luckyallstar

Overall very enjoyable movie. I'm not into DnD myself, but I imagine DnD players will like it. It did feel way more DnD'esque than that vanilla and boring 2000 flick. I think the core difference is in that this movie doesn't take itself seriously. It also feels more like an actual DnD campaign with random and bonkers stuff happening.

The main criticism this movie will receive is probably the characters. Holga and Doric are introduced as being capable and strong from the get-go. Meanwhile, Edgin and Simon are mostly incompetent and have to overcome their problems and grow as characters to be of actual help. Somewhat more emotionally for Edgin and overcoming low self-esteem for Simon. But, it's not that much of an issue. Not all men are emasculated or evil. For example, Xenk is an absolute war machine. And for Edgin and Simon it's part of their character development. Which makes them that much more likeable as characters.

Carnival row is an intriguing blend of high-fanatsy and the industrial age in a Victorian setting which gives it a very steampunk-ish feel. Throw in a noir-esque string of murders to solve and a Lovecraftian monster on the loose. What more could you possibly want?

Season 1 was a blast for sure. The narrative threads are well-written and the conclusion is not so obvious from the get-go. It is somewhat of a slow burn, but so are most crime dramas.

Lastly, the criticism for being political is utterly unwarranted here. This story is set during the industrial age when the world is mapped out and people are moving all over. It doesn't conflict with the era, narrative and setting.

Update Season 2: quite frankly, it doesn't live up to the well-written first season. My main gripe with it are character inconsistencies. Some of the characters don't just act differently from their previously established motives, they're almost rewritten entirely. Overall this season has a touch of unnecessary subversion. I'm sad to admit that I'd put season 2 somewhere around 7/10.

The new characters are all horrible people. Unlike the prequel you have no character to root for from the very beginning.

The references to COVID and social media like TikTok, Twitch and Instagram made me cringe.

Everything that happens off-screen. In a nutshell this a mystery by omission and only works because half the things the protagonist does happen off-screen. Only for it to hit you with a sudden 'Ah-ha! What you didn't know is that between each scene something else happened that we didn't show you.' This is the laziest and worst storytelling in a mystery I ever saw.

I heard Rian Johnson's friend said that it feels like he wrote the script >this< afternoon. Referring that the story is more relevant than ever. But to me it felt like Johnson wrote the whole script in a single afternoon on a napkin.

For me one of the major flaws of this show is the 'heavy'/gloomy acting as well as weird reactions to the tiniest of things. The characters don't act like any normal person would (in their situation) and seem surreal. This is immediately noticeable and caused me to speculate (half-way into the first episode) this show would be about a multiverse or a time loop with them subconsciously remembering things and therefore react the way they do. I was wrong. But I was also right in that there's an explanation for it. The issue though, just because there's a logical explanation, doesn't mean it's entertaining.

As I mentioned, aside from the gloomy tone the characters emit (as if the weight of the world was on their shoulders), they also don't act naturally. The captain who barely meets and knows the Doctor for a day, trusts her for no reason at all. The doctor however hides things for no reason whatsoever. Even though sharing some knowledge (already shown to the viewer) would've helped in establishing their cooperation in a far more believable way. On the topic of Moira, I think it's really hard to root for her. She's too passive for a protagonist and acts like an observer most of the time.

The other issue I had with it is they place too many red herrings. They try really hard to throw in symbolism and metaphors as much as they can to throw you off and it gets really tiresome. It almost looked like a Lost speedrun.

Last but not least, the music they put at the end of some episodes didn't match the tone of the show - at all.

Other than that it was a good show. If it wasn't for the things I mentioned, I'd have absolutely loved it. But it was tiresome to watch at times instead.

Yet another example of why horror is my least favourite genre. Got nothing positive to point out about this flick. It made me laugh a couple of times. Yet it wasn't supposed to.

The worst offense for me personally was the recurring breaks in suspense. And it's also the reason the whole movie feels like small screen material. The movie would go on and explore the horror element, but then take a break and have characters standing outside and clearly safe for some exposition. Another mistake in my opinion. They are too quick to define the horror/unknown/evil and contain it to the ward. Thereby making any other scene feel not intimidating at all.

