Review by Andrew Bloom
VIP9[4.6/10] If I could make one rule for Westworld and only one rule, it would be this -- no more twists. This series is addicted to pulling the rug out from under its audience, trying to pull a fast one to make viewers say “whoa”, or otherwise recontextualize everything they’ve seen so far, that it’s completely damaging to its attempts to tell stories, establish character, and convey meaning. When everything the audience sees is just a setup for a subversion, none of it matters, and the viewer is left with nothing to do but wait for the punchline.
So let’s just hit a sampling of the twists that show up in “Crisis Theory”, the finale of the show’s third season: All of the modern hosts were originally based off of Dolores. Serac is a puppet being controlled by Rehoboam. Dolores and Caleb didn’t meet by chance, but because Dolores selected him after his brain was scanned in a Delos soldier training exercise. The real(?) William is dead and is being replaced by a host duplicate. Hale has commandeered Dolores’s tools and people and is planning her own robo-revolution.
But the biggest one is this -- Dolores isn’t trying to destroy humanity; she’s just trying to give it free will, the sort of free will she had to fight and claw for. She picked Caleb not because of his capacity for violence, but because of his ability to choose and his willingness to show mercy, even when he didn’t have to.
That is trite, but at least it’s positive. It’s a weird left turn after so long fumfering about everyone’s cruelty. Caleb is not part of some devious extinction plot. Maeve will fight for a cause greater than just reunion with her daughter. Instead, they both choose to undo the shackles on humanity with the belief that what results can be beautiful and that beauty should be preserved.
The problems with this message are two-fold. First and foremost, “Crisis Theory” dramatizes it with an endless series of absolutely mind-numbing, on-the-nose monologues. For all the faux-profundity the show aspires to, the language it uses scans like half-formed action movie dialogue in the dull ten minutes before the special effects budget kicks in, only stretched out over forty-five minutes. There is no point too small, no observation too mundane, no moral too obvious, that Westworld can’t turn it into some ponderous B.S. speech that gilds the lily to the point of exhaustion.
The second is that this message about creative destruction feels contradictory and hopelessly naive. The message is that Rehoboam is a palliative that delayed the fall of civilization, but that like Westworld itself, civilization needs to burn in order for something better, less oppressive, and less asphyxiating, to emerge from the ashes. I wouldn’t exactly call that idea dangerous, but it smacks of someone who took their first semester poli sci class and declares “this is all too complicated, what we really need is to just start a revolution!” It’s facile and cliché, two words that, unfortunately, apply to most of Westworld’s brand of philosophy.
It also goes against what the show itself, and its quasi-omniscient A.I., suggest as the consequence of this move. There’s something fair, if conventional, about the show examining the safe but suffocating order versus chaotic but authentic freedom dichotomy and landing on the latter. But this very episode predicts widespread death and destruction, possibly to the point of extinction. At best, you can chalk this up to Dolores connecting with Rehoboam and understanding that this is, at the very least, not a certainty, or believing that spilled blood is the cost of liberty, but the episode just glosses over a pretty big caveat to this whole outrageous freedom idea.
Beyond the twists, beyond the dime store existentialism the show’s been toying with from the beginning, that sort of tack shows once again the grim truth about Westworld -- that’s a vacuous show that thinks it’s smart. The great innovation of season 3 is that, in its best stretches, this series stopped pretending that it had Important Things to Say:tm: or that its plotlines made real sense, and just became entertaining, high class pulp.
If I made the rules, Westworld would lean into that and lean into it hard. Setting loose a bunch of talented actors, to look impossibly stylish, match wits and weapons with one another, and cross and double-cross each other with impeccable direction, locations, production design, is well within this series’s grasp to do. When the show stops aiming for a profundity it can’t hit anymore; it is still a fun, slick production worth enjoying for its shallow charms. If that was the show we got on a week-to-week basis, it might not turn into a favorite, but it would least have its appeal as quasi-cinematic sci-fi brain candy to fall back on each episode.
But I don’t make the rules, and maybe it’s too late for them anyway. Maybe Westworld is just irrevocably broken. You can only throw twist after twist at the audience for so long that even good, meat and potatoes storytelling becomes meaningless. You can only let your characters drift so far away from themselves, recontextualize them and recongifgure again and again, before the audience loses all attachment to them. You can only throw so many empty platitudes out there to rot and fester before you reveal your show as trite and intellectually bankrupt.
