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Nefarious (2023)
A not so subtle Christian Propoganda piece
The movie plays as theological debate between an atheist psychiatrist and a prisoner possessed by a demon, except it doesn't actually play as a debate, and is moreso a one-sided monologue of the demon indirectly educating the viewer the dangers and temptations of fallen angels.
Honestly, this could have been a lot more interesting had there been more room for conversation or mystery, but there were none.
From the get-go, it became apparent, yes, there is no mystery here, the man is possessed. And second, there was no real conversation or room for debate either. Any and all arguments put forth by James (the protagonist) fell flat, with the demon gleefully reveling in each talking point won. The flat arguments stem from having James continue the ignorant "is this man insane?" approach while abandoning the mystery so early. His dialogue becomes tired and thus the exchanges one sided.
By doing so, this becomes less a movie, and simply just an unsubtle medium for the writer to lecture the viewer on his beliefs.
Zhou (2022)
Tale of mother's struggle to protect her daughter
You could write this movie off as being emotionally manipulative by hamming up the suffering of a little girl, but I don't see it as done solely to tug at the heartstrings.
At it's core, this movie is about a mother desperately trying to do the best she can for her daughter, but is constantly thrown into impossible situations where right and wrong are not readily apparent. Even when she makes mistakes or takes the wrong action, it's hard to blame her given the circumstance. Some situations are simply just so unfair, where the "solution" comes down to a battle of will or faith.
Outside the core theme, the backstory and lore is fascinating, lending together to create a frightening yet fun mystery to solve.
The Batman (2022)
Didn't like it or hate it
Wasn't a big fan of it, and ultimately found this movie a bit boring. I appreciated how they had this movie focus on Batman's detective side, but most of the time, it felt like he wasn't getting anywhere, with half of the work and hints being given to him by the people around him. Maybe that was the point, to make him more human as opposed to super duper at everything, but it just felt off having him along for the ride going in circles.
Like, when I first saw him standing and staring, I thought, oh he's thinking, he's about to come up with something, until halfway into the movie I realized, oh, he has no idea what's going on.
Also, the entire time I felt like I was waiting for a big reveal that never happened. One of the big reveal, I thought was supposed to be apparent from the beginning.
It was a young, inexperienced, angsty, and immature Batman, so it made sense for him to be bumbling around a bit, but maybe a bit too much here as he really didn't accomplish much until the end.
Strong first half, but droned on for a total of 3 hours.
Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021)
The creators of this movie listened to the audience
I gave it a 9. I really appreciate the creators taking the time to address just about every fan desire. The fan service was top notch in referencing or flat out showing every meme or major fan request in a non patronizing or even cheesy way.
Even the biggest complaint people had with the new spiderman was addressed. So many people did not like Spidey being spiderman Jr. They hated how this independent superhero was so reliant in every other character in the MCU. Even his suits weren't his own. This entire movie acted as a setup for spiderman becoming the Spiderman we all know.
Malignant (2021)
This is one weird movie
Is it a horror? A sci-fi thriller? No, wait it's a Kung-Fu movie! This mess is whatever it wants to be, and I can respect that. It's silly, and over the top, but that adds a certain charm that can't be denied. Even the score itself is strange, having an electronic/rock/techno vibe playing through most horror sequences. It's all jarring, but you can choose to either be offset by it, or to take it all in stride.
Antlers (2021)
Great build-up and atmosphere leading to a weak resolution
This movie sets a foreboding atmosphere that slowly builds and sets the stage for the grand entrance of a fantastically designed creature, only to be underutilized and quickly disposed of in a very anticlimactic way.
The Empty Man (2020)
You would have thought Shyamalan directed this. Bad twist
Don't you love it when you spend 2 hours racking your brain trying to make sense of a strange and intriguing movie, only to find out the explanation is it was all made up and none of it actually happened due to it being a glorified dream sequence?
Well I don't, and I don't like this movie.
