Can you please stop rating the episode before it airs? Kinda kills the whole point of this site
A really cool idea for an allegory, but it could’ve, and should’ve, gone a lot deeper with its social commentary.
A lot of it feels half baked and not all that sharp.
Also, the characters are flat, and it leaves you with a lot of questions that needed to be cleared up (Why do people go to this place? Who’s behind it? Etc.)
What in the actual f*ck.
I'm a reasonable man, I realize I've been crapping on D&D even more than usual this season but I really do have to give them props for doing exactly what they set out to do. They hoped to subvert our expectations and they did just wonderfully in that regards.
We expected all of that buildup over the years to actually amount to something that at the very least passes for a presentable series finale but instead, we got an incoherent, steaming pile of shit. Expectations subverted!
We expected all of that character development to actually result in a beautiful pay-off that respects the journey of self-discovery each and every one of our beloved characters went through to get to where they are now but instead, we got a painful, disrespectful cycle of character regression. Expectations subverted!
We expected the final season of this show to keep us at the edge of our seats with thrilling writing that didn't subvert our expectations for the sake of subverting our expectations via low-quality shock value-seeking writing, but to introduce plot twists that make sense within the overall narrative of the story but instead, we got CW-level predictable, cringe material. Expectations subverted!
I get it. I really do. GRRM let them down by not getting the books ready in time and so they had to improvise away from his influence, but this? This? For a long while, Game of Thrones lived up to the slogan of its parent network, it wasn't just TV, it was something different, something unique and now to have to see it come to this... it's nothing short of disappointing.
On the bright side though, at least this episode didn't suck completely. The acting, score and cinematography were all on point, so I guess it's nice that I didn't walk out of it having appreciated absolutely nothing about it.
So why do I even bother anymore? I honestly could not tell you, though it's probably a mixture of masochism and a faint sliver of hope that they won't flush our collective investment into this series down the drain by the end of it, just one more episode dammit.
That was a heavily loaded episode. But the writers already said loong beforehand they'd include these topics/are contemplating on how to deal with writing a cop show in these times, so no surprise there. They did a good job, especially not ending on a joke, even if the second episode sets itself free from the context of the precinct to be "fun" again even if it might be for just one episode. It's foremost a comedy after all and making fun inside the precinct is going to be difficult in this last season, given what's going on currently in this world. Completely ignoring it, in quite a diverse cop show no less that never shied away from addressing issues, would be irresponsible. Personally, I am looking forward how - if at all - they are going to deal with what this first episode set in motion in this challenging last season. This show never shied away from addressing the elephant in the room, never too subtle either. But now it's a problem for some?
This was a good movie but not a great movie (this will not be a popular opinion). First the good stuff: Lady Gaga was perfect for and in this role - acting singing, chemistry, song writing - all fantastic. The chemistry between Bradley Cooper and Gaga was believable and, at times, breathtaking. The first two thirds of the movie had a great arch and captured us (as a friend, who watched the movie with me, said, "I could watch the first part of this movie on repeat.") I am also a big fan of about 5 of the songs, and would add them to my library without hesitation, they are beautifully written. Now, the not so good stuff: the last third of the movie was too long - it could easily be cut by 20 minutes, but Bradley Cooper, as director, was more than a little self indulgent with his own scenes (we got the struggle, drawing it out didn't serve the storytelling). Ally's character arch was disappointing. As her star rose she didn't learn to love what Jack saw in her. She didn't learn to take ownership of her own story, the very gift Jack was trying to give her. Ally's story wasn't resolved until the very last moments of the movie, it was eclipsed by Bradley's directorial obsession with Jack's decline, belying the original premise of all the STAR IS BORN movies and lessening her triumph. I guess what moved it from great to good, for me, was that the first two thirds proved it could be great but the last third got hijacked (no pun intended). I give this film a 7 (good) out of 10. [Music-centric Romantic Drama]
Ah, I love it when I genuinely have fun when watching a murder mystery! I hope they'll manage to write another extravagantly entertaining adventure for Benoit Blanc's third screen exploit!
Oh, by the way, with everything that's been going on with Twitter, was anyone else eerily reminded of the mercurial "Chief Twit"'s antics when witnessing Miles Bron's chaotic decisionmaking? I don't think this was originally intended, but that character now definitely feels like a parody of Elon Musk lol
Best Snyder movie so far. Sadly it is deeply misunderstood. Movie is way more deeper and complex than it looks like on first glance.
