Doctor Who: The Master's Timeline

One of the greatest aspects about Doctor Who is that it is a show that can last forever. Over the course of its history, Doctor Who developed some fascinating concepts that have given it this privilege. One of these concepts is regeneration. What happens when your lead actor can no longer hold the position of the main character? Typically you’d just replace the character, but what if you could just replace the actor. Thus the concept of regeneration was created. The Doctor can essentially be played by an infinite number of actors, one story arc said that a time lord can regenerate 12 times having a total of 13 incarnations but the show can easily find its way around this plot point. One character who has demonstrated this is one of The Doctor’s greatest enemies, The Master. The Master is a fellow rouge Time Lord who has taken up a darker path. The Master has run out of regenerations ages ago, yet still appears on the show today.

One of the most avid debates in the Doctor Who fandom right now is what incarnation numbers are Matt Smith and Peter Capaldi (it’s very simple, Smith is 11 and Capaldi is 12, the amount of regenerations that occur does not change what number the Doctor decides to call himself). This debate to a lesser degree applies to the Master as well. Fans have been trying to number The Master’s incarnations but it has proven difficult without a proper timeline.

As such this article will try to piece together a proper timeline of The Master, based on episodes, audios, comics, novels, fan theories, and my own thoughts on the subject. I say this as a warning to any casual reader or fan, this article will delve heavily into Doctor Who lore and may be confusing to anyone who hasn’t read up on that material. This article is also just a timeline of the different incarnations of The Master and how he moved from form to form and not an episode by episode look at the character. Now without further delay, here is the unofficial timeline of The Master.

The First Master? – William Hughes

The possibly first incarnation of The Master was depicted briefly in flashback by child actor William Hughes. I assume this is the first incarnation of The Master since he is supposed to be 8 years old in this flashback, but we have seen children regenerate before. We also know that Time Lord children are born with the ability to regenerate.

The properties of regeneration energy are not something the series has heavily gone over, and I doubt it’s something we would like to know more about (see Midichlorians in the Force). Assuming that regeneration is a biological function of Time Lords, we can infer that whatever part of their body allows them to regenerate also moderates their ability to store the energy for 12 separate regenerations. It can also be assumed that Time Lord society was a bit loose on regenerations, such as Romana regenerating just to have a new appearance. Thus we cannot know for sure whether or not this is the first incarnation of The Master, all we know is that this is the form The Master was in when he went through the Time Lord initiation ceremony and gazed into the time vortex, possibly driving him mad.

After this point we know little of his early life, only that he went to school with The Doctor and scored higher than him academically. The Master chose to become a renegade Time Lord just like the Doctor. Some information says he left after but I believe he left before as the Third Doctor refers to him as being a long time nuisance to the Time Lords.

The Final Master? – Roger Delgado

The first time the audience meets The Master he appears in this incarnation portrayed by Roger Delgado. The true rivalry between The Doctor and The Master started here as The 3^rd Doctor was exiled to Earth and the Master set his eyes upon conquering it. Slowly but surely this want to conquer Earth transformed into a bitter grudge against The Doctor as The Master’s schemes were regularly foiled by him. Many believe that Delgado’s Master may have been the 13^th and final incarnation as the next form of the Master to appear is highly decomposed with no regenerations left, but I don’t believe that to be the case. After this form The Master continues his schemes to become ruler of all time, but his main goal is the pursuit of more regenerations which was something never brought up by Delgado’s Master. Why would The Master waste his final life on Earth of all places? I personally believe that The Master is probably somewhere between his 4^th and 7^th regeneration in this form.

Delgado’s Master perishes in the story Legacy of the Daleks. In the novel, The Master kidnaps The Doctor’s granddaughter Susan and steals a Dalek super weapon known as a matter transmuter. Susan managed to break free from The Master and stole his classic weapon, the Tissue Compression Eliminator or TCE. Susan attacks The Master with the TCE while he is holding the matter transmuter. The resulting explosion is what caused this version of The Master to die. I don’t believe he was in his final incarnation, I believe that the energies from the Dalek super weapon combined with the TCE may have damaged The Master’s biological function to regenerate. Whatever regenerative energies survived the explosion possibly saved The Master’s life and allowed him to partially regenerate into his next form.

