That guy took so many falls. Too many, in my opinion.
Bullet Train was better but this is still good.
Big letdown. If the magic is all CGI, it doesn't feel like magic anymore.
There are some really entertaining sequences in this movie though. Not a bad movie to play in the background or dip in and out of.
Nice worldbuilding, but I still don't know where those dolphins went
This movie answers the age-old question "what if we mashed up The Finals, The Hunger Games, and John Wick?"
While the majority of the episode was great, the ending is kinda wack. Fun twist in theory but there's no way it took her taking her wig off for Jessica to realize that she was her mom lol
Not great, but certainly fun and watchable, and the hilarious final joke is better writing than you'll find in a lot of Hollywood comedies today. I'd love to see a sequel with better fight choreography.
in a sentence, Rick & Morty did it better. This movie certainly isn't bad, I think it's good, but this movie feels like it ripped some of the most interesting multiverse concepts from Rick & Morty and applied them in some of the least interesting ways. Jonathan Majors certainly steals the show here as who I'll call "Loser Kang", but beneath his stellar performance is a film stretched thin: a superhero film with a science fiction plot that's trying so hard to be faithful to each genre that it almost doesn't succeed at both and fails to make the world feel alive in the process.
Without getting into spoilers, there's talk of fighting over timelines without too much explanation beyond "Kang wants to conquer", which makes the idea of alternate versions of him doing certain things with certain people not make much sense at all. Janet's backstory is really compelling, until you realize that it's somewhat hollow because her allies, enemies and even the society for which she fought seems entirely one-dimensional; her friends are good, her enemies are bad, the society must be saved. There's no room for nuance here amongst anyone or any civilization within the Quantum Realm, and much like the first Thor movie, we don't get an idea on what life is really like for the citizens in this society either. And don't get me started on Scott warming up to a certain character near the end, despite his defining trait in this movie being his love for his daughter.
All of that said, there's plenty to like in this movie. I do think that the CGI really worked here, and unlike what I had heard from reviews, Cassie isn't terribly annoying. Sure, she's dumb, headstrong and naive, but that's completely appropriate given her age and experience. So while I may not agree with her ethics on how many fights a hero needs to take on, they would certainly make sense from her perspective. Also, some of the sci fi depictions were visually great. I haven't seen alien races this diverse and well designed since Star Wars, and the Quantum Storm I think is the one idea from Rick & Morty that's absolute worth seeing in live action as opposed to 2D animation.
The worst part of the movie is the ending. Ironically, it feels like the writers cough cough ran out of time. The ant subplot feels contrived for the mere sake of convenience, since it's hinted at towards the end of the first act and then ignored in the middle, only to be brought back in the third act, and there are some really odd lines in the third act that are incredibly cheesy and just feel plain out of place amongst the rest of the dialogue. It's also not clear why Kang confronted Ant Man & Co. in the way that he did, since he probably could have won with 45 minutes to spare in the film. Still, I'm presuming that this movie is supposed to show us a tamer version of Kang, so it does get a pass from me on that point.
In the end, if you don't like the more lore-rich stories from Rick & Morty, you won't like this. It's a sci fi superhero film that doesn't know whether or not it should lean into the sci fi aspects, or the superhero aspects at any given time, which is understandable; lean into the sci fi which could show us some of the nuances of the Quantum Realm's inhabitants, and you miss out on some superhero action, but lean too far into the superhero aspect and this becomes a completely boring and bland expedition.
What we get in the end is a bit of both, and while the mixture is a mild case of mixing flavors that don't really go together particularly well, we're left with a potion that goes down well enough.
The movie is pretty good, if slightly overrated. There are some pacing issues in the first half that make it feel 30 to 40 minutes longer than it is, but the only way it'll knock your socks off is emotionally, because of the heaviness of the subject matter. There are no Qanon conspiracy theories or any craziness like that in the film itself, just a fine (if somewhat embellished/compiled) story about rescuing children from sex trafficking. Both the acting and cinematography are impressive, which exceeded my expectations because both are better than in The Chosen, Angel Studios' other major project, which has even higher ratings and reviews.
This is certainly a heavy watch for obvious reasons, so this isn't gonna be the film you're gonna wanna rewatch too soon after seeing it the first time, but it'll probably stick with you more than anything else you see in theaters this year.
This was by far the best episode, between finally moving the plot forward after last week's standstill outing, some satisfying action sequences, and a rather surprising and entertaining plot twist when it comes to what's going down with Gravik and his crew. We also finally get that killer Fury that we've been waiting for by the end, I think, which is what we've been wanting this whole time.
The writing improved a bit here, and we get a pretty personal story on Zeb's behalf as well. There also was a pleasant change of setting that gave us some rather vibrant colors, which was much appreciated.
The writing is pretty corny and a lot of the voice acting fails to make those lines work. The worst thing about a lot of the lines is they have a level of earnestness that felt entirely unearned. Still, the plot and story are pretty interesting, so this episode does make for some entertaining viewing nonetheless.
The writing hasn't improved, but the plot is pretty interesting, and there's some solid (if clunkily written) character development here as well.
Also, these Wookies are freaking ugly, I'm sorry. How do you get Wookies wrong?
I was blown away far before the end of this film. The action scenes were top notch, and the suspenseful scenes certainly have you grasping the edge of your seat as intended. One thing that makes this film really shine though is it's unabashed utilization of a true ensemble cast; no longer do you have "the good guy team" vs. a bunch of random extras, and maybe one new ally, but some gray characters who you never know which side they'll end up on, and with the (arguably) doubled amount of guest characters, it, along with the story, makes this film seem ever bigger than the previous installment. The story pacing here definitely deserves some praise too, since even though this is a "part one", this doesn't feel like a single story that's been chopped in half, but rather one story that will very naturally flow into a new, strongly related adventure.
