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Erlik_Han
Reviews
Dune: Part Two (2024)
95% of the changes from the book are unnecessary and nonsensical
I get making some changes for the screen. I get leaving some stuff out, expanding some other stuff. But the changes, fundementally change the story, characters, their motivations etc. And usually for the worse. Not to mention the plotholes it creates.
I reread Dune, minutes after I read the final page, I watched both movies back to back. While rewatching the first movie, I was super hyped. I noticed small details I missed the first time. I liked the movie even more than the first time, despite some of my issues with it. E.g. No dinner party, no letter from Fenring. But for the most part it was a pretty faithful adaptation. Rewatching it, I do see the signs of the story being set up for major change in the second part. Like how they mention Shani's name as "desert flower" (Siyaha) and Chani says "I hate it, it's part of the dumb prophecy" ... Siyaha is the pet name/hypercorism that Paul uses for Chani. It's not her actual name or part of the prophecy. But when she said this, I knew it was a set up for her much expanded role in the second movie. (It comes back when Chani wakes Paul up from the water of life and everyone is like "Lisan al-Gaib was saved by the desert flower's tears just like in the prophecy!"
Anyway, the second movie deviates far too much from the books and most of the changes aren't good.
1. Fremen are religiously and ideologically divided. The North doesn't believe in the prophecy, while the east (who they keep calling "the fundementalists") do. So .. then why don't the tribes in the north use the water? Esp since they've tied the water into the prophecy, when it wasn't in the books. Stilgar is the leader of the Tabr Sietch, which is in the North. Stilgar is from the south. Why is everyone ok with this guy being their leader? Wouldn't youth constantly challenge him if they don't believe, which means they are just sitting on insane amounts of water for nothing. Instead Fremen refuse to listen to Stilgar and challenge him, but never to fight for leadership. In one scene you have Chani standing with a group of young women and some very American looking black bros, screaming the prophecy is fake. While Stilgar is on the other side with a group of bearded middle eastern looking dudes, yelling that Paul is the Lisan Al Gaib. It's like they're saying "only these bearded, cis, brown people believe in this prophecy, these hip young girls and bros are too cool for school." P.s. I mention black people because later in the movie, they seem to all disappear. When they go south, there are suddenly no more black fremen.
2. Paul doesn't get accepted into the Fremen after he fights Jamis. He doesn't take part in Jamis' water ritual. He doesn't get Jamis' stuff .. which includes his stepson, son and wife Haran. He doesn't even get his Tabr Sietch name (Usul) until much later. In fact, I absolutely DETESTED the scene where Paul and Jessica reach Tabr Sietch. Having the entire crowd, chant, yell and scream nonsensically. It really gives "Hollywood middle east vibes," I'm Turkish and I cringed. They cry over Jamis, threaten Paul and Jessica etc and claim the don't accept. Stilgar accepted them. They've proven themselves infront of Fremen warriors. But as I said, Stilgar seems to have zero power. The whole point is that they don't accept people easily. But when they do, they see you as part of their group. Even the sons of Jamis are super psyched about having Usul, possibly the Lisan Al Gaib as their stepdad in the book. I did really like that they made Paul see Jamis as a friend in his prescience. But even that sours when they push Jamis as this father / mentor figure over Stilgar.
3. Stilgar is a worshipper from the start. Man has barely any doubt. Stilgar in the book isn't as fanatical. He isn't sure that Paul is the one but changes as more and more signs reveal themselves and Paul gains more and more powers (like being able to predict the future and know the past). Paul laments how Stilgar, who was once his friend is now just one of his worshippers. This change never truly happens in the movie. From the very start, Stilgar, without any scepticism, is playing the role of the naive, brainwashed, ultra religious radical who sees what he wants to see. "He said he isn't the Lisan Al-Gaib, such a Lisan Al-Gaib thing to say!" Stilgar has to ask a council permission to allow Paul and Jessica to stay.
4. Jessica immediately becomes their reverend mother, when she's barely been a Sayaddina. Nor even accepted! The ritual is completely different, the circumstances too. And we never get the fremen "water of life, drug fuelled orgie" (which I'm convinced is what inspired the Zion party scene in one of the matrix movies).
5. The movie's time frame is messed up. In the books Paul spends 3 / 4 years with the Fremen before the end of the book. The movie does all this withing less than 9 months (Jessica is pregnant at the start, still pregnant in the end). I get why they didn't add Alia. I get how impossible it is to have a 2 / 3 year old girl run around, talk and behave like an adult. And even at one point kill people and finish off wounded sardaukar and harkonnen.
6. Alia believes in the prophecy, Jessica as a result also believes in the prophecy. And she pushes Paul to accept the prophecy. To drink the water. In the book Paul choses to drink the water himself, secretly (to expand his ability to see the future). In fact Jessica would never approve or advice that in the books. In the books Jessica is worried about Paul becoming more and more of a religious figure.
7. The Baron is too stoic and silent. Raban is comically angry. Feyd never tries to kill the Baron instead its the otherway around. Feyd fighting the undrugged Atreides soldier is no longer a Thufir Hawat + Feyd plan, since Thufir is completely gone from the story. Really dislike the "Harkonen are all pale white, bald guys" and the weird easthetic their planet has. It kinda looks goofy and empty. I get that it's geiger esque it just doesn't fit well. Like when lady Fenring goes into her room .. it resembles an alien machine chamber not a room.
8. Chani tells Paul that Stilgar won't teach him how to ride worms because he's not a real fremen, but only one in name etc. She also claims all Fremen are equal (they are NOT .. sure they are equal, as in all can challenge the leader etc. But they have leaders and the leaders make the decisions)
9. Chani is a Fedaykin. And women among the Fremen are all loud mouth, boyish warriors. Fedaykin in the book are a warrior cast that we first hear about when they start acting like Paul's devoted, radical body guards and personal guard/warriors. In the movie, Paul becomes a Fedaykin.
10. Women among the Fremen in the books have very strict roles. Yes, they are strong, hardy women. Yes, they can and will fight. But, they seem to be completely devoted to their husbands and blindly follow their command. They don't even argue even if they want to argue. They don't talk back etc etc
In the book Chani is such a wildly different character. And I'd be ok with making Chani a bit more independent or strong willed. But Chani as the one that doesn't accept the prophecy? The leader of the anti prophecy people? Chani as the person that constantly yells the prophecy is fake? Especially considering that she's in love with Paul, and we tend to ignore all red flags while in love. Plus Paul fits every part of the prophecy and does a bunch of miraculous things. That makes no sense to me. In the books a guy comes to challenge Paul because he doesn't believe the prophecy. Chani kills him. When Paul asks her why she did that. She says "When the other men find out that those who challenge Usul might die by the hands of Usul's women, they might think twice and avoid the possibile humiliation of being killed by a woman. Less people will challenge you as a result, my love" (paraphrasing). Chani also treats Jessica with a high degree of respect and formality in the book. While in the movie she's constantly being rude to Jessica, to Paul, to Stilgar etc.
10. The guild BARELY plays a role. The most important faction is barely even mentionned. CHAOM is barely mentioned. A lot of stuff will happen but then they'll abruptly skip over or forget about it. Like, Stilgar makes Paul do a trip on his own in the desert. But then Chani shows up to "save him" / help him do his "lone trip in the desert." But we never get to see him do the challenge or return to Stilgar. It just cuts to a whole other scene and circumstance from there.
11. Paul talks about "the fundementalist troops" (southern troops) and makes a distinction between them and the Fedaykin. The Fedaykin are literally Fremen Qaida. They run into death with no fear, chanting the name Muad'dib. The Fedaykin are all fundementalists in the book. Fedayin is a word used for irregular rebel bands and guerilla fighters. E.g It's pretty widely used in the Muslim world and also among some none Muslims.
12. People seem a lot more stupid in the movie. They will openly talk about secret and or touchy subjects infront of everyone. E.g. Gurney for some reason thinks it's ok to loudly tell Paul that he should make use of this prophecy, use the Fremen as a tool even if he doesn't believe it etc. The only fremen that even reacts to it is Chani who is clearly upset at what she hears.
