JesseF5000

A fresh take on The Terminal List universe, shifting the spotlight to the original series' main bad guy Ben Edwards (Taylor Kitsch) and making him the protagonist. Who are we kidding, it's hard not to like Kitsch in anything, even when he's playing the bad guy.

Without giving away spoilers, Ben's story takes an unexpected turn after a SEAL mission goes sideways, forcing him into a more clandestine role that plays perfectly to his skillset. The first episode does a great job setting this up and establishes Dark Wolf as a completely different beast than Chris Pratt's Terminal List, which was an excellent series.

Performances and pacing are spot on. No filler, no dragged-out exposition, easy pitfalls for prequels and military ops thrillers. Tight storytelling from start to finish.

Bonus points for the soundtrack choice. I'm loving the use of metal band outros in sync with the final credits. Alien Earth is doing this too and I'm feeling amped as the credits roll. I'm liking this trend.

Looking forward to the rest of this series.

Captain Pike's swooshy future pompadour is completely distracting from most of what he says, serious or comedic, in Season 3. Which means it's always the star of the scene. You know I'm right. Do yourself a favor: watch any scene where the camera is centred on him and try not to look at his hair. You can't. No one can!

Who doesn't love Star Trek??

Ari has delivered a solid blend of Noir, Western, Action, and Comedy, but I think he leaned too heavily, and too soon, on the Pandemic as the story's foundation. It's still fresh in people's minds, and even with a satirical, comedic spin, many might not be eager to revisit it. This is especially noticeable because the film starts slowly and relies heavily on the Pandemic to set the plot in motion. I can imagine a lot of viewers losing interest early on.

That said, once the film hits its halfway mark, it picks up considerably and really comes together. Interestingly, by this point the Pandemic subplot is almost entirely forgotten, which makes me think it was unnecessary in the first place--the story could have thrived without it.

One of Ari's strongest talents shines here: his ability to craft unpredictable character arcs. Almost none of the characters follow a straight, linear path, and your perception of them changes dramatically from start to finish. This keeps the film engaging despite the early pacing issues.

I enjoyed the movie overall, but the sluggish opening holds it back. Ari still has the goods, but Eddington and Beau Is Afraid felt like detours too far from his strongest territory--horror. Hereditary and Midsommar were on another level entirely. If Ari returned to that genre, I have no doubt he'd be unmatched and firmly remain at the top of his game.