Even before it saw the light of day, The Matrix Revolutions was let down by being positioned atop the most diminutive of pedestals. It is a film that was destined to be an overwhelmingly epic endgame but failed to fulfill itself, badly in need of ironing out.
There was a withering backlash against The Matrix Sequels that still exists to this day. Watching them will reveal that criticisms made in retrospect are symptoms of a bigger problem: Reloaded and Revolutions are damned by avoidable narrative problems
Another episode of The Blacklist come and gone and it’s certainly improving in some ways, but the show still doesn’t feel like substantial or noteworthy television that anyone should be devoting time to.
The Blacklist’s first episode, Pilot, begins with former government agent Raymond Reddington (James Spader) walking into FBI headquarters and promptly gives himself up to the powers that be. Promising information on famed terrorist Ranko Zamani, the only catch being that he’ll only speak to one person: Elizabeth Keen(Megan Boone). Clearly that’s a high-ranking federal officer, right? Wrong. Elizabeth Keen is a green agent who has yet to work a single day at the FBI.
One of the better elements of Zack Snyder’s adaptation of Watchmen, and widely considered its best sequence, was that film’s opening credits montage, which forcefully played with pop culture iconography to impressive degrees. In a way, that sequence was an effective hint of what was to come with Snyder’s reboot of the Superman property; a cultural icon lavishly portrayed in a titanic fashion.
Gary Oldman as Jackie Flannery in State Of Grace (Phil Joanou, 1990, USA): Long considered one of the most talented actors in cinema, it’s very strange that his outstanding acting as the younger brother of Ed Harris’ local crime boss in this underrated film doesn’t get talked about nearly enough when discussing Oldman’s body of …