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Reviews

The Mandalorian: Chapter 18: The Mines of Mandalore
(2023)
Episode 2, Season 3

Much better than last weeks creme filler of an episode
This week goes straight into Mando + Grogu heading to Mandalore to explore the mines and attempt to bath on the "living waters." After last weeks misstep of an opening I was concerned how much they were going to drag this out. However this episode made last weeks look like child's play. I feel like if the Book of Boba Fett wasnt a giant mistake than this probably would've opened the season with a 20 minute prologue to establish everything episode one did. However it wasn't perfect, the need for nostalgia still creeps around and feels a little forced given the circumstances of things. Like how "R5-D4" the same exact one from a New Hope that blew a fuse before the Lars were able to buy them is now Mandos new astromech. It was cute seeing him in previous seasons as a subtle nod. However having him be directly apart of the story just feels too much of a coincidence, as well as serving essentially no real purpose. Besides that, seeing Mandalore in live action and destroyed was a sight to behold. The landscapes are beautiful and the translation between what we've seen in the animated series of Clone Wars and Rebels goes perfectly into this series. As you can easily imagine the flashbacks of the Siege of Mandalore in the now desolate underground city. I still am a little shaky on where exactly this story aims to go, especially since I know that there's a heavy chance this is going to work in Ahsokas TV show into it somehow. On top of the fact that every trailer released has a scene with Jedi from Order 66 presumably, which I hope doesn't feel forced. For a second episode it was great, and definitely left me wanting more for next week.

Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi: The Sith Lord
(2022)
Episode 4, Season 1

For anyone who has a sense for predictability this isn't for you
The episode was ok. However from the second Yaddle leaves the Jedi temple, you know exactly what is going to happen. Which is the biggest determent for this episode. This entire series seems like it's trying to tell a story that would be cool to see over a span of an actual series. However they couldn't get it off the ground enough to actual do it so they just said "let's add Ahsoka in here because that'll sell it"

I have just been underwhelmed by the entire series, and the moments they try to make feel that something come from a mile away because you know how these characters end up. So Yaddle disappearing was because Dooku killed her? Which was all because she just followed Dooku home from work? All of it just felt so contrived and just there to say "here's 15 minutes to resolve a question we've had about the Star Wars universe that absolutely adds nothing to the story" which with Yaddles demise adds nothing to the story.

If the writers actually had balls they would've added something that would impacted future stories like show or mentions of Grogu. Which the fact that we haven't seen anything related to him, is just a waste of a good story. As that would add something to a character who's fate we already don't know yet.

Yes you can argue all you want that "we didn't know the Fate of Yaddle" yet her fate is about as satisfying as a modern day M. Night Shamalyn twist. Especially with the setup of the episode you know instantly what is going to happen. I just wish that they actually spent more time with these characters to make the predictable ending actually have some feeling to them. Also this being the last Dooku story and the time jump between 3/4 where we don't see him finally making the choice to turn to the dark side makes him choosing to fight Yaddle that much more obvious. We don't see any conflict in him, just that "wow the Jedi aren't perfect let's side with Sith" which If anything makes his turn that much more aggravating and if anything undermines his turn. I don't understand why this episode is rated so high, maybe fanboys cam when they saw a lightsaber fight again. However I was not amused, and the ending was just so annoying.

Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi: Life and Death
(2022)
Episode 1, Season 1

We get babies are cute.
I honestly didn't really see the point of this story. It would've worked if it wasn't for the blatantly obvious fact that this is suppose to be part of Ahsokas story. However she pretty much is reserved to being a Grogu clone (sound effects and all) which are really noticeable especially since those same baby sound effects are used in shows from 20 years ago.

I felt that without expanding on it, it just feels like they needed to fill time to have an excuse to make this show and figured that a cute Ahsoka would suffice for a rather short and generic story. Even for Star Aars standards these creatures are lackluster and uncreative. All of it just feels unnecessary and would've been better if they had Ahsoka actually impact the story and make her for connections believable. The wise old woman (which is a trope as old as time) just declared she's a Jedi all because she can become likened by a Tiger? Which that whole scene of her getting taken in the first place was so obvious it was funny. "There's always a bigger fish" was in my head from the second they dragged out her mom going out to see her kill. Not only that but the whole town just going out after hearing three shots in a row was so laughable.

