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prayagsuthar
Reviews
Gekijô-ban poketto monsutâ: Adobansu jenerêshon pokemon renjâ to umi no ôji manafi (2006)
EXCRUCIATINGLY boring
I could only watch half of the movie before I couldn't take it anymore and tuned out.
Here's all the cons:
- Horrible pacing. The point of the movie isn't explained until 1/3rd of the way in. Until then, the characters are just running around with no point. Exposition is thrown around in random places, making it confusing why we didn't hear certain things earlier, when they would've been more important/impactful.
- Garbage story. There's action scenes, and there's dramatic scenes, but they're all just thrown together into this strange mush of a story that has zero purpose and just makes me more confused by the second. And the apparent premise of the movie doesn't make sense either!!! Why the hell does having some random dream suddenly make May so iNsPiReD that she wants to be Manaphy's mom???? Whu-HUH?!?!?!?!?
- Awful characters. The villain means nothing to me, he is completely shallow and has to reinforce his nonexistent "villainous terror" with superfluous villainous-sounding dialogue. The other characters have just as little depth. At least they found an interesting way to include Team Rocket, though it doesn't make up for the fact that they have no need to be there.
- Too much 3D animation. It is EXCESSIVE, and it doesn't even look that good. They do obnoxious things like swapping between hand-drawn Manaphy and 3D Manaphy, and it is SO obvious that it ruins what little effect it had.
This has to be among the most stupid, mindless movies I've ever seen. Please don't watch Pokémon movies, guys....
Gekijôban Poketto Monsutâ Kesshôtô no Teiô Entei (2000)
A shadow of what it could have been
I heard reviews praising this movie for its dark plot - but to be honest, it's much shallower than the hype made it out to be. There's a theme it's trying to get across, but instead of delving deeply into it and creating a rich story, it just pads time with drawn-out battle scenes and panning shots.
On top of that, it takes a third of the movie's runtime just to get interesting; and it's full of details that you won't understand if you haven't watched the show, details that end up being irrelevant in the grand scheme of things.
The battle sequences and creepy vibes were the only things that held my interest. It ends in a beautiful way, but it's a shallow sort of beauty where it just feels undeservedly melodramatic.
Feels more like a TV movie than a theater movie. If you like Pokémon, that might just hold you over for the 1 hour 30 minutes. Otherwise it'll be a real bore-fest.
Meta Runner Season 1 (Full Movie Cut) (2020)
Uurgh...it's not good....
Dear God.... This was a struggle to watch. I don't get why people liked it so much.
The 3D is uncanny, especially with the janky motion capture. The models are primitive, and the lighting is unnatural. Overall, it's just really creepy to look at.
And I would try my best to forgive that, if it weren't for the awful writing. The plot of this season is worse than a rough draft-it jumps between plot points without giving the audience any reason to care about what's going, and all the characters get all excited with their overexaggerated voice acting as if the audience is expected to feel the same way. It's all just...bleurgh.
I just couldn't stop cringing the whole time. It feels like this show should be a kids' show-the story is so empty and so stupid that the "adult" references stick out like a sore thumb. I can't speak for the later seasons, whose animation is leaps and bounds better, but I absolutely have my doubts about whether this story improves at all. It is NOT fun to watch, at all.
The rotten cherry on top is the fact that all the episodes got shoehorned into this movie format that makes them feel even clunkier to watch, with no clear transitions to make the lacking plot any easier to understand. Thank God their later series, like Murder Drones and The Amazing Digital Circus, are MILES better, both in terms of animation and writing/story.
Murder Drones (2021)
For fellow discombobulated viewers: I have an explanation
At the start of every single episode, I always feel like I've missed several invisible episodes in between the one I'm currently watching and the previous one. The sequence of events is completely illogical, and the pacing is so fast (faster than Miraculous, even!) that it feels like the show is just thrusting plot points into my face.
But after watching 5 episodes...I think that's intentional! Let me explain.
I watched the panel for this show in the recording of GlitchX 2023, and what I drew from it is that this show is more experimental than anything else. From my own viewing experience, it seems like the focus is on the mystery, not necessarily on creating a traditional sequence of events. The show seems to have been intentionally designed to force the viewer to wonder "wtf is going on", to forgive the ridiculous storytelling, pause the video frequently, and focus reallly carefully on the details, because every single episode is so crammed to the brim with them that it's "blink and you'll miss it". It was a tad tough to shift perspective, but once I figured out how to watch the show, I actually enjoyed it even more than before! Every single plot point thrown at me, turned out to be a puzzle piece in disguise. But if the show still doesn't make sense or sound like your cup of tea, that's perfectly fair-in that way, it's also a rather niche show.
