cesar_augusto Reviews

Noah's Ark (2004 Video)

Painful, to say the least.

[1/10 · 25 October 2021]

As always Golden Films do not dissappoint when it comes to... dissappointments. An unimaginative take on one of the buble's most vague yet simple stories to ever tell around people of all ages, and they still manage to botch it with cheap animation, a lazy catalog of free-domain soundtrack and a horrendous sound-mixing that left most lines lost among the notes of the unoriginal music choice.

Also, since when Noah's Arc really warrants a (badly-written, by the way) peppy gospel tune when we all know its the story of humanity drowning for the sake of a wrathful god?

Earwig and the Witch (2020 TV Movie)

Frustrating, to say the least

[4/10 · 11 February 2021]

I was already disagreeing wit hthe CGI animation, although it sorta grew on me, but not too much. The character design are still Ghibli at it's best, they look unique, they have personality, good to look at, the whole package. And while the body movements are stiff, the facial expressions are sometimes fantastic, and the hair animation they created felt really good too.

But the plot is where the movie found its flaws. Its from the same book written by Diana Wynne Jones, who also wrote Howl's Moving Castle, so the story HAD to be good, right? It wasn't. Overall, it felt WAY TOO SHORT. The movie had an amazing premise but threw it out of the window by narrowing things down to just 1h20m and having the plot move at snail-pace!

Honestly, if you want a great "Ghibli" movie about a girl entering a world of witches, watch Mary and the Witch's Flower by studios Ponoc!

The Edge of Democracy (2019)

A laughable piece of fiction

[1/10 · 11 February 2020]

If there is one thing easier than lie, is to spread a lie internationaly. Petra Costa's documentary, shows a distorted vision of a corrupt government through a light to make it seem like they were innocent victims of a persecuting elite posing an imaginary threat to "honest saints". Stroking the ego of political leaders who led themselves neck-deep in corruption, bribery and autoritharian ideals while acting as if they were bastions of democracy, when in fact they wanted to fill their pockets. Just like Petra Costa's family which owns a large company involved in this scandal (which she attribute to the "right-wing side of her family" as if anyone would swallow that...). The original narration by Petra herself is mournful and sad, like a child crying for her mommy. It should be a SHAME to allow the nomination of a so-called "documentary" when it's woven entirely by lies. It wounds the name of a documentary and investigative jornalism while catering to liars and thieves.

Klaus (2019)

4 years waiting for a Masterpiece

[10/10 · 15 November 2019]

And thats my understatement for the year. I remember seeing the movie's test trailer and was FASCINATED by the beautiful animation. So I waited, followed the studio, the development, the videos they posted, became overjoyed by seeing netflix picking it up for production and when the time came, I sat down, closed the curtains, and started the movie. Every moment of the movie, I was like "this animation..." because... yea, it's the crown jewel of this movie, the reason I was so hyped to see it, the animation is BEYOND GORGEOUS! Hands down a perfect hand-drawn animation by a Disney veteran and expert character designer with a team of the best he could get on a small scale. This movie feels like every one involved with it loved their job. The backgrounds, the movements, the lighting, oh sweet gingerbread, the lighting was just amazing. Every shade, hue and colour was just GLOWING and every background could be framed on a wall. The story itself is really fun, they didn't hold back on how the characters move, sound and interact with each other, the plot itself was quite fun and worked out the emotions just in the right way. The pop song felt a bit cheap, but hey, product of it's time, at least it wasn't distractive. The ending got me a bit teary, it felt bittersweet for a moment, but then it threw that christmas warmth over me. The characters, IMO were all likeable. Jesper is a fun, quick-paced nitwit that reminds me a lot of Kuzco from The Emperor's new Groove (down to the voice actor sounding startling similar to David Spade!), Klaus is a stoic, large figure with a little bit of sadness but plenty of space for joy, and J. K. Simons was a amtch made in heaven for that. The side characters were also lovely, especialy the antagonists. The movie also worked perfectly the subtle colour palette between the clans to make it pretty visible which citizen was from which clan (and I loved that paralel dialogue of the clan's history) and the character design was superb. Each character brimmed with personality and had a very original shape, outline and animation so they stand out in the crowd. In sum, this wasa holiday experience I didn't even know I needed so much, and another investment in animation that Netflix have done right. Keep up the good work, all of you. And I expect this old art to maybe find itself back into our lives, as a true act of kindness, always sparks another.

