I do like the show, but it's not Star Trek. If this was just a new sci-fi show that existed in its own universe, it would be incredible. However, the fact that they've tried to pass this off as Star Trek when it's clearly not sullies the experience.
If it wasn't already apparent, Paramount and CBS have no idea what made Star Trek great, and don't care either. The simple explanation is that the world of Star Trek is supposed to be optimistic; this is pessimistic. And I do enjoy pessimistic sci-fi, but there's so much of it, and to see one of the few optimistic sci-fi worlds turned into something pessimistic is a shame.
Fortunately, we now have The Orville, which is doing Star Trek better than anything has since Voyager ended in 2001.
The show is supposed to take place between Enterprise and TOS, but the technology is very different. For example, there are holograms everywhere. Why try to do a prequel again? Why not set this after Voyager? That would make a lot more sense, and they'd be able to add whatever technology they like, and not be constrained by existing continuity. Fortunately, it's not too late for the showrunners to say "hey, we made a mistake, this actually takes place X years after Voyager".
Last, they fucked up the Klingons. For almost 25 years, they had the look of the Klingons figured out perfectly. They're iconic. But this show (and the reboot movies) messed them up and made them look like generic sci-fi bad guys. What happened to their hair and beards? Also, the costumes are ridiculous, and their ship interiors look like they're made of coral. I do like the idea of having an albino Klingon though.
And I applaud their desire to use the Klingon language on the show, but it's pretty annoying having every Klingon scene subtitled. The previous shows used a common sci-fi conceit: the actors speak a language that the audience understands, but it's accepted that they're really speaking a different language. The viewer effectively has a universal translator so they can understand what's being said.
Also, it looks nothing like Star Trek. Once again, The Orville got that right, and this didn't.
All of that said, I do like the show. The characters are interesting (especially Doug Jones), I've enjoyed each episode, and I think the storyline is pretty interesting. But goddamn it, why did they have to try to make this Star Trek when it's not?
Between this and Cherry, it’s becoming more and more clear that the MCU’s best director is called Kevin Feige.
Netflix clearly spent a lot of money on this, you can feel the price of your subscription going up with every new set piece that’s introduced, but the end results are still unforgivingly bland and generic nonetheless.
It’s their attempt to compete with Bond, Bourne or Mission Impossible, but if anything this feels like a poser imitation of those superior blockbuster franchises. The plot is in fact literally ripping off both Skyfall and The Bourne Identity at the same time, but forgets about any of their depth in regards to story and character.
The Russos are clearly trying to recapture that same tone and spark from their Captain America: The Winter Soldier days, but they end up making something that’s more akin to the quality of Red Notice.
In terms of directing they kinda got outdone by their own second unit director with his Netflix action flick, as I’d argue that Extraction is a marginally better film than this.
The action’s poorly done and cheaply put together, lots of annoying editing choices (heavy overuse of drone shots, quick cuts and can the Russos pick a normal font for once?), corny dialogue, distractingly bad CGI, boring visuals and music (why is everything so low contrast, foggy and muddy?); not a lot to recommend about this one.
The acting’s fine, Evans is having a blast, but I have absolutely no idea why an extremely picky actor like Ryan Gosling chose this script in the first place. It seems like a paycheck movie for someone of his caliber. Just watch The Nice Guys instead of this if you want to see Goose in an action comedy, we don’t need these 200 million dollar direct to streaming action films.