The Decayed Master – Peter Pratt

The Master was saved by a Time Lord, Chancellor Goth, who was seeking power, power that only The Master could provide him with. Pratt’s Master was in a massive state of decay and very close to death, but even in his dying form he was still able to manipulate the Chancellor into doing his bidding. The Master was desperate to find a way to fully regenerate; he managed to get a hold of various artifacts of Rassilon which he believed would fill him with the energies needed to allow regeneration to occur. The Doctor eventually put a end to The Master’s scheme stopping him from absorbing all the energies of the artifacts. The end of the story notes that The Master could have possibly absorbed enough of the energies to at least regenerate once, ending on a very ominous note. I believe that the Master did absorb enough energy to allow him to at least partially regenerate into his next incarnation.

The Decaying Master – Geoffrey Beevers

Many fans believe that Beevers and Pratt’s Masters are both versions of Delgado’s Master but as I’ve let on, I do believe that they are different incarnations altogether. This version of The Master was also in a state of decay like the Pratt version, but was far more stable, meaning he could continue to exist for a much longer time without worrying about death. Beevers’ Master started delving into higher powers, to not only increase his own abilities but to also gain vengeance on The Doctor for leaving him in this state. Whatever rivalry they had before transformed into a burning hatred for his nemesis.

Beevers’ Master first appears on the show in the story The Keeper of Traken which was this versions final tale. I believe Beevers’ Master began to reach Pratt’s level of decay and desperately needed to regenerate again. The Master went to the planet Traken whose people held a massive power known as The Source. The Master fused with The Source in the hopes of fully regenerating but The Doctor once more prevented him from fully absorbing the energies there. Partially fuelled with the powers of The Source, The Master fused his body with a Trakenite known as Tremas allowing him to take up his next form.

The Tremas Master – Anthony Ainley

Ainley’s Master was in a completely stable body, but still without any regenerations. This version split his time between enacting schemes against the Doctor, attempting plans to take over all of time, and pursuing more regenerations. This is also the form where we learn that the Time Lord Council has the ability to grant new regeneration cycles to other Time Lords. The Council would at times offer this to The Master in order to gain his cooperation in a story, but due to The Master betrayals during these tales, would regularly refuse to grant him the regenerations in the end. 

 

Ainley’s Master would continue on for the remainder of the classic Doctor Who series run, plaguing Doctor’s 4 through 7, meaning The Master retained this form for a very long time. As this is the form that ended with the series, this Master’s death occurs off screen and unfortunately in multiple contradicting stories. However, most of these stories seem to agree that this form of The Master underwent a process that forcibly separated his Time Lord DNA from the Trakenite DNA. Thus The Master degenerated back into his Beevers form.

The Deformed Master – Geoffrey Beevers

The Master returned back to the form he held before combining with Tremas. I believe that this form was not in a state of decay but heavily scarred and deformed often utilizing a mask to hide his deformations. Very little is known about the fate of this version of The Master, only that by the time he appears in the 1996 film he has taken up a new form.

The Old Master – Gordon Tipple

How did this form come to be? How did he become captured by the Daleks and set up for execution? These are questions often asked but never answered. This was but a brief appearance by a Master we will probably never know and just a set up to the story of the film. What we do know is that this Master escaped his execution by possessing a native creature known as a Deathworm Morphant. If The Master had the worm on him it would make sense that it survived the execution. A native creature of the Daleks' home planet of Skaro would have to evolve to survive in the heavily irradiated atmosphere, thus probably being able to survive the energies used in the execution. This would make sense as to why the worm was locked up with The Master’s remains when it came into the hands of The Doctor. Either way, The Master was able to escape the Doctor, leaving the form of the worm and possessed the body of a human ambulance driver named Bruce.

The Bruce Master – Eric Roberts

As human bodies are unable to contain the soul of a Time Lord, The Master’s new human body begins to rapidly decay. The Master attempts to use the Eye of Harmony to steal The Doctor’s remaining regenerations. He of course fails in this plan and is ultimately sucked into the Eye of Harmony’s well of power and becomes a part of The Doctor’s TARDIS. Before moving on I’d like to briefly discuss the controversy that came up in the film where both The Doctor and The Master believe that The Doctor is half human. In the story The Doctor had just freshly regenerated and The Master was in a rapidly decaying form. I believe that the two of them were both madly out of their minds at the time and could easily make mistakes, let’s leave it at that.

The Mirror Master - ?

