• Category Archives Movie & TV Related

  • The Batman & Zack Snyder’s Justice League

    Posted on by Offkorn Comment

    Not sure why I decided to watch this most recent movie reboot of the titular Batman character since I’m not a big fan of DC comics or superhero movies in general. Think I was just bored… a state of affairs the movie did little to alleviate. While there’s no problem with the various actors (beside Pattinson looking a bit too much like a punk rock frontman with all that eyeliner maybe), the pacing is pretty damn slow and it ends up feeling more like an endless miniseries than a movie.

    The Snyder Cut of the Justice League movie on the other hand has been on my ‘to watch’ list for some time now, ever since I found out the original release had been heavily modified by Joss Whedon (which handily explained the Avengers resemblance). Anyway, while this extended version no longer feels like a poor knockoff of that movie, I still wouldn’t go out of my way to call it worth watching unless you’re already a fan of the material. Basically it’s a pretty standard superhero movie through and through that you’ll probably like if you can’t get enough of that genre.

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  • The Huntsman Movies & GRIMM

    Posted on by Offkorn Comment

    The first Huntsman movie, Snow White and the Huntsman, is as the title would imply more focused on Snow White than the huntsman. The movie features a particularly martial variation on the tale, going pretty heavy on action and gritty medieval atmosphere. It’s a solid enough adaptation visually speaking with the main flaws being the anticlimactic final confrontation and pretty much everything about the evil queen.

    Unfortunately, that queen plays a role in The Huntsman: Winter’s War as well… along with a second queen who’s no better. Not helping matters is that with Snow White gone and her replacement being even more aggressive than the huntsman, the work as a whole becomes overly action-focused. There’s pretty much nothing recommendable about it; if you want to watch Hemsworth in an action role Thor: Ragnarok would likely be a better choice.

    Also fairytale related, the TV series Grimm takes the trappings of a generic police procedural and crosses it with some Buffy-like fantasy elements themed on classic folklore. The ‘adapting ancient stories to modern crimes’ aspect works well enough, the problem is the whole metaplot with the inexplicable werewolf sidekick and transforming the protagonist from relatively normal detective into a supernatural warrior. Maybe the integration works better in later seasons, but after the shakiness of the first I don’t care enough to find out.

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  • Venom & SPIDER-MAN: Far From Home

    Posted on by Offkorn Comment

    The 2018 Venom movie is a reboot of the character which draws inspiration from the Planet of the Symbiotes comic plotline, which makes it a little strange that people were surprised it came across like a love story; it was a love story. Overall I think this focuses a little too much on being goofy and would’ve been better if Brock had more agency instead of basically being piloted by the symbiote for much of the runtime. The visual effects are solid though and I’m now cautiously optimistic for the upcoming Maximum Carnage adaptation.

    The second of the Marvel co-produced Spider-Man films, Far From Home, acts as a postscript to Endgame (which is mainly why I watched it, having been ambivalent about Homecoming) in addition to advancing its own ongoing relationship plotline. It has pretty much all the same pros/cons as its prequel (impressive visuals; Parker’s still in school) and will probably end up better if you aren’t familiar with the featured villain ahead of time.

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  • I⊃:INVΛ⊃≡⊃ & Inception

    Posted on by Offkorn Comment

    ID: Invaded is a series in the vein of Psycho-Pass if Psycho-Pass readings resembled Inception‘s dream-diving. It’s far more of a mystery-thriller than an action series however and unfortunately gets weird in a manner similar to King of Thorn toward the end (the Akane stand-in being made even smaller is another oddity).

    Speaking of Inception, that happens to be a movie I’ve referenced a time or two in the past in relation to newer works… yet, I never actually saw the whole thing. I had only seen the trailer and read the Wikipedia summary.

    Having now watched it, it doesn’t appear I was missing much. It’s not as mind-bendy as you would think (Doctor Strange gets weirder than it does) and in effect just ends up a variation on the standard heist movie formula popularized by movies like Ocean’s Eleven and The Italian Job. Which doesn’t make it not worth watching… just that the description evokes something more innovative than the reality.

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  • LEGIⓧN & THE ALIENIST

    Posted on by Offkorn Comment

    Based off of a Marvel Comics’ character, the 3-season television series Legion is a study in high-concept insanity. It takes guts to make something so deliberately incoherent, to essentially thread together one concept episode after another until you have a consistently inconsistent schizophrenic tapestry… that I can’t deny. Doesn’t mean it’s worth watching though.

    The Alienist is something quite a bit different. A Victorian era thriller with police procedural elements set in New York City, its first season mainly busies itself with highlighting police corruption and reminding people that prostitution is a gender-neutral profession. I’m not at all surprised that it had a middling reception (though I liked the first half or so), especially since the narrative basically falls apart once the focus shifts to ‘the west’.

    The second season, subtitled Angel of Darkness, puts a greater focus on Sara and women’s suffrage in general with the murder victims being babies this time rather than adolescents. The corruption elements here come across as excessive/overwhelming and the work as a whole almost feels less like a thriller and more like soapbox preaching. Meaning I can’t really recommend watching this series either.

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  • PROJECT POWER & JOHN WICK₃: PARABELLUM

    Posted on by Offkorn Comment

    Seeing the description for Project Power immediately brought to mind The Boys, and there are a few aesthetic similarities there. Overall though I’d have to say it’s a very different type of show which relies much too heavily on gimmicks/tropes; once the almost buddy-cop dynamic between the kid and other two leads is formed the level of believability just falls straight through the floor. It does however have some pretty cool visual effects.

