Review: Snowpiercer

Spoiler-free Review:
Dystopias can be a tricky thing. They run a gamut between the outright believable, and thus more chilling settings (Children of Men, The Road), to those exotic and sometimes overly stylish canvasses that serve to showcase a writer's themes (Brazil, 1984, The Handmaid's Tale). Snowpiercer can be firmly placed somewhere on the side of the latter, but that's not a bad thing at all, as there's a hefty amount of substance mixed in with its slick look.

The film is directed by South Korean Joon-ho Bong. While not familiar with Joon-ho Bong's full body of work, I'm a fan of his clever 2006 endeavour, The Host, and encourage any lover of monster movies to check it out. Snowpiercer doesn't spend a great deal of time on the premise or explaining all the details of its setting—a present-day attempt to reverse global warming results in the freezing of the world. A brilliant industrialist with a love of trains has already constructed a luxury locomotive with a self-contained ecosystem that circumnavigates the planet, and that becomes the refuge for humanity's survivors. Jump ahead 17 years and life aboard the train is a rigid caste system with the elites at the front, and the rabble at the tail. A situation ripe for revolution. Yes, Snowpiercer can be heavy-handed in its themes.

Bong assembled an effective and eclectic cast with Chris Evans (Captain America) as hero of the tail section, Curtis, who takes charge of the revolution to seize the front of the train and the eternal engine. Kang-ho Song (The Host) is a former security expert crucial to the uprising. Tilda Swinton (We Need to Talk About Kevin) delivers another memorable performance as Mason, one of the elites charged with keeping everyone in their proper place, with John Hurt as the wizened mentor to Curtis. Octavia Spencer (Community) and Ed Harris also star. It's a great cast that meshes well together, with Evans managing the main role quite effectively.

Snowpiercer looks great. It's beautifully shot, with some memorable vistas of the frozen Earth. While the entire movie takes place on the train, each car presents a new setting, and progressively gets brighter the farther we move from the tail section, beginning in its washed out palette and moving to the vibrancy and technological wonders of the front. 

I was continually reminded of Terry Gilliam's filmmaking style. There are some particularly surreal scenes, a lot of it surrounding the cultlike and messianic adoration of the people for Wilford, the train's creator (the eternal engine is life! Everyone has their place!), and bizarre bits of random humour. It's especially personified by Tilda Swinton's character and actress Alison Pill's over-the-top school teacher performance. But it serves to highlight this isn't a humanity familiar to us. Just enough time has passed to allow us to believe in this self-contained community (and wouldn't some kind of religious zeal be necessary to keep such a microcosm of society in line for so long?).

The dystopic world presented here does need to be taken with a hefty grain of salt. While the global cooling chemical that pushes the Earth into an ice age isn't much beyond the realm of experiments gone awry, the train itself is best enjoyed when not scrutinized too much. It's a closed environment that runs on a perpetual motion machine, and circles the earth once every year. Coincidentally (or not) it becomes the last refuge for a sliver of humanity when the world freezes. It hugs the sides of snowy peaks as it crosses enormous trestle bridges and smashes through fallen ice with relative ease. Yet Bong's sometimes surreal style still kept me grounded in the movie and allowed me to buy in to the premise, unlike the more hard science fiction like Elysium, which, while looking real, left me scratching my head for most of it wondering how such a geo-political future came about.

The train is the perfect metaphor. It's a prison. It's the world. It never stops. It follows the same route year after year. The progression from the back to the front is a progression from darkness into light, ignorance into knowledge. 

Snowpiercer is just as engaging as an action movie alone, and launches into it very quickly, taking the audience along with few breaks in the momentum. And those pauses, when they occur, provide welcome moments to explore some of the history and characters and insights into life aboard the train.

That dichotomy led to an interesting controversy in getting Snowpiercer into the American market, with Harvey Weinstein demanding to cut as much as 20 minutes in order to make for a more action-oriented experience. Or to put it more blatantly, dumbing it down for American audiences. I have a sense what those cuts would have entailed (the aforementioned elementary school scene, and a dramatic insight into Curtis' backstory, two of the larger breaks in the action). But these were essential to the movie, so it would have been severely diminished without them, or any number of others. Fortunately the director won that battle and it's getting its intact release, and judging from box office results could be a sleeper hit in North America.

Snowpiercer kept me guessing as to its ultimate destination. Bong manages to maintain tension throughout in a steady progression through the cars, with each opened door revealing something new and unsettling. While several aspects were predictable, a host of others were not. There is no character too important not to be expendable, and one is never certain they know exactly what is driving the plot. 

Snowpiercer is very blatant in its allegory, but presents plenty of material for post-theatre discussion, and very likely lots to rediscover in rewatching. Bong succeeds in giving the audience a sufficient emotional punch, as I had bought into the fates of everyone, even the more minor characters. Definitely not on the scale of something like Cloud Atlas, but I was reminded a little bit of The Divide by the end of it. While I had no doubts I would enjoy Snowpiercer, I was pleasantly surprised how much I did. It's a film that definitely can find its niche among the less thoughtful summer blockbusters.

Review: Pacific Rim

Non Spoiler Review:

Pacific Rim is Guillermo del Toro's (Mama, Pan's Labyrinth) love letter to the giant monster (or kaiju) genre. It's a big budget, dazzling spectacle that features a near future when a rift beneath the ocean allows incredible city-destroying beasts to ravage the Pacific coasts. In response, humanity has banded together to create equally formidable robots (or jaegers) with human pilots to meet the threat. Just when it looks like the tide might turn, the kaijus up the stakes. 

Charlie Hunnam stars as troubled jaeger pilot Raleigh Becket, Idris Elba (Thor, Prometheus) as the bombastic Marshal Stacker Pentecost, and Rinko Kikuchi as his protegé Mako Mori. I'm a huge fan of Sons of Anarchy, so seeing Charlie Hunnam in another role was a nice change of pace. He's joined by fellow Sons alumnus and fan favorite Ron Perlman as the black marketeer Hannibal Chau. Mori has a great screen presence, as well. Idris Elba is formidable as the marshal, if not a wee bit over the top. And I was surprised to find none other than True Blood's Warlow (Robert Kazinsky) among the cast. However the kaijus and their mechanical rivals are the real stars, all of which have personalities of their own. A lot of love went into their creation, and they bear del Toro's unique creature style. 

Plenty of care went into the world building and back story, with news footage highlighting the history of the kaiju incursions and details such as a black market for kaiju parts, and other side-effects of the attacks like kaiju lice or excrement contaminating neighbourhoods. Of course, with current CGI, the battles are suitably grand. I've read interviews with del Toro that he specifically ensured the streets were people free so as not to distract from the battles themselves. That doesn't mean the movie is devoid of deaths, but the primary focus is on the battling titans.

A story like this could have easily descended into cheesy territory, but Pacific Rim mostly avoids that pitfall. Sure, the characters fit particular genre types and there's nothing new or exciting there, but the humans really aren't the stars—the monsters and robots are—and I realize this was a conscious decision. Once you accept the basic premise offered at the start you can sit back and enjoy the show.

That's not to say Pacific Rim couldn't have been better had it dealt with its subject matter a little more seriously. Plot holes abound—the behaviour of the military and the United Nations representatives make no sense, people continue to live in coastal cities after 20 years of attacks, and the level of constant destruction would have bankrupted nations—but those are del Toro's choices. In that respect he's still made an enjoyable film without taking it to a higher level.

