Change Your Image
HardLight
I have been and I am an real lover of good entertainment media, from books through to cinema, and I have a harsh critique towards negative and downright disgusting manipulative media.
So my ratings, reviews and lists here are going to be my personal opinion on the hellish crap that comes through the churning mass of horrible actions that comes out of hollywood.
Ratings
Most Recently Rated
Reviews
Kimi no Koto ga Daidaidaidaidaisuki na 100-nin no Kanojo (2023)
5 episodes in and this series is killing me!
I like a vast variety of anime, from the wonderful adorable nature of Slice of Life to the Ultra Violence in many Seinen, but one of the genres that I am unequivocally a major fan of is the Harem Comedy anime and on hearing the name "the 100 who really really really love you" I was expecting the waifu wars of the 2020s with this series.
But no, 5 episodes in and 4 of the 5 girls for this series have been revealed and I cannot pick between them, each is indefinably adorable in each of their own ways, quirks and cuteness in their own adorable way and each of them is the Best Girl of the show.
The comedy of the series is the usual fare for a Harem Comedy and it's a nice relaxing one with cute boy/girl moments, each of the main cast are perfect tropes of cuteness in this genre and - again - they're all freaking adorable and I cannot pick between them, they're all worth it.
If you're wavering on whether or not to try it and you're a fan of the harem romance series, go for it, you'll be definitely surprised by the stuff going on.
Robyn Hood (2023)
okay lets try this again shall we?
The legend of Robin Hood is a story that is largely misunderstood by todays culture, the thought of a man "robbing from the rich" is the sole thought for it and the unfortunate reality is that what people TODAY call "rich" is not what was in the era of Robin of Locksley - a real person who did exist btw - and it is prime material for people to misunderstand.
Thus this series was created, set in modern day Canada and facing a business mogul as the titular role of "Prince John" against a plucky group of youths from the projects that are having their building destroyed to make the land work for the affluent.
Interspersed with some of the strangest musical scores that could ever be heard and a set of costumes that either look "faux poor people" or "anime convention" style get ups, the series up-to-now has been a largely incoherent mess of disjointed ideas and views that is being forced to meld with the legend of Robin Hood, making this a completely unpalatable mish mash of mistakes and bad acting/directing/editing/writing.
I wish I didn't know about this series, as the stories of the British Heartland are as close to my heart as it is possible to be and the meanings are intrinsically British that are lost when you transpose them an ocean away in a country that doesn't have or ever has had the problems that the story of Robin Hood were showing and that in the simplest possible terms is the cost of war compared to the people of the home with those who are horribly unsuited to wield authority - not power - over the populace.
I wish it didn't exist because this is a very bad series.
Ragna Crimson (2023)
animation wise it's decent
Story wise, it feels after only 2 episodes that there's a problem. So spoilers for the story coming in and I'll be brief IMDB.
The story revolves around Ragna, a warrior who lives in a world of Dragons and Heroes who is travelling with a girl called Leo that he cares about a lot, so much that when Dragons plan to destroy all human life, it ends up killing Leo and sends him on a 20 year vendetta to destroy all dragons - and to then travel back in time, merge with his younger self and save the world.
That on its own is a good premise, where it falls apart is the edginess of the hero abandoning his reasons to fight because they're weaker and I really prefer stories that have meaning behind it than endless edge and bloodless fighting.
I will be giving this 2 more episodes and if it remains as it is I'm dropping it.
Edit
Yeah, I dropped this.
One Piece (2023)
This was not what I expected
I'm sort of a BIG Anime fan - heck the majority of reviews I have on the site are anime - and I'm sort of a stickler for something.
I have NOT - at all - liked the Netflix adaptions of anything they've made in Anime, it's been mostly bad and in some points horrendous.
So I was worried about this, I mean it's One Piece - I make jokes about it in the Bebop review - and I have said I'd never touch it. Then I learned (oh and spoilers going on here IMdB) that they'd be translating the entire East Blue arc for the first season.
And I said to myself "they had better get THAT scene right" and I realised to myself I'd "have" to watch it to find out if they did.
And...well...
Atarimaeda!!!
