Top of the Scots 2010: The Best Movies

The introductions are all taken care of, so no messing about today; let's get right to it! 


So we're gonna get this train a-rolling talking movies.

The Best of the Best

5. Scott Pilgrim vs. The World
dir. Edgar Wright

Between Kick-Ass, The Losers and this, it's been a year of weird comic book adaptations coming to the cinema, hasn't it? There've been a couple more traditional medium-to-medium translations, I suppose - the nonsense that was Jonah Hex springs unbidden to mind - but none have done decent box office, none have had the crossover appeal the various studios had hoped for (guess it's back to straight-faced superheroes from here on out, huh?) and none, in the end, have really been worth writing home about.

Not a one... except for Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, a movie which often felt like it'd been written specifically for me. From sound design lifted right out of The Legend of Zelda through a couple of stellar action sequences, and from a wickedly acerbic sense of humour through an assortment of attractive moody ladies I'm sure no-one complained about - oh, and Michael Cera in his best performance since I first noticed him in Juno - Edgar Wright's latest mightn't quite stand the test of time alongside Shaun of the Dead, say, but I sure had a hell of a time with it all the same.

4. Ondine

dir. Neal Jordan

(review)

I find myself feeling more charitable about Ondine half a year on than I did watching it in the first place, which is odd. For me at least, it's odd. Usually, the more I think on a thing, the more it tends to come apart in my perception - little flaws accumulate to become something substantially more problematic - but that's not been the case with this very Irish fable. A moody and endlessly atmospheric selkie fable led by strong and admirably restrained performances across the board, Ondine succeeds on a number of levels: as a tragedy, as a love story, as a tale of a family coming apart like so much twine unraveling. As a film, it's mostly marvelous.

It has its hitches, however. Particularly in the late-gate, which seems to go against all The Crying Game writer/director Neal Jordan had worked so tirelessly to establish to begin with, Ondine flounders, but nevertheless I've come to think very fondly of this film in the six months since I saw it.

And newcomer Allison Barry is a joy to watch as Colin Farrell's brave, disabled daughter. Did I mention that in my review?

3. The Social Network

dir. David Fincher

I expected to despise this film.

You know, because it's about Facebook - and I despise Facebook. Twitter is my sole social media allowance. That and, uh... the blog. But let's gloss over that! Facebook in particular leaves me with a foul taste in my mouth.

Alas, thanks to David Fincher - a favourite director of mine (I'll still stick up for Alien 3, just try me!) - and Aaron Sorkin, scriptwriter extraordinaire and the mastermind behind the likes of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip and The West Wing, this powerful biopic boasts more class and smarts than every social network slapped together, and I had to watch it, didn't I?

Well, ultimately, I'm glad I did. Witty and barbed, assiduously intelligent and tense beyond belief, The Social Network plays its cards hard and fast. When at last Fincher reveals the extent of the hand he's been dealt, the effect is no less than flooring.

Now... if only we could trick Fincher into coming back to the fold which so scorned his initial efforts. With this and Benjamin Button, two for two, don't you all wish you'd been a little nicer way back when?

2. Inception
dir. Chris Nolan
(review)

Hmm.

Far and away my most highly-anticipated film of 2010, and perhaps a wealth of impossible expectations played some part in my disappointment with Inception, but I don't know.

"Disappointment" is of course a decidedly relative term here. Even on a bad day, a Chris Nolan film is sure to be something else, and indeed, Inception blew a lot of folks' socks off. For myself, I enjoyed the two and a half hours I spent watching it in the theatre, but I don't know that it surprised me in the least. Right through to the last twist of the knife - the last spin of the top, I should say - I saw so many of the story beats coming, and the whole affair was just so... so cold, you know? So distant, emotionally speaking. The characters were cool, sure, what's-her-name's always great (Ellen Page) and DiCaprio's just knocked me for six this year. And the set-pieces, the vastness of the imagination behind them, they were brilliant. I'll suspend my disbelief for the least little thing - give me a high-concept advert, go on - but I found it difficult to engage with Inception the way it surely wanted me to.

