Daredevil Season 3 - TV Review (With a Marvel/Netflix preamble for good measure)

Here's something a bit different. Let's talk about one of my favorite TV shows, Daredevil (NOTE: While this will not contain any spoilers for Daredevil Season 3, this will contain spoilers for most of these shows due to the preamble and needed references for the review. Just a warning).

Before we get to the review, I want to give my brief thoughts on the Marvel/Netflix shows (Feel free to skip to the review if you like). These series and the idea of a grittier side of the MCU started out extremely well with the show at hand, Daredevil's first season, which introduced one of the MCU's finest heroes in the titular character and one of its greatest villains in Wilson Fisk aka The Kingpin. It had great action and a solid story framed by a solid cast of characters. Overall, a fantastic first season that showed plenty of promise for these shows, and, basing off of the next series this Netflix/Marvel collaboration gave us, it was definitely not a fluke.

Next is what I genuinely believe it to be the best season out of all of the Marvel/Netflix and the greatest season of superhero television period, Jessica Jones season 1. While the action isn't as well thought-out as Daredevil, the character work is fantastic, there's always an uneasy tension in every episode, and Kilgrave. Just. Kilgrave. This guy is my favorite villain in anything Marvel, and the best portrayal of a comic book villain since Heath Ledger's Joker. I could talk all day about how great of a character he is and how amazing a villain/hero dynamic he and Jessica Jones have, and his death scene is perfectly satisfying. It's not a very "superhero-like" show, but it's great nonetheless. Every episode of the season has a purpose and every episode is effective. Even the parts you could argue aren't very good end quickly and they never bothered me.

Then after that, well, no season topped nor matched the greatness of those first couple of seasons. Daredevil season 2 came out next, and while the first four episodes focusing on The Punisher/Daredevil story-line were excellent and some of the best material in the entire MCU, it became an uneven and overlong set-up for The Defenders once Elecktra took the focus away from The Punisher, even if The Punisher stuff was still great and seeing Fisk back was awesome. It's an overall decent season, but a far cry from the amazing first season.

Luke Cage came out next, and I like this one more than most people. Luke Cage is a charismatic lead, Harlem is a fantastic setting, and the first half in general is fantastic. The problems with the first season come in the second half. When Cottonmouth dies and Diamondback comes in, it begins to lack a compelling lead villain, which is exactly what this show needed. I love this season, but I love it more than I probably should considering the dip in quality after the first half (Luke Cage is also my favorite Defender, so I have a slight bias).

Then Iron Fist happened. That show sucked. I haven't even bothered with the second season because the first one was so painful to sit through. It's one of the worst seasons of television that I've watched in its entirety. The main character is annoying and just sucks, the action is poorly choreographed and shot terribly, and, despite having a few things I liked, was overall uninteresting and obnoxious.

The Defenders was the next to be released, and while I really enjoyed it and it was an overall satisfying crossover, the villains were underdeveloped and Iron Fist wasn't too much better than before. Then The Punisher came out, and it was also good, but it was far too long and almost unbearably slow at points, even if the pay-off and brutal action in the last few episodes is incredibly satisfying. I haven't seen Jessica Jones season 2 all the way through, but what what I've seen (8 episodes), it's a major dip in quality from the first season and heavily disappointing. However, Luke Cage season 2 was surprisingly really good. Sure, it suffers from being overlong and the plot is rather simplistic, but the characters are at their best here. Basically everyone gets moments to shine, especially the villains, who steal the show (Mariah, Shades, and the new villain Bushmaster are all top notch) and Luke Cages' character arc is fantastic. This show already had great characters, but this took them and made them even better than the first season, and the new additions were all welcome. This is a legitimate improvement from the first season that surpassed my expectations.

So yeah, these shows are almost never been completely consistent throughout their history, but I still enjoy them for the most part and they've given some of the best material the MCU has to offer (You could make an argument for the best with Daredevil season 1 or Jessica Jones season 1 being the best material in the MCU and I wouldn't have a problem with it). So, where does Daredevil season 3 stand among them? Well, they did it. We actually got a season that's on the level of quality of the first two seasons. This season easily stands among the best Netflix shows.

