Everyone else has already praised the ambition, realism and cinematography of this show. For me, what I especially like about this series is that in just two seasons, so much has happened.
SO many twists and turns, so many characters have come and gone, and story arcs that would have taken entire seasons in lesser shows happen here each episode.
The story never feels contrived, it's never forced and never lingers in complacency.
To everyone struggling with the slow start of the first few episodes - It gets so much better!
Also, the casting - it's damn perfect I tell you.
Some of the best episodes and plot developments ever - for a casual and random Sunday morning animated show at least. Also, better than the Simpsons. But damn, that last season was completely dry and almost pointless (except for the last episode).
I'm not too sad they stopped the show, for it's had a great run and you can only do so much before it gets stale.
A little (way) over the top, and I'm not sure if it is canon anymore (or if it ever was) now with the introduction of the Clone Wars animated series (that I haven't seen at this point).
It's quite good however - from an animation and cinematography point of view. Much more interesting and enjoyable than the clusterfuck prequel movies themselves and quite possibly my favorite piece of Star Wars fiction so far.
Shit goddamn. Okay that was some good television.
Reminded me a lot of "Sieranevada" (2016).
It seems astonishing that the MCU universe has now managed better world-building, character arcs as well as plant and payoff reveals than fucking Game of Thrones at this point.
Ok that was some pretty damn good television.
Somewhat of a better watch than it's predecessor, probably because of the better pacing afforded by the extra actions scenes and the satisfying closure (to some extent) of the story.
Probably the best ever screening of the classic Frank Herbert story, but still not there in terms of capturing the magic and feel of the original book. I think.
Still kind of flat, lifeless and wooden as most Villeneuve flicks.
Probably one of the first classic episodes.
Being able to relate to George is probably not a good thing.
Gdamn Elaine looks so cute in that oversized shirt.
Jesus fucking christ.
The movie itself is nothing groundbreaking- it's actually kind of thinly made for a documentary and leans perhaps a bit too much on emotions for my taste.
But being exposed to the details of this persons plight and struggle literally filled me with dread and anger as I was watching.
It's absurd. How can one of the biggest contemporary artists be reduced to a child with no personal rights and be transformed into a money making machine selflessly filling the pockets of the few people that were supposed to protect her?
How could the American legal system let that piece of shit father of hers completely destroy her life like that in front of our eyes?
Also what the fuck was her mother doing through all of this exactly?
PS - that Adnan guy actually seemed to be the most decent person out of all of the bunch.
I know that this show isn't meant to be realistic, but keeping up the suspension of disbelief is kind of hard when some of the stuff that happens on it is kind of well... dumb.
Things like Butcher finding another safehouse at his drug dealer aunt that nobody thought about checking out before, Black Noir spending the better part of an afternoon on a roof and then doing a cartoon cop out over "some pictures" or the fact that everyone still has money to pay for food and gas somehow while "living off the grid" in some random basement for the past few episodes
Especially when some of the other stuff (like the social commentary on showbusiness, american politics as well as the shitty state of modern humanity in general) are all pretty great.
I'm... not sure I like this. I like the setting and the premise, but the characters seem a bit formulaic and the tension feels forced and artificial. I guess I'll see.
I'm not sure I want to watch this any further.
I mean sure, the maladjusted sociopaths of the elite rich are people too. They have everyday struggles, personal slaves and their own hopes and dreams just like the rest of us, sure.
But I don't give a shit.
I'm not rooting for any of the characters. I'm neither enthralled nor am I having any fun really.
Well, it's getting somewhat better. Things seems to be settling into a rhythm again.
The show is at it's best in fun little set pieces: Steve and Dustin still seem like a lot of fun and pairing Nance and Robin seems cool. Lucas harming others while trying to fit in is a bit of a stretch, but also a somewhat believable slippery slope.
I don't care for Eleven since season 1 and Hopper should be dead already, it's ridiculous. Dope head Jonathan is annoying and useless.
Also a lot of dumb Hollywood-summer-blockbuster-over-the-top-buildup at the end for some reason:
"This evil, it's like a virus. It just keeps coming back stronger." Are they talking about the Netflix execs that demand the Duffer brothers churn out more half-assed episodes of this show?
Ok, I did not see that coming. That was a proper plant.
Great period piece, great setting and soundtrack. Only kind of a bit aimless though.
It seems to me like Paul Thomas Anderson was more concerned to make a movie about a favorite topic than to tell a story. There are no arcs, characters face consequences for their actions somewhat arbitrarily and the ending is a somewhat an undeserved happy ending.
Great cast, even though Mark Whalberg has awful screen presence and is about as charismatic as a rubber boot.
A good watch, but nothing exactly groundbreaking
A cinematic spectacle, yet somehow flat and lifeless.
Like most of Villeneuve's projects, it's missing something to truly make it memorable.
Improves on subsequent views.
Much like the rest of Ridley Scott's other historical dramas: an ambitious, grandiose and satisfying cinematic experience, but quite a bit dumbed down for the average viewer's entertainment and thoroughly offensive if/once you know the historical subtext.
Also Orlando Bloom with one of the performances ever.
