tibovl Reviews

All-In the Trilogy Team Jumbo-Visma (2024)

As Primoz would say: "it's not bad, eh."

[8/10 · 17 March 2024]

I thoroughly enjoyed last year's documentary and this is no different.

It has been a truly remarkable year for Team Jumbo Visma. What they accomplished won't be done again for years, decades, maybe ever. Usually we only see the team working from a distance, from the outside, through press and speculation. This series sets out to reveal some of those secrets to the world. And being able to see the comradery, the rivalships, the pain and the joy of cycling is truly special.

If you were on the fence about watching this, don't be. In my opinion this production surpasses similar series like Netflix's series on the Tour of 2022 and even the previous season of Jumbo Visma - All In. I can recommend this series to cycling fans hands down.

Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead (2023)

All over the place

[5/10 · 7 February 2024]

This series starts off really, really strong. A genuinely compelling first two episodes. But the more the show goes on, the weirder it gets.

Our protagonist, Akira, is driven by his desire to live his life. Now that the zombie apocalypse freed him from his abusive job. A great premise. However, it's not executed well. Is this a comedy, drama or action series? Well, in a way it's all of them, but it's more fair to say that it's none of them. The drama never hits. The action looks good, but is out of place and ridiculous (not in a good way). The humor is funny at times, but it's very hit or miss. Our side characters are incredibly one dimensional with one or two gags that remain the same for the entire season. Not too mention glaring plot holes and incredibly stupid character decisions.

I can't recommend this series.

Life on Our Planet (2023– )

A good but flawed series with some sadly questionable choices.

[7/10 · 27 October 2023]

While comparison to both "Walking with Dinosaurs" and "Prehistoric Planet" is unavoidable it isn't the most fair way to judge a show. Both of the aforementioned shows are the cream of the crop of prehistoric documentary series and at least one of them also holds a fair bit of nostalgia for a lot of people (me included). It is unavoidable that in at least some ways any prehistoric documentary series would fall short if held to such high expectations. Being worse than those shows doesn't automatically make a show bad.

With that out of the way, let's actually try to review this series in an as objective way as possible.

First off, visuals and sound design. They're good, great even. The CGI could have been better but is still more than adequate. The animation is a bit floaty on occasion and if you really pay attention to it it will slightly break the immersion. I find the soundtrack to be great, it doesn't bother me or pull me away from the action and on at least a couple occasions I was actively appreceating it. Animal and surrounding sounds are fine, nothing stood out to me as bad, which is really all it needs to do. I also really like Morgan Freeman as a narrator.

The storytelling choices leave me a bit puzzled though. First of all, there is the addition of modern filmed documentary bits, which to me feel really unnecessary. They could have just made 30 minute episodes instead of padding the runtime in this very strange way. Because shooting nature documentaries isn't cheap or easy. Another problem with these are that they often aren't new for frequent documentary viewers and break your immersion.

The documentary is very informative and explains a lot of interesting concepts extremely well. The way it explained the great dying (Permian extinction) was amazing for example. There are some things that could have been improved though. The time period we find ourselves in often isn't made clear, especially in the first few episodes this can be annoying. They also tend to jump from here to there a bit too much, instead of just going chronologically.

It covers a lot of different species and stories per episode, which is great. I do wish that they would have been a bit more original in their choice of creatures instead of going for the more well know ones. There are a few mistakes (conscerning science and realism) but nothing terrible in my opinion.

I've focussed a lot on the "bad". But let me make clear that this series really isn't a bad one, not even in the slightest. It does fall short when compared to the giants that "Walking with Dinosaurs" and "Prehistoric Planet" are, but has a lot of merit in its own way and definitely deserves to exist and be watched.

Castlevania: Nocturne (2023– )

An okay start to the series with a lot of potential

[7/10 · 12 October 2023]

Let's start with the presentation. Wow, this series looks amazing. My memory may deceive me but the action scenes surpass even what the original series had to offer. Sound design and music are top notch, but I cannot say the same about the voice acting. To me, the English voices of some of the characters were absolutely intolerable, luckily this was easy to fix by turning the audio to French which also makes more sense setting wise.

