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Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014)
Incredibly stupid, but at least the fight scenes are better.
The plot is full of bs. The logic is full of bs. Even the lines are $%^&. Everyone in the movie act like they're monkeys. April tries to convince the boss that TMNT exist by showing a video of pet turtles, no sane person would do or believe that. They claim they need the mutant blood, but they only care about the turtles when Splinter is also obviously mutated. They are armed with tranq. Rifles, but everyone wants to use electric prods instead, and they don't even work. They have a serious case of villain syndrome where they go away immediately after winning. They don't even care that the enemy survived, and they didn't care about April, who was just standing there. They claimed that they needed them alive, but all they're doing is extracting their blood, in fancy "high tech" cages, AND they're going to drain all the blood and kill them. You DON'T need a specimen to be alive to take all their blood, and you don't need special cages, it's just plot armor. Also, Splinter was very obvious owning Shredder at the start, but he had to lose just because Story.
I hated the acrobatic bs fight scenes that were Star Wars Prequels and Transformers. TMNT has actual fight scenes, and they're better than most American action scenes, which are usually really slow and all about showing power hits. But TMNT is still nothing special. It all looks like a regular fight. Certainly not ninja or master level. They still fall behind Asian action scenes by a Lot.
It seems like it's supposed to target kids, but the themes are too adult and action is too violent for that. And, for adults, the script is just too idiotic to enjoy. None of it was funny at all.
Qi ling di yi ji (2016)
Season 1
Poor acting, poor directing, and bad action sequences. But the premise of humans being forged into weapons is a 10, and the story is decent too, which makes it worth a watch.
For a Chinese production, the action sequences are a disappointment. None of the actors are familiar with martial arts, and pretty much no effort was spent on making them look competent at all. Instead, they tried to make it as fancy as possible. Imagine Transformers or Star Wars prequels, but without all the stupid acrobatics. The scenes have a very sentai/comic book/manga feel, where it's mostly about "power ups" and powerful "moves". It's kind of like watching Bleach, where nothing really happens. Someone powers up and then does something flashy, and that's it.
There were lots of attempts at humor. None of it was really humorous. Even the gluttonous shield whose main quirk is to be funny fails to deliver and all you get is that they're quirky. Most of the acting is terrible. The knife wielding leader flailing his hands trying to act like he's throwing knives is kind of funny, I guess. The "silent" japanese chick is really just a piece of wood that can recite lines.
Even worse than the actors is the script. The main character can't decide if he wants to be a hero or a loitering loser, so he will alternate between them at the flick of a switch. The brother is clearly a masochist, but he righteously plays hero at the end. There's a traitor, but the enemy decides that they can't find their base even though he's been there for years. The fire sword that wants to play solo randomly decides to intercede in random conflicts, and some people just randomly get killed because they need to be killed off for the story to proceed *shrug*. They decided to have the MC "awaken" at the end, just because he has to. It didn't actually end up being useful at all. There's basically around 10 plot points and a lot of things thrown in between them "just because".
Damsel (2024)
the story is okay. Couldn't take it seriously because it's unrealistic.
The premise was somewhat predictable, but entertaining. Princess figures out the con. Princess reveals the con. Princess takes revenge/justice. What isn't entertaining is the heavy plot armor.
1. All of the people are dropped 10k feet to land on the earth, yet all of them survive this fall without even breaking anything or going splat somewhere.
2. Dragon is shown to easily destroy people, yet it can't even fire breath one particular woman correctly, and then proceeds to lose a fight with one.
3. woman has an indestructible shiv and she's an expert at stabbing it precisely into cracks in rocks, while falling...
4. Glowing slugs that crawl on rocks, but they eat wounds. It makes no sense.
5. fire breathing dragon is invulnerable to fire from the inside, but somehow takes full damage from fire on the outside.
The Mummy (2017)
Couldn't even finish it
Out of the 2 hour running time of this film, I was only able to watch up to the 54 minute mark. The film leads out of the gate with terrible writing. Its premise, that the villainess made an evil pact just to murder someone, didn't make sense at all. She made a pact and it didn't give her any powers. She was easily captured by mortals. It didn't encourage her to be evil, she already wanted to be. She didn't use any extraordinary means for the murder. In other words, the whole pact idea was stupid, because it didn't do anything.
The next problem is Jennifer Halsey. I'd never watched her films before, but after 5 minutes of watching her, I thought that she couldn't act at all. She was just really annoying to watch.
