D&D have done it again! (created a disappointment)
While the Tencent adaptation had some flaws, notably very poor pacing and some downright bizarre acting and editing, I think it was an overall better experience. Netflix cut the runtime significantly, which could have been an improvement, but they did it to the point of skipping several important developments in the story. Yet, they found ways to waste precious minutes on scenes that dragged on longer than they should have, some of which didn't add anything to the story. It's only because I watched the Tencent adaptation that I was able to appreciate some of the ideas in the Netflix adaptation, since I knew what they were covering in spite of the skipped story beats. If I hadn't, I'd either feel like I was just watching a series of spoilers, or be confused about the point of it all.
Many positive reviews are downplaying negative ones for being pedantic and expecting a direct adaptation from the books, but this is feels reductionist and disingenuous. I think it's fine to diverge from the source material, but it should be done thoughtfully. In my opinion, the Netflix adaptation fails on its own merits. Some of the changes seem to be done in the interest of simplification, but this introduces plot holes, some of which must have been done against the recommendation of scientific advisors on staff. For example, I don't think the sophon was capable of unfolding itself (Trisolaris spent an unfathomable amount of time and energy building them), yet in this adaptation the sophon does it on a whim just to create a menacing eye in the sky? Why not just starve the planet of sunlight then and finish the story right there? Originally, the eye was observed during a failed Trisolaran unfolding attempt, alluding to a sentient threat gaining access to our universe from another dimension.
Tencent gave the viewer many episodes to theory-craft why "physics doesn't exist", what the motive could be for targeting scientists, who or what could be behind it, the purpose behind the game and so forth. The characters slowly whittled down the possibilities and eventually unveiled the truth. The show drip fed information to the viewer through the eyes of the characters which often became relevant much later, such as the flying blade. It went into philosophical thought experiments that conveyed the existential dread of the situation, like the turkey scientist and the farmer. It also covered several interesting physics concepts in a way that was easy to process and yet showed respect to the viewer.
Netflix? Nah, it's aliens bro, it's right there in the trailer on YouTube. There's no respect for the viewer, so there's no attempt made to even cover concepts like cosmic background radiation. It did cover a few at least, like FTL communication with entangled sophon pairs, the staircase project, etc. Netflix did also foreshadow some concepts that do come later in the books, sometimes with just novel covers shown on screen, some in dialogue, such as the Fermi Paradox and the Wallfacer project.
I believe the Oxford Five were created to be more relatable to the viewer than Wang Miao, but I think this again shows little respect for the viewer. They achieved this in part in the laziest way possible, such as having many of them just curse in every scene. I don't think it's necessary to relate to every character, and it can certainly be done in ways beyond superficial means like gender and race like what was attempted here. The story is about the science of it all, the universe, and this extends beyond the lifespan of a single person who likes to go drinking at a bar with friends. Most of us aren't top-tier scientists, we're not going to think like Oppenheimer or Feynman, this is fine. I found my immersion broken at several points when I saw the protagonists succumbing to irrational ways of thinking. To be a successful academic at such a high level would likely entail some core beliefs about the world and ways of thinking that wouldn't come off as people reading emotional lines off a script.
Is this D&D adaptation as bad as GoT S8? Definitely not. It's several points better, but the bar is pretty low. There were some redeeming moments, a few funny lines in almost every episode, I particularly liked some parts of the last one.
I do think it can still be worth a watch. However, I highly recommend starting with the Tencent adaptation, or reading the books first. Those are more of a journey, whereas this comes off more as a poorly written fan wiki with spoilers. I think this version can really rob you of the awe inspiring ideas in the source material and Chinese adaptation. My hope is that some people will find this version interesting enough to delve into the source material.
I thought this would be one of those shows that got better if I had patience, but it really didn't by the end of season 1. Maybe I'll have to watch season 2, but I get the feeling this show just isn't for me. Maybe I would've enjoyed it more if I read the books or played the games, but I'm way less interested in that now considering how the show went.
