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The Sky Crawlers, a review by dfmorgan

The Sky Crawlers

Year: 2008
Director: Mamoru Oshii
Cast: Ryō Kase, Rinko Kikuchi, Shōsuke Tanihara

OverviewWatched: 31st. Jul 2010
My Thoughts: A strange anime. Mamoru Oshii appears to have used multiple film techniques with this film. There appears to be real film backgrounds, CGI animation and traditional cel animation in use at various times plus apparently all the aerial sequences were filmed in 3D-CGI. Much of the cel animation is used within the character interaction and ground based sequences and is very flat with very little depth.

The film itself is set in an alternate history where wars are now fought between corporations to avoid harm to the populace. The combatants in the wars are easily replaced clones called Kildren. This film is about a fighter pilot Yuichi Kannami. Yuichi is deployed to a front-line squadron and upon arrival he tries to find out about his predecessor.

My Rating: An overall 3

Dave

(From Dave's DVD/Blu-ray Reviews on August 1st, 2010)

X-Men, a review by Critter

X-Men (2000)



Director: Bryan Singer

Plot: Two mutants come to a private academy for mutants whose resident superhero team must oppose a powerful mutant terrorist organization.

Cast: Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Famke Janssen, James Marsden, Halle Berry, Anna Paquin, Rebecca Romijn

My Thoughts:
Out of all the superhero franchises the X-Men has always been one of my favourites. This film is the first of a trilogy and while I think it is a decent superhero film it would never be up there with what I consider the best superhero films. I think it does introduce the characters well, and while I love all the times in the school I just feel that the final 20 minutes or so of this film is very predictable and conventional.

I think this trilogy is cast very well, Hugh Jackman seems like the perfect Wolverine and Ian McKellen is eerie as the antagonist Magneto. Also, Famke Janssen who is an actor that I love, being cast as Jean Grey who is my favourite of the X-Men is one of the reasons I love this trilogy so much. This offering may not be a fantastic stand-alone film but when viewed in the trilogy everything comes together nicely.

I think one of this films highpoints is the addition of having Mystique on the team. While her relationships with other characters in the film may not be quite canon to the comics she is still a fantastic villain and adds a feeling of uncertainty to many scenes. In the end we are never quite sure if the person we are seeing is really them, or if it is her and that added a great layer of mystery to the film.

Rating:  


(From Critter's Alphabet Marathon Reviews on July 3rd, 2010)

Doctor Who Marathon, a review by Tom

Doctor Who
Series 1.04 Aliens of London
Writer: Russell T Davies (Writer)
Director: Keith Boak
Cast: Christopher Eccleston (Doctor Who), Billie Piper (Rose Tyler), Camille Coduri (Jackie Tyler), Corey Doabe (Spray Painter), Ceris Jones (Policeman), Jack Tarlton (Reporter), Lachele Carl (Reporter), Fiesta Mei Ling (Ru), Basil Chung (Bau), Matt Baker (Himself), Andrew Marr (Himself), Rupert Vansittart (General Asquith), David Verrey (Joseph Green), Navin Chowdhry (Indra Ganesh), Penelope Wilton (Harriet Jones), Annette Badland (Margaret Blaine), Naoko Mori (Doctor Sato), Eric Potts (Oliver Charles), Noel Clarke (Mickey Smith), Jimmy Vee (Alien), Steve Speirs (Strickland), , Elizabeth Fost (Slitheen), Paul Kasey (Slitheen), Alan Ruscoe (Slitheen)

What I don't like in this episode, is that the aliens are farting constantly. Luckily (as far as I remember), they didn't strife for such a childish humor in later episodes. Also the pigs in space was borderline ridiculous, but luckily that turned out as a hoax, orchastrated by the aliens.
What I didn't notice the first time around is the insistance of the doctor, that Mickey's real name is Rickey. Which is the name, the alternate universe Mickey has. It never made quite sense to me, that all persons in the alternate universe had the same name, except for Mickey. But maybe he really is called Rickey, but he doesn't like to go by it in this universe.
Another now familiar face appeared in this episode. The actress playing Sato on Torchwood. Also here she plays a character called Sato, but it is not made clear, if that is the same person. Here she seems to be a doctor though. In Torchwood she is an engineer/computer genius.
Also U.N.I.T. is mentioned here for the first time, which I now know, that passed doctors (e.g. the third doctor) had worked with.




(From Doctor Who Marathon on January 11th, 2014)