Reviews

No spoilers: I'm 5 episodes in and there's a lot missing.

If you're already big on Star Wars, you might like it. This review is for everyone else.

This overhyped product has the line "at least it's not Kenobi or Book of Boba Fett" attached to it. And while that is true, that still doesn't make it a good war story.

It's not Robin Hood, it's not Fullmetal Jacket, it's not All Quiet On The Western Front, but it takes a little bit from all those things at makes something uninspired, yet somehow still "good" based on the bar Disney Star Wars has setup for itself.

Cassian Andor as a main character is OK (I forgot how he was in Rogue One, so he's not particularly compelling). He wants to find his missing relative, avoid being killed for his indigenous heritage, and maybe, just maybe, kill the empire. He's mostly passive in these first 5 episodes.

The supporting cast is OK, though they're all human so that part is boring.

Seriously, it's STAR WARS and the only alien side character is a robot with 3 scenes to his name?

The bad Marvel humor of past shows is replaced with almost zero levity. I remember 2 jokes and nothing else.

The plot is OK, but it's missing a compelling romance or relationship. Something to add tension for the main character. He's "looking for his relative" early on, but we never get to see her. We see his coworker, his adoptive mom, but zero interactions that indicate he's losing a relationship he values; a specific relationship, the kind he can't live without.

The main antagonist is good, but he's also mostly passive.

The others also have little to do.

After so much Star Wars content, the aesthetic of the same places is wearing off. The beautiful space western aesthetic of Mandalorian is replaced with a murky war aesthetic.

The stakes seem nonexistent. What PEOPLE are these new rebels fighting for? You can't feel they're fighting for any soul in particular. It feels more like they're fighting for abstract ideas of people.

No positive vision of the future. They win and what happens? The events of Rogue One? Another dreary struggle. I didn't see Return of the Jedi, so maybe I can't quite imagine that vision they have. Because the show never presents that vision. It's pretty soulless.

One rogue went into detail about a "manifesto" he was writing. Why? Because to the writer, political allegories are all that's actually real about Star Wars.

But looking at the real world, rebellions often create more tyrants: France, Haiti, Maoist China, Soviet Russia, they're all just as bad as the people they rebelled against. What's to stop these rogues from becoming just as bad as the empire? You get zero indication that any of them practice virtues like liberty, autonomy, self-sacrifice. They're more likely to practice entitlement.

What's to stop these rebels from being just as bad? You don't know. They can say they're better, but that doesn't mean anything.

It almost confuses the spirit of Robin Hood with the style of war movies. Can you think of anything more boring or uninspired?

Nothing really happens. There's a lot of beautiful shots in the film (which are more palatable for women than they are for men), and the drama is a slow burn- or almost no burn.

All the characters are good and necessary to the story. The humor works.

The music works, but I don't remember it.

I enjoyed learning about how people live as they travel in RV's across America, but I could've gotten a shorter version of it from educational YouTube videos or a SHORT FILM.

I enjoy the commentary on home ownership and like that people can rethink if investing in a suburban house is still a good idea.

It's also useful to think about how the self is defined when a person is traveling all by themselves. What is identity at that point?

Overall, pretty good, a little overrated, and still should've been shorter... a lot shorter.

Usually I structure my reviews, but I just have to list what I like randomly. There's no trusting this movie's structure anyways, you just gotta jump into it. I am Christian, so don't take this as an attack on anyone personally.

Kevin Sorbo's Professor Radassin is now the next Richard Dawkins in a world where atheists don't have any Christian friends and somehow still make their money back. He's not a good debater, but his opponent is way worse, so he automatically wins. And he also is lonely and depressed. Why? Because he's an atheist, of course. Why are people atheists? Because people they know die and they can't handle death, of course. No other reason.

On acting: Apparently the Sorbo family all auditioned and passed, but the kids... the oldest... is just so cringey I could not handle it. The youngest looks like a serial killer at certain moments.

There's an ex-mob boss named Pastor Vinny, and he is a RIOT. He's part street-Cred part intellectual part Italian and part secret ingredient. We first meet him painting over a white fence with white paint. He likes to talk a lot about the missing body of Jesus and how, because those vicious Romans were Italians, he "K N O W S S O M E T H I N G A B O U T T H A T." Remember that line, the buildup to it is absolutely perfect. Also, somehow, because Vinnie is street, he wants evidence.............. amazing. The craziest part about this is the actor actually is an ex-mob boss in real life, so take that as you will.