The story and plot were all right. Not the best, but certainly not bad at all either. Our cast of heroes has some really strong and interesting characters and the writers really try to push their personal development, sadly causing it to feel rushed in a couple of occasions. The villains seem very very basic at first, but get their chance to grow slowly as the story progresses. Olrox and the abbot are already pretty interesting, though our main villainess is a bit too basic, but has potential to grow further. The series also often relies on a deus ex machina to get our characters out of trouble, which feels cheap. The setting and overall plot have a lot of opportunities for future seasons even if it's not all there yet.

For now a seven out of ten seems fair, but it's a little too soon to judge. This could also end up becoming a nine, or it may end up completely missing its mark and getting a five.

Tour de France: Unchained (2023– )

Thoroughly enjoyable, but flawed in many ways. (Very light spoilers)

[7/10 · 9 June 2023]

There's a whole bunch of weird filmmaking decisions that I can't wrap my head around. On the one hand they explain the most mundane things like what a sprinter does. And on the other hand they completely ignore to explain concepts like satelite riders, echelons, overtraining, different body types/specialties, etc. They hardly ever spend time explaining stage profiles and what tactical decisions teams make or could make and why. I think that for newcomers it's all just a bit confusing and lacks depth, and this series is clearly made to promote cycling to a new audience. In my opinion this also makes it harder to empathise with the riders on certain occasions because it's not made clear why they are feeling the way they do about the race.

Furthermore, I am not sure why they decided to cram all of this into eight episodes. Some episodes felt really rushed. Especially the last episode which felt like a speedrun of the four last stages with absolutely no depth, leaving out Pogacar's crash for example. They also followed Borah, who had a disappointing tour but still ended fifth with Vlasov and were fighting for the stage wins, though they never got a good result. There's definitely a story there, but we got like 30 seconds of screentime for Borah in the entire eight episodes. They didn't cover Magnus Cort at all and skipped over a victory of Wout Van Aert. The fact that UAE refused to work with Netflix here is also a massive bummer for the overall production.

It's certainly not all bad. The Tour de France of 2022 was one of the best bike races in the history of bike racing and absolutely carries this series. They also deliver some phenomenal stories with the victory of Bob Jungels and Tom Pidcock. They are very good at building tension and focussing on the emotional side of bike racing. On top of that I enjoyed the fact that they didn't shy away from combining French and English as the two main languages for this series. I just wish they wouldn't have forced the Belgian and Dutch team leaders to speak (broken) English.

An enjoyable time if you want to get into the mood for the next Tour or just relive the one from last year. But a flawed series with a lot of missed opportunities.

The Civil War (1990)

This deserves a remake

[6/10 · 10 April 2023]

Before you give this review a thumb down because of my given score, hear me out and try to keep an open mind.

"The Civil War" is phenomenal. It covers a historic event that is often forgotten despite still being so relevant to this day, 150 years later, and 33 years after the series first aired. This series gives such a comprehensive look at its start, course and consequences. Allowing us all to inspect and learn from our mistakes from the past. It is absolutely something everyone, not only Americans, should learn about.

I rate series by how much I would recommend them to others. Six, is given to series that are good, sometimes even great, but targetted at a niche audience. But wait, I hear you say. You just said everyone should watch this? Except, I didn't. I stated everyone should learn about these events. So let me explain what I think this series could do better to appeal to a broader audience. Plus, why I think that I can not recommend it to just anyone. And before you argue that it shouldn't try to appeal to a broader audience, I hear you and I'll cover this later too.

I'm someone who adores documentaries. Usually nature docus, but history as well. Nature documentaries often place visuals and presentation first, to appeal to as many people as possible. Which is important because part of their importance is to make people aware of our impact on nature and to make as many people as possible care about nature. This series does not do that, in fact, it's closer to a PowerPoint presentation than anything I've seen on TV before. I assume at least part of this was due to budget concerns, which is immensely unfortunate.

The events are covered in so much detail, it's phenomenal. However this can make it hard for newcomers, because the broader picture isn't always clear when you hear about certain smaller stories. Like the phrase not being able to see the forest through the trees. It's a bit of a nitpick, but again, it makes it harder for a broad audience to get into this. I think the stories, and the length of the episodes could be tightened, to tell a more concise story. And for the history buffs that really want to know it all, there's still this original, which does that job perfectly. Or an extended version could also be a great option.

I don't think I'm wrong when I say, that your average person would probably really struggle to keep their attention up during some of these long, not very visually stimulating episodes, with the same music playing on repeat, with the same intonation from the narrator. It's all just a bit too much like a college lesson to me, and a bit too little like a TV series. Which is why this series has so few reviews when compared to other great documentaries like Planet Earth (2006) or even Cosmos (1980).

It is because I think this series has great subject matter, a great story to tell and is obviously made by people who care deeply for these historic events that I wish this would be made for more people to see.

Bottom line, if you are a massive history buff, that wants to learn all about the civil war in America, then this is for you. And it is probably nine or ten out of ten. However, if you are anyone else, theres a good chance you're going to find it a bit too boring and I hope that one day a proper remake will arrive for you.

More Than a Married Couple, But Not Lovers. (2022)

A great whole with parts that really hit but also parts that somewhat miss

[7/10 · 23 February 2023]

I will keep it really short.

"More than a married couple, but not lovers" encompasses a whole range of genres. It hops from romance to comedy to ecchi to drama. And there's moments where this series really does each genre justice, but it didn't always hit the mark for me.

Sometimes the ecchi scenes are really tense, sensual and other times they're pretty trashy. Sometimes the jokes are genuinely funny, but other times, they only got a blank stare out of me. The romances are generally well constructed and you can feel the conflict slowly cooking. Both of our protagonists have conflicting feelings and hopes, which leads to some exceptionally beautiful dramatic moments.

This was a surprise hit for me this season. And despite not being a masterpiece, it is a show that I can safely recommend if you are a fan of one of the genres (or more) that I mentioned above.

Onze Natuur (2022)

The grand nature of one tiny country

[9/10 · 5 January 2023]

'Onze Natuur' demonstrates that nature documentaries don't always have to feature the biggest, strangest or most exotic animals. Showing you the animals that live right under your nose is special in a not so different way. 'Onze Natuur' was created with the intention to make people appreciate the nature that's right there and care for it, and it absolutely delivers in that aspect.

The documentary takes us through the four seasons and shows us the effects it has on the flora, but mostly fauna of Belgium in a compilation of +-5 minute long short stories featuring said flora and fauna. Apart from the larger stories it tells, there is an unbelievable wealth of shots, that are merely used as transitions. Every bit of footage looks breathtakingly beautiful. There's a review below that calls 'Onze Natuur' unfinished and blames it for lacking story. Neither of those things are true.

I am seriously nitpicking here, but here are a few tiny details that bothered me. They portray winter as harsh and snowy, while in reality Belgium gets about three weeks of snow every year. (didn't make this up, this comes from the KMI). The music, while overall really good, has a few moments where it is so bombastic that it slightly distracts from the visuals.

The commentary is strong, and takes a more playful approach than the traditional sober documentary style. For some people this might come over as odd, but I thought it was rather likeable.

In summary, 'Onze Natuur' is a documentary that really punches above its weight. Made by a fairly small production team, filmed in a small country with generally unimpressive fauna. And yet, despite all of that, it is able to show us the nature hidden in the out-of-hand labyrinth of ribbon development that Belgium is today.

Ancient Apocalypse (2022)

A mix of fact and fiction and no way to distinguish between them

[2/10 · 27 November 2022]

I wanted to like this, I really did. It has an interesting premise: "could the world's oldest civilization be older than we know?" And that question isn't so outrageous. There are many ways that archaeological remains might have been lost to time (rising sea levels, hidden beneath our current cities, etc.) There's a lot of information coming from peer reviewed sources presented here. There's also a bunch of stuff they just made up or isn't confirmed by any reliable institution thrown in. And there's just no way to know which information is trustworthy and which isn't. In the first episode we meet an Indonesian archaeologist that claims the remains could be 24 000 years old. He is introduced with his titles to make him seem trustworthy. What they don't tell you is that his research isn't published, isn't peer reviewed and that he isn't trusted in the Indonesian archaeological community. This is only one of many instances where they do this.

