Toliman

VIP

10

Nowhere near as bad as Death Note, but it's a 6/10 show that if it had more money or time, might make a 6.5/10 to 7/10 with some effort.

This is perhaps the kind of TV show you'd expect college/high school kids to make on iPhones, because a lot of the sets take place in public areas and on school grounds, etc. They almost literally filmed the last 3 episodes over school holidays to save money, since it cuts out the "enemy base" anime/manga story, and forces a confrontation at 'school' instead. If you hadn't seen the Anime or Manga, it would still seem rushed, due to how quickly the 'bad guy' is defeated.

The CG effects are laughable at times, but it's often a 6/10 to 7/10 effort. It's not bad, but it's also hammy and over-dramatic. and, if you took the budget of 1 episode of Supergirl from the CW, and made an entire season, it would be this quality.

And you'd still have money left over for 20 more episodes. Costumes are spot on, lighting is fair, effects are quick, but it's a definite cost-saving effort with the "Ghosts" and spirits.

The actors do a good job, and they do an interesting job trying to convert the muuuch better anime style into a digestible 12-episode storyline. The ending is completely rushed, and they'll never make a season 2 with the budget they had for this show.

Actor choice/performance is also mixed. Reigen is disappointing at times, because they went with a younger "middle-aged salaryman" that turned into a scoundrel selling fake psychic services, Mob/Shigeo is fair, but, you don't need much effort to pull off disaffected middle-schooler. Might be a bit too old, but a scrawny 13 is a tough age/act to emulate for TV, and you need to match a potential Shigeo to his brother's slightly older, more athletic personality and demeanour.

Being an oblivious fan of japanese anime and japanese drama shows, I don't know what I was expecting from a Netflix Original drama based on a high school romance 'Shoujo Manga' (teen girl comic) of the same name (from Yue Takasuka in 1997).

Considering the audience, it's an uplifting "nothing-happens" "will-they" "teen" romance, with Slice-Of-Life and comedy elements.

If you know the genre, you can watch this and enjoy the buffet of romance tropes and teenage drama.

Is it good ? average ? believable ? happy ? sad ? awful ? cliche'd ? idiotic ? ... yes, yes it is.
I liked it enough to keep watching, even though i have reservations.

TLDR at this point, if you're a fan, nothing i can say will change your mind. if you have no idea about the show... I really have nothing to compare this to, so giving it a score or a review is just difficult, so i'll point out the flaws in an attempt to showcase the best and worst aspects.

The quirky, indomitable, 15 year old (18 year old) Nao Yoshikawa (Haruka Fukuhara) is moving into an apartment (near the "soho" Meguro district in tokyo ?) for the first time by herself at the age of 15 (because her family has moved to the country farm to help her grandfather get better), only to find she's been duped into an illegal sublease with, (insert shock here), another male student of the same high school, Uehara Hisashi (Shun'ya Shiraishi), who just happens to be one of the "top 3 boys" of her high school (as voted by a committee of the popular/mean girl/harridans, who only ever show up on command to bully Nao).

And, of course, Boy #2 of the high school is her childhood friend, Shinozaki Daichi (Dori Sakurada) who patiently dotes over her, only to realise he has a crush on her (this isn't immediately obvious unless you're genre savvy, or a fan of the childhood friend/unrequited love triangle)

Plus, Nao also has a bevy of childhood friends, (and later, adults) who pep her up occasionally and will add drama into the plot when needed. Romance Tropes & Hijinks Ensue, and things are, so far, doing well up to episode 10 (I won't spoil the story or romance subplots since that's 70% of the series) . But, i can sort of tell where it's going, because they keep mentioning it like checkov's gun, and they playfully try to misdirect you into thinking it's going to last forever. cough.

Uehara (Hisashi) is the brooding, selfish, academically perfect, male fashion model-like heart throb student, with a 3 minute dramatic 'girls swooning entrance scene' MC, who's really an emotionally crippled loner. Who just happens to have the male fashion model esque hair/body/face, a vigilant female entourage "protecting him" from all of the other girls wanting to be his 'friend' (it's a vastly broken subplot, but it's HS). Uehara is the show lead, by way of being the main character Haruto/Kamen Rider in https://trakt.tv/shows/kamen-rider-wizard (another drama show i've not seen).

Nao's the Ditzy, Slow witted, Considerate, Home Cooking, Self-Absorbed, Way too fashionable, conservative, yet awkward Highschool girl that's "15" and "not that attractive". ie. pretty much classic girl wish fulfilment territory. It probably lines up with a lot of expectations of perfect wife material/ perfect girl material, idk. it can make her a bit generic, but in the setting, sure. remove personality, add confidence. I have the strangest feeling that Nao makes a whole lot more mistakes in the manga. There's just an anxiety about these "down" moments that is textbook high school girl drama, and not exploited for sympathy moments (though, they are many, varied, and per-episode sympathy moments to hook the addicts; check tumblr for the gifs after each new episode, there will be plenty.)

I don't know if this is a negative, because even as tragic and delightful as the romance angles work in the show, tropes don't seem bolted-on or forgotten by the next episode (except, in those cases where it is). So many tropes are just accepted and they never become critically examined by the MC's or the entourage of friends. i.e. Living with your girl/boyfriend while in high school / harem tropes, patient childhood friend romance, the long time male girlfriend (two girls and a guy) becomes boyfriend, because ? trope. (among many, many others that head into spoiler territory)

And to complete the triangle , the Second lead male, Daichi is perhaps more romantic/compassionate/responsible than the MC, due to the "damaged, defensive loner" Uehara being more high maintenance, aloof, and thus, "critically" more boyfriend material. But, since Nao and Uehara live together, Damaged Uehara is the 'fixer upper' boyfriend she's always/never wanted. From what i've seen on the fan community (because i just don't know if others like this), the series does lend into "Second Lead Syndrome" territory, with daichi doing more to 'coach' their relationship by his stalking /obsessing over her, or, conversely, being the romantic one and pushing Uehara into being more conscientious or considerate, sometimes by accident or jealous intent. However, Daichi is staged as to have no chance at all in this triangle/ 'fight' for Nao, even though he's doing all of the heavy lifting.

For sheer fun/watchability of each episode, i'd give it a 5, 6 or 7/10. And, it works as a TV show / Movie format because of the comic book's reliance on cutaways and high school problems making the premise, and their relationship questionably ... realistic ? cute ?

I kind of like the show, but i'm not a fan. Some of it is just way too sibilant and cliche, and it's bound to end in tears, but i'll still watch it because it is self-destructive, hoping that things get better as they approach the predictable staged emotional cliffhangers, and the story is... not important, because it is doomed, in a cheerful, positive way. I watch each show just checking off a long list of possible dramatic hijinks that count down towards the end of the season. Is this because I don't enjoy the show, and that i'm too jaded ? Definitely. Sometimes, i'd like to be surprised by a non-trope emotional hook, but it's rare. And yet, I keep wanting to watch what happens.

I can see Daichi is supposed to be the third wheel, because it's an analogue of Hisashi being the third wheel (spoilers) in the past. There's also some inevitable sinkholes for drama that i can guess show up, because, it's trope-driven romance.

The characters deserve a 9/10 for acting effort, sometimes they hit the mark, but it's enjoyable. It can feel like a bad stageplay at times, because of the way it's adapted from an anime/manga style, complete with missed lines, and off-time delivery, and cuts without much music or background to how or why we're going to a new scene.

Production wise, about a 6 to 8/10. As a show, it's really, really cheesy and cheap, but it's technically done well. The purple/green tinge of the camera can be notable on character closeups, but it's not always distractingly bad. Sets and locations look great, and they manage to do a lot of good work on a limited time/budget, especially given the editing process which is a bit rough around the edges with intentionally cheap/quirky transitions between scenes, and unintended cheap/flimsy filming/transitions.

The show looks great at times when it wants to, but also like anime, there's a lot of filler and lazy inserts to remind you where people are. Characters just show up at times with no sense of time of day, distance or travel, because it is anime and clocks are for other people to look at. It also just feels like real life, not a sitcom/romcom, and that makes the show more tangible and real, and somewhat more expensive. They made good choices early on with the characters, setting, and locations.

During what is a "live-action" anime, complete with comic trips and falls, sideways glances, etc. several minutes of each episode is taken up by emoting for its own sake, i.e. running along corridors/streets, waving of hands/body, visual sighing, brooding stares, and a few 5 second long double/triple/quadruple-takes at telegraphing shock/emotion/sarcasm/bewilderment/angst on the MC as "comedy" ...

I think one of the oddest things to "get on board with" is, yes, Uehara is 15/25 and Nao is 15/18, the actors are somehow bridging this gap, since Daichi is ... 16/24. In a real high school, filled with 18-25+ year old actors.

Nobody especially stands out as being 'bad' or a bad actor, perhaps Abe/Marina/Mitsuishi (or the other uehara's), because they often have nothing to do but hang around and 'not' look at the camera. Not being too literate to JP culture, everyone seems to be doing a great job. Despite some extras being coached a bit to 'act normal' in the background, it doesn't feel much like a soap opera (which it resembles). Is the age differential wish fulfilment ? probably yes. Is it palpably distracting ? kind of.

Despite how mary-sue the story is, it makes a good, solid 5/10, because it's drowning in male tsundere (jerk with a heart of gold) and a buffet of cheerfully used romance tropes. As an adaptation, the characters fit, but it's so independent of the manga from what i've seen in the ending scenes (EPs), and they make the transition work. Most of the time. I Guess.

If the romance had failed, the show would be awful, it really relies on Nao and Uehara having chemistry on screen, and ... the story dies a few times as a result of carrying so much on the shoulders of Nao. If Nao were actually 15, i'd believe a lot more of the romance and tension, but it's sort of muted in this, as she's far more mature than a teen girl who's seen the high school hunk naked, yet gets flustered when she talks to him as a person. Actually, this might be too much reality than stereotype, without heading into 'ecchi' or 'josei' (adult content / manservice) territory/subtext.

The source material manga art (which is featured in each episode's beginning, and pages of the 11-chapter novel are shown as a scene guide in some/most of the end credits) is kind of bereft of actual detailed character art, but it's complemented by the manga's chibi-nature (child-like, with enormous heads, larger eyes, small body characters), and visual style of drawing out moments for higher amounts of teen drama/angst, e.g. the equivalent of ? ... !! ... and !?..? >< >> << ... on various panels.

There's some pale 'tsuntsun' (arrogant/aloof) scenes where they have to be hostile to each other for the romance's sake, i.e. to keep the tsun in tsundere, but it's not outright hatred or "it's not like i ..." level of passive aggressive behavior. As the show goes on, it's more playful. i.e. the "be with the one you want to manipulate and change" / "only i can save him" / "jerk with a heart of gold" tsundere romance trope is half of the show's content. (along with some strange JP cultural fixation on breast size ranking and cooking food to appeal to Uehara's "better nature") Strange messaging, but who knows.

It feels like Nao's a fantasy version of the author, and Uehara's the perfect hunk/defensive loner, even when it's trying to avoid this for the 'dere' part of the scene. They don't feel in any way attracted or in love, which is what perhaps makes the show really work at it's best at being friends.

