This is one of the greatest films ever created, the one that made me a hardcore Charlton Heston fan. I know, the runtime can be a turn-away for casual viewers, but I don't view this as a movie. I've now seen The Ten Commandments twice in the theater and it's an experience. Through this four hour epic, we're introduced to the location of Egypt and every character imaginable, as they're woven into the story re-telling of the Book of Exodus. It's a tightly constructed, but vast world-building film that makes the audience feel like they're there with the slaves and Moses, as the days and months pass in the film's length. The special effects and green-screen composites are cheese and outdated by modern technology, but hold an old-time charm to them, a quality lost in new remakes, like Exodus: Gods and Kings. Cecil B. DeMille doesn't just slap together a shitty historical movie to make money like with shit such as Gods of Egypt, but pays respect and with great care, creates one of the best epics of all time. It's hard to explain everything in such a short review, so I won't bother but just tell you to watch this if you haven't. It's a must. Make some snacks and some drinks and sit down and watch this. It's well-worth your time and you won't regret experiencing the whole thing. Ideally, I'd say see it in a theater with an actual intermission, but that's hard to do, waiting for a re-release and all.
Ouch, that average rating! I'm not going to lie though, I genuinely had a fun time watching 'Madame Web'... perhaps I should be keeping that fact quiet?
I don't know what to say, I found it to be suitably entertaining. I'm sure there are plot holes aplenty (I noticed a few) and it probably makes zero sense/isn't a good adaptation compared to its source material or whatever but honesty... I don't care, it gave me enough enjoyment that I wasn't questioning anything about what I was watching.
The cast are probably the key factors as to why I did enjoy this. I previously knew of Dakota Johnson but hadn't actually seen her in anything properly, I found her performance to be more than noteworthy and she spearheads the film strongly. The trio of Sydney Sweeney, Isabela Merced and Celeste O'Connor are positives too.
Tahar Rahim's antagonist, meanwhile, is poorly written and portrayed, though I personally thought the actor did a good job. I have no complaints with anyone who appears onscreen to be honest. Away from them, the pacing and score are also standouts.
In my recollection of viewing this, I truthfully haven't got any issues with it. If it wasn't for the slight bad murmurs that I did hear about pre-watch (though not much of it as I avoid as much as I can with movies) and the reaction on sites like this post-watch, I'd not be questioning my thoughts about this whatsoever.
As I always say, to each their own. For me, gimme a sequel (as long as the cast remain, mind). Not even sorry.
What is it about religion that blinds people to common sense? How is it possible that average people eat aphid shit off poplar trees, drink sewage leaking onto a statue, bathe in the Ganges river (immensely polluted), send their social security checks to charlatans in exchange for vials of water, withhold medical treatment for their CHILDREN opting instead to engage only in wishful thinking? Because those normally rational people will walk into traffic when wearing their blinding faith glasses.
Fireproof is a stale cow turd wrapped in the undeserved prestige of religion. One of the shouters on this movie record, shadowfeet, claims to have cried watching this movie; a movie that advocates domestic violence. Let me repeat in case you glossed over the last sentence. Fireproof advocates domestic violence and SOMEHOW has a reputation for being a movie full of good marital advice. I can not type this strongly enough: Fuck Kirk Cameron and his twisted world view.
To any person in a relationship who may have seen this movie: if your partner ever raises his or her hand against you that should be the last day you are together. Move out, leave, seek divorce, do whatever it takes to end that relationship. There is no fixing that relationship. To attempt the advice in this movie is sadistic.
How are they still making movies like this in 2023..and there is a part 2 coming in 2024. I am actually concerned for the future of cinema as an art form. Movies like Rebel Moon or even The Creator we got early on this year both consist of visually stunning and breath-taking cinematography. However when it comes down to the script it seems like it was generated using Chat GPT. Where is the creativity in this? I missed when we used to get movies that are actually original, nowadays we only seem to get movies that have been done before with no originality.
