sylph331
Lifetime Total
1+
IMDb Member
18 years
Reviews
Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (2011)
Extremely Long, Incredibly Boring
I heard this movie had been nominated for the Academy Awards for Best Picture so perhaps my expectations were a bit higher for what I was about to witness for the next 2 hours on my television screen. The story had high predictability and the reveals were surprisingly unspectacular.
The main character was a young boy searching for a lock for the mysterious key he finds in his deceased father's closet. The only clue this kid has is a scrawled name "Black" on the envelope that holds the key.
The child goes on a mission to visit every "Black" in the city of New York trying to find a clue to his father's Wait, what exactly is he doing? I wonder. Oh yes, trying to find his eight minutes with his father . No, that still doesn't make sense. I suppose what his true mission was to find some sort of sense for his father's death, but to me it seemed he was looking in all the wrong places. Not once for believability's sake did the boy bother to ask his mother the origin of the key. No, he would rather walk (because he's afraid of public transportation) around the city of New York, (sometimes in really dorky pajamas) visiting complete strangers and going into their homes in order to ask them all about his father and their life story. The kid spends a lot of time drawing on maps, and pasting very photographic images into his composition book which has perfect calligraphy as headers for each page.
The child actor was poor at delivering the emotional scenes, so I was laughing at rather unfunny material. I kept wondering if the boy got beat up a lot at school because he was so terribly unrealistic and strange even for a character, but never mind that because apparently school is out and even though everyone asks why he isn't in school, his lame excuses are apparently enough for both the people asking and the school board who must surely be marking his name full of absences.
And while the child and his father were nuts enough; strange apparently runs in the family, with his grandmother talking on a walkie-talkie to her grandson whenever they please (apparently whoever wrote the story does not know how quickly batteries run out of walkie-talkies that or the boy has calculated every second that he must change them. However, like him attending school, this is never seen either.) The deaf man in the story who is constantly writing notes never runs out of paper either. Seems awfully lucky, but I still thought the tattooed "YES" and "NO" on the palms of each hand was a pretty cool idea. Over-all I found the story to be quite incomplete, with many letdowns and dropped opportunities for better material. Perhaps what the boy was truly searching for was a better story than his own, because his wasn't very interesting at all.
The main character was a young boy searching for a lock for the mysterious key he finds in his deceased father's closet. The only clue this kid has is a scrawled name "Black" on the envelope that holds the key.
The child goes on a mission to visit every "Black" in the city of New York trying to find a clue to his father's Wait, what exactly is he doing? I wonder. Oh yes, trying to find his eight minutes with his father . No, that still doesn't make sense. I suppose what his true mission was to find some sort of sense for his father's death, but to me it seemed he was looking in all the wrong places. Not once for believability's sake did the boy bother to ask his mother the origin of the key. No, he would rather walk (because he's afraid of public transportation) around the city of New York, (sometimes in really dorky pajamas) visiting complete strangers and going into their homes in order to ask them all about his father and their life story. The kid spends a lot of time drawing on maps, and pasting very photographic images into his composition book which has perfect calligraphy as headers for each page.
The child actor was poor at delivering the emotional scenes, so I was laughing at rather unfunny material. I kept wondering if the boy got beat up a lot at school because he was so terribly unrealistic and strange even for a character, but never mind that because apparently school is out and even though everyone asks why he isn't in school, his lame excuses are apparently enough for both the people asking and the school board who must surely be marking his name full of absences.
And while the child and his father were nuts enough; strange apparently runs in the family, with his grandmother talking on a walkie-talkie to her grandson whenever they please (apparently whoever wrote the story does not know how quickly batteries run out of walkie-talkies that or the boy has calculated every second that he must change them. However, like him attending school, this is never seen either.) The deaf man in the story who is constantly writing notes never runs out of paper either. Seems awfully lucky, but I still thought the tattooed "YES" and "NO" on the palms of each hand was a pretty cool idea. Over-all I found the story to be quite incomplete, with many letdowns and dropped opportunities for better material. Perhaps what the boy was truly searching for was a better story than his own, because his wasn't very interesting at all.
Avatar (2009)
The 400 million they spent making this movie should have gone to the environment if they really wanted to make a difference.
I watched Avatar for the first time tonight. "Epic" and "Life changing" (reviews I've seen) would definitely not be how I would describe it.
