I think this is the worst episode of book of boba fett by a long shot.
First of all boba is completely eradicated from this episode and we don’t even see fennec until the last 3 minutes of the episode it’s not even a real Book of boba fett episode it’s more like a continuation of mandalorian so this episode felt really weird and out of place.
Secondly I felt a huge amount of time was wasted this episode first of all with the opening scene where mando is fighting all the aliens for a bounty and the only purpose of that scene is to show off the darksaber and show us what mando is doing but it isn’t entirely necessary when we see the training scene with the armourer later in the episode which could’ve been a lot cooler and of course we want to see what mando is doing but why take up so much of the episode doing it! Secondly The whole 10 minuet scene where mando and peli is fixing it felt extremely unnecessary as well as the fact as they where using half real word to talk about engine parts for example “turbonic venturi assimilator” which to anyone is just a made up phrase which I understand a spaceship will have sci-fi sounding parts but again to the extent it is used it just feels like I’m sat at a kids table for lunch listening to the adults talk and not understanding a single word of it not really a good scene. Lastly I think it is utterly ridiculous when mando is testing the nano starfighter and essentially just gets pulled over for speeding and to get a ticket which ruined a good fast paced scene and brought it to a grinding halt for a scene that is trying to be comical? It just felt so out of place and on top of that it was the exact same guy in the x-wing the new republic has so much space to police and it is the same guy on Mandos tail again it just felt to unnecessary to reuse a character for what reason?
Thirdly the whole scene in the mandalorin hide out has a lot of unneeded scenes first the bit where din just immediately without protest gave up his coolest weapon the beskar spear gets destroyed albeit for grogu’s gift but considering it was the only remanent of the razor crest it’s a bit silly it was destroyed the razor crest was mando transport his home his ability to be a bounty hunter and it was destroyed and the only keepsake he had left of it was the spear and now it’s gone! Secondly the scene where Paz vissler duels with him feels like a really lazy way just to get the armourer to say the creed and ask mando “have you ever removed your helmet” and he says yes and is thus exiled which just creates another story line to explore the issue I have with this is it just feels like an unintuitive way of going about getting to this scenario and feels forced/out of place. As well as the fact that the armourer says the only way to redeem mando is “in the living waters beneath the mines of mandalore” and mando reply’s with “but the mines have all been destroyed” so they have created a problem with no resolution so is mando permanently banished? As far the episode tells us there is no way to redeem himself.
Lastly I felt it played into the prequels a bit too heavily mainly episode 1 with the naboo starfighter (I do actually like the inclusion of this but I don’t think it’s a reasonable replacement for the razor crest) and then mando practically following the pod racing track though beggars canyon which if it isn’t the pod racing track from episode 1 it certainly looks like it.
In conclusion it’s not an awful episode but not a great one either and it definitely could’ve been a lot better than it was especially considering it is the second longest episode so far definitely weird and definitely not a book of boba fett episode considering he wasn’t even in it at all
I really don't understand what their goal is with this show. I watch The Book of Boba Fett to watch Boba Fett, and he's not even in this episode. This feels like an episode of The Mandalorian, and I like The Mandalorian (both the show and the character), but in a show with a very limited number of episodes, they spend an entire episode focusing on a side character. There's no time for that!
On the plus side, it's great to see Dinn Djarin again. I really like all the Prequel references in this episode, and there are a lot. It's nice to see the writers pay homage to that era instead of being hyper-fixated on reminiscing about the OT era. On the downside, there's not a lot going on in this episode, and certainly not enough to fill an entire episode. The typical Star Wars technobabble starts off endearing but I quickly got annoyed by it, as they heaped it on sentence after sentence, kind of like they were padding for time. And that droid lady was never my favourite character to begin with, so imagine how much I enjoyed it when she got as much screentime here as she did in the entire first season of The Mandalorian.
There's some good here, but it's mostly unnecessary. This should have been episode 1 of The Mandalorian Season 3.
I'll second @Bernard, in that this is pretty much what has become the bog standard R/E script of aggrieved baddie whining about why he is so aggrieved, in this case cuz' his bestie got infected, and then he had to make the horrifying choice of making said bestie assume room temperature (via gratuitous heavy object head smooshing trope) as rapidly as possible, lest he assume room temperature himself. Said traumatic experience "turns him to the dark side", thus, he now schemes to make the world pay by infecting it, and of course, fusing himself with whatever rando super zombie the writers could conjure, to become a killer MEGA zombie, which no matter the ensuing theatrics, eventually ALSO assumes MEGA room temperature via previously stated gratuitous trope heavier object head smooshing, head severing, blowed-uppaning' virus trans-mutating, or some combination of the aforementioned.
Curiously, the quality of the animation in this series has IMO deteriorated ever so slightly with each iteration, and they can't seem to keep Jill Valentine's "assets" a consistent size, unless, the SF Bay water was shrinking her top and push up. (standard fem gear for zombie fighting ) But, I digress...., Not horrible, but, nothing you haven't seen before if you've kept up with the series.
Maybe it's time for another live action one....
2023 TV Shows Ranked List --> https://trakt.tv/users/justinnumerick/lists/2023-tv-shows-ranked?sort=rank,asc
Season 2 Review:
The second season of this show is a very mixed bag for me, and it's the most apparent in the characters. For example, I loved everything we got from Jepperd this season including the fleshing out of his darker backstory and seeing just how much he has changed and grown since meeting Gus. His devotion to Gus and the lengths he's willing to go to in order to keep him safe were really great. And on the opposite end of the spectrum, General Abbot was an incredibly one-note and silly villain that I did not care for. And all of the other characters fall somewhere on the wide spectrum between these two. Another inconsistency was the tone. We'll get fart jokes one minute and the next there are people threatening to cut open and experiment on children. This show has a very unique style and tone that tries to balance these two extremes, and sometimes it comes across really well, but in this season it just felt all over the place a little. I also had a really difficult time getting behind some of the costume designs for the kids. Some looked okay but others looked like poorly drawn makeup and clearly fake props. Most of them just looked like normal kids wearing costumes, so getting me to believe they are human-animal hybrids was difficult. However, I did enjoy much of the script across the season and the story that was told here. The themes were on point, resulting in a heartfelt story about friendship. The emotional beats worked well enough for me especially between Gus and Jepperd, they have a really great relationship and the actors have good chemistry. The production design was also pretty good. So all-in-all, I wasn't as endeared to this season as much and the inconsistencies with characters and tones drag it down, but the story is good.