In season 3, Westworld left the park and ventured into the real world. That was the last barrier for it to cross, the last lingering shred of intriguing possibility from its original premise, and in just eight episodes, the series has already exhausted it. Where is there for the show to go from here? What desperate attempt to top themselves could the creators pull out of their increasingly barren hats? Who’s left standing in the cast with a point and a purpose that hasn’t been muddled and revived and made into an utter hash of a character?
The answer is nowhere, none, and no one. In just twenty-eight episode, Westworld has outlived its premise, outstripped its abilities, and outlasted its usefulness as a television show. Nothing in this series stays dead for long, and a renewal has already been secured, But if artistic achievement were the standard for success rather than bankrolls and buzz, the series would be sent to the Valley Beyond and never allowed to sully its own misspent potential again.
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@r_lewis Thanks! And yeah, it's so hard when the characters keep getting used as fodder for some twist rather than the show allowing them to just be who they are and let us know what they want.
Denis Villenueve. A solid lineup. A different take on first contact. I loved Sicario but went in expecting a cerebral epic sci-fi.
That was a mistake.
Good things:
- Some really nice visual scenes
- Interesting aliens Calligraphy aliens!
- Clear theme of communication is omnipresent
- A neat score that might be awesome in a different movieBad things:
- The acting
- The lack of emotional reaction to ALIENS! The students asking to turn on the TV, all of the main characters
- Lack of useful characters Only the aliens and Louise actually did anything the entire movie.
- Supporting characters are very stupid in an attempt to foil the main character slightly
- Very clumsy exposition. Genre-typical news reports, voice-overs, dumb characters asking stupid questions.
- Very slow pacing. This worked in parts of Sicario, but didn't work in this movie because there was no tension. The main characters never seemed remotely threatened.
- Lousie showing up at school thinking everyone will be there after aliens arrive and there's a state of emergency
- Why can't you translate alien language like you can translate Farsi. This is a paraphrase but in the spirit of what Colonel Weber was saying.
- Useless love interest when the costars have no chemistry.
- Ultrasecure military base lets someone steal a ton of explosives and put it in an ALIEN SPACECRAFT without anyone noticing.
- Many unbelievable plot points
- Poor dialogue Let's make a baby - real quote
- Poor handling of the major plot points Looking through time seems to undermine the fact that the aliens need help. Why did one have to die if they could see the future? Why did only one die when they were right next to each other?
- Very heavy handed moral messaging that didn't align with the rest of the movie.
- Why couldn't Ian also see into the future as he studied the language, or any of the others?Overall extremely disappointing. I'm honestly surprised critics or general moviegoers like this. The premise was very good. It's a real shame the execution failed so miserably.
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@jared looking at your list it seems to me that you have missed or misunderstood some things but most importantly non linear time, from your comment
Poor handling of the major plot points Looking through time seems to undermine the fact that the aliens need help. Why did one have to die if they could see the future? Why did only one die when they were right next to each other?
This is what I took from it baring in mind I've only seen it once;
Giving humanity the ability to experience time non linearly is the absolute key to humans being able to help the aliens and doesn't undermine anything. It's that ability that shows us 'now' what we need to do to help them in 3000 years so that we can actually do it in the first place. They help us to help them by showing us what we do to help them. Its a paradox just like when Louise experiences talking to the Chinese General and then uses that information to get him to stand down. The aliens teach Louise the ability, or at least gives her everything she needs to learn (the information dump on the wall) which she gives in detail to the world through her book years later.
Why did Abbot (or Costello?) have to die? Because he did die. It happened. You seem to be confusing experiencing time non linearly with something analogous to time travel in that you can change the future. You can't and that conceit is pervasive through the film. He died because he did, just like Hannah. Knowing it can't change it. Why did only one die? Bad luck. How does someone survive anything from a car accident to an earthquake when the person next to them doesn't.
