Aspirant Film Journal
Film, Television, Previews & Reviews
Game of Thrones: A man without honor
0May 16, 2012
A befitting title.
Last we saw, Osha, Hodor, Rickon and Bran escape from Winterfell, now held by Theon Greyjoy. He rallies his men in the courtyard to search for his fugitives. Setting the dogs and horses on their trail, Maester Luwin mocks Theon of his fruitless hunt in comparison to riding. Cheeky old man. Theon and his men arrive in a small village where the hounds have led them to and they stumble upon walnut shells. We’re not shown what it leads to but at the end of the episode, Theon presents two child sized bodies, charred beyond recognition. Maester Luwin, convinced that they belong to his two boys, breaks down. From an audience point of view, Theon is just a fake, trying to win the hearts and respect of the men under him no matter the methods.
Jon Snow along side his prisoner, Ygritte, is lost in the Frostfangs, Ygritte teases Snow about his non-touching of women because of an oath sworn to the Night’s Watch. She manages to catch him off guard and gives him the slip, chasing after, he learns that he has been led into a trap by Ygritte.
Mother of lost dragons, Daenerys, together with Xaro, assembles the Thirteen to question where her dragons are, little did she know that it was all just a ploy to gather all members of the Thirteen to let Pyat Pree, the warlock, assassinate 11 of them. Xaro, now, King of Qarth—yet another—along side Pyat Pree tells Daenerys that she must go to the House of the Undying in order to see her “children”.
Tywin Lannister seems to know that Arya isn’t a commoner after correcting the way she address him. Nail-biting I must add, we don’t know what he’s capable of yet to young children after we see him hanging a number of his soldiers as he suspects someone is after his life.
Something phenomenal happened in this episode, Cersei seeks solace in Tyrion, two siblings we’d last see sharing a conversation. She is clearly perturbed by the way Joffrey is and finds it impossible to control her son. Tyrion consoles her and we see something special, never before seen, a first. Perhaps its a bonding of two siblings—not the way Cersei and Jaime bonded—to forge a partnership to save their kingdom from Stannis Baratheon’s 200 ships en route to King’s Landing.
The great battle at King’s Landing is about to happen, the day the Red Keep falls to Stannis and his sorceress bitch is about soon. ‘A Man Without Honor‘ is most probably Theon Greyjoy, not only does he throw a tantrum when he perhaps one of the factors leading to Rickon and Brandon’s escape, he fakes the death of the two Stark boys in from of the people in Winterfell, to what end, I wonder. Another following closely behind are Jaime Lannister; for murdering his cousin just to escape his pen and Xaro Xhoan Doxos, who betrays Daenerys.
Game of Thrones: The old gods and the new
0May 9, 2012
‘The old gods and the new‘, a start to the second part of series 2 of HBO’s most critically acclaimed series to date, and probably most watched.
The half way point episode sees a couple of our main characters being pushed into a little more character development which should unfold into major plot twists in season 2. Theon, takes over Winterfell albeit successfully, but doesn’t do it convincingly well enough. Almost as if snatching candy from a little boy, he commands Bran, the young Lord of Winterfell, to yield the rampart to him. Bran, doesn’t give it up that easily, becoming more like the man his father was, Ned Stark, he chooses the safety of his people and subjects over his pride and surrenders Winterfell to Theon. Ser Rodrik Cassel, is executed by a hesitant but peer-pressured Theon after the Knight spits on Theon in regret; for placing a sword in his hands and not in his belly.
Deep in the North, beyond the walls of Castle Black, Jon Snow and a small band of members of the Night’s Watch venture further up North to eliminate, what they suspect, a wildling scout camp. They eliminate all of them but one, a girl, Ygritte, one who probably has a part of her own to play as Jon Snow inadvertently spares her life before she tried to escape. Spooning—cheekily—in the cold of the unforgiving Frostfangs as captor and captive struggle to keep warm.
The Royal court at King’s Landing sees young princess Myrcella sent off to Dorne, as they return to the Red Keep, our royalties are attacked by the refugees who now overrun the capital due to the all out war in Westeros. Tyrion Lannister teaches Joffrey a lesson by insulting him and giving a really daring slap to his temple when he refuses to send his men to look for Sansa, with that, one of the best lines I’ve heard so far, “We’ve had vicious kings, and we’ve had idiot kings…but I don’t know if we’ve ever been cursed with a vicious idiot for a king!”
Amidst the turmoil, a group of men attempts to rape the queen-to-be but Sandor Clegane, better known as “the hound”, saves her from the savages. A side that’s rarely seen of a character who’s rarely touched upon, his primordial existence has always been to chop heads off, human or horse and do Joffrey’s bidding.
