Colin Parton's Blog

Dracula - Mark Gatiss & Steven Moffat

The mini-series takes us to new places, yet remains true, at least in its form, to the original story. We are told the tale through interviews that have a distinctly similar feeling to the original letters.

We get one character’s telling of the tale, which is then taken up by another character’s telling of the tale in the future. It is a beautiful way to tell this story.

The beginning of the series is almost beat-for-beat identical to the novel. Then small details begin to diverge until we are in an entirely unknown place altogether.

Harker, John Heffernan (Luther & Eye In The Sky), survives at the end of this story to tell the tale to the nun in the convent, until we realise that he didn’t survive. He is undead and he doesn’t realise it.

The bridge between the undead and vampires explored in this series is very interesting. Most of Dracula’s, Claes Bang (The Bridge & Borgen), victims simply die. 

Some survive as undead; others become full vampires. When I first saw this, I thought that we were seeing a fatal flaw that had appeared in other vampire stories in the past.

In these stories, any person who is bitten by a vampire becomes a vampire. This makes no sense unless the original vampire hardly ever feeds. Otherwise, the entire world would be overrun by vampires very quickly.

This stepped approach makes complete sense within the narrative and allows for the whole John Harker narrative to play out as brilliantly as it does.

Another fantastic plot mechanic is ‘Blood is Lives’. Everyone who hears this doesn’t quite grasp its full meaning until Dracula explains it.

It is pretty literal. As Dracula drinks the blood of a victim, he can see their life and learn their languages. He takes their knowledge and skills. Fantastic stuff.

What better way to manipulate someone than actually to know everything that they have ever done?

The characters are great and well-rounded throughout. The new additions work well, even if they are a little jarring to begin with.

Sister Agatha Van-Helsing, Dolly Wells (The I.T. Crowd & Peep Show),  is a great example of one of these. She is the vessel that allows Harker to tell his story.

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She carries with her the knowledge of her family bloodline. A bloodline that Dracula is keen to get his hands on so that he can learn more about himself.

The major plot lines continue, including the journey to England. But that is where the similarity ends.

The boat is sunk, and then we skip forward into the future – present day. I did not see that coming. This was a great move, and I really enjoyed it… for a bit.

There were some great aha moments, such as the reveal that the Van-Helsing bloodline continued and was watching over where Dracula had lain at the bottom of the channel all these years.

The bigger issue was that so few of the characters were likeable or interesting.

The end was a bit meh. Very average. Nothing interesting or new. But I guess the question arrises: with such a massive tale, how do you end it well?

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The Sandman - Neil Gaiman & David S. Goyer & Allan Heinberg Season One

The capture of Dream in the opening of this sets the tone and weirdness of this series perfectly. The passing of time as a backdrop to the opening is great and vital for us to understand the world and the rest of the plots we are about to encounter.

I love the interesting ideas that this series integrates. What if there were a collection of eternal beings that ruled over the realms relating to abstracts of existence?

“The Endless” is such an interesting idea. What would the Lord of Desire be like?

The cast is brilliant. With Tom Sturridge (Being Julia & The Hollow Crown) as Dream and Kirby Howell-Baptiste (Barry & Hacks) as Death, what more can we want? They deliver stand-out performances, capturing something unnerving about the bizarre entities they are playing.

When Dream returns to his realm after his long capture, his realm is in ruin. He begins searching for missing dreams and nightmares (personifications).

This sets up some great through plots and characters that we will return to again and again throughout the series.

The narative tied to the big three dreams and nightmares is great. Their stories are touched on and we return to them again and again as other stories unfold. Just great stuff.

The meta plot instigated by Desire, Mason Alexander Park (Cowboy Bebop & Not In My Backyard), is such a neatly tied package. It is tight and believable – beautiful to watch.

The casting of Lucifer, Gwendoline Christie (Wednesday & Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens), couldn’t be more perfect. She embodies Lucifer Morningstar to a T, and we feel the true weight of the crown of hell that sits on her brow.

I binged the first season – so very much looking forward to the next. Love This!

