Passengers (2016)

I go into spoilers in this review. If you want my spoiler free thoughts you can find them here.

I liked Passengers. It is not the greatest movie. It had potential to be better. It just didn't want to go where it should have gone. There were few moment if they went to different direction this would have been great movie. It is too predictable. Trailer and ads give too much away. I would have liked the movie more if I knew nothing about it.

Like good science fiction this make people react differently from which angle they see it. The big thing is Chris Pratt wakes Jennifer Lawrence up after he has been waked up alone for over a year. How you react to this defines how you see the movie. Some seem to hate Chris Pratt is shown redeemable. Chris Pratt was shown as too likeable. He should have been creepier but I kind of understand why he did it.

Passengers is quite hard science fiction. Chris Pratt was miscast. They used too much of his charisma and made him dance. Someone less charismatic should have been in his role. There were few changes to make this darker and better. They chose to make this predictable.

Passengers have potential but it doesn't rise up to level of Moon, Ex Machina or Solaris which are doing similar thing. There are no major flaws. Movie just doesn't dare to go far enough. It is not action movie. Casting and trailers portray it having more action than it actually has. Most of the time it is one or two people spending time on empty space ship.

Rogue One: a Star Wars Story (2016)

I will get in spoilers in this review. If you want my spoiler free you can find them here.

Rogue One is fan service after fan service and almost nothing more than that. I gave this movie a change. I even put my Star Wars shirt on. I didn't expect much and I get what I expected. Force Awakens was remake of New Hope. This is prequel to New Hope. So far new Star Wars movies have given us images we liked in the Original Trilogy.

Movie lost me when it started by showing flashes on different planets where different characters dropped names of other characters I knew nothing about. Something happened and we saw different planets of Star Wars universe and saw various characters which can be sold as toys. I just didn't understand what was point of it until movie started to follow characters more. By that time I had lost interest.

You forgive many things if you are invested into story and characters. I wasn't with Rogue One. I knew what I should have felt. I just didn't feel it. When there was CGI shot of space ships I thought ship in front has different light source than ships in background. When Jedha was destroyed I wondered why destruction spread so slowly and why everything related to destruction happened so slowly.

When we saw Darth Vader first time I wonder why he would hang around in lava planet after he was burned so badly on one earlier. It looked like it was his home. When he attacked rebels during final battle I wondered why he was at the front of the attack. Was he tired during New Hope when he let stormtroopers do the dirty work?

When they were in Scarif stealing the plans I wondered why Empire would store important data into hard disks which you need to get and attach to something to get to the data. When you want to transport that data you have to go outside to put the hard disk into satellite dish then walk narrow bridge to satellite dish controller which is high above the ground on top of nothing. When Empire stops rebels sending data they destroy whole data storage facility instead of turning off or destroying the satellite dish. Probably there was no easy way to turn off the dish.

By destroying the facility they lost huge amounts of data which probably isn't stored anywhere else. When rebels got the data they stored it into one disc which they had to get into safety. Star Wars universe isn't very good at storing and transporting data even after they got it wirelessly.

I would have forgiven this if I was invested. Ending was spoiled 1977. There are only two interesting characters. Donnie Yen's character and the robot. Both are in supporting roles. Jyn Erso is just boring. She is supposed to be female Han Solo who grows to join the rebels and become leader. Her inspirational dialog didn't feel right coming out of mouth of someone who had not shown any interest to rebellion before.

Cassian Andor was just unlikeable creep even when he made choice to stand up for something. Yes, he is another Han Solo character. Main bad guy was just generic ambitious bad guy. I felt they got Darth Vader and Grand Moff Tarkin wrong. Saw Gerrera felt too much like General Grievous. His death scene was just him giving up.

Rogue One is not one of top three Star Wars movie. People lost their minds when the saw stormtroopers, tie fighters, AT-ATs, star destroyers and other familiar things from original trilogy. Rogue One offers only little more than eye candy for fans of original trilogy. It will be forgotten by the time we get next Star Wars movie which again is one of the best movies of all time for a short while until people see what it actually is.

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016) & Passengers (2016)

If you can't see the video you can find it here.

This is my spoiler free review of Rogue One and Passengers. I didn't plan to watch Rogue on in theater. I just had time on Christmas Day to watch it and Passengers. Passengers I actually wanted to see. I will write spoiler reviews to my blog later. There I go deeper into these movies.

Wynonna Earp - Season 1 (2016)

I'll be honest. I didn't like Wynonna Earp after first few episodes. There was something interesting but overall things didn't click. Maybe I expected something else. Then something happened and I started to like the series more and more. Wynonna Earp is hard to put into any category. When you think you have figured it out next episode throws something else for you to process.

Wynonna Earp is Wyatt Earp's descendant and part of Earp's curse. Every generation of Wyatt Earp's descendants have to fight demons who are imprisoned in small town of Purgatory. They have Wyatt Earp's gun which sends demons back to hell. Wynonna is little bit Jessica Jones like character who tried to run from her destiny. She get help from her siblings, black ops agent Dolls and immortal Doc Holiday.

Series is bit too uneven. Characters range from forced dialog and even more forced acting Doc Holiday to almost normal people. Most characters are more or less boosted stereotypes. At first boosted stereotypes took me off but then I started to like them. Even Doc Holiday. Another character I started to like during the season was Wynonna's sister Waverly. She probably had most of character arc of all the characters.

You shouldn't expect anything realistic like I did. This is modern supernatural western with punk girl as main character and biker gang like demons as villains with supernatural horror characters visiting every now and then. It might be too different for mainstream audience. I just hope it will have enough audience to last many seasons.

Spectral (2016)

Some Netflix Originals are really good like Stranger Things and all their Marvel series. Some are not so good. Some are interesting but lack something. Spectral is not so good. Really good stuff seems to be limited to series. I have yet to see really good Netflix Original movie. Arq had potential but something was missing.

Spectral is science fiction action horror movie which offers nothing but science fiction action horror movie. There are no interesting characters. Message is when you use science to create weapons something could go wrong. Movie looks good but that is not enough. Movie adds too many characters only to be killed off in seconds when action starts.

Main problem is nothing important happens. There are no character arcs. Characters don't grow during the story and we don't learn anything about them after their introduction. Movie goes from scene to scene. When heroes have problems scientist invents something or someone comes to help them. There are no twists at all. Story just follows heroes going from one place to another. There was one unexpected event which was only unexpected because you don't normally see that. It just didn't have weight it should have had. Characters reacted to it for few seconds and then forgot it ever happened.

I wish they put more effort into story. With few changes it could have been interesting. Now Spectral is just another science fiction action horror movie. Good looking but nothing more than average.

Westworld - Season 1 (2016)

If you can't see the video you can find it here.

Season finale of Westworld's first season was quite interesting. If I shot this right after it video would have been different. I would have been more hyped. I shot this next day and was able to be more grounded.

I bought Westworld soundtrack. I liked detuned piano it had. I wanted something similar. Lucky for me I owned plugin Ramin Djawadi probably used in soundtrack. He was one of the people commenting plugin on plugin's page. All music in the video is from Pianoteq 5 using U4 instrument. I liked Pianoteq before but finding condition setting made me like it even more. At least to my ears my piano sounds close enough to what was in Westworld's soundtrack.

Babylon A.D. (2008)

For some reason I want to like Babylon A.D. I remember it better than it is after I have forgotten what it was like. This review will have big spoilers. If I want to talk about the movie I have to spoil it. Otherwise I could only say it is not that good and it tells about Vin Diesel and Michelle Yeoh taking innocent girl from Eastern Europe to America.

Movie happens in near future. Eastern Europe is war zone with people walking around with assault rifles. Criminals seem to be in control. Vin Diesel is hiding from the law in some small random village when he gets job to take innocent girl from middle of nowhere monastery to America. Michelle Yeoh is girl's guardian.

Later we learn girl is actually religious cult project to give them miracle. She is supposed to give birth to messiah or something like that. Vin Diesel is taking girl to them. Scientist who designed the girl tries to stop this with his own private army. Religious cult has own army and some kind of missile striking possibility. Criminal also has own private army. Makes you wonder why Vin Diesel had to bring the girl alone with Michelle Yeoh through dangerous route. To make everything make less sense fetal messiah gives supernatural powers to girl.

People and groups don't have motivations. Movie explains very little. Almost too little. World could have had interesting stories but nothing has any backstory if it is not directly connected to main story arch. For example we don't get to see genetic engineering anywhere else than in the girl. Borders are controlled but everyone seem to be able to carry assault rifles and have their private armies to do what they want.

Babylon A.D. has interesting idea which is wasted. It puts too much effort on being cool and too little on telling interesting stories. Movie feels more like collection of scenes than interesting story. Many things have almost no build up. We saw scientist's private army without telling who they were earlier in movie. When we met scientist we learned army was his. Scientist is big part of the whole story but we see him for few minutes. During that time he explains what was really going on and dies. Not that others get more backstory or character.

The Last Witch Hunter (2015)

I was interested about The Last Witch Hunter when I first heard about it. After that I haven't heard about it that much. After seeing the movie I understand why. There is not much to remember. I never got invested. It felt like movie expected to know everything from get go and like Vin Diesel's character before we knew anything about him.

