Super cheesy and low-brow. More like a fan-made web-series. Very few people will enjoy this, but the right audience will enjoy the hell out of it.
Filoni and Favreau have done it folks in my world. Let me have the shows and the kids can have the new movies. Good compromise.
I wanted to give this a chance since I loved TCW and Rebels. So even after the first episode turned out to be awful I tried to be positive and open minded. I wasn't even deterred by the rather low rating of 65 %. But when I saw 4,9 on imdb with roughly 25 % giving this a 1 I gave up. I always tell people to form their own opinion but it is hard to believe this is from the same people that did the previous shows.
Maybe I watch some episodes on the side but in general I think I'm done with this.
Now, after I wrote this I read that Filoni created this but wasn't the show-runner and instead had other people run this. And suddenly all falls into place. This was the missing piece of information.
So I finished Part One and had a few hours to think about it. The show is definitely interesting. It’s not perfect but I see it setting-up to something bigger in Part Two. The first few episode are a bit off, not horrible or unwatchable but, does have some questionable pacing, lack of music, and some of the more direct jokes aren’t as funny as I would like them. A lot of the “good” jokes seem to be sprinkled in the background or hidden inside of other dialog, I wouldn’t be surprised picking-up on new jokes on a second re-watch. That said episodes 1-5 would be a 5-6/10. Normally a weaker opening to a series would lean me more towards dropping, however...
The reason I say the show is interesting is that the trailer and promo material advertises the show as a comedy first with some adventure on the side, however, it’s very much a slice of life series with hints of adventure down the line in Part Two. I wasn’t expecting this and I actually like this angle more. In fact I wouldn’t be surprised if Part Two was exclusively adventure focused. Most of the episodes in Part One are about the daily life of the disobedient princess and falling into situations, all the while adding a LOT of world building. Part One seems very focused on familiarizing you with the world, people, concepts, etc... While this is taking place we get short cutaways to an unknown group of wizards/sorceress monitoring the situation in Dreamland, the main location in Part One, suggesting something bigger going on.
I wont spoil anything at the end of Part One but the world building and hints towards a grandeur story definitely make this series interesting and I want to learn more. Obviously these are just promises for the moment but the care put into the world and the slower pace at the start to familiarize the characters gives me hope that this series will offer more. For now it’s a 6/10, good but until we see the rest I wouldn’t put much into the rating.
Also the 2D animation is very good. CGI blending is better than most shows and a surprising amount of the scenes have a lot of animation in areas you wouldn't expect it. Casual walks in the city treat you to scenes with plenty of bystanders moving and interacting with each others in 2D (some are 3D). Lots of other shows would offer stills & pans so this gives this show's world a lot of life.
I have been watching the big bang Theory ever since it first aired. Being an IT student at the time, the uncomfortable social situations and nerdy jokes spoke to me. However, much has changed throughout the seasons, more about that later.
We start out with our four nerdy main characters. There is the recognizable fact of the three people with higher degrees (PHD holding Sheldon, Leonard and Raj) who make fun and feel themselves better than "simple" engineer Howard. There is the desperate search for love coming from both Howard and Raj, and the differentiation between the confident yet single Howard and the timid, uncertain just-as-single Raj. Sheldon is the one who has no sense of what's going on around him, and is only interested in his own world. Leonard is the humble cute guy who manages to get a date from time to time, an inspiration to Howard and Raj, although his on/off fling with Leslie gives us the impression that he isn't really that successful after all.
Then we have the obvious babe, Penny, the complete opposite of our four nerds. She makes something stir in all three of them, but follows the cliché of going out with the "wrong" men, being dumb, and ignoring their advances.
Even though these are all cliche’s, the inside jokes and the disarming clumsiness of the four guys made the first seasons well worth watching. Gradually however, as the show became more popular, the writers started to abandon what once made it so.
