Shmaden

Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker (2019)

So the Skywalker saga is actually the Palpatine saga and Palpatine takes over the Skywalker name and all the real Skywalkers are dead. Thanks Disney

What can be even said about this unmitigated disaster that hasn't been said already? I think the thing I also wrote in title is the summary of the entire Disney saga and their legacy. They managed to kill the franchise, bury it, then dig it back up, skin it dead, take its skin, wear it and assume they are the true Star Wars franchise. Disney managed to kill each of the main legacy characters - one in each of the three movies and also not have them share a scene together - and then when all the Skywalkers were dead the only choice was to become the Palpatine and in the end assume the Skywalker name in an attempt to tie this botched trilogy to the legacy of the original one.

Inadvertently they managed to have this trilogy be about a Palpatine girl and kill all the Skywalkers to then have her assume the name Skywalker. If you are normal human being you would have to begin to wonder now if this wasn't done on purpose. If it was, then shame on Disney for essentially giving us a story in which the evil overthrones the good and has the audacity to call itself good in the end, even if a "good" girl is representing that evil in family relationship. If it wasn't, then you have to wonder how stupid the writers of this trilogy must have been that such an enormity has come out of this trilogy, essentially destroying everything the original one achieved - Vader's sacrifice, Luke's defiant last stand and character growth and Han's journey from a hot-headed mercenary to a believer and fighter for freedom and truth. Everything was undone in every way possible: Han reverts to being a mercenary, Luke turns into a hermit and Vader's act and prophecy fulfilling act is made irrelevant.

The only reason I am giving this movie more than 1 is that this movie actually tried to have a story and have a somewhat character growth or struggle for Rey even though everything completely fell apart.

As a quick note here's an ideea that could have fixed some things and could have left a not so soured taste in everyone's mouth. What if Rey died in the end and this all story turned out to be about a real Skywaler - Ben Solo - who was the only Skywalker left and the one who would carry the name forward? Then the last scene wasn't an insult to every fan by having a Palpatine character assume a Skywalker name and plus it would have made for a better character journey by having someone going from the dark side to the light side. As it stands Rey never had a character journey. She was just someone who witnessed all these events, killed the emperor and then thought she could become a Skywalker. At least Kylo had something resembling a character arc, even though that something was every director projecting their own vision over his character. But something compared to nothing still would have been a lot better. But nah, they went the safer route: Kylo dies just like Vader did, the emperor dies again and the main jedi survives just like in the OT. Wow, what originality. Thank you Disney for destroying everything Star Wars stands for, stood for and will stand for. 2/10.

Oppenheimer (2023)

No CGI here, just good writing and very good acting

Oppenheimer was the most anticipated movie of the year for me. I wanted to see a thought provoking and visually stunning biography about a very controversial man, whose history I didn't actually knew before watching the movie but knew about as "the father of the atomic bomb". And well, I mostly got what I wanted, except the only problem is that I would have wanted that the journey getting there would have been more smooth and sharply written. I will start with the negative parts and finish with the positive since that mirrors somewhat how the movie flows.

The movie is about Oppenheimer's life and that is one of the problems here. There is too much crammed into the 3 hours of runtime and not all of them seem to be useful for the movie's plot to be emphasized towards the end where it all comes full circle. The movie begins with Oppenheimer at a hearing which we later find out it was rigged from the start, but then it quickly jumps to Lewis Strauss' interview for his entrance into the congress or senate of America.. whatever... After that the movie depicts - and that done very choppy - Oppenheimer's life starting from student life and towards his work at the Manhattan project. Now, the problem is that the scenes with him as a student aren't more relevant than the idea that he hates practical work in physics which it's only payoff might be the fact that he recruits a team of scientists who do most of the practical work. But that didn't impact me whatsoever since the fact that he is still considered the father of the atomic bomb and the man who gave the world the power to self-destruct was developed more in the scenes showing his later years and involvment in the Manhattan project. The fact that these scenes are also very choppy is also not helping too much, since you have to be 100% focused on screen and even then it's kinda hard to catch everything that's happening and why is that important. I think Oppie's flashbacks from his youth as student really don't add up too much to the film aside from the fact mentioned above and aside from the fact that he met some scientists he mentions them later in the movie. Next, the other gripe I had were relationships in this movie. Although his relationship with Jane was somewhat build up by 2 scenes, they quickly have sex and then Oppenheimer reads the legendary quote "And now I am become death the destroyer of worlds" from a book in the middle of the sex scene. And what pisses me off even more is that he doesn't give that quote never ever in the movie during an interview. And I don't mean it to be an interview that replicates the real Oppenheimer's legendary interview when he delivers that quote. There are many interviews in this movie where Oppenheimer after Hiroshima and Nagasaki delivers monologues that are both grateful and warning at the same time. More on the second later... Next, is his marriage with Kitty, which is again rushed. They literally have one scene together, then they kiss and next they have kids. The problem is that you don't feel the relationship and what that did in a way to him. It's like an event that is addressed and that's that. And that's also the case for his relationship with Jane which could have even been not included in the movie and the movie would still have tons of scenes and interactions of him with communists to frame him as a possible communist mole at the end. The last thing that bothered me is that Kitty drinks and becomes tired of taking care of their child. They give their baby to his brother who was a former communist and that's the end of that sub-plot. Like the only reason for that being in the movie is to support the idea of Oppenheimer having tight connections to communists. But again there are tons of other things that frame him better than this. Like, there is no reason other than interaction with communists for Robert and Kitty to give their child to his brother for care.

But aside from the bad things I didn't like I would like to point out the things that I liked. And funny enough they become more obvious the further you go into the movie. Especially if you get pass the first 30-40 minutes of choppy flashbacks the movie turns up to 10 maybe even 11 towards the Trinity test. First, what I liked was that the movie has a balanced way of dealing with the physics of an atomic bomb. You get enough to realize that these guys are physicists but at the same time not too much to get to the point where it's too hard to understand what they are talking about. And once you get to Oppenheimer finding out that in Germany the nucleus was broken first, is where the movie comes alive. From there everything seems pretty clear towards the building of the atomic bomb and towards the end of the movie. The performances are also top notch. The highlight must be Cillian Murphy who not even for a second did I see as the actor. I always saw Oppenheimer, which speaks volumes as to how marvelous he played the controversial scientist. Next is Robert Downey Jr who in my opinion is at his best out of everything I've seen him in. Emily Blunt is also great especially in the interrogation scene. Also, her dynamic with Oppenheimer is great and there are points in which he seems the weaker character compared to her, but that is only intended from Oppenheimer's part who wanted to play the martyr card, unlike 80% of today's movies in which every male character is weak, dumb or incompetent. However I digress... every performance was great in this movie, even the small parts played by some crazy well-known actors like Casey Affleck or Gary Oldman. The trinity scene was probably one of the best scenes I've ever seen in a cinema - right up there with the docking scene from Interstellar. The build-up to it, the dialogue, the rehearsals beforehand and the detonation itself are sublime. And then the best thing is that after you see the bomb going off there is dead silence which makes you realize what just happened and by the time you do, the shock wave hits you and you come back down to earth. What I loved was the fact that we see inside Oppenheimer's head from the beginning and we see him transforming from a guy who dreams atoms interactions to a guy who sees everyone possibly blowing up or melting from a bomb going off. And honestly by the end I really felt for Oppenheimer and I really understood how this man thought the world would destroy itself using his invention. And that is also helped by the numerous interviews he is shown to give during the movie in which he also speaks about the achievement they did at Los Alamos as well as the dangers of nuclear war. This really hammers down the idea of a man terrified of his own invention and of a man that will live the rest of his life with the horror of thinking that the world will end itself using his invention. And if that wasn't enough the scene between him and Einstein at the end hit that much harder. You realized why all the interrogation stuff mattered in the whole movie. We see how the politicians will use him at first, discredit him when he will not play how they want and then towards the end of his life will come back to him in honor but doing that not really for him but for themselves. I was left completely stunned and devastated and the final shot of Oppenheimer having almost tears in his eyes and imagining a world blowing up. That was the final poignant moment in this character's journey in this film. Also, contrary to popular opinion I really liked the last hour of the movie. All the court room drama really tied up everything that was set in motion at the beginning. It resolved everything in a very suited, clever and deserved fashion, offering justice but also mercy towards its characters. Last but not least are the technical aspects. All of them are pitch perfect but oh my God is the score incredible. There is already "Can You hear the music" floating around the internet as one of the best songs ever but that is only at the beginning of the movie. The entire film is scored perfectly by Ludwig Göransson who made possibly his best score yet, and I hope he gets an Oscar because this is a powerful haunting and musicaly rich score that will leave you humming it long after the movie ends.

Still, having said all of that, I do think this is not Nolan's best film and it's probably his worst film yet, but that doesn't really mean much since this is still a great film. I am and will be a Nolan fan but even I have to admit that I have seen lately some Zack Snyder level of self indulgence at Nolan and he does struggle to write human relationships and shape characters that make you feel towards them something. Like for example there is no overarching message with Oppenheimer as a character. The only thing that you are left to ponder is the tragedy of him having to live with the image of a world burning from nuclear bombs in his head. It is impactful but it isn't something you see it being shaped throughout the movie in his character. So in that regard I understand people that felt nothing or thought the movie was empty. For me the movie worked and it worked best as a courtroom drama about how Oppenheimer is treated after he delivered possibly the greatest weapon in human history. It also worked as a powerful depiction of the destruction that the atomic bomb was capable and the effect it has on the humans that invented it or built it. Overall it was a breath of fresh air from all the bright colors, light hearted Marvel style movies we got nowadays which are also over-exaggerating with non-stop humor. Because that is all that is left for humans to enjoy in these days right? Well I whole heartedly support more grounded movies that tackle difficult historical periods or tough themes. And Oppenheimer is one of those movies. 9/10.

