January 8, 2015January 5, 2015 by hutchwp

Thriller (West End, London)

Thriller, currently running on London’s West End, is a show covering the life and music of one of the greatest ever performers the world has ever seen – Michael Jackson. It was the worst professional show I have ever seen.

The performers, for the most part, looked like they didn’t want to be there and lacked enthusiasm. The singers continuously hit flat notes but moreover some of the performers’ energy levels felt too low to pull me into anything like excitement, especially on the big dance numbers. Out of the twenty or so songs that we got I think at the most five did the original songs justice. None of these were in the first 45 minutes. It’s a tall order to expect an audience to stick with it that long and by the interval we were seriously discussing leaving and asking for our money back, but how do you start that conversation?

At £82 for two tickets, we left feeling completely ripped off. It’s not the most expensive show but if you factor in the train tickets and hotel, the total price was £300. It’s sad that over a whole month’s expendable income has been wasted on this. It’s not something that we can do regularly and we’ll have to pick our shows more carefully in the future. The most ridiculous thing is that this show has survived for so long in the West End, whilst great shows like We Will Rock You and Spamalot have been closed. I’ve actually seen far better amateur shows in the last six months, and paid a quarter of the price.

If you want to enjoy the magic of Michael Jackson, I recommend watching This Is It, Moonwalker, any of his music videos, the various live tours that are available on home media, even Captain EO on YouTube or those Pepsi commercials. The West End show Thriller just doesn’t come close.

January 7, 2015January 7, 2015 by hutchwp

Testament of Youth (James Kent, 2015)

Testament Of Youth is a dramatisation of the memoirs of famed pacifist Vera Brittain. Her story is a powerful and heartbreaking one to tell. It’s just a shame that first-time director James Kent fails to bring it to life.

Alicia Vikander portrays Brittain as she watches her fiancé Roland (Kit “You Know Nothing” Harington) leave France to fight in World War I, along with her brother Edward (Taron Egerton) and friends Geoffrey (Jonathan Bailey) and Victor (Colin Morgan). The story follows her as she joins the fight as a frontline nurse, giving up her studies at Oxford University to get closer to her loved ones in France.

Premiering at the BFI London Film Festival in the year of the centenary of the start of the war, giving the story additional poignancy, the underlying themes of the film are no less true today. We see Brittain in all her inspirational glory, fighting for her beliefs and showing resilience in the face of adversity.

But it is far from a perfect film. Perhaps one of the most distracting parts of the feature is Kit Harington. Known a little for his modelling work but quite a lot more for his role as Jon Snow in HBO’s episodic epic Game of Thrones, he failed to ignite anything but boredom in me as I watched him try to manage a deep gamut of emotions whilst just looking a bit lost and out of place.

The pacing of the film was another downside. I think the tendency with these wartime biopics is to draw them out and allow them space to breathe, but I’m sure this could have been cut slightly. Alternatively, if they wanted to give the story more time to develop, they could have opted for a more appropriate mini-series. Oh wait…

Vikander’s accent needed work. She is of Swedish origin and clearly hasn’t mastered the English nuances yet. You’d have thought that there were better options available, although director Kent has previously stated how thrilled he was that she signed up. Maybe I missed something.

My final bug-bear is the desire to build up sympathy in a character that seemingly has everything. We watch her in the opening scenes have a disagreement with her father because he bought her a grand piano instead of helping fund her to go to university. She storms off out of the room, whilst their maids look on in horror, up the stairs and into her oversized room, which I think was in the East Wing. You get the idea. I just don’t find this sort of thing entertaining as I have no connection to that sort of lifestyle.

The film has tough competition at the box office from Oscar tips Birdman, Foxcatcher, Cake, American Sniper, Whiplash, The Theory of Everything (the list goes on). There are still some huge blockbusters too in The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies, Into The Woods, Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part One, Paddington and How To Train Your Dragon 2. And Dumb and Dumber To is still on. I’m sure this film won’t be overlooked when it hits home media releases later this year, but I can’t see why they’re releasing it in awards season. It needs more help than that.

