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Reviews
Star Trek: Prodigy: All the World's a Stage (2022)
A Love Letter to Classic Star Trek
I approached ST: Prodigy with low expectations but it has truly surprised me. Silly and fun for younger viewers but it's a great new addition to the franchise.
This episode serves as semi sequel to TOS Episode 2x18: "Obsession" and honors the legacy of a classic forgettable "Red Shirt" who was stranded on a pre warp civilization and shows the results of breaking the Prime Directive & First Contact rules, as a civilization evolves around premature exposure to Star Fleet in a simple yet fun way. Members of the civilization are named after classic characters in an "alien" way, mannerisms are obviously based on stereotypes of the original cast's acting, greetings are parody's of Vulcan greetings. It's all simple and lovable fun!
Even as the episode gets more serious it pays tribute to the classic TOS Movies with its own version of the V'ger twist!
If you love classic silly campy Star Trek fun, this is the episode for you!
Ghost in the Shell (2017)
What if Blade Runner Was Bad? And Filmed During The Day?
Ghost in the Shell is yet another Hollywood adaptation of a classic Japanese Anime and like all the others, it falls flat on its face with simple characters, a boring plot and a conclusion ripped from every scifi anime/video game ever.
Ghost in the Shell tells the story of Major (Johansson) who is a cyborg government agent/cop/SWAT/counter terrorism agent(It's never really explained who she works for) who is hunting down a cyber terrorist who is killing scientists who were part of a secret team that would later be responsible for Major's creation. Major is a cyborg that is completely robot except for a human brain to create the ultimate weapon, the best of both human and machine. Throughout the film Major is haunted by "glitches", images suddenly appear before her and she isn't sure if they are something from her past or nothing at all. It isn't until she meets the cyber terrorist, Kuze(Michael Pitt) that she begins to doubt herself and everything she stands for and begins to wonder what is real and what is fake. After this, the film suddenly rushes to the climax of the film and feels as if a lot of the film had been cut out.
If anyone says that this film isn't Whitewashing obviously hasn't seen the film as the "plot twist(?)" revolves around Major discovering her past and who she is. It is so terribly done that it is like watching someone say they are innocent of a crime while committing said crime. They didn't even try.
What could have been a saving grace for the film are the Major's Response Team which was made up of diverse and potentially awesome characters that would have been cool to get to know if they were in more than two scenes(other than Pilou Asbæk's Batou and Takeshi Kitano's Aramaki). They were a waste and should have been used. Absolutely ANYONE else could have been Major in this film as Scarlett Johansson proves that she has little to no range in her performances. The only reason she is in the movie is so the production companies can use the starpower of her name and face to promote the film. Throughout the film she is emotionless, looks like she would rather be anywhere else, and her posture and movement is painful to look at that it reminds me of a badly programmed video game character from 15 years ago.
With a combination of: other than Batou and Aramaki, there are no characters that come close to being likable, the first hour + just drags on with little to no story progression, the "plot twist"(and it's barely that) is so embarrassingly badly written that it makes bad M. Night Shyamalan twists look good, Johansson's performance is dreadful, the random over the top video game-ish final fight is out of place and too many CGI city shots(although gorgeous) makes Ghost in the Shell one of the most boring movies I've seen in a long time.
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016)
Boring, Predictable, Forgettable Marketing Ploy
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice can be summed up in a few simple words: Boring, Predictable and Forgettable. This film could have been the biggest movie in years but instead it went over the top with TOO MANY forced characters, too many sub-plots, a movie lacking a main story and too strong a reliance on CGI and was WAY TOO long. Instead of focusing on a story, most of the film is used as a marketing ploy for future stand alone films and the Justice League films. It was painful at how hard they were forcing the Justice League on us. Instead of one story this film was made up of a (1)Man of Steel Sequel, (2) a stand alone Batman movie, (3) a Justice League Teaser Film, (4) a Lex Luthor film, (5) and finally a Batman vs Superman movie. Henry Cavill was once again "eh" as Superman, Jessie Eisenberg was terrible as Lex Luthor; his performance seemed like a nervous high school presentation instead of a super villain. Gal Gadot, although good as Wonder Woman who was badass in the final battle, she wasn't necessary for the film, if they removed her entirely, it would have been the same film. Finally is Ben Affleck as Batman: possibly the only good thing in the film. He is possible the best Bruce Wayne/Batman we've had in a long time and Jeremy Irons as Alfred was interesting but was a very good choice. Many will consider this a spoiler but if you have seen the trailers, you have already seen about 90% of the film. The marketing of this film can be compared to Terminator Genisys and its trailers. Don't waste your money, it's not worth it. Final complaint: Yes Superman killed General Zod in Man of Steel, but he was forced to as there would be no way to contain him if captured. Throughout this film Batman MURDERED dozens of people. I'm talking about shooting people, stabbing them, killing them by blowing up their cars, snapping necks, and even set a man on fire and left him for dead. Zach Snyder does not know anything about the characters he's working with and has destroyed the two biggest characters of all time.