The Walking Dead: Season 1

How does a show about the zombie apocalypse turn out to be one of the highest rated TV shows in America? It really is kind of fascinating how the idea of zombies really became mainstream in the past 5 to 10 years.

There were zombie movies long before The Walking Dead got popular. Zombie movies have been a thing for a long time. But suddenly this show on AMC shows up and suddenly zombies became the most popular thing since sliced bread.

I'm not totally sure if the zombie phase has passed yet, but what I do know is that The Walking Dead continues to run with more and more seasons coming on, and it even has its own spinoff series that is doing alright. I watched the first 2 seasons a while back but stopped for one reason or another. And for whatever reason, I decided to pick it back up. So I'm having myself a zombie phase in the middle of May, as far from October as it can be. However, it doesn't negate what this show has to offer and I'm gonna finally give you a full review of at least the first season. More seasons will depend on how much time I have and if I continue to watch the show in the frenzy that I have recently. But for now, I will give you the review of the first season of The Walking Dead.

The Walking Dead follows the story of former Sheriff’s Deputy, Rick Grimes (played by Andrew Lincoln) as he wakes up from a coma he was induced into from a gunshot wound he received on duty. Rick finds himself alone in the middle of the zombie apocalypse. Zombies, or Walkers as they call them, are flooding the streets of Georgia and tearing apart any living thing in their way.

Rick must find his way through the zombie apocalypse in a search for his wife Lori (played by Sarah Wayne Callies) and his son Carl (played by Chandler Riggs) who have joined up with a group of survivors with Rick’s partner Shane (played by Jon Bernthal).

Honestly, I foresee that this might be a short review due to the fact that there are only 6 episodes in this season. I read something that stated that they essentially were making a 6 hour long movie instead of a 6 episode season and I don’t know if you really get that feeling in any of the other seasons. That’s not to say the other seasons aren’t good, but there is such a great feeling that you get throughout this Season and it ends on such a good note that you could potentially watch this season on its own as its own miniseries and get a pretty decent experience.

The great part about this show is the relationships that are developed between characters. Rick and his wife, Rick and his son, Rick and Shane, and that’s just the connections with Rick. Everyone else has their own personal connections. Maybe it’s with the people they love, maybe its people that they just met, maybe it’s with people that they really hate but the overall point is, this show is really well acted.

Andrew Lincoln kills it as Rick because Rick is a man of honor and a natural born leader. So when the zombie apocalypse happens, he jumps into his leadership role and he’s good at it. But you can feel the weight thrown onto him and you can tell his philosophy is different than those around him. This delves into future seasons, but Rick has a line in Season two where he says, there are no rules in this world we live in, things are totally different, and you can see that play out and shape his outlook on the world.

This works in tandem with the outlook his partner Shane has. Shane is built up as Rick’s rival in this show, for a multitude of reasons, but I absolutely love Jon Bernthal in this role. I haven’t seen the second season of Daredevil, but watching The Walking Dead has made me want to watch it even more because of how much I enjoy Jon Bernthal in this show. He a great example of a character you know is wrong, but you understand his methods and his thought process. So while you hate him because he’s the rival, you really like him because you wonder if you’d have the same mindset if you were in the zombie apocalypse.

And that’s the interesting part about this movie, there are differing view points of how humanity should behave, and how they should survive but those views are only important if you care about the characters involved. And the first season of The Walking Dead does a really great job at not only introducing characters, but creating interesting backstories for them and making you care a very early point in the show. 

If you have the time, binge watch as much of the first season as you can because it really is like a 6 hour long movie with a lot of great characters and a fresh backdrop that will make you guess every move these people make because danger is around the corner. If you're worried about jump scares or not being interested in zombies, I will refer you to my sister who is not a fan of zombie movies or anything zombie related who absolutely loves this show and loves the suspense that is created by the zombies. 

But even if you don't watch any more seasons, I recommend the first season of The Walking Dead mainly because the its a solid 6 hours of television and I definitely recommend it. I watched the first season in a matter of two days and I'm still going strong, trying to binge watch all of what is on Netflix because I think it is really a solid show. 

Like I said, its a short review. What did you think of the first season of The Walking Dead? Without giving away spoilers, how does it compare with the later seasons? Comment and Discuss below. You can also follow me on Twitter @cmhaugen24 as well as send me requests for future movies, and TV Shows I should review on this blog. I will make them my priority. If you follow me on Twitter, you can also send me your thoughts as well as get updates on future movie news and reviews coming out of this blog. 