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023)

Imagine watching half of the movie you want to see

Because I think this is what this movie essentially is. I got a chance to watch this movie and what I'm about to write is my honest opinion on this movie. I will not say that the people that are calling this a masterpiece are wrong, but rather I'll just question the reasons they do. I think that they are praising this because of the visuals, the songs, the jokes and the gargantuan amount of easter eggs and references. I'm not gonna say that my opinion is the definitive one but I'll rather just express it and challenge the people that are praising this movie to think about what they are praising it for and if they are not praising it for the wrong reasons. Here we go:

The movie is set 1 year after Into the Spider-Verse and from the get go it centers as much on Gwen as it does on Miles. I felt this disconnected me somehow from Miles' story considering that also much of the calmer scenes involving Miles and his family were actually repeating the same beats: him being late or not listening to his parents and they grounding him. This in my opinion affected the movie's runtime which felt excruciatingly slow and boring for the first hour or so. Effectively nothing interesting happened that was crucially plot related in the first 35 minutes. It is then that we get our first glimpse into the movie's villain and how he is a danger in the movie. Until then we basically got to know the spider society police department so to say and Gwen and her story which apart from her interaction with her father was pretty boring and uninteresting. Also what bothered me is that from the spider society police department all the main players were either black american or non-american origin. It's like the movie hated the idea of a straight white american male being part of the group. Anyway... they help Gwen fight the vulture which was drawn from another universe because what Miles did in the previous movie somehow cracked the multiverse even though I believe there was no indication for this in that movie. Basically this movie retcons the previous one in order to explain its own existence. Next when the plot eventually picks up the Spot is somehow drawn into the multiverse by kicking himself in his own spots? Like how does that even work? Nah never mind... now this is where the movie gets weird. The spider police including Gwen come into Miles' world to investigate him. Now from what I could watch and understand the Spot appeared after the incident with the Vulture in the beginning of the movie. Aside from the Spot entering the multiverse there is no bad thing that he has done in the multiverse to trigger the spider police to come to Miles' dimension and investigate the Spot. So it's a bit weird that they come in his dimension not knowing from previous incidents of the Spot only to investigate him, which turns out to be the greatest danger in this movie for the spider-verse. Like why investigate him if he never did anything to threaten the spider-verse? Whatever... when all the spider-men excluding Miguel the leader of the police track down the Spot they end up in a dimension where they save a bunch of people but in actuality prevent an event called "canon event" as we will later find out. Oh and I forgot to mention the unnecessary detour involving the Spot loosing his spots and them going to the reactor to alter himself back into having spots because he ran out of previous spots for... reasons. This is basically half way through the movie and it feels like the end of the first act and the beginning of the second. This is the first time you actually understand what's at stake here and what our characters will have to stop in this story. Then when Miles and the gang are with Miguel, Peter Parker from the previous movie comes in with his daughter and everything from there on becomes infinitely more cringy. I totally hated what they've done to his character. They actually made him the butt end of all jokes in the movie and gave him the Endgame Thor treatment. We then find out there is going to be another canon event just like the one they prevented involving the Spot and Miles' dad which ends up in the former killing the latter. So naturally Miles escapes hundreds of Spider-men from across the spider-verse and goes back to what he believes to be his dimension, while Gwen goes to his actual dimension. Now I have to admit the scene with him battling Miguel and escaping him is actually intense and quite well executed. However there is no way he could outrun and escape from hundreds of spider-men who all should at least have the same level of abilities as he does. So it would be virtually impossible for him to escape them. Nah whatever... moving on... so the movie ends with Miles and Gwen realizing that he is in the universe from where the spider that bit him came from. Now the reveal and the execution of that scene were fantastic. The disguise of everything and the slow progression and the eventual revelation were done perfectly. The movie however ends with him getting captured by his version from that reality while Gwen gathers a team of the spider-men from the last movie and some from this one to go and find Miles. And of course nothing was resolved or closed but we are rather left with a cliffhanger for the next movie.

Now I gotta be honest I expected a phenomenal movie based on the raving reviews it got here and what I actually saw was a rather good flick, slightly better than the Flash. Remember all the good sequels like The Two Towers or The Dark Knight? Remember how a part of the overall story was resolved there while at the same time the next movie was set-up? Well here nothing gets resolved: the Spot is still on his way to kill Miles' dad while Miles is still in the wrong universe and trying to prevent his dad's canon event. In a way I felt robbed from any sort of resolution that would make this movie able to stand on its own and making me actually say "wow what a nice story". This movie is no story in it of itself. This movie is just the first half of the whole story. I can only think that the reason this movie is so praised is for the visuals which are astounding and for the many references and humor. I for one didn't maybe catch half of them and as for the humor I never once had a glimmer of laughter on my face while watching this movie. Every single moment of humor was generic 21st century forced Marvel type humor that has to be inserted in every single scene even to the point where it broke the flow of serious and dramatic scenes for a cheap laugh.

In conclusion did you enjoy this movie for the character arc of the people in the story? Did you enjoy it for the resolution of some part of the conflict and the set-up of the next part? Or did you enjoy it because of the references, easter eggs or because of the visuals? Because in my opinion there are no character arcs and there are no resolutions but rather only a set-up for the next movie. In fact the intrigue of this movie starts around the 1 hour, 1 hour and 15 minutes mark. Then the action that remains is only 1 hour long and surely has no resolution to nothing that happens in the movie. It's only 1 hour part of the bigger action that will be in the next movie which will then be followed by the resolution. This movie felt like watching the first act and the first half or maybe the first third of the second act, with everything else left for the next movie. It really is like watching half of the full movie.

The Banshees of Inisherin (2022)

Where are the Banshees?

For a movie called "The Banshees of Inisherin" there are no banshees to be seen, mentioned or hinted at. Now, I'm gonna hear arguments like " the banshees are the people there" or "they are all boring. They might not even exist, like banshees". But the movie itself has nothing meaningful to say that might make you think of these two variants, nor does it has a good engaging story that is logical, and resolutes at the end in a decent enough cathartic way. No, what we get in this movie are 4 characters talking, getting mad at each other, leaving one another, dying and repeating this again.

This movie got very much praise and attention and even got 9 Oscar nominations so I said "this might be worth watching". Now the good things about this movie are plenty and they made this movie somewhat enjoyable for me. For example all the four characters I mentioned earlier are played superbly by fantastic actors at the peak of their abilities. Collin Farrell gives what I think is his best performance ever from everything I've seen from him. Brendan Gleeson is also good but he never reaches the heights of Farrell, although his character is written in this way for the sake of the story. Kerry Condon gives a fantastic performance, on par I think with Farrell and it wouldn't surprise me if she would win the Oscar for best supporting actress. Barry Keoghan however is a bit over the top and distracts from several scenes. His character is written exagerately sloppy, foul mouthed and drunk all the time. To the point where I was starting to wonder during the scenes in which his character was in it if I were watching a stage play or an actual movie. The other aspects of the movie are great: the cinematography is good, the musical score sounds great, very fitting for the movie. The set pieces look authentic and the pacing seems fine.

However, the problems are with the story, in that it has no resolution. The friendship between Colm and Padraic falling out reaches a boiling point after which we see no resolution. Nothing is concluded. Nothing is gained or lost. It's like the movie ends after its first act. The motivation behind Colm's decision to break his relationship with Padraic is also very thin and hardly believable. And his decisions to show how much he means what he says are in retrospect baffling and only made for cheap shock value.

But the thing that bothered the most is that this movie has this mystic aura surrounding it throughout the runtime. The musical score hints at that, there are witches that hint at that, but we never see anything apart from people talking and ending their friendship relationships or leaving one another to go other places. You would think that there might be something sinister going on here but nope... just people talking. I keep hoping some banshees would appear and make this movie more interesting, but at the end I felt empty and worst, I felt like I wasted 1 hour and 54 minutes of life watching something that in the end has no value, leaves no message to the viewer, one to think about and worst of al archives nothing.

I am very generous in giving this movie a 7, and that is more because of the production values and the actors in it because story wise it's an empty bansheeless 1 hour and 54 minute of nothingness dressed up in cool clothes to appeal Oscar awards. 7/10.

Lost: The End: Part 2 (2010)

They saved the best for the last!

They truly did saved what was the best things in this show not only for this finale but more exactly for the last 8 minutes. Here they are:

1. Best dialogue in the show in the scene between Jack and Christian:

Jack: I don't understand. You died.

Christian: Yes, yes I did.

J: Then how are you here right now?

C: How are you here?

J: I died too!

It is the most perfect piece of dialogue in the whole show because just like the show itself, it doesn't give you the answer by telling you it, but rather it makes you look at yourself just like Jack did and find the answer for yourself. And the show is clever enough to give the enough details so that everyone could turn to themselves and reach mostly the same answers. Amazing!

2. Best music in the series. The last 8 minutes fit the "Moving On" track which you can find and listen too. It is the most fitting and perfect way to end this musical journey of masterpiece proportions which Michael Giacchino did for LOST.

3. Best editing in the show by having the scenes in the afterlife intertwine with Jack's scenes on the island as he drags himself to the place he will die. It's fantastically subtle and incredibly moving and emotional.

4. Best emotional moment in the show. To see a character who during the entire show went through the greatest character journey, put his life on the line and sacrifice for the island is probably the most emotional moment in the show for me. And to top that off with having him close his eye in perfect symmetry to the first scene in which he opened his eye. Absolute television perfection in my opinion!

These are some of my thoughts on why the ending for LOST is so perfect in my opinion. It will be for me the best ending for any show ever. And the last 8 minutes are pure television masterpiece perfection! 10/10.

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power: A Shadow of the Past (2022)

Cold, sterile and boring

Remember when Lord of the Rings used to be good? Remember when the story it told was interesting, captivating and one that explored themes in an interesting and meaningfull way? Well, that was about two decades ago and now all we got was a bunch of random scenes that estetically look like an Lord of the Rings world but which feel nothing like Lord of the Rings in regards to story.

I am not a die-hard fan of Lord of the Rings, but even I consider it to be one of the best movie trilogies of all time. So naturally when I heard all the rumors and the controversy behind Rings of Power I wasn't surprised since everything Hollywood does this day has to push the Message. But, still I was curious to see if this show was going to be as bad as I was anticipating. And while it's not, it's still bad and a disgrace compared to Peter Jackson's trilogy.

The prologue (if you can call it that) felt bland and generic with no thought put into it, let alone emotion. You basically get the same thing as in the trilogy only this time it lacks any of the captivating feel and tone The Fellowship's had. Oh, and not to mention that Galadriel gets bullied by beings who we know are nothing like humans, neither in behaviour nor in life length. We then get a montage of Galadriel searching for Sauron that feels so rushed and boring. They even find Sauron's mark which seems supiciously similar to his scepter and no one seems to know what the sign means. The rest of the episode is just showing random scenes of harfoots (which the show creators imply they are ancestors of Hobbits but look nothing like them) which apparently eat only vegetables and fruits. Again modern vegan ideology gets infused in what Tolkien wanted to be a mythology for England. And are you telling me that Hobbits began eating meat between the second and third age since their ancestors never ate something like that? How, why? We also get to know the humans and the romance between Bronwyn and that african american looking elf who wears short hair? What? He looks like he was cut using a modern hair cutting machine. Again elves as did humans and hobbits wore long hair and that wasn't just for fashion sake it was because that was what people looked in medieval times. No one could cut their hair in a modern style haircut. Not to mention Galadriel's brother who looked like he came out of a contemporary haircut center. Now, I think it's obvious this show focused more on the politically correctness rather than telling a good tolkinian story. Want more proof? What about african american looking elves, humans and harfoots? Was this how the elves, humans and hobbits looked like in Tolkien's world? He wanted to tell a mythology tale for England. That means he used races that resembled the great britain of the 11th century. Were there any african american people? Were there any races other than caucasian white, british looking people? No. So why modernize a tale made for 11th century England? Why can't the people who created this thing respect the most obvious things about Tolkien's world?

