roma-128-183898 Reviews

Rebel Moon - Part One: A Child of Fire (2023)

Piece of cane and icy fish are the main heroes of the movie

[5/10 · 25 December 2023]

My only hope that in a second part of the movie, the piece of a bad guy's cane that for some reason was shown flying away into space, will eventually hit the baddest guy into his head on the icy lake after traveling half of the galaxy during the climax of their final battle. Meanwhile, the robot wearing deer's horns will be running and jumping around with his wooden harpoon trying to catch that big fish who for no reason is swimming under the ice.

The movie shows so many totally unrelated objects and details, while most important parts are explained in the most amateurish way instead of showing them. Like general titus is actually a great strategist.

Foundation (2021– )

Remove the Ring from the Lords of the Rings

[4/10 · 4 October 2023]

Remove the Ring from the Lords of the Rings and you might get a decent fantasy movie. Furthermore, you can call it the Warcraft.

This is exactly what happened with Foundation, writers of the series removed the Psychohistory from the Foundation. You still can get a decent sci-fi and even call it a Starcraft or something.

The whole idea how history just goes its own way as a wave that cannot be stopped simply because masses of people behave differently from individuals is totally lost. And how great leaders are not really leaders but a projection of the wishes of millions is nowhere to find.

Missed opportunity.

Ahsoka (2023– )

Lightsaber fights and nostalgia moments, the rest can be skipped

[5/10 · 28 September 2023]

First 3 episodes can be easily skipped. No reasons at all to watch them, maybe only to enjoy late Ray Stevenson and his apprentice.

Episodes 4 till 7 are worth watching only for the sake some fun lightsaber fights with some Force usage, as well as for the sake of cool nostalgia moments that don't really make much sense for the story, but are very enjoyable as standalones.

By the final episode writers ran out of any traces of any ideas and stories. Just brainless slow nonsense.

In other words most of the script exists purely to fill in gaps between fights and nostalgia moments. There is 0 logic or sense or any point whatsoever. Like cut scenes between fights in a Mortal Combat game. So instead of fighting happening because of a story, the so called story is a filler to place everyone into positions for a lightsaber fight.

Abstract: The Art of Design: Ian Spalter: Digital Product Design (2019) Season 2, Episode 5

Dark patterns

[7/10 · 13 September 2023]

The episode is about digital product designers being allowed by their directors to redesign the logo and do some basic UI tweaks.

All dark patterns that were mentioned are still there in Instagram. And this is a great reflection of realities of the profession, even if not intentional.

Majority of star designers only do UI, even though they do call it UX, and empty talk about social responsibility and impact while keeping all dark patterns intact. "Every art is political, if it's not political, it's just a decoration". So this was a decoration.

Would be interesting to see some more strategic designers rather than decorators.

Though, there were plenty of interesting and useful tips and details about UI and branding.

The Witcher (2019– )

Great until season 2 episode 1

[8/10 · 23 July 2023]

Season one is great - strong 9 Season two episode one - 10 The rest of season two is - good 7 Season three is - barely 6

Season one had some confusing timelines, but in general it worked really well. Each episode had a standalone story combined with the main story. And chemistry worked well between characters.

Season two episode one was a culmination of this approach. Most probably the best episode of a Witcher.

The rest of season two is an average adventure story, still good, but cracks and lazy writing starts to appear.

Season three is just a downfall from here. Hard to understand why writers decided to ruin a perfectly good series. No idea 🤷‍♀️

CODA (2021)

Not Sound of Metal

[8/10 · 12 August 2022]

When I heard about the movie, I thought it would be similar to Sound of Metal, with its less predictable plot.

CODA is a feel good movie, that we have seem hundreds of times, but with a nice emotional topic and great performance by all actors.

After some 20 minutes into a movie, I was wondering, why it won an Oscar, but then checked other nominees, and, well, except of Dune Part 1 there were no real contenders, thus totally deserved win.

CODA might be predictable, but it is positive and emotional, and we do need more movies like this.

The Gray Man (2022)

Lazy and boring

[5/10 · 31 July 2022]

Has few nice scenes, but mostly lacks any logic. Europe is the size of a small island. Wasted money.

It is still watchable, if you have nothing else to watch.

Persuasion (I) (2022)

Good for evening home watch

[7/10 · 30 July 2022]

If you want to wind down from a busy week, this is a perfect Netflix movie to watch. The movie is fun and easy. Actors mostly doing a good job.

