A bit of a sideways entry in my ongoing ‘Dragonball Z movie’ marathon. ‘The History of Trunks’ is a TV special made shortly after ‘Dragonball Z’ concluded that shows the ‘alternate’ timeline thatlead into the ‘Android Saga’. Essentially the reality that Future Trunks came back in time to warn Goku and the gang about in the anime series.
In this reality, Noone came back to give Goku the antidote for his heart virus, he dies and the androids are released 12 months later, the ‘Z’ fighters try to tackle them, but all of them barring Gohan and Trunks are defeated. Forcing Master Roshi and the surviving members of the gang to go deep into hiding and Bulma to go ‘underground’ to try and develop a way to defeat the androids.
For 13 years the androids tear across the planet doing what they want and destroying large swathes of the population, while Gohan tries to catch up with them for intermittent bouts to try and put an end to them. At which point a now teenage Trunks decides he needs to act to try and save the future, and turns to Gohan for mentorship.
I actually really quite liked the idea of this one, though I felt the execution of it was a little bit messy. the alternate ‘Androids destroy everything’ timeline is a particularly bleak narrative in the ‘Dragonball Z’ anime, and there are genuinely captivatingly awful moments here that make you realise just how much of a threat the original Androids really were.
However; where I think this special kind of botches is a bit is nowhere NEAR enough time is put into setting the androids up as a credible threat in this reality up front. In fact, rather frustratingly; they rush through Gokus death, the androids being activated and all the ‘Z’fighters dying largely using recycled footage from the anime in the opening 2-5 minutes of the special. with almost the entirity of the rest of the special being set 13 years after everyone died and Trunks trying to train with Gohan.
The issue for me is, because they rush all of that critical character building narrative, and worse still they do it with recycled footage, it makes the stakes feel woefully low. The Sadist in me wanted to see the ‘Z’ fighters have a good go of taking on the androids, to feel the weight of their deaths a bit more, to see that, these Androids were VERY much different from their anime counterparts and that the risks were significantly higher…but they gloss it over so that we can see 17 and 18 destroy an amusement park or try on clothes. it makes the sudden darker shifts in the 3rd act when Gohan and Trunks try an ‘all or nothing’ attack on the androids feel actually quite out of place when compared the relatively calm sparring the rest of the special has. Which is a shame as some of the most emotional moments in the entire franchise happen in this special, but they’re undercut seemingly to save money.
Id say the pacings a bit rushed, the tones a bit uneven, but the story itself is solidly told, gives a good idea of what ‘Future Trunks’ had on his mind ahead of his trip into the past, and closes the loop on the Android arc. Though part of me does wonder if the alternate reality Trunks described in the anime was better left to the imagination.
Visually, its about in line with the anime, a handful of VERY striking shots in the finale help just tip this over the edge into something a bit more than just the level of the series at this time. But otherwise it is kind of by the numbers.
If you’ve watched all of ‘Dragonball Z’ this is a pretty nice epilogue piece to sandwhich inbetween the ‘Cell Games’ arc and the start of the ‘Buu’ arc. But is it essential? No. No I wouldnt say it was. Its one of the better Dragonball Z movies/Specials. But I cannot stress enough how dissapointing it is that they didnt just chuck a bit more cash at this one, make it an hour total and give us a firmer opening act, rather than the clip show treatment.
I’ll almost certainly include this in future rewatches of ‘Z’ because It does give the series. a bit more weight, but I dont think I could say hand on heart this was one you absolutely needed to see.
Notable as being the last Dragonball Z movie before the time skip post ‘Cell Games’ ‘Bojack Unbound’ is a bit of a strange movie in all honesty. Painfully close to being a Dragonball movie thats almost unhappy to be one.
The plot picks up a year or so after the events of the Cell Games, and a new world martial arts tournament is set to take place, but this time with a twist! as the semi finalists planned for the tournament are being imported from a galaxy far far away! naturally the ‘Z’ fighters all sign up, apart from Goku, who’s dead still…and weirdly Vegeta who decided it wasnt worth his time.
We fly through the tournament with relative ease until we’re down to four finalists including Gohan, Trunks and Krillin. But when the reach the semi finals, rather than some medium powered aliens meeting them. We have Bojack. an alien/demon who is allegedly about as powerful as Perfect Cell (give or take) who was previously known for his attempts to destroy the galaxy. He was defeated and sealed away in a star by the Kais, but with Goku destroying King Kais planet, the seal has been broken and Bojack is now ‘Unbound’ (see what they did there?)
With that, the gang must work together to take out Bojack and his crew before they destroy the earth and carry on their galaxy destroying plans…Oh! and Mr. Satans in this one, as he’s supposed to be the challenger they face in the finals…he’s comic relief for the most part.
The more I think about this one, the less enthused I am by it. The plot feels almost like a throwback to the early DBZ movies like ‘Dead Zone’ and ‘Tree of Might’. Its weird seeing an alternate take on the ‘world martial arts tournament’ given that around this same time, the exact same plotline would happen in the official anime as part of the Buu saga.
The weirdest part of all of this is the absence of Goku and Vegeta…and the sudden ‘stop/start’ involvement in the narrative. Goku is dead. he cant leave the afterlife, its an established canonical fact. And as such he spends most of the film just kind of…describing what the audience is seeing, and eventually they just full on break the rules of the series so that he can have a quick ‘saviour’ moment.
Vegeta is shown for the most part nowhere near the tournament, but then he randomly shows up, gets his ass kicked and then leaves again. Piccolo dips from the tournament all together and only shows up to aura farm, get beaten up, and then leave again.
And probably my biggest gripe, the tournament of power stuff is done and dusted within about 15 minutes of the runtime. I’ll be honest, id have just quite happily watched a ‘tournament of power’ movie with Bojack as the final villain. But they hand it off so quickly, as if IT’S getting int he way of a good story. when the reality is they burnt through there one good thing to get to an extended fight scene with almost no variety.
It feels like a conflicting narrative between the studio, the writer and the editor. With the writer wanting it to be a more ‘Gohan’ and lore driven story, the studio demanding Goku, Vegeta and Piccalo get SOME action in for the trailers, and the editor wanting to keep things on a steady course in line with how the series usually flows.
It results in a, not unpleasent, but very messy ‘thrown together’ feeling movie. This is a DBZ film that feels like its kids playing with action figures.
Bojack is hardly the most original villain in the series, And because of the pacing being the way it is, we never really feel bedded into the who these people are and why they’re doing what they’re doing. the pacings all over the place and tonally its massively inconsistent.
The Mr. Satan segments are fun enough, but its basically just a repeat of the Cell games ‘schtick’ sometimes lifting whole gags adhoc and just doinf them again. He doesnt really get to do all that much and his redesign isnt really my cup of tea.
