Reviews

I liked this movie.

Yes, the story is simple and the characters aren't especially complex, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. The story was still gripping to me and I actually liked the plot slightly better than Avatar 1.

Not that this movie doesn't have its own similarities. This one had moments that reminded me of James Cameron's Titanic. But the similarities of Avatar 2 did not feel as on the nose as they did in Avatar 1, which felt to me completely like Blue Pocahontas in Space.

The children (very often I find that child characters are badly done in action movies) did not annoy me either. There were actually moments when I liked them too, so that's good as well.

Naturally, the most important thing about this movie is, just like the first one, its visuals. I have no complaints about them this time either, but the truth is that the 2nd time around the technical aspects were not as impressive or awe inspiring as it was the very first time I experienced it, so there's not much more to say about it than "we expected it to be great and it was".

I especially liked how the action sequences were done in this movie. They were the best type of eye candy.

The characters and their development were much weaker, sometimes eye rollingly cheesy, sometimes a little too woke for my taste, but that's standard Marvel fare these days and despite the woke factor they were not dislikable, so I'll give it a pass. Plot was also on the weaker side as sometimes it was a little bit draggy and too much exposition, but it did help expand the Marvel verse mythology, so I'll also give that a pass.

It's a good action movie with well-executed and thrilling action scenes. The main lead is likable, the main sort-of love interest is also likeable, and the kid character is adorable - but in a milk toast-y kind of way, because ultimately none of them are very memorable.

I think, however, that the story would probably have been more effective in showcasing the Chinese Coast Guard, if the movie went in-depth on one single rescue mission rather than go for multiple rescue missions. A missed chance, in my opinion.

All in all, recommended mostly for fans of action movies of the rescue team variety. Also good enough for a one time watch for anyone else, who has a slow day.

The same director that gave us the excellent movie The Captain (2019) is also directing this drama, and some of those cast members also returned to work on this project. As I had previously loved The Captain, I thought that Chinese Doctors would likely be a good movie too and I was not disappointed!

This is a pretty good medical drama of a real event with a lot of tense moments that gives the audience a feel of how the atmosphere was like in Wuhan during China's first COVID-19 outbreak there. It also illustrates pretty well all the logistical hoops epidemic outbreak management have to go through and the pressure that medical front line workers undergo during such crisis, not to mention the effects that the outbreak had on ordinary people.

Realism is given high priority. The Wuhan Jinyintan Hospital and the main character of this movie, Zhang Dingyu, really exist and, yes, Zhang Dingyu does suffer from ALS in real life too. I commend the scriptwriters for going in-depth with their exploration to accurately recreate the events that happened. For those who have some knowledge of Chinese, it's also a nice small detail that the doctors kept their regional accents; for example, the doctor Tao Jun speaks Mandarin with a Cantonese accent, because he's from Guangdong; I felt that these regional accents (which are often omitted in Chinese movies) gave more authenticity to the setting of this movie.

Basically, if you love stories based on real life crisis events wherein professional staff have to work under extreme pressure to save the day (which I do), then this type of movie is definitely for you. Lovers of pandemic movies will also enjoy this movie, as it is based real events that happened during a real pandemic. I read from another reviewer that the Soviets have designated for this type of movie about "social interacting between people who works in particular industry or professions" a particular genre called 'Proizvodstvennaya'; while I've never heard of that genre before, I fully agree with the sentiment that we need more of that type of movie, because I love this!

All those 1-star review bombs are exposing the current climate of McCarthyist sinophobic hysteria in the west pretty accurately.

For anyone not suffering from McCarthyist hysteria, this is a decent movie with well-crafted, tense, and dramatic action scenes. It also does it's job of illustrating the theme of ordinary people being capable of extraordinary heroics feats and self-sacrifice when under existential threat.

Also, a good choice to feature Mao Anying's participation and death in the narrative. It showcases that the social class he was born in as Mao Zedong's son mattered nothing, because death is equal to all when fighting a war.

Less well done were the scenes of the American side. The directors and script writers did provide at least a couple of scenes of American soldiers talking about home life, and I thought this was a good choice to provide the American side with some humanity. But the actors were really chewing the scenery here, especially in their line delivery, which was unfortunate. I think, however, that this can mainly be attributed to the fact that these actors are far from being A-listers. Unfortunately, China still has not build up a decent pool of ethnically non-Asian quality actors, so I foresee more of this happening in the future.

