FinFan

Good action, but that's where it ends

I went to see the movie as a great fan of the original "The Magnificent Seven" in 1960 and came out of the theater really disappointed. Not because this was a bad movie, but just because Antoine Fuqua made this a normal action movie which does nothing more than entertain the average movie crowd.

Sadly, the action is the only good part in this movie. Some shots are really awesome and really got me on the edge of my seat, but unfortunately that's where the good things ended.

First, the movie had to be at least a half hour longer just to explore the characters. I didn't care about anyone and although Denzel Washington and especially Ethan Hawke did an excellent job in portraying their role, it still wasn't enough to get me invested.

Second, where was the good music? I was waiting for two hours on that one famous song that made the original great and we got it when the credits rolled. Big let down for me. Drum roll and high pitch notes do the work for this movie, but it didn't make the movie stand-out next to all the other action based movies.

Overall, the movie wasn't what I expected it to be and that surely wasn't a compliment. Maybe I would do a re-watch on Blu-ray if they came out with an extended version, but that's a big maybe. The cinematic version didn't just do the trick.

Great action scenes, but that's it.

Parts of the story are quite good, but other parts are so agonizingly slow, dimwitted, or baffling as to be hard to watch.

For instance, the silicon nodules. The second I laid eyes on it, I though egg. For some reason nobody in the episode suspects that these naturally smooth round objects look like eggs. And Spock says there are large odds against both he and Kirk dying in the tunnels, but that would mean they aren't together, yet they are always side by side. Then Kirk tells everyone to stay in pairs, then immediately splits up with Spock. I guess than is good for the odds of them both being killed, but doesn't make sense based on his orders 2 minutes before that. And the list goes on...

I do love the Horta, though. A great concept for an alien creature. I love that it isn't humanoid and isn't a mindless monster. The fact that it is a silicon life form is also very good. I was surprised to read the speculation on silicon-based life goes back to at least 1891, so this was not as pioneering of Star Trek as I initially thought. Even so, using silicon-based life was a refreshing change to the overabundance of humanoid races. Honestly, stop creating new humanoid races. They aren't interesting. A handful of humanoid races in all of Star Trek is more than enough. Instead there are probably a 100 humanoid races, or more, and most of them are not even original in anything but a new name and a chance for the art department to get paid. The Horta is really where this episode shines, even if the costume is pretty bad by today's standard.

8.9/10. I really enjoyed the mini-Ender's Game -esque premise of this one. Having Ezra infiltrate an Empire Cadet Academy, and meet other kids with their own motivations and personalities helped to flesh out the world and add stakes to the individual events of the episode. I particularly liked Leonis, who's doing basically the same thing as Ezra, but for different reasons, specifically to find out what happened to his sister, and the hint that the Inquisitor is using this academy as a way to identify and possibly root out those with force potential is an interesting idea floating in the background.

There were also a lot of nice touches in the third act. Again, I liked Leonis and Ezra working together to both save the third cadet and get the decoder so that Kanan and Hera could take out the kyber crystal (hooray call back to the Clone Wars story reels!). The climax of the episode, where you have Ezra and Leonis trying to spring the other good cadet on the one hand, while Hera and Kanan (whose fatherly/big brotherly concern for leaving Ezra alone on this mission is very sweet) are immersed in a dogfight, worked very well to keep the episode's energy up and included some nice kinetic cinematography and design.

Overall, I really enjoyed this one, as it had a nice mix of emotional stakes with the new cadets, intrigue and world-building with the introduction of the cadet academy and its purposes, and very well done action with clear stakes for both Ezra breaking his chums out of the facility and The Ghost fighting Empire forces in space.

(As an aside, the floating platform games the cadets played reminded me of the danger room scenarios a disguised Obi Wan Kenobi made it through with a cadre of bounty hunters back in Clone Wars.)

"I need you to survive the night".

This is not a thriller. This is a horror movie. The intensity almost killed me.

'Detroit' is an ice cold look into the past, which later comes to a sickening realization that some things don't go away. Racism is alive and well. Same thing with sexual assault.

It doesn't matter if this was directed by a white women from San Francisco; Kathryn Bigelow made one hell of a movie. Couldn't think of any other director to helm this kind of story than her. While not focusing too much on the usual guilt trip, just telling what happened in history. Everyone was a victim.

John Boyega was amazing in this. His reactions alone without any words tells a lot of what's going through the characters head. He tries really hard to stay calm and collective, but at the end the system broke him. Is it just me or dose Boyega look like a young Denzel Washington.

Will Poulter, on the other hand, scared the hell out of me. This guy is more evil than any villain combined. I remember seeing him in 'Son of Rambo', when he was just a kid, but now this I didn't see coming. He's a great actor that I hope didn't receive any hate from people, you know like death threats, because some people can't tell the difference between playing a character.

My only issues I had is mostly with the editing choices and the strange animated intro. Editing isn't messy or anything, just a few cut away shots that felt off. The film starts quite interesting, if I must say. For a movie that's so brutal and shocking, not once did I expect it to open up with a short animation. It looked beautiful, but wasn't needed.

Overall rating: I wish more people are talking about this, because it deserves the attention.

Patrick Stewart flubbed a line in the Sickbay scene, saying "Terellian" instead of "Talarian", and that made it into the final print. It also survived into the syndicated TV broadcasts, DVD release, and Blu-ray remaster.

It's odd that a message to Starfleet would take 48 hours to arrive on subspace frequencies, according to Riker, when the whole episode started with a communiqué from Starfleet asking the Enterprise to investigate a disturbance in the area. They wouldn't ask unless the request would arrive quickly enough for the ship to actually arrive in time to see what happened. Picard says to inform Starfleet the Enterprise will enter the Neutral Zone, which presumably won't take 48 hours to get back to Earth. You can't run a fleet of starships on four-day turnaround between order and acknowledgement… Riker's line had to be a mistake.

Speaking of communication issues… When Tasha reports a hostage situation on deck 17, which she later tells the Bridge to disregard, it's extremely fishy that no one acknowledged it, asked for more details, said they were sending another team… anything.

Worf's reference to the "Age of Inclusion" in this episode is the only time that term appears in Star Trek. In all future episodes that reference this point in a young Klingon's life, it is called the "Age of Ascension" instead.

And more Klingon-related writing flubs: Klingons use disruptors, not phasers, but everyone in this episode calls the weapon Korris and Kon'mel assembled in the security detention cell a "phaser". Oops?

I like this episode as a character study of Worf, though it's not that great overall. The important bits are acted well, and we get a nice bit where Data explains the Klingons' howling at the ceiling to Captain Picard. I do have a soft spot for Data being a smarty-pants.

Writing this comment a few years after the show ended, and my 5 star rating stands.

I really enjoyed the show at the beginning and enjoyed it enough to watch it (not hate watch) it through it's first cancelation. The show was cast very well, everyone played their role really well, but the constant hard line political views and commentary were just annoying. I am not political, this is not an "I find it offensive" response, I truly just found it annoying to have any political ideal thrown at me in ~75% of the scenes the star is in.

That said, I would have given it a 6 if they had not come back for a few more seasons. To start, they replaced Molly Ephraim with Molly McCook, and while I have no issue with McCook at all, both my wife and I thought she was great, something was off (and we accepted her as Mandy, roles get recast for a myriad of reasons) and we still cannot put our fingers on it, but I think McCook was dumbed down too much in the role, neither my Wife or I could imagine her as that stereotypical "dumb blonde" character.

The show dragged on, it felt like people were contractually obligated to be there, more than they wanted to be there. Just one guy's opinion, take it as you will.

Also, I missed Kaitlyn Dever, Eve was such an awesome character, and I understand the timing was bad for her (I thought I read), but her absence was noted.

To me this was a well done debut. It actually felt like a movie in a lot of places. Especially because of production value.
For the most part Filoni managed to adapt Rebels to life action astoundingly well. I like Rosario Dawson as Ahsoka - even though her take on Ahsoka's snippyness is somehow limited to a constant smirk which kind of makes her seem as though she doesn't take anything seriously. I love seeing Clancy Brown reprising his role, I love Huyang's adaption in terms of a more realistic design and demeanour. (So much better that he is not bent over like an old man!) And I am absolutely surprised how well Bordizzo as Sabine Wren works for me. I am completely sold on her so far.
speaking of the cast Stevenson does an excellent job. He is simultaneously menacing, calm and somehow even amicable. The only person that does not work for me at all is Hera. Which is probably even more due to horrible make-up artistry than bad acting. She looks so fake, not like any of the Twilek so far and her contact lenses are so noticeable, seeing her takes me completely out of it.
There were a few issues in terms of content like the unreasonably huge explosion from those droids or another definitely non-fatal lightsaber stab or even the reason for a map that is much older than Ezra's jump but I can overlook them so far.
I think the episode manages to find a nice balance between serving cartoon veterans and including people who have not watched any Clone Wars or Rebels. In fact I think it must be much more intriguing to not know all the background. In my opinion the episode still gives you enough information to follow and to want to know more.

