gordonthegorilla

The Boys really turns the superhero biz inside out. Hilariously disgusting adventures abound, yet there's still a lot of heart to the show. Great characters & character dynamics. Antony Starr as Homelander is brilliant. I really love seasons 1 & 2. Season 3 is also excellent. The vibe is slightly different, but still super enjoyable.

I don't know what to make of season 4. It had been a well balanced show - there were always political parallels but they were more in the background. They gave the show a nice bit of weight without being too in your face. That balance is off in season 4. Also, most of the characters have been given depressing storylines - where did all the fun go?

Half the show feels on-brand & delivers all the craziness, filth & brutality you have come to expect. The other half feels very soap opera-ish with abundant lame blah blah blah. I'm guessing that scripts were rushed through as a result of last year's writers' strike. In the past The Boys would avoid such cliche stuff.

Hopefully things recover in season 5 so The Boys can go out with a great final season!

I really enjoyed The Orbital Children. It has the adventurous spirit of old fashioned science fiction, but takes place in a futuristic high tech setting. The story focuses on a group of kids who find themselves in a difficult situation inside a space station orbiting the earth.

Visually it is excellent, as you'd expect from Mitsuo Iso, an absolute legend of Japanese animation. Really nice painterly backgrounds, interesting shot choices, cool designs & high quality animation. Storywise there are a lot of technical details to absorb, but it worked for me. I liked the characters & found it very engaging. Tonewise there was a nice mix of seriousness & silliness.

You could safely show this to kids without worrying about the kind of violence or sexual content which anime often contains, but the only issue might be the density of the story. I imagine it would be hard for the average kid to process. In that regard Orbital Children is similar to Iso's previous anime show Dennou Coil, which is also a brilliant piece of work, but requires a good attention span to enjoy fully.

If a highly detailed, wholesome, space adventure anime is what you're after then Orbital Children is for you!

The story here is what you expect. Like a jazz trumpet solo. Whatever. Just go with the flow & don't expect to grasp everything. Way too long though.

I'm not a huge fan of the new character designs. It looks like they've made the chins all pointier, sort of jutting out too.

I am a diehard fan of the original TV series. The heavy drama & spectacular action. The sense of scale & power. Just awesome. In my mind there's a definite 'Evangelion Look'.

At times the film really nails that look & it is quite awesome to watch. Grand scale spectacular action, with high budget cinematic polish & modern day animation techniques.

Unfortunately there is also some stuff which just plain looks bad. There's a certain scene which should have been epic, but sucks because it looks like an unfinished computer game.

Some scenes later in the film suffer from having a really 'off' style. There is more lame computer game looking animation too.

Music choices throughout the film often feel 'off' too.

I really wanted to like this film. There is plenty of terrific, high quality animation on display. But there are also some artistic choices that will make you cringe.

I'm not pumped about this film, but I don't hate it either.