Testament of Youth is released in UK cinemas on 16th January 2015.

January 6, 2015January 7, 2015 by hutchwp

Quiz of the Year 2014 – Answers

Answers to last week’s quiz!

1. The Golden Globes took place on 12th January in Beverley Hills. What edition of the Golden Globes was this?
A: 71st
2. Set in Paris and directed by McG, what was the name of Kevin Coster’s critically-panned action film released in February?
A: 3 Days To Kill
3. According to John Travolta, who won the Academy Award for Best Song in March?
A: The wickedly talented, one and only, Adele Dazeem
4. British acting legend Bob Hoskins sadly passed away on 29th April, leaving behind a legacy of excellent performances throughout a busy career in cinema. But in which 2012 film did we see Hoskins in his final role?
A: Snow White and the Huntsman
5. Which top-billed character was cut from the film X-Men: Days of Future Past for timing purposes, sparking a furore amongst fans demanding a recut version, now set for release in summer 2015?
A: Rogue
6. Released in June, which film went on to be the highest grossing of the year despite featuring hardly any dinosaurs at all?
A: Transformers: Age of Extinction
7. What was the name of Michel Gondry’s quirky romantic film, released in July and starring Romain Duris and Audrey Tautou.
A: Mood Indigo / L’Ecume Des Jours
8. Which film, released in August, featured minor performances from Rob Zombie, Peter Serafinowicz and Josh Brolin?
A: Guardians of the Galaxy
9. Which stop-motion animated film, released in September, featured the voice talents of Sir Ben Kingsley, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost?
A: The Boxtrolls
10. On 18th October 2014, which Andrey Zvyagintsev film was awarded Best Film at the London Film Festival?
A: Leviathan
11. Which Oscar-winning actor had a posthumous role in The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part One as Plutarch Heavensbee?
A: Philip Seymour-Hoffman
12. What was the scientific explanation offered in Ridley Scott’s Exodus: Gods and Kings for the parting of the Red Sea?
A: A tsunami
13. Which 10-hour Claude Lanzmann documentary about the Holocaust is set for release by Masters of Cinema in January 2015, the first time it will be available on Blu-Ray in the UK?
A: Shoah
14. Name any five of the nine films released by Walt Disney Pictures in 2014 (not including Marvel Studios releases).
A: Any five of Muppets Most Wanted; Bears; Million Dollar Arm; Maleficent; Planes: Fire and Rescue; Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day; Khoobsurat; Big Hero 6; Into The Woods

Marks out of 18.

January 5, 2015October 30, 2016 by hutchwp

Esio Trot (Dearbhla Walsh, 2015)

There have been many adaptations of Roald Dahl’s many novels and short stories. Some were great: Matilda, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and, surprisingly, Gremlins (yes, I know*) were all brilliant. Others were just awful (I may just be thinking about Tim Burton’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, which is frankly beyond creepy and really is an abomination to the source). It was quite a surprise to realise that Esio Trot has never been made into any kind of feature film, though based on the cast and the time slot this aired (6:30pm, New Year’s Day, BBC1), I was expecting a soft and faithful take on what was always a whimsical story. This is exactly what I got.

This television adaptation stars Dustin Hoffman as Mr Hoppy, an older man who lives alone in a flat in London with nothing much to keep his interest except his love of traditional jazz and a meticulously maintained flower garden terrace. This is all turned upside down when Mrs Silver (Dame Judi Dench) moves into the flat below and he is immediately overcome with feelings of love and excitement. He hatches an elaborate plan involving the growth of her beloved pet tortoise Alfie knowing it will bring her happiness, in the belief that she will fall in love with him as a result.

The supporting cast, including James Corden as narrator and Richard Cordery as the annoying neighbour Mr Pringle (a new character created especially for this adaptation), worked their parts well, though this really was a tale of two hearts.