I'll leave you with this. Norma Reedus has really gotten a lot of attention from this show and I personally really enjoy Reedus. Here's a fun interview of him on Kimmel. Enjoy!

Spotlight

I actually didn't hear about Spotlight until maybe a month after it came out. But the minute I heard what this movie was about, the cast that was attached to it, and the critical acclaim it was receiving, I was overly excited to see this movie. And now that it won Best Picture for 2015, its about time I watched it... and review it a lot later than I originally planned.

But I'm also very nervous. This is a movie that takes a very big subject matter that not a lot of people like to really talk or even think about. I'm not even Catholic and I can recognize how incredibly difficult this topic is to a lot of people. And you may be thinking, how can anybody have any opinion besides the one against Catholic priests molesting children. While there is no side for that, that is exactly why this movie is interesting because it does create another side of this controversy, and that's why this movie is fascinating. 

Spotlight takes place in 2001 and focuses on the Boston Globe and their team of expert investigators, the Spotlight team. At the beginning, the Boston Globe hires a new editor named Marty Barton (played by Liev Schreiber). After a short time in his position, he urges the Spotlight team to investigate allegations that the Archbishop of Boston, Cardinal Bernard Law, was aware of priests sexually abusing children and did nothing about it. 

The Spotlight team was headed by a man named Walter "Robbie" Robinson (played by Michael Keaton) and the rest of the team is made up of characters who were very real reporters looking into this huge scandal that has surrounded the Catholic Church for a couple decades now. These people include Michael Rezendes (played by Mark Ruffalo), Sacha Pfeiffer (played by Rachel McAdams), Ben Bradlee Jr (played by John Slattery), and Matt Carroll (played by Brian d'Arcy James).

Outside of the Spotlight team you have a couple more really talented actors who really do a good job with this film. You have Stanley Tucci and Billy Crudup as a lawyers who represents victims of these priests, everyone really brings it in this movie and they take the subject matter very seriously. Mainly because this is all based on a true story of great work that reporters did to give justice to these victims. 

And that's probably one of the movie's biggest strengths. It really shines a real positive light on reporting and what it can do for those who can't get what they need from law enforcement or the system. They sometimes are able to be the voice of truth and speak for those who can't really speak for themselves. Its the kind of movie that makes you reconsider all the career choices that you've made and makes you almost decide that you want to go into journalism, that's how cool this movie makes journalism look.

And the interesting part is, the majority of this movie is just people sitting around talking in a room. Or the reporters going and doing interviews. There's no suspense, or action, or drama that is too over the top, its just good drama and intrigue that comes from a controversial topic like this one.

And you still might be thinking to yourself, how can priests molesting children be a controversial topic, either you're against it or you're a slime on the earth. That is true and the truth is, nobody is openly saying that what these priests did is okay. The controversy comes from the fact that in a community like the one in Boston, mixed with the fact that religion and especially the Catholic faith is such a personal thing to people that they would rather not deal with it, or they would rather sweep something like this under the rug. And while you may say that's still the worst, the movie does a really good job at showing the other side of the argument and almost makes you understand why people would keep quiet about something like this. However, the movie has a pretty strong message of, if we don't say something to speak for the victims, who will?

The performances in this movie are really what drives this movie home. The cast is not only solid by each individual, but they work perfectly as an ensemble. Michael Keaton is quickly becoming one of my favorite actors because everything he is in these days just turns out to be gold. Mark Ruffalo reminds us all that he's a much better actor and much more than just The Hulk, he's a very talented actor who brings a really compelling performance. Rachael McAdams continues to show that she's incredibly talented, the list goes on and on. There are just so many great actors in this movie and they all get the right amount of time to really show what they can do.

This is a very tough topic for a very mature audience. However, I think its a movie that a lot of people should see based on the moral arguments and informative narrative it has on a real tragedy that has happened in the church. You will experience a roller coaster of emotions from incredible sadness, to strong inspirational moments. And the movie is an eye opener. The ending itself is incredibly informative and powerful.

