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Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (2024)

Ugh!

So, firstly I am a huge Ghostbuster fan. I had the toys in the 80's....watched the cartoons, had the movie sound track record. For a time even fell asleep to GB1 playing on the tv every night for a year. (don't judge me ;-))

This movie was a massive let down. Things I didn't like:

The movie grabbed ideas from the GB1&2 and just rehashed them. The containment unit breaks in GB1 (same here), the slime all over the city in GB2 (ice this time), city out to get the GB....

Overall casting...epic fail. Rudd always plays the same character, I am sure they could have found someone that would have fit into the lore better. New characters -> Why with the kids? This isn't stranger things. The 2016 GB movie was much better in this regard having adults (better story, tone, casting, bad guy, end battle etc...), I sorely wish that one had been done with continuity from the original movies instead of this mess. This whole "kids will save the day" needs to stay with movies specifically for kids. This alone ruined the new movies. If they can't make a movie with just adults, and expect good $, then just don't make it please.

Why is the one kid sidelined for being young, but the other 2 are like running the research center??

CGI villain? Fail. Even Zuul was better. The end battle was pathetic, and over in 2 minutes. A CG bad guy was a wrong move. We never even connect with the guy in any way.

There was no effort to show the impact the villain was really having, it was basically cut-to city is frozen

Teenage angst...not why I am watching a Ghostbusters movie! Maybe they should have done a spin-off movie "the kids of Ghostbusters" or something like that instead.

Kids always smarter then the adults

Overall plot? It was a bunch of shots, that I call "and then"...lack of flow

The ghost that took over things...lazy writing. A rip off of the positive slime dancing toaster\walking Statue, but just "it can take over things" lazy

Use of the original cast...what a waste.

The containment unit split open, but then magically fixes itself? Also, I think the city would still be in pretty big trouble if all the ghosts caught since 1984 were now roaming free.

And lastly, the kids...wait, sorry I mentioned that already.

What I liked:

I liked the easter eggs...they were put in well at least...like a person using the positive slim gun in the background.

Music...I loved hearing the original score pieces.

The Spoils of Babylon (2014)

It Truly Is Funny

Simply stated, the first 2 episodes of this mini-series have entertained me and made me laugh were very little else has of late.

There is a lightness and subtleness to the comedy that I really appreciate. The look, feel, lighting and soundtrack are perfect. Despite it being 2014, the use of models has a refreshing honesty.

I am not a huge Will Ferrell fan, but his intro\outros fit well. You do get tones of SNL. However, where SNL skits bore and wander, this show is continually moving.

When you consider the amount of tripe on TV from reality shows, laugh queue sitcoms, rich kid\witch\vampire\alien\werewolf\mutant teen melodramas and "learning" shows voiced by monster truck announcers over metal soundtracks...how can one not enjoy such a refreshing and creative 22 minutes of entertainment? Truly.

Robot Combat League (2013)

Stay Away

First and foremost, I have to ask, how exactly do you ruin fighting Robots? Thanks again Syfy, this is no Robot Wars!

The premise of this show is interesting enough. Two life size humanoid robots beating each other. Sounds like a win right? Wrong. Syfy fails miserably on the execution. As I like to do, I'll put the problems I have with this show in bullet points:

• Probably due to the lack of most TV views attention spans (or the perception of such), the editing in this show is manic. Fast cuts, heavy metal music, flash lighting. It is insane and there is no intelligence allowed.

• Advances in technology? You mean hydraulics is new? If these robots performed with electric motors without a tether, then we would be talking about some advanced technology...of course, we would also be watching million dollar Cylons destroy each other, and I doubt Syfy can afford that. Lay off the "advanced tech" spin...it is not needed for viewership.

• The participants are beyond annoying. There is no honesty and nothing feels natural (see original Robot Wars). They all behave exactly as you would expect on a show more about hype then the actual robots and their fighting. Constant insincere commentary from various teams during fight intermissions is bad enough to make you brains drip out of your ears.

• The robot "fights" are horrible and boring. It is painfully obvious that a pyro-technician is on set to trigger flashy sparks as deemed required. The only thing that stops these hydraulic creations is one single busted line, and (spoiler) from the three fights I managed to stomach, it is always the one in the arm. I'm pretty sure that either this is a design featured weak spot (easy to get knocked out and also easy to fix), or even worse, triggered by show staff to fail.

• 2 minutes of actually fighting, 8 minutes of fight related stuff (build-up\intermission), 17 minutes of commercials and the rest is filler just listening to the inane chatter of the "contestants". Awesome.

In the end, if you are like me, and love to see robots rip each-other apart, track down the old Robot Wars show. This show had real people, who were honestly interested in robotics, using knowledge and skill to create robotic weapons that would decimate each other using. It had speed, and a real sense of danger.

If this show makes it to season 2, here's some advice to the producers:

• Ditch the hype. Make this show honest and intelligent. - Assemble robotic teams, give them x amount of money and a base frame to build off-of. - No fake pyrotechnics - Ditch the spastic camera angles and quick shots, allow the views to see what they came to see, the robots fighting.

Or failing that, Just give us Robot Wars in 1080p.

...if they do this, we will come ;-)

Unchained Reaction (2012)

Great idea Discovery, but a definite fail on execution.

I should start by saying I am a fan of science shows in general, but this pretty bad. It suffers from "Discovery-isms". Gimmicky, fast cuts, hectic music and a constant tone of urgency. Anyone what watches BBC shows regularly will quickly be aggravated by the tone and mood of this show. Why does discovery think its science shows need to feel like monster-truck commercials? For the content of the show, it is disappointing. The basic premise is very interesting, but has several flaws in execution. The teams are creating competing Rube Goldberg devices each week, with a particular theme in mind. Unfortunately, there is no common end work that each machine is supposed to do. For example, one week it could be to get x amount of water into a glass, or to paint a particular object a certain colour. Both machines should have the same end goal, and this is a big fail.

The second fail of the show is the "themes" themselves. They really add nothing to the construction of the machines. Instead of a "speed" theme, restrictions such as: needed to use x number of balls in your machine, or not being able to use electricity in your machine etc... this would have far more effect on the designs, allowing more creativity in the machines.

Another issue is during the execution of the machines. Discovery needs to capture the action much better. Constant close-ups lead to rapid cuts which makes following the action harder. Perhaps have 2 views on the screen, where one is a wider angle pull-back, and the other more of a close-up. I'm sure it can be done better than it is on the show.

My last beef is with the myth busters hosts themselves. Watching them in their limited screen time on this show feels uncomfortable somehow. It has the air of selling out. They should have stayed completely behind the camera on this one. The guy they have come in to inspect the machines intermittently is also a bad choice. Wondering around like he just got out of bed, I have never seen a TV host that looks so uninterested, lifeless and pompous all at the same time. You'll want to change the channel just to avoid watching\listening to him.

Great idea Discovery, but a definite fail on execution.