Buffy S8 Issue 6 Review / Shadow Puppets film
Apparently today is review day. I'll start out with the latest installment of Sugarshock. I have to say reading part 2 left me feeling much the same as part 1 – oddly bemused while reading and, at the end, rather entertained at the whimsical stream-of-consciousness approach. It just grabs me somehow. However I can't figure out how anything could be wrapped up in the next issue. Except maybe that there's no real plot…
Then there is the new Faith issue. I'm glad that Giles and Faith had that exchange in the dining room where he talks about how adolescent responsibility leads to an adulthood of having to make up for that. But I like it mostly because I think it's a good Giles moment and explains a lot about his willingness to make the tough choices. I also appreciate the fact that he'd have been willing to take on this task alone if he felt he'd be successful. But I am less thrilled by how, as Faith nicely puts it, she's "the go-to girl for dirty deeds done dirt cheap." Granted, Faith does have a lot to make up for, but she hasn't been unwilling to do so.
Really it's the unpleasant overtone of this continuing devaluation of her character that was the only negative reaction I had to the issue. There were a number of things I liked, such as the opening pages, a rather neat summing up of where she and Wood stand (though I'd rather like to know more about how much actually went on there), Giles and his yellow submarine sweatshirt, the fact that we have a Faith and Giles storyline, and the dialogue which I thought was well done. It was also good to see some continuity with the mysterious sunset gang, and the whole section with Genevieve spooled out the setup nicely.
I thought the fork stab was a bit odd. How can she still be that jumpy after all this time? If the only purpose was to reveal Giles' tattoo it seems rather heavy handed. I did like how nicely that segued into the salad fork discussion.
While on the one hand the whole undercover bit seems to add into that whole "girl from the wrong side of the tracks" that keeps getting hammered on, I do kind of get how this could work. After all in a straight combat situation we'd expect Faith to win. She's no slouch. Having to play a role to achieve her goal (especially one she's so uncomfortable with) challenges her character to a much greater degree and evens up the odds somewhat. I guess we'll see how well that plays out in the next issue.
It seems we're definitely supposed to be getting continual sexual tension with Buffy and Xander in this series. While I thought their scene was ok, and was glad to hear the storyline with Renee will continue, I'm starting to wonder if these continual teases are because there's really no romantic storyline planned for the Season and that in thinking there needs to be, Joss keeps tossing these scenes in. (I say Joss because given Allie's lengthy explanation it looks like Joss and Vaughn plotted the story together). I just don't feel it's necessary. That said I am not averse to shirtless Xander.
Also, to everyone who wondered how Warren could still be alive when he appeared as the First, well, Joss just screwed up. (Big time given Warren was in what, 3 episodes in S7?)
Lastly, I have finally seen JM's movie Shadow Puppets. The movie idea had never grabbed me but after listening to the discussions by the participants at the Queen Mary con, I thought maybe it had something to it. Unfortunately, it doesn't.
To say that it has plotholes you could drive a truck through would imply that there are parts that hold together. There aren't. Nothing in his film makes any kind of sense. Although some films make no sense because they are incoherent, that's not the case here. It does have a clear narrative to follow, it's just that none of the explanations make any sense.
Let's start with the good points. The acting is not bad, and most importantly, it's got a good female lead. This is not a horror movie that exploits women. Sure the only naked person we see is a woman, and yes, they are mostly in their underwear for the film, but then so are the guys. Also the leads spend more time clothed than in their underwear, I guess that's how we know they're important. Or maybe, given that both are actually doctors, it's just meant to be a hint. I think it's interesting that when the various characters die, we don't really see it with the three women (one literally happens in a box out of sight, and another is merely a reveal). But when the men do there is stabbing through the body and lots of blood. While the other women are a disturbed nymphomaniac a somewhat testy and frightened woman, and one we barely get to see before her death none is presented in a necessarily negative light. The nympho is creepy mostly as a red herring, and bravely stays behind with another character at one point, being rather fatalistic the whole time. The other two women wound up where they did because they were whistleblowers. Plus, frightened woman is, after all, entirely justified in feeling angry and frightened. And I did like the lead character of Kate, who, while she survives through blind luck, keeps her head through the film and leads by her caring example.
Unfortunately that's all I can say to recommend it. The monster is pretty unimpressive, both in its design and in its appearances which seem to be completely random for the convenience of the script. In fact I think the most damning thing I can say is that I see no real reason for it to exist. The rest of the story could have been (if better written) enough on its own. The stabbing shadows were kind of an interesting concept but, you know, I see black cloud demons every few weeks on Supernatural.
