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Better Call Saul: Something Unforgivable (2020)
Kim's descent finally broke me
It is a very good episode and finally an outstanding Nacho one; haven't had many of those in a long while, but for the first time I can't defend Kim. Up to episode 9, her character has always been slippery, perhaps even more scheming than Jimmy, but she was never lower than him in terms of morality, even after the Mesa Verde nonsense. And after this episode, it was like the final scene in Wexler v Goodman never happened. Maybe it's because of the talk with Howard, I don't know, but it just feels so out of nowhere. Perhaps it will make more sense after I watch them again before 6 comes out, but for now, the ending just feels kind of off.
Speaking of Howard, I'm now 100% team Howard; the only honourable guy left in the show. Sure, he was a prick, but he was a righteous prick and only had his firm's best interests at hand. And to see him get picked on like dog food is just...so pathetic. I hope he gets out alive and far far away from Jimmy and Kim.
Lalo's attack I would say is the best part of the show. I get why people think it's sloppily executed, but it's just too much fun for me to hate. And Tony Dalton has been the constant highlight throughout Season 5; charismatic, charming, intimidating and fearsome. But again, Gus and Mike get nothing to do and I feel that Season 5 didn't really know what to do with them. They had their moment in Dedicado, Mike gets his spotlight in Bagman, but in other episodes they just fill phoned in.
That being said, it's still an amazing episode, if not ever so slightly disappointing finale. It is nowhere near as bad as some of the reviews are saying and honestly, saying the good reviews are "paid" just proves you're not mautre enough for a show like this.
Better Call Saul: JMM (2020)
Pretty sure Saul already embraced his dark side.
It's just a matter of whether Kim will embrace hers with him. The 2/10 clearly has no idea what they're talking about and what's the deal with Lalo and Gus anyway? Why do you think Gus was so confident in Breaking Bad? If he took down Lalo in BCS, is he really that concerned over a chemistry teacher? I don't know how this show ruins Breaking Bad, if anything, it adds layers to it. Lore. Development of otherwise familiar characters. It's your opinion, and I respect it, but I'll have to respectfully disagree. Jimmy is already gone. It's established.
Better Call Saul: Wexler v. Goodman (2020)
The best episode of the Season so far.
Following the great but not completely amazing Namaste and Dedicado a Max, we finally get to the best episode of the season so far. We finally get backstory on Kim; a character we never had a flashback sequence for minus the one with Jimmy and Chuck, Mike and Gus finally have things to do and his half of the story is finally escalating, though I'm still bummed out we never got to see the aftermath of Mike and Gus's talk at the small time; Mike just straightaways becomes his enforcer again. And the whole Lalo thing is one of the best chess matches in TV history.
On Jimmy's half, the episode started slightly worrying that it wasn't gonna go anywhere with Kim reverting back to settling for Acker, but nope-Saul has other ideas and this is the first scene in the show where we meet fully-fledged Saul; other episodes had glimpses, including Magic Man, but that was strip-mall lawyer Saul, THIS is ruining everyone else Saul and the entire last 10 minutes is so hard to watch as Kim slowly realises Saul has finally taken over. If she somehow still needed confirmation after the first two episodes, this is it. Great acting from Rhea to top it off.
Better Call Saul: Dedicado a Max (2020)
Still enjoyable
While I concede that this is one of the weaker episodes so far, it's still very good. Im in the minority, but I actually like Kim's plot with Mesa Verde as she slowly descends down Saul's path and loses herself and her acting these past 3 episodes have been amazing. Mike's plot I also liked, though it feels like the writers don't know what to do with him or Gus now that they have been shut down, but I guess that's what the back half of the series is for. The only two things I didn't really like about this episode was how little Howard was in it again, and the fact that Kim didn't manage to meet Mike.
Breaking Bad: Fly (2010)
It's great.
I know it's an unpopular opinion at this stage in the game, but I just think it's great. Not fantastic, just great. I liked every single line between Jesse and Walt, but that's it. They are just sitting in the lab the whole time. It reminds me of "The Great Divide" from Avatar and "The Lost Sister" from Stranger Things.
Better Call Saul (2015)
Actually the best prequel in television history
It is just mindblowing how amazing this show is; the acting, the dialogue, the action, it is all just too much to handle.
