The battles aren't the best, but it still looks good choreographically. Except a few scenes (Puck around the tower and Nina with Casca), no one blurts out speech anymore. SFX gets better. Generally consistent with eps 7, which was also a good episode. Significant improvement from episode 1-6 indeed!
Finally a decent episode of the anime. The plot flows naturally, the pace is enjoyable (not rushed like previous episodes), and the characters finally speak like they are actually having conversation (not like a speech competition).
This episode only makes much more sense if you've read the manga. It cuts a lot of things and compressed a number of subplots into shallow scenes. You know this happened and that happened, but you can't really understand why it happened and what is its relevance.
I really want to love this movie, but it's really a jumbled mess with little to no plot at all.
I mean, it's obvious that it follows the ordinary formula: there's a world-threatening supervillain and we're gonna take them down. But the line connecting the scenes to make a whole coherent story does not seem to exist at all. Even the characters don't seem to realize that they're facing a bigger threat--though they seem to resolve it quickly.
The movie reeks with flashbacks, and a lot of them don't really serve any real purpose aside from showing the character's past. There are several scenes which intents to make the audience relate to the character, but it's depicted so abruptly that it doesn't seem to matter. Also there are a lot of subplots that don't tie the story at all and can be conveniently removed, i.e. the Joker (Jared Leto) and Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) subplots. Seriously, it's really distracting to the point of disturbing the movie flow.
Deadshot (Will Smith) and Harley Quinn takes most of the screen time, which is okay-ish actually, but some scenes just don't give much useful narrative to the audience. Like both characters' introduction and the way they ended up in prison, it actually makes them look pretty dumb (how come they got caught that easily?). A number of scenes just come out of nowhere, like the scenes where they're drinking in the bar.
The jokes here actually fits well, however. It's not distracting to the point of annoying like Avengers (both movies).
As for the characters, aside from Katana (Karen Fukuhara) who keeps on blabbering in Japanese (which no one understands), the character designs are actually unique. I like the gangster-ish touch to Joker and Harley, and the rascal dipshit look of Captain Boomerang (Jai Courtney). The acting is also great, mostly. However they're not memorable characters: just flashy costumes with shallow depth.
Seriously, this movie unfortunately does not live up to the hype. Especially when I'm really wishing this can make DC Universe stands strong..
Under-rated thriller movie. The first half of the movie is intense, as we are brought into confusion as much as Beth (Radha Mitchell) experiences throughout the film. The movie spray a little hint here and there, but it's not obviously clear who is who until the second half of the movie.
This second half though, while still maintaining the intensity, have some scenes which don't really make sense. Like the scenes with the cops and villain, and the final scene where Beth face the villain (when somehow she became suicidal). When better options were available, the characters chose the worse.
Still worth a look though for a low budget movie.
Much improvement from previous episodes. The pacing gets better: the characters no longer feel like they have prepared a speech when they're having conversation; there were more moments of silence between scenes; and they apparently fixed the weird sound effect of the sword. The episode still tries too hard to portray Guts' action scene as "badass", but at least it's not as cringey as before (no more loud, irrelevant generic metal music).The CGIs, however, look worse than before. The difference between 2D and 3D animation is really jarring.
Still a bit too fast-paced here and there, but generally an improvement from the previous episode. Some dialogues seem to be hurried without enough break, but the CGI is overall well done (except a few parts) and there are a number of hand-drawn scenes. There is no awkward music playing in inappropriate moment, and the sound effects isn't jarring like before. Not bad!
The characters talk too much. This is very notable in the battle: instead of trying to kill each other, there were about a minute the episode trying to portray the antagonist's background by a lot of talking. And Guts there just stand still (while being wounded!) and listen to his mumbling.
The episode still has this terrible pacing where every characters machine gun every line without any pause. From one talking to another one talking. It makes some supposedly important scenes to be off and forgettable because the episode just glances it over with the pacing.
A lot of stuff is crammed in this episode, and instead focusing on the available scenes, it dedicates a lot of time with a build up for the next episode. Making this one feels like a filler episode.
Not bad but not good either.
The pacing seems to be off; every characters seem to talk a lot of things in a short amount of time, like they already prepared them as a speech. This especially look weird in the dialogue between Guts and Farnese. The scenes are jumping quickly between one person talking to another, without a moment of silence.
However the animation is slightly better than the first episode. CGI still can't handle expression well (look at some Farnese's expression and the soldier who Guts punched), but it's okay-ish. The adaptation from the manga is also good, unlike the abrupt lumping-it-all-together in episode one.
I don't really have problems with CGI, but it seems off here and there (especially when Guts throw the knife to kill a rabbit). The face also looks pretty jarring somehow.
As for the story itself, I think Isidro's presence is a bit distracting there, cutting off the interaction Guts should've had with Puck. Also why the heck they skip to the Iron Chain Knights right after this episode?