A lot of Hallmark movie awkwardness. So you know the writing is like Shakespeare.

Sean Hannity cameos, which is exactly what helped me decide whether or not I should buy the dvd.

The message? I'm not totally sure. It's either "atheists are ignorant" or "we need more hashtags to turn people Christian and make it mainstream".

Evangelical Christianity is not mainstream though, and that's okay. There are better ways to promote it to people than to use subpar old messaging tools. But to be able to use those tools, it's best if Christians first get educated in filmmaking, social media, critical thinking, and political/religious philosophy to operate in the paradigms of the modern world- and that's without evangelicals needing to change any of their values. That way, better films can be made without being tone-deaf, and the culture will absorb it over time.

That being said, the movie was a laugh all the way through. Watch it with friends so you're not laughing at the tone-deafness by yourself. 8/10 would see again.

How watching this makes you a better person and species:

1. You'll learn racism is bad It's so weird- it condemns white racism, but not police violence or anything else portrayed, as if that's the only standard you have to meet to be a good person. It also shows all white racists as mustache-twirling villains, with no nuance or anything.

2. You'll learn modern politics with zero context Hate gun control? Racist. Against reparations? Racist. Why? Cuz they said so. The writers couldn't actually make cases for their positions because they had no idea what they were advocating. So they masked their ignorance in poorly-written satire. I really felt pity for them.

3. You'll watch something unrelated to the actual title The book gets referenced, but the spirit of it is long-gone. Characters from the book all show up, but the show's not about them or the world of the book they came from. The book's tone is completely gone and replaced with hope, which might be fine if it wasn't inside a world of moral relativism. They say a certain all-powerful person could've done more for humanity, but why should he have? Why is it his place to force the world to be better? They did make some interesting twists on the main 4 returning characters, but by the end most of them were so twisted they were unlike the characters in the book (which means Zack Snyder's movie is more character-accurate than HBO's "sequel"). The title needs to change, it's very misleading.

4. You get half-good stories and characters Weirdly enough, episodes 1 and 9 were bad while most of episodes 2-8 were decent. The old man subplot is slow and goes nowhere. The Looking-Glass episode is decent. The Hooded Justice episode is decent, but arguably changes the character. Same for the Dr. Manhattan episode. The Silk Spectre episode is okay until she forces laughter. Her story sucked too. Regina King, the main character, sucks. Her and the entire police force are fascists and they're never challenged on it. She also makes a lot of stupid choices. The overarching mysteries presented are too long for you to care about by the end. The rich Vietnamese woman turns out to be incredibly boring, and not at all close to compelling as Ozymandias was in the book. And everyone is stoic ALL the time. There's no one that enters a scene and brings actual tension with them. Even the action...is kinda just ok.

5. You'll get so many good ideas that become missed opportunities Pieces of squid raining from the sky sometimes? Nice. Police being fascists dressed as superheroes? Great. Totally could be used to something profound about American police today. Government always lying? Of course. But all these ideas... go wasted.

Don't Watch, Man. Instead, I'd recommend just reading the book again. It actually asked questions on the role of heroes and utilitarianism. That's all I wanted to do after watching this. That, and a long shower.

I think a fair assessment should always include both the good and the bad. The Good: It's shot really nice. Los Angeles, CA was the perfect spot to do a Spider-Man: Homecoming/90210/The Great Indoors mashup. The visuals are pretty good, the action's OK. I saw only 6 of the 10 first episodes so I can only judge as far as that goes. The decision to make the parents villains to the teens, despite them not having much presence in the actual comics, was a noteworthy risk to take. Some of the parents are interesting characters themselves, albeit they don't really as deep into any of them as much as they should. The makeup and costume design is also good, everyone looks exactly like their comic book counterparts, which is also bad because...

The Bad: They sacrificed good writing for what looks good. It's not just the dialogue that's bad, or bland and cartoony side characters that are bad, but for most of the first 6 episodes _absolutely nothing happens_. We get exposition, we slowly learn of everyone's special superpowers, and it seems to mix allegories when suddenly they go after a gunman with lasers and magic.

