Yeah, I can't.
I'll preface this by saying I had low expectations. Or rather, tempered expectations. I expected this to be not as bad as the film, but not anything special either. I expected it to be like, a 5-6 out of 10 safe little series. Yet somehow, it ended up worse than that. Just because it's not as bad as the film, doesn't mean it isn't bad.
I hate to make comparisons between both this and the film, but that seems to be the general method people seem to be using to form an opinion on this series. It's almost as if the reviews for this show are just reviews for that 10 year old movie instead. But whatever, I'll join in.
If I were to distinguish the two wrongs of both adaptations, it'd be that one was a disservice to the source material, and the other is just a disservice as entertainment. Obviously this series is the latter.
I feel as if the writers were so focused on trying to put the concept onto the screen to the point where they didn't care to make a good series. While there are some creative differences, they're just meaningless little nuances. By large, this series is an extremely accurate adaptation of the original. To a fault.
To start with, the quality for this series is so low, in like every regard. Even visually. I thought I heard that Netflix put a lot of money into this expecting it to be their next Stranger Things or something? There are some standout scenes that you just know were expensive, but everything else looks so off. Hell, for a majority of the series there's a noticeable bad green screen effect outlining everyone, with such an amateurish looking blur that you can mistake this as a fanmade webseries. I'm not even one to be picky about special effects or anything, but this series really feels like it's written around making everything a "grand epic" visual spectacle moment; yet it looks like a Spy Kids film.
The writing and storyboarding itself is also just as amateurish, with so many weird cuts. It all just feels like it's trying to tick all the boxes of what makes a cinematic experience. Every character acts like a robot, and I don't necessarily mean from the acting itself. "Lighthearted scene" okay time to smile and look at your surroundings to make it clear that this is a joyous moment; okay now immediately it's a "serious scene" time to put on your serious face and say generic tension building lines so we know that this is serious. I don't mind a lot of exposition dumps, but the way it's handled here just has no tact at all, everyone acts in such a robotic way that sets up the exposition simply for the exposition sake. These actors are obviously not as experienced, but with good direction you can 100% make these guys' acting convincing, that's just simply not the case here.
It's all honestly a bit hard to describe but needless to say this is the biggest negative of the series. It's like it's made from someone with only a basic understanding of storytelling in filmography and this is their project they need to turn in. It's honestly such an amateur quality that it makes it very clear this is a kid's series, as if it should air on PBS Kids or something. Which would've been fine if that was the creator's intent, but that doesn't seem the case with all the weird edge thrown into it, blatant somewhat gruesome deaths, and mild swearing. That plus all the marketing, you can tell this was meant to be the type of series that adults can easily come to love, just as the kind of thing the source material was.
There's like generic blockbuster movie-esque score playing all the time despite Avatar being a series with a distinct soundtrack. It constantly uses that technique where every character generically stops in wonder over every fantasy setting/event even when it doesn't make sense for them to do so, as an obvious way to try and get the audience to see that same thing in wonderment. The dialogue is so on the nose, and it can't even be an intentional cheesy decision since it's being used as the main driving force for the narrative. There's a lot of the series that doesn't even make you roll your eyes, just blankly stare.
It's not offensive in any way. Not that I agree an adaptation could be offensive, but compared to the kind of fire that sparked from that era of Dragonball Evolution and The Last Airbender; this is definitely not that type of adaptation of "taking things and hollywood'ing it up for a larger audience" It's pretty accurate, just shitty and frankly, boring as hell. Really, if this weren't a preestablished IP, would you really watch 8 hours of this and even remotely care what's going on?
Less concentration should've been put onto making this as "respectful" to the source as possible, and more into making this a genuinely good series... Ironic how two drastically opposite approaches this and the film end up being.
If I were to sum it up, I guess. It has most of the technical details from the series, but it doesn't have the heart. A live action adaptation of Avatar shouldn't be IMPOSSIBLE, but frankly it's hard not to see it that way from these failures.
It is as if the dumb kid copying the exam of the smart kid and doing it poorly. It lacks everything good the original had.
The English audio is AWFUL!!! The actors, especially the one playing Ramona, sound like they are reading the script for the first time out loud in their toilets and are bored as hell. The Japanese dub is night and day, it made me stop hating this and actually enjoy the show. The original audio should be marked as Japanese, since this was made in Japan, the Japanese voice actors are actually acting and the animation in synced to the Japanese audio rather than English.
People should give the japanese audio at least a try. They won´t regret it.
If you ever wanted a Scott Pilgrim show with barely any Scott Pilgrim in it, then this one’s for you!
Awful episode. The whole dragon fight does not make any sense. The training grounds are empty and for target practice they shoot the water? No creativity whatsoever. And what is actually the point of this season up till now?
This episode literally felt like a PARODY.... That is not a good thing
Showing the studio set at the end and beginning was not necessary.
