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.
Perhaps because this movie tries hard to mirror Lord of the Rings - to be an "LoTR prequel" - it does not succeed too much in being a good movie.
First we get the continuation of Smaug's terror on the Laketown. This whole event that eventually leads to Smaug's demise feels so much hurried. We see Smaug ravaging the town, we see people fleeing in fear, but we don't see any actual horror preyed upon the people of Laketown. It feels like "just another dragon's burning routine on another town nearby". And the hero who is destined by blood to beat down dragon seems to have lost his mind when jumping straight into the tower without preparation. He even forgot to carry the legendary arrow!
Perhaps because the action, the tense, has been drown so much. When the great dragon is finally taken down, there is no sense of accomplishment at all. This Smaug scene should have been included in the previous movie. The film opens with a rather unsatisfying pace, a rather tedious 30 minutes, before diving into the main event which is the subtitle of this movie: "The Battle of the Five Armies".
This, as the subtitle indicates, should have been a grand event as much as the LoTR's Battle of the Black Gate or Battle of Pelennor fields. Especially since the movie tries so hard to be a LoTR's prequel: epic story of war and a rising darkness.
But nope. The battle itself is not as grandeur as LoTR. The occasional comic relief (like we usually see between Gimli and Legolas) does not work here either.
First, there is almost no buildup for the war. None. We suddenly get an elf army, Thorin's hard-headedness, his distant kin, all out of nowhere. We are presented with bunch of gold-hungry people ready for war without a strong reason to go for war. We see no explanation for Thranduil's hunger for their crown jewel (except for "it's our people's jewel") and so is for Thorin's sudden craziness for gold.
Thorin's greed is supposed to be the main theme of The Hobbit, but we only a slight clue leading to his greedy craziness. It was foreshadowed in the second movie and I was expecting it to be more laid out in this third movie.
Second, the war itself is rather... how to say it, just a clash of weapons. The pacing is very terrible. Especially when the orc armies finally came. The tense between the dwarves and elves were building prior to the orc's arrival, but it gets broken fast (the dwarves just go after the orcs very soon as if they're really that blood-thirsty). Also the title is "Battle of the Five Armies" but the ones who get into action are only dwarves, the elves, and the orcs. The human is just there struggling to survive and the eagles, the fifth army, came very late and were only shown in a flash. We don't even get a view how the war is resolved except for a distant view - a glimpse - that the orc's army is waning. We don't even told how is the Arkenstone - the supposed cause of the conflict - is doing after the war broke!
All this are accompanied with a too-often comic relief brought to you by Alfrid, the former Laketown mayor's second-in-command. Seriously he is really distracting. He bears no relevance to the story at all but the writer keeps bringing him up again and again.
Third, the ultimate showdown between Thorin and Azog is really disappointing. Thorin, who bears so much grudge with the orc who killed his grandfather, fights with no passion at all. The hot-blooded guy who we usually see being rash to many people, do not seem to show his contempt to the very person who brought death to his own family! As a king with remarkable combat prowess, Thorin also looks really clumsy fighting Azog, like his previous combat experience has just gone suddenly.
I just can't understand how easy he thought Azog was dead. I mean it's Azog; it's the guy who he knows himself (indicated in the previous two movies) is very hard to kill. He doesn't even bother to deal a finishing blow and hopes freeze will caught Azog dead! It's like the burning passion in his eyes, when he met Azog face-to-face in the forest (in the previous movie), it's like... it's like that passion has just gone. Gone with the wind.
Last, the epilogue. The dialogue between Tauriel and Thranduil when she is mourning is REALLY REALLY cheesy ("because it was real," really?). Thranduil also sounds so confusingly random when Legolas decides to go ("your mother loves you"... so? Wasn't it Tauriel who brought up the whole "love" stuff?).
It's such a shame because the first and second movie are at least decent.
I guess this episode has little bit of everything. There is a bit of suspense of the barn invasion. There is a bit of action in the final showdown, of course. There is a bit of Justice League cameo. There is a bit of character development during the mission preparation. There is a bit of wrapping up the story (each characters' fate, tying up loose ends, and Peacemaker making peace with himself). And there is also some stereotypical eco-message slipped in (I guess since this is the anthropocene and Thanos' ecofascism seems to be popular...).
It's not a gripping finale, but it does what it does well for an action comedy that doesn't take itself too seriously.
