Jim_E_Cornette Reviews

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (2024)

Godzilla needs to start being truly scary.

[6/10 · 16 May 2024]

Godzilla's reduction to almost a cameo in this one notwithstanding, he needs to start being truly scary. Going ape (full pun intended) in Hong Kong on his previous outing was a step in the right direction. He's no longer seen as the all-benevolent protector of mankind, and he's more than happy to demonstrate that he'll gladly splat humans in planes and warships like bugs if it suits his purposes.

When you imagine giant monsters stomping across the landscape, you don't picture overly irritating sidekick characters dropping unfunny one-liners and cracking unfunny jokes. Enough with the tiresome "comic relief" trope. No more Bernie, no more Trapper, no more obese Madison sidekick.

I've had my fair share of kaiju dreams, and I remember all of them being scary as hell. I'd wake up with my heart pounding away like a piston. There was nothing remotely funny about them. What they were: terrifyingly awesome. And I loved every second of them.

Boring family subplot & dense dialogue aside, Godzilla Minus One knew the score. They are not cute plushies that you cuddle with in bed, they are Monsters. They need to start looking and playing the part.

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (2024)

We waited 3 years for this

[4/10 · 8 May 2024]

I'm no expert on Ghostbuster lore, but overall Garraka isn't a patch on Gozer. Nothing really interesting about him, and looks like he can be taken down with a simple flamethrower.

Gozer was a truly ominous threat, with its influence seemingly spread into the very fabric of the world, making it almost looking like Satan himself. There's so much you can do with that, but with a boring flash-in-the-pan villain of the week like Garraka, this felt more like an episode than a movie.

And then, the worst part: far too many truly irritating characters/actors. The previously nerdy-adorable McKenna Grace is just so nerve-grating to watch here. The teen angst theme is so overdone it's not even funny. And speaking of "not funny", the uber-unfunny Kumail Nanjiani is more insufferable than ever - why he keeps getting cast is beyond me.

The only standout performers here are Logan Kim & Dan Aykroyd. They've got legit chemistry and I'd love to see a mini-series with the 2 of them solving supernatural mysteries.

The parents were there doing their thing, and the other 2 kids might as well not be there at all. They're just irrelevant at this stage.

All in all, I wouldn't be surprised if any planned sequels get cancelled.

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters: Will the Real May Please Stand Up? (2023) Season 1, Episode 7

No filler episodes.

[5/10 · 23 December 2023]

I did say in my overall review that we don't need to have Titans waltzing around every 5 minutes because we're gonna get plenty of that soon enough.

But once you reach a certain point in the narrative, then scaling back with underwhelming results, it's very disappointing.

Considering where the last episode ended, I definitely expected to see where that would lead. The last thing I wanted to see is an entire episode dedicated to boring family drama side plots - and that's what it really was despite the connection to Monarch & Apex.

The nature of limited tv series with only 8-10 episodes in the season means No. Filler. Episodes. Which is what this one felt like. I found myself skipping ahead far too often, because at this stage I couldn't care less about May's family or her background, or anyone else's for that matter.

We've had a gutsful of family boohoo from the Daddy-Issues duo already. It's time to advance the Titan plot.

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters (2023– )

Fascinating!

[9/10 · 24 November 2023]

I was one of the people who weren't happy with Godzilla's lacking substantial screen time in the 2014 flick. Then we got King of the Monsters & Kong thrown into the mix, and we all got our thirst quenched. On top of that we got another Titan battle royal just a few months away from now. As a Monsterverse-lover, I am very happy.

Delving deep into the Monarch mythos is a very fascinating notion indeed. They weren't always the "government advisors" that we saw in San Francisco and onwards. And tbefore that they were certainly not as benevolent as the Watchers in the Highlander universe.

They are as ugly, if not uglier, than NSA and all the organizations keeping everyone in the dark about extraterrestrial presence in our planet. And "Legacy of Monsters" is an exceptional and much-needed addition to the Monsterverse, as it shows us how things really work behind the scenes.

3 episodes in, and I'm already hooked. That's the thing about TV shows: they give you the time & opportunity to flesh things out in a way that movies cannot due to time constraints.

We don't see Titans waltzing around every 5 minutes here, and we don't need to see that, we're gonna get more soon enough. LoM is an excellent way to keep interest fresh & ongoing in the Monsterverse, while answering a lot of questions & expanding on events briefly mentioned in the films. Operation Lucky Dragon FTW.

