Sneha Jaiswal's Blog, page 171
May 6, 2023
Citadel Season 1, Episode 3 Review
If there’s one thing that the makers of “Citadel” are getting right in the series so far, it’s the settings for the fight sequences. The series began with spies fighting on a luxurious train in Italy, which made for a dreamy backdrop. In episode three, the snowy peaks of the Alborz Mountains provide a stunning location, despite the protagonist’s lack of enthusiasm about going there. The plot and dialogues however are still pretty standard spy territory and not much fun. Will Manticore be able to get nuclear codes and trigger a war or will Citadel agents save the world?
Also Read: Citadel Ep 1 & 2 Review – Rather Run-off-the-mill
Titled ‘Infinite Shadows’, episode three shows viewers how Citadel’s top agents Mason Kane and Nadia Sinh met on-field during a dangerous mission. Richard Madden as Mason looks right out of an action video game, with exaggerated fight scenes that are “James Bond”/”Mission Impossible” style. Priyanka Chopra Jonas’ entrance was far more impressive despite being a lot more low key, her look as a Citadel agent is very Princess Leia like, although her outfit is eerily similar to a Stormtrooper. Both lead actors make suave spies, but their romantic sub-plot is not as convincing. At least not yet. Stanley Tucci as Bernard Orlick, the tech-mastermind of Citadel is turning out to be an intriguing character with impressive guts.
The cinematography is visually engaging so far, except for some inverted shots that are probably supposed to be artistic but are very annoying to look. For example, episode one begins with an upside down look at the train’s interior and slowly the camera rotates to make things appear as they should be. Episode three also has two such scenes and they just make my head spin, not in a good way. While this edition doesn’t do much to top the first two, it remains quite entertaining.
You can stream “Citadel” on Amazon Prime.
May 5, 2023
DCeased Review – Perfect for Horror/Dystopian Fans!
I absolutely loved the six-issue comic book series “DCeased” by Tom Taylor, Trevor Hairsine, Stefano Gaudioan, and Rain Beredo. Although the plot is not entirely original, as it follows a similar storyline to most zombie apocalypse tales, it was still a thrilling experience for horror fans to watch DC superheroes fight against a deadly virus that claims even the most powerful of them. I highly recommend reading the collected edition of this series as it is a page-turner.
Unlike Marvel’s own zombie themed episode in “What If…” which saw superheros turn into brainless biters, DC’s “DCeased” comes with a technological basis of the apocalypse, so those affected aren’t actually zombies. The virus is transmitted through phone screens and blood exchange, and those infected are not interested in eating the survivors but rather killing them. Louis Lane narrates this ‘end of earth’ story which methodically unravels, with world heroes desperately strategizing how to beat the virus before it kills everybody.
The artwork is absolutely FANTASTIC, a lot of panels stand-out and would make great phone wallpapers. However, the series does have a drawback as it is loaded with references that only hardcore DC fans would understand. While popular characters such as Batman and Superman are featured, lesser-known names like Plastic Man and The Atom also make appearances. Nonetheless, the comic book packs in plenty of action with lots of blood, killing, and hordes of the undead.
It’s a 4.5 on 5 from me!
May 4, 2023
Tu Jhoothi Main Makkaar Review – Thoda Cute, Kaafi Cringe
“Tu Jhoothi Main Makkaar” has such a pretentious start, you really have to soldier through the BS to get to the watchable and mildly entertaining parts.
Directed by Luv Ranjan, who co-wrote the script with Rahul Mody, “Tu Jhoothi Main Makkar” stars Ranbir Kapoor as Mickey, a Delhi boy who runs multiple businesses, including a side-hustle with his best friend Dabbas that involves helping people break up with their partners. However, Mickey’s own romantic life gets complicated when he falls in love with Tinni (Shraddha Kapoor), and the two bizarrely decide to get married within a week of meeting. Yeah, many things in the story are farcical. Sure, some people don’t even meet before they decide to tie the knot in India, but the characters’ decisions in this film don’t align with their portrayed personalities.
