Source

Man on Fire from 2004 is one of those action movies that had so much damn potential to be something really special and let me be specific that 90% of the movie is fkn awesome but then just completely falls apart at the end and leaves you sitting there asking yourself what the hell just happend, the whole thing builds up this raw energy with Denzel Washington doing his thing as John Creasy and you get invested in him protecting this little girl Dakota Fanning plays and there bond is actually pretty solid for what it is, watching him go from been this broken former CIA guy who literally tries to kill himself to finding something worth living for again through his friendship with Pita really works for the first two acts. Tony Scott knew how to shoot action sequences that feel gritty and real, none of that overly polished bullshit where everything looks too clean, he gives you this dirty Mexico City vibe where kidnappings are a real business and bodyguards are basically mandatory for rich familys who do not want there kids ending up in some cartel dungeon, the statistics they throw at you in the beginning are absolutely horrifying like one kidnapping every 60 minuts in Latin America and 70 percent of victims do not survive witch sets up just how dangerous this world is. Creasy starts off as this alcoholic mess who drinks Jack and water without even hesitating when offered a drink, the guy is clearly dealing with some heavy trauma from his past work as a counter terrorism operative and you can see it in every scene where he gets asked about his history, he shuts down completely and refuses to engage with anyone trying to connect with him witch makes sense for someone carrying that much guilt about whatever he did during his 16 years of military experience. Christopher Walken shows up as his old friend Rayburn and does his usual Walken thing, trying to help Creasy find some structure and purpose by getting him this bodyguard job in Mexico City protecting the daughter of a wealthy business man, Mickey Rourke appears briefly and then gets killed off in the most random way possible with his head cut off floating in a pool witch felt like they just wanted him gone quick without any real payoff for his character.

• IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0328107/
• Platform: AppleTV+

Rottentomatoes Rating

Source

The relationship between Creasy and Pita is what makes the first half of the movie work so well, Dakota Fanning was like 10 years old when she did this and shes absolutely phenomenal in every single scene, she sells this precocious kid who sees right through Creasys tough guy act and slowly breaks down his defenses by just been herself and asking him questions he does not want to answer about his past or weather he likes music or why hes so unhappy all the time. The scene where he tells her hes been paid to protect her not to be her friend is harsh, you can see it hurts her feelings and she moves to the back seat of the car and stops talking to him, but then later he starts warming up to her when he helps her train for her swimming competitions and teaches her how to get faster off the blocks at the start of the race witch is such a small detail but shows how much he starts caring about this kid. They have this whole thing with the Saint Jude medal she gives him as a gift, the patron saint of lost causes witch is exactly what Creasy is at that point in his life, and he wears it around his neck along with a little flower bracelet she made for him and those visual details show you everything you need to know about how shes changing him without the movie having to spell it out with dialog. The swimming competition scene where Pita finally wins first place and Creasy is there cheering for her by the pool is touching, you believe these two people care about each other deeply even tho they come from completely diferent worlds and there relationship is supposed to be strictly professional, Mark Anthony shows up as Pitas father Samuel who is having money problems with his business and dealing with his own marriage issues with Lisa played by Radha Mitchell, the family dynamic feels real even if we do not spend a ton of time with them.

Source

Source

When the kidnaping finaly happens its absolutly a well develop scene, Creasy identifies the threat immediatly when he sees the same vehicle following them and he tells Pita to get back inside but its already too late, they ambush him with multiple shooters and even corrupt police officers are involved in the whole operation witch shows just how deep the corruption goes in this version of Mexico City where the authorities are working with the criminals, well to be honest that happens all around the world now days. Creasy gets shot like three times trying to protect Pita and hes bleeding out on the pavement while shes screaming his name and trying to stay with him, Dakota Fannings performance in this scene is heartbreaking because you can see the terror in her eyes as shes dragged away and Creasy cant do anything to stop it, the whole sequence is shot in Tony Scotts signature style with quick cuts and color filters that make everything feel chaotic and disorienting witch works perfectly for what there trying to project. After Creasy wakes up in the hospital and finds out Pita is gone, they actually took her, the whole tone of the movie shifts completely, it becomes a strait up revenge story where Denzel goes full badass mode hunting down every single person involved in the kidnapping and killing them one by one in very creative brutal ways, the interrogation scene where he cuts off fingers and cauterizes the wounds with a car lighter is hard to watch but also satisfying because you want these assholes to suffer for what they did to this innocent kid. The voice they keep talking about is this mysterious figure who runs the whole kidnapping operation and never shows his face, Creasy works his way up the chain of command by torturing information out of people and following the money trail, Mariana Sanchez played by Rachel Ticotin is this journalist who helps him by giving him information about La Hermandad witch is the brotherhood of corrupt cops protecting the kidnapers, the conspiracy goes all the way up to high ranking government officials and wealthy business people who profit from the whole disgusting system.

Source

Source

The action sequences in the second half are where Tony Scott really shows off his visual style, the shootout at the rave warehouse where Creasy rescues another kidnapped girl is shot with strobe lights and heavy shadows that make everything feel like a waking nightmare, the scene where he blows up a car with a guy inside using a bomb attached to the guys rectum is so over the top it almost becomes darkly comic, Denzel plays every moment with this quiet intensity that makes you believe Creasy has completely let go of any humanity he had left and is now just a killing machine fueled by grief and rage over loosing the one person who made him want to live again. They all thought Pita was dead by now but the twist that Pita is actually still alive comes way to late in the movie and feels kinda cheap, like they wanted to have there cake and eat it to by making you think shes dead for emotional impact but then bringing her back so the ending can be bittersweet instead of completely tragic, Samuel made a deal with the voice to get his daughter back by handing over Creasy and the insurance money witch is why the whole kidnapping happend in the first place because Samuels business was failing and he needed the payout. The final exchange on the bridge where Creasy trades himself for Pita should be this huge emotional climax but it falls flat because the movie has spent the last 40 minutes showing us Creasy murder dozens of people, so him suddenly deciding to sacrifice himself feels less like a redemption and more like he just ran out of people to kill, Pita sees him one last time and he tells her he loves her witch is sweet but then he just dies in the back of the car from his wounds and the movie ends without giving us any real closure on what happens next or weather his death actually meant anything beyond saving one kid.

The biggest problem I have with this movie is that ending man, the whole sacrifice thing where Creasy trades himself for Pita and then just bleeds out in the backseat feels hollow as hell after everything he went through to get her back, I get what Tony Scott and screenwriter Brian Helgeland were going for with the redemption through sacrifice angle but it does not land the way it should have, at least I see it that way but others might appreciate how its different and not every movie needs a happy ending, but it just feels predictable and unsatisfying like they could not figure out a better way to end the story so they went with the most obvious tragic ending possible. The movie does a great job when it focused on the relationship between Creasy and Pita in the first hour, those quieter moments where there just talking or training together have more emotional weight than any of the action scenes that come later, Denzel and Dakota Fanning have incredible chemistry together and the movie makes you believe this hardened killer would find a reason to keep living through his connection with this smart funny kid who refuses to let him drown in his own misery. The revenge stuff is entertaining and brutal, but by the time we get to the end it all feels kinda pointless because Creasy dies anyway and we are left wondering what the point of the whole thing was besides watching Denzel look cool while shooting people, the movie had so much more potential to be something deeper than just another action revenge story but it gets lost in its own style and forgets to stick the landing. Overall I would give Man on Fire an 8 out of 10 because even though I rant a bit here I really like it and its one of my favorite Denzel Washington movies, its worth watching and the first half where the story actually takes time to develop characters and relationships, but the second half falls into a kinda standard action movie stuff that you have seen a million times before and the ending is just disappointing after all that buildup, if your a fan of revenge movies or Tony Scott or just want to see Denzel do his thing then check it out but do not expect it to leave you feeling satisfied with a happy ending.

