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Reviews
The Idol (2023)
Pure nonsense!
Have you ever seen people interact? Or people react to any extreme situations? Or... I don't know... just people be people? The Weekend never had. This show doesn't make any sense. The characters don't act as people would. Not a single decision made by any character on the show is rooted in any human logic or emotion. I had to check several times, in between the episodes or in the middle of them, if the show was written by AI - that's how nonsensical the story is. I've no idea where people like these characters would exist but I am convinced that it's not our reality. And because of this fact alone, because of the terrible writing you simply cannot give this show a pass. Acting is fine, the sets are fine, camerawork is really good and direction is solid but when the story doesn't make a lick of sense it all falls apart.
Listen, in order to relate to the characters they need to follow some logic. You can allow the characters to make poor choices by not having all the facts or acting on emotion alone but... THE AUDIANCE needs to understand where the characters are coming from. Not a single decision made by any of the main characters in this show makes any sense - logical or emotional. This hanging thread is being pulled on as we watch this show and in the end we're left with characters who don't make any sense, aren't likable and even the motivations and the twists in the story make no sense either! Best written stories come from experience - whoever wrote this show... they never been among humans before.
Nancy Drew (2019)
Nancy Boo!
I'm not the biggest fan of Nancy Drew, I'll be the first one to admit that. I don't have the sentiment or nostalgia for those characters or their books. I've read a few books in the series and enjoyed them quite a bit, but I'd stick with Miss Marple, Poirot and Holmes for my mystery nostalgic properties... So I am not opposed to the modernisation of any property, given it's done with integrity and respect to the original. Updating technology levels forces writers to change how a mystery works. Suddenly you can look up things online everywhere, suddenly you can't sneak into a building with ease because of motion sensors, cameras and keycard or biometric locks. If that's all you're changing then you're fine. When you're changing how the characters act... to an extent it's also understandable.
People here say that Nancy isn't a role model anymore. Quite frankly, they're right. The new version of Nancy Drew isn't for kids, but I wouldn't say that it's a bad change or a good one. It's just... different times and different things are seen as acceptable. Besides, I believe that a flawed main character is more interesting. Holmes was an addict, Poirot was a pedant and Columbo mumbled a bit too much and we loved them for it. So the new Nancy isn't a saint... big deal doesn't matter, she's more interesting, she's a human. It works.
But there's a big, fat, smelly problem with this new show, something that for me breaks the deal. Nancy Drew is now a supernatural drama. Yeah, there are ghosts in my crime drama... Now, I like ghost stories a lot. I love horror movies a lot. But not in Nancy Drew! They've broken Nancy Drew's core. The mystery only works when the audience can follow the clues alongside the on-screen detective and when you bring in ghosts and mediums it introduces an element of chaos that completely undermines everything else the writers are trying to accomplish with this story. This is a wasted opportunity. Just another CW show...
Roman Empire (2016)
Unacceptable.
When a historical documentary introduces theatrical reenactment of the events I naturally expect some minor inaccuracies for the drama. It adds to the narrative helping the story flow. When the number for inaccuracies grows to a staggering number to the point where the whole documentary can be only described as fiction... I fail to see the point of making a documentary. Take season 2 about Gaius Julius Caesar. Pompey wasn't anywhere near Crassus or Spartacus for that matter. Caesar was in far East where he supposedly prostituted himself to the King of Nicomedes for a fleet. Caesar wasn't removed from the consul's position after a year, 1 year was the term back then, he knew he was going out and got himself a three province governership beforehand later extending his stay in Gaul by another 5 years because he had to wait 10 years for another run at the consul's office. His co-consul doesn't exist in this version and neither does his position as Pontifex Maximus. Caesar's reforms, some used for centuries to come, aren't even mentioned... and so on. You see, I don't hate the changes made and I'd accept them in a Hollywood movie, but this is a "documentary" that does nothing but lies to the audience and for no good reason, as the actual history behind almost all Roman leaders if far more interesting than any of this nonsense!
The Death of Superman (2018)
He's dead, Jim.