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My Hero Academia - Kôhei Horikoshi Season Four

Everything changes for the heroes this season. All Might’s retirement signals a new age for the villains and heroes alike.

The students on their probationary hero licenses now have the responsibility to participate in hero activities. As the students step into their new role, the world is more threatening than it has been for many years.

A new villain emerges for this season – Overhaul – leader of the Yakuza.

The Yakuza form a tenuous alliance with the League of Villains. In another big development, we learn of a power that can remove quirks.

Overhaul has a captive girl who can take a person or object back in time – essentially erasing the development of their quirk. It doesn’t change their age or anything, so not really sure how that works.

The problem is that she cannot control her ability, so Overhaul is using her blood to temporarily remove quirks and also boost quirks as well. Towards the end of the season, we learn that Overhaul has been able to refine a few blood bullets to by ppermenant quirk removal.

This makes the boss fight extra scary. We also get the introduction of the big 3. UA’s top three students, Lemillion, Sun Eater and Wave Motion. 

The entire end of this season is the probationary heroes, teachers and the big three, along with some of the pros trying to take down the Yakuza. This is epic in every sense of the word.

One of the pros was All Might’s partner. He can see into a person’s future, and he saw All Might’s death.

This has been an underlying plot point. So, in the end, when we see his vision of Izuka’s death, we are certain this is the end. 

But through the girl’s power uniting with his, not only does he evade death, but he rewrites the future. And we get to see All For One at 100% for the first time.

This show keeps getting better, and this is by far the best season yet! I can’t wait for what Season 5 brings!

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The Secret of Mana - Koichi Ishii

This felt like Square’s response to the Zelda series. For the first time, we have overworld fighting, rather than the typical cut to combat screen that we are so used to in the Final Fantasy series.

They moved to overworld fighting, just like Zelda. The choose to do something completely different with the way items work. 

In both Zelda and the Final Fantasy series, weapons simply get replaced with new weapons. Here we see a move to levelling up items. This was really counterintuitive.

When your group start increasing in size, the combat is extra bad. Because you are only controlling one of the three party members, the other two are prone to get in the way of attacks and are just dead weight. This was game-ruining for me.

The narrative felt odd as well. The typical Final Fantasy plot of a villain wanting to overthrow the world order felt weird and out of place here for some reason.

Sitting between Final Fantasy and Zelda, it surprisingly fails at both. You would have expected the developers to take the good points from both, but it is almost as if they didn’t understand why the other games were so good.

I was surprised to learn that the game had gotten a HD re-release. This wasn’t for me. I gave up at Spikey, about 12% through the game.

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Born Yesterday - George Cukor

Such a simple plot and executed so well. This would be 10/10 apart from a few personal issues.

Harry, Broderick Crawford (Highway Patrol & Rawhide), is a bigshot junker who has come to Washington with his girl. He is here to pay off congressmen to get a bill passed to protect his business.

That’s the situation. The problem is that his girl, Billie, Judy Holliday (The Solid Gold Cadillac & Adam’s Rib), is as dumb as a post. This causes lots of problems early on as they meet with senators and their families.

There is a journalist who is onto Harry’s case, and Harry hires him to teach Billie not to be so dumb. The thing is, Billie likes being dumb.

She isn’t really dumb; she just knows what she likes. There is this awesome scene where Harry and she are playing Gin Rummy.

He is giving her a talking to that she had better smarten up, as she silently destroys him at the game. She realises that she had better learn something if she wants her high-flying life to continue.

The journo, Paul, William Holden (The Network & The Bridge Over the River Kwai), returns. She is interested, and they kiss. She is really excited about everything she is learning.

She starts reading Paul’s articles. Her response to one of them is: “I think it’s the best thing I’ve ever read, but I didn’t understand a word of it.”

As she learns things, she learns more about her rights and how bad Harry is, not just to her.

They get into a big fight, which is a beautiful scene. This is because, as they go at it, they have to pause every few lines as a maid crosses back and forth through the room while cleaning.

Harry begins to glimpse what he has created, and there is an awful scene where he beats her.

She gets her own back. She and Paul get the files that prove his wrongdoing. She has begun to understand the paperwork that she has been forced to sign.

