Walking out of Warcraft, the overriding feeling is one of a missed opportunity - this is by no means a disaster and there is plenty of potential here. The scope of the film is impressive and it's clear there is a lot of world-building going on here for future sequels. Part of the problem, however, is there is simply too much plot going on with not enough time devoted to a central thread - the director's admission that some 40 minutes have been cut is not surprising. This is a film that has ambition to be an epic, with many threads introduced to carry over to potential future films and glimpses of many different settings in this new world, but consequently there is a rushed feel to the central plot of this film with not enough time devoted to developing the relationships and motivations of the central characters, Thus plot developments and twists whilst potentially interesting do not have the emotional impact desired making it difficult to really care about what happens. It is a shame because what there is here works surprisingly well - Jones' ambition is to ensure the audience is invested in both sides of the conflict rather than the obvious human side. Perhaps there may well be a future director's cut that restores some much needed character work and slows down the pace a little.
Not quite the "feminist Western" which Netflix seemed to promote it as, but that's fine because it didn't need to be. Godless is a lush and rich Western miniseries which somehow feels fresh while still embodying many tropes of the genre. We have a tired sheriff with an overeager deputy, a band of outlaws seeking revenge and a mysterious stranger on the run. All this happens in and around a town populated almost entirely by (badass) women.
It's to the shows credit that it makes each of these clichés feel unique and interesting. The sheriff is losing his eyesight and is regarded as a coward by the women he's charged with protecting, while simultaneously struggling with feelings of resentment to his own little daughter. The evil outlaw (played superbly by Jeff Daniels) is actually a man capable of incredible compassion and acts of love alongside his brutality. And Whitey, the overeager deputy, turns out to be one of the most enjoyable and unpredictable characters in the whole thing.
But it's the girls of La Belle who do manage to steal a good portion of the show. Maggie is tough as nails and doesn't back down an inch when confronted with male posturing, as well as being engaged in a very natural relationship with Callie. Meanwhile, Alice lives her life exactly on her own terms as she raises her son along with her (awesome) Native American mother-in-law.
Godless is not an action-fest, although when things go down it's extremely satisfying. This is more of a measured story which lets things breathe. The cinematography is absolutely glorious and my jaw dropped at the staging of several scenes. I found it to the show's benefit that we spent so much time just taking things in as my attachment to the characters grew more and more. To give a specific example there's an episode in which a lot of time is spent with horses, and while it doesn't further the plot significantly, it pays off down the line and only allowed me to enjoy the experience all the more.
The cast are uniformly excellent, and it's easy to forget that three of the main characters are Brits. The writing is also of a high quality, and while this is not in the same league as the poetry and magnificence of Deadwood, it's very much going for a different vibe and doing its own thing. This feels more like an epic Western whereas the HBO show had a tighter focus on the comings and goings of the town it was set in.
That's not to say the show is perfect. I'm definitely not the first to notice, but there are a number of plot threads which are introduced but go absolutely nowhere. We meet characters like John Doe who have a mystery set up and then no more is given to us. We don't really get any huge revelations into Bill's past with his wife or situation, and what the Indian and his dog were all about. The (fantastic) German character Martha is only introduced at the very end. And we don't even get a proper explanation as to why Roy betrayed Frank in the first place. It definitely feels to me like there is plenty of room for a continuation, but this appears to be a one-off.
But I absolutely loved Godless. It manages to be incredibly satisfying despite its flaws, is one of the best looking shows you can watch right now and when it kicks off the thrills are absolutely glorious.
Don't Look Up
A beautiful film that manifests the problems of American society (but also Western) on how it is now too caught up in social networks and believing any news that comes out of the mouths of the strong powers, in this case the politicians. It's a film that represents the mirror of truth, and this can piss off: it's no coincidence that in America the film is despised, while in the rest of the world it is appreciated.
You can also see a kind of parallelism with the COVID issue, seeing the comet as the pandemic that affects globally, people who believe the strong powers to people who are against vaccines or do not believe the virus, the various conspiracies, denialism, etc.. The reflection that I asked myself during the vision of the film is "But how far is the reality present in the film with the reality that we are living now?", I answered myself by saying that the two worlds are very similar to each other, and it distressed me.
Regarding the film instead, we have a cast full of important names, two main characters played by an amazing Di Caprio and Lawrence, a well done writing of the film. Perhaps a little too long.
7/10
You can't knock the acting. The premise seems relevant (The majority of this is me confusing Andrew Ross Sorkin with Aaron Sorkin). I don't know if I just need to give it more time or if I'm too well-read about these types of people and financial crash that it's hard to for me to feel hooked. The fantasy of a newsroom that didn't suck in The Newsroom I bought. An idyllic President and complicated staff I went in for with The West Wing. Watching rich people spend money and debate numbers and a sort of dreamlike example of a prosecutor to pursue them...I guess it just makes me sad. That's not the shows fault of course, but glorified versions of billionaires that almost celebrates their bad boy getting away with it all maybe hits a little too close to home. I love Damien Lewis after Homeland, but his character I want to burn, and not because he has to work that hard to be hated. I think about Entourage where at least they're childish mockeries of the lavish lifestyle and attitudes and the show could kind of make fun of itself. Or Ballers tends to lean well on the humor to distract from the slackish story. We'll see where it goes.
