Awake not Woke!

I really wanted to like this but the first episode alone is full of problems. The acting is all over the place with some truly terrible performances by some of the actors. The story and writing make no sense and are completely unbelievable. We are told he is a genius app developer but his app seems to be garbage. It doesn't' do anything any random analyst wouldn't be able to do. It's also hard to believe an agency like this would be populated by a small handful of random people and not have a bunch of agents and massive government oversight like in episode 1. Suddenly in episode 2 there are people everywhere and the agency seems to be much larger out of nowhere. Then there is the problems presented by the shows ability to loop and reset time. This allows for pretty much any character to be killed at random because the time loop just resets and it doesn't matter. This ruins a lot of the tension and danger. You just know as soon as anyone dies or something really bad happens that means they won't stop the disaster and time will be reset. It kind of makes everything pointless eventually. In the very first scene we already have the mixed race couple. There is a casual racist anti-white minority victimhood comment. The agency recruiter is an Indian woman. Head of the agency is female. This is yet another DEI minority extravaganza where white seems to be a minority except if its a villain. Given this was cancelled after 2 seasons with no ending 2 episodes was enough for me.

This is based on the first episode only. There was nothing woke in the first episode. Based on a Korean webcomic this is a very well made show, the acting is good and the FX are mostly good but look a little off sometimes. The issue I had is in the first episode everything is so confusing and nothing makes any sense or is explained at all. Things happen and characters show up that it feels like you should know. I actually stopped at 20 minutes in to make sure I was watching the first episode and again at 30 minutes to see if this was a sequel to something else. It's so hard to follow and constantly feels like your watching the second season or at least half way through the first season of a show. There is some potential here and maybe if you know the source material it may be really good but after 1 episode I was so lost and just had no interest in going any further.

A somewhat original concept. It's basically a variation on found footage with most of the movie taking place in 1 room with Pratts character and an AI judge, the rest of the scenes are various camera footage shots both past and live. The acting is pretty good and it's a look at a conceivable and disturbing future with AI and constant surveillance at every turn. The writing and story are for the most part well thought out and implemented with a few stretches toward the end. The entire motive and plot for everything when all revealed at end has some holes in it but not enough to ruin it in my opinion. Probably one of the biggest weak points is some shoddy bad looking CG particularly in pretty much any shot with the hover bike. It looks poor at best and downright comical other times. It's a small thing and this is still a very entertaining and watchable movie. As for woke free....not exactly. There is a strong minority casting presence in general and the nonwhite female officer's acting is just not very good. Searching her reveals she is a boxer not an actor and has been in only 3 other movies I've never heard of before this, than gets a major role. Sounds a little like a DEI hire. Without spoiling a major plot point there is a setup for a mixed race coupling to get that box checked that seems to be in absolutely every single thing now. The villain is pretty obvious early on and checks the woke box as well. It's hard to say more without giving away spoilers.

Nothing woke. Based on a true story that took place between 2006-2009. This deserved to get more attention than it did. Extremely well made, visceral, gritty and uncomfortable war movie. Excellent acting and cinematography. Great FX for a budget of only 18 million. This is close quarters down and dirty filmmaking at it's finest. Highly recommended and also to look up the true story as well. What happened here is completely avoidable and shows yet again the incompetency of government and should piss you off. Make sure to watch through the credits for interviews with the real soldiers involved.