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jeuxdevilains
Reviews
Dune: Part Two (2024)
Visually Stunning but...
The scenery, the costumes, the performances of some the actors are excellent. However, past the few elements that makes watching the movie not a complete waste of time, but not something you're really satisfied with, glaring weaknesses remain.
It's too often over-dramatic. It makes copious use of the same boring and easy techniques to create superficial drama: the zoom-in on characters, taking an embarrassing heroic pose or looking deeply intense with determined eyes and a slight frown.
Oh, and the shouting! Characters and crowd shouting ad nauseam the same mantras as if to make us, simpletons, understand basic concepts by repeating them three, four, five times. We got it. Move on! Done and seen a thousand times elsewhere.
On that subject, this movie is very loud. In every sense of the word. Sometimes the actors shout for no apparent reason other than to convey to the public that they're saying something important. Thing is, it actually has the opposite effect. It's like a child throwing a tantrum, demanding to be heard. Then, there's the action scenes. Oh my, did they overdo them. It's constant blasting and fighting. The fast food of the movie industry. The louder the better. Explosions, fast camera movements, noise all around as if the void of the script needed to be filled at all time with visual stunts so that you don't have to think too hard about the story.
It follows that the dialogues are weak, really weak. If one isolated the words and read them they'd be appalled by the sheer stupidity and shallowness of some of the lines. And obviously, it would look completely ridiculous compared to the book.
All in all, this is just a mass market product that has some moments but that is plagued by the necessity to appeal to everyone and places the bar for that everyone very low. It does not expect much from itself or from its audience and so you leave the theater wondering what was the point.
Silo: Machines (2023)
Such Tension!
What an incredible episode! It's been a long time I've felt such tension in a TV show. Strangely, it was like watching a soccer game where everything resolves in the very last seconds, or the climax of a theater drama.
In this episode, we go even lower down the stairs where the machines keep the Silo functioning. As in our industrial societies, it's the bottom, the working and invisible people that maintain the system. But this time, it's in jeopardy. Of course it's hard to maintain life in a bunker and any, seemingly small problem can have catastrophic consequences. Wondering if it will all end is what makes this episode so thrilling!
Deo geullori (2022)
Just Another Uninspired K-Drama
The idea seemed promising and the reviews positive. Now, I'm beginning to think the latter were either fake or from people with very low standards.
This show has nothing but clichés and an unrealistic script to offer. It's slow and filled with useless scenes and dialogs. Really, it's your typical K-Drama, shallow but shiny.
It does shine indeed but only in vanity. None of the characters have redeeming qualities. They're either murderers, would-be killers or violent criminals. All that, very casually!
Quite surprisingly, the episodes are long but nothing meaningful ever really happens and the plot never seems to progress. So, my advice: do not waste your time!
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (2022)
Not Tolkien. Not a good show.
This has little to do with Tolkien. But even as a show of its own, it's an utter failure. The script and the plot are nonsensical and childish. Most of the characters are unlikable, not for lack of decent actors but simply because they're poorly written and never act, think or speak like they would or should in any coherent universe.
There are so many problems with the show beyond the story that even I, a mere amateur, can see the incompetence and lack of professionalism of the production and the direction. The transitions between shots, the action scenes, everything screams cheap despite the big one billion dollars budget.
Money not well spent, apparently. Fortunately, the visuals and the music sometimes make you forget how dull, absurd and uninspiring the story is.