The short answer to the question is this, Spotlight is a very solid movie. There's a reason it won Best Picture. Now I haven't seen a lot of the movies that were nominated for Best Picture, but if I follow suite with what I did last year, I might start watching Oscar nominated movies and make a series of reviews soon. I don't know, maybe. But I really enjoyed Spotlight. I actually think it was one of my favorite movies of 2015 now that I think about it, that's how much I enjoyed this film that was basically a bunch of guys sitting around talking.

But what did you think about Spotlight? Did you enjoy it? Do you think it deserved to win Best Picture? If not, what did? Let me know which Best Picture nominee I should review next. Comment and Discuss below! You can also send me your thoughts on Twitter @cmhaugen24 as well as send me your requests for movies I should review in the future. If you follow me on Twitter, you can get updates on future movie news and reviews coming out of this blog.

I'll leave you with this. I have a couple of controversial movies in the pipeline I need to review and the next one is going to be the satire Dear White People. Here's the trailer for that. Enjoy!

X-Men: Apocalypse

Little bit of a side note before I get into the actual review. I’m going to try and record my spoiler reviews for both X-men Apocalypse and Captain America: Civil War and any other spoiler reviews and attach them to the end of said movies. I don’t know if this will take more or less time and for all I know it could be a total failure. However, I’ve wanted to move into videos more and more and with less and less time to sit down and write comprehensive reviews and more reviews falling to the wayside, I think this might be a good chance to move into video and take a crack at that. Don’t expect anything besides me sitting in front of a webcam explaining my thoughts, but hopefully it will give you guys a lot more content.

It won't be at the end of this review initially but if/when I put it up, I'll re-share the post and everyone will be able to see the video with my Spoilers review on it. 

Without further ado, here is my review of X-men Apocalypse.

I’ve really enjoyed the Fox Universe Marvel Universe. While I would love to see the X-men interact with The Avengers, I can appreciate the great lengths Fox, Bryan Singer, and everyone involved with the X-men movies have gone to not only make up for past mistakes, but also tell great stories with familiar characters, in a world we’ve all come to love.

With that being said, X-men Apocalypse was not my favorite X-men movie.

Apocalypse introduces a super mutant who has been wielding immense power since the times of Ancient Egypt. This mutant is of course known as Apocalypse (played by Oscar Isaacs). He is sealed underground for thousands of years until he is awoken. Of course he believes the human race should bow before him and he plans to bring for the apocalypse to control the world. Apocalypse always travels with four disciples known as his four horsemen. The first hour or so of the movie is Apocalypse gathering his four horsemen, Storm (played by Alexandra Shipp), Angel (played by Ben Hardy), Psylocke (played by Olivia Munn), and a familiar face in Magneto (played once again by Michael Fassbender).

Now before I move on I’ll talk about Apocalypse and the four horsemen. I really like Oscar Isaac. He’s starting to be one of my favorite actors and I really can’t say that I’ve seen a bad performance from him. (They might be out there but I just haven’t seen them). The issue with Apocalypse is that he’s just your standard, let’s destroy the world villain. Now I don’t necessarily have a problem with a simple villain plot to destroy the world if the villain is menacing. That’s why I didn’t really mind Ultron in the second Avengers movie because I liked James Spader and I thought he was a menacing villain. However, Apocalypse didn’t really leave that big of an impression on me. I watched a review of this film that compared Apocalypse to Ronan the Destroyer from Guardians of the Galaxy and the comparison is actually pretty decent. Again, Oscar Isaacs did what he could with this role, but at the end of the day, I just wasn’t that interested in Apocalypse and he went out probably as fast as he came in.

His Four Horsemen unfortunately follow suit and aren’t that interesting (with the exception of the already established Magneto). Storm and Angel are brought in and they’re just henchmen for Apocalypse. Now this didn’t bother me as much as I think it bothered a lot of other people but I totally understand why. Angel and Storm are two very big characters in the X-men universe. Angel apparently has a really interesting comic book line where he is closely tied to Apocalypse and they really don’t delve into that that much. Storm, of course, is a huge character in the X-men franchise and she is really reduced to a very weak character.