I can't wait to do a full marathon of this, and I hope they keep it ongoing for at least a couple more reasons that overlap with the films, seeing the aftermath up close & personal.

Diablo IV (2023 Video Game)

They learned nothing.

[4/10 · 3 July 2023]

Wasted potential. ~15 years of Diablo 3 development & maintenance, and a few years of Diablo Immortal, yet they learned nothing about what makes a good Diablo game in the 21st century.

Instead they tried to cater to the Diablo 2 fossils by copy/pasting all the classes & skills from it, and then charged us full price for the same old cr@p that everyone and their granny has already played for 1000 hours 10-20 years ago.

No new classes, hardly any new skills, terrible legendary powers, zero innovation or originality. Tries to be MMO-lite but provides zero incentive for grouping up, and doesn't even have a Group Finder or Lobby Creator, or even a decent chat system.

Result: a stale-from-the-start mess with zero replayability, terrible class design and no real endgame to speak of, with players abandoning it in droves.

I've dragged Diablo 3 over the coals plenty in my lifetime, but it still kept me playing for ~10 years despite having no mod support - mods being the only reason Diablo 2 stayed popular enough. Diablo 3 gave us vastly improved classes to the point where you felt like you were playing something completely new. That is what Diablo 4 is missing - something new to play.

The game director's only skill is copy/pasting & cutting corners from top to bottom. Diablo 3 has no less than 8 fully professionally rendered Cinematics. Diablo 4 only has 2, the rest are rendered in-game in much lower quality.

The Bestiary is the same 5-6 boring enemy groups copy/pasted across the entire game. Lycans, Skeletons/Ghouls, Ghosts, Goatmen, human Bandits, Fallen, with the occasional cameo of Wasps, Scorpions, Spiders, Bears/Boars and some varied Hellspawn during timed events. As soon as I heard the phrase "monster families" I had a sinking feeling in my gut, but I never imagined how bad it was really gonna be.

The Endgame...what endgame? They took the worst of Diablo 3 and somehow made it even more tedious, with the same 4-5 variations of Dungeons being considered "the endgame" while you grind your way to max level 100 at a snail's pace.

Add on top a bunch of one-time irritating side quests with mostly unskippable dialogue, the same 4-5 copy/pasted random events across the game world, a poor excuse for a timed event called Helltide, and a couple of terribly designed "world bosses" that appear without any warning so you never know they're there. Because there's no decent chat function or group finder.

The Cosmetic shop is a complete fail because in-game colors are terribly washed out to the point where it doesn't even matter what your toon looks like.

The game itself has been completely outdone by a mobile game built around Pay2Win. When a P2W mobile game is more fun than D4, then you know it has failed miserably.

You would think it was created by Kathleen Kennedy.

Shin Godzilla (2016)

Worse than a high school film project

[1/10 · 13 May 2023]

1 hour of my life that would've been better spent watching something far more exciting, like drying paint. Seriously, this is what "critical success" looks like in Japan? My 8 year old nephew can do better than this.

90% of that hour consisted of a bunch of blathering incompetent bureaucrats soiling their britches. 5% is of the creature slithering around or walking leisurely around at 1 frame per second, and the remaining 5% is the creature going catatonic while it's getting pelted with mortar and bullets.

And this is what they call excellent cinematography in Japan? No self-respecting Kaiju would ever just stand around like an idiot with its arms spread wide saying "here I am, come get me". Legendary's Godzilla would be turning in his grave if he weren't still alive. At the very least he'd be embarrassed to be sharing part of the same name as this dumb beast.

I can't fathom how devoid of imagination, creativity and passion the Japanese film makers must be in order to think this kind of sad drivel is acceptable. Nevermind the actual people who lap this drivel up & call it a masterpiece.

Thankfully I had enough common sense to stop watching around the halfway mark where the beast finally shows some semblance of personality and starts going bananas on its surroundings, because I had already gone past the point of no return and nothing could keep me watching any further.

The Winchesters (2022–2023)

Someone tell Jensen: retcons stink

[4/10 · 2 November 2022]

We knew since the announcement of the series that huge retcons will be taking place, which completely ignore the baseline of what we know about the beginning of Mary & John's relationship: that John never knew anything about Mary's hunter past & only became a hunter himself after she died.

A decent Supernatural fan would give this one a chance, if you can ignore the glaring retcon.

However, it seems that as executive producer, Jensen Ackles has forgotten much of the Supernatural basics. Or worse: he's ignoring it.