While the other shorts I have actually started to love, this one feels like a boring and nostalgia fueled way to start an otherwise great series.

She-Hulk: Attorney at Law: Ribbit and Rip It
(2022)
Episode 8, Season 1

Let's ruin Daredevil in the worst way possible
If you wanted Daredevil to be sleeping with She-Hulk here you go, even though that goes against the entire women empowerment message. On top of the fact that they had the audacity to have someone recording them like Matt wouldn't be able to hear that. There's just so many things wrong with this show, and this episode. I hope that this is just here to keep people interested, even though at this point I don't know who's watching. The writing is horrible, the introduction of Matt is so like forced and obvious, people actually think that this was a good decision to go this route. No not really, especially since their video was leaked to the public eye meaning that Karen Page definitely will see that. We haven't even seen Foggy or Karen let alone any mention of them, other than one line but it's only through inference that he's referring to them. The only thing I like is the addition of the echolocation and other minor ones, him flipping off the building was a little much, even if it is from the comics.

The Big Bang Theory: The Meemaw Materialization
(2016)
Episode 14, Season 9

Meemaw is a b****
The show has hyped up who Meemaw was for a long time, so now when we see her, we supposed to hate her? She's a terrible person, and kind of makes me feel like this was a total mis-step. Somethings get revealed that make it important, but it's in a way that's so hurtful, and Meemaw is so mean to Amy. I've never really cared for Amy but like this episode makes me feel for her much more. Either way the episode is cruel and made a character id thought we'd never see, terrible.

I don't know why they would bring this character in now, when the show has had Amy around for 5 seasons building up her character. It's obvious whatever Meemaw does isn't going to change where the show goes. This makes things worse too because it's just predictable where the show is going to go.

She-Hulk: Attorney at Law
(2022)

I have never had my jaw dropped for this long
I didn't expect anything from this show whatsoever, but just 10 minutes in, and even before that I was in utter shock to what I was watching. The CGI is one thing, but the editing, the literal set up Itself is worse than even how Captain Marvel gets her powers. No wonder they brought Daredevil into this, but at this point even he can't save this monstrosity, NEXT...

AVPR: Aliens vs Predator - Requiem
(2007)

This movie should be wiped from my memory
I don't even know where to start with this movie, other than worst big franchise sequel since? I don't even know what to compared it to. The movie pretty much has a decent premise, picking up right from the end of the first where the "Pred-Alien" is born and starts attacking the ship it was brought to causing it to crash back down on Earth. In a small town in Colorado.

Once you get past that every part of this movie just falls off completely, as within the first 15 minutes you are introduced to four different "main-ish" characters who all have their own side 1-D cardboard cut outs they carry around, and while this is happening a Hunter and his son come across the crashed ship where conveniently a bunch of face huggers come out and attach themselves to them.

From here on out the movie pretty much has no structure and downward spirals faster than Kingda Ka at Six Flags Great Adventure, it is literally a butchered mess and I wish I was trying to make a pun because I am not. Lets start with easily the biggest problem of this movie and pretty plagues it all the way through, the cinematography/editing.

Even with a movie with as generic and bad as a script like this is, it still could've been a super schlocky terrible Vs movie with some fun fight scenes. There's one problem, all of the lighting (lack there of) is so dark that you can't even make out what is happening on screen half the time. This is in combination with the awful shaky cam and hyper quick "Quantum of Solace" (same year) editing style that makes these scenes a massive headache to watch. Even when the scenes aren't giving you a headache and are just still shots, they're so dark that you can barely get a good idea of what's going on or what you're even looking it.