Review Rant (because I have nothing good to say about this movie)
Yeah the visuals are great...its fine to be honest, didn't baffle me at all. Cool spaceships, laser beam guns streaking across the dark and things exploding, whatever. Then when you look past behind all this you see recycled plot lines and lazy writing generated by ChatGPT. Take Star Wars, throw in a table spoon of Dune. Oppressed colony fighting bad king? Check. Chosen one destined for greatness? Check. It's all been done, seen and shat on before.
Don't even get me started on the characters. We got the generic "tough women warrior queen with a mysterious backstory" accompanied by a weak male. I was really excited to see Charlie Hunnam in this but god damn it he tried, the character was just boring and we all saw the betrayal coming from a mile away.
The story itself takes light years to get anywhere, first half feels so dragging and when they finally starts to pick up on the action it just ends up being soulless cluttered and just flashes and bangs, it ultimately leads up to a "final battle" where your 2 character fight to death. of course instead of making sure your opponent is dead you just throw him off somewhere and go about your day, I think we've all established where that goes. YOU HAVE TO MAKE SURE HE IS DEAD.
If you seek movies with interesting plot, originality and well written characters, you won't find anything of sorts in this movie. Do yourself a favor and watch Dune.
So unoriginal, watching this just feels like watching a recycled version of every movie it's based on. Snyder saying that this is his version of Star Wars doesn't excuse any of it, that's just lazy.
It's a good looking movie overall but the set and action pieces lack originality, there's nothing visually memorable here. The same can be said about the characters, they're so incredibly run-of-the-mill and cliché. I like the storyline of recruiting members throughout the movie but it's done in such a repetitive way and we barely get to know any of them. Not enough interactions between them either. It's as if scenes are missing from the movie to connect everyone.
There's at least a lot of action throughout the movie, especially in the second half. While they're nothing we haven't seen before, they feel pretty engaging and the slow motion is used well—I'd even say not enough slow motion for a Snyder movie. If I had to pick, my two favorites would be the "riding the Harry Potter Hippogriff, Game of Thrones style" and the "Sith woman vs. Spider woman" sequences.
There's a few exceptions but the acting is bad, unnatural cringe dialogue, underwhelming story and too much exposition dumping. Very disappointing overall. Not excited for part 2. Apparently there's an R-rated version of this, why not release the two versions at once?!
There is a reason why this was dropped even by Disney Star Wars.
The whole movie is a meh. I could sleep through segments of it, and it wouldn't affect the story one bit.
Sadly, got through it all wide awake.
About at half of the movie, I started to force myself to power through to the end,
but not one unpredictable thing happened during the entire runtime.
The real problem begins when you try to deconstruct it scene by scene.
If you begin finding all that is wrong with it, you cannot stop, and it takes a review longer that the script of the movie...
From bad script (felt like patchwork), stiff dialog, lousy characters, bad acting, bad accents, predictable tropes and stereotypes,
to the terrible by-the-book directing with fight slow-mos and quick cuts.
The CGI ranges from OK to terrible, but even practical effects are bad and look cheap, not to mention the costumes that look so anachronistic and out of touch.
If you have free time to spend, dont watch this, instead watch again the original source movies.
Bottom line, and the biggest problem with this movie is that there was nothing good that caught my eye.
It is one of those movies that you watch maybe once and never again.
More garbage from Zaddy, this is a modern blueprint for what not to do when you’re making operatic sci-fi/fantasy. You could point at the obvious issues, such as the worldbuilding and story ripping off every other property in existence without putting much of its own spin on it (Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Dune, Harry Potter, Mad Max, Excalibur, Seven Samurai, The Matrix to only name a few), but that doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface of what’s wrong here. Snyder’s often praised for being this great visual stylist, but with Rebel Moon he might just deliver his most poorly directed film. Multiple shots are out of focus, the score is really manipulative and overblown, the staging of the action feels amateurish, there’s often a lack of proper depth of field (it kinda feels like those Star Wars shows on D+ due to the poor use of the volume stages) and he’s generally wanking off way too much with all the slo-mo here. Moreover, this has one of the worst scripts of the year due to all of the cheesy, overwitten dialogue and ridiculous amounts of exposition. It’s very hard to find a scene in this where the presentation and writing are somewhat organic or manage to create meaning in a way that feels artistically instinctual. Instead, it’s this lifeless mismatch of stale ideas. Add to that the fact that Snyder doesn’t know how to emphasize the strengths of the limited performers he’s working with here (besides Hounsou and Hopkins, who can handle themselves regardless of the director), and you can only conclude that Disney made the right decision by rejecting this.
