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Reviews
Sijipeuseu: The Myth (2021)
Acceptable, but stretched over too many episodes
Since I will mark this review as "spoilers" I want to start by saying that if you, like me, wanted to drop off watching the show around half way through, you shouldn't. The main characters defy death many times during the first 7 or 8 episodes and after a while it gets a bit boring and ruins the pace of the show, but there is a reason for it and it's all explained at the end of the last episode.
The show has potential but the story could have been told in half the episodes. Each episode is quite long too, and some parts are uselessly slow. There are many flashbacks, long flashbacks, and some of them make very little sense as the scenes are not seen from the thinking characters' point of view.
There are many "McGyver" moments when Han Tae Sul builds devices that will get him out of trouble but they are not believable as it takes him forever to do so, way longer than the situation would realistically allow.
It feels as if, sometimes around making episode 4, someone barged into the writers' room saying "Hey, we have budget for ten more episides than expected!" and everything got watered down.
The reason for the bad guy to be bad is quite lame and doesn't seem to fit his will to destroy "everything", where "everything" seems first to be the Korean peninsula, then some other parts of the world too, then again just Korea.
The chemistry between the two main characters is non-existent. They should grow romantically attached half-way through the series, but they look like two ice cubes sitting one metre away from eachother. Acting is generally decent, but Cho Seung-woo does a pretty bad job in this show and always looks detached from the situation.
The special effects are actually decent and the locations are convincing. There are many open-air shots in the post-apocalypic Seoul, and they look really good.
All in all, if we forget how useless the bad guy is, the show has a decent plot and should be watched to the end. Still, it's just about satisfactory and will probably soon be forgotten.
The Story of Nintendo (2023)
Painful to watch. Avoid!
Almost one hour of my life wasted by this "documentary". The "experts" are not expert, the facts are partially wrong, the timeline is messed up, the montage is lazy.
Frequently they start talking about a console and then the montage skips to a console that was mentione minutes earlier. The script is repetitive and uninteresting
The whole thing feels like it was produced in 15 minutes just to meet a deadline. They didn't even bother finding the correct footage for the games they are talking about. Imagine talking about the origin of coin-op games and then having to watch 10 painful seconds of Donkey Kong on GameBoy Color.
Terrible stuff, really.
Locke & Key (2020)
I really enjoyed and binged this
I watched this show when all 30 episodes were already out, so I coul dbinge all I wanted. I really liked it, which is surprising to me considering that I am 43 years old and the main characters are mostly teenagers.
The good thing about this shos is that things happen. Meaning that sometimes in mid-episode one of the characters will find some new magic stuff, or suggest they do something magical and dangerous, and in any TV show that would lead to some sort of cliffhanger, wait, resistance but, in Locke & Key, they just do that thing. Magic happens, and then they have to deal with some of the consequences. Sometimes magic is just good and it comes at no price, which is refreshing.
Most negative reviews are grounded on the fact that sometimes the characters make stupid choices. I mean, we are talking about a show with magic. Suspension of disbelief is necessary when watching something like this. I found the "stupi choices" well inline with the characters themselves so, even if they actually made me cringe here and there, they were OK.
The quality of the series goes down a bit as the show progresses. Season 1 is by far the best one, with darker tones, scarier scenes, and the deepest character analysis.
Season 2 feels a bit "in between things" and, to be frank, the show could have probably ended at 2x09.
Season 3 is unneeded and it starts poorly but picks up the pace around episode 4. 3x01 is by far the worst one, even from a direction/acting point of view, so you'll have to endure it.
I am very happy that a season 4 wasn't made as it would have over-stretched the material.
All in all, this is a solid show. Something you can watch with your 10 years old kids without scaring them to death, and you can both enjoy it.
His Dark Materials (2019)
Possibly the best adaptation I've ever watched
I loved the books and I just finished watching the last episode of this adaptation, and I loved it too.
Yes, there are a few differences between the books and this version. I has been slightly modernised but I believe it has been done tastefully.
The books are not an easy read. The themes contained in these books are deep and there's more than one punch in the stomach to be taken. This adaptation conveys the complexity of the original novel without trying to sweeten it.
A great production with a good cast and amazing special effects. Each world is as real as it feels when reading the story. A work of art, particularly because the storytelling steers away from turning into yet another American-style fairytale production.
Wednesday (2022)
Twilight at Hogwarts
I have seen 1.7 episodes of Wednesday at this point. It took me about one week, in three sittings, to watch the first one, and I fell asleep before the second one could end. I don't think I'll torture myself any further.
I dislike this show on more than one level.
