Reviews

Being impressed by the 1st movie, and loving the 2nd one, I was barely disappointed by the 3rd entry into the franchise. But I didnt want to judge it too harshly, seeing as it was pretty much all buildup and suspense, aimed at this final installment of the series.

However, having now watched Mockingjay - Part 2, I can just say I am super disappointed. Seeing through essentially 2 hours of just buildup for this movie, I was expecting AT LEAST a full hour of a "Return of the King-Minas Tirith"-like siege of the Capitol. I was expecting full scale war, portrayed with lots of action and explosions.

What did I get? A 2-hour long covert mission, with all the obvious characters being picked off one by one, a super predictable plot, a "sewer level", monsters suddenly showing up and then disappearing as quickly as they appeared with zero explanation, and a very counterproductive subplot in Alma Coin (As the new dictator), and a extremely unsatisfying death for President Snow.

It's a real shame the Hunger Games couldn't keep the fire lit, from Catching Fire, until the end of the 3rd book's story. Dividing the last book into two movies was a huge mistake, seeing as both were super slow, and the 4th quite disappointing.

So, you've been told your whole life that you are a king, and then your friend gets a girl, who you like, and then you get captured, and you then decide to become a literal demon.

The illogical and emotion response of this "character" and his motivations has given me so much whiplash, that I still haven't fully gotten over it, several years later.

Calling it "jumping the shark" doesn't do it justice: He slaughters all his friends in cold blood, in painful and sadistic ways, because he's lonely and doesn't feel important. This wasn't setup in the slightest, and he goes from 1 to a million in a matter of a few scenes.

He was a fully flushed out character before his "fall", and his demonic design is cool and badass. But the transition between the two, is honestly laughable.

Very beautiful and awe-inspiring documentary. I found myself with open mouth on multiple occasions.

Some of the facts were told in a bit weird order, though. Only in the episode after Jupiter (A gas giant), did they actually explain what that meant: Can you walk on it? Nope. You'd fall through it, and get crushed by the planet's own atmospheric pressure. I already knew that, by the next episode, because I had always wondered what such a planet would be like - So I googled it, doing the episode about Jupiter. Got annoyed they didn't mention that in the Jupiter-episode. Got doubly annoyed by the next episode, where they they finally explained that. Probably wasn't their first priority, but still seems vital to me, to explain what this giant mass is, exactly. You can't just say "Oh, it's a 'gas giant', and then bla bla bla".

But yeah, other than small things like that, I really enjoyed the show. Loved it.

9/10.

Watched just two scenes, and had to shut it off:

First scene: Knights acting carelessly and smug, and talk back to their future king, literally seconds after saving his life - Why do they act in such a way? Because he's not king yet, and haven't payed them... Thaaaat's an execution!

Second scene: King then proceeds to walk into a hall, full of all his political enemies (one of which who literally just had tried to have him killed), and be smug himself, with a cringey one-liner, at end the scene.... Thaaaat should had ended with him getting killed, where he stood. Not really, but how I wish that was the case, though.

Not a fan with the nonchalant attitudes and smugness of from every single actor in this movie. It has nothing to do with the medieval time period, being it british or any other place for that matter.

5/10.

Completely ignoring all the retconning from the original WC1-3 lore, the story itself is a mess and clumsily told. It does 100% "tell, don't show", and proceeds to have characters say and do nonsensical things, from start till the end.

A few examples of this: Durotan: Fel magic is evil, but we had no way of knowing that. Now, allow me to do what this CLEARLY evil sorcerer, who has green skin and green glowing eyes, spikes coming out of his back and arms and a evil voice, says. Slaughter innocents and kids? Sure thing, Gul'dan! Wait, the fel is evil? WhaaAAAAaaaat???!

Medivh: I'll make a big golem, which can't leave the room or roam the tower because of it's big size, with the exact purpose to leave the room and clean - Which it can't. Small thing, but why did he say that?

Blackhand: Why did you bring a pregnant orc with you through the portal, Durotan? Oh well, I guess Im okay with it now, because Gul'dan wanted more warriors for the Horde.