Too many things are going on in this movie. From the squadron's action, the situation in Area 51, Levinson's dad, the romance and subplots. And the movie tries to portray them squarely - although eventually they connect to each other, it makes all the sequences give no importance to the audience other than showing, "hey, this is what this character is doing during this doomsday."
This is a very bad move, as portraying every characters give not enough space to explore more of their persona. It left no room for the audience to relate/empathize with them, and as a disaster flick, this is such a waste because it really makes the human drama feels lackluster. The impending doom is all but menacing: yes, we get to see the world being destroyed by the immensely powerful alien technology, but we don't get to see the terror it gives to the people in the movie. People are screaming, but none are terrified. Not to mention the constant jokes pulled by comic relief characters really take out the seriousness of the damage.
The plot is also predictable and the movie doesn't seem to be shy from showing it blatantly from the start. Especially if you've watched the prequel, you'd know exactly how things will end. The action and dogfight sequence too are also so-so.
Besides the stunning CGIs, there isn't much to be seen from this movie.
This is more of "The Adopted Son of the Last of the Mohicans who Dabble in His Love Story" than "The Last of the Mohicans" himself.
The first half of this movie is a tad difficult to watch. Without being familiar with the time period, it's hard to navigate the context of the film, and the scenes in the first half seem to be rushed: there were massacres of people who are supposed to be emotionally close with Hawkeye (Daniel Day-Lewis) but not to the audience, and then the romance developed too soon without enough bonding.
Last of the Mohicans only got interesting in the last half of the movie, though with its ups and downs; at times it escalates with the combats, the drama, the bonding of one character with another, but another times the characters make poor decisions with only slight or no hint of reasons for their actions.
The acting is pretty decent, scenery is beautiful, the soundtrack is really memorable. But other than that, it feels like a jumbled epic movie. Maybe because I'm seeing this first time in 2016 and not in 1992 though.
Father and son movie bundled as robot-boxing movie. Pretty good overall, with stunning acting from both Hugh Jackman and Dakota Goyo. Goyo is especially fantastic.
The plot however feels a bit lacking here and there; especially in the last quarter of the movie where things seem to be rushed to the grand final championship with family drama in-between. There seems to be some things left unresolved and unexplained; e.g. what's the point of hinting that the robot might have had emotional connection with the user (with the frequent stills of the robot's "expression")? Also the grand final doesn't have enough screen time, as if the battles were cut and sped up because of time constraint.
The story of how men (males) interact with their technology. And of one man's naivety...
No dialogues are wasted in this film. Throughout the film it guides the audience to Ava's narrative of her life, as if we were Caleb who have been speaking with her. Only near the end of the film that we realize what actually have happened all the time.
With minimal casting and low budget, the film strikes close to home--an event which might be happening some time in the near future. From the setting to characters' profile, all feel too familiar. However, that familiarity might also the reason the film feels a bit bland. As once everything in the film is revealed, the character's motivation (especially Caleb's) isn't so much. Until you realize that it feels how troubling that something so mundane might result in such consequence.
Intense crime drama, it's like the audience is made as clueless as Bob (Tom Hardy) was, wondering which all these events will lead up to. It takes the time for the audience to connect the dots, and remain it as such, however, so some subplots might feel a bit disjointed for a while.
Flashy and stylish action, reminds me of Equilibrium and The Matrix. Has a distinct neo-noir atmosphere, with sleek suite, art deco building, neon lights. sharp colors serve as the background of all the fights. However there's nothing much beyond that, as in the second half of the movie it seems that the plot decisions are resolved too quickly.
Very intense, gripping performance from Tom Hanks (Capt. Philips) and Barkhad Abdi (Abduwali Muse). The tense holds you on the screen, wondering what would happen next from one scene to another.
However, one thing that sticks with me is how easy to see this in black and white American heroism. Though the movie took its time to explain briefly that the Somalis had to do piracy because they are left with no choice, it doesn't give much room to outline how the pirates were just a small part of bigger problems in Somalia. The dialogues and flashbacks give hint here and there, but for average audience it's easy to dismiss as a mere background to spice the film. Yeah, piracy is wrong, it's illegal--but the question was why it happened?
Granted, Captain Philips is not exactly the movie to explore that question. It's an intense survival thriller, and it delivers. But it'd be nice if there's more room for the audience to stop and ponder, "yeah, it's not like they're doing this because they want to--they just have to."
As a thriller movie, the combat was intense. You can't be so sure which one is going to take casualty. The terror feels real as militias strike through the embassy and, later, CIA compound.
