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The Dark Knight (2008)
The Dark Knight Review or Heath Ledger's Great Performance Wasted in a Bad Movie
Heath Ledger gives a great performance as the legendary Joker. He is funny and scary; all maniacal as he corrupts/kills people. Despite this, whenever he is not onscreen we deal with crappy Batman performance by Christian Bale who sounds like he needs Halls for his throat along with a sappy love triangle. Two-Face appears in the movie but he is killed almost immediately and thus a waste of a great villain. The film tries to be cutting edge via references to the US War on Terror and government surveillance but this not only makes the movie look like it was trying too hard but also makes the movie look dated. Batman and Robin, as silly as that movie was, aged better by at least being a comedy! The stupidity of the ending with Batman taking the blame for Harvey's could have been avoided if by simply blaming it on the Joker since it was technically his fault anyway and Alfred being against tracking the Joker by mass hacking people's cell phones is stupid and just a shoe-horned reference to US government spying at the time. This movie could have been great but the only thing great about the movie is Heath Ledger's performance.
Gakuen mokushiroku: HIGHSCHOOL OF THE DEAD (2010)
Zombies, Gore, and Rock & Roll
It has been 8 years since this was released as a full animation. I read it back when it was just a comic. It is pure grindhouse with attractive ladies, gore, guns, swords & spears, and the living dead. But this story is not content with just that. It has character development alongside the excitement of killing the already dead along with beautiful animation and an amazing soundtrack.
The only flaws with this show are the English dub (horrible, stick with the original Japanese and use subtitles) and that it will never be continued due to the death of one of the creators.
Fruits Basket (2001)
A fruit worth eating
This cartoon is a strange case for me. Not only is it one of the few times I preferred the cartoon over the original comic, this is also one of the few times I preferred the English dub over the original Japanese dialogue. That being said, it is an entertaining show starring the kind Toru as she lives with and helps members of the Soma family with various problems which often are based on them being cursed by turning into animals based on the Chinese zodiac by being hugged by someone of the opposite gender.
The comedy, tragedy, and slice-of-life elements blend smoothly together and the characters are wonderful. Though the cartoon is short and lacked many characters from the comic, it was much more enjoyable and even characters who were unlikable in the comic are much better in this series, esp. Akito who is, in my opinion, much more sympathetic here than in the comic.
The English voices are much better than the original Japanese versions. In the J-language ver, Toru sounded much too soft and Kyo sounds like an overexcited game show host. This is fixed in the dub with voices who can match the emotion without sounding too soft nor too silly.
Overall, I recommend this series and encourage others to watch it.
FLCL Progressive (2018)
How not to make a sequel to a timeless classic
This show is very mediocre. The first FLCL is in my top favorite cartoons ever made list. It was simple, yet manic with well developed characters and an overarching story told subtly here and there with fluid animation and the soundtrack composed by the Pillows. A space opera mixed with a growing up story. It is a masterpiece.
By contrast, this sequel has dull and undeveloped characters with needless focus on side characters who are more interesting than the main characters, stiff and boring animation found in many generic cartoons, the Pillows soundtrack used sparingly instead of often, everything is told with little to nothing shown along with info dumps regarding Medical Mechanica and Atomsk with entire scenes explaining the backstory as though this was an audio book and not a cartoon, and is an overall disappointing sequel to a great cartoon from nearly 20 years prior. Even the return of Haruko fails to bring this series to life.
Most of the problems with Progressive I blame on hiring new directors, animators, and story writers instead of bringing back the old staff. These new people, from what I've observed and with the exception of one guy who worked on One-Punch Man, never worked on major projects before whereas the staff from the original series had extensive experience, esp. on cartoons such as Neon Genesis Evangelion.
Overall, this series feels like a cash-grab or, assuming Production I. G.'s intentions were truly benign, a misguided attempt at recreating FLCL without fully understanding what made that original series work. I doubt that the next FLCL series, Alternative, will be any better.