Random person: "Do you always get teary eyed on Snapes death scene ?"
Me: "Always..."
Well, well, well. Why, is this an Amish production of The Count of Monte Cristo or just the weirdest circle jerk I've been invited to?
As someone not overly fond of anime, I found Rising of the Shield Hero to be a total mess that somehow kept me watching. I'd need a full novel to air my gripes with the show, but I'll try to keep it short.
Starting out as a pretty standard Isekai, the course of the anime is upset by an early misadventure, making our hero pretty unwelcome in the world he was summoned to save.
I've only come to be familiar with the Isekai genre, in which the characters, often Japanese teens, end up in a video game type world with an absurd level of strength relative to the average person, but RotSH fits the mold very well.
From the very beginning, our heroes are barely surprised to be summoned in another world. One has a bow, another a sword, a spear or a shield. "Yeah we've seen that in MMORPGs, move along" they say, despite apparently not being aware of what a tank is. The show goes on a whole story arc insisting on the importance of the lives of NPCs, despite having a literal health bar shown on screen.
The characters are cliche to such an extent it can become amusing, they are completely oblivious to the bad intentions of people around them. Most of the cast is completely one-dimensional, those accompanying our hero in particular have almost no agency and behave in a comically irrational way that sometimes border on deranged. The backstories of the secondary cast come out of nowhere and just serve as confirmation that they strictly conform to the cliche archetype they're meant to represent.
Despite that, and much more (passive protagonist, unengaging story, poorly defined world), the anime does attempt to embark on a more elaborate story than a standard Isekai and depicts more complicated interactions between characters, even if it fails at doing so. If you're just an occasional watcher of anime, I wouldn't recommend Rising of the Shield Hero, but some anime aficionados might be interested in its nonstandard story and dark themes.
I hesitate to comment, as the comments of this movie seem to be infested with Q-Anon crazies filling their pants with glee about a known Q-Anon-believer starring in a halfway decent movie. Because yes: This film is somewhat mired in controversy as Caviezel is an admitted Q-Anon-believer. This, however, does not echo in the movie. Unless you think all C.S.A. is a conspiracy, in which case I feel for you deeply.
And yes: Halfway decent, because even though (or because of) the movie is billed as 'low budget', it's still a very decent movie to watch! The theme around kidnapping and exploiting children is approached with some care, but without pulling punches. Not sensationalist, but not shying away from the realities of this "business". So for that bit: More that worth the watch, whatever your stance on the actor is. The last part of the movie is a bit of a let-down though. The film takes a wrong turn somewhere, and turns into an action romp but fails to take in account the earlier tone. So if you want to watch a good-to-great movie: Stop watching the moment he goes into the jungle. If you are in for a fair-but-flawed movie: Watch it all.
All in all worth your time, unless you are hung up on the cuckoo idea's of the main character.
Unlike many, I went into the theater to see this movie with no primer. The only message I got from this movie was "God does not like child sex trafficking and we should do something about it", and I still don't know what this movie was trying to say other than that, because quite frankly, I don't care. I've heard the lead actor Jim Caviezel is connected to the whole QAnon conspiracy craze, and I feel like that's the only reason he felt the need to add the post-credit ticket mutual aid section to the film, because while it's important to understand the importance of issues like child sex trafficking, I do not understand why else the American political right-wing would latch onto this movie other than if there was some hint in the movie they agreed with that just I didn't get that was connected to the right wing media's obsession with covering this movie and supporting it. My father made me go see it before I left home for college. That's the only reason I went to see it. It's an okay movie, but I wouldn't give it a score any higher than a 5/10.
how could a film that bases an entire storyline around a Ratatouille joke not be absolutely fantastic?
I was recommended by a colleague to watch this show. To put it bluntly I was sceptical - it seemed just like a kids cartoon, and I am in my mid 30s - but I decided to give it a go, mainly because he kept saying "trust me"!
Over the past month I have watched the entire series and must say I was quite impressed. While it definitely is aimed at a younger audience, like all good children's stories it appeals to parents and children alike. If anything, it appeals to adults because it reminds them of what they loved about children's stories as kids.
The first season took a few episodes to get going. It took me a while to get into it and embrace the characters. The early episodes tend to be generally self-contained stories, however towards the end of season 1 the story takes off, and the story become much more serialised. From then on out it is a really enjoyable ride all the way through to the series 3 finale. If anything it gets better from season to season.