So Inception didn't explode me inside or out. Not the way The Dark Knight did, nor Memento or The Prestige - this Nolan fellow sure has had his wicked way with me, over the years! - but I don't mean to downplay its many achievements. I wouldn't be surprised if this comes by consensus to be recalled as THE film of 2010.

For me personally, however, that honour goes to...

1. Shutter Island

dir. Martin Scorsese

Feels like I'm going way back with this one, doesn't it? Well, not so much: Shutter Island did indeed come out this year, however long ago it might seem after the grand old year we've had.

Martin Scorsese's finest film since Goodfellas, you think? I know I do. Come to that, though I full well understand Goodfellas' place in the canon of great cinema, I personally enjoyed Shutter Island a great deal more than that mobster masterpiece: its ghost-story roots in that old Dennis LeHane novel struck just the right chord, Scorsese and his screenwriter embellished the film's source material perfectly, and however much I've appreciated the various movie aforementioned, none have resonated with me in quite the same way as Shutter Island did. "A real mindfuck of a movie [...] simply sublime," I called it back when the grass was greener and all that.

And would you believe I didn't even review it? Shutter Island came out right when I was trying to get TSS off the ground and up, up and away; it kind of got lost in the shuffle of suddenly feeling like I had to read (not to mention write about) two or three books a week rather than the one I might have done Before Blogging.

Any old way, clearly that's something I'm going to have to remedy in the very near future. I smell... a rewatch!

Runners-Up

Surprising the heck of out me, this Halloween a sequel I had precisely no expectations of managed to work much the same magic which made its surprise smash-hit predecessor such a deluge of spooky goodness. Paranormal Activity 2 neatly ties into the mythology of the original film and offers its own brand of jolts and jitters. I mean, I've officially been there and done that now - the inevitable third film's going to have a lot of work to do to convince me there's more story needing told - but the dynamic of the dog and the baby in particular won me over to this shockingly considered cash-in's cause.

Oh, and that moment in the kitchen, with all the cupboard doors? Priceless.

Honourable Mentions

So I finally got around to watching the Watchmen. A fine film, I thought. Not the equal of the graphic novel, no, but come on, was it ever really going to be? I find myself with little to no sympathy for all the whiners who insisted Zack Snyder's adaptation was a travesty. To think I steered clear of it for this long because of your moaning!

Last time I trust the internet...

Meanwhile, I'd be remiss not to mention one of the best indie films I saw this year: Pontypool (review). Sure, it got a bit silly towards the end, but otherwise, this chamber house comment on genre made much of its miniscule budget. Pontypool stands as an example of all that independent filmmaking should aspire to.

Oh, and it has zombies. If I had my way, all indie films would.

Biggest Disappointments

Long-time TSS readers might recall my other hot tip for film of 2010: second only to Inception, my anticipation for this Summer's Splice (review) knew no bounds. As an avowed fan of Cypher and Cube director Vincenzo Natali, I had high hopes for this purported parable of genetic engineering... hopes Natali could only crush into so much slapstick snuff as he descended down the rabbit hole a hot alien-looking lady appeared to present him with.

Oh well.

Glaring Oversights

As to another of my most anticipated films of the year, One Hour Photo director Mark Romanek's oft-acclaimed adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go, well... despite its release in the States months ago, the damn thing's still not out here in blighted Blighty.

To which I say, having summoned every inch of maturity I can feasibly muster: no fair!

Whereas part the first of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows I've no such excuse about not having seen yet. I'm just going to take a pass on it, I do believe, till the concluding chapter of the concluding chapter sees release next Summer. Shameless they'd simply slice a movie down the middle like that. Well, no alarms and no surprises; and I'm in no great rush anyway.

Final Thoughts

So 2010...

Not the best of years for movies, I don't think. A slim picking of great and a handful of good, fun flicks came and went, but only a few truly timeless films have stood out from the crowd these past twelve months - at least, only a few that I've seen.

And perhaps that's the overriding issue here. I haven't been watching even half as many movies as I used to. A guy's only got so much time to spend, you know? And I've spent a lot more of it with my nose buried in one book after another (after another) this year than ever before. I wouldn't have had it any other way, but alas, all the same... alas.

Must try harder!

