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prysmakitty
Reviews
IF (2024)
Fun and feel-good
I'm 50. I rarely bother watching new movies because they all have the same cliches on the same beats, with more focus on flashy effects and being "gritty" than on telling a good story with relatable characters.
I make exceptions for Ryan Reynolds since he's developed a knack for good teams and interesting stories.
This didn't go the way I expected, but that's actually a plus. It has gentle but genuine humour without being crude, emotional moments that are not undercut by a need to play it for laughs, characters I cared about very quickly, and a fun twist on what feels like an 80s premise.
I watched this with my best friend and we enjoyed it thoroughly, even more than we expected.
I'll be rewatching.
Dark Matter (2015)
Meh
Made it to the 9th episode, hoping it would improve. After all, with so many positive reviews, it couldn't be as bad as what I was seeing, right? I'm an old-school sci-fi/fantasy fan and sometimes that takes a bit of time to get established. And I loved Stargate, I was looking forward to a new team who could depend on each other and work together in wild situations.
I'm bored. I think I'm done, I can find a better use for my time. I've seen so many unoriginal tropes in this that have not been handled in particularly interesting ways. These characters are not a team or a coherent group, all they do is keep secrets, yell at each other for keeping secrets, suspect each other, try to blackmail and manipulate each other, and generally act self-serving. Sure, they're all trying to figure out who they are, but they're so massively dysfunctional, collectively and individually, that they're predictable and it's hard to care about any of them. At this point, any of them could die and I wouldn't feel a thing about it - which isn't typical for me at all. I get attached to characters rather easily, if there's anything to connect with.
I'm utterly baffled by the rave reviews everywhere. I mean, it's nice to see a group of actual adults, instead of a show about teenaged angst, but I really prefer my entertainment to be a bit more positive and have characters I can actually root for, and to have ideas that haven't been rehashed in sci-fi for decades.
Gunpowder Milkshake (2021)
John Wick done right
People keep comparing this to John Wick, which is fair enough - but they keep calling it an inferior version, and there I disagree.
John Wick is mindless violence with the transparent emotionally-manipulative excuse of a dead puppy. This, on the other hand, has about as much character and personality, backstory and development, as you're realistically going to get in a violent action movie. The chemistry between the leads is wonderful. I have to admit to loving watching the fight scenes - elegantly-choreographed long shots, often, unlike the seizure-inducing disorienting current trend of splicing action scenes together from so many fragments that it's impossible to tell what's happening and I can only conclude that they couldn't be bothered with coherent choreography. These women can actually work together, not just claim teamwork while having individual battles.
I'll take several women, all choosing which side they really want to be on and what to do about an 8-year-old girl who is alone in the world and facing the consequences of their actions, over one man on a personal-vengeance killing spree, any day.
I can't help but wonder how much of the negativity is because this movie is all about a number of women who are strong and skilled, independent and capable of violence... who are never once portrayed as sexy eye-candy to fantasize over?
Grimm: Three Coins in a Fuchsbau (2012)
Not a bad series, but...
This isn't a bad series, really, despite the many goofs on basic issues that could have been quickly researched. But I am wearing down rapidly on the "all evil is caused by Wesen and none of it by ordinary humans" thing that's going on. It'll be a shame if I have to stop watching an otherwise fairly enjoyable series because it got into that rut and didn't bother trying to get itself out.