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matt_zimmerAlso reviews for the two-part series finale of Supergirl.
A Million Ways To Die In The West
That went pretty much exactly as I expected it to go. Which is why I liked it. Which makes all of the negative reviews confuse the hell out of me. What exactly were the critics expecting?
Wet Hot American Summer was universally trashed too at the time, and now it's considered a cult classic. I expect the same thing for this film. Granted, it's nowhere near as good as Wet Hot American Summer. But it's a good way to kill two hours and it has a ton of lowbrow laughs.
Doc Brown showing up was so perfect, and I love Django right at the end credits too ("People die at the fair."). And the Indian word for "fine" is "Mila Kunis", because Seth MacFarlane is shameless. You can script yourself making out with Charlize Theron and Adrianne Palicki all you want, Seth. Mila is STILL way out of your league.
If I had any complaints, it's that at 1 and 55 minutes the film feels a little too long. But I kind of feel that might have been deliberate. MacFarlane is making a Western parody spoof while taking the movie format relatively seriously (considering the insane jokes). The jokes are crazy, but like in Ted, MacFarlane tries to make the world they exist in credible, at least within itself. That means standard movie tropes and plot turns, as well as a standard length. If this were more of an edgy comedy than it actually is, it would be paced as such. The full orchestra suggests instead that MacFarlane was far more interested in making an actual movie. Whether he was right to do that or wrong, I can't say. The movie feels a bit long. But it also feels like an actual movie, and a pretty good one at that.
The smiling photo running gag was funny and endearing. Why DIDN'T people ever smile in photos back then? But now that it's pointed out, I can't ever recall a single example. The funniest thing is that in the film itself the reasons Albert and Anna give for why doing that sounds insane actually sound credible, which makes them being wrong even funnier. I loved that bit.
The various awful deaths and Albert's horrified reactions were great. Best bit was the ice block one. So funny it was in the trailers. "That went South so fast!"
There were SO many nasty bits in the film I can't repeat because they make me cringe just thinking about them. That HAD to be a body double for Liam Neeson with the daisy thing. But even if it is, it says that Neeson trusts MacFarlane as a producer and a director that he was all right with that scene happening at all. Maybe it's because nobody ever cast him in comedies before MacFarlane did, and he feels he has something to prove. Either way his lack of vanity about his character being placed in that humiliating position is refreshing.
So yeah. It was funny. Had a good old-fashioned movie happy ending. And it didn't feel as overly mean as many MacFarlane projects, mostly because the premise means he can't bash current celebrities. It was a solid comedy that I greatly enjoyed. ****.
Supergirl "The Last Gauntlet"
That was bad.
I mean, really, REALLY bad. What disturbs me is that my problems have more to do with the subtext of the things that happened, rather than real tangible story flaws. To be sure, those flaws exist. But I don't think they exist at the level that many (if any) fans will object to. I suppose many people tired of my reviews will read the first sentence of this one and think it's ridiculous. My response to a fan who liked that and believes I'm a stick in the mud, and can't enjoy anything: You actually deserve better. You may think that was fine (and on the surface it sure seems that way) but you DO deserve better even if you don't think so, and think this did right by you. It IS okay to demand more from television. It's ironic I'm telling you that, because for a LOT of stuff I think fans can demand too much. But when it comes to CW DC shows, I think they let far too much slide.
The surface reasons the episode was shaky are probably not something I'll get a huge argument about. The melodrama was overwrought, frankly, badly-acted, and not very well-written. But people tolerate worse stuff all the time so maybe I'm being too sensitive there.
No, really, my objection is down to both Lex and Nxly's stuff and Supergirl's plot. Both of these things were handled extremely poorly. For Lex's stuff in particular I was Annie Wilkes standing up in that theater screaming "That's not what happened last time!" The problem with the specific supernatural gimmicks on this show is that they are SO freaking convenient and unlikely, that the characters have to literally forget they exist for the show to be able to function. But Lex used the truth squid to tell Nxly he loved her a couple of weeks ago and that he would never betray her. I can understand her washing her hands of him for breaking his promise not to hurt Esme. I can. What doesn't track and why the episode is REALLY bad and the show is REALLY badly written is that she goes on to claim he doesn't love anybody but himself, and is just trying to get the totems for himself. Like Emma Swan's "lie detector" superpower, I knew the truth squids were trouble at the time. I also knew this show was written by incompetent writers. So of course they are going to badly botch the idea and pretend they don't exist. That's how bad writing and worse Maguffins work. I can't believe I'm surprised at how badly the writers failed us there but I still kind of am. I mean the truth squid thing was made SUCH a huge deal of a few episodes ago. The show can't now pretend it never happened.
