X-Men- Days of Future Past: Bryan Singer's triumphant return to the franchise shows he hasn't lost his skills as a director

Today, I look at the almost universally praised new installment in the ever-expanding X-Men film universe.

X-Men, Days of Future Past:
In the not-too-distant future, the world has become a war-torn dystopia, where mutants and their human allies are on the verge of extinction due to Sentinels, advanced machines which can adapt to a mutant's powers to be able to effectively kill them. The Sentinels have nearly succeeded in doing so, as they have nearly wiped the entire race off the face of the planet, as well as, in the process, destroy countless human lives and demolish cities. The few remaining X-Men (Wolverine, Kitty Pryde, Iceman, Storm, Professor Xavier, Magneto, Warpath, Blink, Sunspot, Bishop, and Colossus) have banded together, and constantly must move from place-to-place to avoid the unstoppable Sentinels. How do they do this? They utilize a new-found ability to create wormholes in time and space and travel through these holes to warn their past selves days before a Sentinel attack happens. Xavier and Magneto hatch a plan to send Xavier back to the 70's to warn his past self of the dystopian future and explain the way to prevent it: stop the assassination of Bolivar Trask, the creator of the Sentinel program, by Mystique, as this killing makes mutantkind look dangerous and convinces the government to follow through on Trask's proposal to create these weapons. However, Kitty Pryde says there's a possibility that Xavier can't mentally sustain the journey as "if the mind stretches too far, it snaps". Wolverine opts to go, as he has taken so much physical and mental damage through his long, miserable, and seemingly endless existence, that he believes he can survive the journey. Arriving in 1973, he must convince the young, depressed, and uncooperative young Xavier and his friend Hank McCoy (Beast) to help him rewrite history. He must also convince Xavier and his (at the time) most hated enemy Erik Lehnsherr (Magneto) to join forces against a common foe. However, stopping Mystique may prove more complicated than they once thought, as both Xavier and Erik have grown distant from her, and she appears to be going down a dark path, and is inadvertently bringing the whole world down with her.
      I was genuinely surprised by how thoroughly entertaining and well-made this film was. Brett Ratner made a mediocre mess out of X-Men: The Last Stand, and Gavin Hood didn't fare much better when he made X-Men Origins: Wolverine, but Matthew Vaughn (X-Men: First Class), James Mangold (The Wolverine), and Singer have been able to return the series to it's former glory. Singer, being an experienced director, is able to bring back the feeling of the first two films, which he also helmed. The movie also features a huge cast of many fan favorites. Hugh Jackman is, of course, excellent as Wolverine, aka "Logan". That's no surprise, considering he is considered the definitive actor to play the character. Jennifer Lawrence was good as Mystique/Raven Darkholme. Although she does a great job, I don't really feel like Mystique needs to be such a big character. If you look back to the first three films, she's more like a supporting character, not a main one. She doesn't even speak that much. But here, they play her up as this major character who left a big impact on Xavier (which is weird, considering Xavier doesn't seem to care much for her in the first three films), which I think is entirely due to Jennifer Lawrence's level of popularity. However this film does show her grow closer to the Mystique that Rebecca Romijn portrayed in the first few movies, so that was interesting. James McAvoy is great as the young Charles Xavier. In this movie, he's not the fun, charming guy from First Class. Instead, he's a broken man who hides in his mansion and takes high doses of a drug that controls his powers. Michael Fassbender gives a more sinister portrayal of the younger Magneto than we saw in First Class. We saw him do some horrific things in that installment, but here he seems more openly malicious than before, a sure sign that he will grow into the villainous mutant we saw in the first two films. Peter Dinklage is, as always, great as Bolivar Trask. While not portrayed as completely evil, he is quite amoral and manipulative, and has an extreme disdain for mutants. An interesting choice was to portray him as a man corrupted by power who possesses questionable beliefs rather than just a power-hungry villain. Halle Berry has a small supporting role as the Storm of the future. Nicholas Hoult reprises his role as the younger Hank McCoy/Beast, and shows more of Beast's animalistic tendencies, but also captures his intellectualism perfectly. I especially like how the filmmakers chose to keep he and Mystique's on-and-off romance more of a subtle thing rather than make it major story point like in First Class. Anna Paquin, Ellen Page, and Shawn Ashmore all reprise their roles as Marie/Rogue, Kitty Pryde, and Bobby Drake/Iceman, respectively. Omar Sy appears in a supporting role as Bishop, an energy-absorbing mutant freedom fighter from the future. Daniel Cudmore has a minor role as Colossus, the gigantic metallic mutant muscleman. (A lot of alliteration in this review.) Evan Peters (American Horror Story) has a cool part as Peter Maximoff/Quicksilver. He's pretty funny, and although his part is relatively small, he's memorable and I'm glad to hear he'll be in the next film. There's also a cool sequence where the camera slows down to a point where the entire scene is almost completely still, and shows Quicksilver taking his time doing things at a normal pace, just to illustrate how much he can do in such a short time span. Fan Bingbing, Adan Canto, and Booboo Stewart appear in minor roles as Blink, Sunspot, and Warpath, respectively, younger mutants from the future. Josh Helman has a supporting role as a young William Stryker, the man who is Wolverine's main antagonist and main villain of X2: X-Men United. Lucas Till briefly reprises his role as Alex Summers, aka Havoc, from First Class, now a soldier in Vietnam. Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen are unsurprisingly fantastic as older Xavier and older Magneto, respectively. Famke Janssen, James Marsden, and Kelsey Grammar all appear in cameo roles as characters from previous films, which I won't give away for those of you who haven't seen the film. Singer himself makes a cameo as an amateur photographer during a scene in Paris. Comic book writers Len Wein and Chris Claremont cameo in the film as congressmen.
(Semi-Spoilers Ahead) One thing that pissed me off is that they address the fact that Magneto's mutant allies such as Banshee, Angel, and Azazel, are all dead, as they were experimented on by Trask and the government, but they never once mention where Sebastian Shaw's girlfriend Emma Frost (January Jones), or Xavier's love interest Moira MacTaggert (Rose Byrne) went after First Class, I hope they address this in the next film. (Spoilers End)
The writing by Simon Kinberg is really clever and inventive for a superhero film, and adapting one of the most beloved Marvel comics storylines is no easy task, but he delivered. Bryan Singer's direction is incredible, especially after not make a film in the series since 2003. The special effects are amazing. In particular, the Sentinels seamlessly blend into the real-life sets and environments, and their design was original, but also faithful to the comics.The action sequences, such as the chaotic fight in Paris, the Pentagon break-in (which encompasses Quicksilver's cool slow-motion scene), and the showdown at the White House, are all well-shot and executed, and the CG looked amazing. Even the costume designs were great, and those I usually don't even really notice until the second time I watch a film. The post-credits scene is similar to Avengers, where only people who know their comics will understand it, but if you do understand it, it will get you extremely excited to see the new movie, set for release in May 2016. This film is full of cool little details, like how in the opening Fox logo, the music briefly turns into the main X-Men theme, and the "X" in Fox briefly stays on screen when the rest of the logo fades away. It's the little things like that that really show how much effort the filmmakers put into this movie. X-Men: Days of Future Past is astonishing considering how this May has been filled with mostly crap movies. The story, writing, acting, and special effects are all pretty fucking exceptional, and Singer is able to bring it all together to create possibly the best movie of the summer so far. And best of all, it's fresh and new (the only time I've seen a superhero film incorporate time-travel and alternate timelines), something I can't say about too many blockbusters these days. 4.5/5 stars.

 (Image: Wikipedia)




(SPOILER SEGMENT): In the film's climax, Xavier successfully rewrites history and gets the Sentinel program cancelled, which creates a butterfly effect where everything in the film universe's timeline is changed. X-Men, X2, X-Men: The Last Stand, X-Men Origins: Wolverine and The Wolverine are now technically non-canon, but that doesn't make them any less enjoyable. It was an unexpectedly happy ending, and I was satisfied. In the post-credits scene (which takes place in ancient Egypt), a crowd of thousands is shown praying and chanting to a robed figure standing atop a dune of sand. This figure appears to be an incredibly powerful mutant, as he is easily levitating hundreds of blocks, packing them into large chunks, and stacking them together within seconds, forming pyramids. The camera pans slowly to reveal the figure is a teenage boy, with very pale skin and blue lips, and four horsemen can be seen behind him in the background. If you know your comics, then you can recognize this young man as En Sabah Nur (here played by Brendan Peeder), more commonly known as Apocalypse, a thousands-of-years-old mutant with God-like powers who is seemingly immortal. This got me excited to see what the filmmakers do with the next film, titled X-Men: Apocalypse, which will be set in the 1980's, and feature more of the First Class cast as well as Quicksilver. (END OF SPOILERS)

Neighbors: Another semi-mediocre May movie

Today, I look at the new comedy film Neighbors.