I never liked Superman. He's too good, too flawless, too super. Thanks to that his greatest enemy, his greatest foe is... a green rock. Yeah, introduced by a radio show, kryptonite, is about the only thing that can take Superman down. Now "Death of Superman" is an amazing story in my eyes. It faces a moral, good, ordered Superman against chaotic, evil, uncaring killing machine known as Doomsday. It's one of my favourite superhero stories to date. Death of Superman, Funeral for a friend, Reign of Supermen are about as close as we'll ever get to an amazing story about Superman. Of course, the story was criticised as a publicity stunt. In a way it was, but it also gave us an amazing story.
The movie differs a lot from the original. It has some good changes and some bad changes. and people will bring it up anyway, so I might as well join in. Let's start with the changes for the better.
Back when the original story was written the heroes were much different, much more powerful than they appear to be now. Thanks to that DC decided that most powerful heroes won't show up for this event. There was no Batman, Wonder Woman or Martian Manhunter there. On one side it created more tension because the heroes used were considerably more squishy, on the other hand, I always wondered how more A-list heroes would fare against Doomsday and this movie gives us all that. We see the Flash, Batman, Green Lantern and the rest defeated. In my mind it's a powerful message, seeing them go down, on the other hand... Booster Gold and Blue Beetle in the original story were so good. What movie gets right, however, is streamlining the story around Lex Luthor and Bibbo, a much-needed change without going way too far into Superman's lore from decades ago. The fights look amazing and to a certain extent, you can feel each punch. Great animation.
What the movie lacks is emotion. Especially between Lois and Clark. You see, in the comics by the time Doomsday appears they're together. In the movie, however... they're not. It was a dumb idea to make most of your movies in a connected universe mostly based on a failed New 52. Thanks to that the story has to work double time to establish a breakup of Wonder Woman and Superman, establish a relationship between Clark and Lois, introduce the Kents and the rest of the supportive characters while still maintaining a coherent plot that beckons to previous movies. The funeral, that was an amazing thing in the comics filled with heroes and characters from a rich universe, seemed modest and lacking - I mean this is an animation, you can do however many people you want and all we get is this pitiful bunch? The costumes, especially Wonder Woman and Superman's, are terrible. The animated Wonder Woman requires a complete redesign at this point, while Superman needs BRIGHTER colours - he's a symbol of hope, not the dark knight.
The movie setups Reign of Supermen by skimming over every superman to superman at the time of Reign of Supermen... except Eradicator, unless the cristal super-nanny AI thingy at the start of the movie is supposed to be the Eradicator.
Overall, it's not a bad movie. It's not a great one either. Totally serviceable. The sad part comes when you realise that the animated, "kids" version is more adult than the dark, live-action movies they make these days. Actually, it's not sad, it's great. An animation is closer to comics anyway, they should keep this up.
Van Helsing (2016)
Inspired by Zenescope Entertainment's graphic novel series "Helsing".
Do you know what I like to do in my spare time? I like graphic novels, comic books, manga and regular books. I can't help it. So one day, in 2014, I see this indie graphic novel called "Helsing", I got it, I read it and... it was nothing special. But it got a sequel and then another one and another... And with that came fleshing out of the lore and characters. I like it. It's a well done, imaginative re-work of familiar themes. It's not mindblowing, but give it a read.
The show was announced and with the posters and marketing and their "inspired by" nonsense, I was discouraged from watching it at the time. Actually, I was discouraged from watching it any time. But as both seasons are on Netflix where I live and I have free time and nothing to binge... why not?
This show has nothing, NOTHING, not a single thing from the material that supposedly inspired it. No characters that fans of the original could recognise, no namedrops, no easter eggs, nothing. But hey, perhaps it can stand on its own... Nope. It's diet "Walking Dead". Why diet? Well, I never before wished that the whole main cast of characters would die a long and painful death. They deserve it too. They're worse than the "vampires", those guys just want to feed... the survivors? They're stupid, evil, boring, cliched bunch.
But I still don't get what could've inspired the creators of this show in the graphic novel. Because the plot, the premise, the characters, the setting are all different! No mention of New York, London, China or Egypt that were the setting for the graphic novel. No Hades, no Jonathan Harker or Mina Murray or Dracula. What in the living, rich, vibrant world of "Helsing" inspired those folks to make another boring, drab, grey and brown post-apocalyptic pile of mediocrity?
One thing could save this, right? Vampires. Vampires are smart, strong, powerful with a myriad of powers and weaknesses - a true feast for creativity! So why not make them just zombies. That's what they are for the most part. And few vampires who are given some speaking lines... are about as cliched villains as you can get. How to kill a vampire? Just shoot him or stab him with a knife. Hell, bash him a few times with a baseball bat. Why not...? Right?
