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Reviews
Silo: Freedom Day (2023)
The challenge with adapting a book that makes you think...
...is that viewers want to be spoon fed. If you've read the books, you'll either love it - to see it come to life - or hate it - because it will never be exactly what the book is. If you haven't read the books, you'll either love it - because it's visually stunning and a new world to meet - or hate it - because not enough things are going BOOM. Oh. And because there's a new world to meet.
From some of the reviews, both within episodes and for the series overall, it's obvious that they're not willing to wait a few episodes in to understand why there's no elevator, why wanting to leave the silo is a punishable offense, or why things from the "before time" are contraband. They don't understand that the mystery is not "Who killed George?", but "Why do the condemned always clean, even if they swear not to, and why do some people even volunteer? And why do we know NOTHING about our past?"
So, obviously, the screenwriters had to sprinkle in hints that are not nearly as subtle as some people claim they are. Geez, pay attention.
The first episode is a hopeful start to an awesome story. I give it top marks. I love the cast choices, although Bernard is a bit too flashy for the world they supposedly live in, nothing like his origin character.
This adaptation has a lot to live up to. The books, which I've read multiple times, read much like a movie already, so I was hopeful they could stick close to the original. I'm glad they began with Holston's story because that was where things really begin. This is where you begin to crave an understanding and want more. Allison's story was well done, and bringing in George as a plot device to add intrigue to her discoveries, which she makes on her own in the book, is better for world building at this point.
Keeping George, however, is threatening to be a convoluted way to stretch this series with upcoming filler. (In a couple of episodes, my fear came true. Sigh.)
As I've written elsewhere, some of the changes are actually a disservice to the viewer trying to get a true sense of what's going on. If the writers had kept everyone in more or less generic - and homogeneous - overalls, colored differently to signify the jobs and areas people work in, a whole different atmosphere would exist.
Having everyone in an endless variety of wardrobe, living in relatively spacious apartments with easy access up and down a grand concrete staircase totally negates the harsh reality of life in an underground time capsule buried an unknown age ago, where little more connects people than a narrow, dilapidating twist of metal staircase. The book gets the mood right. The screen version just seems to make people nitpick.
I really hope they can successfully pull it all together without a lot of unnecessary palace intrigue and contrived drama that just drags out what is actually a fast paced story of relatable humans with drama enough.
And please, please, please, do not rob a wonderful character like Juliette Nichols of her humanity by turning her into a perfect, arrogant, heroic Mary Sue. I fear, though, that Hollywood just can't help itself. We'll soon find out.
Silo: Machines (2023)
Oh, great. Here comes Mary Sue.
"Under one condition..."
That I save the entire world as we know it!
I have no problem with the way they took a day of low book drama "let me finish this job before I leave" and turned it into television drama. TV demands suspense, after all. The sequence was nicely filmed, the effects were believable, and it succeeded in setting up our heroine as worthy of screen time. It was a fun romp toward an inevitable end.
The part that bothers me is when we replace confidence with arrogance. One is heroic. The other is tiresome.
There was no real suspense here, there was never any risk. We can't have a series if we destroy things at the very beginning and we sure can't jeopardize our heroine. So of course, all ends well and our heroine is off to save the day somewhere else. At least we learned more about how this subterranean world works.
If the plan is to make an episode out of two pages of book, though, it's going to take forever to get anywhere with this story. Meanwhile, back at the mystery of why Allison was so dead set on going outside (no pun intended) .... meh, right? Mary Su....er.... Juliette will get around to it eventually.
Silo: Truth (2023)
Just follow the far superior book. These glacial speed filler episodes are unnecessary.
My husband knows I've read these books multiple times and that I've looked forward to a screen version for years. He asks how the plot compares to the book. He occasionally asks a question and if there's no spoiler, I fill in some gaps. So when he asked, "Is it just me, or was this episode really slow without any story?"
"Honey, I got nothing. I don't even know what story we were watching because it sure wasn't Silo."
Who is this guy and what did they do with Marnes? What a Grade A jerk they've turned him into! You can be sure it's part of the "character development" to bring him on side, but if they halfway follow the story, it soon won't matter.