Psylocke was the only Horseman outside of Magneto that I think worked for the role she was in. I’m not a comic book buff so I don’t know Psylocke’s story, but there’s a couple things that work well for this character. She’s not very well known so it’s okay that she got put in this henchman role. Olivia Munn is perfect for the role and not only is she drop dead gorgeous, but she looks menacing. When she was on screen, you felt she was going to kick some ass. Now, does that make her a great character? No. I just thought she looked cool. Also, it’s Olivia Munn. I enjoy anything she’s involved with. I really hope she makes a larger appearance in a future Fox movie, whether it’s the next X-men movie or a Deadpool movie, or whatever, I really hope they utilize her more in future movies.

The real story here is the Magneto being brought in as one of the Four Horsemen.

Michael Fassbender continues to show that he is probably one of the best actors working today because even in a movie that is a little bit of a mess and lacking a great direction, Michael Fassbender just continues to kill it as Erik Lehnsherr. Apocalypse finds Magneto at his lowest point and uses his tragedy for his gain. There is a really interesting story that Magneto is a part of, and while a lot of this movie fails in creating the drama we felt in Days of Future Past, Michael Fassbender gives a great performance and makes us feel in the middle of what ultimately comes down to a lot of spectacle and not a lot of substance.

On the other side of things, you have Charles Xavier (played by James McAvoy) and his school for gifted youngsters. The school is in full swing and accepting new students, some of which are familiar names.

Once again James McAvoy gives a really good performance as Charles Xavier. I really enjoy him in this role. And yeah, it doesn't totally make sense that McAvoy is about 37 and his character has been doing his thing for 20 years since First Class and him and Nicholas Hoult don't look like they've really aged at all, but they still give good performances. I can see them trying to push Xavier more towards the kind of role that he's had in the comics, which is more of a overseeing, mentor role compared to someone like Cyclops who is out in the field fighting. I'm not wild about that only because I really like McAvoy's Professor X as more of a mobile character rather than the traditional character, but I understand the shift. 

Scott Summers (played by Tye Sheridan) is just figuring out he can shoot lazers from his eyes and he doesn’t exactly know where he fits in. He is brought to Charles Xavier’s school by his brother Alex, also known as Havoc (played by Lucas Till). Other new faces include that of the powerful yet untapped psychic, Jean Grey (played by Sophie Turner) and the blue teleporting creature called Nightcrawler (played by Kodi Smitt-McPhee). And I guess Jubilee (played by Lana Condor) is in the movie too… but it’s a very small role and she doesn’t really even use her powers.

Charles Xavier is made aware of the threat that is Apocalypse by the CIA agent, and his former love interest Moira MacTaggert (played by Rose Byrne). While Apocalypse is gathering his four horsemen, Charles and Mystique (played by Jennifer Lawrence) are gathering their own band of mutants to fight the powers that are coming. On the side of good, you have Hank McCoy (played by Nicholas Hoult), and Quicksilver (played by Evan Peters).

A quick note on Mystique, she had now become somewhat of a hero in the mutant community because of her actions during the events of Days of Future Past where she saved the President. However, Mystique really hasn’t changed her motivations since Days of Future Past. She’s still going around saving other mutants from bad circumstances and instead of working with Magneto which she did in the first trilogy of X-men movies, she is working on her own.

Here’s my issue with Mystique. I’ve never seen her as any kind of leader. I’ve never seen her as any kid of hero. And that’s not necessarily the issue, I think it’s kind of cool that they’ve turned her into this sort of local legend. However, my issue with it is that the only reason Mystique is in this kind of role is because she is being played by Jennifer Lawrence. The character of Mystique was always personified, even by Lawrence herself, as the blue faced shape shifter who believed that she needed to be “Mutant and Proud” and not hide her true face unless it was necessary. However, this Mystique suddenly decided, I am Jennifer Lawrence now.

For some odd reason, Mystique decides she needs to go around being Jennifer Lawrence. And in past movies, she has used this face before don’t get me wrong. In First Class she used it because she was afraid of being “Mutant and Proud” or didn’t feel like she would be accepted. But in Days of Future Past, it really seemed like she didn’t care and only used that face as a disguise when she was off freeing mutants or trying to kill Boliver Trask. These movies have played Mystique off in a way that her Jennifer Lawrence face was just a mask for the real Mystique underneath.

However, this really puts the studio and the creators of these movies in a bind because on one hand, its really hard to make a leader and a relatable character out of a face that we’ve always known to be a mask, even if it’s the face of Jennifer Lawrence. And even if they didn’t use J Law’s face, it’s hard to make your team leader a shape shifter because there is no face to the team. Now maybe they could have done that if Mystique had continued to be consistent with her character and remained her “Mutant and Proud Self” but she didn’t. The studio wanted to cash in on the fact that that was Jennifer Lawrence’s face. And in reality, they kind of suffer because of it.