Following this was more poor writing, bs, and plot armor which prevented Halsey from getting drained immediately, and humor attempts that were not funny at all. At this point, I decided that this was a waste of my time, and I could have spent it going back to Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weizz instead.
Strong Girl Nam-soon (2023)
gratuitous amount of filler/padding
This review was posted after watching 14 of 14 released episodes, the ending has not yet released.
One could kind of tell that there wasn't a lot of story to this. The show went so fast through the first five episodes that you had to wonder how much more content they could make. Well, they did indeed add a lot of filler to it. It feels like watching Naruto... all of a sudden, the next 5 episodes are a side story about another character, except Naruto is a hundreds episodes long series, and this series is less than 20 episodes long. The filler comes disguised as concurrent development of the other characters as time passes. It will jump between different characters' stories over one "arc", and then take a frog leap to the next major plot event. I did enjoy Naruto, and so, I also enjoyed Nam-Soon, but it's not for everyone.
My Runway (2016)
Short and fun
I was worried about 6 episodes not being enough to develop a romance, but it was okay. It's a sweet story where 2 people, who otherwise would not have gotten together, learnt a bit about each other through a body swap. In the end, it forged a strong connection.
I didn't find the acting to be really great. Both the male and the female actor were too feminine. In the case of the actor, it was pretty good, but he had to use a mock girly voice, and really, I don't believe someone would do that just because they body swapped. It was just unnatural. In the case of the female, she was too natural. All her body movements are what a natural woman would move like. In other words, she made no effort to act male. However, her efforts to take on the attitude of the male lead was pretty solid.
I felt that the story was pretty entertaining. There was no lull in the action, and nothing was lame. The characters' behavior were somewhat unrealistic, including falling in love in just a week of time, but it was still enjoyable to watch.
13 Going on 30 (2004)
Decent fantasy about "true love", but...
If I was younger, I would definitely have enjoyed the movie a lot more, but I can't help criticizing the main character.
Simply put, she's just a selfish person. As her future self, she got whatever she wanted, using any means necessary. When she transmigrated to the future, she will went to get whatever she wanted, using any means. It's just that what she wanted had changed. Even near the end, she tried to steal the man away from someone else, but he just wasn't into it. It's exactly the same thing she had been doing before she transmigrated.
There was no character growth. It's a simple fantasy where the main character saw the future, didn't like it, and got to change it to get something else. She had the chance to change herself, And she DIDN'T.
Compared to her, the other character, Lucy, got the short end of the stick. She's portraited to be a bad person, but in reality, she was no worse than the main character. They were friends, but she had to observe this "friend" steal other people's work, as well as $%^&ing around. It's really no wonder she wanted to backstab her. The main character was given a chance to change, and then she threw Lucy in the garbage. That's pretty much how she's been the entire time. Lucy was never given a chance to become better at all, while the main character was just as despicable as she was before.
As for Matt, he could be considered a "victim". He was discarded, and then she decided to pick him up. Since he had always loved her, he never had a chance. But it's not all bad for him, since he got what he deserved in the end. He's the one that really got the Happy Ending.
It's a nice fulfillment film if you don't think about it.
Knights of the Zodiac (2023)
Best live action adaptation film that I've watched
It's interesting that they named it Knights of the Zodiac. It's just Saint Seiya, and Ikki(but they changed his name to Nero). There were lots of changes to the characters and their relationships. In fact, the story doesn't even resemble the whole first arc.
A lot of people feel that the film is terrible, because it doesn't follow the original plot, but this is a creative reimagining that managed to make a good story out of 2 hours of screen time. There was a little development for Seiya, who had some internal conflict, to gain some confidence and resolve. It also showed him training to become a Saint(just Knight in the movie).
At the beginning of the film, I too, was upset at the different setting of the film, but you have to give it a chance as its own movie, and not as a Saint Seiya remake.
The film felt a bit awkward, and I believe it was due to design rather than acting. The costumes don't look the best. Marin, in particular, looked pretty awkward, not because of the armor, but because her clothes didn't fit with it. You could tell that Catilyn is not a martial artist. The choreography was pretty ambitious, and would have looked good if she managed to exert power into the movements. The Saints' armor also could have been better. They weren't shapely, but the overall art on them looked pretty good. The glowing cosmo CGI effects made it look a little fake, but it does have a "powerful" effect.
