Courage And Control Dominate Sense8 Season 2!

The Good: Good performances, Interesting characters
The Bad: Weaker plot and pacing
The Basics: Sense8 returns and unravels more of the world where eight individuals are able to share experiences and bodies and are on the run from a sinister corporation.


There are few shows I have been anticipating the return of like Sense8. When it first aired, I feel in love with the first season of Sense8 (reviewed here!) for its complexity and its strong beginning of a character-driven story. Given where the first season ended, Sense8 had a lot of potential difficulty with sustaining that narrative, which was a theory very clearly revealed when Sense8 released its second season premiere (reviewed here!) at Christmastime. Where the first season of Sense8 was preoccupied with stating the premise of the show - that there exists alongside homo sapiens a virtually identical species who has the ability to share minds, memories, experiences and swap bodies psychically - the second season of Sense8 is remarkably simple.

Sense8 Season 2 is largely a hunt for the characters who are intimately aware of B.P.O. and the characters who are farther away struggling to find their courage to rise up in their own personal conflicts. The result is a season where characters work toward resolution with the aspects of their lives from before they learned they were sensates split with characters desperately trying to hunt their hunters and understand the nature of the organization that is hunting the sensates.

And the second season of Sense8 eases into being complex and smart the way the first season was, but it takes a while to get there. For those who loved the first season of Sense8, the change in tone in the second season is noticeable. The second season of Sense8 trades the sex and nudity for more graphic violence, which is disappointing (for such an international show, it seems like a very American sell-out). On the plus side, the episodes feature a great deal of social commentary, though many of the most politically-astute lines are also the most clumsy - sounding like random social statements on gun violence, political activism, international economics, etc. But when it hits its stride, Sense8 continues to engage viewers by being smart and getting viewers to invest in all of the characters.

Opening with the sensate cluster struggling with their new realities, the hunt for Whispers and B.P.O. (the Biological Protection Organization) begins in earnest. While Lito struggles with coming out, Sun deals with being in prison, Nomi lays low, Wolfgang finds himself dealing with the gangster leaders in Berlin, Kala adapts to married life, Caphaeus rises up as a local hero and Riley keeps Will on heroin in order to keep him off Whispers's radar. Whispers and Will get into a race to discover where the other is and Riley keeps Will safe as best she can. In the process, Will is able to divine clues and tap into the B.P.O. hunters mind to win the race. With Nomi and Riley's help, Will is able to get access to the person who is pulling Whispers's strings. But when Whispers is sidelined, the danger actually escalates for the Sensates.

Wolfgang finds himself approached by a sensate from another cluster, one who works as an assassin and wants Berlin for her own purposes. Kala is promoted at work by her new husband, who expects her to fall in line with his corrupt business dealings. Capheus becomes a local hero after giving a great interview, fighting against the water rationing in his village, and is encouraged to run for public office to fight the corruption. Lito loses everything by coming out and after acting as the grand marshall in a Gay Pride Parade, he is dropped by his agents and struggles to find purpose and work again. Sun's brother puts out another hit on her life, which leads her to break out of jail and go on the run to stop him once and for all. Finding newfound life, Will begins to hunt Whispers, while Nomi is erased from public records and Riley is able to learn more about B.P.O. and its history through a mysterious new sensate. Riley discovers that B.P.O. began with far less sinister motives and she and Will begin to investigate the factions of B.P.O. But even the internal power struggle for B.P.O. is not enough to keep Will, Wolfgang, Nomi and Riley safe from the villainous company and their allied clusters!

The second season of Sense8 gets off to a much faster start than the first season, but it drags a bit more in the middle. The season more effectively uses flashbacks as Angelica's role at B.P.O. is explored more thoroughly. The mother of the cluster is seen working with Whispers in the past and the flashbacks give a sense of just how B.P.O. turned after its guiding influence was gone. The episodes also explain better how Whispers is able to use Sensates to achieve his goals.

Like the first season, the second season of Sense8 is packed with details, intended for a detail-oriented viewer. That occasionally works against the show in the second season, as moments that are build-ups to "shocks" are robbed of their intensity because of the details put into them. Most notable of these is one where Will is dreaming or in the head of an adversary and sees through his eyes the enemy's wife and child. Because the viewers have seen those characters before, the revelation of whose eyes Will is seeing through comes as far less of a shock than the music would have viewers believe.

That said, most of the important actions in the second season are driven by the characters. The key characters in the second season of Sense8 are:

Will Gorski - Disgraced as a cop for disappearing to rescue Riley from Iceland, he is kept on heroin to keep Whispers from seeing through his eyes. He uses his brief glimpses into Whispers to try to find his location and his mundane identity outside a hunter for the B.P.O. He is in love with Riley and finally gets his chance to express that in their day to day life. He gets nervous when Riley is enticed to go to Chicago . . . alone,

Riley Blue - Managing to keep Will safe by effectively disguising the location of their safe space, she soon finds herself fearless about her nature as a Sensate. But when she lures members of other clusters out into the open, she finds a mysterious new ally who knows most of B.P.O.'s checkered history. In the search for the true name of Whispers, she is able to locate leaders of the good faction in B.P.O., but in the process puts her and Will's partner at incredible risk,

Lito - Having lost everything, he becomes despondent. He and Hernando start to look for an apartment and they discover the only way they can afford their ideal one is by keeping Daniela in their lives. He takes the Grand Marshall position at the Sao Paolo Pride Parade and that brings his fans out after his latest movie flops. After getting depressed, he is rescued by an unlikely person,

Hernando - Having been loving and supportive of Lito, he falls in love with a new apartment for the pair. He consents to the move when Daniela is able to help the pair with rent. His compassion is balanced with Daniela's pragmatism,

Daniela - Having to be rescued by Lito and Hernando once again - this time from both her ex-husband and her parents - she feels indebted to the couple. When Lito hits rock bottom, she tries to inspire him back into action,

Sun Bak - Acclimating surprisingly well to prison life, she survives multiple attempts on her life funded by her brother. On the run on the outside, she is pursued by a detective with whom she has a past. She continues to come to the aid of others in her cluster when they need help kicking ass, but finds herself largely on the outside as she attempts to take back her family's business empire,

Nomi Marks - Pursued with Amanita by the F.B.I., she seeks refuge with Bug on Bug's boat. As the conflict with the F.B.I. and B.P.O. escalates, Bug presents her with an incredible option, the chance to disappear completely from the internet. With their identities erased, Nomi feels free enough to attend her sister's wedding and she has to rely upon Amanita to once again save her,

Wolfgang - Now one of the most powerful people in the Berlin underground, he finds himself balancing his love for Kala and the seduction offered by a new sensate from a different cluster. But as his love for Kala finds some expression, he is able to see through his new contact's lies. The result puts him in the crosshairs of traitors to the sensates and in almost constant danger from the thugs who work for rival gangs,

Kala - Married and miserable about it, she still pines for Wolfgang. She essentially forgives Wolfgang for his violent past (distant and recent) and is willing to "cheat" with him over the great distances that separate them. She debates coming clean to her husband about her true nature, but then discovers the corrupt nature of the pharmaceutical business he runs. She uses her medical knowledge to attempt to replicate the psi blockers that Will was given by B.P.O. to protect Riley and the rest of the cluster,

Capheus - Having stood up to the gangs, he starts driving his new bus when he is approached by a reporter. When the interview he gives leads to a follow-up, that allows him to rise in action against water pirates, he gains the attention of local political organizers . . . who want him to run for President. When his mother and the gangster he once worked for fall in love and he learns the corrupt nature of the company Kala works for, he is inspire to rise against the worst elements in Nairobi,

and Whispers - Hunting Will from inside the sensate's head, he is B.P.O.'s most reliable hunter. But when Will makes a power play, he finds himself on the outs with the company. To make up for his failure, he stages a brutal series of maneuvers against his enemies, including Jonas. When Will's father's health takes a turn for the worse, he finds a new way to torment Will.

