DesmondQu Reviews

Aquaman (2018)

Once a Decade Experience

[10/10 · 14 December 2018]

As a die hard MCU fan, I must say: YOU NEED TO WATCH THIS MOVIE! And you need to find your local theater that has the best IMAX system to watch this movie.

I watched every single MCU movie within the opening weekend, and I never found such enthusiasm for DC movies, hence why I only watched Aquaman now almost a week later, the last comic book movie that made me feel this good after first time viewing was The Avengers, that was the moment I realized my beloved Marvel characters had finally come to life, Aquaman just gave me the same feelings for DC characters since The Dark Knight.

10 years ago I watched Avatar in IMAX 3 times, sure the plotline wasn't anywhere near special, but it was visually groundbreaking, since then I never truly found a movie to be its worthy visual successor, and now, such a movie finally arrived.

The third act of Aquaman is beyond anything I have ever seen, the battle scale makes Infinity War looks like playing house (Yes Im kinda salty about it, Endgame better up its game), I don't know what they did to the sound system, at one point I felt like the theater was about to take off, the ground was shaking like a leaf like I was sitting on top of a Dualshock controller, stuff like this reminds me why I love going to the theater so much: it completely immerses me into another world full of imaginations.

Im going to watch it again the next Tuesday morning when nobody is in the theater, Ill sneak in some homebrew Latte and enjoy the movie all by myself.

Kevin (Probably) Saves the World (2017–2018)

Kevin (Probably) Makes Your Mom Laugh

[3/10 · 28 March 2018]

Likable characters, good acting all around, decent camera work.... but the storyline is just so boring, and nothing in this show is remotely funny, the pacing is super slow, everyone and everything feels generic, and it progressively gets more preachy and repetitive.

This is a show for elder generations that are used to mindless soap opera or one-case-a-week TV, I imagine the moms and grand parents would think this show is funny, but if you are used to movie level well produced shows from HBO or Netflix originals then WALK AWAY. The bar of good TV is getting higher and higher, if you want to watch a family friendly comedy I recommend The Good Place or Life in Pieces, if you dont mind adult jokes then go for The Detour, The Mick, Veep or Shameless.

The 100: Praimfaya (2017) Season 4, Episode 13

A Strong Finish to A Strong Season, the Most Underrated TV Show on Air

[10/10 · 24 May 2017]

As a huge TV junkie, I watch pretty much all the shows, to be honest, I didn't even start to watch this show until 2 month ago, all the negative reviews swayed me away, then I finally ran out of shows to watch, I decided to watch and judge it for myself, the pilot and the following episode made me go "meh, I guess the critics were right, this is a dumb teen drama", little did I know, things sure do escalated fast after episode 3, it turned around 180%, I skipped work and binge watched the entire 3 seasons + aired season 4 within a week, I was captivated the entire time.

The plots are addictive and unpredictable, the pacing is just so snappy and fast, costume design is top-notch, set pieces are always on point, excellent background music even though sometimes the song choices can be a bit too mainstream pop, SFX is impressive especially considering their budget is very limited comparing to sci-fi shows like Westworld, and most importantly, this show constantly improves itself season by season unlike most TV shows that peaked in Season 1.

This is a character driven show, you can feel the suffering, the tenacity, the growth and the development of those characters, no character is your stereotypical hero or villain, everyone is complex and got their own flaws and strengths, everyone has made tons of mistakes just like people in real life. In the beginning of season 1 the young actors were so green and inexperienced, but episode by episode they all grew into convincing and amazing performers. In season 1 I was all "this is ridiculous, realistically there is no way they can survive environments like that", by the end of season 2 I was tearing up "you pull that lever Clarke, you are a survivor", this is the only show that can make me support a genocide. Clarke, Octavia, Bellamy, Kane and Murphy are my favorite characters, I've been enjoying Henry's performances since Lost and I hope his new role in Inhumans wont put an end to Kane. For people saying there is no way people will follow a teen leader, you do know Alexander the Great started to rule when he was only 16, 18-year-old Augustus led 3,000 veteran troops into Rome.... Our entire history is filled with exceptional teenage leaders.

