ViciousCXY Reviews

Sound of Freedom (2023)

There should be NO conflict of interest here.

[10/10 · 3 September 2023]

Simply put, this isn't a film where there should be conflict of interest. If you do not like this movie, and I don't mean you don't like the music or the cinematography, I mean the whole purpose of this film, you are on the list of people to watch out for.

This movie presents a real life situation that's going on whilst you watch it, whilst you read these reviews. Not only that, the story is based on a real story in itself; which they give you video evidence of to show the raid that happened in real time where they rescued trafficked children. They show you a peace of factual history with video proof and a court hearing that changed how child trafficking is handled in the States, and there's still people that try to tell you it's a conspiracy theory?? NO. This movie is NOT about elites harvesting adrenochrome from children. This story is based on real people. Real criminals. Real children.

When watching this movie, I found out that it was made 5 YEARS AGO. And has had people trying to stop it left right and centre. But here it is today, and I implore you to go and watch it in the cinema whilst you can.

Do not listen to these for better words, suspicious people, that try to convince you it's some how a controversial take to be anti-child trafficking? I'm looking at you The Guardian >_>

Insidious: The Red Door (2023)

It's alright

[6/10 · 11 July 2023]

Now that there's 5 Insidious movies, I'd say I'd put this at 3rd or 4th for me personally.

The movie basically follows the family 10 years later, Dalton and Josh don't remember their time in the further, and have ultimately grown apart. You watch as they rediscover their abilities to astral project, and the same red-faced demon tries to possess Dalton once more.

I'd say you get a couple of good jump scares out of it, but there's just something notably missing when you compare it to the first 2 in particular. In my opinion, the new look for the demon wasn't as spooky as the first time we get a good look at him behind Josh in the first movie.

The spirits are a lot more fluid, whereas something I liked in the others was that they would stop and start. You see longer interactions between ghosts and people, and The Further feels easier for the characters to navigate. Generally I think there's an Insidious-specific spook factor that's just missing this time.

The lines sometimes are weirdly written, I can't imagine someone addressing their younger brother as "little brother" but that's there. Dalton has become a little irritating as he's entered his angsty teen era of "I hate my dad". Honestly even though I'm grateful that the story brought back the original family, my favourite character was actually Dalton's new college friend, Chris; who came across like the most relatable one there.

I think the story mostly falls off at the end. Some slightly cringe and unnecessary choices were made, some choices that I think should've been different in order to link into other seemingly important/stressed concepts earlier in the film...

I think still think it's worth a watch. It's not terrible, but it's not brilliant.

Evil Dead Rise (2023)

Loved it, probably my favourite.

[9/10 · 1 May 2023]

I really really enjoyed this movie, and it probably is my favourite Evil Dead film.

It's a shame that some people seem to really dislike it, and I actually like it so much that I feel like I have to defend it! XD But all points are valid: Good or bad.

The movie is fast paced, which I appreciated; it gets straight to the point, straight to the spooks and gore, whilst still building your knowledge of the main characters' stories beyond the demonic possessions.

In my opinion, Alyssa Sutherland was sooo good at playing our main villain, and I think her performance is probably the reason I enjoyed it so much.

I think it has everything you could want in an Evil Dead movie, I've seen it twice now and would watch it again. I hope more people enjoy it like I did!

Peter Pan & Wendy (2023)

You might as well just watch the 2003 release.

[3/10 · 1 May 2023]

I actually had decent hopes for this live action remake. I really enjoy the story of Peter Pan and I can't say how many different versions I've seen of the story.

From the trailers I thought it looked really fun and well-made, some people complain about the darkness which is fair, I thought it was difficult to see things going on sometimes, but I think the darkness works with this story; it definitely did in 2003.

I'll have to say I was disappointed in this movie. The acting wasn't great for some, especially the boy that played Peter which.. Is a pretty essential role. His acting was very wooden, one-toned projection in his voice, there was no difference to when he was happy, sad, excited, sorry.. Generally you don't learn to feel anything for his character, and even though he's supposed to be one of, if not, THE main character, he feels like a background element to most of the movie. To be honest, Wendy felt more like Peter Pan in this movie.

