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Reviews
Blue Beetle (2023)
Much better than popular reviews would tell you
The IMDB rating is lower than i expected. This movie is far from perfect, there are characters that are written so poorly i laughed at their dialogue. But this is a superhero genre, poor characters appear more often than not. The main hero played by actor Xolo M. Who was also in the kobra kai (karate kid spin off) did a fantastic job conveying emotion. I'm really excited to watch him move into more roles in hollywood. He really sold the realistic aspects of "kid becomes hero" and the movie does a nice job of creating a unique approach of the first "superhero suit up" scene. There's plenty of things to feel good about in this movie.
To its failures, a couple of the main characters, most surprisingly Susan Sarandon's character, are terribly written. They are straight out of cliche movie textbook. I literally laughed at some of the scenes meant to be serious with her character. There are also points in the movie, where it seemed the writers didn't know how to advance the plot. They decided to just force it along, with satire and comedy. However the movie isn't afraid to make fun of itself for doing so. It's an average movie at best, but i never felt like it was trying to pretend to be better than that.
If you are okay with a comedic approach in serious moments, and you're a fan of "superhero movies" in general, you'll walk away happy that you saw this. Film buffs would obviously have more than few notes...
Ahsoka (2023)
A Show That Could Appeal to Many Fans of Old and New Star Wars
I Loved this show, it's uniquely introduced new and interesting characters into a world that truly feels like the Rebellion Era (OT). The visuals and aesthetics are fantastic. There is this balancing act of old TV animated storylines (Rebels, The Clone Wars) with new characters to ponder, in the star wars universe we love after Episode 6 and post the Mandalorian. Quite a full list to address!
It's one of the Star Wars short series that really nails the STAR WARS feel the best. The uniforms and set designs, light sabers, are very humble and rustic. Fans of the animated characters, where many of these characters are derived, come with many similarities in the live action rendition. To be fair, i think it's open to interpretation if that is a "good" thing, but similar none the less. Action, Editing, storyline are pleasantly ol star wars feel. Space ship battles, quiet light saber stand offs, and mystical talk of the force. There's an element in this show for ANY of the separate star wars fan bases to enjoy. Prequel, Sequel or OT Lol
Now this show improves on a star wars storytelling balancing act, the act of including star wars lore we can all enjoy with a good tale, when compared to some of its counterparts, Obiwan, Boba fett etc. However, This show is still suffering the same issue that plagues other SW programs, the writing is not foolproof, and there's a sense that some elements of the ending didn't get FULLY fleshed out. Nothing too out of sorts, but noticeable. Some scenes were cut short in a surprising manner as you approach the finale.
Lastly, RIP to Rey Stevenson. I didn't know about the actor previous to this role, but boy, does he do a fantastic job with his acting assignment in this show. Absolute home run on a Disney+ original character. Such a delight to watch every scene he was in.
Obi-Wan Kenobi (2022)
A failure that should have been easy to deliver on
Deborah Chow's first crack at full directorial duties with a series at Disney doesn't accomplish what it needed to. News had broken before the debut of the show that actor Hayden Christiansen would reprise his role as anakin/vader, So naturally all eyes were on that delivery.
The show does deliver on the promise to give you the showdown hinted at during "A New Hope" 1977. Its execution during the scenes in the finale are good. It gives you a power struggle between a powerful sith and an aging jedi. However at the very least, these scenes are lessened by the inclusion of a new character's scenes (Reva) in between the struggle of the legendary duel. Where this show would make positive strides it would immediately take 2 steps backwards, casting a negative aftertaste when finishing the series.
The writing of this show bounces between being fun fresh and quirky to dramatic, meloncholy, and stressful for the characters. The transitions to these themes are often shown poorly, to that point i'm not sure whether to blame the writers or director/editing team. I do personally have gripes with the direction of the main characters, in many small instances. Regardless of that, the stories happening in this show are on top of eachother, all in attempt to get your attention. In the chaos there were enjoyable moments, especially from the pleasant surprise of young Leia's character. The actress worked well in this star wars miniseries and gave us all plenty of candid moments.
This show told me Chow's team had the ability expand on Kenobi's story with new content from Disney star wars, but we're not able to execute well enough to be considered "a good tv show". However to die-hard star wars fans, there will be memorable moments that you should see.
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023)
Poorly Written with Fun Action Scenes
It's nice to have a cast of stars at your disposal for the end of a trilogy. But making a good movie with them would have been ideal. Douglas, Pfiefer, Rudd, Majors, and the additional actors should have been able to make a good product. But none of them could stand out with how disjointed and all-over-the-place this story was. Many of the jokes are, ehh, mediocre. The editing was poor at times. It really felt like a clunky star wars feature. To that point it didn't 'feel' like the other antman movies. Worst of all, Paul Rudds normal comedic routine with this character is swapped for a dramatic version. Which didn't work as well.
