movies-61420 Reviews

Game of Thrones: The Bells (2019) Season 8, Episode 5

Not a great way to end a great show

[6/10 · 13 May 2019]

Game of Thrones is, by most accounts, a complex narrative that involves a great cast of characters. These characters are built brick by brick, pieced together by conflict, mistakes, and heroism. There are twists, bonds, shocks, deaths and gore galore.

What has always made this show interesting is its attention to detail - the stories of each character coming and going, leading to a penultimate climax.

If you believe that it is the journey and not the end that matters, then take solace knowing that the journey of the show for the most part is outstanding. It is a standard very few shows can fare to outmatch.

But where it falls apart is in the final act. The final season.

The characters in this episode are faulty throughout. That is not to say that they go completely against their own nature, but rather that the build up to their actions is not clear. This is a fault of less-than-ideal writing.

unfortunately, despite the sequence of the episode which is thrilling, filled with action, and somewhat bittersweet, it feels rather rather rough in comparison to what the series as a whole has built up to. Great characters are broken with weak motives, leading to less attachment, and therefore less interest in those who have come to see them fulfill their meaningful roles in the show.

For a Song of Ice and Fire, these last few notes have fallen flat upon a silent opera at what should be one of the greatest climaxes in TV history. And as a result, it can only be judged in its role as the apex piece as incomplete.

Lost in Space: Impact (2018) Season 1, Episode 1

Good premise, Lazy plot writing.

[7/10 · 13 April 2018]

Ill get right to the point (lots of spoilers).

The general plot for this episode is pretty good. It isnt really new or anything, but that's fine. Ship is lost in space. Ship crashes. Ship sinks. The crew have to explore their nearby surroundings on a glacier to solve their predicament. (also, the introduction to Dr. Smith at the end I thought was great).

The problems start to arise within the finer plot conflicts. This is the lazy writing. The ship sinking, then freezing within a very short time period made no sense at all. Water typically does not freeze like that (with a few rare exceptions).

Throw in a broken leg, a frozen Judy, a separated Will, a burning forest, and then suddenly rain when their rescue attempt starts to work, and you get really unnatural sequence of events which feel "created" to fill the episode rather than having a natural flow.

Character wise, its too early to really critique, but I did enjoy the performance of Will Robinson.

All-in-all, this episode does contain some the adventuresome atmosphere that its predecessors had, and there may still be promise yet for the rest of the season.

Helix (2014–2015)

Good concept, bad delivery

[6/10 · 29 January 2018]

To start off with the good, I will say that the show "sounds" very appealing (deadly virus outbreak on a massive secluded base in the arctic). The general setting/premise is solid.

The show fails however in many facets. The acting ranges from mediocre to sub-standard, though I don't blame the actors. While I can't say I enjoyed any of the performances, The writing is where the show falls apart.

If you tasked someone to find a team of writers to do a project, but instead of doing any work finding the right writers, they just hired a football team (no offence to football teams here), you would have the quality of writing in this show.

The characters typically do not act rationally (rationally referring to how a person might normally act under the same circumstances). Conflict feels like it is created on the spot, and often leads to very unrealistic sequences of events.

The show has poor dialog, and very undefined characters (their personalities seem to change radically without a proper basis as to why).

I could go on, but I would like to end on a positive note.

Despite having it's serious flaws, you may find yourself still willing to endure this series. It has mystery, it has action, it has zombie-ish themes, and from time-to-time has a few moments.

The Last Man on Earth (2015–2018)

I love it. Just love it.

[9/10 · 12 January 2018]

I don't really care for watching comedy shows are going out to see a funny movie. But when a friend of mine recommended I see this one anyways, I took their word and was not disappointed.

This show is full of silly, but well orchestrated humor. There are moments where I laughed so hard I was in tears, there were bittersweet moments, and many moments where you just go "this is brilliant".

Honestly, the name says it all. Ask yourself, what are some crazy and stupid things you would do if you were the last man on earth?

The Exorcist (2016–2018)

Very mediocre, Maybe some will like it, but I didn't

[5/10 · 8 October 2017]

Based on all the decent reviews, I certainly let my expectations for this show be higher than they should have been.

I was hoping for something that at the very least, if you watched alone in a dark room at night, you might feel the thrill of fear through one or more well written scenes. That however never happened.

This felt like the show "Supernatural" if you removed all the good characters, then removed all form of comedy. What you are left with is a very mediocre, dare I say "cheesy" plot that drags on far longer than it should have.

If there is one thing that really ruins a good movie or series, it's stupid characters. We have a priest (Father Marcus), who for the most part seems pretty bad-ass, but for 80% of the season, hes absolutely useless. He is an exorcist that cant do a single exorcism. Then you have Father Tomas, who is basically a walking soap opera.

The only characters I actually enjoyed were the father (Alan Ruck) and The salesman (demon).

Alan ruck - well you just cant dislike his portrayal. I found this character to be very genuine as a father recovering from brain injury.

Robert Emment Lunney also fulfills his roll as a demon quite well. The way he creeps into Casey's life, then befriending her, then torturing her is very dark and sinister. The only flaw to this character were the dubbed scenes where his voice was used over the girl's.

All-in-all I give this show 5/10.