Neighbors:
In a quiet suburban neighborhood, the Radners, a young-ish couple with a new baby, are settling in to their new lives as parents. But when an obnoxious frat house moves in next door, they can sense trouble. When they call the cops on the frat for partying too hard one night, the fraternity brothers see no other way to get revenge then to prank and haze the family endlessly. The Radners also see no other choice than to beat the frat boys at their own game. Now, I gotta say, going into this movie, I had low expectations. Any movie where everyone says "This movie is hilarious! A must-see!" I always get suspicious, as it's usually not true. Either the movie is bad, or it's just okay. This one was kind of the latter, and kind of not. It wasn't nearly as good as everyone says, it's no Bridesmaids or Horrible Bosses and especially not the brilliant Team America, but it's satisfying enough. I might watch it on DVD or On Demand, but not in theaters again. Seth Rogen plays Mac Radner, aka Seth Rogen. He's great at what he does, but let's face it, it's just Rogen being himself, but a little more over-the-top. Rose Byrne is the real star of the film as his wife. Despite being way out of his league, they make a good on-screen couple, and she is really great in this movie. Not saying she wasn't phenomenal in other stuff (Bridesmaids, Insidious, Damages, X-Men: First Class, etc.) but she is actually surprisingly good at comedy, I was kind of shocked. She's also really hot, so that's a plus. Zac Efron has proven himself to be a legitimate comedic actor because of his performance in this movie. The dark days of shit like High School Musical and 17 Again are long behind him. He's kind of a character who you can relate to, but hate at the same time. He's a douchebag, but at the same time, kind of a nice guy. That's one of the good things about the movie: it doesn't really tell you which side to pick, it lets you decide. They could have easily made Efron and company out to be the stereotypical douchebag jock bad guys, but they decided to go neutral, which I really liked. Dave Franco, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Jerrod Carmichael, Lisa Kudrow, Carla Gallo, Ike Barinholtz, Craig Roberts (Submarine), Hannibal Burgess, and Ali Cobrin all do satisfactory jobs in supporting roles, and Franco and Efron have a pretty interesting relationship in the movie, and they provide an emotional aspect to the story I wasn't expecting at all. The Lonely Island (Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer, and Jorma Taccone), Jake Johnson, and the Workaholics crew (Adam DeVine, Blake Anderson, Anders Holm, and Kyle Newacheck) all make cameos in flashbacks to the 1930s, 70s, and 80s in Efron's speech on the history of the frat house early on in the film. Overall, the cast was fine. Nicholas Stoller (director of Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Get Him to the Greek, and writer of The Muppets) directs this movie, and does a good job. It's not as good as Sarah Marshall or Muppets, but it's not nearly as mediocre as Greek. The writing by Brendan O'Brien and Andrew J. Cohen is good. It's got some good jokes, some great emotional heart, and some cool pop culture references (in particular, TV references, such as Game of Thrones, Mad Men, Breaking Bad, and Girls). The movie does have a lot of good jokes, even though some go a little too over-the-top, but overall it was enjoyable. "But Matt," you may say, "why do you say it's mediocre in the title? Just for views?" Partly, if I'm being honest, but also because it doesn't deserve the praise it gets. It's fun, it's funny, it's kind of fresh-ish, but overall it's just okay. Disclaimer: I did see this movie with my parents, which made the whole experience very uncomfortable and hard to enjoy, which may be why I have a slightly skewed view of the movie. Overall, Neighbors (or Bad Neighbors if you live outside the U.S.) is a funny, pretty enjoyable, and somewhat heartfelt comedy that is worth seeing at least once, but maybe not in theaters. 3.5/5 stars.

 (Image: Wikipedia)

Godzilla: The iconic monster's return to the big screen after a decade of absence is actually not so bad

Today, I take a look at one of the most anticipated movies of the year: Warner Bros. and Legendary Picture's take on Toho's Godzilla.

Godzilla:
In 1999, scientists discover the remains of a gigantic, reptilian creature in the depths of a mine in the Philippines. They discover the cocoons of several parasitic organisms on the inside of the carcass, and discover a trail leading them to believe one of the parasites survived and swam out into the ocean. Meanwhile, in Japan, Dr. Joe Brody and his wife are employees at a nuclear power plant, and they live in a nearby suburban area with their young son Ford. Out of nowhere, seismic spikes cause a nuclear meltdown at the plant, resulting in an evacuation of the suburban neighborhood, and the deaths of many employees, including Brody's wife. 15 years later, Ford is now an explosive ordnance disposal technician and lieutenant in the military. He is estranged from his father, and lives with his wife and young son in San Francisco. However, Joe convinces his son to travel to Japan to visit him, as Joe is obsessed with proving that what happened at that power plant was no natural disaster, and that the higher-ups are trying to hide something. He is right, as even though the suburban area is abandoned and quarantined, the radiation level there is not even lethal or harmful in any way. The Brodys meet with the owner of the plant, a scientist named Dr. Serizawa, and his assistant Dr. Graham, who reveal they have been studying a living organism at the plant which has fed off the radiation there for decades, which they believe to be the parasite which escaped it's original cocoon years before. The cocoon hatches, and the monster (a giant, winged, insect-like kaiju) destroys most of the plant and flies away. The creature (called MUTO) wreaks havoc across the Pacific, attacking places like the Hawaiian Islands. However, Serizawa reveals that he and the military have discovered that another creature has risen from the Pacific Ocean, after years of slumber, and Serizawa believes he is here to "restore balance", as the MUTO are his prey. The monster's name is Gojira (or "Godzilla"), and the military recruit the Brodys in their plan to use this force of nature to destroy the MUTO before it destroys civilization. Now, the trailers for this film make it seem like Godzilla is the villainous monster, just as he was in the original 1954 film Gojira. However, he is the one you root for in the movie because he is fighting the real monsters, which, by the way, if you couldn't tell by my description, are basically a reimagining of one of Godzilla's oldest enemies, which I won't spoil for you here. The acting is surprisingly good for a B-monster movie. Aaron-Taylor Johnson is pretty good as Lt. Ford Brody. He's not the best protagonist in a monster movie that I've seen (and let's face it, the real hero that everyone came to see here is Godzilla), but he's a strong enough lead. A million times better than Matthew Broderick in that 1998 Roland Emmerich piece of shit. Ken Watanabe is good as Dr. Serizawa. He's been a pretty strong supporting actor in everything I've seen him in thus far, and this is no exception. Even though it is a bit funny the first time you hear him say "gojira" (there were chuckles in my theater every time he said it), he is able to ground the movie and come off as genuinely in awe when he is able to see Godzilla with his own eyes after years of obsessively searching for him. Elizabeth Olsen is okay as Ford's nurse wife. Just okay, she really doesn't have a lot to do. The real star of the show as far as human characters go is Bryan Cranston. Holy shit. Even in a supporting role like this he is able to put his all into it. I was surprised to see him have some pretty raw emotional moments in a summer movie about a giant, fire-breathing lizard monster fighting a giant flying bug. I really hope he starts doing more movies now that Breaking Bad is over. David Stathairn (The Bourne Ultimatum, Good Night and Good Luck) and Sally Hawkins (Blue Jasmine) have some good supporting parts as Rear Admiral Stenz and Dr. Graham, respectively. Juliette Binoche (The Unbearable Lightness of Being) has a nice small part as Brody's wife Sandy. Overall, the main cast is pretty satisfying for a monster movie. The real star, Godzilla, was faithfully reimagined by the creative design team, and I think his slightly new look is great. The MUTO is also scary and unique, but also remains faithful to the original look of the Godzilla foe that it's based. The special effects are extremely good, and the action scenes, particularly the fight scenes between Godzilla and the MUTO, are amazing, and the last 15-20 minutes where SF gets destroyed and Godzilla saves the day are epic. The musical score by Alexandre Desplat, which uses a chilling theme which is strikingly similar to the Monolith's theme from 2001: A Space Odyssey (also owned by Warner Bros.), is very good, and is able to capture the heroic side of Godzilla, along with his fear factor. The direction by Gareth Edwards (Monsters) and writing by David Callaham and Max Borenstein is great. Edwards is a visionary who knows how to make a good sci-fi monster movie but also ground it in reality and show the gravity of a situation like this, if it were to actually happen. Callaham and Borenstein do a great job satisfying long-time Godzilla fans as well as introducing newcomers to the series. This movie tops the abysmal 1998 film because it was actually made in association with Toho. Rather than keeping the original creators in the dark about the production, the filmmakers made the wise decision to keep Toho in the loop and take advice from them. This is probably why this movie turned out so well. Godzilla is a fun movie. It's got some exceptional acting for a blockbuster, great special effects and action, some cool creature designs, a great creative team, and is able to please fans and casual viewers alike. This is a great 60th anniversary movie and is on par with a lot of the original Japanese films. I can't wait to see what they do if there's a sequel. 4/5 stars.

    (Image: Wikipedia)

Game of Thrones: Season 4 (TV Review)

Today, I look at the highly acclaimed, fast-paced, and action-packed fourth season of HBO's epic fantasy series Game of Thrones, which is quickly reaching a Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter level of success and the status of cultural phenomenon, and I'm glad for it. I love all three series, despite their major differences, and it's nice to see a show that deserves tons of acclaim getting it, especially since fantasy shows are generally thought of as kid's stuff. I commend David Benioff and Dan Weiss for being able to make some changes from the books but also remain really faithful to the overall story. I am currently reading the first book in George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series (A Game of Thrones), and so far, although there are minor differences, it's almost exactly the same as the show's first season. Well, moving past that, I guess I should talk about this latest season in the show everyone is raving about.

(WARNING: SPOILERS For Season 3, as it's essential to describe the plot of this one)

