Doctor Who: The 12th Doctor Thus Far

Now that we are halfway through Peter Capaldi’s first series as the 12th Doctor, let’s take a quick look at the six episodes that have aired.

Deep Breath – Deep sigh.  Deep wince.  Deep groan.  This was an overly bloated and amazingly boring series opener.  Easily the worst new Doctor episode since Time And The Rani.  Actually let me think about that for a moment … the TV movie, Rose, The Christmas Invasion, The Eleventh Hour … yep, I’d much rather watch any of those than have to watch this again.  It felt like this was 42 minutes of piss-poor story stretched like Cassandra into a 75 minute time slot.  And these Paternoster idiots have long outlived their entertainment value.  Much like The Walking Dead – when I start rooting for the robots to kill the protagonists, there’s a very fundamental problem in the production of the programme.  And this whole “Promised Land” bullshit is already tiring, just one episode into its so-called arc.

Into The Dalek – When I read the synopsis for this episode, I literally groaned.  Out loud.  It sounded horrible.  “Fantastic idea for a movie, terrible idea for a proctologist.”  Imagine how surprised I was by how much I enjoyed it.  Except for the moment when the one chickadee sacrifices herself and pops into the wince-inducing Promised Land.  That one small piece of garbage totally screwed over the pacing of that part of the episode, very much like any of BBC America’s commercial breaks do.  Capaldi’s dialog in this episode, especially in the precredits sequence, sold me on his interpretation of the Doctor.  But why couldn’t he have taken Journey Blue with him?  I think she would’ve been a great companion.

Robot Of Sherwood – Another one whose synopsis made me groan at first.  I’m tired of the ship-fell-backwards-through-time-and-is-stuck-in-the-past-trying-desperately-to-repair-itself plot (didn’t we just do that two weeks ago?).  The actors playing Robin and the Sheriff were spot on, and this ended up entertaining me far more than I wanted it to.  My only complaint is with the BBC’s stoopid decision to edit the climactic confrontation between Robin and the Sheriff.  There was absolutely no need to trim that bit, and to tell you the truth, I thought cutting it seriously harmed the episode.  (Yes, I’ve seen the original complete sequence and that moment plus the corresponding dialog added a few additional levels to the story that are now missing from the broadcast version.)  Hopefully BBC Worldwide will have the sense to restore that full sequence when they release it on disc.

Listen – This is an odd one, because I downright hated it when I first saw it, to the extent that I was actively trying to figure out various ways of suppressing my forthcoming groaning as I sat down to watch it with my family.  But it turned out – watching it with an audience – I ended up liking it after all.  I think that it helped for all of us to watch it immediately after Robot Of Sherwood, because it’s a nice contrast to the Robin Hood episode.  Capaldi’s pre-credits monologue is wonderful, and the controversial barn sequence wasn’t anywhere nearly as cringeworthy as I first thought it was.  This episode does play to me more like several linked stories rather than one complete story.  In other words, it comes across to me as rather disjointed.  Perhaps one more pass back through the script polisher would’ve cleaned it up a bit?

Time Heist – What a fun episode.  Fun, fun, fun.  This is the first episode of the new series that I had absolutely no problems with.  None whatsoever.  And it still seemed to hold up well on a second viewing.

The Caretaker – I enjoyed this one far far more than I expected to … except for the last few minutes.  I honestly do not give a damn about this Promised Land/Afterlife/Nethersphere arc.  At least they learned their lesson from Into The Dalek and moved this bit to the end of the episode instead of immediately after that character’s death.  That was one of the few problems I had with Into The Dalek and I think it’s the only problem I have with The Caretaker.  The Doctor’s confrontational interactions with Danny Pink were particularly well done, and whistling Pink Floyd was a very nice touch.

Do I like Capaldi’s Doctor?  Yes.  I like the fact that he’s playing the character as more reserved/removed/callous than the previous new Who stars.  I like his snarkiness.  I like his Scottishness.  I’m glad that in The Caretaker we finally get to see him balls out angry; that’s the aspect of the 12th Doctor that I’ve been waiting to see.  “You … are a Time Lord?”  “YES!  And at the moment a RATHER ANGRY ONE!”

Do I like where this series is going?  I’m not sure.  I’ve been pretty impressed with four of the six episodes, but I don’t think I can fully answer this question until I see how the stoopid arc plays out.  So I’m liking most of the footsteps but I don’t know if I like the path they’re walking down.  Which brings me to the next question:

Why do we even NEED a series-long arc in modern Doctor Who?  I don’t believe we do.  The original series only did it twice; once as a lark since they had never done it before and once as commentary on how the BBC was treating the show.