I usually like Vin Diesel but this time I can't get behind his character. He is immortal witch hunter. Movie's plot resolves around secret related to his immortality. Even when he loses immortality he doesn't seem to get hurt. But biggest problem is we never quite know what he or the bad guys are capable of. We just watch what happens to know what they can do. Couple things had some build up but both times the thing was important on first time when we didn't know what it was.

Ending had little build up for sequel but I doubt this will ever get one. Even after this movie we don't know these characters. We know almost nothing of the world either. They just made stuff up as they went. Probably they didn't even have any idea what the organization Vin Diesel worked for was.

In one scene Vin Diesel explains how things work now to Michael Caine who has worked with him last fifty years. He probably knew how things worked since his predecessor knew. He had been on retirement for couple days at that point. Maybe Michael Caine needed to be reminded how things work. His words and his plan didn't make any sense when you know he knew the secret behind Vin Diesel's immortality.

Movie had couple interesting ideas but it was so badly written all the good ideas were buried by all the nonsense. Few more rewrites and overall darker tone would have done this good movie. Now I had problems staying focused. Even during the ending I didn't care and had to force myself to focus on what is happening. Story was boring and all the lens flares and other digital effects started to get annoying.

Jonah Hex (2010)

I am not sure what this is. This is little too good to be pilot of tv series which never got made. You don't get John Malkovich, Michael Fassbender and Megan Fox for tv series. Granted first two won't make it and Megan Fox wouldn't be regular. But movie don't feel serious effort even with these big names in it. It feels more like long tv episode.

Malkovich and Fassbender does good job with what they are given. Almost everything else is the problem. Characters are paper thin. Story is full of cliches and you can easily see where it is going when it doesn't get weird. Weirdness is there for weirdness' sake. There are strange dream sequences and unnecessary flashbacks like we wouldn't understand what is happening and how Jonah Hex feels without them.

Jonah Hex is based on DC comic. I am not sure how connected this is to DC's superhero universe. Jonah Hex was in couple episodes of Legends of Tomorrow. In there he was more normal. In this he has powers because he almost died once. Now he can talk to the dead and is pretty hard to kill.

Movie is quite average bad comic book movie. It was done when there were good comic book movies but it feels like all the bad comic book movies. This dark historical fantasy adventure thing has been done better in other movies.

The Expanse - Season 1 (2015)

If you can't see the video you can find it here.

This is spoiler free review of Syfy (/Netflix?) Original series The Expanse. In Netflix it looks like Netflix original. At least first season Syfy original and they have published trailer for second season. I don't know how this goes. I just hope I get to see second season on January.

Even though The Expanse is from Syfy it is not like Sharknado. It is good hard science fiction. Watch the video to know more about my thoughts.

Constantine (2005)

Constantine is another guilty pleasure of mine. I learned I shouldn't watch my guilty pleasures for reviews. I see all the flaws and they don't feel as good as when watched less analytically. Constantine is based on Hellblazer comics. I know there is comic named Hellblazer but nothing more. I can't say how faithful this is to comic or does Constantine ever take his helmet off. Sometimes movie adaptions work better when you don't know how much better source material is.

Movie tells about exorcist John Constantine and plot to bring devil's son to Earth. Earth is playground of half-angels and half-demons. God and devil have bet which one gets more souls. Constantine is going to hell because he committed suicide. He died only for couple minutes and got back to life but that counts as suicide in this movie. He can't go to heaven because he can't have faith. He knows so he can't believe. I liked this idea of you can't believe if you know.

I wonder if Keanu Reeves acts the same guy in every movie or do I only watch his movie where he is the same guy. He seems to have very limited range. I enjoy many of his movies but he is not the reason. I always feel someone else would have done better job but at least he doesn't ruin the movies.

When watched without thinking too much and not knowing the source material this is entertaining dark pseudo christian fantasy. If you start to think too much you see the flaws and inconsistencies. I recommend not thinking too much.

Doom (2005)

Doom is one of my guilty pleasures. I know it is bad but it is entertaining for the most of the time. It is action horror in style of Aliens and Predator without being as good. When I think why it is bad I can only think two main reasons of which second relates the first one. The Rock was miscast. Another thing was the ending. It didn't work because The Rock was miscast.

You would think The Rock is perfect for action roles. Most of the time he is. This time he played dead serious character. It just didn't work when you expected him to do something funny. Be more like he is in everything else. In the end he is supposed to be more serious and darker but it just doesn't work. Usually he is best part of the movie but this time he is the worst. I think he and Karl Urban should have changed the roles. Karl Urban could have been good also in The Rock's role. The Rock would have been better in Karl Urban's role where he could have added more humor. Or then chemistry between characters wouldn't have worked. Now The Rock felt miscast.

I am not completely sure is The Rock was the only problem in the ending. Ending changes the tone. I understand why minutes long FPS scene was there. Doom introduced FPS genre to the world. But the tone changes when it starts and never really gets back to what it was before.

Movie changed Hell theme to science experiment gone wrong and took dark look from Doom 3. Most of the time it is more of a horror than action. Ending is closer to original game than anything before. I just happen to like what happened before more.

Doom is bad movie with continuity errors and general stupidity. It doesn't have charismatic characters. Soundtrack is good. Other than that I have hard time finding reasons why I like it so much I get back to it every now and then. I just find it entertaining for one reason or another.

Doctor Strange (2016) video review with spoilers

If you can't see the video you can find it here.

This is my spoiler Doctor Strange video. I was talking the truth when I said this is forgettable movie. After editing and rendering this I remembered I should have talked about ending and how it made fun of all the destruction in superhero movies.

That was one reason this is shorter video. I probably forgot many other things I should have mentioned.

Doctor Strange (2016)

I don't know Doctor Strange so well. I can't comment how faithful this is to source material. I have seen animated version of the origin story. This tells the same story with some changes. I can't say how The Ancient One was whitewashed or how Benedict Cumberbatch was wrong person to play Doctor Strange.

Doctor Strange is another product of Marvel Studios' movie making machine. It has all the good and the bad of other Marvel Studios' movies. It is entertaining while it lasts but afterwards you don't remember much about it. Just like Ant-Man. Marvel Studios are not making the same movie again and again but outside few really good movies others are just ok. Movies are above the competition but there are so many of them they don't feel anything special anymore.

Doctor Strange's problem is uneven effects. Some of them are amazing. You wonder how they managed to do them. Other times they are really bad like they run out of money and time. What ever the reason there are too many effects. Effects took the center stage from the story. Movie was better before Doctor Strange learned to use magic.

Most dramatic moment has computer generated versions of Tilda Swinton and Benedict Cumberbatch. Both are good actors who did good job in the movie. Computer generated versions of them took the weight out off the most dramatic scene.

Villains didn't help. They were just three or more people with black make-up around their eyes. Mads Mikkelsen was totally wasted. There were more of them but only three of them went anywhere at the time. Others waited somewhere. The big evil was as bad as Maleborgia from Spawn movie.

Doctor Strange is fun while it lasts. There are amazing effects. It has set up for few future movies. If that is good enough for you, you will enjoy the movie. How ever it could have been better with less visual effects and more story.

Justice League: Cosmic Clash (2016)

This is sequel to LEGO: Justice League vs Bizarro League and Justice League - Attack of the Legion of Doom. Like I said when I reviewed those movies I am not the target audience for these movies. I just was curious to see what these are. This time Justice League faces Brainiac. Brainiac is one of more interesting Superman villains. I like him when done correctly, This is for kids so they could not done him correctly.

I was surprised to see they destroyed one planet after showing aliens who lived there. It was done for laughs but those aliens did not survive. It was unexpected from Lego movie. Another unexpected thing was when Justice League went full Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. All of them had ships which created one big robot when combined. I guess their publisher owns rights to Mighty Morphin Power Rangers too. Otherwise they will see in court. It was as Mighty Morphin Power Rangers as Justice League can be.

Cosmic Clash is best Lego Justice League movie I have seen. It don't have as many simply annoying moments than other two and Batman was quite interesting. It is stupid and runs from one place to another without too much content. There were few enjoyable moments. It seems like they are learning what these movies should be.

The Flash - Season 1 (2014-2015)

I am bit lazy here. This video was originally published on my Youtube channel last Thursday. I didn't feel like doing spoiler and non-spoiler reviews since this is too new anymore. Why I review first season of The Flash now is because it took this long for it to become available for streaming.

Lost Treasure of the Grand Canyon (2008)

With some movies you know they will be bad but you are curious to see how bad they could be. Lost Treasure of the Grand Canyon is one of those movies. It was in scifi section but it is more adventure movie with horror elements. It is not so bad it is good. It is just boring and stupid. I write this to warn you not to waste your time with it.

It tells about scientists/treasure hunters who search signs of Egyptians from Grand Canyon and find lost Aztec city with their ancient god. I won't go into how bad effects were. They were bad but they weren't the problem. Writing, acting, dialog, story and cinematography over all were. Can't say nothing about score because I am not sure if there was music. I don't remember.

