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Halo (2022)
Ignore the naysayers
I love science fiction, Ive thoroughly enjoyed the decades of Sci-Fi genre movies and tv. But as someone who only really ever played a little bit of Halo multi-player, and the only time I played single player was Halo Combat Evolved which I believe was the first one 20 years ago. I don't recall much of any story (if there even really was one). What I remember was shooting aliens and saving crew members...which is not much of a story. To be honest I find most games storylines to be rather forgettable. So I fit into the category of not a direhard halo fanboy.
But the TV show I'm enjoying a great deal. Master chief is an interesting character, the other Spartans show a great deal of development promise. The other characters are all interesting EXCEPT Kwan - she's horrible. I'm kind of looking forward to her getting shot, eaten, or some other equally bad thing happening to her. The show is not for diehards, which is good. Because I would say the diehards are the minority of viewers.
I'm keen to see how the show develops and to see where it takes us...
Treadstone (2019)
Beyond Excellent!!!...ignore the naysayers. Bing watch it and enjoy.
Firstly you have to understand who made this show. Tim Kring, the same man who created Heroes and like Heroes, Treadstone follows a similar layout of multiple storylines of the present and of the past, interwoven in a very subtle way. The similarities between Heroes and Treadstone are almost identical. So Treadstone is not for those wanting immediate answers, if you want something easy or smple to follow, go watch Batwoman.
This is convoluted, but there is a reason for it being this way, Tim Kring is world building, it is deep and it unpacks in a way that allows for almost endless storylines to unfold. Which is fantastic, because it is not predictable unlike so many "spy" shows where we know who the good guys are and who the bad guys are and all we are doing is following the good guy along till he kills the bad guy....YAWN!
Answers start to come by the end of the season. This is not something you can watch week to week. It has to be binge watched as it is complex enough that you wont remember the details with large gaps inbetween. Be patient, keep guessing and enjoy. My advice is turn off your phone, put your kids to bed and your animals outside, turn off all distraction before watching. If youre distracted youll miss something.
There are very few shows on TV/Stream/Cable that are worth watching, even fewer that are worth watching over and over or bothering to write a review for. This is a great show, ignore the naysayers, they obviously like shows such as Batwoman.
The Walking Dead (2010)
Land of the Dead meets Dumb and Dumber
I've always been a fan of Zombie style movies so when you watch quality Zombie movies you can suspend the disbelief and enjoy it for what it is. However the Walking Dead is just ridiculous nonsense and and trying to suspend the disbelief is so draining that it becomes the sole focus of the show. Every episode you walk away shaking your head in disbelief and loathing for these stupid characters. Time and time again these Characters do one or all of these following things, every episode, sometimes multiple times through the episode. 1) Leave rooms of houses unchecked...which just so happens to have a Walker in them that conveniently attacks said idiot. 2) When humans who have attacked you aren't immediately killed off for the sake of protecting you in the future (see Governor). Ie, i would have set the Governor on fire as soon as i met him. 3) Climbing up and down, out of cars, out of buildings. For example, if you are climbing down into a room full of Walkers, you can see all the walkers, you can reach all of the walkers and stab them in the head as long as you use a spear to stab them in the head. Why bother taking the unnecessary risk actually placing yourself within grabbing distance of a walker. Car windows are the same, smash a car window and keep stabbing their heads when they come into view, why try to bum rush the walkers. 4) Time...when you are fighting for your life, time becomes sort of irrelevant. Rushing into risks because you have to hurry up? Why do you have to hurry, wheres the fire? Mostly there is never a fire. 5) The gift of sight, hearing and smell is not apparent in all party members. Walkers make noise, they stumble, knock things over, groan (a lot), they presumably smell quite badly, and they are not overly fast so anything stumbling in my field of vision should warrant my concern. Its not telepathy of some form of ESP, but i know when someone is physically close to me i can feel it, i know when someone is looking at me, I can smell when something is a little bit off in the garbage bin. How these people get surprised by walkers is astounding.
The only thing this show has going for it is, the Walkers unlike their living counterparts are consistent, their acting is solid, they move convincingly, they sound and look real.
The photography is well done and the music score is excellent.
Big Love (2006)
An interesting look at a very different lifestyle
Firstly let me say this, I personally don't object to Polygamy in any form (as long as its consenting adults who are not related of course). If you look at history and cultures from around the world, Polygamy is more common than Monogamy. Thats an undeniable fact.
