Chuck - Season 5

For its entire existence, Chuck has been an uneven show. There are some things it has always done well, mostly involving making its central characters sympathetic and likable, though they've been known to make annoying decisions at various points. There are some things it has had trouble doing consistently, but can often manage. It is occasionally very funny, though it also often isn't, especially when they return to the Buy More for yet another boring B story. And there are some things it has never quite gotten right, mostly involving the spy stuff. It will have moments of inspiration or clever homage, but it's often buried in too many references or plotting that is just poorly thought out and irritating. None of these aspects of the show really changed in the show's brief fifth and final season, but I would say it's probably the show's best since the second, because the action/drama side was at least occasionally competent, and the focus was on giving those likable characters fitting conclusions, and they all got fitting and occasionally touching send-offs, even Jeff and Lester, the bozos who are usually tolerable at best.

The silly idea of the Intersect has always been central to the spy aspect of the series, and that's once again the case this time, though they thankfully managed to put a twist on it by no longer having it stuck in Chuck's head the whole time. It's still the center of the plot though, as a bunch of guest actors and returning villains are brought on and dealt with in rapid fashion as the show teases some possible story arcs but doesn't really stick with any of them for a long time. The last handful of episodes do finally build a sense of momentum with a bad guy who lasts more than an hour, and a gut punch of a plot twist that is surprisingly effective considering how terrible the scene in which it occurs is. It leads to an ending that is not quite the comfortable fairytale finale I was honestly expecting, but is still a touching and hopeful one that does justice to characters who have maintained my affection despite the show's many ups and downs over the years. Chuck was never as good as I wanted it to be, never managing a way to mix espionage and humor in a way that does justice to both, and never quite doing enough with a protagonist that manages to be relatable to nerds rather than an irritating stereotype of one. But while it had flaws, it never stopped being easy to root for, and I'm glad the creators got the opportunity to end the story in an acceptable way despite the series never really growing beyond its small but dedicated audience.

Chuck - Season 4

I'll admit that I was pretty darn close to breaking up with Chuck. It conflicts with a superior show on Monday night (the one I blogged about yesterday), it was never that great in the first place, and the way it flailed about this season searching for anything interesting to do was getting pathetic. The specifics of its fifth season renewal though made me decide to stick with it to the end. It'll be airing on Friday where there's less competition for my attention, it's definitely the last season, and there will only be 13 episodes. This along with the relatively decent way they wrapped up this year was enough for me to stay on board. I've never loved Chuck due to its bad plotting and distracting, usually failed attempts at humor, but there's something charming about it that starts with the main cast (besides Jeff and Lester) and ends with the fact that their relationships are often able to overcome the frequent failures of its storytelling. Most of the characters besides Casey tend to annoy me once in a while, but never enough that I get sick of seeing them (Again, besides Jeff and Lester. As solid as the end of the finale was, it would have been better if the Buy More exploded and then got sucked into a wormhole that prevents it from ever being rebuilt).

This season expanded on the family history that drives the spy intrigue on the show by bringing in Chuck's mother, played by Linda Hamilton, an apparent traitor to the CIA. But obviously that's not the whole story, and there's a whole bunch of stuff involving her and her mission and Timothy Dalton's Alexei Volkoff, a villain who's not quite who he seems and has own family issues and blah blah blah. It's all for the most part less interesting than the overarching stuff that came before, and it's not helped by the fact that the show again didn't get a full season order at first and so had to develop and try to pull off consecutive stories on the fly, which isn't that easy to do.

What's worse is just the continued inconsistency of the individual episodes. It's anyone's guess each week whether the show will be a pretty fun time, kind of bland, or a total train wreck. Feeling the need to have someone for Chuck to lie to, some of stuff in his relationship with Sarah that arises from his absurd insecurities, a lot of Morgan's subplots - they just become really irritating and make it easy to forget why you liked the show in the first place. They generally do a good job when a season (or mid-season) finale is coming up of pulling things together, but otherwise there's no knowing. And there are so many shows that manage to be at least passable every week that it's hard to keep excusing after four years. Still though, as I said, there are only 13 episodes left, and they aren't interfering with anything major going on, so I'll watch them. I hardly owe the show anything, but I'll do it the favor of watching it try to tie everything they've done into one neat package.

