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Reviews
Lego Masters: Storybook (2020)
Favorite episode so far
This episode was the most fun to watch for so many reasons. Watch it and you'll see what I mean. I give it a 12 star rating out of a possible 10 stars.
Lego Masters: Mega City Block (2020)
Questionable twist
The twist in this episode felt like it was added on in an impromptu manner. The judges' description of the twist was less clear than Krystle and Amie's description of their monster. It felt like the powers-that-be were giving the teacher's pets (Christian and Aaron) a second chance or basically a 2nd golden brick that they didn't deserve. This is the second time that Christian and Aaron should have been in the bottom two. If Christian and Aaron win, I won't be tuning in for season 2 even though I love the show 100% otherwise.
Oh, and in the previous episode, everyone was given 6 hours for the main build and an additional 6 hours for the twist, which seems reasonable. This time, they were given 14 hours for the main build (which is 2 hours longer than the entire previous episode) and only 4 hours for the twist. It really feels like they were tossing Christian and Aaron an unearned bone and giving them just enough time to fix things.
Lego Masters (2020)
Great fun
This show was great fun to watch. I literally laughed out loud several times. There was so many unexpected moments. Will Arnett is the perfect host for this show. He's funny and witty and he's LEGO Batman. It was very cool to see people from all walks of life competing and having fun on the show. Having tried my hand at building LEGO creations of my own without instructions, I'm amazed at even the least of the contestants on this show because i understand the talent that is required to make even minor things look terrific. I'll definitely be watching the entire season and I hope the show lasts longer than The Simpsons has. So far, that's 32 seasons, and they're in season 31. :)
Oblivion (2013)
Spoiler-free review, the less you know the better you'll enjoy it
I really wanted to see this movie from the first time I saw the movie trailer a long time ago. I came up with all sorts of fun endings in my own mind based on the trailer and eventually my curiosity caused me to read too much and I read some spoilers that I wish I hadn't. I still enjoyed the film immensely, but wish I hadn't read the spoilers and suggest you shy away from all potential spoilers, reading as little as possible before seeing the movie. So when you're done with this review, don't read anymore, just go see the movie.
I had the good fortune of watching this movie at an advance screening on a smaller IMAX screen and I really enjoyed it, as did the huge audience, judging by the lively and jovial banter as people exited. The movie follows Jack Harper who is a drone repair tech in a future earth that has been ravaged by an alien invasion. He has a by-the-books eye-in-the-sky (literally) assistant named Victoria (nicknamed Vika) who watches out for Jack and reports to Central. They live together in a sky platform to avoid the alien scavs who come out at night. Jack is keeping the drones repaired to defend huge energy machines from being attacked by the scavs. Once enough energy has been stored up from the world's oceans by the energy machines, the remaining survivors of earth hope to leave in a few short weeks for the safety of a new base on Saturn's Titan. To protect certain things, Jack and Victoria's memories have been erased before their present situation. Jack is confused about why they have to leave earth, whereas Vika is ready to go, but they both cherish and respect each other. Then Jack meets Malcolm Beech who tells Jack that things are not exactly how they seem, which sets off a series of events that eventually lead to the end of the movie.
Some critics have mentioned something like "we've seen these ideas before" in other movies. While it's true that there's nothing totally new in this movie per se, that doesn't make the movie less appealing, IMO. Thinking back to when I was much younger and saw the trailer for the movie Independence Day in the theatre, I remember thinking that the movie looked really fun despite the fact that there've been a zillion alien invasion movies before, but I still hoped they'd do a great job with it because the trailer for the movie was awesome. Was there anything earth-shatteringly new about the movie? Not really, but it was still excellent entertainment. That's how I feel about Oblivion. To me, it's great entertainment.
The only minor complaints I had was that the volume of the music while Jack and Vika were in the pool was too much and sometimes things dragged ever so slightly between action sequences. Overall though, this movie was definitely a remarkable treat.