Another way to put it is: it's art. Not "art" as in "omg it's so great!"-"art" as in it can be anything and everything, and a lot of the time it's what you'd least expect. And I think that's the beauty of it. For sure, this show is MINDBENDING!!! It's a campy sci-fi horror romance comedy drama, all at the same time, and it is surreal!!! And they absolutely did NOT skimp out on the animation quality or the voice acting!!! The story is not great in the traditional sense-but at the same time, this isn't some traditional show. I think it's really great.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem (2023)
Try to keep up!
A frenetic, wild ride of a movie! The animation style is super-unique, and there's comedy every single second of this movie's runtime. This movie definitely has glaring issues, though: the story is far too shallow, and is riddled with convenient scenes; the ending seems to contradict the many disjointed messages the actual story was trying to send; and the non-stop lighthearted banter and blink-and-you'll-miss-it action scenes fail to convey any sense of tension or any distinct emotions aside from "haha wild times", with some of the dialogue bordering on obnoxious.
Basically, if you're looking for a really thoughtful movie, this one isn't it. The movie really does not take itself seriously at all, which hurts the meaningfulness of the story. But, on the bright side, it makes for some great self-aware comedy. I know it kept me laughing constantly without fail, so it's absolutely worth watching for that quality.
Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani (2023)
No, no, please no, cease, desist, stop, no-
I listened to two of the songs from this movie, and I found them to be really great! Then I saw the movie, and I wish I could unsee the movie.
This thing is absolute garbage. It started out mildly convincing-just like the songs, it was a colorful, larger-than-life performance. I thought I could tolerate the ridiculousness. But things started going downward VERY fast.
There were so many conveniences in the story, that it felt like the writers just wanted to crank out scenes instead of creating an actual plot. The characters revitalize an affair between two elderly characters, and they both CHEAT IN FRONT OF THEIR SPOUSES, which was EXTREMELY glurge-inducing! Rocky is the most obnoxious character I've ever seen in any media ever, and he's a COMPLETE idiot, he looked like he was high the entire time!!
And I would say that the songs were the movie's saving grace, but ONLY TWO OF THEM WERE GOOD!!! The rest were all just insultingly bad remakes of old, classic movie songs. And on top of that, one of those songs was playing alongside some WAYYY too sensual scenes of the main leads kissing and groping each other.
Some of those classic-song remakes stood in for any actual dialogue; you might be able to guess that the dialogue was absolutely awful as well. Rocky's stilted English was the complete OPPOSITE of funny, and some of the lovey-dovey dialogue was too stupid to qualify as campy.
Basically, this movie was utter garbage. I stopped watching halfway through, because I just couldn't take the absolute mindlessness. I heard this movie got very popular, but I suspect that's either because of the only two actually-good songs, or because of all the old song references they drowned the movie in. Neither of those reasons are good enough to justify wasting about 2 hours of your life watching this junk.
Ramayana: The Legend of Prince Rama (1993)
Ramayan, but cartoonified!
TL;DR Animation's decent, adaptation is B. S.
After witnessing the travesty that is Adipurush, I kinda went down a rabbit hole and ended up discovering this film. The cross between Japan's anime and India's Ramayan sounded surreal...and then I watched it. Here's my take.
The animation is much higher-quality than I initially expected, though at times it feels more like TV animation than full-fledged movie animation. For the most part, it's a good marriage between the Japanese anime style and the typical Indian portrayals, breathing life into the visuals. I'm not a fan of the cartoonification of the rakshasa, which look like silly humanoid bat things. I also feel that they play around too much with the whole "multiple arms/heads" concept, which is supposed to by symbolic, not an actual physical thing. Though, the anime interpretation of the vaanaras and Shri Hanuman is really good!
The story leaves something to be desired, as well. An entire epic needed to be crammed into 2 hours, so it's understandable that a lot of details had to be left out; but in comparison to the Ramayan show by Ramanand Sagar, the story in this film feels totally watered-down. Every important event only lasts about 30 seconds. It seems like they prioritized action scenes over meaningful dialogue; so the story is reduced to a nice little fairytale, deprived of the spiritual and moral significance of every character's every action. And the scenes near the end of the movie, leading up to Raavan's demise, are entirely altered from the scripture!
Overall, it seems like a fine entertainer for kids. The fusion between a Hindu epic and Japanese anime would almost be a dream come true, if it weren't for the extensive creative liberties and the awkward pacing. It feels less like they wanted to convey the story accurately, and more like they wanted to make something entertaining; it seems like they treated it like ancient Greek or Roman mythology, something that they could just pull any random details from and create any context they wanted, thereby spoiling the wisdom and depth of the original text. But still, it's a work as unique in the world as the original text itself, which certainly counts for something, right?