A fairly good start to the second half, the setting to the stage of a wondrous battle in King’s Landing.
Reviewed: The Avengers
0May 3, 2012
As a kid, I mostly grew up reading Marvel comics; Spiderman, Ironman even The Incredible Hulk. Reading page by page, letting my powers of imagination do its own work as it is complimented by the visually appeasing pages and the sound effects generated from mouthing the words you see on page;”craaakk, swoooosh, phoomm”. Most importantly, I was content with just seeing them on paper. Those are the days truly lost to me and perhaps never be able to get back, as a kid reading those graphic novels, I’ve always wished for a whole bunch of my favorite characters to line the cast of what could be the greatest, most stunning CARTOON ever put together. It did happen, but it was short lived―cancelled by the suits at FOX.
Then comes along Joss Whedon, with a string of achievements dotted throughout his years active in the industry. ‘Buffy‘, ’Firefly‘ and ‘Dollhouse‘. Who knew that a show creator who’s series kept getting cancelled would be poised for a position as honorable as this, to stand before all geeks and fanboys to present what is regarded as the holy grail of the ‘Marvel‘ universe and probably of all superhero films, sequels and franchises.
It was a calling for Joss Whedon’s individualistic input and direction, a calling that he stepped up to, with both feet firmly on the ground without any of the unprofessional, gimmicky stuffs we has seen thus far. ‘The Avengers‘, the first of its kind in the 21st century, an epic mashup of the world’s most beloved superheroes, for their powers, abilities, character and epic awesomeness was all contained in the hands of Whedon in a little more than 2 hours.
The direction was a no frill, straight to the point masterpiece, as the first of the ‘Avengers‘ series, Whedon went textbook on this. From assembling the key members of the Avengers, to giving rise to a familiar antagonist, banding together despite differences and overcoming a common enemy.
One would begin to worry if the star value on screen is rising way too high and that one or two characters would steal the lime light away, but some how, Whedon is able to moderate each and every one of their on screen time, right down to the participation level which creates a series of scenes packed with hi-action and yet, we feel the lack of a character presence that is too overpowering.
Every aspect of the film was well taken care of, even at 2 hours and 20 minutes, it manages to slip right by us with so much going on. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t messy, in fact it was intricately put together.
My only complaint was that, the antagonist, Loki, Tom Hiddleston, wasn’t really into the whole movie. Yeah he wants to destroy the whole world and he brings on the intergalactic race of the Chitauri, however, like the way Tony Stark explained to him, he really did not have any conviction.
A couple of things to note.
Mark Ruffalo playing the Hulk seems a little too off setting for me, he treads carefully around the flying carrier all too obviously like he literally would turn at any moment. The new Hulk looks incredibly like the actor who plays him, which is, freakishly cool.
Humor is dotted throughout the 2 hours, is sometimes predictably cheesy and sometimes surprisingly unforeseen but most of the time, it spoils the whole serious vibe to the film―Hulk’s effortless flinging about of Loki.
If you think the film was bad due to the lack of character development then shame on you because where have you been for the past 3 years. ‘The Avengers‘ required minimal introduction because the protagonist have all had their own films, ‘Iron Man‘, ‘Iron Man 2‘, ‘Thor‘ and ‘The First Avenger‘.
Cobie Smulders playing Maria Hill is quite the refreshing sight, but not to build on her other famed television character Robin Scherbatsky from ‘How I Met Your Mother‘, Smulders plays Maria with much seriousness, hopefully we’d be able to see her again in the sequel of ‘The Avengers‘, a highly likely possibility as Maria Hill happens to be Nick Fury’s successor, SHIELD’s next director.
Which brings us to the all important secret endings that all Marvel films have.
At the end of ‘The Avengers‘, The Other is seen speaking to a figure hidden in the dark, as The Other finishes speaking, the light reveals familiar face from the Iron Man series. Thanos, an intergalactic villain who commands the Chitauri and has always been quite the bad ass.
The summer of 2012 is ruined for me as I find no better replacement for a film like ‘The Avengers‘, but that, I’m truly content with being.
Game of Thrones: Ghost of Harrenhal
0May 2, 2012
After that little surprised we had that came out from in between Melisandre’s legs, we are not let off for thinking that it was just some sort of teaser. Right off the start, we’re in the tent of King Renly, along his side, Kingsguard Brienne and Lady Catelyn. As if an unimportant character, the being of the dark arts―originating from a dark place―appears behind Renly and pierces his heart with a symbiotic wraith-like dagger. His death, I felt, was all but too brisk.
