dinsdag 19 december 2023

(Average+) Leo

Movie in one sentence:
Dr. Phil if he were a reptile. So Dr. Phil.

Movie in more sentences:
An old classroom reptile thinks his life is coming to an end and regrets not having done anything of note during it. He hopes to use one of the students to escape and enjoy the rest of his time out in the wild, but learns she's struggling under her insecurities and settles on helping her instead.

No student is without grief, distracting Leo from his initial plans and ending up becoming their therapist, but when the disliked substitute teacher learns he's the sole reason she's getting credit for the children improving, she figures she has to get rid of him and dumps him in the wild he always craved for.

Regretting the decision and the children missing their friend, the class goes out to find him before it's too late.

A praised movie, but really, only because it came out together with the failed 100 year celebration project from Disney, called Wish, because Leo really isn't that great.
Animals in it talk, no explanation given, some jokes are good, but none made me snicker, scenes and interactions are rushed, and the overall plot not one you'd deem entertaining. Or at the very least, not one I'd give to a cartoon animal. Even though it wasn't done badly.

Not until Leo leaves the classroom do things get a bit interesting, but when you think you're going to get some good life advice from this lizard, the movie cuts these home meetings short and just claims Leo has been helping the entire classroom for who knows many weeks.
Alright, but how about showing us that? His scenes with the children aren't even that long, you could've done that, easily.
But then again, would that make for an interesting movie plot. Maybe for an educational TV-series for kids, but we already have Sesame Street, so.

More distractingly, Leo is a musical and the songs are horrible. The singers tried their best, but many of the tracks sound like multiple melodies smushed together and the lyrics are average dribble. Did not like it.
Adam Sandler also made the strange decision of giving the main character, Leo himself, this stupid parody of an old person's voice. It's remarkably weird, because he's supposed to be a genuine character with genuine intentions. Why make fun of him? The voice became tolerable later on, though it certainly did not change my opinion on it.

To say I regret watching it would be going too far, but it also didn't enrich me. Leo has no rewatch value.


zaterdag 16 december 2023

(Average+) Vivy: Fluorite Eye's Song

Series in one sentence:
Hatsune Miku wants everyone to not die, just so she has an audience.

Series in more sentences:
A simple theme park robot is one day hacked by foreign software, who claims to come from the future and in need of her assistance stopping the war between humans and AI, expected to happen in 100 years.
Though not built for the task, Vivy is able to turn her directive of "making everyone happy with her singing" into the desire to protect and joins the strange robot, Matsumoto, on this quest of sabotaging their own kind's evolution.


An interesting story, many dramatic turns, not even the ending feels like much of an accomplishment, but I would've liked the series more if it weren't for all these characters and their confusing reasoning for why they did what they did.

None of the "changes" that Vivy and her partner make in the timeline are much of changes at all, yet 
square Wheatley calls it a day every time, whereafter he bails on Vivy for literal years until she's needed again. They are given no time to build a relationship, which is fair, they're robots, but we the viewers are not robots. I didn't like these massive time skips much. Wheatley won't even retreat inside her head to haunt her like he did at the start, he just erases himself from existence.
This cube is an absolute failure, he's not even able to figure out why the future refuses to change in any significant way. Maybe because you didn't do anything?

It's also shown that time travel can be done quite casually, no idea how, and so, what stops the villain from time travelling themselves and breaking Vivy in half on her day of birth?
I'm also not sure how the cure for stopping the robots is valid after travelling back in time to a point before that cure was given, because this cure is basically (or should be) the villain having added a string of code to all rampaging AI that allows them to pick up on the "cure", done so after the villain spoke with Vivy. Not a string of code applied to Vivy. There are many plot holes like these in the series.

..S
quare Wheatley also sounded alot like Kurosensei from Assassination Classroom, I could've sworn it was the same voice actor, but only spiritually, I suppose. He also talked way too fast, I struggled a fair bit reading the subtitles at certain times, which matters, because he spews out important information.


