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traddroberts
Reviews
Monarch: Legacy of Monsters (2023)
It's A Monster Show Without The Monsters
I really had high hopes for this series. I wanted more story and I just assumed there would be a weekly smorgasbord of Titans roaming the earth and getting some lengthy screen time.
But a funny thing happened during the production. The director, producers and studio executives at Apple must have sat down in a boardroom in Cupertino and said this show doesn't need any monsters. In fact, let's double down and put some of the most boring and lifeless actors in Hollywood into our most valuable Godzilla franchise. This is just bad TV folks. Really bad.
I don't know what Apple paid for the rights to this, but they should be on the phone right now with the director of Godzilla Minus One begging him to come over and fix the mess of a show. You don't need 100 million dollars. You need a good script and a director with vision.
Rebel Moon - Part One: A Child of Fire (2023)
Thank Goodness This Wasn't A Star Wars Film
I certainly enjoyed 300 and Army of the Dead, but I wasn't much of a fan of any of Zack's DC movies. I find his work hit or miss. But I came into this with high expectations. I heard about his Seven Samurai meets Star Wars pitch to Disney, but that he had been turned away. With so much Star Wars garbage being cranked out right now, I felt like this was a R rated masterpiece waiting to happen.
Boy was I wrong. Snyder has taken so many ideas from other films and directors and just mashed them into this nothing of a movie. It's boring, the fight scenes seemed horribly staged, the villains were cliche and I just couldn't care less about the village or its people.
So I stopped watching about 30 minutes in. Now I don't have to watch the extended cut or the sequel. How does this guy keep getting hundreds of millions of dollars to keep turning out this kind of crap?
Fluorescent Beast (2023)
Unexpectedly Satisfying Movie
I was in Fort Lauderdale for their 2023 film festival and was able to see this at a Saturday night screening.
It was a story about juggling your work and family life along with your artistic dreams. In this movie, the protagonist was an aspiring writer, joined by a musician and a painter. They were all juggling with their primary responsibilities, and the harsh reality that their desired avocation was fading into obscurity. The bottom line question was can you have both?
The acting was solid, the story really started falling into place when the writer and the painter meet up at the same hotel, but in two separate but similar clandestine operations, and the crowd seemed to like film. There some Q&A after the screening and everyone seemed very nice.
Hopefully this will hit the streaming services soon. I'd definitely watch it again.
Gojira -1.0 (2023)
Might Be The Best Godzilla Entry Ever!
Set in post World War II Japan, this movie delivers an outstanding balance between the death and destruction that the viewer expects from Godzilla himself, but giving us a drama filled story and fully realized character arcs of love, sacrifice, servitude and redemption.
The outstanding special effects add to a great story, the camera angles put you right in the middle of the action, the characters are real and the scenes are well acted. I loved the soundtrack, especially the climactic battle score and want to hear the music again. This movie is light years better than any of the garbage that Hollywood is cranking out and might be the best Godzilla entry ever.
Monarch: Legacy of Monsters: Parallels and Interiors (2023)
This Episode Grinds The Show To A Halt
I was enjoying the series, at least for the first three episodes, but then this entry just ground everything to a halt. Flashbacks of Kentaro meeting May are absolutely pointless and there is zero chemistry between the two. Not in the present day and certainly not when they met and were dating. Implausible distance being covered by our foursome in hostile weather conditions only to have them almost instantly come back to the starting point. One minute, May has hypothermia, the next she's sprinting across the ice running from a monster. The visual effects are just terrible at times, especially looking at actors standing in front of green screen or maybe they are in the ILM volume. The CGI of the Titan is serviceable, but the rest is a letdown. Get back to the story, advance it forward and cut out all the fluff.
The Flash (2023)
James Gunn: The Flash is F'n Amazing!" - WTF?!?!?
James Gunn, the head of the DCU, was quoted before the release of this film:
"Can I say one more thing? The Flash is F'n amazing. Like it's one of the best superhero movies I've ever seen. Andy Muschietti (Director) did an amazing job."
Now I'm terrified for the future of the DCU. What was he watching. How low are his standards? Was he ordered by lawyers or his bosses to say that?
If Gunn truly thinks this is one of the best superhero movies ever, then I have no faith that he can deliver on an entire franchise, much less one movie.
The opening sequence was one of the most ridiculous, convoluted, poorly acted, terrible CGI, jumbled messes I've seen since, well, since the most recent Marvel movies.
I thought Keaton's run again as Batman was fantastic. His acting, the Batplane and his story arc were all well done. But I took points away for Affleck's Batgirl, a soap opera Supergirl and Barry's stupid laugh. Keaton was the only redeeming thing about this movie.
So bland acting, poor writing and storytelling, lathered in terrible CGI gives this a one star. Keaton, by himself, adds a second. And the future of the DCU in Gunn's hands makes me incredibly nervous.
Ahsoka (2023)
The Star Wars Bar Is So Low Now
My review only covers the first two episodes, so factor that in here.
EP1: The opening "crawl" was absurd. I guess they let the Disney interns handle that now. We start with a bit of a rip-off from the Raiders of the Lost Ark, but the overall pacing was so slow, it almost seemed deliberate. At times it felt like Filoni was feeding the actors their lines in real time and the long pauses just became annoying. The dialogue was bland and the lightsaber fight was one of the weakest in quite some time. And didn't a saber through the chest usually mean you died? Not any more!
EP2: The limitations of "The Volume" are on display here. While groundbreaking on Mando, and I admit I found those early episodes amazing, it's become painfully obvious when the actors are standing in front of a digital backdrop. Some of the shots are stunning, but can never replace practical effects. And I'm not really invested in any of the characters. Rosario is a legitimately great actress, but felt stale here. Everyone else is ok.
I think The Book of Boba Fett just did a number on me and I need to see something that just blows me away. Unfortunately, so far, this wasn't it.
I'll keep watching until I see how they handle Thrawn. I've waited a generation to see him on screen. And I look forward to the next season of Andor.
Just not sure how Kennedy, Favreau and Filoni have laid claim to the majority of Star Wars storytelling...might be time for some new blood.