The other major objection is Supergirl's last minute change of heart about getting superpowered by the sun. I was about as disturbed as she was over how frightened the situation was making civilians, but that's the precise reason she shouldn't have changed her mind. It was a HUGE deal, and betrayal of humanity, and it's not something a good leader would walk back and be fickle about. If humanity was going to lose faith in her and the team, she was obligated to make sure that that specific loss of capital and goodwill was not entirely in vain. And if she wasn't prepared to do that, she shouldn't have agreed to make the attempt at all. Changing her mind at the last minute shows an embarrassing amount of public weakness. She's wishy-washy and foolish for it. I am shocked and dismayed the show believes it is in its best interest to publicly shame and humiliate Kara like that in the second-to-last damn episode. But what I said last week goes for this week too. Kara Danvers is just as stupid and naive in the second to last episode as she was in the Pilot. There has been absolutely zero character growth for six years for the main protagonist of this series. And I'm a little angered that the producers expect me (and you) to either not notice that, or be fine with it.
Maybe my critics are right. Maybe I am being too hard on the show and I am a genre show gadfly rather than a serious critic. I'll consider that (especially since I took a break after the episode ended to write this review and haven't seen the finale yet). Could you also maybe consider that you deserve better and that you always did? *.
Supergirl "Kara"
After seeing that, I stand by everything I said in that last review. It's easy to show real growth for Kara in the series finale when there isn't an episode to walk it all back the next week. But the truth is the last episode itself was good. Not great. But I'll take good and like it.
There are caveats to this positive review. With me there always seem to be. I must confess right off the bat that none of the touching and moving scenes moved me, save the last scene of Cat Grant introducing Kara as Supergirl on national television. But.. But... I responded well to the episode because it was properly structured as a series finale should be. The major climax was ended in the first fifteen minutes, and the last half-hour was used for character wrap-up rather than superheroics. I'll talk a bit about what I liked about the last episode, and just to keep things positive I'll talk about some of the positive things I appreciated about the series. Because the finale was fine, I feel perfectly fine with not rehashing all my old gripes, and trying to leave things off on a good place for once. Will I remember Supergirl as a good series? Maybe not. But there's no reason I can't remember the last episode itself was pretty good.
I'm curious what Kara's reveal will mean for Clark on Superman & Lois. Will it be referenced there? I kind of hope so.
I'm glad Lex was gone so quick, but one thing I wish the series had explored more in the last two episodes after Nxly rejected him and killed his mother, is him regretting going back in time to save her life. Instead of cherishing the time he had with the woman he loved, he destroyed it so that it never happened. I would have liked to have explored the idea that Lex would have preferred Nxly dead in the future if it meant the memory of her love could have been preserved. Perhaps that was too complex an idea to explore in the last two episodes, especially for a character like Lex. But I will always wonder about it.
I like that Jeremy Jordan and Melissa Benoist were permitted to sing. They both have amazing voices, and they clearly love singing.
I hate Jimmy Olsen's beard.
I appreciate that we actually got an answer as to why Kara failed the courage Gauntlet. Better yet, the answer made sense.
I like that Kara didn't head off to the 24th Century with Mon-El. That would have been as inappropriate a series finale as Sam and Diane running off together in the Cheers finale.
Brainy and Nia getting the happy ending means I was right that the series set up a Xanatos Gambit with Brainiac 5's destiny. Whatever they chose would land great. I'm glad they chose the happy ending.
If they couldn't get back Thomas Lennon I am glad there was a throwaway line from Winn that Mxy's fine and not trapped anymore.
Learning J'onn has a son with M'Gann however squicks me out. For obvious reasons.