Anyway, that's it for the year in film. Stay tuned - there'll be more Top of the Scots tomorrow.

Top of the Scots 2010: An Introduction

2010, huh? That happened.

Well, I suppose it's still happening, but let's be honest here: for all intents and purposes, in terms of notable book and movie and video games releases, short a select few latecomers it might as well be over. So. What better time than now to take stock of all the good stuff - not to speak of the bad - the year's given us?

January, did you say? You know, I'm kind of inclined to agree, but by then I expect we'll be sick and tired of seeing Year's Best posts on all our favourite blogs, so I'm gonna go with this while the going's still good. In that spirit, ladies and gentlemen, I give you... the Top of the Scots!

That's what I'm calling it anyway.

No doubt everyone knows how this sort of thing goes already, but indulge me, dear readers - in the spirit of Christmas, which (whoever would have thunk it?) I hear's about to happen. This week, I'm going to run us through my personal favourites of the untold gazillions of books, movies and video games published or otherwise released between January 1st and... well, let's say the end of December, because other than Tron: Legacy, there's really nowt of note about between then and now.

There'll also be a space for honourable mentions - as in, things I've read or played or seen and adored this year that either came out before the period of eligibility began or else haven't as yet hit bookstore shelves or home consoles or multiplexes or whatever. Add to that sections on particularly monstrous disappointments, runners-up and any glaring oversights for each medium of entertainment, ie. things I just haven't managed to get to yet, and perhaps you're beginning to see why we're going to be at this all week.

Without any further ado, then, the Top of the Scots!

Film Review | Devil

Five people. Stuck in an elevator. One of them's the devil, on walkabout in the world for shits and giggles. The rest? They're either dead, or about to be.


Really, that's all there is to Devil. And you've gotta love the directness of it - if little else...


Actually, you know what? No. It'd be an easy thing to pick this derivative fright night fluff apart, heedless of the fun I had watching it. Yeah, you heard me: fun. Watching an M. Night Shyamalan film. Hard to believe these days, isn't it?


Well, strictly speaking, Devil isn't an M. Night Shyamalan film at all. It's the first of three projected Night Chronicles, which is to say cheapo horror movies "from the mind" of the man who gave us The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable and Signs before single-handedly running his burgeoning reputation into the ground with a string of insulting rubbish dressed up as cinema. Thankfully, the totality of Shyamalan's involvement in Devil amounts to a snappy pitch and a producer credit.

With [rec] remake Quarantine director John Erick Dowdle at the helm and 30 Days of Night screenwriter Brian Nelson backing him up, Devil is, objectively speaking, a decidedly so-so horror movie in every sense; par for the course considering the talent involved. A supremely dodgy script, wooden, made-for-TV actors playing transparent, paper-mache characters and an abundance of cheap tricks aren't even the worst offenders, only the first to come to mind. And yet... I enjoyed myself.


It doesn't hurt that Devil's barely an hour long. Treat it like an episode of The Outer Limits, adjust your hopes and dreams accordingly, and it works - if not so much as a movie then as a game. "It just doesn't make any sense," cries one character as the last act kicks off. And no. No, it doesn't. But then, as another opines, "This is what he does. He wants us to doubt everything." Ostensibly, the "he" this God-fearing security guard is referring to is the titular devil, but it makes as much sense to ascribe that modus operandi to Shyamalan and his stand-ins.

A game, then; a guessing game. Which of the five contenders could it be? Is the smarmy smart-ass in the suit Lucifer incarnate, or is it the temp security guard with an arrest record? Could it be the gold-digging vixen, or the innocent old lady, or the Iraqi war vet? If you tend to expect the unexpected, the twist isn't nearly so shocking as I'm sure the filmmakers would like, so it's a silly game, sure.


But it's fun to play.


Like that old video board game, Nightmare - latterly Atmosfear (ugh) - and just as cheesy, Devil is a nonsense, but indulge your childish side and as like as not you'll come away from the first of the Night Chronicles with a guilty grin. And what's so wrong with that?

The BoSS for 12/12/10

This past week or so - ever since the tree went up, really - whenever the postie's had a parcel for me, it's felt a bit like Christmas.


