A common criticism that I hear about Clannad is that the ending ruins the show. People seem to think that the events from episodes 17-21 of After Story were all a dream… YOU’RE WRONG!!!
In order to explain what really happened, we’ll have to go back to Series 1, specifically Kotomi’s Arc.
Clannad’s Ending Explained
Remember her?
In case you forgot, one of the key (no pun intended) plot points of the Arc was that her parents have been doing ‘very important research’, this research is later revealed to be the possibilities of multiple worlds. This is later brought up in episode 15 of After Story. Remember this.
In episode 8 of After Story, Tomoya notices an orb of light ascending into the sky. Yukine brings up the legend of the town, being that people are awarded orbs of light when they help others who are in need. If enough of these are collected, a person could potentially wish for whatever they want to.
*I apologise for bringing up episode 16 in the next paragraph. I shed a tear just writing about it*
Fast-forward to episode 16 of After Story. Nagisa is in critical condition, as she is in labour. The baby is delivered, however, Nagisa passes away *let those manly tears flow*.
5 years pass and Tomoya rekindles his relationship with Ushio, as well as wishing peace for his father, with his father moving to the countryside with his mother. This scene is crucial, as Ushio notices an orb of light which enters Tomoya’s chest.
Fun times ensue, until one day, Ushio is struck with the same illness as her mother. After repeated refusal, Tomoya agrees to take Ushio on a trip. Unfortunately, she also passes away (I can’t see what I’m writing through my tears), leaving Tomoya on his own.
Some have speculated that Tomoya also died here, as he now no longer had a reason to live.
Do you remember the sequences with the robot and the little girl? They weren’t irrelevant, rather they piece all the information together. In the final episode, the girl in the other world reaches the end of her journey. After saying some things, she calls the robot ‘father’.
The Robot is Tomoya, the Girl is Ushio
Meanwhile, Tomoya is back where the anime started, he is on the hill slope where he met Nagisa for the first time. He has conflicting feelings, ‘If I didn’t talk to her, none of this would have happened’. She walks past him without saying a word, but at the last second Tomoya shouts out for her, runs up and hugs her.
In this moment, it’s as if Nagisa knows what has happened.
Tomoya wakes up and is beside Nagisa during the birth, only this time, she is alive and Ushio has been delivered. We then get a 5 minute video going through the next 5 years. Most things that Tomoya does is the same as before, but with Nagisa by his side.
So what does all this mean?
Well, the world with the girl and the robot is a world created by Tomoya and Ushio, comprising all the orbs of light that Tomoya gained from helping people throughout the series. If you look closely, you can see an orb of light appear at the end of each arc.
Tomoya collected enough orbs of light to be granted an ultimate wish, so he wished for time to reverse back to when Ushio was born, only with Nagisa surviving the delivery.
He still remembers everything that happened during those 5 years, so he knows what to do now. He has to go to the field with Ushio and talk to his grandmother; he has to make amends with his father. This time though he will be even stronger because he has Nagisa to support him.
In the recap episode, episode 24, Tomoya recounts the entire events of the anime, including that which happened after Nagisa died, to Ushio. Proof that he remembers what happened during those 5 years. Unfortunately Ushio is asleep while he is explaining everything which is awkward
On a side note, I love how the anime does this CG from the VN ^^
The big thing to note is that the anime is based off of a Visual Novel, and in the VN there are 13 orbs of light to collect. When you start After Story in the VN you will have at least 7 orbs, and you will see the bad end, where Ushio dies… That’s it. You can get more orbs of light during After Story which will unlock the true end where Nagisa is revived.
There is one more major confusion surrounding the final scene of the anime. We have an extended ‘epilogue’ where Fuko can smell a familiar girl. She follows the smell and finds the girl from the illusionary world under a tree.
Firstly, she is attracted to the smell because the girl is Ushio from the illusionary world. But why is she there? It’s kind of an easter egg for VN readers. Like I said before, you collect orbs of light in the VN, and when you collect one, it is shown on the title screen under the tree to the left. After all 13 orbs of light are collected and you complete the true end, the orbs of light are replaced with the girl from the illusionary world.
Knives Out is a 2019 American comedy murder mystery film written, produced, and directed by Rian Johnson. Described as a modern take on the whodunit, the film follows a family gathering gone awry, after the family patriarch’s death leads a master detective to investigate. The film stars an ensemble cast, including Daniel Craig, Chris Evans, Ana de Armas, Jamie Lee Curtis, Michael Shannon, Don Johnson, Toni Collette, Lakeith Stanfield, Katherine Langford, Jaeden Martell, and Christopher Plummer.
Knives Out had its world premiere at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival on September 7, 2019, and was theatrically released in the United States on November 27, 2019, by Lionsgate. The film received critical acclaim, particularly for its screenplay, direction, and acting, and has grossed over $162 million worldwide against a $40 million budget. At the 77th Golden Globe Awards, the film received three nominations in the Musical or Comedy categories: Best Motion Picture, Best Actor for Craig, and Best Actress for de Armas.
Plot
Wealthy crime novelist Harlan Thrombey invites his family to his mansion for his 85th birthday party. The next morning, Harlan’s housekeeper Fran finds him dead, apparently having slit his own throat. An anonymous figure hires private detective Benoit Blanc to investigate.
Blanc learns that Harlan had alienated many of the family: he had threatened to expose his son-in-law Richard for having an affair; cut off his daughter-in-law Joni’s allowance for stealing money meant for her daughter’s tuition; fired his youngest son Walt from his publishing company; and cut his lazy grandson Ransom out of his will.
Unknown to Blanc, after the party Harlan’s nurse Marta Cabrera accidentally injected Harlan with a fatal dose of morphine. Minutes from death, Harlan told Marta how to avoid suspicion by making it appear he was still alive after she had driven home, and then slit his own throat. Carrying out Harlan’s instructions, Marta was seen escaping the house by Harlan’s very elderly mother, who mistook her for Ransom.
Because Marta cannot lie without vomiting, she gives only partial answers to Blanc’s questions. Blanc asks her to assist in his investigation. As they search the property, Marta attempts to conceal evidence.
The family is shocked to learn from Harlan’s lawyer that Harlan left everything to Marta. They turn on her, but Ransom helps her escape. At a restaurant, Ransom tricks Marta into confessing to him, and offers to help her in exchange for his share of the inheritance. The other Thrombeys realize that, under the slayer rule, Marta will lose the inheritance if she killed Harlan, but Blanc tells them that they all are still suspects. They try to persuade Marta to renounce her inheritance.
Marta receives a blackmail note with a partial photocopy of Harlan’s toxicology report. She and Ransom drive to the medical examiner’s office, but it has been destroyed in a fire. Marta receives an email with a time and address to meet the blackmailer. When Blanc spots her and Ransom, Marta speeds away. The police catch them and arrest Ransom. Blanc explains to Marta that Harlan’s mother had seen Ransom climbing down from Harlan’s upstairs rooms on the night of his death.
Marta goes to the address in the email and discovers Fran drugged. She performs CPR and calls 911. Marta confesses everything to Blanc, but Ransom has already informed on her. At the house, Marta finds a copy of the full toxicology report hidden in Fran’s cannabis stash. Marta is about to confess to the family, but Blanc interrupts her after reading the report. He brings Marta, Ransom and the police to a room to reveal his deduction.
After Ransom learned at the party that Harlan was leaving everything to Marta, he swapped the contents of Marta’s medication vials so she would kill Harlan with an overdose of morphine, making her ineligible to claim his inheritance. However, Marta, an experienced nurse, administered the correct medicine without reading the labels, and is thus innocent of Harlan’s death. After the death was reported as suicide, Ransom anonymously hired Blanc to discover Marta’s guilt. Fran later saw Ransom swapping the vials back and sent him the blackmail note. Realizing that Marta had given Harlan the correct medication, Ransom passed on the blackmail note to Marta, removing the address and time. He destroyed the evidence of Marta’s innocence by burning down the medical examiner’s office and burning Fran’s copy of the toxicology report. He drugged Fran with morphine and emailed her location to Marta, planning to frame Marta for Fran’s murder.
Marta receives a call from the hospital and says that Fran is alive. Believing that Fran will implicate him, Ransom angrily confesses, vowing revenge. Marta vomits on Ransom; she lied that Fran had survived, and tricked Ransom into confessing. He attacks her with a knife, but discovers it is a retractable stage knife. As Ransom is taken into custody, Marta watches the Thrombeys from what is now her mansion.
My Personal Thoughts
Marta vomits on Ransom after lying about the Fran thing and in a fit of rage, Ransom tries to kill Marta with a knife that turns out to be a prop one that Harlan mentioned earlier in the movie.
In the end, Ransom is taken away into custody past the shocked family who all gather on the drive to see what has happened. Marta takes one of Harlan’s cups that is labeled ‘My House, My Rules, My Coffee’ and she goes to the balcony to overlook the pack of vultures. They all turn round and peer up at her and she moves one of her fingers covering the cup which reveals the top line that says ‘My House.’
