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Reviews
Fate: The Winx Saga (2021)
Solid fantasy, not childish, not overly adult
I am aware of the existence of the "Winx Club" show and may have watched an episode or three with my daughter some years back but I am not familiar with the source material at all.
That said, other than requiring a certain level of adeptness in understanding the usual fantasy tropes, the Fate: The Winx Saga series does not rely overly heavily on prior knowledge.
All those caveats aside, I thought it was quite a good series. The characters were generally believable. The conflicts both major and minor were interesting. As a parent, I wanted to yell as the Young Adults to get their heads out of their collective behinds but at the same time I know the series is aimed at that same age group so... yeah.
This is not a children's show. There is drug use, sexual reference, some sexual situations but as I recall nothing super explicit. PG-13 except for language which often goes into the R territory (but not gratuitously which I appreciated).
All in all, I highly recommend the series and hope it continues along. It worked on a number of levels and hope it gets more episodes next season. Or series, or whatever we're calling them now.
Imawa no Kuni no Arisu: Episode 8 (2020)
Good live action manga adaptation
I'm going to assume you're going to watch this knowing that it's a Japanese modern-set fantasy production. You may or may not know that it's based on Japanese manga; I am not familiar with the source material at all, I just happened to see that it was based on some when doing basic research on whether to bother watching it.
If these kinds of things aren't your cup of tea, don't watch it. It's science-fiction-ish but really it's done kind of a minimal science fiction plot to explore some character and human nature themes.
For being within that genre, I thought it was quite decent. The English dub was OK; the main issue I have was a lot like a problem I have with many anime titles, the closed-captioning subtitles and the English dub were not in sync. But that's maybe OK since you can get more information about the source material to see two different translations. (OK, it's really just annoying but I'm trying to make lemonade here.)
The games / puzzles that the characters end up having to go through are slightly obvious, our hero should have figured out a few of them in an instant. But whatever, plot rulez. I still recommend it. 8 might be overly strong but I think it's a good series and being an adaptation of existing IP, doesn't seem to cut many corners.
Maybe followers of the original manga have tons of problems with it, they usually do, but on its own, I liked it, I'm very glad I watched it, and I am looking forward to the next season or whatever we call them nowadays.
Pixels (2015)
It's fun, don't expect Independence Day or something
I don't understand why this movie has such a low rating.
If you expect a serious treatment of alien invaders, yeah, you're going to be put off.
If you realize that this is an Adam Sandler production with Adam in the lead role and Kevin James as the doofus POTUS, you'll know that this is not a serious movie at all. It's fun.
Hey when Q-Bert is a character and is as likable as I thought he would be, it's got to be good, yeah?
Prepper (2016)
Sophomoric, pretty bad, not a terrible message
There are worse films out there.
When that's how your review starts, it probably is bad news.
I don't have a ton good to say about the film. The acting is stunted; I constantly felt like the leads were going to break into laughter because they just didn't believe in what they were doing.
The overall topic and scenario were not terrible. The message walked a fine line of being informative, preachy, or critical.
The title probably doesn't deserve the (high) rating it's getting, it deserves a solid 3 or 4. I give it a 4 just because I did enjoy watching it even though the acting was cringy.
Better Late Than Never: Seoul Brothers (2016)
What fun!
This series is so fun, I just can't get over it! I spend pretty much every episode just grinning and chuckling like a fool.
I won't spoil anything but the DMZ visit was a real hoot in this visit to Korea.
My wife isn't a fan because it's spectating on other people having fun. She thinks I'm being a fan-boy of Bill Shatner but I actually am (well, was) not a huge fan of his but after seeing him in this he's gone way up in my eyes.
Bright (2017)
Solid non-traditional mythic story
Orcs, humans, elves, fairies? Must be Tolkien, right? Nope. This isn't Lord of the Rings.
Bright is a solid movie with Will Smith adding his usual charm and flair to the production. I don't understand why the critics are so negative about it but they are what they are. Don't go in expecting some Peter Jackson production but it's a good time hopefully leading off a new franchise.
In terms of world-building, mostly good but I don't know how LA exists in its mostly current form or how Shrek got made with Shrek and Fiona still (there's a Shrek joke made, no spoiler there I believe). Those kinds of errors are somewhat grating since the basic premise is what might modern times look like if we had these races living in close proximity for millennia.
I think it was definitely worth watching. I may watch it again to see what I missed.