NGL I was enjoying this show after the first two episodes and it looked like it was going to be a cool new story in the Star Wars universe but this episode killed a lot of my expectations. It was BAD bad.
Pros:
+Set/costume design
Cons
- Being a force baby is Anakin's thing, it's one of the reasons why he is an anomaly that the jedi have no idea how to deal with, copying this plot point doesn't make Acolyte better. It shows how the writers don't understand the world that they're writing about
-It's a background episode that should act as a foundation for why these two sisters are walking opposing paths but it doesn't give any explanation or interesting insight of this weird witch bullshit, it doesn't show us why either would choose the path they did, it doesn't give us anything to explain why the last Jedi poisoned himself willingly, and it doesn't give us a more full understanding of the story they began telling. All it does is show two feuding little girls making weird, unprovoked decisions that make no sense.
------ the fire part is laughably idiotic and contrived, I assume there's more to why the entire fucking village dies after burning a book in a room made of rock that will come later but even if it is retroactively explained it's at best wasted time
-Nothing remotely interesting happens in what should be a cornerstone episode for the series
- I know the two little girls are just kids but even ignoring them, the acting was awful. Unforgivably bad. Blacklist all involved bad.
This episode just killed all momentum the show had, they actually should have just scrapped this and went on without explaining exactly how they got separated
Ladies & gentlemen, they & them,
Early 2000’s superhero movies are back, baby!
Madame Web is a top-tier dumpster fire.
It has some of the worst dialogue I have heard in a while. How are these writers, who brought us such gems as Dracula Untold, The Last Witch Hunter, Gods of Egypt, and the trillion-dollar hit Morbius, still working?
“Every day that goes by, my appointment with death gets closer.” is an actual line from the movie. There is plenty more to go around.
The editing and visual effects are atrocious.
The acting from everyone is awful. The line delivery is shockingly low energy, and I did not believe a word any of the actors were saying.
I have seen these actors do great work in the past, so this is 100% the director's fault here. It's crazy how a director can get piss-poor performances from good actors.
The characters had no chemistry with each other. The scenes together felt so awkward and unnatural.
There are so many character choices that don't make sense.
The villain fucking sucks. There is no real character to him. He's just a boring evil guy who wants to kill three “teenagers” because he dreamed of them killing him in the future. He is not threatening at all.
I noticed the actor who played the villain was dubbed over with ADR for most of his scenes. You can tell.
None of the humour landed. Painfully unfunny.
The 2003 pop culture references were a pathetic excuse for creating a time capsule setting.
Adam Scott and Emma Roberts have nothing to do here. You wonder why they are even there.
For a superhero movie, there are barely any exciting action scenes. Whenever there is some action, it's nothing special. I would not mind the lack of action if the story, characters, and acting were superb, but it has none of that.
The fact that the final battle scene takes place underneath a Cola/Pepsi sign is another example of the terrible product placement from Sony.
The final shot is the most embarrassing thing I have ever seen.
My jaw is on the floor of how a movie like this can be shit out by a big studio. Sony REALLY needs to cut it out with these unnecessary Spider-Man spin-off films.
Madame Web is the worst superhero movie ever made. Yes, I mean it. At least the other bad superhero movies had some redeeming qualities to it. But this movie has nothing. Everything about this movie is wrong. Fant4stic is better than this. It makes Morbius look competently made.
The current state of superhero movies is in trouble, and Madame Web is not helping.
I'd say the biggest fault of the season is a lack of tonal and arch consistency compared to the first one. But its peaks are MUCH higher. It's encouraging for TV shows to branch beyond their format and formula, else we wouldn't get masterpieces like "Fishes," but it more so stands as an example as to how the sub-30 minute runtime is too restrictive for the ambitious character-driven arcs of the show, one such example is Marcus' which fails to have any integration in the latter half of the season up until the finale. Ebraheim's arc is also not integrated enough. At times the show ironically falls under its own over-ambition. In an attempt to wholly fill out the roster of the kitchen, they constantly disconnect its characters into individual stories, rather than having them contribute to the overarching story of opening The Bear. One major exception to this is "Forks." Which offers more distinctive but still overall grounded character development and storytelling, and its relevance within later episodes validates it's importance as a contained narrative within its context. There's also a moment slightly forced towards the end of the season that seems unwarranted, especially when there was definitely an opportunity to elaborate and refine this in earlier episodes. I just wished they wouldn't have slowed the pace as much as they had in the former half of the series without having the runtime to fill out its characters.
Overall 8/10. Fantastic heights entirely outweighing the peaks of the previous, but there is certainly filler. Which I wouldn't have expected to see here.
Right from the hip, this didn't completely come together and I'm trying to figure out if that was intentional for the eventual Season 3 redemption, or accidental and all the pieces just didn't fall into place at go time.
Do not get me wrong, there are some absolutely fantastic moments in this finale, some of my favourites from the whole season in fact. Pete & Donna outside the restaurant, Richie in full Michelin-mode and taking over the kitchen, Syd and her father and finally finding "the thing", Marcus knocking his phone so he didn't see the calls from the care home, Richie showing respect and thanks to Cicero by remembering the chocolate covered banana; some honest-to-god A tier drama with arc and resolution and substance.
Carmys arc, and by extension Claires too, just didn't feel...right? Even with the tragic wrap up it just didn't feel very polished? The handle being forgotten because of Carmys divided attention, Carmys self destructive spirals and PTSD from both his early career and his mother/family all make sense, but Claire barging in and overhearing his self-deprecating ramblings and taking them seriously enough to cry and run off just seemed a little, unrefined? Something just didn't feel right and didn't line up for me. The premise is sound and I'm not totally anti-Claire, but the execution of it all felt sloppy at best. Then there was crackhead Josh, which felt like it had a few scenes removed so didn't land as intended, and the Marcus/Syd clash felt very forced, considering all the way up to this point these people have actively pushed to compartmentalise to make sure the kitchen runs smoothly, devoid of emotion and personal clashes like this.
Just a little messy and could have done with another pass, but some of the hits still absolutely hit and I have everything crossed that we get a Season 3 to wrap this all up and see it out.