The pace of the film just adds to its dullness. The characters are subdued and scared most of the time. While that makes sense it doesn't make for a particularly riveting view, especially when most of the film is simply the characters wandering around hallways. The dialogue's ok, I don't remember anything particularly awful that wasn't somehow tied to the overall logic and exposition of the film.
And here's where the whole thing's just a big mess. I have no concept of how this timeline could make any sense. Supposedly the following things happened. Dr. JM tests out his memory-wipe thing on Amber first. Then he tests it out on Tony Todd's character. I assume that somewhere in between the nurse objects to his activities and talks to Stacy "at a party" to report what is going on in the center Stacy is a backer for. Stacy goes to confront JM, he mind-wipes both her and the nurse. At some point the computer tech and security guard also object to what's happening and he mind-wipes them as well. Then, apparently so irrational that he doesn't realize he has to stop his activities, he finally attempts to mind-wipe Jack in an effort to bring him out of his catatonia. Except it appears he's not catatonic, he is brain dead. Now according to the definition this is often characteristic of schizophrenia. The producer's wife is a doctor, she couldn't have been a medical consultant here? How could no one have known he was brain dead and had no mind to wipe, especially since Kate, not even having her memories, determines this on first seeing Jack?
Ok, anyway, JM then mind-wipes Jack and the monster is created. It starts killing people and Kate locks the facility down because… well I just don't know. The creature seems to go through walls and other solid objects (we see this when Stacy is killed) so what purpose does locking everyone in with a killing object serve? Being Kate you'd think her primary concern would be evacuating everyone as quickly as possible.
But ok, so the facility is locked down (somehow) and JM then mind-wipes her because he hopes to be able to escape with her one day and she would leave him otherwise. Then he locks her in a cell along with the others he's mind-wiped and waits. For what? For rescue to come from the outside?
Most importantly, none of the other mind-wipes could possibly have been done in less than 24 hours, so how is it that none of them remember anything except waking up in the abandoned facility? Wouldn't they have to have been awake for days and remember hearing the killings? For example Tony Todd says he's been shackled for hours. Yet having been the second person to go through "treatment" surely he should remember several days worth of his life. He should remember being shackled and by who. I could understand Kate not doing so since she was supposedly the last person to be "treated" but she should have been the only one.
And it also begs the question, how long have they been there? The place is big enough one would have assumed at least a dozen other people were there (judging by residual gore). How has no one missed them? Calls have been made and gone unanswered (though why the phone would ring at all given what the computer tech said I don't know). Shouldn't they be hungry? Thirsty?
I also was baffled by the computer network explanation about powering down the facility to unlock the outer door. I would have been willing to handwave that but the explanation that a computer in another room was automatically on a network seemed to me a real leap of logic the tech guy should have known better about.
Then there's the locker rooms and files. I can only assume that JM put all those together in the assumption that all the mind-wipes would survive, and that he could take on Jack's identity after rescue arrived (since there would be few around who would know differently, at least until he could get away). What makes less sense are the computer records. So somehow, while all this chaos was going on, and this monster was zipping around killing people, he took the time to edit Jack's file with his own stats and photo, planted information about the machine being used 8 times (conveniently forgetting the body that stayed where it was, thus allowing Kate to guess at the truth) instead of merely wiping out all the information so he could hide what had occurred? Um, ok. And why would the phone lines have been damaged? Did he do that on purpose instead of calling for help?
And there's so much more. What was the shadow thing around Amber that tech guy saw? How could this thing go into the lit rooms like the pool area (especially in the water which was brightly lit) when we were told it couldn't? Why would being in their underwear matter (do people's clothes really contribute that much to their identity? Why would that matter to this thing anyway?)
Then we have the film's ending. Both Kate and the security guy say there's only one way out of the place, through the locked door. But the locked door leads to an escape hatch out in the woods. So that's how all these people got to work in the morning? How all the equipment and stuff got delivered? How this facility was built? Through an escape hatch?
By the way, nice going Kate, leaving the hatch open behind you when you escape thus releasing this thing to come after you and anyone else around. Though as it appeared earlier it could have gotten out any time it wanted so, eh.
Lastly, nice authorial stand-in having the nerdy guy end up with the heroine, and having him played by the writer/director's brother.