l-r-patrick Reviews

The Baby Pact (2022)

a lot better than expected

[8/10 · 24 May 2023]

I watched this in Cannes this year, to be honest, I was not expecting much, firstly not the normal genre I watch and just thought hm. But I gave it a chance and have to say I was quite impressed and actually it's the best film I saw in Cannes this year. The acting was very good, no faults on anyone, the drama was good, nice little story, good characters, good cinematography, good directing, no faults. I think if this had starred someone like Sandra Bullock, it would have been all over the place getting awards and recognition, which is a shame as this is a very good film in all aspects, well done all involved.

The Batman (2022)

Not as good as Keaton or Nolan films!

[2/10 · 6 March 2022]

Long, boring, trying to be dark, gritty because of success of Joker without the proper story behind it. Colin Farrell was good, could not even recognise him. Catwoman, hah, not even like the character from the comics, poor, lives in a dump, friend is being abused and used and she only decides to help her and get her passport back when her life's at stake, why not get it for her before all this with her skills? Zoe, sometimes looked like a hot young woman, although we're not allowed to think this about Catwoman according to her and I didn't with Catwoman, her mask was like something out of a junk store, she also looked like a little 12 year old sometimes, which was a but weird, especially when Batman's kissing her. So sex appeal at all and sorry, but Catwoman is all about this and uses this to her advantage throughout all the comic history, but Zoe knows better than the original creators for the character. Did not like her like her line about getting rich white privileged, why does colour always have to come into it? Gordon, quality actor, always good, only likeable character in the film. Robert was surprisingly good as Batman, but terrible as Bruce Wayne, just looks so wrong, he looks more like The Joker or Batman who Laughs. Story is mediocre, long, boring, and just when i thought it had finally finished, it went on some more, then some more and then more again. Can't think true Batman comic fans would think this is really good? First 10 mins, I thought I was in for a treat, as it started off a bit Frank Miller like, but that soon fell flat. Riddler, was not like Riddler until near the end, he was more like, Talon. With his skills, the bombs and everything else, he did not really need to get him the way he did. I could never watch this film again, unlike the other batman films!

Loki: Lamentis (2021) Season 1, Episode 3

Very Boring

[2/10 · 30 June 2021]

OMG, do the writers have any idea on how to write a superhero, supervillain series? This was so dull and boring we were all falling asleep watching it. Marvel have lost the plot and we will see more of this bad writing, storytelling to come because the people in charge have no idea what they are doing. I would not write a manual, book, story about organisms in the sea because I know nothing about it, so why do they keep hiring writers, directors who know nothing about comics, their stories etc? These new writers are not creators, they just live off of creators of old, Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko etc etc then try to make the characters into how they think they should be. 3 episodes in and this is where we're at, terrible, only thing worse was Wanda Vision. The female Loki is like some random person from cosplay, the female Loki should have had presence about her, an aurora about her, someone like Glen Close when she was younger, you knew she was there.

WandaVision (2021)

hmmmm

[1/10 · 16 January 2021]

After 10 minutes, I was wondering what I was watching and why was wondering I watching it? The actors are obviously good, but the writer, hmmm, why do they keep hiring non comic fans to write comics films, programs? Is this not like hiring a brick layer to make a cake? I mean he puts bits like ingredients together to make cement! I don't understand why film makers keep making films, programs as if they were made in the 30's, 50's, 70's etc film makers made these films, programs back then because of the technology they had, if they all had the equipment we have now, all the past programs would not look the way they do, there would be no silent films, square box films, grainy films etc Again a writer who does not care about the fans and what they might like, but what she likes. Maybe it will get better, but usually you have to grab peoples attention early on and this was so lack lustre and uninteresting and I am a comic fan. I really don't believe all these 10/10 reviews, don't seem plausible to me and I'm a fanboy, or should I say fanperson, or fanbeing as even perSON has the male term in there. Really let down, but there is some good news about this, the cast are good and it can't get any worse from here on out (I think).

Venom (2018)

enjoyable, not a bad film

[7/10 · 6 October 2018]

I wasn't sure what to expect and been feeling a bit let down by the superhero movies, but found myself quite enjoying this one. Yes the story is not how it was in the comics, no Spier-Man etc but considering, I liked what they did. I always enjoy tom Hardy, all the other cast were good as well. I would not say it's the best film out there, but overall I did not feel cheated like I do with most the marvel films and thanks god there was no Iron Man or Loki making an appearance. Not sure about all the bad things I've been hearing, but I liked it and think the average fan will too!