4/10
Starts very well, the way they handle the death of Boseman is very tastefully done (so many well executed emotional beats) and I like the new conflict that they set up, which is a little more grey and intelligent than the usual blockbuster, like the first movie. The new villain is an interesting character, and I quite liked the creativity that went into the design of his powers and world, but for the love of god, never show me those goofy wing boots again. From the second act onwards, the movie starts to get bogged down by the Marvel machine, i.e. the movie slips out of Coogler’s hands. It’s unfortunately forced to function as a backdoor pilot for Disney + shows and used to drive the corporate machine forward, instead of focussing on the development of its own premise and character arcs. The way it rushes through the arcs of Okoye, Shuri and Namor leaves a lot to be desired. Meanwhile, cutting/writing out Riri, Martin Freeman and Julia Louis Dreyfus would improve the overall cohesion and pacing a lot. What doesn’t help either is that the action and visual effects get increasingly worse and worse as the movie goes on, to the point where we again have an ugly third act on our hands, which includes some of the most hideous looking costumes the MCU has ever put out. Moreover, the soundtrack is kinda bland this time around. It’s not like Kendrick et al. were putting out their best material for the first film, but the music here is just so vanilla and forgettable. Finally, I’m not enitrely sure what the script is trying to communicate on a deeper level, besides being a general statement in favour of diplomacy. If it’s meant to be just that, I don’t think this is anywhere as bold as the first movie. Not that it needs that in order to be good, but it’s another layer stripped away from what made the first movie special. What saves the film ultimately is a lot of its craft: the directing, worldbuilding, acting, score, cinematography, costume and set design (underwater world looked great, much better than Aquaman IMO) are all very well handled and stand out in the blockbuster field. It has those strong foundations in place that make it hard to produce a flat out bad Black Panther film, but man does this movie also show that Marvel is its own worst enemy at this point.
5.5/10
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[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.
Ever since the mid 90s, Roland Emmerich has attempted time and time again to repackage and recapture the ideas from Independence Day. After many failed attempts, I wonder why there’s still a theatrical market for films like this. Or rather, it’s odd that Hollywood thinks there’s still a market for it, given that all of Emmerich’s films since 2012 have flopped at the box office. And, he’s about to add another one to his resume. This should’ve gotten a streaming release at best, as it belongs in the same category as a film like The Tomorrow War. It’s background noise you throw on while you’re doing the dishes or folding the laundry. It's too disposable, phony, poorly acted and boring to pay any serious attention to, let alone pay money for. There's a sense of authenticity and fun to dumb action movies like Independence Day that you're never going to capture with the way these kind of films are made now. You have to applaud Emmerich for making a big, original studio film, but it’s still generic schlock that doesn’t have a single ounce of personality. Fuck whoever financed this.
Edit: after a little bit of digging I found out that the primary investor of this thing is a Chinese company called Tencent Pictures. They’re also responsible for financing other great films such as Terminator: Dark Fate, Warcraft, Kong: Skull Island, Men in Black: International, Monster Hunter and the 2 Venom movies. To put it mildly, it appears that it’s this company’s sole purpose to flood the market with trash, and not exactly the fun kind. Now I know what you’re thinking: maybe their involvement helps with receiving a Chinese release from the CCP? But here’s the problem: Venom 2 was banned in China. So, they’re clearly just a bunch of incompetent investors, given that all of their films (the Venom films excluded) have been massive financial and critical flops. The takeaway for Hollywood should be pretty simple: if Tencent wants to invest in your production, cancel all plans before you have another Moonfall on your hands.
2.5/10
Watch it if you’re a fan of Toto, or genuinly laugh at any point during the first scene.
I'm just judging this episode. I try not to judge the entire season (see my season 2 comments for that). This episode is actually quite okay. It didn't answer all my questions. Some aspects feel rushed. Parts of it still don't make sense. But they tried to connect some of the loose ends. I appreciate this. It actually foreshadows the next huge mystery - a cliffhanger for season three it seems. Not sure whether season 3 should again deal with such a gigantic threat to humanity. Where are the quieter stories?
After the talk with Q, the mother Picard story makes at least some sense. It's just another trial I presume - and another lesson for Picard. Q can't stop being Q. And of course selfish Q designed this lesson also for his own benefit. Lonely Q needed a warm goodbye and he got that. And since writers are still lazy, Q (temporarily) gets his powers back so that they can travel back to the 24th century and where the boy is alive again. Convenient. He's omnipotent when that's needed by the authors. They say it has to do with energy balances/budgets. Creating a cure, hacking into Soong's computer and printer, teleporting himself from France to California and sending most of the crew back and resurrecting a dead crew member still works just fine. "Finger snapping" at Renée, traveling to Guinan's bar or to the FBI cellar or stopping Renée (so he doesn't need to ask Soong to do that for him at the party) won't work. Sure? But Q's goodbye is actually surprisingly touching. Q also indicates what he was really up to. Sort of. It's still mysterious how the whole story actually worked.