The animation is first rate for TV. I have never really watched any anime (or anime-style, in this case) series before so I was definitely going into this green, but I found the quality to be first rate. The characters were also very well written, and the constructed world of element benders was believable within its mythos. I highly recommend this to kids and adults alike. Better still, watch it with your kids.
At the end of the day, they are just telling good stories, and who wouldn't enjoy that?
I'm sorry but I really didn't enjoy this movie. The acting was alright but not enough to carry the movie by itself. The plot was straightforward and never made me care for any of the characters, it felt like everything was glossed over. Not a single relationship, be it between rivals, couples or family members made me feel anything, to the point that I even forgot that some characters existed in this movie until they were shown for another brief period. The plot shows you events (serial killer for example), but never expands on it, so it feels like it was tacked on and could have been cut to make the movie shorter. Speaking about length, the 3 hours runtime is really too long, and it hampered my enjoyment of this movie even more, because it started feeling like a slog halfway through.
I think that the movie didn't pique my interest with any unique features, the plot, acting and cinematography were all okay, but prolonged over a 3 hour period made me dread the time I spent watching the movie.
Midsommar is a complicated beast. Those going for something as linear as Hereditary will be immediately disappointed by Midsommars somewhat convoluted plot elements and meandering pace. I sat in the cinema as the credits rolled by, deep in thought about what I just watched, and if it was any good. Nothing really sat well with me, and the film didn't really connect upon immediate completion, but I gave it time to digest.
Ari Asters two movies are very much at odds with each other. Hereditary slaps you with it's excellent presentation, pace, sense of dread and quality of acting on display. Then, upon further inspection, it's woven plot elements and symbolism shine through on subsequent viewing.
Midsommar is very much the opposite. The film almost dawdles in it's presentation and doesn't fully attack you with it's acting chops or narrative (although Florence is simply stunning in her portrayal of Dani). Midsommar more presents it's parts in a very matter-of-fact fashion, and then leaves it up to you to connect the dots of both the plot and what's on display. While there is far too much to unpack in this small comment section, I'd just like to detail some of my favourite themes on display in Midsommar, and why it went from a 6/10 during my cinema viewing, to a solid 8 - 8.5/10 upon reflection.
--- LONG DISCUSSION OF SPOILERS BELOW THIS POINT ---
One of Midsommars central parallels is the individualism/selfishness of Western life and it's stark comparison to the commune we are introduced to. Examples of this are: During the intro, Dani is going through the trauma of a suicidal family member and her boyfriend, Christian, is encouraged by his friends to abandon her in her time of need telling her to see her therapist as it's not his problem. Christian echos these sentiments directly to Dani about her sister, telling her to leave her alone as she is just doing this for attention. Upon arriving at the commune in Sweden, Mark is unwilling to wait for Dani to be ready to take shrooms. Josh, knowing of Dani's recent trauma involving death, subjects her to the suicide of the elders for his own thesis and research. Christian uses the situation to further his own academic efforts, much to the annoyance of Josh. Everyone is acting in their own self interest regardless of the emotional toll this takes on their friendships. This is a stark contrast to how we see the commune deal with distress, emotion and personal issues. When Dani sees Christian cheating on her, the female members of the commune bawl, weep, scream and cry along with Dani, literally experiencing her burden with her to lessen the load. As described by Pelle, the commune "hold" you during your distress, helping you cope and living through those emotions with you. This is further cemented by the scene earlier in the movie, shortly after Dani's sister commits suicide. We see Dani hunched over Christian's lap overcome with emotion, screaming out the pain of the loss of her sister. Christian is anything but present however, his eyes vacant as if he weren't there with her at all. This is possibly my favourite theme of the movie, as it really paints how alone we are in modern society regardless of how many people we surround ourselves with. How many people are actually there for us in our time of need? Sure, they might be physically present, but are they actually there, sharing our pain? It's truly terrifying to think about.
