fvrk Reviews

The Mandalorian: Chapter 23: The Spies (2023) Season 3, Episode 7

Horrible.

[1/10 · 12 April 2023]

They managed to destroy the story and the show, the entire Star Wars universe for me at least.

I've tried so hard to love it because of the actors and the story, is just impossible, sadly.

It's extremely hard to even try and take anything as being serious anymore, it started few episodes ago but recently it just became worse and worse and I cannot see it going better.

Last episode the acting of the princess was just horrible, like it was a school play, and this episode the fighting was as bad as it is in cheap Chinese or Indian movies that have 0 budget, without any effort put into it, like a bad dancing battle without choreography in it.

Think two episodes ago was just them fighting a big Crocodile with horrible CGI. (I could give more examples but it hurts me just thinking about it)

I am 200% sure that in 2023 you can post an add on Fiverr or whatever other freelancing websites you could think of, and if you hire the least experienced freelancers from there they would still create a better episode based on the great story, without even sweating or giving it any effort, heck, I would bet even you (yes, you reading this) could do better just by following some effects and editing guides off YouTube after couple of months of learning. (because the story is there, even an AI could generate a better episode) This would be decent for 1980s, but for 2023 even being the biggest fan of franchise or the story is still had to stomach it. (I swear I saw better things being done on YouTube).

To top that they've decided to create some pink armored assassins that fight 3v1 for "emotional impact" that actually had no impact and seeing Mandalorians use the flame thrower against armored enemies with no result or any damage given to the enemies didn't make things better either.

That fight or retreat (whatever you want to call it) at the end made no sense, only made them look like cowards fleeing a battle they could have won, their main focus should have been to stop the attacking air strikes before taking off and not running away from them.

The entire story became a mess.

The Mandalors in this tvshow just became your average Joe that occasionally fly for a few second, they use the flame throwers for no good reason and without dealing damage, they sometime shoot straight and are only good for something when they got a machine gun that's not yet overheated.

Past that, not even sure why you call them that - is it for the costumes ? It's just badly scripted drama, take their costumes, put them on any island and you could turn it into anything else.

Sad, it would have had great potential if they would at least hire some students to increase it's quality. The story is there, there are some good actors - the implementation, the effects, the fighting scenes, the music and some of the lines just make this horrible. Time to cancel Disney.

If you support this, you will just harm the franchise in the long run. People need to learn how to be critic when criticism is required instead of accepting anything that disrespects them and the time they invest in it.

The Ark (2023– )

"Executive producer of Stargate SG-1"

[3/10 · 3 February 2023]

Title, which was mentioned in the trailer is the only reason I've decided to give this a shot, because I am a big fan of the Stargate franchise and it got me hyped, I wanted to love this so badly... I just couldn't.

Advertising in trailer that is made by "Executive producer of Stargate SG-1" probably fooled many other SG fans into giving it a shot, I expect most got disappointed and whatever viewer ratings they had this week those numbers will go down drastically starting next week.

The acting is pretty horrible, especially the parts in which the lines do not match the characters and their personalities, maybe those lines could have worked in the hands of more "seasoned" actors, maybe not. One of biggest issue being the speed at which they were delivered, as if they were meant for cheap kids cartoons.

The story is just badly written in my honest opinion, I was expecting at lest some flash-backs in the first 10-15 minutes to tell the story about how they got selected and how they ended up on board, why they were forced to leave earth and why earth was dying, at least a short story that would introduce the characters and make them memorable, but sadly they failed to deliver that.

Instead they gave us the "faked ID" and "boarded like a pirate" approach which is similar with what we got in "Lost in Space" series, thing that makes this look even worse for the lack of original content.

The CGI and effects are pretty bad as well, however I could get past that and accept them, if it was the only thing that was lacking.

The music is not great either, the buzzing noise from the ship was annoying and some of the music made it feel like it was some cheap Battlestar Galactica wannabe rip-off.

I'll be trying my best to give the show few more episodes, all though the "season sneak-peek" think pretty much covered the entire story and I got no high expectation to be seeing anything more interesting than that.

This is pretty bad and lacks original content overall, it feels like a cheap knockoff of a combination between Stargate: Universe, Battlestar Galactica, Caprica, Lost in space and other similar series without any new approach or content - if they had "shaking cameras" I would have suspected is a Battlestar Galactica garage fan made project.

Would I recommend this to anyone else ? No.

Sadly such shows are destroying the Sci-fi scene.

The Witcher: Blood Origin (2022)

Cringe.

[2/10 · 25 December 2022]

I gave it a 2 stars because I saw few other shows that were worse, maybe enough to count them on both hands, but still this is without a doubt one of them.

