nargon

There is only one major issue with this film, and that is that the third act feels incredibly rushed. Every major issue stems solely from the fact that it needed to be twenty minutes longer. That being said, I have a phenomenal time watching this and will definitely go again! The characters were fun and engaging, particularly Ben Wang as Li Fong. He carries an energy and charisma essential to the position, and is clearly an excellent martial artist. He carries the weight of the entire movie well, although Jackie Chan and Ralph Macchio, while relegated to supporting characters, bring their usual heart and soul, and we get a moderately sized new supporting cast in the form of Ming-Na Wen, Joshua Jackson, Sadie Stanley, and Wyatt Oleff, who each bring something unique and charming to their parts that made me care about each of them.

Technically, the film is wonderful. The lighting and sound design stuck out to me the most, very realistic but with enough pop to make the shots and fight scenes sing a symphony for your eyes and ears, on top of the actual symphony that is the beautiful film score by Dominic Lewis. The fights themselves are fantastic, three specifically make an awesome showcase of Ben Wang and the stunt team's skills and have the Classic Jackie Chan flair, even if a couple of the faster fights are slightly harder to follow visually at times. As for story, I appreciated the choices they made as a framework, such as starting with a character that is already proficient in martial arts, unlike his two predecessors, and the idea to give him prior trauma beyond the prerequisite "dead dad". They also do a good job of setting up the need for him to fight in the final tournament, however...

The film is so short that the ending is fairly abrupt. Don't get me wrong, it is still fairly satisfying and the very last scene is perfection itself, but there is not much time to really soak in the story or give the characters much time to come to terms with the situations they find themselves in. There are several montages, and the last third feels like one long one until the final confrontation. The villains also leave something to be desired. While Aramis Knight's Conner feels like a definite threat, as does his sensei O'Shea, and their animosity with the heroes does carry hight stakes, some of that threat wanes towards the end as we just don't get to explore them much.

Nevertheless, the film has my recommendation. It's no masterpiece, and the one big problem it has, time, is a BIG one, speaking of it solely as a piece of film. But it was fun, energetic, funny, heartwarming, beautiful, and with just the right hit of nostalgia to make you cheer at a couple parts. So with all that in mind, go buy a ticket and have a great time.

Honestly, I am enjoying this show immensely so far. The actors are going for broke, the style looks fantastic (finding out the production designer, Dan Hennah, was the same one who worked on Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings trilogy made me understand why I like the visual style so much), and I'm really liking the way the main character dynamics are shaping up. However, I do have one major gripe; non of the gods we've met so far feel dangerous.

The gods in the book are, well, immortal, super powerful beings that can vaporize you with a look if you cross them. They are to be feared, and if you don't fear them, you'd better be willing to face their wrath. So far in this series, we have gotten no glimpses of the power the Olympians posses, only threats and frowns. They don't give off the literal vibes they gave off in the books, and have yet to display anything supernatural about them at all. The characters don't show nearly enough fear towards them, and I don't blame them, they aren't scary.

While that definitely deflates the episode a bit, especially in the climax, the main focus is on continuing to develop Percy and Annabeth's relationship, and on this front I feel they hit it out of the park. The length is also an improvement from the last installment, but it was still too short for my liking. Could absolutely have used an extra five minutes to make the retrieval mission a little more interesting. As for the story change made to this chapter from the book, I don't necessarily dislike it, since it is meant to facilitate Annabeth's character arc just as the last episode was meant to jumpstart Percy's, though I do think the show could stand to embrace the silly antics and ridiculousness of the original a bit more. One mustn't lose sight of the fun while telling a serious story.

Still, a good episode. I'm hopeful the next one will be longer, and bring back a little of that crazy fun the books did so well.

While it is good seeing David Tennant's Doctor and my personal favorite companion back together, hearing Murray Gold's beautiful score, and enjoying some wonderfully composed shots from director Rachel Talalay, the episode unfortunately commits many of the missteps I was hoping they would avoid, but suspected they wouldn't. Despite still having a talent for writing excellent prose, and being able to write characters who (mostly) talk like normal people, the writer of this episode was saddled with having to establish a great deal in fifty odd minutes, leading to a quite clunky opener to this anniversary three-parter. This is, of course, excusable. What is less excusable is the treatment of the main character by the other characters. The Doctor, fresh from regenerating from his previous, female self, is openly mocked by several of the supporting characters for no other reason than his gender. While I have no issue with the Doctor having been a woman, and I have no problem with Donna insulting the Doctor to a degree (her argumentative nature being a core part of their prior relationship), the Doctor is made to feel degraded and humiliated for not understanding the frankly unintelligible ending of the story, which is, of course, put down to him being a man instead of a woman.

While the Doctor should never be portrayed as perfect, something most incarnations have no issue with achieving, he should also not be told to his face that he is stupid and it is because of his physical makeup, for the sake of a cheap laugh. The Doctor, after all he has done for the universe, deserves a lot more respect. Apart from that, the general messaging throughout the episode still evokes much of the eye rolling moral-lessons-without-substance-to-cushion-it that pushed many fans away from the franchise during Capaldi's era. While it is not wrong to have messaging, indeed, morals and messages have always been an important part of Doctor Who, the story should never work it so hard as to be inescapable, or integral to the plot. Doctor Who has always been at it's best when the message is secondary to the main story.

To that point, I have hopes that the second episode, without the baggage of reintroductions and establishing, very clearly, it's virtues, will be a better experience. We''ll see if that instinct is correct. Doctor Who has a lot of bad will to overcome from the fanbase, here's hoping there is more to it's supposed "return to form" than some familiar faces and unearned lectures.