Tag Archives: Jeffrey Wright

Westworld: Que Sera, Sera & Full Season 4 – TV Review

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TL;DR – While I am not sure it landed its final episode, this season was a successful course correction, and I hope they make that one last test.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for the Binge subscription that viewed this show.

The Man In Black appears from the smoke.

Westworld Review –

Ever since the second season of Westworld failed to capture the dramatic highs of that first season, people felt that it could never live up to the hype it built. However, I still found Season Two to be engaging, and even more, it is still the high watermark for the show for me with Kiksuya. I also enjoyed Season Three’s more streamlined narrative. However, there was a feeling that maybe the show didn’t have much more to explore. Well, if nothing else, Season Four showed the latter assertion plainly wrong. With our review today, we are first going to look at the season [or possible series] finale before taking a broader exploration of the season as a whole.

So to set the scene, at the end of last week’s Metanoia, the host copy of The Man In Black (Ed Harris) went on a killing spree, first killing the original Man In Black (Ed Harris) before taking out Maeve (Thandiwe Newton), Charlotte (Tessa Thompson), and Bernard (Jeffrey Wright). Before that can even sink in, he causes the control tones from the tower to infect every human being left on the planet to send them into a murderous rage. As Dolores (Evan Rachel Wood) with Teddy (James Marsden) tries to stop the carnage, and Caleb (Aaron Paul), his daughter C (Aurora Perrineau), and Stubbs (Luke Hemsworth) try to escape it. One thing is clear: this might end sentient life on Earth. Now from here, we will be looking at the episode and season as a whole, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead.   

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Westworld: Generation Loss – TV Review

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TL;DR – All things become clear, but in a Westworld way that asks far more questions than it answers    

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for the Binge subscription that viewed this show.

Maeve drags Caleb to the evac point.

Westworld Review –

There are many strengths to a show like Westworld. They get to play around in an interesting setting, actors take on these grand roles that let them chew all the scenery, and you get to mess with people’s expectations all the time. In Season Four, we have been getting all those things, and a plot that is moving like a cheater is chasing it in the Serengeti. The question is, can it run out of steam? Well, it hasn’t today.

So to set the scene, at the end of Annees Folles, Caleb (Aaron Paul) and Maeve (Thandiwe Newton) know they we walking into a trap, but not a trap with Caleb’s daughter (Celeste Clark) as bait, and the infestation of mind-controlling parasites as the goal. We open with Caleb screaming as the parasites take control, but Maeve is not ready to get taken out by The Man in Black (Ed Harris) just yet. Meanwhile, Bernard (Jeffrey Wright) and Stubbs (Luke Hemsworth) have been rounded up by the rebels and C (Aurora Perrineau) and her boss (Daniel Wu), who are trying to work out if they are useful or if they should just have them killed. Now from here, we will be looking at the episode as a whole, so there will be [SPOILERS] ahead.  

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Westworld: Annees Folles – TV Review

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TL;DR – We race forward at the speed of light, but I just hope the narrative does not run out of steam before the end.    

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for the Binge subscription that viewed this show.

Bernard's Eye

Westworld Review –

This season so far, we have gotten to see what Charlotte/Dolores (Tessa Thompson) is up to with her possession and host Man in Black (Ed Harris). We’ve gotten to check in with Maeve (Thandiwe Newton) and Caleb (Aaron Paul) as they escape hit squads. Indeed, we even have gotten to see but not really understand what is going on with Christina (Evan Rachel Wood) and Teddy (James Marsden). But there has been one piece of the puzzle that has so far alluded the show. Well, that is till today.  

So to set the scene, at the end of Season 3, Bernard (Jeffrey Wright) discovered that the hidden codes to enter The Sublime were not found in the Supercomputer AI or Dolores (Evan Rachel Wood) but hidden inside of him all along. With that revelation and Stubbs (Luke Hemsworth) bleeding out in the bath, he decided to visit The Sublime to see if he could find a better path for the world. When Bernard arrives, he meets an old friend Akecheta (Zahn McClarnon), who lets him see all the possible futures they have modelled. The only problem is that Bernard dies in all the futures he returns to the real. Now from here, we will be looking at the episode as a whole, so there will be [SPOILERS] ahead.  

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The Batman – Movie Review

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TL;DR – After a long time, they nailed what it is to do a Batman film.   

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene, there is a thing at the end, but you can Google it rather than stay back for it.

Disclosure – I paid to watch this film

Warning – some scenes in this film use flashing lights.

The Batman. Image Credit: Warner Bros. Pictures.

The Batman Review –

 I don’t think it will be news to anyone that the DC Extended Universe has been a bit hit and miss. The race to get to the Justice League film meant that there was no time to establish your characters, and one of the significant casualties of that was Batman. While it was clear that Ben Affleck was throwing his all into it, the character never found its feet. This all led to a mix of emotions when it was announced that there would be a stand-alone Batman film, but DC adjacent and starring Robert Pattinson. Thankfully, I should not have worried.

