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phil-40099
Reviews
Men in Black: International (2019)
Lackluster writing and direction leaves a sour taste for a potentially great movie
I spent most of the first half of the film wondering why writers treat their audiences like ultra-dumb people. Most of the dialogue was to explain what was going on in the movie, leaving next-to-no-space for riveting dialogue dedicated to pacing or for character or plot development.
When you have to explain through dialogue the who, why, where, when and how of every alien or concept then you know the writing is poor. The clincher for me to see how poor the writing was occurred when one of the lines delivered explained how an alien had acquired an item and then "bought" (sic) it to Earth. Maybe they are getting kids still learning English with little life experience to do the writing these days?
Hemsworth was the 'funny man' in the movie and delivered characteristically Hemsworth written one-liners reminiscent of his role as Thor in the MCU. As a funny-man, Hemsworth is a better straight-talking actor, and he should probably stay away from delivering more than 2 one-liners in a film, and definitely shouldn't deliver more than one 'one-liner' every 45 mins or so.
A nod to his Thor character was well delivered and shows you don't need to lead the audience by the hand with dialogue explaining every little thing. Let the acting do the talking, the audience will understand what is happening with that if it is directed and acted well.
The only true piece of good script writing occurred later in the film when the two main protagonists were working together on a way to get themselves back to where they needed to be. This revealed the tension between the two, their motives, and desires and showed their vulnerabilities. While short in nature, this is what the film lacked throughout. After that point the film was bearably better, albeit only slightly more so.
Tessa Thompson's character was arguably the best in this new film and she was more like Will Smith's character in the first few films of the MIB franchise, than Hemsworth's character was, and her character could have been developed and fleshed out more. Giving more screen time and dialogue to her than Hemsworth would have paid dividends, and made for a better story arc and film, without sacrificing any SciFi/CGI elements.
Liam Neeson's character would have been better played by a new-comer or maybe another mid-level actor. Neeson himself didn't bring much to the table in terms of acting for his role, however that may have been as a result of giving him too little (good) dialogue, direction, screen-time and character development.
As a fan of hip-hop culture I was surprised to see the dancing duo of Les Twins play the role of the villain(s). They were given a (pathetic) chance to show their hip-hop skills which was only shown because of their hip-hop background. It really didn't need to be in there and didn't do them justice as dancers either.
Overall I think this could have been a 9 or 10 film if better writers were employed to give dialogue for character development and story arc, especially if it was given to Tessa Thompson's character - rather than on explaining unnecessary stuff through dialogue (e.g. "this is a gun that does x,y, and z" doesn't add anything to the movie (plot or character)).
I love the MIB films, and this one didn't do justice to the franchise or what the franchise delivered in the first film - that is a pair of flawed characters seeking redemption or meaning to their lives, searching for something , overcoming personal odds, struggles and adversity to be something more. I blame the writers for much of the flawed nature of this film.
Killing Eve: God, I'm Tired (2018)
Poor incongruous script-writing kills what could have been a great series
No spoilers. Just my thoughts. I'm close to 50yrs old, and have seen my share of stereotypes, and people do things for particular reasons. And what I've noticed time and time again, is that people don't just suddenly become incongruous with who they were, as happened here in this last episode of Season 1. People who want to be astronauts and train and exhibit signs every day of their desire and fervor to be an astronaut, just don't suddenly talk about being an astronaut over lunch and then proclaim that they have suddenly 'seen the light' and now want to be a janitor for the rest of their lives. The way a person goes about interacting with the world just doesn't change in the course of a few minutes. For example, Superman doesn't use guns and knives to fight, so you wouldn't see Superman do that in any of his scenes, however that is basically what the writers here have done in this last episode - i.e. the basic M.O.s of characters in this TV Series is thrown out the window and they start doing things totally incongruous with who we have seen them to be. This is highly unrealistic even for a drama such as this. They might as well develop and start using an unknown super-power, that is how unbelievable the final scene is.
You have to gradually set-up how people change. Game of Thrones did this well, developing their characters over a number of seasons, giving you enough back story to understand how they changed. Doing it in the course of one episode, nay, even in one scene is just too much, too unbelievable. While the motives for the people doing what they did at the end of this episode might have sounded 'thrilling' and 'suspenseful' when the plot/script writers were putting it down on paper, even the director should have picked up how the audience needed to be carried through the change process gradually.
There are so many other more realistic and just as dramatic ways the main protagonists could have interacted in this final episode that actually would have made it more dramatic and more believable... something that the audience could relate to on some meaningful and equally powerful, gripping and thrilling level.
I am a big fan of less is more. The final scene in particular should have ended about 2 minutes before it did. That way, the script writers could have carefully constructed the next episode to develop the characters as they were. Developed more back story and engaged the audience with something they could believe in and relate to more.
That's really what this episode feels like. It's all wrong. The characters, while somewhat 'over-dramatically' flawed (yes I get it's a drama and can look past some of the over-dramatisation of the characters) in their own ways, have not shown any signs of really doing what they did in this episode, before now. There are so many flip-flops in the final scene it leaves the viewer wondering what on earth is going on - and not in a good way.
It's about striking a balance between predictability and unpredictability. Realism and fiction. To my mind the scripting and directing did not take that on board for this episode. The actors, production and editing did their best here. No, the blame for this episode being so poor in many people's eyes lays somewhere on the shoulders of the writers and director.
From here on in it will be hard to believe anything form a real, flawed person point of view as I cannot trust the writers to portray real motivations sensibly or accurately anymore. I half expect anyone to do something thoroughly -out-of-character now which takes away from the real human 'drama' that could have been unfolding before our eyes. Arghhh!
I gave it 1\10 primarily for the last scene which ruined everything that came before it (which wasn't too bad, if I am to be fair). :( :( :(
Maybe if they had cut the last 2 minutes out and continued with what we saw there, then this episode would have scored at least a 7/10, maybe even higher. However I'm sorry to say they didn't, and so a 1 is the score it gets. Such a sad way to end the season. :(
Adventures of Aladdin (2019)
Extremely bad movie
From the outset the acting, direction, production, FX and script are extremely poor.
Like many others here have already said - don't bother watching this.
(This *might* be enjoyable for very young children to watch, however I wouldn't want to be the adult that has to sit through this movie with them) :(