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Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore (2022)
Confusion galore
The beginning was awful, the middle was ok, the ending was horrible. But more than just a meh movie, this movie actually managed to leave me feeling insulted. Insulted because I felt like the movie took me for a fool and ruined some established Harry Potter canon for me. I kept wondering what happened to the J. K. Rowling who wrote in meticulous detail, because this was written by someone who just didn't give a darn about plot holes, character assassination, canon, or really, anything.
The movie was very confusing. Not only did it take me a while to understand that Depp had been booted and replaced from the series (which made Mikkelsen's role super-confusing at first), but also the characters did things and acted in ways that were never explained. Several very important plot points were explained poorly or not at all. For instance, how did a German Ministry election turn into a what appeared to be an International world leader election? What was up with Credence's behaviour/health throughout the movie? What was the logic behind Newt's copied cases? Why was Kowalski brought along to the mission in the first place?
This movie seemed to expect viewers either to be really dumb or too high to care. Unlike the consistently maturing Harry Potter series, this series contains very naive definitions and portrayals about good and bad, here especially exemplified by Quilins' ability to see the pure goodness in people. And somehow, insanely, the Quilin didn't pick warm-hearted Kowalski or ultra-altruistic and honest Newt, but went for Dumbledore, whose established character in the Harry Potter books is definitely not "pure good and honesty".
What I hated most about this film was that it robbed me of the "not-good not-bad" Dumbledore and superimposed an idealized good father archetype back into his character in a very blunt way. I also hated the fact that Dumbledore was outed so casually in the first scene and that there were no attempts to bringing emotional depth into his relationship with Grindelwald. Heck, not even the actors had any resemblance of chemistry. I always thought it was canon that Grindelwald kept some sense of sentimentalism towards Dumbledore (didn't he refuse to help Voldemort because of it??) but either I was wrong or this movie went blatantly against the canon, because this Grindelwald didn't care about Dumbledore at all.
If I were J. K. Rowling and had written this screenplay, I would feel quite ashamed by this end result. But I suppose she is cackling somewhere with her millions, too busy to care. I used to be her big fan as a child and teenager, but I no longer expect anything sensible to come out of her quill.
You (2018)
A pseudorealistic take on a relationship between a psychopath and his girlfriend
The moment psychopathic Joe Goldberg sets his eyes on clueless Guinevere Beck at his bookstore, he - and ultimately she - is a goner. Being the psychopath that he is, he immediately begins to idealize this wannabe-writer with boundary issues of her own.
With a couple of exceptions, we as viewers follow Joe's narration as he falls into an instant state of narcissistic idealization for Beck and, taking her cash-register flirtations as an invitation to force himself into her life, he begins to stalk her, fuelled by fantasies of her and their future 'perfect' life together. We are presented with all his justifications for stalking, breaking and entering, petty thievery and murder on the premise of forever-ever, born-at-first-glance love. Or 'everythingship' as he himself would call it.
Joe's narration remains so sincere and detailed throughout the show that it is easy as a viewer to forget that he, a psychopathic stalker and killer who occasionally dips into psychotic states, is clearly an unreliable narrator whose assessments of himself and other people should perhaps not be taken as the truth. Despite the seeming discord between his positive portrayal of Beck and the actual character Beck, she turns out to be a rather shallow woman, who appears to have a habit of forming blurry-lined relationships with the close people in her life, all who take positions of caring for her (at the expense of her boundaries and autonomy). This includes eventually Joe, but also her rich narcissistic friend-slash-occasional-sugar-mama Peach, and eventually even her therapist. We at some point even see her more healthy friends (with referral to Blythe, her author friend) closing down her social media sites and barring her the use of internet for her best interests in mind, which she happily agrees to.
Occasionally clumsily attempting to delve into her own psyche in an attempt to free her creative flow and to become independent of her friends' opinions of how she should be living her life, most of Beck's character development consists of her falling from the manipulative, sexually obsessed grip of her narcissistic friend Peach straight into the arms of Joe, without much questioning the controlling and competitive dynamics between her and those closest to her. Thus easy prey for manipulators, she remains oblivious to the unhealthy obsessions Peach and Joe both harbor towards her, at least until the very end of the season, where she finds Joe's creepy stash full of psychopath trophies and ends up locked in his book-cellar-slash-prison. Resistant to actual Stockholm Syndrome - a somewhat surprising feat for an imprisoned woman who has boundary issues and is used to jamming with sociopathic people, including her lover-turned-captor - she cooks up a fake Stockholm Syndrome moment and attempts to escape, but breaks Joe's heart with her insincerity and he turns against her at last.
All in all, this tv show was quite binge-worthy but it is probably best to be taken as a portrayal of psychopathological relationship dynamics rather than trying to find any normal logic in the characters' behaviors. Personally I found this show to portray pretty accurate behaviours and thought patterns of people who would qualify to the diagnoses which the show's main characters are portraying. My only qualm was about Joe's surprisingly long-lasting and constant idealization with Beck, which never turned into overt devaluation or hostility, not even during her telling him that she had cheated on him. Yes, the show could have taken itself more seriously to increase some horror value (Joe is no Dexter, clearly), but I don't think it even attempted to be anything besides what was it is: a melodramatic binge-show with humorous undertones.