Now the movie cuts to credits after this and whilst we don’t get complete confirmation on exactly what the character is going to do with the fortune, personally I believe that she’s too nice of a person to not at least give them all something, especially meg who she vowed to take care of.
I would have loved to have seen her tell them where to go but Marta is still the nicest person in the movie, maybe the nicest person of all time, maybe the new mother theresa.
It’s clear she’s keeping the house though and after the tricks that the Thrombey’s pulled I’d be surprised if she didn’t oust them from it too because yeah, let’s face it, they deserved it.
Well, I really enjoyed Knives Out and it shows that in Hollywood there can still be original properties that make for great movies. All the actors complaining that superhero films have stopped there being a focus on anything else need to take a good look at Knives Out because it’s a perfect example of why they’re wrong and when a good idea is executed well it makes for a really entertaining ride.
Everything in Knives Out just works really well and I could have happily had another half hour of the movie just following the family and all the kinds of things that they got up to.
The cast really compliments the work and overall the film is a brilliant deconstruction of what a whodunnit mystery is that takes the classic elements apart and celebrates them.
Films like this are pretty much either made or broken on their twist and this did keep me guessing throughout which was nice as doing a channel like this often means you pretty much watch the same tropes over and over again.
Knives Out feels like the perfect movie to close out the year and it’s definitely worth going to see in the cinema. It feels like a throwback to Poirot and the murder mysteries of old that retains all of the right elements whilst updating them for modern audiences.
I will rate this Movie 8/10.
Directed by
Rian Johnson
Produced by
Ram Bergman Rian Johnson
Written by
Rian Johnson
Starring
Daniel Craig Chris Evans Ana de Armas Jamie Lee Curtis Michael Shannon Don Johnson Toni Collette Lakeith Stanfield Katherine Langford Jaeden Martell Christopher Plummer
Music by
Nathan Johnson
Cinematography
Steve Yedlin
Edited by
Bob Ducsay
Production company
Media Rights Capital T-Street
Distributed by
Lionsgate
Release date
September 7, 2019 (TIFF) November 27, 2019 (United States)
Judgementall Hai Kya Are you judgmental? is a 2019 Indian Hindi-language black comedy film directed by Prakash Kovelamudi, with screenplay by Kanika Dhillon starring Rajkummar Rao and Kangana Ranaut. Produced by Ekta Kapoor, the film was theatrically released in India on 26 July 2019.
Plot
Bobby is a strange wealthy young woman living alone in Mumbai and working as a dubbing artist. In childhood, she had interfered in a fight between her parents, causing them to fall off the terrace to their deaths. When a producer touches her at work, she reacts by slicing his nose with a knife. She is then sent to an asylum. Her uncle manages her property and offers her house as a rental to a young married couple. Keshav is the husband to Reema. Bobby is obsessed with the couple and spies and stalks them constantly. Reema dies in a fire in the kitchen when a bottle of pesticide explodes. Bobby suspects Keshav and tries to get the police to investigate him but they find no evidence. She hallucinates Keshav threatening her and hits him with a chair in front of the police. She is put back in the asylum. It is revealed that she is imagining things; during electric shock treatment, she remembers that she threw the pesticide on the wife because she hallucinated a cockroach on her.
Two years later, Bobby is taking her meds but not leaving her house. Her cousin in London arranges for Bobby to be an understudy in a re-imagining of the Ramayana that she is helping design. When Bobby meets her cousin’s new husband, it turns out to be Keshav. Keshav warns his wife that Bobby is not stable but his wife does not believe him. Bobby starts to lose herself in the character of Sita that she is understudying. She believes Keshav is Raavan and it is up to her to defeat him. Keshav panics and reaches out to her old boyfriend, Varun, who confirms that she obsesses over things and had imagined him to be a criminal. He breaks into her house and finds boxes of photos with Bobby photoshopped in instead of Keshav’s wife. A photo of Keshav’s wedding to her cousin proves that Bobby knew beforehand that they were married.
Keshav confronts Bobby. The next morning, he tells his wife that Bobby tried to kiss him, and she in turn tells his wife that he tried to rape her. When she later sees Keshav backstage, she grabs an ax and chases him, cutting a rope that sends a light falling. Afraid she has hurt someone, she goes on the run and gains three hallucinatory friends. They take her to a library, where she researches Keshav and thinks she has found evidence that he is a serial killer who takes on new identities and kills his wives. She returns to the house to confront him, dressed as Sita, ties up her pregnant cousin and when Keshav arrives, threatens him. Keshav tries to reason with her before revealing that he IS indeed a serial killer. He even killed his first wife, throwing the match on her after Bobby covered her in pesticide. Bobby fights him and she and her cousin are both saved when Keshav is burnt alive in the same manner in which his victims burned to death. At the end, she strides down the street in London surrounded by her hallucinations proudly declaring that she is what she is and will not change.
My Personal Thoughts
A brutal childhood trauma leaves Bobby (Kangana Ranaut) diagnosed with acute psychosis in her adult years. And after doing time at an asylum for assaulting a coworker, she is let off on the condition that she will stick with her medication. Bobby is a dubbing artist for movies, where she is the voice of the female lead characters. And interestingly, her mind is a medley of all the characters she has voiced. For every time she dubs, she gets obsessed with her onscreen avatar and imagines herself in place of the character. This obsession is dealt with a narrative treatment that’s cool and quirky.
To bring out this element of madness in her further, there’s also a busy wall in her house that has photographs of her dressed as every character she has dubbed for. And deep down, Bobby yearns to be an actor herself, something that her manager cum so-called boyfriend, Varun (Hussain Dalal), is unable to pull off. So he ends up grocery shopping with her more often than ‘getting lucky’ on dates. When he protests, she tells him without batting an eyelid, “Tum aloo ke jaise nahin ho sakte… easy going and adjusting. Be like aloo.”
In the midst of this existence, enter Keshav and Rima (Rajkummar Rao and Amyra Dastur) as her new tenants and a much in love couple. And Bobby gets drawn to their love story, which in her world is too good to be true. But then a murder breaks this momentum and Bobby believes Keshav is the culprit. Is it her overactive imagination, or is it her paranoia to the power ten that has led her to do this instead? The characters here are twisted… and you are left wondering, trying to figure which of the two has blood on their hands.
Bobby is always in a zone – that’s funny and alarming – and in her contorted world, she imagines characters and hears voices. Interestingly, the story leads to a frenzied turn of events, with Bobby’s imaginary world often blurring into shocking reality.
Prakash Kovelamudi’s narrative style is quirky, edgy and one that absorbs you instantly. The mood is set with shots in dappled light, play of light and shadows and high contrast shots. The stylisation of the scenes, characters and sound design ensures that the atmosphere remains intriguing throughout the story.
To give it another dimension, the film brings in an underlying motif of the Ramayana, albeit with a modern day twist. At one point in the film, Bobby tells Keshav, “Ab Sita Ravan ko dhundegi.” ‘Judgementall Hai Kya’ keeps you engaged all the way, though the screenplay in the second half does go a bit awry at times, with some scenes that seem stretched. The climax, something that you’re waiting for, is hurried. Nonetheless, it is worth the wait.
The performances are consistent throughout and it’s delightful to see such talented actors feed off each other. Kangana Ranaut is brilliant as Bobby, as she seamlessly gets under the skin of her character, nailing the quirks and nuances. Even her styling makes a statement without going overboard. Rajkummar Rao, fits into his slightly macho, edgy persona like a glove. We haven’t seen him in a role like this before and he pulls it off fantastically. Jimmy Sheirgill impresses as he breaks out of the one note characters he has been playing lately. Amrita Puri, too, holds her own very well. And Hussain Dalal brings in the comic quotient quite effectively.
‘Judgementall Hai Kya’ keeps the element of suspense alive all the way till the end. The film pushes the envelope as a dark, psychological whodunit, with a social message weaved in that can’t be ignored. The film treads into a zone where Bollywood has rarely been, and just for that, it deserves applause.
I will rate this movie 6/10.
Directed by
Prakash Kovelamudi
Produced by
Ekta Kapoor Shobha Kapoor Shailesh R Singh
Screenplay by
Kanika Dhillon
Starring
Rajkummar Rao Kangana Ranaut
Music by
Songs: Arjuna Harjai Rachita Arora Tanishk Bagchi Daniel B. George Score: Daniel B. George
Cinematography
Pankaj Kumar
Edited by
Shweta Venkat Matthew Sheeba Sehgal Prashanth Ramachandran
Production company
Balaji Motion Pictures Karma Media and Entertainment ALT Entertainment
Tell Me a Story is an American psychological thriller web television anthology series, based on the Spanish television series Cuéntame un Cuento created by Marcos Osorio Vidal, that premiered on October 31, 2018, on CBS All Access. The series was created by Kevin Williamson and stars James Wolk, Billy Magnussen, Dania Ramirez, Danielle Campbell, Dorian Crossmond Missick, Sam Jaeger, Davi Santos, Michael Raymond-James, Zabryna Guevara, Paul Wesley, and Kim Cattrall. On December 17, 2018, it was announced that the series had been renewed for a second season, which premiered on December 5, 2019.