13. Chani knows the prophecy is a false prophecy planted by offworlders without anyone telling her about it. She just knows.
I absolutely detested the ending of the movie with everyone going on the Jihad while Chani remained on her own in the desert. I can already see that they've set Chani up to become the anti Paul rebel. I have a lot more to say, but we've reached the character limit. It was very well filmed. Well acted. But they ruined the story. I get some changes. Like removing Alia since it would be very hard to do Alia properly. But a lot of the changes are really bad and nonsensical.
Book fan score 7. Movie fan score 8.5.
Fallout (2024)
Best video game adaptation ever, but some incredibly poor writing is keeping it from being one of the best shows ever.
I mean it, this is by far the best video game adaptation ever. It's actually still very hard to believe that it's as good as it is. It's in my opinion far superior to the overhyped, critically acclaimed TLOU adaptation by HBO (see my review of that show for why).
Our main characters
1. Lucy MacLean: Ella Purnell is an absolute treat, her acting is fantastic and her giant eyes and soft voice fit perfectly with the character she's playing. She looks like a vault-tec bobble head turned into the cutest girl in the best possible way. She's not the stereotypical Disney strong woman trope that everyone is sick and tired off. Instead she is still incredible capable and combat trained but also very femine at the same time. Generally she's not unrealistically strong in combat. She's not throwing around men twice her size with ease, but she can defend herself, is a very good shot and uses her wit, charm and also her "lawful good" personality to survive. Strangely, everyone but Maximus seems to ignore her good looks in the wasteland. When I imagine it's rare to see someone that pretty. It's a breath of fresh air to see a woman as the protagonist be feminine in a show again.
2. The Ghoul AKA Cooper Howard: Mr Goggins delivers absolute gold as always. The ghoul is a relentlessly brutal character who has at the start lost most of his humanity. We later learn his drive to live comes from the fact that he's looking for his family. The acting is incredible as always. The makeup and cgi for his ghoul version look great (maybe a little smooth). Cooper has no chill, he's not just quick to defend himself. But also to kill innocents with no remorse. 200 years in the savage wastelands have turned him into something that isn't a monster but has little humanity left. No sympathy for anyone and a singular drive. To the point where he eats former friends for substanance, kills those offering him a job. And even after Lucy shows him a kindness, "her golden rule" (treat others as you'd want to be treated) and saves him after he tries to sell her to organ harvesters, tortures her and even cuts her finger off. He murders a young boy in cold blood infront of his father and child sister, after he taunts him about having murdered his older brother earlier. Goating the kid into pulling a rifle. When in reality, a rifle bullet seems to literally do nothing to Cooper. Which is kind of a problem, Ghouls in the show have rapid healing abilities and Cooper esp seems to be indistructable. But the rules aren't clear.
3. Maximus: Aaron Moten's Maximus is probably the weakest link. Mainly because his acting feels so inconsistent and at first I couldn't put my finger on it. It's like he's cycling through emotions or facial expressions constantly and it's very distracting. In more emotional scenes this kinda looks unhinged. For example, the interrogation scene he looks like he's about to snap, to a point that I thought it was the point. That he was going to snap and turn into some brotherhood zealot radical and an antagonist. Use everyone around him as a ladder to reach his goals. Instead he's an insecure guy looking for a place to belong and looking to be a hero. To save people. Which is fine. Great even. But his acting just never felt right. And I think I get why that is after having seen some interviews with him. He's very, very feminine in his mannerisms and facial expressions in real life. And in the show his character is trying to act a lot more masculine and straight. But his true self keeps breaking through his acting, the behavior I confused for cycling through emotions was him making his natural facial emotions but then changing them to fit his role more, but not always being able to keep the face straight. He will constantly slightly protrude his upper or lower lip and have this weird stare in certain scenes. One of the worst examples and also one of the worst scenes in the whole show is the scene where Lucy offers to sleep with him. And I think he's supposed to look shocked, a little scared and shy. But instead he comes off like he's a little girl, weirdly pouts his lips and pulls his shoulders together etc. And the dialogue being ridicilously infantile doesn't help "with some guys their penis grows and explodes like a pimple" or something. What? He's an adult man. He lives in barracks with men, women, trans people etc In fact in one scene a guy is clearly mastrubating under the covers. There is NO way in hell a man wrote that line. In fact, right after writing that I checked the writer for the episode. And it's a lady called Karey Dornetto. They really need to stop this nonsense where they have every episode written by a different writer. It makes the show/story feel super inconsistent.
The writing
It's really good at many parts.. For example a lot of the comedic bits and humor were great. Some of the lines are fantastic. But it's also horrifically bad at other times. And I mean beyond how weird it is that Lucy would casually asks Maximus to sleep with her in a room with a giant window, in a strange place, surrounded by strange people. I thought it was funny she was asking about sperm count etc in the vault. But that made sense. Just randomly inviting people to have sex with no protection etc in that weird condition? Was that supposed to be empowering or something? Or just a set up for the pimple penis joke or Maximus later asking if she'd like to "explode his D now." Beyond all that, the motivations for NONE of the antagonists make any sense
1. The corporations: Vault-tec wants to wipe out all the competition, on a larger scale. Wipe out literaly every faction, country, group, political entity and organization so there won't be anyone to fight or compete anymore. Total domination by one group, one faction: Vault-Tec. How? By a nuclear holocaust. By dropping the bombs themselves. But that's just part of the plan. They know it won't wipe out everyone. Their plan is to, wait for it..... Wait it out.. their plan is that everyone on the surface eventually dies. How? Time. But .. that makes no sense? They'd multiply and start rebuilding naturally, right? Nope.. don't think about it. "The greatest weapon of mass destruction is time" according to vault-tec in this show. But it gets better. Vault-Tec then invites all their competitors.. to join in on the fun. Because obviously the best way to end competition. Is to tell your competition of your plans an invite them to join you in the new future you're planning to create. But wasn't the point .. that there'd be no more factio- SHHHH, DON'T THINK ABOUT IT! Oh and the vault experiments.. well those are now made up by different corporations for their own end goals, that they are allowed to choose for some reason. In the game lore it's the enclave who was convinced the nuclear war would was inevitable and would make the world uninhabitable, so they planned to create multi generation star ships and colonize different planets. Most of the vaults were meant as experiments to see how people would last in long term confinement and or to create some super human species etc etc and a small amount of them were control groups and thus had no experiments etc going on.
Listen, I'm fine with the corpos dropping the bomb, even though it ruins the ambigiouty we had about who dropped them. I don't mind vault tec's somewhat cartoony power hunger and motivations. That's totally fine in fallout. But the bad writing, the plotholes, the inconsistency .. that's unacceptable. These people are supposed to be professional writers, and they couldn't come up with something better? OR just stuck to the game lore? Same for characters, it's ok for them to be whacky and over the top. It's fallout. But there is a limit to what works and what is just infantile and dumb.
2. Lucy's parents: So Lucy's dad is a lower level cog in the Vault-Tec machine and he's assigned to live his life out in a vault, herding the flock. All the Vault 31 people are cryopod people from before the bomb. This doesn't seem enough of a revelation for vault 32 to break out into a full on civil war and massacre each other. But that does seem to be the extent of it.
Moldaver's talk about Lucy's mom Rose was cringe worthy. Oh, how smart and mary sue she was. She inferred from the vault losing water, that it was being siphoned. She didn't assume it was a leak or anything. No it had to be that civilization had restarted and their water was being siphoned by them. How did they siphon the .. water of a vault? Wouldn't that be a design fla-- don't think about it! You're not supposed to think! Look, I'm not looking for much logic, but, what? And then when she tells her husband, and he says .. probably just a leak. She figures he's must be hiding something? In a vault full of people that are bred to be docile and nice to each other? She has no idea what's there. It might be a leak, it might be a bunch of monsters or raiders, the radiation is still there etc etc. What does she do? She takes her children and .. leaves the vault. She takes her children to an irradiated wasteland to live in an irradiated town among mutants, raiders, murderers, and under constant threat of monsters, other factions, radiation etc It's implied she has a romantic relationship with Moldaver and that Shadysands was this super great, perfect place where civilization had thrived etc. What? I mean sure there was more safety than other places and the NCR was in power etc. But it was still the fallout world with raiders and tons of hostile factions, cannibals, ghouls, monsters, radiation in every part of the world etc.