The timelines weren't too confusing once I realized what was happening, but it seemed unnecessary as there didn't seem to be any payoff or reason to tell the story that way. Other shows doing the same thing were much more satisfying when things fell into place, and it usually delivered plot points in a meaningful way. I understand certain characters not aging, but the bard, queen, etc. must all have some kind of secret magical background yet to be revealed since they didn't age either. It's hardly the biggest flaw of the show, though.
I laughed at some scenes that were supposed to be serious, like Borch falling to his "death" and his voice as a dragon, some fights, etc. I don't understand the romance between Geralt and Yennefer. I thought maybe their relationship would develop in the earlier timeline and I'd find out why he thought she's amazing, but nothing like that happened.
There is pretty much no character development for anyone other than Yennefer, but even in her case some of it didn't seem believable or I must have missed something. Geralt was fine, especially with the "Hmm" and "Fuck" memes. The bard's relationship to Geralt was fun. The action sequences were alright. None of that is really enough to praise the show for though.
People comparing The Witcher to Game of Thrones must be comparing it to season 7. It's not bad enough to deserve comparisons with season 8, but it's certainly not as good as the first half of the show when it had an actual writer's content to work from.
I started The Witcher right after binge watching The Dragon Prince, an animated series with an age rating of 7+. You'd think it wouldn't make sense to compare them, but The Dragon Prince is better in pretty much every aspect except the number of tits. It has many similar elements like animosity between humans and elves, fantasy creatures like dragons, in-fighting among humans, "good" and "bad" magic, etc. The plot is interesting and has a direction with good use of foreshadowing, characters progress and develop through their experiences, have reasonable motives, and even the romance was more believable and powerful. The comedy was also much better, even though that's more subjective. I'm looking forward to season 4 of The Dragon Prince way more than season 2 of The Witcher.
Out of all the fan theories that circulated over the years, you would be hard pressed to find one that was dumber and more disappointing than what the actual final season turned out to be. You would be better off watching Cats the movie in its place, because then you would at least be able to laugh and cringe rather than feel immeasurable disappointment and emptiness.
If you can stop yourself from watching the entire show, you might do well watching seasons one through seven and picking your favourite fan theory to close out the series. Truthfully, even seasons five, six and seven were weaker than the first half of the show, but at the time it seemed forgivable because of the show's strong beginning and the expectation that everything would tie together nicely at the end.
Those foolish enough to watch to the end will be faced with an experience similar to the five stages of grief and loss as they make their way through the final episodes. Denial that this episode is actually part of the series and not an out of season April Fool's joke. Anger that you let yourself get so invested in this show after refusing to get on the bandwagon for so many years. Bargaining, that these were fake episodes to "subvert your expectations", or that the season could be remade. Depression, that this is actually the real thing and it somehow turned out so poorly. Finally, acceptance. Just an empty feeling, no anger or sadness over increasingly stupid and illogical scenes and outcomes. Just coming to terms with this really being the end of the show and this somehow managing to get released.
It comes together about as well as a project finished in the last hour of the last day before a deadline, despite having had vast resources to pull from over the two preceding years. The only remotely redeemable aspect of the final season is the endless amount of hilarious critical reviews and memes that come at its expense.
As for the rating, it would be unfair to give a give a 1 the entire series as a whole because of the incompetence of the writers in the final season. The series did start strong and everyone involved in the project aside from the writers obviously invested a lot of time and quality work into the show. The acting, music composition, cinematography, editing, visual effects, etc. all ranged from great to amazing.
There are going to be more parts and episodes in the final season than the rest of the entire anime. I hope this at least means a unique anime ending, considering the complaints I've heard about the manga. I also hope I live long enough to actually see this through to its end considering the rate we're going at.
Feels like I watched an episode of Star Wars. Why do hundreds of Stormtroopers -- err I mean Anacreonian soldiers with guns completely miss every target except for one stray shot?
