Ivan

This will probably become more beloved than Dune for being a bigger, more action driven film. Personally I prefer the first film by a long shot, but there's a lot to like here. I loved Paul's new journey for this installment as it doesn't develop in the way you'd expect based on the ending of the first film. The themes of colonialism, false prophecies and religion reach a level of depth that cannot be found in other sci-fi/fantasy contemporaries like Lord of the Rings or Star Wars; this film certainly made me understand why this story is taken so seriously as a piece of literature. Despite the source material being so old, there's still something new and refreshing about it. You don't often see major Hollywood productions calling out religion as a manipulative force helping the people in power. On top of that this brilliantly subverts the concept of the hero's journey we've become accustomed to by everything that was in one way or another inspired by Dune. The acting is pretty great, Timothée does a great job at playing the transition Paul goes through. Despite his boyish looks I was sold on his performance as the leader of the Fremen. Rebecca Ferguson and Javier Bardem are also scene stealers. The visuals are once again mindblowing, in terms of set/costume design, cinematography and CGI this is as close to perfection as you could get to right now. The vision and scope of this movie are truly unmatched, which leads to some breathtaking sequences that I'll remember for a while (sandworm ride; the black/white arena fight; knife fight during the third act).

However, for all the praise I have for Dune: Part 2, I think Denis is being uncharacteristically sloppy with this film. First of all, Bautista and Butler feel like they're ripped from a different franchise altogether. Their over the top, cartoonish performances are more suited for something like Mad Max than the nuanced world of Dune. The bigger cracks start to appear when you look at the writing. The brief moments where the movie pokes fun at religious zealots through Javier Bardem's character, while funny, probably won't age very well. Like the first movie, it has a tendency to rely too much on exposition and handholding, a problem which might be worse here. I feel like a lot of the subtlety is lost in order to make the movie more normie proof, and that's quite annoying for a movie with artistic ambitions like this one. For example, there's this scene where Léa Seydoux seduces Austin Butler's character, and everything you need to know as a viewer is communicated through Butler's performance. Cut to the next scene, where Seydoux is all but looking at the camera saying "he's a psychopath, he's violent, he wants power, etc.". I just feel like compared to Villeneuve's precise work on Blade Runner 2049, he's consciously dumbing it down here. It's understandable and somewhat excusable for a complex story like Dune, but he occasionally takes it too far for my liking. Then there's the love story subplot between Chani and Paul, which almost entirely misses the mark for me. It feels rushed, there's no chemistry between the actors and some of the lines are painfully cheesy. Because of that, the emotional gutpunch their story eventually reaches during the third act did little for me. Finally, I'm a little dissatisfied with the use of sound. I loved the otherworldly score Zimmer came up with for the first Dune, however this film is so ridiculously bombastic and low-end heavy that it starts to feel like a parody of his work with Christopher Nolan. For the final action beat of the film Villeneuve cuts out the film's score, and it becomes all the more satisfying for it.

Overall, I recommend this film, however maybe temper those expectations if you're expecting a masterpiece. There's a lot to admire, but it's flawed.

6.5/10

We've kinda come full circle with these superhero films when you think about it.
After the camp of the 90s, directors like Nolan and Singer reset the tone of superhero movies in the 2000's to something that was more grounded and serious, which in turn laid a lot of the groundwork for the MCU.
Here we have Taika Waititi providing a throwback to the Joel Schumacher days.
If that's your thing you'll probably dig it, but it's definitely not my brand of camp.

I’m not exactly a Thor: Ragnarok fan (nor the other two Thor films). I don’t have a problem with its silly tone, because I’m not a manchild who needs to see his childhood validated, but a lot of its comedy didn’t click with me (even after a rewatch). Everything that didn’t work for me in that film is amped up to an eleven here.
There are some serious points in it where the acting choices, slapstick/childish/hokey comedy, overly bright colors, gay undertones, overdesigned costumes (no nipples yet, but give Taika another film and we'll see what happens) and godawful music choices started to give me genuine flashbacks to stuff like Batman Forever, not quite the thing you want to remind me of.
It's not a complete disaster; the performances by Natalie Portman, Tessa Thompson and especially Christian Bale are generally quite good. I'm also glad Marvel seems to have definitively found the saturation button back after Guardians 2, even if the framing/lighting with the visuals remains uninspired and maintains a general level of artifice that makes it look like shit. I believe they used the volume stages for most of the production, and like Obi Wan or The Book of Boba Fett, it’s very noticeable for most of the runtime.
The story's not all that interesting and makes no sense when you put any thought into it, but that's fine given that there is some progression with most of the main characters, even if Thor’s character arc throughout the MCU is all over the place at this point. As with most Marvel films lately, there is a lot of unnecessary exposition (e.g. the Korg narrated flashbacks are really clunky), but where it really drops the ball for me is with the balancing of tone and plot elements. I already thought that the darker stuff in Thor: Ragnarok didn't blend that well with the goofy scenes on the trash planet, but there's even more tonal whiplash here. Christian Bale is giving this excellent, terrifying performance, but he's not in the same movie as Chris Hemsworth, who's playing even more of a Thor parody than he was in Avengers: Endgame. One moment we're invested in this heavy, emotional story with Natalie Portman, and then we cut back to a goofy love triangle between Thor, his hammer and his axe. It's an unbalanced mess without a sense of stakes.
I also don't know what it is with Taika's comedy in these films, because I think What we do in the shadows, Jojo Rabbit and Hunt for the wilderpeople are all very comedic and smart, but for some reason he really likes his Thor movies excessive and dumb. Screaming goats aren't funny to me, they're a dated meme at best. Maybe it's because Taika can't go edgy and niche with the jokes here, but fuck I really hate his sensibilities for this character.

In short, another major misfire from Marvel if you ask me. I pretty much disliked everything except for a few of the performances. Please go back to making indies Taika, and for the love of god: let James Gunn pick the soundtrack for your next film. Even a film this dumb doesn’t need a Guns ‘N Roses needle drop, let alone four of them.

3/10

[5.8/10] This really didn’t do it for me. It feels like it’s trying to be a PG version of Fleabag, without Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s wit or insight. It feels like it’s trying to capture the quippy patter that has become the MCU’s house style, without supplying the good quips. And it particularly feels like it wants these characters to come off as charming and playful when they mostly come off as minorly annoying and even a little concerning at times. It’s all watchable, but scans as a miscalibrated and inauspicious start to She-Hulk: Attorney at Law.

That said, there’s two things that give me hope for the series. The first is, I love the thought experiment of “What if someone got superpowers and didn't want to become a superhero?” It’s not a story you see a lot of, particularly in a world of “with great power comes great responsibility. But the notion of Jennifer liking her normal life, not feeling attuned to or interested in the life of a superhero, and wanting to go back to the future she’s forged for herself, is a thought-provoking and interesting theme to explore.

At the same time, I like the idea that Bruce Banner is pushing this life on his cousin to some degree, as a moral imperative and practical necessity, when, as Jennifer points out, it’s left him lonely and traumatized. So many of these phase 4 projects -- No Way Home, WandaVision, Black Widow, and Hawkeye -- have been about the heroes who participated in the events of Endgame and beyond picking up the pieces after such serious stuff goes down. Exploring how Bruce’s choices have isolated him or made him unhappy as he quietly mourns the loss of friends like Tony, Steve, and Natasha, is worthy territory.

Unfortunately, She-Hulk doesn’t seem particularly well-suited to do that in the early going. It’s a boon that they got Mark Ruffalo to return as Banner to kick things off here, but his performance is really off. It’s hard to put my finger on exactly, but whether it’s not being physically in certain scenes or just having off days, he’s substandard in several scenes here that throws things off.

It’s tough, because much of the episode rests on the dynamic between Jennifer and Bruce, and the chemistry is just as out-of-whack. The show seems to want us to find them cheeky and playful with each other, but with all the tweaking and pointedness, they just kind of seem like jerks. Bruce is condescending and controlling, and Jennifer seems smug and pestersome. There’s not much in the way of likable characters in the early going here. Plus, while I think the show wants to treat two hulks doing battle as mere roughhousing, it’s a little unsettling that the two basically resolve their disagreement with physical force and outright violence.

On top of that, there’s some unfortunately cartoonish “dudes suck” and go-girl feminism motifs. There’s a kernel of a good idea there -- with the notion that Jennifer is better at controlling her anger or other strong emotions than Bruce ever was because it’s the sort of thing women have to do every day lest they face harsh labels or risks to their safety. But the jerky lawyer and other male antagonists are cartoonishly awful, and the “Anything you can do, I can do better” routine between Bruce and Jennifer starts to feel overly blunt very quickly. The point isn’t bad, but the dramatization of it is too exaggerated and on-the-nose to elicit much more than eye-rolls.

And, as the Internet has apparently fixated on, the CGI is very inconsistent and frequently quite dodgy. Sometimes it’s fine! At times, both hulks feel like real, expressive people in bodies with weight and definition. At others, they feel like characters from a video game cutscene circa ten years ago. I’m not one to gripe about such things too hard, but considering this isn’t just side spectacle, but rather core to the main character of the series, it can be genuinely distracting in several moments.