My favourite characters out of this movie were actually Tinkerbell and Tiger Lily. The two actresses stood out from the rest simply because their acting was good. As background characters, for me they stood out against the rest of the cast.

Genuinely I would say if you have to choose 1 Peter Pan film to watch, just spend your time watching the 2003 release. The acting is great, the visuals are great, there's more emotion, and the story flows so much better than Disney's version, making it overall just more enjoyable and easy to watch.

Earwig and the Witch (2020 TV Movie)

I don't know where this was meant to go

[3/10 · 11 March 2023]

It feels like if it was just done a slightly different way, it could've been good.

1. The 3D computer animation is a shame. When I think of Ghibli, I think of their time, effort and skill when it comes to their contribution to 2D hand made animation.

2. There's parts of the story that feel like they should have been more fleshed out but never were.

3. The story drags but there doesn't seem to be much story at all. I really couldn't tell you the premise of this film.

4. The ending was very abrupt. It came out of nowhere and I was genuinely confused that it had ended the way it did.

Overall.. This feels like it would've worked better as maybe a children's animated series? Either the writer didn't know where the story was going at all, or they had so much they wanted to tell and couldn't tell it in the time given.

The Father (I) (2020)

A Heartbreaking Reality

[10/10 · 27 February 2023]

When the trailer for this movie came out, I remember thinking that it was going to be a spooky film, about an old man's daughter trying to make him feel like he was losing his mind in order to get his property. After watching the film, it's so interesting to see that that perspective is like Anthony's perspective throughout the movie, it was like the trailer made you feel what he was feeling; I don't know if that was intentional, if it was, very well done.

This story is heart breaking. You basically watch as this elderly man slips further and further into dementia, until he eventually regresses into his child self. He feels as though people are constantly out to get him, and sometimes you don't know it they are or they aren't; telling this story from his perspective allows you to go through a disorienting experience that gets you to put pieces together and interpret things in different ways, which I so appreciate more than maybe showing it from the daughter's perspective, where it would end up just being a series of linear events.

I'd recommend this to anyone that can watch something like this. If you've had experience with people that have dementia, it'll probably hit close to home. It definitely gets tears out of me no matter how many times I watch it.

M3GAN (2022)

It's basically the Child's Play remake but better?

[7/10 · 15 January 2023]

Watching the trailers I thought that this movie was going to be more cringe than scary; but it was actually a pretty solid horror movie throughout.

Now don't get me wrong, there were definitely some moments of cringe... Every now and then M3gan likes to break out into song. I thought ok, maybe you can get away with her first number. But when she broke out into singing Titanium? That made me sit there and just think 'Why??'.. A very on-the-nose choice if it was literally because she's made from titanium.

The story of the movie basically plays out like the Child's Play remake. An AI doll gets attached to a child, goes rouge and starts killing people because of what it learns, eventually tries to kill the child, and even sings songs; right down to singing a song in an attempt to get the child not to kill them.

Now even though the stories are pretty similar, Imo I'd say that M3gan does it better. Probably sinful to say because it's Chucky, but I think this movie is more replayable than the Child's Play remake.

I expected the movements of the doll to be TOO fluid after seeing her dance in the trailers, but actually that wasn't really an issue when watching it as her movements were still quite robotic most of the time. I also liked the robotic tone to her voice, especially when she was imitating others.

However, what I would pick at as a negative was probably just how human she became. I get it, she's learning and improving herself all the time. But she is an AI and not something that's possessed. She seemed to have more malicious intent when she'd kill someone from the things she'd say, rather than that just being what she thought was right to do. She started using terms like "You're exhausting" again, shouldn't really be able to experience exhaustion, etc. Since she's just a robot, I personally would've preferred there to be less emotion to why she was doing things and for it to have been that she did them just BECAUSE she was trying to do her 1 job and taking things very literally, such as Jemma telling her that 'death isn't a big deal because everything dies'.

I'll also pick at the fact that I don't think it was the right choice to have her try and kill Katie at the end. After all, protecting Katie's physical and mental wellbeing was her only goal, that was why she was supposedly doing all of this to begin with.

