Today's News: S.H.I.E.L.D. show is a go / La Cinquieme Saison mini-review

This news has been on MovieScene mere minutes and it's already available here:

http://www.moviescene.nl/p/147013/marvels_s.h.i.e.l.d._officieel_een_serie

Personally I can only say: bring it! Yes, the overall story synopsis sounds like a bland retreat of shows like The X-Files or The 4400, but hey, I liked those shows and I like Marvel so I still have no reason not to be thoroughly excited. Plus, I've been a great admirer of the way Marvel is constructing its larger cinematic universe in theaters and I'm quite intrigued by the question of how they will continue keeping this up on the small screen. After all, it's one thing to have a series of movies that are referring to one another culminating in one big giant super movie (The Avengers, remember?), but it's quite another to incorporate a TV series into this whole. TV shows just work via different logistics, different methods of production, different ways to keep their principal actors in check, etc. It's laudable ABC dares to take the risk, but also rather understandable considering the box office results from both The Avengers last year and currently Iron Man 3 (though the latter didn't deserve it as much as the former unfortunately). Be it in the TV business or in Hollywood, you can't keep a good exec away from the promise of being showered in precious dough, eh? And what's up with that likeable Agent Coulson playing the lead of this show, despite having died in The Avengers? Seems there's already one big mystery to solve to begin with.

With Marvel, Joss Whedon and TV (the last two categories alone would pique my interest already, really) all mixed together, I can safely say that however Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. will turn out, it will be interesting on multiple levels, regardless of its eventual quality or lack thereof. I for one think it might actually happen to be a good show, and I'll definitely seek it out to shield me from boredom!


By the way, it's been quite a while since I posted a review (mini or otherwise) on this blog of mine. Guess I should go and remedy this critical drought, and why not start now? So here's a little review to let you know I have not forgotten about posting other things than my pieces for MovieScene. I saw this fascinating little film at Provadja recently:

La Cinquième Saison

Rating: ****/*****, or 7/10

A poetic European look at Apocalyptic cinema, this film deals with a small rural community which is confronted with the sudden emergence of a new season. Nihilistic in nature, it falls between winter and spring and is basically a season of nothingness: there's no snow or rain, but nature stays dead as nothing grows, except for the desperation of the townspeople as their resources dwindle. Soon people go to ever increasing lengths just to stay alive or to explain this unusual break in seasonal patterns, to shocking results. Young girls prostitute themselves simply for food, while the town's outsider is branded a cause to all the town's dismays, targeted as a human sacrifice and burned alive. Though much more esoteric in tone than regular end-of-the-world dramas, the film proves all as haunting and unsettling as it successfully registers the dark side of man and his unwavering ability for cruelty when faced with inexplicable catastrophe and basic survival. Also explored is mankind's role in this world under the uncompromising rule of the environment (though it is never addressed whether mankind itself is at fault for the creation of this fifth season), which can still play hell with our sense of civilization and kindness when it comes down to creating unsustainable living conditions that make society crumble. The visual imagery the film resorts to is both gritty and raw as the material demands, but at times surprisingly off-beat and confusing. The Apocalypse has truly gone arthouse, as La Cinquième Saison proves.