However what i do disagree on is the prevalence of Religion; whether its the persistence of the "principle" within the show, or the crazy attitudes of the fanatics, how about all the closed minded morons on the show. FFS!
Let me speak from a Religious context. King Solomon appears in the LDS Scripture and he appears in pretty much every other Abrahamic religion. This dude had over a thousand wives. Islam allows for a man to have 3 wives. Isn't it rather hypocritical that people who believe in God and go on and on about forgiveness and understanding can pick and choose what is allowed and not allowed.
This show makes me a little sick for humanity and that people actually believe in this c**p. I just wish the shows creators played up less on the whole "religious" bullshit and focused more on a man with 3 wives running businesses and running for government.
BTW Most of the characters on this show go in and out of my like and dislike spectrum. Marge can be bold and forthright yet naive and whiny, Nikki can be motivated and persistent but a complete pain in the a$$, dishonest and a giant knob-head, Barb flips between wise and dumb, responsible and childish. I personally think I could manage a relationship with 3 women a whole lot better than this dude... He lets the women discuss s**t between them and he just comes and goes and usually finds s**t out later. If it were me, id have a sit down family meeting (between all adults) every couple of days, locked in a room and put everything on the table.
Gravity (2013)
Majestic yet Awful!
In the first few moments of this movie I was struck by the sheer majesty of planet Earth viewed from orbit. As a photographer when you stand on a cliff edge and overlook a breathtaking valley below it takes your breath away and it is nearly impossible to focus on anything in particular. But that's the best it gets in Gravity! While the rest of the movie jumps from crisis to crisis and we are exposed to the harsh reality of existing in space, it is filled with "unbelievable" scenarios that you most assuredly need to suspend any rational thinking/opinions. It is a work of extreme fiction. I was disgusted/frustrated and annoyed that we are forced to accept that a Russian missile, presumably an ICBM (intercontinental Ballistic Missile) or something similar is launched to destroy a former Soviet Spy Satellite and the result of the satellites destruction is a hail of metal fragments that proceed to circumnavigate the planet destroying Shuttlecraft, other Satellites, the International Space Station and pretty much everything else....yeah right! Now lets take a step into reality, since man started putting satellites into orbit when they become of no use they simply let their orbit decay and they get eaten up in the atmosphere. On top of that, not all satellites, space stations and what not are all located at the same distance from the earth (ie they don't maintain the same geostationary orbit) so even if debris was blowing around the planet it wouldn't affect everything around the world. This movie was utter crap, shame on you Sandra Bullock and George Clooney. But the title of worst director/writer is owned by Alfonso Cuaron...shame on you for making scenically spectacular utter trash!
Sons of Anarchy (2008)
Started strong....winding up stupid
I only recently started watching this show. In the last 3 weeks I've watched season 1 to season 6. So unlike other reviewers I have not spent 5 years watching this show.
Firstly this show is Hamlet re-imagined if you've seen Hamlet (or any Shakespeare movie) you will identify similarities and draw comparisons between the two. The problem is where Shakespeare is masterful...Sons of Anarchy is frustrating, full of plot holes, full of unbelievable "factuals", stupid and the show treats its audience as dumb as the "White Trash" characters in it.
While I'm not going to ruin this show with spoilers I will say this - Laws and legal matters that are handled in this show are terrible and not even in the realm of believable. Affidavits submitted by felons or people related to felons, warrants issued based of these affidavits (btw warrants usually take more than a day to process unlike this show which seems to process them in about 20min in real time), retired federal agents or agents related to people involved in the crime or victims (conflict of interest). Also under the Fourth Amendment, 95% of the legal matters within this show (which make up a great deal of the show) are bulls**t.
It throws the show even further when everyone has such a convoluted agenda...99.9999% of people in reality aren't generally as complicated as every character is on this show.
When can we have a show were the drama feels real? the characters are believable? the show makes sense?
Europa Report (2013)
From a Sci Fi Aficionado - Amazing potential falls short
I would happily classify myself as a movie buff, an enthusiast, a collector and a Sci Fi/Fantasy addict.
Europa Report started interestingly and in my opinion started with great potential. I love the movie being shot from the internal fixed cameras of the ship, the pseudo-documentary style of the movie including key "as close to science" realities as any non-scientific writer could jot down on paper.
