Barbenheimer: Part 1 of 2

This is the kind of film I really don’t want to criticize, because we don’t get nearly enough other stuff like it. However, mr. Nolan has been in need of an intervention for a while now, and unfortunately all of the issues that have been plaguing his films since The Dark Knight Rises show up to some degree here. Visually it might just be his best film, and there’s some tremendous acting in here, particularly by Murphy and RDJ. However, it makes the common biopic mistake of treating its subject matter like a Wikipedia entry, thereby not focussing enough on character and perspective. As a whole, the film feels more like a long extended montage, I don’t think there are many scenes that go on for longer than 60 seconds. There’s a strong ‘and then this happened, and then this happened’ feel to it, which definitely keeps up the pace, but it refuses to stop and let an emotion or idea simmer for a while. There are moments where you get a look into Oppenheimer’s mind, but because the film wants to cover too much ground, it’s (like everything else) reduced to quick snippets. It’s the kind of approach that’d work for a 6 hour long miniseries where you can spend more time with the characters, not for a 3 hour film. I can already tell that I won’t retain much from this, in fact a lot of it is starting to blur together in my mind. There are also issues with some of the dialogue and exposition, such as moments where characters who are experts in their field talk in a way that feels dumbed down for the audience, or just straight up inauthentic. Einstein is given a couple of cheesy lines, college professors and students interact in a way that would never happen, Oppenheimer gives a lecture in what’s (according to the movie) supposed to be Dutch when it’s really German; you have to be way more careful with that when you’re making a serious drama. Finally, there are once again major issues with the sound mixing. I actually really loved the score, but occasionally it’s blaring at such a volume where it drowns out important dialogue in the mix. I’m lucky enough to have subtitles, but Nolan desperately needs to get his ears checked, or maybe he should’ve asked some advice from Benny Safdie since he’s pretty great with experimental sound mixing. My overall feelings are almost identical to the ones I had regarding Tenet; Nolan needs to rethink his approach to writing, editing and mixing. This film as a whole doesn’t work, but there are still more than a few admirable qualities to it.

Edit: I rewatched this at home to see whether my feeling would change. I still stand by what I wrote in July, though the sound mix seems to have been improved for the home media release. It sounds more balanced and I didn’t miss one line of dialogue this time around. I’m slightly raising my score because of that, but besides that I still think it’s unfocused, overedited, awkwardly staged and scripted etc.

5.5/10

That hour felt like 5 minutes! Bernard is Arnold. Dolores killed him. Ford made Bernard kill himself. Holy mindfuck! my head just exploded. Sorry, bad choice of words. And the MIB being a board member. He knew it all.

The first scene was just perfect. "Bernard, bring yourself back online", Maeve. I was on the edge of my seat.

Every theory has been confirmed, except for the William = MIB, which can also be said to be. He did say he was going to find Dolores and then the MIB appeared in the church, right after Dolores said "William?"

I knew Bernard was Arnold. I knew it. There was something about him that didn't add, especially that scene with Abernathy in ep 1. Those scenes with Bernarnold and Ford were perfect. I knew since the beginning Ford was just messing with him. He didn't even twitched when he saw the gun. And at the end, he even seemed concerned with Bernard, like he didn't want that to happen. I agree with Bernard, what kind of psychopath would give such a tragic backstory to a host? Well, our lovely Hannibal Lecter.

And the father of the year award goes to... Bernard! For his astonishing quote "Charlie,you're a lie". And Dolores killing Arnold, holy cow. Didn't see that one coming, although I get that's the reason why Ford told her that they weren't friends.

When they introduced the character of William I though that would be me, that he was just a regular guy with his regular problems but he's lost his shit. The only thing clear is that you don't call him Billy. He might slaughter you.

I think Ford's narrative involves Maeve, so that he can prove that the hosts are too dangerous to be used outside the park.

God glorious Anthony Hopkins: "Do you know what happened to the Nearthentals? We ate them". My greatest fear is to wake up and find myself in that creepy basement with Ford monologuing at me.

One thing I found pretty odd was Stubbs being attacked. Was it Ford? Create, kill, replace, repeat.

Get hyped for the 90-minute mindfuck of a finale!!!

[8.1/10] I think I’ve figured out my rubric for when I’m interested in what Westworld has going on, and when I’m liable to be bored. The more the show is focused on the park -- whether it’s the hosts making sense of their reality, or the guests exploring and growing immersed in it -- the more I’m on board. Those scenes tend to lean into what makes the show engrossing -- thought experiments about identity and sentience and moral questions about how we behave when there’s no rules.

But when the show is focused on the back end of Westworld -- in the form of corporate conspiracies and middle-manager backstabbing -- the more I’m ready to tune out. I’ve realized that none of the characters who are pulling the strings of the park really interest me.

Sizemore is a garden variety shitheel and his antics are as dull as they are intended to be outrageous. A cliched botched encounter with a romantic target-turned-surprise boss does nothing to help either him or Tessa Thompson’s introduction to the show. Theresa continues to be a stock character with a bad performance, between her run-of-the-mill, steely-but-wounded break-up with Bernard to her reheated pep talk to Sizemore. All the runaround and would-be palace intrigue of who’s going to be in charge of Westworld is a non-starter.

I also can’t be bothered to care about what conspiracy Elsie is uncovering, whether that means Theresa herself messing around with the programming of some off-the-books hosts or a mysterious third party posing as Arnold. The whole thing plays out like something from the usual conspiracy thriller textbook, with Elsie going alone to a creepy hideout, being attacked a hidden assailant, and getting stymied and put in danger just when she’s about to uncover the truth. It’s generic pablum and a big waste of time.

Even the two characters who gets the most focus and give the best performances in the “behind the scenes” portion of the show, have grown fairly dull by this point in the season. Ford is a less a character than a bundle of mysteries and cryptic hints at this point. As I’ve said in prior write-ups, Hopkins is a pro and can spin some of this straw into gold. But Ford is a character without weight at this point, there mostly to deliver exposition and throw out the occasionally navel-gazing bit of foreshadowing.

Sure, it’s mildly interesting to learn that those kids that various people have run into on the property are actually robotic versions of his younger self, and that the oft-spoken-of Arnold made host incarnations of Ford’s entire family, which Ford maintains both to preserve a connection to Arnold and to his past. But what does it amount to?