The acting and direction in the second season of Sense8 is homogeneously good. But while the characters are interesting and the performances are wonderful, hell even Andy Dick gives an uncharacteristically good performance late in the season, the second season of Sense8 fills in some gaps, but lacks the spark of the first season. The result is an eleven-episode season that continues the story of the sensates but is not the essential and original show that the first season was.

For other works from the 2016 – 2017 television season, please check out my reviews of:
Dear White People - Season 1
"Thin Ice" - Doctor Who
The Walking Dead - Season 7
Thirteen Reasons Why - Season 1
Grace And Frankie - Season 3
Iron Fist - Season 1
Love - Season 2
Santa Clarita Diet - Season 1
A Series Of Unfortunate Events - Season 1
One Day At A Time - Season 1
Travelers - Season 1
The OA - Season 1
Gilmore Girls: A Year In The Life
"Invasion!" - Arrow
"Farewell, Cruel World!" - Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.
"I Know Who You Are" - The Flash
"Aruba" - Legends Of Tomorrow
"Alex" - Supergirl
Luke Cage - Season 1
Stranger Things - Season 1

6.5/10

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

© 2015 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Tease The Threat For Sense8: It's Not Really "A Christmas Special!"

The Good: Good performances, Good direction, Moments of character
The Bad: Does not advance the plot significantly, Terrible name
The Basics: "A Christmas Special" seeds the important plotlines for the new season of Sense8 . . . fairly well.


[NOTE: This review was written when the second season premiere of Sense8 first aired. At that time, the episode was entitled "A Christmas Special." A week later, its name was changed to "Happy Fuckin' New Year." Rather than rewrite the review with its new title, we've opted to maintain the original wording.]

Of the Netflix Original shows, there is only one I have rewatched more times than the first season of Sense8 (reviewed here!). I have been eagerly awaiting the return of Sense8, as have many fans of the show. So, when Netflix and the Wachowskis suddenly revealed that there was a Christmas episode prepared to drop and a release date for the second season, my first reaction was excitement. That reaction was quickly tempered with a sense of cautious optimism.

There have been very few shows that have had a cliffhanger that have effectively placed an episode in between the cliffhanger finale and its resolution episode. In fact, while Doctor Who often does a Christmas episode that bears little or no resemblance to the season premiere/finale, the only show that comes to mind for inserting an episode as a "bonus" was The West Wing. The second season of The West Wing (reviewed here!) ended on a huge cliffhanger, but writer Aaron Sorkin felt compelled to write his own The West Wing reaction to the September 11, 2001 attacks and present that before the third season of The West Wing (reviewed here!). But "Isaac And Ishmael" opened with a very clear disclaimer by the cast that the episode is a tangent episode existing on its own as a de facto "alternate universe" episode. And the third season premiere of The West Wing began without any acknowledgment of that episode and given how intense the first season finale of Sense8 was, the idea of an interstitial episode in the Sense8 narrative was inherently troubling.

After all, how does one do "A Christmas Special" with so many characters in an intense state of angst?! The first season climaxed with most of the cluster aiding Will Gorski in rescuing Riley from the scientific complex run by the Sensate-obsessed doctor, Whispers. In the process, Will was compromised and is now a liability to his cluster and was last seen being drugged to keep him from regaining consciousness and connecting Whispers to the new cluster. The other big budding relationship in the first season was virtually destroyed when Wolfgang revealed his dark past and murderous abilities to Kala. So, with Nomi and Amanita laying low from the government, Lito outed, Max having just killed a prominent gangsters (and many of his men) and Will a threat to his entire cluster the moment he regains consciousness . . . naturally the next thing would be a Christmas episode.

Fortunately, "A Christmas Special" is a Christmas episode of Sense8 in name only. Covering at least five months, "A Christmas Special" advances the timeline of Sense8 by minorly advancing some of the characters, while merely restoring other characters to where they had been in the first season.

Opening with Kala on her honeymoon, which affords her fellow Sensates a chance to go for a swim, the outing is one of the few chances Will has an opportunity to escape his isolation. Riley has Will hooked on heroin in order to break the psychic bond between him and the rest of the cluster in order to protect them from Whispers. While Will is tormented by visions of Angelica killing herself, Sun remains in prison while her lawyers keep dropping her appeal and Lito is publicly outed and suffers the consequences of his honesty. Capheus loses the Van Damn after attempting to repair it. Wolfgang is approached with the consequences of his killing his uncle, while Amanita deals with being harassed by a U.S. government agent.

While Lito relocates from his condo, Sun fends off attacks by assassins hired by her brother and Kala tries desperately to make her marriage work. Capheus is given a new bus by the gangster whose life he saved, who appears to have turned over a new leaf by preparing to open clinics to provide health care to the people of the city. Wolfgang is unsettled when his aunt asks him to step into his uncle's shoes to prevent a turf war in Berlin, while Nomi and Amanita leave the women's shelter for the company of the unlikely person they are still able to trust. But when Riley takes Will out to ice skate, Whispers is able to access him and menace him with images of how the scientist is at Will's father's house. The threat to the cluster is not only from Whispers, though, as Wolfgang's refusal to join the mobster lifestyle leads to an explosive confrontation.

For those who hate trailers, the trailer for "A Christmas Special" certainly is not going to convert viewers; the final moment of the episode is in the trailer!

That said, it takes a while for "A Christmas Special" to actually establish its timeframe. "A Christmas Special" begins an ambiguous time after the first season finale; Capheus is still fishing bullets out of the Van Damn, Sun is still in solitary confinement, but Riley and Will have made it to an undisclosed location and Nomi and Amanita have been harassed enough by the same Federal agent for Amanita to have banter with him. But, as Thanksgiving nears, Michael Gorski reveals that Will has been gone for four months and the episode moves ahead to New Year's.

"A Christmas Special" is heavily reliant upon having seen the first season of Sense8 in order to get much of anything out of it. The flashbacks to Angelica make no real sense out of context and Sun's brother's crimes are more obliquely referenced so those who are not fans are not likely to catch that he killed their father. Fortunately, "A Christmas Special" manages to get out of the way some of the potential deadweight moments; Lito's storyline advances as he loses everything while remaining strong in coming out of the closet. Will's condition generally deteriorates over the months encompassed in "A Christmas Special," which sets up the whole idea that the way he is hiding from Whispers is not sustainable.

"A Christmas Special" presents a potential weak spot for Whispers as well; he has a family, but the episode also sets up his replacement when Jonas mentions that Whispers is not the only Sensate hunter active in the world.