The lines are horrible, it feels like it was written as a kid's school play, the acting is wooden at times (maybe because of the lines they have to work with), some of the actors were not cast well for the said roles and they simply do fit in the show. (not saying they are bad actors, they just don't fit in the roles, like the king for example... and if you add the cringe lines on top of that it just turns this into a cheap parody without jokes).

I've played all the Witcher game franchise, I've watched the show as well, and I must say I did not expect something this bad receiving a green light to actually enter production.

The bad "CGI" and cheap props used in this show, I could maybe get past, but the story telling itself, the lines, the roles assigned to some actors and the purely cringe moments made me stop watching after half of the first episode just to come here and complain.

If you're one of those that don't about any of the aspects mentioned above, and still loved the show, then I am happy for you, and I am happy knowing it ended up reaching someone that appreciates and is not just a big middle finger to everyone loving the Witcher universe, because to me that's all this seems to be, a middle finger to the fan base.

Willow (2022–2023)

Expected more

[4/10 · 9 December 2022]

Ok, so I'm going to be honest here, this would not be something I'd choose to watch if I had better options in the same day this airs, but due to the lack of anything else I guess is OK watch.

This is something like the fellowship of willow of Narnia, minus the closet, the lion king and some Legolas look-alike elf with pointy ears, a wizard that is not really a wizard that much and done much poorly when it comes to cast and the lines.

Not sure what audience age is this targeting, but to be fair it doesn't look like something meant for kids, nor something made for adults, it's something in-beween or just done in poorly, at least it looks that way for me.

I've watched the original and in comparison this got nothing on it besides better CGI and effects, not saying they are something great, just better than the original ones...but the lines are horrible, the cast seems forced and they got no chemistry, can't say any of the characters is lovable except for Willow maybe but the badly written lines even makes him look bad at times.

Will keep an eye on it and hope it will improves and gives me a reason to return and change my 4 stars review, but seeing how poorly written and rushed the script is so far in the first 3 episodes, I doubt I will have a reason to do it.

Wednesday (2022– )

Better than expected.

[10/10 · 24 November 2022]

I was not expecting this to be any good, considering it's done by netflix, however I was greatly impressed with this show, think it just became my favorite of the year.

You will see lot of people saying "This is not for you" as if they know better and as in they take the decision for you, however, I would greatly recommend giving the show a try and decide it for yourself if you like it not.

Jenna Ortega is wonderful cast in the role, but pretty much everyone else just as well, the acting is great, the music, the effects - everything, I can't say I could think of any negative thing to say about it except the fact that I didn't enjoy how her father Gomez was introduced but is something I could easily get past since the show is about Wdnesday and not her family. (though nothing wrong with the actor or acting for Gomez either, just how he was written).

You should never let other people dictate what to watch, you cannot discuss taste or force people into liking the same things. Many shows released this year got a huge wave of hate and almost made me skip watching them just because others said they are bad...and guess what ? I ended up enjoying many of them.

As I write this review, the show is rated at 8.5 stars after 5,5k votes, which means those that dislike the show are in such low number that it doesn't even affect the show overall.

Happy binge day.

House of the Dragon: Second of His Name (2022) Season 1, Episode 3

The mops...

[5/10 · 5 September 2022]

I still can't understand why you have to make those people wear mops on their heads, it makes it hard to enjoy anything.

For some reason I've enjoyed this episode even less than I did the first two and for me that is usually something hard to do, I'm not usually a big critic.

The CGI was horrible, the drama parts predictable and the episode dragged to "build up" for a fighting at the end that to me was not even close to impressive, maybe because GoT got the standards too high with episodes like "Battle of the Bstards". (correct name is flagged as insult on IMDB)

I was expecting more efforts on a first season, and more dragging in the future, not the other way around, it makes it hard for me to get invested into the show right now.

House of the Dragon: The Rogue Prince (2022) Season 1, Episode 2

Improving

[8/10 · 29 August 2022]

I must admit that I liked it a bit more than the first episode, however it will still take me a long while to grow any level of "affection" towards the new cast, which so far, to me at least seem like a version that mimics some of the original GoT characters, and having higher expectations for them makes me have to keep repeating to myself "this is not GoT, this is not GoT".

Princess Rhaenyra (Milly Alcock) seems like a great actress but having to fill Emilia Clarke's shoes is a big task and growing accustomed to her will take a while for some of us.