One thing I would highly recommend, though, is to NOT listen to the god-awful English dub-the English voice acting is so beyond garbage, that it will literally ruin your experience. Definitely look for a Hindi version with subtitles instead!
Nimona (2023)
It's got great animation, and great messages! But the story is frankly quite awkward
I'd been hearing about this movie a lot lately, so I figured I'd check it out. The trailers didn't seem very compelling, and in fact they were VERY poorly representative of the movie. High-energy and precise animation with a unique style, intriguing characters and intelligent story-it's great! And the way Nimona's character is conveyed is quite thought-provoking, though it's very difficult to process because the movie doesn't give the audience enough time to let it simmer.
It's so close to justifying the hype, but it unfortunately doesn't make the bar for me. The first half of the movie is fun, and is what I expected; the second half gives Nimona's backstory, which is nice; but it all feels like a hit-or-a-miss, and it doesn't tie together cleanly.
Why did the characters respond to situations so shallowly? You go and cause property damage and severe injury, and then say "I'm innocent, it's okay"-they make themselves look worse, but that's never addressed, which really dilutes the point the story is trying to make about approaching people with understanding first and not fear. The tragedy that unfolds near the end of the movie is probably supposed to be intense, but I'm still having trouble figuring out why I should care, because Nimona's backstory and struggles aren't explained in-depth enough. "Everybody reacts in fear to something that's different"-I've heard that already, but I don't really get where that's coming from, aside from the repetitive "you're a monster" schtick that literally explains nothing. Boi, you kinda set fire to a village, that's not justifiable! And why would your first response be to make MORE fire?!
In addition, you receive a flurry of details at the beginning and throughout the story that seem important, but most of them quickly lose importance because they're barely touched on. Why do you mention "what's beyond the wall" when you never go outside the wall or even talk about the wall for like 95% of the film? And why does Nimona suddenly jump into "question the institute"? I think it's justifiable that you would only be doubtful of the Director and not everything, based on what we're given! That part is delivered VERY poorly!
As I'm writing this review, I'm realizing that the issue is that the movie cobbles together a lot of messages, but doesn't try to be coherent about any of it, which makes the message difficult to discern. I've heard that the movie is very different from the comic it's based on, so hopefully the original comic's story is more thorough about these things.
This movie is more than just something that's nice to look at, but it's not quite a "great movie". It certainly deserves credit for the originality, though. It doesn't live up to the hype all the way, but it's still a good movie nonetheless.
Poketto monsutâ (2023)
Objectively better than Ash Ketchum's story
This show has a lot of things going for it. The biggest one is that it's actually based around a storyline and sets up a lot of intriguing mysteries, which is better than the constant filler viewers had to contend with in the original anime.
The start of the show was a bit shaky for me. The two-episode premiere felt quite dry, and the introduction of the show's conflict was too jarring. However, the show gradually picks up the pace, and in the meantime makes up for it with a concrete story that's worth following. The ideas for each episode are creative and exciting, the villains are actually calculating and threatening instead of being bumbling fools, and the characters' actions are thoughtful and intelligent. Whoever's writing this show, props to you, because this is an impressive take on the Pokémon franchise!
Kids will definitely enjoy this, it's got a cool adventure-y vibe! If you're a teen or adult checking the anime out again, it'll naturally feel like a kids' show, but the quality story and aforementioned adventure-y vibe might just keep you sticking around. Maybe I'm biased since I'm a fan of Pokémon myself (the games, not the anime), but it really is a refreshing, interesting change.
Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (2022)
Y'see, THIS is what you call a good movie!
I've heard a lot about how this movie was really good, better than it should be, so I was riding the hype train into this flick. And MY GOD, this movie goes BEYOND just delivering!!!
The plot and characters are so INTERESTING!!! There's TONS of characters, and they aren't particularly deep, which reduces that "endearing" quality I usually expect from story characters. But I don't think they need to be endearing in that way, because they're perfect as figures to represent progression through the story, if that makes sense! The story isn't especially complicated or deep either, but again, it doesn't need to be, because it's INCREDIBLY clever and ties everything together so nice and tightly. It seems like the writers of this story struck a mysterious balance that I've never seen before.... And they also don't dumb down the dialogue and stupidify the characters to create drama, which I was squealing with joy internally over. This is a story with INTELLIGENCE!!!
The animation is ASTOUNDINGLY artful as well! The transformation of entire sets before our eyes, the timing and choreography, and the heavily detail-oriented work...jaw-dropping! They switch styles at times to a reduced-frame animation for fight scenes, which was quite obvious and felt jarring - that's my only qualm though, and it's remarkably minor.
