izaak99 Reviews

The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch (2020– )

S5 - borefest

[6/10 · 22 May 2024]

I was heavily into the previous seasons but S5 has been such a disappointment; basically just a repeat of cheap previous experiments from past seasons.

5 episodes in and there is nothing new uncovered. We get it, GPS data/radio communication is disrupted in the area. How many times do you have to keep sending drones and rockets up just to repeat the same findings? How many more times can they keep presenting 3D graphs/plots of broken data?

What ever happened to the mystery of the conductive soil? What was causing the drill bit to electrify itself? What was broadcasting over that one high frequency? What ever became of the radioactive well in homestead two? There are so many better things to chase than the mundane sky experiments which is leading nowhere.

Its starting to come off as another Curse of Oak Island, where the biggest mystery is how long they can keep dragging this on and on without producing anything worthwhile.

My ratings for this show went from a solid 8 down to a 6 and dropping fast. If you're new to this series, watch the previous seasons, they were so much better and entertaining.

Hellier: Trapped in a Maze (2019) Season 1, Episode 3

What happened?

[4/10 · 15 July 2023]

Everything was going well with this series then I get into ep3 and it all immediately falls apart. So they are in Kentucky investigating supposed goblins/aliens using a tunnel system.. got it.

The episodes starts off with them chilling in their cabin, nowhere near the reported events of these goblins. For whatever reason I cannot understand, they start using a spirit box which is one of the most unreliable, ridiculous method of attempting communication with the undead/ghosts. What is going on here? Why are they trying to talk to the dead now?? What does this have anything to do with them trying to track down these goblins/alients.

I'll try to push forward on this series, but this episode was a complete waste of time.

Interview with the Vampire (2022– )

Very little in common with the book

[4/10 · 3 October 2022]

The dates are wrong, characters are wrong, background stories are completely wrong; so far this has very little to do with Anne Rice's Interview With A Vampire. The only thing this show has in common with the book is the main character names.

It's not a bad adaptation. I do like this version of Louis, but Lestat is another story. He's not seductive and charming as he should be from the novels. Instead they with went with creepy with Vecna vibes, totally killing the likeability of his character.

It also drags ON quite a bit much with overly useless filler. Hoping it picks up but I have doubts I'll make it very far with this series.

Stranger Things: Chapter Nine: The Piggyback (2022) Season 4, Episode 9

Not great

[6/10 · 4 July 2022]

Probably the first finale of a ST season where I was glad it finally ended.

What is up with the kids haircuts? Will and Mike look ridiculous - sorry but nobody had those haircuts in the 80s at their age, I can't tell if they are really bad actors now but with those cuts I can't take them serious and their time on the screen was pure cringe.

The pacing of all the subplots was completely off. Felt like half of the episodes were just going in circles, like it could have been fantastically told in just 4-5 episodes but then got injected with so much useless crap to force stretch out the time. Ended up just watering down everything and was not as enjoyable to watch, as I lost all emotional connections to any of the characters.

And the Vecna story... between the ridiculous costume (Swamp Thing vs Freddy Kruger) and the evil villain ranting all the time, it was an overall season of bad writing and ideas. I think the Duffers finally ran out of fuel on this series.

Stranger Things: Chapter One: The Hellfire Club (2022) Season 4, Episode 1

Slow out of the gate

[6/10 · 27 May 2022]

This episode could have been cut down to 20-30 mins without the need for so much uselessly slow filler. The first and last 10 minutes is it. Inbetween there is nothing of significance other than little moments and struggles with the old cast and watching what appears to be 20-30 year olds playing high school students littered with ridiculous 80s memento.

BattleBots: Let the Tournament Begin! (2022) Season 6, Episode 11

Appalling episode

[3/10 · 20 March 2022]

The show went back to 80% garbage filler fluff (long walks out the door to the box, human interest stories, waiting for the contestants to press a button, cringey introductions, garbage reporting on how some builders look like their bots?, etc) , 10% actual fights, and 10% commercials. If that wasn't bad enough, they had the same bot on twice but decided to hide 2 massive fights behind their Facebook paywall group.