I found the ending reminiscent of Independence Day, but it was executed far more successfully. The film concludes on a satisfying note. Though I've heard rumours del Toro would like to do a sequel, it's really unnecessary and Pacific Rim serves as a nice standalone film if it comes to that.

I got plenty of fluffy enjoyment out of this one. But I'm sure if you're not an avid lover of this particular sci fi niche (with happy memories of Godzilla and Gorgo from childhood) it won't be for you and may come across as silly. It is definitely a feast for the eyes and one of those movies that requires multiple viewings on blu-ray to slow down the action and pick out the level of detail. I'll definitely be revisiting this one a few times.

Review: World War Z

Non Spoiler Review:

World War Z has had an interested journey to the big screen, first carrying the weight of an extremely popular novel (one of my favorites), a troubling series of rewrites, and trailers that indicated the movie was World War Z in name only. What we start out with is retired UN operative Gerry Lane, who is called back into action as he and his family witness a zombie outbreak firsthand, and one that quickly cripples the globe. He is tasked with sourcing the cause of the infection and find some manner to fight it, all in hopes of making it back to his family.

World War Z stars Brad Pitt as Gerry Lane, and Mireille Enos (The Killing) as his wife. But Pitt seriously overshadows the rest of the cast, and everyone in the film is a secondary character. Directed by Marc Forster (Quantum of Solace, Finding Neverland), writing credit includes the likes of the abominable Damon Lindelof (Will no one rid me of this troublesome priest!), and J. Michael Straczynski in what was a turbulent process to get on film.

Max Brook's novel was a groundbreaking work exploring the geopolitical, economic and religious aspects of a zombie apocalypse on a global scale. It was an anthology of stories covering ten years of conflict, tied together by the consistent thread of the interviewer, who is a UN representative recording events for posterity. It also takes place ten years after the fact. In contrast, this interpretation throws us into the action at the beginning of the outbreak and follows Gerry on his quest to find the origin, and a possible cure to the virus. 

World War Z struggles on a variety of fronts. As far as characters, there is little for the audience to grasp onto aside from Pitt's struggle to keep his family safe. But we get one scene of them pre-outbreak to forge a connection, and the rest is everyone on the run. Brad Pitt does what he does best—play the relatable everyman. He doesn't break out anything new here. We really only get a few short scenes with his UN boss, as well as another Israeli character later on that feel more like additions just to keep it from becoming a one man show.

We get plenty of shaky cam and aerial vistas of cities burning, and hordes of people flooding streets. I can't fault Forster's direction very much at all, because he did serve up heaps of beautiful scenes of civilization coming apart. But it ended up as more of a picture book than an actual narrative. The soundtrack was interesting, and reminiscent of 28 Days Later in some of its tones.

There's plenty of gold to mine as far as story, but the film moves much too fast to take advantage of any of it. An attempt is made to explore the initial stages of the outbreak, unfortunately the exposition we get comes so fast and furious by way of hard to hear news broadcasts and very quick one-on-ones between Pitt and the officials he encounters we're left wanting more and the whole thread is abandoned later on. The same goes for the various locales we visit, with hints of what's happening at various points around the planet (again via flashes of newscasts or snippets of dialogue), but never slowing down enough to get a sense of scale.

It's also hard to believe that the virus could be simmering for a couple of weeks behind the scenes (infection happens extremely fast) without major powers like Washington getting the hint something terrible was about to happen (yet Israel was able to construct a ginormous wall around Jerusalem). The timeline just doesn't add up.

The reactions of the characters fail to ring true, as well. Considering civilization is collapsing and everyone is losing somebody close to them, Pitt and family, and everyone else who manages to escape to sea, seem to be doing an admirable job coping with their abrupt lifestyle change without any post-traumatic effects.

The vast conceptual change from the book is abandoning the lumbering-type zombies of The Walking Dead in favor of the jittery, sprinting, swarming undead that would leave the infected of 28 Days Later in the dust. While it certainly creates a sense of immediate crisis, the overall idea falls flat. I can't see the world being able to fend off such a relentless onslaught for any length of time the likes of which we get in the first three quarters of the movie.

After such a frenetic pace, the final act hits the brakes and is considerably slow, transitioning into a different film in many respects. This was a rewrite of the original ending apparently, and it didn't work for me. While the discoveries made are an innovative twist, they're not that surprising to anyone familiar with the genre, and we're left with an expected ending, which really can't be anything else given the unmanageable story World War Z is grappling with.

Surprisingly enough, there is very little blood and no gore whatsoever. This is your family-friendly zombie movie. It never really occurred to me until I was watching Pitt pound a zombie with a pipe, only to notice that the violence was happening completely out of frame. So for those queasy about such things, World War Z would be a safe introduction to the genre.

World War Z is 28 Days Later on a global scale. Its scope is too vast to contain in one movie and fails because of it. While it remains entertaining as a popcorn flick, there's just not enough of anything to sink your teeth into and leave you with something new and exciting for the genre. It is certainly not an adaptation of Max Brook's novel, and is similar just enough that it might have gotten sued had it not bought the rights to the name. It's not the epic global apocalypse that fans could wish for, and something of that scale deserves a season long HBO miniseries (which I highly doubt we'll get now). It's entertaining, but forgettable in the long run.

Review: Zero Hour "Pendulum"

Non Spoiler Review:

The holy woman's clock leads to a new apostle—one that's pretty famous, and the search for his clock. Laila finds she is of value to Vincent. Riley brings in additional nerds to help Rachel and Arron. Hank brings in his parents, who know more than they're letting on.

Pendulum follows the now established clock per episode quest with a few additions—some further detail regarding Hank's past and ties to Vincent, as well as more screen time for Laila. We get some indication that their marriage is not what it seems (aside from being ridiculously annoying in the flashbacks).

The only interesting twist this week comes in the introduction of a couple of new characters. Depending on exactly who they turn out to be, they could be a hoot or just another letdown like Vincent. Beyond that, everyone sits around and lets the plot unfold around them with exposition thrown in as necessary.

Spoilers Now!

On the plane ride home Hank has a nightmare in which he sees a plague of locusts. He wakes up to Riley, who hates planes (because in case you missed it, her husband died on one). Back home he puts Father Mickle on the case of the mystery priest in India. But the Modern Skeptic offices are now occupied by Riley and Agents Wallace and Terrence. They have a warrant and want to be there if Vincent tries to make contact again. 

Vincent needs Laila to fix his newly acquired clock. He gives her new clothes to wear and seems oddly flirtatious. Laila fixes the clock and reveals a sequence of numbers that gives Vincent directions of where to head next.

Hank's parents show up and he wants to know about any family members they might have in Germany, but they don't know of any. The FBI locate Vincent and Laila on security cam in Paris, and it looks like Laila has given a signal to the camera that only Hank can pick up—one that means something is hidden under a desk. The authorities in France find the number sequence written under the desk in the hotel room.

Hank's father immediately recognizes it as a phone number from the 1940s (well, duh!). Wallace pinpoints that number from Princeton, NJ. As Hank and Riley prepare to leave, Father Mickle has some friends who may know of the Rosicrucian connection. Back home, Hank's parents wonder what they should tell him. Nothing yet, his father says.