If there's anything it excels at, it's mediocrity.

I truly believe that there was a really fun idea at the core of this movie - perhaps only limited to the script. But the production was mismanaged.

Let's address something that I won't get into much. The characters or rather the dialogue is really insufferable. But at the same time intentionally so. Still, I wish there was something to balance this. A Randy Meeks character to keep you grounded. It could've been Greg to some degree for example.

However, while the dialogue was annoying and could've been improved, it's not what I'm referring to as inept execution. The issues I have with this movie can only be blamed on the director. The movie tries to be smart and places the right clues at the right time for you to notice, but does it in such an obvious way that a 4-year-old child would notice them. It doesn't feel earned. There's no realization later down the line that you may have missed this point and how it affects the situation. Instead every clue placed is pretty much on the nose. Camera stays on too long so it's no longer a detail you could have overlooked, but instead it becomes the focus you immediately associate with possible repercussions. (Car battery.) Another example would be the casting choice. Pete Davidson is such a typecast that there was only one solution to me from the get go. He did a great job playing another one of his SNL personas. But that's the issue. You immediately associate it with the only expected outcome. There's no subversion either, it happens exactly as you'd expect. Therefore, it really was the wrong casting choice.

Other events unfolded exactly as you'd expect them to. On no, someone dropped the gun and now people are fighting for it. I wonder how this will end up. Hmmmmmm. It's really silly how moments like this that are ideal to subvert expectations are completely mishandled and go for the obvious trope. Why not have someone win the contest for the gun, but then manage to calm everyone down and try to get rid of the gun. Take out the magazine (but forget the bullet in the chamber) and throw the gun into the fireplace. Only for it to go off later and still hit sb when you least expect it. Far more entertaining and in line with the dark humour of the movie than what we got.

In short, it was disappointing and could've been far more.

My main gripe with this movie is somewhat lacking suspense and overall very shallow dive into the dystopian future presented. Too many questions about this remain completely unaddressed. We barely learn anything about the people living in the citadels or their motifs. In fact even the bare minimum we learn about them seems contradicting or rather the explanation given is an excuse. I reckon the reason why we're scratching the surface at best is because it lacks substance. The core idea of this dystopian society is greed of the few who live in a closed system and deliberately screw everyone else.

The other main concern is the main character. Vesper is a 13 year old who lives in a swamp and has no access to education (in fact her only book is a picture-book about animals) or technology. Yet, she has taught herself to engineer fantastical gadgets and become a genetic engineer. Do I need to say more? This is a main character of a YA novella.

What I had found intriguing initially is the premise of the Victorian magician (Charles Dance at that) trying to capture the manifestation of Death, but grabbing and imprisoning Dream instead. This alone sounds very interesting and I was looking forward to see how the story unfolds. Unfortunately, it's not what I expected. The series arguably truly starts with his inevitable freedom after years of captivity and is really just a journey to visit all kinds of mythological creatures without a suspenseful overarching storyline. Very similar to Neil Gaimen's other works like American Gods. This may have worked for 30 page comics that were released monthly. But it's not well enough put together for a TV series.

I'm not fan of the casting choices either as ideology took the reins on this one. Apparently, I'm not allowed to criticize this, so I'll leave you with the following quote from the series:

(About Lucifer) "Not just any angel. The most beautiful, wisest, and most powerful of all angels." > Brienne of Tarth with Goldilocks hairdo.

In a nutshell, it's probably the Indian Braveheart. It's a story about the friendship of two Gigachads during the British suppression of India.

Some typical quirkiness I expected from a Bollywood movie, but it was silly and charming. Overall I actually enjoyed it.

All in all it exceeded my expectations. There's a certain twist to the story and mystery and it really makes this flick very enjoyable. The characters and acting performance are also top notch.

What felt weak to me was the first half of the movie. It was close to boring at times and I thought it lacked a bigger threat. I think teasing jump scares in the first half (not following through with them, but keeping the audience on edge by suggesting some are coming up) would've improved the movie A LOT.

Spoilers: An adult biological female of the species homo sapiens.

