Change Your Image
simonlegosson
Reviews
Batman: Year One (2011)
A faithful adaptation of a great comic book that would have benefitted from being a bit longer
Batman: Year One is arguably one of the greatest and most important Batman stories to have ever been produced. The original comic book is a true classic and an absolute must-read for any fan of the caped crusader. This film basically takes scenes from the comic and makes them into moving pictures. There is little to no innovation going on here, although that's not necessarily a bad thing given the high quality of the material it adapts. The films biggest problem is its pacing. Scenes move on too quickly and there is no time for the story, which takes place over an entire year, to land. The original comic book is also built up of many separate short scenes however I think the comic book medium lends itself better to this form of storytelling. In a comic book, the reader decides the pacing of the story. Therefore the need for slow scenes where the audience can let all the aspects of the story sink in, is not the same. For the movie to work more effectively I think it should have had a longer runtime and let some scenes play out for a few minutes more.
Pacing issues aside, this movie will be great for fans of the comic book. The animation keeps a similar look to the comic and is overall really well done. Sam Liu does a good job directing and adds no unnecessary side plots or creepy sex stuff added this time, thank God (I wouldn't have been able to handle another killing joke). Bryan Cranston gives a great voice performance as Jim Gordon and Ben McKenzie manages to capture both the muted nature of Bruce Wayne and the authoritative and intimidating voice of Batman. The rest of the voice cast is also great, the only exception for me being Eliza Dushku as Catwoman who almost sounds a little too childish for me to really feel her as Selina.
While the movie doesn't quite reach the heights of the comic book, I still found it a really enjoyable experience to see one of my favorite Batman stories brought to the big screen.
Harley Quinn: Killer's Block (2023)
Disappointing finale to a decent season with a terrible setup for the next
I think the fourth season of Harley Quinn has been fine. It's nowhere near as good as the early seasons but almost every episode still manages to make me laugh at least a couple of times. As a season finale I think this episode was really underwhelming. The episode started good with the Joker's villainous family fighting Harley, but the entire episode peaked at its very first scene. The whole story arc of the Joker going back to villainy ends with Harley capturing him off screen and later dragging him around in a leash before tying him up and giving him to Gordon. The Joker has been one of the best parts of this season so it was a shame to see his storyline get "resolved" in such an abrupt way.
Lex Luthor (despite a pretty decent voice performance by the king of memorable villains, Giancarlo Esposito) is probably the least memorable out of all the antagonists in the entire show. He's made up of a few generic, negative, psychotic traits stereotypical to evil businessmen and he never feels like a distinct character. This in turn makes Harley and Ivy's successful attempt at beating him feel pretty boring and unexciting.
There's no big fight sequence or anything of the equivalent to finish off this season. Ivy tries to catch Lex with her vines leading to him simply slicing them off in the most boring way possible. They defeat Lex after a "car chase" where Harley and Ivy drive a moon vehicle as Lex just kind of follows them in a visually identical vehicle at a small distance. The sequence ends with Lex's vehicle being hacked by Batgirl causing him to drive into a crater after which Steppenwolf (a character that has barely been in the show) takes him away. After that Harley and Ivy shoot some death beams at earth and a few explosions are shown. There's no memorable action whatsoever in this episode.
A thing that the show in general, but especially this episode struggles with is the balance between classic Harley Quinn insanity and (maybe) almost trying to make some point about the real world. I think the show is at its best when it combines serious character moments with the insane world that it has built for itself. Trying to make actual societal critique or include messages related to the real world in this format is practically impossible and I think the show should have abstained from doing so altogether. The show is occasionally implied to be a retelling of events by Harley, justifying its sincere thoughts on the world mixed with over the top stupidity and craziness but it's never made clear enough to where you're really sure wether it's the writers or Harley herself trying to make a point.
I didn't really like the final scene and the setup for the next season either. Catwoman's relationship to Harley, Ivy and Barbara had almost no build up. We have been shown that Catwoman has started taking somewhat of a liking to Bruce Wayne/Batman after he gave himself up and stood up for his crimes. It hasn't been much (her giving Martha's pearls to Bruce and giving him a gift in prison in the Valentine's Day special) but at least there is some buildup there. Catwoman showing up out of nowhere and starting the birds of prey was not only kind of jarring but it also makes me concerned about the next season. The show has felt a little lacking after Harley's original crew split up and I'm glad its is going back to focus on a bigger ensemble again. However I don't think that the writers could have possibly selected worse characters to make up the new crew.
