markanthonypowell Reviews

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes (2024)

World Building

[7/10 · 10 May 2024]

There is plenty to build on after this movie. I hope we penned out a trilogy before shooting. Lots of good characters, lots of legend vs history. One of the critics I follow liked the anamorphising of Apes and issues within their cultures and complained that the human was even there. The epilog explains it pretty darn clearly. We have a tendency to make things messy.

I went in thinking this is new and separate from all things Planet. It wasn't, it's certainly within its own cannon, but does well to not dwell on the past and also finds neat ways to nod to the originals without getting crazy nostalgic.

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (2024)

Dull.

[3/10 · 21 March 2024]

After life was good. This is dull, lifeless and dry. It's not funny, fun or action oriented. There's too much character building, this is a ghost movie and doesn't need to focus on a coming of age 15 year old struggling with life and trying to find herself. That's really the central theme. The important story arc takes a back seat through most of the movie and when it does appear, there's no rhyme or reason to any of the stuff going on. I get it's a movie and its a lot of make-em-ups.

I feel it's more goosebumps than a smart comedy or family flick, or even a popcorn flick.

Good luck on sales Sony.

Secret Invasion (2023)

MCU is old and tired.

[1/10 · 1 July 2023]

I really wish we would have ended with Endgame and moved on. I'm tired of the same old plots, similar stories and really not going anywhere. Loki was a great series that delved into the multiverse and everything since then has been boring and uninspiring. Kang was a wasted character in Ant-Man with a flimsy story. This series probably should have come out right after Endgame. I don't care about the characters, I don't care about the story, heck I didn't even remember the Skills, Fury or Sabor because they're all very easily forgettable. Time to move on, let's develope some new characters, new stories and new formulas.

Halloween Ends (2022)

Halloween in name only

[1/10 · 15 October 2022]

This could have been alright, had it not been named Halloween or had Michael Myers in it. As prior reviews have stated; its not a good movie compared to the rest of the franchise. The writers don't stick to the horror flick troupes or cliches, but they don't stick to the Halloween rules.

In the end it's an origin story for Corey, who gets beat down by a town and spat out; making the change to a killer is very good story. He doesn't need Michael Myers, he just needed to watch the Joker, where we saw this same transition from one character to another.

But it's over for now. Jason Blum needs to stick to his original works or do better research when working a franchise.

Hellraiser (2022)

Wow

[1/10 · 8 October 2022]

Horror flicks are iffy with critics. Typically if I see a meta score in the 50s or above I imagine the horror flick is relatively decent. I don't know what kind of stuff the critics are smoking when they watched this movie but there is no way it should have such a high score. This movie is horrible. I'm halfway in and there is not one single character I like. Now two drug addicts who have no clue what they have are going to go on a Scooby Doo mystery adventure to figure it all out. I'm not saying the original movie had the most complex characters but the story was better, the gore was better, the myth of the box was better. And when did they just appear and offer an ultimatum. In the original Uncle Frank had to beg and plead but still had to feel the pain.

Prey (I) (2022)

For an origin story

[6/10 · 5 August 2022]

If was okay. I don't understand the "woke" comments or the comments about her being "little" We've seen women fight the Predator before, but here she uses her skills outside of hand to hand to combat the Predator. It was alright for a stay at home movie.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds: A Quality of Mercy (2022) Season 1, Episode 10

Brilliant

[10/10 · 7 July 2022]

Well done. Last week was such a mash up of story building the characters, cramming so much into one episode. This episode was well written, well paced and any authentic Trekkie knows the tragic cost in the end.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds: All Those Who Wander (2022) Season 1, Episode 9

Here for it

[8/10 · 30 June 2022]

I'm here for some horror Trek. The episode is a bit jumpy, plot wise. There is a lot going on in this episode, a lot of character development. I just hope the writers work on their pacing a bit. Going from 24 episodes in a typical season to 10-15 really messed with the flow of the story. A lot of the stuff is forced, and every main character this episode develops further, rather than just focusing on one or two for that growth.