The acting was bad, the script was worse, the story was weak, and the CGI wasn't even THAT good (It was said to be the greatest CGI of all time or something of that nature, I surely didn't see it- no hair follicles or pores were evident in these so-called "realistic" blue people) The message was lame and predictable. It wasn't very intelligent either. Epic and life changing? Ptttt. If you want a powerful Environmentalist message, watch the "Earth Song" music video. That's pretty epic.
This? Omg.
It was like a mixture of Pocahontas, Fern Gully, The Matrix, Dances with Wolves, Lion King, the smurfs, SpongeBob SquarePants (Jellyfish flying around? You have to be kidding me!) and that mix was a disaster. The whole movie was spent explaining the "world", where every creature seemingly wants to attack the Na'vi (or whatever they are called), the other part was dull dialog from these one-dimensional sergeants hell bent on destroying this land, even if it means killing themselves. Trite trite trite.
The subliminal message was received in the first 20 minutes: Don't invade a land, and destroy it for money (rolls eyes). They of course don't give a good argument for the reason they are actually destroying the land. I guess it's for funding? Not sure. They never made that evident. They of course had to pull politics into the mix... It was basically just some ignorant, one-sided dribble that was supposed to make you feel bad for fighting for anything.
I guess this should of came out when America was first founded, and the same thing that happened in the movie could have happened between the pilgrims and the natives, and there wouldn't be this country today that would spend the ridiculous amount of cash to make this tripe. We'd still probably be living in trees. I mean, come on! There were very bland made up creatures- they took regular old creatures you would find anywhere and "alien-fied" them to make them appear cool-er. At the end, the creatures all come together to fight? Oh lord. I felt like I was watching a Disney film it was so cheesy and hokey.
The characters were bland and forgettable. Less time establishing the environment (and the uncomfortable "connecting" thing they kept doing over and over again) and more time on the characters might of made the viewer actually care if these people/animated things got run over by large tractors or not. Personally, I could have cared less.
I can't believe so much money was spent on this piece of crap. That is about as much of a tragedy as the "Home tree" getting torn down.
The acting was bad, the script was worse, the story was weak, and the CGI wasn't even THAT good (It was said to be the greatest CGI of all time or something of that nature, I surely didn't see it- no hair follicles or pores were evident in these so-called "realistic" blue people) The message was lame and predictable. It wasn't very intelligent either. Epic and life changing? Ptttt. If you want a powerful Environmentalist message, watch the "Earth Song" music video. That's pretty epic.
This? Omg.
It was like a mixture of Pocahontas, Fern Gully, The Matrix, Dances with Wolves, Lion King, the smurfs, SpongeBob SquarePants (Jellyfish flying around? You have to be kidding me!) and that mix was a disaster. The whole movie was spent explaining the "world", where every creature seemingly wants to attack the Na'vi (or whatever they are called), the other part was dull dialog from these one-dimensional sergeants hell bent on destroying this land, even if it means killing themselves. Trite trite trite.
The subliminal message was received in the first 20 minutes: Don't invade a land, and destroy it for money (rolls eyes). They of course don't give a good argument for the reason they are actually destroying the land. I guess it's for funding? Not sure. They never made that evident. They of course had to pull politics into the mix... It was basically just some ignorant, one-sided dribble that was supposed to make you feel bad for fighting for anything.
I guess this should of came out when America was first founded, and the same thing that happened in the movie could have happened between the pilgrims and the natives, and there wouldn't be this country today that would spend the ridiculous amount of cash to make this tripe. We'd still probably be living in trees. I mean, come on! There were very bland made up creatures- they took regular old creatures you would find anywhere and "alien-fied" them to make them appear cool-er. At the end, the creatures all come together to fight? Oh lord. I felt like I was watching a Disney film it was so cheesy and hokey.
The characters were bland and forgettable. Less time establishing the environment (and the uncomfortable "connecting" thing they kept doing over and over again) and more time on the characters might of made the viewer actually care if these people/animated things got run over by large tractors or not. Personally, I could have cared less.
I can't believe so much money was spent on this piece of crap. That is about as much of a tragedy as the "Home tree" getting torn down.
Legend of the Seeker (2008)
It's about the Characters- Not the "content".
I am a female viewer, and I have been reading the Sword of truth books for three years. When I heard that there was going to be a TV show on it I was psyched! But before it even started, there was already skepticism spreading on the internet, "Richard isn't big enough" to "Her hair isn't long enough!" So, obviously, it's not much of a surprise that there is so much negative response about this show already. The people who write these reviews and comments are both closed minded and already had their expectations and their own vision of the series and no matter who does the show they are never going to be happy with it.
