Film Reviews by None

There's a lot to like about this show - the characters, the design, the universe created around it, the special effects and the fact that it's generally a fun show.

Unfortunately the quality varies greatly from episode to episode. The opening episode concerns an alien crewmember who needs to return to his homeworld... to pee. That's a gag that's funny for about thirty seconds. Another focuses on a child misbehaving at school. Honestly, is this the best the scriptwriters could come up with? Then there are episodes that are thrilling and surprising, with some very novel ideas - such as a first contact situation that goes very badly.

For me, a lot of the so-called comedy doesn't work - it gets in the way of telling good stories. Orville would have been better as a straight sf drama, ditching the comedy and the dull relationships crises.

As for a Star Rating, I'd happily give the good episodes 5/5... but the poor ones deserves 1-2/5. Average 3/5.

Endgame rounds off the Avengers series, but I found it the weakest of the four Avengers movies. Here what lost the film 2 stars for me:

[1] The film is too long - a good edit would have tightened it up without diminishing the story.

[2] The time travel element is very poorly used. At the beginning, explanations are given as to how time travel "really works"... later on the logic behind time travel is just forgotten and the writers forget their own rules.

[3] The final battle runs to maybe 25 minutes, despite its huge potential. That's about half the battle from Avengers 1. Why, when there are so many characters involved? I felt cheated.

[4] Bland, almost expressionless Capt Marvel kills just about any scene she is in. Plus, the addition of such an overpowered hero diminishes the excitement of the movie. Given she can fly through spaceships, did any other Avengers really need to turn up?

On the positive side, you are able to rejoin characters you have grown to love over 20+ movies, and despite the film's flaws it becomes very enjoyable.

Sad that this is the end of an era, though. I don't even know if I'm interested in any future MCU films, to feature characters I've never heard of - it's like the A team is gone and the B squad will follow!

I've loved all the Marvel movies, but this one just didn't have anything for me. To everyone who enjoyed the movie, I'm glad you did - but here's what ruined it for me personally...

The lead actress is wooden, dull and has the charisma of a brick.

The story is minimal and the supposed "twist" is glaringly obvious well over an hour earlier.

When the heroine reveals all her powers, she is utterly indestructible and devastating (even flying through a huge spaceship) - so there's no risk to her at all. How can this be exciting?

The back story on Nick Fury destroys the character on an effort to be funny - making him rather pathetic.

The film left me wondering about the future of the Marvel series. After developing a wide range of great characters over many movies, suddenly a new one appears who is more powerful than all the rest put together... making all the originals second tier and disposable. Not a pleasant surprise!

Trimmed down to 90 mins this, might be an interesting mystery - but stretched out to 3 hrs it's numbing.

This is sad because there are interesting plots elements, the acting and settings are good, and the characters have plenty of depth.

Funnily enough, I solved whodunit in the first episode with a single observation... a clue that is never mentioned in the story. Here it is (spoiler):

When the husband rushes to the sound of a maid screaming, he sees his wife lying on the carpet bleeding from a head wound. His reaction is to comfort the maid - anyone else would have rushed to check his wife. The only reason for him not to do so is that he already knew her injury was fatal - he was the killer. Now if only I'd stopped watching there and saved myself two hours!

Michael Caine is one of my favorite actors, so I anticipated that him combined with an excellent supporting cast would be a treat.

Unfortunately, I found the movie utterly boring, unlikable. and dumb.

SPOILERS!

For a start, the heist has all the complexity of a bunch of schoolboys finding a shop door open and nipping into to steal sweets. The supposedly seasoned criminals are utterly oblivious to CCTV cameras - which leads to the police identifying them very quickly. I think the movie title should have been The Incompetents.

Worse still, I found, was that the early camaraderie between the "old friends" suddenly turns nasty and diminishes into backstabbing. Surely if these people knew each other as well as we are to be believe, they could never have trusted each other to begin with..? Then, bizarrely, at the end of the film, after being caught, the crooks are all best friends again. I was baffled!

I don't know how closely the story is based on the real life incidents and how much has been fictionalized, and I'm not interested in finding out. All I know is that I wasn't entertained - I was bored and hated the movie.

Check out the original Italian Job instead!

The movie lifts much of its story from the Tomb Raider reboot and its recent sequel. But whereas the reboot games plunged you into story and action on the island... this movie takes 40 minutes to get there! Then the story skips any sense of wonder, exploration or adventure on the island, introduces the bland bad guys and sets off towards the end.

Unlike Jolie's version of the character, the new Lara Croft is pretty boring. No fun, no charisma, though obviously very good in action scenes. This is also a major problem of the movie in general - there's no "magic" to it: a minimal plot, cardboard characters, great predictability and a sense of "we've seen all of this stuff before".

The CGI is good - especially the river/water/crashed aircraft scene, but CGI is supposed to be a tool for film-making, not the only virtue a movie has. The island location is also gorgeous, although a better director would have used it in a way that made the place look more epic and breathtaking (maybe there was no island... maybe it was also studio and CGI?).

Hollywood really, really is in dire need of good scriptwriters for its blockbusters.

If you want a fun adventure movie of a similar kind, I'd recommend Jumaji 2 over this. I had fun watching that - I liked the characters, the location was used to give a sense of spectacle, the action was great and it held my interest all the time. Tomb Raider was an effort to sit through without fasting forwards.

If you want a much better story, with better characters, visuals, action and adventure... play the recent games.

Spoiler-free review...

The movie is well-acted, well filmed and has a style of its own which doesn't feel borrowed from anything else.

Like me, you might deduce the plot and supposed twists/surprises very early on (perhaps I've just seen a lot of time travel movies and know what I'm looking for) - but the overall journey is still a good one.

There are no scenes where the movie becomes dull, but also none really of particular tension or threat. Instead, you have a solid story, well told, and it isn't overly long.

The only disappointment? The climax is delivered in the manner of "wow, you didn't expect THAT did you?"... but actually, I did, and I'd known it was coming for at least an hour. It would have been nice to be hit with a real surprise.

(Some spoilers...)

After the previous instalment, which was mostly a return to a more thrilling horror movie (although, for me, let down by a dumb ending that felt tagged-on), I had high hopes for Cult of Chucky.

I imaged the excitement that multiple Chuckies stalking their victims could bring. Surely, there would be some excellent, well-designed chase and action sequences. And how will the heroine/hero manage to stop the "cult"?

Instead, the movie is boring and very predictable. There are no chase sequences that I can recall - instead victims are usually helpless and can't fight back. And as to how the heroes overcome the threat? They don't. As in far, far too many horror movies of the last 10 years, the evil force triumphs. Haven't moviemakers yet come to realize that the idea of the killer winning isn't a surprise anymore? Or is it simply that so few people have the talent to write a really good script nowadays - it's easier to copy everyone else?

On the horror/kills angle (for the gore-fans out there), you won't see anything original in this movie. A falling glass sequence is probably the highlight as it's technically very well done. There is no real tension or threat ever, mainly because everything is so predictable. Stupidity is also king in this film... such as why is there a big, lethal drill available for use in a mental ward?

On the plus side, the lead actress is excellent as she was in the previous movie. And the interaction between the multiple Chuckies is a little funny (though it should have been hilarious).

Worst film of the series... despite a potentially awesome concept!