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The King (2019)
Bloated and boring
I can applaud the movie for trying to pay hommage to both history and Shakespeare, but unfortunately it misses on both accounts. It has zero semblance to historical accuracy and it uses some of the most convoluted dialogue to convey the simplest things. The worst part is that it uses it only from time to time, trying to put together two dialogue styles that dont' really combine well.
It starts interesting enough, but after the first "act", it just drags on and on with nothing worthwile to notice. Henry ( or Hal ) is usually portrayed as a stoic, sulking, emo teenager, trying to do things with a reluctance that continues throughout the movie.
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power: Partings (2022)
Spectacular writing!
One of the best examples of contemporary quality screenplay! Galadriel is witty and warm, making every viewer empathize with her and her cause. Her outstanding diplomatic ability allows her to rally everyone to her cause, through well-thought lines and charming personality.
The harfoots plot line is very interesting and it kept me at the edge of my seat.
But the best part of the episode was the banter between Durin and Elrond, culminating with the line "Give me the meat, and give me to me raw!". It's almost as if this line was taken word for word from the Silmarillion. I feel like this is exactly what Tolkien would've wanted from his characters, were he alive today: some hot innuendos.
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power: A Shadow of the Past (2022)
Not as bad as people try to make it look
This is all-in-all a setup episode for the rest of the series. There are three distinct plot lines, which I assume will converge at some point: Galadriel's storyline, Nori Brandyfoot's and Arondir's - which is by far the best written at this point. Galadriel comes out as obnoxious and robotic, Nori is simply boring and uninspired, Arondir and Bronwyn are compelling as characters and setting.
The scenery and the music do the heavy lifting, which can't be said about the acting and especially the script. There are atmospheric and awe-inducing scenes, only for those to alternate with mind-numbing platitudes about what makes boats float and stones sink and non-sensical actions of the characters. One can only suspend his disbelief so much.
However, there's still room to grow from here and if the producers took it into the right direction, the rating might go up for future episodes.
The Boys: The Instant White-Hot Wild (2022)
Complete and utter let down
This season and especially this last episode was so, so bad. The writing is down the drain, filled with plot armors, plot contrivances and the superhero powers are stronger or weaker, whenever it's convenient for the characters to win or lose fights.
Plot-wise, the writers have jumped the shark and now are trying to come up with more and more ridiculous stuff, in order to justify the power creep in the series. A disappointment.
Love, Death & Robots: Three Robots: Exit Strategies (2022)
Condescending
Satire should be, in my opinion, subtle. This episode is the opposite of that. It's moralizing, its message is ham-fisted, its righteousness is so much "in-your-face" that it's more annoying and insulting than funny. A shame. Was expecting some traces of smart writing, not this morality fable for kindergartners.
Nomadland (2020)
A plotless mess
It's funny that the site asks you about the review having spoilers, since there can be no spoilers in this particular movie. There is no plot. There is no story. There are just people meandering through beautiful scenery, doing the most mundane activities. Sure, there is atmosphere and great acting, but that can't constitute a movie by itself.
I'm ok with a movie trying to have weird or strangely-structured plots, but this has nothing that would resemble such a thing. There is simply zero tension. A shame, since the subject is interesting.
The Undoing (2020)
Starts well, disappointing finale
As another reviewer said, it's much ado about nothing. The buildup is tense, the cliffhangers are well-executed, but the "reveal" is no reveal at all, which is disappointing to say the least.
Much of the time in the series is spent doing fancy tense camera work, flashbacks, POV characters second-guessing themselves and coming off as unreliable narrators. However, it's not the characters who are unreliable narrators, but the director / screenwriter. They're doing misdirection for its sake, and that's insulting to the audience.
The Wheel of Time: The Dark Along the Ways (2021)
Another desecration of Jordan's work
This brings more plot contrivances, contradictions, character assassination and no character development.
Machin Shin is an entity that drives people traveling the Ways mad, yet here you can just fend it off with the same magic that draws it near - contradiction.
Loial is useless as a character, outside of some clumsily written expository monologue. He vanishes after the Ways sequence, for reasons unknown.
Agelmar is portrayed in the books as a considerate, respectful leader towards the Aes Sedai. Here, he's just a misogynistic strawman, babbling like an idiot.
There is zero chemistry between the characters. Acting is also lackluster. This series is made for kids.
Santa Inc.: Where the Hell Is Brent? (2021)
Toilet humor and lectures
A show that somehow manages to combine the most obnoxious trends in cinema today: lecturing without any subtlety on social issues, being sexist and making gross generalizations, toilet humor and trying to deconstruct the "traditions". For something that aims to be comedic or entertaining, it succeeds at neither.