Also, why is Thrall born green? His mum and dad are still brown....?

It's badly paced, and the effects, even its part real actors and part CG, are terrible. Fans have asked (Not just asked, but begged) for a full feature CG movie by Blizzard, for decades - This was their chance, and they screwed it up, big time - Partly by making it with real actors, instead of all CG. You are introduced to a bazzilion different characters, and before any of them are even established with motivations and depth, the movie acts as if you really care about them, or what they are trying to do. The movie is rushed and feels like a 2 hour long fan service - BAD fan service. It's just name dropping characters, places, and factions left and right, with very little context or depth.

Having Khadgar essentially reduced to being little more than comedical relief is just a slap in the face. And comedy isn't a requirement in movies, guys. If it doesn't fit, it doesn't fit. Again, it feels forced.

Honestly, this movie feels and looks an awful lot like a fan fiction-movie. If that was indeed the case, I would had gone easier on it. But given that it is, in fact, a big and expensive movie, that cost 160 MILLION US DOLLARS, the quality of the effect and the script, is just not good - It's that simple.

By the climax and the duel between Durotan and Gul'dan, I think the movie gets confused about which side of the portal we're looking at: The humans are at the portal, at a place that looks like a forest, or a jungle (Tanaan Jungle, I would guess). But the azeroth side would not be a jungle - It would be a swamp (Black Morass. Later Blasted Lands). It is actually the Outland side that would be a jungle (Tanaan Jungle).

So, this is actually really confusing at this point in the movie, because the movie itself doesn't seem to know where the characters are or where the events are taking place - Whether it's in the orc world (Outlands), or the human world (Azeroth).

All in all, the movie just doesn't work. Not as a movie for fans, not as a movie adaption. It doesn't even work as a movie, in general.

4/10.

After having watched 20 mins, I still have no idea who the protaganist is, what he wants, or even what his name is. You're told nothing, neither visually or literally, and the only thing that has happened so far, is Denzel brooding for 90% of the time, and then killing a few one dimentional bad guys (As he always seems to do) in the last 5 mins. It's very boring, predictable, and cliched. Nothing new to see here, and the entire world is CG. It doesn't look real. It's like Madmax, but just worse effects and then instead of kickass over the top action, its boring. It tries to go for a realistic and grim tone in a post-apocalyptic world, but the entire world is so obviously CG - Those two concepts really clash together, and not in a good way.

4/10.

As the title says, I was really split about Obi-Wan Kenobi (2022), seeing as it's on one hand an somewhat unexplored time period, in the Star Wars-universe, and therefore would be perfect to explore. And seeing as all the actors have aged since Episode 3 (Revenge of the Sith), all the actors are the correct ages, which I thought was simply beautiful. The time to make a show about this period, using the original cast, is just now.

However, I was skeptical, seeing as Obi-Wan Kenobi in this period isn't supposed to be involved in pretty much anything. He's suppose to have vanished from the radar, living in hiding, under the alias "Ben", and just keeping an eye on Luke, from a distance - The show pretty ruins everything about that, by the 2nd episode (Which is as far as I ever watched, too).

The show also managed to make me hate Leia, because she talks like an adult, at the age of 10 - Which is, lets be frank here, just bad writting. It's like they thought they could represent Leia, as a kid, by taking her adult counterpart and using a shrink-gun on her, and have her essentially be the exact same person, as she is in Episode 4 and after. This is of course completely ignoring the fact that most people develop their personalities, opinions, and such, in their teens and 20s. This show, in other words, had the perfect oppotunity to show how and why Leia came to be the person we know and love. The show sadly just went the lazy route. Also, do I need to say anything about "the chase scene"? It was (without saturating), quite literally the worst chase or kidnap scene I have ever watched in my entire life. The goons were literally just falling over their own feet, being outsmarted by the 10 year old, and being knocked to the ground by Leia letting go of branches. Simple laughable and terrible.