It amounts to another vague story beat to suggest that there’s something amiss with what Ford’s doing, without really delivering any answers and just having Hopkins skulk around and try to carry these scenes on his back. Even Bernard, who has his fingers in the most pies of the behind-the-scenes storylines, has reverted to being something of a cipher, with a nebulous desire to protect Theresa and the lingering pain of his dead son to motivate him, but a pretty dull progression on a scene-to-scene basis.
It’s hard to pinpoint what the pathology of all these back end stories and characters is. It may just be that, even in the context of a futuristic theme park, this half of the show comes off like a generic high-powered office drama. The characters aren’t sketched out well enough, or given anything but generic personas and motivations, to keep up the intrigue, and unlike the park-focused characters and storylines, it’s harder for that part of the show to rely on the coolest elements of Westworld’s premise.

Those are, namely, the twin concepts of robots becoming more complex while slowly gaining sentience and the exploration of the soul when human beings are given the chance to let their best or worst impulses run wild.

Theoretically, The Man in Black should suffer from the same problems without any of the benefits his fellow park-dwellers benefit from. He’s as much a bundle of mysteries as Ford is, and there’s not exactly a battle for his soul going on right now. But he has a few things in his favor.

First, he has a supreme competence and mastery of this world that marks him as unique relative to other characters. Second, he has the benefit of Ed Harris getting to put on a clinic as memorable blackhats go. And third and most important, he has a clear goal. We may not know much about the fabled Maze just yet, but we know that TMiB wants to find it, that he’s been in the game for a long time, and he’s searching for something deeper, something more meaningful, out of this experience. That makes him compelling, even when he’s mired in the same less-than-lucid mysteries the show seems to be promising.

But even he can’t match the glory that is Maeve’s story here, which is pretty handily the best thing the show’s managed so far. For one thing, it pulls the trigger on something the show’s been hinting at for a while now -- one of the hosts realizing what they are and where they come from.

The sequence where Lutz takes Maeve through the facility, set to the Vitamin String Quarter’s version of “Motion Picture Soundtrack,” is one of the most affecting in the show. The combination of the look on Thandie Newton’s face as Maeve witnesses the surreal sights of her entire world, her comrades and her being, in a state of being under construction, and her dreams being broadcast as ads, is tremendous.

But Maeve is able to take it all in relative stride, however much a shock it must be to literally meet your makers (or at least re-makers) and change who you are with a push of a button. There’s nice touches galore, like Maeve overloading when she reads her own speech patterns, or knowing how to manipulate Lutz’s jerkass workmate into keeping his big mouth shut.

There is something charming and capable about Maeve, one where she uses her skills to know what a person wants to finally get what she wants. The prospect of a host remaking themselves, of knowing what the real story is, and having some kind of plan, is the most exciting thing Westworld has offered since its inception.

When the show focuses on stories like those, which lean into the moral and spiritual awakening of these mechanical people, of the thorny moral questions about control and what makes us who we are, and about the animating idea of a place where people can let loose, for better or for ill, it is an engrossing, even thought-provoking show. When it focuses on a pack of pencil-pushers and clashing co-workers, it becomes like any other show, and leaves me wishing Westworld would stop with the office politics and get back to Westworld.

Recently Neill Blomkamp gave this interview where he said he missed out on a lot of career opportunities because he wasn’t ‘Hollywood enough’. With that in mind, it should come as no surprise that Gran Turismo feels like a total paycheck gig, it’s some of the most phoned in directing I’ve seen this year (especially because we all know he can come up with a creative vision if he tried). This looks like a Russo brothers movie (zero effort when it comes to lighting and blocking, every conversation is shot like basic coverage, its few attempts at flashy stylistic touches are stupid) and the score is aggressively bland. For a movie primarily aimed at teenagers it’s also surprisingly lacking in any edge, instead what you get is a very sanitized, plain version of the typical underdog sports movie with a lot of dumb, melodramatic moments. The racing sequences are fine (if a little brief), with the overediting making it feel more like watching Tiktok than an actual race. Again, say what you will about early Fast and Furious (I’m not a fan myself), but those movies did have personality. This is very corporate by comparison, it’s content waiting to be forgotten about.

3/10

The show wants to cover too much in just eight episodes, but it fails miserably. Too many characters, too many subplots, too many conflicts: Richter's fear, the love between Olrox and the knight, Maria and her father, the fight against the Messiah, Anette and her disconnection from her ancestors and her loss of Edouard. The viewer doesn't have time to focus on anything because they throw everything at the same time.

The only thing I cared about at least a little was Richter's plot and, although it was developed, it was not the best executed. The magic returns to Richter when he realizes that he has many people to protect. That trope is something we are tired of seeing, especially all those who come from consuming anime, consuming shounen to be more specific.

I was not interested in any character and I was even less interested in the antaognists. As usual, I remember that the first part of Castlevania did not shine for its construction of villains either. Who on the team thinks of making the vampires so one-dimensional and giving them so much focus? What is not attractive to the viewer is supposed to be kept on the sidelines.

It makes me laugh how they saved the worst for last: Alucard's appearance. It was not necessary to use the nostalgia card and even less so at a critical moment like that: right at the end when everyone is at their lowest moment and almost about to die. The way they executed those last scenes, Alucard feels like a Deus Ex Machina.

The action scenes were on point. Kudos to the group of animators and directors behind it. Castlevania has always had some of the best choreographed animated battles I've ever seen.

The first part of Castlevania was not something that was very worthwhile, but Castlevania: Nocturne disappoints even by those low standards.

Disappointing.
Why does the imperial cruiser break the chase, when it has plenty of ships on board to pursue Obi-Wan's single craft?
Did Vader really need to take the imperial cruiser with him, to then leave it behind to go alone after Obi-Wan?
Why Vader doesn't even bother to check Obi-Wan is really dead, after all the trouble he has taken to hunt him down? He just turns his back and walks out? He is able to detect Obi-Wan's presence hundreds or thousands of kilometres away fleeing onboard a ship, but can't tell he is alive under a pile of rocks right next to him?
Why should Obi-Wan leave Vader alive after defeating him and confirming there is nothing left of Anakin, only a Jedi mass murderer and a danger to the entire galaxy stands before him? Why make this mistake a second time?
Am I really supposed to believe after watching this series that Vader/Anakin was the chosen one? He is ridiculed and portrayed as a fool that would struggle to pass a basic IQ test, not to mention all those tactical errors (aren't combat and command amongst the many subjects jedis were proficient at?). Vader deserved much better.
It beggars belief, and takes viewers for complete mugs.

I think this is the worst episode of book of boba fett by a long shot.