Got some really cheesy fighting scenes in this one too, clearly the tremendous effects budget and team couldn't fix this one.
I wish they'd just stick to developing the plot that is being unveiled at glacier speed in a pointlessly convoluted order so I could figure out if I should drop the show. For instance, we were already told what Gaal faced on her home world preceding the events of the story and it felt really washed out because we didn't experience it. Now that some time passed and we just accepted the character's history, we're subjected to a flashback showing us what we already know and it ends up losing almost all of its impact.
I don't watch many war films and usually prefer strong writing over cinematography. This movie seems to be an exception for me. While the plot was simple, it didn't come off as silly or insignificant. Even though I don't know much about cinematography, I still found myself admiring it through all the continuous shots. Somewhat paradoxically, it shows a very ugly world in a beautiful way. There's also a sense of futility and meaninglessness, particular in Blake's death.
In my opinion, this movie is best enjoyed without reading a synopsis and with no expectations going in.
I haven't read the original series, so I'm coming into this with no specific expectations other than wanting the show to be good.
Five episodes in and it's not looking like this show is going to be particularly great. Sunk cost fallacy has set in and I might try a couple more episodes in case the show picks up steam late into the season, but I'd be surprised.
The effects and cinematography are pretty stunning, but I tend to care less about that than the writing which is nothing remarkable. The fifth episode had some cheesy choreography and an army of Stormtroopers who collectively couldn't hit a broad side of a barn.
The timelines aren't exceptionally confusing, but the story keeps jumping back and forth in time including flashbacks for no compelling reason. In some cases we are just expected to accept some kind of event like Gaal's back story only to get the long version later on with no emotional payoff.
Not sure if it's just me, but this season has been disappointing by comparison to the rest of the show. One or two decent episodes, a few funny moments, but it just feels like they've lost their passion for this project.
In this episode we watch Carol try to undo in a single episode all the good she did in the previous seasons. She also seems to have completely forgotten about her biological daughter.
You'll be lucky to see any of it though because the lighting team was inspired by Game of Thrones S08E03: The Long Night
It's been years since I finished the series, but as I remember it, the writing for the villains was this series' strongest feature. Most had believable motives and weren't just power hungry or evil for evil's sake. I found myself for rooting for characters like Amon and Zaheer far more than I did for Korra.
The show faced many hurdles with its uncertain future, possible cancellation and online-only release, so this may have played a role in some of its shortcomings. It seems clear to me that the creators wanted to push the envelope and flip all the previous tropes upside down, but at times it came at the cost of believability. I found Korra to be an unlikable character in general, even with the personal growth that came out of her traumatic experiences. Many of the other characters feel like soulless copies of archetypes that were successful from A:TLA, with nowhere near the same level of complexity or development as they had.
Aside from the characters, season 2 in particular seemed to make a real mess of things. The Avatar origin story was interesting and reasonably well done, but the Power Rangers style spirit battle at the end was just kind of stupid.
If you liked Avatar: The Last Airbender, then you're more likely to enjoy The Dragon Prince, which I find to be the true spiritual successor. It still tackles some sociopolitical issues and doesn't play it safe with subject matter, but it does it in a much more enjoyable and believable way.
I was surprised to hear recommendations for an Adam Sandler movie so I checked this out.
I want to say the movie is objectively good, but perhaps not enjoyable, depending on your mindset. To be fair, I think I've also enjoyed movies that were objectively bad, so I think it isn't a contradiction. I've seen a lot of movies and shows ranging all over the emotional spectrum; some made me sad, some angry, some happy, but I think this is the first one that made me feel stressed out. Even though Sandler's character isn't particularly relatable or likable, and a lot of things he experiences are deserved, I still feel pain for him.
Maybe my bad luck just helps me relate to the idea of things going wrong any time I try to do something or the situation getting more complicated any time I try to solve a problem. There's isn't really a happy ending either, so it doesn't leave me feeling too hopeful or optimistic either.