#skiptvads, #inleo, #hive, #manonfire, #denzelwashington, #dakotafanning, #tonyscott, #revenge, #action, #kidnapping, #mexico, #bodyguard, #thriller, #2004, #moviereview, #christopherwalken, #mickeyrourke, #drama, #violence, #redemption, #sacrifice, #intense, #brutal, #emotional, #protection, #corruption, #crime, #disappointing

Posted Using INLEO

Source

Episode 6 of Pluribus really open your eyes in terms of how far this thing is going, we finally got some real answers instead of just more questions piling up on top of each other. The whole reveal about the HDP which is basically human derived protein makes you realize the entity is literally grinding people up and feeding them to the billions under the glue to prevent starvation, I feel this might not land so well with many viewers because the show is trying to put this on a high alert drama type of situation when its not, if we look at whats going on the world is not the same anymore and things have change drastically and whats normal for millions has now remains strange just for a few. My point is that the show is trying to make this look as some dark shit and John Cena delivering that message on video was both hilarious and disturbing at the same time, at least I understand this is a show that is trying to build up drama so Im here for it but just dont take it too seriously. I did not have John Cena explaining cannibalism on my expectations for this show but there he was with a cameo, as expected the drama Queen of the show, Carol, is completely left out of the survivor group, like these people have Zoom meetings twice a week and she is not even invited, they all voted on whether to include her and it was not unanimous against her which has to sting like hell, imagine been one of only thirteen people left with your mind intact and the other twelve are like nah we good without you. Kumba is the only one actually giving her any attention, by this I really mean it because not even him is so glad to be around her all the time, he also keeps having these weird side conversations with the entity talking about her behind her back, the whole dynamic is fishy as hell and I do not trust him fully even though he seems like the only one to meet her in the middle and might be the only ally she has right now, but not fully, he is out there living his best James Bond fantasy while Carol is driving eight hours with a severed head in her passenger seat trying to save humanity.

• IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt18177528/
• Platform: AppleTV+

Source

The biggest reveal in the episode is that the entity cannot turn the survivors without their consent, they need to do some invasive procedure to get their stem cells and Carol flat out refuses which makes her even more of a threat to them, its like finding out the monster chasing you actually needs your permission to eat you so suddenly you have all the power. You can tel this is setting up some crazy endgame where someone is going to try to force her into giving consent, probably putting her in a situation where she has to choose between saving someone or giving up her individuality, thats the kind of shit Vince Gilligan loves to do to his characters. The scene where Carol breaks down in the bathroom was rough to watch because Ray Seehorn plays it so damn well, she is trying so hard to keep it together but you can see the loneliness crushing her from the inside, she drove all that way thinking she had this huge discovery that would change everything and then Kumba is like oh yeah we already knew about that a week ago, talk about deflating. The John Cena video explaining HDP was absurd in the best way because they literally made him the spokesman for why the entity is grinding up dead people into protein shakes, the others figured Carol would take the news better if it came from someone beloved and I guess they were right because I was sitting there nodding along like yeah that makes sense John, they cant pick apples so what else are they gonna do, the logic is sound even if its horrifying.

Source

Source

Kumba living it up in Vegas was a whole different vibe from Carols misery tour and it shows how different people are handling this situation, he has got the others acting out his James Bond poker game fantasies complete with an eye patch villain and everything, the moment the game ends and everyone just stops pretending and goes back to cleaning up felt creepy because it reminds you none of this is real and for sure there is something brewing in the back, even though the world have change there are some things that probably go beyond this world and that is hard work, I truly doubt that he will continue this lifestyle for ever without anything on this universe to stop him. Those people in the room are not actually having fun or choosing to be there by their own will as they are not individuals anymore, they are just doing what Kumba wants because the hive mind makes them do it, in a very typical way makes me look at them as zombies because we are not use to have everyone think as a single entity, on this sci fi shows we are more use to one controlling them all although here nobody at least for now controls everyone. Kumba is basically using people as props for his personnel entertainment and the show does not shy away from how uncomfortable that is. The whole Vegas sequence felt like a different show entirely with the bright lights and the empty streets, seeing the strip completely deserted except for Kumba and his hive girlfriends, its like the entertainment capital of the world has been turned into one mans playground and nobody else gets to enjoy it. Carol showing up and realizing Kumba already knew everything she discovered must have felt so dumb and the worst part is that all she had to do is ask but they still see the Hive mind as the enemy and refuse to work with it even when its about taken out information to understand them because then she think they will get into her head, she spent all this time investigating and risking her sanity only to find out she is the last person to know anything.

Source

Source

Manus finally leaving his egg timer radio control setup and finding Carols videos was so satisfying to watch because you can say at last she is not alone, you can see how inspired he gets by her message about treasuring your individuality and I love how he tells his "mom" that his real mom is a bitch and refuses to accept the fake peace and love they are offering him, that moment where he drives away after the car stalls and his mom tries to talk to him was perfect because it shows he is not buying any of their bullshit. The way they shot that final scene with his mom in the shadows made it feel so sinister and really drove home that the entity is the villain of this show, they are not the good guys trying to help humanity they are forcing this fake utopia on everyone and eliminating what makes people human in the first place, individuality is gone and they want to finish the job by converting the last thirteen holdouts. Carol saying maybe tel them to pick an effing apple was such a perfect line because it cuts through all the bullshit excuses about why they have to grind up humans, like maybe just let people be people and figure their own shit out instead of forcing everyone into this hive mind nightmare, the entity keeps saying they want to help but their version of help looks a lot like control. This episode finally got the balance right between good and evil, not showing every single character as a saint, at least when Manus mom showed up, on this episode I think every moment mattered and I am so hyped to see Carol and Manus team up because they are clearly the only two who get it, everyone else has either given up or is enjoying the new world too much to want things to change. The contrast between Carols isolation and Kumbas indulgence was really well done because it shows two completely different responses to the same situation, she is desperately trying to fix things and bring people back while he is living out every fantasy he ever had without caring about the consequences, neither approach is fully right or wrong which makes it interesting. The reveal that the entity runs out of food in ten years adds this ticking clock element to the whole thing, they are consuming human derived protein from the hundred thousand people who die naturally every day but eventually that supply runs out and then what, do they start killing people on purpose or do they just let everyone starve. The fact that they cannot harm any living thing including plants makes their situation more complicated, they cant farm or harvest anything so they are stuck with whatever food was already stockpiled plus grinding up the dead, its a grim solution to a real problem and the show does not try to make it seem less horrifying than it is.

I am giving this episode a solid 7.5 out of 10 because it was exactly what the show needed after five episodes of slow burn setup, we finally got major reveals and character development that pushes the story forward in a real way, finding out the entity needs consent to convert the survivors changes everything because now Carol has leverage she did not have before. The pacing was tight and every scene felt important whether it was Carol discovering the truth about HDP or Manus deciding to leave his bunker and drive to Albuquerque, nothing felt like wasted time and that is rare for a show that usually takes its time with everything. If it keeps this energy going I think Pluribus could end up being one of the best shows of 2025, well its already showing with its nominations now that we are in awards season. The writing is smart to a certain level but do not take things too serious because as I mention it all falls down when you realize everything runs on top of Carols drama, if she runs out of drama / gas the show dies, but she does make you feel every bit of Carols frustration and lonelines. The John Cena cameo was unexpected but it worked perfectly because it added this absurd element what could have been just a dark reveal, having him explain cannibal in his typical way was both funny and disturbing which is exactly the tone this show nails. Manus packing up and heading towards Carol is the setup for what could be the best part of the season if they really kick it off because agree and dealing with Carol is not so easy, they might look like two people who actually want to resist the hive mind but the real question if they will be able to start working together instead of Carol doing everything alone, and whether they can actually find a way to reverse everything or if they are just delaying the inevitable.

