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domnogin
Reviews
Atlas Shrugged: Part III (2014)
Okay production and steamy romance
The premises of the story, blaming overregulation for shortages instead of corporate greed, that only multi-generational captains of industry can solve anything, is preposterous.
Is there a Part Four where Atlantis, not Galt's Gulch, has to deal with the old and the sick who cannot produce? How do they guarantee the gold supply grows with population? What of workers' rights there? How is the Gini Index there and in the dystopia?
I'm sorry Ayn Rand and Fred Koch were traumatized by the Soviet Union. It does not give them the right to transfer that pain to America to pull a Reverse Robin Hood.
Star Trek: Prodigy: Lost & Found, Part 1 (2021)
Nice Star Wars reboot: Star Trek huh?
This episode is a Star Wars knockoff, with a few Star Wars species as a veneer. Why would a Kazon and a Tellurite be in the same quadrant? What quadrant is this anyway? How do the two teens know each other beforehand? How can the teens be lawless if there is no obvious law outside The Diviner?
The Time Machine (1978)
Only Saw First Half, Not Bad
A power outage kept me from seeing more than half of this on ABC (American Broadcasting Network). I remember the hero being burned, presumably as a witch though that punishment was reserved for heretics. Sure, it didn't stick to the original novel, which I have read in two different forms; so what. I kept hoping it would be shown again. Maybe someone has uploaded the video.
I made the mistake of asking ABC for help in finding their eight-episode series PROBE (1988) starring Parker Stevenson (previously of THE HARDY BOYS) and Ashley Crow (currently of HEROES). They disavowed any knowledge of its existence; the show was a victim of a writers' strike. I never bothered to ask about this movie.
Ultimate Avengers II (2006)
The Sequel The Afterthought
The new Black Panther seeks out Captain America to avenge his father's death by an evil alien, so General Fury assembles the Avengers to come along. This was my first sighting of Thor's power of precognition and of teleportation. What happened to the extras of ULTIMATE AVENGERS I? Pop-up trivia is one thing, but no subtitles at all? Also, the Black Panther's village has an uneasy juxtaposition of low-tech and high-tech; ah the wonders of vibranium.
Still, the interaction between Captain America and Giant Man is fun, as is that between Cap and Black Widow. It has a nice scene of Tony Stark among his various Iron Man armors, including War Machine. I give it a lower score because it feels more like an advertisement for the Marvel Alliance video game, for Iron Man, and for Doctor Strange than a self-contained movie.
Unbreakable (2000)
A worthy sophomore product
The real gem of the movie isn't the heroics or the juxtaposition of past & present; it is the shifting relationships. The hero's relationship with his wife, his son, and with the mysterious Elijah are all very different at the end of the movie than at the beginning. Even his understanding of who he can be shifts dramatically. Sure, Elijah's exposition of the nature of comic book characters is awkward at times, but even that is necessary for audience members not fluent in mythologies ancient or modern. The barbell scene is a scream; the director's appearance as a suspect in the second act rivals Hitchcock's cameos in his own movies. Criticism of this as the unworthy follow-up to THE SIXTH SENSE is unfair.