I still watch this show, but I can't help but feel like it peaked in season 2. Maybe because I feel like the premise of this show wasn't meant to last this long. In most cases I feel like the 5th season of a show is a perfect time to wrap everything up leaving for a satisfying conclusion. The problem is that by the 5th season of a show, the popularity is usually at its highest point. When in most cases its only natural to continue the show forward until the popularity dies out. I say that because I don't want to see that happen to this show. If the next season isn't the finally, I don't know if I will be able to continue watching it forward. As for season 5, I thought it was by far the most safest season yet. Sometimes that can be good but in this case it left me actually getting bored around the midpoint. I think that it can be both a positive and a negative for my overall thoughts to the season. Thinking back I can't really remember anything from this season that was memorable. Something that all previous season had, even if it was just one moment that defined the season. I guess I could some up this season as the "cutting loose ends" season. With the majority of the season focusing on the election and the second half removing all traces of the corruptness that still wasn't tied up. Leading to an ending that I'm not so sure leaves me excited to see what happens next. In many ways I was looking forward to see when everything comes crashing down for all the actions the Underwoods have made in the past. The way events turn out though, it looks like it might be all a slap on the wrist, for the most part. I'm still going to stick with this show for at least one more season. But I can't say that I am all that excited for it like I was with this season. If anything i would like to see more things at stake or at least portray it that way. We will have to wait and see. Rating:
There has be a lot of movies released over the time of my hiatus or should I say that I've seen quite of a bit of movies. More and more I try to avoid any movie that I feel will be generic or just another cinematic universe building film because I just don't care about those anymore. Not to say that I am staying away from superhero films because superhero films aren't the only ones trying to stay in the cinematic universe building game. Recently I have just watched Logan for the first time and I while I really enjoyed it I can't help but feel like it was a end of an era. That same feeling of having to move on. Modern movies have certainly lost their edge compared to what they used to and that not to say that they have become worse. That statement just isn't true as there will always be bad movies but the good ones will continued to be remember and often looked at when movies are released that year. No what I am talking about is the "playing it safe" factor that I see in so many modern movies. I mention Logan because it reminded me of why I like when movies take chances and try something new even at the cost of a marketable film. After watching X-Men: Apocalypse last year I said to myself "its time to end the X-Men movies" After watching Logan, I said the same thing, but the meaning was completely opposite to prior statement. The prior, a sense that this franchise and others like it have plateaued and no longer had anything new to offer. The former, a satisfying conclusion to a long running story that now has come full circle. Nothing else it needed to tell after its already been done. Now I know there will continue to be X-Men movies. Even as I am typing this the studio is probably announced a whole slate of movies planned to 2030. But that doesn't necessarily mean I have to watch them or even considered them a continuation. Now I days I find myself deciding when and where a movie series should end even though more sequels are released to follow. Naruto is a long running franchise that I have kept up with for close to 13 years now. But, similar to X-Men, the series has ended. Well not exactly. The story contributed by the original creator has ended. But the "story" goes on in the form of the "Next Generation" by the studios that know Naruto makes money. I know I don't have to watch it and I don't plan to, as for me the story has ended. Which makes me think about the future of movies, of course we will still get great stand alone films but more and more are we getting movies that are made by a chart that says what the average person does and doesn't want to see in a movie with an end result of mediocrity. Where as just a few years ago I was going to the theaters as much as I could to see every movie was that released to today where I see maybe one or two movies actually in theaters.
Writer: Bryan Schulz, Craig Schulz, Cornelius Uliano
Plot:Snoopy embarks upon his greatest mission as he and his team take to the
skies to pursue their arch-nemesis, while his best pal Charlie Brown
begins his own epic quest back home.
The Peanuts are back with an all new movie. This is a movie that sets out on trying to recreate the old magic that the show had instead of modernizing it with cliches and pop songs that most kids movies have theses days. There isn't an complicated or complex plot to the story, but the characters are likable enough to get through it, some of the new characters aren't as good as the old ones but that is expected.
What I can say about this movie, is that I really enjoyed how they used 3D animation to create the feel and look of the old cartoon. Even retaining the qualities that all the old characters had as well. The one thing you can say after watching this film was that it felt like a Peanuts cartoon and for a modern day remake/reboot, that's a pretty good thing.