My other favourite theme is who is and isn't a bad person. I've seen many people online say they think Christian is a horrible boyfriend for how he treats Dani. While I can understand their position, I struggle to see how Christian is the bad guy for his actions. Christian finds himself in a dying relationship which he is mentally checked out from but decides to stay to help her through the grief of losing her parents and sister. Christian even goes as far as to bring her on vacation with him to help her through her trauma, even though he wants to split up with her. Would the audience have prefered Christian leave Dani right after she lost her family? That would have been MUCH worse. Do these actions warrant what happens to Christian? I don't think so at all. Christian is so misunderstood in this movie, I can't wait to see it again to draw more conclusions on his character. Is Josh a bad person for wanting to fully envelope himself in a foreign culture? Although we know it is largely for academic gain, Josh does seem to love learning about the culture of these people, wanting to see how they operate and know every intricacy of their faith. Does this warrant his murder for trying to document their sacred texts? Should an outsider be murdered for enjoying and absorbing someone elses culture and customs, or should they be thanked for their interest and passion? (Sidenote, I see Josh's character as a direct reflection of the usual racial stereotypes we see in movies of this ilk. Usually we see the white academic researching the savage native/minority tribe, but Josh is the exactly flip of this, which is a nice touch). Were Connie and Simon wrong for coming into another culture and expressing disgust at their customs? Should they have been so outwardly disgusted and vocal about their disapproval while being welcomed in by the commune? Sure it didn't warrant their ultimate fate, but this small subplot asks an interesting question about outsiders attempting to shape and alter other cultures and customs as it doesn't sit with their ideals.
Other small details:
While it's directly conveyed to the viewer that the red haired girl is attempting to cast a love incantation on Christian via pubes in his pie and runes under his bed, very little attention is given to the fact that Christians drink is a slight shade darker than everyone elses. From the tapestry we see at the start of the festival, we know exactly what the red haired girl has slipped into his drink :face_vomiting: Fantastic subtle horror/grossness.
Pelle talks about how his parents died in a fire and the commune helped him through the trauma of that loss. After the ending, it's pretty clear the fire wasn't an accident, and they evidently died for some kind of ritual.
Artwork above Dani's bed at the beginning shows a girl with crown kissing a bear. While direct foreshadowing to latter events, it also asks the question if this was all fate. Dani's sister's final message reads "I see black now" (potentially a reference to The Black One) before killing herself and her parents. Were Dani's parents 72 and this was the end of their cycle? Was Dani's sister already a distant member of the commune?
Runes are scattered all throughout the film to foreshadow certain character arcs or add more meaning. My favourite hidden rune is the doors to the temple, which when open, make the rune for "Opening" or "Portal". Amazing attention to detail.
Yeah, this movie is much MUCH better on reflection and I absolutely cannot wait to see it again. I really hope Ari's 3 hour 40 minute directors cut is released so there is more to dissect. While not as immediately impressive has Hereditary, Midsommar definitely has the layers and complexity to be a slowburn horror classic.
EDIT: I am now 4 days out from my first viewing and I've not stopped thinking about this movie. I've become a frequent visitor of the films subreddit and have even purchased/listened to the films dread-inducing yet somehow joyous soundtrack a number of times throughout the days. I've been reading up on runes and their meanings, reading up set analysis for hidden meanings and any other small details others can find. A movie hasn't vibed with me like this for a long long time so to reflect this, I think it's only right I bump my score from an 8/10 to a 9/10. When I can get my hands on the digital download/Blu-Ray, I'm sure this might even go higher.
Most depressing Zombie-Movie I've ever seen, nonetheless a first-class ride
Fun fact: The names Frieren, Himmel, Stark, Fern, Eisen, Heitel, and Flamme are words taken from the Scandi and Germanic languages (Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, and German) which represents their character's traits.
E.g., Fri(eren) is loosely translated as "The Free" or "The Frozen" in German, Himmel is "The Sky", Stark (or Stærk) is "The Strong", Flamme is "The Flame", Eisen is "The Iron", Heitel is "The Cheerful", and Fern can be translated as "The Detached" or Remote.
2 hours in and nobody's been terrorized by a giant insect... Honey... I shrunk the Trakt score
I see people complaining this show is too “woke.” I think it is great. I’m liking even more than The Boys.
I'm always amazed that the anti woke people don't realise The Boys is making fun of them
The source material for this must’ve been incredible. The plot, the allegory, the characters, and everything about the story was so perfectly orchestrated. Even when I could predict certain plot twists, it still felt as if the release was good. I started to truly empathize with the characters and the aftershock of each death or character development in the series felt truly important. Gesicht was incredible throughout, and I really loved Epsilon’s character too, although I would’ve loved more development for his character.
