heatsink98 Reviews

Rebel Moon - Part One: A Child of Fire (2023)

Dumb from the get-go

[2/10 · 23 December 2023]

In this sci-fi outing penned by Zack Snyder, Kurt Johnstad and Shay Hatten, we begin with a premise that a space-faring civilization heads into the stars to squeeze resources from subsistence farmers inhabiting a far-flung moon. These subsistence farmers literally scrabble in the dirt and scatter seed. No hydro or aeroponics, no industrial-scale food production, nothing. Either the villains are the dumbest villains in the multiverse, or the scriptwriters are the dumbest writers in the history of sci-fi. We think both possibilities are likely.

From the botched premise on, this film never improves in quality. Did we mention it's also quite boring? Lucasfilm rejected the original pitch for REBEL MOON years ago, perhaps with concerns for those same reasons listed above. Zack Snyder disagreed, obviously. Unfortunately, Netflix footed the bill for proving Lucasfilm right.

Midsomer Murders: The Devil's Work (2023) Season 24, Episode 1

Dull

[4/10 · 14 December 2023]

Shouldn't the devil's work be more entertaining than this? Sitting through this episode was a chore. The writing for Midsomer has fallen into the doldrums in the past years, sadly.

We spend quite a lot of this episode in low-key dialog. Barnaby sits with Winter, passing back and forth a list of details. The estranged family members rattle off lists of information. We move on, slowly.

The quirky atmosphere of Midsomer is also missing. Compare this episode to the outings of seasons 14 or 15, and the latest episode might as well be multiple scenes where we watch paint dry. Although the production values are quite high, the storytelling lacks.

She-Hulk: Attorney at Law: Whose Show Is This? (2022) Season 1, Episode 9

Where's the quality control, Kevin?

[1/10 · 16 October 2022]

Writing on this series has been a showcase of how not to write at a professional level. The finale somehow went even further down the tubes toward a script that should've been marked up so badly in red ink during review that it would've been chucked in the bin.

The series head writer described the writing team as too incompetent to make a legal procedural, which was the initial project pitch. Apparently, the writers also lacked competence on even the basics of storytelling. If Kevin F. Doesn't get someone who understands screenwriting and story to oversee the projects, Marvel will keep sliding downhill on quality. We already suffered through a horrible rendition of MS. MARVEL, and then SHE-HULK damaged Marvel's storytelling reputation even further.

She-Hulk: Attorney at Law (2022)

Poor writing in a Marvel series...again

[1/10 · 1 September 2022]

SHE-HULK is currently three episodes into this first outing, and it's not looking good. It's another origin story, which we spend most of the first episode viewing in a flashback. After that, the show is almost entirely transitional with no strong plot.

Our hero, Jennifer Walters, only has the task of defending Emil Blonsky, AKA The Abomination, from a cell where he hopes for parole. That's it. There's no villain, and there are no consequences for Jenn should she fail to secure Emil's release. Wong visits as well, simply as a character witness to promote Emil's turn for the better. Wong doesn't even provide any pushback when Jenn asks him to show up to Emil's parole hearing. Boring.

The series as it stands shows a serious lack of writing technique in just about every department. The show sinks to cringe levels at times. Things also veer into rants about how terrible men are in general, which could be Jenn's character speaking, but it came off sounding more like intrusion from the writers.

The Gray Man (2022)

Weak story telling, questionable casting

[4/10 · 24 July 2022]

THE GRAY MAN sure sounds like a spy thriller, and this movie does have loads of action. But that's as far as we go.

Story-wise, this film flops on a weak and somewhat cliché premise borrowed from THE SUICIDE SQUAD, combined with a total-nonsense macguffin our hero discovers on the outset. The object in question will cause enough damage to our villain that said villain wants it recovered at all costs.

But the macguffin has been held by another character who would have benefited greatly by giving it straight to the authorities. He instead keeps said item until our hero relieves him of it, which puts our hero in grave danger. Convenient, no?