From the way Sandy and Jules interact, it's clear the writers aren't content to let conflict flow naturally - and realistically - as it does in the original. In the book, you sympathize with both women. In the series, you don't care for either of them and certainly wouldn't invite either over to dinner. One big cat fight is sure to ensue. RrrrrrrOOWWW!
And what's with Sims? And why are they so buddy buddy? Judicial hardly gets a mention, but now they're obviously supposed to be the Bad Guys, especially since Sims seems to have been shifted out of IT to Judicial for the screen version. Who is this Judge Meadows we had to make up because the REALLY bad guy we already KNOW to be a bad guy isn't nearly bad enough?
If your plan is to come back and binge this series later, you can safely skip this one and you won't miss a thing. And you'll save yourself the question of where the heck the (TOTALLY out of place) beer came from.
Silo: The Janitor's Boy (2023)
Only up to episode 5, and already feels like FanFic
This episode feels like a short story out of the Silo fan fiction library. Someone had a great idea for a story and here it is! But what about THE story? What is it with writers these days that they have to take someone else's original story and then completely rewrite it with their own ideas? All it does is bog down the series with filler episodes and frustrate viewers who are waiting for something to FINALLY happen.
Screen adaptations are often different from the original book. I get that. Viewers want action and intrigue. The series started out with some (pretty significant) changes and plot devices in order to set the scene and give context. But read the reviews and it's obvious that people are misinterpreting what's really going on here. It's not surprising when you consider how much of the last few episodes have been filler. Just tell the story! It's a GREAT story! It doesn't need to be dragged out with these fan fiction rabbit holes.
At the rate this is going, it would be 10 years before this series got to the end of the first book. And you still won't know what's going on.
Just read the book. It'll be quicker. And it will make more sense.
The King's Man (2021)
The King's Mess
The first two Kingsman movies have been movie night at our house several times. When this one ended, we all just sort of looked at one another and shrugged. "Well, we've ticked that box," someone said, and that about summed it up. This is not a Kingsman movie. In fact, I'm not sure it knows what kind of movie it tried to be, either.
The nice thing about Kingsman movies is that they don't take themselves too seriously. They are filled with tongue in cheek stereotypes where political correctness is out of place. The villains are cheesy and have a single, unconvoluted goal. The message is simple: Seemingly ordinary people, with the right training and gadgetry, can become super spies and save the world. All while being terribly polite and impeccably dressed. Or that's the way it used to be before the third installment of the franchise.
This is an origin story. So, of course, it does no good for people to lament about not having Eggsy, or Lancelot, or any of the familiar characters. Stories start somewhere. It has to start far enough back to get to its current level, during a time in history where the need for such an agency would be obvious. World War I is as good a place as any. But then you have to manipulate an entertaining, yet plausible, plot to involve the future Kingsmen into those events.
Here is a newsflash for all the people who think this is a documentary - it isn't. The historical facts are manipulated into that entertaining story I mentioned. And not very well at times. In fact, too many details are woven in to tick that plausibility checkbox. But that's okay, as this is a work of entertaining fiction. Think of it as social media's version of history. Both need to you go along to make the story work.
An origin story also needs strong foundational characters. Ralph Fiennes is an excellent actor and when it comes to playing White, Anglo-Saxon Protestant aristocracy, he's your guy. But as a swashbuckling, sword fencing, acrobatic super hero, not so much. You could accept him as the Arthur of the group, and his son as Lancelot. But then the story goes down a dark hole and sacrifices a character that should have had a greater legacy. So we're left with dear old dad showing off some mad skills that no one even knew he had! Go Dad!
In each movie, there are scenes that take a strong stomach. The church scene and exploding heads in the original movie, for example. These over the top, expertly choreographed scenes were part of the comic book origins of the Kingsman. There was a bit of poetic justice whenever bad people got what was coming to them.
The gore and violence in this movie, however, felt like its only purpose was to be dark and disturbing. The battlefield knife fight is gratuitous and does nothing to move the story forward. In fact, the entire 20 minutes of Conrad's wartime misadventures could be trimmed down. He could have been the lone volunteer, made his way to the objective, and brought back the spy's package, and been the hero. Or the martyr, as things turned out.
