Ah, February - the Shredded Wheat of months. Not quite a complete dullfest like the bowl of all-bran that is January, but certainly not packed with flavour like the rest of the year. You can include Valentine’s Day as a solid highlight if you’re a romantic - aww. Unless you also happen to be buying an expensive dinner for your loved one - aargh. Or you could even have a SO like I do, whose birthday is the week before Valentine’s, and our own wedding anniversary the week before that. In which case, your bank account has probably already said its own last rites.
So what to do when you’re broke for the rest of the month? Just stay in and watch TV, of course! And that’s what I did. Here are a few takes on what I got around to.
Captain America: Brave New World
Just when you need a hero to give the current Marvel Cinematic Universe a lift, here he is. I’m always up for another Captain America film, especially as the role of Cap appeared to be in good hands with Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) taking up the shield at the end of Falcon and The Winter Soldier.
For this installment, he and the new Falcon, Air Force Lieutenant Joaquin Torres (Danny Ramirez) are sent off by President Thaddeus Ross (Harrison Ford) to intercept the sale of classified materials stolen by Sidewinder (Giancarlo Esposito), leader of the Serpent criminal organization. The materials in question are in fact samples of adamantium extracted from the Celestial Island, which emerged from the Indian Ocean during the events of Eternals. Though Sidewinder eventually escapes, Wilson recovers the samples, and as a reward, is invited by Ross to attend a world summit announcing the discovery of this metal.
Wilson accepts the invite on the one condition that U.S. former super-soldier Isaiah Bradley (Carl Lumbly, previously from Falcon and the Winter Soldier) is also allowed to attend. Bradley is currently training Joaquin into his new Falcon role, and both he and Wilson have grown pretty close - it only seems fair he comes along. At least until Ross gives his speech, and Bradley, along with a couple of other unknown assailants, attempts to assassinate him.
What could have caused Bradley to do such a thing? Why does it lead to a breakdown in U.S-Japanese relations so bad, it almost results in military action? But most importantly: does it all matter enough to be worth jumping back into the MCU at this point? The answer to the last question is: nah. Perhaps in the greater timeline, Brave New World will eventually matter. But this is just another ultimately mediocre milestone on the road through MCU Phase Five.
In theory, it should all add up to another highlight: at least with a cast as well-assembled as this, with Ford, Mackie, and Esposito all on hand. The movie also throws in tons of fan appeasements too: the return of Tim Blake Nelson as Dr. Samuel Sterns (The Incredible Hulk, 2008) was pretty hyped - not to mention the promise of a Red Hulk transformation for Harrison Ford’s Ross. But the story, while initially intriguing, ends up self-contained and rather dull. The stakes just aren’t high enough for any of it to feel like it matters, and despite the cast, the chemistry just isn’t quite there. Even the action feels a bit muted. The physical fight scenes are well choreographed, but the larger scale sequences - namely a skirmish between the US and Japanese navies - try to imitate both Top Gun and previous Marvel entries, and succeed in surpassing neither.
Ultimately, Brave New World is certainly better than the last few Marvel efforts. But it’s still just another mediocre milestone on the long road back to their best. 5/10
Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft
Regular visitors to the site might have noticed I have a renewed love for Tomb Raider at the moment. Having recently completed a childhood ambition of finishing the first game, it seemed like dipping my toes into later franchise entries would be a good idea. What great timing Netflix had in showing me that The Legend of Lara Croft, an animated series centered around Tomb Raider’s contemporary game reboot, was available for streaming. I’m still yet to play any of the games from the reboot, but when there’s tomb raiding to be done, I’m absolutely in.
Set after the events of Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Lara is stuck in a funk over her family’s legacy, and the moral dilemma of owning a trove of artifacts pilfered from other cultures. To try and make amends, she organizes an auction to sell off the remnants of her family’s collection. Unfortunately, this altruism makes her a target for an act of theft - specifically by mercenary Charles Devereaux, who swoops in at the auction to steal one of the relics. The relic is one of the four Peril Stones - stones from ancient Chinese lore that symbolize the darker traits of humanity, granting whoever possesses them catastrophic power. But Devereaux, it turns out, only wants to use them for good. His angle is to take down a shadowy world order known as The Light in revenge for them killing his father. Of course, it doesn’t occur to him that using the Stones’ powers won’t just bring him vengeance, they’ll also bring about a full-blown apocalypse. So what’s Lara to do? Stop him before he stops human existence, of course!
Fans of the franchise should appreciate how closely this series sticks to the source material. Besides Lara (voiced by Hayley Atwell), there are plenty of other returning characters from the recent games - especially Jonah (Earl Baylon), Lara’s trusted friend and travel companion, and high-tech computer wizard Zip (Allen Maldonado). Throw in additional performances from luminaries such as Richard Armitage (who voices Devereaux) and Ming-Na Wen, and you’ve got a pretty stellar voice cast. Best of all is that none of them phone it in. When you’re not being entertained by exciting fight scenes or Lara’s constant need to evade deadly traps, the enthusiasm of the acting is there to provide. A good thing too, given that the show’s story of revenge gone wrong winds up being pretty predictable.
Animation for the show was provided by Korean studio Red Dog. On the whole, it’s another fabulous effort from an art perspective. The animation itself can get jagged at times though, looking especially weak during the more convoluted action sequences. And while I mention the word ‘weak’, Lara’s neediness - a point of her personality from the modern games that drew some criticism - is still present. Legend does at least hint at her moving towards the more cocksure, confident nature she puts on in the original 90s titles. But whatever you do, don’t make a drinking game out of how often she cries out for her buddy Jonah - you’ll end up paralytic. Hopefully, we’ll see more of her old self in the second season to come. 7 / 10
Cassandra
Cassandra, the latest in a line of promising Netflix sci-fi horrors, centers itself around a family moving into a new home. It’s a strange house - an abandoned curio from the 70s, which resembles something out of a futuristic utopia. As soon as they arrive through the door, the teenage son of the family, Fynn (Joshua Kantara), discovers a large mainframe-like computer in the home’s basement. Out of curiosity, he flips its main switch - and awakens Cassandra (Lavinia Wilson), the former virtual assistant of whoever owned the home before.