The animation and music here just tied the whole package together. There was a lot of slow burn and tension building throughout the series.
Such an amazing adaptation that you can tell gives attention and care to the source material and animation. This was such a great watch considering I binged the entire thing, and it truly was a rollercoaster with the amount of twists and turns. Highly recommend this to anyone, even people who may not be fans of animation because this is really a classic.
Prometheus was good and curious. Covenant was absurdly stupid. Good mysterious questions built up through decades do not need stupid answers.
When it comes to the Alien franchise you need to do 2 things.
Remember that Alien is a straightforward horror movie and that Aliens is a straight up action movie with horror elements. The two exist in the same franchise universe but as movies are basically separate entities.
There are plenty of stories out there about how Ridley Scott (who created the franchise and original film) disliked the way James Cameron took the whole Alien entity in a different direction. His original vision had nothing to do with a hive like mentality, with a queen alien and so forth. So to enjoy both movies you have to look at them separately within the same universe... Confusing I know, but essential to get the most enjoyment out of both films.
It starts of very nicely, aping the opening feel of the original movie, and the pacing of the first act is slow and methodical. It shows that the 'company' is more concerned about it's profits than it's employees (sound familiar) and is more than willing to scapegoat the only survivor (we find out why shortly after).
Please note that I own and will only watch the directors cut of this movie. I think the extended scenes, added exterior shots and information about how the company sent out some of the settlers to see if Ripley's story was true... Adds a great deal to the viewing enjoyment and I highly recommend that everyone watches it.
By the end of the first act, we have found out that a family was sent out to the crash site from the original movie, and that one of them was attacked by a facehugger... and that contact with the colony on that planet was lost... So a rescue team is on it's way to investigate and they want Ripley along as an advisor/consultant.
The special effects for this movie are pretty damn good considering it's from 1986, James Cameron makes a lot of use of miniature sets with lots of attention paid to details. So the viewer finds it difficult to tell where the miniature set ends and full size begins.
The action and tension begins to get ramped up, there's some great dialogue and friction between members of the Marines and once again female characters are not only present, but there as fully fledged characters, not just some pathetic love interest to fulfill a plot requirement... and of course Sigourney Weaver in the lead role. It's one of the reasons that the Alien franchise has survived 4 films and it's entirely down to her character. The performances of the cast is excellent, the FX are great for the period and the buildup to the final conclusion works really well... and of course has led to the often used quote 'Get away from her you bitch" in many other movies... parody or not. It's become part of pop culture in the same way as Vader telling Luke that he's his father has (albeit to a lesser degree). You mention that line, and people know what/who you are quoting.
I've lost count of the number of times I have watched and purchased these movies over the decades... I owned them on VHS in widescreen directors cuts, then the 20th anniversary 5 disc DVD boxset... then the 25th 9 disc DVD boxset and now I have them on bluray.
I will not however be buying them again in 4K when they inevitably get released again... These movies, the original Star Wars trilogy, Terminator & T2 and The Crow are movies I have spent far too much money on buying again and gain over the years.
My fav movie. "It's game over man, it's game over"
No one listened to the smart woman, everyone dies except the smart woman and her cat. 9 out of 10
It’s often daunting to come to a classic film and try to explain why it works so well. Obvious elements spring to mind - the peerless design work, both of the central creature and the sets themselves; the beautifully haunting score; the creation of one of the greatest female action heroes; the perfect pace of the film (slightly spoilt by the Director’s Cut, but the original edit still shines); the “birth” of the creature that may have lost its ability to surprise over time, but still horrifies largely down to the performances that sell this moment so well; the masterful build-up of tension as each character confronts their fate. But, more importantly, this is simply a story that is well told and a reminder of how powerful an experience film can be when all the elements come together so perfectly. Is it any wonder that Alien has been oft-imitated, parodied and copied, but rarely bettered, if at all?
Absolutely hilarious people griping about "woke themes" - you know The Boys is also extremely woke, right??? It's a nonstop critique of fascism, U.S. imperialism, patriarchy, capitalism, and every other power structure that exists. So...yeah.