Now, visually is the only way in which this show comes close to Tolkien world, but the rest is absolute trash dressed in pseudo-intelectual dialogue that tries in vain to appear tolkinian. The roles of characters are swaped with Elrond sitting home like women did in 11th century England and Galadriel going into war like men did back then. Everything that was logical about Tolkien's world has been subverted and perverted into this monster of a show that has nothing going on. You can't understand why the show focuses on men, harfoots and elves for its story. There is literally no single event that ties them together or suggests they are all part of a bigger game. Remember in Fellowship how everything was connected and how every character seemed to have a role in the bigger picture of good vs evil? Remember how the plot of that movie even in the extended editions was tight and knew when and how to be interesting while also introducing many characters? Remember how you understood within the first half an hour of the movie what the ring was, who Sauron was and why destroying the ring is the main focus of the story? Here, nothing happens for 55 minutes and then at the end a guy falls from the sky and Galadriel's ship goes into some light, she jumps off and presumably stays alive in comparison to the other elves who are probably dead, who knows. Nah, nothing in this episode makes any sense because no effort has been put into the story and why is this story important. What does this show try to say that's interesting, captivating and resonates universally? As it appears it says nothing, it accompishes nothing. But it looks good I guess...

Westworld: The Auguries (2022)

What happens when most of the fans leave the show?

Well... only the ones that like the show no matter how bad it becomes will stay and watch it. That's why don't let yourself be fooled by the mostly positives reviews this episode has. This is the same thing that happens with every show that loses fans that have once loved the show and appreciated it for beeing objectively good.

From a critical standpoint this is a very generic, made for captivating the viewer's attention episode which is probably worse than season 3 premiere. We see Dolores... again... Yeah... thanks for bringing her to life... again. Now it is official that there are no stakes in this show. Everyone can be brought back in the most contrived and convenient way possible. And now she's even more powerful, because apparently she is making plays that influence people's lives which is a very cheap way of trying to make her more simpathetic by having her have no idea what she's doing and what are the consequences of what she's doing. Also this is supposed to be intriguing and catch the viewer's attention for the rest of the season, but it just comes off as a desperate way of trying to recatch the former glory of the show. Actually what will probably happen is that it will be revealed that she was enslaved by some evil white man and by the end she manages to escape him and become free... again. Wouldn't have been cool if this Dolores was actually the real one, suggesting that every robot was build after a real human? Wouldn't that have given the show a chance to start fresh and have a character with actual depth and complexity, one that we as viewers might get behind and root for? Nah... it'll be fine. Just serve the same techno-babble-BS like in the last season and hope people will like it this time. Also, William and his intro scene was boring and uninteresting. You know he is a host now and you know what he will do, and you know he can't be killed except by a righteous entitled and preferably diverse strong female character. You also don't have any idea who those people who he kills actually are. So the scene just comes off as... well... as I said earlier... boring and uninteresting. Last but not least, Caleb becomes again just a puppy dog dragged anywhere Maeve wants him, so he abandons his family to fight William even though Maeve is more than enough to take him down. Oh and Teddy is in this episode... I wanted to drop that as a last twist, because that is how the show does it too. Because we can't have Dolores be brought back to life without Teddy now can we?

From an objective standpoint thi episode is all over the place. From a subjective standpoint it is barely enjoyable. So the end result is a mish mash between ideas, things that would have been great to actually be and rehashed threads of previous season dressed different in a desperate attempt to recapture former glory. I don't expect this review to come as very useful mainly because only the die hard fans of this show are still watching it and reviewing it here. But if by any chance you read this, stop and think about what I read and ask yourself: Why do you still watch this show? 6/10.

The Batman (2022)

Not the best Batman movie but also not the worst ever

Breakdown:

• After that assassination scene we get what is probably the best Batman introduction out of any Batman movies.

• Catwoman just so happens to come to the Penguin at the exact same time Batman is there with him. Had she come 5 minutes earlier or later the movie would have had a completely different turn of events.

• Such an arbitrary decision to follow a random girl whom you met just because you think she has a connection with the crime even though there is no objective evidence to that.

• There is no real evidence that Batman was enforcing his own justice to criminals instead of delivering them to the police, so that at the end it would make sense for him to try to be an inspiration instead of vengeance. The theme of this movie is all about Batman renouncing vengeance for justice and helping people by becoming a beacon of hope for them. Yet, there is only one scene in which Batman goes on a vengeful rampage and that is at the end when he beats that Riddler thug very badly. There is no other instance in which he starts beating people 'till coma or torturing them as in maybe branding. He even collaborates with a detective which further negates his vengeful motivations this movies implies that he might have. So in conclusion, there is no theme about vengeance explored here. A good example of that theme being well explored is Batman Begins where Bruce even takes a gun to go kill Joe Chill in the beginning but someone goes ahead of him and kills him. But his desire of vengeance is what drives him to join a shady group of people and to end up stealing and later get imprisoned to then get to Ra's al Gul and train with him. And even there he is thought that vengeance is the best form of justice, yet his life experiences showed him where that vengeance path leads, so he refuses and goes to Gotham to fight injustice and bring fear into criminals. And by the end he delivers justice while also not falling into vengeance territory. That was a theme cleverly and compellingly explored. Here we see Batman being Batman for 2 and a half hours and then at the end he's like: "no, I gotta be more". More what? More like Superman that saves people and is a beacon of hope and common decency for people? That is NOT who Batman is!

• When Catwoman goes to that bar with Batman watching her, the algorithm recognizes all the other corrupt cops but not the DA from the first glimpse so that the scene between her and him can happen, that being the only way to advance the plot.

• Carmine Falcone conveniently just so happens to enter the building at the same time Selina was in there so we could get a clue that he might be involved and the connection between them is more than meets the eye.

• Batman remains in the proximity of the bomb which makes absolutely no sense and he then doesn't get killed by the explosion even though he was within a meter from the detonation.

• The policemen don't unmask the Batman when he was lying unconscious on their table.

• Cool flying scene when Batman gets chased by the police and jumps from that tall building, but he should at least have some broken ribs after the fall and not getting immediately up and walking like nothing happened.

• Batman starts his car but waits for the Penguin to get into his own so we could have a chase scene. He would have got the Penguin right there and then without the unnecessary and dangerous car chase. Neat car chase though.

• Why would the Riddler want Batman to bring Falcone to him in order to execute him when he already knew who was the rat. Why not execute him like the rest when he already killed 3 people without the help from Batman? If this was meant to show the idea that the Riddler thought of Batman as his accomplice then he should have involved Batman in all his other crimes like the mayoral ducting, Pete's assassination and Colson's explosion. This way it feels like the villain is changing his plans and attitude as the movie progresses. It's like the writers are making this up as they go along.

• Thomas Wayne mayor campaign video playing at the exact moment Batman and Gordon came into the room. Was that on a loop all the time or did the Riddler set up some kind of sensor that would detect when they enter the room and it would then instantly play the video?

• The last riddle was hinting at Falcone as being the next target but then the Riddler goes after Bruce Wayne and Alfred. So this whole plot thread feels like a detour with no real implications later. The only explanation for this detour would be that it was because Batman couldn't figure it out who was the rat and the Riddler wanted to help him bring the rat into the light. Still it feels like the rat riddle is put on hold for us to understand Bruce's and his dad's history. Nice touch on the story surounding Bruce's parents though.

• Selina proposes Batman that he comes with her to bring Falcone or Kenzie down because he is Vengeance. Batman however refuses her because he thinks there is a better way, and executing him would only make him the same like Falcone or Kenzie. But from a thematic point of view this doesn't make any sense because the movie is about Batman learning to stop being vengeance and become hope. So if he already wasn't vengeance why explore the supposed transition at all?

• The second time Batman comes to the lounge he sneaks up on the guards unlike the first time when he beats them which is inconsistent. Why beat them the first time around when you could have so easily sneaked up on them? Oh yes... because it looked "dope". Duh!

• Batman conveniently turns off the light at the exact moment Selina was about to shoot Falcone, even though he had no way of knowing when she was about to shoot him.

• The Riddler has absolutely no reason to give himself in to the police. If it was to paint Batman as his accomplice then that would have never worked the way he did everything in this movie up until this point. If it was because he was so sure that his plan couldn't be stopped not even by Batman then that is also not the case since he left his apartment with a bunch of clues open for the world's greatest detective to find out his plan and stop it. So no matter from which angle you would try to understand his surrender it does not make any single sense. Many people compare this movie with Se7en. That movie knew why the nameless guy surrendered because that movie was 3 steps ahead of his audience at every single point in the movie. The killer surrendered because he and the cop played by Brad Pitt were the last two victims of the seven deadly sins and the way he set up his plan no one was going to stop him from showing to the world all the seven deadly sins.

• The Riddler tells Batman's identity while he and Batman were on camera. How is it then that his secret identity isn't known by everyone?

• The Riddler says the Batman inspired him to go and kill the corrupt with fear and vengeance. But the movie works against itself by having Batman saying that he (the Riddler) is a psychopath and by not showing what Batman did in these past 2 years that could have inspired the Riddler, since everything Batman does in this movie is perfectly in line with what Batman is as a character both in the comics and in previous Batman interpretations. It's just a thing he says and then Riddler's henchmen say the same things. That is not character development nor is it theme exploration. That is Game of Thrones season 8 level of storytelling by having what other people say about someone influence their decisions and be considered character development.

• The cop that randomly shows at the Riddler's apartment together with Batman spills the clue about the small shovel Riddler used which gives Batman the idea to remove the carpet from the ground with that shovel and find the Riddler's last plan.

• The Riddler's last plan was brilliant, gathering all the important people together in Gotham Square Garden and have his guys kill them. To bad that this was only theoretical.

• Only one guy shoots the mayor when it would have made more sense for more people to shoot at her. But we got to have the diverse new mayor survive and be the beacon of change in Gotham don't we?

• When Batman hangs from that platform that tilts, 5 or 6 guys take their shots at him but not a single bullet hits. And then Selina drags him back up even though she weighs almost half as him.

Now aside from the problems I mentioned above, there are certainly positives for me and things I liked: this movie has probably the best looking Gotham out of all the Batman movies. Big and chaotic enough to feel like a Gotham city but at the same time not too gothic looking that it would be like a fantasy movie. The actors were also great, especially the one playing Gordon, still some distance behind Gary Oldman's version. Catwoman was great too as it was Riddler who finally has a great on-screen portrayal which feels grounded and realistic. Robert Pattinson was solid, Collin Farrel as the Penguin was great too, but out of the mobsters the standout has to be Falcone which was mesmerizing throughout the movie. The cinematography was excellent as well as the score which was probably Giacchino's best movie score ever in my opinion. Excellent themes across the board from the Batman theme to the Riddler and Catwoman. Excellent job as always for this composer who continually proves himself to be the next John Williams. All in all The Batman is a good movie which unfortunately suffers from some story issues which doesn't let him reach it's full potential. I have a feeling this movie was bogged down by woke constrains, not having the liberty to be bald and basically be Batman. 7/10.

Obi-Wan Kenobi: Part III (2022)

Never seen anything worse than this in Star Wars ever in my life!

So let me get this straigh, a guy on YouTube made a parody of episode IV which was essentially the same thing as the Leia Obi Wan with stormtroopers scene? If you don't believe me go search this on YouTube: "Star wars episode 4 parody auralnauts".

