I stopped watching halfway through episode 9 of season 7, and the show was one of my top 5 favorite shows on TV still airing, so it is really as bad as you say. This is mainly the fault of Eric Wallace, who is the worst showrunner ever, worse than Guggenheim (Arrow's showrunner).
Season 1: 9/10 (Amazing, one of the best seasons of the entire show)
Season 2: 9/10 (As good as Season 1)
Season 3: 8/10 (Great season but the villain is less cool and there are less good episodes)
Season 4: 7/10 (Good season overall but mediocre ending)
Season 5: 6/10 (Decent first half with Cicada, Terrible second half with Cicada II)
Season 6: 5/10 (Decent first half with Bloodwork, Mediocre second half with Mirror Monarch)
Season 7: 4/10 (The entire season sucks)
If you look at the showrunner per season, it's easy to see the reason why the show got worse over time.
Season 1 was led by Andrew Kreisberg
Season 2 was led by Andrew Kreisberg, Gabrielle Stanton, Aaron Helbing, and Todd Helbing
Season 3 was led by Andrew Kreisberg, Aaron and Todd Helbing
Season 4 was led by Andrew Kreisberg and Todd Helbing
And then Andrew Kreisberg was fired by the production team of The Flash because of sexual harassment accusations, there were even men who accused him, so he was a bisexual predator. I'm not saying that they should have kept Andrew Kreisberg, but they should have at least replaced him with someone who was able to provide the same level of quality as before.
So then, Season 5 was led by Todd Helbing. It was still pretty decent in my opinion, except for the part with Cicada II, but still there were some great parts with the Reverse Flash, which was my favorite character on the show, which Tom Cavanagh played so well.
But then, Todd Helbing had to leave because he felt like the show was preventing him from spending time with his family, he had children and wanted more time to spend with them and his wife, so he quit.
So, for Season 6 and Season 7, the CW chose Eric Wallace, and of course, they had no way of knowing what he would do with the show and it ended in disaster. And now, because of him, the ratings are worse than they have ever been. And there are only some fanboys/fangirls on Reddit who are blinded by fandom so much that they praise him, because most people hate what Eric Wallace has done with the show.
The main problem that the CW has is that it hires bad showrunners sometimes and instead of firing them, they let them stay, no matter how bad the ratings get. I have nothing against gender diversity, sexual diversity, or ethnic diversity, but it should never be seen as a replacement for good writing and a good cast of actors. The best actors of this show are mainly Grant Gustin (Barry Allen/The Flash), Tom Cavanagh (Harrison Wells/Reverse Flash) and Jesse L Martin (Joe West).
Carlos Valdes (Cisco Ramon) and Danielle Panabaker (Caitlin Snow) were also pretty good but their characters are being removed in order to be replaced by worse characters.
And the worst thing is that it doesn't take a genius to write good episodes of The Flash. Eric Wallace could have just given to the fans what they wanted instead of sacrificing quality for SJW politics and everyone would have been happy and the ratings would have been great. With the CGI that they have access to, it doesn't take much to make a fun show that lots of people will want to see.
The main things that are missing this season are (from most important to less important):
1) A good main villain (like Reverse Flash, Zoom and Devoe)
2) Good side villains (like Captain Cold, King Shark, Grodd, The Trickster, Pied Piper, Abra Kadabra, Vandal Savage)
3) A good cast of actors (The original main cast from season 1)
4) Enough episodes that focus on the story, and filler episodes should be at least more entertaining than those that focus on the story. Supernatural did this very well with episodes like "Mystery Spot", "Changing Channels", "The French Mistake", "Scoobynatural", "LARP and The Real Girl", "Ghostfacers", "Fan Fiction", "Yellow Fever", "The Real Ghostbusters", "Bad Day at Black Rock", "Time After Time".
5) Lots of action and only a bit of drama, but not too much so that it doesn't become a soap opera
6) Some progression of the characters, especially The Flash's powers and his speed should be getting better each season like how Clark's speed in Smallville kept getting better and better from season 1 to season 10. And if they are going to give lots of screen time to Allegra, then we should be seeing her using her powers a lot more, she almost never uses them. This show has great CGI that it almost never uses, and it's not like it costs too much because once you have the equipment for the CGI, it doesn't cost more money to add more since it is made from the computer, so they are just being lazy because the showrunner Eric Wallace is lazy.
7) More surprising plot twists throughout the season
8) Less useless dialogue and less cringey dialogue (with 45 minutes of runtime per episode, they should be able to do a lot more, even with their limited budget)
9) More screen time for the characters that people want to see (especially The Flash) and less screen time for side characters
10) More crossover events than just 1 per year. Crossovers are what people want to see, and since all the shows are filmed in the same studio, it shouldn't be very difficult to do it.
My prediction is that if the CW doesn't fire Eric Wallace, they will keep the show running until they start losing money, because although the ratings are bad, if they are still letting him run the show, it must be because they are satisfied with the profits, because the production of TV shows is always about making money, not necessarily pleasing the consumers, unlike in other industries, where public opinion would matter more.
Many people are so picky about the shows that they choose to watch that they will say that everything that the CW has ever made is bad, but the truth is that although it cannot match the level of quality of HBO or AMC shows, the CW is still able to make great TV shows on some occasions when they have a good enough showrunner. People often use Arrow and The Flash as examples to mock the CW but they forget that it's the same network which also made Smallville and Supernatural, both of which were extremely successful, so it's not the network that is to blame, it's the showrunners that the network picked. But even big studios like Warner Bros make that mistake a lot by hiring people like Zack Snyder or Joss Whedon to direct their movies, which makes them end up with bad ratings. I think that is because it is impossible to predict how well a showrunner will be, because even if you look at their history, it doesn't guarantee that their future work will be as good as what they made in the past since there are only a few directors who are able to maintain the same level of quality over many decades (guys like Quentin Tarantino).
I really wish the show either gets fixed or cancelled so that everyone can finally get what they want or just move on. And I am especially curious as to what will be Grant Gustin's next acting job after The Flash because he has a really good level of acting talent and he has a great singing voice too.
I loved the first two movies with a passion. This movie addresses how that dream fits into a real life and not just stolen moments between two people who have exceptional connection to each other and a lot of chemistry. It started kind of slow and awkwardly. You get to see the little things that would annoy them about each other. The conversation at the farewell dinner about love somehow diminished the ideal that they followed. All the generations except the old lady believe that the concept of a soulmate was a flawed if not insane one. They saw it as misguided and incomplete and that you should not look to another for completion. They did that and looked guilty in those moments in the movie. What the old lady had with her husband that she was fighting to still remember and preserve in her mind before she forgets it all.....that is what they have and I think secretly hope for.....someone who will love them enough to want to remember them like that. The fighting between them is insane and frustrating. I thought better of the characters the moment when he said "be my friend" and she was ... at point in the conversation it seemed like them. I would think that after all that time that they would have been able to sustain that level of communication even if worse came to worst because of their love for each other and the connection that was always so fluid with them. I expected more of them in terms of how that conflict would have been resolved. I am disappointed that they would cheat on each other it seems low of them and dishonoring to their love. They need to be clear about what they need from each other and work from there. Truly hear each other and work at it. Not listening is something that I didn't think would have happened. I could accept that they may not do it all the time but it seems like years of not listening. There is obvious unresolved guilt about taking another woman's husband for Celine. Her controlling nature causes her it hijack Jesse's relationship with his son. Every time he calls she never passes the phone for him to get the connection he desperately wants with his son. He misses his son and feels a loss because he is not there. She is not considering that fully. She most likely is right that it will work out when he is older but the anxiety of having lost the chance to impact more on his son's formative years is not going away and the guilt may remain for sometime if not always. Jesse was her and their family but he want s all of his family, which includes his son. Based on his reaction to his son leaving he seems to feels a sense completion if not perfection when his son is with them. He wants the best environment for his son and thinks that they are it. It is wonderful I that she and his son have that kind of relationship though and I am sure that is because she is such a wonderful caretaker but they don't let us, the audience see much of that. Celine is just doing and then being resentful about it somehow. She also has issue with the idea of her that had been penned. Jesse thinks that she is ok'd resolved but she is nowhere near that. The characters are complex and flawed and I am happy that they ended the movies with hope though still worrying. I had to see it after the first two but I think it could have stopped before the hotel or after he poured the wine and ended there with some love and connection in conversation culminated by just a knowing and compassionate kiss that kind of says....shit! Life is hard but I am glad I am with you for the ride. C'est la vie. Those are just my thoughts.