While I can say the art direction and visuals here are nice, with the back half and SS2 Gohan looking particularly incredible, this is very much ‘Nice video, shame about the song’ a strong creative piece with almost nothing new to say or do.
Not one I can really actively recommend. I’d say its ‘inoffensive’ if your already watching the movies, you’ll probably get on fine with this. But if you’re looking to just watch ‘The Best’ this aint it.
Well, its quite a bit later than I would have liked (but then, when isnt it!) but 2025 has been grabbed by the scruff of the neck, thrown from my doorstep NEVER…to return again. And as is custom around these parts, as I welcome a baby faced, but somehow menacing looking 2026 into my front room and offer it a nice cup of tea and the plate of biscuits. Its time for me to once again take a look at the year that was and kind of give you guys a bit of a personal update on my life, the universe and all that nonsense, for the handful of folks who like to know about that kind of stuff (for which, Im eternally grateful that you care <3)
2025 was a bit of a complex beast for me honestly, in the sense that, broadly speaking, not a whole lot really happened…But on a more micro level, there were pockets of time where it very much felt like everything and everyone was all happening at once. At the tail end of 2024, as has been the tradition now for over 20 years, I took my annual ‘reflective’ new years eve bath. A time for me to take stock of the year that came before, put to bed any ill wills, let go of the past and plan my hopes for the new year. And while soaking in that tub, after letting go of the pains of 2024, I only really had one hope for 2025, and that was for it to be particularly boring and uneventful.
Its fair to say that the previous 2 years hadnt exactly been tranquil. With multiple close family deaths in 2023, and all the grieving and arrangements that come with it, and 2024 being the year we decided to buy a fixer upper house. By December ‘24, I wasnt just ‘wanting’ some quiet time, I frankly needed it. And while 2024 brought a lot of good times, joy and the framework for stability in place. By the end of it, I was pretty exhausted.
Which leads me nicely to 2025, and…to be honest; I kind of got my wish. Broadly speaking, the year of 2025 was a pretty uneventful one. A bit of a blur year if im honest, as the months seemed to peel away faster than I could keep track of them, I wanted uneventful; and that was pretty much what I got…
Thats not to say that absolutely NOTHING happened mind, but that what did happen was typically done in small self contained pockets.
Probably the biggest ‘struggle’ of the year, isnt really my story to tell honestly. That would belong to my partner. After the previous 12 months of heavy renovation work, paperwork and all the meetings and arrangements that come with that. I was tired and wanted to chill, SHE was fundamentally broken. When I say that by December of ‘24 she was essentially bedridden for most of the day; every day. Im not exaggerating. And over the last 12 months its been an incredibly slow and very painful emotional and physical recovery for her. While she acknowledged that us moving in together and making a go of things was pretty much inevitable, she wasnt really well enough to do it when she did, but a fear of her getting worse physically and mentally if she waited any longer was what pushed her through this.
For the first 4-6 months of 2025, she pretty much lived in bed, coming out briefly (if at all) only if absolutely essential and I ultimately ended up handling most of her appointments/paperwork during this time. I did as much as I could to try and help her recover and around the 5-6 month mark she did begin to get up and out of bed a bit more often, and even began to do a few things she’d previously enjoyed with her art and video game work.
The back half of 2025, she slowly began to become more involved in the house, getting dressed and going into our living room may seem like small offerings, but they were huge milestones in terms of her recovery, and by the end of the year, she’d even begun preparing some meals, and joining me on the occasional store trip when she was well enough. By the end of 2025, she still wasnt quite back to her old self, but she was beginning to get back into the swing of things. Which, I cant tell you how proud I am of her journey on this one. Its been a huge emotional struggle for her and at times its been stressful for both of us, but I think we’ve really turned a corner by this point.
Outside of that, my first 6 months of the year was pretty much just, looking after the missus, keeping the house from falling into squalor, and trying to arrange for a few of the smaller ‘odd jobs’ that needed doing to the place to be arranged. In Mid spring, I decided to try and have a good go on the garden as we hadnt been able to touch it really since we got the keys. We had a LOT of junk from the reno in our garden as it got too cold to remove it by the time we were finished, so I hired a skip and got rid of all of that, chopped two trees and a black hawthorn bush down that were causing us some serious access issues (I understand now how Christopher Lees Dracula could die by those fuckers…they’re lethal.)
I did a lot of weeding, made some hanging baskets, bought a few garden ornaments, and just general scrubbed, seeded and cut back the lot. It looked a lot better for it and by the summer it was a wonderful little nook to scurry myself away to, to hang in a hammock, pop a beer or soda or three and just take in the sunshine.
We also got our loft boarded and insulated, which was pretty much THE big project of the year for us. During January 2025 we realised just how cold the house could be when it was uninsulated. With one particular day when we woke up to the INSIDE of the house getting down to as low as 5 celsius with the heating on, being a bit of a wakeup that we needed to do something fairly urgently. So! In July, we boarded and insulated, its worked a treat so far, and the new storage space has allowed us to clear away a LOT of our things. Freeing up a small ‘guest room’ to be turned into a sensory room which we’re hoping will only help further my partners recovery and give me a space to zone out from time to time.
Outside of that, theres really only been two other things that have happened this year that have personally impacted me in a distinct way, both of them medical. The first was that, after being on the waiting list for almost two and a half years, I finally got to the top of the list for an ADHD assessment. And I feel at this point I need to add some context for folks who may not know my history, so please bear with.
I was diagnosed with ADHD when I was 7 years old. This was done through NHS services, and at the time the doctor told my parents that this was pretty much the most blatant example of ADHD that he had ever personally seen, so much so that he asked if he could ‘borrow’ me for an afternoon to show students going into the peadiatric support services exactly what a ‘textbook’ case of ADHD looked like more often than not.
I was medicated for about 9 years, and I honestly blame that intervention for leading me to where I am now. Without it, I almost certainly wouldnt have made it through primary and secondary school with a qualification to my name. In retrospect, I do think I was probably overmedicated during a big chunk of that window. I felt ill a lot of the time, lost a lot of weight and was zoning out for most of the day. But it kept me quiet and focussed on the task at hand, so my parents were happy enough with that given that off meds I was positively feral.
When I hit 15, the doctor who had diagnosed me to the service left his position and was replaced by a new to the area doctor who was strictly anti-medication. He believed that ADHD was better treated with therapies and accommodations, and thought that medications put a strain on the body and simply suppressed the underlying issues, rather than resolving them. And while I agree with the sentiment to a degree. The only universe where ADHD would be better resolved with therapies and accommodations, is a world that is welcoming and accommodating to neurodiversity. And thats a world that was positive fantasy when that doctor said what he said, and is an even LESS likely possibility today.