Iron Fist (2017–2018)

they need better writers

[5/10 · 2 October 2018]

I don't know where they get these writers from, it's such a shame that it's so boring and when it does get a bit exciting, the story is just dull. Based in China Town mostly, this should have been Shang Chi, which would have been better, especially wit Fu-Manchu etc I used to love Iron Fist, the comics were so good, yet this story is the complete opposite, lets make everyone Iron Fists. The program should be called Iron Fist and His Amazing Friends, as some of the episodes are more about everyone else but Iron Fist.

I thought Typhoid Mary was very good, was good to see Misty Knight, but just think the whole story overall is just boring, stupid, why can't they just read the original series of comics and get some good ideas? Iron Fist is so tough, he could stun characters like The Thing, now he struggles in every fight and Colleen Wing is tougher than him? WTF.

A few episodes through the series, I thought it picked up a bit and then at the end I was thinking I'll never watch this again, last two, three episodes were pretty bad, lazy writing if you ask me, I won't be tuning in again, which is a shame, as Iron Fist is a great character.

Fear the Walking Dead (2015–2023)

original cast set aside or replaced for new cast

[7/10 · 20 September 2018]

I liked the original cast and got into their characters, then we had the end of season four I think, the bridge collapsed and I thought that was it for Nick. But he survived only to be killed off a few episodes later by some silly girl? What was the point in that, then his mum was killed off also and well, most of the other main cast are also dead or renovated to minor bits in the series so that walking dead cast member Morgan can take over the show? I think this season five I'll give up, as it feels like another spin off now they've pretty much got rid of the main cast, even Alicia has very little in it now, so I'm out of here. Shame, this series had so much potential, I thought early on Nick was gonna go bad, get a group of people who wore the zombies blood for disguise, and then maybe later on have a cross over with him fighting Rick and the others, but guess that would have been to much to ask. I don't understand why in this series, they know if they're covered in zombie blood n guts, they get ignored, but never do it in peril situations, like Madison when she was surrounded? Maybe it's the writers who forget this or the these characters would rather die than get a bit of zombie blood on them. Anyway, was really enjoying this series, then Morgan came along, replaced everyone else and that was that!

The Predator (2018)

this has most likely killed the franchise!

[2/10 · 18 September 2018]

When I first saw the trailer, I had my doubts and was very worried. Usually when I expect a film to be awful, I am usually pleasantly surprised and quite enjoy it. Not this time however, I kept thinking please end, please finish already. This is worse than any of the other not so good Predator, Alien films. It makes the Aliens 3 and 4 seem pretty decent!

The writing was terrible, it was all so unbelievable, the thing about the original was, it seemed possible and took itself seriously, even with Arnies little jokes. This film is just annoying in so many ways.

1. Why would a Predator care about arming humans. 2. Why would Predators upgrade themselves, what are they Borg now? 3. The characters seemed to get the idea that normal Predator was a renegade, trying to warn us, how? 4. The woman who just saw a Predator for the first time, then comes to the conclusion that the other one was a hybrid. 5. cheesy lines galore, "you are one beautiful mother ....." 6. The two soldiers, kill each other and put each other out of their misery. 7. The dog predators, were like Beethoven's even when they were surrounded and being shot at, they just stood there for, hm, a very long time. 8. one of the dog predators, was shot in the brain, so he now liked the girl and kept following them around. 9. they're up on the ship, it's flown off a few miles in the air, at least a few miles, then suddenly the girl is there to help, how did she get there so fast? 10. none of the characters were believable.

I can't be bothered to write any more and there's so much more I could say, I am so irritated by this movie, there's nothing right about it what so ever, it's just garbage and I'll never watch a Predator film on the big screen again!