The fight scenes are pretty good. Marin's and Ikki's specials were pretty well done, and do remind you of the anime. Seiya's pegasus punch was a disappointing, as it became some chi like projectile attack, and he also did not do the signature preparation move. Mark Dacascos also had a fun fight scene, although it should have been impossible for him to melee those enemies.
I felt that Athena was very well done. She didn't start off as Athena. (She's also not Saori, but an American named Sienna.) Her hair also started blonde and progressively turned purple as Athena started emerging, which is a nice touch. She also had a little bit of a struggle to accept her role as a goddess in the film.
You could say this film adapts the series up to the Death Queen Island, without introducing any characters other than Cassios, Marin, Seiya, Saori, and Ikki. That sets it to be eligible for continuation. I am definitely willing to watch a sequel. Once again, it's not Saint Seiya, but the characters were believable and relatable. There was an interesting and unique plot. The action scenes were good, and the way they envisioned how they fight is pretty good. I have seen people compare this to Dragonball Evolution, and it's not even close. No other live action adaptation film has come close. If you are not into anime, and/or have not watched Saint Seiya before, you may not like it, because it really isn't that outstanding. I'd compare it to a mediocre Kung Fu movie.
Replicas (2018)
A fun little fantasy
Not very scientific, and mostly predictable. The main character, William, is supposedly very cutting edge in his field, but you mostly see him just flicking screens around, because no effort was put into researching neurology or how to use computers, so they just had the computer do all the work, and made it look fancy like the interface from Minority Report. His scheme obviously wouldn't work, nor could one easily just delete certain memories without having to rework the whole thing.
But it did work, and that's the point of this movie. Often, in films, when you make "immoral" choices, there are consequences. This movie allows you to indulge in a fantasy where one gets to play god and get away with it. That's what it is, nothing more and nothing less.
Kage no Jitsuryokusha ni Naritakute! (2022)
Almost perfect adaptation
Season 1 Review:
I wasn't aware of the other media when I watched this, so it was my first experience with this story. I really liked it for the same reason that I loved One Punch Man. In most stories, the protagonist is always struggling against their conflicts. In One Punch Man and Shadow, both protagonists had an ambitious goal, and they've both achieved their goals before the story even started. In other words, they're already a success, and everything going on in the story is serious to everyone else, but just fun for them, and that really appeals to me.
Now, Shadow is quite unique, as his way of life is just to roleplay his fantasies. Mainly, that happens to be playing an overpowered pseudo-ninja hero. People may have problems with his character, but, imo, all that doesn't matter. It doesn't change the fact that he is, indeed, doing good. Especially important is that, he is, indeed, very much badass. In a way, it is much more real than other fantasy hero characters, because, honestly, if it was you, you wouldn't want to become a hero because you wanted to be chivalrous and just. You want to play hero because it's fun and cool. In other words, Shadow is living the way a NORMAL person SHOULD fantasize about being a hero. Do YOU want to be a hero that has to live through hardship and sad events? No, you don't.
And another factor for both One Punch and Shadow are that they DID work for it. It's not emphasized, but they put they had a strong will towards it, and worked towards it with the ultimate resolve. Shadow is quite a bit delusional, but he is absolutely smart and strong.
I see a lot of people comparing the anime to the manga, and it really doesn't make any sense. The original work is a novel. I didn't read the manga, but I went back and read the novel up to the end of the anime, and the adaptation is perfect. From the reviews I've read, it really sounds like the MANGA deviated from the source.
There was a problem with the novel, in that much of the story is in the first person perspective of Shadow, so a lot of things aren't clear until it is revealed later on in the story. The anime makes sure to hold your hand so you know what is going on. It also doesn't convey the chuuni-ness of Shadow as well as the novel. This made that aspect less funny, but in return, it made the story a lot more sexy, and the action was also a lot more exciting. I thought that the first episode was added content, but it turned out to be a side story in Chapter 145 of the novel, and it is chronologically correct.
The only problem I had with the anime was the ending. Because they wanted to make the ending dramatic, they deviated from the source, changed Iris' relationship with Shadow, and made an over-the-top final battle. While it was fun to watch, I felt that the novel content was sufficient for the ending, and that they just made it harder to make a sequel. If not for this, it would be a 10/10.
Nai He BOSS Yao Qu Wo (2019)
Unacceptable
If you've watched Love O2O, you. May be familiar with the silent, cool, and caring husband that secretly fell in love at first sight. It was a nice, sweet show that just enveloped you in goodness.
