Reliving The Magic: The Prisoner of Azkaban

"'We'll see each other again,' he said. 'You are - truly your father's son, Harry...'"

Sirius Black, Chapter 21, Hermione's Secret.

Hello again, dear readers.

I've literally just closed my copy of 'Harry Potter & The Prisoner of Azkaban' and by golly I was thrilled with it. This is the only Potter book I can vividly remember reading as a child and, thus, has always held a special place in my heart.

Remus Lupin as portrayed by
David Thewlis.

Upon rereading I realised that another reason I adore this particular instalment above all others is because it introduces two of my all time favourite characters within the wizarding world. Now, those that have been following my twitter feed during the reading of this book will probably have guessed that, certainly, one of those is Professor Remus Lupin. Never before in the Potter series have we seen a teacher so quintessentially Professorial and I absolutely worship Lupin for that. His robes are tatty and threadbare, he is dishevelled and unkempt but, amazingly enough, he knows his subject which, at Hogwarts, seems to be a slight rarity... *cough* looking at you Trelawney *cough*

Aside from being an absolute boss of an educator, Lupin is also hardcore enough to be a mother-flipping werewolf! Now, this is a detail I love and think expands the Potter-Verse while simultaneously adding depth to the character. Good job JK. As well as all this, we have the further historical detail involved; most noticeably, the inclusion of the Marauder's Map and those behind the writing of it. Wonderful stuff!

Sirius Black as portrayed by
Gary Oldman.

Another wonderful inclusion, of course, is the prisoner of Azkaban himself, the (supposedly) dastardly Sirius Black! Of course, as one nears the end of the book it becomes clear that not all is as it seems and that Black has, unfortunately, taken the fall for a crime he didn't commit. The character is oozing in style and literary wit and feels fully fleshed out (for lack of a better phrase) even though we only really get to know him the last two chapters of the text. We go from being scared of him, to being uncertain of his motive, to adoring him unreservedly... Not many writers can do that!

The Time Turner.

On top of all of this wondrousness, we also get the inclusion of the o-so-important Time Turner... While I love it as a piece of wizarding tech, I'm slightly taken aback that Professor McGonagall allowed Hermione to have one for the sole-purpose of attending more classes than otherwise physically possible. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate that Hermione wants to be the best witch she can possible be, but the fact that she's been allowed to play around with time in order to achieve that smacks of the deepest levels of irresponsibility... even if it was okayed by the Ministry of Magic!

All in all, I adore this story and will, undoubtedly, hold it in my heart for as long as I live. I know for a fact my future children will be read the Potter series at bedtime and I will, certainly, do a little fanboy squeal when we can move onto 'The Prisoner of Azkaban.'

Until next time.

Reliving The Magic: The Chamber of Secrets

"Harry Potter is greater by far than Dobby knew!" he sobbed. "Farewell, Harry Potter!" 

And with a final crack, Dobby disappeared.

Chapter 18 - Dobby's Reward

Well then, it hardly seems it but year two of Hogwarts is over. Less than a month ago I picked up 'The Chamber of Secrets' for the fair old price of 50p from a charity shop and got stuck in. What followed was an entirely entertaining, heartfelt and wondrous journey.

Naturally, year two for our favourite bespectacled wizard is harder, both in the way of school work and the emotional unrest he faces, especially when he is suspected of being the heir to Salazar Slytherin. The tone for the book, overall, is darker, grittier and more focussed on the truly dangerous nature of Hogwarts.

Gilderoy Lockhart, as portrayed
by Kenneth Branagh.

As well as this deliciously morbid twist, we also find a dizzyingly wonderful widening of the wizarding world; with the first proper meeting of the entire Weasley family, (not to mention their charmingly ramshackle house, The Burrow), to the fantastically pompous Gilderoy Lockhart, who doesn't enjoy his self-obsessed and bragging nature? When you find his students laughing behind his back, so do we, the readers. 

Not to mention, of course, we meet the deliriously Machiavellian Tom Riddle which gives a clever twist on the all-to-easy "Voldemort is back" story line, saving us the boredom of simply rehashing 'The Philosopher's Stone. The fact that we're dealing with a big-bad not far from Harry's own age makes for even more scintillating reading and the final confrontation in the chamber had me on the edge of my seat!

With all of this in mind, it's incredible to note that, even after all these years, for me, the most impressive thing about these books is how utterly enthralling, engrossing and entertaining they are. They truly give an immersive experience, Rowling not only writes the world within her books, she brings it life. Many lesser author's would've been content to write a "children's" book and be done with, however, what Rowling achieved with the Potter books is a cross-generational experience. 

The wonderful JK Rowling.

Having read them from the age of 11, and rereading them now, nothing has changed for me. We often find, when revisiting childhood loves, that some of the shine has gone, we can see them for what they truly are. Not Harry Potter though, they still glint and gleam and catch the light of imagination, just like the Golden Snitch.

