thomblackburn89 Reviews

What If...?: What If... Kahhori Reshaped the World? (2023) Season 2, Episode 6

Cool episode, boring powerset

[7/10 · 11 January 2024]

We have a new hero with vague powers (can stop bullets mostly, run fast and jump high and occasionally gets favors from the earth), that look uninteresting (lights to keep the CGI cheap if she makes it to the MCU-proper), in a mostly okay origin story. I appreciate that the entire episode lacks English (until the end). I'd love to see kahhori in a story with namor where she actually works through her revenge quest (which she inexplicably gives up on when meeting the queen of Spain at the end of the episode) and converts namor to work together with others that have been colonized eventually joining with wakanda.

Ms. Marvel (2022)

Ms marvel deserves better

[4/10 · 21 October 2022]

A bad take on an incredible comic book series. Really cookie cutter, offensive use of Pakistani heritage to move the story forward, lame and cheesy dialogue, and most of the characters were worse versions of their comic book counterparts. There are some well-shot scenes and an attempt to add some cool artistic touches that are reminiscent like doodles in a Lisa frank trapper keeper. The editing is pretty good but still isn't 'edgar wright'-good editing. I don't think new jersey and the bodega life are shown off well and, worst of all, with the changes made to her powerset, they simplified her relationship to her heritage and religion when the comic showed a much more realistic representation where Kamala isn't just mindlessly in love with being a Muslim without wearing a hijab. It comes off as tokenism.

Resident Evil (2022)

Good-bad

[5/10 · 6 August 2022]

Bad acting, bad writing, just a total schlock-fest... with lines that hit the same bells as a "Jill sandwich". Which is why I like it. It actually gets the tone of resident evil games *exactly* right.

The thing is, it doesn't grab a great plot for season 1 and nothing else in its arsenal makes up for that.

There is good-good, bad-bad, and good-bad, and this show is the latter.

The Flight Attendant: The Reykjavik Ice Sculpture Festival Is Lovely This Time of Year (2022) Season 2, Episode 3

Flew over their heads

[7/10 · 27 May 2022]

I must point out that at one point in this episode a super smart computer genius character is breaking down his incredible hacking abilities putting in a photo into this CIA-looking program and describing it "basically, the software identifies the characters in the slides and the algorithm matches it with similar patterns online..."

I love this show, but you just described Google image search.

The Beatles: Get Back (2021)

10/10

[10/10 · 19 May 2022]

I don't even like the Beatles. But this doc does something that no other film has accurately done before, show the honest songwriting process. The repetition, the stress, the goofiness, and "stumbling upon" a great melody that you'll end up playing hundreds and hundreds of times again. Absolute masterpiece.

The Witcher: Dear Friend... (2021) Season 2, Episode 6

I don't understand this showrunner

[5/10 · 20 March 2022]

Fire magic is forbidden? What is this Harry potter? Every Witcher can cast a simple fire spell in the books and games. Not only is it not forbidden, it's incredibly common. This really feels like a random fantasy trope to throw in and it sort of goes against the "shades of grey" narratives that the Witcher is known for.

Nenneke has a totally different personality. I will say that i like this character, but why make her nenneke? Gender swapped Fenn, which is fine, as he is a pretty minor character in the grand scheme of things in the books.

Oh, have you heard of Itheline's prophecy? Because they beat you over the head with it in 4 different plotines. Just in case you haven't yet understood that Ciri has elder blood.

Otherwise this episode has one of the coolest fights in the series thus far, puts out some new seeds of intrigue, makes us not trust a lot of people and wonder what crawled up Cahir's butt.

It's one of the better episodes that isn't a one-off monster hunt and it still isn't very good compared to any of the source material.

Grand Crew (2021–2023)

It hits it's stride after a few episodes

[7/10 · 21 January 2022]

By episode 3 or 4 I was invested fully. The dynamic of everyone in the crew is great and original. It has the happy energy of the best parts of how I met your mother. I have a feeling that this could grow into a solid 5 season arc if nurtured right.

The Harper House (2021)

Jason Lee phones it in

[2/10 · 1 October 2021]

And the script sounds like an unedited first draft. I'm really disappointed because I loved professor brothers and China, Il. I couldn't make it through the first episode.

The Bible (2013)

bringing us together for all the wrong reasons

[3/10 · 18 March 2013]

Christians won't like it because it misrepresents the bible and glorifies the violence without giving credence to the allegories for having a lesson.

Atheists won't like it because at the end of every allegory some character simplifies their situation as "because god, that's why."

Critics won't like it because the editing is horribly disjointed and condensed without giving any time for character development, and the acting is over-done to the point of making viewers uncomfortable.

In a way, it is bringing us all together because it is so poorly done that it becomes our common enemy.

3/10