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Ahsoka: Part Four: Fallen Jedi (2023)
Getting better...
This was a very solid episode.
The light saber duel between Ahsoka and Baylan was impressive. Ahsoka fighting style is well conceived. To be fair, the duels here are much better than in other shows, even considering Sabine nonsensical recover from episode one to episode two.
There is no change in the story, that is indeed pretty obvious, but the pace that this story is unfolding is pretty nice and the show's aesthetic is excellent.
The acting is also pretty good. Dawson and Stevenson are well casted and very comfortable.
Ahsoka is far from Andor (best star wars show by far) and don't has Mando's highlights, but is more consistent than Mando's (has no fillers) and Obi-Wan.
The Witcher (2019)
Incompetence at the highest level.
Netflix should fire producers, directors and writers.
01. The inclusion of people of color was poorly planned. I'm not against it, but you can do it more carefully, even to preserve actors who end up being attacked for doing their job. For example, they could have made all the elves people of color, even putting an interesting social critique in it while having relevant roles ended up being destined for people of color. This carelessness is made worse by the fact that it is a Slavic story, which could and should involve Slavic actors, who also have little space in the film industry.
02. There is a lot of racism in the criticism against actors who are physically different from how their characters are presented in books and games, but several cases of miscasting only makes it worse. A good example of this is Anya Chalotra, the female protagonist, whose character in the games looks like Eva Green/Alexandra Daddario, but which Chalotra - a good actress, very beautiful and charismatic - manages to deliver. There's a lot less complaining about her, even though she's a leading lady, because there's much of the character in her and she acts well. In other words: she was well casted...
03. All this fuss would be irrelevant if the writing was good and faithful, but the writing is really bad and strays from the source material for no reason.
04. The first season could be much better. The following ones should stick to Witcher 3 stories. Reinvent a story with millions of fans is not only disrespectful: it is stupidity and incompetence at the highest level.
05. I could believe that this fiasco is due to prejudice against video game stories, but Amazon did the same with Tolkien, whose quality is absolutely indisputable. Netflix could have made a lot of money and delivered a product of artistic value. But no...
Fire these incompetents and start over in a year or two. Stop hurting the material.
Todo Dia a Mesma Noite (2023)
Great acting
This is a show about one of the biggest tragedies of Brazilian history.
The production is on par with regular Netflix European productions. The writing and the pace are fine.
The acting is amazing. The actors that are playing the parents did a great job, making the pain tangible, dense, real. Gabriela Munhoz, the Fire Department Capitain, was impressive. Leonardo Medeiros, the father from Sao Paulo, is mesmerizing. Debora Lamm and Thelmo Fernandes, both cariocas (from Rio) nailed the gaucho accent, wich could easily became exaggerated. And it was delightful to watch Bianca Byington being perfect as an upper class countryside gaucha.
There are scenes that broke the viewers' hearts.
A little spoiler as an example: the fire happened oh the ceilings, most of the people died because of the toxic smoke, not because of the fire... so, when the firemen reach the the bathroom, after the fire is controlled, they saw the floor covered by bodies, and all the cellphones were ringing... the families were trying to reach theirs kids.
9/10
Now, a remark is needed: no one ended up in jail... the trial was annulled because rookie mistakes by the judge and the prossecutors. This whole part end up off the show, probably because would be a torture to watch. To end without an end. About that, we can only imagine how painful this lack of response was for the families...
Alien: Covenant (2017)
Space explorers behaving like slasher movie campers...
This movie premise is excellent, the central plot either. The visual is stunning, as usual. The casting is solid. The problem, as others posted before, is the behavior of the explorers, acting without fallowing any protocol, without any care or even any self-preservation instincts, and this is something that hurts the movie a lot.
There was no need for them to enter the planet without suits, even if the atmosphere was breathable - the chance of strange pathogens should put them to verify samples before this. This rubbish plot line result in two creep deaths that doesn't change the course of the movie, because the night would bring the plot twist anyway, because aliens would attack the crew and the mysterious host would save them anyway.