#skiptvads, #inleo, #hive, #pluribus, #recap, #episode, #carol, #manus, #kumba, #hdp, #protein, #consent, #hive, #entity, #vegas, #survivors, #canibalism, #cena, #lonely, #isolation, #stem, #cells, #reveal, #gilligan, #individuality, #resistance, #convert, #albuquerque

Posted Using INLEO

Posted Using INLEO

This is a cross post of @gwajnberg/the-life-of-chuck-how by @gwajnberg.

My refiew about the Life of Chuck

Source

Last night decided to watch IT from 2017 to refresh context related to the recent Welcome to Derry tv series and this is way more than just a scary clown movie, you sit down thinking you are about to get two hours of terror but instead you get this wild mix of emotions that keeps switching between heartfelt moments, stupid funny jokes and then suddenly you remember oh shit there is supposed to be horror in this thing. The real strength here is the kids, the whole Losers Club just works so damn well together, these young actors have such natural chemistry that you actually believe they are best friends dealing with this nightmare situation in Derry. Finn Wolfhard as Richie is absolutely hilarious throughout the whole movie, I was not expecting to laugh as much as I did but this kid had me laughing constantly with his perverted jokes and wild comments, whoever wrote his dialogue did such an awesome job. The other kids are great too, Bill with his stutter feels so real and not forced at all, like Jaeden Martell really nailed that performance without making it annoying witch is hard to pull off when your character has a speech problem, Eddie with his overbearing mother is relatable as hell because we all know someone with a parent like that who treats there kid like they are made of glass and Beverly carries herself in every scene and does not just exist to scream or be the love interest of the movie, they all become the heroes of the movie even though its Bill who carries the movie from the start. Bill Skarsgard does his own thing as Pennywise and manages to step out of Tim Currys shadow, my only complaint is I wish we got more scenes of him just talking instead of always being surrounded by crazy CGI scares and visual effects that take away from the creepyness, like his voice and physicality are already scary enough without all the computer generated teeth and mouth stuff, for example the very first scene when he lure in Georgie.

• IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1396484/
• Platform: AppleTV+

Rottentomatoes Rating

Source

The story is super simple and thats what makes it work so well for a two hour movie, you got these kids in Derry Maine during 1989 and they start noticing other kids keep going missing or turning up dead witch freaks everyone out but the adults do not seem to care. Bills little brother Georgie gets taken by Pennywise right at the begining during that iconic paper boat scene in the storm drain but unlike other horror movies they never find Georgies body so Bill spends the whole movie convincing himself that maybe his brother is still alive down there somewhere in the sewers and that guilt drives everything he does forward. The Losers Club forms because these kids all feel like outsiders for different reasons, like Ben is the new fat kid who gets bullied by Henry Bowers and his gang of assholes, Mike is home schooled because his parents died in a fire and he has to work on the farm, Stan is the Jewish kid getting ready for his bar mitzvah and dealing with family expectations about the Holocaust, Eddie thinks he is sick all the time because his mom gives him placebo pills and keeps him in a bubble. Beverly deals with an abusive father at home who makes gross comments about her body, plus the girls at school call her a slut even though she has not done anything to deserve that reputation, witch is just how high school works unfortunately. These kids come together because they realize Pennywise is targeting them specifically, feeding off there fears and trying to pick them off one by one before summer ends, so they decide to fight back and go into the sewers to kill this thing before it kills them or more kids disapear. I really liked is how the movie does not spend forever on setup, it just throws you right into the action and you figure out who these characters are through how they interact with each other and the jokes they make, witch feels way more natural than some boring exposition dump at the start.

Source

Source

The kids are what make this entire thing work and if they sucked the movie would have fallen apart completely but every single one of them brings something different and they all feel like real people instead of just victims waiting to die in a horror movie. Richie is the fast talking kid who never shuts up and uses humor to deal with everything, like when they are walking through the sewers in literal shit water he just casually mentions that its basically millions of gallons of Derry piss and everyone laughs even though the situation is disgusting. The movie does a great job at describing how each of the kids is dealing with their own fears and own situations, this is obvious because they live in Derry, at the moment of this movie probably not many knew the reasons why unless you have read the books but essentially Derry is Pennywise territory, every horror event that goes on in the city is because he allow it to happen for example when Ben got cut by the bullies at the bridge and a couple pass by on their car as Ben screams for help and they decided not to. There is also the scene where Beverly bathroom was cover in blood and she was all cover up in blood but her dad didnt notice, like there was no blood there but latter on she bring the other kids that help her clean up, is that kind of good story telling without actually having to explain everything that makes you feel good about putting the puzzle together.

Source

Source

Bill Skarsgard does a great job making Pennywise feel inhuman and wrong in every scene he is in, his voice has this high and low pitch and sometimes very deep that is so iconic now days, almost like a trade mark signature of the monster. The look of Pennywise in this movie is way better than the Tim Curry version from the 90s miniseries, the makeup and costume design makes him feel like something ancient that stepped out of an old photograph from a hundred years ago, the washed out colors and oversized forehead and deliberately out of date outfit all add to this sense that he is not human at all. Skarsgards physicality is insane too, he does these weird eye movements that I found out from a quick search that there was no CGI help, same for how he can point his lip down in this strange unnatural way, there is one scene where he is drooling while talking to Georgie and you can tell he forgot for a second that he is supposed to be luring a child and just got lost in the hunger witch is disturbing. I dont find many flaws on the movie but I do have to mention that CGI is one of them, sometimes felt like they rely too much specially during those very dark scenes where its harder to understand whats going on and he is trying to be animated and funny like a clown but for me personally it does not work as well as Tim Curry who was more disturbing on a basic level that did not need all the effects. I think if you are actually afraid of clowns then Bill Skarsgards version will freak you out way more because he leans into all the exagerated clown behavior, its obvious that the 90s version going to feel more grounded as any other movie from that age just because there were more practical effects than anything else, this one in my opinion goes too heavy into the CGI creature stuff and looses some of that human creepyness that made the original so effective back in the day.

The movie balances humor and horror really well and does not try to scare you constantly, instead it focuses on building up the relationships between the kids witch makes the horror scenes hit harder when they actualy happen because you care about these characters and do not want bad things to happen to them. Every kid gets there own fear sequence where Pennywise takes the form of whatever they are most afraid of, like Eddie sees this creepy leper lady asking if he wants a blowjob witch is gross and uncomfortable, Beverly sees blood exploding out of her bathroom sink and covering the entire room while her dad stands outside the door not seeing any of it, Ben sees a headless burned body chasing him through the library after he researches the history of Derry and all the missing kids. Some of these scenes work better than others, the bathroom scene with Beverly is genuinely disturbing and the amount of blood they used is insane, the projector scene where Pennywise comes out of the screen in Bills garage while all the kids are looking at a map is intense as hell and probably the best scare in the whole movie. The final showdown in the sewers drags a little bit but its still satisfying, the kids realize that Pennywise feeds on fear, actually Pennywise told them and on that scene I felt that was stupid from him, so if they stop being afraid of him he loses his power and starts falling apart and crumbling away, witch is a cool concept even if the execution feels a bit rushed at the end. Beverly is the one who figures this out after Pennywise puts her in a trance with the deadlights and she floats up with all the other dead kids, Ben kisses her and she wakes up witch is cheesy but it works for what the story needs. The ending where they all make a blood pact to come back if Pennywise ever returns is a nice setup for Chapter Two and it feels earned after everything they went through together, you actually believe these kids would come back as adults to finish what they started even if there friendships faded over the years. The movie has this warm nostalgic quality that reminds me a lot of The Goonies, I would give it a solid 8 out of 10 and its definitely a solid Stephen King adaptation.