And I like Christmas.

You know, I'll bitch and moan about it with the rest of you, but I do, if I'm honest. I really do. It's a nice time of year. Family and friends and gift-giving, all that. I know it's senseless and commercial, expensive, exhausting and utterly divorced from anything it might have used to stand for, but when some sweetheart buys a neat new sci-fi novel for me, just because they care... I can get a little sappy.


Anyway. Lookee here at all my early presents! :D

***

Hawkwood and the Kings
by Paul Kearney

Release Details:

Published in the UK on
05/08/10 by Solaris

Review Priority:

4 (Very High)

Plot Synopsis: "The Western world is burning. For Richard Hawkwood and his crew, a desperate venture to carry refugees to the uncharted land across the Great Western Ocean offers the only chance of escape from the Inceptines' pyres. In the East, Lofantyr, Abeleyn and Mark three of the five Ramusian Kings have defied the cruel pontiff's purge and must fight to hold their thrones through excommunication, intrigue and civil war. In the quiet monastery city of Charibon, two humble monks make a discovery that will change the whole world. Aekir, the Holy City, has fallen and all now seems lost, but even on the eve of destruction the Faithful still war amongst themselves..."

Commentary: Oh, score!

Couple of months ago, you might recall, volume two of this omnibus of The Monarchies of God cycle came through, and I publicly lamented my lack of volume one. Well, evidently someone out there's reading these round-ups: here we have it, Hawkwood and the Kings, the start of what Malazan mastermind Steven Erikson describes as "simply the best fantasy series I've read in years and years."

I'm going to presume he hadn't read The Long Price quartet yet and get busy looking forward to a couple of quiet weeks during which I can immerse myself head to toe in Kearney's world for the first time. Chuffed to bits about this one's arrival! :)

The Bone Palace

by Amanda Downum

Release Details:

Published in the UK on
02/12/10 by Orbit

Review Priority:

2 (Fair)

Plot Synopsis: "Death is no stranger in the city of Erisin, but some deaths attract more attention than others. When a prostitute dies carrying a royal signet, Isyllt Iskaldur, necromancer and agent of the Crown, is called to investigate. Her search leads to desecrated tombs below the palace, and the lightless vaults of the vampiric vrykoloi. But worse things than vampires are plotting in Erisin - a long-dead sorceress is making a bid not only for renewed life but for the throne as well, and Isyllt's former lover is caught in her schemes. As a sorcerous plague sweeps the city, Isyllt must decide who she's prepared to betray - the man she still loves, or the royal family she's sworn to defend."

Commentary: Well, alas. The Bone Palace is the successor to The Drowning City, which I do believe someone just picked as one of their year's best books - and The Necromancer Chronicles do sound interesting - but sadly I've seen neither hide nor hair of book the first, so...

Satori

by Don Winslow

Release Details:

Published in the UK on
28/04/11 by Headline

Review Priority:

3 (Moderate)

Plot Synopsis: "A gripping thriller that follows assassin Nicholai Hel across Asia as he fights to regain his freedom.

"Sugamo Prison, Japan, October 1951. Nicholai Hel has spent the last three years in solitary confinement for the murder of his mentor. A formidable assassin as well as a master of hoda korosu or ‘naked kill’, he has developed a supreme awareness of the presence of danger. Suddenly offered the chance of freedom, he feels it now as never before...

"Overseen by Haverford, his American spymaster he must go to Beijing and kill the Soviet Union’s commissioner to China. In a landscape primed for war this is a suicide mission he has no choice but to accept.

"Can Hel succeed in winning his freedom and if so, at what cost? And can he ever achieve his ultimate goal of satori – the possibility of true understanding and harmony with the world?"

Commentary: Now this one confused the heck out of me. Seems to be a big deal - just the fact of that this proof exists so far out, and that I'm getting one, speaks to Headline's high hopes for Satori. Apparently, it's the sequel to a classic thriller from the 70s called Shibumi. Which I've never heard of.