At Princeton, Laila and Vincent go through some old telephone directories from 1938 and find an address. Hank and Riley show up shortly after and find the page ripped out of the directory. Fortunately Laila has left Hank another clue that only he can recognize, one that spells out I.A.S. (and in a flashback prove they are the type of couple who will make a ton of noise in a public library and just not care). Arron and Rachel figure that can only be the Institute of Advanced Study located in Princeton, too. 

Vincent and Laila arrive at the office in question but the FBI is closing in and raid the place. The man tells them Vincent and Laila were just there, looking for the guy who used to work there—Albert Einstein.

Back at Modern Skeptic it's a crash course on Albert Einstein and they determine he was one of the apostles and would have been given a clock. Some of his personal possessions are being put on display by Princeton, including (gasp) his treasured grandfather clock. But Vincent has already been to the storage area and killed the guards, taking what he needs. 

Vincent meets a creepy looking boy to report to her it's only a matter of time before she has the object she seeks. The boy writes the message in a bizarre script. Later, Vincent is getting impatient with Laila who is stalling as she works on the clock. He inquires about her relationship with Hank, and how she took in a forty year old man who had never been married (alas, we wonder this, as well). 

Arron finds himself turned on by Agent Wallace who is as big a nerd as he is. They discuss the rumour that Einstein was working on a new form of power before he died. Hank alerts them that the clock has already been taken, but not so fast—Rachel has determined the grandfather clock is older than 1938, so the real one must be hidden. They surmise he hid it in his mind.

Wallace brings out her trusty EM-Spectrometer, which will be able to read Einstein's last blackboard and what was erased on it. Hank figures Laila has guessed the clock is false as well, so must be working on something. The image shows an equation on the blackboard. Wallace figures it's a crypto-variable, a decoder for the rest of the blackboard equations. While they decode, Hank wanders outside and finds a yellow tack—yet another reference to his bizarre and boring ritualistic marriage with Laila. He goes searching and finds others.

Wallace discerns the location as a tree between Einstein's house and office. Hank phones Riley that he's following Laila's trail which ends up at an abandoned church. Hank goes inside screaming her name. He finds Vincent, and learns he's the one who left the clues for him, because he wants some alone time.

Hank says he'll give up the real clock if he tells him where Laila is (nice). Vincent wants to get to know him better, like how he met his wife. Cambridge, four years before, at the unveiling of a clock with a locust on top (equally nice). Vincent keeps calling him brother, too.

Riley arrives at the church. Vincent pries open Hank's eyes, which prompts Hank to punch him and knock out his contact lens. Riley starts firing at Vincent as he flees, but she runs out of bullets and he locks her behind a gate. She uses the opportunity to berate him for killing an innocent man like her husband, but he knows exactly who he is. Maybe he was the target, he suggests, and leaves her to stew about that. 

Father Mickle asks some of his card playing priest buddies if they know of any Rosicrucians who fled Nazi Germany. News of a murdering Rosicrucian alarms them. But one later reports back with some useful information—there is a sect called the Shepherds and their mission is to protect only the holiest of relics from those known as the great pirates.

Who could be a great pirate? Possibly the woman whom the creepy boy reports to, bringing the note with Vincent's message. She's pleased at the news. She also has an aquarium full of locusts. 

The next day Hank unearths Einstein's clock and brings it back to the office. He wants to trade it for Laila. Arron and Rachel are eager to investigate it and find a note inside—equations Einstein wrote on his deathbed. The note is translated—"I have always regretted the role I played in the development of the atomic bomb. However I have a chance to atone for that now. To stop something even more destructive. The line has been crossed. The line that once separated man from his creator. We have found a way to destroy not only man, but God."

The Verdict:

Two elements made this week a little more notable—working Albert Einstein into the plot, as well as the weird kid and the woman he reports to. Who might they be? The apocalypse so far has been a secular one, and we've yet to see something overtly supernatural introduced to the story, so I'm not holding out hope this is a young Antichrist and Whore of Babylon.

There's a grander conspiracy that deals with the truth about Hank and his Nazi past. Did he suffer some sort of mindwipe and new identity? Are his parents agents sent to watch over him? If Vincent is really the baby from the first episode, he can't be Hank's brother. But maybe his son?

The rest is all pretty amusing. Hank and Laila's flashbacks were a big groaner, and the scenes where Vincent spouts his melodramatic speeches are just laughable. I really don't need to mention the plot devices because they are so much a normal part of this show now. Mysteries are discovered and solved in the very same scene, there's no opportunity for suspense.

Review: Zero Hour "Face"

Non Spoiler Review:

Vincent confronts Riley and Hank in the Arctic, prompting another quest for a new apostle and a new clock. Arron and Rachel investigate some clues on their own.

After a very shaky start, Face manages to knock the legs out entirely from under the show. The dialogue remains cringe-worthy, and plot devices jump out on queue when required. This week we find out that pretty much everyone has an exotic language under their belt they can trot out when relevant translation is required.

It's difficult to criticize the cast because they have little to work with and have to trudge through this outrageous dialogue and exposition. At its best it's become formulaic and cliche—at worst pure cheese.

Spoilers Now!

Vincent reaches the sub and kills the pilot. Hank confronts him and asks if his wife is alive, only to get punched and dragged inside. Riley is searching through the sub's records, taking a journal as Vincent comes down with Hank. She remains hidden as Vincent takes a watch from Bartholomew's body. Riley steps forward with her gun, but he reminds her only he knows where Hank's wife is, which prompts Hank to start freaking out. Vincent promises to take him to his wife but refuses to tell them anything of what's on the sub. Hank wonders what the watch means to him and realizes it's some kind of map (because all clocks hide maps) and takes some iPhone snapshots of it. Oh, and why does the Nazi on the sub look exactly like him?

Once escorted back outside, Vincent blows up the vehicle he had previously wired, which also manages to crack open the Arctic ice. He gets in the plane and takes off, leaving Riley calling for help on her radio as the sub begins to sink.

But that works out very well for them, as in the next scene Hank and Riley are dropped back off in NYC by a helicopter. She's thoroughly pissed that she didn't kill Vincent when they had the chance and suggests his wife could already be dead. She'll kill Vincent next time, though, so Hank storms off in a huff.

Back at the magazine, Rachel and Arron are back from Bavaria too. Arron explains what happened with the old man, while Hank wants only to find his wife and doesn't care about any Nazi conspiracy (Modern Skeptic is doing so well that it can fly its staff around the world on a whim anyway, apparently. Why would it need to break a story about the end of the world?). Severely injured priest (whose name remains elusive) shows up to help too, having checked himself out of the hospital. He dismisses all this apocalypse nonsense, as everyone seems to think it's happening during their time. But he does provide some relevant exposition by mentioning certain signs of the end times, one of which is the waters turning to blood.

The watch has a symbol of the apostle Thomas, which is where Vincent will be heading. Hank realizes the gears were not meant to work. Arron suggests the glowing dots are a constellation. They have a time and a date from the watch to establish a location in India where it can be seen.

Vincent has also deciphered the clock at exactly the same time. He has Laila with him, and quizzes her about being able to help him, though she doesn't know what that means. Too bad for her, as Vincent bought a lot of lye and rented the place for six months, more than enough time to dissolve her body.

Hank admits the guy in the sub looked exactly like him. Rachel goes to see Riley to see about that journal she took. She lives an isolated life among her dead husband's paintings. Riley is quite forthcoming after Rachel explains Hank is a nice guy and actually found her in an orphanage (?) and gave her a good life. Riley explains the journal doesn't offer any clues to Hank's wife but admits she saw the lookalike in the ice too. She wants to know how Hank is planning on going after Vincent.

