syntory Reviews

Civil War (2024)

The trailer had us all hoodwinked! This movie is not as good as the trailer made it seem.

[5/10 · 10 April 2024]

Civil War is a glimpse into a world of pure chaos where America has been divided into a couple of main warring factions. There are countless characters with all manner of firearms but out of all the characters in this movie's world that we could've followed, the writers chose to follow the characters taking the pictures. It is this writing choice that results in the most underwhelming story of a trek across a completely lawless America just to take some pictures. Talk about a huge disappointment.

What really turns me off to this movie is it doesn't live up to the trailer. The story is just not there. The last 15 minutes or so are the best part of the movie. If Civil War had instead been a 15 minute short film then it would've been great. There's too much of the movie where nothing interesting is happening. I cant say that I'm shocked though because there arent very many good movies being made nowadays. The only time I'm ever shocked is when a movie is actually good!

Parasyte: The Grey (2024– )

Live-action anime adaptations are tricky

[6/10 · 6 April 2024]

The anime series, "Parasyte: The Maxim" was a very good series. Anytime you attempt to reboot or remake a really good series there's a lot already going against you from viewers who will only ever compare the remake/reboot to the original series. When it comes to anime, remaking or rebooting a series as a live action series is even more difficult. Most live action anime adaptations are terrible. With that said, I think this series was good overall. I would put its rating at just below 6.5 so I'll round down to 6.

Doing a live action remake of Parasyte must be especially difficult since deformation of the animated aliens is more believable....as crazy as that sounds. I was expecting this series to be terrible just like most live-action anime adaptations are. It wasnt terrible.

Road House (2024)

This probably would've been better as a stand alone movie and not a remake

[6/10 · 23 March 2024]

Just like in most cases with sequels and remakes, the original Road House was better than this remake. Although, I dont think this remake is terrible, it also wasnt great. It seems like most movies are just mediocre nowadays and this remake is just like all of those other movies.......just ok. Jake Gyllenhaal is a good actor and does a good job in the film but the story is just not there. Every other character aside from Dalton lacks any sort of depth. It makes no sense how the Brandt's go through the trouble of sending goons to try and scare Frankie into selling her land. So before posting the whole situation on social media, or contacting the news or some higher authority than the local cops, she seeks out one single person to fight off multiple bad guys? She looks for an 80's solution to a 2024 problem and it doesnt really work for a modern movie.

This remake overall was just ok.

X-Men '97 (2024– )

It's ok. Seems like more pandering than anything else so far.

[6/10 · 23 March 2024]

This series isnt too bad. I guess i'm in the minority who think this show is not on the same level as the original. Granted, I only watched the first episode but so far it seems to me that the focus of the show is more about nostalgia than story. It's more than just a nod, here and there, to the 90's show. It seems like the writers are just trying to pander to the audience who liked the old series. It's not terrible so far, but I think this series is not as good as the original. Some of the character personalities seem to have changed a bit.

I don't think this series is even close to a 9. It's ok. I'll give it a 6. The original series is an 8.

3 Body Problem (2024)

So far I think this series is so much better than the previous 2023 version.

[7/10 · 22 March 2024]

The pacing of this series is so much better than the other version. The writers of this series have a better understanding of, "get to the point" than those from the other series. The nano wire scene with the ship in episode 5 was cool. I would say this version is way better than the other one. The other series was very difficult to sit through. The story dragged on and on and you had to sit through many episodes just to get a tiny bit of info. The game in this series was very short and to the point, but in the other series it was dragged out over many episodes.

There are some absurd aspects to the story. Like why do these advanced aliens need earth? If they're so advanced why can't they just terraform a planet? Why do they accept a single individual as a representative of the entire planet?

So far, I think this series is good. It is certainly more watchable than the previous version.

Jonah (II) (2023)

Garbage

[4/10 · 12 March 2024]

This movie is terrible. Jonah is a film that has no idea what it wants to be. It is basically 2 movies rolled into one. It's a thriller about a crazy woman, who's crazy for no reason ,while also trying to be a sci fi film about human extinction and aliens and it doesn't work at all. Firstly, throughout most of the movie there's a whole lot of nothing going on. The characters don't make much sense either. As a child, Ozzie was abducted by aliens. Now, as an adult, he crosses paths with Jonah who was also abducted, but the writers don't really connect the 2 stories. At the end of the movie Ozzie and Jonah get into the alien ship and that's it?! No explanation as to why Ozzie and Jonah were abducted in the first place?! Why is Jonah in a vegetative state but Ozzie wasnt when he was a kid? The aliens arent explained much beyond them not wanting to intervene in Humankind's impending extinction. Margot's character was the strangest of all. Why is she seemingly normal for most of the movie and then suddenly she's completely insane and homicidal without any explanation?! It made no sense why she chased down Darren, killed him and brought his body back to the house. Why invite Darren and Ozzie to the house in the first place? I honestly wasnt surprised that this movie was bad. I could tell by the trailer that it wasnt any good but Alaina Huffman was good in Supernatural, Stargate Universe and The 100 so I wanted to see what she's been up to lately.

