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La mort de Louis XIV (2016)
Lack of substance
If you enjoy 115 minutes of a sick, old man lying in his bed, struggling to eat, moaning and eventually dying, this is the right movie for you.
The Irishman (2019)
Boring
It feels like they said "let's make a mafia movie like 'Godfather' or 'Goodfellas'", and then proceeded to check off all the items on the list that such a movie needs: famous actors, check, violent murders, check, family conflicts, check, loyalty dilemma, check.
What they forgot? To actually tell an interesting story...
Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker (2019)
Patchwork of recycled ideas
The story of this trilogy is a mess, it is a patchwork of recycled ideas which don't fit together and do not form a coherent whole. The characters are poorly developed and don't have much chemistry together. We almost feel relieved that they don't have longer dialogues, because they are so bad.
There do not seem to be any storytellers left in Hollywood who can tell an original story.
Case in point: Already in Ep. VII they recycled the plot element "The droid holds a secret message" from Ep. IV. Well, in this movie they use this plot element again, TWICE.
There were some plot-twists in Ep. IX which were not bad, but came totally out of the blue and were not developed enough.
This movie also suffers from a severe pacing issue. It feels like it is on Allegro the whole time. We are rushing from one spaceship chase to another, from one gunfight to the next. There is no time to take a breath, to enjoy the quieter moments, to let the characters interact.
Disney is going to continue milking this IP, but the magic is long gone.
Game of Thrones: The Iron Throne (2019)
A disappointing end to an amazing series
After seeing this underwhelming final episode, I can say with certainty that this series consists of two parts which must be judged separately.
The first part consists of season 1-5 and is a book adaption. This part is amazing and easily my favourite series of all time. All the best and most dramatic moments of Game of Thrones (in my opinion) are in this part: Ned's death, the Red wedding, Tyrion confronting and killing his dad, the fight between Oberyn and the Mountain, etc. The story telling, the acting, the drama, the cinematography were all brilliant. I rate it 10/10.
The second part consists of season 6-8. It is the show runners' attempt to continue the story where the books left off. Unfortunately, the show took a big dive almost immediately after they "ran out of books", then deteriorated further in season 7 and finally fell apart completely in season 8. The problems with the writing were manifold. Dialogues felt out of character. The pacing was off, either dragging things out too long or rushing and skipping over things. There were inconsistencies with the time/place that characters were supposed to be at. Logic out of the window. Lots and lots of plot-armor. Most of all, the writers just didn't know what to do with these great characters they had. For example, Arya with her special skills was completely underused in the final two seasons. Many events in season 7 and especially 8 felt arbitrary, unbelievable or outright silly. I rate this part 6/10.
The conclusion of season 8 was particularly problematic. It hinged on two main developments that led to the outcome that we saw. The first one is Daenerys becoming the Mad Queen, the second one is Jon turning against her. Unfortunately, both of these developments were unconvincing and felt forced. We just didn't buy it from these characters after the development that they went through during the previous seasons. Finally, Bran on the throne felt inconsistent with his character development as well and even went completely against his own words in an earlier episode when he said "I can never be lord of anything".
It is sad and disappointing that it had to end this way. But overall it's still an amazing show. It has been quite a journey during the last 8 years and one that I wouldn't want to have missed out on. The seasons 1-5 will be held up as one of the greatest achievements in TV production of our age.
Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi (2017)
Fan-fiction
There does not seem to be a single competent storyteller left in Hollywood. Rian Johnson certainly isn't one. What we are served here is fan-fiction at best, but certainly not a genuine Star Wars episode. The plot makes little sense and relies on miracle after miracle, the dialogues felt clumsy, the characters are cliched and lack motivation for their actions.
Amazing how little regard the writer had for the characters and themes of the original series. At times it felt rather like a parody than a genuine Star Wars episode.
Visually it was impressive, but what does that help if the story itself is such a disappointment?