However, with a lot of dialogues and characters having much screen time, the drama in this survival movie feels almost non-existent. The dialogue lacks any depth, the characterization left almost nothing to the viewers to empathize with. Of all possible ways, Michael Bay choose to emphasize the drama by sporadically showing the soldiers communicating with their families back in the USA. But the relationship between the soldiers themselves are hardly shown aside from random conversations, leaving the movie with no remarkable character that the viewers can relate when a few of them met their demise. As a film based on real life events, it's really such a shame: because this means actual people were actually murdered in combat. Compared with how Lone Survivor was directed, 13 Hours was a really terrible drama.
There also seems to be a political tension going on in the background, but the movie gives no explanation, making the viewers difficult to catch up.
Okay so the episode was kind of dragging on with Rick's group being played around with Negan's group, but I guess it's purposeful to make the viewers the feeling of being toyed with and to give more screen time for the characters for the emotional build up.
However, the ending... with that kind of build up, the episode ends with a goddamn cliffhanger! What the hell is the purpose of 45 minutes long build up? The scene with Negan screams terror, the moment he started to swing his barbed wire lashes out fear, but the episode ends without revealing anyone. It's a shame. Should have shown the victim's face, or at least hair, or anything from his/her back, so at least the viewers can speculate.
The episode continues with the clumsiness of last week's episode. Now not only we get to see Carol's teenager mood-swing, we get to see Daryl's too. The usually calculating hunter now risk himself and his comrade's life a few days after Denise got murdered. Daryl wanting to finish Dwight once and for all, that is understandable. After all it's not only once Daryl seems to be reckless and going in his way. But him needing to wait a few days after Denise's demise just to fit in with Carol's disappearance seems kinda forced. Not to mention everyone seems to become so reckless by wanting to be involved in the search party. I mean they have a home to protect. Why every bits of them seems so motivated to get out of their home?
That said, this episode leaves us with an interesting cliff-hanger. We all know, especially comic book readers, that someone is going to die in the next episode. But who? Carol, Daryl, and Glenn are all out of there. There is also Michonne. The episode spent quite a time to give Maggie and Rick more screen time (which usually means someone close to them is going to die in the next eps), so it's kind of difficult to predict which of them is going to leave the show.
Everything just went so abrupt and rushed in this episode.
This episode shows up the determination of two most weak (combat abilities speaking) characters in Walking Dead, trying to prove themselves that they are able fighters like their comrades are. As the usual cliche, this went into disaster. I usually would "pardon" such attempt on cliche plot (weak people trying to prove themselves), but this episode is really difficult to find excuse for. Especially in the case with the person Daryl and Rosita is guarding: Denise. They know Denise is far from an able combatant--so why do they seem so reluctant to, in Rosita's words, "babysit" her? Not to mention how Denise is such an important asset to Alexandria for her actual skill: medic and surgery.
Another one, the very rushed and abrupt decision of Carol to leave Alexandria. We've seen her psychological dilemma of killing people in previous episode, questioning if her ruthlessness and pragmatism is right. We've seen the dilemma through her action, her emotion. It was one of a great episode. But in this episode? We see almost nothing of Carol and suddenly she left Alexandria! We only get to see her kissing Tobin for a few seconds, sitting on a bench lamenting of something, regretting something after Denise was killed, and then BAM! "Sorry guys I can't kill people anymore, I'm leaving Alexandria." This makes the usual calm, calculating Carol look like a teenager in emotional mood-swing. Even worse, we don't even get to see her mood-swing.
Credits where its due though: the part where Eugene bites the Survivor's dick is so unexpectedly hilarious. Eugene really got into the next level with that move. Still--that doesn't save this episode of its clumsiness.
After last week's great episode, this episode is really a disappointment.
It feels like it's been a long time since Walking Dead has a thoughtful, story-driven episode.
First of all I like how we are shown a glimpse of living a woman's life in a post-apocalyptic world here. Issues like motherhood, pregnancy, are handled very well through the talks of the all women characters in the episode. Second thing, is how the show gives an alternative perspective on the post-apocalyptic world seen through another survivor's eye. It's not just Rick and co here who are trying to survive--there's another group, as much as capable as Rick, with their own set of survival skills. As uttered by Michelle, from their PoV (whose group has just been robbed and murdered), Rick's group "are not the good guys."
Third, it actually makes all the pragmatic, ruthless murders we've all been seeing all this time from one episode to another, is not just about "another" murder. Killing people is actually a deed with terrible moral consequence, even when it's done for the means of survival. Interestingly, this theme is explored through the eyes of Carol--who has been known as pragmatic and ruthless.
Very well done episode.
I don't get it: why are other movies dissed when they rehash the plot, reuse the same elements all over again, imitate other movies; but when it's Star Wars, all critics from all around the world glorify it to the fullest?