Also the drama is _atrocious_. After the characters are all long introduced, you'll notice filler scenes with characters bleeding out exposition but not talking for the sake of change. As a rule, that's what's SUPPOSED to happen in a scene!

It was at about episode 4 or 6 I found myself in the worst place possible: that is _wishing_ for conflict. Wishing for something unpredictable to hit the characters, or episodes that end with them making real choices that can't be undone (Show Writing 101).

Did I mention the characters? They're mostly bad: Alex: Fine. Just fine. Not exciting or anything. Boy #2: Also just fine, a little exciting, but has a lot of cringey lines. Gurt: Annoying, pink haired, 3rd wave feminist, who is the show's propaganda preacher, goes unchallenged, has _visible_ double standards, is unfunny, annoying even to her parents, and makes me lose hope in our society when a kid like her was so horribly socialized. The adopted Mexican: Small, doesn't add anything to any scene, occasionally helpful because of her mutant genes (not because of her personality or intelligence or anything). The Church Girl: I found this character a little offensive. Not because she was an obvious riff on scientology and Jehovah's Witnessism, but because they said that this show was the "human story" because they "summed up people of all races, genders, sexualities, and...'religious beliefs'" with their characters. A closeted lesbian cult-follower does not sum up anyone remotely outside California. Obvious agenda is obvious. Because that, she was just okay. Nico: Eh. I'm very neutral towards Nico. She may be an Asian Wiccan girl with the EXACT VOICE OF MILEY CYRUS 5 YEARS AGO still grieving her dead sister one year later, but in terms of character she has nothing to offer except, "poor me, my sister died. Who can relate?"

I'd mention the individual villains too, but this review is already long enough.

Spoiler on the villains' secret motivations: It turns out most of the parents who are a part of the PRIDE committee were FORCED via blackmail to join. The ONE aspect that kept me watching turned out to be: "Oh, look! They're not even bad guys! They're just FORCED into cultic ritual and killing! Don't you feel for them?" NO! I don't! Because now, instead of them having values that challenge society AND the main characters, they're just common criminals with a stick! And you know what, they don't all even have to be a part of PRIDE! Yes, their boss needed someone to hold the cult mansion, someone to hold the staff, and time travelers...but MUTANTS, the witch's husband, and scientists? Maybe if I kept watching I'd know his "grand plan", but again, I stopped caring when I found out they were just common criminals.

No More Spoilers Here.

The Ugly: There's more I could talk about, like how they reenacted an UNREALISTIC almost-rape scenario and then showed a girl actually victim blaming two episodes later because...she loved lacrosse so much. It was HYSTERICALLY cartoony. Clearly, to make up for all the empty writing, the writers and producers thought they could heavily appeal to millennial leftism, despite the fact that Generation Z, the focus group of this show and age of its main characters, are going to be conservative as possible in the future. Even they won't like the ridiculous scenarios that happen, like the pink-haired feminist girl having two overaged men flirting and complimenting her. It's not because she was ugly that I'm complaining; it's how unrealistic their openness was.

So all in all, if you like progressive pandering, your leftist views to be affirmed, women needing to use superpowers while the men rely on actual smarts, millennials to be coddled (the show's called "Runaways" and they're still living off their parents' assets for some reason), and a comic book that _looks_ interesting to be watered down to it's basic Wikipedia page, then well, this show was made for you! (For $8/monthly on Hulu of course)

I'll start with the good things: it accurately talks about cyber security, it has pretty okay drama, and pretty okay characterization. The actors do their best in playing the roles they've been given. Tyrell Wellick, who is basically Patrick Bateman from American Psycho, is enjoyable to watch.

That's it.

I've only seen the first season so far, because I enjoy seeing realistic hacking. I might continue watching for that reason, but I don't look forward to it.