The 100 is a brutal show about what people would do for survival, its not a standard sunshine and rainbow filtered TV drama, you think Game of Thrones is ruthless? This show killed their version of Khaleesi with a stray bullet out of nowhere, it sounds anticlimactic but it's actually in consistent with reality since a lot of great leaders in history did die in some pretty random ways. This show is basically what Game of Thrones and Fallout 4 had a children would be like, and that kid is on cocaine this season, in a good way....

The actors have aged 5 years since season 1, it makes prefect sense for a major time jump to bridge the gaps, not to mention it opens up unlimited character exploration possibilities on their growth. The idea of surviving Praimfaya by going back into space is genius, the circle of life for our adventurers; Bellamy honored Clarke's advice and followed his head instead of his heart by leaving Clarke behind; Nightblood adult Clarke is awesome, the experience of surviving in Praimfaya for years should make her a even better leader, also Clarke has became a motherly figure for a nightblood kid, the maternal role suits her character so well, it already made me feel attached to the new girl, the writers should take this opportunity to make a proper The Last of Us-esque episode about how they met and kept each other alive for years. The dynamic in the bunker is very interesting, trapping 1200 cranky people into a small space for 6 years, what could go wrong? I foresee betrayal and bloodbath in that bunker. I definitely did not see that prisoner transport ship coming, the prisoners probably already overthrown the guards a long time ago, now the Skycrew and the 12 clans are the new grounders, and the prisoners are the new sky people, Bellamy's little group should be on that ship as well since themselves don't really have a way back, a prisoner transport ship should have way more advanced weaponry than Skycrew (civilian ships), season 5 is going to be brutal, I cant wait.

PS For people who work for the show, now is the perfect time for you guys to recreate the world, for example more environmental hazards like acid rain, maybe nuclear winter style ash fall once a while, or extreme heatwaves during noon, or metal levitating electromagnetic fields, or sandstorm that can cut through skin like knives, or make the air look thicker during the night like the upside down from Stranger Things etc. Also a few mutated animals/beasts could be fascinating.

The Flash: Finish Line (2017) Season 3, Episode 23

Once a Great Superhero Show, Now a Poorly Written Romance Chick Flick

[2/10 · 24 May 2017]

The majority of this season is all about the Barry Iris romance, they spent like at least 10-15 minutes every episode just sit there talk about how they love each other over and over again, they repeat the same generic chick flick lines over and over again, the writers literally spent the entire season building around Iris death, then they copped out with the cheap HR death just like everyone predicted, 22 episodes of tedious Iris build up went to dust, they should change the shows name to The Iris now, since she pretty much got more screen time than the Flash this season and everything just revolves around Iris, she even gets to finish Savitar with....a pistol, wtf? Either the writers are stupid or they think the audience is stupid.

Also they gave away way too many clues about Savitars identity, most people figured it out by EP13-15 already, I want to see intriguing plots like season 1, put that season with this season side by side they feel like completely different shows, I was moved and amazed by S1 final, I laughed out loud during this final by its predictability, plot holes and cheesiness, its not just the quality of writing, even the SFX is better in S1, the scene with Barrys mom walked out of speedforce looks like cheap SFX from the 80s

The Detour (2016–2019)

An Edgy Comedy Show with an Old School Twist

[10/10 · 10 April 2017]

This is the most culturally inappropriate show in the 21st century by far, but thats exactly why I love it, especially when everything is so politically correct these days, people get easily offended over every little detail, in a sense this kind of sensitive culture ruined comedy, comedy is satirical and cynical in nature, its a magnifying glass of truth and reality, the more restrictions you put on it, the less intelligent and creative it gets.

This show makes fun of EVERYBODY, literally, it makes fun of liberals, conservatives, atheists, Christians, governments, hippies, warmongers, misogynist, feminists, whites, blacks, Asians, even Native Americans.... and its genius and glorious, this is what equality really means, even the kids are not off limits, they curse like a trucker and its hilarious.