The scene that stood out to me the most was actually right in the middle of the movie. After Puss has run far, far away from the wolf of Death, he lays down beneath a tree...and has an actual, realistic panic attack. I've experienced panic attacks a few times before, from school-related burnout: it's caused by extreme stress, and it feels like a heart attack but you thankfully don't die. It's not some bullcrap where "oh, I'm getting dizzy, and sweaty, and everything is blurry, and oh I'm so scared", the way they portray panic attacks in Andi Mack, for example. I LOVED this scene, SO DAMN MUCH - they even made Puss's heart rate subtly fluctuate as it was happening, and Puss's subtle expressions of discomfort, and the way it slowly and erratically calmed down when the dog came to sit with him - to all the people who crafted this scene, I FREAKING LOVE YOU!!!
While watching, a thought came to mind: "Man, they've come so far from the janky, insipid bullcrap that was Over the Hedge...." There's no comparison, really! Forget about comparison - this movie is in a league of it's own!!! In a sea of uninspired, half-assed movies, this is a film that was made with heart, and you will be able to feel that heart straight through the screen. This is gonna have a high place on my all-time favorite movies list for YEARS to come!
The Imitation Game (2014)
I call B.S., this movie should not be rated this high
This is quite a tropey, scattered, dull mess of a movie. It looks engaging at the start with the interesting music and cinematography, but once Benedict Cumberbatch started awkwardly babbling like the painfully cliché "anti-social genius," my hopes for this movie were swiftly turned off.
After that, I had no clue what the story was doing. We get more stereotypical "awkward genius" bullcrap, we get the generic higher-in-command who has no faith in Turing, an "if you're gonna fire him, then you fire all of us" scene (*retches*), among other horrifically cringey scenes; plus awful quotes to boot, like one that suggests that violence feels good. Why?!?!? The screenplay overall is terribly awkward.
And did any of the events in this movie actually happen the way they were portrayed?? I've recently read a book about U. S. codebreakers during WWII; and though of course the place and people involved are different, I'd figure the depiction of what people did in cryptanalysis would be similar regardless of place. The movie portrayal didn't even go over ANY of the cryptanalysis stuff in-depth, which is a disappointment. It seemed like the only intention was to make the subject look *cool* and *appealing*, which ironically makes the movie look even more silly, especially since all the stuffing that makes the subject interesting has been ripped out.
Why this movie has 8/10 stars on IMDB and a 90% RottenTomatoes rating, I do not understand. This movie is stupid.
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (2023)
Story's slow to pick up, but it's quite an engaging watch!
At the start of the movie, the initial setting and characters kind of felt thrown at us, and so it was difficult to get adjusted into the story (though the backstories weren't difficult to understand). There's quite a lot of tropes throughout, which makes the story feel kind of predictable and not something I cared about. The story is quite flat as well.
The action is definitely where it's at though. Action sequences are fast-paced and exciting, while not being difficult to follow. The CGI is super cool as well. It makes up for the less-engaging story, though only somewhat.
Something interesting is that, though the movie felt dull like it was dragging on at the start, it slowly became more interesting by the ending section with the plan to get into the castle.
As for being a Dungeons & Dragons movie, to be honest I didn't really see how this was so different from any other fantasy movie. I was expecting to see D&D players, or references to things like "rolling for perception" that would make it stand out and emphasize the "D&D" aspect.
Shehzada (2023)
Ehhhhh.....
This movie seemed interesting at the start, but when the nurse tumbled off a railing, the ridiculousness kicked in immediately. The comedy is amusing, I guess, but too often it's quite tacky as well. And oh, boy, things in this movie get so much worse...
The characters are way too strange! Unfitting songs pop in out of nowhere, with zero context! Everyone's addicted to speaking English! Overt, tasteless product placement! Why the hell were the main male and female leads smoking?! Did the people making this film think it looked cool?! Goodbye to their lungs!!
And to top it off, this isn't even an original film. Dang.
Chupa (2023)
I don't know what to make of this movie.
It felt like the story loosely held my attention, feeling mildly interesting and also mildly boring at the same time. Things started going downhill for me halfway through the movie.
From the start, I could tell the movie was pulling out all the tropes-really, this movie is trope after trope after trope! The main characters are Mexican, so it's a variation from your average fare for this type of movie. But even the portrayal of Mexico is marred by mostly featuring stereotypical things, like the main character's father and uncle being luchadors ("oH hEy iT's tHe mExIcAn wReStLeRs"), and eating crickets and brains.
I was hoping there would at least be an okay plot, but it felt quite dry and flat by being too obvious. Only a rare few moments were a little clever, but they didn't get even a chuckle out of me. The latter half of the movie, where some action happens ig, just spiralled into stupidity with all the luchador-fighting stuff. The emotional scenes were quite cringey, and were too drawn-out. I could hardly care about the titular chupacabra.