There are a lot of great Canadian actors, and the original never seemed laughable in that way. But the acting here is just BAD. With the exception of Carlos, which is far worse: intolerable.

The fights are worse than amateurish, which make it seem like a bad college skit. And then there's the casting.

Mary: Why couldn't they bring back Amy Gumenick? She's a fine young lady who hasn't even reached her prime yet, and she can pull off a fight scene just fine. But no, they just had to cast some no-name Tiktok random-looking pinch-face broad with ugly eyebrows and even worse acting ability.

John: Jeffrey Dean Morgan looked like an older Dean. So this time around they decided to go the other way and make John look like a runway model version of Sam, even down to the frikkin flannel and Bambi eyes. Really?

Carlos: the only thing worse than the character himself is his godawful irritating change-channel causing overacting.

Indian girl: Haven't seen all that much of her, so I'll refrain from judging. For now, this means she's simply forgettable and hasn't made any impression.

Ada M: at first I thought she was a young Missouri Moseley, which I would've welcomed. But she's just a witch-wannabe that can literally be anyone. Also forgettable at this stage.

The only one I like at this stage is Bianca Kajlich, who I've always been a fan of. I don't recall ever hearing anything about John's mom so this is a welcome chance to get to know her at last. At least there's no retcon to worry about here.

I just don't get why Jensen would allow all this mediocrity to take place. You'd think after doing it for 15 years he'd know what n-o-t to do. The way this is going, I'm half-expecting Castiel to show up wearing Jimmy Novak, even though the latter dude is still in diapers at this stage.

Get a clue, Dean.

Resident Evil (2022)

Go Woke = Go Broke - Cancelled one month later.

[1/10 · 15 July 2022]

My original review called for Project Alice to be given her Oscar already because the RE flicks are Oscar-worthy compared to this abomination.

But now, after news of said abomination being cancelled one month after debuting - which makes me very happy, all I can say is: Go Woke = Go Broke.

The average viewer is sick & tired of all the politically correct woke crap shoved down our throat, year after year after year. And what happens when you ignore that fact is you lose a ton of money, and tons of subscribers in Netflix's case.

But, Hollywood, I highly doubt you'll learn anything from this, because learning from your mistakes is clearly not in your programming. So you'll keep putting out pure trash like this and you'll keep losing money and subscribers. And the last half of that statement will make me very happy indeed.

Now continuing onto my original review:

Because the "loosely based on the Resident Evil game series" Alice flicks are Oscar material compared to this trainwreck. And here I thought the movie reboot was disastrous enough.

I hate to give this a 1/10 because Lance Reddick deserves so much better than this, but even he couldn't save this trainwreck. It's basically The CW meets The Walking Dead, done in the worst way possible by including the entire list of "worst TV tropes" in one show.

• Race-swapping an iconic character.

• Completely butchering backstory of said iconic character.

• Completely bismirching the lore of this iconic franchise with trash writing.

• Plastering veganism all over the place.

• Focusing far more on actors' skin color than talent (hardly any to speak of).

• Overdone aggravating "teen drama".

I can go on like this all day long but Christmas is coming so I'll stop here. If you thought the movie reboot was an abortion, you clearly haven't watched the reboot series. Do yourself a favor and d-o-n-t do that.

I can't help but laugh at all the unpaid shills who say "zomg ignore the hatorz!!!", yet they can't provide a single legitimate justification for giving this abortion a 10/10. Not without lying through their teeth, anyway.

Netflix, if you're wondering why your sub count is sinking faster than a cannonball in custard, this is why.

The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills (2010– )

"You've had the same hairdo for 20 years..."

[7/10 · 16 June 2022]

This atrociously slimy "reality show" can be summed up by that one sentence.

Yes they are self-absorbed, shallow to the bone, conceited and plain nasty. Every single one of them. But that's what makes it hilarious to binge. And they thought Bad Girls Club was bad?? T-h-i-s is badd! With 2 D's...full pun intended.

I hate trash scripted "reality" shows (then again they all are trash) but I would watch this. But maybe only if they skipped to all the fights, because I can't stand the shallow shopping and doing their makeup trying to look 30 years younger in the meantime.

Uncharted (2022)

Adult Goonies meets suit-less Spiderman

[6/10 · 2 May 2022]

Unlike the majority of clueless people around here who fail to grasp the concept of "it's NOT a videogame adaptation, it's a kinda-origin story of a videogame character", I can easily understand and ignore that.