But even though I can pick at things, I did enjoy it, which is why I'm giving it 7/10. Like I said, I think it's really replayable and just generally a good watch. Really well made and wasn't disappointed.

Chucky (I) (2021– )

It's just gotten too silly for me

[5/10 · 26 November 2022]

I thought season one was pretty decent, it was good to have Chucky back especially as a series.

Season 1 definitely out shines season 2 by a long shot to me. To be honest, during my run of S2 at one point I said "This is actually getting embarrassing".

I don't particularly think our main cast of kids are very likeable, but they were easier to watch in the first season. Jake constantly scrunches his face and bounces his shoulders up and down when he breathes, Devon is overbearingly the voice of reason and makes you wonder why he even bothers with his companions, and Lexy is still full of melodramatic angst.

There never really seems to be any stakes in this 2nd season especially, everyone that dies is someone that was just introduced an episode or so ago and you don't really care about them; besides Nadine who I actually really enjoyed, but sad to say I appreciated her death as FINALLY someone you actually got to know died.. But don't worry, she weirdly shows up next episode as some angel with LED blue light wings.

Chucky and Tiffany are shadows of their former selves until maybe the last 1 or 2 episodes, but other than that have been quite irritating for me personally, Tiffany was constantly over the top, Chucky's jokes never landed... Honestly I think the best acting in this was by Lachlan Watson; They played Glen/Glenda so well, honestly I thought they were two separate people who were either twins or just looked very similar lmao ;-;

Too much back and forth and so much going on but at the same time I felt like I could go on my phone for half the episodes and still know what was going on if I tuned back in later on.

If there is a 3rd season.. I don't really expect much for it as I don't know what else they could really do (Especially if they've actually killed off Tiffany)?

If I had one word of advise for the writer(s), please avoid the sort of stuff where bald Chucky had a weird mix of an Italian/Russian accent and started having 'Vietnam flashbacks' when he died??

It got too silly this season (2) for me. I hope they move in a better direction if there is a S3.

Disenchanted (2022)

I thought it was good for a Disney sequel

[7/10 · 20 November 2022]

I never really hold out too much hope for Disney sequels just.. Based off of their track record of making pretty poor ones (all based off my own opinion ofc), but I actually thought this sequel was pretty good?

It didn't give you a repeat of the same story but modernised like Hocus Pocus 2 did; it went down the path of basically showing that you don't need a fairy tale life to live happily(ever after).

It was really fun to see Giselle get to become the villain of the story, I actually thought she was really fun to watch as a wicked step mother and that she played the role very well.

I wouldn't say it's a film you'd think was BETTER than the first one, but I think it's pretty on par.

Wendell & Wild (2022)

I appreciate it

[6/10 · 12 November 2022]

I really appreciate movies that take the time to make the story stop motion. You always seem to end up with more stylised characters and environments, and that's what you get with this movie. The designs for some of the characters are not easy on the eyes to say the least, and that's not a criticism! It goes really well with the tone of the film.

My favourite part was probably getting to see Jordan Peele as Wild. His character design is clearly based on his own features, and his little demon figure is pretty cute and funny.

The story seemed a little all over the place. There was a lot going on but it felt a lot longer than it needed to be to get to the outcome at the end. Kat was a nicely designed character and you get to see a lot of the reasons why she is the way she is, but even though the film felt like it went on for so long and she is the main girl, it still didn't feel like you got to 'know' her that much at the same time; sometimes it felt a little hard to get past her angsty side, which I think might've been the way to feeling more connected to her if they focused a little bit more on her in that sense.

I really did think this was going to be one of my favourite films, but it fell a little flat for me. But at the same time I don't think it's a bad movie by any stretch of the means; it's good to look at, it's funny, and goes into great real-world topics that I don't think I've really seen other movies go into before. So even if it fell a little flat for me, I'd still recommend you watch it.

