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Reviews
The Last Ship (2014)
Spoiler: Michael Bay is here!
TL;DR: Avoid the show if possible, how about watch Walking Dead again?
I'm a huge fan of sci-fi and post apocalyptic shows. This one is easily the worst. I don't really care if it's sponsored by US Navy, as long as the story is good. I don't really care if it's too USA-centric, as long as the characters make sense. Unfortunately, with Michael Bay on board, story and the development of characters are just not possible. (OK, to be fair, Michael Bay did have a good one, Bad Boy I, decades ago)
The basic idea is lack of consideration. A full crew of a warship, fully loaded, led by the always-right, forever-smart, Christ-like-righteousness Captain is not the brightest plot. The whole idea of post-apocalyptic is to explore humanity under extreme circumstances. The show takes all that away.
The characters are so 1 dimensional. With all the equipments and manpower the Captain has in hand , why he never thinks of taking over the world? if he really cares about his crew, why not sends teams to rescue families of every member? There are so many options he has but he just remains a standard US Navy good guy like nothing really happened to the whole world.
There is no surprise, at all. Viewers expect surprises from shows, something out of mind but makes sense. I'm at ep06 and got nil so far. Even the bad guys are boring. Come on, it's 2014 and Russians still the bad guys, Why not Chinese? (I'm Chinese, I don't mind at all!)
3 points given to the military lingo, it's the only fun part!
Earth: Final Conflict (1997)
Someone will pick it up from the end of S1
As many commenters have said, the S1 is truly genius and the rest can be ignored.
Except the well planed characters, lots of social-psychology thinking, actually what I really like is the overall taste/style of S1. It's more like a slow and idea provoking poem rather than a bloody fighting modern story.
I watched S1 around 2002. Then seek the rest like crazy. However, after I finally got all the rest, I even fell in sleep while watching! really. Like Steve Jobs' commented on Microsoft: the only problem is that it simply has no taste, not in the small way, but a big way.
I think the only positive thing in S2-S5 is that Agent Sandaval survives till the end: he rocks!
Tau ming chong (2007)
Nobody gets it right?
Read some of the comments and my feeling is that nobody gets the idea right. Let's start from the question: why Pang Qingyun(Jet Li) betrayed his brothers?
* Because of the poor looking Lian(Xu Jinglei)? Maybe. At the beginning of the movie, Pang and Lian developed kind of patient-nurse + one night stand relationship. Apparently they maintain the relationship and further extend it. It could be a good cause in a 3rd rate production.
* Because of the potential political competition among the three brothers? Maybe. Around the 3/4 of the movie, after the three brothers successfully swept Taiping Rebellion in NanJing, the back stage political bosses want balance. It could be a reasonable explanation for a conspiracy theory movie.
* My explanation is the ambition of Pang. Don't get me wrong. The ambition is about bring back peaceful lives back to normal people. He is willing to sacrifice his two blood-oath brothers for the general good of his people. I guess it's something westerners can't easily understand. Who authorizes him to sacrifice his brothers, thousands of POW, and even himself for some vague idea of "people"?
This movie serves a good footnote for the Hero (directed by Zhang Yimou). In both movies, the directors tried to tell stories from a very Chinese eyes: heroes are those who sacrifice for something huge: the unification of China, and basic living of common people. As Chinese, i feel they are more worthy of dying for than freedom, human right, etc.
The Bourne Ultimatum (2007)
Best American Action Film
Back to days when I was in university, I was used to spend $0.80 to watch 3 action movies a day, in China. I am spoiled by good ones, especially great action movies directed by John Woo. For a long time, I don't think Hollywood really know how to make good action movies except spending money in CGI, inventing imaginary hitech weapons(like in Bond films), or showing muscles. The problem I have with those movies is that those directors simply did not respect audiences' intelligences, in terms of concentrating on action exhibition without wishes to say something more. Paul Greengrass certainly inverted the prejudice. The shaky technique is now a Bourne movies' trademark to drag audiences into the situation. However, it's not the point I like most. I think he is a good director knows rhythm. He carefully controls the time he could express some his own feelings like sympathy, and leave enough spaces for audiences. About the ending, although it's an old trick, I still have to say it's really well-done, especially in terms of establishing the connection with the beginning of the whole trilogy. From my point of view, it's the all time best action movie made in Hollywood. Good job, Greengrass. Well done, Hollywood!