benseerd Reviews

Avatar: The Last Airbender (2024– )

Not the original, but not bad

[6/10 · 26 February 2024]

It's not the original. Get that in your mind to start. But for live action, it's certainly magnitudes better than M. Night Shamalayn's take on the franchise. The acting and story are definitely better, as is the casting. These characters actually feel like moderate reflections of the characters in the show, although admittedly a lot of the show was rushed. The original 1st season is 20+ episodes that are around 20 minutes a piece while this new series is only 8 episodes around an hour each. They should have let it have more episodes to show how these characters develop and react to the situations theyre facing as they travel. Also, some of the season 2 arcs were implemented into this season, such as Azula's training, the "Secret Tunnels," and the end of the series where we see Bumi and Omashu defeated by the Fire Nation. I'm guessing this was done because they wanted to do it in case they didn't get a season 2, but it does show lack of faith in their project.

At the very least the casting was good and they managed to weave together multiple episodes and stories together in a way that felt moderately cohesive. Honestly it feels like what we got in the original was the glamourous tale of Team Avatar's exploits, the legend and myths of their travels, and this felt like what actually happened in their stories. In this case, the original show is more entertaining because so many of the stories have been written that way, while I feel like this series is a detailed description and recreation of the events that took place, which means that ofc its not going to be as good as the larger than life stories we've gotten before, but certainly still interesting.

For an Avatar remake? Not bad. As a show? It's pretty good, but the original is still a ton better. I'd say if you're looking for a decent summary of what happens in book 1 of the original series, this isn't a bad choice.

Hazbin Hotel (2019– )

Starts off slow, but ending is awesome.

[7/10 · 2 February 2024]

It starts off pretty slow in terms of story and plot, but by the last 4 episodes it really picks up and begins to be really good. It's mostly a musical, which if that's your thing then you'll thoroughly enjoy it, especially with the talents of Erika Henningsen and Jeremy Jordan. The story is intriguing towards the end too, especially as they set up Lilith and Lute as the main villains of season 2. And I can't deny that seeing a pig-like character like Adam getting killed was therapeutic. Overall, it's a pretty good show if you like musicals and interesting concepts. The animation is a touch strange and a lot of people consider it to be "blasphemous" because of how they portray Lucifer, Adam, and Heaven compared to the Bible, but c'mon, read the shows description first. It's literally a show about Lucifer's daughter attempting to redeem sinners. The first song is called "a Happy Day in Hell," I mean, what did you expect? Don't blame you getting offended on the show when you had a ton of warnings, including its rating of TV-MA, the TV equivalent of an R rating.

In the end, pretty good show if you like Musicals. Story gets better as it goes along, and the potential for where they could take this story is amazing.

My Adventures with Superman (2023– )

A Great Show! We need Season 2!!!

[9/10 · 2 September 2023]

Superman media recently has gone a bit down hill with the Snyder-verse, and Supergirl's later seasons, but this show manages to take Superman back to its roots and show us a version of him the way he was meant to be. Dorky, hopeful, fun, and a genuinely good person just trying to use his abilities for good. It has a way of introducing us to characters that we only get bits and pieces of and making us care deeply about them, along with taking information we know and making it seem like some big secret. The villains could be better (especially Chris Parnell's Deathstroke), but overall, it's the best Superman media we've gotten in the last 5 years, combined with absolutely fantastic animation, a great voice cast, and an amazing writing team that does an amazing job. I hope we get a season 2 and beyond.

Blue Beetle (2023)

A good watch

[7/10 · 20 August 2023]

Ok, so overall it was fairly by-the-numbers in terms of story and plot, but it wasn't bad. And the characters are so lovable that it's hard to say anything bad about it. The way they show Jamie's reaction to getting the scarab and his bond with it is different from the comics, but it's still really cool and very authentic to how I think someone would react to getting something like the scarab attached to your spine without warning. Xolo Mariduena was perfectly cast as Jamie, and the rest of the casting was pretty good too. I especially loved George Lopez as Jamie's crazy uncle. If I had any complaints, it would be that the villain, Victoria Kord, was kinda by the numbers for your average superhero villain. And the secondary villain, Carapax I felt they tried to redeem at the last second after it had the least impact. If they wanted to show him as a conflicted villain, they should have made it clearer earlier in the movie. Also, Jenny Kord is, again, a bit simplistic in terms of character design. Overall, it was a good, basic, by the numbers superhero movie that I enjoyed. The special effects were awesome, the acting was pretty great, some of the characters are a little bland but it doesn't take away from much. In the end, it was cool, and I'd say worth a watch. Definitely some of the best DC content released in the last 5 years.

Baymax! (2022)

Pretty Wholesome

[7/10 · 30 June 2022]

I thought this show was very sweet and brought sensitive topics like periods and getting older into a format that kids can understand. The plot itself was fairly simple, but the dialogue felt natural and the characters were fairly down to earth, which helped the show to speak to both kids and grownups alike. It's not much, but it's very engaging and a good quick watch.