Good Morning-Call: Guddo môningu kôru (2016)
Do girls really like jerks?
This show is both endearing and entertaining. However, I had to stop watching it around ep 10. because I just couldn't bring myself to watch the so called "love story" anymore. I kept hoping it would be a growth story where the girl eventually realises she's worth more than this cold, uncaring and controlling jerk. I experienced much the same feeling when I was reading Twilight. Alas, I was disappointed on both counts. I believe that for most Western viewers this show is quite shocking in terms of how far the main character goes to please the guy who shows her no interest and repays her kindness by consistently treating her poorly, instead of realising that she's being taken advantage of. The unequal power balance between Uehara and Nao probably ties in with Japanese values and women's traditional role, but personally I found it quite unbearable to watch. In fact, I think their relationship even borders on emotional and physical abuse. Watching him emotionally neglect her while gobbling down her cookings and making her carry all the grocery bags is one thing but by ep 10 when he pushes her away when she's trying to hold his hand is just terrible. If this was a Western show it would take feminist issues back decades, however as a Japanese show I suppose I can't judge it quite as harshly. Still, I can't help but wonder why anyone would find the relationship between Nao and Uehara ideal; I was hopelessly rooting for Daichi until the very end as I utterly dislike Uehara's character. He may say he loves her but he sure doesn't treat her like it. Nevertheless the premise was fun and to my surprise I really like Nao's character despite disagreeing with her choices. The actress does a pretty good job there.
Misfits (2009)
Excellent, until it's not
The first 2 seasons are hilarious. However, after that things really take a turn for the worse. Nathan was the character that made the show because everyone else just basically reacted to him. The guy who showed up to take his mantle is just terribly unlikeable. I really don't even want to watch him, and I couldn't care less about him. And I have no clue after an entire season about what is his relationship with the rest of the crew? How does he fit in? Why have the others accepted him as part of the group? What does he bring to the table besides disgusting jokes and a horrid accent? He has no personal relationship with any of the other characters! The later seasons also lack a story arch which just made it so boring.
Spectre (2015)
Great cast, bad script and directing
What do you get when you put Voldemort, Moriarty and that nazi villain from Inglourious Basterds in the same movie? If your first thought is "pure epicness", well, sadly you would be wrong. Even great character actors could not save this movie. The real problem lies in a poor scripting and directing. First of all, there is nothing in this movie that couldn't be guessed withing the first 10-minutes. The plot and so called "twists" are rather blatantly thrown in your face within the first minutes. Also, maybe not go with such obvious and typecast villain actors if there's supposed to be twists, hmm? Despite this, it was oddly difficult to comprehend what the heck was happening withing the first hour or so: Bond seemed to randomly go meet some people, and it took me half the scene to orient myself why he was doing what he was doing. I just kept waiting for the real plot to begin.
The movie just felt very lazy. There was a good idea somewhere there, but due to the lack of subtlety and anticipation, it just fell flat. It's also obvious that there will be a sequel to this Spectre thing, and I honestly don't know how they could kick any life to this born dead horse.
The blonde woman was a really bad casting call btw. She was lacking in the kind of toughness and charisma that she was meant to portray; she was instead just a pretty face in high heels. She was also too young to play an "Oxford and Sorbonne psychology graduate", and also too young for the now- graying Craig. Although, since Bond movies generally employ really young women, I'll let that one slide... but other than that, no real chemistry between her and Craig, she seemed almost resigned to play just another blonde one- night stand. Hence our surprise when all of a sudden they were supposed to be in love. What?!
Many of the movie's actors, some of who have played iconic villains in other movies and are therefore guaranteed to be actors worth their salt, were disappointing here. The script probably didn't give them much to work with.
C's character could have been completely written out of the script and nothing would have gone amiss. If anything, M's character could have been more throughoutly examined if that had been the case; a bureaucrat fighting for his unit in the face of an organisation-level change, against the demands of faceless "higher-ups" who send him memos or other impersonal communication. All in all, maybe die-hard fans are able to enjoy this, but for casual viewers like myself it just felt like a flat, money- grubbing Hollywood attempt to milk the franchise for all it's worth.
Stereotypical and often corny, it's an easily forgottable action movie which leaves viewers' heads blank enough to wonder totally arbitrary stuff during the movie. Examples include: why did Monica Bellucci have to awkwardly stand in grass wearing Lomboutins? The heels are clearly sinking into the ground. Why does it seem like there's no people in the entire cities of Rome and Vatican during the car chase? Is the sexy hentai tentacle opening in fact the most corny opening of all time? Is that what Putin would look like, if he was making out with Monica Bellucci? Did the Mr. White character intentionally channel Walter White/ Heisenberg in his near-death log- cabin times? I guess we'll never know. But for a budget of 300 million, I sure as heck expected better.