This form appears only in comics and novels. This Master briefly escaped The Doctor’s TARDIS and fought over a new power called the Glory before ultimately ending up trapped in The Doctor’s TARDIS again. I call him the Mirror Master as this incarnation had a tendency to taunt The Doctor by appearing in various mirrors in the TARDIS itself as he was trapped there. I’m half certain this Master could be a returned Tipple Master but we can’t know for sure. Eventually the Master escaped from his captivity once more existing as little more than a ghost.

The Ghost Master – Geoffrey Beevers

I’m not entirely sure why or how but The Master regresses entirely back into the Beevers form in this incarnation. This could mean that his last few forms (Ainley, Tipple, and Roberts) have all just been the Beevers incarnation leeching off of bodies utilizing the powers he gained from The Source. Either way, this Master was trapped on Earth in the year 1906. Not being able to survive in a human body for very long, The Master had to move from body to body through the decades before finally reaching UNIT’s Vault in the 21^st century, where one of his TARDISes was unknowingly being kept.  The Master then escaped Earth for adventures unknown.

The Renewed Master – Alex MacQueen

We don’t know what the situation was but The Master was rescued from a predicament by the Time Lords. The Time Lords were preparing for something (possibly the Time War) and decided to bring The Master back into the fold in anticipation for this event. Thus The Master finally received what he had been yearning for a very long time, a whole new regeneration cycle. Though it is unclear whether the Time Lords gave him his current form or if he had it before.  As this is the form that is currently being written in the 8^th Doctor Adventures it can be assumed that it is this incarnation of The Master that entered the Time War.

 

Warning – Spoiler Alert

I leave this warning now to all readers, everything after this point deals with the modern era of the Doctor Who show. If you do not want these events spoiled for you then I suggest you discontinue here. If you don’t care, have seen the show, or are already aware of the events that occur then please enjoy.

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Are we ready to continue?

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The Yana Master – Derek Jacobi

It is entirely possible that the Master took up different forms between now and the MacQueen version, but I highly doubt it and even if they did exist the events of the Time War will probably never be covered by Doctor Who. What we do know is that this is the form The Master took when he became scared of the war and ran to the ends of the universe. The Master then transformed himself into a human with no knowledge of his past life and re-named himself Professor Yana. After encountering the 10^th Doctor, Yana regained his memories as well as his Time Lord essence and became The Master once more. This version was ultimately mortally wounded by Professor Yana’s former lab assistant and The Master chose to regenerate into a younger form like the one The Doctor had currently.

The Saxon Master – John Simm

In a new youthful body, The Master decided to take over Earth in a massive revenge plot against The Doctor, taking up the persona of Harold Saxon and eventually becoming Prime Minister of the UK. This Master was far more insane than previous incarnations, mentioning a constant drumming that was continuously going off inside his head that possibly started with the Jacobi Master. The Master appeared to be victorious in his world domination scheme, but was eventually defeated by The Doctor once more. Instead of being held in the captivity of The Doctor for all eternity, The Master finally allowed himself to die from a gunshot wound….OR DID HE? He didn’t.

The Undead Master – John Simm

The Master’s next appearance showed him coming back from death through an elaborate ritual by his followers which was interrupted, thus The Master came back only half formed constantly switching between his regular form (though now blond) and an electrified skeletal form. This Master also held a tremendous hunger that could not be sated. Eventually it was revealed that the constant drumming in his head was actually a signal placed there by the Time Lords in the hopes of escaping the Great Time War. The Master, immensely angry about this fact, jumped back into the Time War in order to gain vengeance.

Before moving on I would like to address the drumming. The story suggests that the drumming was planted inside The Master’s head when he went through the vortex ceremony as a child and that this was what drove him mad for his entire life. I don’t think that’s true, mostly because it is never mentioned before or after this story arc. I think that the drumming was actually planted within the new regeneration cycle as a failsafe. My theory is that the Time Lords foresaw The Master being a great asset or at the very least surviving the Time War, as the Master has always escaped impossible situations before. Thus when they granted him a new body and a new regeneration cycle, the drumming didn’t start until after he started to regenerate again. The Time Lords probably believed that if The Master was near death he would escape the war and regenerate, allowing them to have a beacon outside the limits of the war. This is just a theory but I feel like it works.

