Smiling_slinky Reviews

Rebel Moon - Part One: A Child of Fire (2023)

Enjoyable, visually interesting space fantasy

[7/10 · 22 December 2023]

I knew not to expect much from this movie when it was so lazily based on 7 samurai, which has been done to death 100s of times, but I enjoyed it for what it is.

I appreciate the grounded feel of a lot of practical filming. I appreciate a lot of visuals I haven't seen before (maybe these are lifted from obscure media from years past, but its new to me). I enjoy Snyder's pacing and action scenes.

I'm not a Snyder fan per se, and going back to my first comment I'll agree all day long that he should never be writing because he couldn't even come up with an original story for his dream sci fi project, instead doing the extremely tired 7 samurai story. But, I do think he's polarizing, and there is undue criticism here simply do to his style and clichés being so well known. So many people are so well versed on Snyder criticism that it's all they can see, and they can't just settle down and watch the movie first. I think it was Lincoln who said you will always find bad if you look for it.

There is plenty to enjoy here, and I think in years to come Rebel Moon will be appreciated more. There have been a few movies that on first watch I had a lot of criticism for, but years later I found I enjoyed them for what they were and they became favorites. I get a lot of those same feelings with Rebel Moon, and I think there is enough of interest here to give it legs. Realizing there is a part 2 coming, and extended versions of both films, there will be a lot for future rewatches, and I think that will help it.

The Boy and the Heron (2023)

Utter lack of storytelling

[1/10 · 18 December 2023]

I'm not afraid to say the emperor has no clothes. This film has only 2 story points, boy can't get over mother's death, boy can't accept step mom as new mom. The film then goes on to not have 99% of the content of the film be relevant to these story points. There is no storytelling going on here. Truly bizarre, and not from a create standpoint, as this is not a creative fantasy world. It's utterly dull, and banal. A world with an island, some birds, some more birds, some floaty wisps. Ships in the distance that are phantoms or something. For the entire movie I was searching for some kind of story to grab onto, but there was nothing. Can't account for the popularity aside from name recognition.

John Wick: Chapter 4 (2023)

Descended into Parody

[2/10 · 20 April 2023]

I haven't written a review on IMDB in a while, but after watching JW4 last night I wanted to get my thoughts out there, although they are seemingly against the majority of fans and reviewers out there.

My thoughts on the series as a whole are that #1 was something special. It made me and many of its fans feel something when we watched it. It had emotional impact and weight, that really was the core of the movie. Sure the action was innovative and fantastic, and Keanu was awesome, but it was all meaningful and heavy.

Number #2 did a lot of things wrong that started the downfall of the series. The lore of the continental assassins universe was just botched plain and simple, and it lead to horrible writing decisions. Instead of John taking on a mission of his own will like the first, a new rule is invented as a plot devise to "make" him do something, which was pointless anyway because he then tries to kill the guy who is making him do all this anyway. Then instead of being an amazing assassin and figuring out how to kill the guy, he just breaks the main rule and gets everyone rightfully against him because he broke the one rule. It also introduced the stupid invincible suits that was the first step into fantasy and superpowers.

#3 was a huge downgrade further, with far more ridiculous continental lore, terrible writing like having John do one thing, only to undo that by doing the opposite which he could have done in the first place, even more fantasy magic suit nonsense, and multiple massive injuries that should have killed him, like cars hitting him and falling off a building onto metal railing.

After hearing great things about it from personalities I listened to, I had high hopes that the silliness of #3 would be left behind with #4, but those were lies. #4 doubles, triples, quintuples down on all the worst parts of #3. More stupid suit nonsense. A dog mauling people throughout the movie. Cars hitting John multiple times, and at least deadly falls off buildings that doesn't slow him down. It's as bad as fast and the furious now, maybe even worse.

