Reviews

I watched the movie first when it came out and didn't like it at all. I read the book and it's my least favourite Hardy novel though it was still good, not perfect but good enough.

Hardy's Bathsheba is a complex character, I had a love hate relationship with her throughout the book but I mostly hated her. But in the movie, Bathsheba is portrayed as this independent strong willed faultless woman. To do this, the directed had conviently left out some parts of the book.

1- when Gabriel first proposed marriage when he still had his farm, he spoke with Bathsheba's Aunt in the book and she informed Bathsheba has other suitors waiting and when he left disappointed, Bathsheba ran after him just to say her Aunt was incorrect and she didn't have any suitors but still rejected him.

2 - Bathsheba's hot and cold treatment towards her workers and mostly Oak when she was the mistress. She lashed out many times at Liddy and Oak and told them to leave the farm.

3 - Bathsheba never made Oak Bailif who basically managed the farm but kept him as a Shepard for a lower wage throughout and on a leash until the end.

4 - The extent she went to lead Boldwood on to get his attention and how she almost promised him but kept putting it off without a firm rejection, a multiple times.

5 - and the fact that she didn't immediately accepted Oak managing both farms but how it took some convincing.

This is not to say that Bathsheba was all bad in the book but she was much more three dimensional, realistic but playful character than how it was portrayed in the movie. Oak though, who was a bit two dimensional anyway, is nothing but wooden in the movie, no emotions whatsoever. Boldwood is an old but handsome character in the book, but the actor who portrayed him in the movie was not really handsome (no disrespect for the actor here, he did a great job with his smaller part, one of the few well acted ones in my opinion. But why I make a point about his appreance is that when Bathsheba's dillema in choosing a husband, appreance wasn't a factor at all, all three of them very handsome but it was the social standing of all these characters among other things).

The acting was not convincing enough, dialogues were pure garbage, things were moving way too quickly, and the settings actually felt like settings, not realistic, it was like bunch of actors playing dress up in a thearter.

I might be a bit biased because I love Jessie Buckley. But I didn't like her character here, because it felt like she was a bit out of sorts and deceitful. I liked the character, Ryan; I didn't know what was wrong with him or with them that made her wanted to be with Amir, and I just didn't get the whole thing. It just felt like this cliche thing romantic movies try to show teenage girls, but life is not really a fairytale, it can just be just routine. If you just don't like it, it might be time for you to move on, without wasting someone else's time by lying and being deceitful. I don't think you'd need a test for that, or two for that matter.

I gave up after 4 episodes, I was really bored. Nothing was going on for 4 episodes, there was almost no plot. Ruth Wilson who's a very talented actress and one of my favourites too was a bit too much in this. Her acting being a crazy person was overly done. Specially when she was lighting the car on fire, presumably she was sleepwalking but she was very awake to the naked eye (not sure if this is how sleep walking works), it seemed she was trying a bit too hard, maybe it's the lack of editing, who knows but it felt unreal. None of the characters were likable, came to the point where I asked my self a couple of questions. Did I like the story? No there was no story. Was I rooting for any characters? Nope, not at all. That was it for me.

I will go season by season because the quality of each season varied drastically.

1st season - Didn't start off good, but Henry Cavill had a massive screen presence and because of him alone I gave it a chance and by the 4th episode I was hooked and everything made sense. It came together quite well too. Cinematography, sound track, some of the actors were really good. I liked the character development of Yen and Jaskier. But I didn't like Calanthe, neither the character nor the actor. She wasn't convincing at all. This scene where she came to the throne room after a war with blood on her face and body acting like a warrior queen was laughable. I said acting because it didn't feel real at all. Dialogues were not good, it felt like they were from 21st century at times, but if you don't focus on these things, it can be quite good just because there was good material to work with. Episode 4-8 was the best of the season for me. I give this a 7.