Anyway...Gen V fucking rocks and I am so excited to see what's next and where they go with everything. It's everything I would have wanted from a spin-off with a younger cast. I'm obsessed with this universe!
First episode rocked. I couldn't be happier about a season based on The Boyz.
Loved the characters and the kids playing them, it's a new generation of actors. Loving the story arch so far. Can't wait for the next episodes.
Damn the preview looks cheesy. Am I the only one that’s ODed on super hero movies?
Even though this anime has those same old cliches, It was quite interesting. Character anime was good and some of the scenes were very cute. Action part was king of OKAY though.
Worst part was, they didn't adapted the entire Manga or Light Novel, have to read those to complete the story.
I think that people are too harsh on this adaptation. I wouldn't say it's perfect, it is definitely not. The adaption itself is the biggest problem in my opinion. But most themes the original musical touches on, are there. They even added a new one (+ a new song) about medication and depression which I thought was also very good. So I think storywise there is almost everything there.
Where it fell short was the directing and in some parts the script I think.
The film feels a little bit loose und somehow unstructured. The musical scenes are sometimes bland and doesn't always fit the music. But I have to admit, that this is also veeeery difficult with these songs.
The songs, while often having an upbeat instrumentation, always have a kind of sadness in them. And I think that "Waving through a window" with a dancing or choreographing Ben Platt would not have been better, at all. At least this way, the overall story and the acting isn't harmed by these musical numbers, because they are so focused on the text and the meaning.
I also didn't have a problem with Ben Platt even though he is a little too old for the role. His performance brought tears to my eyes several times. But that's maybe because I can relate to this real inner self he's hiding because he's afraid that people might not like him a lot.
Also, while Nik Dodani's performance was quite funny, the character lagged the small connection that Conner and he should have had, I think. He really wasn't a friend of Connor here.
Oh and the musical number of "You will be found" could have been the only number with a singing crowd I think. I really wanted to see a choir stepping in and sing this "anthem"! But they instead tried to recreate the way that the musical presented this song. That didn't translate well to the screen.
But overall... In the end, as I said, it brought tears to my eyes. I don't care if it was just the story or the performances and that a lot was bad like most people say. I felt all the things the characters sang about and... that's enough. ;)
Predictable plot, has some nicely done jumpscares. Saw it in the cinema but this would be better at night home alone instead of the snickering fools in the cinemaroom destroying any carefully built tension so my advice is to wait for the Blu-Ray.
Whiplash was so damn intense. The movie sounds fantastic; the music, the sound mixing, it's all really, really well-done. The acting was all really good and J.K. Simmons' performance in particular is insane(ly good), definitely a contender for Best Supporting Actor. Occasionally he reminded me of a conductor at my high school who got pretty mad at times, but fortunately not quite as much. The editing was nicely done as well, some of the cuts were timed with the music being played which worked really well and made musical performances interesting to watch. The plot's pretty simple but the story manages to not be very predictable and it's certainly very energetic. The climax was incredible. Second best movie of the year so far.
Ted Lasso is feel-good TV perhaps at its absolute best. It gives us a titular character who is so off-putting to everyone just from his relentless positivity, spirit, and heart at the beginning, but slowly is able to win over every single person around him and inspire all those around him to strive to be the best versions of themselves through the same resilient positive spirit achieved by leniency on others. The writing throughout this entire show has just been top notch, with characters that are fully understood and character arcs that are incredibly satisfying. By season 2 Ted is even given much more depth and we see the struggling parts of him, fully fleshing out his character as someone we can both related to and aspire to be. The comedy is also seriously fantastic right from the beginning. Jason Sudeikis is just so hilarious and in a world full of darkly comedic shows these days, Ted Lasso is a breath of fresh air that proves feel-good comedy can be just as good if not better as long as it's done right. The first season was a certified knockout and probably one of my favorite seasons of TV ever, and while the second two didn't quite live up to that, they stood out in their own ways and ultimately the show ended on a perfectly bittersweet note that exemplified the central themes of the show in the best way. If you want genuine laughs, emotion, and incredibly lovable characters with stellar writing (which why wouldn't you), then this show is for you.
9.3 // Excellent
Be warned: this show has straight relationships. There's actually men and women who love each other, I can't believe they are pushing this agenda. Can't we just keep politics out of these shows?
