Two movies and a show
So last weekend, I saw the entire 2nd season of Veronica Mars.
During the passing week, I also got to see Mission Impossible 3 and X-Men 3.
I can write a lengthy review about each of those, but (a) I don't want to and (b) no body really cares. But since this is my blog, I will just sum up my thoughts.
(1) Veronica Mars, season 2.
I had concerns when I saw the ending of the first season. I was afraid that now that the "big" story was resolved, the show will lose its uniqueness ( see my thoughts on the first season). The good news -- it hasn't. The slightly less good news is that the 2nd season is noticeably not as good as the first season, mainly in terms of prolonging the story and character behaviour/development. I had the feeling that if the season was about 5-6 episodes shorter, they would have been able to drop some of the more -- let's call it redundant -- story lines and smoke screens -- and make a really good season. Despite that, VM is a cleverly written show that has more than several homages to other shows -- and between me and you -- any show with Simpsons homages can't be all that bad.
(2) Mission: Impossible 3.
Let me come clean first and say that I didn't like the first 2 movies. I thought they were like a James Bond movie, only with a different face. This movie changed nothing. There is a definite lack in a story in that movie. The plot was used and reused, and the "twist" at the end was neither surprising nor interesting. The action sequences are spectacular, the special effects are magnificent, but the overall result is boring. Just boring. A shame, really.
(3) X-Men: The Last Stand
Here too, I will come clean and say that I simply loved the first two X-Men movies. X-Men 2 was one of the best comic-movies I can think of, and so X-Men 3 had such a great starting point -- but director Brett Ratner and writers Simon Kinberg and Zak Penn did not manage to match Brian Singer's level. The effects are cool. Too cool. The story is a mess. And while this can be acceptable from a movie like "The Hulk" -- here, I did not take it well. On the bright side, some time during 2007 we are expected to see a Magneto spin-off movie, and probably other spin offs. God willing they will be made by a capable director and writers.
During the passing week, I also got to see Mission Impossible 3 and X-Men 3.
I can write a lengthy review about each of those, but (a) I don't want to and (b) no body really cares. But since this is my blog, I will just sum up my thoughts.
(1) Veronica Mars, season 2.
I had concerns when I saw the ending of the first season. I was afraid that now that the "big" story was resolved, the show will lose its uniqueness ( see my thoughts on the first season). The good news -- it hasn't. The slightly less good news is that the 2nd season is noticeably not as good as the first season, mainly in terms of prolonging the story and character behaviour/development. I had the feeling that if the season was about 5-6 episodes shorter, they would have been able to drop some of the more -- let's call it redundant -- story lines and smoke screens -- and make a really good season. Despite that, VM is a cleverly written show that has more than several homages to other shows -- and between me and you -- any show with Simpsons homages can't be all that bad.
(2) Mission: Impossible 3.
Let me come clean first and say that I didn't like the first 2 movies. I thought they were like a James Bond movie, only with a different face. This movie changed nothing. There is a definite lack in a story in that movie. The plot was used and reused, and the "twist" at the end was neither surprising nor interesting. The action sequences are spectacular, the special effects are magnificent, but the overall result is boring. Just boring. A shame, really.
(3) X-Men: The Last Stand
Here too, I will come clean and say that I simply loved the first two X-Men movies. X-Men 2 was one of the best comic-movies I can think of, and so X-Men 3 had such a great starting point -- but director Brett Ratner and writers Simon Kinberg and Zak Penn did not manage to match Brian Singer's level. The effects are cool. Too cool. The story is a mess. And while this can be acceptable from a movie like "The Hulk" -- here, I did not take it well. On the bright side, some time during 2007 we are expected to see a Magneto spin-off movie, and probably other spin offs. God willing they will be made by a capable director and writers.