Westworld (2016-22)

Westworld was supposed to be HBO's successor to Game of Thrones in terms of epic fantasy and expense and violence and nudity. And it had a promising start. Season 1 was top notch TV. It delivered on the spectacle and the mind-blowing twists. And it had a philosophical bent to it. There were some really beautiful, poignant episodes--I specifically remember Akechata's Season 2 episode 8 titled Kiksuya. Season 2 was actually quite good in retrospect with its biblical scope, but I didn't see that until the end. While watching season 2, I found it to be kind of a drag. Seasons 3 and 4 did absolutely nothing for me. They were so complicated and boring. How did they lose the magic of Season 1? It became a totally different show. Once they left the park and entered "reality" it became too convoluted. And it's not like season 1 was even easy to follow. I'm glad they finally pulled the plug because I had felt obligated to slog through the last two seasons.

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay--Part 2 (2015)

This is a much darker film than other blockbuster series. And that tone matches the the book but I didn't really like the last book. The Hunger Games series was great because of the hunger games. But the last two films don't feature a hunger games. They focus instead on rebellion, which is complicated, cynical and messy. Much of this final movie is spent filming propaganda. And there is no glamour in propaganda. There is no glamour in war. It makes you long for the extravagance of the earlier films. Jennifer Lawrence can do no wrong-- she'll forever be known as The Girl on Fire. The novelty has kind of worn off now that dystopian teen fiction is everywhere, only exacerbated by splitting the final book (arguably the worst one) into two films.

Confirmation (2016)

HBO continues to make dramas of our recent political history, following Recount and Game Change. As always, HBO attracts an all-star ensemble cast that is given plenty of room to shine. Kerry Washington brilliantly plays Anita Hill. She is smart and calm in the face of unimaginable adversity. This is accentuated by juxtaposing her with Jennifer Hudson's more fiery Angela Wright. Wendell Pierce from Treme is angry and defensive as Clarence Thomas.

The film makes a lot of use of actual news footage. It gives the film more authenticity. It gives the viewer insight into what people were thinking at the time, while also portraying a perspective in the film with hindsight. The film takes a pretty negative stance on the Senate Judiciary Committee and the hearings. Particularly, Senator Biden comes off rather weak. But ultimately the film is about Anita Hill. It is about female empowerment. It is about confronting sexual harassment. And it does all these things quite well.

The Good Dinosaur (2015)

This is a solid family film, but as far as Pixar films go, this movie pales in comparison to Inside Out earlier this year.  The reason is that the movie lacks heart.  Pixar is known for drawing out emotions from its viewers but The Good Dinosaur was a little tame. The story is kind of typical for the genre and a little simple and shallow for Pixar's standards. It seems to hearken back to other classic animated films.  It is very much like Lion King, in which the father dinosaur dies tragically early on (very typical Disney).  Then there are three pterodactyls that try to make a meal of Arlo, like the hyenas from Lion King.

The premise of the film is interesting. What if the dinosaurs never went extinct? Then they would have evolved... to learn to domesticate agriculture and livestock, like humans did.  There is some charm and some genuine laughs. The movie is visually stunning, animating different species of dinosaurs in a friendly way that looks a lot better than The Land Before Time.  Those lightning bugs and the actual lightning and thunder that storm up trouble for the protagonist.  The animation is actually quite different. The computer images are not evocative of the same visuals we're used to from Pixar, but this was the kind of animation that this movie needed.