In terms of 'seeing the future' it doesn't make you omnipotent and all knowing. Non linear time puts in to question the notion of 'now' and our path is strewn with paradox particularly when 'now' is a moment that you are experiencing another point in time. You can't change the future but a paradox can be the cause what does happen for example the Chinese General
The alien who survived the blast was only aware of the event to come moments before it happened and knocked on the wall in an attempt to alert what was about to happen and then did a dump of knowledge before knocking them down the shaft and containing the blast. That alien didn't necessarily see the explosion as an event, he could have experienced a moment far ahead of that and it was the fact that the other alien died in the explosion is where he got the knowledge of the event. That is assuming the one that knocked is the one that survived, it could easily have been the one that died that knocked who potentially has always known that he died then. Just like Louise with Hannah. Paradox.
In terms of other things.
The 'useless love interest' was key to the understanding of everything for both Louise and the audience. They have 'no chemistry' because they aren't a love interest in the story and at no point linearly are they portrayed as one. It's not until well after the events of the aliens leaving does anything spark between them. Portraying them that way also keeps the reveal that he is the husband/father. For me the "Lets make a baby" line rings completely true, but I have children.
Why Ian couldn't view time like that? Louise is a linguist and as such grasping a more concise, though limited understanding. By the time the aliens leave she is only just wrapping her head around it. We are also shown that in Ians work he is still focusing heavily on equations. The interactions we see with Ian and the aliens, Ian is essentially Louise's prop i.e. "Ian walks"
Ok that's way more on that than I thought I was going to write and proof reading paradox discussions tends to make you go in circles so I won't and hope it makes sense. It wasn't intended as condescending so I hope it didn't come across that way.
Anyway, it's just a difference of opinion/interpretation.
I really enjoyed the film and it's sparked a lot of interesting discussions in my circles both positive and negative. One of my friends that I thought would absolutely love it fell asleep.
Maybe what I have written is exactly how you saw everything too but still didn't like it, I don't know.
Shout by stormsm
If you're looking for an action and "turn brain off now" film, just don't watch it and spare us the 6-7 hearts review.
I for one, am very tired from 500$m crap like Indi Day and Marvel's poop. So I was very excited to watch this one.
This one is more like Spielberg's Encounters from the Third Kind. It's more about the characters in the film and the amazing journey they go through. It's mostly about the human behavior that will make you think.
While it's not an End of the World aliens movie like Battle: Los Angeles, it still offers great amount of military presence and plenty of stuff that's going on.
So if you actually want to care about an intelligent movie and use your head - go. Otherwise, go watch an X men.
Highly recommended for some audience 10/10.
2-feb-2017 edit: Just came out on Bluray and I saw it again. Definitely keeping my rating.
Watching again at July-2023, excited towards Dune II : Excellent. Excellent film. So called plot-holes listed here are negligible when the overall product is really thoughtful and masterfully crafted.loading replies
@stormsm why is this the top rated review when it said almost nothing about the actual movie and is instead more focused on comparing it to, or streight up bashing, other movies.
Bullet through the heart and lungs but can still talk, movie magic y’all!
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@magenof I think his heart just wasn't in the right place.
Erm.. okay I'm so confused
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@progshine No they really shouldnt. As someone that has read the books i dont agree with that at all. If the show cant tell whats happening without additional knowledge, it has failed in that regard.
I however also dont think that Calanthe not being dead and not married to Eist yet is horribly confusing. Both of them are definitely dead and if they are both walking around it has to either be a dream or the past. How is that hard.
Jessica Gao is just an outright awful writer who disgraced every actor and actress in this show by ruining a wonderful Marvel character. If she believes that every man is like this, she really requires substantial help. It's really terrible. If I weren't a completist and wanted to know everything about the Marvel Cinematic Universe, I would've already abandoned this show. I will have to endure all of this, tragically.
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@eddierdy I'm more concerned that even though the series also shows normal male characters, you only look at the toxic ones to shout "she thinks all men are like that".
Let's see if it's going to turn out that you identify with those types of men and the one who needs help is you.
Complaining that you're "tragically going to have to endure" watching a series is nothing to beat your chest about either.
To many errors in every Tarantino movie
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Which errors? It's not totally a fact based movie...
I don't really get what the big deal was with The Terminator. Perhaps it was revolutionary for its time and nobody had made a tense action thriller before (I have no idea whether this was actually the case), but watching it now, it's pretty ordinary with far, far too many plotholes and inconsistencies to really make it worthwhile.