I watched it fifteen minutes ago and I have hard time remembering what happened. Story just went back and forth. It was supposed to be horror movie where group dies one by one but after few deaths they stop dying. Movie teases they died but after few moments we see they didn't die after all. I don't mean they should have died but when their deaths and sacrifices were teased many times you lose your interest.

I think everyone's but Shannen Doherty's characters death was teased. Some characters' deaths were teased more than once. I can't remember who survived. Worst thing was when one guy stayed behind to let them escape and they gave montage of his and Shannen Doherty's character's love story, which was non-existent and guy was back with them few minutes later.

Luke Cage (2016) spoiler review

If video is not show you can watch it here. This is spoiler review. You can find spoiler free review from here.

Luke Cage (2016)

Luke Cage is third Marvel superhero getting own Netflix Original series. He was introduced during Jessica Jones. Like others Luke Cage is dark and grim series. I had my doubts before watching the series. How they could make series about man with bullet proof skin fighting against normal people interesting?

I watched series in two sessions. I ended first at middle of seventh episode. After first session I liked the series but it felt too much like black version of Daredevil with exception Cottonmouth wasn't as interesting as Kingpin. I started to see pattern. Series was good but felt too much like Daredevil and Jessica Jones.

Then there was big twist. This is spoiler free review so I won't go into it. After it Luke Cage didn't feel like others. It got its own story and felt more interesting than before. Bullet proof skin wasn't problem. Series had ways to make it interesting even when hero's life wasn't in danger for the most of the series. However I doubt they can make second season as interesting.

If I have to nitpick there were couple twists which were destroyed because they were so obvious that you just had to wait them to happen. Story went couple too many times back and worth and felt we saw same things happening too many times. It wasn't too big problem. Maybe shorter series would have helped to keep the story tighter.

If you liked Daredevil and Jessica Jones you will like Luke Cage. It is same quality but little bit different tone. Next year we will see if Marvel and Netflix can do this fourth time when Iron Fist is released. It was teased at the end of this series.

Mr. Robot season 1 (2015)

I watched Mr. Robot in three sessions. First was four episodes other two three episodes. After first session series felt one of the best series at the moment. After second session it felt they tried too hard and things happened too fast. After last session I wanted to see where this is going from here.

Mr. Robot is one of those things you don't want to spoil but you have little to tell if you don't spoil. It is not as good as first four episodes. Whole first season could have been like first four episodes. Second season could have been what next three episodes and third season what last three episode were. I felt last episode's events needed more build up. It is hard to see where this is going on second season. I surely will check it when it comes available for streaming here.

Mr. Robot tells about security engineer by day hacker by night Elliot and people around him. He meets mysterious Mr. Robot and his hacker group Fsociety. Series have good characters and character arcs. They should have been given more time. Most things happen too fast and we get too big twists too soon. I would have liked to spend more time with these characters and give story more time.

I liked soundtrack and cinematography. Name and phasing could have been better. I wouldn't have watched it if I didn't see so many praises everywhere. Mr. Robot does many things right. Its only bad thing is it gives to much of a good thing too soon.

ARQ (2016)

ARQ is new Netflix original movie. I am not sure how much I can tell about it without spoiling it too much. It is build upon one interesting idea. If you tell the idea you spoil few of the twists. If you don't tell it you have very little to tell. I try to write this post without telling the idea.

ARQ is Groundhog Day in future dystopia. Most science fiction series have this kind of episodes if time travel can fit into their world. ARQ how ever have a little twist in this story. I think it relies too much into this twist. To be honest the idea is better than the movie. I thought to myself wouldn't it be cool if they did this and then they did it.

There are moment when movie feels dull and moments when it is interesting. My biggest issue is they didn't introduce main characters at all before they started the story. Story starts from the first scene and characters are introduced during several twists and time loops. By doing it this way nobody becomes interesting. Ten minutes of introduction for main couple before starting the story would have helped make us care about them. Story could have had every twist it had. Probably movie feels better second time when we know the main couple.

ARQ is clever science fiction movie with good soundtrack. I wanted to like it more. It had so good idea but it doesn't tell enough about the characters or the world they live in. But still it is short clever science fiction movie worth watching.

Roboshark (2015)

You might have heard of Sharknado. It got sequel and another sequel and third sequel. It told about tornado full of sharks. Every sequel got crazier. Roboshark tries to take its part of the hype. It tells about shark who ate alien ship and became roboshark. There really is nothing more in the origin story. Alien ship crashes into sea and shark eats it.

This is even more stupid and has lower budget than Sharknado. First half hour is painfully stupid. Almost everything from acting to camera movement tells this is really bad movie. Shark becomes roboshark. It destroys submarine and goes to Seattle. Reporter mother tries to become respectable reporter. She happens to be there when roboshark attacks. Her channel gives the story to other reporter.

Movie is really painful at this point. Characters are boosted stereotypes. Cgi is really bad. Shark swims inside ground. But then something happens. Daughter joins the mother. Movie doesn't get any less stupid. It just goes from painfully stupid to funny stupid. There are still few painfully stupid moments but most of the stupidity is fun. Main change is characters stop being serious.

We get to see Bill Gates like millionaire who does what ever he likes and nobody even tries to stop him. Roboshark following the daughter on Twitter. References from THX 1138 to Wrath of Khan. Internet trolls being internet trolls. Crazy military guy wanting to kill roboshark any way he can because it destroyed his old submarine.

If first half hour wasn't so bad in unfunny way Roboshark would be better than Sharknado movies. Even the first one. As it is it only better than sequels. It is must see for Sharknado and bad movie fans. They knew they were making bad movie but it still works. First half hour don't work because of seriousness. When they let seriousness go almost everything starts to work.

I Dream of Wires (2014)

I don't usually review documentaries. If I remember correctly this is fifth documentary I review. If you don't count Pantani documentary all have been somewhat related to movies or cinematography. Before anyone says anything Pumping Iron was about Arnold and he is big movie star. This one is related to music you hear on movies. If you watch videos of composers talking about movie scores in their studios you will see modular synths quite often. Those walls of knobs, dials, plugs and wires may look like parts of science fiction sets but they are modular synths.

I heard about this documentary during Indiegogo crowd funding campaign. I was about to give my money but didn't give. Bigger backers got extended version with more interviews and so on. I was into synths back then but not so much into modular synths. Now when I am considering starting building modular synth I watched the documentary.

Documentary is made for general audience who doesn't know anything about the topic. It starts from the beginning of electronic music. Getting into Moog and Buchla. It explains differences of east coast and west coast philosophies and why Moog's east coast philosophy was victorious. When synths got more accessible, big and expensive modular synths got out of fashion to be revived when people got bored with digital synths and with introduction of Eurorack format.

Documentary interviews many key persons and famous modular users. Trent Reznor has been my gateway to electronic music. For some reason he sound grumpy old man whose cookies were stolen by Japanese synth companies with their workstations and preset machines. I have seen him being more positive in other videos where he talks about synths. Vince Clarke stood out of all the interviews. I could have listened much more of him. Someone should make documentary where Trent, Vince, Hans Zimmer and few others just talk about their gear and how they use it.

I Dream of Wires didn't leave me wanting more or wanting to watch it again. It was good introduction into the topic but nothing more. I don't know if extra material went deeper into modular world. I wish there was sequel or something which talked about modular systems, how people build them and why they pick the modules they have.

Cowboys & Aliens (2011)

I'll be honest. When I first heard about Cowboys & Aliens I hated the idea. I didn't find idea of cowboys fighting flying saucers appealing. After seeing the movie I can see how it could work but Cowboys & Aliens is not the movie.

Gunslinger wakes up injured with weird bracelet. He don't remember anything. He goes to near by town. Sheriff learns he is outlaw and arrests him. When they are taking him away aliens attack the town and abduct town folk. Gunslinger joins town folk when they search for abducted people. This starts journey where our heroes have too many things conveniently happening to them at right time.

Cowboys & Aliens is ok movie. Idea works but they don't take the idea far enough. It is average modern western with average alien invasion part. They should have gone more into western style. Best moments are when movie is more western like. Then aliens appear and movie loses its momentum. When movie gets back to western it starts to work again. Problem is they went for alien invasion instead of science fiction horror.

Cowboys & Aliens would have worked much better as dark western with science fiction horror elements. I think it was written as such. Then they didn't dare to take change with movie which could be very niche movie. Harrison Ford was miscast. He is Indiana Jones and Han Solo. I can't see him as grumpy old racist. Someone like Ron Perlman or Michael Ironside would have been better in role. Or they could have turned racism part down. It was part of his story arc but they didn't need to go that far.

Cowboys & Aliens is forgettable because it mixes two genres by taking away what makes those genres interesting in first place. What we got was watered down version of both genres without substance. I would have forgotten I have seen the movie if I didn't have this blog post. When you watch it is ok movie. Afterwards You don't remember much about it.

Silver Hawk (2004)

I wanted to review something fun for a change. Silver Hawk didn't disappoint. It is like Moore era Bond movie with Bond replaced by female kung fu version of Batman. It takes inspiration from everywhere. It is stupid. It uses almost all superhero clichés. But it is fun and that is most important.

