lostcinematheq

These early Avatar movies (1 through 3) are just buildup and world building for Avatar 4 and 5. Cameron himself said that the movies get better and better as they go on.

And I suspect Avatar 4 is gonna be amazing (Hollywood people are reportedly losing their minds over the script alone).

As for this one, it's pretty solid. On par with the original. The underwater scenes filled me with childlike wonder, and the last hour was surprisingly dark considering how lighthearted the early scenes were. The universe is growing, we're now connected to this family and I'm excited to see this saga unfold. Even if these early films aren't great yet, they will be soon.

Spoilers for Ozymandias S5E14 of Breaking Bad ahead.

Better Call Saul is an OK show. Nothing amazing, but also not bad. I'm glad this episode is getting praise, but let's best honest, this is nowhere near Ozymandias.

The episode starts with panning around the desert ground on a bunch of different objects, if that was in any other show, every one would say its filler but just because its in this one, everyone gives it praise. Saul's scenes were inconsequential.

Was the ending cool? Sure, but it's something we've seen in plenty of crime shows before. Ozymandias not only had much better pacing but breathtaking shots like Walter driving across the desert, his chilling last words to Jesse and Hank's death. You had the family drama, the disappearer scene, the writing, the cinematography, everything was just on another level. Multiple analysis videos on YouTube have been dedicated to breaking down how great that single episode of Breaking Bad is.

This is basic crime drama. I mean guys, we were getting stuff like this all the time in the 2000s. Is television in such a drought that people think this is seriously better than Ozymandias, the greatest episode of the greatest show of all time, Breaking Bad?

I don't understand what's so great about this show. I sincerely don't. Is it supposed to be the characters? All of these characters were better acted and written in Breaking Bad. Is it supposed to be the cinematography? It's basic HBO/AMC cinematography at this point. It may have been revolutionary in the 2000s, but now this is supposed to be the standard. What's so special about it? The writing is okay, but again nothing special. I just don't get it.

Contact me (info is on my profile) if you want to have a dialogue with me about this. I love TV and I love great TV shows but outside of a few good episodes at the end of Season 5, Better Call Saul is the Emperor's New Clothes to me. Highly acclaimed with almost nothing behind it.

I just re-watched Spirited Away and my experience was similar to the first time. It's not the most flashy or intense movie while watching it, but the next day you wake up with the world fresh in your mind. It fills your dreams. It holds its impact long after watching it and it's a world that feels so vivid and lived in every time you visit and never loses its magic. Pure childhood joy. Masterpiece.

A show that runs on pure emotion and adrenaline. Truly a once in a lifetime experience.

The final two episodes left a bigger impact on me any other ending I've ever seen. A spiritual experience.

Starts out weird and stays experimental and engaging the whole way through. A beautiful, obscure anime that I hope everyone who appreciates adventurous art has the opportunity to watch one day.

Greatest show of all time, in every element. Nothing more to be said, since this series has left me speechless!

Seasons 1, 2, 3 and 8 were a little dull for me, but Seasons 4-7 were truly a Golden Age for the show and I found myself getting very engrossed in the rich characterization and world building. Seasons 4 and 5 in particular were absolutely breathtaking.

Kamina is one of the greatest characters in all of fiction. He single handedly made this show one of the greatest of all time, and the final 5 episode battle is some of the best animation I've ever seen in an animated TV show.

Don't watch lightly, because this show will change you and make you realize what really matters in life. I can certainly say it changed me forever.

The music in this show was unforgettable. Probably one of the most distinctive and memorable anime I've ever watched.

Starts out a little rough, but once it gains it's footing around Seasons 2, it has some of the best character writing in any comedy I've ever seen, mixing episodic comedy with serialized subplots. Season 7's finale was actually a perfect overall series finale, and Season 8 wasn't necessary but it was another interesting conclusion. This series shows what it means to be an adult while being a child at heart!

Starts out mysterious and compelling, and improves with every season, making for a great and haunting finale. Iconic series, and inspiring for low budget filmmakers.

Starts out good, but then hooks you by episode 4, making for a great first season. The seasons after the first one range from average to below average, but penultimate season manages to reach even higher peaks than Season 1, being utterly amazing. Episodes 126 and 131 in particular are masterpieces of animation. The final season is less climactic, but a solid resolution.

As with most anthologies, it's a mixed bag, but when it's great, it's amazing. Zima Blue is a masterpiece.

I understand this was one of the first films to use sound. But the sound quality isn't even the problem. It's the actors. The way they speak in this film sounds incredibly unnatural, like they weren't used to actually having their voices recorded before. The physical acting isn't bad, but I think up until this point the way the dialogue audibly sounded didn't matter because it would be edited with intertitles of dialogue in between. But in this film, the tone of the dialogue was a huge problem.

