How does this at all related to the high republic period, we see nothing apart from these witches and stuff, so boring, the chanting part was like some musical, so cringe. Also witches supposed to use magic, not force, this is all wrong.
Good job making Jedi look evil and witches sweet & peaceful, what the actual f? Jedi never took away children without parents consent. Also kids are already too old, why would even Jedi test them, they are not supposed to be eligible at this age, why even bother?
So it was the Jedi who raided the place and burned it to the ground to kidnap the kids hence the guilt is it? What the f? Osha is super traumatized, conflicted, old, and too attached, 10 times worse than Anakin, why go this much effort for those boring twins? ZERO sense
Wookiee Jedi was the only good thing in this whole episode.
[7.0/10] Eight years. Five seasons. Four captains. One ship. One infamous mutineer turned galactic hero. And I still don’t quite know what Star Trek: Discovery means.
That's alright! The show has had multiple showrunners and multiple creative voices at play. The series reset its premise at least once, with the jump to the far future, and arguably multiple times. Characters have come and gone. Ships have been retrofitted and become sentient. Species new and old have phased in and receded.
It’s okay if, after all that, even the overthinking viewer can't boil the robust (if not quite infinite) diversity of Discovery into a single idea or meaning. At the beginning of the show’s final season, Michael Burnham herself wondered what it all means, and I’ll admit, I’m not more equipped to answer that after the end of the show’s five year mission than she was when it started.
What it means, in immediate terms, is that the Progenitor mystery is finished. Michael and Moll’s twin journeys into the portal (alongside some disposable Breen mooks) leads them to a liminal space, fit for slow-motion special effects, gravity-defying fisticuffs, and cheap puzzle-solving.
Much of that feels a little gratuitous. You can practically feel the episode showing off instead of advancing the story. Why Burnham and Moll need to have a Matrix-esque anti-gravity brawl before the mandated alliance and sudden but inevitable betrayal is beyond me. But I like the setting and the slower pace the show adopts at times within it. Despite the questionable “movie every week” promise of the series, this is the rare instance where Discovery genuinely feels cinematic, and the pace and cinematography have a lot to do with that.
One of the big problems with Discovery’s aesthetic overall is that the sterile sheen on everything often gives the show’s backdrops a semi-unreal quality that detracts from the convincingness of the presentation. Thankfully, that totally works in a quasi-magical portal realm created by billion-year-old aliens!
The endless stretch of a fantastical environment, the way it’s punctuated by extravagant quasi-baroque architecture, the hidden path to central setting, the puzzle that leads you to some mystical parental figure spouting purple prose -- they all give “Life, Itself” an unexpected Kingdom Hearts vibe of all things. But for something meant to be elevated above even the everyday wonders the average Starfleet captain experiences, that approach works.
Granted, some of the path toward the Progenitor tech feels rote. All of the cryptic clues and vital totems come down to...arranging a bunch of glass triangles? You can derive some thematic meaning from that (“The in-between times matter as much!”) but it’s an oddly mechanical answer to the latest riddle. Moll giving Michael the ol’ el kabong and getting punished by the alien alarm is a bit too predictable. And the all-knowing ethereal being from beyond, come to dispense the great wisdom, is a big cliche.
But I like where they land. The rap on Michael Burnham in the fandom is that Discovery is too hidebound in its need to make her the greatest and special-est captain to ever captain anything. (Nevermind that the franchise has done the same with Kirk, Archer, and if I’m honest with myself, sometimes even Picard.) Here, though, when the Progenitor representative tells Burnham that she is the only one worthy to wield such incredible technology, Michael demurs.
She acknowledges her own flaws. She points out her own limitations. True to Federation principles, she disclaims the idea that any one person should have this power. And given the freedom to create life, or annihilate it, or use this amazing tool however she might wish, Burnham chooses to destroy it.
There is poetry in that. It’s a strange obverse of Groucho Marx’s famous quip, 'I wouldn't want to belong to a club that would have me as a member.” The trails of clues left by the consortium of scientists was meant to test the mettle and the heart of the person chasing them, ensuring that they had the right disposition and perspective before they were granted access to this awesome power.
I can appreciate the poetic irony that the only soul worthy of wielding that technology is the one who would see its potential for death and destruction and choose to destroy it instead. It’s a conclusion to this story that, if a bit anticlimactic, feels lyrical, philosophical, and most importantly, Trek-y enough for a finale.