Game of Thrones, Season Four:
After the tragic and bloody travesty known as "The Red Wedding", House Stark is in exile and on the brink of extinction. The King in the North aka "The Young Wolf" Robb Stark is dead, along with his mother Catelyn, his pregnant queen Talisa, and his unborn son Eddard (named after his father), not to mention his entire army of bannermen and sellswords. The culprits: Tywin Lannister (it was his plan), along with the treacherous houses of Bolton (sworn to House Stark) and Frey (sworn to House Tully, Catelyn's original house before her marriage to Ned Stark). In fact, the gruesome massacre took place under the Freys' roof at their two castle fortress The Twins. The traitor Roose Bolton has been declared Warden of the North by King Joffrey for his part in the slaughter, and the bastard boy-king has also rewarded the Freys with the Tully castle Riverrun for their help. Speaking of that yellow-haired shit, his royal wedding to Lady Margaery of House Tyrell is coming up and things are tense: Tyrion must continue to hide his relationship with Shae from everyone else and try to be kind to Sansa Stark, his new wife who despises his family; Jaime has returned to the capital but has not been received well, as Cersei continues to give him the cold shoulder, Tywin isn't pleased with him, and Joffrey disrespects him for being a cripple, oh yeah, sorry, forget to remind you about the fact that Bolton's mercenary Locke sadistically maimed Jaime by cutting off his right hand, making his legendary sword-fighting skills useless, and it appears his only true friends left are Tyrion and Brienne of Tarth, who has accompanied him back to King's Landing; Cersei fears that the Tyrells are becoming too powerful and the Lannisters are becoming reliant on them, similar to how King Robert relied on Tywin Lannister following his fight to win the crown; and worst of all, a visitor has rolled into his town: Prince Oberyn of the House Martell of Dorne. Due to their major differences with the rest of Westeros, Dorne is basically a foreign country on the same continent. The Lannisters, expecting Oberyn's calm and collected older brother Prince Doran, are unpleasantly surprised when they discover Oberyn has arrived. Oberyn is known for his fighting skills, exotic and extravagant lifestyle, lust for both attractive men and women (considered a despicable and disgusting trait by many of Westeros' officials and commoners), knowledge of poisons, but mostly his temper and erratic behavior. But what troubles them most: he hates all Lannisters, as during the Sack of King's Landing, his beloved sister Elia (wife of Prince Rhaegar Targaryen) and her children, a six-year-old girl and a newborn boy, were brutally murdered (and Elia raped) by Lannister soldiers, led by Ser Amory Lorch (who was killed by Jaqen H'gar in season two) and Ser Gregor "The Mountain" Clegane (The Hound's evil older brother). Oberyn seeks vengeance against Clegane, and all involved in the murders, including Tywin, and that could spell bad news for every Lannister, including Jaime and Tyrion. Meanwhile, Arya Stark must travel across the countryside with Sandor "The Hound" Clegane, a man she hates and wishes to kill, but must cooperate with to make it back to her family. Jon Snow faces the repercussions of his actions during season three, including starting a relationship with Ygritte and killing Qhorin Halfhand. Snow must also face off against the new acting commander: Alliser Thorne, who doesn't particularly care for snow, and Thorne's new buddy: Janos Slynt. After being banished to The Wall by Tyrion Lannister near the beginning of season two, Slynt is thristy for power, and has put himself in a powerful position at the Night's Watch, which could cause issue if Jon finds out that Slynt was one of the men who betrayed his father Ned. Jon also seeks justice for Lord Commander Jeor Mormont, who was betrayed by his own men at Craster's Keep in season three, and must try to convince others of the imminent wildling attack led by Mance Rayder and the possibility that the White Walkers have returned. Speaking of which, the wildlings, led by Tormund Gaintsbane and Ygritte, are wrecking having across the countryside south of the Wall, and are joined by the Thenn, a group of especially feared and savage wildlings. At The Dreadfort, Roose's vicious bastard Ramsay Snow continues his torture of Theon, now named "Reek". Throughout several months of inhumane and unthinkably cruel physical and mental torture, Ramsay has broken Theon's spirit and mind, and has made him into this subhuman, obedient creature, who doesn't even remember who he really is. Ramsay is given a mission by his father to retake the castle Moat Cailin from the Ironborn invaders, and Ramsay thinks his new pet Reek could play a key role in his plan. Meanwhile, Theon's brave sister Yara leads a group of elite Ironborn warriors to raid the Dreadfort and rescue Reek from his miserable existence there. At Dragonstone, Stannis Baratheon is still reeling from his defeat by the Lannisters at Blackwater Bay, and is becoming increasingly reliant on his Red Priestess Melisandre. Davos distrusts her and thinks her treatment of "infidels" (those who do not wish to join her religion) to be evil and cruel. Davos is able to come up with a great plan to get Stannis some backing from the Iron Bank of Braavos, but Stannis warns that if this plan doesn't work out, there could be dire consequences. Bran, Hodor, Jojen, and Meera continue their journey beyond the Wall, and try to find the mysterious three-eyed raven that is speaking to Bran through visions and dreams. Lord Petyr Baelish, aka "Littlefinger", is currently en route to the Vale of Arryn to wed the widowed Lysa Tully, but who knows what he is truly planning. And across the Narrow Sea, Danaerys Targaryen and her advisers, along with her army of liberated slaves, 8000 Unsullied, and 2000 Second Sons, approach Mereen, the third and largest of the Slave Cities. However, unlike the other two cities which have already fallen, Mereen has prepared for her arrival. But Dany has dragons, skilled mercenaries and warriors, and helpful advisers at her side, and she has a way with the slaves, so Mereen may be underestimating her abilities to conquer. Having said that, Dany faces a difficult decision: does she want to be a conqueror, or a ruler? The War of the Five Kings may be coming to a close, but after fighting each other, the factions are beginning to realize that even worse enemies lurk within their ranks, and their allies may not be as they appear. Sorry for so much plot, but there's a lot of set-up for this season. Also, the reason the King's Landing plot is so short right now is that I actually can't go too far into it without spoiling it, as something happens early on that changes the course of the story for the rest of the season. The producers stated that the reason for this was that they were tired of always building up to something at the end of the season, and thought surprising the audience with something early on and then showing the aftermath would be an interesting way to mix things up, although they also build up to some stuff for the last few episodes, especially with the Night's Watch storyline. But enough about that, for now, what about the ever-expanding cast?
    Now you really can't talk about this series without commenting on it's amazingly large and exceptionally talented cast of characters. As always, I'll break them up by which house or group they are allied with. First, House Stark: This great house has taken quite a beating since the end of season one. After Ned's tragic death by beheading at the hands of King Joffrey and Ser Ilyn Payne (makes me die a little inside every time I watch it), the Starks have had quite a bit of trauma. After a series of victories in season two, Robb begins to make some shitty choices, which have even worse consequences. Not only does he break his betrothal to House Frey (which severs an important alliance and makes the Freys more sympathetic to the Lannisters), but he does it for true love, and if I've learned anything from watching this show, it's that true love doesn't really matter in this universe...at all. Almost all marriages are made for political moves, not for actual love, and the ones that aren't usually don't turn out well. This one was no exception, as things continued to get worse when Robb beheaded his old ally Rickard Karstark for disobeying him by murdering two innocent Lannister children as payback for Jaime killing his son. That meant the Karstarks (a powerful house that made up a good chunk of Robb's already dwindling army) abandoned Robb, meaning he had to once again seek an alliance with the slimy and bitter Walder Frey. Of course, if you read the plot summary above, you already know how that went south really fast. The reason I bring all of this up is if you go back to my season one review, you can see how many members House Stark has. Now look at the line-up (Note- Jon Snow will not be counted as he is a sworn brother of the Night's Watch, and therefore must relinquish his place in House Stark): Arya Stark, played by Maisie Williams, is continuing her dark path to becoming a cold-blooded killer. Still searching for those on her revenge list, she is now stuck with the Hound, a man she despises. However, she must also come to terms with the fact that they can learn from each other, and starts to realize she has more in common with this inhumane butcher than she thinks. Williams captures her character perfectly, and she (like other characters) has grown so much between season one and four that, if you were to look at her based only on personality, you can hardly recognize her as the same Arya. Sansa, portrayed by Sophie Turner, still cannot catch a break. I won't reveal what it is that happens, but I will say this event early on in the season causes her to go out of the frying pan and into the fire. Turner does a great job embodying a pretty much broken person trying to survive in a world where almost everyone wants to kill her. Her character also goes through some major changes this season, which we haven't seen from her before: she becomes a player of the game of the title. Bran, played by Isaac Hempstead-Wright, is on a pretty crazy quest this season. Attempting to find the prophetic and mysterious "three-eyed raven" of his dreams, Bran travels to the treacherous, frost-encased areas beyond the Wall. Bran shows a lot more maturity this season, and I think Hempstead-Wright has really developed as an actor since season one. He's better than in previous seasons, which is saying a lot from an already remarkable child actor. I though he was perfect in the other seasons, and here he actually out-does himself. I am very impressed with him and hope to see him pursue more work. Jojen Reed, portrayed by Thomas Brodie-Sangster, is continuing to help Bran understand his powers and guide him on his journey to find the three-eyed raven. He's sort of weaker in this season, as he is growing sick and decrepit due to the harsh cold of the far North and the long days with nothing but trekking across a barren wasteland of ice. He's sort of an enigmatic character, as he has greensight, which gives him vision of the future and past simultaneously, but only he can truly understand these prophetic messages. His sister Meera, played by Ellie Kendrick, continues to persist through the harsh conditions of the North in order to help her brother and Bran. Unfortunately, Meera doesn't have a lot to do this time around. Also unfortunately, she briefly becomes the target of a despicable Night's Watch deserter, but I wont give away who that is. Hodor, portrayed by Kristian Nairn, continues serving and protecting Bran, and Bran is able to use his warging abilities to use Hodor as a vessel to fight off powerful foes.
