lamerok Reviews

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

This is beautiful and an absolute banger of a film

[8/10 · 23 December 2023]

I read some of the negative reviews before I watched this so I watched this with somewhat lowered expectations but I thought this was a great science fiction action film.

The plot is basically that of "The Magnificent Seven" or "Seven Samurai" in space so it is fairly predictable but there is a reason that plot line has been re-used so many times.

The visuals are very cool and the action is great. I am not sure what other reviewers were looking for, I was expecting a good science fiction action film and that is what I got.

I watched this the night after I had watched "The Creator" and I was disappointed in that film which I thought was a bit of a mess but I was not disappointed in "Rebel Moon".

The Witcher (2019– )

Somewhat disappointing

[8/10 · 2 January 2020]

I am a fan of science fiction and fantasy and while there are excellent science fiction shows on right now (e.g. "The Expanse" and "Lost in Space"), with the end of GOT there is no really good high fantasy show currently airing. I don't count "See" as high fantasy because, while it is a good show, the setting is post-apocalyptic and it contains no supernatural elements.

I have not played the Witcher games or read the books but I am a fan of Henry Cavill and of fantasy in general. I really wanted to like this show but I was disappointed right from the start. The production values were good but not great but the real problems with this show were the plot and the tone.

I thought the plot was just a mess. Characters are introduced in the first episode and then immediately killed off before you can even figure out who they are or develop any attachment and you only find out much later why they are important. I would have preferred a slower start with more world building but it is fine to jump in with both feet as long as the story is immediately engaging but this was just not good storytelling.

By the end of the series I still had no real idea of what the main villains were all about except that they like to wear black, they have some kind of religion that apparently does not put much value on human life and they want to take over the world.

Geralt is a mercenary who roams the land killing monsters for money. However, it was not clearly explained why such a person would all of a sudden decide that he had to risk his life to save Ciri.

The second big problem was the tone of the show which was not consistent. Most of the time it appears to be serious high fantasy with people being quite earnest and dying all over the place. Then the bard character strolls in and it turns into "Hercules the Legendary Journeys" for a few minutes until the next scene. I don't mind a little comedy but this was jarring.

The show was somewhat entertaining and I did manage to enjoy it for what it was but I was disappointed that it could have been much better.

Aquaman (2018)

Excellent superhero film

[9/10 · 15 April 2019]

I don't understand all of the terrible reviews. They seem to mostly criticize the acting and the plot. I enjoyed most of the acting and the cast had some great actors (Willem Defoe, Temuera Morrison and Nicole Kidman) and some not so great actors that I still love (Dolph Lundgren). I enjoyed Jason Momoa's performance. The plot is standard superhero stuff. The only real weakness was the villain, Manta, I had a hard time believing or caring about his character. Fortunately, he was a relatively small part of the movie.

The visuals were outstanding, the movie moved along briskly and the action scenes were always entertaining. The was as good as anything Marvel had put out.

Hold the Dark (2018)

Solid psychological horror film with excellent acting and cinematography

[8/10 · 1 October 2018]

I don't quite understand all of the very negative reviews. I had no expectation when I started watching this but I love Jeffrey Wright and Alexander Skarsgard and I like atmospheric movies so I thought I would give it a try and I was not disappointed.

Wright and Skarsgard were both great in this film and I thought all of the other actors were top notch and the production values were consistently very high. It was suspenseful throughout and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I gather that the main complaint are: (1) that it was too slow and (2) that the plot did not make sense.

Firstly, yes it was slow, but I found it to be deliberately paced and suspenseful and it never lost my interest. I would describe this as a psychological horror film or a thriller. It is definitely a character driven film. If you don't like that sort of thing then this film is probably not for you.

Secondly, I thought the plot made about as much sense as any horror film. Some of the main characters do not behave rationally and it is never explained whether they are just crazy or if there is a supernatural explanation. That did not bother me as I am happy to come to my own conclusion. I thought that this film definitely had interesting characters who sometimes behaved in unexpected and ambiguous ways but that there was some internal logic to their behaviour that I felt I could understand. That said, the most compelling elements of this film were the atmosphere and the acting rather than the story.