It was a faithful take on the classic Dahl book, one of the last of the seventeen children’s novels he wrote. By this I don’t mean just in the details (and there were one or two deviations made by the writers Richard Curtis and Paul Mayhew Archer, mainly because the original book was so short), but also in the tone.

It isn’t an easy book to tackle in comparison to the likes of Matilda and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Dahl’s books are always firmly aimed at children, and many of his most enduring successes are stories that prominently feature relatable young characters. In Esio Trot, however, we are presented with two much older individuals, and thus a conundrum for the filmmakers. I am pleased to say they were able to maintain the quintessential Dahlness we have grown to love over the years. It would have been far easier to adapt the story to one aimed at the older generation, those the same age as Hoppy and Silver.

Looking back, I’m not sure why I loved this story so much as a child. It is essentially a love story between two lonely and wrinkled septuagenarians. Perhaps it was the ridiculous mischief of the plan Hoppy executed. I’m not entirely sure. In many ways, Esio Trot is the biggest vindication of Roald Dahl’s status as one of the greatest children’s authors that ever lived. How else could he have made this one work?

Esio Trot is available for purchase on DVD now.

* The 1984 film Gremlins is loosely based on the characters developed by Dahl for his 1943 book The Gremlins, which were to be the basis of a Walt Disney Studios animated film until plans were shelved. The gremlins in his book derived from the mythical creatures that British Air Forces pilots blamed unknown faults with their aircrafts on.

January 4, 2015January 4, 2015 by hutchwp

NEKRomantik (Jörg Buttgereit, 1987)

Arrow Videos never shy away from putting out a controversial release, and the history of a banned film has never been as gloriously controversial as NEKRomantik.

Released in 1987, Jörg Buttgereit’s German-language horror is one that is designed to test the viewer in the same way that The Human Centipede has for modern audiences. In fact, The Human Centipede falls short of this one ever so slightly in the “Making Me Feel Physically Sick” competition, though it is probably slightly behind Saló. I don’t think any of them would be an easy explain to someone walking in at the wrong time though.

The film basically charts a short period of the life of a man who is heavily into necrophilia, with both him and his girlfriend harbouring corpses for their own personal endeavours. Fortunately he’s landed himself a job at Joe’s Streetcleaning Agency (JSA), who are responsible for cleaning up fatal car accidents and such like, so he has ready access to his next unsuspecting victims. However, when he gets sacked for lack of hygiene he quickly realises that he has no easy access to further bodies and to make matters worse his girlfriend quickly loses interest in him, a double blow that leads him down a path to depression and drug abuse.

I’ve probably explained away pretty much the whole film there, not that it really matters. If you’re thinking about buying this Arrow release – the first time it has been available on home video for years – it’s probably worth noting that it really isn’t a very good film. There’s a lot of scenes where we’re shown sex scenes involving corpses; they aren’t too hard to look at as they don’t really look too much like dead people. There’s a disproportionate amount of shots of men urinating, which I never really figured out. I think it’s just in keeping with the theme of transgressive imagery. The locations tend to look like Buttgereit has pulled in favours from friends, and don’t look like they’ve been prepped too much. The camera quality is similar to that of most home video recording equipment of the time. The acting isn’t very good. The most upsetting scene is the one where a rabbit is killed and skinned, though this looks like the director just asked a butcher if he could film him doing his job.

It’s a sub-par film that didn’t really emote any kind of response from me except for a bit of discomfort in the rabbit scene and the first sex scene. What I find most interesting is the continued fame of the film, which is solely down to the fact it was banned and remained so hard to get hold of for years and years. My hunch is it wouldn’t have remained so popular amongst cinephiles but for the fact it was banned for so long.

This is a similar situation to Seth Rogen and James Franco’s The Interview, whose release is still shrouded in controversy. Two months ago few people knew about it, and those that did weren’t overly bothered about its release. But once it was banned and involved in an international political scandal that almost triggered the start of a USA-North Korean War, people started to wonder what it was all about, making it a highly anticipated film. Funny, really.