The wigs are also something that is at times hard to get past, I believe especially for Steve Toussaint (Lord Corlys Velaryon) which is another great actor - that wig makes him less believable when he delivers some of the lines. (is not the lines, not the actor - simply the wig)

My favorite char right now is Ser Harrold Westerling (Graham McTavish) and I hope to see more of him in future episodes and hope it won't end up being just one random victim if the show plans to follow GoT's history with a spree of killed characters.

Looking forward to see the next week's episode.

House of the Dragon: The Heirs of the Dragon (2022) Season 1, Episode 1

Meh

[7/10 · 22 August 2022]

I've waited for this episode to air up to 4:00 AM being hyped to watch it, sadly it did not deliver much emotion.

Overall I did not find the pilot to be bad, but sadly I did not find most of the cast/characters to create that connection/emotion with me, the viewer, and at times I found it boring because of that reason, however the story, the effects and the music managed to deliver almost to the point in which it made up for the lacking parts. (did not love any characters, nor did I entirely hate them, I just didn't see the people playing the role fit well)

Awaiting to see if the characters and cast members will grow on me in future episodes, but surely they could have made much better decisions for some of the roles/characters. (especially the king, in my opinion - good actor but doesn't fit the role for me)

Compared to Game of Thrones - Too early to say.

Prey (I) (2022)

Great movie - room for improvements

[8/10 · 7 August 2022]

To be honest I lost my faith in the movie industry before this, however this in my opinion is one of the greatest movies of the year, no forced wake content, no unnecessary fillers, no characters to hate and just the right amount suspenseful moments in which I was hoping the dog won't get hurt.

Story and casting wise I'd give this a 10, mostly because I got used to bad prequels and reboots, expecting this to be yet another waste of time, but I ended up enjoying it. Compared to the OG Predator series, this would be maybe a 7, but again I am not comparing it to the predator movie but rather to the large amount of disappointing movies released recently, although a 7 star movie is not bad when compared to the original movies either. I believe this was well done overall for a prequel.

However, I feel the CGI parts was poorly done at times, thing that I should mention since not every aspect deserves a praise.

Compared to the original movies : 7 stars Compared to the failed reboots and prequel of past years : 9 stars Compared to the potential : 7 stars

I hope I will see more movies like this in the future even if it's not my usual cup of tea.

The Orville: Future Unknown (2022) Season 3, Episode 10

LOVED it

[10/10 · 5 August 2022]

Best episode yet, Loved ever second of it. Really hope it will get renewed. We need more of this and less badly done treks.

The story was so well written .

The Orville: Electric Sheep (2022) Season 3, Episode 1

Great start

[9/10 · 3 June 2022]

Not entirely what we got used to in the previous seasons but it's a good, promising start. This became one of my favorite SCIFI series and in my opinion it beats the Treks by far. If you ever see bad reviews for this title will only be from the Trek fans that are afraid their shows will get canceled for not meeting the same expectations.

Another Life (2019–2021)

Predictable, lots of SG like elements

[3/10 · 14 October 2021]

I didn't enjoy the cast/crew that much and the lines at times were dull, I've managed to push past that thinking it would get better and better.

To me this felt like a cheaper version of Star Gate, one in which humans defeat the greatest enemy in the galaxy and all the other aliens want to become their friends.

I guess is a decent show to watch if you got nothing else to do, but not something I would be missing if it ended up being canceled.

S.W.A.T.: Vagabundo (2021) Season 5, Episode 1

Loved it

[10/10 · 3 October 2021]

One of my favorite episodes, I didn't want it to finish.

Coming 2 America (2021)

I'd say is a 5-6 stars

[10/10 · 17 September 2021]

I don't understand the hate, in my opinion is a solid 5 towards 6, nothing spectacular but not something deserving of 1 star either. I would not give this a 10 start under normal circumstances and would limit to a realistic 5.

Sure, it's not a great move but I've somewhat enjoyed it as it is, granted it lacked on many chapters and it didn't have that thing to keep me involved and to want to see more and compared with all those trash releases lately such as superhero movies, I think this done pretty good for a movie you can watch on weekend when you got nothing better to do.

Stargate Origins: Catherine (2018)

Pretty much SGU on low budget

[2/10 · 1 March 2021]

Not sure what the plan with this show was, but mostly likely with a little effort they would have made a better job than it was done in that trashy SGU attempt. At least the camera here is not getting you dizzy to the point of throwing up.

Hope the future stargate series will be nothing close to this or SGU.

Stargate Universe (2009–2011)

Shaking camera and weird angles = annoying.