Highlight would be: I like that they keep Goff alive because Peacemaker's personal connection and Judomaster also alive with his chips-eating habit. I also liked that they're setting this up for future DCEU but not too blatantly obvious that they had to throw away the standalone-ness of the show like MCU/Marvel Studios usually do.
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..
Not the greatest The Boys episode, esp. not Season 2's good. They have come this far to plan and strategize against Vought, yet they don't seem to have any backup plan... not with Lamplighter, who they leave only with Hughie to babysit, and especially not with Dr. Vogelbaum, the man behind all these, the most important man who should have acted as key witness? With Lamplighter, okay, they missed their chance, but Butcher and Mallory could have at least made Vogelbaum recorded his confession or some sort since they should have known that sending him off means an extremely high risk of failure. And they freaking knew there's someone out there who can pop head out of nowhere. Why don't they take any precaution?
The one scene with Hughie and Lamplighter is kind of dumb too, only showing him as ever petulant bystander who can't prioritize - which is a step down of character development since he blew Transluscent's ass. Butcher family drama seems to give a hint of character development but the pacing is too convenient as a cop out for stuff to fall apart.
Got plenty of fight scenes and mostly that, but it don't pack the same punch as the fight scenes did in the first season. I don't know if it's Anthony Mackie, the choreography, or just the cinematography, but it looks weak especially during the fight with Quell.
Excellent parallel between Kovacs' torture and Ortega's family reunion. Both show how technology is utilized in the staples of our lives (an interrogation in Kovacs' case and a holiday celebration in Ortega's). Both also has similar theme of treading between life and death.
Kovacs' torture sequence can be done a bit better (especially the "going to next screen" moment, as it seems to be a bit rushed) but it does the job well enough. The most interesting part in this episode for me is Ortega's family reunion, tackling back the question asked since the first episode, "if you can prolong life by simply changing your bodies, would you still do it?" Also, grandma resleeving in a muscular white punk is just too funny. Props to the actor.
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.
It's surprising, to say the least. There's been an obvious dead flag throughout the episode, but this person has escaped from such dead flag again and again. This time though - this person doesn't survive.
Lots of people die in this episode, so the death is a bit unexpected and and the same time... seems a bit less dramatical. We had a whole episode for Tyrone, a climactic end for Beth, even moments of atonement for Merle. But this person seems to be one of the crowds. Which, actually, makes sense in a post-apocalyptic world such as in Walking Dead's - it's unforgiving and death is just a statistic. But for a person who's been with the audience for a long time to be gone, just like that, seems a bit unsettling for me. I guess there's still more to come.
It's lovely. I like Juli Baker's characterization, she's a smart girl with great personality.
I always have soft spot for romantic movies though. :s
They've been drawing parallels between Payback and Seven every now and then, but this episode shows the clearest. The sad thing is, if Soldier Boy is Payback's Homelander, and the team both hated their lead and tried to redeem themselves like Maeve do. then what a writing to show that Butcher is not a main character you should sympathize with. He is pragmatic, calculative, cold-blooded murderer sacrificing the redeemed Crimson Countess and Gunpowder who never liked Soldier Boy.
I find it interesting that there are parallels with Season 1 here. Butcher is back to his cold-blooded self and the compromise they're making with Soldier Boy reminds me a bit of similar ones they made with Starlight when they first discovered her. However Hughie, besides his power, seem to have not progressed much as a character, as he resorted to his confused, worst decision maker habit like we've seen in Season 1.
Other than that, the episode feels a bit lighter compared to the first three, not as packed but still better paced than the previous episode. Only 3 episodes left. Curious where they will take us. Hope this pays off.
Not the most engaging pilot. So many setups and characters introduced at once. Mystery seems to be fleeting, lingering around the corner but there's no clear direction yet where it would lead the viewers. Feels like the episode is setting up a lot of things for the whole season at once.
This episode reminds us that The Mandalorian is a Disney product.
The Mandalorian for no reason became soft and sentimental. The only reason possible for this change is the "cute factor" shown more to the audience than the character, just like a Disney show would do. For someone who is supposed to be on this sort of job for a while, breaking a guild code just for some random child is a stupid thing to do - especially for someone who is supposed to uphold honor. The hostiles - supposedly trained soldiers and mercenaries - are nothing but incompetent mooks. Other Mandalorians show up as deus ex machina, almost feels like they are there just so Disney can sell more toys.
There is no build up. Everything in this episode is self-contained. From the appearances of other Mandalorian to the whistling bird, it's all used vulgarly in this episode.
