simbiat

This was a descend for sure. Into waste. Of time.

Yeah, the pun does not work that well, but the same can be said about this movie. Honestly, average slice-of-life 4-coma anime adaptation has more plot than this one. It's not like it's not there at all, but so much that it does not lead anywhere. They will edge you, while you are at the edge of your seat, but then you will get absolutely nothing.

There are certainly themes here. Fear of parenthood, childhood trauma, loss, suicidal ideations, physical trauma, alien abduction, loss of self, danger of guns... Lots of themes, really. Each one of them is important, and the movie does have a good basis for all of them, interconnecting them quite nicely. Presentation is really good, actors, cinematography, that "hint" at a "bigger picture" at the end, but...

All of it is for naught, because it does not lead anywhere. There is no climax. There is no "moral of the story". There is no final destination. I do not mind ambiguity in the ending of a story, but here it felt like we were following a path, events were escalating (kind of), and one would expect some culmination, something mind-bending or maybe something completely prosaic, but we got nothing. Everything, all that tension and self-searching was for naught, and Sean just integrated back into his normal life, as if nothing happened. As if he did not suffer at all, or as if that suffering was normal.

Yeah, ok, some aspects of his suffering may, indeed, be considered "normal" under circumstances, but since the story was showing a "normal" man, this sort of emotionless at the end felt unnatural. So, I would not recommend wasting your time on this, unless you just want to see good actor play.

It felt like a parody. And I think that's what made it work.

No, seriously, some moments felt closer to what you can see in "The Boys", for example, which is specifically aimed at laughing out the absurd aspects of comics about super-heroes. New Superman is definitely less dark and gory, but still things are more... "Grounded" here. Even more grounded than they were in Thunderbolts, because that one did not go far enough with this.

I especially liked the interview Clark had with Lois early in the movie. The way Clark started it kind of gung ho, and then started getting irritated and otherwise unbalanced as Lois kept asking questions - that was just golden. The scene showed he is not perfect, despite what people may think, he is not a god, as "Man of Steel" tried to convey. This made him relatable, and that's what a good story does, especially when combined with such outstanding delivery of the scene.

Heck, even Lex was more human than majority of characters in "Smallville" TV show, where they had 8 or 9 seasons to build them. That tear in the end of the movie? Or his jokes sometimes arrogant jokes? Even the fact, that he acknowledged that he was driven by jealousy (or was it envy?) worked extremely well. He is still a clear villain, there is no moral ambiguity in his actions, just an attempt to present them as something "for the good of the country". He is not that deep of a character in this movie, but he is still very relatable. At least in a sense, that you probably know someone like that in real life.

Even just for that I can give kudos to Gunn. Is this is an outstanding movie? Not really. I do not think it brought anything particularly new or ground-breaking to the genre. Overall story is simple and predictable, as well, there are no real plot twists here. Visually it is also just fine, although does have some nice scenes, for sure. But it is still quite a good watch. I would not give it an 8, but it's a definite solid 7, maybe even a 7.5. If you are not tired from super hero movies, you will probably be able to enjoy it.

There is definitely some... Atmosphere here. Not everywhere, only in some scenes, but when you see it - you see it, and it can feel reminiscent of the original movie. But is it enough to cover up all the stupidity of the plot? Seeing reviews, I guess it is, but I guess those people prefer women with tons of makeup as well, so that could explain some things, too.

Quite a few people said that the first few minutes, feel very nostalgic. So nostalgic, that some highlighted that there was smoking. I have not even thought about it before, but, indeed, there is not much smokers in movies or TV shows now. That's not a bad thing, but smoking on a starship was one of those little things in "Alien" that made it feel more "real". Having it in the series helped with the atmosphere. They also seemed to find quite a good balance with keeping tech retro, but at the same time a bit more up-to-date to what we have now. That is... Until the plot happens.

How come no one on the whole planet saw a giant ship coming close to it? Real Earth is able to detect smaller objects like months before they reach Earth, why this Earth can't do that? How are they capable of space travel without ability to detect objects in space? Or is it a social commentary on corporations? Like, corporations ruling this Earth are so against any redundancies that do not produce profit into their CEOs' pockets, that completely dismantle any defensive tech. I do not think our Earth corporates are that stupid. Right? Right? Although, they are pushing for AI everywhere, so maybe they are?

Because sending children to that ship is practically equivalent to that. Yes, the show tries to justify that, saying that it's an experiment to see how they will react and how they will handle themselves, but... That's stupid even from purely financial perspective. These children are expensive assets now, and I would assume losing one would be costly. Even if not, it would still be detrimental to the overall experiment. Obviously, testing would be required anyway, thus there will be risks, but you would not use all of the assets at once specifically because of the risks.

I could not bare watching this, after all. Again, there are some aspects that look quite good, but they are as the aforementioned makeup: do not compensate for the (potentially) empty head. Especially, when that head does not know how to behave itself in society even, similar to these xenomorphs. Seriously, it felt like everyone forgot how xenomorphs used to behave originally. They were not murdering machines, they were copulating machines. They needed other lifeforms to impregnate them, not kill. Yes, some animals can kill for fun, but these are definitely not cats, otherwise a bunch of soldiers sent for the rescue mission would be able to deal with them. Although, these soldiers are... Yeah, they do not look like soldiers, really. But maybe HR was replaced by AI in this world, too.

Overall, not a fan. Not finishing the series, simply because I do need at least somewhat sensible plot. And if I want to watch sister with some complex with her brother, I would better watch some anime like Oreimo, because at least that one was funny. For a few moments, that do look atmospheric and even somewhat cool, and Tool song (although completely misplaced and misused) I will give this show a 4/10, but don't think it deserves more than that.