At least Russell T. Davies knew how to do series-long arcs.  Look at “Bad Wolf” in the first series and “Torchwood” in the second – they worked because they were subtle enough to not interfere in the storytelling process for individual episodes.  “Mr Saxon” didn’t quite work out as well (I blame how they wrote John Simm’s characterization of the Master for that – he was panto when he should have been petrifying), but the disappearing planets did.  Three out of four ain’t bad.

What sort of arc did Moffat present us with when he took over?  Cracks and “Silence will fall,” neither of which are satisfactorily resolved by the end of the fifth series.  So the sixth series uses Mrs. Eyepatch to try to clean things up a bit, but they’re still left somewhat hanging until the mad expositionary scramble to tie up loose ends in Matt Smith’s final story.  The seventh series gives us “Impossible Girl.”  Meh.  The only good thing that came out of that was the Zelig-like shoehorning of Jenna-Louise Coleman into scenes of prior Doctors.  Now we’re being slapped in the face with this stoopid Nethersphere bullshit, which almost guarantees that I will end up despising this series’ two-part finale.

When the arc starts to interfere with the process of telling the individual episode stories, it’s time to shitcan the arc.

So, what is my personal order of preference for these six episodes?  Rating them based upon which ones entertained me the most:

1) Time Heist
2) The Caretaker
3) Robot Of Sherwood
4) Into The Dalek
5) Listen
12) Deep Breath

It will be interesting to look back on this post six weeks from now, after the finale airs.

 

Buddha

Finally worked my way through all eight books of Osamu Tezuka’s manga Buddha.  Wow.  A story so beautifully told that it made me cry.

 

Madam Secretary

Can we retitle this show My Damn Secretary?  Because it sure looked like Keith Carradine was thinking that more than once during the opening episode.

This show snuck up on me.  I had no idea it was in production for the new season.  I never heard of it until two or three days before it premiered.  And then I missed the premiere, so I had to catch it afterwards.

Madam Secretary would probably be a lot more compelling if we hadn’t already had several women serve as Secretary of State.

I like Téa Leoni enough to watch her in almost anything.  I like Keith Carradine.  I liked Tim Daly in Wings.  And I absolutely adore Željko Ivanek (although he will always be Danvers to me).  William Sadler, sadly, was totally wasted here.

Since we know Leoni is going to end up in office, I was hoping the show would start by showing us her first day in office.  Nope.  Let’s back up even further than that and show us how she gets the job.  Okay, that could be intriguing, we can see how she and her family cope with the sudden uprooting and massive changes in their lives.  We could have some nice family drama that plays out over several weeks worth of episodes, as she winds up her university work, works her way through confirmation hearings and then starts her position.

Nope.  “Two months later.”  WTF?!?  I feel cheated.

Instead we get thrown into a stoopid hostage crisis with one side dish of clichéd marital drama issues and a second side of conspiratorial stoopidity.  Sigh.  And did they deliberately make one of her staff members look suspiciously similar to Ollie from The Thick Of It?

The political drama feels way too clichéd — it’s the Maruchan ramen of political drama.  Another international hostage situation.  Yawn.  At least we had characters inside the show itself calling the situation stoopid.  Riddle me this: why is it that the BBC felt compelled to edit a non-hostage-situation beheading (that was fundamentally played for a laugh) out of Doctor Who because of current international hostage situations, but CBS does not feel compelled to delay broadcasting this?  I remember back in the day when the BBC had bigger balls than any American network.  Just take a look at the fourth series finale of Blake’s 7.  Or sit down and compare ABC’s The Day After to the BBC’s Threads.

The family drama is even worse.  Leoni and Daly have a smidgen of believable chemistry, but the two kids are annoying enough that I want THEM to run off to Syria and get captured by an Islamic hostage-taking group.  Honestly, when Daly turned up in Leoni’s office at the end, I was hoping beyond hope that he was there to tell her he wanted a divorce and was going to take the kids back to live their old lives on their old farm.  Nope.  Instead, it’s the writers letting the other shoe drop on a completely unnecessary and really stoopid sounding conspiracy aspect that WE DO NOT NEED here in order to tell good realistic stories about these characters.

Like I said, I like Téa Leoni enough to watch her in almost anything.  But not this.

 

Godzilla (2014)

Now THIS is how you make a Godzilla movie.  After the previous horrible gaijin attempt to make one, I am flabbergasted by how much they got RIGHT this time.

