Comment Stream

Re: ORV S1: Into the Fold

While I respect Jammer's reviews, I don't agree with this one. I thought this episode was fine as a strong character story based around the doctor and her family.

To me, the kids weren't annoying. They were kids. Kids act out. It's a part of the developmental stage of human beings and when two siblings are involved, there is an inherent social pecking order involved that can cause this kind of friction between them. Truth is, I hate shows where kids are portrayed as tiny adults in a well-behaved manner; because it seems completely fake.

As far as the doctor, I thought the best part of the episode was that she was driven to get back to her kids (most mothers would be), and opted to take whatever measures were necessary. If this meant stabbing a guy so that he couldn't track her down and force her back into captivity, that's what she decided to do, and she wasn't indecisive about it. This is why she killed two different people to get back to her children. But, despite what she did, she still wanted to instill a sense of what was right in her own children and told her son that killing wasn't acceptable. To me, this isn't bad writing, this is realistic character portrayal.

Isaac was great. I disagree that it was a mistake to have his face covered. Good actors can carry the weight of their character even when they can't use facial expressions. So much can be conveyed with head tilts and hand gestures and vocal leanings, and a good actor can still humanize even a robotic character with just these traits.

It's not the best story in the series so far or anything, but a decently good episode that serves its purpose. Not every story needs a twist. Too many twists make the twists predictable (something that the TV show "24" suffered from, when every fifteen minutes there was a new twist just for the sake of having one). Playing a story straight can work fine.

Re: ORV S1: Majority Rule

I continue to love this show with each episode. This one was weaker than the last, but "Krill" was a really good episode and I suspected it would be hard to follow. Even still, this episode entertained me the entire time, and that's all I can really ask.

This is the Star Trek I didn't even know I wanted. Who would have thought that a funny knockoff version of Star Trek with Seth McFarlane could work so well? Not this guy. But count me in as a true believer. I hope it gets seven seasons.

And honestly, I need this kind of pure Star Trek-like entertainment after Discovery, which lost me after about four episodes. Thank goodness for The Orville.

Re: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

I hated this film. The characters were flat and uninteresting. There's no depth or character building, and it's hard to care when you don't know anything about the people central to the story.

By contrast, The Force Awakens told us a great deal about Rey within the first half an hour, just as A New Hope showed us who Luke was before the action started. In this movie, all I know is someone's father was killed, but I can't tell you a thing about who she has become or why anyone should care so many years after the fact.

There's way too much fan service without substance. We didn't need a pointless scene where someone bumps into a minor character from A New Hope that doesn't lead anywhere. We didn't need a fake and plastic looking CGI Tarkin and Leia. What we needed were clear motivations and real characters with emotion.

Darth Vader was portrayed completely wrong. Sure, his lightsaber antics at the end are badass, and I could watch that scene all day long, but he still didn't feel like Vader, even with James Earl Jones voicing him.

There were a ton of consistency errors, some of which have been mentioned above and others that weren't. They bug me more than I can stand, and are far worse than any consistency shenanigans that went on during the prequels. Nothing here enhances episode IV in any way.

And, honestly, was this a story that needed to be told? Wasn't the first paragraph of the opening crawl of A New Hope enough to convey what happened?

This will be the one Star Wars movie that won't be in my collection.

Re: Star Wars: The Phantom Menace

I must be in the minority. I loved Phantom Menace when I saw it at the theater and still love it to this day (I actually feel "Attack of the Clones" was the worst of the prequels due to it's horrid pacing and terribly forced love story). And in case you think I was a child when I saw it, I wasn't...I was 31 years old when it came out...I was a child when "A New Hope" hit theaters in 1977.

There was something in that movie that took me straight back to my childhood. I didn't even hate Jar Jar...but I think I understood from the beginning that he was there to appeal to children and he didn't bother me. So, unlike most of the world, I loved The Phantom Menace...and I feel blessed to feel that way. I went and saw it at the theater 7 times upon release. I just couldn't get enough of it.

I'm sorry others don't enjoy it on that level, but I guess it all evens out since I can't stand to sit through Attack of the Clones.

Re: TNG S1: When the Bough Breaks

What I don't get is this:

When faced with the problem given the planet, why did neither the inhabitants nor the Enterprise crew make the suggestion that perhaps they could adopt orphans in order to give them a good home? Or, perhaps, announce that they would take in settlers to their planet in return for the children of the settlers being taught to carry on their society? Certainly there are people out there looking for a home (what happened to the colony that they had to move during "Justice?")

I didn't have a problem with the episode or it's execution, but the fact that none of them suggested a less confrontational option was kind of silly.