And ... not liking each other cements this ? The romance is slow and arc-like, because there's a season to fill, and, they're 15. not 25 (cough). Does the tsundere love story/love triangle make the series better ? not especially. It fits, because they're platonic roommates. Except, not. because romance (not sex) is on/under the table/heating up leftovers, etc. strangely, the lack of emotion (or my blindness to their unique /desireability / attractiveness / attraction ) makes the show work more. they don't really spark, or behave like people in love. and maybe that's perspective, but it makes the show more believable and watchable.

To see if that changes. week by week.

The most confusing/dissonant part to me, is really only when you see the manga art. It crosses the line of cute/alienating a few times, because the chibi like blond haired, triangular shaped 'couple' are non-expressive on the most part, and add nothing to the story except confusion. I mention it, because the show doesn't make sense when chibi nao/uehara pops into place; since the manga characters are blonde, doe-eyed teens, while the actors are regular japanese "high school students for TV" i.e. 23~28 year old japanese actors playing teenagers, nobody is dying their hair blonde or going wild with colored ribbons, etc.

It doesn't detract from the story, but it feels like the manga takes place on a different solar system of alien humanity, compared to the reality. (probably a gaijin/westerner thing, chibi art in a live action is akin to overdosing on wasabi. a little is okay. A lot is toxic. It comes up a lot more than i'm used to.)

Having never watched a 'Live action Anime' Drama, there's not much to tell, apart from it is saccharine TV. Characters are surprising though, because perhaps it's not manga-driven. If this was Anime, it would be sickly and sugary. As real characters, they have tangible personalities, real lives, they look (?) tired and cheerful at the same time.

It all works regardless.

Watched this on netflix as a recommend, Thought i'd binge watch to see what the drama was about. On trakt, the second series is eps 13-24, it's more or less a second series due to the cliffhanger events of episode 12 and the break/hiatus between 1-12 and 13-24.

Aldnoah zero is appealing, idiotic, and senseless. It's fun to watch, but it is cringey

It's a mecha show. you have to lower your standards, expectations, and pretend it makes sense when there's lurid, emotionless fight scenes.

The plot is unforgivable. lifted wholesale from Mobile Suit Gundam, with a few tweaks to avoid lawsuits, almost for the first half/season.

The opening premise that we send people to the moon in the 70s, there's a teleporter to mars, and the new astronauts/martians get a major tech boost is a pretense, belief suspended. However, Mars calling themselves VERS is disconcerting because that's the middle name of the guy who found the alien tech on mars, after using a teleporter on the moon. in 1975 or something.

Versians / martians somehow drink the kool aid, and now, consider themselves to be an alien/master race with less than 40 years of development, all hail Emperor VERS. Then, they all lean into a racial, religious, and most bizarre of all, a future empire, monarchy and caste system of knights, peers, using mecha as cavalry with a heavy warfare mindset is... silly. Due to resource shortages, they decide to invade earth. because.

In ~2000, they surprise attack the moon hypergate/transporter, and something goes wrong. as the moon/gate detonates, the resulting asteroid debris & tidal shifts kills a few hundred million people on earth, causing a restructure and war footing to eventuate between earth and mars/vers.

"because" it's a Mecha show that is bereft of writing or skill to convey what happens, the plot is all over the place.

And then there's the Mecha. Somehow, in ~15 years, mars takes on a war footing developing the ability to build 37+ kilometer sized ships, built and sent from mars into earth orbit, complete with energy shields, thousands of soldiers each, and mecha with energy shields and laser weaponry. so, in 2014 earth, high school includes mechas, not just simulations, but mecha, and live fire exercises. because there's always the need for high schools to invest in large robots.

The titular ALDNOAH is an ancient magic/tech that does ... something, with genetics that is passed on through bloodlines. (or just blood, S2 spoilers). maybe aldnoah explains how you can drop a kilometer sized spaceship from orbit, into a residential city, and still have the ship functional after it causes a megaton level explosion on the surface.

It's a grab bag of characters and ideas. I liked the beginning, the middle felt stale, but that's anime. It copies a lot of gundam, and updates it a little bit. but, not much more than that.

The show is fun, but the characters are there for plot. barely.

Inaho is the Everyman overpowered "God" teenager. i.e. Do you have a problem that might require a million+ soldiers, here's a single angsty, unemotional teen that can solve all of your potential problems. Basically Jesus. Not the most egregious god character i've seen in 2015, (the irregular of magic high school has a literal OP god character)

Slaine is the b(tch of the show, the character you're either supposed to love, or hate, depending on the plot or the episode. It gets worse in S2. none of the other characters do anything but hit one note. especially the love interest princess, who is essentially the cause of most of the problems in the series through her childish naivete of wanting peace.

Season 2, which aired in 2015, is worse. Remember/seen the finale ? it doesn't matter. It's mostly unredeemable. Things "happen", and sometimes, they make sense for the characters or the plot.

I kind of wished this might be a Netflix show so it could get a wider audience, but i'll see how the season turns out. It's nothing but zany so far. Interesting style, semi-predictable plot from the second episode, and has elements of Invader Zim, Farscape, and a beautiful art style for the world building.

The Pilot is ... tedious. It's still fun, Mostly because they introduce a 'gag' moment where Gary is on the cusp of dying, and this primes you for a very different character moment in the show towards the end of the pilot, and you'll get the theme of the show from that point on, i.e.

it's a rollercoaster of drama and irritating moments. and occasionally action and fast moving scenes that remind me of Invader Zim, but also some of the action moments from Rick and Morty Season 3/4, but slightly faster-paced and more stylised. Still, it's quite good for animation to deliver on those surprises.

(When the bounty hunter turns up, the name is Avocato, not Avocado, though.)

But stick with it, the 2nd episode cuts down on the background and just jumps right into the first arc of the show, which will likely be where they pivot and explain the title in the main arc of the show, i.e. Redeeming Gary, by going on serially botched adventures, one at a time. Even if it cribs a little bit from the Marvel Guardians of the Galaxy a tad too much at times, it's more of a homage than theft at this point since Gary the main protagonist, is supposed to be bitterly unlikeable and profoundly stupid, and yet, all you can say after he's driving you insane is ... he means well.

I did like the more adult themes and blood which is unique in western animation, and the voice acting talent is superb. Some of the 3D roto work is impressive and the gags are well tuned and zany rather than telegraphed too much in advance.

I rate this as a 3. Bad. I will change my mind, because this is incredible.

The first time watching, 8 to 9 seeped down to a 6.

I watch mediocre TV. Lots of Mediocre TV, i should enjoy this and be willing to suspend my disbelief. I have tens of thousands of hours of TV on trakt, and elsewhere, hundreds of scifi shows. This series is ... superlative garbage. I... hate this show. I shouldn't hate it, it's gorgeous and awesome and I ... hate this. I want to mildly be annoyed, or wishing it could do better, but i can't believe or make myself appreciate it and stop thinking about the stages it went through to become this bad and intolerable

As i started to deconstruct, things became apparent and awful, things i'd glimmered over, are dead ends, and immersive elements that are hit or miss when the story is good, detract from the pilot "movie" in catastrophic ways. Meddling is everywhere.

What ruins this show is not the acting, or the CGI, it's the story and the characters.

Then, it quickly dawned on me that this was a parody, because of one badly written Mary Sue of a character, Michael Burnham. Nothing about the show feels like it should exist when she is in the room, on screen or interacting with other people once you've seen Ep 2. As I watched, and become more disillusioned, the score dropped below a 5. i passed the point of tolerating the show's banality around the point of the second episode's flashbacks to Michael's upbringing and the "vulcan hello", because the character is integral, and damaged. but ultimately, you don't sympathise.

I can see what this was supposed to be, what it was, what it could have been. Burnham is a catalyst, as was Spock. But they overwrote the shit out of the character to get there, and it harms the entire fabric of the universe of the show to get to the point of where she is invulnerable and heroic, brave and stunning, awesome and likeable, charming and elfin, charismatic and effective, smart and capable, vulnerable and emotional, concerned and ruthless, etc.

Yes, we get it. Michael Burnham is a Disney Princess, along with Rey from Force Awakens and Padme from Episode 2, right ? There are action figures in the stores already, right ?

I will definitely keep watching because it's Star Trek, as this is supposed to be "The Original Series" prequel, No.

=FUCK THIS SHOW=

Everything about this show once you remove the billion dollars of money about to be poured into the franchise, is tepid. All the writers that have "polished" or dumbed things down, added a bit of pep or written out dialogue to make it more personable, more emotional, etc. are meddling with a concept that should not need this much work, to the extent that it's severely overwritten and layered insanity on top of insanity. Whatever was clever or good about the first, second or third draft is meaningless.

I don't even need to put a benchmark on this, because they have an android, wearing a Daft Punk Helmet, who is a woman. WHY ? Every answer i've seen to this flatly refuses to point to this character, perhaps because they have no names.

They are expendable, forgettable placeholders. Great.

Here's what I've created for a backstory, because it makes no difference whatsoever ... The Android probably has a tragic orphan backstory where her parents were a windows 10 desktop that suddenly died as a result of installing CCleaner and she was brought up all alone, and grew up on Earth as a triple-monitor desktop, answering search queries for Bing, and in 2120, decided to get a human body, and then in 2210 travelled the stars as a ship's computer, got into a relationship with their captain, which ended badly, had a sex change, hung out with her new friends on vulcan who preferred her as a vertical monitor setup ... and here she is, a highly decorated veteran ship's computer, a valued member of the crew of a starship, adorning a helmet with her vertical monitors showing her proud heritage of being a unique individual who knows who she is ... Oh, and she can also travel through time, her father is secretly Harry Potter, and she can wear earrings and smoke, because she's cool like that too, and, because it's the future, smoking is totally safe because of magic, er nanobots. and also, she's an android so she doesn't have to worry about being a slut, so she's had sex with like, all the cute alien boys and...

etc.

Why are there people with flashing headwear, why is there an android/robot on the crew, interfaces do nothing, or have standard controls. Why does the captain ask for things she knows don't exist. Is it because the crew wants Burnham to die ? I'd believe that. Part of me knows it's a writer's device to show empathy for the Protag when she's in danger, by being so concerned she's desperate for a different answer so she can feel she tried to help as much as possible.

And then there's the video-game holograms and tactical eye-tracking interfaces that don't do anything, that lack cohesion or thought or practical elements from a design POV.

Until i can get past the idea that this is a terribly overblown Fan Fiction like My Immortal or Warcraft the Movie, I keep hitting dead ends where i want to be positive and give it consideration unduly, or see what other people do like about it.

But I can't.

My brain keeps rejecting the writing, the dialogue,
the character motivations are garbage,
the names are irrelevant,
The design of visual elements is distilled failure.
The technical design is fantastic levels of failed design methodology and concept.
world building is broken at a fundamental level because there's no coherence within the established universe or themes, no bridging characters or elements exist other than ... there's phasers and communicators and the logo is the same.
the thematic elements of the "New" federation values,
the sudden expendability of a bridge officer versus a starship with armor and radiation shielding. or a shuttle. or a probe. On a science ship, i guess ? because I tend to trust the instinct of a naval commander that likes to jump on a jetski and "git er dun" to fix problems or investigate an anomaly in the wake of a sun's extreme radiation.

