emiel78 Reviews

Alex Rider (2020–2024)

Surprisingly good for an adaptation of teen spy books.

[9/10 · 18 January 2022]

The story is sometimes somewhat cliché, and there are some teenage drama elements in it that don't add all that much. But the moment that the story gets into the mystery surrounding point blanc, it starts to have a great pace, the characters have the right amount of character building and the action is well done but not overly unrealistic. The acting is good and for once there is an action spy series that does not have the teenage narrow-minded and short attention span pace that riddles so many bunk series out there. Also, there is very little woke nonsense in the series, which is another nice surprise. This series surprised me in a good way. I think it is worth the watch.

Don't Look Up (2021)

Depressing, boring and humourless collection of caricature clichés

[5/10 · 28 December 2021]

I have absolutely no clue why this movie has gotten so many positive reviews. This was a failed attempt at a relevant cultural critique of the US and UK. It was overdone, there were no surprises to laugh at. The whole message of the movie can be summed up in a set of cliché pseudo-intellectual critiques of all those so-called professional media critics, the division of the states is due to moronic Trumpism and superficial blowhard internet warriors. Like always, exceedingly overly simplistic and one-sided. It is a depressing and boring movie that does not deserve the title of comedy. There was nothing to laugh at in the movie, it is just an overly simplistic summary of what the western world has become and why any attempt of holding on to the belief in humanity is a waste of time. If you want to push people further into a depression, they should watch this movie. The three good things were the acting, actors and the few actual special effects.

Debris (2021)

A lot of potential by a network that more often dissapoints by canceling and or self-sabotaging.

[9/10 · 13 March 2021]

The fact that you are thrown in the middle of the story and that the scenes are sometimes a bit messy. This show has the feeling of Fringe at its best. I really love it, I actually like how the two main characters don't fit all that well. It gives more gaps and mysteries for the show to fill, a lot of potential for growth in the stories. I also love the amount of mystery in the rest of the story.

It's sad that this show is doomed from the start as it is on NBC which don't do well with complex sci-fi shows, they tend to sabotage these shows by airing the show at impossible times for a normal amount of attention from people, thus too little people will watch it and the show gets canceled for small-minded simplistic quick drama shows with regurgitated clichés and emotional hollowness.

What I don't like is the overly short-sighted and small-minded reviews about this show. That there is no real story yet, that there is too much unknown. And this for the first episodes. Almost like people are used to quick and superficial stories that target small attention span teenagers from western countries like the US and UK.

DON'T LISTEN TO THE OBVIOUS HATERS!

Project Power (2020)

Didn't expect as much as many reviewers did, was pleasantly surprised.

[7/10 · 14 August 2020]

I knew this movie was coming and considering the track record of Netflix lately I wasn't expecting much. But I was pleasantly surprised. I expected the intersectional check list to be thick on this one. This was actually not the case. Whilst there were some mentioning of systemic racism, it felt more natural to the movie and was not forced. The story line was a bit bland, the bad guys were a bit superficial but the acting of the main characters was good, the concept of powers in pills was actually a great and unique one and the special effects were good. They could have made better use of this but nonetheless not bad at all. I think this movie was better than many of the previous new films and series of Netflix. Because I thought this movie was a pleasant surprise but the story was a bit bland and superficial I give it an 7.

Warrior Nun (2020–2022)

Filled with cliches an the political undertones are a bit too obvious.

[6/10 · 4 July 2020]

The title was already a bit of turnoff. However, after watching episode 1, I got interested, I actually like the recalcitrant agnostic teenager in a religious world. It gave it some interesting character development potentials that the show did not really write in the story, sadly. Beyond some good action and CGI the show contains all the intersectional and critical theory clichés, meaning that it has an unnaturally diverse group of women (it has an Asian, African American, Mexican, Lesbian and Caucasian, which is becoming very forced as all new series in Netflix have those minority representatives, no variation always those as if they have a standard list with minorities that have to be in the series), at least three of them overly aggressive and overcompensating (not really strong women, but just copying aggressive male behavior). I actually like the overcompensating overly stereotyped character named shotgun Mary, she is actually bad ass but does not really feel in place. The story is the most cliché of all, science is bad vs religion is right and good. All white man are evil and all women are good.

Netflix really has to find a way to incorporate their political agenda in a more natural way into the stories of their new series as in their last attempts of series the agenda is laid so thick on top that you can't get around it. It distorts the story lines and distracts from the main story. I don't mind that they want to include minorities in their stories and that a bit of suffrage is shown. But it feels very forced and every new series has the same amount, it does not vary and it does not help Netflix at all. The last 5 or 6 series that have come out had the same thick layer of politics and it's getting boring and cliché very quickly, I don't want American politics forced unto me, I want quality entertainment, be it with or without left politics, but it has to be done well and it should not distort the stories as much as it is doing now.