This episode is such a huge let down. And we're still on the third episode.
The pace gets a bit slower in the first half, like with Mesmer's reunion and Billy's conversation. But it quickly catches up in the second half. The tense was well built and it is interesting to see how much grudge and narrow-sighted Billy could be and what have made him that way. As a professional group, they seem to make some stupid amateurish mistake (letting them be seen in cameras) but since this was not the first them they did that I am getting the impression that they are not much a professional assassin, just hired killers. Regardless, this episode is a nice driving plot to see what is going to come up forward--with clues and hints spread out well through out--but as it stands by itself, it is not the greatest.
Like most MCU movies, Avengers Endgame doesn't feel conclusive. It's composed of bunch of throwbacks and references, and one huge preparation for next sequels. Entertaining to spend your popcorn on & to motivate you to buy more merchandises, but no meaningful engagement.
The action sequences were cinematic and enjoyable, but it lacks depth. It lacks uncertainty that makes the struggle feels real. Despite the world (supposedly) is at its stake, there was no pressing moments that make the struggle immediate and can fail at any time. Despite facing huge army and "the inevitable" Thanos, the presence of several key characters downplay the threat at hand.
Endgame has quotable quotes that would make cool trailers and punchlines, but in spite of the characters talking to each other constantly, there were no heartfelt conversation. Dialogue feels like shoved because it's needed to keep the plot going. It's lacking the much needed engagement despite sacrifices here and there by the characters. Character arcs ended because it needs to end. It wasn't done gracefully.
Send off to primary characters (Steve Rogers and Tony Stark) were distracted by typical MCU jokes and speed-ups to give room for other characters. There's no time for heartfelt moments (like Winter Soldiers did) or tense (like Homecoming did).
The theme of time travel also brings question of continuity. Regardless of the whole talk about how the physics work in the beginning of the movie, those questions remain unresolved. E.g., if Rogers returned to the past to live with Peggy, it doesn't make sense for Peggy to feel relieved seeing Rogers again in Winter Soldier. It wouldn't make sense for Rogers to let his best friend Bucky Barnes to endure decades of torture by the HYDRA either. And what about the butterfly effects like Loki taking Tesseract and Rogers whispering Hail Hydra to Hydra?
With similar theme of time travel, another superhero movie can do a way better job: X-Men Days of Future Past. It has several characters but all were given fair opportunity to develop. Dialogues were emotional and the urgency felt real as we're shown the future and the past, back and forth.
On the other hand, Avengers Endgame's ensemble cast fails to bring key characters to focus on, making it lacks the emotional kick it needed to make the final funeral scene felt rewarding.
In the end Endgame is primarily an action comedy featuring people in fancy costumes and unbreakable will. It does its job well for that purpose. But that's it.
For a supposedly climactic end of a generation, it felt anticlimactic and hollow; unless maybe you've already traded your cashes for its merchandises.
Decent episode. Shows Negan as the boss here, the submission of Rick and people of Alexandria. To the point Rick no longer has this tough guy stance and opts to submit to Negan to survive another day, while still bearing a huge grudge to him. I think @andrewbloom sums it well in this line,
"when Rick confesses that he knows Judith belongs to Shane, there’s power in it because it’s one of those few plot threads from the beginning of the show that haven’t been tied off yet. And the thematic resonance of it, that sometimes we have to accept hard truths, things that tear us up, in order to do what we need to do to protect the people we care about, is solid. Negan’s actions make Rick’s knuckles tighten up on Lucille when Negan’s back is turned, but his desire to keep the Alexandrians safe loosens his grip, allows him to make all these compromises and admission in the hopes that they’ll stay alive and healthy even under such harsh conditions."
Read his review, a very thoughtful one of this episode. https://trakt.tv/comments/103012
Ordinary plot, decent action, and Liam Neeson has became a somewhat invincible superman instead of a believable experienced agent with tactical and martial prowess like he was before.
I need Wikipedia to guide me through this film...
A bit too on the nose in their attempts to poke the issue on darkly designed terms of service and deepfake, especially in light of the Hollywood actor and screenwriter protest (perhaps even inspired by it). The episode leans heavily toward being a meta humor, but it doesn't really work well. Annie Murphy does her best, and I believe Salma Hayek too, but they were given a rather one-dimensional, uninspiring script. As the episode ended I realized Charlie Brooker is the writer. That kinda explains the weak episode.