(Average) The Saint's Magic Power is Omnipotent

Series in one sentence:
"I got so distracted by all that talk about herbs and alchemy that I forgot to ask about the monster attacks.." ~Sei, perfectly summarizing this fucking anime's problem.

Series in more sentences:
An overworked office worker is suddenly transported to a different world, in need of a holy saviour. She spawns alongside another girl, who is believed to be their saint and thus welcomed by the prince, while the older and less charming Sei is assumed to be an accidental summon.

With no way to return home, Sei is forced to find a purpose for herself and settles on becoming a potion maker, satiating her interest in herbs. Whilst learning the ropes, people begin to think a mistake has been made, since her magical abilities far exceeds that of the girl under the prince's smothering care.

Stop talking. Stop talking about herbs. Stop talking about fucking herbs, you unbearably boring show. For what reason is this such an inexplicable borefest! Where are the monsters! Where's the drama! Someone die, please!

The ingredients for a cool story are there, but Saint's Magic rarely cares to get to the point. Instead, it shows you Sei going on and on about her lame interests and how to improve her skills for her lame interests. Get comfortable, because your stupid ass is going to listen to every word of it. Hope you weren't expecting, you know, an actual adventure in this isekai series that speaks of monster attacks.

Sei spends her days happily performing her yawn-inducing hobby that accidentally exposes how strong her magic abilities are. Her love for herbs and alchemy felt so random. The only thing you learn about her before she gets summoned is that she was overworked and lived by herself. How does someone like her even have the time to be involved with a hobby like that, or know how to cook using herbs? The overworked don't cook, they are microwave artists.

Sei is an excruciatingly boring character in all terms; personality, interests, and physical design. The latter is more or less on purpose, but then, couldn't you at least work on her personality?
Most episodes don't further the story in any meaningful way, and those that do, only have about a minute of actual development.

Stop fucking making healing potions all day, go out there and fight monsters, which you were summoned to do! Shit!

In one episode she complains about the food, making you think she landed in a world were spices and such don't exist or are not considered as a food condiment, but then she goes on a date with her bland blond boyfriend an episode later, and the shish kebab they buy in some random village is apparently "oishī" like every anime character shouts out when they eat anything at all.. so then, what is it? Is this an old-timey world where its food does not compare to the overprocessed snacks of today, or does this kitchen at this ROYAL PALACE not know how to cook? Some random village fool is better than trained chefs, appointed by the king, really? Sad.

The series tries to get better further on, episode 7 finally shook me awake and features the other saint. This girl is everything I hoped Sei would be.
Aira is confused, cries over having lost her old life, and at the very least somewhat questions her surroundings and its people. She doesn't just settle on doing some random hobby, smiling away as if she hasn't been kidnapped.
The prince promises to look for a way to get her back home, giving her a good reason to get her spirits up, in fact, this guy has more of a story arc than any of the male characters Sei interacts with.

And then the episode ends. Back to the sleeping medicine that is Sei's story. And don't worry, Aira's superior story receives the most anticlimactic end, so no reason to get too upset.
They do no one right in this series.

There are only a few battles Sei takes part in and they're all slow and boring. Every other battle is fought off-screen, whereafter the soldiers return, gravely wounded, because not even highly trained soldiers who were born and raised in this world can take on these uninspired monsters plaguing them without losing a hand.

Sei doesn't do anything of true importance the entire series long. She makes potions all day that are supposedly very good, but then, why do men still return beaten up from battle? Doesn't sound like her craftsmanship makes any real difference.

The ending would've been alot more impactful if it were the entire country that got destroyed in battle, and if Sei and the captain had shared more scenes together that didn't consist out of her bolting it out of embarrassment. These two really didn't hang out that much throughout the story.

There's no resolve for Aira, who once expressed wanting to leave and instead assumed the position of Hogwarts student, the prince who looked after her and had the most intriguing story despite his few minutes of screentime got completely erased from the story, and the friends Sei started off with also make no prominent return.
This was a non-adventure. The most empty isekai I've seen, and I've seen aplenty empty isekais.