All of that said, we get thirty seconds of The Good Place’s Jammela Jamil, which is promising if she has more to do on the show. And there’s some good ideas worth exploring that are hopefully in the show’s future. But the questionable approach, tone, characters, and realization of these ideas in the early going all provide a shaky-at-best start to the new show.

[9.5/10] They got me. They really did. I believed that Saul would do it, that he would find a way to lie, cheat, and steal out of suffering any real consequences for all the pain and losses he is responsible for. I believed that he would trade in Kim's freedom and chance to make a clean break after baring her soul in exchange for a damn pint of ice cream. I have long clocked Better Call Saul as a tragedy, about a man who could have been good, and yet, through both circumstance and choice, lists inexorably toward becoming a terrible, arguably evil person. I thought this would be the final thud of his descent, selling out the one person on this Earth who loved him to feather his own nest.

Maybe Walt was right when he said that Jimmy was "always like this." Maybe Chuck was right that there something inherently corrupt and untrustworthy in the heart of his little brother. This post-Breaking Bad epilogue has been an object lesson in the depths to which Gene Takovic will stoop in order to feed his addiction and get what he wants. There would be no greater affirmation of the completeness of his craven selfishness and cruelty than throwing Kim under the bus to save himself.

Only, in the end, that's the feint, that's the trick, that's the con, on the feds and the audience. When Saul hears that Kim took his words to heart and turned herself in, facing the punishments that come with it, he can't sit idly by and profit from his own lies and bullshit. He doesn't want to sell her out; he wants to fall on the sword in front of her, make sure she knows that he knows what he did wrong.Despite his earlier protestations that his only regret was not making more money or avoiding knee damage, he wants to confess in a court of law that he regrets the choices that led him here and the pain he caused, and most of all he regrets that they led to losing her.

In that final act of showmanship and grace, he lives up to the advice Chuck gives him in the flashback scene here, that if he doesn't like the road that his bad choices have led him, there's no shame in taking a different path. Much as Walt did, at the end of the line, Saul admits his genuine motives, he accepts responsibility for his choices after years of blame and evasion. Most of all, he takes his name back, a conscious return to being the person that Kim once knew, in form and substance. It is late, very late, when it happens, but after so much, Jimmy uses his incredible skills to accept his consequences, rather than sidestep them, and he finds the better path that Kim always believed he could walk, one that she motivates him to tread.

It is a wonderful finale to this all-time great show. I had long believed that this series was a tragedy. It had to be, given where Jimmy started and where the audience knew Saul ended. But as it was always so good at doing, Better Call Saul surprised me, with a measured bit of earned redemption for its protagonist, and moving suggestion that with someone we care for and who cares of us, even the worst of us can become someone and something better. In its final episode, the series offered one more transformation -- from a tale of tragedy, to a story of hope.

(On a personal note, I just want to say thank you to everyone who read and commented on my reviews here over the years. There is truly no show that's been as rewarding for me to write about than Better Call Saul, and so much of that owes to the community of people who offered me the time and consideration to share my thoughts, offered their kind words, and helped me look at the series in new ways with their thoughtful comments. I don't know what the future holds, but I am so grateful to have been so fortunate as to share this time and these words with you.)

EDIT: One last time, here is my usual, extended review of the finale in case anyone's interested -- https://thespool.net/reviews/better-call-saul-series-finale-recap-saul-gone/

[7.5/10] I wondered to myself, what was the point of those Breaking Bad flashbacks. Sure, it's cool to see Walt and Jesse and the RV and even the flat bottom flask again. But I was ready to write off the trip back to Saul's first meeting with the meth-dealers in season 2 of Breaking Bad as simple fan service.

It took the scene with Mike for me to get it. The point, at least on my read, is a theme that Better Call Saul has hit time and again -- Saul can't leave well enough alone. He won't listen to Mike that this chemistry teacher is a rank amateur who's going to end up with a dark result. And Gene won't listen to Jeff or his friend who warn that it's a bad idea to darken the doorstep of another poor man stricken with cancer.

We know how things end for Saul in Breaking Bad. The choice to throw in with Walter White rather than be satisfied with his rewarding, if not exactly classy law practice ultimately ruins him, and takes away everything he'd achieved in the years before and after the events of this series. The choice to cast aside any moral hesitation and callously rob a dying man of his finances, to push the bounds of the pragmatic given how long it takes between when they dosed the guy and when Gene tries to complete the deed, will almost certainly lead to a similarly bad end.

Yes, it's neat to flashback and see some of the old faces from Breaking Bad again. It's cool to learn that Huell made it out and see Francesca get one last payday. But the takeaway is simple. Saul lost everything. He has no more fortune or empire. The cops are still after him. His former allies are either dead or have moved on. And even Kim, who asked about him, seems to want nothing to do with him anymore, via a tantalizingly opaque phone call between her and Gene.

So left with no other options, Gene makes the same choice that Slippin' Jimmy did over and over again. He goes back to running scams. He can't leave well enough alone. He does it without any joy, because he's not doing this out of pleasure. He's doing it out of desperation, addition, sadness, and loneliness. He is scraping the last bit of thrill from the bottom of the jar, and if his star-crossed visit to Walter White is any indication, it's likely to be the last step in his sad, pitiable, but always avoidable fall from grace.

EDIT: Here's my usual, more fulsome review for anyone who's interested -- https://thespool.net/reviews/tv/tv-recap-better-call-saul-season-6-episode-11/

[8.4/10] I'd speculated about how Kim would depart Jimmy's world. I feared she might be killed. I thought she'd get fed up with his misdeeds and leave him over that. What I didn't expect was that it would be spurred by a moment of self-recognition born of a terrible tragedy. Kim still loves Jimmy, but she recognizes that they're "poison" together, that they get off on the joint cons, and that when they do, people get hurt. She is one of the vanishingly small number of people in this franchise to recognize that she's on a destructive path and take drastic action to stop it. It's one of the most unexpected, but ultimately satisfying ways to have her exit I can imagine.

And it puts her in good company. Jimmy is as horrified by what happened as Kim is, but he can envision moving on, he can picture maintaining this life despite where it led them, he can see forgetting this some day. Kim can't. It's the same way Gus cannot forget his former partner Max, someone he loves, whose memory lingers with him when he gazes into Don Eladio's pool and holds him back from continuing to flirt with the handsome waiter who chats him up over a glass of a wine. It's the same way Mike cannot forget his son, which leads him to tell Nacho's father the truth about what happened to his child.

Mr. Varga shrugs off Mike's promise that justice will be done, recognizing that what he's talking about is vengeance. He declares that vengeance is a cycle that doesn't stop, and we know from Breaking Bad that he's right. Gus hasn't beaten the Salamancas or Don Eladio. Mike hasn't completed his tour of duty so that he can retire and spend time with his granddaughter. Jimmy can't avoid crossing paths with the cartel again. They're all in this now, and their victories bring them no peace, only pull them deeper into the muck of this, and closer to their ignoble ends.

But Kim breaks away. She cannot forget, but she can act to stop this from happening again. Her final scene with Jimmy (for now at least) is more quietly heartbreaking than explosive and dramatic, but that suits the gravity of this. And in her absence, Jimmy is free to become Saul, as an indeterminate time jump to the man in his huckster faux-finery confirms. The last thing holding Jimmy back is gone. Saul Goodman is here. He can't stop. And despite the woman in his bed, the bedraggled secretary on his phone, and the crowd of people in his waiting room, he is alone.

EDIT: If you'd like to read my usual, longer review, you can find it here -- https://thespool.net/reviews/tv-recap-better-call-saul-season-6-episode-9/

The cynical side of me wants to call this Everything, everywhere all at once for consoomers.
The optimistic side of me sees Kevin Feige finally pushing the boundaries of his own franchise.
I guess it’s a little bit of both in the end.

