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mdmjuggler
Reviews
The Greatest American Hero (2008)
This is a non-story
This article WILL contain spoilers.
This "TV series" actually NEVER even saw the light of day save an embarrassing 7.50 minutes of it, 2-3 of which are straight from "The Greatest American Heroine."
It was an attempt to spin off the failed "Greatest American Hero" spin off, but never really got the feel of the show.
I feel for the actors who participated in it - from what I've heard and felt from them they genuinely felt that it was going to be picked up for a series. It never stood a chance - If Cannell himself didn't put a stop to it (they did not have permission, unlike another web series take on the show), then it just was very poorly received.
I don't even know why it's on IMDb quite honestly - how can you list a show that only had 8 of the 24 minutes show up, didn't even make it on time in three of the four time zones?
The Hunger Games (2012)
A decent movie for the time they had to cut it to
After reading many of the reviews on "The Hunger Games," both positive and negative, I have to say that I had to see for myself what the movie was like before I could support either side.
I do feel though that people who give this as an "Unhelpful" review are sadly those who wish to see any fair to positive reviews of the movie be seen as just fan-worship or are "Battle Royale" fans who just want to try and ruin a decent movie - never mind there are probably those who can be just as ugly toward the other movie.
Simply put - it isn't exactly like the books, but it wasn't going to be. You can't exactly copy books to begin with - be it the film would be too long if you took it straight from the book (at least requiring an intermission - think "Gone With the Wind" long) and some scenes couldn't have been filmed in order to keep it PG-13 (and I don't mean bloodbath BTW), or were out of our present abilities art wise.
There are many pros and cons to the movie, but I'll start out with the pros.
First, the acting - all the characters, and even the extras, were spot on for who they were, what they were and where/what they were doing. All the actors I felt did a very good job, and in the case of the extras, who many get scale (which isn't a lot) who could honestly probably just phone it in instead of showing depth like they did, that spoke volumes. I felt like I was a character in the movie and experiencing exactly what they were.
The scenery, especially for the arena, was perfect and felt in many cases exactly what I saw in my head reading the book. And the scenes showing the OUTSIDE world of the arena were good.
I even liked some of the changes, such as Katniss' interview dress and a twist in one of the scenes.
That said, with all good, there are some problems. First, I feel it suffered a bit of a "Tree of Life" syndrome - you had too many scenes that you wonder if there was more footage but it had to be trimmed to fit the timeframe. One of these is NOT showing all the bloodbath tributes in the arena - they should've shown at least all the bloodbath tributes, because in several cases, that would've been the only time they were featured in the movie at all. This holds especially true with how nice they did the photowork for the deceased tributes.
Secondly, I think they needed maybe to keep two of the scenes in the arena - Rue's death and the final battle, closer to the actual storyline in the book. I understand costs, but in the case of the final battle, it could've be stronger. Some things too weren't explained clearly which could hurt those who haven't read the books.
Finally, the most annoying thing was the shaky hand-held cameras in some scenes. While I think they were used to try and create a real life feel - the shaking was a tad too much that it became distracting.
Overall, not as bad of a movie as some people will like to make it out to be, but the director will need to work harder to make the next installment stronger because there is room for improvement.
Doctor Who: The Big Bang (2010)
A much better final story that in the past
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
When I read Auxpocalypse-7 from California's response, I have to say that I'm rather appalled at the review. To me, he is sadly trapped more in the past and comparing the stories to the past instead of attempting to see the future. Can he do better? - maybe, maybe not, but the criticism is too much.
I loved this episode for many reasons, and a few are going to be potential spoilers.
IMHO, RTD and SM have had odd and bizarre stories that didn't make sense - this is "Doctor Who," and those stories - including implausible ones - have been around since the show's inception (1965). Wackiness - the fez, the dance, etc. make this show what it is - enjoyable. Too much angst, which is what I've seen in the past four seasons, only bring the show down.
This also was the first happy ending story we've had since the show came back:
1. Eccleston departs. 2. Piper departs - only to come back and be overused to where she is a shadow of her former self IMHO. 3. Agyeman departs - comes back a little bit wishy-washy to me. 4. Tate departs - the one companion I'd like to see back, but won't probably because sadly she wouldn't fit as easily to this group. 5 - 2010 specials: Tennant departs.
Seriously - Doctor Who has never been just angst and the like - it's fun, it's weird, and it has "impossible things that happen and we call them miracles."
And - to be blunt - the show's ratings were down this week due to a little thing called World Cup, and it's been shown in the past that when they've had to shift the time (and yes, have to - I haven't seen them just up and change it), people are confused and miss it, causing the ratings to go down.
Smith did indeed have the task of replacing Tennant, but unfortunately people compared him to Tennant instead of letting him find his feet first. Those of us who did find Smith to be a more multi-layered Doctor than Tennant was. Of course, you'd have to see the minute details instead of the big picture (i.e. RTD's era of rather shallow takes on the Doctor IMHO).
Gillan does need to work on her layers of personality as Amy, however, she's not wooden. If you want wooden, I'd suggest watching Adric or Nyssa from Davison's era.
And - Darvill is great, shows great deadpan humor (an artform lost on most actors of this day). I'm hoping he stays a proper companion this time and he's not killed off again.
The stories - 1. His first season, and I seem to remember RTD having farting aliens that were razzed a lot, some stories that were horrible under his reign too, 2. I didn't find myself turning off any of the episodes, including this one.
RTD in my honest opinion dumbed down the show and left just as many plot holes as well. He also had all his companions snogging the Doctor, and worse, he accepted it. Moffet doesn't have that.
Now the story:
1. I don't find the jumping around weird or out of place - it's been done before. We've also seen implausible things in RTD's era - the gun in Jack's butt in the end of the first season. "LOTTL" was panned a lot because it simply didn't make sense, and there were aspects that were controversial, i.e. the "Sky Captain" type air defense. (Oh, and the ONLY reason "DALLAS" season 5 was written off was because Bobby Ewing was such a popular actor, the show's ratings plummeted, so they got him back on before it was canceled. At least "DW" didn't have that issue by bringing back Rory.)
2. The monsters were as clearly said by Smith's Doctor - turned to stone because they never existed. The story itself had many paradoxes and that was the point - the Doctor KNEW that he was creating paradoxes and would continue to do so until he flew the Pandorica into the sun to create the Big Bang and restart history. Of course, this is the intellectual study of the show, which is lost on some people who prefer flash and bang.
3. I love the fact Rory is back - he is the best third wheel of sorts since Harry with Sarah and the Doctor in the fourth Doctor's reign. Adding the duo is married will add a new twist to the show. Now, please make sure Darvill is included in the opening credits... he's earned his due.
Simply put - the RTD era is dead. We need to leave it and not compare Moffat's stories to his. We need to instead see what this cast can do without the blinders on. I personally think this has been a breath of fresh air after the past few seasons (though I loved Donna's season). Same goes with Tennant's run - he's gone (right now, I will admit he can come back).
I loved stories in their era, but am looking forward to a new season with the current cast - and one out of the shadows of the Tennant/RTD run. Cancellation?- only if people like Aux here are too critical instead of open-minded.