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Last year, Melissa Barrera was betrayed. Following the success of her standout performances in Scream (2022) and VI, the producers of those films decided to cut ties with her for having the audacity to voice her support for a dying Palestine. They can claim that it technically wasn’t “firing” because her contract was set to expire all they want but that was a cowardly move made by the studios. Even so, Melissa Barrera did remain working with Radio Silence, the company behind those last two Scream movies along with the excellent Ready or Not. Here she plays a character that by in large resembles the situation that Barrera has found herself dealing with in real life. She committed certain screw ups that got where she is now and is fighting for her life to get back to making things right. While that is mostly largely coincidental, Abigail could not have been a better follow up for Mrs. Barrera and Radio Silence if they tried.
It’s able to get an insanely talented cast and crew and put them front and center to make one of the best vampire movies in recent memory. It’s full of wit, charm, blood bath kills, and is completely bonkers from beginning to end. It made take a while for all the pieces to be put into place and those that watched the trailers might see some of the big reveals coming from a mile away but nevertheless, Abigail is proof that Radio Silence is the next consistent horror movie studio to watch out for and this film will definitely be up there as one of the best horror movies that 2024 will have to offer.
Premise: A group of would-be criminals (Melissa Barrera, Dan Stevens, Kathryn Newton, Will Catlett, Kevin Durand, and Angus Cloud) kidnaps the 12-year-old daughter (Alisha Weir) of a powerful underworld figure (???). Holding her for ransom in an isolated mansion, their plan starts to unravel when they discover their young captive is actually a bloodthirsty vampire.
(I don’t want to reveal too much more considering the trailers had already given away a good chunk of the plot. Once again, if you haven’t seen the trailers yet and are looking forward to the movie, I would recommend to NOT watch them before seeing the movie.)
It may seem tiring to call films “self aware” nowadays, especially since that seems to be the norm for a film trying to be as “critic proof” as possible and would allow for it’s own “get out of jail” free card. However, Abigail remains the best kind of self aware. Not just because it wants to subvert the vampire genre that it’s a part of but it wants to embrace it with opening arms. It’s not so much interest in reinventing the wheels but more of putting both hands firmly on the wheel and taking viewers into directions that they may or may not expect. The main reason Abigail is able to get away with being self aware because it fully embraces the wit, camp, and gore that you come to expect from a vampire movie and a Radio Silence movie up to this point.
It does take a little while to get going however. Because it has quite an ensembled cast, it takes it’s time to get them all characterized with clear cut motivations and backstories as to who each individual is and why they got themselves into the matter that they are in. And of course, they have to establish who exactly Abagail is, even if most of the marketing as already done so, before the ball gets rolling. These sequences are made for the absolute better not just because it makes all the pay offs worth it but also for just how insanely likable the cast is.
Melissa Barrera is even better here than she is in the last two Scream movies combined, practically evaluating her status as a true iconic final girl and one that can carry any horror movie that she is a part off. Dan Stevens steals every scene he is in even harder than he did in Godzilla X Kong, somehow able to make his character likable and hilarious despite basically playing an absolute a-hole. Kathryn Newton is just as good here as she was in Freaky and Lisa Frankenstein, Angus Cloud (May he RIP!) and Kevin Durand gets some of the best laughs in the movie, and while not quite in the movie as much as I would like, Giancarlo Esposito is always a delight to see on screen.
Despite how strong the other cast members are, the real star of this show is no other than Abigail herself in young Alisha Weir. She slays every scene that she’s in and makes for the perfect centerpiece for this movie. She’s able to be fun, sympathetic, and terrifying all at the same time, making her presence feel noticed throughout the entire runtime of the film. Whether it’s for strictly horror or other movies, this young girl should have a bright future ahead of her.
As you would expect for a horror slasher and a straight up vampire flick, it more than delivers on all the kills here. Once things are set in place, Abagail becomes an absolute blood bath in the best and most gruesome ways possible. There’s plenty of thrilling and convincing kills that will give horror fans their craving, it’s able to play in it’s own B movie camp to near perfection, and the demented death scenes feel as satisfying as it does gruesome. Even if the film does commit to it’s campy and comedic undertone, it also commits greatly to it’s kills and thrills as well.
If there is any glaring weakness outside of the bit overlong set-up and the trailers spoiling the big reveals, it’s that perhaps it goes too far by the end with it’s over-the-top ness. It wouldn’t be quite as noticeable as the rest of the movie if it wasn’t for the fact that it tries to throw one or two more twists and emotional beats towards the end. It’s hard to explain without spoilers but the final deathmatch comes across as being stretched just in the hopes of not feeling too short or anti climatic with it’s last minute reveals.
Even so, in a year that has been quite underwhelming for cinema thus far, Abigail does feel like a refreshing change of pace for not just the horror genre but films in general. It’s able to meet the expectations it sets out too because it know every single trope of it’s genre it wants to commit to and manages to execute them all in the best way possible. It may not be revolutionary but it does everything it possibly can to make for a satisfying experience. The cast is great, the kills are brutal, the scares all work, and even if you are able to see the reveals coming from a mile away, you’ll be fascinated to see how well they are all done.
I can only hope this movie does well enough that it not only allows Radio Silence to keep making these kind of movies but it also puts Melissa Barrera on the map as a gal to watch out for in movies. Don’t let the Scream producers win here folks! Go support Abagail for not just a very fun time but also for our girl Melissa!
#JusticeForMelissaBarrera
And once again, Rest in Peace to the great Angus Cloud!
And here’s the ranking that is likely going to get me attack/cancelled from hardcore stans of this director!
Zack Snyder might be the most controversial big name director working today. While he is certainly a man with a vision and always has big ambition with everything that he makes, he has been inconsistent to translate that perfect vision he always has in his head properly in front of the camera. The action and visuals is always guarantee to talk the talk but the story and character development can never always walk the walk. Because of that, his films always tend to be divisive and even sometimes outright panned.
However, Snyder is no doubt an interesting filmmaker to talk about and do a ranking on. Despite everything I’m about to say with all 11 of his films, I can’t say the man has ever made a film that had me shrugging my shoulders. That certainly has to amount to something, especially in this day and age. I don’t know if I can call myself a fan of Zack Snyder as a whole but there definitely are films of his that I admire and appreciate. Just a shame that is an opinion that is hard to talk about on the internet without being dogpiled along with the so-called cult of Zack Snyder who view him a cinema Jesus!
Nevertheless, Rebel Moon Part Two: The Scargiver has just arrived on Netflix (or at least some version of it that may or may not be Zack Snyder’s true film) and it’s time for my long awaited ranking of all 11 films in this man’s directorial filmography!
And fyi, I am NOT including the director’s cut of Justice League (A.K.A. JOSStice League)! I don’t care if he’s still the credited director for that crap, we all know for a fact that was NOT his movie whatsoever! Which is why only his four-hour long cut will be included on this list!
11.) Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice
I’m still in awe how you take a crossover like Batman and Superman and make it so dull and joyless. Dawn of Justice is a film that wants to comes across as the most grand and ambitious movie every made, but when you look deep into it, this movie actually doesn’t have much to say on anything it’s talking about. Other than trying to cram two to three movies worth of material into one film, there’s nothing really risky or daring here and it’s so-called themes have been done much better in plenty of other superhero films. The plot is a convoluted mess no matter which version you watch and the conflict between Batman and Superman is so incredibly ridiculous that it could have been avoided if they would just simply talk to each other.
Ben Affleck is fine as Batman and there’s a few standout moments here (The warehouse fight scene and Wonder Woman’s first appearance are all-timers) but that’s nowhere near enough to save this turd of a film. Even the ultimate edition which many claim “saves” the movie really just has more of the same things that were wrong in the first place, aside from being pacing. If there is a clear difference between ambition and aimlessness, then Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice certainly strikes the finest line yet between those two definitions with results that fit more of the latter than the former.
This is a movie so bad that it not only arguably killed the DC Extended Universe before it even got a chance to get going but also caused big damage to Zack Snyder’s reputation as a filmmaker! I know tomatoes are going to be thrown at me for putting this at the very bottom but I’m sorry! Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (Both the theatrical and ulimate edition!) is an epic failure on every level!
10.) Rebel Moon Part Two: The Scargiver
Part Two of Zack Snyder and Netflix’s answer to Star Wars and Seven Samurai could not have been more anti-climatic if it tried. While Part One was far from perfect, it did at least set some solid groundwork for Part Two to continue in good graces. Unfortunately, Rebel Moon Part Two: The Scargiver fails to capitalize on that promise in just about every way.
The visuals are still nice and Sofia Boutella still makes for a compelling action lead but nearly every flaw from Part One is carried over and made even worse. You have a universe that still feels undeveloped, characters that still feel one-note, exposition dumps that are still tedious, slow-mo that is still nauseating, and inspirations that still feel way too on the nose. Not even the action and set pieces work this time! Despite Zack Snyder clearly wanting to make an original franchise of his own, he still has clearly not been able to find a voice that matches his own and those he is inspired by.
Speaking as someone who went easy on Part One, Rebel Moon Part Two: The Scargiver crushes any hope for this IP to ever take flight. It pains me to say that because there is always room for more sci-fi that’s not just Star Wars and Star Trek and we should applaud for more creative voices. However, Part Two is a reminder that sometimes filmmakers need restraint and need to be surrounding by more than just “Yes” men! Refuse to do that and you get the Rebel Moon series as a result!
9.) Sucker Punch
Sucker Punch is the most bizarre and ill-conceived movie that Zack Snyder has ever made. On the surface (and considering it’s time), it just seems like Snyder just wants an excuse to hang out with some talented women that he has worked with it and make a movie where they all kick ass together. When looking deep beyond the surface, it also wants to be a commentary on Hollywood treating women like sex objects and violence against female companions is wrong. It’s the perfect example of a film trying to have it’s cake and eat it too but not at the end results it actually wants.