Let's imagine that you're the producer of a movie set up in Salamanca, but Spain is too far away, and you already spent most of your budget on the actors payroll. What do you do? Easy! Just film in Mexico, it's a nice country, it's closer to Hollywood, and they even speak the same language! To disguise it a little bit, distribute a few Spanish flags amongst the extras, and surely nobody will notice it's not Spain! :)
(For non Spanish speakers: yes, Mexican and Spanish people share the same language... in the same way that somebody from Texas, London, Australia or Hong Kong would share English. Nobody in their right mind would film in Hong Kong, with two hundred local extras, and have them pass for New Yorkers, right? Well that's exactly what they did in this movie).
If they planned to film in Mexico, why didn't they set up the movie in Mexico instead of pretending it's Spain? It makes no difference to the story at all!!
Anyway, moving on. Let's now imagine you're the storywriter. You're writing a thriller, a good one, you know, with lots of plot twists and stuff. You're almost done with the script after a lot of hard work (about 7 minutes of writing, give or take). But you just can't wrap it up to make it into a movie... there are too many characters doing too many things at the same time. You could just remove a superfluous character, but they already casted Forest Whitaker and it would be uncool to fire him now. And you don't want to mess it up with multiple scenes on screen either, they already did that with Hulk and it was a huge fail. So what else could you do...? Wait, I have an idea! We can make a 5 minutes movie, but film it from 238 different points of view, and play them one after another, as if we were rewinding!!! Cool, huh? (No, not really...)
On the plus side, that way we can also afford to have Sigourney Weaver and Eduardo Noriega for the whole movie, even if they only have to record like 10 minutes each. Gee, with the money we are saving this way, we actually could have filmed in Spain, after all...
There is nothing salvageable from this movie. The location ambient couldn't be more awful, even if they tried. Compared to this, I could almost forgive what they did on Mission Impossible 2. But sadly, there are even worse problems with Vantage Point. The first 40 minutes are the same scene, over and over again, only switching the character each time: 5 minutes, rewind, and start again. Yes, it gets annoying, of course it does. At least, the second half gets a little... well, I wanted to say that it gets better, but it's actually the other way around. Slightly less rewinds, but the story gets much dumber. So... yeah.
By the way, I have another gem for you. Let's imagine that now you are a 5 years old, sweet little girl, who wants to cross a highway with loooots of traffic. There is a pedestrian bridge over it, but you're 5... so, you try to cross the road instead, like the proverbial chicken. First attempt: woah, close one, you almost got run over! Never mind, you try again, because you really want to cross. Second attempt: yup, almost run over. But you try again anyway! Third attempt, and there is an ambulance going straight towards you at 800 km/h (or mph, whatever), with the flashing lights, the sirens, the whole thing. Quick, what do you do!? Move out of the way? Nah, better to stay still, crying for mom in slow motion. Luckily Forest Whitaker was around, and had time to notice what was happening, climb down the bridge, run to the girl, and save her, before anybody else even noticed anything. Superman Whitaker!! And here I was, calling his character superfluous... :)
[strike]She was great on Hawkeye next to JRenner. She's no longer that kid from then but a woman 3 years down the line and no Renner... very much wondering how this series will end up to be.[/strike] Here's hoping it wont be another endless woke virus promotion.
EDIT1: I expected this series to be about Hawkeyes sidekick Kate. But its about the bad lieutenant Maya. My mistake.
Quite disappointing.
EDIT:2 So after having seen the first 2 episodes of season 1 (I doubt there will be a season 2), it's not as messed up woke as I was worried for it to become.
But..... maybe that would even have been better than this crap. The whole series just stinks.
I really wonder what the whole plan was with this season. It looks like they had some specific story in mind, recorded everything. Probably some scenes were not done yet during the whole writers and actors strikes
And then in post-editing someone totally re-wrote the story.
There are loads of flashbacks or supporting scenes that seem to be about native americans and their roots and customs as a sort of documentary, which in some ways is better developed than the main story itself.
Frankly I dont like the Maya character. Maya her endless frowning / angry face gets old quickly. She has only 1 possible expression on her face: angry. There is hardly anything else coming out of her.
I guess acting of being a deaf person who is angry about life is probably difficult to do antything else than this, but her whole attitude gets old fast. No matter who she has near her or whom she communicates with. Endless negativity and anger and violence.
I dont like several of the other characters either. Plus I find the way most of the native americans are being protraid borderline racist. All of them seem to be either stupid, over-weight(fat), or criminal or so stuck in the traditional ways that they are just plain silly.
And a lot of what we see just doesnt make sense.
You dont go driving a motorcycle hundred of kilometers/miles with a bullet still stuck in your chest.
I am considering rating this series on the same level as Iron Fist. Not sure if to be above or below. I guess below is impossible. So let's say its halve a step better than Iron First. Although the storyline of Iron Fist at least made sense (mostly). Hm.
Anyway. It's poo. Dont bother. There's much better stuff out there than this s h i t.
As is perhaps signposted by the entire first episode constituting a bloated recap of the B-plot of “Hawkeye”, the storyline here is wafer-thin, with some “main” characters contributing only one or two substantial scenes in the entire season. Flashbacks posed interesting questions, but don’t expect any interesting answers. Action sequences are nothing special. You have seen this before.
This season bears all the hallmarks of having been heavily re-shaped in post-production, with an over-simplified story and almost no development of supporting characters or setting. Each of the main support cast gets one or two scenes in which to do something meaningful, but this is no way to tell a compelling story. Too many cooks at Marvel Studios?
The talented cast and the subject matter deserved so, so much more.
The ASL was handled well, but it was jarring that the sound design felt the need to remind us that the main character is deaf at random moments, rather than as part of a consistent storytelling tool as was successfully done with blindness in the Daredevil Netflix show. Overall, a missed opportunity, and well below what the people involved are capable of.
Ms Marvel did a better job of integrating another culture into the MCU and letting it thrive on its own terms, and Daredevil handled different sensory perceptions better. After 5 episodes, I know as much about the main character as I did during Hawkeye. There is probably a stunning “flip-side” episode of Hawkeye in here somewhere, but it’s stretched thin over so many episodes.