I was hoping this would be a hilarious disaster like The Room, but it turned out to just be boring. The creepy CGI and movements were fun for a few minutes before I gave up on the movie. Might be worth a watch for people who like musicals, unfortunately that's not me.
You know those shows within shows that are supposed to be a joke and really absurd? Like the stuff playing in the background of Rick and Morty with improv'd lines, or something in Family Guy? This show is what happens when you turn that into a full live-action TV series. It's okay for a few laughs if you're watching it with others.
I wasn't convinced the show would be good from some clips I saw on YouTube but gave it a shot anyway. It has ended up being one of my favourite comedies so far, but it's hard to explain why. It's kind of like The Office, but with more creative freedom to play with the supernatural.
The characters are all hilarious in their own ways, but my favourite has to be the energy vampire Colin Robinson portrayed by Mark Proksch, basically playing as himself. Watching the others doing Q&A panels can be kind of awkward and painful, but it's evident that Mark is a comedic genius. Season 2 of the show also has a crazy amount of surprising cameos as well.
I gave the movie a watch as well since its popularity is what led to the existence of this show, and I'm probably in the minority when I say that I think the show is much better. The movie was alright, but it just doesn't seem like my style of humour, maybe it's just too smart for me.
As of season 3's completion, the show is in an overall good spot. It seems to be increasingly common that HBO shows have an incredible start and then soil the bed in writing quality (Game of Thrones) as the show goes on. Westworld is one of those shows that you really have to pay close attention to, and might be best enjoyed checking out some analyses and reviews on YouTube or Reddit.
Season 1 was top tier. Some people might argue it's boring, but I'd say it has an incredibly good script and production quality. There's no BS, everything seems well planned out and there's plenty of foreshadowing and hinting very early on about the direction the show is going in.
Season 2 was too convoluted for me. I struggled to follow along and by the end I was expecting some massive reveals and things to come together the way they did in season 1. Instead, I was left confused and disappointed, really having no clue what happened. The only thing that had me come back to season 3 is sunk cost fallacy. Maybe this season was just too smart for me, but I figure that it's probably too smart for most viewers. I would guess a large part of it comes down to the messing around with multiple concurrent timelines and spaces for seemingly no meaningful reason other than to make things appear more mystical. It could be that I just don't remember the season well enough at this point.
Season 3, while not as good as season 1, definitely redeemed the show for me and after the mess of season 2. I'm back to being interested and excited for season 4. The universe expands in this season and touches on some real concerns relating to futurism like superintelligent AI, determinism, data privacy, etc. It had a bit of a silly start, particularly with the cameo of Drogon and the idiot D&D twins Benioff and Weiss immediately followed by Stubbs chasing down a small troop of armed guards with a rubber axe. I took this as a sign that Season 3 was going down the toilet, but luckily I was wrong. The writing doesn't mess much with timelines, but does include some scenes within simulations which are given away by their letterboxing. It's not as confusing as season 2 but is still dense with hinting information. The production quality is amazing if that's something you care about, probably one of the best portrayals of futuristic tech I've seen. The action scenes are cool, but I think sacrifice believability for suspense. There are many scenes I was left wondering "Why didn't you just shoot him/her, what are you waiting for?!", "Why did you just do that?!", but it's a small part and doesn't ruin the show.
Joker was enjoyable, especially considering I've taken a liking to serialized TV shows over movies because of the complexity they support. I'm personally not a fan of the unreliable narrator style of storytelling, since it's an easy answer to any inconsistencies in the story. The movie does a good job of creating a believable origin story for the Joker. The end of the movie sets up a somewhat different character than Heath Ledger's Joker, which so far has been my favourite. I'm not very familiar with the source material so it's hard for me to tell which Joker is most accurate.
