EKG Blog

Marriage Story

This film was up for 6 nominations at the Oscars, 1 of which it won with Laura Dern as best supporting actress.

In my opinion, despite it being a relatively good film, it is extremely overrated.

Maybe it’s because it’s not my preferred genre of film but I felt it was slow, boring and not that special. For me, it just didn’t stand out above the other films nominated for this year’s Oscars.

Despite this, there were a few good points that I found within the film.

One of the things that I liked about the film was how it was filmed. It was like watching a documentary about a divorcing couple. It followed both of their lives as they negotiated through lawyers to get divorced and to gain custody over their son. It was very realistic in how it represented a breakdown of a marriage. It wasn’t anything out of the ordinary, it was your average day divorce. Not even the reason for divorce was anything new.

To help with this, there was barely any underlying music throughout the film which gave it more of a documentary feel.

I thought that the acting by both Adam Driver and Scarlett Johnson was really good. They both managed to get into the characters and make them believable. I think that both of them deserved their nominations.

I don’t think the film itself deserved the nominations as it was a basic story when it boils down to it. There was no plot twist and you knew how it was going end from the very get go. It was like an extended TV drama to me.

It just didn’t stand out to me when you look at the list of films nominated for the best film Oscar (which was won by Parasite) as for me it wasn’t unique or had something to say about today’s world unlike the rest.

To me, it just felt like yet another loveless drama in a genre which is swamped in them.

Rating- 5/10

Photo Credit- aftercredits.com

Leave a reply

Why Loki is my favourite character of all time

There are many characters in the MCU all with their unique personalities, characterisation and backstory. But for me, the best character is that of Loki, the God of Mischief.

Loki is labelled as a villain within the Marvel Cinematic Universe and sure he does some things that can be perceived as villainous but in all honesty, I believe that he is a severely misunderstood character.

In the first Thor film, he finds out that he is actually not Asgardian but in fact a Frost Giant, the very creature that he was raised to fear and hate. This pits him against his ‘father’ and leads on to his actions against the Frost Giant and Asgard in the first Thor movie.

When he returns in Avengers Assemble, he has been sent on a mission to take over Earth as long as he retrieves the Tesseract for Thanos. He does do some evil acts here but this was because he had been tortured previous to the film and this is can be seen when he first arrives on Earth as he looks extremely sick and weak.

He fails in his mission and is taken back to Asgard for prison. Thor, however, needs his help and breaks him out of jail. This begins Loki’s slow but steady redemption arc back to the light. In Thor Ragnarok, he leaves the planet where he had finally found happiness and peace in order to help Thor again, something Loki would have never done back in Avengers Assemble.

His arc ultimately ends in him sacrificing himself in order to protect Thor again just after finally accepting that he is Thor’s brother, blood related or not. He is killed by Thanos after Loki attempts to kill him. This again shows his full arc as before, Loki served Thanos whereas at this point, Loki was prepared to kill Thanos to save Thor.

As you can imagine, I was devastated at his death.

However, in Endgame, Loki escaped with the Tesseract during the events of Avengers Assemble thus creating an alternative timeline prior to his redemption. This will be extremely interesting to see how his character develops for a second time round.

All Loki wanted was to be accepted and have a proper loving family and he finally found that within Thor who despite all of Loki’s faults, still loved him for who he was. I dont think Loki would have done everything that he had done if he had been treated so much better throughout his life rather than being lied to and treated as second best.

I don’t think anyone else than Tom Hiddleston could play Loki to the same level that he does as he mages to play bot Loki’s good and bad sides to perfection.

The new Loki series in Spring next year and I for one can’t wait to see how this expands both Loki’s character and the MCU itself.

Photo Credit: The Daily Dot

Leave a reply

What the Harry Potter films missed from the books

I love Harry Potter. I’m a Potterhead and to be honest I would go so far as to say that I am a bit of a fanatic. I’ve read all the books countless times, own merch and could quote you the majority of characters best lines. I do like to sit down and watch ne of the films from the series and It never fails to bug me how many of the plots from the books are missed out in the films. Here are my top 5 in no particular order:

The Marauders – This is the most annoying omission for me as I love the marauders storyline in the books and the fact they are basically omitted from the films really makes me sad. Especially as the Marauders storyline is basically the climax of Prisoner of Azkaban yet in the films this is not present. You don’t even find out about how James Potter and his friends became Animagi to look after Remus Lupin as werewolf and that they wrote the Marauders map. In the films the nicknames in the map and the characters of Sirius Black and Remus Lupin not connected at all.
Barty Crouch Jr’s plan – Goblet of Fire missed out so many important elements but this one was the most annoying. In the book when it is discovered that Barty Crouch Jr was disguised as Mad-Eye Moody, he explains his plan and why he did it. In the films he is unmasked and then it cuts. No background, no explanation nothing. It leaves the casual viewer in the dark about how the events in the film happened and why.
SPEW and Winky the Elf – This was a minor omission, but it gave House Elves more depth and it showed how their use could be perceived as slavery. In addition is showed more of Hermione’s character and her compassion to non-human beings.
Ginny Weasley – In the films Ginny was just a love interest in the end. In the books however she was a strong female character with her own backstory and eve her own individual personality. And when she does fall in love with Harry, it actually means something and it feels natural rather than a randomly chucked in romance.
The Battle at the End of the Half Blood Prince – In the films the fact that the Death Eaters randomly turned up at Hogwarts had no meaning as they took out the actual battle at the end of the book which foreshadowed the Battle of Hogwarts in Deathly Hallows. It made Dumbledore’s death more important it gave some great character moments. And can you possibly miss out Tonks confession if her love for Lupin?

I understand why certain things were missed out the films otherwise we would be watching ten hours of Harry Potter films (I wouldn’t complain) but these are important plot points and I believe they should not have been cut.

Photo Credit: Pinterest

Leave a reply

Harley Quinn: Birds Of Prey

Reports have been suggesting that Birds of Prey has been flopping big time at the box-office. And I don’t understand for the life of me why that is. Well I have a few ideas.

First of all, I must say how much I enjoyed the film. I saw it on Wednesday, and it was such a fresh and fun film. It is the gemstone amongst DC’s mess of a cinematic universe.

I love the character of Harley Quinn. I’ve only seen her in the two DCEU films, but I love Margot Robbie’s take on her. She makes her a believable villain with a good backstory and it shows that girls can be just as villainous as boys as Harley is the girl equivalent to the Joker only more human like as we actually know her backstory and her name. I’m not including the 2019 film Joker here as it’s not DCEU.

In this film I felt like Margot Robbie gave an amazing performance as Harley who has just broken up with the Joker and is now on her own. She crosses paths with Crime Lord, Roman Sionis aka Black Mask (played brilliantly by Ewan McGregor) who enlists her to find a diamond for him. The rest of the Birds of Prey group are all linked to the diamond in different ways and they all end up as a group against Sionis.

Despite the plot being simple with no major plot twists, I felt like this film was fun and refreshingly fun film. It felt like it carried the aesthetic of Harley Quinn with the bubble-gum colours and the funky soundtrack fits it really well. It’s the chacters that carry the film and that’s what superhero films are usually about.

I think that this film has been flopping because it is directed by a woman and has a female led cast with a love intertest and many people just rent ready for a film where a girl has to fall in love with someone.

I recommend that you go se this film even if you’re not a DC fan. Personally, I’m not a big fan of DC bit I thoroughly enjoyed this film and it both fixed and added to Harley Quinn’s character.

Rating – 9/10

Photo Credit – vitalthrills.com

Leave a reply

Why Being Human is underrated

Being Human, which ran from 2007-2013, was a supernatural TV show about a ghost, a vampire and a werewolf who live together and their attempts to fit in with humanity. The show was created by Toby Whithouse and ran for 5 series. (I am talking about the UK version, not the remake USA version)

During its run it gathered a reasonable fanbase. If you dive far enough into early Tumblr days then the fanbase is there. However, unlike fandoms like Harry Potter and Friends in which the shows or films ended years ago yet their fandoms are still alive and kicking.

I only just got into the TV Show last summer as it popped up in my Netflix feed and I really like Supernatural stuff (minus Twilight) so I thought I would give it a go. And I feel in love with the show practically straight away. I think I watched it in bout 3 weeks.

I think the reason why its no longer a popular show is because its just brushed off as another supernatural show. This is not the case. Under the vampire blood and full moons, there are some extremely important messages.

The main one for me is how the vampires and werewolves represent real life issues. The vampires represent extreme drug addiction. The biggest example for me is the character of Hal Yorke. When you first meet him, he’s been clean from blood for 50 years due to have a strict daily regime to keep his mind occupied. However, in series 5, despite his efforts to restrain himself, he drinks blood again and as he puts it “relapses” back into his murderous ways.