Then again, I didn't happen along onto this fine Earth for fifteen years after Shibumi's publication, so perhaps my ignorance is to be expected. Nonetheless, I'm intrigued; consider my curiosity piqued... though I do wonder what kind of footing I'd be on, were I to read Satori without any knowledge at all of its predecessor. I suppose we'll just have to see, won't we?

The Windup Girl

by Paolo Bacigalupi

Release Details:

Published in the UK on

02/12/10 by Orbit

Review Priority:

5 (Immediate)

Plot Synopsis: "Anderson Lake is a company man, AgriGen's calorie representative in Thailand. Under cover as a factory manager, he combs Bangkok's street markets in search of foodstuffs long thought to be extinct. There he meets the windup girl - the beautiful and enigmatic Emiko - now abandoned to the slums. She is one of the New People, bred to suit the whims of the rich. Engineered as slaves, soldiers and toys, they are the new underclass in a chilling near future where oil has run out, calorie companies dominate nations and bio-engineered plagues run rampant across the globe. And as Lake becomes increasingly obsessed with Emiko, conspiracies breed in the heat and political tensions threaten to spiral out of control. Businessmen and ministry officials, wealthy foreigners and landless refugees all have their own agendas. But no one anticipates the devastating influence of the Windup Girl."

Commentary: Well it's about god-damned time, isn't it?

Quite what took publishers here in the UK so long to secure the rights to what must be the most critically acclaimed book of last year... well, it'll probably be a question steeped in intrigue till the end of time. Thankfully, Orbit have taken the bull by the horns, and readers hereabouts unwilling to order The Windup Girl in from across the Atlantic will finally be able to pull the trigger on a novel burdened now with the very highest of expectations.

I'm telling you now: Bacigalupi doesn't disappoint. Full review in the imminent.

Riverworld

by Philip Jose Farmer

Release Details:

Published in the US on
30/03/010 by Tor / Forge

Review Priority:

3 (Moderate)

Plot Synopsis: "Imagine that every human who ever lived, from the earliest Neanderthals to the present, is resurrected after death on the banks of an astonishing and seemingly endless river on an unknown world. They are miraculously provided with food, but with not a clue to the possible meaning of this strange afterlife. And so billions of people from history, and before, must start living again.

"Some set sail on the great river questing for the meaning of their resurrection, and to find and confront their mysterious benefactors. On this long journey, we meet Sir Richard Francis Burton, Mark Twain, Odysseus, Cyrano de Bergerac, and many others, most of whom embark upon searches of their own in this huge afterlife."

Commentary: What's that? A classic of the genre I've never gotten around to reading? Really, you don't say!

Well, alongside this omnibus edition of To Your Scattered Bodies Go and The Fabulous Riverboat, Tor were also kind enough to send along copies of The Dark Design and The Magic Labyrinth (with Gods of Riverworld still to come), so I've got a whole saga set out before me now, and a serious urge to burger.

No, wait. I mean --- uh, an urge to... to what? To read the books, damn it! Maybes you can all join in, even.

But Christmas comes first. Christmas, New Year's, the very same resolution to write my novel I've been making for the last decade, and then Philip Jose Farmer. In that order. :P

The Greyfriar

by Susan Griffith & Clay Griffith

Release Details:

Published in the US on
18/11/10 by Pyr

Review Priority:

3 (Moderate)

Plot Synopsis: "In the year 1870, a horrible plague of vampires swept over the northern regions of the world. Millions of humans were killed outright. Millions more died of disease and famine due to the havoc that followed. Within two years, once great cities were shrouded by the grey empire of the vampire clans. Human refugees fled south to the tropics because vampires could not tolerate the constant heat there. They brought technology and a feverish drive to reestablish their shattered societies of steam and iron amid the mosques of Alexandria, the torrid quietude of Panama, or the green temples of Malaya.

"It is now 2020 and a bloody reckoning is coming.

"Princess Adele is heir to the Empire of Equatoria, a remnant of the old tropical British Empire. She is quick with her wit as well as with a sword or gun. She is eager for an adventure before she settles into a life of duty and political marriage to man she does not know. But her quest turns black when she becomes the target of a merciless vampire clan. Her only protector is The Greyfriar, a mysterious hero who fights the vampires from deep within their territory. Their dangerous relationship plays out against an approaching war to the death between humankind and the vampire clans."