The action is dynamic, the cinematography is well done, and the main female cast all do fine work and bounce off each other very well. Unfortunately, it’s letdown by a script that couldn’t give two craps about the paper-thin plot, underdeveloped characters, and constantly contradicting it’s themes and messages. On one end, the film can be seen as a mildly entertaining action flick. On the other end, the film falls into the same trappings it’s aiming to avoid because it clearly wants to be more than that.
Sucker Punch is a film that can be enjoyable but not for the reasons that Zack Snyder has intended. It’s basically the exact kind of movie that it’s claiming to be critiquing. Yes, women deserve to be more than eye candy and male gaze but that’s literally all they are in this movie. The fact that Zack didn’t realize that before cameras even rolled here basically made Sucker Punch doomed from the start.
8.) Rebel Moon Part One: A Child of Fire
Rebel Moon was a film that started off as a Star Wars pitch to Lucasfilm shortly after Disney bought them in 2012. It was a pitched as an R-rated Star Wars film made strictly for adults and would take itself more “seriously” than any other Star Wars film. What should be a shocker to absolutely NO ONE but Snyder himself, that pitch got denied and many years later, has now been made into it’s own “original” film.
There is plenty of interesting concepts and exciting moments throughout Rebel Moon. The visuals are as good as they can be for a Snyder film, the worldbuilding while familiar is intriguing, the action is pretty damn solid throughout, and Sofia Boutella is awesome as Kora, the most compelling character in the whole film. It’s just a shame that it can’t escape the trappings of most theater cuts from Zack Snyder where a good chunk of it is left on the cutting room floor. Because of that, you got side characters that are painfully undeveloped, an internal conflict that’s not as clear or fleshed out as it should be, and references to other sci-fi pictures such as Star Wars, Dune, and Battlefield Earth that is as obvious as clear daylight.
Even so, I still couldn’t help but be intrigued by Rebel Moon- Part One: A Child of Fire despite it’s major flaws. It lives rent free in it’s own sandbox and throws so many different ideas on the screen that it’s near impossible to be bored by it. That being said, Snyder seriously needs to learn how to make proper cuts of his movie that are able to work for mainstream audiences and not just for himself and his hardcore fanbase. Even though Part Two was unable to deliver on this films promises, it was at least fascinating to see what it was leading to beforehand!
7.) Army of the Dead
Snyder’s first Netflix exclusive is an aggressive mixed bag. On paper, this seems like the film that Zack Snyder has always been destined to make and act as the perfect successor to his film debut of Dawn of the Dead. A zombie heist movie with with a hard-R rating sounds like it would fit right in the man’s alley. While there are certainly elements here that do work, Army of the Dead never quite reaches it’s full potential.
The cast, action, and practical effects (especially for the zombies) are all there and do lift the film quite a bit. However, it’s bogged down by poor dialogue, characters that constantly make dumb decisions, and not going all the way with it’s bizarre premise. And don’t get me started with the bloated 150 minute long runtime and the ending which has the film completely trip and fall over the finish line.
The elements are there for Army of the Dead to be an instance Zack Snyder classic and a great zombie flick all around but it never quite comes together. If Rebel Moon is proof that Snyder desperately needs someone to handle the scripts for his movies, then Army of the Dead is proof that he desperately needs someone to handle the editing for this movies as well.
6.) Man of Steel
The DC Extended Universe kicked off in 2013 with one of the most polarizing superhero movies of all time in Man of Steel. Looking back on it nearly a full decade later, I can’t help but have INCREDIBLY mixed emotions when it comes to this film. In terms of casting, tone, action scale, scope, and score, this is everything that a modern Superman movie should consist off, with nearly single technical and sound aspect works absolute wonders. However, when it comes to the overall story, script, and structure, that is where the confliction comes in.
Most of the characters come off as plot devices and motivation for Superman than actual characters, the dialogue strikes a fine line between being poetic/inspiring and just plain pretentious, and it’s overall themes feel not so much explored but just told directly to the audiences. Even so, the action is dynamic, the cast do great with what they have to work with, and the scope and Han Zimmer’s soundtrack are off the charts that it’s almost good enough to convince you that you are watching a much better film than you actually are! The elements that work are absolutely great while the elements that don’t work really bring down the whole picture.
When looking at it’s own thing and the seeds it plants for the future, Man of Steel could have been considered a solid re-introduction to the character of Superman and one that could successfully redefined Superman to a new generation. However, due to it’s shortcomings and the movies which came after tripling down on the things that don’t work rather than what does, you can’t help but see wasted potential. As it’s own thing, Man of Steel is functional on a surface level but not on a depth level. Henry Cavill deserved a much better standalone film than this!
5.) Watchmen
Snyder’s first official DC film is able to perfectly capture the style and feel of what the source material of Watchmen has always been known for. The looks, aesthetics, and effects are all completely on point and help make the film’s fascinating world come to life near perfectly in front of the camera. If only the pacing and structure was able to match the quality of it’s outstanding visuals.
Aside from the pretty colors, Watchmen has also many other great things going for it such as the talented cast, brutal action, inspired song choices, and even having one of the most underrated villains in any superhero movie with Matthew Goode’s Ozymandias. That being said, the pacing is constantly grinding to a screeching halt just for the sake of Snyder showing off his wide angle shots and constant slow-motion sequences. Also, this film easily has one of the most laughable sex scenes of all time! Just saying!
Still, there is a lot to like about Watchmen than there is to dislike. Had it benefited from a tighter runtime and cut down on the needless slow scenes, this might have been Zack Snyder’s own masterpiece. Thankfully, the HBO Max series is able to expand upon the quality of Watchmen even further and make that a worthy adaption alongside this film.
4.) Dawn of the Dead
Snyder’s official directorial debut happens to be no other than a remake of 1978’s Dawn of the Dead with James Gunn as the main writer. With all the discourse surrounding Zack’s reputation as a filmmaker, you would think this would be the most divisive film in this man’s career. However, that is not the case whatsoever. It’s basically just a very faithful and well done remake and that’s about it.
It’s got a very likable cast, the action is non-stop, the humor is quick and witty, and it manages to be consistent with it’s tone the whole way through. The Zombie Celebrity is still to this day the main highlight of the movie and the opening credits themselves is an all-timer! I don’t know if it has to do with James Gunn’s involvement as a writer but Zack Snyder is able to get the right script that perfectly matches his skills and capabilities as a director with Dawn of the Dead.
Even if a lot that has come after have been polarizing at best, at least Zack Snyder was able to start his career with a solid hit with this surprisingly solid remake in Dawn of the Dead. If you want a zombie movie from Zack Snyder that is done right, look no further than with this movie.
3.) Zack Snyder’s Justice League
Because we live in some dark and twisted form of an alternate universe, Zack Snyder’s Justice League is a real thing now. Truth be told, even if you remove yourself from the toxicity that is the Zack Snyder fanbase (I won’t blame you if you can’t!), it’s actually pretty good with a lot more to like than there is to hate. This is probably the one movie in the DC Extended Universe with Zack Snyder that doesn’t feel overly pretentious but more of just the man wanting to make the most epic Justice League movie he can possibly make. For the most part, he succeeds even if some of the faults from his other films are carried over here.
The first half is way too stretched out for it’s own good, feeling like Snyder is trying to get every single little frame of work that he desires in there regardless if it actually serves a purpose. There’s also the final fifteen minutes that feels more like a collection of post credit scenes rather than an actual epilogue. But everything in between that is pretty solid. There’s good action set pieces, a nice, riveting score, memorable gorgeous visuals, and some good character interactions between all of the Justice League members, with Wonder Woman and Cyborg being the main standouts. And this also feels like the first time in Snyder’s films that the superheroes on screen actually act and feel like superheroes instead of just being all sad and mopey all the time. What a time to be alive!
While there’s still faults from the theatrical cut that are carried over here (*cough* Steppenwolf and Flash *cough*), this is certainly an improvement over the theatrical cut and should most certainly be considered the actual definite version of Justice League. I might not call myself a fan of Snyder’s input on the DC Extended Universe but I’m at least glad he got the chance to finish what he started after having to originally step down due to the tragic death of his daughter. Warts and all, this is easily the best DC superhero film that Zack Snyder has ever made!
2.) 300
Considered Snyder’s best by many, 300 feels right at home with what the man has to offer. It’s able to put the action, visuals, and cinematography front and center while leaving the story and characters arcs to the wayside. In most films, that would be a set up for failure but thankfully, Snyder is able to make the very best of it by not going too far on either end of those spectrums.
The action sequences are absolutely great, the cinematography is a treat for the eyes, the performances all work here, there’s a handful of standout lines that are memorable, and this might just have the most impressive visuals in this man’s filmography. Even, the required slow-motion bits actually work here! Sure, as I mention before, the story telling and character development are nothing to write home about and the historical inaccuracies will certainly be infuriating to some but for those looking for a rock solid action flick will likely be more than satisfied with 300.
For years, I’ve argued that 300 is the kind of film that Zack Snyder should always inspire to make. A film that’s able to build greatly on his strengths as a filmmaker and not doubled down on all his weaknesses. If you are able to deliver solid action and visuals with a brain in its head that isn’t bogged down by tiresome exposition and mind numbing flashback scenes, then just stick to that and you will be seen as a reliable filmmaker that knows what they are doing. However, there is at least one more film that I would argue does in fact show that Snyder can be great with telling stories with his visual flare to back up perfectly.
1.) Legend of the Guardians: The Owl of Ga’Hoole
That’s right! My favorite Zack Snyder film is the animated one about owls! Go, figure! In all seriousness, Legend of the Guardians: The Owl of Ga’Hoole is one of the most criminally underrated animated films in recent memory! It’s able to match that sense of awe and wonder in scale that Snyder always aims for in this film while also able to tell a shockingly heartful and cohesive story with these birds despite taking inspiration by multiple different books. Not to mention, even nearly 15 years later, the animation holds up WONDEFULLY!
