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Gareth von Kallenbach (980 KP) rated Black Adam (2022) in Movies
Oct 21, 2022
Dwayne Johnson jumps into the DC Universe with “Black Adam” which sees the
star departs from his usual hero roles to play a part that has his
character walking the line between good and bad.
When he is awaked nearly 5,000 years after he helped defeat a tyrant and
free his people, the magically powered Black Adam returns to the modern
world to find his homeland under the occupation of mercenaries with a
shoot first mentality.
Naturally, this does not sit well with Black Adam and him easily and
brutally dispatches the enemies he faces and in doing so comes onto the
radar of Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) who dispatches members of the Justice
Society to bring him in.
Knowing that a 5,000-year-old with god-like powers are not going to go
easily, Waller dispatches Hackman (Aldis Hodge), Doctor Fate (Pierce
Brosnan), Atom Smasher (Noah Centineo), and Cyclone (Maxine Hunkel), to
convince him to say the word which will remove his powers and come along
to detainment.
Knowing this is a bad plan, the group pushes forward with their mission
and this results in some protracted combat with moments of attempting to
reason with Black Adam.
It is learned that the mercenaries are after an ancient crown which a
professor named Shirt (Odelya Halevi), has recovered and this has placed
her and her son in great danger from forces who will stop at nothing to
obtain in.
Fans of comics and adventure movies likely will see where this is heading
as characters must form uneasy alliances to save the day from those
looking to rule the world through chaos and evil and an extended FX-laden
finale follows.
While the film was better than it looked to be from the trailers, the movie dragged in several places and never really offered up much in the way of twists or standout content from the story.
The saving grace was cast which was solid and Johnson seems to be going
all-in on his performance and it was enjoyable to see despite the flaws
with the story and at times pacing of the film.
While it does not reach the heights of many of the MCU films, “Black Adam”
is an enjoyable adventure and a great introduction to the character. As
long as you are willing to work with the issues of the film and simply
enjoy the great cast and action, you will likely have a good time,
It was also refreshing to see a locale and supporting characters who were
not from a glittering urban city and it added a nice change and diversity
to the film.
There were reports that the film had to be edited from an R- rating and some scenes do imply darker and gorier sequences were originally planned.
Make sure to stay through the credits for a bonus scene and here is hoping
that we see Black Adam back soon.
star departs from his usual hero roles to play a part that has his
character walking the line between good and bad.
When he is awaked nearly 5,000 years after he helped defeat a tyrant and
free his people, the magically powered Black Adam returns to the modern
world to find his homeland under the occupation of mercenaries with a
shoot first mentality.
Naturally, this does not sit well with Black Adam and him easily and
brutally dispatches the enemies he faces and in doing so comes onto the
radar of Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) who dispatches members of the Justice
Society to bring him in.
Knowing that a 5,000-year-old with god-like powers are not going to go
easily, Waller dispatches Hackman (Aldis Hodge), Doctor Fate (Pierce
Brosnan), Atom Smasher (Noah Centineo), and Cyclone (Maxine Hunkel), to
convince him to say the word which will remove his powers and come along
to detainment.
Knowing this is a bad plan, the group pushes forward with their mission
and this results in some protracted combat with moments of attempting to
reason with Black Adam.
It is learned that the mercenaries are after an ancient crown which a
professor named Shirt (Odelya Halevi), has recovered and this has placed
her and her son in great danger from forces who will stop at nothing to
obtain in.
Fans of comics and adventure movies likely will see where this is heading
as characters must form uneasy alliances to save the day from those
looking to rule the world through chaos and evil and an extended FX-laden
finale follows.
While the film was better than it looked to be from the trailers, the movie dragged in several places and never really offered up much in the way of twists or standout content from the story.
The saving grace was cast which was solid and Johnson seems to be going
all-in on his performance and it was enjoyable to see despite the flaws
with the story and at times pacing of the film.
