Taking A Break

Hey, it's been awhile since I've posted here, and with all my personal projects and school work, I won't be posting here for some time. If you would like me to do a review, please send me a message on FB or email me at jaredscottmills(at)gmail.com, and I'll put something up fairly quickly. Until I come back here, please be sure to check out my work blog as I will continue to update that and have a lot of exciting things that I'm working on.

Adventures of the Doctor

      Here it is, my long promised review of Doctor Who, Series 6. I was distracted by trying to finish Series 7 in time for the Day of the Doctor special, and I did it, and greatly enjoyed it. But that is a review for another time.

      The 6^th series had a lot to live up to. There was a lot of controversy and disappointed fans when David Tennant was announced to be leaving the show, Matt Smith had big shoes to fill in Series 5 with his start as the 11^th Doctor. I will admit that I was very resistant to the idea of Matt Smith as the Doctor because Tennant was (and still is) my favorite Doctor. However, with great story and in my opinion the best companions—the Ponds—I was quickly convinced that Matt Smith would be a great Doctor. The storyline and character development was brilliant in series 5 and while I eagerly leapt into series 6, a part of me was worried that they had peaked too quickly and had nowhere at this point. My fears were proved wrong.

      Now, I shouldn’t have to do this, but here it is:

      Now that that’s out of the way, let’s talk about the characters and how they start. And what a whirlwind of a start we get. The Ponds are reunited with their beloved Doctor, though he is much older than when they last saw him. Also making an appearance is the mysterious Doctor River Song. We still don’t know that much about her other than she is very close to the Doctor—in the future. This older Doctor seems to know a lot more about Song though as they bond very well and relive a pleasant moment.

Things seem to be going well, until the Doctor knowingly goes to his death in front of them all. They then find out that the Doctor meant for them to go on a mission in the past at the time where man first reached for the stars. But there is one more person who must join them, and that is the man that the Doctor trusts more than anyone else in the universe—his younger self. For about the rest of the series, this introduces an interesting dynamic between the Ponds and the Doctor. Usually, the Doctor knows things that the Ponds can’t know, and here we have the Ponds knowing something the Doctor can’t learn. And the Doctor hates not knowing something. This puts a strain of their friendship, as the Doctor continues attempting to learn the truth and the Ponds try to come to terms with the death of their best friend, while he’s still with them.

      A new major player in this series is Doctor River Song. While we saw her death at the Library, saw her at the crash of the Byzantium, and saw her heavy involvement in the finale for series 5, we truly know little about her. We know the Doctor has a strong relationship with her, and that she is a big part of his future.

      With the main characters in mind, we move to the main part of the beginning of the series—the Silence. As revealed here, the Silence is an alien race that you can only remember when you see it. This proves to be a quite terrifying development as the main characters can only know if they’ve had an encounter with them if they make a mark on their arm or face. Several times in the series, the characters will be talking, only to find themselves covered in marks a second later. The Silence prove to be one of the most terrifying villains of Doctor Who, and their defeats as one of the most creative of the series as well. Along with all this, Amy begins to see a strange woman open nonexistent windows and look at her, talking to another unknown person.

      While the Silence swore revenge and that they would return, we begin on a string of largely unrelated episodes. Perhaps the best part of these episodes was seeing the TARDIS as a woman, and her great banter with the Doctor. It is a revealing moment for the Doctor, and we can never look at the TARDIS the same way again. This string of unrelated episodes comes to a screeching halt at the end of the Almost People episode, when it is shockingly revealed that Amy has not been with them for some time. This leads us on a grand adventure to save Amy, and we see the Doctor gather an army to go to war. Through this, we see the Doctor in a very unfamiliar setting. Instead of the wandering hero, he has becoming the warrior general. We see how this change has been slowly developing for some time, and this change causes everyone—the Doctor, the Ponds, River Song, and even the viewers—to be rather uneasy with this change. River Song even stands up to the Doctor and tells him as much, that he has drifted so far from his nature, and that people look to him as a warrior now, and not a healer. We also learn that the Silence is actually a religious order, not a single species. A religious order dedicated to prevent the Doctor from completing a prophecy.

My reaction after finding out who River Song is.

      Perhaps the biggest reveal in the series though, and the show as a whole, is the revelation of the true identity of River Song. River Songs reveal as Melody Pond is a testament to how far in advance the writers plan the series, as well as their skill at crafting a story. It completely changes the dynamics of the relationships between the Doctor, River, and the Ponds, and our views of each of these characters. We move from slight growing trust of River to great appreciation and love towards her. Which makes the next episode so jarring. We move from a River who loves and cares for the Doctor, to one that has never met him and has been raised for the purpose to kill him. Everything that we have learned about her is thrown out the window as we are put in the unusual situation of knowing more than the characters who’s tag line is “spoilers”.