Sort of wish we had seen Winn use some toys in the final fight.
Do you know what's funny? The bit where Helen Slater claims that she was a Kryptonian in another reality and Alex quips, "Only in the movies," does not actually make sense for either of those characters to say in that moment from a story perspective. But as a viewer? It was delightful and rewarding. And maybe since it was, I'll let the fact that it's truly nonsensical fly. I'm not made of stone.
Let's talk a little bit about what I value about this show. And it's ultimately down to two things. And I couldn't actually compliment the show for sure about these things until it was over and settled for good.
I love that Winslow Schott and Lena Luthor are good guys in this continuity.
For people familiar with my reviews, I have made my disgust for Lena's turn from Kara last season known loudly and often. But I like that the series pulled back from that this year and decided to actually bring her back into the fold.
For Winn the compliment is even higher. Clearly, he was envisioned in the Pilot to become a villain (Toyman), and the producers realized from both his chemistry with Kara and the "Aw, shucks" way Jordan played him that that would actually be entirely inappropriate. I see value in the fact that the series course-corrected there. Berlanti did the same thing by expanding Felicity Smoak's role on Arrow, and turning Frost into a superhero on The Flash. But for some reason, the show keeping Winn's integrity the entire way through without really jerking us around that he could potentially switch sides is the far greater selling point. I want to acknowledge that as little growth as I believe the characters were allowed over 6 seasons, the show allowed Jordan's winning performance to make a better story choice for Winn than they had initially planned. I don't believe fan feedback is something that a producer should ever take into consideration when it comes to deciding how a series plays out. But a producer also has the ability and responsibility to see what is and isn't working for themselves. The producers didn't need the fans to love Winn to do right by him. They just needed to love himself themselves. And with Jordan's performance, how could they not?
I'm very glad the final episode was a positive experience for me, and even gladder that Jon Cryer's awful Lex Luthor was a very small part of it. Even gladder that him being sent in the Phantom Zone makes a potential reappearance on the actual GREAT Arrowverse show Superman & Lois all that much harder. But I think that was a good place to end things for Supergirl. ****.
A Million Ways To Die In The West
That went pretty much exactly as I expected it to go. Which is why I liked it. Which makes all of the negative reviews confuse the hell out of me. What exactly were the critics expecting?
Wet Hot American Summer was universally trashed too at the time, and now it's considered a cult classic. I expect the same thing for this film. Granted, it's nowhere near as good as Wet Hot American Summer. But it's a good way to kill two hours and it has a ton of lowbrow laughs.
Doc Brown showing up was so perfect, and I love Django right at the end credits too ("People die at the fair."). And the Indian word for "fine" is "Mila Kunis", because Seth MacFarlane is shameless. You can script yourself making out with Charlize Theron and Adrianne Palicki all you want, Seth. Mila is STILL way out of your league.
If I had any complaints, it's that at 1 and 55 minutes the film feels a little too long. But I kind of feel that might have been deliberate. MacFarlane is making a Western parody spoof while taking the movie format relatively seriously (considering the insane jokes). The jokes are crazy, but like in Ted, MacFarlane tries to make the world they exist in credible, at least within itself. That means standard movie tropes and plot turns, as well as a standard length. If this were more of an edgy comedy than it actually is, it would be paced as such. The full orchestra suggests instead that MacFarlane was far more interested in making an actual movie. Whether he was right to do that or wrong, I can't say. The movie feels a bit long. But it also feels like an actual movie, and a pretty good one at that.
The smiling photo running gag was funny and endearing. Why DIDN'T people ever smile in photos back then? But now that it's pointed out, I can't ever recall a single example. The funniest thing is that in the film itself the reasons Albert and Anna give for why doing that sounds insane actually sound credible, which makes them being wrong even funnier. I loved that bit.
The various awful deaths and Albert's horrified reactions were great. Best bit was the ice block one. So funny it was in the trailers. "That went South so fast!"
