Data
Title: Metropolis
Year: 1927
Length: 123 minutes
Director: Fritz Lang
Writer: Thea von Harbou, based on her novel
Starring: Alfred Abel, Gustav Fröhlich, Rudolf Klein-Rogge, Brigitte Helm
Music: Gottfried Huppertz
Distinctions: currently #93 on IMDb’s Top 250

My reaction
Synopsis: a robot leads a socialist revolution
How I saw it: on video a couple times, most recently (rented from Netflix) yesterday
Concept: Great. The plot has been recycled too many times to still have anything left in it after all these years. But Art Deco Expressionist Steampunk? Yeah, okay.
Story: Bad. Unless you like being beaten over the head with an allegory of dated relevance.
Characters: Bad.
Dialog: Indifferent.
Pacing: Good.
Cinematography: Great.
Special effects/design: Great.
Acting: Bad.
Music: Good. I didn’t really like it, but it’s right for the movie.
Subjective Rating: 7/10 (Good). For once Netflix has the good version of a silent film. We’d seen a different version (about a decade ago), and it was boring and kind of hard to follow. This version (the Murnau Foundation restoration released by Kino) is entertaining throughout. The footage is played significantly faster, it uses the original score, it has all the footage that was known to exist at the time it was released (early 2000s), and, absolutely essential if the movie’s going to make any sense, it tells you what happens in the missing scenes.
Objective Rating: 7/10 (Pretty good).

Data
Title: Lost: Season Five
Year: 2009
Network: ABC
Episodes: 17, at 43 minutes
Creators: J.J. Abrams, Jeffrey Lieber, Damon Lindelof
Directors: Stephen Williams, Jack Bender, Rod Holcomb, Paul A. Edwards, Mark Goldman, Greg Yaitanes, Bobby Roth
Writers: Damon Lindelof, Carlton Cuse, Edward Kitsis, Adam Horowitz, Elizabeth Sarnoff, Paul Zbyszewski, Brian K. Vaughan, Melinda Hsu, Kyle Pennington, Greggory Nations
Starring: Naveen Andrews, Henry Ian Cusick, Jeremy Davies, Michael Emerson, Matthew Fox, Jorge Garcia, Josh Holloway, Daniel Dae Kim, Yunjin Kim, Ken Leung, Evangeline Lilly, Rebecca Mader, Elizabeth Mitchell, Terry O’Quinn
Music: Michael Giacchino
Distinctions: Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actor (Emerson)

My reaction
Synopsis: time-traveling survivors
How I saw it: streaming online (from Netflix), over the past few days
Concept: Great.
Story: Great.
Characters: Great.
Dialog: Great.
Pacing: Great.
Cinematography: Good.
Special effects/design: Great.
Acting: Good.
Music: Great.
Subjective Rating: 9/10 (One of my favorites). This is what television should be. Granted, I could do without the whole 10% of the show spent waiting for a character’s name to be revealed thing, and I was pretty disappointed when A Certain Character didn’t end up dying after all at the end of the finale, but whatever. Easily the best season so far.
Objective Rating: 10/10 (Great).

Here are a few random people who happen to be awesome. I’m just saying.

Terry Gilliam
Evidence:
- Monty Python and the Holy Grail, 1975 (co-director/co-writer/animator/Patsy)
- Time Bandits, 1981 (director/co-writer)
- Twelve Monkeys, 1995 (director)
- Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, 1998 (director/co-writer)

Brad Pitt
Evidence:
- Twelve Monkeys, 1995 (Jeffrey Goines)
- Fight Club, 1999 (Tyler Durden)
- Snatch, 2000 (Mickey O’Neil)
- Inglourious Basterds, 2009 (Lt. Aldo Raine)

Sergio Leone
Evidence:
- Per un pugno di dollari, 1964 (director/co-writer)
- Per qualche dollaro in più, 1965 (director/co-writer)
- Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo, 1966 (director/co-writer)

Will Ferrell
Evidence:
- Elf, 2003 (Buddy)
- Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, 2004 (co-writer/Ron Burgundy)
- “The Landlord,” 2007 (co-writer/Renter)
- Step Brothers, 2008 (co-writer/Brennan)

Billy Wilder
Evidence:
- Ace in the Hole, 1951 (director/co-writer)
- Stalag 17, 1953 (director/co-writer)
- Witness for the Prosecution, 1957 (director/co-writer)