My mind was tormented during this episode from that awful scene with the stormtroopers in which they don't even think of asking him if he is not a jedi even though he looks like one, to the terrible escape scene from the laser fence control where Obi Wan tries to deactivate the fence when he could have easily gone arround it. I'll also mention how Obi Wan runs twice from Vader and while running the first time in the opposite direction to where Vader came, Vader somehow appears in front of him. Not to mention the lightsaber duel that was so bad it almost made Wonder Woman 1984 mall fight scene look like a masterpiece. And this was supposed to be the remarch of the century? And I'll end with the fact that Vader chokes Obi Wan and he in response does nothing. Remember in episode III when both tried to force choke each other and they were at a stale mate? That made sense. This on the other hand doesn't. Also, at the end of this duel Vader just decides to not chase Obi Wan when there was fire in front of him even though he used the force to stinguish the first fire that he tried to use to burn Obi Wan.

I honestly have almost no words to describe how bad this was. From the terrible choreography of the lightsaber duel to the horrendous music which had no rendition of the imperial march to the awful dialogue and the terrible acting filled with overacting across the board. I'll have to take a pain pill now because of the headache this episode gave. Never seen anything as bad as this in Star Wars ever! 1/10.

Better Call Saul: Plan and Execution (2022)

Best episode in BB or BCS?

I've never been a big fan of these two shows and I wasn't really looking forward to this week's episode, but wow, boy I was in for a surprise. Now, except for the second and third episode of this season this season has been pretty average in comparison to the level season 5 was, and the last few episodes solidified that. But now when I look back I see that those were needed in order to set up this episode and all the things that happen in it.

Without any spoilers, as I said in my episode 1 review the three main storylines start to intertwine, and this episode nails that. Not only that but some of those storylines get unexpected and incredible resolutions. I would even say that this episode is better than most of Breaking Bad's high points. While in BB everything was a bit overdramatized in my opinion, here everything happens at a perfect pace, neither overstaying any moment nor rushing any epic dialogue or character conclusion. And speaking of dialogue, the dialogue was superb, realistic and interesting delivered by competent actors at the top of their game. Bob Odenkirk, Rhea Seehorn, Patrick Fabian and Tony Dalton are the stars here and they all deliver award winning performances especially Patrick Fabian whose acting in this episode is quite literally a tour de force. There were so many facets of his character that can be seen in this episode and the way he swithes between them is fantastic. There is very much going on in this episode and the pace is quite remarkable managing to rezolve two of the storylines and set up a very interesting second half of the season without either dragging or rushing.

All in all to keep this review short, this episode is a great half point finale in this season 6 and a great set-up for the next and final 6 episodes of this show. I now can say I'm very interested to see what's gonna happen. 10/10.

Better Call Saul: Wine and Roses (2022)

The wine is too young and the roses too old

So let me get this straight:

• a scissor can be open simply by taking one half and out from the other half so it can be turned into a knife wanna-be? And if the argument for why the scene works is that the scissor was already broken, then why would you have a not working broken scissor lying on the table in the kitchen right in the open view? Well it looked cool didn't it?

• it's starting to become increasingly absurdly ridiculous that Gus is awaiting a phone call in an empty room with a an empty table and a phone lying there on the table. Like who the fukushima would actually behave like that? No matter how perfectionist and conciencious you would, you would never behave like that apart from doing it to appear cool in a strange TV-Show. And this review is coming from a 75% conscious person on the big 5 personality traits test. At least the scene looked cool though.

• what kind of person (here a woman) would just sit at the reception and wouldn't say a single word to a guy coming into the motel and asking for the key to his room? Like I understand this is part of Gus' empire and stuff, but it's overly exaggerated just to be a satire wanna-be in that it makes fun of this situation. I mean for fukushima sake she is a mexican and these are supposed to be more light hearted joyful and talkative kind of people. Well for Vince Gilligan that type of collective personality characteristics doesn't matter because "it'll look cool".

And that strikes at the heart of my thoughts on this episode. Everything is done because it'll look cool, because it looked cool in Breaking Bad too and it's a style people like. I can't understand how people can like something like that since it's pure style over substance. And if you don't agree with me or don't see that in the movie in this way, answer me this: what was the purpose of the first scene in the episode? I was expecting a colored scene because this would be in contrast with the other season opening scenes which were black and white since this is the last season. So, in that scene Saul Goodman's office gets cleaned up after his disappearance in Breaking Bad season 5, but what type of relevance has this in the episode? I know... it's for a 5 second mentioning of building an office for Saul Goodman in a discussion between Jimmy and Kim. Isn't that style over substance? I for one think so.

All in all is not that bad and is certainly no where near unwatchable or boring as it was Witcher season 2 for example, but it's generic Vice Gilligan style over substance and overly subtlety that it's just testing my patience at this point, especially since it has been an year and half since I last saw any Better Call Saul episode. And I'm not a huge fan, but I guess this is the best TV has to offer at this moment in time, right?

However, there were positives about this episode like Jimmy's scene trying to mess with Howard which was extremely funny, the last scene of the episode with Lalo who continues to be one of the standouts in this show. But Nachos storyline has to take the spotlight and steal the show since its the most dramatic and engaging thing happening at this point. In a way this episode sets up well the three main storyline of the season: Lalo, Nacho and Jimmy's which made me interested in both what's gonna a happen next and how all these will conclude or possibly intertwine with each other.

So to sum it all up: a decent enough episode with strong performances interesting storylines and good set up for the rest of the season. 8/10.

Shingeki no Kyojin: Night of the End (2022)

One of the weakest episodes of Attack on Titan

The previous episode was a great Set-up for a possible great episode that would bring back the action and twist we all love about AoT. Sadly that didn't happen. Instead what we got was a 20 minute wall and talk with characters saying things we already know and doing things that have most no impact to the whole story and the bigger picture.

If I were to compare this episode with another one from AoT that had walking and talking before a big showdown that episode would be season 3 episode 13 "The Town Where Everything Began". That episode began slow by showing us the road to Shiganshina and having characters talking to each other. But unlike this episode that episode knew when that was enough and when to stop and change the pace so that it doesn't lose the plot. This episode however doesn't. There are only two interesting scenes in this episode and those are mainly fights between certain characters. The bad part is that all of them don't really matter in the end, because they are not executed to try to solve a certain conflict but rather to fill up screen time. The animation was good as in excellent drawn. The action or the tension that the animation generated was almost non-existing. A lot of scenes made from one drawing and having characters talk while other characters stand still. The character interactions are good however by the end of the episode this one will feel like a drag in an otherwise excellent season.

Probably the pacing is where AoT suffers the most in this Final Season Part 2. Too many 1 manga chapter adapted episodes. Theoretically this will leave almost 10 chapters for that whole movie type finale they try to make. And that seems a bit to much for me. Having said all that I still enjoyed the episode and was nice watching it. Shame it felt like such a drag at times. Probably the weakest in terms of plot and story progression episode in AoT. 7/10.

Shingeki no Kyojin: Pride (2022)

Good set-up episode

This unlike the last episode which was more like a coming back to reality episode from Annie's perspective, was a good set-up episode for what's to come. And judging by how this episode was, what's to come will be quite intense.

Excellent scenes like: Connie and Armin, the reunion of the former scouts team and the scene between Floch and Jean as well as the last scene were all superbly done. Yes it may have been a bit rushed, but I don't really have a problem with that at this point in the show where the world's fate is at stake. There's also useless to say that the ending prepared the way for a dramatic end of Part 2 of the Final Season, because that is already an understatement by AoT standards.

All in all, good episode, decent set-up, good character interactions, interesting twists also, although slightly rushed, into a good way to prepare what's to come. 10/10.

Shingeki no Kyojin: From You, 2000 Years Ago (2022)

The moment where I knew Isayama lost the story

I loved every single high point of this show up until now and generally liked all the top episodes from this show. However this one is probably the worst great episode from this entire show. And it's hard for me to explain why is that so for me. Incidentally I'll be dividing my review into points in order to keep this review on point and short.

The pacing: Ever since Part 2 came out, some episodes especially episodes 17, 18 and this one have suffered from showing things that already happened in the show episodes ago. And it's not like LOST where it showed different perspectives for you to be able to make a complete whole of the events you saw but rather just a tool to spend time while stretching the plot of the story to fit into 12 episodes plus possibly a movie. Just for a thinking exercise, this episode contained 1 and a third or quarter of a manga chapter, while in season 3 and season 4 Part 1 there were episodes that showed maybe even 2 chapters from the manga. And yes, I read the manga but only the chapters from this episode after wtching it as I always do ever since season 4 Part 2 started. But back to the season's pacing... the first 2 minutes of this episode are a complete recap of the last episode. I'm serious, go watch the episode again with the time bar active and see how much time it takes showing Grisha fighting the founder titan, reuniting with Zeke and telling him to stop Eren. Next, are Ymir's fashbacks which start at around minute 8 of the episode and last about 9 minutes. I won't say anything about the last minutes in the episode because they are simply sublime. More on that later...

Ymir's flashbacks: While it was nice to see her story and learn the truth about her, her story raised countless questions and generated some generic moments throughout it's runtime. For example... it is shown the pigs were set free but it isn't said who did that. Ymir becomes the one acussed and gets shot while being hunted down by soldiers. But then after they shoot 2 arrows in her they kinda give up and stop chasing her, so she could fall into the tree and come in contact with that thing that transformed her into a titan. Were those pigs so important that you would kill a slave who might or might not have let them go? Were those pigs the only food resource they had? Why were the people so quick to point their fingers to her suggesting she did it? Was it because no one had anyone else to blame and one dude or gal pointed his/her finger at her? Again this is extremely odd to see and quite generic for the level of storytelling we've seen so far, given the fact the world building of this tribe up until this point in the episode was maybe 2 minutes. We know nothing about them, their context, who are these people or who Ymir is and what is her behaviour. So all this comes across as well... generic is a suitable word for it. We see then Ymir's history in helping Eldia become an empire and how she was killed by supposedly Helios (?) which was a nice touch to mention Tyburn's legend and how that came to be. But her death again raises more questions than it answers. We see her daughters eating her flesh and probably inheriting her DNA or titan powers (which was a touch of genius from Isayama, since he already showed that in season 2 outro) but it's never explained how the first titan that was Ymir transformed into the 9 we know now. Did her daughters inherit her titan divided into 9 and having each of them 3 titans? Were their children those who inherited the titan in it's 9 forms and they (her daughters) only had 3 forms in them? Also, how did the ability to transform into pure titan perpetuated from Ymir down to all eldians? Were they her offsping through her 3 daughters? If that's so, what is the royal bloodline a separate thing from the ability to transform into pure titan, since all of her 3 daughters were the daughters of King Fritz? So they had royal bloodline presumably... Did one of them made kids and they had incest with each other to mentain the bloodline pure, while the other two spamed the eldians that would later become subjects of Ymir? It feels like there is a whole episode missing that would fill in the blanks of this story. Talking about subjects of Ymir... what is Ymir exactly? Is she a literal person in this pathway dimension? Or is she a remnence scattered throughout all the eldians? Is she that thing in them that makes them turn to titans whenever they are injected with spinal fluid or drink it? Is she a literal person who obeys orders or a potential ability within all eldians? After another re-watch I understood that Eren is Ymir's want of revenge at the people who made her suffer. And Eren is her inner Attack Titan, the one who always moves forward, sees forward and always fights on. So from what I could understand this "To You in 2000 years" is more like this plan will come to fruition in you 2000 years from now. Although a short line of dialogue hinting at this might have been a little more helpful. Come to think about it, we had 2 minutes of recap but no further exploration of the main characters' motivations and revelations.