It all comes together in a big final scene, which is just fantastic. They win, and the awful Harry is ruined.

The dialogue in this film is just incredible. The script could be from today. My only gripe is that Billie’s voice is just awful, and as the main character, we hear a lot of it.

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The Children of Hurin - J.R.R. Tolkien

This is the furthest that you can get from Tolkien’s other stories. It is a tale of woe and doom from its outset to its end.

It takes us to dark places that Tolkien has never taken us before. While there are great high points, he never lets you forget that it is a momentary thing.

Happiness or victory will always be followed by sorrow or defeat. The hero is Turin, Hurin’s son.

Turin is a very unlikable character. He is quick to anger and rude, even to his friends. His attitude could well be because of the woe he brings with him wherever he goes.

Despite all these shortcomings, Tolkien manages to get us to like him. This is no mean feat.

We get to see many new stories here that are not told elsewhere. The major battles and plot points are drawn from The Silmarillion, but in this novel the point of view is entirely human.

This is not something we get to see very often in Tolkien’s works. Without looking too deeply into it, the closest I would say we get elsewhere is Aragorn’s perspective in The Lord of the Rings.

And one could hardly call the Dunedain human. Throughout the novel, Turin causes the downfall of three kingdoms, including one he created himself.

He falls in love several times throughout the story, and others fall in love with him. But his actions destroy any possibility of love. His action also causes the end of his line.

The most trajic path that Tolkien talks us on is not for the faint of heart. The final destruction of Turin and his line is because he had never met his sister, as she was just born when he fled Dor-Lomin.

She has her mind wiped by the lord of the dragons. Many years later they are reunited and are married.

We know who they are and it is clear where we are headed. The final scenes of downfall are caused as Turin defeats the dragon in combat and Nienor recovers her memory.

They both take their own lives. It is just tragic after what would normally be a great victory – see Laketown in The Hobbit.

At the end of the day, I thought it was a refreshing look at Middle-earth in this early period from the perspective of humans and not the Eldar.

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The Sandman - Neil Gaiman The Wake

The Sandman’s final collection is strange. The named character died at the end of the last volume.

This is the tying up of all the loose ends. It is time for the wake and the funeral and for all the characters to have their last hurrah.

The Will Shakespeare plotline is great, and its end here is no different.

As you will see, when I add the earlier volumes here, I really enjoyed the Litharge story. Especially the secret room and its hidden importance. To see both return here is brilliant.

To see Litharge also fulfil its purpose for the Endless is spot on. Rose, Nuala and Richard return, but all their stories feel flat without Morpheus.

Rob is great as always. But I just felt sad because this is the end.

There is a section where Master Li meets the new Dream in the soft places. The story was fine, but I was not a fan of the illustration. Sad to see Dream go but it had to end somewhere.

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Beasts Of No Nation - Cary Joji Fukunaga

Beasts of No Nation has some major structural flaws, but it is still a fantastic film. We follow Agu, Abraham Attah (Spider-Man: Homecoming & Tasmanian Devil), as he is forced from a contented childhood into the life of a child-soldier.

Once he becomes a soldier, his story is intertwined with that of his Commandant, Idris Elba (The Wire & Luther). These dual storylines are what cause the biggest problem for the film.

Agu is our hero, but there is no crisis for his storyline.

While his fate is tied to the Commandant’s, the crisis faced by their leader is not faced by Agu. Agu has no agency at this part of the film. The downbeat in the film is entirely the Commandant’s.

The setup at the start of the film gives you no idea of what is coming. We get to meet all his family and learn a little about their trials and goals.

While all of the opening scenes feel like separate glimpses of life, we learn that they are all interconnected.

The film captures these kids’ childhoods so well at the start. We get to see this again after the first combat action is over. Agu has just been forced to commit atrocities.

But life resumes, they are kids, and they return to playing. They have to hunt for their food.

This juxtaposition of utter mundanity and brutal atrocity is something else to watch.

There is a terrible section where we begin to suspect, but are not sure, that the Commandant is molesting one of the children. Then Agu is selected. 