What it is, it's nothing we haven't seen before. It's an adult version of Goonies minus Sloth, with Spiderman-copied stunts and fight scenes minus the suit and uber-irritating Zendaya.

The plot is basic and overdone, the dialogue is just as basic and not worth remembering, and the action scenes don't make this anything more than "watch it once and then forget it exists".

Nothing to write home about. Just something to watch one night if you're really bored. And people, please stop comparing it to Indiana Jones. It makes Henry Jones Sr squirm in his grave.

The Shannara Chronicles (2016–2017)

How does this abomination have an overall rating of 7.2?

[2/10 · 2 April 2022]

As a fan of the books, I have to say to Terry Brooks "shame on you". Then again he does have a reputation for not giving a damn about his legacy.

As soon as I saw the main cast - led by the particularly nauseating Austin Butler - I knew this was going to be a complete disaster.

Now, the Shannara books are hardly Rated 18, they don't contain vivid descriptions of graphic violence, so I wasn't exactly expecting a LotR-esque display. And yes, the "Elfstones of Shannara" that this abomination is based on is centered on two youth. But this just didn't have to be so "MTV". You know? The only thing that could've gone worse is if the CW had picked it up instead - they can ruin anything and everything.

If they had started with the "Sword of Shannara" instead, they would've been better off. But instead they chose to cater to all the brainless teens out there who wouldn't know "good TV" if it booped them on the nose, as per usual.

Terrible uneven pacing, brain-numbing script, weak delivery and cheap costumes that looked like they were plucked out of a party stash. And who on earth decided to cast a shrimp like Manu Bennett as the 7+foot tall Allanon??

If you're not gonna respect the original material and cast people who actually look like who they're supposed to be, what is the point? And what do you get for it? C-a-n-c-e-l-l-e-d, no less than what it deserved.

Jackass Forever (2022)

~50yo dropkicks

[3/10 · 17 March 2022]

This is just tragic, just as tragic as the overall state of Bam Margera.

A bunch of ~50yo dropkicks clinging desperately to their memories of their wasted youth, wanting to be 20 again. Just embarrassing.

The Batman (2022)

Batman cures insomnia.

[3/10 · 4 March 2022]

I'm not entirely sure what I was expecting, other than maybe a Joker 2019 surprise gem. Although with Perpetually-Stoned-face Pattinson, my expectations sure weren't high. Against my misgivings, I decided to give it a shot.

And I regretted it about 30 minutes into it. Depressing and not in a good way, slow-paced in the worst way, with yet another batch of terrible miscasts continuing the trend of casting the worst choices for titular roles. Amateur-at-best action scenes, a far cry from what you'd expect from a Batman film. Michael Keaton would be turning in his grave if he weren't still alive today.

But hey! It wore me out so bad it ended up curing my insomnia!

Erotic Ghost Story (1990)

Pure comedy gold

[10/10 · 9 February 2022]

If you're expecting Golden Globe-level acting here, you're in the wrong place. This is hilarious softcore erotica, plain and simple.

Between the campy dialogue, the thinly veiled innuendos and the side-splitting over-the-top situations that these "ladies" find themselves into - the smile of pure glee will never leave your face.

Worth watching at least once a year.

Armageddon (1998)

Much worse than I remembered it

[5/10 · 3 February 2022]

This was just one of the bunch of the End-of-the-World flicks to come out as the end of the millenium was upon us.

I was still in high school when this came out and I can remember the promotional craziness surrounding it. Seeing it again 20 years later I'm surprised at how subpar it actually is compared to the others.

They focused way too much on the melodramatic stuff, and the "action" scenes that many people praised aren't all that interesting at all. "Deep Impact" did everything far better and it's still perfectly watchable to this day - if you can ignore the irritating teen romance stuff.

Yet, for all it's high-budget cast, Armageddon manages to fall flat writing-wise. Between the already-mentioned melodrama overload, the painful character cliches and the constant NASA control center drama, overall it's almost a chore to sit through. Stream it once just to get it out of the way, and never think of it again.

Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City (2021)

Makes you appreciate Alice even more now, eh?

[2/10 · 9 December 2021]

Oh dear where do I even start??

Poor Scodelario, one of the finest young actors of this generation, is so massively wasted in this. The frustratingly uneven pacing, the cheap-looking CGI, the amateur dialogue, and some of the biggest casting mistakes I've ever seen.