Amazing,Unpredictable! Watching it was a roller coaster of emotions,sometimes the movie is a dark comedy , after that a romantic comedy, the next minute a revenge thriller, It's tonal shifts made me laught,cry,angry,fearful,happy and eventually made me think a lot about the ending , i think it's going to be devisive between people.But for me it worked and when i play the movie in my head and what this character has been dealing with in her life i think it fits perfectly.I felt satisfied
The subject matter we're dealing with here is very challenging to adress in a movie and Emerald Fennell(writer and first time director) is not afraid of exposing all the parties involved when something like that happen and how everyone involved could deal with it , she knocked it out of the park.
Carey Mulligan gives what i think migt be the best performance of her career , i really hope she could snag an Oscar nomination
She killed it as Cassandra this young woman with a tragic past who's on a journey of her own trying avenge what happened to her , perfectly casted here and i wouldn't imagine someone else taking that role.
You don't really know how to feel about her like sometimes she's likable and funny , the next minute she goes dark and very serious and frightening , those shift personnalities were well executed! The cast was great too , everyone nailed their part really !
The movie does not answer eveything that happened , there a times you wonder what happened to that guy and what happened to that woman because they don't show you so you make your own image of the events or you trust Cassandra's word's which i very much liked, it leaves you making you own assumption for some parts.
Overall, the movie is well directed , the writing is so strong here and a screenplay oscar nomination is very plausible and it's just very a beautiful movie to watch , the colours the cinematography, the sets, it's like you're in a candy world , the soundtarck is great and the use of music was on point .
This movie is ambitious and important and i don't think it will be forgotten by people , it just needs time to grow .
Let me start this off by saying that this sequel did not feel outside of what we remember.
Blade Runner 2049 maintains the mood and feel of its predecessor. The visuals, the sound... the dystopian future, it's all there.
| FIRST THOUGHT |
I love writing reviews, it comes somewhat naturally to me after watching something that I learn to feel passionate about.
This movie taught me to be passionate.
But... it's really hard for me to express judgment. And I'm going to explain why:
Actually, it's very simple. This was a 3 hours movie. Of these 3 hours, 2 were simply... air. Now, don't get me wrong, that isn't always negative, like in this case. It was refreshing air, but still... it doesn't (at first glance) hold anything on the plot.
Because of this, the viewer (me at least), is left with a lot of questions, the picture doesn't explain itself. Also; as a side note - you most definitely need to watch the first one. The great majority of the runtime is inexplicably useless.
The longer it goes, the longer it begins to add new stuff, and then some, then it seems somehow related to what's actually going on, but right after it deviates the actual story on an ideal from the characters involved, that at a certain point, evaporates. I'm really conflicted about this because it looks to me like the screenwriters and director wanted to leave all of this to theory and the fans.
Why is this confusing? Because it's a very strange mixture of linear narrative and non-linear narrative. One is focussed on one objective, the other starts a bunch of other objectives and then it simply dies. No explanation was given, no closure was given.
And this is aggravated by the fact that it's a 3 hours movie, of which 1 hour of the actual story is spread and mixed amongst 2 hours of absolutely nothing. VISUALLY IMPRESSIVE NOTHING. A VERY INTERESTING BUNCH OF LITERAL VOID.
This is actually the only thing I did not like about the movie. Which, again, if you are like me and enjoy movies that aren't patently explaining themselves, it's not a bad thing. I just feel like it could've been much more interesting if they explained somehow what happened to all the side characters, or just cut them out.
|STORY & ACTORS |
Aside from what I've mentioned before, the more "linear" part of the story is actually not that bad. It's nothing impressive. A part of what I said earlier connects to the fact that this movie constantly keeps juggling between what is real and what is not. Be it by robots, or actual reality that the characters are living. So it came out pretty obvious that the movie would have a twist at some point, somewhere. I will admit that I did not get it until the very end, so, don't be discouraged.