Reason 1: I don't like teen drama, and this is bad teen drama. It's like the kids in Twilight went on a school trip to Hogwarts and brought their useless heart-throbs and jealousies with them. From the 10th minute of the first episode we get to know that the kids are not just humans and they belong to species that could rule the world but no... they go to school just for the sake of being a pain in each-other's back. Wednesday goes through all this wearing the same exact face for the whole time (again, like Bella in Twilight) and every once in a while she drops an aphorism that has already been a meme on the Internet for the past 10 years.
Reason 2: This is not Wednesday Addams. I am a fan of the original series in black and white and I was already disappointed when Thing was made to walk around in the movies. The addams were always an eccentric family but they were depicted as humans. In this new show Vampires, Werewolves, Mermaids, Magic, etc... are dropped in the story cauldron on day one, removing any relatability between the characters and the audience. Even Wednesday has some magic power of sorts. Her moral compass keeps swinging. She is proud to be some sort of careless queen of death but then she tries to save someone for no specific reason. The characterisation is terrible and even the acting is not particualrly convincing. We are light-years away even from Christina Ricci's Wednesday.
Reason 3: It's boring. The Addams Family was a fast witted show. Every second there would be a new thing to laugh for, something that would hilight the difference between the boring regular people (us) and the mentally free and self-indulgent Addams family. This new show is slow. Nothing happens. Apart from a few unremarkable jokes every now and then, there is no direct contrast between normal people and anyone living at the school. There is no fun in following "detective Wednesday" venturing around the Victorian rooms of this American Hogwarts.
Reason 4: I am not American. While the original Addams family was just funny to watch regardless of one's background, this one is set in a rich American boarding school in which, obviously, most people in the world have never been. Secret societies, rowing competitions, houses... is stuff that is alien to most people, including me.
Reason 5: There is no moral complexity here. Wednesday is immediately depicted as a rebellious teenager who wants to move away from her parents as much as possible. She is made to look like an outcast, but she is thrown in a school for outcasts where she is not an outcast anymore. Needless to say, the moment she meets a normal guy he's happy to help.
Bottom line: are you a teenager and you want a modern version of Harry Potter set in a rich Americans' boarding school? You might like this show.
If you ever in your life liked the Addams family, then avoid Wednesday.
Cyberpunk: Edgerunners (2022)
A modern masterpiece
I have never played the videogame but I have been a fun of Cyberpunk literature and movies since I was a child (that's 35 years ago).
This anime has everything the Cyberpunk has to offer. I used to play the role-playing game in the 90s (books, not computers) and I really visualised through this movie everything I couldn't visualize then. The attention to details is incredible and the dark and dystopian nature of Cyberpunk literature oozes from every pore of this anime.
Technically, this reminds me a lot of Akira. No sweet shortcuts through the story, just a massive punch in the guts from episode 1 to episode 10. The style is a mix of old style (good) JApanese animation mixed with Hollywood special effects.
I just loved it, and I hope that we can have more series based in the Cyberpunk universe. There is so much to tell!
The Batman (2022)
Seven (the movie, not the stars)
Just imagine a remake of Sevem (Bradd Pitt's movie) with nothing new. Remove a bit of logic from it, add a few "deus ex machina" situations when someone discovers something by mistake so the story can progress, make one third of the movie pivot on a bad translation from Spanish (that only English speakers with no knowledge of romance languages could buy) and you get this rather boring movie. Oh, yes, add Batman to it, and you get this rather boring movie with Batman in it.
Before watching it, I thought that Robert Pattinson would be the weakest part of the whole operation. I was wrong. Pattinson is actually decent in his role. The weakest part is the lazy writing.
If you haven't watched this thing at the cinema, don't rush. Wait until you find the DVD in a charity shop for $1, pump your TV's brightness up a couple of notches, and make yourself comfortable just in case you fall asleep.
The Matrix Resurrections (2021)
Just another episode in the Animatrix, I guess..
I don't want to spoil the movie, so I will try to stay as generic as possible and to avoid talking about the plot. Well... there isn't much of a plot to talk about, to be honest.
Compared to the mystical "The Matrix" and the epic war movie sequels (2 and 3), this movie contains what could have been a side-quest for the characters in a previous instalment of the franchise. Rather than a new movie, Resurrections feels like a cut-out scene from another movie, watered down to reach the desired length.
Characters are quite shallow, the way in which they are introduced, or reintroduced, into the story seems lazy at best. Acting, aside from a few main characters, is average.
I admit that my expectations were so low that I found the movie almost watchable, still not particularly good. I give it 6 stars because it would make a decent afternoon past-time as an episode on Netflix, but I am quite happy that I didn't have to pay a cinema ticket to watch it in the first place.
There is so much more that could be done with the concept in The Matrix, some has even been lightly attempted at the beginning of this movie, but Resurrections really fails at resurrecting the franchise on the big screen.
Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021)
Weak story, big disappointment
I waited months for this movie to come out as I knew it would tie together a big chunk of the Marvel Multiverse stories. I loved the idea of having multiple spider-men from separate universes and to see them work together.
But...
That's about all there is in this movie. Peter messes up a spell being stupidly cast by Doctor Strange and some foes and two Spideys pop up. The end is extremely predictable, both in the ways the enemies are fought against, and in the way the movie actually ends.
Technically speaking, special effects are just OK. CGI is OK, but a lot more attention should be paid to lights in the scene, as many characters look completely detached from the action in the background.
Where this movie seriously failed to keep me at the edge of my seat is the moment when the 3 spider-men meet. This moment has been hyped for months, yet it only happens in the second half of the movie, and it's followed by a hour-long slow sequence (lab, scaffolding) that gets very boring very soon. Compared to the action scenes at the beginning and end of the movie, the middle section looks like it's been directed by someone entirely different (and in a worse way). Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield really fail to deliver a decent performance and, given that they both are good actors, this is very sad.
I gave the movie 6 stars because it does indeed provide some story that ties in with the rest of the MCU in a way I like, but the experience of watching the movie is, at times, really painful.
Another Life (2019)
Horrible Season 1, much better Season 2
I gave this show 7 stars just because of season 2.
You know when for some series you tell your friends that they have to endure a couple of bad first episodes and then things get better? Well, with this show you have to force yourself to watch a terrible season 1 to be able to get to a very good season 2.
In the first season we follow the adventures of the dumbest crew ever as they travel through space. Drama ensues because the teenage crew has many personal issues, keeps taking the dumbest decisions etc... Bad sci-fi b-movie material.
But someone must have told the producers about it, and Season 2 is a very enjoyable Stargate-like show. There are a few moments when logic and truth are actually spoken by the crew, and I mean the logically correct stuff you and I think. "Sacrifice humanity for one individual, even if that person is close to me? No way!" That's pretty rare in sci-fi. Acting has greatly improved in season 2 and it's actually quite good. Special effects are also nice.
So, my best advice would be to watch a recap of season 1 and jump straight into season 2. There are rumours that more seasons may be produced. Considering that Season 2 had a pretty decent ending, I am not sure if more are needed.
Skyline (2010)
Interesting movie, a start of a better series
I have to admit that if I paid to watch this movie at a cinema I would be disappointed, but instead I watched it on Netflix and I found it quite amusing.
The story has a lot in common with Cloverfield: a small group of people trying to survive during an alien invasion. This is no Independence Day, where one guy saves the world with an old Mac, this is a more "realistic" take on what would happen if you were just a normal guy in that situation. As bad as it sounds, and as sad as it is, this movie is not that bad at telling that story.
You can clearly tell that the budget here was low. Acting is not flawless, and the direction is lacking. Where they have been clever is in using their budget for special effects very cleverly, saving where possible and managing to produce some really exciting alien scenes.
It's not a movie that I would watch again and again, but it's not half as bad as some people think. Give it a go, particularly because of its sequels.
Titans (2018)
An amazing Season 1, and a disappointing Season 2
Season 1 of Titans is very well written. It brings Teen Titans into grown ups' world and it does a fantastic job at describing each character while, at the same time, it tells a compelling story. The special effects are a bit cheesy at times but overall the series is a great watch that will keep you glued to the chair asking for more.
Then Season 2 comes and not only you stop asking for more, but you even have to struggle to get to the end of it. There are just too many characters with small parts to play in the overarching story. The young Titans are marginalized from day one, and the old ones are useless. The storyline is one of the worst I've ever seen. It could have worked for a couple of (bad) episodes, and instead it has been stretched over 9 hours. (S02E01 should have been the last episode of season 1, so it doesn't really count).
The acting, that is decent in Season 1, gets terrible in Season 2. Characters are emptied of the complexity that turned them into anti-heroes and it feels like sometimes even the actors had no idea of how to act their part.
I really hope that Season 3 gets much better writing. A good idea for the foe could be the writer of Season 2. I feel that nobody has ever dealt the Titans a bigger blow.
Sonic the Hedgehog (2020)
Ace Ventura meets Ted - And it's not a good thing
It's always hard to find a decent story to put behind a movie based on a platform video game. Unfortunately whoever wrote this script completely missed the spot.
