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Terminator: Dark Fate (2019)
At the end of the day, it's OK but pointless
I don't really know what to say or where to start with this one. This movie does many things right and so much more wrong, but in the end I found myself enjoying it. Even if it requires you overlook a great deal. I guess I'll try to split it up into categories such as acting, characters, story, SFX and action.
Acting: the acting seems to be excellent across the board, especially with Mackenzie Davis and Gabriel Luna both playing the characters sent back to the past. MacKenzie Davis plays a battle hardened soldier amazingly well and seemed menacing and dangerous when she needed to. Gabriel luna on the other hand plays the mechanical killer flawlessly. First he will be an unfeeling killer with unnaturally stiff and robotic body mouvements. Then he switches on a dime to a charismatic individual with natural body mouvements when playing the infiltrator to collect intelligence or gain access to something he needs. Both Linda Hamilton and Arnie bring their A game most of the time, but there were definitely moments that felt like both didn't really care and were phoning it in. Natalia Reyes is probably the hardest to judge as her acting seemed excellent at first but, once the action and story picked up, her acting seemed to become bland and uneven. Hard to tell if this was her or due to bad character writing and direction.
Characters: They started off strong but then slowly became more and more inconsistent as time went on. Characters would have established character traits that they would then abandon at the drop of a hat. Or their characters would develop suddenly and we are supposed to feel like they've grown when there were no prior hints to these developments. This will make moments feel cheesier than they were probably meant to. Not enough to make a moment bad, but enough to take away from a moment. Instead of being WOWED, you feel confused and just shrug your shoulders and continue watching. The worst character to suffer from these inconsistencies has to be Dani. Instead of being a character, she is more of a mcguffin that acts however the writers needed her to act to steer the story in a certain direction. She's only ever as competent as a situation requires and only ever as brave as the story needs her to be to get to the next set piece. Sarah has a grudge that is handled very poorly and, while not abandoned per say, is only really given lip service instead of actions that that character would have probably taken. There is a character in here that pretty much runs counter to anything we know about them. And no, their explanation for why this character is this way didn't make sense. Grace was probably the most consistent and well written character.
SFX: they felt pretty cheap, almost like a really good video game at times. Where this succeeds though is by not lingering on these poor effects to much. The special effects move enough or are kept in dark enough scenes that your attention isn't drawn too much to them. You'll probably notice it but then ignore the mistakes and move on. All in all I would say they were serviceable. They did do some pretty cool things with the terminator though.
Story: This is probably the hardest section for me to judge. The story overall is pointless. It resets the stakes to exactly what they were before this movie. They kill or replace characters with other characters that serve the exact same role. Nothing is resolved and I'm pretty sure we won't get a sequel finishing this story. But that doesn't matter cause this story is just the old story and they already tried and failed to finish that one. It deletes all terminator movies except 1 and 2 from canon but still manages to make the events in both those movies pointless. This story feels like the writer didn't know what they wanted to do. Let's reboot the story, but instead let's not cause we have characters from the old movie and reference their events. Let's get rid of characters and go in a new direction, but instead let's not cause we'll replace them with an identical character with a different name and have them mirror the actions of the old characters they are based on. A prime example of this is that they got rid of skynet but now they have legion. They replaced it but it's still an ai that rebels against humanity nearly killing it and sends terminators to the past to ensure a savior never arises. Even the terminator skeleton is nearly identical. Why change it if you are not going to commit. Overall its not a bad story, just one we have seen already.
Action: this is probably the best part of the movie and what will make or brake it for you. The action is well choreographed and well shot. The impacts feel weighty and characters that are not the rev9/terminator don't feel immortal. It seems like they can die and they most certainly get hurt. The set pieces are well thought out. It never feels like the action is interrupting the story because the director thinks you're bored and wants to wow you with nonsensical explosions and fights. That said, I don't know that you will come out of this with an action scene that will leave a lasting impression.
Conclusion: If you can ignore a storys flaws as long as there is good enough action then you will probably enjoy this movie. If your expectations for the terminator franchise have hit rock bottom and you feel like they can't do worse or will never do better, you will probably enjoy this movie. If to this day you are a die hard terminator 1 and 2 fan and the sequels haven't degraded your love for the franchise, you probably won't like this. If character development and story cohesiveness are mandatory for you, you will probably not enjoy this. If you don't care about the terminator movies one way or another, you might like this. If you have never liked terminator movies, this one won't change your mind. Personally, genisys broke me and my desire to see another terminator movie. I saw the spoilers but had already guessed what was going to happen from everyone's reaction anyway and didn't care since genisys already broke me. With that mind frame I watched this and thought "at least it's not genisys". Honestly, I really kinda enjoyed it as a mediocre action flick.
Cannon Busters (2019)
Mediocre Anime with a SLAMMING Opening
Let me just start this review by saying that this anime does a lot of things right. It starts off with an interesting hook and displays a beautiful and intricate world. The animation is fantastic and it has a killer opening that will keep you from skipping the intro. While watching I couldn't help feeling like this anime was kind of a throwback to Cowboy Bebop or Trigun. However, this doesn't display nearly the same quality in writing or polish as either of those shows. After the first couple of episodes the shiny animation and amazing soundtrack couldn't keep me from noticing the shows flaws. And as the show continued, these flaws became more egregious and severely hindered my enjoyment.
The first major flaw I noticed were the characters. While naive and upbeat characters aren't always annoying, Sam's persistent friendly attitude and innocent lack of situational awareness grates on my nerves. Mostly because it undercuts any potential tension that may have been there otherwise but also because there has to be a limit to not understanding when someone is trying to kill you and is not friendly. I don't care that it can be explained by saying that was how she was programmed, the point is that it gets incredibly annoying. Philly has the opposite problem, he is an arrogant and incompetent . I feel like you can either make a character a competent or someone who is incompetent but has redeeming qualities. Philly is neither and makes you question why you should care about his fate and what purpose he even serves for the story. Casey is probably the only character in the main cast I like and Prince Kelby is your typical sheltered annoying brat. Thankfully the side characters tend to have more interesting and likable personalities but we are stuck following Philly, Sam or Kelby most of the time.
The Second Flaw is the action. It is underwhelming and kind of disappointing. This is not helped by the fact that they often cut away from it and to something a lot less interesting. It's a pity since the intro has amazing looking action, however, it looks like they couldn't replicate the pace and intensity for the actual anime. Finally, the pacing for this anime is slow. There seems to be a lot of filler episodes that don't progress the plot and even within episodes there is a lot of empty space where not much happens. It seems like they were struggling to justify 12 episodes and had to drag out the story and runtime to match it. This is perplexing considering that the season ends on a cliffhanger.
All in all I would say that this anime is mediocre. It won't take priority over any shows you are currently watching but, if you find yourself lacking in good shows you could do worse than this one.