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mike-1716
Reviews
Tin Star (2017)
Quality Plunge
Series 1 & 2 were brilliant. Gripping TV.
The third series is dreadful, though. Such a shame. It's like the ridiculous plot and characterisations for this series was written by a teenager.
If series 3 had carried on in the same vein as 1 & 2, I'd have given it a ten.
Hanna (2019)
Series 2 is staggeringly dull
Series 1 is very good. Action, tension, interesting premise.
But series 2 is a horse that's been flogged to death. Each episode is more frustrating than the previous. Wilfully dull and poor writing. I just can't empathise with the weak characters.
Instead of focusing on a bunch of angst-ridden American teen brats, it could have been so much more with the protagonist just using her special skills to evade capture.
Mr. Robot: 409 Conflict (2019)
Terrific
I do have to say, this is possibly the best episode I've seen so far. Utterly gripping, with brilliant editing.
My wife happened to watch this with me. I don't think she's seen any other Mr Robot episode, and she was hooked all the way through without even knowing the back story or characters.
In the Tall Grass (2019)
My own fault for watching all the way through
This is an extremely dull movie. My heart sank a few minutes in, when the main characters went into the tall grass and got lost because I knew, deep down, that this would essentially form the premise of the whole movie.
What follows is muddled, tedious and annoying. I felt the same way when I watched 'The Cube', also by this director.
I'm giving it 2 stars, but only because the CGI grass looks quite good.
The Day the Earth Stopped (2008)
Educational
I'm giving it 10 because I now know that space aliens have lip-filler and wear skimpy space bras.
Alien: Covenant (2017)
Requires viewers who can think
Alien: Covenant is a worthy successor to Alien and Prometheus.
Beautifully filmed, it explores the aftermath of Elizabeth Shaw's desire to visit the Engineer home world.
If you're after unrelenting terror, this movie isn't for you. It is far more cerebral and plays instead with the topics of creation, morality, evil and corruption.
I find it somewhat disturbing that the 'best' user review on this forum at the time of writing (by http://www.imdb.com/user/ur8378692/) has been up-voted by so many viewers. The reason being that each and every one of the 36 alleged faults can be refuted so easily. There isn't room here to write a full rebuttal, but here are the first five. Every single one of the remaining criticisms is baseless. It's a shockingly bad attempt at finding flaws.
1. There is a ship full off over 1000 sleeping passengers. Yet they have just one android to look after it all. Why not have 3, 10 or even 20! They don't age and surely you need a backup.
- It is a massive assumption to imply that the dormant passengers need much looking after.
2. A rogue unexplained solar flare hits the ship disabling it, and Walter says they should leave the area asap. But instead they go further into it.
- No they don't. They go to a different 'area'
3. An astronaut outside the ship picks up a stray signal through his helmets two-way radio, that somehow appears in visual form on the glass of his helmet? Yet the giant ship with the radio dish right next to him misses it!
- As was explained for this very reason in the dialogue, he was outside the ship's communications buffers.
4. How did they determine the artist from the white noise? What they found later no-way explains why they sent a song into space for no apparent reason!
- It was a choppy radio signal with a low signal-to-noise ratio, but strong enough to pick up the vocals (and recognised as such by someone familiar with the song). We are not party to *why* a hijacked Engineer ship broadcasts a repeated message. Perhaps it's like a car alarm. Who cares? It's not important.
5. They are able to trace a stray video signal to a planet two weeks away at star-ship speed.
- The relative speed of the ship and the planet was small (the crew were talking about the series of 'jumps' that they were taking, and they had clearly just come out of such a jump).
Chappie (2015)
Implausible. Annoying.
Oh dear, oh dear. Lots of things wrong with this movie, which is really little more than District 9 meets Robocop.
The AI was plain annoying. Robots in the future aren't going to be using cheap voice synthesiser chips from the 1980s. Let that old trope die a natural death, please. It looks vaguely humanoid, so let's assume it will behave like a baby human. That's just dumb, trying to engage with a stupid audience.
Sigourney Weaver turned up for a morning's filming to give us a character that went nowhere.
Chappie could have been so much better. There's no doubt Blomkamp can handle visuals well, but his writing isn't great, and is starting to get quite repetitive.
Will his next movie contain multiple implausible psychopaths and shoot-outs, I wonder, as these seem to be common themes with his writing.
AVPR: Aliens vs Predator - Requiem (2007)
A Good Homage
The problem with any kind of AVP movie is that it has to live up to the seminal influence of the original Alien/Aliens/Predator movies which - without any question of doubt - are sci-fi classics.