While it does not reach the heights of many of the MCU films, “Black Adam”
is an enjoyable adventure and a great introduction to the character. As
long as you are willing to work with the issues of the film and simply
enjoy the great cast and action, you will likely have a good time,
It was also refreshing to see a locale and supporting characters who were
not from a glittering urban city and it added a nice change and diversity
to the film.
There were reports that the film had to be edited from an R- rating and some scenes do imply darker and gorier sequences were originally planned.
Make sure to stay through the credits for a bonus scene and here is hoping
that we see Black Adam back soon.
Mothergamer (1546 KP) rated the PC version of Assassin's Creed: Odyssey in Video Games
Apr 3, 2019
I love the Assassin's Creed series as past Mother Gamer blogs have shown. While there were a couple I wasn't so thrilled with, I have always enjoyed the stories and exploration the games have offered. The recent Origins definitely captured my heart with all the incredible ancient Egypt history and lore. When Odyssey was announced I was pretty excited because it was going to be set in ancient Greece and I could not wait to play it.
Odyssey is a bit different from its predecessors. The story is set at the beginning of the Peloponnesian war; an ongoing struggle between Sparta and Athens for dominion over Greece. This opens up a lot of interesting places to explore and dialogue options. At the beginning of the game you can choose which Misthios (mercenary) you want to play as; Alexios or his sister Kassandra. It really doesn't matter who you choose because the story is essentially the same for both so it's just a matter of whether or not you prefer to play as a man or a woman. For my first playthrough I went with Kassandra.
Kassandra starts her adventure.
Right from the start, Odyssey hooks you in with an action filled introduction and sets the scene for the story. After that you meet the character you chose; in my case Kassandra and you get a brief tutorial on how the gaming controls work. You also get a mount with this and those controls are pretty easy to navigate. Once you have the hang of it, you can get started on your journey with the main story and the vast amount of side quests.
This is where Odyssey differs a bit. There is more of a role playing aspect to the game with you being able to select different dialogue options while talking to people. You can choose to be cutthroat, a mercenary with a conscience, or ridiculously flirty. Yes, with some of the NPC characters be they men or women Kassandra could have flings with them. Don't worry, nothing overly graphic is shown, but it is definitely heavily implied. Your weapons are different as well. There is no assassin's blade here. You have a precursor artifact weapon in the form of a spear and the options of daggers and swords. You also have a bow and arrows which are quite useful for fighting at a distance.
Have a horse for your travels!
As you level up, you gain ability points which you can use to unlock certain skills to enhance your fighting and stealth from the following three categories in the skills menu: Hunter, Warrior, and Assassin. It is beneficial to unlock these because they are incredibly useful in battles against your enemies. There are also ship battles which bring back memories of Black Flag. The ship battles are challenging, but they are so much fun. You can upgrade your ship to make it a force to be reckoned with. Upgrading the hull is definitely a must so you can ram the heck out of other ships and take little to no damage. You need a crew also of course and Odyssey has an ability where rather than assassinating targets, you can knock them out and recruit them to join your crew.
Unlock abilities in the skills menu.
The running theme for your protagonist is all about family. This is where you are introduced to the mysterious villains, The Cult Of Kosmos who have a hand in much of the conflict in Greece all for power. You have to travel all over the world map to find clues about each cult member in order to reveal their true identity and the location of their main hideout. Once you have those, you can find them and take them out. Be wary however, some cult members are heavily guarded and quite the challenge to fight. This is where Odyssey's notoriety system comes in. The more crimes you commit i.e. murder (come on, you know that's what assassination is), the more likely it is that someone will put a bounty on your head. Then you find yourself relentlessly hunted by bounty hunters with very colorful names. The bounty hunters are no joke and if you do not plan out your strategy and tactics, they will end you. There were some who had lions and they would tag team the crap out of me which could be more than a little frustrating, but that's part of the challenge. Two ways around this are offing the person who put the bounty on your head or paying off the bounty. If you have the coin, you can pay the money and the bounty will go away.