Rachel returns with the journal, and Arron reveals he knows German (!) so he's able to read a name—Corbin Stern. The page for March 1938 is missing, the same day as the launch. They learn he was a scientist conscripted into the Nazi party for something called Zero Hour. They find out a collector of Nazi memorabilia (i.e. a neo-Nazi) has some information on the project.

Rachel and Arron go to visit the man who has a film about the Zero Hour project. The film shows an expedition sent to India and Corbin Stern, the man who looks like Hank. They were searching for the secret of life and death and found a local girl who supposedly could talk to the dead. She disappeared after that. 

Hank has arrived in India at the appropriate city, and goes to a church where the priest recognizes a photo of Vincent, who was asking questions just a few moments before. Hank finds Vincent among the throng of people but is quickly accosted by some men, until he's rescued by Riley who arrives just in time. She can speak Hindi, too.

Riley wants to arrest and interrogate Vincent so they can get Laila. Hank gets a call from Rachel, suggesting they look for the same girl who will be in her eighties and has a birthmark. Hank deduces the men who attacked him were protecting her.

Arron finds a note hidden in the journal for Stern's wife. Corbin confesses how he had to leave her because of the things he saw that threaten humanity.  

The old woman has taken a vow of standing and recognizes Hank as the same Nazi who visited her as a child. He shows her Laila and Vincent's photos. She has a clock but was told to destroy it if she ever saw his face—told by him. His arrival would signal the return of the angel of death. 

Someone shoots at her and Riley goes after and kills him. It's the priest and he's a Rosicrucian. While they're gone, Vincent goes in to confront the holy woman. As she backs away it's apparent she's been standing over her clock's hiding place, which he quickly uncovers. Riley and Hank hear him shoot her and run off. Hank sees Laila in the car as they drive off. 

The dying holy woman says the apocalypse is now upon them. Hank alone holds the key. If he continues on his quest it will bring about the end of the world. Hank can't give up, as he wants his wife back. As they leave they see the river is the color of blood from the fishermen cutting up their fish.

"Vas ist das?"

No The Verdict this week...just seething rant:
Where to begin. This week was all about learning who knows what languages. Going to India? Great! Riley studied Hindi in the peace corps. You have a mysterious Nazi journal? Well, Arron happens to know German thanks to dating a girl back in college. Too bad he didn't mention that fact last week when they were actually in Bavaria talking to real Germans.

What is the point of the twelve new apostles if only to be cannon fodder for whoever wants to bring about the end of the world. It's not like they're gathering to do anything, but sitting around providing clues to the next victim.

It's looking like each episode is going to be a quest for a new clock and a new apostle, which is going to get old really fast. Did no one learn anything from Alcatraz? While there's some potential in the end of the world stuff I don't hold much hope with that angle either—it's amounting to an incredibly mundane, localized apocalypse, if a few fishermen can bloody up a river with their catch and fulfill Bible prophecy.

Review: Zero Hour "Strike"

Non Spoiler Review:

Zero Hour is a new series from ABC that promised plenty of Da Vinci Code-type conspiracy with an exciting promo trailer. I had high hopes that it would prove a pleasant surprise given so many other hyped series have failed so miserably to deliver on the goods—The Event, Terra Nova, Revolution, etc. Despite being biased against network shows in favor of cable, I wanted to really like this. But now I realize that isn't a bias, but a justifiable opinion—The Event, Terra Nova, Revolution, etc.

The series begins with a flashback to pre-War Germany and a conspiracy to hide some important artifacts from the Nazis. Flash forward to the present and we meet Hank (Anthony Edwards) and Laila Gallistan on a shopping trip that will change their life. She's immediately kidnapped for something she purchased and husband Hank, along with the intrepid reporters that work for him at his Modern Skeptic magazine, embark on a journey to find the truth, stumbling upon a secret of apocalyptic proportions.

Zero Hour is thoroughly crazy—perhaps not yet at bat-shit levels, but that's definitely within the realm of possibility. What could be a very interesting storyline is immediately hindered by a cast of caricatures—not characters—devoid of development except what is told to us through exposition-heavy dialogue. This is the kind of writing where characters ominously report that "the end times are upon us", or the rationale skeptic is instructed "now is the time for faith." It's the kind of world where you can spontaneously decide to fly up to the Arctic Circle and luck out that the flight leaves in a few hours.

I can overlook the outrageously contrived events and perhaps come to enjoy Zero Hour on a mindless popcorn entertainment level, but we're not even there yet, so I'll wait until I get a few more episodes under my belt. I remain hopeful. The mystery will keep me coming back next week. Zero Hour, for now, is a very rough start that could easily be dragged down from it's potential. It's definitely something aimed for network television, and not the HBO crowd.

Spoilers Now!

1938, Germany. A man interrupts a priest overseeing the assembly of twelve clocks, warning him the Nazis have made a breakthrough and the end times are upon them. He takes him to a hospital the Nazis appropriated, showing him an ominous Antichrist-like baby with white eyes. They’re quickly discovered and flee into the streets. The men are Rosicrucians and declare they must protect what lies in the tunnels beneath their church. They haul up a large sarcophagus-looking thing and load it into a truck to hide it from the Nazis, even as the Germans break into the church and gun everyone down. The truck gets away, and the dying priest declares only the twelve can help now.

In present-day Brooklyn, Hank Gallistan and his wife Laila are perusing items at booths along the waterfront. He heads off to work, leaving her to finish her shopping, where she finds an interesting clock that she purchases for her own shop.

Hank works at the Modern Skeptic magazine, with reporters Rachel and Arron. He gets a frantic call from Laila saying someone is breaking into her store. He rushes out, instructing Arron to call the police. He gets to their shop to find it ransacked.

With his wife missing, the police advise Hank they’ll be assigning a detective and will be in touch. Hank thinks it doesn’t add up, given nothing is missing. They appear to have wanted his wife. Rachel and Arron are waiting for him when he gets home and together they attempt to get some answers. Hank spies a bag with a clock in it that means Laila stopped at home first with her purchase. The FBI abruptly show up to interview him.

Agent Riley explains they’ve been working on this case a long time and may have an idea who has her. They show him a traffic camera across the street from the shop that caught the perpetrator taking off with Laila. His name is White Vincent, an infamous mercenary. She needs to know why he would be taking his wife. Hank gets defensive and snarky and suggests she talk to the police.

After they leave, Hank examines the clock Laila bought (as marriage to a clock expert means he's absorbed a lot of that knowledge) and assumes that’s what the man was looking for. He proceeds to take it apart and finds a diamond inside, one that is flawed as it casts an odd shadow on the wall—a map.

Hank is skeptical that it’s a treasure map, but they go to a priest friend who might be able to read the language. The father is shocked to find the language is a dead one from the Second Century. Odd given the map is of the Western Hemisphere, which means someone in the church is still using the language. He explains they are Rosicrucians, who were a society of mystics readying themselves for the Apocalypse. There is also the name of a city named New Bartholomew in the Arctic Circle.

Hank then gets a rambling phone call from Laila’s captor, who explains if he knew the real truth he would lose his mind. Vincent tells him he gets the clock or she dies, so Hank agrees to a meeting. The priest pleads with him not to give over such a historical artifact to a mad man, and suggests he won’t let Laila go. He wants to bait him with the clock but hold on to the diamond.