[5/10 · 1 March 2021]

I've decided to re-watch all the stargate series and loved them, however once I was done with SG1, Atlantis and the 2 movies, I've finally remembered why I personally hated SGU. The story itself is pretty decent, most of the cast and acting are also decent, however the way it was filmed with the camera always shaking and having weird angles makes it seem like it was something done by amateurs, if it wasn't for some of the good actors and decent CGI, I would mistaken it for something done in a kid's basement as a side project. The music also doesn't seem to fit in at times, I didn't have a single second in 10 seasons of SG1, 5 seasons of Atlantis + the 2 movies in which I wondered why they made that poor choice of background sound or music, however in SGU I've had that happen many, many times. So far I'm close to the end of first season, I honestly don't remember if second season was any better. I love the idea of the show, and I believe that I would have been able to enjoy it if it was done right, is not that I hate the story or the lack of action like some say, I find it decent to "watch" on the second monitor while gaming, as a background noise mostly, because that shacking camera style just gets me dizzy. No wonder the show got canceled after this.

There are talks of a continuation, if things go right with MGM, and if it's the case I pray whatever they got cooking next would be at least twice as good as this.

Fate: The Winx Saga (2021–2022)

Loved it.

[8/10 · 23 January 2021]

First of all, I noticed lots of people complaining that this show is not close to what the cartoons used to be - I have never watched the cartoons, and I never will - If it was not for this show I would have not got into the story, because I can't stand watching cartoons at all.

So, in short, if they did not make this TV-Show, the story would have never reached me and many others, that like me dislike cartoons and animes, I don't think this tv-show was aimed towards the cartoon fans, and I see no reason why it should have.

Now regarding the show - I must admit I actually enjoyed the show, it is rare for me to enjoy most of the new titles because there's always one aspect that bothers me, like bad music, bad CGI, bad acting and so on, and I must say the only area about this show I can actually complain is that the story at times was a bit forced, I would have liked to see this story start with the story of the Burnt Ones and the story of the fairies, and then have it pick up from there, so I guess the issue was not really with the story but rather with the order they chose to reveal certain aspects...it was not a huge turnoff but I feel that's the only thing I would change about it.

Overall it was enjoyable but short, I feel like for me at least, some of the questions were left unanswered since I do not know the cartoons, questions which I feel should have been answered this season. but I am looking forward for a second season to answer them. Most of the new Sci-fi TV-Shows have a tendency to focus more on nudity, aspect that this show did not focus on and proof that you can still enjoy a TV-Show even without all that forced nudity in it.

This is not a tv-show that deserves awards at this point, but is a pretty good one, just wish it had more episodes. It got potential and if they will read and listen to some of the feedback out there, I think it got the potential to become one of the greatest in future seasons, maybe even for the whining cartoon fans.

Stars Fell on Alabama (2021)

Enjoyed it

[10/10 · 11 January 2021]

This is one of my favorite romcoms of the year so far, I've really enjoyed watching this. I think the actors did a really great job, they had chemistry, the story was not bad, but at times it could be better, unless it was meant to leave some areas for a continuation... I even enjoyed the music, which is pretty rare for me. You should give it a shot, I rated it 10 because the chemistry between Jason Burkey and Ciara Hanna made me forget that at times is close to your typical "boy meets girl, falls in love, the end" type of movie, I wanted to see more, I wanted to see what happens next, I still had couple of questions unanswered since I saw potential for the story to evolve. I know the ratings and reviews are subject to opinion and taste/like for everyone individually, but I strongly feel like the ratings so far were a bit unjust and it deserves at least a solid 7 if not more, overall, that is the only reason I've decided to write a review, to encourage others to give it a chance before judging it based only on the ratings that didn't leave a review.

The Witcher (2019– )

200% honest oppinion - not knowing the books or games.

[5/10 · 22 December 2019]

I have not read the books nor have I played the games, sadly I do not know what to compare it with in terms of story-line. I've only watched the pilot so far and I've had great expectations when people compared it with GoT and other great titles, but so far was disappointing, like seeing the army go to war on the open field instead of defending the castle, the armies not having any formations, no elements of tactics. no preparations in terms of defense and went fighting enemies that had high ground advamtage in a land that I suspect got magic, which was not even used in that fight.

I didn't get to understand much about what a witcher is and how he became one and so on. - I was expecting at least 20-40 sec of text explaining how witchers were "born". what they role is and what not, to at least get a clue. I just understand that he fights evil and that's about it - seemed a bit blunt and uninspired.

The fighting scenes were also a bit too forced on that "first person" effect attempt and it gave little to suspense, no emotion at all - felt like watching a poor cutscene from some rpg that I was not able to skip.

Again my review is based only on the pilot - Giving it a fair chance and will force few more episodes - I will return to update my review if it gets better and at any point I feel that I was wrong.