mightymothra Reviews

Godzilla Singular Point (2021)

It's Real-Deal Godzilla, for Better and for Worse

[9/10 · 12 August 2021]

I'm a pretty big Godzilla fan. I liked the goofy 60's stuff, I liked the somber original, the heisei and millennium movies were largely a delight, and I loved Anno's Resurgence.

So I'm really pleasantly surprised to find that Singular Point is a very, very "Godzilla" show, with all the myriad of highs and lows that entails. Overall, I loved it, but I loved it for the same reason I loved Godzilla vs. Biollante or Final Wars or Godzilla vs. Hedorah... they're unashamedly goofy, they take themselves completely seriously, they have an insane cast of bizarre characters, and ultimately, the core plot collapses into a big dumb monster fight.

And brother, that's what Singular Point is.

SP is very lovingly made in that it embraces all the Godzilla-movie weirdness - it loves its source material and makes no effort to polish Godzilla down into something more edgy or "cool" or audience-pleasing.

It's got pretty much all the usual suspects - Big G, Rodan, Baragon, Hedorah, etc - but they're all re-imagined in some way to better fit into the story they're doing. In general, the design changes are really fun. I particularly love Jet Jaguar, from the MST3K-famous Godzilla vs Megalon, who they turned into a rink-a-dink mecha piloted by a crazed old man and his low-rent mechanic company. As the show progresses, they become sorta street celebrities for their tussles with various kaiju, and it's fun seeing this big hunk of junk get torn up as they cobble together one solution or another. And I loved the "city celebrity" angle for this tiny robotics company, it's very charming.

It is very much a Godzilla-movie formula, too, for all the highs and lows that brings. The cast is your standard insane collection of like, incidentally-psychic guy, genius hacker girl, goth, himbo, crazed inventor, hyperintelligent quasi-sentient dog A. I., skeevy CEO, model father politician, and so on. When it hits the halfway point, you get your standard assortment of experts in a million different scientific fields coming in to deliver truly absurd technobabble about how Baragon's mind exists in a hyperspace dimension where 6 = 9, allowing him to see into the future and deflect bullets before they're fired, etc.

Kaiju carnage doesn't really ramp up till Ep 6/7ish, which, once it happens, is all done very well. The military assault stuff is dope without getting tedious, the various battles are always fun and varied and look great, there's a lot of kaiju forms popping up to keep it fresh, and visually, the environments really go hogg-wild with color. I can't stress enough how nice it is to see a Godzilla property with some color and vibrance to it again.

Animation looks very good, which is a surprise since it does use CG for the kaiji and mecha stuff. I think the texture work is just good enough that it blends very well with the hand-drawn material, which I would say looks fantastic.

I'd say to its detriment, it's also an anime, in that, it will spend an enormous amount of screentime flooding the audience with technobabble concepts that flat-out do not matter in the long run. By the end of season 1, the plot has gone full JRPG story, and though you could sit there and probably pick apart the story to FF7 or Chrono Cross and have it make sense, here, it's a real head-scratcher. I'm disappointed that the show both did not pay off the technobabble stuff it was so obsessed with - opting instead for your standard magical deus ex machina - but also that they didn't have a particularly great giant monster fight at the end to make up for it (as it the Godzilla movie tradition). The final clash is okay, but, for all the buildup, eh.

Overall, I loved the show a lot, it's very Godzilla, but, sometimes, charm aside, I wish they could successfully tell any kind of story. One day.

Castlevania (2017–2021)

Gorgeous, very well voice acted, interesting

[9/10 · 31 July 2019]

Never in a million years expected a Castlevania series to be anywhere near this good. The story is great, the characters are all well-rounded and interesting, the action is fantastic, and I'm truly impressed by the voice acting. There is a warmth and depth to the characters very rarely accomplished in animated series, that makes each scene a joy to watch.

Season 2 especially is, scene for scene, a very enjoyable watch. I could watch Trevor, Sypha, and Alucard plumb the depths of ancient dungeons for days. I could watch the court drama of Dracula and his vampires for entire episodes. It's all very impressive.