AVPR, more than anything else, is purely and simply an homage to the movies that came before. The sound effects, score, scenes and at least one character name are a mash-up of those from the other movies in the franchise. This is done quite honestly, however. Right from the opening moment, for example, the score blends together the styles of all its forebears in a seamless run. You don't need any bigger clue than that to know that you are about to see an homage flick.
And I have to say that it works remarkably well in this context. The creature designs are excellent (certainly much better than the abominations in A3 & A4); there is plenty of fighting; the plot lines are really not bad and the acting is perfectly adequate. Whilst A1 & A2 spend a long time on human character development, AVPR *mostly* cracks on with the action. Which is absolutely fine if you like that kind of thing.
Most of the "plot holes" reported on this site are easily discounted. For example, in response to the ill-considered diatribe of "Arnold_is_Numero_Uno", point by point:
1. A race as advanced as the Predators *might* check for face-hugger impregnation as a matter of course or they *might* actually have an alien mindset that doesn't worry too much about danger.
2. There is no evidence whatsoever that the Predalien becomes fully grown in 10 seconds. The ship was obviously *in orbit* around the Earth for some time.
3. Predators are violent creatures who don't put safety first. It is more than likely that they would fire guns in their own ship.
4. You cannot assert under what circumstances a Predator might or might not wear his mask. If he wears it in the ship, so what? 5. The journey to the crash site would be mind-numbingly tedious if every step taken were shown. That's why it wasn't shown that way.
6. There are many reasons why a Predator *might* send out a distress beacon to his home world.
7. The Predator wrist bomb could easily be set to have variable yields.
8. A skinned human is not evidence of an alien attack.
9. The Predalien does not have to act in accordance with "established" behaviour in comics.
10. Military commanders, like many people, are susceptible to corruption.
11. Field reports of the aliens' spread was obviously being fed back to the military.
12. The script is for the most part perfectly fine.
Regardless, whether there are a few plot holes or not, it's a sci-fi movie predicated on a rather unlikely vision of the future, so if you are worried by such matters the problem is probably in your head, not the movie.
Where would I pick fault? The Predators look more like men in suits than in the other movies and some of the thermal CGI of aliens running around in the distance is not too convincing. But there are many effects that more than make up for these oversights. For example, an alien bursting out of a sewer into the street perfectly captures the raw, alien aggression of these creatures - on a par with the frantic violent flaying of the aliens in the A2 air-ducts.
In summary, AVPR is a well-made tribute to the other Alien/Predator movies.
30 Days of Night (2007)
A Very Annoying Movie
I sat with glum anticipation through most of this drivel. How many times in my life must I see dumb characters sleepwalking their way to a certain death? A bunch of people trapped in an attic while vampires run loose outside: Ooh now, wouldn't it be a great idea to make a bid for freedom while it's still dark instead of sitting it out? Of course it would. The cameras are rolling, you know.
How about an old chap saying he's just going to the toilet? Of COURSE he's not going to the toilet the lingering camera shot gives that one away! No, he's rushing outside to a stupid and pointless death.
How about a bunch of scriptwriters who say to themselves "wouldn't it be intriguing to have the dilemma of having to kill a vampire child?"? No! It's not intriguing for one moment. Every vampire should be staked through the heart at the earliest opportunity, so it's just plain annoying having the slayer pondering their guilt.
How about the lead character injecting himself with vampire blood just so he can punch the lead vampire in the throat?
Risible.
Troy (2004)
Worth a viewing, if only to see Brian Cox in a chariot
A generally entertaining movie in the epic tradition. Nicely handled tension between a fistful of protagonists set 3200 years ago in the vicinity of the Aegean Sea, all well acted, aided and abetted by 1000 Greek CGI warships.
Things I didn't like:
The beginning and end feature Sean Bean narratives which, to any UK viewer, will be highly reminiscent of his TV mobile phone adverts (he has a very strong and distinctive regional accent). The close-up of Achilles' heel is a slight editorial embarrassment, being somewhat blatant. It was a pity to see Saffron Burrows in several scenes doing nothing but sniveling as it's not often she's featured in a decent movie. The dialog is a bit corny at times, for example there's a scene where Achilles says something to the effect of "It's too early in the day to kill princes". Well, yes. I don't know how Brad had the nerve to say that! At other times, the script seems a little clichéd, predictable and self-important, rather reminiscent of TV comedy spots where the mickey is being taken out of a Russell Crowe Gladiator look-alike. The violence was also rather tame. In my opinion, the movie would have been better if the battle scenes had been given the "Saving Private Ryan" treatment.
For all that, I enjoyed it, but should have checked the running time first. Caution advised if you intend to get through a large fizzy drink early on.