I was utterly blown away by the level of passion and detail put into this series, the love that looks to have been put into every part of the sets, to the wardrobes to the acting itself.
This is so far beyond my expectations that I cannot even fathom how well it was done, it's not a 1-1 remake of the manga and anime it's condensed quite a bit but it's done so much with what I did that I cannot ever ask for a more faithful adaption of the source material.
I am eating crow right now as I thought this would be the most terrible thing I've ever seen, but the entire team just outdid everything here.
And now I want there to be a season 2.
Good Lord did I just admit to wanting a Live Action anime from Netflix getting a season 2?!
Vinland Saga (2019)
Review for the whole series
When crafting a story that takes historical characters and applies them to a semi-biographical account of history while applying your own idealism to it, I am going to have an issue with that.
When you do those things and you're preachy about it, I'm going to be all the more disgruntled about it.
When you do those things while being preachy and it is part of a genre of entertainment I wholly enjoy, I'm going to be even more ruffled about it.
So IMDB I'm going to talk about something here so the spoiler tag goes on.
The story of Thorfinn as told through Vinland saga is the culmination of one mans dream, that man being. Makoto Yukimura, a man who initially presents himself as a lover of history in general and the Viking era of Europe in particular.
Yet as we go through the series we learn rather quickly that Yukimura-san has little love towards the era and is using the era as a means to an end to preach to you about how horrible war and violence is. Fictionalised characters like Thors come in, spout lines that are filled to the brim with saccharine meaning of pacifism and non-violence, only to then spend a good chunk of the plot of the story glorifying violence to then have sections that cast that down, saying how bad it is to be violent and how passive actions should be used instead.
I don't like doing this but it needs to be said that if michael j straczynski were to pen a comic book about the Sengoku period around Hideyoshi and had his story be of rigid pacifism that forced Nobunaga and. Ieyasu.to eventually work with him at unifying Japan, I'm pretty sure Japan would find that insulting and demeaning as it is not what happened.
Using an era of history to tell a story you want about pacifism isn't good. If you want to do that, make it vague or make it an entirely fictional world that allows this, representing the history of Europe as this and decrying it for horrors is just insulting.
.
On the animation front, Vinland Saga does a good job at showing action set pieces and clear visuals of the horrors of war, both studio WiT and Mappa does a good jod at their work and it's flawless, both seasons are a joy to watch.
It's just the story that's bad.
I will not hold a different standard for an Anime that I hold for things like Cleopatra or the Woman King. Historical revisionism is wrong no matter who is doing it or where.
You want to tell a story about a pacifist, use Mahatma Gandhi, it wouldn't be as action packed but it would be more true to the tone you want to set.
It isn't worth it.
Kimetsu no Yaiba: Katanakaji no Sato-hen (2023)
I don't know how they keep doing it
But Ufotable are doing things in animation that are unheard of in TV productions and rarely seen in film productions, and thats without even talking about the fantastic plot and characters of this arc of Demon Slayer, there's so much to praise and so much to talk about without spoiling anything.
If you haven't watched Demon Slayer before, the basic plot is the story of a brother and sister as they try and stop an evil being called Muzan from killing people and this has been the best season for that yet.
If you have watched the series, holy god how amazing was it for the list of scenes I can't mention due to not putting spoilers on?
The characters journeys and their interactions with others is such a massively heartwarming experience that I cannot even begin to detail it, whether you're a fan already or one who has heard the buzz but stayed away, you should know that this is a massively impactful story that is one of the single best Anime of all time.
The Flash (2023)
To be so repulsed by a movie that you are physically disturbed by it
I don't know what it is with DC movies, I cannot seem to understand how it is so hard for them to make a movie that isn't some form of over the top levels of skin crawling discomfort. They didn't know how to portray Superman in the first of these colossal mistakes and they end it with the same sort of trash before, so spoilers coming in IMDB this is going to be brief and uncomfortably difficult to get through.
Everything in this movie is done incorrectly, from the time travel, to the character inclusion, to the story interaction, to the final parts themselves, it is as if DC sat at a table and asked 'what would anger the fans the most?' and then when a lot had been given, 'lets go with all the suggestions.'
