The Blacklist - Pilot Review

Well it’s that time of year again, where the major networks open the gates and release a mix of terrible garbage and fantastic shows. One of the most advertised in the recent month, and most anticipated, is the serial national security drama “The Blacklist” starring all around crazy fucked up Hannibal Lecteresq James Spader (Stargate, Boston Legal). I was intrigued by the 1,000 promos shoved down my throat by NBC and Global TV in Canada so I figured last night I’d sit down and check out the pilot.

So this program is about Raymond Reddington (Spader) who is a long time fugitive and former armed forces member who disappeared on Christmas eve many years ago. He magically appears at the FBI headquarters and turns himself into the FBI. And tah dah he refuses to talk to anyone but this cheeseball oversimplified FBI newb named Elizabeth Keen (Megan Boon). What bothered me right off the bat is that she was really nice and kind of naïve and ditzy. This isn’t a problem until she’s pulled into meet with Reddington and the first thing she says is that her former coworkers thought she was a Bitch. What the fuck is that all about? I didn’t know a kind woman dedicated to her man and was trying to adopt a kid was a bitch.

So after the awkward and cheesy character intros are done with, the story actually picks up and makes the Reddington character actually seem pretty cool. He has some daring escapes and there’s some inventive archs as the story goes on and you’re introduced to one of the people on the blacklist.

So Reddingtons blacklist is list of crazy mercenaries, terrorists, hackers, criminals etc. that the FBI isn’t even aware of but for some reason Reddington is willing to help agent Keen capture these baddies.

So the first guy on the list is this crazy Scandinavian guy who is terminally ill and wants to detonate a chemical weapon in Washington as some kind of revenge. As you’d expect his plot is foiled, but I don’t want to go into too much detail in case you’re actually interested in seeing the pilot.  

In my opinion this pilot suffered from what I’d like to refer to as “Pilot Syndrome” where a really good show has a shitty first episode which turns picky assholes like me off. For this reason, when binge watching shows, I usually start at the second episode to know if I like it. This way you’re not watching the intro show that they are putting out for the purpose of the network picking it up, but rather starting on the episodes where the real artistic intention of the show is realized. Overall this pilot was cheesy, but also showed a strong premise, the promise of good twists and turns and some decent actor (mostly from James Spader). I’m definitely interested in seeing more of this show in the coming weeks. I don’t see a reason to rate a pilot but I’ll just give it a comme ci, comme ça and the hand flipping back and forth that goes with it. 

Transformers: Rise of the Fallen

Okay lemme start by saying....seriously, Micheal Bay, you couldn't have come up with something more original than "Rise of the Fallen" ...I think that's what Evanescence is called now that Amy Lee is gone....

So let me start by saying I am one who can not stannnnddd the first Transformers. As visually appealing and ``explosioney`` as it was the dialogue and screenplay were just horrendous. Also! The comedy between the parents was just absolute garbage.

So you can imagine that I was not going into this movie with high expectations, I actually was gonna place a boycott on Transformers but decided to lift it so i could make an educated decision on the matter. Transformers really seems to be one of those movies where you either loved it or hated it. It really just plays on what you want in a movie, if your down for dummed down dialogue and lots of shiny flashy stuff (which theres nothing wrong with of course...) then Transformers was your kind of flick.

So I had imagined from both friends and the films Rotten Tomatoes rating that I was in for absolute garbage. I must say wasting my money on garbage films kind of has to happen every once and a while. To be honest its almost as entertaining seeing a really bad movie because you can laugh your ass off after when you all meet up lay the critique down.

So I walked into the theatre and had to wait in line (the combination of it being ``cheap Tuesday`` and a brand new section of the theatre opening up made the place uber packed) which i really hadn't done in a looong fucking time. So i trampled grandmothers and disabled children to get to a good seat and sat down to prepare for the visceral crapfest i believed was in my near future.

So I have to say it really was not terrible. But that's not to say its good either. Over all they improved on the problems of the first movie but not really to an extent that would raise this movie to the heights of great grandiose action flicks like Dark Night. So here`s the scoop: Zacks goin to college, a shard of that huge cube makes him crazy, he goes to school meets wack bitch, Deceptacons fuck some shit up, Autobots stop them, then more shit happens, break for a shot of Megan Foxs` ass more robot fighting, army guys shooting big robots, Optimus fucks shit up. In a nut shell of course.

The dialogue was alot smoother but would be really over cheesed by Micheal Bays annoying amera movements and rediculous shot layouts (really evident in basically EVERY shot in Armageddon). The comedy had some huge improvements especially with the relationship between Zack (Shia LeBeuf if you didnt already know) and his parents. But once again lacks in other parts as they have once again over the top racially stereotyped ``black`` robots like that car Jazz from the first movie, which was really just annoying. I guess ill keep on the hatein`track and mention that the story was as if they picked cool looking scenes from a hat but didnt spend enough time melting them all together to make a storyline that seemed smooth and continuous. New huge parts of the storyline would come over and over again leave no time for a decent concluding scene. The action and CG though was of course the point of this franchise and i must say it does deliver heavily. The interaction between cg robots and the human actors like flawless and totally real. I also loved the focus on the detail of showing every little piston and wheel goin on the robots bodies.

So overally Transformers one a scale from 0 to Awesome it would get an Alright...which comes right after 3 on the Awesomometre.