20
THE UNION
MAY 2014
ENTERTAINMENT
‘Thrones’ kills with new season RATING:
••••• BY SUMUKH SHEKAR
After 301 days of waiting, Home Box Office (HBO) finally delivered the fourth season of its highly acclaimed adaptation of the epic fantasy novel series “A Song of Ice and Fire.” This season picks up right where Season 3 left off, showing how Jamie Lannister (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) is adjusting to his life without a hand back at King’s Landing after returning from his period of captivity. King Joffrey’s (Jack Gleeson) wedding to Margaery Tyrell (Natalie Dormer) becomes a central point of the season, enveloping two episodes with its consequences being the central plot for the following episodes. The season also uses the wedding to introduce Oberyn Martell (Pedro Pascal), a Dornish prince with a greater sexual appetite than Tyrion Lannister (Peter Dinklage), who has an interesting backstory related to the Lannisters. Prince Oberyn plays a major role in King’s Landing after the long-awaited death of a major character. In spite of the focus on the affairs in King’s Landing, the season is able to excellently story-tell Daenerys Targaryen’s (Emilia Clarke) conquest, Brandon Stark’s (Isaac Hempstead-Wright) journey Beyond the Wall, the Night’s Watch’s recent struggles, and everything else happening around the Seven Kingdoms. While there’s always a lot of different plot details progressing throughout Westeros, those who want to see more plot development for the army of White Walkers Beyond the Wall or hope to see Daenerys’ use dragons in combat will be disappointed. Like the previous seasons, characters in Season 4 consider the threat from Beyond the Wall as the biggest threat the Seven Kingdoms has ever faced,
yet the episodes continue to push aside that danger to showcase for another time. Viewers who want to see Daenerys’ dragons in action will be further disappointed with the fact that her conquest of liberation as she approaches King’s Landing comes to a sudden halt in favor of taking time to promote stability within her conquered lands. However, those who want more action won’t be disappointed. There are many fight scenes that occur throughout the season and are exciting to watch, from The Hound (Rory McCann) and Arya Stark (Maisie Williams) fighting Lannister men-atarms to the various fights the Night’s Watch has to endure. Furthermore, those who enjoy Game of Thrones for the amount of drama that occurs throughout the series will be happy to know that Season 4 further inTV-SERIES tensifies the drama. REVIEW Peter Dinklage as Tyrion Lannister does an exceptionally wonderful job portraying his emotions in episode 6 after he is enraged by the fact that his dwarfism causes everyone, especially his own father, to overlook his impressive accomplishments. But most importantly, this season has its epic award winning moments. This is especially true of Dinklage’s excellent portrayal of Tyrion. Game of Thrones is known for its sudden plot twists and epic deaths, and Season 4 is no different. In fact, probably the most important plot details that decide the fate of the Seven Kingdoms occur in Season 4 (and I’m not talking just about character deaths). Just when you thought Game of Thrones couldn’t get any more epic, this season has come to prove it all wrong one episode at a time. As the show’s promotional slogan goes, “All men must die.”
‘Elementary’ shifts dynamic RATING:
•••• BY NHI TRAN
“Elementary” aired its second season finale on May 15. Although it was not as thrilling as the last season finale, it offered plenty of change and excitement for next season with the resolution of Mycroft’s storyline and a shift in Joan and Sherlock’s relationship. The season finale excelled in its vulnerable and emotional moments between Joan and Sherlock as the series always does due to the excellent acting by Lucy Liu and Jonny Lee Miller. Sherlock’s interaction with Mycroft at the TV-SERIES end and his conversation REVIEW with Joan was moving and well-executed by the actors. The writers’ decision to change Joan and Sherlock’s dynamic by Joan moving out is appreciated, because many crime procedurals tend to get stuck in the same routine and format. The change is welcome, but it was unsatisfying that Joan’s decision was prompted by her relationship with
Mycroft rather than the growth of her own character. Joan’s personal growth and her search for independence should get more coverage in the third season. The episode was solid but underwhelming. The mystery involving Mycroft was wrapped up too neatly and offered little surprise. It was an unsatisfying conclusion to his story. Most of the twists in the episode lacked surprise or suspense, and many of them were easily inferred. Overall, the second season was poignant and entertaining. Throughout the season, the writers did an excellent job with Sherlock’s character development. It was consistently enticing to watch Sherlock’s growth. The best part of this season was Joan and Sherlock’s interactions, and it will be interesting to see what the writers will do for next year regarding Joan and Sherlock’s relationship after Joan moves out. However, this season also had unsatisfying developments. Joan’s growth was only briefly featured which was especially disappointing. The relationship between Joan and Mycroft was uninteresting and felt forced. The second season also had
Courtesy of twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation
A young Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) goes forward in time to confront his future self (Patrick Stewart). Future and past incarnations of “X-Men” characters meet in this sequel to prevent the extinction of mutants across the globe.
