dino-141

IMDb member since January 2008
    Lifetime Total
    10+
    IMDb Member
    16 years

Reviews

Continuum
(2012)

Time travel that works
Time travel in science fiction is a tricky thing - nothing really matters because any time someone can go back in time and change the timeline.

Continuum manages to play with alternate timelines, multiple versions of people from timelines without losing the audience.

Rachel Nichols does a great job carrying the series and making the main protagonist likable and relatable and keep the viewer invested.

The plot is very smart, full of twists and shows a frightingly realistic picture of our own near future, even more so now 10 years after its run.

In good old Star Trek tradition it shows us the motivation of the characters without being judgmental. It makes you think without being preachy.

Other than way too many great scifi shows it was able to complete its run and properly finish the story.

It can be a little confusing but when all strings are tied in the final season, everything makes sense.

To sum up: Great writing, great acting and flawless execution.

The Ark
(2023)

Some of the best SciFi these days
The setup is well known - a lonely spaceship is sent to a "new earth" carrying ultrasmart and very attractive people to set up a colony, but the crew in hibernation gets woken up way early because of an incident.

From that time on they have to face the crisis of the week, while dealing with personal struggles and relationships.

I am half way through season 1 and so far the writing and acting is on spot. The characters are three dimensional, well defined, relatable and mostly likable. Of course no one is who they seem at first and there are a lot of twists and turns ahead.

In that sense this show has a lot in common with Dark Matter, that is one of my favorite.

The writers succeed in building suspense by the crisis of the week as well as hinting to a bigger arc.

In my book this show is far higher quality than many shows with much bigger budgets from major studios.

The Mandalorian: Chapter 24: The Return
(2023)
Episode 8, Season 3

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Let us start with the Good of this "The Return of the Mandalorian": What fans hoped for this season became reality - the reunification of the Mandalorians and their return to their home world.

I did like the happy end for this popular SW characters, I liked how they integrated Grogu (sorry: Din Grogu) into the plot and I like the parallels (which were plenty) to The Return of the Jedi: For a time you had 3 battles at once: One in space, one between the forces on the ground and another one with the main hero against the main villain.

They did not show the space battle much though.

I also did like that in the end it was Din Djarins paternal feelings he had developed for Grogu that saved him and Bo Katan.

The battle scenes were ok, I guess, with some nice stunts from Pedro Pascals 2 doubles, that are credited here as prominently as he is, which is a good thing.

I also appreciate that they took the time for an extended epilog scene letting all protagonists enjoy the fruits of their efforts.

Now for the Bad: As for all this season the writing is very lazy. The cruiser came in almost destroyed, burning, just to be rammed into the secret. Where have the Tie Fighters gone?

All of a sudden fuel capacity of the jetpacks isn't a thing any more. And Mandalorians and "Mandalorian Troopers" flying against each other like two swarms of bugs - with no surviving imperial and no single casualty among the Mandalorians, seemingly??

And now the Ugly: We know this is still Kennedy Star Wars.

So everything that has been accomplished can be destroyed with the wink of an eye in the next series or movie. Have REALLY all of Gideons clones been destroyed?

She really is a party pooper.

However, I did enjoy this conclusion of an arc that was started in the Clone Wars, it had action and it had some Jedi awesomeness that once again ruined Moff Gideons plans.

The Mandalorian: Chapter 23: The Spies
(2023)
Episode 7, Season 3

Nothing matters any more
Finally we get some suspense and real stakes - Moff Gideon attempting to eradicate the Mandalorians is quite a statement.

The SFX were superb in this episode - besides the scenes on the "dune ship" wich looked like the studio shots of Errol Flynn pirate movies.

However.

In Kathleen Kennedy Star Wars NOTHING matters. No matter what is achieved, it is getting reversed in the next episode.

Why did they spend two seasons to get Grogu to Luke and capture Moff Gideon just to undo that moments later?

Not even talking about the Sequels that undid everything from the originals, including Han Solos entire arc.

Shoving Grogu into this season obviously has only one reason: He is the only "new" Star Wars character that actually sells merchandise.

That is very likely the reason why they can't make him talk - at FIFTY years of age!

Now, if Yoda was "the wisest of all Jedi" (although clearly outsmarted by Luke in ROJ) because he was "900 years old" but his species develops so slowly that they can't even speak or properly walk at fifty, this is just plain stupd. Even if you assume that they develop at 1/10th the speed of humans, Grogu should have the level of a 5 year old - and I have never met anyone at that age who could not utter even a word.

The New Republic is even more stupid than the republic of the prequels - indulged in pointless bureaucracy and unable to supervise former high profile imperial officers or extremely dangerous prisoners.

Luke is on some planet finding his inner center and the entire leadership of the rebellion that knows exactly how to defeat the empire, including its remnants, have become useless and where is Mon Mothma??

Bottom line: Kennedy Star Wars is deeply insulting.

The Rookie
(2018)

Great show on the verge of going down the Castle hill
If you cast Nathan Fillion, Melissa O'Neil and Richard T. Jones, you can't do much wrong. The rest of the cast is equally great, especially impressive is Dylan Conrique who is as young in real life as her character as well as Superman as the bad cop you love to hate.

I hope they let Dylans character graduate high school and then enter police academy and become the new rookie.

The writing is mostly very enjoyable and I think they handled the whole BLM/defund the police topic in season 3 in a very balanced non judgmental way. Unlike many other commentators I don't consider the episodes preachy or woke.