First of all boba is completely eradicated from this episode and we don’t even see fennec until the last 3 minutes of the episode it’s not even a real Book of boba fett episode it’s more like a continuation of mandalorian so this episode felt really weird and out of place.

Secondly I felt a huge amount of time was wasted this episode first of all with the opening scene where mando is fighting all the aliens for a bounty and the only purpose of that scene is to show off the darksaber and show us what mando is doing but it isn’t entirely necessary when we see the training scene with the armourer later in the episode which could’ve been a lot cooler and of course we want to see what mando is doing but why take up so much of the episode doing it! Secondly The whole 10 minuet scene where mando and peli is fixing it felt extremely unnecessary as well as the fact as they where using half real word to talk about engine parts for example “turbonic venturi assimilator” which to anyone is just a made up phrase which I understand a spaceship will have sci-fi sounding parts but again to the extent it is used it just feels like I’m sat at a kids table for lunch listening to the adults talk and not understanding a single word of it not really a good scene. Lastly I think it is utterly ridiculous when mando is testing the nano starfighter and essentially just gets pulled over for speeding and to get a ticket which ruined a good fast paced scene and brought it to a grinding halt for a scene that is trying to be comical? It just felt so out of place and on top of that it was the exact same guy in the x-wing the new republic has so much space to police and it is the same guy on Mandos tail again it just felt to unnecessary to reuse a character for what reason?

Thirdly the whole scene in the mandalorin hide out has a lot of unneeded scenes first the bit where din just immediately without protest gave up his coolest weapon the beskar spear gets destroyed albeit for grogu’s gift but considering it was the only remanent of the razor crest it’s a bit silly it was destroyed the razor crest was mando transport his home his ability to be a bounty hunter and it was destroyed and the only keepsake he had left of it was the spear and now it’s gone! Secondly the scene where Paz vissler duels with him feels like a really lazy way just to get the armourer to say the creed and ask mando “have you ever removed your helmet” and he says yes and is thus exiled which just creates another story line to explore the issue I have with this is it just feels like an unintuitive way of going about getting to this scenario and feels forced/out of place. As well as the fact that the armourer says the only way to redeem mando is “in the living waters beneath the mines of mandalore” and mando reply’s with “but the mines have all been destroyed” so they have created a problem with no resolution so is mando permanently banished? As far the episode tells us there is no way to redeem himself.

Lastly I felt it played into the prequels a bit too heavily mainly episode 1 with the naboo starfighter (I do actually like the inclusion of this but I don’t think it’s a reasonable replacement for the razor crest) and then mando practically following the pod racing track though beggars canyon which if it isn’t the pod racing track from episode 1 it certainly looks like it.

In conclusion it’s not an awful episode but not a great one either and it definitely could’ve been a lot better than it was especially considering it is the second longest episode so far definitely weird and definitely not a book of boba fett episode considering he wasn’t even in it at all

I really don't understand what their goal is with this show. I watch The Book of Boba Fett to watch Boba Fett, and he's not even in this episode. This feels like an episode of The Mandalorian, and I like The Mandalorian (both the show and the character), but in a show with a very limited number of episodes, they spend an entire episode focusing on a side character. There's no time for that!

On the plus side, it's great to see Dinn Djarin again. I really like all the Prequel references in this episode, and there are a lot. It's nice to see the writers pay homage to that era instead of being hyper-fixated on reminiscing about the OT era. On the downside, there's not a lot going on in this episode, and certainly not enough to fill an entire episode. The typical Star Wars technobabble starts off endearing but I quickly got annoyed by it, as they heaped it on sentence after sentence, kind of like they were padding for time. And that droid lady was never my favourite character to begin with, so imagine how much I enjoyed it when she got as much screentime here as she did in the entire first season of The Mandalorian.

There's some good here, but it's mostly unnecessary. This should have been episode 1 of The Mandalorian Season 3.

I'll second @Bernard, in that this is pretty much what has become the bog standard R/E script of aggrieved baddie whining about why he is so aggrieved, in this case cuz' his bestie got infected, and then he had to make the horrifying choice of making said bestie assume room temperature (via gratuitous heavy object head smooshing trope) as rapidly as possible, lest he assume room temperature himself. Said traumatic experience "turns him to the dark side", thus, he now schemes to make the world pay by infecting it, and of course, fusing himself with whatever rando super zombie the writers could conjure, to become a killer MEGA zombie, which no matter the ensuing theatrics, eventually ALSO assumes MEGA room temperature via previously stated gratuitous trope heavier object head smooshing, head severing, blowed-uppaning' virus trans-mutating, or some combination of the aforementioned.

Curiously, the quality of the animation in this series has IMO deteriorated ever so slightly with each iteration, and they can't seem to keep Jill Valentine's "assets" a consistent size, unless, the SF Bay water was shrinking her top and push up. (standard fem gear for zombie fighting ) But, I digress...., Not horrible, but, nothing you haven't seen before if you've kept up with the series.

Maybe it's time for another live action one....

2023 TV Shows Ranked List --> https://trakt.tv/users/justinnumerick/lists/2023-tv-shows-ranked?sort=rank,asc

Season 2 Review:
The second season of this show is a very mixed bag for me, and it's the most apparent in the characters. For example, I loved everything we got from Jepperd this season including the fleshing out of his darker backstory and seeing just how much he has changed and grown since meeting Gus. His devotion to Gus and the lengths he's willing to go to in order to keep him safe were really great. And on the opposite end of the spectrum, General Abbot was an incredibly one-note and silly villain that I did not care for. And all of the other characters fall somewhere on the wide spectrum between these two. Another inconsistency was the tone. We'll get fart jokes one minute and the next there are people threatening to cut open and experiment on children. This show has a very unique style and tone that tries to balance these two extremes, and sometimes it comes across really well, but in this season it just felt all over the place a little. I also had a really difficult time getting behind some of the costume designs for the kids. Some looked okay but others looked like poorly drawn makeup and clearly fake props. Most of them just looked like normal kids wearing costumes, so getting me to believe they are human-animal hybrids was difficult. However, I did enjoy much of the script across the season and the story that was told here. The themes were on point, resulting in a heartfelt story about friendship. The emotional beats worked well enough for me especially between Gus and Jepperd, they have a really great relationship and the actors have good chemistry. The production design was also pretty good. So all-in-all, I wasn't as endeared to this season as much and the inconsistencies with characters and tones drag it down, but the story is good.

6.0/10 -- Decent

I found this rather unengaging.

On a positive note, there are some well-choreographed fight scenes. They are probably the most engaging part of the show, the best of them are well thought out and impressive, but many of these fights are barren regarding emotional tension.