Game of Thrones: Beyond the Wall (2017)
The show now lacks almost everything that made it great
It is hard to come to terms with the fact that this show sucks now. Up to Season 5, it was one of the best I have seen on TV and I absolutely loved it, 10/10. Unfortunately, the show took a big dive from season 6 and it has reached a new low with this latest episode.
Clearly, D&D, the two show-runners and writers, have depended on GRRM's storytelling and it is now obvious that they are not up to the task of continuing the story on their own. For a long time I thought that D&D were swimming along just fine, but when the tide receded, it was revealed that they were swimming without a swimming suit all the time...
The show now lacks almost everything that made it great in seasons 1-5, notably:
1. Its darkness and unpredictability. It hit you in the stomach when you didn't expect it. It dared to take your favourite characters away from you. It shocked you with violence in both a physical and psychological sense. Situations very often ended in the worst possible way. But from season 6 the show feels very different. It has become tame and predictable, even a little boring. Bringing back Jon Snow was a bad idea as it is not true to spirit of the earlier episodes and unfortunately it got worse after that. Did anyone think Jaime was really dead after the loot train attack in season 7? Hell no. We know nothing is going to happen to him, and that's why this show is lame now.
2. What I liked most about the show was that it was well written. The story made sense, the characters were believable, there was logic and motivation behind people's actions. Compare this to the most recent episodes of season 7 and the difference couldn't be any bigger. Here people make incomprehensible decisions and their actions lack motivation. How come Dany doesn't believe Jon Snow about the White walkers when he tells her about it personally, but immediately believes everything when a raven arrives? If it was so fast and easy to travel North on the dragon, why didn't she do it before to see the army of the dead herself, rather than letting Jon Snow go on a suicide mission? Where in the world did the white walkers get those huge chains from to drag the dead dragon out of the ice lake? The plot silliness in this episode is endless.
3. The show used to be more of a drama/play than an action movie. In earlier seasons, we often didn't directly witness big battles, rather we heard the character's exchanges before and after a battle happened. Believe it or not, but there are people like me who appreciate the dialogue, the drama, the emotional interactions of characters more than sword battles and CGI-dragons. Unfortunately, the show-runners have turned it into a blockbuster action movie now. With GoT, it was the first time in many years that I felt a movie or series had intelligent, well written dialogue. But apparently it was all GRRM, not D&D. Tyrion's dialogue for example feels completely out of character since season 6.
4. All the characters that were cool in the earlier seasons just plain suck now. Jon Snow is a big wuss and makes the worst decisions ever after his resurrection. Attacking Winterfell when he is outnumbered? Sure. Personally leading a suicide mission North of the wall? Of course. Stupidly running away from his escape dragon? You bet. etc.. Arya does pretty much nothing except lurk around Winterfell. Wasn't there something with a list of people she meant to kill? Well, apparently she forgot about that and prefers to needlessly creep out her sister. Cersei just makes a stone face and otherwise does very little. Tyrion used to be one of the most clever characters in the story, who regularly outwitted others, but now doesn't do anything either except give bad advice to Dany. The conflict between Arya and Sansa seems forced and it is not convincing.
The reason I'm still watching is mainly to see how it will all end, as the end will assumedly follow GRRMs plot outline and will therefore be semi-official.
Alien: Covenant (2017)
Forgettable
Hollywood seems to have pretty much given up about story telling. They are completely unable to produce anything original at this point. All we get are endless remakes, rehashes, reboots, and sequels.
This latest entry in the Alien saga proves the point: There is nothing here which you haven't seen before, it's all just a rehash of elements from the previous Alien movies plus standard horror movie jump scares and gore. It's derivative, bland, boring, forgettable.
The original Alien movie was famous for its chest-buster scene, so you put in another chest-buster scene plus you add a back-buster scene? Really? That's the most creative thing you could come up with?
There could have been a lot of interesting ideas to explore around the concept of the xenomorph as "the perfect organism". Alas, none of that happened.
Where are the memorable and likable characters? Where is the character development? Where is the slow build-up of tension? Where are the original ideas to fight the (seemingly) invincible alien? Where are the interesting and relevant dialogues?