Commentary: You know, the bloggers really dig this one. The listing on Amazon.com speaks to that. So vampires, meet steampunk.

Sounds like it could be a lark - and the community's support certainly sways me in favour of giving The Greyfriar the old once-over... however, a choice quote from one such review, advising me to "Think Zorro with vampires" just about moves me to gouge my own eyes out, and Publishers Weekly are quick to dampen any remaining enthusiam I might have been feeling for this one, saying "this melodramatic tale is fast-paced and entirely unchallenging."

Still and all. I'm all for a bit of mindless fun from time to time. You never know...

The Winter Ghosts

by Kate Mosse

Release Details:

Published in the UK on
28/10/10 by Orion

Review Priority:

4 (Very High)

Plot Synopsis: "The Great War took much more than lives. It robbed a generation of friends, lovers and futures. In Freddie Watson's case, it took his beloved brother and, at times, his peace of mind. Unable to cope with his grief, Freddie has spent much of the time since in a sanatorium. In the winter of 1928, still seeking resolution, Freddie is travelling through the French Pyrenees - another region that has seen too much bloodshed over the years. During a snowstorm, his car spins off the mountain road. Shaken, he stumbles into the woods, emerging by a tiny village. There he meets Fabrissa, a beautiful local woman, also mourning a lost generation. Over the course of one night, Fabrissa and Freddie share their stories of remembrance and loss. By the time dawn breaks, he will have stumbled across a tragic mystery that goes back through the centuries. By turns thrilling, poignant and haunting, this is a story of two lives touched by war and transformed by courage."

Commentary: No, not Kate Moss - Kate Mosse! Her what wrote Labyrinth and Sepulchre, one or the other of which I admit to owning, if not having read as yet. Now The Winter Ghosts hasn't exactly been a favourite with the critics, from what I've read of their oh-so academic faffing, but I've an open mind and a startling (some might say) aptitude for ghost stories, so... well, I should think we can all put two and two together by now.

TV Review | The Walking Dead (Season One)

Oh well.


But didn't it start strong?


With The Shawshank Redemption director Frank Darabont at the helm, it'd have been stranger, all things considered, if it hadn't have done; if the breakout talent behind one of the greatest films of all time had suddenly gone to ground, particularly given such fertile territory to stake a claim on. Sadly, what begins with a bang - literally, with Andrew Lincoln as Sheriff Rick Grimes separating a pitiable little zombie girl from her skullcap - ends with a fizzle (albeit an explosive one) symbolic of all this show's woefully misspent potential.


But let's not get ahead of ourselves just yet. Wounded in a shoot-out before the outbreak, Rick awakens alone from a coma to find society in utter disarray. But for the rotting, flea-ridden corpses piled one upon the other, the streets are unnervingly empty. Those survivors that there are seem to have gone feral in their desperation - shovel, let me introduce you to face - and the undead responsible for driving them to such depths aren't particularly chipper either. They seem oddly... what? Hungry?

Despairing, Rick goes where I expect we'd all go under such circumstances: he goes home, and though his wife and son are absent, so too are their family albums. Sure against all good reason that they've not been gobbled - what would a zombie want with a collection of sentimental photos, after all? - the county Sheriff puts a bunch of guns in a bag and takes to Atlanta, where the word on the street is some survivors have gathered. Who knows? Maybe there's a family reunion on the cards after all.


Following the events of the comic book by Robert Kirkman and Charlie Adlard near-enough panel for panel, The Walking Dead begins brilliantly, perfectly replicating some powerful imagery and twisting things for television just so. A superb pilot and a more moderately impressive second episode leave you with the distinct impression that we could be looking at a truly great show, here - certainly with Darabont and Kirkman pulling the strings behind the scenes and an at-times virtuoso performance from Andrew Lincoln, who carries the lightweight narrative handily, all signs point to the positive.

