Great movie. Even better its upset all the flannels we have in our society today. :joy:
Would love to see this become a regular thing. Some big names here and I'm suspecting they are not charging huge fees and doing it for the love of it. Funny a lot and very very funny at times, but there are messages in here to make you think too.
Billy boy has mellowed over the years, but that's not a bad thing. Angry ginger manages to raise his head now and again to remind us he still has a sting in the tail.
Hopefully Roku can handle the backlash that some of the episodes will get.
Barbenheimer: Part 1 of 2
This is the kind of film I really don’t want to criticize, because we don’t get nearly enough other stuff like it. However, mr. Nolan has been in need of an intervention for a while now, and unfortunately all of the issues that have been plaguing his films since The Dark Knight Rises show up to some degree here. Visually it might just be his best film, and there’s some tremendous acting in here, particularly by Murphy and RDJ. However, it makes the common biopic mistake of treating its subject matter like a Wikipedia entry, thereby not focussing enough on character and perspective. As a whole, the film feels more like a long extended montage, I don’t think there are many scenes that go on for longer than 60 seconds. There’s a strong ‘and then this happened, and then this happened’ feel to it, which definitely keeps up the pace, but it refuses to stop and let an emotion or idea simmer for a while. There are moments where you get a look into Oppenheimer’s mind, but because the film wants to cover too much ground, it’s (like everything else) reduced to quick snippets. It’s the kind of approach that’d work for a 6 hour long miniseries where you can spend more time with the characters, not for a 3 hour film. I can already tell that I won’t retain much from this, in fact a lot of it is starting to blur together in my mind. There are also issues with some of the dialogue and exposition, such as moments where characters who are experts in their field talk in a way that feels dumbed down for the audience, or just straight up inauthentic. Einstein is given a couple of cheesy lines, college professors and students interact in a way that would never happen, Oppenheimer gives a lecture in what’s (according to the movie) supposed to be Dutch when it’s really German; you have to be way more careful with that when you’re making a serious drama. Finally, there are once again major issues with the sound mixing. I actually really loved the score, but occasionally it’s blaring at such a volume where it drowns out important dialogue in the mix. I’m lucky enough to have subtitles, but Nolan desperately needs to get his ears checked, or maybe he should’ve asked some advice from Benny Safdie since he’s pretty great with experimental sound mixing. My overall feelings are almost identical to the ones I had regarding Tenet; Nolan needs to rethink his approach to writing, editing and mixing. This film as a whole doesn’t work, but there are still more than a few admirable qualities to it.
Edit: I rewatched this at home to see whether my feeling would change. I still stand by what I wrote in July, though the sound mix seems to have been improved for the home media release. It sounds more balanced and I didn’t miss one line of dialogue this time around. I’m slightly raising my score because of that, but besides that I still think it’s unfocused, overedited, awkwardly staged and scripted etc.
5.5/10
As with most A24 films unfortunately, an interesting premise that carries for the first hour, followed by 30 minutes of not knowing how to wrap it all up.
A film that just misses greatness can be more disappointing than a film that doesn't come close. Dream Scenario is outstanding until the last 20 minutes. It feels as though Kristoffer Borgli just couldn't figure out how to end it and ran out of time. Too bad. #BestNicolasCagePerformanceEver
How the mighty have fallen!! After a spectacular first season, the second looks like it was written as fan fiction.
Instead of focusing on the main story (Gabriel missing) and taking advantage of Jon Hamm’s comedic abilities, it kept bringing in new storylines and characters, only for all to be a MacGuffin! As someone else pointed out, this is a Hallmark movie!
They normally struggle with the endings but WTF was that.
what the fuck was that??? i think the writers stopped taking black pills after writing red tide
You must really hate humanity in order to make this series. Woke sh:asterisk_symbol:t
Please no more scenes with Naomi. You have an entire universe so why do you have to focus so much on the most boring character of the show.
What a shitty season. They might as well cancel it now. The show has nothing more to say and it's circling itself to fill the time.
Literally worst season of the show. Space movie with 5% of space adventure and 95% emotional games between already linked characters
Has gotten to politically correct for my liking!
