The special effects are beautiful but unconvincing. The main characters are unlikeable, the science is absurd, the story is predictable and the movie is funnier than it was meant to be.
But at least you can't really say it was boring.
I had high hopes for this series, but it was a bit of a let down.
It lacks grounding. The fights aren't really that exciting and rely on certain characters having superpowers that allow them to survive despite their stupidity. In fact, it's almost like they're powered by their stupidity. Like Thorkell, who fights for the sake of fighting and says he likes being on the "losing side" for a challenge.
The philosophy is broken. And the plot moves very, very slowly.
The history lessons here are a bit sketchy, but the story is fun ride from start to finish (and much smarter than it appears at first glance), the characters are hilarious, and it has the best 80s soundtrack I've heard in any film.
What I expected was a mature, gritty version of Sabrina The Teenage Witch. What I got was a very political, very Christian, horror-themed version of Sabrina that still seems targeted specifically at a teenage demographic.
Is it just me, or was the original TV series accidentally progressive for showing an alternative non-Christian lifestyle in a positive light? This new series seems to undermine the progressiveness of its source material by re-imagining this non-Christian lifestyle as explicit devil-worshipping, where witches routinely commit murder and cannibalism. Sabrina's own aunt Zelda expresses disappointment about missing out on an opportunity to eat "long-pig".
The story also seems to take a few pages from Harry Potter with Sabrina being persecuted by pure-blood witches for being half-Muggle and it even has its evil version of the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. It actually really feels like it is a knee-jerk reaction to the popularity of Harry Potter; a story with a protagonist whose challenge is to resist the temptation of evil witchcraft.
Finally, why do they have to refer to everything as "dark"? When Sabrina tells Harvey about her "dark baptism", maybe it would have sounded a lot less crazy if she'd just called it a "baptism"? It's like listening to Dr Evil (from Austin Powers) explain how he got his M.D. in "evil medical school". There's absolutely no subtlety to be had here.
I remember the earlier movies in this series being worth a watch. This time, though, the jokes seem to be even lazier than I remember.
Set up: Johnny needs to do X.
Punchline: Johnny fails to do X (but plot advances anyway).
Rinse, repeat.
The beginning of the movie (at the school) was actually a highlight for me, as one of the few parts of the movie where the jokes were something other than the repetitive jokes about Johnny's incompetence that burned me out half way into the film.
It's just hard to tell if the creators of this show have ever seen a TMNT TV show or movie before. Every single character presented in this new show are so different from their previous characterisations that it makes you wonder why they choose to call it Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. (In this version, everyone is characterised as an over-eager, snarking buffoon.)
If you can forget that these are supposed to be the ninja turtles, then maybe you'll be able to find something to like about it.
I can't comment on the entire film, as I gave up on it within about 20 minutes. The acting is incredibly substandard, but I can live with that.
It's pretty impressive how cliche every scene can be when presenting what should be a new and different concept. The opening scene provides some cartoonish racism that seems to serve no purpose to the story except to demonstrate that rich people can solve every problem with money.
It's just too disappointing.
A cartoon of a TV show. The comic tone of the show doesn't so much undermine the toxic ideology of white supremacy as in Jojo Rabbit but instead provide a simple, comfortable, palatable bad guy. The comedy, however weak, provides a cover for ignoring the complexity of the evil it touches.
Really impressed by some of the casting in this show: Brendan Fraser, Timothy Dalton, Alan Tudyk.
It commits a lot of time to explaining how useless and worthless the characters are as they bumble their way through the plot.
Overall, the show has a vindictive, bleak and juvenile tone to it, while also being somewhat restrained, full of edgy jokes that feel like they've emerged from the pen of a teenager who's afraid to be too edgy lest they offend their mother.