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022)

You can't base your feelings on this movie on the absence of Chadwick Boseman

[8/10 · 12 November 2022]

I've seen a few lower ratings where the biggest reason for the rating seems to be the absence of Chadwick Boseman's Black Panther; to rate your feelings on this film based on him not physically being there is just unfair. He and everyone else involved didn't really have much of a choice for him not to be in it. So what was the other options? Never make another Black Panther film? Deep fake him for the rest of his MCU appearances?

This sequel was a great tribute to Chadwick. A great sequel overall. And for me personally, I might prefer it based mostly around the villain(s).

There were a lot of unfair comments based around the actor playing Namor before anyone actually got to see him portray the character. Mostly based around his looks. In my opinion, he did a great job at portraying this character; you could empathise with him and his people, whilst they also came across as very intimidating and pretty spooky at times. Also Namor is actually very easy on the eyes if I do say so myself 😌

Riri Williams didn't irk the way people made her out she would, obviously basing their initial opinions on the comic version of her which is fair. But she came across as pretty grounded and likeable to me.

The soundtrack was fantastic and I have no complaints in terms of VFX. The actors' performances were top notch as to be expected.

So generally, no complaints from me. Marvel chose a great film to end Phase 4 👏🏻

Fall (I) (2022)

Made me nervous and now my feet are all sweaty

[8/10 · 7 November 2022]

I usually lean towards horror movies over thrillers, im always trying to find something that puts me on edge, but it turns out this did that for me.

If you have a fear of open heights, and you want to feel that sinking feeling in your stomach, I'd say give this a shot.

I've read the reviews of people who point out the characters' lack of equipment or knowledge on climbing, even though they're seemingly supposed to be avid climbers; but you know, if they'd brought a 200m rope to get down with, the movie would've been pretty short.

If you're watching this thinking 'I wouldn't have done that' you'll probably roll your eyes at some of the decisions made or.. Not made. But I think if we were all making these decisions, none of this would've happened in the first place because we would not have climbed the 200m tower.

Don't Worry Darling (I) (2022)

Don't understand the 1 stars

[8/10 · 29 October 2022]

I'm all for differing opinions but a lot of the low reviews for this movie seem to be for whatever controversy went on in the actors' personal lives, or because you went to watch it in cinemas and got annoyed by other people watching it; basically just not rating the actual movie itself.

I thought it was a very good psychological horror type film. I'd say I'm pretty decent at predicting plots, but I didn't predict this one which makes it all the more entertaining to me. It gave me vibes of other movies I've watched like Get Out or Vivarium, both of which I really enjoy too.

I can't narrow down what "plot holes" people are talking about, or how the plot was confusing when it all gets tied up at the end when the truth comes to light.

All in all I'd recommend this to anyone that has the capability of paying attention to a maybe a little bit of a slow-burning plot.

Jeepers Creepers: Reborn (2022)

Jeepers Creepers Portrays Franchise Creator as he Steals Kids

[1/10 · 8 October 2022]

The title is a joke, just like this movie.

Oh my God it's so bad? Like.. They really told us that this was going to reinvent the franchise. This is an absolute embarrassment of a film with the worst CGI I've seen in a LONG time; most of the things in this didn't even NEED CGI but they decided that their horrendous greenscreening was just a better idea than filming in a real location. The acting matches the CGI, along with the storyline that introduces the fact that for some reason, Creepers wants to rip out a freshly implanted foetus to.. Live forever? What?

Honestly this film is terrible. Please do not spend any money on this, I'd even beg you not to waste time downloading it, watching it, or even processing in your own mind what you just watched.

The Invitation (II) (2022)

It could've been better

[5/10 · 8 October 2022]

So I thought it was pretty good up until the 3rd act. The build up was decent, and then the reveal and the end were so.. Rushed and cringey. I was actually surprised by how bad it got towards the end considering I was initially quite enjoying it. There's the typical casual racism tropes thrown in as there is in more recent movies, because it simply can't be a movie with deeper meaning than having some sort of racist tone, that seemed entirely misplaced the entire movie. I initially made a joke about a comment at the beginning of the movie, where one of the characters stated that British people apologise a lot because of "their colonial guilt", joking that it gets a 1/10 just for that cringe comment. But I just shrugged it off as a maybe-one-time-thing. It isn't. It persists throughout the whole movie.