Love, Death & Robots (2019– )

18 examples of how to make ART!

[10/10 · 18 March 2019]

Words can't really express how I enjoyed this show, it was just AMAZING. The animation was unique in each short, and even those who used similar animation such as Shapeshifters, Secret Wars and Beyond the Aquilla Belt, all had unique direction, plot and writting style that made it all stand out on it's own. Speaking of writting, every episode was fun beggining to end and some could even become series on their own. Hopefuly there will be a season 2 with more shorts and new directors and animators. Seeing shows like LDaR, Dragon Prince and the upcoming Klaus movie, seems like Netflix is giving modern animation the finger and investing on everything that have love and care every frame.

Young Sheldon (2017–2024)

Genuinely funny

[8/10 · 12 December 2017]

Compared to the worn-out Big Bang Theory, I found this spin off a really delightful approach on the comedic style of the original. the change from a "three walls" set piece and live crowd to more elaborate sets and absence of live-filming made the comedy more natural and the actors more interactive with each other. Not to mention the absence of a laugh track give the comedy a genuine atmosphere where shows that use the laugh track feel like they are just filling a quota of gags. "there, a joke, our job is done", while in this style of comedy, all the lines and dialogue flow more naturaly.

The actors are really putting themselves into the role, the child playing Sheldon seems 100% invested in what he is doing, keeping a perfect straight face when needed, while also giving complex and unrealistic lines with a touch of naturality, pretty sure the spends a long time practicing his lines. The family is also a lot of fun to watch. Sheldon's twin sister is smarter than she looks and adds some funny sass into the cast. In the overall, the cast seems to be invested into their work, the writers are invested in their work, this show definitely feels like done out of passion rather than being a cash-in.

Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie (2017)

Silly, harmless, but had nice animation.

[6/10 · 4 November 2017]

I admit I've never been a big fan of captain underpants, heck, I read ONE novel and that's all I got to know. Still, the movie mixed the concept of the novels and an actual narrative pretty well. The plot is all over the place, that can work or not depending on the kind of story you're going with, and for the kind of story based on jokes, visual gags and potty humour, it kinda worked. But I guess the saving grace for a potential disaster was the animation, in my opinion.

It's a fact, CGI is taking over the animation, we have Disney scoring hits like Frozen and Moana, Pixar doing... well, their share of awesome movies, Illumination trying to make a name and so on and on. So, making a CGI movie stand out is getting harder and harder, one of the few that manages to catch out eyes is Tartakovsky (Hotel Transylvania), because he have such unique animation style that blends PERFECTLY with his hand-drawn animation, such as Dexter's lab. And the animators in Captain Underpants actually nailed this kind of animation pretty damn right. The whole thing look like it was animated in 2D than CGI-ed over, with a nice texture and lightning, plus wild movements that can make for lackluster jokes based on just how hypnotic some movements can be, or how some expressions work so right, compared to movies like Emoji movie, which is the epitome of generic CGI used to cash in on a dated trend, This one had a signature animation. And although it was silly and often downright dumb, I wouldn't mind seeing it get a sequel, at least just for the animation, to show people that you can turn 2D into 3D without becoming "more of the same". Take a hint from Tartakovsky, McCraigen and also the animators of this movie.

Might look weird so much praise, but this is deserved credit.

Alice Through the Looking Glass (2016)

It's...not nearly a disaster as the first one.

