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Reviews
Shotgun Wedding (2022)
Not bad, not good.
They mention from the start that they're in the Philippines and continues to mention it several times more. So naturally, I waiting to hear some tagalog, even if it's just from staff in the background. It felt super weird that they all spoke purely english and not so much as a "mabuhay" (kinda like being greeted aloha in Hawaii).
Then the pirates showed up. From the moment the pirates showed up until 1 hour in to the movie, I've been bugged by their very much not local accents. Even weirder that the pirates communicated in english with each other. I thought it was just the movie script being bad and no speech/accent coach on the set. Then it was finally revealed that the pirates were not locals and it finally made sense. I don't know what a Bali accent sounds like, but it explains why they didn't sound Filipino.
All in all, the movie is something to watch while folding laundry, I guess.
Infinite Dendrogram (2020)
No mmorpg sense
This anime has zero sense of what an mmorpg is like. MC is clearly under-leveled compared to the bosses he kills, but somehow wins through persistence, guts, and out of nowhere power ups. That would have been okay in a typical shounen fantasy setting, but in a vrmmorpg setting, it completely breaks immersion.
Charmed (2018)
I gave S2 a chance
I faithfully watched s1 weekly and was left not excited for s2. Over a year later s2 came out on netflix, so I decided to give it a shot and binged it. In a word: disappointing. The plot was even more convoluted and nonsensical and character relationships were unconvincing. SPOILERS BELOW
S2 starts with them losing their personal powers (empathy, telekinesis, time stop) and the power of 3. But midway of s1, we know there's way more to their arsenal than their personal powers that also did not need the power of 3. Even after the power loss, we see them still using magic via potions and incantations, so they still have witch powers. However, they act extra helpless and powerless. It's like they were given a massive downgrade because writers realized how incredibly forced and rushed their power up was in s1. What this does it it breaks the sense of continuity and immersion since from an established story perspective, it doesn't make sense how powerless they were acting.
Next is the whole overlord ordeal. Basically it throws the entire s1 plot out the window. Why bother trying to put the Source in Parker when apparently all you needed was the Caine last name to rule all of demonkind?
Then there's Parker's half sister, Abby. She cleverly and deviously plotted to usurp Parker's throne, managed to put the blame on the sisters, and got the trust of the sisters at the same time. We then see moments of her evil mastermind smile as she seduces Harry. But what happens next? We see her actually trying to keep the truce between witches and demons. The sisters go in and out of her home for favors. Whatever happened to convincing all of demonkind that the sisters assassinated their previous overlord? That plot point was just swept under the rug.
Then we find out Parker is still alive but the sisters can't forgive him for eating some fruits, almost enslaving Maggie, and almost killing Maggie's new crush. On the other hand, let's list Abby's crimes. Admitting (as far as the sisters knew) to the dryad massacre, fake being poisoned to get Harry's attention, giving Harry a what could have been lethal antidote despite promising to wait for Macy's test results, incinerating a squad of humans in front of Harry, lying about Parker being alive (which just screams Parker was setup). Yet somehow the sisters continued to work with her, but absolutely can't forgive Parker.
The surprise elder popping out of nowhere is another big question mark. The prophecy in s1 needed literally every elder to die, so how can there be a survivor? If you can trick the prophecy by retiring from service, then Charity and some others would have done that already. Let's call this elder for what it really is. A deus ex machina to have someone conveniently explain things to the sisters.
Then we get to the big bad of s2. It's not the demon overlord that managed to unite all of demonkind under 1 banner. Nope. Just some human who upon acquiring some assassin, managed to terrorize the sisters, make them lose their powers, and forced them into hiding. Hopefully s3 would reveal how the Faction managed to advance their techno-magical toys because according to the end of s2, getting dark Harry was their first proof of magic exists.
Also it feels like it was just randomly established that black amber is the most powerful magical substance known. And that the sisters barely knew how to use it, but the human bad guys already are raising dead people with it.
Finally character relationships. You can only have the sisters keep secrets from each other and then promise to not keep secrets anymore after a near death ordeal so many times before it becomes worn out.
We need to protect Maggie from getting hurt; let's treat her like a grown up now! Let's protect her feelings again (which goes hand in hand with secrets-no secrets). Macy's internal conflict with her demon side again, aren't we already past that from s1?
Overall, s2 feels like a mashup of so many diverging plot points that maybe the writers were testing out which ones would work. But they end up creating loose ends or resolving them poorly.