Michelle Yeoh plays vigilante Silver Hawk who is famous model by day. Male lead is her childhood friend from kung fu school they were in. He wants to capture Silver Hawk. Silver Hawk got involved into evil plan when man who tried to hit on her is kidnapped. Evil plan involves villain from fighting games, Bond villain level evil lair, 60's Batman style henchmen and and lot of kung fu fighting.

If I have to complain about something fighting scenes are not as good as I expect from Asian kung fu movie. I remember Michelle Yeoh being better in fighting scenes. Probably fighting was toned down for movies lighthearted feel.

Silver Hawk is fun stupid action movie. It doesn't try to be anything else. If you want lighthearted action movie and like kung fu movies it is good choice.

The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (2015)

The Man from U.N.C.L.E. is such a mess I don't know where I should start. So I start from the beginning. I wanted to see this because it has current Superman Henry Cavill. Zack Snyder has got lot of blame for his Superman movies. After seeing this I don't think he is only one to blame. Henry Cavill goes through this action comedy same way he goes through Snyder's dark and gritty Superman movies. Is current Superman what it is because it is only thing Henry Cavill can do?

Henry Cavill is not only one to blame. Another male lead is just as bad. Armie Hammer plays totally emotionless soviet spy. If that is all he needed to do he did fine job. But this was supposed to be fun action comedy based on 60's tv series. It is not fun action comedy when one male lead just walk through his part and another does his best as a guy whose only emotion is anger.

Female lead Alicia Vikander seem to be only one of main characters who knows the movie should be fun action movie. But she can't carry two male leads who has bigger role than her. When Hugh Grant comes to movie we have second actor who is trying to do fun action movie, but at that time it is too little too late.

When you don't care about your main characters and they seem to do their best to destroy the jokes, movie becomes very boring very fast. There are scenes where you see how the joke should work but actors don't do anything to make it work. I liked the style they were after. Script had enough of 60's spy movie feeling but two male leads totally destroy the movie.

Suicide Squad (2016)

If video is not shown you can watch it here.

You should check video above if you want my spoiler free review. I will go into spoilers in this one.

I don't get why Suicide Squad has so low score in Rotten Tomatoes. It is not masterpiece but it is not Batman V Superman like disaster. Do critics have something against DC superhero movies? I can understand hate against Batman V Superman. Suicide Squad has flaws but it is not as bad. Maybe it suffers being released after really bad movies.

Suicide Squad suffers from common DCEU problems. It is super dark and serious. It shows guards abusing their power and Suicide Squad members being like animals. Most of the time movie wants to be most depressing movie ever. Some jokes were added during reshoots. Some delivered super seriously, some feel later additions. Who wants to have fun superhero action movie?

I couldn't go into my main issue on spoiler free review. Main villain is Enchantress. I don't know her from comics. I have no idea what she could do. Here she was god like creature who built machine capable to destroy the Earth. Movie put mostly street level guys and normal humans to fight against her. She went from her god mode to street level mode when she fought Suicide Squad.

What was the deal with her heart? First it was told you could control her with her heart. When Enchantress turned evil the heart didn't matter anymore until the end when she was killed by destroying her heart. Probably brother had something to do with it. Enchantress didn't need Suicide Squad angle and she didn't need to be this strong as villain. Her god mode was just stupid. I guess only reason for it was it needed less cgi. Written differently Enchantress could have been good villain. She has few moments but that is not enough.

Amanda Waller was good character except in couple scenes in which she is like different person. In first she shoots everyone who worked for her in secure room. Why? Didn't she look tough enough before. She told others didn't have security clearance. Why would you have anyone without security clearance working in top secret project. Were they to be killer at the end of work day anyway?

Another was mid-credits scene where Waller was scared. She wasn't scared during the movie in much worse situations. She shouldn't have been scared with Bruce Wayne. She was almost always in control. She should have been in control in that scene too.

These were the biggest issues. There are others too. There are two scenes back to back which are almost the same scene. Waller is selling Suicide Squad idea to others in both. These should have been combined into one. They only have different location, different group of people and little bit different information. There is one scene where Deadshot should hit Rick Flag but he tells him he will help him. Suicide Squad escaping Flag plot was forgotten completely. As was Harley Quinn's disabled bomb. Batman looked creep when he kissed passed out Harley Quinn.

Even with all this issues it is still best DC movie since Dark Knight. Tells how many good DC movies we have had since Dark Knight. I have talked about issues movie has. It has some good too. Amanda Waller and Deadshot were good characters. Joker and Harley Quinn were ok. I like the premise. Movie used it properly few times. Enchantress was good when she wasn't in her god mode.

Suicide Squad ends up being average movie with potential to be much better. It is best movie in current line of DC superhero movies by far. I want to see sequel but done right. This got many things right but suffered same problems current DC movies have.

Penny Dreadful (2014-2016)

Sometimes I wonder why something good becomes popular and something better doesn't come as popular. Game of Thrones is everywhere. Almost everyone seems to be a fan. I can understand why it is popular. How ever I found number of characters too much. It is hard to follow story arcs when show jumps to another when one starts to get interesting. This gives many characters to choose favorite from but make following the series feel like work.

To me Penny Dreadful is everything I liked about Game of Thrones without things I didn't like. I like 1890's Gothic dawn of industrialization better than might and magic setting with epic battles. There are less characters. World is bad place but Penny Dreadful doesn't go overboard showing it.

Penny Dreadful is three season 27 episode long fantasy horror series. It has public domain characters from 1890's along with original characters. It follows explorer Malcolm Murray, fortune teller Vanessa Ives and their team as they fight against supernatural foes. Each season has own villain but they are connected to series long arc.

Penny Dreadful is term for 19th century cheap sensational topic fiction. Series is poetic and beautiful. Some story elements are pretty weird like from cheap quickly written fiction. Series is well written. Characters have real story arcs. They are not clearly good or evil except some of the villains. There are no good characters. Everyone has their dark sides.

I liked first season most. It was most compact and shortest. Later seasons felt they had to top previous seasons.They introduced elements which felt they were invented after previous seasons. Main story arcs were good even with their flaws. Shorter character related arcs worked better. Best moments had nothing to do with main story arcs.

Penny Dreadful was announced to end after three seasons. There is petition to save the series. I can see how they could continue after third season finale. I can also see why they shouldn't do it. Series concluded main story arc but left some minor story arcs open. I am not sure if closing open story arcs would be enough after what happened in finale.

Why I don't like Wonder Woman Comic-Con Trailer

Warner Bros released Justice League and Wonder Woman trailers during Comic-Con. I don't have much to say about Justice League trailer. It didn't get me excited or made me dislike it. I could pick somethings I liked and didn't like but I am not into that. Wonder Woman trailer got different reaction.

I don't like idea of it being in First World War. It feels too much Warner Bros want to make their version of Peggy Carter and first Captain America movie. Superhero with a shield fighting in world war and woman seeing how women were oppressed at the time. Marvel made both work. Even if Wonder Woman can make it work it is doing same thing again.

First Captain America movie was set in Second World War. It is easier to set adventure movie to Second World War since it is more of battle of good versus evil than senseless slaughter in no man's land. First World War taught the world war is not a heroic adventure. First World War was industrial slaughter of solders by people who had inherited their positions.

Warner Bros are making superhero adventure set into war which showed the world war is not heroic adventure any more. All because this was hinted in Batman V Superman. We understand why Wonder Woman went hiding after First World War. We don't need to see it in two hour movie. We don't want horrors of First World War in our superhero movies. Which is reason why they probably have to water then down and have feel good elements. Which waters down the point of the movie.

I really don't get why this has to be set to First World War. All the jokes from the trailer would work in modern day setting. This could have been fun superhero action movie if it wasn't set during one of the most senseless slaughters in human history. Captain America didn't visit concentration camps. They didn't feel like showing the worst humanity has to offer. Wonder Woman movie has to show that for some reason. Wonder Woman walking into no man's land don't feel heroic. It feels sad and disgraceful to those who died there.

Stranger Things (2016)

If video is not shown you can watch it here.

If you have not seen Stranger Things and want my spoiler free review you should check the video above. In this post I expect you have seen it or don't care about spoilers. Usually I have written spoiler free version and made video with spoilers. This time video was published first so I go this way.

Stranger Things have seven good episodes and last one which is ruined by ending. I had only one issue with first seven issues. Hopper's actions should have had some consequences but there is nothing. He fights other police men and breaks in top secret facility without any consequences. He can do anything. Nobody says him anything. It feels odd when Jonathan is arrested after a fight. It felt like only reason for it was to get Hopper and Jonathan to meet.

Ending is not the only issue in last episode. Before ending characters conveniently go where they need to be. They may not have good reasons to be there but they are needed there so they go there. This is most obvious with Jonathan and Nancy going to Jonathan's home to kill the monster. They went there to have Steve come there too.

Why would you build monster trap into your home and potentially destroy your home? Lights are not good reason enough. They could have set lights elsewhere. They used blood to get the monster. They could have done that elsewhere. And they don't kill the monster. Monster survives and goes to school for some reason.

In case you have not seen the series here is briefly what is going on before I go into ending. Superpowerful human guinea pig called Eleven has opened doors to alternative universe. Monster from alternative universe has killed and taken humans to its universe. First one was Will Bryers, Hopper and Will's mom are looking for him in alternative universe. it sound weird as written here but in series it works and there is bit more into it but this is enough to know before I get into ending. I won't go into government agency story arch because it is not important in the end.