Unfortunately, it squeezes out just about everything else. Dr. Culber’s peculiar spiritual connection? Well, he magically knows the frequency for the portal box, and is just content with the unknown now. The end. Stamets’ desire to leave a great scientific legacy? All it takes is a twenty-second speech from Burnham and a quick (albeit admittedly sweet) bit of solace from Adira, and he’s good. As for Adira themself? They get another attaboy and a few hugs, but I guess they mostly completed their arc in the last episode.
What about Rayner? Well, he offers a bold solution to the stand-off with the Breen and remains steady in the face of danger, but doesn’t get to confront his onetime tormentor really, and again, pretty much wrapped up his character journey earlier. Tilly? She comes up with a cool science-y thing, which is on-brand I guess. But her soul-searching over the Academy leads to...a mentorship program? Really? That bog standard thing is her big epiphany? Sure. Why not? Even Moll goes from murderous and duplicitous to being amenable to Michael and cool with Book without much compunction, another major character arc that feels terribly compressed.
Look, it’s admirable that Discovery wants to give all the members of its crew something to do in the finale. But unfortunately it means that almost nobody besides Burnham gets a chance to really put a capstone on their journeys across the course of the series. That may be fine for well-liked but sporadic recurring characters like Admiral Vance, President Rilak, and Commander Nhan,and President T’Rina. (We even get to learn that Kovich is freakin’ Agent Daniels from Star Trek: Enterprise, among others.) But ironically, in an episode about how Burnham has the humility to step aside on the brink of extra-dimensional anointing, her story crowds out everyone else’s.
Thankfully, the exception to the rule is Saru. One of the iconic moments in the lead-up to Discovery’s premiere was his trailer-worthy line that his people were “biologically determined for one purpose and one purpose alone: to sense the coming of death. I sense it coming now.” When the series started, there was a timidity, even a rigidity to Saru. Despite absconding to the stars, he had that fear-based social conditioning within him.
And yet, over the course of the series, he’s arguably changed more than anyone else. He lost his ganglia and lived to tell the tale. He shared the truth of his homeland and rekindled his people’s culture. He’s been through an array of harrowing, potentially lethal events and come out on the other side. He’s even found courage in matters of the heart.
So it is rousing, then, when he stands off with a cruel Breen warlord and doesn’t blink once. Where there was fear, there is now force. Where there was reticence, there is now courage. Where there was timidity, there is now daring. Doug Jones kills it, as usual, and if there’s one thing this finale deserves credit for, it’s showing how far Saru has come: from the anxious officer preaching caution to the confident ambassador making bold bluffs to save his friends on the strength of his mettle alone. He’ll go down as the show’s best character in my book, and I’m glad “Life, Itself” gave him his moment in the spotlight.
The episode at least has a solid structure to keep things manageable. We have Burnham and Moll going through the Door to Darkness on the one hand. We have Rayner and most of the usual Discovery crew working to hold off Moll’s goons from the Progenitor device on the other. We have Saru and Nhan holding off another Breen faction with trademark Federation diplomacy. And we have Book and Dr. Culber sneaking through battle lines in a shuttle to keep the “portal in a can” from drifting into a pair of twin black holes. The balance among and derring-do within each thread is satisfactory at worst.
That last part is a big part of the episode’s mission, not because of the practical mechanics of destruction avoidance that have become old aht for Discovery, but because it’s a sign of Book’s love for Michael. And sure. I buy it. But I don’t feel it.
I don’t mind Book and Burnham together. It’s not a detriment to the show in any sense. But from the second Book popped up in season 3 as an obvious love interest, everything about them has felt pat and inevitable. So while I think they’re perfectly fine and perfectly plausible together, it never felt like the epic, essential love story that the show seemed to want it to be, especially in this finale.
I won’t deny the aesthetic power of the two of them reuniting at Saru’s wedding (which looks incredible, by the way), all gussied up. I’m not made of stone. You put two attractive people gazing deeply into one another’s eyes on a luminous beach with the music swelling, and you can get something in the moment. But they mostly spout the usual romantic cliches, made all the more stilted with oddly artless dialogue, before the romantic rekindling that was never really in doubt takes place.
Which means our epilogue, showing their shared future in the world’s coziest cabin, is pleasant but not quite moving. It’s nice that Burnham gets a little peace, that she and Book have a son on the cusp of his first Starfleet command, that she gets one last dance with Discovery. But that's about where it tops out. “Nice.” Not the touching goodbye to a long run the episode seems all but desperate to convey. We even get an impressionistic sequence on the bridge that feels more like the cast bidding farewell to one another in costume than the characters saying their goodbyes.