This show approaches the most sensitive topics of our society with surgical precision, the music is always spot on, the "We Won" conquer song and the Russia annex song make me laugh every time, the "Going Postal" song in season 2 perfectly mocked Hannibal in a respectable way, I know, it sounds contradicted, in fact this entire show is basically a walking contradiction, it deals with borderline depressing adult issues with the most immature humor, the scenarios are ridiculous yet oddly relatable, and it works, the characters are not artificial at all (Most characters on TV are predictable clichés), they act like people you would meet in real life without the typical TV filter.

This is one of the very few comedy shows that would make you genuinely laugh out loud hysterically, especially the first season, just keep an open mind and don't get offended, go watch this, you will not be disappointed.

House of Cards (2013–2018)

10/10 for the First Two Seasons

[8/10 · 20 December 2016]

Season 1 and season 2 are definitely the best political drama out there, even though they are not prefect, if you are a political junkie like me you do need to suspend your belief a little bit since some details can be out of touch with reality, but the plots are still plausible and captivating, not to mention Kevin Spacy's acting is out of this world, the first 2 seasons of House of Cards is a masterpiece.

Then season 3 and 4 happened, the show runners became greedy, the original material is supposed to be only for only 3 seasons, but they want to milk it so they stretched the last season into multiple seasons, they turned a superb show into a typical soap opera, the writers lack the basic understanding of foreign affairs, and the office politic of the producers affected the script: Robin Wright's cunning maneuver in real life made this show shift the focus on her instead of Kevin Spacy, the writers are kissing her and her characters azz like crazy.... And the show suffered.

If you want to watch an outstanding sophisticated political drama, watch the first two seasons; If you want to watch a standard soap opera about the white house with tons of plot holes, continue to watch season 3 and 4.

House of Cards: Chapter 52 (2016) Season 4, Episode 13

The Cult of Claire

[7/10 · 20 December 2016]

The plot armor on Claire is so thick, the entire nation love her, for what reason? Lets review her past achievements: Got into the position of ambassador through pure nepotism (arguably illegal) with zero experience; She deliberately sabotaged decades of relationship progress between US and Russia for one selfish delusional protester; She destabilized middle east on multiple occasions; She got tricked by a Russia agent and led the special ops directly into a trap. Then she blames her demotion on Frank rather than her own colossal failures. Her favorite words to Frank are "Fix it", Frank is constantly trying to fix her past mistakes. Even in 1st season Claire's hypocrisy was off the charts, she blamed Frank for cant accept the SanCorp money, but actually SanCorp's only objective was to use that money to buy political favors from Frank. Claire's entire career is built on top of leeching off Frank's political power while whining about it, every time they were in crisis Frank was the one to figure a way out, she even sabotaged his water bill, and somehow she is entitled to Frank's success. Im sure the writers forcing the praise of Claire down our throat has nothing to do with Robin Wright is an executive producer.... We get it, your executive producer's character is the main protagonist, you want to increase her involvement in the show.

House of Cards: Chapter 37 (2015) Season 3, Episode 11

Finally Back on Track

[10/10 · 20 December 2016]

After a long 10 episodes of soap opera, this show has finally came back to what it does best: depicting domestic political struggle. What I have learned from season 3 is the writers don't even have the basic understanding of foreign affairs, or they are just too afraid of pissing off the military–industrial complex. The entire Jordan Valley plot is hilariously ridiculous, I know this show is very far from reality, but at least most of the plots are still plausible even though they can be far fetched at times, lets just assume an absurd event like Jordan Valley can happen, I still just cant handle the idiocy and hypocrisy of Claire, she sabotaged decades of relationship progress between the 2 most powerful nations on earth for one suicidal delusional protester, thats just not how the real world works, on top of that she destabilized the most sensitive region in middle east.... As an ambassador all she did was intimidation, is this how the writers think diplomacy works? This episode finally shifted away from the asinine foreign affairs plots, the debate is masterfully delivered, Jackie and Dunbar have evolved into great characters with such depth, meanwhile Claire and Doug turned into more and more one-dimensional typical TV stereotypes, Francis is still the best thing in this show, overall this episode gives me hope on the future development of the show, I just hope they can hire a writer with a deep understanding of geopolitical issues, if not they should avoid writing about foreign affairs.