I like it, but it takes away from the horror that could have been the main focus, with no arcs beyond it. I get that everyone has their own experience, and learns from that experience during such a hard, traumatic time, but take it easy, let's not get all Discovery on this show and cram so much in here that it becomes a s#!tshow.

Jurassic World Dominion (2022)

A mess

[4/10 · 10 June 2022]

10 story arcs. 10 plot hole ladened story arcs. 10 story arcs with continual tropes. The film company said "what stories do we have for a 3rd film?" Every writer responded and the company said "Yes! Let's do them all!" Bigger stories, with bigger monsters must mean more money to them.

A popcorn flick is a simple story, with good action, engaging enough characters to bring you along for the ride one that knows it's not serious. This is not that movie. Flat, no humor, dull, no life, spiritless, soulless, are all words to describe this film.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds: Memento Mori (2022) Season 1, Episode 4

It works

[10/10 · 27 May 2022]

They've done enough story telling and character development to go balls to the wall with this episode. It still has heart and feeling, surrounded by battle. I've never been much for the movie style battle scenes, but this was played well. It shows the wit and determination of the crew and the smarts of it's lead cast. I'm anxious to watch how this episode continues to build on it's relationships going forward and how well we tell the story next week considering the Enterprise's outcome this week. A good character plot should be on order. Keep it up CBS.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (2022– )

About time

[8/10 · 5 May 2022]

Many of us hoped that Discovery would be this way, episodic, simple, real world troubles told with a futuristic vision. I enjoyed the little easter eggs, the continued story from Discovery (is fine, let's not get too deep Kurtzman) Alex has done fans a good service with this outing of Star Trek. I hope it continues.

Star Trek: Picard: The Star Gazer (2022) Season 2, Episode 1

Fingers crossed

[6/10 · 3 March 2022]

My fear is how crammed the season looks. It's a good start, oozing with nostalgia, but a lot of movie and tv properties that offer a walk down memory lane, while building a new story, fail in fresh ideas, while delivering fan service.

No Time to Die (2021)

The story

[8/10 · 10 October 2021]

In 2006 MGM committed to telling a story over the course of several Bond films, this was the first time having such a story arc in a Bond film. After Quantum, people were sold on the idea, "it wasn't Bond" How do you change with the times though, keep an audience engaged while allowing a franchise to grow and mature? They could have stuck to the same cliches and troupes they had since the 60s, but they wanted to give a human side to Bond, make him more natural, real. I think the Daniel Craig version is the most authentic Bond, human, real, and I think this movie is a fine conclusion to that. The villain isn't the most evil, because they didn't want to detract from Bonds story, and the plot wasn't very twisty, because, again, they're trying to keep the focus on wrapping up this character.

I wish there was more love development, why this woman above all others was worth "forgetting the past" It's not the best Bond, but the ending does great to wrap a good enough bow on the project.

United States of Al (2021–2022)

Please make it better.

[2/10 · 3 May 2021]

There is some sincere cultural differences that can be explored, characters could be developed. The canned laughter has to go.

The show currently feels like Suite Life, you need to make it more like Everybody Loves Raymond.

Saturday Night Live: Regina King/Nathaniel Rateliff (2021) Season 46, Episode 12

Weekend update

[3/10 · 15 February 2021]

Usually we skip to music and weekend update, the rest of the show is usually trash. This week the whole show was awful.

Star Trek: Discovery: Scavengers (2020) Season 3, Episode 6

Good start to a season

[4/10 · 20 November 2020]

You went back to the drawing board and started this season with new opportunities. But you've fallen backwards, where there is supposed to be growth and maturity of characters, we find ourselves regressed to the annoying whiny characters we started with.

