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Operator7G
Reviews
From Me to You: Kimi ni Todoke (2023)
Good series; Felt like watching Cliff's Notes
As the summary says, watching this live action series was like watching a Cliff's Notes version of the story. It's very high level with little detail, so it's hard to fully buy into any of the characters' emotions or motivations. Fortunately, I had just finished the 38 ep, 2 season anime series, so I knew a lot of what was going on in the background, at least for episodes 1 through 7. Once the series got to where the anime series ended, everything seemed rushed and a bit confusing, which stands to reason when you consider they were averaging 5 anime episodes per live action episode. This series definitely would have benefitted from being either a full 25 episode season or two 13 episode half seasons. I don't want to spoil anything, so suffice it to say that there are some character relationships that seem to come out of nowhere, and are really tough to accept, because there wasn't enough time to develop them, which is a shame. Still, it's a nice slice of life/coming of age story.
Love, Death & Robots (2019)
Stop After Season 1 - You've been warned
Season 1 featured 18 shorts that were, for the most part, very entertaining although often featuring nudity for the sake of nudity. They were short but told interesting stories that left you thinking about what might have happened after the ending. Seasons 2 and 3 have fewer but longer episodes, which is a blessing and a curse. There are fewer to bore you, but it takes longer to get through each one. They were almost all lessons in how great and photorealistic computer animation can be, but they lacked quality storytelling, not to mention that they were almost all dark and depressing. The only bright light was provided by the three robots. My rating of seven primarily speaks to the strength of the Season 1 offerings.
The Beast (1988)
Well, there's a tank in it...
Positives: There's a tank
Negatives: Everything else.
It boggles my mind that anyone thinks this movie is good. Horrible dialog. Weak acting. Poor casting. 2 hrs I'll never get back.
War of the Worlds (2019)
Long slog of depression
Yeah, it's a post-apocalyptic story, but this show is so depressing that it makes you think the aliens are right to come and cleanse the world of humanity's presence. None of the characters are likable to the point where you either care about what happens to them or even like them. If you're expecting any action, forget it. This is The Walking Dead but not nearly as good, and I didn't particularly get into that show either. I couldn't take any more after watching only three of the eight season one episodes. It boggles my mind that there's a second season.
Raised by Wolves (2020)
Long, slow build up to...disappointment.
I won't bother with spoilers since there are so many in other reviews. I gave this series one star for each episode that I felt was good and positively contributed to the story arch. Like much good sci-fi, this was a slow build up that ideally would have resulted in a great finale. Instead, it lost that head of steam over the next 4 episodes of non-sensical plot turns punctuated by the most ridiculous final 15 minutes of any season finale I have ever seen. The letters W, T, and F do not fully do it justice even after reading an interview with Ridley Scott where he explained it. It's readily apparent why the press was only provided the first six episodes of this series. They would be what I consider the "bait" to the last episodes' "switch". Like 2020, I'm leaving this dumpster fire behind me. I'll pass on Season 2, which for some inexplicable reason got green-lighted.
Time Trap (2017)
The Title is Honest Advertising
This movie is a time trap, and you'll never get that time back. Ever. The movie ignores its own premise of the cave, and that's just the tip of the iceberg. Any rating over 3 is overly generous and has been bought, is delusional, or both. This movie is an insult to mediocre cinema fare. Any self respecting sci-fi fan wouldn't ever sully themselves by rating this movie any higher.
Code 46 (2003)
Move along, folks...nothing to see here
** NO SPOILERS AT ALL ** I would've had to have watched the whole thing to provide them.
If you liked Lost in Translation, you will probably love this movie. I, however, liked neither. I wanted to, really, I did -- I like Tim Robbins movies for the most part, but I just couldn't get on board with this one.
After 30 minutes, I never really got a feeling for what made the main characters tick. Some would probably argue that there was too much thinking involved and that I'm just a simpleton, but I love watching foreign films and anime, and they are often more intellectually challenging than anything Hollywood has served up recently.
By the time I decided to hit the Stop button, I could not have told you where this was going, why it was going there, or what I thought the plot was. Remember back in school, they taught you to start your reports using an outline with a summary at the beginning, then you make your points, and then you conclude it? Most movies follow this fairly simple recipe by giving you the character's motivation to set the hook as they then lay out the plot to let it unfold. This movie never set a hook in me. In fact, I think they went fishing without hooks or bait.
I don't mind being thrown into something that seems random but then ties everything up nicely. In fact, I love it when a movie successfully pulls it off, such as the non-linear movies Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Memento.
Constantine (2005)
Schizophrenic video game ad
First off, I admit -- I never read the comics. Regardless of that fact, a movie should be able to stand on its own. This movie, however, doesn't. I'm not even sure it has legs to do so. It tries to hard to be both a suspense thriller and an action movie, but it really succeeds at neither. The suspense thriller moments dragged on to the point that I actually fell asleep more than once, and the action scenes just screamed "BE SURE TO BUY THE GAME!", which by the way, is out already.
As far as the characters, while I understood some of their motivations for what they were doing, I never really bought into them emotionally. I got the impression that the character Constantine is intended to be an anti-hero, but I was never compelled to like or dislike him. In fact, I just plain didn't really care what happened to him. If you want a good quality anti-hero, pick up a book and check out Thomas Covenant or Elric of Melnibone. Those guys are true anti-heroes.
Definitely not the worst movie I've ever seen, but certainly not among the best. It would have scored higher if it had prompted to me to at least do a little research on some of the theological concepts involved, but...well...it didn't.