There were SO many nasty bits in the film I can't repeat because they make me cringe just thinking about them. That HAD to be a body double for Liam Neeson with the daisy thing. But even if it is, it says that Neeson trusts MacFarlane as a producer and a director that he was all right with that scene happening at all. Maybe it's because nobody ever cast him in comedies before MacFarlane did, and he feels he has something to prove. Either way his lack of vanity about his character being placed in that humiliating position is refreshing.
So yeah. It was funny. Had a good old-fashioned movie happy ending. And it didn't feel as overly mean as many MacFarlane projects, mostly because the premise means he can't bash current celebrities. It was a solid comedy that I greatly enjoyed. ****.
Supergirl "The Last Gauntlet"
That was bad.
I mean, really, REALLY bad. What disturbs me is that my problems have more to do with the subtext of the things that happened, rather than real tangible story flaws. To be sure, those flaws exist. But I don't think they exist at the level that many (if any) fans will object to. I suppose many people tired of my reviews will read the first sentence of this one and think it's ridiculous. My response to a fan who liked that and believes I'm a stick in the mud, and can't enjoy anything: You actually deserve better. You may think that was fine (and on the surface it sure seems that way) but you DO deserve better even if you don't think so, and think this did right by you. It IS okay to demand more from television. It's ironic I'm telling you that, because for a LOT of stuff I think fans can demand too much. But when it comes to CW DC shows, I think they let far too much slide.
The surface reasons the episode was shaky are probably not something I'll get a huge argument about. The melodrama was overwrought, frankly, badly-acted, and not very well-written. But people tolerate worse stuff all the time so maybe I'm being too sensitive there.
No, really, my objection is down to both Lex and Nxly's stuff and Supergirl's plot. Both of these things were handled extremely poorly. For Lex's stuff in particular I was Annie Wilkes standing up in that theater screaming "That's not what happened last time!" The problem with the specific supernatural gimmicks on this show is that they are SO freaking convenient and unlikely, that the characters have to literally forget they exist for the show to be able to function. But Lex used the truth squid to tell Nxly he loved her a couple of weeks ago and that he would never betray her. I can understand her washing her hands of him for breaking his promise not to hurt Esme. I can. What doesn't track and why the episode is REALLY bad and the show is REALLY badly written is that she goes on to claim he doesn't love anybody but himself, and is just trying to get the totems for himself. Like Emma Swan's "lie detector" superpower, I knew the truth squids were trouble at the time. I also knew this show was written by incompetent writers. So of course they are going to badly botch the idea and pretend they don't exist. That's how bad writing and worse Maguffins work. I can't believe I'm surprised at how badly the writers failed us there but I still kind of am. I mean the truth squid thing was made SUCH a huge deal of a few episodes ago. The show can't now pretend it never happened.
The other major objection is Supergirl's last minute change of heart about getting superpowered by the sun. I was about as disturbed as she was over how frightened the situation was making civilians, but that's the precise reason she shouldn't have changed her mind. It was a HUGE deal, and betrayal of humanity, and it's not something a good leader would walk back and be fickle about. If humanity was going to lose faith in her and the team, she was obligated to make sure that that specific loss of capital and goodwill was not entirely in vain. And if she wasn't prepared to do that, she shouldn't have agreed to make the attempt at all. Changing her mind at the last minute shows an embarrassing amount of public weakness. She's wishy-washy and foolish for it. I am shocked and dismayed the show believes it is in its best interest to publicly shame and humiliate Kara like that in the second-to-last damn episode. But what I said last week goes for this week too. Kara Danvers is just as stupid and naive in the second to last episode as she was in the Pilot. There has been absolutely zero character growth for six years for the main protagonist of this series. And I'm a little angered that the producers expect me (and you) to either not notice that, or be fine with it.
Maybe my critics are right. Maybe I am being too hard on the show and I am a genre show gadfly rather than a serious critic. I'll consider that (especially since I took a break after the episode ended to write this review and haven't seen the finale yet). Could you also maybe consider that you deserve better and that you always did? *.
Supergirl "Kara"
After seeing that, I stand by everything I said in that last review. It's easy to show real growth for Kara in the series finale when there isn't an episode to walk it all back the next week. But the truth is the last episode itself was good. Not great. But I'll take good and like it.