One word review: Perfunctory.
Barbie 2023, oh boy, where do I even begin? This movie is like a glittery train wreck, a hot mess wrapped in a pink bow. From the moment the opening credits rolled, I knew I was in for a wild ride, and not in a good way. It's as if the filmmakers took every cliché in the book and crammed it into one painfully predictable storyline.
The plot, if you can even call it that, is about as shallow as Barbie's plastic smile. It's a recycled tale of Barbie saving the day, yet again, with her perfectly coiffed hair and impossibly tiny waist. Yawn. I couldn't help but roll my eyes at the lack of originality and depth in the story. It's like they didn't even bother trying to come up with something remotely interesting.
And let's talk about the dialogue, shall we? It's so cheesy and cringe-worthy that I couldn't help but groan out loud. The lines are as plastic as Barbie herself, lacking any real substance or wit. It's like the writers took a bunch of tired clichés and threw them into a blender, hoping for some sort of magical concoction. Spoiler alert: it didn't work.
But perhaps the most disappointing aspect of Barbie 2023 is the missed opportunity for growth and empowerment. Barbie has been an iconic figure for decades, yet this movie does nothing to challenge or expand upon her character. Instead, it perpetuates outdated stereotypes and reinforces unrealistic beauty standards. It's a disheartening reminder of how far we still have to go in terms of representation and inclusivity in the film industry.
In conclusion, Barbie 2023 is a glittery disaster that falls flat on its perfectly manicured face. It's a prime example of lazy filmmaking and missed potential. Save yourself the agony and skip this one. Trust me, you won't be missing out on anything groundbreaking or remotely entertaining. Barbie deserves better, and so do we.
Starts off really strong and fun.
The sets look incredible and its immersive. They had a really great message about body positivity and unrealistic expectations on women & I was all the way behind it.... Then rapidly spirals into a pure man hate / Women supremacy. Its obvious the writers have a huge chip on their shoulders.. It's messaging is so heavy handed it completely took me out of the movie & brings it from enjoyable to a drab 2 hour rant by an angry twitter blue user who think's women's rights is still in the 1800's.
They have this unreal take that you're set for life if you're a man and just get instant success. They think everything's better if you're a man (Guess what, it doesn't work that way. I'm told every day how I'm a bad person because I'm a man, and for only that.... Just like this movie does)...
Being preached at about why being a man is so bad for 2 hours does not make for a fun viewing experience.
It shows the glaring double standards of the current mainstream talking points.
This movie blindly preaches that "the world would be better if the shoe was on the other foot" and it comes across as tone deaf.
Its BAD all one gender "rules the world" but if its women, its A-OK!... which defeats the purpose of feminism.
Women getting equality, not supremacy.
call this a hot take but I think men and women should be equal..... but this movie thinks men don't even deserve a seat on Barbie world's court - that's insane.
Why is Patriarchy bad but Matriarchy good....????
Its either all bad or none of it is, and this man hating director needs to make up her mind.
This movie has a complete lack of any kind of self-awareness or introspection.
Through direct exposition, I think directly to camera, we receive a monologue about society's unrealistic expectations for women's appearances. Meanwhile, it continues the Hollywood tradition of having an absolutely jacked and ripped and never-not-flexing Ryan Gosling walking around shirtless almost all the time.
We're treated to another long exposition in which one of the protagonists lists society's unfair expectations of how women should behave (be nice, but not too nice). I found this crazy. Most of these grievances are about things we all have to grapple with as human beings. Others... Who is society? Where are these expectations made? How do we change them? How do they compare to expectations placed on men to get jobs, go to work, learn plumbing, listen and provide feedback to women, but never explain anything? We never even consider. This movie literally lists "anxiety" as a women's issue. It's lack of ability to understand or interpret its own message is telling.
There's a segment in which men trick women to quit their jobs and take on the roles of supporting men (what!?) and women have to break each other out. At the same time, the men want nothing and do nothing except to drink beer and play guitar and ruin society and have wars because stereotyping is great as long as it's men.
There is some commentary (again, through direct exposition) about Ken's role in Barbieland, how he doesn't have a job or a purpose except to be a guy. We discover pretty quickly that we're supposed to interpret that as, "See? This is what it's like to be a woman [in the 1820s]." And what's the solution? No. No. Ken should continue to have no agency or purpose in Barbieland and that's a hilarious joke.
Every actor, though, is fully committed and doing great work.
This movie is bad. It never heard of, "show, don't tell", and instead has writers repeatedly monologuing directly to the audience. It's a ham-fisted delivery of a message that the movie doesn't itself understand, let alone interpret. The most memorable part, based on comments from women who walked out of the theater, was also the most joyous, a song and dance number starring only (ironically) men. Everyone seemed to like that part and wanted to talk about it, which is an indication of how poorly this movie communicates and entertains.
The meanest thing I could say about this movie is ‘Has extreme Don’t Worry Darling energy’.
I have never seen a movie more desperate to justify itself. It’s trapped in this endless neurosis over what it is- a blockbuster Barbie movie in 2023 by an acclaimed art house director that is fun but also deep but also earnest but also self aware but also but also but also. Every point it raises it brings up a counterpoint to before the audience can, every frame is trying to prove it’s not just product but art. It’s never just Barbie. It’s never confident or even comfortable in its skin. You cannot for a second be immersed in Barbie because it’s not a story so much as a visual dissertation without a central thesis, it’s a student film riffing on the big dogs hoping it’s underdog audacity will carry it but given a budget in the millions. It so desperately wants you to like it, to know it’s in on the joke too.
