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Star Trek: Discovery: Lagrange Point (2024)
Discovery DNF
Well discovery and their crew DNF'd. Made it to the final goal and couldn't finish it off (oh right one more episode). Look at the pretty lights everyone. Let's not get in closer so we can beam it aboard or get a tractor beem on it. Ooppps the Breen got it.
Because we are so inept now, we can retcon an impromptu staff meeting where, once again captain Burnham runs through the entire retrieval scenario (complete with graphics of the retrieval) to save the day.
Cool Breen suits again, but just visually unsatisfying when most of the true Breen are very similar in height, but discovery's teams heights are all over the place. Breen! Is anyone paying attention? Speaking of the Breen, boy how do they just seem inept and horrible. Letting racoon face Moll run the show, letting discovery's crew overpower them. The diminutive captain Burnham taking down a Breen twice her size. Burnham has a lousy sense of timing wanting to talk to Book, while on a dangerous mission, hiding behind a full face helmet.
Well I did give it two stars for two reasons. It wasn't as bad as previous episodes, but mainly it's pacing was ok. I didn't check how much time was left in the episode as much as I checked past episodes.
Bright spot: first officer Raynar telling tilly to shut up and sitting in the captains chair.
Low points: the constant comical banter betweeth the characters. The writing, directing (sorry frakes) and delivery are simply awful.
Star Trek: Discovery: Labyrinths (2024)
Show me Picard's flute!
Nucleonic beams: TNG the inner light
Mind mazes: DS9 Dr. Bashir
And a lot of other easter eggs to list in this episode.
Captain Burnham: "we're on a hurry can't talk right now" but stops and has a refection moments with Book before beaming to the archive. Wasted time
Moll: what's up with the hairstyle and racoon makeup. She looks like an angst filled teenager.
I want to make one thing perfectly clear. I have nothing against any of the actors. What I do hate is the way the series is written and directed.
Burnham has a test to pass. Go from point A to point B then proceed to fill the in-between journey with as much confusion, distraction and misguided information as possible to fill the running time. Poor writing.
Burnham showing female tendencies throwing a little hussy fit "screw you I'll find my own way out" only to moments later apologizing to Book. Who BTW gets all teary eyed when he looks at a couple of baby Groots.
Engineering team on Discovery needs to find a way to distrup the shield tunneling beam. Sidetrack to a story about how "I use to work at this place where we did this thing that allowed us to do this other thing because you can modulate its frequency to anything" exposition. More waisted time.
And of course Burnham "oh it's about me"
Also I really hate the way they've ruined the Breen.
Voyager ruined the borg
Discovery ruined the Breen
Lets hope SNW doesn't ruin the Gorn.
I've watched every episode of every star trek series and movies.
I'm watching this series out of pure unadulterated, morbid curiosity.
Turning Point: The Bomb and the Cold War (2024)
Not about the Cold War
Just finished watching all episodes. I had initial hope for a new documentary about the Cold War. My hopes were quashed after the first few episodes.
For the record: yes there are instances where they cover limited aspects of the Cold War. Yes the series shows a general overall situational awareness.
But here is the problem, the narrative devolves quickly into personalities, opinions and political leaning. And as if on que in episode 9 they fully blame the Russians for bringing former president Trump to office.
They stated that through social media rhr Russians pitted Americans against Americans and caused social unrest.
To be clear one interviewee did state that the Russian interference didn't actually affect the vote count, but they mad it clear that Russia affected the elections. Even though after years of investigation and millions of dollars there was no evidence of Russian collusion.
The invasion of Ukraine by Russia is a tragedy. Make no bones about it, both countries governments are corrupt and the results are 10s of thousands of civilians and soldiers killed on both sides.
In conclusion this documentary was too politicized, the subtitles were not correct and overall not a very informative series.
My opinion, watch and decide for yourself.
Star Trek: Discovery: Erigah (2024)
Once again
Once again to the rescue
Captain Burnham, what would the alpha quadrant do without you? I've lost track of how many times Burnham disagrees with and subsequently lectures subordinates, fellow officers, superior officers, commanding officers, engineers, doctors and everyone else about how they're wrong and they should go along with her plan.