Avengers: Infinity War (2018)

Total let down

[5/10 · 2 May 2018]

Firstly, special effects were really good, cast was also very good! I grew up reading these comics and Thanos along with Doctor Doom were my two favorite bad guys! Thanos is very good in this film, it's just the writers obviously don't know the comics very, or just think they are better than the likes of Stan Lee and Jim Starlin who was the person that created Thanos. Thanos kills to please Lady Death, he does not kill just because he thinks there's to many people, what a stupid idea that was. I mean if he is worried about there not being enough resources for the population, once he has the infinity gauntlet, he can solve that by creating enough resources for everyone! It would have been so simple to have Thanos worshipping Lady Death, her just silently watching, and him, as in the comics trying to gain her attention by killing to please her, but that was to complicated for the writers to put in, as audiences would not know who she was, lol. Self explained by Thanos, easily done, we've not seen the dwarf before, but he magically appeared, I mean, that was another waste of a whole sequence, Thor trying to get a hammer made (Beta Ray Bills hammer btw), I mean WTF, just have his proper hammer rejuvinate and hold the power, oh yeah, these writers wanted to change that part of the story as well. These writers need to know, Stan, Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko etc etc wrote and created these characters and they should stick to the original elements that made them what they are today. They think they can come along and rewrite these stories in their vision, just like JJ Abrahams with Star Wars and Star Trek, they think they are better than the original creators which they are not by any means!

For me it's getting to the point where I don't really care if I see these films anymore, they just let me down every time, where these writers don't do the proper research and just create it in their own way. The comic fans made the comics a success, without us over the years, there would be no films, so maybe you should try to please the fans before the random cinema goers?

Bits that really annoy me, no Lady Death or any celestial power beings of any kind, Red skull appears on the planet galaxies away to Thanos about the sould gem, great writing there, true to the comics, NOT! Boy that sucked, I thought, why is this not at least Mephisto here or Lady Death, Red Skull, it's so bad I want to cry. The Hulk was not really in the film, just the first few minutes, they just wanted to give the actor face time, so just had him jumping around in the Hulk buster outfit, yawn!

This film is an insult to The Infinity Gauntlet Comics, go and read Thanos Quest, then The Infinity Gauntlet 1-6 and wait for this on normal TV.

Totally ruined one of my favorite story lines, these writers need to get over themselves and not write it as if they think it's their creation, it's not!

Best bit in the film for me, was Stan Lee's cameo!

5/10 but should have been an easy 10.

Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi (2017)

Not worthy to be Star Wars episodes 7-9

[6/10 · 16 December 2017]

I sort of like it and don't like it! The main problem with these films now is, they don't have the George Lucas touch and here's why I say this! The original three are without doubt the best by a long shot! Even the three later that had the George Lucas moments where the audience went "yeah" e.g Yoda fighting Christopher Lee, Darth Maul killing Qui and then Obi Wan waiting for the force field to go down, great moments. But these new films do not have these moments! Other things that annoy me about this film, the General, he's like a little college boy, how is he second in command? This should be a character like Grand Moth Tarkin, a leader, a man who has a menace about him, not even Darth Vader talked down to him, he had respect. The Emperors guards, looked like a bunch of samurai's, why not just the usual Emperors guards rather than these new ones. The AT-AT's, why do they have to be different, what was the point in them having fists or hands as feet, they never did anything, and the originals from empire look more realistic. Even in the other film before this they could not get the size of these correct, you had Rai leaning up against the foot of one in the dessert, lol, I think JJ got confused between the size of a Scout Walker and an AT-AT here! SO this is episode 8, a huge joke if you ask me! What was the story, rebels on the run, stuck in space with the imperials on a slow pursuit after them, hmmm, very weak. Benicio Del Toro, great actor, but what was with the stuttering, did that add some sort of value to the character other than annoyance? The main boss, he sat in the chair and died, what a let down he was! Darth Vader wannabe, he is okay, but Darth Vader also always had other villains in the films, it was never just him, Jabba The Hutt, Boba Fett, Monsters, Emperor, Sand People, etc etc there were always multiple dangers in the original films. The base at the end, all this time, and they never knew about the way out at the back? Hmm, if you say so. The snow fox things, was strange, my friend explained they were from the cartoons, which is good if you watch these, but I don't, so I guess the writer assumes everyone watches the cartoons, which I don't. Luke at the end, what was that about? At first I thought, yes, Luke is very powerful when he was getting shot down, but then it turned out to be a Doctor Strange astral projection and to top it off at the end he just vanished into thin air, at least Obi Wan Kenobi was holding off Vader in the first instance when he did this, knowing he could not win the fight, also George Lucas always said he regretted doing that, then this writer comes along and just does that to Luke? Really? So now we're gonna have ghost Luke appearing everywhere all the time even thogh ghost Annakin, Obi Wan have totally vanished, LMFAO! Get a proper writer for the last film, the George write it for crying out loud, JJ Abrahams is not that good and very overated, and this guy who wrote this must have had his blessing! The more I write about it and think about it, the less I like it so I'm gonna stop now! An old school Star Wars die hard fan whose extremely dissapointed!