The Missy Master – Michelle Gomez

The latest incarnation of The Master is the first onscreen version that is female, taking on the name Mistress or Missy for short. This new Master still has a high level of insanity but the level headed mastermind is making a return as well. Many questions arise with this new form, which I fear will go unanswered. How The Master escaped the Great Time War is not my concern as The Master escaping certain death is one of the character’s main features. What really concerns me is how this new form came to be. Did The Master figure out how to cure the drumming? It’s never mention with this new form so I’m going to assume that it is gone. When the Simm Master was only half resurrected, did he lose all of his other regenerations or was he using up the life force of his current form? Little else can be determined without future stories as this is the current form.

Conclusion

Determining how many incarnations The Master has had is a near impossible task as we have never actually been given a number to any of his forms. Even worse the number also depends on what you count and what you don’t as The Master has also possessed a great number of other people's bodies. Do we count the people he has possessed or do we just list them under victims? Here is what we can assume. The Master got a new lease on life with his Alex MacQueen form due to the Time Lords prepping him for the war. If The Master still retains that new regeneration cycle, then Missy is the 4^th form in his new cycle. I assume MacQueen was a new body they gave him then they refilled his regenerations, so that should mean that The Master has about 9 more regenerations on him currently. As The Doctor currently has 11 more, I believe we won’t have to worry about a regeneration shortage any time soon. Thank you for reading this character study of The Master and have a Merry Christmas.

Top 10 Fictional Spiders

Welcome back to the Geekdom, I’ll be your Guide. You know what I hate….spiders, and I know for certain I’m not the only one. There is just something about those creepy little buggers that always makes my skin crawl. So what better way to celebrate Halloween then with a top 10 of the nasty crawlers. As always I have a few runner- ups

Crystal Spider (Krull)

Kumonga (Godzilla)

Shadow (Spider Riders)

And without further delay, here are my Top 10 fictional spiders.

10 - Man-Spider (Spider-Man)

What happens when Spider-Man’s mutation becomes more powerful and takes over his body? He transforms into a gigantic Man-Spider of course. The Man-Spider is usually depicted as a mindless monster. Spider-Man is rendered helpless while the beast inside goes on a vicious rampage, attacking friend or foe alike. Luckily Spidey’s allies always manage to find a cure before any permanent damage is done.

9 - Arukenimon (Digimon)

Arukenimon is one of the big bads of season two of Digimon and she probably would present a much bigger threat if it weren’t for the fact that she is regularly undermined by her bumbling sidekick Mummymon. Arukenimon utilizes various techniques to bring chaos to the digital world, such as using a mystic flute that allows her to control all other insects or using strands of her hair to create an army of dark digimon. I truly feel like this villain went underappreciated in this series.

8 - Tarantulas (Beast Wars)

Tarantulas is a creeper, plain and simple. He starts off as the devious scientist for the Predacons during the Beast Wars, but his traitorous nature tends to cause him to strike out on his own, which actually goes a lot better than you would expect. Tarantulas is a master planner who knows how to play multiple parties against each other. Unfortunately the spider side of him takes over and he has a tendency to want to eat his victims now, instead of just finishing them off.  

7 - Spider Queen of Metebelis Three (Doctor Who)

There are times when even The Doctor can make mistakes and this one cost the Third Doctor his life. Having stolen a mystical blue crystal from Metebelis Three in an earlier story, The Doctor and planet Earth now face the wrath of the powerful Spider Queen. Utilizing her immense psychic powers the Queen plans a massive invasion of Earth. The Doctor, realizing his mistake, sacrifices himself to return the crystal to where it belongs and vanquish the threat the Spider Queen poses to Earth.

6 - Miss Spider (James and the Giant Peach)

James has a very unfortunate life living with two immensely cruel aunts. Yet even James can show mercy to a tiny spider in his window…little did he realize that Spider would magically become human sized and one of his greatest friends. Miss Spider recognizes the fact that others will fear her due to the fact that she is a spider, but she will care for and fight for James because he is the only one who ever showed her kindness.

5 - Jeff (Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy)

Jeff just wants his father to love him, is that too much to ask? Yes it is, especially when his father is Billy, who has a crippling arachnophobia. To be honest, I just feel really bad for the poor guy. Jeff is an honest, friendly, hardworking guy who just wants his Dad to be proud of him. Sadly every time he goes to see his father, Billy either tries to kill him or tells him to leave his sight forever. A truly tragic story.