As much as I can give praise to the animation, visuals, action, and voice work, I think the thing for me that stands out the most about Legend of the Guardians is it’s able to capture that right amount of earnest feels that most of Snyder’s films lack. It doesn’t feel it’s trying to hard to break new ground nor talking down on it’s audience that dare question it’s director, it’s just trying to be an engaging tale about the endangers of owls and the importance of having your friends and family alongside each other. All the pros of most Zack Snyder films are still here but very rarely are his cons present.
Legend of the Guardians: The Owl of Ga’Hoole is to date my favorite Zack Snyder film because it’s one that I can 100% get behind EVERYTHING that the man is trying to do here that I don’t need an extended cut or DLC in order to do so. That’s not to say this film is totally flawless (certain characters get painfully sidelined) but it has that perfect heart and wit to do it that it’s able to fully meet it’s grand ambition. Legend of the Guardians is not just Snyder as his best but also animation as it’s very best! Check this one out if you haven’t already!
This month saw the release of the new Amazon hit series of the live action adaptation of the popular video game franchise known as Fallout. In about a week or two since it has come out on Prime, it has been quite a success for critics and fans alike! So much so that Amazon has already greenlighted a second season just one week after all eight episodes of the first season released! There might have been some trivial debate about releasing all the episodes at once or whether or not it retcon a certain Fallout game from existence but for the most part, the series has basically pleased the majority of viewers who have given it a watch thus far. And as you would expect whenever a new video game adaption turns out to be surprisingly good, you still get the typical question about whether or not this was the one that broke the so-called “video game adaptation curse”, despite them asking the exact same question about the previous video game adaptation that the media praised.
Never mind the fact that there has been numerous adaptions for video games in the form of movies and tv series that have been good to great for at least the past five years! Never mind the fact that there was a big popular and well received video game movie or show that got a rave response from everybody a year prior! Apparently, those never happened and Fallout is the one that broke the curse by being the first ever video game adaptation to not suck! I don’t buy that for a second and I don’t think even the people that have made this claim do.
The main reason I say this has to do with the success and praise that last year’s video game adaptation in Max’s The Last of Us received. And just like with Fallout, that was a video game series that led many people to say that was the first legit great video game adaptation to ever exist and the one that broke the video game adaptation curse.
Did we just forget about that all of a sudden? Did we forget that everyone and their mother put that series on a pedestal when it came out as that being the first adaptation to get it right? Or are we just going to ignore all of that entirely that just for the sake of propping up Fallout? I’m not gonna say I know the answers to these questions but I do remember everything that folks have been saying about Fallout was also said about The Last of Us. And the reason I know that was because well…..I wrote a piece about that as well.
As I discussed on that piece last year, I would strongly argue that video game adaptations have taken a HUGE step up in quality as least since 2019 with the releases of Detective Pikachu and The Angry Birds Movie 2. And there’s even an argument to be made that the year prior wasn’t so bad with the releases of Tomb Raider (2018) and Rampage. As a matter of fact, the last true bad year for video game adaptations was in 2016 and 2017 with the releases of Warcraft, Assassin’s Creed, and Resident Evil: The Final Chapter. That is a good seven to eight years ago since video game adaptations truly sucked! Since the 2020s rolled around, there have been more winners than losers!
In terms of movies, we’ve had The Super Mario Bros Movie, that grossed over a billion dollars worldwide last year, the two Sonic the Hedgehog flicks, with the third coming out this December to massive mainstream hype, the Five Nights at Freddy Movie which despite it’s poor critical reviews, was a solid hit for hardcore FNAF fans, the Gran Turismo motion picture that was a surprising crowd pleaser, and Werewolves Within which most didn’t even recognize it was an adaption because of how good it was at it’s own thing!
In terms of tv shows/streaming services, we got some pure quality and well made adaptation in terms of live-action and animation such as the masterful Arcane, the anime hit Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, the perfectly live-action adaptation in The Last of Us, the unexpectedly fun and amusing Twisted Metal, and now we have the latest banger in Fallout.
And that’s not even going into the other upcoming adaptions in the works that have potential to be just as good as the examples mention such as the new Minecraft movie and the new animated Tomb Raider series from Netflix. Have there been stinkers and more to come? Absolutely! But literally, no genre of any kind is perfect and will always have a dud every now and then. However, it’s incredibly safe to say that video game adaptations have gotten much better since the 2020s rolled around and have shown fans of multiple video games franchises that these can in fact work in terms of movie and television form that works greatly as it’s own thing.
Which yet again makes me wonder why we keep having this same argument over and over again. Why is it that we are still shocked whenever a video game adaptation is good despite the many other proven examples that I just mentioned? More importantly, why is it that we keep devaluing them just to praise the newest one that comes out when it’s any good? The only answer I can come up is that perhaps people are just afraid to call a video game adaptation good because of all the missteps of this subgenre in the past.
Much like how there are certain folks afraid to admit they like a new Disney movie or superhero flick or whatever motion picture made from a so-called “assembly line”, maybe folks don’t want to admit that video game adaptations are good now. They don’t want to accept that this is a medium that can in fact be successful when giving the proper care and treatment. It’s no longer the kind of movies and shows that can be a whipping boy to everything wrong in modern entertainment. Because now, video game adaptations have proven that they can be just as successful as a movie or show as they are with a game. Video game adaptations can evolve and develop into something greater that does its source material justice to not just fans of the franchise but also to newcomers as well. Because of all the examples I have given and more, video game adaptations no longer deserve the scrutiny the get just based on past mistakes. And you know what, it’s okay to admit that.
It’s okay to admit that a movie or series based off a video game can be good or even great. It’s okay to admit that the creators of these recent video game adaptations have learned from the mistakes of other failed adaptions in the past to make something worthwhile in the present. It’s okay to acknowledge the shortcoming of new adaptations without tearing down the entire subgenre itself. And most importantly, it’s okay to admit that video game adaptations can be just as good as anything else. Not just in spite of being a video game adaptation but BECAUSE it’s a video game adaptation! It’s okay to admit ALL of that because it’s true, ALL OF IT!
The Fallout series certainly deserves all the praise and success it has been given thus far. It’s well made with excellent production values, a bonkers feel that seems the most appropriate, unique world building, and great performances from the cast, especially Ella Purnell and Walton Goggins. However, there is no need to put this one on a pedestal as being the one video game adaptation that got it “right” or claim it shouldn’t be as good as it is strictly because it’s a video game adaptation. Fallout works whatever way you look at it and not for the reasons you don’t. It’s a video game adaptation that is good just like many other recent video game adaptations have been good. And as I’ve been saying throughout this entire piece, it’s okay to admit that. I sure hope I’m not the only one that feels that way!
Please don’t screw up Borderlands, Eli Roth! I don’t want to have to make another one of these posts four months from now!
On the surface, you think you know exactly what you are going to get with a film like Civil War. In a year with yet another controversial election for America that is expected to arrive in the coming months, what better way for A24 to coast on this hot topical year than putting their own spin on what an effed up America would like? The kind of film that leaves no stone unturned and be unafraid to tear into every single realm of America politics and inner turmoil of the U.S. governments! The kind of film that is basically guaranteed to earn it’s F rating on Cinema Score like a pride badge of honor! The kind of film that would likely cause fights from hard core liberals and conservatives during theater screenings! However, when you sit back and look at Civil War with an open mind, it’s surprisingly as apolitical and pointless as they come.
It’s doesn’t amount to being the political cringe fest that most viewers envisioned it as. It doesn’t commit to being the overblown disaster flick that it constantly flirts at throughout the entire picture. And it doesn’t even seem to be interest on exploring it’s own take on what a civil war set in America could or would be like. Civil War just acts as a typical America murder porn flick with not much rhyme or reason do it and will likely leave viewers wondering what point Alex Garland was trying to make here. It’s certainly as well made and well acted as you would expect from Garland himself but it lacks any creativity or boldness that this director is usually unafraid of showing off, even with his last godawful film in Men. I don’t know if this was because Garland was unsure which kind of movie he wanted to make or if he just didn’t want to piss anyone off but Civil War just seems as confused as all the people that are fighting in the movie are.
Premise: In a dystopian future America, a team of military-embedded journalists (Kirsten Dunst, Wagner Moura, Cailee Spaeny, and Stephen McKinley Henderson) races against time to reach Washington, D.C., before rebel factions descend upon the White House.
The element that is the most striking about Civil War is how little it is interested in exploring this dystopian version of America that we are follow our four main characters in. There is no explanation as to what this civil war is about, why either side is fighting one another, or the concrete difference between the current political climate in the real world vs the one that this movie is set in. The film basically expects you to fill in the blank yourselves about the context of the world this movie is set in and insert your own politics to have the civil war make any sense.
There are hints of that kind of version that is scattered throughout the film. The major example is that of Texas and California being on the same side. That’s a great start in going all in on the ridiculous nature of that concept but the film doesn’t go far beyond that. The screenplay by Alex Garland is shockingly stale, lacking any sort of risk taking on exploring this own version of America or any logical reason as to why the civilians are fighting in the first place.
The biggest plot element involves our four lead characters, who are professional journalists and assigned to cover all the commotion that is happening throughout the course of the film. Despite the clear intend on exploring the impact of journalism and the consequences that can come from those involved in that industry, it’s hard to be invested in it because the film constantly makes it clear that they are in the wrong the whole way through when they truly believe they are in the right. It also doesn’t help that the main characters are constantly making dumb decisions throughout the entire movie with no self awareness that it makes you wonder how they even got hired for this job in the first place. While that might be the intention when it comes to the overall arc that Cailee Spaeny’s character, Jessie Cullen, she is so out of the league with everything happening that it makes it so hard to root for her. Even when we get to the point where she learns the lesson she is suppose to, it doesn’t feel earned in the slightest because none of it feels real.