The fact that nobody countermands or prohibits "Michael" as an officer is ... problematic. To let someone with a deathwish be in command, let alone the captain's favourite, the crew must want her dead. This is the only explanation i've been able to conceive of that works here, and it makes the show better if you imagine that the only member of the crew wanting to keep her alive is the computer which is obliged by ethical routines it can't ignore, and the captain, who admires a brattish psychopath who would definitely murder everyone on the crew to prove a point. The speculation of a lesbian relationship is not dismissable, but it's trite and convenient, so there's a strong possibility it actually exists or was muted at some stage.

So, naturally, this is what makes good captains in the future. Ambition, Pride and bare metal confidence in being correct, brown-nosing up to people in higher command, and latent psychotic tendencies. FANTASTIC This, in spite of the Mary Sue elements of an orphaned girl, who is Spock's adopted sister, who has a secret vulcan power of telepathy, and has to be the best person of all time when she's in the room and is always the best; because she's a girl ! with issues! and she wants to help everyone by killing! Just put a fucking light saber in her hand and call her Rey.

I have zero compassion or sympathy because everyone who deals with this level of insanity and tolerates her deserves to die. Gifted isn't the right word, it's Magical thinking that makes this show awesome. By sharp comparison, this makes Enterprise better, and makes the rest of Star Trek worse.

This is sort of the Wookie Defense in a nutshell. If you can accept that there's a reason for this, or you didn't notice, or you did, and have no problems, fuck you. I don't have any strong feelings whatsoever on the Klingons as a threat or as a character, or as a race or culture, because, it is so poorly done in theme that it's obviously a "hook" designed to reel you in.

I don't even trust the hook, the reel, the fish, the fisherman, the concept is bankrupted by the script and design that went into this. I expect this from zombie movies, or first time directors, or reality TV shows, where you don't need a backstory.

Vin Diesel needs to race a car to steal a bank vault, f yeah, lets go with it.
Naval Pilot decides to learn to ice skate because he has cancer, then starts a nuclear war with Iceland, okay, maybe not.

First officer decides to jetpack into a radiation hazard, kills someone, then to hide the evidence, wants to kill the entire ship of people to stop them from becoming martyrs when they find the body, and then decides to attack anyway when everyone around her says no.

Classy. Top Notch Entertainment. 9/10 Excitement and Thrills.

I can see why they're pacing the series, why new characters are necessary, newer villains, etc. but it's not intriguing. it's lifeless. The show could have an episode dealing with paper cuts and having to find toilet paper over 35 minutes, fans would still watch it with anticipation.

I can see the writers and directors trying to replay /recycle new antiheroes and heroes learning the ropes, facing enemies, but it's just not fun to watch Noah Bennett run around doing his thing.

It should be, it fails to live up to the hype because they're afraid of delivering too much too early. When Noah isn't on screen, the show fails to be interesting.

There's no charismatic personalities other than maybe luke/zachary (unrecognisable as chuck, or johnny flame), and even more rarely miko/kiki (katana girl) is emotive or likeable beyond the wooden, stereotyped doll caricature. There's no tension or loss, no risk, no reward, and there's no confluence of ordinary characters with abilities. Hiro and Claire, and later, Sylar, were iconic because they were normal, with abilities. Not so much with the new class.

The show's desperately trying to get the audience to like ... someone, but there's too much mary sue, nobody has failed in a big way, and the season arc is disconnected from the plot in a massive way, there's no fatality or risk in the deus ex machina, already depicted in the poster (avoiding spoilers)

The ensemble cast are "good", but this would get better if it did not exist in the same story as Heroes, it's significantly weaker and less enjoyable as a result of being dragged around by the coattails of the original ensemble of Heroes, that haven't shown up but keep getting name-dropped every few minutes.

This could change, but the show should be so much better or even possibly darker than it is.

it's okay and trashy procedural. fun though.

actors are bland, which is good. drama is hokey. tech is depressingly perfect, the sidekicks often have more personality than the leads. So, everything's on track for at least 1 full season, with the highly possible outcome of 3 seasons, a conspiracy, a flashback, and a presidential tie-in, if CBS has absolutely nothing going on in 2018-2020.

The [premise] isn't creatively different from most procedurals, the story tries to jump on the idea that "throwing people at problems" makes them easier. Rather than just "throwing tech at problems" as seen in CSI, APB, Bones, and other forensic level shows.

The concept is withering. If it ever gets mishandled, or they cheap out once too often, the show will devolve into exposition moments explaining the crime or the motive, or the technology involved, i.e. What Ice T ends up doing in Law and Order SVU for that show. until one of the writers notices and puts the exposition ball in someone else's hands for a while.

The pseudo-narrative "computers make all things better" makes for compelling quick solves, but like APB, the idea of an app that links everyone via reporting of crimes, is super-cala-fragilistic-expialidocious levels of confabulation. I fully understand the reality of the show having to cut corners, but there's some pacing problems with the super-computer that can solve all problems. Namely, that it's able to solve all problems, that it makes no mistakes, and that it is kept as mary-sue invincible as possible.

The way the show solves this is to 'trickle' out "new" features and on-the-fly features with no testing, with what looks like a million dollar factory refit, 40" tv's as monitors, and ~5 chairs for 50+ staff. I don't hate the show, it's actually within the realms of possibility versus something like CSI:Cyber.

but it's still stupid.

The writing isn't too bad, the recent 1x04 will be as dated as is watching Tek War in a year or two, looking at antifa/alt-right groups for "user bias" will not age well, much like Pagers and Flip Phones.

Topical now, but it's absurd.

the cliche drama elements are going to be new and exciting to people who've never watched Drama on TV before, i.e. the foibles of IP law, serial killers that confess in the last 2 minutes of the show, the painful revelation of a red herring via exposition and a CGI'd render, or a photograph leading to a new clue, rather than heading to a new location because there needs to be more banter between the duo.

I've seen the preview of the Aniplex/A-1 series so far, and I have mild hope they can execute this adaptation well. They are working on the Nier Automata series, and, there's no news, but that's not uncommon until it's ready and has a booked timeslot. It has the potential to be a solid 8/10 series, I won't spoil the story but its quite popular - the art transcends the story/world building at times, and it's still ongoing, if slowly.

1/ Story is a problem - i.e. it's kind of derivative isekai, on purpose.

Only the protagonist has a 'RPG' system to level, hence the title 'only I alone level' or solo levelling.

The setting is the "Hunter" genre story, which mixes the wuxia / shonen ("martial hero" / power fantasy) and isekai RPG genre conventions, placing the RPG in the Dystopian real world of Korea, dealing with dungeons, monsters, and monster hunters. It has some Korean Cultural 'values', ie Heroes aren't valiant, they're pseudo celebrities with distinct rank and status in a shallow pond, surrounded by intrigue, politics, assassination, and then there's a dungeon to break up the monotony. There's social status to be 'won' or taken from others, sic by awakening a hunter's power, i.e. transitions from Rural/Suburban to Wealth & status, dating, work and living conditions would change dramatically, sic.

From what I understand, this Urban Dystopia + Dungeons trope comes from the consequential anxiety of lingering compulsory military service, the lingering reality of urban warfare becomes a dystopia fantasy of fighting in cities and having to ignore or face the possibility of terror events. In addition, crippling wealth inequality, latent cultural anxiety of cold war/invasion, plus the accumulation of selfish power & wealth in hierarchies, being a form of suffocating living hell, or Hell Joseon, sic. Perfect for breeding dystopian fiction and overdramatic revenge/status/power fantasy content.

Hunters awaken with a skill and power that doesn't change, you don't get a system, storage, rebirth/resurrection etc, and if you don't awaken, you can be poisoned by mana, going into a coma state. A handful re-awaken with new powers/abilities via near-death experiences or dungeon opportunities. It's an inversion of a popular Isekai / RPG genre/trope where the hero is dropped into a fantasy world to save the population, win a war, fight against a juvenile/delinquent god, defeat the demon king, win tournament battles for a repugnant oligarch/emperor. Instead, they get dropped in the real world with superpowers.

e.g. the show is not entirely standard RPG fare (dungeons, abilities, classes, storage/dimensional travel, hero complex, "all you need is hard work" + mythical power/Billions of dollars => harem protagonist, et al. ) which becomes the Power Fantasy trope/genre.

2/ An adaptation could 'neuter' what makes the story work for an audience, in a desire to appeal to a different, wider audience with different expectations/background. Especially international audiences vis Crunchyroll censoring/adaptation.

The Ending Arc, does lead to a faint possibility of a second series, if they adapt the content, i.e. appealing to a broader audience with more romance, sic. So the story could be 'stronger' but it's also more likely to be Frankenstein'd and made into a pale imitation.

3/ There isn't an example of the animation art/PV, and this could be the achilles heel of the show if they add "3D" cell shade for action & key sequences to save money for flashy effect scenes. The "Army" scenes are possible weak points of the animation, time will tell. The "trailer" is missing examples of the animation style, and it has been 7 months since the preview released. The lack of a schedule / timeslot could be that they are delayed.

4/ The history of Manwha adaptations eg Crunchyroll, Tower of God/God of High School were 'lost in translation' / lost in adaptation.
Not as bad as say, Berzerk, or what passes for "good" adapted content or Live-Action adaptations on Netflix, but the potential to be disgusted instead of disappointed is lurking.

5/ The series is ~200 chapters of a webnovel (relatively short for a weekly webnovel), This may not adapt well to 12 episodes without removing significant arc story or characters, plot. They may need to 'front load', tease, or skip ahead in the story to keep people hooked, depending on how they set the pacing of each episode on a cliffhanger, etc. There's at least 8 dungeons, sic. and cutting the content down would lead to other compression problems

It is, by the numbers forgettable. a modern tech version of frankenstein + a procedural show. a solid 5 out of 10 show, even with the decent actors and sets that look great. it's a boring show because it's another police procedural.

On Fox.. The home that has no "Second Chances" to give.

What limits the enjoyability is the procedural nature of the show. but, once that's removed, there's no tension. Adding a single sociopath as the "arc" has 'resurrected' a story, but it's inherently limited, and that's how the show will remain.

Without a greater arc or a wider threat, or a greater sense of connection between the 4 different worlds (home/work of Pritchards / Goodwins), it's mediocre at best, and highly derivative procedural content. The sheriff will win because he has to, and Otto/Arthur the AI will solve the crisis because he's supposed to. It's not enough to carry the show because there's nothing left for the show to do, unless the FBI's only job in a procedural is to hire/find/acquire specialists to solve crimes (Hannibal, Limitless, Second Chance, White Collar, Quantico, Mentalist, Fringe, Numb3rs, Perception, Bones, Blacklist, Blindspot, sic.) Those other shows have spent time making their protagonist affable, and their handler/CI relationship work.

