roaches_97 Reviews

Avatar: The Last Airbender (2024– )

Don't support this slop

[24 February 2024]

I did not finish this show. I watched the first two episodes before quitting. Thus, I am not giving it a number score. This is one of the most lifeless, passionless shows I've ever seen. This was not made because someone had a vision for what a live action Last Airbender should look like, this was made to capitalize on how popular the cartoon became once it went to Netflix. The acting is bad, the costumes look bad, the effects are mostly bad, and it has some incredibly goofy moments. The raid on the air temple in the beginning have a few, one where fire benders fly up a cliff, which looks like nuclear warheads launching. Another in which an air bender creates a tornado, only for fire benders to light said tornado and the air bender comically screams. Another huge issue is the order in which the story is told. Whoever wrote this probably saw Pulp Fiction and said "why is it all out of order?" Having the monks reveal to Aang that he's the avatar on top of showing the air temple raid immediately raise the stakes higher than they should be. Part of what made the beginning of the original series great was the reveal that the air genders were all dead, it seamlessly introduced grim elements into a series that had previously been entirely lighthearted. Also there's this weird issue with fire bending where it basically functions like air. People will get engulfed in flames, only to be shown with slightly tattered clothes and dirt on their face. I know the show isn't looking to be crazy violent but some amount of realism there would be an improvement. I don't plan on finishing this series, but from what I hear it at least doesn't completely butcher the source material like the previous live action movie did. But that doesn't mean you should watch this. Half of what makes the cartoon series so great is that is was animated, and trying to translate that energy into live action was what made this and the live action movie feel so awkward.

Oppenheimer (I) (2023)

The Best Movie of 2023

[10/10 · 16 January 2024]

While I was very excited for this movie, I was cautious due to how inconsistent Christopher Nolan has been in the past few years. This movie absolutely blew me away. Seeing this in IMAX was maybe the best theater experience I've ever had, it's up there with Top Gun Maverick. The film keeps and incredibly brisk pace for all three hours of its runtime, which is impressive given how even some of Nolan's recent movies like Tenet or The Dark Knight Rises have dragged at some points. On a technical level, Oppenheimer is perfect. The score, the cinematography, the effects, all look fantastic. Particularly in the first and third hours, when the movie is a barrage of sights and sounds that blend together perfectly. A lot of people complained about the third act of this movie when it came out, and to that I say rewatch the movie. On rewatch the final hour is the most gripping of the whole movie, and the ending hits even harder. 2023 has been a fantastic year for cinema after a decade of tired blockbusters, and movies like Oppenheimer, Barbie, Across the Spider Verse, The Iron Claw, and Killers of the Flower Moon show that people will watch interesting, original movies. Even if 2024 has half as many great movies, it'll be a step above what we've been getting for the past few years.

Twisted Pair (2018)

Highly recommend

[29 December 2023]

This movie was under 90 minutes and felt like four hours. The movie is a series of loosely connected scenes that make very little sense. These problems are overshadowed by the cutting edge VFX and the flawless script. Breen continues to prove himself as a revolutionary writer/director. I would also recommend watching this with friends. You need to have multiple people present to find all the little details hidden in the movie. This is probably my favorite Neil Breen movie. Where his other films were mostly boring with sporadic moments of comedy before going off the rails at the end, Twisted Pair goes off the rails from the opening frame. I'm excited to check out Breen's first direct sequel, "Cade: Tortured Crossing", a sequel to this film.

Lord of the Flies (1990)

Who is this for

[2/10 · 19 November 2023]

I watched this in my English class after reading the book. My teacher warned us that this movie sucked but the class decided to watch it anyway, which was a big mistake. The movie is shot, acted, and scored like a kids movie of the time. But it also contains brutal violence and kids cussing like sailors. I genuinely don't understand how you can get source material like Lord of the Flies this wrong. I think the book is great and all, but it's pretty straightforward. The type of violence depicted in the book was rarely seen in movies when this came out, and I'm not saying that it needed to be completely over the top, but part of the impact of the book is how disturbing it all is. You feel like you lost some kind of innocence by the end of the book. This movie just sucks. I haven't seen the one from the 60s, and based on reviews it's better than this garbage. Just read the book. This is one of the worst adaptations I've ever seen.