Everythng is an ouroboros here: an endless loop of argument and counterarguement feeding itself. Isn’t it shitty how the Mattel boardroom is full of men? Ah, but isn’t it cool how Mattel’s acknowledged it with this niche? And it’ll mythologize Barbie’s creator but uh don’t worry she did tax evasion we know that, now let her impart into Barbie the experience of all women. Barbie helps women, Barbie hurts women, Barbie is told to be everything so isn’t she just like women, but it is better to be a creator than the idea, and in the end, hasn’t Barbie helped all these women? Oh uh why is this blonde white Barbie the centerpiece of it all and helping not only her diverse Barbie friends but a Hispanic woman and her daughter? Don’t worry we’ll have the daughter call her a white savior! But don’t worry we’ll have the mom say she’s not! It’s fascinating to watch, honestly. It’s a film that wants to prove to you so so bad that it works but it doesn’t and it knows it doesn’t and it knows you knows. It’s Gerta Gerwig wrestling with taking this job for an hour and a half.
The cast is more than game and able. Margot Robbie is doing her damndest to find the heart and soul in this role, and there’s one scene with an old lady near the end of the first act/beginning of the second that actually works, for just a moment, more than any of the big third act soliloquies or montages with emotional ballads. And as someone who’s seen Blade Runner 2049 and Drive, this is the best Ryan Gosling performance I’ve seen. The man commits and delivers a surprisingly compelling and entertaining antagonist. The movie can’t quite reconcile what he’s done with his ending, or tie it into the themes- is Ken letting go of Barbie and the need to define himself for or against her symbolizing the need for men to do the same, and if so, why play it so lightly and sympathetically?- but that’s not his fault. And the supporting cast are entertaining, but you just can’t have big laughs with a movie that feels like it’s constantly checking in the corner of its eye after every joke to see if you’re laughing, grin stuck in place. It’s not as funny or as smart as it wants to be, and the sad thing is, it feels like it knows that too.
There is some great set design, cinematography, dazzling choreography, popping colors, and some fun high points. But I can’t imagine many kids liking it. And we’ve seen how conservatives have taken this movie. And anyone’s who’s progressed beyond the politics of. Well. A feminist blockbuster Barbie movie will find it cloying or condescending or just incredibly basic. It’s aimed at a very specific crowd who will buy what it’s saying, the liberals who see corporate feminism as progress, who agree that it’s just about a little change sometimes, who are ready for something just a little more complex than a SNL sketch. I don’t regret seeing it, because I was deeply engaged the whole time seeing it struggle at war with itself, in pain for its whole existence. It’s not a boring movie by any means. It wants to say everything before the audience can say it first. It’s the endpoint of The Lego Movie and Enchanted- the corporations interrogating and justifying themselves, and the cracks in this formula are too large to ignore. It wants to be so much, and the attempt is as darkly mesmerizing as a fly thinking it can somehow and someway metamorphize into a butterfly and suffocating and struggling in its makeshift cocoon, but this is one Barbie that fundamentally just cannot break out of its box.
Look you don’t have a lot to work with here, so this is probably as good as it could be. I like it more than the live action adaptations from the 2010s, that’s for sure. The plot and characters are nothing special, it’s really the stylistic animation and score that carry the entire movie. I also quite liked the voice acting, the turtles all feel distinct and I’m not surprised that Ice Cube’s expressive voice (given his background) works really well for animation. The problems start to reveal themselves as soon as you start to pay attention to the material that the actors are working with. The comedy mostly sucks and tries way too hard, as expected for mainstream American movies now. Some of the banter and dialogue felt like it got a pass by Marvel’s staff, it’s that embarrassing. It also has some of the weirdest, out of place pop culture references I’ve seen in a long time (you’ll know when you see them), as well as 90s needle drops that serve no purpose besides serving up empty nostalgia (seriously, even Transformers: Rise of the Beasts had the decency to at least set their film during the 90s). Its moments of action can be fun, but unfortunately it zips through a lot of them by montage during the first half, which was the wrong choice. The second half is definitely more entertaining in that regard. Overall, I don’t recommend this if you’re past the age of its target audience, but the beautiful visuals definitely made it more palatable compared to other movies like it.
5/10
If you’d ask me what the highlights of the previous 2 Ant-Man movies are, I’d probably answer: I don’t remember much about them, but I liked those quirky scenes narrated by Michael Peña and the creative use of shrinking powers during the set pieces. For as forgettable as both movies are, at least I still remember the set piece with the train in the first movie, or the kitchen fight from the second movie. With this movie, I'm already having trouble remembering any specifics, because all of those typical Edgar Wright touches have been erased in favor of being a big CGI extravaganza. So, allow me to do a general breakdown of the three acts instead.
1st act: We get a set-up that's similar to Spiderman: No Way Home, which means it’s in a hurry to get to the main dish, making every main character look like an irresponsible dumbass in the process. Once we get to the quantum realm, we're met with a lot of cringe comedy. The design of the world is fine, it feels like a mashup of prequel era Star Wars, Avatar, The Fifth Element and Spy Kids, not like an original creation. A stronger, visionary director probably would've made a big difference here, or at least one who knows how to use the volume stages, because that might’ve avoided the Spy Kids comparisons.
2nd act: Jonathan Majors arrives to do some actual acting, and he somehow pulls it off despite the hammy, pseudo-intellectual lines given to him by the script. Michelle Pfeiffer also gets some time to shine, when she's on the screen with Majors it feels like the movie actually comes to life for a brief second. Still, the scenes with Kang feel tonally inconsistent with the rest of the movie, and I’m not sold on the idea of him being the Avengers level threat we’ve been waiting for. When it comes to the other actors, most of them are given nothing interesting to do, the supposed co-lead of this movie (according to the title) included. I don't like picking on younger actors, but it needs to be said that Emma Fuhrmann expressed more emotion during her 10 second appearance as Cassie Lang in Avengers: Endgame than Kathryn Newton did here. In terms of story, this portion of the movie is all about set-up and clunky exposition as delivered through monologues. One of the characters even gets introduced with his own 'previously on Ant-Man' recap, which I find insulting and shows what little faith this studio has in its audience. Besides, it probably would’ve been better to cut this character, because his inclusion is easily one of Marvel's worst creative decisions (the design and visual effects are laughable). Generally I'd say this act is pretty boring, and occasionally embarrassing.