The key takeaway of the film, to me, is its subtle offhand remark of American yuppie culture; the tasteful thickness of the way they jab (okay I'll stop) at how everyone is trying to be like everyone else - "trying to fit in," in Bateman's words - that everyone mistakes someone for another and someone like Patrick Bateman can get away with murder.
The whole film is about him needing to fit in but at the same time stand out.
The film toys with the idea of the murder scenes being an imagination that all happened in Bateman's head, but I say the line is only drawn when the things get more ridiculous. It's even earlier than the one they displayed in the third act - when the ATM shows the message to feed it a cat - but when Bateman started hanging out in Paul Allen's apartment. An investigation was going on: why would Bateman intentionally spread their fingerprints all around? Partly perhaps he did want to get caught - the desire to find out who he really is beneath the mundane sameness of corporate life - as the conversation with the lawyer suggested. Partly, however, is his active imagination playing bigger and bigger role as he descended into madness in this third act, as you can see that right after that scene we get the ATM scene and the car explosion scene where even Bateman himself couldn't believe it just happened.
The director did admit that the ending give viewers a wrong impression of what really happened in the course of the film - so I'm basing my comments on that. The surreal last act seems to be ambiguous, but when you consider the change of demeanor from the realtor in Paul Allen's apartment (and the all-white, recently painted rooms) and the lawyer Bateman talked to, that should be telling of the point of the third act. The eerie interaction, tense acting, and the music really made the last act as the best of the film.
Even when the film is intended as a commentary of 1980s hedonistic yuppie culture, I can still see it being relevant today. The consumerist, "getting into the fad" corporatist culture endures even into the culture of Silicon Valley workers. Patrick Bateman is a that obnoxious guy who really likes to hear himself talk - the kind of Twitter people and YouTube video essayists with celebrity syndrome - and the whole Pierce & Pierce young executives competing against each other to sound smart and look posh are just your typical tech workers taking a jab at politics. Their understanding of the events are just skin deep, but they want to look like the best among themselves. This is why the film is great even in 2022 and I think it will stay great at least in the next 10 years.
Started out OK, but in the second half the pace and plot kind of fell apart. Has an interesting premise - immortal humans connected to each other - but seems to have too many ideas they wanted to piece together without being able to pull it off.
The good first. The action sequences, when done right, were fine. Not spectacular, but nice. The action scene on the big pharma is quite well done in that regard (the one where they used one of them as a human shield). The first half is kind of nice in setting up the characters (disregarding the film's sense of place or time). However the film only goes that far.
The story (and its pacing) and the characters are not the strongest.
Copley (Chiwetel Ejiofor) seems intriguing at first, as a motivated man with a purpose, but near the end it almost seemed like the film abandoned his character development as it's beyond Ejiofor's paycheck (or, setting his appearance as a sequel). His scrapbook subplot and Andromache's (Charlize Theron) off-hand remark about "the world isn't getting better!" appears to be an attempt to be philosophical with the question like, "what is our purpose", "what can we do for the world", etc, but it ended up as superficial as the questions were partially given easy answer in the end (look at these documentations on the goods you've done for 'humanity'!), like something out of confused superhero comic book.
The relationship between characters has potential, but remain in the background. Booker has an interesting past (the struggle he had to experience regarding his son), but wasn't explored further, not even as his motivation in the climax. Joe and Nicky don't seem to have chemistry; they only look like a Netflix token LGBT characters. The dialogue while they're on the van feels particularly tacked on, even more awkward with the following responses from the cops/private security.
The worst part however has to be the music directing. It is horrible. Who the hell thought random selection of pop and R&B music for action sequences is a good idea? It made the scenes like a cheap teenaged Nickelodean drama.
It's watchable nonetheless, but not the one I'd recommend unless you have too much spare time or just want some random screening with your family.
The first half is fantastic. This is what cyberpunk should be--that separates them from other genres of sci-fi dystopia. Resleeving (exchanging bodies) is a great plot device that can be used excellently, bringing us both moral and practical questions about how is it to live in a world where bodies are disposable, that mind reigns supreme yet is limited in its physicality (in stacks), some sort of a cyber-Cartesian thinking? The show is thought-provoking when it raises those issues, treading finely through controversial topics such as prostitution, drug abuses, and questions of life and death ("if you can prolong life by simply changing your bodies, would you still do it?"). Like the grandma resleeving in a white punk in episode 5.
