Change Your Image
The_Crow18
Reviews
She-Hulk: Attorney at Law (2022)
5.1 is too high for this
Where is there to begin in this incoherent, poorly directed, awfully written, badly acted, character garbage disposal, visually lacking, with cringy low humor, jumbled mess?
Even if you came with low expectations, you would leave your time has been robbed from the tip off your fingers, for such terrible mess that is called "She-Hulk".
There is no sort of logical, or creative thought, behind the process of this show, that takes more a swing towards the fans, and viewers, (that made the MCU what it is), than actually focusing on telling a good story.
The fact they see the fans in such a low, condescending manner, tells you all you need to know why you should avoid this at all costs.
I tried to give it a chance, I really did, but those 20+ mins of every episode were excruciating to get past through.
Redeeming qualities? Almost none with the exception of Daredevil appearance, and the art in the ending credits which I find more appealing than the actual show, that really doesn't even follow it's own settings and storyline.
To call it "bad" is an understatement. Do yourself a favor and watch something better to watch. It simply does not worth your time.
Spider-Man 2 (2004)
Still the greatest Spider-Man film and interpretation of all time
The Sam Raimi trilogy is the epitome of what the Spider-Man character represents. The curse and the gift that comes with the having those super powers, its a love letter to the classic storylines, while adopting something fresh and modern with it.
"Spider-Man 2" does not only raise the stakes, it evolves every bit of character and storylines within this film, and the development and responsibility that comes with it.
While the first film set the foundations so well, while being the most accurate cinematic story arc of the character we have till this day, this one sets a larger scale of consequences, while still staying a personal story to Peter and his inner circle.
Every bit of good thing from the first translates even higher here, from the beautiful score of Elfman's, to the grandiose memorable action scenes, and the emotional ones that are narrated by both parental figures of Peter, Aunt May and Uncle Ben, his distant love and protection to MJ, and the guilt that follows with his best friend and him feeling responsible for what happened. There is much emotions, while him struggling to balance between his life and it all plays out in a perfect mix of drama, action, comedy and emotional roller coaster.
After 3 cinematic interpretations, it is safe to say that Raimi understood the character the most and it shows and much of the success helped to establish the genre as we know it today.
Here's to hoping for more of his touch, and love for the character to continue within the MCU, with both Tobey's Spider-Man and Doctor Strange and we can enjoy more of these great memorable stories like this timeless classic.
Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021)
A film that finally unites the fanbase
As a fan of the character, those I always felt the series peaked in the Raimi era. Those films managed to capture the essence of Peter Parker as much of and him trying to navigate between leading a double life as Peter Parker and Spider-Man to perfection.
While those focused on much of the emotional depth of the relationship of its characters, while having memorable elements in every aspect, from the Parker luck, staying true for the most part to the classic take of the source material and characters, while having an amazing visuals, depth, fantastic action scenes and score. They were eventful. They felt big, they were big and an experience to witness and anticipate in theaters. I haven't had that feeling ever since, and my inner fan kept eagerly to try and regain it, to a point I already lost hope it will happen ever again. That was until No Way Home arrived.
Now I'll admit, The MCU version did not appealed to me. I supported it as the fan that I am to the character, but was still looking for that "old" excitement and anticipation to be recaptured, still in the search of a feeling that they could do better. Cause they already did that before! And they have so much material to work with! And yet, I kept getting disappointed. The MCU Take, felt too kid friendly, that took away the independence and brilliance of the character, it lacked depth, it was focused to appeal to mostly younger generation, it changed characters for the sake of current climate, it made Peter rely solely on new shiny suits, and tech, and Spider-Man couldn't afford to have his very own villains not be connected to Iron Man, and becomes the very character he resent in the comics, and in much better films.
While I did had anticipation with seeing the beloved characters from both eras of Raimi's trilogy, and Webb's duology, I kept my expectations intact, cause this version was stuck in a time loop and refused to let the character grow and develop for so long.
But oh, boy, yeah that it found a way to redeem itself and finish this trilogy with a big bang!
Not only it leans much it evolves new with nostalgia and fan service, it actually goes in depth in diving into the roots and lore of the past characters, and evolve the MCU Spider-Man in the ways we kept waiting and hoped to see.
