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The Last Ship (2014)
"Dude bro" army hero men on a boat making stupid decisions
I gave this 3 out of 10, purely because the effects and ship footage were surprisingly good. The only reason I tuned in to the pilot was because of the promising footage in the trailer and the premise.
The Good:
- CGI effects were strong for a TV show.
- The set and ship footage looked very good.
- Adam Baldwin is a good actor, despite playing a part that is two dimensional.
The Bad:
- Completely and utterly unrealistic characters with reactions to situations that verge on funny. Whether it's the Captain throwing a tantrum and threatening to throw the scientist's samples off the ship, the Captain holding a fuse to kick start the engine or the first officer finding out that his son is dead - and casually announcing it on the bridge like his team just lost a football match.
- So many wasted opportunities for strong character development and dialogue.
- So many stereotypes in the first five minutes; Asian guy wont put the book down because he's studying, stereotypically hyper-posh English smarty pants scientists, jock token black guy that decides to shoot himself in the head at the drop of a hat.
- Corny "Dude Bro Hero Army Solder" moments were in abundance. Let's take time to put on our pristine white uniforms and have a service for our fallen serviceman, despite the fact that billions are dying, we're on an urgent mission, and a nuke just flew over our heads towards England.
- The captain is a full on moron, acted by someone with the vocal and emotional range of a potato.
- The notion that nowhere in the developed can effectively quarantine important staff, heads of state, military locations and assets is just ludicrous. Where is the rest of the navy? Where are the fuel and supply ships? Where are the island nations and remote US bases? The mind boggles.
I'm almost tempted to watch another episode, just to see where this goes. There are so many moments when you just sit there thinking to yourself "it would be so much better if this happened, or the character reacted this way, or the writers should have done this instead....". Such a wasted opportunity. Such a mess.
Riddick (2013)
Strong continuation of a series that lost its way
I'm a massive Pitch Black/Chronicles fan, but I've often thought that Chronicles was over-indulgent and lacked what made the original movie and the overall story great. Chronicles had the glitzy effects and the huge cast... But I just didn't feel that comfortable with it.
Here we are, almost a decade later, with Riddick. I'm going to keep this short and sweet. This film isn't Pitch Black. This film isn't Chronicles. This film is a whole other beast. Imagine 127 Hours merged with Cast Away and Pitch Black. That's really the only way I can describe this film. It has a bit of a wobbly intro, but once it gets going, the first hour is an absolute treat. Then the story shifts to bounty hunters, and the overall plot gets stronger and deeper. Overall, the plot and pacing of the movie is excellent - better than any Riddick film before it.
The acting is also great. Vin Diesel does his thing, and we get to see him as Riddick actually looking vulnerable and weak, which really adds to the intensity of the situation. Katee Sackhoff brings her usual hard ass persona to the mix, and the rest of the cast really hold their own (especially the two captains.
The only thing that was a bit patchy in places was the effects, but that really can't be helped considering the budget constraints.
My final thoughts: -Different, but in my opinion stronger than the previous two movies. -All the actors performed brilliantly, especially Vin and Katee. -Effects were lackluster. -If you're a fan of any of the previous two this is worth watching. -You get to see Katee Sackhoff's boobs - and that is worth buying the movie 10x over if you're a Battlestar fan.
Final verdict: 8/10. - a bigger budget and a bit less baron desert would've seen it climb higher, because it really was a fun movie.