My Personal Thoughts
With opening credits that show Little Red Riding Hood being raped by the Big Bad Wolf, “Tell Me a Story” is about as fun and understated as you might expect. The new CBS All Access series from Kevin Williamson, master of dark and icky shows like “Stalker” and “The Following,” attempts to twist classic fairy tales into his dark and icky mindset (never mind that these stories are already pretty grim). When viewed through their fairy-tale origins, the tales are laughably contrived. As standalone stories, they’re as ugly as they are trite.
Season 1 focuses on “The Three Little Pigs,” “Hansel and Gretel,” and “Little Red Riding Hood.” Sam (Dorian Missick), Eddie (Paul Wesley), and Mitch (Michael Raymond-James) stand in as the not-so-little pigs, forming a hapless gang of jewelry store robbers whose story bookends the premiere. Presumably, Eddie is going through with the heist to fix his leaky roof in the shoddy shack he calls home — probably made of straw (get it?) — and his brother Mitch is joining him to provide for his family, but the metaphors don’t end there. In case anyone is confused why the formerly innocent swine of the O.G. fairy tale are now corrupt, gun-toting killers, don’t worry about it: They’re wearing pig masks, and there are three of them.
Perhaps you’d argue the pigs are still victims in this dark new world, and they’ve been driven to violence by circumstance. That’s still too far of a reach, but one that’s also required to swallow Williamson’s spin on “Hansel and Gretel.” Hannah (Dania Ramirez) and Gabe (Davi Santos) are siblings, but they’ve grown apart since moving to the woods, aka New York City. Hannah is a cop and a veteran, while her brother is a burlesque dancer and a drug addict. When he gets in trouble (lured to a dangerous house! by drugs!), she comes to his rescue. From there, it’s only a question of what duck will ferry them home safely.
Not that that makes a lick of sense. Where’s home? Is it Gabe’s seedy drug den? Is it their unknown parents’ house? Is that a twist yet to drop in this confusing allegory? Despite the overt attempts at grounding the series in a familiar setting — Trump, of all things, is a regular topic of conversation — little in “Tell Me a Story” follows logic, let alone realism. But the third story is where things start to turn vile.
Kayla (Danielle Campbell) has just moved to NYC, after the death of her mother forced her dad to relocate the family in hopes of a “fresh start.” After all, Kayla made some bad friends and developed some bad habits after the tragedy — a 17-year-old smoked pot, you guys! — so clearly the Big Apple is a better place for her than the west coast. Somehow, Kayla keeps making trouble in the quiet little town of Manhattan. She grabs her fake ID, sneaks out of the house, downs some molly with a swig of vodka, and meets the sweetest man you’ve ever laid eyes on. Of course, he lays eyes on her first, staring her down with ferocious intensity that somehow reads as charming to Kayla. The two hook up, and, well, anything else would be a spoiler, but the twist should range from yucky to sickening.
I will rate this TV series 6/10.
Genre
Psychological thriller
Created by
Kevin Williamson
Based on
Cuéntame un cuento by Marcos Osorio Vidal
Starring
James Wolk Billy Magnussen Dania Ramirez Danielle Campbell Dorian Crossmond Missick Sam Jaeger Davi Santos Michael Raymond-James Zabryna Guevara Paul Wesley Kim Cattrall Odette Annable Matt Lauria Eka Darville Natalie Alyn Lind Ashley Madekwe Phillip Rhys Carrie-Anne Moss
Composer(s)
John Frizzel
Country of origin
United States
Original language(s)
English
No. of seasons
2
No. of episodes
12 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)
Gonzalo Cilley Andres Tovar Dana Honor Aaron Kaplan Liz Friedlander Kevin Williamson
Producer(s)
Colin Walsh Hollie Overton
Cinematography
Doug Emmett Charles Grubbs
Editor(s)
Andrew Groves Emily Greene Brock Hammitt Roseanne Tan Zachary Dehm
Camera setup
Single-camera
Running time
42–53 minutes
Production company(s)
Resonant Outerbanks Entertainment Kapital Entertainment
The Promised Neverland (Japanese: 約束のネバーランド Hepburn: Yakusoku no Nebārando) is a Japanese manga series written by Kaiu Shirai and illustrated by Posuka Demizu. It has been serialized in Weekly Shōnen Jump since August 1, 2016, with the individual chapters collected and published by Shueisha into sixteen tankōbon volumes as of October 2019. The story follows a group of orphaned children in their escape plan from an orphanage.
An anime television series adaptation by CloverWorks premiered from January to March 2019 in the Noitamina programming block. A second season will premiere in 2020.
Viz Media licensed the manga in North America and serialized The Promised Neverland in their digital Weekly Shonen Jump magazine.
Summary
Set in the year 2045, Emma is an 11-year-old orphan living in Grace Field House, a self-contained orphanage housing her and 37 other orphans. Life has never been better: with gourmet food; plush beds; clean clothes; games; and the love of their “Mother”, the caretaker, Isabella. The bright and cheerful Emma always aces the regular exams with her two best friends Ray and Norman. The orphans are allowed complete freedom, except to venture beyond the grounds or the gate, which connects the house to the outside world.
One night, an orphan named Conny is sent away to be adopted, but Emma and Norman follow after noticing that she left her stuffed toy, Little Bunny, back at the house. At the gate, they find Conny dead, and they realize the truth of their existence in this idyllic orphanage. Determined to break out of Grace Field House, Norman and Emma join with Ray to find a way to escape along with their other siblings.
My Personal Thoughts
I crave for a new good horror series or movie in the anime medium. And I know this is a sentiment many people share in the community. Good horror is rare nowadays, and this goes double in anime. There are just so many times I can rewatch Higurashi, and as much as I love shows such as Attack on Titan and Parasyte – they don’t maintain the horror aspect for long.
The Promised Neverland was a, well, promising contender for the very small club of good horror anime well before its airing.
As a manga, The Promised Neverland is nowadays considered one of the most acclaimed titles published by Shonen Jump. Yes, the same magazine responsible for popularizing and dominating the shonen battle sub-genre also hosts a manga that could easily pass for a seinen magazine.
And frankly I was a little worried for this anime adaptation due to a multitude of reasons; horror in general is a very hard genre to execute in the anime medium, and the studio responsible for the anime, CloverWorks, are a new name in the industry with a hit-and-miss list of works.
But you know what? After watching the entire show twice, I can safely say that our prayers have been mostly answered.
So without any further delays, let’s review the 2019 anime based on the manga written by Kaiu Shirai and illustrated by Posuka Demizu, directed by Mamoru Kanbe (Letter Bee, Elfen Lied) and produced by studio CloverWorks: The Promised Neverland.
Now I should probably warn you that if you have no idea about what The Promised Neverland is about, close this review and go watch the first two episodes before coming back. The Promised Neverland is one of those shows that only reveal their true nature at the end of the initial episodes.
Okay, so now as the uninitiated are gone, let me explain the series’ premise and sudden plot twist.
Emma, Norman and Ray are three kids growing up in a small orphanage called Grace Field House, circa the year 2045. It’s a lovely place, with Emma and her friends being taken care by Isabella, the orphanage’s “Mother,” who sees to every need of the kids. The kids enjoy excellent food and can play anywhere within the orphanage’s limits.
Of course, if anything, such a “perfect life” premise is never without a catch. And indeed, at some points the kids are supposedly sent away from the orphanage to caring foster family. When one of the kids leaves, Emma and Norman decide to follow her, and their world is turned upside down upon discovering the true nature of their lives.
Demons exist in this world. The orphanage is a little more than a farm for the demons to harvest human children, specifically their brains. And Isabella is merely the overseer of the children’s growth. But that doesn’t stop Emma, who quickly concludes that in order to avoid their gruesome fates, the children must escape the orphanage.
From here on out, over the course of twelve episodes The Promised Neverland focuses on Emma and her friends trying to uncover the truths about their world and hopefully escape before their day of shipment would arrive. What follows is a terrific game between the kids and their seemingly stoic caretaker, with the potential for new, equally dangerous opponents.
One thing that The Promised Neverland excels in, is the best asset horror has: the atmosphere. When the first episode starts, the world seems bright and lively, and the kids enjoy their peaceful lives. Even when a kid leaves for a so-called foster family, it’s a bittersweet departure because the kids are led to believe their friend found a warming family.
But something still feels off, and once The Promised Neverland decides to remove any pretense at being a perfect orphanage comedy, the real dread sinks its teeth into the series. When the three main heroes realize that everything they’ve known throughout their lives was a big lie, their once pleasant home suddenly becomes distant and cold, swarming with an eerie sense of danger from every corner.