And then... well. Then the milk sours. The moment we've all been waiting for - the pay-off of all the tension and dread established throughout the escapade in Atlanta, the coming together of the various survivors, not to speak of Rick's decidedly unlikely luck - the moment is a nonsense: fudged, awkward and unconvincing. The uneven ensemble cast assembles at last, foregrounding all its myriad flaws. Certainly the strongest link in the great chain of survivors, Rick puts on his conflicted family man hat and sadly recedes from the forefront of the action, the better to attend to a wife who seems to have been rutting in the woods with another guy the second she heard of his death (reports of which have been greatly exaggerated). And ill in conception and execution both - I don't suppose we can hold Darabont accountable for this much, given the similar beats of the source material - the very real threat of the undead fades away to make room for the more traditional dangers of desperate people taking desperate measures in desperate times. Precisely the sort of stuff The Walking Dead needs to be getting right if it's got any hope of remaining engaging in the long term - however much it might diverge from the comic, this show can't very well be about the zombies every week.


Instead, it flounders. The tension so deliberately established in the first few episodes dissipates like so much smoke - and the fire's gone out too, except for a couple of guttering embers here and there amongst the ashes. The creature effects are great, the visuals often tantamount to iconic, and Battlestar Galactica's Bear McCreary offers up a spare yet effective score. As the main man, Andrew Lincoln holds his own even when presented with some truly excruciating scriptwriting and supporting actors whose performances approach the cartoonish, and when the big movers and shakers are involved beyond a yay or a nay in the latter half of the show's short first season, The Walking Dead sparks briefly back to life. Whether or not it can sustain for any length of time remains to be seen, but at this rate, front-loaded and flat thereafter, I'm afraid The Walking Dead is apt to burn out well before its due.


Alas, poor zombies... alas. I had hoped to know you well.

Music Review | Tron: Legacy OST by Daft Punk

Tron: Legacy has a lot to prove. The decades-belated sequel to a nostalgic sci-fi "classic" from the early 80s, it's already been the subject of much ado about nothing courtesy of doom-saying industry analysts wondering whether its positioning as this holiday season's blockbuster of choice will be borne out by that old economic chestnut: the numbers. And you know, probably it won't.

But let's take the long view, say there's more to a movie than its box office. And indubitably there is. There's more to Tron: Legacy than a chart of potential profit and loss already, what with the odd beast of a soundtrack synthbotpop double-act Daft Punk have put together for it. That's - yep - the same Daft Punk you're thinking of. The guys with the anime music videos... the Kraftwerk-esque arrangements you're sure to know even if you'd rather you didn't.

So, an hour of music fit to shake your tush to on the dance floor? Surprisingly, not so much. The Game Has Changed, goes the title of track eight - an incredible clashing, hissing crescendo of sound that'd bleed bombast if you cut it - and it's a safe bet you'll come away from this score assured it has. If you're after another album along the lines of Discovery, forgive me for saying it, but these aren't the droids you're looking for.

However, as far as Daft Punk are from their comfort zone, they equip themselves remarkably well. A single, exquisite refrain - sometimes swollen and celebratory, sometimes tender and melancholy - flits deliberately through the soundscape, an intensely memorable motif which handily ties together the disparate threads of the duo's latest efforts. Only thus are Daft Punk able to pull together such a swathe of influences, most notably from Hans Zimmer's stellar score for The Dark Knight in Recognizer and The Game Has Changed, but you don't need to listen closely to pick out strains of Blade Runner in Arrival, touches of (of all things) Philip Glass's Koyaanisqatsi in Outlander, Nocturne and Finale, and here and there a miscellany of bits owing a debt to the likes of 2001: A Space Odyssey and The Terminator. It shouldn't work, but oddly enough, it does - thanks in no small part to that recurring aural motif, without which I dare say the twenty-odd short pieces Daft Punk have composed for Tron: Legacy would function as one not at all.

The clubbers who Daft Punk have made their bread and butter from before now won't be best pleased by the orchestral Tron: Legacy score, I fear - Derezzed is the duo's only offering in that regard, and while it might appease a few such aficionados, it feels otherwise a sweaty techno token at odds with the remainder of the soundtrack's more considered soaring - but with this album the robot brothers stand to inherit a whole other army of fans. It's more than a little derivative, yes, yet it hits on all the right notes, and the film itself, whatever its eventual legacy, will certainly be the better for it.