Data
Title: Miracle on 34th Street
Year: 1947
Length: 96 minutes
Director: George Seaton
Writer: George Seaton, story by Valentine Davies
Starring: Maureen O’Hara, John Payne, Edmund Gwenn, Gene Lockhart, Natalie Wood
Music: Cyril J. Mockridge
Distinctions: Oscars for Best Screenplay, Best Story and Best Supporting Actor (Gwenn)

My reaction
Synopsis: a man who claims to be Santa Claus gets a sanity hearing
How I saw it: on video (rented from Netflix), yesterday
Concept: Great.
Story: Good.
Characters: Good.
Dialog: Good.
Pacing: Great.
Cinematography: Bad.
Special effects/design: Good.
Acting: Good. Gwenn and Lockhart are great. O’Hara is pretty bad – or at least made some terrible choices.
Music: Indifferent.
Subjective Rating: 7/10 (Good). Cute and amusing. Surprisingly, it doesn’t feel very Christmassy for a movie that has so much to say about Christmas.  It looks at Christmas from outside.
Objective Rating: 8/10 (Good).

Data
Title: “Boundin’“
Year: 2003
Length: 5 minutes
Directors: Bud Luckey & Roger Gould
Writer: Bud Luckey
Starring: Bud Luckey
Music: Bud Luckey

My reaction
Synopsis: a lamb is embarrassed after being sheared
How I saw it: in the theater, 2004; on video many times (have on DVD), most recently yesterday
Concept: Indifferent.
Story: Indifferent.
Characters: Good. There’s not exactly room for development in a five-minute Musical, but… they’re lovable.
Dialog: Indifferent.
Pacing: Great.
Cinematography: Good.
Special effects/design: Great.
Acting: Great.
Music: Great. Some of the lyrics are shaky, but I figure that’s covered under dialog.
Subjective Rating: 10/10 (Favorite of my favorites).  Best. Pixar short. ever.
Objective Rating: 8/10 (Good).

Data
Title: The Great Dictator
Year: 1940
Length: 125 minutes
Director: Charles Chaplin
Writer: Charles Chaplin
Starring: Charles Chaplin, Paulette Goddard
Music: Charles Chaplin, Meredith Willson
Distinctions: currently #97 on IMDb’s Top 250

My reaction
Synopsis: a Fascist dictator oppresses Jews and hilarity ensues
How I saw it: on video, twice (rented from Netflix), most recently yesterday
Concept: Terrible. I don’t care if they supposedly didn’t know when they made it just how tasteless this is. I’m not about to speculate on what the movie might have been like in 1940; what I’ve got is the movie now: a slapstick comedy about the holocaust.
Story: Bad. At best, just an excuse for gags.
Characters: Indifferent.
Dialog: Good.
Pacing: Indifferent.
Cinematography: Indifferent.
Special effects/design: Good.
Acting: Good.
Music: Good.
Subjective Rating: 4/10 (Eh). I’ve only seen about three Chaplin features so far, but I have no doubt that this is his worst. There are a few very funny bits, and I guess it’s worth seeing for those. But there’s also a lot of attempted humor that’s just dull (the train station bit comes to mind). And then there’s, you know, the whole oh-my-god-Nazi-Germany-Jewish-ghettos-are-NOT-funny thing…
Objective Rating: 5/10 (Indifferent).

Data
Title: The Sarah Jane Adventures: Season Two
Year: 2008
Network: BBC
Episodes: 12, at c. 30 minutes
Creator: Russell T. Davies
Directors: Joss Agnew, Michael Kerrigan, Graeme Harper
Writers: Phil Ford, Gareth Roberts, Joseph Lidster
Starring: Elisabeth Sladen, Yasmin Paige, Tommy Knight, Daniel Anthony, Anjli Mohindra
Music: Murray Gold (theme), Sam Watts

My reaction
Synopsis: Sarah Jane Smith teams up with a gang of children, age target-viewing-audience
How I saw it: on video (rented from Netflix), over the past week
Concept: Indifferent. Doctor Who spin-off with a former companion – great. Making the rest of the cast children – completely stupid.
Story: Indifferent.
Characters: Bad.
Dialog: Terrible.
Pacing: Good.
Cinematography: Indifferent.
Special effects/design: Bad.
Acting: Indifferent. They didn’t have much to work with.
Music: Indifferent.
Subjective Rating: 6/10 (Okay). It starts off a little better than the first season, and reasonably entertaining, almost enough to forget how dumb it all is.  But then the last two stories (4 episodes) were completely, unforgivably awful.
Objective Rating: 4/10 (Eh).