[5/10 · 21 April 2017]

OK, unlike the previous movie, this time we knew what we were going into, so I had my expectations on low. One thing for sure, Mia's acting improved, she now can make real emotions! who knew? Visually, it is also very good, I really enjoyed the visuals, scenario, costumes, it was really nice-looking and compared to the last movie, packed more vibrant colors. I personally had a very low expectation about Time. When I saw it was Sasha Baron Cohen in a seemingly antagonist role in the trailers, I expected him to just chew the scenery and be annoying, but he was actually one of my favorite characters, maybe because his acting wasn't forced and his role was more than antagonic, more neutral. But speaking of which, he was also the following elephant in the room that was the plot holes in this movie. The plot itself felt like Alice Madness Returns from Spicy Horse. Not enough plot, too much action and visuals, complete with clockwork robots that would feel right at home as a video game boss. But the writing wasn't that bad, some lines were really clever and had a nice ring to the ears. Now, irredeemably, the pop song in the credits was just plain stupid. Seriously Disney? A pop song in a Alice in Wonderland movie? Final thoughts: The movie was definitely clumsy and not enough plot compared to the overbalancing visuals. The acting improved, and just like the previous movie, The plot was simply a weaving string around the poems and footnotes of the original material....not that anybody asked for that. Disney, stick with original material, if you pick a fairy tail, STICK WITH THE ORIGINAL! Now, if you excuse me, I think I'll read again "The adventures of Alice in Wonderland" and maybe play Alice Madness Returns.

Powerless (2016–2017)

You simply do NOT take it too serious.

[8/10 · 10 March 2017]

With so many superhero series nowadays, it's increasingly common seeing people used to it all having that "nolam" realism and grittiness like Arrow, or a little less like in Flash and Supergirl, and better not mention the Marvel ones, but thing is, Powerless is not about it. It's supposed to be comedic, like a sitcon. Or even like a cartoon. People think those actors are wasting their talent, I say they are putting it to a test, acting more like cartoon characters than real people, and I respect that. This series have a lot of potential to point, mock or downright degrade DC Comics itself in a very clever and funny way.

Molly Moon and the Incredible Book of Hypnotism (2015)

Charming, but not much effort

[5/10 · 1 February 2017]

It's funny how this movie escaped my radar. Back a few years I was actually an AVID reader of the Molly Moon books. And this movie being made 2 years ago when I found out stunned how I had no idea of it before. And after watching it, I can see why. It was a very poor adaptation, and it seemed either the budget was low (I mean, the studios were MINUSCULE compared to the big names) or the screenwriter wasn't caring that much. It had a bit of a clunky pace and it struggled to stay on tracks. While some scenes seemed word by word from the book, with even some funny nods (like a flip of a page in Molly's notebook shows a sketch of the book's cover) while some scenes were jumbled out of place. And I really don't see why, when the movie was barely 1 hour and a half, when 2 hours could've covered the book page by page.

However, the movie material was actually good. Raffey Cassidy was DELIGHTFUL. Her acting felt very natural and she was really pulling out how I imagined Molly. The other children were really natural at their scenes, when we know how hard is for children to act, the younger, the hardest. As a stand-alone movie, it felt harmless, but fun and enjoyable. As an adaptation, I felt SO MUCH disregard by the screenwriter I feel really sorry for the book and I sure wish the writer felt disapppointed, her series was marvelous and could've done much better as a cartoon.

Dofus: Book 1 - Julith (2015)

breathtakingly amazing

[10/10 · 15 June 2016]

Rarely a movie makes me scream "DAMN! WHAT A MOVIE!" And this one, needless to say, made me scream it more than once. Already acquainted with Ankama's two biggest products, the Wakfu game and cartoon, I was surprised I let this movie pass, or maybe not, it's barely a month since I started the game/anime. And of course, I became immediately hooked. So when I started this movie, first thing I noticed was the gorgeous animation. From the flash animation they use in Wakfu to what seems to be traditional animation. Every scene was gorgeous to look at. The scenarios were wonderful, and the fights, oh dear me, the fights. I can't pick my favorite, but they were all amazing.

As for storytelling, well, congratulations, Ankama, I put you in the same level as Avatar, Dreamworks and Disney. You managed to keep it both lighthearted but also deep. Funny but also dramatic. Once again, a villain well-developed with unpredictable plot twists, emotional attachment and quite a perfect ending. Voice-acting, needless to say, top-notch. I don't understand french, but I'll never trade it for another language, let the subtitles guide me through your lines, I love your choice of voices and how much effort they put.