In either case, they asked me if i’d prefer to not be medicated, I said that the medications sometimes made me feel bad/unwell, but that the tradeoff of being able to focus, I felt was worth it. Which they chose to interpret as ‘I don’t want to be on meds’ and despite my parents protest, they informed us that, as I was soon to turn 16, they’d be discharging me from the childs services and wouldnt be renewing my medication prescription. They advised us to see how I got on without medications, and if I really TRUELY needed them, to go back to my GP, who would refer me back into the service with the adult team. That I wouldnt need to be reassessed, they’d just pick up where we left off.
And so, it all came to a halt. But it did it probably at the best time it could have really, as I was about to start college, and I’d decided to pursue an education in film, cinema and art. (and English…because we stan STEM here.) Which worked out particularly well really. Being off meds released the full ADHD incoherency, and it turns out being able to generate a million ideas every 20 seconds, and wanting the quickest, most effective and laziest solution to a problem is JUST what the film industry thrive on.
I spent the following 10 or so years pursuing a career in film and television, and ‘humble brag’ incoming, but with my ADHD running rampant, I was able to ace through college and make a lot of filmie friends in the process, cruise through university studying film and television at a ‘top 5’ rated university in the country, making even more filmie friends AND offering my services as an advisor on top of growing into a direction and editing specialisation. I got my first few film gigs, before finding steady work as an editor for a film company, where I quickly climbed the ladder becoming the head of the department in over a 3 year window. ‘Agile’ was the buzzword of the time, and if you were able to jump from project to project with absolute ease, you were golden balls. And my ADHD VERY much enabled that.
Unfortunately; as these things tend to do, it wasnt meant to last, the company I worked for announced a relocation plan in 2017 that would see them moving out of my city by a good distance (significantly longer than I was willing to travel) they refused any chance of a remote working position, and essentially told me I either had to suck it up and do a 2-3 hour commute every day ON TOP of losing all the perks I was enjoying in the current location, for no change in pay, or I could leave. I chose to leave.
In 2018, I ended up getting a desk job, and as I got bedded into the new company I picked up the swing of things, and by 2022 I was making double the amount I was making when I was leading the editing department. But the work had become overwhelming. I couldnt keep up and my focus was totally shot through. So; after some consideration, I decided to enquire what options were available via the NHS adult mental health services. After all; they told me I could just pick up where I left off, surely it would be a piece of cake right?
Well; no. it was shit honestly. I went back to my GP in mid 2022 and basically asked him if I could go back into the ADHD services, and explained what i’d been told previously. Only to be informed that the NHS (raided by cuts) didnt specifically HAVE a local ADHD service anymore in my area, and that 99% of referrals into the service now had to be handled by a 3rd party service. I said ‘Oh! Well thats fine, I really just want to talk to someone about what therapies/medications are available today, as it was quite rudimentary when I started. They said that wouldnt be possible. I asked why, and they said that, even though I had an ADHD diagnosis, and that it was in my medical notes. The 3rd party service wouldnt recognise that diagnosis. Instead; they told me I had to go into that service, essentially as if I hadnt been diagnosed at all. The real kick to the balls in all of this? I asked if their diagnosis would be recognised by the NHS once i’d got it again, and was told it wouldnt be, and that, essentially, if I ever DID need to access NHS ADHD services, i’d have to reapply AGAIN. Its unlikely I will need to given where I live. But at the same time, its frustrating.
Anyway, they put me on the list and told me there wasnt currently a confirmed wait time. I shrugged it off…it took 2 years. I already had an ADHD diagnosis. And it took 2 YEARS for me to…not even get INTO the service, but just to get an email off them to confirm I was getting to the top of the list for evaluation. I initially spoke to my GP about this issue in September of 2022. And in LATE November 2024, I finally had my one (and to date only) session with a doctor, who assessed me for ADHD over zoom, in a call that lasted all of 15 minutes before she basically informed me that I definitely did have ADHD and that medication was likely the best way forward.
I then got put onto ANOTHER waiting list. And in August 2025 I was informed that I was at the top of the list for titration (a 12 week window where they just…throw meds at you in different doses and see what sticks) and in late September 2025. I started that period on Methalphenidate.
Honestly? It was a bit of a revelation. Going back onto ADHD meds as an adult, and being able to better describe how the medication impacts me really quite changed everything.
A note at this point for anyone who hasnt taken ADHD medication before, but theres a common misconception that these medications are ‘focus pills’ and that they, somehow magically, zap your brain and force it to laser focus in on tasks without getting interrupted, and to slow your thoughts down so that you can focus on the task at hand. But thats not really how the meds work.
See, they don’t so much ‘give you focus’ more, they take away the barriers that caused the loss of focus in the first place. For example; before meds I sucked at getting up in the morning, I was largely dependent on caffeine and it would take me at least 3 hours to even feel like I was in the room. Letalone be coherent. Id be chasing dopamine for most of the day through overeating junk food, or getting pulled into stuff I felt was ‘fun’ over stuff that actually needed doing. Worse still, once I was awake, I was then wired for most of the day I would stay up WELL into the night, going to bed at 2-3am most nights, even if I had to be up at 8:30am the next day.
The day Istarted, it was like a switch flipped, I took my first dose, sleepily, at 8am. And by 8:30am I was wide awake and beaming. I had absolutely no fatigue, I didnt touch a drop of caffeine, cruised through a full day of work without so much as TOUCHING a candy bar, I felt sharp, with the world and on top of things. That lasted for the better part of a week, before slowly eeking down. As with all meds, and particularly ADHD meds, after a while your body just…gets used to it and the benefits slowly start to creep down a bit.
So, I had it doubled, and things seemed to perk up again…However after a few days, tolerance kicked in again and the fatigue started to creep in with it. So pushing it, they tried doubling it again. And its here things started to not quite go to plan.
While the morning fatigue was gone again, the jitters i’d have for an hour or so in the morning on the previous dose now lasted for most of the morning. I felt nauseous a lot of the time and could barely eat, I was having quite bad ‘dry mouth’ through the day, to the point that there were times where I was struggling to swallow, and the worst of it was that, at this dose, I started to zone out quite a bit. Spending large chunks of the day a bit zombified, and around 4pm, the meds would wear off HARD causing me to completely crash out into exhaustion, with a beyond painful headache, absolutely STARVING for food.
I raised this to my prescriber, who informed me a lot of those side effects were normal, that my blood pressure and heart rate were still in normal range, and that, if they pushed further and doubled the dose again, That those issues may actually go away, due to the higher dosage.
Now, its here really that I feel like I should probably mention the OTHER medical thing that was going on with me in 2025, because the two overlap at this point in the MOST horrendous way (and this is a big track change, so buckle up) For the better part of 10 years now i’ve been looking into getting a vasectomy. I’ve never wanted kids, im a fiercely independent person, they cost too much, I like my quiet time, and while im more than happy to be the cool uncle to my nieces and nephews, I find the best part of being an uncle is being able to give the kids back. There are other reasons beyond that from a medical perspective both on mine and my partners side of things that I wont go into here, but lets just say we both agreed that kids wernt for us, and we wanted to make sure it stayed that way.
2025 seemed like the perfect time to give it a go really, the planets had seemed to align. With the house stuff largely done, my job was in a bit of a holding pattern (I’ll get to that shortly) so they were more than happy to give me extended medical leave to recover for it, I had a lot of PTO stored anyway…But unfortunately; the week of my operation coincided with the 2 week window where I was supposed to go up to the higher dose on my ADHD medications…Which I didnt initially see as that much of a problem really. But that was because I, at that time, didnt fully understand how ADHD medications ACTUALLY worked.
See; ADHD meds work by forcing blood from other parts of the body up to your brain, this in turn forces your brain to produce the amount of dopamine you need to regulate your body properly, which in turn causes you to feel less fatigued, and to not actively seek out dopamine hits. THATS how the focus works.
Why do I mention this? Because the meds pull blood from EVERYWHERE. If it can get a line to your dome, its drawing it. And 7 days before my operation was set to take place, I went up another dose and my body just…NOPED the hell out at that point. The headaches i’d have at the end of the day on previous dose, basically became constant throughout the day and even more intense, I started HEAVILY dissociating through most of the day, barely being able to do much more than the barest of minimum work tasks, and my entire evenings post work, would be spent zoning out on the sofa, barely able to move, feeling like I was having an out of body experience watching myself veg out.
I powered through with that for the first 3 days as I was advised that might happen and that, when my body adjusted to the tolerance, it would probably all quieten down. But dear reader, it absolutely didnt. By day 4 my mood had completely collapsed into a depressive episode, which has NEVER happened before, im a very positive person usually, and this mood swing was both unusual and unsettling. But it was Day 5 and 6 where it really came crashing down, as my body had decided that, in the absence of it being able to pull blood from anywhere else in my body, it would do so from my crotch and prostate area…I was thrilled as you can imagine…
How did this manifest? SEERING AND UNRELENTING PAIN. It felt like someone had used my crotch area as a pin cushion, and for two days I could barely walk, go to the bathroom, or do much of anything other than sit there in severe pain. I Continued my meds into Day 6 before I put 2 and 2 together and realised that it may in fact be the meds that were causing this (I was zombified…self awareness wasn’t in my rolodex at this point)
So, I stopped. I halted the meds immediately and messaged my doctor to inform them of what had happened. They told me stopping was the best idea, and to stay off them till I felt better and then try to go back on them at a lower dose thereafter. But that kind of skittled my operation, as the lack of blood flow had triggered mass MASS inflammation across my whole body by this point, and when I stopped the meds, it only pushed the inflammation further. I ended up with Prostitis (inflammation of the prostate to you and me) alongside crippling inflammation all across my hips, lower back, thighs and shoulders.
I was essentially bedbound for a week in chronic pain with the accompanying all day headaches AND because of the prostitis, I had feelings similar to a UTI without it being a UTI. I had a very fun November as you can probably imagine. Now bearing in mind a Vasectomy is a routine operation, but they are clear to say that if you arnt 100% fighting fit before hand, do not go through with it. And they ESPECIALLY suggest not going ahead with it if you have any kind of prostate or urinary problems as that can significantly increase the likelihood of infection and permanent pain post op.
As such, I had no choice but to cancel the operation and to try and recover. In total it took 2 weeks for me to feel back to my old self, that was a week of being pretty much entirely in bed, and a following week of slowly getting back into the swing of things. But the experience really knocked my confidence, and as of this year; circumstances at work have changed, meaning that, it may be a while before I can look into it again. Which im genuinely gutted about as I spent the better part of 4-6 months getting prepared for it.
Back on the ADHD med front, 2 weeks passed, and I went back on my meds at the lowest dose, and this time. It was a bust. I don’t know if my body had developed muscle memory for the dose or what, but it did absolutely nothing for me for the week I was on them, after a week they doubled the dose again, Which reduced fatigue a bit (but not as well as it did the first time) and helped me focus during the day, but this time around, by 1pm it would wear off HARD and i’d wind up with a massive headache, falling asleep sitting up and craving a fridge worth of food.
They suggested doubling the dose again, but I was a bit hesitant to do so, as going up to that level was where the problems started last time, and I didnt fancy severe pain for 2 weeks again…So, I suggested I DO go up to double the dose, but I split it out. Half the dose in the morning, and the other half in the afternoon when I felt it starting to wear off. They agreed. And…for now dear reader, I think we’ve found the sweet spot. Its not perfect. But its the best i’ve had since my first couple of weeks on these tablets, and its consistent.
All in all? Despite the issues and problems along the way, now that i’ve found the right dose, the pros very much outweigh the cons for me. I’m losing weight, feeling sharp and able to actually sit and process thoughts, rather than feeling like im in some kind of hurracane state of mind. I have planned and agreed break periods in with my doctors to help keep the meds effective. And despite the teething issues to get to this point, I don’t really have any regrets in going back to medication…though as you can probably guess, I do wish the timing had been a little better. And I would encourage anyone reading this who is either considering looking into an ADHD assessment, or has been diagnosed and is considering medication to explore it. My experiences arnt the common pathway, and everyone has different pros and cons to the journey. But I can say that I’ve gained more than i’ve lost here.
The meds are pretty much THE story of the year for me honestly. And given thats the most intense aspect of the year, I consider myself quite lucky. So…with that in mind, heres a quick annual breakdown of the other things going on in my life.
Work –
On the job front, life goes on. At the end of 2024, I was temporarily moved into a new team due to some structural changes within the business that led me to not have a manager for a while. So they just…shoved me into a random team and told me they’d look after me for the time being…that ended up being an 18 month placement, and I was genuinely gutted to leave them, they were all super nice and very welcoming people who were very supportive. Work was a good balance during that time, not too busy, not too quiet and because everything was kind of mellowed on the work front, and my boss was very accommodating, it allowed me to explore the medical situations above without too much pressure to keep things chugging as normal. Life was pretty good, and after 15 months of being with them, I did start to wonder if this was just going to become the defacto situation, as I hadnt heard anything since I was told I was moving into that team as a temporary measure.
Unfortunately; all good things must come to an end, and in mid November 2025, I had a random HR call put in my diary (this was while I was bedridden, so I damn near shat a tonsil stone) But it was to inform me that organisational changes were incoming and that they’d found me a new manager and a dedicated team that I’d be moving to in the new year.
