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LukeL72
Reviews
The Acolyte: Destiny (2024)
Terrible writing and cheap visuals
Sigh... I thought the first two episodes were mediocre but this one is on another level.
The writing has taken a nosedive. Dialogs sound completely flat, unnatural and contrived and characters keep contradicting themselves over the course of a single episode.
Seriously what is going on ? How something so flawed on so many levels could be approved for release in the first place ? It feels like reading a badly written fan-fiction.
It was embarrassing to watch, from the many inconsistencies of the plot to some very cringe-inducing scenes and to how pathetic the Jedis are portrayed.
However the most stunning thing to me is that, contrary to the first two episodes, it also managed to look visually bad. To look cheap. For a Star wars production with such a high budget this is astonishing. To be honest I'm not sure I'm going to finish that series. On my previous review I wrote that, at least, the first two episodes were watchable. This... is barely watchable.
The Acolyte: Lost/Found (2024)
A very dull start
Well the series is not off to a good start.
Those first two episodes were very dull. The writing is poor, contrived and already full of noticeable holes. But I think the acting is where the show really falls off a cliff. The dialog delivery feels constantly forced and unnatural, with little life or personality coming from the actors. It continues that annoying trend of shallowly stoic figures that end up feeling as stiff, natural and relatable as a plank of wood. It's frankly stunning how very talented actors like Lee Jung-jae and Carrie-Anne Moss are wasted here.
Having said that the production value was pretty good in my opinion, with generally solid visuals and interesting designs but the gap with the writing created a strange contrast that kept pulling me out as I watched.
I can't say I was hooked by the plot either. The story is slow, way too coincidental and very predictable. You see the twists coming from a mile away which is not exactly what you want for a murder mystery.
So far the best compliment I can give it is it's watchable, unlike something like Obi Wan and visually pleasing but wow does this underwhelm in every others areas. In the end it simply was very boring to watch. I hope the next episodes manage to get the show back on track but so far it's not looking good.
Doctor Who (2023)
What did happen to Doctor Who ?
That new season of Doctor who is leaving much to be desired in my opinion. It feels as though the series has been rebooted as a children show while, in the same time, being too charged with adult undertones to be that.
It made those two episodes hard to watch. The writing is all over the place, frantic, shallow and preachy at times, and most jokes fell flat. The acting performance wasn't great either. Ncuti Gatwa's felts too whimsical and trying too much to act cool to be convincing as the new doctor.
In the end it didn't really feel like Doctor Who at all to me and I'm worried about the future of that show. It's not in a good place right now and has steadily been going downhill since Peter Capaldi left in my opinion.
The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023)
A great time
The Mario movie is a big love letter to all fans out there. It's playful, absolutely full of little references and brimming with passion.
I connected a lot with it but perhaps not as much as i expected to. I felt the narration was pretty disjointed, and the world and its rules could have had a bit more development. All in all I feel the story missed perhaps 10 minutes in transitions between places and explanations and, as a result, ended up feeling a little bit forced at times.
Having said that it was still a lot of fun and I had an excellent time watching it and many scenes put a silly grin on my face. I would recommend it without any hesitation to anyone who once played a Mario game.
The Marvels (2023)
A mediocre show
I admit I went to this movie with some reservations and mostly because my kids wanted to see it. So my expectations weren't exactly sky-high. Still, I expected something at least mildly entertaining that we could talk about on our way back home. As it turned out that movie didn't even manage that.
The Marvels ... is a complete, jumbled mess. It's all over the place with choppy editing that leave you with a vague impression of watching something unfinished. It switches abruptly its tone back and forth, making you even more confused. Visually it wasn't great either with an over-over saturation of pretty bad and flashy special effects.
The characters were bland, poorly written and un-relatable. As for the villain it has to be the most pathetic antagonist I have seen in a really long time. Seriously, who green-lighted that character ?
I just didn't manage to connect for a single second with that movie during its course and just wanted it to end. Now it's not the worst thing ever like I have seen some people write in their reviews, but it was aggressively mediocre.
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (2022)
A huge disappointment
This series is, quite frankly, a mess...
It has some visually pleasing moments and nice scenery but the writing is extremely poor and each characters looked bland and inexpressive, with embarrassing lines of dialog. I simply didn't manage to build a connection with a single one of them.
Worse than that, the show is not particularly entertaining, being downright boring at time. There is very little build up, ridiculously obvious plot twists, vague stakes and it's just hard to get hooked to what little story it offers. I'm not really sure what is going with the writing team but some serious self-reflection is needed here and perhaps a return to the basis. For the most expensive series of all time, taking place in the beloved LOTR universe, to say it was disappointing is putting it lightly.
Warcraft (2016)
A mediocre fantasy movie
I'm a little puzzled about some of the other reviews and I'm wondering if I saw the same movie.
I think it was a mediocre film at best. The acting was bad and contrived with actors expressing very little in the way of emotions and displaying a forced solemnity that made me cringe a couple times. The story is lackluster and bland with serious pacing issues and tropes seen dozen of times before. While I was watching I couldn't shake that feeling the film tried very hard to achieve an epic grandeur like a Lord of the ring but failed at that because its source material is just not very deep. It felt amateurish, frantic, trying to cram too much things in one place. Only watch it if you are a Die-Hard fan of the Warcraft games I guess.