Besides the main story, there are a ton of side quests and conquest missions to do. Sneaking around and taking out guards in a fort can be difficult, but rewarding as you take everyone out and diminish that nation's power. Looting the treasures, burning the supplies, and taking out the captains completes that area and will show you a meter with their power depleting. Once you have completely drained their influence, you get a conquest battle option. You get an epic battle between Spartans and Athenians and you have to take out all the captains during this battle in order to win the conquest. There were times where I totally screwed up and a guard saw me and then I had to brawl my way out among five or six of them. That was a whole other adventure in itself. It definitely raises the stakes when that happens and makes Odyssey feel like a whole new game.
Getting caught by guards sucks. Time to brawl my way out!
My favorite thing to do in Odyssey was exploring. I loved discovering new areas and hanging out in ancient Greece. Climbing up to the tops of high buildings, cliffs, and statues just to synchronize the map and see the view from a high vantage point was pretty fantastic. No two areas were alike and there was always something new to see. Some of the small side quests were hit or miss at times, but I was never bored at all. There was always something to see or do.
An eagle's eye view of ancient Greece.
There are a variety of armor and weapons choices in Odyssey. As you progress, you can upgrade to better armor, weapons, and crafting materials. If you have a favorite armor set, when you upgrade you can glamour the armor to look like the favorite set. Again, this adds a role playing aspect where you can actually gather materials and craft weapons and armor in the game. This is also true for your ship. You can choose a variety of sails, ship designs, and even tailor your crew with characters from past Assassin's Creed games as your lieutenants.
If you're looking for more challenge with your challenge, there are legendary beast and mythological monster fights you can do. The locations of each legendary beast is marked on your world map. With the monsters, you happen upon some of them doing certain quests. This was how I accidentally discovered the fight with Medusa. These fights are insanely hard and Medusa seemed to be the hardest one of all. I got my ass handed to me quite a few times before I finally won. It is vindicating when you do win because they are so difficult and you have to be constantly thinking about your tactics and theirs. The fights absolutely keep you on your toes, but man what a thrill!
Medusa fight is crazy!
When you see the world map, it can be a little overwhelming with how vast it is. Areas you have already explored will be highlighted and areas that are not unlocked are grayed out. The map will also show you what level each area is so you can level grind and plan accordingly. I had fun unlocking the areas and receiving contract quests and bounties which offered lots of drachmae and sometimes item rewards such as armor.
The world map is huge. Get out there and explore!
While I loved Odyssey, there were issues with the game. One of the big things was I was one of the unlucky people who got the game breaking bug of the game dropping frames and freezing completely in enemy fort areas. I had wondered if it was just me so I looked up the issue and found that many others had this issue with the game also. The solution Ubisoft offered was to close the game completely and restart the game. That's more than a little irritating. While the voice acting is good, there were strange audio issues with the voices being off sync and delaying at times. In spite of those issues, I still had fun with Odyssey and loved the game. Even after the main crux of the story is finished, there's still so much left to do with legendary hunts and searching for precursor relics and the upcoming DLC. Odyssey is slightly different from the games before it, but it is lots of fun. Now, I'm going to get out there and do more exploring. See you at the next adventure!
Odyssey is a bit different from its predecessors. The story is set at the beginning of the Peloponnesian war; an ongoing struggle between Sparta and Athens for dominion over Greece. This opens up a lot of interesting places to explore and dialogue options. At the beginning of the game you can choose which Misthios (mercenary) you want to play as; Alexios or his sister Kassandra. It really doesn't matter who you choose because the story is essentially the same for both so it's just a matter of whether or not you prefer to play as a man or a woman. For my first playthrough I went with Kassandra.
Kassandra starts her adventure.
Right from the start, Odyssey hooks you in with an action filled introduction and sets the scene for the story. After that you meet the character you chose; in my case Kassandra and you get a brief tutorial on how the gaming controls work. You also get a mount with this and those controls are pretty easy to navigate. Once you have the hang of it, you can get started on your journey with the main story and the vast amount of side quests.