First off: Plot changes from the book to the series.
In movie making 101, It is always wise to keep as much emphasis on the main character as possible.
In the book series, the plot line often goes to Darken Rahl, Zedd, Kahlan, or focuses on the book of counted shadows. Which is great- in the book. It wouldn't work visually.
Visually, unless the show wanted to spend an episode showing the viewer how Richard memorized the book of counted shadows then burned it, it was easier just to scrap that, and focus on the prophesy that the seeker would destroy Darken Rahl. That said, The Book of Counted Shadows is not relevant only to the first book, which it's obvious that the producers chose to tweak the storyline somewhat to keep the focus more on the seeker and his quest.
Could they have kept the fact that Darken Rahl murdered Richard's father? Yes, maybe. But they chose not to, because they are no longer using the book of counted shadows storyline.
Also, who wants to see three days worth of traveling through the boundary? It's all blackness and all they do is walk through it, and spirits call out for them. lol. It's called editing.
Next: Main Characters: Craig Horner captures Richard's childlike innocence, his curiosity to 'seek the truth', and his noble courage that makes Richard so great. I don't care if he isn't 6.5" or that he doesn't have huge arms. I think the importance is the personality of the character captured, and he has done so.
Zedd, is weird. He wasn't quite what I imagined him to be, but he works for me. He is an eccentric, he seems almost batty (but he isn't, of course) and he captures that pretty well.
Kahlan is captured well. She has this powerful, almost sinister feel to her, but at the same time she is vulnerable, lonely and desperate for a saviour.
Next: Special Effects: I think they are used well. Some may disagree and claim that the slow-motion should be used only for the Matrix. But, come on everyone, can't you admit that it would be a little lackluster just to see them hacking swords in the air? The visual effects are for the feel of the show. The sword is magic, so obviously it shouldn't look like some ol' sword fight that you might find in Pirates of the Caribbean.
I think how they did the Confessor's power was good! That was really cool! Being picky: Problems/ errors / etc: There was one out-of-character line, which I understand was more for the viewer's benefit to learn who a character was- not for the character itself.
Richard says (about Zedd), "That crazy old man? He talks to his chickens!" Richard, to me, wouldn't say something so upfront about another person- he'd probably be defending someone, not putting them down- that's SO not Richard. I'll let it pass, being that they had to introduce Zedd somehow.
Director, tell Craig Horner to run his fingers through his hair! It is Richard's nervous twitch, it's his habit! Richard ALWAYS does it. That's even how he is identified as being Richard in one of the books when he is disguised as someone else!!! -- Other than that, I was fairly satisfied with the show! People should be happy there is actually a visual version that isn't following the book so much! What joy would there be to watch a show that had no surprises? I don't care that they are editing out the more graphic areas of the story-- I don't agree that this is what makes the story great. It's the characters who make the story great, and as long as they are captured in the correct manner, I see no issue with the show whatsoever.
First off: Plot changes from the book to the series.
In movie making 101, It is always wise to keep as much emphasis on the main character as possible.
In the book series, the plot line often goes to Darken Rahl, Zedd, Kahlan, or focuses on the book of counted shadows. Which is great- in the book. It wouldn't work visually.
Visually, unless the show wanted to spend an episode showing the viewer how Richard memorized the book of counted shadows then burned it, it was easier just to scrap that, and focus on the prophesy that the seeker would destroy Darken Rahl. That said, The Book of Counted Shadows is not relevant only to the first book, which it's obvious that the producers chose to tweak the storyline somewhat to keep the focus more on the seeker and his quest.
Could they have kept the fact that Darken Rahl murdered Richard's father? Yes, maybe. But they chose not to, because they are no longer using the book of counted shadows storyline.
Also, who wants to see three days worth of traveling through the boundary? It's all blackness and all they do is walk through it, and spirits call out for them. lol. It's called editing.
Next: Main Characters: Craig Horner captures Richard's childlike innocence, his curiosity to 'seek the truth', and his noble courage that makes Richard so great. I don't care if he isn't 6.5" or that he doesn't have huge arms. I think the importance is the personality of the character captured, and he has done so.
Zedd, is weird. He wasn't quite what I imagined him to be, but he works for me. He is an eccentric, he seems almost batty (but he isn't, of course) and he captures that pretty well.