People don't realize Sweet Pea is the protagonist, Babydoll is a figment of Sweet Pea’s imagination. Babydoll does not exist. Babydoll's story is Sweet Pea’s story. Sweet Pea was sexually abused, killed her sister and is in psychiatric hospital in therapy. Babydoll is Sweet Pea's avatar. Way of dealing with grief, with guilt, and way to manage her current situation and overcome it. Babydoll is also Sweet Pea's guardian angel.
Sweet Pea is the only fully rounded character, other girls represent aspects of her psyche. Babydoll represents strength and courage, Amber loyalty, Blondie fear, and Rocket represents guilt. In the third level reality her psyche fights for the things to get her free from her current state. Second guardian angel (the Wise Man) guides her through. To fully recover she needs to get over her guilt (Rocket dies as a symbol), also other girls represent things which she needs to leave behind to fully recover .
Babydoll is one of those things. She is the fifth thing (“The fifth is a mystery. It is the reason. It is the goal. It will be a deep sacrifice and a perfect victory.”). Lobotomy of Babydoll represents Sweet Pea’s mind of taking control. Sweet Pea needs to sacrifice Babydoll to be “cured”. Escape at the end is a symbol of that process of being cured. That’s why the driver is the Wise Man, he guides her further.
Sucker Punch is Sweet Pea’s journey from “madness” to “sanity”. Movie is philosophical / psychological investigation wrapped in a special effects action-fantasy. As the movie changes realities (mostly in the third reality), Snyder uses more fetishized image of the girls. He uses clichés and cluttered iconography (nazi zombies, sexy schoolgirls). It is a way to detached and disconnected characters from second reality. Second reality, the brothel, is the “main” reality. In which everything happens.
Hasn't anyone noticed that the Meow Meow Beenz app was used identically for a Black Mirror episode? It's basically the same plot but treated differently
It's funny how all these romance movies are exactly the same and yet we still keep watching them. The truth is, we all know what is going to happen before we even watch the movie. But we still watch and still somewhat enjoy them even though they're overly cheesy and predictable. My biggest take away: I want to go to New Zealand!
Watching this episode, I couldn't help but be totally distracted by the fact that they recast Daario Naharis.
I've loved the first two Before movies, but this one kinda felt short... Don't get me wrong, it was still great, but I didn't saw the "magic" I saw on the first two.
Okay, what the f? How did they pull this brilliant piece of cinema off? I am your standard hater of Disney live-action and I am pleasantly surprised they made me enjoy a Cruella origin film. Wtf. I want that little dog Wink. What a boss.
Can't believe this episode ended with them hugging and absolutely nothing else happened after that.
In all seriousness, I thought we as a society were over killing sapphic characters for shock value, but I guess not. What a disappointing conclusion to a horrible season. Phoebe Waller-Bridge created such a fantastic show and Sandra Oh and Jodie Comer consistently knocked their performances out of the park, and for what? Season 2 was already a letdown, but after that the show just became a parody of itself and it was clear the new showrunners had no idea what to do with these characters. The last 3 minutes of this ep were pure clownery. How groundbreaking to kill off one of the leads and leave the other in anguish. I hope Laura Neal doesn't cut herself on all that edge.
I guess at least Sandra got a Golden Globe, Jodie got an Emmy, and they got to dive tongue first into each other's mouths. Good for them. I hope their next projects treat them better.
Ser Criston Cole is a Dragon rider now!
How convinient that the transporter managed to pick up the four people most relevant for the story.
So, this episode I like because it has a good storyline that once again involves the Prime Directive. Picard is faced with a situation in which he needs to come up with a solution which basically has to be in agreement with three parties involved. He manages to solve that brilliantly. The legal problem here is also interesting.
Only the moral speech about using drugs was a bit thick for my taste. And kinda needless. The story itself provides the problems with addiction and I for one always feel a bit patronized when given the moral with with the proverbial raised forefinger.
There is no way you feel emphathy for those astronauts because they are dumb as fuuuuuuuuuuuck
I thought Roland would be more a Clint Eastwood than an Idris Elba?? What are they thinking? Daniel Craig would be a good fit.
Like a big mouth putting his foot in it, this didn't know when to shut up.
The first Songbirds and Snakes movie is better than what I remember of the Hunger Games, but then they tack on another half movie at the end and it all unraveled for me.
I was 6 stars deep through the second half of this Cornholeanus Snow origin story, but then realized there was a third half coming and I had to witness the pacing and story-telling get sacrificed on the altar of setting up a sequel.
Plus, Rachel Zegler is an amazing young woman, but her excess of talent in everything she takes on does not justify turning the movie into a near-musical for her... Just sayin'.