With the introduction of Bernadette and Amy the female characters are drastically expanded, but they don't add any real value to the show. Bernadette is the caricature of Howards mother, where as Amy is an attempt to make Sheldon look more human. At the same time, we go from a show with it's own flair to a one-in-a-dozen sitcom. The laughing tape went from being an accessory to being the main engine of the show. The characters became aware they were going to make a pun and started smiling like idiots before they said it, and laughing like people high on weed after someone made it. The longer this series continues, the more painful it becomes to watch. The lines that are supposed to be jokes are simply not funny. The acting and stereotyping are more bearable in a highschool play. And, as stated in another review made before this one, the show changes from laughing with the characters to laughing at the characters. From a nerdy show to a show about nerds.
Conclusion: if you're looking for some nerdy fun, watch the first three or four seasons. After that, it gets the same illness so many American shows suffer from, namely that it becomes a cash cow for the producers and starts a long, painfully slow, continuously prolonged process of dying a silent dead.They never seem to know when to end something great instead of going on to make it something mediocre.
It's A Treat To He-Man Fans, Animation Is Good, But Only Downside is that it has only 5 Episodes
I wouldn't say this was 1) worth watching or 2) well made.
It doesn't strike the right balance of showing Savile to be the monster he was and the plight of the young 'uns he was abusing. I know it is a difficult balance to show the reality of how it would have been and the times/locations/circumstances... But still.
If I were a victim, would i feel this was an adequate representation of what had been done to me...? I can't help feeling, no - resoundingly.
That said, Coogan does a good job in his portrayal which was an elongated impression for most of it.
If the BBC feels they have somehow vindicated themselves here. They have not.
I enjoyed this telling of the Anne Frank story from the side of Miep Giles. Has inspired me to read Anne’s diary.
Even if pieces are dramatized still good to see history shown.
[Disney+] Although there are some creative decisions that can be debatable, especially in terms of updating the story through fictional characters, the series grows as the shadow of the Nazi threat becomes more suffocating. Actress Bel Powley does a great job of developing her character from her idealism and naiveté to a moral commitment to victims of persecution, putting humanity before safety. It has a good production design and a great soundtrack by Ariel Marx that turns Anne Frank into a secondary character, but whose spirit of resistance and dignity permeates the entire story.
For a hard core Star Trek Fan this probably doesn't offer much, if anything, new. And the style is similar to Netflix's "The Movies that made us" which I didn't like much.
But I'm a huge fan of Gates so for that reason alone I keep watching it.
Edit:
Overall an interesting journey through the history of Star Trek. But even as a decade long fan who thought he knows much of the story already, I was asking myself more then once: "How could this franchise become so big and long lived with all what was going on behind the scenes ?"
For me this is the winner for this year's Golden Globes, a series that was not heard at all, It has not the glamour of squidgame or 100.000.000 people saw it, it is a marvellous diamond.
After the excellent Dr. Death, a corresponding theme series that is simply a masterpiece. You do not know what to praise first, the incredible script, the director tricks with the back and forth and where you are that now we saw this and then takes you even further back to show you how he reached in this part of the story! I do not live in the US so i don't know the actual impact and valid facts only what i've seen from movies/shows about OxyContin but the presentation was amazing.
Special mention to Kaitlyn Dever who since she left that miserable politicised comedy she was playing and after the amazing Unbelievable, she now gives another excellent dramatic performance.
This is a MUST see.
A really nice take on a well trodden tale. The old testament spin on a story that's been told a thousand times is really quite special. I won't spoil it at all but when you get to the bit that makes you think that it's all getting a bit silly, stick with it. It works it's way through. Kudos Mr Flanagan, another top effort.
I wasn't alive back then but I was always fascinated by the Space Race. Read many books and watched countless documentaries. I love the movie they made. So, this was very high on my list. And it is utterly dissapointing.
The story of the Space Race is dramatic on it's own. It's a story about what mankind can achieve if they put all their efforts behind it. Even if it was started out of political agendas to prove which system was superior. I think those men, on both sides, achieved remarkable things and I have the highest respect for them.
