pks-5

A - Anti-historic

Those who say it's "historically accurate" are either shills hired by the marketing or really stupid and uneducated hillbillies.

This trash has less basis in real history than movies like "Lincoln Vampire Hunter". Everything "historic" on screen is profoundly and disgustingly fake. That goes for events, personalities, lifestyle, customs, architecture, warfare, weapons & armor...

If Vladimir the Great was alive today he'd sue for slander and instantly won big time.

U - Unwatchable

From purely cinematographical point of view, this is unwatchable trash, plain and simple. Acting and directing are way below traditional trash genre standards. Screenplay is devoid of any logic, consistency, or character development.

T - Trash

I believe the real purpose behind filming it was money-laundering, or something similar to what Uwe Boll did. Except any of the worst Boll's movies are much better than this trash.

I've seen a lot of Cold War era propaganda flicks, and post-Cold War as well.

Seems that it's only getting worse there.

"The Hunt for Red October" or "Red Dawn" had this basic nonsensical vodka-drinking and balalaika-wielding "commie weirdos" and "commie bad guys" look & feel. Nothing really noticeable for the uninformed viewer, even.

Then came "Enemy at the Gates" - a prime example of recycling the foulest Nazi propaganda clichés (even a Jew Commissar - amazing!) by US propaganda machine, Hollywood, CA.

But still, it had some sense in plot and some actual normal people in it. So, there were lots of room for stooping much, much lower.

Well, now we got that.

In this masterpiece of puking Russophobic bile on screen - 100% pure Nazi clichés, complete dehumanization of Russian "untermensch", utter racist hatred.

I don't really know what else there is to say. If you somehow don't feel same way about this piece of, hm, art - you probably should call yourself a "hillbilly" with pride.

Don't just go assuming that just because it's on MTV or, technically, it's a "Tween Drama" it can't be good or deep or thrilling.

In fact, it is well above your average CW or ABC or whatever show. The quality of writing and overall production is on par with some of the best HBO series or aforementioned "Homeland".

"Life Unexpected", of course, would be an obvious choice for comparison, but it was way less thriller-ish.

I chose "Homeland" as a major point of reference - as strange as it might seem at first - not just off the top of my head or as a pure quality measure - "Homeland"'s first season is as close a match for the viewing experience that I had with "Finding Carter" - not that of sinister terror plots, of course, but as a psychological thriller where a multitude of agendas collide.

Great show.

Okay, I'm quite used to US TV creators not doing research and not even caring, using stock characters like "evul Russinz" etc. etc.

Yet "Legends" manage to set a new record of egregiousness, considering the caliber of the show, Sean Bean and all.

E.g. after Tsarnaev brothers media coverage even a most uneducated hillbilly ignoramus out there should be well aware of the fact that Chechens look pretty much like Arabs and have names like "Mohammed".

Yet here he is, lo and behold! - Evil Chechen Colonel Yuri Medved and his blond Arian-Chechen henchmen!

Yeah, "Yuri Medved".

What's next, Evil KGB General Vlad Gogol? Evil Orthodox Priest Ivan Putin?

What were they thinking? Did they confuse their notes with those for the next "Austin Powers" movie?

Or they thought, Muslim baddies are not cool anymore, it's "Evul Russinz tiem" now, but 'Chechens' is still a fancy word?

Of course, the clichés and nonsense only start to pile up at that.

It's like quality writing is not even a dying art anymore, but a long dead festering corpse over there.

In short, the elite of the elite of the Soviet Navy is depicted as a bunch of morons who walk, talk, act and fight each other like a bunch of stereotypical gangstas doing and selling drugs in the 'hood. How does it look from an outside perspective? Imagine a movie about the loss of USS Thresher, which depicts its sinking as a consequence of US Navy officers having a BDSM gay sex orgy in the control room and accidentally spilling anal lube on the circuits. Yes, it IS just as bad as THAT. Personally, I am quite offended. Not just as a Russian, but simply as a viewer.

Apart from controversial acting, directing, plot etc. there is one particular aspect of this movie thats is actually bad unconditionally.

If one would judge by "Sengoku Jieitai", one would conclude that JGSDF is the worst disciplined and trained army in the world, assembled by drafting idiots with criminal tendencies.

Samurai tactics against modern soldiers, shown in the movie, is remarkably decent to my surprise. It might even work IRL - well, if modern soldiers were indeed that stupid and untrained. Modern soldiers' tactics is just plain ridiculous - "WTF are they doing?!!" was all I could think about watching the otherwise spectacular final battle.

In my opinion, this movie creates a very bad image of JGSDF.

It also seems that there's not even single one positive character - anyone who's not an extra is either plain bad or just repulsive person. Even Lt. Iba (Sonny Chiba) - being badass - is also bad and an ass.

Well, at least we have two badass guys here.

Possibly, it's the worst "sequel of the great movie" I've ever seen. If you did like "Charlie's Angels" like I did - I strongly suggest you not to watch this one.

There's no action, just "motion". The scenario is completely senseless - scriptwriters seem to be putting to the test the viewers' tolerance to stupidity. Finally, it's not funny at all. I can conclude that Bill Murray did the right thing, when he rejected a role.

What confuses me most, it's the director's name - it's the same name, that was seen in the titles of the fabulous first movie! So I really wonder if Mr. McG has suffered some brain damage in about 2001?

P.S. It seems to me that in the whole movie only "the commercial of Ka-52 helicopter" in the very beginning is worth watching.