Make the movie about the characters, not about Godzilla.

Sprinkle li’l bits of teaser fights throughout the film.  Leave the big ol’ all out kaiju slapdown ’til the end.  “Let them fight.”

Put a heavy emphasis on sound design and sound editing.

The pacing is immaculate – let the tension build and build and build on a slow burn over time.

Make.  It.  Scary.

I think the last time a Godzilla movie came close to scaring me was Godzilla Vs. The Smog Monster back in 1972.  But I was only six at the time, so that’s understandable.

And that HALO jump … oooooooooh … what a beautiful sequence.

My only complaint is it seemed like they misunderstood how EMPs work.  They show EMPs knocking out all electrical systems, then the systems all seem to magically come back on afterwards.  Nope, my understanding is that the EMPs would fry the circuits, damaging them enough that they would no longer be functional.  Period.  And they made a comment about the EMPs interfering with tracking the things by satellite.  Um, nope.  I can’t imagine a ground-based EMP affecting anything in orbit.  Unless they threw in a bit of technobabble dialog that I missed.

Aside from that, this long-time Godzilla fan was very seriously impressed.

 

Thor: The Dark World

I just realized I never posted my thoughts about Thor: The Dark World.  Or Prometheus.  I really need to catch up on these things.  I wrote up a good-sized rant about Prometheus way back when I first saw it, but for the life of me I cannot find the file.  The last thing I want to do is sit through that fetid pile of bitter disappointment again, so let’s start with Thor 2, only let’s retitle it Thor: The Meh World.  Or better yet, Thor: Meh Meh Meh.

This has got to be the worst film of the Marvel Cinematic Universe thus far.  And I’m saying that because I only have vague wisps of memories of The Incredible Hulk.

Okay, where to begin?  Natalie Portman: boring.  Kat Dennings, the #1 scene stealer of the first Thor film: had all of her scenes stolen from her.  Stellan Skarsgard: totally wasted, in more ways than one.

I was excited about seeing this film because the first film was such a blast and I was stoked that they signed Christopher Eccelston as the baddie.  But nope, he was utterly wasted too.  WTF?!?

I’m holding onto hope there is some sort of director’s cut lurking out there that will eventually work its way onto disc.  It feels like there were huge chunks of the story that were missing.  I heard rumors that a significant portion of Malekith’s backstory was left on the cutting room floor.  That’s a damned shame, because I think it would’ve seriously improved the film.

Honestly, I really would’ve rather watched a two hour farting contest between Thor and the Warriors Three than have to sit through this so-called Marvel Cinematic extravaganza.  That would’ve been a lot more enjoyable.  Imagine the campfire sequence from Blazing Saddles redone with Asgardians.

At least Idris Elba still kicks ass as Heimdall.

 

The Dead 2

Continuing on with the “I’m a sucker for a zombie apocalypse” theme, I was pretty impressed by the Ford brothers’ The Dead and very disappointed that I missed the sequel on the big screen.  This film is billed as The Dead 2: India, but the actual onscreen title is just The Dead 2.

First thought in the opening three minutes: I bleedin’ LOVE the soundtrack.  Imran Ahmad, do you have any CDs available?  Yes you do!  Yay!

Like the original, this film is extremely well done.  Tense, believable (about as believable as a zombie film could be), and I appreciate that the Ford brothers have the requisite intelligence and courage to show us the necessary exposition instead of telling us.  Too often bad writers will cram gobs of exposition into unnecessary dialog when they could take the time to show it to us through the characters’ actions.

When I see a particular zombie apocalypse survival scenario, and I say half-sarcastically to the main character, “Why don’t you just do such-and-such?”  And then, one minute later, they actually DO it … it sends shivers up and down my spine.  I see a lot of online complaints that this sequel is not different enough from The Dead, that it is just more of the same.  This one particular moment (I can’t spoil it by telling you what it is) sets this film on a pedestal a level above its predecessor.

 

World War Z, Revisited

After being less than impressed with the first episode of Z Nation, I felt I should follow through with taking a peek at the 2D unrated cut of World War Z.  I figured it couldn’t give me much more of a headache than the 3D theatrical cut did.

Surprise #1: storywise, the unrated cut is not significantly different than the theatrical cut.  There are no major subplots added.  Somewhat disappointing, but some subtle scene extensions helped the story make a little more sense.  A litte.