I thought i'd give it some props as a sci-fi enthusiast (I will watch almost anything), but episode 11 (and 12) has flushed that down the proverbial by cutting all of the secondary and tertiary subplots, and given us a cliffhanger that doesn't really work. Because at the conclusion of the season, there's no reason to worry about the characters. Everyone could die, and the series doesn't seem to have enough impact that it matters at all. Mary and Otto don't have enough chemistry as family, the Pritchard's don't either. Mid-season, there's enough drama and tension to be compelled to watch. but the technology wanders over into disbelief and CSI "enhance that image" levels of super-competence for a procedural at times, and while it's forgivable early on, Arthur is a feint towards a real character at times.

And it's slightly dissonant when you realise, anyone + Arthur could solve these crimes, and it would be just as compelling to watch, since he/it shoulders the duty of being the one that cares and does the bulk of the work, or could. He's the KITT to Michael Knight of the series in a lot of ways, so I'd guess that's a possible red flag. Procedurals get into this quagmire all the time when there's nothing to resolve, since the characters alone aren't compelling enough to carry the show because they have no integral lives outside of the crime/monster of the week.

Unfortunately, the show needs a rewrite for a second season to create a better arc villain and a better set of situations to unravel. Again, this show is on Fox, so that won't happen.

It might just have been a budget problem, but they opened up a significant scope of ideas, and then limited each box so that nothing passes in between each sub-story. If they had hired experienced scifi or procedural writers (or copied better writers), they might have added some chemistry between the characters, or a better mid-season arc to want to watch the series.

But, It's on Fox.

IDK. i've watched 8 episodes during the holidays, off-trakt, and while i can tell there's supposed to be a central conflict with the kids splitting from their parents to achieve ... something, the tie-in with the marvel MCU is weak, and it suffers. You expect there to be a tie-in. It's in the LOGO. but, i doubt there's anything here.

I'll binge 2 or 3 to catch up, eventually, but whatever idea they had to tie this into place, there's not enough actual story . It's way too CW, establishing teen drama and 5-way romance tetrapolygonal crushes. i'm disappointed in a different way to Inhumans, because it feels like i've wasted time watching the show.

This reminds me too much of Gotham S1 or Vampire Diaries or CW junk. A series that promises a lot of spectacle and 'known' characters, that i sort of know. But i prefer watching Gotham, because new things can happen. eventually.

There's not enough desire to come back each week. The story doesn't move forward, it stumbles into the next scene. The 'heroes' in this, are dumb. Unfortunately, so are the parents. i can't especially tell if the Mystery Box appeal of learning who the parents actually are, is even that bad. or good.

If they could tie this into the parents actually being evil, rather than 'bad' in a certain light, i.e. their resident 'genius inventor' tony stark analogue tries to kidnap a homeless person, took the show in a strange direction and just as quickly it backed right off without any consequences that i doubt would happen in modern bel-air/beverly hills (sic.) when people are voracious with gossip and everyone has a camera. They tried, but it's so empty.

So this is really keeping to a script or comic, and it's not going to get better or move along faster, unless the source does. Sigh. I don't really want to watch or research the source material book/comics or spinoffs for the characters, because, like Inhumans, it could get ... better ? different ?

This is a show about Hollywood. You can watch this as a Cruise Ship comedy, with the pretense of it being "in space", since the science/themes are dimwitted. If that's what you get, then it's a 5/10 parody, with Hugh Laurie.

Essentially, the "COMEDY" setup can and should be ignored and it's fun/dark/black comedy at the stupidity/unreality of ... Life in a bubble, filled with ugly, rich and "monstrously stupid" people in authority roles.

In no way is this a SciFi show, it's ... Veep Season 1, on a thinly disguised Ocean Cruise liner. Once the cringey first few episodes are passed behind, and you can gloss over the terrible casting, the tone-deaf comedy, it's tolerable. You should expect to see more shows like this in 2020 and 2021 until the industry goes broke.

But, there's a secret here. This isn't about a cruise ship, this is a very "meta" parody of what happens in the US TV industry and the kind of "management" that goes on, from the PR, to the managers, to the Directors, Producers. EP's and hangers-on that bicker, fight and trample over each other. It has to be a parody, or else it's the most expensive "corridor" comedy I've seen in a long time, and they wasted tens of million dollars on a terrible show. So, fingers-crossed, this is "clever" or I've accidentally peeked behind the curtain, and seen the Wizard of Oz, trying to make the show work.

Especially how they, more than likely, built an actual 3 story set "promenade" green-screen and "hollowed out tree" boardroom set, with HBO's "Game of Thrones" money. And then connected a series of maybe ~8 corridors in different secondary shots in hotels and so on, to copy the Star Trek / Love Boat formula. Maybe there's a US Shopping Mall they used for the "promenade" set, IDK. It feels like they might have built it to save time on borrowing location shots, due to the frequent reuse. They spent a comically large amount of money on setpiece rooms, only to have "Bottle Episodes", etc.

The music is, cheap. One of the EP songs actually is fun, but the 'theme' is cancerous at times. I can't think of a better word. It bypasses haunting and past irritating, and onto harmful.

I don't know. I Like trashy TV with SciFi tones, and Hugh Laurie makes this bearable. So I'll give it a 6 to 7/10, but...

I would not pay for HBO if I saw this show, it could be a Youtube Original series, easily. IMO You would have much more fun watching the Karate Kid sequel, Cobra Kai, just forget Avenue 5 exists.

There's thin moments of redeeming quality, Slathered in awful. Once you realise how pretentious the producers are... Essentially like Star Trek: Discovery, a good percentage of the show is just wallowing in the "filth" of being ordinary and stupid, of being the people who go to casino's and cruise ships, who bring their family on vacation, etc. Us "ordinary" people can't understand the privilege of being behind the monster(s), and not in their periphery.

Avenue 5 is better than Star Trek Discovery. For whatever that's worth.

And it's very likely they got HBO funding for creating the "Orange Man Bad" Analogue, Herman Judd as an egomaniacal, wealthy imbecile who is irredeemably successful; and charming enough that he's given authority more often than not despite the open knowledge of his poor IQ. Josh Gad the Actor, is both the wrong and right character. With Gad, the show is irritating. Without Gad, you have to actually bring in better actors who are able to spar/quip/snark back.

The show revels in having Judd/Gad spout useless witticisms and quips as the mega-rich, "antagonist" too dumb to live, too rich to die, Herman Judd, Owner of the Avenue 5. Judd, isn't the worst character. He is the most unlikeable and annoying, but he's also very much a product of Hollywood's privilege. Ignore the Ocean Cruise Liner motif, the only way this show becomes funny, is when you can laugh at the producers and writers who put this together. And, if you can tolerate the first 4 episode set-up, and get past the banal, it makes a 6/10 to 7/10 show.

But it's a lot to tolerate.

After Episode 4, the characters mellow out, and there's some fun jokes that filter through the stupid. Now, there's probably an argument as to Herman Judd, the "antagonist" of the show, being a Trump Analogue, until he get's one-upped by Paterson Joseph, Connor Mason from Timeless. Their Banter is perhaps the moment you realise the potential of the show, by accident. It's not Hugh Laurie/Captain Clark's reserve of boundless snark, it's that you finally get a character more annoying and likeable at the same time.

It's a bit like Mythic Quest Raven's Banquet, where a bunch of comedians try to parody a real-life biography of a game developer and company scenario, and in order to not be sued, have to parody the f**k out of the characters and that kind of license ruins the actual comedy of parody. Something like Silicon Valley, written by someone with "insiders" like Mike Judge who spent time in the 90's and the 200's Internet VC-funding boom and bust, are skillful and adept. If you put this on the same level as Silicon Valley, you'll be sorely disappointed.

The Meta, is that the show itself is excruciating to watch, because they need YOU to understand, everyone is an idiot. That's the subtext/theme. The first 4 episodes set up the Theme of "people are stupid", the next 4 is "people are tribal", and if it goes for a second season, it will be that 'failure is rewarding', sic.

It's not SciFi. The plot is absurd, the core characters are ... mis-cast, and there's actual black comedy that gets buried under the layers of fecal matter surrounding the production needed. There are some "interesting" concepts and clever writing of background characters, like the bridge crew (s), but the Core staff are designed to be irritating "AUTHORITY FIGURES ARE IDIOTS" etc. comedy.

Avenue 5 really needed to be longer, or perhaps recast to have 2 "straight" roles to offset some of the 60 IQ point personalities that make the show unbearable Nobody in the show gets out of this unscathed except perhaps for Hugh, and I don't mind that. He is capable and it's fun to see him "Let his hair down", literally.

While it's a 3/10 kind of effort, and ... it gets better after the setup, you can see the actual, hidden effort between the horrendous and stupefying moments that qualify as "comedy".

It gets to a 6/10 to 7/10 show after the first 4 episodes, once the premise has been completely murdered and they give up on making things intentionally "comedy", especially the semi-ironic concept of having a comedian "pretend" not to be funny to conserve oxygen, and not especially putting in more effort than when he was lounge-act performing a dull, incredibly cringy stand-up routine.

There's better video game documentaries out there. As a Docu-Series, it's a bit of a chore to watch this.

Even Anime like High Score Girl have a better approach and a more realistic view of history, Wreck-It Ralph and Ready Player One have a better approach than this series, even if they are, at best, peripheral and 'recognise' games as a pop culture phenomena.

It doesn't document Video Games, it glosses over far too much, and some of the Anecdotal stories derail the episodes rather than bring a perspective or make the episode whole.

There's so much potential wasted here that detracts from it being a 7/10 or 8/10 amazing series, below a 6/10 for me. I thought it might have been executive meddling that caused this, but after the half-way point, I realised they made the entire series to tell those anecdotal stories. Perhaps it didn't start that way, but the meddling seems intended, tacked-on and drags down the mood, tone, and pacing of the series. It almost appears to be a favour to someone who's financing the series, because it's so narcissistically integrated interviews with people who happen to be Gay, Trans, Black, and so on.

I get that it's not a history of Video Games. or a Retrospective. There's no linear narrative. Events that took place in 2012 are injected into 1982 or 1992 equally. The fumble over Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, the author of Flow is the finest example of this flub I've seen. He's a celebrity for the name alone in Game Dev circles, so it's welcome to have the series introduce him as a way to explain Ludo-Narrative, or at least the engagement of Play and it's psychological roots. The comedic bits, the levity is great. The animated pixel-art intro and explanations are excellent work, let down by the pacing and reversing of gears.

If the series didn't have these derailing and sabotaged moments inserted in, i'd give it a 8/10 easily. Even with the cringe moments and "comedy" to give the series character. Every interview should be 101% engaging and fascinating. It has all of the pieces necessary to make a great documentary history, the care and attention taken on finding Japanese creators and directors who are now in their late 60-80s who grew up in the 1970s, versus the quirky Tokyo 'eSports' team they found, is kind of cringy.

There was so much potential to make this outstanding. And they fumbled around to try and make Video Games "Human". Maybe you can't tell a 2020 story without blending in diversity elements, but they don't fit in their Episode, and they don't fit into the series that well. There's 3+ eSports clips, but nothing about the Console Wars after Sega, the Nintendo Playstation prototype which led to an entire era of 2000's Video Game Consoles being developed by Sony and Microsoft, and how the industry evolved ...

It leaves a lot out in the effort to "find voices".