For starters, Harley and Ivy's relationship is surprisingly healthy and aside from communication errors and smaller arguments there isn't much tension there for the story to revolve around. The show's interpretation of Catwoman is a pretty flat and boring one considering the source material. I was started to get slightly invested in her arc when her empathy seemed to be woken up by Bruce going to prison but the show just kind of left her after that. To finish off their glorious team we have Barbara Gordon, the most normal, bland and boring character in the entire series. This is possibly the worst setup for a next season that the show could have gone with. I'm not saying it's impossible to make a good season about these four, but the writers are going to have to put in an extreme amount of work if it's even going to come close to the greatness of the early adventures of Harley, Ivy, Clayface, King Shark, Sy and Doctor Psycho.
All in all I still quite like the show and I'm glad it's getting another season but this finale was a real disappointment. There are some memorable moments from this season (Lex blowing up his calves, Bane going to Italy, The Joker's evil but otherwise normal family and the Legion of Doom's initial reaction to getting a female boss being some of them) but it's nowhere near the greatness of the early days of the show. I hope they take their time with the next season and really put in the effort to get the show back on track.
Velma (2023)
Amazing
This show is up there with Slippin' Jimmy and Santa Inc. As one of the greatest pieces of animated media to ever be produced. The scriptwriting is genius and subtle, the characters feel realistic and lovable, the jokes are funny and never just consist of one of the Scooby Doo characters saying something offensive, gross, self aware or rude.
For real though, stay away from this show unless you really want something to hate-watch. The animation looks bland, all characters (especially Velma herself) are extremely unlikable and have nothing in common with the characters from the original Scooby Doo, the show is full of what I think is supposed to be satire of racial stereotypes however the writers completely forgot about the satire part and just wrote in offensive stereotypes in the show. It's a real shame that this is the introduction we get to a reimagined Scooby Doo where the characters have different ethnicities and sexualities. The Scooby Doo gang have always been a diverse cast of characters so letting that diversity show in things like skin color or sexuality is not a bad idea, it's just beyond horribly executed. I think this is the worst animated show I have ever seen in my entire life, and I watched both Santa Inc and Slippin Jimmy.
Turning Red (2022)
Made me Physically ill. Good movie though
I went in to this movie with fairly low expectations since I don't really like coming of age stories but I was pleasantly surprised over how good the movie was. The characters were well written and the puberty-metaphor of turning in to a giant red panda is weird for sure, but still a quite fun one and it was executed well. The animation is good (though not as technically impressive as Pixar movies like you story 4 and cars 3). It has a clear visual style that it sticks to and it looks really nice.
This movie however was one of the most painful experiences I've had consuming any form of media. I would describe it as a sort of inverted Seinfeld effect where as instead of being somewhat relatable though exaggerated and presented in a mainly comedic manner, this film is very relatable though exaggerated and whilst comedic, it is mainly supposed to make you feel uncomfortable. As quite the young lad myself (16) I didn't have that much distance to the time when I too was 13 and that made the movie sometimes very hard to watch.
All and all though the movie is very good with fleshed out and (mostly) likable characters (my favorite was the dad) and good voice acting. I heard some people complain that this movie isn't suitable for kids and while that is true to an extent, that's nothing that I hold against it. I'd be willing to wager the target demographic the creators had in mind were kids in their early teens which isn't anything negative by any means, though it can be worth taking into consideration if you plan on watching it with your kids (if they're under 9-10 you are probably better off watching Toy Story, Cars, Nemo or Inside Out).
After not being overly impressed with Luca I thought this was a really good comeback for Pixar and I really recommend you to watch it if it sounds interesting to you.
The Book of Boba Fett: Chapter 5: Return of the Mandalorian (2022)
Ironically the best episode so far in the show about Boba Fett is the one where he does not appear at all
Man! This episode was great. Everything that the rest of the show has done wrong was absent here. The story actually evolved and felt a little meaningful here.
I do think the pacing was a little too fast however, especially since we haven't seen the Mandalorian for a while and we could have used some time to reconnect with him. That's a small detail however and the rest of the show is great.
The lonely Din Djarin trying to connect with the remaining Mandalorians only to find out he is no longer welcome there after removing his helmet was surprisingly emotional. Din wanting to feel like he belongs somewhere is also works as a logical motivation for his character to join Fennec and Boba.
The episode was also very well directed by Bryce Dallas Howard who directed several episodes in the first two seasons of "The Mandalorian". She once again manages to blend the darker side of the character with the kind of dry humor that also was commonly used in that show.
Another thing to love is that the world building , unlike what it has looked like in previous "Book of Boba Fett" episodes, actually feels very well planed out this time. Everything from the bd-droid in Peli Motto's spaceport to the scheduled flight between planets to the "vintage" Naboo N1-starfighter to small details such as how the flight security droid on the rugged desert planet Tatooine is all worn out and can't speak properly.
This episode was everything that the others weren't and for that I'm very happy.