This is not Love O2O.
Aside from nice looking actors, the show is pretty much a complete opposite from Love O2O. This is a fantasy for women objectifying, slavery-oriented psychopaths. The show was seemingly normal, if awkward, for 10 episodes, but then, you find out that the husband had been putting up a facade. This character ILLEGALLY falsified medical records to manipulate the wife, STALKED her, ILLEGALLY placed her under house arrest, and physically and emotionally tried to CONTROL her. When confronted, the show tries to put him in a positive light by having him justify himself. His only excuse was that he secretly fell in love with her over some random encounters. Oh, and then he started stalking her, of course.
I'm all for power fantasies, but when it becomes an empowerment work, then it's a real issue. The wife's response to finding out her husband's exploiting, manipulating, and holding her, instead of being afraid and disgusted, was to be angry and upset because he caused her emotional distress when he made her believe she had a medical condition. What's even worse is that even his employees were in on the scheme, so it's actually a criminal conspiracy. She confided in her best friend and HIS best friend, both of which completely brushed off his behavior as if it's understand and acceptable. This is NOT normal. One of them should have notified the police, and the show should have ended there.
I did not watch the rest of the show. I considered trying to finish it to see if it redeems itself, but upon consideration: A show that can encourage the exploitation, objectification, and abuse of women can't have much more to show. It is NOT Okay, and should never be viewed as Okay. This is male fantasy empowerment trash.
Isanghan byeonhosa Woo Young-woo (2022)
"everything is political"?
A fun little ride that does a good job making you sympathize with an autistic genius. I did find the story highly enjoyable, but mid way through the series, there is a case that really points out "everything is political". I'm not one to notice these things, but it did seem like each case had some kind of political agenda.
Well, given that it's supposed to be a mildly thought provoking piece, I had to do some thinking, and what I believed is that the main character is a tragic heroine. You know how some movies have a happy ending, but at the start of the sequel, they didn't end up doing that thing they loved in the first movie, and they also broke up with their "true" love. This is like that, but those unhappy things aren't shown.
The show ended on a light show, and did wrap up the story, but in the end, nothing was really resolved. Here are the major conflicts:
The secondary antagonist: she ended up voluntarily resigning(this felt political more than anything), but only due to circumstance. She never actually changed, and her relationship with the main character didn't change, and it is still a liability.
The primary antagonist: she got emotional and decided not to completely crush her target, BUT she also hasn't changed. She's still the same manipulative and petty person, and what she might do in the FUTURE is unknown.
The love interest: basically, this didn't progress, but from the way it left off, it's not promising.
So, we basically followed a few months along the life of the main character, which was already really bumpy, along with a lot of morally difficult choices for her in the majority of the cases. Her interests conflict with her boss's, her problems with her mother are a time bomb, and her romance is still tentative. Even though it ended on a happy note, I can't help but feel that tragedy is right around the corner.
Inheritance (2020)
completely predictable, full of bs, and has 0 sense.
Seemed to be trying for shock or thought provoking, and failed at everything. Everyone is a moron or crazy, and the more you think about it, the more bs you'll find:
The father's cause of death was announced as heart attack. It obviously wasn't, and there's no reason for anyone to hide that.
He claimed that there were prying ears, because, oOOoOo, secret organizations and things. No there wasn't; and even if there was, he could have left a note in the basement somewhere explaining #$%^ instead of this bs.
Lauren decides to completely derail her life to investigate something that's been sitting there for 20 years as if it's urgent, or that things would change in a matter of days. It wasn't, and it wouldn't.
There's some bs about pie. It's just bs.
The prisoner has a lot of things. Including dangerous tools, that they could have used, but never did. Apparently no one ever thought tools were supposed to be used as tools.
Lauren had a complete lack of concern for safely, handing said prisoner tools, unlocking his restraints, digging a hole in front of him. Yes, really.
Said prisoner could have easily escaped or attacked her at all of those points, but didn't, because the movie needed to be long.
Which led to unnecessary release, murder and capture scenes.
Prisoner captures 2 people, yet somehow he only chains ONE of them up.
His entire motivation for capturing said people was so he could yell at them. Yes, really.
At the end, he blurted out the "big spoiler" as if people wouldn't have guessed it 20 minutes into the film. There's no reason for it, nothing came of it. It's just bs.