Mind-blowing stuff, Ikr. Welcome to 2022 when common sense became a pariah in our society.

The story isn't one of them. It's garbage due to missing consistency, motifs, plausible actions, etc.

The only things I liked were the teased jumpscares. The movie knows exactly what its doing and it's almost a parody and critique of cookie-cutter horror flicks. They kept teasing jump scares, but not following through with them and kept them to a bare minimum. This worked and was enjoyable. I also thought the actors - or rather the actress specifically - did a decent job.

All of the positives don't make up for the garbage story and the nonsensical Big Bad however.

I thought Extraction was a really huge step forward for Netflix with the gritty and believable action and practical effects. So, I was really looking forward to this one. (We don't talk about Red Notice.)

Unfortunately, the best evaluation I can give it is 'it's okay'. The CGI ist horrible at times making wish they had spent much more on it. The story is pretty bland and you've already seen variations of this probably a dozen times already. The characters seem really interesting, but aren't given much room to develop beyond the surface level characterization. The same applies to the antagonists. While I think Chris Evans did a good job in portraying the unhinged Lloyd, his puppeteers did not. They seemed like goofy villains instead of the high achiever Harvard alumini they were supposed to be. I'd have gone with intimidating and calculating instead of goofy. But oh well.

Waste of time. Waste of money. Waste of talent. Granted this may be on a somewhat superficial level.

On a deeper level it's a boring slog. That said, there's room for some pretentious interpretation, like social criticism. Unfortunately, I didn't think the topic was conceptually interesting enough to engage with it so I was bored instead.

The ending was a relief to be honest. I felt the same relief I Imagine the people taking part in these games must feel after 100 hours. Only, the movie sapped out 2 out of me.

Worldbuilding is the process of constructing an imaginary world with coherent qualities such as a ecology, geography, history, culture, magic and technology. This helps to establish an immersive and believable world. We're talking about a genre where it's perfectly normal that people go crazy with fan theories on ancestry when a character happens to have a discolored lock of hair.

For me that's the beauty of successful fantasy stories.

Where does this series go wrong? Imho wokeness and worldbuilding are not mutually exclusive. But this show seems to prioritize the former and neglect the latter. Which is the dumbest thing they could've done. Instead, worldbuilding could've been used to reinforce your lofty woke aspirations and elevate the story to new heights. But instead we got this mediocre show.

I am confused on how I feel about this movie. At times I hated it. At others I was simply fascinated by it. And most interesting to see were the reactions. I've never seen so many people leave the cinema. And at the same time so many of those who did make it to the end be completely flabbergasted once the credits roll. The audience was confused and seemingly expected to see more. Like some Marvel after credits scene explaining or adding something.

The things I hated: In short, at times the movie does seem like a pretentious pseudo-intellectual fart-sniffing contemporary theatre/performance art. The songs.

The things I liked: many things are satirical. And most importantly, the twist at the end grounds the sillyness back to reality and puts it into a new perspective. But also, Adam Driver. The songs.

What an interesting experience overall.

[likeable, multidimensional] Sersi [likeable, one-dimensional] Kingo, Gilgamesh [unlikeable, multidimensional] Ikaris, Sprite [unlikeable, one-dimensional] Makkari, Druig, Ajak, Thena, Phastos

It's almost funny. They're immortals who've lived for thousands of years, but are reduced to one single trait without any character arc whatsoever, be it edgy, unstable, mute, gay or Bollywood star. Some of the characters are reduced to just one trait that is repeated over and over lest you forget it while watching.

Good job for creating one of the most forgettable MCU flicks yet. Tbh I don't want to see most of these characters ever again, except for Gemma Chan and Kit Harington.

Really liked this movie. Everything from performance, visuals, music was really enjoyable.

But more importantly to me, the story works as a mystery. Really love how it's a coherent and well-thought-out story. In hindsight the breadcrumbs were well-placed.

After reading and seeing stories like Liar Game, Kaiji and multiple Battle Royale clones over 20 years ago this one doesn't bring anything new to the table. Not only isn't it the first, but Squid Game isn't even among the best of its kind.

To be fair my main critique isn't the old concept. A more glaring issue is with some core points like the Jigsaw like reveal that I found rather predictable.