Undoubtedly, the best thing the movie has going for it is the Sam Raiminess of it all. His fingerprints are all over it; you’re getting the weird camera angles, camp, his sense of horror, etc. It definitely has more style than some other Marvel movies, though there's also still some of the usual blandness. I'll give it to Marvel for putting in a scene where a talking corpse gives a heartfelt, sentimental speech. There's more of a psychedelic feel to it than the first film, but every time it tends to get really interesting it feels like Raimi's being reigned it to adhere to Marvel's demands. Elizabeth Olsen and Benedict Cumberbatch are giving some of their best performances as these characters to date, and the music’s really well done. But ultimately the film’s Achilles heel is its own script, which is complete junk. The story is thin, messy, nonsensical, and at times flat out embarrassing. The set-up in the first act is very rushed, while the second and third act feel like they’re written by a Reddit fanpage (you just know for a fact that Marvel only went in this direction because of the 2 Batmen that have been announced for The Flash). It’s Marvel at its most ‘producty’, and it’s going to trick a lot of people into thinking the film is better than it is. Regardless, I hope Patrick Stewart got a big paycheck for ruining his own perfect send-off in Logan at the very least. A lot of the story beats don’t make sense either, with most of the characters arcs feeling rushed and nonsensical, even despite the copious amounts of exposition that are desperately trying to tie everything together. The choices made with Wanda in the third act are baffling, and I still don’t know what the takeaway is supposed to be by the end of the film. Her motivation is problematic in general, and I don’t like the use of the [insert plot device] corrupts the mind of the villain trope, which is becoming very overused in the MCU (Ant-Man, Winter Soldier) and just a lazy way of forcing a conflict where the villain stays redeemable. The new character (America Chavez) is a boring, underdeveloped plot device, while Strange himself doesn't even have a real arc. It's the kind of film where a lot happens, but very little leaves an actual impression. I’m not sure what happened, but I get the impression that a significant portion of this film was reworked and rewritten during post production. The action didn’t impress me whatsoever, but that’s been a case with these films for a while now (some of the stuff in Shang-Chi excluded). Some of the visuals look tacky and unfinished, the action’s a bunch of people shooting flashing lights at each other, shots don’t linger enough, people move like animated characters, it’s all the usual bs (and this is coming from someone who thinks the action and effects in the first one are still underappreciated to this day). Inbetween the first film and the sequel, Marvel has become a machine that’s now collapsing under its own pressure. If Disney would allow it, they really should go back to making 2-3 properties a year. The consistent mediocrity of their current output is killing their own longevity.

4/10

Oh, and your kids will be fine watching this. I’ve seen some uproar about the ‘horror’ and violence of the film, and it’s honestly not that shocking. There’s way more creepy stuff in some of the Harry Potter and Indiana Jones films (or just your average 80’s kids film in general).

A potentially great film being held hostage by its PG-13 rating and its messy, all over the places screenwriting.

By PG-13 I don't simply mean its visuals/goriness, but most importantly its dialogues, themes, and storytelling it tries to raise. Let me explain.

First, the dialogues.

The film opens with murder and Batman narrating the city's anxious mood. We get a glimpse of noir in this scene, but it soon falls flat due to a very uninteresting, plain, forgettable choice of words Batman used in his narration. Mind you, this is not a jab at Pattinson - Pattinson delivered it nicely. But there is no emotion in his line of words - there is no adjectives, there is no strong feelings about how he regards the city full of its criminals.

Here's a line from the opening scene. "Two years of night has turned me to a nocturnal animal. I must choose my targets carefully. It's a big city. I can't be everywhere. But they don't know where I am. When that light hits the sky, it's not just a call. It's a warning to them. Fear... is a tool. They think I am hiding in the shadows. Watching. Waiting to strike. I am the shadows." Okay? Cool. But sounds like something from a cartoon. What does that tell us about you, Batman?

Compare this to a similar scene uttered by Rorschach in Watchmen. "The streets are extended gutters and the gutters are full of blood. And when the drains finally scab over, all the vermin will drown. All those liberals and intellectuals, smooth talkers... Beneath me, this awful city, it screams like an abattoir full of retarded children, and the night reeks of fornication and bad consciences." You can say that Rorschach is extremely edgy (he is), but from that line alone we can tell his hatred towards the city, and even more so: his perspective, his philosophy that guides him to conduct his life and do what he does.

Rorschach's choice of words is sometimes verbose, but he is always expletive and at times graphic, making it clear to the audience what kind of person he is. Batman in this film does not. His words are always very safe, very carefully chosen, which strikes as an odd contrast to Pattinson's tortured portrayal of Batman as someone with a seemingly pent up anger. His choice of words is very PG-13 so that the kids can understand what Batman is trying to convey.

And this is not only in the opening scene. Throughout the film, the dialogues are written very plainly forgettable. It almost feels like the characters are having those conversations just to move the plot forward. Like that one encounter between Batman and Catwoman/Selina when she broke into the house to steal the passport or when Selina asked to finish off the "rat". They flow very oddly unnatural, as if those conversations are written to make them "trailer-able" (and the scenes indeed do appear on the trailer).

Almost in all crucial plot points the writers feel the need to have the characters to describe what has happened, or to explictly say what they are feeling - like almost every Gordon's scene in crime scene, or Selina's scene when she's speaking to Batman. It feels like the writers feel that the actors' expression just can't cut it and the audience has to be spoonfed with dialogues; almost like they're writing for kids.

Second, the storytelling.

Despite being a film about vengeance-fueled Batman (I actually like that cool "I'm vengeance" line) we don't get to see him actually being in full "vengeance" mode. Still in the opening we see Batman punching some thugs around. That looks a little bit painful but then the thugs seem to be fit enough to run away and Batman let them be. Then in the middle of the film we see Batman does something similar to mafias. Same, he just knocked them down but there's nothing really overboard with that. Then eventually in the car chase scene with the Penguin, Batman seem to be on "full rage mode", but over... what? He was just talking to Penguin a moment ago. The car chase scene itself is a bit pointless if not only to show off the Batmobile. And Batman did nothing to the Penguin after, just a normal questioning, not even harsher than Bale's Batman did to Heath's Joker in The Dark Knight - not in "'batshit insane' cop" mode as Penguin put it.

Batman's actions look very much apprehensive and controlled. Nothing too outrageous. Again, at odds with Pattinson's portrayal that seem to be full of anger; he's supposed to be really angry but somehow he still does not let his anger take the best of him. The only one time he went a bit overboard that shocked other characters is when he kept punching a villain near the end of the film. But even then it's not because his anger; it's because he injected some kind of drug (I guess some adrenaline shot). A very safe way to drop a parent-friendly message that "drug is bad, it can change you" in a PG-13 film.

And all that supposed anger... we don't get to see why he is angry and where his anger is directed at. Compare this to Arthur Fleck in Joker where it is clear as sky why Arthur would behave the way the does in the film. I mean we know his parents' death troubled him, but it's barely even discussed, not even in brief moments with Alfred (except in one that supposedly "shocking" moment). So... where's your vengeance, Mr. Vengeance? And what the hell are you vengeancing on?

Speaking of "shocking" moment... this is about the supposed Wayne family's involvement in the city's criminal affairs that has been teased early in the film. Its revelation was very anticlimactic: the supposed motive and the way it ended up the way it is, all very childish. If the film wanted the Wayne to be a "bad person", there's a lot of bads that a billionaire can do: tax evasion, blood diamond, funding illegal arms trade, fending off unions, hell, they can even do it the way the Waynes in Joker did it: hints of sexual abuses. But no, it has to be some bloody murder again, and all for a very trivial reason of "publicity". As if the film has to make it clear to the kids: "hey this guy's bad because he killed someone!" Which COULD work if the film puts makes taking someone's life has a very serious consequence. But it just pales to the serial killing The Riddler has done.

Even more anticlimactic considering how Bruce Wayne attempted to find a resolve in this matter only takes less than a 5 minute scene! It all involves only a bit of dialogues which boils down to how Thomas Wayne has a good reason to do so. Bruce somehow is convinced with that and has a change of heart instantly, making him looks very gullible.

And of course the ending is very weak and disappointing. First, Riddler's final show directly contradicts his initial goal to expose and destroy the corrupt elites. What he did instead is making the lives of the poor more difficult, very oxymoron for someone supposed to be as smart as him.

Second, the way Batman just ended up being "vengeance brings nothing and I should save people more than hurting people" does not get enough development to have him to say that in the end. Again - where's your vengeance? And how did you come to such character development if nothing is being developed on? And let's not get to how it's a very safe take against crime and corruption that closely resembles Disney's moralistic pandering in Marvel Cinematic Universe film.

Last, the visuals.

I'm not strictly speaking about gore, though that also factors in the discussion. The film sets this up as a film about hunting down a serial killer. But the film barely shows how cruel The Riddler can be to his victims. Again, back to the opening scene: we get it, Riddler killed the guy, but it does not look painful at all as it looks Riddler just knocked him twice. The sound design is very lacking that it does not seem what The Riddler done was conducted very painfully. Riddler then threw away his murder weapon, but we barely see blood. Yet when Gordon arrived to the crime scene, he described the victim as being struck multiple times with blood all over. What?

Similarly, when Riddler forced another victim to wear a bomb in his neck. The situation got pretty tense, but when the bomb eventually blow off, we just got some very small explosion like a small barrel just exploded, not a human being! I mean I'm not saying we need a gory explosion with head chopped off like in The Boys, but it does not look like what would happen if someone's head got blown off. Similarly when another character got almost blown off by a bomb - there's no burnt scar at all.

Why the hell are they setting up those possibly gory deaths and scars if they're not going to show how severe and painful these are? At least not the result - we don't need to see blood splattered everywhere - just how painful the process is. Sound design and acting of the actors (incl. twitching, for example) would've helped a lot even we don't see the gore, like what James Franco did in The 127 Hours or Hugh Jackman in Logan. In this film there's almost no tense at all resulting from those.

I'm not saying this film is terrible.

The acting, given the limited script they had, is excellent. Pattinson did his best, so did Paul Dano (always likes him as a villain), Zoe Kravitz, and the rest. Cinematography is fantastic; the lighting, angle, everything here is very great that makes a couple of very good trailers - perhaps one could even say that the whole film trades off coherency for making the scenes "trailer-able". The music is iconic, although with an almost decent music directing. And I guess this detective Batman is a fresh breath of air.