The father than, get this. Goes and takes the children. And then. He NUKES the town. How does a mid level management tool from a corpo nuke a whole town you ask? Don't. Because we're never told. He just does.
There is much more, but it appears we've run out of the characer limit. Overall, I really enjoyed the show. But it could have been so much better.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023)
Greatness held back by ESG
There is potential for a great story here and on top of that some incredible animation, that at some points does fall flat (will come back to that later). The movie isn't as bad as the average movie/show that big studios put out and have been putting out for the past few years. But it still suffers from the same issues.
So the movie starts off with Gwen, and eventhough I actually like the character it almost made me turn off the movie. Because I was convinced that they had turned the Miles Morales movie into the Gweneverse movie instead. All other movies and shows releasing in the past few years have conditioned me to just assume that a female / young girl side character will become the main focus over the protagonist. It starts off with an animation style that really reminded me of AI created art. We have a very edgy Gwen and her band mates, who are all, the by now super tropey short, blue haired, body positive types. In her universe Peter Parker is a screwup loser, he's not spiderman he's just a wannabe that turns into a villain and then dies. Which is sort of a theme in the movie, Peter Parker is constantly done dirty. Sony also did this in the new game, where Peter Parker suddenly acts like he's the insecure new guy and Miles is "a much better spiderman". The same thing happens in this movie.
Anyway, after we see how much of a loser Peter is in Gwen's universe. We get introduced to the vampire spidey, who is pretty cool. But apparently he can't handle a mid tier villain, not even with the help of Gwen. So he calls for backup. And we get introduced to the most annoying, most ridiculous character in this movie. A pregnant black lady on a motercycle... that's also a spiderma-woman. Let me reitterate .. a pregnant lady... on a motorcycle with a giant afro. And Gwen acts like this lady is the "coolest" person she's ever seen. I don't even know where to start with how dumb it is. On top of that she somehow stays pregnant the entire movie despite the fact she's highly pregnant at the start and by the end months have passed. Shortly after we get an ACAB moment when Gwens dad finds out she's a spidey.
Then we finally go back to Miles and the animation style turns back into the brilliant style of the previous movie.
The story is pretty decent. The acting / voice acting is really good and the animation for the most part is incredible.
But in this movie Peter Parker is an effeminate comic relief dad who takes his new spider daughter everywhere. We get introduced to a thousand different spidermans and a large part of them are "body positive" spiderthems. The movie focuses a lot on "how cool" the pregnant biker spider-woman is. We get a wheelchair spider. Every single "ESG" checkmark thing you can imagine, it's in here. But I do have to say, other than the pregnant spider, most of it doesn't pander too much. It's just there in the background, it's constantly there. And if you're kinda sick and tired of this new trend like I am. Then it will annoy the hell out of you.
They do the same thing as in the game. Miles Morales is a better spiderman than Peter Parker. You know the thing from Rick and Morty? "The Rickest, Rick"? Miles is basically the spiderest, spidey. In fact every spiderman from every universe tries to stop him at one point, and not a single one of them succeeds. He's just "that good". While this happens Peter Parker tells him how he had a child because of Miles. He thought Miles was soo cool.. so incredible, and so special. He had a child hoping the child would be like Miles. Not even special forcefields can stop Miles. Only one that can take Miles out is evil miles .. with a single punch and then he holds him captive, by tying him up with some wires.
Miles can do it all. He's a brilliant student without trying. He's the strongest, fastest, bestest spiderman and everyone loves him. Even the laws of the universe don't count when it comes to him. We're supposed to think it's really cool that he endangers all other universes and trillions, gazillions, a multiverse full of lifes to defy the laws of the multiverse. Every other spiderman had, had to make a sacrifice. Not Miles, "he writes his own story". They are trying so hard to make Miles "the Spiderman".
And then on the end we get a "to be continued".. one of my biggest pet peeves ever. They could have given this movie a satisfying ending and still have left us wanting another movie or have some unresolved issue, instead we got a cliffhanger. Which made makesy ou feel like you've just watched a very long episode of some tv show.
I don't get it.. we loved Miles. Why are they trying so hard to make us dislike the kid? By pushing this whole "Miles is THE spiderman" stuff and the they/them spiders. It's making the movies and character so unappealing. Sony had been relatively good with not jumping into the ESG bs. But now that there is more backlash from audiences than ever for this stuff, they've decided they are joining blackrock, vanguard, disney and the other soulless corpos.
Black Mirror: Loch Henry (2023)
The quality skyrockets in the second episode compared to the first (season six, also twist you might have missed)
It's surprising to see that this episode has a lower score. Considering the fact that everything in this episode is better than the last. The acting is far superior, I mean it's not even a contest. The story is very well written and even though a perceptive viewer can pick up all the que's and see the twist(s) coming, the average viewer, most likely won't. And the thing is when the twist does happen it's always very satisfying even if you see it coming because it's not handed to you on a plate for the most part.
The things that give away the mother's involvement are extremely subtle at times. But it all adds up. E.g. The most memorable one is that she says (paraphrasing) "It was all going great, before he broke it all." Now, that could esily be interpreted as her talking about her life being great before the serial killer caused her husband to die and thus "broke" her life. But "broke" is just enough off for you to wonder why she used that. So I quickly interpreted what she said as "our deal was going great, until he started blurting his mouth and ruined it for us all" (the drunk and his late wife) and paid even more attention to what she said and how she said it. And every time she would give small clues and hints, but they were slight enough that it made you feel smart for noticing them. That's how you do such a mystery episode right.
I quickly started suspecting the dad and the drunk guy, and then soon after also the mom. And here is another twist I think most people missed since the show played a trick on the audience. In the end, the drunk comes out and claims he suspected it for a while now and that he once cheated with them and that they behaved so strange it made him suspect they might have been involved in the serial murders. I think for most people the case is closed, it was the parents of the protagonist and the one dude that had the basement.
But not only does that not make any sense, a scene at the end lingers on the old man.. in a crowd of partying people, he's sitting there, guilty as sin. Remember that this guy was in a mad panic over this docu. Because he knew the truth was going to come out, so he acted before the "whole truth" came out and blamed it all on the protagonists parents. In reality he and his wife were likely involved. Which why he was so disturbed his son gave away all his wife's "mementos" (did you guys notice the mother of the protagonist had a very similar box .. filled with very similar stuff?). Which is why he broke his bones intentionally falling from the stairs to distract them from making the docu. And when he saw no way out tried to save himself by telling the protagonist a half truth leaving out the involvement of himself and his wife. The show tries to give you the impression that he wasn't involved and just didn't come forward because he was ashamed people would find out he cheated. But if you think about it that makes no sense . And if you pay attention to the same subtle ques and clues that showed the mom's involvement it becomes clear this man was also involved.
I was a little disappointed when I thought we were getting a happy ending, considering the horrifically bad first episode, and the crowd cheering at the bar and all until I saw the camera linger on the drunk that got away with it, then the poor protagonist holding a note from his mom, which out of context would be a very sweet note from a caring mother. She leaves him all that evidence, because she's convinced her secret is out and it's over for her (She thinks the gf is gonna snitch, isn't aware that the girl died but her son also got the info) and figures he can use it to further his career. What is also clear is that the mother, whom I was convinced at first was a .. not too bright person just brainwashed by her husband, was just playing dumb likely to throw off suspicion. The ending was perfect for a black mirror episode. Bitter sweet, more bitter than sweet.
