The new trailer for Tim Burton’s Dark Shadows has finally arrived online. Starring Johnny Depp as Barnabas Collins, a vampire who wakes up in a world that’s not his own to find a family he doesn’t understand. I think I’ll let the official synopsis explain the rest:
Tag Archives: Eva Green
Camelot Cancelled By Starz
Camelot left me and many others with mixed feelings. Was it a good show or wasn’t it? I enjoyed it more at the beginning and the end than I did in the middle where I thought the series started to falter. I was willing to forgive and forget the shortcomings of the first season and look on with eager eyes for season 2. After all they finally established the young Arthur as king in the now cleaned up Camelot, had him weilding Excalibur, and making an enemy of his sister who now carried his future nemesis Mordred inside her. Season 2 was supposed to be a ‘cut the pleasentries and get down to business’ season of a show that had plenty of potential, but now we’ll probably never know what might have been. Starz has reached the decision not to renew Camelot. Check out the announcement from IGN:
The only reason given for now? “Significant production challenges.” It looks like Starz might have, once again, run into the problem they faced with Party Down, where “scheduling conflicts with some of the actors were part of the problem for the Ireland-shot costume drama.” Which would probably mean that Starz neglected to lock these guys into a save-the-date contract.
While we’re not sure which actor or actors had the conflict, it had to be one of the key roles. It’s possible that it’s star Jamie Campbell Bower, who plays Arthur, as he just recently signed to star in The Mortal Instruments.
Man if it’s just a case of Jamie Campbell Bower having other obligations then by all means replace that turd with a new leading man. Hell, they’re doing that with Spartacus already albeit under different circumstances: Those being that Andy Whitfield has Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma. But at least I loved Andy Whitfield as the main character, with Bower I could care less if they replaced him. So now there are maybe a couple possibilities vague though they may be. The first is that another network picks up the show and the second being that Starz decides to pick the series up down the road sometime. As for another network picking up Camelot, we’ve seen how that theory has panned out with other canceled shows.
So what does everyone think of this news? Are you sitting there crying for Camelot, or are you like me just biding time until Game of Thrones Season 2 comes out? I know the main thing I’ll miss is Eva Green…
Camelot Review – Episode 10 ‘Reckoning’
The Camelot finale is here finally, and I have to admit, after being disappointed with the last few episodes of the show before The Battle of Bardon Pass, this one paid off. A lot of things were tied up and there was a good set up for next season.
As you may or may not know in the last episode, Arthur told his men to leave Bardon’s Pass and that he would hold it himself. The men agree, because let’s face it… Arthur is a wife stealing turd eater. Gawain tries to stay of course due to his promise to Merlin. What ensues with Arthur protecting Bardon’s Pass can only be likened to Home Alone, with men falling on trip wires onto stakes, and paint cans flying from atop stair ways into the enemy soldiers’ faces. Well not paint cans, but rocks tied to boards and shit like that. He holds his own for quite some time, but Excalibur is taken from him by one of Morgan’s men and delivered to her. Little does she know that Arthur escaped and pushed them back once again.
While Arthur is making his last stand, Morgan is hard at work turning the people of the realm against Merlin and Igraine, and taking Camelot away from her brother. When she receives Excalibur from her men, Morgan believes she has won, and presents it to the people. They then question who would rule now with Arthur gone. Morgan’s little nunnery buddy Sybil suggests that Morgan be the one and the people in the throne room agree, Morgan prepares for her coronation.
Arthur in the meantime is pulling a ‘medieval Jack Bauer’ on one of Morgan’s men that he captured during their unsuccessful raid, cutting his face up, and threatening to poke his eyeball out before he cracks and spills the beans. Arthur now knows that Morgan is behind the whole debacle at Bardon Pass.
The next morning Arthur makes what should be his last stand against Morgan’s men, and he does admirably even though he’s certainly doomed. And then (predictably) out of nowhere Leontes and the others show up to save the day. But in another predictable turn of events, as Arthur and his knights celebrate, Morgan’s Knight ‘Sir Jack Meoff’ attempts to shoot Arthur with an arrow. Leontes shows his true loyalty and honor by jumping in the way and taking the arrow through the chest for the man who boinked his wife.