The female inquisitor (Forgot her name, because meh) was annoying. Yet again Disney insist on shoving this female-empowerment down our throats, with bad dialogue and awful characters. She wasted 10 years looking for Obi-Wan, she finally finds him, confronts him and is immediately distracted by the Grand Inquisitor, who she then kills instead, letting Obi-Wan get away. And her reaction to this is "I'LL GET YOU NEXT TIME, GADGET!" - Which is pretty much what she yells after him. Again, why is this so badly written?

The effect and the acting is (besides all the kids) fine, I suppose, and the cinematography is good. However, a lot of the dialogue is talking down to the audience, sadly - Sort of stating the obvious. Not a lot of "show, don't tell".

All in all, the show had great potential (As is the case with most Disney products these days, before you watch them), although it would be at the expense of making Episode 4 make far less sense, in regards to Luke's and Ben's relationship and the Empire's knowledge of Obi-Wan's presence on Tatooine. It ultimately feels forced, is badly written, and you can't help but feel that this is yet another cashgrab by Disney, trying to milk this franchise to it's grave. This show, and Boba Fett, have made me unsub from Disney+ - The shows they make are simply not up to par, and I'm not paying for the Mandalorian, alone.

4/10.

I stopped watching after this scene (E3). The most iconic, mindless killing machine of the original trilogy, reduced to a sad little babwy :<

Also, PLEASE, enough with the stupid sand people (no one gives a flying frisbee). The scenes were boring, unneccesary, and didn't further the plot AT ALL.

Boba could just had gotten up from the pit, with his armor still on, walked to the city, killed Jabba's successor, and then BAM, no need for ANY half-episode flashbacks. Guess they had to extend the padding, to last at least a couple of episodes, to have enough material for an entire season.

Shameless SW milking is shameless.

Just give us more Mandalorian episodes instead, please.

Also, it not a "bacta" tank - Have you never heard about kolto? You should absorb more from the extended universe - It's much better than this dump.

Rushing action scenes from start till end, with only very few moments to breathe. The origin story of Black Widow is somehow both decent, but at the same time a bit disappointing. I had hoped for a movie explaining how Natasha became Black Widow and while *that* subject is mentioned or even referenced, it's in no shape or form the focus of this movie - The focus is a new enemy, a new undercover organization, and a whole new conflict. There's suddenly a family we've never heard about or seen, and it all just feels a bit disjointed from the rest of the MCU.

While the action is great, the movie itself is somewhat mediocre, with a few things that annoyed me, while I watched it:

1. Mind control isn't the opposite of free will (Movies always use this cliche).

2. Every single character in this movie is female - Besides the comical relief-dad, the bad guy, the spy guy helping Natasha (who's in the movie for a total of maybe 5 mins), all the masked henchmen, and Ross (who's in the movie, also, just for 5 mins). That leaves every single name-given or important character, except for 4, being female. We're talking about a 90% or so female cast, of important characters.

I'm not even exaturating here - Literally every single important character is female... Why do the bad guy only recruit girls? Why are only girls "an expendable ressource". The amount of boys and girls in the world are about equal, no? Why are girls worth less? Simply nonsensicle.

The whole thing came across as it was trying to make a political statement - A very forced and distracting political statement (in an action movie of all things). I don't mind a mainly female cast, or a kickass strong female lead - Quite the opposite, in fact. So that's not the issue. The issue is that the reasoning given in the movie, didn't make sense in the given context. If you have a ressource (Kids), why on earth would you only utilize half of it (girls), and throw the other half away (boys)?

3. As already mentioned, I felt the plot was way off compared to what I expected. Would had LOVED to had seen how Natasha was recruited and trained. What was it like for her to learn to kill? Manipulate? Steal? Disguise? Become a spy? An assassin? An agent? The internal struggle she would have to overcome? What did it do to her as a person? How did she cope with all these things, when she couldn't really tell anyone about what she was going through? And, of course, the person forcing her to do all these things could then be the bad guy. Huge missed oppotunity imho.