Also, the set designs and the VFX are, for the most part, excellent, and the polish and detail make many aspects of the world feel tangible. The atmosphere it provides is authentic to the Star Wars universe, and I find that rather charming, but I found much of the show underwhelming. I find the costume designs, in particular, to be a mixed bag. The main character's design is excellent, but many others are jarring. Designs like Ahsoka Tano's are a constant distraction. There's also the use of CGI for characters like Luke and Grogu, which seems to be what most people complain about, but I thought the CGI was adequate.

But where the show truly struggles is in its story. None of its characters have detailed arcs and more than anything. You could easily reorder the occurrence of a lot of the show's episodes, and it would not change a thing. I found this particularly annoying because of the runtime of these episodes, and many of the episodes are sadly forgettable.

And I want to talk about why the end of Season 2 didn't work for me, mainly because Mando doesn't go through a coherent arc. In theory, Mando's journey should've significantly altered his character. We know he suffers a massive change to his status quo; he betrays the guild code and endures the consequences. But his character is underdeveloped; he has solid motivations. He wants to spare Grogu from the war-torn childhood he survived, but this is all we know about him. And I thought this backstory was only serviceable; it's nothing particularly compelling. The only thing closely resembling an arc is Mando's willingness to remove his helmet throughout the series, where he finally takes it off in front of people in the Season 2 finale, but that's incredibly bare-bones. And when Mando gives up Grogu to Luke Skywalker, the show plays overbearing, somber music, but I feel nothing; I failed to have much investment in these characters.

I also must mention that Grogu is one-note. This is likely because he is a baby, but we know nothing about him. We know he's force sensitive and of the same species as Yoda, but his character is vague otherwise. As far as I know, the only depth we get for him is one of your conjectures.

Again, most of the characters in "The Mandalorian" feel incredibly flat. There are a lot of one-off-side characters throughout the show, but unless they come from the pre-established Star Wars universe, they're uninteresting. And when the show does bring in characters from other Star Wars properties, they play it incredibly safe.

The old characters they bring back (Ahsoka Tano, Boba Fett, Luke Skywalker, etc.) They have been developed in other Star Wars media, but the show hardly utilizes them. There are no interesting character-specific moments. There are subtle fan service moments, such as the Darksaber and Boba Fett's confrontation with Mando regarding his armor, but that's about it. For me, it fails to provide anything emotionally engaging with these characters.

I am not the biggest Star Wars Rebels fan, but it was far more interesting in its utilization of previously developed characters. It provided moments such as the duel between Darth Maul and Obi-Wan, ending with the death of Darth Maul. The Mandalorian does not resemble this; including these characters feels contrived and pointless.

While looking for the dragonballs Kylo Vegeta Ren finds the emperor and he reveals a clown car with 10 trillion death stars in it. Instead of conquering the galaxy the emperor chooses to just give it to Kylo as long as he kills Rey, because she is a sayan prince or something.
Meanwhile Rey is also looking for the dragonballs and to find a dragonball she needs a wooden stick that some guy made 10 days ago.
Luke and Lanpedo have been looking for this stick for 10 years, but Rey finds it after falling in a hole and helping a snake. She blows up 10.000 people with a kamehameha, but is sad because she lost her dog. Their robot needs to talk with an alien monkey on another planet because it can give him red eyes. Rey goes on Kylos ship to find her stick, kills a few hundred more people with a gun and finds her dog. Rey notices the stick looks like a death star so they go to the death star and find the dragonball. Vegeta comes and is killed by Rey because his mom calls his name. Rey brings him back to life because she wants to smooch and kills his mother. Kylo finds his sayan spirit and becomes a good guy (he only killed a few million people no big deal). Rey rams her ship into another planet for fun and finds another stick that points to the emperors clown car. The emporer wants to get whipped, by his granddaugther, because he is into that. Rey charges a spirit bomb with the power of her 10 trillion fans, but the emporer snaps his fingers and kills all her fans in 1 hit. Kylo comes to help Rey whip her granddad, but he slips and falls down a staircase. Rey grants her grandad's his dying wish, but because the she used the wrong whip they are both dead now. Kylo revives Rey, they smooch and he turns into a ghost. Also his mom now is a ghost. Rey uses the dragonballs to destroy 10 trillion death stars and become a dirt farmer with a different last name, because some ghosts nod their head. Somehow her 10 trillion fans are back alive, her dog gets a medal and Lanpedo starts an inappropriate relationship.
10/10

A skiffy story with great visuals, some moral and philosophical questions, and some romance for good measure. And a few nits that stood out -- nits of the sort that always bother me. First, there would have been no call for the automated announcement about the slingshot maneuver around that sun since there would have been no reason for the original programmers to think that anyone would be awake to see it. If the writers and director were committed to showing those visuals to the audience, then they should have just let Aurora and Jim discover the event for themselves as it occurred. Second, pretty much everything about that tree was wrong, from the water questions to the potential issues if and when its roots broke through the deck and all kinds of things in-between. Third, probably not a good idea to put your reactor plant at the front end of your ship, where it will take the brunt of any ramming damage. Fourth, a complete lack of logic behind the turning-around question. All things being equal, if it takes X amount of time to get from A to B, then it should only take X amount of time to return from B to A. Even a slow turn that takes a week to execute is nothing in relative terms in a scenario like this one. And lastly, given how much must have been spent on building the ship as a whole, would it have killed the money people to splurge and include more than one autodoc for a crew of 258, as we're told at the outset? While I'm willing to accept the fact that there was no reason to expect problems with the 5,000 hibernation pods, any engineer worth his or her degree would insist on better redundancies and a backup plan or two in case something did go wrong as it did here. In any case, nits aside, the primary four actors here and the visuals and the underlying story itself were all strong enough to survive those nits, with plenty of room to spare.

I'm listening to the soundtrack right now to put me in the mood, which the OST is actually pretty darn good.

I think this movie frustrated me more than anything. There was so much fucking potential with the concept, and some of this movie does work, but most of the time, it comes off as generic Hollywood bullshit. When this movie does work, it works really well.
There's this one scene early on where, let me explain:

Chris Pratt's character has been awake by himself for almost a year now, and he's had enough of living alone, knowing he's just going to wait around to die. There's actually a very effective emotional scene where he gets into the airlock without a spacesuit on, and is about to open the airlock to kill himself. The music and the emotion on Pratt's face actually got to me, I don't know why.