6.0/10 -- Decent
Not a big fan.
On a positive note, there are some well-choreographed fight scenes. They are probably the most entertaining bits of the show, the best of them are well thought out and impressive, but many of these fights are pretty barren in the emotion department.
Moreover, the set designs and the VFX are, for the most part, excellent, and the polish and detail make many aspects of this sci-fi world feel tangible. The atmosphere it provides is authentic to the Star Wars universe in an endearing way, but I found much of the rest of the show underwhelming.
On a more nit-picky note the costumes are a distracting mixed bag, while Mando’s design is excellent, many others are jarring. Designs like Ahsoka Tano's are a constant distraction. But where the show feels truly barren is in its story. None of its characters have detailed arcs and you could easily reorder the chronology of many of the show’s episodes and it would not change a thing. This inconsequential nature is particularly annoying because of how long and forgettable many of these episodes are, hardly any emotional scenes/character work, mostly just drawn out one off plots that have been done numerous times in other fantasy shows/stories.
But particularly, I want to talk about why the end of Season 2 doesn’t offer much of value for me. I think Mando lacks a coherent arc. In theory, Mando's journey should've significantly altered his character. We know he suffers a massive change to his status quo; he betrays the guild code and endures the consequences. But his character remains underdeveloped; he has solid motivations. He wants to spare Grogu from the war-torn childhood he survived, but I feel this serviceable at best backstory is all we ever learn about him. The only thing closely resembling an arc is Mando's willingness to remove his helmet throughout the series, where he finally takes it off in front of people in the Season 2 finale, but that's incredibly bare-bones. And when Mando gives up Grogu to Luke Skywalker, the show plays overbearing, somber music, but I feel nothing; I failed to have much investment in these characters so I just found it annoyingly manipulative.
Also, I think “Grogu” is not an interesting side character, this is likely because he is a baby, but we know nothing about him. We know he's force sensitive and of the same species as Yoda (I guess), but as far as I know, the only thing else going on with his character is one of conjecture or hidden deep in Star Wars lore.
But Grogu isn’t the only one, most of the others are dull. Bunch of one-off-side characters throughout the show, who, unless they come from the pre-established Star Wars universe, are usually uninteresting. And when the show does bring in characters from other Star Wars properties, they play it incredibly safe.
The old characters they bring back (Ahsoka Tano, Boba Fett, Luke Skywalker, etc.) have been developed by other Star Wars media, but lack interesting utilization, there are just no interesting character-specific moments. There are subtle fan service moments, such as the Darksaber and Boba Fett's confrontation with Mando regarding his armor, but that's all I noticed, so the show failed to give me anything emotionally engaging with these characters.
Shows like Star Wars Rebels may be a mixed bag, but they offer far more interesting utilizations of previously developed characters, providing moments such as the duel between Darth Maul and Obi-Wan, ending with the death of Darth Maul. Nothing in The Mandalorian resembles this, most of the inclusions of these characters feel contrived and pointless.
Overall, I mostly just found the show a dull waste of time.
A skiffy story with great visuals, some moral and philosophical questions, and some romance for good measure. And a few nits that stood out -- nits of the sort that always bother me. First, there would have been no call for the automated announcement about the slingshot maneuver around that sun since there would have been no reason for the original programmers to think that anyone would be awake to see it. If the writers and director were committed to showing those visuals to the audience, then they should have just let Aurora and Jim discover the event for themselves as it occurred. Second, pretty much everything about that tree was wrong, from the water questions to the potential issues if and when its roots broke through the deck and all kinds of things in-between. Third, probably not a good idea to put your reactor plant at the front end of your ship, where it will take the brunt of any ramming damage. Fourth, a complete lack of logic behind the turning-around question. All things being equal, if it takes X amount of time to get from A to B, then it should only take X amount of time to return from B to A. Even a slow turn that takes a week to execute is nothing in relative terms in a scenario like this one. And lastly, given how much must have been spent on building the ship as a whole, would it have killed the money people to splurge and include more than one autodoc for a crew of 258, as we're told at the outset? While I'm willing to accept the fact that there was no reason to expect problems with the 5,000 hibernation pods, any engineer worth his or her degree would insist on better redundancies and a backup plan or two in case something did go wrong as it did here. In any case, nits aside, the primary four actors here and the visuals and the underlying story itself were all strong enough to survive those nits, with plenty of room to spare.
I'm listening to the soundtrack right now to put me in the mood, which the OST is actually pretty darn good.
I think this movie frustrated me more than anything. There was so much fucking potential with the concept, and some of this movie does work, but most of the time, it comes off as generic Hollywood bullshit. When this movie does work, it works really well.
There's this one scene early on where, let me explain:
Chris Pratt's character has been awake by himself for almost a year now, and he's had enough of living alone, knowing he's just going to wait around to die. There's actually a very effective emotional scene where he gets into the airlock without a spacesuit on, and is about to open the airlock to kill himself. The music and the emotion on Pratt's face actually got to me, I don't know why.