So to set the scene, it is Halloween in Gotham City, a city that is barely holding it together after years of corruption and nepotism. However, that night Mayor Don Mitchell Jr. (Rupert Penry-Jones) looks at his dwindling polling numbers. A figure appears in the background and strikes. The Riddler (Paul Dano) has made his first kill. However, while the city might be on the precipice, there is at least one farce trying to stop the crime, the masked crusader, the dark night, vengeance himself, the Batman (Robert Pattinson).  

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No Time to Die – Movie Review

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TL;DR – A solid ending for Daniel Craig’s run as Bond, giving James the most to play with as the world explodes around him.     

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene

Disclosure – I was invited to a Press Screening of this film

No Time to Die. Image Credit: Universal Pictures.

No Time to Die Review –

Well, it has been a long time, getting from there to here. Eighteen months since it was meant to be released, and Bond is finally making its return. Part of me was concerned that we would never get to see the film out in the real, another part of me was concerned given how Spectre turned out, but here we are. There is always a trepidation going into the film where you know it is an actor’s last. Thankfully, I should not have been concerned because this film almost knocks off Skyfall as my favourite of the Craig era.  

So to set the scene, we open in the middle of the Norwegian winter as a young girl (Coline Defaud) is looking after her sick mother (Mathilde Bourbin). As she is cleaning up a spill, she sees a man in the window wearing a mask. He is here to kill Mr White, but his family is an excellent second choice since he is not there. In the present, Bond (Daniel Craig) and Madeleine Swann (Léa Seydoux) are enjoying their retirement travelling down the Italian coastline arriving at the town of Matera. Swann is concerned that James keeps looking over his shoulder, but that seems fortuitous given that soon bullets start ringing out across the countryside. 

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TV Review – Westworld: Season Two

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TL;DR – When it works it is some of the best TV on the planet at the moment, when it doesn’t well at least it is still well shot and acted.

Score – 4 out of 5 stars

 

Season Two. Image Credit: HBO

 

Review –

With The Passenger (see review) coming to a close we have reached the end of Westworld’s Season Two. It was a season of competing timelines, the coming of a war, a mother searching for her child, and a lone warrior standing up when everyone needed him too. Today we are going to look at the highs and lows of Westworld’s sophomore season as we return to the holiday destination now turned into a massacre. So say goodbye The Maze and hello to The Door.

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TV Review – Westworld: The Passenger

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TL;DR – It is the end and more than I expected they actually brought the timelines to a conclusion, whilst providing more and more questions for every answer they answered.

Score – 4 out of 5 stars

Post-Credit Scene – There is a Post-Credit Scene.

 

The Passenger. Image Credit HBO.

 

Review –

It started all the way back in Journey into Night (see review) with someone washing up on a beach while surrounded by death at every turn and as the season has gone on it has been more of the same. There has been slaughters, a jaunt into The Raj and Shogun World, betrayals, love, loss, and a threat of a mecha bison. Well after all this time, today we come to the end of Season Two as multiple timelines rush together and we finally make it to the Valley Beyond.

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TV Review – Westworld: Vanishing Point

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TL;DR – We are back to where the rest of this second half of the season has left us, and well I just wish at this point it was a bit more.

Score – 3.5 out of 5 stars

 

Vanishing Point. Image Credit: HBO.

 

Review –

Today we get into the pointy end of the season with the penultimate episode, where lines are drawn, armies marshalled, and the endpoint is in sight. I do have to say coming into this episode I am much more optimistic than I have been for a while. As Season Two has progressed it has felt like it has been a season of diminishing returns as the Dolores (Evan Rachel Wood) and Man in Black (Ed Harris) storylines really started to drag. Indeed, one of the few things that have been getting me through the season has been Maeve’s (Thandie Newton) story of trying to get back to her daughter (Jasmyn Rae). However, all of that changed in last week’s Kitsuya (see review) when we were introduced to Akecheta (Zahn McClarnon) properly was a jolt to the system, but can it continue, well let’s see.

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TV Review – Westworld: Kiksuya

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TL;DR – In a dramatic return to form, Westworld shows that when it is firing on all cylinders it can be so very good, and this week we see it as we focus in on only one character.

Score – 4.5 out of 5 stars

 

Kiksuya banner

 

Review –

Well, this was a complete surprise and I honestly didn’t see it coming. In a season that has all been about jumping timelines, exploding trains, mystery boxes, and rampaging warriors. However, this week we take a step back and focus in on really only one character someone who has been there all season on the periphery and now we find out that there I much more to their story.

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TV Review – Westworld: Les Ecorches

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TL;DR – As we move towards the end of the season the different timelines have started to fall into place and I can see the heart of the story it wants to tell, but I don’t know if I am in for the ride to the end.

Score – 3.5 out of 5 stars

 

Les Ecorches banner

 

Review –

At the end of last week’s Phase Space (see review) I was beginning to wonder how all the timelines crashing together was going to work given what we knew already this season and I postulated that there must be either multiple copies of some of the hosts or that the timelines were not adding up. Well today in Les Ecorches we discover that I was both wrong and right, as we find out that there were two different occupations of the Mesa that included Charlotte (Tessa Thompson) and Ashley (Luke Hemsworth) that had been spliced together, however we do discover that someone has had a couple of clones made, so part marks? And as always a reminder that we will be looking at the episode as a whole so there will be [SPOILERS] ahead.

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