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cristalcutler
Reviews
Dwight in Shining Armor (2018)
Good, clean comedy and exactly what I needed during the pandemic
A warrior princess is put under a protective spell that puts her asleep, along with everyone else for miles. A thousand years later, a clean-cut, responsible, pacifist accidentally wakes her up with a kiss... by falling on her face. Then, because magic, he is contractually bound to protect her and be her champion.
Yes, it's silly. But they run with the silliness. This is one of those shows where the actors are obviously having a blast. They throw themselves into their roles, no matter how ridiculous they look. (And they often look very ridiculous.)
The characters are well-planned, too. They all want something and they all grow in different ways. I enjoy watching them interact.
Here are the reasons I took three stars away from an otherwise ten star show:
-The writing. This show is full of episodes that feel like fillers. There was an entire season, actually, that just felt like filler episodes. They were directionless and episodal. In a world where we can go back and rewatch episodes, we don't need episodal anymore. We need episodes that connect and build on each other toward a climax in the story, not float all by itself just in case no one has seen the one before it.
-The length. The best episodes were two or three episodes that worked together as parts of a whole. The others were just too short to get anything really good going.
-Corniness. There were some points where a serious, sincere tone would have helped the scene a lot. Don't overact, please.
-Missed opportunities. There were so many parts of the story they could have gone back to, but instead, they just kept bringing in new stuff. What happened to the escaped banshee? What happened to that entirely separate kingdom that they all befriended? Guess they don't exist anymore? Pretty disappointed.
All in all... I can't stop watching now. I'm too invested. So it gets plenty of stars. But it definitely could have been better.
Odd Thomas (2013)
I really wanted to love this
Guys sees dead people and uses his skill to help people. Nice. I enjoy a little ghostly crime-solving. I didn't realize that this movie was based on a book when I started watching it, but it soon became pretty obvious. It held all the tell-tale signs: Narration. Weird dialogue. The feeling like you're walking into a bigger story than what's being shown in the movie. And that's fine. It was all just... fine.
On the subject of dialogue... it tried. So hard. It was almost a mix between those old black and white crime movies and that one Quirky Show where all the characters have clever mouths. But not in a good way. The actors did their best, but most of it still came across as forced and distracting.
Another way I judge movies is based on the romantic interest. Is the romantic interest a three-dimensional character, or can he or she be replaced with a cardboard cut-out with a voice recorder that repeats the same, basic, supportive phrases over and over again? This one leaned toward the latter. Stormy's most interesting trait was the fact that she was in love with Odd. She was almost completely defined by their relationship. Other traits include: works at an ice cream shop... has supermodel level good looks... and likes The Wizard of Oz?
Someone else's review said that it felt like the pilot of a TV show, and I completely agree. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I kept thinking, "It's okay--the show will get better a few episodes in, once the actors get a feel for their characters." But I guess we didn't get that. It's a shame. Probably would have been a great TV show.
On the other hand, I was very interested in the story itself. Solid plot twists. Unique enough to keep my attention. I'm going to go find the book now. So thanks for that, I guess. Here's hoping it did better in its original packaging.