The second half however is very shaky. Since the introduction of Reileen in real time, not in flashback, the show seems to drift away from those issues and take on a generic Hollywood sci-fi weekends. It leans too heavily on familial drama. Not that such issue can't be written excellently, mind you, but the problem is there was no build up towards the issue. Instead, the drama is brought upon, borrowing elements from the subplots that have been spun in prior episodes. It felt really weak, especially since the antagonist's character seems to be written to appear multi-layered, yet becoming overly convoluted. They should have sticked to the issues raised in the first-half. It's as if the writers were changed mid-way.
That said, I still expect season 2 to come. The show has lot of potential.
It's brutal, has some fighting scenes, but it's in no way an action-packed movie.
Drama and character development makes the first half of the movie, with a rather slow plot progression to familiarize the audience with the characters. During this one hour there is also a glimpse of the workings of Korean underworld, however this portrayal seems to needlessly complicate the threads as they dismissed it midway for the "ultimate badguy".
The plot progresses in much better pace in the last one hour. But all the drama and character development never got built up to its full potential, even with our main character Cha Tae-sik and the girl So-mi. The actors are all great, including the gritty police officers, but their screen time doesn't amount to meaningful relationships among them. This is a missed opportunity especially between Tae-sik and So-mi. The often dramatic music doesn't help either.
The fight scenes are probably one of the better parts of the movie however most of the fights are done off-screen. Only after it reaches the second hour more action starts to show, but the shaky cam doesn't let much thrill to be experienced. The choreography is slick but the subpar camera works leaves me wanting for more.
We are used to the typical imagined repressive dystopia, where our movement is limited and our will is repressed. But what if what happened is the reverse--a world where we willingly surrender our will, because of, as Huxley aptly put it, our "infinite appetite of distraction"?
That's what this episode is. A very good satire on a media-saturated world, where we . A world where everything is consumed as pure entertainment, and what we worked hard through and through (the endless cycling) ultimately is to reach the goal of consumption. It is a world where distraction is structurally offered in every chance--a world full of copious amount of advertising, that we cannot resist or even reject, as rejecting makes it our loss (literally, as skipping commercial costs a dime here).
As it is a world of mass consumption, as its consequence, it is also a world restraining for women. As women is judged first by her look and second by her other qualities. Abi, a good singer on her own, nevertheless has to submit as a porn actress as she is deemed too pretty and too hot. Even the woman judge has to agree, though she must shed her tear in silence.
The ending strikes as powerful as it reinforces the whole theme of the episode. As Bing attempted to kill himself after pointing out all the fault in the world--the facade and the inauthenticity--then judge is then silenced. But only for a brief moment. They then continue to judge and value the amusement of Bing's speech as an entertainment--a "performance"--as the shocked audience then also greet Bing with a thunderous applause when the judge offered Bing his own show for a heart-breaking speech. Eventually, the supposedly revolutionary Bing agreed with the offer. Bing became Che Guevara of his world, but even more ironic is the fact that he commoditize himself--he ended up being as the very reason of the existence of the farce he criticized.
Okay. So. Star Wars The Last Jedi. Late comment. This is sort of a mixed bag. It does feel like a film for kids/teens and fangirls (or their parents). A jumbled mess with dumb characters' decision.
But it is -way- better than Star Wars The Farce Awakens. I mean The Forced Awakens. The Force Awakens. Rian Johnson deserves more credits than Jar Jar Abrams.
First thing first: at the very least, TLJ dares to try something new where TFA couldn't. By "something new" I mean not the new MCU-flavored jokes and quips slipping everywhere but new formula and new themes.
The best thing from TLJ involves Luke a lot.
Among them is the idea of grey morality and Luke being "ordinary human" shrouded in myth. The take with Luke and Ben (Kylo Ren) relationship is nice. He is no all-powerful all-wise Jedi; he makes mistakes, he hesitates, he regrets. We didn't get enough build up to explain why Luke did what he did in the past, and Johnson resorted to the typical Kylo being "too powerful", but I guess it was decent.
The scenes where Luke dispels the myth of him being the legendary Jedi is also great. This might be relevant in this day and age of celebrity politicians when a divorce of one politician suddenly becomes everyone's concern.
And, of course, the most important thing in-universe is Luke's explanation about The Force being some sort of energy that surrounds us. Not innate power. This should correct the mistakes Jar Jar Abrams made in TFA and Gareth Edwards made in Rogue One.