This appeals to kids and appeals to the older ones who may have grown up with the show or plenty of specials it has. I would say this is a good movie to see in theaters to kinda balance out all of the other action packed movies that come out this year. And if you have never seen a The Peanuts, now would be a good time to be introduced to them. Rating:
In the new episode of Rebels Ezra is having trouble balancing both his Jedi training and solder training with Rex. While the crew get to go on a mission, Ezra and Chopper stay behind to clean the ship. They get wind of another distress signal and decide to go help.
They both travel to the ship that was sending the signal to them and end up getting split up immediately. Ezra travels around the ship alone and runs into Ohnaka, who is messing around with the ship. Ezra pretends to be Lando to most likely give away his true identity. A star destroyer beings to shoot at them as Ezra repairs the ship and uses light speed to travel away from the empire.
Ohnaka is smuggling a few crates of power cells and travels to sell Azmorigan, he of course tricks them and tries to use a bounty to sell them out. Chopper helps them break free from the trap and takes out most of Azmorigan's henchman. They engaged in a shoot out that lead to Ohnaka getting almost sent to space if it weren't for Ezra's force ability to save him. They get back to the ship and Ohnaka asks Ezra to join him in being a pirate. Ezra beings to contemplate being a pirate just a little until he runs into Vizago. Him and Ezra return to the bridge and confront Ohnaka only for Vizago to turn on both of them and activates his droids on the ship to take them out. Ezra shuts them down by having the activator and goes after Chopper. Both Ezra and Chopper are sent back to the planet and return to the ship. By the end they get their generators, and Ezra realizes that the path he is on is different from a normal Jedi.
I liked this episode and how we got to go on the different side of the good guys for a change. Being with smugglers and pirates was able to give Ezra a different perspective on things and really find his way into becoming his own Jedi.
Yeah there were no Inquisitors and not much of the Empire but it was still a very entertaining episode. I do hope that next week we get to go back to that though.
Sword Art Online is an Anime that had one of the most interesting premises that made me really want to check it out. A very good premise can really get someone hooked onto the start of a show but its up to the story and character to keep someone invested all the way to the end. Unfortunately Sword Art Online doesn't do this which does suck because the premise of this show did suck me in right away. What is the Premise the show? Well it revolves around a concept that people who play a VR game are stuck inside of the game until they can beat the game. The twist is that if they die inside of the game they will then die in real life as well, adding a bit of suspense to the choices everyone makes. Now we follow Kirito as he was a beta player from before the game is released, so he has a bit of a lead against everyone else. He mostly decides to play the game alone, but we get to see what the world is like by how he explores the world and eventually helping out other player who may not be as strong as he is. He even teams up with a few other high level players to defeat bosses that unlock the next level for them so they can get closer and closer to beating the game. That is pretty much how the first 7 or 8 episodes of the show start out and that is also the only positive things I can say about this show. From this point on the show becomes something completely different and only goes down hill from there. What happened? Well very early on we are introduced to a loner character named Asuna, who ends up teaming up with Kirito to beat a couple of bosses in the game. With this they end up developing a liking to each other, trusting one another more so than other players in the game. At some point these two end up having a relationship within the game. This is not a problem but what becomes a problem is that they stop the entire show and plot just to focus on these two going on a vacation within the game. Again this isn't a problem by it self but what becomes a problem is that it goes on for way to long. To the point that while watching it you don't even know if you are watching the same show anymore. They even adopt a child AI in the game and they go on a side story plot to find her identity. Now this isn't the point where the show took a dive and turned into a show not worth watching anymore, mostly because it still had some interest in the characters, mostly Asuna, who looking back actually is the best character in the entire 1st season.
Now from this point on we reach the second half of the season. Which honestly is so bad that its not worth talking about because its been said and explain so much well else where. (check out digibro's video)
What happens is, around a couple of months after the sword art online incident, Kirito tries to find a way to bring Asuna (who is still trapped in the game) back to the real world. This leads to a whole new game that is no where near as interesting we have to enter into as well as a weird side plot with his step sister that creates this really weird love triangle that isn't worth going into. It becomes the basic plot of saving the princess, expert here its just not interesting. It feels like this was a rushed plot that they had to come up with quick just so they had an excuse to continue the show.