For example, there is "Crazy Jane" whose superpower revolves around her multiple personality disorder who gets to provide the wish fulfilment of doing something like, violently stapling a poster to someone's head, but doesn't have to deal with the moral complexity of that action because it was just her "bitch personality" doing it. In fact, 3 out of the 4 heroes in the original group (all but the protagonist) have superpowers that practically have personalities of their own, therefore justifying a wide range of out-of-character actions on the basis that "their superpower did the bad thing". The bad thing is played for a bit of drama or a joke and then we move on and forget about it because the thing they did wasn't on purpose.
On the matter of vindictiveness, it's a little worrying that the mental illnesses experienced by many of the characters are just framed as character-defining quirks belonging to "losers" and not as, like, genuine mental illnesses in need of professional treatment.
In the end, my experience is that the show is watchable but kind of boring and shallow.
This anime sets up some great concepts but seems to have a lot of trouble following through effectively. The Shield Hero is unable to wield any weapons, making him practically useless offensively. (Although how does that work exactly? What if he picks up something like a baseball bat? The rules for this are glossed over.)
At first he seems to overcome this weakness by carrying around weak monsters he can use as weapons. Secondly, he manages to form a companionship with someone who can provide him with offense. Then we start seeing hints that he would find creative ways of using "defensive" powers in an offensive way. Okay. I'm intrigued. But instead of building on this, his weakness just gets kind of forgotten and he just starts getting powers that are explicitly offensive. He doesn't even have to learn a valuable lesson to earn these attacks. He just gets them because he got a bit angry one time. Yay~
There are also some very strange story moments. For example, his two main companions are enslaved to him by a "curse" placed on them. Even though they are perfectly willing to follow him (and crush on him constantly -- of course they're both part of his loli harem), for some reason it was necessary to magically enslave them. One of them is even said to be put through a lot of pain just in order to have this curse applied. This is our (anti)hero torturing and enslaving people he actually likes -- for no reason! It's just weird.
The moment that really made me lose interest in this series is in episode 13 when some random soldiers have what is essentially a magic video camera, to record the shield hero's team defending themselves against some soldiers. THEN this video footage is essentially photoshopped to make it look like they're having a murder spree. THEN they use a magic TV projector to wander around the country showing this footage to all the common people to show how nasty he is. The lazy ways in which the Shield Hero is constantly getting set up as a bad guy just boggles my mind.
Overall, it's been kind of awkward and lazy. On the plus side, adult Raphtalia is pretty cute, and I felt the series was strongest when it just focused on them as a pair (though she's still technically underage, ugh).
Serviceable film, but the female lead is pretty unlikeable and unrelateable, even to the point of scoffing at herself when she learns she had decided to become a vegetarian. And she somehow needs proof that she married her husband on purpose? (She's still sceptical even after said proof is provided.) She is constantly undermining her "future self" and yet I'm supposed to believe that all it took is for her to learn that her dad cheated on her mum for a complete character change and again for history to somehow start repeating itself.
After the first episode, I had deep concerns about this series. It starts with a pretty cool and funny origin story for the members of the Umbrella Academy but it spends little time addressing the question of who these people are. (Sure, you get plenty of information about "what" they are. One's a drug addict, one's an astronaut, one's a celebrity, etc.)
In the end, the show has so little faith in our attention span that it has to tell us the central plot, like something ripped from the Heroes TV show, a time traveller announces that the world will end in a few days and they don't know how it will happen but they have to stop it.
There are no personal stakes. It is action packed, but the action lacks context. The weight of their actions (such as murder of a group of bank robbers) lacks gravity or consequences. And the bland, confident, sarcastic attitudes of the characters is out of place in what should be dramatic, life changing moments. Hell, their long lost brother, who has been a missing person for more than a decade, suddenly returns and... Everyone just acts like he's just returned from a holiday or something. Seriously!? Additionally, from his perspective he's spent like 30 years away from his family and away from anything resembling civilization until he finally achieved backwards timetravel and... His emotional response is that he is a bit annoyed that he gets to be young again.
The problems didn't end there. More and more it seems like among every character in the show, there isn't a single human who is able to have a single human emotion.