Batman is a nothingburger in the movie, relegated to being a bitter old man, Supergirl doesn't actually do anything, and the Mad Goose Wizard himself Barry Allen's story is butchered beyond belief, no Professor Zoom, no Reverse Flash, no real causality of 'reason for enemy to be created is the hero being the hero'.
And to sum it all up, as Barry is undoing everything, we get cameos in deepfakes of Christopher Reeves, George Reeves, two people who are most well known for playing Superman in the history of the role and Helen Slater the actress who played Supergirl in the illfated 87 movie of the same name.
That was the part that disgusted me beyond all means and I know why it was put in the movie, for a long time we've said Reeves is the best Superman and this is WB and DC saying 'here have Reeves, have anything just like our movie!'
I said I was done with Superhero movies, that their formulaic story and increasingly badly written plotlines were just going to keep getting worse and this has taken the cake.
No understanding of Flashpoint
No reason for cameo characters
No point to the movie itself
Insulting use of classic historical characters and actors for useless fan baiting reasons
Let the Flash be the epitome of how bad the superhero movie genre has gotten and why it should be STOPPED.
Good Lord this was bad!
Tengoku daimakyô (2023)
Having seen the last episode I'm amending this
It was originally a 6/10 and that was for the animation and the animation alone. I called everything in this while on episode 10.
This is not a masterclass of Anime, it's the Glass Onion of Anime, it's obvious from the moment out what's going on and it's a dumb plot.
So yeah, I'm gonna spoil things, tag is on now.
The story of Tengoku Daimakyo is an interesting one for what it is, but for what it is it isn't that great, the building blocks for the reveal I'm thinking will happen at the end that 'shock and awe the facility was the cause of the end of the world and the only one surviving is the twin girl there.' isn't that big of a reveal for me whether it's real or not and whether I'm off the mark by a league or not and whether you believe me that I've not read anything or not.
Heavenly Delusion has one massive thing going for it and that's the glorious animation that's there, it's a visual spectacle with calming vistas, well designed musical scores and top notch Japanese Voice Acting in every scene. But I don't watch a series for the visuals alone, I watch a series because of the story it tells and that story can have the most ugly and eye-wrenching animation ever, but if the story is on-point I'll enjoy it because that's what's meant to keep you coming back, not just some bright colours and flashing images on a screen, the story being told is whats important.
Also the 'I have my brothers brain' is a bluff, she's just traumatised over losing her family and created a personality that fits with her Brother, calling it now.
The Little Mermaid (1989)
The starting point that saved Disney
As there's a lot of buzz about the...other version of this film that is out right now I thought I'd make a review on the actually amazing one as well while hype was high. I mean why not when there needs to be something that is this astoundingly good?
So, the Little Mermaid, I won't be spoiling things though if you've not already seen this movie why not, go see it right this second it's an amazing piece of animation history and a landmark piece of movie making that shows just how amazing storytelling can be when you aren't told lies your whole life.
The little Mermaid is a toned down version of the story by Hans Christian Andersen as it's a Disney movie but for that I hold nothing against it, as the story itself isn't exactly the same one told by the novel, in this version we have an Ariel who is amazed by the world of Humans and has been interested in them for years, learning everything from words for things and concepts that cannot make even the slightest bit of sense to a girl living in a world full of water to the concept of dancing and collecting items by the score, all of this just because she is fascinated by a realm she can never enter.
THIS is character and it's developed in less than 10 minutes of screen time where we're actually introduced to her, moving from this we have a wide, colourful and beautiful world at the seafloor that has its own amazing culture, there's reasons why things like 'Under the Sea' are remembered for more than just the song but the scene itself as we see there's many many different types of aquatic life that exists, from peaceful and music loving fish and merfolk to wild and obviously dangerous Sharks.
All of this seeks to build upon the idea that there's a culture that Ariel is apart of and seems to think is inconsequential because of her laser focus on the Surface and Humanity.
Add to that the complex nature of the Human world and the disparity between how the life under the sea see them to how those on the surface see those same merfolk, it builds to a crescendo in showing that there's both positives and negatives in the world and its people.