The bad things: the main character is a shallow know-it-all. I enjoy dark and gritty shows, I enjoy conspiracy thrillers, but this show's obvious attempt to look deep comes across as conceited and self-indulgent. The creator himself admitted he just steals from classic movies like Fight Club and The Matrix to write the show. All that Elliot does is make dumb choices because he's not mental issues and takes a lot of morphine. Even if they made him better, the outcome of Season 1 leaves a lot to be desired. Season 2 (no spoilers) has him preaching Voltaire, "I don't need God as my scapegoat", as if he's better than most people. He sits in therapy and all he ever thinks about is how he's better than 99% of the sheeple who buy so much stuff from the corporations, and how he's so stressed at how they're what's normal that he's alone.

The main villains, E(vil) Corp, are made out to be so cartoonishly over-the-top evil, you can't really see it as something from the real world.

They also preach a lot of Marxist ideas, like why they hate capitalism, debt, social media, food with GMOs, etc. It's preachy because they just say it outright, and then end the conversation there.

This show...is not for anyone who wants originality. It's not for anyone who wants to see characters make choices that make sense. When the supporting cast is shown, they're mostly boring. His hot friend does do stuff herself, and that led to great character change. She was a good side story. She was the only one in the show who made good choices.

And I say that knowing full well about Elliot and his team's desire to clear out all debt from the citizens. The problem with them hitting the reset button on debt actually would result in them helping the corporations that had a lot of debt. Corporations have debt more than anyone. Citizens will be readily royally screwed by them in a matter of months.

Overall, this is a cartoon with no sense of humor, a lot of unnecessary edge, and a main protagonist -albeit smart- is so brain dead it makes him unwatchable. History will reference this as a show that's good at referencing the better movies it stole from.

In DC's new installation, director Patty Jenkins and co breathe new life into the 75-year-old iconic character. Created for the purpose of "fighting using love", Wonder Woman had always been a interesting character to include in stories, but hard to pinpoint when it came to personality. After the last 3 DC movies I said no more for me. I'm glad a friend changed my mind on that. I didn't go to see it because it was the next chapter in a cinematic universe, I saw it because it told a story (and the hype behind all the critic reviews, of course). And there's a perfect balance to her: she's not sexual used by virtue of her appearance, and she's not a feminist. She's just a woman, who shows vulnerability, and wants there to be world peace. I was so surprised by how much they humanized her. Inspite of the fact that she was a stonehard killer, she looked at the world mostly through the eyes of a little girl. And I never expected that. I didn't just like it because it was a great movie, I also liked it because this is the best incarnation of Wonder Woman I've ever seen, even compared to the animated features. If you want a movie with great world history, a little bit of mythology, and an awesome "new" superhero the center of it all, I'd recommend checking this one out. This took decades to get to, and even Joss Whedon admitted it was too complicated for him to make. Don't watch this because of the Cinematic Universe, watch it because it's a good movie with (finally) a well-made message behind it.

The best propaganda pieces all have one thing in common: the colors of its country's flag, claiming to be for patriotism, for America, even for world peace sometimes, in order to get its infantilized idea across, despite it being perceived as crazy by its target country, making no attempt to grow an audience of critical thinkers.

I once said to an entertainer, "if you're gonna be wrong, at least be funny, Kevin" (I wonder if he actually read the message). Likewise, I want to tell the Feminist writers for Supergirl, that if you're gonna be wrong, at least be entertaining.

Because Feminism is a dead-wrong idea- as many religions are. But feminist writers have created/taken part in amazing works of arts before: "Who Shot Johnny?", "Jessica Jones", "Mad Max: Fury Road", all beautiful creations I've read and watched twice.

So is Supergirl wrong for having Feminist ideals in it? Nope. It was bad because:

It was too friggin PREACHY!! You know how annoying and boring that gets?!?! It's free to keep its worldview of progressivism, but to just talk about it at random points without giving any good reason why...buzzwording, word vomit, pandering, virtue signaling, whatever, it's uncreative and therefore becomes BORING, which is the greatest sin a writer can commit. It doesn't matter if it's a show aimed at kids. They're kids, not idiots. Dr. Seuss is famous because he wrote messages that challenged both children and parents alike, while being under the guise of being a plain children's author. But writers nowadays only care about what SELLS easier more than what is GOOD, sometimes confusing the two as the same thing. CBS didn't pick up the character because she's actually good (she can be), they picked it up because there was a demand for a female feminist superhero, and Wonder Woman wasn't available (anymore). Supergirl has always been moldable. The viewing audience don't like her because she's good, it's because it's easy for women to fit into her shows (a blank slate, like Hannah Montana) and be as good as the big boys, all on a character that sports American colors, making it justifiable to boil down political/social issues into meaningless one-liners.