But all that does not make the movie good as in the end it's still all over the places and very PG-13.

Especially not with the 3 hours runtime where many scenes feel like a The Walking Dead filler episode.

If you're expecting a Batman film with similar gritty, tone to The Dark Knight trilogy or Joker, this film is not for you. But if you only want a live-action cartoon like pre-Nolan Batmans or The Long Halloween detective-style film, well, I guess you can be satisfied with this one.

Look, I'm very much in favor of giving directors the creative freedom to put their own spin on whatever they're adapting.
In fact, I think it's quite shallow and close-minded to judge an adaptation against its source material, pretending as if that's meant to be some holy grail of perfection.
That being said: the whole appeal of the Uncharted games in the first place is that they feel like a mix of Indiana Jones and Mission Impossible, with this sassy, horny, shit-talking protagonist at the center of it.
This movie captures neither of those aspects, and replaces them with basic movie tropes.
It doesn't feel like the aforementioned franchises. Instead, it looks and feels like your generic, throwaway action movie that usually stars The Rock (e.g.Rampage, Red Notice, Skyscraper).
Tom Holland plays Spider-man with attitude. He's not playing (a younger version of) Nathan Drake.
Mark Wahlberg plays Mark Wahlberg.

Like, why was this project treated like a tax write-off?
It has everything a Hollywood executive could want: the source material is cinematic, action packed, fun, and best of all: it has a built in audience.
This could've easily been the next big summer franchise if this was given a proper treatment. It should be much easier to get this right than other videogame based adaptations.
So why is Avi Arad producing this? Why is Ruben Fleischer directing this? Why is this script burning through four games of material? Why is the dialogue so clunky and unfunny? Why is the casting so lame? Why does it look like plastic, when the cinematographer of this thing shot Last Night in Soho and Oldboy?
Fuck.

3.5/10

"San Andreas" was just as big and stupid as I thought it would be. It reminded me of every other big disaster film of the last decade or so. You know, "The Day After Tomorrow", "2012", "Dante's Peak", that type of deal. But for as corny and predictable as this movie was, I was totally entertained.

Somehow, Dwayne Johnson's character was able to fly around in a rescue helicopter and actually save no one. Well, other than his wife and daughter. Anyone else caught along the entire crumbling California coast was toast, because Dwayne wasn't saving them. But then, who can blame him. He's married to Carla Gugino. I'd take the straightest line possible, too.

I found myself feeling a bit guilty for a moment or two about how much I was getting a charge out of the total carnage. Skyscrapers toppled, the ground split open and swallowed up whole suburbs and neighborhoods. And then to top if all off, look out for the Tsunami! Freighters and battleships were no match for Nature's wrath, as they were washed up over the Golden Gate bridge and into San Francisco, left hanging precariously from shattered buildings.

But Mother Nature herself was no match for The Rock. Anything in his way. Anything falling from above or falling out from under him was merely delaying his inevitable success in saving his family. It had me in stitches. I was laughing and shouting, "Hell Yeah, Dwayne!!!"

Why is this BDSM fairy tale of 50 Shades would not work in real life?
BDSM life style is not made out of the blue. It is about people who have tried the vanilla life style and finding out that it would never work out for them. It is sneaking into other people's bedrooms and judging them for what they do.
The reasons why 50 shades never work are many, but the following are my own why these 50 shades of fucked up would never actually work in real life..
1- Anastasia Stelle is nothing but an inexperienced virgin who has never been in a real relationship in her life. People who have seek BDSM relationship are people who have tried and never been successful into being in a normal or what the community would call vanilla relationship. They have seek and never been able to achieve their satisfaction by being into a "normal" relationship or at least what society have been telling them what a relationship should be about.
2- Through out the movie, the relationship was about satisfying Mr. Grey, but in a real BDSM relationship the dominant is all about satisfying the submissive other than the other way around. Being the dominant in the relationship is all about the satisfaction of the submissive before seeking the satisfaction of oneself. Like any other relationship it is about both parties getting what they wanted out of it.

3- The BDSM motto has always been Safe, sane, and consensual, most of self respecting BDSM life style would ban the use of alcohol cause in more than one way it dulls the senses. The person who should enter in such a relationship should have a complete ownership of his or her senses. Which through out the movie was untrue.

The character of Anna Steele enters the relationship to satisfy Mr. Grey which in most of BDSM relationships is not the case.
The case of such relationship is like any other, it is all about the satisfaction. What one party would be by giving up and the other party would be taking, Control.

However, the movie was all about the relinquishing of that control to satisfy the other party which is not what a healthy relationship should be about.

The BDSM community was in a twist cause they have reconsigned that this relationship was built on a not so equal grounds. Both the parties in such relationship would relish on the feeling that they are both getting what they needed, something which the movie has obviously shown to be not the case.
I did not like it. It showed a relationship that was based on the fact that a single party is getting what they want on the expense of the other's misery. Which is a text book of an unhealthy relationship.

I found the movie to be an unhealthy commercial of something that the community regards to be a taboo. It was made to show what everyone was expecting to be an orthodox relationship.
Anyone of us who decided to be with someone they make their own rules whether we share it with the community or not, it is an unbinding contract that we hold to one another..
Another thing that this movie has grossly and utterly ignore..
I am disappointed and not impressed..

Absolutely unoriginal and boring. Incredible special effects.

None of the new characters have enough time or backstory for us to care about them, but they're also not throw away characters - the writers seemed to think we would be too triggered if a single good guy died. In fact, nobody died the entire movie - 100% of the enemies are bots. There aren't even meaningful interactions with agents outside of the ones Neo simulates.

The entire thing was just a big callback to what they did in the original trilogy. Lots of allusion and direct rips. All with killer special effects, but no substance. They think they're being meta and hip by acknowledging it, but that doesn't make it better; their horrible post credits scene about "just needing to elicit an emotional response" and "uploading the catrix" makes it a lot worse.

Nothing in the movie has any deeper meaning. There are zero stakes. The new human city isn't at risk. The Matrix isn't at risk. Literally the entire movie is about Neo and Trinity needing to wake up and get out of the Matrix - if they don't, they will continue living, just inside the Matrix.

None of Smith's motives were clear. He went from being a very strong and interesting character in the original trilogy to a very weak and aimless character here.

Cheapening the power of the One is really detrimental to the film. The Analyst's idea that "Neo was nothing special by himself, he needed Trinity" is ridiculous. It's rather as the Architect said "Neo's attachment to humanity was very intimate." He was still the One with or without Trinity, and his powers were unique to that position. So the idea that the machines can somehow use Neo and Trinity to enhance power generation of the Matrix by keeping them close is both fundamentally flawed on top of being ridiculous. And then letting Trinity be the one to fly them out of danger at the end just steals everything from Neo.

Despite everyone assuring Neo that his fight mattered, it seems that the world is almost identical to where it was at the start of the original Matrix movie. The Matrix is a prison. The humans are hiding in a city to keep back the hostile machines. It doesn't seem like they're freeing many minds. The only difference is that now some machines are on their side - something that's never really explained. This new alliance has yielded the incredible result of.. fruit. Neo's entire fight gave humanity fruit. That's it.

The Analyst and the machines seemed incompetent and weak. The machine on machine violence was very interesting and could have been instrumental in explaining the resurgence in war and restoration of the Matrix as a prison - so naturally it was only mentioned once offhand.

The world wasn't setup clearly or interestingly in a way to support a story existing within it. There is no substance, no stakes, and no point.

Overall it's a huge disappointment. The fact that the Reloaded and Revolutions were better movies that were more coherent and added more substance to the universe is testament to the extreme failure of this move.

[7.0/10] Another episode that isn’t bad, but isn’t especially great either. It’s just square in the middle.

I’ll say this, I loved the interlude where Clint goes to play with the Larpers to get his Ronin suit back. There’s something so fun about him carrying a fake sword and just casually “slaying” his opponents in slow-motion while they overact in response. His fake “trial by combat” was a blast, and I like the idea that having suffered through so much over the years (including a wicked case of tinnitus, apparently), part of his journey here is learning to have fun and enjoy himself again.

Likewise, I’m not sure how I feel about the meta-commentary on how Hawkeye is the most low-key, least marketable Avenger. It’s a little too cute by half. But I do appreciate the continuing focus on the nature of celebrity and how Clint is uncomfortable with it, doesn’t care about selling things, and is a little over it all. There’s meat there, and I don’t know if the show is going to sink its teeth into it, like so many one-eyed pups chowing down on some pizza, but it’s intriguing nonetheless.

That said, I’m at least warming to Kate Barton a little. I continue to find her oblivious “straighten up and fly right” mom + probably evil stepdad situation to be too stock and unengaging. But she’s got a sly, deadpan sort of snark vibe that I appreciate. She and Clint don’t have the fun dynamic that, say, Sam and Bucky do. But him as the no-nonsense dad, and her as the wry rebel has some juice to it. I’m not totally sold, but there’s room to grow there.

