mariantambe Reviews

The Marvels (2023)

Lose the Rose Colored Glasses Already

[6/10 · 14 November 2023]

This is a solid cgi action flick from Marvel. It's what they're known for and what they produced long before Infinity War and Endgame. Just as entertaining as Black Panther and not as boring as Homecoming, though just as illogical.

It's more a more light hearted film with music synced fight sequences, lots of girl power, Nick Fury, alien cats, and worm holes.

This film has three weak points.

The villain is the first and lesser of the two. The potential is there, they justed needed something more to make it kick. A more dramatic moment in the end maybe, with clear implications of her decision making.

The second point is that this is part of the larger marvel universe. If you have not seen certain other movies or series, parts of the first half of the movie won't make total sense. The makers did have the sense to eventually add explanations in the dialogue so you will get most of the picture. This weak point is honestly a criticism of a lot of Marvel movies.

The third is that the explanations for why Marvel wasn't around for so long is weak. It's ....okayyyyyy and if you can stomach the inconsistencies and stretches in the like of Civil War and Spiderman Homecoming, this really shouldn't be an issue.

Basically, watch this for the fun of watching a light hearted action flick with cgi and cats.

Elemental (2023)

Way better than the trailer implies.

[9/10 · 17 September 2023]

The trailer is misleading, with two elemental people meeting on a train and implying romance from there. The movie is nothing like that. The two leads don't even meet like that.

Essentially, it's about an immigrant's daughter who runs from her own emotions about not wanting to run her father's shop. This combined with the desire to not let her father down causes stress leading to angry, fiery outbursts. Her outbursts lead to pipe damage and a run in with a water inspector, the main love interest who is super with connecting with emotions. They work together to fix the problem(s) and start dating in secret.

I don't want to spoil any more so I'll leave it there. This is an awesome movie with a great plot, good characters, and nuance. The scenes are gorgeous and we'll thought out.

I saw this on Disney plus, but it's definitely something I would have paid theater prices for. Good job Pixar!

The Flash (I) (2023)

Pretty good

[7/10 · 22 July 2023]

It's got flaws, as every movie does. The MC, played by Ezra Miller is annoying. Some points don't make sense, but...

As an overall movie, it is very enjoyable. I respect it. The Flash's main villain ends up being a Flash Villain, not a Superman one, so that alone makes me have a soft spot for the film. The end comes back to the beginning and both are personal for the main character, which plot wise is nice.

If they had replaced Ezra Miller, had a Henry Cavill cameo as Superman, and not included George Clooney and Nick Cage (They don't make sense), this would've been pretty awesome. Plus cut some of the CGI to be more tasteful. Thirty minutes could have been cut, easy.

Also I didn't think I would like Batman and Supergirl as much as I did in this. The versions they used worked. Miller was not annoying when around them.

The Villains of Valley View (2022– )

Average rating's about right

[5/10 · 19 January 2023]

It's on par with shows like Henry Dranger and the Thundermans. They all have similar ratings which should be no surprise.

Like them, this show has quirky ideas and potentially fun scenes and stories. The only thing in the way is the profound lack of nuance that all these shows have.

Comedy is best paired with a little bit of seriousness. These characters need to be fleshed out more and in ways logical to the story. For example, "the overly friendly do gooder becomes best friends with the punk rock villain next door" is extremely intriguing. But they don't do it well. Its rushed over and forced. This could've been something that develops over the course of the show but they rush it in favor of easily forgettable gag plots.

I want that intriguing situation.

The Twilight Zone (2019–2020)

Just off course

[5/10 · 15 May 2022]

Honestly, the acting, dialogue, and camera work are great. The show has two main problems. They are a long run time and horrible overall themes/ twists.

The result is that every episode is a slow burn that just makes you cock your head. It's not cohesive or interesting. As an example, in the episode Not All Men, the theme is set up horribly and does not fit the story told.

In it, meteors with a mysterious contagion infect the men in a small town, causing uncontrollable anger. The twist at the end was that there was no contagion, and the meteors were a placebo, giving the men an excuse to act out. Except, they didn't know the meteors had a contagion at all and as far as they were concerned, they just found some cool meteor rocks. Placebos are mind tricks and this twist,that this show is known for is, nonsensical. And this was one of the better episodes.

NOS4A2 (2019–2020)

Excellent premise, but it gets weird

[5/10 · 16 October 2020]

Halfway through season 1 the writing starts getting funky. One girl, Maggie, tries to avoid getting run over by the possessed car by running in the street, instead of hiding behind or zigzagging through the many cars in the packed car lot the scene takes place in. Later, the main heroine ,Vic, goes on a sudden streak of self sabotaging behavior including telling( but not showing) police she has magical powers, dumping the artsy boyfriend who reciprocates her feelings, drinking, smoking pot, and sleeping with her pot head childhood friend. It feels forced.