And that is the exact issue with Civil War at it’s center. Despite the film throwing everything but the kitchen sink at you when it comes to war, causality, and politics, it doesn’t feel real because it doesn’t seem interest as to why this is all happening in the first place. And if there is no purpose, then what is even the point of all this fighting in the first place?
I’m well aware certain folks are gonna argue that is the true intention of Civil War. Alex Garland is trying to make it clear that all of this is pointless because war itself is pointless since no one truly wins at the end and we all lose. If that’s the case, then why make the movie at all? Just because something is intentional by design doesn’t automatically make it good. Like if someone took a dump in my mouth and then say it was okay because it was done on purpose, then does that make it any better? No, it doesn’t! It’s just tasteless!
At least the movie is well-shot with solid production throughout. Outside of a few scenes with distracting CGI, this does have the proper care and treatment as you would expect from Alex Garland behind the camera. The best sequences involve the main cast of journalists we follow having to take photos while massive battles are happening. They make for some rather intense and suspense heavy sections with glorious sound design to aid them. Those are easily the standout sections of the entire movie and definitely shows the hidden potential that is constantly hinted at throughout the entire picture.
The entire cast does their part as well. It’s always nice to see Kirsten Dunst in movies and she does the best here with what she is giving as basically the leader of the group. Wagner Moura acts strongly as the right counterpart to the rest of the cast, Stephen McKinley Henderson is entertaining in every scene he is in, Cailee Spaney has strong potential to stand out as her own as an actress, and we desperately needed more of Jeff White throughout the picture. And as everyone has said, Jesse Plemons is great in his one notable appearance in the movie, even if it makes even less sense when you put it within the context of the movie and not just with the trailers.
Civil War comes across as a cinematic equivalent of a make-your-own buffet that expects the audience to bring their own ingredients with them because it doesn’t seem to have much of it’s own. When taking into perspective of the nonexistence politics and overall lack of context to anything happening, Civil War is at its heart just an empty disaster flick with only a handful of intense sequences and a strong cast to help pull it through. And considering it’s timing and placement as to when this movie is coming out, it’s clear that A24 was wanting something way more than that.
Perhaps this has to do with Alex Garland tackling something outside of his comfort zone and coming from the UK rather than the USA but it’s baffling how Civil War seems to be utterly unaware and confused of not just the current political climate in America but even in it’s own distinct universe. It may not be my least favorite film from Alex Garland (That honor goes to Men!) but Civil War is easily his most tame and thematically empty film he has ever released!
The only kind of politically heavy folks that will get angry over this film are the ones that brought their own politics into the theaters with them moments before it even started. Because when you look into the deeper meaning of the film’s politics and it’s current status quo of it’s own America, it all just feels pointless. If that is what Alex Garland intended from the beginning, that’s on him but it doesn’t mean I have to like it.
Congrats, Disney! When it comes to making the superior Civil War movie, you guys win this round1
Last week, Captain America: The Winter Soldier turned an unbelievable ten years old! This is a film that is considered a fan favorite among Marvel fans! It was able to tell a smart, complex and politically driven story about the dangers of trusting the government and your allies, it delivered some of the best and most unique action in the entire MCU, it gave side characters such as Nick Fury and Black Widow more to do than ever, and best of all, it just made Captain America an ultra cool badass instead of a Mr. Goody Two Shoes hero that the character was originally thought of as.
And in just about four months, we will also see the ten-year anniversary of the original Guardians of the Galaxy. This is a film that is also considered a fan favorite among Marvel fans and perhaps their most surprising film they have ever made. It was able to be a super fun, action packed, heartful and hilarious movie about becoming a family while introducing five instantly memorable characters that turned out to be the most lovable group of misfits you can imagine want to following. Considering the fact that the guardians themselves were characters that very little people knew about outside of hardcore Marvel fans, Guardians of the Galaxy being as good as it is was quite simply a miracle.
Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Guardians of the Galaxy were two installments in the Marvel Cinematic Universe that were so good that I would argue helped turned the tide of the narrative of the MCU as a whole. A narrative that this franchise was more than just Iron Man and his best friends in The Avengers. This franchise could in fact rely on more than just one person with star power but MANY other people with star power as well. So much so that I’m willing to declare that 2014 still remains the most important year for Marvel Studios and the Marvel Cinematic Universe overall.
Yes, more important than 2008 which saw the release of Iron Man, the film that kicked started this cinematic universe. Yes, more important than 2012 which saw the release of The Avengers, the payoff to Marvel’s five to six year plan up to that point. And yes, even more important than 2018 and 2019, which saw Avenger: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, the culmination and payoff to the entire Infinity saga, being two of the most commercially successful films of all time. While all off those were undeniably important and impactful, 2014 was where the Marvel Cinematic Universe was able to achieve it’s own level of peak.
Before 2014 rolled around, Marvel was still riding high off of The Avengers and the building blocks of Phase One. However, while every Phase One movie has their fans, it was mostly the first Iron Man and The Avengers that carried the weight of that entire phase and are the two films that are looked the most fondly of! Those two films were so good that it made the entire first wave of Marvel movies worth it, even with the indifferent quality of the other features!
Phase Two of the Marvel Cinematic Universe kicked off a year later in 2013. However, despite the financial success and solid reviews for certain installments, the fan response was arguably very mixed. Iron Man 3 was a genuine crowd pleaser but was controversial among hardcore fans due to the film’s portrayal of the Mandarin, A.K.A. Iron Man’s greatest enemy. Thor: The Dark World was seen a decent “filler” movie at best and a dull and forgettable movie at worst for critics and fans and is usually ranked as one of the lowest rated movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. There was also Marvel and ABC’s first show in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., which had strong ratings for it’s first two episodes but saw a steady decline with each episode getting less viewers as the season went on. Although the show would end up getting a following due to the improved quality of later seasons, the first season of the show was not looked to fondly.
When looking back at the state of the MCU in 2013, the reaction that got from fans was almost identical to the state of the MCU for the past few years. After a handful of subpar and lukewarm at best installments, it made people question whether or not Marvel still has it. Is that superhero fatigue setting in and that special bubble is about to burst? If 2014 had anything to say about, the answer was quite simply hell no!
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. finished off its weak first season on a strong note and started a second season that was considered a HUGE step up in quality. So much so that most fans that stuck around felt that was when the show had finally found it’s footing and was well worth their time and investment. Even if the ratings did decline after each season, the show was still able to last for seven seasons, with the final episode airing in August 2020. What seemed like a questionable show to keep going in it’s first season was able to find a following and fanbase that helped pushed it to seven seasons!
When it comes to the 2014 MCU slate regarding films, we had Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Guardians of the Galaxy! After the mixed bag of a 2013 slate with Iron Man 3 and Thor: The Dark World, these two films had a LOT to prove! Not only to prove that Marvel Studios was not slipping away in terms of quality but that these stand-alone installments could in fact exist on their own terms and didn’t need Iron Man or the rest of the Avengers to carry it. And man, did Marvel respond to 2013 about as good as they could have!
First up, we had Captain America: The Winter Soldier! This acted as a sequel to The Avengers and served as the next step of Steve Rogers’s development that started with Captain America: The First Avenger. While The First Avenger acted as a period piece flick, The Winter Soldier acts as a modern day espionage thriller. It was a showcase of Steve Rogers adapting to modern day events, discovering the corruption of a government that flew right under everyone’s nose, working and bantering along with his trusted allies, and seeing the pieces of his past come back to haunt him in present day. And it was all brilliant!
The Russo Brothers’ first entry into the Marvel Cinematic Universe was met with widespread acclaim from fans and critics, instantly ranked up there as among the very best installments in the Marvel Cinematic Universe! It acted as a perfect way to follow up Captain America’s story from his first movie and The Avengers while planting the seasoning for future installments in film and television for that universe.
Perhaps the most important thing about The Winter Soldier was not only how impressive it was in terms of story, characters, action, and themes but also how it stood strongly on it’s own without the notable successes of Phase One to bog it down. It shown that these side stories with these characters still had a purpose and they weren’t just being made just for the sake of buying time for the next Avengers movie. Important characters such as Captain America could carry his own film without the need of Robert Downey Jr. or the Avengers name alone. These stand alone entries could in fact stand on their own and play a big important role to the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
For as impressive as Captain America: The Winter Soldier was, one could still make the argument that Captain America was still a well known superhero that was going to have his well deserved due at some point. That is something that could NOT have been said about the other big movie to come out of Marvel Studios in 2014, Guardians of the Galaxy.
I will die on the hill that Guardians of the Galaxy was the most risky project that Marvel has ever released. It contained a bunch of characters that mainstream audiences were unaware of, it had a space opera vibe that the MCU really never had up to that point, and it was directed by James Gunn, a man that tends to have a dark and twisty sense of humor and had a director vision that no other directors of Marvel had yet. If this failed, there was NO way Marvel or Disney was gonna try anything like this again and stick to strictly familiar names and brands for the future. Guardians of the Galaxy was a giant leap of faith……that ended up stick the landing big time.
Once again, Marvel Studios was able to strike gold with their most unrecognizable movie to date in Guardians of the Galaxy. It was met with the same love and acclaim that The Winter Soldier got just four months earlier. People fell in love with the characters of Peter Quill A.K.A. Star Lord, Rocket Raccoon, Drax the Destroyer, Gamora, and even a talking tree named Groot, people were enthralled by the visuals and set pieces, people were laughing at the jokes, people were crying at the big emotional beats, and people were rocking to the movie’s awesome soundtrack, which sold like GANGBUSTERS on Apple just weeks after the movie came out. It was so loved and adored that there are those that would argue that this is not only one of the best Marvel movies ever but perhaps their favorite Marvel movie to date, even more so than The Winter Soldier or The Avengers. It was that good!