The Marvels (2023)

In the mouth of madness

[2/10 · 19 November 2023]

Just to be clear, I did not hate watch this movie. My theater membership allows me to see one free movie per month, and for November this was the movie. I saw the mediocre reviews and thought that there were probably worse ways to kill two hours. I suppose I was right, but this has to go pretty low on that list. I don't know how this got released in the state it did. The last marvel movie I watched was Thor 4 and that was also an incompetent mess, although The Marvels wasn't as bad. I genuinely can't think of any positives for this movie. The only reason I gave it a 2/10 is because I don't think it ever becomes comically awful aside from one scene. The two most widely praised elements of the movie were the action and the actress who played Ms Marvel. The action was your standard CGI marvel goyslop, and Ms Marvel was very annoying. I guess she was fine compared to how flat the other two leads were but not by much. Don't go see this movie. It is a good thing that this movie is bombing as hard as it is. Maybe marvel will learn some kind of lesson from this, but it's more likely that they'll just keep paying to bring back legacy characters.

Scott Pilgrim Takes Off (2023)

Feels too good to be true

[9/10 · 19 November 2023]

I was super excited for this show. Not only was a competent animation studio adapting one of my favorite comics and one of my favorite movies, but the cast of the movie was coming back to voice. I went in expecting an adaptation of the same story as the movie and the comic series, likely following closer to the comic than the movie did, but this show is something completely different and I loved it. I see other reviews on here that mostly criticize the fact that this isn't just the same story with a new paint job, and I think that's pretty stupid. Not only did Edgar Wright himself and other members of the crew say that this was something new in interviews, but this is really good. I think the only reason these people are mad is because they had a specific expectation and that expectation was not met. Anyway, the show is great. I'll avoid spoiling too much, but it's kind of like Final Fantasy 7 Remake, where it follows the original story to a certain point and then starts to do its own thing. The animation is great, the action scenes are cool, the voice acting is great, and an iconic duo from another Edgar Wright film have a few cameos. It's clear the amount of love and attention went in to this product. I highly recommend it if you're a fan of the series, and I would recommend that newcomers watch the live action movie and read the comic series before checking this out.

Kick-Ass 2 (2013)

There's nothing here

[5/10 · 9 November 2023]

This movie is fine, but there's no real reason to watch it. It's not terrible but it does nothing really that new or interesting. The action is pretty well done, the performances are decent enough, and the comedy is pretty hit or miss. The movie feels emptied than the first in part due to a few major characters from the first movie being gone, and also because it just isn't memorable. I can vividly remember scenes from the first movie like the apartment fight, the climax with the jet pack, and the fight leading up to the climax. In this movie the climax is a decent action scene but that's about all I can remember. It's not the worst way to kill two hours but there are certainly better ways to do so.

The Creator (2023)

"We have Rogue One at home"

[5/10 · 30 September 2023]

Let's get the positives out of the way first - the movie is absolutely stunning. Before my showing the trailers for Aquaman 2 and Captain Marvel 2 played, and the CGI in both of those looked awful, so it was nice to see a movie that looked amazing and felt grounded visually. The amount of detail in every little aspect of this world is insane. It also has this really cool 50s style commercial for robots that I liked a lot. Unfortunately, these great visuals are serving a terrible script. This movie would be a 2/10 if not for the 10/10 visuals. I don't want to spoil much, but there are plot holes you can drive a truck through. The villain was very weak too, she started out as a complex character but quickly switched to an Avatar villain. And the reason I titled this review "We have Rogue One at Home" is because there are scenes in this movie that are identical to scenes in Rogue One. One of the beginning scenes involves a character's home being destroyed by an air strike, and it's shot just like the end of Rogue One, taking place on a beach and all. There's a scene where a tank is rolling through a rural village and getting attacked by local rebels, and it plays out just like the tank scene in Rogue One. There's a scene toward the end of the movie where two soldiers are separated by airlock doors, and, you guessed it, it's shot just like the end of Rogue One, even down to having some of the same dialogue. Also was a weapon in this movie that would fire a grenade that would stick to people, and there were multiple scenes where a character would get a grenade stuck to a backpack, only to comically claw at the straps before exploding. It was incredibly goofy and it happened more than once. This movie was one of the bigger disappointments of the year for me. I'd say it's a step in the right direction for new sci fi movies but I just don't think Gareth Edwards is a particularly talented writer. His visuals are really really great, but I think he needs someone to write his scripts for him.