The ending itself and Seong Gi-Hun's decision is incomprehensible as well. If you just think back to all the games it's clear that he only survived by luck or help or pity from the other contestants. There's really only one game to give him full credit for. Taking this into account his decision at the end of joining the next game doesn't make any sense.

Aside from some character inconsistencies or rather incomprehensible acts by some characters like Seong Gi-Hun, Oh Il-nam and Front Man the characters were really great and fleshed out. Definitely one of the best things about this show.

Abom-i-na-tion

A thing that causes disgust or loathing.

Example: Cats.

Let's get this out of the way, this is not the 'female John Wick' movie. I'm not a huge fan of the John Wick movies due to bad plot/writing. So, yes in this regard Gunpowder Milkshake seems to be a spiritual successor of sorts with its asinine plot and writing. But this is where the similarities end. I don't need to be a fan to understand the appeal of the John Wick franchise. It's a simple story with gritty action trying to fake realism with the tactical gun fights/handling as well as rough combat. Gunpowder Milkshake on the other hand doesn't try to emulate any kind of realism. It goes straight for over the top dark humour / action straight out of something like a Deadpool comic. Imho then comparisons to Birds of Prey make much more sense than the comparison to John Wick.

My advice is, just don't think too much about it and enjoy the movie. It was fun and surprisingly violent. The action itself is very often a mixed bag of Moments of Awesome and Comic Relief thanks to either the way the opponents are handled or the state they end up in.

I won't go into plot details. If I stopped to think about the story, I'd have rate this even lower.

There's blur everywhere. Not a single frame without at least blurring 50% of the picture. It makes me want to puke. This really cheapens the experience.

Neither plot nor characters can make up for it.

I can't stomach to watch this to the end.

The show is boring and disappointing.

If episode 1 is catching your attention for any reason whatsoever, then don't be fooled. If it's these kind of battles you expect in this show, then you're mistaken for sure. Almost everything after feels like a sort of debriefing.

The pacing and direction is weird. The past timeline is trying to solve the mystery behind their origin story. But it does so before establishing any sort of positive connection to any of the characters even well into 3/4th of the season. This brings me straight to the next point.

The characters are borderline annoying. Most of them are one-dimensional with a single trait that is being hammered into the viewer.

Last but not least, the CGI is bad. The shaky cam during dialogues is annoying and a stupid idea.

Show has a promising start I think. The first two episodes managed to get my attention for sure. The pacing goes down the drain for episodes 3+4 however and I almost dropped it immediately. Well into episode 5 and it picked up pace again so I did watch until the very end of the first season.

The issue with the slow and sometimes weird pacing is that it takes you out of the experience and you start to focus on things like cinematography. And you realize how bad it is in this show. Like the weird overuse of focus, the bad sets and effects. (Definitely one of the fakest snow scenes ever recorded.) The only saving grace is that the non-background CGI was mostly limited to light particle effects, like light & fire as well as shadows. With today's software & technology this can be easily & cheapily achieved so it doesn't seem as low budget as the rest appears to be.

Characters & Plot: The overall plot itself is fine. Nothing inspiring or surprising though. But what is really weird is that there's almost no character development. Yes, it's not required and a show could be great without it. But It feels out-of-place here in Alina's quest to explore her newly-found power and training at the imperial academy. If you look at the character introductions and compare them to where they end up, you realize that there's no character growth. They did overcome their obstacles, but none grew with them. All of them were established to be capable of doing exactly what they needed to overcome their obstacles in the character introduction itself. The only growth to speak of may be emotional development. But even this is limited to opening up and communicating what has been already established in the introduction. The only exception I can think of are Nina & Mathias. But I'd argue the same is almost true for them as well with how there appeared to be immediate attraction in their very first meeting. (Which is odd given the circumstances of their meeting. But oh well.)

If you have a soul, you will rate this at 8/10 minimum.

To be honest the trope is outdated by todays standards. This has been done to some degree too many times, so you're immediately familiar with the plot and you can pretty much guess everything about it. Doesn't make it any less emotional in the slightest however.

It's a beautiful story.