Reviews

There's so much wrong with the writing. Keep politics out of it. I don't know what all the whinging about the children is about, honestly. This show deserves a much lower rating for a much greater issue.

The episodes start with the team being given a case, but then comes all the bias and personal drama to dilute any actual progress towards a conclusion. Seldom does anything feel resolved. Seldom do they even discuss the case on screen with that intention. You have to guess at what their individual thoughts are, and they don't always agree--except when they want you to believe racism is the answer--but do they talk about that? No. You just have to take your best guess most of the time based on their attitudes/behaviors/hints they've dropped. Garbage writing. I'm not sure I can stand it enough to finish season 2.

Also, I find none of the characters truly enjoyable other than the nun (so far). The rest get more annoying each episode.

The acting was fine but the storyline itself wasn't really captivating. It's not like I didn't grow up on several android/cyborg movies, and it's not like I don't believe a soul such as Will Caster really could exist. It was interesting to see this merging of human soul and machine turn out to actually be a good guy (and I suspected he would), and for that I would watch this movie again. However, such a soul being the one used for an endeavor like this is farfetched, and perhaps even too improbable to waste any time thinking about. Let's face it. Even if such a thing did occur, the rest of us would be too paranoid, and with good reason, to simply allow it to take over the planet.

Mufasa is the greatest thanks to James Earl Jones reprising the role. Scar I kind of liked until he sang (although he wasn't as creepy as the original which was what made him so fantastically scary). Young Nala had a sweet, pretty voice and her voice acting was very good for a child! The lioness mothers were just fine. In fact, Sarabi was great. Florence Kasumba was no Whoopi, but I don't care. She was great, and the change in Shenzi's lines were acceptable. I get that some things just sound stupid in a more realistic world, so some lines had to change. And her voice fit a more dark version of the Shenzi character. That was all fine.

I was less impressed by Zazu, adult Nala, both Simbas, and Timon. In fact, speaking of Timon, what the heck were they thinking? I feel like his character was sabotaged. And why were songs "updated" to crap status? Adult Nala sounds more masculine than Simba.

Yeah, okay, so I only realized during the butchering of Can You Feel the Love Tonight? that it was Beyonce, but I happened to like the young, sweet voice the original adult Nala had and was hoping they chose someone with a similar tone. And for the love of kids movies, producers, stop putting singers in animated movies thinking they'll help sell them. They're not actors and it's painfully obvious when they read because everything they say is FLAT. This travesty should have never been done to The Lion King.

I agree with another reviewer that this movie was like a documentary with voice overs. This tends to happen a lot with realistic CGI animals. It's because they lack the human-like expressions that cartoonists so skillfully create. They should have opted instead for cartoon CGI like Dreamworks did in The Prince of Egypt.

I wasn't actually expecting new voices or changed lines. I thought the look alone was being updated. I am so unimpressed with this movie. And here I was thinking I had to see the remake of this and The Lady and the Tramp. I will not sit through another garbage remake after watching this crap though. I wish I could give it 0 stars.

The best part of this movie was Joaquin's talent as a performer. He was truly at his best. He was believable and, while I don't actually relate to his character, I felt his pain when people hurt him. Incredible acting which alone deserved a 10.

Unfortunately, I wasn't as impressed by certain aspects of the storyline. I don't mind a fresh look at a character's history, but not if it means that what I already know about them and their world is so different that it's hard to reconcile them. In the end, I could blur details and accept the plot, but it doesn't feel the same as if it just fit and made sense and was perfect. Hey, I'm OCD. Details are never minor for me.

This movie made me sad for a reason other than a broken man shattering though. My respect for Bruce's parents and his father's legacy are injured by this fresh look at their past. If Thomas Wayne wanted to help fix Gotham, he should have considered ways to help reduce poverty which is something that would have improved crime. Instead, he pointed fingers at the poor and, when he assumed he was being retaliated against for it, he decided to run for mayor. I'm sorry, but why? To put himself in a position of direct power over them? Wayne was already a very wealthy, influential person in Gotham. What was he going to do to help the city that he couldn't already do without a political position? Hurt poor people even more and cause society to devolve even faster? So is he that ignorant or just another rich person? He's not the kind of father I could be proud of. I feel even sadder for Bruce than before.

We've come to the point in our culture where you're expected to have a degree just to join a discussion, and people call that progress. If you don't like what someone has to say, you don't have to make him shut up or make people laugh at him or call him names. You can much more easily tune him out and go on with your life.