This is where Odyssey differs a bit. There is more of a role playing aspect to the game with you being able to select different dialogue options while talking to people. You can choose to be cutthroat, a mercenary with a conscience, or ridiculously flirty. Yes, with some of the NPC characters be they men or women Kassandra could have flings with them. Don't worry, nothing overly graphic is shown, but it is definitely heavily implied. Your weapons are different as well. There is no assassin's blade here. You have a precursor artifact weapon in the form of a spear and the options of daggers and swords. You also have a bow and arrows which are quite useful for fighting at a distance.
Have a horse for your travels!
As you level up, you gain ability points which you can use to unlock certain skills to enhance your fighting and stealth from the following three categories in the skills menu: Hunter, Warrior, and Assassin. It is beneficial to unlock these because they are incredibly useful in battles against your enemies. There are also ship battles which bring back memories of Black Flag. The ship battles are challenging, but they are so much fun. You can upgrade your ship to make it a force to be reckoned with. Upgrading the hull is definitely a must so you can ram the heck out of other ships and take little to no damage. You need a crew also of course and Odyssey has an ability where rather than assassinating targets, you can knock them out and recruit them to join your crew.
Unlock abilities in the skills menu.
The running theme for your protagonist is all about family. This is where you are introduced to the mysterious villains, The Cult Of Kosmos who have a hand in much of the conflict in Greece all for power. You have to travel all over the world map to find clues about each cult member in order to reveal their true identity and the location of their main hideout. Once you have those, you can find them and take them out. Be wary however, some cult members are heavily guarded and quite the challenge to fight. This is where Odyssey's notoriety system comes in. The more crimes you commit i.e. murder (come on, you know that's what assassination is), the more likely it is that someone will put a bounty on your head. Then you find yourself relentlessly hunted by bounty hunters with very colorful names. The bounty hunters are no joke and if you do not plan out your strategy and tactics, they will end you. There were some who had lions and they would tag team the crap out of me which could be more than a little frustrating, but that's part of the challenge. Two ways around this are offing the person who put the bounty on your head or paying off the bounty. If you have the coin, you can pay the money and the bounty will go away.
Besides the main story, there are a ton of side quests and conquest missions to do. Sneaking around and taking out guards in a fort can be difficult, but rewarding as you take everyone out and diminish that nation's power. Looting the treasures, burning the supplies, and taking out the captains completes that area and will show you a meter with their power depleting. Once you have completely drained their influence, you get a conquest battle option. You get an epic battle between Spartans and Athenians and you have to take out all the captains during this battle in order to win the conquest. There were times where I totally screwed up and a guard saw me and then I had to brawl my way out among five or six of them. That was a whole other adventure in itself. It definitely raises the stakes when that happens and makes Odyssey feel like a whole new game.
Getting caught by guards sucks. Time to brawl my way out!
My favorite thing to do in Odyssey was exploring. I loved discovering new areas and hanging out in ancient Greece. Climbing up to the tops of high buildings, cliffs, and statues just to synchronize the map and see the view from a high vantage point was pretty fantastic. No two areas were alike and there was always something new to see. Some of the small side quests were hit or miss at times, but I was never bored at all. There was always something to see or do.
An eagle's eye view of ancient Greece.
There are a variety of armor and weapons choices in Odyssey. As you progress, you can upgrade to better armor, weapons, and crafting materials. If you have a favorite armor set, when you upgrade you can glamour the armor to look like the favorite set. Again, this adds a role playing aspect where you can actually gather materials and craft weapons and armor in the game. This is also true for your ship. You can choose a variety of sails, ship designs, and even tailor your crew with characters from past Assassin's Creed games as your lieutenants.
If you're looking for more challenge with your challenge, there are legendary beast and mythological monster fights you can do. The locations of each legendary beast is marked on your world map. With the monsters, you happen upon some of them doing certain quests. This was how I accidentally discovered the fight with Medusa. These fights are insanely hard and Medusa seemed to be the hardest one of all. I got my ass handed to me quite a few times before I finally won. It is vindicating when you do win because they are so difficult and you have to be constantly thinking about your tactics and theirs. The fights absolutely keep you on your toes, but man what a thrill!
Medusa fight is crazy!