1.5/10
Uncharacteristically, I am going to begin my review by giving my rating. I give this film a 7 (good) out of 10. My audience exit poll, asking people for a rating out of 10, yielded: one 7, a bunch of 8s and 9s, one 9.5 and a 10. I will now explain why I my rating wasn’t more enthusiastic.
I always get a little concerned when I have high expectations for a film and I had been counting down the days to see this one. I was a big fan of the CAPTAIN MARVEL movie (9 out of 10), the MS MARVEL series (7 out of 10) and was the Monica Rambeau story from WANDA VISION (8 out of 10) and was looking forward to the blending of those very different tones of production.
So, that was my mindset before walking into the prerelease viewing of this movie - high anticipation.
My first two impressions were related to the production quality.
1) My attention to the story was interrupted by a clash between the CGI and 3D. The 3D images were sharp but the background images were blurry, not a good start for a movie that is mostly CGI, I immediately wished I had gone to a non 3D viewing.
2). The trailers had already spoiled that the the plot twist of this movie was that all three main characters are caught up in a cosmic entanglement in which they arbitrarily swap places with each other throughout the universe whenever they use their powers. What was meant to be a cool effect ended up being a chaotic (if comedic) mess that made the fight scenes almost impossible to follow while disconnecting the audience from the characters and the action.
As for the rest of it, the story telling (besides the muddled character swaps) was fun and actually had a great story arc with some nice threads. The characters and their performances were engaging and delightful and well executed although there was little actual character development, beyond the expected bonding of the team of three (a crucial component of storytelling for me). I was particularly amused by the Flurkin (sp?) hijinks set to the soundtrack of Barbra Streisand singing Memories from CATS and the mini-musical and reveal on the planet Aladna (sp?).
However, the last scene of the film really excited me as it teased where the TV version of the Marvels might be going with a tie in of another favourite character in the TV Marvel Universe. The mid-credit scene tease almost brought me to my feet because it hints of a resurrection of favourite Marvel U franchise of mine. (Man, it was hard to write these without spoiling them), Don’t bother to wait for a post-credit scene, it was merely a sound effect drawn from inside the movie, itself.
Thanks for bearing with me for this L O N G review. [Superhero Adventure]
Devs fits right in with Garland's themes and style, and I love his work. I find cohesive, thoughtful limited series to be very enjoyable as they don't get repetitive or outstay their welcome as some shows can but have time to explore their characters and themes in considerable depth. Devs is squarely focused on determinism and the implications of perfect information about the predetermined future. Even more than Annihilation, Devs is more of an intellectual show that is filled with tension and interesting ideas than a show with an emotional hook. I don't know how much I like the climactic choice of Lily throwing the gun and breaking the perfect prediction, and that's treated as this crazy thing. If the model is perfect and is this world and not a many worlds prediction, then that shouldn't be possible. If the prediction was simply from a parallel world, then that should've happened earlier in some of the predictions Forrest and Katie watched, and there would be no reason for that to ruin the system. It's not a deal breaker but wasn't quite as satisfying as I was hoping. I do quite like the ending of them dying and being in a simulation, though. I'm definitely happy I watched it for the way it made me wrestle with the implications of determinism and am eager to see more content from Garland.
I was a bit bummed out that the core relationships that the drama stems from are pretty basic, but I guess that they were kinda necessary to have some grounding for all the crazy complex ideas to bounce off of.