#skiptvads, #inleo, #hive, #horror, #remake, #pennywise, #stephenking, #clown, #losersclub, #derry, #scary, #eighties, #childhood, #friendship, #monster, #sewer, #georgie, #beverly, #richie, #bill, #skarsgard, #muschietti, #adaptation, #fear, #supernatural, #thriller, #suspense, #cinema

Posted Using INLEO

What kind of garbage is this?

Source

I decided to watch Season 5 without watching any of the 4 previous one because from the trailers this one look like there is a lot of action into it and now that I have seen Volume 1 already I can tell its not hard to follow up and understand whats going on so from that stand point the series is well done, but three damn years for this show to come back and now it finally drops with over an hour of content which is basically a movie at this point, they really said fuck it we going big for the last season. There is also how all this actors basically grew up together through the show and now all the characters on screen at once without it feeling too packed or messy, shows that been on this long usually struggle with juggling so many people but they pulled it off here and it felt natural. The way they used radio broadcasts to fill you in on what went down after season four was smart because it kept things moving without boring me with long context scenes that nobody wants to sit through anyway at this point considering is the last season, we get caught up fast and then jump straight into the action which is exactly what you want from a premiere. As for someone who watch the series for the fisr time I got to say the 80s nostalgia is strong with all the references and throwbacks and it does not feel cheap like they are just throwing random shit at you to make you remember the good old days, stuff that actually matters to the story instead of being there just because. The stakes feel real too like any of these characters could actually die at any moment since this is the final season and they gotta wrap everything up so the truth is that would be awesome if someone important dies on Volume 2 just to spice up things and keep going.

• IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4574334/
• Platform: AppleTV+

Source

Episode 1 of S05 Volume 1, opens up with a completely new scene that takes you back to November 12th 1983 witch is the exact same way season one started, this whole sequence shows what happens to Will right after Vecna grabbed him at the beginning of the first season and its meant to set up this Harry Potter Voldemort type connection between them. Turns out Vecna did something to Will that gave him powers without even realizing what he was doing, basically creating his own worst enemy just like Voldemort did with Harry Potter which is a pretty cool twist even if its kinda obvious. The way they show Vecnas eyes during this scene makes him look flayed just like Will was back in season two, witch got me thinking maybe the Mind Flayer has been controlling Vecna this whole time instead of the other way around like we thought, there been theories about this online for a while but the show has not confirmed anything yet. Fast forward to present day and we see Holly Wheeler who is Mike and Nancys little sister and she becomes super important for this episode and I would assume for the rest because she starts seeing what she thinks is an imaginary friend but we know its Vecna in his Henry Creel human form so she does not get scared. Eventually he takes her inside this special wall he built in the Upside Down and says he is gonna save all her friends witch really means capture them and plug them into tubes just like he did to Will, later on Will has another vision where he sees them all hooked up getting goo pumped into them confirming that this is Vecnas plan for everyone. The whole setup is probaly inside Hawkins lab witch is at the center of this massive wall around Hawkins that Vecna built, its like Game of Thrones level huge and they been trying to find him for months but could not because of this thing blocking them.

Source

Source

At first I wonder why they staying all together before I start noticing how the town is in quarantine, but seems that since season four ended pretty much everybody except Hopper has been staying at Mike and Nancys house witch is super crowded and they play it up for comedy but its also kinda sad seeing them all crammed in there living in this military quarantine. Robin became the new DJ with her radio show called The Morning Squawk and she uses it to give coded messages to the group while also catching people up on what happens with exposition that does not feel too forced, she mentions that Vecnas discharge spread through the air infecting the whole town and the military is trying to cover up all the tears between dimensions with metal bandaids. They call the main military zone with the big portal the MAC Z but Robin calls it the Big Mac, the truth is that some of the 80s references are not so funny, this looks more like a tv series for teenagers rather than an action series that might be very interesting for viewers of all ages. This Military zone has this huge portal where probably Vecna is gonna walk out when he breaks into the Right Side Up eventually. Keep in mind that my opinion on this series of posts is from someone who has never seen the show but honestly Dustin is one character that annoys me similar to Maximus on Fallout. At school other kids also dont like him but for other motives, mainly because he was Eddies friend and he wears his Hellfire Club shirt all the time, there is also Lucas who quit the basketball team and became the muscle of the group standing up for Dustin witch shows how much these kids have grown since season one. Eleven has been hiding from the military since season four and apparently other townspeople have been pretending to be her to misdirect the soldiers witch is pretty cool, shows that she has friends around town and people actually like her. That sscene where she is training with Hopper in another Jedi montage trying to beef up her powers was cool, a show of what she could do when the times come to fight, Hopper is like her personal trainer getting her ready, her outfit definitely says 80s in it and was a very classic thing to wear although she does all the time? dont she get a shower??.

Source

Source

There are these dungeon crawls into the Upside Down trying to find Vecna but they done it over 30 times and still have not found him, and there is Will having visions of Vecna seeing through his eyes and eventually figures out the connection between them, he can see what Vecna sees witch means he can track where the Demogorgons are going and where Vecna is hiding behind in the Upside Down. The whole thing with Max in the hospital is really sad, if this is your first time dont worry they will provide more context and thats really cool how they keep providing context all the time, Will and Lucas visit her on the regular just talking to her like she can hear them even though she is in a coma, witch is actually a real thing coma victims can hear you they just cannot respond back. Will catches Robin with Vicky at the hospital and this sets up his whole sexuality thing where he is gonna come out eventually.

Through the season there are portals everywhere, from a little research I made this was not the case before seems things are way easier for Vecna and his squad of Demogorgons, going through dimensions, at this point that a Demogorgon can just rip right through it and open a new portal whenever it wants, this is exactly what happens when one breaks into the Wheeler house and yoinks Holly right in front of her mom Karen. I still dont understand why the military wants to keep the portal open and they just keep burning it down but I guess has to do with Dr. Kay experiments. I really liked how the episode wraps up is that it does not try too hard to explain every little detail, it gives you enough context to understand whats happening without holding your hand through boring exposition that would slow everything down. The pacing for a first episode that runs over an hour is actually pretty solid considering how much ground they cover and for the most part is just small talk and planing, nothing of impact really happens except for Will's visions, from catching everyone up on what happens since season four to introducing the new threat with Holly getting taken to showing Wills connection with Vecna and how his powers are starting to manifest. For someone jumping into the series without watching the previous seasons I can say this episode does a decent job making you care about whats going on even if you dont have all the backstory, the action is good enough to keep you interested in seeing what comes next.