Amell looks perfect as Chris Redfield, and Scodelario shines in pretty much everything she's in. But why on earth is Leon S. Kennedy suddenly Indian?? And who is that African girl supposed to be? Jill Valentine? In what universe?

If you're gonna call it an "authentic reboot" that aims to distance itself from the "based on/inspired by the video game series" Alice flicks by wanting to be more faithful to the original material, at least cast people who actually l.o.o.k l.i.k.e the characters they're supposed to be portraying.

But you had to go ahead and ruin it anyway by miscasting ethnic actors just to say "oh look how inclusive we are, yay!" #ResidentWoke

If you can't get the look right, you've already half-ruined it. And then you half-ruined it some more with the plethora of other shortcomings. Congratulations.

PS: hold onto Avan Jogia for the next reboot of the reboot, he'd make a great Carlos Olivera. At least they look alike. There you go, I've fixed one of your casting dilemmas for ya.

Day of the Dead (2021)

Is it too much to ask...?

[2/10 · 30 November 2021]

To expect TV to leave out the woke agenda for once? Am I asking for an arm & a leg? No, I'm not a zombie.

Forced myself to finish the first episode, won't even make the mistake of starting the second.

Compounded by the high school-grade CGI, wooden acting and painful dialogue, that will not be hard to do.

Skipped.

The Golden Girls (1985–1992)

Consider me converted.

[10/10 · 13 November 2021]

I'm a 36 year old man who has a hardcore sense of humor, meaning most "comedy" trash on TV resemble to me a "Please Try To Laugh if you feel sorry for us" challenge.

Yet, it's impossible for me ---not--- to laugh out loud at least once per episode of these Golden beauties.

For the longest time I made the same assumption too many people did: that this was a show for old people to watch. Well, a fated Youtube recommendation of "Sexy Blanche" was all it took to convince me, and convert me.

Not least of which because I'm the male version of Blanche. So how can I not watch and enjoy a show that features my spirit-animal mother??

The Tomorrow War (2021)

Star-Lord & Miranda Lawson on the team

[8/10 · 3 July 2021]

Things surely went from 0 to 100 within the first 10 minutes. I would've liked a few minutes of Future Backstory before they dumped all that exposition onto us, but considering the film is 2+ hours long I suppose they had to make a concession or two.

Other than that, it's an interesting take on the overdone Alien Invasion theme. Coupled with very satisfying visceral action & keeping the unnecessary comedy to the minimum, it's a great way to spend 2 hours on a cold, stormy Saturday evening.

And then it makes you want to fire up Mass Effect, to fight your way through the galaxy alongside the criminally underrated Yvonne Strahovsky.

8/10 would definitely watch again very soon.

Loki (2021–2023)

Loki = Ultimate Sugar Rush

[10/10 · 17 June 2021]

Loki the character, and Loki the series is pure deliciousness.

The creamiest, most decadent ice cream topped with chocolate chips topped with crushed Oreos topped with marshmallows topped with cherry syrup topped with mischief topped with devilish charm topped with otherwordly intelligence topped with glorious purpose.

You're gonna get a major sugar rush with just one bite, but you know you can't have just one. Because it is too damn delicious. And that's Loki.

Things from one episode to the next have gone from 0 to 100 real fast, real good. I cannot even fathom how they're gonna top the first 2 episodes, but I know for a fact they will. With the irreplaceable Tom Hiddleston himself at the helm as executive producer, this can't possibly go wrong.

Bring it on.

Mortal Kombat (2021)

Test your might...not quite.

[6/10 · 25 April 2021]

Josh Lawson as Kano is by far THE highlight of this reboot, and the fights are quite entertaining. But I'm not optimistic about the chances of a sequel, since unfortunately the reboot itself leaves a lot to be desired.

• Far too much exposition far too early. Feels like there's at least half a movie missing in the beginning, regardless whether you're familiar with the lore or not. And they took far too many liberties with the source material.

• Terrible pacing & scenes ending abruptly. The entire story felt rushed.

• They kept mentioning the tournament, yet there was no tournament to speak of. They jumped from Scorpion's origin straight to 21st century Annihilation, with SubZero as a glorified extermination squad.

• They went overboard with the gore to cover up the mediocre script and weak story.

• Zero character development for most characters, especially the bad guys, leaving us scratching our chins as to why "some" are on Team Outworld since they're human.

