verminhater Reviews

Atlas (2024)

What writes this stuff - an AI?

[5/10 · 24 May 2024]

Could easily be a B movie but reasonable (not good, just reasonable) cgi hauls this dirge up to bang average. That the cgi is the best thing about this is is pretty damning of everything else. The story is hackneyed and predictable and the acting is not going to impress any drama coach. It appears the writer is at least a fan of sci-fi as there's a lot of other movies mixed in here. The ranger briefing is straight out of Aliens, the basic plot from I-Robot and some of the music from terminator. The casting of Lopez is an enigma as she has always struggled with the task yet here she plays someone who struggles with people so perhaps like Arnie playing an emotionless terminator she has found a niche in playing an emotionless human.

What we have here is a film made to an algorithmic formula that will add nothing to your brain but will take a couple of hours from it. I'd not be surprised if an AI wasn't instrumental in cobbling this together and if it wasn't then those who were responsible would do well to claim it was and let it take the blame. Let this be a lesson that actual talent is needed to make a good film, not just letting someone program a large language AI to study several previous sci-fi films and regurgitate them with a shiny new suit on.

Rebel Moon - Part One: A Child of Fire (2023)

Yet another big budget film with appauling sound mixing

[4/10 · 21 April 2024]

One mega budget film after another with sound so badly mixed for tv as to be almost unlistenable. Thunderous one minute and can't hear quiet the next. The only way I could watch it is with the remote in my hand permanently turning it up and down. I'm trying to watch it on a very high end tv and I may as well have the cheapest tv in the shop for the sound issues.

The film itself is ok and nothing more. It's nothing new with a comedically ott main baddy and chiselled heroes. Yet more women kicking the backsides of male opponents twice their size and baddie grunts who couldn't hit a barn door from 5 yards with a bazooka add to the cliché reality failures.

It's just a seven samurai remake in a scifi setting and with a budget that size I'd have expected more.

The Ark (2023– )

Yet more morons in space

[4/10 · 14 June 2023]

Once again a vastly expensive spaceship is crewed by the most dysfunctional reprobates that could be dredged up. Time after time we see this hackneyed format. I'd love to see a competent crew just once.

On top of that there's the comedically low budget with tracksuits for spacesuits and "helmets" that require a false sealing sound to be played on each use. Add in the budget cgi too. To round it off some parts of the ship have magic gravity.

I could live with the low cost production if I wasn't treated to the moronic crew aspect. I appreciate it's harder to write a good story around a competent crew so find a writer that can and pay them instead of this formulaic repeat.

Interceptor (2022)

Nothing to recommend it

[4/10 · 19 July 2022]

"Schwarzenegger grade" said the blurb but it doesn't even live up to Van Dame grade standards. It's strictly a B movie with a completely formulaic script and one dimensional, extremely obvious, characters plus a ridiculous story to start with. Throw in some pretty bad acting from some of the supporting cast plus some poor editing / continuity and you have a film that I am surprised I watched all the way. I'm not sure where the $15 million went. Nobody comes out of this film looking better for it.

The Batman (2022)

An ordinary hero rather than a super one.

[6/10 · 5 May 2022]

How old can Mr. Pattinson get and still look like a sulking teenager? Why is the main baddie a complete wuss? Hardly the stuff of legend to fight against. Was that character catwoman or not? It looked like her and acted like her but isn't listed as catwoman! Was this shot in black and white? It was so dank and miserable most of the time that it may as well have been.

Forgettable is the main word that comes to mind.

The Matrix Resurrections (I) (2021)

What was the plot?

[6/10 · 26 December 2021]

I ask why - not why did they make it as that's obvious - $$$ - but why are the characters doing what they are doing? I just couldn't work out the reason for the action. This sort of thing happens all the time when you resurrect a series that finished. All too often you either deny the original happened to generate a new plot or you simply don't bother with a reason for the reboot to exist and just grab the cash. Sadly the latter has happened here. There was no reason I could see for what was happening on screen and that ultimately negates the whole point of a film. We have yet another big budget film with a garbage screenplay / script. I remember when films used to tell a story and long for such an old fashioned thing to return. It gets a six because I remember the original fondly and have yet to remove the rose tinted specs. Tomorrow I may score it lower.

