Change Your Image
tapthat-51581
Reviews
Doctor Who: The Ghost Monument (2018)
Stronger than the first ep, but still fundamentally childish
I'll leave aside my complaints about the doctor not feeling like the doctor, and more like a tenant impersonation, for the purpose of my rating, just to be as fair as humanly possible.
The polish and emotionality of the show now comes of more as a children's show, and especially the reliance on easy fixes, and lazy plot points.
The pacing of this episode is definately better, and the storytelling more competent- at least I did not feel like falling asleep - but the payoffs and mythology, as well as resolutions all felt weak.
Bradley walsh is clearly the most competent actor, and one of the more life experienced companions. It feels like the show should lean on his acting ability more. Mardip Gill is a police officer, and should be snappier in tight situations. In general it feels like the companions are demeaned in their capacity as people.
Doctor Who: The Woman Who Fell to Earth (2018)
Contrived and ultimately empty
Jodie delivers what can only be described as a forceful impersonation of 10 and 11, that falls noteably flat on jokes and intidimation/intensity. The supporting cast are also two dimensional, and poorly acted. A few points for good scoring and good special effects. The writing is hit and miss. Some of the dialogue slightly redeems some Jodies shortcomings as the doctor, and some actually make it worse, giving rise to cringe worthy moments. The pacing is good, but the story utterly bland and uninteresting. Overall the tone shift via Chibnall is more in a younger viewer direction, with a certain immaturity coming out that is reminiscent of torchwood. Political hamfistedness is present in this episode, but takes a subtle shade that will likely grow worse as the season wears on.
Avengers: Infinity War (2018)
Transformers with capes: Boring, and pointless
Marvel movies are just micheal bays transformers with jokes. I think infinity war might be one of the dumbest movies I've ever seen. Nothing resembling believability in any second of the film, boring dialogue, a total excess of forgetable characters. The physics is terribly inconsistent, the cgi bad, the characters are boring. The action is just like a transformers movie, just pointless things moving around. Not only dull, but cringeworthy.
Kidding (2018)
Bleak and subversive
If you want weird creepy crawlies in the back of your head, or to get in the mind of an unhinged serial killer, this is the show for you. Everyone's broken, jim plays himself, but like a windup doll version. I mean it's not gore, but just the whole thing is creepy and off. If you want to wake up on the right side of the bed tomorrow, avoid.
Mission: Impossible - Fallout (2018)
A gem of an action movie in an age of terrible action movies
The dialogue and drama is solid, the stunts all practical not cgi (and you can tell and it makes a huge difference), the fighting not wildly unrealistic, the choreography is sometimes a wink to dancing - AND the pacing is perfect. There's a few little fun twists and some witty dialogue. In general it's clever, and engrossing.
I was quite surprised. Head and shoulders above the rest.
Sense8 (2015)
A great sci-fi with great characters let down by the bigotry of political correctness
This is a show that will open your perspective to the lives of others, it will move you to empathy, and in that there will be at times, almost cartoonish drama moments of deep highs and lows. But all the same it will tug at your heartstrings, and open your eyes to the notion of interconnectivity. It's characters are sufficiently fleshed out not to be stereotypes or tropes, although they are not typical, they could also be regarded as tropes (the lesbian hacker, the African bus driver, the Asian martial artist, the gay actor, the Icelandic dj and so on), so this depth and background is very important. The sci-fi plotting grants a tense, euphoric, and interesting premise that is equal parts paranoic and creepy but also inspiring. In season two the visual effects and fimling kick this this up a notch further, and the actor who plays whispers paints a compelling picture of a true psychopath. But there are some significant let downs that would, if absent caused me to raise this much higher. The open hearted feelings, and global empathy this show creates for its cast of diverse background, is marred by the political preaching that undertones the whole series. Bigotry towards Europeans and men, receives inequal treatment to bigotry against other groups, this bias sometimes even being celebrated, essentially leaving some camps out of the happy "we understand your feelings tent". Several clear stereotypes exist, such the absurdly lecherous male in season 2, and also the ultra-sexy female villain in season 2. While this does have a creepy unnerving effect her power for duplicity, it would be nice to see the tables turned a bit, and have a non-sexy, creepy female villain, and a sexy, manipulative evil male villain. For a show that preaches against otherness, and for diversity, it contains too much of the former to be inclusive, and too little of the later for the same (due to all these politically motivated tropes). Ultimately it feels like one would feel closer to the diverse cast, their lives and feelings, if the political agenda weren't standing in the way - and that indeed that would achieve its agenda better than its verbal posturing. And that one would find the world more compelling in this regard if there were exceptions to stereotypes/tropes, and all othering was handled equally. Perhaps they need a more ideologically diverse writing team. Lastly, there are so many sex scenes, so many romance scenes that they seem to become dull after awhile. Like one of those soaps where everyone hooks up, in this show everyone gets a partner, has a kiss scene a sex scene, a cheating scene, an orgy scene. It rapidly goes from novel and titalating to dull. I started fast forwarding them all. So don't take this criticism in this reviews as a 'don't watch' - the good points do make up for the bad for me, although some may disagree - but just know that there will be places that distract from those positives, annoy or otherwise preach a myopic worldview to you. The premise is really brilliant, and has a lot of potential, and the feel good elements, and sense of understanding others lives is compelling, it's just sad these things are constrained by a worldview of us against them, rather than something a little deeper.
Smurfs: The Lost Village (2017)
Mildly sexist, panderingly politically correct
The film lacks the comedy of the first film in the form of gargamel, and basically re-writes the smurfs in a politically correct image, with a focus on female empowerment.
It's clumsy in doing so, painting the new all female village as a sort of utopia, where the smurfs historically were known more for their flaws.
That of course is not atypical of either modern political correctness and female writing, writing women with less flaws, and men with more. It does so, fortunately in a gentle fashion, which may disappoint some anti-male feminist commenters, but alas, without being entirely even handed either.
It muddles and confuses the basis of the smurfs - a village of people with outstanding flaws, united by an older wiser leader - a model of actual youth, free of cultural agendas, and the basis of it's simple comedy.
Overall, its not the worst kind of pandering, and its biases are mild, but in the process it also loses a great deal of its charm, coming off quite Luke warm comedically, and dramatically.
As with most movies, feminists should really stay away. It would have made more sense to introduce a smaller number of core female smurfs, and made them as 2 dimensionally flawed as the male smurfs. That could have made for better comedy, and it would have been fresh.