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Star Trek: The Next Generation: The Masterpiece Society (1992)
AKA The Boring Society
After an amazing start, s.5 is declining in these middle episodes, the best example of this decline being the incredibly poor "The Masterpiece Society"
"TNG" had not aired such a sloppy episode since s.2
Once more the writers conceived a truly amazing idea (and quite original for early 90's), but failed miserably with its execution
There is not even one properly handled scene, only glimpses of it. On the contrary, there are a ton of cringey scenes thanks to soapy and childish dialogue and writing. Troi and Jeordi were hurted the most, since they are the leads of the episode, and so their actions and statements serve nothing other than pushing the episode's message
This is another episode of the Trek franchise for which the writers took a (then) current social matter and made a commentary about it, and yet again (I have to state here that I completely agree with their point of view, but) they made it so one-sided and forced, that it ruined the credibility of the story and the episode itself. Unfortunately in general TNG, at least until s.5, (I am watching the show for the first time, at the time of this review's writing) had not been successfull in producing good episodes with these kinds of subjects
For the fourth time (maybe even fifth) in a row, there is a background threat that the Enterprise has to deal with and for the forth time in a row the whole sub-plot is developed so unremarkably and unappealing that slows down the flow of the episode to the point of making it boring to watch, the conversations about the phenomenon in particular made me want to sleep
Last but not least, for a Man that speaks so highly of the significance of the Prime Detective (I will not analyze of how terribly the Prime Directive is interpreted in TNG since that is out of the subject of this review) Picard doesn't even hesitate for a second to ignore everything it stands for (I know they said that the PD doesn't refer to humans, but this is a stupid excuse since these particular humans differ in nothing with any of the alien species Enterprise has made contact with)
If you want to see the concept of this episode executed with remarkable results, check out the superb Gattaca (1997)
Rating: 5.3/10
Batwoman: Crisis on Infinite Earths: Part Two (2019)
Very entertaining, but the amount of disrespect is astonishing
Like the "Crisis" crossover in general, this episode was very disappointing
I will not bother analyzing the plot, it's passable, but almost to the point of being too stupid (The idea of the Paragons and Novou's plan in general are the most idiotic)
The acting was good to excellent by the most (R.Rose and some others are unforgivably weak though). Most of the character interactions, while enjoyable, are unremarkable and a lot of the characters have very little to do (mostly the males, since were are talking about the feminist paradise which goes by the name CW)
What I absolutely liked about the episode are Sara (kind of) becoming the leader of the team, which makes total sense after Oliver's demise. The special effects are exceptional for TV. Diggle coming in after his absense in the first part
Now the important stuff
The inclusion of Br.Routh's Superman, who is also Ch.Reeve's Superman (14 years after "Superman Returns", unlike a lot I really like this film) was decent. I mean Routh still fully has it (watching this Clark interacting with Ray was a delight and proves what an amazing actor Routh is), but Clark's presence feels out of place and I didn't like what they did with the character for a number of reasons
I am furious with what they did with Bruce Wayne here. It's not the fact that I would be negative with any sinister version of Bruce, of course not, if it's written well and with actual respect for the character I can take anything. But this version of Bruce is only an evil cartoonish parody of our beloved crusader. I wonder how they expected from anyone to take it seriously. And to see such an insult to Batman's legacy in a Batwoman show is unforgivable, since Batwoman owes her own existence to Batman. Kevin Conroy is of course a legend, and proves that he can embody Bruce as perfectly as he voices him and I am so sad he got such a disrespectful treatment in his first time portraying Bruce on the screen. The scene that follows after the "big" reveal about Bruce, with Kate and Kara in the Batcave, is pathetic
And unfortunately the disrespect doesn't end here. Our heroes think that Tom Welling's Clark (Welling easily steals the show in his 5 minutes of screen time) is another Paragon, but when they find him, they find out that Clark has give up his powers. I AM SORRY, WHAT???!!! I am actually watching Smallville at the time of writing this review and it is established beyond a doubt that Clark is not a quieter, yes he struggled a lot balancing the both sides of his life, but he came out ahead every time, besides, knowing that Clark simply abandons his powers makes the whole show meaningless now. Also the scene between Clark and Cryer's Lex was awfully staged (about Lex, while I always admire Cryer's performance, having Lex wandering intact around worlds killing Supermen is also stupid, just like Novou's entire plan)
Finally, why The Anti-Monitor (a terrible villain btw) looks like Thanos' ugly long lost cousin (I will give them though that having Laila compromised by him was awesome)
Rating: 7.3/10 (I know I rated this highly, while I have spent so much time criticizing it, but if you can stomach all the disrespect and the stupidities, it will be a hugely enjoyable watch...)
Hercules: The Legendary Journeys: Darkness Visible (1999)
FANG-TASTIC!!!
This is definitely one of the best "Hercules" episodes
Be warned, if you take seriously this episode you won't enjoy it and this would be a huge shame
So far I am really enjoying this short 6th season and this is the best episode yet after the even more excellent "Be Deviled"
So in "Darkness Visible" Herc and Iolaus are invited in King Blad's castle (an old friend of them) to help him deal with vampires...