Back in the real world: the scene at the end showing how Eren activates the Titans and sends them to Marley was probably the best scene in the whole show, no doubt about that. It's probably the best ending to an episode ever in AoT! The music, the CGI, the animation, the dialogue... everything was flawless in that scene to leave the audience with probably the biggest cliffhanger in this show up until now in my opinion. And you are left wondering where do we go from here? What can happen next after this crazy (in a good way) turn of events?

I know this review it's going to be contentious, because it's probably an opinion not very many AoT fans right now are sharing, but it's something I felt I had to say as honestly and as objectively as I could. Maybe I missed some of the answers to the questions I posed above. And after another re-watch and seeing other reactions I got some answers and understood the plot of this episode better. However at this point I am left with a lot of questions and it's the first time for me in this show where I have my doubts that these questions can actually be answered. Maybe they will be in the next episodes or maybe they'll become plot inconsistences or plot holes, who knows? What I do know is that the feeling I got and the mindset I have after watching the episode, reading the manga and thinking about what just happened is that Isayama actually lost the story of AoT roght here. There were numerous hints and scenes pointing to Ymir and telling either a lie or a part of the truth. This was the episode to solve all those things out and give us actual answes but instead what we got was some half baked, generic scenes of a girl getting the power of a titans from a creature no one knows how it was there and her daughters eating her corpse and somehow that generated this whole story with subjects of Ymir and royal bloodline. Freaking really? Am I really the only one who is bothered by these superficial answers we got in this episodes? Now concerning why I still give this episode a 8/10. I was throughly entertained throughout it's runtime and didn't felt for a second this episode dragged or fell into ridiculousness teritory, plus there was that ending scene which was absolutely incredible. Even when I watched the flashbacks and noticed problems in them I still enjoyed them and I was into them and well enough invested in what was happening. And I am still open for further explanations down the road, even though those will probably never going to come. But for me this was the lowest high point in this show up until now. And I won't be hyperbolic to call this the GoT season 8 episode 3 type of episode, but it's definitely a not so high as I expected high point in this show. 8/10.

Eternals (2021)

Notes I made while watching the movie

• Etetnal lets creature kill a man before beating it and stopping it from killing a young boy

• Girl hides from earthquake near a wall underneath a stone tablet, when all her colleagues hid under the tables. Was there no place for her? Couldn't she find some little space under one of the tables but instead hid in the most unsafe way imaginable?

• Sersei saves her and no one sees her doing that even though there is a guy at the wall 2 meters away from her

• Awful childish dialogue all throughout the movie

• Eternals were not allowed to fight other villains, other than deviants but they'll surely join the Avengers in the next big Avengers movie as it is implied with this movie being in the MCU

• The soundtrack was made as if the director watched Ramin Djawadi sketching the score for the movie and ordered him that every track should be as generic as possible

• What an unefficient way of creating celestials who can create new worlds, by destroying the ones that exist. Wouldn't be better if the celestial emerged as the planet was about to die when eventually people brought their own demise and destroyed the world? So that one's destruction would give life to a whole new planet and millions of lives? It's not the best but it's a lot better than the moral questionable situation we got. Not to mention the questions this reveal arises: like how many planets are impregnated with a Celestial Tiamut? Were they all impregnated? If so then why destroy every life in the universe just to bring more of the same life? And how does a celestial use the power of humans? What kind of power do the humans have anyway? If say, in the beginning of the universe there was a limited number of inhabited planets and just as many celestials to emerge, was Arishem about to wipe out all life in universe just for a reset button? Man, that would make him even worse than Thanos.

• As we find out that Eternals are robots and Deviants are organic beings how can one organic being eat and incorporate a robot as well as its abilities?

• Thena somehow has a double personality or something and tries to kill fellow Eternals members which is explained that her mind was remembering memories from her previous lives as eternal, which begs the question: why nobody else developed this kind of memory bug? Surely wasn't this sub-plot invented only to generate more tension when the writers needed it because they were too creatively lackluster to create intelligently builded tension, right? That would be silly...

• It is implied that Druig who could control people takes control of the Spaniards and native americans as if he was their God even though that would change history and would surely be noted in history as the first proof of alien life on earth

• Apparently the Eternals had Thor, Odin and Loki at their finger tips but now Thor has become a spoiled narcissistic Avenger and won't respond Kingo's calls

• Loki al over again: the celestials created the eternals and they were just puppets all along having no free will, but now being more empowered because... reasons... they will break free and create their own destinies

• The Eternals' ship looks like it barely has 2 meters in height, which begs the question how do they fit or have any space inside it?

• Phastos can somehow repurpose the sphere from inside Sersie in order to connect them all with each other

• Sersi can just stand up after being stabbed and even run towards the vulcano. Is she able to not only change the knife into water but also the wound into tissue? Can she also change the bacteria she got inside into living human tissue?

• At the end Phastos says they didn't die when Celestials were emerging because they were connected to the Celestial, yet we knew from earlier on that there was a factory where all eternals were created so you couldn't believe that what he said was true because it was already implied they never had any memory of that to begin with and those thoughts of them surviving were just reminiscences of them being built, right?

If these quick notes didn't make it abundantly clear, let me say it loud and clear: this movie sucks! Is sucks for all te reasons mentioned above and for many other, which would take me too much time to analyse the movie and write them all down. This movie exhausted me too much, that I could do that. Nevertheless this was a boring, sterile, badly acted and without any stakes movie that let me without any interest of coming back and wanting to know more about the Eternals or whoever might join them in the future or if they will join the Avengers, which will probably happen. Avoid this movie even if it means not watching it on streaming platforms. It's 2,5 hours of your life you can invest them better. 3/10.

King Arthur (2004)

Though historically inaccurate, it's still an entertaining movie

I first saw this movie as I was kid and I remember enjoying it quite a lot for having what I would crave from a historical movie about Arthur and the knights of the round table, that being big battles. Silly me... as I grew older I began appreciating a movie more based on the storytelling and the quality of it and its characters. And as I rewatched this movie I found quite some flaws in it although I still consider it a very entertaining movie to watch. So let's dive right in and explore this one shall we?

The objective quality of this movie is quite mediocre or average at best. It certainly has some great moments but it also has baffling character choices and also rushed scenes even with the Director's cut which is the version I watched and the one I would reecommend. The movie begins with its first major flaw, in that it states that the recent archeological foundings have shed light into Arthur's true identity, hinting at a pretty historically accurate movie only to then ignore that and be completely inaccurate from a historical point of view. The movie continues with a monologue from Lancelot which establishes the origins of Arthur's knights and condemns that as worse than dying on battlefield fighting the romans which begs the question of "Why?", since we later see that they help a lot of people. It's kinda like the movie is working against itself. It is also weird to have the story told by Lancelot as narator since he dies at the end and not by Arthur. As we get introduced to Arthur for the first time, a man tells him that some random kids on horses transported by romans are going to be his knights which is odd since he doesn't even know them and they could very well become useless warriors who die in their first battle. It's the movie's way of enforcing the idea of Arthur's knights being so awesome and powerfull in a not so subtle way. After rescuing a bishop from one of the local tribes they go to the Hadrian wall where they get their last mission even if they were theoretically done with Rome and earned their freedom. I do wanna make it clear how well the movie establishes Arthur's knights, making each of them different from the others with their own quirks and character traits which makes everything that happens to them later in the movie more impactful. Arthur's character even though is played pretty charismatically by Clive Owen it is a bit too on the stoic side, not showing much emotion, not even when his comrades die in front of him, which makes it hard at times to empathize with him. The scene in which he convinces the knights to come in this one last mission to save a roman family trapped by the saxons, is nicely made and makes you empathize with Arthur and his hard choice of convincing his knights to come on this last mission and probably die. My only problem is that throughout of the movie this is the only scene in which we see a more emotional Arthur. The dialogue with Lancelot afterwards is also quite brilliant with lots of lines questioning both faith and the denial of it. We then get introduced to the Saxons led by Cerdic (played brilliantly by Stellan Skarsgård) and their incursion into britain land. While Arthur travels to Hadrian wall he is entraped by Merlin's men but then imediately set free without doing nothing impressive to deserve that. It just comes off as weird and out of place just for the sake of character motivation for Merlin later on in the movie. As they reach the roman family and try to rescue them, they are at first unwilling to come along but then as they hear the drums from the coming saxon army they agree to come. Just as they are about to leave Arthur sees some priests plugging a passage into a hidden underground facility where they were torturing wild people for being pagans. Now even though it's in his character to show mercy to anyone and try to save all the people, it is strange that Arthur tries to free the people from the underground even though he hears the drums of the closing army. It makes it pretty hard to believe that the army wouldn't reach them during the time they take to explore the underground and free the people while also encaging the priests who tortured them in the first place. As they escape to the east we learn from a flashback that Arthur lost his mum to the tribe now Merlin leads and wants him to join his tribe too. He doesn't say he needs Arthur to help them protect from the Saxons, even though that would've made sense. We also get the Excalibur scene where a young Arthur pulls the sword from a stoney grave, which actually makes it hard to believe a 12 year old would pull a 10 kilogram sword from stone. They then get followed by Cerdic's son and some 200 infantry through mountains and cold frozen river or lake (?). The knights along with Guinevere make a stand and hold them off to help the people escape but in doing it so they lose Dagonet who goes on a rampage and gets shot by an arrow while breaking the ice which conveniently breaks towards the Saxons and not towards the knights. However the scene is nice and generally up until Dagonet's rampage, works pretty well with great music and cinematography. They then get back to the wall and mourn Dagonet and this is a pretty good scene which furthers the characters more, especially Lancelot and Bors. As the scene cuts to Cerdic and his son, we see him punishing him for failing to catch the romans at the frozen river/lake. Arthur and Guinevere then try to sleep with one another but they get interupted by a soldier announcing the Saxons are outside the wall. This begs the question of "why wait until they are here outside the wall to announce you commander in charge?". Wouldn't have made more sense to anounce him as they were approaching? And what about the Saxons just coming outside the wall and just standing outside of it for the night instead of attacking it right away and capture the noble family for the ransom which would pay for their military campaign? Arthur then tries to send his knights away and stay to fight the saxons on the cliched quote that "all my battles have led me to this moment" which would have made more sense if his siding with the britain tribes was made a little more believable. Not to say it is terrible, I saw way worse dialogue for explaining one's character motivations as the one between Arthur and Lancelot. So the final battle happens and after initially leaving, the knights return to help Arthur fight the Saxons. Not only they come to Arthur's aid but also the britons come to help him even though this wasn't set up at all before in the movie. Compaired to Gandalf coming to Helm's Deep in Two Towers where that return was set up, this one feels shallow and like a Deux ex Machina, because we needed to have a final battle and we needed to have an army fighting the Saxons or else it couldn't have been believable to have only the knights fight them. The battle however is nicely coreographed and gruesome and generaly flows well with moments of dread followed by moments of triumph. The only gripe I had is that at the end after Arthur defeats Cerdic somewhat underwhelmingly, the battle is just over and we never get a sense of who won or what was the cost. A tiny comparison here with another movie scored by Hans Zimmer with great final battle which is The Last Samurai where you realy understand who has the advantage during the battle and then at the end who won and what were the loses. Here there's nothing like that. There are just bunch of people killing bunch of people. The thing I liked most about this battle however was the death of two of Arthur's knights including Lancelot. Those were visceral, somewhat bloody and very emotionally deaths helped by an outstanding score by Hans Zimmer. So the movie ends with the knights going back home and Arthur marrying Guinevere and becoming the king of brits.