Mass Effect 2

Review at Player Affinity

Full Metal Jacket

Stanley Kubrick's final film exploring war (he made quite a few) is really two movies in one. They're connected by characters, but they really couldn't be more different. Well... they could. But you know what I mean. In the first part, real-life military man R. Lee Ermey establishes the hard-ass drill instructor persona that would carry his career for the rest of his life. He's training a group of recruits at Parris Island for entry into Vietnam, and suffice it to say he's not a very nice man. Long, elegant tracking shots follow him around the barracks as he berates the crap out of his men in endless, creative diatribes that are so infamous that practically every single line is a recognizable quote all these years later. It's pretty entertaining, although the story takes a dark turn when Vincent D'Onofrio's character's continued failures and screw-ups cause Ermey to turn the other soldiers against him, which eventually results in an untenable situation.

The movie then jumps a couple years to show a couple of the soldiers now stationed in Vietnam. The narrative is a lot more jumpy and disconnected at this point, although there's still a lot of harrowing, memorable stuff going on. Adam Baldwin shows up, looking surprisingly close to how he does now, playing an unusually minded machine gunner who ends up being key to many of the events down the road. There's a hodgepodge of war scenes and more contemplative stuff, the former always amazingly well shot and the latter sometimes funny and often poignant. Eventually things go real bad, as they are wont to do in war movies, and Kubrick really gets to the heart of the darkness involved in battle. It's not a very long movie and it gets fairly scattershot in the second half, but it has many powerful ideas sprinkled throughout, as well as some very nice performances. The use of music is again memorable, from the funny marching songs in the beginning to the soundtrack selections in the end. Not Kubrick's best work, but still distinctly his.

Chuck - Season 3

Chuck is sort of like the little engine that could. It's not quite a great show, and its ratings are never better than decent for NBC. But its strengths tend to overcome its faults enough to keep it fun for fans, who exist in just large enough numbers to keep it going despite the odds. As hard as it might have been to believe a couple years ago, it will get a fourth season, and I'll still be watching.

If I had to break down the show's formula (and I have), it's roughly made of one third pretty good comedy, one third pretty good spy stuff, and one third bad soap opera. You can play with the portions a bit, but that's about how it hashes out. Not all of the jokes land, and in fact I'm kind of sick and tired of the Buy More (which made the season finale especially fun), but on occasion it will have a truly brilliant comedic moment, such as when Awesome has to lie to Ellie and ends up talking about a bear getting decapitated. And while the international intrigue stuff sometimes seems a bit rote and the bad guys a bit uncoordinated and stupid, it's hard to say it's not usually fun to watch Chuck and his crew pull off a job. Casey in particular continues to be a great character, if a bit of the typical tough guy. My favorite moment of the season might have been when he convinced Chuck to yank his tooth out to maintain a cover.

But yeah, that soapy stuff... it's bad. You ever notice how many problems on TV would be solved a lot easier if everybody stopped acting like idiots and just spoke honestly? That's definitely a recurring problem with this show. The writers can argue that you need tension for an exciting show, and I'd counter by saying they should write drama that doesn't count on its characters being morons to work. They finally go somewhere with Chuck/Sarah thing this season, although it continues to be hindered by silly problems and things like Chuck lying to everyone for no real reason. By the end of the season I was more pissed at Chuck than anyone else on the show, because for some reason he seems to have translated "deception is vital to being a spy" into "pointlessly lie to your loved ones all the time". The season ends well enough, although I could have done without yet another promise to quit the job when you know he's going to be back by the end of the next season premiere. Should be fun.

Halo 3: ODST

ODST has caught some flack from various sources for charging full price for less than a full product. I can't totally justify speaking either way because I paid twenty dollars less, but I don't see how the game is worth less than others in the series. It might just come from the fact that there's a 3 in the title and the words "expansion pack" were tossed around early on. The game does feel like a side story, developing events that take place at the same time as the second half of Halo 2, and the main multiplayer component is just carried over (along with all the paid downloadable extras) from the previous game. The campaign also is a tad short, but I rarely see that as a negative these days as long as it's a well developed, interesting experience. Plus, the new Firefight mode adds to the game's life quite a bit. I haven't played online because the system I'm using doesn't have a Gold account, but I've played Halo that way before, and I see no reason why one of the most consistently popular games would be any worse now.

