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Kûtei Doragonzu (2020)
Promotes whaling and slow killing for taste
This show seriously promotes whaling. The main argument for whaling they give us is the enjoyment of well tasting food. The second topic that is promoted is the slow killing of animals because of the believe that killing of braindead animals diminished the taste of the meat.
There's no money in it and whalers are treated poorly but the one thing that totally makes up for it is tasty meat. They hunted dragons for centuries but the animals remained mysterious. It seems that nobody really has a clue what's going on. Somebody took whale hunting and mystery and make a script. The rest of the premise is quite mechanic.
This is seriously messed up.
Halo (2022)
Helmet on
A story is a story. You can tell whatever you like. You can tell a story about pink elephants and you can make them fly. You can also tell the story in such a way that the elephants cannot fly anymore. You can then say what you want, but if it is making the new adaption of the story cheaper to tell, some will find good arguments for this step other than the money. I think that taking the helmet off is such a decision. Of course there is just such an explanation for the games and keeping it on. It is cheaper not show human faces in a game and it is easier for the audience to identify with the protagonist.
That helemtted protagonists work is shown by Dredd and the Mandalorian. We have examples of stories where taking helmets off, where never a helmet is taken off, does not work like in Judge Dredd.
It is absolutely a turn off, that Master Chief takes off his helmet. That we will likely see more elaborate reasons for this step, does not change the fact that the meta-narrative has been adapted and as such the story has lost cohesion with other stories about Master Chief.
See (2019)
Good but biased (spoilers)
This review will focus on elements appearing in the last episode of the first season. Therefore it will absolutely begin with spoilers.
The show is exiting and a refreshing. But this refreshment does become stale at the end. Why? It's the gun-focused mentality. Have you wondered where all the bullets in the Walking Dead came from? If so, you will be flabbergasted that there are not only guns but also gun-rounds in tip top shape after laying around for 500 years (meta narrative). Perhaps there will be a revelation where the ammunition came from in the next season but it will not make it more realistic. It is absolutely not believable that about ten sighted people will revive gun and ammunition making in a society back in stone age, even with some old machines rotting around somewhere. I can forgive the idea that hydro- and carbon power plants have made operational. Simply because it seemed no big hazard to the coherence of the story. But then, eventually, the guns emerged. What is it with guns that people believe that these modern weapons can be operational after five centuries of storage. Why do they need to be? Why always guns?
If we were to understand the story as an allegory for the emergence of sight, i.e. not to take the persons as single persons but as representations of a society and days not for days but historical moments, of course, we will agree that guns will come back as one of the first things of our modern achievements. But guns make stories so boring. Action becomes so tainted. Guns can make for an easy to abuse plot device. On the other hand they make it difficult to create sensible action in many situations. Why isn't someone killed if it was only necessary to point and pull a trigger? Many such situations that trigger this question will arise. In an action movie without much realism, we can bear the hundreds of thousands of bullets missing when our hero is being shot at from close range. But this show seemed to want more.
I hope See will manage to avert becoming tainted by guns in the second season.
Legends of Tomorrow: Blood Ties (2016)
He-Man (SPOILERS!)
There was this episode of He-Man where he had Skeletor hanging off a cliff. If he had let him slip and die, all problems including the show could have been concluded.
This show has so far been disappointing. The story consists of mere story elements. There is no coherence. Nothing makes sense, including the characters themselves.
Now comes the third episode. The immortal bad guy is defeated, throat slit. Yes, he will recover but why, WHY, would they just leave him behind without any, ANY, reason? If you have an immortal defeated but you cannot kill him, then you imprison him. A hint: the Face of Bo, Doctor Who. You could burn the immortal down as much as possible and then cast the remains in resin, cement and/or other substances. Then you watch the prisoner.
That should give you enough time to fill a season and defeat him for good.
This show is only for people who don't care about a story and coherence. DC just cannot get it together it seems. Honestly, I wanted to give the show a chance but that is just too plain stupid.
Bumblebee (2018)
Difficult start, good middle, promising end
Spoilers ahead!
I get the idea that it is expensive to actually design a transformers character and that it may appear too much to develop one just for a few minutes. However, there are quite a few characters that only show up for seconds. Thus, I would assume that it is in the budget to develop an important character even if he should show up only for short.
Even in the old cartoon the transformers looked differently before they came to earth. This is because none of then has ever been to earth. Why then do we have to see an Optimus Prime and a Bumblebee on Cybertron in their earth-truck and earth-car incarnations? It makes absolutely no sense. It is a huge logic flaw. That is absolutely not okay especially because the story is simple.
Take another simple story: Avatar. The story is simple but the logic is coherent. A simple story needs to divert from this fact through immersion. If there are flaws in the logic of the story or its presentation, then it will distract and pull the audience out of the movie. In the transformers meta-narrative, i.e. universe, a transformer usually needs to gaze upon an object before he imitates it.
The movie depicts many transformers who already are in their earth-vehicle-shape before they had a chance to scan it. WTF? Don't you care? That much disrespect towards the audience. What were the makers thinking? Was it: oh, the audience is so stupid. They won't notice. Simply flash them with some action and it will not matter.
That is not okay and does not fit the rest of the movie. If one spends so much money on making such a movie, such mistakes should not happen.
An active effort to stay ignorant towards this nonsense made it possible for me to enjoy the rest of the movie. I also rate it quite well because I like the franchise and it needed some support after that last tragedy of Transformers movie. If one spends so much time and money to make a three hours movie one should definitely avoid making utter crap. That has not worked with the last movie. One cannot simply take bits of stories and just randomly put them together.
This movie has an actual story. It is not as crazily fast paced as the first one and there is more space for the bonding of a transformer with an earthling. I don't care that it is essentially the same story as the first live-action transformers movie. It references the eighties and as such the origin of the transformers.
The Predator (2018)
Absoutely Underrated Film
This movie brought the franchise somewhat back to it's roots with less successive killing off and more family without Aliens. Of course there are quite a few elements that seem stereotypical but the story flows and is coherent. The last two Predator flicks were less entertaining. Especially Munn does a fabulous job and I wish her a great career.
Dersu Uzala (1975)
One of the best movies thus far
This movie ranks within my top 5. It weaves together all elements of the art of film. Similar to Atanarjuat you do not feel to view an outside perspective. The movie is beautiful, hopeful and sad.
Outwardly it displays the mistreatment of nature and native cultures by modern society. Inwardly, however, it seems to be a reminder of how we ignore proper thinking and acting by clinging to greed and anger.
Mute (2018)
Modern Hyperrealism
The story is just great. The setting in the future makes it relatable as it seems more like a means to establish a coherent setting for the story. There are similarities to Moon. The characters face brutal conditions. Being a sci-fi movie brutal conditions could easily mean aliens, inhuman technology, or the like. This film, however, is about the human condition. Like in moon the protagonist has to make serious choices. It is no spoiler to write that in the end he makes the human choice. That which brings back humanity to the story, just as in Moon.
Star Trek: Discovery (2017)
Closer to the Original Series Than Any Other Trek
How can people write nonsense like assuming that the writers haven't seen a Star Trek episode while some writers were involved writing for Star Trek ages ago? How can people write that it doesn't remind them of the originals? Look at the visual style. It reminds of old 60s-70s special effects like no other SciFi show or film. Look at the completely exaggerated psychedelic colors. Look at the tractor-beam! Have you ever wondered how Captain Kirk would be like if he was more realistic? Well, the writers have though up such a character and put him in a leading role.
(spoiler) You even find nonsensical stuff like the captain being captured and rescued. That is classic Star Trek storytelling that lacks any sense of realism or logic. Like in any trek it takes about one or two characters to get out of situations that are impossible. That is pure nostalgia that we may also find in shows like Doctor Who.(/spoiler) There is only a well balanced dose of hyper-realism, i.e. Ned-Starking/Walking Dead Syndrome, just enough to create a sense of immersion in our modern times. No one would like to watch another Star Trek series with the same type of old-fashioned seemingly flawless and unquestioned characters. It is necessary these days to criticize leading characters. We cannot let egotistical and sexist Captain Kirks off the hook nowadays by enshrining them in a hero altar.
The series successfully transports the Star Trek universe that got stuck in the past into the present. The new Kirk movies have failed to do so. They are simply entertaining action movies that don't raise any questions other than: "Hey, if we can beam across the universe, why would we still need spaceships?" Wait, no. That question wasn't raised at all. Star Trek Discovery (yes, it's acronym is STD) takes a very similar plot element but wraps it up with complications that will very likely be able to make the potential game-changer go away in order to achieve continuity.
Every true Trekkie who likes the originals but loves The Next Generation or Deep Space Nine should give it a try!
Sense8 (2015)
Like Techno Music with Soul
Babylon 5 and The Matrix trilogy have been revelations to me, just as is this production of the Wachowskis and Straczynski combined. There is action, there is speed, and there is the supernatural element—the SciFi element, so to speak—but the fascinating beauty at the heart of Sense8 is its humanity. The writing is flawless, there are no cheap turns à la deus ex machina or cheesy moments and, given its complexity being filmed on eight locations by multiple directors, that is quite an achievement.
Topics like transgender and homosexuality seem to be treated appropriately, they do not feel awkward or exaggerated at all, completely relatable. The connection of these very different characters, the way they instantly relate to and empathize with each other, gives a sense of unconditional love and compassion. If we broke down barriers of language, culture, sexuality, gender, social status, etc. between us, we should all be able to relate to each other in a similar fashion. Thus, I feel that one of the underlying messages of the series is a reminder that truly wishing others to be happy and to be free from suffering is a real way of life or at least definite possibility that we all should strife for and which is not bound by any sort of fixation or label such as race, gender, culture or even the notions of me and you, etc. How we are to transform ourselves to be capable of such, might not be revealed by this show. As any form of art, or its subdivision entertainment, might not be the right medium to do so, we are lucky, that the creators of the series did not attempt to teach us.
The cast is near perfect which is, however, rather common in these days of excellent TV productions (e.g. Game of Thrones—except the new cast for Daario Naharis). All actors are relatively fresh faces and do a great job. Though, at first I thought that the cast for Nomi Marks, the character being a transgender woman, should not have been simply an actress with a deep voice but a real transgender. Then I found out that Jamie Clayton, in deed, is a real transgender, how amazing.
I do hope that the show will run for its five seasons.
PS: Techno with soul is (or has been) made by Isolée, LoSoul, Matthew Dear, Autechre, Aphex Twin, Jan Jelinek, DJ Koze and many more. What, you do not think all these musicians make Techno? You are wrong. All is Techno. For guys who are fixated on labels too much, take Neil Landstrumm or Forever Sweet as examples. However, you might always find subcategories, labels and drawers that make your life more difficult. It does not matter what form of art, e.g. music or TV shows, one can feel it if the creators poured their soul into it. Sense8 has a soul, a beautiful and heartwarming one.
Time Lapse (2014)
Awful Timetravel/Time Paradox Movie
Before the actual review I have to mention how outraged I am that the movie has such a high rating. Did someone engage trolls or other manipulative services? It is impossible that there are so many good reviews for this movie.
Spoiler Ahead The time paradox Polaroid machine is an unwitting literary tool to justify a boring menage a trois plot. A good movie that disregards a certain logic of time-travel is Looper. But Time Lapse is not a good movie. I mean come on, why would someone who can tell the future attempt to make money from a bookkeeper betting on races? Of course it goes wrong. And that is where I actually stopped watching the movie. The low quality of the acting may have not been entirely the actors fault but they definitely failed to create tension. A plot does not have to be creative (see Avatar—great movie) but it needs to be free of flaws. Most of these flaws are due to bad writing.
Last Knights (2015)
Wathchable but lacking creativity
First, I have to say that I did enjoy watching it. Perhaps it was seeing (spoiler alert!!!) the 2013 47 Ronin just the other day that gave the story a bit of a stale taste to it, though. It is pretty plain to see that the story follows the same historical template. The movie seems nicely directed and all the characters are well balanced. Peyman Moaadi really played the role of the emperor well but also Aksel Hennie did shine as the villain Gezza Mott. Especially the latter role might have easily been overplayed. The effects, props and makeup are well done, which is another point where such a straight forward movies, following a well-known story, may easily could have failed. We have good action and a solid story untainted by trashiness but also without any real surprise. There is the hero, Owen as Raiden, who (spoiler!!!) seems to become a drinker, which is however a scheme that is revealed only towards the last part of the movie. While it is nicely done, it is likely not come as a surprise.