Sense8 is flush with characters, so the two-hour special has a lot to do to satisfactorily service all of them. Some of the characters, most notably Riley, are under-used in "A Christmas Special." At the outset of "A Christmas Special," the primary characters are:

Will Gorski - Having seen Whispers, Whispers is now able to use him to access his cluster, so he is kept drugged and in an undisclosed, nondescript apartment. He is miserable, but is happy to be with Riley,

Riley Blue - Relegated to a supporting role, she keeps Will drugged to keep herself and the others safe. Still, she wants to enjoy some of her time with Will and takes him ice skating,

Lito - Outed by the press, he tells off his publicist, agent and lawyer in order to remain true to himself. Hernando and Daniela remain his steadfast lover and friend, respectively. But all indications are that his career as an actor is over,

Sun Bak - Kept in solitary confinement, she keeps the cluster focused on protecting Will and they, in turn, give her opportunities to escape her cell through them. She is hunted by minions of her brother, who want her to die in prison. Her former cellmates bribe the guards on her birthday so she doesn't have to be alone,

Nomi Marks - On the run from the government, she relies heavily on Amanita. They flee to Bug's boat, while she affords Will a single chance to contact his father,

Wolfgang - While he waits for Felix to recover, his aunt approaches him to take over his uncle's territory in the Berlin mob. While he has moments of being tempted by that, witnessing how one of the mobsters treats his uncle's lawyer - and with encouragement from Kala to be a better man - he turns back to a more just approach to dealing with people,

Kala - Deeply unhappy in her new married life, she accidentally hurts her new husband when they get around to trying to make love. She offers herself to Sun to get out of her cell and tries to see the good in Wolfgang after she witnessed how horrible he could be,

Capheus - He recovers from nearly getting killed and losing the Van Damn. He is put back on his feet by the mobster whose life he saved on his birthday and continues to idolize Sun for the way she helped him,

and Whispers - Now inside Will's head, he is eagerly hunting Will and Riley to try to break into the new cluster and learn the identities of the other five members he does not yet know.

The characters in "A Christmas Special" are very recognizable and familiar for who they have been. The performers, save the new Toby Onwumere, are all comfortable in their roles. Onwumere takes over the role of Capheus and writers Lana Wachowski and J. Michael Straczynski use the recasting as a chance to make a few in-jokes pertaining to the recasting. Onwumere is erratic in recreating the cadences of Capheus's voice, slowly transitioning it from how the character sounded to a more natural speaking pattern for the actor.

The performance of the episode arguably comes from Miguel Angel Silvestre. Silvestre soars in providing reaction shots when Lito interacts with his mother and finds unexpected acceptance. Silvestre illustrates the most range in "A Christmas Special" when he transitions from ecstatic and fun to serious to the verge of heartbreak.

Tina Desai is once again impressive as Kala and she plays the character as beautifully conflicted. Desai continues to deepen her on-screen chemistry with Max Riemelt, but her performances are best when she plays Kala as attempting to commit to her marriage and when she plays humor. Tina Desai has an excellent sense of comic timing in one of "A Christmas Special's" funniest scenes, which is a would-be sex scene! Desai might well have the best agent of the cast as "A Christmas Special" includes a boatload of nudity from the main cast, with Desai showing the least amount of skin!

The direction from Lana Wachowski is generally good. Wachowski provides the obligatory orgy scene - it's not really "A Christmas Special" after all! - and there are some beautiful shots, most notably near the climax of the episode during Will and Riley's ice skating scene.

But "A Christmas Special" is very clearly more of a season premiere than it is anything resembling a holiday special. The episode is a strong opener for the second season, but it holds up very poorly on its own or as an event episode.

For other works from the 2016 – 2017 television season, please check out my reviews of:
The OA - Season 1
Gilmore Girls: A Year In The Life
"Invasion!" - Arrow
"The Ghost" - Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.
"The Present" - The Flash
"Out Of Time" - Legends Of Tomorrow
"Medusa" - Supergirl
Luke Cage - Season 1
Stranger Things - Season 1

6/10

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

© 2016 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Netflix Produces The Coolest, Smartest Work On Television With Sense8 Season 1!

The Good: Excellent character development, Good acting, Wonderful direction
The Bad: Initial pacing, Flashbacks
The Basics: Faith in J. Michael Straczynski (and the Wachowskis) is rewarded the longer Sense8 goes on, as its first season develops into something exceptionally cool!


Not long ago, my wife clued me into the forthcoming work by J. Michael Straczynski and the Wachowski siblings. The Wachowskis have a remarkably mixed record with their creations - it seems like their unique creations are troublingly balanced by awkward adaptations; sure, they did amazing with Cloud Atlas (reviewed here!), but they also adapted Speed Racer (reviewed here!). At the other end of the spectrum is J. Michael Straczynski. Straczynski works within other people's universes incredibly successfully - like his run on Wonder Woman (Volume 1 of Odyssey is reviewed here!) - and has more consistently created impressive works with brilliant concepts that only reach niche genre audiences. Straczynski's last major work, Jeremiah, was shitcanned after two seasons (the second is not even available on DVD yet . . . and, it turns out, was a loose adaptation, too). But Straczynski's works are smart and well-conceived, high-minded . . . and often completely misunderstood by production companies which want to make a buck off them. Sense8, the work that is bringing together the Wachowskis and Straczynski for a longer, larger, ongoing project has been released now on Netflix and the first season almost instantly reveals itself to be powerfully Straczynski-driven.

Rewatching Babylon 5 (reviewed here!) right in advance of Sense8, it is easy to see Straczynski's influence. There are the issues of privacy, psychic connections, Holocaust references, and the exceptionally important idea that a single person can change the world (which is what Babylon 5 was all about). Hell, in the teaser of the pilot episode of Sense8, the villain Whispers, is established and shot virtually identically to Bester, the adversarial psi-cop on Babylon 5! Sense8 is smart and it looks beautiful, which is exactly what one expects from a work directed by the Wachowskis. Those going into Sense8 expecting something as accessible as The Matrix (reviewed here!) and with such an instant "cool" factor are in for an unpleasant surprise.

From almost the first minute, Sense8 is complicated, slow and driven by a concept that takes a long time to reveal itself. It might have been created by J. Michael Straczynski and the Wachowski siblings, but the writing is much more weighted to Straczynski, which means it is smart and requires a lot of faith to get through the build-up to trust that it is going somewhere and where it is going is worthwhile.

The first season of Sense8 is worthwhile (despite its problems), but without the celebrity of Straczynski and the Wachowski, it is virtually impossible to get to the point where it gets good. Fans of Babylon 5 will recognize that; J. Michael Straczynski created one of the most tedious first season's of television, but then alluded so heavily to it in the awesome seasons that followed, that most of the episodes became indispensable! Sense8 takes more than the first three of twelve episodes to build up to the point where the characters are established well-enough that viewers care about what happen to them.

The first season of Sense8 is about the discovery, not the hunt. That means, watching the first season of Sense8 is an exploration of the concept and the characters, more than truly running with the concept. So, that brings me to reviewing Sense8 Season 1 and reviews ultimately come down to helping people make a judgment about whether or not they should experience them. That brings me to the bottomline right off the bat:

If you're a Netflix subscriber (currently the only way to watch Sense8 Season 1), go to Sense8. Rather than reading anything about it, go to the "Trailers" and watch the first trailer for season 1 (there are three). The trailer is exceptionally well-made and it explains the concept of the show and reveals two or three awesome plot moments that make the concept explicit. Most of those moments come in the latter six episodes of the season, so viewers are waiting for the awesomeness through a lot of cerebral explanations. So, if you watch the trailer or trailers to Sense8 and think it looks interesting, cool, or like something you might like, watch the season. It gets there. Some trailers reveal too much or sell something different than the work they represent; the Sense8 trailer does not do that, but it shows some of the more accessible moments later in the first season.