4 - Aragog (Harry Potter)

Hagrid is an awesome character; I think that is something most of us can agree on. That said, Hagrid’s taste in pets is shady at best. I suppose it’s to be expected of the Care of Magical Creatures professor at Hogwarts, but I really wonder, what made him think that a giant spider would be a good idea for a pet to keep at school? It just goes to show that nothing can beat the classic tale of half-giant boy and his pet spider monster…..I guess.

3 - Gohma (Legend of Zelda)

Gohma is one of the most recurring bosses in the Legend of Zelda series and for some she is the first video game bosses we ever faced in battle. The one eyed parasitic armored arachnid is usually seen infesting powerful nature spirits bringing chaos to the land of Hyrule.  This boss has returned to the series more often than other bosses which makes me wonder if Gohma is somehow tied to the battle of the Triforce like Link, Zelda, and Gannondorf are. Perhaps it’s just that Gohma has so many children it is impossible to vanquish her once and for all.

2 - Shelob (Lord of the Rings)

Born of the darkest of the great spiders, Shelob cared for no cause but her own.  Long before Sauron conquered the lands of Mordor, Shelob wove her webs in Ephel Dúath, making the caverns of those mountains her dark lair. Feasting on any and all creatures that were unfortunate enough to cross into her lands, nothing could ever truly sate her ravenous hunger. After Sauron claimed Mordor for his own, he regarded Shelob as a pet cat who guarded part of his border, regularly sending prisoners for her to feast upon.

1 - Anansi the Spider

“This funny fellow is a rogue, a wise and loveable trickster”

Anansi is an African folkloric hero, at times taking the form of a man but is best known as a spider. A trickster spirit, Anansi is said to have brought the knowledge of stories to man among many other adventures. I find it only fitting then to place Anansi at the top of this list, for without him we wouldn’t have any of these other stories to compare him to.

I’m the Guide and Happy Halloween.

Let's Review: Guardians of the Galaxy

So I am a huge fan of Marvel Cosmic, which is Marvel's line of Sci-Fi based comic books. Jim Starlin is one of my all time favorite comic book authors and he basically invented most of it. I’m also a huge fan of the modern revitalization Marvel Cosmic got with Andy Lanning and Dan Abnett a few years ago. I also know that Marvel Cosmic doesn’t have as big of a fan base as some of Marvel’s other characters or storylines. So when I heard that Guardians of the Galaxy was being made into a movie, it was like a dream come true. I never thought that Marvel would ever make a film out of this obscure cast of characters that I loved. I was literally counting the days before I could see it. So did it live up to my excitement? Let’s review Guardians of the Galaxy.

The Negative

I had a really hard time liking this film. So much so that I decided to go see it a second time so that I could give it a fair review. I have been a huge fan of Marvel Cosmic for many years now, the amount of things they changed from the source material made it barely recognizable. A good example would be if Marvel released a film about a beetle themed superhero that fights zombie Nazis in Texas, and called it a film about Spider-Man. If this were a Harry Potter film, the fans would have been outraged over the amount of changes made; they probably would have called for blood.

The problem I face is the fact that no one really complained. There aren’t really huge numbers of fans for these characters. They don’t realize the amount of well established history that was changed. So when I hear people debating on whether or not Guardians was better than the Avengers, I recoil a little. Avengers pretty much nailed the adaptation whereas Guardians largely ignored it. This was the reason I had to see it twice as a critic I have to be unbiased towards these things and judge the film as it is, but as a fan I was a little heartbroken. This wasn’t a film made for me, this was a film that is going to spark interest in a relatively obscure group of characters and get a larger fan base. Sure it will be confusing for those who only know about the film history, but overall it will ensure that Marvel Cosmic stays for quite some time.

The Positive

What made me want to give the film a second chance was that about ¾ of the way through the film, I realized what I was watching was actually quite good. Despite being a poor adaptation, the film itself isn’t bad. The film is funny; in fact I would say the film is very funny. It has been a really long time since I have laughed this hard at a film. A lot of the humor is stuff you really wouldn’t expect Marvel to go, but ultimately it was this dark sense of humor that really endeared me to the film, even during my first viewing when I was unhappy due to the changes.