Even the music, and the way it was edited between scenes, left a lot to be desired. It sounded like the music from one room stopped abruptly when they would go to another room. Besides the sound, the characters were hard to take seriously. I can't really speak on anything else, because the poor audio truly did ruin any investment I could have in this story, and the film as a whole.

If I'm being honest, there really isn't much of a point in posting this review besides letting other people know, trust me, if you can't sit through this, you're not alone. It's not because it's too old. There are plenty of great films from the 20s. Watch Chaplin, watch Keaton, watch Metropolis, watch Sunrise, watch The Crowd, watch Lonesome. Watch almost anything else but this one...

I rarely walk out of a movie but this is one that I simply couldn't watch for more than 20 minutes of its nearly 3 hour runtime (apparently it was originally 6 hours which is simply unimaginable).

Easily the worst first act / introduction / exposition to any film that I've ever seen. The scenes felt pointless. I didn't care about or care to remember a single character or their personalities. The actors are as stiff as wood. The plot concept couldn't be more boring. Even for the time, the visuals are simply awful. I'm sure they tried their best, but even some footage from the 1910s holds up better.

If I'm being honest, there really isn't much of a point in posting this review besides letting other people know, trust me, if you can't sit through this, you're not alone. It's not because it's too old. There are plenty of great films from the 20s. Watch Chaplin, watch Keaton, watch Metropolis, watch Sunrise, watch The Crowd, watch Lonesome. Watch almost anything else but this one...

Its music isn't up to Disney's, but still uniquely beautiful. Every song made me full of wonder and joy, especially the one that plays when entering Electra's Kingdom for the first time. The film's animation isn't perfect either, but that's also precisely what gives it such character. Because sometimes it's not about being the most technical. Sometimes all it takes is a little charm and sincerity. This was a magical story that moved me in ways I could have never expected. I hope to watch it during Christmas every year!

The interplay between the cops and criminals was cool and I enjoyed the action scenes as well as the more romantic moments. The audio mixing and sound effects were also well done. The biggest thing that dragged it down was the length. The movie would have been much stronger had it been 1 hr. 50 mins, but instead it's 2 hrs. 50 mins. When you pad out a thriller that much, it starts to get bogged down and you lose some of the thrill.

From the unique editing and hazy cinematography to the song selection. I especially loved the driving scenes on the motorcycle and in the car showing the colorful Hong Kong cityscapes. Good experience.

It's as if you made Pulp Fiction about time travel, but it's just Bruce Willis's portion stretched out to 2 hours. A forgettable mess.

Unfortunately for the viewer, 2/3 of the film are simply tedious buildup to get to this premise, although there was a nice clean, eerie aesthetic from the beginning. By the time the actual film begins over an hour in, it's actually quite good, with subtle, intense dialogues and amazing shots of scenery. I love how it cuts between the scenes of the guru's fluff-talk to the harsh realities around them (one character in specific was unsettling in a super unique and unusual way). So overall, once the actual film started, it made an impact on me. It just took far too long to get there. Proto-Midsommar.

I was "kicking and screaming" for it to end. At least the ending was actually really good, with editing, dialogue and music that made me think "Where was this for the entire movie?!"

Edit: Had to bump it from a 4 to a 6 because that ending stuck with me long after the movie was over. How they made such a great, stylish ending after butchering nearly the entire movie, I'll never know.

Magnetic Rose had some interesting art and world building but it was too short to really make any good use of its world. Stink Bomb was a funny concept similar to the Spongebob Squarepants episode "Something Smells", where a man stinks so badly he makes everyone in a 100 foot range of him run away in panic, even killing those who get too close. But it went on much longer than the Spongebob episode, at over 30 minutes, and really overstayed its welcome. Cannon Fodder was entirely forgettable. Very weak anthology with its only saving grace being the quality art style and interesting intros and outros for each segment.

And I found the romance between her and the leading guy to be pretty weak. The art was solid, especially the shots in the rain or by the moon, but besides a few moments, there was no real memorable imagery. This film was largely based around a Japanese version of the song "Take Me Home, Country Roads", but as someone who loves that song, I didn't enjoy the covers of it they had in this film, and it was so repetitive how they played it almost every 15 minutes (including the opening and closing credits), which just watered it down and made it lose more impact each time. This was also the first time since Howl's Moving Castle that I didn't find myself getting whisked away by a Studio Ghibli film. They also both happen to be romances, so maybe I just don't resonate with the way they tackle that genre?