The whole idea of being alone on a ship, doomed to live the rest of your life on it alone, is a fantastic idea. It's a great concept that could have so much to explore, the meaning of life, the importance of a partner, the possibilities of heartbreaking stories and lessons that could tapped into with this movie... and it doesn't amount to much. They take this great concept that could really talk about the meaning of life and could've been one of the best movies of 2016, ends up being butchered by studio executives, given a 150 million dollar budget to add action scenes, and a standard Hollywood romance story that's dumbed down for American audiences.
It really makes me sad, because there very brilliant glimpses of intrigue and worth-while storytelling, but that's all they were, glimpses. I wish this was more of an independent production, so a small group could actually flesh out some meaningful ideas with this idea.
They even have an 88 years later recap and a pop song for the end credits... fucking fantastic. When it does work, it works. The music is great and there are some well-done scenes, but it makes me more unhappy than happy. I want to love this movie, but I can't.
Warfare and gender politics (plus musical numbers and pet dragons) around imperial China in this Disney-fied adaptation of an old eastern fable. It's flashy and well-produced, with a strong female lead and up-front morals, but the plot seems too convenient and there's very little life outside the spotlight's bright glare. Funny, that last point, as Disney's always been so thorough about granting attention to the little details in their better preceding efforts.
Mulan is just fine. The animation is fluid and smooth, a crisp blend of classic western style and traditional Chinese décor that brims with character while paying service to a stiffer, more respect-driven society. The plot, up-tempo but shallow, hits its important points and changes the scenery before younger minds have a chance to wander. Singing and dancing cartoons aren't really my thing, but the tunes in Mulan are aurally inoffensive, at least, and kept rather short and utilitarian. I didn't hate anything, but I also didn't love anything... it was all just there. Yep, that looks like a Disney movie. Yep, that's the bad guy. Yep, there's the cursory romance. I appreciate the envelope-pushing hinted by the premise, encouragement to challenge the status quo if you find it unjust, but the film's conviction to see that message through adversity seems shaky at best. Even Eddie Murphy's comic relief side character, the aforementioned cat-sized dragon, doesn't get much to do.
The ideas are good, the animation is top-notch, the music is tolerable, but the big picture stuff is half-baked and the window-dressings are shockingly bland.
I want to like it, but the writing has become so bad that it's sometimes soap opera level.
How can there even be a single person who thinks Tokyo would be a good leader? She fucked up so many times already and has no good qualities for a leader.
How can they just perform lung surgery on someone in the middle of a bank?
The scene where they all draw weapons at each other was interesting once, but it happened so many times now that I just roll my eyes. It feels like such a cheap attempt at being cool.
That bull scene was so... awkward? What the hell was that about. The professor is already in danger. Why did the writers add a bull as an attempt to make it more dangerous??? I'm so lost.
Why the hell would they let Arturio donate blood? Tie him up properly and throw him in a closet or something. He's always trying to stir up shit. Can the characters please learn that? Why would they ever trust him or even keep talking to him. And don't get me started on that pointless Monica drama - She should have known by now that they can all be violent.
Right intentions, but rather awful execution.
I'll start off by saying I do believe the intentions of the filmmakers were positive. There are undoubtedly minors being exposed to similar themes to that of the film, so it's imperative that people - particularly parents - are made aware of this.
With that said, 'Cuties' goes about it in entirely the wrong way. The message, which does become clear at the end, is to stop the exploitation of children - yet here they are doing just that. There are scenes and/or camera angles that simply should not have been filmed and shown. There is no need for certain shots.
More should've been left for the viewer to work out, as opposed to shoving it into our faces and therefore practically doing what they are criticising. For example, they could've zoomed away at particular points or got an extreme close up of the characters' eyes when they were doing sexualised things.
For what it's worth, I will say I respect the performance of lead Fathia Youssouf (Amy) - I felt a fair amount of emotion from her at certain points. None of the other cast members stick out in my memory, though none produce anything negative.
I've spent a long time thinking about how I was going to word my review, much longer than I usually would at least. It's slightly tricky as, as mentioned, I do believe it intended to do the right thing. Unfortunately though, it ends up - in my eyes - doing what it's trying to say is bad.
There are some extreme thoughts on this film, not all of which are right in my opinion. However, as said, it isn't a good watch - even if only judging on film merits.
I was reading through the comments and was surprised that some people think Otis is trash this season... Literally the party scene was the only one where he did wrong so far. He's been dealing with his mom and Jakob's relationship (+ Jakob's personality), Ola, Maeve, his own and other people's sex-related problems for a long time - who wouldn't explode at some point?
Just like how Jackson had enough of one of his mother's dictatorship and almost broke down (well, technically with the self-harm he already did) and how Eric stood up face-to-face to Adam and told him his honest thoughts (yaaas, so proud! I was actually afraid that he would change his mind and back down, but I'm so glad that there's a character in existence who doesn't choose the "bad guy" bully at the end!). These characters had enough too, yet I don't see anyone bashing them. And Otis has/had a lot more on his plate than these two.
I'm conflicted about Maeve now. Last time I wrote that they're basically soulmates with Otis, and I really thought that... but then Isaac came, and now I'm kinda rooting for him? But I'm also rooting for Maeve just concentrating on herself? And also rooting for Otis to apologize and speak to Maeve about his feelings while he's sober?
Since Maeve and Otis are 2 of the 3 main characters, and almost the whole SE1 was about them starting to like each other, I guess they'll end up together, but it wouldn't be a first of this show to give things a twist and pair Maeve up with Isaac.
Jackson and Viv are getting closer, yaay! I mean, that was a strong gut feeling right from their first meeting, but it's still nice to see Viv starting to care more about Jackson (and vice versa), little by little.
Finally, I saw it in full length - before I saw just parts of it. And that's the biggest problem with this movie, the length.