On top of all this Potter related fun, my fiancé (did I mention I got engaged the other week?) introduced me to Pottermore. By golly what a game! Sad though it is, I've found myself utterly obsessed with it since I set up my profile just the other day. I've played right the way through book one and am a couple of chapters away from book three. If you're a Potter fan and fancy more magical fun, do give it a try. Be warned, however, it's incredibly addictive!

Oop, it looks like my Polyjuice Potion is ready! Until next time, chums.

Doctor Who: The Best of Ten

Ahoy!

Today I'm going to writing about a few of my favourite episodes from David Tennant's time as The Doctor.

Now, when I started this blog I said that I wasn't going to write about Doctor Who because if I did I'd end up doing it a lot and the last thing the internet needs is yet another blog full of fans ranting and raving about Doctor Who.

However, seeing as this is a quiet day for me, and I woke up with a craving for some classic Davey T Doctor Who, I figured I'd give you a quick run down of my all time favourite Tenth Doctor stories.

Now, I feel quite bad for David Tennant when it came to Doctor Who because he was, at heart, a fanboy and thus, must've understood that some of his episodes were weak at best. Unfortunately, that's nothing to do with his performance, more to do with some of the shoddy writing he was given to work with, or with the fact that RTD had a tendency to blow the entire budget on one or two big set pieces that were wasted on bad ideas.

When I first got into Doctor Who I was 14 years old and David Tennant had just taken over from Christopher Eccleston and, aside from the odd 'vintage' WHO episode I happened to catch on UKTV Gold or whatever it was, back in the late 90s/early noughties, I hadn't seen any Doctor Who but, with thanks to David, I became a full on card-carrying Whovian, and Tennant has, and always will be my Doctor.

The first episode I saw was Tennant's first full series outing, Doctor Who, Series 2, Episode 1: New Earth... And I was hooked. So without further delay, here is my list of David Tennant's top Doctor Who stories.

The Girl in the Fireplace.

1. The Girl in the Fireplace.
          For me, this Moffat penned historical romance/creepy clockwork horror was an absolute must-see and quickly became my favourite as a young fan. From the time jumping gateway's from the ship to the palace, to Archie the horse, there was nothing to not love. Of course, the absolute stand-out moment for me, is when the Doctor pretends to be utterly crunk out of his face in order to trick the (frankly terrifying) clockwork droids! Scary stuff.
   
2. The Idiot's Lantern.
    

   

   The Idiot's Lantern.

        By golly I love Mark Gatiss. I always have, always will. Now, before I got into Doctor Who I'd been reading a little known book by the Gat-Man called 'The Vesuvius Club' which features a bisexual Edwardian spy and lots of puns so, thanks to that, I was already a big fan of his work before I came to Doctor Who and saw this 50s set mastery of the macabre. This episode, however, further cemented my love of his writing. The Wire is a truly creepy villain and the fact that she has no physical embodiment makes for even more chilling viewing. And, of course, who can't love David Tennant with a great big greasy pompadour?!
   
3. Human Nature/The Family of Blood.
          Adapted from Paul Cornell's excellent 7th Doctor novel of the same name, this two-parter is sure

   

   Human Nature/The Family of Blood.

   to tug on the heartstrings. It also features some of Tennant's finest acting within the role given that the parts of The Doctor and his human counterpart John Smith feature entirely different personalities, accents and physical mannerisms. This, for me, is truly his finest work. It also features some stellar writing, wonderful acting from the supporting cast and sets up the series' biggest reveal!
   
4. Blink.
    

   

   Blink.

        Now, this opinion is a bit of a cliché, but Blink has got to be my all time favourite Doctor Who story. Ever. Moffat seemed to set out to reinvent the NuWho wheel with this episode and by jove did he succeed! Our first real taste of Doctor Who with little to no Doctor is deliriously satisfying; we have a strong lead in Carey 'Great Gatsby' Mulligan, the introduction of the most arse-tighteningly terrifying monster in the entire WHO canon and on top of that, the wonderful use of the easter-egg DVDs to introduce the Doctor into the mix when and where he was needed. If you only see one episode of Doctor Who, make it this one.
   
5. Midnight.
          Having only recently rewatched this, I must say, it's pretty darn memorable. Now, series 4 was

   

   Midnight.

   fairly weak, in my opinion (nowhere near as weak as series 3, mind) but this episode is well worth a watch. The 'monster' is a disembodied entity of some description which takes over a host body and begins stealing people's voices. It's truly harrowing to watch as the now, messianic figure of the Doctor (thanks, RTD! *rolls eyes*) is pulled down a couple of pegs as the fellow passengers on-board the shuttle-bus they're all trapped on begin to turn on him, and we see just how grating the Doctor's ego can be...
   
6. The End of Time (Parts I & II)
    

   

   The End of Time.