There. Some final thoughts. If you watched this for a bit and got bored but liked the idea - go watch "The Walking Dead". If you just wanted some vampires, there's a bunch of shows and movies out there. If you want a good TV show with vampires that's also a decent horror - "Penny Dreadful" is the best choice in my opinion. If you're interested in what "inspired" this show - Zenescope Entertainment has a shop, so go support this indie series and it's rather expansive universe (free tip - it's getting better with each new issue).
ReBoot: The Guardian Code (2018)
And mom said all this time in the basement was wasted... well, it was.
I said I wasn't going to watch this after first 15 minutes of the show. I had enough. But Doctor Who disappeared from Netflix and I needed something to watch... You know, never before a piece of media made me physically sick.
The original ReBoot was a groundbreaking all CGI TV show predating Toy Story and the Pixar wave of CGI movies. Was it a perfect show? No, of course not. Some small continuity errors to push character development appeared and sometimes the show could be cringy as all hell and due to the censorship, some things didn't really work out well. Still, that show was ahead of its time, introducing kids to new words, words that in years our tech-obsessed world would actually start using on daily basis. The characters moved as the story progressed, they had character, they had their own lives and problems, feelings, depth... Like many shows for kids back in the day (Batman TAS, X-Men, Spider-Man) the show respected their audience, didn't treat children like idiots, something modern shows could learn.
The guardian code ignores all that. The whole history of ReBoot was flushed down the toilet. Worse yet, the creators of the show spat in the face of dedicated fans who waited almost two decades for a new entry to the ReBoot series.
The show revolves around four teenagers (without attitude, or character, or charm, or good dialogue, or any development) who got suck into a computer to fight some mumbo-jumbo a cliche "hacker" releases into the computers. The smart way to integrate technology into the world of ReBoot is, therefore, all but nullified by some sci-fi technobabble that, unlike in the original, breaks the immersion. The premise of this show is just stupid and due to the "monster of the week" formula, we see no character development at all, because to keep the show running a status quo is required. Now I want to say I saw all the main cast in different roles and while not amazing, they weren't bad, therefore I came to the conclusion that the directors and the writers for this show are incompetent at best, devoid of any creativity at worst. The characters are forgettable, bland, cliches in a story written by the numbers and directed by the book, no deviations, no creativity, no charm or humour.
The biggest slap in the face comes with episode 10 - Mainframe Mayhem. Our "heroes" visit Mainframe, the city where the original ReBoot took place. First off... we see all the characters we actually care for, Dot, Bob, Enzo... and their original voice cast! But their characters are off. Dot hides behind her little brother instead of protecting him, Bob is... mostly like he should be, but Mainframe isn't. No Binomes around, nothing. The Mainframe is dead. Enzo is back to his version from the very start of the original ReBoot series, Matrix and AndrAIa are nowhere to be seen... at first, I thought that maybe they'll say that the User formatted the Mainframe Computer after what happened at the end of the previous show and this will be their backdoor pilot, but no, the writer for this episode, Mark Leiren-Young, isn't that creative or smart. Instead, he himself plays the mythical User... as a neckbeard living in his mother's basement surrounded by ReBoot merchandise (how does that even work? is Mainframe real or a part of the show, or... continuity error, stupidity detected) waiting for Mainframe to come back to play games (that doesn't make any sense if you know how computers work). Honestly, if you had any hope for the show, by this episode you would have to give up. Fans of original series were insulted, people who never seen the original show won't understand any of this... who's the target audience? Nobody.
I do have something good to say about the show. Despite the CGI somehow looking worse than it did nearly 20 years ago, despite the redesign of Megabyte's looks (why remove his nose? WHY!?) the voice of the virus, for obvious reasons, isn't that of late Tony Jay, but Timothy E. Brummund... who's done an amazing work! If ReBoot actually returns, we found our Megabyte.
Also... the music in this show is terrible. Raging from forgettable to pop-forgettable.
All in all, this isn't a good show. It takes too much from Power Rangers, Code Lyoko and Tron disrespecting the original series and their fans. But ever forgetting that, the show is just... bad. It doesn't work as part of the old ReBoot series, it can't stand on its own...