timorefabula's Reviews

Resident Evil (2022)

4/10

Let me tell you first that most of this show is The CW level. In acting, in writing and musically. You have been warned.

15 July 2022

If you don't like the CW shows, you are going to hate this series for the most part.

The show is presented in two times, one is set in 2036, the other in 2022.

The 2022 one is mostly about two twin sisters, of different mothers same surrogate, and Albert Wesker. There is a twist here that goes beyond the color of his skin, but I will not go into that to not give you any spoiler. The acting in these parts is the pretty lame, but I'm a fan of Lance Reddick since "Fringe", so I would like to take him out of this affirmation. Especially when the writing was so lazy in these parts. I'm not saying that the writing was better in the 2036 part, but you could feel it was weaker.

The acting in the 2036 parts was a bit better, they still had to perform following a lame script, but this part having the zombies made it more interesting.

As a whole, the story was not so bad, but the writing was always bringing everything down. It always brought the characters to some wild The CW type of decision that made me cringe. It would have been so much better with a serious writer behind those dialogs.

The CGI was way better that anything you could see in the movie they released earlier this year. In here, you have maybe some lame looking zombies in the middle of the horde, but never something as disastrous as the cow at the end of the movie.

I think during the whole series, every time you hear a song, it was "whispered". I'm not kidding, I think there were like 3 songs in the 8 episodes that weren't a whispered autotune fiasco. This is very the CW or MTV series, and it sucks. At least to me.

Now to close this review, it didn't feel like a real Resident Evil. I think Wesker was the only character brought from the games, but a lot of changes were made into him, they give an answer during the series for some of them, but it was kinda weak one. Possibly because of how it's revealed. Add a less than regular Blade impersonator. Sorry, Reddick, but it's the truth. Two others characters were mentioned in the series, with one being proposed as a future character if they reach the second season. I don't believe they will reach it, but maybe it's like those bad CW shows and get a second season somehow.

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The Rising (2022)

8/10

This is what a teenage drama should be. I'm looking at you The CW.

25 April 2022

This is a supernatural drama involving teenagers like many other being done nowadays but, and this is a very big but, well done.

The leading actress gives a really good performance, you can emphasize with her whole journey, and most of the rest of the lead cast was appropriate. With their ups and downs, obviously, but nothing that was annoying. At least to me and the wife.

Despite involving teenagers, there are very few moments where characters decide to make something completely stupid or acting all hysteric because of some lazy writing. You better learn The CW.

The story is quite good, and neither my wife nor me could guess the real murder until it was revealed. That was a nice bonus since in this type of shows generally you can guess the murderer way before the writers intended and the """"clever"""" ways they use to hide that became annoying.

The lead character's new relationship, both of the detectives involved in the investigation and the ending are sure to upset some people because of what involves, but, I hope, for the majority will be alright and a reasonable ending. Just ignore the crying babies.

Finally, because maybe it wasn't so obvious during my review, this is how to make an interesting teenage supernatural drama The CW. Hope you learn.

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Archive 81 (2022)

8/10

I think it's the best horror/mystery story I've seen in a while

31 January 2022

As the title of my review indicates, it's a really good show.

The story is divided in two, one that is happening in the present and one that happened in 1994.

In the present we have Dan who works restoring old films, that is hired to restore a private collection from a fire that happened in 1994. In the past, we have Melody who is filming interviews in the building that will suffer the fire. Between the two they tell you a story that involves high society occult clubs, an obscure totem, found footage and a bit of time travelling dream experience.

Both leads do a fantastic job keeping you watching, and the story is well written and paced (except maybe for the first episode, where you will be tempted to leave the show). It's been a while since I have to stop doing something else while watching a mystery/horror show. This kept me watching.

I think there was nothing that was never done before, the ending was predictable, but satisfying. And it leaves you waiting for the next season.

If you like a slow cooking mystery (but only 8 episodes), non-monster horror (maybe three scenes where one appears briefly) and no gore then this show has high chances of being right for you. If you need a monster ripping people apart, this is not for you.

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Invasion (2021–2024)

3/10

Almost an interesting show

7 January 2022

Warning: Spoilers

I know, who would have thought that when I read alien invasion with Sam Neil on board, was going to be a cure for insomnia? Right?

There is drama, way too much drama, but delivered in a way that never really touch me. By the third episode, I know I wasn't going to bother remembering the names of anyone in this show.

There was a kid who have epileptic attacks linked with the alien invasion. They did nothing interesting with it.

There was a material that really harmed the way too few aliens a family encounters in the way. They promise to do something with it. Nothing gets done with it, they go for more badly acted and scripted drama.

I think the only character I didn't want to die, disappears in the first episode, and we never see him again. Nothing is said about him in the rest of the series, or maybe I was too bored to notice it. They must be saving him for a second season. Maybe they forgot about him because the script was so boring, and he is still waiting for the next scene? I don't know.

I already said it, but the aliens were few, like really few. It seems someone with power behind in this series decided to use little to no aliens to talk about an alien invasion. The first three episodes, I think, didn't have a single pixel of an alien arm even and then the alien invasion only uses one alien at a time. By the end there is a scene where it seems there are more, and you finally get a proper look at some kind of geometric-ball form with morphing elongated spikes it uses to move that last for a few minutes with... you guessed it, more drama in between.

What you can see way too much is drama. Every character has at least a dozen dramas branching from him or her. It's like an invasion of drama instead of aliens... Maybe the drama where the aliens and I missed the point of the show... Maybe... Well this happens in episode 9. Episode 10 is again filled with drama, and you see an alien ship being explored for a few seconds between the drama and another at the end promising finally an invasion starting in season 3. Because they need to pack season 2 with even more drama and then add one or two aliens more.