My boss was very apologetic about not letting me know sooner, but apparently she only found out when I told her about the HR call, 15 minutes before it happened. Being honest, it all felt a bit bungled really, as my (then) boss told me, on a wednesday afternoon, that i’d be leaving the team after Friday, but not going into the new team, because it wouldnt exist till January 1st. Instead i’d be moving to ANOTHER team, just for a month, that had 2 members who were ALSO moving to that new team in the new year, with the aim to get the three of us introduced and aligned ahead of the formal move over to the new world.
Problem was, that when I moved, I only had 3 weeks till I went off for Christmas vacation, and the first week of me moving, the other 2 new team members were on vacation, the second week I had a couple of days leave and the final week I was up to my neck in sign off work before disappearing till the end of the year. So collectively the three of us spoke maybe 4 times before I left, and we didnt really get to learn anything about each other…other than we’d be working together in January. During this time I also didnt have ANY boss or manager, because they went off sick with the flu for 2 weeks of the 3…and the one week we were all together, she was busy with urgent system problems…basically, it wasnt very well planned out.
BUT! Its now nearly the end of January, im in the new team now and…they seem alright enough, my new boss is new into the business (she is my 17th manager in 7.5 years…im now averaging a new manager every 6 months or so), so theres a lot of explaining things to her and trying to bring people up to speed. Only time will tell if im sat here 12 months from now saying how marvellous they are, or if im climbing the walls. All I do know is, that 2026 does bring with it some mild anxiety, because the structural organisational changes that caused me to BE moved into a temporary team for the last 18 months, was due to business streamlining, and this year its supposed to hit my paygrade…So…if you can pray for me for the next 12-15 months, i’d be very grateful. As I quite enjoy the whole ‘having a job and having money’ thing.
Politics –
Outside of that? Well I normally have a bit of a daliance into politics in these blogs…But its all just quite depressing at this point isnt it? US politics is a hellscape at this point, so I can only hope for my US buddies that…’It’ will happen a LOT sooner than later and that politicians like Mamdani continue to not put up with this bullshit.
On the UK front, Its just kind of exhausting honestly. Reform UK have been leading the polls for most of 2025 and the new year. A party that is now almost entirely made up of ex-tories, leading on a MAGA style policy platform, infused with a frankly prehistoric and wheezing sense of ‘british empirism’…Its disheartening to me that so many people are somehow being swept into this whirlwind that, if they vote to get these guys in, the current country wide problems will just somehow, stop. We’ll kick everyone who cant trace their families back to the UK in the 1500s out, and somehow the country will wind back to being a beer swilling, cigarette smoking, openly groping haven of 1950s/1970s sweaty anti politically correct nirvana.
In 2025, reforms policies existed primarily in the form of ‘Whatever Nigel Farage’ pulled out of his arse when questioned. And his supporters decided the best thing to help the country work its way out of crippling economic and social debt, was to litter the streets of the UK with hundreds of flags, and to beat up anyone who tried to take them down…even if they were ordered to by the council. Which is the kind of patriotism that could ONLY come from Reform UK…
Beyond them, its all a bit naff really…I said in my last blog that Labour winning the election wouldnt really change anything because they were made up of liars and blair sycophants…and i’ve been proven right, the one or two good things this government have done for the country have been absolutely and totally eclipsed by the WALL of policies they’ve tried to force through that will lead to a surveillance state, decimated the social safety net and banned pornography. The only reason they havent been strung up from the lamposts at this point is because they’d get in the way of the flags…And when they arnt trying to actively install an all AI surveillance state…they’re trying to be a Reform UK tribute act…which has MASSIVELY blown up in their faces, as noone wants ‘reform lite’. They’ve essentially alienated BOTH sides of their core base, with the Labour right either moving fully over to Reform Uk, or the Lib dems…while the Labour left have shored up elsewhere.
On that note, the Lib dems; who have been trying to stay relevant for the last 2 years PURELY through literal stunts via the head of the party Ed Davey, have drifted off into obscurity. I keep a pretty close eye on the news and I havent heard off the party since November last year, if not earlier…The conservatives are HEMORAGING support to reform at this point, and at the time of writing they’re getting seriously embarrassed because a lot of their ‘big name’ core MPs are in an arms race to move to reform, before Kemi Badenoch can sack them.
Which leads me to the ‘left wing’ parties of the UK, which are the ‘Green party’, and ‘Your Party’. The former currently having a surprising bump in support due to its new leader and ‘normal bloke’ Zak Polanski, and the latter a party im bitterly disappointed hasnt been able to take off due to chronic in fighting and organisational issues, led by Jeremy Corbyn.
At the start of last year I was all in on ‘Your Party’ I supported Corbyns run for PM through his time as Labour leader, I said he should have left and made a new party in 2019 when he still had the momentum of support behind him. But 2025 was not a good year for ‘Your Party’ as several VERY public spats between the co-owners of the party spilled out over newspapers and social media, ACTUAL lawsuits were threatened, and the party conference ended up heavily fumbled due to the ballot process being heavily influenced, and the decisions of those votes resulting in a conflicting and confusing set of decisions for the party. I still fundamentally agree with the principles the party stand for. But I cant at this point actively support them as, at this point in time its just a bit embarrassing that these organisational disputes are being aired so publicly. If they can get their ducks in order behind closed doors, and come back this year with a coherent and organised message. They’ll win a lot of favour from me. But at this point I cant in good faith back them fully.
By contrast, the green party seem to be on a role, with current polling suggesting they arnt TOO far off toppling Labour. They have quite a way to go to beat Reform at this point…But Whereas Reform have kind of capped out at 25% of the vote share, and for the last 6 months have hovered between 22-25%. The Greens are still growing, jumping in the last 6 months from 3% of the vote to 17% as of the time of writing, and seeing an absolute EXPLOSION of new members. Its unsurprising really, Polanski comes across as a genuine and charming gent. They’ve reviewed their policies and the new manifesto is streamlined and heavily focussed on social issues which is something I align with. And when the medias best challenge to him is to dreg up an article from 20 years ago when Polanski was a hypnotherapist is all they’ve got beyond just…not talking about him at all…I think, barring incident, that this year may be a VERY good one for the greens. Indeed, I agree with most of their manifesto, though I still disagree with them on their stance around Nuclear power…but given the other options. They’re the oasis in the desert that im clinging to for dear life at this point.
Other than that though? I don’t really think theres anything else to say really…2025 was a bit of a nothing year, which I was tremendously grateful for. I desperately needed normality after the last 2-3 years, and barring a slightly turbulent close to the year, I got exactly what I wanted. As for 2026? My only hope is really for more of the same, light duty and regulated, boring, nothingness. I want stability; and beige…if I can have that this year. I’ll be happy.