When you see the world map, it can be a little overwhelming with how vast it is. Areas you have already explored will be highlighted and areas that are not unlocked are grayed out. The map will also show you what level each area is so you can level grind and plan accordingly. I had fun unlocking the areas and receiving contract quests and bounties which offered lots of drachmae and sometimes item rewards such as armor.
The world map is huge. Get out there and explore!
While I loved Odyssey, there were issues with the game. One of the big things was I was one of the unlucky people who got the game breaking bug of the game dropping frames and freezing completely in enemy fort areas. I had wondered if it was just me so I looked up the issue and found that many others had this issue with the game also. The solution Ubisoft offered was to close the game completely and restart the game. That's more than a little irritating. While the voice acting is good, there were strange audio issues with the voices being off sync and delaying at times. In spite of those issues, I still had fun with Odyssey and loved the game. Even after the main crux of the story is finished, there's still so much left to do with legendary hunts and searching for precursor relics and the upcoming DLC. Odyssey is slightly different from the games before it, but it is lots of fun. Now, I'm going to get out there and do more exploring. See you at the next adventure!
Ultimate Dinosaur Simulator
Games and Entertainment
App
Discover a long lost prehistoric world and rule over it as an all mighty Dinosaur! Travel back to a...
Ross (3284 KP) rated Foundryside in Books
Aug 31, 2020
Great world-building, good story
The world the author has created is very impressive. I hate to do it, but the magic system is very Brandon Sanderson-esque. Over time, symbols used by ancient civilisations to make contraptions and control objects have been deciphered and are now used in everyday life. Self-driven carts, guns, machinery: all are controlled by this clever magic system, but there is a feeling this is just the tip of the iceberg. The city of Tevanne is controlled by a council of the main merchant families, and each of those families is striving for the next big innovation in the use of these symbols. And with any major corporate hierarchy, there is a black market: a set of individuals striving to make things more cost effective, though of lower quality than the merchant houses.
Sancia is a key customer for some of this black market. She is a mercenary who will, for a fee, steal things. Not much of Sancia's past work is given, whether she is just a thief for hire, or has killed. She is a good strong, complicated character. Sancia has the ability to sense the thoughts of inanimate objects. For example, she can touch a wall and find out where the wall joins to other walls, whether there are gaps, whether someone is leaning on the other side, etc. This comes in handy when she successfully steals a box from a storage facility that contains a magical key that she can speak to.
There then follows a gripping plot to dethrone the merchant houses by seeking to stop them achieving more than just market share.
As with all the best fantasy worlds, the nature of things is revealed gradually over the course of the book. At times this verges on deus ex machina, but never quite goes over that line, things being mostly plausible given what we already know.
The dialogue of the book is where I have most of my issues with it. As with a number of recent books, the author is clearly an American and puts a number of Americanisms into the prose. While I am no language snob and can happily accept these in general, it is harder to do so in a fantasy book, especially one where other aspects of the language are clearly supposed to be more British English. The combination of a character saying "you all" or "most always" or "goddamn" and then using the word "arse" rather than "ass" just really ground my gears. It would have been much better to have been consistent and stick with "ass" and closer to the author's true voice.
Additionally, as with a number of fantasy books, new swear words are invented. These are partly explained and linked to the world, but it just comes across as a means of swearing without saying the actual "f" word. The word "scrumming" is far too twee a word to convey the same emotion as the word it is trying to replace and takes me right out of the book.
The pacing of the book was mostly fine, a few times it did seem to grind to a halt or there were long chapters of gradual exposition, but the action sequences, of which there were plenty, were thrilling and well told.
Overall, I did really enjoy this book, but the language used at times took me out of it and spoilt the mood a little. I can always tell how much I am enjoying a book by how quickly I read it and the number of comics I read simultaneously. My comic reading did go up a notch while reading this book.
Sancia is a key customer for some of this black market. She is a mercenary who will, for a fee, steal things. Not much of Sancia's past work is given, whether she is just a thief for hire, or has killed. She is a good strong, complicated character. Sancia has the ability to sense the thoughts of inanimate objects. For example, she can touch a wall and find out where the wall joins to other walls, whether there are gaps, whether someone is leaning on the other side, etc. This comes in handy when she successfully steals a box from a storage facility that contains a magical key that she can speak to.
