redn_path01 Reviews

Her (2013)

The template for all AI Companies

[2/10 · 21 May 2024]

That is the one thing this movie seems to get right: It is what AI company CEOs want from life. A submissive servant wife computer AI with a sexy sultry voice. Got curious to take a look after reading about the latest drama in the AI lands and hearing it was a person's favorite movie.

You'd think this movie had been written by an AI itself given how remarkably unremarkable the plot is, but all the grossly inappropriate jokes that are just forced into as many scenes as possible would have gotten the script censored, flagged and sent for human review.

There is a target audience for this movie. Middle-aged males who do not understand women, desperately want sex, and still enjoy dirty forbidden words that 5 year olds get excited about - that is basically what you can expect from the writing.

Two points for the good voiceover work, zero for the rest.

Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One (2023)

A masterpiece for how to inflate a movie's run-time

[1/10 · 29 April 2024]

If, like most people, you're familiar with how some videogames make NPCs wait for your choice when you're in a dialog cutscene, and the action in the background kinda just keeps repeating on loop, with dramatic music playing endlessly until you make your choice - that is what this movie does.

Every single scene is drawn out forever way past the point of being extremely painful and torturous to endure, and just when you think 'surely they will now move on???' the scene keeps going on for another 10 minutes without any change, and with the characters rattling down a truly shallow dialog devoid of any meaningful contents.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)

Hmm. Very strange

[3/10 · 31 January 2024]

This is my first time watching this movie. I have no nostalgia to back me up here.

Half-way through I got the impression that this is basically a cartoon but with realistic visuals.

The main characters are not altered by the events in the story and don't change or grow.

A lot of scenes drag themselves on for a very long time, only to culminate in an event that turns out to not have any actual consequences just a few scenes later.

Main characters conveniently get off-screen rescued and reappear in later scenes and locations with no sensible explanation for how they could possibly have found their way there in time, or why they would have been spared.

I understand that this is done so the story can progress, otherwise the protagonists would be very dead before the first hour is passed. And maybe in the 60s there were no better ways to write a script around that (? Speculation, that is all very long before I was born.)

Still it is strange to watch this in a movie that is targeting adults. Like, DC Animated series have the same recipe - steady character personalities, no consequences, injuries are dramatic but trivially cured, and reset at the end of an episode. But those are made for kids.

The visuals are nice though. There are a lot of background actors that give life to scenes.

Treasures of Ancient Egypt (2014)

Alastair's Personal Opinions: The Series

[4/10 · 12 November 2023]

These documentary episodes show quite a bunch of interesting things, even some reliefs and statues that aren't that commonly featured in the average egyptian documentaries, but the presenter - and writer - of this mini-series, Alastair, is an opinionated little horny gremlin. Apologies for these harsh words, but this man has got massive issues with being unbiased and fair. And mature. Which he isn't.

What you hear here aren't necessarily historical facts, but his personal opinion about a great number of artifacts. And Alastair comes over as painfully opinionated and prejudiced, seemingly enticed by breasts and 'sexy' women depictions, offended by proportions he deems unsexy (he likes calling things ugly, nasty, fat, deformed), and he's trying to glaze it all over with a bunch of meaningless artsy hoo-ha talk that is entirely subjective, not backed by any facts or expert interviews, and leaves you wondering if this is a circus or a serious attempt at presenting the ancient egyptian culture.

His interpretations of facial features quickly paint the supposed original peoples of ancient times as pained, angry, grumpy, wholly unhappy and troubled individuals throughout, and all of Alastair's evidence for those claims are his personal dislikes for various features. Then on other occasions he will go onto lengthy rants filled with praise and his 'art expert' interpretations of what he believes arbitrarily chosen details to mean.

Take this documentary as a cautionary tale for what not to do. Namely don't let a fool rant away about things he has no knowledge about, and get more experts to present things instead. And fire Alastair.

Visually the footage shown here is quite nice though, so the production crew did its job well. Watch this only if you exhausted your supply of egypt documentaries.

Castlevania: Nocturne (2023– )

Hyper-Emotional

[5/10 · 1 October 2023]

This series is very different from the previous 2017 one - this is expected since the writers aren't around anymore for this. I'd like to contrast them a little.

In the old series, you encounter complex characters with a deep stack of personality traits, views of the world, different ways of responding to the same events, and vastly different life stories. And the events shape them, and make them change.

In this series, you have most main characters basically be the same: traumatized, torn apart by grief and emotional suffering, but without bringing different ways of thinking about the world into the mix. Without feeling real enough to make their suffering matter.