She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018–2020)

Great characters, great look, fun show - Could use a more interesting story

[9/10 · 11 January 2019]

I'm a pretty big fan of the buck wild weirdness of the original He-Man and She-Ra, so I'm real glad to see this show embraces how strange and gorgeous the Eternia/Etheria look is.

The new She-Ra takes place in an Etheria that's relatively unchanged from the original - basically a fantasy universe where the basis for all life was glitter - full of your He-Man/She-Ra standard haunted castles, vine tentacle forests, crystal kingdoms, and of course, Hordak's trademark industrial Blade Runner hellscape. They merge these realms real nicely, keeping the visual variety changing up from episode to episode.

Characters are generally great. I love most of the villains the most, particularly Entrapta, Cattra, and Scorpia, but I'm also real impressed by how great a job they did on Adora. Her relationship with Cattra is a great plot thread I loved seeing pop up here and again - appreciated how Adora and her friends all grew up in what's basically a cult, oblivious to how cartoonishly evil it was. Makes for some fun moments when she and others adjust to life in the super happy, super girl outside world. Glimmer and Bow are both fun and energetic, voiced with just the right amount of goofiness.

If I had any complaints, it's that the story isn't anything particularly interesting; the great Cattra storyline is about as engaging as it gets. There's a lot of fun seeds for more interesting backstory revelations, so that might help. It's aimed mainly at a younger audience, so it's probably not worth worrying too much about. The other thing that was a little underwhelming was the combat, which you can tell they were limited by budget on. There's a few stand out moments, but don't go into She-Ra expecting animation or fight choreography like Korra or Young Justice - this isn't that kind of show.

Looking forward to the next season. This has been a fun de-stressor.

The Predator (2018)

God help me, I enjoyed a lot of this quite a bit.

[8/10 · 7 December 2018]

The tone of this movie really sells it, which... I was not at all expecting. Every character in this movie is a dumb-as-bricks action movie homunculus, the type of person that could not possibly exist in the real world. Like half of the character concepts are genuinely offensive, but oh my god do a lot of the actors sell it. The guy with Tourette's is such a bad concept for a comic relief, but Thomas Jane is absolutely delightful on charisma alone. Olivia Munn takes "blank slate scientist woman" and basically plays her like a special forces soldier or something, and it's a frequently pleasant surprise to see her sidestep cliche bs throughout the flick.

Trevante Rhodes is hands-down the highlight as Nebraska - the fact that he is not the hero of this movie is baffling. His character is so exquisitely Predator, done so well. I also honestly loved the over-the-top villain, which again, Sterling Brown fully saves by embracing the shlock and hamming it up. He's great.

The others? Eh? The main character is just John Man: Professional Soldier, and it sucks. I like Keegan-Michael Key but god is he miscast in this. I can't remember any other character, so, yeah, the rest are pretty bad.

Other thing I really wanted to call out is the way they do gore in this, which absolutely rules. I have to imagine a lot of this is practical effects, but even if it's not, they have fun with it and don't shy away from a gross, crazy kill. Action scenes are all over the map - some are genuinely fantastic, to the point that I recommend people to this movie. Others are cosmically bland and uninteresting. The climax of this movie, unfortunately, is one such watch-watcher, where there's all this CG and scene changes and flying around and god, who cares?

This is a movie with some great, great stuff buried under more than enough bland action movie crap to make it overall not very good. The plot, for example, is amazingly bad. The main villain is theeeeee least creative, least interesting idea you can imagine. The monsters - and yeah, this movie has them - are mostly just comical. The locations are all over the place.

But when this movie's good, it is so, so fun.

The plot is

Pacific Rim (2013)

Ballistic macho bravado (with none of the macho baggage)

[9/10 · 29 April 2018]

Pacific Rim is a wonderfully straightforward mecha flick with a surprisingly well-realized universe. Del Toro goes way beyond the expected in creating unique, lived-in, awesome locations that could only exist in Pacific Rim's goofy universe. Entire blocks of city were build on hydrolics, within hangers, to give thundering kaiju monsters the heft and vibrational implact they deserve. It makes all the difference to see puddles of water rippling with each stomp, and see buildings shaking.