Luv Ranjan and his team try to cram in several “Pyaar Ka Punchnama” style rants by their characters, which are simply annoying. There’s very little originality in the script; even the “break-up” business idea isn’t new (“The Break-Up Artist,” “The Breaker Upperers” to name a few), and many of the dialogues sound like they were written for a stage play instead of the big screen. Mickey and Tinni’s “meet cute” is barely interesting, and many of their subsequent interactions are cringe-worthy. Even though Ranbir and Shraddha look great together, their on-screen chemistry shuffles between adorable and awkward. The elements that work for this script are some of its themes, although they are oversimplified and glossed over. For instance, the very real problem of modern couples choosing to ghost their partners or find the easiest way out of a relationship instead of having an honest conversation about their problems.
At two hours and thirty minutes, this romantic comedy is at least an hour too long, with jokes so bad that you would laugh at the writers’ idea of comedy rather than the supposed funny scenes. For instance, they think showing a little girl (probably just ten years old) drinking alcohol with her uncles would garner laughs. The climax was chaotically cliched, if one started to make a list of romantic movies with similar endings, there would be an entire book to read. Interestingly, a post climax song featuring Mickey’s family was a lot sweeter than the entire plot of “Tu Jhoothi Main Makkaar”.
It’s a 5 on 10 from me. You can stream it on Netflix.
May 3, 2023
Six Reasons to Read ‘Scott Pilgrim’
Like comics, video games, pop culture references and puns? But haven’t read the six volume “Scott Pilgrim” comic book series by Bryan Lee O’Malley yet? We give you six reasons why the six volume is an absolute fun ride for some readers.
Listen to our podcast’s latest edition and do remember to subscribe.
BTW – The color editions are available to read on Kindle Unlimited.
Queens on the Run Review – Not Much Fun
What happens when four friends decide to take an impromptu road trip without telling anybody about it? Apparently – absolute chaos.
Directed by Jorge Macaya, the 2023 Netflix movie “Queens on the Run” (Fuga de Reinas) stars Martha Higareda, who has also written the script for this girls-trip comedy. While Martha plays the trophy wife of a politician who keeps making her undergo the knife to look perfect, actors Paola Núñez, Alejandra Ambrosi, and Valeria Vera join her as fellow friends who aren’t too happy with their personal lives and decide they deserve a fun road adventure.
While “Queens on the Run” does have a few funny moments, it gets chaotically clichéd, with recycled jokes and madness that isn’t all that entertaining to watch. All the four leads, who play characters in their late 30s or early 40s (an exact age isn’t mentioned, but there are constant jokes about how they are not young and hot anymore), behave like annoying children for most of the runtime. Besides, for a women-led film that’s about letting your hair back and relaxing, the conversations are heavily centered around men.
Despite its crisp runtime, the script gets slow and mundane fast. From meeting hookers, hippies, mafia and who the hell not, overall, “Queens on the Run” is extremely random, and not the great kinds. Depending on your mood, you may or may not find it as comedic as it tries to be.
It’s a 4 on 10 from me. You can stream the film on Netflix.
May 2, 2023
Demon Slayer Swordsmith Village Arc – Ep 4 Review
Ow! Ow! and Ow again!
Tanjiro is brutally beaten by demons within a few seconds of his appearance in Episode four of “Swordsmith Village Arc”, it makes all of your worries from the last one justified. Poor chap had barely recovered from the last time his gang was attacked. I definitely wanted to see a lot of action, so in terms of fighting, this episode was engrossing as hell, at the same time, you can’t help but worry about the protagonists. There aren’t enough slayers to deal with two top tier demons rampaging through the village and everybody bleeds like they are soon going to die from their wounds.
Also Read: Demon Slayer Swordsmith Village Arc – Ep 1 Review
Titled “Thank You, Tokito”, the episode begins with Muichiro running back to the scene of action after he was blown across the village by one of Hantengu’s clone. Shocked by the demon’s rejuvenating powers, Tanjiro, Nezuko and Genya lead a desperate bloody battle to defeat the monsters. Packed with fast-paced action sequences, episode four will keep viewers on the edge of their seats with its gory, violent slicing and dicing. There’s so much blood spouting in this episode that the anime could give “Evil Dead” movies a run for their money.
There’s only one slight problem with this edition and its Tanjiro’s endless thoughts, his head voice constantly explains everything, which disrupts the tense battle scenes. However, it’s still a lot less than his overdone monologues during the clashes in “Entertainment District”. Overall, it was an entertaining edition, which ends with the promise of a fun next episode.
Stream the series on Netflix.