So you have Antman, with less humor, the new scary/mysterious villain, a daughter added with little chemistry, cool visuals, and some fun action sequences. It was fine to see once, but they really fell short of expectations for their trilogy's final chapter.
'Twas the Fight Before Christmas (2021)
It's an accurate insight on American Neighborhood Disputes
Spoiler; this is a great look at typical american suburban arguments. It's a topic of christmas 'freedom' which is still fairly topical. With a main character, antagonist, who is extremely passionate. He drives not only a believable argument but a nearly successful attempt to take over his neighborhoods HOA. As someone who themselves understands how strict an HOA can be... i CANNOT believe how far he got. It shows the intelligence and determination that this home owner goes to defy every single one of his suburban neighbors. As far as I know he eventually loses the battle and has recently admitted to leaving the town, but jeez.. This was MUCH CLOSER than i thought it would be.
Hawkeye (2021)
Many Welcomed Characters but Not Enough Plot
This show serves more as a cameo-fest in my opinion. It does a great Job to bring out a mix of new and old characters to this hawkeye franchise. This inclusion of new faces help continue the 'marvel storyline' but it doesn't much help this specific show or plot. There are creative shots to boost the cinematography, interesting fight choreography, and a few good dialogue moments back and forth between the actors. But overall this plot... Just doesn't pan out in a fun way for me, the viewer. The story feels scattered, all over the place. It seems like it's supposed to be apart of the same story but it's just too much to pan out too quickly. The 6-episode format doesn't benefit this show, it serves better to think of this as a "christmas-special miniseries."
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016)
Fun to Watch, Good Comicbook/action movie
This movie is atleast interesting. It approaches superman differently and shows batman in a different light. It also adds a few other new ideas to the film that all clash by the end of final scenes. The film has fun action sequences to keep it going, and the plot unfolds in a big way. As a comic book movie fan I enjoyed some of the story telling, and it's new approaches to memorable characters. However it did feel like too many ideas entered the movie too quickly. And the plot was jumpy for some character arcs. I think they could have thinned out the plot a little bit, and than it wouldn't have felt so busy toward the end.
Black Adam (2022)
Better than expected
CBM fans will notice that the rock's black adam has a slightly different tone than the comic counterpart from the trailer. But this new tone works well for the rock in the way he portrays black adam. I was nervous at the beginning of this movie with how they chose to start it, but they actually payed off characters really well by the end. They nail most of their actions scenes, visually and with great effects. Including the Justice Society plus the extra human action. And action is all i was hoping for but I got just a bit more than expected in terms of character development. Comic fans might detest how the JS appeared or acted in this movie, just a warning... but overall worth the watch!
Wonder Woman 1984 (2020)
This sequel improved on some aspects and surprised me
This movie has been mostly torn apart by a critical audience for being boring, and by comic book audiences for not living up to the hype of the "dceu". I would agree that this doesn't fit very well in the grand scheme of the DC film universe and I would add it's not a great follow up to the characters Steve Trevor and Diana that we saw in the original Wonder Woman. The dynamic between the two in this movie is changed, and Diana's character arc is pretty slow. But what made this movie really fun for me was the production and action shots were kept interesting and fun, but more importantly I cared about the villains story IMMENSELY more than the original. Pleasantly surprised by Kristen Wiig also adding this might be one of my favorite Pedro Pascal performances that i've ever seen. I felt comic book wise they treated cheetah better than we could have asked. Where this movie really falters is the 80s theme.. for me it proved to be just a distraction from the main story. They really weighed into it in the beginning and completely forgot about it later. It didn't feel necessary. This is a wonder woman movie yet chris pine's character felt like he was used a crutch for gal gadot's character development. I really felt i would have connected more without him there. Although I do love chris pine in these comic franchises, so I wont contest much. I rated this at 6 stars where i have other comic book films that were fun for atleast 1 watch and have some memorable moments, but an average viewer would find more than a few moments uninteresting or unnecessary. PS Although it seemed a fun callback to the original WW show perhaps, they really needed to limit the amount of action shots they included of her Lasso. That was a major setback for me in the fighting sequences.
Moon Knight (2022)
Loved it!
This is written so well and Oscar Isaac does everything under the sun to make this character work. Admittedly I found 1 or 2 scenes unnecessary, and I think some of Isaac's supporting cast needed an upgrade. Besides Ethan Hawke who does great.