Basically the plot of this season is after The Defenders, when everyone thinks Matt is dead, he's actually alive, as shown in the final scene of that show. While he tries to recover, Wilson Fisk aka Kingpin cuts a deal with the FBI to help them find other criminals by taking him out of prison and keeping him under house arrest at a nice hotel, while he slowly puts a sinister plan in place. When Matt finds out about this, he has to become Daredevil once again and take down Fisk once and for all. With no other Defenders (Outside characters are barely even mentioned; Jessica Jones is referenced once and The Punisher once), this is Matt's journey and his alone.

One big reason why Daredevil season 1 worked so well is because of Wilson Fisk, and seeing him back is extremely welcome. He's one of my favorite villains in anything comic-book related, and here he's as good as ever. His role is mostly as a manipulator this season and he rarely ever uses brute force, even though you do see that in parts and it's great when he does. His presence is felt throughout the entirety of the show, and it casts an ominous shadow that's feels like it could end Daredevil or any of the other characters instantly. It also helps that Vincent D'Onorfrio is at his absolute best here, and he embraces everything that made his portrayal so compelling in the first place. He also gets a lot of screen time, and in a couple episodes, he gets more screen-time than Daredevil himself. This is a case of a lot of a good thing is not too much of a good thing. It excels the show to new heights to have a villain this good.

Charlie Cox gives his best performance yet as the titular hero as well. He proves once again his casting was pitch perfect by beautifully presenting the most emotionally damaged we've seen ever this character. We've seen this character down on this luck before, but not ever on this level. He lost Elecktra, Fisk is ruining his life again, and he gets the crap beat out of him more often then not. Seriously, if I had a nickel for every time he got some major injury, I'd make Bill Gates look homeless, but him being so out of it makes his character arc more compelling. I've heard complaints that his character weak this season, but I actually like that. Both physically and mentally he's pushed to his limits, and he learns to both fully embrace Daredevil, but also become Matt Murdock, the man he once was.

The supporting cast also got a lot of great moments this season, both familiar and new faces. Karen Page gets a ton of screen time, maybe even more than usual. She, like Matt, is pushed to the limits by Fisk and becomes more compelling than ever. They spend a lot of time exploring her past, which I also really enjoyed, and her dynamic with Matt was especially great, particularly in the later episodes.

Foggy's pretty good here too. He didn't have as much screen time as I was expecting, but he brought a good amount of optimism to the show and while his arc wasn't the most compelling this season, I still enjoyed it and it didn't take away from the season.

However, some of the best characters came in the form on the newcomers. Special Agent Nadeem was a welcome addition to the cast and brought a great character arc with him. I can't talk about it too much without spoiling it, since it's a key part of the season, but it's effective and only gets better as the show goes on. At first, I didn't how to feel about him, as his scenes didn't really feel like what I feel this show should be. However, he grew on me throughout the show and then his arc clicked. It made sense in the grander scheme of the story and I loved it.

My favorite new addition was in a form of a new character in the form of Agent "Dex" Poindexter aka Bullseye, who makes for one of the most interesting and twisted characters in any of these shows. I really didn't like him at first, but it was episode 5 that everything made sense and I got to really love this character. To say the least, he's a messed-up character who works off of Fisk extremely well and it made for one of my favorite parts of the season. He's probably not what you were expecting if you wanted a more "traditional" Bullseye (I don't think he's ever called that), but it's a welcome surprise. He makes for a great physical match for Daredevil and a compelling character at that.

Now, let's talk about one of the main reasons this show is talked about so much; The action. This show has had some of the best action in the entire MCU, and this season does not disappoint on any level on those fronts.These scenes are brutal, bloody, and extremely well-choreographed and filmed. Whenever there's a fight scene, you can tell thought was put into it to make it as good as possible. Basically every action scene is good, but the best one is early on in the season. This is normal for Daredevil, as it's become tradition to have an action scene with a long tracking shot somewhere in the first few episodes, and this one might be the best yet. Even if it's not the best one, it's certainly the most impressive. The scene goes on for eleven minutes, and includes great fight choreographed action, scenes of intense acting, and not a single cut. It's stunning that they were able to pull it off, let alone this well. It's one of the most impressive things I've seen in the MCU's entire catalog, and I've seen some really impressive stuff come out of this universe. There are plenty of other brutal fights, like basically everyone with Bullseye, which are intense and well thought-out. What I also love about these fights is that they feel character driven. There's not a fight there because we need an exciting action sequence, but they have a purpose and always lead the characters to further character development or into a new plot development. These are scenes with purpose that also act as entertainingly brutal sequences, and I appreciate that.