I was thinking about why it was so bad, and it occurred to me that you really couldn't parody this movie. Think about typical John Wick clichés that you could parody. Maybe having a joke of him shooting someone in the head way too many times when its not necessary, oh wait this has that already. Having him fall from obviously deadly height, only to brush it off and get up, oh it has that. Have him get hit by 5 cars in a row, that would be funny, oh wait they had that too.

Perhaps the worst for me is the ending, and the writing is so bad, I'm not even sure its worth breaking down. None of the writing or decisions make sense, and it seems the writers thought they were being deep, and it seems people are falling for it at the moment. I can only hope that once the hype wears off people can think clearly and realize how awful the story is and

To sum it up, even after #3 I still felt I saw a John Wick movie and hoped they could at least do more of that, but even those low expectations were dashed. From a technical standpoint this movie could be a 6, but making this franchise into a parody of itself is not something I can overlook, and I think it needs to be called out. I was more unhappy than I was happy while watching this, which puts it under 5, and the more I thought about it, the more appalled I became, so in all honesty this is a 2 for me.

In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale (2007)

Actually really decent fantasy movie

[7/10 · 6 April 2021]

Some really nice on location shots, great fight choreography, really entertaining battles. It's not the Lord of the rings, but fantasy movies are few and far between and this one is more than competent. The low rating is really inaccurate in this case.

Sputnik (2020)

Really engaging film

[9/10 · 17 August 2020]

I saw a trailer for this movie on reddit, and thought I would check it out, and I was surprised to find it released recently and gave it a watch. I was really impressed how hooked I was on the mystery. The film is very well done, especially great camera work and sound design. The characters were interesting and kept me watching until the end. I liked the movie all the way through including the ending, which is a rare feat to stick the landing on these types of movies. I enjoyed it very much.

Avengers: Endgame (2019)

Huge mess, nothing like Infinity War, complete opposite

[4/10 · 26 April 2019]

Infinity war was very good, had solid direction, acting from Brolin, and many genuinely moving moments. There was also plenty of comedy, but also plenty of awesome scenes, mainly involving Thor. There was also lots of great character moments.

Endgame ruins everything from Infinity war from the opening bell. It seems they have forgotten how to make movies. The direction and acting is awful, attempting to be serious and have drama, but failing miserably. On almost every technical category I would give this movie a C, direction, acting, editing, score, cinematography, etc.

The battle scenes are just so awful, boring, ugly, lacking an weight, or pace, or anything. The only American director I have seen pull off large battles well is Mel Gibson in The Patriot, We Were Soldiers, and Hacksaw Ridge.

The central plot of this movie is a huge derivative mess, with the plot to get the infinity stones to bring people back lifted whole cloth from Dragon Ball Z (gather those dragon balls and make a wish), and the time travel... Where to begin.

The time travel plot they attempt to be clever by saying time travel doesn't work this way or that, but then go on to make a huge mess of any kind of logic or consistency. They basically just use multiverse theory (ala dragon ball) but then have huge holes throughout. Having seen quite a few excellent takes on time travel, this has to be the most lazy.

Speaking of time travel, that whole section of the movie is just a huge waste of time revisiting the events of past movies, which I see what they were attempting, but just because you have lofty reasons in your head for doing something doesn't make it any less of a poor decision. They thought they were being poetic by heavy handily reminding the audience of the past and tying it together, but that is the most brute force way you could possibly tie the past to the future, by having the characters go back there. Was there nostalgia? Was there warm feelings of seeing those things again? honestly not for me. I don't work like that. I just saw the heavy handedness of it, and it turned me off.

As far as characters go, no one here was used well, and none of the characters had time to really do anything. I was so impressed by how so many characters were handled so well in Infinity War, but this was the complete opposite. Then characters were outright destroyed, Thor, Hulk, Captain America, Iron Man, actually I will stop because I realized they actually ruined all that I can think of, except perhaps for Ant-man. Almost no one here was their character, every single one just about was the same, a cynical, cruel, angry, bad person. Just genuinely bad people, virtue less, nothing good. There was no heroism, none of the good qualities that make you like being around people. I didn't want to spend one minute more with these people.