Lastly, at first I was worried the show was gonna focus on the interracial relationship part and make a whole virtue signal over it. Instead it was handled absolutely brilliantly! As a minority that grew up in a small homogenous town, I recognized a lot of it. The "oh .. so where you born here or.." is a question that many minorities are familiar with for example, but generally it's just curiosity, people who don't know many if any foreigners etc. People very rarely mean harm or have any evil/negative intent and I feel like esp American TV tends to really represent stuff like that which only makes things work. The subtle "diversity an'all that" the barman said to the gf etc etc.
This episode was absolutely brilliantly done. The only criticism I have is that there was a distinct lack of a sci fi or tech theme aside from the old timey camera. Which btw was introduced to the show brilliantly, the way the wife looked at her husband when he heard them have sex which was also a great subtle clue that could be interpreted one way but completely differently if you suspect her. Anyway, so yeah. This is the first true black mirror episode of this season, I was super worried after episode one and the nickolodeon level acting we got there despite the celeb casting.
Lastly, the first episode is super American. And the second one is super British. The quality difference between the two is astonishing. And did anyone notice both the first episodes are taking constant digs at netflix? I was anoyed they changed the name to "strawberry stream" or whatever. But in ep two the barman actually says "netflix" but then at the end it's all berry stream. I think netflix forced black mirror to remove their name from the show since it was only being mentioned in a negative light. It almost feels like meta commentary lol.
Black Mirror: Joan Is Awful (2023)
S06E1: Great concept, horrible execution
The thing that makes black mirror so impactful is that it takes a very serious, insanely well acted, no holds bar look at our society and technology to make us think about the consequences and possible outcomes, esp the more dystopian and dark side of our technology and how we deal with that technology.
This episode has a great concept to explore, but the way it does that is with the same happy glee as you'd see in a show like "the good place". I don't know who in their right mind thought that black mirror needed a light hearted, funny tone. Even the music is atrocious, with the type of "tension" and "funny moment" music you'd hear on a children's television show on Disney channel or something.
This episode made me think of that super weird tween adventure netflix mirror episode with Miley Cyrus, the one that they must have stolen from some alternate universe where black mirror is actually made by nickelodeon. They aren't even doing an adult take on the light hearted thing. They are going full kiddy show, making silly faces, over acting, being over the top and in multiple instances you can literally see them break character during more serious scenes. It's WILD.
There is also a major plothole at the end. But yeah the acting and the direction they've taken for this episode are absolutely atrocious. Other than that the idea, the concept is actually a great one to explore. Also strange that they focused on quantum computing (completely misunderstanding it) over AI / AGI, machine and deep learning. But I imagine they will do so in other episodes and maybe they didn't want the episodes to be too samey.
I'm genuinely afraid to watch the rest of the season. I hope this is a one off just like last season, although I genuinely do not get the point of this. And it's mind blowing that the episode has an 8! No wonder TV has turned to sh with such low standards for even the best shows. Reminds me of people who kept insisting GoT was great after s5, 6, and 7.
P.s. On an unrelated note, Netflix finally decided to bother me about their new "screw the family" policy, blocking me from my own account. I had to pretend to be traveling. I will 100% be canceling my expensive (almost 20 euro) netflix plan.
The Last of Us (2023)
Missed opportunity
While I see the incredible potential of the show in the few episodes that really shine (mainly nine followed by five, with the first episode taking third place) the show skips too much of Joel and Ellie's story resulting in the two characters never truly feeling as close as they should. Which in turn has a massive impact on the emotional payoff in the most important moments. One of the most vital things that made TLOU so incredible was the character development and the bonding between Joel and Ellie, without that none of the big moments, twists and turns have the impact they should have/could have.
But in this show, we skip 98% of that bonding. The most we get is a short montage. At the same time, the show insists on taking 15/20 minute detours every episode. And has 2 completely unnecessary "prize bait" episodes. How relevant is the whole bit in Indonesia really for example? That time would have been so much better spent having Tess bond with Ellie so Tess' final moments had more impact. The Nick Offerman episode, although well acted, was extremely out of place and more suited for a spinoff of some sorts.
We had nine episodes, of which 2 were reserved for prize bait. Then on top of that every episode had at least 15 minutes of unnecessary random throw away character POV's. That leaves us with approximately 4 hours for the actual main story and characters. 4 hours to develop a relationship this intense and complex. It's just not enough. Which is why, even though episode 9 is absolutely brilliantly recreated from the game (for the most part.) It never has the impact it had in the game.
In the game we get countless hours of these characters interacting, helping each other, bonding, talking, saving each other etc. Now of course that isn't necessarily very practical for a show, even though I do believe it could have been done, esp if the first game was split into multiple seasons and we didn't waste entire episodes on the romantic life's of minor side characters. But what I did expect was at least 8 to 10 hours of Joel and Ellie on their adventure with all the big moments. In the show it truly feels like you go from "just finished tutorial", "Joel got stabbed and we're at the cannibals now" and then "we made it to the fireflies!". It's jarring knowing the actual story.
They (relatively) faithfully the biggest parts of the game, scene for scene in some cases, esp episode 9. But it means nothing when there is none of the context.
On top of that, unfortunately Bella Ramsey is the miscast of the century. Not only was she miscast, they changed Ellie's character completely. Bella Ramsey esp at first has the acting prowess of a block of wood, the range of a rock. She does get a whole lot better after the first episode. But that could have been ok, even the poor day time, child show acting could have been excused. If she was actually Ellie from the game. What I mean by that is her character, it's drastically different to the game, which makes it very hard to feel the same sympathy and love every gamer felt for Ellie. Ellie was a witty, smart kid who was ballsy, strong when she had to be, brave, intuitive etc. She was also a KID .. she was yearning for a parental figure, and esp a paternal one in Joel. Like any orphan she is in search for parental figures, for someone to love her and protect her. She's all alone in this horrifically scary and violent world and has no one. She looks up to this tough stoic guy who knows how to handle business. So for much of the story she's desperately trying to bond with Joel. While Joel is constantly pushing her away, and being an unkind asshole for most of the time. He's has given up on the world and all he cares about is his task and for much of the early part of the game he sees Ellie as not much more than an annoying talking package. Meanwhile in the show, Ellie is a hyperactive, loud, super spoiled bratty boychild. She behaves like she grew up super spoiled in the pre apocalypse times when she has known nothing but being an orphan in a horrible apocalyptic world. She never invokes the sympathy that game Ellie does. The girl that played Joel's daughter, although much too old for the role, recreated the character wonderfully and acted great. I don't understand why they felt the need to change Ellie like this.
Let me give you an example. When Ellie says "Everyone left me except for you" and Joel tells Ellie "You're right, you're not my daughter, and I sure as hell ain't your dad". That moment in the game literally crushed my heart. By that time they had gone through so much together the impact was so strong. Ellie was opening up to Joel, trying to tell him how much he meant to her and how hurt she was that he was trying to leave her. Joel then replies so coldly, and so manner of factly that it is heartbreaking. Esp when you've witnessed all they went through. This is because Ellie reminds Joel of his daughter, and he is terrified to love her and then lose another kid. You hate Joel for saying what he does. And so does Joel!
In the show Joel is far more emotional, his face giving away that he doesn't want to do it. And he's being all apologetic about it. On top of that .. we had none of the bonding. These characters barely know each other. Yet Ellie acts like they've been through just as much as in the game. She has the whole "you're the only one who hasn't left me" sentence, young lady you've known each other for what feels like 3 days tops. What are you on about?
But in the game, you really feel that .. you feel Ellie's disappointment and pain. You feel her hurt at being abandoned when she started to really trust and care for this guy and thought he cared for her.
Anyway I can go on forever but I will switch to some other stuff.
The prize bait episodes sucked, it's hilarious that people keep yelling that they were the best thing. Some major reviewers literally gave the show a 10. But then described the entire story as boring, a bad remake, a bad b version of TLOU but couldn't stop praising the prize bait episodes claiming the best parts of the show were the ones that weren't actually part of the story, the parts without the 2 main characters. The detours.