Not to mention the questionable judging of P1 vs Shockwave fight. Apparently a tiny useless bot doing nothing but getting flung around in the air twice and running away wins over a bot that maintained aggro upside down and even damaged the hell out of the other's motor at the end. I think they need to add another judge or two to better balance things out.

I hope this episode was a fluke, as it pissed off a lot of loyal viewers as well a Discovery+ subscribers to find out they are shafted from getting to view all the tournament fights and have to endure cringey filler instead.

World's Biggest Ghost Hunt: Pennhurst Asylum (2019 TV Movie)

Real World meets Ghost Adventures?

[2/10 · 19 June 2021]

Disappointing and a wasted opportunity. This is almost like the reverse of what they were trying to accomplish -- 2 weeks and no concrete or even intriguing evidence captured. And people giving this 10 stars!?!!

95-98% of this is the crew talking about themselves, each other, their feelings, etc. One of them goes a little coo-coo (most likely from lack of sleep) and throws up. That's about the most exciting thing that happens throughout this painfully slow show. Sorry, but I tuned in to watch if they have evidence of the paranormal, not to listen to them talk about their powerful crystals and developing their "abilities" and how exhausted they are because of the drastic change in their sleep pattern. *facepalm*

Why didn't they setup static camera's/FLIR/EMF meters/Magnetic meters in every possible location they could afford for the 2 weeks instead and see if there are any anomalies in that long amount of time? This was literally one of the worst amateurish paranormal shows I've seen.

They claim they documented over 100 events. I can only guess 95 of those events are their "feelings" because they showed absolutely no solid repeatable evidence of the paranormal. When the most compelling evidence is a "spirit box" session (which is literally a toy that captures random radio stations) I think its clear they failed their mission or actually proved this place is not haunted.

Jupiter's Legacy (2021)

A live version of The Incredible, but with poor pacing and bad writing...

[6/10 · 11 May 2021]

The constant flashbacks between the 20's and present time is highly annoying. Just have 1 show that explains the 20s, but to go back and forth is irritating; its been done before and rarely works well.

It's really hard to like any character in this show. You have the bratty selfish daughter, the disappointing son, the overly moral father and his ridiculous costume and beard, the disposable friends, and a few bad guys. The show is trying too hard to express the broken family dynamics, we get it, we don't need every other goddamn scene to be the same thing about one of the kids hating the father for something he said to them. Move on already.

The Holzer Files (2019– )

Has potential but very weak physical evidence

[7/10 · 8 March 2021]

Decent show but frustratingly it feels like they barely scratch the surface of any investigation. If you're a fan of Dead Files, this show will probably appeal to you. Feels like it's the same producer / director, especially the camera focusing on his ring when the guys driving or talking (throwback to Steve).

Pro's: Creepy atmosphere, interesting clips of Hans original case files, keeps your interest throughout the show.

Con's: Sketchy video evidence that has yet to catch any source of noises they hear (and not enough to make me actually believe), far too much focus on "EVP" evidence that sounds like nothing but noise, using a gimmicky"spirit box" / Olvilus when they have a lack of other evidence happening, constantly replaying the same clips of Hans investigation throughout the episodes wasting time (once is plenty, thanks), stopping in the middle of an investigation when things start heating up, useless subjective evidence ("it touched me" "it grabbed me" "I have chills"), and it feels like they have done nothing to add to Hans original investigations - they seem to just piggyback on the locations and quit when they find some tiny piece of sketchy evidence.

I do like their resident psychic Cindy, she's slightly more believable given she's so badass and not freaking out over every little strange noise or feeling, but still impossible to know if she's actually legit or just a great actress.

Wonder Woman 1984 (2020)

One of the worst movies of 2020 in every aspect

[2/10 · 26 December 2020]

Writing was terrible. Plot was a mess. Pacing was awful. 2.5 hours of cringe-worthy dialogue and the few action scenes were over-the-top riddled with poor CGI effects. No popular 1984 songs were heard, instead it was an over-dramatic score that didn't match up with the scene.

And to the person who thought her whip needed more attention, please never write for any more future comic book movies. Thanks in advance.