Hank goes to the FBI with the situation. It's Riley's turn to give him attitude and wants to monitor the rendezvous. She promises him this will be his best chance at getting his wife back alive. Hank gives the priest the diamond to keep safe, given it’s their only leverage. Hank is directed to the meeting place as the FBI monitors the call. Hank gets a second call pointing him to a coffee shop. As he stops to tie his shoe, Hank realizes that Vincent isn’t actually watching him, and figures something is up. The FBI, meanwhile, raids a building, finding it empty with a camera pointed to where Hank was. Hank runs in, concluding this was all misdirection.

The priest is Vincent’s target, and as Hank and the FBI get to the church they find him nearly dead and the diamond gone. He’s taken off to the hospital and Hank is enraged that the FBI let Vincent get what he wanted.

Despondent, Hank knows Vincent doesn’t need Laila anymore. Rachel and Arron encourage him to have faith. They return to work to start analyzing their information, starting with New Bartholomew. Hank decides to arrange travel to the Arctic (!) and needs Rachel and Arron to remain behind to keep searching.

Hank bids them good-bye and begins his odyssey to the Arctic Circle where he’s quickly intercepted by the FBI at the airport. Riley wants him to come clean as she can be a resource, virtually begging to follow along. She admits her husband was killed in a Russian plane crash that was bombed. So see, they have a lot in common. She knows he’s going after Vincent, and she’s trained and licensed to use her weapon. She already has her ticket.

Arron has found a name on the clock—a German clockmaker who is currently 93 in Bavaria. They head off to Germany. 

In Nunavut, Vincent is holed up in a motel, and as he takes out his contact lens he reveals he has white eyes, and sadly, very likely not the Antichrist (but probably immortal). Hank and Riley hire a plane to the Arctic Circle and learn a man with an accent was asking the very same thing the day before and ended up driving all the way up the ice instead.

The pilot takes the two of them to the location on the map where they see a metal structure in the distance. They clear the snow away to find a Nazi insignia. As they climb inside they find frozen bodies that appear to be executed, as well as a map.

In Bavaria, Rachel and Arron show up at their clockmaker's house. Luckily he speaks English and after a moment of telling them to go away, opts to welcome the two frantic strangers inside. She shows him a photo of his clock which prompts him to make the sign of the cross. He had thought the clocks were lost and asks if blood has been spilled. He declares they are looking for the clocks again. Queue the infodump...

New Bartholomew isn’t a place, it was a man. Twelve numbers on the clock equal twelve apostles. In 1938 twelve men were entrusted with the salvation of mankind as the church appointed twelve new apostles that were given a secret not even the Pope new, one that could bring about the end of the world. They were scattered to keep the secret from the Nazis, one clock for each. He made the clock for New Bartholomew, a noble man who was also a Nazi officer (seen in the first flashback). Only the twelve knew the secret of what was hidden beneath the cathedral. The Nazis had figured out the first steps towards eternal life and a way to render God irrelevant. Those experiments never ended, nor the search for the clocks. He explains they must find the clocks before the enemy, as a storm is coming, a storm called zero hour (oh my, that's the name of the show!).

The Arctic base is actually a U-boat. And Vincent is fast approaching.

The Verdict:

The plot seems quite compelling and the premiere moved at a frenetic pace, so I can't fault it for dragging its heels, but it was tough to get passed the really bad dialogue—I mean really bad. If you can get passed that, then there's the whole-hearted level of contrivance of getting every character where they need to be within the first hour. I guess the writers want to keep the momentum so the episode feels like an international thriller, but it's come at the expense of any connection to the characters thus far. The villain spews over the top speeches, while Hank finds it wise to mouth off to cops and the FBI right from the start.

It's impossible to overlook some of the plot holes—Why was Laila targeted for the clock when it's obviously been sitting untouched for decades? Was something activated that alerted Vincent?

So you're an old German in fear of your life and two crazy American kids show up asking you about a clock you made. Why not explain everything you know about the end of the world? This man is so dead next week.

Apparently the magazine business is booming, given Hank, Arron and Rachel have no problem purchasing last minute flights to Bavaria and the Arctic Circle. As a Canadian, I can attest that getting to Iqaluit isn't going to be on any seat sales. 

Honestly, I had high hopes for the Antichrist when I saw the white-eyed baby. I'm guessing that's not in the cards. It's unclear if this storyline is going to bring in supernatural, Book of Revelation aspects, or it will remain a secular Nazi plot. The question remains of where and what is inside the object taken from the cathedral.

Nearly every pilot comes off somewhat awkward, so I won't paint the whole series with this brush yet. Episode two might show some improvement.

Review: Battlestar Galactica: Blood and Chrome

Non Spoiler Review:

Ten years into the war with the Cylons, eager graduate Ensign William Adama is assigned to the Battlestar Galactica, and his first mission—as raptor pilot ferrying a mysterious civilian. It's quickly apparent that their mundane assignment is more than it seems, and Adama finds himself involved in a mission critical to winning the war.

Blood and Chrome has had an extremely difficult time getting to air. First promoted as webisodes acting as a back door pilot for a series on SyFy, then implied it would go straight to air, and back again to YouTube, it now looks like this is as good as it's going to get for the Battlestar Galactica franchise. SyFy doesn't know what to do with it, and all indications are it will not be going further than airing on the network early in 2013 as a movie. But one can hope.

The pilot is written and produced by David Eick (also executive producer) and David Weddle, among others, so its Galactica lineage is pretty much intact. William Adama this time around is played by Luke Pasqualino. Rounding out the Galactica crew is Ben Cotton as Coker, with Lili Bordán as Graystone Industries' Dr. Becca Kelly.

Pasqualino does a good job pulling off a cocky young Adama that grows better as the series progresses. He's not the first—we got a glimpse of a slightly older version at the close of the war in Razor. While he certainly doesn't act like the admiral we're used to, there's nothing in this character that contrasts wildly with his future version. He comes across with similarities to Starbuck at this point (though with a respect for command).

The story gets into the fray pretty quickly, so it doesn't lack for action. And early on there's a stunning space battle with the Cylons to rival anything on Battlestar Galactica. The opening montage bringing the viewer up to date with the Cylon rebellion was effective, and calls back to Caprica's conclusion quite well. What we get is a war-weary crew in which an eager-to-fight Adama is introduced, forced to come to terms with the reality of wartime versus his idealized fantasy.

Blood and Chrome is a nostalgic return to the Battlestar Galactica we're used to, from the viper dog fights (complete with Bear McCreary drum beats) to the interiors of the ship. Aside from the sometimes distracting use of lens flares to help cover up the effects, it's all very familiar and a great start to what I hope will be a successful addition to the Galactica franchise. The movie succeeds in reintroducing a cast of characters in an era ripe for exploration. Hopefully further missions are on the way.

Spoilers Now!

In a letter home to his father, Ensign William Adama justifies his decision to join the fight against the Cylons. While in combat training, he takes some unorthodox measures in taking out his Cylon raiders. It's all a holoband simulation, which he passes easily. 

En route to his first assignment he flirts with new crew mate Jenna, but it's the sight of the Battlestar Galactica that really gets his attention. On the flight deck he sees war hero Deke Tornvald. As he reports for duty, his eagerness to get into the Cylon War (now in its tenth year) is off putting to some of his comrades. Instead he's assigned to pilot a raptor mission rather than fly a viper.

