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KenLinx
Reviews
Shin Ultraman (2022)
Decently Entertaining But Lacking In Pretty Much Everything
The CGI is passable, the acting is passable, the fight scenes are decently choreographed, and the filmmaking is exquisite. However, almost everything about this film has a caveat.
As someone who'd watched all the original Showa series, the sound effect/art homage decisions were extremely welcome. Unfortunately, as with the rest of the film, nothing is ever perfect. Instead of giving the fans a completely faithful Ultraman with all the shticks we've learned to love like the color timer, the grunts, the human-like exhaustion-staggering, they decided to cut all of that in favor of a "shin" (new) design claimed to be based on the original concept art of the late designer for the original Ultraman. This new design, unluckily, isn't memorable or aesthetically pleasing in the slightest. I simply don't understand how they can have such immaculate attention to detail on the references of the original sound effects, poses, special moves, and art splashes, yet completely undercut what matters most in the visual design.
The story is surprisingly unpredictable. Although it utilizes many tropes, every time I thought the film was about to have its penultimate final fight, the fight ends abruptly and suddenly there came a bigger threat. This is what I appreciated about the story. And yet, again, the shortcomings are impossible to ignore.
The characters are incredibly bland and one-note. Neither the characters or their relationships were built up properly. The film doesn't even attempt to give a reason as to why the SSSP team would have an attachment to Ultraman's extremely unlikable human host, and yet they do anyway. The film does however like to shovel blatant exposition down the viewers' throats to move the story forward.
Of all its faults, the cinematography was pretty great. There weren't spastic unnecessary cuts in the fights. Even in the most boring of scenes, there was always something to appreciate about the unique angles the scene is shot at.
The Boys: Barbary Coast (2022)
The writer(s) for this episode did everything you're not supposed to do.
The Boys is starting to become a parody of itself.
I thought we got all the pointless social politics out in episode 2 of this season, but it's still ongoing.
Dialogue for this episode came straight from a soap opera. Butcher asked about the weapon that killed Soldier Boy and Malory gave him her entire life story. Then they do this "good guys get into a fight before the climax" cliche and Butcher tries to distance himself from his kid despite moments ago having a heart-to-heart with him? What? And everyone from the main cast just stands there and watches in disbelief. And then everyone clapped. Which writer died and got replaced by a writer for the CW?
We're only 20 episodes in and we're already getting retcons. About 5 of them in this one episode. First Starlight is said to have had a former relationship with new character Supersonic, then MM's family is revealed to have been killed by Soldier Boy, then Malory is revealed to have been on a mission with Payback with Stan Edgar and Black Noire, then Black Noire is shown to just be a regular person before he bore the brunt of an explosion and became self-conscious of his scarring (his healing factor and his comic book origin just completely ignored), and now Frenchie and his girlfriend is revealed to have been in a drug organization? It's only season 3 and they're already pulling the retcon nonsense Star Wars is known for?
At the end of this episode: OH SHE DID THAT FIST BEHIND THE BACK THING SHE DID AT THE BEGINNING OF THE EPISODE TO SHOW THAT SHE'S SECRETLY NOT HAPPY, REMEMBER THAT EVERYONE? Such a clever callback and superb physical storytelling! /s All they asked of her was to not seem so shocked, yet in the next take she goes for the kiss just to make it worse for herself? What The Boys is now is just a complete mockery of the stellar first season and the okay second season.