As he dies he tells Arthur to take care of Guinevere in so many words. Sir Jack Meoff gets completely destroyed by Gawain with a mid air sword blow and two more after that. Suck it!
Before Morgan heads down to her coronation she fatally stabs Igraine, showing how evil and twisted her character is. I actually liked Igraine a lot, and I’m really bummed that Claire Forlani won’t be on the show anymore.
She definitely got the last laugh though by telling her killer that it was her who saved Morgan by sending her to the nunnery as a child, and even though Morgan refuses to believe it, you know she’ll be haunted by it forever. Arthur interrupts the coronation of Morgan with a slow clap. You gotta love the slow clap, it’s how I interrupt every event that I think is a complete farce too.
After Morgan’s treachery is revealed Sybil actually steps in and takes the blame for everything that has happened, including Igraine’s death afterward. Pretty ballsy on her part. I couldn’t figure out why she looked so disappointed when Morgan said she knew nothing about it though. Sybil’s execution was pretty grim, with only herself, her executioner Gawain and an empty grave.
Merlin watched in the distance, eerily stating “There is no God” as Sybil gets beheaded. I was satisfied with the ending to her character, because I honestly couldn’t stand her, but her endgame and main motives are still unclear to me.
It isn’t the last we see of Sybil though: After Arthur strips Morgan of the Pendragon name and removes her castle from beneath his protection, Morgan asks Sybil for help at her grave and Sybil whispers in the wind about needing to give birth to a royal heir. Hmmmm….
The next scene involved Arthur, Guinevere and some major sex. I found myself hating the two characters even more during this scene, thinking how Leontes hasn’t even been in the ground that long and they’re just ready to move along! But then after Arthur is asleep and Guinevere’s nose starts to bleed you can see where this is going. After leaving the room we see that Morgan has shape shifted into Guinevere to become pregnant by Arthur. Sick-En-Ing! We’ll sure see Morgan le Fay by next season, and maybe little Mordred will be born by then. HOOOOOOO BOY!
Overall I give this episode a 4.5 out of 5 bears, if only for how much predictability was flying all over the place, but the execution was great and I was really caught off guard by the killing of Igraine.
I hope that now all of the set up and love triangle garbage is out of the way so we can focus on better things in the next season. I loved Camelot at the start and then it sort of sagged in the middle, but got back to greatness at the end. I have some high hopes for Season 2 and with any luck Starz will deliver!
Camelot Review: Episode 9 – “The Battle of Bardon Pass”
If you’ve missed any other episodes, hit it HERE.
So the 9th episode of Camelot focuses on 2 major things:
1. Morgan’s capture and impersonation of Igraine
2. The Arthur/Guinevere/Leontes Love Triangle
So first, as we saw in Episode 8, Igraine has escaped Castle Pendragon and made her way back to Camelot only to be confronted by…herself. That’s where we pick up in 9. Igraine thinking herself crazy retreats to her room to find Merlin still in her bed from his night with her Morgan. She blubbers coherently enough that Merlin figures out what has happened and they almost immediately set out for Pendragon to confront Morgan. Alone and unarmed. Again. For the extreme badass that Merlin is supposed to be, he sure doesn’t show it much…
As Merlina and Igraine are preparing to leave, Leontes confronts Guinevere about her relationship with the King. She initially denys it, but quickly folds like a the cheap thin metal they used on my new grill…
While all the melodrama is going on in Camelot, Bardon Pass, the main trade post of the kingdom is under attack and Arthur’s guards there are killed. So as Merlin and Igraine head to Pendragon, Arthur, Leontes, and the others head to the Pass.
By this time Morgan is back at her own Castle and it’s clear that the attack on the Pass is of her doing, and lead by her peeping Tom from a few weeks back. As she arrives she is met by the mysterious Nun, whose motivations to this point are still completely shrouded, and the two discuss Igraine’s escape and how no one will believe the weak-minded Queen.