• Puppeteers in 1995 did a fantastic job at bringing Goro to life, front & center as Shang Tsung's champion. Yet in 2021 they couldn't create half-decent CGI for such an iconic fighter. And it's pretty sad that the reigning Outworld champion & Shokan royalty was demoted to lowly extermination squad duty, and couldn't last 5 minutes against a washed-up MMA fighter with hardly any powers to speak of. Sheeva or Kintaro would've been a far better choice for the job.

• Terrible Shang Tsung performance from start to finish. Chin Han made the role look like literally anybody could've been cast. Not a patch on our original Sorcerer, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, who should've been brought back. So what if he's 70 years old? Shang's role was 100% passive here. And Cary was still as good as ever in MK Legacy.

• Completely forgettable soundtrack, which is a cardinal sin for a Mortal Kombat movie, since the music of which was always a boasting feature - even if the rest of the movie wasn't up to par. The hideous "Mortal Kombat" theme remix in the credits was, frankly, insulting to listen to.

21st century reboots tend to stink, and this one is sadly no exception. Now we wait to see if they'll make enough money to decide whether they're gonna bother with a sequel in order to introduce characters that should've already been in the first one.

This so-called reboot has been in development hell for over a decade, and I'm definitely not holding my breath for a sequel. At this stage I would've been happier to get the cancelled 2nd sequel to the original, Mortal Kombat: Devastation. Or at least a MK Legacy season 3.

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (2021)

A very weak start.

[5/10 · 21 March 2021]

WandaVision fascinated me from the very first episode, because it did something completely outside of the usual Marvel box, and I couldn't wait to see more. I loved the slow burn because it was obvious that it was going to big bada boom in a spectacular fashion. And by the end I couldn't get enough of it.

But this one had the complete opposite effect. I ignored my misgivings towards who I consider to be the most boring, uninteresting Avenger (Falcon) and the equally boring "babyface" Winter Soldier (much better as a heel), and I went into this with an open mind. I was interested to see Zemo back because I'm a Bruhl fan, even Emily VC.

Unfortunately that was not meant to be. By halfway through I was already feeling drowsy and was ready to turn it off. I'll spare you the spoilers, but too much uninteresting over-done drama that we've already seen too much of in the MCU.

Whoever claims the first episode is action-packed is clearly watching something else. And who on earth did that awful CGI??

I should've stuck with my original plan to wait until the entire series has aired so I can marathon it instead, and fast forward to the next episode if one got too bleh.

Well, at least we still got Loki to look forward to.

WandaVision (2021)

Consider me deliciously baffled!

[9/10 · 16 January 2021]

Within the first 5 minutes there was one thought constantly in my head.

"What in the holy guacamoly am I watching???"

My vision (full pun intended) was baffling me but the more I thought that, the wider my smile became, because the fact is I was thoroughly enjoying being royally baffled.

This has "multiverse" written all over it, and with each passing minute I became more fascinated. Seeing two iconic Avengers in such a unique setting is definitely a prelude for what's to come. Consider me CHARMED! And I cannot wait to see where this leads us.

PS: the 1-star review bombers really need to get:

• a life
• a brain
• and a clue

You're only embarrassing yourselves with your clueless drivel. Maybe you'd get more out of it if you didn't have the attention span of a goldfish and the IQ of a rock.

Wonder Woman 1984 (2020)

Whoever greenlighted the script/story should never work in this town again.

[2/10 · 27 December 2020]

The only reason I'm not giving this a 1 star is because it would be unfair to Gal Gadot, whom I adore. But, overall, this cliche-ridden disaster reads like it was MADE in 1984. From the

• godawful cartoony Wicked Witch-style villain, to the
• neurotic fumbling paper-dropping geek girl who feels left out of the world (a tired concept that went out of fashion in the 70s), and
• lovesick puppy of a protagonist, with
• the first 50% of the film spent prancing around the museum and being a girly girl, and
• the embarrassingly preachy message of the entire film, that is more akin to a Sunday school sermon by a 70yo nun than a DC blockbuster.

Not to mention the amateur-style visual effects that seem like they were put together for a college project, and not an entertainment juggernaut. I just gotta ask what on earth they were thinking, whoever greenlighted this pile of trash and how it made it past the vetting process to begin with.

Btw, I can't be the only one who thinks there is ZERO romantic chemistry between Gadot and Pine. I've seen the first WW and didn't sense anything then either. Sensed even less this time. They came across more like brother & sister, or platonic allies than "the love of Diana's life".

All in all, the best I can do is wait for the Snyder Cut and pretend like this disaster was never produced. 2.5 hours of my life I'll never get back. Bah!