“Future” – Quick Series Review
A senior dentistry student has a massive crush on a junior from the engineering department. In a miraculous turn of events, the engineering student walks into the former’s father’s clinic, complains about being single and the two end up agreeing to date each other. That’s basically the plot of 2023 Thai series “Future” starring Boom Natthapat Chanchaisombat as Fuse, the single engineering student who seriously begins pursuing shy senior Ana (Bigboom Jirayu Sahguansin) after their first interaction.
Directed by Niink Karnpicha Sinlertpattana, “Future” is only six episodes long. Despite its short runtime, the story fails to become interesting, funny, or engaging in any possible way. There’s very little chemistry between the lead pair, Fuse and Ana. Moreover, their characters keep getting jealous and sulky over nonsensical things. The two had smaller roles in the 2022 series “Love Mechanics”, which focused on the romance between characters called Vee and Mark. Since “Future” is set in the same universe with the same set of friends, the characters keep talking about Vee and Mark, even though the two never appear in the series. That was just bizarre and hilarious.
The writers make things move at an absurdly fast pace. There’s rivalry, jealousy, and even the boys’ parents are pushed into the picture, even though they’ve barely started seeing each other. After watching five episodes, I just gave up and skipped the finale. It was hard to be interested in this badly written series, which is further pulled down by mediocre, forgettable performances.
While I wouldn’t recommend “Future”, you can stream the series on YouTube.
May 1, 2023
The Twisted Tree – Book Review
When I started reading the fantasy-fiction novel “The Twisted Tree” by Rachel Burge, I thought the protagonist was in her late 20s or early 30s. However, as the story progressed, the seventeen-year-old Martha started to sound like an immature teen struggling to come to terms with her newly discovered power of reading people’s past and thoughts when she touches their clothes. But she is usually more concerned about how the loss of one eye in a freak accident has made her “ugly.”
As the title suggests, “The Twisted Tree” revolves around a mysterious tree growing outside Martha’s mormor’s (Norwegian for grandma) cabin. Martha lives in the UK with her divorced mum and visits her beloved mormor in Norway, claiming she is going to her dad’s. However, when she arrives in her snowy, isolated Norwegian village, she finds a strange boy at her mormor’s cabin. To make things worse, the dead may be rising from the tree outside her cabin, and Martha needs to find a way to fight them.
While the primary premise of the novel is very interesting, author Rachel Burge borrows elements from Norse mythology to make the story so grand in scale, that the unfolding events feel extremely underwhelming. Most of the plot revolves around Martha and the stranger boy who she meets and a very ridiculous romance brews between the two. Ridiculous because it just doesn’t blend well with the circumstances or mood of the larger conflicts. The love story against the horror-fantasy themes is superficial, with zero chemistry between the characters. Martha likes the boy because he is “hot”, boy likes Martha because he has a thing for weird chicks, or maybe simply because he is a hormonal 17-year-old trapped in the middle of nowhere with only one available girl.
One of the climactic scenes was eerily similar to a sequence in Harry Potter where he uses a Patronus Charm against dementors. Although I haven’t read or seen anything related to Harry Potter since 2007, I still noticed the similarities. Some parts of the book were enjoyable, so I will be slightly generous with my rating.
It’s a 3 on 5 from me. You can read the ebook on Kindle Unlimited.
‘Sweet Tooth’ 2 – No dessert, but binge-worthy!
By Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)
The deer-like Christian Convery made viewers fall in love with his character Gus in Netflix’s “Sweet Tooth” when it came out in 2021. And while its sequel isn’t as sweet or bright as the first season, fans of the comic-book series will be thrilled with the darker themes and tones, which are more faithful to Jeff Lemire’s original work.
Quick Recap: Gus lives in a world where hybrid children, half-human and half-animal, are born, and no one knows if they are the cause or result of the pandemic known as ‘the sick’, which killed 98% of the world population. After his father’s death, Gus embarks on an epic adventure to find his mother and befriends two loyal companions: Tommy Jepperd (Nonso Anozie), a big man, and Bear (Stefania LaVie Owen), the former leader of the animal army. However, at the end of season one, Gus is captured by evil men and taken to a sanctuary run by Aimee Eden (Dania Ramirez), where he finds himself with other hybrid children. Unfortunately, their sanctuary has been taken over by ‘The Last Men,’ led by the villainous General Abbot (Neil Sandilands), who expects Dr Aditya Singh (Adeel Akhtar) to find a cure for the pandemic using the cells of hybrid children. The season ends with Gus and his new friends facing the possibility of becoming subjects of horrifying experiments. Will they survive?