Which brings us to the titular villain of the piece, Ursula the Sea Witch, a half Octopi being that can use magic and is the opposite end of the bell curve of power to Ariel's Father King Triton (actually from Greek Mythology btw, son of Poseidon) and of all the Disney Animation Greats, there's few who rival Ursula for just how perfect a villain she is, sure some will point to Cruella or The Wicked Queen for being evil or love Hades, but there's very few villains in Disney that we see that are the perfect form of evil not for vanity or revenge, but because they're evil and want more power, with that Ursula is sort of cemented as possibly the best villain in the Disney roster for a lot of their motivations.
All in all the Little Mermaid (1983) is something near perfect in its execution, giving tones of seriousness mixed in with Disneyfied-fairy-tale storytelling and it is most definitely something anyone who wants to watch a movie with that as the name should watch.
How I Met Your Mother (2005)
Oh boy that ending....
There's very few endings in Television that are such.an absolute trainwreck that they not only sour me to the story, but turn what were previously wonderful memories of a joy filled laughing time with friends enjoying a story like this to something that I can't even crack a smile at the best scenes of the series going.
One of them is this show, How I Met Your Mother, and others have given this series high praise for the quality of the comedy, acting and development of the series, and in all due respect I have no understanding of why people are willing to do this.
We now know that those first words spoken during the opening episode and the reaction of the kids to 'Aunt Robin' lead to the 'you're in love with Aunt Robin, Dad.' and then a complete repeat of the same scene from the start of the series.
Every moment, from. Victoria, Stella, Zoey Jeanette.or Becky, all of them are worthless, because 'Ted actually still loves Robin'
Heck even marrying Tracy is ruined as the point is 'Ted actually still loves Robin' he doesn't ACTUALLY love Tracy, he's 'Settling' for Tracy, a woman who shares all his interests, is as goofy as he is and as kind as he is, is his perfect partner who he is comfortably with and perfectly able to be with without fear of judgement.
Because 'He still loves Robin' it ruins everything. The car crash of Barney's relationship with Robin outside of this is enough, they spend years building up to a marriage that has been shown to be a cemented good thing for both of them as they can be happy together as they're like Ted and Tracy, they compliment each other rather than overshadow each other, only for it to break down within a year or two for him to cheat on her and for him to become the same womaniser as he always was - while still being a good dad though.
That ending ruined everything about this series - at least for me - and made it one of the few series I cannot even bring myself to try and watch again if I ever see it, because it's neither worth it or good enough to be tolerated anymore.
Bocchi the Rock! (2022)
There's so much to talk about!
I'm not doing a spoiler review because to do that would ruin it, but Bocchi the Rock is one of the single most perfect examples of passion in media I've seen in a very long time. Nearly every single frame of animation in this gloriously beautiful show is done with such care and detail that it screams the staff working on this both loved the work they did on this and love the source material involved.
I won't detail anything, but in three examples the staff made a player piece for the Game of Life that is shaped like Bocchi herself, filmed themselves playing the game with the Bocchi player piece for a total of about 30 seconds of footage.
They also built a stop motion animation of a circular running track with about a dozen moving characters in it.
They also also made KNITTED slime Bocchi for a total of 2 references.
They also also also filmed an actual band playing the music from the series, rotoscoped over that, made it into 3D models of the characters, then drew over that in a second rotoscope just to get the correct hand placement, body movements and weight distribution with instruments for the band playing scenes.
That alone should be enough to tell you the love put into this glorious piece of media that's a love letter to the anime community, the story of Bocchi herself and animation in general. But I'm not even done.
The Voice Acting (Seiyuu) is beyond perfect in such a way that the actresses playing the characters are doing such a good job in portraying this story that I'm always astounded at their performances, from talents that can play ranges from an adorable cute Chuuninbyou in other series to a tough and serious older sister in this to Bocchi's Seiyuu herself, I only learned today that there's less effect put into her voice scenes than you'd think, that one glitch scene...yeah that's all Yoshino Aoyama.
It's rare when I can sit back and say to myself there's no bias in my giving this 10 out of 10, it deserves it and it's a landmark piece of Anime for the 2020s.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023)
Goodness Gracious...