Gods of Egypt (2016)

I've played video games with better plot

[5/10 · 29 February 2016]

First of all, for all the morons whining about the cast being too white, just Google "Egyptian actors" and send me a call if you find ANYONE who is NOT white in the first 2 pages, because I had a hell of a hard time myself! But I won't have any argument for the British actors in the middle as well, but, to be fair, Gerard Butler as the arrogant, egomaniac, evil overlord of chaos and wastelands was the most perfect choice I could've though of. But casting issues aside....

Visually, it was amazing. The special effects and designs were stunning, representing the Egyptian gods in new, yet very adequate ways, except maybe for Horus who looked like a golden Iron Man, the rest of the characters looked gorgeous. And the monsters were also amazing. The backgrounds made me wish I could jump inside the screen and live there, just so surrel and marvelous they were designed.

But the plot....was that a gameplay I was watching? Seriously, I could pretty much tell what was a bossfight, a sidequest, a NPC talking, a RESPAW, an upgrade, even that moment of Set and the pieces of other gods felt like an RPG character and his inventory! Brain of Tot, wisdow +5, wings of Nemphis, agility 10+, eye of horus, Accuracy +20. WHich also made this movie completely TRAMPLE the Egyptian mythology. Oh yea, the gods of Egypt do have their OWN story and it's much better than this movie's. Whoever wrote the script really had a lot of ideas, but simply wasn't fit for a movie. If they adapt this movie into a video game, it will be better than the movie.

The 5th Wave (2016)

A shooting gallery of hit and miss

[5/10 · 24 January 2016]

OK, first of all, the movie is very enjoyable, but one thing here and there can be a little distracting, but lets first talk about the pros: The pacing was great. Right in the beginning I could tell it was adapted from a novel, with a very carefully planned narration, pacing, Establishment and character development. Pretty much all characters were likable, the antagonists were very well shadowed and slowly exposed, and the movie did end with that taste of wanting more (specialy since it axed out a character I was glad to see by the back, but we will get to that now) The cons of the movie was actually just one: Evan Walker. Yup, you read it right, that "half other" schmuck is all I have in dislike of this movie. Not the actor, he did great (although he has the same tick of keeping his lips parted like Kristen Stewart, better work that out)but I felt his character was COMPLETELY unnecessary. Not only he turned Cassie from the though, solo protagonist weaving her path through apocalypse to save her only brother to a pathetic damsel in distress, but them both produced some out-of-place, "finger in the throat" googly-eyes love scenes. Complete with a half-naked shot of him to make teenagers swoon. From the moment he came up, the movie went downhill from Corny Av. and passing by Sappy Alley. I think the story would come up much better if it was just Cassie and Ben, venturing on opposite ends of the road to meet in the middle, I have to say it's my favorite cliché in stories like that, makes a great delivery when they meet, and this movie did manage it...and kinda ruined it with another sappy lovey-dovey moment of Cassie and Evan, thankfully, the last.

And lets not mention the whole "I was one of them, but my love at first sight for you (from a sniper's spyglass, how anti-climatic) made me decide to join your team" I really couldn't hold myself from saying out loud "really?".

If you want to make a though female protagonist go through a journey, don't decide to make her a damsel in distress in the middle of the story. And don't invent something out of nowhere to hammer down that "love's almighty power" crap if you want to keep the story with it's rightful target age.

Doctor Who (1996 TV Movie)

Easier to jumpstart a TARDIS then the series with this movie...

[5/10 · 20 January 2016]

This movie had some good choices and a barrage of bad choices. OK, first of all, I'm what you can call a "new" Whoovian, I was introduced by the 2005 series, fell in love with it by the 2nd, 3rd episode, and you guess the rest, saw some old episodes, read a lot about it, and decided to watch this movie out of boredom (and episodes left to watch). I...was quite bored again.

First of all, the positive points: I liked the actor of the 8th doctor...thats all. He did well, managed to get that corky, yet bright but childish behavior of some timelord incarnations, and it was very bright when he stretched his hand, very Doctor-like.