Look I knew Ellie's episode would be done. And that was something I hoped they would since I think it's important to the story. But I hoped it was a special. Like they would first do the entire first season. Then a while later a special one or two hour special for Ellie and Riley. Just like the game and dlc. This would have made Ellie and Riley's moment more impactful. We do not CARE enough about Ellie yet. I couldn't care less about Bill. Again, that word, impact. The impact of Bill's story was far greater in the game. It wasn't on the nose, it was very subtle. And even the most hardened homophobe would have gone "aw man, that's sad" .. but no we needed an entire nonsensical episode. Nick Offerman is great but the character he acted was nothing like Bill from the game. The fact that they went from "I'm 'bout ta shoot ya" to "let's have sx" in 30 seconds is hilarious .. but yeah .. best love story since titanic or whatever.
So yeah.. a couple of episodes that are incredible live action versions of the in game cutscenes. But most of it is poorly done filler that doesn't have the emotional payoff the actual story has. Don't believe me? Go watch TLOU's "the movie" on youtube. All the cutscenes stitched together basically.. It's better. It's far better than the show.
P.s really cool that Troy Baker and Ashley Johnson were in the show. Esp Ashley as the mother of Ellie was super cool, in fact she even looked a lot like Bella Ramsey, it was very well done. I wish that Troy had gotten a larger role tbh. He could have easily been Joel to be honest, a little more muscle and he's there.
Cyberpunk: Edgerunners (2022)
Cyberpunk but very Japanese
EDIT: I'm a grown ass man. Decided to play some cyberpunk. Try out the new weapons. Do the handfull of activities they added. Was driving to my destination during a rainy night in NC, the song "I really want to stay at your house" came up. I choked up ffs "Sorry, wish we could go to the moon together" came to mind. Dropped the mission visited some spots that were also in the show. Went to the afterlife. Reminisced video game and anime characters in a video game bar. Wanted to order a Jackie Welles, ordered a David Martinez instead (legends' names are given to their favorite drinks at the afterlife.. ). Yeah I complain but the show certainly had an impact on me. More so than I thought. Man I love cyberpunk, wish we got more stuff in this genre.
Updated score had 10/10. Well deserved. Is it perfect. No. Will it smash you in the guts with a jackhammer and leave you feeling depressed if a bit traumatised? Yes.
So, I'm not a big anime or manga fan. I love Akira, Ghost in the Shell etc and loved the original FMA show (hated brotherhood) and Elfenlied. But that's about it.
Now first off the art style is really good. But i do think the animation is a bit wooden. Like they didn't want to put too much effort into it worried that it might flop.
The story is a nice cyberpunk story set in the world of ... Uhh cyberpunk. Seems to be before the game events. There are a ton of references to the game. The visuals are straight from the game. At one point during a police fight one character even talks about how the police seem to appear out of nowhere hahah.
The ending is very bitter sweet... More bitter than sweet tbh.
But here is the thing ... The ending makes no sense. What the main protagonist does makes no sense. And his reasoning makes sense least of all ... And there comes the 'very Japanese part'. In Japanese anime characters are always super obsessed with reaching whatever goal it is. Ready to sacrifice everything. But in this case it wasn't necessary for him to chrome himself up to the point he becomes a cyberpsycho. It makes no sense that he would ignore the telltale signs esp considering how he saw Maine go out and how Maine uhh ended his own gf. He's in a loving relationship with Lucy. He lives in one of the most expensive corpo suites. He is doing well with his crew and he doesn't need all the upgrades he barely even uses them. He's being super dramatic telling Lucy how "he can't stop, he has to be the best for Maine and his mom" yeah sure kid I'm sure your mom wants you to die a cyberpsycho. Meanwhile Lucy won't just come out and tell him that she's been working behind the scenes to protect him the entire time. If she told him what arasaka wanted with him this could have all been avoided. He's not honoring his mom. His spitting in all her efforts to make something out of him. You're rich and successful and on a rapid rise to the top. Why the F would you start chroming yourself like a mealstrum freak.
Then we get to the inconsistency with the lore. A sandanviztan isn't that rare or special. Not in the game at least.
Some of the cyberware was ririculous and too cartoony. Like giant 20 canons folding out of one limb or something
I feel like they could have told this story. They could have shown a kid go cyberpsycho in an effort to be stronger and stronger. But they needed a different character, back story and motivations. Due to the time skip the change in his character is also abrupt. And the romance parts are very Japanese too. He never tries to comfort Lucy at any point. He has to be asked the one time he does (I believe in you).
But in the end it was an entertaining anime. I guess if they make a new season it will be with a new rookie and a new crew.
I honestly think I would have enjoyed a western produced anime at the level of Arcane a lot more. But as a lover of cyberpunk even with all the issues i have with the anime, I really enjoyed it. And the end was a punch in the guts. Reminiscent to the multiple endings of the game where there also is no true happy ending.
The Orville (2017)
Absurdly brilliant show
First off, can't believe it took me so long to review this, despite following it from the start. The show is brilliant. From the very start everyone agreed, this is the new star trek and it's 100000x better than anything the star trek IP holders are making. It does change tone from s1 to s3. S1 is more of a comedy show star trek spoof that also has some very serious moments and does all the philosophical stuff that star trek does but only with humor. In s2 the humor takes a backseat. And in s3 it's literally just star trek like we used to know it only in a modern jacket.'
P.s I will vaguely discuss some episode plots without spoiling any major twist, plot or ending.
Part of what makes this show so brilliant is how it handles the issues it tackles. It tackles very heavy social issues but it does so in an absolutely beautiful way. Without hammering it on your head over and over. Without constantly pointing and calling you bad for having the wrong opinion. Without virtue signaling. The show is woke without being "woke". It has all the wokeness that star trek always had, but not the modern "wokeness" that smashes you over the head with it. '
Seth will give us a familiar yet very alien issues. Like the episodes with the Moklans. An entirely male race. They have exclusively gay relationships and even get pregnant. Their kids are almost always men and it's unacceptable to be a woman in their culture and on their planet. But if they are born female, then they surgically alter the child to become a man. And there is an entire episode about it and the struggles of a Moklan couple that bore a female child, the dilemma of it, why they would potentially want to change her gender, and why it would be good for the child and family and why it might be bad etc. At no point does the show hammer you over the head with heavy handed allegories and metaphors. Instead, they give you this dilemma, show all the sides and let you come to your own conclusion. The show assumes you're good enough of a person to choose the right thing. It's never patronizing, it's never lecturing etc.
And that is exactly how such subjects should be tackled. That's exactly how you change hearts and minds
In the latest season, one of the crew members (she's absolutely stunning) is extremely xenophobic against this other crewmember who is an artificial life form. They don't demonize her. She's not the evil karen. It's not an allegory for our world and how racism works in our world. But it's familiar. It's recognizable. They show us why .. they explain why she hates him so much. And even though you get it, even though you understand why she doesn't trust him, you also always feel like she's wrong. But at no point does the captain lecture her about racism, giving a 21st century example "You know, our forefathers used to have slaves and..."
It's so smart. It's so well done. And it tackles all the issues so incredibly well and in a nuanced way and lets the viewer come to the conclusions themselves. The show assumes that the viewer is smart enough, and a good person enough to make these conclusions. It doesn't need to force us or shove it in our eye and hammer it in over and over and over again. Like many shows do nowadays. Like the new star trek does. And that's why even those right wing types that constantly complain about "woke hollywood" absolutely love and respect this show despite the fact that it tackles many of the same issues. It just does it in a much better, much more rational, and much less patronizing way (in fact the show never really becomes patronizing, it never looks down on its viewers or assumes they are dumb)
Never change Seth. Always stay rational. Always be the great person you are.
The Orville: Mortality Paradox (2022)
I thought it was the weakest episode, until the end reveal
So I absolutely love this show. But at first I thought this episode was the weakest so far, similar to star trek episodes that go to our time and world, I thought this was one of those episodes. And I always thought those were the worst star trek episodes. But thankfully it didn't all play out in some high school on earth and got back to the sci fi setting. But the thing that really made the episode for me was the end. Where Seth Macfarlane / the captain says he'd gladly live forever. See I've always said this, and I always had discussions about this. And the general population likes to pretend they wouldn't. 99% of people immediately dismiss the idea and claim it would be horrible, or boring without even giving it a thought. But to me it sounds purely like some coping mechanism. I whole heartedly believe humans one day will become immortal due to scientific advancements.