There are caveats to this positive review. With me there always seem to be. I must confess right off the bat that none of the touching and moving scenes moved me, save the last scene of Cat Grant introducing Kara as Supergirl on national television. But.. But... I responded well to the episode because it was properly structured as a series finale should be. The major climax was ended in the first fifteen minutes, and the last half-hour was used for character wrap-up rather than superheroics. I'll talk a bit about what I liked about the last episode, and just to keep things positive I'll talk about some of the positive things I appreciated about the series. Because the finale was fine, I feel perfectly fine with not rehashing all my old gripes, and trying to leave things off on a good place for once. Will I remember Supergirl as a good series? Maybe not. But there's no reason I can't remember the last episode itself was pretty good.
I'm curious what Kara's reveal will mean for Clark on Superman & Lois. Will it be referenced there? I kind of hope so.
I'm glad Lex was gone so quick, but one thing I wish the series had explored more in the last two episodes after Nxly rejected him and killed his mother, is him regretting going back in time to save her life. Instead of cherishing the time he had with the woman he loved, he destroyed it so that it never happened. I would have liked to have explored the idea that Lex would have preferred Nxly dead in the future if it meant the memory of her love could have been preserved. Perhaps that was too complex an idea to explore in the last two episodes, especially for a character like Lex. But I will always wonder about it.
I like that Jeremy Jordan and Melissa Benoist were permitted to sing. They both have amazing voices, and they clearly love singing.
I hate Jimmy Olsen's beard.
I appreciate that we actually got an answer as to why Kara failed the courage Gauntlet. Better yet, the answer made sense.
I like that Kara didn't head off to the 24th Century with Mon-El. That would have been as inappropriate a series finale as Sam and Diane running off together in the Cheers finale.
Brainy and Nia getting the happy ending means I was right that the series set up a Xanatos Gambit with Brainiac 5's destiny. Whatever they chose would land great. I'm glad they chose the happy ending.
If they couldn't get back Thomas Lennon I am glad there was a throwaway line from Winn that Mxy's fine and not trapped anymore.
Learning J'onn has a son with M'Gann however squicks me out. For obvious reasons.
Sort of wish we had seen Winn use some toys in the final fight.
Do you know what's funny? The bit where Helen Slater claims that she was a Kryptonian in another reality and Alex quips, "Only in the movies," does not actually make sense for either of those characters to say in that moment from a story perspective. But as a viewer? It was delightful and rewarding. And maybe since it was, I'll let the fact that it's truly nonsensical fly. I'm not made of stone.
Let's talk a little bit about what I value about this show. And it's ultimately down to two things. And I couldn't actually compliment the show for sure about these things until it was over and settled for good.
I love that Winslow Schott and Lena Luthor are good guys in this continuity.
For people familiar with my reviews, I have made my disgust for Lena's turn from Kara last season known loudly and often. But I like that the series pulled back from that this year and decided to actually bring her back into the fold.
For Winn the compliment is even higher. Clearly, he was envisioned in the Pilot to become a villain (Toyman), and the producers realized from both his chemistry with Kara and the "Aw, shucks" way Jordan played him that that would actually be entirely inappropriate. I see value in the fact that the series course-corrected there. Berlanti did the same thing by expanding Felicity Smoak's role on Arrow, and turning Frost into a superhero on The Flash. But for some reason, the show keeping Winn's integrity the entire way through without really jerking us around that he could potentially switch sides is the far greater selling point. I want to acknowledge that as little growth as I believe the characters were allowed over 6 seasons, the show allowed Jordan's winning performance to make a better story choice for Winn than they had initially planned. I don't believe fan feedback is something that a producer should ever take into consideration when it comes to deciding how a series plays out. But a producer also has the ability and responsibility to see what is and isn't working for themselves. The producers didn't need the fans to love Winn to do right by him. They just needed to love himself themselves. And with Jordan's performance, how could they not?
I'm very glad the final episode was a positive experience for me, and even gladder that Jon Cryer's awful Lex Luthor was a very small part of it. Even gladder that him being sent in the Phantom Zone makes a potential reappearance on the actual GREAT Arrowverse show Superman & Lois all that much harder. But I think that was a good place to end things for Supergirl. ****.
