Marco

Well first off I need to say I have been in a total 'bromance' with Jake Gyllenhaal for few years now and biased as I might be, I think this is another movie he nailed just great. I love the subtle way he works to define his characters, how Lou looks gangly and with those big wide opened voracious eyes that are somehow a mirror of what is about to become...Jake has an amazing restraint in acting, especially in this age where tv shows formats brought an often over-dramatized style into storytelling and acting, so his way to sculpt his characters a little at a time manage to build a certain tension underneath that keep you focused on them even in ordinary set-ups and situations..and this approach to acting makes even more intense when those subtle underneath tension gets released like in the mirror scene.
Beside his performance I think Nightcrawler is a very good movie with some really great moments, and a central theme about what we as audience, have been accustomed to consider information and how morbid we grew about the appearance of what happens instead of the reasons or the facts itself.
Directing and photography are stellar, for what seems a well paced and balanced screenplay manage to mix introspection, storytelling and pure action even though there are few unfocused moments. The car chasing scene, considered how has been endlessly abused by movies, is just amazing with a fantastic edit and originality in choosing the point of view af a third spectator instead of the runaway or the chaser, which are the common storytelling perspectives we see in such scenes.
I was slightly disappointed in few aspects about how the plot develops in the last part. I would have liked a more open and thought provoking ending, the final interrogation and the closing scene looked a bit too predictable and not aligned with the overall tone of the story. A bit too 'didactic' in the purpose, probably to accomodate the so called general audience which always needs a proper wrap-up to get what the story is about. If it was up to me I would have ended the movie with the broadcasting of the last reportage for instance.
I gave it a 7, it may have rightfully deserved a 8, but you know the final always influence too much of a movie overall perception. It's somehow unfair even to me, but I can't help it.

Until this episode the 5th season lacked a certain spark for me, at least compared to the previous ones.
It is quite obvious that the space left by Ragnar, Rollo etc. that driven the early seasons and set the tone to the whole show, was getting more evident (despite the Seer telling the contrary to Lagertha in this episode) now that those storylines plots and sub-plots are completely behind.
But with this episode things are finally opening towards new angles and developments, mainly with Astrid change of position and obviously Bjorn finally in the Mediterranean introducing few interesting characters and situations. But there is alot more going on!
I have the feeling that this episode ,though at first glance lacking any real key events, represent a pivotal moment for almost all the main characters: the brotherhood triangle between Ivar, Hvitserk and Ubbe after a long stall, is now entering a new more interesting stage, Lagerta coming to terms with the shifting powers in Kattegat, the Floki physical and inner trip coming to a conclusion, Harald and Halfdan brothers fully taking their own different paths, Heahmund and Athelwulf alliance cracking under different ambitions and motivations.
Basically in a quite subtle and smart way, 'The Plan' is (ironically) bringing to the show exactly what the title suggests: the foundations plans on which all next storylines will develop.

Now the thing is that the underworld street gang as idea itself works well, gives depth to a location like Mos Espa that otherwise would only be a familiar backdrop to move already known characters.
So ok, nothing wrong with what...but is the how not the what..that is really kind of puzzling...at best.
First off the design of those speeder-vespas is so blatantly wrong, and I mean in everything, they do not look like Star Wars tech, they do not fit in the context, they are even without considering the colors simply designed bad.
Since the standard visual design of Star Wars is always been based on the styles set by McQuarrie/Mollo/Chiang..I find incomprehensible if not simply unbelievable how come that those designs managed to survive from exploring ideas in pre-production up to actually shooting something so evidently wrong.
So my main problem is that those ridicolous speeders screaming "WTF" pulled my attention to a not so good gang characterization, which is another thing that doesn't fit well with the overall Star Wars style...it may have been slipped in the background if at least most of those characters screen time wasn't on such silly vehicles.

Then there are another couple of things in the overall tone that are starting to bothering me, I do not like personally and maybe is just me but to be honest do not even fit well with the character characterization and the general SW lore: Boba Fett is becoming a bit too incline to diplomacy. A bit too much and a bit too fast I would say.
I do understand this is the old Boba Fett but after going through some transformative experiences, from the bonding with sand people to the new role of "daimyo", which ok means he has to switch from the solitary bounty hunter mindset to a different one as ruler of a more complex and variable organization.
Ok, there's going to be some "politics" to deal with. Still this is or too rushed or just too broad in how is represented, because after all a character need to stay true to a given nature, otherwise it will loose its own peculiar traits and personality.
The other thing, and I'm afraid this is unquestionably the heavy hand of Disney, is the progressive pet-ification of animal-like creatures...which now reached even the Rancor.
That is definitely the nowadays typical Hollywood histeric industry reaction to the dumb online criticism that already came around with how the Boba Fett showed the treating of wildlife.
We live in horrible days for creativity and art...

I read terrible things about this movie...so expecting the worst I had it sitting on my view list for a while. Then I finally decided to hit the play button, because afterall I liked much the basic idea, the look of the movie and well I'm quite a J-law and sci-fi fan. So you know...what could possibly go wrong? For once nothing, almost.
"Passengers", against all odds, is a very good movie. And the odds here were huge, beside average audience often shallow criticisms, telling a story with basically just two actors and one indoor set is a real challenge especially for a mainstream flick.
It could easily work as a theater play, but as a proper movie that's a whole different story. Interestingly from this point of view "Passengers" feels like the simpler cheesy (but smart) hybrid from two Duncan Jones sci-fi movies, that is "Moon" and "Source Code".
So let's the spoilers begins, yes there are few a bits too much of Hollywood pleasing twists, especially towards the end. Still the movie has its strenght, enough to survive those few "meh" moments, science fiction here becomes the frame and backdrop to tell something about the human heart. It's the kind of science fiction story that would have fitted properly in a Ray Bradbury anthology.
What is really great in this movie, and that objectively kept the whole thing together, are the never less than brilliant performances of Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt supported by well written dialogues. Jennifer Lawrence has some pretty intense moments, even when the scripting seems to get a bit thin, she manages to keep her character true and vivid. The wide deserted interiors of the sets, mainly dominated by white colors, create even more focus on the acting. So again both Lawrence and Pratt did an amazing job, pretty much like a theater play stage, there isn't anything distracting or tricking the audience, in most scenes, most of the time the photography is tight and focused on the acting performance, so many good scenes don't even have/need dialogues but are built on physical acting, body language, looks and silent stares. That's proper acting and well beyond the average standard we are used in this genre of movies.
Don't bother too much about the bombastic Hollywood take on those final moments, and you will get a very good space romance drama, deep enough to leave you with something worth thinking after the closing credits.