Obviously, the person that wasn't tied up in anyway managed to take him down. LOL.
Nothing was achieved by the end of the film. After the "spoiler", Lauren got a pat on the back, and nothing happens.
They decided to set fire to a hidden area that no one discovered for DECADES inside the woods. When you burn things in the woods, the woods catch fire. They didn't. They also poured fuel on the steps BEFORE they came out, because it doesn't matter, apparently. Also, it was completely unnecessary to burn the place at all. Could have burnt the "items" inside without setting fire to the whole place, it's just a building.
iZombie (2015)
Mostly fun, mildy disturbing, kind of weak ending
It's a story about an impending zombie apocalypse that, at first, is centered around solving murders. The cases are somewhat fun, but they didn't have any sense of mystery, and really just felt like (fun) fillers in between the real plot. They did pretty well weaving some seemingly one-off characters into the overall story, but sometimes there were too many characters, and you couldn't even track who they were talking about when they mention someone from 4 episodes ago.
They did something "unique" by turning the eating process into themed food porn, but I just found it mildy disturbing, potential for some radical person to try something crazy in real life, and it'd have been better if they hadn't done it.
Almost none of the characters were likeable, except for Ravi Chakrabarti, who was almost the model best friend, partner, and humanitarian. Peyton was extremely fickle, and it made no sense for him to be in love with her. Pretty much all the main characters couldn't keep it in their pants and HAD to jump on whoever they could get together with, and the team's idea of making them switch love interests was always to kill their partners off. It happened A LOT.
The first 3 seasons were pretty steady, but season 4 and 5 each made dramatic turns in the story. Season 4 was out there, but it was tolerable. Season 5 became some kind of gangster story. I felt like they totally lost their direction, and just slapped some ending on. They probably ran out of money too, because they just put the actors on a white background and did a skit for the actual ending. It did wrap up the story in a lazy way that wasn't really meaningful at all, but the "what happens" check is satisfactory.
Bountiful Blessings (2011)
Possible Epileptic trigger
For HK/Chinese dramas, I'd rate this below average. The story is all over the place, with things getting explained after the fact, the characters are pretty unbelieveable, and finances that don't make sense.
What I really want to mention is a possible PSE trigger in the last episode, episode 20. I don't know who thought it was a good idea, but you get hit in the face with bright, red flashing lights on a dark background. I don't have epilepsy, and it made me uncomfortable. I'd recommend skipping 23:50 to 24:02. That is when the fire is burning. You skip some ambulance lights, and come back inside the ambulance.
Aneun Waipeu (2018)
A couple rescue themselves with the help of some time traveling.
Watching this was kind of like reading a Japanese Rom-com manga. I didn't like the male MC at first, and kept watching just to find out what happens. The story was entertaining enough throughout to keep me watching.
Male lead was pretty much absolute scum that would take the self-serving action in any situation. He's a terrible friend, husband, family, and employee. He managed to ruin his wives' lives, his friend's life, twice, and sabotage a place of business. With the time traveling, he did something worse than cheating on his wife. He got a great, new wife, but he proceeded to do the same thing to her too. He acted like her dog, never stood up for anything, and completely neglected his friends and family. I could tell that his failure to give her any security, warmth, or morals caused her to become a frickle, spoiled fool, and at that point, I just kept watching hoping that these womens' lives would somehow improve in spite of him.
Male lead proceeded to sabotage his friend's love live, again, completely neglect his new wife, and focus on his OLD wife(face palm), but the twist is that his Old wife was so obsessed with him that she had vague memories of their erased life together. Most of the story revolves around their interaction as she inevitably brings herself back to him.
It's only near the end that the male lead's actions are justified and I stopped disliking him. Because once he got close to his wife, I could see that she's actually an Enabler. She would do anything for him and even point him in the wrong direction just to make him feel good. He did go down the wrong path, but she helped him get there, so they WERE perfect for each other. At the very end, male lead DID manage to become a more responsible person, but he didn't really change much.
16 is like the magic number for Korean shows, and they kind of padded the show quite a bit. The last 3-4 episodes were more like omake that show off the couples' lives after they got together, but I still found them to be fun to watch. In this series, everything and everyone's relationships were wrapped up, and they all got happy endings. Interesting to note that everyone's fate seemed inevitable, as they basically traveled down the same path as before, except for the main couple, whom managed to change from a disastrous relationship to a good one.