The Grand Tour: The Grand Tour Presents: Carnage A Trois (2021) Season 4, Episode 4

Not very special at all.

[3/10 · 19 December 2021]

I appreciate the restrictions this was filmed under but they failed almost entirely to make a special. This looked more like a part of a regular show that hadn't been edited down but instead had been extended. It wasn't funny and it now looks more like last of the summer wine with 3 old men pottering about withut really doing anything or going anywhere. Coming after the last poor and forced effort a terminal decline is in the offing.

If you can't make a special due to restrictions then don't but avoid wrapping a show segment in Christmas paper and passing it off as a gift. This is head and shoulders the worst special ever from either the Grand Tour or Top Gear.

I suspect James May is correct when he recently said he won't do this much longer. It applies to the other 2 as well. Nobody will be watching unless a collective digit is extracted for the next one.

The Cult of Conspiracy: QAnon (2021 TV Movie)

Scary people

[8/10 · 17 December 2021]

People attached to conspiracy theories can often come across as odd or weird. I'd describe the Q anon sufferers as more scary than anything milder. There's so little grip on reality and such a dire path before them and the documentary does a decent job of showing that.

I say sufferers rather than any other adjective as that is what they are. Their own brains have corrupted their logic process. The brain instinctively looks for and identifies patterns, but in abstract concepts like politics, fixed and unarguable facts are hard to find, so the brain looks for narratives instead, stories that can tie together various ideas and facts in a way that seems to make sense. Spotting a pattern and using that pattern as a framework within which to store new information, like learning a new skill, or a new language is the way we learn. When you're learning a new skill, discarding irrelevant information and organizing the relevant stuff within that framework is good. But in ideologies, it means any information that doesn't fit the ideological narrative is literally discarded, and won't be remembered. That's why religions tell stories, the story makes a pattern within which everything makes sense and they get people to believe without facts This same process affects those such as Q anon believers. It becomes their religion and as such becomes above criticism which is why you can't argue facts with conspiracy theorists because they'll just ignore you at best. They're not just being stubborn, their brains are literally structurally incapable of processing what they perceive as pattern-anomalous data. And is why some ideologues get so upset when you offer facts that don't match their pattern, it's like you're assaulting them and this reaction is absolutely visible in the documentary.

Being partisan, whether in religion, conspiracy or politics isn't just a matter of taste or values, it's actually a cognitive, neurological condition that we all suffer from to some degree. And it explains why some people's ideologies can change, because sometimes a new pattern is identified that overrides the old one. And it explains why the most intelligent people are often the most partisan and least objective, because pattern recognition is a function of higher intelligence. Unfortunately identifying bad patterns is not.

It's a brave thing to challenge peoples beliefs and I commend the maker for trying. As I said though it's an impossible task. If you want to save someone from such a rabbit hole you need to challenge them on the thought process that led them there and get them to see they've been fed a pattern designed entirely to control them. The evil cabal they are so vehemently against are actually the ones who created the pattern they latched on to.

Dune (2021)

Abysmal sound ruined the film

[5/10 · 6 November 2021]

Yet another big film with totally abysmal sound. I presume they mix the sound for a modern cinema and stick two fingers up to anyone in an older one. Ridiculous whispering followed by ear shattering music. I struggled to hear what was going on and of course that utterly ruined the film. This has sadly become an all too common experience. Having made it to the end I then find there's more film still to be released as this certainly didn't tell the full story. Maybe the fanboys already knew this but I didn't and felt aggrieved by it.

On the plus side the sets were fantastic as were the effects and a lot of money was well spent.

The original film was a poor effort and whilst I suspect this version was better you'll have to ask someone who could actually hear it for that comparison.

The Suicide Squad (2021)

Tries to be a cartoon but without the animation

[4/10 · 7 August 2021]

It's a comedy without humour.

Absolutely everything is disposable, from the characters to the plot. There is nothing that this movie takes seriously and that absolutely includes the viewer. I did not like it one bit. The entire film looked like a parody of itself but without the comedy. It took nothing seriously yet failed to produce any laughs. This whole mess would have been better served as an animated feature as the actors simply couldn't make sense of it and therefore this viewer couldn't either.

