Denis Villeneuve is the man!
There’s only one word that came into my mind after watching it: finally.
Finally, a blockbuster that isn’t afraid to be primarily driven by drama and tension, and doesn’t undercut its own tone by throwing in a joke every 30 seconds.
Finally, a blockbuster that puts actual effort in its cinematography, and doesn’t have a bland or calculated colour palette.
Finally, a blockbuster with a story that has actual substance and themes, and doesn’t rely on intertextual references or nostalgia to create a fake sheen of depth.
Finally, a blockbuster that doesn’t pander to China by having big, loud and overblown action sequences, but relies on practical and grounded spectacle instead (it has big sand worms, you really don’t need to throw anything at the screen besides that).
Finally, a blockbuster that actually feels big, because it isn’t primarily shot in close ups, or on a sound stage.
And of course: finally, a blockbuster that isn’t a fucking prequel, sequel, or connected to an already established IP somehow.
(Yeah, I know Tenet did those things as well, but I couldn’t get into that because the characters were so flat and uninteresting).
This just checks all the boxes. An engaging story with subtext, very well set up characters, great acting (like James Gunn, Villeneuve's great at accentuating the strengths of limited actors like Dave Bautista and Jason Momoa), spectecular visuals and art design (desaturated but not in an ugly washed out way), pacing (slow but it never drags), directing, one of Hans Zimmer’s best scores: it’s all here.
I only have one real criticism: there’s too much exposition, especially in the first half.
It can occasionally hold your hand by referencing things that have already been established previously, and some scenes of characters explaining stuff to each other could’ve been conveyed more visually.
Other than that, it’s easily one of the best films of the year.
I’ve seen some people critiquing it for being incomplete, which is true, but this isn’t just a set up for a future film.
It feels like a whole meal, there are pay offs in this, and the characters progress (even if, yes, their arcs are still incomplete).
8.5/10
This episode is alright. Not as strong as the others, but it's still fun. The action scenes are cool, and Loki and Sylvia's banter is fun to watch. Although I enjoyed them venturing down this planet , some scenes seem either too easy or like a waste of time. They could pay stuff off later, but I'm unsure.
Anyway, I'm still invested, but I'm not in as much suspense as I was in the previous two episodes. Wondering "who is this variant Loki?" and "where did they go?" is a lot more intriguing than "how will they survive?!" Like, I don't believe they'll die, or that they'll use character instead of plot convenience to get them out. We'll see.
SCORE: 7/10
Just saying...if Grey dies, there's no more Grey's Anatomy for me. She is Grey's Anatomy so stop flirting with death with her. Yeah, I see a ton of Covid every day. Every single day except when I have the fabled day off. Yes I'm tired of it, but if it'll get people to take this seriously, I'll be grateful. My hospital is filling up. Wish we had fancy face masks like that that didn't require the use of N95's haha. Coworkers are getting it, less nurses and other staff means less days off for those who don't have it. As for hospital capacity, beds mostly only free up when someone dies or goes down to ICU. I haven't been lucky enough to have been on the floor when my patient got discharged. They stay for so long, plus I work overnight, so I wouldn't see it anyway. My floor isn't medical, but it has been converted to Covid. Even before it was converted, I'd float to the Covid floor. Soon we'll have to start using a whole different building for non-covid people there are so many. I'd like us to kick this thing in the butt, but it's just increasing and people are getting tired of isolating and are gathering and getting it more and more. I understand the feelings of isolation, trust me, I do. I haven't seen my family since April. It has lasted WAY longer than any of us could have predicted. We are all waiting for this to be over. We don't know when it will be over, but I'm going to just continue to hang in there. Please guys, hang in there too! We can do this if we work together!
Girl Power! lol... This isn't Peter Pan! This is woke garbage and they changed the entire story...
Neverland is just an boring empty depressing place.
They ruined Captain Hook and they made him sympathetic.
There is no tension between Hook and Peter... Hook isn't a dangerous man anymore and can't even defend himself lol.
They even mention in the movie how Peter would win every time.
The lost boys now have girls in them and they don't even explain why! Not having girls in the Lost Boys was a key element!
In the original they didn't even know the concept of what a father and mother was, but in this movie they do.
They ruined the whole point from the original Peter Pan movie...
Peter Pan is now the bad guy, he is the boss and everyone has to listen to him, nobody is allowed to leave or speak their mind.
They took away the lines of the new race swapped Tinker Bell too, until the end where she says "Wendy, thank you for hearing me." smh
This movie didn't tell the story of Peter Pan they just used his name to make money!