I know it was to be expected for a show about a former Padawan but I could have done with a less lightsaber- and force centred show. I really really hope that Sabine being Ahsokas apprentice is supposed to be limited to lightsaber training and they will not retcon her to be force sensisitve. I could even go with some light idea of the force but please do not make Sabine force push/pull things and jump like a Jedi.

There were some very interesting and quite Star Trek-y points presented to us in this episode. The Kaylon origin story was predictable, but fascinating, nonetheless. The way it lead to some sort of bonding between Isaac and Charly (who is still the most annoying character on the show, for me) felt natural and endearing... Unlike doctor Claire's side of things. I didn't like her imposing her own desires on Isaac, forcing him to do something he had expressed no intention in doing (which was, interestingly, kind of a reversed TNG's Data thing). As such, I appreciated the outcome of that plot line, by having Claire admitting she loves Isaac just the way he is, specially considering Isaac had already expressed himself several times in the past (in his own particularly logical and robotic way) that he does love her.

The Janisi story, on the other hand, was the Achiles' heel of this episode, since that plot line started broken right from the start: how could the Union expect to gain their trust though a lie? Bad writing.

As a short but worthy side note, Gordon's "I'll do it!" has got to be one of the finest low-key, out of nowhere, quick fire, funniest jokes to have ever graced The Orville.

Overall, quite a heartwarming episode, regarding Isaac (fuelled by an exquisitely excellent performance by Mark Jackson), giving us a better understanding of the Kaylon's existence and objectives as a species.

Thank you so much my dear Friends from Trakt community I was so scared after watching this episode that I have start loosing my memories but your comments show me I am still good.

After the start of alternate timeline with 3 new movies of Star Trek which only purpose was to earn money by changing universe from Trekky to Die Hard franchise, and then ST Discovery with spore drive stupidity and all of that are absolite because now you can transform yourself from one part of the galaxy to a next one and the object can even move in warp speed bullshit.

And everything for all mighty dollar. Now the big chiefs of Paramount wanted to cash in all the chips that were accumulated over the years in Trekky community, lots of love , lots of trust and a world of imagination were you can rest your mind from this reality.

That's why I welcomed with all my heart the Picard series. First season was woow. When I heard season 2 is coming I was :pray:, and after this episode I was ha? Really?now you can write Star Trek not knowing anything about previous episodes but even so why someone else didn't react? Bad humor, car chasing, shallow plot, Mr. Checkov in the hospital, even stupid fall looked almost the same as Pavel, come on....but I would buy it if I wasn't shocked and started overthinking Picard and Guinen connection.

My purpose that I came here was to ask for help that maybe I missed something about Picard and Guinen but many of you already wrote comment about that. Guinan was waiting for 250 years or something to be able to speak to Picard about what happened in the past. Why didn't they talk about it in 2025 they both had knowledge and didn't have to keep secret. That scene would be soooo great. Instead of her almost shooting Picard.

I do understand that some trekk communities enjoy new shows i watched them also but I didn't enjoy as much as original universe. So when Picard was announced I was glad and all the connection to old series was great but what Mrs. Whoopi Goldberg brought to show was gold and that Gold should be better polished.

I know I am going to watch special episode with Wil Wheaton he will explain everything to me...

There was a lot that I guessed about from last week's episode. And a lot of that ended up being inaccurate--one of the pitfalls of criticism sometimes, I guess.

The finale feels like it sort of loses the edge the series had that I found so alluring. Where it could have done some super interesting stuff regarding Walker's character or how any of these plot threads were wrapped up, it feels like The Falcon and the Winter Soldier instead goes for something more comfortable for the MCU: wish fulfillment and overly optimistic escapism. It would have been nice to grapple a bit more with the supremacy angle running throughout the season. I loved the back and forth between Walker's arc and Morgenthau's. And although Karli largely gets off the hook and branded as revolutionary who (although using questionable methods) had her heart fighting against her oppression, Walker--a literal onscreen vehicle for police brutality--also gets let off the hook as well, despite this making a bit less sense within the context of the show's thematic angle. This is not to say that it doesn't perhaps comes hand in hand: Karli gets some sort of redemption despite murdering lots of people, so Walker does too. The only caveats I'll add is that in order for Karli's to take place, it also results in her death. I hold out any more serious judgment because it feels like we might be trading up with Walker. He might not be off the hook so much as being set up as someone to be dealt with later. That doesn't make Sam and Bucky's interactions with him any less off, but it at least provides a road map to a later altercation.

Overall I wish this episode had a bit more of the oomph to it that several of the others did. Doesn't make some of the action choreography not solid, and Sam's discussion with the senators was framed in an interesting way--setting up something interesting for the themes of the show although being a bit too rose-tinted for my tastes. All in all I felt like we were setting up for something a bit darker from previous episodes, whereas this felt tamer than some of the MCU. Still very solid, however, and this is the type of thing I'd like to see (maybe with some more backbone in the conclusion) heading forward in D+ MCU series.

[3.7/10] I was wracking my brain when this episode started. “Holy hell! Riker’s father! Why don’t I remember this?” The answer turned out to be that it’s because this episode is so downright terrible that my brain clearly forced it out of my memory banks.

That may be a tad harsh. I honestly like what Star Trek: The Next Generation is trying to do here, in principle at least. Grappling with Riker’s ambition, how it connects to his daddy issues, and how they’re at least partly obviated by the found family he’s made on the Enterprise is a good tack. Likewise, I’m a sucker for quiet character drama episode that hinge more on exploring traumas and burrowing into the major players as a break from the sci-fi action. (See: the superlative “Family” from season 4).

The other side of the coin is that “The Icarus Factor” comes to all of this worthwhile material with the most embarrassingly bad, cheesy, ham-handed approach to everything. There’s zero subtext to any of the material with Riker, just characters practically yelling their emotions at one another or having stilted conversations where they announce them. Riker’s dad is a dull asshole played by poor actor (or at least one who gives a poor performance), and his interactions with various other members of the crew are the absolute pits.

There’s a stagey, almost soap opera quality to everything in the episode. For the attempt to bore into the soul and family history of Will Riker, none of the character interactions that take up the focus of the episode feel remotely real. Instead, they all feel high volume and artificial, which is the exact opposite approach necessary to make such intimate and internal storytelling and character beats work.

The gist of the story is that Will is offered his own command. He has an offer to captain the Ares, a ship going to an uncharted, potentially dangerous part of the galaxy that’s months away. His father, Kyle Riker, beams up to the Enterprise, ostensibly as a civilian expert there to brief him on what to expect, but realistically there to try to reconcile with his son, since the two have apparently been estranged for fifteen years.

That’s just one of the contrivances that strains credulity in “The Icarus Factor”. It’s more than a little convenient that the guy who just so happens to be Riker’s dad has an excuse to connect with his son at a time when Will has to make a big decision about his future. That might be forgivable as a necessary contrivance if it didn’t turn out that Kyle was also apparently deeply involved with Dr. Pulaski once upon a time, something she conveniently neglected to mention at any point, even in the prior episode where Riker (briefly) brought up his experiences with his father. The randomness, and sense of all this backstory just being plastered into the episode rather than building up organically weakens it from the getgo.

The weird thing about all this poorly done Riker Family drama is that there’s a solid Worf story packed in the in-between spaces! Worf is grumpy, and it turns out that it’s the tenth anniversary of his Klingon Ascension, an important occasion in Klingon culture and tradition that he’s upset about, since he has no fellow Klingons to observe the ritual with.

It leads to some mild but cute enough comedy, where Wesley, Geordi, Data, Troi, and others conspire to use the holodeck and other tools at their disposal to recreate the ritual and help feed Worf’s need to connect with his Klingon heritage. Wide-eyed, well-meaning Data has a particularly funny scene where he tries to comfort Worf with chipper earnestness, only to receive a gruff “begone!” in return.