That's my newest (and likely flawed) interpretation of what happened:
Q is the omniscient good guy. Powerless or not - his plan works just like intended. Q has two goals (Forget the lame forgiveness story with Picard's mom - that's just one of Q's strange lessons. I refuse to give a report about those events. Also forget that he wants a friend before he dies)
* He wants to save Picard in particular before he's able to self-destruct his ship hereby ending his life.
* He wants to save Picard (and possibly all humankind) from the dangerous anomaly that appeared.
For some reason he needs allies to do so. That's why he needed a cooperative and friendly Borg collective with a special benevolent base attitude and a Queen that possesses insight to her future. For multiple reasons:
* Q apparently knows that the Borg are the only race powerful enough to fend this anomaly off.
* In 400 years time, Q needs a Queen that wants to help to save the Federation from the negative effects of the anomaly: he needs a potentially friendly collective.
* Even the Borg need time to prepare for the advent of the anomaly (let's say 400 years) and they must know when the anomaly is about to appear.
For his plan to work he needs a malleable Borg Queen who can be persuaded that a more cooperative and friendly Borg tactics might be a new approach that is worth to be tested. Thus, Q flings them into a particular timeline in which an (isolated and almost certainly desperate) Borg Queen faces yet another total defeat (one of many in different timelines - Borg sense other timelines it seems) because their confrontation approach was unsuccessful once again. She's disillusioned enough to try something new. Q made also sure that Picard, Jurati and Seven hold powerful key positions in that society which enable them to kidnap this Queen in the first place. Q (disguised as a shrink) created this timeline by stopping Renée from wanting to fly into space. W/o her discovery, a global environmental catastrophe can't be stopped and humanity becomes a race that first stops taking care of Earth and consequently starts to conquer other worlds (and relies on Soong's technology) in order to compensate.
Now things play out just like Q intended (free will is just an illusion): Time travel to 2024 (Is that something the Borg can do whenever they want? Why don't they do that more often? It's also very convenient that the Borg Queen has insight into the arrow of time and knows that 2024 is the date where things were manipulated by Q). Naturally, the Queen's first plan was to take advantage of the 400 years head start (that's probably why she was helping with time travel in the first place), escape and assimilate 21st century humanity to neutralize the future "Terran" threat, but Jurati can stop her from doing this and Q knew. Jurati and the Queen merge. The Jurati/Queen eventually becomes a benevolent factor and now possesses Jurati's knowledge about the advent of an anomaly in 400 years time.
Now, the original timeline needs to be restored. Q made this an easy fix. Picard has a five minute talk with Renée and that's sufficient to make her fly into space again. It doesn't matter that she's a Picard ancestor I believe. The protagonists around Picard can't know what exactly will restore the timeline (and the Watcher doesn't know either). But the mere fact that Q interfered as Renée's shrink, makes them believe that it's important that Renée changes her mind, overcomes her fears reverberated by shrink-Q and will become part of the Europa mission crew after all. Ultimately, Q knew that the original timeline will be restored and that they will protect Renée from Soong. When all his silly games and his little decoys (Soong, Kore, Talinn etc. [more on that later]) are finished, the crew is "finger snapped" back into the 24th century.
The Borg (better to say, this presumably isolated peaceful collective under Jurati's command) now had 400 years to hide from other belligerent part of the collective (those who fought the Federation in TNG and VYG) and to come up with a theory about the anticipated anomaly that's about to appear in that very moment. Conveniently, the Jurati-Queen knows what she has to do in 400 years time to set the chain of events into motion: appear at the right moment, summon Picard fro retirement, disguise that she's actually Jurati, scare Picard, make Picard activate auto-destruct (remember: she know all of that because she [Jurati] was there when the events unfolded for the first time - or she was told what is about to happen). This makes Q intervene and trigger the story. Thus, it's not entirely clear whether the Borg or Q set this chain of events into motion. Doesn't really matter. Both Q and Queen-Jurati knew enough about the past and future. In their perception all the events triggered were inevitable, the actions of the Borg and Q are indivisibly interwoven and Jurati just needed to repeat the steps she knew will be necessary to alert Q who promptly intervenes.