The film does an excellent job of balancing out its team members. Something that both Avengers and some of the X-Men films failed at was balancing out the screen time so that we got to know each of the team members really well. Marvel fixed that issue by having the major Avengers members appear in their own separate movies first so that we would already know the characters before they appeared together. Guardians rather impressively introduces the audience to all 5 members of the team and makes each of their personalities and quirks well known, even taking the time to show how each member interacts with one another.

The soundtrack was absolutely glorious in this movie. It’s no wonder many of these songs are hitting the number 1 charts for the first time in years because Guardians uses its mostly 70’s soundtrack to full extent, utilizing each song to establish the tone of each scene. In particular, Guardians’ use of Redbone’s “Come and Get Your Love” during the opening credits is probably one of the best tone establishers I have seen in a really long time instantly telling the audience that you are in for a really fun ride.

In Conclusion                 

I don’t think I’m the right person to discuss this film in a good light. I really enjoyed this film and had a wonderful time with it, but ultimately it was the vast changes made to the source material that really stopped me from loving this film as much as I should have. My personal fan feelings aside, I do highly recommend this film to everyone. If you are looking for a really fun comedy sci-fi adventure this is absolutely the film to see. 4.7 out of 5.

Let's Review: Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Captain America: The First Avenger was a very unexpected hit with me. I wasn’t really sure what to expect with the film and I didn’t have much faith in Chris Evans in the role. The film took me completely by surprised and has become one of my all time favorite comic book movies. That said; I was expecting great things to come out of the sequel. Were my expectations met? Let’s review Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

The Negative

The acting between Chris Evans and Scarlett Johansson was a little stiff. We follow Captain America and Black Widow for the majority of the film, with their interactions with one another filling in any slow section. This is a problem because most of their dialogue with one another feels flat. This is easily explained away by the fact that the two of them are high-level secret agents and being un-emotional is key in the field. I get entirely what the film was going for; I just wish the two could emote a bit more than the film would allow them.

The biggest question that keeps flashing in my mind regarding this film is where is Hawkeye? The plot of this film has major ramifications to the SHIELD organization and with Hawkeye being a top agent; you would think that he would appear in this movie. There isn’t even much of a mention as to what he is doing during the events of this film. For the Avenger who has gotten the least amount of screen time in the Marvel Cinematic Universe you would think that this would have been their big opportunity to expand him a little. I do understand why they didn’t include him though. The amount of important super heroes in this film was starting to border The Avengers. If Hawkeye were in this film he probably would have gotten even less screen time than before. It just seems odd that with SHIELD being so important to his character, that he wouldn’t even get a passing mention to his current status.

The Positive

The plot was amazing. This film takes all of the covert splendor of a James Bond movie but does it with the amazing world of super heroes.  The film does an excellent job with pulling off its various plot twist with Cap finding himself in a world of espionage and uncertainty in who his allies are. If you are a fan of James Bond, I highly recommend you see this film. This was also an excellent film for Captain America fans as this movie crammed so much Cap lore that it almost had a blink and you’ll miss it quality to it.

The fight scenes were absolutely spectacular in this film, particularly the fight scenes between Cap and Winter Soldier. The fights between these two figures are fast and tight, showing off the ferocity two super soldiers can have in combat against one another. The scene that keeps coming back to my mind is a road fight between the two of them. The fight is claustrophobic with Winter Soldier relentless attacking with a knife with Cap barely dodging each blow. It was fight choreography like this that kept me on the edge of my seat in breathless excitement.

The villains were absolutely exquisite in this movie. As I stated before, the film’s plot is a massive mystery with Cap slowly uncovering who he can trust and who he can’t, so I’m not going to give all the villains away. That said spoiler ahead, skip to the conclusion if you don’t want a major plot twist spoiled…

 

We all set? Okay, so Arnim Zola is one of my all time favorite Captain America villains. It was cool to see him as a human in the first film but what I was really looking forward to was seeing him as a robot and this film totally delivered on that front. Zola was perfect and even better they made him one of the central plot twists to the film. This was my absolute favorite scene in the movie as Cap slowly comes to realize that in his 70 year absence the world has been slowly taken over by Hydra forces, with Zola being the starting point behind that front.

In Conclusion

This film quickly became one of my all time favorites in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. This was definitely Marvel trying their hand at producing a James Bond film and they succeeded magnificently at it. The plot, the mystery, the villains, as well as the simply massive amount of Cap lore stuffed into this film was a brilliant love letter to one of Marvel’s oldest characters. This film has gotten me even more excited for the next Captain America film; I just hope it can live up to the first two films. 4.9 out of 5.