Basically, it seems like they had SOMETHING good here that they were close to getting it right.. But the ending really throws it off and the consistency of attempting to make crude remarks about people's race or sex distracts from anything meaningful they could've presented.

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022)

I love it

[10/10 · 8 May 2022]

I absolutely adore this movie! I'm actually sad that I'll never be able to watch this movie for the first time again. The visuals of the entire film are just beautiful, the cameos are both nostalgic and new, the story is perfect and although a Doctor Strange movie, Scarlet Witch is definitely the icing on top of the cake; I've waited for my two favourite MCU characters to have a movie for a good while now, I finally got it with this, and I couldn't be more happy.

The lower reviews are plagued with people that were a bit spoilt with No Way Home, that listened to rumours not started by people making the film, and got upset when someone like (WS) Blade or Wolverine didn't show up, when they were never going to in the first place.

The Illuminati members weren't "weak", Wanda was STRONG, this is literally what Strange tries to warn them about the entire time that they're there, and you're confused why.. He ended up being right?

America is a lovely character, from previous low reviews complaining about her character, I thought we were going to see her sexuality be a massive part of her character... Surprise, surprise, it wasn't. She never even mentions her sexuality. She only mentions that "they're my mums" when explaining a memory to Strange. This was literally in a different universe where there could literally only be women. Nothing is "forced down your throat" in the slightest.

There are some very picky and spoilt people leaving the lower reviews. Don't get me wrong, it might not be your sort of movie, but I can honestly say that this is my favourite Marvel film, and you get so much from just a 2 hour movie.

Doctor Who: Legend of the Sea Devils (2022) Season Unknown, Episode Unknown

Filler

[3/10 · 18 April 2022]

Why is Chibnal so obsessed with Moffat's era? Would really appreciate it if he'd stop making Matt Smith references and linking it to his dog writing; this man wrote into this episode specifically that The Doctor would choose Yaz over River Song. Literally this one thing made this episode annoying, but then again it wouldn't take much with how his story telling has been going. Your empty characters still don't have nearly as much depth as Moffat's OR Davis. This episode was AGAIN, filler. An episode that gave us nothing but another attempt at bringing back classic characters after he realised his "I want an entirely new audience" scheme failed. It looked cheaper than other episodes, but I'll put it down to the COVID restrictions they mentioned. Jodie's doctor yet again let someone sacrifice themselves with basically no argument just a 'thanks for that bye'. Overall, it was going fine up until the River part for me, it's clear that all this man does is lick his own arse with everything he writes. The only way he could redeem himself in MY eyes would be by making the Timeless Child the Master.

Moon Knight: The Goldfish Problem (2022) Season 1, Episode 1

Great opening episode

[10/10 · 2 April 2022]

It's a great set up, and that's what the first episode of most series are: A set up for the rest of the series.

People are moaning about how you don't see Moon Knight until the end of the episode.. Yeah.. It's a set up. You're lucky you lot even got to see him in the first episode considering you didn't get to see Dare Devil's full suit until the second season.

The CGI isn't terrible. I would honestly like to see these same people complaining about the CGI do better. As for there being "too much CGI" you literally only see two full body CGI models out of the 47 minute long episode; which don't look bad by any stretch of the means.

Steven was very likable and different to any personality we've seen in the MCU so far, and it opens up an exciting new corner of the MCU.

I have nothing negative to say about this first episode.

