"Vampires of Venice"

[skywaterblue]

I don't think very much of Whithouse's "Being Human" - it's alright, fills a bit of time, the second season mostly passed the Bechdel test if I recall despite being somewhat repetitive of the original season... anyway, I don't have strong feelings either way. This episode was pretty good, and will probably be worth rewatching for a number of reasons, but it's not outstandingly impressive. I liked the character work, but then I don't hate "School Reunion" where I think the character work is the best part of the episode. So I'm saying that if he HAS to be Moff's heir, I'm okay with that, that would be fine.

I've only watched half the confidential, I think I really like this new director. He has the right spirit - more sexy vampire girls + hammer horror tiems = awesome. AGREED WITH YOU MAN, YOU CAN STAY. Though there are a couple of awkward moments where he doesn't seem to have read the full memo. The close-ups of the body parts are in relation to Amy's POV, if lizbee is correct, so shooting the Doctor's shoes is just odd.

Venice doesn't actually look like Venice, but my brother, who has been there, didn't complain so I guess it was just enough to pass the muster.

My brother dislikes Rory. I kind of love him - from the moment he wouldn't do "It's bigger on the inside!" and said, "It's a different dimension." Clever boy. I think Moffat is definitely back on course with the male companion idea - they're all patterned off of Ian Chesterton. Booksmart but not clever, in need of some manning up to get the girl who likes him, but isn't completely sold on it yet. Has a fight scene to save the girl, or because the Doctor's busy. The Doctor will take care of him, with a bit of scorn and a bit of encouragement, and Rory will become a fuller man by the end of the travels. Classic.

Black people dying: kind of a 1980s version of the Dead Bro Walking, in that all the black people died but they were heroic and sacrificed themselves for greater causes, etc. I wouldn't be surprised, if the 'Doctor from the future is returning along the timeline' to find out that they both live. Isabella's death seemed pretty final, and her father didn't seem that torn up about it - except that there's a weird moment where it would be perfect to have the Doctor nip in and save the father, and it doesn't seem like Moffat would do that without saving the daughter.

Eleven is definitely starting to become his own Doctor this week - not only is taking Rory along and becoming friends with him not something Ten would have done, his scenes in opposition to the Fish Queen felt distinctly different. He's much more comfortable with his past now, and things like mentioning Gallifrey no longer rattle him. Also, I liked that he's fishperson sexual too, they had great chemistry.

And I really enjoyed the way this episode made the Fish Vampires 'regular evil' as opposed to 'genocidal crazy evil'. They don't want all of Earth, just a patch of it to survive on and if she has to be bad to get it, she will do so. Which makes her ending truly sad, as I really felt like Eleven was going to offer to save them all but couldn't before her suicide.



Looking forward to next week, though I'm hoping The Dream Lord doesn't make it harder for fandom to cross Sandman and Who. That would be sad, what with Neil Gaiman next season.

Oh, I also have

Very good. At the midnight screening, the audience uproariously laughed through much of the film, though when we went to see it again in the afternoon the jokes didn't play as funny for us.

Thoughts: Mickey Rourke is good as Whiplash. Not much dialogue, but he has an imposing presence except once he steps into armor at the end. I think his suit was ill considered - Tony's and Rhodey's have aspects of their own personality in it. He had a really distinct personality which got less and less as the film ticked over.

I think it's a sign that I'm so used to these Marvelverse adaptations that I don't even blink when Justin Hammer shows up young or Black Widow is not Russian. Scarlett Johanssen is lovely and well cast, but the real revelation was Sam Rockwell as Hammer. I'm really looking forward to his villain arc in a third film. I also liked John Slatterly as Tony Stark's father, Howard - even if it looks like they filmed his bits on an off-day at the Mad Men studio.

Gwen Paltrow: Pepper Potts looks more and more like the strawberry-blonde version of Donna Moss in this film than she did in the last one. It feels like a lot of her material is cut and not just because she has at least one scene in the trailer which doesn't appear in the film. For example, each time I've left convinced it passed the Bechdel test, but actually I don't think she and Natasha really have any scene together in which Tony isn't also present. I'd be disappointed if she returns to being his secretary after all - it felt a bit like the resignation of CEO gambit was to get them together and in the scant moments post-big kissage it doesn't say she actually did resign.

Tony Stark: same ol' lovable asshole. Robert Downey Jr was kind of born to play this role, if you ask me. Getting drunk in his own Iron Man suit at a party then busting his hangover by eating a donut inside a giant donut? You sir, are amazing. Though I'm not convinced he actually learned much from this adventure. Aside from stuff about his dad's past. Also, this film takes WAY too long to get him in a wife-beater hitting things with a hammer. (Though, mmm, super conducting supercollider. I thought it was kind of awesome that everyone in the audience apparently knew what it was and coo-ed in a unison.)

Nick Fury: something about having Nick Fury show up to actually explain the plot to Tony bugs the crap out of me. We haven't really seen enough of this Fury that he has a character beyond 'snippy mysterious super spy'. Though I do love the scene at the donut shop - what's not to love about "Tony, I need you to exit the donut."

These Marvel films feel more and more like a Marvel universe with each one, there was a lot of comfort in having SHIELD move in and out of other storylines, and the background references with two exceptions, did not feel overly heavy. (The two are of course, Captain America's shield and Thor's hammer, but those are promos for characters who have yet to be introduced, so.)

Lingering question: is the new element powering the suit adamantium? Vibranium?? This is an important matter for dorks.