There's moments where they probably intended to talk about various 'celebs' of the industry, but there's a lot of examples they could have used. Alexey Pajitnov, co-creator of Tetris, who also worked for Microsoft's initial development of the Xbox. Mark Kern or Tom Chilton about World of Warcraft and the 90s era of Blizzard Games. Nolan Bushnell and Lord British/Richard Garriot is perhaps the most faithful (yes, he is that eclectic), but a few interviews are melodramatic and bring the whole series down. If it were one or two, i'd not remove any kind of score, not everyone can be Chris Roberts, John Romero or Shigeru Miyamoto in a Documentary series.

Most episodes fall into Interviews and Personal Anecdotes to reveal a personal story. Seeing the early days of Nintendo as a Toy Manufacturer, is glossed over so you don't see the Game Watch or early LCD handheld games, etc prior to launching the NES or Famicom in the US to compete with Atari.

It works for the story of E.T. for the Atari 2600, but it doesn't work for the eSports team manager, or the African American engineer for the Fairchild Channel F, which didn't survive the 1983 videogame crash. The Channel F being usurped because Fairchild didn't want to compete with Atari VCS or the Magnavox Odyssey in the late 1970s is known in the US, but it's also the same kind of format war that dominated the Tech industry, especially Betamax vs VHS, Sega v Nintendo, Sony v Microsoft, the PC & Mac and the early "portable" PC and gaming systems of the late 80s.

It's okay. 7/10, as it's interesting for a first episode. Not revolutionary, very "Artistic Light Novel" in the variety of artist detail, but also convenient world building, if a bit risque / adult. Not as terrible as it could have been, given the 50+ Isekai's a year, with standouts like Log Horizon / SAO etc.

I can't tell if the show is generic or has potential for an 8/10 story or character development(s), or if it falls hard into Isekai trope/cliche's, as Seasonal Anime trends towards boosting the quality of the first 2-3 episodes as review scores affect viewers & marketing numbers.

Isekai as a mid-budget seasonal show tend to be weak on characters and story, and often fall apart within 3-4 eps, but IMO Jobless is worth checking out if only for the art style, slightly reminiscent of Grimgar and Black Clover, and they didn't really change the formula, it's Adventurers with Magic, but at least it's not Orphans, Magic School. Slime/Spider/Vending Machine reincarnations, or Adventure Harem (yet).

It's probably going to be Adventure Harem with a strong art direction. Which is a good niche to fill, IMO that's not as sedentary as Grimgar or as ridiculous as Arifureta / In Another World with my Smartphone / Cautious Hero, etc. It's probably somewhere in the middle given the 'realism' setting.

After the character turns 5-6, there's actual character depth for a "reborn 40-year-old NEET", this may be obscured once he grows into a ~50 year old teenager with issues, YMMV. Truck-Kun made an appearance, so you know it's going to be on the edge of parody that isekai's often teeter over, or just jump right into the fantasy without looking back to see if people have followed along.

It is going to be a challenge to see where the weak point is - the Art budget, the characters, the story depth, or the Arc / Premise, since they haven't really developed the background. Direction seems to follow LN convention, so hopefully the characters aren't dull.

Until they finally get that vending machine Isekai Anime happening, it's a little better than the January 2021 season alternative "So i'm a Spider, So What?" IMO, both shows could excel. Time will tell if "Jobless" or "Kumo" will improve or settle into mediocrity.

subarashii Glorious Trash. I can tell that a lot of people are going to loathe this show, if they even find it.

While the premise is a little bit broken, it's within the Light Novel Isekai "parameters" of an overpowered protagonist being given a second chance and ...

Completely taking his revenge on everyone involved in his former misery, brutalism, slavery, torture, drugging and disfigurement. There's a long, long list of people who take advantage of Keyarga/Keyaru, and the show will likely pull the punches before long because it's a fantasy Anime, and while it is graphic, pretentious, etc. Religious sadism in real life was/is far more gruesome and, could only exist within a 'puritanical' ideology. There are occasionally 'dark' stories, like Game of Thrones, or RE:Zero, which create impossible villains that seem to distill evil in one person or one family, to make a point.

Redo, isn't making the point of creating villains as a juxtaposition of Good to Evil. It's Evil for Evil, because there is no longer justice in this fragmented world. Those with the power to make things better, or protect the weak, don't exist in this story. It's not even a religious story, because the presence of a protective god, would make the lives of people, much, much worse under the justice of the Heroes, and their unchecked vices. After all, who provides the narcotics...

This isn't the Hero's Journey. Very few shows take the Villain's route and do it successfully, because it's not as simple as a choice, doing what's just or good, honest or moral. Without the protection of law or arbiters of justice, power defines morality and justice. The "Heroes" of Redo are capricious, overpowered monsters, incapable of being controlled, and their desires drive them towards all kinds of vices.

The story universe seems to be built on heroes being enhanced, their "blood" can be transferred to others to make them stronger, or get past a level cap, and this also conveniently includes bodily fluids... Keyaru/Keyarga's healing is more like alchemy or reality warping, since he can poison, transfigure, mutate and 'learn' abilities from his patients/victims. There's potential, but it's going to be difficult to see beyond the surface of a character motivated to burn the world.

The concept of 'stealing power' has wide implications beyond "thin justification for a harem", heroes are worth far more Alive than dead if they can boost the strength, ability, survival or lifespan of others. Thus making 'failed' heroes a resource for those with wealth or power to enslave, coerce or force into joining their service. Else, a hero could potentially gather enough wealth, power and resources from trading / sacrificing their own body to become independent, or a Tyrant of their own making.

They also toyed with this concept in "The Boys", where the origin of the superpowers is hidden by a large corporation, and, eventually you realise why a business would 'make' heroes. or glossed over with My Hero Academia, etc.

The problem is that Keyarga is essentially mad, has god-like abilities at a cost, and could live out the rest of his life with a harem of women (and men), and build an empire from his harem, if he wanted to. The premise seems like a power fantasy, and, it really is, but that's part of what makes it glorious trash.

Put this off for a while to see what the reaction would be, it's ... pretty much what it says 'on the tin'. romcom vignettes, based on miscommunication drama and odd expectations, etc. highschool drama. Technically well produced, the art style, comedy and action flow is also exceptional. Characters are, strong typed initially, so you get to unravel a few of them, but they're all tinged with melancholy and confusion, which makes them semi realistic as teenagers.

The drama elements are, most likely from people's own personal stories with a touch of dramatic license, combined with just fantastic recreations/rumour/narratives to avoid embarrassing the writers, i.e. they're just different enough from cringe-y to be sugary reimagined versions, i.e. what if my crush said Y instead of walking away or ignoring me, etc. In a writing sense, they could "milk" romcom tropes for decades because they never have to make the characters real for more than 5 minutes or give them lives to live. They also don't focus on the erotic or adult too often, which is, arguably where the show will fall down for some viewers too, as they want the entire clutch of romantic angles in a big glorious 12 minute episode "basket".

And, there's options to thread /weave in standard characters later on that have longer lives, or returning roles or more interesting lives., i.e. mis-directed crushes, gay characters, fast/slow mismatches, age differences, uncomfortable sex or nudity, the third/fourth/fifth wheel, etc that Koi to Uso (love and lies), or more directly, Kuzu no Honkai (Scum's Wish) plays so heavily on. I think fans of the anime romcom setting will probably either adore or hate this format, or tolerate it, because either they want to be the voyeur, or enjoy the schadenfraude, the failed romance, yearning, or crushed hopes. there's probably a very large audience for that as well, the "tsun" aspect.

i wouldn't say it's low brow, or high brow drama, it's like relationship candy. for 3 to 6 minutes, you get a short, driven fantasy that's supposed to capture your feelings, then it switches to another couple. Nothing too complicated, nothing too demure, just candy for the drama itch that the audience wants to say no to, but just one more, and another, and another.

In this sense, you can binge watch an entire series of shorts like this for days on end, but not feel like anything has happened either. Some of the "flavours" in the relationship are significantly forced into being, but overall, like an assortment of candy in a grab bag, the sour and the sweet, the bitter and the bland mix well, and you'll keep on devouring more and more to see what's next.

So imagine if you hadn't played or talked to anyone that had played an MMO, but wrote a love story that is set inside one.

That's the Sword Art Online Anime series in a nutshell. The two seasons of this popular, tolerable anime, and this movie, is still defined heavily by that small, fateful decision to fit a teenage drama, inside a Virtual Reality game that is both shabby, and oddly intriguing at the same time.

The best word for SAO is shallow. It's so beautifully shallow and contrived.

The movie heavily relies on you having seen the series to know who the characters are, where the world is, the relationships, and the impact of certain terms and experiences. I doubt that the movie would make sense, based on the flashbacks and short vignette moments where Kazuto/Kirito the protagnoist, and Asuna, are living in their virtual house from SAO in VR, meeting characters from the series, or the technobabble aspect of the AR/VR technology that is pervasive in 2026's Japan.

It is set a few days after the end of season 2, so, you should binge watch the 49-50 episodes if you're new to the series. it will be a struggle. (or watch the abridged series on youtube for the hilarity instead)

So, what's the movie like ? a bigger, better version of the Anime series. The action driven plot is amazingly good, surprisingly good really. the focus on the action instead of characters is part of this. The action scenes will remind you of the good parts of SAO, instead of the unforgiving and dull moments from the series, while the plot is unusual and, deeply contrived. Art, direction, music, and pacing are fantastic, but the story is broken once you get to the end of the movie. Things do fit together in the end, but it's a majestic journey that relies on so many contrivances and choices having been made that it's boggling if you really think about the circumstances or the outcomes, or the possibilities glossed over. You'll either give the movie an 8 or 9/10, or below 5/10 if the story and plot bothers you too much.

Reki Kawahara, has built a wondrous world, that at no time ever has any consistency, or makes sense. The various VR and AR games have some shallow depth to world-building, but there's nothing likeable about the games themselves. You wouldn't want to play SAO, ALO or GGO because they're all deeply unfun games when you're not the awesome hero Kirito, or he's not in the group you're in. Maybe VR has lowered the bar for enjoyable games in 2022, which makes sense if you look at the Vive and Rift catalogue today... but this is perhaps not what is, or was intended.

Characters are consistent, and the "harem" that develops around kirito the obvious hero, is built mostly around characters that fit together because they're friends. Kirito/Kazuto might turn up occasionally to win his proscribed battle, save the day, then it all resets back to the friendzone. So there's some redeemable aspects. but it's never enough to like the show on merit.

Where to begin, without spoiling the movie... Well, it's not bad. Not good, not terrible, it's Sword Art Online's storyline if it had continued narratively from S1 and S2, given the interjection of a new AR RPG game among the old veteran VR RPG players that's slowly taking over. The teens Kirito/Kazuto and Asuna/Yuuki, now living their own lives separately in real life, still somehow attending school as SAO survivors from the Second Season (or have graduated ?), are still going through the awkward phase of their relationship where they don't have anything in common, except a shared terrific, alienating and whirlwind experience of romance.