Despite the silliness, it’s meaningful when Worf walks into the holodeck and sees not only the ritual recreated for his benefit, but his newfound family standing on the opposite side of the figurative “river of blood” he must pass through. As is par for the course in this episode, the show lays that detail on a little thick, but in an episode full of terrible performance, Michael Dorn gives a great one.

Let’s be real. It’s easy to seem cheesy when roaring as you’re being jabbed with Klingon “pain sticks.” But Dorn makes it work, evincing a sense of both his pain and his devotion to the tradition of a people he’s only known through education and not immersion. When he thanks the assembled fellow crewman for doing this for him, there’s catharsis in it, a recognition of true familial bonding that comes from seeing what someone you care about needs and providing it for them, regardless of whether it’s something you fully comprehend or intuitively grasp. It’s outsized, like everything in “The Icarus Factor”, but it has power, unlike anything else in “The Icarus Factor”.

Because the rest of the Riker material is exerable and unconvincing. The episode has maybe the worst scene in all of TNG so far, which is saying something. Troi and Polaski talk about how even in the future, men are basically overgrown manchildren, but that’s why they love them. It’s such an unnatural, Bechdel test-failing, backwards perspective for a nominally progressive show about the future. The treatment and depiction of the doctor and the counselor in this one is just awful, with them getting the worst of already terrible dialogue and plotting.

But it’s a tough call between that scene and the one where Will and his dad resolve their differences over the world’s corniest, Asia-appropriating American Gladiators competition while wearing knockoff costumes from Tron. There too, the dialogue is godawful, with on-the-nose statements about Kyle trying to be a good dad while having lost his wife but not knowing how that don’t land or seem legitimate.

Even if you can separate the sheer corniness of that scene, the episode makes Kyle out to be such a cad, that even his “I lost my wife and didn’t know how to raise my son in her absence” excuse rings hollow. It kills me because there’s real meat there! The notion of a well-intentioned parent failing and being too harsh with their child, not because they don’t love their son, but because they meant well and faltered, is a really compelling premise to build on. But the execution is so poor that it induces eye-rolls rather than the catharsis it’s meant to.

That’s the thing I hate the most about “The Icarus Factor”. If you look on the episode with the kindest light, there’s something legitimately profound about it. Will Riker was defined, at least nominally, by ambition and accomplishment from his introduction in the series’s pilot. “The Icarus Factor” suggests the seeds of that striving lie in trying not just to be his best self, but in competing with his father who always challenged him and made him feel like he never quite measured up to Kyle’s own accomplishments and prowess.

And yet, “The Icarus Factor” introduces the idea that after needing to scratch that itch for so long, Will has found a better family by way of his colleagues on the Enterprise, ones who support him and believe in him, rather than try to compete with him or constantly try to beat him in order to “keep him interested.”

More to the point, it may be accidental (such is the credit I give to an episode that botches almost every single exchange), but there’s an interesting suggestion that Will doesn’t need Kyle anymore, because he’s found a much better father figure in the form of Jean-Luc Picard. While Kyle has to make up for lost time, still challenge his son despite an attempt at reconciliation, and act as a measuring stick for Will, no matter what he’s accomplished, Captain Picard is nothing short of thrilled that his first officer has earned his own command, easy with praise for Will after all he’s accomplished (even lampshading his earlier stinginess with the young officer), and offering of sage advice that still recognizes Will’s agency.

The upshot is simple. Will has the opportunity to leave, but chooses to stay on the Enterprise because he’s reconciled his ill-feelings for his father that instilled a need to achieve and accomplish to prove himself better, in favor of a place and, more importantly, a new family, that feeds his soul, appreciates him for who he already is, and feels more like a family to him than his own flesh and blood.

That’s a really powerful idea, and “The Icarus Factor” barely achieves any of it. It’s proof that what makes a great story isn’t just the premise, but the execution of it. There’s so much psychological force in the tale of Riker choosing to stay on the Enterprise because he loves his colleagues and finds a richer, more nurturing environment than the one he grew up with. But this episode squanders the benefits of that setup in favor of a hodge-podge of loud and unrealistic scenes that do too much, while not doing nearly enough.

[3.7/10] We get it. Humans suck. Or they did, but won’t in the future, if only we can follow the example of our brave fictional spacemen from centuries in the future. Showrunner Maurice Hurley penned this episode, and is on record for rubbing other writers the wrong way for his devotion to preserving franchise creator Gene Roddenberry’s “wacky doodle” vision of humanity’s future.

And as much as Star Trek fans yearn for a little more optimism from the franchise amid a raft of grimdark modern sci-fi storytelling, perhaps the other extreme -- constantly yammering how far 24th century humans have come and how far 20th century humans have to go, is no better.

The vehicle (if you’ll pardon the expression) for this moralizing is the Enterprise’s discovery of a derelict old ship that just happens to contain a pack of humans frozen through “cryonics” from the late twentieth century. Only three survived, and Dr. Crusher defrosts them just in time for them to be a distraction during the first stand-off with the Romulans in fifty years.

Pretty much every Star Trek series has involved space-faring folks from the future interacting with people from Earth’s past. (Just give the Kurtzman shows time; they’ll get there.) There’s nothing wrong with playing the “compare and contrast” game and measuring the differences and peculiarities of folks from different eras interacting with one another.

But “The Neutral Zone” is just so hamfisted about it. One of the defrostees is a “financier” named Ralph Offenhouse, who is a caricature of an entitled businessman. He demands to see Picard like the unfrozen Karen that he is, insists on being able to contact his bank and his lawyer, and rambles on about money as a proxy for power -- the only thing worth going after in life apparently.

He’s also terrible, and not in a fun way. Look, there’s plenty of things to criticize about the America of 1988, but this dollar store Gordon Gecko is too over-the-top and cartoonish to be anything more than a lame straw man. Picard gives him the usual speeches about the Federation eliminating material want and how humanity now aspires to personal growth and exploration now, but the contrast between them is meaningless since Offenhouse is such a overblown and shallow cliché of a cash-obsessed rich jerk.

The second defrostee is L.Q. “Sonny” Clemmons, a country western singer, implied to have drunk and smoked and freebased himself to death. He is basically a vehicle for two things: 1. letting our more evolved and civilized Starfleet officers remark on how much better humanity is now and 2. unfunny comic relief. Clemmons spits out more southern-fried aphorisms than a Kentucky Colonel at a revival meeting. His matter-of-fact reactions to the wonders of the future and endless ream of hayseed clichés (along with twangy musical stings) just play like unassuming filler material, for what’s supposed to be the most lively and entertaining part of the episode.

The only story in this one that really works belongs to the third defrostee, Clare Raymond, a housewife who died of a sudden embolism and was frozen by her husband. Unlike the other two, she had no plans for this, and is aghast to wake up centuries in the future knowing everyone she ever knew is dead. Hers is the only situation the show takes seriously and treats in anything close to a down-to-earth fashion.

While saddled with Counselor Troi as a scene partner (and no great thespian herself), Clare is at least relatable in her emotional difficulties in adjusting to the situation and wanting to know what happened to her family. She gets a measure of comfort and closure from looking up her descendents (along with some consideration from Troi and even the captain), and it’s about the only solid thing in this episode.

That’s what’s extra frustrating about this one though. There’s a good meat and potatoes Star Trek story relegated to the background here. Picard gets word that various Federation outposts have been decimated within the Neutral Zone, with Starfleet having reason to believe it might be the first sign of renewed Romulan aggression after five decades of near-radio silence. That’s an intriguing lure for Star Trek fans, and yet, until the final act, it’s shoved out of the spotlight so we can watch the frostbite trio offend or amuse our heroes with their provincial quaintness. The balance is so off in this episode that it’s remarkable the Enterprise itself didn’t just tip over.

The only purpose the twentieth century interlopers serve is to cut a contrast between Picard and Offenhouse. In contrast to the insistent, demanding, and harsh Offenhouse, Picard keeps a cool head when heading into the Neutral Zone and even when facing down a pair of testy and, shall we say, impolite Romulans. Even when Riker and Worf are urging the captain to be more belligerent, he takes a more inquisitive, thoughtful, and considered tone that helps avert armed conflict, especially when it turns out that Romulans aren’t responsible and a mysterious third party force is taking out both Federation and Romulan installations.