     Now for House Lannister: Peter Dinklage continues to surprise me with his portrayal of Tyrion. He has one of the darker character arcs of the series, not as dark as Arya or Theon, but almost. He's changed from a fun-loving, almost comedic relief character in the first season, to one of the most serious and stressed-out characters in the entire show. Dinklage really shines in this season, especially in episodes 2, 6, 8, and 10. His ending speech in episode 6 is so riveting and engrossing it gave me the chills. It's so filled with sadness and raw anger that I could almost feel Tyrion's rage. Cersei Lannister, played by Lena Headey, continues to be a cunning and cold-hearted bitch. Headey does such an amazing job as the character, and she becomes more unraveled and desperate this season, and because of this, is even more vicious. However, I can also feel her genuine love for her children, which is a redeeming quality, but that doesn't make me like her anymore. Nikolaj Coster-Waldau has pulled a complete character 180 has Ser Jaime Lannister. He's no longer the Kingslayer to me, he's changed a lot since the pilot episode. Going from one of the most despicable characters in the show to one of the most beloved in just four seasons is no small feat, and Nikolaj pulls it off beautifully. He's cleaned up since last season, so he's nearly unrecognizable, considering for two seasons he's looked like a fucked-up, dirt-drenched peasant. Much like Alfie Allen did with Theon in season two, Nikolaj shows us a totally different side to Jaime, making him one of the most nuanced, divisive characters in television history. Charles Dance returns as the intimidating and powerful Tywin Lannister, a legacy-obsessed tyrant who controls through fear. Showing us a glimpse at his human side while also showcasing more of his ruthlessness, Dance is perfect as Tywin and gives a very complex performance this season. He's a character who I love to hate but also love to watch work. Jack Gleeson is brilliant as the sociopathic and spoiled King Joffrey Baratheon (Lannister in blood, Baratheon in name only). Gleeson is gleefully evil and cruel, but also we can sympathize with him a bit (in one episode in particular), which I'll go into in the spoiler section. Despite getting less and less screen time as seasons go on, he still leaves a lasting impression, being one of the hatable and evil characters in fiction. Gwendoline Christie portrays Brienne of Tarth, the loyal and honorable female warrior. A lovable and bad-ass character, she has a sweet, almost romantic, relationship with Jaime Lannister. Although she's currently siding with Jaime, she still upholds her oath to Catelyn Stark, and is trying to convince Jaime to keep his oath to her as well. Shae, played by Sibel Kekilli, doesn't get as much screen time as before but Kekilli is still able to do a great job convincing you that she really does love Tyrion. However, we do see a darker side to her character near the mid-point of the season that I think might change people's views of her. Bronn, portrayed by Jerome Flynn (Ripper Street), is still just being a funny, cool bad-ass. He's got so many great lines and is so cocky and worry-free that you can't help but like the guy, even if he is a cut-throat mercenary. One of the best supporting characters in the series, without a doubt. Daniel Portman is Podrick Payne, Tyrion's loyal and well-educated young squire who also teams with Brienne of Tarth. Although not very strong, Podrick is actually very brave and serves as a good comic relief character, although a scene between he and Tyrion in episode three pulls at the heartstrings. Dean-Charles Chapman is Prince Tommen Baratheon, replacing Callum Wharry (who appeared in seasons one and two). Joffrey's much kinder and more innocent younger brother, the only attributes he shares with his kingly brother is his appearance (fair-skinned, blonde-haired, etc.). Chapman is actually a pretty talented young actor, and I hope to see what he does in season five. Myrcella Baratheon (Aimee Richardson) is still nowhere to be seen since her departure for Dorne in season two. Ser Gregor "The Mountain" Clegane is this time around played by Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson, aka "Thor", an Icelandic strongman and former basketball player. He's perfect to play the Mountain, as he has the monstrous size and strength that his character does. Still a savage and brutal warrior, The Mountain appears in the latter half of the season and serves as a minor antagonist. He's sadistic as ever, using peasant prisoners as fighting practice, despite knowing they have no chance against him, so it's more like killing practice. He's just a bad dude all around, which is funny, as apparently Björnsson is a nice guy in real life, similar to how Jack Gleeson is supposed to be a cool and funny person. Julian Glover has a supporting role as Grand Maester Pycelle. A pervy and useless old man, Pycelle is seen as a bumbling, suck-up shit by pretty much everyone. Polliver, portrayed by Andy Kellegher, returns after an absence in season three. A corrupt and cruel soldier of the Lannisters, Polliver does what he wants when he wants. Unfortunately for him, he also crosses paths with Arya again. Anton Lesser has a minor role as the excommunicated maester Qyburn. Competing with Pycelle for the queen's respect, Qyburn is winning, due to his medical experience and not being an idiotic and pathetic pervert like Pycelle. Ian Beattie plays supporting character Ser Meryn Trant, Joffrey's pompous and cruel captain of the Kingsguard (until Jaime returned). Described in the books as "Cersei's creature", he's an angry and dishonorable knight known for his temper and vicious actions, including beating Sansa at Joffrey's command without batting an eye. He's another evil character that has it coming, but continues to evade justice. Tony Way (Edge of Tomorrow) reprises his small role as former knight Dontos Hollard, now Joffrey's court fool. Stripped of his title as knight, he has nothing left, but still manages to be helpful to certain characters, such as Sansa Stark, the girl who saved his life. Paul Bentley (Doctor Who, The Iron Lady, Doctors) has a small role as the new High Septon of King's Landing, as the last one was ripped to pieces during the Riot of King's Landing in season two.
    And on the Small Council (or at least the members with no true allegiance), we have: Aidan Gillen returns after a long hiatus (he hasn't been seen since Season 3: Episode Six) as the former Master of Coin, Lord Petyr Baelish, aka "Littlefinger". A slippery and conniving man, Baelish is en route to the Vale to woo Lady Arryn. Gillen may over-act in some scenes, and his noticeably different accent is a bit distracting at times, but I think he's a good fit for the Littlefinger role and I don't think anyone else really is. Conleth Hill (Boon, Whatever Works, Suits, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen) once again portrays the Machiavellian eunuch and Master of Whispers, Lord Varys, aka "The Spider". A sometimes ruthless, but ultimately compassionate and understanding man, Varys is another character whose actions are very hard to predict, but that adds another layer of mystery to an already intriguing character. Hill is the only one (in my opinion) who can play Varys. He plays it not too effeminate, but just enough that I bought the "eunuch" side of him, and he's also intimidating enough in certain moments that I bought why characters see him as more of a threat than an ally. Olyver, portrayed by Will Tudor, has a minor role this season, as he's the manager of Littllefinger's brothel while he's away and also catches the attention of a certain Dornish prince, who I'll discuss later.
     Now for House Baratheon: Now that only the Dragonstone faction is left, this once powerful house has gotten less and less screen time as seasons go on. Stephen Dillane (The Hours, Spy Game, Boon, Inspector Finch, John Adams, Zero Dark Thirty, Hunted) plays King Stannis Baratheon. Besides King Joffrey, Balon Greyjoy (who hasn't even really been a threat since season two), and Mance Rayder (who is more of a threat to the North than anything), Stannis is one of the only kings left in the WOTFK. Stannis is desperately trying to recuperate after his crushing defeat on the Blackwater at the end of season two, and is falling further and further under the spell of the Red Priestess Melisandre. Stannis is growing impatient with Ser Davos, who is undermining Melisandre's authority and is growing concerned with Stannis' mental state. Dillane is able to capture Stannis' rough and unforgiving personality perfectly, but also show us his humanity when he defends his daughter. Liam Cunningham (Dog Soldiers, The Wind That Shakes the Barley, Hunger, Centurion, A Little Princess, Black Butterflies, The Escapist) portrays Ser Davos Seaworth, aka "The Onion Knight". A former smuggler turned Stannis' close adviser and friend, Davos is loyal, intelligent (despite being illiterate), and compassionate to others. While he may bite his tongue about his opinions on Melisandre in the presence of her or his queen, Davos is outspoken to Stannis about what he thinks of Melisandre's religious practices, such as burning people alive for not converting. Cunningham is without a doubt the only actor who could pull off the Davos role with such perfection. Carice van Houten (Black Book, Black Butterflies, Valkyrie, Repo Men, Black Death) plays Melisandre, a priestess and seductress who also carries an eerie presence in every scene she's in. She has less screen time in this season than in any other but is still a memorable and mysterious character. She's an interesting character because you truly never know what she plans to do next, and is also incredibly persuasive to pretty much everyone besides Ser Davos. The creators say they cast her because they were looking for an actress who was beautiful like Melisandre is described in the books, but not loose any of the creepy factor of her, and van Houten is able to do this, which is probably incredibly hard to get right, so props to her. Tara Fitzgerald and Kerry Ingram have small roles as bat-shit crazy and fanatical Queen Selyse, and the quiet and kind Princess Shireen, respectively. Fitzgerald is fantastic in such a minor supporting role, really selling me on the insane religious fanaticism. Hell, she burns her own brother alive for not converting! Ingram's relationship with Ser Davos is very sweet, and he's more of a dad to her than Stannis is, despite Stannis loving his daughter, too. Lucian Msamati reprises his minor role as Salladhor Saan, a pirate and good friend of Davos. A funny and cool character, I'd love to see more of him and Davos together, because the two actors have great chemistry in the brief scenes they have together and convince me they've been friends for years. James McHale has a cameo in episode two as Lord Axell Florent, Selyse's brother and the head of House Florent. He is burned alive with two others on the beaches of Dragonstone for not converting to the Lord of the Light faith, in a ceremony meant to "cleanse" them of their "sins". It's a dark and kind of upsetting scene, and illustrates House Baratheon's utter devotion to Melisandre, and Selyse's complete fall into religion-fueled madness.