Finally, two more points:
- What made me originally interested in this movie was the end of Prometheus, where it was hinted that we would finally find out more about the Engineers. However, in this one they killed all the Engineers before the movie even started! What a disappointment and a waste of potential.
- As another reviewer pointed out, it's actually a pity that movie makers these days feel they have to explain everything that was left untold in the classics. In the original Alien movie, the alien was some mysterious creature from outer space. Nobody knew exactly what it was or where it came from. That was part of its fascination. Now we had everything explained, we've seen the alien from every angle, and as a result it feels much smaller and less significant.
The Brothers Bloom (2008)
Almost a good movie
This is almost a good movie. There are a number of things to like: the photography, the acting, the quirky characters... after the first 20 minutes i thought this movie was really going somewhere. Unfortunately, it started to fall apart after that. In the end, the story failed to convince, the characters seemed likable but somehow still failed to make me care about them. This was mostly due to some issues with the writing. The plot was overall too convoluted. There was con after con after con (although they kept saying this would be their last one). More than once, the con seemed to turn serious, only to be revealed that this was part of the con after all. The writer went definitely overboard (SPOILER ALERT) with the kidnapping incident at the end of the movie, where we were led to believe that it's serious, only to be revealed that it's a con, which was then revealed to be real after all. It just becomes silly at that point, as a viewer you just won't believe any of it anymore and will stop caring.
There were also some issues with the story telling and character motivation. First of all, their plans for the different cons were barely explained, leaving the viewers often unaware of just what the heck they were actually trying to do. In combination with the fact that it was often unclear which parts were real and which were part of the con, this became really confusing. There may be some people who like it when we have to see a movie multiple times in order to understand what's going on, but personally I think it's a failure of the writer if viewers are unable to follow the story on the first viewing.
The character motivation was dubious in some situations. To give just one example: After the events in Mexico, Bloom goes back to Montenegro and lives there alone. It is clear at that point he is in love with Penelope, but somehow had difficulties committing to her because he was used to faking everything. Then, she goes trough the huge effort of tracking him down and coming to see him in Montenegro. So this must be his dream come true, right? But no, he refuses her. And even organizes an entire new con just to get rid of her! Why in the world would he do that? As a viewer I just don't buy that at that point, it goes completely against how his character was written so far. It seemed so absurd that I just stopped caring.
I also disliked the attempt to give the end of the movie a more serious, dramatic tone. This came too sudden and didn't fit with the overall atmosphere of the movie. It should have definitely ended on a lighter note.
Overall I feel that there was a good movie in there somewhere, but the script had some issues that held it back. Maybe if it had been shortened and streamlined somewhat, and the ending reworked, it could have been a really good movie.
Looper (2012)
Weak plot
This movie fails already at the premise. If the criminal gangs of the future can send back people in time, and do so with very high accuracy for both location and timing, then there is no need for "loopers" at all. Simply send them back to 100m above the ground, from where they will fall to their death, or to the middle of the Pacific Ocean, or to 5000 BC. Any of these options will guarantee that the victim will die immediately - no need to hire a looper and take the risks that this entails (as seen in the movie).
The rest of the movie is the usual time traveling mumbo-jumbo. No time traveling movie will ever make sense, because the concept of traveling back in time is physically impossible and causes all kinds of unsolvable paradoxes. So if you like movies which make sense and where the characters behave in a rational way, stay away from this. However, if you like movies where you just turn off your brain and watch Bruce Willis shoot a bunch of people, you might enjoy this.
Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens (2015)
Good-looking, but unoriginal take on Star Wars
First of all: This is an enjoyable movie. It feels like Star Wars and it is in my opinion the best episode in the saga since Episode VI: Return of the Jedi.