If I'm ever murdered, I don't want Baxter on my case. Dumbest thing I've ever seen was Baxter agreeing to take a ride with a suspected serial killer... I don't care if it's because he thinks he will find the missing girl, it's just dumb, and to be manipulated to dig several holes was just the last straw.
The acting was great, but the story was slow and the ending anticlimactic.
A FanFiction turned show, and that show isn't that good. Poor writing, childish dialogues, fair CGI. I have a feeling that this show soon enough will be a train wrecked.
Tolkien is turning in he’s grave!
This is trashy half baked soap opera stuff
I am convinced the Galadriel star has taken acting lessons from the school of Greta Thunberg.
Proof that several rating systems have been compromised. Possibly even Trakt. There's no way this dumpster fire is being rated so high. Perhaps I'm in an area with a bad Internet connection, but my 1 Star Weak Sauce rating disappeared 3 times.
What a joke.
I really wanted to like this but it’s just so bad...
They completely destroyed the lore. Why make these series when you don’t even have the rights to the books???
Apart from that the acting and dialogues are poor. Elves are just people with pointy ears, you don’t get the sense that they are ‘something more than human’ like in the movies or the books.
Anyone could tell from the start who Sauron is and who the Stranger is.
The only good part was the last ten minutes of the last episode where they made the three rings. But it doesn’t justify watching a whole terrible season just to get there.
No one can deny the visual beauty of this show - it is perhaps the best looking show ever made. Absolutely stunning. But that doesn't make up for the fact that the show is soulless and often boring. None of the characters are overly interesting or likeable, and the action sequences are laughable.
I got a few chuckles out of this episode, but it just felt like every joke that was attempted fell flat.
Some might say that the episode is metaphor heavy, and you need to be across all the references to "get it"
I'm more than familiar with the references, it just wasn't funny. So much so, that I'm not even sure if it's worth the time it takes to watch part 2.
To date, South Park's Paramount+ specials have one thing in common. They all have clever premises, but overstretched to around an hour running time. Like Post COVID and Post COVID: The Return of COVID specials before it, The Streaming Wars has several moments of brilliance. But after all the cards are laid out on the table, it struggles to close the deal.
After all the clever build ups, this special ends without a fully articulated message. But I can't say I wasn't entertained, just not up to its past high standards (e.g., Randy Marsh as Lorde).
This show has to be WORST thing marvel has ever released.
it feels like an Indian or Pakistani movie or TV show with western stuff rammed into it. it's truly an awful show trying so hard to do something but accomplishes nothing. The racial stereotypes in this show are annoying too not all desi families act like this... it further pushes stereotypes on to it's viewers which causes more racism.
I gave this a chance, so you don't have to.
Follows the now-usual Disney pattern of employing third-rate talent for directing and writing. Not even Ewan McGregor can elevate this to being watchable - he gets nothing to work with. Don't bother with this.
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
At this point I feel like it might be better to just stop watching as Obi-Wan, one of my favourite characters in the SW universe, will be forever linked to this lazily written show.
I guess Disney thought all the viewers wanted to see is some iconic characters back on screen not caring about how they'd have to do it because people would eat it up anyway. And the worst thing is, they were right.
But hey, EPIC LIGHTSABERS ON MUH 4K TV SCREEN AND VADER IS BACK!!! WOW BEST SHOW 10/10. Absolute joke.
Obi-Wan trying to disable the lasers barrier when they could have walked around it cracked me up. This show is unintentionally funny.
Some blatant writing and casting errors get in the way of this being so much as passable. To name a few:
- They tried too hard to make child Leia precocious. In one scene she's Sherlock Holmes, in another she makes a self-jeopardizing comment or decision, but for the most part, she talks too much and is annoying.
- Reva is the least intimidating dark-side character I've encountered in Star Wars media. The actress is tragically unconvincing in that role.
- Then if those points weren't enough to make the episodes seem juvenile, Kumail Nanjiani's stupid face enters the picture, instantly signalling to the viewer that this show is ultimately some kind of comedy.
This is by far the weakest season, if it weren't for the cool intimate looks behind the scenes I would not be watching it. The show's format in season 1 worked well to introduce laypersons to the sport, but continuing that now completely disjoints the true storylines . For example, episode 2 was complete nonsense, how are you going to completely ignore Charles smashing into the barrier in Monaco and just say "o he's out with a gearbox issue". The show needs an overhaul and probably try episodes being race focused instead of character focused so everything makes sense chronologically, otherwise it's absolute chaos and half truths, you don't know when the highs and lows are for each of the drivers and teams.
Edit: Episode 7, Ocon's win, no mention of Alonso defending against Hamilton to keep him behind Vettel and Ocon. It's unconscionable to be this lazy with story telling.
Drive to survive is good for the occasional fan, I guess this is good to bring new people to the sports which is something you gotta be grateful, in order to keep it rolling you need to keep it popular...