(SPOILER ALERT for later in the series: If I remember correctly, that force is eventually revealed to be the Borg, but that may have been a retcon.)

These closing scenes are filled with very TV writerly monologues that wink too much at the audience. The Romulan commander literally says “We’re back”, as the show practically announces to viewers that these familiar antagonists will be The Next Generations foes in the seasons to come. (I guess they realized the Ferengi didn’t work at this point.) Picard talks about all the adventures left to have in a fashion that could only be less subtle if he looked directly at the camera and said “See you in season 2!” Revisiting older TV shows means accepting a bit of cheese and corniness, but Hurley and company lay it on too thick in the final act of this one.

It also delivers a (possibly inadvertent) mixed message about Mr. Offenhouse. “The Neutral Zone” seems to be shooting for a goofus and gallant routine with him and Picard, with Offenhouse’s officiousness and demanding nature showing his lack of civilization, as opposed to Picard’s steady statesmanship that defuses a tense situation. There’s even an implication that Offenhouse is more like the jerky Romulans than 24th century humans. Except that means....he understands the Romulans, and even reads their fishing for information from Jean-Luc in a way that proves useful. So I guess 20th century humans are still helpful, if only to help ferret out Romulan intentions? It’s odd, to say the least.

So much of this episode is. Cards on the table, I grew up admiring Captain Picard, and even looking up to him. I’ve jokingly referred to him as my “space uncle”, because he exhibits such a strong but compassionate brand of masculinity, that gave young men in front of the television screens something to aspire to. As prickly as he is in this first season, you can still see the roots of the character so many would see with such affection.

But in an episode like “The Neutral Zone”, it goes way too far, with him made into this impossible paragon of virtue, in stark contrast to a cartoonishly overdone parody of an entitled businessman. Rather than creating something for fans to aspire to, it makes The Next Generation seem like it’s stacking the deck in favor of its heroes and their unimpeachable character, or worse yet, unduly condescending to the present.

It’s characteristic of TNG’s first season, a year of television with its gems and promising signs of what the show has in store, but that is also chock-a-block with over-the-top characters and stories that go too far while delivering too little in the way of substance. It’s too soon to say whether this is truly the worst season of the show, but it’s certainly the one that feels the least like Star Trek: The Next Generation to me, and feels like proof that the twentieth century men and women who made the show in 1988 were at least as flawed and misguided in their efforts as the caricatures they prop up to knock down in an episode like this one.

[4.1/10] This should be a great episode. You have Picard wistfully reflecting on his choice between a sense of duty and the chance to be extraordinary on the one hand, and human connection and domestic life on the other. That’s a core part of the character and The Next Generation, something the show would explore to great effect for a long time after “We’ll Always Have Paris”.

You also have some timey-wimey nonsense. And look, there’s plenty of dumb time travel/alternate universe stories in Star Trek, but also a heap of all-time classics. So the fact that time is, technically speaking, going funky in this corner of the galaxy should make for an exciting and challenging problem for our heroes to solve.

Instead, we just get a heaping helping of unconvincing melodrama and a surprisingly dull solution to a surprisingly dull problem. When the Enterprise encounters a temporal hiccup mid-fencing match (another TNG first!), it turns out that Picard has a personal connection to the cause. It stems from the research of one Dr. Manheim, an experimental time theorist who just so happened to have married Picard’s old flame. Jean-Luc stood up this woman, Jenice, at a cafe in Paris, choosing to blast off with Starfleet without ever saying goodbye.

As I often say, there’s a solid setup there. There’s hay to be made from Picard having to solve a tricky time-related problem at the same time his judgment is clouded by wistful romantic connections that hint at the road not traveled. But the execution here is pretty awful all around.

That starts with the romance element of it. Both of the Manheims give underwhelming performances at best. Jenice is breathless and overemotes in just about every scene, failing to sell her long-dormant but intense connection to the captain in a shared past. Dr. Manheim is a discount Orson Welles, just as prone to delivering over the top reactions and failing to sell the “one mind trapped in two dimensions” insanity of his situation. With so much focus on the guest stars, it can make or break an episode, and this one nearly shatters.

On the other end of things, the time-dilating effects of Dr. Manheim’s research are surprisingly dull. The most we really get is a couple of repeated moments and one vaguely trippy scene where Picard, Riker, and Data run into one another on the elevator. “We’ll Always Have Paris” wants to frame this potential crack in the barriers between different dimensions as a Big Deal:tm:, but everybody seems pretty staid about the whole thing aside from the cartoonish Dr. Manheim, so there’s very little suspense or intensity about the whole thing outside of the unavailing conclusion to it.

There’s no particularly clever solution to “patching” this crack. Picard just sends Data, somehow less mentally affected by the blips given his status as an android, to Dr. Manheim’s lab once the doctor’s conscious and lucid enough to give him the codes. There’s another mildly trippy scene where three time-dilated Datas fix the problem at once, but despite the unique image of a three-android approach and Data reflected in the temporal field’s many facets, it’s not some brilliant epiphany or sharp method of disposing of the problems; just a fairly mechanical (if you’ll pardon the expression) effort to put the right MacGuffin sauce in the right receptacle.

(As an aside, this would be a total retcon, but given his description, it’d be neat if what Dr. Manheim saw in his fugue state was fluidic space and Species 8472.)

Then there’s the score, which is particularly awful here. Beyond the just the treacly, tinkling tones that try to convey (I presume) a music box like sense of time moving, the episode’s music team kicks the synthesizer into high gear here. That leads to a bunch of overwrought, soap opera style backing tracks that hurt, rather than help, the emotional quotient of the episode’s attempts at moving interpersonal scenes.

That said, the script does plenty of damage on its own. Like so many season 1 episodes of The Next Generation, the execution here is so on-the-nose and full of tired clichés. The bookend scenes of Picard recreating the cafe he never arrived at in the past and reflecting on his choice, as well as finally saying goodbye to Jenise there in the present, play like some cheap made-for-TV adaptation of a romance novel than a genuinely moving reunion between two people with a complicated history. There’s too much emotional exposition and hammering home the point or the feelings a character, or the audience, is supposed to have.

The worst offender here is Counselor Troi, who basically exists to turn subtext into text in the episode. Picard’s reaction to the name Manheim does more than enough to tell us that it means something to him, but instead he has to have a conversation with Troi that spells it all out. In the same way, Dr. Crusher’s reaction to seeing Jean-Luc and Jenise together says everything we need to know about how she feels, but we need another scene between her and Troi to write it all on the screen. The episode spends more time signposting the emotions in this story than it does earning them, and the results speak for themselves.

There’s one, and only one scene in this episode that carries the emotional truth “We’ll Always Have Paris” seems to be shooting for over the course of the hour -- the scene with Picard and Jenise in the conference room. There’s a playfulness, an honesty, the sense of a shorthand falling back into place for the two of them that’s missing everywhere else. For five minutes in the episode, you believe that these two people had a meaningful relationship, that Jenise sees through Picard’s guarded exterior into his true wants and anxieties, and that Picard lets his guard down in the presence of someone in whom he sees a different life he might have lived, maybe even one he regrets abandoning. Sadly, that transcendence just makes the pale offerings elsewhere seem even more unavailing by comparison.

The funny thing about going back and watching season 1 of Star Trek: The Next Generation is that you can see the roots of so many things that would stay with the show for its entire run: strange temporal anomalies, explorations of Data’s differences and similarity, and even the beating heart of a man who seems married to the job. But while these elements are present, the early creative team does them all so poorly that it’s a wonder the show ever returned to them again, let alone made them some of the most exciting and tragic parts of this well-loved series.

Everything Andrew Phillips said above (or below idk) me with the following addition:

• Gotta explain Cephalopod to the audience cause if a 23rd century Star Fleet officer who is actually still a Klingon... Oh Wait, it does make sense now.
• I actually got "sunspots" in my eyes from watching the episode...5 minutes later and I still see these blobs. Thanks JJ for making me blind for no goddamn reason besides ruining everything your paws have every touched.

• So that was the trauma? The big deal? Geez, I guess I should have gone insane from my trauma's ages ago... And those aren't even that bad in comparison to other people's.

• I did enjoy the fact this Spock -whose still not Spock- pretty much told Bernham she isn't all that... I'm sure it won't last long but I enjoyed the moment.

• Couldn't be bothered to recreate the few scenes from the Cage with the old uniforms huh. I guess that was too much to ask, especially since they couldn't be bothered with the basics of Trek and it's history/legacy.