The problem, I realized near the end of the second episode, was that the content up until that point (and a bit later) was not grabbing me. I tried to consider what it would be like to sit down without having seen the trailer and I almost instantly realized that I would not have cared. Sense8 is dense, clever and pays service to eight groups of characters (not just eight characters, but eight settings packed with characters), so despite teasing the idea of the show for much of the first season, it takes a long time to truly launch. In its first season, Sense8 does not give it all away and it is not particularly accessible (and I was looking forward to it and sold on the concept before I sat down to watch it!).

But the best strategy for those thinking about Sense8 is to watch the trailer and let it sell you (or not). If you like the trailer, commit - the show gets as good as the trailer!. If you don't like the trailer, don't waste your time - Sense8 is so much more complicated and clever and powerful than the trailer makes it look.

The first season of Sense8 is spread out throughout the world. Opening in Chicago, a blonde woman (Angelica) takes her own life, much to the shock of several people around the world who do not know who she is or where she is, but witness the event in their dreams (or waking dreams). A beat cop in Chicago dreams the event, but it is far more potent than any dream he has ever had before and he is convinced it is real. After he and his partner rescue a gunshot victim in the hood, Will drives by the abandoned church in which the suicide occurred and he becomes convinced the death actually happened (when he finds things like a box of drugs where he knew it would be from the "dream"). Will quickly becomes sure that the death and the communication he had from Jonas (telepathically) about Angelica's death are real.

In San Francisco, Nomi Marks is out with her girlfriend, Amanita, at a pride event when she sees Jonas and falls off their motorcycle. That puts Nomi in the hospital, where brain scans reveal something abnormal. In Chicago, Will's conflict comes into stark relief when his precinct is given federal aid in finding and apprehending Jonas. In Mexico City, London, Berlin, Seoul, Nairobi, and Mumbai, other individuals begin to see Angelica and each other. Soon, they are feeling one another, seeing through their eyes or hearing things from each other's location.

While the captured Jonas enlists the aid of Will to rescue Nomi from the hospital in which she is trapped (and the killer doctor who is hunting those who are so connected), Riley Blue's friends get her involved with more drugs than she is comfortable with and when a bloodbath ensues, she finds herself on the run. For others, the conflict is simpler; in Mumbai, Kala is preparing for her wedding to a man she does not love when she starts seeing Wolfgang who she is instantly attracted to, in Mexico City, Lito's acting career is put on the line when he decides to dump his beard, but she moves into the apartment he shares with his boyfriend instead, in Germany, Wolfgang manages to crack an impossible safe, in effect stealing diamonds before his cousin can, and in Nairobi, Capheus struggles to keep his business above water, driving from the villages to the nearby cities. In Seoul, Sun Bak discovers her family's company has defrauded investors thanks to someone in the company embezzling.

Will and Amanita succeed in rescuing Nomi, while Sun takes the fall for her brother in the company's embezzling. Capheus gets into trouble when his desire to take care of his mother puts him in front of two warring gangs and Wolfgang's robbery brings down the wrath of his uncle and cousin. As the eight people begin to experience more of each other's lives - like Wolfgang appearing naked before Kala seconds before she is to be married - despite them being separated by hundreds or thousands of miles, the slowly start to learn of their own nature. When they all experience Riley's father's concert, recalling their own births in the process, Riley collapses. Riley falls under the control of the company that has been hunting the Sensates - and has captured Jonas - and Will, Nomi, Amanita make an effort to rescue herr in Iceland, but quickly find they need the others if they are going to be successful!

The first season of Sense8 is strongly character-focused and belabored with explaining the concept. The eight main characters connect through sound, taste, sight, feeling, and even scent. They have selective abilities to access each other's thoughts, memories and feelings and in the first season, the protagonists of Sense8 are figuring out the basics of their connection and how they can use it.

Having so many characters, the first season of Sense8 has a lot to service and while many television series's end up neglecting a number of them (Babylon 5, for example, had no idea what to do with the character Na'toth and Talia being written-out was probably her best arc), Sense8 does not do that. Part of what makes the first season of Sense8 so impressive is how the characters retain their worlds. Instead of completely overwhelming them, in the first season of Sense8, the characters get "visits" from one another. As a result, Wolfgang maintains his lifelong friendship with Felix, Kala and her family and her soon-to-be in-laws dominate her time and attention, and Nomi remains closer with Amanita than with any of the people in her sensate cluster. The result is that the characters pop with a realism that is compelling . . . though surprisingly little happens on the plot front.

While the main serialized plot revolves around two captures and two rescue attempts (Nomi and Riley), so much is seeded for the future seasons (I found myself screaming at the screen hoping that Kala would make the Big Pharma connection that is peppered throughout the season!). In the first season, the essential characters are:

Will Gorski - A Chicago beat cop who starts hearing Riley's club music while at home alone in his apartment when there are no neighbors around. He starts hunting the leads to try to discover what is going on with the first Sensates he learns about after Angelica's death and the cover-up of it by a medical company. Most connected to Jonas, especially after he unwittingly gets Jonas captured, Riley (whom he falls in love with) and Nomi, who he is tasked by Jonas to save, he begins to learn about the nature of the sensates and their clusters first, though it puts him and his career in immediate jeopardy,

Riley Blue - A d.j. from Iceland who lives in London, she is haunted by her past and uses drugs to escape the painful memories. She becomes convinced of Will's reality when their "visits" lead them to try calling one another and it works. When she steals drugs and money from a dealer, she turns to a druggie friend for help and is betrayed by him, almost to her death. In escaping her situation, she leaves London for Iceland, but once there discovers the ghosts of her past are too much for her to bear,

Lito - A Mexican action hero actor, he is deep in the closet, though he lives with his boyfriend. His beard, Daneilla, gets drunk one night and comes to their apartment and invites herself into their relationship. But when Daneilla takes a picture of Lito and Hernando making love and her cameraphone falls into the hands of a jealous ex-, she sacrifices herself for their happiness. But Lito discovers her sacrifice is not one Hernando can live with and he channels the strength of some of his cluster in order to step up to do right by his friend,

Sun Bak - A Korean businesswoman, she is going over the books when she realizes that someone has been embezzling. It does not take her long to realize it is her younger brother, whom she was tasked by her mother to protect before she died. Sun channels her rage - brought on largely by her unloving father - into kickboxing and is incredible at it. She becomes an incredible resource to her cluster when they need to fight multiple people at one time,

Nomi Marks - A transgendered woman in a lesbian relationship with Amanita, she has a checkered past as a hacker. However, she had a wealthy (if entirely intolerant) family that helped her escape prison. She lives with Amanita in San Francisco and during the Pride event, she sees Jonas and falls unconscious. Scans of her brain lead to her being imprisoned in the hospital by her mother and the doctor who is working for the medical company that has been hunting sensates. After her escape, she and Amanita try to learn about the company and take the fight to them while protecting the members of her cluster,

Wolfgang - A German thief, he is haunted by memories of his abusive father. While trying to crack an uncrackable safe, he hears the noises from Will's Chicago and is unable to focus. He manages to recover and crack the safe, stealing diamonds his cousin intended to steal with the help of Felix, his lifelong friend. He and Felix find a fence for the diamonds, but before they can unload the second batch, Wolfgang's cousin shoots Felix. While Wolfgang tries to get himself out of the situation with his cousin and uncle, he finds himself connecting with Kala and falling in love with her,

