Yvonne Lee

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Recent book adaptations have been puzzling, why change so much unnecessarily? I'm not referring to casting but really to the plot and characters. The plot was so messy and illogical. The children solving mysteries is interesting and fun enough, why add an unnecessary supernatural element? (reminds me of the Nancy Drew series too...) What exactly did they solve anyway? How come the children act like seeing a newly dead body is an everyday occurrence? (George was literally like "meh" and didn't even plan to tell anyone) Why was George so hostile toward her cousins in the first place, only to warm up to them so quickly? Why didn't the cousins back up George to fully explain what the villain did to them - basically left them to DIE - to George's parents so they wouldn't dream of selling the island, instead of staring dumbly and just looking annoyed at his lies? Their silence at that part made NO SENSE AT ALL. Also, the music was interesting but felt unsuitable for the show, too techno-y.

This is a mediocre to poor movie. People rating it 5 stars is bizarre to me, yes I know different preferences but 5 stars?? Starting with the good: seems like it had decent budget, lots of celebrity cameos (standout being Machine Gun Kelly which I can't believe as I don't even know his music), and a fun turn by Simu Liu. Mediocre: the humour doesn't hit, it's super predictable and typical, the main actors are phoning it in with the same characters they play in every film they're in. Poor: the plot is illogical starting from the premise that Katie knows nothing about the lottery and that 99.9% of people are willing to participate/kill (except at the convenient ending) or that Katie wanted Louis to guarantee Noel's cut (like why? It's your money, you could give him another 30% like you did at the end!!) - I could list many many more but that's a whole additional essay (and yes, maybe it's supposed to be campy and not an Oscar contender but come on, comedy films can be clever and make sense too). And what even is the point of this movie?? They never even attempt to explain or address or take down the system, which is really weird.

I've loved Disney films since I was young (all those animated classics!) and they've produced many fantastic ones with Pixar too. Wish is disappointing. You know sometimes you read poor critics reviews and think "these guys don't get it right!" - well in fact I think the film is even worse than what I've read. It's just so mediocre. There are numerous characters, all feel shallow and unconvincing, including the main protagonist and villain! The songs are unmemorable, too frequent, and have uninspired lyrics. There's an odd part where the MC and villain-to-be are singing a duet that sounds like it's about a child or loved one but it's about the wishes. Lots of big and small plot points are illogical, themes are ham-fisted (we are all stars - yeah ok). Villain gets super powerful AND heartless but can't or won't use his magic to just make people mute or kill off the MC (I'm not saying I want her to die, it is just how dumb the whole supposedly climactic scene was). The animation was lacklustre, I'm not sure if my mobile screen just couldn't capture the details. The ending was so bad. There is no redemptive arc. Everyone except the king is assumed good, their wishes also all good (how unrealistic). And apparently, no one has had more than one wish or goal in their whole life! The queen, who stood idly by while her husband conducted his affairs problematically all those years, seemingly loving him, suddenly has zero feelings towards him - and faces no consequences either. The story seemed to be saying "we don't need magic, make your own wishes come true". But then the heroine gets a magic wand(!!) to make wishes comes true (eh?!). I think she'll soon find that the former king was right NOT to grant all wishes. I would be hugely annoyed if I had paid to watch this in cinemas.

I can't get over the terrible voice casting for Kun (the lead character). He literally sounds like a female adult - I checked the cast, and I was right! I've never heard such a bad choice in a major anime film or series. The problem is that he's the main character and every time I hear him speak or make noises it takes me out of the film. He also cries and screams a lot, and the voice is so grating. I wonder if the character would have been more bearable. Other than that, the animation and design is beautiful (I love how they designed the family's house even though it has no real bearing on the plot), rest of the voice acting is okay, and the plot is alright (not Hosoda's best).

It's unfortunate but very few Christie adaptations are good because the writers take a ton of artistic license with plot and characters, which usually doesn't work out. There's no issue with the lead character being black, but it's how the character was written and acted. I just couldn't fathom why 90% of the time he bore a sort of smirk on his face even when the situation didn't call for it. It also didn't really make sense how he was going about investigating things. And the plot itself, well, very messy and meh. The finale was... Uninspiring. The lead female character was also both typical and mediocre, you know, supposedly strong and bold and whatnot.

This is definitely a 5/10 kind of movie. Like it won't do well in theatres because it's not worth the price of a ticket, but it'll do well on streaming because it's brainless enough entertainment. I thought the acting was overall decent, but it did strike me that Kristen Stewart has pretty limited range when (mini spoiler) she made it to the abandoned Shepherd station - and was clearly supposed to look emotional and conflicted and grieved... Well, she didn't. The rest didn't have that much screen time but I suppose did fine with what they were given. There are odd things (I wouldn't consider them plot holes) like why the station looked so dilapidated before it was destroyed, why there wouldn't be backup suits and oxygen tanks/scrubbers in the midway station and everywhere, why people put on such an expedition aren't all fully trained...

Such a poor adaptation. No, really, besides character names, can anyone explain how this has any relation to Agatha Christie's books and characters? Ariadne was always a dear (albeit sharp and obstinate) friend to Poirot. She's bitter and deceitful here. Poirot might have gotten older and more melancholy over the years, but always with a tinge of quirkiness and love of order - not so here in Branagh's interpretation. And never, in any book, did Christie resort to the supernatural. But nope, Branagh had to even go there in his film. Someone please take away his rights to these adaptations!!!

I'm so confused by the largely positive reviews on rotten tomatoes and imdb. This was promising at first but I was left unimpressed and annoyed by the end of the season. Many decisions are illogical, relationships are shallow, characters are unlikeable, and it is never ever explained what the other magical phenomena (like a magic diary, or time warps, or clones, or even the antagonist ghost guy) have to do with the dummy or the house. Why/how do those things exist? How are they connected to or seemingly controlled by Slappy? In the last ep, a really ridiculous decision is made - just so that they can set up season 2. I mean, that's just poor writing.

Good performances but thoroughly confusing. I mean, I get it, but it wasn't done well or convincingly. As part of the 'twist', the audience is to believe that whatever they saw didn't happen. However, there are several flaws in the way it is done in this film. To me, the main issue was that it was never indicated that the first half of the film was a flashback narrated by the main character. It was this simply shown as fact. There is no teaser or reason for audiences to pick up on the 'deception'. Hence, such a 'twist' was just something the audience had to accept with little payoff.