Meh.
Denis Villeneuve on par for the course.
Breathtaking cinematography, brooding atmosphere, hamfisted dialogue. Plot feels disjointed and flat, scenes have no weight, characters lack arcs or human qualities.
Entire scenes go by one after another and you get lost wondering if a random detail is important to the story or just there to make the characters look cool or something.
You could argue that is just the way that book was written, but I've seen this in everything I've watched from Villeneuve.
Some damn good casting though - I suspect everyone in Hollywood wants to get involved in one of the few big filmmaker projects remaining - It's either this or Marvel movies these days.
Did not impress me in any way, but it's a good (yet overhyped) movie. Will see part 2 and will probably remain the best version of Dune put on screen.
One of the more interesting, high stakes episodes so far and I genuinely did not see the plot twist coming.
But having Geillis be a 1968 Jacobite supporter madly in love with Dougal over their mutual love for 18th century royalty makes 0 fucking sense.
Oh jeez, the series was great but they really should have toned it down a bit with the cringy fairytale ending.
By the end eeeverybody has to take their turn and declare their unconditional adoration for the Mary-Sue of the series:
- Townes (despite years of no contact and overall lack of relevancy at this point in the story?)
- the grizzled russian chess veteran (despite playing her only once?)
- Billy (despite him rightfully telling her to fuck off previously)
- Beltik (despite her previously refusing his help and him being some random Kentucky store manager and a washed up ex-regional champion way over his head at this point)
- the twins, for some reason - what are they even doing in Billy's basement offering advice in a game way above their level? (do they even know any of the other people in that room? Who invited them? Why does the US chess champion have to rely on phoned in advice from some random friends while playing for the world title in the first place?)
- Borgov (who is inexplicably happy for her despite the fact that his loss is a huge upset not just for him, but the entire cold-war era soviet bloc)
- throw in some random old men on the street in Moscow beacuse why not
By the end I was surprised her adoptive father didn't chip in and call her in Russia to admit teary eyed that he was wrong and Beth is "the greatest person that ever lived" or something.
Like the others haver said, the presentation is shallow, dumbed down and clickbaity but the movies themselves (and their stories) still hold up and offer some good watching.
I really, really wanted to like this movie.
The subject matter is insufficiently explored by modern cinema and the more honest conversations we have on this topic, the better.
But this ain't it, chief.
Beyond the limited cinematography (which isn't necessarily the movie's fault since the play it's based on takes place in only one apartment - and that's kind of the point) the characters are also a bit too one-dimensional for a atmospheric drama and the scenes end up being corny instead of impactful.
Darren Aronofsky kind of has this tendency to push everything over the top and here it kind of turns into shock value schlock at times.
It didn't seem to help his cause that what he had to work with was apparently a high schooler's-level-of-depth-attempt at a essay about life, depression, regret and morbid obesity.
Kind of an interesting/unusual setting but the series' disregard for traditional tropes and plot structure means that 30 min go by and you barely understand wtf is going on.
Also all the characters seem a bit too much like pretentious caricatures of themselves.
Ugh.
- Why were they keeping around a deranged supervillian kid as an orderly and why were they letting him interact with the other potential child superheroes?
- How exactly did that chip keep him from manifesting his powers? Isn't that like critical information to stop other gifted kids gone rogue in the future? Would that chip/thing/whatever work on a demogorgon/mind flayer? Why couldn't he just rip it out of his neck himself?
- why does everyone keep wanting to have Nancy get back together with Steve? Pandering to the kiddie audience or something?
- we're never getting away from that dumb Russia subplot until the very last episode, aren't we?
- Hopper and Joyce are CRINGE
De-aging CGI is getting pretty good overall I'd say.
Useless Russia sub-plot is useless.
I feel the big baddie has been revealed far too early and his design kind of looks comical now.
Uh, for fucks sake.
First of all, the show suffers greatly from having its characters age too much in between seasons. They certainly aren't cute innocent little kids anymore, and this kind of changes the appeal (and premise) of the show, while making some of the lack in acting talent all the while more evident. It makes the show less enjoyable.
(Meanwhile Winona Ryder hasn't skipped a beat in the last 2 years on still being fucking weird on/off screen and hard to take seriously as an actress).
None of this is something the showrunners could have controlled for the most part. But even so, everything else about the show is still kind of shit though.
Hopper's plot is stupid and cringey, Eleven's plot is stupid and cringey. I get what they're trying to do with the horror aspect, but it's just sudden, out of left field for this show and kind of dumb in execution.
Season 3 sort of wrapped up everything nicely but Hawkins still continues being the poltergeist indian burial ground combined with twilight zone 24/7 for some reason. Will is ...well, comically gay all of a sudden. I could go on.
The premise outstayed it's welcome and the story barely makes sense anymore. The aesthetics and soundtrack still hold up, but that's about it for season 4 of Stranger Things, it seems.
Bart is kind of a piece of shit.
Not bad at all.
Some of the things it's trying to do kind of fall flat and end up being confusing (I don't even know what to make of the supernatural elements), but it's a pretty stylish and interesting watch.