Kala Rasal - A chemist in Mumbai, she is arranged to be married with the son of the company for which she works. She is not in love with her fiance and as her wedding day nears, she worries, especially when she begins to see and feel Wolfgang in her head. She collapses at her wedding when she sees him and afterward begins to use her knowledge of science to help the other members of her cluster,

Capheus - A van driver in Mumbai, he is a huge fan of the actor Jean-Claude Van Damme. His mother has HIV and he is motivated by a desire to get her adequate medication. He quickly falls in with pharmaceutical smugglers and the two warring factions who control medicine in Nairobi. One is able to connect him with the good medicine for his mother and he begins to transport and protect that gangster's daughter. That puts him in a moral quandary when the other side asks him to abduct the daughter for them. Determined to get out from in between, Capheus has to rely upon his connection with Sun and Will to save his life,

Amanita - Nomi's girlfriend, she is loving and supportive. She instantly believes Nomi's connection to her cluster when she sees Jonas in one of the pictures Nomi took during Pride. She goes on the run with Nomi and is absolutely loving and supportive of her,

Jonas - One of the prior generation of sensates, he witnesses Angelica's death. Unfortunately, he is already at the mercy of Whispers and becomes a liability to Will and the new cluster Angelica "gave birth" to,

and Whispers - The doctor who is hunting the sensates, he has the ability to get into the heads of any sensate simply by making eye contact with one. He disposes of Angelica's body, which puts him on Will's radar (and convinces Will of his cluster's reality) and hunts Nomi and Riley.

Even from the previews, the concept of Sense8 had some potential problems. Fortunately, J. Michael Straczynski is smart enough to recognize the potential flaws within his own universe. In order for Jonas to make any sense as a character and be able to deliver exposition to explain the condition to Will, the new generation of Sensates cannot be the first. Ironically, Sense8 solves the problem in virtually the identical way as Heroes (reviewed here!). In Heroes, the people developing extraordinary abilities in the wake of an eclipse that "activated" them start looking into the phenomenon and use a photograph to discover the scientific cabal that may be responsible for creating them. Nomi finds a photograph online that does essentially the same thing.

As the season reaches its climax, it hits its stride wonderfully. As characters step up to their sense of shared destiny, they get smarter about how to use their connection. In the final two episodes, there is a huge problem - Whispers doesn't know about Wolfgang and Wolfgang is geographically closest to Iceland, but the villain does know about Will. The only reason for Will to go to Iceland instead of Wolfgang (after Felix is safe) is for the romantic connection building between Will and Riley and in-context can only be understood by their lack of experience with their connections (otherwise, it's a pretty huge problem of liability that someone should have been smart enough to catch!). One real plot problem in the whole latter half of the season is incredibly small compared to most shows!

A larger problem with the first season of Sense8 is that the episodes have an inherently difficult problem with visualization to explain its concept and it troublingly jumbles that with flashbacks. The characters begin to see, hear, and translocate to one another, which the television medium is able to do adequately, at the very least. Unfortunately, Sense8 is working on establishing its concept when it blends that with flashbacks. Unlike Babylon 5, Sense8 does not use black and white to indicate trips to the past. This is problematic in Sense8 because there are scenes that combine translocation with time travel. Perceptive viewers will figure flashbacks are coming - the only reason for Wolfgang's father's face to be on his gravestone is if he's not dead or the viewer will need to recognize him in flashbacks. It's the latter.

Beyond that, the first season of Sense8 does all it promises. It is the first chapter in a larger work and it plays out as such. The characters are established and they start to develop. The acting is impressive, though outside Naveen Andrews, Daryl Hannah, Freema Agyeman and the cameos from Joe Pantoliano, the massive cast of Sense8 is made up of virtual unknowns to the U.S. audience (Max Riemalt has an extensive IMDB resume for German films, Miguel Angel Silvestre and Tina Desai are similarly internationally known). While Doona Bae is recognizable from Cloud Atlas, she is given the chance to truly shine in the role of Sun. Bae is given a big physical role in addition to credibly playing a Chief Financial Officer of a major company.

Jamie Clayton is one of the stand-outs of the cast of Sense8 in the first season. Clayton is given a lot of the emotional heavy lifting in the first season and she plays off Agyeman beautifully. They have amazing on-screen chemistry (as do Silvestre and Alfonso Herrera, Desai and Riemelt, and Tuppence Middleton and Brian J. Smith) and Clayton is given a number of monologues that give her powerful emotional statements and experiences to relate. Clayton makes Nomi well-rounded, more than an archetype or stereotype and the moment the season turns to her utilizing her detective and hacking skills, the series completely pops. Clayton never seems like she is reading lines; she becomes Nomi with complete credibility.

Ultimately, the result is a show that leaps between people and places and works to develop the characters. The first season makes one care about all eight of the characters and makes them absolutely terrified for what might happen to them in the subsequent ones. It is the must-see show of the season.

For other works from the 2014 – 2015 television season, please check out my reviews of:
Grace And Frankie - Season 1
Agent Carter - Season 1
Daredevil - Season 1
The Newsroom - Season 3
House Of Cards - Season 3
Doctor Who - Season 8
True Blood - Season 7
”Shadows” - Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.
”Fast Enough” - The Flash

8.5/10

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

© 2015 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Living Up To The Hype: Cloud Atlas Is Smart And Complex!

The Good: Wonderful acting, Great make-up and effects, Creative concept, Decent plots
The Bad: Misses some important events/deliberately obscure at points.
The Basics: Told in six distinct time periods, Cloud Atlas follows the reincarnated variations of several characters who interact to change and save the world or humanity through their actions, beliefs, or art.


When I miss a movie in theaters these days, there are remarkably few I pine for and make an immediate effort to see when they are released on DVD; it’s the nature of being a reviewer, there is always something new to see, review, and promote. So, when I missed Cloud Atlas theatrically, it says something about my level of interest that I managed to get it in to watch so soon after its DVD release. The truth is, it was a film I wanted very much to see and given how many preview trailers I saw of it, I was pleasantly surprised how much of the film there still was to be seen (it’s a long movie). In fact, my only gripe with the promotions for the film was that the key voiceovers that explain much of the thematic points and narrative structure were included in the trailers.

Cloud Atlas is based upon a novel that I have not read and thus this is a very pure review of the film alone. With Cloud Atlas, the Wachowskis have now redeemed themselves for Speed Racer (reviewed here!) and they once again prove they have the magic touch for making films that are visually incredible and tell stories about humans overcoming amazing odds and all forms of oppression. The film, however, is long and gory with a climax that sees the demise of so many of the characters that when I, in a moment of wonder at the movie, exclaimed, “How the hell did this movie ever lose money?!” my wife glared at me pretty heavily.

Cloud Atlas is a rare film that is not easy to discuss without giving away major spoilers. However, in defying my usual format, I won’t spoil virtually anything in the film by foregoing the usual plot summary. Cloud Atlas has an interwoven narrative structure that leaps very abruptly between six different time periods. As a result, there is little point trying to discuss any single narrative at length because one of the fundamental points of Cloud Atlas is that many of the main characters are related and interact as different incarnations of themselves in each of the different generations.