You can appreciate the attempts here. From another explosion-filled conclusion to a Tree of Life-esque sequence of creation to an artsy, golden-hued effort to gin up the emotion from putting a capstone on five seasons’ worth of adventures. There are some big swings here, which I admire, and you cannot fault the show for a lack of effort in this finale.
But in the final tally, it still leaves me a bit cold, and I’m still not quite sure what it all means. In the Progenitor’s big sermon, she suggests a positively existentialist reading on that question on a cosmic scale. We supply our own meaning, whether it be through exploration or scientific advancement or familial bonds. Discovery makes a few vague suggestions as to the possible takeaways, but affirms that the franchise’s values of infinite diversity in infinite combinations applies just as well to one of the essential questions of life. There are a multitude of meanings and possibilities out there, in the wide scope of people out in the world (or the galaxy), and in what drives us within our hearts and souls. I can appreciate that answer.
But the closest thing the show offers to an explicit answer comes from Bunrham herself, naturally, and the episode’s title. The meaning of life is “Life, Itself”, with the idea that our experiences can't be reduced beyond that, necessarily. The purpose is simply to be, to form bonds, to have those experiences, and share them with others. It’s a bit of a tautology, and more than a little trite, but there’s something to the idea that the meaning of life is to live.
That meaning extends to Discovery itself. I can't tell you what the show means, or how it coalesces into a greater whole, because quite frankly, I’m not sure that it does.. Instead, it simply is. These adventures happened: some good, some bad, some rousing, some dull, some memorable, some easily forgotten.
It’s a fool’s errand to predict a show’s legacy. From aspiring franchise flagship, to fandom punching bag, to something that was simply there, Discovery’s risen and fallen in esteem over the course of its run. It could earn a critical reevaluation down the line or sink down into the dregs like some of its predecessors. But through it all Star Trek: Discovery was there. It delivered five seasons’ worth of adventures, expanded the canon, and took the franchise further into the future than it had ever been before. Its whole may not amount to more than the sum of its parts, but those parts, those individual adventures and stories, will remain. I’m not sure that Discovery has a deeper meaning than that, or if it needs one.
Better than the previous one. This brings back the classic buddy cop action-comedy genre. The directors have surely improved the story and action sequences. Kudos for bringing Reggie back!
This is definitely not a movie for everyone (most people?), but it is definitely a movie for me — I loved this thing. The voice over/humor is hit or miss, but I did not find it annoying, and I often found it funny. The action sequences are phenomenal, but the editing is chaotic and often handheld-like. The story and characters are just a means to drive the movie forward, and to go from one set-piece to the next, often building and expanding in ridiculousness. The end fight had some absolutely visceral moments. A lot of the action is so over the top that I just laughed and had a great time. Not the last fight. That thing is a drag out, dirty, amazing piece of choreography.
Bad score/needle drops. The music did not fit a lot of the scenes.
Man. What an ending. :flushed:
Fuck around and they going to kill something.....
This probably one of the boring Kdrama storyline ever, the premises actually good however the story doesn't lead to anywhere
There's so much character, but they failed to make the audience relate or care the character's struggle.
The ending was so so meh, there's not even a asteroid crash scene!!
So frickin dissapointed. Luckily i skipped a ton until the end. And glad this super boring drama has over.
Oh MY! another great episode! I am still uncertain about this relationship Roc got Ole boy! Then, how did they find out where Roc lived at? Hell, she just moved there?! The streets forever talking no matter what.
For the 1st episode it is really good.
Hands down the best ending of any tv series I've ever watched.
Just when you think it's a parallel world revenge drama, it turns out to be a hilarious drama of soul searching through the past, 9 out of 10 for the first 15 episodes and 0 out of 10 for the last, I simply don't see the point of the middle 13 episodes existing, just watch the first and last episode straight away.
I’m surprised at the low ratings for this film, I thought it was excellent.
It’s a simple tale, told well.
Lots of action from start to finish, great acting and production etc.
It’s a 90 minute film, but it seemed to be over very quickly; which shows how involved I was in the story.
It’s different, not predictable and I loved the simplicity of the story.
Great film!
It's not a surprise that with Mike in the episode, it's immediatly more interesting than the previous ones. I know that I would enjoy the rest of the show much more if he had stayed.
Destiny is all.
Sad to see the show end but it was a great run.
I´m a gamer and never played Halo more than 5 minutes. I dont care if it doesnt follow the source material or if he took his helmet off. This is an incredibly awesome action sci-fi show! Just enjoy it!
