The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo Review

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The Dark Knight Rises Prologue Review

The fire rises. And hopefully, so does the movie's sound mix.

Yes, I have seen the prologue for The Dark Knight Rises. And much like the bank heist prologue from The Dark Knight, it is six minutes of perfect, appetite-whetting AWESOME. It perfectly shows off the mood of the movie, as well as the first real unveiling of the film's villain. And, along with the trailer, it builds the anticipation for this flick that was already at The Phantom Menace-level anticipation to a fever pitch, whilst unfortunately reminding us that there are still seven months to go until the release of the final film. (SPOILERS AHEAD) The prologue itself deals with the CIA taking custody of one Dr. Leonid Pavel (the "mad scientist" announced months ago to be played by Alon Aboutbol), a character who's heavily figured into the marketing campaign, while also attempting to gather information from henchmen on their leader, a mysterious masked muscular mercenary (M's, lol) named Bane. Eventually, while the interrogation on a plane is ongoing, Bane reveals himself, and crashes the plane with the help of his cronies. A few exchanges of dialogue establish that Bane's men are fanatically devoted to his cause (that "the fire rises" line stuck in the head), while managing to toe around the actual plot of the film, which is still a complete mystery. In addition, there was an opening that recalled Gordon's speech about Harvey Dent from the end of TDK, and a short montage of clips at the end (some from the trailer and some not), before showing a shot of all hell breaking loose in Gotham as Bane's men appear to collide in battle with the GCPD. The last shot, of Bane carrying a shard of Batman's broken cowl (as depicted in the above poster) is truly chilling, and, combined with the timeline, gives me the idea that The Dark Knight Rises plot will be something of a hybrid of Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns and Bane's introductory storyline, Knightfall. Of all the good things I've said about this prologue, however, it has one major flaw: Tom Hardy's Bane voice is quite difficult to understand. Some sentences are easier than others, but his last lines were pretty much unintelligible. Christopher Nolan himself has stated that he's only going to make minor sound alterations to the voice, so I hope that they make it count. Still, this prologue only made me more excited. I won't apply a star rating to this one, as six minutes of footage is hard to rate.

The Dark Knight Rises opens July 20.

"When Gotham is ashes, you'll have my permission to die."

Dexter - "This is the Way the World Ends" Review, Season 6 Recap

They finally f'in did it. Only one season too late.

So, I'm back. After an extremely long hiatus due to studies, I'm home for Christmas. So, I figured I'd make up for lost time, and write a review for the season finale of Dexter, and the season in general as well. First the season 6 recap.

To be perfectly honest, this season of Dexter was not as bad as many TV critics and fans made it out to be. It had its moments, particularly in the early part of the season, where the writing was about up to par with the usual standards. By far, the series' most interesting guest character this season was Brother Sam. I'll admit that I had some worries about Mos Def's acting ability, but dammit if he wasn't pretty good. Brother Sam worked better than either Doomsday Killer as a character, if only because his positive story provided the season with some much-needed perspective on religion. Sadly, after Brother Sam was killed off midseason, the writing took a nosedive. Since I haven't reviewed any episodes since the first, I've never had time to comment on the Ghost Gellar story, but I too was inclined to believe he wasn't real by the second or third episode. Edward James Olmos was wasted in a thankless, one-note role as the overtly fanatical religious professor, while Colin Hanks surprised me as being fairly good as the unsure, doubting Travis Marshall. However, they stuck to the gimmick of Ghost Gellar for far too long, dragging it out over NINE. FREAKIN'. EPISODES. They could have easily had the reveal be in the closing moments of "Sin of Omission", the eighth episode, or even better, had done it even earlier simply by having a scene of Travis talk to himself as the camera pans out, much like the closing moments of the season one episode "Shrink Wrap", in which Dexter's brother Brian/Rudy (who also returned this season, in a nice little guest spot as Dream Brian, the physical embodiment of Dexter's Dark Passenger) was revealed to be the Ice Truck Killer. But alas, no such luck, so instead, in possibly the series' worst episode "Get Gellar", we get the reveal, which is treated as a massively dramatic twist, when in reality, it was one that pretty much EVERYONE IN THE WORLD KNEW AT THIS POINT. Gellar was merely Travis' Dark Passenger, and once Travis realized that, his character took a ridiculous 180, suddenly becoming as insane as his Ghost Gellar, a homicidal maniac hellbent on bringing out the world's end. So, in the remaining three episodes, things arguably improved a little, but the story still took on some really absurd directions. Deb being in love with Dexter?! That's not only the sickest and most twisted thing I've ever heard (I call bullshit on the "they're not related by blood" thing, they lived together in the same house for DECADES, they're siblings, blood or not), but it's also just unbelievable in terms of the direction of the character of Debra thus far. Still, the story was fun and kept me engaged, though not quite as much as previous seasons. There was also the interesting subplots of Louis the intern, who seems a little too interested in Dexter and his connection to the Ice Truck Killer. And then there is Deb's conflict with LaGuerta over her throwing Captain Matthews under the bus. And as "Talk to the Hand" ended, Travis left Dex in a pool of fire, stranded in the Atlantic Ocean, as Travis' tableaus to end the world neared completion with the solar eclipse. And with that, the review of "This is the Way the World Ends"....