I was engrossed in this movie from start to about half way through, what started to kill it for me was this - Ask any rock climber what the most important thing to do when climbing. I'll answer - make sure you tie off.
The first disaster this ship faced was the EVA with the two engineers. I guarantee that both Astronauts would have been tied off independently to the ship (possibly multiple hook up points) and as a back up to each other with a possible tertiary backup.
Any ship designed to travel an extensive space voyage would have, ALL important systems like communication panels located on the internals of the ship. Any mission designed for a 4 year round trip would have 5, 10, 20 backups to deal with problems.
My other gripe is even Astronauts watch Sci Fi movies like the rest of us. They've seen movies like Alien, Space Odyssey, Sunshine, Pitch Black. So when you see strange lights glowing in the distance that move mere hours after your probe got eaten, don't go near it! Use probes!
My last point is this, when a ship is about to take off the engineer usually does a systems check and purge. Fuel lines freezing....come on seriously! Like your sensors wouldn't tell you they were frozen. I've known modified cars with fuel line sensors more advanced than what Europa One had.
Suspend disbelief if you choose to watch this show.
The Colony (2013)
Like living in an ice hell isn't bad enough!
...having to watch the execution of terrible writing and utter stupidity unfold before my eyes was worse.
I wanted to like this movie. The procession of Hollywood movies following remake after remake and clichéd movie knock offs is tiring. Post apocalyptic movies have always been of interest to me, however there are generally two categories that are filled when doing movies of this nature.
The first being intelligent movies. Where events and situations occur that make you think "yeah I see this as a very high likelihood of happening" or "wow, that's totally believable!". Then let smart intelligent writing with necessary arcs and twists fill the story. I will say this approach to movie writing is in the vast minority...I would say 1/50 movies maybe more.
Then you have the other type. The stupid, the poorly written, clumsy execution and horrid plot development, I've seen 6 year olds tell more convincing stories. These seem to be the trending and vast majority off movies I see hitting the shelves.
The colony very nicely falls into the latter. Stupid, stupid and really stupid. Firstly, in a world of everlasting snow and ice...why would foot tracks last more than 10min before being covered by the consistent snow storms that are raging for the entirety of the movie? Which then kills the next part, the cannibal horde of crazies cannot follow you. But for stories sake, let say they got out of the blown up power station and started tracking you quickly and were hot on your heels. Running to the bridge and blowing it up. TNT fuses don't suddenly blow out when lit...they are built to burn in almost any situation. But hey lets suspend that as well, running across the bridge and into the city. By running into building after building and allowing the snow to cover your tracks, would successfully elude detection and capture.
But hell lets say the cannibal horde were magical/telepathic/psychic and found your colony against being frozen to death outside of shelter...and by the way anyone who's experienced living in temperatures that drop to the negative 20-40 will attest that to long in the weather without proper protection can send you delirious, you can slip into sleep/coma and die. The human body regardless of how tough you think you are will die in these conditions. Having a big steel door and steel grated vent systems would be difficult to open with a bunch of crowbars. The acting started OK, but got progressively bad and the characters intelligence progressively dumber.
This movie is utterly crap. Don't watch it. Don't download it. Don't rent it.
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012)
Be thankful!
Unlike critics and fan boys and everyone else in between, I went to see "The Hobbit" with zero expectations. I loved the the LOTR, as I believe they are masterpieces that will not be remade in my lifetime or ever.
The Hobbit, while not as serious or perhaps as developed as LOTR was. Think about the book that it has to draw its information on. It's a children's book, not an in-depth work of fiction for adults. It has been adapted and it has other sources of Tolkien lore thrown into it to bulk it out and mature its storyline. I felt that this was done to preserve the movie for years to come and to allow a wider audience to enjoy it. Personally as an adult, I don't want to follow on from LOTR (being directed at adults) then going to watch a children's movie.
Currently it's an incomplete story, before all of the naysayers pass judgment wait until all three films have been released.
Personally I am glad that more movies like these are coming out. Everyone I know carries on about how Hollywood has no original movies left and its just the same old garbage regurgitated and renamed. This is an original piece and I'm glad it's here to shake up the status quo. I think everyone should take a big step back and think about the kind off movies you want on screen - do you want another so called "comedy" from the likes of Ben Stiller or Vince Vaughn, or try hard remakes like "21 jump street".
No thanks...I certainly am over these movies. Bring on more movies like The Hobbit!