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Hobbes and Shaw


What I liked: I liked that we finally have an explanation for why all the main characters are impervious to bullets: super lightweight bullet proof clothing that conveniently looks like normal t shirts. And some mysterious genetic bioengineering on the bad guy. I also liked that all the bad guys loudly and spontaneously identified themselves as bad guys. In those exact words. I liked the smart repelling ropes that automatically attached to the bad guys jumping of the roof. I liked that the Rock went to his home and that we got an epic Haka and fire fight. I liked that the virus incubation time was exactly 48 hours and that the car mechanic was the only person in the world who could repair the virus removal machine. I'm glad that not only are the main characters safe from bullet wounds but they are also entirely unhurt by tumbling off a several hundred foot tall cliff into a rocky ravine.

What I didn't: My main complaint about this movie is that someone added dialog. There is no statement that can justify a helicopter towing four semi trucks from a long chain held together by The Rock, so why not just let us enjoy the spectacle without the painful exposition? There is a massive fire fight between the 3 good guys and an army of bad guys in a secret warehouse. For some reason, even though everyone is bullet proof there is a whole lot of shooting. And when the good guys are making their get away they run through the crossfire. So if there are only 3 good guys and all 3 of them are weaving through the crossfire, who is on the other end of the crossfire? Are the bad guys shooting at each other just to spice things up? Are there other more sneaky good guys also attacking at the same time? I also feel like controlling the media is very different from controlling all the spy agencies, so just because the bad guys can frame public opinion should not rule out all the spies in the world coming after them, just seems like a good thing to do if bad guys are planning on destroying the world indiscriminately. Speaking of indiscriminately, the super virus is programmable to do just about anything: deliver vaccines, kill everyone, kill specific individuals, do genetic engineering, and it only goes where the bad guys want it to. I think if the bad guys were really planning ahead they would release the super virus as 4 different products each very expensive and make a giant fortune. As much as everyone loves swiss army knives it seems to me that as super weapons go the multi purpose approach might not be the best. "Igor did you release the virus to decimate the opposing army?" "Yes, of course. Oh wait, this multi functional virus just immunized them against West Nile Virus and made them bullet proof. Oh well let's try that again."Really most of the good parts were in the trailer so this could have been a delightful half hour long movie by removing all the dialog and scenes without explosions.

Who should watch this? People who watched the trailer and thought "there really aren't enough words in this and I wish this ridiculousness were diluted out over 2 hours"

Would I watch it again? No, I hoped it would be as incredible as number 7 but it was not.



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