nickthegun

Lets get one thing out of the way... My names nick.. and I'm a Sci-Fi addict. I love it. But unfortunately, my love of SF couldn't stop me from thinking Threshold is awful.

It started off reasonably well. The UFO was a good concept and I liked the way the signal turned people inside out. The 3 pronged helix motif was also a good call and was used to great effect several times.

But then it hit the skids. The following episodes were boring, badly written and directed rubbish. The cast were a who's who of sci-fi stereotypes. Spunky yet vulnerable woman, Brilliant but perverted guy, wise-ass doctor, gruff yet sensitive government man......... And the plan? Goddamit, how boring? And Molly Caffrey.....worst lead ever? Possibly. A terrible annoying character.

But its faults transcended the most glaring problems. The highly trained government operatives couldn't hit a cows arse with a banjo, constantly allowing people to escape them with utterly inept weapon usage and tactics...... The plan itself is ridiculous and the science is the worst kind of techno-babble; the kind which people semi-understand and think 'Wait a minute..thats bullcrap'.

I wanted to like threshold. It had all the signs of being a winner. But every element of the show had at least one problem with it and that, i think was its undoing.

Oh, and no matter how many petitions are raised, this is one show that is never coming back.

If you see this in the TV guide its certainly worth a watch. Nice story, some good gags and a girlfriend pleasing happy ending.

Its not brain surgery, but it is well written and acted enough to quite happily pass an hour and a half.

Ands thats all I've got to say about that. Well not really because I've got to pass 10 lines........Er.......Oh yeah..... Christopher Walken is, unsurprisingly great. He does a brilliant pastiche of his Weapon of Choice dance. Or is weapon of choice a pastiche of this? I cant be bothered to Google so it looks like this ones staying a mystery.....

There we go. 10 lines. That wasn't so hard.....

I wanted this movie to rock me. I wanted it to blow me away...... but i just sat there picking holes in it.

I love the original trilogy with all my heart. I could sit and watch them all day. They are magical films that contain a certain spark. A spark bright enough to allow you to overlook their imperfections.

Not so the prequels.

They have all been so cold and mechanical they have sucked whatever magic was in them away.

For example, the film started with 'War!' and I hummed to myself 'What is it good for'. And it didn't get any better.

The slapstick in the first scene annoyed me, general grevious being a coward annoyed me and the jedis practically giving anakin to the emperor annoyed me.

I just kept picking holes while I should have been enjoying the culmination of nearly 30 years of film making.

The ex-positional scene with Anakin and Palpatine. Palpatine states that one dark lord could influence Midichlorians (blech) to create life. And anakin, being a virgin birth, doesn't once think to say 'oh right. I wonder if he had anything to do with my mysterious origins......'.

Things like that kept pulling me back from the immersion I usually give myself to in great films. I just kept getting jarred back to reality.

Like I said, I think AOTC and TPM battered most of the goodwill I had out of me and left me cold and cynical.

Its not all bad. Some scenes are great. But then they get spoiled by a huge honking lizard.........