All in all I THINK this was the best episode that has been aired from all the seasons to date, which isn't saying much. It showed a very small glimpse what could have been if more effort, love and a lack of agenda was taken with the critically acclaimed and beloved source material.

Easily the best Star Wars tv show, even after only 3 episodes. A Star Wars show that actually has nuance??!?

Having continued to watch weekly, here's just a bit of why it's so good: Dialogue that treats its audience as intelligent, writing and themes that actually address what Empire and Rebellion really mean, side characters who immediately make an impression even with limited screen time, incredible set design that feels real rather than CGI, spy thriller intensity bubbling underneath every scene, imbuing TIE fighters and stormtroopers with actual menace, new nuggets of interesting worldbuilding, emotional scenes between interesting characters, and some of the best set-pieces of Star Wars TV (episodes 3 & 6 in particular). It's Star Wars for adults, not in the sense of gore, violence, or sex, but in the sense of nuance, complexity, and weighty themes. It's astounding that Star Wars can be this good, especially since all their recent shows and films have been lackluster copies of past highs.

Art is subjective of course, you can like what you like, but these are just some of the reasons that this show is getting as much praise as it has been. I think Star Wars is a setting, a feeling, and it can sustain different types of genres and themes. It can be light-hearted action-adventure, and that's fine if that's what you want it to be, but this show proves that it can do other things. Star Wars can keep expanding into numerous different genres if it's done with the care and thought that this show has been given.

This is the Unforgiven of superhero movies, a brutal yet tender portrayal of former heroes growing old. Logan is tired and world weary, waiting for death to take away his pain. Charles is 90, riddled with drugs to mute his mind, his "super weapon." Despite their friendship their relationship is fractured. Into their lives comes a new mutant and a road trip begins.

I don't want to say much more, having given away a little of the premise already explored in the films trailers. This is a tough, violent and sad film with few moments of humour. There is action but not of the blockbuster kind, one key car chase is like something from a 70's thriller.

This is the swan song of Logan and Charles, both actors giving it their all in their final performances as these characters. To bring them back after this film would undermine their work and the story here.

The film is brilliant and I can't recommend it enough - don't expect a traditional X-Men movie and you will be blown away. If the film itself were a mutant I would say its genes had been spliced with Mad Max and Shane, with a little bit of Children of the Corn (and I mean that in a good way). Excelsior!

Wonder Woman is... well... wonderful! This movie is a true representation of the characters I have grown up with and loved from DC comics and the justice league animated series. This movie is about how Diana the princess of Themyscira becomes Wonder Woman, a classic fish out of water tale of innocence and heroism.

The chemistry between the two leads feels so natural and it is because of this chemistry that Steve's sacrifice is so heartbreaking . While the movie may not be as layered or multifaceted as other DCEU offerings such as Man of Steel, making use of a more classic 'by the numbers' superhero formula, it is undoubtedly a more meaningful movie. It shows us the true nature of humanity through the eyes of an Amazon who has no preconceptions or history with our species. It shows us the ugliness of mankind, how cheaply we value human life with the wars we create, and how stereotypical gender roles have been/are to the detriment of women without bashing us over the head with a heavy-handed feminist agenda. On the other hand, through her eyes, we also see the things humanity is capable of through the power of love.

Despite the importance of this movie, Wonder Woman doesn't depress or bog the audience down. It conveys these important messages within the context of an uplifting film filled with fun, action and romance.

Critics have voiced their approval for this movie, but that shouldn't make fans of the DCEU fearful. Wonder Woman seamlessly fits in with the DCEU, making use of similar colour palates, action direction, and story telling. While this is a movie all little girls must watch, it is truly a movie for everyone... it is simply... WONDERFUL!

Finally something actually happened after they dragged the season for absolutely nothing.

After four mediocre episodes in a row with three of them being filler, this episode is decent enough. Those previous episodes serve no actual purpose other than waiting for the plot to trigger itself by that call.

The dialogues in this episode could be better and so could the way the scenes are cut, especially for the first half. People seem too eager to join The Mando in his quest for the sake of moving the story. However the last 5-10 the minutes is quite watchable with enough tense. The brute killing in the last scene seems to suggest they're going with the "evil Empire" cliche, but I wish they could do better than that next episode.

It seems like the story just started to be set in motion and we will be left with more questions as Season 1 ends, which unfortunately seems to be Disney+ business model: just make cute Baby Yoda stuff for moms and Star Wars reference for dads, figure things out later in Season 2.

On positive notes, it's nice that they attempt to do more world-building like shocktroopers having signature tattoo, each Imperial province having their own insignia, and the Imperial warlord trying to convince people that the world is better with colonialism.

Another emotional gut-punch of the highest quality that shows Dave Filoni should be given the keys to the Star Wars franchise for as long as he wants. He gets these characters, has a perfect ending - and that payoff with Vader witnessing the aftermath of the crashed ship, and hits all the feels of an epilogue-heavy finale that wraps up loose ends after the more impactful penultimate episode. It's a quieter episode - yes, you know Ahsoka, Maul and Rex are going to escape because they have to - but the show finds a time to throw in one last homage that reminds audiences that the Clones were the characters that made this story as special as it was. Seeing Ahsoka look at the helmets of the dead Clones wearing their Tano-coloured armour was heartbreaking and a devastating final conclusion to her arc.

It didn't need to be an epic; and arguably the quieter touch makes this one feel more impactful because of this. We got the last stand of Ahsoka and Rex in the previous episode, so again, their escape was a formality here. I did like Rex being proud of how efficient the soldiers under his command were even though they were trying to kill him. I love that Rex becomes such an instrumental part of Rebels later; along with Ahsoka. It just feels right.

As finales go, Victory and Death is one of the best.

[7.5/10] Ahsoka feels right. The vistas of Lothal feel of a piece with their animated rendition. The characters seem like themselves despite shifts in the performer and the medium. Their relationships feel genuine even though much has changed in the five years since we’ve seen them together.

Maybe that shouldn’t be a big surprise with Dave Filoni, impresario of the animated corner of Star Wars, both writing and directing “Master and Apprentice”, the series premiere. He is the title character’s co-creator and caretaker. He is the creator of Star Wars: Rebels, the show that Ahsoka is most clearly indebted to. And he is, for many, the keeper of the flame when it comes to the Galaxy Far Far Away.

But it was my biggest fear for this show. More than the plot, more than the lore, more than the latest chapter in the life of my favorite character in all of Star Wars, my concern was that translating all these characters, and their little corner of the universe, to live action and a different cast and a different era of the franchise would make everything feel wrong. Instead, we’re right at home. The rest is gravy.

And the gravy is good. Because these are not the colorful, if intense, adventures of the Ghost crew fans saw before. This is, or should be, a period of triumph for the onetime Rebels. They won! The Empire is torn asunder! Lothal is led with grace and a touch of wry sarcasm by Governor Azadi, with none other than Clancy Brown reprising the role! Huyang the lightsaber-crafting droid is still around and has most of his original parts!

Nonetheless, our heroes are hung up on old battles and older wounds. Ahsoka Tano is on a quest to track down Grand Admiral Thrawn, who hunted the Spectres in Rebels. Sabine Wren can’t bask in the afterglow of victory as a hero when she’s still mourning Ezra Bridger. And the two warriors have some lingering bad blood with one another after an attempt to become master and apprentice, true to the title, went wrong somewhere along the way.

With that, the first installment of Ahsoka is a surprisingly moody and meditative affair, one that works well for Star Wars. Sure, there's still a couple of crackerjack lightsaber fights to keep the casual fans engaged. But much of this one is focused on familiar characters reflecting on what’s been lost, what’s been broken, and what’s hard to fix. The end of Rebels was triumphant, but came with costs. To linger on those costs, and the new damage that's accumulated in their wake, is a bold choice from Filoni and company.

So is the decision to focus on Sabine here. Don’t get me wrong, Ahsoka has the chance to shine in the first installment of the show that bears her name. Her steady reclamation of a map to Thrawn, badass hack-and-slash on some interfering bounty droids, and freighted reunions with Hera and her former protege all vindicate why fans have latched onto the character. For her part, Rosario Dawson has settled into the role, bringing a certain solemnity that befits a more wizened and confident master, but also that subtle twinkle that Ashley Eckstei brings to the role.