This episode was a pure blast. I loved the vampire concept added in the show and it was handled excellently. The first scene is creepy and totally immerses you in the episode. The actor who played Vlad looked menancing and powerful enough. The makeup was good too, the vampires looked great.
There are a ton of awesome scenes. The one where (SPOILERS) Iolaus is turning into a vampire was HILARIOUS (I bursted in laughs when he said to Herc "Herc I will die AGAIN!!!!"). The dialogue was really amusing with all the vampire puns. Yes the climax is stupid, but it is entertaining and awesome as hell!!!
In any case (quoting Herc) take some time and watch this episode, it will not be in vein!!!
Rating: 9.4/10
Bright (2017)
Exceptionally original and interesting premise, OK film...
General Information: I am a big fan of Will Smith, I simply love him and I consider a lot of his films great. D.Ayer has taken some missteps, but overall he is capable enough, as he has shown more notably with "Fury". Of course with myself being a huge fan of all the genres this movie belongs, I was very excited about it, it helps though that the premise is really intriguing and inique
Plot briefly summarized: A human cop and an Orc one having some issues with each other, in a world that can best be described as "Today's Middle Earth", get caught in an ancient war between good and evil and as a result they become hunted by, primary, corrupted Elves
Now despite the potential of the premise, the movie itself is incredibly average. There are some excellent character driven scenes between the two leads, but everyone else except Ward and Nick fail to generate any impression, intimidation or empathy and since the movie, especially in the first half, is all about the plot building, this is a problem. The character development of the leads though is the highlight of the movie, both of them act and evolve extremely realistically (I never expected to say that about an Orc cop in a contemporary earth). The action scenes are decent. The movie is a combination of two parts, the cop drama one (which works almost great actually) and the fantasy one (which brings the film down, because it's meant to be taken seriously, but ends up almost the opposite). The acting is excellent by the leads (Edgerton manages to steal the show even from Smith), everyone else though is wasted with the characters they are called to portray. That goes most of all for N.Rapace, she is a great actress, but she has to play one of the most one-dimensional and underdeveloped villains of the recent years. The movie of course suffers because of this. The climax is satisfying enough and a little stupid at the same time. The movie seems cheaply made sometimes, despite having a relatively big budget
All in all, the movie is very entertaining, but it falls very short compared to what it had the potential to be
Rating: 6.3-6.4/10 (yeah for once imdb has the perfect, in my opinion, rating for something).
I hope the sequel (which I actually look forward to) does better
Joker (2019)
Knock Knock Mr.Phoenix, It's the OSCARS!!!
First of all, you should know this is an outstanding and disturbingly realistic character study by any means
There may be some mild spoilers below
General Information: I am a huge Batman/Joker fan, my favourite comic-book movie ever is "The Dark Knight". I consider J.Phoenix easily one of the top 10 actors of his generation. I was disgusted with DCEU's Joker in "Suicide Squad" and really wanted this Joker to succeed. So yeah I was really hyped about this movie
This movie delivers everything you SHOULD expect. Phoenix is perfect in the role, when you see the movie you don't see him, you see Arthur Fleck. Thanks to his performance, Arthur is very sympathetic, tragic, even likable. Of course he is helped by truly great dialogue (The writers nailed that department). Even though Arthur is definitely mentally disturbed, he more human than any other person in the movie. He is trying his hardest to succeed in life, but every day of his life is even worse than the previous one (and we all know what a truly bad day can cause to even the most saint person). De Niro, Beetz, Conroy and everyone else offer great acting support.
The story though is the one that brings everything together, it's amazing in all honesty. The writers crafted a haunting, realistic, violent and very memorable origin for one of the most iconic characters ever. There are numerous unexpected turns and twists. A lot of the scenes are mesmerizing, among the best in Film History. I doubted T.Phillips was right for directing the film, since until now he was associated with comedy, I couldn't be more wrong, the guy gave everything and it would be no surprise he receiving an Oscar for his work. And finally Thomas Wayne is something more than a dead face in an alley (I admit though that the age difference between Fleck and Bruce is a little irritating).
I applause the writers for leaving a lot of the scenes open for interpretation by the audience
I have to talk separately for Phoenix's laugh (a defying trait for the character). Until now the best laugh for Mr.J belonged to M.Hamil (who a lot of people understandably acknowledge as the best Joker still), but Phoenix in my opinion beats him. Phoenix laugh is insane, disturbing (yeah I know I have used a lot this word in the review, but I can't describe it with any other way), depicts his derived personality perfectly and his inescapable decent to madnes (eventually), while making you feel uncomfortable
Now rightfully you may wonder why I gave it a perfect score. That's it for 2 reasons
1)I didn't like Joker's costume
2)The defying moment between Arthur and his mother in the hospital could have been even better easily
It's tragic if you think about it that (probably) we will never see Phoenix's Joker again, and to make it worse we are stuck with Leto's version...
(For those of you wondering, in my opinion, H.Ledger is still in the top!!!)
Rating: 8.8-8.9/10
GO WATCH IT!!!