So Leo is like the average viewer, which makes him easy to identify with. Some of us may be more ignorant than he is on the issue and some may be more well read and researched. I can tell you based on my experiences (I spent the first 26 years of my life on an island that has been affected by the rising sea level) that this documentary was right on the money. It was also very stressful for me to watch, but I had to. I owed it to my home.

I don't care that Leo isn't a scientist. I don't care that no expert or leader shown was enough for certain people. I don't care that the documentary didn't give us a to-do list to ensure optimal results for our world to survive and even bounce back. If any of these things bothered you, I'm not even sure why you watched this film.

I will be doing research to figure out ways I can reduce my own impact on this world that I love. I hope that one day all of America will do the same, politicians included.

If you work in the oil industry, get out while you can. My husband worked in it too and it's dog eat dog. No one cares about you because they don't have to. Almost every single one of the companies (I'm not just talking about the ones fracking either) will short you hours, stiff you on your last check, and some will even lie and say you never worked for them and will get away with it if you don't hang on to check stubs, making it impossible for the wage and labor board to help you get what's yours. So should I be worried about displaced workers if the oil industry tanks? Do yourself a favor and get out whether or not you think it will. It's practically criminal anyway. What's more important? Making big bucks for a few years until they replace you or your integrity?

So while there are things the documentary could have gone into and information we could have been spoonfed, in the limited time it had, I believe it made the absolute best use of it. The message I got from it is America is holding the world back from making the greatest move we need to save it, and what you and I do in our homes isn't going to cut it at this point. We need big change. We need a major shift to renewable energy that is only possible at the level of government. Sure, we can all start installing solar panels and even mini wind turbines, but how many can afford that? It's kind of like the way food has gone. You know a home cooked meal with all organic, fresh food is the healthiest option, but is it affordable or is that package of mac n cheese more cost effective? We all have to survive too, otherwise, what are we saving the world for?

The only ones who can help us ALL shift to renewable energy is the government. What I find incredible is that so many industrialized countries, China included, are moving in that direction and America still isn't. What's stopping us at this point? Pride? Or is it just the lobbyists? And why do we still allow lobbyists? Maybe we need more transparency and consequences in politics. How do these people represent us when they're taking money on the side to do the opposite of what's beneficial for us?

And for those who were put off by the ways that fossil fuels were used to make this documentary, are you aware of any other ways that this could have been done with the same result? Should we ask Leo to build his own boat by his own hands (not manufactured on a production line) and sail from country to country with his bicycle that he rides from place to place while filming with a camera strapped to his forehead? Would you be satisfied then? In a world that depends on fossil fuels and doesn't already provide alternatives at every corner, I think you're asking for too much. Get off the soap box.

While I can see why people were touched by this movie, I honestly felt nothing. Believe me, I can cry at the drop of a hat, but not for this one. I can't imagine an 11 year old growing up in a world such as that and acting so typically average. Even if we ignore the fact that trauma rewires the brain and very noticeably produces abnormal behavior (and trauma is literally anything that puts us in fight or flight mode), a child forced to mature quickly will do so. I hate to bring up TWD, especially since I stopped watching it years ago, but Carl (the young boy forced to grow up quickly in a zombie infested world) was written perfectly. He was curious, opinionated, helped as much as he was allowed to, and didn't waste time on things that were no longer important--toys and clothes. The boy was forced to mature and make some hard decisions. It changed him. It showed. Typical tween is not what I expect from a child living on the run from literally everyone. Very poor writing there.

Dad was usually prepared for the worst, but who raises a child in a literal hell and hasn't talked about all the important things they discussed in the movie before the age of 11? Eg. Puberty. Was he hoping it could be ignored until it was right at their feet? Even if you were an optimist before the SHTF, I imagine the shift to realist would have happened sooner than a decade later. If the SHTF today, I would be constantly giving my kids information to digest to help us all survive easier. Wouldn't you? If the daughter was more self sufficient throughout the movie, less stubborn (which is a luxury in their world, not a right, because they wouldn't have made it for that long with that attitude), and the father had told her everything important much earlier on, I would have bought it. They could have shown us the talks as flashbacks. Furthermore, dad sugar coated some things that I felt he shouldn't have. Fortunately, despite him doing that, the daughter was somehow apt enough to get the gun and use it. One of the few things she did that earned a cheer from me. If dad had gotten them a gun and taught her to use it, he wouldn't had had to worry about her poor aim. Seriously, she tried to talk to him seriously about the possibility of him dying and he avoided it for as long as he could until she wouldn't let him. The kid was trying to be a realist while he was feeding her optimism. She's not a baby.

If you're thinking, "Oh, man, that movie was great, what're you talking about?" ask yourself if you and your daughter would really be at the point they were at a decade later. If so, you won't make it that long.