Magic is treated as an everyday afterthought, since for some reason everybody is capable of it, with few restraints. There is no cost to it. This causes a lack of contrast between each character's abilities, which makes them feel fuzzy and undefined. Nobody is special, because everybody is OP. WAY too OP.

There is a lot of blunt language and swearing that seems forced because it is mostly used in odd moments where it is not required. This makes it lose any special meaning and instead makes everyone look foolish.

The main villain is pompous and hollow, introduced way too late, and sadly takes itself very, very serious.

There is a very large amount of opera singing. It's... music tastes differ. This one misses mine. The rest of the soundtrack is fine though as it is done by the same composer as in the old series.

There is a truly huge amount of crying. If I had to put a word to it, I'd call this series hyper-emotional. Drama is quickly resolved and rarely lasts longer than a few minutes, and as a result this, too, feels kinda inconsequential.

Vampires have been reduced to bloodthirsty idiots - their culture and deeper insight into the world - which was shown to be their thing in the previous series - is gone now, and they just stand around to laugh, bite people, and generally ... be kinda useless.

Visually the series is of decent quality. Not quite as intricate backgrounds and fluid animation as in the first series, but still decent. Many characters have extremely varied, but also kinda odd eyes. Some of the outfits don't fit into the time period at all, even though they are successful designs on their own.

I'm giving it a rating of 5 out of 10, for being an average TV series, and a product of the current societal trends that you can observe in mainstream media.

It should be more approachable to people who don't enjoy the gritty, complex setting of the 2017 series.

Inside (I) (2023)

This is a movie that exists

[1/10 · 8 April 2023]

I am wondering who the intended audience for this movie is.

Normal people? No, certainly not. There is simply nothing to relate to here.

Architects? I think architects would break out in cold sweat over how many safety regulations this weird pent-house violates. No escape door? Only one entrance? SEALED WINDOWS? Is this even legal? Even a bunker is easier to escape from!

Wealthy people? Hmmm. And here is what I'm thinking. This movie *is* a horror movie - for rich people who know what all of these weirdly, uncomfortably shaped pieces of furniture and water fixtures cost. (There are a lot of water fixtures!) And what brands they represent.

Think of it. Some burglar hobo peasant, dirtying their precious expensive wooden bits, tearing down their fancy, clumsily made art pieces.

Or perhaps the director hates expensive things and enjoys seeing them trashed. Which I approve of, but there isn't enough trashing to enjoy it properly.

So unless you are one of the rich people who own any of the items featured in this movie, I believe there is not a single reason you need to watch it.

Halo (2022– )

This has been made for a TV audience, not gamers

[2/10 · 24 March 2022]

This is best viewed by an audience that neither knows or likes scifi, nor has ever seen or played the games.

Fans of the halo universe needn't bother with this stuff, best read a well written fanfic instead, virtually everything would have a higher quality writing than this.

Masters of the Universe: Revelation (2021)

What an odd mix

[6/10 · 13 March 2022]

It feels as if different writers who were not on the same page in terms of ideas and main plot have been responsible for different episodes - because a few are sensibly written and even make some sense, with fun pacing and battles, only to be entirely contradicted by the following episodes again.

There are some things that I greatly enjoy about this show - some really cool villain designs, and some characters like Beastman got an intelligence and rational thinking capacity boost which oddly enough works out really well!

What the show fails extremely hard with - in my view - are two things. One is the needless emotional sob-story moments that are so cringey and artificially written that they fail to elicit the desired emotional response, and force already well established characters to do and say idiotic things, and the other thing is that basically the entire plot is carried by mostly Teela and other female characters, with He-Man nowhere in sight, and if he is present, he's more of an accessory.

Mystical, cosmic powers, the universe, life and death, and other such big complex topics are trivialized and squished into really poorly written plot points and re-used and re-defined so many times that you quickly stop taking any of them for serious... in a bad way, in this case. Because while the show has got some weird but amusing humor at times, it also takes itself damn serious when it is basically trying to convince you that the writers know what they're doing, when they don't have any clue.

Flashy, colorful, with strong ethnically diverse (muscled) female lead characters. It is very much a product of the current times and America's struggle to find a new politically correct set of cultural values.

Bottom line is I'd recommend it for some fun designed villains and a fun version of Skeletor, but you have to be ready to see a lot of idiocy inbetween.

Battlestar Galactica (2004–2009)

Potential, sadly not fully realized

[5/10 · 21 December 2021]

So the series starts off really strong. The miniseries set the tone, and the first season found many interesting points of tension and conflict to carry the larger narrative forward.

