Falling Skies Final Season premiere - Summer is truly here

Sci-fi and fantasy are my favorite genres so I have always had a soft spot for Falling Skies. It is a little bit on the low budget side, the effects are kept to a minimum but the story is compelling and the characters are as relatable as they are extraordinary. For the past 4 years I have been looking forward to the summer TV because of Falling Skies, and in another style, So You Think You Can Dance. So far, the latter has done nothing but disappoint me so the summer TV rests on Falling Skies' shoulders (and Extant).


We kick off the final season with another one of those dream sequences tailored for Tom Mason. I feel like we have been starting the past 3 seasons that way, or at least we have had so many dream/mind game sequences that it's not surprising anymore, or even intriguing. And again, the main character finds himself stranded and separated from his family and allies, trying to find his way back to them. I feel like I have seen this many times before too and I was a little bit disappointed with the first few minutes of this premiere. However, I am very glad we are starting things right after the season 4 finale as I could not handle another time jump crap like 2 years ago. Tom is obviously trying to find his way back to the camp and he hears his dead wife saying "find your warrior". I don't really get this as Tom has always been a warrior and a fighter in the past seasons. It's not like he's been lying around doing nothing. He has been brave and pretty bad ass. Anyway, in all of about 30 seconds, he gets back to the hold, just like that. Planet Earth must have shrank pretty significantly if you can fly a ship to the moon, fall off the sky, land in the water in the middle of nowhere and still be about 2 miles away from your departure point. That's some pretty mad crashing skills right there. Pope is even pointing this shit out and although his main point was that Mason won't die, it still highlighted the whole situation as unbelievable. That's a little bit too easy in my opinion too, but let's move on. A little further in the episode, they try to explain how Tom got back when he is reunited with his family. It seems that this latest vision and how Mason got back home is actually the mystery of the season.

We are reunited with Maggie and Ben, which are my favorite characters, and being a girl, I love a good, "against the odds" love story. Maggie is a great female character that kicks butts and Ben had "powers" from the beginning, plus he's cute. I always wanted these two to be together and I am glad they're continuing the love triangle story line into this fifth season. As usual, this episode features a strategy meeting and a mission, which, unsurprisingly, is a trap. I do not understand Mason's vision just yet and I am kind of pissed he killed the overlord as he perhaps had some insight to share. Obviously, some important questions remained unanswered: Who has led Tom to the high school? Anybody else thinks Lexi is still alive? and more importantly, what kind of ending was that? A bug bite? That's how you are ending an episode? I was half expecting this whole 40 minutes to be a dream when I saw the bug. I am glad that was not the case, I would have been mad.

This first episode definitely was intriguing by the end of it, even though the beginning was a little choppy and overdone. I am glad they are taking the fight to the Espheni and I am glad to see more of the Ben/Maggie/Hal intrigue. All in all, it wasn't a bad start to this finale season.

Jurassic World - A controversial view point?

I haven't read many reviews of Jurassic World but I have watched my "go to" reviewer on Youtube (aka Jeremy Jahns) and he didn't like it very much. I didn't either. I kind of hated it.


I understand that I might not be the target audience for this film but I like myself a good blockbuster with charismatic stars and plenty of action. I do, however, like good writing and good dialogue, too. I did indeed get action, at least in the last half hour. I remember when I first watched Jurassic Park, I was perhaps 6 and had dinosaur nightmares for a week after that. I obviously watched it again many times and it holds a charm that no sequel could ever attempt to match. I am pretty sure everybody agrees on that. Jurassic Park was an original, eye widening and thrilling movie with ok acting and the Blum. The comic relief was pretty exceptional and even though you could stumble upon some grotesque characters and situations, this was definitely seldom.



I found myself laughing at Jurassic World from minute one. The first piece of dialogue between the teenager (I don't even remember his name that's how strongly I didn't give a shit about him) and his girlfriend was laughably cheesy. The airport scene was even worst with very poor acting from the two brothers. I believe these two were what I hated most about this film. Their acting was well below par and their scenes were forced and lacking meaning. Their dialogue was flat and poorly delivered. Exhibit 1: the truck scene where the older brother talks about a time when the younger brother was scared. Exhibit 2: the tram scene when the younger brother talks about his parents splitting out of the blue for no reason. Exhibit 3: anytime the older brother creepily stares at young females. To be fair, the adults didn't fare much better. There was no chemistry between Pratt and Howard. Their lines bounced back and forth between each other without clear intent and even though Chris Pratt had a couple of good funny moments, they were extremely few and far between.