There then follows a gripping plot to dethrone the merchant houses by seeking to stop them achieving more than just market share.
As with all the best fantasy worlds, the nature of things is revealed gradually over the course of the book. At times this verges on deus ex machina, but never quite goes over that line, things being mostly plausible given what we already know.
The dialogue of the book is where I have most of my issues with it. As with a number of recent books, the author is clearly an American and puts a number of Americanisms into the prose. While I am no language snob and can happily accept these in general, it is harder to do so in a fantasy book, especially one where other aspects of the language are clearly supposed to be more British English. The combination of a character saying "you all" or "most always" or "goddamn" and then using the word "arse" rather than "ass" just really ground my gears. It would have been much better to have been consistent and stick with "ass" and closer to the author's true voice.
Additionally, as with a number of fantasy books, new swear words are invented. These are partly explained and linked to the world, but it just comes across as a means of swearing without saying the actual "f" word. The word "scrumming" is far too twee a word to convey the same emotion as the word it is trying to replace and takes me right out of the book.
The pacing of the book was mostly fine, a few times it did seem to grind to a halt or there were long chapters of gradual exposition, but the action sequences, of which there were plenty, were thrilling and well told.
Overall, I did really enjoy this book, but the language used at times took me out of it and spoilt the mood a little. I can always tell how much I am enjoying a book by how quickly I read it and the number of comics I read simultaneously. My comic reading did go up a notch while reading this book.
Emma @ The Movies (1786 KP) rated Wonder Woman 1984 (2020) in Movies
Jan 22, 2021
I swung between wanting to see this and not, had it been a normal world then of course I would have gone regardless, but as it is I wasn't having strong feelings about this one.
Diana's dreams come true at the hands of an ancient artefact that can grant wishes. But as a wish is given something is taken away, and when Maxwell Lord, businessman and entrepreneur, makes a wish, the world is about to learn the lesson of the phrase... "be careful what you wish for".
First off... this absolutely would have been better on the big screen. It's never been so apparent to me that a cinema experience of a film holds so much power, it's making me understand the differences in early reviews and home viewing reviews a lot more these days.
The story of WW84 is really a very simple one. Doodad does magic, people are evil, goodie must make them good again. And that somehow fills a whole 2 hour 31 minutes of film... it doesn't feel like a very satisfying experience. For all that opener, the conclusion seems to be fleeting and dare I say it... not entirely believable. Overall the whole thing doesn't get particularly deep at any point despite there being a lot of opportunities around the wishes, and there are some questionable moments that could fill several blog posts.
There's been a long pause between me writing the first part and continuing here. That pause involved me staring at my notes and contemplating just writing "meh" and finishing the review there. I'm really going to try and elaborate on my feelings though.
For a film with two villains it's not got much proper villainy in it. Barbara Minerva becoming Cheetah is massively underwhelming from what felt like a promising build-up, and Maxwell Lord, despite having the potential, was not big bad material. Neither had the drive in them to be a truly powerful force in the film, and what's the point in a villain if you can't get on board to hate them?
Kristen Wiig did give a great performance as Barbara, it was a smooth and interesting transition as she progressed, and it left me a lot less "meh" than everything else. But did anyone else just keep thinking Catwoman though?
I thought Pedro Pascal had 80's businessman down pretty well, but I found him to be a little lacklustre, and the character's story felt like the reason for that.
As with the first film, Gal Gadot is majestic on screen as Diana and Wonder Woman... but even here I found myself shrugging at what was going on, and cringing at some problematic plot points. I'm trying to work out if the appeal of the first film was partially due to the amusement of Diana discovering the world for the first time. Here she's savvy and elegant (even for the 0s), and she didn't have the same humour. Instead, we've got that role filled by Steve (Chris Pine). His discovery of the 80s world was fairly amusing, but the way in which he came back bugged me.