      Without going through a full review of every episode, I would like to spend time on “The Girl Who Waited”. Going back to familiar setting of crazy time travel, we see a truly heart breaking episode where the Doctor and Rory are forced with a choice of trying to save an Amy that has been trapped in a deadly facility for a few days, and one that has been trapped for a few decades. The Doctor comes face to face with a companion that is one of his most beloved, who has now turned on him and has grown to hate him. Rory on the other hand must struggle with the fact that his wife is both of these two women, and is not sure how he can save over the other. In the end, we learn a lesson that is repeated many times, and that is that the doctor lies. Full of time paradoxes and hard ethical choices, this episode is a classic example of a good Doctor Who story.

      The end of the series is nearly as good—if not just as good—as the beginning, as we see the Doctor take on once again his great foes the Silence. This finale largely centers on the idea of changing a fixed point in time. We have long heard the dangers of changing a fixed point in time, and we now see the consequences of such an action when it is done related to the death of the Doctor. This episode is a thrilling end to series 6, with the marriage of the Doctor to River Song, the non-death of the Doctor, and the return of the Doctor to a more low key life.

      Focusing on this low key life, I believe that this was a great choice for the path of the Doctor. The Doctor began more as wandering traveler trying to see all that he could see. Over time, he slowly become more and more prominent. This meant fighting in battles, and becoming more seen to those around him. Slowly, he wondered away from his roots, and became less and less the Doctor we know and love. With this, the Doctor returns back to his roots, laying low again and enjoying life more fully.

      Perhaps the greatest part of the series however was finally learning the grand question that must not be answered. The question that has been under our nose the whole time, the first question. The most obvious question: Doctor Who?

      Look for more reviews in the future, and it is likely I will review more Doctor Who series and specials as time goes by. I'm working now on building more reviews so that I can regularly publish them so that you don't have to wait forever in order to read them. Once again, if you have a request for a future post or comments about them, please let me know through FaceBook or Twitter. And remember:

Into The Dark World

        This last Sunday, I went to Sioux Falls with a group of friends to go see the newest chapter of the Marvel saga. At the end of the night, the majority of my friends and I thought that Thor: The Dark World was a fantastic movie.

        The plot of the movie was quite simple: Ancient civilization with advanced technology--which had seemed to be destroyed thousands of years ago--reaper and threatens the universe. The development of the characters, humor, and themes of this movie were all rather simple. But what the movie did with these simple elements was create a story that felt well paced and naturally progressing. It also had very little wasted time. Almost every scene had at least one part to play in moving either the characters or the plot forward towards the conclusion.

Warning! Spoilers are ahead, proceed at own risk. 

        Diving into the specifics of the movie, let me start with the setting. One strength of this movie was that it worked very well with the world set up by the first Thor movie. We heard about the 9 realms, but in the end we saw a little bit of Jotunheim, Asgard and Midgard (Earth), and then told about the other realms. In this movie, we got to see many more realms. Svartalfheim, home of the dark elves which has become an abandoned wasteland after their battle with the Asgardians. This world is as dark and desolate as its former inhabitants. The world of Vanaheim has the first main action we see with Thor in it, reminding us of Thor's power and that there are more worlds than just desolate wastelands, beautiful cities on water, and earth. It also gives us an idea that there is more than just Asgard and Earth at stake with these impending dooms. 

         While we saw these two new realms, it was also nice to get a new look at Asgard. We got to see new locations within Asgard, including the prison. Not only this, but we saw many more Asgardians as troops, civilians and even doctors. We even saw more of their technology such as their ships and defenses. I felt much more like I truly saw the heart of a powerful realm than I did after the first Thor movie. It was also nice to see more of Earth than the simple deserts of New Mexico. We even saw a brief look at Jotunheim again, which was a nice reminder that it was there. And of all the realms we didn't see directly, we did get a chance to see through tiny portals at least. Also, the tree of Yggdrasil (which connects all the realms) was a nice touch, especially since it was mentioned in the first movie.

        Moving on from the setting, I come to what is probably my favorite part of any movie--the characters. And I was not disappointed. Starting with more minor characters, I found myself pleased that we saw Thor's Companions play a much more important role in this adventure. In the first one we saw them go in and out of two points in the adventure, and it was rather quick. And the two moments we mainly saw them had little dialogue and were mostly battle. This time, we saw them plan and pull off a prison breakout. We saw them more often, and they felt like major players within Asgard rather than people swinging around swords and axes for the fun of it. Sticking with more minor characters, I thought that matching Darcy up with the new intern, Ian. They made a nice team, and it gave someone for Darcy to talk with when she was all alone otherwise. The relationship growing between them also gave a great comical side. Speaking of comic relief, probably the greatest character surprise for me was what they did to Dr Erik Selvig. In the first Thor movie, Erik was a dry bone and bored me with all his exposition. It was important but it was all he did. In Avengers, he was a bad guy and we didn't see his true self much. In this movie however, he has been turned into an eccentric scientist who has lost his marbles--and it is hilarious. Probably the funnest moments came from his character and it was a refreshing change and felt totally natural. I hope that his transition to normalcy takes some time, because he was one of my favorite comic reliefs I've seen in a movie for a long time.