Data
Title: “Partly Cloudy“
Year: 2009
Length: 6 minutes
Director: Peter Sohn
Music: Michael Giacchino

My reaction
Synopsis: a stork delivers dangerous babies
How I saw it: in the theater, June 2009; on video (have on DVD), yesterday
Concept: Good.
Story: Good.
Characters: Good.
Dialog: n/a
Pacing: Great.
Cinematography: Good.
Special effects/design: Great.
Acting: Good.
Music: Good.
Subjective Rating: 7/10 (Good). Cute.
Objective Rating: 8/10 (Good).

(update of a previous post – original is here)

Data
Title: Up
Year: 2009
Length: 96 minutes
Directors: Pete Docter & Bob Peterson
Writers: Bob Peterson & Pete Docter, story by Peterson, Docter & Thomas McCarthy
Starring: Edward Asner, Christopher Plummer, Jordan Nagai
Music: Michael Giacchino
Distinctions: currently #65 on IMDb’s Top 250

My reaction
Synopsis: an old man uses balloons to fly his dead wife’s dream house to South America
How I saw it: in the theater, June 2009; on video (have on DVD), yesterday
Concept: Great.
Story: Good. It would have been much better if it didn’t transform into an action movie.
Characters: Great. The whole talking dogs thing (there are dogs, and they can talk) seems out of place, and the three dog villains are lame/undeveloped. But the main characters are wonderful.
Dialog: Great.
Pacing: Great.
Cinematography: Great.
Special effects/design: Great.
Acting: Great.
Music: Great.
Subjective Rating: 9/10 (One of my favorites). I liked Wall-E better, but then I’m a science fiction geek so I guess that’s to be expected. When I first saw this, I said I’d be surprised if it wasn’t my favorite movie this year.  With a lot of movies still left to see, it’s only a close third – pretty good, considering.
Objective Rating: 10/10 (Great).

Data
Title: Fraggle Rock: Season Three [by DVD box set reckoning, which inexplicably includes the first two episodes of season four]
Year: 1984-1986
Network: CBC, HBO & ITV
Episodes: 24, at 25 minutes
Creator: Jim Henson
Directors: Douglas Williams, Terry Maskell, Jim Henson, George Bloomfield, Eric Till, Les Rose, Norman Campbell
Writers: Jerry Juhl, Susan Juhl, Jocelyn Stevenson, Robert Sandler, B.P. Nichol, Laura Phillips, Sugith Varughese, David Young
Starring: Dave Goelz, Jerry Nelson, Steve Whitmire, Kathryn Mullen, Karen Prell, Richard Hunt, Gerard Parkes
Music: Philip Balsam & Dennis Lee

My reaction
Synopsis: fun-loving, cave-dwelling creatures don’t understand their neighboring species
How I saw it: on video a couple times (have on DVD), most recently over the past few weeks
Concept: Great.
Story: Good.
Characters: Great.
Dialog: Good.
Pacing: Great.
Cinematography: Bad.  But improving a little.
Special effects/design: Good.
Acting: Good.
Music: Great.
Subjective Rating: 10/10 (Favorite of my favorites). The writing is back up to near where it was for the first season. Some episodes are a little weak, but none of them are bad. The relationships between species are developing; I’m pretty excited to see where it goes in the last two seasons (which we have but haven’t watched yet).
Objective Rating: 8/10 (Good).

Data
Title: Fantastic Mr. Fox
Year: 2009
Length: 87 minutes
Director: Wes Anderson
Writers: Wes Anderson & Noah Baumbach, based on the book by Roald Dahl
Starring: George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Jason Schwartzman, Bill Murray, Wallace Wolodarsky, Eric Chase Anderson, Michael Gambon
Music: Alexandre Desplat (and non-original music)