The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017)

But for the stars, who would watch this?

[2/10 · 16 December 2017]

I know this is based on a play, I'm not sure how much they have stuck to the original script, but the whole film to me felt so unreal and so unbelievable. I mean, it seemed odd the attention Colin Farrels (a professional person) character was giving the boy, even if he felt guilty for his past mistake. Then, when the boy threatens him, and his children are dying, why would he not kill him as opposed to killing his own son, even if he thought they would die. Why would he not call the police, why would he even entertain the boy as much as he did, I thought his character was so unbelievable, although his acting as always was good, although bizarre. What was it that the boy did to the children, the only thing I could think was he had somehow brainwashed them or hypnotised them as there was no explanation. How could you sit at a acfe where the boy who is responsible for your sons death is as well? Not real at all. If but for the main stars who were in this, I don't believe it would get the attention it has so far. But for Colin and Nicole, I would have definitely not watched this to the end. I think as a film maker, you have to make films that are appealing to an audience, not films that are just self gratifying, unless you are using your own money to make them. If you are using other peoples money to make your film, then please make something that has a large audience as there's plenty of good scripts out there that could be made as opposed to stories like this that have multiple plot holes or unrealistic situations and unlikable characters. Acting was good, cinematography was nice, just the story was awful, my friends kept looking at me as if to say WTF is this! You're 2 hours better off spent watching something else!

Justice League (2017)

Better than Thor Ragnarok!

[8/10 · 22 November 2017]

I really liked this and was better than I was expecting.

The villain was good, very powerful, but thought Superman dealt with him a bit to easy considering how he was man handling the other heroes!

The actors were good, really liked Aquaman, was not sure at first from trailers, but he was good as was everyone else. Even the Flash grew on me, he was humorous, reminded me of Spider-Man a bit, but he's a teen and it was not overdone like Thor in that latest film.

I think Zack Snyder is getting a lot of bad stick over this, because it was not a blatant comedy like Thor, which is a shame, as I think he's done well on this one and this is how a comic film should be in my opinion, so please don't go down the marvel route of slapstick comedy throughout.

I was not a fan of SvB, but this has made up for that for me!

Good stuff, Watchmen is still my favourite comic film but I think this is definitely in my top 10 comic book films of all time!

Thor: Ragnarok (2017)

average to say the least

[5/10 · 24 October 2017]

I don't get all the 10 star reviews, did these people ever read the comics and know the characters? As it does not add up if they did! Actors were good, so good casting, but the story is awful, it's a mish-mash of at least five different good stories from people who knew how to write good comics back in the day. The characters, are not as they should be for some reason, I guess the Hollywood writers had a basic bio of the characters, and then just wrote whatever pleased them without doing any research. The comedy is throughout, why is there so much I don't know, if I want comedy, I'll watch the carry on films. Really gutted, Marvel Studios obviously and unfortunately can't do serious anymore, it almost feels like a mockery. Don't waste your time with the end credit scene, totally a waste of time. Give me Watchmen any day of the week over this, although I'll confess it was an improvement on the last Thor film. Please Marvel Studios, get a proper writing team and give up on this average cramped up stories you're giving us!

A wise man once said, Nuff Said!

High-Rise (2015)

horrendous

[1/10 · 19 October 2017]

Absolutely terrible! Worst film I have watched this year. I like Ben Wheatley, I really liked Kill List and Sightseers was fun too, but this takes the biscuit, quite shocking to be honest at how bad it is. The cast are good, but the story is a bunch of mumbo jumbo, Tom Hiddleston had a dream sequence early on, which was quite funny as the whole film seemed like a weird bizarre dream sequence that did not really make sense. The film was trying to be clever, but it was not, it just amazes me what the BFI puts money into and proves to me that its not what the story is about, but more about who you are and who you've got attached to your project, there's an irony about the social ladder here. There was no diversity, even the dog was white, I think it was set in the seventies, so there would have been minorities in the UK then, unless that was meant to be another supposed clever part about the story, hah, hah. As I was watching it, I became more amazed as it went along, I could not believe what I was watching and neither could my friends, was a couple of funny lines "You made him", but not much else was entertaining to say the least all made for approximately $20million!