Beyond the sheer craftsman, I adore how fully this movie embraces its macho bravado. The music is all guitar riffs and swelling fist pumping anthems, the fights scenes are chalk-full of pilots barking orders and fun one-lines. the mechs are these delightfully ugly hunks-a-junks, all pistons and metal plates and dangling wires. It absolutely rules. The cockpits are another thing Del Toro had build in real life, on hydralic pistons, so that the actors could get tossed around and doused with water. Again, it makes all the difference. This movie invites you to enjoy some big dumb apes wail on space dinosaurs with rocket fists. It embraces the absurdity of their universe and goes whole hogg with it.

I also particularly love how, at no point in this movie, does it celebrate what you'd expect from a macho flick - this isn't all about the nobility of men sacrificing themselves to protect women, or about mocking men for emoting or showing weakness. The cast is littered with strong people in desperate situations, trying help each other out and tap into inner motivation, rather than "toughen each other up" with repressive garbage. Characters are shown being weak, being scared, and ultimately, overcoming it all to become who they want. It's a simple message, but lordy am I glad to see it dodge all the pitfalls you'd normally see in a flick like this.

All actors give frankly wonderful performances. I could go into that more, but Perlman, Kikuchi, Eldba, and Day stick out to me as being particularly great. Everyone treats this ridiculous universe with absolute conviction, and it really sells it.

Only negatives I can really point out are the fact that a lot of the battles are in pouring rain, which eh, is not my favorite thing. Also, Cherno Alpha and Crimson Typhoon don't get nearly as much screen time as we all desperately wanted. Maybe they hit that budget wall.

So yeah, absolutely, whole-hearted recommended. This movie is a joy.

Starship Troopers: Traitor of Mars (2017)

Fun, goofy, entertaining

[8/10 · 22 September 2017]

I generally watch the Starship Troopers CG movies looking for ridiculously over-the-top action shlock I can put on with friends and laugh at while being entertained. Traitor of Mars does the trick on this front, but it actually has a pretty good story this time with a cast of lovable shlubs. Whoever came up with the concept of a makeup-caked bimbo Space Marine is exactly the kind of person who should be leading the charge on these Starship Trooler CG flicks.

These sequels are, as you might expect, nowhere remotely close to the verhoeven classic in terms of tone or message, but they surprisingly do a pretty great job of keeping up that same dumb fun 90's shlock feel that the surface level of first flick had: troopers are sent into the meat grinder time and again by incompetent superiors who are wholly detached from the reality of war. The difference is that, in these CG flicks, Rico will get launched 15 feet into the air, do a flip and jump-kick a giant bug to kill it, and it'll totally work. Everyone has anime plot armor and every dumb tactical decision can be fought through by shooting enough bullets at it.

In short, it's close enough to the surface level of the original to keep true, while also being wholly enjoyable shlock to watch with friends. Thought they did a good job with this one.

Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008)

Lovely, charming, and gorgeous

[9/10 · 6 September 2017]

Never would've hoped to see a comic adaptation with as much charm and talent as Hellboy II, but here we are. Creature and costume design is as incredible as you'd expect from Del Toro, but the thing that surprised me was the warmth of the core cast, the little character moments and the way they all jibe as believable friends.

They really nailed the tone with this one, and I couldn't be happier.

I Married a Witch (1942)

Wanted to like this, but it's really scattershot and tedious

[4/10 · 4 September 2017]

Put this on looking for a cute, fun 40's flick, and eh? It's got some cute touches here and there, but the movie itself is weirdly scattershot, bringing up plot devices and abandoning them almost immediately for no apparent reason. At one point the witch dad uses his magic to frame the main guy for murder, which his friend immediately witnesses, then within 5 minutes the entire thing is fully resolved with no impact on the movie whatsoever.

