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DrAGGill
Reviews
The Batman (2022)
Better than I thought, but...
Watched it when it originally streamed, but didn't expect much (wrong actor for Batman). Fell asleep multiple times - movie was just too slow, horrible pacing. Decided to give it another go with a pre-movie nap. It was much better now that I saw the whole thing, but still too slow. Too often was left thinking - it's over, what? Another 75 minutes?
If I think about it as a variation on an origin story, then the length is needed to show some character growth, introducing the main DC antagonists, etc, while writing Catwoman out of future stories. And at some point it needed to address the Easter egg at the beginning of the movie, hinting that Bruce Wayne is getting close to being broke.
Overall, a balanced movie, but not one I'll ever be watching again.
Don't Look Up (2021)
Hated it, and I loved it
I started this movie late at night, so had to finish the last hour the next evening. All during the day, it kept eating at me - over and over. The actors were all great, even when playing the roles of idiot government leaders. It worked, I hated them, and seeing the clear parallel with the insane idiots playing politics in the Republican Party left me wondering there are more people taking real pot shots at them!
I never knew this was being sold as a comedy - I found nothing funny about it, at best, isolated slight humour. Being an astronomer and sci-fi fanatic myself, it sure made me amazed how foolish the BASH escape ship made them out to be. Has no one ever read anything about first contact? Stay in orbit until all threats can be assessed? Hello! Weapons and general self-defence? That said, there is no way that ark would have survived that long - fail safe tech that lasts tens of thousands of years just doesn't exist, and is not going to be invented in 6 months with no testing. A fitting ending for the morons - they can only hope that they poisoned the local wildlife or introduced new diseases into the biosphere, right?
And as mentioned elsewhere, amateur comet hunters would have found the comet themselves and plotted its course, because it's what they do, and orbital calculations (as long as it bypasses all planets) are pretty straightforward these days.
Star Trek: The Next Generation: The Dauphin (1989)
Best scene did not involve Wes or Worf....
A decent episode, the teen angst worked well enough, but for me the highlight was how Guinan and Riker sold their flirting showcase to Wesley. Just a short clip, but it was really starting to sizzle!
Thinking back knowing what will happen to Wesley, does anyone ever wonder if he stopped by on his journeys to visit Salia?
Sliders (1995)
Losing the cast is always the highway to failure
I really loved this series for the first few years, but when Arturo left, it started the slide to mediocrity. It accelerated when Wade and Quinn left, to the point it was rambling nonsense. Don't know the reasoning for the actors leaving, but it did ruin it. Perhaps it lost some direction as there was little purpose to each episode other than surviving long enough to slide to the next world. Unlike Quantum Leap, which had a similar premise, but it's purpose was to fix things in each episode.
Murdoch Mysteries (2008)
A real fun jaunt
Early in season 1, they are celebrating Queen Victoria being 76 years old - this places it in 1895. I have not followed it closely enough to determine if the 12 years of the series is also moving along the calendar or not.
At times, I find that the best character is George - pontificating on hypothetical futures a century ahead that appear similar to ours, but totally confound his fellow police officers. There are times when I wonder how often the actors burst out laughing at these speeches. I'm sure the writers had a lot of fun writing his lines!
Primeval: New World (2012)
Could have been better ...
Given the writers of this series were well-published authors in sci-if already, I expected better ideas. While it finally hit its stride in the finale, I suspect it was too little, too late. You gotta admit you wanted to know just what had been changed once they got back to their own time! Besides frozen Mac now wearing Canadian military fatigues.
Eternals (2021)
Too much attempted, not enough achieved.
Years ago, when this film was first talked about, it seemed like a really bad idea to me. Introducing 10+ new characters, with no backstory, just seemed like a recipe for failure. The Avengers, for example, took 6+ characters, each introduced in at least one film previously, and seamlessly gave each solid, nearly equal screen time as the story flowed together. The Eternals, not so much. Flashbacks inserted randomly to try to explain the character's motivation made the story very choppy. A handful of references to the larger MCU were forced and throwaways.
In fact, the only positive of this film is that they killed off or removed half of the characters by the end. Clearly, it was too much for the writers as well. This is a one and done movie - forgettable. And that is the worst thing anyone can say about any movie!
Free Guy (2021)
This was fun plus ....
I knew from the trailers that this would be a fun movie, as Ryan Reynolds is a natural at playing himself. But it became more than that as the viewer discovers what is driving the plot. With all the pop culture references already there, it would have been nice to include some Star Trek reference to the handling of artificial lifeforms and what it means to be alive.
M.O.D.O.K. (2021)
Funny if you are twelve - maybe...
While I can see where the writing tries to be witty, it is clear that the target audience is pre-teens to teens. Fell asleep during episode 1 - there won't be an episode 2.
I Am Not Okay with This (2020)
A compelling tale ...
I found this one by accident a few months back, watched the first episode, and then binged the rest. Had no idea where it was going until the end. Found I was really rooting for this character to gain control of her powers, but I think overall I liked it better that it showed the struggles instead of a sudden mastery (i.e., see MCU).
Once I discovered that this was based on a comic, I picked that up as well. A little darker, with a different ending closing out the story. Clarified a few points in the storyline, and why I do not expect it to be continued.