Season 2 - Ups and downs but mostly the latter. Dialogues remained the same, garbage. What could have done to the show if it had GOT like dialogue, clever and witty but alas we got f word way too often with some cheap lines. Gerald again was the best with Yen but she became a bit annoying by the middle to the end. Jaskier now has no character development at all, very two dimensional, this is the same with a lot of other characters as well. Some of the scenes where Ciri's with the witchers were pure cringe, some of the jokes too were not very good too. But it works if you can look past these little things. Monster appearances in season 1 which were lot more fun became a bit rarity in season 2 also. Action scenes were good, Gerald in particular. But Ciri learning to be a witcher , I don't know why, looked cringy too with her action scenes, unreal. Now the elf story line along with Fringila was just garbage, Francesca was very unlikable, no one in the elf camp was likable to be honest. The least likable elf/character for me was that kid who spied and then became one of the main advisors of Francesca by the third season (how that happened is beyond me, poor poor piece of writing this). This for me is a 5.

Season 3 - My word I paused so many times to do this and that because it was boring. I guess by this season, the writers didn't have any idea what to do or where to go. Some unclear scenes prove it, like Gerald going on a dead end run to find the mage and returning all of sudden to rescue Ciri (who was at Artueza or idk where and then apparently she runs away but Yen who was responsible for Ciri's life doesn't care?), and all of the mages and enemies were in one place for the party and then Gerald and Yen leaves the most important Ciri with Jaskier and apparently Yen had put a spell so she'd be okay. Why didn't they think of that all along? Put a spell on a house and live, why go through the trouble of moving houses (these scenes where they playing house were beyond silly). I read somewhere that they split the season because of a cliff-hanger, it wasn't that good of a cliff-hanger, vampire diaries had better cliff hangers. If you had the slightest intelligence, you would have figured out way early that Vilgeforts was the real villain, can't you remember the scene where he came back from the dead after the sodden war? A real twist would have been to make Tissaia a villan or someone else unexpected. And the do gooder Yen becomes really annoying by this season, she becomes too much. She being a mother and those scenes felt forced to say the least. But I don't blame the actor here, because she really does a decent job with the poor script she's got. Again Ciri's actions scenes looks way too fake like the enemies pause so she could get in to her fighting stances and the scene where she kills this monster in that boat was very very funny, specially the kill shot. Barely a 3.

7+5+3/3 = 5.

I read the book not so long ago and I loved it, I loved it so much I couldn't stop thinking about it for days that followed. I heard they were making a movie based on the book and when I saw who the actress was I couldn't wait for it. Daisy Edgar-Jones is a beautiful and a naturally talented actress.

Finally I watched it and it was a good movie. Director tried her best to portray what was in the book as much as she could. You have to understand that you cannot possibly include everything that was in the book, that's not practically possible. I just wish they included more about what Kya had to go through in her childhood, because it's the whole story. If you haven't read it and If you liked this movie, then I recommend you to read it as it describes what was in the movie 10 times more. It talks about what Kya felt when everyone abandoned her, how she felt when she fell in love for the first time, how she felt when her lover didn't return (this bit was heart-breaking), how she survived and more. And I couldn't be happier when she sold the first book and got the check because no one deserved it more.

Cinematography is excellent, acting from Daisy Edgar - Jones is mesmerising, good music and the ending, they left it the same way as described in the book.

First of all I love slow burners but after two episodes nothing happened, we were introduced to elves, dwarfs, some of the humans and these introductions are painfully long. Not one character I found likable, and acting is not very convincing too. Girl who's playing Galadriel doesn't hold a candle to Cate Blanchett. I was also annoyed with the character Nori, I mean why does have to be emotional when she delivers every single line?

I was waiting for something to happen the whole time, but nothing came except for this mystery man falling out of the sky, and some orcs making appearances here and there. I loved LOTR, waited years for this be released - very disappointing and dissatisfying so far and everything feels forced.

I liked the cinematography - looked high budgeted. Music is meh, maybe all this happy music is not to my taste. The actor who's playing Elrond's character looked good so far. Nothing remarkable yet, did I say everything felt forced? However hoping something drastic will happen in the coming episodes to make this more interesting, but seems unlikely.

