The Curse of the Black Spot (Doctor Who): Review

Fortunately, I didn't watch this episode to review it, as I don't have enough time today, so I am relying on the synopsis on Wikipedia!

Now I thought this story was alright. The plot was great. The TARDIS lands aboard a 17th-century pirate ship stranded in the middle of a calm ocean. The ship's crew have been terrorised by a Siren-like creature. It was fantastic. Until the crew went through into the Siren's hospital thing. We found out that she's a good creature and it wants to help people!

Hugh Bonneville was easily the best though. His casting was great, and played Henry brilliantly. His voice is great, and really suited the part.

In that last bit, I was screaming at the TV, things like kill Rory forever, and Kill Amy off instead, but when Rory woke up because of CPR, it was unrealistic. If you perform CPR on somebody, it just kepps them alive for a little longer. They still need their heart to be shocked to really kind of wake them up completely. Don't ask me, my strong point in science isn't biology, but chemistry.

It's nice that Henry goes off with his son at the end, and nice that they return for a cameo in a few episodes time, but it doesn't make up for the rest of the shite in the story.

Overall, I know this was a very short review, but that's all I really want to say, and I am constantly thinking up new words to make it look slightly longer, just like I am doing now. And now. And now. So I give this a 5/10, due to an appalling ending. I believe my next review is The Keeper of Traken or The Sound of Drums trilogy, which should be here tomorrow.

Carnival of Monsters (Doctor Who): Review

Odd masks. You can see the Human skin through it! It's Harry Sullivan! No it's not, it's just someone who looks a heck of a lot like him. Wonder why?! Wasn't sure about the huge hand cliffhanger though.

Nice mention of Ogrons and the Daleks. The Doctor's fight scene wasn't very entertaining, but it was funny how they just left! The concept of them being really small is of course similar to Planet of Giants. Or were the silver people really big? We then see a Cyberman, which is nice, but then the CSO (colour separation overlay) went dodgy! The Drashig was great. I love them things! I would love the toy of it.

Not much happened in part three. It was all kinda wandering around and a repeat of part one really!

The scene where the Doctor has the big argument was very funny, and I really enjoyed it. It did get a lot better towards the end, and got very enjoyable. The end of part four just makes you think that it was lucky. They were very much so!

Overall, I thought it was alright. It slightly dragged but had an excellent storyline. For that reason, I give this story a 7/10. My next review will be... The Curse of the Black Spot. Oh, blimey!

The Tenth Planet (Doctor Who): review

Cool shot of a rocket, but it's a bit too long. Nice title card though. Similar to the War Machines one. Interesting to see a black man in 60's Doctor Who. Obviously back then, black people were treated badly, so that's quite interesting. But it's good that the casting team weren't racist. You can really see that Hartnell's character has changed in personality since An Unearthly Child. He's got kinder to people who weren't family, which is very nice. When the Doctor gets insulted, he doesn't have a temper tantrum like he usually does! Which is strange. Obviously the whole plot of this story nearly gets changed very slightly, in Attack of the Cybermen. Not sure I like it so far, but I've only watched half of part one. Some of the actors are quite irritating though. When Ben jokes about Father Christmas, it made me giggle. The way the Doctor knew about Mondas makes me wonder if he's had an encounter with the Cybermen before. Seeing the Cybermen emerge from the snowy background is fantastic and looks great! I love They look brilliant! If you want real fun, whistle along to that credit theme!

The Cybermen are written so nicely, and speak in such a brilliant voice! They seem to be able to die very easily though. It took less than 2 minutes to kill them all. The cliffhanger was great. Much better than the first one. Hartnell doesn't really do much here though. He'll probably do more next part though!

So straight the way, the Doctor collapses, as he does at the end of part four too. The animation of part four wasn't that good, I think they could do better, like they did with The Ice Warriors. The way the Cybermen melted was quite bad, and kind of takes the creepy bit away from them for me. I thought that they were creepy because of the mask and we were left wondering what's behind the mask, but in the animation, we see the mask sort of melt. The regeneration, or renewal must have come as a massive shock to the audience of 1966 and made them wonder!