Surprise #2: although the unrated cut is more violent and bloodier than the theatrical cut, it’s not a total all-out gorefest.  Some horror releases will use the “unrated cut” excuse to amp up splattering to the Nth degree.  That didn’t happen here.  Somewhat disappointing, in that I was expecting a LOT more gore, but on the other hand it was also somewhat of a relief.

Surprise #3: the film actually held my attention and my interest, in spite of the fact that I knew what was going to happen.  Part of that was because I was watching to see what was different between the two cuts, but even so it ended up engaging me more than I expected.

It’s still a crap film overall.  It’s even worse when you consider it an adaptation of its source material.  But in spite of my geeky love for 3D, if I ever had to sit someone down and force them to watch this, I would force them to watch the 2D unrated cut.

Is that an endorsement?  No.  As I said, it’s still a crap film.  And I am still hoping that the original pre-reshoot cut will surface someday.

 

Z Nation

I’ve said it before several times – I’m a sucker for a zombie apocalypse.  Considering that Z Nation is a SyFy original produced by The Asylum, I had extremely low expectations for it.  But I can also watch Harold Perrineau in almost anything.  So when I hear Augustus Hill is leading a group of survivors cross-country in a mashup of The Last Of Us and The Walking Dead, I’m obligated to check it out.

But, as you can see by the length of this post, there are problems.

If your story starts two years after the beginning of the zombie apocalypse, why have the opening narration say it is has been three years?  Yes, we do eventually jump “one year later” to tell the rest of the story three years after the first infection, but within 15 seconds of the narrator saying “three years after the first infection” we see a caption identifying the date as “May 5th 02 A.Z.”  Why run the risk of confusing your dim-witted audience whilst you’re still in the process of introducing your audience to the world you’ve built?

If these special forces guys really have been dealing with this situation for two years already, don’t you think they would’ve modified their behavior?  If you know you can only drop your enemy with shots to the head, why blindly shoot at them with bursts as you’re running away from them?

“This gate won’t hold” – okay, if that’s the case, shouldn’t mister “hold them as long as you can” start picking the zombies off with single shots to the head to try and slow them down?  This one poor guy is left standing there and he continues to just stand there.  And it’s not because he’s short on ammo – as they show the gate start to fail, they also show him holding at least two extra clips for his assault rifle.

Why exactly does Camp Northern Light need to shut down and bug out?  The way they were acting when they told Cruller to shut down and evac, it seemed like the camp was on the verge of being overrun by zombies.  But that’s not the case – later on we still see it active and we still see Cruller there, so if it is secure enough for one man to run it on his own for a year, why where they so hot to trot to bug out?  And why does the evac plane crash right after takeoff?  Bad writing, as Jonathan Frakes would say.

Now … after an entire year (the aforementioned “one year later” jump), they’ve only made it as far as upstate New York?!?  WTF, is that even in the direction of California?  Actually, this is somewhat due to another potential captioning issue bundled up alongside dim-witted audience geographical knowledge.  I had to jump online and look up the location of the Portsmouth Naval Prison.  Silly me, I figured a naval facility that is THAT important (our last best hope for researching possible zombie plague vaccines) would be in the DC/Arlington/Baltimore area.  Nope, Portsmouth Naval Prison is in Maine, which makes a bit more sense.  And I’m guessing Ellie … er, Murphy … would’ve needed some time to heal up before he could travel, so that makes a bit more sense.  But even so, an entire year and they’ve only made it as far as upstate New York?  That’s what, about 200 miles maybe?

“How’d you find out about this place?”  “An ex-cop and some others taking shelter in a prison 20 clicks up the road.”  NICE!

“Well, if we keep it moving we can get (to the Tappen Zee bridge) and back before nightfall.”  Curiosity overwhelms me again and I’m back on Google Maps.  Up until this point, they don’t say exactly where they are in upstate New York.  But the Portsmouth Naval Prison is in Kittery, Maine.  For the sake of argument, let’s just put them smack dab in the middle of upstate New York.  That puts them vaguely as far away from the Tappen Zee bridge as they are from Kittery.  So it took these two guys one year and the lives of “eight of the best men I’ve ever served with” to get that far, and now two ex-National Guard are proposing to take them an equivalent distance and get back before nightfall.  And Augustus Hill doesn’t even seem surprised?  Bad writing.

I do like them showing an aspect of a barter economy, with the guys offering to trade for weapons and ammo that they’ve produced.  And there’s a nice one-line exposition about the zombies themselves – apparently the fresher they are, the faster they are.