Yes, it starts off slow and a bit iffy. The first episode was a bit weird and it kinda didn't know where to go; Like Tuco was nice and everything, but there was no reason for him to be in it other than for fans to go "Oh my God! It's Tuco!" Mike gets nothing to do until the fifth episode, but once that happens, the show skyrockets to a solid 9 out of 10. But what edges it to a 10?
The characters. Every character in Breaking Bad is further developed, every original character is also fleshed out equally. Jimmy and Kim's relationship fuels his half of the show, along with his rocky relationship with Chuck. Mike's half of the story is nonstop action as we get to see Mike doing what he does best: Everything. Nacho is an amazing new character and is somehow the most important character; tying BrBa and BCS together. Howard has great character development from a rigid businessman with no skills outside of business to a morally conflicted and broken individual who never wanted any of this. And by the time Gus arrives, the show is unstoppable.
After Season One, I knew most of the criticisms would be that the Jimmy half of the show and the Mike half of the show almost never coincide, but to me, it doesn't really matter. When it finally comes time for the two halves to finally merge for good, it will all be worth it. And that's how I feel going into Season Two; it's that there are two main kinds of fans: Those that love the Jimmy half and those that love Mike's half aka the Breaking Bad half. And that's fine; we all have opinions; I love the Mike half more, bu that isn't to say the Jimmy half isn't boring because it isn't.
10/10; Just an amazing experience that I never want to get over.
Hotel Del Luna (2019)
I don't give out tens that often,
But this is one of the few shows I would willingly give a 10/10. Only a few shows I've watched were that good; Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul, Avatar, Daredevil, the first season of Stranger Things and of course, Spongebob Squarepants.
Hotel Del Luna joins that niche. It isn't perfect in the same way Breaking Bad is, but the few, minute problems it has are completely outweighed by the overwhelming positives. IU and Yeo Jin Good have phenomenal chemistry and I actually think they work perfectly as a couple rather than friends. The emotional scenes are done perfectly and there's enough supernatural stuff to keep it interesting, aided with the history of Man Wol plot-line that is somehow even more interesting than the ghosts. Every character is insanely likable, to the point where they're Avatar status of likable. Even the side-characters like Sanchez, Detective Park, Mi-Ra, all of them are awesome and fleshed out. My favourite scene especially is when Man Wol meets Detective Park and then it flashbacks to Yeon Woo and his cancer curing smile. My first tears were shed during that scene.
And you get to know the characters so well that it actually hurts to see them leave one by one by the final episode. Mr Kim leaving proudly, Hyun Jong happily reuniting with his sister and Ms Choi leaving free of any resentment.
But of course, the hardest part to watch is Man Wol departing and Chan Seong knowing he will never see again, at least not in his current life. It's incredibly bittersweet to know that's the end for them currently, but many many years down the line, their paths will cross again. The goodbyes aren't even cliche: There are tear, sure, but each party tries their hardest to compose themselves. There's no overlonging goodbye, they just bid farewell and she leaves. One simple hug, not even a kiss. And when they're all seen together in that final scene, it just makes the current ending to Man Wol's story all the more bittersweet.
One last thing: The OST is Godly.
Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019)
Objectively I'd give it an 8.
Let's be honest: We're only here to see huge monsters fight. Did we get that? Yes. A lot of it. Unfortunately, that's all the praise I can give this film: It's that the monster fights are epic and mindblowingly amazing and everything else is just kinda...eh...
The big problem is: even with the mindset that I shouldn't take the characters seriously and focus on Godzilla destroy everything, the movie itself doesn't seem to agree since it continuously shows these characters as if we're supposed to care about them. The Russell family is boring, Charles Dance barely gets a line, Sally Hawkins' character just shows up to dump exposition and die and I had zero idea there were TWO Chinese scientists working for Monarch; apparently they're twins, but I couldn't tell Because honestly, why should I? The only character that was somewhat funny was that Rick N Morty-esque characteer played by the Dad from Get Out. He at least had a personality and he represents what the audience is feeling when seeing huge monsters come out of the ground. Ken Watanabe was also cool and I guess his sacrfice to nuke Godzilla was decently emotional. For a movie that people say is best enjoyed by not focusing on the humans, it sure spends a ton of time with the humans.
The plot's fine, but again, not important in a monster movie. Though to be fair, the plot in this one is relatively simple and easy to follow for a monster movie: Evil military wants to wake monsters up, scientist team stops them and use the monster to fight the scarier and stronger monster.