The area where the movie really shines is the visuals. The photography and the special effects are the best we have seen in any Star Wars movie to date. The Star Wars universe has never looked as good as here, and the visuals are by themselves worth the price of admission. Apparently, the filmmakers have given an effort to make this one look more like the original episodes. They did this by using miniatures and puppets rather than excessive CGI effects, and by giving the production a dirtier, grittier look than Ep. I-III. This has really paid off in my opinion. The sound design and music are also excellent. The director is also great at making very fast-paced, engaging action scenes.
As to plot and story-telling: It's not bad, but there are a number of weaknesses. First of all (and this has been pointed out in many other reviews), the main plot line as well as many smaller plot elements are extremely similar, in parts even identical to previous episodes, especially Ep. IV. This was certainly done intentionally by the filmmakers, as a homage and to "quote" the classics, and appears to be something that the director/writer J.J. Abrams specializes in. Yet it feels a bit like a cop-out. It's almost like the makers of Ep. VII didn't dare, or lacked the ideas to do something new. To mention just the major recurring themes (ATT: SPOILERS!): We have a droid which holds crucial information that both sides seek to obtain, the droid is lost (and later rescued) on a desert planet while the storm troopers are looking for it there, we have Han Solo getting in trouble for unpaid debts, we have the heroes hiding inside the millennium falcon, we have the shady space canteen with weird aliens and a funny alien band, we have the bad guys constructing a gigantic space weapon which can destroy planets, we have the plan of the resistance to destroy it by a) sending a commando to disable the shields on the ground, b) sending X-Wings to bomb it from close by, and we have a shocking "family revelation". Many characters are also obvious reincarnations of previous ones: A new R2D2 (BB-8), a new Darth Vader (Kylo Ren), a new emperor (Snoke), a new Watto (junk dealer on a desert planet), and Rey is of course very similar to Luke in the original episodes. The only really new character is probably Finn. Kylo Ren is an interesting character, and I like the choice of a young actor, but his fate is all too similar to Anakin/Darth Vader's.
The character development is also fairly weak. The best new character is BB-8, who is funny and charming, but ultimately fails to make a lasting impression as he is all too similar to R2D2. The two main characters, Finn and Rey, are not badly done, but stay rather bleak. We don't learn much about them except that they are the "good guys" and make the morally right choices. We get only a glimpse of character development from them. Admittedly, this episode was to introduce the new characters, and hopefully there will be more room for character development in the following episodes.
As for plot holes, we shouldn't judge the movie too hard on them. It is after all a space opera and has some elements of a fairy tale, which resist logical analysis (light sabers which are 1m long? explosions in space? Pulsating lasers?). However, even from a fairy tale we can expect that it is in itself consistent, and I feel that in one important point, the plot of this movie is not consistent with previous episodes: How come both Finn and Rey are able to use a light saber and stand their ground against a (still young, but apparently trained) Sith? It makes no sense, especially considering how Luke had to go through a lot of Jedi training in the original episodes to reach that level of skill. It just feels wrong and makes you think that they did it only because they felt that a Star Wars movie "needs" a light saber duel. (Actually, the movie would have worked quite well if the heroes simply left on the falcon with Chewie after blowing up the shields of the oscillator. That would have avoided the problem mentioned above, as well as a couple more stupid "movie coincidences", like Chewie just happening to find and rescue the heroes in the few seconds before the planet blew up.)
We also barely get to explore the galaxy any more than we did previously. The plot takes place on a desert planet, in space, on a densely forested planet, and on an ice/snow planet - all places which we have seen before. Are there really no other interesting planets to explore in this galaxy?
All the problems I have described so far are with the script / plot. Originally, it was planned that Michael Arndt would work on the scripts for the three new episodes. However, after J.J. Abrams was signed as director, he took over as writer as well, together with Lawrence Kasdan. I think the script could have turned out better if Michael Arndt had been allowed to take the time to finish the script.
The acting was overall fairly good. It was nice to see how Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher slipped into their old roles again smoothly. The new, young actors all did well too, although I felt that Daisy Ridley acted a bit wooden at times. But it was definitely right to cast new, unknown actors for these roles, so let's give her and the others some time to grow into their roles.