The Wheel of Time: The Flame of Tar Valon (2021)
Better than the previous, but that's not saying much
It is a bit cohesive than the previous episodes, but it's still pure mediocrity. At least, it's focused more on Moiraine's character, and at least Rosamund Pike, unless the rest of the cast, can act.
There are bits of the script that make no sense, though:
First scene shows us Siuan and her father. People find out about her abilities to use the One Power, so they burn out their house and mark it with the dragon's tooth sign. The father's decision is to send his daughter to Tar Valon, alone, on a boat.
Nevermind the fact that Tear is situated lower than Tar Valon in the original map, so Siuan would need to fight the current. Nevermind that his young daughter is virtually unprotected and alone in the entire world. She asks him to join her and he gives her the stupidest, most idiotic metaphor that explains nothing. I get he can't get into the tower, but there are a lot of men allowed to enter the city. Why not lead her to the city? What do you have to do that's so important in Tear instead of protecting your daughter?
The Wheel of Time: Leavetaking (2021)
Completely disrespectful of the books
The Good Stuff:
- the Bel Tine celebration looks nice and peaceful
- the Two Rivers set looks gorgeous, so does the surrounding scenery - mountains, forests
- Some nice acting for Moiraine and Tam.
The Bad Stuff:
- a lot of discrepancies between the source material and the series, all bad
- it is stated that the Dragon could be male or female. This is a crucial plot point in the book ( it can only be male ) that gets swept away within the first phrase of the voice over.
- Moiraine throws big rocks at trollocs without any concern for the people in the house she ruins
- most men look like cheating ( Abell Cauthon ), thieving ( Matrim Cauthon ), incompetent ( Perrin Aybara ) buffoons, while most women are portrayed as wise, strong and courageous.
- Perrin now has a wife. He also accidentaly kills his wife. What's the reason for this subplot? Also, in any medieval / traditional society, premarital sex was not only frowned upon, but you could get in a lot of trouble for that.
- I'm no prude by any means, but why the sex scene between Rand and Egwene? The book made a big point in having a somewhat ambiguous approach to their love story.
- trollocs look like men in gorilla suits.
The Many Saints of Newark (2021)
An insult to The Sopranos
It doesn't work as a stand-alone movie, it doesn't work as a prequel.
As a stand-alone, aside from Nivola's acting, the rest of the movie is a dumpster fire. The plot is disjointed, you feel nothing towards the protagonist, let alone the other characters. People just seem to wander in and out of the scenes, aimlessly. The jail scenes aim to be meaningful, but they just are laughable compared to the depth and psychology of the series.
As a prequel, it's horrendous. Most of the characters are caricatures of the real ones ( Uncle Junior, Silvio ), Livia is portrayed only through her mannerisms, Johnny has only a couple of appearances throughout the movie, which in the end seem pretty gratuitous and done more as a fan service. Same with Tony. His relationship with the main character is supposed to be the closest one, and the only evidence for this is because other characters say so.
If this movie would've had no connection with the Sopranos series, it would have been a 4 maybe, but by trying to tie it in with the characters from the series... it gets a 1 for tainting a near-perfect legacy.
Devs (2020)
Dropped the ball mid-series
Yet another case of a series that starts with a strong premise, but fails miserably.
I, for once, enjoyed the music throughout the series, and wasn't annoyed by the lead character's ( Sonoya Mizuno ) acting. I think she did what needed to be done. Zach Grenier as Kenton was more of a problem, since he's not believable as the tough guy villain. Nothing against his acting, the casting was wrong.
But the main issues are the pacing, which starts to become sluggish from the 5th episode on, and the screenplay. Trying to tie all things up, especially when it comes to hard sci-fi is not an easy task, but every bit of explanation in the end is contrived or illogical.
For some reason, Lily is the only person in the entire known universe to make a choice, or "commit the original sin", hence rendering the machine's predictions useless. She is the only living being with free will in the entire history of humanity, all the others acted between the "tram lines" of determinism. Give me a break.
Forest is completely against any variation from own deterministic set of rules, leading to Lyndon being fired, but he's completely OK with "living" within a computer simulation that could be turned off at any moment?
Stewart decides to put an end to everything, by killing both Forest and a person he hasn't seen in his life, only to walk away without destroying the computer, the main source of all the evil he percieved. Also, wouldn't it be simpler to destroy the computer and all the data on it instead of murdering a couple of people?
The list could go on. Disappointing.
Devs: Episode #1.5 (2020)
Have they run out of budget?
This episode was marred by uninteresting, unimportant information. Maybe some back story and flashbacks were needed, but dedicate an entire episode to this?
Why not split this information throughout the series instead of having this crawling slugglishly in the middle of it?