Deja Collins

Looks great but bloated with too many ideas and themes. The movie felt 4 hours long and the story felt paper thin. It doesn’t have to have a strong storyline and honestly if it mainly relied on spectacle I would’ve been fine with it but the movie didn’t know what it wanted to tell so it told everything 😩. And don’t get me started on the dialogue.

I haven't read the book series this show is based on so I can't compare but I did enjoy the show...to an extent. Personally, the best parts were the beginning of the series and the last 2 episodes, particularly Wenjie and Jin's storylines. My least favorite parts were Saul, Will, and then Auggie (after she survived her 'time ticking' dilemma). It seemed like these characters from the friend group were sitting on standby, boggling the show with their angst and melodrama till they served their purpose to the plot. I felt Saul was poorly underused for a so-called 'gifted' scientist and being the only black character in the show, spent most of it drinking, smoking, and sleeping around. For Will, I wanted to skip all his scenes because the writers did nothing for his character. Although he has valid reasons for his depressive state, he spends most of the show never going for his potential and instead sits on the most depressing beach to mope around. As for Auggie, she had a thrilling and promising start, but once her issue was resolved and she used her nanotechnology to help the military, she joined Will and Saul's pessimist's club. I think what bothers me about Auggie is her naivety on the ethics of her invention. She creates a nanotech device that can slice diamonds like jello but is surprised the government wants to use it to eliminate their enemies. On top of that (*Sorry Spoilers*) Auggie decides to publish her tech to the internet so that everyone can have access to it and not just the evil British government and her employers, but by doing that, you also give that information to potential terrorist groups. I just don't understand how Auggie couldn't see how dangerous and irresponsible her actions were. Aside from the drawbacks, I did like the mystery the show built around the scientists dying and the aliens behind it. I enjoyed Benedict Wong and Liam Cunningham's no-nonsense characters. Although a bit one-note at times, they were a nice counter to the melodramatic characters I mentioned. Wenjie's storyline was intriguing and set her up to be one of the most complex characters in the series. I just wish there was a bit more breakdown of why she became a cult leader in her later years that to me felt a bit contradictory to her religious views.

I think this is a general critique I have with the MCU but I feel like the movie prioritized cameos and vfx over plot and character development. Dr. Strange hasn’t had a stand-alone film in years and now that we get 2+ hours with him as the MC, the story fell flat on building his character more. There were little bits and his relationship with Christina that they brought up but it felt forced as if the writer realized later on that they should add some substance to grow Dr. Strange. Overall, I felt as if dr. Strange was the same person in the beginning and in the end of the film. No significant change to his character in comparison to the first film. Also, the VFX won’t age well which maybe a result of them pushing out several shows and films annually. The Multiverse of Madness is an ambitious and oversaturated film (which isn’t a bad thing) that feels rushed and doesn’t push Dr. Strange enough to evolve even more. And Wanda got the short end of the stick, falling to the contrived and poorly developed trope of the antagonist. I wish there was more of a physical presence of the darkness that manipulated and consumed her (which could’ve been brought up more in Wandavision). It was dark, which I love and had no care to kill off certain characters (although I feel their appearance wasn’t necessary to the plot at all). This is an installment in a much bigger project and I feel that in the writing which does a disservice to Dr. Strange himself.

Great memories playing this game

I really wanted to like this movie, I even enjoyed it enough to give it 2.5 stars but solely because of the dazzling animation. Everything else was just flat and a disservice to a manga which probably has more depth in characters and story. To say it saved live anime movies would be an overstatement. I did feel the animation saved the potential of bringing manga/anime to live movies but the plot and characters were underdeveloped. I'm not a big fan of hollywood forcing a love interest into a film. But if Alita's love interest existed in the manga then they should've put more effort into building that element more. By the end of the movie (Spoiler alert) I was rooting for her boyfriend's death because he was a nuisance. Also, the movie forgot what it wanted to be by act 2. They had the chance to build on Alita's badass origin story but they shifted her focus onto roller derby and her romance. Also, the characters felt like chess pieces, only acting to get Alita to the conclusion of Act 3. They would say and do things that seemed contradictory to their character and have random arcs that missed any progression towards their growth. On top of that, the writing was mediocre. At the end of the day, the heroine's flawless animation is the only reason you should see this movie in theaters (or at all).