The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare | Fallout, Season Two
- DB
- 1 day ago
- 4 min read
Spies behaving badly, wastelanders behaving worse.
Here's what I've been watching and playing over the last seven days...
MOVIES
The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare
Movie summary: The British military recruits a small group of highly skilled soldiers to strike against German forces behind enemy lines during World War II. (IMDb)
The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare is so lacking in substance that I can barely tell you what happened and I only watched it two days before writing this.
It's based on real people and real events, but - having looked it up - it's so far removed from the reality of what happened that it might as well have been an entirely new story for a World War II action movie.
All the cast seem like they're enjoying themselves in it, but that didn't mean that I enjoyed watching them have a good time while I was losing attention.
It actually feels like the perfect 'Netflix film' - something you can put on in the background while doing something else because you're not going to miss out on anything important if you stop paying attention for a moment.
And for a movie with a fair bit of action in it - especially the climax - it's weird that there's so little threat from the Nazi antagonists, meaning what should've been the most thrilling part of the film really isn't.
The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare isn't a bad movie and I definitely don't dislike it, but it's so forgettable that I'm not sure I would recommend giving up a couple of hours to watch it. [4/10]
Weirdly, watching everything in chronological in-universe order means that it's now this movie which feels like a 'new' thing, with the 'Death Star arc' beginning with Attack of the Clones all the way up to A New Hope now over.
It'll be interesting to see how much my perception of Return of the Jedi has changed when I watch that.
GAMES
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
My enthusiasm is dropping a little with this game as the characters and story still aren't working for me - quite an issue with such a narrative-centric game.
Dragon Age: The Veilguard
The terrible design choice of having enemies attack the player character over whoever I have with me has reached my breaking point and I've just switched the combat down to the easiest possible setting so I don't have to put up with that shit for too long as the enemies - including bosses - just melt now.
Whoever signed off on this terrible system - and making 'tank' characters irrelevant as a result - should not get to work on this type of game ever again.
Also currently playing: Batman: Arkham City, Microsoft Flight Simulator (2020), Poker Night at the Inventory
TV
Fallout, Season Two
Season summary: Continues the post-apocalyptic adventures of Lucy and the Ghoul as the Brotherhood's ambitions collide across an even harsher wasteland, with all roads leading to New Vegas.
Episode 1, “The Innovator”
A decent return, picking up where last season left off, but not really setting up this new season yet – feels more like a continuance than the start of a new chapter.
Episode 2, "The Golden Rule”
A Brotherhood-centric episode to catch up with Maximus and, not being a particularly big fan of the Brotherhood of Steel, not that interesting to me.
Still… radscorpions!
Episode 3, "The Profligate”
A very ‘bitty’ episode that never found a plot thread to really focus on, ending up jumping around a little too much between stories to make a cohesive whole.
Episode 4, "The Demon in the Snow
I didn’t know Deathclaws were pre-apocalyptic until this episode, although it looks like they’ve emptied out New Vegas somewhat, which is a drag…
Episode 5, "The Wrangler”
I really liked this one – lots of twists and turns and reveals.
And assuming a certain someone was being truthful, what felt like a big shock in the first season has been undone and replaced with a bigger mystery…
Episode 6, "The Other Player”
Another decent episode, but felt like it was lacking a ‘moment’ to make it worthwhile and – Super Mutant(!) aside – only felt like a small step forward at best, although the ending gives me hope that some plot threads may be coming together now.
Episode 7, “The Handoff”
Wow, this almost felt like a season finale itself, especially considering the power armour vs Deathclaws scene – got me really interested what’s going to happen in the actual finale now!
Episode 8, “The Strip”
A lot of fun, although – like the season as a whole – not very cohesive and felt like it had twice as many endings as Return of the King.
It'd be wrong to say that this season was a mixed bag as it's very well-made and a lot of fun to watch, but there are so many characters and plot threads now that it's getting kind of tedious when some of them barely progress at all over the course of the season and are obviously biding time for other stories to get to the right point.
Also, can something please happen with Steph?
I've not seen Annabel O' Hagan in anything else, so I don't know how good an actress she is, but her character has been pretty one-note for a long time now; I don't know whether the creative team behind the show don't trust her to deliver, if they don't know what to do with the character, or if they really screwed up and she has nothing to do for a while, but her character is easily my least favourite in the show so far.
Fallout's second season remains enjoyable, but there are so many loose threads now that character work seems to be taking a back seat and I'm slowly starting to see this series as 'lore filler' for the games rather than anything great in its own right. [7/10]
Comments