What I also found impressive is this season's pacing was terrific. Even with many of the best seasons of these shows, the pacing drags at points and it feels like 13 episodes is too much. Daredevil's second season felt a few episodes too long, as did The Punisher, and Iron Fist suffered from existing. Here, I maybe felt it for 30 minutes of the entire season. That's not even a whole episode. Not since Jessica Jones' first season has one of these shows been paced so well. There's not an episode that doesn't add something to the plot or the characters. Simply put, there's no episodes worthy of the skip here. It's rare for these shows to earn the 13 episode season, but this one does. There's barely any filler, and even the filler that's here is minimal and doesn't distract too far from the plot. Yeah, a few episodes are kind of slow, but they're meant to be and I didn't have a problem with it.

I really don't have much negative to say about this season. I guess since this is done by a different showrunner (Like every season of this show), the characters can sometimes feel a bit different, but they never feel out of character; It's just under someone different and I like and respect their vision.

So yeah, this season actually surpassed my expectations. This is superhero TV at its finest and this honestly might be my favorite season of Daredevil so far. The way the story flows, the characters, the action, the acting, it's all fantastic. Almost everything has a purpose and the story is one of the most compelling in anything Marvel. If you're a fan of this show and if you haven't already, check this season out, it's 100% worth your time. This is a great back-to-basics story that takes everything great about this show and dials to the max (So no Iron Fist. Yay!).

A+

Also, for good measure, here's my current ranking of these seasons (I haven't finished Jessica Jones season 2 or bothered watching any of Iron Fist season 2, so they're not on here)

1. Jessica Jones Season 1

2. Daredevil Season 3

3. Daredevil Season 1

4. Luke Cage Season 2

5. The Defenders

6. Luke Cage Season 1

7. Daredevil Season 2

8. The Punisher Season 1

9. Iron Fist Season 1

Disturbed - Evolution Review/Some Good Albums I Recommend

Famous 2000s metal/hard rock act Disturbed are back at it again with their 7th studio album, Evolution. Even though I'm not a huge Disturbed fan, I have liked a song here and there and a statement from vocalist David Draiman made me curious, especially after hearing the first couple singles. He said something along the lines of this album was going to do for them what The Black Album did to Metallica. So what did The Black Album do, and how good of a record is it? Well, The Black Album is one of Metallica's best records and it them in several innovative directions that were great new turns for the band and it not just changed them, but it made metal more "Acceptable" in mainstream music. I'm not a rocket scientist, but that's a pretty big deal. So what does Evolution do for both Disturbed and hard rock/metal as a genre?

Let's start with the beginning, the lead single and opening track, Are You Ready. I heard this the day it was released, and I felt there was cause for concern. It's one of the most standard Disturbed songs I've ever heard. After it was done I thought, "Yep. That was a Disturbed song.". The thing is, this isn't a particularly good one. The lyrics are incredibly repetitive and boring "Rise up against your oppressors" cliches, the guitar work in average, the bass is lost in the mix, the drums feel phoned in, and Draiman's vocals are a bit grading. Still, it's just one song. It may have just been a bad pick for a lead single. Maybe the next singles and the album's deep cuts will will up to Draiman's statement.

The second pre-release single, A Reason To Fight, is much different stylistically speaking. It's an acoustic song more in line with their Sound of Silence cover rather than something like 10000 Fists (They even got the same guy who directed the Sound of Silence video to direct this music video). That would be fine, but this song is vapid and boring. It's a track about recovery from addiction or thoughts of suicide, which can be powerful if done right, but it's not. Like Are You Ready, it feels lacking and underwritten. It's not as grading as that song is, but it's more boring. Nothing interesting is going on the instrumentals, which I'd actually be fine with if the lyrics were interesting or well-written, but they're about as deep as a Christian contemporary song. This is when it hit me; This album is going to bomb... Really. Hard. I dreaded listening to it, and here we here. A perfect descriptor of the band's process for this album comes from the third pre-release single The Best Ones Lie, which contains the line, "So how about you don't even try?".  That signaled everything. If I read deeper into that line, I wouldn't have listened to this. To put it bluntly, this album sucked. Big time.

