This movie looks like it was made by someone still in film school, but on a bigger budget.
The movie is a collection of cliches and poor directing choices from beginning to end. Writing (character, dialogue and plot) is poor, music is off-putting, and does match the atmosphere or is too in your face. Visuals are okay, however questionable editing and directing choices undercut this. Acting is meh at best.
Better to skip this one if you have something else (better) to watch, you won't miss much.
The first one already did not do so well, mostly excelling in original design, decent CGI and it's (attempt of) focusing on characters. Part 2 continues this tradition, but sacrifices the few good things about the first movie with just a grander scale.
Boring, unfunny, poorly written and lackluster acting. Even as a family/kids movie, there are many better films out there.
'Die Hard' in space but bad.
A (very) dark/black comedy about war and the deterministic and powerless situations soldiers can find themselves in, doing (arguably) useless things. Even as a viewer your hopes for a win will get thwarted every time.
Even though this all does not sound like good entertainment, it somehow proofs to be the opposite. To find the humor in the world this mini-series creates, proofs the acting and writing skills involved with this show are not just average, nor an afterthought. It (at least) tries to depict a (semi-)realistic world, and does not venture into intentional offensive comedy just for a shock effect.
I would not recommend to everyone, but it is definitely worth the watch if you are ok with a less than regular style of comedy and can enjoy or dealt with a (largely) lack of positivity in a story.
A high quality political action thriller with several twists and turns. From the very first scene it got me hooked, and even though it does not manage to continuously serve that same high tension, it kept me locked to my screen. Definitely worth the watch.
The actors brought their A level, writing is decent to good (except maybe some loose ends in the last episode that are rushed) and the choreography is well done.
My two main points of criticisms concern (mostly) the last episode. The first being the very last twist at the end with Nadia being a bad guy after all. And secondly that mental health problems are too much downplayed. They are more being used as a plot device, while not giving character development or consequences. The threat of (untreated) mental health problems is more of an external threat than one that affects the character(s). Like how in the last scene, as soon as the protagonist sees a therapist, everything will be fine (like -hinted- his relationship with his wife will be totally ok too.)
Enjoyable movie that does not overstays it's welcome.
I recognized the story while watching (maybe I saw the National Geographic episode that was dedicated to this, or through some YouTube channel) and I felt like it was done well without getting too unfaithful to the original story (I have not done my research on this though, so don't take me word on it.)
The aim was clearly to go for a more realistic experience, and try not to overly sensationalize the plot or visuals. And at times the movies leans more toward a (visually more darker) 'The Great Escape' rather than a 'Shawshank Redemption'. Although 'Escape From Pretoria' does not reach the heights of either of those aforementioned prison classics, the movie is worth the watch and can stand on it's own well enough.
PS. I had no issue with the 'Harry Potter effect' that is mentioned in some of the other comments. I think the reason for that might be that it has been a while since I saw any of the HP films, while at the same time I saw several other movies of Radcliffe. To the others I would recommend to try watch him in some of his totally different roles, like the absurd 'Swiss Army Man' and the more recent 'Guns Akimbo'. The humour might be a bit odd, so I can't give any guarantee you like it. Or you can try 'Imperium'. I did not see that one, but it had decent reviews and is a lot more serious.
This is the first episode I personally felt a bit disappointed about. It felt not very 'amazing', but rather forced instead. Maybe there was too much backstory to cover for a 1 hour episode.
Next Gen is not the worst animation movie you will ever see, and definitely is watchable, but too simplistic and flawed to be worth more than a single watch. I would also not recommend it for kids considering the theme, the level of violence and (too?) obvious bleeped swearing.
Story is bland and predictable, lacking some character depth and several plot holes. I won't blame it too severely on that, even though many (animated) kid movies proof that's not necessary.
Most importantly, the animation is inconsistent. There are some (very) good moments, but overall (especially the humans, fluids and backgrounds) look outdated and more like a Saturday cartoon, then a movie. They clearly focused their efforts on the big battle at the end.
I know the movie intents to be messy, but for me personally it didn't work. Too often it felt forced, which made it either into a gimmick being messy for the reason of being messy, while other times it felt messy in an unintended way.