As far as casting goes, several of the characters and actors don't particularly match well. Dialog sometimes ends up clunky, unnatural, and even contrived. The spy-chatter sprinkled about fell into that category. We had trouble getting through the movie because of boredom.

Ms. Marvel (2022)

Slow, boring

[3/10 · 8 June 2022]

On the plus side, this first episode has some very interesting camera work, stylish snappy dialog, and a Scott Pilgrim-esque animated reality.

On the not-so-plus side, the episode lacked a strong plot, pacing, and most importantly--a villain.

We spend this episode in origin discovery mode, seeing how Kamala Khan gets her powers. The process here is different from the comic books, and it involves an outing to the local Avenger convention where things get a bit cheesy and cringey. The old Green Lantern film came to mind here.

Most of the remaining episode is mild family drama that gets in the way of Kamala's plans. It's no substitute for a strong plot with an actual villain. We ended up somewhat bored due to the slow pace. Also as other reviewers have noted, the episode seemed aimed at the 7 to 10-year-old crowd.

Obi-Wan Kenobi (2022)

Uneven tone and acting

[4/10 · 28 May 2022]

The series starts a bit slow in Ep. 1 and picks up toward Ep. 2. There are several problems, however.

Story quality is the first issue, as the writers chose to follow characters we already know the story arcs for. There's no real danger for Obi-Wan or Leia, and they are the focus of threat here. Lucasfilm has made this mistake in the past with young Han Solo.

Dialog tends to be clunky at times. Tone takes a giant turn toward screwball comedy in Ep. 2 for some reason. It seemed really out of place. Some of the acting needs work. Ms. Ingram as Reva might have been a casting mistake, as we had trouble believing her in the role. Her dialog delivery and presence didn't fit the character at all. It reminded us of what we usually see in SyFy channel movies.

The first two episodes had all the Star Wars world-structure to watch at least, and Ewan McGregor did just fine. The story isn't anything compelling, but it might appeal to the crowds who don't mind a large helping of backstory.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds: Children of the Comet (2022) Season 1, Episode 2

Plays like a story from intro to scriptwriting

[6/10 · 14 May 2022]

The writing is rough in this episode about a perhaps sentient comet that functions like a deity to those who choose to follow that line of reasoning. The story has the classic Trek underpinnings, but it needed cleaning up.

Issues we noticed were pacing, logic, and some skipped scenes. We spend quite a while with Uhura in exposition mode. Once the main problem with the comet kicks into gear, we have a strange visit from the comet's protectors. They seemingly pop-up from nowhere, so nobody noticed them at all on the approach? There's a few bits of information about how powerful these characters are, but then they're easily shutdown by the Enterprise, which happens to destroy the alien ship's weapons systems. There's no mention of this afterward. The aliens aren't at least grumpy about it?

The comet's innards attempts to kill a crew member and more or less succeeds. Uhura then has a musical chit-chat with the comet, but that never goes anywhere beyond her figuring out singing might do the trick. But what's the conversation about? That's skipped, and Uhura doesn't seem to entirely know what her singing did either.

Spock has a solution for diverting the comet's course, but we didn't know where it came from. The episode skips how the solution came to be, or maybe the Paramount app fritzed out, but either way we seemed to jump right into Spock making things right on the captain's order. Where was the planning scene here? It makes for a rough viewing experience without one, and that particular problem was prevalent throughout the episode.

Moon Knight: Gods and Monsters (2022) Season 1, Episode 6

D+ superhero shenanigans

[4/10 · 4 May 2022]

We finally wrap this excursion with our hero, Moon Knight. Unfortunately, this final episode suffers the same story quality issues we've seen throughout the series.

The Egyptian gods turn out to be paper tigers, and incompetent ones at that. It's convenient for the writer to literally skip the encounter between the old gods and our villain, so that's what happens. Toss the story logic in the bin here.