So there you go. If you enjoy drama in large quantities, protagonists you don't even pretend to like or remember their names, and you don't care about aliens, this is your show. If you like aliens invading, go see "Mars Attacks!" or any other series or movie about aliens invading earth.

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Wolf (II) (2021)

3/10

That was boring

5 January 2022

A boring movie that tries too hard pretending to be interesting. And fails.

I suppose you could see it as a cry for help to improve the treatment of people who suffer from this type of mental disorder, but it does not occur to me that there could be interest beyond that.

It has the air of having been based on a book written by a teenager and the script adapted by another one. Basic and weird dialogs.

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Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021)

8/10

If you liked the original movies you are going to like this.

4 January 2022

Warning: Spoilers

There's no doubt in my mind the people behind this one loved the original movies. I recently saw them and this one was on point with the others.

The ghosts are portrayed similarly than they appeared in the original movies. And the story is heavy influenced by the first one.

Mckena literally stole the spotlight, not only by being the lead protagonist, but by some serious acting. She does a fantastic job. Wolfhard is less annoying in this film than in others, I mean he is still annoying, but it's less noticeable. Rudd and Coon are pretty good on their part, and you can see they were comfortable in their roles.

It was great to see the originals, and I must admit that I found myself smiling as a kid for the rest of the movie. And that scene was going to be one of the memories I will keep from this movie. I mean, it's not the best scene in cinema history, but it was the scene I was waiting the whole film for.

The only thing I have to remember people wanting to watch this movie is that, as the originals, is not a real horror movie, is a "horror" movie the whole family can enjoy.

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Dragons: The Nine Realms (2021–2023)

6/10

Good show, entertaining for the kids but it's lack and ending at episode 6

27 December 2021

It has the same animation as How to Train Your Dragon, so it's a guarantee of a good job.

It has an interesting story that takes dragons to the modern era, or more accurately to the future, coordinating how Toothless and Hiccup's adventure ended. The first 5 episodes introduce the protagonists and their dragons, and then a final episode. The only bad thing is that this final episode is not an ending in itself, it feels like a normal chapter of the previous series rather than a final episode.

In fact, the reason I give it a 6 as a rating is that my son looked at me with a "put the next chapter" face and I had to explain that it ended like that, which seemed strange to him too.

It promises to be a fun series, as its predecessors had been, but hopefully they will give it a season finale if they return.

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Midnight Mass (2021)

7/10

Good story that suffers from long monologues

25 December 2021

The story it's interesting, a good retelling of a classic story with a fresh twist but, and it's a big but, you have to endure continuous and boring monologues. Sometimes with no reason the character start reciting a long and usually nonsensical myriad of words that is extremely boring, and you have to remind yourself that besides that is hidden a good story.

So watch it, knowing that at times you will find yourself bored to death trying to survive those speeches.

The acting is correct, but the monologues will try to kill you.

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Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City (2021)

4/10

It's almost not a bad movie

25 December 2021

The beginning was interesting. Two siblings in an orphanage, a mysterious figure, good horror felling and a doctor with a face that screams bad guy.

After that, it always seems to came too short to the punch line. It feels closer to the games than the Milla's ones, but in those, the action made up for the lack of connection to the games.

In this one, while closer to the games, you have a story that you can see for a mile away, and instead of making you feel scared it makes you feel like they are taking way too long doing nothing. At the same time everything it's being crammed together because they need to give more information to people who didn't play the game.

The zombies are few, except in like two scenes and, apart from Lisa, you might find them completely lacking 'zombie appeal'. The final one is more developed and true to the games, but lacks more work in the CGI again.

Jill was reduced to some kind of fan girl, to a toned down Wesker. Claire was the best played character in the movie, the actress was a few steps above the others in the acting department. Chris was portrayed by Arrow's cousin, and to me that's always bad news.

And finally, there was an issue with the Leon of this movie. I played as the dude in multiple games and seen him in the animations movies, and having him being so... lost and out of everything that was happening, was a let-down.

I remember the music choices were too weird for me. The one when the flaming zombie enters the Police Station was just ridiculous. It wasn't even funny. That one was a really weird choice.

What you have to expect it's a story more in line with the games, but badly delivered. You have to get past the choices they made for the characters you know.

If you are new to Resident Evil, you might enjoy the movie better than a player of the games, but being one of them, I saw too many changes without a good payout to like this movie.

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Army of the Dead (2021)

5/10

By the skin of a zombie's teeth it's not a bad movie

25 December 2021

It's not a bad movie. It's entertaining. But doesn't live up to 'Dawn of the dead', it's not on the same universe.

It has a good and funny start, but you can see how it's slowly decaying during the presentation song, and that decay doesn't stop. It's not enough to make a bad movie, but it's there, and you are there watching it happen.

The story feels lazy and every good idea it's developed in a kind of borderline boring way.

You won't be remembering anything about the characters 10 minutes after the credits, even the ones who don't make you want to punch them.

Even with all that, it's not a bad movie, it's just one of those that will force you to do something else while watching it.

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The Matrix Resurrections (I) (2021)

4/10

It's a better epilogue that the one in Harry Potter, but the bar was low

24 December 2021

It's less than a movie on its own and more like an epilogue to the trilogy, that could have been much shorter.

The script tries to be intellectual, but fails as bad a Nolan's Tenet, and maybe that's why the wife and I could never connect with it.

It's like the story never really start, and because of that you end up feeling nothing with the new characters, you only relate with Neo And Trinity, but it's a weak connection. Keanu, Carrie and Henwick are the ones that make it a more interesting movie, but it's hard with so much 'meh' around.

The fights are mostly bad, like they didn't know how it was made on the other movies.

The only good thing is the reunion between Neo and Trinity and how good they look on the screen. There is nothing more to see here.

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