In a nutshell, Fleabag meets Enola Homes.

Obi-Wan Kenobi (2022)

Just watch 1st, 5th and 6th episodes

[7/10 · 23 June 2022]

It can be edited into a decent TV movie, where only Obi-Wan and Anakin story is left with some shorter version of a Reeva.

Show how Obi-Wan is depressed and his relationships with uncle and senator. Introduce inquisitors and the back story of Reeva. Cut most of his mission to rescue Leia, simply get to the planet, learn that Anakin is Vader, escape with some refugees (future rebels) and then keep Episode 6.

Last 2 episodes are good, the rest is really poor writing, boring characters and sub-stories. Actors do really safe the series.

Marry Me (2022)

Movie that lightens the mood

[7/10 · 10 February 2022]

Enjoyable and fun romantic comedy, with nice music and acting. It is of course a fairytale for grownups, but one that you really enjoy watching.

We left a cinema with a great mood after watching the movie.

Don't Look Up (2021)

Stuck between political satire and a Naked Gun

[8/10 · 25 December 2021]

The movie is 6.5 for me, but definitely not 7, thus I gave it 6. It has an interesting idea and some scenes were fun to watch. A lot of great actors, but jokes were often flat and superficial, and sometimes it felt like watching a Naked Gun movie. So in a nutshell idea was good but script was lazy. And it was over stretched. Though it was both fun and sad to see where our society evolves by what and who was mocked as well as by who and how was mocking. Both parties are hopelessly...

Prisoners of the Ghostland (2021)

Didn't disappoint

[7/10 · 22 September 2021]

4.4 rating is surprisingly low, should be at least 6. It is quite entertaining movie, and it didn't disappoint, as it often happens with this genre. It was a good movie, worth watching.

Free Guy (2021)

Everything worked really well

[8/10 · 18 August 2021]

Free Guy is a really nice action comedy. Jokes are good and kind, chemistry works, action is good. It is a very good popcorn movie. You don't get bored, it is always fun.

The Suicide Squad (2021)

Hot Shots of superhero movies

[5/10 · 7 August 2021]

Remember Hot Shots movies from 90s with Charlie Sheen? This is exactly what Suicide Squad is to superhero movies, what Hot Shots were to Top Gun and Rambo. This time self-awareness went a bit too far. It is like being selfaware of absurdity of selfaware superhero movies. I think if they would have dialed down with always same superficial humor and added a bit of a story, then it could have been a masterpiece. Unfortunately it look more like they just gathered a lot of famous people to have fun. And thats ok, it was fun, but tiring...

Atypical (2017–2021)

1-2 seasons great, 3rd season good, 4th season very weak

[7/10 · 24 July 2021]

For the first 3 seasons it is a great show. All characters are like real people, with own strengths and weaknesses just trying to go through with life. It was easy to relate, as well as to get positive view on life. There were no characters who looked like caricatures, only Julia's boyfriend, but he had very little screen time. The series had good drama at nice jokes with good timing. In general it looked like a very good long TV movie, that covered a very interesting topic.

But during season 3 things started to go off, as if creators became tired or lazy. The series started to look more like a sit-com, with a lot of primitive repetitive jokes, lazy drama and quick jumps from one apartment to another. Maybe that's due to pandemic. Characters started to look more like caricatures of themselves with emphasise on their main traits, because that should have been funny?

Most of season 4 we watched the series as a background to everyday's activities, as we still wanted to see how it ends, but we didn't want to feel that we wasted our time. Season 4 is very weak, storylines are convoluted and unrealistic, a lot of jokes one-liners, best characters, like Evan and even partly Zahid, are sidelined. Izzy character and the whole story was very inconsistent, as she was obviously ego-centric and jealous character, but writers were constantly tried to show her as a good person. And in general Casey-Izzy relationships looked more like two hot girls are fooling around, rather than being in a relationship. By the end, I agree with the Dad. Moreover, the whole Antarctica fuzz, there are trips organised to Antarctica, just get on the boat :)

The Dead Don't Die (2019)

Well started, but thats all to say

[4/10 · 11 May 2021]

I liked that it is slow and a bit weird, and first half was quite nice, but then as if writer/director got lazy or decided to end filming as quick as possible, so he just threw in some quick ideas and sketches that just did not work at all. It could have been a bit surreal and weird original movie. But any "smart" idea that creators had tried to put there, just didn't paid off at all. Movie just doesn't work.

Death to 2020 (2020 TV Special)

Started well but then quickly ran out of ideas

[5/10 · 31 December 2020]

It as if creators ran out of ideas after 20 minutes and just filled the rest of the mockumentary with flat unfunny "jokes" about US politics. I guess if you are from USA, maybe it is funny for you, but not for the rest of the world.

The idea itself was great, and actors are great, but script is weak and jokes for most of the time unfunny and repetitive. For example, the GoT joke was ok, but why then to repeat the same joke just about Star Wars, it was just too silly... at least GoT is based on some Medieval bits of history, so the joke kinda lands, but SW is already overkill and cannot work as a joke in this context at all. Very weak humor.

Greenland (2020)

Better than most in its genre

[8/10 · 23 October 2020]

This is the 2012 movie done right. We went with quite low expectations, but as there is nothing else left to watch in cinemas, we decided to give it a try. And we actually liked it!

It starts with all typical cliches of this genre: family issues, ill kid, forgotten medical kit and etc. But the way it executed, is very subtle with many emotional moments. The ploy actually makes sense, people don't behave stupid, kid is not annoying and there is no over the top CGI with constant last second rescue with zero scratch and no feeling of a real danger. The catastrophe feels real, people feel real and it actually always interesting to follow. The kid did a great performance. The only wish, that the movie would have ended 5 minutes earlier, without the cheesy Hollywood feel good finale, but oh well, this is Hollywood, so it is expected.

So in general I would recommend seeing it in cinema.

Star Trek: Discovery (2017–2024)

Closer to Fast and the Furious than to Star Trek

[4/10 · 20 October 2020]

I managed to sit through the first season, most probably due to nice CGI, and some interesting moments, such as the experimental "jump drive" and mirror universe. But it became quite quickly obvious, that there is little left from Star Trek. It was, as many mentioned before, closer to Start Wars than to Star Trek.

Second season started promising, it seemed writers learnt on mistakes: Captain Pike was a very start trekish character and some episodes, such as New Eden and Saints of Imperfection, were also feeling like Star Trek again. But then... time travel, evil robot computer, and some other last resort sci-fi tricks made the plot so messy and pointless, that I just got very bored and stopped watching it.

After learning that season 3 will be 900 years into the future, I decided to give it a chance, as it could have been interesting to see the far future of Start Trek universe... but the first episode was painful to watch. The plot was totally meaningless. I only enjoyed last 10 minutes, even though they lacked any logic, but it was well done emotionally.

Now I decided to finish watching last season of Voyager. The stories there are way better and entertaining. It is sad they don't do them anymore.

Enola Holmes (2020)

Good to have some charming adventurous movies once in a while from Netflix

[7/10 · 26 September 2020]

There are plenty of depressing movies with a great cast from Netflix these days, so it is really great to have something positive and charming. Enola Holmes is a nice family movie.

Away (2020)

Deserves higher rating than 5.7

[7/10 · 5 September 2020]

The series are with the slow start, but getting better with each episode. The best part is the chemistry between main characters on the spaceship.

Tha Earth based characters and especially throwbacks are more boring, even though might be necessary to support spaceship plot.

Extra point to a Russian character, there is lately a positive trend in Hollywood to cast actual Russian speaking actors from former USSR countries. And even though there are few typical Russian stereotypes, there is also a lot done right. The actor is also great. The only unrealistic thing is his relationship with his daughter, it is very americanized - we don't get upset about some parenting issues as spoiled American kids do. The latter is one of most annoying parts of the series, but again it is in almost every Hollywood movie or series, kids are so terribly annoying with their narcissism.

Space Force (2020–2022)

7 for Yuri aka Bobby

[7/10 · 31 May 2020]

They finally hired a Russian guy to play Russian. He behaved exactly as Russian would behave. I wish they had him more.

First three episodes were nice. After that it seemed like authors ran out of ideas quite quickly. Good actors though and play well.

IMDb on the Scene - Interviews: Space Force (2020) Season 2, Episode 66

7 for Yuri aka Bobby

[30 May 2020]

They finally hired a real Russian guy to play a real Russian. He behaves exactly as Russians will behave.

Otherwise first three episodes were really good, the rest was quite mediocre. Great actors, but feels as writers ran out of ideas quite quickly.