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Reviews
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (2022)
Loving it as a LOTR trilogy fan
Just finished season 1. Quick review: I think this show is fantastic.
The score is great - modulations between scenes, everything feels as it should. The visuals are movie-quality, what can we say, every single pixel carefully enters the screen. Cities, nature, everything is gorgeous. The Actors are super solid, can't help but feel empathy for Durin the Dwarf. Overall the production is high up there and surprisingly there are even plot twists.
It will be confusing if you've never seen the movies. Watch the Peter Jackson movies first.
While it's not perfect, but it's way WAY better than what I expected.
We can't wait for season 2.
Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi (2017)
Return of the Prequels (it's that bad)
Lazy Script, Kitsch Festival, Wasted Potential, Under-developped Characters, Bad Humor:
What have I just seen? Is that really the best you can do Disney?
This is so bad. How about you get real script writers instead of your rich talentless friends that have the imagination of a space cow?
Is selling toys the only thing you care about?
I mean we're in prequel territory here: Starts with a meaningless space battle we couldn't care less about, a bad guy that has absolutely no backstory, lame jokes, WTF?!
Wow, just wow. Next time you want a Star Wars story that doesn't suck ask me, it's going to be cheaper and be interesting. Like freaking Luke Skywalker is going to actually do something. There is no words to express how disappointed I am.
Way to kill the franchise. You can't dumb down Star Wars more than that. Anyway it's not worth it anymore.
Even the way the music is used is just to buy our nostalgia.
Cheap scam, now we can't undo this.
Never even going to bother again watching another Star Wars movie.
Star Trek: Discovery: Choose Your Pain (2017)
Not getting better
Seriously I thought it would get better but now we have some officers swearing and unrealistic action scenes.. It's not getting better.
They forgot that Star Trek is supposed to have humor. If they keep going like this season 2 will be like Game of Thrones in space with Star Wars mindless pew pew battles.
It's not all bad, at lot is done well, but it's not what it should be.
Twin Peaks: The Return (2017)
So far so good
Season 3 of Twin Peaks flows in naturally from season 2, as if the 25 years gap between both seasons was always supposed to be that way.
If you were a fan of the original series, then this new season is a must watch so far. I've only seen the first episode (2 hours) so there is still a way to go, but so far so good.
Stylistically it remains true to it's origins, while subtly adapting to the modern times.
The Untold History of the United States (2012)
100 Years of Megalomania
The Untold History of the United States by Oliver Stone is in the most part a condensed analysis of the causes and consequences of the long-term American imperialism plan following WW2.
It briefly covers the atrocities of the other imperialist nations and sets the context for explaining the pivotal moment in history that lead America to present itself as the "police of the world".
It is a must see, it is very well structured and narrated.
The most shocking aspect of American history is the lack of empathy by the American power structure in regards to the millions of death they've caused in other nations since WW2, as well as an apparent lack of justice for American war criminals.
Hitler and Stalin were worse by a huge margin undoubtedly, but this doesn't justify the unjustifiable like Vietnam, Iraq, support of puppet dictators, overthrowing democratically elected governments, arming fanatics, betraying the Geneva convention, lying to the UN, drone bombings of civilians, etc.
It seems that after launching the first atomic bombs the United States of America have been governed by less than brilliant megalomaniacs. Even the wisest and most humanist presidents had little power to stop a long-term military plan for world control.
Rogue One (2016)
4th Best after the Original Trilogy (doesn't mean it's good)
Rogue One is a better movie than The Force Awakens, but not by much.
While The Force Awaken felt like a bad remake of A New Hope, it never felt like it belonged in the same universe, until perhaps the moment when Mark Hamil makes an appearance in a scene that couldn't be more underwhelming. It tried too much to please fans of the original trilogy, it took no risk and everything about it felt artificial and "forced".
Where The Force Awaken failed Rogue One succeed. It fits naturally with the original trilogy and build upon it.
It is not a perfect movie by any means. It follows the same blockbuster simplistic recipe that Hollywood can't seem to avoid since the 1990s. The story arc is as uni-dimensional as you can expect, but at least it's not completely stupid.
At this point Star Wars movies are as kitsch as something can possibly be. An overabundance of references to the original movies almost ruin the entire experience. We can only hope for more original and unique movies in the future in the same universe.
Once again potential romance is underdeveloped, but you can only do so much when the main goal is to squeeze as much action in there as possible. The action is however the movie strong point.