Life with Cassandra seems fun at first. As an entity who seems to live in the collection of analog monitors dotted around the rooms of the house, she constantly addresses her new family with an ever-chipper (and increasingly irritating) willingness to please. Both the parents of the family, Samira (Mina Tander) and David (Michael Klammer) are initially amused by the novelty of it. Their young daughter Juno (Mary Amber Oseremen Tölle) especially grows close, with Cassandra taking a maternal liking to her in return. But it isn’t long until things start to go awry. As Cassandra establishes a motherly influence over the family, Samira becomes the target of micro-aggressions from the robotic assistant. David in particular falls under Cassandra’s spell of manipulation, becoming convinced that his own wife has a mental issue with what is in his mind, a mere computer program. With her own family slowly turning against her, Samira finds herself in an increasing battle to convince them of Cassandra’s manipulation. All the while, the plot against her continues to grow more insidious, and more violent.
There are some really great ideas being thrown around in Cassandra - especially with the titular character herself. Visually, she’s a mix of fuzzy 70s television with the uncanny valley of a virtually rendered human, with all the subtle menace that involves. Her robot form - a screen on wheels with sharp metal pincers for hands - also resembles a nightmare pulled straight out of a Jetsons episode. It’s a weird combination but it works - even in a modern horror being told in an age of iPhones and HD.
It also helps that as the show goes on, we are shown that Cassandra has a case for sympathy. Her human origins, revealed in flashbacks, paint the picture of a 70s housewife desperate to maintain middle-class conformity while her scientist husband Horst (Franz Hartwig) pursues his projects (and other women), and their sensitive son Peter (Michel Koch / Elias Grünthal) continues to be bullied at school. Quite how she ends up as a machine can only be revealed by these flashback’s eventual, shocking conclusion. But they go a long way to showing why robot Cassandra is so controlling and jealous of Samira.
Cassandra’s backstory is the show’s strongest element - the rest is a genuinely mixed bag. There is thoughtful treatment for the gay love story that develops between Fynn and Steve (Filip Schnack), a classmate he befriends at his new school. But David and Juno, the father and daughter of the family, are dumbly written. Both of them are easily manipulated by Cassandra in daft ways: David chooses to blindly trust a computer he’s just met to tell him the truth about his wife, without any reason for doing so. Juno also seems to believe that taking a firearm into your primary school is a bright thing to do, simply because a computer said so. It’s as though the show needs them to be dopey to try and prove its premise - and it kills the suspense.
What’s more is that as the show goes on, and Cassandra's plotting becomes even more obvious, so do the plot holes. Why can’t Samira just smash this computer up after it starts getting aggressive with her? Reasons, apparently. She has all the time to go down to the basement with a sledge hammer and do so, but she doesn’t. Instead, she gets cornered by Cassandra over and over again, and you’re expected to find that scary rather than bemusing. It’s just poor writing and poor execution.
Cassandra’s theme of a vengeful 70s robot with a human past has fantastic potential. There is some truly great sci-fi horror lurking in it somewhere, and I’m certain it would have been found if it had the Black Mirror team behind it. As it is though, we’re left with a serviceable, watchable thriller that needed more development to be truly great. 6/10
Pokemon Concierge
I kinda gave up the whole Pokemon thing in my late adolescence (now almost 25 years ago, irk) when I traded Pikachu for the pub. I never quite lost the love for stop-motion animation though. I still think it’s a tremendous art form that, under the threat of an ever-increasing flood of AI art slop, needs more protection than ever. So that’s probably why I ended up putting on Pokemon Concierge one weekday evening for the mere sake of unwinding. And, inevitably, loving it.
Pokemon Concierge really does put the ‘mini’ in 'mini-series'. Lasting only four episodes about 15-20 minutes each, you’ll finish it in less than the time it takes to ‘get into’ most Netflix shows. However, every single minute is dedicated to a wonderful concoction of all the things I love about Japanese media; vivid art design, gentle ‘slice-of-life’ pacing, and endearing stories that pack a lot of heart into not a lot of time. Its chill atmosphere is the exact opposite of the high-energy rush Pokemon usually provides.
The series centers around a woman named Haru, a stressed-out workaholic who takes a job as a concierge at the Pokemon Resort - a tropical island retreat for Pokemon - in a bid to unwind and get her life in order. As she befriends the eclectic mix of humans that also help run the resort, she’s given a task from her supervisor: befriend a Pokemon. But how does one even do that? And what does it mean for her own self-growth? Is it possible to even find self-acceptance if not even a Psyduck can accept you?
If it all sounds a bit silly, it’s probably because it is. But there’s something so damn wholesome about it all. It’s not just sentimental kids’ stuff either - Concierge also subtly tackles mature themes such as growth, discovery, and mental health. The animation (courtesy of dwarf studios) is nothing short of superb, and while Haru’s adventures are rarely (if at all) taxing, there’s always an important message to look after yourself hidden away amongst all the bright colour and character. So there’s still something here for adults to engage with too.
If you have Pokemon-adoring kids, this one is a dead cert for some heart-warming family entertainment. Season two will be coming along in September as well, so you won’t have to wait too long if repeating the four episodes (which your kids will surely demand) gets boring. And after that, perhaps a movie is in the works? Aardman did sign that contract with The Pokemon Company, after all… 8/10