They had a checklist and they hit every box on it.
PSA - Explanation of what the two ladies on the phone are talking about in this episode:
Breaking and entering turns bad for a few robbers. Do you think you'll have some difficulty feeling any sympathy for these people? There is a reasonable chance you will. But maybe you're not dead inside like I am.
I do appreciate this movie for a few aspects. The main thing, and its most important aspect to be good at, is the fact that it doesn't feel repetitive. The story does indeed progress, with new plot elements unfolding the whole way. I was afraid we'd just be stuck in the same horror film style for an hour and a half. Without this, I'd have hated it and wanted to leave after 20 minutes.
The other big positive is that jump scares did actually originate from the story. They (mostly) make sense for what is happening. Of course this is still the cheap way to make a horror movie scary, but when done in a good way I don't mind it.
But unfortunately the film does have a decent handful of problems. The primary one for me is that I don't care about these characters' lives. They are terrible people, and the connection the film tries to create for them is weak. The layout of the location is also not doing it for me. They make this average sized house feel like a goddamn mansion. Someone walks into the next room and it is like they disappear.
Finally, the climax of this movie let me down soooo much. Seriously, it was about to end and I thought it was a really solid one. Then it keeps going and I thought this end was decent. Then it keeps going and I think this end is meh. Then it keeps going and the end is stupid, standard formula horror. This really knocked it down for me.
If you're looking for a horror and you're sort of into the genre, you might like it a bit more. I'll never pick to watch it again, but won't mind if someone else picks it out.
"Where does it come from, this talent for ruthlessness? Seems so easy for them. It isn't about being right, or having the people or God on your side. It isn't anything that grandiose. In the end, victory goes to the hardest heart. " -says June, who does not have a hard heart at all, just a brave one.
"The universe doesn't have a balance sheet." Commander Lawrence
"Yes it fucking does." -June
I had some issues with realism in this episode- I figured she'd stay behind for another season, so wasn't anticipating her getting away- but them finding her like that in the woods felt a bit much. And would all those handmaids give up their spot on the plane to accompany June on her suicidally risky distraction plan? Maybe, maybe not. Then they say Serena is going away because Fred claims she made June sleep with the driver? That felt thin. I know a lot of you want to see Serena rot, but I think the more interesting story is her out. Also so much of this episode was in the dark, just them running. So I didn't give this finale the best grade. But the ending, especially when Luke was looking for Hannah, was powerful.
Apparently, not knowing that a particular condition is more likely for some races than for others is racist.
I appreciate that the show wants to dramatize racial issues and how they come up in medicine. Racial biases and unconscious bias in particular are very serious issues each one of us needs to grapple with.
But this was forced, and logically, beyond even a stretch. It's so ridiculous that I think it undermines the goal: the people who most urgently need to be reached, as well as those on the fence and those still forming their views, will throw the baby out with the bathwater.
Not knowing things is a part of life. There is no such thing as omniscience. If, instead of being met with kindness and compassion, someone is condemned as a racist, I can easily imagine an internal monologue along the lines of Why bother? What's the point? There's no winning., and that is definitely not what we (or at least the show's writers) want.
Doctors miss things all the time. It's understandable. They're not omniscient. They're not infallible. If the reason a doctor missed something were based on racism or unconscious bias, that would be one thing. But merely not knowing a particular medical fact about how a particular medical condition is more or less likely an explanation for a particular symptom for a particular racial group? Calling that racism or attributing it to racism undermines the cause of fighting against actual racism.
This must be the worst episode of Grey's ever. I'm honestly shocked and angry that this is how they decided to write off Karev.
Bringing back Izzie and making their love bloom again, really??? Izzie left million years ago, who cares about her anymore, I know I don't and I'm sure there are a lot of those who feel the same way. And were those recaps of previous seasons with them together supposed to make me emotional and happy? Because all it did was piss me off. She left him without even saying a word, had his kids without having a decency to let him know for 5 years and only told him because he called her by accident. And that is the kind of woman he left his wife for? They made him a real bastard. Jo doesn't deserve this, not after everything she's been through. Plus leaving her by letter? What kind of person does that. I guess he never really loved her at all. If he did, he would have asked her to move with him, so he could be closer to his kids, there's no reason for him to be with Izzie whatsoever. Horrible, horrible conclusion.
Before seeing the episode I thought that maybe he left cause he has his mother's desease and he didn't want to be a burden for Jo. That would be a far better explanation.