Told from the perspective of a man in the distant future, Cloud Atlas flashes back to and meanders through the intertwined stories of a lawyer who is part of a slaving mission and is being poisoned by the ship’s doctor on his way back home, a young composer studying at the feet of an aged composer who is not nearly as talented as he is, an investigative reporter digging into a story on a nuclear reactor in 1973 and all the corporate forces working to stop her from exposing the dangers of the facility, a publisher who is on the run from murderous hooligans when his previously unsuccessful author gains overnight success after killing a book critic, a cloned worked in the future who is given the chance to becomes something much more than she is when her “programming” fails, and a primitive man living on an island after what is essentially the apocalypse who must help a civilized woman reach the nearby ruins of the long-lost civilization, while avoiding cannibals and his own inner demons. Laced between the threads is a musical work that many of the characters create/remember/dream of or otherwise share and the themes of humans in oppressive situations fighting to overcome the political and social conditions that keep themselves and others enslaved.

Cloud Atlas is a film that demands to be watched as it is packed with details (like the idea that the clone in the future story is the deity worshipped in the most distant future timeline!) and the directors bounce between time periods assuming the viewers are keeping up. I liked how each time period had its own dialect and while that frustrated my wife, I found it engaging to sit and mentally translate the concepts both past and future. Cloud Atlas does not slow down to explain itself, but almost all of the keys one needs to understand the film are present on screen. In fact, the only glaring omission for me was that the disaster in the future that led to the technological reversion in the most distant time period was not shown.

What makes Cloud Atlas worth watching is simple; while it plays to the same old themes the Wachowskis (who co-wrote – or adapted – and directed Cloud Atlas with Tom Tykwer) are known for, they make the struggle for freedom and dignity feel fresh again. Visually, the film is a marvel with seamless CG animals, amazing sound effects and make-up that should have won many, many more awards than it did (never have so many great actors worked so hard to be utterly unrecognizable and not trade at all on their celebrity!). Cloud Atlas lives up to the heights one expects from the Wachowskis when it comes to the quality of making big, bold, films.

The real story of why to watch Cloud Atlas is in the way the directors get amazing performances out of the entire cast. While greatness is expected of Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Jim Broadbent and Hugo Weaving, younger cast members like Jim Sturgess, Doona Bae, James D’Arcy and Ben Whishaw hold their own with an apparently effortless ability. The cast is incredible and well-utilized (though poor Hugo Weaving needs to appear in a Wachowski film as something other than a villain!) and they are so engrossing in their performances that even for the recognizable actors, it is very easy to get drawn into their characters and forget anything outside the world of Cloud Atlas.

Ultimately, Cloud Atlas is engaging, clever and utilizes the film medium exceptionally well, making it well worth watching . . . more than once!

For other films with Jim Broadbent, be sure to check out my takes on:
Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows, Part 2
Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince
Inkheart
Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull
The Chronicles Of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe
Nicholas Nickleby
Gangs Of New York
Bridget Jones’s Diary
Smilla’s Sense Of Snow
Blackadder’s Christmas Carol
Brazil

8/10

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

© 2013 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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The Sacrifice Of Philosophy For Effects Drags Down The Complete Matrix Trilogy

The Good: Interesting setting, Surprisingly good acting, Great initial idea, DVD bonus features, Effects
The Bad: Characters become progressively less interesting, Plot becomes rather formulaic, Themes gutted for effects
The Basics: The bonus features for The Complete Matrix Trilogy are amazing, but not quite enough to overlook the poor (but great looking/sounding!) source material.


Once upon a time, there was a great idea for a film. One brother went to another and said, "Wouldn't it be great if we could make a movie where we presented the idea that all of our lives right now are just simulations controlled by machines to keep us all in check while they drained us of energy to power themselves?" And the other brother said, "The people would never buy that, it's too complicated." And the first brother said, "But we could make it with incredible special effects and popular actors and intriguing characters and hide our themes of the values of life and freedom in among the gunshots and car chases!" And the second brother said, "We should do just that!" And they wrote it. And they directed it. And it was good.

And it was The Matrix.

And then the screwed it all up by adding onto the film with the vastly inferior The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions! Why couldn't they just quit while they were ahead?! I have rated a number of film trilogies this year, like The Indiana Jones Trilogy (reviewed here!) and the Back To The Future Trilogy (reviewed here!) and while they might have had their issues, none of them take quite the nosedive away from what they were than The Matrix Trilogy, now compiled into a 3 disc set.

For those unfamiliar with The Matrix Trilogy, this was a series of three science fiction/action adventure films that pitted humanity vs. machines in an all-out battle for survival and control over a ruined Earth.

In The Matrix (reviewed here!), Thomas Anderson - a hacker who goes by Neo in the virtual world of cyberspace - is approached by a group of hackers who offer to wake him up to the reality of the world by helping him break free of the Matrix. Neo accepts and suddenly finds himself in a war-torn, barren world on the run from giant Sentinel machines that are slaughtering the last free humans on the planet. The rest of humanity is plugged into the machines, their minds existing in the virtual reality world of the Matrix (an ordinary world and life by any objective standard) while their bodies are used to generate energy for the machines! Trained by Morpheus, Neo soon takes up the mantle of savior to the people trapped within the Matrix and he returns to the constructed world to free the people there.

In The Matrix Reloaded (reviewed here!), Neo appears to have not blown the minds of everyone in the world of the Matrix, but instead created a monster in the construct in the form of Agent Smith, who now has the ability to replicate himself by absorbing individuals within the Matrix and making them into himself. As Smith goes on a killing spree to absorb everyone he can in his hunt for Neo, Neo works to balance his role as savior with his love for Trinity and formulate a way to destroy the Matrix while Morpheus desperately tries to protect Zion, the last human city.

The story is concluded (or is it?) in The Matrix Revolutions (reviewed here!), where Neo finds his way out of the Matrix with the knowledge of how he may defeat the Agents Smith and liberate the humans still trapped by the machines only to discover that one of the Smiths has managed to enter the real world. As Neo fights to save the enslaved humanity, Morpheus marshals the forces needed to try to prevent the millions of Sentinels boring down into Zion from killing every last free human there.

The fundamental problem with The Matrix Trilogy is that it starts as a fairly well-conceived, highly philosophical exploration of reality, perception and the nature of freedom and the value of freedom over tyranny. What it degenerates into is a pretty mindless giant special effects battle movie that shoots everything and does not care much for sensibility or reality and instead goes for the glitz and the shiny objects. Where The Matrix ended was perfect and if the films had continued in that direction, instead of a big-budget special effects movie, the next films would have been allegories about the responsibilities of a god to the world it has dominion over. But no, instead, in order to continue the trilogy, The Matrix reboots with stories that allow the films to continue by retelling the first story but with a different ending. In other words, this was a poorly conceived trilogy. Great first film, mediocre and abysmal sequels.

Now, don't get me wrong, if you like mind of mindless, big battle special effects movies with less in the way of talking and characters relating, The Matrix Trilogy works out just fine! This set gets most of the talking out of the way in the first half and allows for the second half to be filled with giant action sequences, massive amounts of gunplay and hand-to-hand battles that will make your nose bleed just watching them! (They gave me a headache anyway . . . ). The problem - for those of us who like something more and who like some measure of consistency - is that the first film, while packed with action and more than enough intrigue to keep us rewatching it over and over again, is not set up that way. It is anything but mindless and so when we go into the Trilogy and discover there is a great deal of thought and philosophy behind it, we are ultimately disappointed by the abandonment of that by the time the final film comes around.