In all, it's a good but small step forward. In my opinion it's the best since the original trilogy, but it still lacks "something". Characters are underdeveloped if not unnecessary. Thankfully it also brings something that "feels" new and that we haven't seen since the original trilogy... Coherence (unbelievable, right?).
Concerning the music, sadly, the few new musical themes are not memorable and follow very conventional harmonic structures. A truly talented composer like Jerry Goldsmith would have done miracles with that visual material.
Visuals are as stunning as you can expect with a budget of that magnitude. Sometimes I wish that the director would take few seconds more to let you breath and observe. CGI actors are really a mistake; it will not age well. I would have preferred new actors with a bit of visual trickery.
Overall I'm still looking much more forward to the following movie by this director if the scenario is more daring.
I'm going to conclude this review by saying that I think it's time for something completely new. Movies shouldn't only be an industry concerned only by profit, they should try to be be art. We need more diverse and audacious science-fiction projects, even if it stays in the same universe.
Is Disney going to take more risk in the future, when it has made profit on their initial investment in the franchise? We can only "hope" so.
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2016)
Not as Good as it Could Have Been
The premise is exciting, the cast is interesting, the scenery is great. But somehow it doesn't hold together really well, or to say differently: it's not better than the Harry Potter movies.
It will be a good TV movie for children to watch, but it's never going to be remembered as great cinema.
It suffers from the same "dryness" as the Harry Potter series. Director David Yates simply has difficulty transmitting the magical world atmosphere in his adaptation of J.K. Rowling's material. Some nice CGI will not make up for conventional editing.
The biggest flaw is the very limited and barely functional usage of music. For long period of times there is no music at all, and if one thing is important in a movie about magic, it's music. It's just stack on under some scenes in a cheap fashion.
Then there is the music itself, that after recycling the Harry Potter theme in the intro disappear into the realm of unimportant art forms. It's just a few orchestral effects here and there, no memorable themes.
David Yates doesn't seem to understand that music is just as important as the images.
In short: The direction in general is way too conventional for a movie about magic. All the costume, set designers and actors did an great job with what they had.
Just wished it had been better.
Juste la fin du monde (2016)
Incredible
I've just seen this in Cinema: it is a remarkable achievement, the humanity in this movie transcend the media form, and it does become pure art in many moments.
It's the first movie by Xavier Dolan that I've seen and it is directed extremely well. I loved all the subtle humour.
Vincent Cassel and Léa Seydoux impressed me the most out of the cast, but they all surpassed themselves.
My only negative about this movie is some of the techno-pop music choices, but it didn't ruin in any way the overall quality of the movie.
This movie deserves to be known internationally. I can already see it winning at the Awards for best foreign film. It would probably win best movie if it was American-made.
Star Trek Beyond (2016)
My favorite Star Trek after the original
I am usually extremely difficult about movies, I am usually a fan of repertoire cinema and modern movies. Yet I was amazed at the quality of the new Star Trek movie.
I thought the scenario, the dialogue and the directing was extremely well done and felt natural.
I like that it was finally a Star Trek that takes its time at the beginning to introduce itself. This IS Star Trek. It is a huge step forward in comparison to the 2 previous ones.
The visuals are completely outstanding. I really liked that you had the time to appreciate it.
My only negative point is that the ending was predictable. It would have been a masterpiece of cinema in my opinion is in the last 30 minutes they would have been able to turn the story upside down. However, the action was really good.
A must see at the cinema, if you're wondering if you should wait to see it in bluray, don't. Just go see it now and get a good seat.
Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens (2015)
The Ultimate Kitsch
To say it was better than the Star Wars prequels isn't saying much. The prequels were a mess in all aspects.
This time Disney plays it safe, too safe. It becomes predictable, from the scenario plagiarized on the first Star Wars movie to every scenes of somewhat emotional signification dipped in the sauce of John Williams old themes. It becomes a well made recipe with the overall artistic depth apparently way down on the priority list.
To say it was a bad movie would be dishonest however. After all without deviating from conventional structures that have been proved to work it is hard to miss the target audience, which at times seems to be more considered as a consumer.
To put it more bluntly, the new Star Wars is the greatest creation of kitsch ever made. It will please millions with it's unparallelled will to please on an emotional level and lack of substance on a deeper artistic level.
The movie starts really well, with some nods to the old movies. These starts to saturate the movie as we get nearer to the end, where instead of upping the scenario up a notch and giving us something really new it all becomes terribly predictable. It's as if the last half of the scenario has been written by the marketing department. This disappointment is somewhat saved by the charisma of actress Daisy Ridley.
