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dave-80382
Reviews
Oppenheimer (2023)
Turgid and full of cliché
The first hour of this film in particular has every cliché you've ever seen in a biographical movie come up again and again. What I found most annoying is this assumption that the audience can never understand any of the science involved in the story, so the makers substitute writing frantically on blackboards, cutting to sparks on a black screen, and the character being described as "brilliant genius", presumably because he can see the sparks whereas other people can't. Without any sort of context, the science is a meaningless abstract reference and the real story is lost. As for Cillian Murphy, he could have had a great career as a half forward for Nemo Rangers if he'd played his cards right and now look at him- sitting on an armchair stark naked in front of millions of people like an eejit.
Civilization VI (2016)
Send food and water
I'm pretty sure I hate this game. I'm pretty sure I deleted it already and swore to never mention it every again. But I'm still playing it. Why am I still playing it??! I'm starting to neglect bodily functions, relationships, language, my identity. Is this game any good? Please don't ask me as I do not have a sentient self who can respond to that question.
Dune (1984)
Aged badly, please read Frank Herbert's books!
I really loved this film when I was a kid, but watching it recently I found myself cringing. The books are amazing- if you watched this and got some inkling that there was something hidden and profound behind all the cheezy acting please go read the first three books, they really are some of the most creative sci-fi fiction that was ever written. It's unfortunate that so much of the film's dialogue comes out as portentous dribble, and it's often impossible to tell what's going on. Some of the stage and costume design is still beautiful and otherworldly, so it's still a good film as a spectacle, but the story just doesn't come across and some of the acting is terrible. A notable exception is the Baron Harkonnen, one of the most amazingly vile and batsh1t crazy villains ever, portrayed with scene-chewing perfection.
Aftermath: Population Zero (2008)
Poorly chosen music and bad foley and sound mixing ruin this documentary.
In the middle of this show there could be a fairly interesting documentary. There are some well researched facts such as those about nuclear facilities and the way concrete buildings collapse. There's also a lot of repetition and a lot of *DUNK*DUNK* very obvious statements. Still, it might have been an ok doc IF they had got rid of whatever idiot made the decisions about music and foley (sound effects). In film, the number one thing music and foley have to do it NOT intrude on the narrative, but they do the opposite in this one. Every five seconds there's a different godawful breakbeat sample or over-dramatic sound effect that totally drowns out the voiceover. It seems as if it was edited to the lowest common denominator, that is IF WE DON'T CONSTANTLY SCREAM AT THE ATTENTION DEFICIENT FOUR YEAR OLD WHO WE THINK IS OUR AUDIENCE THEY'LL TURN THE CHANNEL!! Take the narration, cut out the repetition, use subtle music and foley, cut the weird obsession about what will happen to first world landmarks and you could have had an ok documentary.
Senjo no Varukyuria: Garian keronikeruzu (2008)
Mandatory cut scenes destroy what could have been a great game
I usually play first person shooter games, this was my first attempt at a turn based strategy game. In fairness, there was a lot I liked about it. The gameplay was good, requires you to think strategically without being too difficult for a newbie like me. The story was fine. It had an element of cloying sentimentality that you often get in anime, but it was still good despite this. I loved some of the characters in it. The artwork is really well done in a sort of watercolour animation that doesn't make the environment seem too insubstantial. The reason I give this a 5 is because of there being no way to skip the cut scenes when you fail a level. It can be up to five minutes of arse numbing repetitive dialogue leading up to a battle, much of which seemed redundant the first time, before you can get back into the gameplay. This is particularly soul destroying for someone who's new to strategy games as you're naturally going to make a lot of mistakes as you learn. Eventually this got just too frustrating to sit through and I gave up on it.
Atomic Blonde (2017)
Style over substance
As with many films adapted from grapic novels the style and look of this film is excellent, creating a hyper-real post Glasnost Berlin. Unfortunately, the story is not anywhere near the same quality despite a cast of some great actors. The tone is quite variable, initially seeming to be an over-the-top exaggeration of what a spy's life would be, but then there is very lengthy and dull fight scenes with few flamboyant or fantastic elements. It seems that we should take these as gritty realism despite being shown blows from a slim waif landing with more force than those of the steroid taking heavyweights she is fighting.