“I was thinking something more silent” – another nice touch.  We have at least one character who has actually learned something in the three years since the zombie apocalypse started.  But it’s a damned shame I have no idea what her name is.

Here’s where my head starts to hurt … the pickup truck has been on the road for a while, long enough for them to check in with Camp Blue Sky by radio.  And they hear that there’s a problem with the camp, because that other group of three people is close enough to the camp to watch it explode.  The two ex-Guards want to go all the way back to the camp to help, but Augustus Hill won’t let them.  So now we’re following the other group of three as they’re running from a zombie horde and all of a sudden <POOF!> the pickup truck is magically there to save them.  WTF?!?  Because it is convenient to the plot.  In other words, bad writing.

“How long you in this cage for?”  “Two days.”  Really?  You don’t look like it.  You don’t act like it either.  Ever spent two days completely exposed to the elements with no water source?  I doubt you can and still come out looking and acting as healthy as she does.  And what’s her name?  As a matter of fact, what’s anybody’s name?

Finally, after we get her inside, Augustus Hill is the only one thinks to offer her water.  And she takes a moment before she grabs it from him and gulps it down.  Nope.  I would expect her to be practically begging for water as soon as she realized she was free of the zombies.

Okay, so now it sounds like we’re in a The Walking Dead situation here, where you don’t need to have been bitten by a zombie in order to become one after you die.  Does that baby look like it’s near death to you?  Nope, thought not.  Then why does it suddenly up and die?  Because it is convenient to the plot.  In other words, bad writing.  But … waitaminute … going back to the opening narration … “three years after the first infection” … implies that you’ve identified the first infection and patient zero and all that … but I’m going to set that point aside because the more I think about it, the more my head is hurting.

Just thought of something else – if we assume all this happened two days ago … and our baby has been sitting in a carseat for two whole days … and our beloved main characters KNOW that … why aren’t they offering the kid water?  Why aren’t they digging through the car looking for formula for the kid?  No wonder he died – they killed him through their own neglect!

“What about the baby … thing?  We can’t leave it like that.”  Yes.  Yes, you can.  Sigh.  Lt. Augustus Hill, up until this point in the episode, your mission (getting Murphy to California) has been your NUMBER ONE PRIORITY and EVERYTHING ELSE has been secondary.  That is how you have behaved up until this point.  Zombies were identified as being 200 yards away.  Zombies got into the building where our Rick Grimes lookalike beat them all with his hammer.  The baby is confined inside the building and is not a direct threat to anyone, especially Murphy.  If hotpants chickadee really did lock herself into that cage two days ago, then any surviving members of the group you were supposed to meet up with would not have gotten all that far away, especially if they were on foot.  So in the process of checking this facility out, they scrounged for food, weapons and vehicles.  Why didn’t anyone look for radio equipment to try to contact any surviving forces?!?  And why for the love of George Romero would you bother going in to whack that baby zombie WHEN IT IS COMPLETELY IRRELEVANT TO THE ORDERS THAT YOU HAVE EMBRACED?  Bad bad bad writing.

Oh great.  He does end up going in there and what happens?  The baby zombie is now playing hide and seek with him.  WHY?!?  ALL of the other zombies we have seen thus far have immediately launched themselves towards living humans as soon as they saw the living humans.  Why does this specific zombie act differently?  Because it is convenient to the plot.  In other words, bad writing.  The creators of the show wanted to pull a Suzie Costello here, pretending he’s part of the cast only to have a “shocking” death right in the first episode.  No.  Not shocking, stoopid.  1) By going in after the baby zombie, he’s acting completely out of character because taking out the baby zombie has nothing to do with his mission.  2) Considering how long he has survived (three years) dealing with zombies, he should know how they behave.  He shouldn’t have to wander through the building, he should only need to stand in the open area and make noises until the zombie baby comes running to him wanting to eat him.  Does that happen?  No.  Bad fucking writing.

“If we wanted to ditch these two, take the truck and run, now would be the time.  Just sayin’.”  NICE!  This older guy has rapidly become my favorite character.  Shame I don’t know his name.

Is the chickadee zombie who jumps Augustus Hill supposed to be the driver of the car?  The one that was already identified as “looks like she took a blow to the skull, brain dead on impact?”  It seems like that’s the only place she could’ve come from given the way that scene played out, and it also seems like she’s wearing the same shirt that the driver was wearing.  If that’s the case, why does that particular zombie wait that long before finally going after someone?  Because it is convenient to the plot.  In other words, bad writing.  And how does she actually get out of the car?  Rewinding that scene, the windshield is intact and the driver & passenger side doors look like they’d be pinned shut due to the way the car is jammed into the side of the building.  And … waitaminute … the headlights are on?!?  If all this mess actually did happen two days ago, I would expect that car’s battery to be dead by now if the headlights were on when it crashed.  Damn, this has given me a headache.