And yet, the first outing for Ahsoka spends more time with Sabine’s perspective. It establishes her as a badass who’d rather rock her speeder with anti-authoritarian style than be honored for her heroics. It shows her grieving a lost comrade whose sacrifice still haunts her. It teases out an emotional distance and rebelliousness between her and her former mentor. And it closes with her using her artist’s eye to solve the puzzle du jour, and defend herself against a fearsome new enemy.

This is her hour, and while Sabine is older, more introverted, all the more wounded than the Mandalorian tagger fans met almost a decade ago, this opening salvo for the series is better for it.

My only qualms are with the threat du jour. Yet another Jedi not only survived the initial Jedi Purge, but has made it to the post-Return of the Jedi era without arousing the suspicions of Palpatine, Vader, Yoda, or Obi-Wan. Ray Stevenson brings a steady and quietly menacing air to Baylan Skoll, the former Jedi turned apparent mercenary, but there's enough rogue force-wielders running around already, thank you very much.

His apprentice holds her own against New Republic forces and Ahsoka’s own former apprentice, but is shrouded in mystery. She goes unidentified, which, in Star Wars land, means she’s secretly someone important (a version of Mara Jade from the “Legends” continuity?) or related to someone important (the child of, oh, let’s say Ventress). And I’m tired of such mystery boxes.

Throw in the fact that Morgan Elsbet, Ahsoka’s source and prisoner, turns out to be a Nightsister, and you have worrying signs that the series’ antagonists will be rehashing old material rather than moving the ball forward. The obvious “We just killed a major character! No for real you guys!” fakeout cliffhanger ending doesn’t inspire much confidence on that front either.

Nonetheless, what kept me invested in Rebels, and frankly all of Star Wars, despite plenty of questionable narrative choices, is the characters. The prospect of Ahsoka trying to train a non force-sensitive Mandalorian in the ways of the Jedi, or at least her brand of them, is a bold and fascinating choice.

But even more fascinating is two people who once believed in one another, having fallen apart, drifting back together over the chance to save someone they both care about. “Master and Apprentice” embraces, rather than shying away from, the sort of lived-in relationships that made the prior series so impactful in the past, and the broken bonds that make these reunions feel fragile, painful, and more than a little bitter in the present.

I am here for Hera the general trying to patch things up between old friends. I am here for Sabine holding onto her rebellious streak but carrying scars from what went wrong, in the Battle of Lothal and in her attempts to learn the ways of the Jedi. And I am here for Ahsoka, once the apprentice without a master, now the master without an apprentice, here to snuff out the embers of the last war and reclaim what was lost within it.

They all feel right. The rest can figure itself out.

THIS is how you slowly build up your characters and world to a satisfying payoff. If you have an entire episode that takes place outside of the main universe and put all the main characters into completely different roles yet still manages to retain the core of the show and give viewers enough familiarity to hold onto, then you really do know how to write. Even if the series ends here, what a brilliant, intelligent, and enjoyable adventure The Orville is. Anyone still out there who looks at this show and thinks "Family Guy in space" is in crippling denial. This show is reaching Stargate levels of storytelling and character development now. What started as a chance foot in the door, to get the fleeting chance to stand in the shadows of science fiction giants has evolved into something that actually has the potential to be one of those giants some day.

For this episode in particular, what a delightful blend of TOS movie and Star Wars musical cues, the new ships and places that are a departure from the typical Union aesthetic, and the very best special effects I've seen on this show so far. Effects that are very detailed and eye-popping while still allowing everything to be well-lit and easy to follow. A very bold and dramatic way to cap off a season, especially the second season, and a very enigmatic ending that deliberately left threads hanging while still being satisfying and positive.

THIS show is the hopeful vision of the future we need right now. Not something that just reflects back what we currently are (because, let's face it, what we currently are is embarrassing), but one that shows up what we could be if we could stop resenting ourselves and each other for five freaking minutes. We'll always have our precious mistakes, our warts, our weirdness, but it's wrong to let those things define us. In the past, this kind of love and awareness came from a different show. A show that has sadly decided to move away from the wisdom of the human adventure. Now, thankfully, it's coming from this one. Hopefully, for a long time to come.

Others might say that this is not as intense as previous episode, which might be true in terms of action and moving the plot forward. But I find this episode is still intense in a different way: more emotional investment.

"Family" and its unfortunately related cousin "abuse" seem to be the the theme that knits together different story arcs of the episode: the obvious Butcher flashback, Kimiko and Frenchie, MM with his family, Soldier Boy, and Homelander.

The episode kind of speeds up the pace in showing Soldier Boy's villainy through a recreation/imagination of Black Noir's flashback; although I'm not too comfortable that they present Noir's flashback at face value (instead of being an unreliable narrator), I think it still kinda works.

It is shown that Soldier Boy is an abusive, selfish bully with anger issues you would typically see among band leads or celebrity groups. While some have defended Soldier Boy's action by comparing him to Homelander ("at least Soldier Boy is not psychotic, emotionally unstable narcissist! He is a normal person not grown in lab!"), I think they missed the point of the show: the biggest issue here is exactly what would happen if people with power (influence) have additional power (literal superpower) while being protected by multi-billion dollar company. They possess all the impunity to wreak havoc. Like MM said, "no one should have the right to wield such power."

This theme of abuse is explicated with Butcher's flashback. No one is inherently "good" or "evil" - you are shaped by your upbringing. As the scenes between his memories, his reflection, and his projection in current time are cut seamlessly back and forth, Butcher slowly realizes that he mirrors the man he hated the most. Yet he fully accepts his succumbing to that darkness while bringing Hughie with him through his personal vendetta against the supes - not caring about the risk towards others who he claimed he loved. Even with parents, one may grow to be a contemptuous person if they live in an abusive family, and it's a cycle that is very difficult to break. Butcher's flashback is certainly the spotlight of the episode for me.

Even with Kimiko's story in the background (her saying that V only explicates what kind of person you are), considering that we've been shown how the character's social lives shaped them into what they are now - Kimiko with her abducted kid background, Hughie's insecurity with his zero to hero job, etc - the message stays strong, countering the superhero cliche of inherently morally good and evil person.

I'm hoping this dynamic could be further explored in the next episode (or season) with the Soldier Boy and Homelander encounter when it's revealed that Soldier Boy is Homelander's father, at least he feels so. An abusive father meets a narcissist kid-who'd-wanna-be-a-father. The ending of this episode becomes revealing when tied up to the earlier convesation between Homelander and Maeve: with Homelander echoing Soldier Boy's words that he "used to dream of having kids" with Maeve, it becomes apparent in this episode that the relationship between Homelander and Maeve (and Soldier Boy and Crimson Countess) it is not something exactly out of pure love.

"Having kids" is not a romantic statement: it's a purely masculine, self-centered ego of having someone of your blood - of your similarity - that you can be proud of. Who the partner is doesn't matter; they are only means to that end. And in that Soldier Boy shares something in common with Homelander as shown through his delight of accepting Homelander readily as his son, albeit lab-grown. He only wants to see a better version of him.

Last but not least, I love the jab at corporate this episode still throws. Ashley spinning breaking news about Starlight in a similar way Disney would spin stories about their abuse and mismanagement; and that A-Train being zombified, again, with the heart of Blue Hawk embedded in his body, serving only as Vought's puppet. I'm not sure if that's the most satisfying end to A-Train's arc, but seeing his disappointed, grim look, his lack of agency, I guess the character suffers a lot. I just hope this will be the last of his arc and the show doesn't squeeze him further.

That said, with the reveal at the ending, I am not sure I am 100% satisfied as I was expecting Soldier Boy bringing down Homelander, or rendering him powerless by the end of the season. Looks like Homelander will continue to be the main villain. I just hope they don't prolong the "mentally unstable" trope too much and find ways to keep the show interesting. Looking forward to the finale.

Can somebody go and check on Jared Leto?
His performance in this is so fucking funny to me, I’d be surprised if this isn’t a shoe-in for a Razzie nomination.
Every artistic choice this guy makes has to be the most overblown and ridiculous thing ever, whether that’s in his acting or his music.
I wonder if he’s still capable of delivering a good performance when he doesn’t get to hide behind make-up and eccentricities.