Ignore this quasi-parody and instead go for the full on animated effort that is the Harley Quinn cartoon series. At least the writers there can tell a joke and no actors are harmed in the production.

It gets a 4 because Margot Robbie is a great Harley. It's such a shame that dross like this is the best they can utilise her in. Such a great character yet not one worthwhile film. Must be some kind of record.

Black Widow (2021)

Neither a 1 nor a 10 - it's just average

[5/10 · 13 July 2021]

Binary reviews abound these days. Too many reviewers think that if the film they're watching isn't the best film ever then it must be the worst. This film occupies neither end of the scale. Yes it's all action, the plot is aimed at the brain-dead, the script is all too predictably formulaic, the effects are very cgi heavy and it's unlikely to ever win any awards for anything. It's a superhero movie and they all follow the same pattern so you ought to know what to expect. It's certainly not the best superhero movie ever and it's equally not the worst. It occupies that glut of movies in the middle that are adequate to pass a couple of hours with but you'll be unlikely to ever care enough to watch it twice. It actually has more a feel of an old Bond movie seeing as the titular heroine has no actual superpowers and the villain would look equally at home in a dormant volcano stroking his cat.

When a movie is this average it's hard to actually find things to praise or hate.

The Tomorrow War (2021)

Glaring failures and abysmal sound quality too..

[3/10 · 3 July 2021]

First up, just a selection of plot lines I simply couldn't swallow...

Despite months to train some conscripts it's decided to send them to battle with zero training. Not even a picture of the enemy is given to them. Despite the aliens being armoured the conscripts are given small calibre arms only. A great piece of military planning. Despite numerous people going back and forth in time not one paradox happens. Despite that finding a way to kill them is vital to human survival only 1 scientist is working on it and prior to only 1 scientist working on it the work was done in an infested area though a much safer area was available. That same scientific work could have been taken to the present day to give them 30 years to work on it but they don't! There are others but it's pointless trying to list them all.

On top of that abysmal script we are faced with what seems almost common-place now in that the sound must be so heavily weighted to background noises that simply following a main conversation explaining what plot can be found in the script is impossible. I found myself constantly turning the sound up and then down throughout the movie. It's so bad as to ruin the film and when coupled with the early unbelievable nature of what was happening the film was left with a lot of work to do to redeem itself. A task that was simply too much.

Added to that you get the typical casting in that the hero is athletic and rugged whilst the comic relief is fat and the obligatory schmaltz in that the hero is doing it for his child whilst the professional soldiers are off doing crowd control. Please spare me this in future by placing warnings in the blurb that the film is only fit for teenagers. As an adult with a brain I simply don't need this bile.

Yet again, as I've had to write so often, the hard bits are done fairly well (the effects and sets plus production values - sound aside) whilst the basics bits such as starting with a decent script are done badly or not at all. I fully appreciate that a scifi movie requires some suspension of reality on the part of the viewer but here I felt treated like a fool in being asked to believe what was happening. If this is the way to save mankind we are already doomed to extinction.

The Midnight Sky (2020)

Where's the story?

[2/10 · 4 March 2021]

Who read this script and thought "that's a good story, lets tell that"?

Whoever it was that gave the go-ahead to make this film has no appreciation that a film ought to tell a story. The visuals are great, the special effects are good, the acting is fine. None of that matters as there's absolutely no story being told. The film is as hollow as a merchants soul and it's an utter waste of anyone's time to watch it. I genuinely despair at the huge numbers of films that start with an awful script / screenplay like this one. A massive disappointment.

We Can Be Heroes (II) (2020)

Nominated for worst acting, worst script and worst film categories.

[2/10 · 30 January 2021]

Anyone who has had to suffer to watch Nickelodeon or Nick Jr with their kids will understand that all American child actors come off the same production line with the same OTT identical acting style. Here those mannerisms are taken to new lows with caricatures of what are already caricatures. They are aided and abetted by the worst script imaginable that has come off it's own autobot production line. It's as though they've taken everything that makes US kids programs so lame and gone large on it. There is zero that hasn't been rewarmed over a million times already by every single US kids program that has ever existed.

Do your kids a favour and steer them towards almost anything-else than this production-line garbage.