    Now for House Targaryen: Daenerys "Stormborn" Targaryen, aka "Mother of Dragons", portrayed by Emilia Clarke (Dom Hemingway, Terminator: Genesis), doesn't do as much this season as she did last season, but does have a lot of heartbreaking moments this time around, especially in the latter half. Clarke really drives these moments home with her perfect portrayal of Daenerys. She shows us a darker side to the khaleesi than previously seen, as she grows more confident and ruthless, and if you go back to the beginning of season one, she's not even the same person. Iain Glen (Silent Scream, Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead) once again plays Ser Jorah Mormont, Dany's close adviser who is constantly friend-zoned. A loyal and compassionate man with a bad-ass voice and a heart of gold, Jorah is another character who I always root for, even when he does things many consider questionable. Unfortunately, Jorah's past catches up with him in this season, and he must suffer the consequences. Michiel Huisman (Treme, Nashville, Orphan Black, World War Z) replaces Ed Skrein as Daario Naharis. Despite many being critical of Huisman's portrayal and the fact that the two actors look nothing alike, I really enjoyed Huisman in this role. Skrein was the superior Daario, without a doubt, but where Skrein played up Daario's charm and good looks, Huisman has the charm, but plays up Daario's rough mercenary side and shows us more of his amazing skills as an assassin. Nathalie Emmanuel and Jacob Anderson reprise their roles as Missandei and Grey Worm, respectively. The two of them pursue a romantic relationship this season, which is interesting considering Grey Worm is a eunuch. Ian McElhinney (Taggart, The Tudors, Hornblower, The Fall) portrays Ser Barristan "The Bold" Selmy, an aging knight who is extremely loyal to any king or queen he serves. An honorable and honest man, Barristan was considered the only "true" knight in King Robert's kingsguard, and is considered a formidable fighter even in his old age. McElhinney may not have a lot to do this season, but he's convincing as Barristan, and captures his kindness and bravery.
     Now for House Martell of Dorne: Pedro Pascal (an actor famous for his stage roles, as well as his appearances in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Homeland, Graceland, Law & Order, Nurse Jackie, CSI, Nikita, The Mentalist, and Brothers & Sisters) appears as the major supporting character Prince Oberyn Martell, aka "The Red Viper". Oberyn is a true "free spirit": he does what he wants, when he wants, and how he wants to do it. Known for his exotic and experimental sex life (which many lords and ladies of the Seven Kingdoms consider disgusting and perverted, but the people of Dorne consider normal) and his temper, as well as his hatred of Lannisters, Oberyn is a controversial figure in the world of Westeros. He's basically a foreigner, as Dorne is so culturally different than the rest of the continent. His alien customs confuse and even frighten some of the high lords of the kingdoms, but Oberyn couldn't care less what they think of him. He's driven by a desire for vengeance and a thirst for justice for his sister and his niece and nephew. Oberyn is also an amazing fighter and has a vast knowledge of poisons and other sciences and arts, having studied to become a maester for a few years at the Citadel. He's all around just a cool dude, and is one of the few characters who is almost purely good. Pascal also did all his own stunts for the duel between Oberyn and the Mountain (sorry for this kind-of-spoiler, but they gave it away in the season trailer and the title of the episode where it takes place) near the end of the season, which is one of the highlights of not only the episode, but of the series as a whole. He studied the wushu fighting style, as the choreographers said they wanted his Dornish style to feel very different than from the rest of Westeros. It was a very physically demanding and challenging set-piece to pull off, but they did it. That's dedication. Indira Varma appears as Ellaria Sand, Oberyn's paramour (publicly acknowledged girlfriend) and dedicated lover who sticks by Oberyn no matter what. Not really given a lot to do, but still a good performance.
    Onto House Tyrell: True to it's motto, this powerful house grows stronger by the season. Natalie Dormer (The Tudors, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Captain America: The First Avenger, The Counselor, Rush) plays the seductive and highly intelligent Lady Margaery Tyrell. She's better off this season, as she has Joffrey wrapped around her finger, which is incredibly hard to do. Unlike other major manipulators, she's shown to be truly kind at heart and sympathizes with Sansa Stark and Tyrion. I'm glad to hear Dormer is getting more work due to her great role on this show as well as her similar role in The Tudors. Margaery also finds a new friend in Brienne. Dame Diana Rigg (BBC's The Avengers) portrays Margaery's grandmother: the matriarch of the Tyrell clan and Margaery's teacher when it comes to playing the game of thrones, Lady Olenna (Redwyne) Tyrell, aka "The Queen of Thorns", is one of the best characters in the show. Her lines are quotable and hilarious (at least by GOT standards, as there's not too much humor in the show), and Rigg delivers them brilliantly. Rigg also displays Olenna's more sinister side, which gives insight into why Cersei fears that the Tyrells could potentially get more powerful than the Lannisters: Olenna is sometimes just as ruthless as Tywin. Finn Jones (Hollyoaks) fills the role of Ser Loras Tyrell, the "Knight of Flowers", Margaery's brother. A respectable and charming young knight, he's considered one of the best fighters in the land, although we don't get to see him fight too much, and not at all in this season. It's also shown that Renly's death at the hands of the Shadow still affects him. Roger Ashton-Griffiths (You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger, The Brothers Grimm, Brazil, The Tudors, A Knight's Tale, Gangs of New York) is an experienced character actor, and puts his all into the smallest of roles, and this is no exception. Despite appearing in only a handful of episodes, he really is able to bring Lord Mace Tyrell, aka "The Lord of Oaf", the father of Margaery and Loras, to life. True to his name, Mace is a little slow and oafish, and doesn't get a lot of respect despite his riches and power. In fact, it's the women of the Tyrell family who have the real brains.
     Now for House Bolton: As new Wardens of the North, the Boltons have absolute rule over the region, and that spells trouble for anyone living there. Iwan Rheon plays Ramsay Snow, the "Bastard of Bolton", who replaces Joffrey as my new most hatable character. He's so sadistic and cruel, and gets such enjoyment from other's pain, it makes every scene he's in uncomfortably tense. A good example is his treatment of Theon, such as when Ramsay locks him in the dog kennels and taunts him about his lack of...man parts. Rheon pulls off the role so well that it sort of changes your perspective on him. I'll never watch his scenes in Misfits the same way again. Another scary thing about Ramsay is that he's actually a formidable fighter and experienced hunter, making him a genuine threat to someone in a one-on-one fight. Alfie Allen portrays Theon Greyjoy, although now he calls himself "Reek". Theon's character arc has spiraled out of control since season two. He's gone from a loyal friend of the Starks, to a rebel trying to appease his father, to a torture victim, and now basically a sub-human pet. Ramsay's broken his spirit so much that Theon shivers and flinches constantly, and stares out with blank, dead eyes. Theon is not allowed to take baths or wear new clothes, and constantly hobbles around due to his permanently damaged bones. Ramsay's trained him to basically act as a loyal, frightened dog. Even Roose refers to Theon as "this creature of yours" when speaking to Ramsay. But the most horrifying thing is that Theon seems to have convinced himself to be comfortable with this life of living in squalor and constant fear, even denying the fact that he is Theon, preferring to be called Reek. Really, one of the more interesting and horrifying arcs in the series. Michael McElhatton (The Fall, Ripper Street) has less screen time this season as Lord Roose Bolton, but he's still perfect as the harsh, unfeeling, and untrustworthy leader of the one of the most feared houses in the North. Noah Taylor (Edge of Tomorrow, The Double, Vanilla Sky, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, The Life Aquatic) again plays Locke, Ramsay's friend and Roose's mercenary hitman. A skilled and unflinchingly violent killer, he is sent on a mission: find the Stark children in the far North, and return them to the Dreadfort. Just as despicable and frightening as last season, Locke is one of the better supporting villains in the show. Charlotte Hope has a borderline cameo role as Myranda, Ramsay's servant girl and girlfriend, who's almost as sadistic as he is. At first just a servant girl/bedwarmer seen in the third season, she's revealed here to be just as skilled with the bow as her boyfriend, and possibly just as insane. Jazzy de Lisser appears in a cameo as Tansy, a serving girl/bedwarmer for Ramsay, she is hunted down by Ramsay, Myranda, and the Bastard's girls (Ramsay's pack of female hunting dogs), with Reek tagging along, in episode two. Despite this scene being gruesome and horrible, it's actually one of the few scenes toned down from the books. Elizabeth Webster cameos as "Fat" Walda Frey, now married to Roose Bolton, who mentioned in season three he was paid her weight in gold for marrying her.
     Next up is House Arryn of the Vale: Kate Dickie reprises her role from season one as Catelyn's slightly unhinged sister Lady Lysa Arryn. Madly in love with Petyr Baelish (an unreasonably jealous of any woman who stands in between them) and overprotective over her son, she's not exactly fit to rule over the Vale. Lino Facioli appears as Lord Robin Arryn, the spoiled and idiotic child who rules over the Vale, known for his love of throwing things out the "Moon Door", a door that leads to a terrifying drop to the valley below the Eyrie. Paola Dionisotti and Rupert Vansittart appear as Lady Anya Waynwood and Lord Yohn Royce, respectively, two powerful rulers of the Vale.
     Now onto the Night's Watch, a group with increasingly challenging obstacles and dwindling numbers: Jon Snow, portrayed by Kit Harington (Pompeii, How to Train Your Dragon 2), returns to Castle Black and finds himself unwelcome. Despite many of his friends sticking by him, the higher-ups (with the exception of Maester Aemon) look down on him for his status as a bastard and his actions in season three. He takes on more leadership roles starting in the middle of the season, and he's shaping up to be a potential candidate for Lord Commander after Jeor Mormont's murder. He's another rare GOT character who is almost a straightforward hero. Samwell Tarly, played by John Bradley (Merlin, Borgia, Anna Karenina, Shameless) is still a pretty lovable and funny character. Despite his father condemning him as a coward and threatening that he'd die if he did not take the black (this was discussed in season one, episode four), this season he actually shows his bravery in battle and uses his education to his advantage. Gilly, portrayed by Hannah Murray (Skins), is under the care of Sam at Castle Black and the two make a nice couple, both are somewhat innocent and weak in a world which does not favor the innocent nor the weak, so they're actually an ideal pairing, as they actually teach each other a lot. Owen Teale (The Fifteen Streets, Conspiracy, The Hollow Crown- Henry V, Torchwood, Inspector Lewis) reprises his role as Ser Alliser Thorne, the mean-spirited drill sergeant and acting commander of the Night's Watch, after a long hiatus since his last appearance near the end of season one. Despite being an arrogant and insulting douche for the most part (with an irrational contempt for Jon), the writers do show us there is goodness to him: he admits to Jon Snow in one scene he should have listened to him more, and also is a brave and experienced fighter, unlike some others in the NW. Speaking of those people, Lord Janos Slynt, played by Dominic Carter (Going Off Big Time, Doctors), returns after being absent for season three and almost all of season two, now a leader of the NW and ally of Thorne, despite being dishonorably discharged from the King's Landing City Watch. A coward at heart, Slynt is a pretty despicable character who will hopefully get his comeuppance. Mark Stanley and Josef Altin (Misfits) return as Jon's loyal friends: Grenn and Pypar, aka "Pyp", respectively. Both are likable and loyal to Jon, and are brave despite their lack of battle experience. Ben Crompton (Pramface, Man Stroke Woman, Ideal, 102 Dalmatians) reprises his recurring role as Eddison "Dolorous Edd" Tollett, a pessimistic, cynical, and funny "black brother" (the nickname given to NW brothers). Although he had a harsh upbringing, Edd can find dark humor in nearly any situation, making him popular among the brothers, especially his inner circle of friends (Jon, Sam, Grenn, and Pyp). Peter Vaughn appears as the wise and very, very old Maester Aemon Targaryen, who gives excellent advice to Sam and Jon. Hobb, the three-fingered cook, is played by an unidentified extra in episode nine. Othel Yarwyck, here portrayed by Brian Fortune (he was played by Dennis McKeever in season one), is the First Builder of the NW and is in a position of power there, although he doesn't always seem to agree with Thorne, he does as he's bid. Brenock O'Connor appears as Olly, a young boy whose parents are murdered by wildlings and is recruited by the Night's Watch. He is a skilled archer and loses his innocence pretty quickly and must learn to grow up.