The Regime: The Foundling (2024) Season 1, Episode 2

Heading in the right direction so far

[7/10 · 11 March 2024]

I said in my previous review that I wasnt sure what to think of this show and that it could end up being a real disaster if the writers took the story in the wrong direction. After watching episode 2 I think the writers are heading in the right direction. The story is interesting. It's not so easily predictable which is rare these days. One thing I will say that I dont like is that the story is slow paced. So much so that I don't think this show is worth watching week to week. I will wait until season 1 is over then I will binge watch The Regime. I can understand why so many are giving the show a bad rating. I think the slow pacing has a lot to do with the bad rating.

Damsel (2024)

Another rehashed story, but not too bad.

[6/10 · 10 March 2024]

I have never been opposed to strong female characters in movies and have actually quite enjoyed many of them. There have been many good movies with strong female leads like: Alien, Terminator, The Long Kiss Goodnight, Underworld, Fargo, Let the Right One In, Kill Bill, Resident Evil, the list goes on and on. Just because a movie has a strong female lead doesnt necessarily mean that it's garbage. While this movie may have some unrealistic aspects to it, I think overall it was ok. Not great.....but ok.

Damsel is yet another retelling of a story that's been told ad nauseam and this is what makes so much of the movie predictable. Once the healing slug/worms were conveniently introduced into the story there was no surprise that they were used on the dragon. There are also some parts of the story that dont make much sense like the map in the caves. Where did it come from? Someone would have needed to escape the cave and then come back and draw the map, but if they escaped why wouldnt they tell everyone the truth of what's going on? And who, in their right mind, escapes the cave and then returns to draw the map? Also, how is it that the dragon can smell the tiny amount of royal blood on the cut but can't smell the rest of the blood that's not royal? Historically, when the dragon killed the girls I would imagine that there would have been lots of blood spilled. The dragon couldnt smell the ruse?

Damsel wasn't too bad. It's definitely not the worst movie I've seen so far this year.

Argylle (2024)

It was ok.....not terrible.

[6/10 · 6 March 2024]

With all the bad reviews I was expecting Argylle to be the worst movie ever made. I dont think it's as bad as people say. It's certainly not a great movie, but it's not the worst movie I've seen. I think the runtime works against it. There's no reason for this movie to be over 2 hours long. It might have been better at 1 hour and 30 minutes at the most. There are also some ridiculous aspects of the story. Also Elly is a bit out of shape to be an elite solider. The writing was not too terrible. There are way worse movies than Argylle so far this year. I think the biggest issue I have with Argylle is that it was just too long.

The Invisible Guest (2016)

Good movie.......but.......

[7/10 · 5 March 2024]

Overall I think The Invisible Guest (Contratiempo) was good. There's only one issue I have with the writing. It's a little unrealistic to me that after a car accident Adrian Doria would go so far out of his way to the point of ultimately committing 2 murders instead of just accepting, what would've been, a reckless driving charge at worst. He could've even used the deer as an excuse and it would have saved him so much heartache. That aspect of the movie I find a bit unrealistic. A guy not paying attention to the road causes an accident and rather than just admitting to the accident and accepting the possible minor consequences he decides to try to hide the body of the other driver? Which leads to him killing the other driver and ultimately his own passenger? What kind of stupid person commits 2 murders to escape a reckless driving charge? It's just a petty gripe I had with this movie. Other than that it was a very good film.

The Regime (2024)

Not sure where this one is going....yet

[6/10 · 4 March 2024]

After watching the first episode I must admit that I don't know what to think of this show yet. I think it has the potential to be good but it all depends on whether or not the writers take the show in the right direction. I think The Regime could end up being a real disaster if they dont do it right. There are some interesting aspects of the story being setup by the writers in episode 1. I'm curious to see where they're going with this series. The first episode was just interesting enough that I will give episode 2 a chance. I think episode 2 will be the deciding factor on whether or not I bail on this show.