This show continues to up the ante episode by episode, this time here with some new boldness from Joe, as well as some new allies, that are giving the series a newfound feeling that Joe is beginning to make some true progress in his pursuit of the truth. Like the last episode, we also get an outstanding plot twist at the end that feels deserved while still maintaining 100% of the intended shock value.
This episode is fantastic! The series brings its usual tonal quality, but the plot continues to thicken and get more complex with some unexpected twists that never feel contrived or unearned.
I'm definitely enjoying this story! It's fun to see Nick be a little bit more of a leader in this episode than in the previous one, although this still feels more like "two old men come out of retirement" and less like "two world class spies are ready to kick butts". There's a character death and some extremely nuanced acting here from Emilia Clarke and Kingsley Ben-Adir, but the other actors show out here too.
There doesn't seem to be enough runtime left for me to get exactly what I want out of this, but it's by no means bad.
This is fantastic! The plot continues to thicken, and I'm excited to see where everything leads. While we don't know exactly what's going on here, I do like how the scale of what's being kept under wraps keeps growing into something bigger than anyone would have guessed from the first episode alone.
Certainly a step up from the first episode, as we get more Superman origin story stuff, told in a way that we're generally not used to seeing on the small screen, as well as some fun ambiguity and mystique surrounding the potential antagonists! We don't learn tons of new information, but we now know which questions are of interest moving forward.
This show has some heart! It has all the old trappings of quality modern superhero animation, reminding me of an era where Disney XD made great Marvel cartoons, but with the trappings and artistry of anime. We get some extremely high quality animated sequences here that most American animation does have m, and the music is quite exquisite and tasteful. Unfortunately, the story doesn't do much beyond telling a standard story, but perhaps that will change as things go along.
This outing proves decisively that Marvel now knows how to make a television episode. With Disney's previous attempt at an action-spy-fight-the-terrorist series plagued by oddly unevenly paced episodes, it's refreshing to see episodes here that have natural cliffhanger endings to wrap up the runtime.
The reveals were pretty good here, they do a good job to give us just enough to keep us tantalized by leaving enough questions unanswered that we're waiting for more. For something in this genre, I would prefer to have some more action, and this episode doesn't give us much of that beyond a torture scene, but it's a setup episode. Given that we're shy of the halfway mark as of yet, a lack of action at this point can be forgiven, to some degree at least.
This was a great way to end the season. We got to see some more maturity from Jazz and Will here in particular, and it was also great to see Hilary learn that maybe there's more to life than making other people jealous. The premise itself made for some funny moments too, and while I'd be lying if I said Queen Latifah's acting was impressive here, she fills out her role well enough and made me laugh at a few people as well.
This is some dang good television. We're getting some more personal threads serving as leads into Joe's psyche, done in a subtle but firm way that reminds me of how they planted early hints of psychological themes in Mr. Robot. There are also some subtle screenwriting details that bring some extra life into the episode, and the acting as well as the directing also help this episode feel like some premiere television, even if few recognize this series as such.
Great start to the series! Not quite a perfect home run, but decently gripping and a fair attempt at meshing the Marvel universe with the stock genre of anti-terrorism thriller. Unlike Falcon & The Winter Soldier, we get no uneven story beats here, nor do we get any rushed plots, as one of the most pleasant surprises of this episode is that it runs for a healthy 55 minutes. The cinematography isn't anything new, but has some bright moments to be sure, pretty much mirroring the tone of the show in its darkness and gravity.
If the last episode gave us exposition of the people of the town, this episode shows us what the system is like, with Joe butting heads with various figureheads amongst the town as his by-the-book approach to crime clashes against the lackadaisical, devil-may-care approach taken by local law enforcement. We also get some great utilization of jump cuts, as we get more and more into the head of Joe in the form of some well-placed flashbacks.
Despite suffering from a bit of "too many endings" syndrome, we get enough closure to get a satisfying end to this season's character arcs, yet a shocking twist ending that leaves us with some questions that are sure to be answered in the following season.
The plot is pretty paint by the numbers, but it's also well executed. The acting especially felt quite eager and genuine.
This was absolutely hilarious! There's actually some smart subtext in the writing about how changing your appearances and mannerisms doesn't change who you are as a human being. This season really does seem to be on a trajectory to end on a fairly high note!
This was a pretty fun episode! It seemed a bit light on the jokes, and Hilary seemed unusually and unnecessarily annoying in this episode, but I was somewhat surprised by the ending, which led to a rather heartfelt moment between Will and Phil.
This was pretty good. There's not a ton to write home about, but it's very very entertaining. The acting, while at times wooden, is largely strong and appropriate, and flashbacks are tactfully used to show us who the main character is as a person. The end seems a bit nefarious in an obtuse way, but this doesn't make it any less enjoyable.
Easily one of the best superhero movies ever made. Both the drama and action/superhero sides to the story were handled well, and the writers also skillfully sketched the supporting cast in a way that allowed the world to feel quite full and alive. The emotional beats are strong but the catalysts are so well crafted that they don't feel overwrought, as they may well have been.
My primary issue with the ending is that it doesn't; it ends in a very abrupt, Dune-esque way. This doesn't make it bad, and it still works as a singular price of art because one could easily guess what happens next, but I wish it ended on a more satisfying note.
This episode wasn't necessarily bad, but it was a disappointment. The terrorist attack is finally foiled once and for all, but this happens about ten minutes into the episode. This forces the rest of the finale to linger on various domestic affairs. While not boring, these plots simultaneously slowed the finale down and rushed underdeveloped plot points, especially Jack's perspective regarding death. This is an issue that faced 24: Legacy S01, and people didn't take kindly to that ending either.