Now, Picard lives through the whole story (as described in episodes from 2 to 10). Based on this experience he is able to identify Jurati. Again: She of course couldn't reveal herself before - otherwise Picard would not have activated auto-destruct. Now knowing that it's Jurati-Queen, Picard assumes those Borg will probably be benevolent. He now stops the circular chain of events by deactivating auto-destroy. Thus, Q has no reason to reappear and the Borg save the galaxy indeed. End of story.
The Soong story doesn't really matter. It's really anyone's guess why Q wants to "liberate" Kore (it's certainly not important for season 2. And what's with Kore? Is she Soji after all?). I don't understand why Q - powerless or not - asks Soong to kill Renée. I mean, at that point, Picard is about to have his little motivational talk with Renée and that will restore the timeline. Just like it was always wanted by Q. Why does Q need Soong to interfere? I don't get it. Unless, he needed Q's Tesla to trigger Picard's coma and unless the subsequent conversation between the Queen and Soong (where his great future is revealed if he only stopped Renée) wasn't enough to start another attempt by Soong to go after Renée again, so that Talinn could die in the process of preventing that. (Not sure if he needed Q's extra motivation - it seems that he was easily manipulated by the Queen to do whatever she wants him to do) Plus, his development from unethical scientist to mad über-villain and violent Borg fire team leader is kind of surprising. Is that only because Q and the Queen (unimpeded by Jurati) give him an insight into "one of his possible futures"? Will he continue to fight for his desired future? Will he for example try to erase the recordings of the Europa mission and kill its crew when they come back?
She's a pretty useless character. She basically just told them that she's trying to protect Renée. Other than that she provides a transporter and camera surveillance of Q manipulating Renée. But she has no clue what to do either. Is Renée supposed to fly into space or not? She doesn't know. She wants to protect Renée (that's why she stops Soong) but how could she know that Renée is safer in space than she would be staying on Earth? Q perhaps only really wants a person like Tallinn in this story, so that she can be killed. Picard is supposed to learn a lesson about this loss: He needs to fix his relation with Laris when he's back (or is Laris actually an actual reincarnation of Tallin? That part I don't understand). Why is Soong dragged into the murder? It's just another of Q's silly games I presume. Doesn't really matter (for the time being). Anyone who has access to the launch pad and the quarantine area could have been motivated by Q to endanger Renée's life in a way so that Tallinn feels the need to step in. Still don't understand how the Jurati-Queen could possibly predict that Tallin's sacrifice (she's the "second Renée" that needs to die that the Jurati-Queen was so mysteriously referring to) is necessary to stop Soong.
###B-, C- and D-plots
There are more sub-plots. But they don't have any consequences (like the stories with ICE, FBI, Rios and his affair, Guinan [mostly fan service. Interesting to know that she knew most decisive parts of the story but kept this as a secret during her time aboard Enterprise], Elnor, Seven & Raffi).
Could it be more complicated and does it really make sense?
There's also a more or less sound explanation for the watcher. It feels very detached from the story; like an appendix to the episode or a preparation for Kore's role in season 3. The traveler from TNG that recruited Wesley was a watcher, too. Sort of guardian angels. Did they need to re-introduce Wesley to explain this part? I was glad when he left TNG for good. Plus, I still don't understand why Data looks like Soong. That's not explained in this show. Why would Data's designer (another guy from the future Soong family branch) would design a robot whose face looks like the face of an evil and mad ancestor?
Season finale! Exactly like in last season, it's time to tick some boxes. Lesbians anyone? Check! Makes no sense. They didn't even try to tell this romantic story since it was first implied in season one's finale. Or did they try, but failed to make their love special or even feel romantic? Nothing wrong about a good homosexual love story, but it ain't very well told. Another box to tick: save the cast for a possible return in season 3 and create a happy ending. That's so American/Hollywood. Even if that involves - like in season one's finale - to resurrect a crew member out of the blue.
PS: it's 2024 and they still don't do backups - let alone encrypt their data or use passwords.
Great season. The best since Season 1.
Biggest issue:
I was confused about Silver's motives for returning, given his wealth and success. I didn't buy that Cobra Kai was his true desire. There's mention of expansion and corporate success that I wish they pushed a bit heavier. Silver's character also changes to suit the story, from the nicer sensei to the more psychotic of the two, on a whim. I wish there was more time spent on that.
