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Reviews
Army of the Dead (2021)
Predictable
The plot was interesting enough but then devolved into the most predictable combination of Aliens/I Am Legend/Pitch Black, only much less interesting than any of those. All except for Dave Bautista's character were highly unlikeable. The cinematography was annoying with nearly every shot being in shallow focus and lacking direction. So many moments were dragged out it became annoying as you kept wondering why it's still going, and a lot of shots (especially the death scenes) were unintentionally hilarious. All in all, it was entertaining enough to not be a complete waste of time and I did really like the helicopter scene and the death scene at the end.
Brightburn (2019)
Lacking in all possible departments
The script was lacking in all departments (plot, character, structure, dialogue etc.) so it made for a pretty uninteresting watch. What also stood out to me is that the lighting and effects were bad in many scenes, which was surprising for a movie like this. Also the acting was not the best but you can't do much with a script like that.
However I really liked some things at the very beginning and end of the movie (the sinister undertones of the beginning, as well as the discovered corpse at the end and the POV of the mother looking into her son's eyes while being high up in the air was great). All in all a pretty sub-par movie with some decent moments.
Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi (2017)
Entertaining, but completely misses the point of Star Wars
Besides the use of the kind of humor that's even becoming stale in marvel movies, this product completely misses the point of star wars and butchers original characters in the process. First, I don't claim to know what the point of Star Wars is (even though Lucas explained it in interviews), but I can tell you this is not even close. It's no wonder the concept of the grey jedi wasn't invented by Lucas because it makes not much sense in the rules of this universe. It's already been established that jedi=good and sith=bad but Rian seems to think that jedi=hard-left and sith=hard-right so it's better to come to the middle or something? This has never been a contemporary political franchise so I don't understand how in this universe grey jedi could make sense. Besides this, several established rules were broken like hyperspeed and Luke being practically the most hopeful character in the universe etc. Also the direction was quite bad compared to even Rogue One, where the camera in space battles flew with the fighters to put you right into the action and the objectives were well visualized and oriented in the scene, while here it was just fighters flying all over the place with no clear objective or threat (completely ruining the tension). This is just one example of the bad choices made. Another thing that did not make sense was the slave kids supporting the rebels because they freed the animals or something? That's such a huge leap of logic, I can't get my head around that decision. In the end I don't remember much from this movie but I do remember being simultaneously entertained and confused at the same time. Star Wars needs to move onto new directions, even Return of the Jedi already had problems with recycling things from the first movie, and Disney decided it would be a good idea to essentially try and tell a similar story as the OT.
Jurassic World (2015)
The definition of an average movie
How can you criticize commercialism while advertizing actual brands? At least have the integrity to use fake brands like they did in The Truman Show. Besides this immense oversight, you could sum this movie up with two particular segments where the recognizable soundtrack comes in: in the original, those themes are used to introduce a helicopter descending down an immense waterfall and the characters seeing a miracle (real living dinosaurs) for the first time, here they are used to introduce a helicopter landing in front of a regular building and the characters seeing the mesosaurus tank (without the mesosaurus) for the first time. It's a hollow product capitalizing on its predecessor's success, lacking most of what made the original a classic, but entertaining nonetheless.
Zack Snyder's Justice League (2021)
Decent
One of the best DC movies in the DCEU, but that's not saying too much. Even though it improved in many aspects, it still lacks severely in those aspects. If you want to make a comparison, the heist scene in The Dark Knight perfectly summarizes the Joker's character and his tactics, the heist scene in this movie (apart from it not even making any sense) was pointless in every way I could think of. Also Wonder Woman's music sucks so bad and is completely out of place. There is no connection or chemistry between the villain and the heros, and no clear theme or character flaw it wants to explore. Above average movie with some great things going for it, but lacking. Chris Nolan still is the greatest thing to have happened to DC in recent years by a long shot.
Exterminate All the Brutes (2021)
"This is a story, not a contribution to historical research."
This direct quote from the first episode summarizes this series perfectly. It's an emotional tale of historical trauma that remains today. However, as most emotional stories are, it's only half-true and it should not be mistaken for fact.
As Peck proposes (quite unoriginally), it is true that white societies deemed themselves to be civil while demonizing other cultures as barbaric, while they themselves were engaging in destructive behavior as well. However, instead of leaving it there, he also seems to make the assertion that these various cultures were civil, while only the whites were the barbaric ones. I fail to understand how pointing out one-sided historical revisionism through the use of one-sided historical revisionism is not hypocritical. Furthermore, many quotes are taken out of context but I guess the revisionism part covers that.
Ignoring the racially insensitive connotation of the word "whiteness", which is used many times throughout the documentary, all this series opened my eyes to is how most other documentaries are probably as onesided as this one. Peck also contradicts himself multiple times by simultaneously claiming that this is a story and that what he's saying is fact, while in actuality most of his opinions are conjecture and the facts he proposes mere lies by omission, which would support his claim that this is a story of a single perspective and not much more. In summary, this series is well-made and very convincing on an emotional level, but it would also be one of the least self-aware documentaries I have ever seen and not nearly as clever as it purports to be.