Sound people that don't care about consistent sounds or room feel didn't help, but the biggest problem is the lack of a beginning to end story. It feels like one story to the middle and then another when the 'secret' monster finally shows up. Nobody's surprised about what the cause of the ailment is. Nobody.
Tagline for the film: "We'll fix it in post."
They lied.
The most likeable character is a ruthless killing machine. A robot. Most of the human characters are shallow, one dimensional automatons that don't amount to much.
There's a Han Solo wannabe, there's the rich girl he can't have, and the rebellious girl who obviously is just hiding her spontaneous love for him. There's also Asian Matrix-Era Carrie-Anne Moss who, like much in the film, is blatantly foreshadowed. Then there's a handful of people not to get attached to.
Some fun scenery and lovely bits of design, but it's a mostly empty world with mostly empty characters. Pretty, forgettable.
I only recently learned of Audrey Hepburn's involvement in the Dutch war resistance, which reminded me that I've seen so few of her films. I've been correcting this mistake, and I was honestly quite surprised by this film. I'm quite happy with how it ended, especially as any other end would have seen Bradley's machinations be rewarded - either financially or by winning the girl. It's aged much better throughout than, say, Breakfast at Tiffany's.
Everyone in the film seems to talk in a rapid fire, stilted emotionless monotone. Almost like this is supposed to be film noir or a poorly dubbed foreign film. Maybe all the characters are loaded with horse tranquilizers.
There's a lot of strange expositional dialogue, such as when Sarah 1.0 is talking to her lawyer.
"I suggest taking personal combat training lessons from a personal combat trainer. ALSO we should discuss my rates."
I'm unconvinced this is a comedy, a thriller, or even much of a drama.
This could have been a Creepshow episode. Bizarre, cartoony, over the top. All while never looking like it's trying too hard to be serious. There's nothing "serious" here (other than Will's serious love for the Prog), and it's all the better for it.
Good silly fun.
The girl playing Kayo nails her part during the birthday scene. Her combination of awe and gratitude at her friends' generosity is devastating.
Interesting first and second act, then it kind of forgot where it was going and flopped around before dying about 10 minutes before the credits rolled. An "A" for effort, and a "C+" for delivery.
"It was a tragedy. I mean, we lost 19 of our best guys."
Nanjiani can be hit or miss, but he's pretty much at the top of his game here.
I love watching films like this where I haven't read a review or synopsis for it, and I was basically hit by the brick of the Big Sick. I'd assumed it was a metaphorical sickness in the title.
Then, I get to the end and SHUT THE FUCK UP, THERE'S A REAL EMILY? Excellent script. Well done film, fantastic performances.
I hated Krypton stories in the comics. Hated. I was afraid of even looking at this series for fear it was like the first half hour of the 1978 Superman Movie that faithfully represented the snoozefest of Krypton stories in my mind.
This is better. Much better. My attention is theirs to lose.
Getting my eye-rolling exercise in tonight. The opening narration wasn't a good sign, and nothing helped improve it. I swear the message said the ships we're leacing in four days, and there's near zero effort to get moving.
I'm more motivated when I'm taking a train that i know will be along an hour later.
Well, that was a film. I won't remember a bit of it 24 hours from now. It feels under-produced and low budget. The script is needlessly back and forth about who the villains are. It's not suspenseful - it's annoying. There's also an unnecessary sub-plot about Sam's personal life.
Feels like 2:30, but only 1:35. A waste of good actors.
I bet there's a TV pilot hiding in there if a good editor got access to the footage.
There's a core of a decent film here, but it's poorly implemented.
The sound mix annoys the hell out of me. Good sound quality, everything's fine and the REALLY LOUD alerts and high pitched sounds that serve no purpose. That's not that unusual with action films mixed for the theatre, but this is a Netflix film.
The camera movements though, are way worse. 90 degree rotations that really don't serve any purpose. I get that they're trying to be disorienting, but they're just breaking the film experience for me.
That's nothing to compare with the glaring product placements of Starbucks and Tesla and Friends. FRIENDS?
Then there's the ending.
LOST had a better ending than this shit.
Fuck everyone involved in this.
"Don't worry that the world is ending. You've got sitcoms."
Oh, fuck off.
It's a mess of a naive masturbatory rock fantasy played out by a whole bunch of shitty actors and Malcolm McDowell.
I have to admit I was surprised. The delivery of the back story was painful, but once we got to the 21st Century, it was much better.
I typically like mindless teen comedies, but this one's so very bad. I wanted all the characters to burn.
I love the Carmelita mini-dance numbers
AHEM!
The sun has come up!
The day has begun!
Watching you flunk will be so much fun because you're orphans and you're probably dumb!
Predictable as hell, but yet, I love it despite that.
The personal assistant characters are solid and work well together. The bosses are horrible caricatures, but they even have their moments.
Some really funny bits are worked in that don't feel like they take away from the story of the main characters.
I do like that it doesn't treat the flat earth bunch as psychos or make fun of them, but there's lots of jaw dropping weird in there provided handily by the subjects.
I'm a sucker for a good impromptu musical number, and there are a couple here. I like that it's a self-aware romantic comedy that doesn't subvert the rules of the rom-com but revels in them.
I won't remember a bit of this in six months. The acting is overall quite good, but the story-line is... boring? That's not quite fair. It's just uninspiring.
"Hey, what's wrong, baby?"
I'm a little surprised how well this holds up. Some great side characters throughout.
Outside of the obvious problem with Axel being a bad cop, and screwing up any case the prosecutor might want to bring.
It was alright for what it was. Which was "a bunch of misfits save the world against all expectations." It felt like a TV pilot, thoug, with characters introduced that really didn't add anything to the story but who might be useful in future episodes.
Poor Igor, though. What a horrible birthday.
The "girl fight" was pointless, as was the surprise reveal that the "bad girl" had a past with one of the team.
I was able to suspend disbelief about the tech things until the final bit where the USB drive falls and is "destroyed" by losing its metal shielding. That, however was a minor annoyance compared to the "let's just hook up these CAT 5 cables across the room for... reasons...
I enjoyed it for the content - not so much the film making. The interviews aren't remarkable and the editing could make the film more concise. Five to ten minutes of the film makers driving? Yeah.
Still, big fan of the story hiding in the narrative, though likely due mostly to the nostalgia.
The supporting cast is horrible. Annie, Dan, Schrift, their Elon Musk... All either poorly written or poorly acted. Annie couldn't have been much more wooden and unconnected to everything around her. Over all, fair, for a Marvel film.
Sounds like Netflix has the option on a 10 episode series 2 follow-up, but nothing concrete.
Didn't really think about it until this re-watch... Dumbledore pretty much set Malfoy up to be Potter's enemy at the end by yanking the house cup away from Slytherin, no?
"Slytherin is in first place by a whole bunch, but here, let me give Gryffindor exactly enough points to bring them from last to first."
Bit of a dick move.