     Now for The Betrayers, the group of Night's Watch brothers who betrayed Jeor Mormont and took over Craster's Keep: Karl Tanner, played by Burn Gorman (Torchwood, Pacific Rim, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, The Dark Knight Rises), despite only appearing in a few episodes, earns his place as one of the nastiest, most despicable characters in the show thus far. A cruel and arrogant rapist and former assassin, Karl is not just another disgusting human being, but is actually a threat because he is a practiced killer and fighter, able to take down even the best trained men with ease. Gorman is a talented character actor, shifting from very different roles, and he is able to slip into this gruff and evil character perfectly. Luke Barnes reappears as Rast, the cruel bully who (literally) stabbed Jeor through the back. Another thoroughly unlikable character, Rast gets on my nerves a lot.
     Now for House Greyjoy: Gemma Whelan portrays Yara, Theon's older sister who is on a mission to rescue him. A bad-ass naval commander, she will stop at nothing to rescue Theon from the nightmare that is Ramsay.
   Onto The Iron Bank of Braavos: Mark Gatiss (Sherlock, Doctor Who, The League of Gentlemen) has a small role as Tycho Nestoris, the cold and calculating representative of the bank. Just as intelligent, unemotional, and robotic as the organization he serves, Tycho can only be reasoned with through logic and ethics, not through emotion, making any conversation with him frustrating and difficult.
    Now for Mance Rayder's wildling/Free Folk clans: Rose Leslie plays Ygritte, Jon's ex-lover and archery master. Heartbroken after Jon's betrayal, she makes it her mission to kill him. We see a much darker Ygritte this season, as she mercilessly kills innocent people on several occasions, but is not entirely without compassion. Leslie does this beautifully, showing Ygritte's capacity for cold-blooded killing as well as mercy. Kristofer Hivju portrays Tormund Giantsbane. We saw the likable and trusting Tormund last time, now we see the savage and ferocious warrior that people fear and respect. He has a very intense and well-choreographed, albeit brief, duel with Alliser Thorne in episode nine that's pretty awesome. Yuri Kolokolnikov plays Styr, the Magnar of Thenn. A creepy and intimidating raider and cannibal, Styr is the leader of the Thenn tribe, which even other wildlings despise. Styr is also unflinchingly brutal and violent, and enjoys killing "crows" (NW brothers) and Northern villagers. His duel with Jon Snow in episode nine is extremely tense and brutal, and had me on the edge of my seat. Joseph Gatt has a recurring part as a Thenn warg, who controls an owl, who is also an ally of Styr. Ciarán Hinds (There Will Be Blood, Road to Perdition, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows-Part Two, Munich, Political Animals, The Phantom of the Opera, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) appears in the finale as Mance Rayder, the "King-Beyond-The-Wall". Rayder may be a wildling, but he is true to his word and is an honest and sometimes understanding and compassionate leader. His name is also pretty cool.
   Now for the Children of the Forest, a race of ancient people with unknown powers: Octavia Alexandru plays "Leaf", a Child of the Forest in the finale. Struan Rodger appears in a minor part as the true form of the "Three-eyed raven" of Bran's dreams, also in the finale.
    Finally, onto the miscellaneous characters, or those with no real allegiance that I know of: Sandor "The Hound" Clegane, portrayed by Rory McCann (Hot Fuzz, Alexander), is guiding Arya though the dark and dreary world of Westeros, particularly the Riverlands, which are now under Frey rule, much to everyone's dismay. Despite still being a pessimistic, possibly sociopathic murderer and generally unlikable person, The Hound managed to win me over with his relationship with Arya. Despite still having rough moments, Arya is kind of like the daughter he'll never have, and he's like a really fucked-up surrogate father for her. Hot Pie, played by Ben Hawkey, returns in episode seven, providing comic relief which is much needed in a show this tragic and horrific. Rorge and Biter, portrayed by Andy Beckwith and Gerard Jordan, respectively, return after escaping Harrenhal in season two. These shady and violent criminals run shit out of luck when they cross Arya and the Hound's path. Hizdar zo Loraq, played by Joel Fry, is a powerful and caring figure in Mereen who seeks to honor his father's death and asks for the khaleesi's assistance in doing this. That about wraps up all the characters in season four. There's quite a few of them.
    The actors in this series are absolutely incredible. They are able to give some amazing speeches (some that stand out: Tyrion's episode six speech, Oberyn's speech to Tyrion in episode seven, Daenerys' speech in episode three, Allister's brief yet rousing battle speech in episode nine, and the Hound and Brienne's dialogue in episode ten) and express a ton of emotion without saying a word. The young actors are also worth noting: they are not typical child actors, as they can pull off these more adult roles very convincingly and they don't seem like normal kid actors, who usually come off as forced and/or fake.
    The action set-pieces for this season are spectacular and exhilarating. The highlights of the seasons are definitely The Battle of Castle Black (takes up the entirety of episode nine), The Raid on Craster's Keep (which includes Jon Snow vs. Karl Tanner), The Mountain vs. The Red Viper, and Brienne of Tarth vs. The Hound. The direction of each episode is also great. Each director has a slightly different visual style, and all episodes are shot masterfully, with careful attention to detail. The directors as Alex Graves, David Benioff and Dan Weiss (creators and showrunners), Michelle MacLaren, Alik Sakharov, and The Descent's Neil Marshall (again directing an action-oriented ninth episode, much like season two's "Blackwater"), and they are all exceptional for television directors, a staple of HBO programming. The cinematography is beautiful, and the locations they shoot are equally magnificent. The Avengers-esque panning shot in episode nine was surprising and refreshing, as I don't recall seeing that done a lot in TV.
    The visual effects are incredible and the sets intricately designed. The dragon effects are, as always, astonishing and are seamlessly placed alongside the real actors. The giants and other forest creatures seen later in the season are also pretty cool. The new makeup effects crew also made the Hound's scarring look less inflamed and frightening (probably due to the character being less intimidating and cruel than in the first three seasons). The sets and new locations are really cool. The design of the Dreadfort, Moat Cailin, and Braavos are all unique and visually appealing, and their new places in the opening title sequence are cool. The White Walker makeup and effects are unsettling and creepy, but also very impressive.
    The music this season is very similar to previous seasons, except for one track. Sigur Rós, an Icelandic ambient/post-rock band (who make a cameo in episode two) recorded a version of "The Rains of Castamere" for the episode "The Lion and the Rose", just like The National did for "Blackwater" in season two and The Heavy did with "The Bear and the Maiden Fair" for "Walk of Punishment" in season three. Their version is extremely different than anything else we've heard on the show thus far: an ethereal, atmospheric, and gloomy song, it's got high-pitched, almost operatic vocals, and strange instruments. Whereas The National's version felt melancholy, Sigur Rós takes the sadness a step further and also adds an eeriness to the track that makes it beautiful yet haunting.
    The "motif" of this season could be the fact that bastards (and sons and daughters in general) play very important roles. King Joffrey has a very important part to play, as his marriage ceremony takes up a good chunk of an episode. Ramsay Snow may not appear as often as he did in season three, but his actions in this season hold more weight than the ones in the previous season did. Jon Snow takes on far more leadership in this season, especially during episode nine. The Lannister children (Tywin's two sons and daughter) play key roles this season, as they always do, and the entire finale focuses on the relationships and journeys of the Lannisters, as well as the Stark children.
    There's less screen time for a lot of characters this season, in particular: Lord Varys, the wildlings (as if to make up for the amount of screen time they got last season), Shae, King Joffrey, Ramsay Snow, Roose Bolton, Bran Stark, Jojen and Meera Reed, the White Walkers (as if they had much before), Salladhor Saan, Davos Seaworth, Stannis Baratheon, Melisandre, Locke, Theon Greyjoy, and the dragons. However, there's a lot more screen time for characters like Shireen, Tommen, Karl, Littlefinger (at least more than in season three), Myranda (at least a little bit), Janos Slynt, Ser Alliser Thorne, Maester Aemon, Pyp, Grenn, and Dontos.
   The writing by Benioff and Weiss, as well as George R.R. Martin and Bryan Cogman is astoundingly detailed and rich. The characters are so rich and complex, and the dialogue is so brilliant, I don't even know how they do it.
    Game of Thrones: Season Four is one of the strongest to date. My second favorite behind season one. It's just as unromantic and unapologetically violent and brutal as the other seasons, but not so much so that it becomes just bleak and terrible. There's some nice humor and heroic victories peppered around so that viewers don't get desensitized to their favorite characters getting butchered. This season is almost perfect. It encompasses what I (and many others) love about the show: scenes of rich and deeply emotional drama and character study fit for a Shakespeare play punctuated by scenes of gruesome violence or gratuitous sex. Oh, and dragons, magic, political intrigue, and ice zombies. 5/5 stars.