Nothing feels safe anymore, and the surrounding forest next to the orphanage at times feels like a less scarier place than being near Isabella. Despite a fairly gruesome shot in the end of the the first episode, The Promised Neverland almost never relies on gore or violence; the suspense and fear come almost purely from great directional shots and excellent dialogue.
While I wouldn’t say The Promised Neverland is the scariest thing, or even anime, that I’ve ever watched, it is still a step in the right direction. Nothing made me jump off my chair or pause the screen to catch a breath, but the series never lost its dark, eerie feel after setting off. Each episode introduced new twists and pieces to enrich the experience, keeping up a good pace throughout all twelve episodes.
And then comes the fact that the orphanage is really just the starting area. Imagine this; even if you could escape what is basically a farm for human brains, there is still an entire world out there, filled with vicious demons who see you as nothing more than a delicious meal. And when your protagonists are little children, the tension and fear grow stronger.
But that might be among my biggest gripes with the series.
The Promised Neverland hints at a much larger setting that is far more dangerous than anything posed in the orphanage. We get bits and hints about the relations between humans and demons, the existence of other plantations and even a tiny glance at the demon society, but little more.
Thankfully, a second season has been confirmed right after this one ended, so we will get our answers, and I do understand the need of the series to keep its cards close to the chest, but when I think of how larger the world of The Promised Neverland really is, I can’t help but feel that this first season is a little more than an appetizer.
And don’t forget: the story is set in the 2040s, which means we have around three decades of lore and mysteries to unravel, and it’s definitely something I’d love to see explored in sequels.
Despite the rather light touch on the setting, I do have to say that The Promised Neverland manages to handle its central theme of life and survival very well. Aside from focusing on the kids desiring to break away from their cruel fates, the series also takes time looking at it from the other side.
Their opponents also present their own struggles to stay alive in a world where they are just as replaceable as the kids, if not moreso. How far one will go, what morals are they willing to stomp on… Those are legitimate concerns and actions the characters ponder on, and the series even acknowledges that selfishness is fine at times.
And to close this segment, let me just say that the ending for this season was amazing. Even if this show wouldn’t have received the confirmation of a sequel, I’d still recommend the series because of how well this season ties up its story arc. It was briskly-paced, engaging and satisfying.
One of my favorite things about The Promised Neverland is how, due to the playful nature of the series and its reliance on tension and surprise, a lot of the characters come off as somewhat two-faced. And not in a bad way, though we do have some characters like that.
What I mean by saying that, is that a lot of the major and even supporting characters manage to sell the idea of “more than meets the eye” almost seamlessly without feeling inconsistent.
For example, you have Emma, the series’ primary protagonist. For the most part, Emma feels and acts like your typical shonen protagonist – itself an interesting choice of a lead for a horror series; she’s wild, energetic, chipper and almost always spots a massive smile on her face.
However, as the bleak reality weighs down on her, Emma depicts another side to her. A colder, more calculating and sometimes even terrifying side that will shock even the most stoic of characters. This change in personality still links to her desire to save her peers, so it never feels at odds with Emma’s true demeanor.
Meanwhile, the white-haired Norman is presented as the calmest of the main trio. In first glance, he appears to be collected and calculating for the most part. But this brilliantly sets the stage for when he breaks due to the series’ main hook, yet at the same he manages to cover his fear with his usual confidence, to the point of easily tricking his caretakers.
Finally we have Ray, who unfortunately I can’t talk about in depth due to a few plot twists regarding his character, but he starts off as the cool-headed and somewhat aloof young boy (it helps that he is voiced by Killua’s voice actress in Hunter x Hunter), only to reveal multiple different sides to him ranging from manipulative to similarly emotionally broken.
And the series really shines when the three of them are together, as the differences in each kid’s mindset and approach to their problems compliment each other beautifully. Not to mention that over the course of the season’s twelve episodes we get to see how deep and organic their friendship is.
But The Promised Neverland also has surprisingly complex and deceptive antagonists. I’m not talking about the demons, though; they don’t get enough time to establish themselves as more than just hungry man-eating monsters. No, the real meat is in “Mother” Isabella and Sister Krone, the children’s primary opponents for the season.
Isabella might be the series’ poster girl for deceptive characters, as she sells the image of a kind and motherly figure before subsequently stomping on said image with a stoic, almost sociopathic control and manipulation over the children. And indeed, she is among the series’ biggest players as she easily deduces what Emma is up to.
At the same time, however, she is not without her humanity, and I was fairly surprised as the series hinted and implied at her genuine love towards the children, both with subtle and obvious character acts. And that is without mentioning the amazing conclusion to her character arc during the show’s finale.
Krone is also a fascinating villain, often showing a disturbing amount of both affection and unhinged terror through expressions and movements alone. Despite her supposed ties to Isabella, Krone is more like a dangerous wild card with loyalties only to herself.
But underneath those psychotic grins, Krone hides genuinely painful experiences in life that make her actions and state of mind more understandable, and while she doesn’t get nearly as much as development or screentime as Isabella, she is undoubtedly a wonderful adversary with enough depth to be able to relate to.
The supporting cast is extremely large, ranging from kids around Emma’s age to babies, to shadowy humans who work with the demons, but given the series’ limited time, only a handful get meaningful appearances, namely Don and Gilda, the two kids closest to Emma, Norman and Ray’s age.
While the series doesn’t focus on them as much as the core trio, both characters get the time to build their personalities and quirks, which sometimes come to blows with their friends. This makes for interesting dynamics, with Don and Gilda being somewhat self-aware that they’re not as important as the leads, but I hope that a second season will throw a bone to their direction.
As I mentioned in the beginning of my review: before its airing, The Promised Neverland had me worried a bit due to the fact it was produced by the relatively new studio, CloverWorks. CloverWorks is an offshoot of the larger A-1 Pictures studio and is best known for its work on Persona 5: The Animation, Bunny Girl-Senpai and, alongside Trigger, Darling in the Franxx.
And while these shows have their merits – Bunny Girl especially is a remarkable experience, I wouldn’t say that visually they’re exceptional. I mean sure, some shots are nice and Darlinghas some great action scenes, but they’re rather inconsistent overall.
But for the most part, The Promised Neverland looks good. At times even great. Vibrant, saturated day scenes contrast the dark, moody atmosphere present at night or inside the walls of the orphanage. Lighting is used carefully, CGI environments are blended surprisingly well and the series employs wonderful long shots to invoke suspicion and dread.
The animation too can get pretty fluid and beautiful from time to time, and you know, it’s the kind of series that has a good enough screenplay to hold its own even if the presentation was lackluster, but I greatly appreciate the effort to polish The Promised Neverland’s aesthetics to a more acceptable zone.
My one fault with the art direction would lie with its character designs. At this day and age it’s not strange to find thriller anime with moe artstyles, but as with many of them, The Promised Neverland included, it may prove to be an acquired taste.
The child characters’ big heads and relatively small faces, alongside their noticeable chins might take an episode or two to get used to, even if I personally think they work well against many of the dramatic scenes.
And this brings me to the biggest criticism I have against the series: Krone’s design. She’s a fantastic character, but her general design might carry a few… unfortunate implications, and we’ll it at that. I do think the writing, at the very least, manages to make up for it.
The soundtrack for The Promised Neverland is probably among my favorites in recent memory, and it’s rather surprising considering that the composer, Takahiro Obata, hasn’t done anything of note beforehand; if to believe MAL, it’s actually his first work.
To tell the truth, if this is Obata’s starter work, then it’s a fantastic way to establish himself as a promising new composer.
As with the rest of the show, what makes the soundtrack of The Promised Neverland work so well is its duality. It has many tracks that are cheerful, upbeat and relaxing such as “Like a Refreshing Morning” or “Tag”, and then it slowly creeps into eerie, chilling pieces such as the aptly named “Tight Tension”.
You even have more experimental pieces such as “Examination”, and tracks that could have starred in more action-heavy shows, including “Training For Escape” and Emma’s downright epic theme with its ominous vocals and hard-hitting guitar chords.
And yes, it will be a disservice not to mention the soft, poignant piece that is “Isabella’s Lullaby”, which might very well stand as the soundtrack’s best track. If there’s one track that deserve to return for a second season, it’s this one.
This doesn’t mean the theme songs are bad; on the contrary they’re pretty damn good. “Touch Off” by UVERworld is a fantastic opening theme that combines rock and electronic music. Meanwhile, “Zettai Zetsumei” by Cö shu Nie is a solmen, yet fast-paced rock song that captures the spirit of the series wonderfully.
There is no English dub yet, unfortunately, but this may be for the best as simulcast dubs tend to be of a slightly lower quality than ones released months or years after the series’ original airing. Unsurprisingly, the Japanese dub is excellent, with special note going for Sumire Morohoshi’s Emma, Mariya Ise’s Ray and Maaya Uchida’s Norman.
It’s suffice to say that The Promised Neverland has exceeded my expectations despite lukewarm thoughts prior to its airing. If studio CloverWorks can maintain the quality that they showed in last year’s Bunny Girl and this series, then we may see a new star in the anime industry, and I’d go as far as to say that The Promised Neverland is the kind of anime thriller that every studio would have wished to have it under its belt. A bold claim, that one might be, but given the horror genre’s status in the medium, not an inaccurate one.