Too much time passed between seasons. Very difficult to remember some of the characters and plot lines.
I have a lot of criticisms but none of them can be worse than the fact that Kitty lived in Korea for a semester and yet still didn't know Korean by the end. They barely touched upon Korean culture; it felt like they just said stuff about Kitty's mum rather than show us stuff; the writing was sloppy; it was so cliche; the characters acted weirdly like why burn the picture of your friend if nothing happened between you . Overall it was a fun watch, but only because I went in with zero expectations
The story wasn't too bad but man couldn't they have given the actors better dialogue? I wanted to rip my hair out so many times. The actors themselves seemed like they were trying the best they could with what they were given.
Also the whole show felt like they were trying to capitalize on the whole Korea trend right now. It felt like they were trying to make a kdrama but more American and they only made it feel awkward.
WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT
Rian Johnson is starting to turn into the white Jordan Peele. He's another one of those filmmakers that loves to work in this niche of subversive genre films that include a heavy dose of social commentary, and I'm all here for it. Specifically, with this franchise we’ve gone from satirizing old money with Knives Out to satirizing new money with this new film (chances are Knives Out 3 will center around a group of homeless suspects). Now, a lot of films in that same vein have been released recently (Triangle of Sadness, The Menu), but I think none of them do the satire as well as this film. To me it’s too easy at this point to simply aim your commentary at these people by making a statement about how stupid and incompetent they are. It seems like low hanging fruit to me, because everyone with a brain knows that these types are vapid and contribute nothing to society. Luckily, Rian Johnson understands this too and goes one step beyond that, filtering all of his commentary through this idea of the glass onion. These people aren’t just stupid and incompetent, but they’re using a veil of eccentricity and ‘complexity’ to hide that. This is a brilliant deconstruction that rings very true for today’s society, and of course you can’t quite escape the obvious parallel with Twitter’s manchild CEO firing himself this week. This subtext is woven into a lot of elements of the film (character, location, plot, even some props), which means that some things are a lot dumber and simpler than they appear to be. I think that will annoy some people, but I think it's quite clever. Like the first film, you get a great cast of colourful characters. Some of them are given depth, some of them are just playing funny caricatures. Daniel Craig owns the whole movie again, but Janelle Monáe comes pretty close to outperforming him. Even people like Dave Bautista do a great job, and it’s because Rian Johnson knows how to use these actors despite their limited range. There are plenty of twists you won’t see coming and the filmmaking is again terrific. It looks very cinematic with the blocking, lighting and compositions, and the score feels very 60s (lots of strings, some minor baroque orchestration), which reminded me of The White Lotus and a certain Beatles song. In the end, what puts it over the first film for me is the fact that the tone feels more consistent here. The more tense and dramatic moments of Knives Out didn’t really hit home for me when you have Daniel Craig doing a really campy accent, and this one just fully embraces that it’s a silly comedy. And it’s a great one at that, nearly all the jokes landed for me. Maybe could’ve done with a little less shouting from Kate Hudson, but ok, it makes sense for the character. Probably the most fun movie of the year next to Top Gun: Maverick, and definitely one of the most well constructed.
8/10
The entire Rose plot has been straight-up bad. This season, every scene with Rose, Unity, or The Corinthian has been bad. The characters are shallow and poorly written, the tone feels completely off when they're around, and the acting isn't great either. This has been a poor finale to end a wildly inconsistent and disappointing season of television.
Boy, has this been an underwhelming season! Aside from 2 or 3 episodes, the writing has felt so generic and uninspired. And I know this is supposed to be for younger audiences as well, but it seemed like they leaned on the childish lines and dialogues way too much this time around.
From what I understand, there’s an outlined plan for the 7 seasons and this has clearly been sort of a new beginning, with the time-jump and everything. The first season was also the weakest, while the second and third were way stronger… I hope it will be the same case now.
Writing is absolutely trash. After first 10 minutes of fellowship of the ring I felt more attached to Gandalf and Frodo than I do with any of the characters in this show after 7+ hours. Even the cgi is below average. To save this show they need to bring better writers onboard for season 2.
Half of an episode just to build up Sky and Bloom having s3x :skull:
immediately starts guzzling that tea
If Vecna touches a single hair of my Max's, HE WILL HAVE TO SEE ME!! I DON'T ADMIT THIS TO HAPPEN!!!
PROTECT MAX AT AAAAAALLLLLL COSTS!!
Billy Porter was the best thing about this movie, cause he was one of the few people who could sing AND act. I hope I won't ever see Camillas "acting" in a movie again.