After they reach the place where most of the movie happens, their inability to survive is reinforced, because they split the group in the most brainless slasher movie style, and result become pretty obvious.
In the end, different people in power keep deciding in a way that put the whole colonizing ship in peril and the mysteries from Prometheus aren't solve.
This movie is far worse than Prometheus. Prometheus was better than the third and the fourth. The path for a movie as good as the first two was open, but the result is Covenant, that is the worst of the six. It's look like a Alien v Predator movie with better production. What a shame.
The Batman (2022)
Year One, The Killing Joke and The Long Halloween
It is easy to understand that many people do not like this movie that much, because it is not a easy movie. But the claims about disruption from the source material are unfair and nonsensical. The most acclaimed Batman comic books in the last 50 years were procedural, dark, depressing, claustrophobic and sad. You can dislike this, but be coherent and admit that Year One, The Killing Joke and The Long Halloween are not for you too.
I really enjoyed the movie. I put it right beside the classic movies of Burton and Nolan, far away from the Schumacher's "radio friendly" movies with Clooney and Kilmer.
The casting deserves prize. I really dislike Kravitz, but she did a good job, even working in the shadows of Oscar winning actresses. Dano was a safe bet and delivered an ultimate Riddler. Torturo and Farrel are amazing, Wright also. Even small parts like Sarsgaard DA are amazing. But Pattinson, who I really dislike, is the hidden gem. Reeves approach took from us the three persona Batman (Batman, Bruce and the real person) that Keaton and Bale delivered so well in the past. No one will do a Bruce better than Bale (the restaurant scene on TDK is amazing) but Pattinson is the best Batman on suit by far in my opinion. Pattinson and Reeves (camera is important here) delivered a masked hero that can be extremely expressive in mask, that moves like the Batman from the comics and carry a touching pain with him.
The light and the core are also explendid.
Like I said in the beginning, is not a easy film and it is not for everyone - but the worst Batman movies are the ones that Schumacher made for everyone.
A person could be annoyed by pace, lightning an the depressive mood, but I am sorry to say: this is Batman. Even in the epic-grandiose scorsese-pacing Nolan movies, Batman was a broken person. The amazing surreal Burton approach also delivered the same sadness and grid. Even the videogames of the last 15 years are grid, dark and depressing. Batman is pain.
So again, is perfectly fine to dislike the movie, but is untrue and unfair to depicted it as something that departed from the source material. The animated versions of the classics I mentioned in the title are all available on HBO streaming service. Go see Year One: sad, procedural, depressing and dark...
In the end, Reeves delivered the closest approach from the source material to this day, and it's ironic that "die hard" fans are criticizing him for this...
The Last Kingdom: Episode #5.4 (2022)
Millie Brady shines...
TLK is a solid show. This season lacks the norse terrifying antagonist, like Ubba, Skade, Skorpa, Cnut and the brothers from Norway. Brida and Stiorra's husband did not deliver the needed tension... but the season justified itself in this episode, because Millie Brady delivered a great performance. She was always good, but this is her season, she stole the show from the beginning of this season and performed imensely well on this episode. She is great and I wish see her more.
The Witcher: Family (2021)
Poor result considering the source material...
This is not a claim for purity, for faithful use of the source material or anything like that. My point here is a bit different... Besides the fact that the writers had several books, games and other materials, they simply spent a whole season with new arch and plots... that would be fine by me if their writing was better than the source, or at least equal in quality... but this is not the case.... even worst: the original material has solid character development and the history archs all have a proper closure.... those new arch and plots those writers gave us really doesn't seems to have pra possible proper closure, and clearly were implemented by the price of loose character coherence...
So I repeat: it is not a question of respect or about fidelity in relation to the source material, but about how those changes made by the writers are poor when compared to the source....
I gave 3 stars only because Cavil is clearly.
Cobra Kai (2018)
Good 1st season / weak 2nd / atrocious 3rd
I rarely write a review. Most of the time the ratings give you enough information on IMDb.
But sometimes we need to warn the others about shows that start good, then get worst and in the end you really wanted that someone have told you before when to stop.
