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X-Men '97 (2024)
Not very good, odd cult following puts this at 10/10 and ignores issues
I'm not sure why this has such a large cult following rating this a 10/10.
This series is far from flawless. When discussing the series with 10/10 users, they usually default to "well it's a cartoon". While that's true, a 10/10 cartoon isn't ripe with continuity errors.
I watched the entire first episode and part of the 3rd.
Let's break this down into a few categories. This is supposed to be a direct continuation of the previous series:
Continuity:
The first episode starts a year after the conclusion of the previous series. Multiple continuity issues exist and the changes aren't even referenced for having an explanation later on.
- Xavier is presumed dead. At the end of the previous series he wasn't dead, he (well Morph actually) even broadcast to the entire world he was alive and well. How the entire world would now think he's assassinated is confusing. No reference to even hint at an explanation of how that changed.
- Bishop is now present on the team, we are given no hint of an explanation how he arrived.
- Storm has a mohawk, in the comics there was a storyline that went along with it. This one could be fixed, but no mention at continuity change.
- Morph now primarily has a different appearance. This is very easily explainable, but no explanation is given.
While all of these things wouldn't need immediate addressing, they should have at least had a line of "since Bishop joined the team" or "since Storm changed her hair" or "since Morph changed his form". At least they should have acknowledged the changes and it would be ok for them to come back later on and give more detailed explanations.
Story Telling:
- The first episode is a rehash telling of the first season. Sunspot appears as a new comer who runs away only to be found again, just like Jubilee was in the original series.
- A discontinuous 2nd Mastermold suddenly appears and is destroyed in the first episode. There's a continuity issue as the original series had Gyric and Trask hiding from the first Mastermold, but didn't use the 2nd mastermold to stop it. If they feared the 1st one so much, they should have shut the 2nd one down. Trask even turned against the 1st Mastermold, so it's unknown why he would allow a 2nd one to exist.
- The show seems to have to even retcon itself. Madelyne Pryor appears suddenly and with no explanation. What would have normally been some type of storyline thread of a season is condensed into 1 episode of unreasonably fast storytelling.
- The dialogue here just seems really off, like they are trying to use 90s slang and snarkiness, and it's just weird. Storm mentions she commands the sands, but she doesn't command the sand, he commands the weather.
Ridiculous use of new and inconsistent powers:
- Wolverine does not have super strength, but must possess it or Gambit would not have been able to jump on top of his back and ride him like a lawn mower. Wolverine in the old series could be injured. Certainly the impact on his body by having his adamantium claws explode with kinetic energy would cause him pain, but he's completely unaffected.
- Cyclops falls from a blackbird, 3 flying X-Men decide to not assist him, so he unleashes a massive optic blast which does no damage to the ground. In many other scenes like this one of the X-Men would have assisted him or Storm would have used her winds.
- Cyclops power can now push him backwards and have no impact on his neck. Maybe he has an adamantium spinal column now?
- Storm and Bishop get taken out in the first episode by nobody goons and later Storm is identified has having Omega level powers. Either case is fine, but to have both scenes in the same episode is odd.
Animation Quality:
In some ways the animation has improved, in other ways its declined.
- Rogue's hair has countably less lines. Her appearance is the most noticeable, she looks like a very different person.
- Magneto's long hair is odd, he looks like an old grandma. They used a costume that was from the story they were telling, but that costume was odd even back then. If they aren't 100% following the comics (and they aren't) it would be okay to design a better costume.
- The shading on Storm's costume is less well done. She now looks like she has black strips on her costume instead of shading.
- On a plus side, Jubilee's face was drawn such that you can now tell she's of Asian descent.
- The designs are generally less detailed, on some characters it isn't very noticeable, on others like Rogue it's pretty drastically different.
Other just weird stuff:
- You'll notice some really odd scenes. In one scene, they are interviewing Gyrick and the camera keeps zooming in. You can't see his full face it's so far zoomed in. I thought it was going to keep going and just go inside of his nose or something weird.
- There's another several scenes where they over zoom in on a person's face for a long period of time. I don't know what that's supposed to convey, it's just weird. Normally shows will do a head and shoulders shot, not ultra zoom in on someone's face unless they are trying to point out a facial expression or something.
Overall this seems like an incoherent mess that doesn't well follow the original series well and it even has to retcon itself to make its own story make sense. They should have just started a new series and not try to continue it from the old one. This continuation series is definitely not a 10/10.