A highly enjoyably Neo Noir movie that illustrate perfectly the snowball effect of violence and its detrimental effect but also the snowballing impact of our own choices, it depicts how it is often hard for the youth to find their own place in the world and to escape this sort of claustrophobic society they live in while dealing with family struggle and multiple form of abuse.
The movie has some flaws such as the length, the montage that could have been better, and a very noticeable problem when it comes to the rhythm, nevertheless for his first feature film Kim Chang-hoon proves that he is an extremely talented director and that we should be attentive to his upcoming projects.
Very nice movie.
8/10.
Writing-wise, this is one of the best sageuks I've ever seen (and at this point, I've watched a whole lot of them).
I don't know how else to describe it beside it being smartly written. The characters were interesting and flawed, with multiple layers and complex emotions. Their actions were always motivated by solid reasons, and even the villains were clever in the way they plotted their evil deeds (which is not actually the norm in base of my observations so far). I was hooked throughout, and actually found myself being surprised by some of the twists and turns the story took.
The show was like a baduk game in and of itself, with the two opponents constantly trying to outsmart and outmaneuver each other, both when it was the King and his Gidaeryeong, and the King and those seeking to control him, which I really loved given how prominently the game was featured. There was a constant struggle for power going on, with the knowledge that any move had to be carefully considered because a wrong step could lead to catastrophic results (much as it was shown during the very first episode).
Also, there were a lot of different instances were it was mentioned how the characters were blinded because of how they were "captivated" by a certain emotion. Be it a thirst for revenge, or an overwhelming love, or anything in between. Which again, I liked the tie in to the show's name and theme.
Of course, it was visually stunning, like all sageuks usually are, and the OST matched the show well, even if it was not very memorable. The acting was top notch all across, with Cho Jung Seok shining especially bright in his range from tyrannical King to lovesick man, he really excelled in portraying a deeply complex character. Shin Se Kyung's character reminded me a lot of who she'd played in Rookie Historian Goo Hae-Ryung (also a marvelous sageuk fyi), a smart woman, confident in her abilities but somewhat limited by her circumstances.
The only reason I'm not giving Captivating the King the full 10/10 rating is because the romantic spark between the leads was sadly missing. I loved how mature, deep and settled their relationship felt, but the heat that comes with good chemistry was sadly missing. I bought they cared about each other, but didn't feel the attraction. When they kissed, nothing happened.
Either way, it was an amazing show and I had a great time watching it.
It's a fighting shonen. Nothing less, but absolutely nothing more. I regret watching it (season 1).
The show just has a super shallow plot/execution. This 100% obvious narrative is more suitable for young teens, but the violence is so graphic sometimes that the show doesn't seem to be entirely for young teens. I kept waiting for themes to evolve, as is often the case with good shows, and they just don't. The ultimate evil is defeated by hitting it harder than they hit it for 15 episodes before.
Extremely overhyped show. Didn't like it personally. Felt really forced, lacked a strong plot and felt too dramatic and cringe at times. 6/10
To see the rise and fall of Franklin Saint was poetic. From a naive kid trying to get in the dope game to being used as a pawn to sell drugs, and get rid of the competition to ending up like his dad Alton strung out. But at least he is free from the chains he once gladly put on.
Gonna miss this show!
I like when the kdrama industry tries to work on some ScyFy dramas but this one was extremely boring, I hope it picks up fast because there's a lot of budget in this one
A very engaging true crime story.Worth the watch.Highly recommend
Mostly good. The dialogue didn't always convince and there were a couple of plot twists that seemed kinda stupid. But for the most part, it was enjoyable, with characters that I would like to see more of.
OCN always given us the best Season Premieres.
musical episodes are the worst type of episode and you cannot change my mind
It's funny to see bad reviews for this movie, and a lot of criticism towards JJ, but it's clear that all the choices made in this movie was to correct the choices made in The Last Jedi, the movie that was hated by all the fans till yesterday, but now people are praising.
The Rise of Skywalker is a great movie, specially for fans, it's a great way to end this saga, filled with fan service. I don't think I can say more than that without spoiling the experience for everyone.
All the critcs you see here, or on twitter, are coming from people who thinks star wars, a space opera, should be a deep and complex movie with fanfics about romances.
No joke, this single episode is the best Star Wars I've seen since the throne room sequence in Return of the Jedi. I can't think of anything else that comes close except maybe the ending of Rogue One.
Well, fuck you FOX for cancelling this.