Stuff will just happen. The witch will cast a spell and it'll backfire, but then she'll be perfectly fine a scene later. The witch dad will get drunk from staying inside of a bottle, and then be like permanently drunk for two straight days until he's not. Good guys turn into bad guys then are immediately turned back to good guys.

I think the other thing that bugged me was how much of this movie is devoted to the main guy resisting the premise of the movie, refusing the believe witches are a thing over and over while the witch throws herself at him to be rebutted again and again, in mirror scenes stacked next to each other. Ugh. Just get on with it!

Yeah, not one of my favorites.

Land of the Lost (2009)

An improv-heavy gem

[8/10 · 26 December 2016]

I love the idea being this Land of the Lost comedy, and oh my god is the execution on set design, costuming, visual landscape, and CG/practical effect blending excellent. It all looks great, brimming with character and fun design choices.

The comedy alternates wildly between very genuinely funny, and floppy, all dependent on Ferrell, Friel, and McBride's improv delivery. I really enjoyed the banter for the most part - it just feels organic and fun, and moves at a quick enough pace that you're not rolling your eyes when a joke doesn't land. It IS that quippy style of comedy, though, so you basically need to go into LotL expecting the characters to be clowning around nonstop for the duration of the adventure. It's just improv actors having fun in a comedic role with a very self-aware plot - I'm very happy they went all the way, and built the comedy around the actors.

Action is generally very fun and well-presented, with the camera-work keeping everything in-frame and clear without getting chaotic. Again, I cannot say enough good about the way this movie looks and plays out.

No real complaints beyond a few recurring jokes that don't really land - the showtunes gag in particular didn't do much for me, and I get slightly annoyed by how (for the first half of the movie) Friel's character's just there to have McBride make crass jokes at and Chaka to grope. She does really come into her own during the second half, though, so eh, not that big a deal.

A good, fun movie.

Wander Over Yonder (2013–2016)

Just an absolute delight

[10/10 · 27 March 2016]

One of the most enjoyable cartoons I've seen in ages. Wander Over Yonder is very comfortable being as loopy and noodly and cartoony as a cartoon aughtta be, contorting and articulating about in exaggerated whimsy. Characters talk and move about in rhythm with their emotions, and it makes for a really fluid style of animation.

Beyond that, it's exceptionally well-voiced and reasonably well-written for an episodic series. Characters avoid being annoying or boring, each different enough from the other to keep scenes fun and moving. I particularly like Jack McBrayer's Wander (perfectly cast), April Winchell's Sylvia, and Tom Kenny's Commander Peepers - they add a flavor and realness to their characters that goes a long way toward keeping things delightful.

Only real missteps are a recurring story element with Lord Hater in season 2 that gets a little one-note until about halfway through the season. Emperor Awesome is also a little bland once you've seen him once.

That aside, though, I'd definitely recommend the series.

Dredd (2012)

Immensely satisfying action film.

[10/10 · 16 August 2015]

Holy hell did I love this movie. I obviously was not expecting much, since it's based on the Judge Dredd concept and every iteration of that comic has been awful. Not so with Dredd. It's first and foremost a kickass action flick with absolutely brutal violence and thrilling set pieces.

The world of the movie is used perfectly, as background flavoring to one day in the life of a neo-fascist future cop with the impossible job of keeping order in a ludicrously vast megacity. There's no end- of-the-world plot he has to foil, no acknowledgment from the world for what he does, it's just one day on the job.

Karl Urban plays the role without ever taking off his helmet, projecting himself as the "embodiment of the law" as he kills every single person between him and his objective. I liked how ugly and morally black characters on both sides of this crime war were projected - Dredd certainly needs to be monstrous to combat the unwinnable crime war, but his justice is personal and often vindictive. Again, it's a really satisfying vengeful thrill as the viewer, but I just liked how they didn't pretend like his violence was noble or pained.