And the thing I loved most was Seth's answer when asked "why?" ... "because I'm curious" .. exactly. Literally moments before this, when they had the alien lady talk about her immortality I immediately braced myself for the standard "but immortality is bad" nonsense. But no, she even implied humans will become immortal. And I remember thinking to all the conversations I've had over this. The many times I've pondered over this, esp as someone that loves sci fi/fantasy and writes as a hobby. And one of the biggest reasons I always supported the idea of being immortal / or at least no longer dying due to natural causes. Was curiosity.. obviously being able to enjoy your loved ones, meeting endless amounts of new people, visiting every corner of the earth (and maybe beyond) etc etc having endless time to achieve anything you want is all part of the attraction. But one of the biggest ones and simplest ones is curiosity ... I want to witness 500 years from now.. I want to live through the change and see all the wonderful things we as a species achieve. The art we create. The technologies we make. The things we build. So when Seth moments after I was pondering this said "curiosity" I legitimately yelled out "Yes! Exactly! You're the man!"
This was a beautiful message. And I love Seth for this and of course creating this brilliant show.
Hagane no renkinjutsushi (2003)
It annoys me endlessly that brotherhood has a higher score
I watched both this show and brotherhood. I loved the original FMA. I'm not a big anime fan. I don't care for or read manga. I understand that brotherhood is closer to the Manga. But that made it 10x worse. Rhe overly silly faces. The constant goofing around and comedy. Meanwhile this show is a really sad tale about these two brothers. There are some light hearted moments but both those and the drama is elevated by the more serious tone. Meanwhile brotherhood reminds me of those cartoons I used to watch before going ti school. It has some bery serious subjects but it's all surounded by silly faces, laughs etc.
FMA is the only anime show I ever finished (also the much shorter and more violent elfenlied)..truly loved this show. And as a result i absolutely HATED brotherhood. Im just here to give this show a 10 because someone reminded me of it. And it annoys me that brotherhood has a higher score.
Thor: Love and Thunder (2022)
Can't believe I wasted my time watching this
It feels like a bad imitation of a Waika movie / show. Like someone was a huge fan of "what we do in the shadows" (brilliant show) and decided to make a marvel movie. Idk what happened. The other Thor Waika did was great. To be fair the whole plot of his literal prop girlfriend (Portman) taking over the franchise, is hilariously bad. Hemsworth has become a iconic Thor. I'm sorry but you're replacing him with a a girl who looks like she's straight out of a romcom or period drama with CGI arms designed by an artist who doesn't understand proportions. Wonder woman was buff.. no need to enhance her physique to look more masculine. It's not like the hammer works on muscles lol.. it is magic that allows them to wield the hammer.
Literally 99% jokes except the goats fall super flat. Or are downright cringy. The plot is boring and uninteresting and also basically kills the franchise. I imagine that even if there were people who wanted to see a Natalie Thorman, have lost interest after seeing this poor imitation of a Thor movie. Waika seems to have misunderstood what made the first movie good. Even the villain, supposed to be very intimidating. Just comes across as comical (in a bad way).
Again this looks like a troll made a bad imitation. Don't bother watching. Thankfully I didn't pay for this lol. Not that I care about the money. I just don't want to encourage the buffoons at Marvel and Disney. At this point they seem to be switching to making "hate watch movies" and antagonizing their fanbase. Like netflix does with certain really bad movies / shows that they pump out sequels too because youtubers will make countless hate videos and the movies will get lots of hate watchers. It's really sad to see the industry like this. It's never been great. But I don't hink it's ever been worse than this. Every bit of creativity is being sucked out to check boxes.
The Terminal List (2022)
Absolutely fantastic show, but horrible colours / editing
Who ever decided they needed raise black levels and make everything look washed out and dull, lifeless and with zero contrast. Fire that tasteless monster who thinks he's being artistic or clever with the same old "let's wash all the colour out and throw a filter on it" technique. Add some Vaseline, mixed with sand to the lens while were at it so everything looks grainy and blurry. Is the guy who decided on these decisions the same guy who decides to use 50 shades of excrement brown for every call of duty game for the past 2 decades?
The show is great. It's very surprising that Amazon put out both reacher and this show. Both obviously geared toward a lately completely neglected market (adult men). The industry has been trying to be "inclusive" so much they completely ignored that there are market segments for a reason and not everyone is going to enjoy the same stuff regardless if there is a representation of whatever "special" little club they belong too. A pacifist LGBT member who hates war and violence isn't suddenly going to love action movies because the lead is a purple haired non binary person with a massive beard, wearing a dress into battle. And the average straight man isn't going to care about an action movie that is pushing social messages every 3 lines even if they agree with the idea of it, no one wants to be preached too while trying to be entertained.
This show is very much a macho man dude bro action show woth a great conspiracy / mystery, heart wrenching drama and loss. It's obviously mostly geared towards men. Which should be completely fine. Just like it's fine to make movies with a female target audience in mind where men have very little representation or large roles to play aside from props etc.
Anyway I'm ranting. I don't want to come across like one of those incel far right people. But even a broken clock is right twice a day. Studios need to focus on making good content. Having incredible writing and characters. Not on checking boxes, representing as an wide array of people they can with EVERY single show/ movie regardless if it works. Or trying completeoy different audiences into franchises with faux representation, gender or race swapping. It has to end.
Again, mind blowing that of all companies it's the same amazon that made those "I can change sauron, he's such a hottie, I finally feel like represented, I love lotr so much, which one was gandalf again?" 'super fan' videos.
Good Omens (2019)
It's an absolute SIN that there isn't a second season
Fantastic show based on fantastic material, with fantastic producers and fantastic actors who give fantastic performances. Where is season 2? Even if it didn't get enough viewers right away, I suspect that might be because it wasn't properly marketed. This show will always remain a cult classic and it's really sad that there isn't a proper end to this incredible show.
Cem Yilmaz: Diamond Elite Platinum Plus (2021)
Not nearly as good as his other shows but not as bad as reviews claim
The show isn't too bad. But it does feel like Cem's just "funny" ranting instead of doing stand up. If you're not Turkish or very well versed in Turkish culture this isn't for you. You might enjoy Cem's previous stand up though.
The funniest bit was the last joke about Nasreddin Hoca. Probably the best weed joke I've heard in ages. Considering weed isn't socially acceptable in Turkey I was surprised he included the bit.
All in all I really enjoyed it. I love Cem and his stand up. He's basically the only stand up I even know from Turkey but Esp some of his older stuff is brilliant. I hope netflix keeps making more Turkish content. On a sorta unrelated note I really appreciate that they have Turkish subs etc even in countries outside of Turkey that have large Turkish minorities. As my parents who don't speak English love the fact that they can watch foreign shows with Turkish subtitles and dubs.
If you're looking to learn about Turkish culture. Comedy is never really a good way to learn about a culture (as a beginner). You're better of watching something else since you won't understand most of his jokes or humor. If you're trying to learn more about Turkish culture and you're already pretty deep into it, then this might help.
Mustafa (2008)
Pure propaganda
This movie was made by Can Dundar who has a bruning hatred for Ataturk and used to work with a radical Islamist cult to try and turn Turkey into an Iran style theocratic dictatorship. It's full of inaccuracies, misrepresentations but also outright lies.
Look no man was perfect. No one is upset because Ataturk isn't being portrayed as some sort of flawless man. But this is just pure nonsense written and made by a bunch of people who have an obsessive grudge against Ataturk and the secular republic he founded.
If you want to learn about Ataturk, read the books of Andrew Mango, or Ilber Ortayli (Prof Ilber's books have English translations)
Mute (2018)
Really good cyberpunk/mystery movie
No idea why the score is so low. I avoided this movie because of the score but after watching it I absolutely love it. The acting is good but what really sets it apart is the setting and how incredible the atmosphere is. Combined with a decent mystery / detective type story about a really good guy looking for the women he loves..