That's my humble goal here giving my impressions and avoiding spoilers.
I gave up on season's 3 episode 8.
First season is a solid 8 of 10 and I strongly recommend it. Is a little juvenile and contains a lot of cliches but in the end is something really enjoyable, that not only pays respect to its source, but also give it more layers and have excellent pace and casting.
On the second season, the show starts to have too much (absurd) twists and (over the top) wrong decisions, and then you start to get annoyed by the level of unrealism and finnaly the characters start to loose their cores - which is the the final blow here. 2nd season can't reach a 6 of 10.
On the third season those problems only going on, getting bigger and bigger, until the show is pretty unwatchable. There is no enjoyment anymore, because you are too distracted about nonsensical alliances between kids that hate each other an year ago; because police is never there, and it's the same with parents; because grown-ups don't act as grown-ups, none of them, since the "normal adults" doesn't go to the police and none of the "crazy adults" use guns, even after they get beaten or threatened; because school teachers are showed as clueless and unprepared. I doubt the last two episodes of the 3rd season can't help it to get a 4 of 10 after all I saw. There is no way back from that mess.
In the end, the show is a 5 of 10 overall. I praise and recommend the first season. I really don't recommend the second. Stay away from the 3rd one...
Elysium (2013)
This is already happening
Excellent visual and good acting. Yes, this movie should've had a better pace, but nothing that could've damaged its real value. The simple truth is that Blomkamp has something important to say and he knows what he is talking about and how to film it.
I read people here saying the story is just too extreme, unreal...
Please...
Overpopulation is real as the hypocrisy about birth control. Poverty and inequality are rampant. Fascism is spreading fast... Waves of miserable people are dying trying to enter not only Europe and North America, but even Brazil!!! Brazil, that has more homicides than half of the world together...
Truth is that countries like Brazil, Mexico and South Africa are already organized in the "condo" logic that Elysium denounced. The fact that some people denied this reality is the reason why this movie is so relevant. People should read Locke again and try hard to understand that unjustified extreme inequality breaks the system. That should be no mystery, since French and Russian revolutions were just about that... But if this mystery still remains, Blomkamp is fully justified and needed.
Of course the movie isn't just the message. There are excellent filming and good acting. Luna, Braga, Moura and Copley know exactly what they are doing. Those characters, that violence and despair, it is all real and they saw that on their homelands...
That's why Damon is so good, because he really jump on and find the main line: despair. The same despair of the people that dye trying to reach a country where they maybe will have access to primary goods.
The Punisher (2017)
It's not bad, but it's not the punisher...
I understand that the Punisher is not easy to adapt to the big screen...
You need a lot of action, but you need to develop the main character, and 120 minutes isn't enough to do that...
Lundgreen's movie, 30 years ago, was a mess.
Warzone was just bloodshed.
Thomas Jane movie wasn't that good, but at least the punisher's modus operandi was really showed... He prepared himself, planned the attack in every detail, anticipated every move from his opponents and then he crushed them with cold blood and cruelty.
Netflix understood the spirit of the Punisher and had time and money... 13 episodes!!!
The result is not bad, but it's not the punisher...
The military background is a lazy way to explain why he is so good, something needless with 13 episodes per season... Worst: all military combat trauma and companionship is there too... Most of the time, holding the main character punish business or just making the show boring and too slow...
The main actor do a good job, but his Castle is much more like Rambo or Wolverine than the Punisher... It's certainly not his fault, since the script clear show us a new version of the Punisher.
He isn't cold and strategic, he is aggressive and careless. He isn't cruel and distant, he is feral and collapsing...
For better understanding: the punisher entered a hotel room, and instead of shoot the guy he was looking forward, who was gun pointing a friend of him, he crossed the room and jumped to took a shoot in way to protect his friend...
After this kind of "this is not the punisher" routine, with little action and a lot of cheap drama dialogs, the show ended its first season with a confused Castle, that looks ready to go to some nice small town and look for a fresh new life...
This is certainly not the punisher, who would be already in Detroit getting info about the organized crime and planning his new cleaning job...