Let's Review: Godzilla

 

I love Godzilla. To be honest I love giant monster movies in general. It has been an extremely long wait to see the king of all monsters back on the big screen. Everything I saw for this film had me pumped to go see it. Godzilla was finally coming back and it was going to be done right. So did the film live up to my excitement? Let’s review Godzilla.

 

The Negative

 

Bryan Cranston is wasted in this film. I hope nobody went into this film expecting him to be the main character, because he is honestly barely in the film at all. The film makes you very invested into his character at the very beginning of the film and he sticks around for a little bit after that, but he is mostly just dropped from the film. The real main character of the film is Aaron Taylor-Johnson’s character, Ford Brody. While Ford is an interesting character, he just doesn’t carry the same investment that we had with Cranston’s character and it sort of brings the whole movie down another level.

I’m sure you know by now that Godzilla faces another monster in the film named MUTO.  In the film we see two very different MUTOs, one male and one female. I really want to praise the fact that the two MUTOs are designed differently. The male is smaller and has the ability to fly, while the female is larger with multiple arms. They could have just as easily made two of the same monster but they made them both unique and I really appreciated that. With that said I really didn’t like their overall design. The Godzilla series is well known for its bizarre and uniquely designed monsters, but something just doesn’t seem to work for the MUTOs’ design. For me personally, I think their design is just too angular. Nothing about them seems overly organic at all, and it sort of ruins the illusion that what you are looking at is a living, breathing monster. For a giant monster film, that is one of the greatest failings.

I go to a Godzilla movie for the very reason that I want to see Godzilla. I hope you are really patient folks, because Godzilla doesn’t really show up until the end of the film, and then he is only on the screen for about the same amount of time that Bryan Cranston is. I can honestly say that I left the theater disappointed. The very first fight scene between Godzilla and MUTO is BRIEFLY shown on a small news television screen. Every single fight in the film is shown in quick claustrophobic shots from the human’s perspective. The fight that we see the most of is at the end of the film and it is so brief I wanted to cry. I have waited 10 years to see Godzilla return to the big screen, and what I got was barely any of him.

The Positive

 

As you can imagine from that last paragraph, the majority of the film is taken from the human perspective. It is my opinion that in most Godzilla films, the most boring aspect is the human’s story. Lucky for us, the human story in this film is actually quite captivating. You do find yourself being invested into these characters and you genuinely want to find out what happens to them by the end of the film. While I was hard on Aaron Taylor-Johnson’s character earlier, I was just saying that he wasn’t as captivating as Bryan Cranston’s character, but that doesn’t mean he is bad, far from it. The rest of the cast varies in quality, but Ken Watanabe plays a fantastically stoic Dr. Serizawa.

While the monster fights were incredibly brief, what I did get to see wasn’t lackluster in the slightest. It was like the film kept giving me little teasers of the amazing fight that I wanted to see break out and when the ultimate showdown finally did happen at the end of the film, it was glorious. I found myself getting back into my old Godzilla fan boy mode, cheering him on to beat down the other monster. I wasn’t the only one either, many times during the fight the audience broke out in applause at successful hits.

Godzilla himself was stunning. He had a massive presence on the screen. This film returned Godzilla to a role that he hasn’t been in for a very long time, the role of protector. Throughout the film Godzilla goes out of his way to avoid mindless destruction and has his sights solely on destroying the two MUTOs. By the end of the film, Godzilla is cheered by humanity for being a hero who has protected us from utter annihilation. It was really nice to see Godzilla return as a hero again. I think we have all been a little tired of seeing Godzilla fight the military over and over again in each of his films. This was a very welcomed change of pace.

In Conclusion

 

I had a good time. I went to see a Godzilla film and I left feeling extremely disappointed due to the lack of Godzilla being actually in the film, but was my time wasted? The answer is no, this was a very fun action flick that had a brilliant mood to it. I recommend you go see it for a good popcorn flick. I will admit that my disappointment is still very present with me. I worry that as we bring Godzilla into the age of CGI, we leave behind the ability to have him and his fellow monsters on the screen longer. I can only hope that with future sequels, we end up getting more screen time with the King of the Monsters. 3.8 out of 5.