The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf (2021)
Not sure why it's rated so low, it's incredible
It tells the story of Vesemir (Geralt's mentor) and how Kear Morhen ended up destroyed. Idk how true it is to the books but it fits in perfectly with the game. The show has great action and a really good story. Sometimes the voice acting is a bit wooden but that kinda added to the atmosphere of the show. The world etc are realised very well.
Yakuza to kazoku: The Family (2020)
Low score reviews wanted a movie glorifying the Yakuza life
It's a fantastic but very depressing movie esp near the end it gets really really dark and sad. This is a drama about a Yakuza family and a story telling the end of the Yakuza. Don't expect a gangster story, a rags to riches action movie etc. The one part I'd criticise is the romance subplot which was done pretty poorly and sorta rushed..
Cruella (2021)
A dog murdering chain smoker is a symbol of empowerment - Disney
Why? Why? I legit don't understand. If you wanted to make a movie about a crazy, strong female, aspiring fashion designer. You should have done that without calling her Cruella. Cruel is literally in the name!
This is just a Disney's Harley Quin movie and just as bad as those movies. Emma does a decent job thought but she's better than this.
The One (2021)
It's pretty good aside from the major plothole
The idea that people can only match one single person or in very special cases also a sibling of that person is absolutely nonsense. One person? Just one? How is that statistically possible that every one of us has just exact one match.. So around the time we're born there is always some person that is born as our match somewhere in the world? How? Magic? That's also extremely inefficient since the chances of people finding each other would be near zero. Like they are acting as if, if your match dies that's it. You're screwed. There is no alternative? No lesser match?
The whole there is only one match thing makes no sense. If they had like a percentage system with like 80% being super high and a 95/100% extremely rare it would make more sense and would add even more drama and chaos. People leaving their loved ones for a better match only to later be matched to an even better match haha. People starting weird polygamous relationships (I'm a strict monogamist but feel like that might happen among some people who find more than one person irresistible)
Idk why the score is so low though. The acting was pretty damn good. The plots were pretty good. Then again I absolutely love Sci fi stuff. The twist wasn't much of a twist. But the story was good nonetheless and I'm excited for a new season. I kinda wonder what will happen next. Like when that dumb curly haired girl meets her match after having met her boyfriend's match and accidentally made them meet, almost destroying her relationship. Will she stay faithfull as he did? (aside from the cheating I guess lol).
Behind Her Eyes (2021)
Deserves at least a 9
The acting is top notch as side from some parts at the end. The show keeps you guessing the entire time and for the first time in a long time it was hard to figure out the actual twist. I figured it out a little before the reveal but it took me way longer than usual.
There is some cheating in the show and I hate cheaters. Usually won't watch anything that shows cheaters as sympathetic. But it didn't really bother me too much. Maybe it's because basically everyone in the show is a horrible person except this one person.. But esp at first it will seem like absolutely everyone in the show is horrible.
Listen don't spoil the show further for yourself. Just go watch it. I really want to say something about the ending but that would be sort of a spoiler. I do think it has a low score because some people might find the ending a bit unsatisfactory
The 5th Wave (2016)
If you can suspend your disbelieve it's pretty decent
Quite honestly it's far superior to most YA book movies. It's far superior to divergent etc for example.
The problem is that the plot is full of holes and makes little sense. But the acting is surprisingly good. Again far superior to the average YA movie. The obligatory romance was done pretty well. Although the age difference is a bit creepy. This is something a lot of YA books / movies do. Take a 16yo girl protagonist and have some 25yo dude be one of the love interests. They hinted at a love triangle for the next movie (which obviously isn't happening) which is dumb. Why does every movie targeting YA and middle aged women need a love triangle. It's a giant pet peeve of mine. The romance was actually pretty well done and developed, eventhough the guy was much older and had a "love on first sight" then stalker type real going on.
The action and characters were ok. The story was ok if you don't mind how nonsensical the aliens are, and how they can wipe out humanity in a million different and much easier ways. How their technology is centuries if not millennia more advanced then ours and still their methods are antiquated etc. If you can look past that it's actually pretty entertaining. The twists can be seen from a mile away.
Chloe was great. Although she looks so young that the romance part felt creepier.
Kinda wish they made a second movie to continue the story. I guess this one didn't sell. I mean I had never heard of it before and I love sci fi, dystopias and post apocalyptic stuff (reason why I watched it despite my aversion to YA stuff). I saw it on Netflix and out it on thinking even if it wasn't good it might be so bad it's funny or good. It was decent overall..maybe it's the alcohol making it better, idk
Equinox (2020)
Much better than the reviews suggest, but also sorta infuriating
If you movies and shows that are about weird cults (e.g. Midsommar) and mysteries of that type you will likely very much enjoy it. That doesn't change the fact that there is a lot wrong with this show and the end is rather infurating and very bad compared to the rest of the show. People seem to complain how slow the show is, but it is actually packed full of small details and I thought the pasing was pretty good. The mystery slowly unfolds and they do a pretty good job with both giving you hints and keeping you guessing at the same time.
The show's main protagonist is Astrid. She is a child when her 18 year old sister Ida disappears right after graduation. Ida is the second protagonist together with her friend / boyfriend, Jakob. Jakob's friend Falke, who has a crush on Ida. And Amelia, who is Ida's best friend and loves her (it's sorta implied she might even have romantic feelings) but is also jealous of Ida and envies her a lot.
Now I won't recount the entire story, but there were some parts that really annoyed me and made no sense, so I will mainly focus on those.
1. Ida seems very shy at first. She seems to be attracted to Jacob, but also sorta flirts with Falke. They sorta sublty show she isn't very experienced with boys etc. She is depressed and sick and tired of her very controlling and over protective mother. When she and Jakob are sitting at the docks, Jakob kisses her. Then the scene cuts and suddenly we are in her room and they are undressing. After 5 seconds of sex, which seems to be incredibly unsatisfying for Ida, she drops the fact that this was her first time. So .. this shy virgin girl, with a ultra strict, control freak mother, takes a boy home to have sex after he gives her one kiss one the lips. Before that she also says she isn't into Jakob that way, and she doesn't seem to enjoy the sex (can't blame her since it was liteally 5 seconds). After they have sex Jokob even asks her what's up with her and Falke, and she says "I don't know". Like something might be up None of this really makes sense. After that they sort a start dating because "why the hell not"
2. Jakob convinces them to go to some Island because some grimoire he found says there is some ritual there etc. So they go and find this weird cult and decide to join in their weird parade. Before this they threw dice and the grimoire told them their fate. All the outcomes sucked, and for Ida the outcome was being sacrificed. And older cult member picks out a bunch of young girls (if I remember corrrectly Amelia isn't among them) gives them all eggs to hold. When the egg that Ida is holding turns upward they decide she is the Goddess "Ostera".. Now at this point her friends, especially her boyfriend should be trying to stop her or do something, Falke and Amelia try to say something but Ida willingly participates. Despite the whole sacrifice stuff. Jakob does nothing. The old lady breaks the egg, in a bowl. There is some blood in the egg showing that there was a chicken embryo in it's early stages and the egg was fertilized. For some reason Ida drinks the egg as the old lady tells her too.
Then it goes bonkers. They undress Ida and paint her face white, put her in a robe. She tells Falke of all people to disrobe her. Telling him, don't be afraid. Like she knows what she has to do. Which makes no sense. So there she stands, completely naked infront of the entire dancing and chanting cult. They put her on a wooden altar. And this guy with a hare's mask, painted in black comes over. And Ida without anyone saying a word, spread her legs. Meanwhile Jakob is just watching. Now at this point I undestand Jakobs hesistation to say anything. It probably really hurts to see your girlfriend suddenly decide to have sex with some randon cult member infront of countless strangers. But why didn't he do something before? Why didn't he try to stop it? Later we find out that he might have know what was going to happen, which means he used Ida. But that also doesn't make sense, but I'll come back to that later.