The cinematographer said that he was not happy with the excessive bright lighting in the more recent movies including these two titular foes, and that he wanted more horror-esque idea, even though this is the now sixth Alien and fourth Predator appearance. It's no one near something like Ben Afflecks oversaturated look in Justice League where the costume just doesn't look right in that lighting tone. This becomes a major issue when scenes including the new "Pred-Alien" occur because not being able to tell what's going on and not ever seeing a full shot of it makes it hard to know what exactly we're seeing.

Other than the technical side, the acting/script is also for lack of a better word, horrendous. We have our three main heroes, Kelly, Dallas, and Ricky who all give ok to laughable performances. The actor who plays Dallas looks like they pulled him right off the football field and might as well be Kristens Stewart's long lost cousin with his blank expressions which somehow are even more blank the more he tries to emote. Ricky is ok until the end where he gives some of the most laughable reaction lines and looks I've maybe ever seen. Kelly is probably the most forgettable being the mom as her and her daughter are pretty much just there to say close to the end "maybe we shouldn't trust the government" when talking about where the evac point is. This is so much to the point where they forget to have the daughter be in one scene and just never cared to reshoot a pick up shot of her. I wish that was a joke.

This script (movie bearing even more) has so many problems that there wouldn't be enough space for it to fit here. All I have to say up front is when you go out of your way to give the "Pred-Alien" the ability to impregnate people with eggs from its mouth, just so it can go into a hospital and impregnate the entire room of pregnant women (which also isn't even a thing in any way) I frankly just want to say you are disgusting. I understand certain movies are suppose to be disturbing but this is just unnecessary at this point in the movie, and comes off as tasteless to say the least. The movie tries to pass off the idea that they need to establish the "Pred-Alien" being there so that later in the movie the hospital is all over the place. However you don't have to show that kind of scene to establish that idea, let alone the fact that the movie could've given any excuse for a helicopter being anywhere. The scene isn't made any better when after you see the P. A impregnate the woman you just see a dolly movie to the left and reveal like four more women in the room all about to give birth screaming.

Lastly I will just skip to the climax because while I could summarize this whole movie what I want you to get out of it is to never even think about watching it so I will end this quick as I feel like I have put that nail in the coffin. So the last major problem among many with this movie is, there is nothing to like about this movie. The lighting and editing gives you a headache, the acting and characters are LAUGHABLE, I didn't even mention Ricky's love interest who along with her D-bag boyfriend are the most generic characters I have ever seen. Sadly I don't have the energy to care about talking about them. So after the characters get to the hospital Ricky's love interest gets impaled by a Predator disk, and Dallas attempts sacrifices himself just to be able to make it off the hospital anyway. The government nukes the town, they crash in the explosion, somehow Kelly and her daughter have no scratches on them, but overall everyone's fine, movie over. After that they bring the predator tech they recovered to "Ms. Yutani" in the worst set up for a sequel ending ever where the ending tag is "no this technology is not of this world" LIKE WE DIDNT ALREADY KNOW THAT

Please for the love of god don't ever watch this, like ever, this is easily the worst Alien and Predator movie combined into one storm of absolute garbage that is this.

28 Weeks Later
(2007)

Plotless, mindless, schlock
I feel like I am in the unpopular opinion here, and it's not like everyone hails this as some sort of masterpiece. However I do believe this movie is bad, albeit terrible at some parts. The entire first 30-45 minutes is entirely setup just to get the mother into London so the outbreak can occur. The entire idea that a guard would let those kids go is obscene to say the least, I mean at the least he could've fired a warning shot. I also feel that I don't care for these characters because I know nothing about them other than "they're special because the plot needs them to be." It would've been nice to have some scenes that actually developed who these people were before the outbreak occurs. The opening alone just sets the tone for the movie of events that make no sense being set up, which is already at this point to set up more things. The ideal scene that I can't stand is with the Dad and Mom reuniting. It is crazy for me to think that not a single person was left to guard the mother, who we have no idea about and from what the dad saw, was attacked and is dead. So him not having second thoughts, or her just speaking up and saying "I'm infected, please for the love of god whatever you do stay away" or something of that caliber.