So to sum it up, this is a bad movie in execution and fundamental story telling. It also fails me personally because I go to a movie about heroes to see heroes, flawed, but with some shred of goodness that makes me like them. No one in this movie is likeable. Maybe Ant-man comes through unscathed.

Scream Queens (2015–2016)

Season 1 is nearly perfect, Season 2 is a disaster

[8/10 · 5 October 2016]

I'm kind of late to the game here, I only just got through Season 1 this week, and started on Season 2. I'm really disappointed with what I am seeing so far in Season 2, and I'm not sure the ship can be righted at this point.

Season 1 hit the ground running from the first minute of episode 1, and the whole first episode was amazing. They really captured lighting in a bottle with a number of aspects of the show that made it endearing including: - Emma Roberts and the writing for her character. The satire of the character sets the tone for the show and the world they live in. The writing is great, but also all the ancillary details of the character, her position at the sorority, her rich lifestyle, her interests and goals in life, they all make the Chanel character and she becomes the glue that holds the whole thing together.

• The dynamic between the Channels. The Channels are a fun little Mean Girls troop, although in comparison to Mean Girls they are a poor imitation. The Plastics were fun, interesting, well written, and well acted down the line, but the Channels really are not. If not for Chanel keeping the dynamic going, and the overall story line, the Channels would be very flat on their own.

• The production. Wow, from top to bottom this felt like a movie. The sets, wardrobe, cameras, lighting, story line, cinematography (so many of the shots were just awe inspiring for me), score, soundtrack (unreal how good the song choices were), etc. I was wrapped up from the beginning and was taking in the setting and story with delight.

• Story, setting, tone. Having a good engaging story to keep the characters with interesting things to do was great. The setting at the University was a lot of fun. The tone was spot on, a fun absurd world where these characters could be their absurd selves, and everything was handled with a fun levity.

• Overall, this was an inspired effort, where they had a vision for something grand, executed at the highest level, and succeeded in many aspects of the show.

I'm certain that it is very difficult to create and write interesting characters with this much dialog for a season long effort like this, and it shows. Many of the characters are very weak, and just not interesting.

Sadly a lot of the actors were also not up to the task, and were not interesting or likable regardless of the writing. Other than the Channels I don't think they were as inspired about the other aspects of the show. Some characters and aspects of the story started strong, but petered out before the halfway point.

This leads into my issues with Season 2, but before that the real segue into disappointment for me, episodes 12 and 13.

They ruined the world they created. The source of the fun and humor of the series is the presentation of different clichéd characters being extreme. The Channels are supposed to be the mean popular girls played up to an absurd level, but it only works if you keep the equilibrium that despite all the crazy stuff they do, there are not real world consequences.

Things in the series don't play out as they would in real life, nor do characters say or respond to things as they would in real life, that is the whole premise.

This was ruined when they had people suddenly start hating Chanel for writing a mean email. The humor is the absurdity of these terrible people being popular, when they wrecked that it pulls apart the whole premise.

When episode 13 rolled around, they took the whole thing apart. They took away everything that made the Channels who they are and destroyed the premise by having the judge address them like it was the real world. They took away their setting at the university, the wardrobe, the other characters, their families, their wealth, which was what made them who they are. By the end the whole show was completed gutted.

Finally, Season 2 rolls around.

The production from Season 1 is gone. Not a single aspect of the production from Season 1 is here. The call backs in the score are even poorly used, and the song selection this time around is off. It has the worst of TV production values, and the whole lure of being like a movie is gone.

They drop everything from the first season, and still try to fit a few of the same characters into a completely different series. Nothing that worked before is here. The setting is gone, everything that made the characters who they are is gone, and they just try to inject the same behaviors into this new setting, and it doesn't work because nothing that made the characters who they are is there.