As always, Arrow has pulled out all the stops with the package. We’ve got a Blu-Ray, DVD and soundtrack CD, a certificate with an individual number on it, five postcards of stills from the film, a 100-page booklet, a new introduction, extensive interviews, a Q&A from Glasgow’s Centre For Contemporary Arts, two Buttgereit-directed music videos, several commentary tracks, two short films (Hot Love and Horror Heaven) and a lovely package to house it in. To be honest, it’s frustrating that a film like this gets this kind of treatment when some films I’ve bought recently are really just a bare-bones release (The Killing Fields 30th Anniversary Edition and Attenborough’s Brighton Rock both fall into this category). If only the people at Arrow had the time and the rights to do more releases like this, the world would be a much happier place.

Nekromantik is out now on Arrow Video Collector’s Blu-Ray. Be quick as it is limited to 3000 copies and no further prints are planned as of writing.

January 1, 2015January 1, 2015 by hutchwp

Quiz of the Year 2014

Here’s a bit of fun for you – a quiz of the last year in film. Answers some time next week. No prizes. Enjoy!

1. The Golden Globes took place on 12th January in Beverley Hills. What edition of the Golden Globes was this?
2. Set in Paris and directed by McG, what was the name of Kevin Coster’s critically-panned action film released in February?
3. According to John Travolta, who won the Academy Award for Best Song in March?
4. British acting legend Bob Hoskins sadly passed away on 29th April, leaving behind a legacy of excellent performances throughout a busy career in cinema. But in which 2012 film did we see Hoskins in his final role?
5. Which top-billed character was cut from the film X-Men: Days of Future Past for timing purposes, sparking a furore amongst fans demanding a recut version, now set for release in summer 2015?
6. Released in June, which film went on to be the highest grossing of the year despite featuring hardly any dinosaurs at all?
7. What was the name of Michel Gondry’s quirky romantic film, released in July and starring Romain Duris and Audrey Tautou.
8. Which film, released in August, featured minor performances from Rob Zombie, Peter Serafinowicz and Josh Brolin?
9. Which stop-motion animated film, released in September, featured the voice talents of Sir Ben Kingsley, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost?
10. On 18th October 2014, which Andrey Zvyagintsev film was awarded Best Film at the London Film Festival?
11. Which Oscar-winning actor had a posthumous role in The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part One as Plutarch Heavensbee?
12. What was the scientific explanation offered in Ridley Scott’s Exodus: Gods and Kings for the parting of the Red Sea?
13. Which 10-hour Claude Lanzmann documentary about the Holocaust is set for release by Masters of Cinema in January 2015, the first time it will be available on Blu-Ray in the UK?
14. Name any five of the nine films released by Walt Disney Pictures in 2014 (not including Marvel Studios releases).

Marks out of 18.

December 31, 2014February 21, 2015 by hutchwp

Best Films 2014

Here’s the countdown of my favourite films of 2014. I didn’t review all of them originally, but where I did I’ve included a link.

10. Gone Girl

Ben Affleck is going from strength to strength and Gillian Flynn has given us a completely gripping story and one that offers plenty of promise for her future writing output. With the mighty David Fincher at the helm and adding another top quality title to his catalogue of first class films, seeing it is a no brainer.
Read original review here

9. Under The Skin (Jonathan Glazer, 2014)
An erotic sci-fi thriller, with Scarlett Johansson starring as an alien at large in Glasgow, seducing unsuspecting men before murdering them in the most bizarre of fashions. With a description like that, what’s not to like? Subtly effective, it kept my intrigue on edge throughout.

8. Giovanni’s Island / ジョバンニの島 (Mizuho Nishikubo, 2014)

It is overall a very depressing subject matter. By this I’m talking Grave of the Fireflies sort of level of depressing. There were many teary eyes as the film reached its conclusion, and that is testament to what a fantastic job Nishikubo has done here.
Read original review here

7. Marvellous (Julian Farino, 2014)

A late entry into this list (so late so I haven’t got as far as reviewing it yet). A moving BBC biopic of cult legend Neil Baldwin, former kit-man at Stoke City FC, with English actor Toby Jones in the lead role. It was at times hilarious, at times devastating. Well worth watching (and it might be on iPlayer if you’re quick about it). The most entertaining 90 minutes of TV concerning Stoke City FC in a long time.