Spaceman (I) (2024)

Complete waste of a space film

[3/10 · 2 March 2024]

Spaceman is a complete waste of a space film. I'm a huge fan of sci-fi but this movie was less about space and more about the character's relationship back on earth. This movie was terrible. The delivery of the dialogue was so long and drawn out. Especially coming from the spider character who talks soooooo sloooooowly, skiiiiiiiny huuuuumaaan! Spaceman tries desperately to be profound but succeeds only in being mind-numbingly dull. I dont mind Sandler taking a crack at a role in a sci-fi flick but I did not find this movie entertaining in any way.

It's one thing to make a bad film but what makes it 10 times worse is when there's an upvoting campaign. Why are so many people giving a terrible movie like this one a perfect rating score of 10?! Just accept that you've made a bad movie and stop trying to trick people into watching your garbage.

Under the Dome: The Enemy Within (2015) Season 3, Episode 13

S3E13

[5/10 · 1 March 2024]

Why is burying dr bloom such a priority for barbie that it needs to be done right now? Arent there more pressing matters? Why does junior only have superpowers when it's convenient for the plot? When he's fighting jim in the forest he doesn't seem very strong. The army says that as long as the infection remains dormant that those infected can keep their freedom?! That's not how the military operates. Not in real life. With a dormant alien virus every single one of them would have been quarantined for life. Episode 13 wraps up season 3 and is the end of the series. Looks like they were trying to set the story up for a 4th season but it's good that it ended when it did because this series stopped being good after the pilot.

Under the Dome: Incandescence (2015) Season 3, Episode 12

S3E12

[5/10 · 1 March 2024]

Barbie saying he shouldn't have abandoned his baby is absurd given he just handed the baby over to eva in the previous episode. The scene where the scientist tells barbie she needs the umbilical cord....didnt barbie cut the umbilical cord with his knife? Shouldn't there be some cells on the blade in his pocket? I've stated in previous reviews that the people in the dome should not be running out of air. The dome is 10 miles wide with lots of the trees so why is there no air in the dome all of a sudden? The line of the elderly kinship people who couldn't breathe a minute ago but they managed to walk all the way to the lake?

Under the Dome: Love Is a Battlefield (2015) Season 3, Episode 11

S3E11

[5/10 · 1 March 2024]

This entire series is full of scenes with the characters doing completely illogical things. Why would barbie ever hand the baby over to eva knowing she's still the kinship? Barbie has been acting as if he's so caring for the baby, but once the baby is born he just hands it over to eva? Also, it seems like the aliens are advanced but they sure do very stupid things. They wanted to kill hunter because he was paralyzed? Meanwhile they've been wanting to get joe to figure out how to assemble the sonic device. If you watch the scenes of joe actually working....he's doing a lot of his work while sitting down so why couldn't hunter be useful in that situation? Also seems pretty dumb in general for the kinship to kill people who are no longer "useful" given how limited their resources are.

Under the Dome: Legacy (2015) Season 3, Episode 10

S3E10

[5/10 · 1 March 2024]

In previous reviews I've stated that all throughout this series it seemed like the writers were just winging it. It seemed like they didn't really know where they were going with this story even though they had the source material. Some of the scenes in this series make absolutely no sense. In this episode there's a scene where patrick puts a shattered egg back together and it becomes fully functional again. Well if a shattered egg can be put back together why doesn't christine just reassemble the egg jim broke in the caves? The writing of this series is just so strange. A lot of the actions taken by the characters in this series are completely illogical.

Under the Dome: Plan B (2015) Season 3, Episode 9

S3E9

[5/10 · 1 March 2024]

There's a scene in this episode where the dome is calcifying and christine tells junior that no living thing will be able to breathe. Why would they not be able to breathe? Even if the dome doesn't let any air in from the outside there's still plenty of air in the dome and plenty of trees and sunlight to keep everyone alive indefinitely. The dome is 10 miles wide with lots of forest and there's a lake so there's plenty of water. It makes no sense that they will somehow run out of air just because they cant get air from the outside of the dome. This is just another example of how some of the scenes in this series are completely irrational.

Under the Dome: Breaking Point (2015) Season 3, Episode 8

S3E8

[5/10 · 1 March 2024]

Why did christine need to project images of the end of the world on the inside of the dome? She said she did it to bring everyone together but weren't nearly all of the townsfolk already under her control? What good are joe and norri doing trying to mine the wall? They're just gently tapping the rock. Theyre not even breaking the rockface at all. Also, explosions in a tunnel cant be outrun. Nor can you take cover from the blast wave. Joe, norri and her mom should've all died from the explosion. Why didn't jim place a bomb under the big amethyst outside of the cave entrance? The only one standing there at the time was junior but jim knocked him out. Why leave the amethyst there?