It is just bizarre to see the returning characters try to interact in this environment, nothing is in character. It's just a broken way of story telling.

They also continue breaking their system by having absurd characters occasionally be held responsible.

Overall I don't think this Season has much hope. Maybe they can somehow turn things around and bring it back to the university, but if not, maybe go back to the drawing board for Season 3 (if they make it that far) and start from scratch to make something new and create more magic.

Wayward Pines (2015–2016)

Season 1 is good to watchable, season 2 starts off in the grave

[5/10 · 25 May 2016]

Season 2 is shockingly awful. From the technical execution, to the acting, the dialog, the writing, everything is worse than any low budget series I have caught in the last 10 years. I was concerned that they wouldn't have a meaningful story to tell after season 1, and so far it is worse than I could have imagined. I'm done, this is just, so, so bad.

Season 1 I liked the first half of the series, the second half was watchable, but not compelling. I did like most of the characters, and I didn't know who to trust or what to believe until the series was mostly over.

Luther (2010–2019)

Interesting, starts good, but not great, rest is rubbish

[2 July 2015]

I was excited to watch Luther, without any expectation I was just curious to see what it would be like. I am a fan of Elba by the way.

The first episode really drew me in as I was impressed with the film-making, cinematography and music. The characters were interesting and I was intrigued by Elba's performance. From episode 1-4 I enjoyed the experience and was really engaged. The episodes after these were another story.

The climactic episodes began off kilter from the start. The kidnapping scenario just felt like something from a super hero movie and not at all realistic and out of step with the tone and setting of the previous episodes. Everything spiraled out of control from then on.

The characterizations of the detective that worked with Luther that started a killing spree was just ridiculous. When he sets up Luther I expected Luther to easily show what a silly plan that was and then start after the detective, but instead everyone else on the police force has gone mad and somehow think that it must have been Luther when Luther is the one who called it in. Beyond belief. From that point on every episode contains:

1. Clueless, worthless, useless police that cannot do their jobs at all.

2. Luther being unable to solve any crime or catch anyone.

3. Tons of awful characters like the head inspector guy.

It is hard to describe my disappointment with the episodes following episode 4. At it's best Luther was only good, other than Elba being a fascinating actor, but after it went off the deep end, it ceased even being entertaining.

Valkyria Chronicles (2009)

Sets a perfect tone for a fantasy and adventure story that few Anime Capture

[9/10 · 24 July 2014]

As a preface, my favorite Anime Series would be Last Exile, so if you have seen that then you know where I am coming from when I say that there are few anime series I have seen that have a lighthearted enough tone to compare well with some of the great action adventure movies that have come out of Hollywood including Star Wars the way Last Exile does. Last Exile was just gentle enough with the fantasy world building to ease my western palate easily into the series. They also had very warm and down to earth characters to root for.

I'm happy that I have found Valkyria Chronicles as it is similar to Last Exile in many ways. The character designs and visuals are similar, the early 1900s, slightly steam punk setting, even the dependence on a fantasy glowing blue power source that is mined. More than the visuals, this series has a gentleness about it, and a grounded, down to Earth, lighthearted tone just like Last Exile, which makes it as easy to watch as a typical American summer Blockbuster.

It falls short of Last Exile in overall story and characters however. Another reason Last Exile is so special is the lack of most common silliness that accompanies anime series. There is a tiny bit, but the least I have ever seen in a series. Valkyria Chronicles has a noticeable amount, which will raise eyebrows of someone who hasn't seen many anime series, but I could overlook them to enjoy the overall goodness present.

I was very happy with the experience, and heartily recommend this series to anyone looking for something fun and rewarding to watch.

Revolution (2012–2014)

Favorite TV series of the last 5 years

[8/10 · 19 October 2012]

I really enjoy Revolution. There is a start for you. I caught a commercial for it while watching the Olympics, and I was genuinely curious about this post-apocalyptic action/adventure series.