So ida spreads her legs, this guy penetrates her. And moments later, she hallucinates seeing him as this hare demon/god. Instead of freaking out, she pulls him towards herself, turns around and lays the guy down on the altar and sits on him. She then screams while having sex. It think it's supposed to show how much she enjoys it, but the scream sounds like she is in pain. Eventhough she is the one riding him and a willing participant
3. Back at school, none of her friends will talk to her. Amelia treats her like dirt. Falke doesn't talk with her. And Jakob is furious and won't talk to her. So this is the part that doesn't make sense. If Jakob knew what was going to happen, why is he angry? He literally brought her there for that, he caused what happened, his book supposedly described it all. So I guess he didn't know the full extend of what was going to happen and is hurt his girlfriend had exibitionist sex wiith a cult member (and seemed to enjoy it a thousand times more than when they had sex as an insult to injury). I get that Ida is confused about how Amelia is treating her. But she seems super surprised that Jakob is mad at her for cheating on him, infront of him. And in like the most messed up way.
4. The moment Astrid went to the teacher, it became clear he was the creature / one that has sex with Ida and that he had something to do with it all. I do think this was cleverly done. Astrid goes there accusing him of doing something to the students and her sister, he gets angry and denies it. Then she suddenly calms down and believes him. They have something to drink and he and his wife (not sure what the deal is with her) ask her to stay the night. She weirdly accepts. That night she has a weird erotic dream about this teacher guy with the weird orange fog etc. Up until this point in the show she only had these dreams when she was a little girl and they were never erotic. The fact that the dreams are suddenly back and about this guy, made it clear something was going on.
5. We find out that her mother was desperate to have children. That she asked the demon for a baby and promised to give her child to him when she turned 18. That is an absolutely horrible deal. I mean if she believed he could make her pregnant, why would she believe he wouldn't come back for her? This guy seems to not take no for an answer. So how come she was able to change the terms of the deal to allow her to keep Ida but in turn give the demon Ida's child, a child that the demon would impregnate her with?
Also, I don't think they ever make clear where Astrid comes from. And since Ida is from the deamon, and astrid was a "gift" that they got when she was 2 weeks old, how come the father is oblivious to this all. He also tells Astrid the story of Ostara while she is at the psychatric hospital, but later the show acts like he doesn't know any of that stuff.
5. At the end, Astrid find out that the demon took her sister and all her class mates as revenge for Ida aborting her child. It's made clear to Astrid that he will also try to take her. And what does she do? She goes to the Island on the same day that she is to be sacrificed. We don't see her having intercourse etc. She just immediately starts halucinating and sees her sister who happily leads her to the deamon. "and they live happily ever after"... WHAT??
We then see the demon has let all the other students go ... ?? None of this nonsense makes sense. She willingly sacrifices her self to be with her sister. She doesn't even know if he will let the others go. But she has a child and a seemingly loving and patient ex husband that she is leaving behind. It's an extremely selfish "selfless" act.
The demon is obviously a bad guy. He manipulates his students, curses them, impregnantes them so he can steal their kids and puts them in a psychopathic fog prison. He took the life's of 20 students and Ida because she aborted his child. But the ending sort pretends like this is a good ending. Both Ida and Astrid are "sister wife's" of a weird ancient demon/creature. Astrid's kid is without a mother. The student's that have returned have lost 21 years of their life! (they have also come back as older versions of themselves it seems, even then, they lost 21 years. Life has moved on without them and they were in a super scary place. As Torben the driver explains it, you're in a sort od solitary confinement. Those students must have all gotten mad!). Also why would he let them go since now there are 21 people who will tell this story. No one will believe them probably, but some people will. They have suddenly returned with their graduationg clothes and hats. Also, Torben or whaever the driver's name is explains a lot of what happened. Instead of asking about Ida etc and the millions of other questions she can ask she just leaves??
Anyway, it's hard to believe that Astrid would do this to her child, Especially with how her "mother" treated her and abandoned her. She also is furious with her father instead of asking him more questions she just accuses him of being just as bad as her mother. She is angry with her husband who seems to want what's best for her and has waited for her no matter what. Giving her another chance, something she asked for after she found out he was seeing a new woman. Astrid is a terrible person. Ida makes no sense. And the end is creepy, horrible and nonsensical .
If the writers wanted to make a FU, take it or leave it type bad ending. Fine. Sometimes a bad ending is the good one. But why the hell is it framed as if this is a good ending. How do we even know that the Ida Astrid sees is real and not some phantom that the creature is showing her to convince her to walk into the water?
Anyway.. the show was pretty good, there was a lot of frustrating parts where characters did nonsensical stuff and the end is not only bad. It just doens't make sense. They should have just made it a bad ending instead
Upgrade (2018)
What seems like a predictable movie, has some great twists.
The moment Gray and his wife Asha were atttacked, I knew it had to be Eren. Maybe the anti social tech mogul was upset over what Grey had said (critisized machines and wasn't too impressed by the new chip/tech). So most of the movie I expected that in the end it would turn out to be Eren that had him attacked.
I mean, come on. He is a random mechanic, his cyber car is taken over. His wife is shot with an actual round while he is only disabled and not really shot. The evil goons only sever his spine and do so deliberately. Why would they do that? Not long after Eren comes and offers Grey the implant?
As the movie progressed I hoped I was wrong. Stuff didn't add up. STEM (the chip) seemed to be pretty evil. Eren was surprised that stem could communicate with Grey for example. Not to mention that he did nonsensical things. e.g. Instead of allowing Grey to quesstion the people that killed his wife he killed them off. Even when he allowed the questioning he did enough damage so they couln't talk for too long.
But the revelation in the end where it turns out that it isn't Eren but STEM that is in control was pretty cool. When it turned out Eren had ordered the goons to disable Grey, I thought. "I knew it... well that sucks.." But then when it turned out it was STEM all along, I thought it was a pretty nice and smart twist. In hindsight the cybernetically enhanced goons etc talking about them being some new race should have given some of it away.
"All I wanted was for him to break his mind, and he did" .. This also explains why STEM made them kill his wife. When I thought it was Eren that did it, it made little sense. Figured the evil goons were just being evil and or maybe even went against his orders. Maybe they had an alternative motive. Worked for some competitor etc. Some of them even had parts that were apparently made by the company Ashe worked for. Obviously Grey would be more willing to get the chip if he had his wife to live for. But it turns out that STEM wanted him to be a broken man. So he could completely "imprison" his countiousness in a dream, a dream in which his wife Ashe was still alive and they just went through a car crash or something.
The depiction of the future, the sci fi elements etc were all great. It was sorta cyberpunk but also relatively grounded in reality. It wasn't the perfect clean sci fi, nor was it the super dirty and gritty cyberpunk dystopia.
I would love to see a sequel.
Anyway, the movie is much better than you would expect. Especially if you enjoy sci fi and cyberpunk. Not sure how I missed this when it first released as I absolutely love sci fi.
9/10
Cobra Kai (2018)
Soo much better than you expect, I 4efgused to watch it because it was YouTube
I thought it would be some cheesy.showmwoth YouTube quality. My.god was I wrong. Tonight I finally started to watch it. It's both for teens and adults abut many ofmthe jokes are very adult (about sex, drugs and alcohol). The original guys are thete (not sure of they are the original actors). Anyway the acting sin10/10. The sorry is absolutely fantastic. You see the story from.the bully's side and itnshowsna redemption story of a guy whose life is a complete mess. The teens also do a great job showing what it's like tombe a teen. I didn't grow up in the 80s {90s) But the movie is very nostalgic to me and it captures that nostalgia to a T. It's perfect. The music is fantastic, the acting is great the story is well written, the characters are very likeable etc.
Ease give it a chance..just watch the first episode or two, brliev eme you'll get hooked.
EDIT: The first season is literally HBO quality can't believe YouTube did this. It's the whole reason why I avoided it. I watched it on Netflix today. This show deserves an 11/10. It does nostalgia right and it also had a fantastic modern story. Really.amkes.me.rhibk I need to give YouTube shows a chance. This is off the charts. I hope these guys get other roles