There is also one good thing from Finn and Rose mischievous adventure. It feels like it attempts to bring up Prequel Trilogy serious tone concerning arms trade. Benicio del Toro also has one good moment when he explains about "good and evil" is not as simple as Finn might think. Though that two are the only good things from their adventure (we'll get back to this later).
Luke and Leia reunion is beautifully done. Great lighting, very timely moment (though things that lead into the moment is very questionable), and the hallmark score accompanying the scene is perfect. This is a great tribute to the Original Trilogy and to Carey Fisher.
One more thing: Vice Admiral Holdo last resort is quite a spectacle. The scene feels like I'm watching something from anime. The idea itself is brilliantly executed (for an action fantasy) and would make a good move if there would be another Star Wars game.
Now to the worst parts. It does feel like a jumbled mess with dumb characters' decision.
There is one scene where Leia comes back to life and fly. This is the weirdest thing to ever happen since Starkiller Base. No explanation at all (let's not pull Abrams-esque excuse "it's in the novels!" because you should not need secondary material to understand a film). Maybe it's a tribute to Carrie Fisher, or a plot point for other characters (Poe/Holdo) to shine, but even so there are better ways to do that. Maybe by not having Leia stay in bridge and affected by explosion.
And then there is Finn and Rose mischievous adventure. This might be the worst, really worst part. Messy subplot and dumb characters.
Their adventure to snatch a hacker to sneak into the Star Destroyer feels forced in the first place. Do they really have that much time to go to another planet while the Resistance fleet is being chased by First Order? The whole "we can't reach The Resistance because shields and distance" feels like a terrible excuse considering in previous materials a ship that huge would have enough firepower to destroy a shiled--and even if they didn't, they could've sent a group of bombers.
Finn and Rose adventure itself feels like they don't really know what they're supposed to do. They were tasked to snatch a hacker, but along the way they seemed to be comfortable to only take revenge to the rich arm traders and slavers that have hurt Rose in the past. Meanwhile The Resistance is in the brink of defeat. Where's the sense of urgency in their mission?
But the worst is in the climax of the film, when Rose thwarts Finn's suicidal plan in his heroic attempt to save The Resistance. The reason? Because killing people won't solve anything and love wins every time. Right--exactly after that cheesy line The Resistance defense got breached. Thanks Rose, I guess trying to imitate Oprah is the most strategical decision ever.
There seems like really no point in Finn and Rose subplot. Dumb characters and pointless quest. It only seems like a filler to meet the 2,5 hours quota. The best thing from their childish trip is Benicio del Toro's hacker character. When Finn was obsessed with the idea of "good" defeating "evil", del Toro's character explains things are not that simple in war. Just like with Luke, his brief yet impactful speech gives a nuance to the simplistic black-and-white tone Jar Jar Abrams developed in TFA.
However the writer appears to be so consistent in making almost everything in Finn & Rose quest a mess: as soon as First Order foiled their plan, it is revealed that del Toro's character is just an opportunist prick with a sweet tongue.
About the MCU jokes. Jokes in The Last Jedi is almost on par with The Phantom Menace. Even TPM feels tame.
TLJ does have very bad moments because of the MCU jokes, particularly in the very beginning of the film when Poe plays along with Hux in the middle of supposedly fricking surprise attack (do you really have that much time?), ruining the suspension of disbelief. In plenty opportunities MCU quips slip and I guess if you don't like Jar Jar in TPM, you wouldn't also like this too much jokes.
Fortunately though, aside from some scenes like with Poe-Hux, I don't think the jokes are -that- bad. It's not Avengers: Age of Ultron bad. It's irritating and pulls me away at times, but it doesn't ruin a supposedly well-developed character like Ultron.
Last: Rey and Kylo relationship. This is why I said this is a film for fangirls. The telepathy is a brilliant plot device to enable communication between two teenagers in opposing side, but do they -really- have to make them able to see each other?
The part when Kylo went nude and Rey's face turns red for seeing a naked guy--is this something from teen drama? There is also this scene when their hands touch each other and Luke barge in, sensing a forbidden love develops in our Romeo and Juliet.
The whole Rey-Kylo depiction is a true OTP bait. Well, I actually have a mixed feeling about it. This isn't exactly bad--it's okay for a teen drama and there's nothing contradicting the canon lore from this. But it does feel like some sort of Anakin-Padme 2.0.
I guess that's all.
