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The Last Duel (2021)
Flawed narrative
First of all there is a lot to like about this movie:
The setting, 14th century France was the first thing to peak my interest, and the reason I decided to watch the movie. In my opinion, medieval Europe with all the different houses and conflicts that span entire generations make a great setting to tell a gripping story. The first thing I noticed about the movie -during it's opening- were the realistic looking garments and armor and the attention to detail. I don't have extensive background knowledge about the time period, but to me it felt like there was a lot of research taking place before the movie was shot, do create a believable medieval setting. I boy running back to the castle, shouting that his lord has arrived back from war, a "normal" soldier is huged by his wife because he managed to come back, the singing is done in french, several different rites and rituals are performed for example during the wedding night, when Jean is knighted, or Jacques when is honoured with the castle.
The actors performed well, for the most part. For me personally Adam Driver stands out as the best performance but I was pleased to see, that Matt Damon did a good job as well. Only Ben Afflecks character feels more like a caricature, than an actual person.
Some things a had a mixed feeling about like the CGI, which most of the time didn't manage to convince me, and the battle scenes which felt impactless and without much consequences for the story.
The one thing, that broke the movies spine was it's narrative. I just couldn't get into the story the movies was trying to communicate, which isn't the storys fault. But the decision to split the movie up into several parts, to tell the story out of different perspectives is baffling to me. First of all it creates repetition, and there is quite a bit. Several scenes are shown twice in the movie without much variation. This adds up to a runtime, which is way to long for the basic story, the movie is trying to present. Contrary, The first perspective felt rushed. You were shown events that take place over the span of 15 or so years in about 35-40 minutes. Therefore some scenes are really short and only explain the very basics to keep the story propelled. This leads to you being constantly confused about the greater picture, for example why those wars are fought, which the movies basically ignores. Also, There is next to no link between the scenes and overall it feels very messy and disconnected. Additionaly it is very obvious where details are left out, because they wanted to reveal them later in the movie during the accounts of another character. This really drags the pacing of the movie down,because in your head you are already guessing what parts of the story are left out (and you will guess correctly), but you need to wait another 30 minutes or so until this plot threat is picked up again and you see the grand story reveal you knew was coming.
This combination of slow paced story progression mixed with way to much repetition, really is the reason, why the movie feels so uninteresting. I thing a conventional, chronological narrative, would have greatly improved the movie and without the added runtime that was caused by the repetition, there would have been more time to flash out the world and the greater conflict more.
The Sea Beast (2022)
Great first 20 minutes, afterwards "How to taim your dragon"
I really liked the first minutes where we get to know the characters on board of the Inevitable. The dynamic between those characters is really heartwarming and the idea of pirates fighting sea monster hooked me up.
Especially the relationship between captain Crow and his adopted son was well represented and acted. The vibe of the movie was like you would expect from a pirate movie with rough but warming characters even though it is animated.
I thought this movie would go the route of showing the competition between the old and the new ways with the moral beeing that the old ways can still be worth following, maybe with a bit of renewal by the captain's son.
Sadly I got disappointed after the first 20 minutes because the movie shifts to a more family friendly tone with cuddly sea creatures and becomes "how to taim your dragon". It's basically the same story in a different setting.
One could compare it in that sense to "Up" where the first 15 minutes where genuine to watch but afterwards it got way to kid friendly with speaking dogs..
Still I feel positive towards the characters which are all rather charming, so if you cannot get enough of the formula of "how to taim your dragon" I don't think there is a need to skip this one.