The MCU and Disney as a whole have had a large amount of duds in recent years, with failure after failure for both TV and film, an entire Phase of their Cinematic Universe falling flatter than a pancake with viewers and drops in revenue across all fronts, they need Phase 5 to be a success and the stuttering start it's has isn't in any way a good thing for the future.
Spoilers incoming because it's never going to stop hurting.
Last time we saw the Guardians was in Love and Thunder and like their portrayal there, there's little development here, the story of finding Gamorah isn't the important part as bad guys and massive multi-movie story plots need to be shoved in and set up for the beginning of this, we've got the High Evolutionary involved in it and we get a continuation of the Sovereign's plot from the last GOTG movie.
But not enough for things to be the central plot because like I said, have to stick in the next major bad guy that is going to be a threat across movies...for some reason I can never figure out.
There's a lot of cute moments, a lot of furry animal adorableness and pay offs for cameos in previous movies that end up being just there for 'oh I remember that' rather than worthwhile contributions.
But the weirdest part is the inclusion of children, again. This is like the 5th Marvel property to forcibly include children in a story for no reason whatsoever, the High Evolutionary didn't need kids at his base, we already had enough reason to dislike him with what happened with Rocket, but include that like they did with Love and Thunder, Multiverse of Madness and Quantumania. I don't get it out of the possible idea that kids seeing kids on screen will make them like it more when that's not how it works, make loud noises and bright primary colours are what kids like.
Ultimately this has shown me not only that I was right about superhero movies over all but now I know where the DC verse is going under the control of the director who made this.
And this review will not be liked by the majority as like I've said the furry cute creatures hugged on screen and there was a happy ending for Quill going home. But I'm not lying about this.
Peter Pan & Wendy (2023)
y'know those moments where everything just gets worse?
Over the last several years we've seen an ever increasing amount of content from big companies that are not only - at best - mediocre but in most cases maliciously cruel and for the life of me I can never seem to understand why this keeps happening?
Peter Pan and Wendy has a problem, it's not actually about anything, I won't go into spoilers here because it's not something worth seeing but to be brief.
There is no real plot to be seen in it's runtime, people just end up doing things, original concepts added into the narrative make little-to-no impact and come across as rather insulting when seen from a TV Tropes standard of something 'Magical' and worst of all, the 'feel' of it is off at all points.
Neverland is meant to be something fantastic, something so grand that it takes away your feelings of home and hearth, to enjoy the bright and beautiful colours of the fantastic land you're in and it has none. There's no 'magic' in this movie and for a movie that has it's entire roots in magic, that's a bad thing, a very bad thing.
I don't know why Disney is doing this to themselves, but they're continually doing it without end on all fronts and it's crazy to consider that it's accidental, that none of this is done with purpose, because who would want to do this to you're own IPs?
The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023)
In a world where every cliche has to be forced into a movie for it to be greenlit
You get the slurry that is churned out of the literal conveyor belt that is Hollywood Studios these days and the latest variant of distilled rancid gutterleavings is this movie.
Spoilers incoming because I need to have them.
The only thing Illumination got right in this movie is the bright colours and character designs, everything else outside of that is dross. We start with an insult to the 80s cartoon and it only gets worse from there.
Story makes no sense - why would Bowser keep people alive after capturing them? The only one he ever did was Princess Toadstool and that was for kidnap and ransom purposes. There's no point to Luigi and the variety of other characters being held in cages other than to do the issue this movie is full of.
References.
I don't go to a movie to say 'oh yeah, I know what that means' I go for a story and there isn't one here.
Musical Numbers that of course would be in there because of course there's going to be, in a MARIO MOVIE. When was the last time you thought of Mario and singing? Never. But certain people are in this so of course there's going to be times where he just needs to break out into impromptu vocals that aren't needed.
Like I said at the start the only thing this movie has going for it is the visuals as they're massively on-point, its bright, colourful and works with the idea of Mario games and is more than anything just an advert for all the various Mario related games at once and who needs an advert for a Mario game, the name recognition has more scope than the Pope these days.
