Matt's Reviews
Very disappointing.
Loved the previous films. Wasp has clearly overstepped Ant-man in his own movies now though. Again, it's just frustrating to see main characters in ether own franchises replaced by 'minority groups' for the sake of it. It would have been much better to add some more newer characters so Scott could shine in his own movie with the help of others.
My son got a kids book about Ant-Man from the library a week after I saw this film. Th ebook involved a 'zombie invasion' of NYC while the Avengers were busy dealing with some other issues... It was a far superior story and concept than this film. :(
Created: 07-25-2023
Insanely poor...
From the girl = good, boy = bad messages, changing of the source material, awful dialogue and some lame special effects, LotR: RoP is just bad- the wokeness AND the overall series. I couldn't finish it. I got about 4-5 episodes in and couldn't take any more.
Created: 07-25-2023
Disappointing...
I was quite upset at the race swapping of characters and also the way that Leon was portrayed. As a fan of the video games, it is heartbreaking to see my favourite character (Leon) now a bumbling idiot and treated as an incompetent joke. IMHO, this is just another example of boy=bad, girl =good.
Having said that, some of the fight sequences are exciting and interesting. I just wish the wokeness wasn't included to ruin the experience.
Created: 07-25-2023
Trek has always been progressive...
... but it has traditionally been done well.
DS9 is the best Trek imho, there are 'modern progressive' elements through it, but the focus is generally just on character development and conflicts that need to be resolved.
One good example is an episode where the characters go back in time to segregation in the USA. You can feel the passion and authenticity in the portrayal of the injustices being done at the time.
Even the episode that, at the time, flouted the first same-sex kiss was done sensitively. One of the characters was a male (an alien, 'host') who had fallen in love with a woman. After he died a woman took on his symbiote. So when they meet in the episode, they are both women... And they kiss...
Created: 07-21-2023
Just don't...
My 0 rating is for the most recent series' of Doctor Who.
Since the Doctor Who reboot there have been many woke elements, but most of them were quite mild until the Peter Capaldi seasons...
A classic moment for me was the episode with spiders (a Jodie series Doctor), where she angrily berates the loud, obnoxious American tycoon (obviously symbolic of Trump) who shoots a huge, dying spider to put it out of its misery. To solve the final issues, she then goes and locks ALL the other spiders away where they will either die of starvation or suffocation. (I can't remember exactly which.) The irony is so thick any viewer with half of a brain could walk on it!
Looking at previous seasons of the reboot- Matt Smith, David Tennant etc, there really are a few woke moments, but they generally don't take up too much focus.
Created: 07-21-2023
Was so sad by this one...
This is almost an astonishing win for me... So close, but so far...
The action was great, plot was a little different (which worked) and overall, the characters were pretty solid- I loved Arnie's character and his new role too. Except...
The woke elements about gender swapping the saviour of the human race... The man-hating of Sarah Connor (particularly) and also a political point that just had to be intentional- the world's new saviour is a Latina woman who has to cross the US/ Mexican border illegally... (The film being made around the time of 'Trumps border wall being built' just made the comment a little too on the nose.)
Created: 07-21-2023
Extremely disappointing...
Boy = bad/ pathetic, girl = good messages as shown repeatedly through the characters- major and minor.
** SPOILER WARNING**
I was extremely disappointed with one of the final comments made by Ralph, when he is shown to be 'clingy' to Vanellope. Basically, after being chased by a zombie army of Ralph clones, Ralph makes a comment about how he can finally see what it looks like to V about his clinginess. (ie, his clinginess is just like a zombified army trying to kill them! He is shown no sympathy and is the bad guy here). Given that this film follows the first, where Ralph finally finds a friend in Vanellope- after being excluded and mocked by all the people in his video game, he is given no excuse for any action he makes here.
Ultimately, the message is, it doesn't matter what happens to you if you are a man. You cannot be at all inappropriate, insecure or weak. You must always be in full control of yourself and are not allowed any reasons to be imperfect- because when your far better and more qualified female friend moves on, it's probably your fault anyway- or you're the one holding her back.
Created: 07-21-2023
An interesting one...
This show is an interesting one for me. There are a lot of LGB characters throughout- which isn't necessarily a predictor of wokeness... Same with characters of multiple ethic backgrounds- who are also likely to be found after a 'worldwide pandemic'! Very rarely did these feel forced to me (which is one of my main criticisms with wokeness).
Interestingly, there were a few characters of faith throughout the series as well, generally represented in a decent manner too. (I was very frustrated with a certain religious character when first introduced, but he changed, developed and became a solid character overall.) It is interesting seeing almost every character of faith question their beliefs through the series, which imho made them feel more relatable and realistic than other characters who never struggle with deeper concepts like that.
Created: 07-21-2023