The Lorax (2012)

It's not satesfying

[6/10 · 6 October 2020]

A couple things just rubbed me wrong. 1. The plastic town in the beginning is shown to function perfectly fine without plants. People are happy and their needs are met with no visible downside. The animals are already dead from events that occured years prior. If humanity can function that well without nature, what's the point of trees?( Not that I'm antitree in the real world, but that's the real world, that's not what were shown) 2. Apparently, someone only cared about trees to impress a girl. So yeah, again in the world of the Lorax trees are real important. Like a fad. 3. The Lorax nearly drowns the Onceler before he starts chopping down loads of trees in an effort to get him to leave, but does nothing but talk once the actual destroying the environment thing begins. 4. The seed grew to a sapling in less than a day? If that's the case why didn't the Onceler replant the forest he destroyed instead of waiting years for some lovesick youth to take the seed back to town?

Jessica Jones (2015–2019)

S1 good, the other two not so much

[6/10 · 14 July 2020]

Jessica Jones is a good show depending on the season. Season one had style, flawed but interesting characters, one spectacularly bone chilling villain, and intriguing relationships. The other two seasons kept the style, but fumbled the other things. Season 2 didn't have a villain, and the main characters relationships became awkward, toxic, and cringey like the characters forgot how to communicate. Season 3 kept the cringey relationships, focused too much on a side character, and brought in two lackluster villains who had way too big of a plot shield. So, I recommend you watch the first season and leave the other two to your imagination.

The Tomorrow People (2013–2014)

Why steal?

[6/10 · 10 June 2020]

Okay these people can use telepathy, telekinesis, and teleportation and had a "great" leader who brought them together for a better tomorrow and they steal everything they want/ need? Why not poof peokple to a remote location and start a farm or try to build a sustainable community with morals. Even if we just see trial and error, give me some heroes to root for. These kids are just common theives who have no mind to try to change that aspect of their lives.

The Defenders (2017)

Kinda rushed

[6/10 · 9 June 2020]

I don't think they were ready to bring the team together. We don't get much fleshed out with the villains, last fight scenes were ridiculous( Jessica Jones in the middle of a mob of sword weilding trained ninjas? A kitchen knife to the abdomen took her down in her own show. She's a super strong detective with no training and no imperviousness. Come on!) and Danny Rand is an idiot who should have his powers taken away. Needs more work.

Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)

Decent

[5/10 · 12 March 2020]

Homecoming is decent at best. It lacks any sort of weight for the first two thirds of the movie and skirts around Spidey thinking about anything interesting. Take the beginning of the movie, for example. Spiderman is coming home from a civil war within the Avengers team where one side fought to imprison the other and a member of Spidey's team was shot down by friendly fire. He's not thinking about any of that stuff. No, he's acting like a kid who just got home from disneyland. He's excited, shooting videos, having a little commentary about how cool it it was. That sets the tone for the movie. Major events happen and he doesn't really think about them.

I get this is supposed to be a light hearted film, but the lack of weight and serious confrontation combined with multiple scenes of mass destruction ( destroyed buildings, a ferry cut in half, national monument destroyed, a circus obliterated etc ) feels out of place. What's worse is that Spiderman himself seems to trigger this destruction in each case throughout the film, escalating the amount of damage done enormously beyond the amount would have been should be never interfered. A small robbery ends with buildings destroyed, tracking somebody ends with a ferry cut in half and a federal investigation ruined, etc. Yet never does Spiderman think of the damage his interference caused despite the same situation occuring over and over again. People's lives ruined because he wouldn't even think that he was out of his league, even though someone else has to save the day and clean up the situation almost every time. Spiderman is just too thoughtless.

Well, that's pretty much what holds this movie back but the acting and special effects are good. Tom Holland and Keaton, Spiderman and the Vulture respectively, are the best part of the movie.

Roswell, New Mexico (2019–2022)

Decent, but its not for me

[5/10 · 25 January 2020]

So... Liz hasn't been back to Roswell, where her only living immediate family member lives, in ten years. That's interesting. And she's only going back because she lost her job and has no choice but to move back in with Dad. To boot, mom was crazy and her little druggie sister died in a car crash in high school that took out two other people. Then we find out there's a conspiracy about her sister dying and somehow the aliens are involved? This should be one heck of a show.

I have tried to watch this show many times and I barely made it through Ep 3... Of 13. That's because instead of fleshing out the interesting bits, this show is diluted by PC bull, alien angst, and throwbacks to the original show. With only 13 episodes it's too short to waste valuable time on what, so far, makes the show slow, awkward, and cringey.

It might be a case of the new series blues with the show still finding it's footing, but after seeing reviews from people who've seen up to the end of season 2 with similar feelings as mine, well. Eh. I don't think its for me.

The I-Land (2019)

Nice concept, poor execution

[3/10 · 12 September 2019]

Okay, I am only three episodes in but the show has been a disappointment since episode two. The show centers around a government experiment on convicts wherein said convicts are given amnesia and sent mentally into a virtual world to see if they can be rehabilitated. It is an interesting concept but the execution just gets under my skin. First off, the convicts have no choice but to participative , and the parameters for the experiment itself is questionable as if the writers have no idea how scientific experiments are done.