adamsutter Reviews

Obi-Wan Kenobi: Part V (2022) Season 1, Episode 5

Great moments are still surrounded by poor ones.

[6/10 · 15 June 2022]

My favourite episode of the series so far. But that's not saying much.

Good moments: Anakin v Obi-Wan flashback, Vader v Reva, Vader tearing ship to pieces, GI coming back, Jedi Temple massacre flashbacks.

Poor moments: Reva left alive by Vader, Empire attack was poorly done, boring characters I don't care about getting screen time, inconsistencies in Vader's goal (if he wants Obi-wan so bad then why didn't he get him in ep3?), poor writing all round.

Finally got some good flashbacks that made me smile. But also left me cold knowing what this show could have been instead of what we're getting. This show could have been amazing but instead it's average TV at best.

The Book of Boba Fett (2021–2022)

What was that?

[4/10 · 10 February 2022]

Having seen seasons 1+2 of The Mandalorian I was optimistic this would be a pretty good spinoff. Boy was I wrong.

The worst aspects from The Mandalorian seemed to be amplified to the max here. The writing for the most part is pretty poor and underwhelming. The story doesn't really go anywhere for a while and when it eventually does go somewhere it's not great. The episodes directed by Robert Rodriguez are unbearably bad. The action is horrific and amateurish and what you'd expect from someone who directed Spy Kids/We Can Be Heroes. The vespa crew are one of the worst things to be introduced to Star Wars in it's history. I had nothing against Rodriguez before but I certainly don't like the idea of him being involved with Star Wars again. There's so many other directors who would do a million times better.

Episodes 5/6 were exceptional but I don't consider them to be part of TBOBF as Boba isn't in them. They're more like Mandalorian specials and keep me optimistic that Mando season 3 will still be really good.

I think the worst part of all of this is what they did with Boba Fett. They made him too passive and soft. He tries to appease everyone and then blabbers about how strong and tough he is when almost everything he does in the show contradicts that. Just from watching the show you wouldn't know he was once the most feared bounty hunter in the galaxy. I see what they wanted to do and I'm fine with Fett changing and being more of a hero but they should have had kept his tough side, someone who is strong willed and doesn't bow down to anyone. Fett never really had much of a character but he had huge potential, it was sorely wasted.

I went into the show looking forward to every scene with Boba Fett in it, but by the finale I was dreading every frame he was in. I wouldn't be upset if we never see his character again.

The Walking Dead: The Final Season (2018 Video Game)

Brilliant end to a brilliant story

[10/10 · 8 October 2021]

Wow...

Although a shorter season than the previous instalments, each episode is packed with great moments, big decisions, great characters and overall concludes perfectly.

Playing in September 2021 I had the benefit of playing through all four seasons in the span of a few weeks. What a journey. I'm sad it's come to an end but I'm happy it happened.

My rankings for all four seasons: #4 - A New Frontier (7/10) #3 - Season Two (10/10) #2 - The Final Season (10/10) #1 - Season One (10/10)

I look forward to playing all these again one day. But I am going to be replaying The Final Season very soon because I enjoy the ending so much.

Thank you Telltale and Skybound. Thank you very much.

6 Underground (2019)

Meet The New Suicide Squad

[2/10 · 14 December 2019]

Just imagine Jeff Goldblum staring at a massive pile of Dino poo, that right there is Suicide Squad, now imagine an even bigger pile of Dino poo beyond, that is 6 Underground and boy is it stinking hot.

This is everything bad about Michael Bay and much more. I thought it would be bad from seeing the trailers. But like normal bad, not bad bad. Not this bad. Firstly the writing is atrocious. The dialogue is cringeworthy and lazy. The story is simple but at the same time all over the place. The bad guy is...well...who the hell is he? He is so forgettable and one dimensional. He does nothing but have a couple scenes of bad guy talk, looking very constipated and bald. The main protagonists are equally forgettable, they have very little character to them, you can't tell them apart. I didn't care if any of them died, or whether they met their mother, or got the girl. I found myself being a neutral, I wasn't supporting anyone to win because I wasn't given a reason to.

This film is so far up its own bum thinking their actors have chemistry that they think it would be great to have them almost improvise comedy one liners at every turn. THERE IS NO CHEMISTRY. Not even a smidge. The "comedy" they try to implement is eye-rolling bad. Ryan Reynolds is Ryan Reynolds, for the 100th time. I mean it works in Deadpool but there's only so many references he can make before it becomes tedious.

The editing in this film is the worst I've seen in years. We go between past and present so much in the first act they actually had me confused at one point as to where we were. We're in the past - ok now we're in the present - a couple scenes later... Reynolds "and now you're all caught up" (TITLE) "The Present"...WTF? This and jump cuts every 10 seconds, shaky cam, chase scenes are poorly done, they show the hero do some cool stunt and get away but the next shot there's a bad guy right behind them. Even though there is so much happening on the screen I was still getting bored.

One specific complaint I have with the laziness of this story is the revolt scene. So a guy speaks on camera to try and inspire a troubled nation who has been mistreated by a dictator, he literally speaks for no more than 30 seconds and says "we need to start a revolution" at the end. THE VERY NEXT SHOT is of people protesting in the streets with some crappy pop song going on in the background. How did we get to there? This dude says a couple of lines and he's all of a sudden started, what looks like, a full scale civil war. People have torches and weapons and are attacking armed soldiers no more than a minute after we saw them everyone just going about their daily business. Who wrote, directed and then edited this and thought, "oh yes this makes a lot of sense, it definitely doesn't feel like we've cut a million corners just so we move the story along". I honestly started to laugh because it made no sense.

I really am tired of Michael Bay. He can't make an actually decent action movie. This is $150 million down the drain. That could have been used for a nice charitable donation this Christmas, or at least used to make a good standard action flick. But instead it feels like a present given to naughty kids to teach them a lesson.

In short, you have no reason to watch this movie, its bad at every turn. Nothing from this film has made me feel like I spent the last 2 hours wisely. Best you lot miss this and enjoy Christmas. Now I'm going to drink till my memory of this starts to fade.

True Grit (2010)

6/10 - Average (Spoilers)

[6/10 · 16 August 2018]

This film is not bad. But it isn't great either.

The Bad - It is particularly boring at times when the two main characters are conversing whilst slowly moving along their journey. The cinematography is nothing to admire. But worst of all is the film's antagonists, if you can call them that. They don't serve their purpose as our heroes' main rivals, the only purpose they serve is being a device that brings our heroes together. We here about them throughout the entire film, the terrible crimes and killings committed. Boy-oh-boy these people sound menacing, I feel scared for our dear heroes as they creep ever so closer to finding these treacherous scoundrels, but I bet it's gonna result in a mind blowing conclus...wa...what...they're dead? That's it? We see them for less than 10 mins and they're all dead? That sucks. They were kinda pointless huh. And it wasn't even a satisfying death for the antagonist, I never hated him, I had no reason to, I had barely seen him. No stunning fight we were teased about happening for the last hour and a half. Just the few bullets shot and hey presto the bad guys are dead. This film also falls more under the romance genre whilst not really having any romance in it. The relationship between the main characters isn't that convincing, I never became truly invested in their friendship, they were usually quite disjointed, so I never felt sad at the end. Lastly the plot is quite bland and boring, yes this is a remake that was based off a book, but still on its own the plot just doesn't stand out.

So I hear ya, why am I giving it a 6 when I've done nothing but talk shit about it, let me tell ya.

The Good - The acting is pretty much masterclass. Everyone acting just nails it. An Oscar or two should have been won by these actors/actresses. Also the costumes and makeup are spot on, it all looked quite convincing. The music is good, but not amazing. And lastly the action is quite cool. But as far as anything good goes, that's about it.

All in all, average film that could have been something more if it wasn't for a lacklustre plot with just as bad antagonists. I advise you do watch it if you haven't seen it, but don't expect much.

The Walking Dead (2010–2022)

Why I don't like it anymore.

[4/10 · 23 October 2017]

When I first watched this show, I was in love. 45 minutes of humans killing 'walkers' and struggling to survive in a glorious post-apocalyptic setting.

Season 1 was a satisfying introduction. Season 2, despite the boring premise of spending 12/13 episodes on a farm, was actually surprisingly interesting and exciting. Season 3 was a collective of humans vs zombies and humans vs humans and could have been one of my favourite seasons but never lived to its potential.

Seasons 4,5 and 6 were extremely forgettable. Season 7 WASN'T forgettable, but for all the wrong reasons. First episode amazing, the bloodiest and thrilling episode to date; followed by 15 episodes of pathetic ex-machinas and boring 'character development' - tarnishing the show's grandeur. Now every episode I expect is a long-dragged-out conversation between 2 characters (most of the time are characters I hardly know of), followed by more smaller conversations, a terrible dream sequence and cheap, poorly choreographed action sequences. I understand the 'walking dead' in 'The Walking Dead' refers to the humans more than it does to the zombies, but the zombies have been established as more than the backbone of show, if anything the main attraction. But now they're non-existent, often just thrown in for the sake of having a zombie killed.

If the human vs human concept was actually exciting or interesting, then sure, the show may continue. But it is far from it. Maybe the show was doomed from the start, with the slow-sluggish type of zombie used in this show, its bound to get boring or the writers/creators would start running out of ideas.

A solution to this problem. Invest in better writers/directors. Try to change things up from the comics, you have every right to do so. If a character can be added in for the show's sake (Daryl), then you can surely change the plot around.