Miss Fisher and the Deathly Maze

I had intended this 100th entry to this blog to be a response to comments I got on my entry The development of Phryne Fisher that was published back in June. However, this summer, my real life has been quite hectic and I have had to work on two PhD applications and I have made some trips. Because of this, the activities on this blog have not been what it usually is and I am full of ideas for blogposts, so do not worry.

A few days ago, the Miss Fisher mobile game that Every Cloud Productions and Tin Man Games have made was finally available for Android and of course I had to download it right away. I have played through the first episode three times and the second only one, because I have not figured out yet how to restart it.

I mostly find it very good and I enjoy it immensely. However there are some aspects of it that do not really work for me. Mostly the characters behave as I expect them to, but the fact that everyone actually calls Jack Robinson "Jack" instead of "The Inspector" is a bit out of character for most of them. He does make the comment to Phryne in Murder on the Ballarat Train that she should call him Jack since everyone else does. However, this is not really true. Besides Phryne no one else actually calls him that besides his former in-laws George and Rosie Sanderson. It is usually "Sir" or "Inspector" and even though I can think of Mac actually calling him Jack, I cannot say the same for aunt Prudence.

The second thing I have issues with is the deduction parts. They are seriously irritating because it is not always obvious which evidences to combine to get a new lead on the case and you often end up spending to much time trying different combinations.

The biggest issue I have though is that, if you miss a clue, you end up needing to restart the whole game because you get stuck and there is no way out of the place you are in. It should be easier to move between previous stages. (There is an option to save the game, but that is not so easy to know if you are a gaming novice.)

The time frame is a bit confusing too. Sometimes it feels like the game takes place after season 3 and at times it feels like it is cannon, but it does not make sense because season 3 ended with Phryne flying away with her father. In the game Dot and Hugh have just married and are having issues and those issues are things they have been dealing with throughout season 3, but I have thought a lot about them actually having once married too. He is conservative and even though Dot is as well, she starts to grow under Phryne's care. I have thought that their relationship through season 3 gets rushed (mostly because of all the focus in that series gives to Phryne and Jack's relationship) and I think it is actually plausible to think they might not have solved it completely when they marry in Death do us Part at the end of the season.

Phryne and Jack's relationship also seems to have moved slowly forward. Based on their conversations it seems like they are dating and one of those dates (When they are holding hands at the opera...) gets interrupted by the murder in episode 1. They also faced with issues that they tackled in season 3, but that I think might actually be a bit of a soar spot between them even if they start dating. She is clear with not being one to settle down and he is a abit jealous when other men are around. It is, however, evident that she is startled at the thought of Jack with another woman. It feels like this ambivalent feelings are things it would take time for both of them to deal with. Of course I would love to see more kissing and cuddling, but the fact that they seem to have been out on some dates already and is talking about rescheduling the opera one that got interrupted because of the murder is comforting.

I absolutely love how involved Dot is in especially the second case. I love her under cover work in the first episode (I also love that Archie Jones makes a return in the second one!) and her participation in the second case is wonderful.

The overarching plot idea also seem plausible and the game is well made. I like a lot how the characters and backgrounds are painted. It has me thinking why they cannot use the same drawings for a comic book. That to me would seriously be amazing.

Justin Kurzel - Assassin’s Creed

Today marked the first time I saw Essie Davis on the big screen in Assassin’s Creed. Her husband, Justin Kurzel, was the director and Michael Fassbender played both main characters Callum Lynch and Aguilar de Nerha.

Callum lives in the present and is a criminal given the death penalty but later wakes up in a medical institution where he gets involved in Sophia Rikkin's (The daughter of a knights templar.) experiments where she tries to find a solution to all the violence in the world by collecting the assassins from the Middle Ages and using their genetic memory.

I have not played the video games and this might be why I found the plot very confusing. The part I did understand though felt rather intriguing and I think the film could have been longer so it had time to dvelve into more detail of the genetic memory and the film would also have gained a lot from exlplaining Sophia's reasearch and the reasons and logics behind her science and experimentations on people. The non-linear storytelling would also have benefitted if the film had more time I think. As it was now, it jumped far too quickly between different time periods and places and made it feel rather messy.

The visual style was beautiful and the actors were all rather good. It also had more women than I would have guessed and they were also quite diverse. I also thought Sophia was far more interesting than Callum. I would have liked to get to know much more of her background. The film does not really solve any plot points either and the ending feels made for a lot of sequels to follow it.

Essie Davis as Callum's mother

Cinema tickets

It is pretty obvious from this blog that I do love Essie Davis! But I am not sure I would have seen Assassin's Creed at the cinema if I had not had free tickets. If she would have been the lead, I would not have hesitated for a minute, but she is in it far too little for me to go straight to the movies to see it. I am glad I had a free ticket I needed to use before Wednesday and therefore got to see it and because of Essie I would probably have seen it at some point. Essie is in less then ten scenes and has only two or three lines in the entire film, so definitely too little Essie! It felt like a vaste of her talents by her husband, but I am still very thankful that they do both have their own careers away from each other. There are a lot of times in relationships between famous actors/actresses and filmmakers where this is not the case and you end up wondering if the actor/actress only got the role because she/he was sleeping with the director/producer/etc.



Picture from here and here.