Ming yat zin gei (2022)
I guess they only make trash now
Louis Koo got into yet another bad Netflix flick following the Dynasty Warriors disaster. The future of HK film industry looks grim, considering there were 4 stars in the movie this time.
They got Nick Cheung playing some old timer when he still sounds like a young man, and all he does in this role is making a "stone" face which actually looked more like he had plastic surgery and couldn't move it. Carina Lau sounded like she was directly reading off a script. Louis Koo and Sean Lau make some out-of-place banter in an attempt to make it a decent experience. In fact, pretty much the whole film consists of that.
The lines and story were both horrible. Let's start with the plot elements that make 0 sense. This film tried to rip off starship troopers, but even starship troopers at least tried to logic. In this film, there are bugs that randomly nest in some alien plant that converts the air to their liking, but there's no sign of intelligence in these bugs at all, and too much of a stretch to believe that they're capable of hurling asteroids into planets. This asteroid hit this sector months ago, and there's 160m or some ppl living here right next to these plants...?
One of the troops entered fight-or-fright mode and went with running away, but he was obviously still in control enough to try to put obstructions in the way and even lock himself in a container. If you still had your wits about you in the first place, you would have fired instead of just running.
The film tried to mimic Iron Man, but the characters would periodically unmask themselves for absolutely no reason, and there were also some $%^& transformer moments. A man in full gear was supported by a metal pipe with no problems, but somehow some rebar sticking out of concrete gave way when he tried to hold onto that.
The military team found out who sabotaged them, but decided to contact THAT guy instead of their command, which would have taken care of him. Likewise, once their military ally found out, instead of going to arrest him and taking control, they decide to just confront him by themselves, LOL.
The film is also full of useless dialogue and drama. Some guy claims he's not going to let the team take a risky operation, and then somehow the dialogue shifts to how the leadership doesn't think he's should be leading the operation, and then, of course, they're in the operation... Everyone keeps asking Nick Cheung if he thought he could get away. He's sat in the room the whole time and has no thought of running away, so wtf? There's plenty more, but I'm not gonna list them all.
So, to summarize: bad story, poor plot, no logic, unmemorable characters, fancy Transformers action scenes, STARS.
Chung seung wan siu (2015)
An hour half long advertisement for a movie they didn't make
I watched half of Triumph in the Skies II, which had drawn me in before, so I had some interest in this movie. Being a "TVB" production, you'd expect some quality from it. Well, all the actors are there, but there wasn't a movie...
This film is a series of shorts about 3 + 2 couples. That is to say it revolves around 3 couples and there are 2 extras that are briefly shown at different points during the film and some how ended up also getting an ending. It's a bunch of short, disjointed scenes which briefly showed how 3 couples met up, a few romance scenes, 1 problem for each couple, and a resolution. The best way to describe it is 3 short stories and 2 one shots that they cut up and pieced together. They did a REALLY good job of condensing these stories into just a few scenes, but the rapid pace gave no time to have any emotional attachment to any of them. Stories are about the journey, and there was no journey. All of these stories could probably have been fleshed out and turned into 2 better, separate movies.
Nobody (2021)
Just a fun time.
If you have watched the trailer, you were probably expecting John Wick. This is not John Wick. What this film does remind me of is Shoot 'Em Up. It's a film loaded with fun and silliness. There is less action and it is less hardcore than John Wick, but it certainly looks better. The story is better, and it's not pretentious. A bunch of former agents got bored and decided to have some fun, and all expenses are paid for, and that's it. I don't know why said agents are so adapt at making home made booby traps, but it's fun, and that's what counts.
Gunpowder Milkshake (2021)
Prefer this to John Wick
Generally, I dislike Netflix shows. Out of the ones I've watched, this one stands out as an "enjoyable" film.
But to talk about Gunpowder Milkshake, I must talk about John Wick. I watched John Wick because my friend sang high praise for it. I was not impressed. From 1 to 3, each movie just made the series worse. John Wick has a very pretentious story, with a very bad case of deathtrap syndrome. John Wick is never the superman they claim he is, as every time he survived, it was because his enemy didn't believe the legends and DECIDED not to kill him, thus allowing him to escape and win. The series is all about this guy killing people "inventively".
And then we have Gunpowder Milkshake, which is every bit as action movie as John Wick. I find this movie's action slightly better than John Wick's, and while John Wick was full of pretense, Gunpowder Milkshake only revolved around one. The main character upset some people, and her family decided to sacrifice themselves to "save" one person.
