Dawn of the Dead

I read last night that the legendary zombie film director George A. Romero has passed away. So, I thought I might spend a moment to look at one his best and most influential films: the 1978 cult classic, Dawn of the Dead.

The set up is this: the recently deceased are returning to life and attacking the living, and after three weeks society has collapsed. In Philadelphia, TV station staff members Stephen and Francine plan to steal the station's traffic helicopter and make their escape with police officers Roger and Peter. While stopping for supplies at a shopping mall, they eventually decide to stay and establish a stronghold to wait out the apocalypse - while indulging in their materialistic desires.

I think the opening scene is one of the most ingenious methods of exposition I've encountered in film. Taking place in the TV station where Francine and Stephen work, there are no zombies - just a futile attempt to keep things organised as everything descends into chaos. The zombies show up in the next scene as Roger and Peter are part of a police raid on a housing project - with some possible social commentary.

Both groups of characters soon realise that it's best to cut and run, but they are nonetheless sympathetic and you want to root for them. I think they work off each other really well - especially Roger and Peter as they hatch a plan to block the entrances to the mall using lorries from a nearby depot. I hope to make use of their dynamic as an influence on my own writing.

If you're interested, I recommend the American theatrical cut. While the European version is well-paced and focuses more on the action, they cut a lot out which helped the world-building.

So, rest in peace Mr Romero, and thanks for the great legacy you left on the popular culture. And if by some bizarre occurrence you do come back, we'll just head to The Winchester, have a nice cold pint, and wait for all this to blow over. After all, we couldn't have done that without you.

Castlevania - The Series

I'm normally wary of TV shows and movies based on video games, but I did just finish watching the Castlevania series which premiered on Netflix this month - based specifically on the NES title, Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse.

We open in Wallachia in 1455. Lisa, a young woman who aspires to be a doctor, travels to the castle of the reclusive Vlad Dracula Tepes to seek his advanced knowledge. Dracula, voiced by Graham McTavish, is intrigued by her courage and offers to teach her what he knows while she helps him regain his faith in humanity. Well, it's still a better love story than Twilight. Sorry, I couldn't resist making that.

Anyway, we flash forward twenty years and Lisa is burned at the stake as a witch. Dracula learns of this and warns the people that he will destroy everyone in Wallachia in a year's time. One year later, the archbishop laughs off this prophecy when karma comes to bite in the form of Dracula's demonic army which took a year to summon. The next three episodes follow Richard Armitage as Trevor Belmont, a jaded monster hunter from a disgraced noble family who's walking the earth. Soon, he ends up saving an old scholar from religious authorities and gains a companion in the form of the magic user Sypha Belnaldes, with the finale seeing them joined by Adrian "Alucard" Tepes, the half-human half-vampire son of Dracula who had opposed his father's plan.

There are only four episodes, and the first two are mostly just world-building. There seems to be a greater focus on opposing the region's corrupt church leadership than fighting monsters, but given the setting, I can kind of understand that - power corrupts, after all.

When the action does take off, it goes for gritty fight scenes rather than entertaining ones - the fights are shorter but more intense. The anime-inspired visuals do well to bring in the Gothic feeling which is reminiscent of the old Hammer Horrors. There's plenty of snarky dialogue, and I do quite like the way they made Dracula an almost sympathetic villain.

It's not the best series around, but it's better than I thought it would be, and it's kept me interested enough to want to see the next series.

But if there's anything I will deride, it's the lack of the music from the games. The score is orchestral, but there aren't any versions of Vampire Killer, Bloody Tears, or Beginnings. Look for those online to hear what you're missing.

The Musketeers

Yeah, I'm procrastinating again. Between a dayjob and indulging my quarter-life crisis by grinding Emperor: Rise of the Middle Kingdom, I'm also doing the occasional Netflix binge. And this time I've finished watching through The Musketeers, the BBC's adaptation of the novel by Alexandre Dumas. Well, I say it's an adaptation, but really it's a series of stories using the same characters and setting.

We follow Luke Pasqualino as d'Artagnan, a Gascon farm boy who travels to Paris and ends up seeking to join The Musketeers, an elite group of soldiers who protect and serve the childish King Louis XIII and his consort Anne of Austria, played respectively by Ryan Gage and Alexandra Dowling. d'Artagnan is taken under the wing of three of regiment's finest men: Athos, a nobleman with a shady past played by Tom Burke; Porthos, a boisterous carouser played by Howard Charles; and Aramis, a womanising yet deeply religious libertine played by Santiago Cabrera. The series follows the four as they go on numerous adventures while serving under Captain Treville, played by Hugo Speer.

The first series features Peter Capaldi as Cardinal Richelieu - an amoral high-ranking politician who schemes and plots for both his country and his own benefit. Capaldi's previous role had been Malcolm Tucker in The Thick of It, in which he plays an amoral high-ranking politician who schemes and plots for both his country and his own benefit. To the show's credit, Cardinal Tucker doesn't seek the throne for himself like in most adaptations. But he does seek to control it, and is ruthless to the core - often utilising his agent Milady de Winter, played by Mamie McCoy. However, a lot of the stories tend to have a villain of the week. After Capaldi left to work on Doctor Who, we get a new antagonist in the form of Marc Warren's more unpredictable Comte de Rochefort.

While there are a fair few dark moments, the series overall is your typical mindless swashbuckling with swordfights, romance, conspiracies etc. The drama isn't always great, but the chemistry between the main characters keeps me interested enough to watch through to the end. When you get down to it, all you really need is some action.

Yes, it's a little cliched, and it's odd that everyone in 17th Century France sounds like they're from Eastenders - yet anyone who isn't French speaks with their native accent (with the exception of one very Irish-sounding Italian priest).

All three seasons are available on Netflix at the time of writing, and I do recommend them to pass the time. It's all for fun and fun for all.