Still, her stepdad is so cheesily evil to me that I’m desperately hoping it’s a swerve, even though all of my comics knowledge suggests it isn’t. Tony Dalton is a good actor! He’s great in Better Call Saul. But Jack is just such a nigh-literally mustache-twirling bad guy so far that he’s almost wholly uninteresting.

The same goes for the “track suit mafia.” There’s not much of an animating problem in this one. Jack is an obvious baddie, and the Eastern Bloc Bro Brigade has little going for them either. So what obstacles are we supposed to care about here? There’s something to be said for Clint’s “catch and release” ploy to get inside the bad guys’ compound, but it’s thin gruel.

I guess we have Clint’s promise to his daughter to make it home for Xmas, but again, very generic as these things go.

Overall, this feels more like a piece moving episode than anything that really deepens the characters or their situation. Clint playing temporary mentor to Kate has something to it, but the show can’t yet find a worthy challenge to throw at them. Kate’s story especially feels very rote and facile. Hoping that with more throat clearing out of the way, this one improves.

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

Bloodsport: “Nobody likes a showoff.”

Peacemaker: “Unless what they showing off is dope as fuck.”

James Gunn recently said in an interview that he finds superhero movies “mostly boring” right now. Anything ranging from safe and boring or technically well-made but disposable, at best. Gunn received at bit of heat from fans for those remarks, but in some sense, he’s not wrong. Because sometimes following the same formula will eventually wear fin and more risk taking needs to happen.

And here we have ‘The Suicide Squad’, the soft reboot to the 2016 film, but this time directed by Gunn himself, where he delivers a highly entertaining movie that is bursting with creativity and ultra-violence. James Gunn once again shakes up the superhero formula with a slick style. I’m just glad DC is finally letting directors have a voice and a vision, and I hope it stays like that.

The first 10-15 minutes tells you exactly what the movie is going to be.

I just can't believe we got something like this. It's 2 hours and 12 minutes long, but it's always on the move. It’s bonkers from start till finish, and I enjoyed every minute of it. This is probably one of the best shot movies in the DCU. The soundtrack is great as well and used effectively. The action scenes were insane and made the overall experience one of the most fun I had at the cinema in a long time.

A massive improvement over the 2016 film, AKA ‘the studio cut’, is that the movie doesn’t look ugly and isn’t chopped together by trailer editors. The movie is vibrant in colours that made it look pleasing to the eye. The structure at times is messy, and yet strangely well-paced, as there’s a lot going on.

Did I mention the movie is very gory? It’s cartoonish violence, or what people call "adult superhero movie", so it's not for kiddies or for the faint of heart. You would probably guess that not everybody on the team is going to make it to the end credits, so deaths are to be expected, but how certain characters “bite the dust” are so unexpectedly gruesome and brutal, it took me by surprise each time. The marketing for the movie was right, don’t get too attached. As I said before, James Gunn had complete creative control over the movie, and he doesn’t hold back on what he wrote and show on screen. But then again, it's a movie, it's not real, the actors who die on screen are fine in real life...I think.

All the cast members have equal amount of time to shine, and you like these super villains this time around, as each character had wonderful chemistry with each other. John Cena plays Peacemaker, who can be best described as a “douchebag version of Captain America”. An extreme patriot who will do the most horrific things for liberty. John Cena excels in the deadpan line delivery for comedic effect, but surprisingly enough, worked well in the serious moments. Looking forward to the spin-off show ‘Peacemaker’.

Margot Robbie once again nails the role of the chaotic but gleeful Harley Quinn. While the character isn’t front and centre this time around, more of a side character, but whenever the character is on screen, it’s instantly memorable.

Idris Elba plays Bloodsport, a contract killer who’s doing time in prison after failing to kill Superman with a kryptonite bullet, while also dealing with family issues, especially with his daughter. While the character may sound like Will Smith’s Deadshot from the 2016 film, but trust me, the execution here is much stronger. This is by far Elba’s best work in a while. Charismatic and a strong leading presence.

Polka Dot Man, played by character actor David Dastmalchian, a socially awkward, weird, and lame sounding character that has some serious mummy issues, which has a funny running visual gag throughout. However, because of Gunn’s writing and Dastmalchian's performance, the character is more than a joke, but a unique character to watch.

Ratcatcher 2, played wonderfully by Daniela Melchior, who brought so much warmth and heart to the film. I loved how they tied in her tragic backstory into the finale, as it honestly made me cry. And let’s not forget the king himself, King Shark, voiced by Sylvester Stallone. He stole every scene he’s in, because he’s so adorable and has such kind eyes, but when he’s hungry, he can be a killing machine.

The rest of the supporting cast, even in the smaller roles, still manage to stand out amidst all the chaos. I liked Joel Kinnaman as Rick Flag a lot more this time around, because the actor was given more to work with in terms of good material. Viola Davis is brilliant as the cold and ruthless Amanda Waller. And Peter Capaldi is always a pleasure to see. Also, I like the character of Weasel, who I can describe as a unholy offspring of Shin Godzilla and Rocket Racoon. He may not be beautiful to look at, but he's beautiful to me.

Like ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’, the movie has a lot of heart and I like how they took certain characters, who on page sound stupid and ridiculous but are handled with such love and depth, while also being self-aware of its own characterization.

You can literally watch this as a standalone movie and you won’t be lost or confused, as you don’t need to watch 22 other movies to understand it. This is by far the strongest entry in this jumbled mess of a cinematic universe.

Overall rating: Nom-nom!

I can see why Marvel wanted to start with this show rather then WandaVision. I liked Wandavision, but this show felt more like the movies and had more of a direct relationship with them. It dealt more with "the blip" and seems like a more natural beginning of phase 4. Episodes of this length and substance are also more rewarding to watch week to week then the short run time of the wandavision episodes, especially given you had no clue what was going on until a few weeks in.

The opening action sequence was great, they made a good choice starting this story with Falcon and moving to Buckie mid way in. It was great learning a little more about Falcon being that they've really shed very little light on his story at all in the movies other than his loyalty to Steve. We know more about Bucky, so the focus here was correct. I like that these shows add more substance to the characters then the movies can fit in, it was sad watching Bucky come to terms with the damage he caused, but something his character needed since he was really only used for action scenes since the winter soldier all those years ago.

Very solid start for this show, I can't wait to see more but also felt satisfied with what I got which is something I struggled to feel with the short and mostly irrelevant WandaVision episodes.

And then the ending comes where everyone let out a collective "oh hell nah."

This is by far one of the best, if not the best movie about the creation of both Apple and Microsoft and is essential viewing for any tech enthusiast or IT person as it gives you a great and accurate insight into the start of both companies.

The portrayal by both Noah Wyle (Steve Jobs) and Anthony Michael Hall (Bill Gates) was flawless as after watching footage of both Jobs and Gates at the time I can say at some points I forgot I was watching a movie and almost felt like a documentary how accurate they portrayed both these real-life legends, also they don't shy away to show that Steve Jobs wasn't a very nice person and Bill Gates is maybe a person you shouldn't trust in any way at the time. Also need to give a shout out to both John DiMaggio (Steve Balmer) and Joey Slotnick (Steve Wozniak) who both narrate a large portion of the film and once again do justice to both of these real-life figures.

Now the film is a little flawed because it was a made for TV film by TNT and you can tell it had a very small budget, but for what it's worth they tell the story really well with such a small budget and I would love to see a director like Adam McKay redirect this film with a bigger budget but keep the exact same story.

Otherwise, I urge you to give this film a watch and get ready to learn the true story of how the computer world as we know it was created.

P.S. If you work for TNT, please beg them to remaster this film if possible.

I have so much to say about this show and how bad it is. If you want a excellent supernatural drama, then watch this BUT only from season 1 to 5. The fifth season's finale offers a great ending to the show and after that, everything is just plain bad. The plots stop making sense, they bring back characters just to kill them off and introduce new ones nobody gives a shit about. Think about everything that makes the show amazing, all those characters you love. Well, you'll be lucky if they decide to kill them off, because they managed to ruin Castiel and Crowley's characters to a point where I can't even stand them. Season 10's Crowley is just terrible, all he does is sit on his chair in his castle or whatever the hell that is (look i made a pun) and kill random demons. Regarding Castiel, a lot happens to him after the fifth season, sure, but his character just doesn't evolve. This is so irritating because i was such a huge fan of this show but now i feel like i'm gonna have to drop it.
I can only recommend the 5 first seasons, after that everything is just bad.
Just look at the gap between season 1-5 ratings and season 6-10 (or 11 now, since it has been renewed), and really the only people still defending this show are tumblr hardcore fans and shippers.

MY THOUGHTS ON SEASON 10:

-WARNING: Spoilers Below-

Well this was long... Very long. As a whole the Season was decent, wasn't anything special but it wasn't awful. It had some really good moments and some really boring moments, unfortunately to me they all ended up being a tad bit unmemorable. You can tell they've started trying to make the show a lot more horror again and its definitely a good thing, in fact it's one of the saving graces for season 10.

