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An error has ocurred. Please try againI averaged the ratings: 7.2 stars out of 270,914 votes
I averaged the ratings: 7.1 stars out of 54,811 votes
Total gross of all four Despicable Me movies combined: $1.22B
Reviews
Absurd Planet (2020)
I did not last 5 minutes
I will admit that whoever made this show did have a pretty cool idea, but it seems like once they had the idea fleshed out, they let 6-year-olds take it from there.
This might be one of the worst-written shows that I have ever seen. The narrators try so hard to be funny but they end up being super obnoxious and arrogant. I would much rather sit through a middle school play. At least they have thought put into them.
Also, it is unclear to me why they thought singing in a nature documentary was a good idea. Once that and the annoying, teenybopper cheering started, I knew I was out.
I guess I can picture this being enjoyable for kids who have never seen a nature documentary, or maybe even as a meme.
Not recommended for anyone who has seen a real documentary.
A Wrinkle in Time (2018)
Seriously?! It is not that hard!
I read the book three years ago. I was in 6th grade. I just barely understood it but in retrospect I actually liked it a lot. Enough to try to rip it off! Said rip-off remains unfinished, unpublished and partially lost and that is probably for the best. The 2003 adaptation of the Wrinkle in Time novel was really good and stayed mostly faithful to the book. And when I first saw advertisements for this adaptation I was really excited. I like all kinds of movies and usually when something comes out that everyone hates, I am one of the few people who would like it. With a couple of movies it was the other way around but that is to be covered in other upcoming reviews (specifically for Cloverfield and the 1996 Romeo and Juliet adaptation). I have yet to write more reviews that reflect my cinematic taste but bottom line it takes a lot for me to dislike a movie.
So the fact I am giving this movie a 3 star rating is saying something.
I saw this a few days after opening day. 3.8 stars right away? It cannot be THAT bad, I thought. So my stepdad took me to see it. For the rest of the week I could not stop talking about how bad it was. The good visuals, casting, intentions, and beginning do not at all make up for its shameless differences from the book. I am not a big reader but when I see an adaptation of a book I have read, I get annoyed if it is an unfaithful adaptation. This movie is nothing like the book. The book was strange, unique and indescribably beautiful. This was a very modern and watered-down adaptation that almost insults Madeline L'Engle. The 2003 adaptation did change how certain things happened, but the plot remained the same. This adaptation, however, overthinks the adaptation concept by changing the plot.
Adaptations are not that hard to make! I mean, I understand that scenes from the source material must be cut out or hastened to keep it from getting to long (this would probably be a 3-4 hour movie if they did not cut at least some parts out) but changing the parts you keep is just annoying and unnecessary. Entire characters cut out or heavily altered. Important plot points were made nothing like the book. If you have not seen this movie, I will warn you are not missing out. I fully agree with the other negative reviews of this movie.
Oh and one more thing. In the book Meg has two brothers named Sandy and Dennys. They contributed nothing to the plot so it makes sense that they were cut out. However, the book has about 7 sequels and the third sequel, Many Waters, REVOLVES around Sandy and Dennys. With that, Disney would run into some very serious problems if they decide to make a Many Waters adaptation. But given this film's negative reception, it probably was not going to happen anyway.
Bottom line, I recommend the book as much as I do NOT recommend this movie.
All Hail King Julien (2014)
Surprisingly clever prequel to Madagascar
Well... I would not really say that about the first couple seasons (which were still pretty good). Still, throughout the series the humor is actually, well, real humor compared to that raunchy garbage in about half of every comedy in the last decade. Real humor is clean in my opinion, and All Hail King Julien is always clean no matter what. Of course I am not 17 yet and my parents will not let me watch R-rated movies but I do not personally think I am missing out on much of anything. The characters are hilarious (some more than others) and always very fun to watch. The show's screenwriters and character designers actually acknowledge that there is such thing as amusing characters that do NOT hook up, drop F-bombs, or smoke weed. In fact, no form of sex, drugs, or swearing ever occur. The story as well as Julien's kingdom are pleasantly surprising in their complexity, but of course never so complex that the kids would get confused. The first couple seasons are kind of childish but it quickly gets a lot more clever in the third season and beyond. The kingdom is always changing and there is even social commentary every so often, critiquing such topics as coffee addiction, fads, currency, social media, etc. Bottom line: great Netflix show that is recommended to anyone who is NOT annoyed by the characters' voices
War of the Worlds (2005)
COMPLETELY different from the book... but it wasn't bad
I read the book when I was in sixth grade and not only was it long kind of outdrawn but also pretty confusing. For example, when the Heat Ray first appeared in the book, I did not picture them being zapped by the Heat Ray... I pictured people passing out from a heat wave. Yeah, maybe reading the book only four years ago was not such a good idea because it was really long and sometimes boring... to the point where I only remembered half the book when I finished reading it.
This particular adaptation (out of many others) is so far the only one that I have seen and it is, like I said, COMPLETELY different from the book. First off, the book was set (and written) in 1890's London, whereas this movie is set in modern day US. The main protagonist also did not even have a name in the book and the only family mentioned was his wife and cousins.
Bottom line, the movie was actually pretty good despite its differences from the book. I would recommend the book to anyone old enough to understand what is going on. But in the case of both the movie and the book, do not expect a full-on action story or you will be disappointed. The movie was visually astounding and the script was fairly decent. Despite the fact that the plot was a lot different in that most scenes were put in a different order if not completely changed
Super Sentai World (1994)
Pretty Cool
Super Sentai World was Japan's pretty interesting spin on the superhero genre and the battle scenes were done pretty well. Unlike most mainstream sci-fi, this short did not really care about being sexy, gory, etc., it just cared about being cool. That was it.
Additionally, it was not nearly as complicated as modern mainstream superhero fiction, so therefore you could like it without being a huge die-hard fan.
The special effects were not really all that (they did not really use CGI) but it is pretty much impossible to care.
The Kakuranger's theme music was also pretty catchy.
Super Sentai World is an awesome short film and I highly recommend it