WTF Did I Just Watch A.K.A. Thoughts On ‘Taboo’

I made it through the entirety of Tom Hardy’s television series, Taboo. Believe me, it was a struggle, but I managed to finish the first season. Taboo has an interesting premise. It is a Victorian era drama about James Delaney (Tom Hardy) a man presumed dead in Africa. But to the surprise of everyone, James returns to England after his father’s death to claim his shipping empire.

I am a huge Tom Hardy fan, so of course I was going to watch this show no matter what. Tom is a fine actor and I was impressed that he created the concept for the series with his father, Chips Hardy. I also enjoy Victorian dramas quite a bit as they are usually dark and gritty. Taboo does well to depict the grim realities of life in the Victorian age. But unfortunately as a whole the show is messy and a huge disappointment.

The biggest problem for Taboo is the character of James Delaney. He is the protagonist of the show, yet he has no redeeming qualities. He often references how horrible he is and the horrible things he has done. He sees everyone around him as a tool to be used. He doesn’t seem to care about money, yet he is willing to do anything and to kill anyone to have possession of his father’s shipping company. Delaney doesn’t even care about his own son! He says he cares about his sister, Zilpha, but his actions say otherwise. It is impossible to connect with Delaney or to care what happens to him. As a result, it is impossible to care about anything that happens on Taboo.

Oona Chaplin as Zilpha Geary.

There is one character on Taboo that I have sympathized with: Zilpha Geary as played by Oona Chaplin (Whom I will never forgive for ruining Robb Stark). Now, James and Zilpha have had a complicated relationship. It isn’t fleshed out very well (as nothing is on this show). But it is revealed that at one time they had an incestuous relationship. Zilpha did not want to be with James though and married another man while James was in Africa. When James comes back to England his mission, other than obtaining his father’s shipping empire, seems to be to win Zilpha back. Yes, the fact that it is incest makes the whole scenario icky. But James’s love of Zilpha is the only human quality he possesses, so I accepted it.

Zilpha kills her husband after he puts her through an extremely disturbing exorcism in an attempt to exorcise James from her mind. Zilpha finally gives in to her desire to be with James. But he rebukes her. I have absolutely no idea why he rejects her (seriously someone please explain this to me). James’s rejection of Zilpha crushes her. So the season finale opens with Zilpha committing suicide.

WTF!!!!! Why?!?!?!?! It makes no sense to me to build this character up throughout the whole season. To have her struggle with herself and against her bastard husband. To then just unceremoniously kill her off. Zilpha was immensely important to the show. James Delaney as a character has no redeeming qualities. His love of Zilpha is the only emotion he ever shows. Even though their relationship was sick, I was rooting for them. It gave me something to hope for. Zilpha was the only character on the entire show to be fleshed out at all. She was sympathetic, a quality that is much needed in a show filled with horrible people.

James has such little emotional capacity that even Zilpha’s death gets hardly any reaction from him. He sits and mopes and grunts, but that’s it. THIS WAS THE LOVE OF HIS LIFE. But Taboo quickly moves on to explosions and shootouts because who needs character development???

Tom Hardy as James Delaney.

Taboo never explores the issues that might elevate it above forgettable melodrama. The incest issue is given next to no consideration. Zilpha struggles with it, but James doesn’t give it a second thought. Until he rejects her. Then there is the mystery of James’s son. Is Zilpha the mother? Why does James not care for him? (That’s easy: James doesn’t care for anyone). Also is James crazy? Or does he really possess some voodoo magic? Again we will never know! All that the writers want to focus on is James’s battle against the East India Company, which is the least compelling element of the show.

I have been ambiguous about Taboo for the most part. I have watched every episode neither glued to the screen, nor completely bored. That is until I watched the season finale. It enraged me so much I wanted to turn the television off and ‘Eternal Sunshine’ this show from my memory. What a huge waste of time Taboo is.

James Delaney is a problem that I don’t believe the show writers will be able to fix if there is a second season. The writers had enough sense to kill off about two thirds of the cast in the last 10 minutes. But that won’t be enough to save this mess of a show. Don’t waste your time on Taboo. 3 top hats out of 10

Tidbits:

• One thing I do love is Taboo’s title sequence. Beautiful imagery and music.
• Why is the show so visually dark? I understand it’s the Victorian era, all dark and smoky, but I can’t see anything!
• I also can’t hear anything. Tom please speak up and stop mumbling!
• Can we talk about the King and his horrible makeup/fat suit? Laughably horrible prosthetics.
• Tom does look awfully cool walking around in a top hat though.

Tom Hardy as James Delaney.

Exodus: Gods and Kings (2014)

So everybody is shitting all over this movie. Literally everyone. I haven’t seen even one mildly positive review for Ridley Scott’s latest epic, Exodus: Gods and Kings. Personally, I don’t understand all the hate. I don’t think Exodus is a very good movie, but I also don’t think it’s very bad either. There were a few moments when I zoned out. But there were also a couple exciting moments that I was glad to witness.

Christian Bale (Moses) and Joel Edgerton (Ramses) with John Turturro in the background.