Based on this series alone, how the astronauts are portrayed, I would have wished them all to blow up and die. They are equally unlikeable, everyone for it's own reasons. I am not against adding some drama, in the end this is a TV show and not a documentary. But this was just too much. You see close to nothing about the training and technical side. Mostly them chasing after women, drinking, and chest pumping contests about who is the alpha male. Maybe some of this did happen, but even than you should find more balance in your story.
Since the first season is subtitled "Project Mercury" I fear there will be more seasons coming about the follow-up programs.
Not with me, though.
It took a bit to get totally into it but after the 3 epsiodes rule I totally fell in love with the show. give it a chance and I'm sure you won't be too dissapointed
High quality show. It's kind of realistic and the show doesn't make you feel like an idiot (unlike so many movies and tv shows these days). There are some minor holes and shortcuts imo but it's fine.
So did he do it?
Not gonna lie, I was pleasantly surprised by the outstanding performances. Mr. Evans' specifically. Great plot, even though I would've loved a more of a "clear" ending. However, I feel like we all know what happened. I watched it in one sitting and wasn't even bored for a second. Highly recommend it!
What an absolutely phenomenal gripping and enthralling series. I’m glued to the screen
I'm kinda surprised at some comments made earlier on the show when the finale was released earlier today. Just finished it, wonderful show. The pace of which the story progresses is just about right, with enough twists and reveals along the way to keep you on the edge of your seat. One of my favorites for sure. I hope tv+ keeps it up with such quality productions.
I would rate the show at "8" after the first season so far. It had highs and lows. They need to step things up a notch. Assuming the run time per episode stays low they need to clean a bit of the useless stuff.
I never had a faible for Mandalorians so I was a bit sceptical at first if this show could interest me enough. They seem to be an interesting bunch with a deep history but this isn't really about them. After all the show is named The Mandalorian, singular. The little yoda-like guy certainly has Disney written all over him there is no need denying that. But at the same time I wouldn't mind to learn more about his species history which is also kind of blank.
For me a first season has to generate enough interest to make me want to come back. I can check that box. The second is the make or break one. Can it keep me interested by following up and adding new things or is the wave ebbing out. Guess I'll see in a year.
Fairly engaging despite being a flawed production. Were the battles in The War of the Roses really decided between armies of only a hundred or so men, and a handful of horses? This was my one disconnect. The fighting was all stilted. However the acting was quite good. And despite it not being 100% faithful to the historic telling, it did a pretty good job. Don't be deterred, it was well done.
I like to watch period shows and I don't look for airtight historical accuracy in them. I leave that to NG or Discovery. As long as the producers don't claim accuracy I'm fine. What I like to see are historical sets, costumes and good drama. In short: entertainment. And that I got. Didn't like all the witchcraft stuff and you really don't see a lot of the bloody stuff. Battles looked rather small.
I'll say this though: if only half of the events are true (forgive me for not knowing English history to the T) with all those betrayals, switching sides, backstabbing, marriage and re-marriage you wonder how they were ever able to built such an empire. No one really does something for the good of the country. They all have ulterior motives and personal agendas. Doesn't seem to have been many honest men or women around. But that's what makes good drama I'd say.
The White Princess is about as good as The White Queen. First, after watching The White Queen, you have to adjust to the new cast, since many of the same characters are present. But, I also like to see different actors' takes on familiar roles. I feel that this part of English history isn't very well-known (at least to me as an American), so seeing it come to life and learning about the conflicts of that time period was very fascinating. Excellent costumes and production design. Loved it!
Not exactly the most historically accurate mini-series out there, but it is based on historical fiction. Regardless, it is very watchable and entertaining. Even if some plot points aren't accurate, I still learned quite a bit about this time period. Only criticism: the main characters weren't aged enough from the beginning to the end. This spans almost 20 years and in the last episode, most characters still around from episode 1 still looked the same. This is just a minor aspect, however, that did not take away my enjoyment of the show.
Wow - This really is surprisingly good!
