poopfock

So I'm not going to get political here. Burr is usually very good at making very solid centrist points, and the movie has an arc, which is fine. The main characters have a learning arc, which is fine. I think most people agree that the ending was very neutered for some reason, and feels very off-brand for Burr though. Maybe studio interference? In any case, my big problem with the ending isn't that Burr and Bokeem come to terms that they could "do better"; its the fact that the women in the film don't learn any lesson about how THEY also were acting unreasonable. That's the real issue I have with the ending.

The women and the "young generation" are basically the antagonists to our "Old Dad" protagonists, and each of them all have their part in the conflict in addition to the main characters each having their own ghosts. That's honestly all fine. You need realistic, well rounded, relatable characters, and they all are to some degree. I relate to Burr myself, but I know some real life Bokeems (and I'm sure the 3rd guy exists out there somewhere too)... and its fine to have old coots like me learn that we have to adjust to modern society and learn to live with and adapt to the sensibilities of women...BUT also, modern society and women should also be expected to learn to live with us too, right? That only seems fair... I've heard Burr talk about his wife, and he $h!+s on her sometimes too, because we're ALL flawed. That's why people love Burr; because he speaks comedy to reality, and reality is his comedy.

With that said, the ending was kind of a disappointment in that 2/3 of the main characters simply gave in to what everyone ELSE wanted them to be...and the antagonists learned NOTHING, and had no character growth, and conceded nothing. Imagine if Batman just at the end of the movie was like "Ya know, Joker, I was wrong. You deserve better." The end. Yeah, would be a bit of a hard swallow. That's basically what we got here. Yes, it was softened a bit by Burr's little jab at the very end, but effectively we're expected to accept that this is a HAPPY ending; that he gave in to pressure. That's a bit of a yikes from me.

That all said, the rest of the film was decent. The ending just really felt like a Hallmark special where all men are bad and should listen to women always. I don't think Burr "sold out", but it definitely felt like a concession was made. Its unfortunate, but whatever; its a movie.

I guess they tried. I love me some MJW and all but the movie was a solid hour too long and had too much padding for a western. Should have been way more lean. The humor was too silly when it would have served the movie better to just dish it dry; making the verbal nods to Black Dynamite and such would have been great and just left it be a serious revenge western, minus all of the church drama and women drama. The thing that worked best about Black Dynamite was that the humor all came from how amateur it was, much like the films it honored...this film should have stuck more to the serious western angle and left out the slapstick.

Gone is the 60s attire and tone and music that has been a staple of Scooby forever, replaced with awful 2020 setting and music...and no, I'm no boomer. This movie sucks. It's not a "prequel" like advertised, and they've turned the characters into freakin caricatures of themselves with a millennial twist. For some reason they felt the need to make Velma into a Spanish girl who switches into speaking Spanish like Dora the explorer. Why not just add a new character to the team instead? It's not like they haven't recruited other people temporarily before. It's just seems like unnecessary pandering. I also don't understand the Simon Cowell thing...weird. The other thing that really bothered me is that Scooby talks a LOT...like abnormally so, and in full sentences too. That is not something I remember seeing in anything previously and my kid watches a lot of Scooby. I don't care for the 2020 plot setting either...they use cellphones and hashtags and stuff. It just feels so not Scooby. Whole I'm at it, Fred looks weird and they made him into essentially Homer Simpson or Peter Griffin level of stupid. Also Will Forte voices Shaggy and it's pretty awful...he sounds nothing like him. None of these things are helped by the awful plot either.