6. Inside Llewyn Davis (Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, 2014)

The soundtrack is clearly the driving force behind the storyline. One of the greatest achievements the Coens manage is to allow our attention to be fully dedicated to the music. It’s never a case of starting a song and cutting away to a montage or separate conversation whilst the song goes through the motions of a second verse or middle 8. It is clear they are truly passionate about the music that drives the story and in almost every case the song is uninterrupted from start to finish. It could well be the greatest Coen Brothers soundtrack yet, and if you’ve heard the O Brother Where Art Thou? OST then you know what a compliment that is.
Read original review here

5. ’71

Despite his frequenting of the tabloids, Jack O’Connell keeps on proving himself to be an actor with plenty of natural talent and it’s fantastic to see him building on his excellent performance in last year’s Starred Up. With a fantastic support cast (Sean Harris stands out as Captain Sandy Browning), this is a solid film worthy of your attention. Seek it out.
Read original review here

4. Guardians of the Galaxy

A breath of fresh air for the still thriving but bordering on repetitive superhero film market, finally Guardians of the Galaxy has given us all some great new characters to enjoy on the big screen… and the lunchbox manufacturers some new faces to stick on their products. Hilarious, fast-paced and an awesome soundtrack to boot, this is a great start to an inevitable franchise.

3. Nightcrawler

Gyllenhaal is a wonder to watch in a film like this. He has chosen his films wisely over the years and has a body of work he can already be very proud of, including Donnie Darko, Jarhead, Brokeback Mountain, Zodiac and Source Code. This is definitely amongst his best overall, and I’d go as far as say that Lou is his most defined character yet. He plays sinister very well and clearly knows how to make his audiences tick. At times it’s a real joy to watch, at times it made me want to cover my eyes; both responses indicative that I was hooked.
Read original review here

2. Lilting

Hong Khaou’s Lilting is one of the best films I’ve seen this year. It’s a stunning study of the emotions people go through when someone they are close to dies with a secret, and the difficult resolutions they find to deal with the loss. If you get a chance to see it, then grasp it with both hands. Watching it is a deeply moving experience.
Read original review here

1. The Imitation Game

Every so often I see a new film that absolutely blows my socks off, where the storyline sits perfectly with my mood and I get totally enthralled in the joyous and rare occasion of seeing what could be one of my favourite films of all time. The Imitation Game was one of those films.
Read the original review here.

December 28, 2014December 30, 2014 by hutchwp

Saboteur (Alfred Hitchcock, 1942)

The earliest film included in the Hitchcock Masterpiece Blu-Ray Collection, Saboteur offers viewers a chance to see the master before the string of films he is most remembered for (Vertigo, Psycho, The Birds, to name but three) but long after he had established himself as a first class director.

The wartime story follows Barry Kane (Robert Cummings) as he is framed for a murder he did not commit. We pick up the story as Kane, a worker in an aircraft factory, is accused of causing a fire that kills his friend Mason (Virgil Summers), though he believes that it is a mysterious man named Fry (Norman Lloyd) who is really behind it. Kane is quickly being embroiled in the unravelling of a complicated cover-up involving a whole array of people he comes across, all seemingly involving a secret community of saboteurs attempting to fulfil a plot to blow up the USS Atlanta battleship. His eventual companion and love interest comes in the form of Pat Martin (Priscilla Lane), who provides a counterpoint to his story arc and is a very intriguing character in her own right.

The first thing to say is that this is not vintage Hitchcock. The cast will be largely unfamiliar to modern cinema fans, though that is not to say they are all terrible. The storyline is enticing but not gripping, with a number of conveniences allowing an easy route to the next step of the journey. Actually, the plot is at time nonsensical and you have to forgive this to enjoy it. Some of the acting is below par, particularly from the Mason housemaid and the blind father of Martin, whose performance is afforded a rousing and self-righteous speech about what it is to be a real American.