Other logic problems crop up with our hero's DID situation. When the bad guys have closed in, we've routinely jumped ahead through a black-out to find the bad guys are mysteriously toast. The final episode wrongly uses that trope when we should be seeing our hero find a solution to finish off the villain. Instead, we have another blackout and the problem is magically solved.

It's meant to raise questions, but doing that in the final act looks like a lazy Deus Ex Machina issue. There's no wrap-up or questions from our hero either about what just happened, even though there's a witness. And our old friend Khonshu even quips about it, which raises another logic question of why did we watch six episodes of Marc and Steven flailing about when there's somebody else who could steamroll flat anybody who got in the way?

Moon Knight: Asylum (2022) Season 1, Episode 5

Got a little bored in this one

[5/10 · 28 April 2022]

This episode is an info-dump of backstory set in a kooky part of our hero's mind. The main drivers of story--namely will our hero survive and stop the villain--are set aside because our hero is dead. As far as having some semblance of plot, we do eventually find out that in the Egyptian afterlife there are various versions of dead, some being more pleasant than others. But the main plot of the series moves very little.

Superman & Lois: Bizarros in a Bizarro World (2022) Season 2, Episode 10

A largely non-linear episode

[4/10 · 27 April 2022]

We spend most of this episode in the past, visiting events that fill in the details of the Bizarro world. While the backstory is nice, it doesn't advance much of the plot in the present. It's a risk when writing flashbacks since unless the visits to the past contain more than just "so this happened, but it doesn't raise any questions", it's dull. We ended up skipping ahead during the flashbacks since they got boring. This episode eventually catches everyone up to the end of the prior episode in the series.

Moon Knight (2022)

Not as good as we hoped

[5/10 · 6 April 2022]

Writing on this series needs work. The show deals with creepy elements such as the afterlife, Egyptian gods, and so on, but they're handled without the usual panache that makes those elements grab the viewer. We're two episodes in, and it's a mostly cut and dried ho-hum story with on-the-nose statements about what's happening.

Eternals (2021)

Bad all over

[2/10 · 13 January 2022]

ETERNALS plays like a rough draft written by a film student who hasn't learned the basics of story structure. There's no villain for the first half of the movie. Other issues include being over-long, horrible acting from some of the cast, and clunky, on-the-nose dialog. The film isn't up to the usual high quality bar from Marvel, not even close.

The Expanse: Redoubt (2021) Season 6, Episode 4

Goes nowhere

[4/10 · 31 December 2021]

We spend the bulk of this episode listening to characters chew on Holden for inexplicably catching a case of the stupids by disarming a torpedo that could've ended the ongoing war. Holden's reasoning? Naomi's dumba** kid was onscreen, and he looked scared. What?

At this point, even Naomi's wondering why, and so are the rest of us. Other than that, Drummer provides a little action in what is mostly filler.

The Matrix Resurrections (I) (2021)

Weak follow-on to the originals

[4/10 · 27 December 2021]

The whole premise of this Matrix outing is flimsy, and having bits and pieces of the original cast doesn't help, especially for the iconic characters. The runtime is long so some parts drag. The overall plot ends up being muddled by the hoops the script jumps through to bridge the gap between the older films and this one, as if the story contorted to accommodate the logical problems raised by the casting decisions.

The Wheel of Time: The Flame of Tar Valon (2021) Season 1, Episode 6

Poor

[2/10 · 12 December 2021]

Writing on this episode and a few prior is just plain poor. It's fan fiction level, and not the good kind. We'd expect that anyone who decides to stray from the books would have both skill and reason for doing that. But there's no skill and no reason to be found in this adaption.

The Wheel of Time: Blood Calls Blood (2021) Season 1, Episode 5

Too many slow scenes

[3/10 · 3 December 2021]

We ended up fast-forwarding through large stretches of this episode. Too many of the scenes slipped into pointless drama that stretched on and on. The bulk of the episode deals with a character trapped in what looks like PTSD, and that character so far hasn't been present enough to justify the screen time spent.