3rd act: The movie decides it wants to be Aquaman instead, so we're getting an extended battle sequence of stuff fighting other stuff, with plenty of flashes, lasers and more stuff. It's big, it's loud, and I check out. Every cheesy crowdpleaser deserves its fair share of deus ex machina moments, but this movie spams the action movie trope of 'our main character is in peril only to get saved at the very last moment' to death at this point. Furthermore, the cringe comedy makes a big return, with Corey Stoll delivering a line so bad that it will become a meme (you'll know once you see the movie). More punchy stuff, more pew pew, more 'comedy', and thankfully the movie finally decides it has wasted enough of my time. We get a final montage that includes the first good joke of the movie, and the credits roll. Nothing is achieved, absolutely nothing. This is a cynically conceived advertisement that does not deserve your time.
3/10
The overall concept here makes sense. Weird Al is known for parody. So naturally, his biopic film should be a parody of the entire biopic genre, rather than some ho-hum, by the numbers biopic. Unfortunately, as a parody target, the biopic genre didn't work quite as well for me as the top billboard hits that Weird Al made his career parodying. The main difference being, the top billboard hits were exactly that, they were hits. They were catchy songs that everyone already knew and loved. By comparison, I never had much appreciation for the biopic genre, which often produces bland movies that leave me wishing I had just read the Wikipedia article. As such, even a tongue in cheek deconstruction wasn't able to overcome my lack of enthusiasm for the structure.
All of that said, there were plenty of solid bits and even some moments of genius that were enough to keep me watching. The highlight for me was the reversal they pulled with Michael Jackson's "Beat It". Clever and hilarious. The frequent cameos also offered some chuckles here and there. However, those cameos, along with the segmented structure of the film, gave off an extended YouTube/SNL skit type feel. Unfortunately, that type of humor is more palatable in short form, so the 110 minutes we got here definitely overstayed its welcome for me.
If you plan to watch this because everyone keeps saying how this film is "different" from MCU films, stop right here.
That's a false advertisement. It's not a "black and white monster film from the '40s". Werewolf by Night is an MCU film through and through. There's nothing "different". Let me list:
And those are just from the top off my head. Sure you can find more if you're observant.
Well, sure Werewolf by Night is dressed in black and white but that's about it. It's a gimmick. It's not even trying to capture the essence of classic black and white films The Artist (2011) did it or build the atmosphere like Sin City (2005) did it. People saying this film is "different" from MCU needs to get their eyes checked and watch more films.
If you just wanted to watch an MCU, sure you get what you asked. But if you expected more, then whatever you heard about this film is a big fat hoax.
Lupin and Squid Game are both good examples of social media hype being inversely proportional to the actual substance and quality of a show. I was driven to watch both shows due to them being consistently hyped on social media. Both are mediocre compared to other shows available to stream. Congratulations to the Netflix social media team for two viral marketing campaigns.
So what's wrong with Lupin? Glaring plot holes. Ridiculous story lines. Copious amounts of unnecessary virtue-signalling. I mean, there's an episode where the main character makes a switch with an inmate inside a prison during a visit. Are we to believe that this was possible because all black people look the same to white prison wardens? You have to be a brainwashed leftist lunatic to write up a story arc like that.
Then there are all these detectives who keep running into the main character again and again without an arrest. I mean the guys face is plastered all over the wall inside their situation room. Come on! That's just lazy story telling. Now what? the police force is so "woke" that they look the other way when they see a black criminal? :rolling_eyes:
This show is a parody of itself as well, because all the criminals and villains portrayed in it are either black or ethnic minorities. Minorities from a French perspective. If I migrate to France, I'll be an ethnic minority too, in case you're wondering (as in not-white). Then there's the scene where a younger version of the main character steals a violin for his white girlfriend, because the white violin shop owner refused to rent it to them. Yeah! he taught a lesson to that old white dude.... By living up to the stereotype?! Who wrote this garbage? :rofl:
I enjoyed the pilot episode the most, it's all downhill from there. This show uses a similar soundtrack and cues as Sherlock Holmes to manipulate the viewer into believing that we are viewing something of the same calibre. We certainly are not. I assure you.
We've kinda come full circle with these superhero films when you think about it.
After the camp of the 90s, directors like Nolan and Singer reset the tone of superhero movies in the 2000's to something that was more grounded and serious, which in turn laid a lot of the groundwork for the MCU.
Here we have Taika Waititi providing a throwback to the Joel Schumacher days.
If that's your thing you'll probably dig it, but it's definitely not my brand of camp.
I’m not exactly a Thor: Ragnarok fan (nor the other two Thor films). I don’t have a problem with its silly tone, because I’m not a manchild who needs to see his childhood validated, but a lot of its comedy didn’t click with me (even after a rewatch). Everything that didn’t work for me in that film is amped up to an eleven here.
There are some serious points in it where the acting choices, slapstick/childish/hokey comedy, overly bright colors, gay undertones, overdesigned costumes (no nipples yet, but give Taika another film and we'll see what happens) and godawful music choices started to give me genuine flashbacks to stuff like Batman Forever, not quite the thing you want to remind me of.
It's not a complete disaster; the performances by Natalie Portman, Tessa Thompson and especially Christian Bale are generally quite good. I'm also glad Marvel seems to have definitively found the saturation button back after Guardians 2, even if the framing/lighting with the visuals remains uninspired and maintains a general level of artifice that makes it look like shit. I believe they used the volume stages for most of the production, and like Obi Wan or The Book of Boba Fett, it’s very noticeable for most of the runtime.
The story's not all that interesting and makes no sense when you put any thought into it, but that's fine given that there is some progression with most of the main characters, even if Thor’s character arc throughout the MCU is all over the place at this point. As with most Marvel films lately, there is a lot of unnecessary exposition (e.g. the Korg narrated flashbacks are really clunky), but where it really drops the ball for me is with the balancing of tone and plot elements. I already thought that the darker stuff in Thor: Ragnarok didn't blend that well with the goofy scenes on the trash planet, but there's even more tonal whiplash here. Christian Bale is giving this excellent, terrifying performance, but he's not in the same movie as Chris Hemsworth, who's playing even more of a Thor parody than he was in Avengers: Endgame. One moment we're invested in this heavy, emotional story with Natalie Portman, and then we cut back to a goofy love triangle between Thor, his hammer and his axe. It's an unbalanced mess without a sense of stakes.
