This is an honest, spoiler-free review coming from your average fan (not a critic):
I just saw this new marvel film, and I have to say... it's no where near as bad as the critics make it out to be.
Yes there is a lot of dialogue. But it gives the characters a chance to shine and for scenes to breathe.
People call this film dense. I would disagree. Yes there is a fair bit of plot and history told, however I would say that other mcu films have simply much simpler plotlines most of the time.
There are moments when things are just about to become exciting, and then it is interrupted with more dialogue which instantly kills the suspension.
There are a number of plot twists in this film, and some unexpected things happen that I wouldn't have seen coming.
This film has a slow burn, but sometimes that's a good thing. Would I have liked more action? Yes. Was I unhappy with the action we do get? No.
I will admit, going into this film I was expecting a masterpiece, and while I wouldn't quite call it that, its definitely a well-made film, marvel or not.
Oh. And expect to have to do some reading at the very beginning. Kinda reminds me of a classic Star Wars opening crawl.
i think some people might be missing the point. yeah they they didn't end up flying off together happily ever after, but they did both get what they both needed.
Dom is last seen sitting in the plane, passed out. this is important because earlier it stresses the point that she has basically not had any kind of meaningful sleep or rest in like 5 years. this is her finally feeling some level of peace, and being in a place where she is not afraid of the worst and able to fall asleep peacefully.
Darlene has been so co-dependent it is crippling to her when she is forced to be alone. she runs off and has a panic attack in the bathroom, but wills herself to accept that she can be ok on her own and this serves as a turning point in her growth and ability to move on and be ok whether she is alone or not. she needs to be able to be alone before she can be with someone.
edit 12/11:
also forgot to point out what i believe to be an intentional play against the stereotypical scene in which the two would have united at the last moment, with a catchy pop song to go along with it by an artist who has been arguably borrowing from the 80s in a large portion of her catalog. and from what i can recall, but i could be wrong, the fact that you hear little to no current pop music as a part of the soundtrack in any way remotely similar to how it is used in this scene, serves to support the intended play against such cliches in other films/shows.
What's with all the hate towards the doctor throughout the series? It was first thought that he's been using Jessica's mom to kill people, but it turned out to be completely untrue and related to her own anger issues. He saved the lives of Jessica and her mom, then made huge progress on making her mom look normal again. He appeared to be genuinely in love with the mom. He cared for her despite her history of murder and violence, and he sedated her so she wouldn't keep attacking people. More often, he just talked to her and it calmed her down.
The real villain was Trish. She held the doctor at gunpoint, attacked Jessica's sidekick, completely disregarded Jessica's and her mom's plans to help the doctor, all just so she could be as strong as Jessica. She was completely out of her mind, simply because of her jealousy. It wasn't a sudden rush that could be explained by drug withdrawal.
What does Jessica do about it all? She blames the doctor and sees Trish as the victim. No wonder he cracked under the pressure and killed himself. He didn't deserve it. Trish would have, and it will be a total mess if Jessica starts bonding with her again in later episodes.
Well, I just finished the series. What do I think?
WandaVision began with a solid start. The whole sitcom format was always engaging, as it paid homage to a genre and era of television I haven't experienced. With these first few episodes, the mystery that follows each strange happening was interesting and had me excited to see the next episode. I wanted to see Wanda deal with her grief and come to terms with her reality.
Darcy Lewis, Jimmy Woo, and Monica Rambeau appeared, and I have to say the show lost some of my interest. Seeing Monica reappear in a post-snap world was exciting, and Jimmy Woo and Darcy Lewis were entertaining as hell! I was still curious about what was going to happen next, but I was a little weary.
Then the last few episodes rolled around. Monica Rambeau suddenly gets powers (for no reason?), Agatha pretends she's all-knowing by spewing exposition, and the show drops Quick Silver, Rambeau, Woo and Darcy to give Wanda and her family more screen time.
Finally, the last episode disappoints. I was so bored watching CGI fights that have no substance underneath them. Vision talking to the other Vision was cool and probably the best thing in the last three episodes. But then we go back to Wanda. She figures out that she's torturing people and finally lets go of her fake reality. But not because she's learnt to deal with her grief but because... uh... I don't know.
She lets go of her fake reality, and this happens,
Monica Rambeau: "They'll never know what you sacrificed for them."
Wanda Maximoff: "I wouldn't change how they see me."
But she sacrificed nothing; she was holding these people hostage, torturing them; she gave up a fantasy for them. Way to go, Wanda! Afterwards, she runs off to a cabin and doesn't have to face any consequences for her villainous actions. Yay!