There's a whole lot to say, so let's just get started. This album already hits filler on the second song, No More, which just feels like Are You Ready 2.0 and I can't believe I remembered this song. In Another Time is a standout, but not in a particularly good way. The instrumental is boring, and it feels like Draiman is an old man complaining about how young people are online too much (There's literally a line in the song that says addresses it in an extremely blunt manner in the chorus). While I do agree mostly with what he's saying (I'm a bit addicted to tech myself, not gonna lie), it's not memorable and it feels whiny.

Speaking of whiny, the third and final pre-release single The Best Ones Lie is exactly that, and it comes off as pathetic. I think it's about the fans complaining about the quality of their music and betraying them, but can you blame them at this point? If their music is of this quality nowadays, of course the fans are going to be upset. This is up there for my least favorite track on the entire record, and there's really only one other competitor, and that's Hold On To Memories, one of the many acoustic tracks on this record. Holy crap, this might be the most cliched song I've heard all year. The lyrics about not forgetting memories, but moving on is super cheesy and derivative of other, just as boring songs. It's the longest song on the record, and I feel every second of it. I can find lyrics this heartfelt on a Wal-Mart birthday card.

Speaking of the ballads, they take up almost half of the entire LP, and they don't work. It's like someone in the band went, "Hey, our Sound of Silence cover did really well. Let's just do that a million times!" and the rest of the band just went with it because they wanted to pay their bills. If they were decent songs, I wouldn't mind, but the instrumentation is dull and the lyrics, which is arguably the most important part of songs like this, aren’t strong enough to hold their own. Heck, I don't even understand why the track Watch You Burn is acoustic. Even Hold Unto Memories, A Reason To Fight, and Already Gone feel like they work best in an acoustic format. What maddens me about this track is that it could've had a great verse-to-chorus build-up if they went electric. The lyrics are also a bit better on this one, albeit not great, and I see potential for a decent song if it was heavier. Maybe not an all-time favorite, but a track that's worth checking out, at least. That's more than I could say for the finished product. It feels weird because I feel like it was written electric, but then that one band member or all of them for all I know went up and said, "Let's hit this sucker with The Sound of Silence! Yay, now it's as bland as Nickelback!".

Okay, I guess now's the time to give the album a little credit. I kinda liked Saviour of Nothing, which is about SJWs becoming what they swore not to become hence the title. There's a bit more punch to this one, the lyrics, while not great, work well enough and I kind of enjoyed listening to it. The acoustic closer Already Gone is actually kind of ok. Sure, the lyrics repeat too much, but Draiman's vocal performance works really well here. I dig these lower, more subtle vocals, and it's a rare moment where he's not overselling the track. Still though, it overstays its welcome and while well-intended, it falls flat and becomes a bit forgettable.

So yeah, this is not an evolution for Disturbed. They're just tackling ground they've already tackled before, and under doing it at that. It's definitely Disturbed, but it's not them at their best; It's them at their most uninspired, bland, and grading. This album was a slog to get through and one of my least favorites of the entire year, and arguably the least inspired one I've heard this year. At least with an album like Five Finger Death Punch's And Justice For None was at least somewhat inspired in points. That album was terrible and whiny and immature , but they had inspiration. Not particularly good inspiration, but it was definitely there (Don't listen to that album, either; It's awful). Here, Disturbed was on autopilot and just wanted to pay their bills. I think you can say I do not recommend this. Maybe check out Saviour of Nothing, but ignore the rest.

RATING: D

Anyway, since I can't recommend this to any of you, here are some albums I do recommend. I'm thinking about making this a thing where I talk about at least a couple albums that are worth your time at the end of every month. We'll see, though. Maybe I'll throw in a movie or two if I see something I think is really good. So, while the month isn't over, I feel there is enough great material to do this already, so let's get going!

Here are 4 albums I feel are worth listening to in October (In no particular order):

Estrons, You Say I'm Too Much, I Say You're No Enough

A great punk-inspired pop record (This isn't anything like Blink 182 or typical pop-punk), this Welsh band pulled off an impressive debut. This is a short, fun punch of raw intensity and stellar hooks. Every song is solid and while some of the instrumentation sounds a bit too similar in points, this band has character and knows how to write a great jam. Probably my favorite of the month so far.

Essential Tracks: Lilac, Strangers, Body, Cameras, Jesus...

Ice Nine Kills, The Silver Scream

A metal-core album with songs inspired by horror movies like A Nightmare On Elm Street (The American Nightmare), Friday The 13th (Thank God It's Friday), and Jaws (Rocking The Boat), this album is cheesy as I'll get out, but it's fun and energized. It's also a great record to listen to this Halloween.

Essential Tracks: The American Nightmare, Thank God It's Friday, Rocking The Boat, The World In My Hands, IT Is The End

Greta Van Fleet, Anthem of the Peaceful Army

For those looking for some 70s throwback rock music, this is for you. While Greta sounds a lot like Led Zeppelin, they still are a solid group and talented in their own right. From the fun radio single When The Curtain Falls and the stellar slow burn opener Age of Man, there's quite a bit of good music on here. There are a few tracks I skip on the re-listen, but it's still absolutely worth checking out.

Essential Tracks: Age of Man, When The Curtain Falls, Watching Over, Anthem

High On Fire, Electric Messiah

I admittedly need to listen to this one a couple more times, since it is pretty long (56, almost 57 minutes) but this is a great stoner metal record with killer composition and inspiration from Motorhead. It's a bit lengthy for my taste, but it's a very well made record.

Essential Tracks: Spewn From The Earth, Sanctioned Annihilation, Freebooter, Drowning Dog (Like I said, I haven't heard the album enough. These track picks could change.)

Fight The Fury, Still Breathing

Formed by Skillet front man John Cooper, this is an outlet to get out his metal side. This EP is basically Collide-era Skillet with some more modern metal influence and slightly cleaner production. However, the songs are pretty strong for the most part and it's a fun listen, especially if you like Skillet.

Essential Tracks: My Demons, Still Burning

What makes a thriller film a thriller film?

Here's a link to what defines the thrillers films genre in my opinion. I wrote it for school, and thought it was pretty good, so I decided to post it.


https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vQqooONcozTOOvOHvCCmSgTSM8kvfZMJLwxHnmK-aFnYvHuZtVDRq_DYivLau86ybSSxk0cfcrwWm1U/pub

Problems I Have With Christian Contemporary Music

"Sing to the LORD a new song; Sing to the LORD, all the earth.". That's Psalm 96:1 from the Bible, and perhaps one of the best iconic verses in all of the Bible. It proclaims that worship is essential, and all the Earth should sing songs to God, song filled creativity and joy, or possibly even doubt and frustration with God's ways. It sends out a commission of sorts for creativity in praising God, but unfortunately, I fell like we're falling short nowadays.

Listen to the top 10 songs on the Praise and Worship chart on Billboard right now. Which artists stand out? Who's the most creative and original with their music? I don't know about you, but whenever I listen to Christian radio, there's few who stand out in any way, good or bad. Every artist sounds like they're trying to mimic modern Hot 100 hits. Think about that. God urges us to sing a new song, not be derivative. Here are some specific problems I have with Christian music.

• Every song feels the same 

This is a pretty general point, but I feel it's one of the strongest points against Christian music. Look up the lyrics to the top songs of Christian radio, and read them. Do you see similar lyrical themes? This is to be expected, since this is music used to glorify God and his power, but it's not done creatively. Creativity is key to creating good music or at least music that catches your eye. The thing is, these lyrics are all about worshiping God forever or how he's brought so much into your life, and there's not much variety. Sure, they're good messages that I stand by as a Christian, but the stanza are about as deep as a puddle. Read the lyrics to the song You Say by Lauren Daigle, a Christian song that actually broke the Hot 100, and notice how mediocre they are. Fighting voices in your head, God saying you're something better when you think you're glorifying God, and stating you believe. It's some of the most cliched lyric writing in the book. I've written songs of about this quality lyrically within a 10 to 15 minute span. I'm not a great lyricist or anything; In fact, if anything, I'm terrible, but I know the difference between a set of good, well-written stanza from  mediocre, uninteresting and repetitive lyrics. I'd suggest listening to and looking up the lyrics to Liability by Lorde, which is a secular song, but listen to it. Visualize the images in your head. Let the song run through you. Do you feel the passion and the emotion poured out in the track? That's what I feel Christian music should be; Passionate and real. Maybe not as depressing as this particular song is (I get close to tears every time I hear it), but taking the time to write something that makes you feel empowered, depressed, or possibly angry. That's the power of great lyricism. 

The instrumentation and production is pretty mediocre too. Listen to these songs and listen for the instrumentation. What's there? Unless you came across something else, you're probably hearing basic, washed out piano notes, either that "happy", upbeat drumbeat, or the more subtle, laid back choice, and maybe some simple acoustic or electric guitar. Simple instrumentation is not a bad thing. Even though I am bias towards composition of an extremely high level (*cough* Rush *cough*), simple melodies and hooks are fun if done right. Take for instance AC/DC and albums like Highway To Hell or Back In Black. Those songs are ridiculously simple, but they work because they're so much fun and have a unique character. With this, I swear I'm hearing the same 5 instrumentals just remixed or altered slightly. There's nothing charming about them, and they lack character or any creative passion. Even the ones that stand out like Rend Collective only sound slightly different because they have folk influences. And yeah, you could argue that these songs focus on lyrical content and the instrumental is secondary. However, when the lyrical content is shallow and boring, at least give me a decent instrumental of some sort and I might give it a pass, but every song sounds the same because of how repetitive and formulaic they are.

• Copying Mainstream Radio

I already touched on this somewhat, so I'll condense this. When you heard those songs, didn't they sound heavily influenced by modern radio? That's probably because it was made with that audience in mind. It wants to reach for the people to listen to radio stations who play mainstream artists, and there are even various Christian artists who are arguably ripping off their sounds. Lauren Daigle, who I previously mentioned, sounds like a more upbeat Adele, and For King & Country sound like Imagine Dragons. I encourage you hear to hear at least one song from each of these artists and tell me they don't sound at least somewhat similar. It's not a bad thing to reach for this audience if you want more people to become part of the Church, but at least try to have your own voice. I can't tell half of these artists apart because they sound so derivative at both modern artists and even of other Christians artists in their scene. There's almost no way to tell them all apart.

Here we go. Of the three points I decided to put on this list, this one ticked me off the most. Here it goes...

• They're not singing new songs

I touched on this somewhat before on the first point as well, but I want to go further here. This is very personal to me, and I get angry about this. Remember the Bible verse I started with? Psalm 96:1, which I believe should be the foundation of Christian music. It's a simple statement, but a rather poignant one for me when I look at Christian Contemporary Music. As I said before, the verse states that we should sing new songs to God, as should the world, which technically, we are doing. The problem is that they sound passionless, but we listen to them and they don't improve anyway. Ask an atheist about Christian music. What will he/she probably say? Perhaps say something along the lines of "It's pathetic" or "It's boring" or maybe "It's uninspired". I don't want this to be an attack of Christian artists, I really don't. This is just a way to convey my thoughts in this manner, and I can sound harsh. I bet many of these artists are genuinely good people who have strong beliefs, but your music isn't quite there. You're not reaching many people, and the people you have reached don't have much of a reason to convert other then they heard a middling song on the radio. Don't appeal to a mainstream audience just because you want to bring new followers in. Be yourself, take the time to be creative for God, and figure out a way to bring a true new song and voice to God. Don't conform to the ways of the world; Make the world better by being you.

