andrewcambs

This is my first foray into these Branagh Poirots having grown up with David Suchet on TV as him, so he had some big little Belgian shoes to fill.

Branagh brings enough intrigue and quirkiness to the character to make him his own, but in this film he is massively lost in the shadows of Tina Fey whose very presence steals any scene.

Whilst I didn't know the story/plot, it kept me guessing throughout, but some poorly executed shots and weak CGI moments gave the film an element of cheap horror film, and this jarred with the characters.

Yeoh's character was all too brief in her screen time, but she gave a great performance all the same. The main child actor - Jude Hill gives us a wonderfully intense, matter-of-fact, and sinisterly creepy Leopold. I hope to spot Jude flexing this skill in more films in future.

Wouldn't watch again, and likely wouldn't have gone to see it in the cinema if it wasn't because of friends wanting to watch it.

I think I picked up neighbours a few years in, and for a while in the 00s I was absent, but over all, I've loved having this little escape each day with some friends in Australia. An evolution in characters, sets, and long-running story arcs has made it far more enjoyable and engrossing than in its early days. In recent years, clearly aware of its legacy and the fans love, they've found ways to reference, weave in, and return to some wonderful older friends like Harold, Madge, Lou, Hilary, Jane, Melanie and many others. It's a fantastic series, and Amazon's take over, whilst daunting at first, shows that in these first new (third) era of the show, that we're back in a familiar street with lots of familiar old friends, whilst also meeting a whole host of new characters to fall in love with, cry with, and despise. Amazon is lucky to have it now, and we're lucky to be Neighbours once more.

We're two episodes in as I write this review, and I'm aware of the bridge that the Ahsoka series needs to build in order to succeed. That bridge has the job of helping the fans who've invested years of their time watching Ahsoka and other characters in the animated series. I've never seen these series (yet), and so, the two episode premiere was a handy bridge for me to have a sense of what has happened (that's relevant to this new storyline), and to give a respectful not to all that has happened for those who know it.

I feel emotionally invested in these 'new' characters, and I'm really interested in the teasers of plotline so far. Rosario's Ahsoka feels wise and calm, and reminiscent in that to Guiness' Kenobi, whilst holding on to a fearless figher cold stare when she needs it.

Ray Stevenson and Ivanna Sakhno work wonderfully as the damaged, darker foes, each fascinating in their behaviour and flaws, and give a huge sense of baggage that I hope we'll see play out throughout this series.

Natasha Liu Bordizzo's character of Sabine comes with a lot of baggage too, and whilst I'm blissfully unaware of most of it, I like what I've seen so far with her and look forward to her relationship with Ahsoka and Mary Elizabeth Winstead's 'maternal' character Hera Syndulla.

With a bridge built in these first two episodes, I feel that this series can now move on to the real plot of this series as the characters progress. I'm really looking forward to what's ahead.