So I guess the show is about how we're all destined to do terrible things and get away with it?
Overall, WandaVision is a fun time. Although the sitcom stuff had me weary, I preferred it to the answers we got in the last few episodes. Sometimes, the mystery is better than the answer.
TECHNICAL SCORE: 6/10
ENJOYMENT SCORE: 5.5/10
5 September 2019 - I really try to give a series a chance to prove itself, but I'm abandoning 13 REASONS WHY after S3 E4. It is scrapping the barrel of all things potentially hurtful, damaging and downright dangerous in teen living. The prescriptive warnings by the cast to seek help if you are in the situations depicted in their drama do not excuse the series reinjuring those in peril for the sake of further episodes/seasons. This series no longer has a cathartic benefit. I will no longer be watching it (despite a new bright light in the cast). As I prophetically wrote in 2017 - This series has sucked the life out of its premise. I leave the series with a rating of 5 (meh) out of 10. [Teenage Drama].
I've left the previous reviews here so you can see how it fell out of my favour.
3 April 2017 - I'm just three episodes deep into this Netfilx series and I'm enjoying the characters and the suspense. This is a good premise, the acting is strong, and I can't wait to find out what happened, as we see the story from the varying points of view. Looking good - so I'm giving it a preliminary 8 (great) out of 10.
8 April 2017 - I'm sorry to say that the series didn't live up to the premise. I think it was meant to be a cautionary tale, but the writing was uneven, the characters' emotional arches poorly drawn, and some episodes were just a downright mess. The acting was good because the casting was strong. Even though the scripts were disappointing the series will resonate with those who have been shamed, bullied, emotionally or physically abused. Unfortunately, these are now adolescent realities, so people will see their experiences reflected here. But the writers sewed these components together poorly, interrupting the build of suspense, artificially inflating the emotional environment which in turn compromised the trueness of the characters and leaving the audience disappointed, or in some cases, lost (I almost quit after the very poor episode - S1 E7) and a general degradation of the quality of the series). Although there were some 7 (good) episodes, there were also 6s (fair) and even 4 (poor), so I'm giving the whole series a 5.5 (failed potential) out of 10. I'd love to see these performers again, but the series has sucked the life out of it's premise.
I don't care about the battle for Rick's soul. I just don't anymore. Rick's been good. He's been bad. He's been crazy. He's been sane. He's been all too trusting and all too vicious. Sure, in better hands, there would still be places to take the character, but right now it seems like The Walking Dead has exhausted the possibilities with Rick.
So what we have is a slight rehash of the Ricktatorship that began at the end of Season 2 of the show. Rick trusts his people, and dismisses the Alexandrians. In case you miss the subtlety of that, the episode hammers it home with Mischonne questioning Rick making plans without the help of the folks outside their group and Rick brushes her off, while making it explicit later in the episode when he tells Tara not to risk her life for one of "them."
And of course he gets pushback from Mischonne, from Morgan, from Tara, in addition to little reminders from Deanna and the guy who helps him put up the brace that even if the Alexandrians are still a bit green and naive, they're hopeful, helpful, and willing to learn. The obvious trajectory is that at some point, like the literal walls around their compound, the walls Rick has erected around himself and his ground will come tumbling down, and he will accept that the locals are worthy of his trust and acceptance. But I just can't be bothered to care about it. We've seen him do this dance a dozen times over the course of six seasons, and there's just not enough shades to Rick or Andrew Lincoln's performance to make this go-around stand out.
And hey, Glenn is alive! And just in time to have a tedious discussion about what they're living for with Enid! His survival is a complete and total cheat, that doesn't match up with anything we know about the zombie hordes in this behave. But you know what? It doesn't really bother me. This show has always been remarkably inconsistent with how the walkers function, and has used more than a few narrative loopholes to handwave the survival of important characters. At this point in the series, you're either on board with it or you're not. I'd be lying if I said I liked that tack, but that's what the show is, and I've come to accept it.
What I struggle with more are the endless, repetitive, never-ending conversations between characters about what use there is living in this shattered civilization. Sure, Enid's feelings are completely justified and motivated by what she's been through, but just like Rick, we've seen distraught and fatalistic characters so many times that just having those same sentiments come from a young girl without anything to distinguish them doesn't render them new or different. It just makes them a dull rehash with a new, preteen coat of paint.