When it was just Rey and Finn's tiny adventure, Force Awakens is all fun and games. It's interesting, it draws us to know more. But after they met the old casts (Han, Chewie, etc), Eps VII really just that: a rehash of Eps IV, VI, and IV with better visuals. It's not even being consistent with the original trilogy (not prequel!) Star Wars logic, e.g. hyperdrive being usable indoor, Han Solo being unfamiliar with his 30 years best-bud weapon, "the Force" being something you have inside you instead of the energy around you that you have to control, etc.
Not to mention the forced narrative like Rey seeing Han as a fatherly figure despite them only meeting about 15 minutes ago, Kylo Ren being someone with impeccable force power, and odd plot decision like Leia giving a hug to a certain someone instead the other one who has been with the guy for a very long time. The fact that the script has to mention that, for example, Rey sees Han as a fatherly figure shows how forced the narrative is--audience can't see that, so the script has to shove that to audience eyes!
I can continue on and on, but this is one of the worst blockbuster I've ever seen. Especially since it's Star Wars.
Watched this at premiere, forgot to give comment. I don't have much expectation with the movie, but Age of Ultron turns out to be a really disappointing popcorn flick. I actually like the character developments, only that the movie gives us too many character developments, too many subplots, that each of them don't seem to be connected to each other except that they are all in Avengers. I like the personal, intimate touch on Hawkeye's family and Natasha-Bruce actually, but those subplots feel too really detached with other subplots going on--and especially with the main plotline.
Also for an Avengers movie this one is too flat-out comical in that they put too much jokes, to the point it's distracting and ruining the character development. E.g., what's with the HYDRA's official acting comically coward and with Ultron, who have been developed in the whole movie to be a fearless, despicably intelligent cruel machine, in the end turned to be a desperately opportunist who begs for mercy? The fearmongering Ultron is reduced to a comical character just because a single scene! Also the really unnecessary twist involving the sacrifice one character is really unnecessary and should have been put later in the movie as a prime motivation for the other character to be involved in the fight.
The film has interesting set of characters. Our hero Lenny (Ralph Fiennes) is not the typical action hero with martial prowess, instead he got his loyal, reliable friend Mace (Angela Bassett) who always come at desperate measure. It puts Lenny closer to us the audience, with us hoping Mace would come when Lenny slowly unveils the mystery he is facing.
However, with a considerable one hour-long build up, the ending to Strange Days seem to be a bit rushed and turned out the answer to the mystery pretty much simple--too simple, even. The characters involved in the mystery also don't seem to have a strong motive to be involved with the round of events to begin with. It makes the tense kinda wear off really fast and left an unsatisfying feel as the credits roll on.
Got me hooked at the start, as the movie started as a curious investigation of Casey (Britt Robertson) to a whole new world. Casey's discovery and adventure with Athena (Raffey Cassidy) and Frank Walker (George Clooney) went fun and put me to wonder, but exactly when the mystery unveils, it reveals a rather hurried and uninteresting problem. The scene when Casey wonder how to solve the problem is presented less than 10 minutes--really fast compared to the 1,5 hours build up. The movie also doesn't spend much time for the audience to be informed as much as Casey when they hurriedly find the solution.
Putting that aside, Tomorrowland has an amazing visuals and marvelous acting. Especially for Cassidy (the girl Athena), whose convincing acting really led me to believe that she is really at the same age at George Clooney!
It was intense, to say the least. This episode is good in that it can maintain the action while still doing several character developments: Fr. Gabriel, Heath (the eye-glasses Alexandrian supply-runner), and of course Carol. While everyone is focusing on Carol, I'm hoping Morgan to have more interesting development in the future, especially when his pacifism finally has to face The Survivors' brutality.
Pretty enjoyable, enough tense with this new Jesus character (though it's less the tense if you're familiar with the comics), introduction of new community, and the expected calm before the storm.
The lines and dialogues are so powerful, especially in the scenes when Agu (Abraham Attah) reflects on the brutality of the war as a kid. It is most disturbingly heart-breaking when he compares dead bodies under the sun to a scent of "burnt mango". The process of normalizing violence among the African child soldiers can't be captured more grimly without Idris Elba's impressive performance as the warlord The Commandant. The only little thing the movie seems to lack is on Agu's bonding with Striker, but other than that this movie delivers the life of African child soldier astonishingly.
Just from early glance you can see how historical depth and accuracy has been work throughout this movie, even to the tiniest bit like accent and the character's grammatical structure. Supported by Daniel Day-Lewis and Paul Dano's impressive acting, There Will Be Blood is a intriguing look on an oilman's life in 19th century. However I feel as a movie the director spent some scenes a bit too long and let the bridge from one scene to another unexplained (like Plainview's relationship with his son), especially with the 2,5 hours long duration. This is not to say the movie is boring--I keep being intrigued to see where it eventually ends--it's just it feels a bit disconnected sometimes.