When the others finally come in to see what the commotion is (don’t you think they would’ve heard him yelling and opened the door a minute or two earlier?), why does everyone open fire?  After living in this environment for three years, you would think they would’ve trained themselves to save ammo.  Three shots is all they needed to fire.  Not an entire Rorke’s Drift style volley.

“You know, none of this would’ve happened if you’d just left that damned baby.”  Bravo!  Well said.  I’m starting to like Murphy almost as much as the old guy.  It’s good to have a character that says what I’m thinking.  And at least I know his name.

“How does anyone know anything anymore?”  And on a bad writing cue, Augustus Hill’s radio immediately fires up.  Which again begs the question, why didn’t anyone try contacting anyone on radio equipment?  Or even talk about looking for radio equipment?  Which leads to a follow up question: his radio is charged, or at least somewhat charged – they imply the battery is drained but it could potentially be something else interfering with Cruller’s transmission – but in this day and age, how was he keeping it charged?  Likewise with his li’l GPS thingy.  I doubt military equipment is going to run on commercial batteries.  So how has he been able to keep them charged during his year-long 200 mile trip?

Finally, Cruller sets himself up as “Citizen Z,” broadcasting across everything that he can broadcast across.  I think that’s actually a pretty cool aspect to the show … but why in tarnation did it take him a year before he thought to set that up?  And he’s damned lucky that his facility is easy enough to run that he can do it all on his own.  Again, I have to ask, if it is that maintenance free and that secure, why did the rest of the base feel it necessary to totally bug out in the opening minutes?  Because it was convenient to the plot.  In other words, bad writing.

As you can see, I’ve got a lot of mixed feelings here.  Based on the pilot alone, this show looks like it has a fair amount of potential.  My biggest problem with it is the wasted potential, and this first episode wastes more potential than it shows.  Let’s amp up the quality of the writing a bit, and I’m pleased to see John Hyams is staying on to direct more episodes.

 

Gravity

Wow.  What a beautifully gut-wrenching experience.  I cannot imagine ever NOT watching this in 3D.

Yes, it has its problems – problems with physics, problems with orbital mechanics – but I was able to successfully set all of those aside and enjoy the ride.

This is yet another film where I never want to understand exactly how they filmed it.  I want to believe it was shot on location, in orbit.  Let me bask in the magic of filmmaking and don’t ever spoil my suspension of disbelief.

 

World War Z

Oh dear God …..

Okay, I went into this film with low expectations … I loved the original novel, so I waited long enough that I could barely remember the novel.  I also understand that films are not novels, so I should not necessarily expect the same exact story as portrayed in the novel.  As a matter of fact, there are a few films that I thought were better than the novels that they were originally based on – three that immediately come to mind are Jaws, Christine and From Russia With Love.

So I knew that I should not expect the same story as the novel … and I heard that if this film had not been titled after the novel that the audience reaction would have been more accepting … and I also heard that, for people who were not familiar with the novel or could set the novel aside, it was actually a pretty good zombie flick.

NO!  It fucking sucks!

I had the same problem with this as I did for series 4 of The Walking Dead – I was rooting for the zombies!  And for any zombie apocalypse narrative, that’s a very big problem.  I had absolutely no empathy or sympathy for Brad Pitt’s character at all.  The film actually jumped around too much (in spite of the jumpy source material) and some aspects of the story made no sense whatsoever.  And the 3D effects were horrible – more often than not, I was wondering whether or not I was actually watching a 3D film.  And the ultimate resolution in the film?  Ridiculous and ludicrous.

On one hand, I want to sit down and really dissect all of the problems with this film, but on the other hand I have better things to do.  (Like catching up on a backlog of other reviews that I need to rant about.)

I will give it this much:  1) It was a pleasure to see Peter Capaldi as a WHO doctor before he took over the title role of Doctor Who.  2) I would actually love to see the original cut of the film, before they went back and did some reportedly significant reshoots.  Hopefully that will come out at some point.  But then again, I’m still waiting for the director’s cut of Hard Target, too.  3) I am going to go back and watch the non-3D unrated cut of this at some point.  If I feel that version of this film offers any level of redemption, I’ll be sure to update this entry accordingly.