Thankfully there's Lennie James as Morgan to raise the quality of the episode with the quality of his acting alone. Morgan joins other characters like Mischonne and Carol as being able to convey a conflicted and compelling inner life even when the characters aren't vocalizing their thoughts, or worse yet, are having to spit out the show's frequently clunky dialogue. Lennie James portrays Morgan's inner turmoil so convincingly--a man caught between the philosophy that saved him from madness and the necessities of the moment--that it elevates any episode he's in.
By the same token, Carol has less to do, but her brief conversation with Jesse's son Sam was also quietly revealing of Carol's own concerns about whether she's turned into a monster, whether she's hewed too far toward hardness she embraced after the deaths of her husband and daughter, of what she believes is required to survive in the new world. It's a character beat the show touched on in "JSS", and Melissa McBride does a great job at selling both Carol's steely determination and her silent self-questioning.
Then there's Ron, who has been very blatantly set up by the show to be seeking revenge against Rick and Carl, and the show all but attaches a flashing neon sign to that effect in this episode. I don't particularly care for Ron. The kid has Dawson's Creek-level acting skills and his storyline is a little too written-on-the-screen for my tastes.
But it does have one interesting angle to it. The Grimes boys almost have it coming. I'm not saying they deserve to be shot or killed or anything, but Carl acts like a superior prick during the shooting lesson, whether he means to or not, and Jesse was right when she told Rick that it's overstepping his bounds to take a paternal role with Ron after he killed Ron's father, whether or not Rick means well or Ron's dad deserved it. If there's one interesting new place the show could take with Rick, it would be to make him an out-and-out villain, but this is, sadly, the closest we're likely to get.
The episode touches on other stories here and there. Rosita goes drill sergeant on Eugene at the Alexandria machete class in a scene that was fairly cliche but at least dovetailed with the episode's theme of why we live and why we fight. Father Gabriel's cold war with Rick continues, and is sure to come to some kind of head--perhaps as the focal point of RIck's inevitable turn to learning to trust others (including the Alexandrians) again--but for now just sits in the background. Denise is growing in confidence in her medical practice, and the feint toward her helping Morgan with her skills as a therapist has promise. And Maggie stands vigil for Glenn, just in time for the lead into the next episode.
But this is a scattershot episode of The Walking Dead. It's squarely average for what this show is in its sixth season. There's still a bit of the bad, a bit of the good, and a lot of the middling and repetitive. It's a slower, workmanlike episode, with the only major fireworks being Spencer's little jaunt. It didn't give us much insight into the character, but instead circled around the theme of finding a reason to live and finding the people to do it with. Unfortunately, those are themes the show has hit more than a few times over the years, and it doesn't have much more to say at this point.
[5.6/10] What a pile of mush. These overlong premieres and finales are so often a chore. The Walking Dead regularly struggles with pacing and structure, so giving it extra real estate may make sense for selling time to advertisers, but does not work from a creative standpoint.
So let’s talk about the themes, heavy-handed though they may be, since they’re one of the few quasi-positives in this one. I like the idea of folks like Aaron wondering whether they are building something that lasts, or something that will be washed away by the sands of time. You get that idea in Aaron talking to his daughter, in Judith writing down the events of the community, and even in our heroes visiting the library and seeing the stores of human knowledge.
That’s the broader philosophical conflict between our heroes and The Whisperers. The Whisperers think that nature is retaking civilization, and that giving into the dead is the only way to survive and persist in the new order. Erase your identity. Embrace nothingness. That’s the Whisperer way. But our heroes are aiming for the exact opposite, to build something that can last, to hold onto the scraps of civilization leftover and create a society and a people that will be the first chapter of a much larger story.
Sure, this is The Walking Dead so that’s dramatized with hamfisted monoglues, but still! It’s an interesting idea and one the show hasn’t really explored yet.
The same can’t be said for the “should we trust outsiders or treat them with suspicion?” routine. Dante’s betrayal understandably leaves people out of sorts, wondering how someone who’s been working against them could have lived among them and befriended them and become a part of their community for months and months. The montage at the beginning of the episode does a nice job at explaining the how, but the characters still have to grapple with the why and what it means.
Unfortunately, it leads to the same old “do we close ranks and protect our own, or do we live up to our principles?” debate that the show has been having since, well, at least The Governor arc back in season 3, and arguably from the very beginning. We definitely did it with The Saviors, and I gotta say that I’m just sick of it. You can only peel that apple so many ways, and we’re hitting seeds and core at this point.
We get it. The state of nature means it’s hard to trust people, especially when resources are scarce and there’s conflict. But good lord, we’ve just done this so many times, in so many ways, that the show doesn't really have any new take on it.