But holy crap, this movie delivered on the monster fights. Again, the same problems with the 2014 movie return; fights in darkness, panning away from fights to look at moron humans, though at least they spent a tad more time on the fights. Ghidorah awakening was just completely badass, I liked the way the Chinese lady said "Rodan" and Rodan himself was also cool, Mothra didn't get to do much outside of reviving Godzilla, but I tell you this right now-her death by Ghidorah was a million times more emotional than any of the human deaths in this movie. I was almost crying because Mothra never gets any love. The AVGN trash talked her while reviewing the NES game, thte creepypasta guy also said Mothra wasn't his favourite kaiju, so it was nice to see Mothra getting her chance to shine.
All in all, I can't help but feel disappointed at the fact that the movie isn't even self-aware that no one cares about human characters in a monster movie. And it definitely takes itself way too seriously, at least for the human portions. But, if you are pumped and ready to see Godzilla and Ghidorah duke it out, you'll get that. Every power is used, the effects are gorgeous, it's just a very BIG type of movie and BIG in this case isn't a bad thing. The movie itself isn't THAT great, but I personally liked it a lot.
Avengers: Endgame (2019)
Don't worry, it's an 11/10 subjectively.
Avengers: Endgame will make some people angry. There's no question about that; unlike Infinity War, which, let's be honest, if you don't like the movie then I have several questions, but if you hate Endgame, I can't really blame you. The choices made by the writers and directors, let's just say their questionable at worst.
When the movie is good, it's great. Amazing, even. You get great references and fun nods to if you were paying attention in previous movies. The humor (When they aren't fat jokes) is surprisingly clever and even dark, especially for the first act where Thor is all mopey and everyone's sad and moody. All the characters bar a few (We'll get to that later) had a proper send off and have perfect arcs when the movie ended. Iron Man's death was perfect, though I would have liked it better if Thanos directly killed him, I kinda hoped Steve would die, but you know: What can you do? Also I felt like the whole 40's dance with Peggy was too fast:; I would have liked to see him return and then they party, enjoy the booming 50s and drink and all that. Hawkeye was amazing in this film; he pretty much stopped being useless for one movie. Widow was also great, though the fight to the death scene...I don't know I just didn't feel it. Ant-Man was surprisingly awesome and Paul Rudd's acting when he reunites with an older Cassie is just beautiful. Rhodey finally gets something to do, Rocket is also fun...
...but Thor OH GOD. Ok, I'm perfectly fine with Thor being fat; it's at least understandable and relatable. But the fat jokes were just too much and they stopped being funny after 5 minutes. But, at the very least he had his moment in IW and obviously he's not gone for good because GOTG 3 is still a thing. What did bother me was hulk, who unlike Thor, was a complete joke in both films. What happened? Did the writers just give up? We didn't even get Hulk fighting Thanos in the final fight scene! Thanos is actually was OK with despite him not being as great as IW Thanos, but it's OK since this Thanos isn't a battle-scarred general who's lost everything overnight. Captain Marvel shows up to look cool, act cocky, get a haircut and then we never see her again. Thank God. Other negatives I have with the film is the entire second act. It was fun and cool to return to the previous films, but it stretched on a little too long. The first act should have been long; getting to know a post-snap world and how everyone's getting by. I don't care about Time Travel laws, but the entire second act still felt too long. However, the final act was still epic and mindblowing. Some characters like Wanda had their spotlight to 1v1 Thanos, but it wasn't enough. Drax didn't get a hit in, Hulk didn't get one, Bucky and Steve didn't even say a word to each other in that fight, and of course, that A-Force scene. Why?
Final word: The movie isn't perfect, but it's very enjoyable. If you like the MCU, chances are you will like this movie too, but if you hate botched character finales and time travel, you'll hate this one. None of the time travel makes any sense at all. The movie on its own in my opinion is solid, the story is fine but nothing special, but as a fan and with the boat-loads of fanservice and all that, this movie gets an 11/10 subjectively for me. Is it the best movie of 2019? I'd say why are we even comparing? There's no need to compare this with Godzilla or John Wick, just enjoy the movie for what it is; a satisfying, if not flawed, conclusion to MCU's first 3 seasons.
Oh, but I still hate the A-Force scene. That scene alone dropped this movie's score from a 9 to an 8.