Doctor Who: Flux: Chapter Four - Village of the Angels (2021) Season 13, Episode 4

Good but inconsistent character lore

[8/10 · 2 December 2021]

It was a solid episode and I'm happy Chibnal is showing off what he can actually do. The Weeping Angels are my favourite Doctor Who alien, so maybe I'm a bit bias and just liking it because of them, but I genuinely feel as though it was overall, well thought out... Apart from some inconsistencies in their law: Their Canon law is that when you're looking at them, they cannot move, they aren't a living being, an extension of their law by their creator Moffat, was that when in desperation, they can take a humans vocal cords, reanimated them, and use their voice to communicate. In this episode, the angels seem to be able to use people's voices just by hearing them speak, not only that, when Jericho looks at them to stop the angels in their tracks before they can make it further into the basement.. They respond to him using his voice, even though at that point they should just be stone. Another inconsistency is that apparently, now even if you're looking at the angels, if you touch them, they'll send you back in time -Even though in previous episodes, we've seen this happen and they don't go back in time, why? Because they're looking at them.. Making them just stone.. Now, again, it's a solid episode and it's nice to see that he can do good things, but ya know.. If you're going to play around with someone elses character, just make sure you make it consistent.

Music (I) (2021)

A struggle to watch

[2/10 · 14 February 2021]

Based on my morals, I REALLY want to give this a 1.. But at the same time, it's a pretty film with good dance numbers in it.

The film centres around an autistic girl that's being looked after by her half sister after her mum(?) dies, then having to watch her struggle as she slowly tries to understand and cope with how to look after her sister. I understand what the movie is trying to do, I haven't taken it out of context, but I am appalled to see an abled person portraying a severely autistic child; if it was a mild form of autism with more subtle traits, I'd probably give it a pass. But it is so uncomfortable and quite upsetting to watch someone basically make a caricature of a disabled person, pulling ridiculous faces, making noises constantly, and distorting her own voice to mimic what I suspect they believe autistic people sound like?

I do not understand why they couldn't cast an autistic child to play the lead, whilst keeping Maddie for the dance numbers. It makes me even more uncomfortable to hear that Maddie herself was upset to be forced into playing this role. The story itself doesn't even elicit any kind of emotion because of the offense this choice in casting has already caused. It comes across as though the film wants to tell an uplifting story, but it just feels like you've watched something wrong.

As someone who has plenty of experience with autistic adults and children, it's upsetting to see a portrayal of autism which just reinforces the negative stereotypes forced onto them. My advice? Actually learn about the things you want to represent. Sia claimed that she didn't do enough research, that she listened to the wrong people, and is "a little bit ableist", which begs the question: Why make this movie?

Although Sia is an incredible musician, if this is what she deems acceptable for film, she should stick to music.

Strange Magic (2015)

Why is anyone giving this a rating of over 3?

[3/10 · 13 February 2021]

Where are all these 10/10 ratings coming from? Did I watch the same movie as everyone else? I'll take inspiration from Amber Heard's deranged mind and come to the conclusion that you're all just being paid for these outlandish reviews. I have watched EraserHead, I have watched all of the Human Centipede movies, The Room, Tall Girl, etc. But this? I would never want to watch again. The only reason I'm giving a 3 is because the animation is quite good, and the imp possum thing is cute.

The story is something a child would come up with in creative writing class, and oh my god the songs; every 2 minutes you get some ridiculous out of place pop song that are made worse by the actual singing of the voice actors themselves. There's more singing than actual talking. None of the characters are likeable, especially our lead protagonist who becomes all edgy after getting her heart broken in the first like 3 minutes of the movie; her entire personality shifted.

Just because this is primarily targeted at children, it doesn't mean that they deserve this drivel. There are plenty of child targeted movies that are far better than this. So, your child might like it, but for the love of god do not allow them to have it on repeat - You will go insane.

Four Kids and It (2020)

2 at MOST

[2/10 · 21 December 2020]

Honestly I can't really pick out anything that was good about this movie.. The kids in it, SO unlikeable, ESPECIALLY Smash; you know you've made a bad move when the main protagonists, the ones you're supposed to route for, is just someone you want off screen. The CGI in this movie, for 2020, is an absolute embarrassment. At one point they're flying through the air, and I haven't seen green screening that bad since the 1970s; you can achieve semi-realistic greenscreening with a shoe-string budget so I do not understand what the excuse was for this movie. Also, could you have gotten a more irritating and irrelevant actor to play your villian? Russel Brand spends most of his time spouting conspiracy theories on YouTube, if this was his attempt at getting back into the mainstream, if anything it's just proven why he isn't a part of it anymore.