I laughed at these characters more than I laughed with them. I didn't understand the purpose of that French guy throwing French keywords at us either. The action was good however and as a monster movie, it delivers. They didn't give enough good material to Chris Pratt to work with but they definitely gave it their all on the dinosaurs' fights and chases. I cared more about the raptors by the end of the movie than I cared about any of the human characters. Blue was my favorite character in this film. He was a friend, a hero, he was a anti-hero, he was awesome. I believe Blue had more depth than any other characters in this mess. Was it the intent? I will be fair, this movie made me care about the animals and about the dinosaurs, as a Jurassic Park sequel should. I was sad to see some of them die and I was on their side the whole time. They did manage to make me feel something and I am happy to have been emotionally involved somehow in this movie. However, I am an animal lover and I wonder if this might have only happened because of my personality. What if I didn't give a crap about animals (dear Lord.)? Would I have found any redeeming features to this movie? Probably not. Wait. The hamster ball was pretty sick. Overall, the park's attractions were impressive and were looking awesome. But then again, it did make me feel like I was watching a live stream of Sea World and I wanted to punch everybody on screen. I experienced a whole lot of contradictory emotions watching Jurassic World. Just one additional side note, anybody else found the crowd rushing towards to Jeep backing up in a corner SO fake and weird? They could have made such a better film, this looked rushed and lazy. I do not tolerate lazy.

Jaws of Hakkon Review - Thank God for DAI

When it comes to DLC, Bioware has very rarely disappointed me. Obviously, since the extraordinarily brilliant Citadel DLC for Mass Effect 3, I have been pretty biased and have had faith in anything they are releasing. I don't think I have ever played such an emotional, well written, bad ass story. The one liners were witty, the inside jokes were flying and the clone storyline was very cool. However, I like that for DAI, this DLC was taking place after the win, since the Inquisitor had a very happy ending. I was looking forward to Jaws of Hakkon since I have beat DAI 8 times and wanted something new to play with. To be fair, there were a few releases that grabbed my attention (Bloodborne, The Witcher III, ESO) but it's been pretty boring and dry in terms of video game releases. I was sad when they announced Jaws for Xbox One only but I knew it wouldn't be too long until we get it for PS4. I tried to stay away from any sort of spoiler, playthrough videos or reviews so I could go in unbiased. I have been pacing myself and still haven't cleared the whole map just yet. I don't want to run out of DAI goodness too early.

I am impressed by this DLC release. This is my verdict. It is no Citadel DLC as there is unfortunately no big party members reunion or new dialogue with your LI but there is definitely some fun to be had. I am grateful for this new, gigantic map. It is intricate and interesting, completely different from any other map that we encountered in the main game. The landscapes are very pretty with sunsets that are actually breathtaking. The feel of this new land is specific, with indigenous species and sounds. The camps high up in the trees are original and the architecture is, as always, detailed. When you have played through every main game's maps 8 times, it is very refreshing to discover a brand new world, with new enemies and new sights.

That is one of the achievement of this DLC. However, it is fairly easy to release a new map that would be empty of meaning and just stand on its own, not blending with the rest of the main story. This, I found, was not the case in Jaws of Hakkon. I very much liked the quest and its meaning. I thought including scout Harding tied everything together nicely. I was impatient to know the end and discover all the mysteries surrounding the 1st inquisitor, and this is a sign of good storytelling right there. If I had only a few complaints about this DLC, it is that your romance choice doesn't seem to matter so much. There is obviously new banter between your characters, which is welcomed, but not once is the relationship with your LI mentioned. I wish there could have been an additional scene in Skyhold, perhaps another Wicked Grace scene or another love scene thrown in there for good measure. On the other hand, I liked the new available high stats gear and the additional Inquisitor ability which made leveling up much more relevant. All in all, Jaws of Hakkon is a delightful new addition to one of my favorite game and I definitely long for more. DAI is such a vast world, there is material for a fourth game, but in the meantime, I will happily spend more time with Iron Bull, Varric and my kick ass Inquisitor in any DLC story the Bioware team crafts masterfully. Also, thank god for this DLC, I almost killed myself after 10 minutes of The Order...