Honestly, most of the movie doesn't make sense. A library full of weapons, but the librarians pick up melee weapons instead of grabbing another firearm, just so we can get some cool fighting actions scenes. Fighting a hoard of people for no reason when they had ample time to escape, and losing someone in the process, but of course that is to be expected when fighting 50 people with 5; and then continuing to confront people that realistically they could not get away with without losing things.
So, in the end, this movie is all about action, and on that count, it did it right.
Mahouka koukou no rettousei (2014)
If you like S1, you may dislike S2, and vice versa
Personally, I'd give Season One 8 *
and Season Two 3 *
After reading some reviews, it seems like anime watchers today fall into 2 different camps: people that enjoy novels, and people that enjoy mindless action flicks. I fall into the first category. I loved season 1, for it gave the world and characters depth, while season 2 opted to skip details and give you plenty of scenery.
Season 1:
This series is filled with what someone else has described as "technobabble". In a magical society, care has been taken to explain the science behind the mystery, so that things don't just "magically" happen. For a work where everything is magic, the scientific logic is well conceived. Since a lot of what happens onscreen is related to how magic actually works in this world, these explanations are necessary, and I find it quite enjoyable.
The story follows Tatsuya Shiba, who is the polar opposite of Naruto. Ironically, people who dislike Naruto probably also dislike Tatsuya, but I liked them both. The general audience seem to conceive him as "perfect", however, that he certainly is not. The anime hints at this, but you'd have to look up the novel it's based off of to actually find out that he has a major personality problem. Tatsuya ends up resolving a lot of major crisis that occur around the school, a lot of which actually happen because of him. In fact, because of who he is, Tatsuya invites trouble. Through the story, his capability does not change, but as the events become bigger and bigger, in the end you find out just powerful he really is. Again, ironically, this one-man-army concept is also something action flicks enthusiasts have no problem with when it's in an action flick. While Tatsuya is certainly a powerhouse. His problems are personal and political in nature, and cannot be solved with just that. However, at the end of season 1, all we had was a brief journey, and Tatsuya's problems were not really revealed or resolved.
Season 2:
This series was designed to cater to the action flick crowd. Almost nothing is explained and scenes consist of Tatsuya shooting his CAD at things just to shoot at them. Most of the show revolves around giving you action scenes, or giving you low level fan service. Almost every episode manages to squeeze in fan service in some shape or form.
In its effort to provide gratification, very little background is given to the story. They're in such a rush that they do not bother to set the mood, and you're thrust from scene to scene with little or no explanation. A lot of the times, they even offhandly give you a 1 or 2 liner about what happened offscreen to get to the current point in time. Details are just non-existent, so that the audience can try to figure it out themselves, or don't, since we're only actually interested in people trying to kill each other. I can only hope that this was done in an attempt to squeeze 20 episodes of content into 13, but based on reception, maybe this was intentional.
Many new characters are thrown into this season, none of which are given any introduction. There's plenty of character development, all of which was done off screen, so you don't actually see any. Now that I think about it, this is just like those flashback episodes you get in the middle of long shows telling you what happened through 50 episodes in the timespan of 2.
Shin Sekai Yori (2012)
Thriller that isn't a thriller
I was still young the first time that I watched the series, and while it was sad, I didn't fully appreciate the story and its implications. The anime is based off of a novel, and it reveals the grim reality of what happens when superpowers exist in the world. This series is so dark that it blows Madoka Magicka out of the water. Heavy SPOILERS ahead.
The plot is fairly straight forward. The story is documented by Saki and is told from its narration. It describes how PsychoKinesis destroyed civilization, and was on the path to destroying humanity all together, until a group of scientists developed a system to keep humans from destroying each other. Saki's life started in the resulting society, and this society, too, suffers a crisis through karma.
This series puts a heavy emphasis on karma. Everything that happens in the story is a result of karma. Humans' failure to accept PK caused PK to attack them. PK's subjugation of humans then caused their downfall. In this story's society, PK once again subjugates humans, in an even more immoral way, which blows up in their face in this timeline. But the catalyst for this event was Saki herself. Her interactions with Group 1 and The Robber colony directly led them to their fates. This in turn, was triggered when Tomiko Asahina decided not to fully hypnotize group 1, granting them more freedom of thought, in order to foster the next generation of leaders for their village.