I also don't know what it is with Taika's comedy in these films, because I think What we do in the shadows, Jojo Rabbit and Hunt for the wilderpeople are all very comedic and smart, but for some reason he really likes his Thor movies excessive and dumb. Screaming goats aren't funny to me, they're a dated meme at best. Maybe it's because Taika can't go edgy and niche with the jokes here, but fuck I really hate his sensibilities for this character.
In short, another major misfire from Marvel if you ask me. I pretty much disliked everything except for a few of the performances. Please go back to making indies Taika, and for the love of god: let James Gunn pick the soundtrack for your next film. Even a film this dumb doesn’t need a Guns ‘N Roses needle drop, let alone four of them.
3/10
Yes lol of COURSE they somehow had to shoehorn the livesaving #metoo-"movement" into it. Even if it’s in the last 5 minutes of the show. My oh my. I‘d say in 2022 under the same circumstances, the same greedy people involved, the same sh*t could happen, hell maybe even worse. It’s not that Woodstock '99 happened 200 years ago, 20y is nothing. Take a look around, look at "social media", look how mentally ill our society has become 20 years later and it won’t get any better. No hashtag can make things better. Rather the opposite because people use it to take advantage of it. People do that. What makes me really angry regarding the people who organized WS'99 is that they go on and on to accuse each other among themselves, the bands, the sellers, even the "naked" Girls and not taking any blame for what happened within the violent crowds for their own stupidity in being some of the greediest and vicious aholes on the planet. Wow this one bastard goes even so far calling Fred Durst "dumb" for doing what he and the other bands are known for while clearly booking the top notch bands at this time to cash in as many payable people they possibly could. These bands did not represent 'Love, Peace and Harmony' in the slightest. Everyone could see this even if you weren’t "in the game" at this time. Hate or love Durst, "dumb" is no way accurate to describe this dude. Frick the Organizers. THEY are responsible for that shatfest and the mob mentality behavior that resulted from it letting explode these bastards who were not there for the music. Noone else. Not the bands and certainly not the Girls who got mistreated in any disgusting shape or form. Grow some!
[5.8/10] This really didn’t do it for me. It feels like it’s trying to be a PG version of Fleabag, without Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s wit or insight. It feels like it’s trying to capture the quippy patter that has become the MCU’s house style, without supplying the good quips. And it particularly feels like it wants these characters to come off as charming and playful when they mostly come off as minorly annoying and even a little concerning at times. It’s all watchable, but scans as a miscalibrated and inauspicious start to She-Hulk: Attorney at Law.
That said, there’s two things that give me hope for the series. The first is, I love the thought experiment of “What if someone got superpowers and didn't want to become a superhero?” It’s not a story you see a lot of, particularly in a world of “with great power comes great responsibility. But the notion of Jennifer liking her normal life, not feeling attuned to or interested in the life of a superhero, and wanting to go back to the future she’s forged for herself, is a thought-provoking and interesting theme to explore.
At the same time, I like the idea that Bruce Banner is pushing this life on his cousin to some degree, as a moral imperative and practical necessity, when, as Jennifer points out, it’s left him lonely and traumatized. So many of these phase 4 projects -- No Way Home, WandaVision, Black Widow, and Hawkeye -- have been about the heroes who participated in the events of Endgame and beyond picking up the pieces after such serious stuff goes down. Exploring how Bruce’s choices have isolated him or made him unhappy as he quietly mourns the loss of friends like Tony, Steve, and Natasha, is worthy territory.
Unfortunately, She-Hulk doesn’t seem particularly well-suited to do that in the early going. It’s a boon that they got Mark Ruffalo to return as Banner to kick things off here, but his performance is really off. It’s hard to put my finger on exactly, but whether it’s not being physically in certain scenes or just having off days, he’s substandard in several scenes here that throws things off.
It’s tough, because much of the episode rests on the dynamic between Jennifer and Bruce, and the chemistry is just as out-of-whack. The show seems to want us to find them cheeky and playful with each other, but with all the tweaking and pointedness, they just kind of seem like jerks. Bruce is condescending and controlling, and Jennifer seems smug and pestersome. There’s not much in the way of likable characters in the early going here. Plus, while I think the show wants to treat two hulks doing battle as mere roughhousing, it’s a little unsettling that the two basically resolve their disagreement with physical force and outright violence.
On top of that, there’s some unfortunately cartoonish “dudes suck” and go-girl feminism motifs. There’s a kernel of a good idea there -- with the notion that Jennifer is better at controlling her anger or other strong emotions than Bruce ever was because it’s the sort of thing women have to do every day lest they face harsh labels or risks to their safety. But the jerky lawyer and other male antagonists are cartoonishly awful, and the “Anything you can do, I can do better” routine between Bruce and Jennifer starts to feel overly blunt very quickly. The point isn’t bad, but the dramatization of it is too exaggerated and on-the-nose to elicit much more than eye-rolls.
And, as the Internet has apparently fixated on, the CGI is very inconsistent and frequently quite dodgy. Sometimes it’s fine! At times, both hulks feel like real, expressive people in bodies with weight and definition. At others, they feel like characters from a video game cutscene circa ten years ago. I’m not one to gripe about such things too hard, but considering this isn’t just side spectacle, but rather core to the main character of the series, it can be genuinely distracting in several moments.
All of that said, we get thirty seconds of The Good Place’s Jammela Jamil, which is promising if she has more to do on the show. And there’s some good ideas worth exploring that are hopefully in the show’s future. But the questionable approach, tone, characters, and realization of these ideas in the early going all provide a shaky-at-best start to the new show.
Between this and Cherry, it’s becoming more and more clear that the MCU’s best director is called Kevin Feige.
Netflix clearly spent a lot of money on this, you can feel the price of your subscription going up with every new set piece that’s introduced, but the end results are still unforgivingly bland and generic nonetheless.