Now a bit of historical context here on China's motives for partaking in this war: A few decades before the Korean War, China had been brutally invaded by imperial Japan through the Korean peninsula, which started off the theater of WW2 in the Far East. Given that this history was still fresh in the minds of the Chinese at the time, China was very sensitive to any happenings on the Korean peninsula. For that reason, they warned the American side multiple times not to cross the 38th parallel or they would force China's hand. The Americans thought the Chinese were bluffing and crossed that line anyway. This (and the American fleets that had gone to the Taiwan Straits in the summer of 1950) convinced the Chinese that the USA would try to invade and colonize China after taking control of the Korean peninsula. To preemptively stop this threat, China decided to set up the People's Volunteer Army to defend against the existential threat.

A lot of absurdity on the screen, most of it entertaining.

Story is forgettable, but this movie is better than the previous Suicide Squad (2016), in part because its 3rd act is better. Enchantress was a boring and lame villain and the CGI mess she caused was hurting my eyeballs; whereas Starro was at least visually comical to watch, though neither villain had any depth in character.

... good chemistry between the main characters, fun side characters, nice costumes & set pieces, excellent choreography of the action scenes (NB: we may thank Jackie Chan for the exciting action scenes).

While the drama series is not perfect, there's little to dislike about it. I certainly enjoyed the show.

... with a dumb, brain numbing storyline about a drug gang that I can barely remember and action scenes that are also not very good.

Also, it makes zero sense for the only female action figure to be carrying a bow and arrow in a massive gun fight shootout. She could've grabbed dozens of guns from dead bodies in various scenes, but never did. The only reason they inserted her into the movie was to evoke the image of Katniss Everdeen, which is just completely cringe.

...with the action scenes to make Black Widow appear indestructible when she's not. She's a well trained, but ultimately still ordinary human being without super powers.

Other than that, the film is entertaining, but not memorable, and rather unevenly paced.

The sister, Yelena, was the better character, more enjoyable to watch, but Natasha herself was not bad either. The post-credit kind of cheapened the movie to make it seem like a promotion of the upcoming Hawkeye series and the woman with the purple hair lock seems to be a stand-in for Coulson.

Good for a one time watch, not recommended for a second time.

It's nothing like the books. If you're going to invoke the lame "creative inspiration" excuse, then you might as well make an entirely original movie. Why use the same names when it otherwise has zero association with the book series? Lame cash grab by Disney, lame story (my attention flagged midway through, of not earlier), lame characters that are nothing like the book & even lame CGI usage. Blah!

Very good war drama. Has good action and I love how they filmed from both the POV of foot soldiers, the American warplanes, and the gunners side to get a close-up of what it was like on the battlefield for each perspective.

The movie looks like a cross pollination between Disney's magic with Bollywood's colorful musicals, especially the costumes and dancing.

Like Beauty & the Beast before, it hews very close to the animation movie with only tiny deviations.

Enjoyable for a one time watch, but the cheese can become quite thick.

Very enjoyable to watch! This movie is based on the real life incident in which Airline Captain Liu Changjian piloted Sichuan Airlines Flight 8633 to safety after its windshields were busted. If you like thriller dramas about professional crew saving people's lives from malfunctioning vehicles then this is the type of movie you'll definitely love.

It took some time for me to binge the last few episodes, but I finally got to them. The ending did not go out with a bang, but it was still satisfying and also a little bittersweet, after all this time.

There were high points in the show and some meh-points as well, but rather than for the plot, you watch this show for the characters. They grow on you and their friendships grow on you too.

... but not as a gripping movie experience. It's also difficult to follow for people, who are not already familiar with this history, because of all the names being thrown around of historical figures, which, except for the Jackie Chan character, aren't exactly fleshed out very well. It would probably have been better to cut this up into a series of movies that focused on the various characters and events separately, but at a more in-depth level. Right now, however, it's a bit of a jumbled mess.

The movie can't decide whether it wants to be a biopic of the revolutionary heroine or a kung-fu flick, but (for me personally) that doesn't make the story and characters any less gripping or the kung-fu any less exciting. Worth watching, if you're interested in Chinese movies, kung-fu flicks, historical flicks and/or feminist movies (that are of greater substance than the "strong action womyn kills evil man" stereotype).

It's a good popcorn movie with lots of humor and fun action scenes to keep you entertained, but it's not one of those deep movies that will continue to leave an impression after you've seen it. Visual style was colorful, as if someone had popped a few pills, but it suits the Harley Quinn character. Narrative style was disjointed, but (again) it seems to suit the Harley Quinn character, since she has a few screws loose up in her head.