As her men continue attacks all over the lands, more and more villagers flock to Morgan for the protection Arthur isn’t providing. She goes on the convince the stupid frightened people that Arthur is being mislead by Merlin and that he’s not to blame for the troubles of the land, begging that they put their faith in her.
Now, when Merlin and Igraine show up to confront her, the deck is already staked against her. The many people seeking refuge within the castle walls see Merlin as a liar, and are convinced of Morgan’s innocence.
Merlin enters quite boisterously and makes grader claims that many in the crowd do not understand. Morgan emerges from within Castle Pendragon’s walls with a smirk on her face that only further proves this too is part of her plan.
Merlin and Igraine are quickly branded as traitorous and bat-shit crazy. Respectively. They are then taken into custody as Morgan announces plans to March them back to Camelot and reunite with her brother. Except what no one knows it that she have already given her men orders to kill Arthur in the Battle at Bardon Pass. Thus ensuring the crown will fall upon her head in his demise. Pretty clever.
Merlin has legitimate questions as to the endgame played by the Nun, but they aren’t questions we’ll yet have answered. This is about the time the stupidity of the writing once again takes grasp. They’re need to constantly inject Guinevere into every situation has become bothersome. So when she came galloping into the battle to bring Leontes his bible, I was hoping she’d catch an arrow…
Of cousre she doesn’t get shot, but she does fall off of her horse, causing Leontes and Arthur to play a quick round of “Who can get Shot Quickest” as they rush out in a hail of falling arrows to save her. Unfortunately, Morgan’s men can’t shoot any better than the Vietnamese in Rambo II, so unbelievably, no one gets hit here.
This does once again prove though how stupid Arthur is. If he dies, all is lost. Guy really doesn’t deserve to be King at this point…
Ol’ Arttie decides now would be a good time to tell the troops how he betrayed his Champion and that’s he’s basically a dick and all. His brother Kay disowns him and then, as the full blown battle begins, is promptly shot with an arrow. Not however before Morgan’s troops shoot the only Black knight, dudes were totally racist…
Arthur’s men however are well trained enough to push back the attacking horde and hold their ground. This leads to Arthur’s next stupid selfless act – he orders that everyone retreat out the back of the pass, unseen by the enemy, to get help for Kay and Gwen, since she bumped her head and all. Arthur will stay at the pass, alone, and distract the opposing forces for as long as he can. Then, everyone actually leaves. Really?
So Guinevere’s decision to jump into the battle is now gonna cost them the Bardon Pass. Hey, G, thanks for stopping by!
So this episode was mostly setup for the impending 10th episode and season finale. I give it a 3 of 5.
Camelot Review: Episode 4 – Lady of the Lake
This does not bode very well for my relationship with Camelot. Game of Thrones premiered two days after this episode and was fantastic, in many ways already surpassing Camelot. Then this episode itself, though not boring by any means, really pissed me off again with the characters of Arthur and Merlin. Both of them are starting to become my least favorite characters of the show. Meanwhile, characters like Leontes, Gawain and Kay remain to be amongst my favorites.
Continue reading Camelot Review: Episode 4 – Lady of the Lake
Camelot Review: Episode 2 – The Sword and The Crown
If you missed the Pilot, get caught up HERE
The second episode of the excellent Starz show Camelot starts on a somber note. After the tragedy that befell Arthur and Kay, they bury their dead and fortify themselves at Castle Camelot. After the funeral Arthur takes a stroll, alone on the beach, and sees a girl emerging from the water. It appears to be the same girl he was getting it on with in a dream he had in the first episode. Apparently, the young king thought it would go the same way as his dream, but the wet and scantily clad girl doesn’t see it as such.
As some of us already know by seeing her in Arthur’s dream in the first episode, this beach beauty must indeed be Guinevere. Who else could it be? It’s funny in this retelling of the Arthur story how their first exchange goes. Arthur is really excited to see the girl from his dreams, and Guinevere tackles him and holds a knife to his throat for intruding on her swim.
Spoilers Ahead…
Continue reading Camelot Review: Episode 2 – The Sword and The Crown
Grizzly Bomb 