Bay of Islands

Over the Waitangi weekend... I went on a cruise! From Auckland, we spent a day at sea, then a day at the Bay of Islands, then another day at sea, then back at Auckland. The cruise itself was much like the last one (indeed, it was the same ship!), and I just spent time relaxing and reading, so I'm not going to talk about that.

Up at the Bay of Islands, the ship anchored in the bay and sent tenders into port. We were supposed to dock at Waitangi itself, but we were advised that there was a police presence, and we shouldn't go there (we were there on Sunday, with actual Waitangi day being the Monday... and it turns out that it would have been fine to go there, as some people did!). So instead of there, we tendered straight to Paihia.



It reminded me a lot of Picton, as a small port town for ship tourists, but nothing really major in itself. As such... I didn't really spend a lot of time there. There was something I did want to do, but with Waitangi closed there were repercussions, including the prebooked cruise being cancelled (at least, I'm assuming this is the reason). Still, that didn't end up stopping me... (to be continued).

You can see the (not that exciting) trip back from Paihia to the cruise ship on the tender, if you want.

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Haallooween

This movie sort of feels like "the first one worked, let's make more" and part "here's stuff we didn't fit into the first movie."

This movie picks up where the first left off, first by recapping, and then going onto the next scene where Michael has disappeared (first proper example of his supernatural abilities). Laurie is taken to a hospital, where Michael follows, and so we get sexy highjinxs of doctors and nurses, and deaths of doctors and nurses. Dr Loomis runs around for a while before heading towards the hospital himself, and then he and Laurie meet up and confront Michael, leaving Laurie to get away while the doctor makes sure Michael will never survive again...

And we also get the exposition that Laurie is a previously unknown sister of Michael. This is the part that feels like it could have been in the first movie (and might have helped provide some motivation there), but also feels like a patch placed on to allow them to continue with her in the main role for this movie. And since they stay in 1978, it even more feels like "let's continue because we can't think of anything else." Although I will give that they build atmosphere better here, with menace before the kills, so this is easily a better movie than the first. And then they realise guns don't work so need a bigger ending.

All in all, that's it for Michael!

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TP 5.1

Boom, another season... and no mention of what happened to Stephen or Tyso. This is The Dirtiest Business.

Russians have found their own kids with ESPs, and for some reason have one of them in London, when she escapes. The SIS, with their own limited ESPers, think the TPs are responsible, and so end up involving them. Mike finds the young lady, Pavla, and tries to help her, but the Russians are onto them. There is a lot of chasing that gets her captured by the SIS, then... it ends!

This is only two episodes, and while the story works a little better being concentrated into just that long, the subject matter is less interesting. True, there is a lot of potential in finding out how other agencies around Earth handle the developing powers, but what there is of that could be squeezed into less than one episode. To be honest, the TPs shouldn't be getting involved in the "dirtiest business", because it doesn't fit with their characters.

That all said, we get a brilliant back and forth. Mike and John go off to Pavla, Elizabeth asks why those two. John replies "Mike is the only one she'll talk to, and me... don't ask awkward questions."

Still, that's not enough to make this episode interesting.

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Spilt

Blah blah M.NS is back blah blah.

Some girls are trapped, because they have no ability to react to surprises. And then stay trapped because one of them says they should be. Um, what? After a long time, eventually we get a final confrontation, and then...

Okay, I'm going to say it, I didn't get the ending. (Not the ending-ending, that's whiplash, but the ending to the story.) Clearly I'm missing something, so I'll probably look it up online as no-one would be able to explain it without severe spoilers to those that don't know it.

Anyway, aside from that, yes James McAvoy gives a great performance. To be honest, if you've seen the trailer, you've seen the bulk of the movie, and what we get is pretty much what is condensed in that. Betty Buckley is good as well. The others... Anya Taylor-Joy doesn't do her character any favours, yes there is a backstory, but I'm not on her side.

Good promise of a movie, but can M.NS keep it up?

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Hallowen

Yes, let's attack that other classic horror series with a man in a mask serial killer. I'm not sure which I've seen, but that won't matter because we start at the beginning.

We start with a kid killing his sister, and then getting committed. Now really, is that any way to act? Just declaring him insane and locking him up? Hardly politically correct. But 15 years later, his masterplan goes off, as he escapes and goes back to terrify the neighbourhood. By which, he picks on baby sitters, although the kids are left alone. Oddly, none of the kids are out trick or treating, although we do see a few. Instead they are inside watching some movie that the baby sitters are fine with. What kind of society is this? Oh, and the killer kills them one by one, showing off skills of stealth, mechanics, architecture and extreme agility (considering how he gets around cars and houses so easily). Then Donald Pleasence comes in at the end and solves everything in a minute, yay!

I'm not saying this is tame, per se, but we spend a lot of time building up the home life of the baby sitters, when it doesn't come into play that much, other than they are friends. The atmosphere of the killer isn't really built up either, as he straight out kills some and it's not until the end that he becomes incompetent and chases Jamie Lee Curtis around. Then ended with a bang, not exactly a major pay off there. John Carpenter has done better work.

Not an amazing start to the series, but we have so far to go...

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TP 4.2

This one isn't written by Roger Price, and it shows because... this is DULL. This is Into the Unknown.

The TPs hear a distress signal from out around Pluto and find a shuttle in distress. They rescue the pilot and patch him up in time for the main ship to get a signal to the shuttle and call it back. The TPs stay on board, and end up at the main ship, where they find that a) the ship is locked to fall into some kind of hole, and b) there's been a coup. Nicholas helps free the ship if they send the shuttle off, then escapes... but finds the shuttle is headed for the hole anyway... and then they travel through the hole... then back in time for the main ship people to destroy themselves, huzzah!

The third episode is "and then they travel through the hole" in which NOTHING happens. Not to say a lot happens in the other episode, but we get even more nothing in this episode. The concept of the story could have been interesting, but it comes off like a bad TNG episode, only at least that would have been half the time.

This is the exit of Stephen (and Tyso?), but nothing much is made of it. Usually the next episode has a one line explanation, usually "they've got to the Trig", so I'll watch out for that.

TP doesn't do great outer space episodes, and this isn't breaking that pattern.

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Lustice Jeague Dark

This is the latest from WB DC Animation... and it's immediately better than the live action movies!

Ordinary people are seeing others as demons, so while the Justice League are interested, magic is involved. So Batman goes off and gets Constantine, Zatanna and Deadman, and they team up to hunt down a few suspects. And, of course, the answer involves deep history with characters and turns on building off that...

Gah! This is so much better!! Anyway, they have Matt Ryan as Constantine! It's good to see that they are keeping him involved, but dammit, this just makes me want more of him. And he gets to be a severe bastard, so they are keeping the continuity constant.

Speaking of continuity, they don't feel the need to introduce everyone, although we do get a couple of origin stories. This is what you do, either a) assume the audience knows, or b) don't make the story depend on those unspoken elements. We are already in the DC universe, we know there are superheroes with lots of weird powers and abilities, so let's just have these people show up and deal with it. I can follow, even if I don't know everyone involved! (Although... I do, but haven't been keeping up with what they've done with some of the major heroes.)

Frankly, the DC movie departments are the wrong way around. At the least, get the animated guys to write the live action movies!

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