Pete Messum Reviews...

So, seeing as the Big Finish audios have now been confirmed as 'canonical' by Steven Moffat, we can regard this story as just as important as The Day of the Doctor, only in audio form. This also features five Doctors with their companions, as well as archive dialogue for Doctors 1-3. This is Doctor Who before the regeneration number system got messed up, so we can expect a simply enough story, can't we? No. This story is a jumbled mess of paradoxes and alternate time lines. It's Doctor Who at its most creative and complicated, and with it being on audio form it makes it a little harder to follow. Essentially, the plot makes no sense. However, it doesn't need to make sense. There's a great atmosphere and it feels so right to hear the Doctors and their companions being forced together as part of a huge plot by the Master - who is superbly played by Geoffrey Beevers. All cast members are great, and for fans new to the audio adventures, this a good example and pla

Christmas specials in Doctor Who are a mixed bag, although I thoroughly enjoyed last years' (The Snowmen) so much that I thought this was going to be just as entertaining. I've only watched this story once, so this is my INITIAL IMPRESSION of the episode. The Snowmen was a brilliant, fun and entertaining piece of television, and the best episode of the 2012 series of Doctor Who. However, it's predecessor - The Doctor the Widow and the Wardrobe - was the biggest load of Christmas smeg I have ever sat through. Urgh. I was so glad to see those end credits, and the trailer for series two of Sherlock almost made up for it. It was a horrible piece of television with inconsistent and boring characters, poor jokes, clichés, and more forced moments than you could shake a sonic screwdriver at. I absolutely hated it. Worst of all, it had no plot at the end of the day, making a complete mess of an episode. It made A Christmas Carol look like a masterpiece. Well, A Christmas Carol actu

One year after its first instalment, Peter Jackson brings us the second part of his The Hobbit trilogy, entitled The Desolation of Smaug . This is the film everyone wanted to see. Who cares about Gollum when you have Smaug the dragon – the most impressive dragon anyone could tackle on the big screen. Whilst this film deviates from the book in many ways, it adds a fresh perspective and a bit more detail to the journey of Bilbo, Gandalf and the Dwarves, and fills in as to why Gandalf is absent for large amounts of the original book, as well as including old favourites such as Legolas. The story begins where the last film left off, with Bilbo, Gandalf and Dwarves being hunted down by Azog and the Orcs (absent in the novel) as they get closer to the Lonely Mountain. However, it becomes clear that a great evil known as the Necromancer is rising to power (which is essentially bringing Sauron back from the dead to lead into The Lord of the Rings trilogy). Along the way they encounter Be

2012 was a year that many people will remember for a long time, with the Queen's Diamond Jubilee, the London Olympics and Paralympics, Marvel's Avengers Assemble setting Box Office records, etc... Oh well. I have seen 13 films from 2012 (that I can remember) that I have decided to put in a top 13 list, with a score for each film. DARK SHADOWS - A rather tedious film full Johnny Depp-isms and boring plot revelations that are utterly pointless. The entertainment factor is ruined by a rather boring plot that has no structure and little emotion. Eva Green is excellent as the witch though, and the actress playing Vicky is very good but extremely underused, which is a shame considering she was the most interesting and complex character of the entire film. Oh, and the less said about the narration and the ending, the better. (3/10) HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA - I was dragged to see this by some friends against my will, and I regretted paying to see this film. It was a re-hash of lots of

The Hunger Games was released lasts year, and had a pretty massive amount of hype surrounding it. Personally, it didn't appeal to me. In fact, neither book nor film perked my interest. However, everyone who's read The Hunger Games seems to love it like hell. I had the head of English at my school come up and say it got her into Science Fiction. Well, I'm going to avoid a rant about how she's missed Firefly, Star Wars and Doctor Who in terms of great science fiction, but the point still stands. The Hunger Games is such a popular franchise, even if the three best that I have mentioned could kick its butt any millennia (although Attack of the Clones isn't great until the climax). Anyway, is it any good? As of yet I have only started reading the books, so if I miss something, I apologise. The first problem is that the actual origins of The Hunger Games is barely explained, and unless you've read the book, it will go over your head. I watched this film with my mum