Disappointed, he meets his co-pilot, Coker, who is less than impressed with him. Coker is busy cleaning out the blood of his previous pilot and thinks Adama is wet behind the ears, calling him Husker (even though Adama is from Caprica City and not a farmer). Coker, with 47 days left in his tour, also appears to enjoy a drink or two on the job.

In the CIC the two of them are briefed by Commander Nash. Nash notes Adama has some interesting Tauron family connections—the Ha'la'tha mob. Though his grades weren't stellar he's a natural pilot. To cool off his cockiness he's assigning him a raptor milk run—they're to take cargo to Scorpion shipyards and return with spare parts—a four-day round trip, given he can't spare a jump ready ship.

Adama and Coker clean up in the showers prior to their mission. Adama wonders what Coker is planning on doing when his tour is done, as he can't see anyone not wanting to fight for their survival. Seeing Tornvald, Adama goes over to meet him and speak of his admiration for the pilot, but the tired war veteran, echoing the same weariness as Coker, says it's all meaningless. Another attractive woman also catches Adama's eye.

Afterwards, Coker wonders why Adama's father didn't use his mob influence to keep his son out of the war. Adama's not about to use his family's influence. At least he had a choice, Coker says. They get a pittance of ordinances due to low supplies, but then they find that their cargo is the same woman Adama met, software engineer Becca Kelly.

When they're in space and out of range of Galactica, Becca gives Coker a new set of orders directly from the admiralty—a rendezvous with the Battlestar Archeron two days in the opposite direction near Cylon controlled space, as well as wireless silence and strict adherence to her orders. Adama seems pleased at the change in plans.

Later on, Adama is reviewing Cylon battle footage, but his holoband malfunctions, and he's surprised when Becca says she can likely fix it. She reveals she was an employee of Graystone Industries (the makers of holoband technology). She worked on Cylons, she clarifies, designing the upgrade on their brain technology. Adama seems shocked at that, and points out she helped improve the machines that are killing them. Kelly is already very aware of that fact and she sits in silence as he goes to the cockpit.

When they approach the rendezvous coordinates they find multiple DRADIS contacts—the Archeron has been destroyed. As they fly through the debris field to investigate, Kelly is disheartened to see the destruction, but they're quickly alerted to three enemy contacts, and one raider bears down on them.

As all three raiders close in, Adama kills one, but runs out of missiles, so he takes drastic action to outmaneuver them, leading them through the debris of the landing bay, and then deciding to fly through the Archeron's jump drive, which is still active. As the raptor slips through the small opening, the remaining raiders are destroyed inside.

Coker begrudgingly compliments him for his flying skills. Becca instructs them to send out a hail on a particular frequency and it's immediately answered with new coordinates within Cylon space. Coker balks at that, but she reminds him they answer to her on this mission, and Adama agrees. Coker doesn't need to be court-martialed with just two months of service left.

As the raptor approaches their destination, Adama wakes up Becca, who talks in her sleep and calls him Ezra. She explains it's Ezra Barzam, a famous colonial marine Adama's heard of who killed a platoon of Cylons. He was an inspiring man—and her husband.

They arrive at a dense asteroid field and Coker picks up colonial transponders, and two vipers emerge demanding a password with weapons locked. At the last second Becca supplies it, and they're escorted into the system which hides a fleet of colonial cruisers, including the Battlestar Valkyrie, reported lost. In fact, all of the vessels present have been thought destroyed.

Docking with the cruiser Osiris, Becca reports to its commander Ozar. She's preparing to get Becca further on to her mission objective. Adama wants to go, but she quickly tells him he's too green and can sit this one out, despite dispatching with three bandits earlier. Becca pipes up that Adama and Coker have taken her this far and she'd like them along.

The mission is to the former resort ice moon of Djerba, which was taken over as a staging ground for the Cylons early in the war, and is so deep in their space it's now relatively unguarded. Colonial marines have already been inserted, and the mission is to get Becca to her operators and let them take her the rest of the way to her objective. Ozar stresses this mission is vital to the success of the war and wants volunteers only. Coker realizes that means a one-way trip.

While prepping, Coker encounters a friend reported dead—viper pilot Jim Kirby. He brings him up to speed on his wife, who apparently had his son while he was gone.

The Osiris makes the combat jump to Djerba and prepares to launch the raptor and its fighter escort. However a Cylon basestar jumps in, and while it hasn't seen the Osiris yet, Ozar realizes they'll pick them up soon enough. Rather than abort she advises the crew they're about to engage the Cylons and orders the vipers and raptor launched. The basestar is alerted to their position while the Osiris brings its guns and nukes to bear on them.

The raptor and its two viper escort make an intense drop into Djerba's atmosphere while in pursuit by raiders. The Osiris takes a beating from the basestar and is too damaged to fire off its nukes. Ozar decides on a suicide run and detonates them manually, setting them off while the ship crashes onto the surface of the basestar. Both ships are destroyed

Coker picks up the nuclear explosion and loses DRADIS contacts with both the colonials and the Cylons. Adama does some fancy piloting while Coker and the two vipers manage to destroy some of their bandits. Both vipers, including Kirby's, go down, but Adama jettisons and ignites the raptor fuel to take out their last pursuer.

That leads to a crash landing which puts their raptor out of commission. Coker decides he's had enough and wants to repair the ship and leave. Becca insists they complete their rendezvous with the marines, and Adama agrees, telling him to stop his bitching and behave like a soldier. Besides, the marine extraction team remains their only way off planet.

The three make their way to the transponder signal in an ice cave, only to find dead bodies that haven't been killed by gunfire. Coker and Becca fall into a hole, leading Adama to jump down after. But they realize they're not alone. Something is alive in the walls and bites Coker. A serpent emerges and the three try to fight it off, but with little success until someone else arrives and kills it.

Their savior is Xander Toth, one of the marine sergeants (and the lone survivor). He explains their group had camped out in the cave while he went out on patrol, only to return to find them all dead from the serpents. The Cylons have been experimenting with new lifeforms, combining mechanical and organic parts.

It's evident Toth isn't mentally stable, and he won't say how long he's been surviving on his own, but he's clear that a storm is coming and Becca will have to wait until morning to get to her mission objective, despite her protests. He's also noted a Cylon patrol in his travels. At the first sign of Coker's defiance he forces him unconscious and threatens to kill him when they protest. Clear that they're at his mercy for the moment, they agree to his plan to take refuge in a safe place he knows of. The four of them make their way to a ridge which reveals an abandoned ski resort below.

Toth explains the Cylons took it in the initial attack and used it as a supply depot for spare parts. The crew retires for some rest, with Toth standing guard. Adama stays in the same room as Becca, who notes he reminds him of her husband, then goes on to reveal that the military built him into a larger than life war hero for recruitment purposes. He never died taking out a Cylon platoon, but in a friendly fire incident, and they ensured he lived on in V-world to encourage enlistment.

Adama makes his moves on her, but she tells him he'll regret it. Afterwards Adama is woken up to Coker's piano playing in the main foyer, and they enjoy a drink together. Coker can tell Adama hooked up with Becca and thinks it's all dubious, but that topic is interrupted by one of Toth's tripwires going off in the distance. Cylons approach.