Ryan Gosling was great, also because he as an actor was perfect for his role. Being so that he has this way of being and looking conflicted, and so it portrayed really well on the protagonist.
Harrison Ford had less value to this movie than he did in the last Star Wars.
Jared Leto's character is a mystery to me, but he did a phenomenal job talking random shit.
All of the other actors, Jared Leto included, were there to push the story forward (or to add random bullshit) and that's it. They did a fantastic job, but unfortunately, as mentioned above, at first glance it looks like they don't mean shit.
| CINEMATOGRAPHY |
The movie is visually pleasing, it's bliss for people with OCD. It's perfectly round and at the same time perfectly square. It keeps smooth lines combining great color combinations in the palette, and utilizing great solid colors at the same time.
As I said before it holds perfectly a spot near its predecessor, the mood and feel are almost identical. (Having watched the first one only an hour before going to the theater to watch this one)
I have to say, this one looks A LOT, like A FUCKING GIGAZILLION LOT more gruesome and splatter than the first one. The fighting scenes are brutal, they do not go into dramatic effects, they just are what they should be. A punch in the face, exploding heads and blood.
There is no doubt that this movie looks fucking amazing.
It sounds amazing as well. It has a collection of deep, pure sounds. There is not a lot of music, but when there is it's powerful and present and it makes you wake up and amaze. Same goes for the special audio effects: I have watched it in ATMOS and I have to admit, they did not utilize it at all, except for one scene later in the movie, but the way it goes from absolute silence to seat trembling sensations it's really amazing. The sounds were so powerful I could literally see the movie screen shake and the subwoofer hit made the whole room shake.
I would also like to add that in the Italian version, you can clearly see that they used "incorrect" words grammatically, they used a lot of anglicisms, I guess they've done that to express how language is evolving? It's actually current of our generation, I see a lot of people adapting English words in Italian, so I was very impressed by that.
| FINAL THOUGHT |
I feel like everyone needs to understand, before watching this movie, that you need a time, a mood and a place perfectly fit to sit for a 3 hours movie that it's going to feel like a 6-hour long journey into colors, shapes, and absolute "living" silence.
This is NOT a Marvel movie, there is action, well-done action, but it's not about action. You need to sit, relax and don't think about time, because, trust me, it's going to fuck you.
Please like my comment if you enjoyed my review, it makes me really happy.
Note that all of this is driven by my personal opinion. If you think I wasn't objective in some of the parts of what I've written, you're welcome to make me notice where.
On Twitter, I review the entire world -> @WiseMMO
Onward is a solid and heartwarming adventure about brotherhood and the importance of believing in yourself
Even though over the years we have come to expect nothing but perfection out of Pixar, (Which is kinda harsh from my perspective even though it unfortunately makes sense) I believe it is still worth noting that movies like this one give the impression that the beloved animation studio wants to keep enchanting us with stories that are relatable, creative and tug hard at your heart strings.
The movie pretty much does all that is listed and then some. The world is unique combining our modern day world with a dungeons and dragons like twist, The chemistry between the brothers is beyond enjoyable and the story does it's very best to give audiences something adventurous but also something though provoking as well
Although I personally wouldn't put it up there with other Pixar Originals like Inside Out, Wall.E, Monsters Inc, Finding Nemo and ect.... I still believe that Onward is still one of the better movies Pixar has put out in a while and definitely stands on it's own merits as a great family adventure that has something for everyone
All I can say now is, Pixar, I'm super excited to see what you come up with next.
Finally, a Marvel show about the X-Men universe! This is already better than the best seasons of the best ever Marvel shows (S02+ of Agents of SHIELD and Daredevil)... and certainly much better than the Iron Fist or The Defenders!
SEASON 1:
Be warned, the show is extremely confusing - being from the perspective of a mental patient - and has a bit of a slow start, though it picks up significantly in E03, at which point it upgrades to merely "very confusing" until the penultimate episode. Sadly, this resulted in my wife loosing interest before getting to that point, so be sure to stick with it.