The reveal about the name was real dumb, I really enjoyed that. The show has moments of obvious humor, like cuts & angles $ awkward interactions you'd see in a comedy, but it comes off as almost off putting in the context of the usual heavy droning abstract music, people staring into the camera mournfully aesthetic. The effect of that is unnerving and it feels like it should throw the tone off balance, but personally I found it made me more engaged. It's like the show telling me that it's not trying to be realistic or recreate known human emotions and dilemmas. Everyone talks so plainly and slowly & with a consideration that people in real life (or in most movies) only ever find briefly. The 'drama' of the show is mostly about people coming to terms with big metaphysical realizations, so I guess it makes sense that they just say what they think a lot.
I appreciate that the focus was always on the character reactions. The twists and revelations are presented as being wild and huge, and I guess I haven't seen all of them in the specific arrangement they have here, but each of the individual beats and ideas are common to a lot of sci-fi. The drama isn't "what are they going to do" it's "how would that affect a person". Like for as much as dweebs like Elon Musk will talk about 'what if the world was a computer simulation' or whatever, they never really extrapolate past that into the things that would be actually interesting to think about. I don't give a shit if Deckard was a robot or not, but it's really interesting to think about what it means for the world around him if he was, right?
SPOILER FREE REVIEW ( the blurred paragraph contains a content warning and some things about the first movie.)
Disclaimer : my review contains no spoilers for this sequel, but there is heavy language and adult themes in this review, because.... i am writing a review about a movie called "Don't Fuck In The Woods 2" so..... yeah. [one content WARNING trigger warning i will give is that there is depictions of SA in the first ten minutes. so... if you have decided to watch a horror / slasher movie called "don't fuck in the woods 2" then.... please be aware that this movie contains a nonconsensual encounter between a woman and a creature within the first 4 minutes....
REVIEW
in terms of ultra low-budget horror / slasher / thriller / borderline pornographic whatever you want to call it, Don't Fuck In The Woods 2 carries VERY strongly as a direct sequel to Don't Fuck In The Woods.
The opening credits is an awesome heavy metal rendition and summary / recap of the first movie in old-school hollywood style of actually HAVING opening credits.
this is a gritty, low budget sex slasher and it far exceeded my expectations. Don't Fuck In The Woods 2 is coherent from start to finish in ways that would shame many AAA blockbuster titles. The setup, character introduction and development are all solid, and the progression of the storyline as well as inter-scene progression and dialogue and camera work is outstanding throughout.
the MUSIC and pacing, along with respect for the first movie is commendable. Again, i am striving to reveal as little as possible because it's a spoiler-free review and i believe that every movie should be judged based on its own merits and experience, unaltered by exterior factors: i will risk saying this: Don't Fuck In The Woods 2 is a refreshing addition to the low budget slasher scene which pays tribute to Don't Fuck In The Woods while remaining its own movie. Don't Fuck In The Woods 2 elevates itself far beyond the perceived gimmicks of its genre, and it creates in itself a wonderful world of terror while paying subtle homage to a few body-horror and thriller classics [unnamed, due to the spoiler-free nature of this review]
Don't Fuck In The Woods 2 is a shining example of what sequels should be.
i very strongly believe small budget films like this should be celebrated wildly.
i love this movie. 9/10.
3 Thoughts After Re-Watching ‘Scream 3’:
I hesitated rating this entry a 9, but it’s definitely somewhat inferior to the first two… HOWEVER, not by much AND there’s a lot it gets right. It pays homage to the original in more ways than the second did. The character development is on point. Sid gets some great moments (“I’ve heard this shit before!”). And the ending is literally perfection. The series truly could have ended here, with the biggest and most beautiful bow on top.
What might make it feel inferior is that it felt a little too Hollywood, with its rando cameos and over-the-top scenes and plot points (that voice changer is quite a stretch). But this could be excused by the fact that Hollywood is a big part of this chapter, and that this series is ALL about making movies. In the end, it gives the franchise a fresher feel… something sequels tend to fail remarkably at.