High Guardian Spice (2021)
What happens when a site that hosts things gets ideas
You get this, the culmination of a series of mistakes that happened from the moment go when creating a site to curate host and promote Anime. You get High Guardian Spice, a series that takes all the aspects of various Magical Girl shows, blends them in together, adds western ideological modernity and then has the audacity to call it an anime.
I don't need to explain why this is bad right? I mean that seriously, look at the trailers and you see the problems on the glimpses, this show is terrible in every aspect from writing to animation itself, nothing is done with care and it should be hailed as the reason why to never allow something like this to happen again.
Clash of the Titans (2010)
blergh
There's been a lot of people who have argued that Hollywood in its current form is a terrible thing, where they remake things for no reason and are without a single usable idea, but long before we saw the movies of the current era (check the post date) there was this movie...
and honestly, I'm astonished that it was over a decade ago that this movie was made, as the feel of it sits perfectly in modern hollywood, it caters to the mindless violence without need, the useless vistas of CGI gloop and it has shiny shiny shiny to distract you from the reality that this movie had nothing going for it.
When you're going down the path of remaking a movie that already exists in the vein of saying you want to improve it, make it better for a modern audience, the simple fact is you should remember what made the original story something worth remaking and to cater to that, don't make a 1-1 remake, add your own flare to it but do understand that if you're going to do this, make it something that fans of the original will enjoy.
And this movie did nothing but turn a fun classic into a nightmare fuel mess of bad acting and effects that ultimately mean nothing, with a plot so thin and damaged that you'd scarcely think of it as anything but a new and very inferior version of a classic story.
Prince Harry: Being the Spare (2023)
There comes a time when being a Man requires you to admit your mistakes
As a British person who grew up around the same time as this man, I wish I could say that I have a level of empathy for him or sympathy for him as that would mean there were parts of his life that were truly horrific and deserving of the support he so craves now.
Unfortunately for Henry Charles Albert David Windsor, the reality of his life played out for me as I - as a British person who grew up in the same time period as him - know the life he led and there's little in it that is a tragedy for himself. From speaking to the press about issues that should be something kept in-family to his incredibly bad behaviour that would have led to a severe beating to any boy his age that wasn't raised to be the Second in line to the Throne of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, Harry's life has been one of the upmost nauseating levels of disconnection from reality as it is, due in part to how his Mother treated him and how those around him made excuses for what can be generously called LOUTISH behaviour that would have gotten me and any other young man our age a foot inserted down our throats for doing a 1/3rd of what he did as a young man.
After this he had a service mans career that accelerated his job to astronomical proportions and was a launching platform from which he was re-branded from th lager lout to a respectable young man.
And then he married a divorcee American socialite who was/is a Hollywood actress.
Just as an aside, Harry's great Grand-Uncle was stripped of his titles as King for doing this and sent to live outside of the UK due to the shame of it.
Harry's life as presented here in brief is a snapshot of the truth, of a life in the limelight where everything he did, everything he said, everything he was part of was scrutinised by the ever salacious British Tabloid Media.
But he had the single best education, learning from private tutors and going to Eton College, one of the most premier establishments of education on the planet who have literal Tzars and Emirs taught there throughout history.
He then had the life as a serviceman working for the military where he was promoted to the rank of Captain before turning 40 while seeing very little active combat, being shielded by his platoon and remaining within the barracks at most times.
And with all due respect to his feelings that have only surfaced since an issue about where a certain person wanted to live arose and a matriarch explained clearly how that was inappropriate and to do your duty, he has never been nor ever will be a 'spare' that he so claims in this and his book.
He was second in line for the Throne of Great Britain, second in line to be King of England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Born due to the love...as it is explained is the correct idea and term to use as all accept the truth of the reality that is shown...of his parents Charles the 3rd King of England and Diana Spenser.
This man is not to be pitied, not to be coddled, not to be treated as a victim.
At best he is an embarrassment to the country he is supposed to be a representative of and has been most of his life
At worst he is another example of the shattered psyche of the male symbol the West has cultivated, controlled by the person around him who treats him as a tool to further that persons public exposure and image, which is ALSO an embarrassment to his country.