The exposition is probably the worst part of the film. In some kind of attempt to mimic Deadpool or other recent meta/3rd wall breaking movies, it uses narration a lot. And I mean really a lot. It looks like they had to use narration in order to make the movie understandable and messy at the same time, without making its runtime too bloated.
The idea to make the movie hectic is in essence not bad, it can fit well with the Quinn character if done correctly. The execution just left a lot to desire, and it affected many characters in a bad way. They became inconsistent, and/or lacked screentime, background (except for aforementioned narration) or motivation.
Also: I enjoyed Ewan McGregor until I didn't.
Also: I enjoyed Mary Elizabeth Winstead until I didn't.
'Spencer Confidential' is an average run of the mill action-detective movie, and it reminded me a bit of the (direct to TV/video) detective films of the 90s. It is never great, but it also never gets too bad either. The story is fine, although a little predictable here and there. The acting is decent, same for the dialogue and the fighting and action scenes.
Just a decent movie without ever really surprising the audience. Don't expect a masterpiece, and it'll be fine.
Good to watch with friends, or when you are alone and want something light to watch.
I feel kinda cheated from that fake out with Picard his death. I don't know why the writers tried to put several high emotional stakes into 1 episode, with several of them feeling unneeded, while neglecting many loose threads.
Overall, this show is very good, but after this episode I have a feeling some of the writers have difficulty with creating overall story structure. With (high budget) series being more and more like movies these days (and this series definitely having the allure of one) I also expect more from the writers to treat the stories and characters with more consistency, and not cram too many different stories to follow or (fake) drama into a show. They chose for a season overarching story instead of an episodic one, so a disappointment at the end like this affects the whole show, not just a single episode (although the cracks started to show in the last episode already.)
It is not just Picard's death fake out. Rios and Agnes matching was dumb (but at least it was a hinted at, although without clear explanation) and made no sense for either of the characters. Seven of Nine and Raffi (which tbh was my least favourite character to begin with) romantic involvement tease at the end felt like I was watching The CW network, and made completely 0 sense. Starfleet (Riker) flying in last minute also looked like a result of the writers getting stuck. Soji her motivation for her choices were remarkably underdeveloped. Why did the Borg cube weapons have to be activated, when it is not used at all, except to get abused by the villain. Why do all the synths just agree with whatever Soj/Sutra/Saga say or want. What are the flowers? So many questions are left unanswered, so why did they introduce all those things so close to the end of the season?
I hoped the evil synth overlords would enter the stage, and turn out to be very different than anyone would have expected. I think that would have been far more interesting, match better with Star Trek themes (curiosity and exploration)
I feel disappointed after having a pretty good run this season, that they ended it like this.
Great show worth watching, even though it's second season does not come close to the quality of the first one.
The franchise became chaotic and messy from all the backpedaling after fan criticism. Because of this, the 3rd trilogy feels incoherent and without a clear vision, which damages the overall story. This last part is still a good and enjoyable film, especially in the blockbuster 'genre', but it can't rise above (no pun intended) it's competition.
Poor film with shallow scripting, mediocre action, and uncompelling story. The characters are rather one-dimensional and many plot lines don't go anywhere. Ending is also highly unsatisfying.
After the terrible 'Olympus', and the even worse 'London', I expected more of the same terribleness in this 3rd installment. But somehow it was not that bad. It still has many of the same flaws the earlier ones had, but they are overall less severe, and it even looked like they tried to add some story to it (although not that well executed, but at least they tried?)
Still far from a good movie, but this one I could at least enjoy. My surprise says more about how bad the first 2 in the fallen installment are.
A bit of a messy episode, mostly prelude to this seasons conclusion episodes and main enemy.
It sure is a big fanservice teaser there at the end, but as a lover of Voyager I had a genuine Holy S.... moment!
[Written after episode 3]
I am very delighted by this new series. Stewart is always a joy to watch, even now in his older days. The visuals are great and the music is just fantastic. I am not so sure about the story, it is somewhere between average and very good, depending on how the story will develop itself. What I am little worried about is the focus on secondary characters (they barely feel like secondary sometimes considering their screen time), that we will (probably) only see connect to the main character and story near the end of the season. It kinda feels like filler or irrelevant at times, while also taking some of the mystery out of the story. Those are no big complaints though.