I love the chilling glimpses - and brilliant soundtrack accompaniment - of the antagonist: the "monster." They are by far the best representation of this creature/character, ever!
Also, there are subtle hints as to how this show, and its protagonist, tie in to the story of the better-known X-Men.
This takes place in the past, similar to X-Men: Days of Future Past and X-Men: First Class, so it shows some interesting prototypes of well-known technology and even appliances (Espresso, anyone? ;).
I am sad to see there are only 8 episodes, with it ending just as soon as things start to come together and make sense.
When Season 1 ended after finally explaining (a few) things, I thought Season 2 would finally be less confusing...
WRONG!
SEASON 2:
S02 jumps forward an unknown amount of time, we have to peice together what happened in between.
Not only am I not sure what is reality, at times, but even if I'm watching a TV show anymore.
At times it turns into an International Indie Film (complete with Chapter titles, and Interludes), a Nature Channel animal documentary, and even a Hip-Hop Ballet (though a good one!).
Wow!
SEASON 1 RECAP (for SEASON 2):
Here is a recap of the ending of Season 1 to help get you started, to make things (slightly) less confusing:
https://screenrant.com/legion-season-1-finale-mid-credits-sequence-explained/
Holy shit! Lynch and Frost fucking did it! These past three episodes have combined to equal the finale of the original series, maybe even surpass it. This episode is not a tight bow tying up the loose ends of the show but that's because it's not supposed to be. This show is about how evil weaves it's way into everything despite being beaten back countless times. Evil hits you where you least expect it and no one is safe because no one is perfect, not even Cooper. Tying up everything is directly contrary to the very purpose and direction of the show.
This finale is not completely coherent and it's not going to make sense in the way you may want but that is one of it's greatest strong points. Cooper, Diane, and Laura are right there with you, they think they know what's happening and which direction they're going but really have no goddamn idea. Coop specifically thinks he knows exactly what is happening and what he needs to do but is mystified when little things go against his plan. Diane leaves and on the note calls him Richard. Immediately after he leaves his hotel room and it's clearly a different hotel and car. He winces and moves on. He meets the woman he knows is Laura Palmer and she has no idea what the fuck he's talking about. But he persists because he knows in his heart he is right. She invites him into her house while she packs and it's apparent she's just killed her husband. Cooper stares, yet he still knows his mission and moves on despite the signs that he's in over his head. He goes to Laura's house with "Carrie" and is confronted by people who directly refute that Sarah Palmer has anything to do with the house (though oddly mentioning the Chalfonts) and "Carrie" stands there not exactly knowing what to tell him. Then the final breakdown happens where Coop is visibly shaken in the streets. Cooper asking what year it is spins the whole thing in another direction. Is it past? present? future? How long in what direction? We don't know and forced to accept that just like Cooper. The final thing we see are the lights going out as Laura looks onward and screams, as if she is actually Laura not Carrie. As an audience member you are terrified but you don't know why. It's a combination of a universal reaction to a scream and the memory of what that scream implies within the story.
To me the whole thing implies this constantly shifting time frame where the character's names and actions shift slightly. They are not exactly the same just as Dougie wasn't exactly Cooper, but they have similar roles. In one scenario Laura might find herself the victim of abuse and dying young from her abuser. In another she may find herself the victim of abuse but instead the roles are switched and she is the murderer. Cooper may find his dream girl investigating the case around a girl's murder, but if it never happens then even a relationship he had (Diane) may flounder for no specific reason. This uncertainty and randomness in the world gives rise for bad things to squeeze themselves into unexpected places, just as good things squeeze themselves in. David Lynch has stated that much of what Twin Peaks is about centers around coincidence. That didn't fully make sense to me until now where he shows us. Now the quirky nature of the show makes even more sense. These silly, unexpected things happen all the time and mostly they are good and harmless, but the bad also worms its way into everything. This episode and season in general are insanely complex and I'm writing this right after watching it for the first time so I may have mis-remembered some things ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) and I have definitely missed some things and honestly I want to hear what because this ending just got my noggin joggin.