I find myself watching people bicker about the distinction between drizzle and rain with no hint of subtext or irony in a TV show ostensibly about politics.
This is a poor substitute for watching a better made show like The Crown.
It's hard to say how I feel about this film. The pacing is slow and it's at once extravagant and awkward and subtle. I often feel like I'm too old to get the jokes (and I'm not terribly old). At times the film feels like it's trapped in a bottle.
I was quite tempted to give up on it half way. Did I enjoy the film? Kind of. Did I laugh? Occasionally. Was I bored? Sometimes.
I persevered.
It was deep and honest and it moved me in a way few films can.
But I don't know if that was enough.
As much as I'd like to enjoy a Robin Williams performance (where he's still charismatic as usual) but when having to take on the role of an actual child, it isn't very convincing. The writing in general is pretty terrible, particularly for the children.
Convenient and kind of mediocre. After trying the first episode, I wasn't convinced it would be worth giving the rest of the show a chance.
The character writing starts off pretty well, with drama is pretty basic, and Cha's relationship with his nephew is a great set-up, but it's unable to maintain this level of strong writing.
The spycraft isn't all that impressive. In order to cover up a phone call to the airport police call centre reporting a vague threat against the airplane, the bad guys immediately set off a fire alarm and within seconds, before there's a chance for anyone to talk about anything, there are call centre operators screaming in the hallways (these are supposedly trained police officers too!) and the operator who handled the call is assassinated before she can tell anyone. How do they know who took the call? If they're capable of all that, wouldn't it have been easier to just cut off the call? Nah. Murdering a police officer in plain sight is easier. Plus the assassin looked pretty cool!
Also, how can you freeze what looks like be a 5L cylinder of compressed oxygen by spraying it with maybe 500mL of liquid nitrogen? Why would freezing it increase the pressure inside the cylinder? Why does this make the cylinder explode like a bomb? How did the explosion take out the engine of a plane? Why is Cha immune to gravity?
I won't delve in a general review of the film, but the central theme of the film is its deeper dive into Kenshin's decision not to kill. In this film, we see Kenshin following his "don't kill" philosophy essentially as a member of a government army fighting against Makoto Shishio's rebel army. However, the decision makes less sense the further we get down the rabbit hole.
There's no real exploration of the stakes of this decision -- the fact that millions of lives are at stake, and that Kenshin's choice endangers them all. There's no real exploration of consequences -- that a villain spared can return to commit more villainy. There's definitely no exploration of the moral implications of being a member of an army where -- aside from Kenshin and his friends -- every member of the army is heading into the battle with swords and guns and using lethal force.
At one point, it seemed like they were at least going to delve into the difficulty of defeating an opponent who is willing to kill you when you refuse to kill, but in the end Kenshin just kind of ends up blaming this on his shitty sword, not his philosophy and therefore the problem is solved when he gets a better one. The fact that Kenshin and his colleagues are able to repeatedly and brutally bludgeon their enemies without killing any of them also starts to get very comical -- as it does when you see the remains of a battlefield where Kenshin singlehandedly defeated an army and dozens of defeated are just uselessly writhing in pain. In reality, Kenshin and his friends never seem to be impeded by their decision at all. All it takes is a little bop on the head and someone will writhe in pain for as long as is necessary for the plot to move on.
There is never a rational temptation to commit murder. The only time Kenshin is ever tempted to kill is when someone is making him angry. Additionally, there are multiple occasions where Kenshin does get angry, and makes the decision to kill, but he is stopped only by circumstance. He looks in surprise when it turns out his new sword is also a reverse-blade katana, or when Kaoru shouts "Don't kill!" at the right moment. (Of course, Kaoru also doesn't seem to care at all that Kenshin is literally putting his own life and the lives of other people at risk in order to honour her demand.)
There is a telling scene where Kenshin stops a child from committing murder. He tells the child, "You will please no one by soiling those little hands."