It is a great choice by the filmmakers not to show this scene. We get to see the impact that it has on Agu, which is heartbreaking.

We are also left guessing, but not really – something happened in there that seriously messed him up, and what else could it be after all that he has seen.

Agu has an internal monologue throughout the film, and it is excellent. We gain insight into what he is thinking as terror surrounds him. 

One of the most powerful of these is after they take a town and his comrades are raping a lady, he thinks: God, do you see what we are doing?

A close second is after they have surrendered to the UN, and a councillor is trying to get him to talk. The whole internal speech here is on another level – it is one of the best things ever put to film.

At the end of it, he stares blankly into the lady’s face and thinks: I have been to war, and she doesn’t know what war is.

The speed at which the opening develops is great. Agu’s friendship with one of the other kids is touching.

There are some crazy hallucinations where they get him high as they go into battle. The pathetic downfall of Commandant at the end is a stark contrast to the power he had at the beginning. Overall, it’s a great film.

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The Boys - Garth Ennis & Darick Robertson Issues 1-6

The tone of The Boys is like nothing I’ve ever read. The writing is complex and thoughtful; you take your tentative steps into the world of the superheroes with Hughie as he is hired to become part of Butcher’s team.

The absolute depravity and awfulness of all the superheroes we meet make them very unlikable. That is apart from Butcher’s team, The Boys.

The sex, from both sides, but especially the young superheroes they are spying on, is a bit much. But it is titillating if that is what Ennis is going for; then it works.

I actually didn’t realise that Butcher and The Boys were the good guys until close to the end of Issue 6. 

The heart-to-heart that he has with Hughie goes right to the core of superheroes, and it hasn’t been addressed anywhere I have seen before.

Who gives the heroes the right to do what they do? They don’t have any training. Just because they have powers doesn’t mean they should be in control. That’s where The Boys come in. They stop the heroes from running over everyone.

I love the team that Butcher is putting together. Every time we see them, I just want to learn more about them.

They are just so cool and mysterious. I actually think we should have so little backstory and, like Highie, seem to come in halfway through the story.

Butcher actually seems like a great bloke and cares about Hughie. But beyond that and the team, there aren’t heaps here to love.

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A Prophet - Jacques Audiard

This prison drama follows Malik, Tahar Rahim (Batman Unburied & Bref), after his incarceration. The prison scenes are hauntingly real.

Everything that happens in the jail is just so believable – not that I have any metric to judge the reality of the situation on.

We follow Malik as he tries to learn the ropes. He becomes vital to a powerful group in the prison.

He uses this to his advantage, not becoming one of them but using his position to push for more. He ends up with his fingers in every pie in the jail as a powerful tale of betrayal unfolds.

Malik is forced to kill a man early on, and he follows Malik around throughout the film. Malik is haunted, but the man is also real to him; he talks to him.

The reality of the haunting is so terrifying because of how mundane it is. It really reminded me a lot of the very similar dream Riley has in Midnight Mass of his car crash victim.

Another big draw card for me was how the plot progresses so rapidly. All the ins and outs of what is about to happen are laid out for Malik and for us.

So we know what should happen in the coming scene – or at least what Malik’s goals are. But he might do something completely different, and we get to see why as it happens

This is just great storytelling. I’ve never seen it pulled off so well. It reminds me a lot of Guy Ritchie’s early work, but in those films, you still aren’t in on it in the same way you are here.

The story is really grounded in the reality that they are all in prison, whoever they are. A big win for Malik is getting a CD player and a conjugal visit from a prostitute.

There is a filmic device used to represent either Malik’s poor eyesight or his visions.

The lens telescopes in, and we are left with blurry vision surrounded by darkness. As far as I can remember, this only happens twice during the film.

One of these occurrences is confirmed as a vision as we see it play out, and it is how he gets his nickname.

The other just looks like he has bad eyesight. I found this really confusing, so I’m glad that it was only used twice.

I would recommend this film for anyone who loves being in the know about what is coming next in a film, but is equally happy to have their expectations met unexpectedly.

It’s also worth a watch if you want to see the most real jail life I have seen.

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