In the end, punisher is about our insane human adaptability and how dangerous is someone who has nothing to loose.
After loosing everything, Castle find a substitute for his former life in a endless vendetta, not more against the killers of his family, but against the structures that create those people. He has no other agenda. He has nothing to look back. He is not careless because he want to kill everyone capable of killing a whole family, and that's why he planned his actions: he wants to live another day to punish again...
You will not find this guy here...
You will find just a broken supersoldier seeking the superiors who fooled and backstabbed him...
The "villain" is also not the organized crime, but the State...
To understand how far this is from.the original material, we can just think about Daredevil not being tormented, humane, angry and a lawyer, and his nemesis aren't the mobster, but the EPA who is covering environmental crimes...
The Sinner (2017)
Very Good
This is a solid show. The story development is very competent, far from predictable. Some people criticized the pace. It is indeed slow, but this is clear an option, not an accident. Some people criticized the acting. This is unfair. Pullman is solid and Biel is almost perfect showing us a repressed and traumatized woman. The support cast is very good in general, especially Jacob Pitts, who show a talent I'd never imagined he had. Some people complained about some strong content. Without showing the life that brings someone to kill other person, a crime story becomes shallow. And this is the highest point of this show: the story behind the crime. The script is far from predictable. The slow pace is instrumental to get us in the position of the investigator, asking ourselves: "What's happening here? Why did she kill that random guy?" To ask those questions properly, the show put together a puzzle that makes complete sense: there is always a tragedy behind extreme violence. It's never unmotivated. Usually, The killer is broken. Know why is a far more complex and interesting that know how it happens. This show has a focus in the "why". In the end, some of the monsters we were seeking are just like Biel's character: broken people trying to survive a tragedy. Very good show.
Defying Gravity (2009)
Nice ideas, poor execution.
Defying Gravity is nice. The problem is that today we have a lot of very good options... But not that much on science fiction, so if you are looking for the genre maybe you gonna be satisfied. The show have good ideas, is focused on character development and use time lines very well. The problem is the poor execution. Visual effects do not ruin the show, but are very simple. The lack of resources for better effects create some problems with physics and chemistry. But the biggest problem is the casting and the dialogues. The actors are good, but many of them are misplaced. Ron Livingston is an excellent actor, but his character is lame and just don't fit him. Laura Harris try hard, but her character is supposed to be a little insecure and she simply don't deliver it, working much better when she need to show confidence. Also, the idea behind the dialogues are always fine, but the dialogues never work. I don't know if the actors improvise too much or too little, but it end up sounded artificial. But even a modest Sci-Fi is rare to find, so if you like the genre you can bet on this one.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Innocence (1998)
Whedon's Overture
Buffy is a teenager "fantasy" series, with several research flaws, incoherent battle-plots - like old 007 movies - and grown-ups portraying teenagers - Charisma was 11 years older than her character. So, was it bad? Far from that. I watched when I was nineteen - my ex-girlfriend loved -, and I'm watching again now, almost two decades later. Today I watched "Innocence" again, and from the perspective gained by what Whedon became, turns out easy to see this episode as an overture of his fine career as screenwriter, a truly announcement of his capacity. Until this point, the series were much more pure entertainment with some character development than anything else, but suddenly Whedon brings every element about his characters and take BTVS to a new level. If someone went from the beginning to this episode, become very difficult to step away from the series. Whedon made his characters absolutely real after this one. Buffy's anxiety and deception were perfect - and Geller was amazing. Same thing with Williow, and Hannigan's work. Xander and Cordy interaction start to change, and Oz bring new elements to the group. At the end, Giles said the only thing you can say to a teenager: he chooses not to punish someone, but not to justify either, in a supportive way, being friendly without being a friend, in a perfect comprehension of his fathering role in the life of Buffy. Also, Buffy gets her best birthday present ever, and a memorable scene happens. Watching "Innocence" made me understand how this episode and another one from Firefly were important to the quality change in TV series. This kind of character development would appear again in the first season of Heroes, in Lost, in House, in Breaking Bad... Together with Hurwitz and J. J. Abrams, Whedom is one of the big names of the last 20 years in TV.