    The third John Wick movie picks up immediately from where the last left off and… ultimately doesn’t really go anywhere over the course of its runtime. If you’ve seen the two previous movies, and I suggest doing so, then know that this continues amping up the ridiculousness level of the gun/fist/knife fights. Meaning that if the prequel was bordering on too much then this’ll likely be unwatchable (many of the fights end up with a strange dichotomy of being both laughably cartoonish and disconcertingly gory).

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  • WITCHBLADE & HOMELAND

    Posted on by Offkorn Comment

    The turn of the century TV adaptation of the comicbook series Witchblade begins with a movie. Being almost entirely an action-drama (there’s some supernatural mystery in there as well), it suffers rather severely from the fact that the action scenes are mostly ridiculous. More than anything they bring to mind a super sentai series… making it prohibitively difficult to take the drama seriously.

    Homeland is also a TV series, one which thankfully doesn’t appear to suffer from unintentional comedy (just frontloaded gratuitous nudity). The first season is a combination of thriller and familial drama which comes across something like “Hex: The Early Years”. On the face of things that shouldn’t have been much of a problem, but the early ‘fuck people’s privacy!’ theme is taken to Stalker-ish extremes and almost ends up a deal-killer.

    The second season is a continuation of the first, following a timeskip, which slows things down with more of a focus on secret-agenty behavior and personal trauma. The third picks up shortly after and amps up the personal drama quite a bit. At this juncture the re-occurring psychiatric issues subplot (and accompanying mental institution committals) becomes actively aggravating. It also happens to be the point the series starts focusing a hell of a lot more on Saul than Carrie.

    Season 4 is something of a soft reboot which makes the odd choice to replace the adultery-related drama with childcare drama only to almost immediately drop the topic completely, while also going well out of its way to shoehorn in more psychiatric issues. Seriously… what the fuck? And if that weren’t bad enough, the 5th season (picking up two years after S4’s conclusion) goes completely off the rails.

    It’s strange… the show makes so many odd choices and sends so many conflicting signals that it’s tough to get a read on it. The early seasons are both good and bad. Regardless, if you do decide to give it a chance, you should definitely stop watching at the end of S4 (if you can make it that far). Maybe go watch Jormungand after for the Hex/Bookman parallels.

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  • TRUE DETECTIVE

    Posted on by Offkorn Comment

    I’ve heard quite a number of good things about True Detective‘s premiere season, and the first 4.5 episodes absolutely live up to the hype. However… once it abandons the past narrative to focus on a current day case, alluded to by the interview framing device, it deteriorates quite quickly. Genre-wise it’s a mix of thrillerish dramatic elements combined with familial/relationship drama and a bit of action here and there, all of which fit together remarkably well.

    The second season switches up the cast, location, and structure; no framing gimmicks here (though there is a time skip). The genre composition remains more or less the same while the character personalities/goals are quite different and it has more of an ensemble cast sort of thing going on. Overall I’d say this season ends up significantly better than the first. Oh sure it starts out shaky and a bit difficult to follow, which can be damning if compared directly to the first season’s beginning, but the connection between the pre- and post-timeskip plotlines is far stronger and the work as a whole is noticeably more consistent.

    The third season goes back to the style and structure of the first in pretty much every way (no, adding a second interview timeline does not count as an innovation), even directly referencing it. Why? Why would you retread old ground like this? Was all the criticism of the second season really so influential or did the creator simply run out of ideas? Just re-watch the first season rather than bother with this pointless rehash.

    In summary: The first is good, the second is great, and the third is a waste of time (unless you like shows featuring alzheimer’s sufferers I guess).

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  • THE WITCHER & THE: MANDALORIAN

    Posted on by Offkorn Comment

    The Netflix Witcher TV series is strange. I first tried watching it back in March but just lost all interest after the first episode. Tried again now and didn’t get much farther. The production quality is perfectly fine aside from Geralt’s eyes not having a slit pupil (and the swordfighting choreography is fantastic), but there’s just an intangible emptiness of some sort there that makes it difficult to watch.

    The Mandalorian on the other hand has both high production values (for the most part… some sets are curiously empty) and relatively engaging developments. It very much feels like the new movies, but not quite as soulless thanks to both actual time being spent on developing its characters and more imaginative scenarios. I still wouldn’t call it good though… merely watchable if you have some time to kill.

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  • ALTERED CARBON

    Posted on by Offkorn Comment

    The first season of this series starts off great, only to noticeably deteriorate about halfway through when it does that thing ‘prestige’ television seems so fond of: Pull out a plot twist that completely changes the show’s focus/themes. I’d still say it’s worth watching, lot of similarities to Bladerunner, The Expanse, and even a bit of Fifth Element (probably some Westworld there too… but I haven’t seen that), it’s just that it ends up merely watchable instead of a must see.

    Fitting in between the first and second seasons is an Anime movie. It’s a side story (meaning it can be watched as a stand alone or completely ignored) done in what appears to be a cell-shaded 3DCGI style, and I would not suggest watching it as an extension of the series since it reminds me of Souten no Ken Regenesis more than any sci-fi work (except perhaps GitS). What is it with shows featuring inexplicable ninja armies? Am I just unlucky?

    Then there’s the second season, which is quite a bit different from the first… and not only because the actor playing the MC has changed (one ‘benefit’ of having a setting centered on body swapping is the ability to shuffle performers at will). While that’s more of a conspiracy drama this instead focuses on an amnesia-themed and somewhat aimless personal quest, trading the police/detective elements for military/political ones. It comes across as pretty forced and lacks any of the pop present in the first season (though the finale’s pretty good).

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