If you're looking for an action and "turn brain off now" film, just don't watch it and spare us the 6-7 hearts review.
I for one, am very tired from 500$m crap like Indi Day and Marvel's poop. So I was very excited to watch this one.
This one is more like Spielberg's Encounters from the Third Kind. It's more about the characters in the film and the amazing journey they go through. It's mostly about the human behavior that will make you think.
While it's not an End of the World aliens movie like Battle: Los Angeles, it still offers great amount of military presence and plenty of stuff that's going on.
So if you actually want to care about an intelligent movie and use your head - go. Otherwise, go watch an X men.
Highly recommended for some audience 10/10.
2-feb-2017 edit: Just came out on Bluray and I saw it again. Definitely keeping my rating.
Watching again at July-2023, excited towards Dune II : Excellent. Excellent film. So called plot-holes listed here are negligible when the overall product is really thoughtful and masterfully crafted.
They'll just build a new one... and make the White Walkers pay for it.
I adore this show. It might be the most wildly imaginative series I’ve ever watched.
But am I the only one feeling zero chemistry between Chidi and Eleanor?
It's mediocre, yet also really entertaining sometimes. In that regard, the closest comparison to this is Jurassic World.
Pros:
- Visuals and cinematography.
- Conflict within the group of characters.
- The characters of John C. Reily and Toby Kebbell (although underused)
- Action, particularly the climax.
- The editing stands out a few times.
- Nicely paced.
Cons:
- Too many characters, meaning you won't care about pretty much all of them. They also don't take their time to develop them, meaning that most of them come across as Fast and Furious cartoons.
- Some iffy CGI (not with Kong, but with the other creatures).
- Some minor moments that felt out of place or coincidental.
- Besides a few gags, all the humour falls flat.
- The second act drags a bit.
- Sometimes, the colour grading is overdone.
Grade: 5/10
THINGS THAT MADE THIS EPISODE F*CKIN AMAZING:
- Getting to see the dragons in action was truly beautiful;
- Dany and Yara interaction was GOLD;
- The battle was very very very good. Tense and visually stunning. I couldn't breathe throughout it;
- Ramsey FINALLY being killed and ultimately by Sansa;
- >>>Sansa's character development!!!!<<<<
- Rickon dying as well was awful, but I can't say it was a wasted death nor a bad executed scene.
S06 was worth it mainly because of this entire episode. Still can't believe how good it was. I hope the finale is even better.
Wow! I mean, there is no other way it could have ended but with Carrie being an asset in another country. Sad that Homeland has ended. I’ll miss this show and Carrie’s craziness.
Sooooo... where's all the other people that went to the island with Abby, Jackson and Raven? Napping with Luna?
Also sure, leave the strange dude that no one knows alone and unsupervised inside the ship that RN is literally your only chance of surviving the radiation. What could possibly go wrong?
Once again Jaha is responsible, this time somewhat indirectly, for screwing the whole of human kind over #worsthumanbeingever.
And after Clarke, Monty and Bellamy worked so hard to secure a truce with the ice nation! These kids can't catch a break.
This Riley dude is more trouble than he's worth. Seriously.
Jasper is such an asshole! I was patient last season because he was mourning, but now this is too much.
Hell, Monty lost his mother and seems to have gotten over it.
Also, I hate most of the things Clarke does, but attacking her for the list was unfair. If anyone of them has a better plan or thinks they can lead better, go ahead, otherwise stfu
The acting is impeccable and the cinematography and directing is truly memorising. However it all feels wasted on such a long, overdrawn and predictable story line. I found myself waiting for it all to end, which it does eventually, just how you thought it would.
Maybe I was expecting more from this movie, but this really wasn't good. The movie does have it's moments, it can be sweet and caring and I would say the acting is good.
This feels more like a male fantasy of what a lesbian relationship looks like than what these two women with their specific histories would actually do and say to each other.
THIS should've been the moment for a double shantay, personally I don't think Kandy was better than Olivia but both of them were good so...
Eleanor and Chidi STILL have ZERO chemistry — and I honestly think their relationship has been detrimental to the show.
My heart was breaking for Dev this season, love can be hard, but you gotta admit he was being kind of a dick to her at the end right here. He clearly did not appreciate how hard is it for her to abandon something that was a part of her life for 10 years, he was being selfish and unfair in saying that she used him, since he was aware of her situation and could have refused or stopped at any moment like he stopped with Rachel.