Honestly, you're wasting your time with this film. If you want to watch the story of 5 Children and It play out, I highly recommend you just stick with the 2004 version, where the characters, acting, CGI, and everything else, is just better.

Annie (2014)

It's not a 1 star..

[3/10 · 21 December 2020]

Uhh, so it came out in 2014 but I'm rewatching it and decided to come see it the reviews reflect how I feel about it.

The target audience is definitely children, it's much harder in my opinion for anyone with an actual concept of what is good and bad to enjoy. I've noticed that with modern films or TV shows, a lot of the time child actors REALLY over-act, which is what happens in this film, a lot of mediocre drama-kid acting; which I guess annoys me since you'd think as we improve with time, that the standards of acting would also improve or at least.. Not stoop too low. It's also weird how with modern movies we just NEED to auto-tune singing, and badly at that. Why not just hire someone who can actually sing? Just listening to this new rendition of 'Tomorrow' makes me wince. Any warmth and spirit seems to have been sapped out of the movie with it's new modern setting, everything comes across as being really superficial, and even though the characters are nice, you never get to the point of really liking them.

I'm giving it a 3 because the movie does still have structure, the characters are consistent throughout and there's no continuity inconsistencies.. But then again, all their key story points have already been laid out for them with the original Annie.

High School Musical: The Musical: The Series (2019–2023)

What a waste of time and money..

[4/10 · 28 September 2020]

As a fan of the films I was interested to know where this series would go.. And sat through the entire thing without having anything valuable added to my time.

First off, this show might as well have been a teen drama on it's own. It doesn't NEED to reference High School Musical and it seems to just use it as a way to get old viewers to watch.. Which I suppose it achieved. However, since it does have HSM in it's title, this does cause it to be compared to the original films; leaving it to come across as being even worse than it is.

The characters in this series are borderline insufferable, and the characters you'll enjoy the most are side characters that hold most of the comedic value. The main characters are whiny and melodramatic with their mediocre, redundant problems, that they almost seem to cry about nearly every minute. Maybe it's an American thing, but they're either REALLY hype or REALLY sad, we love a bit of passion, but not so much that we despise your achievements.

For this series to be considered a musical, you would think that you might come out of it with a few new songs that could pass as re-playable, but you don't. At least you get to hear their again, not-so-memorable renditions of the original HSM songs.

It attempts to be a comedy by filming the series like it's The Office?.. Whilst also being Glee? The clear lack of identity within this series is one of its biggest downfalls, as it fails to have the comedic value of The Office or the charm of Glee. Are you a story? Or a documentary?

On a separate note, this part is almost a response to another review, which has grabbed my attention because of its sheer stupidity; you do not need qualifications in film to see that this series is below average. I don't know how you have been a 'film critic' since 'you were a child' (?) But I think that if you really do have those qualifications in film, then you need to go back and check what you missed, since you clearly don't understand what cinematography is; hint, it has nothing to do with the 'script' or 'good singers', it's literally the way the series is shot, which is almost as questionable as your review. -Shame you can't respond to people's reviews-

Anyway, we all know that Disney is having a bit of phase where they keep going back to old classics and redoing them. When will they learn to not attempt to fix something that isn't broken?..

This series is not soaring nor flying, it will never bop to the top, and you all need to get your heads in the game, and realise that the boys are never coming back.

Mulan (2020)

Outrage over nothing

[7/10 · 4 September 2020]

First of all, don't understand why people are throwing such a fit over this movie. I expected some lower reviews simply just for the actress who played Mulan (who was brilliant by the way), but I've come across more reviews that just show people's arrogance peeping through, bashing the movie because it's 'not how they remember it' or 'want it to be'. Remember, this story is a Chinese story and the movie follows Chinese themes and traditions like upholding family honour. The movie keeps it's empowering story, whilst being more serious than the animated version, it keeps the heart of the original; not to mention the beautiful cinematography.

Most of these reviews are blabbering on about characters like Mushu the dragon, or the missing musical numbers. If you want to watch something exactly like the Mulan cartoon, then go and watch that.

Overall the movie is a lot better than it's being credited for.