Here is your chance to get a little insight on which film or TV Show you may be keen on seeing or which film or TV Show you may want to miss altogether.
These are Reel Ree:views here, keeping it concrete and reel...and somewhat, unbiased...well as much as possible, that is!
I haver probably said this somewhere on this blog that I have always been a Ghostbusters fan. I am not entirely sure as to what it is that draws me in, but I have always liked the movies, well...the first movies we it took me a long time to watch the second. I do not really remember watching the cartoon religiously but I am sure I watched a few episodes. I got the Xbox game that came out several years ago and enjoyed that (not sure if I completed it but I did enjoy it). I watched the all women's Ghostbusters reboot they did and that was, well...ok-ish, more confusing than anything. When Ghostbusters Afterlife came out, I went to see it and really enjoyed it. I would not say I am a super fan as I am sure there are other games and mediums I have not seen, played or have taken an interest in, but I will still stand by what I have said, I like Ghostbusters. This trailer though, I have some reservations but I am intrigued by it.
Although Dan Ackroyd has been known to try and get another Ghostbusters movie going for years and tries to insert himself into other Ghostbusters projects, the combination of both new and old Ghostbusters minus Harold Ramis of course, is great. This looks really good although the threat reminds me of the first Ghostbusters movie, some kind of possession, maybe? Seeing Janine is amazing and in uniform. Seeing Winston is great and the iconic building simply makes me smile. I am loving the Drone-Capture Trap which is a step up from the RC-Capture Trap but a discrepancy I have with the trailer and the script is, did the guy say The Ghostbusters CLAIM to have saved the world but there were no eyewitnesses? Really? There must have been a handful of people who at least, would come forward to explain something they could not explain. Secondly, I did not think Ant-Man was in Afterlife and he seems to have appeared here. Maybe it is the comedy of the scene and the delivery but Paul Rudd simply comes across as Ant-Man in this moment. Also another thing, I know it is a PG but not seeing someone get caught on a ice-spike would be a travesty. Even if it was blurred out in the background. All these spike could not randomly come out of the ground and miss hundreds of people? Ridiculous. All-in-all though, I am interested.
The "younger" British talent seem to be stepping up and taking things a little further from simply just acting to directing and I love it! We all remember little Dev Patel from Slumdog Millionaire, right? He has come a long way from acting in what we Brits remember as a character from the TV show, 'Skins' with fellow actors Nicholas Hoult and Daniel Kaluuya, I have not personally seen him in much unlike the other two actors, but he is a decent actor. 'The Green Knight' was cool and very different, and I have heard so much about him in other shows and films as being really good, so seeing this trailer has brightened up my day. I have not seen many or any Bollywood movies, but when I watched Ms. Marvel, I loved the settings and scenery we got to experience in that show. Extraction with Chris Hemsworth was similar and even in a cartoon-like Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, it was and is simply, a breath of fresh air from seeing New York all the time, L.A, Florida or the occasional London. Maybe this is one of the reasons as to why I like watching Mission Impossible movies because we are always in a different location and it is nice to see. With that said though, this looks spectacular.
A man, driven by the vengeful pursuit of justice against the rich and corrupt elites, possibly responsible for his mother's death, transforms into a vigilant protector, the White Monkey, determined to safeguard his community from oppression. Whereas, John Wick was simply seeking revenge for the killing of his dog which was the last connection he had with his dead wife who gave him the dog as a puppy upon her death. This is definitely my type of vengeance movie and my type of action. A thriller with moments of levity. This film looks great. The run and jump at the window you see in films all the time that break and shatter the glass when a body is thrown at it, but here, it does not and he just bounces off, amazing. That moment got a huge laugh out loud from me. The action looks very Jason Bourne, John Wick and Nobody-esk, but that is a good thing. The camera styles and angles also look great. I do not need to be sold any more on this, because if I am honest, I did not know Dev Patel had this in him, but with that said, it would be nice to have a trilogy from this character, if the movie is as good as this trailer, that is. Moneky Paw Productions...fitting.