The werewolves on the other and, represent the passing of diseases through contamination. The biggest example of thus is when Nina Pickering and George Sands who are both werewolves are worried about what their kid would be like.

I highly recommend watching this show as it is one of my personal favourites. It’s available on Netflix.

Photo credit- cultbox.com

Leave a reply

Doctor Who: Fugitive of the Judoon

Wow where do I start with this episode?

After the majorly disappointing series 11 last year, series 12 has performed far better than expected (minus Orphan 55). There is finally a story arc in the ‘Timeless Child’ mystery. And although the question of who is the ‘timeless child’ might not be answered this series, it still makes it feel, for me, like Doctor Who again. However, after was mentioned in Spyfall Part 2, it was basically forgotten.

Until this episode aired last week. And wow that mystery seemed to be chucked back into the forefront again. Ruth, a seemingly normal woman at first turns out to have a massive secret. And it seems that her husband, Lee, is the fugitive that the Judoon are after.

But it turns out to be Ruth. When they began to mention hints like “break the glass”, I started to suspect that it was a fob watch situation from series 3 and that Ruth was going to be a Time lady from Gallifrey. And I was correct!

However, I did not expect her to be the Doctor. This new revelation complete throws my chronological understanding of the Doctor out of the window. Neither the RuthDoctor nor the 13^th Doctor can remember each other despite the fact that one of them must be from one of their pasts.

I personally think that this new Doctor is from another universe, a parallel universe hence why the Gallifreyans exist still and neither of the two doctors know each other.

The other major event in this episode is the fact that Captain Jack Harkness is back! Last seen in Doctor Who in 2010 and despite only being in the episode briefly, it opens the window to a whole world of possibilities, and it makes me incredibly excited for the future of the show.

Plus, the combination of the Judoon and Jack Harkness made it feel like the RTD era which I love.

Overall, it was a great episode and I can’t wait for the rest of Series 12.

Rating- 9/10

Photo Credit- denofgeek.com

Leave a reply

Charlie’s Angels

Charlies Angels set out to be a fresh reboot of the tv show and past movies but with a more feminist twist to it. Directed by (and starring) Elizabeth Banks, this film is filed with energy and is the third film in the series and a continuation of the 1970s tv show.

The three main performances from Kristen Stewart, Naomi Scott and Ella Balinska are fun filled and gives the film a fresh feel to it. Three young women to lead the film was a wise choice in my opinion as it means that they are relatable in today’s world.

However, I felt as if Elizabeth Banks gave herself a bit more screen time than needed due to the fact that she was directing. Despite this, I thought she gave an incredible performance as Bosley.

The twist of who the villain actually was one that I didn’t see coming and Banks played her part well as she had me fooled that she was the villain.

I also liked the soundtrack to the film. It was modern and funky. It also bellowed strong female lyrics which tied in extremely well with the film.

I’m not sure if this film will amount to anything major like a sequel or expansion of a franchise but we will have to see.

Overall I enjoyed it as a light film to watch and that entertains.

Rating- 7/10

Photo Credit- MovieWeb

Leave a reply

Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker was one of the most highly anticipated films of the year. It not only had the task of finishing the sequel trilogy which started with The Force Awakens in 2015 but also to end the Skywalker Saga which began all the way back in 1977, over 40 years ago.

The films are adored by fans worldwide spread across generations, so this film had a lot to do. It was first plagued by misfortune after its original director quit and JJ Abrams stepped up to take his spot. Abrams had directed the Force Awakens but not its sequel the last jedi.

The Last Jedi divided opinions greatly amongst fans and JJ Abrams and it was obvious that Rise of Skywalker didn’t want to do anything radical and so they played it safe. It was very obvious as there were moments when they could have made a revolutionary move, but they reeled it back to the safe zone.

Although the film was twisty turns and had a few shocks in store, it was vastly predictable. Its mirrored Return of the Jedi in so many ways that it seemed like another rehash especially in the last few scenes.

The identity of Rey’s family seemed, to me, to be something from sort of strange fan fiction and I can’t quite wrap my head around it so much so that the ending felt a bit empty to me.

Overall it was an enjoyable film and I do recommend it however I feel as if it has so much more potential and it didn’t quite deliver. And it’s ending didn’t seem final enough to me. It felt like there could be more after which doesn’t work for me as it’s supposed to be the end of the Skywalker Saga.

Rating- 7/10

Photo Credit- CNET>Bonnie Burton