Toth gets killed, while Adama and Coker split up to deal with two Cylon soldiers, one of whom corners Becca in the cooler (which itself appears to store dismembered body parts). It scans her dog tags and pauses, allowing Coker time to come in and shoot it. The Cylon gives off a wounded scream as they finish it off. Becca explains that it can feel pain.

Coker decides he's had enough of the mission and demands that Becca tell them where they're going, pulling a gun on both. She confesses it's to a Cylon transmission array. Their surprise attack is one of the last offensives that the colonial fleet can muster against a superior enemy. She's carrying a virus in the dog tag around her neck that she'll upload to the Cylon network. It's designed to lie dormant until they trigger it to shut down their defenses.

Coker appears content to have the details of the missions at last. They make their way to the automated array which is supposedly unguarded if they don't trip the internal defence systems. They meet no resistance, and Becca begins to upload her virus. Coker watches, then notices a schematic of a battlestar appear onscreen. He abruptly shoots her in the shoulder, to Adama's horror. Coker tells him she's a traitor giving up military secrets.

Adama refuses to believe it, but Coker saw the Cylon scan her dog tag and let her live. They realize the location of the ghost fleet is being uploaded and that's why the Cylons destroyed the Archeron, so she would be taken to where they were. Becca shoots Coker and trains her gun on Adama, explaining they can't win the war and must negotiate. She believes the Cylons value life more than they do and are just defending themselves. Adama tries to reason with her but she shoots him in the shoulder as he approaches.

Becca is about to finish him off but finds she's out of bullets. Wounded but mobile, he takes the gun and proceeds to smash the control panels to stop the upload. He then takes the seriously wounded Coker and leaves Becca behind. Once free of the array they rest in the snow, and while Adama activates the transponder for their rescue it's looking like Coker won't make it. He asks him to take care of a photo of his wife. Come nightfall a raptor appears for them.

Back at the array, Becca hears "Are you alive", and turns to face a somewhat humanoid-looking Cylon (with a familiar female voice). It informs her that though she might be more enlightened than others of her species, they don't hate her any less, and breaks her neck.

On Galactica, Commander Nash visits a recuperating Adama, asking him to sign off on his report. Adama realizes it says their mission was a complete success, but knows it's a lie. He realizes Nash new the truth all along, and the admiralty wanted her to upload the data. Nash reveals when the Cylons attacked the ghost fleet it was long gone, and they inflicted major damage on the Cylons in five sectors. Adama doesn't see the big picture, wondering about the sacrifice of the Osiris and the Archeron. Nash explains the public won't support the war if they don't give them hope. They can have their heroes while he and Adama fight the real war.

Adama signs off on it, and Nash informs him he has a shiny new viper waiting for him for a special ops task force. All it needs is a call sign. Coker arrives, a little worse for the wear, but has survived. While he doesn't know what his long term plans are, he says he'll stick around for the remaining weeks of his tour.

Adama writes home to his father, admitting the nature of the war is different than he expected. He finds himself welcome among Deke and Jenna and he muses that when the war is over he'll remember the men and women who fought with him most. With his viper christened as Husker, he launches out into space with the rest of the squadron.

The Verdict:

Blood and Chrome managed to live up to the long wait to see it brought to screen. It successfully delivered a first mission storyline with what could be a great supporting cast should we get more movies in the future. While Caprica explored themes of life after death and virtual reality, this series looks to delve into the morally ambiguous nature of war.

It was evident right away that the series has managed an effective bridge between the world we see in Battlestar Galactica and the more pristine, pre-fall days of Caprica. The majestic fly by of the Battlestar Galactica at the start, complete with original music (the Colonial Anthem) sealed the deal that the creative minds behind this had gotten it right.

A little bit of the Battlestar mythology got filled in, from an unexpected (sort of) Tricia Helfer cameo, to the Galactica in its prime. Character introductions were delivered well, which is always difficult in a pilot. Pasqualino comes off as a good choice as Adama, and the others are all pretty likable, including Coker and Jenna. Though Coker was starting to grate on me after awhile with his constant bitching about the mission. It just didn't ring true given the circumstances—abandoning the mission certainly doesn't honor the lost men and women on Osiris that he claims to respect.

For a moment I thought Caprica's Global Defense agent Jordan Durham had sought a career in the Colonial Fleet when war broke out, but here Brian Markinson is playing Silas Nash. Xander Toth is also played by John Pyper-Ferguson, who was Tomas Vergis on Caprica.

I realize many fans have a major hate for Caprica, but I loved the show and wished it had the chance to grow beyond its flaws. Here the references to the prequel series really rounded out the continuity and legacy of the franchise—the Ha'la'tha mob, Graystone Industries—all contribute to the detailed world building in the prequel series.

The movie did indulge in a bunch of typical military cliches. I admit it wasn't a big surprise that the Osiris would be making a suicide run. It's a wonder the colonials can endure this ten year war given what must be extraordinary losses in personnel and hardware (including the Archeron).

Toth  was also the standard crazy lone surviving soldier. And he served his purpose to get the group to their refuge and was quickly killed. Kirby came and went, too, and seems like a waste of screen time to introduce and eliminate so quickly (except to say that war is hell).

Adam behaved a bit ridiculously at times. While I can forgive his bedding Becca so easily, Adama's blind jump into the darkness of the cave was just pure stupidity. Instead of throwing down a rope to try to retrieve them, he opts to leap down into the unknown and risk (fatal) injury too, leaving them all stranded? While he might be a green recruit, his frustration with the truth about the mission seemed very naive. The colonials obviously won a great victory against the Cylons in manipulating Becca and sacrificing a few along the way.

As for Becca, she fulfilled the role of the sympathizer, though it wasn't entirely clear if her Cylon sympathies came from working on them at Graystone Industries, or for how the military treated her husband's death. On one hand it's not hard to think many colonials would want to negotiate for a peace given the damage they're suffering, but the relentlessness of the Cylons to eradicate them would seem to counter that attitude. It seems the admiralty must have been manipulating her for quite awhile in order to set up such a complex deception.

Aside from those questionable choices, the pace really made for enjoyable viewing. I was hooked within the first few minutes. The opening vistas of colonies under attack and old school battlestars, basestars, vipers and raiders were beautifully rendered (albeit with some reused stock footage from The Plan). There are plenty of effective action sequences, and insight into the various ships of the colonial fleet, like the Osiris, something we've not had the opportunity to see before.

The only other criticism I have is the lens flares, which are there to obscure all the green screen, though this was only in a few instances, and exteriors didn't seem to suffer from it as much. However, I'm impressed by how it all looks. The Galactica and Osiris interiors don't feel as CGI as I thought they might, and it's all quite an achievement. Here's hoping Blood and Chrome gets to see further missions.

Thoughts and Questions:

The Cylons love to tinker with mechanical/biological hybrids, this time coming up with a cybernetic python, and a precurser to the skinjobs. The dissected humans in the resort also don't bode well for what they might have going on behind the scenes. It's got me wondering if this ice planet might be the same one we saw in Razor?

Is Graystone Industries still around? Delivering a virtual apocalypse to the Twelve Colonies likely proved the death knell for the company considering the drop in shares Graystone suffered for his daughter being a terrorist. Is it a Graystone Industries development that the Cylons appear to feel pain, or did that come with their evolution? It was certainly not present in the early prototypes seen in Caprica. The proto-Six we see here was a nice little touch, and called back to the baby killing scene in the pilot miniseries.

