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Reviews
Shôgun (2024)
(7.5 / 10) Very Solid, But With A Few Flaws
A darker and slightly faster paced version than we got in 1980.
Many things were done very well. Acting, visuals, costume design, screenplay, sets, all very top notch. Most plot and story changes were well done.
I appreciated the action scenes added in this version as well, they were extremely well done and I rewatched a couple of them just to appreciate the attention to detail.
Without spoiling anything, I do feel a bit let down by the latter half of the show, but it is still pretty good overall with seriously well-done character moments.
One minor negative is that I think the show suffers a bit from trying to focus less on the English-speaking characters, it feels less personal than the 1980 rendition by focusing on a wider gamut of characters. That also makes the world feel well fleshed out though.
The one major flaw that is unforgivable is the atrocious music. It doesn't fit at all, and it is extremely bleak and repetitive. At many points, it ruins the atmosphere rather than building it.
This is especially criminal considering the 1980 rendition had such a beautiful and powerful soundtrack that generated an amazing atmosphere and evoked immense emotion.
Because of this, I felt like the 1980 version respected the beauty present in medieval Japan, which is basically absent in this much bleaker take.
I genuinely at many points while watching this version, played in my head or hummed the 1980 themes for Japan and Mariko.
The new soundtrack is outright offensively bad and generic comparatively.
Aside from that, this version of Shogun is genuinely more entertaining and modern than the 1980 version, which was more personal, but also more boring. It also steers clear of wokism almost entirely, which is such a breath of fresh air!
Will check back in a decade and see if anyone has made a fan-edit to fix the music! :)
Chip Chilla (2023)
Great fun little show!
To those critiquing it from an adult perspective... why?
It's a show for kids!
As a kids show it excels! It's full of fun approachable healthy lessons and fun historical or cultural backdrops that help to introduce kids to important ideas that are COMPLETELY ignored by all modern culture.
To those giving one star because you hate the DailyWire, thanks for showing how tolerant you actually are of other people with differing perspectives.
Chip Chilla is not political, it is simply American, and in a great way. Optimistically dabbling in key historical moment and cultural landmarks, and keeping a fun fast pace for kids!
Imagine a show that talks to modern kids about how cool the space age was and makes a fun little episode about it, all other kids shows are focused on pointless goofyness or aren't appropriate with political content baked in!
Could it get better? Of course! But for kids it's great.
Obi-Wan Kenobi (2022)
An abomination with all the nostalgia you want.
The plot doesn't even make sense. The show isn't even primarily about Kenobi. Half the episodes are pure filler. The number of dumb mistakes is truly obscene. Half of episode 4 was stolen directly out of Jedi: Fallen Order, except the game did it way better.
All of it is masked by extreme nostalgia, FINALLY giving us Kenobi after YEARS. I was blinded at first because all I wanted was to see Kenobi back on-screen.
There are a few cool moments, but mostly it's just a tragic disappointment. Everyone behind the camera should be fired and never work in Hollywood again.
Finally, the worst of all, and this a CAPITAL OFFENSE. They only use 4 minutes of John Williams' music, and Vader's theme only plays ONCE. Unacceptable, and demonstrates how poorly the current owners of Star Wars understand it.
The Shannara Chronicles (2016)
A lot of focus in the wrong areas...
Pros:
Visuals: Quite pleasing. Sets are strong, costumes are convincing, women are gorgeous, blood is bloody.
Actors: Kind of an awkward blend of seasoned actors sprinkled in with less experienced actors. Acting overall is pretty decent, I blame the corny boring romance, and the constant random sex on poor writing. Manu Bennett and John Rhys-Davis help a great deal to sell the terrible script.
Cons:
Writing: *SPOILERS* Two steps from garbage. Characters are constantly puzzled by simple problems, and are constantly making stupid decisions. Multiple love triangles that make absolutely no sense. The Elven army is utterly pathetic, losing every single fight on screen, while being boasted as the world's finest army. Eretria is not believable, winning every fight with ease, when in any realistic sense she would've lost just about every confrontation. Amberle is way too emotional, and is given a sword instead of Wil for some odd reason as she sucks with it. Wil is also too emotional and always defenseless, as if it were a great idea to take on gnomes, trolls, elf hunters, humans, and idiots with blue rocks that only hurt demons... Then to top it all off, the entire story collapses on itself during the climax. They spent 9/10 episodes setting up this epic journey, going in the tree and proving that Amberle is worthy and everything. Then at the end of the journey, you find out that Amberle just has to go all the way back, reenter the tree and sacrifice herself. The entire journey was pointless. It was obvious from the start that this story was written by a feminist, but I looked past the silliness, holding out for a solid story that wasn't delivered.
But alas, past the horribly flawed story, the characters were fun and the journey managed to stay interesting. I got some enjoyment out of this show, but they really just need to start over with a heavily modified story to fix all the glaring issues.