It’s their attempt to compete with Bond, Bourne or Mission Impossible, but if anything this feels like a poser imitation of those superior blockbuster franchises. The plot is in fact literally ripping off both Skyfall and The Bourne Identity at the same time, but forgets about any of their depth in regards to story and character.
The Russos are clearly trying to recapture that same tone and spark from their Captain America: The Winter Soldier days, but they end up making something that’s more akin to the quality of Red Notice.
In terms of directing they kinda got outdone by their own second unit director with his Netflix action flick, as I’d argue that Extraction is a marginally better film than this.
The action’s poorly done and cheaply put together, lots of annoying editing choices (heavy overuse of drone shots, quick cuts and can the Russos pick a normal font for once?), corny dialogue, distractingly bad CGI, boring visuals and music (why is everything so low contrast, foggy and muddy?); not a lot to recommend about this one.
The acting’s fine, Evans is having a blast, but I have absolutely no idea why an extremely picky actor like Ryan Gosling chose this script in the first place. It seems like a paycheck movie for someone of his caliber. Just watch The Nice Guys instead of this if you want to see Goose in an action comedy, we don’t need these 200 million dollar direct to streaming action films.
4/10
Disappointing.
Why does the imperial cruiser break the chase, when it has plenty of ships on board to pursue Obi-Wan's single craft?
Did Vader really need to take the imperial cruiser with him, to then leave it behind to go alone after Obi-Wan?
Why Vader doesn't even bother to check Obi-Wan is really dead, after all the trouble he has taken to hunt him down? He just turns his back and walks out? He is able to detect Obi-Wan's presence hundreds or thousands of kilometres away fleeing onboard a ship, but can't tell he is alive under a pile of rocks right next to him?
Why should Obi-Wan leave Vader alive after defeating him and confirming there is nothing left of Anakin, only a Jedi mass murderer and a danger to the entire galaxy stands before him? Why make this mistake a second time?
Am I really supposed to believe after watching this series that Vader/Anakin was the chosen one? He is ridiculed and portrayed as a fool that would struggle to pass a basic IQ test, not to mention all those tactical errors (aren't combat and command amongst the many subjects jedis were proficient at?). Vader deserved much better.
It beggars belief, and takes viewers for complete mugs.
Okay, so the action is still pretty bad, and the Reva stuff is every bit as predictable as it seemed. BUT I'm glad we're FINALLY getting some of the stuff that we were promised! The flashbacks with Anakin, although not perfect, are what I wanted from this show. I just wish that they had started with these much sooner, rather than the second-to-last episode of the show.
Also, I know the Reva wasn't exactly on Vader's side, but her sending Obi-Wan inside with two stormtroopers when it would have made much more sense for her to just keep him outside exactly where he was with the rest of the troops and her... that was one of the dumbest things I've ever seen.
IDK how this show manages to keep doing it, but every episode just seems to have dumber and dumber writing decisions and it's truly painful to watch. Vader is being written as a total moron. Why on earth would they just leave Reva alive like that? It makes absolutely no sense.
I've said it almost every episode, but it still rings true - I really want to love this show, but I just CAN'T. I'll give this one a 5.5 simply because it was a fun watch despite all the horrible issues.
The acting of Ewan was phenomenal. He really sold the PTSD broken Jedi. The chemistry between Ben and Leia felt real and reminded me of the banter Obi-wan had with Anakin, Ahsoka and Rex. I smiled when rusty ben gets help from fearless little Leia. The intro of Vader was chilling and he looked and sounded exactly as I remembered. We even got some lore and name dropping. I'm really sorry that I have to say this but I do feel like they fumbled on the landing.
I get that Darth Vader wanted to make Obi-wan suffer and wanted to take his time, but this is only 10 years after their duel. He should have been way more unhinged and certainly would have had no problem in preventing Obi-wan's escape. Simple force crush of the loader would have been enough. Sorry but anything other than a vehicle getting them out of there at high speed is bad writing ( like they evaded Maul in episode 1 ). Vader searched the entire galaxy for a decade and he's now being stopped by 5m of fire in between two over sized molehills?
Second huge question is how Reva got to the pilot first? Was there a shortcut that Tala and Leia didn't take ? Why did they take the long way round ? Did Revan meet Tala on her way back and then did a forcerun flash to pass Leia ?
I don't expect Star Wars to be Godfather quality but I really hope they explain those things.
Bwahaha this is so bad I can’t believe I fell for this sh*t AGAIN and gave Disney my hard earned money for this. Making sure every few minutes that we get that "he isn’t the man he used to be", the deadbeat old failed Obi-Wan is already bested and kicked around by "better cultural backgrounds and the right gender" like expected by Disney. When I saw Hidalgo credited as "Star Wars Lore Advisor" I laughed out very loud, literally. Why do they skip ahead 10 years after the shaky cam heroine sequence that immediately got me headaches wtf?! This would’ve been the more interesting era! The atmosphere is absolutely artificial, the cgi looks like it’s from 2002 (maybe that’s intentional, at least that’s where they stayed true to the source material). The bad guys and of course the oppressed Sista are so hilariously poor designed they don’t even try anymore. When she is shouting in that annoying high pitched voice I can only here reee. And what is up with the women doing this cringe 2000 era Parcours shyte? First in Book of Bobby and now here lol wtf. And those chase scenes "choreographies" O.M.G. There is better Fanfiction out there on Youtube. Better give the Star Wars license to these creators.
Tonally all over the place, was expecting a better and truthfully more impactful reveal of the 3rd persona after all that not-so-subtle build up. The Ammit CGI was gorgeous though… but man what a let down after that masterful previous episode.
Also someone explain to me why Taweret’s costume idea was basically a discount Captain American Falcon? Introduce a new character with meaningful representation and they stick it with that unoriginal design/concept - like why does a god that takes the form of a hippo give wings to its avatar as their main ‘feature’ (and yes I know the relevance of chimeric wings in ancient Egyptian mythology)?