My goodness her character is so very poorly written and directed. Within 5 minutes of this episode beginning Burnham had done the above three times to the security chief, the admiral, the council.
Moll & L'ak are superfluous they don't know squat, they only cause problems and act as filler.
The way the crew "solves" riddles is formulaic. Discus while working on something else, over exposition, can't help right now busy working or worrying about something else, talk more, oh ok you convinced me to help.
If they cut down the dialog needed to convince one of the characters to help out because "what we're doing is the most important thing ever" trope, the episode would be 10 minutes long.
The utter ineptitude of security letting Moll escape from sick bay. The Breen originally written and portrayed as a ruthless species now reduced to medieval clans that clash with each other like the Kazon. Please make it stop.
I do like the Breen's refrigeration suits.
Star Trek: Discovery: Mirrors (2024)
Please make it stop
I'm an avid star trek fan. Since the TOS to SNW. I watch discovery only out of loyalty and perhaps some misguided hope that this show will somehow surprise me. Each and every time I'm disappointed. There are glimmers of hope that are quickly extinguished by the "message" which has a smothering overtone on each scene. Captain Burnham, the quintessential Mary Sue. Has all the answers, knows better than anyone else with more experience, has the moral high ground and darn it, is just plain great at everything. And is surrounded by the best crew ever. (sarc). This is not star trek, only in name. I'll continue to watch.
Star Trek: Voyager: Basics, Part I (1996)
Congratulations Janeway
Voyager is one of my go-to series of star trek that I typically watch. I like the series overall.
But I gotta say, even though other captains in other star trek series have lost crews ( I'm looking at you commodore Decker), blown up ships (I'm looking at you admiral Kirk), and had ships destroyed ( comander Riker), no captain has ever had their ship boarded, taken over (yeah I know space seed), and had their entire crew marooned on a planet an their ship commandeered. This episode and the follow up are hard to watch for that very reason. It has its moments but is too predictable. All the crewmembers, with the exception of the main cast look lost, afraid and confused. Anyway at least it's better than every episode of discovery.
Shôgun (2024)
Dropped off a cliff
Started off with potential
The first few episodes showed promise then it quickly devolved into a mid-evil soap opera.
The portrayel of the characters was beyond antiseptic. Too many flashbacks, flash forwards, flash sideways. These were used as time fillers which served no purpose.
Minimal exposition would have served just as well. Characters, let's do this, let's do that. No denied, no can't do that, do this instead because plot says so. And let's talk about it for several episodes. This rambling is similar to the dialog. Let's do this because of that and then watch what happens because that's what is suppose to happen.
Star Trek: Picard (2020)
Has potential
Just finished first episode.
Visually satisfying, the right balance of nostalgia.
Better than Star Trek Discovery. The first episode was solid and has a lot of potential. I'm saying this as a man who's watched every episode of every star trek show out there and pretends a dinner spoon, turned over is the saucer section of the USS Enterprise.
Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker (2019)
If you're a Star Wars fan you'll like it.
Episode IX was good, as good as it could be, especially after cleaning up the mess that was TLJ.
Which, in and of itself was the only distraction. I couldn't help but wonder how good episode IX could have been if it didn't have to deal episode VIII.
In any event if you're a star wars fan you'll like it.
The Mandalorian (2019)
Yeah its good
Star Wars fans will be pleased.
Good storyline
Good style
Good visuals
Midway (2019)
Excellent Movie a must see for WWII aficionados
Midway was an excellent movie that depicts the events leading up to the battle of Midway and the battle itself.
It is fairly quick paced with enough historical background character introductions to leave the viewer invested, even if we already know the outcome. The family and buddy scenes are not lengthy, and add just the right amount of the human element.
The movie covers the events from before Pearl Harbor, the attack on pearl Harbor, the US raid on the Marianas islands, Doolittle's raid, the battle of Coral Sea, the battle of Midway and the intelligence, strategy, of both the US and IJN navies. Though none of the events is overly detailed it is enough for the average historian to see all the "easter eggs" and the non-historian left informed and intrested.