The Book of Boba Fett: Chapter 1: Stranger in a Strange Land (2021)
Pretty disappointed
This episode was not the worst piece of Star Wars media ever made but I didn't like it either. There was literally nothing of worth happening for the entire episode. We got to see Boba walking around talking to some people and through flashbacks we get to see him escape the Sarlacc pit. We already got to know that he escaped in "The Mandalorian" and we didn't need to see it in full detail. I personally liked it a lot more when you had to fill in the blanks yourself instead of getting every single thing shown directly to you.
Even the scenes that are not flashbacks to things we already know are completely unnecessary. Everything that happened was Boba going around introducing himself to his neighbors and saying that he is the new crime lord in town, something that we also obviously knew from watching "The Mandalorian".
There is also a fight scene featuring some random people that shows up for no reason at all and start attacking the main characters. The attackers seem to have no motivation whatsoever to attack these two armed people just walking down the street but that doesn't stop them from going at them with their ugly CGI shields and electric sticks. The main characters survive of course. (Probably because they went to Tosche station to pick up some plot armor.)
This brings me to the next point in my review which is all about the CGI and VFX used in the series. For the most part it doesn't look that bad per se (except for a couple of shots in the desert when the background doesn't match the rest of scene at all) but it does not feel like it belongs in the Star Wars galaxy. There are so many creatures and weapons in the Star Wars universe to choose and or expand upon but instead the creators of this show apparently opted for some bland looking energy shields and a generic looking four-armed CG monster.
The planet Tatooine (which is the setting for the entire episode) also looks very different from its earlier iterations. Tatooine was always this rugged and dirty, dried up place but here it looks surprisingly clean and polished. It isn't that big of a deal but all of these things combined makes for a first episode that feels way too much like a generic sci-fi story instead of something set in the Star Wars world.
Maybe we got spoiled by the brilliant "The Mandalorian" last year, a show that managed to be quite fresh while still feeling like it was actually set in the same universe as the other Star Wars movies. I get that every Star Wars project can't be the second coming of Christ but I still would have hoped for something more than what we got. I'm not going to judge the entire series based off only the first episode though so we'll have to wait and see how the rest of the show plays out.
Also this is a true nitpick but in one scene you can see two twi'lek slaves, one male and one female. The problem is that they both have cone shaped ears which is not how the species is supposed to look. In all other Star Wars media male twi'leks have more humanoid ears and only the females have ears shaped like cones. It's a small detail that doesn't really matter but it still annoyed me and given how many people work on the show I don't think obvious mistakes like that should happen.
Hawkeye (2021)
I liked it a lot
Classic Christmas movie meets buddy-cop movie set in the MCU and it all makes for a really enjoyable experience. The performances are really good overall. Kate Bishop and Clint Barton we're both quiet likable as main characters despite having very different personalities. Hailee Steinfeld and Jeremy Renner also have great chemistry.
This show is not the next Breaking Bad but it's not trying to be. Instead it opts to be a more light hearted holiday action comedy that doesn't take itself too seriously.
It's not all sappy fun and jokes though as the series actually manages to squeeze in some really heartfelt moments without them feeling out of place. Overall I found myself being rather invested in the story.
(It also reeks of that good old fashioned Christmas atmosphere which I think it's quiet nice).
In conclusion this is not a must watch if you don't really care for MCU or Christmas movies but if you do I'm pretty sure you will enjoy it.
Also bonus point cuz the pizza dog was cute and this show made Rocky the little Rockefeller owl MCU canon.
Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021)
The most fun I've had in a cinema for a long time
This movie has some of the usual MCU flaws but they still tied it together really good. There are also loads of references to the old movies making it a really fun experience for long time fans (myself included). The characters that were brought back from the classics were well written and stayed mostly true to their original personalities. After making some (in my opinion) pretty bad movies and shows I feel like this was a big comeback for the MCU. It might not have been the best movie ever on a technical level but it sure was a whole lot of fun. Fans of the old movies and just Spidey fans in general really need to give this a watch right away.
Us Again (2021)
Cozy
It's a nice little short but there is not really anything special about it. I didn't really like the 3D models for the main characters since they just looked a bit bland, especially when you compare it to the characters in Pixar's shorts. It isn't a must see but it's really cozy and just 6 minutes long so it's not like you are wasting several hours of your life watching it. I was going to rate it 6/10 but then I noticed that the male main character flossed in one of the pictures showed at the end credits which brought it down a point for me since I don't like the Backpack Kid or Fortnite.
Bo Burnham: Inside (2021)
The man who sang that "art is dead" has once again proven himself wrong
I really don't even know what to say more than that this might be one of the best, if not the best thing mr. Burnham has made.
Thanks Bo.