With Daryl now the central character and having a lot more screen time I've come to realise he's not too good as the main character. Whenever he's given long talks or people look at him as the leader it seems way, way too forced. He comes across as cringe and uncomfortable. If anything they should have given the main character role to Jeffrey Dean Morgan's Negan, I feel like that would have been a lot better for conversation and storytelling.

If I'm honest I can't remember much of Season 10 due to the ridiculous gaps, this season just felt like a massive blur and the only emotion that sparks when I think back on it is boredom. The season pretty much ended on episode 15, the unnecessary wait for the finale (due to covid - weird how no other show struggled with the things TWD struggled with huh?) caused a lot of hype for me to die down. I remember finding out it was delayed and then just completely forgetting about the show.

With this season I'd say the best moments are when Alpha dies and finally when Beta dies... Conveniently two moments where Negan is involved. Jeffrey Dean Morgan absolutely carries this show and without him it'd be an even bigger disaster. The scene where he killed Alpha was executed to perfection, I had slowly started to actually like Alpha and seeing her have her head chopped off was crazy. I loved Negan's smug little face afterwards. With the finale fight scene with Negan & Daryl vs Beta I was incredibly disappointed with how short it was BUT seeing as there wasn't much else to compare it too in this season it ended up standing out.

Overall this season was OK. In my eyes its a highly forgettable season and when you look back on The Walking Dead this won't be a season that will be a big conversation topic. Honestly it's a shame its gone downhill like this because I really do love The Walking Dead but this season was yet another snoozefest and I kept finding myself not wanting to watch certain episodes or losing my focus half way through.

This Season proves that The Walking Dead is in fact a Zombie of its former self and thankfully the end is near with Season 11 being its final. Part of me can really understand why certain actors have left. Its a shame that this season was an improvement compared to others.

[6.9/10] This is a “Calm Before the Storm” type episode, which is usually the sort of episode I really like. Something about characters speaking frankly with one another, letting things slip they might not otherwise when they realize it might be their last night together. It provides a good excuse of shows to slow down, take stock, and do some solid character work before the major fireworks begin.

The problem with this episode is the same problem TWD always has -- it means that this episode is basically nothing but one-on-one conversations, and by the time we get to the back half of “Morning Star”, that is just exhausting. Few of these conversations are particularly well written. Most of them have the same cheesy dialogue and faux-profound statements that are the show’s stock and trade. And stacking them one right on top of the other leaves the episode feeling undifferentiated and same-y. Worse yet, there’s very few stories in this episode, just little snippets of character relationships, some developed some not, stitched together into an ungainly Frankenstein monster (or skinsuit, if you will).

But let’s talk about the two that at least try to connect with or otherwise pay off stories.

Eugene is really the only character who has an arc or a full story in this episode. I like the show continuing with his CB radio girlfriend. His mini-plot also has a good setup and payoff, in the form of Eugen being unable to find the record he wants to play for Stephanie, refusing to sing it in the alternative, but then unleashing the tune from his own golden throat as a sign of vulnerability when he fears he’s scared her off. I still think something bad is coming from all of this, but that’s solid, meat and potatoes budding relationship writing, and it works.

I just don’t know why the show decides to inject Rosita into it. I suppose it’s to interject more conflict there, but there’s something that feels too cheesy about the crush who spurned Eugene being the one who potentially messes up his courtship with the woman who’s helping him get over it. There’s also something gross about her trying to prove that he loves Stephanie by telling her to kiss him. It’s a well-shot scene, but it’s weird and their whole deal has a dumb teen drama vibe that I wish the show would just jettison.

The other major interaction that works in this one is Carol’s and Ezekiel’s. Why does it do so much better than other major scenes? Well, because for one, those two actors are some of the show’s best, and for another, because they have a history together that the audience has witnessed for many seasons, and for a third, because the changes they’ve been through since they broke up give their renewed intimacy and admissions meaning. The two always had an endearing rapport, and having them give it one last meal together is heartening and a little sad at the same time.

(By the way, here’s a prediction for the next episode: I’d bet good money that Ezekiel dies. He has a meaningful goodbye with Carol; he gets a feature scene with Daryl, and the only other character he has any real significant connection to is Jerry. Between the upcoming battle and his cancer, I imagine he goes out like a hero in the next one.)

Those are all things missing from the other, myriad conversations that take place in the shadow of an impending Whisperer attack here. Either they involve subpar performers, or they feature characters and relationships the audience hasn’t seen or had nearly the time to invest in, or they’re repetitions of things the audience already knows just to remind us that certain characters exist. I’m sure some of the stuff discussed concerning Mary’s nephew, or Judith wanting to fight, or Lydia’s deal with her mom will come back in some way shape or form, but it all comes off very sudden and miscalibrated.

I’ve also stopped caring about whatever Alpha and Negan’s deal is. I assume that at some point Negan will turn on the Whisperers and reveal that he was on the good guys’ side all along. But until then, their vibe just doesn't work and isn’t interesting.

But I’ll say this much for “Morning Star” -- when it finally dispenses with the unconvincing conversations and just digs into the battle, it’s a hell of a ride! The electrified line seems more there for coolness than practicality, but I can’t complain! The Whisperers launching containers of accelerant on our heroes and then lighting fires is scary in the best way. And the Hilltoppers doing the Spartan Phalanx stuff again, this time against live foes, is still, as Negan might say, “some cool shit.”

The problem is that it takes an awful long stretch of mind-numbing colloquies before we get to that good stuff. The Hilltopper vs. Whisperer battle is a promising one. It’s just sad to see TWD wasting the chance to develop its characters beforehand on weak writing and an otherwise exhausting episode.

Not as solid as I hoped. It's confusing for sure, but they could have done so so much more with this concept and world. But they didn't. It has left us with a story that is interesting, yet unrelatable. Things move way too fast and I would have preferred a longer runtime because it is that intriguing. And while the ending is great, the way that Nolan tries to merge the two viewpoints isn't done well. Leaving me feeling like my dad when he watches Transformers (2007) and asks who is who.

It needed to be simplified a little more because everything else is amazing. The effects, the overarching story, the acting. The music, however, is terrible and overblown to give a sense of action when there isn't enough happening. The only part where it worked well was in the final fight, but even then it needed to be quieter.

The cinematography is good as always, but I feel it is lacking compared to Nolan's previous work.

When it comes to action and the draw to this movie, the reversal shots. They deliver, but they are too and far between. It gives us great scenes of reversal action, then one drawn-out segment at the end that doesn't feel rewarding as like I said before, it isn't merged well.

This movie may grow on me more after a second viewing, but it left me in a state that I don't wish to see it again any time soon. It is not fun enough to see again, it is not engaging enough to associate and learn from. Something that Nolan has done well at in the past is his ability to leave questions with the audience after they finish his films. Here, it just provides answers and left me unsatisfied in that regard.

7/10

As far as I am concerned this is the ONLY version of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice that exists. That other thing that Warner Bros. released in theatres is good but isn't a patch on what Snyder originally created. Snyder took an awful lot of flack for the theatrical release, but whatever you think about him as a film maker, you will have sympathy for him once you see how the studio took a hacksaw to his movie. This Ultimate Edition isn't simply another scene or two which adds 30 minutes but doesn't change the movie, it is a sprinkling of expansions to scenes throughout that solve its much maligned choppiness and lack of flow. Apart from the improved editing which allowed the film to breathe, this version of the movie makes you care about the characters more, especially Superman. Following the journey of Clarke Kent in more detail, seeing him actually do some investigative journalism, and understanding his motivations makes a huge difference. This is especially the case in his death at the end of the movie. Without earlier shots of him doing "Superman" things such as helping people after the Capitol Building bomb, as was the case in the theatrical release, I simply didn't care when he died. With the added tidbits in the Ultimate Edition, Supermans sacrifice brought me to floods of tears. Even though I knew what was coming, the gut punch was overpowering! This character expansion also benefited his nemesis Lex Luthor, who with just a few additional scenes (that he isn't even necessarily in), transforms from a spoilt brat into a criminal mastermind. While it was previously suspected, it now becomes clear that he has his fingerprints on everything, from the Africa scene by blackmailing the witness, to intercepting Wallace Keefe's cheques from Bruce Wayne, and Keefe himself being an unknowing puppet of Luthor carrying a bomb in the led lined wheelchair so Superman couldn't see it. Overall, my recommendation if you haven't seen Batman V Superman yet, or if you saw it in the theatres and hated it, is to give this version a watch. I loved it.

What I love about this series finale is that it gave the characters what they needed.

Pete got his family back and he got out from the shadow of the family name. He created a new life perfect for him and his family.

Peggy opens her eyes to new opportunities which include love. She never really considered Stan before and through the series they were close with ups and downs. A real relationship while still being completely herself- sometimes optimistic, sometimes grouchy, often pessimistic and always ambitious. She doesn’t have to change who she is. I’m glad they left it a bit open. We know she’ll get her dream job as she’s on track and everyone knows her talent. It would have felt cheap if she just suddenly got it so I’m glad the show left it for something we can imagine off screen.