My reaction
Synopsis: a fox endangers his family by stealing from mean farmers
How I saw it: in the theater, today
Concept: Great. Not one of Dahl’s best books, but the idea of doing a movie of it in this style is perfect.
Story: Good.
Characters: Great.
Dialog: Good. Unmistakably a Wes Anderson movie. There are a few isolated moments that are kind of bad (it has the typical lesson-learning of a children’s movie, which seems out of place and unnatural here), but the rest of the movie makes up for them.
Pacing: Great.
Cinematography: Good.
Special effects/design: Great. Absolutely amazing.
Acting: Great. The voice-work is entertaining, and the animation is expressive and emotional.
Music: Great. Lots of Burl Ives and Beach Boys, and Desplat’s score is fun.
Subjective Rating: 8/10 (Great). One of Anderson’s better movies, right up there with Tenenbaums. It’s at a much higher energy level than typical for him, but without losing that quiet, Anderson-y tone.
Objective Rating: 9/10 (Very good).

Data
Title: Doctor Who: The Black Guardian Trilogy (“Mawdryn Undead” / “Terminus” / “Enlightenment“)
Year: 1983
Network: BBC
Episodes: 12, at 25 minutes; 3 stories of 4 episodes each, from the middle of season 20
Creators: Sydney Newman, C.E. Webber, Donald Wilson
Directors: Peter Moffatt / Mary Ridge / Fiona Cumming
Writers: Peter Grimwade / Stephen Gallagher / Barbara Clegg
Starring: Peter Davison, Janet Fielding, Sarah Sutton, Nicholas Courtney, Mark Strickson
Music: Ron Grainer (theme), Paddy Kingsland / Roger Limb / Malcolm Clarke

My reaction
Synopsis: a whiny schoolboy is enlisted by to kill The Doctor by an apparently omnipotent weirdo; meanwhile, The Doctor battles would-be immortals, lepers, nonsense and plot holes
How I saw it: on video (rented from Netflix), over the past few days
Concept: Terrible.
Story: Bad. Some of the basic plot ideas of the first two stories are sound, but the writing is awful.
Characters: Bad.
Dialog: Indifferent.
Pacing: Indifferent.
Cinematography: Bad.
Special effects/design: Bad.
Acting: Indifferent. A couple of the guest stars are quite memorably good, but there’s a lot of crap.
Music: Indifferent.  Kingsland’s score is entertainingly bad.  The others are unobtrusive.
Subjective Rating: 4/10 (Eh). 4/10 for “Mawdryn,” 5/10 for “Terminus” and 3/10 for “Enlightenment.” Not exactly your best Doctor Who, even by 80’s standards.
Objective Rating: 3/10 (Pretty bad).

Data
Title: The Apartment
Year: 1960
Length: 125 minutes
Director: Billy Wilder
Writers: Billy Wilder & I.A.L. Diamond
Starring: Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine, Fred MacMurray
Music: Adolph Deutsch
Distinctions: Oscars for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay (original), Best Art Direction/Set Decoration (black-and-white), and Best Editing; currently #99 on IMDb’s Top 250

My reaction
Synopsis: a suck-up lets his married bosses use his apartment to entertain women
How I saw it: on video (rented from Netflix), yesterday
Concept: Bad.
Story: Good.
Characters: Bad. Even an extremely charismatic cast could do nothing to make me sympathize with these people.
Dialog: Great.
Pacing: Bad. Much of the movie is amusing, but I was still pretty bored.
Cinematography: Good.
Special effects/design: Great.
Acting: Great.
Music: Good.
Subjective Rating: 6/10 (Okay). Not a bad movie, but all the awards it got are baffling to me. Maybe it has more depth and craftsmanship than your typical romantic comedy of the time, but best picture? Inherit the Wind, Psycho and Spartacus weren’t even nominated.
Objective Rating: 7/10 (Pretty good).

Data
Title: Ladri di biciclette
Year: 1948
Length: 89 minutes
Director: Vittorio De Sica
Writers: Cesare Zavattini, Suso Cecchi d’Amico, Vittorio De Sica, Oreste Biancoli, Adolfo Franci & Gerardo Guerrieri, based on the novel by Luigi Bartolini
Starring: Lamberto Maggiorani, Enzo Staiola
Music: Alessandro Cicognini
Distinctions: honorary Oscar for best foreign language film (1950); currently #106 on IMDb’s Top 250

My reaction
Synopsis: a father can’t support his family without a bicycle
How I saw it: on video (rented from Netflix), yesterday
Concept: Good.
Story: Great.
Characters: Great.
Dialog: Indifferent. Although, it’s not really fair of me to judge; the DVD subtitles didn’t translate half the dialog. It is the way of Netflix to only have the cheapest, crappiest DVD available of any title.
Pacing: Terrible.
Cinematography: Good.
Special effects/design: Great. But not much is called for.
Acting: Great.
Music: Great.
Subjective Rating: 5/10 (Indifferent). The kind of film that exists for film students to write essays about it. Thinking about it afterward, it seems like it should be a really great movie. But actually sitting down and watching the thing, I was bored silly.
Objective Rating: 8/10 (Good).