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@aldy That Filminator is out there..it can't be bargained with, it can't be reasoned with, it doesn't feel pity or remorse or fear, and it ABSOLUTELY will not stop...EVER, until it leaves a shitty review
Shout by Detlef Schwanz
Oh well, my fears seem to come true.
This is basically just another Discovery: Written by people who never actually watched any Star Trek and got some bullet points like "Engage!", "Earl Grey", "Borg", "Vineyard" before force-fitting their generic Plot in their butchered version of the Star Trek universe.At no point in TNG were Cpt. Picard and Data anywhere near being friends, let alone best mates. Professional mutual respect, sure, but not friends.
But casting aside the usual idiocy regarding the incoherent techo bubble, logical errors and other stuff this series shares with Discovery,
theres one point in this episode where it became abundantly clear that this series will be as bad as its older sister: The flashback to mars.
These workers are sitting there, synthesizing their meals with a replicator. Something everyone who watched 1-2 episodes of Star Trek should be fairly familiar with.But these workers still all synthesize the same 21st century prison garbage on trays and bitch about the meals.
There you go: Form over substance, I'm out. Let this series rot with Discovery, poor Patrick Stewart.loading replies
@strel0k Pretty sure their relationship evolved to friendship in First Contact and Nemesis.
Shout by Aditya Kalyanathaya
VIPI always thought I couldn't enjoy any movie /tv series where female characters are protagonist's. [Cough] She- Hulk [/cough] and thought something is wrong with me for not being able to enjoy stuff with women lead. Now I know there is nothing wrong with me , its just that I look for quality content.
Mizu and akemi are the best written character I have seen in a long time. Now we know how to write a strong female characters without insulting male characters.
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@cosmicaditya You… you thought you couldn't enjoy series with female protagonists? What?
Lol this gets boring and boring with every episode. What did we learn with this episode about everything in mcu and loki overall? Thor wasn't that tall??? Seriously? At least with season one, there was mystery, suspense. With this season, it's just plain boring.
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not every Marvel show has to have some reveal about the whole MCU, like it can just be for fun itself
Why do they think the audience is going to cheer for a cheating man getting back together with his ex-wife?
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@amberrav Because the audience is also human.
Shout by Detlef Schwanz
Oh well, my fears seem to come true.
This is basically just another Discovery: Written by people who never actually watched any Star Trek and got some bullet points like "Engage!", "Earl Grey", "Borg", "Vineyard" before force-fitting their generic Plot in their butchered version of the Star Trek universe.At no point in TNG were Cpt. Picard and Data anywhere near being friends, let alone best mates. Professional mutual respect, sure, but not friends.
But casting aside the usual idiocy regarding the incoherent techo bubble, logical errors and other stuff this series shares with Discovery,
theres one point in this episode where it became abundantly clear that this series will be as bad as its older sister: The flashback to mars.
These workers are sitting there, synthesizing their meals with a replicator. Something everyone who watched 1-2 episodes of Star Trek should be fairly familiar with.But these workers still all synthesize the same 21st century prison garbage on trays and bitch about the meals.
There you go: Form over substance, I'm out. Let this series rot with Discovery, poor Patrick Stewart.loading replies
@strel0k If TNG was released in 2020 you people would find ways to hate it. It's baffling
Shout by stormsm
If you're looking for an action and "turn brain off now" film, just don't watch it and spare us the 6-7 hearts review.
I for one, am very tired from 500$m crap like Indi Day and Marvel's poop. So I was very excited to watch this one.
This one is more like Spielberg's Encounters from the Third Kind. It's more about the characters in the film and the amazing journey they go through. It's mostly about the human behavior that will make you think.
While it's not an End of the World aliens movie like Battle: Los Angeles, it still offers great amount of military presence and plenty of stuff that's going on.
So if you actually want to care about an intelligent movie and use your head - go. Otherwise, go watch an X men.
Highly recommended for some audience 10/10.
2-feb-2017 edit: Just came out on Bluray and I saw it again. Definitely keeping my rating.
Watching again at July-2023, excited towards Dune II : Excellent. Excellent film. So called plot-holes listed here are negligible when the overall product is really thoughtful and masterfully crafted.loading replies
@stormsm i get it you dont have to be offensive towards other movies... why cant i like both x men and arrival. I dont think that there are movie categories for dumb people and for smarte people
If you like Archer, you will LOVE BoJack! :)
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Not so sure about that , but I like them both :)
So this piece of shit gets a higher rating then The hunger games: Mockingjay part 2?