The monster is now in school where Eleven is. Eleven destroys monster and disappears doing it. At this point it looks like Eleven sacrificed herself to save others.This seem to close the door to the another universe. Series doesn't make this clear but it is heavily indicated. Hopper, Will and Will's mother were in alternative universe when this happened. We never saw them come out but they are in our universe few moments afterwards. How they got back?

Heroes have small moment together with Will. When Hopper leaves the hospital shady agents take him away hinting he has to pay for what he has done and the deals he made. If Stranger Things ended here it would have had some plot holes. But it doesn't. It wanted to have bigger plot holes.

We jump one month ahead. Everything is almost like it was before events of the series. Hopper is still alive. Nothing he did had any consequences. It is hinted Eleven is still alive. So she didn't die after all? What actually happened when she killed the monster? We jump to Will who sees flashbacks from alternative universe. He pukes little monster like in Alien movies. Unlike in Alien movies he doesn't die. He is like nothing happened.

Before one month jump story had conclusion. After it the setup for second season was made. By conclusion everything we needed to know was revealed and story arcs had ended. They only opened many new plot holes with one month jump. If there will be second season they have to start almost everything from beginning and do many things again. Ending is mess because Stranger Things doesn't know if it was ongoing series or did it end after one season. It tries to be both.

All I have said here may make Stranger Things sound like bad series. It is not. That's why I am so disappointed at the ending. Even with this ending it is good series.

Drive (2011)

Drive is another Nicolas Winding Refn movie starring Ryan Gosling having score by Cliff Martinez. In many ways it looks. sounds and feels like Only God Forgives. Main difference being location and lack of being edgy for sake of being edgy. Drive is the movie almost always mentioned when talking about Nicolas Winding Refn. How ever I like Only God Forgives more.

Ryan Gosling plays almost same character with almost same story arch in both. He is someone without personality who is drawn into a mess without his own fault. He is nice guy but also a criminal. He don't feel like being criminal but doesn't resist too much. Some kind of honor code draws him into mess where people get hurt.

Just like in Only God Forgives first half hour feel like nothing is happening. It might be even longer before story really starts. Nicolas Winding Refn like to spend time building set up and then trash it down. Everything looks and sound good. Story and characters lack something.

I can't say if this is good movie or not. It is easy to praise because it looks and sounds so good. I would liked Drive more if I had not seen Only God Forgives before it. Only God Forgives did everything better. Why Drive is the Nicolas Winding Refn movie instead of Only God Forgives? Probably because it came first and Only God Forgives has more Asian movie feeling and story arc.

John Wick (2014)

I don't think Keanu Reeves is great actor. I don't even like his acting that much. But he has been in movies I like. John Wick had potential to become one. I have heard good things about it and it will get sequel. Seeing it after Only God Forgives I am not sure what all the hype is about. Both movies are highly visual with minimal dialog and story. Only God Forgives has more to give.

John Wick is not bad movie. I have just seen this done better before. Maybe not exactly like this but this takes elements from other movies where things were done better. Movie would have worked better about 20 minutes shorter. Last 20 minutes concluded story arcs which didn't need it. There were few cool moments but most of last 20 minutes was unnecessary. Main story arc ends about 25 minutes to go. Second story arc starts there. We didn't need to see that in this movie. It could have been in sequel or forgotten totally.

Story is pretty simple. John Wick was superior hit man. He got away to live with his wife. After wife dies gangster's son steals his car and kills his dog. John start to hunt the son. You pretty much know where this goes from here. Only thing movie offers is good looks and execution like kills by John Wick. There are no interesting characters or story development. It is just John Wick hunting the son and meeting other hit men.

Movie is cool and good looking. Hit men has strange sense of honor and rules which gives them shade of character but nothing more. Everyone is cool. It is their only character trait. If you are looking more than cool and good looking action movie you will be disappointed. This has been done better with more dimensions before by other movies.

Advantageous (2015)

You don't understand how important good score is until you see movie which lacks one. Advantageous is one of those movies. It screamed for good score on some scenes. I am not sure why some scenes didn't have any score. Was it stylistic choice? Didn't they have good enough score? It is weird to watch a movie and think what kind of score this scene needed.

Movie was slow. It didn't have much dialog. It tried to be emotional but it didn't have score to boost those emotions. We just saw what happened. Almost like every really important scene didn't have any score. This made Advantageous hard to watch. With better score it could have been one of the best science fiction movies of this decade. Everything else worked. Only score was lacking.

Advantageous is science fiction movie written by women, directed by woman and aimed to women. I wish to see more of these. It is refreshing to see something different. Movie tells about older career woman in world which appreciates youth and good looks. She has hard time finding new job after she was laid off to make room for younger woman. She is in trouble because she wants to give her daughter best education possible.

I can't relate to most of the movie's themes. Like I said this was aimed for women. But it had enough of good science fiction to keep me interested. After big twist was revealed movie became much more interesting. With good score to give the movie a flow and amplify the emotions this could have become one of my favorite science fiction movies. Movie is bit dream like. It needed score which amplified that.

Advantageous is worth watching. Everything except the score works. It is well directed and cleverly written.

Restaurant Day 2016

Here is another of my short movie. Hope you enjoy it.

This was shot during global Restaurant Day 2016. This starts series of short movies shot during different events. May and June have so much different interesting event I had to drop most of the schedule. In July there is much less stuff happening.

You hear first time my Analog Rytm in this video. I have had it for a while but it wasn't connected to my studio and when I made music I used sampled drums instead. Now it is connected and you will hear it more often. As you will hear Analog Four which is now at center of my studio. This made me use only analog synths and drum machines with this one. Third instrument being MiniBrute.

Paradox (2016)

Paradox is one of my favorite movies of this year. I can't put it, Deadpool and Civil War into order. You probably have not heard about it. It is okay since it is low budget straight to dvd/streaming/what ever movie.

Paradox is all about bootstrap paradox. Bootstrap paradox is when Terminator comes in first movie to 1980's and in sequels we learn terminator technology is based on the terminator which traveled back in time in first movie. So question is where the terminator technology came from? Paradox knows it is about this paradox and take all out of it.

Movie begins like bad low budget science fiction movie. I thought it will be really painful to watch. Everything change when one of the team goes one hour into future and sees everyone dead and facility set to self destruct. He comes back with video shot by one of them which shows what will happen to them. Before this movie was bad acting and annoying characters. After this it gets really clever.

I go little bit into spoilers from here on but I try not to spoil too much. When team member gets back everyone know there is someone killing them and they will be dead. Nobody knows who the killer is. It could be one of them. This would be interesting premise but Paradox doesn't settle with it. There is another person who nobody knows who he is. These is disc with future stock exchange data and someone has used the disc in future. That someone had similar time machine than team had. So one of the team can be the rich person from the future.

Team members are not sure if they are the rich person from the future. They know the disc they have could make them him. Killer may or may not be the rich person from the future. I don't want to spoil more than this. Things will get very interesting and movie takes everything out of bootstrap paradox. Everything makes sense from some point of view but you are left wondering why things actually went as they went and did they have change to do things otherwise.

Synchronicity (2015)

I want to like Synchronicity more than I do. It has vision and lot of good ideas. But something is missing and characters are not interesting enough. They don't act consistently. Sometimes what they do makes no sense. Movie starts with scifi nonsense jargon then nonsense goes to characters actions.

Synchronicity aims for 80's science fiction look and feel. Everything reminds me of many 80's science fiction movies. Everything is really dark. Only some cgi reminds this is not from 80's. 80's feel goes bit too far since this feels too much like less than average 80's science fiction movie.

I don't know it is acting or something else. I just don't care about characters. Nonsensical actions could be one reason. Movie tries to be larger than life love story with some 12 Monkeys and Eternal Sunshine of Spotless Mind tones. It doesn't work when I don't care enough of the main character.

Story is interesting and as it goes on it reveals many layers. This is time travelling movie where we see what happens from different perspectives. Story has some weirdness it didn't need and I still don't fully understand who love interest really was. She had too many contradicting characteristics. I like movies where you have to think what is really going on but you need some sort of conclusion what everything was. Movie doesn't have to tell what it actually was but story has to make sense from some point of view. Synchronicity doesn't do it. It seems to go that way but never gets there.

Synchronicity serves best as 80's nostalgia trip when you want to see something which looks and feels 80's low budget science fiction. I really hoped it worked better. There should be more science fiction movies without violence or action. This was one of them. Lack of violence and action wasn't the problem. Problems were elsewhere.

X-Men: Apocalypse video review

If you don't see the video you can find it here.

I wrote review of X-Men: Apocalypse earlier. In video I go bit deeper which means some spoilers. I had some problems with autofocus. My performance in front of camera and time constraints made me publish the video even with the problems. I think I have to change name at some point if I constantly keep making longer than 5 minutes videos.

Only God Forgives (2013)

Only God Forgives is weird movie. I would almost say it is a great movie. But it tries to be too edgy few times and that took me off the mood. Mother was involved in all the edgy things I didn't like. She didn't need to be that edgy for the story. Movie had lot of graphic violence but my problems were mainly with what the mother said other people.