Not to say that the other actors are faring much better, pretty much everybody sounds like they’re doing a parody of an Italian accent, it sounds ridiculous.
Some sound like they’re trying to imitate Mario, it’s that classic “ah, mamma mia, pizzeria” shtick that everyone does when they make fun of Italians.
The only problem is: this isn’t a parody film, and the only actor that seems to get that to some extent is Adam Driver.
You’d assume that most of these conversations were in Italian in real life, so nobody would care if you’d ditch these accents in an English language film, because it isn’t going to be completely realistic anyway.
I just don’t get creative choices like this, especially from a legend like Ridley Scott, who seemed to understand this idea in his last film, which came out only 2 months ago.
As for the film itself, I’d advise anyone to simply pretend that this is meant to be a campy comedy, because it’s not that good as an Oscar drama.

Just watch Succession if this seems intriguing to you.

Such a mess of a movie.
I didn' t expect much and haven't watched the trailer before but apparently this movie is focusing on the younger audience only and not on the people who watched the first movie back in the day. It's one of these moments when you realize you get old.

Way too young cast, a dumb plot, so no-one needs to think about anything, degrading this movie to a shut-your-brain-off popcorn flick/time waster you forget instantly after leaving the cinema, clichès as far as the eyes can see, cringe dialogues, incredibly studid decisions by humans and aliens.
Liam Hemsworth is the actor to draw in the young audience and a total miscast for this kind of movie but he fits in with all the other young actors who are out of place as well. But that also means he will be the more or less tragic or cool hero and "win" a gorgeous woman at the end of the movie. How could it be different?
Hemsworth's literally horny sidekick is annoying the moment he appears, throughout the whole movie and is the deliberate comic relief and simply hateable as his character is written so blatantly obvious and without any care. You instantly know what trope his character is and what role he will have the rest of the movie.
You are in the alien ship and he carelessly jumpscares you: haha, how funny!
He's talking loudly, called out on it to be quiet and keeps going being loud, endangering all of them: haha, how funny!
He is fawning over the beautiful, "unreachable" daughter of the chief in command on the moonbase we all know he will get later anyway for no reason other than "we went through this sh*t together": soo original.
Liam Hemsworth is peeing in front of the aliens to distract them: haha, how funny and mature.
...and the aliens even fall for that crap.

The whole movie could only happen in its entirety because of the first major decision that was made for no other reason than plot.
Levinson is some kind of an authority when it comes to aliens but he is ignored to enable the movie when he says not to fire at that spherical spaceship, that looks so difficult to the others and behaves totally different as well. That appearance wasn't even foreshadowing, it was an obvious spoiler to how they would be able to win this time against the aliens and took out any kind of suspense there could have been from the get go.
The movie is predictable all the time and doesn't even try to avoid (or hide) it, ultimately leading to me not being entertained at all.

Recurring actors were all a total waste, except perhaps for Goldblum.
Brent Spiner, who plays Dr. Okun, was additionally unbelievable and simply unnecessary.
Using a poweroff button as sign for the resistance against the aliens was preeeetty lazy as well in the design department.

Easy cash grab movie. I have no doubt the next ID movie will be even worse. Here goes my hope for a good Stargate reboot down the drain. I hoped it would give the franchise a possibility to relaunch a series or so but I heavily doubt that now.
But to not only say negative things about this movie: the CGI effects weren't bad.

Most solid episode of the season so far. Nothing extraordinarily amazing, but it's just The Boys at its best like in the first half of Season 1.

What I like the most is that everything that happens leading to the climax in the Herogasm is just frantic, chaotic, a lot of stuff happening at once, unplanned, unpredictable, and consequently, tragic. Just a lot of things coming out together at the same time, including the tying up of loose ends of plot points (e.g. with A-Train's demise and his conflict with Hughie).

The episode keeps the comedy and jab at corporate speak intact, but does not overdo it so we get straight to the crux of the matter. From Homelander, Starlight, Kimiko/Frenchie, Hughie, A-Train, even Ashley - the plot revolving around those characters are about what makes them really them. They all have struggled with the question whether power (be it through V or executive position) made them into a terrible person they do not like, but it is all actually on them. Power only explicate their attitude. Like Butcher in the previous episode said, "With great power comes the absolute certainty, that you will turn into a right cunt."

It was interesting to see how each characters react: Hughie portrayed as an insecure man, A-Train tasting his own bitter medicine, Starlight getting tired of the play-pretend and politicking she has played all over the years, and of course, Homelander being Homelander. I find it especially best with Hughie and A-Train. Hughie, when in S1 he acted as our moral compass, here we see him as someone fragile, a man unable to keep up with the pace of the world he's living in and feeling defeated by his girlfriend for not being a breadwinner. A-Train, a great end to his arc, as he realizes that he has caused so many harms to others due to his toxicity, he realizes that he can only bring a little bit of justice for his own brother. He can't run away from his past like Frenchie said, I think it's very poetic.

Also it's refreshing to get a brief character development with Soldier Boy. Hoping that there is more to this character in the next seasons to come.

Last but not least, the fight with Homelander was intense. The unexpected Butcher x Hughie x Soldier Boy tag-team is great, especially with the confused, defeated look Homelander gave to them. I'm expecting this will drive Homelander even uncontrollable, especially now with his inner monologue and everyone either against him (Starlight, Maeve, if she is still there) or leaving him (Noir and possibly A-Train). The show seems to be planting the seed of conflict between our Boys in the future to come. Hopefully this will pay off.

The most boring, formulaic storytelling ever! This movie doesn’t indicate Hollywood is dead, instead it shows we are way beyond the grave and are just staring at the lifeless corpse of Hollywood cinema being pulled by strings. I don’t know who Wonder Woman 1984 was made for. Is the target audience kids? Because this felt like a children’s movie.

When Anna Banerjee said American superhero movies are blatant propaganda. Wow, SO true! I expect nothing less from a movie that’s an American perspective on the Cold War. Damn, communists! Damn, Russians! 90,000 years later Americans are still psychotically obsessed with the Russians. They are the only villains in US movies nowadays as well, so by that you can’t say in which year the whole movie takes place in, the only thing that pertains to 1984 are the clothes.

There was just so much wrong with this movie:

• Gal Gadot is a very beautiful woman but my goodness, she cannot act even a little. It's hard not to think she was chosen only because she's a pretty model type, because it certainly was not due to her acting skills. And does she even have enough lines to justify being the leading character?

• Pedro Pascal’s character is the same villain you’ve seen before in every film ever made: business man is overwhelm by his own greed. Oh, and his dad yelled at him for wetting the bed, so.

• I hated Kristen Wiig’s character. She is the nerd with glasses that nobody helps but we got a "makeover" scene where she becomes "pretty" because she … takes off her glasses! And then everybody totally falls for her. Gal Gadot was like, "Where is your kindness and humanity, girl?" But Kristen Wiig was like, "Lol stfu bitch, I’m doing hot girl shit now." It’s basically an endorsement of the Joker thesis that it's always the socially insecure outcast who will eventually pose the greatest threat to humanity. But now people don’t have a problem with it because it’s women, so :tada: diversity. :tada: You people will gobble up any "diversity" scraps the Hollywood toss your way.

• Other tropes are so cliché are well. The "hero losing her power" - women can only be strong and powerful or have love, never both, or the "using kindness to save the world" – this really is a movie about how we can solve international war and terrorism through … forgiveness. :laughing:

• Everything in this movie is black or white, so naturally, we got the "every man is an asshole but we aren’t going to have a real resolution about that" theme. Guys in car nearly kill jogger lady, bad guys want to throw kids to death in a mall – who acts like that?

• The dialogue is a hokey displeasure to listen to - "Scientists don’t wear heels" "Some do", "I can save the day but ~you can save the world".

All in all, the plot is so riddled with cliches and idiotic ideas, the characters are either boring or stupidly written, the writing is complete garbage. The movie tries so hard to be relevant and relatable. I don’t have a high tolerance for overly cheesy movies, and I don’t think superhero movies are for me!

One of the worst Sci-Fi shows ever. It's Sci-Fi for people who don't like Sci-Fi. Usually, science fiction likes to engage your mind, however in this show, if you turn on your head for even a second you will be imminently put off by how nothing the characters do makes any sense...

The antagonistic XO behaves like he has a bi-polar disorder. In one scene he's well adjusted in other he's a raving lunatic. It's really hard to believe he wasn't booted from the military before. Even harder to believe that he had command of his own ship for any period of time.
He starts a mutiny at the first serious disagreement with Katee While they still have communication with Earth. Usually, the mutiny would take place when the crew is isolated from the outside. Here they just could have presented the point of disagreement to the higher-ups on earth, and they would have decided what action they want their subordinates to take.

