OJ's TV Review - Broadchruch series 2

As the entire cast of Doctor Who move to southern England, we learn more about this town wrapped in secrets.

The first series of Broadchurch was met with an amazing reception; it was quite unlike anything we'd seen before, almost everyone loved it and the whole of the UK seemed to be engaged in this coastal murder. Now we return for another eight episodes to see how life as gotten on. Basically, this time around the show focuses on two big story arcs, which I will talk about one at a time.
   The first one is that of the trial of Danny's killer who was revealed in the series 1 finale; this court case goes on for every episode, putting various characters in 'the block' to give a witness. Now on paper this could seem a bit boring to some, as it is set almost entirely in the court room and we hear descriptions of various scenes from the first series. But the reason I didn't think it was boring was that of the writing, Chris Chinball does amazingly well with scripts, he makes you listen to every word that is being said, the suspense of the dialogue is carried out wonderfully by the brilliant acting of the cast. Two new characters are brought in for this court case, one is defending the killer, the other is trying to prosecute; these two women have history which is only hinted at but not explored fully but it does add a little extra something to the events as they are both well defined characters each with flaws and strengths which you enjoy watching unfold; so the relationship between these two is only minor but still quite engaging. During this series-long trial you also see the damage it is doing to our main characters, including Danny's family and Ellie's which makes for some very emotional and powerful scenes, especially towards the end.
   The second arc that is that of the Sandbrook case which was briefly mentioned in series 1 as a case that David Tennant's character Detective Hardy wasn't able to solve, now due to circumstances it's all been dredged up and he has sort it out with the help of Ellie. Another two main characters are brought in for this story too, that being Hardy's original suspect and his wife who is a witness under protection. These two work brilliantly together and are played by the fantastic James D'Arcy and Eve Myles respectively. As I've said before the acting in this show is perfect, D'Arcy plays such a powerful presence in the scenes he's in which makes you all the more engaged in this mystery, especially is the fact that the murder mystery aspect was what drove the first series entirely. So although the plot only got half the time to be explored, due to the court case, it was still very good at not giving anything away and throwing us a few red herrings until the final episode.
   Now I'd heard that this series of Broadchurch was getting mixed reviews and I think that is because it had to split its focus on two mostly unrelated story arcs which may have brought it down just a bit. Also is the fact that I think Broadchurch is something which should be treated like a film, I didn't watch it from week to week, I recorded all the episodes and watched it in one big batch which pays off considerably as you don't loose the suspense or rhythm. Apart from that, Broadchurch still has stunning cinematography in it's camera shots, excellent writing by Chinball and a very talented cast; I look forward to seeing where series 3 will go,

10/10

OJ's TV Review - Agent Carter season 1

Marvel's last series wasn't received to well, I think a redemption has come though.

When I heard there was going to be an Agent Carter TV series, I thought that was great because I loved the Marvel One-Shot they did, I think it's the best one. I think the majority of what's riding on this shows success is the lead; fortunately Hayley Atwell pulls it off perfectly as the titular character. You're with Peggy every step of the way and you know she's a strong, independent character who holds her own. Atwell does brilliantly in this role and am always glad to see her in the films and TV series. Dominic Cooper also returns as Howard Stark who is OK, but can never have the charm and charisma of Robert Downey Jr, so he serves his purpose the show but it doesn't bother me that he's not in every episode. Next I'm going to come to James D'Arcy who plays the brilliant butler Edwin Jarvis; we all love Iron Man's A.I. computer and now I think D'Arcy had done extremely well in portraying it's namesake; Jarvis is one of the best characters in the show, he has some great lines, he is used well in the plot and he really does have great chemistry with Carter which is fun to watch. There are some other characters too who filled various roles for Carter to interact with, mostly the other SSR agents who were all well and good; so all-in-all the cast wasn't bad but Atwell and D'Arcy definitely owned the stage.
      Next I come to plots and story arc. Unlike Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. which in the beginning, the majority of plots relied on something which had already been set up in the films and had few original ideas, and also Agent Carter had only 8 episodes thankfully, which negated the need for pointless filler episodes which moved the overall arc more smoothly. So because it all happens before any of the films (except one obvs.) they had to get some good writing; in the end I was intrigued with the mystery and the individual episodes themselves were entertaining enough. The only problem I would say it has was the fact that there wasn't really a specific enemy, no one target; some could argue that there was but he only appeared mid-way into the series and wasn't that impacting. So on the antagonist front, a little weak.
    As a conclusion I will say Agent Carter started off much better than Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. it really worked well in the Marvel universe and set up some exciting stuff along with showing us some great characters, old and new.

7.5/10

OJ's Movie Review - Big Hero 6

America got this two months before Britain! TWO MONTHS!

So Big Hero 6 is the first major animated film based on Marvel comics and of course it is Disney too. It's about a boy genius who, with a bunch of friends, attempts to stop a villain whom he blames for a recent tragedy. Now what makes this movie quite unique, I think, is the look; the world building in the film is amazing, it makes you want to visit San Fansokiyo and it really does look like it has blended the two cites really well, so the visuals are stunning. And of course the animation helps and as always Disney animations are really nice to watch.
     I also loved seeing the different abilities each character had, all the different inventions and what they could do was really fun to watch and really set up the fact that science is really fun and we should embrace it, which was good; the problem is though I don't think they used their powers enough so they showed them using these abilities but only for a very short amount of time.
    Plot-wise, Big Hero 6 was familiar in a lot of aspects but did throw some new elements in there too which kept things balanced between visual references to other films (Baymax' suit is very Iron Man) and downright predictable. In the end I felt the pacing was a bit slow, I kept waiting for the whole thing to really start and get going but, apart from a few really powerful scenes, it always felt as though Disney were holding back for some reason.
     Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the movie, regardless, there were some very funny scenes I laughed at, some twists I was not expecting, I loved the look and design of the characters, Baymax is one of the best robots in cinema and I think everybody wants one, the micro-bots that the villain uses look awesome and even Stan Lee makes an appearance! So as a conclusion, Big Hero 6 is a good superhero movie, just not the best.

8/10