Instead, the writers took the opportunity - and not for the first time - to propagandize. Yes, we know that the Duke of Oxford wants to protect his son from war. The pity is that he didn't feel this way when his son was a young child. If he had, he wouldn't have been stupid enough to bring his family to a war in the first place. But we needed the death of his mother as a plot device. From the moment that sanctimonious speech of privilege-apology crossed her lips, you knew she was doomed. Poetic justice, 2022 style.
Finally, what's with the villain(s)? In the first two movies, the villains' motives were easy - all about greed, baby. This time we have a pouty Scotsman in a perpetual temper tantrum against England. This, of course, calls for another one of those historical manipulations, where we rewrite the circumstances of how Scotland came to be in the Union to begin with. But never mind.
It seems that there would have been much easier ways to take your angst out on a single country, rather than throw the entire world into war. But a war happened in history, so that's the story we're going to work with.
Rasputin the Creepy Pervert was just a matter of trying too hard. The Nanny had the right idea, one quick bullet to the center of the forehead. Why we had to endure the vulgar, cringe-worthy, family UN-friendly scenes with him boils down to the fact that our real villain was off hiding in his lair while his henchmen did the dirty work. The ridiculous plan to lure him into a room to be poisoned? So the same father who doesn't want his son to go to war, where he would admittedly have a cushy job out of harm's way, has no problems serving him up as boytoy bait to some dangerous, disgusting pervert?
Stunned silence.
If you want to know the origin of the Kingsman agency, fast forward to the last 15 or so minutes. Let me help you out.
The Duke of Oxford buys the Kingsman tailor's shop, finds room to set up a fabulous conference room, and invites a bunch of people - that we have never seen before - to a conference. They must be incredibly important people, because he has invited them to become the founding members of an agency that really has only one trick up its sleeve - a network of intelligence gathering domestic servants.
Given the fact that almost 100% of the progress in this story revolves around that network of domestic servants, wouldn't it be more appropriate if THEY were the Kingsman agency? Frankly, I'm shocked and surprised that this is one propaganda opportunity the writers missed.
I thoroughly enjoyed the first two installments. After this last one, I hope it truly is the last. But considering how much more wokeism there is to explore, I'll bet is isn't.
At least the costumes were pretty.
Alien Conquest (2021)
The Asylum's biggest cringe fest yet
For people saying it's a ripoff of War of the Worlds, well....duh! This is The Asylum's trademark formula. What else do you expect from the people who brought us Sharknado?
You, too, can make a movie with this tried and true formula.
All you need:
- About 10,000 bucks (give or take)
- A popular movie that you can dumb down (reeaally dumb down)
- A video camera (you only need one)
- A bunch of friends who aspire to be "actors" (especially if they're young and cute, acting skills not required, use them in multiple movies)
- A total disregard for science, physics, human nature, and the relationship between time and distance (people can travel hundreds of miles in a matter of moments, no one will notice)
- A dirt road in the woods or a field in the middle of nowhere (where the actors can walk around in circles)
- A trip to the Army-Navy surplus store for whatever uniforms you can find (you only need two, just limit actors in a scene)
- Random props to shoehorn into your script for the "kewl" factor (a passenger plane in the middle of the woods, for instance)
- A couple of days to write a script (only one day if your actors don't spend the whole time telling the story, instead of showing the story)
- Paper bags (for actors hyperventilating over their lines)
Any movie by The Asylum takes suspension of disbelief to a whole different level, but this one is noteworthy. The heroine's folding-table desk and the twenty year age gap between her and her brother is just the beginning of this epic cringe fest. If you're into cheesy plot devices, bad acting, insulting dialogue fit for a drinking game, this is your movie. Enjoy.
Tales from the Loop: Transpose (2020)
If the characters learn nothing, the lesson is a failure, and so is this episode.
I've put my finger on what's wrong with this series, the total lack of empathy these people have for one another.