I was going to write something about the channel in this blog, but checking my wordcount, im already 11 pages deep…that and I have news on that front that I don’t want to lose focus on. So im going to do a final ‘off the cuff’ blog on that shortly…so stay tuned! But other than that! I hope you all had a nice 2025, I hope 2026 is kind to you, and I wish you the happiest of years.
‘Broly – The Legendary Super Saiyan’ is the 8th film in the DBZ movie franchise, the first of a trilogy of ‘Broly’ movies from this era, and one of the most universally loved movies in the DBZ series. Though; having seen it now, im not entirely sure why…Dont get me wrong! I liked it…but LOVED it? thought it was the best movie in the entire original run???…I wouldnt go that far.
The film opens with Goku and Chichi waiting on an interview to try and get Gohan into a prestigeous school, when Goku recieves a communication from King Kai asking him to head to his location asap. While this is going on the rest of the gang are enjoying Cherry blossom season by having a picnic (and a few drinks) in the park, when a mysterious spaceship lands, hundreds of soldiers emerge along with a Saiyan, who immediately make a B-line for Vegeta and inform him that they’ve been looking for him for decades, and that he is to return to ‘New Vegeta’ the future Saiyan homeworld to rule the new land as king, but ALSO to help them track down and destroy ‘The Legendary Super Saiyan’ a Saiyan folk lore character of unbridled power and destruction, who…is now apparently REAL and needs to be destroyed to ensure the peace of New Vegeta.
Vegeta agrees, Trunks decides to follow him, and a handful of the rest of the gang end up being accidentally abducted for extra ‘Shenanigans’.
On landing however, they find quite a different story taking place, no sign of the Saiyan can be found, and on exploring ‘New Vegeta’ the gang find the planets enhabitants largely enslaved. When Goku arrives Him and Vegeta are introduced to ‘Broly’ a timid and quiet soul who our new mystery Saiyan ‘gifts’ to Vegeta in order to help him find this murderous Legendary Saiyan…However it may transpire that Broly isnt all he’s cracked up to be at a glance…and that the gang may have a fight for there very lives…and a mission to save a planet at risk of being totally destroyed.
Broly is an interesting beast in terms of ‘Dragonball’ lore, because its the first time in these movies that we get some actual Saiyan lore sprinkled into these films. Broly is a somewhat interesting villain, though not a particularly complex one, and thats ultimately the biggest thing that hamstrings the production. The Villain cant be that deep or complex, and once its established who IS the villain(s) of this piece, the film kind of starts to fall apart a bit, as it devolves into just endless fight montages, and not particularly creative ones.
The film clocks in at 72 minutes, and seemingly has the opposite problem to the last 2 films, they ran too short and needed 10-20 minutes to flesh out the context..this runs about 10-15 minutes too long and could have benefitted from the back end being tightened up a bit. This being the first of 3 films, I appreciate they need to set the ground foundations for this lore and these characters. But there were moments here that felt like they hammered their points a little TOO much.
That being said, the story itself is a pretty fun one for DBZ, this definitely felt like it benefitted from being a movie over being an arc in the anime, the pacings a little slower than the last two movies, but that slower pace does benefit it more than detract from it. Broly as a character design is fun, the endings a little underwhelming, but it compensates with some genuinely humerous moments and some really nice ‘iconic’ art direction and line delivery moments. and a killer score.
All in all? this is another one that I could recommend to someone who hasnt watched any of the DBZ movies. its maybe not as good as ‘Super 13’ or ‘Return of Cooler’ but it has enough going on to keep you hooked, and I came away from it glad I finally checked it out. AND! as an added bonus, now all this lores been established, it should make the next Broly movie even tighter and more solid! so I have that to look forward to!
The hits just keep on coming as we’re now fully into the ‘DBZ Movies are good now!’ era of the franchise. Our 7th entry in the series plays as an alternate reality ‘What If?’ type scenario…and its ‘What if, in the original ‘Android Saga’ timeline, Androids 17 and 18 had been destroyed by Goku, who took the medicine Trunks gave him ahead of time. Rather than him taking it later, nearly dying and the androids bringing the ‘Cell Saga’ into fruition?’
Well; the answer is they never activated Android 16, they both got massacred and their destruction triggered a secret underground robot computer of Dr. Gero to activate 3 more androids, Androids 13,14 and 15. They’re mission, unsurprisingly…is to kill Goku.
Well, Gokus out shopping with Chi chi and the majority of the rest of the gang are hanging out for a beauty contest (because of course they are…) When androids 14 and 15 start blowing up parts of the city, leading to a fight with Goku that takes the team out to the glacial field where they meet Android 13 and the revelation of the even deadlier ‘Super Android 13’ leading the whole team to pitch together to take this new deadly threat down!
Much like ‘Return of Cooler’ I feel like they’ve kind of nailed the formula here, this could have easily been a 15-25 episode arc of the series, but its just condensed down to a much more digestable format. Honestly my thoughts on this one are pretty much identical to ‘Return of Cooler’ its decently enough paced, has some nice lighter moments contrasting some genuinely graphic and darker tones. The art direction is rock solid, the dialogue is a bit more humourous and intentionally littered with Jokes.
The Androids arnt exactly the most original ideas in the world (they feel almost like a soft launch of the concepts that would go on to fuel the Cell saga arc) but Super Android 13 is an interesting transformation and character design…and…Well the less said about Android 15 the better frankly *Nervous collar tug*
Much like ‘Return of Cooler’ I think the only issues I have with this one is its a little too condensed for its own good, and with another 10-15 minutes just to flesh out the androids backstory a bit more and to maybe give Super 13 a bit more to do, this could have been pretty close to perfect. As it stands the fact it feels almost like a twist on the existing lore and the speediness with which it skips through the plotting leaves it just a little bit rushed in my opinion.
STILL! with that being said, this is another one that I can wholeheartedly recommend checking out if you’ve only seen the DBZ anime, I had a really fun time with it, and Im really hoping this momentum keeps up!
Well; it may have taken 5 films to get to this point, but we’ve finally hit probably the most solid DBZ movie that i’ve seen up to this point.
A direct sequel to ‘Coolers Revenge’ the film picks up a short time after the events of that movie and Dendae calling Goku and the team to head to new Namek, as a mysterious metallic object has latched itself to the surface, and appears to be absorbing the life force of the planet, and kidnapping the Namekians…On arriving it’s revealed that Cooler SOMEHOW survived being fired into the sun, and has merged with the alien metal object to become an even more unstoppable killing machine, hungry for vengence against Goku and the team.