Outside the Wire (2021)

Ridiculous personnel selection

[4/10 · 18 January 2021]

The personnel selection for this mission is just unbelievable and unfortunately everything-else hangs on that. I simply couldn't take any part of the movie seriously because of that fundamental flaw. In reality critical missions get competent, highly trained people tasked to them. This film decides that approach is wrong and whilst that can make for an amusing comedy, here the joke is on the viewer.

On top of that we get cliche bad guys, an, unexplained perfect English accent in Ukraine and somehow the Balkans have moved there too. There has very obviously been no research done into things such as claimed flight hours logged and geography. It's details such as these that constantly undermine the efforts of the cast to sell the story and frankly those efforts weren't very good anyway. I always had the impression the movie was made to a timescale rather than a standard.

Some of the effects are ok but that's about it for positives. The underlying theme of America as the world's saviour has worn thinner than the Emperor's new clothes and I'm not buying it any more. All this does is add cheese to a poor recipe. Worse still it's that horrible overly processed cheese that leaves a nasty aftertaste.

Tenet (2020)

Probably very good but how can you tell?

[5/10 · 30 November 2020]

With such a massively convoluted plot why is the sound so bad that mumbling and incoherence add to an inability to follow the plot. Such a mind bender needs very careful explanation and this viewer simply didn't get that leaving me clueless as to what was happening and why. When you confuse the audience there is no chance of them appreciating the film and I don't think that thought ever occurred to the makers of Tenet. A shame really as I suspect that it could be turned into a really good film simply by allowing the audience to follow the plot.

Away (2020)

Yet more dysfunctional morons in space

[3/10 · 29 September 2020]

It's the same bunch of dysfunctional high school antic morons you've unfortunately seen before in such scenarios as Prometheus, Alien Covenant and Another Life to name but a few. Once again the viewer is treated as an imbecile with the same production line script barely warmed over into this latest setting. Just once I'd like to see a competent crew make it into a sci-fi setting though I have no hopes it'll ever happen. Suffice to say if you were exasperated at any of the three others I mentioned then look elsewhere for your entertainment.

If the crew threw a few custard pies about it wouldn't look out of character.

Freaks (2018)

How has this movie remained so hidden?

[8/10 · 28 June 2020]

It's a cliché but this really is a hidden gem. The box office figures look miserable and that can only be down to abysmal marketing as this really is a top quality film.

It's a little slow at first but I urge you to stick with it. What seems like one thing at first is slowly turned around by skilful directing abetted by excellent performances from the whole cast. Whether you want a thriller or a sci-fi movie you'll get both with this film. What an absolute pleasure it is to see a film that actually tells a story unlike many "bigger" films that seem to think a decent script is optional. Even the special effects are good which puts that bit of icing on it.

There's plenty of scope for a sequel and I'd certainly pay to see one, though given those responsible for promoting this on release made such a hash of it I hold out little hope.

Harley Quinn (2019– )

Everything the Birds of Prey movie isn't.

[9/10 · 14 June 2020]

I write this after watching the drivel that was the Harley Quinn movie "Birds of Prey". Where the live action was unable to articulate a story and relied solely on Margot Robbie to carry the entire film the animation steps up and shows them how it should be done.

Kaley Cuoco makes Harley come to life every bit as much as Margot does but here she's ably assisted by many other interesting characters, by scriptwriters who can tell a joke and heaven forbid an actual storyline too which is woven out across the entirety of the two series so far. It's funny, it makes you care for the characters and it appears that the best talent is working in animation.

I suspect the end product is often better in animation because it usually starts with someone who has a story to tell rather than an accountant with a formula film to churn out. I sincerely hope there's a third series because anyone cancelling this ought to be the ones in Arkham.

Monsters (2010)

Boring art-house film with no real story and an irritating soundtrack too

[3/10 · 30 May 2020]

I'd describe this as art-house because it goes into substantial detail about nothing and that's about as much as you can hope to achieve with such a limited budget. The setting and the mood seem vastly more important than telling a story as most such movies are. If this had been labelled as such then:- A - I wouldn't have watched it and... B - It'd have been scored even higher by those who did.