Kahlan is captured well. She has this powerful, almost sinister feel to her, but at the same time she is vulnerable, lonely and desperate for a saviour.
Next: Special Effects: I think they are used well. Some may disagree and claim that the slow-motion should be used only for the Matrix. But, come on everyone, can't you admit that it would be a little lackluster just to see them hacking swords in the air? The visual effects are for the feel of the show. The sword is magic, so obviously it shouldn't look like some ol' sword fight that you might find in Pirates of the Caribbean.
I think how they did the Confessor's power was good! That was really cool! Being picky: Problems/ errors / etc: There was one out-of-character line, which I understand was more for the viewer's benefit to learn who a character was- not for the character itself.
Richard says (about Zedd), "That crazy old man? He talks to his chickens!" Richard, to me, wouldn't say something so upfront about another person- he'd probably be defending someone, not putting them down- that's SO not Richard. I'll let it pass, being that they had to introduce Zedd somehow.
Director, tell Craig Horner to run his fingers through his hair! It is Richard's nervous twitch, it's his habit! Richard ALWAYS does it. That's even how he is identified as being Richard in one of the books when he is disguised as someone else!!! -- Other than that, I was fairly satisfied with the show! People should be happy there is actually a visual version that isn't following the book so much! What joy would there be to watch a show that had no surprises? I don't care that they are editing out the more graphic areas of the story-- I don't agree that this is what makes the story great. It's the characters who make the story great, and as long as they are captured in the correct manner, I see no issue with the show whatsoever.
Heroes (2006)
Boring with maybe one or two highlights.
When I began to watch Heroes, I had a very open mind about it. The pilot episode was pretty good, it had nice elements, wonderful cinematography, and it was intriguing. Somehow the show began to dig and dig and dig itself deeper into a hole. As the story lines got more "advanced", it became incredibly noticeable how weak the acting was. The writing is mediocre and the plots are dragging and predictable. But Heroes doesn't even try to keep it's viewers in suspense! It instead, informs the viewer five-ten episodes in advance what the finale is going to include, and then it plays out exactly as you expect it to. It's not intelligent, it's not even that entertaining, and scenes that they could've made memorable and touching were so rushed and devoid of emotion from the blank "actors" that you are left feeling like you wasted an hour of your life viewing this show.
Soon, these "normal" people were no longer holding jobs, going to school, or seemingly doing anything but running around aimlessly trying to find swords, looking for someone or some other nonsense.
This show does what I will call "reluctant killings" as they introduce character after character just for the "villain" to kill off so that they actually have a body count. You feel absolutely no connection for whatever character dies, and the story lines seem to lack steam and trudge along like you are riding a lopping pony at a fare. The legendary cliff-hangers it supposedly delivers are annoying, as you might've been getting into a scene finally (the last ten minutes is the only thing worth watching) then it ends.
Next week, you've lost interest and when it returns, it spends twenty minutes recapping what happened last week as the show seems to think it's viewers have the memory span of a fish, then the exciting discovery to see whether or not a character is dead or not (which you could really care less by then) is finished and the party continues at a lagging speed, until it repeats itself over and over again...
The music score murders the show worse than the villain Sylar and his head cutting kills the heroes. It's tuneless and seems to interrupt the scene instead of accompany it.
The show always seems very slow:
Ep 5: "We are going to save so and so!" Ep 6: "We have to save so and so!" Ep 7: "I'm going to go save so and so!" Ep 8: "Don't try to stop me from saving so and so!" Ep 9: "Because I'm going to save so and so!"
JUST SAVE HER ALREADY!
The producers make the mistake of trying to make their show popular by giving the viewers (who must be fooled with the dopamine coming from their heads that the show is actually "good") what they want. Claire became a quick popular character, I even liked her... at first. So, guess what? The producers decided to show more of Claire, and more... and more... until her story was... dried up... HRG or Noah Bennet, her adoptive father was no longer malevolent and instead became a total sap that only wanted to protect Claire.
Nikki also became popular with the men, probably because of that lovely crotch shot in the first episode, so they continued on her dull struggle to keep from becoming her alter ego, take care of her son and to not go to jail, when they finally put her in there, she murders some couple guards or something, and then... they release her! How come they don't put her on death row for that?
Peter who was at first an innocent, sweet guy, who cared about everyone, and had dreams about flying, only became someone who was insecure and grumpy. He went from my favorite character, to my least.