Yeah it was a mess. No plot, tone of the movie doesn't match whatever plot was there. It wasn't a thriller or a mystery like it was supposed to be. Acting was not good too speacially by Ana De Armas, she was trying too hard. Other characters do not make sense as well. Like if my wife was having affairs with anybody she comes across, my friends would not even talk to her, let alone invite her to all the parties and hang out. And also it was obvious Ben's character was killing those guys, cause all of them disappeared, but no one questioned him? And the police drop the case just like that? Even his wife was accusing him and so was that old guy (Who was that guy anyway? Introduced out of the blue, he doesn't like Ben's character but they hang out in parties nonetheless), and the police don't look into it? And why do the main characters stay together? They say all the right words like I love you and everything but we don't see it, we see exactly the opposite like they loathe each other. There were so many things that didn't make sense I cant even remember them now. Ah almost forgot, what was that scene where Ben was chasing that guy who's in a car by the way, in his bicycle? What was that? Very bizarre movie.

Very heartbreaking ending, I was expecting more from the final. I liked the way things they left after season 8. This feels like a meaningless story to tell. I personally didn't need to know he get killed, I mean by his son. How messed up is that? We see how much Dexter loves Harrison in the original show, and it ends up like this. This should have been left alone. All the 7 stars for Michael C hall. He was excellent as always. I still cant believe it though, my favorite character is dead only by the hands of my least favorite character. Now I cant even re-watch the original show knowing this horrible ending. Writers can go f themselves.

When I watched this for the first time I was 19 and I loved it, I thought it was one of the greatest for sure. I started watching this again and I'm 27 now, it doesn't feel as great. First of all it is slow, not dark slow with a twist at the end kind of slow but depressing at times slow. I hate Jesse'e character, he's one of those guys you see every now and then, who's arrogant who thinks he knows it all without nothing to show for it, he's stupid. I'm in the middle of season 3 now and I just watched this scene with him getting beaten by hank and In the hospital afterwards and he gives this monologue to Walt about how he's going to haunt Hank for life and I was thinking, is this the same guy who couldn't scare two junkies to pay up and eventually lost his own gun to one of the junkies? I couldn't watch through this scene, very unreal. Very good acting all around I gotta say by all the actors, and except for this actor who played Jesse's seemingly gangster friend who also looked not real. Story is original too, first two seasons were the best of the lot for me, third season had lots of unnecessary scenes. And also Walt Jr character was a bit one dimensional I guess. But overall a good show, but with 9.4 IMDb rating I feel this is a bit overrated.

Lets see what they've done right in this one - The idea is good, in fact could have been an excellent movie if done right.

And everything else is badly done - First thing I noticed was the pacing, there's no building up no nothing, just lots of scenes put together. First scene was so bad I laughed out loud when that guy said "he's transmitting through the radio" or something, I mean what the hell? Was this made to scare elementary school kids. And then the acting, apart from the main actress everyone else was bad, specially the two detectives and the sister. The soundtrack was bad too like I was watching a horror movie from 1950 but badly done. And then there were a couple of unexplained things as well like how Maddie recovers so quickly - her broken limbs and skull- after she takes over? Whats the motive for killing all those people at the police station and how come there are no consequences for Maddie for the things she's done (Even though its the twin that did it, you gotta answer a lot of questions right?).

Suicide would have been a far better ending but instead she locked Gabriel literary in a prison cell in her head? I mean wtf?

It was a tiring watch, close to 7 hours long but easily could or should have just been just a 2 hour movie and you wouldnt really miss anything important. Really liked the characters in the first few episodes, and acting is from the top drawer, yet no one talks like normal people, they talk in paragraphs - very hard to listen through some monologues which were repetitive, most of the times related to religion and looong. Some of the things didnt make sense, like the Priest first encountered the beast in Jerusalem- so when he came back, how was he able to get thorough the airport with his new young look?, The beast was oblivious to a lot of things that happened in the final episode like getting burned and cut , but it has the sense to dress up and come to the church as an angel or filling up the decanter regularly with its blood, how did most of the people didnt do anything when that person died in front of them in the final Mass, and finally how come most of the people acted like animals when theyve turned and a handful of characters We're familiar with were very normal?. Last episode was just bad tv, period. Ruined my Sunday - left a bitter taste in my mouth. Please skip this if you havent watched already.