I stopped watching 2/3rds of the way through.
Over the Hedge (2006)
Ehh....
They took a milquetoast plot and dragged it out on and on, is what it felt like. Astonishingly janky animation and ugly designs (what is it with R. J.'s unibrow??); corny, clichéd, and convenient character development; and who the hell is the guy singing the ear-piercing songs that nobody asked for??
I had watched Open Season a week or few ago, and I couldn't help compare this movie to that. Same theme of having animals as the main characters, and both movies are 2006 kids'-movie material; but Open Season's a bit less of a drag, and has higher-quality animation and writing. Thankfully DreamWorks is making much better stuff nowadays.
Happy Family Conditions Apply (2023)
This show is such a drag
With every character being an exaggerated stereotype, and every episode trying to heavy-handedly cram some multiple messages down our throats, this show is an utter drag.
We only got through the first 2 episodes. The first episode was alright, because it had a bit more of a clear-cut story. Episode 2 just didn't make any sense at all. And in both, the comedy was extraordinarily flat, with poor delivery and writing that makes it seem more like the hip young people are disrespecting and berating the out-of-touch old geezers.
And what kind of "happy family" is this, that fights and insults each other so much over such little things? The title suggests the show is supposed to be relatable, but their "antics" are so out-of-the-ordinary that this has to be the most dysfunctional, bizarre TV family I've ever seen.
This ain't a happy family, to put it shortly. Really, it's rather disappointing.
My Dad the Bounty Hunter (2023)
The writers have gone insane (Reviews of both seasons!)
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My review after Season 1:
This show is something that you can tell the kids will enjoy. The premise seems a bit awkward, but midway through Season 1 things get thrilling! The 3D animation is ASTOUNDING, but the dialogue and voice acting is a bit overdone, and feels poorly executed and corny. I doubt younger kids would have the same gripes, of course.
This show also has a surprising amount of violence, considering that it's a kids' show. It features gambling, use of weapons like guns, threats of shooting people, electrocution, etc., and it shows up so often that I'm astonished this is rated TV-Y7. At the same time, it also delves into a lot of heavy topics-so far, the most prominent one was in Episodes 5 and 6, which depict animal exploitation and trafficking!
Basically, the story's quite good, but the material can be a lot. It's still likely to be a thrilling and exciting watch for kids.
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My review after S2E5:
Wh- guh- huH?!?!!!?!? *blacks out*
The first two episodes of the season gave me the impression that it was gonna be a repeat of Season 1's formula. And then stuff hit the fan, oH mY GoD---!
Just like last season, the dialogue is cringe, the voice acting is embarrassing, the pacing and writing quality are inconsistent, and the animation's not top-tier. We see some familiar characters from last season, and we get to see more underage gambling and outright violence than should be allowed in a kids' show. (Actually, we even get to see the kids' mom being DRUNK!)
What's different though, is what variety of madness the story writers put in this time. They must have gotten REALLY giddy after the show got greenlighted for a second season, because they just went ALL out.
Stuff gets....interesting, after Episode 3 starts! To list off all the ridiculous things one might witness in this show: they thinly veil an offensive sexual comment using an alien language; there's a torture dungeon where a blob man gets literally stabbed with knives; there's an entire planet that's just ancient Africa with magic rocks; we get to see the titular bounty hunter in a skimpy outfit, forced to excessively shake his rear end to the camera (whose great idea was it to put that in a kids' show??? They did it too many times, ugh!!!); I think the most memorable thing is that there's a slimefaced Elvis tiger with abrasive hair who's introduced by an entourage of sexy dancer cheetahs.
...Yeah, I think I've said enough to make the point that the story writers have just lost all their screws this season. The people who designed the characters definitely got to...flex their creativity, as well. And honestly, I think that's probably the only reason I'm still sticking to finishing this season-I'm only here to see what madness unfolds next.
The story's going in all different directions and keeps getting dragged out episode after episode, which is irritating. There's three entire plots happening at the same time, which probably explains the longer runtime of each episode; but it also makes it harder to follow along with what's going on. And I imagine that any of the sequences that aren't about Lisa and Sean are going to fly straight over younger viewers' heads, and they're probably going to be bored and confused by all the scenes of just the adults.
But despite that, and after the boring first two episodes, this show's quite a sight to see, and I think it's worth the watch just for that! Season 1 had literal slavery, and I thought that was wild for a kids' show. I have been proven wrong. Just the first half of this season has, like, 10 times the wildness (see above)!!! And the inclusion of an entire planet that's literally just Africa absolutely threw me off, but it's such a new idea in TV shows that I can't help but applaud it! This show is bringing new exposure to types of people and ways of thinking that have never graced TV screens in this way before, and I'm here for it!