So my focus as usual was on the single player. Master Chief isn't around this time, replaced by a squad of Orbital Drop Shock Troopers, elite soldiers on the same side who enter war zones through individual pods that precariously fall to the planet's surface. You spend the most time as the Rookie, a blank slate of a character who wakes up several hours after the mission begins and explores the city by night, either engaging or sneaking past enemy patrols. You can wander around if you like, but the goal is to track down pieces of equipment left behind by your other squad mates, which trigger more traditional Halo levels starring the other characters. I have to say, one of the biggest reasons why I liked the squad idea is that it made it basically a video game version of Firefly, if Mal and company were armored space marines instead of smugglers. The game doesn't even pretend otherwise; Nathan Fillion is the leader, Alan Tudyk is the pilot, and Adam Baldwin is the tough guy. They're joined by video gaming's ubiquitous Nolan North as the sniper and Battlestar Galactica's Tricia Helfer as the erstwhile captain in charge of the mission. Early on they're all separated but they eventually meet up and work together, killings aliens and cracking wise at the same time. The camaraderie of the squad is an enjoyable element, and it make the Rookie's quietness all the more strange. It seems like the radio on his helmet has failed, but when he just ignores direct questions in person it doesn't fit with the game's tone at all.

Despite lacking the scope of other games in the series, taking place entirely within the confines of a single (admittedly huge) city, it doesn't feel lacking in variety. There's the usual mix of vehicle sections, sneaking through corridors, ambushing small groups, and taking on larger scale battles in open areas. Occasionally a section will kick your ass for a few tries, but it's pretty simple and fun to keep moving through the game, especially if you're familiar with the series. They made a big deal about the Troopers not being as tough or strong as Master Chief, but they seem to jump about as high and take the same punishment before dying, and have no trouble flipping over a crashed vehicle if needed. The health system is changed but essentially the same as the first game and for all intents and purposes, this is Halo through and through. The only thing missing is the Flood, which I'm totally fine with. I admire the attempt to mix up the game a bit, but they were never that fun to fight and the nighttime segments take their place rather neatly.

The game looks and sounds about how you'd expect. People complain that the Halo games don't look much better on the 360 than the original Xbox, but I wonder if they're looking at the same thing I am. It's pretty much the same aesthetic, but everything looks nicer, especially with the lighting. There's a new vision mode in the Troopers' helmets that indicate important features in the darkness. I think I ended up using it for about half the game, and it's usually pretty useful without being distracting. A few things in the game will interfere with the signal, and it adds a cool element of making sure you're using it in the right situation. The story is fairly standard for Halo, as in the world seems more interesting than the execution generally allows. There's not a ton going on in the plot, but it does tie the last two games together nicely in the end, and thanks partly to the cast has the most entertaining cut scenes in the series. If you like Halo, and especially if you haven't already played the online to death, it's definitely worth checking out.

Predator 2

I think the original film is one of the best action movies of the 80s, but I wasn't a big fan of the series' step into the 90s. It takes place in Los Angeles in the then-future of 1997, and replaces the terminator and the jungle environment with city streets and a guy who is perpetually too old for this shit. It's from that dated style of film where gratuitous blood and violence is obviously better than the alternative and a swear word that we haven't heard in four minutes is as clever as it needs to be. The first movie had some corny bits - "stick around!" comes to mind - but it somehow felt different. The predator itself was a deadly enemy to be feared, and the guys it was hunting down were serious, dedicated men. In Predator 2, Danny Glover sneaks up behind gang members in a shootout with the cops in the middle of the street during the day and shouts "Hey, assholes" anyway so he can see the looks on their faces when he mows them down. He's surrounded by as cliched a group of cops as you can find, and this is in the middle of the period where Bill Paxton had the market on over-loud obnoxious douches absolutely cornered. The police angle did absolutely nothing for me, and unfortunately a lot of the movie hinges on it.