‘X-Men’ sequel unites franchise, demographics RATING:
••••• BY KAREN SHYU
“X-Men: Days of Future Past” begins by depicting the terrifying reign of the intelligent, adaptable Sentinels, robots created to destroy mutants, in a dystopian future. The scientist Bolivar Trask (Peter Dinklage) believes that creating the Sentinels is the solution to defeating the mutant population. The Sentinels, originally built to combat mutants, ran rampant and also start to hunt down those who had the potential of becoming a mutant. Eventually, only a couple of mutants are left in the desolate wasteland that was once home to many. To undo what has already happened, Kitty Pryde (Ellen Page), a mutant who gains the ability to send a person’s consciousness to the past, sends Wolverine, who is the only one that
can withstand the severe brain damage from being sent back more than a month due to his highly regenerative ability, back before 1973 to stop the Sentinel program from ever being initiated. A film which possesses both an intricately-woven plot and an expressive, powerful cast “X-Men: Days of Future Past” fulfills and surpasses all prior expectations. Despite having a time-manipulative aspect, the movie succeeds in interweaving the multiple timelines into a comprehensible, enticing story with a skillMOVIE fully-written script. REVIEW Action scenes occur back-to-back with excellent emotional scenes, leaving no time to catch your breath, and every scene is given a purpose rather than acting as fillers. Characters portray emotions in a realistic manner, de-
veloping relationships rather than remaining stagnant throughout the film, and also including existing character conflict from its predecessor “X-Men: First Class. “ A prominent clashing relationship between Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) and Erik Lehnsherr (Michael Fassbender) is given life and continues to cultivate off the emotions from the conclusion of “X-Men: First Class.” However, Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) is not given much to do in her scenes as the audience would expect. Overall, “X-Men: Days of Future Past” exhibits excellent cinematography, keeping the audience entranced by beautiful visuals and plot. The film rectifies director Bryan Singer’s past failures and epitomizes the true potential of the X-Men franchise.
‘Bates Motel’ dark, diverges from predecessor RATING:
•••• BY BRYAN TRAN
You may have heard of the movie “Psycho.” No, not the crappy 90’s one, the old one from the 60’s by Alfred Hitchcock that is considered one of the best horror films of all time. Do you remember the name of the antagonist? If you can’t, it was Norman Bates. Currently there is a television show that is on its second season. It’s called “Bates Motel” and the main character is named…. Norman Bates! This is not a coincidence. “Bates Motel” is made using roughly the same background story as “Psycho” and creates a world similar to the one where Norman is haunted by his dead mother and does insane things. A&E’s “Bates Motel” is an interesting spin-
off of the film and creates an exciting, brilliant adaption for television. “Bates Motel” features Freddie Highmore as Norman Bates’s adolescent self, highlighting his instability and manipulative mother, Norma. In each consecutive episode, we can see Norman becoming closer and closer to the Norman from Psycho that we all know. Highmore’s acting TV-SERIES proves to be truly captiREVIEW vating. His “blackouts” and unexplainable behavior are developed through a combination of both his own magnificent acting along side his mother’s (played by Vera Farmiga). The second season is consistent in the brilliant writing seen in the first. It has begun to diverge from the world of Psycho but retains a dark,
ominous nature that can hold its own. In season two, we are introduced further into the mystery of the town’s rampant organized crime scene that is creepily insinuated in season one. Norman’s dark tendencies are increasingly noticeable; he is obsessed with a love interest and a dead teacher. He visits his teacher’s grave almost every day. Norman sends hundreds of letters to his crush while she is in a mental hospital because of her father’s death and betrayal. Norman also becomes incredibly attracted to taxidermy and begins to stuff as many dead animals as he can get a hold of. In total, “Bates Motel” creates a brilliantly dark atmosphere that is slightly different from Hitchcock’s film and is able to be independent in its own legacy.
‘Transcendence’ explores many topics, lacks focus RATING:
••
BY MOSHE YANG
Transcendence in science fiction is the transfer of human consciousness out of the body into the virtual world. Dr. Caster (Johnny Depp), a lead researcher on sentient computers, is mortally wounded and is uploaded to a computer by his desperate wife, Evelyn (Rebecca Hall). The movie begins with terrorists called Revolutionary Independence from Technology (RIFT) trying to stop Caster’s research on sentient computers. Caster is shot with a radioactive bullet, giving him a month to live. His wife, Evelyn (Rebecca Hall) desperately tries to save him by uploading his consciousness to a quantum computer.
Once Caster transcends, he can access all information and proceeds to make money and new inventions. Along with his wife, Caster transforms Brightwood, a desert town, into a haven for technology and research. As Caster’s power grows, Evelyn slowly begins to question Caster’s morals. The nanotechnology he uses to save lives and create superstrong humans can also be used to remotely control them. The scope of transcenMOVIE dence beyond the REVIEW cliché ofgoes does man control technology or the other way around. It questions the meaning of human consciousness, the ideas of love and privacy, and on and on. It’s obvious that the director wants to touch on all of these sub-
jects, but his movie tries to do too much and fails. There’s enough material for three movies, but the movie tries to generalize all of it by fitting into one big overarching cliché. It’s even worse when there are multiple scenes that seem cut straight from the movie “Her.” The themes of sentient computers seeking more knowledge and love between man and machine are done much better in that movie, too. “Transcendence” was too uneven with too many plots and ideas to fit. Depp’s monotone, disinterested voice and the somber music slow the movie to a crawl. The movie is a mess. If you want to watch humans in love with machines, or a film questioning the morality of a technology-centric culture, just watch “Her” instead.