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Mockingjay part 2 is terrible
..clicks play......ehhhhhhhhh....hmmmmm....stop... exit... Click Pornhub dot com ahhhhhhh better.
.squirt!!! The endloading replies
@pretty188 first, enter www.pornhub.com, next remove pants, 3rd enjoy
This season has 12 episodes and they wasted 4 in this useless plotline! That's Disney for you. Pathetic!
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@acidopinion uuuuh this story was written before Disney's purchase of SW and only slightly adapted to be included here. It was already supposed to be in the CW's seventh season. I didn't like the arc either but I don't think the blame falls on Disney, aside from not realizing how flat this story is
So this piece of shit gets a higher rating then The hunger games: Mockingjay part 2?
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Agreed, Mockingjay was a terrible movie.
[7.9/10.] I grew up with The Next Generation as my entrée into the Star Trek Universe, and many of my favorite episodes centered around Q, the pain-in-the-ass, mischievous, seemingly all-powerful being who returned time after time to liven up things around the enterprise while being a considerable thorn in Captain Picard’s side. So the “Squire of Gothos” which features Trelane, a similarly omnipotent and similarly impish foil for Captain Kirk and his crew, has the ring of pleasant familiarity, and is squarely in my wheelhouse.
These extra-dimensional troublemakers like Q, Trelane, and Superman’s Mister Mxyzptlk are so much fun because they bring an air of possibility and enjoyable lunacy every time they show up. While Captain Kirk is not quite the vision of dignity his TNG successor was, Starfleet can still be a fairly stuffy bunch. The presence of someone who introduces a bit more whimsy into the equation and who cannot, like the similarly colorful Harry Mudd, simply be corralled by the security team, creates a funny and challenging problem for our heroes.
That problem arises when the crew of the Enterprise runs into the planet Gothos in what’s supposed to be a “space desert.” After Kirk and Sulu disappear, Spock sends a search party down to the planet, who encounter the spritely Trelane. A being of immense power, “General Trelane (retired)” has a fascination with Earth’s predators, and has replicated the form, if not the substance, of Earth’s past culture in an estate where he’s holding the Enterprise’s Captain and its helmsmen. The attempts to return to the ship and to escape Trelane’s dangerous abilities make up the bulk of the episode’s adventures.
What makes “Squire of Gothos” so entertaining, in contrast to some other “weird powerful being of the week” episodes is how much damn fun Trelane is. William Campbell is a delight as Trelane, whose boisterous but playful bravado is one part John Delancey, one part Bruce Campbell, and one part Kenneth Branagh. One of the elements that always made the Q/Picard pairing work is the contrast between Picard’s stoicism and Q’s outsized demeanor. “Gothos” hits the same mark here with Kirk and Trelane. Kirk is toned down a bit, reserving his smiles and humor for a creepy leer at his yeoman and a ribbing of Spock, which makes the exaggerated qualities of Trelane stand out.
It also helps that “Gothos” lets Trelane bounce off of Spock a bit, with the placid Vulcan clearly perturbed by the incorrigible trickster god. Text cannot capture the great delivery of Leonard Nimoy when Trelane asks if Vulcans are a predatory species and Spock replies, “Not generally -- but there have been exceptions.” Spock is so reserved that when he intimates a threat, he comes off as a complete and total badass.
The same goes for the delightful exchange where Trelane essentially asks what Spock’s problem is; Spock replies, “I object to you. I object to intellect without discipline. I object to power without constructive purpose,” and Trelane retorts, “Oh, Mister Spock, you do have one saving grace after all. You're ill-mannered.” Spock’s statement has an unanticipated resonance fifty years later, and the exchange speaks to the conflicting personalities, philosophies, and temperaments that make the two characters such interesting foils for one another.
But those sorts of character clashes are only half of what makes episodes like “Squire of Gothos” interesting. The other half is one of the aspects of Star Trek that’s hard-coded into the franchise’s DNA – creative problem solving. The prospect of an antagonist who is nearly omnipotent, so he can’t be overpowered; so advanced and patronizing to humans that he can’t be reasoned with, and so committed to toying with others and entertaining themselves that they can’t be appealed to creates a particularly unique challenge for the crew of the Enterprise.