Street Fighter (1994)

So terrible but so much fun

[1/10 · 24 September 2023]

This is one of the best "so bad it's good" movies ever made. All of the acting is cheesy, there are so many memorable lines and moments, the action is completely over the top, and the best part is that it's pretty true to the spirit of the Street Fighter games. The games are full of caricatures and stereotypes, just like the movie. The highlight of the movie is Raul Julia as M. Bison, a cartoonish character who wants to create his utopia, called "Bisonopolis". Jean-Claude Van Damme is fun as Guile, Ming-Na Wen is actually really good casting for Chun Li, and the rest of the cast generally look like their game counterparts, especially Andrew Bryniarski as Zangeif. This movie is really different from other video game movies of the time in that regard. Aside from Mortal Kombat, just about every 90s video game movie looked nothing like the game, and the story had nothing to do with the story of the game. This movie is objectively not good. But it is a perfect Street Fighter movie and a great "so bad it's good" movie. I highly recommend watching it with friends.

The Defenders (2017)

Starts out decent, becomes goofier over time

[7/10 · 25 August 2023]

The first few episodes were fun, but after a while it just dragged so hard. This was an issue with both seasons of the Punisher and season two of Daredevil, where some of the season is really good but by the end you just want it to be over. It has some good action, the standout scene being the boardroom fight in the middle of the series, and the action doesn't get worse after that point or anything, the show just becomes so boring. I didn't care about Electra as a character, and she was the main struggle of the story. This series had a lot of potential that I think is only realized in a handful of scenes, and it's really a shame. Anyway, the watch order for this would be between Daredevil seasons 2 and 3.

Community (2009–2015)

I want to give the show a 10/10, unfortunately seasons 4-6 aren't good

[18 August 2023]

Seasons 1-3 of Community are perfect. They are some of the best comedy I've ever seen on television. Seasons 2 and 3 are definitely stronger than 1, but they're all great. I had heard the show got worse after season 3, but I decided to continue watching, and nothing could have prepared me for how bad it got. Season 4 in particular is so bad that they came up with an in-universe reason as to why the characters act so different, and thus season 4 is referred to as "the gas leak". From what I have heard the later seasons were screwed over by mismanagement at production companies, which is a shame, but they're still not good. Definitely watch seasons 1-3, and stop after that.

The Current War (2017)

The directors cut is not bad

[7/10 · 27 July 2023]

I am in the electrical program at my school and we watched this on the last day of class. I've never seen the theatrical cut, and from what I hear it isn't very good so I haven't bothered tracking it down to watch it. Anyway, the directors cut is decent. It's well acted, mostly well paced, and incredibly directed. I'd be interested in seeing more from this director because this movie had some genuinely fantastic sequences, like the scene where Michael Shanon's character first shows off the AC Circuit lights. The movie drags at some points and I don't know how historically accurate it is, but the directors cut is only like a hundred minutes long so if you want a decent historical drama then I'd recommend this movie.