Nothing good has come of these things made other than to expose the child-like thoughts behind the person who is trying to gain sympathy by saying 'I have an older brother and its not fair'.
Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio (2022)
I'm calling it, this is a high mark because of the director
Because there's little in this movie that is worth the watch time outside of the strange grimdark aspect that Del Torro brings to his projects.
No spoilers so I can detail things in vaguery as I don't like this and don't want to detail it.
It isn't accurate to the book like the Disney movie isn't accurate to the book, it takes the themes of the book and the message and twists it to make a darker and edgier version of this story than is needed and it isn't needed.
Pinocchio is a story about morality and learning lessons about life, keep it at that and do the minimal needed, don't be edgy for edgy's sake.
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023)
A very pretty - but convoluted - mess
I've not liked much of the MCU in the last...2 years or so, I've had criticisms for it that some have thought aren't worthy criticisms and some have actually gotten upset at, but I've stuck true to my view that it's been a largely forgettable hodgepodge of mistakes and missed opportunities with a majority of writing very isolated and locked off with more focus on streaming Series than making a good plot for a movie.
So that's not a good start going into this movie, the MCU had a large hill to climb to get back on track and I hate to say it but they failed again, but where to go from this as I'm not going to spoil things as I don't really want to talk about the plot as it's not that interesting, a villain is introduced that I'm not invested in as he's not been built up, but dropped in front of us and we're told to love this - again, without development of pace...again.
I'm sort of ready to completely drop all Superhero movies from this point onwards as nothing is working, it's filled with irrelevance and can only get worse from here.
Admittedly, everything LOOKS nice, but it's just superficial pretty colours on the screen to distract you from the very paper thin plot, weak characters and stilted and distracting acting, I keep mentioning it can't get worse with each new installment but I expect it will.
Annabelle (2014)
It's a failed attempt
Having been utterly terrified of the first of this series (The Conjuring), I had resisted watching any of the sequels partially because I figured they could never live up to the magnitude of the first film, and partially because I just didn't want to watch the backstory of a doll.
Lo and behold though that I realised 10 minutes into the movie that this was everything I've come to hate about modern horror movies, meaning Jump Scares. From the first action oriented moment to where I just quit the film entirely (popcorn fire) there was an overabundance of heavy strings and tension sounds to make you feel on edge and a sudden shock that gets you to the end of that 'scary moment'.
I prefer it when a movie actually can scare me through the implication of a narrative rather than the forced BOO! Sounds that 99% of all modern horror does.
What's worse as well is that this could've been a good movie with the backstory we know of the doll and it tormenting the 2 girls and the boyfriend, seeing the scars burst open when trying to attack the doll before the Warrens come in would've been a good 'oh dear me' moment that shows just how bad this demon is, to make it be 'oh we're just devil worshippers and this is a soul transfer' is such hollywood schlock that I am glad I ignored this until today.
Eh, not much wasted really.
Skinamarink (2022)
certainly not something everyone will love
This movie is complicated for many different reasons and for that the marketability to general audiences is going to be somewhat limited, as the meaning of this movie is meant to make you feel a level of discomfort and fear that isn't present in nearly all of media currently, but for that reason I'd argue it's beyond done its job.
I'm not a fan of it myself and I was made uncomfortable throughout due to the content, but overall that's what this movie is meant to do, make you feel fear in a way that doesn't fit for what you're doing (watching a movie) and in that you're scared for 2 kids on a movie screen and have it feel far more genuine than anything else done today, this is a clear and defining piece of cinema that needs accolades.
But again, not for everyone, you will be uncomfortable when watching this and you are going to feel afraid at points, but you're meant to, this is a movie that's redefining the Horror Genre to again make the audience afraid.
Velma (2023)
and I thought they smelled bad on the outside
I'm 4 episodes into this...it's not even a mistake or travesty, this is possibly the single worst animated Television program to ever be made at all (and it's getting a season 2 supposedly!)
Velma itself is a series that doesn't know what it wants to do, does it want to be an edgy adult animation, does it want to be a romcom, does it want to be a commentary on modern culture, does it want to be seriously violent show, does it want to be a mystery series?