Season two opens with a mysterious sequence of Birdy (Amy Seimetz) searching for something in snowy Alaska. Meanwhile, at the zoo, the adorable Wendy (Naledi Murray) introduces Gus to her hybrid siblings, and they try to find ways to escape from the clutches of the bad men who treat them like lab rats meant to be dissected. Some of the special effects involving the hybrid children were awkward, but overall, the cinematography remains visually engaging. Although we don’t get many breathtaking outdoor landscape scenes like in the first season.
Interspersed with flashbacks to help explain how the pandemic and hybrids came to be, the sequel adds heft to all its sub-plots and secondary characters. Friendship and family bonds are the most prominent themes in the second season and in an interesting addition, even the despicable General Abbot gets to share stories of his loved ones. Dania Ramirez delivers the most emotionally moving performance as Aimee Eden, she is like a tigress mum determined to save all her cubs come what may from Abbot’s men. Two reunion scenes in this season gave me literal goosebumps, they were so good that one could give this show an A+ report card just for those poignant moments. Stefania LaVie Owen as Bear is another selfless character, a feisty teen who is ready to risk it all, just so she can find her way back to Gus and give him a message from his mom. Christian Convery as the titular star doesn’t get as much screen presence, but continues to be the thread that bind every sub-plot together in this ambitious fantasy story.
There are some dark and tragic revelations made about Jepperd, a morally ambiguous character who constantly makes poor choices in life. His only redemption is his unwavering determination to save Gus, but even in doing so, he engages in questionable actions. On the other hand, Adeel Akhtar and Aliza Vellani, who portray the Singhs, offer the most morally challenging questions in the show. Are a few lives worth sacrificing to save the majority? They represent both the best and worst in humanity, particularly Adeel Akhtar’s Dr Aditya Singh, a “good” doctor reduced to slaughtering children for the sake of science.
Even though a lot of the sequels ingredients didn’t stand out as much, the eight episodes were absolutely gripping and I couldn’t help but stream one episode after another. Some fans might not be amused by the depressing tone of this season, but it’s definitely a binge-worthy watch for those who love dark dystopian fiction.
It’s a 8.5 on 10 from me. Stream the show on Netflix.
April 30, 2023
Scott Pilgrim Volume 6 Review
“Scott Pilgrim’s Finest Hour” is the sixth and final volume of Bryan Lee O’Malley’s comic book series, which tells the story of a man-child’s quest to defeat seven evil exes of the girl he loves. But Scott’s sort of been ghosted by Ramona Flowers, but looks like he still has to face her seventh evil ex-boyfriend, Gideon, who is the most villainous of them all.
As with the previous volumes, this edition is chaotic, comical, and outlandish. However, it falls short as a finale, lacking the character development readers might hope for in Scott. He remains a lost and confused 24-year-old who runs away from problems while relying on his kind friends to clean up his mess. Ramon Flowers is pretty much the same, which is why a lot of secondary character keep quipping that the two deserve each other.
Also Read: Scott Pilgrim Volume Five Review
Despite this, the series’ appeal lies in Scott’s relatable flaws and his adventures in a game-like world where he fights and defeats other men. The unrealistic nature of the series, coupled with Scott’s loser personality, makes it an engaging read. I mean, it’s the kind of world, where you could die and come back to live because you earned an “extra life” in a well fought battle. Plus, Scott is the kind of protagonist that will make most readers feel better about their own personalities.
The climactic face-off between Scott and Gideon is a quick, bloody, and bizarre spectacle. Readers are treated to a hilarious reveal of how the league of evil exes was formed, and just how messed up Gideon truly is. The finale is a fitting end to the story that unfolds throughout the series. Despite the characters’ partial confrontations of their issues, they often remain escapists, reflecting the realistic struggles of young adulthood. While I would have liked to see better story arcs for Kim Pine, Wallace, and a few other characters, it’s important to remember that the series is titled “Scott Pilgrim” for a reason – it’s primarily about Scott’s journey. Definitely worth a read if you’re looking for pure mindless entertainment.
It’s a 3.5 on 5 from me. You can also find the comics on Kindle Unlimited.