The countryside is littered with bits and bobs from what is obviously Loop experiments. You'd think that people would know better than to start messing around with anything they found lying around. Everything is a disaster waiting to happen. But no, so that's what makes these stories happen - human stupidity.
The biggest suspension of disbelief in this entire series is that this junk is just lying around waiting to cause trouble. The big theme is that no one is held responsible for anything in this town. That becomes more and more obvious as the episodes go by.
This episode is the typical story of thinking the grass is greener for someone else. Then finding out it's not. Then appreciating what you have and wanting it back. Or not.
The twist at the end came across as the writers patting themselves on the back for being edgy and nonconformist. I guess we see now where the lack of empathy comes from.
The bottom line is that the two main characters of this episode learned nothing, the familiar and predictable parable did not play itself out and so the entire exercise was pointless. If I'm supposed to have sympathy for these two characters, this is a massive fail. Danny is a despicable human being and Jakob is a sweet, but miserable loser.
In what universe would two teenagers just shrug and accept something as traumatic as this? Or carry on being friends as though nothing happened? I guess we're supposed to accept that their relationship with their parents was so bad that they'd rather it end the way it did.
Like I said... in what universe? This one, apparently.
After the Dark (2013)
If these pretentious underwear models are the salvation of humanity, we're doomed
Every filmmaker hopes to create their generation's version of the Brat Pack. St Elmo's Fire, it ain't. It's not even Jakarta 90210. This production was an excuse for the cool kids to fly to an exotic locale on a filmmaker's expense account. And that's about it. I hope they enjoyed their holiday. I certainly did not enjoy their movie.
The positive: The scenery is lovely, the photography itself is stunning.
The negative: Everything else.
The premise involves a class of high school seniors in a school that obviously caters exclusively to physically beautiful, smug, pretentious, entitled, glamorous, virile, lusty, and self absorbed young people. An exotic locale is the only place suitable for such a group, of course. On the final day of class, their equally pretentious and self absorbed philosophy teacher presents a philosophical thought experiment.
After the first ten minutes of these insufferable brats, I was more interested to see which ones would meet their doom more than anything else. I hoped it would be as painful for them as watching this was for me.
This film had such potential. But there is only so much shallow perfection a viewer can take. Even the bunker amounts to a Five Star hostel. What else would you expect for this posh bunch of elitists?
Through three iterations of the experiment, the group's selection process becomes more and more ridiculous. But what difference did it make? None of these characters were the least bit relatable, much less likable, so the human race would be better off without any of them.
They'd be too concerned with breaking a nail to rebuild civilization. It's just as well because if these pretentious underwear models are the salvation of humanity, we're doomed.
The only other thing to add is that this has the stupidest ending ever. If the film had started with the last five minutes, the rest would have been perfect.
Radio Free Albemuth (2010)
Metafiction is the ultimate narcissism
Fast forward to the end, watch the last fifteen minutes. Now you know the entire boring, self-important story and you've saved an hour and a half of your life. You're welcome.
Tales from the Loop: Home (2020)
As they say in the promos, not everything makes sense
I have mixed feelings about this episode, so the writers obviously did their job. Part of those mixed feelings involves frustration that they did their job so late in the series.
The wild whiplashing moments of the final episode were almost insulting. It's like the writers came to work one day, were told the money's run out, and they'd better stop dragging their feet and get on with a story if they ever planned to. So let's fold and refold this story to guarantee there's nothing left. The last episode gave glimpses into several far more interesting stories that were never told. It was like the writers said, "Here's all the cool stuff we could have done, instead of the painfully tedious stuff we wasted your time with."
This episode is a hurried wrap up to fill in as many gaps as possible in the previous episodes, as shown through the eyes of the young boy Cole, who seems to be the most stable resident of this surreal little town. It guarantees that we never make connections to the characters by hurrying them along through their own timelines so that we merely observe, we don't take part.
In the first episode, and the promotional trailers, we are told two very important things, that everyone is connected to the Loop, and that not everything makes sense. The shared connection is that the Loop seems to make people miserable and destroy lives.