The entire narrative that the academia are somehow deceiving, conspiring and unwilling to change is ridiculous. This isn't how academia work. The field of archaeology is made up by thousands of people from different countries and universities with different backgrounds and motivations. The idea that they all try to hide new evidence isn't logical and it makes sense thay in order to throw out our entire timeline you're gonna have to bring more than rumours.

This is nothing more than a fun diversion. And sadly unless you plan to fact check the entire show this isn't educational. Because you can't trust anything in this show as there is no way to know what is fact and what is fiction.

The Crown: Queen Victoria Syndrome (2022) Season 5, Episode 1

Full season 5 review

[7/10 · 16 November 2022]

Most people have been getting upset by the casting. And while there are a few minor hiccups here and there, I'd say that overall the casting is still strong.

The sets and costumes are absolutely still at the very top. But what actually bothered me this season is just the way they slowed the pacing of the story down even further. And I don't mean this only in timeframe, but also just the rate at which interesting events happen in the episodes. Firstly, this season only covers five years, the shortest timespan of any season. Which wouldn't have to be a problem, but the importance and interestingness of the stories also took a tumble. Most of it is just internal family business, there's hardly any real politics being covered and the Queen is being overshadowed in her own show. Many character arcs feel like they've become stale.

Sadly this makes for an altogether weaker viewing experience. However, there are still some really strong moments in this season. I expect fans will still like this, just a bit less than before.

The Dragon Prince: Fallen Stars (2022) Season 4, Episode 2

Sadly disappointing

[5/10 · 3 November 2022]

I really wanted to love this, but I couldn't. I was clearly looking for something that this show is not. As a spiritual successor to Avatar: the last airbender, which was so mature in its themes and presentation, I was hoping this would be the same. And, while season 1-3 were less nuanced and more obviously targeted at kids than the last airbender I still found it to be overall strong and enjoyable.

But these first two episodes are not at all like that. The characters do nonsensical things, just because the plot or whatever demands it. Elves randomly waving their whips at a person who's clearly distressed only to pull a surprised Pikachu face when they get their butts kicked by said person, Viren not being able to stand but climbing a gigantic mountain moments later, Callum just being an all round idiot when he's supposed to be quite clever and I don't even want to mention the fart and eat your veggies jokes.

I will continue to watch at least a couple more episodes and see how it evolves (or doesn't). But for now I'm pretty unhappy with it.

Edit: I have since continued the season and it really picks up again in episode 3. I still think this episode and the one prior are weak, but overall the season is still around 8/10 for me. (Which is good, I don't give away 10's and 9's like it's nothing.)

Dota: Dragon's Blood: This Stranger's Life (2022) Season 3, Episode 3

The episode where they finally fixed the pace

[9/10 · 14 September 2022]

Dota: Dragon's Blood season 2 suffered massively from being way too fast paced. Just jumping from plot point to plot point, from scene to scene, no breathers and dialogue getting cut short. The first two episodes of season 3 continued this trend, which left me worried. I almost gave up. But then this episode dropped and the pace finally slowed down and settled. We finally got to see some character moments, some emotions which gave the overall story some much needed weight. This new arc saved the series in my opinion. So if you wanted to give up after season 2, give it another shot, you might be surprised.

Prehistoric Planet (2022–2023)

Finally a worthy spiritual successor to Walking with Dinosaurs after 23 years

[9/10 · 25 May 2022]

I'll keep it short: The visuals are nearly perfectly photorealistic, especially the animations deserve all the praise they can get. On top of that the sound design is really strong. Both are extra supported by an amazing soundtrack.

