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Reviews
The Green Knight (2021)
A disgrace to the source material
1) The sexual content in this movie directly contradicts Gawain's resistance to lust and sexual temptation that is important in the original poem.
2) The poem contains clear and frequent references to Christianity, including the stregnth of Gawain's own faith. It is also quite clearly Christian in overall theme. This movie, made by an atheist, was meant to discredit Christianity. Lowery (the director) stated he wanted to make Christianity seem antiquated (out dated). For instance, he made King Arthur old and frail, and as Arthur is meant to be Christian this is symbolically calling Christianity out dated. You do not have to be Christian, but if you are an atheist don't purposefully take a Christian story and important cultural poem and make it in contradiction to the point of the source material. This is an insult to the author, the poem, and Christianity. Shame on Lowery.
3) The changed ending changes the meant message of the story for the worse.
Had any other story been taken from any other culture and changed in such ways, the project and director would have been canceled. Only because it is White and Christian culturally was the source material allowe to be disgraced like it was.
Antlers (2021)
Could have been great if the characters werent idiots
Contains spoilers, but you won't know what parts im talking about anyways if you haven't seen it.
Unbelievably stupid characters
Walking up to the shed one by one the same way. Not calling for backup. Not calling an ambulance. Going into the house you think is a meth house you also now hear disturbing noises from. Then opening the bolted door instead of calling the police.
Then, of all people, with nothing but a flare, a little handgun, an old metal pole, and good ol fashioned determination, the scrawny elementary school teacher takes down the supernaturally strong and terrifying creature the cops couldn't handle. And then stabs a kid. And has no trauma afterwards.
10/10 logic through the whole movie
Deer creature and cinematography was cool.
Midnight Mass (2021)
Useless life lesson at the end
SPOILERS
So the whole message at the end is that we are all one with the universe, the nothing seperates our atoms from all other atoms. It says that its good to have faith, but doesn't endorse anything specific. Its just "have faith in SOMETHING." Its the feeling of belief that matters. We make our own meeting. However, this is not the deep message people think it is. Its the EASY answer and message. Of course people are going to love hearing the we make our own meaning, and whatever you are doing in life is GREAT. Its an easy message because its what everyone wants to hear so they dont have to change.
It is also problematic because, if there is one true religion, then believing in anything won't get you saved. No religion endorses belief in just something alone. You have to conform to their specific beliefs. If you are muslim (which the show says is great just because that means you believe in something), but the Christian God is real, God won't allow muslims into Heaven. This applied to any religions in any combination.
And if there is NO god, then no matter what you believe, nothing will change your fate and you will end up in a hole in the ground just like anyone else. So whatever you chose to have faith in has no true importance.
Those two reasons alone are why the show's message is so useless. However, along with the more philosophical problems, the show's message also just has a major contradiction with itself. The "angel" (which I would say is actually a demon) clearly is a being from a spiritual realm. Its existence in the show means in the show's canon, there is a spiritual realm with demons, and therefore Angels and god(s), possibly the devil, or at least an evil force. So therefore in the show's canon, you can come to the conclusion there is a correct religion. But then at the end, the show endorses no specific beliefs, which because of the demon's existence means it contradicts itself.
The last thing is that the show got kind of stupid with the "feeding." They basically all turned into vampires. Now I still enjoyed the first 6 episodes, but if I gave it much thought I thought it the blood drinking thing was goofy.
I will say as a religious person myself, I was nervous throughout the whole show it would end up being very nasty towards religion. The show ended up not being the way, so it earns some credit for that. It actually kind of ended up having the opposite problem. But I am glad it at least ended up not being ugly towards religion, which would have been easy to get away with in the film industry.
Dune (2021)
If you think the Lynch film is better you know nothing of film
1984 Dune is so bad. Like completely impossible to take seriously. Awful and near comical sets, everything looked like it was thrown together in 5 minutes. I cannot believe Lynch's career survived that. This new Dune movie is NEAR masterpiece level. Beautiful visuals, but is doesn't sacrifice substance for style. Fantastic story that is faithful to the book, AMAZING music, and great acting. Someone else said the pacing in Dune is bad. Its not, if you think it is you just need to get over your addiction to marvel movies. Great movie, 9.5/10.
The Last Duel (2021)
Not as political as some people think
SPOILER
I think some people have made this movie way more political than its intended to be. One femal called it hyper-masculine. Ummmm... its pretty accurate to what actually happened. Telling history how it was isn't an attack on women. Also the males in the movie weren't exactly great guys. Damon's character wasn't awful, but he wasn't great either. That same critic also complained that the movie only has one female perspective and two male ones. Why???? It has the persepctive of the 3 main people involved, not because of their gender. Also, the ONE WOMAN'S perspective ended up being the RIGHT ONE. Not every modern movie with straight white male characters is an attack on women.
On the flip side, some user reviews call this movie woke feminist trash. Also not true. While the woman was right, and the men weren't morally great, there is some doubt cast upon the woman. But also, like I mentioned earlier, the movie is pretty accurate. Its not woke and feminist to tell history happened. History is not "woke" nor "hyper-masculine." History does not care about the gender of its participants.