Ghost Stories (2017)
A fun and spooky ride...until it's not
Honestly, this movie was really fun, and had a genuinely scary scene that had me spooked for a couple days after.
So why the terrible score? The terrible ending. I HATE movies like these. It has the worst, most cop-out ending a movie could have. Everything weird in this movie that you struggle to make sense of, is actually just a bunch of pointless nonsense fabricated by a guy in a coma.
This effectively tells me 95% of the time I spent watching this movie was wasted because none of it canonically happened. It's cheap.
"Oh, how are we going to explain all this weird stuff happening in this movie?"
"Oh. Just make it all a dream so it doesn't have to make sense"
Uninspired easy way out.
Baki (2018)
"One of the worst paced shows I had ever seen, period. "
I couldn't even get past the 6th(?) episode of Baki season 1. One of the worst paced shows I had ever seen, period. It would have seemed this show had gone under the assumption that the audience had a collective IQ score of 25 and felt the need to explain every tiny nuance in vivid lengthy detail destroying any flow and drawing things out beyond reason, so much so it just left me just plain exasperated. So many strange and awkward transitions between scenes, sudden abrupt flashbacks which did little more than to disrupt the already disjointed structure of this show, and handholding of the nth degree; The show actually felt the need to detract from the action to show a graphic, with narration mind you, of what a flash-bang was, and how a human's natural reaction would be to cover their eyes from the bright light. I watched further clips of this show on YouTube to see if it gets any better, it does not.
That alone is enough for me the actively hate this show.
Added bonus, In my opinion, I hate how injuries in this show are purely aesthetic. It doesn't matter if you get shot, with bullets, into the quads of your legs, you can get up and walk away like nothing happened.
Glass (2019)
Disappointing, wasted potential.
I know I'm late to the party here, but I just felt the need to rant after a friend brought it up earlier.
The ending ruined the movie for me. I loved Split, enjoyed Unbreakable, and was really looking forward to this movie. I saw the bad reviews, but I went to go see it because of the previous two movies.
Not counting plot holes, one of my biggest problems with Glass is how they so poorly handled the characters. While the psych institution was interesting, I didn't buy it. Not only did I not buy it, I was forced to endure it for practically the full duration of the movie.
Dunn's entire character arc in Unbreakable was learning, and accepting his potential and abilities. Learning to believe. He then spends 19 years having visions of the bad deeds of others, bending steel, overpowering grown adults like children, presumably withstanding things that should leave him otherwise injured, etc; But no, Shaymalan thinks he can hit the reset button on Dunn and now he suddenly doesn't believe in himself again. The notion of "Maybe I'm just a regular man" should be ludicrous at this point. Same for The Beast quite frankly. If that's not enough, after hitting the reset button on Dunn's character the entire movie, they just throw him away by drowning him in a puddle. Who drowns him? Some random bad-guy they introduced just a few seconds prior. What a twist! It's clever because you didn't see it coming! Load of crap. There's no character growth, purpose, or much of anything. Dunn is just a tool to make a YouTube video of super-humans in the last 5 minutes of the movie.
Same for The Beast. It was amazing watching all the personalities, but after hiding away for 20 something years, after what amounts to probably less than 5 minutes of exposure to the real world in this movie, Kevin is suddenly willing to, and has the ability to keep the Light to himself. He has a last minute shoehorned full circle character arc. Better than Dunn, but again, poor handling and wasted potential. Both characters are contained and only get to interact with a bland, boring lady who pushes an unconvincing narrative.
There was no real payoff. The entire payoff to this movie was the fact that they defeated the secret society (IMMEDIATELY AFTER IT WAS EVEN INTRODUCED) by revealing a few YouTube clips of superhuman feats. Maybe I'd care more if there was a higher focus on the video and the effects on the populace, but no, the movie ends right there with no further expansion. It's out, roll credits. You can kill everyone off sure, but make their purpose and departure seem a little bit more meaningful.
This is the most disappointed I have ever been in a movie if I'm honest.