Just like with The Winter Soldier, Guardians of the Galaxy was a Marvel movie without the big main selling points of their biggest successes with Iron Man and The Avengers. There was no other recognizable superhero to be found or had a tied together plot that made it acquired viewing for Avengers: Age of Ultron. Sure, there was a tease of Thanos himself along with the setup of the Infinity stones but they were never a big focus or distraction that it took you out of the the movie. It was just the Guardians of the Galaxy themselves on their own space adventure and it could not have been better for it.
Looking back on the MCU ten years later to where it is now, I stand strongly on the statement that 2014 was the turning point of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and when it was able to become something even greater! With the success of the MCU slate that year, it was prove that Marvel did have an identity of their own that wasn’t just strictly Tony Stark and his amazing superhero friends! They did in fact have other interesting characters with their own stories to tell and other unique brands that was worth drawing attention to. They could afford to go bolder, weirder, and riskier and it could all end up for the better!
It’s by being able to make lightning strike twice with Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Guardians of the Galaxy that motivated to make other great installments later on such as Thor: Ragnarök and Black Panther along with multiple sequels with Captain America and Guardians of the Galaxy. They didn’t need to rely solely on Iron Man, The Avengers, and Spider-Man once they formed a partnership with Sony to keep the franchise going. They could afford to try out other characters and untested properties to allow their brand to grow and evolve into other things. And I don’t think they would have gone that exact route if it weren’t for the success of their 2014 installments in Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Guardians of the Galaxy.
2014 may not have been the most commercially successful or profitable year under Marvel’s belt nor even the one with the most cultural impact but without the success that Marvel was able to gain that year, there is a good chance the Marvel Cinematic Universe would have looked quite different in the past ten years that what we have seen! I sure hope whatever the future holds for Marvel, that they look back on 2014 as to why that got them to where they are now and NOT learn the wrong lessons from it!
The 2024 season of Major League Baseball has just begun! While there are plenty of fascinating stories to go around, I don’t think there has been one as fascinating as the amount of injuries have occurred already. While injuries are coming year in and year out, the one element that stands out the most to start off 2024 is the insane amount of injuries that have occurred to pitchers. The number of injured pitchers has been……disturbing! If you don’t believe me, here’s a list of all of the notable pitchers that are on the IL as we speak!
Gerrit Cole, Jacob DeGrom, Shohei Ohtani, Sandy Alcantara, Shane McClanahan, Max Scherzer, Shane Bieber, Felix Bautista, Justin Verlander, Tony Gonsolin, Luis Garcia, John Means, Eduardo Rodriguez, Robbie Raby, Sonny Gray, Brandon Woodruff, Clayton Kershaw, Dustin May, Alex Cobb, Drew Rasmussen, Gavin Williams, Lucas Giolito, Bryan Woo, Nick Lodolo, and Framber Valdez.
There’s probably a few others I forgot to mention and I wouldn’t be surprised if another big one joins the list as soon as I published this piece.
That amount of injured starting pitchers at the same time is INCREDIBLY alarming! Not only because most of the pitchers on this list are considered among the very best pitchers in baseball but how the number continues to grow by each passing day! If this is not a sign that there has been a pitching problem in baseball, then I don’t know what is!
The big question everyone likely has is how did this all happen? While many have referred to the addition of the pitch clock, I think it’s much much complicated than that. You have to look back about a decade ago with the way pitching changed in today’s game. Today’s pitching philosophy puts a MAJOR emphasis on the amount of speed, spin rate, and velocity that each pitcher can throw. It’s no longer about pitching to contact but pitching has hard as you can! While the standard miles per hour with a fastball used to be in the lower 90s, it now ranges in the high 90s and low 100s! Just as much as the hitting approach in today’s game has changed due to the strict focus on power and launch angles, the pitching approach in today’s game has changed due to the strict focus on speed and velocity.
On one hand, it’s always impressive to see pitchers throw at a max 90 mph or a min 100 mph! To put that much time and work into increasing how fast you can throw a baseball has to be commended! However, that also puts a great risk on the human body and arms! There’s only so much one person can take with their arms and body before they decide to shut down and even break apart entirely! This is ESPECIALLY the case in regards to starting pitcher, who usually start to run out of gas by the time they get to the 5th inning!
While pitching injuries has always been common in baseball, the new philosophy in pitching that puts the focus on speed, spin rate, and velocity has caused these injuries to skyrocket! Back in the day, it wasn’t so much about pitchers trying to throw as hard as they could but throw as effectively as they could. They put the majority of focus on mixing pitches, finding different ways to get each hitter out, and trying to go deep to the game as they can! However, that line of thinking has changed big time in the year 2024! It’s been ten years since we saw Madison Bumgarner’s EXTRAORDINARY pitching performance in the Giants 2014 World Series run and I don’t think we could be any further from that timeline than we are now!
Nowadays, the pitching philosophy just can’t measure up to the same standard as old school baseball! Because the majority of the focus is how fast and hard pitchers can throw, they are unable to go deep into games because their arm will be wore out by the time they reach the halfway point of the game. Because pitchers are all about setting new records on the radar gun, there’s not much in-game planning because it’s usually about fastballs and one or two filthy, breaking pitches! Because there is a constant push on this pitching approach that is likely to break a pitcher’s body or arm sooner rather than later, an avalanche of injures have occurred and will continue to do so!
I view this current situation with too many pitchers getting injured the same way I looked at too many blockbusters bombing at the box office last year! In the sense, that the bubble has finally burst and at long last, consequences are being faced on flawed, ill-fated philosophies that not enough people have the solution for! It has all finally come crashing down and no one but the people in charge should be surprised to see this all happen!
All this could make me wonder is whether or not it’s the beginning of the end of this philosophy with pitching! Are we about to go back to the basics where it was all about mixing pitches and going as far into the game as you can? Are we going to see more focus on pitch to contact instead of just constant spin rate and velocity? Are we going to see starting pitchers feel more like starting pitchers back then and not just a pitcher that just so happened to start the game? If the answer to all those questions is no, then baseball needs to at least consider it if they want healthier pitchers in their future!
The main thing that has become very obvious with high velocity pitchers is that there is no chance for them to have as long of a career as some of the legends of old. Regardless if you are a high velocity relief pitcher that comes into over 50+ games a year or a high velocity starter coming into 30 games a year and at least 150 innings, you have very little chance to have a long lasting career pitching in the big leagues.
All you have to do is look at poor Stephen Strasburg! A once highly valued prospect that had to cut his career short before he got to reach a new peak due to severe injuries with his pitching arm and body overall. Despite the Nationals trying to do everything in their power to preserve him and have him pitch out in a long career, that wasn’t enough. The amount of speed, spin-rate, and velocity in every pitch he threw would eventually get the better of him! After his superb performance in the 2019 playoffs and given a massive seven-year contract extensions, he was only able to pitch in just eight games for the remainder of his career! He gave every bit of energy he had left in him in 2019 to give the Washington Nationals their first ever title! While I’m sure that Strasburg doesn’t regret that, I’m sure he wishes it didn’t involve giving up the rest of his career to do so!
If Major League Baseball continues to double down on the modern style of pitching, then expect even more pitching injures for the inevitable future. This style is beyond broken and needs to be changed! Pitching should be more than just throwing hard! It should be about finding different ways to get hitters out and using all eight position players on the field in order to do so! By continuing to go down this path, not only does this lead to more injuries but it also hurts the product on the field due to the amount of noteworthy pitchers that are unable to make their presence noticed on the pitching mound.
I’m certainly beating a dead horse when I said this but I’m going to do it anyway. Baseball has a pitching problem and it’s time to fix it now more than ever!
Here we go! Time for another mini-reviews with the two most recent big movies that just so happens to have the word “Empire” in their titles for some reason!
These two movies are two similar beasts but with one being executed way better than the other. The main reason for that is that one is at least well aware how silly and dumb it really is while the other thinks it’s telling a deep and dark story when it’s really not. The former movie I’m referring to is Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire while the latter is Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire.
To start off with the newest Ghostbusters movie, are we ready to basically come to a conscious that Ghostbusters really didn’t need to be a franchise?! I’m not just talking about the iffy to inconsistent quality of the movies with only a banger animated show and IP licensed video game to speak highly off. It’s more of the fact that it seems as though Hollywood and even the “dedicated” fanbase of Ghostbusters seems to have forgotten whole hardly what made the original Ghostbusters work in the first place.
The reason the original Ghostbusters work is that it embraces it’s silly and bizarre premise fully and made for a funny mix of comedy/horror with a great cast to boost. It was about as well executed as it could have been that basically anything following that was just always going to look inferior by comparison. Ghostbusters II tried capturing that same lightning in a bottle and failed miserably. Ghostbusters (2016) came closer with its leading ladies having excellent chemistry with one another but fell apart towards the end with forced cameos and gags, a needless CGI heavy battle and one of the lamest bad guys in recent memory. Despite the lacking results of those two films, they were at least more than well aware that the strengths of Ghostbusters came from it’s compelling cast and sense of humor throughout.
Then came 2021’s Ghostbusters: Afterlife. While having a very talented cast and a solid first act to the picture, it got weighed down entirely by its overreliance of fan service and taking the material far too seriously than it should have been. It’s almost as if you made a higher budgeted episode of Stranger Things but just added Ghostbusters elements to it. It felt so off that it’s hard to imagine the iconic Ghostbusters song being played in that exact same universe.
While by no means an awful or unwatchable film, Afterlife seems like a far cry for certain fans out there that refuse to let go of their favorite child’s properties as adults and believe Ghostbusters was always meant to be taken as serious as the goddamn Batman. However, it did at least have a beating heart of it’s own and still felt bittersweet to have the whole film being in the hands of the son of Ivan Reitman himself, Jason Reitman.