All in all characters really didn't grab me, out two main newbies felt very much like rip-offs of other things rather than a great recreation of their source material.
Visually the film was amazing, the bright colours, the style, all fit the era and you gotta love some parachute pants. But outside of that it just merged into other films for me.
That CGI... how can you get so many things right but somehow not do the villains? It's Steppenwolf all over again, Cheetah looked bad. Not only that, but it took an immense amount of time for us to even get to that full effect... so why wasn't it on point? How are DC incapable of animating their villains?
Will I watch this again? Probably, but I'm not overly fussed about it being anytime soon. It wasn't anywhere near as entertaining as the first for me, and didn't have enough action to cover up the disappointing story and character work. I really wish I felt strongly one way or the other on this and not having just another sitting on the fence swinging my feet review. I did appreciate some early vaguely Quidditchy vibes at the beginning though.
Originally posted on: https://emmaatthemovies.blogspot.com/2021/01/wonder-woman-1984-movie-review.html
Diana's dreams come true at the hands of an ancient artefact that can grant wishes. But as a wish is given something is taken away, and when Maxwell Lord, businessman and entrepreneur, makes a wish, the world is about to learn the lesson of the phrase... "be careful what you wish for".
First off... this absolutely would have been better on the big screen. It's never been so apparent to me that a cinema experience of a film holds so much power, it's making me understand the differences in early reviews and home viewing reviews a lot more these days.
The story of WW84 is really a very simple one. Doodad does magic, people are evil, goodie must make them good again. And that somehow fills a whole 2 hour 31 minutes of film... it doesn't feel like a very satisfying experience. For all that opener, the conclusion seems to be fleeting and dare I say it... not entirely believable. Overall the whole thing doesn't get particularly deep at any point despite there being a lot of opportunities around the wishes, and there are some questionable moments that could fill several blog posts.
There's been a long pause between me writing the first part and continuing here. That pause involved me staring at my notes and contemplating just writing "meh" and finishing the review there. I'm really going to try and elaborate on my feelings though.
For a film with two villains it's not got much proper villainy in it. Barbara Minerva becoming Cheetah is massively underwhelming from what felt like a promising build-up, and Maxwell Lord, despite having the potential, was not big bad material. Neither had the drive in them to be a truly powerful force in the film, and what's the point in a villain if you can't get on board to hate them?
Kristen Wiig did give a great performance as Barbara, it was a smooth and interesting transition as she progressed, and it left me a lot less "meh" than everything else. But did anyone else just keep thinking Catwoman though?
I thought Pedro Pascal had 80's businessman down pretty well, but I found him to be a little lacklustre, and the character's story felt like the reason for that.
As with the first film, Gal Gadot is majestic on screen as Diana and Wonder Woman... but even here I found myself shrugging at what was going on, and cringing at some problematic plot points. I'm trying to work out if the appeal of the first film was partially due to the amusement of Diana discovering the world for the first time. Here she's savvy and elegant (even for the 0s), and she didn't have the same humour. Instead, we've got that role filled by Steve (Chris Pine). His discovery of the 80s world was fairly amusing, but the way in which he came back bugged me.
All in all characters really didn't grab me, out two main newbies felt very much like rip-offs of other things rather than a great recreation of their source material.
Visually the film was amazing, the bright colours, the style, all fit the era and you gotta love some parachute pants. But outside of that it just merged into other films for me.
That CGI... how can you get so many things right but somehow not do the villains? It's Steppenwolf all over again, Cheetah looked bad. Not only that, but it took an immense amount of time for us to even get to that full effect... so why wasn't it on point? How are DC incapable of animating their villains?
Will I watch this again? Probably, but I'm not overly fussed about it being anytime soon. It wasn't anywhere near as entertaining as the first for me, and didn't have enough action to cover up the disappointing story and character work. I really wish I felt strongly one way or the other on this and not having just another sitting on the fence swinging my feet review. I did appreciate some early vaguely Quidditchy vibes at the beginning though.
Originally posted on: https://emmaatthemovies.blogspot.com/2021/01/wonder-woman-1984-movie-review.html
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