There is a huge progress, and real consequences that are being taken place, and while the film does lean on much of the past characters and nostalgia, it does not feels cynical, or a bait, and have much heart and respect towards them and their stories. Every single one of them have time to shine, without the film being convoluted, and crammed, with too many characters, and subplots together.
The film just keeps you on the edge of your seat with every moment, and recapturing your inner child/teen excitement you thought you lost long ago.
Holland's Spider-Man is developing to his own independent hero we've been waiting for him to be. The film does not only bring closure to him by developing from being out in the shadow of more established characters in this universe, but also helps to bring closure and open a possibly new era of the old characters as well.
I had absolute blast while watching this, not only it was a love letter to all Spider-Man fans, both cinematic and comic wise, but it did it wonderfully with uniting such divided fanbase.
Hollywood proved when they focus on giving fans what they want and love, the fans will support them back with love and support. And the huge success this film has proves it.
The Matrix Resurrections (2021)
A more personal story of the Matrix
I've read about much of the criticism regarding this film, And while I can honestly understand much of it, this film does not deserve the amount of backlash it's getting.
However, as a huge fan of the original trilogy (yes, the sequels too), I lowered my expectations way below, and gave it a chance to try and prove those low expectations wrong. And while the film try to shake things up in changing some of the mythology of the series, that made the originals so great, and inventive, and much thankful to the amazing first film, this film is in a pretty impossible task to match that kind of level, and I can give credit of trying to adopt new layers of elements within the franchise. Does it all work? No. Does it all fail? Also no.
Its harder to digest since the changes they made, and new characters and subplot, but in the end its very much of the same. Its if there are changes, but not actual ones. Just different names and "skins" to much of the same.
But this was very much a Neo's film and journey of a self rediscovery.
Yeah, it feels underwhelming to the original three, which were big bombastic scifi philosophical action films, that reinvented the genre, and questioned social constructs as we know it, and all had something new to add, a stylish action packed that had a great combo of entertainment and much thought behind them. But, I understood some of the direction they took. With much, Much, slower burn than the originals.
It feels much less climatic, smaller scaled, but more personal, and self aware story, to a point of mocking itself, and its motives, at some points during the film.
Yes, It should have been better, it should have had more soul, and love put into it, it should have respected more the lore of the originals, cinematography, score, atmosphere, feeling and characters, and should have been made in times Hollywood was here to tell stories, and not pander its audiences with identity politics and gaslight their ideologies in every film, (Merv was totally right with his criticism), but this film is not much in fault of being a product of it's time, and still In times that much of most major franchises are being compromised, and in trying to fix past "mistakes" (poor sequels/prequels/reboots/remakes/spinoffs).
We are entering an era of fan service, after the recent years pushed much of its audience away, and while some did a great job in fixing it, and uniting old and new fans (Spider-Man No Way Home, Dune, The Suicide Squad, Snyder's JL and Ghostbusters: Afterlife), most still in the process of going back to their roots in focusing on telling a great compelling story. And there's still hope for many of those.
Will time will help to the advantage of the film to be better and have a better outlook? We'll have to wait and find out. But take it for what it is. A film that should have been better, but ended up not being bad, with few good elements that might work for it on the long run.
Terminator: Dark Fate (2019)
How to ruin a franchise in 2 minutes.
Terminator - "Dark Fate" - Truly lives up to its name.
It is a film that represents everything that is wrong with Hollywood these days, to a point that makes you wanna walk away from the cinema experience altogether. Ever again.
A miserable, lazy, woke attempt, that classifieds itself be the "true" sequel to the timeless classics that were the first two, that doesn't only ruin their legacy, but lowering the bar to a new low by being (by faaaaar) the worst Terminator film.
The film is so lazy in trying to push the feminist message so bad, that it makes little sense to why it do what it does, and gives no explanation about it whatsoever other than promoting its woke message and casting. Either of its lazy women empowerment, (Sarah Connor was already one of the badass female characters in history and this film does not do her any good), to the illegal boarding immigration crisis, gender identities and pro life-choice, while trying to focus on promoting the minorities message. I kid you not!