I simply started it for something in the background during cooking, and then I was hooked - I couldn't help it :smiley:
The fact that this show is made with hand controlled puppets is insane!
This show is one hell of an artwork, and not only that it is crazy entertaining, it sucks you right in.
If you are around my age it will make you feel like you are in your childhood again (though I've never seen the original).
It's just like: "Labyrinth" from 1986, but with beautiful special effects.
BTW here is a 6min making of The Dark Crystal » https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZ0TUOmzpGU
Enjoy the ride!
9/10
Beautifully written, perfectly acted. The layers and layers of complexity, reference to literature, philosophy, art, technology and medicine, all wrapped-up in a retro-future setting make for a delightful, loving experience about healing and hope. This is one of the best mini-series I've ever seen in a long time. It takes its time to deliver a perfect ending, that makes you wonder about everything you have seen.
A weird show that is not for everybody but I really enjoyed it. I love the world they set up with all the little gadgets and advertising. The performances from Emma Stone and Jonah Hill were both fantastic. I like how they were able to do really different stories throughout the season to mix things up. There were a lot of funny parts too.
This is such an interesting balance to Star Trek: Discovery... as though the ethos of these two shows have somehow been swapped. This is light and comedic and trots old territory in a fresh way, and Star Trek: Discovery has gone off boldly where Star Trek hasn't really gone before.
That said, I am enjoying this show's humor and the familiarity of it even though it is absolutely NOT Star Trek.
Forgive, but it is impossible not to make the comparison.
They should make Ortega the main character and change the show's title to Altered Cabrón.
A beautiful, twisted and bleak story filled with awesome moments, music and cinematography. It shows an alternative love story completely different from all those cliché-dramatic moments overused in Hollywood. Just 3h20min of fun, love and crude humor of two characters that love each other but not the world around them. The ending is beautifully shot, showing the danger and automatic assumption that James is a psychopath. His narration, followed by him running for his short life while being on his birthday is so heartbreaking that made me cry in the last second. A boy that had no feelings, made a choice of love.
[5.0/10] There’s times I think we forget how hard it is to make a movie. When you’re a slave to franchise filmmaking like I am, you end up sitting through a fair amount of well-heeled crud, like the The Phantom Menace, or X-Men Origins: Wolverine, or even Star Trek Beyond, and you wonder how so many talented people could produce something so bad.
But we’re also inured to a certain baseline of quality, in the writing, editing, filming, and performances, that a certain budget can all but assure, that we take those things for granted. That’s why something like The Room is so funny. It breaks all the rules, while still spending a good chunk of change, and guarantees basically none of that baseline.
But when you enter the muddy waters of a fan film, you start to understand and appreciate that baseline a little more. A film can absolutely have its heart in the right place, can care (arguably too much) about its characters and about pleasing its audience, and yet if it can’t get the basics right, it can feel undeniably lacking.
That’s the case with Star Trek: Of Gods and Men, the ascended bit of cinematic fan fiction that came out in 2007, after Star Trek: Nemesis ended the Next Generation’s cast’s filmic adventures with a thud, after Enterprise went of the air, but before J.J. Abrams’ 2009 reboot rejuvenated the franchise on the silver screen.
Surprisingly, Of Gods and Men foresees at least some of the basic ideas of the 2009 Star Trek film and even a bit of its sequel. The fan film features an antagonist who goes back in time to try to chop down Kirk’s family tree, and spends the bulk of its runtime in a different, darker timeline where the Federation has gone violent and malicious, and reframes (at least some) of the original cast members as different individuals impacted by the change.
That mostly comes down to Uhura (Nichelle Nichols) and Chekov (Walter Koenig) who were, full disclosure, the reason I watched this film. The film features Tim Russ (who reprises his role as Tuvok from Voyager and also directs the movie) and Garrett Wang (formerly Harry Kim, but playing a different character here), and so allows for a bit of intergenerational Star Trek crossover. In that, it nicely completes the roster of crewmembers from The Original Series getting to interact with their latter-day counterparts, alongside Kirk (Star Trek: Generations), Spock (TNG’s “Unification”), Bones (TNG’s “Encounter at Farpoint Station”), Scotty (TNG’s “Relics”), and Sulu (Voyager’s “Flashback).