It starts with the script, which tells everything and everything three times - e.g. we see who is the true murder, but there is a conversation which tells us this again. And it goes to the pace of the acting, everything is told slowly. The actors speaking like bubble gum. I like to have an editors cut, thightened it up. This story is just not a 3 hour story, it is not the godfather! I assume that Stephen King had a big involvement in it, which doesn't help a movie in my experience. (One of the best "Stephen King movies" - The Shining - had no involvement whatsoever and when he did his version it was a big failure.)
The acting was good. Especially, Rockwell and Hutchinson were great. Unfortunately, Duncan's role as Coffey consisted of 90% crying. Which is a failure by the director and screenwriter using the most boring and easiest way to tell.
The movie was not able to get me emotionally involved - only Hutchinson's role got me - everything and everyone else I didn't care. After 3 hours I was exhausted and happy the movie was over. (And again, the movie ended but it was not over, it goes back to the current time and tells another story and someone else has to die, and the mouse has to reappear - what a boring mess.)
These supposedly "emotional" death scenes are a huge miss for me this season! I mean, you could tell from Gunhild's speech in the last episode that she was grieving and depressed, saying that since Bjorn is gone, she can't go back to just a being a woman with no future, although she was a badass shield maiden long before Bjorn but it's ok we'll jot that to the depression talking. So it was expected that she will probably kill herself rather than marry Harald but the way it was done just wasn't that impactful for me. She went up, stripped down, went for a little swim, and then drowned herself. I mean, can you even reach Valhalla this way??
As for Ubbe's storyline, we started by seeing this intense fight between Kettil's family and the others and then suddenly Ubbe and the rest decide to start running for their life (were they outnumbered? Coz it didn't seem like it) and I thought they were just gonna retreat but no, they went into full panic mood, got into the boats, and sailed away... The camera then pans to Ketill's family where there was like only a couple of people remaining!! Did they have to leave in such a hurry? I don't get it!
On the other hand, Ivar and Igor's relationship was truly well done. Igor said previously that Ivar saved his life, but in reality, Igor also made a better man out of Ivar. He truly changed as stated by Hvisterk in the end.
I really enjoyed it upon my first viewing. But once I started thinking about the plot, the characters and the world, I felt worse. And before you read any further, let me just say, don't watch this show. Because you might either like it (which hurts me) or you might hate it (which hurts you). I like it but acknowledge its flaws. If it wasn't the sequel to Avatar: The Last Airbender, it would've held up a lot better.
Unlike most of my friends, I watched the Legend of Korra after Avatar: The Last Airbender and the Avatar comics. The comics allowed me to settle into Korra's world helped me jump into this new world. I had really low expectations coming into this show, after being warned not to watch it by a good friend. But I was pleasantly surprised. I enjoyed it.
The illustrations and background art had improved. Its aspect ratio wasn't square. And I enjoyed myself (most of the time) throughout. Amon was compelling and looked badass. Unalaq was cool (before he turned evil). Zaheer is the best villain in the entire series. Kuvira seemed really contrived.
Season 1 took a while to get anywhere, and I'd give it a 4/10. It was up until the end, where Korra pulls off a deus ex machina and Amon is made less compelling, which left a bad taste in my mouth. [spoiler] If Amon was kept as a non-bender [/spoiler], he would've been my favourite villain hands-down. But he's a [spoiler] blood blender [/spoiler] who breaks the rules (and he's not the only one) and the non-bender revolution is made less compelling. [spoiler] I did feel sorry and sad when he and Tarrlok died though. [/spoiler] That was really emotional.
Season 2 started off okay. The first half was really compelling: two water-tribes put against each other, on the verge of civil war. Korra wants to learn more about the spiritual side of bending and Unalaq seems like the guy to teach it to her. But then we are introduced to Avatar Wan, who I thought was pretty cool at first until I started thinking into it more and realising how much it changes in the Avatar lore. If this show was by itself and didn't have ATLA behind it, even if it was better, this sequence would've been awesome. But it's not. It retcons everything known about bending. The spirit world is shown way too much and suddenly loses its intrigue and mystery. [spoiler] We're shown the origins of the Avatar, but all of a sudden, the Avatar doesn't seem like some all-time all-powerful being who has always been there for humanity and the spirits. We just see some punk kid who protects things because he thinks it's right (and who lets off chaos and darkness into the world). Finally, Raava and Vaatu. They look like carpets and are supposed to represent Yin and Yang (yet we had the Moon and Ocean spirit for that) and one represents "light and peace" while the other embodies "darkness and chaos". All of a sudden, spirits (and people) are either good or evil. And by letting Vaatu loose into the world, Raava starts to shrink. Why doesn't Vaatu shrink? How come he can turn spirits "dark" but Raava can't turn the "light"? Then Korra pulls off another deus ex machina: she becomes a giant spirit person and shoots a laser at Unavaatu. Also, Unalaq is evil and wants to become the first "Dark Avatar". [/spoiler]
4/10 It had potential.
Season 3 was cool. There's one scene where I actually found that Korra was a likable character. Tenzin tries his best to bring back the air nomads and we get to journey to the Earth Kingdom. But, the reason the airbenders have returned is that Korra left these "spirit portals" open. Which created "change" in the world, which also included bringing back the airbenders. Forget about the trauma and time it takes to heal the scars of war! Just open that spirit portal! Aang should've just opened those portals and he could've gotten started earlier! But here's the thing, Zaheer is the best villain in this series. He wants to bring about anarchy (which is a terrible idea, btw) and wants to remove the Avatar (for some reason he tried to kill Korra when she was young, which is pretty messed up). But here's the twist, he's one of those new airbenders! But instead of just making him some dude who discovers airbending, it turns out he's been studying air nomad philosophy for a long time. That's pretty cool. Compared to the other airbenders (except for Tenzin), Zaheer acts the most like an air nomad. And in the end, he has a plan to kill Korra while removing the Avatar cycle forever. Damn.
6/10 This season kills the least amount of brain cells.
