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Reviews
Sherlock: His Last Vow (2014)
Miserable genius goes just to make room for an epic one!
A proper ending for a season, cliffhanger and everything, but some things seem to bother me a bit. First of all, this season's great villain didn't really prove out to be that great at all. While he had security to check for weapons when he visited Baker street, he didn't even bother to check Sherlock/ Watson once they got to his place?? And the flicking he played in the end, thinking he is in control was plainly a little off, since in the human world power (such as a gun would represent) overrides knowledge as in any case teasing people with guns to show your "power" will eventually only have one ending. And not anticipating to be killed if all the threat he posed could simply be removed with his death... Maybe was then a well thought of villain, who I suspect had his connections to Morianty, but thats just a whole lot of speculation that will start now... once again. HOW DID MORIANTY SURVIVE? Actor with a mask died instead? Twin brother? "The speculation, Mrs Hudson, is ON!"
So in that respect, Season 4 will probably attract a hell of a crowd, as all seasons have increasingly done so far.
Despite wasting a chance of creating a really good villain (who seemed great in the beginning, but the way he went was just a little... well, not the way a great villain would go), I think Season 3 was an excellent one. In all fairness, I did not expect season 3 to live up to season 2, as season 2 was simply EPIC. But I was wrong. It did. I wouldn't say it is a better of a season, but definitely lived up to the previous ones. Visually, I think Season 3 was by far the best. Villainwise, not so much. Soundtrack was amazing though! And so was the acting, so one has to admit that despite some small flaws, they still created an awesome TV experience - one that is hard to ever forget. And the return of Morianty in the next season will probably make it even harder! 9 to this episode, but BRAVO for the whole third series!
Sherlock: The Empty Hearse (2014)
An awaited and superb relaunch from Gatiss and Moffat!
With the last seasons being such a great spectacle to witness, the expectations were held high by all – would the new season's starter be able to repeat the success of the last season starter? Well, it definitely matched up to it in a way, but was always to be a slightly different episode, as the main events of the episode were be the explanation of how Sherlock's still alive, rather than planting a new villain story and also offer a deep mystery to solve in the first episode. All this would not fit into 90 minutes, would the editors provide maximum attention and detail to everything, it's going to be too intense and too much mystery would make the episode a little too twisty would not provide enough integrity - it would be all around the place. So the balance had to be found between all of these aspects and boy, wasn't that balance found! All of it was wrapped up into a perfect sequence of events that rolled open in front of our eyes and none of the sequences dominated the others... too much... and hence created an episode with excellent integrity. The acting and especially the visuals were always to be spot on, there is no other option with Sherlock. I can't compare it to Scandal in Belgravia and say its better, since they are not really comparable, as in Scandal of Belgravia, the directors needed about 5 minutes to close all the loose ends from the previous season and start another great mystery. This one needed a lot more of it and yet still made a great episode. 9.5 out of 10.
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013)
Desolation of Smaug - Mixed feelings for mixed fans.
First, lets start off by saying that I view this movie as an improvement of the last one. And even though they were quite different, some things were similar to the first one, especially Smaug heightening the movie to a new level, much of what Gollum did in the first one. Desolation of the Smaug is an action packed movie, which offers much for those who seek impressive CGI packed with extensive combat scenes, and the movie continues to extend the tradition of keeping people alive in unrealistic occurrences.
In comparison with 2D, 3D and 3D HFR, this movie is made to be watched in 3D HFR and certainly feels that way – 2D lacks that certain something and simple 3D makes certain scenes... clunky... and certainly weaker than they actually are to be seen in 3D HFR. HFR is the future, if not now then in years time it will start to take ground. Hobbit was the one to give it a go and get some slack for it, but first comers always do. I am sure that HFR's time is to come and I enjoyed the movie best in 3D HFR in comparison to 2D and 3D.
There are flaws with this movie, especially for hard-core Tolkien fans, who would like to see the book repeated and heightened by the new storyline and characters rather than somewhat abolished by ridiculously high amount of combat scenes. Jackson has indeed gone too far with the plot deviations from Tolkien's original piece(s) but we all know that the purpose of this is to provide 3 movies and you can't really make 3 movies out of "the Hobbit" without adding stuff to it. And Jackson and team decided to provide some more middle-Earth and its modified history to the viewers and compiled together a storyline that's not entirely Tolkienish.
Desolation of the Smaug provides however and excellent roller-coaster ride in comparison with the first film. The first film was a bit of a disappointment, hence at first impressions it was easier to improve with this one. And improve they did. What made it more of a better deal was perhaps the fact the new sub-stories were to be told and could entwined into an entity which elevated the tensions higher than they actually were.
Truth be told: Smaug was pretty much the only reason I went to see the movie and I was not disappointed, not one bit. Scenes with Smaug are truly excellent with spot on acting from both Freeman and the CGI that's voiced by Sherlock. Smaug definitely highs-up the ranking of the movie, and perhaps even more than Gollum did in the first one. The movie ended on a cliffhanger and Smaug's last sentence was a perfect one to describe the movie as a whole: I am Fire! I am........ DEATHH."
PS! Since I can't give 7 and a half, I round my rating up to 8.