Seraphim Falls

Seraphim Falls is something of a peculiarity. The underlying plot is very simple - Carver (Liam Neeson) is hunting down Gideon (Pierce Brosnan) for something Gideon did during the Civil War several years ago. The film attempts to keep suspense by feeding what occurred to the characters in the past in bits and pieces. This works for the most part, but it does tend to get annoying.

The entire story is set amidst a backdrop of the Western frontier, with huge expanses filled with sparsely populated towns a common sight. Western movies have not been a popular genre lately, and this puts Seraphim Falls in a uniquely king-of-the-hill position. The film uses a wide variety of shots such that the audience feels like they're traveling through the new frontier with the main characters. But at its heart, this is a tale of revenge and many elements should be familar to the modern audience.

Both Neeson and Brosnan deliver performances befitting their character. I was very surprised at how well Brosnan fit into the Civil War era (his unshaven beard has a large part to do with this), especially well seeing him brings up images of him in the James Bond films. Neeson, on the other hand, gave the impression of a very stiff character where I would have liked to see more life put into the character.

Overall, this film takes itself very seriously, so audiences intending to watch this should make sure to understand the themes of revenge and the duties of a man in this era. With this mindset at hand, an audience will find that there is a strange beauty in all the senseless killing on screen.

Pros: It's a Western!
Cons: Nothing novel about the storytelling here. Ending's a little on the pseud0-supernatural side.
Conclusion: This is a film for anyone who wants to watch Nature with guns and maybe learn some survival techniques at the same time.
Score: 3.5/5

Heroes, Season 1

Heroes - a show that started with such high hopes. With a truly unique presentation style reminiscent of comic books, Heroes quickly captured America's attention, riding the wave of all those recent Marvel and DC movies. However, Heroes seems to have lost itself in the midst of all the attention and thus finished the season with a mere whimper.

Early on, the show took a slow approach to the whole special power business, very much in line with tagline ordinary people with powers. As time passed, however, many characters were introduced with little or no backstory. The entire story has always been moving toward a nuclear detonation in New York, and the show always gave the indication that all the characters would be connected somehow in the greater story. But this did not pan out. The characters all just happened to be in the same place in the finale episode. This is not how fans should be treated.

Another very annoying aspect of Heroes is that it falls in the new trend in drams to keep the audience in the dark, as if not explaining elements of the plot helps the whole thing succeed. This is a device that should be used with caution, and blatant uses of it here in Heroes are frustrating and serve only to discourage potential viewers. It's hard to going into any more details without spoiling the plot, but I certainly hope that NBC can pick up the slack and deliver something we really want to watch.

Pros: It's X-Men without the license. And everybody likes the X-Men.
Cons: Random characters, random stories, random powers. Is anyone directing this thing?
Conclusion: Now that 23 episodes have passed, Heroes will hopefully get better next season. Good thing each season is a fresh start so none of the bad things of this season should carry over.
Score: 3/5

24, Season 6

So Season 6 is finally over. Of course, I'm talking about the mega-hit Fox show 24, where super-agent Jack Bauer leads the fight against all sorts of crazy terrorists trying to take a shot at the USA. 24 has always been a classic good-vs-evil story: good always prevails. But what 24 brings to the mix is the price of that victory - what cost, if any, is acceptable?

Ever since the first season, 24 has distinguished itself with an unpredictable storyline, quick and satisfying action, and a pseudo-plausible set of events. However, after five exciting seasons, cracks may finally be showing. Are the authors running out of ideas? If this season is any indication, 24's future success may need some re-evaluating.

Quick recap of this season: Muslim fundamentalists attempt to detonate suitcase nukes around the country. Lots of finger pointing occurs while CTU attempts to find out the real mastermind. While it took a lot of episodes in Season 2 for suspense to build up regarding the nuke in that season, this season's nuke just simply went BOOM in the suburbs of LA. Even though it was a nuke, it wasn't very exciting. After that, Jack goes about his usual self and the most retarded end to this whole affair comes about. I'm not going to give any details, but drunk guys in a bar are involved. A completely different storyline spins off here involving the Chinese. We knew these guys would return, so why didn't the producers give them a full season's treatment? It seems very strange that Jack (imprisoned by the Chinese at the end of last season) is released in the beginning only to face his captors later on in the same day. During all this, we're also subjected to humanizing efforts in the form of introduction to Jack's family, which for the most part are rather mundane and can lead only to the conclusion that Jack has one screwed-up family.

Aside from some logical potholes along the way, this season also suffers from copying itself. Things like CTU getting attacked (you'd think these people would have stepped up their security by now), possible mole in CTU (same thing here), Jack getting arrested and asking Chloe for help, etc. are becoming overly repetitive. With the use of torture complained about by the military, 24 really needs to find other outlets to engage the audience. And having more action sequences is not going to cut it. Having Jack unrealistically shoot down a bunch of baddies is not fun to watch anymore. Rather than repeating gunfights in different locales, more creative gunfights need to be arranged, be it new weaponry or team tactics. This series really need a huge overhaul.

Pros: Great visuals. By that I mean Jack Bauer.
Cons: Plot is simple, generic, and repetitive. Need smarter (and better equipped) terrorists.
Conclusion: Definitely the low point of the series so far. Let's hope it doesn't get any lower.
Score: 2.5/5