Another reason why it doesn’t reach the heights of the last two is the supporting cast (minus Parker Posey, of course). But the truth is, our legacy trio are the heart and soul of this franchise. Every other new face, since the original, will always and forever pale in comparison.
Bonus Thought: Roger Jackson is an icon. This whole series would be nothing without his Ghostface voice.
"To the Undiscovered Country - The future."
I lost track of how much talent is in this episode. I kept getting distracted by Bruce Boxleitner reprising his role as the President of Earth. What a lore-rich and beautiful episode this is. I think there is something for everybody. From the classic humor in the simulator, to getting deeper into Krill lore, to seeing multiple space battles.
To the above quote, this is The Orville's version of Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. Right down to the Abrahamic leader figure. And this time the subversion is that peace goes to shit and all anyone can do is simply prevent going to open war on multiple fronts. The wildcard, that I'm mad I didn't see coming, is that Ed got Teleya pregnant and she now has a Krill-Human daughter that could upset galactic politics and cause an uprising on Krill. Ed is now sitting on an H-bomb, and he might have to press the trigger.
Overall this episode has such a warmth to it, even on Planet Ibiza. All the vistas we get to see, all the held shots and silent moments. Seth said that every episode would feel like a movie, and so far that holds true. This is best one so far, and also one of the best of the entire series.
I cannot stress how meaningful it is to me that the camera is allowed to be in a fixed position for several seconds at a time! After finishing Obi-wan, I am so tired of free-roaming cameras and additional shaking being purposefully added in post when the scene is just someone talking.
I'm just going to keep saying it until it stops being true. Right now, there are exactly two scifi shows airing that are telling stories of this caliber. Neither of them are called Star Trek, but both of them are being worked on by Star Trek alumni. I'm at least grateful that science fiction that prioritizes smart storytelling is still an option. Gene would be proud of both of them. And I'd like to think he prefers this one. :)
After 2 episodes: Main couple has great chemistry, though you could tell everything from the huntress girl's face. So the twist that she knew all along wasn't a twist at all and I was shocked that they felt they need to do everything from her perspective so ppl knew she knew. Also, for very old vampires, the adults including the sister are so dumb/naive. Idk, this whole liver thing, I was 100% sure they're going to start believing she didn't kill her but somehow they were more convinced?! Like how?! Even with the mention of the brother I don't think he could be acting like her but doing such stuff so I find sooooo unbelieveble I couldn't watch. If it were a straight main couple I don't think I would be watching passed that point but well... I crave anything sapphic and I really want to give credit to the main actressess which are still unknown.
UPDATE after whole season: first and last episodes were the best, so the showrunners know how to make an impression, also I'm so disappointed that they stick to making Oliver bad, I really liked the twist with him not being responsible and I hoped they gonna leave it at that. I get that he might want the revenge but his last words about power wasn't that logical for me. Nevertheless, I didn't want him to be the bad one after the reveal of his past.
About the point with adults being dumb, it somehow vanished BUT there were so many moments when sth was revealed or sth just happened and I wondered how a person would react to this or if someone did sth I wondered "well, they still dont know about this" at it was revealed in the next convo that the adult already knows it. Like, it infuriated me not only bc it wasn't shown that the person get to know it but also it wasn't revealed HOW the heck they get to know the things. The least infurationg example is after Juliette's First Kill it wasn't even mentioned. The first thing is that in one ep the whole family believed she killed viciously and were afraid that she might be a murderer, then after 2 eps of lies Margot says that she knew all along that Juliette didn't kill anyone, and just another ep after that Juliette is after the First Kill, happy strong and without even hiding it and noone from the family asked who the heck she killed, only to be revealed at the 7/8 ep that she buried the body and Margot being shocked at the stupid idea. LIKE WTF!!! Idk if I just ask for too much logical behavior from a YA tv show after all those Riverdales and Gossip Girl and whatnots but jesus the parents are supposed to be old vampires !!!! HAVE SOME INTELLECT!!!
If you can turn off your brain maybe youll survive this.