Aside from that, the movie gave him less time to really work out what makes the Doctor. heck, he didn't even got to use his Sonic Screwdriver for anything important...or anything AT ALL! Not to mention the awful jumble of the Doctor Who mythos. Eye of harmony is WHERE? The Daleks were doing WHAT? makes no sense whatsoever.

Another nitpick of mine is the Tardis. Good lord who designed that? I'm a fan of the tardis having a mix of his Gallifreyan technology and some vintage furniture, the Tiffany lamp was a nice touch. But why candles? Is this the Tardis of the haunted mansion? And why the Eye of harmony looks like a cathedral with dried leaves and BATS flying out? This is trying WAY too hard to make it Dramatic.

This is where the movie failed: tried to set the mood through the wrong ways. Doctor Who can create drama, emotion and comedy without relying on setting the mood beforehand, which makes it unpredictable, as it's strongest points. it doesn't need to show the doctor in an ancient ruin or swirling darkness to make a dramatic finale, it doesn't need to give you a motorcycle chase to make you pumped, and it definitely doesn't need a Grey's Anatomy-esque surgery to make you anxious for the character's fate, because everybody is expecting him to "die" as soon as possible so we can, as fellow Brits, Monty Python would say, "GET ON WITH IT!" This movie quite missed the Doctor Who style that kept the series for so long, and is keeping it again, I'd have liked to see this 8th doctor, but not half-belonging to BBC, as it sounds ridiculous as a half-human timelord.

Allons y! PS: come to think of, Doctor who really don't need a movie, just watch some two-part episodes like "The empty child" and "the impossible planet" and their respective sequels back to back, and you have a Doctor Who movie that stick to it's material.

Jupiter Ascending (2015)

Talk about a wasted potential...

[5/10 · 3 July 2015]

When I was watching this movie, it started quite interesting on it's own, already with a good actress. By the first half, I thought to myself "now this is a franchise-material", when it ended..."I stand corrected".

I mean...really, Wachowskis? Didn't you guys have ANY patience to developt your plot without forcing it's way so unconfortably? This movie could be a franchise of 2 or 3 movies precisely because they wrote SO much plot. But developted it in a completely clumsy and over-the-top fashion that we could barely understand. It was like Shyamalahn trying his take on Last Airbender, picking 20 episodes in a 1:30 hour-long movie. (Seriously Shyamalahn? we are so used with movies that are 2-hours, even almost 3-hours long and the only movie we would be willing to watch 3 hours of it you cut it by standart Christmas-special time? But I'm getting out of focus here).

This movie was LOADED with unnecessary exposition, pointless character developtment, and some of the weirdest actings ever. I'm talking about you, Redmayne, you either whisper like the Godpidgeon from Animaniacs, or yell like another cartoonish character. Either way, you're acting was AWFUL.

And again, this movie had SO many good ideas to make it longer! An intergalactic empire harvesting human life for immortality? BRILLIANT! A simple girl from earth finds out she is the reincarnation of the QUEEN of this freakin' intergalactic throne? AWESOME! Explaining Reincanation as the same code of genes repeating in an individual? MAKES SENSE! Her "siblings" are all selfish jerks wanting to take a fat slice of their inheritance, even if they have to KILL each other? PLEASE! It was almost like reading the premise of a Sci-Fi Game of Thrones.

But no, we got hours of long-talk expositions, badly-developted characters, and rip-offs of SEVERAL movies placed together. Combined with a brilliant idea and beautifully-designed sets, this movie is a complete dish of "dissapointment".