The only real gripes I have with The Promised Neverland are its barely-explored setting and art style, but the former is just a temporary issue for sure while the latter only takes an episode or two to get used to. But in most aspect this series soars; it has an excellent story with good pacing, engrossing themes and fantastic characters. Excellent presentation with a slick atmosphere and flexible shifting style. And a glorious soundtrack to boot. The Promised Neverland is easily one of 2019’s best anime titles so far, and a must-watch for anime fans of thriller and horror.
Code Geass: Lelouch of the Re;surrection (Japanese: コードギアス 復活のルルーシュ Hepburn: Kōdo Giasu: Fukkatsu no Rurūshu) is a 2019 Japanese anime film by Sunrise. It premiered in Japan on February 9, 2019 and ran in over 120 theatres. It is based on the Code Geass anime series, with the plot taking place after the Zero Requiem arc of the recap films’ universe. It is directed by Gorō Taniguchi, written by Ichirō Ōkouchi with music by Kōtarō Nakagawa and Hitomi Kuroishi, all of whom previously contributed to the TV series in the same respective roles. The film has been licensed by Funimation and it had a limited theatrical release in the United States and Canada on May 5, 2019.
“Code Geass: Lelouch of the Re;surrection” is set in the alternate universe which is composed of the 3 previous movies. It is not a sequel to the original series “Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion”, but to the 3 alternate universe movies, which generally kept the same path as the anime series but had a few meaningful changes in characters’ motivations and relationships, and some major changes in the survival of a previously dead secondary character because of the removal of some major events.
Plot
A year has passed since the events of the Zero Requiem, a scheme Emperor Lelouch vi Britannia formulated to end conflict with his death, and Nunnally vi Britannia rules Britannia while aided by her bodyguard Suzaku Kururugi, who has taken the identity of Zero. Nunnally and Suzaku are in the middle of a goodwill visit to a desert nation when they are ambushed by a Knightmare squad; Suzaku is easily defeated and they are abducted. The two find themselves in the custody of Shalio and Shamna, the sibling rulers of the Kingdom of Zilkhistan which has suffered from the world peace crippling their primary export: mercenary soldiers. Shamna explains their plan to use Nunnally to access the collective unconsciousness within C’s World to restore Zilkhistan’s political might.
Suspecting Zilkhistan’s involvement, Kallen Stadtfeld, Sayoko Shinozaki, and Lloyd Asplund infiltrate the country and run into C.C. and a surviving but timid and nonverbal Lelouch. C.C. explains that, after the Zero Requiem, their school friend Shirley Fenette smuggled Lelouch’s corpse to her and that she resurrected Lelouch from the dead by reconstructing his corpse, but his memories and personality are trapped in the collective unconsciousness. The group launches an assault on a Zilkhistan prison, where they rescue Suzaku and discover an Aramu Gate, a portal to C’s World. C.C. uses the portal to fully resurrect Lelouch. Lelouch once again dons the mantle of Zero and meets up with Britannian forces led by his half-sister Cornelia li Britannia and his former lieutenant Kaname Ohgi.
Lelouch’s forces track Nunnally down and find her in a Zilkhistan temple. Lelouch infiltrates the temple and kills Shamna, but she activates her Geass and travels back six hours in the past, allowing her to perfectly predict Lelouch’s actions. Lelouch uses his tactical prowess to deduce the mechanics of Shamna’s Geass and knocks her out. He frees Nunnally, but learns that her mind has been transported into C’s World. C.C. guides him into the collective unconsciousness, and he successfully rescues Nunnally. Suzaku kills Shalio in combat, destroying Shamna permanently. In the aftermath, Lelouch once again bequeaths the title of Zero to Suzaku and departs on a journey with C.C. taking the alias L.L.as his idea of a marriage proposal.
My Personal Thoughts
Not only was it well thought out, it also included characters that I could truly feel connected to. Unlike many other anime titles, Code Geass ended with a well wrapped up conclusion. Though the main character, Lelouch, dies at the end, the ending managed to do justice to the story as well as the characters, providing viewers with a sense of closure.
When news broke about a film adaptation being made, I was skeptical, and even more so when it was teased that Lelouch would return. Though this captured my attention, I didn’t actually think that they would bring back a character whose death provided the perfect ending to the series. I was wrong.
Code Geass: Lelouch of the Resurrection really did bring Lelouch back from the dead. The film began where the series left off, with the world at peace, the way Lelouch intended. However, it’s revealed that there’s more to the power of Geass than we, audiences, knew about. We learn, rather early on in the film that Lelouch is indeed alive and well, dragged into a power struggle where he must use his wit and his Geass in order to save his kidnapped sister, Nunnally.
Though the narrative is familiar, the gripping story telling that I saw in the anime series felt lost in the film. The plot felt rushed and appeared to be something set in motion simply to justify bringing Lelouch back to life. This made the story rather lacking in comparison. However, the film was watchable and in many ways quite enjoyable, particularly in terms of the reunion between characters and watching the ever conniving and cunning Lelouch in action.
The introduction of new characters and more detail into the various Geass powers illustrated that there was so much more to Code Geass than what the anime series provided. The way in which the narrative flowed also illustrates the creation of opportunities for more Code Geass anime or films to be made in the future, an idea that I particularly am not quite sure I like, due to how well the original anime ended. Often, the perfect ending can be ruined by the addition of more story.
In addition to the delight that came from seeing familiar characters return, it was also a treat to see the knightmare frames in action once again, as are the visual effects that come with them. The animation style was exactly as I recall in the series, which of course gave off a sense of nostalgia and added to my enjoyment of the film. It would have been a lot more epic to watch the action, had there been some epic soundtrack to go with it.
Nevertheless, I had mixed reactions to Code Geass: Lelouch of the Resurrection. The animation, action and seeing recognisable characters made the film enjoyable, however, the idea of Lelouch’s return, coupled with a rather slow and lacking narrative made it rather frustrating to continue to appreciate Code Geass overall. It would have been much better had they not done a film or perhaps had better pacing and a story that was more captivating.
All in all, the film was an enjoyable watch, but not one that I would be able to watch a second time around. It’ll be interesting, though, to see what’s next for Lelouch and the Code Geass series.
I will rate this AnimeMovie 9/10.
Japanese
コードギアス 復活のルルーシュ
Hepburn
Kōdo Giasu: Fukkatsu no Rurūshu
Directed by
Gorō Taniguchi
Screenplay by
Ichirō Ōkouchi
Starring
Jun Fukuyama Yukana Takahiro Sakurai Ayumu Murase Nobunaga Shimazaki Wataru Takagi Keiko Toda
Home Sweet Home is a single-player, first-person survival/horror/puzzle video game. It was developed by Thai developer Yggdrazil Group. The game features horror elements drawn from Thai folklore.
It is available on Windows and on VR devices. The game focuses on the main protagonist Tim. His life has drastically changed since his wife disappeared. One night, he wakes up in an unknown place. While trying to find an exit, he is chased by a female ghost. Players have to discover the mystery in Tim’s house and find his missing wife Jane.
My Personal Thoughts
Home Sweet Home Review – Xbox One – The Gamers’ Temple Home Sweet Home is a first person survival horror developed and published by Thai developer Yggdrazil Group. Right from the start, the most unique part about the game is its setting and overall atmosphere. The entire game is completely based on Thai folklore which is unique for survival horror. The game is the first game in a planned series of games, so it’s rather short – only about 3 – 4 hours of gameplay – but it has some good potential in it and some overall good horror moments that many survival horror fans will be interested in.
You play as a guy that travels to creepy areas from his house. The house is the central location where you wind up in between stages, sort of like the room in Silent Hill 4. While traveling to various locations, you’ll be solving puzzles, finding items and avoiding creepy ghosts in order to advance through the stage. The majority of enemy encounters require stealth. You can hide in lockers or take cover behind objects to hide from ghosts and other creatures that you’ll run into. There is very little way to fight back besides some button tapping when certain ghosts catch up with your character. The puzzles are nothing super complex, but some of them have some nice thought in them. You’ll often find hints for the solution of a puzzle near it, but the game doesn’t flat out give you the solution. There are also many hidden collectibles to find per stage and notes to read. If you’re a fan of good jump scares, you’ll find something to like in Home Sweet Home since it has a good bit of them and some of them are very well done. There are many cheap scares, such as doors that slam and other loud noises, but the game also has some VERY sudden creative scares that really got me at points.
The person that you are playing as is searching for his wife (Jane). The wife will appear many times and suddenly get closed off in an area and you’ll have to solve puzzles or find items in order to gain access to her last location. Sadly, the game’s story and characters are very vague. You only get to learn about what is actually going on through diaries and a few cutscenes. It’s interesting that you actually get to learn more about the enemies in the game rather than the main character and his wife. Considering this is the first game in a planned series, the story to the game has good potential at this point however, so we’ll have to wait and see before truly judging the game’s story.
