mj_jernigan

A weak scifi adaption of the Seven Samurai (1954), minus the interesting and more memorable parts. Sigh... I miss the days when men were men and women were women. Movies and TV shows where everyone is essentially the same have no soul. Likely minus 2-3 stars for that boring maneuver. Sure, La Femme Nikita (1990) was fun when it came out. Maybe Atomic Blonde (2017) gets a pass as well (assuming I'm remembering the right film and not confusing it with a similar one -- they all begin to blur together after a point). So, yeah, maybe one tough-girl flick every 25 years is my saturation point for this sub-genre... or maybe consider the laws of physics for minute when choreographing a fight like those films do (then watch more Aikira Kurosawa, Bruce Lee, and Steve McQueen to see what else you did wrong).

I'm in the middle of the fourth season. Is this really a scifi show? It's hard to tell aside from the shiny gadgets. Certainly not the space opera it wants to be. The only clues that this is a show that takes place in a space-age era are the occasional blips of space and spaceships. Otherwise, it feels like it all takes place in a pretty small world.

If you want to believe regardless that this a space show, all that goes out the window when you see things like a slow and drifting space capsule somehow find a planet in some far-off system in mere days, somehow not burn up in the atmosphere, and crash land safely. Distant stars are mere hours away while closer ships are days away??? It just depends on the laziness of the writers in resolving plot stuff.

Speaking of lazy writers, I'm tired of ultra-super-human geek characters that are at least 100 times more unrealistic than your average action hero that survives an impossible number of fights. Got a sticky plot situation? Don't worry, just put a computer hacker on it and all your problems will go away in just a few minutes. Such laziness in writing is boring to the point of offensive.

I find myself not caring about the characters or the story arc. They could live or dies, succeed or fail. Who cares? Thus the character development is obviously weak, as is the plot. I do, however, find the banter to be really well written and well delivered by the main characters. I would just like to see that banter and those characters in a more interesting show. The banter makes this show tolerable and a decent watch when I'm stumped for something better.

The first hour or so is a 7-star film. Then, it turns dumber than Blade II quickly (a pretty major feat) and keeps up that level of stupidity through to the end. Suspension of disbelief is thrown out the window when even MacGyver would be ROFLing at the absurdity of what is going on. Hint: super genius is no replacement for R&D, materials, and power sources! Nice helmet design though. Too bad it was wasted on this film.