I thought the interview with Murray at the end of the film resembled the viral interview of Joaquin Phoenix with David Letterman. I'm not sure if that was an intended easter egg or just me reading too much into it. For whatever reason, I found the random outbursts of laughter kind of funny. It worked in the context of the character and his story though, so no complaints.
As a bonus, there's commentary about mental health and how poorly it's handled by society, without it being an overpowering part of the film or forced down your throat.
Great choreography and production quality meets terrible story.
Season 1 of The Mandalorian started out reasonably well, had a weak middle and finished off reasonably well again.
The show is probably best watched with the understanding that it's part of the Star Wars franchise, and thus is going to be somewhat simple, fun and have predictable outcomes. The show is not going to impress you with complex character development or shocking plot twists, and might even crumble a bit if you look too closely at some parts.
Still, it's enjoyable for what it is, especially if you like the Star Wars universe. You can certainly do worse with other shows and movies within the franchise.
Probably dropping this one after two episodes, it's hard to commit to finishing it when there's other good stuff to watch. I don't find the subject matter offensive like some others and think Jojo Rabbit is proof you can mix comedy and dark history successfully. Maybe it's just the plot and lack of internal consistency that bothers me. Maybe it's the comic book style segments, but I've seen that done elsewhere in a way that worked.
Finally got around to watching this movie and anyone would really love it. It felt like a weak revenge story with a thin plot, kind of like John Wick, which had essentially no plot. The cinematography and acting were great, Tom Hardy in particular nailed it. The movie kind of dragged on at times, especially when Glass encountered his n'th punishment from nature. At times it felt like David Attenborough should have been narrating the beautiful nature shots, as the majority of the movie amounts to just that.
I started the series because of the good things I heard about the manga source material and Wit Studio's involvement. I didn't care much about vikings and it took me several episodes to warm up to the series. After a while, I realized the story was going somewhere meaningful and started to love the plot and character development. With the market being saturated with shonen like MHA, it's a breath of fresh air to get something new with a complex and unpredictable story. Be warned that you might spoil yourself if you take to Wikipedia and read about some of the historical events the anime is based on. This is an easy recommendation from me and it's probably one of my favourites.
So far the plot isn't very imaginative, and most of the characters aren't very complex. Bakugo was probably the only one with a surprising twist.
The quirks and fights can be creative and fun, and if that's all you want this show is pretty good. If you want more then you can probably do better, like Vinland Saga.
The show is a bit of a brain teaser and it can be hard to remember the characters and their relationships. It's a great show to watch if you like to analyze a story and its characters. It's probably not a good show to watch if you're looking for mind numbing content that's easy to watch while half asleep.
The production quality and acting are great. The writing is phenomenal considering the complexity involved, and how many other shows screw up similar themes. The end of season 2 opens up season 3 to even increased complexity, which runs the risk of the writers making a mess of things. Still, they've done a great job so far so if anyone is going to do it right, it's probably them.
You'd think that this show is just a cheap attempt to cash in on a beloved movie and fans' nostalgia, but like me, you'd be wrong. I started watching out of curiosity, just to see how bad and cringeworthy the show could be, but it completely surprised me by how good it was.
The writers managed to flip The Karate Kid's good guys and bad guys dynamic around. The characters seem like real, relatable people now. They managed to retroactively fit in a backstory for Johnny that makes you sympathize with him and understand why he acted the way he did in The Karate Kid. He has some fantastic character development, and it's fun watching him struggle through a politically correct world after growing up with such a macho and masculine identity.
The show has plenty of corny scenes too, but they're done tastefully. The show is self aware and a lot of those scenes are done as an homage to the original movie.
Hilarious, quotable and rewatchable. Other movies try to be funny and fail to make you laugh, this one makes you laugh without trying. Other movies are forgettable with equally incoherent scripts but hide it behind huge budgets spent on production quality and A-list actors. You know exactly what you're getting with this movie, you'll never forget it and enjoy it so much more.