So, overall, is this show good? Not really to be honest, if we're talking in objective terms. But you should still watch it, because sometimes good entertainment is just outright madness.
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My new review after finishing Season 2:
Something I noticed about many of the reviews for this series is that a lot of people find the kids to be really annoying. That's a very, VERY fair point, because OH GOD they have no sense of self-preservation; and all the adults in the series really do not try hard enough to keep them safe! I blame the lack of self-preservation on the flat, disjointed storytelling.
The show's still all over the place. A lot of the conflicts were addressed more smoothly than I expected, and there were things like awkward father-and-son-in-law conversations in the thick of fighting that just felt tacked on and completely didn't land. There's a fight scene between Terry and the creepy Elvis tiger that was just flat-out boring, and the dialogue leading up to that scene was just the most insipid I've ever heard.
The ending was a painful watch, too. There are WAYYY too many beheadings, though at least they were of robots; and there was SO MUCH mass murder, accented by explosion graphics so cheap that I could TELL how cheap they were. The ending shows some similarity with Season 1 as well, in that the villain was the CEO of the evil space corporation, and she was a lizard person, and she's defeated via a brutal murder. She gets SLICED IN TWO, for heck's sake, and the audience has to watch her severed torso slide off!!! This sort of stuff should NOT be in a kids' show, kids would be TERRIFIED of this!!!
I do not want to watch Season 3. I can't believe they even alluded to a Season 3 in the first place. I'm reducing my review from a 7-star to a 6-star.
Flushed Away (2006)
Solid story, madcap plot, meta comedy galore-s'good!
I'm astonished by how low this is rated on IMDb. Of course it's not a world-changing film, but it's such a good film!!
Unlike the family movies coming out nowadays, this one has a solid plot. Things move very fast from the get-go, and the frenetic, thrilling CGI action belies a well-crafted story. Some of the characters are a bit tropey-Roddy's character sometimes feels slightly like Jim Carrey playing a pretentious jerk except mouse, and Rita's got the enormous family-but these tropes are so scarce and trivial that they never hamper the enjoyment of the film, because this is still unlike anything you've every seen before!
The comedy is also totally wild. Singing slugs, mice leaping across tables, and tons of absurd and clever slapstick. And while those are playing out, there's plenty of meta-jokes and subtle comedy for the adults that kids likely wouldn't notice, especially references to other media, and cultural references ("England is winning" *snickers*).
This isn't a film that tries to heavy-handedly deliver some sort of big lesson either-and that's what makes it much better than a lot of movies categorized as "kids' movies". The story engages, themes are woven in, and nothing is stated overtly, and that's all the film needs.
Essentially, it's a great, quality film-this should become a classic!
Minions: The Rise of Gru (2022)
It's all about the laughs-this movie is a choking hazard! 🤣
The exposition is awful, dragging on with cringey dialogue that kinds of just slaps the premise onto us. Things really get started, though, when Gru and the Minions appear-it's a slow start, but the movie quickly turns into an absolute riot!
That's really what you're in for when you watch this movie. It's really a no-thoughts-head-empty type movie; as opposed to the other four films in the quintet, this one has scarcely a trace of the story, and a lot of tropey premises at the beginning and end, as well as disappointing dialogue scattered throughout.
The Minions are the stars of the show, and not a second of their screentime is spared without a moment that will leave you screaming, sprawling all over the couch, and stretching your cheeks so hard they hurt! The slapstick is fast-paced, absolutely absurd, and just as clever and original!
So essentially, if you're looking for a story like the other four movies, you might be disappointed. But the comedy is something you won't regret-you're in for a treat!
Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir (2015)
Y'all who think this is a kids show are sorely mistaken
Let's clear that up first: Elation has probably the sexiest scenes to ever be 3D animated, and Prime Queen is practically devoted to displaying how many times Ladybug and Cat Noir have coincidentally tumbled into sex poses and flat-out ships them. If y'all still think this is a kid's show, I'll kindly show you the exit 😃
Now that that's settled! This show has to be the most revolutionary show I've ever seen. I once read a Reddit comment comparing it to Avatar: The Last Airbender, and that would be an apt comparison. It's 3D animated, but don't be fooled by the appearance-the creators of this show took the original anime concept, translated it into impressively high-quality 3D animation, and created a style that's full of expressiveness and character.