At the end of the day I enjoyed the film and if you like Jeffrey Wright and Alexander Skarsgard you may enjoy this film as well.

Death Note (I) (2017)

Entertaining.

[7/10 · 4 November 2017]

I see a lot of 1 star reviews for this and, for me, a 1 star movie would be something that I could not watch for more than a few minutes. I watched this to the end and I enjoyed it so, for me at least, this is definitely not a 1 star movie.

This production certainly has some flaws and I would say the production values are generally what you would expect from a decent network TV show and not a major studio movie or HBO show. That did nor really bother me though. I didn't pay to see this in a cinema and I was not expecting blockbuster special effects. The production values were acceptable and did not prevent me from suspending my disbelief.

The supporting cast were quite good. I particularly enjoyed Lakeith Stanfiled (who plays L) and Willem Defoe (the voice of Ryuk) was excellent as always. On the other hand, Nat Wolff (who plays the protagonist Light Turner) was a bit wooden but this did not bother me too much as I found the story interesting enough.

I gather that the 1 star reviews are mostly from fans of the original anime. I am not a huge anime fan but I had tried to watch the first few episodes of the anime before I watched this and I did not get very far into the anime before I gave up as I did not find it all that interesting. Maybe I will try and give it another shot.

In any event, I found this version to be entertaining and well worth watching.

Logan (2017)

I don't understand all of the good reviews. This movie does not make any sense to me.

[5/10 · 27 June 2017]

I never read the Wolverine comics but I have seen all of the previous Wolverine and X-Men films and I watched the X-Men cartoons when I was a kid. I have some familiarity with the Wolverine character and I like the Wolverine and Hugh Jackman. I have to admit that I have not been a huge fan of the stand alone Wolverine movies as I have not found them as interesting as the X-Men movies.

That said, I think that Logan is by far the worst of the Wolverine movies. This movie is ostensibly an installment in the Wolverine movie series, as well as the larger X-Men cinematic universe, but this movie does not seem to have any connection to the earlier movies. That would not really bother me if this was a great stand alone story, but it is not. This movie is set in a dystopian future but there is no explanation as to how the characters got into the circumstances in which they find themselves in this movie which are very different from the previous movies.

I love Patrick Stewart, he is a great actor, but it pains me to see him in this movie. This movie is a mess. I don't expect too much from the plot of a super hero movie but this one makes so little sense that I could not get into the movie.

Aoki Hagane no Arpeggio: Ars Nova (2013)

Good anime show with an interesting story and characters.

[9/10 · 17 November 2015]

I watched this series on Netflix with Japanese dialogue and English sub-titles under the English title: "Arpeggio of Blue Steel" .

The animation was good, the characters were interesting and the story is entertaining (albeit somewhat unusual). I thoroughly enjoyed this series

The show's main antagonists are the "Fog", a fleet of ships that suddenly appear and take control of all of the earth's oceans and stop humanity from traveling by sea or air. The Fog ships appear to be World War II era battleships, cruisers and submarines but are in fact extremely advanced automated weapons platforms. The Fog ships do not have human crews but are instead controlled by artificial intelligence. The more important Fog ships have avatars called Mental Models who are all attractive females.

The show's main protagonists are a rebel Fog submarine (I-401 aka Iona) and a young man (Gunzo Chihaya) who captains this submarine. The origin and ultimate purpose of the Fog are never explained, nor is it ever explained why I-401 abandoned the Fog and sought out Gunzo to be her captain.

Despite the unusual premise and the lack of detailed back-story, I found this to be a very entertaining show. The Fog Mental Models were interesting characters who developed over the course of the series and there was a good bit of action in I-401's battles with the Fog.