The whole idea of being alone on a ship, doomed to live the rest of your life on it alone, is a fantastic idea. It's a great concept that could have so much to explore, the meaning of life, the importance of a partner, the possibilities of heartbreaking stories and lessons that could tapped into with this movie... and it doesn't amount to much. They take this great concept that could really talk about the meaning of life and could've been one of the best movies of 2016, ends up being butchered by studio executives, given a 150 million dollar budget to add action scenes, and a standard Hollywood romance story that's dumbed down for American audiences.
It really makes me sad, because there very brilliant glimpses of intrigue and worth-while storytelling, but that's all they were, glimpses. I wish this was more of an independent production, so a small group could actually flesh out some meaningful ideas with this idea.

They even have an 88 years later recap and a pop song for the end credits... fucking fantastic. When it does work, it works. The music is great and there are some well-done scenes, but it makes me more unhappy than happy. I want to love this movie, but I can't.

Well...
Instead of reading reviews, the best thing to do is just go and watch it
I didn't find it REALLY good, but I enjoyed it nonetheless !
the main problem (sorry) are the actors... especially Jennifer Lawrence ! Don't go watch it if you want a serious SF movie !
I didn't count the number of times there were "sexy" shots on her body, but at the end I was like "come on ! Not again !"
Also for physics friends, the director made quite a good job ! Of course, there are some flaws but there is a lot of actual physical content, so the ship, the technology and everything is not pure imagination (or wandering).
also I'm still wondering some things, like why is there only a single medical pod or bartender for 5200+ people ? Why there is still a need for propulsion when you keep at 50% of light speed ? What a glass preventing humans from being roasted by a fusion reactor is made of ? How strong Chris Pratt really is to make an amount of force equivalent to the force with which he got ejected by the energy of that reactor, simply by throwing a door ?
Finally, the music is fair and the design is good, the only big problem here is too much romance but hey, that's what people want now ¯_(ツ)_/¯

Warfare and gender politics (plus musical numbers and pet dragons) around imperial China in this Disney-fied adaptation of an old eastern fable. It's flashy and well-produced, with a strong female lead and up-front morals, but the plot seems too convenient and there's very little life outside the spotlight's bright glare. Funny, that last point, as Disney's always been so thorough about granting attention to the little details in their better preceding efforts.

Mulan is just fine. The animation is fluid and smooth, a crisp blend of classic western style and traditional Chinese décor that brims with character while paying service to a stiffer, more respect-driven society. The plot, up-tempo but shallow, hits its important points and changes the scenery before younger minds have a chance to wander. Singing and dancing cartoons aren't really my thing, but the tunes in Mulan are aurally inoffensive, at least, and kept rather short and utilitarian. I didn't hate anything, but I also didn't love anything... it was all just there. Yep, that looks like a Disney movie. Yep, that's the bad guy. Yep, there's the cursory romance. I appreciate the envelope-pushing hinted by the premise, encouragement to challenge the status quo if you find it unjust, but the film's conviction to see that message through adversity seems shaky at best. Even Eddie Murphy's comic relief side character, the aforementioned cat-sized dragon, doesn't get much to do.

The ideas are good, the animation is top-notch, the music is tolerable, but the big picture stuff is half-baked and the window-dressings are shockingly bland.

I want to like it, but the writing has become so bad that it's sometimes soap opera level.
How can there even be a single person who thinks Tokyo would be a good leader? She fucked up so many times already and has no good qualities for a leader.
How can they just perform lung surgery on someone in the middle of a bank?
The scene where they all draw weapons at each other was interesting once, but it happened so many times now that I just roll my eyes. It feels like such a cheap attempt at being cool.
That bull scene was so... awkward? What the hell was that about. The professor is already in danger. Why did the writers add a bull as an attempt to make it more dangerous??? I'm so lost.
Why the hell would they let Arturio donate blood? Tie him up properly and throw him in a closet or something. He's always trying to stir up shit. Can the characters please learn that? Why would they ever trust him or even keep talking to him. And don't get me started on that pointless Monica drama - She should have known by now that they can all be violent.

If there are still people complaining about the second season not being here and the first one only having 13 episodes: The original Spanish series currently (June 2018) has 15 episodes (part 1: 9 episodes, part 2: 6 episodes), each episode being 70 minutes long! That‘s what you‘re seeing here. Netflix made 40-55 minute episodes out of them, resulting in 13 episodes for the first part and 9 episodes for the second part, so that’s 22 episodes overall. A little confusing, but everything is right in Trakt.tv. There are 15 episodes in the spanisch release and 22 episodes in the Netflix release. And it‘s two parts in Netflix, not two seasons (yet).

The first 9 episodes aired in spain are the first 13 episodes in Netflix and the last 6 episodes aired in spain as a second part, are also the second part in Netflix, but with 9 episodes. It’s that simple ;)

And for those of you being like „Fix it!“ ... Trakt.TV pulls data from other databases (TMDB, TVDB), so that‘s where data comes from. Those databases are community driven, so if there actually would be an error, you could fix it yourself. But there isn‘t, so everything‘s fine! :)

Right intentions, but rather awful execution.

I'll start off by saying I do believe the intentions of the filmmakers were positive. There are undoubtedly minors being exposed to similar themes to that of the film, so it's imperative that people - particularly parents - are made aware of this.

With that said, 'Cuties' goes about it in entirely the wrong way. The message, which does become clear at the end, is to stop the exploitation of children - yet here they are doing just that. There are scenes and/or camera angles that simply should not have been filmed and shown. There is no need for certain shots.

More should've been left for the viewer to work out, as opposed to shoving it into our faces and therefore practically doing what they are criticising. For example, they could've zoomed away at particular points or got an extreme close up of the characters' eyes when they were doing sexualised things.

For what it's worth, I will say I respect the performance of lead Fathia Youssouf (Amy) - I felt a fair amount of emotion from her at certain points. None of the other cast members stick out in my memory, though none produce anything negative.

I've spent a long time thinking about how I was going to word my review, much longer than I usually would at least. It's slightly tricky as, as mentioned, I do believe it intended to do the right thing. Unfortunately though, it ends up - in my eyes - doing what it's trying to say is bad.

There are some extreme thoughts on this film, not all of which are right in my opinion. However, as said, it isn't a good watch - even if only judging on film merits.

An immigrant child in a new school battling hormones and her mother's Senegalese traditions tries so hard to fit in she breaks.

Cuties / Mignonnes is everything but cute. It's rough, hard, brutal, tragic and very real. Director Maïmouna Doucouré paints the gut wrenching portrait of the young lady and the clique she's dying to enter with sensitivity, soul and a touch of magical realism that mark the reader like a dark tattoo.