‘Ghost of Harrenhal‘ packs all the mystical fantasies we’ve not seen, but heard so far on ‘Game of Thrones‘ into one single episode. But of course, it doesn’t overwhelm the audiences, especially the faithful, by dishing out too heavy a portion of fantasy and supernaturalism. Managing to maintain the certain overall adult HBO series so far, the fantasy elements presented to us is a somewhat toned down version of things to come.
Kingsguard Brienne and Lady Catelyn, flee the scene of the murder, although there were the perpetrators of the assassination, they are the number one suspects. Brienne, drawing from the strength that radiates from Lady Catelyn, pledges fealty to her in hopes that she will not come in between her and avenging for Renly’s death.
Bran is realizing that his dreams are more than just dreams, that they are real, one way or another. Ser Rodrik brings news to Lord Stark that Torrhen’s Square is under siege. Bran is quick to decide by letting Ser Rodrik take 200 men toassist Torrhen’s Square, Maester Luwin advises Bran otherwise, but Bran asserts his position as Lord of Winterfell and gives Rodrik the go ahead.
The young characters in the series are certainly taking up their places on a more involved scale.
He also consults Osha, the wildling, about his dreams and is stumped by them, Osha, however, seems to be able to decipher our young lord’s prophetic dreams. It is clear enough to us because we see the whole picture and we secretly wish Lord Bran knows it too. “The sea flooding Winterfell and drowning his people”. It could mean literally after seeing all that supernatural happening this episode, but my best guess would be the sea representing the Greyjoys, after all, their sigil is a kraken, and flooding probably means overrunning Winterfell. And due past records, his dreams have been pretty spot on. The three eyed crow does prove to be quite the mysteriously difficult one, best guess would be that the crow is actually him and the third eye is Bran’s ability to see the future through his dreams, a prophet.
Tyrion Lannister brings news to his sister, Cersei, that Renly Baratheon is dead. She welcomes the news and sees it as a win for the Lannisters. Tyrion however, thinks otherwise. Renly’s bannermen and soldiers join up with Stannis Baratheon’s cause. Within a night, Stannis has become the new favorite to becoming king of the seven kingdoms. When asked about the defense preparations, Cersei says that her son is putting a handle on things but does not wish to reveal anymore details. Tyrion then calls upon his newest spy in within the castle walls, Lancel Lannister, also Cersei’s newest incestuous affair. Tyrion finds out from Lancel that Joffrey is relying heavily on the Alchemist guild and their pyromancers.
Daenerys is welcomed into Qarth and is considered an honored guest as members of the Thirteen try to woo her with what they are well known for. Pyat Pree, a warlock, shows her and us that there is more than just power and politics in Westeros. Xaro makes a proposal to Daenerys who finds its hard to resist as she feels that the time is right to invade Westeros as the four Kings, now remaining three, fights amongst each other.
If there’s anything ‘Game of Thrones‘ does right, it is the intriguing take on medieval politics and shifts of power. ‘Ghost of Harrenhal‘ now gives us something else to like about this exciting series. An element that’s briefly touched upon during season 1 are now all given light in second. For me, its nice to see characters battle it out with words and swords, but I happen to be quite the sucker for mythical medieval beings and lore. If this is where ‘Game of Thrones‘ is headed, I’m all in for it.
The speed of things have certainly been picked up as we approach the second half of the second season of ‘Game of Thrones‘. Its been all right so far, thankfully, with what we saw on ‘Ghost of Harrenhal‘ things sure are turning for the better.
Game of Thrones: Garden of Bones
0April 30, 2012
“King in the North!”
Robb Stark’s campaign in the Westerlands goes on smoothly as his band of soldiers overcomes yet another Lannister camp. Although with the smallest army amongst all the other kings, he’s proven to be quite a thorn in Tywin Lannister’s arse.
The scheming starts as Lord Baelish is seen in Highgarden offering Renly a choice of “protracted siege or open gates”. To what end and to where Baelish’s loyalty lies we don’t know, as far as past encounters tell us, Baelish is one to have foresight only for his own skin, no matter who he pledges his loyalty to. He visits Lady Catelyn’s tent as well, his main intended reason for traveling all the way to the south-east in the Highgarden. Probably what makes ‘Game of Thrones‘ so good―all that scheming, lies and treachery. He barters a trade with Lady Catelyn, her children for Jaime Lannister, and to appease her, he brings the head of Ned Stark to her.
One thing did surprise me in ‘Garden of Bones‘, King Joffrey showed a side no one knew he had, we all thought that he was just another one of those spoilt child kings throwing a fit every single day but at the end of the 50 minute episode, we see that our little, un-rightful king of the seven kingdoms harbors a morally wicked side to all that ranting. This, my readers, justifies our right to (more…)
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