I can't think of many complaints. There's a brief mind-rape scene halfway through I really could've done without, so, be warned. Beyond that, it's just a great flick.

Time Chasers (1994)

Immensely entertaining, very fun

[9/10 · 16 August 2015]

A lot people get down on this film because it's so goofy, but it is very, very entertaining. The plot moves from location to location at good clip with a lot of energy from the actors, and as such, never gets dull. The villain is so weirdly delightful you can't help but love him, and the same goes for the hero.

I honestly really appreciated how earnest this film was, and how it set its ambitions high, even if it couldn't always deliver on the premise of a time traveling pilot inventor who destroys the future.

It's the quintessential MST3K film, there's no getting around that, but it's so because it's so very enjoyable to watch. Perfect for viewing with friends.

The Barbarians (1987)

Good, goofy fun

[10/10 · 27 June 2015]

I loooved this movie. It starts like a medieval Fury Road and becomes a brilliantly dim-as-dishwater brawler adventure featuring some of the most charming heroes I can remember ever seeing. The characters are memorable, the sets are varied, the action is good, and there are surprises aplenty.

I particularly liked how it cracks dumb jokes all the time but doesn't care, winning through with the same macho bravado that made Commando so great. The leading men are exactly what barbarians should be, and it's impossible not to love them for it.

Special effects vary wildly from hilarious to genuinely impressive, RIGHT back to hilarious. A scene with a swamp dragon in particular springs to mind.

A lot of effort went into this flick, and the result is something unique and mighty enjoyable.

Spider-Man: Revolt in the Fifth Dimension (1970) Season 3, Episode 10

Spider-Man does acid. Really.

[9/10 · 27 June 2015]

There's a point in this episode where a tiny alien gives Spidey a tiny red pill, and he puts it in his little ring-case, and immediately "enters the 5th dimension," a sequence so unbelievably trippy it really, really has to be seen. It's like End of Eva with Spider-quippin'.

If you watch it that way, it makes a lot of sense. Spider-Man literally goes through euphoric then terrifying stages of an ever- shifting universe of colors and otherworldly sights. I don't want to spoil anything, but when he comes out of the vision after being "sucked into the carpet," he's exactly where he was in the real world, in mid- fall off a building.

I... really really understand why this was the only Spider-Man 1968 episode never to be aired. I also really think it's worth a watch, because you'll never see anything else quite like it.

Community (2009–2015)

Comedy that doesn't treat its audience like idiots

[10/10 · 3 June 2015]

I have been consistently charmed by this show since it was first recommended to me by a friend, and I think a huge part of that is the fact that it doesn't act like its audience is incapable of a little thought. It puts the work in, and we give it the fleeting moment it needs to set up and pay off. Truly delightful comedy comes from taking a truth, giving it a great setup, and laying out a perfect delivery, and man oh man is Community a delight.

The action is character-driven, wonderfully creative, juvenile without being idiotic, FUN, and refreshingly honest. I don't think I could've picked a better cast, either - particularly Donald Glover, Alison Brie, Chevey Chase, and Jim Rash. Joel McHale and Danny Pudi play their roles well, but they rarely get the chance to break loose. Yvette Nicole Brown similarly does a great job, but does not often get the chance to go nuts (with a few wonderful exceptions). Ken Jeong is a joy to behold. I would have never expected him to be as great of a physical supervillain character as he is. His broken crackle from the Pop-And-Lock-athon will haunt my nightmares.

I greatly respect Harmon for respecting us enough to deliver the show he wanted to make. If the latest season on Yahoo is any indication, there's still a bright future ahead.

Other Space (2015)

Not laugh out loud funny, but funny, and very enjoyable.

[8/10 · 2 June 2015]

I wasn't floored by other space, but it is very, very charming, and when it pulls off a particularly funny joke, it's always unique and surprising. I'd definitely consider it worth the watch.

Low-budget, character-driven comedies like Other Space live and die by their cast. I could not love Neil Casey and Karan Soni more in their respective characters, because their characters and delivery is just so perfectly understated. Whoever came up with the idea for "shy captain" is a genius.

