First overall impression: As a standalone ? Why not. But as what appears to be the lead into the next big phase, pretty disappointing.
It has the defects of what used to be the DC style.
1) First It's trying to introduce too much too fast
Too many characters. Most of their powers are not so interesting that you would identify them with it, and some are not even named before pretty late in the movie. Sure it's more original than having an intro scene for each, but with that many I'm not sure that was the good choice.
The whole background of Marvel cosmogony. It is weirder, less known, more difficult to explain, harder to relate to, and less in sync with the more realistic tone they tried to give to the movies. Thor was already a bit hard, this is another level.
2) And then: name dropping.
A lot of basically out of nowhere references to Avengers here and there. HEY HO, WE ARE IN THE SAME FRANCHISE, DON'T FORGET, PLEASE LOVE US!
Note: They also name drop Batman and Superman, which is a bit weird.
It's still done better than in DC movies though.
So let's see the characters:
Serci Very bland as a main character. The whole "Am I fit to lead ?" trope is boring. Power is pretty unfit for action, luckily a lot of things fall on her.
Ikaris Most interesting character as an Eternal but we basically know nothing of his human life, betrayal is a bit expected but still works. Power is a sub Superman copy, but at least works very well in action scenes.
Sprite There's a bit of a story there too though it's developed a bit late. A non combat power that is under used.
Ajak Not really interesting as a character or a leader. Not sure how her power was supposed to be any help in the mission.
Kingo The comic relief, most developed character, best human story and still useful in a fight. The movie is a bit long sometimes, he's what makes it bearable.
Thena Mainly just the focused warrior, not much interest there. Specially as her violence issues conveniently disappear as soon as the one that stopped them dies... Real fighting power, but doesn't render too well in action scenes.
Gilgamesh Really cool character. Very basic power and just as luckily as for Serci, a lot of huge enemies have a tendency to blindly run at him so that he can punch them.
Phastos The most human, mainly for the funny interactions with his son. Weird power, but looks like Tony Stark using Jarvis.
Druig Could have been interesting, but seems boring, maybe comes from the actor, not sure. Another power that has no interest for their mission.
Makkari Almost unseen. Power is Flash, so not much more interesting.
The story itself is pretty straightforward, they go around the world gathering the troops. A big ellipsis on how they travel and never interact with human population though. Same with the main Deviant, that just swim from Canada to London I suppose ? And that is just conveniently here when needed for storytelling.
I think the Deviants are supposed to be more humanlike, with intelligence, personalities and powers, but I guess that would make the Eternals' initial job a little less palatable. They look ok as beasts, but even the one that becomes more sentient is just a detail in the end, and its final fight and death is very anti climatic. A bit of a waste.
The flashbacks are ok, but not always interesting. Several tend to drag the movie for too long.
An interesting point though, is the final moral dilemma. Was it really ok to save the Earth by killing a Celestial ? Not sure.
Action tends to be a bit too fast, with the camera moving around too much, while their power do not make for the most interesting fights. It's however very well done, as usual.
Post credits scenes show well that this isn't meant to be a standalone, but compared to previous phases, can't say it's that exciting.
More honest and realistic reviews on here than on social media or RT etc. I watched it on IMAX hoping it would be worth the upgrade price. As a Standalone - decent average action movie with some good characters but thin plot. I agree with other reviews this is not a good Phase 4 jump starter. I liked Druig & Makkari most and want to see more of them. The rest I can't say much without spoiling so read the other reviews which cover the same points I wish to make. I liked it but it is the weakest of all Marvel Mobv* Movies so far - I left feeling 'meh, it was ok'. I don't care who the cast is or if it has LGBT etc I want to see a story that excites me, characters that I am eager to see more of & visuals that match the way the story tells it - Eternals the strongest etc but then the powers and action doesn't show that or visually not believable. You can watch it but it is for you to decide great/good or ok but it is not bad. 6/10 on my Marvel Scale - All the others are 7+/10 so far. Some may be impressed by the romam* romance/emotions but I am used to better romance & emotional scenes in Bollywood movies. so not as impressed. The Het Sex scene is completely unnecessary and increases the rating making it inappropriate d to watch with family for no reason other than pleasei some woke demanding sex obsessed fans. Thankfully the Gay relationship was done with less in your face and so I liked that .o Subtle and slow story which I don't mind. Plot could have been better but this is a introduction movie - I think E2 will be better innsome ways.
“Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time” definitely went above my (low) expectations, but still left a bitter taste in my mouth. Overall, the film is extremely cinematic, well-balanced, full of thoughtful, little details, self-referential notes as well as tons of fan service. Each character gets their own spotlight, and for once, they even attempted at closing all story arcs on a positive note. If Hideaki Anno was still fighting his way out of depression when working on the original series, he is now a happier man who found healing through the love of his wife (referenced multiple times in the film). Honestly, I still prefer the pessimism of the original, but it would make no sense to have history repeat itself again. After all, the film itself acknowledges that it’s not the same characters, not the same director, not the same audience anymore, and that it’s now time to go back to reality.
The ending felt satisfying indeed, but looking back, I can’t help noticing how needlessly and helplessly convoluted the story to that point was. Robots kick each other asses, catastrophes continue one after another, untold background stories of certain characters suddenly arise, but the mechanisms behind are poorly explained, to the point that the original felt straightforward and crystal-clear in comparison. I like hermetic storytelling and elaborated plots, but the answers are supposed to be in the film instead of being supposedly omitted for the sake of fan theories and speculations.
I tried to like Macross 7, for the sake of the Macross franchise. But it's just awful. I've watched a lot of cheesy shows in my time, but this one just does nothing for me. It feels like someone looked at the original series and said, "hey, they used music to overcome fighting, we should do that too" but forgot to include any reasoning behind it. And then decided "super musician-pilot-bike rider-street fighter with no social skills" and "spoiled teenage girl being marketed to older men by her mother" made for good central characters.
I got through the first 10 episodes or so, then gave up. Went and read the summary on Wikipedia instead, so I'd know what happened for the sake of any tie-ins with the other Macross series.
I suppose the music might be considered a redeeming quality, if you like the mid-80s pop rock style. It was all right, but suffers from the same issue as most music in TV series...horribly repetitive. The same 2-3 songs over and over get old extremely fast, no matter how good they might be. Maybe there was additional music later in the series, but it wasn't worth suffering the awful characters long enough to find out.
subarashii Glorious Trash. I can tell that a lot of people are going to loathe this show, if they even find it.
While the premise is a little bit broken, it's within the Light Novel Isekai "parameters" of an overpowered protagonist being given a second chance and ...
Completely taking his revenge on everyone involved in his former misery, brutalism, slavery, torture, drugging and disfigurement. There's a long, long list of people who take advantage of Keyarga/Keyaru, and the show will likely pull the punches before long because it's a fantasy Anime, and while it is graphic, pretentious, etc. Religious sadism in real life was/is far more gruesome and, could only exist within a 'puritanical' ideology. There are occasionally 'dark' stories, like Game of Thrones, or RE:Zero, which create impossible villains that seem to distill evil in one person or one family, to make a point.
Redo, isn't making the point of creating villains as a juxtaposition of Good to Evil. It's Evil for Evil, because there is no longer justice in this fragmented world. Those with the power to make things better, or protect the weak, don't exist in this story. It's not even a religious story, because the presence of a protective god, would make the lives of people, much, much worse under the justice of the Heroes, and their unchecked vices. After all, who provides the narcotics...
This isn't the Hero's Journey. Very few shows take the Villain's route and do it successfully, because it's not as simple as a choice, doing what's just or good, honest or moral. Without the protection of law or arbiters of justice, power defines morality and justice. The "Heroes" of Redo are capricious, overpowered monsters, incapable of being controlled, and their desires drive them towards all kinds of vices.
The story universe seems to be built on heroes being enhanced, their "blood" can be transferred to others to make them stronger, or get past a level cap, and this also conveniently includes bodily fluids... Keyaru/Keyarga's healing is more like alchemy or reality warping, since he can poison, transfigure, mutate and 'learn' abilities from his patients/victims. There's potential, but it's going to be difficult to see beyond the surface of a character motivated to burn the world.
The concept of 'stealing power' has wide implications beyond "thin justification for a harem", heroes are worth far more Alive than dead if they can boost the strength, ability, survival or lifespan of others. Thus making 'failed' heroes a resource for those with wealth or power to enslave, coerce or force into joining their service. Else, a hero could potentially gather enough wealth, power and resources from trading / sacrificing their own body to become independent, or a Tyrant of their own making.
They also toyed with this concept in "The Boys", where the origin of the superpowers is hidden by a large corporation, and, eventually you realise why a business would 'make' heroes. or glossed over with My Hero Academia, etc.
The problem is that Keyarga is essentially mad, has god-like abilities at a cost, and could live out the rest of his life with a harem of women (and men), and build an empire from his harem, if he wanted to. The premise seems like a power fantasy, and, it really is, but that's part of what makes it glorious trash.
My Next Life as a Villainess started off really slow for me, got a really good mid-season peak, and then dropped hard and fast. Following along with many predecessors in the Light Novel anime adaptions, I feel like it must have had way too much content from the books to successfully reduce to a 12-episode show. Now I have not read the books, so this is just a general feeling I’m getting of course.