It's not great, but it's not as bad as people made it to be. It's better than The Farce Awakens actually.
It's entertaining enough as long as you can glance over the dumb characters. It's still a mess though, so unless you really have nothing else to do it's better to watch something else.
Very weak season premiere. Felt like a season finale, only that the whole setup doesn't make sense at all. Rick planned to kill just one man, Negan, but why didn't he? Instead the group shoots brutally to the building, shattering only glasses. It's like they had unlimited number of ammo - what's the point of arms scavenging in previous season then? The group conveniently broke into the base with no resistance at all. Conveniently amassed a horde of walkers with no difficulties. Considering they had always been having trouble doing that two, it felt really odd. Why didnt Negan see any of that coming, considering they were pushed back in previous episode? Weird.
A character also made a terribly foolish decision that is worse than a zombie film cliché. Very bad premiere.
One of the earlier film that started cyberpunk genre in Hollywood cinemas. Considering the time it is made, the panorama of cyberpunk L.A. is impressive - it doesn't look old/fake, and you can see the way it influences the depiction of "high tech, low life" setting in later years, with tall and dark skyscrapers looming over the meagers' life of its citizens, police almost omnipresence appearing instantly as if they had eyes everywhere in the city. In the same time it is also indeed a film of its age: with ceiling fans, analogue devices, and low-res screens contrasting with its futuristic setting. Still, it is understandable how the atmosphere alone can leave a remarkable footprint on modern cinema.
However, the movie suffers from a terrible pacing. It is inconsistently slow, with ups and downs in a very sharp turns. There are moments you wished the movie can explore more, especially on exploring the fantastic atmosphere and the existential crisis of the Replicants. Meanwhile, there are other moments that you wished could've been cut short. For being a neo-noir thriller the movie hits the spot in maintaining its dark, mysterious atmosphere, but misses a lot in keeping the thrill high.
The final confrontation especially leaves a lot to be desired - as Deckard (the main character) just ran mindlessly, or, borrowing Roy's (the antagonist) line, just "being irrational", until the climax of the film. Which, again, leaves a gaping hole. The movie presents us the existential problem, the supposedly main theme of the movie, right there at Roy's dialogue. But minutes later after the monumental speech, the credits already rolled.
It's still a cult classic though. The setting was great. Worthy to be watched at least once.
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.
It's relieving to see the Alexandrians putting up a fight, hand-to-hand, against the zombie menace. But if all this is triggered by Rick's sudden madness, it begs the ultimate question: why the hell didn't he do it since the infestation begin?!
Rick just needs a few experienced fighters (Glenn, Michonne, Abraham, etc maybe Aaron too). Back in Season 6 episode 5, they should have stood in front of the gate and cut the walkers to bits one by one like they just did in this episode. It should have not cost anybody's life--not to mention the life of a woman dearest to Rick! No need to gather the zombies far away and causing unintended consequences. Maybe all this is a ruse by Rick, to teach the Alexandrians a will to fight. A will to power. But it doesn't make much sense considering the cost and risk he ultimately pays. Especially since Rick is ultra-protective and should be calculative enough to realize that.
Putting that aside, with the Wolves leader dead, and Jesse's two annoying kids also dead too, I think the show kinda putting off the tense too early and too easily. The annoying little kid poses a classic, albeit cliched, zombie movie annoyance (scared little kids who ruin everything) and his older brother (Ron) could've been some sort of a rival to Carl (or a potential enemy, I mean he already bears deep hatred to Carl and Rick). Ron could've helped Carl's interesting character development. Perhaps Ron can be a Shane to Carl, leaving the audience the feeling of, "this guy is gonna give trouble but we're not sure how and when." The same goes with the Wolves leader. The show spent quite a time to built their characters for the audience to expect more. They could've made an useful, interesting tension like we had with Shane.
But they're all dead now, so it's kinda a waste, I guess.
Interesting movie. It plays out "racism" a bit differently, with Turner (Samuel Jackson) being the racist bigot and Mattson (Patrick Wilson) being the victim. The movie builds up the racial tension so patiently, cautiously. There are moments of thrill when you'll be worrying if the yelling and name-calling would turn violent--and turns out it's cleverly tuned down to a humane, civil negotiation. The conflict is played nicely like this sort of tension is highly probable to happen in our backyard.
That interesting build up, unfortunately, is resolved with a cartoon-ish, (un)expectedly boring in the ending, making all the tension feels useless and crashed all the way down.