Now enter Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, a film that takes all those elements that fell flat about it’s predecessor and increases it TEN FOLD! You got a tone that’s even more jarring and out of place than before, you have so many different characters and plot points that the film has no idea what to do with, the callbacks and references to the original are even more awkward and forced, and even the actual Frozen Empire that the title would suggest really doesn’t play a role until the last third of the movie.
The cast of old and new do the best with what they have, with Paul Rudd, Mckenna Grace, and Dan Aykroyd being the main standouts. And even if every scene with the original Ghostbusters looks as though it was shot as a commercial, they all still feel passionate about playing their iconic characters and will likely delight longtime fans of this franchise. Not to mention, Kumail Ali Nanjiani and Patton Oswalt are always welcome to see no matter what they are in. Thank goodness for this cast because if it weren’t for them, there would be very little to recommend about Ghostbusters: Afterlife.
Maybe I’m just overly harsh because I’ve never been a diehard fan of Ghostbusters nor do I have really nostalgia towards it. Plus, maybe I still have PTSD over the INSUFFERABLE discourse of Ghostbusters (2016) (which is better than this movie, btw)! However, I think even die hard fans will have to admit that it might be time to let this franchise rest on the big screen. There’s plenty of different Ghostbusters medium that anyone can refer to as the definite Ghostbusters follow-up to the 1984 original. Whether it’s Ghostbusters II, the 2009 video game, 2016, Afterlife, and that The Real Ghostbusters animated series, I think the world has had their fill on this franchise.
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire might be to date the worst movie in the franchise because it seems to completely forget what made Ghostbusters special in the first place. It’s not the ghostbusting, it’s not the lore, it’s not the nostalgia bait, and it’s CERTAINLY not the dark and gritty tone! It’s that special spark of an iconic cast of characters, it’s the right mix of horror and comedy, and it’s that perfect execution of its perfectly unique premise. No amount of expansion of lore or trying to repeat the same dance over and over again is going to replicate that. And unless Jason Reitman and company realize that and inspire to make another movie that captures that entirely, then perhaps it’s time to stop with the ghostbusting and let the legends live on in grace!
Now, for Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire! There are many negative points that I just mentioned with Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire that can be applied to this. It has a plot that is nonsensical and overstuffed, it has human characters that are thinly written, it has plenty of sequences made to revoke the nostalgia for monster fans, and it perhaps takes itself more seriously than it should. However, Godzilla X Kong doesn’t work in spite of those glaring flaws, it works BECAUSE of them and is able to make the very best of them!
Yes, the story is just an excuse to get all the monsters in action but it’s able to deliver them when it counts the most and in just the right spots! Yes, the human characters are thinly written but they are carried by a likable and charismatic pair of actors that are able to make the best of them (Please put Dan Stevens in more stuff!)! Yes, there are plenty of callbacks and references but it all feels earn and feels evaluate the experience rather than hinder it. Yes, there are times where it tries to be emotional but it never goes too far with it to the point where it’s completely somber. To put it simply, Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire is able to make the best of these traditional tropes, even if it doesn’t break or evolve them in anyway!
The action with the monsters connected to Godzilla and King Kong is awesome, especially with a final showdown that plays like the Captain America: Civil War of kaiju movies! The VFX and special effects are mostly impressive, with all the monsters looking completely buyable with not much shots that will take you out of the experience completely. There are some solid moments of visual storytelling with King Kong and his tribe, even if there are certain dramatic beats that feel too obvious and don’t ring home as much as say the new Planet of the Apes reboot. And even their characters are quite thin, the cast do make the best work with what they have and help make the human drama and moments salvageable and sometimes even making them land.
If there is one weak spot, it’s that there are times where Godzilla feels like an afterthought in his own movie despite being the first name in the title of the movie. Godzilla is gone for long stretches of the second act while most of the focus is on Kong interacting with his own kind. It makes me wish we could have had similar scenes with Godzilla visiting his kind or seeing that certain point of view with her but that focus is never really a thing. It’s almost as if Adam Wingard wanted to make another King Kong movie and then another Godzilla vs King Kong movie but Warner Bros wouldn’t let him so he had no choice but to mesh those two films together.
And while I am someone that enjoys a handful of these recent monster verse movies, they aren’t really movies I go back to a ton, only catching up on them whenever it’s on television. I mostly only remember my theater experiences with them and not much else. Heck, I couldn’t tell you what happened in Godzilla vs Kong aside from the title characters brawling if I tried.
Also, in case you are wondering, it is not on the same level as Godzilla: Minus One but I don’t think that it’s trying to be. Minus One was trying to be a smart, human driven story of how society can recover after being affected by a deadly war with a new threat starting to emerge. It’s the kind of movie that even if you took Godzilla how of the picture, it would still work entirely. It was one of the few Godzilla movies that you could describe as being smart and deep but it also had a function brain in its head, knowing when to let the human drama play off along with delivering the stellar Godzilla action when it counts.
Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire doesn’t try to be like Godzilla: Minus One. It doesn’t try to have a point to make or a message to deliver, it wants to deliver exactly on the “kids playing with monster figures” mindset and it succeeds completely. Whereas Godzilla: Minus One felt like a movie trying to win awards, Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire is a movie trying to sell tickets to dying movie theaters. It’s okay to enjoy a well made, cooked, and nutritious steak meal while also enjoying a delicious, messy Big Mac meal every once in a while.
While Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire doesn’t do much other than what it’s overall title suggests, it still does make for a fun time at the movies and a movie that is worthy of a discount price on a Tuesday. The action is cool, the special effects are a treat for the eyes, the cast are a lot of fun, and that final monster showdown brawl is certainly going to be one for the ages for monster fans everywhere. I could have used with more Godzilla in a movie and maybe a better attempt at breaking some of these common tropes with movies movie but for what it’s worth, Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire is simply a good enough monster movie that I enjoyed watching. Take of that as you will!
At long last, the first season of Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League has FINALLY launched! I don’t know about everyone else but I was pumped out of my MIND for this update! After how AMAZING the main campaign was and the way it ended on a MASSIVE cliffhanger, I could not WAIT to jump back into Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League! After all, who WOULDN’T be excited when the overall gameplay was nothing but the exact same three missions over and over and over again and getting to face off against the Justice League with boss fights that were clearly not finished?!
Rest assured, Rocksteady has officially launched their latest update where you get to play as the Joker and all I can say is WOW! For any of those haters out there who likely were the same folks that were jerking off Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 and are hyped for that obvious Overwatch rip-off, Marvel Rivals, perhaps to eat your words because Season 1 has without a doubt saved Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League and proves that Rocksteady and DC are still at the TOP of their game!
What makes this update so amazing you may ask? Well, it’s quite simple! It’s literally the exact same game all over again but with the Joker in it! And you don’t even get to play as him right out of the gate! Instead you have to work HARD by playing the exact same three to four missions over and over and over and over again! You play through these same missions until you upgraded all off your players at MAXIMUM level to beat the boss and THEN you get to play as the Joker!
Of course, you can do the cowardly thing and BUY your way to getting the Joker! (Wait, wasn’t this all suppose to be for free?!?!) However, for all the REAL gamers out there, you get to GRIND your way into getting the clown prince of crime!
There’s no extra story missions, no extra side missions, no new enemies, no new gameplay styles added in, there’s only one new cutscene with the Joker himself, and the Joker basically plays the exact same as all of the other characters but with a new umbrella move thing-y! I know that might sound underwhelming to closed minded DC haters out there but come on, after all this seasonal update is absolutely FREE until it isn’t so STOP COMPLAINING!
Not to mention, you get an animated comic intro with the Joker that feels like it was made by an intern at Rocksteady during their lunch break! Can you think of ANYTHING game out there that did that?!
I certainly had an absolute blast once again playing through all these exact same, repetitive missions! There’s the missions where you have to escort some random nobody to a particular rendezvous point, there’s the missions where you have to aid baby face Poison Ivy, there’s the missions where you have to play capture the flag and then destroy your flag, and then there’s the missions where you have to kill a bunch of enemies, you know the things you are ALREADY doing when you are roaming around Metropolis anyway!
We also can’t forget the elseworlds missions where you have to travel to another multiverse! And what do you do once you make to the elseworld you may ask?! Why, the EXACT SAME THREE TO FOUR MISSIONS YOU WERE ALREADY DOING IN METROPOLIS, OF COURSE?!?!?! However, before that you have to grind for enough points to play these same three to four missions by playing through these same three to four missions in Metropolis first BEFORE going to the elseworlds to play the same three to four missions! In a nutshell, this is a game you have to grind for points, tokens, and upgrades to play new elseworld levels so you can do more grinding! It’s a game where you have to grind for progression where you will have to more grinding for more progression! This is not lazy and incompetent on ANY LEVEL!
I should also mention the new Brainiac you fight here, which is the second of a total of 13 Brainiacs you will need to fight, assuming this game doesn’t get shut down by the end of summer! Despite the trailers for Season 1 suggesting the exact same boss as Superman in the main game, you instead get the EXACT SAME BOSS as Green Lantern in the main game! Exact same tactics, exact same ways to beat them, and the EXACT SAME RESULTS! This is not lazy and incompetent on ANY LEVEL! I sure can not WAIT until I get to the fight the exact same boss ELEVEN MORE TIMES!
After you free the Joker from Brainiac, you take him back to the Hall of Justice, he said some cringy lame puns in a more high pitched voice, and you put in the cell where he belongs! Not to mention, Harley Quinn doesn’t seem to care that a version of her pudding is still alive because well, she’s just over him now all of a sudden! Never mind the fact that she was the ultimate simp who would do ANYTHING for her Mr. J and was completely HEARTBROKEN over his death! She’s just over him now because…..she’s now a strong independent woman, I guess! I guess a good five to six years can REALLY change a person! Almost as if this game wasn’t meant to be in the Arkhamverse and was added in at the last minute to boost sales!
Also, The Riddler is still here because…………………..