So, if I were to rate this movie from an objective view, this movie would be as I said above, somewhat of a mediocre or average rating at best. So on scale from 1 to 10 this is somewhat of an 5,5. It has some issues with the storytelling, the way the characters decisions are being built and at times how rushed some scenes are or how much the movie tries to hammer down a point by having characters say things to build the story rather than showing how the story is build. Other than that the pace generally feels smooth and there are enough character moments intertwined with battles or action scenes to not have the movie either drag out or feel rushed. The battles are generally well done, not too much estethics on the part of the Saxons or the britons but the knights and the romans generally look pretty believable. The cinematography was gerenally good with a couple of shots that looked gourgeous. The score from Hans Zimmer was outstanding as I already mentioned enhancing the movie so much. So from a subjective viewpoint and experience of the movie, this is for me a 9,5 out of 10 enjoyment. I truly had a great time watching it and even though I was sleepy at times I couldn't fall asleep which tells me just how entertainig this movie was and generally how well it flew in its runtime. So from an average it would be 7,5/10 from me. Definitely an entertaining movie with lots of positives but also quite some issues concerning the story, the history and the character motivation. Not nearly as bas as some reviewers are making it to be nor as bad as the critics evaluated it when it first came out.

Dark City (1998)

What makes us humans?

Whenever you think of great sci-fy movies one movie will always pop in the top 10 sci-fy movies list, and that is The Matrix. But there is an older movie 1 year prior to Matrix which dealt with the same concept and which has been overlooked for quite some time. I finally got the chance to watch this movie on a December 25th evening and I knew immediately that I had to come and write a review about it. I will dividing my review into 2 parts, a more objective part in which I break the movie down filled with lots of Spoilers and a second more subjective one so that in the end I'll give an overall rating. So here we go!

Objectively this movie is quite good: it has a strong premise that captivated me from the start. The movie kicks off with directly going from a space image to a grounded, dark and creepy image of a city in decay. The place looks bleak and grim in a way that you could expect anytime something terrible maybe even otherworldly to happen. It is here where we meet out protagonist John Murdoch, who wakes up in a bath tub naked then gets out of the room to find a woman lying dead near a bed. From there on the movie runs pretty smoothly and fast paced and reveals just enough information to keep you invested and restrains as much to keep you guessing all the time. The weird looking people hunting John are some sort of alien machines that have got a hold on humans and were trying to experiment on them in order to figure out where does their consciousness comes from and if people are doomed to a certain destiny or are we more than the sum of our experiences and memories. These are all fantastic questions that the movie poses. And the way it answers them is slow, gradually revealing more as the main protagonist understands the kind of world he's living in. And the more fascinating thing is that the movie doesn't try to food spoon you with an ideological or political view over the answers to these outstanding questions but rather leaves some of them open for though because the movie understands that the mystery of them is far more compelling than any answer a screenwriter could come up with. One of the best things this movie does as I said is to gradually reveal the mysteries and what's going on behind the curtain, and an example of that is the way in which characters start to question the nature of their reality and wake up to the truth that all of it is not real, that is all just a simulation as a part of a bigger game. Another great twist in this movie was the fact that at the end John realizes that his memories might not be the ones he made freely by him but rather events impregnated into his brain. I love that the execution of this realization comes progressively and gradually. Each scene contributes to that, so in the end everything feels important and meaningful. This also creates tension between characters since no one seems to know why all of this is happening. This leads to great character dynamics and interactions that not only make sense but also move the plot forward. Another fantastic revelation is that the beings holding the humans captives are actually using their bodies in order to survive in a symbiote manner. This makes absolute sense and it also explains why such organisms would not have the consciousness or soul humans have and thus striving to understand and learn that from them. I also liked the ending in which it is left open to interpretation or for a sequel to explore the origin of the humans brought on the city, which is left purposefully ambiguous. One of the problems I had with this movie is that it is never explained why John was able to tune like the aliens. And I don't mean to be food spoon with a fix answer but rather handed the information with which I could come up with a possible answer. But here it is like John is special and can tune because he's a more evolved version of a human being, which is somewhat satisfying but I would have expected something more grounded and explored than a flimsy half-baked explanation. Another problem comes in the scene where dr. Scherber obtains new memories for the coming tuning. It is shown that he develops new memories by having different substances mixed together. That is not how brain and memories work. It makes no sense to mix different substances together that have different colors and then inject that into someone's head. That's not how the head works. But this is only a minor nit pick. The tuning scenes and the logistic behind it all was pretty well done. The only nit picks I could find were that for example people that were driving cars would go to sleep but the cars would immediately stop and not run a little awok before stopping thus creating maybe some accidents in the process. So, objectively a lot of things work in this movie so I would give it a 7,5/10

Subjectively this movie was a blast from start to finish. The way the movie flows was pitch perfect never seeming to drag nor to rush. I enjoyed the characters, they were all played by good actors, the action was restrained and the special effects were tolerably good for a movie made in 1998. My favorite scenes were those between John and his doctor and between him and his wife. All three actors had great chemistry together and they played beautifully off each other. The greatest thing to come out of this movie was the sense of mystery and wonder not knowing what comes next and what revelations are you gonna discover next. From my subjective point of view this is the kind of movie that loses you in it and never lets you go until the very last poignant scene. The acting was good, the cinematography was spot on perfectly capturing the feeling of a city in decay and ruin always dark and gritty. The soundtrack was also pitch perfect, expertly capturing the feeling of scare and growing tension as things were continuously being revelated and as they at the same time grew in tension until the very end. So from a subjective standpoint it's a 9,5/10 from me.

So to sum up my feelings about this movie, this is a great sci-fy which not only captivated me, but also inspired me, surprised me in a good way and cleverly subverted my expectations. It's the kind of movie that speaks a universal message that stays with you long after the end credits have rolled. It's the kind of movie that also motivates you to use everything you are for good, since we are gifted and wonderful beings. Nice to see movies that actually looked at the humans with a prospect of hope and faith that we can do better and be a positive influence for others. And from me this movie gets a solid recommendation as one of the better sci-fys I've watched in recent memories. 9/10.

Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021)

Sometimes the end of one adventure is just the beginning of another

I saw Spider-Man: No Way Home last night and I had to put together a review because this was not only one of the best MCU movie ever made but also one of the best superhero movies ever made. So here we go (Huge spoilers ahead!):

Plot Breakdown:

So the movie kicks off right after the end credits scene from Far From Home and Peter has to deal with the consequences of the world finding out he is Spider-Man. He, MJ, Ned and May are questioned but nothing sticks as Mr. Murdock comes to help them. Then they move to another apartment in an attempt to escape the growing mob attacking Peter's house. At the same time MJ, Ned and Peter try to apply for MIT but they all get rejected which sets the main plot and the future films with Spider-Man perfectly. They all get rejected and Peter goes to Doctor Strange to have everyone forget that he is Spider-Man. Doctor Strange agrees and does a spell to have everyone forget Peter was Spider-Man, but Peter tempers with the spell and tries to alter it mid-way through and that changes the spell in a way in which not even Strange knows how it would turn out. So Peter finds out from Flash that a vice chancellor from the MIT is travelling to the airport so he goes to talk to her and convince her to let Ned and MJ in the MIT. This is where doc Ock attacks and he unmasks Peter to see that he isn't his Peter. Ock's arms get taken over by Peter's suit, but then the Green Goblin attacks and Spider-Man and Ock get teleported into Strange's prison. Then Strange explains that the spell worked in the way that it pulled all the people who knew Peter Parker was Spider-Man. He also caught the Lizard and placed it into the prison. So they plan to capture them all and send them back. So Peter brings Ned and MJ to help him with catching the villains. The next is Electro... so Peter goes into a forest and there he gets attacked by Electro but saved in the last minute by Flint Marko. He destroys the electricity towers and then cages the Electro. After that Norman comes to May and Peter takes him to the rest of the villains. Then Strange comes and he and Spidey fight over getting the bad guys home or helping them. That was one of the most craziest fight scene I've seen in the MCU. Peter ultimately wins with a genius display of Peter's intelligence, traps Strange in the mirror dimension and takes his ring which opens portals. They fix then Octavius but then Peter senses something is off. So Green Goblin and Electro storm off and May gets killed by Goblin's glider. This was heartbreaking to see happening to Peter, after first losing Tony his father figure in Endgame. Then we see MJ and Ned who are back at Ned's home deciding if they ought to activate the box Strange made to destroy the original spell. Then Ned opens a portal and a Spider-Man comes through and it's Andrew Garfield's Spidey. Then he tries again and finds Tobey Maguire's Peter. They find Tom together with Ned and MJ and talk him out of sending all the Spideys and villains back (Just a quick disclaimer, I will be naming the different Peters and Spideys by their respective actors names). Then they develop a cure for everyone and go the statue of Liberty in order to draw them all out and fix them. At first the three Spider-Men don't work together too well but after a quick pep talk they swing together and manage to cure Electro, Lizard and Sandman. The last being the Goblin who comes and destroys the scaffolding from the Statue and MJ falls while Tom tries to save her but he is then taken by the Goblin so Andrew jumps after her and saves her. The fight ends with a fantastic fist fight between Tom and Norman and as Tom was about to impale him with his glider Tobey comes and stops him only to be stabbed by the Goblin. Then Andrew throws the cure to Tom and he cures him. The movie ends with Tom suggesting Strange who was brought back by Ned, to make another spell to make everyone forget he is Peter and that would stop the first spell. Everyone forgets Tom's Spidey was Peter and then Peter goes to MIT and moves into his own apartment (Tobey vibes there... the only thing that was missing was mr. Ditkovich asking him for rent) and starting his own life of being the friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man with a new hand-made comic book-ish costume.