I said I wasn't going to get too much into the second half, and I won't. To sum it up, its bad, and you shouldn't watch it. If I were to recommend this show to anyone it would be for the first 7 episode of the show, but even looking back it makes me question whether a show is worth recommending if I am no recommending the show in its entirety. So on that basis, this isn't a show I would recommend because of the invest you get from the start of the show and the ultimate disappoint that all that investment leads to. Rating:
Star Wars Rebels is back with a new season and in the very first episode we are already introduced to familiar faces.
In this episode the crew are tasked to look for and recruit an old commander, they don't know much about them at first but they come to find out that they are Rex and his team from the Clone Wars.
Right away Kanon has a problem with the old clone troopers, we don't completely know why but we do have an Idea. It could very much be from the fallout from after Revenge of the Sith. Kanon doesn't know about how Rex and his team had removed their chips before those events happened, and even know Kanon finds out about it, he still has some doubt.
They worked together to catch a giant worm beast that Zeb ultimately get eaten by and in need of saving, but while this is going on the Empire is watching them. At the same time we follow with Agent Kallous as he is still trying to find Ezra and the Ghost Crew. He sends down a probe to go spy on them and even get more information about the whereabouts of others. This actually really surprised me on how well this season has started and set up, even though not much happened in terms of plot, it was nice to see how well paced everything was. Especially during the scenes where both groups have to work together to catch the giant worm as well as stopping the probe sent from the empire. I like how we were able to see the old crew from the Clone Wars show and how it really feels like they are giving closer to their stories.
This was a great start to the new season and I am already looking forward to the new episode. Rating:
PG-13
| Genre:Adventure,
Animation,
Drama Writer & Director: Satoshi Kon Plot:On Christmas Eve, three homeless people living on the streets of Tokyo
find a newborn baby among the trash and set out to find its parents.
Tokyo Godfathers is another film directed by Satoshi Kon, it follow three people who are homeless who stumble upon a baby and then precede to look for its parents. What I noticed about the movie was how dark it was. The film mostly takes place at night but the actual look was very dark and grainy but very much felt realistic. The background look fantastic and even blends well with the moving animation which I think kept everything look natural. Not a lot of movies in animation look like this and its nice to see that at least one film has done it and made it work. This is definitely Satoshi Kons most straight forward movie, doing nothing special in terms of twists and turn that most of his movies do. This one rather focuses on the characters and the situations they get into on the way of finding this babies parents. It wasn't until after I finished the movie that I realized that there aren't any movies out there that I know of that have a group of homeless as their main protagonists. Even portraying them as just normal people and not at all in a negative light. You get a feel for their life and as soon as the baby shows up in the story I got sucked in. I would say this is the most character developed film that Satoshi Kon made and it helps with getting involved with the story. Everyone has something in their past that makes them interesting, and even more when certain situations force them to confront their past. Characters want to have better lives but lack the motivation to really do something, but you see as they change as soon as the baby shows up in their lives. They're all very likable and that makes you root for them when they get stuck in bad situations in the film. Satoshi Kon has proved that he can tackle a wide variety of genre in Anime. Having this film be more toned done in terms of style and story really shows that he knows what a film really needs. When a animated movie can make me forget I am watching hand drawn characters, its done a pretty good job at what its doing. This is one film of his you should check out, even if your a fan of Anime or not, this one is a good blend of both. Rating:
Plot:A young programmer is selected to participate in a breakthrough
experiment in artificial intelligence by evaluating the human qualities
of a breathtaking female A.I.
Ex Machina is a movie that tells familiar ideas, but takes a new spin on them that really makes the movie feel new and refreshing. The first thing I noticed while watching the movie was how much it felt grounded and realistic, like this could happen today in out present time and would feel believable. I like how they made Ava the android not like a super powered robot like most movies have. Making it more downplayed and human like really gets you paranoid about treating it like a machine. The cast is small and you get to know how these characters act around each other as well as how they treat each other which is the most interesting part.
There were only two things toward the end of the film, that I didn't enjoy as much as the rest. The first was the actually ending it self. It was not a bad ending, I feel like it just didn't make sense plot wise for us to get that ending. Another was the actually plan of a certain character who I won't spoil. When you do find out this info you just question the entire test and what it was really aiming for. Overall Ex Machina was one of the more enjoyable films this year and I hope to see more films like it in the future. If you really enjoy Sci-Fi or want to see something that is more quite and less focused on action and explosive, this is a great movie to check out. Rating:
