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elgsdyr
10-6: 👍
5-1: 👎
10 - Perfect
9 - Great
8 - Very good
7 - Good
6 - OK
5 - Meh
4 - Bad
3 - Very bad
2 - Terrible
1 - Pure trash
Ratings
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Reviews
House of the Dragon (2022)
Somewhat uneven
Starts off really well with the first 3-4 episodes, then stalls and becomes this deadly boring "generations family drama" for most of the rest of the season, only to finally start getting interesting again near the end. Hopefully, this is a pre-cursor to what season 2 will be like.
The change of actors was also of varying success. Milly Alcock was perfect as the young Rhaenyra, whom she played with great conviction and subtlety. I really can't say that of Emma D'Arcy, who seemed misplaced in the role at best.
Other than that, directing and production was generally very convincing (entirely unlike that other competing fantasy series that came out at around the same time). My biggest gripe is about the story itself, which seems it was written more as a historical record rather than being meant for an interesting drama.
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (2022)
That's no Corsair ship. That's a space station...
...going down fast.
To sum up my initial impression from watching the first couple of episodes: This isn't entirely unlike an amateur theatre group performing this "lost" play by Shakespeare, which turns out to be written by someone's 16 year old cousin as a school project and generously financed by a very wealthy uncle. The point I'm making here is that just because you have a big budget doesn't mean you automatically will get a good end result. If you want to deliver a successful story "based on the works of Tolkien", you need very talented writers, directors, cinematographers, actors, etc. This show has none of those. There are a lot of familiar elements from Tolkien's world, but other than that everything is pretty bland. I lost interest fairly quickly and had to force myself to finish the two episodes.
While I was never a big fan of neither the books nor the movies, Peter Jackson had an immense love for Tolkien's world and managed to put his talent into an adaptation infinitely better than this show, which is obviously done by someone who has absolutely no sense of what they're dealing with and what it requires.
Warrior Nun (2020)
Unexpectedly decent
I went into this with absolutely no prior knowledge and expected it to be crap, but ended up enjoying it quite a bit. And even more surprising as this is obviously written for teenage girls and I'm about as far from being that as you can. Of course, the target audience considered, many elements are simplistic but I can easily overlook that and enjoy the story, which believes in "itself" and the world it's building and (almost) never loses touch with its premise to fall into pitfalls of clichés and irrelevant messages that disconnects the viewer. Nice build-up of the main story and mystery, and good pacing and timing throughout. I'm really curious to see where season 2 will take us.
Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022)
Spectacular way beyond my expectiations
Last night I watched a different multi-verse film: Doctor Weird and the Blabberverse of Nonsense, and tonight this. What a contrast. One is a stupid, formulaic, run-of-the-mill franchise film made with the sole purpose of making as much money as possible and nothing else. The other is a beautiful and wonderfully creative, intelligent, extremely original, and deep story supported by perfect directing, acting, and production. And extremely funny at the same time. A true work of art and love.
I can fully understand and respect that this is not for everybody, but if you're tempted this type of unique films, you're in for a real treat. In my book it's the best in decades. It makes me both happy and hopeful that someone invested money in this, while I'm in no way surprised that none of the usual, big Hollywood production companies did.
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022)
From bad to much, much worse...
Just because a lot of stuff is happening, doesn't mean you have a good story. And a loooooot of stuff is happening in this one. It's just swiftly skipping from one pointless thing to another - possibly in the hopes that no one has a space long enough to realize what garbage they were watching. And it even gets worse as the story approaches the end. "Just believe in yourself and you can do anything..." There's no careful build-up of anything, and the motivations of some of the main characters are extremely nonsensical at best. Not to mention what a miscast that South America Chavez girl was...
1883 (2021)
Pointless sentimental nonsense going nowhere
But I'm sure that "Jennifer Lawrence's younger sister" will have a future in the industry is she can find more facial expressions than that naive, innocent smile.
Arcane: League of Legends (2021)
A feast for your senses
Every once in a decade or two something comes along that doesn't follow established rules but is yet brimming over with such ambition and unspoiled talent that it just blows you away. Arcane is such a show. While my cynical, rational self is tempted to point fingers at certain details, my emotional self is so stimulated by this unique sensory explosion that there's no room for anything else. I can't remember the last time I was this engulfed - for every episode I've been completely gone until the end credits started rolling. Pure artistry.
Update: I'm now on my third viewing of this show and must conclude that it gets better for every viewing. Any criticism I felt I might have had on the first viewing has completely evaporated. This is the only show I've ever given a 10/10 and I feel it fully deserves it. I really hope Hollywood is taking note here and getting inspired to deliver some more creative storytelling and animation in the future instead of the uninspiring generic nonsense it has all become.
The Wheel of Time (2021)
Don't believe (most of) the effusive reviews
Isn't it interesting how many of the 10/10 or 9/10 reviews here that are made by new users? Highly suspicious, eh?
My own take - being a big fantasy fan in general, though without having read these books in particular (yet) - is that this is amateur hour with a bit of glossy polish. The writing, directing, acting, filming and editing is just embarrassingly bad. The writing and editing in particular feels like all decisions were made using a dice. There're no build-ups, no careful introduction of anything or anyone, all (!) the characters are either annoying or boring, etc... After 25 minutes of this cringe-fest I couldn't take any more.
In the hours following I couldn't help laughing over how bad it was every time the show popped into my mind.
Raya and the Last Dragon (2021)
At least not a remake, but...
... unfortunately that doesn't make it even remotely original in any way or any less bad.
The Magicians (2015)
A bit of a mess
I recently read the books with which I had some mixed feelings. Didn't like the first one at all, while the second (once it got the story going) and third book ended up being quite good. They've often been called Harry Potter for adults, which I find highly misleading. "Narnia for young adults" seems a lot more fitting to me. Anyways...
The series is very different from the books but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Considering my experience with the first book I can understand them wanting to get the story more up to speed to make it interesting for the viewer. Did they succeed? Well, almost. First season was decent but they also made some weird choices, like pretty much only casting super hot, super confident actors in nearly all roles, which fits a few characters but in most cases it just seems like eye candy to get the hormones flowing in the young audience. While the first season had some coherence, the second completely lost it. The story constantly shoots in all directions and completely lacks any overall direction. It feels like they've written it episode by episode without an overall plan, and I generally have the feeling of watching a soap opera for young people rather than an interesting take on the books. Also, magic is massively overused as a simple solution to any problem they encounter: Just read a few books and these young and inexperienced magical students can do anything. And their constant travel between the real world and Fillory with no consequences at all, even though they've already established that there's a massive time difference, seems quite odd.
Does it get better after second season? I have no idea. I gave up. But I doubt it...
Community (2009)
So much brilliance
Community is really a mixed bag. The best parts of the show is up there with the best of the best, while other parts (or whole seasons) felt like a different show written by other (less talented) writers. Which is exactly what happened...
The beginning of the first season felt quite generic to me and it actually took me three attempts before I got engaged properly with viewing. About 2/3 into the season it seemed slowly find it's proper feet to stand on and I started getting hooked. The last 1/3 as well the whole season 2 and 3 is an impressive display of some of the most brilliant, intelligent, and creative humour I have ever seen on a show like this. It doesn't get better than this. Unfortunately, they then sacked Dan Harmon and season 4 ended up barely watchable for me. Only the characters and the promise of Harmon's return in s5 kept me going. S5 was much better and had occasional glimpses of the brilliance seen in s2 & s3 but on the whole didn't reach the same heights. Final season took another step downwards, sadly. It wasn't bad but too many of the main characters were gone and the premise of the show had changed too much from what worked so amazingly well in the early seasons.
My seasonal ratings:
Season 1: 8 (starts at 6, ends at 10)
Season 2: 10
Season 3: 10
Season 4: 5
Season 5: 7
Season 6: 6
The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (2015)
Lots of style, little substance
So, Guy Ritchie wanted to make a classic spy movie in his own image. Unfortunately, it doesn't work that well. The styling and colour grading is quite authentic for the period, but the filming and editing is so flashy and edgy that it quickly gets annoying. The story is your typical spy thriller but never manages to get interesting or engaging. Much the same can be said about the characters: they are like models - empty shells meant to present a stylish product. The movie could have worked if the story and characters had any charm but, sadly, they don't. Not even a little. It's not bad as such, but it didn't feel as a worthy two hours of my time either.
Sanditon (2019)
Starts well - ends in embarrassment...
To elaborate, the first few episodes feel quite 'Austeny' but the final 3-4 episodes are so clumsily written that they get pretty much unbearable to watch. Characters and their interactions turn one-dimensional, and are so predictable, clichéd and overly sentimental that it feels like something plucked out of the most low-budget soap operas. It actually got so bad that - even after watching through the first seven episodes - I just had to stop about a third into the last episode. I just couldn't bear watching anymore and I couldn't care less how it ends. So many things wrong...
My rating: Starts at 8 - ends at 4
Subnautica (2018)
A deep dive into your own subconscious
This game is one big (and amazing) metaphor for shadow work. Once you breach the surface for the first time you begin facing the (initially) uncomfortable truth of who you really are. Monsters start showing up pretty quickly and it terrifies you, but the more you familiarise yourself with them the less dangerous they turn out to be. Some can even be tamed (for a short while). And the more you begin to master the environment, the deeper you're able to dive, and the bigger and scarier the monsters seem to be. Until you find out how to handle them as well and the true fear of death you experienced earlier when confronting these beast steadily becomes less and less. And ever deeper it goes as it must. Until you cannot go any deeper... I won't spoil what you find there, but it might turn out that you're not too bad after all once you've uncovered the deepest truths of who you really are.
Have a great journey on Planet 4546B - I know I did for almost 100 hours on the first playthrough.
Oh, and one last note... Playing Subnautica on a screen is a nice experience. Playing it in VR is 'effing' amazing - even with the half-baked and buggy VR support. Just make sure to install the VR Enhancements on Nexus Mods.
The Witcher (2019)
Some potential, clumsy execution
What a mess. This felt pretty much like amateur hour with a too big budget. It's not just about the clumsy writing with the confusing time jumps (just to mention one problem) and the complete lack of build-up or attempt to establish or explain anything in the universe, the unnatural deep voice of Cavil, the highly artificial look of the coloured contact lenses, the constant overacting, etc. For a fantasy story to work the viewer needs to believe in it and I didn't believe in any of what I was seeing. The only reason I finished the season is because I love fantasy so much in general. I hope the books are a lot better than this, I really do, as I haven't read them (yet) or played the games (although W3 has been in my backlog for eternity). I'm sorry if this offends fans of the show but it's my honest opinion.
Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker (2019)
A trilogy without a vision...
I've given up. From now on there will only be three Star Wars films in my world. I'll grant you one guess as to which ones those three are...
The Morning Show (2019)
A positive surprise
I only started watching because Adam Savage praised it on his YouTube channel. But honestly, a serious drama show with Jennifer Aniston (my least favourite FRIENDS actor) in a leading role and about a typical morning TV show (probably the worst kind of TV after reality TV in my book)?? The premise didn't look good but The King of Geeks loved it, so I gave it a shot. And couldn't let it go until done with the currently released episodes (ep1-4).
In a time where the public forums seem to be saturated by this insane trench war of what political values should control the common narrative, it's a pleasure to come across a show that seems more interested in exploring the complicated, nuanced truth than to satisfy any of the simplified before-mentioned narratives. So far (ep1-4) The Morning Show is one such show. This is obviously not very satisfying for anyone seeking conformation of their own values and ideas, so if you one of those - just move along and ignore this show. It definitely not a coincidence that Reese Whitherspoons character in the show identifies herself as neither left nor right politically.
The overall story is simple enough (so far): An honest and "true" country girl comes in and changes the face of a morning TV show ruffling the feathers of the establishment (-ish), but that's hardly what it's really about. The main subject is really about the complications of sexual behaviour and relationships in such a work environment and the many-faceted consequences of this. And instead of handing out a simple view of perpetrators vs. victims it manages to look at the subject from many different angles. It's about humans - not about certain political narratives. As already indicated, the writing is intelligent and nuanced, the acting is great (I love Anistons performance), and production quality is also very good.
Watchmen (2019)
Looks very promising so far (ep1-3)
Apparently all the kids on 4chan have been told to hate this show so here they all are hating on the show with all their sensitive crying "muh !!!". It's funny how people complaining about political agendas in the media today are constantly trying to enforce their own political agenda on all the rest of us. The irony...
Anyway, the show looks very promising so far. Yes, the first episode did have a slight scent of a simplified racial theme but episode two and three added layers of complexity (which you might overlook if you've already been told to hate the show) that indicates that nothing is as clear cut as it may seem on the surface. I bet that the senator has some dirt in his rucksack that'll turn many things on it's head. ;)
And to all the 4chan sheep: If you downvote this you're proving my point. ;P
Batwoman (2019)
Only watched this b/c of the bad reviews - a balanced look
Being quite a bit older than the typical target group for this show (although I loved superhero comics in my younger years) as well as someone not being caught up in the stupid political left/right trench war going on currently (especially in the US) I thought I might be able to provide a more balanced view than the average binary and politically motivated reviewer.
Is it as bad as the reviews and votes seem to indicate? Not at all. Having only watched the first episode I naturally can't speak of the show as a whole, but so far I'd rate in about on par with the other Arrowverse shows. A show like Arrow had interesting elements but the character and dialogue writing made it unbearable for me to watch. Felt like Beverly Hills 90210 with superheroes. Batwoman is slightly better in this area although I wouldn't call it good as such. To me Supergirl and Legends of Tomorrow were clearly worse (in general) than this - the latter so bad I couldn't even watch through the first episode. Is the feminist statement "It will be (perfection) when it fits a woman" stupid and unnecessary? Definitely! But so are all the just as politically motivated 1/10 reviews here on this site (have fun downvoting this review). And other than that there wasn't much else to point fingers at from a political view. In general I'd say that the general production quality, writing, acting, etc. is about on par with what you'd expect from this kind of show. Did I find it worth watching? Not really, but it isn't quite bad either. I might even be curious enough to watch ep2, but that'll probably be it.
So the question is: Is the feminised batsuit perfection? Not really. It actually looks a bit stupid - like she's wearing a black crash helmet with ears. But then again, that might be perfection to some people.
If you want much better and more mature shows I suggest something like Jessica Jones, Daredevil, Titans, and especially the absolutely spectacular The Boys.
Avengers: Endgame (2019)
Mediocre and unoriginal blockbuster... (mild spoilers)
I watched this the day after ploughing through the first season of 'The Boys'. What an anti-climax... If you want a super hero story that's intelligent, incredibly well-written, and with really interesting characters, go watch that instead... And in the MCU context, the first Avengers film is a much better example of good writing and directing, where the characters actually had some wit and.. yeah, well... character....
The best thing I can say about Avengers: Endgame is that it very early on killed off Thanos and the Infinity Stones. That was unexpected and opened up the possibilities for the rest of the film. Except that it went straight on to a classic time-travel solution and makes a big deal out of this not being at all like described in any other film (except that it's exactly the same) along with an abundance of other cliches and plot holes (well described in the many other critical reviews here). The characters and their lines were generally bland and completely without the wit and bite as seen in the earlier Joss Whedon versions. And the ending was just as painfully slow as LotR: The Return of the King (yet another over-hyped blockbuster) with long-drawn-out overly sentimental scenes that added nothing to the story.
6/10 = OK (just)
Alita: Battle Angel (2019)
Banal and cliched...
The short version: A lot of potential for something original and great, but instead we got what we've seen a million times before...
I haven't read the original manga but judging by the many overwhelmingly positive reviews in here it appears to be a faithful adaptation. Unfortunately, this doesn't speak to well of the source material. The Japanese often comes up with interesting ideas and ask philosophical questions that makes the viewer at least a bit smarter after watching. Not so in this case. A lot of interesting subjects could have been explored here, but instead we got this banal and sentimental love story and generally a film that feels like a foreword to the real story.
I really hope the sequels start owning up to the potential hidden here, but I doubt it. It's not a bad film as such, but there's nothing spectacular or unique about either.
6/10 (OK)
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)
Mediocre story with creative visuals
The strong point of this animated movie is definitely its fairly creative visual style but other than that it had nothing we haven't seen quite a few times before. Of course, within the usual strict narrative style in most Marvel stories, this one breaks the boundaries a bit of typical Marvel canon, but in the broader sense it's nothing original. Still, decent entertainment.
Aquaman (2018)
The stupid is strong with this one...
The level of bad writing, directing, and acting in Aquadude is probably only surpassed by Green Lantern and Dare Devil, but I'm not even sure about that... I might even be tempted to rewatch Jupiter Ascending after this mess. Yes, it's that bad. I mean, the sheer amount of clichés fighting for attention in every single scene... Don't waste your time on this. It's enough that I did...
Incredibles 2 (2018)
Good but not {insert movie title here -s}
The first instalment is probably my all-time favourite Pixar film (together with Wall-e) so this follow-up had huge shoes to fill. What made the first one so great was the surprising new way it managed to mix up somewhat traditional super heroes with familiar family challenges in a creative, intelligent and highly entertaining way - all in a perfect setting and atmosphere of the classic spy films and shows.
Incredibles 2 succeed with a generally decent story and several funny and entertaining moments building fairly well on top of the first one. Where it doesn't succeed is in most areas that made the first one spectacular. Major "surprise" elements in the story where incredibly predictable, so when they were revealed I couldn't help shouting "Finally!". The gender role swapping and themes were clumsy and cliched and felt like something belonging in a 70s film and definitely not like something targeted the audience of today. But then again, this is an American film while I'm from Denmark, so things may look different across "the pond"... Also, the themes in the film generally seem very adult so I doubt that kids may enjoy it that much.
So all-in-all worth watching but sadly lacking the brilliance and sophistication of the first one.
Cloak & Dagger (2018)
A lot of potential leading nowhere...
I like it when stories take their time to build up properly and that's how I felt after the first two episodes. It took the time needed to introduce the characters, the mystery and the environment, but unfortunately the story went nowhere after that. Just one big balloon of lukewarm air that never managed to take off and ended in a meh finale. I only kept going for nostalgic reasons since I loved the original comics as a kid. There were a lot of good ideas but the execution was below average.