare to subjugate Earth if it turns against her.

The first season of V is both properly ambitious as a story on its own and a setup for the entire series which works well to keep viewers interested and provide us with some faith that the first season shall not be the best of the series. The writers are particularly smart about human psychology and the use of the Visitors to prey upon basic human emotions is exceptionally smart. As a result, Erica and her team are continually hamstrung by the fact that their efforts are going to be unpopular with the masses, even as they try to save them. Similarly, Anna is a master manipulator and her understanding of how the human mind works is exceptional, allowing her to play off the public sympathies.

One of the key figures that has a turbulent relationship with the Visitors in this regard is Chad Decker. Decker is plagued by very basic human ambition, which Anna realizes almost immediately when he makes a pass at her amid other reporters' more scathing questions. Anna quickly plays off Decker's desires for fame and fortune, but she is unable to account for his own sense of integrity and spite. So, when Anna punishes Chad by withholding access, Chad becomes more free to report on the anti-Visitor sentiment. This leads Anna to arrange more elaborate public relations events both to rally support for the Visitors - opening health clinics using Visitor technology - and against anti-Visitor terrorists, like the shooting down of a Visitor shuttle filled with human civilians.

V employs a sufficiently diverse range of characters in its first season and that helps the stories flow with a surprising sense of realism. More than just simple science fiction, the first season of V plays well as a drama with a sense of urgency and understanding both for the times we live in and the motivations for people around the world. While the scope of V is frequently more focused on Erica and her cell in the New York City area, Anna is often in contact with leaders from other nations and she makes presentations to the United Nations and heads of state around the world.

Like most decent dramas, V is focused primarily on characters. In the first season, the principle characters include:

Erica Evans - A smart FBI agent, she is working to raise her son Tyler when the Visitors arrive. She is perceptive when it comes to the minds of terrorists, which allows her to quickly infer that the Visitors are a potential threat to humanity. She manages to use her position within the FBI to redirect suspicion from herself and her friends when they begin acting out against the Visitors. But when Tyler becomes interested in the Visitors' "live aboard" program, Anna realizes Erica's Achilles' heel,

Ryan Nichols - A smart businessman and a Visitor who was sent in advance as a sleeper agent. He helps Erica with her resistance even as he is hunted by the Visitors for going rogue. He is a friend of Georgie and he knows what Anna's ultimate goals are. He is immune to the Bliss Anna has over the Visitors,

Father Jack Landry - A Catholic priest who rejects the notion that the Visitors must be god's creatures, too and he urges caution to his parish. As more people turn to the Visitors instead of the church, Landry has time to aid Erica in exposing the Visitors. He is used by Chad Decker to get into the resistance,

Chad Decker - A manipulative reporter whose career is on the slide until the Visitors arrive. He forms a rapport with Anna and begins a chess match with her and her security chief, Marcus, over how to manipulate public sentiment. His sense of gamesmanship is trumped, however, when the Visitor medics diagnose him with a future aneurysm which they offer to treat in exchange for his compliance,

Valerie - Ryan's human wife who, rather miraculously, has become pregnant,

Tyler - Erica's teenage son, he is rebellious and has issues with both his mother and father. He sees the Visitors as a way to straighten out his life, especially Lisa, whom he becomes rapidly enamored with,

Georgie Sutton - A paranoid man who has known about the existence of extraterrestrials on Earth for some time. He tries to expose the Visitors and his group is slaughtered. Rescued by Ryan, he helps Erica and the resistance,

Joshua - The Visitor medic aboard Anna's ship, he is a part of the Fifth Column and does not believe in Anna's agenda. When he is forced to test the Visitors for human sympathies, he discovers a weak link in Anna's command structure and a tool for the resistance,

Lisa - Anna's daughter, she is part of the mission to win over human youths. She begins to manipulate Tyler for Anna, but soon develops real feelings for him, a condition which puts her in danger,

Marcus - Anna's ruthless security chief and chief lieutenant. He is brutal in his attempts to suppress the fifth column and advance the Visitor's agenda. He is the only one Anna truly seems to trust,

and Anna - The leader of the Visitors, she has the ability to tap into the Visitors' hive mind with a Bliss that keeps them in line. She impregnates herself with the eggs of the soldiers and looks to make a brood in advance of an armada's arrival. She is clever and sexy and represents a grave threat to Earth.

V works quite well in its first season because of the acting. Elizabeth Mitchell discovers life after Lost (click here for my review of that series!) where she played Dr. Juliet Burke for three seasons as Erica and she illustrates a real ability to act by presenting a character who is very different from the one that brought her to the attention of most genre fans. Erica is smart, in control and efficient; Mitchell dumps the spaciness and uncertainty of Juliet to make the character work completely.

Similarly, Morena Baccarin is great as Anna. Best known to genre fans from her role on Firefly, Baccarin returns to television in the passionless role of Anna and she is perfectly cast. Indeed, most of the Visitors are cast with a sense of reptilian appearance, but Baccarin looks especially slick and cold as Anna, making the viewer invest completely in her inhumanity. She plays off Laura Vandervoort (Lisa) perfectly and the pair has a great, cold chemistry about them.

But while many might say that Christopher Shyer steals the show as Marcus, I say Shyer - like Joel Gretch, Scott Wolf and Charles Mesure - is merely the product of genius casting. Morris Chestnut (Ryan) and David Richmond-Peck (Georgie) are the ones to watch. Richmond-Peck calls the viewer back to a time when geeks were cool (like with David Duchovny in the early seasons of The X-Files). Georgie is played out as an appropriately fractured character and Richmond-Peck is believable and easy to empathize with as a result. Chestnut is incredible as Ryan and when V goes off the air, it is hard not to imagine him having a bright future as an action hero actor. The way the two play off one another is great.

On DVD and Blu-Ray, the first season of V features commentary tracks on a couple of episodes as well as featurettes on the special effects and reimagining of the series. As well there are entertaining bloopers and deleted scenes which flesh out some of the key episodes.

Ultimately, V The Complete First Season is one which fans are going to want to pick up in advance of the show returning to television in late November. For those who missed it in the first run, the DVD set is great because the story plays well back to back as it is tightly serialized. This is one of the best first seasons of any show I've seen in recent memory.

For other V works, please check out my reviews of:
V
V The Final Battle
V The Complete Television Series

8/10

For other television reviews, please visit my index page by clicking here!

© 2010 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.


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