The second season had a few low points, but definitely still managed to find really interesting events and plot-twists with a few episodes that really at me at the edge of my seat!

The third season is where it entirely lost me to the point of giving up on watching because I stopped caring about the fates of everyone. :S

It devolved to nothing but hollow drama for the sake of there being drama, but it lost sight of a bigger plot to follow. The plot stalls. It goes nowhere, back and forth, like it is stuck in a murked-up muddy road.

It feels like they were almost improvising the plot for each episode, and outside of plenty wobbly weird face closeup-shots (the camera work noticably got weirder and not in a good way), there was nothing going on really.

Though I can see how this might appeal to people who just plain enjoy people yelling at each other and having sex a lot.

Star Trek: Prodigy (2021–2024)

Good for your kids if they love Star Wars

[6/10 · 29 October 2021]

... and if your kids have never heard of Star Trek.

The visual and technical production quality is excellent for a TV show, really nice.

It does not have anything going for adults though, and I'm truly wondering why it is called Star Trek, when every single bit in it is literally Star Wars-like. From the villain tropes right down to the sound effects and aliens.

The inclusion of Janeway in the whole mix feels like an arbitrary last minute decision to justify wedging this into the Star Trek 'Franchise' (apologies for having to use that term) and to try to get original 'Trek fans to take a look.

Well I took a look. You need'nt bother unless of course you'd like more Star Wars material!

Squid Game (2021– )

TLDR Review for people in a hurry

[5/10 · 16 October 2021]

This is a show written for and by mainstream human brains that are obsessed with social connections, and enjoy spending every waking minute contemplating about the meaning and weight behind social interactions.

It is not good material for those of us who repurpose our neurons for more interesting things.

It is possible to skip 70% of the material without losing sight of the simple story construct, and you still get to claim to have watched it.

Free Guy (2021)

Good for kids

[4/10 · 24 September 2021]

Not so good for adults.

While the movie doesn't leave a bitter aftertaste, thanks to its flat and entirely predictable plot, it misses out on a lot of fantastic opportunities to play with the implications of self-aware NPCs and simulated realities in general.

But yeah if you need to occupy your offspring for 2 hours, this will probably get the job done. ;) If you are hoping for an interesting take on AI and whatnots, look elsewhere.

Castlevania (2017–2021)

One of the best

[10/10 · 30 August 2021]

What is to say about this show that hasn't been already mentioned in so many other reviews?

Perhaps this. The amount of agency that characters show - despite being forced to do violent things in a dark world - and their ability to find insights about life itself, and perhaps even something akin to wisdom, makes them feel like true actors, capable of shaping their destiny. Capable of free will.

A testimony to this is the final episode of season 4.

That much time to tie up loose ends, finish story arcs, send characters on their ways? Make them come to grips with what it is they want to have in their life? Unheard of, these days.

A show like this comes around only very, very rarely.

Yes the violence is also satisfying, yes I immensely do enjoy the various dark critters and the scenery, backgrounds, and voice acting are nothing short of breathtaking. But it is the undertone of perseverence and having a choice that I'll most remember this show for.

I thought good writers had died out as a species, but apparently they still do exist. Delighted.

Come True (2020)

Interesting!

[7/10 · 19 March 2021]

This is an unexpectedly interesting movie that contains actually new things compared to the horror(ish) movies from the last years.

It has a lot of damn COOL gritty dark dream scenery that is intriguing and relaxing to watch, not to mention beautiful in its own sense. I have to say that I enjoy dark things though!

The combination of retro screens + UI elements and modern tech works really well here as well. The VFX blend quite well with real elements, I have a hard time to tell which is which at times.

Also the movie has a really good soundtrack.

There are a couple of things I don't like. One stereotypical sex scene that one could sense coming from a lightyear away (I don't think the personality of the characters needed that to be included!), and the ending kinda pulls the foundation away from all the nice spooky stuff by supplying the viewer with ... an unsatisfactory cheap explanation. Felt like a let-down.

That being said the movie is definitely worth watching, and if you watch it with friends you can have some good discussion at the side too! Looking forward to the bluray release so I can check out the making-of!

Star Trek: Picard (2020–2023)

Painful

[2/10 · 23 February 2020]

It is fine to see characters completely violate everything they stand for - in fan fiction. Everybody can enjoy reinterpreting things however they want and often the results are even hilarious.

But to see horrible writing be cemented into what will be Star Trek canon breaks my heart. I do not understand the 10 star ratings.

It gets two stars because I enjoy some of the VFX shots.