In the first twenty minutes of this film there is a massive line up of nonsense. Things happen too fast, look like stupid decisions, and they have the sole purpose of placing Sonic on a road trip to San Francisco with his new best friend forever. How nonsensical the whole thing is becomes very clear when Sonic manages to run to the coast in two seconds but goes back to Tom saying that "he can't do this without him". A weird Ted-like friendship is then created between Tom, who is on his path of growing up much like Mark Wahlberg's John, and this fluffy and sometimes cute hedgehog that behaves like Ted. There are some decent comedy skits here and there, but all they really have to do is to walk into a building in SF and then they are teleported back to a cheaper filming location outside town.
The bad guy in the movie is Dr. Robotnik, a neurotic super genius that is given too much power without a reason by some army generals that have less brain than Commandant Lassard in Police Academy. Apparently Jim Carrey ha d little script ad was given all the freedom he wanted to ad-lib and act out this character as he wanted. Unfortunately, he decided to turn this foe into Ace Ventura: same jokes, same movements, same noises, and I don't mean the good ones. The very few good jokes are lost in an ocean of useless movements and pranks that distract the viewer. It must be hard, as an actor, to be told that you'll be the third most important character in a movie where the star is a CGI furry animal, but he deliberately tried to be the star of the movie and the result is just confusing.
So.... leaky plot. Badly written characters (or not written at all). The movie is mildly entertaining but could be so much better. I'll give it a 5/10. I hope that if there will be a part 2, the writers will put an effort and do a better job.
Artemis Fowl (2020)
If not the worst movie I've ever seen, maybe the 2nd worst.
We chose this movie to keep our 4 years old kid entertained. He fell asleep after 20 minutes. I can't blame him
I keep repeating myself that this is a kid's movie and I shouldn't be taking it too seriously, but the director is usually a good one and some cast members are famous too, so I must judge this movie properly. And it's bad.
The story line is practically non-existent. Characters do and say random stuff at random times and even if the story is poor it's hard to follow. It seems like more than a movie this is a bunch of CGI-heavy scenes badly glued together. The climax of the film centers around a large fight with no real threat and no actual meaning.
One last word about the acting. While the grown up characters are decent, the young actors are terrible. There are movies out there with a great junior cast, but here the two protagonists are just really bad, starting from the kid playing Artemis Fowl himself.
Il processo (2019)
A good series. Better than I expected.
I started watching The Trial (Il Processo) out of curiosity because I was born in Mantova, the city where the story takes place. 30 minutes into the first episode I actually started buying into the story and I binge-watched the remaining episodes in just two days.
The plot is well written. There seem to be a few pitfalls here and there, a couple of episodes in the second half could have been avoided altogether, but I never lost interest in the story.
I must give particular credit to either the montage or the director for a specific reason: there are moment in a few episodes where the camera lingers on some details that "give away" a clue to what is about to come. While some people may think that they worked out everything and they "saw it coming", I believe that the technique is used intentionally to give the viewer the feeling to be actively taking part in solving the case.
A very good watch. I don't know if there will be a second season, I doubt so, but if they'll make it I'll be happy to watch it.
Seinto Seiya: Knights of the Zodiac (2019)
Why did they make this? Why?
I grew up with the original cartoon.
This adaptation has a horrible style, terrible dialogues, weak writing... and 6 episodes only. Was this a test to see how many people would hate a computer graphic version of this anime? Well, judging by the reviews I would say: everyone!
Legend of Sanctuary is over 4 years old and it's 10 times better from every point of view. Why did they make a product as horrible as this new adaptation is something I'll never understand.
Rim of the World (2019)
A far cry from The Goonies, but a fun movie to watch
I didn't know what to expect when I started watching this movie. There are kids in it, so I thought it was safe to keep my 3 years old son next to me.
The movie is, indeed, about kids but there are many scary scenes, a few on-screen deaths, some heads rolling, some blood... the whole lot
There are also lots of profanity and some sexual jokes and references, but nothing that wouldn't be part of a 13 years old imaginary or vocabulary. Against all the people that left bad reviews regarding the character writing, I could argue that whoever wrote these kids knows a young teenager very well.
The movie follows the classic structure of separating the kids from their parents, gives them a bit of a background without digging too much into their past, and then makes them face their worst fears when the moment comes, overcoming them thanks to their newfound friends. Almost all movies in the 80s were like this, and it's a story structure that I still find very enjoyable. Yes, there are a couple of scenes that look out of place (bedroom and mall) but if you were a 13 years old kid you would probably behave in the same way if you were there.
Overall I liked it. The movie was never boring. The budget mustn't have been massive and some special effects may not age well, but I see nothing wrong with them in the end.
Forget the reviewers of those that don't watch a story unless it's over-complicated or it has a billion dollars CGI budget. Just watch this fun movie with the eyes of a kid and you'll enjoy it. (Maybe don't watch it with a 3 years old next to you, though. Mine had a few nightmares afterwards...)