The XO later tries to kill Katee in an overdramatized scene that looked like a red herring for him trying to kill her. You know those scenes when someone bad is about to happen but you know it wouldn't? Like Sansa wanting to execute Arya and switching to Littlefinger in the last possible moment? Only in this scene he actually tries to kill her. [Expectations Subverted!]. So Katee kills him in self-defense. Yet in the next episodes, Katee doesn't mention to the crew that it was self-defense. She just says she killed him. Because he didn't follow orders or some shit like that.

Then some of the crew go to an alien planet. To mine oxygen rocks in a tiny cave. And for some reason, they think it's a good idea to take their masks off, on an alien planet. In a predictable fashion, the crew gets infected with an alien organism. For which, they magically find a cure in the last possible minute before they all decide to kill themselves.

I only watched the first 3 episodes. Couldn't take it anymore.
Also, It seems the level of technology in this world is an incomplete contradiction to the level of challenges the characters face. Most of the issues facing the crew seem like they could have been easily solved by their current technology.

Also, they have a real AI on board of the ship. Thinking, self-aware artificial intelligence. Only it's the most useless AI in the history of AI.
He doesn't seem to to have any of the advantages you would expect a super-intelligent being to have. Katee a lowly human can manually pilot the ship better than him. His only advantage seems to be that he can read the ship's sensors. All things else he's completely useless.

[7.0/10] Patrick Stewart can act. That is, perhaps, no revelation. But the strongest moment in the series premiere of Star Trek: Picard is simply giving him a moment to emote, to condemn, to express his distress and regret over the state of things. When pushed to explain why he left Starfleet, the fire that fueled The Next Generation is revived, and the ghosts of the utopia it operated in are exercised.

Picard left because of xenophobia, because of isolationism, because of an abandonment of the principals of altruism and mercy and acceptance that buttressed the Federation he knew and believed in. That connection to larger ideas -- of a once noble nation turning its back on those in need out of a fear for what opening one’s doors to the world could invite in, and an architect of that community severing his ties with it when it shrinks from the ideals he so deeply believes in -- not only imbues this story with a real world resonance; it’s pure Trek.

But it’s not enough to offer a man meditating on his legacy and the institutions that devolved on his watch. So we need a mystery box. And we need a terrorist attack from a group of “synths” on Mars that scared the Federation into submission. And we need Romulan refugees resettling in an old Borg cube. And we need Romulan fighters trying to root out and destroy the last of the synths. And we need a mysterious young woman -- half River Tam and half Daisy Johnson -- to seek out Picard’s help to sort it all out.

It’s all...fine. It’s naive to expect a modern day science fiction show to rely on the staid, contemplative tone that The Next Generation thrived on. I don’t mind Dahj kicking ass in a hand-to-hand combat scene that makes Kirk’s karate chops look like childsplay. I don’t mind a wire fu-esque battle between her and a cadre of Romulan attackers that involves dodging phaser fire, leaping grand distances, and gory-ish explosions. Times change, and shows have to change with them, even if it means making allowances for the sort of fireworks that once disappointed fans in Picard’s jump to the big screen.

But what I do mind is how generic so much of the rest of the episode feels. Make no mistake -- it is a tall order to follow-up to one of the most beloved science fiction series of all time, that honors past successes while forging a distinct path for the show at hand. But if you shaved off the serial numbers and took away the easter eggs, this could be any other modern science fiction show, with a look and dialogue and mysteries that suffice but don’t wow.

The best you can say is that in the early going at least, Star Trek: Picard doesn't feel like fanservice. Sure, Picard’s dog is named “Number One,” and he orders earl grey tea, and he has a futuristic safety deposit box full of familiar trinkets. But when the show invokes the past, it does so in service of the story in the here and now.

And yet, that’s both a blessing and a curse. Revealing Dahj as Data’s daughter adds some emotional potency to her pairing with Picard. They make Brent Spiner’s guest appearances in the episode more than a fond reminder of everyone’s favorite android, but as a touchstone for Picard’s close relationship with his former protege. For all the flack Star Trek: Nemesis caught, one of its saving graces was the way it suggested that, flesh and blood or no, Data was Picard’s son, his family. So by making Dahj a sort of granddaughter to Picard through that bond makes her relevant in the early going, when the show has to be economical about establishing its characters and stakes.

But at the same time, that’s part of the problem. Stewart and Isa Briones do their best, but the on screen chemistry isn’t quite there yet, so the results feel more like Star Trek: Picard drafting on the good feelings of old, even if it wants to move in a new direction. Fans of the Next Generation will shudder to hear the name Bruce Maddox, the man who tried to have Data declared property, invoked. Still, it feels a tad cheap to have him missing and potentially responsible for some sort of new-fangled “biological synthetic” that is cloned or replicated or somehow otherwise spawned from Data.

All the while, “Remembrance” has the same, overly glossy look that the rest of modern Trek does. All the while, we get characters giving tearful statements that tidily deposit their backstories, with performances that can’t support the psychological weight the show wants to place on them as well as Stewart can. All the while, we get another damn mystery box, where we’re left to guess who made Dahj and her twin sister, and whether the twin’s new flirty Romulan acquaintance is part of the apparent terrorist group, and what the true motivation of the “synths” who blew up Utopia Planetia was, since the show apparently can’t muster that intrigue while still putting its proverbial cards on the table.

And all the while, we have to cut through clunky scenes that try to establish all of this. Little of it is outright bad. This is a competent production with a stellar lead actor and enough reverence for the source material not to upset too much of it. But when you’re bringing back one of television’s great characters and invoking the legacy of the series that started a new age of Star Trek, I expect better than solid but less-than-inspired adequacy.

None of it quite matches that one moment of personal truth or the real life implications of Picard’s disdain for what the organization he once loved has transformed into. When “Remembrance” deposits him into its adventure, it becomes just another off-the-shelf science fiction series, albeit one that can harness the history and world of The Next Generation, The Original Series, and even the 2009 reboot.

In that one scene, though, Star Trek: Picard gives us a glimpse of the show it could be. “Remembrance” soars when it allows its lead performer to do what he does best and embrace the thematic resonance and introspection that were the hallmarks of his prior series, rather than flash and whodunnits and twisty reveals. Only time will tell whether, with so much narrative throat-clearing and table-setting out of the way, the series sets a course for the better.

Where's my breath?!

Things really explode in episode 4. The previous two episodes did feel a lot like a build up to something, and that 'something' is one hell of a detonation.

I'm really liking the storyline of Dex so far, especially when you get extraordinary scenes like the one involving CCTV. The way those deep, cold eyes stared into the camera was unbelievable and sent shivers down my spine. I just can't get over how amazing Vincent D'Onofrio is as Fisk.

I just have to mention the fight scene though. This is, without a doubt, my favourite long take fight scene of the show. It's just pure adrenaline that doesn't seem to end. It's even more realistic than the hallway scene in season 1. The effort and preparation they put into this must be off the Richter scale. Well, it looks like the show's going to pick up another Emmy nod for stuntwork... ...and just when you think your jaw couldn't fall any lower, the episode ends like THAT and proves you wrong, sending your jaw to another world. I guess it's lucky these don't release weekly, because I wouldn't be able to handle the week after this ending.

Seriously impressive stuff; I'm addicted.

Another good episode, but I must admit that I was kinda disappointed by it as a season finale. It ended well, but the episode felt a bit off. It felt as though every single character just had a sudden change of heart, as though we had missed an entire episode of development. Obviously we knew certain characters were headed a certain way, but they just seemed to suddenly jump from say 60% of the way that they progressed through the last 7 episodes, to 100% just in this one. It felt kinda weird how Homelander just suddenly showed up and got Ryan too - it came out of nowhere. It was still a good episode, but I thought it felt a bit rushed.

Also kinda disappointed that we're kinda just back where we started at the beginning of the season, with no real way to take down Homelander. I was expecting Soldier Boy to take Homelander's powers and then we'd get to see a new side to Homelander next season since he'd be weak and dealing with having no powers. Instead, it seems we're going to get a lot of focus on Ryan and Homelander together - which I do like. I had also thought that maybe all of The Boys would end up with powers by the end of the season, but that didn't happen either (not that that's a bad thing).

Anyway, I thought this was a good episode, but an ever so slightly disappointing end to a fantastic season of TV. Can't wait for season 4.