EDIT: And now that I've made it to episode 10 against my better judgment, I can fully say that I hope that whoever currently holds the license to do Star Trek goes bankrupt and sells it off. It needs to get out of the hands of people with the imagination of a 2 year old. Painful. I'm glad it is over and I do feel sorry that this is what now is called Star Trek these days. :/

Terminator: Dark Fate (2019)

It's not bad

[7/10 · 15 January 2020]

The trailer made it look like it was going to be polarizing in nature by swapping out essentially the main characters for an all-female cast to make some sorta social statement, but that is not the case. It has been implemented with care and the characters are all quite likeable and feel like they got genuine motives driving them. I don't feel like the 1 star reviews are justified at all.

Have you peeps forgotten how bad the last 2 terminator movies were? They were really quite painful in comparison to this.

This movie is basically an endless long chase, and I'm personally missing a few beats that reveal more about the villain that the characters are facing. The bad guy is rather mute - and after the overly rambly villains in the previous two movies this is definitely appreciated - but lacks depth and a sense of true agency because of this.

The story is quite predictable. The new terminator terminates, rather than infiltrating. I've always liked that about the original movies, where characters had no idea who they were really dealing with, creating a bit of paranoia in the process.

Still, wouldn't mind to see more of this branch of the Terminator universe.

47 Meters Down: Uncaged (2019)

Extremely Realistic......

[3/10 · 1 November 2019]

... portrayal of stereotypical college girls who have no idea about the universe. xD

That part I found mildly amusing, because it could count as a social commentary.

The 4 chicks who spent *way* too much time in dinky outfits to please a male audience proceeded to freak the hell out underwater basically all throughout the movie. Getting lost because their guide-line tore, literally screaming their lungs out inside a tunnel that was lit like a christmas tree by lights that were OBVIOUSLY connected to some sort of power source. Follow that instead? Naw. Naaaaw. "Cables? HOW DO THEY WORK" - nobody

I was hoping that the white girl main character was smart enough to compensate for her friends' estrogen-powered insanity, but sadly she fell very short of that.

Is there some kinda unwritten law that all killer sharks in all movies must be female? Just wondering! Poor shark, having to put up with these crazy humans!

The movie has got some better than average cinematography though, many scenes look pretty. It could have done with a greater variety of sets though, the backgrounds start repeating very quickly.

Recommended for straight males without girlfriends and nothing else to do. Not recommended for anybody else.

Doom: Annihilation (2019)

Oof

[2/10 · 14 October 2019]

What holds this movie back is not the lack of funding, which is evident in many places - lots of re-used sets that all have to be kept as un-gritty as possible so they can be used for other places of the facility, overall looking quite painted plywood-like, bad techy bits in nonsensical arrangements and hectic, claustrophobic camera cuts that try to make the place seem larger than it is.

That's forgivable if the writing can make up for it. Sadly it can't. At all. Did you think the last Doom game had a thin plot? It is a masterpiece compared to this.

The dialogues are on the level of what hollywood generally has produced in the past years - filled with cliches, sexual references that are out of place and plain dumb, and so much idiocy that you seriously have to wonder why the humanity of the future has not yet blown itself up. Rational thinking? What's that, can you eat it? Do they hire scriptwriters out of pre-school?

Clearly the only qualification for any and all jobs - be it scientist, engineer, pilot or military personnel - is that one is able to yell incoherent things in an angry way, and try really hard to get into someone's pants. Oh and consume alcohol of course.

I've given it two stars because the exterior scenes of the ship are decenly done and of notably higher quality than the rest of the VFX shots. That still does not make this a watchable movie. If you must, fast-forward through it.

The Dead Don't Die (2019)

It is a really nice, witty, but slow movie

[9/10 · 3 September 2019]

Slow being the point here. The frustration of viewers who were hoping for an action-packed splatterfest of a zombie movie is understandable. But the single star rating is not justified.

• The dialogue is witty and doesn't follow the same tropes that have infestated movies of the past years
• There is a lot of time to let each scene settle in
• No character takes him or herself fully serious and that's great, they all got some whacky qualities
• There is no single hero who saves the day, it feels like all characters get pretty equal screen-time
• Several likeable actors everbody should recognize from other movies
• And a successful integration of modern tech into a distinctly backwater-countryside environment.

I like this movie because it is not like your average zombie movie and the subtle humor hits the right buttons. But requires thinking :p If you're the type of person that likes thinking and reflecting over things then this is a good movie to watch.

Men in Black: International (2019)

"Hmm." I think this sums it up.

[6/10 · 21 August 2019]

Giving it 6 out of 10 stars mostly because three or four alien designs were interesting. Not because the story is good, because it is quite terrible. The actors did their best with the script they were given, and both of the main characters are likeable in spite of the dialog that was written for them. With less skilled actors, this would have been a lot worse.

