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Reviews
The Last of Us: Infected (2023)
Catching the vibe of the game
I like this episode because as a fan of the 1st game this episode feels entirely like how it felt like playing this game. The tension and danger and the sense of realism that you're gone if you make one little mistake. I still don't like Bella Ramsey as Ellie because I just don't like her face for some reason. Underbite, little beady eyes and a mean look in her eyes. She just reminds me of bullies.
Pedro Pascal is becoming more convincing to me each episode as Joel. At first I thought he was a bit too scrawny for the role of Joel because the only way to survive this zombie wasteland is to be a big bulky strong guy. But that feeling has waned away and I think he's alright.
The changes they made compared with the game about the cordyceps strings and that it's more of a network works as well I guess. If you step on a alive piece of cordyceps you might trigger the zombies who are connected 100 meters away. This was not the case in the game. I am curious if they keep this throughout the whole tv-series. I also like the flashbacks to Indonesia where they found out about the fungus and the explanation.
I am not convinced about the look of the clickers. They still feel very human too me in the tv-show. Actors with some sort of shroom as a hat. I think they could have done a better job. I think it's because the human inside doesnt feel that far gone yet. And in the game the clickers have become really something else.
The Last of Us: When You're Lost in the Darkness (2023)
An OK start
Loved the 1st game. Hated the story and characters of the 2nd game. And as I know now that we will dig into the story of the 2nd game that doesn't really give me high hopes of keeping to watch this. Neil Druckmann is a giant extreme leftie and it shows in everything he does. The 1st game he wasn't the writer but he took over, fired the writer and then wrote the 2nd game which has an awful story. He is all about forcing diversity, feminism and making everything gay. It already starts with the casting of Joel, Tommy and his daughter. In the game they were white. In the tv show they are latino and the daughter was mixed race. So the race swapping isn't a good start. To me that means that he is deliberately poisoning the story of the 1st game for the tv-show as he had no big part in writing the original story for the 1st game. If HBO had brains they would have bought the rights of the Last of Us with the condition that Neil Druckmann could not be within a 1000 mile radius of the production.
That said Pedro Pascal is allright I guess. I don't like Bella Ramsey as Ellie at all because she doesn't have a face that I can sympathize with. She looks like a bully with mean eyes. Anna Torv as Tess is fine. The 1st episode does match the vibe of the game and the surroundings, music and cinematography are superbly done.
But it's certainly not a 10, 9 or 8. It's a solid 7. I think people are giving this show high scores because we finally are getting a decent video game adaptation. I don't trust Neil Druckmann at all. I think he's an imposter with a messiah complex that wants to implement his identity politics into everything he touches.
The Witcher (2019)
Mediocre to bad
This show is mediocre on a lot of fronts. Some things are good and some are plain awful. The main cast is good I guess with Yennefer, Ciri and Geralt but everything else is horrendous. It's supposed to be in some sort of magical alternative version of Central - Northern Europe. There is even someone called "de Vries" which is one of the most regular Dutch surnames out there (I'm Dutch). Somehow the showrunners decided to cast black actors for the roles of villagers, knights in shining armor in a medieval fantasy version of the Slavic countries. It looks absolutely ridiculous.
I think there is a golden rule with fantasies and that you should always treat it the same way you would treat historical movies based on true events even if the fantasy is made up. You can't just change the demography of a fantasy just because it is a fantasy. Black actors dressed up in medieval knight armor just looks stupid. There weren't any black people living in medieval Europe around 1200 so there shouldn't be in a mythical version of it either. A fantasy show only works if the world it takes place in feels relatable to the viewer so you get immersed into the story so when the magical part of the fantasy kicks in you are more easy to accept the magic. If you decide to copy-paste the demography of a modern big USA city like New York into a fantasy show that takes place in medieval mythical version of something that resembles Europe you immediately take away the immersion of that world and the magical part won't get accepted at all. Unfortunately this means there is just not a lot of work to be found in these kind of shows for black, asian, indian etc actors.
I would not want to see any white actors in Asian fantasies either unless it makes sense. At some point our hero travels to a country that looks more exotic and warm and we encounter 2 black female warriors and they do look kind of that they are supposed to be there just because it makes more sense to the surroundings they are in that scene. Diversity in fantasy shows have to make sense. Immersion in fantasy shows is so important.
The script, storytelling, pacing, character building is absolutely the worst I have ever seen. It's only in episode 4 or something I realised that I was watching multiple timelines in no apparent order. All the other castings besides the main 3 all lack charisma. There is a queen there that just makes my physically feel bad every time I see her. A king that looks like a hotdog vendor. Extra's that look like they just walked from their local Robin Hood play or something like that. Haircuts are just the haircuts from today. Bad costumes, mediocre music. The bard is way too modern. He looks and sounds like a boybandmember who travelled through time.
Haven't read the books nor played the games but this looks like a tv show from the '90s.