Mother wasn't only character using explicit language but she was only with whom explicit language didn't make sense. Dialog is saved to moments where it matters. Most of story telling is done with images and score. So out of place language jumps out. I loved the score. I also liked Drive's score. I have not seen the movie but I have original score. Nicolas Winding Refn's movies seem to have good scores.

Mother is not the only problem. First half hour doesn't work, Worst shots and editing are at the beginning. Everything gets better as movie goes on. First half hour feel like director tries to show how he is doing high art movie. Every camera movement look like it tries to tell something. Colors and shadows are overly used. Some shots only have one or two colors and lot of shadows and black.

Everything starts to work better when extremes are toned down. Part of working better is because at that point we know better what is going on and know the characters. But all is not thanks to it. After first half hour movie don't feel as much director trying to tell something with every color and camera angle.

Movie looks and sounds amazing. It dares to go to extremes. It doesn't work every time but when it works it is amazing. It works most of the times. I can recommend this to anyone who can watch challenging movies. I haven't talked about the story. Movie works better if you don't know where it is going. I don't want to spoil it.

X-Men: Apocalypse (2016)

I wasn't too eager to see this in theater. I can't say I am glad I saw it. It is not disaster like Batman V Superman was. Neither it is a good movie like Deadpool or Captain America: Civil War. It is just uninteresting mess. It makes joke how third movie is always the worst. They probably thought about Last Stand but this is third movie of rebooted X-Men trilogy.

I don't like Apocalypse from comics. He is one of those unstoppable villains who fight heroes because of reasons. You could say he is X-Men version of Thanos or Darkseid. He is not looking for death of all life like those characters. He just want to destroy the weak. First images started Ivan Ooze comparisons. Those weren't so far off.

Movie Apocalypse is too cartoonish. He always talks how he will destroy everything. He want to rule everyone but for some reason he wants to destroy everything before he rules everyone. His four horsemen are Angel, Psylocke, Storm and Magneto. Angel and Psylocke carry their clothes and fight. Storm does little more but not much. Almost all they do is stupid poses. It is hard to take the team seriously when all they do is cartoonish evil poses and leader is cartoonish villain.

Magneto doesn't fit at all to Apocalypse and his horsemen. Magneto has dark and emotional story arc which includes death of his new family. Magneto and Xavier have same philosophical debate they have had in all movies. This time they are have the debate when cartoonish villain stands next to them talking how he will destroy every building and rule the survivors.

First Class and Days of Future Past were good movies. Apocalypse is not. It is entertaining if you like bad movies. Ones where nothing makes sense. I enjoy those but this is X-Men who have good comics and movies. At least I didn't hate it. Hating requires caring. I just couldn't care. Movie has few good scenes. Most of it is stupid but almost ok. I wonder what they do next time. This time they almost destroyed the Earth and telepathically communicated with everyone. It is hard to top that.

Legends of Tomorrow (2016)

In age of Netflix and other streaming services it feels odd to follow series which has new episode every week. I watched Legends of Tomorrow in three session. Every session to point where there were no new episodes available. I binge watched Daredevil's season 2 between first and second session. It made Legends of Tomorrow feel really stupid.

I am more of a Marvel guy but I have tried to get into DC from time to time. I don't feel I have to hate the other if I like one. My attempts with DC usually end when I realize how childishly characters act with each others. They are always fighting each others. I mean good guys who should work together fight each others when there is no bad guys fight against.

Legends of Tomorrow have same problem during first half of the first season. Legends should be team but they rarely work like team. Guys leave the team mates on their own devices when ever they feel like. Team's bad boys steal things because they need to steal something to be bad guys. They have big mission but everyone is ready to do something which endangers the whole mission just because they feel like it.

Arthur Darvill is rogue time master who wants to stop immortal villain. He and legends travel in time trying to stop the villain in different times. He is first Doctor Who regular who plays good guy in superhero series or movie. Christopher Eggleston was main villain in second Thor movie. David Tennant was Purple Man in Jessica Jones and Karen Gillan was Nebula in Guardians of the Galaxy.

Time masters are some kind of time cops. They want to keep time unchanging. Arthur Darvill's character is like The Doctor without any humor and dislike of weapons. I always wait him to say time lords instead of time masters. You can find similarities between time lords and time masters. Show is bit like very serious and more violent Doctor Who in DC Universe.

16 episodes long season felt too long. There were too many filler episodes which felt like they only wanted to show characters from other shows. Writer didn't always know when they had good idea in their hands. Instead of using good idea they used something predictable and what we have seen several times before.

Season finale is spread over four episodes. You can guess what happens in each episode when you know how many episodes there are still left and see what they are currently doing. The big twist don't feel anything when you know it has to happen to spread story over rest of the episodes.

Legends of Tomorrow have one moral debate episode over should they kill a kid who will become future Hitler. However there is much more interesting moral debate over the twist. They don't study that at all. The twist is X is on Y's side. You can see that coming from long way but reason why X is on Y's side is very interesting. I wish they used the reason more. Later seasons probably get back to the reason. It felt really odd when character didn't react the reason at all. It brought much more interesting moral debate than should they kill a kid or not.

About superhero movie fatigue and movie going experience

Last Thursday's post was a joke but it holds some truth. I am starting to feel superhero movie fatigue. This year we have already had Deadpool, Batman V Superman and Captain America: Civil War. Addition to that we have superhero tv shows and Netflix originals. Some of which are on my queue waiting for me to feel like watching them.

Some of them are good and some not so good. When movies come so close to each other watching them start to feel like work. I just can't get excited of every cgi heavy action movie where someone wants to destroy the world because he is evil. Previous X-Men movies haven't fallen into this but this time villain is Apocalypse and trailers I have seen show him as evil who wants to destroy everything.

I just don't want to see another movie with long cgi destruction ending. Best superhero movies this year have toned down destruction. X-Men: Apocalypse seem to go all out on cgi destruction. I am X-Men guy. My favorite comics were X-Men.

I got fatigue with X-Men comics when things went overly complicated and action was more important than the story. During Chris Claremont's run there were issues where there was no action. Those issues made his run so good. Best superhero movies and tv shows concentrate on characters and stories. Worst concentrate on action. When best also have action you don't care ones that are marketed as concentrating only on action. And you can't be sure which one it is before you see it.

Superhero movie fatigue is not only reason why is skipped X-Men: Apocalypse premiere weekend. I checked length and price. Let's start with price. I don't know if this is only local issue. If I want to see movie during premier weekend I have to pay as much as I have to pay few months later get my own copy of the movie which I can watch as many times as I want. It is not a lot of money but you start to think why you should pay now and pay later if you want to watch movie again.

You are paying for movie going experience and for seeing it earlier. When you think about movie going experience big screen and good sound system come first to mind. But some of us have those at home. Movie going experience also includes half hour of commercials and trailers.

Trailers can spoil movies you want to see and you don't know what you will see. Commercials may be boring or take you out of the mood. Worst was with Deadpool where we saw long heartbreaking commercial of real life disease that can ruin your life. Just what you want to see when you go watch Deadpool. You don't have to deal with this when you watch the movie at home.

X-Men: Apocalypse is almost two and half hours long. First you have sit through half hour of commercials and trailers. Then you get to two and half hour movie. If movie is bad you ave wasted three hours plus the time it takes it to get to your seat and back. What happened to time when one and half hours were considered as good length for movie.

With one and half hour bad movie you only lose one and half hours if you watch it at home. I am reconsidering if I will review movies as they premiere. I though it would make my blog and channel more popular but I have not seen the difference. I am not sure if it is worth all the problem.

I won't review X-Men: Apocalypse... ...next week

It seem to be big thing to announce not reviewing a movie. I want to jump into the bandwagon. I won't review X-Men: Apocalypse next week. I will review it week after next or week after that. I just have other things to do during weekend and didn't feel like paying premiere prices and fitting two and half hours of sitting in the movie theater to otherwise tight schedule.

I am not making a stand on this one. There is another franchise with which I will make a stand this year. Wise man said you should not mention things you make a stand against at this day and age because it promotes the thing you are against of. So I just say I am going to see Star Wars movie but I am not going to see the movie from another franchise which starts with word Star. If they get back to what made franchise good in first place I am happy to praise them. This year's movie is not that.

Appleseed: Ex Machina - Appurushido: Ekusu makina (2007)

Ex Machina was my favorite movie last year. It is also one of my all time favorite movies. How ever this has nothing to do with it. This came years before Ex Machina. Similar name made me watch it and endure when movie didn't work.

Appleseed: Ex Machina is sequel to Appleseed. I have not seen the first movie and am not familiar with manga movies are based on. This made me wish to know more about the world. It seemed interesting. Maybe things I wanted to know more were explained better in first movie or comics. This movie expected us to know the characters and the world. It didn't study subjects I found interesting. It felt many things were left out to make this cool action movie.

Movie happens in utopian post-apocalypse city called Olympus. Olympus has taken role of world police. It tries to bring peace to world. Counter terrorist unit member Deunan loses her cyborg partner due injury. She gets new bioroid partner who looks like his former partner. Movie follows these three and shows tensions between them. I wish more time was given to them.

