Reviews

I have decided to watch this series because I recently heard various good opinions about the show. I'd like to believe that I watched it so you don't have to.

In all honestly, it's based on some quite interesting plot: humans make contact with an alien species which then heads to Earth to colonize it. So what would humans do now?

However, the rest is lacking on all levels. The dialogs are childish, the characters are dry - there's no connection with anyone, the story is rushed, the end... well, I won't say anything about the end in case you still want to see it.

The only think this series excels at is diversity. Netflix outdone itself in this area. But seriously, are viewers in 2024 so naive to fall for a character that is a world-renown specialist in particle accelerators, can read the entire CERN software code in a couple of days, finds engineering solutions to space travel and many others. You can only laugh.

But then again, this was written by D&D, who butchers GoT in the last seasons, so it all makes sense.

Before watching this movies, I looked at the ratings and the 64 on Metacritic felt harsh. After watching the movie, that's exactly the score I'd give it, 6.5. So let me explain.

The movie follows more the relationship between Napoleon and Josephine than Napoleon's achievements and failures, as a general and emperor. But while Kirby nails the Josephine character, Napoleon is vapid. Josephine is alive but Napoleon is dead inside. Phoenix is amazing when he portraits disturbed characters, but Napoleon was silent, grumpy, tasteless. There are a few scenes when he loses his temper and there you can see Phoenix doing what he knows best. This was not a role for him. They put a lot of fictional things in the movie (shelling the pyramids, drowning at Austerliz), they should have let Phoenix put a little madness in Napoleon.

The music is great but not for this movie. It builds the background for a comedy of errors. If this was the intention then it succeeded. But if the movie was supposed to be an epic it failed badly.

The battle scenes are not terrible but not great either. The battle of Waterloo was a bit revival in the end but too late to save anything.

Overall I give 10 to Josephine, 7 for battle scenes, 5 for Napoleon and 3 for the music.

I was hooked after the first episode of the show. The next day, I went to a bookshop, bought the book, and started reading it. I read a part then watch another episode and so on. I was surprised of how well the script followed the book. There are plenty of dialogs that are identical to the ones in the book. There is very rarely that you find something like this and that made me like it even more.

Now, of course, there are also things that they changed. In typical Netflix style they made a character black, another one gay, and even made Beth have a lesbian adventure. They also made some significant changes towards the end, when Jolene not just helps Beth overcome alcohol addiction but also lends her money to go to Moscow.

But apart from that the story mostly goes like in the book. The show definitely is worth watching.

Although quite old at this time (must have been in his late 60s even if he looks like early 40s) Uthred must fight another battle in the forging of England. So instead of making one more season of The Last Kingdom they decided to go with a roughly 2 hours movie. Which was OK. Certainly, this had little to do with history, as it was only loosely based on real people and events. It's also quite different than the Saxon Stories books but it's also loosely based on it. I no longer have hope of finding a historical movie being historical accurate. So I had no expectations from this movie and therefore no disappointments. Except for the fact that they made Æthelstan, who was one of the most pious West Saxon kings, gay. But that's expected from Netflix.

I watched this movie trying not to think about The Dark Knight. Any comparison with Nolan's classic would lead to disappointment because there will never be a Batman movie as good as that one. Therefore, avoiding any comparison, I found the movie pretty good. It actually exceeded my expectations, which were not great.

The movie is, in general, dark with most scenes in low light. It's also very slow. Everything seems to happen in slow motion. Batman seems taken aback all the time and moves slowly every time he doesn't fight. But this Batman is an emo hero. He paints his eyes in black so his mask openings don't reveal much of his eyes. He is depressed all the time. He's silent. He's not what you'd expect. It's not all bad but I was looking for a more energetic hero.

However, there were a few things that I didn't particularly like:

• the runtime is quite long. It could have been 20 minutes shorter without any problems
• the story tends to get complicated and difficult to follow at some point
• Selina's character is shallow and I don't really see her point in the story.

This is yet another sequel that is worse than the original, despite this one having a better metacritic score. Although funny at times the story is a tapistry of unfortunate errors and loopholes.

I don't know what the screen writers did, but I don't think they knew what they wrote a few pages back. Nothing makes sense in this story. If you want to enjoy the movie you must not ask questions like "who did that", "how did they ended up there", "but how", "why", etc. I could write a lenghly list of all these things but then I would spoil the movie and I don't like doing so with my reviews.

If you don't have what to watch and are looking for a short movie (90 min), go ahead. Otherwise, don't waste your time.

This is a review of season 1 exclusively.

I watched this docuseries because I was curious how Commodus would be portrayed. The only other portrayal I know was in Gladiator and that was only loosely based on the actual emperor. My overall impression is that they failed badly at presenting the character as he was in real life.

First of all, the pace of the series is very strange. Commodus ruled for 15 years (they said 13) but the way they present it makes it look like months at most. Things that took months in reality happen in a day or so in the series. The games before his death are wrongly depicted. Yes, Commodus fought in the arena but he didn't kill any gladiator. On the other hand, he is said to have killed hundreds of animals (100 lions in a single day). And people didn't enjoy his games at all. On the contrary. He didn't die stabbed but strangled. Other plots didn't occur in reality as they are mentioned in the series but I will not insist on them. You can look it up online.

But mostly, the series failed at depicting his madness. Because at some point he lost his mind and started believing he was a god, renaming Rome, and doing all kinds of things to fuel his grandeur. You don't really see that in the series until the very last days of his reign when the arena blood and the shouts of the people seems to get to this head.

Now, I'm looking forward to see how Caesar will be portrayed in the second season.