The documentary style is pleasant to watch but the hopping from one short story to the next doesn't leave the same impact as when we'd follow one dinosaur for a longer time.

The accuracy of certain scenes is questionable. Some speculation is easily passed of as fact.

These two tiny points keep this series from being a 10 for me. But it is still an incredible series, one that I'll surely revisit many times in the coming years. I hope it does well because even though the first season hasn't fully finished airing, I already want a second one.

Dota: Dragon's Blood (2021–2022)

Season 2 Review

[8/10 · 19 January 2022]

The first two episodes left me rather confused. To be fair, part of that can be blamed on me, I didn't bother rewatching season 1. But still, the show doesn't do much to refresh your memory either. And while once episode 3 comes around this will be resolved for most people the lack of time spent to make clear to viewers what is going on is an issue that remains for the rest of the season.

I don't think I've ever complained about this. But the pacing is too fast. It just jumps from plot point to plot point with very little time to have things explained or build clear character motivations. Something here doesn't feel right, and I can't exactly point out what.

Regardless I feel like the story is still rather good. It is fun, intriguing and the characters are interesting (albeit a bit flat from time to time). The presentation is clean, English voice acting is strong overall, the visual style is very pleasant to look at and the animations are excellent (although there is the occasional mediocre CGI dragon).

I can still recommend this show, but I think they'd do themselves and the story a service if they slowed things down a notch.

Animal (2021– )

Criminally underrated

[9/10 · 19 November 2021]

Why is no one talking about this? Why does Animal only have 230 review scores on IMDB (at the time of writing)? One thing I can say for sure, it has nothing to do with the quality of this series.

Animal is a four part documentary series with each episode looking at a new type of animal. There's a mix of scenarios you've seen before and new things. And while the contents of the episodes lag behind the all time greats like Planet Earth and Our Planet, the visuals most certainly do not.

In fact, I'd argue that this is one of the most visually impressive nature docus you will have ever seen. Especially if you have a 4k screen to enjoy its full potential (even though it still looks great on something as small as a phone screen).

The narration is excellent. They really didn't cheap out with names like Bryan Cranston (Walter White from Breaking Bad) and Pedro Pascal (known for Game of Thrones, Narcos and The Mandalorian). But seemingly these great narrators are not enough to bring this show into the limelight, I guess only Attenborough's name can do that.

In conclusion, this is one of the best nature documentaries in recent years, and potentially the best this year. I recommend watching this, hands down.

Mobile Suit Gundam I (1981)

Should you watch Mobile Suit Gundam in 2021?

[3/10 · 4 November 2021]

I am purely reviewing this movie as it stands now. The effect it has had on mecha anime and anime as a whole is not considered and frankly doesn't make this movie any better. The question I am trying to answer is: "does this movie hold up compared to modern works of anime?"

With that out of the way, let's actually review this.

It doesn't take a keen eye to notice that the visuals are clearly dated. However, if you enjoy this type of eighties aesthetic you might still be able to enjoy it. And while the visuals can be seen as having a certain style to them, the audio suffers from its age far more. Sadly this makes for a rather poor listening experience.

The plot isn't anything to write home about either. The tropes that this movie popularised forty years ago have now become so widespread and have since been improved upon so greatly that this movie starts to feel like a parody of its own genre at times.

It's full of plot holes, logical inconsistensies, slow pacing and dumb character choices. The main character is a bland Mary Sue or Gary Stu, whichever you prefer and the side characters aren't too well developed either. There is a relatively interesting dynamic between our hero, Amuro and the main villain, Char. But in general, this plot has not much to offer anymore.

The strongest part of this movie is its sci-fi theme. It gives an interesting take of how people thought our future might look, and to be honest, I'm a sucker for that sort of stuff. I won't delve too far into it, as it is best to experience this for yourself.

In short, I can't recommend this movie to a broad audience anymore. Anyone who wants to watch this should be aware of this movie's shortcomings (even if they are a result of the times it was produced in).

There are plenty of movies from that time (and even way before) that have better animation, story, characters, pacing and sound design. And there are plenty of mecha anime from the last 20 years that have completely surpassed this.

