Alan Taylor (10) (1959–)

The movie is terribly hampered by having all of the scenes providing depth and motivation to the villain cut entirely (the incomprehensible fact is they were filmed and are freely available as deleted scenes), leaving him a cardboard threat that I was never able to remotely care about. This leaves a huge vacuum at the centre of the film, which only partially is redeemed by the strong subplot concerning Thor and Loki's hugely compelling and entertaining relationship, and a good bit of show more genuinely fun humour. It is unfortunate, for a stronger villain (which they easily could have had with 10-15 minutes more running time to flesh him out) would have saved this film, rather than having it limp around in the weakest echelon of MCU installments (which, by all means, is still quite watchable). show less

Unfairly maligned. It's a bit overly glossy and shallow, to be sure, but compared to "Salvation", this is a solid, fun film. E. Clarke does a fine job as Sarah Connor (she even looks a bit like Hamilton) and the way the first film's continuity is revisited and revamped is almost Back to the Future-esque, in a good way. Some of the jokes land fairly well, J. K. Simmons is (as ever) fantastic, and Schwarzenegger gets to be funnier here than in any other Terminator film. Does it hold a candle show more to the original two? Heck, no. But it can probably stand shoulder to shoulder with the just-fine third one, and the main strike against it is simply all the loose ends it left hanging for the sequels they never got to make. show less

Nihilistic space elves want to destroy the universe.

The only reason to care about the character is because previous movies made him likable - which is enough to make the (mostly pretty good) action scenes work, which is in turn enough to make the movie entertaining.

Concept: F
Story: D
Characters: C
Dialog: C
Pacing: B
Cinematography: B
Special effects/design: B
Acting: C
Music: C

Enjoyment: C plus

GPA: 2.0/4

Various factions plot to gain political control over a fantasy world.

I'm reluctantly giving it an A instead of an A plus. I loved watching it, but there are a few major problems. Some key plot points are unexplained. Martin's obsession with incest is off-putting. Some of the villains are senselessly evil just for the sake of being villains (huge pet peeve of mine). Oddly, the biggest problem is that there is a ridiculous amount of gratuitous sex and nudity, to the point where it becomes show more funny. The general rule seems to be that if there's no good reason for characters to not be having sex during their scene, then what are their clothes still on for goddamnit? HBO viewers demand titties! Fantasy is always treading a fine line between immersing and silly, so a show like this that takes itself Very Seriously couldn't do much worse than give you a reason to laugh at it.

Concept: B
Story: B
Characters: A
Dialog: C
Pacing: B
Cinematography: C
Special effects/design: B
Acting: B
Music: D

Enjoyment: A

GPA: 2.8/4 show less