And even if all else was just average, the music alone makes it worth watching.
This is starting to go somewhere. I hope the return of Jack is more than just a one time cameo.
Average action movie that for some reason is lacking in VFX while it is supposed to excel in that.
Not only the CGI is wonky, even lightning and coloration is simply terrible at points. Best example is the 'night' scene at the harbour, which is filmed on a way too bright day. I never saw moonlight bounce of surfaces (forehead, hair, boats, water surface) that brightly! xD I have no problem with darkening a day shot scene itself, it has been done for decades in various ways and degrees of success (although it can make a movie feel a bit dated) but this was clearly a case of thinking ANYTHING can be done in post, which is simply not true. Although this movie wanted to show how advanced CGI/VFX has become, it became more proof in what way it still fails (regardless of the reason why.)
Most action scenes itself are enjoyable though, with a highlight being the motor chase scene. Even a prolonged wrestling fight/hand to hand fight and an underwater fight don't feel too confusing, which is worth a compliment. Fast paced, without jumping all over the place, and dares and succeeds to use some longer than average shots in the middle of dense action giving a proper situational awareness to the viewer.
The story is not great, but also not terribly weak. Better than the average action movie for sure, but it won't win a price for storytelling anytime soon. The focus is obviously put more toward the action, and that is fine.
This is also noticeable in the dialogues. which are never memorable but also not become too crazy. Although it can get a bit flat or cringy sometimes. Especially in moments when the acting is also failing. In general it is, again, not terrible, but it lacks passion and in some cases can be lackluster, while in other cases it can be called over the top.
Overall enjoyable movie, and to me it did not feel like a waste of time. But also I would not recommend it quickly, and a good chance it will be forgotten in a few years time.
I think the others said it very well, this film can be best described in one word: Boring!
It feels like there is missing an episode between this one and episode 10...
There is not enough there to make this moving interesting. They had an idea, but it is not worked out well. So we end up with a movie with little content that tries to distract with visuals that are more annoying than anything else.
There are simply too many things that do not work for this show. I don't know what this show is trying to be. Luke Cage? Gotham but less silly and over the top? Amazing Spiderman 2? xD
The dialogue is often sloppy (even more than on an average CW DC show) pacing is horrible and subtlety is hard to find. As far as I can tell, this is not an intentional, dark comedic Gotham way, but in a (depending on who you ask, more) terrible way. Also the acting is of inconsistent nature, but the actors don't have much to work with anyway.
One of the few things that is working for this show is the music. I am not a hip-hop or rap fan, far from it, but even so the music was what I enjoyed most of all in the first season.
My standards for the CW DC shows are not high, they have their (big) flaws but ' Black Lightning' fails just at too many aspects and was simply a drag to get through.
SPOOOOOONNN!
Ridiculously silly, so random and very funny. Exactly as I remember it from the cartoon.
Although this show is a few years old now, I had it on my to watch list bc it sounded worth checking out. I am not even halfway the pilot episode, and this show is already getting on my nerves. Looked like someone was challenged to get every cliché possible crammed into a single episode. And if I have to believe the comments, this is supposed to be one of the BETTER episodes of the first season? xD Hard pass.
This was one of the most incoherent movies I watched in a while. I got lost so many times, that I cannot blame just myself for that anymore. Not even the best visuals would have saved this movie.
Amazing for the beautiful music, as a documentary however it is not so great. Treat it as a live-coverage of the concert with background stories and 'behind the scenes' material.
I recommend this show, if you can withstand some a lot of cynicism.
Quality varies heavily per episode, some are written poorly and just do not feel 'finished', while others manage to get original, thought-provoking and almost feel like a full movie. The view on the future is sometimes/often so pessimistic (especially with the amount of bad endings) it can break immersion. Acting and cinematography is (usually) above average. They managed to create an enticing universe through seemingly unconnected stories, and all things considered it is definitely a unique world they try and often manage to create.