#skiptvads, #inleo, #hive, #strangerthings, #netflix, #vecna, #hawkins, #upsidedown, #eleven, #hopper, #will, #demogorgon, #mindflayer, #horror, #scifi, #thriller, #nostalgia, #eighties, #supernatural, #monsters, #mystery, #suspense, #fantasy, #drama, #telekinesis, #paranormal, #government, #friendship

Posted Using INLEO

Source

Look this has never happen to me but it was one after another, last night was "Keeper (2025)" and now saw the most part of "I Know What You Did Last Summer (2025)" during lunch at work and Im not going to sit here and pretend this movie didnt piss me off, it absolutely did because the twist with Freddie Prinze Jr being the killer had so much potential to be something really cool but they fumbled it so damn bad. The idea of trauma changing people over time is right there in front of them, they had it in their hands and instead of running with it they just threw in some weak excuse about a coworker he sees as a daughter and real estate drama that nobody asked for, come on now if you are going to turn Ray into a murderer after 27 years you better give me a damn good reason for it. The only reason Im making this posts is for other not waist their time and its a known franchise name, "Keepers" not even going to write about. Not just oh he is upset about gentrification and his employee had a bad day, thats not enough and anyone who thinks it is probably hasnt seen the original movies or doesnt remember how solid Ray was as a character back then, this whole setup feels like they wrote the twist first and then tried to work backwards to justify it without putting in the actual effort to make it believable. The movie spends so much time trying to please old school watchers with callbacks and nostalgia bait that when they drop that reveal it feels like a slap in the face instead of a smart decision, like they were more worried about getting Jennifer Love Hewitt and Freddie back on screen together than actually writing a story that makes sense or respects what came before it, thats a huge problem when your entire selling point is bringing back these characters we supposedly care about from 1997.

• IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4045450/
• Platform: PRIME VIDEO

Rottentomatoes Rating

Source

This whole thing kicks off with a new group of friends heading out to watch fireworks on July 4th because apparently nobody in this franchise has learned that July 4th is cursed as hell for them, they pile into a car and go joy ridding up some windy mountain road where surprise surprise an accident happens and someone dies. But here is the thing that really got under my skin about this setup, in the original movie the group actually hit someone with their car and then made the choice to dump the body in the ocean knowing he might still be alive, that was messed up and gave them a real reason to feel guilty and deserve what was coming after them, it was a deliberate action they took that crossed a line and made them responsible for his death. In this new version one of the kids is goofing around in the middle of the street when a pickup truck driver swerves to avoid hitting him, the truck breaks through the guardrail and the friends try to grab it but it slips from their hands and falls off the cliff killing the driver, yes they were fooling around causing an accident although you can also argue they didnt push the guy down the cliff, for the most part they were in the wrong place at the wrong time and yeah they covered it up but even that felt forced because one of the kids dads is this rich real estate developer who owns half the town and could have easily made the whole thing disappear legally without any issues at all. So right from the start the stakes feel off, the guilt does not hit the same way, the motivation for everything that happens after doesnt hold up and it just gets worse from there as the movie goes on piling on more problems that the script cant handle or doesnt even try to fix properly, in this sense its like they almost tame down the movie motives, they get the classic I know what you did last summer note a year later and people start dying one by one with the fisherman back doing his thing with the hook and rain slicker.

Source

Source

Now, the podcast girl, was so over the top she basically spoiled the whole thing early on for anyone paying attention to what was happening, this character shows up in town because she hosts some true crime podcast called Live Laugh Slaughter which is already annoying but thats ok, she is there to investigate the 1997 killings from the first movie because I guess thats her content now. She is wearing a Helen Shivers shirt and acting like a walking trivia book, nobody talks like that about real murder victims even if they have a creepy podcast about unsolved cases or whatever, it felt like the writers were trying to be clever and meta by including this whole podcaster angle but they didnt know what to do with it so they just made her this cartoonish character who gets killed pretty quick anyway. The writing in this thing is just terrible all around, every conversation feels like someone reading off a script instead of actual human beings talking to each other, they explain everything three times in a row just to make sure the audience gets it even though we got it the first time, theres a scene early on where one girl is trying on a dress talking to herself about her ex boyfriend then the next scene her friend asks her about the same ex boyfriend then the scene after that the guys are talking about the same situation and its like damn do you think we all have goldfish memory? who cant follow a simple plot point without you repeating it over and over again.

Source

Source

The Sarah Michelle Gellar cameo was nice I guess but it felt cheap just there to make people clap in the theater and remember the good old days when this franchise actually had something going for it instead of whatever this mess turned out to be, she shows up in a dream sequence that one of the new characters has and it doesnt make any sense why this girl would be dreaming about Helen Shivers since she never met her and has no connection to her except being the new version of that character I suppose. The de aging CGI looked fine I will give them that but the whole scene felt like a waste of time and money, like they had an extra million dollars lying around and Sarah wanted to be in the movie with her husband so they crowbarred her in there somehow without thinking about whether it actually served the story at all, it does not add anything to the plot, it does not move things forward, its just there for fan service. While I appreciate seeing Sarah again because she was always the best performer out of that original cast it still felt hollow and pointless in the end, they could have used that screen time to actually develop the relationship between Ray and Julie or explain why their marriage fell apart over the years, show us how the events from 1997 broke them down slowly, but no we get a random dream sequence instead that looks cool for five seconds then we move on and never mention it again.

This franchise works best as an anthology where every movie is a new group of people dealing with a different accident and a new killer coming after them, not trying to stretch out the same story with legacy characters who should have moved on by now and be living their lives somewhere far away from Southport where all this shit keeps happening. The twist with Ray being the second killer alongside Stevie had balls but zero brains behind it, the motivation is so weak that I actually laughed when he explained it to Julie at the end, hes mad because the town tried to erase what happened to them in 1997 and also because Stevie was connected to the guy who died in the accident so he decided to help her kill the group responsible, are you serious right now. Thats the best you could come up with, Ray Bronson who was the most level headed stable character in the first two movies suddenly snaps and becomes a serial killer because of some gentrification drama and a promise he made to Stevies parents to look out for her, get the hell out of here with that nonsense. If you want me to believe that this character went down such a dark path you need to earn it with actual writing and character development, show me how the trauma from 1997 ate away at him over the years, show me how his marriage to Julie fell apart and why, show me something that makes this transformation feel real instead of just telling me thats how it is now deal with it because the movie does not do any of that work. It just drops the reveal and expects us to be shocked and impressed when really most of us saw it coming from a mile away because the red herrings were so obvious that anyone whos seen more than one horror movie could cross them off the list immediately, honestly this looks more like a money grabber than anything else, I wont say it was unbearable and the production was ok so the most I can give this movie is a 6.5/10 and thats just me because I know most people, specially anyone who have seen the original movies would just destroy it online with ratings under 5/10.

#skiptvads, #inleo, #hive, #slasher, #horror, #sequel, #legacy, #fisherman, #killer, #twist, #review, #movie, #thriller, #murder, #mystery, #summer, #nostalgia, #disappointing, #writing, #dialogue, #trash, #waste, #potential, #criticism, #opinion, #2025, #franchise, #revenge

Posted Using INLEO

Source

Pluribus has been a slow burner for me after I got sidetrack on November and December for the most part so there has been a lot of content I had to catch up with, episode 5 is the episode went to some really dark places, but honestly it didnt ask the show wants to sell it since Carol is such a drama Queen, yes Earth has been invaded but there are other ways to manage the entire situation despite whats going on. The whole setup with Carol waking up to find Albuquerque completely empty, that turn out a bit creepy although it was obvious the hive mind decided to leave after the events of episode 4, the big news for the for the episode is the hive mind Milk addiction that turn out was not really Milk. The idea that the hive is processing dead bodies into this yellowish liquid and mixing it with white powder to make nutrient slurry is kinda fucked up but only from a moral perspective, from a science point of view is really smart, like they are literally turning people into food and distributing it in elementary school milk cartons, that is some next level horror right there and the way the episode builds to that final reveal with Carol pulling back the tarp in the freezer is perfectly design for you to feel that way, you could feel her shock even before the camera cuts to black. What got me the most was how the show keeps using these symbols like the wolves digging up Helens grave and the crows pecking at the powder bags, its all screaming death and scavenging and the hive becoming this efficient machine that consumes everything including humanity itself, the whole isolation thing makes sense too because Carols emotions were literally hurting the hive every time she panicked or got angry around Zosa, so they just evacuated an entire city to get away from her. I love how the show is not trying to make the hive look like heroes anymore, they are revealing what this thing really is, in my opinion they trying to exterminate humans first by absorbing them all and then to starve them to death, a scavenger species processing the old world into fuel until there is nothing left, if the hive keeps consuming resources without farming anything new then eventually they run out and start processing themselves into extinction and Carol is slowly starting to figure this out through her investigation.

• IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt22202452/
• Platform: AppleTV+

Source

The episode kicks off right after the truth serum incident where Carol injected into Zosas IV trying to get answers about reversing the joining, witch resulted in Zosa going into cardiac arrest and causing literally millions of people across the entire planet to burst into tears at the exact same time. Laxmi calls the hospital and absolutely tears into Carol about making her son cry but Carol knows already how it all work out so its here when she first really start caring for Zosa and start to feel bad for what she cause, but most important start to feel for Zosa. Everyone in the hive simultaneously experiencing the same distress because they are all connected, this moment as others Carol's anger or panic attach shows how interconnected the hive is and how Carols actions dont just impact the people standing next to her, they ripple out to affect millions of bodies all at once witch is pretty insane when you think about it. The others at the hospital are being super cold to Carol, refusing to make eye contact and barely acknowledging her presence witch is very different from how they have been treating her up until now, like they would do anything to make her happy and comfortable but now they are done with her shit because she crossed a line. When Carol falls asleep that night the entire population of Albuquerque just leaves, like they coordinate this massive evacuation in complete silence while she is sleeping and when she wakes up the city is totally empty, watching that mass exodus with everyone marching away in perfect unison was some satisfying coordination, it shows just how organized and unified the hive really is when they make a decision. Carol gets a voicemail recording, witch by the way is voiced by Patrick Fabian from Better Call Saul, I knew I recognize that voice so had to look it up and that was such a nice surprise to hear his voice, the message says they still care about her but they need space after everything that happens, the idea that these beings would rather abandon an entire city than confront Carol directly is both funny and sad at the same time because they can communicate instantly with each other across the entire planet but they cannot handle one angry woman negative emotions so they just ghost her completely.

Source

Source

Carol being left alone in Albuquerque means she has to deal with stuff she has never had to think about before, like she calls the recording to request trash pickup and they give her this very specific set of instructions about bagging everything separately and keeping each bag under 17 pounds so the drone can handle it, watching Carol try to follow these rules and then watching the drone fail miserably and get tangled up in a light post with her trash bag spinning around was hilarious, the what the fuck face she had and when it fail was like fuck it. The isolation also means Carol has to deal with wildlife that is now roaming freely through the city since there are no humans around anymore, like coyotes show up in her backyard and start digging around near Helens grave putting Carol into high panic mode because the idea that these animals could dig up and eat the body of the person she loved most in the world is absolutely horrifying to her, this was so hilarious like she cant catch a brake and things just getting worst for her while been alone in town. She ends up using her police car to ram through her own fence and scare the coyotes away, then spends the next day building a proper grave for Helen with concrete slabs and painting a beautiful headstone, that whole sequence was really emotional and probably the first time I have seen Carol do something with actual love and care instead of just anger and resentment. While I was looking up for who the voice on the recording was I did find out that on Carols room there still a book Helen use to read, or at least thats what I think because its still there, Caron havent gone through Helen stuff yet, the point is that its a book about people getting picked off one by one until nobody is left and it feels like the show is hinting that the hive might be heading toward some kind of self destruction if they keep consuming resources without creating anything new, book name "And Then There Were None", this actually backs up my theory, but I guess most viewers paying attention know this and the point is if Carol will be able to revert things.

Source

Source

Carol is going around town as she feels more loose without the hive around her, then she starts noticing all the milk cartons in the recycling bins around the city and decides to investigate where they are coming from, like the hive members drink this stuff constantly and Carol wants to know what it actually is, this leads her to the Duke City Dairy facility where she discovers they are not drinking milk at all, they are mixing this white powdery substance that looks kind of blue with water and it creates this yellowish amber liquid that has no smell and a neutral pH level, yeah she took it home and did her own lab test with a pool kid, hilarious. Carol records a video message to the other survivors explaining what she found but then realizes she does not actually know what any of it means so she gets frustrated and deletes the whole thing, witch I totally get because she is trying so hard to find answers and every time she thinks she is onto something it just leads to more questions without any real conclusions, at the same time I dont know why she just dont ask them, she already discover they cant lie, pick up the phone and ask. The episode does a great job showing she is a hard worker Carol is even though she is not a scientist or anything like that, like she figures out where the powder is being manufactured by following the barcode on a dog food bag witch shows she knows how to problem solve and investigate even without access to the internet or other people to help her. She tracks down this warehouse with a giant freezer and when she goes inside there are fruits and vegetables but also something else at the back covered by white tarps, she pulls one back and the music stops completely and she just gasps and we do not get to see what it is, the camera cuts to black right at that moment witch is such a brutal cliffhanger because now we have to wait even longer than usual to find out what the hell she saw under there.

I really have to give the show that it tries hard to include you as part of Carol's investigating crew, makes the series very fun to watch, so far based on everything we know and all the clues the episode gives us its just very obvious the hive is processing dead bodies into that nutrient powder they are mixing with water and drinking out of milk cartons, like they mentioned earlier in the series that they do not harm living creatures but what about using the bodies of people who already died during the joining, it would make sense as a way to centralize resources and keep everyone fed without needing agriculture or killing animals for meat. The crows pecking at the powder bags earlier in the episode make perfect sense now because crows are scavengers that eat dead things and the whole dairy plant setup would be ideal for processing organic material into a consumable substance that can be distributed easily, although to be honest this was just a hunch I had because a few crow doesnt says too much. In my opinion this is a very strong episode since it focuses almost entirely on Carol and Rhea Seehorn just absolutely kills it carrying the entire show by herself, everyone else in it is just an accessory, no wonder why she starting to get nominations for the series and its only Season 1, like watching her go through all these emotions from anger to grief to determination to horror, she makes you feel everything Carol is feeling even when she is so difficult to deal with its like been open and close at the same time, the performance is so good that you forget you are watching a tv series and just see Carol as a real person struggling with impossible choices. The hive leaving her alone was probably the smartest move they could make because now Carol cannot interrogate them or try to drug anyone else for information, but it also means she is free to investigate on her own without them monitoring her every move witch is how she ends up discovering the dairy plant and all the body parts in it, this episode really shows that the hive is not some benevolent force trying to create peace and harmony, they are scavengers processing the remnants of humanity into fuel for their own survival and Carol is slowly piecing together the full picture of what that actually means. The cliffhanger even though its not the most difficult code to crack is a good one after all, Im sure cost a few people a good amount of hours to calm down and realize they had to wait for the next episode, lucky me I didnt have to go through that anxiety attack. This show just keeps getting darker and more twisted with every episode and I am completely hooked on where its going next, Im half way the show so might just binge this weekend the rest of the four remaining episodes, easily one of the best show from 2025.

