Rarely have I ever watched a show that has provoked such a lack of reaction on my part. It's the fat-free vanilla yogurt of SF TV. It's not poorly done, and the acting is okay, but there's nothing interesting to connect with.
Plus, the VFX is too clean, so it lacks the kind of pastoral, grounded yet whimsical quality that Stålenhag's amazing art evokes.
I was intrigued by the concept of this show, but while the first episode wasn't atrocious, I'm gonna pass on the rest. The idea of the entire story being told in an interrogation room ends up limiting the dramatic possibilities way too much for my tastes. Think about it: there's no chance the person being interrogated is innocent, because then you have no episode. So we're left with guilty people, and the only tension we get is whether they'll confess or not, which we know will happen because otherwise the bad guys win.
And honestly, if this first episode is any illustration of the overall quality of the rest, I'm not interested. The episode is built as if they're racing against the clock and brilliantly lure Edgar into revealing a significant detail, but... the key detail is the patterns of the trunk mat on the victim's cast. A detail which they had from the get-go and for which they didn't need Edgar's admission to implicate him!
So yeah, no. Pass for me. Nice try, but the concept doesn't carry the show at all.
I really, REALLY liked it. It does something that's at the basis of my life-long enjoyment of giant monster movies really, really well, and some of the scenes had me bouncing in my seat with joy.
That being said... It's not a movie built along the lines of a modern blockbuster, at least not entirely, and for that I think it's not gonna be a huge tentpole success. People are gonna complain about character choices or dialogues or characterization. It's much more in line with the classic Godzilla formula, and THAT it does really well.
One of the big challenges of a monster movie is always to have a good balance of "monsters fighting" and "humans talking" in a way that builds tension and action, and this one, more than almost any other Godzilla movie, and more than 2014's take, was right on. Monster fights always had clear stakes, and the puny humans buzzing around had clear objectives (even if often it was just 'try and survive in the shitstorm of the century') and felt in their place as supporting characters in the monster drama.
So, in short... If you wanna see a pure, slick action movie, go see John Wick 3. If you want some of that designer-drug concentrated dose of entertainment you expect from a tentpole, you got Endgame. But if you ever felt a thrill watching Godzilla melt the rubber face off of another giant monster, you're in for a hell of a treat.
For those wondering, YES, El Ministerio del Tiempo will return for a fourth season!
This was a great episode. Reminded me of some of Supernatural's most meta episodes. At the same time, I'm happy this isn't the series finale. Hope Amelia, Julian, Alonso and Pacino all make a comeback.
Loved most of the season, hated the damn "You cannot abort that child because it is the future of both our races" clichéd ending.
A disappointment after two strong episodes.
I love the entire series, but this episode was just spectacular. I love this show.
Second season-four dud in a row for me. The story was clichéd and could have been told without the SF tech.
This is more "Hell no" than "Halo."
This is a tone-perfect adaptation of Herbert's novel, but even if it weren't, I could watch brutalist architecture take off and land all day. An absolute visual triumph.
I love Jon Stewart and I'm definitely a Liberal, but this movie was just awful. It's Democrat America lost in the wilderness of the Trump years, looking for where they've gone wrong and unable to figure it out. Preachy, tone-deaf, and condescending.
This episode is starting to lose some of the good will the first two episodes built. 99% of the conflict in this episode was completely contrived, from United Earth not ever talking to Wen, to Burnham AGAIN doing something without telling Saru.
I also wish future-future Earth didn't feel so much like Federation Earth. The crew of the Discovery should be the equivalent of a 12th-century Viking ship landing in modern-day New York Harbor. Instead all we get is a big tree.
After watching season one, I can say this show is pretty great. I wish the show was more believable, but watching Eve at work, especially when she interacts with the bad guy, is really irresistible. Bit on the light side, but really fun, for sure.
I'm probably in the minority on this, but I enjoy the Villanelle scenes a lot less than I do Eve. She's just over-the-top psycho, and she's not even a decent assassin at that. If this were the real world, she'd get caught after one hit and no one at MI6 would break a sweat catching her. Although I admit, she's great to watch when she gets close to Eve.
Stone and Crenn were robbed. They clearly had the superior dishes (that forest floor one was out of this world), but the point of this episode was to give a boost to Samuelsson because he got his butt handed to him over the course of his episode.
Seriously... Every one of Samuelsson's takes on medieval food was so out of left field. "Medieval food was all about being soft"?!
(Yes, I take Iron Chef way too seriously.)
Alison Brie was good as Planetina, but nothing about this episode felt surprising or new. Just a run-of-the-mill R&M episode, I guess... I can't think of a single element that I find memorable. Hmm, maybe the fight scene.
A solid premise marred by an overlong runtime and illogical events and characters. I like that the characters are flawed and messed up, but this took it just a bit too far, and their decisions were often frustratingly illogical even with the goal of self-preservation in mind. Performances were pretty solid, though.
Commenters here calling this movie "woke" are making me scratch my head. Apparently, "woke" now means any movie featuring Black people even in a supporting role where skin color plays any role at all. In the end it was a human story about people overcoming differences and showing each other compassion.