To give some background, I don't watch serious TV. I don't like Dr. shows, I didn't like 24, Lost, or countless other serious series because they all suffer from filler and pointless drawn out dialog that is light years from even a decent movie.

Despite these reservations I decided to give Revolution a chance, and was more than pleasantly surprised but rather floored in amazement. Since then I am continued to be impressed that the writers have not sunken to the level of the pointless drivel/time-wasting conversations, but are instead filling each episode with amazing cinematography, great characters, and great action.

The crowd here on IMDb is very strange in that the hipster thing to do seems to be to criticize this show to no end, and hate it. I guess the TV audience that posts on IMDb are not in touch with the average public because everyone I talk to about Revolution loves the show and enjoys it every week.

Revolution satisfies what I look for from cinema in a weekly serial format, and for that I could not be happier, and will continue to enjoy this show.

The Lost Bladesman (2011)

American view, I deeply enjoyed this exceptionally well acted, engaging, thrilling, wonderful title

[9/10 · 2 May 2012]

I really cannot praise it enough. It is probably the best Chinese film I have seen in years, and easily one of the best period films I have seen. Of Donnie's recent films, I really cannot find a comparison, this is truly stellar. Wen Jiang is so amazingly charismatic as Cao Cao. I couldn't help but be engaged whenever he was on screen, he is probably my current favorite actor, including Hollywood. He may be the best actor in the World currently. Betty Sun is very enjoyable in her role, and added another level of depth to the story.

From the opening, I knew I was in for something special. The soundtrack, the cinematography, the acting, just excellent.

In short, if you enjoy Asian Cinema to any degree, this film will be nothing but a delight.

Taken (I) (2008)

Movie that gets everything right (Spoilers)

[10/10 · 19 January 2011]

I took a look a Taken out of curiosity when I read the premise, and could not have believed what I was about to experience, let alone find out later it was a French production. It seems Hollywood just doesn't want to give audiences what they want to see, but Taken does deliver justice in every possible way that a moviegoer could dream of.

Through every scene I found my self with my mouth open saying, "That's what I would of had happen!" How many times do we see in movies like Fast and Furious where even "tough guy" Dom won't blast the bad guy when he has a chance? Taken is the complete opposite. Every opportunity to kill a bad guy is judiciously taken advantage of. I have never been more thrilled by a movie, and everyone I know enjoyed it for the same reasons I did.

In short I would recommend Hollywood make enjoyable movies like Taken, and stop being so philosophical and weak when dealing with the bad guys.

Men in Black: The Series (1997–2001)

Truly Excellent American Animation Series

[16 November 2010]

The MIB Animated series was very enjoyable when I used to watch it. I was impressed at the greater depth in story telling and action compared to other series on US TV. In fact I felt the animated series filled out the characters of K, J, L better than the first film, although I felt Tommy Lee Jones' K was better than the too-serious, monotone, and flat K of the series.

I feel from reading around this show wasn't getting the attention it deserves because when I watched it the series was head and shoulders above other series at holding my interest and being fun.

They had cute parodies like having an Arnold sounding actor taking on the "Predeterminator," having the worms leak the story of the MIB to Hollywood, resulting in a in an animated trailer for the MIB movie, complete with animated Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones. In that way they did a good job of making the series its own entity, away from the film, which some people who didn't follow the series when it was out seem to miss. There were off episodes of course, but for the most part I enjoyed the show very much.

I would go so far as to say the series influenced MIB II, (for worse in my opinion), as rather then keeping with the feel of the first film, it broke off and adding much more worm, who were in character from the series, having all the MIB agents have super human abilities, giving K much less soul than in the first film, spending too much time on random alien characters rather than the main cast, bringing back Jeebs, who was in character with Jeebs from the series. It really was a shame actually, they should have made the film sequel fitting with the first film, and just leaving the series to itself.