Dark Matter (2015–2017)

Good, solid science fiction show for fans of the genre

[8/10 · 17 September 2015]

This is not a big budget show. The special effects are not the greatest and they are forced to fight epic battles on tiny sound stages. That said, the acting is good and the stories are compelling and I thoroughly enjoyed this show.

Other reviewers have compared Dark Matter to Firefly and, while there is certainly a bit of a Western flavour to Dark Matter, it is not nearly as noticeable as in Firefly. I find Dark Matter much more similar to the 1970s BBC show "Blake's 7" which was another show with a limited budget and weak special effects and sets but very strong characters and stories. To my mind, that is a very favourable comparison as I loved watching Blake's 7 re-runs.

It has been a while since I have enjoyed watched a science fiction show set in space but I had not really noticed as there is quite a bit of good television to watch these days. I had forgotten how much I enjoy this genre and I am looking forward to watching more of this show.

Dirk Gently (2010–2012)

Wonderful little series

[9/10 · 11 September 2015]

I love Douglas Adams but it has been many years since I read the Dirk Gently books. This television series definitely captures the flavour of the novels even if it is not a direct adaption of the books.

I thought the casting was excellent. I was not familiar with any of the actors in this series but I am interested to see what else they have done. The two leads (Stephen Mangan as Dirk Gently and Darren Boyd as Richard MacDuff) worked perfectly together with Boyd playing the straight man or foil to Mangan's very funny and eccentric character.

The episodes were all amusing and engaging. My only complaint is that there are only four of them. I would have loved to see more of this show and I highly recommend this series for anyone who has enjoyed the works of Douglas Adams or anyone who thinks they might enjoy a quirky English detective show.

Beautiful Creatures (2013)

A gem of a film

[9/10 · 13 February 2015]

I had never heard of this movie, or the book that it is apparently based on, so I had no expectations. I thought it was a great film. Other reviewers have compared it to "Twilight" but I liked this much better than the Twilight films. This does not take itself too seriously but at the same time the acting is excellent. It is a teen love story but I found both leads to be very watchable and the male lead was particularly entertaining. For those who are no longer in high school, this also has Emma Thompson and Jeremy Irons and they are both put to good use. Perhaps this was never going to win an Academy Awards but it was a thoroughly enjoyable film.

I see that many other reviewers have given this a 1 and I find that completely baffling. This had very good production values and was well acted and the story was entertaining. I would only give a 1 to the worst movie that I had ever seen and, in my opinion, this is one of the better movies I have ever seen and I would be happy to see more like it. I can only assume that the reviewers that gave it a 1 had read the book and were somehow disappointed by the film. If that is the case, then it must have been a very good book.

John Wick (2014)

What a waste of talent

[5/10 · 7 February 2015]

I wanted to like this movie. I like Keanu Reeves (Point Break is one of my all-time favourite movies) and this got good reviews on IMDb. I don't expect too much from the plot of an action movie, just that it sort of makes sense and there are really good action scenes. However, this script was so terrible that I just could not suspend my disbelief.

The production values are very good and the cast is great but this movies just doesn't make any sense. The action scenes, which are the best part of the movie, are just too routine to be very interesting.

!!!!SPOILER ALERT!!!!

The plot, such as it is, is that Keanu Reeves' character, John Wick, is a retired hit-man. The son of the man that Wick used to work for comes to Wick's house and beats him up, kills his dog and steals his car. Lots of revenge killings and mayhem then ensue.

Prior to the son attacking John Wick, they have a brief altercation at a gas station where the son asks how much Wick's car is and Wick says it's not for sale and they both call each other a bitch in Russian.

Literally every single other person in the movie instantly recognizes John Wick (including a police officer who comes to his door) and knows that he is a hit-man even though he has been retired for 4 or 5 years. However, neither the son nor his entourage recognize John Wick and the son has not even heard of him. Wick also doesn't recognize the son of the man he used to work for, or any of the son's goons, even though he speaks to him in Russian at the gas station.

The problems with the script continue from there.