The predator in the first film had a goal - he was on a hunt, collecting the trophies of one of the best fighting forces on Earth. In this movie any actual goal either doesn't exist or is so unapparent as to be trivial. It just goes around killing anyone it wants to - mostly those at least brandishing weapons, yes, but there's no rhyme or reason to it. It's just pointless, going around killing while the police futilely try to track it down. Later a special team investigating the creature and trying to acquire its technology - a team surprisingly willing to divulge its secrets to any cop tenacious enough to confront them say two or three times - tries to take it down in a warehouse, and from there is a prolonged, poorly paced sequence of events where Glover follows it around as the two play cat and also-cat. The film lurches to a conclusion promising a sequel that never really came, and ties up a truly disappointing successor to a pretty darn good movie. Just like with Alien, the first half of the series is all you need to see.

Chuck - Season 2

Chuck really seemed to hit its stride this season, just in time for its continuation to come into serious jeopardy thanks to Jay Leno absorbing five hours of NBC's week in the near future. I still wouldn't say it's as great as some members of its apparently dedicated fan base, because the humor's still hit and miss and some of its more contrived setups cause nothing but groans. When Chuck adjusted his phone in a way that somehow accidentally activated the speaker and called his girlfriend while he just happened to be having a conversation that could be easily misconstrued as sexual in nature, it was hard not to just walk away from that. It managed to keep me coming back every week though, thanks heavily to some strong attempts to create an honest-to-god storyline.

The first season was more or less a string of disconnected spy plots that Chuck and his professional backup stumbled upon every week, but the second has more of a real plot as a shadowy Government splinter group called Fulcrum makes Chuck and the Intersect their new target, while he begins in earnest to try to get it out of his head and finally get his life together. It's still a bit episodic as he has the same not-really-a-relationship issues with Sarah and the conflict often seems like little more than various characters being captured and rescued over and over again. Still, I appreciate the effort to go a little deeper with the characters and the nature of the Intersect project. The end of the season finale was pretty effing ridiculous, and I'd really like to see where they go with the show from here, if they ever get a chance to.

Chuck - Season 1

Discussion of these next few shows was put on hold because I wasn't sure if the seasons were actually finished or just delayed by the strike. But I saw announcements for new seasons of all three recently, confirming that the current ones were done.

I'm not quite sure how I feel about Chuck. The super-spy angle is pretty interesting, most of the main characters are likable, and it's usually an enjoyable, somewhat humorous watch. On the other hand, the specific storylines are often less than creative, the romance stuff is a little too high school, and it's rarely funny enough to make me actually laugh out loud. The show's more cute than straight-up funny. There's nothing wrong with being cute, it just doesn't make you the most compelling thing in TV.

The center of the conundrum is Morgan, Chuck's best friend. Once in a while he's funny, and it's very hard to really hate him, but in general he doesn't add that much to the show. Replace Morgan with the show and the show with your life, and that's kinda what's up. Not to just dismiss it though, it does have plenty of moments. Chuck's a really good main character, Sarah's a solid love interest, and it's hard to go wrong with Jayne from Firefly as a gruff, no-BS government agent. They do a reasonably good job of fleshing out the backstory and making it an interesting setting for Chuck to exist in. I'm not sure whether it's supposed to be a comedy or a drama, because it often seems focused on humor and the general vibe is kind of silly, but it has the hour-long format and many melodramatic moments. If the idea of a computer nerd accidentally having all of the Government's secrets dumped into his brain and being forced to become an anti-terrorism weapon appeals to you in any way, give it a shot.

Halo 3

Halo: still pretty good. The third installment continues the series tradition of good shooting, incremental gameplay improvements, and an interesting story for a shooter. Unfortunately, it also keeps alive some of its faults, like some repetitive tasks and environments, minor steps backward in some areas and the continued inclusion of the highly uninteresting Flood. I get the desire to mix things up so you're not fighting Covenant the whole time, but seriously, the Flood is boring. I like the story aspect of the Elites changing sides, but unfortunately that takes away the most interesting opponent in the series. Brutes are tough but not as smart, making combat a little less strategic in some cases. Having the Arbiter around most of the time is cool though, it's nice to have an ally who's actually worth something. I didn't like how you're arbitrarily limited to two grenades of each type now. Yeah, now there are four types so you still have a max of eight, but when you don't find the last kind until late in the game, you're left holding six most of the time and wondering why you can't fit a couple more normal ones in the same suit.