(update of a previous post – original is here)

Data
Title: Star Trek
Year: 2009
Length: 126 minutes
Director: J.J. Abrams
Writers: Roberto Orci & Alex Kurtzman, based on the TV show by Gene Roddenberry
Starring: Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Eric Bana, Karl Urban
Music: Michael Giacchino
Distinctions: currently #134 on IMDb’s Top 250

My reaction
Synopsis: a time-traveling Romulan has a vendetta against Spock
How I saw it: in the theater, May 2009; on video (rented from Netflix), yesterday
Concept: Great. As a geek, I am required by law to love the whole Time-Travel-Created-Alternate-Universe thing.
Story: Terrible.
Characters: Great.
Dialog: Great.
Pacing: Great.
Cinematography: Terrible. J.J. “Lens Flare” Abrams does everything he can to take you out of the movie.
Special effects/design: Indifferent.
Acting: Good.
Music: Great. Michael Giacchino orchestrating a classic sci-fi TV theme song… that’s all anyone can really ask for from a movie.
Subjective Rating: 7/10 (Good). Fun and fast paced. There’s some nice comic relief, and loads of geek-pleasing moments. The action scenes are a mess. The plot isn’t very interesting, mostly just getting the characters re-introduced – which is fun for a fan, since it’s extremely well cast (especially Karl Urban’s Bones) and the characters and dialog are well-written – but there’s still not much plot. It’s not a science fiction movie, and it’s not a submarine movie like previous good action versions of Star Trek have been. In place of those elements, there’s standard loud, fast-moving-camera, dumb action. They’ve got the characters down right; now they just need to put them in a movie.
Objective Rating: 7/10 (Pretty good).

Data
Title: The Return of Sherlock Holmes: Season One [or, season three of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, with a new title]
Year: 1986
Network: ITV
Episodes: 7, at c. 52 minutes
Creator: John Hawkesworth (developer)
Directors: Howard Baker, Peter Hammond, David Carson, John Bruce, Patrick Lau, John Madden
Writers: John Hawkesworth, T.R. Bowen, Jeremy Paul, Alan Plater, John Kane; based on stories by Arthur Conan Doyle
Starring: Jeremy Brett, Edward Hardwicke
Music: Patrick Gowers

My reaction
Synopsis: a private investigator solves mysteries
How I saw it: mostly streaming online (from Netflix), over the past couple weeks
Concept: Great.
Story: Good. Not really any bad episodes in this batch (although the first couple aren’t great). A few of them are great.
Characters: Great.
Dialog: Good. The quality of the adaptations are much better than I remember The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes being.
Pacing: Good.
Cinematography: Indifferent.
Special effects/design: Great.
Acting: Great. I’m surprised to find I’m not disappointed by the re-casting of Watson. And Brett’s even better than before.
Music: Great.
Subjective Rating: 8/10 (Great). Again, I have to point out that this is not My Sort of Thing. I’m not a big fan of mysteries – especially crime drama – and as a rule I hate period drama. But I absolutely love this show.
Objective Rating: 9/10 (Very good).

Data
Title: Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
Year: 1939
Length: 129 minutes
Director: Frank Capra
Writer: Sidney Buchman, story by Lewis R. Foster
Starring: Jean Arthur, James Stewart, Claude Rains
Music: Dimitri Tiomkin
Distinctions: Oscar for Best Story; currently #111 on IMDb’s Top 250

My reaction
Synopsis: a boyscout leader appointed to the senate stands up to corruption
How I saw it: on video (rented from Netflix), a couple days ago
Concept: Good.
Story: Great.
Characters: Great.
Dialog: Great.
Pacing: Great.
Cinematography: Good.
Special effects/design: Great.
Acting: Great. To say that to say that Stewart’s performance carries this movie would be an understatement would be an understatement.
Music: Indifferent. Corny and way over-the-top.
Subjective Rating: 8/10 (Great). The ending is very abrupt. And it’s a bit depressing to compare the Washington in the film to modern day politics. (I mean, really, a senator’s career being threatened by it being known that he did something in the interest of a business? Talk about suspension of disbelief…) But this is probably the ultimate Jimmy Stewart movie. He is constantly – every second he’s on screen – giving what’s probably the best performance of his career.
Objective Rating: 9/10 (Very good).