That said, there is a lot that The Complete Matrix Trilogy does right. First, the stories do have interesting characters, even if their characters get somewhat gutted by the end of the three films. The principle, consistent characters throughout the Trilogy include:

Neo - An ordinary working class man who has a glimmer that something is wrong in his world when he discovers he is not living in the real world. Freed from the Matrix, Neo succumbs to suggestions from Morpheus that he has a greater destiny and might well be the one to end the war between the humans and the machines by freeing the enslaved minds trapped within the Matrix and bodies that are plugged into the machines powering it. He soon discovers he has powers that verge on godhood and his exploration of them is complicated by a growing love for Trinity,

Trinity - A tough-as-nails sidekick of Morpheus, she falls in love with Neo when helping him realize the extent of his powers. Uncertain how she fits into his life when he becomes something of a religious icon to the freed people of Zion, she redoubles her commitment to freeing everyone from the Matrix by any means necessary, even if it were to cost her her life,

Morpheus - The mentor to Neo who helps free him from the virtual world and becomes obsessed with the idea that Neo is the One and therefore somewhat infallible at destroying the Matrix. He devotes his attention to protecting Zion and leaving Neo to himself once he has set him on that path,

and Agent Smith - One of the defense mechanisms of the Matrix, he starts as a simple human security program designed to stop dissidents within the construct. After Neo overcomes him, he finds his programming altered and he goes rogue. Obsessed with destroying Neo and all biological life, he begins to clone himself through the Matrix becoming a threat to everything and everyone!

Agent Smith is aptly played by Hugo Weaving, who played Elrond in The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy (reviewed here!)! Weaving reveals his versatility in the role of Smith by going deeper and darker than most of us have seen him before. Weaving is stone-faced and ruthless most of the film so when he emotes - like when he wrinkles his nose in complete disgust at the smell of perspiration coming off Morpheus - it is powerful and expressive.

Carrie-Anne Moss plays Trinity and she is a worthy successor to other science fiction heroines like Ellen Ripley, Wonder Woman and . . . hmmm . . . pretty short list. Moss , like Fishburne and Weaving, plays the role with a duality of stone-cold affect and highly emotive. Her acting chops are won not when she opens the second film with a bang, but when she relaxes her body language and becomes vulnerable for the love scene, which illustrates her humanity and the depth of her character's love.

Lawrence Fishburne plays Morpheus and he is wonderful . . . in establishing his character. Fishburne plays the mentor role wonderfully and establishes Morpheus as a guide and sage with the body language of a warrior and guardian, but as the films progress, he is given less and less to do and while his character stagnates, Fishburne allows his performance to remain fairly static. He's good, but the Trilogy simply does not know what to do with his talents and they come to neglect him and his character.

But Keanu Reeves is the one with the burden of making part of The Matrix Trilogy make real sense and this is the role he was born to play. Reeves with his understated acting is the everyman Neo, the awkward man coming to be a deity. He plays the role with a slouch that evolves with his character until he owns the part. His deliveries are almost never melodramatic and he has a quality to him that lends itself perfectly to the more muted superhero role.

But for a giant special effects series, the devil is in the details. In The Matrix one of the wonderful visual cues to humanity's desperation - made all the more clear on Blu-Ray - is how threadbare the costumes are. Humanity is on the run, of course there are no sweatshops, er, factories making new clothes. But in the two sequels, with a budget, suddenly the people of Zion are pretty well coifed!

Similarly, for a film series that pays so much attention to style and look, it's amazing how much they cheat on some of the special effects. Yes, the big climactic battles are SO tremendous and huge in scope and scale that there is no possible way to take in all that is going on on the screen at any given moment. On HD-DVD the battles look good . . . what you can see of them. They move at a pace that is oppressive and overwhelming such that one gets the idea of the battles, the ebb and flow, but no specifics stand out.

I've long argued against the whole Blu-Ray/HD-DVD concept (I gladly admit that). My reasoning is simple: DVD is a wonderful, durable, enduring media and the highest grossing form of entertainment in the world for the past few years has been DVD Boxed set television series'. A lot of people have a lot of money tied up in DVDs and with television shows being the primary place they have their money invested, there is not much a higher quality DVD can (affordably) do for most consumers. Upgrading to any form of Blu-Ray is just milking people for their hard-earned money a second time (unless players are all backwards compatible) and that's just wrong.

My other reason for pretty much despising (well in advance of its release) the HD-DVD medium is that the vast majority of consumers cannot possibly afford all the equipment needed to fully take advantage of the enhanced medium. Well, my huge splurge in recent years was my HD-TV (reviewed here!) so I've had occasion now to occasionally test out an HD-DVD or Blue-Ray disc from time to time. Honestly, The Complete Matrix Trilogy is what this medium was made for! With a kicking system these films (especially the first) look and sound absolutely amazing! This DVD set is enough to make one believe in the Matrix it looks so real and sounds so vibrant on screen and over the speakers.

On the three discs, (one per film) there are commentary tracks (which have the cast and crew and philosophers discussing the making of and implications of the movies), 18 featurettes, music videos, advertisements, and trailers. This is essentially the "lite" version of the "Ultimate Matrix Collection," which also includes the Animatrix and some other goodies that tied together the franchise. The Complete Matrix Trilogy is just the cinematic Matrix adventures in HD and there are ample goodies for the fans. The nice thing is, for those who purchased any other version of The Matrix on DVD or HD-DVD, there is NOTHING exclusive in this set to make you want to buy it as an upgrade to what you already own. Conversely, one is not losing anything by purchasing this set; it includes ALL of the DVD bonuses from the "Ultimate Matrix Collection" as well as the picture-in-picture HD options from the HD version of that set. The only reason to buy this set is because you do not have the Trilogy and you're starting at the HD level and you don't want the Animatrix.

And honestly, I can't even recommend it for those people. The only one of these movies worth seeing is The Matrix. I'm sure there is (or will be) a single-disc DVD version of it with all the same bonus features. Go for that instead, this is not worth it, even though it makes magnificent use of the medium!

For the other film saga reviews, please check out my reviews of:
The Star Wars Saga
The Twilight Saga
The Dark Knight Trilogy

5/10

For other film reviews, please visit my Movie Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2013, 2007 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Anger And Revolution Without The Passion For It: V For Vendetta

The Good: Excellent dialogue, The human moments
The Bad: Violence without passion, Much of the acting, Aspects of over-the-top
The Basics: Failing in the realm of grandiose battles, V For Vendetta is philosophically sound and connects on an emotive, personal level, but is otherwise just long.


I went to see V For Vendetta blind. Not literally blind, but without having seen previews, not reading reviews, not knowing anything but the title, the actors and the tagline. I had anticipated - based on what little I knew of the movie - enjoying the political message of the film. I didn't. In fact, what had an effect on me was the personal elements. But, I get ahead of myself.

V For Vendetta begins as the story of Evey, a young woman sometime after 2015 who is out after the curfew in London. When the Fingermen, common citizens who act as a police force, stop her and begin to assault her, she is rescued by a masked man. The masked man introduces himself as V and speaks articulately and in poems and at great speed and Evey hesitantly accompanies him to a rooftop to witness a concert. The concert consists of music blaring over London's propaganda soundspeakers and crescendos into an explosion of a significant landmark building.

Later, V takes over the propaganda ministry and plays an appeal to the British people wherein he urges them to stand up and take back the government and their lives and a year from that day - November 5 - stand outside Parliament which he will blow up. In his escape, he rescues Evey and is reluctantly forced to keep her detained for the year in his Shadow Gallery, a collection of artifacts that the government has believed destroyed. Evey escapes and is captured by the government until she loses everything and becomes free herself.