Amy is a complex character (terrifically written by Doucouré and played to a T by Fathia Youssouf) because in the same instant she elicits our sympathy, our anger and our disgust. She makes all the wrong decisions for all the right reasons and because for an 11-year-old on the threshold of puberty, there is only right now and desires that blind them from seeing any consequences of their actions.

As for the ridiculous controversy launched by those who haven't seen the film and fueled by blind ignorance: I find it interesting that people will criticize a female woman of color for directing a film based on her personal experiences, whereas when Woody Allen makes a film about young women throwing themselves at older men, he's hailed as a genius.

Shame on those who shame someone for trying to tell their story. Cinema is meant to be a stage for sharing, not an arena for executing artists we judge despite knowing nothing about them or their art.

Vesemir says "It feels like bullsh*t now" and it is an apt summary of this episode. It had totally nothing to do with the plot of Sapkowski's novels, which the show is allegedly based upon. Instead of taking the events from the book and transferring them to the screen, the showrunners decided to tell their own story about the witcher. If only it was a good story like it is the case with the games, but no, they had to invent some awful plot with the ancient evil witch Voleth whom nobody ever heard about in the novels, who posseses Ciri so that she turns wicked and starts murdering witchers and teleporting monsters from other sphere to Kaer Morhen so that they could kill more witchers. Vesemir and other witchers want to kill the possessed Ciri but Geralt believes he may help her come back and free herself from the possession. Meanwhile, the real Ciri is in a sort of vision of Cintra where she is happy and both her parents are alive, a vision supposedly created by the witch Voleth so that she can continue to possess Ciri's body as Ciri does not want to come back to the real world. Yennefer sacrifices her life to save Ciri and become a new vessel for the witch, but after Ciri is freed from possession, she uses her magic to teleport the witch back to her world, where she apparently possesses the wild hunt. Back at Kaer Morhen, it appears that Yennefer regained her magic because she was ready to die for Ciri -> this is how the showrunners solve problems which would not have existed at all had they stuck to the source material. It is nice that Geralt, Yennefer and Ciri are now a small patchwork family and the mage and the witcher would work together to protect Ciri, as it should have been the case from the beginning, without any this evil!Yennefer plot twist. Another small plus of the episode is that Phillipa is finally shown, she looks good with her clothing including some owl elements. Francesca went evil and started to kill children with her magic, later the elves captured Istredd who told them about Ciri's elder blood to save his life. So many political factions are now looking for Ciri. Meve is shown in the council of the Brotherhood with the kings and she suggests that Ciri is better dead than alive, Tissaia and others plan to capture and kill her, which I don't think was the case in the books, since in one of the volumes Ciri goes with Yennefer to become a student of Aretuza, so the sorceresses were not definitely intending to hunt and kill her like it is suggested in the show. And at the very end of the episode, the showrunners decided to reveal the identity of the emperor Emhyr, something that is not explained in the books until the last volume! I have no idea what they intended to achieve by doing that, spoiling the books for the viewers who have not read them yet. Ciri herself as well as Geralt and Yennefer learn about Ciri's father at the end of the last volume in the saga, in a very emotional scene which would never be possible to be shown in the series due to the stupid decisions of the showrunners.

This actually is an overall decent finale. The tense in Camina's fleet is good. The Rocinante battle is good. Naomi's rescue is good. The reveal on the end was also good. However there's one reason that makes the episode feels like a jumble of choppily edited scenes: everything involving Alex's death.

I don't take issue with it being sudden and abrupt, as many deaths are. But everyone feels really disconnected from that one incident that should have affected at least all the main casts. Alex just died, but Holden and Naomi spent their time to listen to Naomi's supposed farewell (and spent minutes on it). Amos was more eager to bring Peaches instead of mourning his close friend; even worse he was only informed about Alex's death off screen. For a fellow Martian and somebody who has spent quite a time with Alex, Bobbie seems largely unaffected at all. And Alex, well... The only tribute they gave to this incident is a plaque, which makes for some emotional moment, but that's it. Heck, that part where Holden talked to Naomi to rekindle the events almost feels like Holden breaking the fourth wall to explain to viewers due to how abrupt it is handled.

It almost feels like the event is not supposed to happen, and the showrunners edited in last minutes.

This season has been nothing but a Naomi season that leads to a reunion of Rocinante crew. That incident stuck like a sore thumb, making the supposedly joyful event with all crews gathering feels really emotionally detached. Not to mention that, barring the reveal at the end, most events still happen off screen. Just like most things that happened this season. We don't get to see the impact of something big happening.

So despite being an overall decent episode, this finale closes the relatively most mediocre season The Expanse has produced. I'd even say that the quality is even lower than Season 4. The first four episodes were nice, but it went downhill and stagnated really fast.

I was reading through the comments and was surprised that some people think Otis is trash this season... Literally the party scene was the only one where he did wrong so far. He's been dealing with his mom and Jakob's relationship (+ Jakob's personality), Ola, Maeve, his own and other people's sex-related problems for a long time - who wouldn't explode at some point?
Just like how Jackson had enough of one of his mother's dictatorship and almost broke down (well, technically with the self-harm he already did) and how Eric stood up face-to-face to Adam and told him his honest thoughts (yaaas, so proud! I was actually afraid that he would change his mind and back down, but I'm so glad that there's a character in existence who doesn't choose the "bad guy" bully at the end!). These characters had enough too, yet I don't see anyone bashing them. And Otis has/had a lot more on his plate than these two.

I'm conflicted about Maeve now. Last time I wrote that they're basically soulmates with Otis, and I really thought that... but then Isaac came, and now I'm kinda rooting for him? But I'm also rooting for Maeve just concentrating on herself? And also rooting for Otis to apologize and speak to Maeve about his feelings while he's sober?
Since Maeve and Otis are 2 of the 3 main characters, and almost the whole SE1 was about them starting to like each other, I guess they'll end up together, but it wouldn't be a first of this show to give things a twist and pair Maeve up with Isaac.

Jackson and Viv are getting closer, yaay! I mean, that was a strong gut feeling right from their first meeting, but it's still nice to see Viv starting to care more about Jackson (and vice versa), little by little.

Finally, I saw it in full length - before I saw just parts of it. And that's the biggest problem with this movie, the length.

