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Andreas-from-Berlin
Reviews
Loki (2021)
From GREAT to OKAY
Wow! Season 1 was great, funny, weird and strange in a magical way. I gave it a 10! Watch it!
... but the new season 2? I don't know. Kind of tired in its drive, lacking real fantasy in its storytelling, missing the wild anarchy and crazy humor from the beginning. The nordic God of Prank is now nothing more than a guy that wants to save the world. (Good challenge but different type of story, sorry.) What could have been a glorious development to a new, next level is in my opinion a huge step backwards. Unfortunately from 10 to 6. Still okay to watch - but not overwhelming anymore.
Please do better - in case that there might come season 3.
Schachnovelle (2021)
So much potential - too much effort
So much potential - but unfortunately it's so German in the end.
It is such an important baseline for this story: When you see all these angry and aggressive people in the streets of Vienna and relate them to nowadays' tendencies for nationalism in Europe - you might know why it is more than necessary to remember how things had started more than 100 years ago in Germany.
The original story in Stefan Zweig's novel is a bit more complex. And yes: A book is a book and a movie is a movie ... no need that one media is "the exact copy of the other". But there is definitely no need for so much overacting and/or underacting which is so typically German! (What might be good and helpful in real life - that most of us Germans are bad actors - is not funny when it comes to movies.)
Technical realization? Great. Camera, costumes, sound and light? Great as well. Catching the emotions? Well ... too German.
Please: Be more subtle when just raising an eyebrow would have been enough. Please: Show more (!) real (!) emotions when just declaiming the written lines of the script or pretending, playing and performing (instead of being) are not enough.
Otherwise it is hard to really feel and believe what could and should be told by the fabulous story. There was a good chance. There was so much effort by the director and the actors. But sometimes too much effort is too much.