What follows makes very little sense. The Dante reveal is an interesting twist less because of the shocking “he was a bad guy the whole time!” pulling of the rug out from under the audience, but more because having a prisoner who betrayed you but could also be useful and maybe even have stockholm syndrome is an interesting place to take the narrative. Of course, TWD squelches that immediately by having Gabriel kill him in a heretofore unseen rage, one that is, I guess, supposed to be motivated by his own sense of being overwhelmed and guilt at being a bad judge of character.
Mind you, that’s preceded by the weirdest, most tin-eared couples argument the show’s had in a while, which is saying something. Rosita and Gabriel don’t feel like a real couple. They don’t feel like real people. They just feel like thin cardboard stand-ins for vague, unformed ideas. Rosita is worried about the safety of herself, for her daughter’s sake, which is something. But the dialogue is so rough that it comes out jumbled and frankly, bizarre. And we’re back on the Eugene love triangle thing, which, good lord, was always kind of a misstep and feels even hinkier now.
Oh yeah, and Siddiq’s dead, which surprised me a little. I figured that Dante had a legitimate attachment to Siddiq (which the show seems to confirm), and so he would only sleeper hold him rather than suffocate him. But there goes another character who had a little extra spark to him. We have a funeral and mournful words, but it ultimately left me cold, with how much other nonsense was packed into this one.
Speaking of which, we have Aaron getting info on where the horde is from Gamma, only to lead a coalition of the willing into one of Alpha’s traps. The scene between Daryl and Carol is heartfelt and good (as most are between those two) and the visual of them surrounded by Walker hands is a cool one. But man, they all seem like idiots for falling for the trap, and the whole thing comes off as contrived.
Last but not least, we see Michonne interrogating a man named Virgil who saved Luke and got caught poking around the Oceanside camp. Danai Gurira continues to make heartbreaking monologues out of poorly written lines, but this is the storyline that succumbs the most to the show’s endless retreads of “security vs. mercy” moral debates. The arrival of someone who might be able to give them a bomb sufficient to destroy Alpha’s horde is super convenient, but at least it leads to a few good scenes with her and Virgil. (And there’s some particularly adorable scenes with Luke and Judith before the shit hits the fan as well.)
But on the whole, this is one that spends a lot of runtime to have the same sort of overextended conversations the show has during regular episodes, and with less focus and coherence. The least TWD could do if it’s not going to be good is not overstay its welcome. Trying to pack so much in like this adds more pacing problems, and despite the odd cliffhangers we get here, does little too excite me about whatever’s in store for the back half of the season.
The Five Emojis of X2
:heart_eyes:
Amazing opening sequence, introducing us to one of the more interesting mutants from the comics, Nightcrawler.
With the base set in the previous film, Bryan Singer puts focus on developing characters further and fleshing out the world, while keeping everything interesting by adding new elements, of which the greatest one is the magnificent Alan Cumming as Nightcrawler.
The visuals have been hugely improved from the first film and still look really good.
X2 is a funnier and more exciting film, with higher stakes and a faster tempo.
This film some of the finest scenes in the franchise, such as the opening scene, the assault on Xavier's and the visit to Bobby's parents.
All the regulars are still amazing and we get a lot more beautiful Wolverine action.
Bigger, bolder and more natural action scenes really help make this sequel worth a watch.
Great to see humanity, lead by the tragic Stryker (expertly portrayed by Brian Cox) as the main villain of the film, since that deepens the main theme of the franchise.
The other villains are also more compelling compared to the first one.
Amazing score adds just the right tone to the more intense scenes.
Feels a whole lot more like an X-Men team-up film, with the script allowing the characters to complement each other.
That whole final act by the lake is dragged out but very well-paced, creating one of the stronger finales in the genre.
Incredibly powerful ending.
Hits the right emotional notes by being funny, touching and exciting.
:smiley:
Anna Paquin feels a lot more comfortable and natural as Rogue this time around.
Significantly better paced and divided between the school stuff and the X-Men stuff.
Bobby Drake and Pyro are given bigger roles and complete the cast in smaller roles.
Cool to see the uneasy alliance between Magneto and the X-Men as well as the build-up to the the third film.
:neutral_face:
The film kind of forgets about Storm, Cyclops and Jean for large parts.
Mystique still isn't particularly interesting.
Nightcrawler is sadly undetutilized.
:frowning2:
:face_vomiting:
The Final Emoji: :heart_eyes:
