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NorsemanKing
Reviews
The Last Duel (2021)
A great director with a cinematic bad egg.
Although this story has historical truths to it, it does not negate from the fact that this story is way to simplistic for the likes of Ridley Scott. Both men tell their tales with some believability, yes, but apart from different perspectives, the elements of the incident & the (spoiler free) defining movement wasn't a very different story between them at all. It almost felt like we were waiting for something solid to grasp on to, something to make either the different stories drastically different enough, but instead we got this confusing gray area the whole movie. I went in thinking, here is Ridley Scott, known for Gladiator about honor and duty, then I leave the theater thinking, there was nothing black or white about this movie at all, and this movie was masquerading as a Matt Damon movie about a knight, rather a camouflage movie of she said he said, who slept with who movie. This movie was based around a tough topic, so I understand it wants to be faithful to it, but it messed up the perspectives massively. Just when we started to settle in to who is not to be trusted, we are left to draw our own conclusions. This story simply boils down to, did she have an affair with him or not. We are left with another heroine movie, same plot line that every guy wants to see when he pays $15 dollars for a medieval movie, who slept with who....not really. Honestly, Ridley, we don't care about your court, we care about your characters. We are left with very little surprise towards the end of the movie, and it left very little excitement except for who bit the blade. If it wasn't for the movie's sometimes believable actors, I wouldn't have honestly cared who lived or died. Can we have a bit more character in your characters please, like Maximus Decimus Meridius, commander of the Armies of the North, General of the Felix Legions and loyal servant to the true emperor, Marcus Aurelius. Father to a murdered son. Husband to a murdered wife. And I will have my vengeance, in this life or the next.
Avatar: The Way of Water (2022)
Looked good, although 3 hours is a lot for simple.
Avatar is a CGI dream world, we fell in love with the world maybe a little more then we fell in love with the characters. We finally get to experience the second one, only to get very little of the jungle world which we fell in love with. Instead we get a movie that is mostly trapped in the land of Seaworld instead of Avatar. Am I the only person who missed the jungle? Every line from the characters were well acted, but I had to chuckle with many lines that seem to have come out of a Shamu Seaworld show about saving aquatic or indigenous life, mixed with a reverse Moby Dick story near the end. It was sad to see Sully, who was beginning to look like a complicated character, unfolding in to an overprotective & dicky dad in this second film. Some of the new elements were added to this film started to work in the beginning, but then I kinda lost them along the way. Many of the new creatures were cool, yes, but the plot was pretty simplistic. I found myself wanting to get lost in the world more then I wanted to hear Sully again beat down his son, for the third time. Now, I must say, how about that ending? After Spider rescued him, I started to wonder if there was a interesting redemptive character arch for the Colonel, only to arrive at the conclusion, nothing was actually accomplished in this film. We are left to guessing until another many years what his fate will be. I left the theater wondering if the Navi actually gained anything in this movie. The main antagonist was rescued, their water land villages burned, (spoiler free) they lost something very dear to them. Whales decimated. Oddly, this sequel has a weird background of dispair too it, for a movie that is "family friendly". All that to say that this movie, in my opinion doesn't deserve the masterpiece rating of 10/10 but it isn't a flop either. It is mostly a Disney Native American story. A sequal that is graphically beauty with a subliminal darkness, & a little bogged down with little character development. But hey, it's Avatar, not Sherlock Holmes. I think this movie fairly receives a 6 because it was filled with sparse character development and a lot of riding or embracing animals. 6/10 for some plot, mostly a Seaworld ride, & a animal embracing simulator.
Ancient Apocalypse (2022)
Questions now create controversy?
If his motivation for making this film was merely asking questions about natural phenomenons & seemingly, forgotten landmarks, then this show has some defining moments. I do feel like he throws around a lot of dates, and treats thousands of years very loosely in his episodes, but his David Attenborough oration made this show more entertaining. The music & zoomed in angles made some moments a little overdramatic, which disconnected our thoughts from the story. Was the show thought provoking, yes, was is it entirely factually supported, no. This show has created many good questions & raised some interesting hypotheses. Why does a show like this create an apocalypse of his own, an a apocalypse of vitriol. His ideas are interesting, and this creates more investigations in to these suggestions. One thing we know, is those sites exist, and the monoliths and sites are old, so someone must have built them with more knowledge then clubs & loin clothes. This is indeed a thought provoking show, but remember, he is still throwing out ideas. If anything, this show has an entertainment value, but if this show doesn't provide accuracy to the ancient culture of forgotten history, then at least the show has shed some light on the current academic narrow mindedness of ancient history already has been answered. Whether you agreed with his viewpoint or not, we can see how this show has created interesting conversations & intriguing further study.