Jungle Cruise (2021)

Blunt, DJ good -- writing not so much

[4/10 · 4 August 2021]

This is probably one better tolerated by younger kids. We got so bored an hour in that the plot just didn't matter anymore.

It's the same setup as THE MUMMY with a brother/sister duo off to find a fabled but possibly real site of a lost artifact of immense value, and they need the help of a scoundrel who can get them there. The acting is fine, but the script is horrid. It's info-dumps galore, clunky, and weighs in on the bloated side for run time.

Loki: Lamentis (2021) Season 1, Episode 3

Nothing much to see here

[5/10 · 23 June 2021]

This episode unfortunately goes nowhere. We don't learn much about what happened in the previous episode. Loki mysteriously doesn't ask the obvious question about what his alter ego just did to the timeline. It's the slow point in the middle of a story where experienced writers should know to spice things up to avoid boring the audience. In this case, the writers decided to substitute an entire episode of roadblocks and fighting for moving the plot forward.

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier: Truth (2021) Season 1, Episode 5

Stuffed with filler

[5/10 · 16 April 2021]

The open and close of this episode reveals actual story, but most of the rest was pointless transition. And why spend so much time going nowhere fixing the busted old boat? Sam's character needs more depth, and that pointless transition time could've been spent showing him being a hero, or making tough choices, or doing something--anything--to elevate him to more of a lead rather than a sidekick stuck in the shallow end of the story pool.

WandaVision: Previously On (2021) Season 1, Episode 8

What happened to the writing here?

[4/10 · 26 February 2021]

Writing on this episode tanked to amateur levels. It's one long transition scene that spends way too much time reviewing things we already know. Excess exposition is also a problem because it's intrusive and horribly clunky. The bulk of this episode could've been sprinkled around in other episodes, and much of it already was. Make sure you watch the credits, because the only important scene appears there.

Superman & Lois (2021–2024)

What if Superman had to be a Superdad?

[6/10 · 24 February 2021]

So it's a show that asks what if Superman were cast as a father figure, a role normally reserved in the stories for Jonathan Kent. This take on Superman has some good moments. The two kids, however, are problematic. They're miscast since they look more like college sophomores than high school freshmen. They're also highly unlikeable. One is the cocky jock football player usually seen as the popular jerk in high school dramas, while the other kid is the whining emo-nerd whose dark facial expressions hint of possible mass-murder later in life. The boys don't fit well into the hopeful tone of Superman, but here's hoping later episodes improve on this.

Wonder Woman 1984 (2020)

Plays like Zack Snyder wrote it

[3/10 · 26 December 2020]

A bloated, pointless intro leads to more of the same. The first twenty minutes could've been cut. And what's with the cheesy shlock in the mall? The whole montage of saving the bystanders and then into the mall looks like it was lifted straight from Superman III. Was it on purpose? Because it was cringe-inducing. The script credits show Patty Jenkins, who also directed, as the script writer based on a story by two other guys.

The rest of the film stretches on into eternity with long stops in scenes leading nowhere. Action is sparse compared to the first film. Thankfully, quite a bit of the audience could watch this film on HBO Max and save themselves from wasting money on a theater ticket.

Should another Wonder Woman film materialize, I hope the producers hire real writers instead of hacking out a script themselves.

Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker (2019)

Pan-galactic stupidity

[3/10 · 15 November 2020]

Bin this film and the previous two for their new cast of pointless, unlikeable characters. And for horrid, horrid writing. And for some questionable acting. And for pervasive, general stupidity that must be rampant in the offices where decisions were made while producing this movie. How could anyone screw Star Wars up this badly?

Lucifer: It Never Ends Well for the Chicken (2020) Season 5, Episode 4

All the mistakes of a beginner writer

[2/10 · 13 September 2020]

Production values are good. Everything else? Not so much. The story is set in the past so it has no impact on anything. The gender-swap of the characters is absolutely horrible. This could've been handled in a much more sensible way, but instead it's done in the most ridiculous, scene-derailing way possible. The goals of our heroes in the episode are also meaningless, so there's no reason to watch.