It starts with the script, which tells everything and everything three times - e.g. we see who is the true murder, but there is a conversation which tells us this again. And it goes to the pace of the acting, everything is told slowly. The actors speaking like bubble gum. I like to have an editors cut, thightened it up. This story is just not a 3 hour story, it is not the godfather! I assume that Stephen King had a big involvement in it, which doesn't help a movie in my experience. (One of the best "Stephen King movies" - The Shining - had no involvement whatsoever and when he did his version it was a big failure.)

The acting was good. Especially, Rockwell and Hutchinson were great. Unfortunately, Duncan's role as Coffey consisted of 90% crying. Which is a failure by the director and screenwriter using the most boring and easiest way to tell.

The movie was not able to get me emotionally involved - only Hutchinson's role got me - everything and everyone else I didn't care. After 3 hours I was exhausted and happy the movie was over. (And again, the movie ended but it was not over, it goes back to the current time and tells another story and someone else has to die, and the mouse has to reappear - what a boring mess.)

These supposedly "emotional" death scenes are a huge miss for me this season! I mean, you could tell from Gunhild's speech in the last episode that she was grieving and depressed, saying that since Bjorn is gone, she can't go back to just a being a woman with no future, although she was a badass shield maiden long before Bjorn but it's ok we'll jot that to the depression talking. So it was expected that she will probably kill herself rather than marry Harald but the way it was done just wasn't that impactful for me. She went up, stripped down, went for a little swim, and then drowned herself. I mean, can you even reach Valhalla this way??

As for Ubbe's storyline, we started by seeing this intense fight between Kettil's family and the others and then suddenly Ubbe and the rest decide to start running for their life (were they outnumbered? Coz it didn't seem like it) and I thought they were just gonna retreat but no, they went into full panic mood, got into the boats, and sailed away... The camera then pans to Ketill's family where there was like only a couple of people remaining!! Did they have to leave in such a hurry? I don't get it!

On the other hand, Ivar and Igor's relationship was truly well done. Igor said previously that Ivar saved his life, but in reality, Igor also made a better man out of Ivar. He truly changed as stated by Hvisterk in the end.

I really enjoyed it upon my first viewing. But once I started thinking about the plot, the characters and the world, I felt worse. And before you read any further, let me just say, don't watch this show. Because you might either like it (which hurts me) or you might hate it (which hurts you). I like it but acknowledge its flaws. If it wasn't the sequel to Avatar: The Last Airbender, it would've held up a lot better.

Introduction

Unlike most of my friends, I watched the Legend of Korra after Avatar: The Last Airbender and the Avatar comics. The comics allowed me to settle into Korra's world helped me jump into this new world. I had really low expectations coming into this show, after being warned not to watch it by a good friend. But I was pleasantly surprised. I enjoyed it.

The illustrations and background art had improved. Its aspect ratio wasn't square. And I enjoyed myself (most of the time) throughout. Amon was compelling and looked badass. Unalaq was cool (before he turned evil). Zaheer is the best villain in the entire series. Kuvira seemed really contrived.

The Seasons

Season 1 took a while to get anywhere, and I'd give it a 4/10. It was up until the end, where Korra pulls off a deus ex machina and Amon is made less compelling, which left a bad taste in my mouth. [spoiler] If Amon was kept as a non-bender [/spoiler], he would've been my favourite villain hands-down. But he's a [spoiler] blood blender [/spoiler] who breaks the rules (and he's not the only one) and the non-bender revolution is made less compelling. [spoiler] I did feel sorry and sad when he and Tarrlok died though. [/spoiler] That was really emotional.

Season 2 started off okay. The first half was really compelling: two water-tribes put against each other, on the verge of civil war. Korra wants to learn more about the spiritual side of bending and Unalaq seems like the guy to teach it to her. But then we are introduced to Avatar Wan, who I thought was pretty cool at first until I started thinking into it more and realising how much it changes in the Avatar lore. If this show was by itself and didn't have ATLA behind it, even if it was better, this sequence would've been awesome. But it's not. It retcons everything known about bending. The spirit world is shown way too much and suddenly loses its intrigue and mystery. [spoiler] We're shown the origins of the Avatar, but all of a sudden, the Avatar doesn't seem like some all-time all-powerful being who has always been there for humanity and the spirits. We just see some punk kid who protects things because he thinks it's right (and who lets off chaos and darkness into the world). Finally, Raava and Vaatu. They look like carpets and are supposed to represent Yin and Yang (yet we had the Moon and Ocean spirit for that) and one represents "light and peace" while the other embodies "darkness and chaos". All of a sudden, spirits (and people) are either good or evil. And by letting Vaatu loose into the world, Raava starts to shrink. Why doesn't Vaatu shrink? How come he can turn spirits "dark" but Raava can't turn the "light"? Then Korra pulls off another deus ex machina: she becomes a giant spirit person and shoots a laser at Unavaatu. Also, Unalaq is evil and wants to become the first "Dark Avatar". [/spoiler]

4/10 It had potential.

Season 3 was cool. There's one scene where I actually found that Korra was a likable character. Tenzin tries his best to bring back the air nomads and we get to journey to the Earth Kingdom. But, the reason the airbenders have returned is that Korra left these "spirit portals" open. Which created "change" in the world, which also included bringing back the airbenders. Forget about the trauma and time it takes to heal the scars of war! Just open that spirit portal! Aang should've just opened those portals and he could've gotten started earlier! But here's the thing, Zaheer is the best villain in this series. He wants to bring about anarchy (which is a terrible idea, btw) and wants to remove the Avatar (for some reason he tried to kill Korra when she was young, which is pretty messed up). But here's the twist, he's one of those new airbenders! But instead of just making him some dude who discovers airbending, it turns out he's been studying air nomad philosophy for a long time. That's pretty cool. Compared to the other airbenders (except for Tenzin), Zaheer acts the most like an air nomad. And in the end, he has a plan to kill Korra while removing the Avatar cycle forever. Damn.

6/10 This season kills the least amount of brain cells.

Season 4 started off well but got progressively worse. [spoiler] Kuvira has been tasked with reuniting the Earth Kingdom after Zaheer killed the Earth Queen. We first meet her, giving an Earth Kingdom town food and supplies, but she threatens the mayor because he almost refused to sign the paper. Then, important people (I can't remember, Raiko, Tenzin and Sue?) said Kuvira was doing all of these cliche dictator things, but we're never shown it. We only see her help that town. She doesn't seem very evil. Then we see her threaten a group of Earthbenders who attack her, and it's framed to make her look bad, but really, they attacked her and she's been helping plenty of people. So...? In the end, Kuvira cuts off some "spirit vine" from the swamp (from ATLA) and gets Varrick to make a laser out of it by harnessing its energy? Then, when Kuvira declares she's bad and marches towards Republic City, it's with a giant (Voltron) mech, equipped with the spirit-vine-laser-cannon! Korra wins, democracy wins, the end.