Example: "She can't beat him." "Why, because she's a girl?" If by girl they meant 22-year-old with the mind of an adolescent, then yes.

And sure, comedy is subjective...it was just never clever.

The action was good until it became predictable. The older sister got lucky too many times, she should've been dead at episode 3.

The plot was going somewhere good halfway through, then it just became a meaningless rehash of better show plots.

Not much critical character examination.

Way too much talk about meaningless romances.

Character motivation wasn't always explained.

Did they really have to make her appear great just because she was surrounded by weak people?

I thought there were great moments in this show, *(spoiler alert): like when she was human for a day and at the risk of her life she convinced a robber to give her his gun. That was well-thought out.*

Finale was mediocre. She didn't seem to care much for her Uncle, if that's where the struggle was.

Maybe they did have a heart set on Supergirl...but they just treated even their target audience as stupid children who were gasping for self-esteem like they were running out of oxygen. "You can do it, because you just can!" What is that going to add to society? Is confusing impressionable young girls with identity politics gonna help anyone?

This needs to be categorized in the same group that God's Not Dead 1 and 2 are in: Preachy, Propaganda, Rehashed pieces. Supporting this show by giving it high ratings or buying it when it comes out on DVD is sad (call it a guilty pleasure if you must), because this does nothing for the world except make people believe an ideology without actually thinking about it. I. Whatever entertainment value it has will be in your mind short-term; but It's mind-block on critical thinking can last a long time.

At some point, Supergirl's High Priest, Cat Grant, said to Supergirl and The Flash and friends, "You all look like the cast of a CW TV show," and the music and conversation played on as if it was hilarious. And I cringed so hard that it made me look to heaven, bend my knees against the wall, and say, "Lord, I must castrate myself. This world is too stupid now, I must castrate myself before it becomes worse." And castrate themselves they should.

This is one movie that hasn't been seen enough, it's action-packed, a good amount of thriller and horror, and it moves at a pretty fast pace, which works well with this movie. But what I liked mot of all about it was the message it had about consumerism - how it hurts our culture and people do nothing but allow it to do so. It provokes a good amount of thought, and is now one I'll be seeing at least once every year.

If you want to see it ASAP, it's free on Hulu!

Yes, IT'S FREE ON HULU!!

FREE ON HULU

Go watch it but if you're not a person who wants to see any nudity (because it's rated r) literally just skip the very very very last scene.

in this whole series. Or there is, but he's almost completely ignored. This show needed less secularism, for one thing. I cant believe how many reviews this show got as positive. You go through every review before myself and only 3 of them will say they hated it. It looked great, it seemed to struggle to catch on, but... it was just bad. the source material was not there, they made up fake events, could've had a real Goliath...and Jonathan (or JACK)...was actually gay on the show, but he wasn't in the Bible, so...not even a little okay...that's not who he really was... i'm glad this didn't go very far... if you disagree with me, that's fine, but this is one of the few shows where i'll tell people how blatantly wrong they are. swear all you want, you're just wrong. and there's nothing you can do except try to explain back because it's the internet. however if you agree...please hold on to that...please...is there anyone sane left in the world, besides me... All in all, reasons why it was bad A. left the good source material, B. David was completely different C. Romeo and Juliet story added (for no good reason D. JONATHAN turned to be gay, just to knock for the secular audience. There's a reason the episodes of that one season were put out on Hulu after so many years, they don't do that with good shows. And E. They showed little faith in God-- only for certain things --and more faith in themselves, which was stupid because that's like in most movies, if this show gets rebooted i would't care what people say as long as it would just STICK TO THE source. Films now like Noah, so stupid just because the producers and directors and writers always are gonna try to apply more to the secular mindset. But i guess that's just the way the world is. Nothing left to do except to just warn people about it.

Not that it was bad, but more like it was not thrilling. I myself am a huge comic-book fan, and was very interested into learning about the style of this hero and his movie portrayal, without looking at public opinion first. Which i'm glad for. The first act is kind of crappy and stolen parts from other superhero movies, the acting had potential but was stopped by dialog, the villain wasn't psychopathic enough, and the Green Hornet acted like a jerk in half the movie making you wish Kato would kick his butt already (spoiler). Though the second half had some thrill, good action, chase seen, plot rapped up, funny ending. The costumes, weapons, cars and fight scenes are probably the best parts in the movie, and the character of Green Hornet and Kato in it of themselves were interesting. I think i would want to see the 1966 series because of this movie. They didn't hit the standard of 2011, but it's still nice to see once as a good comic-book movie, especially for kids at preteen age. I think they might enjoy it the most.

to just HOW HORRIBLE Michael Bay really is! I saw this movie with expectation of "hey, maybe they won't ruin the story's legacy. Maybe they won't take a dump on such a good name". I was wrong. I've been waiting for this movie since I first heard it, and i was utterly disappointed. The movie had more focus on Megan Fox's April O'Neil more than anyone, trying to make a connection from her to the turtles like nothing else, calling her a "Great Spirit". They should've actually called the movie "The April O'Neil Movie", that would've been more honest. I used to like the transformers franchise for it's action and plot devises, now i know WHY transformers TV fans hated it, too much human focus. You don't write a Superman story focusing on Lois Lane's part, so why would you do it with 5 different movies, Michael? WHY?!? A friend of mine told me Transformers 4 was made exactly the way it was for the Chinese audience, and because of it it got #1 over their. You now gotta wonder if they did the same with the rest. The point is, if you really feel bad about April, and you really want to get to know her story, the side the cartoons never wanted to exaggerate on (dumb writers!), and waste your money all at the same time, then go. Enjoy.

before seeing this movie, many many times over, i kept on reading reviews, and people had a lot to go on. Christians and non said this was unrealistic on portraying non-Christians, celebrity appearances were very random, there was a strong lack of creativity (of course good theology was all there, though), and the only person to actually relate to was the "mustache-twirling villain" professor Radisson. Some of that's not true. Personally as a Christian, a gotta say i wouldn't have casted David A.R. White in, given his reputation for some indoctrinate decisions, and Willy Robertson isn't the greatest example as a Christian, given a few points of conversation on his show, though he's not bad enough to call hypocritical. Now going besides those points, the other problem i had was some of the dialog, because i don't think that the younger generation act the way the writers thought they do. And that one business guy, somehow needed some character development, but i understand their use of characters being stringed together around the whole movie. And it was made in a way for even little kids to understand. Creativity: maybe lacked somewhat, if not a lot. The character's developed well, from the Muslim girl, to the main character, to that one other girl, to the reporter, every situation that happened was realistic, even if some found it stereotypical or offensive. College professors of philosophy did use to go on and on against students' beliefs in God and how foolish it was, it probably doesn't happen as much today, but it still comes around. And the Muslim girl, i know people felt highly offended by that kind of thinking, but it can happen, in any type of home setting, and if you've ever known or heard of Islam the way it is, especially how it is in the middle east, you know it happens. Not that there aren't tolerant parents, I'm just saying that that would be a rare thing to find. This movie never pushed the idea of God on people like it's another essential next to math and science, it was more spoken out as the actual ability to choose God should be maintained. I started at the beginning of this movie and actually wondered of the fear of other people in life, i thought what would i do if my faith was challenged. if you're still wondering about this movie, you should know that the reviews will never make enough sense to describe this movie. It won't make any sense if you're a non-Christian, like "the passion of the Christ" or "Narnia" might, but if you're a Christian it should definitely strengthen your faith, even if it's just a movie, hold on to the idea that all has been proved, and wherever there is an opportunity that God gives, He definitely wants us to take it. Before watching, I thought the latest good Christian movie to show for anything recently would be 2013's Man of Steel. Yup, Pretty sure Zack Snyder specified things for us. Whole youth groups saw it together, even (watch the movie again, but keep that thought in mind). But this IS a good movie, no doubt one memorable. My last problem with it, though is the thought it had that might've made people think of a concert hall as a good replacement for church. Don't fall for that part in the movie, if you're gonna base your life on the movie in any way, don't do that part. They're not bad...they're just a different experience from actual church.