Battlestar Galactica (2004)
Very good start, terrible finale.
This was originally an answer to a post, but I end doing almost a review. A review I wish I had read before I started to watch BSG. So, if you are in the middle of season two or three, and start having doubts about being loosing your time, STOP NOW! The show only gets worst, and then it finally ruin the excellent first season... ... For now on, ONLY READ IF YOU ALREADY ENDED THE SHOW - or if you are really decided about stop watching it. ... I am not a radical. I am not a teenager. I am 36 years old. Also not a geek, or have a job that put me into some "nerd environment". I am a lawyer. Also not a fan of the original. ... I simply finished the new BSG and because of it I hate Ron Moore. The show was very strong in the first season, and in the second half of the second season. But seasons 3 and 4 made me regret a lot for wasting my time on the show... (an exception about "Razor", that is only there to remember what was good in the first season).
I saw a little bit of the original show. The main idea is brilliant, but the show is a regular cold-war-time naive and plain with bad visual effects. The tree cylons inside the fighters are extremely laughable! ... I think the new BSG had a lot of good ideas, like using real bullets, not laser, using humanoid cylons, using robot fighters without an absolutely unnecessary robot pilot inside. There were also good character working and good episodes... ... But when the third season come, became clear that Mr. Moore hadn't wrote, or even thought about, how he should fulfill 4 seasons! Many subplots were useless and started to compromise the identity of the characters, loosing here the highest point of the series. Someone who really didn't saw Lee and Baltar deformation during the two last seasons, or is passionate about the show and is blind to any flaw, or think is just fine to the possibility of an hypocrite, selfish and atheist become a spiritual leader, and still, when was convenient to any subplot, become again the same guy: hypocrite, selfish and atheist... Clearly there wasn't material for four seasons, and by doing that, Ron Moore compromising BSG's strongest points, and keep the old bad ones with the new awful ones... New Caprica: bad move. Lampkin: Was he supposed to be clever??? Majority of the characters stop their regular development and just start develop new personalities, which come and go with the subplots. Gaeta revolution: PATHETIC! People that fought not only beside Anders, but under his command, both in Caprica and New Caprica resistance, just wanna end him! This is ridiculous. The regular reaction to this kind of situation is the Adama/Tigh confront. When people have to thrust their lives one to other in the trench, any kind of irrational hate is put behind. Any racial, religious or ideological hate is gonna be put aside, at least for the guy that was in the trench with you. This is not a supposition, is a fact, based in the history of thousands years of war and how war affect us. So, the Gaeta revolution was the final death of any respect for the characters. Was more probable that Connor, which was in the resistance and later in the "Zarek Circle of Summary Trials" along cylons, shoot himself in the head for do not support the contradiction he was in, than just backstab people that fought on his side. The list of mistakes is endless!!! And only in Gaeta revolution's episodes were sufficient mistakes to sink the show. Like Adama and Roslin, after three seasons of a very discrete flirtation, two VERY reserved people just start showing affection in public. There were only 40.000 people. A small town, away from any other town. They were running for their lives. All the political matter is behind. History show us that intrigue take place when there is a enemy that offer conquest. In that case, there will be always someone interesting in the new government. But when the enemy wants annihilation, he has nothing to offer, so is absurd imaging that people regular behavior will be clearly in opposite direction of the will of survival. There is no way that people would negotiate, or waste time in the face of an annihilator enemy, when it annihilation animus is showed. Without believable motivation, character loose their strength, and without strong characters any show sink. ... The absolute lack of proper motivation killed the show. I saw the first two seasons in less than two weeks! The last two, over six months... I just went to the end because when I was almost giving up, I saw "Razor", between seasons 3 and 4... Bad choice, because the good "Razor" made me saw the season four, and the last season was entirely a punishment... .. The show isn't a total thrash, far from that... But this Ron guy isn't reliable. So, i do not recommend the show to anyone! The season 4 is a huge punishment, is annoying and had compromise the first two seasons like 'Matrix Rev' had compromise Matrix trilogy.