***SPOILER ALERT** The mid-season finale to Agents of SHIELD was certainly an explosive one. After a solid nine episodes of set-up (not including Coulson's death in Avengers Assemble (2012)), finally it seems to all come together. Raina and Michael Peterson return, along with a rather shifty character seen at the end of episode five. Centipede is behind all this. They have perfected the extremis/super soldier serum and were responsible for the robotic eye implants. It seems almost everything seen so far has been leading up to this. The episode focussed heavily on Michael Peterson from the Pilot episode, which I thought was a little too much at first, but as the credits rolled I knew very well why. Killed off in a traditional Joss Whedon manner. Why can't Steven Moffat be like that? His death scene was a definite shock, as was the entire ending to the episode. Its definitely clear that there is something suspicious about Skye's parents and the agent who gave her to the or

This was an interesting episode to watch, although pretty much all of it was clichéd material, as Jason was turned into some kind of were-dog thing. The scene between Jason and Areadne in particular reminded me of Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, when Lady Tottington visits Wallace. Its a story that has been done time and time again, and it added nothing new to it. The scene with Pasiphae and Minos was so randomly placed it was odd, and there needn't have been any other characters than our three regulars and Areadne. Needless to say, next week's episode looks much more interesting. 5/10

The Enemy of the World is a rare story in Doctor Who, featuring no aliens other than the Doctor at all. It is set in the future (or near future, if you can spot a 2018 date during the episode), and follows a group of people that require the Doctor to help them expose Salamander as the vicious politician that he is. They want to use the Doctor's striking (and coincidental) likeness to Salamander to get rid of him, but not all is as it seems. There is a very rich and deep plot in this story, and it is benefited by a good pace over six episodes. Despite Patrick Troughton's curious Mexican accent, the acting is generally very good. The Doctor plays a very small role in the story, but the focus on the Salamander is an interesting one. It reminds me of a Doctor Who style Bond film, with spies and suspicious deaths and daring helicopter escapes, and the budget remains very consistent and pretty good throughout. There are no obvious flaws in the production, and the remastering for the

The new spidey suit looks oddly saturated in colour, and pretty awful as well. If this is meant to be the darker version of Spider-Man, surely more chrome colours are needed for the suit? And they changed the eyes. Matrix action shot, but looks terrible. Obvious product placement which would put the Shreddies cameo in Thor: The Dark World (2013) to shame. More obvious product placement than you can shake a stick at. Andrew Garfield still isn't quite comfortable as Peter Parker. The action is pretty dull in this film. Peter's speech should be the same as Spider-Man 2 (2004) if they wanted it to have an impact on people. An actress that got nominated for God knows how many awards last year plays Aunt May who barely appeared in the first movie, and it looks the same for the second. Gwen Stacey appears, negating the ending of the first movie. Gwen Stacey seems really cool with Peter being shot at, even though in the last movie she wasn't. If Gwen is going to die in

I saw 'Gravity' several weeks back, but I never got round to this review. Here goes! Gravity's reputation is amazing. Critics are calling it the best movie of the year and a masterpiece. The film is directed by Alfonso Cuarón - the director of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - and his cinematography and screenplay is stunningly original and each scene, each individual shot is worth watching. It is gloriously shot in 3D, and it makes the film itself look stunning on the big screen. The weightlessness is made even more impact-full when the floating objects are literally hovering in front of you. Sandra Bullock and George Clooney are excellent cast members, and by the end of the film you really know their characters and they feel like real people. George Clooney's final scene is quite upsetting as he has his sense of charm but also dread as he knows his fate. Steven Price's score is original and a great listen to. It doesn't come across as too subtle or

EPISODE 10: The series is definitely improving but overall it fails to make its story arcs exciting, which is Atlantis' huge problem. The mysteries there have no depth to them, and little impact. They simply remain as untold parts of the story, and with no back story for Jason, his character barely has anything to go on. Pythagoras is an interesting character and has really grown on me. He and Hercules have a back story and trademark characteristics and its clear why and how they are friends at the end of the day, and they do care for each other and for Jason. The tension in this episode is well built-up, right to the sad ending with Medusa, now a Gorgon. I'm still not convinced by her snake hair. The CGI looks good, but it is oddly placed and we still haven't seen how she turns people to stone. 9/10