I can't believe it has been 15 years! A truly heart fealt thank you to cast and crew, present and past. Supernatural has been a part of my life since season 1 when I thought 'this looks like fun' and has continued to entertain, tear at my heart and make me laugh out loud. You will be missed but better to burn out than fade away. Carry on my wayward friends ...............
You can end up essentially anywhere in space/time, and you end up smashing directly into an age appropriate opposite sex human with a similar skin tone.
This star trek went discriminating woke.. made me stop watching.. they should not have mixed a great franchise with this much woke bullshit.. star trek was fine as it was, a good mix of race and culture..
Amazing, finally! There are no white men in the future ... had to happen sooner or later!
has the best opening scene of any comedic tv series i think ive ever seen. i spit my drink out.
I can't remember last time I saw a heroine act this stupid in a movie. Her choices just made me angry... So I can understand why Russell Crowe was so angry throughout the whole movie. Don't bother with this one, watch "Falling Down" again instead.
Overly preachy and hamfisted metaphors tackling topics ranging from abuse to littering. If you are expecting a creature-feature horror anthology, you will be disappointed. We get it, we’re the monsters. Grrr!
Great way to put together and complete the episode. It’s too bad the season ended 3 shows sooner, but due to the circumstances NBC did a nice job.
Overall, the animation was a bit stiff, but perhaps expected as such given the incredible short notice with which the project to produce it must have been thrown together. The inventive transitions helped. In the end, I appreciate the dedication that brought it to us rather than simply letting the season effectively dangle after ep. 18.
I wonder how much of Elizabeth's IMO-far-too-easy slide completely over to the Mom Side (my only real problem with the plot development here) was rushed by the need to complete it with this one episode as opposed to across the originally planned four episodes that this one effectively replaced.
Wow, look how many spoiled little bitches there are in here! Now I'm NOT saying everyone, there are a lot that aren't. Would they have rather the season get left at episode 18? No, then they would bitch for at least an ending. So the team busts their asses to not only get an episode out but to also try to finish the season AND instead of making it take a long time try and get something for us on time. So for the ones bitching, go get yourself a tissue and pull yourself together and appreciate how hard they worked for all their fans and viewers.
I feel like this season was completely unnecessary. It just wasn't on par with S1 and felt repetitive a lot.
The beginning of the episode left me wishing we could've seen more of this side of Star Wars: regular stormtroopers doing their job, getting into action, and all the unseen dynamics rarely mentioned in the mainstream film trilogies. We did have something in that vein: Republic Commando explored the lives of elite Republic clone troopers; Jedi Academy had us follow the lives of youngling under tutelage of Luke's academy; the original Battlefront showed us the transitioning of a republic to an empire through the eyes of the soldiers.
It's the lives of the mundane, the less than extraordinary, yet still gripping and intriguing. They let us dive deeper to the world of Star Wars beyond the flashy buzzing of lightsabers and spectacles of the magical force.
The Mandalorian wished it could be one of those. Unfortunately, it failed terribly.
In episode 5, @ShrimpBoatSteve has said that the series has became too predictable, and I agree - the finale shows how predictable the whole season is. https://trakt.tv/comments/264475
After the long flashback which most parts we've already seen in previous episodes - seemingly making the scenes feels almost like a filler - The Mandalorian episode 8 seems reluctant to set their foot to the ground with its notable world-building as previously seen in Eps 7 and Eps 1 to 3. As I have previously said, after everyone gangs on The Mando (Eps 7), Baby Yoda/Little One's background (who Baby Yoda is, why is he wanted, what the Imperial remnants wanted to do with him, etc) remains unresolved. As the episode shows us Moff Gideon rising with a darksaber in hand, yet another reference moment: every substance the show can possibly offer will be dealt only in Season 2 (or, worse, more).
Stormtroopers in Star Wars have been infamous for their terribly inaccurate shots, but in this episode it feels like their incompetency is amplified to the point of parody and, of course, plot armors. Scout troopers - which is supposed to be snipers - can't shoot droid right in front of their eyes. Instead of coming in squads, troopers only come individually (incinerators burning the building, a few troopers slaughtered by the blacksmith, a few others guarding the tunnel, and the most stupid of all, Moff Gideon waiting for nightfall just for no reason) which makes for a convenient plot armors for our heroes to trek on their way.