Katherine of Alexandria (2014)
Oh, an Ideological Movie, a Blend of Feminism, Christian Beliefs and What Not
Not only being unaware of any review but also about any fact of its content, I watched it because Peter O'Toole featured in it. However, this is a movie that requires thorough preparation. Not only does one need to know some of the history, and of course the actual Katerina, no also about Eastern religion should one know at least a bit. Sadly it is only the latter of which I know something about.
But first to the movie itself. It was one of Ingmar Bergman's paradigm not to use music unless it is actually played in the scene, e.g. when the stereo plays. This movie is the most extreme antithesis to it. There is a constant stream of string music, occasionally supported by some drums. It would have served the atmosphere simply to not use any sort of music at all. My rating would have gone up at least a star.
While the music poses some sort of (bright neon-) red thread, the film itself lacks it. It is some sort of patchwork that especially in the beginning seem like completely random bits of flashy colors. As an ideology driven under-budgeted piece of work it rather feels surreal. This is the most positive feature of the film Michael Redwood has achieved.
While I absolutely enjoyed Nicole Keniheart as Katerina from the perspective of acting (was that accent natural? If not: Why, Redwood? Why?), her character entrapped herself in inconsistencies.
Not knowing the historical Katerine, I was at first lead to believe she was denouncing any deities, being some sort of atheist. You might think, how I could have done that since it clearly must have been a Christian but I would hold the utter surrealistic atmosphere as possible explanation for this misconception. She does sound a bit like a Buddhist at times. And this is where the grandest mistake of the films writers occurred. Lending from ideologies, philosophies, or religions one should actually have understood their notions. This was obviously not the case here.
While it was a strange mix of feminist and Buddhist/Hindu thought to portray her as the incarnation of Nefertiti, and sort of brave, in the end it did not work. She was confronted by this evil guy--sorry, I did not remember that name--showing her a, rather the, bust of Nefertiti which could identify although she had never seen it, nor heard this name in her present life. Okay, for me its fine to, just like that, introduce reincarnation into Christianity. The question whether that can make sense or it is completely contradictory remains.
Where she got entangled in inconsistency with the foreign source was when she foretold the evil guy that after this life his soul would end. Not only that but that was even a bad thing. The guy got upset and she felt so sorry for him, that she shed a tear. So why is that inconsistent. Reincarnation is part of Hinduism and Buddhism in which it is a rather clearly explained sort of natural law. Both the Hindus and Buddhist actually try to escape this cycle of existences because it entails endless suffering. At this point we have our first inconsistency--unless Katerina shed tears of joy. Which by the way she did not. She gave that evil guy the prophecy like it was something really bad. Now we need to go a bit further. According to Buddhist belief (I am not well versed in Hindu thought) any sort of conventional happiness experienced within this prison of consecutive lives is impermanent and as such is not desirable. The goal is a sort of ultimate happiness, the utter liberation from suffering, nirvana. So, is the evil guy about to achieve this state after his present life? Rather not. How should we understand this state? Katerina tells the evil guy that he would simply stop to exist. That is of course not Buddhist and, granted, it was not supposed to be. The state one achieves at enlightenment is beyond any sort of extremes. This is already in the sutras, i.e. the earliest Buddhist texts. Later the thought was put into a wonderful system by the Buddhist saint (can we actually say that?) and philosopher Nagarjuna. The Buddha made it clear that when achieving enlightenment he will neither be existent, non-existent, both, or neither. He will be beyond such dualistic concepts.
While that was just a bit off-topic, it makes clear that there is much more to reincarnation than what Western media is able to digest. Filmmakers should give such notions more thought before they assimilate truncated, if not completely twisted, versions of them. I mean seriously, there is reincarnation but that one evil guy will simply stop to exist? The last time I was politely told that unbelievers will simply stop to exist after the purgatory at the end of the world was when I actually let in some Jehovah's Witnesses to have a chat with them.
Appleseed Alpha (2014)
Story about alright, animation patchy
While the film is fairly entertaining, the story feels very much like a first episode of a series. The characters only go through minor development and the plot seems like a side-track of their lives, leading to the beginning of another journey rather than to an end in itself.
The animation of tech, the cyborgs (e.g. Briareos) and landscape are top notch while facial expression of human characters could have used quite some more brushing up. Perhaps the studio should have decided to utilize motion capturing. What is especially annoying is the ever-flowing hair of the female lead Deunan. Where should all this wind come from? In small closed spaces it is most conspicuous but even in the open it seems strange to constantly have that much wind. It could be bearable if the motion of the flowing hair at least would not be so unnatural.
Transcendence (2014)
Very Thorough and Relevant Story for our Modern Connected World
This film raises questions that are very relevant. It is not only a Ghost in the Shell question whether the machine really has the same soul that it was few with. One issue is that of being connected and it is handled well. While being uploaded and connected in the movie has the advantage of alleviating ills and old age, it comes at the price that one may possibly be hijacked like an empty shell whenever a higher authority deems it necessary. This might have a slight analogy with social media as much as the issue of military drones. The most tricky point is that the Intelligence thinks that its actions are justified because it means well. Indeed, it is portrayed as if it would have been the best if it had been left alone fixing the world. In this, it seems like a lobby work from Google with the message that you should embrace new technology at all costs. But in the end the artificial Will and his wife Evelyn realize that they had made a mistake.
What was that mistake? I was reminded of some of my fantasies I had in my youth. At one point I thought it would be great to just fix the world and the people. How great would it be to eliminate crime by altering the minds of everyone. This thought though did not satisfy me and I was not sure why. After a time I realized that altering the minds of people did not only mean to replace real people with something artificial but I also realized that the right way of life can only be an option. If there is no option to step over the law and no possibility to do wrong, what are we but slaves, machines in flesh? You can only make right choices if it is possible to make the wrong ones also. It is true that the earth is in pretty bad shape but all of us need to come to the understanding that each of us needs to do his part. We cannot just wait for a scientific breakthrough that will miraculously provide a cure. While the movie propagates skepticism toward technology, it also questions an excessive aversion toward it. At least outside the US there is great skepticism towards social media for it infiltrates our lives as if it wanted to take it over. In the end, though, it is alright as long information technology is not used to oppress one's right for freedom. Why is it alright? You don't need to use social media that tries to manipulate you. Nevertheless we have to be aware that all services that seemingly are free do use us to make money. The nicest way of manipulating us are commercials one of the worst is to analyze us, where we are, what we post, etc. in order to make more money with tailored commercials. It is, Although these issues are not raised explicitly, I believe that is what being uploaded and being connected is about, giving the gift of perfect health seemingly for free with the hidden price of free will at all times.
Gedo senki (2006)
Disappointing
I was very excited to see this anime as I like most productions of Studio Ghibli and Hayao Miyazaki. The plot centers around a boy who really doesn't like or even hates his father. Well, and that's it. There is no tension build up. The omission of background information does not produce an intriguing sense of mystery but rather poses an annoyance. The characters motivation and development are unclear. The story doesn't flow at all and feels like patchwork. There may be something to the story but the director did not manage to deliver.
The three-star rating is due to the solid quality of the drawing. Does the film reflect the reality between Goro Miyazaki and his father? Who knows.
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
Not a Good Film
What kept me from not falling asleep during this movie were the memories that I had reading the books and the shocks I got from realizing how far this movie was from these very books. Yes, I might be a Peter Jackson basher that provides a one-sided review but what else can I do?
First of all, even a trilogy is not a suitable format for this wealth of literary material. Sadly the time of the mini-series had not come at that point yet, so this option was not in the picture.
Did Jackson really need to stretch the love-story element between Aragorn and Arwen? Well, perhaps. Why? To please the crowds or more precisely to get more people to like the movie enough to go to see the second part and spend more money. Was it for the good of the movie? No. This is the aftertaste I had after watching the movie, that it was overly commercial with all the flaws that potentially go along with it. I actually don't mind movies for the masses, e.g. Transformers, Avengers, etc. These examples, nevertheless, do not only invite a screenwriter's fantasy but they require it and they did not seem like a sell out. Other than the vague story lines of comic books, however, the Lord of the Rings trilogy already has one that is pretty developed.