Hotline Miami (2012 Video Game)

A good game with some big issues

[8/10 · 25 July 2023]

Hotline Miami is ver good. The sprites all look great, the music and atmosphere are great, and the story is really trippy and weird (in a good way). Combat, however, is a double edged sword. Sometimes it's really dynamic and fun, but from my experience, the lock on system is completely broken. In something like Zelda Ocarina of Time, pressing and holding the lock on button will lock on to an enemy, and letting go and holding it again will syphon through different enemies on screen. This works great and I never had any problems with it in that game. In Hotline Miami, pressing the lock on button will result in you locking on to an enemy. When you press the lock on button again, lock on will turn off. To syphon through enemies, you need to use the right control stick, which is incredibly imprecise and often locks on to the wrong enemy. Whenever I killed an enemy that I was locked on to, the game wouldn't auto lock on to the nearest enemy, instead it would auto lock to any random enemy, even offscreen ones. If you kill an enemy that you were locked on to and another starts running toward you, the game will either not lock on to anything or not lock on to the enemy that is running directly at you. I died a lot because of the clunky lock on in this game and it was very frustrating. The game is still very good and is worth playing, but the lock on is so bad.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009)

One of the most ridiculous movies I've ever seen

[2/10 · 13 July 2023]

The score that this movie currently has is way too high. As of writing this review it has a 6.5/10 which is much better than it deserves. First, I'll mention the only positive, which is the opening credits. The opening credits show Wolverine fighting through important wars, which is much more interesting and really should have been what the movie was about. Other than that, this movie is a complete joke. For one thing, the writers clearly didn't understand any of the characters. The best example of this is Deadpool. The character literally nicknamed "the merc with a mouth" gets his mouth sewn shut for the majority of his screen time. The action is bad, the effects are bad, the acting is bad, it all sucks. Don't watch it. It's not only one of the worst superhero movies of all time, I'd argue it's one of the worst blockbusters ever made.

Past Lives (2023)

Maybe the best movie I've had the pleasure of seeing in the theater

[10/10 · 28 June 2023]

Past Lives is one of the best movies I've ever seen. The cinematography is simple but beautiful, the performances are great, the music is perfect, and the third act especially was fantastic. Without spoiling too much, the movie follows two characters at three different points in their lives, at ages 12, 24, and 36. It's fascinating to watch how these characters evolve over the years, and whoever wrote this movie really nailed making their character arcs realistic. Especially between ages 24 and 36, characters will have slight changes in appearance and will have calmed down over time. I highly recommend seeing this movie if you can find it in the theater, but I'm pretty sure it has a fairly limited release. I had to drive almost an hour to get to the only theater in my state that was playing it.

2 Fast 2 Furious (2003)

A thoroughly terrible movie that I had fun with

[6/10 · 18 June 2023]

This is not a good movie. But it is insanely fun. I think the best points of comparison would be Transformers Dark of the Moon or the Venom movies. Not good but very fun. 2 Fast 2 Furious has good action, fun car chases, cheesy acting, energetic direction, and an over the top climax. The opening scene of the movie is without exaggeration an almost 20 minute long race scene featuring three racial stereotypes and Paul Walker. I think the dynamic of Walker and Vin Diesel was more entertaining than the two leads of this movie, but they have good enough chemistry and they're pretty fun together. I didn't enjoy it as much as the first Fast and Furious, which I think is a legitimately good action movie, but it's a fun so bad it's good movie.

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023)

Solid, but not very satisfying on its own

[8/10 · 6 June 2023]

Across the Spider Verse is a very solid movie. It's not the masterpiece that the insane hype train would have you believe, but it's very good. As of right now, this movie has a higher IMDb score than some of the greatest movies of all time (Pulp Fiction, Fight Club, all the Lord of the Rings movies) and I don't really think it's deserved. I'm sure it will be a lot better to look back on once part two comes out, but as of right now it does feel like half of a movie. The animation and voice acting are both great, it has good action, and some of the references and visual gags were cool. I would recommend seeing this in the theater, but I'd say wait a few weeks. I saw it opening weekend in a theater packed full of drooling fanboys who cheered at every single reference. It was maybe the worst theater experience I've ever had. I don't think it's as great as the first but it was a good movie.