My next review will be Carnival of Monsters, and I give this one an 8/10 as it does slightly drag.

The Caves of Androzani (Doctor Who): Review

Lovely opening theme. Possibly one of my favourites. Voice overs are alright. Reminds me of Big Finish. Nice nod to The Cave of Skulls where the Doctor keeps a diary. Very nice. It's nice to have the Doctor explaining why he wears the celery after 2 years! The way the Doctor says 'surrender' to Peri made me laugh, but not sure why! Davison was absolutely fantastic. Brilliant acting! Great transparent effect too. I actually believed that the Doctor and Peri would be executed for a second, but then realised. There are still hundreds of episodes left! The cliffhanger of episode one was very similar to one in the War Games. It was interesting though.

Part two now, and the fact that they were androids was odd. Does this mean the Doctor and Peri were never really found? I don't know. Not much to say about part two. The cliffhanger was quite dull.

The plot was fantastic. The Spectrox Toxemia was fantastic. The spaceship colouring in episode three was brilliant too, and it really set the atmosphere! We really kind of feel sympathy for the Doctor, as he hasn't done anything wrong! The general changed and began to understand the Doctor and Peri which was great, and I am glad it didn't go any further like they would in new series Who. But one thing... How did that bloke not hear the Doctor on the ship? Sharaz Jek got more serious in part three, and that was great. Villains need to get darker, or they don't seem like villains! That's where Helen went wrong in Manhattan/Evolution of the Daleks! When the wall in the ship got opened, the wall looked awfully thin. The cliffhanger was okay. The Doctor about to crash a ship into Androzani Minor with a gun being pointed at him!

I really see why people enjoy this episode, and it does get more exciting as it goes on! The bit where The Doctor makes his escape is my favourite (other than the regeneration) and is the best bit of scenery! The bit where he rolls around in the mud is fun, and interesting. Sharaz kicking a worker in the face was hilarious and entertaining too! But of course Sharaz turns out to be good, which doesn't actually bother me. There is a scene which is flipped, and you can tell be looking at the mud on the Doctor's coat. The scene where we see Sharaz's face is disturbing, but funny. And when the Doctor uses his only strength to save Peri's life, it is actually rather upsetting, and emotional, and the regeneration is even more so.

Overall, I believe this to be one of my favourite Doctor Who stories ever made. It started off a bit dull, but gradually got better throughout. I give it a 9.9/10. My next review will be about pineapples. No sorry, The Tenth Planet.

The Day of the Doctor (Doctor Who): review

First thing you see: the original opening titles, which haven't been used since way back in 1967. So that is already nice! Then of course you have the I.M. Foreman sign with a police officer. A slight reference to An Unearthly Child. So again, very nice. Then you have Coal Hill School, the school that Susan went to back in 1963. No More is also written on the... window? I think it's supposed to be a whiteboard that we can see through, but it looks crap! Obviously when Clara goes past the clock, it says 16 minutes past 5. The time that Doctor Who was originally transmitted. Then when she's in the TARDIS, she clicks her fingers to close the doors. Something only the Doctor can do?

Anyway, moving swiftly on, the TARDIS is picked up by a helicopter, and the Doctor falls out. I kind of liked this, but I kind of think that it's Moffat's way of making a big introduction for non-Doctor Who fans, to try and get them to enjoy it. Either way, it was fun to watch, even though I knew what would happen.

The first scene with Tennant was good, and obviously it's in this story where the Doctor leaves Liz behind, and then she gets annoyed with his past self etc. I thought it was quite a funny scene to watch, and I really did enjoy it.

The Time War scene was brilliant too, but of course I did notice that mistake that I mentioned in my last review. John Hurt was my highlight actor though. His acting was absolutely astonishing!

The Zygons were great too, and I am really glad they didn't roar too much. That would have been something I wouldn't have been able to get over!

The whole plot was very good, and enjoyable for young children and older audiences, and I loved it. I forgot to mention about John Hurt's sonic screwdriver. It was actually made out of a Character Options Tom Baker sonic screwdriver toy, but with a bright red LED and a red thing glued on the end, so if any of you are planning on getting the toy of it, you might as well, as it is almost an exact replica!