What this film tells us is that it doesn't matter that people die. It doesn't matter that you are part of an army that kills or that your actions directly lead to the deaths of others. It doesn't even matter that you committed attempted murder. In Kenshin's philosophy, it only matters that you are not the one holding the sword that strikes the killing blow. Even this shallow philosophy is never properly explored. Kenshin's hands are already about as dirty as they can get, aren't they? What's the consequence of this? How is he going to clean that blood from his hands?
Funny at times but overall it's a bit disappointing really. It's hard to empathise with the message of a movie that's about how the parents have underestimated the maturity of their children, and need to give them some free reign. Meanwhile, the film keeps undermining this message. For example, at times we see one of these "mature" girls experimenting with drugs without really taking any time to consider what she's putting in her body or why.
In the original animated film, Mulan wants to be normal but she's not very good at it so she feels like an outsider until she finds her place by using her unique talents as a soldier, even though that's socially unacceptable (and illegal) as a woman.
In this remake, Mulan is good at literally everything and born with superpowers, but no one is willing to accept a woman who's competent at anything so she has to struggle with the lie of pretending she's a mere mortal until she decides to stop being ashamed of being the physical embodiment of perfection.
A few flaws presented themselves right from the outset.
First of all, the show is Stargirl, not Starman. Why does it start with an action scene revolving around Starman's death instead of starting with Courtney, the girl who will be Stargirl?
Secondly, it's not clear why Starman is such a dick to his trusted and heroic sidekick Pat. Immediately after Pat runs into an exploding building and rescues him, Starman waxes on how he needs someone ACTUALLY heroic to inherit his powers. Of course, the real reason is just that the staff is not compatible with him. Surely it'd be easier to just say that instead of dissing your best friend on your deathbed. Perhaps the compatibility issue will be clarified as a bit of a Thors Hammer "worthiness" scenario, but if so it's still not clear how Courtney is any more qualified than Pat aside from simply being Starman's daughter.
Moreover, if they wanted to say that Starman is heroic, perhaps they could heve spent his screentime showing how heroic he really is?
Thirdly, what were the villains trying to do 10 years ago that was so important it needed to be shown to us steaight away? After the villains defeated the heroes 10 years ago, what have they been doing? Just sitting around and scheming it seems. (And apparently also raising a child in their eeeeevil mansion.)
They set up a (boring) character arc for Courtney where she would have to learn to accept her new stepfather. But then that arc is resolved halfway into the first episode -- not through character growth but simply when she is presented with an opportunity to blackmail her new stepfather (but I suppose she's only blackmailing him "heroically"). Following that, there's no character arc provided for her. Overall, the only real conflict is external, and we're never given any sense of the stakes.
Just in general, the writing is terrible and the acting is unconvincing.
This show is basically a modern version of Buffy.
I feared it would be overly Christian but it wasn't. It's about as religious as you'd expect any TV show about Shaolin monks would be.
I enjoyed that it wasn't constantly focused on spectacle for the sake of spectacle and is solidly character-driven. I enjoyed how it took the time to explore the humanity of most of the characters (including villains) and there are moments you question whether certain characters are really going to develop into true antagonists.
The plot isn't always surprising, and not always perfectly executed (an example being where a demon just stands around holding an impaled Lilith while Ava decides to pick up a sword), but its characters are always thoroughly believable and the action is visually quite appealing.
This was a very pleasant surprise.
Phenomenal, cosmic powers, and they use them to shoot people. Because shooting people makes the world better, I guess.
The antagonist manages to lead a group of immortals into a trap, and his brilliant plan is to shoot them. Would it be that hard to instead cage them AND THEN shoot them?
Why is it that every mortal in this film reacts to immortality with either complete jealousy or hate. No one says, "Oh my god! You're alive. It's a miracle from god. Praise Jesus or whatever." Instead it's: "I hate you for not dying for some reason. We can't be friends anymore."
The film struggles to stick to its premise, but it tries so hard to make us pity these immortals. Randomly being immortal apparently is really awful. But do you know what's even worse? Randomly not being immortal anymore!