Exodus has a few good things going for it. It is a relatively entertaining film, but the story was not modernized enough to make it really interesting and exciting. I don’t mean that it needed the Michael Bay treatment with more action, etc. I think the writers of Exodus failed to reinvigorate the story and add anything new to it. Other than the ‘God as a child’ thing (which was interesting, but never expanded on). There are a few things I wish the film had done and I’ll list them below. Let me know if you agree because I don’t honestly know if they would be good ideas or if my interests are very different from the mainstream:
1. I wish there was more of a focus on the relationship between Moses (Christian Bale) and Ramses (Joel Edgerton). I find it very intriguing that the two grow up together and appear to be quite close. And are quite suddenly torn apart by their different religious backgrounds and political perspectives. But the film doesn’t focus on this conflict, except for briefly at the beginning.

Christian Bale gives a rare, dull performance. But his eyeliner is entertaining.

2. I also wish there had simply been more Joel Edgerton. He is an actor that only very recently I have noticed. While watching The Great Gatsby I was kind of bored until Joel popped onto the screen as Tom. Suddenly everything felt energized and interesting and I ended up liking the film, mostly because of Joel. The same thing occurred while watching Exodus. I feel like Christian Bale just phoned it in as Moses, he did not do anything particularly compelling. Joel on the other hand embraced his role as Ramses and made him into more than just a one dimensional villain. I would have loved to have a bit more background on Ramses.
3. For a religious movie I feel that Exodus hardly delves into any religious matters and largely ignores them. It briefly toys with the idea of ‘if God is cruel why would you follow him’ kind of thing. But that’s about it. I also don’t like the idea that Christianity (or should I say Judaism? I’m not a religious person) is shown to be the superior religion. The Egyptian Gods don’t really exist, I guess? And what the heck religion is Moses’s wife? (And why would she be so accepting of a couple hundred thousand Hebrews moving in?) In our modern world I think it would have been immensely more interesting to show the other religions more, like that of the Egyptians and Moses’s wife. An interplay of neither of them being necessarily ‘better’ and why everyone should be allowed to have their own beliefs.
4. Visually I find Exodus is stunning. The plagues in particular look great (and scary). The parting of the Red Sea also looks great and was exciting. Although I’ll be honest, I wanted Moses and Ramses to have an epic sword fight in a tunnel of water or something. Kind of lame, I know, but without a clash like that the ending felt anti-climactic.
5. For a film about Moses, I feel like I don’t know very much about him after watching Exodus. Why does he embrace his Hebrew heritage and ‘his people’? Why does he adamantly follow God? Exodus glosses over these kinds of issues and it is frustrating. Maybe the director’s cut would be more satisfying. There had to be a lot stuffed into just 2 and ½ hours (although it didn’t feel that long to me.

I haven’t mentioned the white washing issues with Exodus because honestly, while watching the film it didn’t bother me. The only person who annoyed me was Sigourney Weaver because she was blindingly white. She looked more like a vampire than an Egyptian.

Joel Edgerton as Ramses outshines the rest of the cast.

I would give Exodus two Joel Edgerton eyeliner smeared eyes out of five (the eyeliner game in this movie is a 10/10). Or maybe six Aaron Pauls creeping around rocks out of ten (seriously, he is ridiculous). I feel that I didn’t waste my time or money watching it, but I won’t be watching it again. Well, maybe I would give a director’s cut a try. One very positive thing I can take from this film is the great talent of Joel Edgerton. I’ll be keeping an eye on him from now on.

Trailer Review: Exodus: Gods and Kings

Ridley Scott’s biblical epic, Exodus: Gods and Kings, looks every bit impressive and grandiose. This film is about when Moses (Christian Bale) revolts against Egypt’s Pharaoh, Ramses (Joel Edgerton). It also stars Ben Kingsley, Sigourney Weaver, and Aaron Paul. Ridley’s last two films, The Counselor and Prometheus, were largely underwhelming, so he’s hoping that Exodus is not another flop.

Christian Bale is an amazing actor and if I choose to see this film it will largely be because of him. His acting is great and his eyeliner game here is excellent. Although the way he screams “Yes!” half way through rang a little false to me, but it’s probably out of context. I think Joel Edgerton’s makeup looks a little funny, a lot of times it looks like he’s dressed up for Halloween. But that might just be me, I think his costume is relatively historically accurate. Joel and Sigourney Weaver are the two actors in this that kind of have me squinting my eyes with trepidation. Neither of them looks all that Egyptian to me. There has been some controversy over possible whitewashing in this film. The only non-Caucasian people I see in this trailer are the woman playing Moses’s wife (or whoever she is, I’m not familiar with this story) and of course Ben Kingsley. It would’ve been nice to see a little more diversity. But my problem with Joel and Sigourney isn’t so much their ethnicity as they just don’t look like they fit the roles to me. But it’s hard to judge that just from the trailer.
This trailer is epic in every sense of the word. I love the sweeping shots that showcase Egypt. The sets look expansive and everything is very detailed. The special effects look very well done with the swarm of locusts (I think) and the parting of the Red Sea. And the idea of men ruling as Gods and Ben Kingsley’s voice just makes everything seem so grand. This film is very much in line with Gladiator. But Moses isn’t just one man fighting for revenge, he is fighting to “change the world.” It doesn’t get more epic than that.
I’m itching to see the showdown between Moses and Ramses. “I am a God!” that line and delivery from Joel sounded so dramatic. Although this trailer gives away just a little bit more than I would have liked. I feel like I’ve seen everything except for maybe the last quarter of the film already. It’s a shame, but otherwise the trailer really has swept me away. The score sounds wonderful and epic, the sets, effects, and costumes are great, and Christian Bale looks like he does his typical good job. Exodus: Gods and Kings hits theaters in December.