The graphics are overall good for setting up the game’s creepy atmosphere. You’ll find some areas that have some extremely creepy appearances to them, such as a floor of a building that is completely dark with only one door open with red light coming from it, restrooms full of blood, rooms with spell tablets stuck to walls, etc. The enemies all have their own unique sounds such as the ghost woman that walks around clicking her knife and making white noise sounds.
The game has a few instances of random glitches and overall weirdness. Sometimes the AI enemies in the game would get stuck in certain places. The ghost woman once got stuck moving against a wall while walking around and one time she caught sight of my character and got stuck running against a table while trying to reach me. I also found it very humorous that the only part of your character that can be seen in a mirror is his hand when he’s holding a flashlight. It’s kind of creepy in a way. Toward the end, you play a sequence where you’re armed with a candle and knife and can only see two hands holding both objects when you face a mirror. Having an actual character model would help a bunch with immersiveness for areas with mirrors or just cut out the reflection altogether. I also find it strange how some doors open toward your character and actually clip through your character (well, the floating flashlight hand).
The actual ending to the game goes off with a huge cliffhanger – I literally just stared blankly at the screen for several minutes after the cliffhanger with how shocked I was that the game ended that way. It tells you that the story will continue in “Episode II” directly after the cliffhanger. It would have been so much better if the developers would have had more closure to the first episode rather than leaving so many questions unanswered. The final sequence to the game is quite interesting, but so very cryptic with the way it all ends up. If the next episode(s) of the game can fill us in more on what is going on and add more depth to the characters, this game series could have a good amount of potential, but as a standalone game, Home Sweet Home feels too incomplete to rank high among many other indie horror titles.
The Good: + Some really good scares + Overall good atmosphere + The game shows potential for an overall good series
The Bad: – The ending has a very bad cliffhanger – AI glitches here and there – Overall lack of character development and story
I will rate this game 6/10.
Developer(s)
Yggdrazil Group Co., Ltd
Publisher(s)
Yggdrazil Group Co., Ltd
Director(s)
Saroot Tubloy
Producer(s)
Pongtham Nantapan
Designer(s)
Pongtham Nantapan
Engine
Unreal Engine 4
Platform(s)
Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One
Release
Microsoft Windows 27 September 2017 Playstation 4, XBOX ONE 16 October 2018
Ad Astra is a 2019 American science fiction adventure film produced, co-written, and directed by James Gray. Starring Brad Pitt, Tommy Lee Jones, Ruth Negga, Liv Tyler, and Donald Sutherland, it follows an astronaut who goes into space in search of his lost father, whose experiment threatens the Solar System.
The project was announced in early 2016, with Gray saying he wanted to feature “the most realistic depiction of space travel that’s been put in a movie”. Pitt signed on to star in April 2017 and the rest of the cast joined later that year. Filming began around Los Angeles that August, lasting through October.
Ad Astra premiered at the Venice Film Festival on August 29, 2019, and was theatrically released in the United States on September 20 by 20th Century Fox. It received positive reviews from critics, with praise for Pitt’s performance and vivid imagery, but was a box-office bomb, having grossed only $127 million worldwide against a $80–100 million budget.
Plot
In the near future, the Solar System is struck by mysterious power surges, threatening all human life. After nearly dying from an incident caused by a surge, Major Roy McBride, son of famed astronaut H. Clifford McBride, is informed by U.S. Space Command (SpaceCom) that the surges have been traced to the “Lima Project” – created 26 years earlier to search the limits of the Solar System for intelligent life, under Clifford’s leadership – from which nothing has been heard for 16 years after reaching Neptune. Informed that Clifford may still be alive, Roy accepts a mission to travel to Mars to try to establish communication with him, joined by his father’s old associate Colonel Pruitt. It is shown in several scenes that Roy is very emotionally detached. He has no emotional reaction to his wife leaving him, or to the news that his father may still be alive.
After taking a commercial flight to the Moon, Roy and Pruitt are escorted by US military personnel to the SpaceCom base, located on the far side of the moon. En route in lunar rovers, they are ambushed by scavenging pirates who kill their entire escort. Upon arrival at the base, a dying Pruitt is placed into intensive care. Roy transfers to the ship Cepheus, bound for Mars. The ship receives a distress signal from a Norwegian biomedical research space station. Captain Tanner has the Cepheus stop to investigate despite Roy’s protests, and Roy and Tanner make their way to the station. It appears abandoned and the two split up, but Roy soon discovers an escaped baboon test subject feeding on Tanner, who is severely injured in the face. It attacks him when it notices his presence, but he manages to kill it. Another baboon attempts to attack him, but he quickly subdues it and locks it in another module. He then kills it instantly as it attempts to open the door, by depressurizing that module. Believing that he can save Tanner, he tapes over the broken helmet visor of his spacesuit and carries him back to the ship, where he is declared to be already dead. A brief service is held where Tanner’s body is ejected into space. Again, Roy appears to be very emotionless and calm after the violent encounter and death of Tanner. He does admit that he experiences rage, and recalls his father expressing his rage.
Another surge hits as the Cepheus lands on Mars, requiring manual piloting to complete the landing. The interim captain freezes in fear, while Roy remains very calm and takes command of the ship, landing it safely. Roy is led to the underground SpaceCom base where he meets facility director Helen Lantos and is tasked with recording voice messages to send to the Lima Project in hopes that Clifford will respond. During one recording, Roy goes off-script with an emotional appeal to his father and is abruptly taken off the mission on the grounds of his personal connection posing a risk to himself and the mission’s success. From the startled reaction of the recording observation team to his emotional recording, he assumes correctly that immediate response from his father had been received and demands to hear it.
Sequestered in a “comfort room”, he is visited by Lantos, who reveals that she was born on Mars and was the daughter of Lima Project crew-members. She shows Roy classified footage revealing that Clifford’s crew had mutinied and tried to return to Earth, causing him to turn off their life-support systems, her parents included. She tells Roy that the crew that brought him to Mars are leaving to destroy the Lima Project station with a nuclear payload. The two decide that Roy should confront Clifford himself, and Helen sneaks Roy to an underground lake beneath the rocket launch site.
Roy clandestinely climbs aboard as the rocket takes off and is subsequently discovered by the crew, who are instructed to neutralize him. The entire crew is inadvertently killed in the ensuing confrontation. During the long journey to Neptune, a solitary Roy reflects on his relationships with his father and Eve, his estranged wife. The isolation and stress of the mission take a mental toll, but after a couple of months, he arrives at the Lima Project. While approaching the station in a shuttle attached to the Cepheus, the shuttle is damaged in a collision with objects in Neptune’s rings and from another surge, preventing it from docking with the station. Roy enters the station via a space-walk while the shuttle drifts away. Finding the station abandoned and encountering the dead bodies of its crew, he plants the nuclear payload before encountering Clifford, the station’s sole survivor, who explains that the surges are coming from the ship’s malfunctioning antimatter power source, which had been damaged in the mutiny. Clifford has continued to work on the project, refusing to lose faith in the possibility of non-human intelligent life.
Roy copies data gathered by Clifford and his team for the “Lima Project” and persuades Clifford to accompany him back to Earth. He arms the nuclear payload and they climb out on the station’s surface in preparation for returning to the Cepheus. Clifford suddenly uses his spacesuit’s thrusters to launch the two of them off into space. With Clifford pleading for Roy to untether them from each other, Roy reluctantly does so and manages to propel himself back to the Cepheus using his own spacesuit and with a piece of the station’s hull as a shield against Neptune’s ring debris. Without enough fuel to return to Earth, he relies on the shock wave from the nuclear explosion in the station to gain the required speed.
The data retrieved from the base suggests that humans are the only intelligent life in the universe. This inspires Roy to reconnect with those closest to him, and he returns to Earth with a newfound optimism. After expressing his opinions in a psychological evaluation, he reconnects with his estranged wife Eve.
My Personal Thoughts
The masterful sci-fi sees Brad Pitt play astronaut Roy McBride whose father (Tommy Lee Jones) might just be responsible for a series of electrical storms, despite disappearing on a space mission 16 years ago.
So Roy sets out on his own mission to discover the truth behind his father’s disappearance, but does Roy succeed?
Ad Astra has now landed in cinemas after some unfortunate delays, but it’s proved to be worth the wait and packs a punch with its ending.
The masterful sci-fi sees Brad Pitt play astronaut Roy McBride whose father (Tommy Lee Jones) might just be responsible for a series of electrical storms, despite disappearing on a space mission 16 years ago.
So Roy sets out on his own mission to discover the truth behind his father’s disappearance, but does Roy succeed?
Roy’s journey is far from a smooth one. When we first meet him, he literally falls to Earth as a result of one of those electrical storms, which – Roy is told – come from cosmic-ray bursts near Neptune.