This episode is a fittingly morose end to a morose world, but it does it in a way that makes you satisfied there's nothing more to concern yourself with.
Tales from the Loop: Parallel (2020)
Arrogance is arrogance in any dimension
I've asked the question many times, why would anyone live in this town? Lives are destroyed without notice. Fall into a parallel universe unable to return to your own? No problem, just a day in the life. One more time - surprise, surprise - some Loop-junk is found lying around, just waiting to become a problem.
In his own world, Gaddis isn't exactly a likable character. He's rude and self-absorbed. Little wonder he has no love life. Fall into a parallel universe and expect things to be different? Not if you take yourself along.
Everyone starts out worried about keeping Gaddis under wraps in this new world. By the end, they've decided it doesn't matter. Maybe in this new world he'll at least be a little less rude and arrogant now that he's had to reassess a whole new life. Which he does with disturbing ennui.
Given how vapid everyone in his original universe was, it's doubtful that anyone even missed him.
Tales from the Loop: Stasis (2020)
Investing in an incinerator for all the junk could save a lot of misery
This episode is full teen angst overload. I watched the entire series before submitting reviews and I can say that redeeming qualities of these characters are few and far between. But May is particularly repugnant.
Fickle teenage girl, sexual awakening, strict mother, loveless marriage, nice but dull boyfriend, cute mysterious new boy, time-suspending Loop junk, all tossed together. What could possibly go wrong?
The young couple's irreverent behavior is what destroys my sympathy this time. The molehill that springs from the mountain of her insecurity comes from nowhere as an obvious plot device that you could see coming. It was the easiest way to get out of the jaded storyline, after all.
The one hopeful moment came when May had the opportunity to rethink her relationship with her mother and to perhaps understand her a bit better. Sadly, self-centered teen temper tantrums will always win out.
So yet again, another piece of Loop-junk has been found lying around. The typical devastation of someone's life soon follows.
Every bad thing that happens to people could have been avoided if the Loop invested in an incinerator to get rid of their junk.
Tales from the Loop: Enemies (2020)
Why couldn't they all have been like this one?
This is probably the best, and most frustrating, of the episodes. A tremendous amount of backstory is filled in and questions are answered. It's frustrating because as many new questions have been asked as were answered. Given the aimlessness we've put up with until now, there is no hope we'll have those answers before the end of the series.
It's also frustrating because it shows that the writers are capable of thinking their way across episodes into a proper arc, and that we only see a glimpse of it this late in the game.
Granted, it has the same slow first half that tests the patience, but the second half tells the story, causing even more frustration for having wasted time while this type of storytelling was possible.
The relationship between Russ and George has a bit more detail now. We can see the father-son relationship passed down the generations. The chill between fathers and sons is a contrast to the warmth between grandfather and grandson.
The final scene is a masterpiece and as another reviewer said, it's several seconds short of being totally satisfying. The closure we are all after is something we have to make up in our own imaginations one way or another.
Tales from the Loop: Control (2020)
The moral of the story is that you can't fix everything so fix what you can
While it seems that this episode could be skipped and take nothing away from the overall series, it's actually a story of consequences from previous episodes. Danny's father, Ed, is living with the consequences of his son's actions. Ed's own actions create consequences for the rest of his family. On it goes.
Ed is probably the one character to show a bit of reasonable emotion in this series. He feels he has failed in his most important job, protector of his family. Ironically, his obsession with protecting his family makes him negligent at the same time.
The moral of the story is that you can't fix everything, so you have to fix what you can.
The downside is that this episode is far too long. It tries to build emotion and empathy with long, silent moments that test the patience of the viewer. The photography has some great moments, but not enough to forgive the half hour of unnecessary time in this episode. And, yes, the robot was a stupid thing, but it fits the premise of the series.
Ed and Jakob were the only two characters I actually cared anything about in this series, and my patience with Jakob ran out after he basically gave up on himself. I actually hope things work out for Ed.
Tales from the Loop: Echo Sphere (2020)
If every episode had been like this, the series would have been epic
The thematics are excellent in this episode. There's no moral dilemma, no wasted downtime, just a very relatable story of a boy and his grandfather. The symbolism is well done without being over the top and this story sets Cole up for the rest of his growth in the following episodes.