There are a few hallmarks of the great director on display though. Of course he gets his cameo, this time quite early on in the film. It is quite standard, though this was mainly due to Hitchcock appeasing the censors by cutting his originally planned argument between two deaf-mute pedestrians. We also see a much-revisited theme: an innocent man presumed guilty and on the run from the police. It’s a joy to see an early take on this, though admittedly it would later be trumped several times by Hitchcock as he created some of the greatest films ever made.

One thing I loved was the climactic scene on top of the Statue of Liberty. It’s actually worth watching just for this scene, with some brilliant close-up shots and clever cutting between parallel stories building the tension into a frenzy as a life hangs by a thread. It truly is a masterclass in suspense and at this early stage was merely a hint of what Hitchcock would achieve later in his career.

The best way I can think to sum this up is that it’s a great place to start for people looking to investigate the underbelly of Hitchcock’s vast catalogue of films. With the 14-disc Hitchcock Masterpiece Collection currently on sale for a mere £34.99 at Zavvi, now is the perfect time to start.

December 26, 2014December 30, 2014 by hutchwp

Game of the Year 2014

Mario Kart 8 (Nintendo, 2014)

A fairly easy decision for my favourite game of the year this year, Mario Kart 8 is responsible for completely rejuvenating public interest in the Nintendo Wii U. Before it was released, the writing was on the wall – purchases had slowed, there were no good games on the horizon and all the good games had been played to death and had limited replayability value (apart from maybe Super Mario 3D World).

When Mario Kart 8 was released, it came with an offer of a free downloaded game from the Nintendo store, allowing everyone to access one of 10 games on top of the physical release of Mario Kart 8. This included New Super Mario Bros, The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker HD, Nintendoland, Pikmin 3 and The Wonderful 101, all of which are amongst the best on the platform. For £40 it was a no-brainer. I know quite a few people who took Nintendo up on this offer, and are now some of the most avid Wii U players I know. For those already on board, it was a nice thank for for sticking with them whilst they got the first must-have game ready.

Quite simply, the game itself is excellent. Nintendo have taken everything that was great about the series so far (fast paced action, brilliant courses, screwing over your friends), got rid of all the things we don’t like (two drivers in a kart, difficult controls on the Wii), added in one critically much-wanted new feature (online support) and pulled it together perfectly to make one of the best games of the last five years.

Coming out just as we approached summer, it was the perfect game to play when you had loads of friends over and wanted a way to take the fun into the evening. People were digging out their old Wii remotes and hooking them up. What people were seeing was sublimely animated and mind-bending course designs, excellent control responses, some highly detailed replays and fast paced action focused on fun.

Moreover, there has been an additional DLC pack with three extra playable characters (Link, Tanooki Mario and Cat Peach) and eight additional courses (including the as-annoying-as-you-remember SNES Rainbow Road). This has further extended the replayability and given everyone a few more options to prevent getting bored. There will be a similar DLC pack in May, centred on the perhaps less popular Animal Crossing game, but I’ve already pre-ordered it so I’ll be enjoying it either way!

It’s a pick-up-and-play classic and it so far hasn’t grown old, and with online support the popularity promises to carry on for years to come.

Runner up: Bayonetta 2 (Sega, 2014)

This game really annoyed me. Set for release in the “launch window”, the delays kept coming and we’ve eventually received it two years after originally planned. Having expected to be playing this and Rayman Origins (which was also delayed for over a year) on my new launch day Wii U, I was a little underwhelmed with how much use I was getting from my console for the first year or so.

Two years have gone by since the expected release. Was it worth the wait? Well, just about. The package was great and we got the first game included (though most of us already had it), and it wasn’t as expensive as I expected.

