Reviews

My biggest problem with this episode (along with the others episodes in the series), is the acting. While there are some memorable exceptions (eg. A Little Fear of Lighting and This Extraordinary Being), the actors 'acting' is bearable and is a far cry from great. I can only found a few exceptions where the acting is really terrific, but whenever Angela Abar, Dr Manhattan or Lady Trieu walks out, their dialogues screams of rewrites. Everything seems so out of touch and hilariously uncomfortable. Their lines are just so odd and out of touch with society that they don't add anything the story, the writers have to make these characters relatable by making this character talks like non-human? Sometimes it's pretty funny, but most of the time, it's just dull or really average.

Visually I liked some scenes, like the ending where the giant globe basically shattered everywhere. The scenes were composed nicely and felt very genuinely designed. However, when Dr Manhattan was being (destroyed?) Why does he look like a buffoon. Most scenes were fine and average and just like the other episodes, the cinematography could have been great if they actually try to make the dialogue comprehensible.

Storywise, this episode is my 3rd favourite. A LIttle of Fear of Lightning and This Extraordinary Being are my 1st and 2nd favourite respectively. The ending was stupid and annoying like why does Dr Manhattan narrate over the scenes? That was cringe and basically insulting and why does Dr Manhattan talk like he did in the comic book. All of these scenes were more than frustrating than interesting. The fact the show is trying to do something different is commendable and should be celebrated. but when the acting and dialogues are just insanely annoying it becomes frustrating. From an overall standpoint, this episode was great and unlike the episode before it, it actually tries to be an engaging story.

In conclusion, this episode is not the best but I would not call it terrible. I have fun watching it and it was comprehensive more than any other episodes which came before it. The ending is fine, but the way they executed most things were sometimes annoying.

When looking at film, I usually try to make it a little bit about everything, storytelling, technicality, performance, music etc. What makes every film special the most is their story. Films with a great story can usually make me enjoy it more than the technical aspects. So, when I watched 'A Serbian Film', I could not understand anything about it. I'm not intending to watch it a second, since, let's be honest here, its realistic graphics and vile in every way.

Honestly, I don't mind the violent nature of it all. I actually 'enjoy' certain movies that use special graphic scenes to their advance the plot or a narrative or a theme. Take for example like 'Salo', a film I enjoy that I rated it 7/10. It was a film good on the technical aspects and everything among the like. It was clear about its message anti-authoritarianism, and the film goes out to explicitly tell you this. And I like the fact that it acknowledges its violent tendency and so forth. With 'A Serbian Film', I could not say the same thing. I don't enjoy it but I can see why there are qualities to like about it. It has a theme that explores the human emotion like sex, killing and obsession of art. These themes are explored throughout the film very explicitly up to the point where it becomes absolutely insane to the eyes, which is unabashedly honest and truthful. What makes it terrible however is its story.

I don't get it, I don't like it. It does not add anything onto the film. When I look up what the director's vision was, all he can say that he just 'want to say something', but this so-called 'something' is explored in such a way that it becomes more like a futile thing rather than an actual experience. If this film was able to make itself more about characters rather than the themes than this film would be rated higher. In Salo, you don't need to care about characters, it was all about themes. But with this, you can only see the themes and sex and everything, without a proper reason for its existence (perhaps with the main character but even then, his emotions are completely worthless because he was drugged). Also, the fact that Salo did it 40 years ago makes it impressive that it tries to move cinema in another direction, whereas 'A Serbian Film' just does it now because it just wants to.

In conclusion, watch this if you want to see some horrific imagery or getting a hypnotic visual that would leave you uncanny for the next 15 minutes. Otherwise, you shouldn't watch it. It might not be so great with friends though.

This episode was fantastic, I was invigorated through it all. Looking Glass was great and the characters were actually relatable. I was impressed!

Looking Glass went through a lot of stuff after the squid attack in 1985 (I think?). We get to see his experiences throughout the episode and it was great. Not only did it explores the character of Looking Glass even further, but it also revamps the whole narrative in a way that is compelling and vaguely intriguing. His life was built on a lie and seeing his paranoia dissolves into pure nothing was an exciting dramatisation of such complex emotions. The acting was great and the performances from everyone else was also great. Everything in this episode explains something in the story, unlike the first episode, which explains basically nothing to the audience. Though there are still questions to be answered from this episode, it explains why Looking Glass personality and why he does the things he does. We get to see more of what happened after the squid attack, which was something that I wanted to see since the show's announcement.

Overall, this episode is exciting and level-headed in every way. I liked it and I don't see much wrong with it. It doesn't pretend to have meaning, instead, it shows meaning through the lens of the character, which is undoubtedly ironic, because so far, there has been a lack of meaning to the series. I guess diving more into it would explain everything but who the hell got time for that?