The huge difference between father and son is subtly demonstrated in just a couple of short, simple scenes. The causes for this difference is revisited in later episodes.
The final scene is a huge reward and even more meaningful when looking back from the end of the series.
Fine storytelling that hits a soft spot if you're ever had to let go of someone you love and trust that life goes on without them.
Tales from the Loop: Loop (2020)
Lured in under false pretenses
The best of the 'science fiction' bits are in the trailers and promos. If you're in it for the sci fi, don't get your hopes up.
I waited until the end of the series before submitting reviews because episodes should be a part of a whole. This one (Episode 1) was enough to get my attention and keep me going because I naturally expected an arc to develop and the storyline to continue. Um... no.
I started out wanting to care for the girl in the center of this episode. It quickly became clear that I was the only one who felt that way. The writers certainly didn't, nor did the other characters, or even the girl herself. Is this really just a day in the life of these people?
I'm not one of those people who feels every question should be answered, so i'm okay with things left to the imagination. As far as this episode being part of the whole, it certainly was if you consider the overall depressing tone that carries on throughout the series.
This is a village of Stepford families. If the affect got any flatter, no one would have a pulse.
It has a nostalgic feel, like it's set in the 70's or 80's. This does a few things: it appeals to the people who grew up in that time; it adds a mystique for the people who grew up after that time; and it lowers the bar for the science fiction bits one might expect.
But this isn't really a science fiction series. It isn't even a human nature series, because there is very little natural behavior about how any of these people act or react to make then relatable as humans with human issues. It's just people having absurd reactions to absurd situations.
So maybe it should be called Stories from the Absurd instead.
Tales from the Loop (2020)
Even Kafka would move away from this town
If you're looking for the depressing, hopeless, morally bankrupt side of Eureka, you've found it in the fictional town of Mercer, Ohio. I understand that the premise is science fiction. But the first effect of the weird underground workings of Mercer was to turn everyone into emotional zombies. Rather than be fascinated by the situations they create, it's just one giant 'meh' and a shrug from any of them. These people are miserable and taking us along for the ride.
Obviously, a lot of effort went toward making an artsy, deeply psychological series of loosely connected short stories. There is such a thing as trying too hard. If the objective was to study human nature, then a little humanity would have been nice. No one reacts in any realistic way. Find out your son is not your son because he switched bodies with his best friend, whose body died, and now he wants to go live with his original family? Sure, no big deal.
To be fair, there are moments of technical brilliance in the cinematography and photography. The dark, muted color palette and dirge of a soundtrack seals the tone and does everything to keep the viewer just as morose as the characters. There's even the occasional subtle thematic that keeps you hopeful that sooner or later you'll start caring about these characters.
But if they don't even care for one another, why should I be expected to care? People fall in and out of timelines and existence, never to be missed. Pop up somewhere else, lose everything and everyone you ever knew? Oh well, no use lamenting or reflecting what you've lost. The characters mistreat one another as a matter of course. The most sympathetic character in the entire series is the "monster" on the island. Of course, the writers just had another "oh, look, there's a chicken" moment and left the story incomplete.
Speaking of incomplete, the wild whiplashing moments of the final episode were almost insulting. It's like the writers came to work one day, were told the money's run out, and they'd better stop dragging their feet and get on with a story if they ever planned to have one. So let's fold and refold this story to guarantee there's nothing left. The last episode gave glimpses into several far more interesting stories that were never told. It was like the writers said, "Here's all the cool stuff we could have done, instead of the painfully tedious stuff we wasted your time with."
Wasted time is right. As others have pointed out, almost every episode is twice as long as necessary. If I don't care about a character in half the time, another half hour of silent brooding isn't going to help.
Everyone in this town could have benefited from a therapist.
Thank goodness Cole finally grew up and got the heck out of there, although why he would ever come back to show his family the house he grew up in is beyond me. The only thing that would have made any of it forgivable was finding out his entire life had been a corrupted timeline and none of it actually happened. Here's to hoping....