Under the Dome: Ejecta (2015) Season 3, Episode 7

S3E7

[6/10 · 29 February 2024]

This was the episode where the writers finally informed us as to who the aliens are and the purpose of the dome. So it took 2 seasons and 7 episodes for the writers to explain who the aliens are and why they're here and it was all explained in 10 seconds. I've said in previous reviews that I think the writers saw the cancellation of this show coming and finally decided to wrap things up. It seems to me that if they had kept the pace of episode 1 then the ratings for Under the Dome probably would not have dropped. This episode is decent because they finally got back on track with the alien background story......even though they just rushed through it.

Under the Dome: Caged (2015) Season 3, Episode 6

S3E6

[4/10 · 29 February 2024]

Many of the characters' actions in this series are senseless. Throughout this entire series there's been so many instances where the writerrs have the characters do something only to immediately undo what's just been done. There are also many instances where a characters actions are pointless. Why did the soldier point the gun at christine, when she was in her cell, but not shoot her? Why bother having the soldier point the gun in the first place? Why did sam stab christine just once? What's the purpose of non-fatally stabbing her? So junior has enough time to get her back to the cave for healing? So the writers injure her and then immediately heal her. What's the point?

Under the Dome: Alaska (2015) Season 3, Episode 5

S3E5

[4/10 · 29 February 2024]

It's funny, the scene when christine is saying "this fluid is finite and precious" as excess fluid drips from her hand onto the floor. Why would christine manipulate pete into attacking barbie? I understand that she wanted barbie to kill pete and she knew barbie wouldnt do it, but she could not have known that barbie would win that fight. Pete setup an explosive and almost killed barbie with it. Her sending pete to attack barbie in order to get barbie to kill pete was not very smart considering how important she claims barbie is. The writing doesn't make much sense. If someone is so important to her plan then why put them in danger like that?

Under the Dome: The Kinship (2015) Season 3, Episode 4

S3E4

[4/10 · 29 February 2024]

The series continues to get worse. It's not surprising, at this point in the series, that the story just continues to spiral down the drain. It's season 3 and the writers still havent told us the purpose of the dome and the egg. Why continue to tease who the aliens are this late in the series? When you watch how quickly this series went downhill from season 1 it's easy to understand why Under the Dome got cancelled after season 3. At the rate the writers were going we wouldn't have learned who the aliens are until season 12. I think they saw the writing on the wall. They must've known the series was on the chopping block. That's probably the reason they finally start to quicken the pace of the plot in the following episodes.

Under the Dome: Redux (2015) Season 3, Episode 3

S3E3

[4/10 · 29 February 2024]

By season 3, Under the Dome has become a completely different show. Maybe it wouldve been better if the writers explained what the hell the aliens were early in the series. The story has just become so complicated and boring. Why introduce new characters so late in the series and make the new characters the focus of the story? The plot has become so convoluted. Why did jim not show julia the video of eva and christine on the camera? Why does he tell julia that he knows everyone is different but not show her the one thing that might convince her? I mentioned in previous reviews that this series had the potential to be really good and it's disappointing that it turned out this way.

Under the Dome: But I'm Not (2015) Season 3, Episode 2

S3E2

[4/10 · 28 February 2024]

By season 3, Under the Dome has become a completely different show. Maybe it wouldve been better if the writers explained what the hell the aliens were early in the series. The story has just become so complicated and boring. Why introduce new characters so late in the series and make the new characters the focus of the story? The plot has become so why did jim not show julia the video of eva and christine on the camera? Why does he tell julia that he knows everyone is different but not show her the one thing that might convince her? I mentioned in previous reviews that this series had the potential to be really good and it's disappointing that it turned out this way.

Under the Dome: Move On (2015) Season 3, Episode 1

S3E1 - "It's time to move on" is right...time to move on from this series!

[4/10 · 28 February 2024]

Under the dome could've been so much better if they kept the plot simple. The alternate reality stuff was completely unnecessary and boring filler. The plot of this series becomes more and more convoluted with each season and each episode. One thing that hasnt changed is the character inconsistency as far as jim is concerned. Throughout this entire series jim has gone back and forth between being evil and not so evil. Now we have, in a single episode, jim being evil and then he's back to being the hero yet again. Why make the first episode of season 3 extra long just to use the extra time for filler? "It's time to move on" is right. Time to move on from this show!