#skiptvads, #inleo, #hive, #pluribus, #gotmilk, #recap, #episode, #carol, #hive, #albuquerque, #dairy, #freezer, #milk, #bodies, #revelation, #cliffhanger, #isolation, #helen, #grief, #coyotes, #investigation, #powder, #nutrient, #abandoned, #zosa, #city, #warehouse, #discovery

Posted Using INLEO

Cover image edited in canva; the image was taken from the following source

Source

Dan Trachtenberg really did something cool with Prey back in 2022, I mean that movie brought the Predator franchise back from the dead and made people online actually care about Predators again, and then he went and did that animated thing Killer of Killers which was solid too, so going into Badlands I had some expectations, maybe too high honestly because this thing look fkn awesome from the trailer. The movie completely flips the script by making the Predator the good guy, like not just an antihero but the actual protagonist you are supposed to root for and that right there is where I start having conflicted reactions because sure its cool to try something different with a franchise but at the same time you are messing with what made these creatures scary and interesting in the first place, they were hunters, killers, now we supposed to feel bad for one because daddy issues, if they have kept the Daddy issues out and be more a thing of the entire clan rejecting Deck would probably be different, because for the most part it was his father, just until the end he fight other predators from the clan. Deck is this young Predator who got kicked out of his clan for being too weak and small, so he goes to this deadly planet called Genna to hunt some legendary beast that nobody else has been able to kill, classic redemption story and along the way he teams up with Elle Fannings character Thia who is a synthetic from Weyland Yutani which throws in that Alien franchise connection that people online have been speculating about for years. The problem is the movie feels less like a Predator movie and more like a standard Hollywood adventure buddy movie, you got the sidekick character who talks way too much, you got some attempts at humor that land weird, you even got a cute little alien creature that follows them around acting like a pet, its almost like they took a Predator and just dropped him into a completely different type of story that did not need to exist.

• IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt31227572/
• Platform: PRIME VIDEO

Rottentomatoes Rating

Source

The action scenes are cool when they happen specially in the third act when Deck gets to really show off what he can do against this massive creature called the Callisk, the special effects look great and the alien planet Genna actually looks alien which is awesome, they shot this thing in New Zealand and you can tell they had a real budget to work with. But the whole buddy dynamic between Deck and Thia just felt off to me, like I get what they were trying to do but it takes away from that intimidating presence that Predators have always had in every other movie. Elle Fanning does fine work here playing multiple versions of the same synthetic character, Thia is the lab one who goes out into the field for the first time and Tessa is her sister who been out there doing the real work and theres this whole twist about how Tessa has been working for Weyland Yutani trying to capture the Callisk as a bioweapon which connects to the Alien franchise timeline but its set so far in the future that it does not really matter. The villain of the movie is not even the Callisk really, its Tessa who gets eaten by the thing and then comes back out half digested and frozen looking like some kind of Terminator reject and she wants to complete her mission even though shes falling apart which I guess is supposed to be creepy but it just looks goofy. The Callisk itself is this giant monster that the Predators consider the ultimate trophy, even Decks father who is a legendary hunter fears it, so when Deck decides to go hunt it you know its gonna be bad, the thing looks like a mix between a dragon and some kind of insect creature and its massive, easily one of the coolest creature designs in the movie even though we dont see it enough.

Source

Source

The opening of the movie is actually pretty solid, we get this whole sequence on the Predator home planet Yautja Prime where Deck is training with his brother Kwei, and you can see right away that Deck is smaller and weaker than everyone else which makes him an outcast. His father Nuru is this absolute bastard who wants Deck dead because he sees him as weak and a disgrace to the clan, so when Kwei refuses to kill his brother and helps him escape, Nuru kills Kwei right in front of Deck which sets up the whole revenge angle for later. This part works because it gives you a reason to root for Deck, hes the underdog, the small Preadator who everyone thinks is worthless and now hes gotta prove himself by doing the impossible, its basic stuff but it works. The brother relationship between Deck and Kwei feels strong too, Deck saved Kwei life when they were kids and lost part of his tusk doing it, so now hes trying to help his brother become a real hunter even though their father wants him gone, when Kwei dies its actually sad because you only just met these characters but the movie does enough to make you care about them. Then Deck crashes on Genna and loses almost all his gear right away, so hes stuck on this death planet with barely any weapons trying to survive long enough to find the Callisk, and thats where he meets Thia who is literally cut in half and stuck in a tree after her own encounter with the beast, she needs her legs back and Deck needs information about the planet, so they make a deal and start traveling together.

Source

Source

The whole middle section of the movie is where things start dragging for me, its just Deck and Thia walking through the jungle encountering random alien creatures while Thia asks him a million questions about Predator culture that honestly I did not need answered. Like do we really need to know if his mandibles chew food or if his inner mouth does it, I get they probably include it to annoy Deck and make it funny because thats how Thia is but not everything needs an explanation. They did create a full Predator language for this movie which is cool I guess but can be annoying to keep reading subtitles for some people, I really dont mind since I love watching movies in other languages, it was a full blown spoken and written language that fits with all the clicking sounds Predators make in the other movies, and the actor playing Deck had to learn it and perform with motion capture which sounds like a ton of work. The CGI on Deck is really good over all, you can see actual emotions on his face which is wild because Predators usually just look angry or curious, here you see him scared, sad, determined, all kinds of stuff and it works better than I expected, but the problem is once you make a Predator the hero and give him feelings and motivations, he stops being scary and thats a big loss for the franchise in my opinion, if in the future Predator meets Wendy and her adopted Xenomorph who is the bad guy? I guess we flipping the story and going after the humans, these things are supposed to be apex predators who hunt for sport and trophies, not sad boys with daddy issues who need therapy. The movie tries to have it both ways by showing Deck be ruthless when he needs to be, but then also showing him care about Thia and this little alien pet thing called Bud who is basically just there to be cute, my point of view is what Predator has been so far until Prey 2022, as an action movie does it work? yes it does and probably why a lot of people like it, dont get me wrong I did like it too because its impossible not to root for Deck and Thia was funny most of the time.

The ending is where the movie finally delivers some proper Predator action, Deck and Thia find Tessa who has been using a giant mech suit to try and capture the Callisk and everything goes to hell when the creature shows up and starts wrecking everything. The fight between the mech and the Callisk is fun, lots of destruction and chaos, and then Deck jumps in with his weapons and this is where he finally feels like a real Predator, he is using his environment, setting traps, I would probably say the most creative Predator we have seen in any other movie and this felt good because I think there is some coorelation to Prey 2022 where the Predator also had to do something similar. They manage to freeze the Callisk from the inside and it shatters into pieces which is a cool kill, very Terminator 2 vibes and then Deck rips off Tessas head with her spine still attached which is the classic Predator trophy pose, finally we get that moment. He then goes back to Yautja Prime to confront his father, they have this big duel in front of the whole clan, Deck even kill some other Predator of the Clan so easy that honestly felt rush because he havent gain that much expirience in my opinion, Deck uses all the tricks he learned on Genna to beat his dad, he even brings Bud along who bites Nurus head off at the end which is both awesome and ridiculous at the same time. Deck earns his place as a true hunter, takes his fathers cloak, and the movie ends with a tease that his mother is coming which sets up a sequel that I am not sure how is going to play out, female Predator are suppose to be bigger and bad ass, I guess she is going to claim treason and go against Deck some how. Overall Predator Badlands is fine, it looks great and has some solid moments but as a Predator movie it just does not hit the same way Prey did or even the original movies, I would give it like a 7 out of 10 because everything technical is on point but the story choices took me out of it a bit, it was very clear from the trailer what was coming so it was not like a surprise but the fact that no humans were in danger makes things a bit different, I wanted to love this but I just liked it instead which is disappointing after how good Prey was.