Can you imagine? I'd hate to randomly be immortal. I certainly wouldn't be overjoyed or full of adrenaline for escaping death. It would be very humiliating. Like, gosh. I feel like I would die from the shame of not dying. I'm sure my wife would never forgive me.
I also really have to emphasise that they made some strange and awful music choices.
A power fantasy and a case study in (almost) everything wrong with police culture.
The assassin just... loiters with a stupid smirk. Putting her fingerprints on everything. Waiting for someone to walk in on her assassination. She's bound to have been walking past numerous security cameras on her way in and out of these locations as well.
Her particular brand of psychopathy doesn't make her intimidating or intriguing. It just seems to make her bland and shallow and worst of all, inefficient.
Yes, there are people hiding some of the evidence for her, but that hardly serves her reputation as a master assassin. It's awfully convenient that her greatest achievements (such as killing a witness, two armed guards and a nurse silently in a hospital) all take place off screen.
Meanwhile, Eve is selected as the head of the taskforce not because she's collecting any of the ample amount of evidence being left behind by the assassin, but because she strings together theories based on gut feelings. You're telling me no ONE thought to check the hospital staff roster until Eve had an epiphany days later?
I expected this to be a somewhat realistic take on what Superman would be like growing up in Soviet Russia instead of the US. However, it's rapidly undermined by Superman's unlikely resistance to state propaganda and the laughable scene where he liberates a Russian gulag just in time for his childhood friend just in time for her to die in his arms. The cliches just keep accumulating.
After hearing all the positive feedback about this film for its accurate portrayal of an outbreak, I was quite curious to check it out. I'm also a fan of Matt Damon.
But it is incredibly boring and it was impossible to stick with it through the first half.
I like to believe that it's possible to make an accurate and entertaining film about a disease outbreak. However, this is not the one.
If someone walks in on you watching this, then switch to some porn. It'll probably be less awkward.
Definitely a very ecchi story, but is there any substance hidden beneath the silly premise? Unfortunately not much. It's almost a parody when you hear a character pleading to learn the secret of the "Vacuum Butt Cannon" technique. Almost.
In the end it takes itself too seriously when it's being stupid, and not seriously enough when it has the chance to do some real storytelling.
It's a cute anime that's entertaining to watch, but it relies way too much on coincidence and it kind of rushes the ending.
The title of the anime is very misleading. Nothing matters here except for the romance plot. There is no "recovery". There is no exploration of the shortcomings of her lifestyle. (As a gamer, I would have liked a more critical portrayal of the game's microtransaction and loot box mechanics in particular.) There is no exploration of the circumstances that caused her to become a NEET and/or MMO Junkie. All we get is passing comments to the effect that her job was a little stressful, apparently? I thought we were going to find out that she'd been sexually harassed? Or more detail about how demanding her employers were (perhaps a critical look at Japanese work culture?) Never happens! Even in the end of the series, it seems she's still both a NEET and an MMO Junkie.
The romantic plot is the only aspect to receive any kind of resolution, and even then it's only kind of half-assed. The only conclusion is they start holding hands. This is a moment that could have emotional weight but not in the way it's portrayed. They don't even acknowledge themselves as dating at the end. There's no real struggle. Just a series of increasingly unlikely coincidences that lead to the romantic outcome.
Overall, it's not a bad time, but there's a lot of wasted potential and in the end it feels a bit like a hollow piece of marketing.
Cute idea, with a few funny moments, but oddly it seems to take itself a bit too seriously. Instead of a comedy, it ended up being more of a pervy shounen anime with a silly premise.
It's pretty fun in the beginning, and it's nice to see the humanising of all of these fantasy creatures, and Rimuru's absurd over-poweredness is more entertaining than you'd expect but later in the series (after the Orc Demon Lord) it seems to get distracted from the central plot and lose its sense of direction. After that, not much is really added by the end of the first season.
Hopefully the second season brings it back on track.