These new Disney+ series are developing into the the modern, overbudgeted equivalent of direct-to-video films from the ‘90s.
In an age where popular and accessible television is continuously pushed to new and exciting heights (Daredevil, Money Heist, Ted Lasso, Stranger Things, Arcane to name a few), these recent shows banking on the Star Wars and Marvel brands feel amateurish, schlocky, and often read like bad fan fiction.
Look, Boba Fett in the original trilogy is nothing more than a visual.
He’s not really a character, I think he has about 4 or 5 lines, but he became popular because of his look.
You can’t just throw me in a story where he’s the main character and expect me to care without putting in the work.
It’s a show that operates in Disney’s new business model of throwing references, ‘member berries and empty spectacle on the screen, while the important and engaging stuff (character, story, drama, emotion, filmmaking) are reduced to an afterthought.
Granted, that’s pretty much the same problem that I have with a lot of IP related content from the past couple of years, but this show in particular feels so calculated, focus tested and cynical, it’s gross.
Even the production kinda sucks this time around (compared to The Mandalorian), it looks really ugly and washed out, more like Marvel than Star Wars.
Where is the voice of Jon Favreau?
Where is the voice of the director of Iron Man, one of the most character driven and vibrant blockbusters of the past 20 years?
This show is not even close to being up to par in just about every sense.
Spielberg can still make magic with a camera. The cinematography, the lighting… many shots evoked the golden age of cinema, bathing the actors in light that makes them shine or shimmer, conveying emotion as well as their acting does. And the cast, for the most part, are excellent. Zegler is a breakout. DeBose lives up to an intimidating legacy with aplomb, radiant and charming in her highest moments and heartwrenching and righteous at her lowest. Speaking of that legacy, Rita Moreno is a legend who brought me to tears; she takes a song that felt simplistic and sappy and infuses it with decades of hard won experience and worn down hope. And Alvarez and Rivera infuse what were stereotypical roles with humanity.
So much care was taken to update this story. Anita gets a little more closure. The Sharks get more screen time. Class and race are put into sharper focus. And the choreography invokes the original while being fresh. Most of the music and lyrics still don’t stand out for me, but they’re working with what they have. And sequences like the America number elevate them. Most of all, I appreciate the attempt to represent Latinos so fully. In The Heights excluded the darker skinned; this gives them their due. The biggest slight against the film is Elgort. I appreciate the attempt to give Tony more depth and edge, something he lacked in the original. But he lacks the conviction of the other actors, and his crimes make the romance with Maria even more awkward and unhealthy than it originally comes off as. He feels almost predatory, and Bernardo nails him dead-on when he says it feels like he’s using Maria to feel new and better; she’s a fixation, a symbol.
Still, West Side Story is an event, and a great one at that, taking a story with flaws and sanding them out to make it one I enjoy much more.
@derrgoo - True Dat!
Look, when I see Frank Grillo, I'm in. I know, maybe not for an inspiring master class in thespian excellence, but, at least a for couple (or few) Jason Statham(ish) bare knuckle beatdowns betwixt mitt fulls of Orville Redenbacher (EXTRA Butter).
But this cobbled together mish mash of Sci-Fi memes, tropes, cliché's, and corny, phoned in dialog , as well as c-list versions of FX swiped from Battlestar Gallactica, Stargate SG1, Galaxy Quest, World War Z, along with Ed Wood Jr level direction, costuming, and editing, is one you probably want to miss, unless squeezing into a gimp suit and being flagellated by Kathy Bates has some weird appeal to you. (no disrespect intended toward Kathy Bates)
Perhaps if Monsieur Willis would pull his cranium out of his lower ejection orifice long enough to breathe some fresh air, clear his head, and decide if he REALLY has any desire to hone his craft or just continue to phone it in and live off of "Die Hard" residuals, he would get the opportunity to prove us wrong and seek redemption from his azzhat ways.
But bloody hell, when you can even screw up a Saban Films gig, it may be time for a long cruise with boat drinks and your favorite babe, cuz you don't have too much further DOWN the celebrity ladder to go before it's buck-wheats.