Another point against the movie being "feminist lies" is that Damon's character was not completely awful. He fought for justice, and while its hinted he did this more for pride than for his wife, he still did what should have been done. He was a hardened soldier. That is going to make anyone a little cruel and non-affectionate.
His biggest mistake was choking his wife when she fitst told him she was raped. He should have handled it with more compassion and grace. However, imagine the shock upon discovering your wife was raped by a former close friend.
Then again he did pressure her into sex afterwards, saying he should be the last to know his wife. That was awful, no excuse for that.
My point is, the movie is neither "feminist" not "hyper-masculine." Its history how it was, and frankly people need to grow a pair and stop trying to find ways to be offended by it.
Awesome movie, a bit to much sexual scenes for me, but otherwise great, well acted, good visuals, and engaging.
The Last Duel (2021)
Not as political as some people think
SPOILER
I think some people have made this movie way more political than its intended to be. One femal called it hyper-masculine. Ummmm... its pretty accurate to what actually happened. Telling history how it was isn't an attack on women. Also the males in the movie weren't exactly great guys. Damon's character wasn't awful, but he wasn't great either. That same critic also complained that the movie only has one female perspective and two male ones. Why???? It has the persepctive of the 3 main people involved, not because of their gender. Also, the ONE WOMAN'S perspective ended up being the RIGHT ONE. Not every modern movie with straight white male characters is an attack on women.
On the flip side, some user reviews call this movie woke feminist trash. Also not true. While the woman was right, and the men weren't morally great, there is some doubt cast upon the woman. But also, like I mentioned earlier, the movie is pretty accurate. Its not woke and feminist to tell history happened. History is not "woke" nor "hyper-masculine." History does not care about the gender of its participants.
Another point against the movie being "feminist lies" is that Damon's character was not completely awful. He fought for justice, and while its hinted he did this more for pride than for his wife, he still did what should have been done. He was a hardened soldier. That is going to make anyone a little cruel and non-affectionate.
His biggest mistake was choking his wife when she fitst told him she was raped. He should have handled it with more compassion and grace. However, imagine the shock upon discovering your wife was raped by a former close friend.
Then again he did pressure her into sex afterwards, saying he should be the last to know his wife. That was awful, no excuse for that.
My point is, the movie is neither "feminist" not "hyper-masculine." Its history how it was, and frankly people need to grow a pair and stop trying to find ways to be offended by it.
Awesome movie, a bit to much sexual scenes for me, but otherwise great, well acted, good visuals, and engaging.
The Terror (2018)
Rating for season 1 only
Season 2 is bad, I couldn't get through the first episode it was so pathetic. Season 1 is a masterpiece. Its intense, intriguing, scary, and the final few episodes add a surprising and beautiful amount of depth. Fantastic show.
Brooklyn Nine-Nine: The Set Up (2021)
writers needed to ignore politics and actually keep the comedy show funny
This show, from seasons 1-7, had such a consistent tone and was always hilarious. Season 8 saw such a dramatic shift. It shoves messages down your throat due to modern politics, but never pulls it off. Its clunky, obvious, and takes the place of the shows humor rather than existing with it. Also, as far as this episode is concerned, Jake shouldn't have been suspended. The man was not wrongfully arrested, he ran from a cop who asked to talk to him. That is cause for arrest, whether you are scared or not.
Brooklyn Nine-Nine: The Good Ones (2021)
awkward, forced, illogical, too political
Heart was in the right place. This episode was still a miserable failure. For one, its ok for Jake to be upset about the profession he loves being discredited by bad people in the same line of work. But the thing he learns at the end is that he is part of the problem. Like what???? He just wanted to show some cops, such as himself, are still good and want to help people. The whole episode he spent his time helping Rosa try to TAKE DOWN bad cops. And then all the stuff with Charles and Terry was just weird. Really weird. And I know its in Charles character to be oblivious about things, but this more gave off the vibe that his characters point was to say all non-black people are super clueless about how to handle racial issues. That is somewhat true, but to the extreme and foolish extent portrayed in this episode.
Lastly, I am just upset they brought all the recent irl stuff into the show. I know they just wanted to address it and try to help, but this a comedy show I watch to get my mind off the crappy world we live in, but this was just 20 somethinf painful minutes of hearing it all over again.
Hammer and Bolter: Old Bale Eye (2021)
Bad episode in a good series
At the time of me writing this there are 3 episodes of Hammer and Bolter out. This episode is pretty bad. Really clunky animation, little action, sloppy animation, lame voice over with orks. This episode is bad, but was also a bad first impression of the show. The other two episodes that are out right now (Deaths Hand and Bound for Greatness) are awesome. Just skip this episode and watch the others.
Pretend It's a City (2021)
Just Lebowitz complaining for 30min at a time
I nornally love Scorsese and his work but this wasn't very good imo. Its just Lebowitz complaining, like we should care what she has to say because she seems to think she is the ultimate authority. And Scorsese just laughs the whole time. She wasn't funny. She just complains the whole time. There were a few mildly charming moments but overall thumbs down.