My favourite scene was the end scene though. "I have a new destination. My journey is the same as yours, the same as anyone's. It's taken me so many years, so many lifetimes, but at last I know where I'm going. Where I've always been going. Home, the long way round" was such a great mini speech, and even though there were so many people who hated that scene, I'm one of the people who adore it!

Overall, I will give the 50th Anniversary special a 8.5/10. There are some things it could have improved on, but generally speaking I thought that it was fantastic. So next time shan't be one of the reviews I've already done in a video, but The Caves of Androzani. I haven't watched the story in a long time, so I really can't wait!

Next week's reviews

So next week will see reviews of Doctor Who, Spider-Man 3, The Amazing Spiderman, Sherlock and a possibly some Jonathan Creek and other movies too. More can be expected tomorrow.

Endless Love: Review

I saw this movie for the first and only time on the Tuesday just gone, and I really enjoyed it. I thought it was really sweet, but not quite sure why anyone would cry whilst watching it though. 

It was based on the 1979 novel, but not exactly the same. This was better! 

The acting was sensational. The casting was just phenomenal. Bruce was the best actor though. Bruce Greenwood playing Jade's father was absolutely amazing, and really gave the film some character. I think it'd work just as well if he had died in the fire though, but I think the fact that he survived made him think about how horrible he had been to Jade and David.

It is clear from the very start that Hugh doesn't like David, but when David drives Jade off in Hugh's car, he gets very annoyed.

David tries to make a good impression on Hugh throughout the whole movie, but it isn't until the last 10 minutes of the film where Hugh actually realises that he can't stop his daughter from seeing him, and he sees sense. I just don't understand how Hugh could have got that letter from the court, even though Jade is officially an adult.

Also, when Hugh takes his family on the trip, and David shows up, Hugh states that it's a family trip. It's for the family only, but Jade's brother brought his girlfriend along with him?

So overall, I think this movie deserves a brilliant 9.8/10, because of beautiful acting, sensational directing and phenomenally writing. It is just slightly let down because of some minor bad thought shown in the middle of the movie.

I am unsure what my next review will be, but if anyone wants me to review anything in particular, you can add a comment down below.

A Study in Pink (Sherlock): Review

Back in 2010, when this episode first aired, I wasn't interested in Sherlock Holmes at all. It wasn't until The Hounds of Baskerville when I actually sat down and enjoyed an episode of Sherlock. When going back to watch this, I really did enjoy it. The flashback at the start was a good idea, but didn't quite do it for me. 

I was stunned by the opening titles, and I loved them so much, and I also loved the scene where John meets Sherlock. It is rather accurate to the book, but slightly shortened down. Having a TV episode based on a book, it's got to be similar in some aspects, and I really like that.

Benedict Cumberbatch was excellent as Sherlock, and plays the part extremely well, and Martin Freeman was also great as Watson. My only problem with casting is that Mark Gatiss plays Mycroft. That's all well and good, until you read the original stories and find out that Sherlock's brother is actually quite fat.

The actual plot was great, and I would never have guessed what actually happened unless I had read the books before, and even then, the TV show is slightly different, as it's more modern. I shan't say what happened though, just in case some of you haven't actually seen the story.

I believe that's all I need to say about this story, and for now, I'm going to give the episode an 8/10. My next Sherlock review will be The Blind Banker.

Spider-Man 2: Review

This has always easily been my favourite movie of the first three Spider-Man movies. Even though Tobey wasn't that good in it, and he was still very irritating, it still has its good moments. Like the train scene (the picture below).

I think I could have enjoyed it a bit more if his costume was slightly different. Maybe if in the first one he had webs under his arms to make it more like the comics, and in this one he didn't have the webs anymore.

The whole plot behind Dr Octopus was fun, and I think the script of this one was more thought of how kids could enjoy it, and being my favourite childhood superhero, and I was only 4 when it came out, I really enjoyed it. I didn't understand everything back then, but last time I watched it, I was actually quite impressed. That scene with Peter nearly running his boss over made me upset, as he was THAT irritating, he should have gone to hospital! Then of course he says "go" in that weird voice, and that just made me laugh!