4. Some of the jokes were very... odd. The whole commentary from the sister (who I generally liked), who had this running "joke" about critising "the super hero landing" (as Deadpool would call it). It wasn't funny, and it seemed like an awkward way for the movie to try and be self-aware, somehow. It just didn't work. Neither did the humor with the dad (any of it). A few of the jokes got a chuckle of out me, though - So it wasn't all bad. In general, there was a lot of humor is this movie, which I really wasn't a fan of. This was suppose to be a spy movie, more than a super hero movie. Now, I get you don't want to be too serious with a super hero movie, but seeing as Black Widow isn't a super hero, and that she is actually a spy and an agent, I felt the tone of the movie should had been closer to that of the Bourne movies, or even James Bond. Too much awkward and unfunny humor, for a character, who should be traumatized and lonely, more than anything.

5. The movie also had a lot of very obvious so called "twists". A helmed person was introduced pretty early on, and immidiately I thought "that is the sister". This helmed person then later used a bow (just like hawkeye), and I though "oh, its hawkeye. They wouldn't actually only have to have him in the movie when its revealed.... thats kinda lame". Then by the end, when this helmed person shows up again, and Natasha starts talking with the badguy about his daughter, not one second passes and I think "its the daughter.....". They try so hard to bait you the twist, and when its finally revealed who it is, it's the most meaningless character possible - Natasha already felt bad for what she did. This just felt unneccessary, both from a character development pov, but also from a twist-pov.

6. This is the 3rd time Im editing this review (Sorry, IMDb-ppl!), because damn it, I really wanted to like this movie - but the more i think about it, the more it annoys me. So, another thing is there's A LOT of talk about "the red room". But we're never shown the red room, we're ever told what it really is, and by the end it's the source of all the problems for Natasha and her sister and she, as viewers, are still completely kept in the dark about what is really is. What the flying base by the end "the red room"? If so, that's... just silly. Was the literal room where all the girls stood being mindcontrolled the red room? If so, whats so scary about an empty room with red lights? The whole thing is just a giant case of "tell, don't show", which is the exact opposite of what you want. In fact, its not even that, because we're barely even told what the red room is, just that its evil, the bad guy is in charge, and that there's mindcontrol involved now, somehow (even though that wasn't the problem when Natasha and her sister her little - what was so scary about the red room, then?).

All in all, a bit run of the mill action movie, so don't expect to be blown away by it, as it is sadly pretty mediocre, overall. I'd say it's actually one of the worst MCU movies. Down there with Antman 2, Thor 2: The Dark World, and Iron Man 3. If I had to sum it up in just 3 words, they would be: Generic, disappoiting, and miscalculated. Really wish it had been better, as I love Black Widow, as a character. Defintely one of my favorites from the MCU.

Only reason I gave it a watch, was because of Chalize Theron (Going by actors/actresses is not something I usually do). Checked the score here on ImdB, and based on that, didn't expect much, besides a silly supernatural action movie.

Loved the concept, the characters (besides the ridiculous and cartoony badguy), the music. The way the characters were felt REAL, as if it was actual people who had lived to centuries if not millenia. It's so rare for movies to get that right, so big respect for that - Especially loved Theron's character, as it was very realistic and exactly what you would expect for someone who have tried to better the world for maybe thousands of years, but all in vain.

The movie isn't perfect though, as some moments annoyed me - Like the "Wait for the signal!", "What is the signal?" *BIG EXPLOSION* "Oh, that is the signal!". Me: Big facepalm.

The badguy also needs his own little rant, as he is just so out of place in this movie, that is really confusing me, honestly. In one second, he is really sadistic, and only care about getting rich, and in the next he talks about ending suffering and saving humanity - Pick a lane and stick with it, mate... Also, I feel he was really miscast for this role. Don't remember the actor's name, but honestly haven't seen him in any role that I like so far.

If the badguy had been less cartoonish, more sympathetic and nuanced, I would had given this an 8/10, but alas it wasn't so, sadly. Still a good watch if you don't have any expectations.