And this is the first DBZ movie i’ve seen so far thats managed to really properly capture the tone and vibe that Ive been looking for in a DBZ movie. Everything up to this point has kind of felt like its been solely grounded in ‘Dragonball’ aesthetics and vibes with just a sprinkle of DBZ lore up to the beginning of the ‘Saiyan Saga’. Which is FINE….But its not what I come to DBZ for. With the reintroduction of Vegeta, the franchise FINALLY feels like the DBZ I know and love!
The plot is hardly the most original thing in the world, but its weird, dark and interesting enough to more than hold my interest, the art direction is creative, detailed and had some genuinely gorgeous moments included. The scripts strong, well paced and structured with some really nice dialogue choices and some genuinely funny moments at times.
The voice cast really give it there all. The score sounds perfect and the payoff is satisfying. Honestly? My only real criticism is, clocking in at 42 minutes this feels a little *too* fast. The story of this movie would have EASILY been 30-45 episodes of the anime, and while I think stretching it out THAT long would almost certainly have been overkill, I think an extra 20 minutes on this one to flesh out Cooler, more properly reitroduce Vegeta and get into the finer details of our mysterious space object would have really helped to give this thing the breathing room it needed to be absolutely top tier.
As it stands? this is the first DBZ movie I can fully and enthusiastically recommend, ESPECIALLY if you’ve only watched the anime before… I had a really good time with it, and if you struggled with the early DBZ movies, maybe starting with ‘Coolers Revenge’ and picking up from there onwards might be the best way to go.
If memory serves, this is the first ‘Dragonball Z’ OVA to directly reference the events of the manga/TV series. playing out almost as a ‘What If?’ ‘Coolers Revenge’ picks up in an alternate timeline where Goku defeated Freeza AND Vegeta seemingly, before returning to earth. Namek was still destroyed, New Namek never existed, Goku never learned instant transmission and everything from the moment Goku launched the spirit Bomb at Freeza onwards seemingly never happened.
In this timeline, its revealed that Freeza had a brother ‘Cooler’, and, on hearing of Freezas demise, Cooler decides to head to earth to kill the Saiyan that disgraced his families namesake. Meanwhile, back on earth, Goku and the gang are getting ready for a camping trip to blow off some steam after the whole ‘Namekian Genocide’ business…at which point Cooler and his cronies arrive, wreck up the place, and force Goku to once again fight for the lives of the people of earth!
Much like the special before it, ‘Coolers Revenge’ feels like the creators have kind of found a system and format for how these <60 minute specials should play out. On the one hand, the formula they’ve put together means that these stories very rarely end up awful now…On the downside, its INCREDIBLY repetative, and the fact that these specials ARE sub 60 minutes means we dont really get the nuance, backstory or character development needed to really truely appreciate whats at stake or why we should really care.
I cant fault the visuals, this looks like a beefed up, more refined take on the TV series animations. I cant fault Cooler as a character, though. I dont really know what seperates him from Turles, Lord Slug or any of the other ‘baddies’ from these films up to this point. He’s not quite as interesting or charismatic as Freeza and the lack of runtime means we dont really get to see his personality develop much past ‘You killed my brother, prepare to die.’ which is a real shame.
Coolers cronies arnt as enigmatic as the Ginue force, Krillin and Gohan largely go AWOL for a big chunk of this, Piccolo basically appears out of nowhere halfway into the story. This doesnt feel like a special or even particularly cinematic event. It feels like a 2 part ‘filler’ story within the TV series. Thats not inherently a bad thing, but it did make me wonder really why they bothered to make this a ‘special’ in the way that they did.
In short, ‘Coolers Revenge’ isnt a particularly groundbreaking Dragonball film. Its too short to allow the characters to develop and breath, or for the story to get the nuance it needs to be fully fleshed out. But its too long and deals too heavily in ‘non canon’ events for it to really fit in to the TV series or carry any weight behind it.
I know Cooler has a sequel special right after this one, so I guess if that ones any good, then this one will kind of become essential to understanding that one. On its own though? its kind of unremarkable. Im not unhappy i’ve seen it, given Coolers connection to the mainline TV series, i’d say it IS worth watching just as a bit of an oddity, and at <50 minutes, its hardly a mammoth watch. Im kind of glad I saw it at least once. But It’ll probably be a while before I watch it again.
The forth OVA ‘special’ from ‘Dragonball Z’ and I feel they’ve pretty much landed on a bit of a formula for these at this point.
The plot this time around revolves around ‘Lord Slug’ a mysterious power hungry being with a demon army who arrive on earth accidentally, learn about the dragonballs, with Slug using their power to grant him eternal youth, restored to his younger, stronger self, Goku and the team must work together to defeat slug once and for all.
Lets be honest here, this is essentially just a 50 minute reimagining of the ‘King Piccolo’ arc from ‘Dragonball’ just tiedied up a bit and with some new ‘Z’ characters thrown into the mix. In that sense, it feels incredibly derivative, and kind of throwaway (as most of the OVAs ive seen so far feel)
However, I will say the short does have some fun enough little moments, Lord Slug may be derivative, but he’s at least got a sense of menace about him, and (mild spoilers) but seeing an early ‘proto’ design for Gokus Super Saiyan form was fun!
Visually, the HD scan of this special is crisp and highly detailed, I thought the performances were solid, if not a little goofy (thats not a bad thing honestly!) I cant say I hated it, it just didnt really bring anything new to the table. a fine enough way to kill about 50 minutes. Absolutely non essential, not one i’d actively recommend. But if you’ve watched through all of ‘Z’ and just wanna spend some more time with the gang, this’ll almost certainly scratch the itch.
A Statement before we begin – tytdreviews.com/2026/01/03/a-word-on-j-k-rowling/
And with that, we’ve reached the end of the original film adaptation of the ‘Harry Potter’ films, and its realistically probably the best way this slightly wonky hodge podge of a series could have closed out.
The plot here picks up literal moments after the end of the first part, and what follows, is essentially, a series of large scale action vignettes as the gang try to do a raid on Gringotts bank, followed by breaking BACK into Hogwarts to look for the final Horcrux’s, leading to a final battle between Voldemort and the Death Eaters, and the students and staff of Hogwarts.
Really, this is less a 3 act movie and more just two massive action scenes with occasional lore dumps and pathos sequences. but plot wise, I kind of think it probably does the best with the material its been given as it possibly could really…or rather, given the setup theyd had to this point, I think what was cut out of the plot or changed wasnt problematic enough to completely throw the thing off.
I think the film keeps a relatively good pacing across the runtime, though it is a bit on the slow side at times, to the point that I did begin to drift into my phone in places, in part due to familiarity, and in part due to an ongoing issue I have wherein prolonged action scenes/fight scenes just end up kind of getting a bit dull and repetative for me.