Somebody Feed Phil (2018)
Horrendous
This show was so cringy I could not even finish 1 episode. This guy is over the top surprised and jolly and cheerful and it's al so fake. They should have called this show "Somebody Punch Phil!" He's not funny at all. He knows nothing about food. He thinks he is cute with his surprised look and big eyes.
Maybe this for elderly people or something? Maybe they think "awww what a nice you man!".
Rim of the World (2019)
Cringefest.
Once again the creators focus too much on diversity and political correctness and completely ignore to write a well written script with likable characters. The bad thing is they didn't even get the political correctness right. That is how bad it is. For example they celebrate black culture and apparently it's nothing more than pimpin'. This movie could have been saved if all kids had horrific death scenes but that didn't happen unfortunately. Are all good writers dead nowadays or are they on a leash by the pc police?
Russian Doll (2019)
It's not a 10! But still ok...
I think a lot of the reviews here are made by bots or people from the extreme left. The show is allright but it's swamped with feminism and diversity in a way that it gets childish. The lead role is basically a chain smoking dude but they casted a woman for the role. That is what feminism is nowadays. Girl power apparently is attributing male aspects to a female role instead of celebrating the difference what makes a woman a woman. The writers of the show seem to shock the crowd with the lesbian couples but we don't care. It just seems childish to do. The same goes for the swearing of the lead actress. Constant swearing isn't really that fun. If you don't swear and only swear where it actually counts those swear words actually land better.
Besides all that the show is pretty good but not a 9 or 10. People from the left tend to give these shows extra points because it features feminism, diversity etc but they don't attribute to this shows quality at all. And let's face it these topics only really matter for the brainwashed extreme left and unfortunately Hollywood is now riddled with this mindset.
But as I said despite all that nonsense I was still able to enjoy this show. The co-lead actor did a good job. 8 episodes who were all well edited and fortunately they didn't push the left views to the point of absurdity. I finished the series in 2 binge evenings.
Black Lightning (2018)
Written bij 12 year old SJW's
Wow this show is bad. It's like they set a goal to have the entire production team black including the writers to promote having more black people in those jobs and they could not find good enough black writers so they just hired some sjw kids instead to reach the quota. Everything feels like it's 20 years too late. All the social commentary within this show.
The entire show is over the top black. Each track of the soundtrack is some sort of hiphop track or old jazz song by black musicians. I mean I even do get that at some point but the choices they made are so freaking bad. It distracts a lot of times. Oooooh and look everybody! A black female doctor! Woooowww black people CAN be smart! This is how they present it. It would have been 10 times better if they just presented in a way that a black female doctor is so normal it's almost not worth to mention it. Characters are constantly quoting figures from black history it's ridiculous and insulting the viewers.
Then we have the lead actor who plays Black Lightning. He seems to be stoned all the time. When he needs to act to be angry he's just angry because he don't know how to act angry. The way he smiles I want to punch him. I feel no sympathy at all for him. For none of the characters actually. And the suit is just stupid. It gives light! Come on.
I hate identity politics and sjw topics and this show is packed with it. Why can't we get a good written show written by talented writers that were picked based on their talent and not their gender or color. Just look at the Wire and Treme shows. Both center around black communities and they were awesome to watch.
Contact (1997)
Nice sci-fi but director tries to force misplaced sentiments through your throat
I'm kind of sciencefiction fanatic but for some reason Contact never attracted me. But after hearing some OK stories I decided to view it after all this time it was released.
Beforehand I knew it was about mankind making contact with an alien source and the whole builtup to that happening was executed very good. The whole deciphering part of the signal felt a bit like an Indiana Jones adventure. Very smart writing.
What I didn't like at all was that I felt the director was trying to please both the church goers and scientists. I got no clue at all why a huge chunk of the story was reserved for a science vs religion debate. What was the point? And to please the atheists/scientist a fundamental Christian terrorist was thrown in. Like he wanted to say "hey you can't blame me that I must be sponsored by the church! I wrote a Christian terrorist in the story!" It all felt really misplaced for me. Like a scene from a different movie. They could have written out the whole Matthew McConaughey part and it would be a better movie. His role was just stupid.
For a scifi geek the whole building of the wormhole-portal machine was just great. And it got even better when the whole travelling part began. After watching the intro of the movie where we saw the planet Earth zooming out to our Galaxy, then clusters and then the whole Universe I was hoping that something would happen again and it did. With wormhole travelling. It really felt like a roller-coaster ride.
The actual arrival on the alien planet felt a bit disappointing. The alien who dressed up as her dad was lame. Maybe it was original then but I just wanted to see the imagination of what an alien lifeform would look like according to the director. So that was disappointing.
So if the story would be all about Jody Fosters ambition without the pointless religion crap and the love affair with Matthew McConaughey I would have given it an 8 probably. Now a 6 but still a good watch.