nofb Reviews

The Expanse (2015–2022)

Dumbed down version of the book series

[6/10 · 8 August 2021]

I watched the TV show after reading the original book series.

It's not a bad show, but it's quite sad to see that Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby misunderstood the plot and made a dumber version of most of the characters to produce a simpler opera soup. They even got some of the names wrong.

If you can appreciate a more interesting and political story, do yourself a favor and read the books. If you have to watch the show, do it before then forget about it, it's nice to see the special effects but don't expect any subtlety. The physics are fantasist too, unlike the book series that tried to keep it more realistic.

Spycraft (2020–2022)

Shallow and fancy

[5/10 · 5 June 2021]

Prone to sensationalism and to show as many fancy techniques as possible, instead of focusing on sensible ones or trying to follow a themed thread. This show constantly shows video extracts without mentioning where they are coming from, whether they're fiction or actual images, probably to captivate the attention of a larger audience. No reference on the source of informations either. The narrator is the final nail in the coffin, with an irritating, monotone voice with no tempo and bad pronunciation.

Very shallow and doubtful, a missed opportunity.

Colony: Ronin (2017) Season 2, Episode 13

Very distracting

[2/10 · 25 October 2020]

The camera work for this episode seems like beginner's work, it's very distracting for the viewers. Some directors are not always up to the task.

Salvation: Fall Out (2018) Season 2, Episode 1

Getting really ridiculous

[3/10 · 14 October 2020]

Scientists who happen to also be hackers, one becoming key political figure. A poisoning plot against POTUS, who's then hidden, revived... come on, how more ridiculous this series can get?

Battle Los Angeles (2011)

Hire a competent cameraman

[2/10 · 15 August 2018]

Either the cameraman crew all had Parkinon's disease, or the director is really bad. I quit watching this movie after 5 minutes, so bad was the shacking and unprofessional the shooting.

The scenario wasn't promising either, the first scenes are badly introduced, I actually thought I had missed the beginning, or mistakenly selected the trailer.

To avoid

Last Resort (I) (2012–2013)

Uninteresting, incoherent and ridiculous

[1/10 · 20 April 2013]

This series looks like it has been written by a child with too little or too much imagination, it's hard to tell which.

Firstly it is completely unrealistic, both in the plot and on the technological level.

An artefact to make a submarine instantaneously disappear, communication with a diver from a submarine in deep water (that would require ELF with a *very* long antenna for the poor diver), people watching from the submarine at mid-depth, missiles cruising at insane speeds... are just plain ridiculous and really distract from the interesting part of the story.

Or lack thereof actually.

Because the plot resembles to an incoherent succession of badly digested theme-based episodes, each of which has a kind of moral related to the theme. And we see Spetsnaz attacking a small lost island, a submarine crew invading land, a US secretary of defense going all the way to this island to engage talks with the captain of a rogue submarine (whereas they apparently have video-conference available at some other time), people delivering message on TV to their family, gas attacks (with time-limited bizarre effects), ... and so on.

So in conclusion, the plot is shabby at best, on the edge of uninteresting, within a completely improbable and inconsistent universe. Better than 24? I would say, even worse.

1 point for the nice island vistas.

Underworld: Awakening (2012)

Not much to do with previous Underworld movies

[4/10 · 19 April 2012]

Much has already been said on the poor storyline in this instalment of the Underworld series, but apparently nobody is bothered by the major flaw in the story.

Why would Selene and Michael still be any other than mere humans, since they killed their ancestors, Marcus and William? It is clearly mentioned by Tanis, the historian, in Evolution, that killing a vampire or a lycan kills their whole bloodline. That's why at the end of Evolution Selene isn't burnt by sunlight anymore, and this poor explanation of a "gift by Corvinus" is ridiculous and an insult to the audience.

Sad, because they managed to insert the prequel (Rise of the Lycans) correctly in the initial story. Maybe the writers didn't care anymore this time.