My second main issue is that there's nothing truly "engaging" about the issues going on, I was starting to pick up and enjoy the scene with the snipers having to shot people who they might or might not know they're infected, but after that I just didn't think there was anything that made me feel tense or shocked like I did in the first movie. This is felt very much by Doyle's death, which feels absolutely unnecessary and only seems to exist to show that he was too smart to die from a zombie, but not smart enough to say "hey I'm apart of your military group as you can see by my uniform and you people should be smart enough to know 28 weeks later that I'm not infected" but nope he just gets burned while the car that he pushed away (which only was needed to be pushed just so Doyle can do it and die)

I also felt like that there's plenty of things the story did that just fell flat and make the entire movie feel even more pointless. One of those being the Dad being a terrible person for no reason other than we need him leave the mom to then find out that she survived and was completely fine because out of all people in the world she, and her kids, are immune. This is made even more prevalent by the fact that he isn't haunted or really seemed to be making a hard decision let alone. Towards the end these kids make it to a helicopter and get out, the scene should've cut after they fly over the Cliffs of Dover. Not show them going to Paris and pretty much making us think; one that they failed and cause more infection in a whole different country or two there was already infected in Paris and them going there was a bad plan to go in the first place.

Either way of what you think about the end you conclude that they didn't make it, or don't have a shot of finding an outsource group to help find manufacture a cure. On top of the fact that these kids let alone the mom being immune to this virus is virtually impossible and there is no explanation even a "hypothetical" is given to explain how this is a thing. This would essentially be like someone today coming out and saying I'm naturally immune to COVID being 45 years old and being born before the strain was even an actual issue. However even my example would be more believable than this as the virus in this pretty much takes away all of your humanity and bodily functions to the point where you are undead in this movie.

My ultimate point is that this movie just feels like everything that happens needs to happen to get to the end. When the end doesn't feel warranted in the first place, so it makes all of the decisions and actions that happened in the movie pointless. Now yes you could argue that in 28 days later what they did was pointless to the actual virus. However that wasn't apart of the story, that wasn't the point of the characters and the movie establishes that early on. From the intro of this movie until the outbreak every single scene feels like it's trying to set up to get to the outbreak, and from the outbreak until the end it feels like they're doing everything to get these kids out, instead of I don't know sitting down and having these kids talk to this dad about their mom? Or having a scene that just makes it feel like these kids are more than just Boy with immunity and girl. Lastly, even if this movie didn't end the way it did and did cut out at the flight over the Cliffs. I would still have almost the same reception because all of the events that occur beforehand leading up to it still feel pointless.

WandaVision: Previously On
(2021)
Episode 8, Season 1

Practically pointless
They have some ok connections in this episode but ultimately falls flat and feels like filler instead of just doing something better and actually building up the finale, there is also many retcons within its own show between Vision and Wanda that make absolutely no sense on multiple levels, when a show decides to go a flashback root it has to have a point and the point here is pointless because no matter how the story goes it has no effect on the overall end, it was cool finally hearing a very long awaited name drop, but other than that watch the post credits for this one and honestly nothing will have changed that's all you need

Better Call Saul: Bagman
(2020)
Episode 8, Season 5

This is the what I have been waiting for
This episode has brought my realization that this season is the best season of BCS, the way the writing, cinematography, and the god level of acting not only in this episode but entire season has been on point, every episode gets better and better as they progress, and by the time you get to the end of "dedicado a Max" after the confrontation between Mike and Gus you are having chills down your spine by just then talking about what the plan is, Wexler Versus Goodman and JMM after both continue that level of thrill and than now with the latest Bagman I think that this easily is the best season, this show is becoming what I think people that complain about BCS want, even though for me the show has been damn good it's entire run, but now it has shown that it not only is a good show, but up to breaking bad standards as IMO Bagman not only is one of the best BCS episodes but one of the best in the breaking badiverse, I am hoping to see how this plays out into the next two episodes as we only have two left and seeing how this season is getting better and better I assume that it will keep this trend

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