When Spidey saves those two kids and then they say "yes Mr Spider-Man" made it sound a little peadophilic, and slightly funny. I don't really like the love plot between MJ and Pete, but that's just me.

The fact that Pete's grades are falling in class seems realistic, as if in your spare time,  you wonder about New York in a spandex suit fighting crime with webs coming out of every body part, your grades in class are bound to slip. But when he gives all of that up and tries to be normal again for a couple of scenes, it is just not needed. I don't really like that, and that music that played was irritating too!

Stan Lee's cameo made me laugh when he was dodging debris, and most of the movie was generally funny, even in the emotional bits. But lets just clarify. Sam Raimi isn't brilliant with emotional scenes!

I think that's all I need to mention, so overall, I agree with the IMDB and I'll give it a 7.4/10.

My next review'll be Spider-Man 3, my least favourite Spider-Man movie ever made.

The Night of the Doctor (Doctor Who): Review

This mini episode (or just minisode) came as a rather big shock to me. I had heard various people talking on other groups about McGann returning for a 5-10 minute special, but I just ignored all of the rumours and didn't believe them. But of course I was wrong, and when I got home from school on that Wednesday, I looked on the BBC's YouTube page to find it. And it absolutely shocked me. How Paul could just return to this roll on TV after 17 years and play it so fabulously was beyond me! 

There was a few bits that weren't explained properly though. Like why the Doctor was so desperate to save Cas (I think that's her name). 

Something I noticed though as I was watching it was the fact that as the TARDIS is flying towards the crashing ship, it has the St. John Ambulance sticker on the right door, but when it goes for a close up when it's on the ship, it doesn't. It was probably just a small error when editing. The same thing happened to Hurt's box when crashing through the wall in The Day of the Doctor.

The Sisterhood of Karn were back, and of course it was their first appearance on screen since The Brain of Morbius. 

Then of course, the regeneration. As a lot of people are already aware of, I'm not a big fan of the standing up and tilting head back regenerations, and when I saw that McGann will be doing this too, I was a little disappointed. But I came up to the conclusion that when McGann took that drink, it changed the process in his body to make it golden energy coming from his body, and the Master took the same thing at some time in his life.

And I think that's all I have to say on this episode. I thought it was an outstanding contribution towards McGann's Doctor, and the fact that it was pretty much announced that the Big Finish stuff is all canon was excellent. McGann had the same prop from the TV movie too, and that was great! 

I give it an 8/10, due to a few things that I don't like, like the standing up regeneration and the mistake with the St. John Ambulance sticker. Leave your thoughts down in the comments, and my next review will be The Day of the Doctor.

Facebook Group Organization

I have now decided to organize my reviews more, so I now have four separate Facebook groups:

Harry's Doctor Who Reviews: https://www.facebook.com/groups/harryreviews/
Harry's Marvel Reviews: https://www.facebook.com/groups/591881627561310/
Harry's Sherlock Reviews: https://www.facebook.com/groups/362485710559814/
Harry's Movie Reviews: https://www.facebook.com/groups/252489034931450/

Promoting:

Harry's Quizzes: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1413967945516874/
Wayne's Doctor Who Reviews: https://www.facebook.com/groups/534480159975227/
WHOvians United: https://www.facebook.com/groups/WhoviansRUnited/
Batmanmarch's Doctor Who Action Figure Reviews: https://www.facebook.com/groups/163349356510/

Spider-Man: Review

This has always been a movie that I have been very neutral with my feelings about. Being one of the first proper movies I saw at the cinema, I am bound to like it more than some other people.

I thought Tobey Maguire was a bit odd in this, and I don't think he was a very good Spiderman, as his voice is very recognisable and he just doesn't look like he did in the comics etc.

The very long title sequence was nice in my opinion, and I think that having a long sequence like that gets to show off the brilliant music composed by the one and only Danny Elfman. Then of course, you have that irritating voice over, with the even more annoying first line, "Who am I? Are you sure you wanna know?" It just irritates me.