The only problem I have with this show is the same I had with Castle - the unrealistic "secret service world domination" stories with an "invincible foe above the law".

I know that the show is set in L. A., but I could do with a lot fewer mass shootouts.

The Mandalorian: Chapter 16: The Rescue
(2020)
Episode 8, Season 2

Epic
Yes, this was pure fan service. But done perfectly. I spent the night watching tons of people on Youtube filming themselves crying, cheering, yelling, getting almost heart attacks. Obviously Dave Filoni and Jon Favreau love AND understand Star Wars. Yes, the de-ageing of Mark Hamill was not perfect but it was the right choice nonetheless. Mark deserved a respectful comeback as Luke and I believe the fans wanted him. I guess everyone is ok, if Sebastian Stan takes over now.

Oh, and yes, I am 50 and I did cry. What else could you do, if after this atrocious mistreatment the greatest hero in cinematic history finally appears as the calm, extremely powerful and wisest Jedi Master of all time?

Solo: A Star Wars Story
(2018)

Boring Firefly rip off
I am glad of two things: That I didn't have to pay for this movie and that I was assembling my sons Christmas present while watching so I didn't utterly waste 2 hours of my life. The story and setting reminded me more of Firefly than Star Wars - minus the brilliant stories, excellent acting, great chemistry among the actors, the humor and of course no Morena Baccarin. Alden Ehrenreich gives his best to give a good Harrison Ford impression, alas he did not accomplish much. The only one standing out was Woody Harrelson because - well he is Woody Harrelson. They tried to give his and Emilia Clarks character some depth but failed miserably because they behaved more like schezophrenic than multi layered characters. Prequels are always difficult because we know the outcome already, so you have to work really hard to make the story interesting and answer questions about events and characters the audience really has. Now, what have we learned from the three classic characters? Chewie was practically non existent- We learned that Lando used to have sideburns and had a very disturbing relationship with Harry Muds robot wife. Did we learn anything new about Han Solos character? No. Why not? Because they haven't understood the character at all, so they had nothing to add.

This movie even failed on the single point where even The Last Jedi delivered - the special effects. They looked cheap and cheesy. They probably wasted most of the budget on reshoots and director switches.

All of this leaves the viewer with one single question: Why does Kathleen Kennedy still have a job?

Young Sheldon
(2017)

What a pleasant surprise
When I first read about plans for a TBBT spinoff, I did not think that it would work in a million years. Maybe the reason so many people are disappointed is the huge difference in tone - and the fact that young Sheldon is way too cute. While TBBT is more or less a nerdy version of Friends, Young Sheldon is more like a classic family comedy with typical family problems and the special task of raising an Asperger genius. The key ingredients are the same as in TBBT though - fresh humor, well defined characters and a brilliant cast. For me the best new show of the season.

Star Trek Beyond
(2016)

The Rogue One of the Star Trek Franchise
I was very reluctant to watch this movie after J.J. managed to utterly destroy the franchise until I stepped over it on Amazon Prime. I dared to watch it and I was pleasantly surprised. Amidst lots of action and explosions Justin Lin takes the time to develop the characters as well as their relationships. Simon Pegg and the other authors managed to create a genuine Star Trek story that pays a lot of respect to the original franchise, the fans and the original actors. It seems that in this installment the main actors have "found" their characters, their own approach, yet they managed to give us at least a hint of the original performances. Especially Chris Pine convinced me with a much more mature James T. Kirk with a lot of William Shatner moves. Idris Elba managed to give the main villain character an extraordinary depth, leading up to his reveal and demise perfectly.

A movie that is a very respectful homage to 50 years of Star Trek, entertaining and with a few nice twists. And a step away from stupid western gunmen of the previous movies, back to an ingenious trio that smarts out the bad guys of the galaxy. And believe it or not - the movie even had a Star Trek theme.

So that's how it's done: Dump that overgrown child without any imagination, hire a real director and some decent writers and you have a good franchise movie.

Castle
(2009)

Nathan Fillion rocks!
In my opinion Nathan Fillion is one of the most underrated actors in Hollywood. He has enough charisma to carry any show, even a theatrical movie, he has a very wide range in his acting and he always delivers with precision. Castle is a very enjoyable show, mainly due to the chemistry between the leads, but also because of Fillions lightheartedness and great sense of humor. For me the stories are a little to alike, we have a homicide, we continue interviewing suspects, but conclude every time that they could not have done it. Then we find the final clue and frame - the gardener. What I really, really love, are the Firefly references in the show, they always make me smile - when Castle shows up in a brown coat for Halloween or explains that he learned his Chinese skills in a TV show he really likes.

Better Off Ted
(2009)

Funny & smart
Better of Ted is a pleasant surprise. Finally a sitcom that does not feature a set of singles living in the city or a moronic family. It is fresh, witty and fast. Many American sitcoms are very predictable which for me really kills the laughs. I really don't understand why this show didn't become a bigger success because it had all the ingredients to appeal to a large audience: An excellent cast, fresh jokes, hot babes for the men and a handsome male lead for the ladies. Jay Harrington is often compared with George Clooney. I don't know if there really is a resemblance, one thing he does have in common with Clooney though: Despite his good looks, guys don't hate his guts. Andrea Anders is sweet and funny as always, Portia de Rossi walks a very fine line between portraying the heartlessness and coldness of mega corporations and just being a caricature. Her extreme screen presence even makes the character a little likable. What makes this show really stand out is the smartness of the scripts, the tong-in-cheek satire.

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