The main problem with this show is that they introduce too many characters and give them story lines that the original characters could've had, they don't add anything to the general plot, they just take up time to end up getting killed later.
Also, the show attempts to run four plots at once in one episode, which gets quite confusing and frustrating when one plot gets interesting and they flick to... say... Mohinder looking through books or something irritating.
The idea of how the heroes have their powers is ridiculous, putting it on a scientific theory that is an incomplete theory in the first place: "evolution" To say that a person needs the ability to fly is rather foolish as the brain is people's weapon, and if they want to go on Darwin's theory of evolution, they best realize that it's also "survival of the fittest" which goes into the idea of the food chain. It would be quite unfair to hunted animals if we not only have brains to figure out how to make weapons, but we also had the speed of the animal, everything would become extinct!
For one, if people evolved, everyone would do it, not just a few. If we evolved from the monkey, how come monkeys exist?
I tune in for a good laugh at how crappy the content can get, and I'm amazed when the viewers actually find something to theorize about- why bother as it's probably going to be explained... Usually they're right though, but as all fingers pointed to the conclusion... It's no wonder.
Soon, these "normal" people were no longer holding jobs, going to school, or seemingly doing anything but running around aimlessly trying to find swords, looking for someone or some other nonsense.
This show does what I will call "reluctant killings" as they introduce character after character just for the "villain" to kill off so that they actually have a body count. You feel absolutely no connection for whatever character dies, and the story lines seem to lack steam and trudge along like you are riding a lopping pony at a fare. The legendary cliff-hangers it supposedly delivers are annoying, as you might've been getting into a scene finally (the last ten minutes is the only thing worth watching) then it ends.
Next week, you've lost interest and when it returns, it spends twenty minutes recapping what happened last week as the show seems to think it's viewers have the memory span of a fish, then the exciting discovery to see whether or not a character is dead or not (which you could really care less by then) is finished and the party continues at a lagging speed, until it repeats itself over and over again...
The music score murders the show worse than the villain Sylar and his head cutting kills the heroes. It's tuneless and seems to interrupt the scene instead of accompany it.
The show always seems very slow:
Ep 5: "We are going to save so and so!" Ep 6: "We have to save so and so!" Ep 7: "I'm going to go save so and so!" Ep 8: "Don't try to stop me from saving so and so!" Ep 9: "Because I'm going to save so and so!"
JUST SAVE HER ALREADY!
The producers make the mistake of trying to make their show popular by giving the viewers (who must be fooled with the dopamine coming from their heads that the show is actually "good") what they want. Claire became a quick popular character, I even liked her... at first. So, guess what? The producers decided to show more of Claire, and more... and more... until her story was... dried up... HRG or Noah Bennet, her adoptive father was no longer malevolent and instead became a total sap that only wanted to protect Claire.
Nikki also became popular with the men, probably because of that lovely crotch shot in the first episode, so they continued on her dull struggle to keep from becoming her alter ego, take care of her son and to not go to jail, when they finally put her in there, she murders some couple guards or something, and then... they release her! How come they don't put her on death row for that?
Peter who was at first an innocent, sweet guy, who cared about everyone, and had dreams about flying, only became someone who was insecure and grumpy. He went from my favorite character, to my least.
The main problem with this show is that they introduce too many characters and give them story lines that the original characters could've had, they don't add anything to the general plot, they just take up time to end up getting killed later.
Also, the show attempts to run four plots at once in one episode, which gets quite confusing and frustrating when one plot gets interesting and they flick to... say... Mohinder looking through books or something irritating.
The idea of how the heroes have their powers is ridiculous, putting it on a scientific theory that is an incomplete theory in the first place: "evolution" To say that a person needs the ability to fly is rather foolish as the brain is people's weapon, and if they want to go on Darwin's theory of evolution, they best realize that it's also "survival of the fittest" which goes into the idea of the food chain. It would be quite unfair to hunted animals if we not only have brains to figure out how to make weapons, but we also had the speed of the animal, everything would become extinct!
For one, if people evolved, everyone would do it, not just a few. If we evolved from the monkey, how come monkeys exist?
I tune in for a good laugh at how crappy the content can get, and I'm amazed when the viewers actually find something to theorize about- why bother as it's probably going to be explained... Usually they're right though, but as all fingers pointed to the conclusion... It's no wonder.