The course of the show follows a villain-an-episode format most of the time, though Season 5 breaks boundaries in that sense, and the action flies by at breakneck pace. But it also comes jam-packed with story, subtlety of character, and it's astoundingly clever, with very perceptive characters. The pacing of the story is horribly cumbersome in Season 1, but it just gets better and better as the seasons go by. The best way I can say it is that I can see 12-year-olds watching this, upper-middle and high schoolers for sure, and 8-year-olds hardly; or, the tone and themes are less like Sofia the First and more like DuckTales (the reprise).
And it uses its amazing premise to talk about emotions and emotional awareness in a way I've never seen in a show before! Especially Season 5, which is the culmination of the entire show so far, features manipulative behavior, parental neglect and abuse, obsession, perfectionism, controlling, characters struggling with their feelings and their relationships with each other. (You expect an 8-year-old to understand any of this?!) Secrets are revealed, drama unfolds!
Miraculous also has a nerdy/pop culture side-in one episode Marinette's parents become beta testers, the nooks and crannies of the show are chock-full of references to things like the original 2D anime, and discussions of those newfangled Internet things don't feel disgustingly corny and generic. It even discusses issues that are prevalent right now, like burnout and overwork with Marinette, and misinformation on social media in a Season 5 episode.
There's likely SOOOOO much more I could praise about this show, and it's just all so delightful and refreshing! It's a show unlike any other, bringing incredibly creative ideas to the table in a time in a high-quality package when most content of its kind has become stale or generic. You could say it's truly miraculous! 🐞
Avatar: The Way of Water (2022)
An impressive movie! Though the story had me confused
I completely forgot the story of the first Avatar movie, so when the movie started with a documentary-style intro to the world of Pandora, then swiftly dove into a smattering of spaceships, combat scenes, and raising children, loosely tied together with a thread of exposition (I think they were trying to make it subtle?), I was confused from the get-go. As the movie goes on, it takes up so many different storylines/tangents, but it manages to tie together somehow by the end.
It's still confusing though. What was that about Grace having a daughter? I remember there were a few scattered scenes extending that backstory, and all I know is that she has epilepsy-or does she. (Also, is that really what epilepsy is? I'm no professional, but "having visions" seems too convenient.) There are those boys who get into fights: first the girl gets bullied, then Jake's younger son gets in a fight with them, then he apologizes, then that chief's son tries to get him murdered, then they both apologize for the same thing and then become actual friends-at least I think that's how it goes. I think Tuk is supposed to be the comic relief, so she gets effort points, but it just doesn't work with how gritty and serious the movie feels. And also, I still don't understand why that Paikon fish was considered an outcast, considering that it's quite obvious he didn't even do any killing.
The more I write this review, the more I realize how many cliches there are and how disjointed the story is, and the more I wonder what I even watched.
Of course the visuals are amazing, even more so since I had the privilege of seeing them in the immersive IMAX 3D. I like those "tookoon" things now, they have nice big pentagon mouths. And the girl who was oNe wItH tHe fIsHeS, she's cool, she's my favorite character.
Soyeah!
The Bad Guys (2022)
I don't know what just happened.
This movie is...quite nuts! In the YouTube ads and at the start of the movie, my attention was immediately captured by the very unique 3D animation. I don't know why people are saying the animation looks bad-it's got character, and makes you realize how 3D animation is breaking away from the standard pseudo-realism to something with different styles.
The voicing is good, Wolf looks really hot, and the action scenes are absolutely thrilling! And...they're the only things worth watching 😓 Because the plot is so illogical that I hardly understood how they explained the message of the movie!
At the start, the titular Bad Guys attempt a heist, and the action scenes are fun even though there's scarcely any character development for quite a while. But afterwards, when I thought the movie was starting to get good, it just went and pulled out all the tropes while not making them cohere at all, and just slapping in messages at random points even though they don't tie in or get explained by the story. The good-guy-was-actually-a-bad-guy thing made absolutely no sense, and the rest of the plot was a series of contrivances with a very convenient, albeit satisfying, conclusion.
It's a fun movie if you turn your brain off 👍🏼 But don't look for a good story in this, because it's not there. Good message, but the execution is awful, and I don't think your kids would learn anything.
Yumieui Sepodeul (2021)
My Critic Cell says "a hit and a miss - mostly a miss though"
I just finished reading the entire 511-episode Webtoon a couple of days ago, and figured I'd check out the show. 25 minutes into Episode 1, I'm quite a bit disappointed.
The show takes the details of the first handful of episodes and rearranges the events, which dilutes their impact. The Cells' 3D models look good, but the animation is a hit-and-a-miss, sometimes looking polished (like the dive into the world of Yumi's cell village), and sometimes just looking robotic and tacky (like when they beat up Detective Cell). On the note of beating up Detective Cell, the Cells are much less crazy than they are in the Webtoon, which also makes them much more boring. For example, the White Blood Cell tasked with recovering Love Cell from a coma doesn't have chains around his legs and isn't pissed off - though that sounds like a good thing, it just crumples up and tosses a comedic scene from the Webtoon where Rational Cell asks him if anything can be done to save her, but then flips around and forces him to do it anyway even though he says he can't, whilst curse words are tossed in the exchange.