This is what I hate the most about american love stories, I mean... okay, he loves her, she loves him, what about Pino? is it fair that he loses his 10 years partner just because he got too busy for a few months? does that undo those 10 years?
I dunno, I feel that ending was too easy and unearned, and clearly a too simple resolution to a very complicated issue.
I don't usually care for this kinda shit usually, it always felt to me that caring about fictional characters relationships is a very silly thing to do but this show was obviously too real and there's a part of me that related to that experience, which made me write this.
Anyhoo, this was quite the season, I wasn't so sure at first but it won me after a few episodes, the writing was fine until that last scene, hopefully Aziz will be back with more in a few years.
Despite it being visually and conceptually stunning, the film turned out to be extremely slow and actionless for my taste.
Many people think that the aforementioned positive qualities outweight the negative, but personally, I think that narrative must prevail over visuals,soundtracks, effects or symbolisms.
Trakt doesn't allow emojis in comments, but If it were, my comment would be somerhing like: The soundtrack in this show is fire emoji fire emoji fire emoji.
EDIT: upon rewatch, I believe the open bar and pageantry of the premiere enabled me to put on goggles that shielded me from the trainwreck that is this film. Rian Johnson is a sorry excuse for a writer. It will probably be retconned at least 5 times in episode 9.
World Premiere Review: Vague, Spoiler-Free Edition
It was amazing. It still does nostalgic fan service, but nowhere near what Episode 7 or Rogue One felt like. It feels like its own film. It gets a little slow and repetitive in the last half of the first third of the film, but after the major show down in the middle of the film, it's non-stop action that's brilliantly paced. GO SEE IT!
Strong start but incredibly boring and at times painful to watch from the middle to the end of the season. The show does not know what it wants to be: The West Wing or 24. It tries to be both at the same time and is neither one nor the other.
They should just rename this season, "No one is taking Littlefinger's shit anymore." Also, I'm pretty sure Game of Thrones just ruined chicken pot pie for me forever...
Darcy is so great. Kat Dennings should've had even more screentime in this.
Stupid Abbie, bitch and selfish, ready to sacrifice a random girl but when it comes to her daughter, she destroys the hope for all humanity -_-
The ending was fantastic! Really funny to see "Desmond" on the other side of the hatch!
I suppose there will be humans down there??? DeepGrounders?
Personally I thought it was one of the better episodes (which doesn't mean much, though), but the only thing I really didn't like was the Octavia scenes. When she and Ilian were getting naked I was already sure they would make out. It's terrible writing when you know what will happen just because it's an overused cliché.
Side note - I'm surprised no one's been pregnant yet.
About Emori - I actually really liked her and I think it's adorable how much Murphy is in love with her and supports her, but I'm not sure what to think about her decision. She tried to survive, but Jesus, it was a shitty decision. And I don't understand why that guy just didn't try harder to explain that he's not the one Emori thinks he is. He seemed pretty calm when he was about to die.
Damn, this show has gotten soo predictable. Just by the presentation of Octavias death you knew she was still alive. Weak episode.
Continually blown away by Alicia Denham Carey. She brings such subtleties to the role. Lexa was amazing this episode.
The Pike storyline is frustrating but unfortunately realistic, and the scary thing is people are easily led by strong talkers like him. This will not end well at all.
Don't fuck with Cersei Lannister
LIST OF DECEASED PEOPLE IN THIS EPISODE:
Queen Margaery
Lord Mace Tyrell
Loras Tyrell
The High Sparrow
Kevan Lannister, Hand of the King
Lancel Lannister
King Tommen Baratheon
Grand Maester Pycelle
Lord Walder Frey
Did I forget anyone?
YASSSSSSSS NOW THIS IS WHAT I CALL GAME OF THRONES
WINTER IS HERE
R + L = J
ALSO, THANK YOU LORD FOR ALL THE BADASS FEMALE CHARACTERS
SEASON 7: WE ARE READY FOR YOU
UNCLE BENJEN. YES
I knew he'd come back this episode to be honest xD
Emilia Clarke as always surprising us. WHAT A PERFORMANCE. That ending scene, wow gave me the chills. She always does. The star of this week :D
Kings Landing plot is really pissing me off. Like I wasn't already hating this storyline, now the faith and crown form an alliance?
