Reviews
CSI: Cyber (2015)
Not even an ethically gray area
Not considering anything else, near the end of the first episode, the police run two adults and a baby into the water. An agent then dives in to save the baby, and basically lets the adults drown.
And they look quite happy about it.
Even if these people were in fact criminals, they certainly do not deserve to be murdered by the police. They also almost kill the baby through their actions. Especially if they have the GPS to the allegedly abducted baby (and they do not even know whether these adults were in this mess in any way), they could have just driven them down later, or just stopped them at the airport or whatever.
Highly objectionable. I can only hope no law enforcement agency will ever operate in such a way.
The writing for the series seems very poor so far. I also really didn't care of the special effects between the scenes, but perhaps I just don't find them very 'CSI-ey'.
I will probably revise this review when the next episode airs.
Into the Woods (2014)
A performance driven product
The complete product (the movie) notwithstanding, this product deserves a 10 just for the performances of the actors and their singing. However, the movie's totality does have some holes.
I found the acting to be top-notch, and the singing to be so marvelous that I found myself listening to the opening song over and over ("I wish...").
A movie is greater than the sum of its parts, and in this case, the whole is diminished, but certainly: the actors and sound are not to blame.
There is no good way to rate a product such as this.
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (2013)
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s writers have no understanding of the universe we live in
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. has many features, and unfortunately many of those are negative: Character development is fairly non-existent, and worse: characters make choices that go against their core being, and not as a plot device or a personal dilemma; just casually and with no apparent reason. For me the worst offender was however that apparently no knowledgeable individuals slash scientists were contacted about anything, giving frequent rise to weird impossibilities of the caliber "Shooting at a nuclear fission device that has already detonated to make the explosion stop".
It's not horrible to watch, but there should have been more, it should have been (much) better. It's a 15-year-old high-school drop-out's story, where the Sun is still on fire, the Moon produces light, and shooting at problems makes them go away.
Brave New World with Stephen Hawking (2011)
Excellent science television
This (all too short) series is exactly what television today is lacking. The Learning Channel (TLC) has nothing you can learn. Discovery channel is suddenly all about the supernatural and ghosts. You're lucky if you find anything except sad puppies and Cesar Milan on National Geographic; certainly not anything geographic.
This show manages to distill down some advanced principles of reality into a digestible format that still intrigues and tickles the mind of the viewer. It being narrated by an icon such as Stephen Hawking makes it all the more worthwhile.
It is not afraid to confront people with their idiotic and downright delusional believes, with the evidence to back it up.
I highly recommend this series to anyone that loves to learn anything about the world.
G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra (2009)
Awful movie with idiotic villainy
This review contains spoilers.
You'd think after so many years of making horrible villains with obvious mental deficits, there'd be a new wave. This movie certainly was not refreshing at that point at all. Case in point:
+ Villains capture doomsday weapon, with a kill-switch. They are about to be seized, manage to turn one of the weapons live, but don't destroy the kill-switch.
+ Villains capture good guy. Fail to kill said good guy.
It's just not realistic at all. And then there's still the stupid plots with women being swept away by cocky men they just met a day. Trained military experts. Right...
Red Planet (2000)
Failed attempt at realism, too much god, not enough science
While I found the characters generally likable, the movie spends too much time with useless pondering about god, while not even attempting to justify it (eg., the philosopher character claims that science has no answers to the interesting questions, but never mentions what these questions are) Additionally the ship they ride is highly unrealistic in its design, even the redundancy we build into all our spacecraft now is apparently lost in the near future. Electronics are apparently also catastrophically lacking any kind of shielding from the radiation we know is hazardous in space.
This movie would have been more successful if they had consulted with some actual scientists about the workings of reality.
Signs (2002)
Horrible plot with a worse background
This movie should not even be anywhere near the rating it currently has; it's so far away from the reality it attempts to emulate it almost made me cry: a) Aliens being hurt by the most common molecular substance in the universe - that's just not very feasible to begin with; never mind the moisture in the air etc.
b) Aliens sending over their infantry because we'd otherwise use nukes to fight them? Why wouldn't we do that when they send infantry. Not to mention the movie later comments that they'll be back in a hundred or a thousand years. Which is plenty of time for a lot of radioactivity to subside - never mind that if they are so allergic to water, what reasoning does the author have for them to not be able to use the planet while it is mildly radioactive? Chernobyl is still operated also.
c) Aliens sending infantry? They could just hurdle a few big rocks from outer space, we'd be none the wiser, still dead, and there'd be no radioactivity to speak of.
To name a few of the hurdles. Not to mention the silly children being angry because their daddy questions the authority of the discredited 'scientists'.
If there's anything unworldly - it's this movie itself...
Quantum Apocalypse (2010)
Horrible movie, do not recommend it: no science, no eye candy, bad acting
The movie opened decent enough, with the actor for the mayor of the town (in my opinion) setting down some decent back story and sympathy. I started catching on just how bad this movie was around the time they first tried to do 'science' talk.
The script writer's science understanding seems to be at the creationist level at best, probably worse: trying to change the planet's axis or orbit by detonating as many nuclear weaponry at the North Pole as possible. Complete bullshit.
Characters also make chains of horrible decisions, such as throwing a car over injured people, instead of putting it back down / throwing it the other way.
On the overall acting: I personally liked acting for the father (mayor), and the uncle (autist). The rest could hardly be called meager even.
On the overall effects: Could be rendered better on your home computer. Horrible examples include the rockets fired at the North Pole (and their detonation) and the gravitational anomalies.
On the overall plot: Standard completely implausible 'what-if' scenario. What if the paper I will soon write my homework on suddenly disappears? Not going to happen, not made plausible.
Meteor (2009)
Worst movie ever...
This movie makes Ben Stein's creation 'Expelled' look like cutting edge science. It also makes Ben Stein look like a genius.
The movie jumps from one ludicrously idiotic decision to another. For instance the professor that found the meteor apparently has crucial data on it that no one else has. It never strikes his mind to make a copy. Or e-mail it. Or anything a normal person would do.
Instead he goes on a day long car drive after exclaiming the meteor will hit in perhaps a day...
After he gets killed stupidly, his assistant manages to hitch a ride with a truck. She never tells the driver anything, and when he decides he wants to be with his family, she's like: "Oh sure, go be with your family, I'll find my way there". Apparently ignorant to the fact that they'll all be INCINERATED if she doesn't get there fast...
Beyond this, the script writer probably can't even spell the word science (For the love of god, they try to 'obliterate' a moon sized rock with SAM missiles... In the atmosphere?!). And yes. It gets worse.
I don't know how I managed to watch (read: survive) this entire movie, but I strongly suggest you do not try to as well.
As a last minute edit, in line with other reviewers, I too believe that the actors made the very best they could of this movie. The acting was quite decent!