Obviously in the comics, Peter was bitten by the spider during a demonstration, but in the movie, he's bitten whilst taking a picture of Mary-Jane (Kirsten Dunst). This doesn't bother me too much, but at least he was bitten on the hand, eh The Amazing Spider-Man!

The scene where Uncle Ben dies was very upsetting, and it's just a shame that it was messed with in Spider-Man 3.

The vigilante-like scene was fun, and I prefer that to the Amazing Spider-Man, when he is just walking around the streets! The fact that it's done in a wrestling match is accurate too, and very enjoyable, but Peter is rather irritating again.

The scene where he creates his costume was my favourite, but I prefer the Amazing Spider-Man's.

I would have preferred the Green Goblin if he actually had purple in his costume, more like the comics have, but plain green does it for me.

The middle is a bit boring, until MJ is held hostage by Green Goblin, but the same thing happening in its sequel and the third makes it a bit repetitive. The end fight between GG and Spidey is fun, and when Peter goes extremely high pitched, it made me chuckle!

Overall, other than the silly voice over scenes and monstrously long and dragged scenes in the middle, this movie is actually capable of getting a high score, so I will give it a 7.2/10.

My next Marvel review will be Spider-Man 2.

Hide (Doctor Who): Review

So I have only ever watched this episode once, and I am referring to the notes I had written before I made my video review. So once The Rings of Akhaten aired, and I knew that this story was going to be by the same writer, I was very concerned. As a lot of people already know, I find that story very dull and boring, and wasn't interesting in any way to me at all. But hey, this isn't a review of that crap, so let's move swiftly on with the review!

I was never too pleased with this story, but the main plot entertained me, and I thought that most of the acting and writing was very good (until the end, at least). Matt was brilliant as The Doctor, and Jenna-Louise Coleman was also brilliant as Clara. My favourite actor/actress in this story was Jessica Raine though, who played Emma.

I am a fan of ghost stories myself, I enjoy the Insidious movies and the Paranormal Activity movies, and I am one of the rare people who actually enjoy the Blair Witch series. So I was easily looking forward to this story. It was all well and good until right at the end, when Matt says "It's not a ghost story, it's a love story". That completely ruined it for me. Then of course, you have that big rubber crooked man that looked awful and pathetic up close! It was really good when it was crawling around in the fog!

Now that I've said all the things I don't like about it, I'll mention the things that I am really glad was put in there. To start off, the Doctor states that he has been to Metabelis 3 to collect a crystal. It's just a shame that Matt pronounced it incorrectly!

The Doctor also mentioned the Eye of Harmony, which was the original power source of the TARDIS, mainly used in The Deadly Assassin and the TV Movie.

Overall, I gave this story a 7/10, due to a poor end scene. My next written review will be of The Night of the Doctor, the special prequel to 2013's Day of the Doctor.

Written reviews or Video reviews?

It is rather irritating when for some reason or another, my camera doesn't record a review, and it delays the actual review. Also, my friend Wayne is deaf therefore needs a paper copy of the review, so it'll become a whole of a lot easier for him too. My idea to sort this out is rather than doing video reviews, I re-review all of the previous video reviews in a written format on a post like this. It'll be detailed, and include pictures at the end of each review. If this goes forward, my review of 'Hide' will be up by Sunday evening. 

Thanks guys.

New Schedule...

So a bit of a change with scheduling... I will tonight watch 'A Scandal in Belgravia' and a review of that should be up by Wednesday. I'll review all of the Sherlock episodes before moving back onto Doctor Who, as Doctor Who takes longer to watch.

An update should be here soon.

Next review...

The Caves of Androzani will be my next review, but I am still to watch the story. I have a very tight schedule, so when I have watched all of the X-Men movies, I will watch Caves, and as soon as I have watched that, I will review it. I will try and get it out ASAP, but have important school work to do.

New website/blog...

So this is my brand new blog. I will post on it every now and again, with things like video reviews of Doctor Who episodes, Sherlock episodes, Marvel movies, horror movies and reviews of many other things too. 

I will also mention things to do with new Doctor Who toys and news. We also have a Facebook group and a YouTube page, so be sure to check them out!

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/harryreviews/

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsM5HuO6clyHDQFK0TA0Y7Q