The story starts with a grown woman requiring a chaperone home for a reason not divulged. If she'd needed a bodyguard then fair enough but she gets a photographer! This journey home can't include anything as simple as a plane ride for another reason not divulged and such antics are simply frustrating for this viewer. The budget is obviously very low as the effects are poor, brief and poorly lit to disguise them. I can accept that much in a low budget movie if it's the only or main issue but frankly there's no rational storyline here. I lasted a full half hour before I wondered why this was so well rated and bailed on it. If you want to watch an art-house movie then you may enjoy it. Any science fiction is purely secondary.

The film is exceptionally well made and acted for it's cost and my gripe is it being mislabelled as anything other than art-house.

One other thing: the soundtrack keeps on playing what the film makers would call tension music but I can only call a car alarm. It's pervasive and is so loud I found myself regularly turning the volume down.

Birds of Prey (2020)

Margot's Harley can't carry a film on her own

[3/10 · 20 April 2020]

First off Margot Robbie makes a good Harley Quinn. She plays the character perfectly. It seems as though those who made this film thought that was enough. There's precious little story told and the fight scenes ought to have had the "pow" and "blam" captions of the 60's Batman series as they were so badly choreographed it looked like they were aiming for the send up market. Having female leads, a female writer and a female director is not a substitute for a story worth telling. Harley Quinn comes across as strictly a sidekick rather than any main event and that ought to have been obvious right from the start.

Try starting with a decent script, get some stunt women who can fight and stop relying on a sidekick to carry the film in their entirety.

Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker (2019)

Easily the best of Disneys Star Wars efforts (main storyline anyway)

[6/10 · 15 March 2020]

I'm unsure why this is currently the lowest scored of Disney's efforts at Star Wars (main storyline ones) as it's easily the best. I appreciate that's not saying much as the previous two had set the bar pretty low. The cringe-worthy forced banter early on had me thinking this was going the same way but it improved into a passable effort. This is also the first time I've seen cgi good enough to pass for human in Leia. The effects were never going to be in doubt to be fair. It was always the script and acting quality that was the potential for disaster as per the previous two. A better job was done here though it could and should have been much better still.

The Throwaways (2015)

Everything about it says B movie

[4/10 · 21 February 2020]

B movie story with B movie acting, B movie special effects and B movie production values. You should not expect anything of quality. I've seen many worse films and this has nothing to recommend it other than I made it to the end which beats some of the aforementioned worse films. James Caan stands out not for anything he did but simply for being in such a low rent effort. I can only assume he needs the money. He came down to the level of the rest of the film and blended in with the rest. Only watch it if you really can't find anything better.

Terminator: Dark Fate (2019)

Feminism? NO. The Terminator future doesn't have room for gender specific roles.

[6/10 · 17 January 2020]

There's a lot of binary reviews these days. A film must be a ten or a one to a great many. This is neither. Is it as good as T1 or T2 - no. None of the Terminator films made after T2 have been masterpieces and with a very elderly Arnie why would you expect that?.

The story is just like Star Wars - recycle, repeat and pump it out again. Whether it's another death star or in this case another terminator to blow up it is what it is. Why would you go to see a terminator film and not expect to see a terminator to stop? It's well made and there's plenty of action and I enjoyed it.

And now the elephant in many reviewer's rooms. The fighters happen to be female. So what? The women act the part of fighters not female fighters. This isn't a Ghost Busters or Oceans 8 female remake for the sole purpose of having a female remake. These characters absolutely could be female and of course Sarah Connor had to be. Remember Kyle Reese's answer to Sarah's question "What about the women in your future?". "They're good fighters" he answered. Feminism criticism dismissed by Kyle Reese himself.

Don't expect a masterpiece like the first two, treat the characters with as little regard for their gender as their future demands and enjoy an action film.

6 Underground (2019)

Unwatchable - the editing is literally nauseating

[2/10 · 14 December 2019]

One half second cut after another. The "editor" must think they were being very clever. I simply think they are of a different species to myself. If anyone was overseeing the editor they must have had a white stick and/or guide dog. On top of that the film is so divorced from reality it may as well have been set in some comic universe. It's like watching a dream in that anything could possibly happen because you've suspended reality. Only the living dead will make it far into this film.