End of Plot Breakdown

This was without a doubt for me, one of the best MCU movies, right up there with Infinity War and Endgame. You will hear many people say this is the most fan service fan service could be. But this movie isn't all about that. There are way more great things this movie does. The 2 standouts aside from Tom Holland (because this is his movie) for me were Willem Defoe and Andrew Garfield. The latter one has so much fun with his character. It is incredible to see what a great actor he is and what an amazing Peter Parker he can be with a competent script. I loved him in this movie even though I didn't really liked him in his own 2 movies. Willem Defoe is I would say the greatest shine overall in all the Spider-Man movies. He is truly incredible after all these years playing the Goblin with the same menace and cunning that made him a legend in the first Raimi movie. What I also loved about this movie is that they not only brought the villains from the Tobey and Andrew's movies but they also improved them, and I'm not talking only in terms of costume (which were improved for Electro and Goblin) but also their characters especially Electro and the Lizard which suffered the most in the Garfield's movies. Also the villains interactions were mesmerizing. To see Doc Ock and Norman interact with each other after being in separate movies in Raimi's original trilogy was truly a dream come true. Also Electro and Lizzard's interactions were neat. The only one that felt a bit like a spare wheel was Lizard, who in terms of plot didn't have much to do and affect the story. Another not so great thing was Doc Ock. Props though for Alfred Molina for coming back after all these years and still portraying doc Ock in the way we knew him. The only gripe I might have with his portrayal is that he gets less screen time than other villains and he at times is played for jokes. Him being cured at the mid point of the movie meant he wasn't part in the big battle at the end but only cured Electro and met with Tobey. It was okay overall, can't fault the movie for that, it was the obvious path for his character. But the best thing in this movie has to be the interactions between the three Spider-Men. They felt like they were brothers all this time and they all had a big part in the movie not only appearing for a cameo at the end to help Tom's Spidey. The best scene concerning the three Spider-Men has to be Andrew's rescue of MJ which redeems his character in way I never thought possible, and quite frankly it has to be one of the best character redemption scenes in any movie ever! Next one was Tobey's Peter stopping Tom from impaling Norman with his own glider. This time he stops Norman from getting killed with his own glider and also pays a small price for that by getting stabbed. Also, the ending is probably the best ending to a MCU movie and maybe to a Spider-Man movie. Speaking of Spider-Man movies, you could really see there was a vision here for Tom's version. To have him grow from a kid in the first two movies into a definitive hero by the end of this movie. It's so satisfying to watch that and it really puts to shame other studios trilogies that bombed, had no plan from the beginning and brought original members from older movies only for cheap nostalgia pandering to then disrespect them. This movie respects and honors every other Spider-Man movie that came before and moves the story in an interesting new direction building the main character properly in the process. It wouldn't be fair to talk only about the positives and not pin point some flaws this movie had: like the first half of hour of this movie has some off-placed humor and some strange behavior from characters like Ock and Tom's Peter with Strange when he does the spell. Even though this is the kick-start of the plot it is kind of weirdly executed and a bit cringy at time. This gripe I would say it's only present in the first 30 minutes - 1 hour of the movie. The first part of the movie is the one that seems a bit more like a comedy with some cringe inducing moments and humor that either hits or misses. After the point doc Ock appears in the highway the movie picks up and there's no turning back. Also there's a joke before the big battle at the end with Tobey's back which seemed a bit strange. I would have rather have that Spider-Men pointing at each other meme done in the scene. But these minor gripes won't take away from what was truly a remarkable movie that honored everything that came before it and prepared the way for a new story going forwards. I wish more movies were made like this one today. This will truly be remembered as a landmark in superhero movies and in franchise movies in generally. 10/10

One last thing before I go... there were so many people involved in making this movie. I encourage you to support the creators of this movie because they truly deserve and go see the movie in theatre. Let's show movies like these should get made more often!

Spider-Man (2002)

Still great after more than 50 rewatches and almost 20 years later!

In preparation for Spider-Man No Way Home I decided to rewatch all the old Spider-Man movies starting with this one and ending with TASM 2. So let's get straight into the meat of this review and break this movie's plot down!

Plot breakdown:

The movie starts with what I can only describe as one of the best movie intros of all time. Not only the visuals are great and awesome at foreshadowing the characters in the movie mainly Spider-Man and the Green Goblin, it also has one of the best superhero movie themes of all time! It sets up perfectly the tone of this movie giving you the feeling of awe, drama, action, suspence and maturity above all. The latter is probably the thing most superhero movies today lack. But more on that later. The first scene perfectly establishes the character of Peter Parker having him run after a bus and barely getting on it courtesy of MJ. In about 5 minutes we learn more about this character than we found out about Tom Holland's Peter in maybe the first movie alltogether. We see Peter as slob, nerdy and socially incapable of having interactions with other people. And above all we see that even before he gets his superpowers his life sucked. That's a great way to build up your character by having him squashed again and again. We barely get to the Spider laboratory scene and we yet again see a moment in which Peter gets humiliated by both the movie and the characters in it. MJ starts looking at him and waves her hand towards him only to see that in fact she was waving her hand towards some of her friends coming from behind Peter. Than Harry Osborn gets introduced in another great introductory scene with his dad who seems not only very totalitarian towards him but also very cold and distant. Then Harry introduces Peter to Norman and after that we get the spider laboratory scene where Peter gets bullied again and at the end he gets bit by a spider. Simultaneously we see Norman getting a visit from the military general who gives him an ultimatum for human trial of his human enhancement serum. This sets him on his path to becoming the Green Goblin by having him test the serum on himself and going nuts. All the while Peter comes home and starts to transform into Spider-Man. He wakes up having big muscles and having no problem with his eye sight. There is also great humor in this scene as Peter slowly realises that a change has happened to him. No humor in this movie seems or feels forced or too much like in the MCU movies to the point in which half of it lands and the other half not. Anyway, Peter goes to school and starts talking with MJ from a distance while she can't hear a word he says only to lose the bus and see that his hands are becoming more sticky. Than at school he fires his first web and gets into a fight with Flash whom he totally beats down. Everyone gets away then from him and he runs in a dark alley where he climbs the walls for the first time. After that he tests his web slinging capabilities only to end up badly as he misses his appointment with his uncle to paint the kitchen. Then he takes out the trash and has a nice little talk with MJ which ends with Flash coming to get her in his new cool car. So, Peter decides to try get some money to buy a car to impress MJ. He designs his suit to go into a wrestling competition where if he could hang on 3 minutes in the ring with a pro wrestler he would win 3000$. The next day Norman is found passed out in his office by Harry and then one of his secretaries or whatever tells him that they found the scientist that helped him in his test last night dead and the equipment stolen. Back to Peter, uncle Ben drives him to the library where he said he was going. Then they have a nice talk about responsability which ends badly as Peter shouts he is not his father. Then he goes to the wrestling competition, beats up the fighter in a cage and gets only 100$. The boss then gets robbed and Peter lets the thief get away with the money. Then he finds his uncle shot down and doesn't even gets to say a proper goodbye to him. After finding out which way the robber is going he goes after him, does the web slinging thing for the first time which is so wonderful to see. He actually starts off slow and cautious to then get used to it and get better at it. The thief then has an accident while inside an old building with Peter questioning him about Ben's death and he falls off and dies. Then we see Quest aerospace's test thwarted by the Green Goblin and the scene switches marvelously to Peter's graduation. He then goes home and cries about uncle Ben who he would have liked to have arround at his graduation. He then takes up his painting of Spider-Man and we get the amazingly and also funny montage of Spider-Man encounters. Then we get introduced to one of the greatest legends in cinema of all time. It's JJ Jameson who tries to shine a bad light on Spider-Man. We then see MJ and Pete meet outside a restaurant or shop where we find out that MJ is in the pursuit of acting on stage and also now dating Harry. Speaking of him, Harry offers to help Pete find a job through his dad, to which Peter refuses and instead opts for becoming Spider-Man's photographer. It's so nice to see daily events like living together in an apartment and searching for a job being integrated so well into the story and tying into Spider-Man as a superhero. We never make a detour in this movie, even the slower paced moments are realistic and done in order to progress the story forwards. The movie flows so well as a result. We then see Peter getting a freelance with Daily Bugle and Norman getting the boot. Afterwards is the World Unity Festival which gets attacked by the Green Goblin. Everything ends in Spider-Man stopping him and saving MJ. Norman then talks to the Green Goblin and we dig deeper into his and Goblin's character. Afterwards JJ Jameson gets a visit from the Goblin and Spider-Man who gets sedated by some vapor Goblin releases in his face. Then they have a chat on rooftop in which Goblin proposes that Spidey joins him and become the most powerful people in the world. Then Pete runs into MJ again and then saves her from some thugs to have then the awesome reversed kiss. Then Spider-Man saves a baby from the fire and goes into it again to save an apparent women who is in fact the Goblin in disguise. Spider-Man gets hurt in the process which gives him up in front of Norman at the tanksgiving dinner which ends in a disaster. So, now the stage is set for the finale, and what a finale it is. The Goblin traumatises aunt May, and then kidnapps MJ and a bunch of kids. He then releases them both forcing Spidey to choose. Again emphasising the idea that with a responsibility we can't have and do everything we want. Such a great message. The movie ends with a battle between Spidey and Goblin. And I really love this fight because it really shows the lack of experience Spider-Man has at the beginning of his career of fighting crime. He barely wins through a combination of resilience and an accident which has the glider kill Norman. The movie ends with Norman's funeral and Peter refusing to be with MJ even though she just confessed her love for him. Again, stregthening the idea that with great power comes great responsibility and hence you can't have it all.

End of plot Breakdown!

What a wonderful and full of web slinging fun movie! I think the thing that impressed me the most in this viewing was the realism of these characters who are so well developed and flashed out that you end up caring just as much for the man under the mask as for the man with the mask. The humor is restrained and I would say more than 80% of it works and lands, unlike the newer MCU movies which insist with so much humor that at times it's hard to figure it out if the movie is an action/drama/adventure or a straight out comedy. This movie uses humor sparingly and with finese so that almost everytime it works. The action scenes are fantastically choreographed not to overly exagerated but rather more grounded and impactful giving the movie even more of a realism feeling. The music is another hit in this movie. The original score for this movie and the whole trilogy is quite simply legendary. So many awesome cues and themes that just enchance the movies experience. The acting is another winner in this movie. Everyone delivers at least a competent performance if not brilliant (Willem Defoe). Him as Norman Osborne and Green Goblin is simply mesmerizing. I couldn't take my eys of him in every scene he was in. He really gives Alfred Molina a run for his money. The next guy I wanna talk about is JJ Jameson (played brilliantly by J. K. Simmons). I mean it doesn't get any better than this. Wait, it actually does in Spider-Man 2. But as superhero movies are concerned before this movie came out I haven't seen a more charismatic performance from an actor ever in a superhero movie. What an absolute and complete legend this guy is! He was so legendary that MCU decided to recast him in the new Holland movies. It wouldn't be fair to point out only the great things this movie does and not pin point some flaws: like the chessy ending to the first fight between Goblin and Spidey or the Goblin's suit which at this point, 20 years later seems a bit goofy given that we saw more realistic superhero costumes in the MCU. Not to forget the cringy dialogue at some points which took me out of the scene a little. Having said that Spider-Man's costume is one of the most legendary superhero costumes in a superhero movie. All in all, a great movie, very realistic in its depiction of an actual superhero dealing with his double life in the real world and with a lot of heart and fun put into it. Not to forget the maturity showed by the characters in it, which so many new MCU movies lack for the sake of humor. Not to forget we owe it to movies like this one and Spider-Man 2 and 3 that MCU now exists. This movie paved the way for them. 10/10.