Main story is interesting but movie leaves some philosophical points out. Best scene is when what is actually happening and why is revealed. After that movie goes down hill. Before that scene there were problems between humans, cyborgs and bioroids in Olympus as were with our heroes who also were human, cyborg and bioroid. I wished movie spent more time explaining dynamics between these three groups. Maybe first movie spent more time on this or maybe it was action movie like this.

After the scene everything gets resolved because of reasons. Our heroes find common cause and fight for humanity as human, cyborg and bioroid. Appleseed: Ex Machina spends too much time being cool action movie and too little time slowly showing this interesting world. Action is weakest part. Long action filled ending may make you forget stronger moments which happened before.

He Never Died (2015)

Henry Rollins is inspirational person to me. I wouldn't go so far as say role model but that would be close. From his first interview I have found him to be very inspirational. I will never be able to live up to his standards. He is not best at anything he does but he keeps on doing what he likes and saying clever things doing it. He has shown how hard work can get you far.

Henry Rollins is starring He Never Died. He was reason why I watched it. I don't regret it. Movie has problems and some of my liking may be liking Henry Rollins but I like it. Henry Rollins is immortal who is tired of all social situations. When he tries to be social he don't know how to be.  He is not only anti-social, he don't care about anything and he turns out to be crazy.

He Never Dies follows only Henry Rollins. At times it provides great black humor while other times it feel boring art movie. At beginning Rollins' interaction feels hilarious. At middle movie start to drag. We start to learn what Rollins really is. Then things start to resolve and movie becomes interesting again.

He Never Died is tagged as horror movie. Is it depends how you define horror movies. It has elements of horror movie but it doesn't use them like horror movies do. Henry Rollins' acting may feel weird but by the end you understand why he is like he is. They went all out to make his character be like someone in his situation without thinking too much about if the movie is entertaining. Sometimes this work better sometimes worse. If you compare this to movie like Machinist, which also has quite extreme main character, this one doesn't have as interesting mystery.

Video review of Captain America: Civil War (2016)

This video review is also spoiler free. I shot it couple days after I wrote my written review which you can read here. I tried to talk about different things than in written review. I am making weekly videos now. Some are other topics than movies. If you want to see them you should subscribe to my channel. Movie and tv related videos will be published here too.

Captain America: Civil War (2016)

When you write these far in advance you might not remember when movies are released. So this week's review is about superhero movie. There will be video review next Thursday. Something else will have to wait until next week.

Marvel Studios still make good movies. Lately they have made only ok movies. Age of Ultron showed signs Marvel could do wrong. There was too much stuffed into one movie. It referenced older movies and tv shows and there was too much build up for upcoming movies. Marvel learned from Age of Ultron. Unlike Age of Ultron Civil War takes elements of comic with same name.

Captain America: Civil War continue where Age of Ultron ended. Some people are not happy all the destruction we have seen in previous movies and beginning of this one. Avengers are wanted under official control. This divides Avengers into Team Captain America and Team Iron Man. This is not as big deal as Superhuman Registration Act in comics. This is where Bucky and Captain America story comes into play.

Marketing has made the movie feel like Avengers 2.5. Movie is Captain America movie with Avengers involved in secondary story arc. Main story arc is Captain America's and Bucky's story continuing from Winter Solder. This was original story for this movie. It is similar to what we saw in Winter Solder. Civil War story was added when Warner announced Batman V Superman team up. Marvel wanted their own team up.

You can see these two story arcs but they work well together, Bucky's story arc being main story arc. Batman V Superman showed what happen when movie makers don't understand the characters. Captain America: Civil War understands the characters and their history in comics. It feels Civil War shows how this is done correctly. Civil War is not as good as reviews say it is. Compared to Batman V Superman it is masterpiece. Coming so soon after Batman V Superman makes Civil War look better than it is.

I would put Civil War right after first Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy. It is on level with Winter Solder. It is good and entertaining movie. It begins serious and dark. Then at some point it turns to action blockbuster with constant run of jokes. Jokes work but contrast to serious main story arc is on the limit of being too great. Civil War arc has few stupid elements which would be ok if main story arc wasn't as serious. Spider-Man is best Spider-Man we have seen in big screen but is bit out of the place in this movie. He steal all scenes he is in. If his solo movie works as well we could have best superhero movie so far.

LEGO: Justice League vs Bizarro League & Justice League - Attack of the Legion of Doom (2015)

I know I am not in the target audience for these Lego movies. I won't complain how stupid and childish characters are. These were meant for little kids. Most important thing is to have good message and keep kids interested. So there is nothing deep in story. These don't have to be stupid but this time they are.

Movies are part of bigger continuity. Bizarro League teases with Attack of the Legion of Doom and Attack of the Legion of Doom teases with next movie. That is where the continuity ended. I watched these in wrong order and thought they had nothing to do with each others until I saw next movie tease at end of Bizarro League.

It was easy mistake to make. Movies had different version of Justice League. Bizarro League had some extra members and different Green Lantern than Attack of the Legion of Doom. I don't mean different voice actor. I mean different Green Lantern. Yes, there are more than one Green Lanterns. Difference was never explained. Like no kid would ever wonder why team has changed.

For adult audience these movies have very little to give. Animal hospital scene in Attack of the Legion of Doom had couple nice jokes but that was it. Target audience probably like these more. One more thing. Flash and Green Lantern are annoying together no matter the format or target audience. They should make live action Justice League movie less dark. That doesn't mean they make them better. Characters chemistry has not worked anywhere when they are made comical characters.

About reviewing superhero stuff until Legends of Tomorrow's last episode thing. I didn't know how long the season is when I promised to do it. I would have to go from bottom of the barrel to find something to review. Like this wasn't from there. I will something completely different next week. I will review Legends of Tomorrow after I have seen it. Until that review I will review something else.

Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance (2011)

Batman V Superman got really bad reviews but at least it is not Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance. I didn't expect this to be this bad. I don't remember much from first Ghost Rider movie. I have watched it few times but I have not memory what it was like. I don't think it was this big mess. I think it was more serious.

This time we get full crazy Cage. Everything he does is either weird or crazy. He doesn't seem to be into the role. He looks like he is doing this for the money. Director wanted something crazy and he delivered. Ghost Rider is as weird and crazy as Cage and some how off. Guess they had limited effects budget. Superpowered villain's effect are shot against black background and filtered heavily. They looked as bad as Ghost Rider.

We have seen the story dozens of times before. There is nothing unexpected. There is little kid who is destined to be possessed by demon or something like that. Idris Elba promises to remove Ghost Rider curse if Cage help to get the boy to safety. He does that but Demon get the boy afterwards. Idris Elba, boy's mom and Cage have to save the boy. Only question is how Cage gets Ghost Rider's powers back.

It is impossible to write what is wrong. Too many things are wrong starting from the story. It didn't make any sense and explained almost nothing. Most of the movie is random action scenes. Rest is Cage being weird. First time Ghost Rider meets bad guys he is shot with bazooka. He is hurt so badly Cage wakes up in hospital. During next meeting he is shot again but this time it doesn't even slow him down. Movie is full of this kind of inconsistencies which force you not to care because what you thought could hurt heroes will not do it next time.

Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance is just big mess. It might feel like cheap old time superhero/action movies but those movies didn't have this much inconsistencies and they at least tried to do something with what they had. I am not sure if anyone outside couple special effects guys really cared. Some effects look good. Most don't. I can't recommend this. I usually like these effect heavy hell themed movies. But not this one.

Suicide Squad after Batman V Superman

If video is not show you can watch it here

I saw new Suicide Squad trailer and had to say something about it. I am no longer as exited about the movie as I was before Batman V Superman. You can find more from video.

Justice League: Throne of Atlantis (2015)

Justice League: Throne of Atlantis is follow up to Justice League: War. In comics there were other stories between these but in these animated movies these stories happen back to back. Last week I told reboot was in order to tell same stories again. I have seen this same story in another DC's animated movie. This time it is New 52 version.

Justice League: War told how Justice League got together. It felt weird how all of them happen to end up correct place correct time. This time movie can concentrate on story since heroes and their group was introduced first time. Story is about Aquaman and how Atlanteans attack Metropolis or where ever they attack.

Story begins as detective story. Movie benefits from staying in single story line instead of jumping from hero to hero. King of Atlantis was was killer during first movie. Prince blames humans. He wants revenge. Queen want to keep them hidden from humans. At this point Aquaman doesn't know who he is and what he has to do with Atlantis.

I liked Throne of Atlantis more than War. Darkseid was cool villain but story was quite weak. Justice League won by being stronger than Darkseid. This time things are not as black and white. There are interesting twists. Justice League outsmarts the villain to save the day. But this same story was already told in another animated movie. Maybe not exactly the same but close enough that reading synopsis you can't tell which is which.

Justice League: War (2014)

Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice was big teaser for Justice League movie and I am going to review Legends of Tomorrow after I have seen all the episodes. I thought I try to fill this gap with superhero movie reviews.