I believe the question was asked to JC (someone I listen to on YouTube), "which comic book or novel would you like to see adapted as a TV show or movie" (it might have been TV show), or a conversation about adaptations went towards him mentioning Shogun. He said it was one of the best things he has ever read and ever since a child, wanted to see it adapted. That was the first time I had heard of Shogun. There are a lot of things I do not know, have experienced or witnessed in life and recently, another person came onto my radar expression the same sentiments towards Shogun and this series. Having seen this trailer and if you have read my Blue Eye Samurai review, you know this is definitely up my street.
This trailer seems to show a developing relationship between a man who became "shipwrecked" on the island and a woman from the island whose father is the Shogun, maybe? Maybe the title of Shogun is something given to you by an elder? Maybe the shipwrecked guy becomes or is the Shogun? I don't know, but I saw those long swords and if I was not already sold, I am sold again and again and again. I love a long sword, especially a long sword fight. I am trying to remember a Kung Fu film I watched that got me into long swords, I digress. I am looking forward to this and seeing our guy from Mortal Kombat as well as Marvel, such a great actor, I cannot wait until I am able to watch this.
I will start off by saying, I have not seen Road House, although I am aware of it and who starred in it, the late great Patrick Swayze from Ghost and Point Break, but I do not think I was interested at all at the time of me learning about this movie. It was from a time where films like this were simply not on my radar. They were not "action packed" for me. You know, the quippy one lines and explosions, so upon seeing this trailer, I am keen to see what the original looks like.
Jake is a great actor and he looks great! A man who used to be a MMA fighter, retired or whatever, but spends his time fighting people who do wrong on the innocent. A take the law into your own hands vigilante type of hero of the neighborhood, love it. Those slaps were hardcore and very VERY rude. I was sold on the slaps and then we got into more of the story and Connor. I do not believe I have seen him in anything, nor do I care for him, but this does look interesting as the main heavy going up against this guy who only wants to protect those who are defense-less against corporations and bullies. Definitely watching this! Like I said, it was the slaps that sold me.
So, true story, maybe even funny too. I have never watched a single episode of the cartoon, Avatar: The Last Airbender. I may have seen clips back in the day, but I recognise the guy with the blue arrow on his head. Some years ago, I remember seeing a trailer for Avatar: The Last Airbender called 'The Last Airbender', directed by M. Night Shyamalan and I could tell from that trailer, the film was going to be trash. Maybe it was simply the quality of the trailer, or maybe it was just the overall quality of the film, but I remember thinking I was not interested in watching the movie. A 14 years later, a trailer for the same IP is airred by Netflix and this looks absolutely great. It looks authentic, it looks accurate, and it looks like the clips I saw of the cartoon.
I know nothing about this show from the cartoon to the live-action show. The only thing I am aware of is that people can bend or "move without touching" the elements, such as fire, wind, water, earth etc. I had even asked around about watching the cartoon as I am aware there are two, Korra is the other one that came after Avatar: The Last Airbender and I have been advised that the cartoon may spoil the show for me, but at this rate, I just want to be involved and I do not necessarily care about spoilers for the live-action show as they could take creative liberties to tell a different story. Either way, I am very interested in watching the cartoon first and then this show as it looks great.
Having watched the Marvel Cinematic Universe's Hawkeye on Disney Plus a few years ago and the introduction to Echo and reintroduction of Kingpin from the Marvel Netflix Universe, having a series centred around Echo was definitely a bold choice. Yes, she was cool in Hawkeye, but she is a deaf amputee who did not speak/say much. With the Hawkeye series not doing as good as I'm guessing Marvel would have liked as it gained a lot of mixed-to-negative reviews, this series was already on the back foot. Learning about the reshoots and the problems making this series, to learning of the series not testing well with audiences, not knowing how to market the show, if Daredevil was going to be in it, if Kingpin was going to be in it, to dropping the entire five-episode show in January (the dumping ground for movies), thoughts of this show being any good was basically out the window at this point. TV MA in America is basically a 15 in the UK and the trailers showed us some of the "grit" this show had, akin to the Netflix series' which looked great, so having watched the entire series (five episodes), I will say that, although not excellent or flawless, it is much better than a lot of the shows that have come before.