In general though, Halo is still a really good time. They expanded the vehicle sections, adding multiple new types to play around with. Some of the best fun in the series comes from cruising around, pursuing enemies on large battlefields with explosions happening everywhere. There are new and returning weapons also, and I think they struck a pretty good balance. The game's a little short, but that's okay, I prefer that to pointlessly padding out levels with infinitely copy-pasted corridors. I mentioned repetition, but that's mostly held in check except for the aforementioned Flood and the gigantic walking fortresses known as Scarabs - you encounter them a little too often, although taking one down is pretty cool. Graphically, it's not as flashy as some other current generation games, but it looks nice. There are some really great looking lighting effects, at least. The music is as interesting as ever, and voice acting is decent, although I never like changing voice actors between sequels (is Julie Benz too famous now thanks to Dexter?) and some of the dialogue tries to be cool but is just a little silly. The story is suitably epic and really pretty detailed if you get down into it, and they do a nice job of concluding the trilogy, although I wish there was a real end instead of an obvious sequel hint. Guys, you can make a new story without leaving ends untied. Multiplayer is pretty cool, although I don't really care about online play that much. I don't love Halo, but it's a very solid, entertaining series.

Half-Life 2: Episode Two

Episode Two continues the story from the previous games, pushing the narrative forward in ways it hasn't been before. For it's time, the original game was pretty impressive in its immersion but now is very limited and a bit simple. The sequel took huge steps forward in presentation and upped the ante quite a bit with consistent characters, but was still a little basic. The first episodic expansion really raised the bar with its development of Alyx as a believable and likable character, and she's maybe the best ever in a video game. This game takes big steps forward in adding intrigue and surprises to the plot, with more than one shocking moment. It's still not as smooth as a good movie, as plenty of little things can break the illusion, but it's still quite a feat for the medium.

What really matters is the gameplay and not the story though, and Half-Life still excels in this area. Valve hasn't added a new weapon since 2, but that's not the only way you can mix things up. They've added a couple new enemies that require brand new combat tactics, including one that's especially interesting, the Hunters. They announce their presence in dramatic fashion and are a very intimidating foe while still being beatable. They do get annoying in the final climax when they prevent you from accomplishing your goal, but are still pretty cool. The balance between combat and puzzle-solving is still fantastic, as you never spend too much time on a specific kind of experience. It's a lot of fun just cruising from location to location in the new vehicle, seeing what there is to see, before the next big battle happens. The Vortigaunts are given a spotlight in the second episode, and they make a pretty effective and intriguing ally. The added achievements maybe caused me to spend too much time playing in a specific way to unlock them, but they still add some satisfaction to your progression. The last big battle is one of the best designed large combat sequences I've ever played, that combines the skills of driving, Hunter combat, gravity gun use, and precise aiming in a way that is exhilarating while maintaining a manageable difficulty. As part of the high-value Orange Box, it's something truly worth seeing.

Movie Update 3

This post should catch me up with all the media I've been consuming, which would make posts in the future shorter.

Children of Men


I know director Alfonso Cuaron from creating the only Harry Potter movie I'd call good. The first two were too childish, and the last just wasn't long enough to give the story the care it deserved. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban was by far the best in my opinion, it had its own style and the best supporting cast. When I heard about Children of Men, I was intrigued by the idea and liked the cast and director, so I made sure to see it.