Of course, there are casualties - what is a story without something seemingly at a stake? - but it is nothing more than devices to delay the heroes from their trek. Taking cues from Eowyn's "I am no man" of Lord of the Rings fame, in less than moment-defining fashion IG-11, which himself came as a sort of droid ex machina, said that it is no "living being" while resurrecting The Mando from fatal injuries, remedied every possible threat with its healing devices.
Antagonists can be dumb, but there is a limit to dumbness that can suspend audience's disbelief. This episode has antagonist almost feels like they are intentionally dumb and there is nothing really at a stake when everything can be easily remedied.
This episode is not the worst, certainly, as the action sequence is flashy and satisfying. The one near ending where The Mando utilizes a neat jet jump is clever and actually can show the extent Star Wars can be when the director wanted to think creatively beyond the force. Knights of the Old Republic and the aptly named Star Wars Bounty Hunter played with clever tricks similar to this once a while, and the trick doesn't feel cheap as they stand on a very good storytelling.
The Mandalorian's flashy action, regardless, seems to serve only as explicit fanservice - a style over substance.
There are plenty of action, which, by itself, is quite well-done. The consistently hardly imposing threats, unfortunately, dull down the possible thrill those scenes can offer - in a typical corny action heroes such as Gerard Butler's character in Has Fallen trilogy. The scene, for example, with The Blacksmith let us peek into the martial arts capability a Mandalorian can exhibit. But the rather plot armor of incompetent stormtroopers leave no stake at hand; the martial arts dexterity looks more like a cheap imitation of main trilogies of Jedi's acrobatic feats.
Redemption ultimately ends with nothing to be redeemed about, as the people in this show seems to be forever clumsy. From start to finish, everyone made questionable decisions. Nobody blasted the Mando's group with that large amount of stormtroopers. Nobody checked whether Moff Gideon is dead when the fighter was down (Gideon also miraculously survive the crash), with Carga, a supposedly veteran bounty hunter, lightheartedly saying they are already free of the Empire's grasp.
Everything people said in this episode, just like many episodes prior, are not crafted as if the actors were having human conversation. They were rushed by time - they seemingly appear to be set in motion by the plot's demands, to say X so Y happens; to say A when B moment happened.
This episode almost feels like a filler to conclude the dragging episodes this season has been. Screenwriting-wise, this whole season is nothing but bait-and-switch to justify next season(s).
There is much to be said about this kind of terrible business model, where series is written with nothing exactly in mind but to find reasons to continue producing the franchise - the same business model Disney has been using on their MCU franchise and Star Wars films/spinoffs - but the crowds of gladly willing moms awing for Baby Yoda and nerd dads geeking over Star Wars reference doesn't leave enough rooms for those commentaries.
Thank you everyone involved with Mr Robot, one of the few TV series that didn't treat the viewer like an idiot.
Welcome back Elliot, and goodbye my friend.
Finally something actually happened after they dragged the season for absolutely nothing.
After four mediocre episodes in a row with three of them being filler, this episode is decent enough. Those previous episodes serve no actual purpose other than waiting for the plot to trigger itself by that call.
The dialogues in this episode could be better and so could the way the scenes are cut, especially for the first half. People seem too eager to join The Mando in his quest for the sake of moving the story. However the last 5-10 the minutes is quite watchable with enough tense. The brute killing in the last scene seems to suggest they're going with the "evil Empire" cliche, but I wish they could do better than that next episode.
It seems like the story just started to be set in motion and we will be left with more questions as Season 1 ends, which unfortunately seems to be Disney+ business model: just make cute Baby Yoda stuff for moms and Star Wars reference for dads, figure things out later in Season 2.
On positive notes, it's nice that they attempt to do more world-building like shocktroopers having signature tattoo, each Imperial province having their own insignia, and the Imperial warlord trying to convince people that the world is better with colonialism.
