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Reviews
Mary Poppins Returns (2018)
Charmless
The music was so bland and forgettable. The one song I kind of liked ended up repeating the chorus, verbatim, without changing tone or inflection even a little bit, something like 4 times. The other songs too were repetitive to the point of obnoxiousness.
I really tried to like this movie. I'm a big fan of Emily Blunt and LMM, but the music and the script were just awful. The children were unlikable, the CGI was jarring, the ending was a complete deus ex machina. It felt like this movie COULD have been saved if it had just had better music, but every song felt shoved in and completely predictable. The melodies and lyrics were completely uninspired, and every song seemed to go on much too long. The bad music did nothing to detract from the weak plot and tepid dialogue.
There just never felt like there was any tension. The movie kept trying to shove the idea of peril into it, but it never felt believable or like there were ever any actual stakes.
It's a real shame, because I loved the idea - Mary Poppins returning to help the adult Banks children. It just didn't deliver any of the charm or immersion or subtlety of the first movie. Huge disappointment.
American Horror Story: Great Again (2017)
There were just too many plotholes
I really wanted to enjoy this season. I've been a fan of AHS since season 1 and it's definitely had it's ups and downs since then. This season was not a high point.
I agree with what one of the other reviewers said in that Politics were more of a catalyst and background than the actual focus. One of the really clever things this season did is starting with it looking like Kai was something as simple as a Trump supporter, and then peeling it back as the season moved on to explore the 'cult of fear' that was really Kai's interest.
The first half of the season was spooky and intriguing and suspenseful. The 2016 election is still a big, painful wound for a lot of people, so it had an immediate emotional hook that became even more interesting when it started being clear that that wasn't really what the season was about.
For me, the turning point was when Kai randomly picked up his army of misogynistic sycophants. Where did they come from? Why were they following him? Why did Kai, who we had seen courting Hope to his team with some of the best dialogue in the season, suddenly surround himself with racist misogynists?
It really felt like the season went sharply downhill from that episode onward. The intelligent, charismatic, psychopath that Kai was at the start of the season became a parody of himself. The 'divine leader' nonsense; the religious rituals that came out of nowhere, the suicidal devotion from his army that as an audience member I just couldn't suspend my disbelief for... not gonna lie, the last four or five episodes were a chore to get through. It just didn't make sense that anyone was following Kai anymore, let alone with such extreme, fanatical devotion.
Aaaaaand then the SCUM storyline. Seeing Evan Peters as Andy Warhol was a treat (the dude is a seriously talented actor), but... adding a feminist cult to work as counterbalance to the misogynistic cult that Kai was starting, when it didn't make sense that Kai was starting a misogynistic cult to begin with... it just spiraled the story further into a 'why am I still watching this' nonsense pile. And it also made the finale make even less sense; at that point, every other member of SCUM was dead, so are we meant to believe that Ally, having just told her son she's going to make the world a better place for him, decided to take up the torch and lead a revival of an organization devoted to killing all men? What? Why? And also: what?
smh
I think the season could have been saved if there'd been some element of the supernatural to explain the character motivations. Something non-human or some power or influence to give us a 'why' on 'why the characters made those decisions.' And it just wasn't there. Towards the end of the season, just freaking none of the decisions the characters were making felt realistic or believable at all. It was such a disappointment, because the first few episodes set up the potential for such a good story.
Ah well. Fingers crossed for next season, I guess.
Who Killed Markiplier? (2017)
Unexpected and beautifully created
I think most people that click on "Who Killed Markiplier" would be familiar with Mark from his gaming playthroughs and vlogs which, while wonderfully edited, are usually very straight-forward in style and format. "Who Killed Markiplier," by contrast, has strikingly impressive ambition in production, cinematography, and execution. This is by no means your standard Youtube content.
While there are elements of the story that would be lost on viewers not familiar with more of Markiplier's work, the story as a whole is entirely capable of standing on its own merit. The scenes were beautifully shot, the editing was very well done, and while there may have occasionally been bits of scene chewing (looking at you, Chef), "Who Killed Markiplier" delivers a really enjoyable experience. It was funny, suspenseful, clever, and beautifully executed.
Ultimately, I was left with newfound respect for Mark's capabilities as an actor and creator, and with a new enthusiasm for the content he creates.