I could have done without the Skills section of the Karate tournament, with more time spent on the fights. The Asian Cobra Kai competitor barely gets any time, despite being a secondary antagonist. And Kenny could have done with moments in the tournament.
I could have done with one more moment of Eli's growth and change this season. Maybe a moment where he is sitting down, on the outs with Miyagi-Do, and then Daniel seeing this, sits down to talk to him, to let him know he understands the brainwashing manipulative techniques of Cobra Kai (with flashbacks to Silver in KK3). Then Johnny sits down with them and continues that conversation. And for the first time, we see real unity between the two sensai's.
Positives:
Predictions for Season 5 (and potentially 6).
I'd say that in general this season had some of the best Jodie episodes for me, and Dan quickly became my favorite of her companions... but nothing changes the fact that there was just too much going on. Too many characters, too many plots to tie together. I shouldn't be very surprised by my disappointment... but I was surprised anyway, there was so much wasted potential.
In the end, there was zero pay-off with Swarm, Azure, and Passenger, they were gone in seconds and there was never any big revelation. Swarm loved to talk as if he was secretly someone tied to the Doctor's past (in the same vein as The Master or another past Time Lord), but was just someone going up against "Division" I guess? (I'm starting to think they're overestimating how interesting the "Division" plotline is.)
The Grand Serpent was absolutely of no consequence other than to bring back Kate Stewart I suppose, yet her interactions with the Doctor were small, and not really as fun as they could've been? And also... so... many... Sontarans. Why so much focus on the Sontarans and their plans, when they already had an entire episode about their conquest, and were defeated before? I don't know if it's because COVID affected the amount of episodes, but everything just fell flat as hell.
I hate being so negative - I really did enjoy these episodes more than the past couple of seasons and there were plenty of memorable moments, including great supporting characters. But it feels so frustrating that they didn't capitalize on all the buildup. I'm definitely looking to the Thirteenth Doctor's specials though - maybe we will see some of it come back and get a better resolution. All I hope is Jodie gets the sendoff she deserves, because even though I had plenty of issues with this era of Doctor Who, she's a great performer and wonderful Doctor.
How come that landing the ending is so hard for so many series but rarely for movies. We had a major cliffhanger at the beginning of the first part of this season which ended up being a red herring. Is it because we can't let "the bad guy" win or are they really considering every viewer and want to please all making it suck for even more of 'm.
Killing Ruth so late in the game was pointless. Same with Navarro really since he gets replaced by someone who most likely is even worse. And then they pull this Sopranos ending at the end? To prove what? How a kid shoots either an honorable man or his parents or that he shoots in the air for no reason in particular. In what book is this a good ending? Nothing is resolved, nothing is cleared up, it doesn't end even though it ended. Pointless second half of a season from a great show with the biggest cunt I've ever witnessed in a series (Yes Wendy "I got what I wanted to all of a sudden I'm sane again and everyone loves me" Byrde).
Maybe there isn't a good ending, but this certainly was the lamest way to end it.
Yup I’m into this. Feels like Star Wars but also like something that can stand on its own. These first three episodes did a great job of introducing the characters and making you instantly care about them. Andor especially is a character full of nuance and complexity with an interesting backstory and complicated relationships (that’s how you set up a character well). And of course we’re coming into this knowing the type of person he eventually becomes in Rogue One, so it’s interesting to see him years earlier and how different he is while still feeling like the same character. You can anticipate the arc he’s going to go on but are excited to see it actually play out. Even if we know where things kind of end up in the big picture story wise, I’m very excited to see the journey to get there and from a more personal and grounded perspective. Another thing I loved about these first three episodes was Andor’s relationships with the other characters. You can tell he has a history with all of them and that these are often complicated histories but you can also sense how much some these people care about him and would do anything to help him. By the end of episode three I also really enjoyed what they did with the deputy inspector character and setting him up to be a main antagonist. I didn’t love what his character had to offer early on but at the end of the third episode I was really loving the potential for his character. This already feels so much better than the last couple of live-action Star Wars shows in that this story feels like it’s going to be much more complex, with characters that are way more complicated and interesting. They are really taking the approach of character-based storytelling which I am very excited about because that is the best way to tell a compelling story in my opinion. Not to mention that visually the show looks really great so far. Overall this premiere drew me in and I can’t wait for the rest of the show!