I can't even :| Just destroy the faith and get it over with. In the words of the Mad king "BURN THEM ALL" xDD
Kinda puts the episode down tbh. Remember when Kings Landing was awesome? I miss that :(
I'm glad Arya saved Lady Crane's life. And I'm glad she's not a "No one" either haha. Excited for her fight with The Waif.
Can't wait for her and the rest of the Starks to reunite. It's gonna be like the Jon and Sansa moment but with steroids ^_^
Nice episode overall. 8.5/10
When I wrote my thoughts on Spotlight, I speculated about how knowing the end of the story going in, knowing the extent of the scandal the team in Spotlight was uncovering, may have robbed the plot of some of its punch. And yet, The Big Short is, in many ways, the perfect counter to that.
Almost everyone old enough to watch this film lived through The Great Recession. They know that the disaster all the main characters in the film are predicting comes true, in all its horrible, self-destructive glory. But rather than taking away from the film, it adds to it. There's this sense of foreboding, of doom that hangs over everything.
A film about the financial crisis, especially involving traders and analysts and people crunching numbers in a fund, could easily be too dry. And yet, the fact that the individuals the film focuses on are slowly but surely investigating an economic massacre waiting to happen, and how each step they take reveals another way that disaster might have been diverted, or people who are supposedly in the know digging the whole deeper, means that the entire film is just an exercise in creating that sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach. It's not a prestige picture; it's a horror film.
It's also a very weird film. It's not so bold in its presentation that it feels unprecedented, but it feels stitched together, disjointed, and unusual, but in a good way. Adam McKay, of Anchorman fame, is the right man for the job. There is a darkly funny absurdity to the topic The Big Short covers, and with his fourth-wall breaking asides, his cuts to celebrity explanations of complex financial consequences in ridiculous situations, and his jumping between various characters acting wild or nutty lends the perfect tone to the movie, one of simultaneous horror at what hell hath been wrought and unavoidable bemusement at the clowns who steered us all into this ditch.
The direction and rhythm of the film is frenetic. It's closest comparison point is Requiem For a Dream with the same frenetic hodgepodge of images and sounds, bleeding and blending into one another, disorienting the viewer and conveying the sense in which the financial world the film depicts is intoxicating, dizzying, and unsettled all at the same time.
Another aspect of the film that makes it hard to compare to other works in this space is the fact that it doesn't really have a protagonist or a plot. Sure, it has a story, and it has characters who take up the most oxygen over the course of the movie, but more than anything it feels like a documentary. It's far too stylized and irreverent to really deserve that label, but it's far more interested in trying to describe what happened, to explain just what mistakes and lies and blindspots led to the global economic crisis, than it is in rising action and resolution, or showing people growing or changing.
That's not to say there isn't an emotional element to the film. Steve Carell stands out by playing essentially a smarter, angrier Michael Scott who grabs your attention every time he's on screen. The parallels between his character's sense that a catastrophe is looming in economic terms that he could do something to prevent, and his guilt over not doing more to prevent his brother's suicide was--while perhaps a little easy--also affecting.
The rest of the cast do their jobs well, but blend together a bit because again, while they're a vital part of the film, the film isn't really about them. The characters in The Big Short are conduits to detail, in amusing and human terms, just what the hell went wrong. Christian Bale is a collection of actorly tics, but he acquits himself well enough. Ryan Gosling does his best dudebro douchebag type, and is sufficiently entertaining in that guise. And Brad Pitt seems pretty reserved, short of his moment where he chastises his young wards for being too happy about what they're making their money from.
But again, the fact that there's not really a narrative means that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. The film is not really a story; it's an autopsy, cutting up the corpse of our financial system and exposing the bloody innards, the rotten organs at the core that led the USA, and the world, to the dire economic state it was in by late 2008. In that sense, the film succeeds wildly, and McKay manages to tackle something of real significance without losing the absurd madcap attitude he brings to his comedic works, and somehow, doing justice to the insanity of the lead up to The Great Recession in the process. It's a hell of an achievement to make a film this funny, this disturbing, and this great.
[silently] I'VE BEEN STUNG BY A WASP
Some of these episodes truly make you consider both sides. But this one... No. The moment the victim's family said he was abusive toward her, which is not something he ever mentioned in his version of events, not even to express regret, I knew that this guy was full of shit. You're already in prison for the rest of your life, if there's ever a time to admit your wrongdoings and just be honest with yourself, that would be it.