We start the episode with some kind of flashback, but it seems that the more we get into the flashbacks, the more we learn about the possible connection. For me, it was a little confusing with the mysticism at first but as the series goes on, it slowly bleeds in and you start to understand 'the why' later. We meet more of the side characters, Maya's family and what happened in her past. A lot of the first episode to which almost felt like half of the first episode is flashbacks with moments taken from the Hawkeye series so the episode comes across as very choppy. But when we get to the "present day" (I guess), we have a warehouse fight which leads into one of the best fight scenes in the show...and there are two of them.
From the second episode onwards, we get into more character work and we are introduced to a particular character, "Biscuits" who is involved with an action set piece which leads onto a scene afterwards that is straight-up hilarious. He is the comic-relief for the show in which I felt worked very well. Other supporting characters include Echo's grandmother and her other cousin Bonnie. We do not get a great deal from the latter, but the grandmother also plays an important part where, when we get to episode four, there is some character building with both her and Echo and the episode before, Bonnie and Echo that also help to humanise Echo, especially when she meets up with Kingpin.
By the fifth and final episode, although it was not outstanding or great, we have learnt all about Maya as her story told us who she is, where she comes from, where she has been, what she has done, how she feels and where she is going whilst also establishing, her friends (family), her ideology and where it came from, her influences and again, where she is going. Maya is a hero. I would have expected a little more from the finale, like a bigger fight with Maya showcasing more of her fighting skills because that IS what Echo is about right? Her ability to echo/copy other people's fighting moves/skills, something they have changed from the comics but something I would like them to include going forward which would show her as an underrated and deadly character. Echo is shown as skilled but I think there could be more fleshing out. I am not sure what I would have expected for the ending or how it ended especially if you want to continue to use specific characters in future shows and/or movies, so I am not sure what I would have done differently, but all in all, the show was pretty good and I think I understand as to why it was not testing well and received a lot of negativity before the release.
Overall, there are five episodes and placing the first episode aside, the episodes are fairly slow-paced, with a lot of character-work. I also believe there is a slight slower pace to some of the non-verbal scenes due to all the signing as, hearing someone talk their lines opposed to someone signing their lines seems to make the dialogue and pacing flow a touch smoother than having to read. I am not sure if the scenes with dialogue which involve signing are purposely given time to breathe or if it simply comes across that way, either way I am sure the signing scenes would be a reason as to why people will not like it. The show also forces you to pay attention because you have to read as you may miss something in the conversation, which is fine with me, but I'd imagine a lot of people may be turned off by that. Pacing aside, the show does feel like it needed to be a few more episodes to flesh out more of Echo's backstory growing up and what she did for her uncle. It would have been nice for a little more lip service to a specific character and how he has been a nuisance to his operations. More was needed for Bonnie and Biscuits, but other than that, as well as the "final fight", these are my only gripes
The supporting characters are who really carry this show. Alaqua is great and all, but being stoic and angry for someone who cannot hear, she has to do a lot of emoting with her eyes, face and body, like any other actor, so the show could have concentrated more on what Maya see's like what they did with Daredevil who concentrated on what he could hear, because he could not see. Alaqua does some great acting alongside her supporting cast, where she demonstrates conflict within herself very well without saying a thing. There was not a single weak actor. The music was great! From past to present, the music was well put together, along with the visuals, angles and imagery. You can tell with the attention to detail that the everyone involved took care with this show as there are some real elements of film-making and cleverness. Lastly, although the producers took a few liberties from the comics on Echo's powers, it would be nice to get more from the character and add her to more upcoming episodes in the MCU, whether that is Luke Cage, Jessica Jones and of course Daredevil. I think with a bit more done with her, she can be an even cooler character if we have her fighting some more. I like Daredevil because he is a blind man fighting and fighting well. He is smart and he is cunning, as well as moving somewhat like a ninja at times. I think Echo, if handed a little better could be a deaf person fighting and fighting well. She is smart (there is a Macguyver moment which was awesome) and cunning, as well as having abilities that can mimick/copy or echo others, she could be better. The studio did a decent job with this.
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