The Cylon War has been raging for ten years. It looks like colonials are required to serve at least two tours of duty. Nash references Operation Clean Sweep—apparently a tactical failure that cost a lot of ships. Where is Cylon controlled space relative to the colonial systems? Where did the Cylons get their basestars?

The Tauron mob still wields significant influence if Joseph Adama could have spared his son a tour of duty in the fleet.

The holoband network still exists in some form, and is used in mission briefings, as well. But is it as expansive as it was in Caprica? Becca mentions her husband was brought back as a recruiting agent in V-world, but one would think the Cylons would have compromised that network pretty quickly (especially since we saw them present in Sister Clarice's V-world church at the end of Caprica).

The timeline is getting sketchy if one thinks too hard about it, but if it's taken for granted that the 40 years since the armistice reference is a bit of a rounded off number, then it could still conceivably work that Adama can have a couple of years in what will be a 12 year war (according to Razor). When looking at Adama's character throughout the franchise, it's interesting now to consider that his entire adolescence was spent during what must have been at times an intense war setting (if the vistas of Caprica being bombarded are any indication). That would frame his entire perspective, so it's no wonder that he had difficulty finding a footing in peacetime (as episodes of Battlestar Galactica alluded to).

Review: The Divide

Non Spoiler Review:

The Divide opens with a chilling scene of apartment resident Eva watching mushroom clouds erupt across New York as missiles rain down. She's pulled away by a neighbour to flee to the basement before the building collapses. The superintendent, Mickey, has a fully stocked bomb shelter, and they make it in with no time to spare while shutting out the mass of people following.

The Divide is directed by Xavier Gens, and I'm unfamiliar with his other features. However, it stars genre great Michael Biehn (Terminator, Aliens) as Mickey in probably one of his best roles to date. Rossanna Arquette is Marilyn, Milo Vantimiglia (Heroes) as Josh, Ashton Holmes as Adrien, and Michael Eklund as Bobby. Lauren German plays Eva, the character that seems to best represent the audience as observer to all the events that unfold in the close confines of the shelter. It's not a well known cast by any means, but it really works here, allowing for acting to shine through without the distraction of big name stars.

The Divide is a character piece, using the science fiction premise to launch an examination of human nature when civilization and hope are stripped away (especially true with Eva staring at multiple nuclear explosions without batting an eyelash). The survivors struggle with endless amounts of time with nothing to do, while wondering what's happened beyond their metal door. Is it a terrorist attack, or has there been a global nuclear strike? All the while Mickey warns of radioactive dust should they dare to try to open the door while rationing the limited supply of food. They soon realize there actually are things happening just outside.

Biehn comes across as quite the paranoid crazy man, though we get a peak into his back story later on that fleshes out the reason behind his behaviour, and he actually remains consistent throughout. It's up for debate how accurately the path of other characters plays out, though for myself I found it to be pretty believable given the circumstances.

The Divide succeeds in its character study, but did offer a very meager glimpse of what actually happened. That might leave the harder science fiction fans frustrated with questions (including me), but I can see where the writers were going with it and what they wanted to say. Though I will criticize that when they chose to dabble in bringing in more science fiction elements they were very much plot devices to move key pieces into position, rather than provide any insight into what was going on beyond the walls of the shelter.

Visually, the film is quite striking—beginning with horrific renderings of New York's destruction and the slow decay of the stark shelter and the characters themselves as they suffer the affects of radiation poisoning over the course of their imprisonment. I also have to mention the eerie soundtrack, especially the opening and closing piano pieces that added to the sense of despair. The ending is very effective, while not providing the answers many will want.

The Divide really is a close cousin to Blindness in the way that human depravity reveals itself. Of course it owes a lot to such works as Lord of the Flies. And the dark tone also brings to mind The Mist (though with much fewer science fiction elements). If these two films are favorites, then The Divide will fit in nicely with their themes. If the darker sides of human nature are not your thing, then definitely give this one a pass.

Review: Melancholia

Non Spoiler Review:

I walked into Lars Von Trier's Melancholia with memories of his other edgier film, Antichrist, still fresh in my mind, so wasn't sure what to expect, despite a very beautiful and intriguing trailer. The opening few minutes lazily depicts the destruction of the Earth in all the stunning and elaborate style Trier is famous for. With that out of the way, the story gets into the nitty-gritty of the characters, focusing on sisters Justine and Claire in the days leading up to the apocalypse.

In the film's first chapter, Justine (Kirsten Dunst, in probably one of her best performances) is getting an elaborate wedding courtesy of her brother-in-law (Keifer Sutherland) at his fancy resort. Everything looks perfect and the couple (including groom Alexander Skarsgard—Eric from True Blood) appear the perfect couple. Very quickly the wedding festivities, and Justine, display cracks, and finally some really awful cringe-inducing moments that make it apparent things with Justine are not as they seem. Claire (Charlotte Gainsbourg) is the enduring sister trying to make things perfect, and be there to pick up the pieces for Justine whenever she needs it. She has a stable life with her ever impatient husband (Sutherland) and their son on their lush resort. She gets the focus of the final half.

Set behind this family dynamic and the aftermath of the wedding is the discovery of a rogue planet (the eponymous Melancholia) that is making a flyby of the Earth. There is just the barest hint of it during Justine's story, but by the time it's Claire's turn, Melancholia becomes increasingly prominent (and ominous) in the sky. As Justine's emotional state begins to crystallize, it's Claire who grows paranoid it will hit, despite that her husband (and amateur scientist) assures her it will not. 

The film is a novel exploration of depression, striking a parallel with the aptly named planet that is a constant reminder in nearly every scene. I found myself gripped by the drama pretty quickly after sitting through the horrible wedding and its subsequent fallout. It is certainly much tamer than Antichrist (barely a flash of naked breasts and not a bit of genital mutilation this time around).

I've read criticisms of Dunst's performance, but I found it to be quite powerful. She was both sympathetic at times and horrible to look at, eliciting empathy for her suffering sister who has to deal with her manic states. Gainsbourg managed to cleanse my palette of her scissor shenanigans in Antichrist, and I really enjoyed her here, as well. As the stable sister, she convincingly portrays a woman who realizes her happy life is abruptly going to end, and struggles to cope with the enormity of their situation.

While the female characters get the focus, the men range from inept to impotent, and fall by the wayside by the end. Visually, Trier excels with his slow motion vistas and vibrantly coloured landscapes, this time including the beautiful and terrifying orb of Melancholia as it grows ever closer in the sky. The opening sequence is subtle and graceful, set to a powerful and memorable score.

As far as an apocalyptic movie, Melancholia treats its subject matter on an intimate level rather than the blockbuster style we're accustomed to, set entirely on the grounds of the resort and with little indication of what's going on in the outside world. If you've seen Don McKellar's Last Night (1998), it shares a similar tone in how it treats the end of the world—character over spectacle.

Showing the Earth's destruction at the beginning is to the movie's benefit as that removes the anticipation of whether the rogue planet will actually hit, and focus all the more on the characters struggling with it. Given the contrasting attitudes of the sisters, it does make one ponder how you would treat your final days if the end of the world was imminent.

Melancholia more than lived up to my expectations from what I could glean from the trailer, so I really have no major criticisms. I would recommend it for anyone familiar with Trier's work, or who might be looking for a thoughtful exploration of depression salted with some neat science fiction elements.