Roger didn’t need much but I’m glad he got the acceptance has a father from Joan. He may not be hands on or much of a ‘father’ but he needed to feel like he did something for the kid. Him and Marie are perfect for each other and their relationship at the end shows him having fun and learning a little. Was it just getting better at French or was he learning more about himself or life? Who knows but I like that there’s a bit of mystery about it. I also like how he treats Don’s secretary. At the beginning of the series he acts like secretaries are nothing. He used to say ‘so?’ And ‘who cares?’ A lot when someone refers to them, as if they don’t matter. This finale he not only tries to keep her on, he regrets losing her, apologizes and does something nice and respectful like give her a good recommendation. It was a really nice little nod to show his personal growth. I really like that.

Joan and her company. I love this. Earlier seasons we saw her love of glamour and show biz. And she loved producing that commercial until it was taken away from her, way back. So I’m glad she pursues this. I’m also glad that she didn’t let her new flame talk her out of it. Men always trying to get her to serve them. It’s too bad she didn’t find somebody who could allow her to be herself as is... but it’s always felt harder for her to be respected. She’s ‘fun’ so it makes sense her love life would be a challenge. I like to think that down the road, after she builds her company that she’ll find the right love - without compromising anything.

Betty really didn’t change much at all through the series and even her tragic end couldn’t get me to like her. Even her goodbye letter was selfish. Yes she had to leave instructions but I was hoping for more. She’s not good with expressing real emotions other than anger. I had hoped she’d write Sally a letter telling her about all she was sad she was going to miss...about anything she regretted. Maybe some advice for when she was gone. Something for her to tell her brothers about their mom...or even Henry. A request that no matter what happens she wants Henry to be part of the family. But no, she had no concern for her husband and didn’t even want the boys to stay with him. I find that more heartbreaking than anything. Henry loves her and she didn’t consider him family. The only part I liked about the letter was that she told Sally she was going to be okay.

Sally was often bratty in the series, often acting like Betty while trying to be the opposite. The fact she comes home to take care of her mom and the family shows that she will be different. It was bittersweet and it was the best way to end her story. She’s an evolved version of both Betty and Don.

As for Don, I felt like he needed this. However, I think this should have happened earlier in the season. It would be nice to have him in New York, making changes. Get a new place that isn’t like the fancy life he had at the penthouse but something different. Or we see him spending more time with his kids. Or seeing his former coworkers by choice - as a friend. One last interaction with Pete where they are actually friends... Or we see him watching Sally graduate from high school while a woman hits on him but he doesn’t care because he’s proud of his daughter. And I wish there was a little more...acceptance with him and Henry. We know they won’t be friends but Henry takes care of the family, it’d be nice for them to be civil like co-parents after Betty passes. I feel some of this is implied, some not so much.

I do like the commercial at the end but Don’s end felt so-so to me.

Overall a pretty good series finale.

The story of Chuck Wepner needed to be told and it needed to be told in the this more realistic way rather than the bleached and neatly folded Rocky which is based on his life – yes Mr Stallone it really is and it is really obvious.

It’s difficult to make a film about a selfish a-hole but make you feel sorry for him, make him sympathetic but director Phillippe Falardeau has done this along with the not inconsiderable talents of Liev Schreiber. In his hands, Chuck appears to be aggressive and definitely in love with fame throughout the film. Not the greatest of attributes in a person but somehow during the running time you don’t think ‘Chuck is a dick I’m glad this is happening to him’. You can sympathise with Chuck but equally, you feel full empathy for his first wife Phyliss and his daughter Kimberley as they traversed the waters of the hurricane known as Chuck Wepner before they finally abandoned ship.

The look and feel of the seventies, spliced in with genuine footage is spot on without looking stagey or false and the idea of the protagonist’s spoken narrative whips the story along at a pace. After all, a lot of Chuck’s later life must have been an utter blur and no one who was there can probably remember it.

It is a truism to say there is nothing new in The Bleeder that you haven’t seen before, many celluloid characters have tripped down the path of excess that leads to ruin. This story is true and doesn’t too clean and sanitised for its screen outing. It has an interesting take on jail-time too and the ‘scales falling from his eyes’ moment is handled without much fanfare and did not neatly wrap up the story in happily ever after but told the truth of how these situations can play out.

Husband and wife team Schreiber and Watts real-life chemistry easily transfers to the film and the whole story is better for it and further to this, the easy chemistry between Elizabeth Moss and Schreiber makes the story much more believable from the start and helps to draw into the story. Schreiber is the main star and figure and his shoulders take the strain easily he is supported in his endeavour with some consummate ease by reliable stalwarts Ron Perlman, Jim Gaffigan and Michael Rapaport it’s an enjoyable ensemble.

This film must have been a labour of love for Liev Schreiber as he had a finger in nearly all the pies, starring, writing and producing and that love for the story, for the fragile human at the centre shows through. There’s no judgment of his ways, of his idiocy and throughout Chuck’s highs and lows., The Bleeder shows the simple honesty humanity of all the main characters. This is a film more people should see, this is a film Liev Schreiber should be proud of.

Sometimes life is like a movie. And sometimes it’s better.

Note: I watched both versions on Netflix - a black-and-white print with narration and the colour print with a soundtrack by Air. This review will cover both.

So here I am at what is undoubtedly Georges Méliès' most famous and enduring film, even if its status as his "best" is open to debate. It's not difficult to see why - while the films have gradually been increasing in complexity and length, this is a clear step-up from anything previously released. The story follows a group of astronomers led by Professor Barbenfouillis as they prepare for and execute a voyage to the moon. Upon arrival, they begin to explore and discover a native race, the Selenites, a number of whom are killed by the Professor. They are captured, escape and beat a hasty retreat to their craft. Once safely back on Earth, they receive a warm welcome and a parade. The unfortunate Selenite that managed to grab onto the craft is rendered captive on display.

It's nothing groundbreaking, story-wise, nor should it be. It's all about the spectacle of the trip, and every section of the film has something utterly distinctive about it. There's a tremendous sense of wonder throughout, of discovery, and notwithstanding the fact that the party of astronomers represent a murderous invading force it's exhilarating to accompany them.

There are so many iconic images throughout, and the sets are beautifully designed and painted. For such short films, occasionally a Méliès short can seem overstuffed, relying on chaos and mayhem to entertain but there's an economy of story and a clear flow from beginning to end.

The two versions have something to recommend each. The black-and-white version is slightly shorter but a touch clearer and there's much more of a sense of what's going on. Unfortunately, it's burdened with some tiresome narration. The colour version is interesting and looks much more fantastical for obvious reasons - the moon in particular. The Air soundtrack is neither here nor there; I didn't feel like it added much to the overall experience but that might change on repeat viewings.

You don't need me to tell you that this is one of the most important films in history, and for reasons that are countless, but I'll reiterate it anyway. It's fantastic.

[7.3/10] Well, that was bold. I have to give the show that much.

Let’s start with the big mystery reveal. I suppose I have a bit of egg on my face after my last write-up when I railed about how Penn couldn’t be the real bomber. The show gives him a good bit of motive and opportunity. We see him having been harassed and disrespected by all the Spring Breakers, which gives him reason to hate them and want them gone. And his interest in true crime gives him the understanding of how these investigations proceed to be able to (a.) potentially get away with it (b.) feed the investigators what they need and (c.) understand how the explosives work, something he’s been working up to.

You can also see how the whole Murderheads thing makes him love the spotlight, idolizing killers, until the two combine and he realizes the best way to hang onto the spotlight is to become one of the murderers he so admires.

But I don’t know, at some point it just requires too much contrivance to really make complete sense to me, less from motivation and more from action. Can you really picture Patton Oswalt lugging the body of his “friend” Don or getting the neck bomb on that kid? And at the same time, for his plan to work, he had to be able to play Veronica and Keith to a degree that feels impossible, requiring them to pick him up at just the right time so he could leave his bag in their car, and lead them to Don, and all this other stuff that just seems kind of implausible.

Beyond Penn turning into a Bond villain and delivering monologues to Veronica at the end (which you can at least attribute to him watching true crime shows and aiming for their same sense of grandiosity), beyond the sort of visceral implausibility of Penn managing to stage all these crimes, it just requires too much to go right for him for everything to work out the way it did.

Granted, I think of the 7 major mysteries the show has done at this point, I think I only found one of them fully satisfying, so there’s a fair argument that this sort of thing is just the show’s M.O. and a decade and a half after the series’s debut, you’re either on board with it or you’re not. I like Veronica Mars for the great humor and dialogue, the strongly-written character relationships, and the fun and twists of the mystery along the way, regardless of whether the answers make complete sense.

But man, those character relationships take some pretty big blows here! I admire the show’s boldness in killing Logan right when he and Veronica are at peak happiness. This show was often compared to Buffy the Vampire Slayer in its early days, and that’s a very Buffy move. The ethos for this show has always been that in Neptune, where everything is rigged, even when you win, you lose. To have Veronica solve the mystery, marry the love of her life, and get a clean bill of health for her dad, only to see the bomber take one last pound of flesh, and to have the corporate and gentrifying interests take over the beach anyway, feels true to what the show is and has been.