Overall, I can NOT recommend Season 1 of Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League enough! It takes everything that didn’t work about the original game and somehow makes them even worse! The missions are more of the same and even more repetitive, the grinding is increased ten fold, there’s no real story progression, each character still plays exactly the same, and you don’t even get to play as the Joker until the very end after you have already done all the busy work to get him! At least you get to see him going on that memory lane tour of the previous Batman: Arkham games, which only exists to remind you how good Rocksteady USED to be at making games!
Even so, that still doesn’t take away the fact that this latest update of Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League is a MAJOR step in the right direction! With this game along with DC Universe Online still getting TREMENDOUS support 14 years later, DC is crushing Marvel in their video game department just like how they are in their movie department! No amount of Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, Midnight Suns, and Marvel Rivals can hold a candle to what Warner Bros Games is doing right now with their DC properties!
In my initial review, I said I would only talk about the season passes if I felt they were worth recommending! And considering the fact I came up with this piece, I can with confidence that it 100% absolutely IS and you should go play it ASAP! Nice job, Rocksteady! Keep up the good work! I will be among the first in line of two folks online that will ready and waiting for you next big update on Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League!
This update gets a five out of five star rating for me! Absolutely SPECTACULAR!
Take notes, Avengers! THIS is how you do a live-service superhero game!
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APRIL FOOLS!
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Nah, but seriously, this season was a GIANT waste of time and my patience with this game has officially expired!
This game now gets a two out of five stars for me! Great job, Rocksteady! Keep up the “good” work!
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Also, FYI, congrats to Jared Leto! You are no longer the worst Joker ever!
After 14 long years, DreamWorks has FINALLY given us a sequel to their legendary masterpiece, Megamind! You guys might have not known that DreamWorks made a sequel to Megamind because for whatever reason, whenever I go to google and type in Megamind 2, the only thing that comes up is that silly Megamind: The Button of Doom short! But rest assured, I’m here to report that Megamind 2 does in fact exist and it’s available on Peacock now for everyone to see!
Sure, Megamind wasn’t a movie that demanded a sequel because everything was resolved perfectly at the end of the movie and these kind of subversive movies really only work one time but since everything has to have a sequel nowadays, we now have Megamind Vs The Doom Syndicate! Or as just about everyone will refer to it as strictly Megamind 2 because they will likely not even remember who the Doom Syndicate even are by the time the credits roll.
A lot of animated sequels tend to suck nowadays such as Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse! However, every once in a while DreamWorks is able to deliver great Part Twos when it counts the most. Sure, sequels such as Shrek 2, Madagascar 2, Kung Fu Panda 2, How To Train Your Dragon 2, and Puss in Boots 2 were nothing to write home about but sequels such as The Croods: A New Age, Trolls: World Tour, The Boss Baby: Family Business, and ESPECIALLY Spirit: Untamed were all SPECTACULAR follow-ups to their already SPECTACULAR original counterparts! And now with Megamind 2: Vs Who Gives A Crud, I don’t think it would be crazy to consider DreamWorks to be one of the better animation studios out there when it comes to delivering absolutely banger sequels where other studios tend to fall flat. Take notes, Disney!
I would explain the full plot in details but really, all you have to do is just google the plot of the first movie and you basically get the same thing nearly beat for beat. You have Megamind coming to terms into wanting to be a supervillain again until he suddenly doesn’t! You have him breaking up and getting back together with his best pal Minion (Or as he’s now called Chum!) for absolutely NO REASON at all! You have breaking up and getting back together with his kinda, sort-of girlfriend Roxanne Ritchi because every superhero movie needs one of those! You have new bad guys (and one girl) that used to be best buddies with Megamind who are present in Metro City because of a problem that Megamind unwillingly caused! Heck, you even have a seen where Megamind feels defeated and retires from being a superhero while growing a long, gross depression beard, just like with Metro Man in the first movie! Just take the plot of the first movie and thrown in some more poop and fart jokes and you basically got the same movie all over again!
Never mind the fact that Megamind questioning his allegiance to being a hero and breaking up with his best friend yet again goes against his character development in the first one! Never mind the fact that these new bad guys who happened to once be friends with Megamind were never even established in the movie! Never mind the fact we have a new girl added here who just so happened to be insanely popular on social media overnight! And never mind even the fact that this is suppose to take place just two days after the original when it feels more like it takes place at least a decade plus after it! The plot of Megamind 2 is a stroke of art! It’s as if you took away every fun subversive twist that the first one had and went exactly the predictable, conventional route that it was mocking.
Big props have to be given to Alan Schoolcraft and Brent Simmon, the writing duo from the first movie who return once again! You have to applaud them for being patience and not waiting to rush out a sequel just two days after the first one came out. They knew it would take time and development for a Megamind 2 to work in the slightest. Thankfully, because of the writers’ strike and DreamWorks not giving them a proper budget, they are able to make a Megamind sequel that’s on par with those straight-to-VHS Disney sequels and somehow make it even worse than that! I sure hope they return for Megamind 3 when that comes out in the year 2038!
The main selling point here is The Doom Syndicate! They are just about the most one-note, generic, and stereotypical baddies you have ever seen! They are as ever bit as funny or entertaining as an episode of Velma! They are so annoying and obnoxious that you will root for Megamind to kill them within the first ten minutes they are onscreen so they would just go away! If that’s not the sign of truly great villains that you want the hero to beat them so badly so they would disappear forever, then I don’t know what is!
The animation is so glaring and distracting that it all feels too real! I lost track of the number of animation errors, inconsistent character movement, and the overall defiance of logic with the animated style of this movie. This movie looks about on part with that Megamind game that came out on the Nintendo DS! It’s to know that DreamWorks have been taking good care of their animators to make sure their highly-anticipated sequel looks as magical as any movie that they have ever made! Take that Sony and Across the Spider-Verse!
We also have to tell about the STELLAR voice cast! Yeah, it’s a shame they couldn’t get Will Ferrell or Tina Fey back likely because they read the script to this mega-rocity and went “nah, fam!” but we have the perfect replacements for them! We have Keith Ferguson, who is able to copy Will Ferrell just as much as he was able to copy Owen Wilson in those Cars Mater short things, even if his voice is annoyingly more high pitched and doesn’t sound like Megamind whatsoever! We also have Laura Post, who is able to copy Tina Fey about as well as………..Tina Fey I guess!
Let’s also not forget Tony Hale, Forky from Toy Story 4, playing a character named Mr. Donut (I’m not even kidding!) Or director Eric Fogel who plays a robot named Polly 227 (Again, not even kidding!). Or Roger Craig Smith, A.K.A. Sonic the Hedgehog, as the cowardly Mayor who steals the show every two seconds he gets! And even Adam Lambert is in this movie as…..some villain! It’s nice to see DreamWorks get all of these well known celebrity voice actors! As we all know, only the greatest movies out there could have this many celebrities for one feature film!
I would say more about Megamind 2 but I don’t want to spoil all the fun and excitement for you all! I can happily say that Megamind 2 lives up to the hype and was certainly worth the 14-year long wait!
The story is lazy, derivative and disregards the original movie at every turn, the animation is so ugly and unfinished that it will make your eyes bleed, the time frame between both movies makes no sense whatsoever, the humor is absolute liquid shit, the voice actors are completely miscast in their roles, and the Doom Syndicate are some of the worst and most unmemorable villains in recent memory! Oh, and that little girl that’s in the movie might be the most pointless side character I’ve seen in any movie!
Don’t listen to these haters who must have given high praise to Puss in Boots: The Last Wish or that furry’s wet dream, The Bad Guys! THIS is a true legacy sequel that delivers when it needs to! Maybe now, people will start giving DreamWorks the credit they deserve and not just pure scorn for their missteps. Even so, great sequels to their non well-known franchises have already been made and Megamind vs who gives a crud! joins the list of those with grace!
Oh, and be sure to check out that Megamind TV series! It’s just ever bit as amazing and cringe as this movie is!
Now, here’s where things start to get quite interesting with SpongeBob SquarePants! As everyone knows by now, the Sponge we all know and love have a very successful run with the first three seasons and a nice movie. With the way the latter played out at the end, that would give you the indication that would act as the conclusion to the series as a whole. Although that was the intention by design by creator Stephen Hillenberg, Nickelodeon demanded for more SpongeBob episodes after the film’s release due to how insanely popular the brand has become. Because of that, Hillenberg resigned as showrunner and a handful of creatives and writers left the show while new creatives and writers stepped in with the new showrunner being Paul Tibbitt and Vincent Waller acting as creative director until 2015.
As you would expect with the way Nickelodeon has been milking SpongeBob content dry throughout the past two decades now, the reason why SpongeBob SquarePants is still around today is because of profits. Not just with the ratings of the show itself but the profit it’s made with the branding and merchandise sales since the show’s inception. If it was up to Hillenberg himself, he would have likely ended the show when he initially did after the third season and first movie. However, because Nickelodeon bought the IP that he pitched, the company has a say for how long SpongeBob goes and when he stops. There is PLENTY to talk about in the post-first movie era of SpongeBob SquarePants, starting off with what is likely considered the most “awkward” era of SpongeBob. That era being Seasons 4 and 5!
Seasons 4 and 5 is interesting to talk about among the fanbase and mainstream media. At the time, this was seen as the period where SpongeBob jumped the shark completely and became bad. However, as times goes on, there has been some reappraisal towards this era of Mr. SquarePants, especially in regards to Season 4. So much so, that not only were these two seasons not bad at all but they were the last remains of the “good” era of SpongeBob or at least the last until MUCH later on.
It’s not that those that praise one or two of this seasons are in deniable of its flaws or it compares to the very best of the first three seasons. It’s just that there are a handful of genuine SpongeBob classics from this era that often get overlooked because of the bad press surrounding these two seasons. And these episodes are good enough to warrant this era of SpongeBob has not completely bad and in some regards good. It’s only once we head into the next era we will be discussing between Seasons 6-8 where the show did indeed get REALLY bad.