Apart from the ominous doom this foretells, they still like each other enough to hang out in ALO with their circle of friends and play occasionally, while Ordinal Scale the AR game is becoming the next big thing. Allusions to Pokemon Go are prolific at first, but they manage to tie in the 'always watching' nature, always being scanned, always online. The headset even knows what you consume, adds up your calories, monitors your health, etc. which is something that sadly, gets skimmed over for the sake of the plot. Again, great ideas, eccentric execution due to the story.

As an OVA/movie based in the series, they've done a fantastic job of taking the art and plot up to 11, using more of the same awkward teenage /unemployed characters that would have survived a 'death game' and improvising an actual story this time around that attempts to bridge the legacy of SAO, along with the positives from ALO of Season 2 and the side-characters of GGO.

The plot is okay, the characters are better than in the series, the villian(s) are creative, but not that well defined. The mystery is ill defined, and unless you have familiarity with the manga or the anime series, the story during the credits is heartwarming, i suppose, the post-credits ending won't make much sense unless you're a fan, or have read the manga.

To Paraphrase Brie Larson: "This Movie wasn't Made for Marvel Fans. Am I saying I hate Marvel Fans? No, I am not. What I am saying is if you make a Comic Book Movie that is a love letter to women, there is an insanely low chance a woman will see your movie, and review your movie.”

I don’t hate Captain Marvel the movie. My 4/10 rating indicates a score as an MCU movie, but also because of the inherent deception of the marketing and story/writing.

Captain Marvel the character is entirely CG, and they could quietly replace the actor. If you go into this movie thinking it will introduce Captain Marvel in the MCU, it didn’t achieve that. They don’t even call her Captain Marvel.

Much like Edward Norton’s ”Incredible Hulk”, it’s the woeful and unlikeable storyline/direction that makes the movie hard to enjoy, not Edward Norton. People will argue for the next 5-10 years about Edward Norton or being MisCast, or wether CM should have been made, or wether to recast Captain Marvel.

Just like how people argue for the Film versions of Daredevil and/or Elektra to be part of the MCU for some reason. The Director team of Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, and Kevin Feige as Producer on the entire MCU to this point, is going to take the bullet on this one, not the “Dream Team” of disposable screenplay and Indie Directors that are more likely to be responsible. Most MCU fans forget that The Incredible Hulk is part of the MCU, because of the successful recasting.

Phase 4, which begins in July 2019 with Spiderman 2 Far From Home, will likely be the point at which they choose another Captain Marvel, or set up a replacement/apprentice character for the main actor to retire the role.

I find CM to be damaged and disappointing because the potential to make “Superwoman” in the MCU, building a character that has the potential to explore amazing new stories, pulling apart the flaws of other superheroes, learning from the mistakes and pitfalls of others, is going to happen in another movie. Just not this Captain Marvel.

The worst aspect of Captain Marvel is realising how the after-effects of this movie, will bleed into 2020 and the next few Marvel movies. Namely, that WOKE marketing worked this time, despite efforts to mislead. There is feminism in the film, but it’s insulting parody to call this a feminist film.

They successfully highlighted the unlikeable Brie Larson, and used her to keep the cycle of attention and outrage, while presenting the movie as a female led story. This might not work for other movies, especially if the Actor(s) are sensitive to being leveraged, or their careers destroyed. Much like Solo: A Star Wars Story, or Ghostbusters 2016 tried to use Pansexuality, blaming the fans for not liking a bad movie.

It’s also becoming harder to ignore the spectacle of outsourcing 19+ companies with 900 different CG artists that modern movies are reliant on, disguising a rotten core with spectacular imagery. When you just look at the story being told, or try to remember what the story is… That’s what matters. Not the explosions or the delights made by artisans. Because, you’ll forget them after a few days.

The Biggest Flaw of Captain Marvel is that it fails at being an origin story

Beyond all of the other tiny flaws, average scenes, disconnected plot moments, the absurdly mishandled retcons, and the attempts at activism and humour that prematurely die due to a lack of talent in the writing and directing teams, among a litany of small and large problems that mount up,

Carol/Captain Marvel is given superpowers and is not changed or motivated to do anything different. The convolution of the “Amnesia soldier” trope and the convoluted surprises during the film, hide the fact that Captain Marvel is underwhelming and disappointing. The use of the Star Trek Insurrection plotline in Act 3, isn’t the issue.

Nothing can be done to fix or remediate this, because the movie can’t or won’t go in the direction needed to tell the story that the audience wants to experience. Instead, the writers and directors show us an afternoon for Carol Danvers in which she snarkily destroys things with a smile on her face, but looks bored most of the time.

Removing the Feminism isn’t effective. Re-casting Carol Danvers for another actor won’t modify the screenplay or change the directors. Swapping Brie Larson for ANYONE, can’t make people care about the character, because the character is unchanged from the beginning to the end. We never see Carol evolve, her challenges don’t change the character or make her heroic.

To summarise

• It’s not the worst MCU movie.
• It is the most disappointing though.
• Avengers: Endgame is ~6 weeks away or so, by then, everyone will have forgotten CM.
• Yes, it is a film with Feminism - It’s treated as a joke or punchline by the writers.
• Going into 2019, expect movie critics to attack fans when they lose “Access” for bad PR.
• Goose the Cat should kill Captain Marvel, and the entire Avengers team during the mid-credits break on Endgame, as they’re celebrating their success, to end Phase 4.
• The retcon of Fury’s Eye being lost is a deep insult to MCU fans, or, it’s a light-hearted nod to the fact that this is a comic book story franchise, that has made $18 Billion US Dollars, and is going to go on for 20 more years. You decide.
• Captain Marvel will defeat Thanos, by bringing up his sexist tweets from 2009 in Avengers:Endgame
• Goose the Cat is going to kill Thanos in Endgame, because someone at Disney will find it funny.

The Good

• The CG team did a fantastic job in making Captain Marvel.
• DC’s Captain Marvel trailer, looks fantastic…
• Great work was done by ILM & 20+ CG studios to make the Suit/Mohawk/Breather work and not look out of place.
• The Mohawk does not look silly. The “Tesseract Fire” and “Photon Blasts” are messy.
• The De-aging on SLJ works, Coulson’s is a bit more jarring as you struggle to recognise his face at certain angles.
• Every character in the movie is more interesting to watch than Brie Larson.
• Ben Mendelsohn’s Australian Accent is Superb, elevates the movie and has subtlety, it makes you notice by contrast how mediocre Brie Larson’s delivery is.
• The Cat, is pointless.
• 11-year old Monica “Lieutenant Trouble” Rambeau, isn’t terrible, but the age will be a problem. Expect “Trouble” to show up in SHIELD, 25 years later as another RetCon.
• The overt activism present in the movie, does not detract from the movie’s plot, but it shifts tone and leads to disconnected moments.

The Bad

• There is a continual dissonance when Brie is playing Air Force Carol, Starforce Soldier Veers or pyrotechnician Captain Marvel, or regular casual Carol. It never feels like a character, not even when the costumes change.
• Usually there’s a few moments of crossover, where you might get Robert Downey Jr instead of Iron Man, etc, you never get the sense that Brie Larson is a pilot, kree soldier, Superhero, or human character within the story unless her clothing changes.
• Your experience might vary, but Brie Larson is unlikeable at times. “noble warrior heroes” isn’t supposed to sound condescending or sarcastic.
• The levity, backstory and character moments in Act 2, do not help make Brie Likeable.
• The moments of Levity and snark, which work on other characters, and female characters, feel wooden, rehearsed and sociopathic when Brie Larson is reciting them.
• The scenes as Full Powered Super-Saiyan Captain Marvel, feel out of place because there’s no teasing or sense of context. She goes from fist-fighting Kree and Skrulls to flying length-way through a starship to destroy it as an invulnerable missile.
• The visual Look & Focus of Captain Marvel when using the tesseract-given power, perhaps due to storyboarding of combat to look like flight or aerial combat maneuvering, needs improvement or better storyboarding to follow the danger and action.
• The plot is intentionally convoluted, and does not actually fit together, because the screenplay is intentionally patchworked together to bring characters to action scenes.
• Unravelling the timeline of the movie, shows a few plot holes with the character of Dr Lawson / the Kree Scientist Mar-Vell who has been hiding on earth during the early 80s or earlier.
• Rather that uncovering world-building, Mar-Vell hiding on earth unpacks a larger set of questions about how Yon-Rogg finds & kills Mar-Vell, and the “Engine Prototype”, which is the Tesseract-Lite.
• Hala, the Kree Homeworld, looks good, but it feels like a badly made CGI city because the writers don’t seem to understand EVERYTHING needs to be fleshed out and named for these films.
• The setup of the Skrulls as the Kree’s public Enemy is hammy & executes badly.
• Nobody calls Carol Danvers… Captain Marvel.
• Act 1 is very similar to Battle Angel Alita, but also Ghost in the Shell 2017.
• Act 2 is occasionally interesting. It’s supposed to be the point where you learn more about Carol Danvers and her personality, But you end up being more interested in the other Actors
• Act 3 ‘s Star Trek Insurrection reference, the Skrulls are “ILLEGAL ALIEN” Refugees, And Talos (Ben Mendelsohn) was scanning Carol Danver’s memories to locate MarVell and find his family.
• The Skrull, and the Kree are turned into 2D villains that RetCon earlier and later versions of those characters in the MCU.
• Turning the Skrull into “Illegal Aliens” and Refugees, is stupid on several levels and I wish that this story was removed from the movie,
• The Cat is pointless.
• Once you get home from the cinema, or get up from the couch, the clock starts ticking before your enjoyment wanes.
• The screenwriting team of Anna Boden & Ryan Fleck, Nicole Perlman (GOTG, Detective Pikachu), Geneva Robertson-Dworet (Tomb Raider), Meg LeFauve (Inside Out, Good Dinosaur), but also uncredited work from Liz Flahive & Carly Mensch (Nurse Jackie, GLOW) are more likely to be the cardinal dilemma, of how not to write a superhero origin story.

The Ugly

• We get Brie Larson, Cosplaying as Carol Danvers in a Captain Marvel suit.
• I don’t believe it’s Mis-Casting alone, the writing and direction is to blame for a lot of faults.
• They broke the Marvel Formula, by failing to make an Origin Story.
• I’m not sure the writers understood the Marvel Formula, but Kevin Feige should have. It’s his franchise to ruin, and he’s certainly put this movie in the best possible spot to be forgotten. That’s not going to work Kevin.
• The montage of “Rise Up” scenes are parody.
• The way that the “Women Rise Up” Feminist agenda moments happen in the movie, it takes you out of the nostalgia of the 90s when it occurs.
• There’s a Ghostbusters 2016 moment with a biker parking nearby, telling CM to “Smile More”, next scene, you see her riding his bike.
• There’s a Dick Measuring scene. 6 Female Screenplay writers, Go figure.
• Fight scenes are choppy & hard to follow due to frequent cuts.
• Due to the absurd dropping of all tension once Talos reveals that he’s a refugee, at least 20 minutes earlier, his team was shooting at Danvers & fighting with Fury.
• Music and Foley / sound is occasionally all-over the place. Layering and separation was messy at times with the music. I get that it’s bombastic to hear No Doubt “Just a Girl” at 95db, but there’s also dialogue and combat going on. Possibly a result of flattening the Atmos audio to regular audio levels.
• Captain Marvel is a Mary Sue insert, it’s hard to empathise with a perfect character or predict what they’ll do.
• Maria Rambeau, who plays Carol’s BFF. That relationship is hostile at times, Maria doesn’t react appropriately, and there’s a lack of emotion expressed.
• I Like the Cat, but the RetCon with Fury is not a “funny joke moment” and it makes the movie worse in context. This is a “throwing the lightsaber away for a joke” moment in the MCU, that should have been stopped by Feige and others.
• I Hope that Endgame does not balance on the personality of Captain Marvel’s choices or powers.

Additional Comments: I personally would watch it again. I chose to give it an 8, but that's because I'm certain that the Bluray/UHD will have some of the backstory or extended scenes, and the 3D is worth the extra point over the 6 it earns as a movie.

The visuals and style give it a definite popcorn, forgettable extravagance, that make it worth the watch, maybe not the rewatch. I like the movie a lot at times, but there are problems that can't be erased by liking the movie. I could understand someone giving it a 4 or a 5, or a 9/10 and not feel it was undue.

Music choice was poor from Clint Mansell & co, the choice to synth their way through the birth/build scene was tepid, and the choice to use the recognisable Kenji Kawai marriage song in the end credits, ruins the song's impact when it is so strikingly different to the music in the movie. I think they went with an Aoki dubstep remix version in the end though.

With the same visual setting, characters and large sprawling universe, a different director would be able to make a very clean break and a very modern movie with action, combat, noir procedural elements and strong essential conflicts, with the same crew and same material, given a handful of reshoots to re-establish characters, trim out plot and add needed tone, conflicts, plot elements. It would also be a 2hr 10 movie.

but ... this is not that movie. It may not deserve an 7 or an 8 if you find the acting stilted or the directing and plot unworkable, those are definitely glaring issues. A sequel would be infinitely better than what was produced, but, it might not get that chance either. what's left, is a mess of good ideas, great production, great actors and a hollow experience.

The casting is not a problem IMO, The actors all do a good job, despite the dubious direction notes and action oriented scripting.

I mentioned that the beginning is broken, here's why.

There's a whole year or more from ScarJo's "Character building" birth scene, to working in Section 9 that's jumped over.
We don't see the whole Section 9 team in action against a formidable threat, so we don't see how far above the plebs she is, only that she can get the job done by herself, which is not a team. We also don't get a sense of cohesion or malice from the antagonists; Kuze and Cutter are both shallow villains. Against a stronger, evolving or defining threat, Team building might have been more capable, but they never really get to go all out, which points to a flawed understanding of the material as well.

The plot, tends towards action, instead of emotion or menace, and can seem boring at times where it's trying to put you into the setting, but feels bolted on; Go here, Shoot now. Look around.
There's just a sense of disconnection between rooms and jumps where the theme or mood changes during exposition. Some of this disconnect is also because the camera always tracks the Major's location or POV when present. It also becomes the ScarJo Show as she is relearning how to act human at times, which is an unusual tone given how much time has passed since the Anime; that Androids having existential crises is not that unfamiliar for scifi or regular TV content, nor is she played as being a full cyborg and having trouble with the adaptation.

Again, it's skipped over neatly, which is a concern, especially during the 'glitches', moments where she flashes or hallucinates images, which is not treated as a significant problem or has concern shown by humans in the setting. This is perhaps a uniquely expensive cyborg system; that any significant integration or memory, visual problems are played off, is dubious.

This would be mildly disastrous in another setting. We do learn later why this is, but in the context of her being "the first" or at least, "the best" or cynically, "cybernetic weapons system that is fulfilling a lucrative government contract", it's off-putting that they don't focus or delve into the problem for the Major's benefit, or treat it as a serious problem.

Dr Ouelet (Binoche) drops the ball frequently, playing a surrogate mother and doctor for Major Mira. It's perhaps the oddest mix of distant affection and concern. Direction is quirky when it comes to these scenes as if the camera wants to pan in, but moves aside. As with Warcraft, the Editing and Direction led to character and world building mis-steps early on, where there's just a sense of confusion and odd acting choices, notably from Binoche, who is supposed to present a maternal instinct, or should have, but does not follow through.

It's also one of the plot and character mis-steps that Kuze, an italian actor, and Major... Mira Killian (i.e. like Aldrich Killian from Iron Man 3), an irish name and a scandinavian actress (sic) could have been explained as a design choice by Ouelet. Given that they can craft any imaginable face, it should have been a plot point for continuity that these bodies are her creations. But they skimmed over it, as with the choice of Major, a military rank, which begs questions the movie glosses over as well. They aren't shy when it comes to exposition later on or spending time on 'individuality' or 'consent', concepts that date the movie and feel as if they came from an earlier script that played on these ideas more.

Unfortunately, where the movie tries to invoke thought or concern, it does not work. The best ideas are cribbed from the Anime, and presented as visual motifs and eye candy. Yes, it works well, but it does not gel into the story, especially in the final act where dubious choices are made on behalf of the Major, that don't feel earned at that time, although they are satisfying within the setting. The ending, works. The middle, works, and you do get used to the world setting.

Given modern Sci-Fi ideas, any straight adaptation would fail to have a resounding feeling of accomplishment, given that The Matrix stole all of the uniqueness, and dressed up those elements to make them cliche. What's left that stands out, is the Noir and the procedural elements, both of which they drop the ball on. Noting in the movie feels original unfortunately, because it is playing it safe.

Admittedly the visuals are knockouts, the CG is top notch, you wouldn't know it was filmed in New Zealand with Hong Kong features, buildings and ambient settings, Several times i've had to remember what was supposed to be Japan in the movie, since it strays so far from Japanese cultural settings.

I've also since seen and read about 20 reviews of varying quality and content, and while each have their fair share of complaints and advice, none really define the problems or give it fair criticism.

I'd like to see a sequel with the same cast, and same production teams, with the freedom to move around more, to explore the japanese setting, more than the H.K. skyline, and have some quintessentially more unique protagonists. Laughing Man 2.0 with a touch of Wikileaks flavored revelations, would probably work exceptionally well, as it allows for the buildup and the team to work together, more politics, and more antagonists, more action, and more tech noir.

Original review:
Saw an Advanced screening.

It looks okay, not sure what I'd give it as a rating though.

Some CG is a bit wonky with driving scenes sic., they also pulled a ton of homage scenes from the original anime movie, the new movie, arise, and the SAC series. More than it should have at times, because they murdered the intent of the original scenes to pay respect. The beginning of the film feels Very, Very broken, but it gets better after about 20 minutes once you get settled in the world. Almost as if they reassembled or cut it a few dozen times and forgot what it was supposed to be.

Overall it is a bright and sunny blade runner in HK.

Odd mix of visual and audio and tech/world building styles and direction as well. Good, but a little bit of a compromise with the source material(s) to get 3 or 4 anime movies worth in 1 movie.

It doesn't feel as wonky as the Warcraft movie although the similarities are there in the frequency of CG to actors. Design looks practical and shadows, skin and effective suspension of belief that the Warcraft movie did not pull off.

Plot is amalgam of kuze and puppet master stories, and it's good. They pulled the punches on the metaphysical aspect of 'the dive' into cyberspace or the digital brain, but it was inevitable. It was the weakest part of the movie in some ways.

Will edit if I think of anything else. Probably give it a watch with someone who hasn't seen ghost in the shell to compare their experience with the material.

I liked most of the movie's tone. Spectacular and beautiful in the empire sprawling dystopia that is / was Blade Runner. Visually stunning, and the 4 hours of the runtime is almost devoted to these superlative, panoramic moments...

Oh, it's just 2h 45m?

The plot is very much attractive and attemptive.

After a few hours of depth, it was okay. 7/10.
If I was charitable.

Its not a good sequel. It's also not blade runner. It is trying very hard to make itself blade runner. It fits together. But, it is going in too different a direction and making different choices.

In ways that should never be attempted, it has rebooted blade runner.

The same problem exists with Ghost in the shell, Ghostbusters, The Force Awakens, etc. The pageantry and spectacular effects are the most important focus, and it destroys the native or originality of the first movie. It's akin to being the archetype of a new trope.

There's a few reboots that improve, but it's a disappointment more profound than a terrible sequel to realizing that a sequel has nothing to do with the first movie. Aliens to Alien, the movie is startlingly different and plays with the same world. Blade Runner 2049 is a different world to the original.

This isn't Fan4stic. It's just... Not a sequel. Too much has changed to be the same world as the original movie.

There are deliberate problems. First world problems, to be sure, and the story is convoluted for effect.

I can't especially pin down why it fails to be a good movie rather than a great one. It has all of the pieces, or some of the pieces of a great, re-watchable, fun and masterful film.

The briefest way to sum up my disappointment is that I don't care about the characters.

The only compelling thing is perhaps Joi the holographic fake girlfriend. And while I think that this is awesome, it is not. I probably should be concerned for the hero, or Deckard. Or anything, anyone else. Nope.

Joi is the least of the significant absurdity. The reality of Joi is something profoundly idiotic. Ie. That the best acting, most emotional and smartest person is the least powerful, and the least human. This is a problem.

If the scenery was a character, it would be the protagonist of the movie. This has actually been attempted with success elsewhere, koyannaquatsi, sic.

Maybe it's just my imagination, or opinion, or A quirk of the length of the movie perhaps. Or just a funny aspect of the direction and production, could the story be told without words? Just scenes and edits.?

Probably.

Other times, it challenges you, especially the preference to rattle the room with ambient bass and ear piercing volume for the emotional experience of the scenery. Does a dead forest require a 97db foghorn-like pulse racing ambience?

It doesn't not work. Audio is pushy rather than subtle. Loud, rather than contrast or matching the power of the visual effects/ landscape.

It's not great. It's not bad. The parts it does badly are choices made. And there's thousands of odd idiosyncrasies. It's a very long movie.

It's just on the cusp of going past the suspension of disbelief. More inconsistencies than plausible or tolerant. As a result of this, you end up pulling the threads with boredom or curiosity. A movie under 100 minutes, you can Suspend Disbelief. At the 150+ minutes mark, the fantasy erodes and it needs to work much harder for coherence.

In an Era where TV can deliver a story with movie quality over 10 to 20 hours, film has to change or choose. Perhaps, choices that were made for the film by someone who doesn't enjoy movies.

Thousands of hours of thought went into this movie, and it bleeds through. When I try to put a finger on the concepts, art, choices and script for a single vision, or a single flaw that underpins the way I don't like it enough to really enjoy this or feel favorable towards it...

Nothing about the movie is inherently bad. You can overtly go into depth into scenes and pull out the hidden details for hours, context and framing etc.

The challenge will be in 5 or 10+ years, to see if someone can make this concept work properly into a better movie, TV series or universe. It is an awesome film to break into pieces, much like Gladiator or Guardians of the Galaxy, to calibrate what makes a movie great and fun.

With some editing, it could be salvaged into a better noir film. More has to go wrong, and the movie would need more characters, etc.

Theres like an hour of filler in the storyline to accomplish... Nothing. The characters chase a red herring, and it takes time. The payoff is that the quest... Is nihilistic. Okay. Awesome.