You start with the short prologue, didn’t do anything amazing for me at all. But it introduced the basic concept of the show and the characters. Your fairly standard stuff, and I didn’t have any real issue with it at all. Wasn’t amazing, wasn’t terrible, just kinda standard.
Then you get to the meat of the show, that rather good middle section. You get some more character introductions, and a bunch of enjoyable slice of life stuff. Character building and world building, and I loved most of it. But at this point I also had my major issue with the show appear, and it never got solved. Way too many characters to ever develop over the course of 12 episodes. I still don’t really remember half the characters names outside of the two main male leads Gerald and Keith. I couldn’t tell you who they were, or what they added. Guess I could say the general trope the characters fill, but even than I forget a number of them because they just don’t get enough screen time. I feel that if you want to have a massive harem cast of seven people, you need to have a ton of episodes to fully explore everyone and really make me remember them. They each need to be unique and interesting in their own ways, and fully explored. But as it stands with 12 episodes, most of them just weren’t. They got a trope assigned and figured the audience would recognize the trope and understand who they were meant to be.
To wrap up the show we get the final arc, which was the most whiplash moment in a show I’ve felt in some time. You go from enjoyable slice of life fun stuff. To suddenly having kidnapping and the evil villain and dark magic. This didn’t feel like the natural progression of the show at all, and instead felt out of place. Like I was missing 6 episodes of slow progress of dark and evil things slowing progressing in the background that slowly starts to interfere with the fun slice of life stuff. It just generally doesn’t work well, and really hurts my thoughts of the show.
Onto characters for a bit, general trope characters to fill the harem spots. Not in any way super amazing or special I feel like. Katarina being a dense idiot is just a gender swap of the normal male isekai lead. Really for characters in general I guess I could say that is what the show was. They took the classic isekai harem and just gender swapped everyone and called it good.
Visually the show was rather good. I don’t think it stood out in any outstanding way, but I wasn’t annoyed or disappointed in the visuals at any point. Don’t think it will win any awards, or be remembered in the future, but it works well enough for a current show.
Overall, the show didn’t do anything new or special for me at all. You have a traditional isekai harem but now gender swapped, it works fine. I don’t think it has any massive issues, but don’t go in expecting the best harem you have ever watched. So yea, gets average scores from me for being a competent show but not overly great.
LIFF31 2017 #2
"Nature has cunning ways of finding our weakest spot."
There is no doubt how incredibly beautiful "Call Me By Your Name" is. Putting aside your age and sexuality, the film offers more than romance. It's not sad or tragic, but a peaceful one. It's all about falling in love. What's been said by many will be repeated here, so none of this is gonna be new to you, because it's all true.
Armie Hammer, Michael Stuhlbarg, and newcomer Timothée Chalamet all deliver terrific performances. Not a weak or unconvincing actor in sight. All of them were perfectly cast in the roles and there was no shred of doubt during the emotional parts. Especially Stuhlbarg monologue towards the end is as moving as anything I have ever seen.
The way Luca Guadagnino manages to play on your emotions and present gay romances is really mesmerizing. The warm and summer spectacle of Italy makes you want to be there. With the scenery, sunny waters, and the food which look so good, all through Sayombhu Mukdeeprom brilliant cinematography. It's paradise.
Even the sexual tension never once came across pornographic. I don't mind sex or nudity in movies and people seriously just need to stop being so sensitive about it. Ever thought that making little things a huge deal only makes it a huger deal. Or your sloppy description.
The sexuality in this film is more of an emotional connection you personally experience through the characters. And you don't have to be gay to enjoy those scenes. It avoids the typical tropes you find in movies that isn't as perfectly presented as this.
This is a truly special movie that I easily got lost in.
Best lines
I’m waiting for an old friend - Bran
You left me for dead - Hound
I also robbed you - Arya
I’ve always had blue eyes! - Tormund
Whatever they want - Dany
but
It had its moments - Sansa
They need wheelchair ramps in Winterfell. They left Bran in the courtyard overnight!
Parallelism between Season 1 Episode 1 and Season 8 Episode 1
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ S08E01 Jon: "Where's Arya?" Sansa: "Lurking somewhere."Foreshadowing (from different Seasons/Episodes.)
01. S03E05“ “Let’s not go back. Let’s stay here a while longer,” Ygritte tells Jon. “I don’t ever want to leave this cave, Jon Snow.” S08E01 “We could stay a thousand years. No one would find us,” Daenerys says to Jon.02. Sam is suggesting rebelling against the Targaryen because they burned his father and brother alive. Similar to when Robert's Rebellion, began when Rhaegar Targaryen, allegedly abducted Robert's betrothed, Lyanna Stark.