C.J. Perry on the other hand, can handle any firearms in my collection whenever she wants. (inside hot girl with 50cal joke)
Update: Now that we know that Mr. Willis as been suffering from aphasia, brought on by an undiagnosed (mini?) stroke, I am willing to retract a cinema sin or two for his listless performance, but not for the overall awfulness of the movie in general.
Get Better Bruce, and enjoy your retirement.
Chock-a-block with old school mega stars, and a virtual who's who of in front of camera talent, the oh so very horribly titled "Boss Level" (a hat tip to the 8 bit video games of yore?) is a surprisingly entertaining take on the "time loop" tropes of "Ground Hog Day", "Edge of Tomorrow", "Source Code", and so forth.
I came across this unsung little gem purely by chance on a streaming site, and, was going to give it a pass, but upon looking at the all star cast, mostly in smaller roles, I became intrigued as to why they would "stoop so low" as to grace this film with their presence. Now we all well realize that Mel Gibson, as great of an actor as he is, has had more than his share of career ending faux pas, misspeaks, and errors of judgement, so, his appearance isn't that surprising, although, thankfully, he hasn't yet fallen to Bruce Willis' levels of derision and animosity among his fellow thespians. But Michelle Yeoh, Naomi Watts, Ken Jeong, and Will Sasso? If this were a "directed by Martin Scorsese" joint, or a Sci-Fi "Heavens Gate", I could get why folks would jump at the chance, but Joe Carnahan is better known for such "shoot em ups" as "Smokin Aces" "The "A" Team" and "The Grey" Movies.
The thing is, with a better title and a slightly altered cast, I really think this would be a bankable actioner rather than a Hulu "straight to streaming throw-away. Frank Grillo does a fine job as the reluctant protagonist, but, I could also see Jason Statham wheel kicking his way though this one. Swap out Selina Lo with Lisa Liu as Guan Yin, ("...who has done this"...) and things start to get interesting. In fact, if you squint just right, you can almost see the main tier stars the entire hit squad was substituting for. (Queen Latifa, Michelle Rodriquez, Peter Dinklage, to name a few)
Yet, it still WORKS, and also manages to bring a bit of freshness to a well worn genre. Plenty of humor as well as great action and practical stunts throughout. Also, the ending wasn't wrapped up with a bow, and even there, they aurally "paid homage" to the ending of "Inception", leaving the viewer to ponder what happened. I liked it, and I can whole heartedly give it a positive recommendation.
This is a trashy show. You don't start episode 1 of a TV show on The CW network expecting something from HBO or AMC. I'm not sure what all these negative reviewers were expecting when they started this show. If you take this show seriously, then you're watching it wrong. If you're watching it for fun, just to tap out at the end of the day, maybe to shut your brain off so you can watch an overdramatic storyline that will have no effect on your being, then do give this a try. The overall storyline is ridiculous and completely unbelievable, but this is a teen soap drama. For a teen soap drama, I think it's very well-produced.
Script & Story: 6/10 – Like I said, the storyline is ridiculous, but the story does get better.
Acting: 8/10 – The four main actors are still fairly early in their careers, and you can tell which ones are less experienced, but they do get better in the second half of the first season, when they become more familiar with their own characters. Plus, the acting from the parent figures (e.g. Madchen Amick, Skeet Ulrich) helps provide more emotional realism to make certain scenes more convincing.
Set Production & Costume: 8/10 – I love how they designed the "small town feel" to their filming locations. The natural wilderness of Vancouver, British Columbia helps a lot in some of their scenes.
Characters: 9/10 – I'm not crazy for the lack of development for Archie, but they did really well in developing both Betty and Jughead. The introduction of Veronica's father in the second season will definitely help Veronica's character development, and I'm very confident Archie's character will undergo some changes in the second season too.
Cinematography: 10/10 – Some of the shots in this show are truly beautiful, especially for a teen soap drama.