Most of the scenes with the very annoying (and at times badly composited!) comical relief tiny alien pawn are so dumb that I'm imagining kids are gonna like this movie. Small kids. Toddlers maybe? Fetuses? The less brain cells, the better.

On the other hand there are bits that hint at wanting to appeal to a more mature audience and it falls short on achieving that goal.

Very noticable, very drawn-out product placements throughout the movie. Especially for that Lexus car in the end. Felt like a TV commercial.

As a fan of harder scifi, this is probably classifiable as torture. Aliens and tech are used just how you would imagine magic to work. Fantastical "stuff" doing "stuff". There is no science to the scifi. None. Basically Harry Potter but with a different visual skin applied!

But then again, the movie is also not even making the faintest attempt at explaining anything, and thus avoids further embarrassments.

Watch it if you like the actors.

I Am Mother (2019)

Yes, good!

[10/10 · 9 June 2019]

I am relieved to see that while the big name hollywood media companies hire incapable scriptwriters and directors without end, trying to fix the lack of substance with overblown VFX, this movie here proves that in 2019 there are still people around who understand that a good scifi movie needs food for thought, too. Something to ponder about, prompt self-reflective thoughts and challenge the established status quo. Without telling the audience what to think and feel. The visuals are very nice as well though, and complement the good acting.

Extremely difficult to review without spoilers indeed. Everyone with an interest in scifi and AI should definitely watch it though, especially since there is barely anything else worth recommending these days.

Justice League vs the Fatal Five (2019)

Nice mixture of old and new

[8/10 · 2 April 2019]

Known settings and characters meet some of the newer qualities found in characters that were expressed in the more recent DC Universe movies.

Though, overall way less graphic and violent than the things of recent times. It is enjoyable to see a new green lantern getting some screen time as well, the character is quite likeable.

The villains are a tad bit one-dimensional (aren't they always?) but the writing is good and the overall vibe one is left with after watching it is a positive one, so this movie earned its 8 stars from me.

Higher Power (2018)

Oof. My brain hurts

[2/10 · 13 May 2018]

The story is an amalgamation of stereotypes, failed attempts to engage the audience with the emotional suffering of the (badly acted and even worsely written) characters, and very confusing and incohesive sequences in which the main character gets observed through some flashy monochrome ... hacking interface?

Clearly the person doing the UI visuals enjoyed themselves. Sadly nothing in this movie makes any sense - not even in a humorous way, since it takes itself very, VERY serious. Which is part of the overall problem. Nobody seems to have done a reality check when getting this sort of script handed in to make a movie about.

I have a hard time thinking of anyone to recommend this movie to.... You cannot have a laugh at it, and you cannot enjoy the story. Better skip it.

Maze Runner: The Death Cure (2018)

-SIGH-

[5/10 · 22 April 2018]

Do you love reading through the TV tropes wiki? You better do! This movie here has every single most stereotypical trope for every scene you encounter! Also the bad guys have a hit-rate of 0%! Even worse than Stormtroopers.

It could be comical if the movie had some humor. Because it takes it self very. Very. VEEEEEEERY serious.

The acting is held back by the awful writing and dialog scripts. The actors try to make the best of it. Hard to care for any character though, since they seem to suffer from brain-damage.

So why the 5 star rating then? Hmmm, visuals.

The enemy security troopers look nice! Nice gear. Well, if you're into that sorta thing.

Some interior sets are nicely detailed and have got an overall pleasant design - if maybe a bit generic.

Very nice lighting throughout this movie! The framing and composition of most shots is also nice. Nothing experimental or overly daring, but they're safe choices that work. The various techy UIs are uninspired and cheaply done, though. Hacking the enemy = updating Ubuntu 16 from default repositories? C'mon, guys!!!

No abuse of lensflares, though!

So the bottom line is... Watch it with some friends and make fun of it!

Alien Invasion: S.U.M.1 (2017)

Good

[8/10 · 6 January 2018]

I think this is one of those movies that is good if you like the character / actor playing it. If you don't enjoy them after the first 5 mins, it won't work, and you can safely skip it.

Story-wise it is something that echoes other movies, the basic ingredients are quite similar. It is also obvious that they had a pretty tight budget, but the sets hold up well enough to not look cheap.

Since it lacks the elements that most people appreciate about other movies, mainly drama, social stuff, explosions, pointless sex scenes, cars, it will not appear to mainstream viewers.

The ending surprised me (in a positive sense), not what I was expecting.