That’s where Project Lima, which Roy’s father Clifford was a part of, was last thought to be and NASA believes that the cosmic rays are caused by the antimatter used in the project. They believe that Clifford is carrying on the experiment, unaware that it now threatens the very existence of mankind.
So Roy sets off on his journey, initially just to get to Mars and send a message to his father, fighting off moon pirates and some rabid primates aboard an abandoned shuttle along the way.
He’s shown an SOS message from Project Lima by a friend of his father, Colonel Pruitt (Donald Sutherland), that says Clifford intentionally disabled communications. But it’s not until he’s on Mars that Roy finally learns the truth about his father.
After Roy’s kicked off the mission for being too emotional in his message to his father, Helen Lantos (Ruth Negga) – whose parents were on Project Lima – tells him that Clifford killed everyone else on the project, fearful of them mutinying against him.
Roy sneaks on to the shuttle heading to Neptune, but not without unintentionally killing the rest of the crew when they try to stop him boarding during take-off. Given that the journey lasts 79 days, he has plenty of time to mull over his decision with the isolation challenging his mental state.
When he reaches Neptune, Roy is reunited with his father, who has been carrying out the Project Lima experiment all these years. Clifford blames the Project Lima crew for their deaths, saying that they “never cared” and wanted to quit to head back to Earth.
“You and I have to continue on together to find what science claims does not exist,” Clifford pleads to Roy who replies: “We’re all we’ve got.”
The decision to have Ad Astra‘s big reveal be that there’s no other life in the universe is likely to be one that causes debate, but it also delivers a powerful message.
“What’s frightening for me is if there are aliens out there who are gonna come get us, kill us or eat us or whatever. There will be people who will be upset about it, but I don’t know why because why does it freak us out or terrify us that we have each other. That seems OK to me,” he said.
After the reveal, Roy persuades his father to give up and come home with him, putting an end to the experiment by blowing up the equipment. But Clifford has no intention of returning to Earth. When they head out the airlock to go to the shuttle, Clifford forces Roy to cut him loose and he drifts off into space.
Roy uses the explosion to kickstart his journey back to Earth, and the movie ends with Roy safely back home, hinting at a potential reunion with his wife.
The sequence after he returns was shot this year due to Pitt not being available earlier because he was filming Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. But it wasn’t added because Gray felt the need for a different ending.
“There’s a famous Arthur C Clarke quote about it, either we are alone in the universe or we are not, both are equally terrifying, and that’s true. But, at the same time, Earth’s pretty good. I’ve got my wife and children and they’re great, and I can find plenty of joy in that.
“To rely on false Gods, the idea that there’s these little green men out there that’ll either save us or eat us, to me that’s more horrifying than having to rely on other people.”
“The ending was always part of the design where the guy reaches into the space capsule, and the camera pulls back. Then there was an added coda, the psych eval where he finishes by saying, ‘Submit’, which was something that I had added,” he explained.
“We wanted to make sure the audience understood his transcendence. Not that he was alright and he was gonna be doing great, but that he had been able to come out the other side.
“It was my intent never to make a downer or downbeat movie because, unlike his father, he breaks the cycle and he returns to the Earth. So I wanted his transcendence to be clear. We always thought of it as a coda.”
Directed by
James Gray
Produced by
Brad Pitt Dede Gardner Jeremy Kleiner James Gray Anthony Katagas Rodrigo Teixeira Arnon Milchan
Written by
James Gray Ethan Gross
Starring
Brad Pitt Tommy Lee Jones Ruth Negga Liv Tyler Donald Sutherland
Music by
Max Richter
Cinematography
Hoyte van Hoytema
Edited by
John Axelrad Lee Haugen
Production companies
Regency Enterprises Bona Film Group New Regency Plan B Entertainment RT Features Keep Your Head Productions MadRiver Pictures TSG Entertainment
Distributed by
20th Century Fox (Worldwide) Bona Film Group (China)
Release date
August 29, 2019 (Venice) September 20, 2019 (United States)
See is an American science fiction drama web television series produced for Apple TV+. It is written by Steven Knight and directed by Francis Lawrence. Executive producers include Knight, Lawrence, Peter Chernin, Jenno Topping, and Kristen Campo. The series premiered on November 1, 2019.
Summary
In the distant future, the human race has lost the sense of sight, and society is left to find new ways to interact, build, hunt, and survive. Meanwhile, the wife of blind warrior and chieftain of Alkenny Village Baba Voss gives birth to a set of twins. To his tribe’s amazement, the twins can see.
As word spreads, it gets the attention of a cynical tribe and its queen who will stop at nothing to get their hands on the twins. In order to protect his children, Voss is forced to rely on his instincts and must rally fellow tribes to take down the queen and her tyrannical cult before they can capture the children.
My Personal Thought
Last year, as Apple was lining up programming for its new streaming service, Apple TV+, reports emerged claiming its content offerings would largely be family-friendly, eschewing blood and gory violence, profanity-laden dialogues, and adult-oriented themes that have powered most of the biggest TV dramas of all time. Essentially, Apple was going to do a Disney. But last month’s unveiling of the initial slate revealed those reports were seemingly unfounded. Set aside those shows aimed at children, the six others at launch or shortly upcoming — post-apocalyptic fantasy See, alt-history sci-fi For All Mankind, news drama The Morning Show, psychological thriller Servant, biographical comedy Dickinson, and true-crime drama Truth Be Told — are all certified “A” in India (TV-MA or TV-14 in the US).
See is possibly the most adult of them all, considering it’s clearly trying to be the new Game of Thrones. (Apple reportedly spent $15 million, about Rs. 106 crores, per episode on See, equivalent to what HBO did for Thrones’ final season, which is laughable for an unproven show with no existing fanbase.) Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight is at the helm — that explains the graphic throat slits amongst other brutal scenes — of See, which is set centuries after a virus decimated the human population and deprived the survivors of the ability to see. Now, vision exists only as a myth and anyone who talks about it is dubbed a heretic. For the Apple series, that’s simply an excuse to force its world back to the Dark Ages, even before Game of Thrones’ equivalent setting of the Middle Ages.
But the comparisons to the hit HBO series are superficial, as with the inclusion of a possible incestual relationship between a nephew and his aunt. See has nothing to offer beyond its surface-level premise and violence — no gripping plot, no interesting characters, and no relevant messaging. It’s an empty husk of a show. The only ideas that are touched upon in the first three episodes of the total eight — that’s what critics, including us, had access to — are motherhood, family bonds, and tribe mentality, but See doesn’t know how to craft emotional scenes or build them up. (Francis Lawrence, behind three of the four Hunger Games films, is the director.) Moreover, the Apple series is dry, self-serious, and humourless, which makes it more reminiscent of Britannia than Game of Thrones.
See opens with a woman named Maghra (Hera Hilmar) giving birth to twins — a boy and a girl — in a cave, with help from a mysterious midwife called Paris (Alfre Woodard). Maghra’s husband — but not the father of her children — Baba Voss (Jason Momoa), meanwhile, is off on the frontlines with other members of his tribe, the Alkenny. He’s trying to thwart an assault by the Witchfinders led by Tamacti Jun (Christian Camargo), who has been tipped off by an Alkenny snitch called Gether Bax (Mojean Aria) that the babies’ father is Jerlamarel (Joshua Henry), a lone warrior who can see. Jun has been tasked with finding and capturing him at the behest of Queen Kane (Sylvia Hoeks), and his children become prime targets as well after they are born with sight.
With help from Jerlamarel, the Alkenny escape from the Witchfinders’ clutches and settle in a new land, where Baba Voss cuts them off from the rest of the world to protect his children, now named Kofun (Archie Madekwe) and Haniwa (Nesta Cooper). After Maghra, Baba, and Paris learn the kids can see, they decide to hide the truth from the rest of their tribe, since some of them were willing to hand the babies over to save their own skin. And that was before the Alkenny knew the children were “heretics”. For nearly two decades, the kids then grow up in isolation and secret, using their eyesight to help others and themselves. Meanwhile, Gether, who bears ill will towards Baba and Paris for having burnt his mother at the stake, keeps trying to sabotage the whole thing.
Off in lands far away, Queen Kane — leader of the Payan tribe — is battling dissenting subordinate voices and hence intentionally preaches contrasting philosophies to retain power. Publicly, she blames vision for causing the apocalypse in the first place, claiming men did evil deeds because they could see. Empty words considering the pain and destruction caused by the Witchfinders. Privately, Kane reveals she wants to find Jerlamarel so she can use him to bring more babies with sight into the world, which would help make her stronger. Her palace, which is set inside an abandoned dam that generates hydroelectricity, is one of a few remnants of the futuristic past on See, alongside a record player — the only piece of technology on-screen — owned by Kane.
The biggest problem with See is on a script level, as the writing virtually gives us no insight into its characters, who seemingly exist to move the narrative forward. Forget hinting at potential character arcs, we know barely anything about most of the protagonists and antagonists after the first three episodes. Baba Voss, Queen Kane, and Gether Bax are the most developed of the lot — and by most, we mean “very little” — while we are given next to nothing for Paris and Maghra, who can be described as simply the mother. As further proof of how little it has to say, characters repeat the same thing over and over when it comes to their primary motivation or stance on a topic. It’s almost as if See thinks its audience can’t be bothered to focus on what’s happening on screen.