Batman V Superman made Justice League hot for a while. Justice League tells animated version of Justice League's origins. New 52 version to be exact. What is New 52 you might ask. New 52 is DC comics' reboot of every comic they released in 2011. Every title was cancelled and New 52 titles were launched. Almost everything started from zero and some characters got reimagined. In a way DC could tell same stories again  but I get more into that next week. If this wasn't confusing enough, DC will have rebirth event which will change everything again. There are reasons why I don't read comics that much.

New 52 needed DC's top group to get together which affects the story. All there characters are new versions of themselves and don't know each other. Before this there was nothing and suddenly world was full of superpowered people and aliens. Might feel odd when you know characters' histories. You should forget all that because this is New 52 and everything is new.

This time Justice League is formed when different superheroes fight against Darkseid's parademons on their own and end up same place when Darkseid attacks Earth. Addition to this movie also contains Cyborg's origin story which is quite close what we saw in Batman V Superman. Darkseid will be villain of upcoming live action Justice League movie. It might be quite close to this.

Justice League: War reminded how annoying Flash and Green Lantern can be together. Otherwise movie is quite entertaining. It is darker and more violent than you might expect from animated movies but then again so are most new DC's animated movies. There is no big deep story arc. It is just characters getting together and fighting villains.

Batman V Superman and Justice League

I didn't plan to write about this but I woke up with idea of what upcoming Justice League will be and I read this article about Batman V Superman's box office performance. This will contain some spoilers to Batman V Superman. I don't recommend seeing it but if you are going to see it anyway this will spoil one major plot twist and talk about dream sequences. Justice League prediction are based on what Batman V Superman showed us and many reviews and articles about the movie. Can't give credit where credit is due since I didn't plan this post and didn't save links. Most of it is my own prediction based of what I have read and seen.

Let's start with box office performance. News told how well movie did opening weekend but that is not all that matters. You had movie with three of DC's biggest superheroes and two of which are biggest superheroes even outside DC. You will get people to see it in first screenings even if the movie is bad one. It is more about interest of the characters and marketing. After premier movie's quality has something to do. It seems like drop between Friday and Sunday tells something about quality of Batman V Superman.

I wonder how global numbers are calculated. Movie premiered in Finland on Wednesday. I saw it on Thursday. Are those calculated towards global Friday performance. We had bank holiday on Friday so Thursday should have been quite equal Friday. Theater was quite empty then. Maybe it was word of mouth from Wednesday. Probably only us who had bought tickets earlier were in theater.

Batman V Superman spent much time to build up for upcoming Justice League movie. Too much and they may have told us too much. Even when they cut this from the movie.

I assume this was meant to be after Doomsday fight and it was replaced with prison scene because audience had to be hit in the head with fact that Darkseid will be villain of Justice League movie. Justice League movie is scheduled to be released next year. It is pretty clear they have the story set at this point. Question is did Batman see the future or were his dreams what he expected Superman to be.

I assume here he saw the future because it makes sense. Superman died in Batman V Superman. Rebirth was "hinted". In Batman's nightmares Superman was working with Darkseid's minions and Superman troops. This is probably what we will see in Justice League. Superman will reborn as something else or Darkseid gets hold of him. Superman and Darkseid are villains of Justice League movie.

Batman and Wonder Woman will form Justice League with others we briefly saw in Batman V Superman. In Batman V Superman Flash tells Batman Lois Lane is the key and Batman was right all along. This mean Batman knows Superman is good inside because their mothers have same name. Others don't believe him. They have seen Superman being with Darkseid and destroying Metropolis in Man of Steel.

Justice League movie is divided into two parts. First part will contain formation of Justice League and Darkseid's and Superman's attack on Earth. First part will end with Lois Lane speaking Superman from being evil. At this point Darkseid has practically won. Converting Superman will give Justice League first glimpse of hope. Converting Superman will end first part with positive note and hints fans will see Justice League they want in next movie.

If DC and Warner Bros don't stop the train here we will see November 2017 how correct I was. Maybe earlier since trailers tend to show us too much.

Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016)

I didn't have high hopes for Batman V Superman. I expected it to be mess with too many new characters introduced for Justice League movie. That was not problem. New characters were introduced but it only took couple minutes. We were only shown them. Movie concentrated on Batman and Superman. Wonder Woman was there to support them.

Some say Gal Gadon was great as Wonder Woman. I don't agree. Her action scene felt more like she was posing than fighting. Like watching moving painting. Some other scenes felt like that too. She was ok as Diana but we has seen similar thing done better before. I am not saying she did bad job or character was bad. She only felt too much like she was posing. I got same feeling from promotional pictures too.

Ben Affleck was good as Batman if you are ok with Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns version of Batman. This Batman kills and brands ones who he let live. He uses guns. I am not biggest Superman fan. This movie made people react him somewhat realistically which I liked. It how ever didn't go far enough in it. Superman was guy who wanted to be good guy. Other times he did what he wanted and pushed others around because he was stronger than others. If scene required he was ready to die to save others. There was no consistency in his character. It is like they added too much into one movie and didn't have enough time for Superman's story arc.

Movie is big mess. One reason for it is Lex Luthor. I didn't get what he was supposed to be. It was like he was several Superman and Batman villains at once. There was one scene where he was like Joker. He didn't have any reasons for what he did. He was just evil and he made most of the build up for later movies.

Spoilers from this point on. Story is big reason why Batman V Superman is big mess and I can't explain it without spoilers.

Lex Luthor knew every superhero's secret identities. Lex Luthor knows who every superhero we have seen in DC Cinematic Universe is. Batman and Wonder Woman learns about other Justice League members after Batman decrypts Luthor's secret files. Luthor knows Batman is Bruce Wayne and Superman is Clark Kent. Movie don't think this is big issue. Luthor just uses this knowledge against Batman and Superman but after Luthor is behind bars it is forgotten. He won't use this knowledge in future.

Lex Luthor not only is the father of Justice League. He also called Darkseid to Earth or something like that. He knows about Darkseid. If he knew Darkseid is coming why he wanted Superman out of the way if he is not on Darkseid's side. Nothing in Lex Luthor makes sense.

Batman V Superman starts with Bruce Wayne at ending of Man of Steel. We are shown the destruction from normal people's point of view. We see how destruction has consequences. This turns Batman against Superman. This movie ends with even worse destruction porn than Man of Steel had. At least they don't tear down half of the city this time. They forgot what they told at beginning of the movie.

Batman is against Superman because he thinks Superman can destroy mankind and he has to be stopped. When Batman is about to kill Superman he learns their mothers are named Martha. This stops Batman and he becomes Superman's best friend. Superman is no longer threat to mankind because his mother is named Martha. This really happened. If this is not enough Batman promises to save Superman's mother he knew nothing about before this in ten minutes he has.

Superman dies twice in this movie. First time he and Doomsday are nuked. He wakes up from that. Doomsday kills him second time but he doesn't wake up from that right away. He gets buried but something starts to happen to his casket. I really hated this. They killed Superman but it didn't have any impact because we know Warner Bros have announced upcoming DC Cinematic Universe movies and we can be sure Superman will be in Justice League movies. I hate this underestimating of audience. Nobody thinks he really died. It only felt stupid. From now on what stakes does Superman have? He has already died twice.

When people say Gal Gadot's Wonder Woman was best part of the movie it is because her character was most consistent and didn't have these stupid moments. Some could say it is because she had so little screen time.

Batman V Superman was too long. There were scene which didn't bring anything other than show how dark and gritty everything was. Action scenes didn't tell story. They were just there. One action scene which could have had some story telling in it was cut away. I guess Batman fighting regular people doing their job was too much. The action scene could have showed how far Batman could go to stop Superman and maybe have some internal struggle.

There is rumor of over three hour rater R directors cut. I don't know what it could bring. Theatrical cut was already too long and at times boring.

Daredevil - Season 2 (2016)

Daredevil and Jessica Jones were best Marvel Cinematic Universe had to offer last year. They gave us darker and smaller scale view to Marvel Cinematic Universe. Daredevil's second season takes everything even further with Punisher and Elektra. Both kill in comics like it is nothing and both kill in this Netflix Original like it is nothing.

First season basically told one story from two point of views. One side it was Matt becoming Daredevil and other side it was Kingpin's rise and fall. This time it is two separate stories which happen to happen at same time. Punisher has own story arc and Elektra has own and story arcs are not really connected to each others. There are couple overlaps but both stories run on their own.

Punisher story gets first episodes. When Punisher story gets to next phase Elektra appears and characters get connected to one story or the other. Daredevil has part in both but others are in one or the other. This made following the stories easier. You knew what story arc was going on when you saw who was in screen.

Story continues where first season ended. At times I expected similar reset at the end but this season ends with kind of cliffhangers. It leave everyone at different place where they were at the start. First season was introduction. Second might have started longer story arch. It is not clear what since so many things were left open. There were some connections to Jessica Jones. Rest of the Marvel Cinematic Universe didn't have connections I could pick.

Second season of Daredevil is more of the same without doing the same thing again. My biggest issue was with cgi blood which looked terrible. I didn't understand why they had to use it so much. There were few minor issues but over all everything worked. Daredevil is probably best Marvel Cinematic Universe has to offer this year. Luke Cage will have his own Netflix Original later this year which could be as good. Movie haven't been as good lately.