Change Your Image
me-628-529842
Reviews
Doctor Who: Orphan 55 (2020)
Please stop telling us what to do
Yea, we know global warming is bad. I don't have anything I can do about it. How about you pay for my college tuition, first? I had my parents, teachers, and many other people tell me that global warming is bad and BOY I would LOVE to help. But I would also love to hear a normal story, instead of your forced political half-baked speeches that do not incite or encourage any change.
The money spent for this episode should've been donated instead.
Oh, and for an actual review:
(1) I like ensemble casts, but this one had no moments where we learned more about the characters; unlike the prior ensembles with the Doctor (Midnight, Voyage of the Damned, Planet of the Dead, Silence in the Library)
(2) I dislike the lack of intelligence in the male characters - Graham and Ryan both made irrelevant and rash decisions which harmed themselves or others; Nevi (mechanic father) was a complete moron; Benni was too embarassed to ask his elder partner to marriage because Yaz walked up; and Vorm was a coward despite having done this job before.
(3) I don't feel empathic to Nevi, the foolish mechanic who ignores his son, and his foolish son who runs out of the only safe area. They end up reuniting and embrace but it wasn't wholesome. It was boring and a waste of time.
(4) Nor do I feel empathic to the awkward "family reunion" that makes NO sense -- I'm sorry, I can't keep talking about how bad this episode is. This episode had about 5 total minutes of worthy content.
Soundtrack (2019)
Don't watch it for the music.
As I write this review, I progressively add more and more to the rating. It started out really low because I was very disappointed but I think I'm bringing it up to 6/10 as I continue to rewrite this review.
The plot, the characters, the story, the acting, the writing -- all FANTASTIC! I'm really in love with the story.
But I also really like musicals and that is NOT this. I thought I wouldn't mind the lip synching but it's really easy to hear the original artist's Studio Recorded performance of the song and that is one of the many things that derail the concept of the show.
The second thing is how each time a song shows up, the first few seconds (a scene or two) can be a pretty enjoyable scene, but quickly the song jumps to different settings and breaks physics to get the point across. To go into that more, this can be applied to the very first song. SLIGHT SPOILERS.
The main actress starts singing about the situation at hand (and by that I mean she lip synchs to a pop song about that situation). The song is initiated with a SWEET dance number from her and the other extras where she is, and they fill in the first 30ish seconds of the song. But then it immediately goes to her running down an elementary school grounds; and then a highschool hallway; and throughout other memories she has. At the end of her song, she's supposedly climbing up a tower of men she has dated before? Like, what is this?
I'm not saying that is a *bad* thing, but that's not something for TV. Storytelling through this visual surrealism is fine. Storytelling through music is amazing. And combined, they make this awesome thing called a Music Video. But Music Videos are 2 minutes, maybe 3 or 4 if the song is stretched out on purpose for that love story.
But, seriously, we've all been there. We've all pretended to see a love song but played out with our own memories with our own desires. Musical songs in movies should NOT simply copy and paste elementary quality Music Videos.
That Music Video formula didn't work out, but it actually could have if they didn't lip synch the songs. Moulin Rouge pulled a middle-ground approach to that visual storytelling; while a lot of the songs started within the setting, they stayed in that setting for a while. But they also left that setting by breaking basic physics (when Ewan McGregor swings on the Eiffel Tower, on top of clouds, for example). But because they had their original covers, it didn't feel like a Music Video.
I would say it is because of all of those things combined which really hurt the music in this show. Because they went for a lip synched Music Video approach, I'm finding myself just fastfowarding through all the songs so I can enjoy the plot normally. Which is a real shame.
Please, anyone, everyone, if you're going to make a "Musical" like this (because this isn't really a musical) then please either write your own songs or have your own actors sing the songs. Yea, it's tough, but making your own Music Video to a popular song is what highschoolers do for school projects these days. Please...
Anna and the Apocalypse (2017)
If you like Musicals and Zombies, ignore the bad reviews!
I LOVE Musicals and I'm alright with Zombie flicks. This does do both, though not being too original. Musical buffs shouldn't compare this with Little Shop of Horrors or Evil Dead: The Musical and Zombie buffs shouldn't compare this to Walking Dead or any serious zombie film. This flick is fun, lighthearted, with over-the-top zombie gore. It's not meant to be taken too seriously.
Though, this is pretty much Shaun Of The Dead with less humor and more musical. Many of these negative reviews are saying to not compare the two, and they also complement the first half but hate the later half. I took in those reviews but enjoyed the whole thing! It has a very similar "hero's journey" that SotD had. Though this one does resolve around High School 12th graders so, pretend Shaun of the Dead + High School Musical.
The characters are pretty straight forward. No dimension is needed for a fun campy flick like this. The film tried to add dimension to some characters but it doesn't really work. Just ignore it and move on. I do like Nick's character growth though. They tried on that. Could've been done better though. I think lots of people are expecting it to be humor and comedy, which it isn't. It's supposed to be fun and campy.
That being said, I really wish there were more songs. Even just glossing over some musical elements, this did have an awesome "I want" song as the opening, but I wish it actually just opened with a song. And I wish there was an Ending-Act-1 song and Opening-Act-2 song, but since it's a movie, the concept can be combined to have a big flashy spectacle that we can feel like taking a break right after, existing about half way through. The song at the halfway point here was decent in that the characters realize their whole world will never be the same, but it was soft, dramatic. Which is fine and fit the song well, but it wasn't the splashy act finisher.
Likewise, second half of the film didn't have many songs, and the songs it did have felt a bit redundant.
Furthermore, the antagonist's song in Act 2 really caught my attention with the lyrical rhythms but immediately fell flat once the line only lasted three measures. The song should have had more lines, in the fast lyrical pattern, with less pauses, and it would be like a Gilbert & Sullivan pitter-patter (or like the song "Now (It's Just The Gas)" from Little Shop of Horrors) , I would've given this a 10. But instead, the patter stopped quickly, and then we heard the actor sing... no thanks!
OVERALL, the film gets an 9/10 because I wanna bump up the rating a bit. I actually give it more like an 8/10 but these lower reviews almost made someone like me not watch it. Don't watch it with the plan of getting an intense movie night, but do watch it if you're just hanging out with friends, at a halloween party, or just want something to entertain you as you procrastinate your upcoming project...