This was quite an enjoyable movie overall, with ups and downs. It is structured on short stories each focusing on a major character, something in the style of Quentin Tarantino. But unlike Tarantino there is significantly less dialog. The acting is good, in general, although I found Cristi's character a bit too inexpressive. The movie suffers, however, of some Romanian cliches: the mandatory, explicit, sex scene and the constant smoking. But at least there was no cursing, which was something unexpected.

The lowest point of the movie, for me, was the Magda character, who's role I didn't quite understood. What is she doing? I think they could have explained that better. As for the end, it was kinda rushed and superficial.

But overall, it worth watching.

If you have a good movie and want to make a bad sequel then hire Rian Johnson for it. He ruined Star Wars E8, he ruined Knives Out.

The first movie absolutely great. A compelling crime thriller with a great story and good acting. The sequel is everything else. From the very beginning you can notice a completely different style. It's mostly a parody for a lot of things: billionaires, COVID pandemic, social media, and many others. The acting doesn't stand out in any way and the story has a lot of loopholes.

And most of all, the ending is so childish. I don't know if it was to be a parody to something, or a symbol of something, but for me it was too much. Stupid and pointless.

I'm very disappointed of the sequel.

Not a bad movie but in no way it captured the magic of the book. In general, the movie followed the key events from the book but it felt short of imbueing the same feelings and emotions the book did with the readers.

What I didn't like:

• the narator should have been a woman
• at times, you can forget Germany is at war and how much regular people ar suffering because of it
• the character Rosa is not well developed
• you don't really get any glimps of the tragedy of Jews extermination not of what people that hid them went through

Like Lisel, who at some point describes the weather as pale, I will describe the movie likewise.

I have started watching this series after watching Obi Wan Kenobi, which was a complete disaster and disappointed. To my surprise and delight this series is the exact opposite. In fact is one of the best series I have seen (and I'm talking in general, not just Star Wars). Truth is, I am writing this after having seen only the first season, so I hope that the rest will not disappoint like other shows did.

Everything is great about this series. The stories are well written. The characters are beautifully shaped. Every single one is not just unique but credible. The acting is quite good in general. The music is a beautiful mesh of classic western and Star Wars. And the drawings that appear during the credits at the end of each episode are a great addition.

Definitely worth watching.

I expected more from this show but it's only marketing. Leia is 10 but looks like 6 and a bunch of grown up men cannot outrun her. The inquisitors are a characterless gang. And who cuts meat and leaves it on a table in the middle of the desert? Seriously, it' all dumb.

I hoped this would be something funny maybe even smart but it was just idiotic and not funny at all. Does not worth the time. There is no beginning and no end. There is nothing making sense. There is little making you laugh. Look for something else.

The Matrix is the best movie of all times but this is a sad, poor joke of a sequel. Nothing makes any sense, everything is a copycat. There is no story, there are no characters. It's a waste of time to watch. I don't know where to start describing the movie, so I'll only say it was a waste of time to watch it. Don't make that mistake.

This movie is really good. It is an amazing portrayal of the horrors of war. It has several stories that woven beautifully and the acting is really good. It definitely worth watching.

I don't often watch 70 years old movies but the plot seemed interesting and I was not disappointed. It's a great movie with a cast delivering a very good performance. The story is well written, often funny but deliverying some good lessons. Definitely worth watching.

Overall not a bad movie but not very good either. Patrick Stewart does a great acting, as usual. But there isn't much more than that. There is little character developent, and the story is thin and very predictible. And too much piano music accompanying every scene.

I don't think I have seen so much blood since Carrie. The story has an interesting plot and an arguably good and funny development. But the movie does not raise to the expectations. The acting is not great, the scenes are too graphic, and the story is easily predictible.

This is movie that exceeded my expectation. It's a comedy that sometimes makes you roll on the floor laughing. But beyond that it touches so well on a tabu subject. Not only that pigs cannot be eaten but they can't even touch the ground in Israel and Palestina. So what do you do when you find one? Definitely worth watching.

Years ago when I saw that a silent black and white movie won five Oscars I was speechless. Little did I know. It doesn't take much except for a few good actors and a good story to make great art. The movie was beyond expectations and truly one of a kind among modern movies.

I have problems figuring what this film was all about. But what I can tell you is that rogue, lonely programmers cannot build robots like that. Especially when they are drunk so often. It takes large teams and massive efforts. That's why it hasn't been done yet. The movie kinda lost me at this stage. I don't what to spoil the film with details about the androids but they were so unrealistic even for a SF movie. Definitely not Oscar material even though one of the actors is called Oscar.

I watched this movie not having too many expectation. However, I was surprised from the very beginning. The movie emphasizes so well the pressure media and fans put on tennis players (and athletes in general). The pressure Borg felt in 1980 during the Wimbledon tournament and the burnout that led him to retire from tennis in 1981 at the age of 26. I particularly loved the way the movie shows how Borg turned from a teenager that was a volcano on court into an adult "iceman" that didn't show emotions. And then hints at McEnroe learning to restrain himself on the court. This movie is worth better ratings. I really enjoyed it.

This is a typical Mel Gibson film that combines action, humor, and explosions. It's based on the typical Mexican clichés with bad guys and corrupt cops, and a prison that is the metaphor of a corrupt Mexican town. But if you are looking for an action movie with Mel Gibson in the lead should be good enough for watching.

Years ago, I used to watch the master chef show but I gave up on that because I thought it was too theatrical and staged. Watching this movie brought back memories of that show and really made me wonder is a restaurant's kitchen such a hell? People working there seem to be under a constant huge pressure. Not the kind of job that is easy. The movie is enjoyable although with a typical happy ending.

I really enjoyed the movie. Even though it was rather long I didn't feel the time passing. It's catchy and has a good pace to keep you focused. As far as I could read about the events, it's in general more accurate than I would have expected. Christian Bale does a good role, nothing short than what I expected.