Season 4 started off well but got progressively worse. [spoiler] Kuvira has been tasked with reuniting the Earth Kingdom after Zaheer killed the Earth Queen. We first meet her, giving an Earth Kingdom town food and supplies, but she threatens the mayor because he almost refused to sign the paper. Then, important people (I can't remember, Raiko, Tenzin and Sue?) said Kuvira was doing all of these cliche dictator things, but we're never shown it. We only see her help that town. She doesn't seem very evil. Then we see her threaten a group of Earthbenders who attack her, and it's framed to make her look bad, but really, they attacked her and she's been helping plenty of people. So...? In the end, Kuvira cuts off some "spirit vine" from the swamp (from ATLA) and gets Varrick to make a laser out of it by harnessing its energy? Then, when Kuvira declares she's bad and marches towards Republic City, it's with a giant (Voltron) mech, equipped with the spirit-vine-laser-cannon! Korra wins, democracy wins, the end.
4/10 Season 1 was better.
The only characters I care about is Tenzin, Varrick, and Zhu Li. Bolin was funny sometimes, but it's only because he's stupid. Unlike Sokka (ATLA), who actually has depth, is a character and goes through a compelling character arc. Korra has so many flaws/weaknesses that render her unlikable. She's hot-headed, stubborn, disrespectful and highly sensitive. She never takes responsibility for her actions, she gets a lot handed to her and her problems solve themselves. This show isn't more mature than ATLA but it does try to be edgier. The genocide of Aang's people and the dystopia of Ba Sing Se was pretty dark for a kid's show and wasn't there just to be dark and edgy. Why did I need to see the Earth Queen suffocate to death? Asami is a plot-device. Mako becomes boring after the stupid love-triangle in Season 1, and only really stays to look cool, follow Bolin and more love-triangle crap.
The animation in this show is appalling. It has nice illustrations, not animation. If you go frame by frame, you'll see this studio's laziness. You might also remember some creepy/disturbing shots (when Ikki discloses Korra's crush on Mako to Asami, or when she's being held captive in Season 3). I like the character designs and illustrations. The linework is phenomenal. But the animation itself is lacking. And the fact they added too much detail to their characters so they couldn't animate make each style of bending distinct, was sad. It kind of makes sense in-universe since they've been relying more on technology and less on bending. But come on!
TL;DR: Korra has no redeemable qualities. She might be flawed, but all her problems get solved for her. Does she have any strengths? Most of the villains are stupid. The illustrations are nice, not the animation. Tenzin, Varrick and Zhu Li are cool. This show isn't darker but it tries to be edgier. This show takes different elements of ATLA and make them less compelling. Watch ATLA, it's the original and it's better.
TLOK got rid of Aaron Ehasz and didn't even bother to find a replacement. This show still beats M. Night's The Last Airbender.
4.75/10
A decent follow up to the first series, I didn't find it as thought provoking and at points the plot can be a little linear. Some episodes merely act merely as filler, it feels like this could have been condensed into a theatrical length film. Visually beautiful with some good ideas, by far the stars of the show are Simone Missick who plays the interesting cyberpunk hacker/bounty hunter with one foot in the action and another trying to balance her commitments to family and the absolutely fabulous Chris Conner.
Exploring the fragmentation of Poe makes him feel only so much more human, a trait which unfortunately is lacking in leads Anthony Mackie and Renee. I understand this is a point the show is trying to make, the humans who have experienced lifetimes of memories and have moved from sleeve to sleeve are potentially less human than their AI counterparts but this just means we don't feel as invested in our lead two. The big reveal of the elders follows a fairly standard execution of aliens in sci-fi, the mystery disappears and unfortunately what could have been a deep dive into an alien culture is brought short abruptly with flashy fight sequences.
Enjoyable enough for any sci-fi/cyberpunk fans.
Lacks story and consistency. Sure you can say you don't watch this movie because of the story but only because of the action. But in my eyes the first two parts are clearly superior to the third one. John Wick was "a man of focus", all of is actions had a certain goal and were inherently consistent. Not so in this part, John is left as a confused old man without any clear path to follow, he's straying around, grasping each straw, using up all favors that several people in the world owe him, one after the other, leaving only scorched earth and loads of dead corpses (as of course expected).
Although, John is not always aware of the consequences of his actions (e.g. when refusing the marker in part 2) and in his fighting behaves like an instinctively controlled predator, he has is moments of great foresight and strategy (planting weapons used during the escape after killing Gianna, or consider the many stashs filled with weapons, coins and personal belongings). I really hope John will find his focus again in part 4 otherwise it will space out into the dull shoot-out which the movie, when viewed objectively, actually is.
Not sure why this franchise gets so much hype.
This particular installment has nothing that makes me go: wow, great action movie.
That's not because there's no action in it. Quite the opposite, yet the action is just dumb.
The dialogues are stupid. There's basically no story whatsoever, no plot other than "John Wick survives the most absurd stuff".
It's very often quite absurd without being selfaware - with a few exceptions, like the opening knife fight. That was entertaining in its hilarious absurdity. That was the only thing entertaining, though.
Fight choreographies are ridicolous overall. You can see the "enemy" actors holding their position, arms, legs, ect. for Keanu to do his part instead of reacting to the actual fight. Most of the time they are simply way too passive.
Maybe that's more of an issue with the cut, though.
Weapons are conveniently unlimited ammo when (film)shots need it, while in other situations Wick loads for example a shotgun with two round but can fire like 5-7 times. Overly brutal killings of enemies with headshots when they are already down. Usually with surprisingly atrocius CGI gunfire. The opening knife fight? CGI and gummy knives everywhere.
This movie is just more of the same without any merits. It goes the same direction as the Underworld franchise.
Just that this movie is quite nonsenical all around in addition. And for what? A fourth installment, of course!