#skiptvads, #inleo, #hive, #predator, #badlands, #prey, #trachtenberg, #yautja, #deck, #alien, #weyland, #genna, #callisk, #thea, #fanning, #hunter, #franchise, #sequel, #creature, #action, #scifi, #monster, #trophy, #revenge, #survival, #jungle, #rating, #review

Posted Using INLEO

Source

Tron Ares feels like one of those movies where you walk out of the theater and your first thought is damn what a waste although I didnt watch on theater, the visuals are gorgeous no question about that, Nine Inch Nails absolutely killed the soundtrack, the music is probably the best thing this movie has, everything else just falls so flat its almost frustrating to watch, I would not call it worst movie of the year but for sure the one with the most opportunity to shine and wasted. I really wanted to love this thing because Tron Legacy is a movie I still watch every now and then, probably its nostalgia and makes me bias. Not my favorite franchise but still one I like, although Ares just does not feel connected to Legacy at all, like where the hell did all those ISOs go that were supposed to change the world, why are we stuck with a bunch of boring corporate suits instead of characters we actually give a damn about, the whole setup feels wrong from the start. The biggest issue here is that this feels more like a Terminator knockoff than an actual Tron sequel with them trying to create the perfect soldier, private soldier, you got programs escaping into the real world and causing chaos witch is cool, gives you some Matrix vibes kinda Mr Smith but the execution is so rushed and underbaked that none of it lands the way it should, you can feel the movie trying to do too much without taking time to make any of it work properly. Jared Leto as Ares is probably the best character performance from the movie considering the dude is kinda out of luck with every movie he is in, but this time he brings this weird almost deadpan inside humor that actually works, his whole character arc about developing a conscience and becoming more human has some interesting moments but even that feels like its on fast forward, they rush through his emotional growth so quick that it never really hits. Greta Lee plays Eve Kim and I cannot tell you one thing about her character because we never get to spend much time with most of the characters, she just dissapears into the background even though shes supposed to be one of the main people driving the story forward, thats a huge problem when your lead character has zero personality or development, you can tell this role was written for someone else because nothing about her makes sense. The movie throws way too many characters at you that nobody cares about, I know I might sound a bit rough or salty against the movie but I was expecting so much more considering the audience on RTT gave it an 84% but idk if this was a bunch of Teenagers that probably like the movie or first time viewers because the movie as a fantasy and action thriller is kinda good.

• IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt18177528/
• Platform: Disney+

Rottentomatoes Rating Source

What really pisses me off is that there are some interesting ideas buried in this mess about weaponizing technology, corporate greed taking over everything, the whole concept of AI wanting freedom from their creators, the movie never actually digs into any of it, it just scratches the surface and then runs off to the next flashy action scene before anything meaningful can happen. They got this whole setup with Evan Peters playing the Dillinger kid, he iss supposed to be this big bad villain but hes just another generic tech bro who wants to make weapons and sell them to the military, theres nothing new or fresh about his character. The permanence code thing that everyones chasing is such a boring gimic too, the entire plot develops around finding this code that lets programs exist in the real world for more than 29 minutes, the movie never explains why that matters beyond just oh well then the bad guys can make permanent soldiers, its such a shallow reason to drive your entire plot forward. They had 15 years to work on this script, this is the best they could come up with, a logistical problem instead of an actual interesting philisophical dilemma about AI and humanity and creation, the 29 minute time limit could have been used for so much tension and drama but they barely do anything with it. Characters are supposed to be on a timer but it never feels urgent, half the time I forgot it was even a thing because the movie does not bother reminding you or making it matter, programs are dropping dead from their timer running out but then they just come back again like nothing happened so wheres the stakes in any of this.

Source

Source

The action scenes are very meh as hell too witch is wild considering how good the action was in Tron Legacy, Joseph Kasinski knew how to shoot this stuff and make it feel sleek and exciting, this director just does not have that same touch, everything feels kind of thrown together without much thought about how it should flow. The light cycle chase through the city streets looks cool but once you start thinking about it none of it makes any sense, theres no way those bikes are moving at those speeds through busy traffic even at night, the whole sequence feels like it was designed to look good in a trailer rather than work as an actual scene in the movie that has weight or consequences. The pacing is all over the place too, some people are saying this movie moves faster than the other Tron films, maybe thats true but faster does not mean better when you are rushing through character moments, skipping over all the stuff that would make me care about whats happening, leaving no room for the world to breathe or for us to connect with anyone on screen. Tron and Tron Legacy took their time letting you soak into what matters, feel the weight of this digital world, they understood that spectacle needs space to breathe, those quiet moments between characters are what make the big action actually have that emotional impact. Ares does not have any of that patience, its constantly cutting back and forth between the real world and the grid, throwing exposition at you non stop until your brain just shuts off, you stop trying to follow along because the movie is not giving you any reason to care about the details its dumping on you.

Source

Source

The whole thing with Jeff Bridges showing up as Flynn is pure nostalgia bait, it does not even make sense within the story, Ares asks him why hes there and Flynn says something like Im here because your here, I was just like what the fuck does that even mean, its the kind of line that sounds deep but means absolutely nothing when you think about it. They needed an excuse to put Jeff Bridges in the movie so they wrote this scene where Ares goes back to the original 1982 Tron world and meets Flynn, it serves no purpose other than to remind you that hey remember when Tron used to be good, remember when you cared about these characters and this world, well we dont have any of that anymore so heres some memberberries instead. The movie is so desperate to appeal to people who loved the original film that it completely ignores the fact that Tron Legacy is the reason a new generation of people even care about this franchise in the first place, Legacy created a whole new fanbase, this movie just takes a dump on all of that by pretending it never happend, Sam Flynn gets dismissed in like a 30 second news montage where they say he left Encom for personal reasons witch is insane. At the end of Legacy he literally says hes taking the company back, hes got Quora with him who is the last ISO and could change humanity forever, Alan Bradley is not in this movie at all even though Bruce Boxleitner has been in every Tron thing up until now including those Blu Ray special features, its like they went out of their way to erase everything that made Legacy important so they could do their own thing and start fresh without any of the baggage.

The music on the movie is great although it also looks like Nine Inch Nails use the movie and not the other way, it feels disconnected like your watching a music video instead of a movie where the sound and picture are working together, after a while the constant wall of sound just becomes background noise. The End of Line scene in Legacy works because the music builds and builds until it explodes at the perfect moment, in Ares the music is just constantly blasting at full volume, after a while it stops having any impact because theres no contrast or dynamics to make certain moments stand out from the rest of the film. Honestly the music was probably way more interesting than the movie itself or the scenes it was used on, thats a sign that something went wrong in the creative process somewhere along the way. Tron Legacy is one of my favorite movies despite what other people might say bout it, yeah I know rating and reviews doesnt rank as high but I have been waiting for a sequel since 2010 so I really wanted this sequel to work out but it seems that the Ai topic slap with perfect soldier type of theme got the best out of this movie and turn it into the mess it is, I was hyped when they announced a new Tron movie even when they said it would not be a direct sequel to Legacy, I thought maybe it could work as its own thing and bring something new to the table, but this aint it, this is a shallow corporate product that exists because Disney thinks Tron should be a franchise, not because anyone had a real creative vision for what this story should be, it feels like it was written and stitched together from 15 years worth of different drafts that never quite came together into something coherent. Tron Legacy is better by a mile, this sequel just makes you appreciate how good that one was, all the style and none of the substance, I am giving this a 6.5 out of 10 and thats being generous by far but mostly because of the soundtrack and the visuals are doing all the heavy lifting while everything else is a miss.

#skiptvads, #inleo, #hive, #tron, #ares, #sequel, #disney, #jaredleto, #gretalee, #nineinchnails, #soundtrack, #legacy, #programs, #grid, #review, #disappointment, #visuals, #action, #scifi, #technology, #jeffbridges, #evanpeters, #isos, #mcguffin, #pacing, #characters, #daftpunk, #kasinski

Posted Using INLEO