That said, there are 2 facts:
F1 season 2021 was the most exciting seasons since the 90's
Drive to survive season 4: Is the worst season of the pack so far
This last fact is sad cause this is was a great opportunity to bring even more fans to the sports, instead feels like this was made for Mercedes/Hamilton fans. So if you are already a fan and specially a Mercedes fan, you probably would enjoy this, but if you are looking for a brief of what happened during the season, or just as a preview for next season y recommend you to watch the highlights from each race instead.
Im not gonna list everything they missed here, I actually made a list, but its just too much, this season is heavily focus on Mercedes, there are few episodes with regards of McClaren, Hass (yes hass, and yes Mazepin) Ferrari and Alpine.
Some of the stuff they missed here
1.- One of the most popular drivers retired after this season, can you believe they did not mentioned Kimi in 10 episodes, only during the line ups
2.- No mention really of Vettel's first season with Aston, just barely, while he may not have won a rece this year, he definitely came back, beat his teammate and was really active during the season
3.-I understand Max did not participated in DtS, but all his victories were fast forward during the whole season 4, which makes it look like RB and him where just there by a miracle in the end
4.-This was the best season of Sergio Perez... just to have it on mind, other than the ending (cause it was impossible to avoid him) he is only shown saying that his suit is too large, or taking a selfie, there is more of Mazepin (until episode 9) than Sergio Perez and Kimi combined the whole season.
5.- On this same subject there were some great battles between Checo and Hamilton, this where huge cause it showed how he got ready to fight vs Hamilton In the last race, if you miss that fight between Hamilton and the white RB (like they skip in DTS) you should watch it if you enjoy racing
6.- Also, they missed to dive deep on the only victory of Checo, this was also important cause Hamilton made a mistake (which is fast forward) and this race also helps you to understand why Hamilton was more careful during the final race vs Checo
7.- They missed also a great Battle between Alonso vs Hamilton, that one made it possible for Ocon to win his first race, this was a huge battle and a great one, incredible not shown here
Anyway better watch the highlights.
Bonus: There is lot of whining of Toto about RB/Horner from whining too much... The thing is since you are only watching one side of the events, Toto will come out as super whining, but made no mistake, both were insufferable
The pajama-mask metaphor while at times humorous was a tad strained. The epidemic of teachers oversharing with their students was a bit more spot on. The song was awesome though. Fortune favors the bold, but this wasn't bold enough
I will not lie about the fact that I'm skewed towards rating 007 films high because I'm in love with them. I try to rate them as films and take my personal love out a bit, but I know that I can't do that 100%. However, I do think Dr. No certainly is a quality film. This is a hell of a way to start off a franchise that has lasted 50+ years now. Particularly, I love the first two acts, as it really shows Bond as an agent and how he does his stuff fairly realistically. The thing that knocks it back just a bit for me is the final act being a bit less exciting, but if I am honest with you I don't mind it too much. I've watched this one many times. It might not be my #1 pick to watch, but if it is on TV I probably won't change the channel.
Honestly, I don't understand the boom for this series... I know ppl want to know next games and that's why they are watching this. But I couldn't look at the mistakes. Policeman with cellphone that has immortal battery. He also sends 10 movies and photos to his officer, but doesn't include GPS data xD Also the leader always says "you are all equal, it must be justice in the game" - later he gives totally random game (glass bridge) and turns off the light when there is someone who can recognize which one is right. And the VIPs. I don't know why they introduced these ppl. If they were from the beginning then ok, but they appeared somewhere in the end introducing nothing to the plot of the film. For me 6/10 because they had pretty unique idea for the movie.
The first few episodes were really good but it started falling apart a few episodes in when they tried to push the whole "humans are terrible" narrative while still needing to keep the main character as the exception. Protagonist plot armour was also really obvious which diminished the tension. You can pretty much guess who lives and who dies in each episode.
I was so excited to see Gong Yoo in the beginning and was almost expecting to see his face any time someone took off their masks and even the Frontman until it was super obvious a few episodes in that he was the officer's brother.
Anyway, this was a show I was only vaguely interested in watching but pushed it to the top of my to-watch list because all my friends were telling me to watch it. After binging it, I realised that it was definitely overhyped. All the friends who were recommending this to me should go watch Liar Game and Battle Royale instead. Pros I can think of are: characters who you either like or hate intensely, some interesting games. Cons are unnecessary side plots, certain actions from the characters not making sense or being inconsistent.
The ending was the worst part of the show. His mom dying felt like the writers piling on the main character without it really doing much. I'd have preferred to see him actually becoming a good son after everything made him realise what a POS he'd been. Why did he wait a whole year to fulfill his promise to Sang-Byeok? How did Sang-Woo's mom still have her shop? And who leaves a luggage case full of cash on the street for everyone to see to call after a guy with wine coloured hair? Was he really thinking about going after the squid game people and risk his future with his daughter? Last episode drops the rating a whole point by itself.
Personally I don't get the hype. It's an interesting, entertaining show but nothing new here. Especially if you're watching Asian movies and shows regularly. I give it a 6-7. There's much filler stuff and unnecessary side stories going on. Overall good but nothing spectacular.