I feel like they round off most of the characters stories fairly effectively, theres some half decent twists and turns. And while, like the last film, it is a shame that the extended cast of characters arnt quite as bedded in as the earlier films, they do get quite a bit more screen time here, which is better than nothing I guess.
The finale itself? is a tad anticlimactic, made all the more iffy by a post story time skip sequence (which I wont get into here…but it does rather take the wind out of the sails of the production). I feel like it probably did the best it could to translate what was a quite involved passage in the books to the screen, but I think they maybe oversimplified it a little too much, leaving it just a bit on the flat side really.
On a technical level? we actually see a few wobbles here, which was surprising, broomstick sequences looked terrible compared to when its been handled in previous entries, theres definitely an overuse and misuse of CGI in this entry, generating some frankly bizarre and low quality imagery, and the CG doesnt really mesh all that well into the live action sequences. It very much felt like they hadnt quite finished polishing the effects up for this half really…as mentioned, it comes to something when effects here look worse than effects from the 2nd or 3rd film in places.
Direction and cine wise, its fine. its about on a par with the first film, though with a lot of the shoot being studio based, it does rather make this entry feel a little pokey and smaller budgeted than the previous films. Part one was FILLED with sweeping location shots and panoramic views. Part two has a couple of moments like that, but a lot of it is CG generated and feels a bit lifeless as a result. Not helped by the fact that, the aesthetics they cultivated 5 films ago at this point, have now fully cannibalised themselves, leading to an overly dank, border pastiche of the kind of style they were trying in earnest from ‘Goblet’ onwards.
Otherwise though? its a big budget studio picture, it looks find, the edits solid, the creative vision is in line with the other entries in this series…it all just feels a little overly safe on that front though. Which is a bit of a shame.
Performance wise, Maggie Smith really shines here for me, and the core cast get probably their finest moments in the series. But other than that, its all rather flat again. Actors just going through the motions, paycheque motivated, but little else. I think a big hinderence at this point is that the story has shifted the narrative to the Trio predominantly, meaning all these wonderful characters cultivated over the last 7 books are relegated to abrupt ‘Bursting in’ moments that last a couple of minutes at most. Or a border non speaking background role. Ron, Hermione and Harry were pretty much always the least interesting characters in this series, and to collectively, spend nearly 5 hours in there company in these finale films is almost chronically teetering on the insufferable. Its kind of unavoidable really because thats how the books go too…but I feel like we really missed out on some great final turns from this cast because off it.
And the soundtrack feels like a ‘greatest hits’ at this point. Its good, but its SO so tired…
All in all? I struggle to muster solid enthusiasm for ‘Deathly Hallows Part 2’ or the complete ‘Deathly Hallows’ as a closer for this series. Apart, we have an opening part that feels positively glacial and could be used to treat insomnia, and a second part that feels weirdly isolated and struggles to realise its best interpretations. Combined? this is border insufferable.
What I will say, is between these final two films, the heart of the series still feels like its ticking away somewhere in the background, the vibe that runs across all of these films, keeping them consistently (if not vaguely) tied to each other. Deathly Hallows 2 may not be my favourite entry in the series, but it closes things off in a way that wasnt terrible, and I do feel if push came to shove, that I wouldnt dislike watching it again. I absolutely couldnt recommend this film, or the series at large having rewatched them all now. But it was kind of nice to go back through these films 25 – 15 years on and see how the series was able to captivate people back then. I get it…even if it isnt necessarily for me.
A Statement before we begin – tytdreviews.com/2026/01/03/a-word-on-j-k-rowling/
Chalk this one up to just not really being my cup of tea. Im still ultimately kind of bewildered as to why they split the final Harry Potter book into a two part movie, as it effectively creates a very unfortunate scenario where the first half is all set up and no pay off, OFF THE BACK of ‘Half Blood Prince’ which was another film that was basically all set up and minimal pay off. The second half of this story gets to reap the rewards of nearly 4 hours worth of set up and planning…while this 2.5 hour entry is almost pathalogical in its attempt to put the audience to sleep.
The plot of this film revolves around our trio picking up almost immediately after ‘Half Blood Prince’ setting up to head out and travel the globe looking for the Horcruxes that will ultimately put an end to Voldemort. And while I will admit there are a couple of decent set piece moments here such as the time spent in the Ministry of Magic, and the final 15 minutes or so. the remaining 2 hours mainly consists of Harry, Ron and Hermione arguing, walking endlessly and occasionally warping to a new location. Its like ‘The Lord of the Rings’ but not as well written, with twice as much walking…and sad.
I need to be clear here, even at this point, I dont actively HATE this movie, but this is about as close as i’ll get to hating a film in this series. Its essentially left me feeling largely ambivolent towards it. I dont dislike it, but I sure as hell am unhappy it wasted so much of my time.
The pacing is glacial for the most part as, what the film makers intended to be character building/lore developing set pieces, wind up feeling like endless arguments, bickering and collective grieving over everybody being dead. Oh yeah, thats the other side of this, everyone in this series that made it even remotely fun or entertaining is now either dead, absent or gets a 2 minute cameo and is then never seen again.
Instead, we spend the entire time more or less with our trio, as they have brief moments of interacting with new characters who are just kind of dull, or they’re arguing with each other, which feels hollow when you know that they all pretty much HAVE to sort out their differences before the end, or the second films going to be mercifully short.
The dialogues rough, the performances are lumpy and uneven, while it isnt quite as awkward as the other films in this series, the cast here, at this point in time are positively itching to get away from this franchise, and it shows in their performances. which feel half hearted and not at all focussed on sincerity or genuiness to the audience.
While on a technical level I cant EXPLICITLY fault the direction and cine. It all feels quite tired by this point, as what began in ‘Goblet of Fire’ and was mastered in ‘Order of the Pheonix’ has now eaten itself to the point that it feels bland, beige and incredibly unoriginal. This is just murky, brownish/blackish/blueish sludge cinema, a colour grade that plagued this era of film and video games, taking all vibrance and uniqueness out of the picture. and here its done especially poorly.
While technically, its playing all the right notes, it absolutely isnt playing them in the right order.
Add to this an uninspiring soundtrack, the aforementioned struggling performances and CG that, somehow isnt holding up as well as the previous films…and you end up feeling like you’ve been served up half a meal where every foodstuff has been unceremoniously filled with stuffing.
I sincerely feel for cinema goers back in 2010, who had to watch this for WELL over 2 hours. Get to the end, and then wait 12 months to ACTUALLY see something happen. Because, in my opinion at least? this film was an absolute slog to get through for the most part, with even the interesting bits somehow ending up being twisted into inanities.
TYTD Reviews 