Jackson's documentary on the movie Salome reveals his utter fascination with the production of a movie of an epic scale. I got the feeling he simply wanted to produce something massive. Massive amount of people to direct, massive amount of film filmed, massive amount of props, etc. I never really got the feeling that he actually really is a fan of Tolkien's work. That was just an excuse. There simply wasn't any other epic story that he could sell to the money.
At the core of the Lord of the Rings books sits a grandpa or old professor that tells us a story. He doesn't gesture around making much noise going on and on about action or kissing sequences, these are boring to him. In a calm an pleasant voice he tells us of the last remnants of grace in a world in which the old way is slowly disappearing. Aragorn is the bridge between the mythical greatness of the elves and the oh so flawed humans that are busy with pointless strife and whatnot. As a side note, Elrond's brother Elros chose to become human when the gods gave him, an elf, the choice because he had spent so much time among them. Aragorn is an ancestor of the latter. He should not have been portrayed with so much anger and expressive passion. As another side note, Erlond should not have bashed him so angrily for not coming out of hiding since it was him who had the idea that Aragrons forefathers went into it in the first place. Surely some changes were necessary. All the singing in the book cannot work on screen, definitely not nowadays. I would have been fine with changes of the story but the changes of the characters and the whole atmosphere were too much. For example, he should have kept in mind that Gandalf belongs to a class of beings that were created before Middle Earth. He is, thus, older than the first dwarfs which were the first class of worldly beings created by the gods and of whom none is alive anymore at the time of the story. This makes it especially funny when a joke is on him. For Gandalf all the dwarfs, elves, hobbits, and humans are like children that need his care and guidance. This warmth should have been the underlying notion for his character. He should not have been portrayed as an old man that slowly gets too old for the job, he is immortal unless killed and not revived by the gods. When he says so, it is more of a momentary mood or a joke. It just gets to him that he tried to guide so many beings while it didn't always work out well over the years.
This review may stand also for the other two Lord of the Ring movies and the second Hobbit, the first was kind of alright.
Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987)
A Part of My Childhood
When I was young, I couldn't miss any episode and it was part of my life. One thing that I liked very much was Patrick Steward's character, Captain Picard who really made me think about ethics. Nevertheless, especially from nowadays perspective, many episodes subversively dictated 'the' right way of seeing things. The other thing I mostly enjoyed was when 'historical' (speaking in terms of the meta-narrative) events occurred. This in hindsight became likewise tainted. Babylon 5, my personal revelation not only in terms of science fiction shows but also in terms of the way stories can be told through shows/mini-series in general, smoked up my childhood admiration of STNG. The latter was indeed a endless-loop show. No real beginning and no real end. The first episode, Farpoint Station, was actually one of these out-of-context episodes without any further relevance to any piece of storyline and the last, I can't even remember.
Street Fighter: Assassin's Fist (2014)
Childhood Dream Come True
First a side note, I registered at IMDb only so I can review this title.
When I was young I fantasized about things that 'they' should make movies on. The Transformers, Spiderman, Superman, etc. While most of these dreams came true in a good sense, there was even a recent extremely well executed one: The Lego Movie.
Street Fighter sadly belonged to the category of attempts better left alone, the animes aside. Now I watched SFAF and got blown away. I did not expect much despite the good IMDb rating. The initial fighting scene did not catch me but I warmed up to the movie's atmosphere quickly.
What surprised me was that the fighting choreography managed to incorporate the actual moves of the games while not being ridiculous. To the contrary, the fights are awesomely cool. The fighting scenes were perhaps due to the budget but nevertheless refreshing and down to the very well executed basics without overly relying on CGI (e.g. for time-bending effects). The effects were, considering the budget, very good and suited the overall appearance of the movie-somewhat raw, straightforward, cool. Another surprise was the quality of acting, especially that of Mike Moh and Christian Howard as Ryu and Ken. Their friendship has its ups and downs without being one-sided or boring. What totally put me to awe was the last fighting scene of Ken and Ryu which ended with a counter move that often happened while playing the actual game-a hadouken intercepted half-way by a shoryuken.
I hope the series will go on and not loose its charm, concentrating on a few fighters and sticking to a well-written story that allows the characters to develop and transport their emotion.