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jessewansbrough
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Rurôni Kenshin: Seisô-hen (2001)
Ok story but definitely not Kenshin (glad it's not cannon)
This final chapter of Kenshin seemed a bit like a studio wanting to re-live it's success from "Trust and Betrayal" but missing the mark.
First of all if I put aside that this is supposed to be a Kenshin story I would say that it's an ok story (this is what I rated it on). However even if you take it as a non Kenshin story it has a very weak plot and direction and relies very heavily on flashbacks, in fact if you cut out all the flashbacks you would probably lose 60 percent of this show. This story has a very depressing undertone and takes a long time to really carve out any direction for the tired characters. In contrast to the Prequel series "Trust and Betrayal" which stood on its own with a well defined story and plot that leads nicely through to both the conclusion and the beginning of the Kenshin series this series is severely lacking and just send to involve a depressing spiral in non stop introspective and gloomy dialogue with an even weaker plot that seems only to really exist as a spindly scaffold to tack the aforementioned dialogue.
If I take this as a Kenshin story it is terrible it does not fit with the series despite utilising no end of flashbacks from its events. The character in this series does not seem to be Kenshin.
In the Series Kenshin had already reconciled his past and found happiness. He had already put his wandering behind him and would have been a good father instead of being a non-attentive father too busy wallowing in his own guilt. This series totally regresses the character. They seemed more interested in achieving that "Bitter Sweet" Motief than actually culminating the character in an accurate and believable manner.
While I would happily accept the bitter sweet Prequel as cannon as it shows how much the character of Kenshin was able to grow and move forward, I am very happy that this series is not considered cannon and it's gloomy and regressive portrayal is ignored in the manga and will apparently also be ignored in any future Kenshin series which will stick more inline with the authors (Nobuhiro Watsuki) desired outcome for his character.
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power: A Shadow of the Past (2022)
Terrible telling of Tolkien Lore
While the visuals are stunning I am sorry but this is not Tolkien and not middle earth. They really just ruined the characters, in to make their female characters seem stronger decided to exclude any sort of team work and camaraderie. If this were not marketed under the guise of Lord of the Rings it might have been an ok fantasy show (if you like a huge dose of politics in your escape). Unfortunately putting this into lord of the rings and not bothering to follow any semblance of how Tolkien described the numerous creatures of middle earth made this a very unpleasant watch.
The Elves are not majestic and breath-taking and really just seem to be like any of the other races of Middle Earth.
On the whole this does not have the same wonder and magic I experienced when reading the books and when watching the movies from Peter Jackson (well at least the first 3).
This was absolutely terrible and I cannot understand why so many reviewers on IMDB actually find it good, I really wonder if some of the reviews are being tweaked because I read them before watching this and the reality did not bare any semblance to what was described in so many reviews here.
Vikings: Valhalla (2022)
No longer an historical drama
While the original successfully was able to tread the line of fitting in with the few historical accounts and legends, while still taking creative license to tell a good story.
This one takes the approach of screw history creative license all the way.
The ethnicity and gender swap of the queen and many others just ruined the escape and i just couldnt get into the show. Combined with bad scripting this was terrible.
If you wanted to be diverse why not tell a different historical story or why not follow some of their travels to other lands?
Marco Polo (2014)
Incredible yet another reason I put no stock in critics reviews
This is an incredible show that sucks you into the culture and intrigue of the court of Kublai Khan. The detail and story is astounding, this show is incredibly addictive and has caused quite a few people I know have signed up for a trial of netflix.
The show is really about the political intrigue surrounding the Khans, however they cleverly use Marco Polo as the 'Foreign' fly on the wall type to allow the audience to gain access to this world, as things are spoon fed to Marco Polo to allow him to survive this new world the audience also cleverly sucked in and educated.
I Really like the face saving and reserved portrayal that is so common in Asian culture , which many critics unfortunately seem to have mistaken for 'wooden acting', I think this gives this show the epic feel that many of my favourite classics such as Red Cliff, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon and Ran.
The only problem I have with this show is because of the ignorant panning this show has received from the critics (the people paid to give us useless assessments which I stopped paying attention to years ago) we may not get to see what happens next in a second season.