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Reviews
The Silence (2019)
Oh dear what a terrible movie
I'll start by giving the actors and actresses credit for doing their best to take seriously what was a pretty horrific premise for a movie.
Sadly, when there are as many plot holes as "The Silence" served up, no amount of valiant performances were ever going to save it.
Leaving all clear and obvious scientific impossibilities aside including the (isolated from anyone within the ground since the dawn of time) "vesps" having a ravenous craving for flesh (particularly of the human variety), I couldn't help noticing that they didn't half like that house in the middle of nowhere. The thing is, there was no earthly reason why. The house was about as remote as it gets, with complete silence reigning across the countryside and very few obvious food sources for blind creatures entirely reliant on their hearing. The movie certainly gave no hint of a heightened sense of smell.
However, these creatures chose to hang out there in their thousands. It's father and daughter encountered very few of the creatures on their expedition into town to get the mother some antibiotics and pain relief and about 4 or 5 in the town itself. Weird too that presumably having never encountered a human being before, these creatures chose to lay their eggs in human bodies. Bizarre in the extreme. The mother, who was bitten pretty badly, seemed to perk up quite a lot to be fair after those meds. I don't know what those meds were but it was suddenly like her bites never happened.
Anyway, for me the question was, having found a way to move about freely, why didn't they just move somewhere else? Like into town where there were strangely 1/1000th of the isolated house's predatory inhabitants.
Which brings me to the quiet ones or whatever they were called. They were so annoyingly bad that I'd have braved the inevitable swarm of vesps just to get a few jabs in, let alone to take them out.
I've given the movie 2 stars. One for the credit the cast deserve for their brave faces and another for obviously entertaining me enough to write this review 😁
The Last Kingdom (2015)
An epic bit of tv
What a show from the BBC. Different level to the usual dross they churn out. Stays true to what we think we know about the dark ages and has a gripping and intriguing storyline. The acting is of a very high standard and the characters are immensely likeable and multi-faceted. I think some on here are over-hyping it a bit. For example, it is no way comparable to Game of Thrones, not only because GoT has a very different feel, is very obviously a fantasy story and it is also much superior in terms of budget and end product.
That is not to say that the series is not hugely enjoyable and very addictive, but don't expect an HBO style production.
Owari No Seraph (2015)
Much better than expected
If traditional gothic vampires are your thing then Seraph is probably not for you. There is little in the animation that is dark and sinister and this probably owes to the bright colour palette and the relatively weak soundtrack. The show is a fantasy-style blood fest rather than a true horror and should be categorised as such in the mind before viewing.
All of this said, despite it's lack of visual edginess, it is an anime that has strong characters with likeable personalities and a strong sense of family, loyalty to friends and duty at the core of an entertaining storyline.
If I'm honest, I wasn't expecting a lot, so I was pleasantly surprised by how engaged I was in the storyline and I enjoyed the series in the same way as I enjoyed the film Underworld.
Admittedly, what was supposed to be a twist was easily fathomed early on, but there are some books that aren't epics and are nevertheless page turner's. For me this was the anime equivalent.
Star Trek: Discovery (2017)
Don't listen to the nonsense!
There are those who won't like anything if it's different. It could be fear of change or it could be Star Trek snobbery. I like Star Trek. I've never been obsessive about it but I've enjoyed it's simplicity and it's determination not to take itself too seriously - a trait which perhaps some reviewers should try themselves.
Anyway, at a risk of sounding controversial, he goes:
At last. A Star Trek that actually looks like it could be set in the future.
Finally, Klingons that look like they could be an serious alien race instead of obviously being humans with heavy metal hair, Ming the merciless-style stick-on eyebrows and foreheads that hark back to their walnut heritage.
The Star Fleet uniform still tips it's cap to that of yesteryear and the bridge is now looks like it is the very essence of future technology.
The actors are superb. They have been given a different brief: For the show to be grittier and not to have the show descend into the cheese fests characteristic among so many Star Trek filler episodes. There are no wide-eyed over-acting Shatners on this show using dodgy throws and double handed back blows to dispose of his enemies and for that, surely we must all be thankful.
The Open House (2018)
Really. Really. Bad.
I won't go into it. There really is little to tell. This is because not only do I not know why what did happen happened, I also have no idea why the film was made. It wasn't an attempt to be arty. It wasn't a "work it out for yourself" type scenario. I was so apathetic about the film that I wouldn't take the time to work it out. For your information, if you feel the need to watch it you can catch it after Sharnado 26 and Camel Spiders on Syfy channel in a year or two.
Extinction (2018)
All kinds of terrible
Well if that's what I'm going to get from my subscription I would like a refund. Tragically, Netflix can't give me back an hour and a half of my life.
If the writers of this utter nonsense were trying to create a perfect template for how not to make a sci-fi movie they succeeded.
The movie was designed to make the watcher think about potential future scenarios concerning AI and potential social issues which may arise. Wow. Did anyone associated with this film really think the b-movie actors, script and dialogue could be saved by a smattering of half-decent special effects?
Honestly, I didn't care about any of the characters, who were both uncharismatic and unmemorable. My apathy towards them was matched only by my disbelief at the sheer rubbish the plot was serving me up to swallow. I really didn't care if any of them lived or died until the boredom really set in and I realised that cutting the film short with a nuclear explosion might have been a blessing for me and those poor actors who were clearly as bored as me and going through the motions.