Change Your Image
aebrighton
Reviews
Damsel (2024)
Intriguing Premise; Well Written Characters; Flawed Execution
Last week, my family sat down to watch this movie after Easter dinner. From the trailer, it had a little bit of everything we could've wanted from a movie. Set in a world reminiscent of medieval times with fantasy elements such as dragons, and a female protagonist; this movie seemed like a recipe for success in our eyes. By the time we'd finished it though, we were left feeling disappointed.
The problem with this movie is that it spends a lot of time in the cave with barely enough runtime to cover the final confrontation and the epilogue. It feels like the writers realized at the last minute that they had forgotten to write the former and quickly put something together. This is one of those movies that could have benefited from being a bit longer.
That aside, there is another small nitpicky gripe I had with this movie. While our protagonist is in the cave, she finds a safe spot where the previous princesses wrote their names down and drew a map on the walls. There, she learns of an exit that she needs to climb through crystals to reach. This is a false hope though, as our lead finds. While we were watching this segment, I thought this was going to lead to a twist where in actuality, some of the princesses did make it out. If a princess was resourceful, and used whatever means she could to make it through the cave alive, then that meant she had proven herself and was worthy of being the queen. It still would've been extremely misogynistic, but I genuinely believe that would've been more interesting than what actually happened.
Besides that, everything else about this movie is fine. The characters are well-written and interesting, and the casting is good although Angela Basset's British accent could noticeably work. I did think the lighting during the cave scenes was fine for the most part, which was a pleasant surprise.
Now, would I recommend this movie? It depends. My family did walk into it with high expectations, but if you're just looking for something to watch, it's not a bad choice.
Turnabout: An Ace Attorney Musical (2022)
It's Ace Attorney 1, but with a twist!
Yello, so I am the first person to review this masterpiece of fiction, and hopefully I shall not disappoint!
Turnabout: An Ace Attorney Musical, otherwise known as TAAAM, is a glorious work of art. Filled with over three hours of music that absolutely slaps; wonderful voice acting; and of course a retelling of the game we all know and love; this musical is sure to be something that'll reside in your brain rent free. That last part comes from personal experience of course.
I would love to rant about this musical, but this is a piece of content that is best experienced rather than talked about. All I can say.is that this adaptation condenses and changes certain things about the plot which only enhance the plot of the first game. As someone who has played the first game (Turnabout Sisters especially) more times than the casual fan would be comfortable with, this serves as quite a refreshing change of pace. It makes me think of ordering a glass of lemonade to sip on during the summer, but to your surprise, the server actually gave you a glass of strawberry lemonade instead. My analogy doesn't make much sense,I know, but just think of the lemons.
Now, let me discuss the many ways to consume TAAAAM. TAAAAM was initially posted on YT with its two Acts separated which was done to provide an audiovisual experience; with the visuals being provided through Objection.lol. This of course is not just a straight translation of the audio to visuals; as the video team (who worked EXTREMELY hard on this) included, among other things, visual gags and Easter eggs (such as references to other titles in the series) that only add to this musical's rewatch bonus.
For those who prefer to have something to listen to, there is an audio-only version of the musical available to listen to on Youtube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts. It's absolutely fantastic if you want to listen to the musical in the background while doing other things!
So, in conclusion, TAAAM not good. It great, it fantastic! Sincerely, if you love Ace Attorney or can't play it but want to experience it anyway, this is a MUST WATCH! I can not express enough how much of a good idea that is!
Anyway, with that being said. Anna out!