That's basically all I have to say about this topic. I wrote this quickly because my problems with the industry are growing by the day. If you want a good Christian artist that I absolutely love, check out Benjamin James. He's a indie folk singer-songwriter that even many a Christian hipster wouldn't know about (Don't worry; I'm not a hipster), and his 2016 album Penumbra is one of the most beautiful, surreal, and passionate albums I've ever heard. It's legitimately in my top 10-15 albums of all time. This is what I feel Christian music should be, and I hope you do too. It's for the best of the Kingdom of God. If you disagree with what I say, that's fine. I'm just some guy on the internet. Enjoy life. 

Prisoners: Film Review

Prisoners is a 2013 thriller film directed by Denis Villeneuve and starring Hugh Jackman and Jake Gyllenhall, and it focuses on the kidnapping of two young girls and tracking down the kidnapping, all the while the families of the kidnapped children face complex moral dilemmas throughout the picture. This is a film that has been on my radar for a while, because of the talent involved. Hugh Jackman and Jake Gyllenhall are two remarkable actors and Denis Villeneuve is one of the biggest names in film right now, but I had no idea what this film was about. Now that I've seen it, it exceeded my expectations. This is a remarkable film.

Throughout the entirety of Prisoners, I was engaged and couldn't take my eyes off the screen, and much of that is due to the performances. The cast here is fantastic, especially Hugh Jackman and Jake Gyllenhall, who give two amazing performances. Jackman plays the father of one of the girl who was kidnapped, and he portrays the emotion of this man in utter desperation and anger so well. Throughout the film, his character does some things that make you question his sanity, but they make sense and Jackman portrays the rage in this character perfectly. It's a very "showy" performance with a lot of shouting and such. This performance could've been incredibly distracting, but it strikes the right tone and feels real.

Gyllenhall's performance by comparison is more subdued for the most part. He plays the detective sent out to find these girls, and he does a great job at playing a character whose subtly complex, and much of that is due to his performance. It's the little things Gyllenhall does with this performance that make the character more interesting. None of it feels out of place, and it develops with the story. He does have a couple of scenes where he does get into that showy zone, but it fits when he does it. He really only has those moments when it's necessary, and he plays them so well.

The story is also a very interesting one. It takes many turns that I did not see coming (NOTE: I'm bad at guessing plot twists, so take from that what you will) and it continues to build on the tension of the last scene. This movie is long, at about 2 and-a-half hours, and you never feel its run-time because of the films raw intensity that grows and the twists just add to engrossing nature of this movie. It's extremely hard to watch and I almost had to turn away in parts, but I couldn't keep my eyes off the screen. What these characters do is really terrible sometimes, but it raises questions of morality tied into a fascinating story. These questions of morality tie in perfectly to the story, and don't feel forced or unnecessary. If anything, they're the most important of the film and they make you think. I've been thinking about these decisions these characters have made ever since I watched it. It's simply provocative from start to finish.

When it comes down to it, the biggest reason this film works is Denis Villeneuve's masterful direction. This man is one of the best directors working today. His 2016 film Arrival is not just my favorite film of that year, but one of my favorites of all time. He makes this potentially generic, predictable, and possibly boring story into something intriguing and special. He makes sure around every corner, there's something interesting going on. Pretty much all of this film's building intensity comes from how he directs this film. From the time I'm writing this, I've seen the films once, and it was almost two weeks ago now. It's stuck with me so well because Villeneuve is a master of building suspense, and this film proves exactly how good he is with that.

I have very little to say in terms of flaws with this movie, which speaks to how good this film is. Most of my complaints come from the fact that this movie is incredibly draining, and it almost verges on being too much so in parts, but even then, that's more of a minor nitpick than anything. My big problem with this movie comes from the actor who plays Hugh Jackman's son. I thought he was not great here to say the least. Luckily, he's only prominently featured in a few scenes, and the other actors around him are doing a great job, so it isn't a massive complaint. However, it is noticeable and bothered me when he took center stage.

However, that's really it when it comes to complaint. This film has just infected my mind with its questions of morality and its haunting story. The performances are incredible, it has a great score and cinematography, and Denis Villeneuve builds a great story filled with twists and turns throughout, with tension a plenty. Absolutely check this one out. Just let it be known this is NOT one for children and it is extremely hard to watch, and it's emotionally draining.

A