While the movie covers a lot of historical ground it doesn't get overly detailed on each event, even the Midway battle itself. What it does do is provides the viewer the overall tension, concerns and apprehensions of the mood of he US durring this time in history.
Midway does leave out certain historical events. It didn't cover the PBYs search, the B-17 raids on the IJN carriers, it didn't include Jimmy Thatch, or the two attacks on the Yorktown in detail.
But, and I must stress this fact, what it did cover was accurate (with the exception of the US torpedo planes carrying bombs on wing hard mounts).
For the first time in a movie it covers the air raids on the IJN carriers from Midway itself, including thr B-26 Marauders, but not the TBF avengers. It included the Nautilus Gato class firing on the IJN taskforce and the reason the Japanese left behind the destroyer which was later followed by the US SBDs that led them to the IJN carries.
The CGI was adequate for visual effects, and the detail of the Yorktown class carriers and even the IJN carriers was incredibly accurate.
Midway focuses on several key individuals to be the protagonist rather than a PBS style docudrama.
Midway also pays attention to detail about the age of the sailors, the types of aircraft, and weaponry aboard ships.
Midway does feel like it needs the director's cut and would do better as a three hour movie as it felt a little rushed at times.
Bottom line, if you're into WWII and history you'll like this move, it's a go see.
Avengers: Endgame (2019)
Takes awhile to pick up a good head of steam
Good movie overall, covers a lot of bases, runs long bit necessary to cover all the bases.
Avengers Endgame is not my favorite
Likes: nostalgia, Captain America getting to use Thor's hammer, limited use of Captain Marvel, final battle.
Average: took too long to get up to speed, used as many if not all the characters from all the movies, except for Odin & vision, graphics.
Dislikes: fat Thor, the hulk, too many cheesy jokes, very predictable with the whole, need you, no I don't want to help, ok I'll help, time travel ex machina.
Anyway a good movie, must see if you're a marvel fan and want to close it out.
For me not a movie to see multiple times in the theater.
Captain Marvel (2019)
TRIED TO LIKE IT
I really wanted to like this movie, in the end I just couldn't get past some glaring problems.
Fight scenes were almost unwatchable because of the nauseating camera angles, shakes and cuts.
Brie Larson, just isn't athletic enough to pull off the action scenes, running scenes, anything really. Not everyone can. They probably used a double for the low camera angle butt scenes.
Her acting delivery is just really bad, probably because that's the way she was directed.
Other performances were solid.
FX was good
Story was fragmented with all the flashbacks, flash sideways, etc., no smooth transitions between plot, subplots. There were no subplots really.
Annette Benning's character, changed from Male to female for.......reasons.
Now for the in your face feminism. There is no need to have flashbacks showing baseball, go carts, military training, bar scenes, that blatantly show her father, coaches, and other men berating her. Even as a child she was berated and dismissed, all in order to set up the "I've been dismissed all my life so now I'm going to pull out all the stops" scene. Movies can have a strong central female character without all the unnecessary beratment. The Male pilot who says "you know why they call it a cockpit" gets his head taken off in a CM fist blast while playing on the memory screen playback.
The final fight scene with "I'm just a girl" playing in the background just horrible, horrible.
To sum up, while there were a few scenes that worked, the movie as a whole fell flat, very flat.
Wait for the digital release.
Black Panther (2018)
Average Marvel movie
This was an average marvel movie.
Good storytelling, very good visuals, acting showed some bright spots.
Too much of a political overtone for this type of movie.
I attend movies like this for pure entertainment, no subtle references, or in some cases not so subtle, to white colonization.
Again, entertaining, good storytelling, good visuals, good performances.
Not oscar worthy.
Alita: Battle Angel (2019)
Exceptional cinematic experience....critics are WRONG!
This is why I attended movies. To experience storytelling, visuals and characters on a level you wouldn't find in real life.
Movies like this are constantly being panned by critics who have no idea what a good movie is.
Whatever you do, don't listen to them.
I am obviously a fan of scifi, comic book adaptations, etc. This movie brings an entirely new cinematic universe to life that has the potential to expand immensely.
Fantastic visuals, very good storytelling, good exposition, very good character development. You can feel the emotions of the characters while watching this movie. A total experience for all the senses.