Episode List:
One- "Two Swords"
Two- "The Lion and the Rose"
Three- "Breaker of Chains"
Four- "Oathkeeper"
Five- "First of His Name"
Six- "The Laws of Gods and Men"
Seven- "Mockingbird"
Eight- "The Mountain and the Viper"
Nine- "The Watchers of the Wall"
Ten- "The Children"

My reviews of previous seasons:
Season One- http://mattcottermovies.blogspot.com/2014/02/game-of-thrones-season-1-tv-review.html
Season Two- http://mattcottermovies.blogspot.com/2014/02/game-of-thrones-season-2-tv-review.html
Season Three- http://mattcottermovies.blogspot.com/2014/03/game-of-thrones-season-3-tv-review.html

(SPOILERS BELOW POSTER)
 (Image: gameofthrones.wikia.com)

Links:
What the Flick? channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/whattheflickshow (SPOILERS)
Washington Post review of an episode: http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/act-four/wp/2014/04/13/game-of-thrones-review-the-lion-the-rose-and-the-cruelty-of-westeros/ (SPOILERS)





Spoiler Segment:
Please do not read ahead if you are not caught up, unless you just don't give a shit:
In the beginning of the first episode, we see Tywin symbolically nailing the coffin shut on House Stark by taking Ned Stark's greatsword Ice, which is a priceless Stark heirloom passed down from generation to generation, and having it melted down into two smaller swords, one for Joffrey, and one for Jaime. When Jaime asks where his father got his hands of Valyrian steel, Tywin smugly responds with something along the lines of "It came from an absurdly large sword whose owner no longer had use of it." What a fucked-up thing to do. And when Joffrey is gifted with this as his wedding present, he uses it to destroy Tyrion's gift and comments in front of Sansa, "Every time I use it, it'll be like cutting off Ned Stark's head all over again." (A subtle reference to the fact the sword is forged from Ice, which was also used to behead Ned.)  During this wedding ceremony, Joffrey continually torments Tyrion and Sansa, much to the dismay of all the guests, and when Joffrey is eating the wedding pie and drinking his wine, he forces Tyrion to be his cupbearer, which degrades his uncle even further. Joffrey tries to once again insult Tyrion when he tries to leave, but begins coughing. He then starts choking and struggles to get words out of his mouth, and Margaery screams for help, being genuinely horrified. Joffrey then collapses and begins having several violent, spastic convulsions on the ground. Jaime and Cersei rush in to help Joffrey, whom Cersei cradles in her arms. Joffrey begins vomiting and foaming at the mouth, before his skin darkens to a purple complexion, and his eyes turn bloody red, and he leaks blood and vomit profusely from his mouth and nose. Suffocating and choking on his own bodily fluids, Joffrey desperately reaches out and appears to be gesturing to Tyrion, who does look suspicious, as he's holding Joffrey's wine goblet. Joffrey finally succumbs to his sudden illness and dies, after a fairly prolonged death. Cersei, crying and in shock, angrily assumes Tyrion is the culprit and demands he be arrested, which he is immediately. Now, as much as I hate Joffrey, I couldn't really find enjoyment in his death. That might be because I like Jack Gleeson as an actor and I was said to hear he may quit acting after his role on GOT ended. But also because, as evil as Joffrey was, his death was still horrific: he sat there, helpless, dying in his sobbing mother's arms while all his subjects and family looked at him. As Alyssa Rosenberg of The Washington Post put it: "Joffrey is not just killed: He is made ridiculous in death." He's also an unloved child who was never properly raised: his mother spoiled him and fed him lies, his legal father Robert Baratheon never cared for him, and neither did his biological father/uncle Jaime Lannister. He was never loved by anyone except his crazy mother. And that incestuous parentage probably didn't help either. So because of this, Tyrion is put on trial for Joffrey's murder. (The real culprits of the poisoning are revealed to be Littlefinger, who spirits Sansa away on his boat, and Lady Olenna Tyrell, who didn't want Margaery married to "that beast" and preferred her marry his brother Tommen.) Of course the trial is stacked and Tyrion doesn't stand a chance. But worst of all: his lover Shae (whom he sent away because he feared Tywin would have her killed) comes forward and testifies against him, twisting all his words and humiliating him publicly. This enrages Tyrion beyond anything else: he finally snaps and lets out all his bottled-up rage, saying he wishes he had killed Joffrey and had let Stannis kill everyone during the Battle of Blackwater, which disgusts the entire crowd. Tyrion then demands a trial by combat, which enrages his father, who had brokered his dream deal with Jaime and Tyrion just minutes before (Tyrion exiled to the Wall, Jaime returns home to be Tywin's heir). This intrigues Prince Oberyn, who agrees to be Tyrion's champion in the trial because Ser Gregor Clegane will be Cersei's champion and he wants revenge for Gregor killing his sister. The day of the trial comes, and Tyrion and Jaime discuss their mentally challenged cousin Orsen Lannister, who used to smash beetles for no apparent reason, which could be a metaphor for the randomness of death in this world, but it also relates to the trial. Oberyn and Gregor duke it out, and Oberyn channels Inigo Montoya from The Princess Bride, continually chanting his sister's name and what Gregor did to her, trying to get Gregor to confess before he dies. Oberyn bests Gregor and takes him down. Gregor, badly wounded and pretty much unconscious, is on the ground, with a spear through the chest. Oberyn takes the spear and tries to get him to confess in front of the crowd, and accuse Tywin of giving the order. Gregor then abruptly awakes and trips the off-guard Oberyn. Gregor then picks Oberyn up with one hand and punches him in the face with the other, shattering his teeth to pieces. He then gets on top of Oberyn and presses his hand on Oberyn's head. In one of the most gruesome deaths to date, Gregor begins gauging Oberyn's eyes out with his thumbs, and while Oberyn screams in agony and struggles fruitlessly, Gregor taunts him and confesses to his crime, right before crushing Oberyn's head in with his bare hands, and collapsing beside him. The choice to go up-close for hate kill, and then do a wide-shot of the body was brilliant but also extremely gruesome and shocking. Oberyn's death is not only shocking because he is a new character, but because many expected that maybe once the writers would let the hero win in Westeros, and the fact that his death looks extremely painful and grotesque. But alas, there's nothing anyone can do now, what's done is done. Meanwhile, Sansa, having traveled to the Vale with Littlefinger, is almost killed by his jealous aunt Lysa when Lysa sees Littlefinger kiss Sansa. As Lysa is able to push Sansa out the Moon Door, Littlefinger is able to calm Lysa by leading her to believe he is in love with her. "I've only ever loved one woman..." he says to her approval. "...Your sister." Her look of disbelief lasts only a moment before Baelish pushes her through the Moon Door without batting an eye. Sansa finally plays the game of thrones by lying for Petyr and convincing a council of Vale lords and ladies of his innocence. She then is able to manipulate Baelish by giving him what he wants: she dyes her red hair black to disguise herself, and dresses in a slightly more sensual outfit, as it's implied heavily that Baelish views her as a Catelyn 2.0 (remember: Baelish was madly in love with Catelyn Stark, and Sansa looks just like a young Catelyn). Up in the North: After the Battle of Castle Black, Jon goes to confront Mance Rayder. The Night's Watch's numbers are dwindling, and Allister Thorne is badly wounded. They did hold off the wildlings, and catch Tormund, but Jon is hurt over the losses of Grenn, Pyp, and especially Ygritte, and there's no way the 50 men left can hold off Mance's army. Mance and Jon converse, but are interrupted when a surprise cavalry rushes in and raids the camp. The cavalry is led by Stannis and Davos, who have sailed North with their new funding from the Iron Bank. Stannis and Jon meet at last, and Stannis respects Jon's decision to treat Mance fairly and not to kill him, but take him prisoner and listen to what he has to say. Stannis does this out of respect for Jon's father, Ned. During the burning of the bodies of the Night's Watch brothers, Jon notices Melisandre gazing at him. She seems perplexed but intrigued, but Jon seems off-put and a bit frightened. At the Dreadfort, Ramsay is given a mission: take Moat Cailin for his father. He employs Theon/Reek to help him after Reek remains loyal and doesn't let Yara rescue him. Reek is sent in to the camp as an envoy and "pretends" to be Theon, convincing the Ironborn that if they surrender, Ramsay will be merciful. Not only does Ramsay kill them when they surrender, but horrifically has them skinned alive and placed up on spikes. Ramsay, for his deeds, is rewarded by Roose by being made his heir and being renamed "Ramsay Bolton", which is the one thing he's wanted all his life. Ramsay, happy as can be, rides off with Theon/Reek towards Winterfell, their "new home". In the Vale, Brienne of Tarth and Podrick (now assigned to Brienne) cross paths with Arya and The Hound. The Hound and Arya are skeptical of Brienne, and although Brienne is truthful in her claim that she swore an oath to her mother, The Hound claims she's just another Lannister soldier and that she is a "dumb bitch" because she hasn't thought through that there is nowhere "safe" to bring Arya. Brienne and The Hound have an extremely brutal and bloody duel, culminating in Brienne biting off The Hound's hear, spitting it at him, smashing a rock against his head, and knocking him off a cliff. Arya, hiding from Brienne, finds The Hound, bleeding out and badly wounded at the bottom of the cliff. The Hound basically begs her to finish him off, but Arya, coldly and silently, just steals his gold and leaves him for dead, despite all the good things he's done for her, as she sees this as punishment for his killing of her friend Mycah. Arya uses her "Valar Morghulis" coin to board a ship en route to Braavos. Daenerys conquers and rules over Mereen, and then discovers a hurtful secret: Jorah started out working as a spy for King Robert before converting to her side (a copy of a royal pardon from Robert is sent to Barristan by Tywin Lannister). She grows extremely sad and angry, and order Jorah to leave her city and never return (a dumb move from a strategic standpoint, as Jorah points out that this is what Tywin wants her to do). Jorah, heartbroken once again, glumly rides off to places unknown. This was a pretty gut-wrenching scene to watch, as was the scene in the finale where Dany decides to lock up two of her dragons (her third, Drogon, is still loose in the countryside) in a dark crypt because Drogon killed a child accidentally. Seeing a mother lock up her crying "children" in a dark crypt to die slowly is horrific, and knowing that Dany doesn't want to do this but feels she must is even more terrible; it feels like a punch to the stomach. We also learn this season that White Walkers have been kidnapping Craster's infant sons for one dark purpose: their leader uses some sort of weird magic to turn the babies into White Walkers. This revelation was interesting but also pretty creepy the more I think about it. Back in King's Landing: Tyrion is broken out of his cell by his brother Jaime, and they say their goodbyes, as Jaime informs him that Varys has secured him a ride to Essos via a ship. Tyrion is about to exit the Red Keep, but decides to pay his dad a visit in his chambers. Tyrion enters the Tower of the Hand and finds that Tywin is not there, but finds someone lying in his bed: Shae. She awakes and says "Tywin, my lion..." ("my lion" was her nickname for Tyrion), she sees Tyrion and tries to run, but Tyrion and her struggles and fight on the bed, before Tyrion overpowers her by grabbing a hold of the gold Lannister necklace he gave her and strangling her to death with it while quietly crying. Tyrion, now an empty shell of a man, calmly grabs a crossbow (Joffrey's crossbow, actually) off Tywin's mantlepiece and makes his way to the privy (a medieval bathroom), and finds Tywin sitting there. Tywin tries to reason with Tyrion, and asks him to please wait while Tywin finishes up and they can talk in Tywin's chambers. Tyrion confronts him about Shae, and Tywin calls her a "whore", and Tyrion warns him not to say the word again. Tywin scoffs at the notion that Tyrion would shoot his father, and Tywin continues talking, and says "whore" again without thinking, and is shot in the abdomen by Tyrion. Tyrion calmly and slowly reload the crossbow. Tywin, shocked and appalled that Tyrion would shoot at him, says that Tyrion is "no son of (his)". Tyrion responds, emotionless, "I am your son. I'll always be your son." He then promptly shoots Tywin in the heart, killing him in the most undignified way possible: shot by your own son while on the toilet (ironically, this episode aired on Father's Day). The scene wasn't as satisfying as I thought it would be, but as the reviewers of the YouTube channel "What the Flick?" pointed out: maybe that's the point. Revenge leaves people feeling kind of empty inside, just like the scene does. Realistically, Tyrion wouldn't feel anything after killing Tywin, just as the audience isn't really supposed to feel anything. Tyrion then makes his way to the ship with Varys, who asks "What have you done?' when he sees Tyrion's expressionless face. Tyrion is loaded into a shipping crate to hide himself, and it is unclear whether or not Varys gets on the ship with him. In the far North, Bran and company find the Three-eyed raven and the Children, after a small fight with some skeletal warriors who rose up out of the snow. Jojen is killed in the scuffle, but the Raven tries to comfort Bran and Meera by saying Jojen knew he was going to die from the moment he went on the journey, due to his greensight. The Raven also says that he won't teach Bran to walk again, but he'll teach him how to fly, whatever that means. (End of Spoilers)

The Amazing Spider-Man 2: Further proof of Marc Webb's sloppy directing

Today, I look at one of the most anticipated films of the year: Marc Webb's return to the Spider-Man franchise.