I must say, most of this finale of Dexter surprised in how laid-back, assured, self-contained, and low-key it was. There was no closure on the plot of Louis, so I'm assuming that that will play a part in what will almost definitely be a very different season of Dexter as opposed to its predecessors (I'll get to why in a minute). They also remained fairly unconcerned on the subplots of Quinn and Batista, and Deb and LaGuerta, which will probably continue into next season as well. The main problem with this episode, and the season as a whole, lied in the fact that, until the very final minute, is that NONE OF IT MATTERED AT ALL TO THE OVERARCHING NARRATIVE OF THE SERIES. In season 1, Dex discovered his past, met his brother, and was established as a character. In season 2, he fully embraced his nature, began to feel for Rita and the kids, defeated a powerful adversary in Doakes, and very barely evaded capture. In 3, he attempted to make a true friend and mold a successor, while preparing himself for marriage and the arrival of a son. In 4, he faced off against his most powerful adversary ever, while attempting to reconcile his killer side with his family man side, which failed completely, resulting in Rita's death. Season 5 had him deal with loss, then channel it by helping a similar lost soul find purpose in life, and found his own in the process. Season 6, while it attempted to wedge in some overarching themes of legacy and faith, failed to leave any lasting impact, mainly because, from an emotional perspective, Dexter ends in pretty much the same place he did before, wanting to be a good father to his son while still being able to kill. Travis' defeat at the exact moment of the eclipse was quite satisfying, and involving Harrison in the plot was certainly an interesting dramatic turn. Dexter's plan to nail Travis also worked well, thinking ahead of Travis in terms of his tranquilizer needles' effects, and while the climax was not as intense as Dexter's chase to Trinity in season 4, or his showdown with Lumen against Jordan Chase in season 5, or even as he was captured by the Skinner in season 3, it was still good to see Travis finally get his comeuppace. However, this is where the episode's logic faltered. Deb told Dexter to do a last sweep of Gellar's church, right? So why, in all hell, WOULD HE TAKE TRAVIS RIGHT TO THE SPOT WHERE DEB EXPECTED HIM TO BE? It was a serious character issue for me, and almost, almost ruined the ending. But thankfully, the moment of the ending was simply too magnanimous to be screwed up, despite the somewhat lazy logic that led to it. As Dexter finally Saran wraps Travis to his table, and stabs him as he does all his victims: we see Debra walk into the church, and, at long last, we get this:

Oh, God.

Although it was a full year late (the reveal easily could have happened in the season 5 finale "The Big One", when merely a curtain separated Deb from Lumen and Dexter as she talked to them with Chase's body over them), the reveal was everything it should have been. I may have had a few problems with the episode, but most of those are because of the season rather than the ep itself, and it did give the moment that Dexter fans have been waiting for. And now, with it behind us, season 7 will begin in a whole new light, hopefully setting up an explosive endgame for the final two seasons of the series. So, in conclusion, an mediocre episode becomes a good, not great one through a fantastic final shot. Be back in October for season 7.

"This is the Way the World Ends" - 3.5/5 stars