It doesn't know. You don't know. And if I thought Mindy Kaling knew I'd be begging her to tell us what the idea was behind this...fetted mistake.
There is no comedy, there are morals that would sound well coming out of a Bedlam room, there's characters that have no likability and there's a plot that matters less than the idea of telling that plot itself.
We're so far beyond the border of bad in this that I have no clue what will be seen as bad next year, either the dip is over with and we're about to see a massive resurgence of good storytelling or holy hell this is going to get SO much worse.
Kage no Jitsuryokusha ni Naritakute! (2022)
There's a reason for that over the top 10/10
Imagine you're me, a guy who likes Isekai anime and has seen them all, going from the earliest of them in things like Vision of Escaflowne to the modern versions like Arifuetta, Konosuba and ReZero.
Imagine you've got an expectation of what to see in this, as the primary mediums are either serious drama with action, action with harem elements or comedy.
See the opening episode with an over-the-top edgelord who fights with Tonfa Crowbars of all things (THAT IS AMAZING) and love the idea.
Then get to see the actual plot of the series start with episode two.
A Mega Chuuninbyou who is making things up on the fly and not only getting every single thing right on the mark, but he's instantly impressing not only his enemies but also his massive army of waifu material that he has ZERO interest in because he's all about his background character Chuunin lifestyle
I don't know how I missed this before the anime came out but holy good god is this series amazing in every aspect, it manages to take the violence of things like Mushoku Tensei, the drama of things like ReZero and the comedy of Konosuba, meld them together into not only a coherent plot full of fun and exciting moment,s but it does it while at the expense of the central character in portraying him as the self-aware Chuunin who is perfectly happy being that over the top.
I can never get over the 'I am Atomic!' as that is the single most Chuunin line ever! And I love it!
The Winchesters (2022)
SPN expletive insult towards stupid writers
During the early 2000s there was a lot of talk about reboots and reimaginings of projects, so much so that certain creators decided to make a tongue in cheek approach towards it with parody episodes that involved using such plots and cranking the dial up to 11 on the cheese factor.
This was when the creative staff had the ability to know this was a BAD IDEA to do and to mock it soundly. Unfortunately the Winchesters creative staff have not gotten the memo of this and Jensen Ackles is in the middle of this as the main face behind this series push.
See, I've made it no spoilers because there's no reason to, as all I need to do to explain something is to highlight one thing that's going to sour fans of the Supernatural universe entirely.
No care for continuity.
We know the back story for John and Mary Winchester, we've seen them meeting for the first time, falling in love, the deal that sets in motion both the events of Mary's fate and John's obsession, so telling us that there's this huge other story that we weren't seeing that wasn't hinted at, talked about or even referenced during the 15 years of Supernaturals run, is not only an insult to the fans but to the lore of the franchise itself.
Nothing in this series is worth watching and nothing good comes out of it as it is largely mediocre fan fiction writing that tries to tell you the way an angst ridden teen would think about the parents of the heroes of the world.
I certainly hope this never gets a season 2.
Akuyaku Reijou nanode Last Boss wo Kattemimashita (2022)
I wanted to like this, I really wanted to like this
I'm an Isekai fanboy and any series that is an Isekai I'll watch, I like the idea of a person plucked out of reality and plopped down into a fantasy world wherever it is and whatever style it is, it's a fun ride.
And Akuyaku Reijou is a fun ride, it's different than the usual fare - going for an Otome game (which is basically a Visual Novel targeted at teen girls) insert with a mega fan - and it works.
Except that 2/3rds the way through it, the series pulls an annoying punch and ruins the story for me, I actually quit at that episode.
Through the series there's a developing romance between the main characters and through a series of trials, the main character has come out as a victor with a legion of male fans - as all these series portray the same idea as the male variant - right up until the main male character develops amnesia and doesn't remember anything.
Now I quit at this reveal so I'm not sure whether or not he's screwing around with her - as he is semi sadistic in wanting to make her cry - or it is real that is undone by the end.
But I'm not a fan of the 'oh and now I can't remember you' plot line, as it feels hackneyed, especially with the romance angle.
Those are the types of curve balls that ruin a series and make it neither good nor bad.