Death Note (2006–2007)

Good but deeply flawed

[8/10 · 3 April 2023]

Like everyone else who has seen Death Note, I think the first half of the series is some of the best televeision I've ever seen, but the second half (aside from the very end) was subpar. The first half of the show is intense, dramatic, and moves along at a perfect pace. The second half feels like it's treading water for the majority of it, and some of the things they decided to include are just bizarre. Without spoiling too much, I'll say that a major character is killed off in the second half of the show only to be replaced by a character who has the exact same skills and serves the exact same purpose. The show is absolutely worth watching, but just know that the second half is a massive step down from the first half. I might have given the show a 10/10 if it had maintained the level of quality from the first 15 episodes, but the second half of the series is a solid 5/10.

Kingsman: The Golden Circle (2017)

I feel nothing but immense regret

[1/10 · 12 February 2023]

This movie sucked. The first Kingsman movie is one of my favorite action movies of all time and this was such a disappointment. There was pretty much nothing about this movie that I liked. The action was bad, the effects were some of the worst I've ever seen in a big budget movie like this, the acting was subpar, the movie looked like a Michael Bay Transformers movie, and aside from Elton John, the movie wasn't funny. Aside from Samuel L Jackson, the first Kingsman didn't really have any outstanding performances, but it made up for it by being funny, having great action, and not looking like Transformers 2. I need to mention the effects in this movie again. There are some scenes that I am genuinely surprised were approved. In one scene, a character is seen standing on top of a mountain ledge waving at other characters, but there is a blurry outline around him and you can clearly tell he was pasted in. In another example, there is a shot of a fleet of drones flying toward the Statue of Liberty, and some of the drones clip through the statue. If you liked the first Kingsman then stay away from this movie. If you've never seen a Kingsman movie before, then watch the first one, it's awesome. At the time of writing this I haven't seen The King's Man, so I don't know if it's worth watching or not.

Fallout 76 (2018 Video Game)

Even after the big bugs were fixed, this game isn't fun.

[3/10 · 10 January 2023]

I played this game after the disastrous launch because it was free on PS Plus, and I expected something like Cyberpunk 2077, where after the rough launch the game was halfway decent, but that's not what I got here. Fallout 76 is still a disaster. For one thing, the game still doesn't run very well. It looks like a late Xbox 360/PS3 game despite coming out in 2018, and I don't know if this was just a problem with my PS5, but the game wouldn't run better than 30 FPS. To compare it to Cyberpunk again, that game runs at 60 FPS with normal settings and around 30 FPS with ray tracing on. So this nearly 5-year-old game that isn't even close to as visually stunning as Cyberpunk runs worse than that game does on max graphics settings. Fallout 76 also doesn't feel good to play. The controls feel sluggish and unresponsive and it makes it so that combat just isn't fun. Combat has never really been Bethesda's strongest suit, but it's not unbearable in other games like Skyrim like it is in Fallout 76. Bethesda's strength has always been in their detailed worlds, which this game fails to deliver on as well. The map is mostly empty with some enemies or abandoned areas scattered around, but it just feels so boring. This isn't helped by the pathetic amount of stamina you're given at the beginning of the game. It's way too little to explore at any decent pace. One could argue that since it's the beginning of the game you should have less stamina, and I would agree if the default walking speed weren't so slow. Even if you can get this game for free, I don't recommend playing it.

Demolition (2015)

A very good movie that falls apart a bit in the third act

[7/10 · 18 December 2022]

I really love the first two thirds of this movie. I liked how aimless it felt, I liked how heavy it is, and I liked how it's even darkly comedic in a few places. But the third act really kills a lot of the momentum that the film had. If you don't mind a minor spoiler, the film begins to make the main character's dead wife harder and harder to care about, and the subplot about the gay kid never goes anywhere. If you liked this movie or if you have similarly mixed feelings to mine then I highly recommend the film Manchester By the Sea. That movie has a similar premise, where someone close to the main character dies and he spends the run time with a kid. I don't think Demolition is bad, but it definitely could have been better.