Here are a few random people who happen to be awesome. I’m just saying.

The Coen Brothers
Evidence:
- The Big Lebowski, 1998 (directors/writers)
- O Brother, Where Art Thou?, 2000 (directors/writers)
- No Country for Old Men, 2007 (directors/writers)
- pretty much all of their other movies

Giulietta Masina
Evidence:
- La Strada, 1954 (Gelsomina)
- Le notti di Cabiria, 1957 (Maria “Cabiria” Ceccarelli)

Sam Mendes
Evidence:
- American Beauty, 1999 (director)
- Away We Go, 2009 (director)
Even if you’re one of those people who doesn’t like Away We Go (why are there so many of you??), whatever, American Beauty is enough on its own to make him awesome.

Ron Perlman
Evidence:
- La cité des enfants perdus, 1995 (One)
- Hellboy, 2004 (Hellboy)

Adam Elliot
Evidence:
- “Uncle,” 1996 (director/writer)
- “Cousin,” 1998 (director/writer)
- “Brother,” 1999 (director/writer)
- “Harvie Krumpet,” 2003 (director/writer)

Data
Title: Brazil
Year: 1985
Length: 142 minutes
Director: Terry Gilliam
Writers: Terry Gilliam, Tom Stoppard & Charles McKeown
Starring: Jonathan Pryce, Robert De Niro, Katherine Helmond, Ian Holm, Bob Hoskins, Michael Palin, Ian Richardson, Peter Vaughan, Kim Greist
Music: Michael Kamen
Distinctions: currently #240 on IMDb’s Top 250

My reaction
Synopsis: a man in a bureaucratic dystopia obsesses over a woman from his dreams
How I saw it: on video several times (used to have on DVD), most recently (rented from Netflix) yesterday
Concept: Good.
Story: Bad.
Characters: Good.
Dialog: Great.
Pacing: Bad.
Cinematography: Great.
Special effects/design: Great.
Acting: Good.
Music: Great.
Subjective Rating: 6/10 (Okay). I used to think this movie was great, but I can’t figure out why. Maybe it was just because I loved other Gilliam movies, so I thought I should love it. Or maybe it’s the same reason that every young person who hasn’t read too many books thinks 1984 is the best thing ever. In any case, I was pretty bored watching this yesterday. The visuals are great, but they rarely actually contribute to the storytelling. There are some great scenes, mostly when it’s being silly, and some great acting from Holm and Palin (meanwhile, De Niro is pretty bad), but the story just doesn’t make a lot of sense if you think about it too much.
Objective Rating: 7/10 (Pretty good).

Data
Title: Doctor Who: “The War Games“
Year: 1969
Network: BBC
Episodes: 10, at 25 minutes; the last story (of 7) from season 6
Creators: Sydney Newman, C.E. Webber, Donald Wilson
Director: David Maloney
Writer: Terrance Dicks & Malcolm Hulke
Starring: Patrick Troughton, Frazer Hines, Wendy Padbury
Music: Ron Grainer (theme), Dudley Simpson

My reaction
Synopsis: abducted, brainwashed humans believe they’re fighting various historical wars on Earth
How I saw it: on video (rented from Netflix), over the past few days
Concept: Great. Like Dark City, except the people are sent to kill each other instead of just hanging out in a weird city.
Story: Good.
Characters: Good.
Dialog: Indifferent.
Pacing: Great. Ten episodes on a single story, and it never stalled. Kind of amazing.
Cinematography: Bad.
Special effects/design: Indifferent.  There’s some set-wobbling, but the design is pretty cool.
Acting: Terrible.
Music: Indifferent.
Subjective Rating: 8/10 (Great). One of the best classic Doctor Who stories I’ve seen yet. Things often get bad, but in a kitschy, entertaining sort of way (for instance, the villains are remarkably similar to The Monarch from Venture Bros., but they’re supposed to be taken seriously).
Objective Rating: 6/10 (Okay).