The best moments of V For Vendetta are the personal ones and the nice thing about the movie is it never cheapens the resolve or conflict within the characters. So, the most obvious aspect of the movie - what is under V's mask - remains a mystery. But it's the peripherals that make the most moving moments of the movie. Deitrich, a celebrity on the British network who Evey knows, tells a heartwrenching story. Dr. Surridge, one who personally hurt V in the past, delivers the most beautiful and poignant line of the movie in a quiet point. She simply asks V (NOT a direct quote, sorry!), "Is it ever too late to say sorry?" It is such a perfect moment.

What Surridge's exit from the movie does it propel the plot along and from her demise to the end of the film, much is spent filling in the blanks that plague the viewer from the first half of the movie. We see a Totalitarian Britain, but we don't know how it became that way, save V's accusations that the populace has become complacent. So, the latter half illustrates how V himself was integral to the establishment of the State and the resolution of V's anger.

Much of the exposition is a function of an investigation by Finch, a tired-looking detective who is investigating V's first bombing. Finch is the human element that the movie turns on. Many might argue that V For Vendetta is V's story or Evey's, but it's not. V's story is what Finch uncovers, but because much of it is a cobbled together backstory, it is hard to find empathy for V. V becomes a tool for Finch's understanding.

Similarly, Evey is a tool of V. She is an obvious successor to V, but hardly a common citizen. Her backstory reveals a history of persecution and moments that predispose her toward V's philosophies. Far more compelling than watching someone who has known the government is wrong actually moved to action is watching someone who is a cog in that government learning the government is the problem and the power of that revelation leading to immediate action. That is Finch's story and that is what makes the movie watchable and enjoyable in the parts that it actually is enjoyable.

The problem is, those moments are not the bulk of V For Vendetta. Instead, they are the exception to the rule. The pacing of V For Vendetta is very off. Long passages of the movie are ponderous and drawn out. Refreshingly, V provides some of the longest monologues I have seen and heard in recent movies. This strikes me as real and it's nice to see in a movie. Unfortunately, when the action picks up and the conversations stop, the battles move at such speed that what is actually happening is almost impossible to visually decipher. The exception is the climactic battle, which is slowed for dramatic effect and is nice in that it is easy to see what is happening and make the whole thing make sense.

But the characters - the mains, V and Evey - are a mix of bland and terrible. V is defined as a monster created by the State, but is honest and has a purpose. What he lacks is passion. He is reasonable, reasoned and deadly, but there's no real emotion in his words or his actions. Thus, when he tears off his mask at one point and speaks words of emotion to Evey near the end, they fall flat because he has expressed no passion. This works if the point is to say that vengeance kills the soul, but then it's hard to believe the willpower that keeps V alive through his final sequences. That is to say, if one has the passion to endure and keep fighting, one has passion and that passion should be evident in some of the dialogue. It's not.

Evey, on the other hand, is just incomprehensible. It is hard to believe that a young woman who appears to have some measure of privilege, who witnessed her parents being dragged away as a child would defy the State weakly or wouldn't already be well on the road to being a terrorist. What I mean here is that as we learn Evey's backstory, it is obvious that she is the perfect candidate for V's movement. Her parents were taken from her at a young age and she was raised by the State and she witnessed government brutality. So, one might think she was either already subverting the government or was terrified of the government. The opening scene of the movie, Evey leaving after curfew, indicates she is not the latter.

The only characters that are worth watching are the ones most would think are peripheral. Dr. Surridge, only briefly in the movie, makes one of the most intense marks on the viewer. Similarly, Deitrich is so beautiful in his naivete that when he broadcasts a satire against the totalitarian leader Adam Sutler (hmm . . . could they make that any closer to Hitler?) he believes he might get away with it. And the story Evey learns of the actress is simply heartbreaking. These are the characters, the ones that flit in briefly, make a point and disappear, are what brings empathy to the movie.

And Finch. There's Finch. Finch is a brilliant character who is so much more than a symbol. Finch investigates an act of terrorism against the Party and begins to ask himself - and others - the questions a totalitarian state hates. And he walks a tenuous line. But he does it wonderfully. He's the man to watch.

Unfortunately, because Finch is played by Stephen Rea, a middle-aged non-Hollywood type, he does not get top billing. He deserves it, though. He out performs Natalie Portman by a hundredfold. Rea makes the movie watchable. He binds us to the story and his character represents all that V wants to accomplish, so the viewer is most interested in his movement through the story.

Similarly, Stephen Fry doesn't sell movie tickets, but he steals every single scene he is in. He is brilliant as Deitrich and if he and Rea aren't nominated for their roles in this movie, they were robbed. As well, John Hurt is brilliantly directed. I'm not certain how much of what makes his character work was actually his acting, but he is terrifically directed. Why? Sutler, who Hurt plays, is the leader of the totalitarian England. Usually, this is a role taken by one with charisma. Hurt is never on screen where he is not yelling and being angry. No charisma whatsoever. Directed for brilliant irony.

Unfortunately, despite her wonderful, subtle and powerful performance, Sinead Cusack as Dr. Surridge has so little a part in the film that to suggest she receive a nomination is almost ridiculous. If there was a "Best Performance For An Actress With Less Than Five Minutes Screentime," she would be a shoo in.

The other performance of note - for its adequacy - is Hugo Weaving. Weaving is given the difficult task of emoting while behind a mask and he manages to do that. Not so much with his voice. Thus, we have the character problem of V not being emotional, yet executing possibly the most elaborate cycle of vengeance seen in a film. But as an acting problem, Weaving uses body language extraordinarily well to make V . . . well, human. That's the most we might ask for.

Outside that, it's all minutiae and the big themes. The big themes are obvious to any progressive who has been awake the last five years. Totalitarian states are built on indifference and the sloth of an accepting populace. Ironically, Portman encapsulates this entire sentiment in Star Wars Episode III: Revenge Of The Sith (reviewed here!) when, as Padme, she observes that democracy dies with applause, not horror. Here, the viewer is beaten over the head with the hyperbole of this, until one appreciates the details.

The main groups being persecuted are homosexuals and those who defy the State. So, for example, Muslims have all been expunged. Now, lacking Muslims, those who are killed are those who simply own a copy of the Koran. And while the rounding up and killing of homosexuals throughout the movie might seem over-the-top, one only has to look at the subtle obviousness of Totalitarian England. All of the characters in the movie are white. Homosexuals, then, become the obvious target. Why? They cannot be seen. Everyone who can be seen to be different is already gone. 'Gotta get those who are still hiding! That's the Totalitarian view. Divergence is the crime in a totalitarian state and it's something that V For Vendetta beats us over the head with. But, those who already get it will not come out feeling impassioned by the movie.

In fact, the greatest disappointment I experienced in watching V For Vendetta was in the audience. When the movie was over, the audience stood right up and left. No one was talking about blowing up the White House, so I suspect much of the audience just didn't get it. That's disheartening. This morning, I haven't heard a word about Fox News being hijacked by radicals who want us to fight our government's robbing us of our right to have our vote counted. Our "V's" haven't stepped up and when they don't, the writers and directors will have realized they failed.

For other films by the Wachowski brothers, please be sure to visit my reviews of:
Bound
The Matrix
The Matrix Reloaded
The Matrix Revolutions
Speed Racer

7/10

For other movie reviews, please visit my Movie Review Index Page by clicking here!

© 2012, 2006 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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