Most exciting part for me is that I fell asleep watching this movie and dreamed of Nicolas Cage.
Cool premise, but nowhere to really take it. A missed opportunity.
It's got nice performances and a few funny moments peppered here and there, but most of it is a messy pile of noise that's not half as clever as it thinks it is. The over-reliance on coincidences kills any semblance of a story.
Wow?! Reminds me of my all-time favorite animation,Fantastic Planet, but with a nice touch of ecohorror added. First episode was a truly compelling watch, and I hope the rest of the season can maintain this high bar. The plot itself is more on the slow side, but this gives the show a contemplative quality. Just lie back, relax, and breathe in this truly alien world.
Oh, my gooooood, that episode nearly killed my interest for this show. A long, tedious flashback that's completely against the tone of the rest of the series, concerning characters I care nothing about, wrapped in cheap sets, poor writing, and an attempt at '80s sitcom aesthetic that falls flat on its face. The only thing that got me through was practicing my Mandarin listening skills, and seeing the Monkey King himself in action.
I've just gone through the synopses for the rest of the season to make sure that was the last flashback. Whew.
This show is one of the most consistently funny on TV right now, but that cold open with the boat was one of the most hilarious things this show has put out.
MAN, this show is so uneven. After last week's awful attempt at comedy, we're now getting a no-holds-barred, intriguing cosmic episode with fantastic stakes and awesome action. Not only was the multiversal fight visually cool and exciting, but it's also the very best we've seen of Hawkeye in the entire MCU. (At least to date! Fingers crossed for the Disney+ show.)
Let's hope the next episode delivers on this fantastic setup.
This is very much a one-joke indie SF film that doesn't really end. I thought the girl's performance was great, and some of the writing around two clueless Millennials trying to disconnect was fun, but overall the movie was a big waste of time. One thing that stands out to me, though, is how genuine the relationship between the leads felt. It really felt like they loved each other despite their mutual limitations.
Can't say I recommend it, though.
The comparisons to John Wick are inevitable, and they're not in this movie's favor. John Wick is just a tighter, more stylish, more visceral version of this story. That being said, Bob Odenkirk is fantastic, and arguably better than Keanu Reeves. Not a bad way to spend a hour and a half.
I didn't expect to like this one as much as I did. In structure, it's a paint-by-numbers rom-com, but the humor is genuinely funny, and the characters behave in ways that are true to their character instead of chasing script beats. It's still a stretch that Theron's character would fall for Rogen's, but it's a minor gripe because they have actual chemistry on screen. It also shows that Rogen has something to actually say about politics, and so his character's arc feels genuine instead of just required for the movie to reach its conclusion. I'm not saying it's a deep thinker of a movie, but it has more authenticity than I've seen in similar movies before.
Oh, and Theron is mesmerizingly beautiful AND hilarious in this.
Well, that was pretty terrible. Emma Thompson's character is an awful human being without any redeeming value, and Mindy Kaling plays a bubbling woman whose defined by exactly two traits: 1) she's a woman of color, and 2) she loves the boring, unfunny show the story is about.
What's particularly egregious about this movie is how dumb it is with its politics. It REALLY wants to make a point about diversity and the domination of white men, and it does so with the subtlety of a Buzzfeed top ten list. It's just awful.
Fun little show that doesn't overstay its welcome. It started REALLY strong, but it meandered more as the seasons went on.
My major negative comment on this show is how Sharon and Rob experience conflict... I didn't expect the show to be all love and butterflies, but Sharon and Rob have a way to fight that's just mean and cringe-inducing. I think it's because, often, the conflict stems from them getting irrationally angry at each other and saying overly mean things. The result is that the two mean characters act shitty to each other for a while, severely diminishing the fun of the series. Also, as the show progresses, Sharon gets more and more self-centered and cringey, which I did not enjoy.
Other than that, though, it's a hilarious good time. Carrie Fisher in particular is just great whenever she's on screen.
This was more of the same compared to season one, which is to say, it was fantastic. I was briefly puzzled that we were going back to Tatooine, but honestly, they use this setting in such a compelling manner than I don't mind at all. It jives perfectly with the Spaghetti Western vibe they're going for.
Big kudos for the giant monster fun in this one. It's an aspect of the original Star Wars trilogy that modern SW content often overlooks, and it was done really well here.
Excited for the rest of the season!
I rewatched this in 2020 as I gear up for a BSG rewatch, and I gotta say, it held up nicely. It's not groundbreaking in any sense, and I wouldn't call it essential viewing for BSG fans... But it's a nice SF action adventure with some cool moments. Not as good as BSG itself, but it doesn't diminish anything about BSG, contrary to Caprica...
Season 2 of Casa de papel is a textbook example of what happens when a show gets too popular for its own good. Gone is the careful balancing act of season 1, where we empathized with both the robbers and the hostages; instead, the robbers are now international superstars who are taking the fight to The Man.
The writing has taken a nosedive, and the show now feels like poor fanfiction. Just watch season 1 and leave it at that. You'll be better for it.