The acting feels dry, and the action is a bit slow; I'm especially disappointed for the acting and writing for the titular Yumi Kim, which turns her into a ditzy character who seems to just wander around and do silly things, which didn't feel so good to watch. Does she really need to slam her head on her desk for us to understand she's upset? Does she need to stand dumbly staring at a wall from the realization that she missed an opportunity to be with Wook? Even the very beginning scene - all she does is say "what was that" twice and then ruffle her hair?? Why???
The show also just makes everything melodramatic at the expense of the original tone of the comic, and to no advantage - I'd say two lyrical background songs in 25 minutes is two too many, and a lot of mundane scenes like Yumi fighting Hunger Cell to do calculations just drag on more than they need to. And the scene depicting Love Cell falling into a coma during the Great Flood just looked so flimsy and overdramatized, changing the scene from Love Cell hitting her head to Rational Cell desperately screaming her name and thinking she'd died - again, it ruins the original tone of the Webtoon! Also, it feels like emotional emphasis is misplaced left and right - the scene depicting Yumi doing office work has more emotional music than the scene where Detective Cell concludes that Wook and Yumi could be together, and it just feels wrong.
Overall, it was just cringey to watch, and doesn't live up to the original Webtoon. I'd rather just Daily Pass and reread the comic.
Wedding Season (2022)
No, NO! This movie is awful!
The story crawls along, and so does the humor, but that's not why I'm rating this so low.
My biggest gripe is with the representation, which is GOD-AWFUL! If you want to learn more about Indian culture, just watch a highly-rated Indian movie, or ask an actual Indian. This movie is chock-full of stereotypes: 1st-gen Indian immigrants being extremely pushy and obsessing over education, imposing the idea that girls should only think about marriage, portraying Indian "aunties" as robots who spread rumors and are also pushy, corny stupid music that's not even representative of what actual Indians listen to (which would be movie songs), etc.
Whoever scripted this movie has absolutely NO clue how Indians converse and what they converse about, I cringed at every dialogue! (Side gripe, why not just give the 1st-gen characters native-language dialogue with subtitles?? More realistic, and besides most Indians don't speak Hindi with each other unless they're from different states!!) It feels like they're projecting outsider views of Indian culture onto the Indian characters. I didn't watch very far into the movie, but one of my BIGGEST gripes is with the Hindu temple scene: NO temple I've ever been to has ridiculous glowing lights, NO sane person would be stupid enough to rob things from the temple or otherwise break the rules, because 99% of the Hindus I've met are QUITE devout, etc.
Overall, it's a flimsy drama with horrific misrepresentation. I could go on and on with the criticisms, but I'd need to rewatch the movie to hit every point, and I don't wanna do that because I'd just cringe all over again 😖 Just DON'T WATCH IT!!! And if you do, don't expect it to be realistic!
Jug Jugg Jeeyo (2022)
For once a Bollywood movie that's well-made and thoughtful!
This movie is AMAZING, hands down. I don't know why so many people here are giving this movie 1 star; I think they're just spamming 😏
Perhaps the drama can be incredibly tiresome, even overdone sometimes, dragging on to the point where it feels like you're hurting along with the characters; but it's a testament to how excellent the performance is! The argument scenes seemed like a lot of shouting on the surface, but as I went through the dialogues in my head, I could hear the reasoning behind where each character was coming from, and what they understood from the situation. I could feel the mixed, difficult emotions through the screen, which tells me they wrote this movie well!
And that's just scratching the surface of one of the few recent Bollywood movies with a brain. Naturally, divorce is something people don't think about often, so this movie was a fascinating dive into topics like: What is marriage for? What is it meant to be like? Why would people want to divorce? Is it really just petty, or is there something more? Where do you draw the line? The added layer of having 3 generations facing the same problem in different ways, while obviously unrealistic, gave even more depth to the story. Each generation has their own perspective, which might help the conflict the movie poses resonate with the different people in the audience-I was interested in Ginny's perspective, for example. Some characters are confident in what they believe is right; others are still confused and undecided. It's difficult to explain, a lot to unpack while still being coherent and making sense-which, I must restate, is practically revolutionary for Bollywood movies these days.
This movie is very dramatic, and can take you on an emotional rollercoaster if you let it. But once you get off the ride, you won't be left wondering, "Wow, why did I watch that?" Instead, you'll leave with food for thought, and the satisfaction you get after watching a fully-fleshed-out movie!