Evangelion: 3.0+1.01 Thrice Upon a Time (2021)

The third end to Evangelion

[7/10 · 23 November 2022]

I want to like this movie a lot more than I do. Unfortunately, it's pretty average until the last thirty minutes. The movie is bloated, the dialogue is not very good, and the 3D animated segments look bad. As mediocre as I thought 2.0 was, at least it had great action. I can't say the same for this movie, as most of the action is awkward 3D animation. The mythology of the rebuild movies also makes very little sense and resorts to long exposition dumps in random places. But when the movie lets go and becomes a finale to Evangelion, it's great. When it becomes the payoff to 25+ years of buildup from the original series and not the result of these past three movies, it's brilliant. It's hard to recommend the Evangelion rebuilds. The first one is a remake of the beginning of Neon Genesis Evangelion, 2.0 is mediocre with a really good ending, and 3.0 is a complete mess. This movie is definitely the best rebuild, but that isn't really a high bar. If you were left unsatisfied by End of Evangelion then I would recommend the rebuilds, but they're not really worth it otherwise.

Darling in the Franxx (2018)

Evangelion if it sucked moose testicles

[1/10 · 19 November 2022]

If you've seen Evangelion, you've seen this. If you've seen this and enjoyed it, then watch Evangelion, it's quite possibly the best anime series ever. This show does not deserve to exist. It's so derivative and it doesn't have any identity of its own. Compare this to the 2021 film Nobody. That movie has a similar premise to other things like John Wick or Taken, where a retired special agent angers some kind of organized crime group so they go on a killing spree. Nobody is able to separate itself from other movies because of elements like the look and status of the main character, the direction, and the different set pieces. Comparing these elements in Evangelion and Darling in the Franxx is a very different situation. Shinji begins as a sort of audience surrogate who evolves into something brilliant over time, when Hiro never really moves beyond being a generic Shonen protagonist. The direction isn't different, in fact you can find side by side comparisons on YouTube that show how DitF is at times a shot for shot recreation of Evangelion. And none of the set pieces in either show really go beyond robot fighting alien, but it's a problem in DitF because it was already done much better over 20 years before. The pilot episodes are nearly identical as well, with the loner main character getting picked up by the main organization and piloting a robot to help the injured female lead. If you're considering watching this show, go see Evangelion instead. If you're a fan of this show, go watch Evangelion and you'll see what I mean. This show and My Hero Academia represent everything wrong with modern anime, especially shonen.

Cowboy Bebop (2021)

Compare this to the original.

[1/10 · 17 November 2022]

This show is a disaster. A lot of the reviews here say it's fine if you don't compare it to the original show, but it's an adaptation, meaning the most direct point of comparison for this show is the original anime. I still think that this show would be bad without comparisons to the original but as an adaptation it's just pathetic. The action is bad, it lacks style, it isn't funny, most of the acting is bad, and none of the characters feel like they do in the original series. That's the problem with American remakes like there. Aside from Alita, not a single American anime remake has worked. The biggest problem this show has is being compared to the original. This show is mediocre at best and terrible at worst, but it's being directly compared to one of the best shows of all time. I'm not trying to say that this show is being unfairly criticized, I'm saying that even if this show was solid it would be compared to a show that many people consider the best anime ever. If they didn't want to get criticized this hard then they shouldn't have touched this IP.

Nobody (I) (2021)

Perfect for what it is

[9/10 · 7 November 2022]

Nobody is really good. It doesn't have deep themes and won't make you think, but it is a perfect action movie. It's easy to see the inspiration from movies like Taken and John Wick, but Nobody has enough of its own style to make it unique. The action is gritty and brutal, the cinematography is surprisingly great, the acting is good, and the filmmakers made the most of their relatively low budget. I don't really have any problems with this movie, I enjoyed myself from start to finish. I highly recommend this if you like action movies, especially the John Wick movies and Taken. This seriously might be my favorite movie of 2021.