Smallville: Power (2009)
By far the worst episode of the series
This is a rant about the ridiculousness that Smallville has become. If you're a die hard fan who gives out 10's no matter what, don't bother reading this review. If you are a rational person who hates abysmal story lines such as the one the show has taken, you may find comfort in reading the rantings of a fellow disgruntled viewer.
Firstly, this is not a 1.0 episode, it's a 3.0 episode. I'm scoring it a little lower to off balance one of the people that gives this show a 10 no matter what. As far as watching a show goes, I watch the 1.0 shows as much as I do the 3.0 shows ( I watch them as little as possible ).
Last week, fans everywhere moaned when Clark kissed Lana, and they had the "potential relationship moment" for about the 100th time in the series. You can look at last weeks review for more of the tragedy of that horse.
This week, that was the entire episode, moaning of the fans. It culminates in Lana gaining super powers, and ends with the potential relationship moment. They could have made this a 7 or an 8, if at the end of the episode when Lana professed her undying love for Clark, if Clark had said something such as "I love you Lana, I always will, but there's someone else... when we were together last year, we weren't that happy together, it's time to let each other go" and then he walks away.
That would have restored some of my faith in the series. Instead, they took the route of Superman Returns and had a ridiculous storyline. "Superman has a illegitimate child and Lois Lane doesn't know Superman=Clark". "Superman over the last 8 years can't get over his first girlfriend so he and Lana have potential relationship moments until the end of time". They may have just as well named the series "Are Clark and Lana going to get together" than "Smallville".
This season had so much potential. What about Doomsday, where's he been the last 2 episodes? What about Lois? I thought she was a full time cast member now, why do non-cast members such as Lana get 2-3 episodes a season dedicated to them and not Lois? They are really scraping the bottom of the barrel with this one. They would have been better off just leaving Lana gone, since the writers don't know how to handle her.
I've watched every episode of this series, I started watching it in 2003 when the 3rd season began. After more than 5 years, I think I'm about done with this show. It's odd how the CW built up to the best episode of the series (Bride), and then totally destroyed the series by bringing back Lana and having these crazy a$$ story lines about her and Clark.
4: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007)
Just Watch the Silver Surfer Previews and Call It a Day
I'll keep this short.
If you are going to see this because you are interested in the Silver Surfer, just watch the 2 Silver Surfer Previews. Those were the best parts of the movie.
If you loved the first movie, you'll love the sequel. If you thought the first one had problems, so does this movie.
The dialog is pretty unoriginal. It's like they just found a bunch of clichés and tied them together.
Just Watch the Silver Surfer Previews, they are pretty cool, and don't bother to come see this movie. You aren't missing much.
Fantastic Four (2005)
Paid off reviewers?
It amazes me how many 10's I am seeing.
This movie deserves a 4 overall, but I'm evening out the ridiculously biased reviewers who post the following types of comments "but I find when a good film gets bad reviews, that means most people just didn't get it. " No, the problem is, THEY DID GET IT. What the? "Oh this film got bad reviews because people didn't get it" I don't believe I actually read that comment.
Here's the thing with the movie. These were major points which is why the movie got bad reviews by almost everyone not paid off or under the age of 10.
1) Plot So Victor Van Doom all of the sudden decides to attack the Fantastic Four. Um.... why did he? He just said "I'm not about to let you stand in my way". Stand in the way of what? There was no plot at all as to how he'd thought they'd be a problem to his plan... the plan he never vocalized in any way shape or form.
2) Heroes for causing accidents they started? What? They caused the entire bridge accident scene. Then they were looked to as heroes for.... um...... damage control to their own actions? This movie is one of the biggest worst big budget films I've ever seen. My problem is the script, it's crap, along with the director A little investment in a decent writer would have done wonders for this film.
Most of these actors have a lot of talent and have appeared elsewhere. I don't blame them. I blame the director and writer that utterly failed to have any type of plot.
"but I find when a good film gets bad reviews, that means most people just didn't get it. " No, we got it, and unless you can justify why a plot less film deserves a good review, I'll consider you a paid off reviewer.
The Butterfly Effect 2 (2006)
Well it started out decently.....seemed to have potential
Watching this movie, I really liked how it began, it had quality actors, the mechanics of the movie seemed to vary from the original, giving it a bit of uniqueness. I really liked the feel the director gave this film. Watching it I thought it had a lot of potential, and could very easily have a better story than the original, but then it starts unreasonably accelerating.
The movie was 75 minutes long. It's like I saw the condensed version. Did they cut the budget on this movie during filming? I've seen episodes of Smallville with bigger budgets than what this must have cost.