        Back to the Asgardians, I enjoyed seeing Heimdall again, as he played his role as gate keeper and counselor to Thor very well. Odin also provided a fantastic role as he gave Thor a standard to which he could measure himself to see what he would have to give up and become in order to become a great king like his father. Thor's mother, Frigga, also served a vital role in the movie for several characters. She showed herself to be the moral center of her husband Odin, the encourager of her son Thor, and revealed the humanity within Loki. Her death put into motion many changes in the life of these three men, hardening Odin and Loki, and motivating Thor to strong action. I personally believed that for Thor to grow much in this movie, someone close to him had to die, and I feel that his mother was a good choice as it gave impact to not only Thor, but also to Loki.

        Speaking of Loki, his character proved to be one of my favorites in the whole movie. Once again, Tom Hiddleston stole the show with his performance of this amazing character. From beginning to end, you are contently guessing whether or not he is good or bad, hating Thor or caring for him and Frigga on the inside (albeit on the deep inside). He is tricky and humorous and he continues to be a fantastic element in the story. Probably the greatest accomplishment of this movie was including Loki in this story, using him to further Thor's story (as that is what this movie is about), yet furthering Loki's own personal story and giving him almost his own side movie in all of this. If there had been any more focus on Loki, it would have had to been called "Loki: The Dark World"--which I'm sure some people wouldn't have minded. I look forward to seeing him more in the future and to see how long he will keep up his Odin charade, and find out what he has done to Odin altogether. Along with villains, there is also the villain of this movie: Malekith, leader of the Dark Elves. While I felt like he was not the most developed villain in the Marvel Universe, he did have many pluses. I liked that he was made into a long time villain that felt as much as Odin's enemy as Thor's. His bitterness was clear, and you could easily tell that he would stop at nothing to accomplish his goal, no matter the sacrifice. This became a great comparison between himself and Odin, as Thor pointed out how similar they both were, to which Odin could only say that the difference was that he planned to beat Malekith.

        Now, I turn my attention to the two main characters: Thor and Jane Foster. In the last movie, we saw a blossoming relationship between these two. And it is good I think that they addressed the fact that Thor left promising to return yet hasn't for some time. They showed that Jane was tired of waiting and even going on dates with other men, and they showed that Thor still had feelings for Jane by subtle messages such as one of his companions pointing out that "there is more than one realm to care about." Yet in the end, his decision not to become king is less about Jane, and more about himself and the price he is unwilling to pay to be king. In fact, this movie is really about his journey to deciding if he is willing to do what he must to be a "great king." Thor has matured so much now in the last three movies, moving from the arrogant prince who wanted nothing more than the power to the throne, to a wise warrior who realizes the cost of the throne and rejects it. It will be interesting to see how he will deal with the consequences of his choice now that Loki is moving in to take his place. It was good to see Jane take a bigger role in this movie as well. In the first movie, I actually disliked her and saw her as a weak romantic interest, hoping she would fade away eventually. But she showed real strength in this movie, and proved there was more to her than at first glance. She showed intelligence, will, and courage that gives good reason to why Thor would pick her as his romantic interest.

         Finally, moving away from the characters, we arrive at the plot. As I said earlier, the plot is rather simple as plots go, but it is well crafted non the less. There were very few scenes that were wasted in this movie, and everything seemed to have a purpose. The battle at the beginning on Vanaheim showed us one of the other realms Thor was fighting to protect, and placed one of Thor's companions for us to look back to and show that all the realms saw Thor fighting to protect them. Loki's humorous shape shifting in the palace showed his abilities and even revealed a form he would later take to fool his father. Even all the shoes and other objects being thrown into the odd space anomaly was used later to further their journey later in the adventure. The mid credit scene was also gave great insight to future Marvel movies, revealing The Collector (who will be appearing in the upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy), and the plot of the Infinite Stones. It was short, but effective, peaking my interest and leaving me eagerly awaiting the next installment of the saga.

        In the end, I think the movie can be summed up by the end credit animation of the movie itself. The end credits were minimalistic paintings of various characters and scenes with mostly black paint and a touch of color. The brush strokes were added not all at once but with layers that felt naturally laid down. It was simple, yet one of the best end credits I've ever scene and one that I will not forget soon.

Welcome!

Hello, and welcome to my review blog! I created this blog to share my opinions and observations about various events, movies, media and more that I experience. I love storytelling and the magic that comes with it, and this is my attempt to share and show this love with other people.

While my main love is movies, I will review many other things, and I am interested in taking requests. As long as it's available at little to no cost to myself (AKA: Netflix), I will review almost any movie that comes my way. TV shows and books are a bit harder as they can take lots of time, but I'll give it my best shot to get around to it.

To start off this blog, I'm going to work on a review for Thor 2: The Dark World, which I saw on Sunday, and one for the 6th Series of Dr Who, which I am currently on the third to last episode. I will do my best to make them spoiler free for the first part of it, and then a part marked as having spoilers. There's little more that I hate than spoilers, so I don't want to do that to other people.

I hope you enjoy this blog and you become a regular visitor here. I also have a blog with my own work that I make, so please check that out in the links section to the left. You can also follow me on twitter at jaredscottmills. There I will post about my reviews, as well as my own personal work I post on my other blog.