Crucially, the game – which I’m yet to finish – plays like a dream. It’s much easier than the first, probably to help new people into what was quite a tricky series, especially for the average Wii U gamer (which I think we’re supposed to assume is a casual gamer who, in this case, has bought Bayonetta 2 by mistake instead of Nintendogs). Much like the first, the graphics are stunning. They’ve really gone to town on the intricate designs, especially with the main protagonists and end-of-level bosses. My 360 Bayonetta looks decidedly plain in comparison.

As expected, it’s a game on an epic scale and it genuinely is a lot of fun to get stuck into. Couple this with Mario Kart 8 (and Super Smash Bros.) and you have three fantastic reasons to go for the Wii U over Xbox One or the PS4, which are still struggling to find their feet.

Mario Kart 8, Bayonetta 2, Super Smash Bros. and the Wii U console are all available to buy now. For those wanting to add me as a friend on Wii U, my user profile is Hutchie.

December 19, 2014December 27, 2014 by hutchwp

Gotham Series 01, Episodes 01-10 (Bruno Heller, 2014)

As the series enters a brief hiatus period I thought it would be a good point to stop and take stock of where we got to in the first ten episodes of a much-hyped series that had the potential to do for Batman what Smallville did for Superman some ten years ago, though at times fell short of its own promise.

For those that don’t know, the plot centres around Commissioner James Gordon, played by OC actor Ben McKenzie, as he moves to the Gotham Police Force and comes to terms with just how corrupt the city is. It is, essentially, an origin story for Gordon, though the story is also entangled with many more familiar faces. There are a few gangs playing people off against each other, everyone seemingly being puppeteered by the brilliant character Fish Moody (Jade Pinkett Smith), who was created especially for this series. She is a revelation for the show and during the slower points of certain episodes was one of the reasons I kept watching.

We also come into contact with the increasingly twisted Oswald Cobblepot, who is the Penguin in waiting and has received a lot of focus throughout, establishing the character as a key player in the series so far as he plays the gangs off against each other to gain standing and reputation in a city difficult to survive in. Whilst he initial felt mispitched, the plans for Oswald came to fruition later in the series and it became clear the writing and character development was deeper than was initially clear.

We’re treated to a confident performance from young actress Camren Bicondova as Selina Kyle (Catwoman), whose similarity to Michelle Pfieffer is uncanny. Furthermore, the groundwork has been put in place to introduce Ed Nigma (The Riddler) and later Harvey Dent (Two Face) and (Poison) Ivy Pepper.

Each show has its own individual plotline and they often play out like an episode of something like CSI, only with a darker tone. Each week we’ve tended to have a one-off criminal that needs to be caught and they are usually tied back in with one of the gangs we already know of. It’s a simple – if repetitive – formula, but hopefully when the characters are further developed we will have longer story arcs concentrating on more prominent characters from the Gotham universe.

Underpinning it all is the development of Bruce Wayne who, as in all good Batman stories, loses his parents to a masked criminal early on. To be honest, the sections of the shows that focus on Wayne felt a little like filler as he is so far away from becoming Batman, and in a 42-minute episode it was annoying to lose 5 minutes to something not central to the plot.

I was glad I stuck with it though, as this turned into a big payoff in the last two episodes. Bruce and Selina formed a friendship (of sorts) whilst she was being sheltered in Wayne Manor and, following an attack on the house by gang members, both made a run for it to avoid gunfire. With Bruce operating as a more central character in his own right, still supported by the ongoing storylines with Oswald and Fish, the whole series felt a lot more balanced. These last two episodes also justified the baffling London gangster take on Alfred from Sean Pertwee, which makes a lot more sense if he’s allowed to punch people in the face occasionally.

With this in mind, the series is perfectly balanced to go into the second half of the first series with a lot of momentum and, whilst a lot of the series has failed to live up to my hopes and expectations, I’m confident it will build on its successes and grow into a worthwhile and original adaptation of the Batman story.

The recent episodes of Gotham are viewable on Channel 5 Player in the UK for another three weeks and I recommend trying one of the episodes as a taster before they go.

Cinema, etc.

A blog about things. Mainly films.