However, what is it exactly that has made these two seasons so divisive?! What is it that made it become so hated when they first released and only in recent memory getting reappraisal? Is it strictly nostalgia? Is it because of how bad the series would get later on? Let’s find out by discussing Season 4 and 5 directly!
Season 4
About six months after the original run of SpongeBob SquarePants ended, we got our first taste of this new era of SpongeBob on May 6th, 2005 with Fear of a Krabby Patty. That episode right there would set the tone perfectly for the rest of this season. It made perfectly clear that a new voice has been added to SpongeBob SquarePants.
The animation is more over the top and wacky, the characters have more movement and expressions to them, the episodes moves at a much quicker pace, the jokes become thicker and faster, and it overall just has a much different vibe compared to the first three seasons. Even for kids such as me that grew up with the first three seasons and headed into this one, this had to be quite jarring. All these changes and more are what likely led Season 4 getting a more mixed response compared to the first three seasons.
It is also believed that Season 4 was the start of many infamous trends that later and worse seasons would follow. Trends such as the animation being way too wacky and over the top, the plot and morals feeling half baked and not well thought out, the characters acting more out of character, and treating their one defining trait of each character as absolute jokes every chance they got. Two of the more disliked episodes of Season 4 such as Good Neighbors and The Gift of Gum are severe victims of that.
When looking at it through those lenses, it’s easy to see why Season 4 was quite controversial among the fanbase and media. The changes in terms of tone, animation, and feel to it was certainly a turn-off for many people. It was likely the first sign of the show existing just for the business side of things and not for an artistic side of thing. However, as I said before, there are plenty that look back at Season 4 more fondly. Why is that?
There is always some form of perspective when talking about SpongeBob SquarePants and it largely depends on when you watched each season of the show that it reflected your overall feelings to it. To many fans, they watched Season 4 when they were young kids and likely haven’t develop the critical mindset for themselves just yet. Because of that, they likely looked at Season 4 much more fondly because of the episodes that they do remember being among their favorite episodes of the show. Whether it’s that or how much better Season 4 looks compared to what came after, there are actual episodes for this season that are fondly remembered.
Episodes such as Krusty Towers, Skill Crane, Selling Out, New Leaf, Ghost Host, and Wishing You Well are ones that certain fans would put alongside the best of the original three season era. There are even a handful of “special” episodes that were able to exceed expectations where the ones in the first three seasons felt flat such as Dunces and Dragons and Have You Seen This Snail?, the latter of which might be the most emotional impactful SpongeBob episode ever made. The flaws in terms of the new style and episodes were still present but the good episodes of this series were good enough to where it was able to out weight the negatives of the series.
In hindsight, I really wouldn’t consider Season 4 to be that bad. Heck, I may even go as far to call it quite good. Was it as consistently great as the first three seasons? No but then again, I don’t think any version of Season 4 was ever going to do that. The bad episodes are still there but even the worst episodes of this season would likely not being among the top 10 worst episodes of the show.
With a season that had this amount of good in it, what was it that made it so hated at the time? I do think I have one big answer for that but I feel it’s worth saving that for the very end and go over Season 5 first.
Season 5
Now, Season 5 is a bit harder to defend than Season 4. While there are plenty of good episodes that are presented throughout, the bad episodes were really quite bad. So bad that it basically hurts the reputation of Season 5 and is the reason for many that this was around the time where SpongeBob got bad, even from those that defended Season 4.
I will say if we go back strictly the first half of Season 5, I would think you have a good argument that it’s on par with Season 4. Flawed but still plenty of good episodes here and there to balance out all of the bad ones. You have fan favorites such as The Original Fry Cook, Friend or Foe, Rollar Cowards, Krabs à la Mode, Spy Buddies, and SpongeBob vs. The Patty Gadget. Heck, you even have a handful of episodes in the second half that most fans wouldn’t want to discredit such as The Inmates of Summer, 20,000 Patties Under the Sea, and Pest of the West. However, Season 5 is also the one that would introduce some of the most infamous episodes of the entire series.
Episodes such as Fungus Among Us, Waiting, To Love a Patty, Pat No Pay, and SpongeHenge, played a big factor into supporting the negative narrative surrounding Season 5. It also wasn’t help by the “special” and highest rated episodes such as Atlantis Squarepantis and WhoBob WhatPants?, which were just as ill-fated and poorly received as they come. While there was definitely some gold buried within to find, there was plenty of filth covered in them to be able to find them.
The biggest flaws with most of Season 5 are largely the ones that people always bring up when bringing up everything wrong with modern SpongeBob. The humor is way too grossed out, the characters are thoroughly unlikable and make baffling decisions, the plot and morals are complete rubbish, the logic of each episode is thrown out the window, and way too much of the jokes either center around a character getting hurt repeatedly, doing something stupid/insulting, or just beating you over the head with each individual trait of the characters. While there were certainly a few episodes you could describe that with Season 4, there were WAY too many examples of that in Season 5 that made it defending MUCH more difficult and nearly impossible.
Season 5 has to be the most frustrating season of SpongeBob SquarePants! There are definitely good episodes to be found in this season that rank among the best of the post-classic era and the first half of the season was able to deliver mostly on that. However, it’s around the second half where too many flawed and ill-conceived episodes got released that hinder the overall experience of Season 5. Like Season 4, it gets points for experimenting and finding it’s own identity outside of Stephen Hillenberg, including bringing back the shorts which was used only once in Season 1. However, it loses points for doubling down on the fatal flaws of the bad episodes of Season 4 and making them even worse.
Just like Season 4, Season 5 has seen some appraisal over the years and I think that’s largely because of the amount of good episodes that I mention earlier. Unfortunately, the bad episodes are present and stand out like a plague whenever they appear. There’s too much that’s good to consider it bad but also too much bad to consider good either. Which is honestly why I can’t consider this part of the bad era of SpongeBob SquarePants but more of the “awkward” era of it.
The Not So Best Day Ever
I don’t think you can discuss this era of SpongeBob SquarePants without addressing the elephant in the room. The elephant that pretty much exposed Nickelodeon’s cynicism for the show’s continuation throughout the years along with the cynical practices of hyping up certain main SpongeBob “events”. While it’s easy to see why Season 5 is hated, it’s difficult to understand the bad rep that Season 4 got. That is until you talk about…..The Best Day Ever marathon.
For anyone that is unaware, back in November of 2006, Nickelodeon hosted a SpongeBob-themed marathon titled The Best Day Ever. It was a 24-hour long marathon where the network would air the top 100 episodes of the sponge’s history, which all would be voted by fans. This would also include the premiere of the The Best Day Ever special episode along with the first ever TV airing of The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie. This was hands down the biggest event ever for SpongeBob SquarePants and perhaps even Nickelodeon. While the ratings were clearly high, the reception from fans was ANYTHING but.
This event could not have been more disastrous if it tried. You had episodes in the top 10 that didn’t even remotely feel like they belonged in the top 10, you had actual fan favorite episodes that were either very low on that top 100 list or not there at all, and you had this whole marathon capped out in the most underwhelmingly way possible. You had The Best Day Ever episode, which is probably the most average SpongeBob episode that’s ever been made, and it’s revealed that the episode that got the most votes as the best episode of SpongeBob SquarePants to that point was no other than…..Karate Island. I’m not even kidding about any of that!
This was an event that just had the word “rigged” written all over it. All that hype for the past 23 hours and 30 minutes just for one new episode that has SpongeBob doing all the things we have seen him do a million times before and for one episode that isn’t that well regarded that we were all suppose to accept was the best SpongeBob SquarePants episode ever. This was a ratings trapped at it’s finest and unfortunately would be the very for many more to come from Nickelodeon in regards to SpongeBob SquarePants.
It was basically this event that seemed to open the floodgates of criticism surrounding Season 4 and onwards of SpongeBob. Not just in terms of it’s overall quality but Nickelodeon’s treatment of the show itself. This is when they were clearly trying to take advantage of audiences and using the SpongeBob name itself in the hopes it would boast ratings and viewership for the show. This was the moment that Nick exposed themselves of using SpongeBob as a cash cow. And I likely tend to think this is when folks came to the realization of the post-movie era’s shortcomings. A realization that is still being talked about to this very day.
In Conclusion
Even speaking as someone that always likes to play both sides, I can totally understand each different viewpoints in regards to Seasons 4 and 5. There is plenty about both seasons that don’t work and largely led to the mindset that SpongeBob as a whole should have stopped after the original run. However, there is also plenty that does work and it’s those diamonds in the rough that make both seasons at least salvageable compared to some of the other very worst to come from the franchise.
If you want my opinion, I don’t hate either one of these seasons but I don’t quite love them either. There’s plenty I do hate and plenty I do love but it’s not consistent enough on either ends to where I can say this is up there with the first three seasons or down there with the next three seasons. It exists simply in that middle awkward spot within the history of SpongeBob SquarePants.
Following up the first three seasons of SpongeBob SquarePants was always going to be a difficult task. Without most of the creative folks that made the first three seasons as great and memorable as they are along with plenty of new blood involved, it was always destined to be a challenge for everyone involved. I hold no ill will to the creative team behind these two seasons as they had to have know they were going to face harsh criticism and be unfairly compared to the first three seasons.
Even speaking as someone that has grown tired of reappraisals of previously hated media and contrarian takes just for the sake of being contrarian, I’m totally cool with Season 4 and 5 being viewed in a much better light today. The good episodes in those seasons shouldn’t be discredited because of all the bad episodes that surround it. They were all the saving graces of otherwise inferior seasons of a television show. I don’t know if I would go as far to call these two seasons great but I I would also not go as far as to call them terrible either. That’s for the next era we will be discussing!
Adam's Blog 