Outlaw King rattles along at a bracing pace, but the assured bloodshed of the climax casts a weary shadow over the film’s middle section.
It abandons its fruitful investigation of belief systems in favor of a simplistic articulation of Mary’s inspiration.
Joe Wright’s Darkest Hour reinforces only the most simplistic and patriotic vision of Winston Churchill.
It’s long been a given on Game of Thrones that “All men must die.” The question, then, is less a matter of whether they will, but how they will.
The deeper irony here, of course, is that “The Dance of Dragons” refers to the divisive, needless war between two siblings for the Iron Throne.
As you’d expect from a series with such a dismal track record of successful weddings, its idea of presents isn’t much better, and even the most sincere, like Sam’s, comes with a disclaimer.
The problem these men face is that there are plenty of boys who find themselves in positions of power, and that’s not even mentioning King Tommen in King’s Landing.
Considering how many people are neither feared nor loved in “Sons of the Harpy,” respect is all that matters.
Once upon a time, two girls walk through a forest, muddying up their fancy clothes in search of a fortune-telling witch.
There’s plenty of death in the fifth season of Game of Thrones, and those deaths are understood as cautionary symbols of power.
Game of Thrones tends to peak with its penultimate episode, leaving finales open to operate as a form of self-summary.
The unifying element of “The Laws of God and Men” may be the profound silence of the show’s architecture.
True to the more muted tone of the premiere, the second episode offers minimal indication that anything is wrong.
The inter-scene cutting here slightly lingers on every place the camera visits, now searching for someone who appears to know where to go next.
Game of Thrones finally feels liberated from its own extensive mythology and now moves with thrilling fury and purpose.
The series feels like it has some firm footing and a newfound sense of certain direction that was lacking intermittently in the second season.
The film confidently and forcefully storms onto DVD with an admirable A/V transfer, only hindered by a paltry gathering of extras.
Hunted is an effective mixture of dumb force and sophistication, a work of shameless pulp gracefully told.
David Benioff and D.B. Weiss try too hard to introduce an elemental aspect to Game of Thrones’s focus on the nature of power.
The second season of Game of Thrones really hit its stride tonight with “Garden of Bones.”