Yu-Gi-Oh! GX: Return of the Supreme King: Part 3 (2007)

Best conclusion out of any Yu-Gi-Oh Arc until now!

These last five episodes although they weren't perfectly executed, are some of the most bold episodes of all Yu-Gi-Oh! Here is why they are so good:

The fight against Jesse wasn't the highlight of the finale, even though it was a good duel, unlike the duel against Sartorious in season 2 or the old man who tried to take the Sacred Beasts in season 1. Those were boring and predictable battles that saw Jaden win and only that. Here there was an emotional stake to the duel in that Jaden was trying to free his friend from Yubel's control. As the duel ended the stakes got even higher emotionally speaking. Yubel duelled against Jaden in the hope of uniting him and her into a single world united also from those 12 dimensions. It's nice to see overarching plots and threads that are tied and resolved here. That makes this finale all the better. The duel itself wasn't bad with a lot of turnarounds to keep you guessing what's gonna happen up until the end. The best thing happens at the very end when Jaden takes Yubel's Superpolimerization and fuses him and her after understanding her history through a flashback. Here is the only weak thing in this finale, in that we get a flashback about Yubel and somehow there was a younger version of Jaden back then who was the Supreme King and somehow she was supposed to protect him, but also now in the present because he might be reincarnated? What? Nah, whatever... moving on. It's a bit clumsy and contrived but at least is something that explains her motivations and make her more than "I've been waiting all this time to get my revenge on you pharao" type of villain. Wait... pharao? Wait what? So in the end Jaden unites with Yubel and all of his friends return safely to the Academy, however only Jaden is the one who doesn't come back. The last scene is of a devasted Syrus crying out for Jaden, implying that this might very well be permanent.

What a wonderful ending to a fantastic season of Yu-Gi-Oh. Probably one of my all time favorites arcs in this franchise. Even though it somehow borrows the same idea as in Duel Monsters where the main protagonist has a spirit that posseses him, this whole arc is about developing Jaden's character, finding that spirit and uniting with it. It's quite a nice piece of storytelling that keeps you invested until the very end and nails the ending in the most original way possible. Great! 10/10.

Yu-Gi-Oh! GX: The Ultimate Face-Off: Part 2 (2007)

Tragic story!

The conclusion of Adrian's story arc in this two part episode is both tragic and sad. These couple of episodes weren't at the level of the previous 2 but still they are great and again another reason why season 3 is great. Let's go and find out why:

The episode picks up after Jesse comes back from dueling with Zane and he finds Adrian in his throne waiting for him. They go about being the king of this world and then duel. The duel is a back and forth between the two and what's interesting is that Jesse and Yubel use the Sacred Beasts decks which in a way is kinda the best counter to Adrian's Exodia deck. Adrian brings everything and still Jesse has an answer for everything, to the point in which he feels the presence of Eko in one of Adrian's card and destroys it. That destroys Adrian both from the card game point of view as well as from an emotional point of view, seeing that Eko's sacrifice was for nothing in the end. The thing is that we see remorse in Adrian by the time he loses and he goes out by saying he's sorry for everything he's done to Eko. I wouldn't call that redemption but rather a tragic conclusion to a very dramatic and full of sacrifices story arc for Adrian. He was willing to sacrifice everything and comparing this attitude with his history you can see a clear character development in him.

Still, a tragic end to a very interesting, dramatic and sad story of a character who personified perfectly the most basic human condition in which you get corrupted by the thought of power. A nice lesson al in all. 10/10.

Yu-Gi-Oh! GX: The Forbidden Ritual: Part 2 (2007)

You can't stop The Forbbiden One.. wether you like it or not!

GX's Season 3 continues to find new ways of executing great duels and finding new grounds on surprising the audiences with the conclusions of the duels and overal with the emotional impact of the duels. This episode is a prime example of that. Here's why it's so good:

The story kicks off right after Axel's sacrifice in saving Jaden from the Supreme King. And that is a tiny problem for me personally, because we never get to see the characters coming back to the realization that Jaden was saved and also we don't get to see Jaden realizing what he did as the Supreme King. It kinda just begins with the cahracters under a three, then Eko, Adrian's friend is somehow there too, and of course Adrian too. The explanation made for all these appearances along with Crowler's is somewhat contrived and superficially explained. However, by the standard of this show this is nothing "worse" than what we saw until now when it comes to contrivances, so I'll pass that. We then find out Adrian's story and that he needs to reign in order for his character to be fully fulfilled. The explanation for that is quite nice nad the flashbacks are also nice and sustaining the idea. The duel however it's where it all shines. Aster Phoenix challenges Adrian who wants to take Eko's duel energy. The duel was insanely good and it was one of the first tiem we saw and FTK deck like Exodia in this show. And unlike the guy with poor draw power from season 1, Adrian actually has a sinergy in the deck and plays everything with purpose and tactic. The outcome of this duel at the end is that we lose another great character in the shape of Aster, while Adrian sacrifices Eko in order to controll Exodia. The episode ends with him going of on Exodia to probably face off with Yubel.

What a dramatic, rollercoaster and emotional episode this 2 parter was. Almost everything in this episode worked perfectly: the story, the backstory, the revelations, the duel itself and the conclusion. Another great step in the right direction for this amazing third season! 10/10.

Yu-Gi-Oh! GX: What Lies Beneath: Part 3 (2007)

Rise of the Hero!

Season 3 keeps getting better and better. After Jaden's fall and the amaing duel between him and Jim, Axel is scared and runs away. This episode picks right after that:

Axel goes on quite a journey of coeback and redemption and heped by the eye of Orichalcum, Aster and Zane, comes back to the Supreme King and challenges him to a duel. This duel is another one of the highlights of this season and also another proof of the great writting this season has produced so far and of the great writting in store. Even though the Supreme King's dominance ends here and feels kinda short a little, it does end in the best way possible. Axel gives the duel of his life and in a great twist at the end both men loose so they both are sent to the stars, in Jaden's case the Supreme King, his alter ego is sent to the starts, freeing him thus. The idea of a draw and that both men loose by the end solves the conflict in such a great way, and here's why: The Supreme King doesn't lose alone, so his dominance and the sense that he was unbeatable wasn't sacrified for the sake of a cheap "good wins in the end" kind of resolve. At the same time, Axel doesn't lose alone that not undertaking his role and his mission of saving Jaden from the Supreme King. He doesn't beat Jaden out of nowhere when others tried and failed, he simply goes down and takes the Supreme King along with him. That's such great writting there for the standard this show has set up until now, having the bad guy being saved from the good guy without sacrifing any of their traits in the process. Superb!

Another winner from these past couple of episodes. Axel's redemption was nice to see and it was overall well executed! 10/10.

Yu-Gi-Oh! GX: Conquering the Past: Part 3 (2007)

Going out with a Bang!

This is probably the best episode from Yu-Gi-Oh! GX up until this point. Even though this three part episode arc began rather slow and dumb, however the last two episodes were simply sublime! I'm not even gonna waste a single word and get straight into this episode and tell you why it's so good! Ready? Nah... me neither!

The story of this three episodes picks up right after Adrian goes off with his Exodia and Jaden feels pretty bad about everything he's done as the Supreme King. He sees everywhere only memories of what he's done and above all he recognizes Polymerization as the card most responsible for all the destruction. So he gets into a duel with Zane which is cancelled quickly. However after doing that he goes on a walkabout through the desert and Syrus follows him. He then meets one of his former servants as the Supreme King. He duels him and wins without playing polymerization. In the mean time at the site where he and Zane tried dueling Jesse appears through the big door that was laying there the whole time. He proceeds to duel Zane and what comes next is simply one of the best duels in Yu-Gi-Oh history! The quality of the duel for more than 90% of the time is so high, even duels from ARC-V don't come close to topping that. The back and fort between the two guys and the emotion that goes into this episode is incredible. Jesse's new cards are quite interesting and the way he uses them is great and keeps you guessing all the time, even though there are times where Zane attacks him directly with 2 monsters and only during the second attack does he reveals his trap card which begs the question "Why activating it only then?". Zane on the other hand has his old deck back. It's a nice touch that just how Jesse went from Crystal Beasts to Advanced Crystal Beasts, Zane went from his more dark and underground used deck to his old style which also reflects the character's journey back to his roots and becoming more or less his old self. It's a nice touch. And even though Zane loses, the episode is clever enough to set up a scenario in which he only gets defeated by his own card Power Bond which takes 4000 life points from him before summoning Cyber End Dragon with 16000 ATK. It's a nice way to show that Jesse was in danger of losing up until the end. It also made the duel interesting and unexpected up until the very end. And that's another thing I love about this episode, is that you're never sure who is going to win at the end. That shows great writting there. The ending and Zane's farewell from Jaden echoing his first farewell from season 1, as well as his farewell from Syrus saying that he made him pround almost made me cry. Simply superb! Also, the idea brought up by Jubel that the 12 Dimensions will have to unite together is also a small hint and foreshadowing at what's to come next between her and Jaden by the end of the season.

It's small things like that and the emotional journey ad payoff that make this couple of episodes simply outstanding in this superb season 3, which holds up just as well as the first time I enjoyed it. Simply great! 10/10.

Yu-Gi-Oh! GX: A Sight Unseen: Part 2 (2007)

You can't defeat darkness in a duel, especially if that darkness is the main protagonist!

This two part episode duel was a blast from start to finish. Even though I knew Jim was going to lose since I've already seen the show, this duel had me gripped from the first card drawn until the final poignant attack which ended everything for Jim. It was a sad piece of storytelling, with Jim constantly trying to reach out to Jaden and everytime being denied by the Supreme King. The quality of the duel was outstanding, rivaling the quality of the duel between Jesse and Zane (the second one). The moves, the combos were all very well made and easy to follow. At times they were really good and complex for a show that only had fusion summon as the main special summon method apart from ritual. The emotional journey of this duel was also a plus. Characters were always given glimmers of hope only to then be destroyed by the dread of the antagonist. It was an up and down in the good sense of the word kind of journey that had me engaged and gripped from the first moment until the last final attack. It's the kind of duels that stay with you and make you say afterwards: "man, this was such an exciting and compelling duel!" And that not only through the bare cards that were played but also through the interactions between characters and through the emotions they expressed while dueling. These types of duels are that kind that are like a vehicle for character growth and through which you get to know the character better and understand his motivations. This was the case for Jim and the Eye of Orichalcum. Sad story in the end but man, what a duel. Need I say that both Jim and Jaden only had 50 life points before the end? That's how good and even this duel was. But in the end you can't defeat the darkness, especially if the darkness is the main protagonist of the series. 10/10.