The only good thing for the 4th movie is Wick working with King to bring down this assassin's guild as it seems. That seems to be at least some plot to be had in the future.
season 1: good adaptation of a good book. great casting. 8/10
season 2: massive drop in quality. many character arcs butchered. at least the broader strokes are fairly accurately adapted. 6/10
season 3: bad adaptational choices continue but generally the character arcs are better. 7/10
season 4: the material being adapted is the best so far but the adaptational choices are the worst as well. 6/10
season 5: why. why would they adapt two of the most complex books in the series in 1 season. everything is rushed and terrible. jon's story is the best of these but it's still vastly inferior to the book. some truly baffling adaptational choices here. 3/10
season 6: on the surface this is a step-up in quality... but this season feels incredibly artificial. there is so much fanservice crammed in here that it's borderline offensive. this show doesn't resemble george's story anymore. this is an incredibly overrated season. relies on "wow!! cool moment" to mask how fucking vacuous it is. 4/10
season 7: lmao what the fuck is this. this is awful. this is bad fan fiction. absolutely shameful. 1/10
season 8: one good episode. at least we got the broad strokes of the ending if george never finishes asoiaf. funny how people only started noticing the show's problems in the final season. seriously? it's been bad for 4 seasons and season 7 was worse. something tells me that people are just angry they didn't get the fanservice ending they wanted. not that im gonna defend this season, its terrible, but its better than season 7 at least. 2/10
Initial Reaction
The Good
• It is fun for the most part, giving you that rebellious feeling for the anti-hero.
• The design of Venom was pretty appealing to watch in action.
• When Venom and Eddie were fighting over the control and motives to their actions, it was very well done most of the time.
The Bad
• Starting off as a fun action flick, it quickly turned into the cash grab we all thought Sony was going to pull.
• Tom Hardy does do a good job at interacting with Venom, but everything else is a mess for him.
• The main villain in this movie is plain awful, so cliche and lacking proper motive. Not to mention the casting choice was so bad.
• I'm going to try not to say much, but the motive for Venom himself is the worst part of the movie. It suffers from the infamous show not tell rule, especially with this aspect.
• While the blacks, dark greys and blues are a nice colour pallet for the movie. Having Venom be primarily in the dark is not a good viewing experience or a good visual image.
• The lack of gore is extremely frustrating. The benefits of having this movie be R would have been great.
Conclusion
Venom could have been a good dark action anti-hero movie. But instead, it feels as if it is the typical Sony higher-ups demanding compromise over quality. No style to really think of, because you can't count night as one. But, I did have fun with it when the two partners were actually alone to argue and discuss. The action is okay and limits itself to not repeat or seem stale. Sadly though, it lacks in everything else. Leaving you with the feeling of a kids rollercoaster ride. A thrill to begin with, but leaves you wishing it climbed just a little higher.
Started off good enough enough. I thought this movie could pull off a decent sequel. After an hour the mystery of the child becaming painfully obvious. From then it became a typical hollywood drag of a dog (let's call him Pinocchio Runner) chasing his tail. As I'm waiting for the obvious to happen I remember that the bad guys did some cringey plot revealing monologues in the style of Sunset Beach, but looking like something from a superhero movie (adhere to the demographic?) It was looking bleak and felt dumbed down and boring.
It's fair to compare this to the look of the original as it's setting is simular and it really was a part of Blade Runner. This is less cyber punk and way brighter. It does still have its moments of beauty. Many. The pacing is simular, but the slow pacing of the original was held together with a plot that deveoped and a thick murky atmosphere, which are missing here.
The relationship between Joi and our main guy the serial number was too repetitive and obvious. I liked it at first glance. It looked great on screen. My issue was that the idea and thought provoking behind the relationship was done after a few scenes and the rest, of which there was a lot, felt like filler. The relationship was too linear and uninteresting to demand so much time and in the end it didnt make me feel much for the characters.
Before long there was no new ideas or interesting development in the story. When Gosling finally meets Ford it got worse - not better. The scene in which they meet was boring and silly. I start zoning out. Then... a rescue mission to conveniently take us to the end. Bye now I was completely bored and didn't care about the movie.
This movie didn't need to be made. It didnt feel like the writers wanted to write it. It felt like a cash in. Another cash in.
So it lacks all the main qualities of the original, doesnt stand alone as a good movie, and becomes increasingly boring as it progresses. Least we know Sylvia Hoeks can produce a single tear to roll down a cheek for the camera.
If you're into physics defying fight scenes / martial arts / choreographies then this show is definitely for you.
Anybody else: don't bother.
Acting is mostly awful if not straight abysmal (MK), with exceptions like Stephen Lang (the man in the wheel chair) who is sadly only a minor side character.
Story telling is basically non-existent, you're thrown into the world with nearly no explanations at all. Even in a 6 part mini series you could do a much better job than this. There's an intrigue running with many sides, what's not even interesting or good explained and only background noise for the fights. Similar with the world order of barons as factions ruling people / areas, only background noise.
Due to being thrown into this without any (explicit) explanation, the establishing of characters is non-existent as well. The show fails to make you care for any character and for whom you should root for. Forgettable characters overall.
There's no reason for me to care for a mass murderer like Sunny to get out of the badlands.
Plans to do something are almost never explained, like giving all women a voice. How to achieve that? No clue, but the ninja fighting is cool... It's understandable that Sunny wants to get out of the badlands with his pregnant girlfriend but that's it where the show stops making sense. Basically everything is incredibly vague.
Perhaps because there's too much: feminism, a family intrigue where the son betrays the father, the most loyal fighter betraying his master, the wunderkind story, the escape for a better life story, teenage love, love triangle between baron, his wife and his side-wife. Pretty messy.
A show lacking in many aspects, ending on a few deus ex machina and an attempt of letting the possibility for a full season or second mini season open. The really interesting things and questions are never explained at all.
Ehh.