I'd say that's this show's biggest strength - it takes an absurd situation in a cliché-drenched genre and fills it with real characters with sympathetic failings. There are so many times in this show when it'll sidestep or reverse a comedy or scifi cliché, rather than subvert it, and the relief of dodging terrible comedy pitfalls mixed with the genuinely funny joke put in their place makes for a heartfelt laugh.

I do wish Joel's character was given more to do, and more material - so often, the joke is just that he's a bit loopy and out of it. In Powerless, we saw a bit of what Joel's character can be when the captain came running to him for advice on how to function without technology, Joel being the expert from having grown up during our time.

Trace's voice acting and delivery is spot-on, and he gets some good material, so I was quite happy with A.R.T.

Other characters are good, but not often great. They all have their moments, though, and none of them ended up being an annoyance, which is a triumph in itself for a show like this.

Recommended.

Magic Cop (1990)

Wonderfully charming, very entertaining.

[10/10 · 13 May 2015]

One of my all-time favorites. A Taoist priest/police officer in the modern day faces down a rash of hopping vampires, as well as a sorceress whose abilities match his own.

The action scenes in this movie are just a joy to watch. Ching-Ying Lam's character performs complex, incense-heavy banishment rituals in cartoonish flurries of ultra-precise acrobatics, drawing glyphs with melted wax and controlling wafts of smoke with elegant absurdity. It really has to be seen.

I don't want to spoil much. Incredibly entertaining, delightfully fun, and completely ridiculous in the best way. Absolutely worth a watch.

Cyber Ninja (1988)

Extremely entertaining

[8/10 · 13 May 2015]

Worth a watch for the intro battle alone. This is a hugely ambitious far-future samurai flick filled with awesome effects and goofy sentai- esque villains.

The plot is okay. It is very convoluted and confusing, but it does make sense. The main draw here is the action, the design of the world, and the surprisingly likable cast.

I see it compared to Star Wars here, and I can see some similarities, but it didn't FEEL similar to me. It's a revenge flick about a robotic ninja clashing against Ultraman-style monsters. You're gonna see something you won't see anywhere else.

Enjoyable, weird, and entertaining.

Spider-Man (1978–1979)

I cannot get enough of this series

[10/10 · 13 May 2015]

This is legitimately my favorite TV show. I have yet to find anything so purely fun and entertaining as Toei's ridiculous, amazing, absurdly fantastic Japanese Spider-Man.

Strangely enough, this show actually served as Toei's first outing into the sentai Power Rangers "summon giant robot to battle giant kaiju" formula. If this show has one failing, it's that they hadn't yet figured out that having Spidey one-shot every villain isn't particularly thrilling.

Even so, the robot battles tend to be an afterthought to an otherwise wacky action show. You'll see Spidey gun down puddies with an SMG, or web-sling onto an actual helicopter, or drive a motorcycle to hunt down a bike gang, or any number of far-out shennanigans. The latest episode I watched had him literally die, go to Hell, re-kill a monster he'd sent there, and then fight his way to back to land of the living. He does stuff like that ALL THE TIME.

It is still possible to watch this on TV.com, for some reason. Everywhere else, even Marvel.com (which recently took down the episodes to free up server space), has decided it's not worth it.

Do yourself a favor and watch an episode of this show. You will not be disappointed.

2019: After the Fall of New York (1983)

There's nothing quite like 2019: After the Fall

[9/10 · 13 May 2015]

A vastly over-ambitious amalgamation of Escape from New York, Planet of the Apes, Robocop, and Conan the Barbarian, that is somehow nothing like any of those. It rolls in ridiculous and unexpected directions, flipping from one subplot to the next at rapid-fire pace.

It is a mess, to be sure, but my god is it entertaining.

The characters are very lovable, and the production of the war-ravaged New York are really quite good. The earnest attempts at horror and action are charming and fun, if constantly goofy.

I loved that this flick took itself as seriously as it did. A very fun watch.