In contrast to the original series and subsequent films, Of Gods and Men gives Uhura and Chekov plenty to do, as they are the protagonists of a film whose perspective and point of view is frequently jumbled. The change in timeline sees Uhura become some kind of elder stateswoman on Vulcan, and Chekov turn into some manner of rough-hewn rebel fighting against a version of Starfleet that’s more akin to The Empire. Koenig can’t quite pull of grizzled revolutionary, and Nichols goes a little over the top with the gravitas, but if you can say nothing else for Of Gods and Men, it sees fit to give these oft-neglected actors and characters a chance to have the spotlight.
But it’s a muddled, messy film, with several problems on a very basic level. First and foremost, it’s set after the events of Star Trek VI (as well as after the opening scene of Generations), but looks and feels as though it’s set in the time period of the 1960s show, creating an immediate dissonance that persists throughout the film. The set is clearly a recreation of the one from the TOS era show, and while the movie handwaves this to some degree, it’s still strange to see a film that wants to embrace all the events of the prior forty years of Star Trek and crafts its story and characters accordingly, nevertheless hew to the vibe of the franchise’s earliest years.
It’s also just a listless, logy film, despite numerous attempts to inject action into the proceedings as much as possible. One of the most underrated aspects of what makes a film great is editing (and relatedly, pacing). The scenes in Of Gods and Men take forever, and simply bleed into one another. There is little sense of progress of structure as the film wears on, instead giving us one giant jumble of an adventure that characters drift in and out of as the movie continues. There are events, and even sort of beats in the film, but they rarely build on one another or give a sense of cohesion or propulsion to what’s happening.
The acting is also spotty at best. Tim Russ, pulling double duty as both director and actor, fares the best of anyone, recreating Tuvok with aplomb. But even in a production with professional actors like Nichols, Koenig, and Alan Ruck (reprising his role from Generations), this still feels like amateur hour. Emotional moments are overwrought, character interactions are unconvincing, and villains have all the subtlety and believability of an episode of Power Rangers. The film is full of talented people who’ve shown off their chops elsewhere, which suggests time, money, or both hampered the ability for all involved to get this right.
But one thing is clear -- Of Gods and Men is clearly a labor of love, and that’s the only reason I’d feel comfortable about recommending it others (even if I’d only recommend it to the most devoted of Star Trek fans). It’s clear how much affection those behind the scenes have for these characters and this world. That may lead them to indulge in fanservice a little too much, or throw out cameos for the sake of cameos, or deliver the underdeveloped broad strokes of the franchise without nailing down its substance, but in every frame and moment, you can see and feel how much Star Trek means to the people who created this film, and that gives it something.
Sure, the story is the peak of fan fiction, in addition to creating the “last ride” vibe for Uhura and Chekov, the crux of Of Gods and Men features a showdown between Charlie X and Gary Mitchell, from the earliest episodes of The Original Series. It also features extended, ham-fisted ruminations on freedom or power or some other trite encapsulation of Star Trek’s themes. And most forgivably, the graphics are roughly at the level of ReBoot, a 1994 series that famed Trek scribe Dorothy Fontana wrote for briefly. Of Gods and Men is, in all honesty, a chore to sit through at times.
And yet it’s also the clear expression of those who admire these characters and yearn to remix and imitate their past adventures. The well-meaning folks behind Of Gods and Monsters may not have the resources or the talent to pull it off at the level of those they’re imitating, but that affection comes through loud and clear, to where even a flat line delivery, or out-of-nowhere story turn, or bit of stilted exposition can make you smile. It’s not a professional film, and no amount of professionals involved can seem to overcome the Great Fan Film Barrier, but it’s one made with absolute passion for the material, which is more than many of even the most successful blockbuster films can say.