This movie is OK at best. It's one of Nolan's better ones at least. But, it has some serious issues. See Krauss talk about it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pG89gREWyI&t=1m12s
It's too long - he's right. The oxygen blight is completely scientifically silly. The entire basis of the plot (that Earth will run out of oxygen in tens of years) is unbelievable. This put me off from the start. There's some "formula" that Michael Caine worked on and half-solved, but it took data from the event horizon of a black hole (which also makes no sense scientifically) to solve it. Sorry, if you approach a black hole, you don't end up behind a bookshelf in your old house in the past - I have no idea how they can claim this is a movie about science. It is FULL of religious symbolism, though, so if you're into that, you'll be right at home. Apparently humans evolve out of the 3rd dimension too ... sure. There's one thing that was definitely right - outer space is quiet - FINALLY.
The cinematography is pretty good, and I liked how the dude went crazy on the barren planet, but this film would have been a lot better without the sappy happy ending. I mean, really - transporting all the way back from inside a black hole? Armageddon had a much more realistic ending than that, and it was SO STUPID! It would be great if someone fan-edited this into something scientifically accurate (dub over the lines about what's wrong with Earth replacing it with a feasible problem, have him crushed to death in the black hole, show Brand on the planet at the end all alone, FIN). I don't know how people can give this a higher rating than a 7/10. I wouldn't consider it to be a classic at all. It's at best a see-once blockbuster, just like Armageddon was.
Death is the only way.
Awesome episode. I thought these last two episodes were both going to be the climax but there's definitely more set-up here, which is fine...but if there's one thing I had to complain about this season, it is that half of it is build up. Having said that, this episode was really great and we did get a literal climax of one character, the likable Rahul Nadeem who sacrificed himself for his family, killed by the barrel of Dex's arguably naive obedience. Jay Ali did really well playing Nadeem, especially in this episode. There's one last ambitious grasp for hope when Nadeem tries to tell Dex that Fisk is manipulating him but Dex doesn't buy any of it, and it seems like he and his growing danger will be a huge part of the finale.
This all happened because of Vanessa, who requested for his death (although Fisk would've asked for the same). When she arrived at the beginning of the episode, I had a strong suspicion she had returned as a spy to get information out of Fisk, and especially later on when she is pushing Fisk to tell her the truth about his violent secrets, but clearly not after that evil decision from her.
The only way to stop Fisk now is to kill him, and Matt knows it.
The show had a good start, potential everywhere the eyes could see. it's nice to pass the time but it lacks a lot to engage spectators. A banal example would be that the start of uthred relashionships were rushed and no deep elements have been introduced. They basically just smile at each other, then flirt and fuck, and sometimes there's a marriage. it's the main default of the show I believe. I didn't have enough elements to make feel anything when people supposed to be important died. There's no feeling of maturation, uthred stays childishly hotheaded and keep creating useless problems to dive into. All his fights are unrelated to his so-called goal. He has no drive on his own, always serving somebody. They claim he's Danish but beside being unruly and godless he's as docile as any soldier would be, no special ritual from the Vikings, no part of him as a Viking, he's supposed to be split between his origins and yet always fights for Wessex. Always put aside the main objective and wander around. One season is understandable but two seasons and he still has yet to go home, be it just to look or spy is utterly disappointing.
In the end everything seems and feel too shallow to me.
I think my old review said it all...so here it is.
How many times can you shoot the same movie without things getting stale?!?
Well...usually...not many...especially when you have done it so many times as they have done it with the Underworld franchise...AND...with a smaller and smaller budget to boot.
Even Kate Beckinsale in her incredibly tight spandex can't save this one. Don't get me wrong...she's as hot as ever, but seem dreadfully bored about the whole thing. Though...she's actually one of the few redeeming factors. One of the other is that the effects are quite good in places...except for the usual bad CGI of course.
Anyway...I'm not going to list everything that is wrong with this one because that would take a very long time, BUT...especially ONE thing bothered me throughout the entire movie. The lighting sucked all the way through. Most of the time you couldn't even see what was going on let alone any details. I know the movie is supposed to have a gothic feel...but talk about taking it too far.
Watch Underworld: Blood Wars only if you are a fan of the franchise, or have a masochistic streak.
I'm pretty sure this will be the last time I'll ever see this movie. There are too many GOOD movies out there I haven't seen yet to bother with this one again.
Entertaining, though lacklustre in telling an original story.
The highlight for me personally was definitely when the main characters enter The Shining. The way this is created looks to true to the source material and is full of recognisable moments from Kubrick's movie. Also, the way the added scenes tie into the original is really well done and the way the characters interact with the scenes we all know is good for a chuckle or two (like the scene with Aech and the twins).
The story itself is nothing special; poor guy gets a chance to make the world a better place for himself and everybody else by stopping an evil corporation from getting absolute power and in the end succeeds in doing so against all odds.
But that is not why you watch this movie. You watch it to be entertained and on that front it delivers. There is no point in the movie where you are bored as there is so much visual spectacle to behold throughout the entire movie. The effects are always great and the most fun thing in this movie is spotting the references to pop-culture both past and present. And trust me, there are a lot.
So even though the plot is nothing special, if you're looking for a movie to just have a good time with this one won't disappoint.
I thought this was a bit of a letdown. It's retreading the plot and structure of the first one with some minor twists added and a different ending, so its not seen as the blatant copy it actually is. By having the same structure as the first movie did, most scenes before the 1 hour mark feel like filler and most after feels like a copy of the first movie, slightly amped up. To me it felt too much like the first one, a feeling I last had watching Transformers 2 - and that is not a good thing, as I avoided the sequels. Though, to be fair, it was mostly because Transformers 2 was very annoying.