Visually speaking, it's one of the best movies I've ever seen. It's not overloaded with expensive computer generated effects, it's just beautifully crafted. The sets and locations are all perfect for the story, and set the mood well. The framing and cinematography are just brilliant, and the whole movie is gorgeous to look at despite the gloomy backdrops. It's filled with long and excessively complex single-shot scenes, and you sometimes wonder how many countless takes it took to get them just right. These long shots aren't just impressive technically, they help contribute to the documentary feel that makes it even more harrowing. You can make legitimate comparisons to Half-Life 2 with both the dystopian setting and visual style, and that kind of helps to make me like it more. The camera work can sometimes feel kind of self-serving, but it doesn't obstruct the actual movie.

The story is fairly minimalistic, it's there and constantly pushing forward but takes a back seat to the emotional struggle of the characters in an eerily believable future we don't want to see. Clive Owen is again very good as the main character, a normal guy who's faced with protecting the future of the world. The whole cast is good, but they are all secondary to the film making that would make it a good movie even if the rest of it was garbage.

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance


Another movie for class. Liberty Valance is a Western, but not a typical one. You have John Wayne as the typical rugged western hero who protects the town from evil men, but he's not the main character. That's Jimmy Stewart, a lawyer from the east who's come and is trying to change the town for the better. It's an interesting dynamic shift, and makes it interesting if only for how the genre conventions are played with. John Ford was the master of the western, and he'd done it so many times that he began playing with it just to see what he could do.

It's an entertaining movie, it's definitely not fast paced but it's one of those slower movies that manages to avoid boring you. The characters are well constructed, and it's just intriguing to see how the relationship between the two good guys plays out. The use of black and white is interesting with color being common at the time. It helps set the mood as an old western and also serves to hide the advanced age of the principal actors somewhat. Some of the twists on the genre are less fortunate than others. Most westerns basically end on a shootout, but this one keeps going for a bit after it happens. It seems weird, and it ends up making sense, but you still think it could have been handled better.

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington


Hey class movie. It's James Stewart again, although over twenty years younger. I gotta say I love old movies like this, with clever, fast talking characters all over the place. It's still very funny close to seventy years later, which always has to be an accomplishment. I've actually seen a lot of the actors here in other good movies, and all of the big parts are played brilliantly. Frank Capra was much more of a theatrical director than a cinematic one, and he just lets the actors play their parts without trying to do anything too special with the camera.

Like a lot of great movies from the era, it's just as funny as a comedy without being one. The story is about a guy who wants to use his position to do some good for the country, but his path is blocked by corrupt, evil men. Instead of sitting down he fights back, and it's a great, inspirational movie that was banned in fascist countries for showing that democracy can work. I was a little disappointed by the ending, when he seems to triumph more from perseverance that an actual victory, but it's good nonetheless.

Serenity


You can't talk about Serenity without mentioning Firefly, the FOX series it finishes. Although finish is a bad word, since it's a rushed attempt to end a story way too quickly. For some reason, FOX seems to enjoy sabotaging and then canceling good shows that start with the letter F. Family Guy, Futurama, and Firefly all fell victim. Family Guy has been resurrected and is stronger than ever, although it's the least deserving, in my opinion. Things have been spotty with Futurama, but they're working on some DVD movies that will be aired as episodes on Comedy Central. Firefly got its movie, so all three got something, but Firefly got the least while deserving the most. Family Guy is completely random, and Futurama has some things going on but is still mostly just twenty minutes of jokes. Firefly's episodes stood on their own, but they were still driven by plot and character, and there are many story threads that will never get the chance they deserved to be fully explored. It's understandable, since it probably costs a lot more to do a live action sci-fi show than a cartoon, but it's still disappointing.

Anyway, the movie. Firefly is as much a western as it is science fiction, and it's a really interesting setting. The crew of Serenity speaks with a southern twang, and the dialog is a unique blend of informality and cleverness. It's as funny and smart as it is cool and action-packed, and the movie continues the tradition. Thanks to the big movie budget, the action is bigger and the special effects are more special. It allows for more impressive things to happen, and it makes the movie more epic than the show while keeping the same spirit.

It's hard not to be disappointed, but it's not the movie's fault. There just isn't enough time with one movie to do justice to the story. They do a good job filling some gaps and bring it to a respectable end, but I'll always wonder how it would have been handled if the series continued. Like the show, it's a fun, very watchable movie that definitely does more things right than George Lucas.