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jonasholub
Reviews
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes (2023)
Awesome depiction of Snow
President Snow is an amazing character in the original trilogy. This movie does an amazing job of describing the events that lead to Snow's character. We get to know why he's so hesitant with trust and careful with emotion.
What needs a special mention is the sound design of this piece. I got to see it will Dolby Atmos and I must say, the subtle usage of music that is undisturbing yet powerful really proves that the sound is even more important than the visuals. I don't mean to disgrace the visuals and cinematography. The iconic Hunger games camera shake and cold-corrected color is not present in this movie, and to be honest, I'm quite glad. It is a great movie, story and cinematographically-wise.
Every fan of Hunger games is basically obligated to watch it.
Triangle of Sadness (2022)
Please help
This movie does not exist to make profit, entertain or gain attention. It just simply exists. The amount of pain I felt watching this is nothing I experienced before. It makes you ask the question, how on Earth can these people without basic life skills become rich. It makes you realize, that the upper class cannot function without the lower class whereas the lower class with manage just fine on their own.
When I was watching this, my brother walked into the room and wanted to join. He asked me about the plot, there wasn't one. Whatever the story was, you had no idea what happens next.
So why I rate it 90%? Firstly, it met all expectations I had. Secondly, it was actually fun to watch. The "story" wasn't too slow or too fast paced, the characters had somewhat of character defining features and were actually interesting.
In conclusion, I recommend everyone to watch this piece, but I recommend you prepare a pillow to scream into.
Rebecca (2020)
Great movie, not as good of an adaptation
Spoilers in this review are labelled.
Before I claim anything, you should be advised, that besides the movie itself I have also watched the musical adaptation from Austria.
First, let's break down the cinematography of the movie. Ben Wheately portrayed the emotion of the story well and included every single deatil required.
Major spoilers coming.
I especially appriciate the finale of the movie, when Mrs. Danvers sets Manderley on fire and talks with Me (the protagonist of the movie who isn't named) and jumps off the cliff to join Rebecca, who she admired and loved, in the ocean. The wide shot, implaying the scale of the situation and providing one last look at the boathouse of Manderley before in collapses in fire really gives goosebumbs to the viewer and serves as one of the best closures I've ever seen, direction-wise and story-wise.
As I've never read the book, I cannot rate the movie's resemblance of the original book. However, if you know me, you know I don't consider true portraition of the book as important. The movie provided an artistic and storytelling value just like the book ar the musical version.
Another thing that deserves recognition, is the cast. Armie Hammer did an amazing job at playing the character of Maxim de Winter. Sadly, I was not as happy with Mrs. Danvers as I was in the musical. I really like her character, but in the movie, it looked like she burned down Manderley because she was desprate. Her burning down Manderley because she hates how Me tries to 'replace' and Maxim for murdering the woman she loved fits such a strong character better, at leas in my opinion. Lastly, let's just mention that Mrs. Van Hopper was extremely entertaining and well portrayed as she always is.
End of spoilers.
In conclusion, the movie is great and really worth watching if you've seen or read another adaptaion already. I'm not saying that you should cross it off your watchlist if you don't know the story yet, but I recommend checking another adaptation before.
Code 8 (2019)
Surprisingly good
Originally, I've only watched the short film on YouTube. I must say, the improvement is amazing. From what felt more like a trailer, they've created an amazing movie.
Spoilers incoming! Personally, I think a simple scene showing what happened to the main protagonist would make the ending even better. Otherwise, the character writing of Connor Reed is very good. Seeing him accepting the faith of his mother and choosing to save a stranger instead was insanely well written. End of spoilers.
I must appreciate the outstanding work of the composer, Ryan Taubert, his music perfectly fits the movie and is used in an appropriate way.
In conclusion, seeing a movie about a city full of superhumans can create a feeling of a poorly written or a childish movie, but Code 8 absolutely breaks this stereotype and presents an amazing work of art.