The movie felt long. Really long. I think it could have been 40 minutes shorter and it wouldn't lose any important things while actually giving it a better pacing, as the movie feels just stretched out just so it runs over two and a half hours. And because of that stretching, the ending feels like it came really quick and was over before I realized it. The ending also leaves you hanging, desperately wanting you to want to see both parts of the final movie, both being released in a November (2014 and 2015), taking the route of unnecessarily stretching out the lifespan of the movies like it's usual now.
I don't understand why they think they need to do this. The Harry Potter movies, a franchise with a similar target audience, had the two parter finale released in a span of 6 months. Even the Matrix sequels came out in the span of 6 months. Both were very successful and at least the former was beloved by most who saw them. Maybe it's because of Twilight, as its two part finale was also released in a November (2011 and 2012).
But for now, until both sequels come out on DVD/BR, I don't have any interest in seeing (or even reading) The Hunger Games in the foreseeable future.
This is an ok distraction, what you would expect from the usual Z monster movies, but with the budget to make it look (very) good. Maybe even too much budget, that allowed them to include many over the top cliche action scenes instead of focusing on the monster action.
I mean did it really need a 0G space scene ? Parachuting from a crashing plane ? And a B2 bomber ? I was a little disappointed in what was supposed to be the climax, city battle and monsters battle, so a little more attention to that instead would have been better. More military action in the city battle for instance, lots of tanks, some fighter jets, etc. (though jets are maybe not great for city fights ?)
And what's with the B2 ? What's the point of using the most expensive ever furtive plane during the day to send a missile on animals from several kilometers away ? Did they fear they had radars ?
The first wolf battle is nice though, and the crocodile looks AMAZING. The SURPRISE: the wolf can fly was a nice touch too.
The interaction between The Rock and the gorilla is nice. Can't say the acting is that great, so it feels a little weird, nut it makes for some funny jokes.
Morgan's character is really cool, though he's just that. He's clearly been written with a description: "cool cowboy, rough guy but nice, smart enough to be on the right side". That's it, nothing more. His background, job, role and interactions with the rest of the characters are inexistant or makes no sense with no questions asked.
The really bad part is the antagonists. There we go way beyond cliche. Typical rich guys, ready to go beyond what is legal or moral to make money. They apparenlty lead a billion dollars corporation, able to have its own space laboratory, though we barely see any employee, They seem to be the only ones in control and who knows all the nad stuff. But at the same time they're the stupid duo you would expect in a Home Alone level comedy. And the result is weird. The sister is definitely shown to be tougher, but she just looks that way compared to her brother. She might have been an ok character if by herself. But he's so stupid and useless and played so badly that it's painful to watch each scene he is in. It's bleeding bad (non) writing through the screen. And none of what they do makes any sense. Hey, let's make all the monsters come right tot the top of our building. What could go wrong ?
Naomie Harris' character is nonexistent. You could litterally remove her and not a thing would change in the movie. Her only useful action is to put the antidote on Claire before she's eaten which is a great wtf because we've never seen George have any interest in eating people so how could it have been a viable strategy ? It would have been much more likely that he'd just punch her out of the building and out goes the antidote.
I was also surprised by the intro declaring CRISPR a WMD but I checked and some US officials actually referred to it as one. Don't think it's been officially categorized this way though.
I finally watched the whole series (so far) and this is my comment for all seasons and episodes:
who writes these shit ?
I liked the history and mythology, until they started twisting it.
I like the battles and the music that goes along. No comments there.
The actors? Come on. Hand-picked for their muscles and their looks. Barely believable. With some exception I won't bother mentioning.
All in all I enjoy watching the show.
What I don't enjoy are the endless scenes of supposed poetic beauty, the pretentious anachronisms, the jumps in story-telling, the twisted timeline, the foretold deaths, the prophecies, the inner turmoils, the silly characterization.... It's poor. It has been all along and no-one seems to know how to fix it.
The biggest burden of the show must be its success. They did stupid things from day one, but people still accepted and followed the show, and instead of using that chance to get better story-telling, they kept re-iterating their teenager targeting plots, as if they were masterpieces.
Nothing was new or original in Season 4. It seems they said all that was to be said, in Seasons 1-3 and then got renewed and went back to the previous seasons trying desperately to dig the stories to bring to life: the same siege, the same brotherly betrayal, Floki's clinging to the past, more betrayals, Harbard, Lagertha's mishaps, child-births and christian woes .. Nothing original. And they wasted a whole lot of time in utter nonsense, then rushed things in the last episode, then decided to prepare for the next season with what was probably improvisation from Mr.Fimmel as I can imagine anyone writing his speech in paper and getting it approved as a final scene .
All the great scenery and costumes and hairdos and boats... all wasted in the hands of obviously young, overconfident and ignorant writers. If money and ratings is all that counts, then maybe they've succeeded. But if the final product and its filming legacy counts for anything, then they have failed and they did tremendously.
When you can write a summary of an episode in 10 words or less, that's a hollow episode, visually appealing maybe, but not at all profound.
My guess for next Season? Whichever actor/actress is favorite of the viewers and willing to keep the same salary will miraculously be alive. The rest, will be written off in one sentence or less. There will be cameos for the reunion-junkies. Then they will prepare for the Mediterranean . At least 2 or 3 episodes will be wasted in Kattergat with silly plots introduced in that same season only to be resolved in the next episode. Some events will be foretold, probably in an intense drug-induced frenzy with ominous music. New characters will appear, become prominent, overshadow everything, then die tragically, or not. One good fight mid-season, one in the finale. And in-between the never-aging Ragnar will fight the same inner daemons, restate his bro-mance with the over-played and long dead Athelstan and try to be the leader he hasn't been since Season 1. Mixed with some Wessex and Paris stories to keep the filming budget under control, we'll conclude the series with endless scenes of everyone saying goodbyes to everyone mostly through long stares and 'don't you die on me' moments...
I'm so disappointed. I hate not being 16 years old, for I cannot enjoy any of that. And I really wanted to.