(SPOILERS FOR FIRST FILM AHEAD)

The Amazing Spider-Man 2:
Two years after the end of the last film, Spider-Man/Peter Parker is doing good for himself. He's graduating high school (even though Andrew Garfield is like 30), he's in a relationship with Gwen Stacy, he's fighting crime, and he's going to be in college. Unfortunately, he still feels the need to resolve the mystery of his parents' deaths, as well as reconnect with an old friend: Harry Osborn, the estranged son of sick and dying Oscorp founder Norman Osborn, who has just moved back to the Big Apple. He also feels the need to address his guilt for pretty much getting Gwen's father (the police captain) killed by the Lizard in the last film. While all this is going down, a new villain arises: Electro. Once a sad and incredibly lonely electrical engineer named Max Dillon (who was also obsessed with Spider-Man), Electro become a being of pure electrical energy after being involved in a horrific accident at Oscorp. Realizing he's been stepped on by everyone in his life and that no one's ever cared about him (including Spider-Man), Electro uses this new found ability to wreck havoc in New York. Spider-Man has to stop Electro from destroying the city, figure out what to do about his troubling relationship with Gwen, deal with the corrupt and manipulative Oscorp, and unravel the mystery surrounding his parents' demise. Now, I will say I enjoyed this film far more than the first film. However, and I know I'm going to get shit for this: I liked Spider-Man 3 more than this movie. I really did. This movie has some big issues. First, the acting: For the most part, I actually liked Andrew Garfield as Peter Parker. He's a bit hipster-ish for my tastes, but he actually did far better this time around than before. I still prefer Tobey Maguire, though. Jaime Foxx was actually really good as Elector. For a guy as suave and cool as Foxx is, he actually plays the pathetic, sad, lonely weirdo role really well. I was kind of creeped out by Max Dillon at some parts, but also felt a lot of pity for him, because he's such a sad and weak person, and you do feel bad seeing him get stepped on and/or ignored by everyone in his life. And as Electro, Foxx was actually pretty threatening and tragic. Electro's new, blue look also worked out way better than if they attempted the classic yellow-and-green suit from the comics. Emma Stone is an okay actress, but here, as Gwen Stacy, I just wasn't feeling it. It's not that she was bad, just very...generic. I feel like anyone could have played her. Sally Field is great as Aunt May. Just a very caring, concerned person. Again, not as good as Rosemary Harris in the Raimi films, but Field pulls the role off. Dane DeHaan (Chronicle, The Place Beyond the Pines) is sort of a mixed bag in this film, something I was surprised by, considering how good he's been in previous films. He's an okay Harry Osborn, and he comes off as more intimidating than James Franco did (although I still really like Franco's Harry). Also, Garfield and DeHaan's friendship didn't feel as genuine as Franco and Maguire's did. In the originals, you really felt like these guys had been buddies for quite some time, and they has their bad spots, but they remained friends for almost the whole trilogy. DeHaan and Garfield are just kind of awkward together. It felt very forced. Okay, this kind of counts as a Spoiler, so just letting you know (even though they show it in trailers and publicity photos): Harry becomes Green Goblin near the end (Goblin actually gets less screen time than Venom in Spider-Man 3), and although the look is cool, I thought he was hamming it up a little too much. Just a tad. I wasn't really pleased with how they fucked with the comic book mythos when it come to the Goblin, and Norman Osborn, and why Harry hates Spider-Man. Speaking of which, Chris Cooper is pretty good as Norman... for the two minutes of screen time he gets! Seriously, why underplay such a big fucking character?! I can say for sure I would take Willem Dafoe's performance over this one any day. Paul Giamatti has a very small role as the Rhino in the movie (seriously, why is he even on the poster?). He basically plays a laughable cartoon character. You can't take anything he does seriously as a threat because he's so over-the-top and cheesy. Giamatti openly acknowledged he purposely over-did his Russian accent and was just having fun being so bombastic. Felicity Jones has a small role as Felicia, Harry's secretary and personal assistant (Felicia is the Black Cat of the comics). Colm Feore appears as Donald Menken, a douchey and corrupt member of Oscorp's board. Marton Csokas plays Dr. Kafka, a psychiatrist as Ravencroft Institute for the Criminally Insane. A female ally of Spider-Man in the comics, here the character is male and is portrayed as this weird, over-the-top, effeminate, mad scientist who experiments on Electro. Campbell Scott and Embeth Davidtz appear as Peter's parents Richard and Mary. B.J. Novak (The Office, Inglorious Basterds, Saving Mr. Banks) has a borderline cameo role as Alistair Smythe. Denis Leary cameos as George Stacy in a few hallucination sequences. Stan Lee makes a cameo as an astonished attendee of Peter's graduation. Michael Massee cameos as the mysterious "Man in the Shadows" from the last film. The supporting cast, such as Feore, Scott, and Novak do fairly well jobs for their small roles. Now, one of the main problems I had with this casting is that, like I said, a lot the actors either did bad or just okay. That's pretty fucking awful compared to your competition: perfectly cast Avengers, amazing Christopher Nolan Batman performances, and impressive Man of Steel acting. On another note: Initially, I thought the CG was gonna be a problem for me. From the looks of the trailer, it looked like something out of a PS4 game, not a live-action movie. But on the big screen, it actually looked really cool. The visuals were vibrant and colorful, and the action sequences were fast-paced and never felt cluttered or confusing like in Michael Bay movies. Many of my favorite scenes were in this category: the first encounter with Electro in Times Square, the chase between Spider-Man and the Rhino, the intense opening on a plane, and the final fight between Spider-Man and Electro and Green Goblin. However, there were also many scenes which just pissed me off a lot, like the montage of Peter searching for clues about his parents set to the song "Gone, Gone, Gone" by Phillip Phillips, which is one of the strangest uses of a pop song in a movie in recent memory. The song is so upbeat and catchy, and the scene should be more emotional. It's just kind of...off. I feel like in a decade or so, people are gonna look at that scene as the thing that dates the movie. It feels like a scene more fit for (500) Days of Summer (which Webb also directed) rather than this film. Speaking of music, the score by Hans Zimmer, The Maginficent Six, and Pharrell Williams is very bland and forgettable, save for the cool techno/dub-step Electro theme ("Paranoia"/"My Enemy"). That scene where they first play that song and you can hear Electro's inner thoughts, which are presented as increasingly intense and ghostly whispers echoing in his head ("They lied to me. They're using me. They're dead to me." etc.) was kick-ass (even though this might date the film, too). But the ending credits sucked, especially when they started playing Kendrick Lamar (which will also definitely date the movie), those pissed me off. Especially when compared to the endings of the Sam Raimi films, which always ended with Danny Elfman's iconic, rousing, and epic musical score. Besides those things, there's some other stuff I didn't like: the Uncle Ben's killer on the run plot is still left unresolved (it seems to have been forgetting among the fray of other plotlines), some character development was rushed (Harry, Max's origin, Norman, etc.), Denis Leary appearing in Peter's head isn't necessary or important to the central plot, the parents' death plot is resolved in a cool albeit rushed way, and the focus on Peter's love life was a little distracting. It's kind of frustrating how much they break up and get back together, it's just sort of annoying. Ultimately, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is a fun movie, despite it's many, many flaws. The main hero and villain are cool, the visuals and costumes and effects (including Spidey's new and improved outfit) are spectacular, the darker ending is faithful to the comics, the action sequences are astonishing, the supporting cast is okay for the most part, and the redesigns of characters are kind of inventive. However, it's still a mixed bag: some of the actors ham it up way too much, some plotlines and character introductions are rushed, the music is very bland and forgettable (with the exception of the Electro theme), the relationships between characters felt forced at times, some scenes are just agonizingly awful (like the pop song montage), J. Jonah Jameson doesn't even make an on-screen appearance (which I hated a lot), and the end credits "scene" was bullshit. Is it truly amazing? Hell no. Is it entertaining (in an Iron Man 3 sort of way, which means it was cool but also kind of a let-down)? Yeah. I'd buy it on Blu-ray... maybe. 3/5 stars.
Note: Upon further thought and analysis, I change my original rating. I now feel this is more of a 2/5, at best.

My reviews of the other films:
http://mattcottermovies.blogspot.com/2012/06/spiderman-movies-part-i.html
http://mattcottermovies.blogspot.com/2012/07/spiderman-movies-part-ii.html
A review I enjoyed quite a bit (SPOILERS): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJUk8ZHckxo
Another hilarious review (SPOILERS): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfXWZmtJzXA
Funny review of original movie (SPOILERS): http://blip.tv/redlettermedia/half-in-the-bag-the-amazing-spider-man-6243706

(SPOILERS BELOW POSTER)
(Image: Wikipedia)



SPOILER SEGMENT: Okay, so at the end of the film, Gwen Stacy is taken by the Green Goblin and dropped down a clock tower and Spider-Man has like a 5-second time-frame to save her. He's too far away, so he shoots a very well-placed web, and catches her by the abdomen just before she hits the ground. However, much to his dismay, the force of the fall plus the web catching her snapped her neck, killing her instantly. I was very pleased with how they handled the scene: it was true to the comics, and emotionally troubling, much better than the laughably over-the-top Uncle Ben scene from the first film. It was slightly different than in the comics, but in a good way: they changed the location from a bridge to a clock tower. Early on in the film, Gwen says "time is precious" in a speech during graduation. And where is she killed?: a building dedicated to telling time, so it was kind of symbolic. The one thing that disappointed me was that at the end (just a heads-up: if you are one of those people who are prudes when it comes to swearing, just go away because I'm about the lose my shit in a second), Spider-Man is about to fight the Rhino after five months of not being in the suit. And just as the battle begins: credits. Fuck that. Another two years to see how that battle ended... and that shit was in all the trailers and on posters and everything! Seriously, fuck that shit! Another thing: Harry is now in Ravencroft, and is communicating with the Man in the Shadows about starting the Sinister Six. That could be cool, but I hope they don't rush the shit out of Doc Ock and the Vulture, who are teased at near the end of the movie. Now for the mid-credits scene: the end credits scene is so bullshit, because actually it's just an ad for X-Men: Days of Future Past. They make you think for a second it's going to be connected and maybe Spider-Man and X-Men will team up, but nope, it was a fake-out. Almost as bad as when Captain America: The First Avenger just showed a trailer for The Avengers at the end. I think it would be better to just not have one as opposed to tricking people into thinking they're seeing when and crushing their hopes by revealing it's just an ad. Fuck that shit, too. END OF SPOILERS