To call the movie "bad", is understatement, that takes away from the definition of the word.
With all its impressive budget, the film feels cheap, poorly shot, boring, badly edited, with bleak dark atmosphere, to a point it's hard to see what's going on that doesn't do the movie any favors.
The film betrays everything that makes the original films great, and destroys them by the very opening scene. Which was both the best within this film (solely based by its beautiful visuals), but worst in terms of the outcome, that makes you think they were drunk while writing, and shooting this film.
It copies every one of the elements, and subplots of the sequels its trying to "erase", and brings nothing new other than the constant loop formula this series has been using from the very first film.
Arnold, which is the face of this franchise, is just shoved in to a performance that feels more like a comical cameo, than an actual role.
Avoid at all costs, to a point of erasing this film from your memory's existence. It is ignorantly woke that cares to promote the message criteria than be an actual good film and worthy sequel to the franchise. Yes. Even the other sequels are far more entertaining and true to the source material, unlike this travesty.
Spider-Man: Far from Home (2019)
Weak, childish, and takes away from the independence of the character.
The MCU version of Spider-Man takes away everything we love about the character of Spider-Man and change it completely to appeal to a very specific demographic that doesn't allow the character to grow and evolve.
Once again, Spider-Man in the MCU can't rely on its own strengths, without a constant support of more established characters in the MCU, smacking the hand of the little kiddo that has been degraded to a sidekick.
Its already been five films (going on the sixth) portrayal of Holland's Spider-Man since the great 2016 Captain America's Civil War, and the character have still yet to grow, evolve, and learn the power or responsibility that comes with his powers.
Either leaning on Stark's tech, that's now imprinted within the DNA of this interpretation, or have every Spider-Man villain connected to either Iron Man, or former more evolved arcs of the previous versions of the character (in the upcoming No Way Home).
The result is a boring weak, unfunny, extremely childish film and story, that takes away from the tension of the action scenes and forgettable bland direction of Jon Watts, that seems more like a studio's "Yes Man" that put the pieces together of Feige and the executives have in mind.
The motive of the villain is more than ridiculous to a point of it becomes parody of itself, with scenes that I don't know how they can get overlooked.
You take away from an extremely independent character, and turn it to be completely dependent on other more charismatic cast, and characters, to lead and take control of the film, even if their screentime is significantly lower.
The action scenes feels like a cheap CGI fest, with very little memorable scenes and thrills in between, and all happens so quickly, and poorly shot, that its hard to enjoy it.
Spider-Man peaked with its former cinematic interpretation with the Raimi series.
A director that understood the character, and grew and read on the source material and treated it with the respect it deserves. We can only hope that with the mingle of Multiverse that some of those good qualities will be printed into that, and not the other way around.
Incredibles 2 (2018)
The Incredibles deserve better.
This could have been an amazing sequel, if the motive of the studio was to tell a genuine good story, as the first film did.
Sadly, they focused on cheap rehash of the first film, and reversed the roles, while lowering the role of Mr. Incredible, and pushing a political woke messages.
Which hurt the flow, sense and story of the film, which was one of the longest awaited sequels.
The outcome is extremely underwhelming film, forgettable, boring at times, and lacks to repeatable viewing experience the first one had.
Toy Story 4 (2019)
Doesn't justify its own existence and takes away from the emotional ending of the 3rd.
This is a prime example that in today's day of age, when stories are being compromised whether it's by politics, cash grab, laziness, or lack of creativity, that some stories are better to be left alone, and leave the good, emotional impact as being a product of their time.
Toy Story 4 is one of those. It takes away the powerful impactful of a 3rd film that was just just shy a bit of a decade between them.
It doesn't feel like it has any genuine emotional story to tell, and actually wastes some of those characters that we grew and loved so much, and try to cash on some nostalgia trips and emotional scenes, though they lack an actual impact or creativity behind them, and feel over stretched and forced because Disney need to push the narrative and toy sales.
Sadly, Disney keep exploiting their classics, instead of creating new ideas, that we can look back fondly same way as we looked on those. And compromise them for cheap political messages (that may have be a bit more subtle here) for just flat out laziness and cheap cash grab from a loved franchise that only shows that its not enough to justify its own existence.