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Reviews
Reflections (2008)
Good serial killer movie with some weaknesses
The movie is easy to watch just for the scenery and individual performances - Timothy Hutton, Miquel Angel Silvestre, Tania Sarrias - but the screenplay does not take advantage of any of the characters' depth. Some twists and interesting new takes on forensics and genetics, but a little too much straight-line progression. The international cast is strong and should have been given more room to interact and participate. For a serial killer movie, some graphic violence is expected but the few moments of it in this movie seem to stand alone and not help the whole. More time with characters and less simply talking over static crime scenes would have helped. Overall, worth watching once. Cheers!
Hunters (2020)
Enjoy Season 1 BEFORE reading anything about Season 2!
If you don't mind having close captions ON all the time, turn them ON. English is subtitled for some of the conversations in German and other languages, but there are some quick bits of dialogue that slipped by the programmers. If you don't want to miss anything: English Subtitles ON.
The Amazon Prime Original production "HUNTERS", season 1, comes close enough to excellence that it deserves to be recommended for anyone who likes graphic-novelesque historical fiction. Think of Tarantino's "Inglourious Basterds" (2009) with extra side winks to the camera. It would not work as well if it were anything but a series-season format; a movie would either be too short to tell the story, or too long getting enough detail.
The only failing I see is that it takes very serious, heavy historical moments and themes as a foundation but ultimately flies off into a fictional alternate universe. So sad that.
"HUNTERS" Season 1 starts very much grounded in the real world, at least as much as the 1970's could be. Fantastic sets, costumes, vehicles and of course the characters. Nothing spared to make the images work and the cast really delivers, even if they are slightly cartooned relative to the background players.
I did not know what to expect of season 1 and was honestly hoping it would be a more realistic, period accurate account of the real Nazi hunters whose stories are mined for background. However, this is not "Munich" (2005) with Eric Bana and Daniel Craig. The action in Hunters is pure fiction dressed up as realism, until they don't want to be realistic. Then the characters and the ultra violence get surreal.
I found the breaks with reality, subtle at first, to be more disturbing than if the violence was pure graphic realism. As a viewer you start to feel off balance watching something that is close to real, but just a step outside of it. Never mind that the plot plays with the truth and offers alternate conspiratorial reasons for actual events, the fiction is trying a bit too hard to be stranger than the actual strange truths.
That is where Hunters lost me a bit. Entertaining? Yes. Fulfilling? Meh. I feel that the real stories, while maybe less explosive for action, are every bit as disturbing and capable of shocking viewers. By turning these truths into background for a more exploitative comic book treatment hurts the history and distorts the action of Nazi hunters until they are only vigilantes. No on cries when a Nazi dies, but you may feel that Hunters is doing more to hurt impressions of Jews than to build them up.
If you haven's seen the first season of Hunters, do watch it. It is worth the time. Watch it before you read anything about season 2 because spoilers do make a difference. That said, watching season 1 the second time around is still fun and helps with some confusing side plots...not all of them, but some.
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> SEASON 2 BELOW...
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Season 2 of Amazon Prime's "HUNTERS" picks up two years after events of season 1 and really heads deeper into an alternate universe. The characters are more mature and settled into themselves. The story is still trying to use facts to anchor fiction but just like other comic multi-verses, season two is less anchored into reality than season one. If you don't mind some odd flights of fantasy, having to pick up a certain (no spoiler here) significant plot development by watching a sort of webisode of that action, and dealing with many timelines that are intercut forward, backward and also way back, then this is once again fun, but a little meh.
There is much more nudity, gore and graphic violence in season 2. It is also only eight episodes compared to season 1's eleven. The most R-rated scenes might have been kept in as the second season was shortened but it also does seem to be missing some key narrative that was likely cut for runtime.
I still like the characters and they drive the show along with the great 1970's styling. Now set mostly in Europe, but also willing to jump all over the world and in time, season 2 does feel less settled and more surreal. The cuts back and forth through time (not for time travel, just for narrative) are disorienting. If you don't binge watch straight through, I think it would be harder to follow than season 1 and might lose more of the audience's interest.
Once again, if you don't mind having close captions (CC) ON all the time, turn them ON. English subtitles are included for some of the conversations in German and other languages, but there are some quick bits of dialogue that get by the programmers. If you don't want to miss anything: English CC = ON.
Even with an alternate universe assumed, the ending of season 2 (and the series?) was pretty open. Maybe they were hoping for more episodes, seasons or for spin-offs but I think most viewers will have had enough. Season 1 was worth a couple of runs through, but season 2 was definitely an end for me.
The Rig (2023)
Good cast need more story to work with
The Rig (2022) is a sci-fi drama with a strong diverse cast and an interesting premise for Season 1 but it is held back by not enough plot or character development, some clunky dialogue and not enough attention to the rule of "show-don't-tell".
I really wanted this to have better, more complicated stories given 4.5 hrs of running time over six episodes but it lacks the layers and character development of similar series and movies (see The Expanse, The Abyss, Alien, Avatar or most BBC dramas). You can see where they want to go but they never quite get there.
Casting is not the problem since most are accomplished dramatic, comedic and science fiction veterans. There is a lot of talent available and it shows when they are allowed to cut loose and express their characters. It is a palpable change when we are suddenly provided with a juicy bit of background or scientific detail integral to the plot as the characters almost read the lines instead of acting them. That's where it starts to break down.
Someone who knows their field (tech, medical, geological, operational) has life experience and working shorthand to make believable leaps. If you believe characters ARE those experts, you believe those leaps. If you are not treated to the character living and being that expert BEFORE, then revelations the character comes out with sound flat or forced, like bad notes in otherwise smooth music. Working together for long periods, there are inside stories and jokes to show who someone is or what topics are touchy. I wanted to see more life in the characters but the production and directing seem to have opted for exposition over demonstration. Getting basic CPR first-aid techniques wrong (required knowledge for anyone working on a rig, especially supervisors) is inexcusable.
The setting, a massive dual platform drilling rig in north Atlantic oilfields off the coast of Scotland, allows for some good use of lower budget materials like industrial containers, scaffolding, modular offices and bunk rooms. The rig itself, unfortunately, is a woefully underutilized "character" even though it is THE TITLE OF THE SHOW. For people who live at sea fourteen days at a time and longer, some over a twenty-year career, there should be a lot more personality in and connection to the platform (love it and or hate it).
There is a lot of activity inside the spaces but we see nothing of what all these people normally DO for long shifts on less dramatic days. There are a lot of people on the rig but most do not seem to be doing anything, as if the writers knew little about where they chose to stage the action. Lack of solid outdoor realism or the grit of a working industrial setting hurts the plot and engagement with the story. You want to really feel they are isolated if the action is going to hold your attention. Saying to be wary of "ocean winds blowing 60 mph" is not enough if you never show that realistically. If everyone seems be able to go outside into moderate weather at any time, that's already boring. When someone climbs to the top of the rig tower, exposed to the north Atlantic a hundred feet below, that should NOT be boring.
Without spoiling the first season's plot, The Rig does seem positioned for a second season but I do not know where they will go from the end of episode six. If season two does happen, hopefully they will have more than two episodes worth of story to spread over the entire season.