Star Trek: Picard (2020–2023)

Just bad writing

[1/10 · 7 March 2020]

I get it, let's get away from isolated episodes. Let's make one or two story arcs that run the whole season, let's pepper in some old characters and some nostalgia. The writing is God awful. Back in the day, you had a character driven story, a character would grow and as a viewer you'd grow with their experiences. But the characters now bend to the need and will of the story, rather than have the story react to how a matured and fleshed out character would react. Picard is juvenile. He allows others' weaknesses be exploited to benefit his cause. He didn't want to involve his crew from the onset, because they would have said yes too easily, only to involve them anyhow later on in the season. The characters aren't consistent with themselves and aren't cohesive with the others. I wanted to like the show, I wanted it to be the link between TNG episodic style and Discoverys run-on style, as I am not a fan of the latter. Instead Paramount shows us that it can't be original while trying to stay true to an original premise. "To explore new world's, to explore human issues with a touch of sensitivity set in the future times."

Star Trek: Picard (2020–2023)

Be honest

[1/10 · 25 January 2020]

A 10/10 is a lover of Trek, CBS can't do wrong. But let's be honest here.

There is a lot going on in the first episode, honestly, too much. So many different episode and movie story lines are represented here. I love the fact CBS was able to get Sir Patrick back, I love the idea of it, but looking at the whole picture I feel it's a fan service piece.

I'm looking forward to more episodes, but I'm worried it's going to get bogged down with it's stories and plot and it's going to lose itself by episode 3. I feel it's all very forced and all very convenient.

Side note: I loved the episodic nature of Star Trek, each episode it's own story. Discovery was a crazy push for Trek, several arcs driving the plot forward. I wish they would have done Picard before Discovery, giving me the familiarity of the characters with the vision of a season driven story line. I'm going to finish Picard and see if I change my view of Discovery.

Terminator: Dark Fate (2019)

Made it worse

[5/10 · 2 November 2019]

The writing was awful. The story was lazy. The acting was meh. The fight scenes looked fake. The CGI was atrocious. As a fan of most of these flicks I expected more from Tim and James.

Bob Lazar: Area 51 & Flying Saucers (2018)

Ugh

[4/10 · 12 July 2019]

1. 5 minutes of director playing with phone 2. Old footage 3. George Knapp at a swimming pool. This is just the first 10 minutes. Want more substance? Listen to Joe Rogans interview of Bob.

Lorena (2019)

Both sides

[7/10 · 24 February 2019]

It's amazing to watch this as an adult. As a kid I saw bits on the news, but never the whole picture of her abuse. After the trials you heard his torrid stories. This show you get the whole picture. You see where they are now and that she's grown as a person, and he's still clearly not.

Friday the 13th (2009)

The best Friday in a while

[7/10 · 14 February 2009]

I would suggest this movie to anyone who wants to see a good-well-rounded slasher flick. It's got the drugs, the nudity, some comedy, lots of suspense, and lots of blood. The script writing was very good, and should win some kind of award. The guys stuck with the genre stereotypes, but expanded. There were a couple of characters that seemed out of place. It was also interesting how one side of the lake, was upper class style, but the otherside was run down. Jason. Jason was creative in this one. He was a well thought out character. It was nice to see he had that "internal" struggle going on. And you know he was "special" when he drowned, but smart. You can see medals, and awards in his room, that show he has creative skills, which he uses when he kills each of his victims. The suspense was good. The director, and editors push the time line for when something is going to happen. Example: when our hero visits the old lady. They focus on the screen door, you know darn well the lady has a dog. But the seconds tick by, the camera shots cut from the door to the hero, to the door, to the hero, to the BOOM, I knew there was a dog, and you jump. There are many scenes like that. But then there are the ones when you are like, oh oh, BooM it happens, like right then. At sometimes you don't know who is going to get it, and the nice thing is that Jason keeps you guessing on how he is going to do it. Bravo to the writers. Eh to the direction. Good work to the editors, lighting, and the actors.