Furthermore, I kind of think J Law was phoning this one in. I really didn’t like a lot of her lines and her delivery of them just didn’t help either. I don’t know if it was just the script she was given or maybe she’s just getting tired of this franchise, but I wasn’t impressed with Mystique/Katniss in this movie.

And I think all of that could have been fixed if the first hour of this had been a little bit better about developing characters outside of Magneto because I’m not gonna lie, the first hour of this movie was really slow and I honestly had a short nap by the end of the first half of this movie. It’s both sides gathering their team and showing off what each side can do.

The second half is where things really get interesting, but unfortunately, while I enjoyed the second half of this movie, it wasn’t really because the movie was very good, it was just because there were a lot of pretty cool action sequences and a lot of hints at future installations that I’m excited for.

The second half of this movie is really just one big fight and while it’s a good time, it doesn’t exactly develop any of the characters and at the end of the day, everyone is pretty much at the same place they were at the start of the movie.

I do have to give the X-men movies credit for delving more into the comic book lore. They are starting to make the X-men look more and more like the comic books with more and more color,  and really fleshing out some of the great stories that X-men has to offer. I won’t talk about what happens in the post credit scene, but something I’ve noticed from Days of Future Past and this film is that they know their post credit scenes need to be different from Marvel’s so they put out these pretty mediocre post credit scenes that aren’t exactly exciting, however they have huge implications that give us a great idea of what the next movie is going to be about. When I watched the post credit scene for this movie I really didn’t think too much of it until I got back home and looked up the clues that they give in the movie and I suddenly got really excited.

I really can’t wait to talk about this post credit scene in the spoiler review because it really does have a lot of implications that I think are really fun. However, I am a little bit worried because this is the exact feeling I got when I watched the post credits scene from Days of Future Past. They hinted at Apocalypse and unfortunately the movie just didn’t live up to the hype.

Unfortunately, this movie just does not have the best story. While the movie had a difficult task to face by following a fantastic film like Days of Future Past, the story just doesn’t really amount to more than something you might see on the Saturday morning Cartoon the X-men used to be. The movie gives a false sense that the stakes are high when the result doesn’t feel much different from where they started. The movie just didn’t feel like there was weight in what was happening and that it was a common X-men romp. It was either too cluttered with too many characters to develop, or it was littered with poorly timed hints at future movies. In a sense, X-men Apocalypse was a little bit of a filler movie. An in-between adventure to hopefully place the X-men where they need to be for future films. But with a villain with the name Apocalypse, I didn’t feel like the stakes were high enough.

Don’t get me wrong, I had fun with X-men: Apocalypse. One more thing I will say about the film that was a plus was that its one of the most visually stunning superhero films I've seen in a long time. The CGI and imagery that it brought forth in this film is really creative and beautiful and that was something that I couldn't help but notice, even though there were times I was little bored and underwhelmed by the film. But I had a realization the other day. If I had to rank the superhero movies  that have come out, I honestly would rank them like this.

1. Deadpool
2. Captain America: Civil War
3. Batman V Superman
4. X-men: Apocalypse

Now I might get a little bit of shit for that verdict and maybe I have a little bit of DC bias in that, but I felt like there was at least an attempt at a fascinating story with complex ideas in Batman V Superman, whereas X-men Apocalypse was bringing the X-men franchise a step back into the times when these movies were just about spectacle and trying to fit in as many X-men as the movie could hold.

I’m definitely going to give a list at the end of the year to decide where all the comic books movies that come out this year rank against one another so that list above might change, but for now, I felt like X-men Apocalypse was a fun time but just didn’t excite me the way that I wanted it to.

But those are my thoughts on X-men: Apocalypse. What did you think of it? Comment and Discuss below! You can also send me your thoughts on Twitter @cmhaugen24 or send me request for movies I should review and discuss in the future. If you follow me on Twitter you can get updates on future movie news and reviews coming out of this blog.

I'll leave you with this (until I get the Spoiler video up). I like these guys and they always seem to do cool acapella covers pertaining to big movies coming out. Here's their cover of the X-men theme song. Enjoy!