Mockingbird Lane (2012 TV Movie)

A complete disrespect for the original show

[3/10 · 29 June 2015]

Why do I have the feeling the writers didn't even WATCH A single episode of "the Munsters"? Oh yes...because every scene in this pilot is a nail to the coffin of the show as they try to bury it alive! Although I can't complain about the cast, they did their best of what they had. But what they had is what I have to complain about. Our first Munster to show up is Eddie, and.....I have nothing to complain about, he acts EXACTLY like the original, just a tad more updated. the second is Marilyn and boy...did they ruin her. They picked the upbeat and peppy normal human lady and gave her an unnecessary creepy aspect, when her stark brightful and peppy personality was one of the running gags of the original show, as it was in deep contrast with her ghoulish family members. And speaking of, herman Munster. That...was...PAINFUL! They picked one of the most iconic characters in cinema HISTORY and turned into some basic sitcon hunk father. Good lord, even the character from "I, Frankenstein", from 2014 had a better make up! And along with his appearance, he lost all the goofy and gullible aspects of his personality and became some tedious, tortured protagonist with barely any interesting trait. The two vampires we have, herman's wife and her father, grandpa, were probably the only enjoyable characters, not because they were closer to the show, again, but because they were interesting and the actors did their best. In the original show, Lily was a supporting, sweet-caring mother who always tried to keep her family together, but was also just as gullible as Herman when it involves interaction with normal people, again, the RUNNING GAG OF THE SHOW! And grandpa was almost as peppy and upbeat, but more like an old man who is just happy to be alive and enjoy life as it lasts for him (which for a vampire, it lasts forever, anyway) In Mockinbird lane, he was creepy, bloody arrogant, traits I do enjoy in vampire characters, but i would rather have the original grandpa from the Munsters, instead of this retired Count Dracula.

In the overall, this show picked one of the most iconic shows, which was back-to-back with Adams Family, lets say the two shows were like brothers, and torn it to pieces and half-assembled it, pretty much like their pathetic version of Herman munster. With a zipper for easy access to the heart....hardy harr....

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011)

What was so bad about it?

[9/10 · 28 June 2015]

Something about this movie i'll never understand...is why so many people disliked it. Sure, not enough to give it a less than average score, but still, significant enough to make me scratch my head.

Compared to the third movie, I felt this one came back to the root of pirate lore with a VERY simple "go from A to B, go through C on your way back" and things like the Fountain of Youth, the Spanish navi, mermaids and blackbeard. What could possibly go wrong? Specially when the previous movie had a plot so complex it could give Lord of the Rings a run for it's money.

This movie also took out the couple Will Turner and Elizabeth, which in the third movie, kinda stole jack's thunder way too much. this fourth movie allowed jack to have his shenanigans all the time. Although a little too much, but also gave some good character developtment to Blackbeard, his Daughter and even Barbossa, who knew.

In the end, I felt like this movie was redeeming for the previous. It started funny, ended funny, was epic (and funny) all the way through, still giving us that little taste of "I want more". And more we shall have, lets meet again at "Dead men tell no Tales".

The Amazing Bulk (2012 Video)

So Abysmal, but a heck of a ride

[1/10 · 27 June 2015]

oh...my...god...where do I start? No, seriously, somebody give me a hand, I think I lost several braincells watching this flick.

So....first of all, you gotta admire the seriousness they wanted to put while set against some of the most ATROCIOUS green screen effects I've ever seen in my life! The 3D modeling was just horrendous, to the point where this whole movie, I was laughing histericaly at every single suck-ish detail. And speaking of 3D, the monster, the "Bulk" if you must, if you have ever watched Attack on Titan, you might know how the said titans can often run in some of the most hilarious ways possibles, like spasming chicken that grew arms and have no idea what to do with it. But while that make those guys creepy, in this movie, it just made it funnier. The plot itself was kinda...meh. The characters weren't that specially weird, except for the villain. That guy...deserves an Oscar, seriously. He made villains from power rangers seen serious! He makes Jim Carrey as Count Olaf seen SUBTLE!

Most of the tracking shots were Painfully slow, and I mean, using the whole soundtrack, made me want o pull that card from Monty Python and say "GET ON WITH IT!"

The only long scene where you actually want to enjoy, is the chase scene....OH MY GOD, where do I start again? the stock footages...the characters, the soundtrack....it was INSANE! I think the only way to sum up this scene, or rather, this whole movie, is with three letters I know everyone knows the meaning: WTF?

That aside, if you want a mockbuster that will make you laugh out of control, this movie is a must-see.