Perhaps, it comes down to the storyline being rushed, or the twist (cough) being quite a bit mishandled.

The appeal to discourse is vain. Watercooler discussion works if you make good choices and people want more. You don't get this by overlaying and obscuring the plot with a red herring and forget about the wider implications of adding a layer of intrigue that casts infinite doubt into the story.

The elements that gave the twist for Deckard being a Replicant in the original were subtle. It pushed the choice on the viewer to infer more than the movie informed or showed to people. Hence the confusion about cuts and endings, the unicorn, etc.

Now, In its most concise, the replicants are the movie. This is the first problem, of many.

Blade runner focused on the humanity of the characters, their failures and doubts versus the reckless and charismatic replicants, better in every aspect once they could be allowed to be.

This is airbrushed in the sequel.

The other is the artistry and decadence of the settings and locations. Awesome, but amateurish as well.

Amateur in that people don't live in the places created, and never did. There's a lot of brilliant and creative ideas on display, and a botched integration with the world. Things are weathered, in sterile rooms. Lighting is moody, in a clean street, with/without vehicles in the roads. A brothel is next door to a food court with a giant touch screen locker system, which seems like it should be a keyed location. It feels unlike a real location because of the fake and the overt push of the crowds.

And you have tumbled modernist art deco statues in a washed out Las Vegas, but holographic jukeboxes and intact highrises. The reason it looks fake is, people have to make places. Choices. Fund and buy resources. The reason why you don't have an office building with irrigation and water pools is someone has to clean it. Maintain it. And be irritated by it. The Wallace replicants are entirely doll manifestations that also deliver the plot and momentum of the film. This is... Stupid. Not clever. The noir elements don't merge well, the luck needed to process the plot is supra deus ex machinae, there's... Time spent on the silliest of things that do not change the plot in the 4 middle parts. We have 4 middle parts of filler to drive a plot that is being steered.

The directing / storyline choices made are... Curious. Dumb. Gaudy. Pretentious. Self important. Disconnected. Hyped. Overt. Mismanaged. Otherwise, fine. It's not a problem, despite the insanity required to implement. The visual and story choices are styled to make people feel and understand.

You can think of these settings, but it becomes fake and austentatious once built. This overt motif becomes a character in the movie, it does not ever blend in with the background. Hence, amateur.

In some ways, they did the same damage as Ghost in the Shell (2017) attempting modernized Holographic Cityscapes. It is so much more gorgeous, and so much more hollow.

The more significant problem exists with Ghost. The characters were trampled by the budget and the plot inserts. Arguably, the same problem exists with The Force Awakens, that the characters feel forced into the greenscreen and wire work action scenes from unnatural dialogue. Ford Ambles in this movie. A lot. He has his moments, but the insanity of using a cartoon Evil villain in a "billion dollar" movie is incredibly lazy.

Harrison Ford against a non blind, non insane Jared Leto would have connected people to the charismatic and driven ideologue. Nope.

The movie wants to forget subtle and forges a deliberate "fish bowl" motif to the antagonist, a "Desperate" ambitious CEO with a lust for dominance via a replicating replicant workforce. This is the lowest possible point in the movie, because of the way it is presented as... Iconoclast and preachy desperation.

I don't know if I'd give the movie a 9 without Jared Leto, but it seems possible.

I just don't even really care, that's the problem. Every other character, is fine.

Avoided the first day screenings, as i'd been burned after the disaster of watching back-to-back The Farce Awakens+The Last Jedi in a 7 hours double feature... I went in to Infinity War ... EXTREMELY hesitant that they'd butcher Infinity War or make it mediocre, that Disney would have stepped in to ruin the franchise. It was a very real feeling of disgust i still have.

To be fair, I thought TLJ was mediocre, but in my defense, it was 3am and i gave it a 6/10. How do you rate a movie that kills the franchise and any desire to see another Star Wars film... And Disney's Lucasfilm is part of the same team behind Marvel's juggernaut of success.

So ... Yeah. I didn't give Avengers much of a chance. I just turned up to the cinema, no Hype, no preorders or popcorn, just get it over with. Seeing this on my birthday, I didn't get wholly attached to the characters, but I heard people gasp out loud. More than once at the ending. Subverted Expectations, and everything.

It is hard to think that this movie is going to be compared to Justice League. It's "technically" similar. In as much as Infinity War is similar to Empire Strikes Back's merging of separate character arcs into a 3 act structure , the stretching of a heroic character to facing not horrors beyond imagining, instead, it's epic heroism, facing aliens that are all-too-human, with the powers of Gods. It isn't a realistic or fantastic setting, it's a penultimate fantasy setting. of putting "batman" i.e. the mirror/analogue of an ideal mortal man (which is the platonic or basic hero archetype of batman/iron man/random guy in a cape/suit) against a literal Wizard. or a Literal God. and a God Killer. and holding their own. It's FUN to believe in superheroes, it lifts the bar for EPIC again.

Bravo. You've made me enjoy Epic fantasy stories again, despite how mutilated or deconstructed they've become in other franchises.

I actually missed something in the movie because i turned my head to look at who was crying. (no spoilers, but you can probably guess)

Now, there's flaws in the storytelling, they hit some character HARD with the Nerf-Bat (Strange, Vision, Hulk, Thor), and some characters Spent big on their LootBox upgrades (Iron Man, Scarlet Witch, Black Widow) etc. It didn't ruin the movie, but it left a lot of What-If/Why-Didn't-They questions lingering where the Jokes begin. I can logically understand why, it was necessary, i.e. they needed the Hawkeye "balance" pass (to borrow from PvP games, where they scale a 'boring' or 'bad' character to be massively overpowered for social reasons or to stop the roster from being too narrow), but also because Hawkeye, and Black Widow are just regular people with SKILLS.

I get that it's not perfect. They had to make a movie with ... 30 heroes in it ? And they had a few on the Bench, Ant-Man, Hawkeye, etc.

So,

I kind of regret not seeing it more than once now. Mostly because it's way too crammed with vignettes and moments, the 2 1/2 hours isn't punishing, (except to the collective bladders, sic. )

but, it was just enthralling from start to finish, like all the Marvel movies. It's not perfect, but it is a Master Work in cinema, this is a kind of benchmark for superhero movies for the next 30 years. For me, this comes up to Fight Club or The Matrix, in sheer spectacle and WOW... It's really that good. It's going to get up there with Dark Night and the Nolan Batman Trilogy.

You can put this back to back with Avengers which just comes up to the 9 out of 10, this goes beyond the 9/10 rating and makes other 9/10 movies look pale by comparison. There are very few PERFECT movies that deliver the essential 10/10 experience. Just as it's hard to go below 5/10, it's hard to go above 9.9/10. It's somewhat similar to the arc for a movie like Empire Strikes back as well,

So yeah, I've thought about it, and changed the 8 to a 10. This is the sort of movie that is the culmination of 10+ years and 6 to 7 seasons of TV, 20+ movies, And I just can't think of any movie that is going to surpass this, apart from Part 2, when they try to turn it around, and bring in --SuperGirl-- Captain Marvel, then, explain the ending, and the aftermath(s) in the next 2 Movies, and the TV shows.

It's sort of disappointing.

Precocious "Vegan" Vampire Princess (!) , of undefined IQ/Age is building a comedy harem of girls in Japan. I do like the "Artistically Necessary" false nudity gag, which i'm guessing is the Female Gaze of the MC stripping away barriers (sic). Or something equally post-modern pastiche / parody. A vampire that doesn't bite people, sure. Living in a cardboard box in the subway... in Tokyo Japan ?

I've seen Ex-Arm, so it can always be worse, but it's got a fraction of potential. Just a bit that slides it from a 4/10 to a 5 or 6. Maybe it's the unusual story, or the potential to improve. IDK.

To make it worse, the Animation and production is ... a grab bag of styles and effort. It's more compelling than the characters. As if... they were begging cosplayers or teen girls to draw their attention through the mire/muck of seasonal anime.

It's also the first time i've seen wrinkles / sleep deprivation lines so prominent in a teenager's face, then the "Busty School Nurse" looking ... younger (?) than the teenage girl. I'll keep going, only to see if it improves or it's just trend-chasing "cute" with no deeper story, just a lot of animators having fun doing their own styles of animation to fill the budget and spec/time for the scene. Production I.G. may have been having fun on the art efforts, since there's such a melange of art styles (hunting for a specialist kind of audience ?, or throwing Art as "chaff" at contrarian reviewers because the pilot and character setup is trash) . I would expect CG or VFX to appear soon enough to mimic other unique "snowflake" styles like Bezerk or Revolutionary Girl Utena, sic. It's not parody... or is it ? IDK. Maybe there's a reason why there's a shotgun of styles mixed in together.

Mamoru Oshii of Ghost in the Shell is kind of the selling point, but it's not beyond the bounds of being ... okay. The most damning thing is that it's not pushing the boundaries of having a Harem... but definitely having a harem show in as much as it's heading in that direction. 200 to 2000 year old Vampire Loli Girl is a "thing" in Japan, so IDK where they can take the memes that isn't streamlining obvious jokes or tropes of Magical Girls, Princesses, Vampires, and Hunters, etcetera.

Approaching the premise of a "vegan" vampire living in Tokyo, the MC and surrounding people just taking these events in stride is another day in Anime. There's elements of zany action, i.e. Space Patrol Luluco / Space Dandy-esque hijinks and tropes, some of the artwork is reminiscent of Manga, Comic "inset" closeups of people talking to emphasize speech. But, there's also the very cheap use of stock footage Japan at Night shots, with a bit of a filter applied instead of converting to a cell-shaded / rendered City.

This isn't Ex-Arm, you don't need to use stock clips and live-action footage mixed in with production level animation. Don't do that.

This is the best first year animation student work ... a real 8/10 effort.
Oh...

This is an actual 3DCG Anime ... and not a storyboard for a student made 3D animation. I'd give it slack if it were a draft version of the anime, which "leaked out"since there's some elements which could be changed. But it's "finished'

What a sham. My brain checked out 5 minutes into the "story", and revolted after the first "fight scene". Truly horrible. This is the caliber of what Arts Degree students make in 3-6 months to convince people your ideas "can" work... which is fine.

But you don't put this out as an actual show, people on YouTube have done better at home, i.e. check out Killer Bean by Jeff Lew. A single minute of Killer Bean, made well over 10 years ago, shatters this entire series into the dirt.

While Storyboarding is brilliant for help with editing, audio, designs of characters, colour matching, directing, camera angles and dialogue in 3D, eventually you take the storyboard as a draft... and you replace it with proper styled art, polished assets and customise the animation.

A team then works on each scene, to build a rigged animation model, with a developed face, eye and character motions, then paint on top of the 'blank' faces to give the character shades, tone and style, then blend the harsh CG into a series of tweaked and tweened movement and choreograph the fight scene movement to accelerate and decelerate motion of the background/camera to give the impression of momentum and movement.

None of this is present.

none of the polish, none of the idle animations or breathing, walking, eye movement is finished. Every single frame of this show is unfinished test footage, used to draft an actual show. Did they run out of time, money or did they hand this in as a finished product.