4/10 Season 1 was better.

Characters

The only characters I care about is Tenzin, Varrick, and Zhu Li. Bolin was funny sometimes, but it's only because he's stupid. Unlike Sokka (ATLA), who actually has depth, is a character and goes through a compelling character arc. Korra has so many flaws/weaknesses that render her unlikable. She's hot-headed, stubborn, disrespectful and highly sensitive. She never takes responsibility for her actions, she gets a lot handed to her and her problems solve themselves. This show isn't more mature than ATLA but it does try to be edgier. The genocide of Aang's people and the dystopia of Ba Sing Se was pretty dark for a kid's show and wasn't there just to be dark and edgy. Why did I need to see the Earth Queen suffocate to death? Asami is a plot-device. Mako becomes boring after the stupid love-triangle in Season 1, and only really stays to look cool, follow Bolin and more love-triangle crap.

Animation

The animation in this show is appalling. It has nice illustrations, not animation. If you go frame by frame, you'll see this studio's laziness. You might also remember some creepy/disturbing shots (when Ikki discloses Korra's crush on Mako to Asami, or when she's being held captive in Season 3). I like the character designs and illustrations. The linework is phenomenal. But the animation itself is lacking. And the fact they added too much detail to their characters so they couldn't animate make each style of bending distinct, was sad. It kind of makes sense in-universe since they've been relying more on technology and less on bending. But come on!

TL:DR

TL;DR: Korra has no redeemable qualities. She might be flawed, but all her problems get solved for her. Does she have any strengths? Most of the villains are stupid. The illustrations are nice, not the animation. Tenzin, Varrick and Zhu Li are cool. This show isn't darker but it tries to be edgier. This show takes different elements of ATLA and make them less compelling. Watch ATLA, it's the original and it's better.

TLOK got rid of Aaron Ehasz and didn't even bother to find a replacement. This show still beats M. Night's The Last Airbender.

4.75/10

A decent follow up to the first series, I didn't find it as thought provoking and at points the plot can be a little linear. Some episodes merely act merely as filler, it feels like this could have been condensed into a theatrical length film. Visually beautiful with some good ideas, by far the stars of the show are Simone Missick who plays the interesting cyberpunk hacker/bounty hunter with one foot in the action and another trying to balance her commitments to family and the absolutely fabulous Chris Conner.

Exploring the fragmentation of Poe makes him feel only so much more human, a trait which unfortunately is lacking in leads Anthony Mackie and Renee. I understand this is a point the show is trying to make, the humans who have experienced lifetimes of memories and have moved from sleeve to sleeve are potentially less human than their AI counterparts but this just means we don't feel as invested in our lead two. The big reveal of the elders follows a fairly standard execution of aliens in sci-fi, the mystery disappears and unfortunately what could have been a deep dive into an alien culture is brought short abruptly with flashy fight sequences.

Enjoyable enough for any sci-fi/cyberpunk fans.

Lacks story and consistency. Sure you can say you don't watch this movie because of the story but only because of the action. But in my eyes the first two parts are clearly superior to the third one. John Wick was "a man of focus", all of is actions had a certain goal and were inherently consistent. Not so in this part, John is left as a confused old man without any clear path to follow, he's straying around, grasping each straw, using up all favors that several people in the world owe him, one after the other, leaving only scorched earth and loads of dead corpses (as of course expected).

Although, John is not always aware of the consequences of his actions (e.g. when refusing the marker in part 2) and in his fighting behaves like an instinctively controlled predator, he has is moments of great foresight and strategy (planting weapons used during the escape after killing Gianna, or consider the many stashs filled with weapons, coins and personal belongings). I really hope John will find his focus again in part 4 otherwise it will space out into the dull shoot-out which the movie, when viewed objectively, actually is.

Not sure why this franchise gets so much hype.
This particular installment has nothing that makes me go: wow, great action movie.
That's not because there's no action in it. Quite the opposite, yet the action is just dumb.

The dialogues are stupid. There's basically no story whatsoever, no plot other than "John Wick survives the most absurd stuff".
It's very often quite absurd without being selfaware - with a few exceptions, like the opening knife fight. That was entertaining in its hilarious absurdity. That was the only thing entertaining, though.
Fight choreographies are ridicolous overall. You can see the "enemy" actors holding their position, arms, legs, ect. for Keanu to do his part instead of reacting to the actual fight. Most of the time they are simply way too passive.
Maybe that's more of an issue with the cut, though.
Weapons are conveniently unlimited ammo when (film)shots need it, while in other situations Wick loads for example a shotgun with two round but can fire like 5-7 times. Overly brutal killings of enemies with headshots when they are already down. Usually with surprisingly atrocius CGI gunfire. The opening knife fight? CGI and gummy knives everywhere.
This movie is just more of the same without any merits. It goes the same direction as the Underworld franchise.
Just that this movie is quite nonsenical all around in addition. And for what? A fourth installment, of course!
The only good thing for the 4th movie is Wick working with King to bring down this assassin's guild as it seems. That seems to be at least some plot to be had in the future.

season 1: good adaptation of a good book. great casting. 8/10

season 2: massive drop in quality. many character arcs butchered. at least the broader strokes are fairly accurately adapted. 6/10

season 3: bad adaptational choices continue but generally the character arcs are better. 7/10

season 4: the material being adapted is the best so far but the adaptational choices are the worst as well. 6/10

season 5: why. why would they adapt two of the most complex books in the series in 1 season. everything is rushed and terrible. jon's story is the best of these but it's still vastly inferior to the book. some truly baffling adaptational choices here. 3/10

season 6: on the surface this is a step-up in quality... but this season feels incredibly artificial. there is so much fanservice crammed in here that it's borderline offensive. this show doesn't resemble george's story anymore. this is an incredibly overrated season. relies on "wow!! cool moment" to mask how fucking vacuous it is. 4/10

season 7: lmao what the fuck is this. this is awful. this is bad fan fiction. absolutely shameful. 1/10

season 8: one good episode. at least we got the broad strokes of the ending if george never finishes asoiaf. funny how people only started noticing the show's problems in the final season. seriously? it's been bad for 4 seasons and season 7 was worse. something tells me that people are just angry they didn't get the fanservice ending they wanted. not that im gonna defend this season, its terrible, but its better than season 7 at least. 2/10