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Wonder Woman 1984 (2020)
All woman, no wonder
Awful characterizations that never ascend to at least the second dimension, the initially good premise of the plot quickly becomes infused with a cartoonish caricature of the eighties and the actions of the astoundingly badly written villains, and, finally, the resolution is so out of touch with the human condition (without giving away any major spoilers) that I honestly threw up a little in my mouth.
And then the plot holes. The most egregious one, to me at least, is related to how Steve Trevor was a pilot. In World War I... Again, in WWI. Yet, he flies a jet just fine.
Gal Gadot is still not a good actress. The others did fine with what they had, but what they had was mostly awful.
Finally, for the sake of my sanity, I won't go into details on how the current socio-political climate might have advised casting choices, but it's nice to see that even a white megalomaniacal loser was not afraid to marry and have a kid with a woman of Asian descent in the seventies in the US. (The movie is set in 84, but the kid is at least 5-6 years old.) If that was a common thing, I apologize. Since Star Trek Discovery, where they almost always appear as villains, I am probably overly sensitive to the marginalization of straight white male characters.
And a pet peeve of mine: the music. Hans Zimmer and his minions must have been very busy, seeing that at a very important hero moment they chose to use a theme from a completely different movie. ('Adagio in D Minor' by John Murphy from the score for 'Sunshine') I mean, what's up with that? Did Patty Jenkins not like what Zimmer produced and went with the temp music?
Anyway, if you don't expect more than what you do from a Sunday morning cartoon, you'll enjoy this. Sadly, I expected more.
Drakulics elvtárs (2019)
Mediocre.
The 10/10 review is a direct translation of promotional material from a Hungarian article probably left by someone close to the production. It is anything but unbiased.
Story is meh, but it's a comedy. Sadly, it underperforms in that regard, too. It's quite well made, nonetheless, from a technical point of view and given its budget,
Designated Survivor (2016)
I don't have any excuse: I ate it up.
I admit, I am a sucker for anything that involves the "most important person of the world", especially in serialized form. For this reason, one of my all time favourite shows is The West Wing. This show is not as good as Aaron Sorkin's series but it entertains.
Designated Survivor starts out on a violent premise: an unthinkable attack on the US government thrusts a lowly politician into an unwanted position. With an always likeable Kiefer Sutherland in the lead, it got me hooked right from the first episode. The story kept me on edge throughout the season, making me suspicious of this character or the other while the machinations of the "enemy" always seemed to fulfill their intended purpose.
I think the first season was great. It came to a satisfying conclusion and kept some legs for the next season. But that's just it: whatever remained unresolved from the story of season one was tied up pretty fast in the second. For the character of the President, seemingly nothing remains from the premise of the very first episode-and the title-of the show. It's still just as much entertaining as it was in the beginning, but to me, it lost it's uniqueness a bit.
As of this writing, the show is on its mid-season break during season 2 and I'm sure as hell I'll be coming back for more. If nothing else, the cast of characters is interesting enough to keep me going.
(One notable exception to this, for me at least, is the FBI tech guy. His character is the most cliched in my opinion, with laughable lines and character development. Not to mention the wooden acting or, rather, no acting at all... I don't critique actors, unless they stand out, and usually only when they do that in a negative way. Well, he did, so I had to mention him. Luckily, he is not on screen THAT much...)
Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (2017)
Visually stunning but empty. Like a fake present under the Christmas tree in a shop window.
Luc Besson has an eye for visuals. That's my takeaway from this movie of his. But - as is the case with practically every bad movie - it had potential.
The film is based on a French comic book series that ran for 43 (!) years. So there was a lot of material to work from. But the story is presented in a very uninteresting way, the script is atrocious and the acting is... well, it's like the script. Mostly, it's not the actors' fault, though. Except in the case of Cara Delevingne. No facial expression, not a single change of tone in her voice... Other actors are more believable selling car insurance than she is here. When I say that she was the standout in the movie it is not at all a compliment. But at least the others tried... even though they had little to work with.
The only redeeming quality - for me at least - is the visual representation of the world the movie tries to establish. The CGI is stunning, might even prompt some awards. Of course it's only my opinion, I'm no expert when it comes to VFX.
The bottom line is that I didn't care about the story or the characters, but, boy, is it pretty to look at. Sadly, it's not nearly enough. It's only visual porn if I don't feel invested in the characters or the story.
Where is the director The Fifth Element? Or Léon: The Professional? This is all fluff, no substance.