I’ll admit, though, that I don’t really like the fake out with it seeming like Logan was going to bail on the wedding. I understand needing to have some stakes in these moments, but it just came off cheesy to me, as did the whole “last recorded voicemail” shtick. Still, as a BSG fan, it’s always a thrill to see Mary McDonnel pop up, and I appreciate that the silver lining to all of this is Veronica accepting that she needed to deal with some shit and going to therapy.

I also neglected to mention that however contrived the situation is, I really like the scene at the heretofore unmentioned Kane High School commemoration. For one thing, it’s just fun to see Veronica show up and crash another Kane event (almost literally). But there’s legitimate tension when Veronica has to watch Keith stand there and try to convince Penn to confess and defuse the bomb before they’re both blown up. Say what you will about how the show crafts its mysteries, but it knows how to pull off a suspenseful scene.

Otherwise, I like where things land for the most part. I appreciate the reveal that Maddie is the one who stole the ring (Vinnie was right!), which establishes her rough-around-the-edges bona fides that makes her fit to fill Veronica’s shoes at Mars Investigations. I like that in the end, Keith still can’t abide what Clyde did, despite how endearing their bromance is, and I like that Clyde ends up with his girlfriend and his car dealership, underscoring the anti-”evil never prospers” message of the show. And I like that maybe, just maybe, Veronica is genuinely ready to move on from Neptune, to go see what else is out there, now that the best life she was living there has been ripped away from her.

Overall, I’m not entirely satisfied with the answer to the big mystery, but otherwise I really liked this season. It definitely had the tone and sensibility of the show right. It had some good personal developments with the main characters, and brought in a slew of interesting new fresh faces. And it made some bold moves here, that challenge our hero, and live up to the show’s perspective rather than sanding it down. Good, bad, and otherwise, this season was still very much the Veronica Mars that I remembered, and that’s a good thing.

This movie shows in a very good way how the next virus outbreak that will be just as big or maybe even bigger as the Spanish Flu is gonna happen in the 21th century. And believe me, sooner or later IT WILL HAPPEN.

I liked the electronic music that was playing at the beginning of the movie. It had sort of an panicked tone to it that together with the people who where getting sick and dying set a thrilling tone to the first part of the movie.

I found the movie to be very realistic. Jude Law character was spot-on. When there is gonna be an outbreak we will see people on the internet (who have no medical training whatsoever) who think they have found the cure and millions of people will listen to them. There will be millions of people who stop going to work, who stay at home and avoid contact with anyone. Others will do whatever they can to get their hands on a vaccination, even if that means killing someone else.

I liked the fact that we got to see the story from so many different angles. It really gave an overview of the entire situation and what the virus had for an impact on all the people involved.

The end of the movie was a bit disappointing. In my opinion that could have been a lot better. But overall i find this movie to be really good.

• The flashbacks was the best addition to this season, getting to see the Donovan’s siblings lives back then made this season interesting. We finally saw Ray’s emotions and the backstory!

• I don’t know why Ray lied to Molly, he always knew his sister was pregnant when she committed suicide. It was sad to see his realization who the father was and that he forced her to go to work at his house. Ray will need many more therapy sessions after this. But how come Mickey didn’t know his daughter was pregnant? I guess he really doesn’t care about his children, that’s the only way to explain this plot hole.

• I wish Ray didn’t kill Sullivan so quickly, I would have loved to hear more than, “Back then...”

• I’m glad Smitty is dead. He was so annoying.

• “Every one of your children, Mick ... left alone to be preyed on by wild fucking animals.” Devastating. Mickey Donovan is one of worst tv father of all time. I don’t get why he is still alive. I understand that it’s great to have John Voight on your show but it’s just so ridiculous how Mickey keeps getting away.

• I'm happy Daryll got his revenge but he shouldn’t just blame Mickey, it’s his fault that he believed him.

• Wonder how long they can keep the show going without the Donovans going to prison. So many dead bodies.

Blade Runner is one of the more gaping holes in the list of films I haven’t seen (or at least, don’t remember well enough to talk about). Yesterday’s viewing of The Martian got me thinking about Ridley Scott’s past work so here I am.

I really should have done this sooner.

L.A. 2019, Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) is a ‘Blade Runner’ - a policeman whose sole purpose is to hunt and kill replicants; machines almost indistinguishable from humans, yet banned from Earth. Four have been detected on the planet so he is called up to hunt and kill them.

Scott’s dystopian LA draws you in and holds you captive for 2 hours. This is a masterfully shot, timeless, beautiful piece of work. Every single frame is a work of art. The visual effects are not only highly effective, but incredibly creative and unique; never has anything like this been made before or since.

The plot is simple, one man chases another. However it’s driven almost entirely by its central themes; what is it to be human? Who deserves to live or die? Are we responsible for the things we create? What happens when our creations surpass us? All of these questions go unanswered, yet Scott somehow revels in the ambiguity.

Decker is a blank canvas of a character. The replicants he is chasing are complex, unique individuals. It’s no accident that Rutger Hauer plays the most human character in the film. His is the stand-out performance here, if only for the closing monologue.

Still fresh & still relevant, Blade Runner is indeed a modern masterpiece.

http://benoliver999.com/film/2015/10/31/bladerunner/

So did Tony die or didn't he? I think he did. I think the suddenness of the cut to black and the previous flashback to his conversation with Bobby that you don't see or hear death nods in that direction. But I also think it doesn't really matter. The point, if I may be so bold, is that the end doesn't necessarily come on schedule. It can come at any time, when you least expect it, when you're not thinking about it, in the heightened moments when you fear for your life at a safe house with an assault rifle draped across your stomach, or when you're feeling safe and enjoying a family meal at a diner.

We try to ignore that fact, to try to live as though it weren't true. You pretty much have to in order to keep living any semblance of a real life. But Tony, more than most people, lives, as Carmella notes, with a sword of damocles hanging over his head at all times. And that means that we should, as Tony once said and as AJ reminds him, remember the good times, to try to enjoy those sweet moments when we have them because we don't know how long they might last or how many opportunities we may have to find them again. It's existentialist, but a surprisingly optimistic take on it for this show.

Drawing back to the title, there's always been something the show posits as quintessentially American about Tony. In the final scene, they surround him with Americana at the diner: the friendly young couple, the cub scout troupe, the sports hero murals on the walls. Even Tony is assembling his nuclear family. He's from an immigrant family, considers himself self-made and both proud of his heritage and a part of the melting pot. Is Tony himself an aging superpower, or am I reading too much into it here?

The finale spends more time with AJ than I might prefer. But it also shows that as much as Tony wanted it, his kids cannot really escape his orbit. AJ is naive and misguided for the most part, and certainly insanely self-pitying, but he also shows a (again naive) sense of understanding about the greater tragedies in the world. His method of trying to help is an interesting one, but also a hard one, which is not typically the Sopranos way. Instead, his parents ply him with a cushy job (as the equivalent of a D-Girl, as Chris might say). And suddenly his concerns about the material world seem to drift away. He may not be a mobster, but he can be corrupted.

And Meadow has given up Tony's dream for her - becoming a pediatrician, and helping little babies. (The episode does lean hard into the "sociopaths like babies and pets" idea between this and the cat.). Instead, she's going to become a civil rights lawyers, and Tony can see her representing folks like him, marrying another mobster, and being pulled into a life he did not want for her. If there's a persistent theme to these series, it's not simply about the difficulty of changing on a personal level, it's about it on a generational level, how we carry the baggage of our parents and grandparents and other generations past, that makes it difficult to escape from their orbit. The show is a little blunt about it when Meadow says that if she hadn't seen her father dragged away so many times civil rights wouldn't be such a salient concern for her, but it's an interesting idea.

Indeed, another theme the show has kept close and blossoms in this episode is the idea that Tony taints whatever he touches. AJ is back to being a spoiled brat. Meadow is too much in the world of the mob to truly escape it. Carmela long ago figured out that she was in too deep to pull out of the life she had made with Tony. Agent Harris has gone native, cheering on the NJ crime family when he hears that Phil has been executed. Paulie talks about taking time off, but instead agrees to skipper the construction crew. And as he hits out in front of Satriale's, there are a lot of empty tables there with him.

So when the episode cuts to black, do we see a man about to get his just deserts, a tumor in the lives of friends and family being removed, or have we simply ended our time with a man who will go on to face a weapons charge? I have my thoughts on it, but more importantly than the outcome is the idea behind it. We don't know whether Tony lived or died, just like we don't know when the end is coming. There are perilous forces in the world like Tony Soprano who result in people like the motorcyclist from the last episode dying, or the comare and her father, who have no reason to suspect they'd be impacted by these events in this way. You can live the high-powered life of Junior Soprano and still have who you are taken away by forces beyond your control. Value the good times, David Chase & Co. seem to say, because we live in a state of sudden uncertainty, where the cut to black could come without warning or fanfare, and those moments become all we have, or had.