Beyond the lacklustre writing, See also fails to deliver on action sequences, which are usually reliant on the stupidity of villains to allow the heroes to come out as victors. They also betray a lack of scale at times, all the more surprising if Apple has really spent the reported figure of $15 million per episode on See. Game of Thrones shot its initial seasons at half of that average budget, and the HBO show still managed to look more impressive. See’s character roster is much smaller than Thrones as well, where there were so many families that it could repeatedly kill primary characters for much of its runtime without crippling the narrative. That means there are less stakes to its action too, since See can’t afford to kill off any of its core group of characters.
Additionally, See’s central conceit — a virus that killed most and blinded the rest — does turn into a bit of a joke now and then since everyone is a bit of a Daredevil on the Apple series. Relying on the scientific backing of how losing one sense rewires the brain and boosts others, See essentially grants superpowers to its characters. With everyone on the show being blind, that means everyone has more acute hearing, with different applications ranging from detecting lies, estimating the size of an incoming threat, and sensing movement beyond the horizon. (A select few others have more equipped noses that allows them to pick up on abstract things such as fear, which isn’t as helpful, naturally.) But the lack of variety lessens the appeal.
All that comes together to make up a show that has clearly nothing going for it. Strangely, Apple has already renewed See for a second season before it has even released, though a report claims that the series will see “a change at the top”, which means either of Knight or Lawrence — or both — are set to make way for someone else. Whether that will improve See is debatable though, given its current status as a disastrous, utterly forgettable attempt to be the next Game of Thrones. There’s no shortage of contenders in the space too, what with Amazon, Netflix, and HBO itself all trying to fill that void. But for Apple, the quality of its originals is paramount since it’s not going to offer anything else, unlike others. Sure, it has money to throw at TV+, but See is proof that its customers should think twice.
Genre
Action-adventure Drama Science fiction
Created by
Steven Knight
Directed by
Francis Lawrence
Starring
Jason Momoa Alfre Woodard Yadira Guevara-Prip Nesta Cooper Sylvia Hoeks Archie Madekwe Christian Camargo Hera Hilmar Mojean Aria
Composer(s)
Bear McCreary
Country of origin
United States
Original language(s)
English
No. of seasons
1
No. of episodes
8 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)
Francis Lawrence Steven Knight Peter Chernin Jenno Topping Kristen Campo
Production location(s)
British Columbia, Canada
Camera setup
Single-camera
Production company(s)
about:blank Quaker Moving Pictures Chernin Entertainment Endeavor Content Nebula Star
The second season of the animated television series Teen Titans, based on the DC comics series of the same time by Bob Haney and Bruno Premiani, originally aired on Cartoon Network in the United States. Developed by television writer David Slack, the series was produced by DC Entertainment and Warner Bros. Animation. The series focuses on a team of crime-fighting teenaged superheroes, consisting of the leader Robin, foreign alien princess Starfire, green shapeshifter Beast Boy, the dark sorceress Raven, and the technological genius Cyborg. The season focuses on a new character, Terra, a hero possessing the ability to move the earth while struggling to accept her boundaries and the Titans as her friends.
The season premiered on January 10, 2004 and ran until August 21, 2004, broadcasting 13 episodes. The season also aired on Kids’ WB on later dates. The season re-aired on Kids’ WB during the 2007–08 U.S. network television season on The CW for the final time, but instead airing episodes out of order.
Warner Bros. Home Video released the second season on DVD in the United States on September 12, 2006 and in Canada on September 26, 2006. Upon release of the season on DVD, the season received critical acclaim with the Terra story arc being singled out for praise.
My Personal Thoughts
t’s refreshing watching a show like Teen Titans – this second season just as much as the first. Fans of American animation have had much to be happy about this past decade, especially in the superhero realm, but just when you think you’ve seen it all, along comes a show like this one. That isn’t to say that it’s unlike anything you’ve ever seen, it just might be unlike anything you’ve ever seen – that is to say, the visuals in this show are delightful. Combining the best of anime (exaggerated faces, enacting metaphors, etc.) with the more static American cartoon style, Teen Titans‘ second season is as fresh as it is fun.
And, really, that’s what keeps you watching. While the visuals may sweeten the confection, it’s ultimately the stories that keep you sticking your hand back into the candy jar. These are small, simple little episodes, but they’re just so gosh darn fun that you don’t care that they’re so basic.
Date With Destiny puts a fun twist on the old formula when a villain – the obviously demented Killer Moth – demands that in addition to fortune and power, in exchange for not destroying the city, Robin must take his teenage daughter to the prom. A jealous Starfire tags along, morphing into all sorts of funny caricatures before night’s end.
Winner Take All is an entertaining action-packed episode that isn’t scared to admit that its sole purpose is to show us a bunch of really cool fights. From Aqualad vs. Speedy to Wildebeest vs. Beast Boy, the spectacle is animated mayhem at its best. There’s also the more serious Transformation in which Starfire begins to go through a thinly-veiled version of Tamaranian puberty. The cool part comes when a creepy intergalactic spider-creature tries to eat her as she becomes a cocoon.
Another excellent plus to this collection, and this show, is the series’ willingness to experiment with visuals. In the first season it was the MC Escher-inspired Mad Mod, and in season two we have the Crayola-covered Fractured. When Robin is introduced to the impish “Nosyarg Kcid” (Dick Grayson, backwards), the Titans are thrown into a topsy-turvy world that looks to have been drawn with a box of crayons. There’s a long chase scene which, combined with the energetic music, makes for a very entertaining episode.
But the best part of the season is the multi-part “Terra arc.” Introducing the famous Titans comic book character, the episodes paint a nice portrait of friendship and betrayal – on the small, kiddie-oriented screen. As long as you keep in mind the target audience, you should enjoy the story. Simple though it may be, you’re still moved by season’s end.
Of course, the show’s main baddie, Slade (the badass mercenary also known as Deathstroke in the comics) is back for more foiled attempts at stopping the Titans. His recruitment of Terra as an apprentice is nice, but it would have been even better to get some more dimension out of the one-note villain. While the show is great to look at and the stories are fun, if only it tried to push the emotional angle, for both its heroes and villains, just a little bit more, it would really be something.
While it’s not perfect, it’s still a heck of a lot better than most animated shows out there. Traditional fans of DCU cartoon shows (Batman: The Animated Series, Justice League, etc.) may balk at the anime-inspiration behind the show, but Teen Titans should not be missed by anyone who enjoys animation. It’s a fun, funny little show, and I already look forward to the next release.
CapitanArsalan
Date With Destiny puts a fun twist on the old formula when a villain – the obviously demented Killer Moth – demands that in addition to fortune and power, in exchange for not destroying the city, Robin must take his teenage daughter to the prom. A jealous Starfire tags along, morphing into all sorts of funny caricatures before night’s end.
Winner Take All is an entertaining action-packed episode that isn’t scared to admit that its sole purpose is to show us a bunch of really cool fights. From Aqualad vs. Speedy to Wildebeest vs. Beast Boy, the spectacle is animated mayhem at its best. There’s also the more serious Transformation in which Starfire begins to go through a thinly-veiled version of Tamaranian puberty. The cool part comes when a creepy intergalactic spider-creature tries to eat her as she becomes a cocoon.
Another excellent plus to this collection, and this show, is the series’ willingness to experiment with visuals. In the first season it was the MC Escher-inspired Mad Mod, and in season two we have the Crayola-covered Fractured. When Robin is introduced to the impish “Nosyarg Kcid” (Dick Grayson, backwards), the Titans are thrown into a topsy-turvy world that looks to have been drawn with a box of crayons. There’s a long chase scene which, combined with the energetic music, makes for a very entertaining episode.
But the best part of the season is the multi-part “Terra arc.” Introducing the famous Titans comic book character, the episodes paint a nice portrait of friendship and betrayal – on the small, kiddie-oriented screen. As long as you keep in mind the target audience, you should enjoy the story. Simple though it may be, you’re still moved by season’s end.
Of course, the show’s main baddie, Slade (the badass mercenary also known as Deathstroke in the comics) is back for more foiled attempts at stopping the Titans. His recruitment of Terra as an apprentice is nice, but it would have been even better to get some more dimension out of the one-note villain. While the show is great to look at and the stories are fun, if only it tried to push the emotional angle, for both its heroes and villains, just a little bit more, it would really be something.
While it’s not perfect, it’s still a heck of a lot better than most animated shows out there. Traditional fans of DCU cartoon shows (Batman: The Animated Series, Justice League, etc.) may balk at the anime-inspiration behind the show, but Teen Titans should not be missed by anyone who enjoys animation. It’s a fun, funny little show, and I already look forward to the next release.
My Simple Explanation 