On the note of character development, the way they showcase the idea of sacrifice early on is a bit strange. So Marc gives up his life ‘in heaven’ to not leave his emotional self defence mechanism behind? After doing all the mental gymnastics to work through his past traumas in the last episode? It makes the weight of the Steven persona’s sacrifice meaningless.
Great strands to work with but the series felt like it was in a mad dash to wrap everything up in 1 episode. I felt they could’ve truncated the first 4 episodes to give this latter half more breathing room - but hay there’s always next season :person_shrugging_tone3:♂
A whole lot of nothing for about 35 minutes and then it ends. The Book of Boba Fett had a lot to prove and sadly I don't think it really managed to prove all of it here, particularly from a story perspective. There is stuff to like here - Robert Rodriguez's vision, for one, which is clearly noticeable in the very From Dusk till Dawn atmosphere, as well as continued recontextualization of the Tusken Raiders - but overall this is vapid in the ways that The Mandalorian's worst moments tended to be. However, this time it's stretched over the course of an entire episode and lacks the beating heart of Pedro Pascal and Grogu to carry it through.
I'm curious to see where they go from here because frankly I can't see a whole lot of places to go. I have zero idea what Fett's overall goal here is, and while I'm sure it will be revealed in future episodes, I can't help but think that, as a pilot, this does a piss poor job of making me wanna continue watching. I like the aesthetic, and of course Ming-Na Wen is a treasure, but this better pick up and fast.
It tries to spin too many plates, and it fails in every sense of the word.
Just for comparison, take a look at Wandavision.
That show consists of 2 storylines, namely inside of Westview and outside of Westview, and both of those storylines belong to the same plot.
Then take a look at this show:
- There’s the stuff with Karli and the flag smashers
- Then there’s all the stuff with John Walker and his storyline as replacement Cap
- It also wants to act as a Civil War sequel by picking up Zemo’s storyline and the Wakandans chasing after him.
- Let’s not forget about Sharon Carter and the stuff in Madripoor
- Oh yeah, there’s also a very ham-fisted and tacked on plotline regarding how Cap was supposed to be black
- And finally you have all of the personal stuff of Sam and Bucky, which also includes the therapist and Sam’s sister
I dare anyone to summarize the plot of this show in a few sentences, you simply won’t be able to because it’s so incoherent.
That’s not even to mention how dumb and poorly thought out this show as a whole is.
It wouldn’t be such a problem if it took itself less seriously, but no, it wants to make a point about how world leaders aren’t uniting us. It wants to talk about what it means to be black in America.
Do I need to remind anyone: this is a show where our 2 ‘heroes’ broke a criminal mastermind out of prison in return for ... intel.
It’s a show that thinks it’s morally justified to have the protagonist throw terrorists out of planes, and then have that exact same character confront someone else about the implications of killing.
And so on, and so on, even to the smallest things.
There’s this scene in the final episode, where a random UN employee just hands Bucky her phone and she’s like: “here’s Karli, she wants to talk to you”. Like, how did she get that phone number? Why didn’t you just write a direct confrontation between Karli and Bucky? They were already in the same building.
There are two things that keep it watchable: Kari Skogland’s direction is very good (loved the first action set piece) and the acting, for the most part, is solid. Erin Kellyman is by far the weakest link, and she lacks any kind of real presence as a terrorist leader. Wyatt Russell, Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan do a lot of the heavy lifting, and I can’t wait to see where they take those characters next.
4/10
Series Review
I'm tired.
Maybe I'm too critical, or perhaps I should give up on the MCU? The MCU fatigue is real this time, and it's getting old. No, this series isn't bad, and neither was WandaVision. But with each new MCU release, the more I'm pushed to the brink. I used to love this franchise, can you believe it? I loved all the movies, and I gave my money to the box office as reluctantly as any other MCU stan. Now, I'm tired. I'm tired of the same old stories, with their important messages, but poor storytelling.
Falcon begins by giving up the shield to the Smithsonian (museum), unknowingly handing the Captain America mantle to Walker. After Walker snaps, he reconsiders his decision. So, he talks to Isaiah Bradley (a black Super Soldier who the government rejected as Captain America), who tells him he won't make it, and becomes Captain America soon after. Was there any revelation here? What did Sam learn? He just went through a training montage, and then he was ready. What a relatable challenge that he went through that I can apply to real life! I just gotta ignore the haters, ya'll!
In some of these movies, the "character arcs" go like this: I want to do this, I face opposition, the opposition turns out to be wrong because..., I'm right, and I win. No one learns anything; all it says is that you're always right, and people who tell you otherwise are wrong. That's an empowering message, but has Marvel's writers stopped to consider that their audience might be the villains instead of the heroes; what if they're the opposition, and they're just wrong, instead of the heroes who are always right?
But this show does a lot I admire; a darker, grittier tone, better action (than some recent stuff), important themes and attempts at character arcs/development. Whew, I'm still tired, though.
As Cosmonaut Marcus writes,
"It was whatever." — Cosmonaut Marcus (https://twitter.com/CosmonautMarcus/status/1385534378239987712)
SCORE: 6/10
What an absolutely botched ending to an otherwise strong show. Spoilers: Monica and Darcy are completely tossed aside, Evan Peters is entirely wasted as Quicksilver in favor of a dick joke, the writers show zero creativity in leaving characters to die and Wanda has ultimately learned nothing about her magic, ending the show exactly where she stood 8 years ago before 'Age of Ultron'. What a complete mess devoid of consequences, leaving characters storylines wide open for projects years away instead of tying character arcs up. Wanda apologises to the town members after tortuing them for weeks and we're supposed to feel bad when her fake children are erased? No, sorry, you're responsible for that. Monica really told Wanda the town should be grateful.... after she released them from their torture slavery. Wanda belongs on the Raft, Avengers need bodycams after this abuse. This is exactly what the Sokovia Accords were for. This isn't a show, it's a promotional ad to go see the next Marvel thing. I thought they were doing something special when the show began, embracing the wierd and unexplained magic in the MCU, but by the end the Marvel formula is intact and the story falls into laziness.
Who the hell was the missing person Jimmy Woo had in witness protection to begin with?