Positively, it leaves room for a potentially very good sequel and ruins little on the way. The new characters are welcomed additions. Perhaps because of my low expectations I enjoyed it even if I would have liked something more daring.
People will like it because it pulls the right string; and after all the suffering we had to endure from the lousy prequels we are tempted to rate this movie above what it truly deserves. I feel 7 on 10 is accurate in that regard.
Except that one last thing... Spoiler Alert:
Why kill Han Solo in such a lousy way? Han Solo, if he were to die, should have been as a hero, saving lives, doing something daring and succeeding but failing at saving himself. His death scene was lame and cheap. Considering he's a major character then 1 more point has to be removed from my score therefore I'm gonna rate it a 6. I don't think it's a movie you will want to watch over and over like the old ones principally because of mistakes like the last scene of Solo.
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012)
Horrible soundtrack ruins movie
Well this is a deception: Not even 10 minutes in and you have already been bombarded with all the musical themes of Lord of the Ring - unchanged, not re-harmonized and not re-orchestrated either. From that point on I thought to myself "can they really be that cheap?". Are they in it only for the money? This is a different movie after all, shouldn't it deserve it's own soundtrack considering we're going to be feed 9 hours of that stuff...
More comments about the music: The soundtrack here is lame, even by the low standards of the movie industry. How about a chord inversion from time to time? The only new theme here is just bad and lacks originality. The rest is taken from Lord of the Ring, it's not even modulated (a tone below would have been appropriate for a prelude, along with an inversion of the harmonic polarities or a modulation to the relative modes) nor transformed slightly. The orchestration is just as rudimentary, a if out of a 75 musicians orchestra the composer, with all his energy, is only able to achieve a total of 4 or 5 colours.
We get it, a minor third and a fourth, 4 horns in unison, V-VII-I in minor; it's all it takes to get out the cash out of the musically-uncultured customer. Where is the sophistication? Why is there no "Hobbit themes"?
General comments: So yeah, the music ruined it for me, if you wish to get a review about the "amazing script" (some even dare call this a masterpiece) please read the following or preceding reviews.
Frankly, it's still Jackson's fault, it's the usual mistake "good" directors will make - to take the popular named music composer, where the really great directors like Paul Thomas Anderson will have a real control over the final result (or perhaps the term is critical judgment).
For me it's nothing more than what you can expect from the trailers. Too much CGI, scenes that are twice too long, but a nice cinematography - the later which justify a 6.
Overall: This movie cannot stand on it's own and relies way too much on the Lord of the Ring success.
Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999)
Pain beyond belief
If you see this movie, even with the lowest expectation, you'll still be deceived. This is how bad it is.
With one liners like : "I didn't did it" and a bland scenario without any worthwhile dialogue, it's a miracle your brain can survive the dumb trip.
From every perspective this is such a failure. Soundtrack is mediocre, 3d effects are over the top jammed pack and filled with useless stuff, the scenario plays on the level of a 10 years old perception of good vs evil, dialogues are dumb, fight scenes aren't building up to a climax and are like circus presentations,the entire star wars universe now dresses like it's Halloween, it goes on and on.
What this reveals is that it's quite possible that it wasn't Lucas that was responsible for the quality of the first Trilogy.
There Will Be Blood (2007)
The Revelation
There Will be Blood is quite an achievement.
It is intellectually charged however, and it's normal that people who have no interest in psychology and philosophy will fail to appreciate it.
The climatic ending between Paul Dano and Daniel Day-Lewis is unparalleled in dramatic intensity ("I'm the third revelation!").
It brings forth the deepest existential questions that have taken hold of man-kind and their ultimate resolution, in blood:
"I am finished."
It is mature, serious, perfectly mastered and powerfully acted drama. It is accompanied by a contemporary music orchestral score which imitates the 1960s style of Ligeti, Xenakis and Penderecki pretty well.
Generally well composed, tonal music also comes at the appropriate moment in the movie.
Just do not expect another action western movie, this is way above the rest.
The Artist (2011)
This is damn good
In a time where millions are spent developing stupid "3d" televisions and equipment to films in "3d" these guys come around and steal the show with a black and white and mute film.
Some people are in for a cultural shock, others simply won't get it. Isn't the message clear? Technology should be to the service of brilliant scenarios, directing and music.
Overall this movie gave me hope that serious art will eventually reach the mass and we will leave behind our current era of superficiality.
From a certain point of view, this movie brings post-modern art to the movie-watching masses. Being in black and white and the re-contextualization of the thematic elements makes it more than a simple homage. I am unsure if it's been done this successfully before; while Postmodernism has proliferated in contemporary music and art for a good 30-40 years now, in cinema it has largely been avoided,for commercial reasons. It is simple and charming, far from pretentious, slightly contemporary in its presentation, and certainly deserve its awards.
Brilliant acting too by the way. I don't need to say more, just go see for yourself.
Star Trek (2009)
Good stuff
I admit I am a huge fan of Star Trek and wasn't expecting much at first, but now I have seen this movie multiple times and it just gets better.
Amazing casting, non-stop action, good story (not impeccable but very good), amazing camera work and post production work. Nice soundtrack as well, nothing like a classical masterpiece, but effective, especially in the concluding generic where it superposes the new and old themes in counterpoint.
Overall I don't understand old fans having a grudge against this more action oriented movie, that's what a star trek movie should be; leave the holodeck pool parties for the series. They've brought Star Trek back big-time, just when we thought it was going to fade away.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2 (2011)
Best Harry Potter movie by far, but has some flaws.
They should redo the other movies according to the standards of this last one. This is almost the best we (fans of the book story) could have hoped for.
It is sad that they decided to cut the dialog of the showdown between Harry Potter and Voldemort, that was the most important bit of text of the 7 books and it would have made the ending a more satisfying one.
They removed some books chapters but overall, and FINALLY, they managed to get the tone right as well as the most important details of the story.
If only the other movies would have been like this last one.
Clearly, this shows the positive impact of having 1 more year of post-production. Perhaps a lesson to be learned by the money-hungry studio at Hollywood; This movie will still be good in 10 years, the others will not.
The musical score is also better and more adventurous this time; amazing studio mastering on the soundtrack. The "Hogwarts" musical theme is still as bad as before however.
Man cheng jin dai huang jin jia (2006)
Totally Underrated! Breathtaking experience!
This is one of my favourite movie in the genre, it is even my favourite movie in my entire movie collection. The scenery and acting is flawless.
The scenario is great and not cheap in the "American way": Yes it doesn't finish well, it doesn't submit the story to a certain "action ratio" requirement, that is exactly the point and why this is such a good movie, it makes absolutely no compromise to please expectations. Above all, every single visual detail has been worked to perfection.
The usage of castle and environment in which this movie takes place by itself make this movie deserve high praise. However it is in the details that this movie steals the show.
Only 7 on IMDb, what is there to say? I think people, overwhelm with the movie visual generosity somehow failed to understand the inner working of the story and brilliant acting.
Most recommended! 10/10
In my opinion even better than the masterpiece 'House of the Flying Daggers'.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 1 (2010)
Huge improvement, from horrible to mediocre
Previous movies were a complete waste of talent and totally ruined the story. But by separating the last novel in 2 movies, they now have the chance to mess up twice as more scenes.
While a few of the scenes are somewhat true to the book (explaining my 4 rating), the rest feels cheap. Why remove the drama? When HP is denied the sword at the beginning, why does he stay with a bland stare instead of getting angry and defying the Minister like in the book? Was that too complicated? Like: - "Ok now you will have to act aggressively" - "act aggessrilevy? never heard of it, can I please just look at the wall there?" That is a Huge change in his personality: In the book he has courage and can stand on his feet, in this movie he has a blank look more often than not, and dresses like a college geek. A sweatshirt? WTF
The sames goes for the initial scene, they do not even mention it's happening at the Malfoy's manor and why. Hell the first 30 minutes of the movie is like they tried to remake the book without words and with the actors expressing the least emotions as possible. The entire production falls apart. The scene in the Dursley's house feels like a bad theatre production.
And gosh the music, who's fault is it, the composer or the lousy director? I have a feeling it's more the director.
This movie series will all have to be redone properly.
Alice in Wonderland (2010)
We must ask ourselves some important questions about our "entertainment industry"
Yes Hollywood, we know, everything is possible now with CGI, they do not impress us anymore.
So how about you actually get good writers and craft a good scenario? Or at the very least something that is not intellectually retarded.
How about you stop hiring your Hollywood friends to do the awful music and get some real contemporary composers with actual talent for music writing.
How about you hire some good actors instead of the most popular "stars" in tabloids.
Anyone else sick of this Hollywood BS? Real talent exist but the true artists can't make a living while hundreds of millions are spent on those losers at Hollywood because they are "part of the click".
I guess the problem is with the public, are you dumb enough to actually enjoy this? Was your brain sufficiently retarded by the lack of reading books to find a movie like this half-entertaining? Gosh I can't believe people can't notice they are gradually dumbed down by the mass media.
2 stars (on 10) for the quality of the 3d rendering which must have taken a lot of cpu and ram. 0 stars for the rest.
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009)
They tried to do better than the previous ones, but yet still failed miserably
The Book: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is the best and biggest book of them all. The drama in the story has had me totally convinced that J.K. Rolling was quite a masterful writer, which understood all the different layers and depth of the English language.
The Movie: The movie is basically various sections of the book put together in all hope it would somehow make sense. While the directors clearly made an effort to fix the mess they were going to release last year with a few "artistic" scenes, all of those fit a very mainstream frame. Meaning that the imagination with which the the book has been transposed to movie is fairly limited artistically. For example, the music is so cheesy; it's all in C major and A minor, barely any sharps or flat. Where are the dissonances dude?!
See, if you do not have the basic required intelligence to make a good movie and rely on patchwork and FX instead, then perhaps you should have left the job to people who actually have some artistic vision.
Here we have one of the greatest story ever told in such a pathetic way that it's a miracle if people watching this still get a glimpse of the grandeur of J.K Rolling imagination.
The moral of this film is: no matter how hard you try: if you have no talent at movie making, try doing something else. I cant believe they worked so hard for such a failure. Sadly, most of the failures are due to the directors, scripts and staging team: not to the actors. Still, Snape, the best actor, was the most unconvincing here (thanks to awful script and direction), and Harry Potter as unconvincing as ever (I mean wtf this is not harry potter - looks like a school nerd compared to malfoy).
Yeah, it's a bit enjoyable, specially the first hour, but it's conceptually and artistically very limited, but it will probably please the mainstream public, which doesn't seem to realize how much better this should have been.
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005)
20% of a great story, with mostly bad actors
The story explored in the Movie is not even 20% of the 640 pages book and the true complexity of the story.
Hollywood must think it's audience are mostly retarded; and by looking at the 7.7 mark, I guess most of them are.
Most actors are bad beside Snape and Moody. Harry look like a nice choir boy while in the book he has a different personality.
Well I'm glad I switched to the books, it's so much better.
The movie needed to be over 180 minutes to render the story correctly.
That said, the camera man did a descent job. But Hollywood has to stop with the cheese.
The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (2008)
There is something called a book, a book contains both dialogs and a story, this movie has none of those
The kids are back to kick some ass and this time, instead of exploring a fantastic world, they are there to kill hundreds of people in the name of peace, chop heads, slit throats etc. In fact, the 4 little kids kill so many people in this movie that I actually thought "hey, maybe THEY are the bad guys?".
I could write a lengthy review on why this movie is bad, but I'll sum it up like this: This movie is pure garbage to steal your money. If Movies are supposed to become a new form of art, they have one hell of a way to reach anything near a bad book.
I tough Indiana Jones 4 was crap, but this is even worse.
I cant believe there is such morons actually thinking this movie was acceptable for release.
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008)
Over the top action ruined by lame dialogues, CGI and absurd scenario
Having seen the Indiana Jones trilogy dozens of time as a kid, I couldn't resist seeing this movie on it's premiere. After the mess of the Star Wars Prequels and War of the Worlds, I had very little expectations; anything slightly surprising would have made my day.
But wow, Indiana Jones 4 managed to disappoint me even more than I thought possible. The story is childish, the dialogues are just there as bridge to the action sequences (not adventure, but action) and might as well have been written by a 12 years old. Unless your IQ falls below the 85 mark, make sure to smoke a big one before going to see this movie.
Please note, it's just another action movie, not an adventure movie like it used to be. No more puzzles or need to explain things, just a pile of lame clichés and action sequences with a totally predictable plot.
SPOILER, This movie could be resumed as follow:
Russians: Aliens: Nuclear Blast: Car Chase 1: Girl from First movie: Car Chase 2: Tarzan: Giant Ants: Pyramids: Space Ship: Wetting
WTF Lucas?
If they keep making crap like this they will manage to get the youth to read books again. Which is something you should do, at least until they start making movies that have actual story depth.