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chrisjones0
Reviews
Ahsoka (2023)
More terrible Star Wars content.
When will the writers and producers of Star Wars learn that the secret to a good film lies in the characters. This show does not have any of note. It's a boring 2 dimensional rip off of other original ideas. There is no subtlety or any pay off of substance to list here and any conflict is paper thin.
Why can't characters engage in natural dialogue and why does every line in this sound like it's been lifted from bad fan fiction?
Barely a hint of any humor that lands but, to be fair, the tone doesn't really require many lighter notes. The acting is decent enough but the material is woefully short of any quality for the cast to get their teeth into.
Watch Andor for the only show with any hint of craft worth investing your time into.
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power: Alloyed (2022)
The finale the series deserved
Everything that I expected from an awful show.
Whether there are supposed to be explanations for half of the scenes in series 1, in series 2, I'm afraid it is too late to even care.
Now that the Sauron has been confirmed, I can only speculate on what he will be shown to be responsible for as part of his deceivious ways. The decisions of Galadriel? The decisions of Numenor? The ignorance of the Southlanders? This show is exhausting and devoid of any character sympathy. Their decisions are illogical and don't seem to stem from motivations rather the need of the plot.
The decision to involve both Galadriel and Sauron in the forging of the rings seems ludicrous and the forging itself lacked any weight.
The CGI was very impressive I parts but my disbelief is again not suspended by the wider show.
This is not Tolkien and it is not Lord of the Rings. It's just straight bad TV.
I should clarify that I do not think any of the actors are to blame. It is the writing and the decision making.
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power: The Eye (2022)
I will say, I have laughed a lot.
I have never, never in my life flipped my mindset about a show in order to get through episodes, so this is a first.
I don't know what happened in this episode and the last, but I have started laughing out loud at some of the scenes as they almost literally, pop my mind.
The Volcano, the fire, the survivors, the dumb, dumb logic of leaving them all screaming for help. I now laugh at these strange decisions as they appear on screen. There is drama or suspense any more, only audible laughs as each dumb moment, each failing quote presents itself and then disappears.
What a shame that such incredible source material must be reduced to this.
So bad, I have cancelled Prime.
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power: Adrift (2022)
Why, Why, Why.
How could these show writers make the decision to not stay faithful to the source material. The most successful fantasy writer of all time with a story series that has enamoured people across the world and they have decided that they could do better.
This show feels so depressing and hopeless that it becomes a slog to even try and finish an episode. I am already convinced that I will not be watching series 2. I will re-watch the Hobbit trilogy instead.
Continuity and in-world logic seem to be unimportant in the creation of this show and the lack of appreciation for the geography is a real shame. Watching adventurous travel in the LOTR trilogy was a joy and embedded the viewer in the world. In this show, it is treated as an inconvenience.
Some of the choices to change the established characters and lore is mind-boggling.
Awful, awful writing.
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power: A Shadow of the Past (2022)
Clunky and lightweight dialougue
Dear me. Where to start?
Firstly, what is good? The visual set pieces and some decent actors.
What is bad? Just about everything.
The dialogue is laughably bad and attempting to create tolkien-esque writing which it fails at miserably. Conversations are left at awkward end points with no resolution as the writers attempt to write profound quotes, often using immediate contradictions.
All characters that are introduced are devoid of love and life and instead come across as 2 dimensional. It is hard to be endeared to anyone in this show.
I am, as a LOTR fan, already feeling like Hobbits and Gandalf are not needed in this show.
What a shame.
House of the Dragon: The Lord of the Tides (2022)
Holy cow! That was exceptional
I have loved this show since ep 1 but the slow build has never been so rewarding since I can remember. To be treated so carefully as an audience is a an utter triumph for the writers and producers. It builds and builds and builds without a mystery box in sight.
The cinematography, dialogue and costumes sit so confidently in the background it, on times seems wasted but I am sure it is noticed and appreciated by viewers as much I have have. Casting is excellent and the score pushes this show forward so effortlessly. Bravo to all the actors as I have been proven wrong at every time jump. I am very tempted to say this exceeds GoT for me.
House of the Dragon: We Light the Way (2022)
It burns, it burns. So slowly.
I love this show. The slow burn is so rewarding in the last 3 shows and yet big spectaculqr fight scenes and action overload is not needed. Having followed the characters for 4 episodes, it's very rewarding to not know where the next conflict will arise from as th eausiencw has sympathy for just about all of the characters.
A very classy production with subtle beauty and a script to die for.
I can admit to not being a Matt Smith fan in the past but I'm on board in this show. The two leading ladies have great characters to work with and the gradual build up to their inevitable conflict is fascinating.
The music, oh the music.
Bravo!
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (2022)
Awful writing. Truly awful
The series looks great as you would expect but nothing significantly better than Peter Jackson's films which still hold up today.
What lets this series down is extremely slow pacing, unlikable characters and some of the worst writing I've experienced. Plot devices appear and resolve so obviously that you get the felling that the writers must think the audience is brain-dead.
The dialogue is the next issue and interactions between characters become things of dread. The dialogue that should be expanding character, is instead woefully missing it's mark. It is far less clever than the writers think, with non sensical fables and sayings.
The show makes its hard to like the joyless characters so we have little sympathy for the characters and the almost complete lack of joy in the show is a real shame. Some of the decisions made by the makers of this show are truly baffling and the scale of middle earth and it's surroundings have been shamelessly diminished so far.
House of the Dragon: Second of His Name (2022)
Finally, characters are back in GoT
That strange feeling you get when you don't know what is going to happen next in a show and you have to look a little deeper at what characters are saying and doing. That's right, multi layered characters are back and we don't know all the answers yet as the audience. It seems so long since this was part of GoT but these first three episodes have really delivered. The reward is the battle at the climax of this episode and we have been given some intriguing glimpses into where the main characters could go.
Loved this episode and get real GoT series 1-4 vibes. The show treats the audience like intelligent people and not morons.
The acting is up to par without too much conflict so far and I love the use of the score which isn't constantly bombarding every scene.
Even the title scene is clever. Bravo.