roblawrence1

Started watching FWD with high expectations and enthusiasm. The premise of seeing the 'early times' of the outbreak was intriguing. Sadly, I was never able to adjust and get comfortable with the change in cultural perspective of the Clark/Manawa group. For years I had been conditioned by the 'helping, hospitality ethos of the south' as portrayed by Rick and the group. They were the good guys; spreading hope and humanity as they moved between settlements. FWD point of view was coming from the 'LA extreme Narcissism'. Watching the Clark/Manawa group enter settlements like a parasitic virus became unnerving after a while. My empathy wasn't for the main characters, but for the others they stumbled upon. Actually, mid season 3 was it, I stopped watching. Recently, I started watching Season 4. The season started with new characters (except Morgan), new geography, new timeline (fast forwarded to Rick's time) and the original characters all got re-writes. The team of season 4 writers put together an excellent, well thought out, well orchestrated series of episodes which don't compare with the previous three seasons. I'm back on board!

I really wasn't expecting to like the movie, so throughout the time watching, i was pleasantly surprised. Loved the use of models and clay animation, gave the movie a quaint, second movie at the drive-in feel. An all around good vibe happening from this flick.

Funny how times/perceptions change over time. Last night while watching the movie I commented to my kids how it's really not a bad movie. IMDb gave it 1.9 stars, which I thought was disingenuous. The movie had a definite campy feel of a late 70's made-for-TV movie/miniseries. The writer pulled together familiar and loved Sci-Fi plots like The Day the Earth Stood Still, Twilight Zone episode To Serve Man, V, Independence Day and the aliens sounded like Dalek's! There was even a touch of Mars Attacks. For all intents and purposes it should have appealed to much wider band of Sci-Fi aficionados. My kids were mainly watching for awful CGI and they felt a little let down. Overall, the movie was either made 40 years too late or the writer was paying homage to the TV movies he grew up with.