P. S. Also who in their right mind came up with the name "Fraw Bow"?!

Life in Colour (2021)

Very good, but not the best

[8/10 · 28 April 2021]

Let me start off by saying that this is a fine documentary in the standard Attenborough-style. However the first episode, which is also the most important to get people to watch the rest is the worst of the three. It is a tad repetitive and there are a lot of scenarios avid documentary viewers will already have seen.

Episode rating for me is like this. Ep1: 7, ep2: 8 and ep3: 8.5, end result is an 8 overall.

People that haven't seen as many documentaries will be able to get more out of this series, but for me it doesn't reach the same heights as series like Planet Earth or Our Planet. Don't get me wrong, this is still a competent and enjoyable show which I do recommend.

Pacific Rim: The Black (2021–2022)

I probably would have loved this when I was 12

[6/10 · 7 March 2021]

If you are either aged 10-14 or a big Pacific Rim fan then this is for you, otherwise it's not that great.

The animation is a bit all over the place, faces are good, mechs and kaijus are a bit weightless and floaty and characters are on the stiff side. This was definitely all done by hand, no motion capture. As for still visuals, it's quite good for a 3D animation. Shots look quit good even though there is a general lack of detail in surrounding areas such as city landscapes. The story feels a tad rushed, it's like they crammed the idea's for 12 or more episodes into 7. Probably because that's what actually happened. Our two protagonists are pretty standard run of the mill characters, but they're all right. Mei and Boy are far more interesting and they are in my opinion the best thing about this show.

Overall, it's not the best, but it's not the worst either. I hope if they get a second season they slow down the pacing and take their time to develop the characters and the plot properly.

La La Land (2016)

Blew me away

[9/10 · 4 March 2021]

I put this movie on my to watch list a couple weeks ago. I put it on there because it has good reviews and Dunkey likes is so I kinda had to check it out. I thought I wasn't going to like it as I'm usually not a fan of musicals or romantic movies so I constantly postponed watching it, until it was the last thing on the list. But oh boy was I glad I watched this. It's the best movie I watched in a good while.

As for the plot, it isn't the most original or unique but it's a plot that has been proven to work. Girl meets guy, they don't like each other at first, then fall in love, some kinda breakup and finally they either fall in love again or break up. Pretty standard stuff. What I've said now doesn't sound very good yet. But you've never seen this story told in this way. This movie nails everything, the music is breathtaking, the choreos are great, the sets are wonderfully designed with the perfect amount of contrasting colors. The acting is genuinely amazing, and many times all of the story is being told through facial expressions and body language. I can not give the actors enough credit.

I'm not gonna spoil it any further, just watch it, it's great.

Alien Worlds (2020)

Don't hesitate to watch if you are interested!

[8/10 · 2 December 2020]

After just binging all 4 episodes I can safely say that this documentary about speculative evolution is definitely worth your time if you are interested.

The CGI is overall very good. The colors are vibrant, textures and lighting are high quality and the animations are, apart from the occasional weird floaty ones, excellent. The only actual bad thing is, that there wasn't more of it. Some episodes could have used a bit more CGI parts in my opinion, mostly episode 1. But if nothing else the visuals alone make this show worth watching. The explanations are very clear and will be easy to understand to newcomers while still providing a small amount of depth to people that are more knowledgeable on the subject matter. Some of the explanatory scenes feel a little bit besides the point or are a tad too dragged out, but those are tiny nitpicks on an otherwise well executed concept. The creatures and behaviours presented are not the most original or unique for people that are interested in speculative biology, however they are very grounded, mostly realistic and there are almost no logical inconsistensies with how the worlds are shown and how the creatures are presented. I also want to reiterate that the models are extremely well made. The voiceover is well done, even if at times a tad overdramatic. I do recommend watching this show in english as the interviewed parts do not translate very well into other languages.

Overall this show is defenitely worth an 8.5 out of 10. I really hope it does well, since this show is certainly deserving of a follow-up.