        Tennant's swansong is a favourite of mine, if only for the utterly bonkers antics of John Simm as The Master. If not for him, this entire fanwank of a story would've been too much to handle and would've been yet another Doctor-glorifying orgy of melodrama and cringe-worthy 'threats'. It is, however, thanks to Simm that he have a truly fearsome baddie and are allowed to enjoy these final moments with Tennant. By the time this episode aired we'd already been told Matt Smith would be replacing Tennant and I was very excited to see somebody new take over, not because I was aware of who Matt Smith was, but, thanks to the poor writing, I was bored of poor old David Tennant. And that's jut not fair. However, thanks to the Master, (and not to mention darling Wilf!) we have a fairly enjoyable end to Tennant's tenure as our favourite Time Lord.

So there you have it, dear reader, just a quick run down of but a few of my favourite David Tennant episodes of Doctor Who. I'm sure when Matt Smith leaves us at Christmas I'll do a list featuring the marvellous Doctor number 11! Until then, I look forward to the 50th anniversary with baited breath! I'll see you next time, chums!

Django Unchained

I honestly don't know where to start with this review.

Having sat down to watch 'Django Unchained' last night I was excited to finally see the film I'd heard so much about. Such was my excitement for this project that I even read the script when it was leaked long before production began and thought it was a stellar story and, back then, Will Smith was rumoured to be taking the title role, so what's not to love!

Unfortunately, my excitement was undeserved and Tarantino seems to have made a bit of a mistake out of the entire film, I feel, and didn't treat it with any of the usual style or panache he usually puts into his projects. There's very little in the way of heart, virtually nothing in its use of cinematic style and, in place of a sense of humour, there seems to be a cynical bitterness we're supposed to laugh along with.

The Basterds with Tarantino.

My ex-girlfriend got me into the works of Tarantino, and I'm honestly glad she did. My initial forays into his filmography featured 'Inglorious Basterds' (which I adored at the time, and still do), 'Kill Bill Vol 1' and its' sister film, 'Kill Bill Vol 2', (which I moderately enjoyed) and, of course, 'Pulp Fiction' which I think is a modern classic to say the least.

Now, the one thing these films all have in common, to my mind, is the style and the unashamed "fuck you"
nature that they all possess. They're ballsy and in your face and I loved that about them, because, while they flipped you the Vs, they maintained a certain sense of complicité with the audience; you felt like you were going along for the ride. While Tarantino's previous films (the ones I've seen, anyway) had a sense of humour to go along with the gruesome elements, 'Django' lacks everything from honesty to hilarity.

Imagine the dry-cleaning...

Aside from the lack of soul, the film also deals with dicey issues for any film-maker, let alone when handled by the ever emotionally ham-fisted Quentin Tarantino. If we're going to sit back and wave the, frankly, gratuitous use of the infamous 'N' word as historically accurate, fair enough, I'll leave that be, but the fact of the matter is even his trademark violence is either underplayed or laughably absurd... and not in a good way.

While, usually, his violence is grotesque turned up to 11, it is at least stylish and truthful to the characters inflicting said violence. However, in 'Django' Tarantino seems to have thrown away all understanding of basic biology and taken human beings to be pressurised sacks full of blood which explode in a crimson shower of goo whenever a bullet gets anywhere close to them. This, at first, is entertaining but quickly loses its' charm and becomes awkwardly stagnant. If left as one or two examples of 'spray' this would've been effective, however, its' overuse allows us to see how truly ridiculous it looks in, what Tarantino seems to have intended to be, his masterpiece.

Lack of Chemistry: Waltz & Foxx.

Even if we ignore these problems the cast works on only the most basic level in that they all turned up on the
day. It's very difficult to see any semblance of chemistry between the usually magnetic Waltz (I particularly enjoyed him in the Polanski adaptation of the Yasmina Reza play 'Carnage') and the oft-entertaining Foxx. Now, I feel that Foxx is, at best, believable as Django, but at worst he is just a talking head whose pitiful task it is to deliver some real clunkers which only seem to be in the script to satisfy Tarantino's own desire to produce a nostalgia filled homage to the spaghetti western.

DiCaprio.

Most disappointingly of all was the under-used and under-written character of resident big-bad 'Calvin Candie'. DiCaprio is usually luminous in his roles, (excluding 'Titanic') and I often watch his
performances with glee and utter abandonment of time or place. Unfortunately, the victim of a two-dimensional character, DiCaprio gurns and flails his way through the film and leaves one feeling a little bit cheated.

Tarantino.

While the title song and other new compositions for the film make a nice pairing with the on-screen visuals, I feel that some of the other choices of music were a little bit clumsy and jarring. The use of rap and hip-hop throughout is distracting and left this particular viewer annoyed. When Tarantino used modern music in 'Inglorious' it worked for its absolute brazen stylishness, in 'Django' it just happens to fall short of the mark.

As if all of this weren't bad enough, Tarantino's own quote/unquote 'cameo' was
arse-tighteningly cringe-worthy to say the least, not to mention self-indulgent, unbelievable and overly long.

Now that I mention it, that seems to sum up the entire film.

Until next time.