It essentially requires Kirk, Spock, and the others to have to trick a god. And trick they do! Kirk uses Trelane’s desire to have the human experience, to emulate these “predators,” to give him the upper hand and allow his ship to escape. It’s indulging Trelane in a duel that allows Kirk to shoot the mirror that (maybe?) powers Trelane’s estate, and it’s the promise of a hunt and a sharper version of that experience that lets Kirk try to allow the rest of the Enterprise crew to leave and eventually buys him enough time to be rescued.
The (nigh-literal) deus ex machina ending takes some of the wind out of the sails of these schemes. There’s something to be said for the idea that it’s Kirk’s cleverness that keeps Trelane occupied long enough for his parents to notice. But for the most part, it’s just the arrival of some even more powerful beings that saves the Enterprise’s bacon. It works in one of those “aint the galaxy weird?” ways that Star Trek is fond off, but it takes away some of the agency of the characters.
By the same token, the reveal that Trelane is actually just a child in his species is one of those sci-fi twists that is cool enough in principle, but which has been played out in parodies and homages (most notably Futurama’s) and by cultural osmosis that it’s hard for it to have any real meaning or impact. The idea of dealing with a being with the powers of a god and the temperament of a child is a solid premise (and a scary one for those of us here in January 2017), and it recontextualizes the events of the prior hour nicely, but it’s not as novel anymore.
Still, “Squire of Gothos” stands out for being tons of fun regardless of its twists or resolution. There’s some of the same issues of not having enough plot to fill the hour that it, like many episodes in Star Trek’s early going, are guilty of. But on the whole, the episode is an enjoyable romp from the minute Trelane shows up on screen, presenting a colorful figure and unique problem for our heroes to solve. For someone who grew up with Q, “Squire of Gothos” with its prankster deity putting the captain of the Enterprise on trial, made me feel right at home.
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@r_lewis Thank you so much! It was a fun (if occasionally trying) show to write about, and I'm so glad you're enjoying my write-ups! (And may I compliment you on your avatar and encourage you not to keep your comments in your pocket.)
Shout by swnndn
Edit: guess I didn't like the which came first, the chicken or egg story.
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So you didn't understand the time travel in this movie, it's pretty clear. Voting 1 just because you can't see it it's pretty dumb imho.
Wtf is this? ok iam out
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@winchesterz I don't understand this post. This was another amazing episode -- Willie Jack is the best character on the show IMO. Either way, this wasn't so incredibly different tonally that it should make you tune out.
Pretty disappointed with this one, captain America has been my favourite of the marvel cast and I hoped they would have stuck more to the comic book version, instead they continue to attempt to make everything have rainbow and butterfly endings. Heres hoping thor gets things back on track.
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Rainbow endings?
Most of the avengers are fugitives and Ironman wants to kill Bucky.
What were you expecting them to kill of Cap even though Evans has 1 more movie on his contract?
Haha this movie is so unexpectedly bad, you think it's one kind of movie then it just does a hard 180 into insanity. I wish I didn't have the twist spoiled because I would of loved to have seen this unfold and had the big WTF moment.
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@nmahoney416 I didn't know what was going to happen, and up until Henry's death I didn't have a problem with the movie. But holy shit the second half of this is a dumpster fire. I was laughing out loud at several scenes. Props to Trevorrow for trying something risky but he fell on his face in spectacular fashion
An emotionally heavy filler episode. It served its purpose in giving us some background on a few characters. Apart from that, I feel there isn't much to see here.
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@misnomer I always thought this was a perfect episode after the action filled Borg two-parter. It gave time to go with Picard on his healing journey of what have been a traumatic experience. It is really classic Trek as it draws parallels to how people who have been raped or were in battle deal with what the experienced.
The script and direction can be a little rough at times but an excellent cast and great dynamics between a family of characters made The Hollars an enjoyable watch. John Krasinski shows potential as director but he has some room for improvement. Richard Jenkins and Margo Martindale are both excellent.
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@randomacd4 Completely agree. With a script less filled with rom-com clichès this could have been a really good movie.