This series of events may have been positive or negative, because, in the end, Saki was able to stop the Robbers. The unrest was building up and was bound to explode eventually, and the results would not have been the same without Group 1. The whole series is a whole lot of "what if's". In the end, the scariest thing is that there was no resolution to the problem. Both the society and the colonies still exist, and there's no new ideas on how to improve society. The catastrophic threat from PK and "humans" alike still remain. Since it's a society closed off from the rest of the world, you're also left to wonder what happened to it, and what it could mean for the future of man kind.
I really have to praise the scientific realism of this story. While PK in itself may or may not be realistic, the depiction of the havoc superpowers can cause is far more real than most shows. You really have to consider how dangerous it is when careless use of power can destroy something just because you were unaware, as well as ramifications of subconscious use.
Mai Neim (2021)
Typical Netflix garbage
It's been about 5 years, and I've yet to be impressed with a Netflix show or movie. Netflix shows are like B movies with more expensive sets and props. They do not write good stories, and cover this up by trying to follow magic formulas and trying to make everything fancy or dramatic. I cannot finish most of them, and "My Name" is no exception.
Episode 1 failed to set the mood from the start. It skipped character introduction and went straight to having kids call the lead a criminal daughter and bullying. Great, already didn't care. She proceeded to beat them up, because action stirs people up, not. Dramatic music that didn't fit the mood was thrown in everywhere. Somehow she vandalized a police vehicle and didn't get in trouble for it even though they basically stalk out her home???
Next, we find that her father not only left presents at her door, but is perfectly safe calling her even though police are stalking out their home... After an "emotional" conversation, that I could not care about because it had no build up, the father returns. He then does NOT even attempt to defend himself with a knife even though his assailant moved up to him within melee range with a gun, instead holding a door close to "protect" someone that's not even the target of the assault. Sorry, not sorry.
Onto the next scene, we have gangsters coming to the funeral. A scene that manages not to be cool or intimidating. We're gangsters, we put a cigarette in the incense tray, bye. And then it's more "drama" when people beat up the lead a bunch. Followed by a lot of action scenes including lead beating people up.
Then her initiation was over. It goes on to a terribly done 2 year time skip/transition where she becomes a cop mole. She once again has an action scene which is meant to make her look badass, but failed to do so again. Then she finally transfers to the department she was trying to get into, and I'm wondering what the f just happened. In a quality Asian drama, all of this could have transpired in 10 minutes without all the "drama", which just means that this show has no real content.
Through it all, the only thing that kept me watching was one question: "who was the killer?" Unfortunately, all the pointless fighting(and non-fighting) scenes killed my curiosity.
Ji pin jue pei (2017)
Predictable, but funny and cute
This drama is mainly a romance, but a little bit of several genres was squeezed into it. The plot is quite unrealistic, but the character growth, family bonds, and romance was quite fun to watch.
The show does a good job foreshadowing and hinting at events through the entire show. There's very little guessing involved with the plot; but that ended up building the anticipation when the event you're expecting finally happens. The characters are likeable, so you end up rooting for them to accomplish goals.
The secondary couple was very cute. The romance and kissing scenes are all well done. There is a single INTIMATE scene, which is uncommon in these types of dramas. It was done very well: Despite having no nudity or obscenity, it managed to be very sensual. Both couples looked great together.
There were several episodes dedicated to a backcourt politics "arc", which was extremely funny.
Weiwei yixiao hen qingcheng (2016)
A slow paced show that I didn't hate
Honestly, it is very light and does not have much story. You can predict almost everything before it actually happens, but this is a show about the journey and not the result. The couple are soulmates, and the man recognized this from the first time he saw her. There is no real drama, and the show is just the progression of their love life.
A lot of show time is split between 2 things: character interactions and romantic moments between the couple. The character interactions are somewhat slice of life. It shows people that have good lives full of promise and love, and their journey together as friends. The romantic moments are very cute and romantic. The show does tend to drag with an abundance of these moments, but that's where the show feels the best. Obviously, this is not something that appeals to everyone.
Basically, it is a feelgood romantic fantasy.
There were some things that I didn't like. The lead actress was barely making an effort in all the kissing scenes, which made it feel like her SO is forcing himself on her. People's sense of beauty were really off in the show. Her friend is almost the cutest in the show, but people worse looking than her are calling her ugly. Lead actress is not that great(compared to everyone else), but everyone turned heads for her.