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Oppenheimer (2023)
Quite boring
There are a few other reviews here echoing the same sentiments. I asked the people sitting next to me what they thought and they were disappointed. I can't help feel the same. I have a strong background in nuclear physics. It was intriguing, but it was cut so jarringly that it was hard to keep up what was going on.
Then finally, we have the big event that everyone was selling this movie on, and it was quite underwhelming. The characters don't do enough to catch my feelings. The only standouts for me were Robert Downey Jr and Emily Blunt, but RDJ's whole character arc was that he was insecure and just wanted petty revenge??
The whole last hour I was checking the time hoping it would end, because I was just bored.
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (2022)
After Episode 4, I'm unconvinced by this show.
4 hours in and I'm yet to really connect with any of the characters. I like Elrond and Durin, who have the strongest actors in my opinion, but everyone else? Meh. I think it's a combination of not so great acting, along with a really weak plot.
I'm a major book nerd but I'm not going to critique the series for the lore inconsistencies. The show does not follow the books at all. It only takes names and locations, and a general idea, and makes it's own story, so don't come into this series expecting a faithful adaptation, because really this is only fan fiction, which is to be expected when Amazon couldn't get their hands on the rights to the good stuff in Silmarillion.
Galadriel is the biggest problem of the show. She is the main character, and yet we have absolutely no reason to emphasise with her. She is portrayed as a petulant, petty brat who does things her way and anyone who gets in her way is an enemy. It's ridiculous. Amazon should have come up with a new character for her, not butcher Galadriel. Not once has our main character done anything to make me root for her. Just this episode, she scales a tower, smashes a window and breaks into the King's chambers, and NO CONSEQUENCES occur because of it. She jumps off the boat in the first episode and swims forever, only to be conveniently picked up by a raft. She walks into Numenor and makes demands and insults the queen regent immediately. Like, wtf?? This is a thousands of years old high elf, who has seen things most people in Arda have never seen, and she acts like this? It makes absolutely no sense.
The Harfoots are hard to enjoy when you know the only reason they were included was to make the casual Tolkien fans go 'ooh look, hobbits! We like those!'. The main character of the Harfoots, Nori, is just another female character who is tired of the constraints of her society and wants to break out and explore. Boring, it's been done a million times.
The visuals of this series are stunning, I guess that's where most of the budget went.
As of episode 4, we have a few plot lines now. The Southland men and Arondir, Numenor with Galadriel, the Harfoots, Elrond and Durin. The problem is these stories have barely gone anywhere in 4 hours, and are really not compelling at all. I only watch the series because I love LOTR and Tolkiens work, so it's still passable entertainment, but unfortunately that's all it is. It's just something to stick on the TV on a Friday, watch it, then move on with your other plans for the day because it's just nothing special honestly. It's a shame.
The Witcher: Kaer Morhen (2021)
Divides the silly viewers from the people who came to enjoy a show
I love what they did with this episode, and how mad it has made the hardcore fans. I have read the series, and played the games, I love the Witcher. But people can't get over what they did with Eskel.
Who even is Eskel???
If we got all the Eskel references in books onto one page, I don't think we're passing 2 pages. So what this episode does is filter out all the morons who think the show needs to be a 100% faithful adaptation of the books.
FYI, the book that this season is more or less based on has a word count of 100,000ish. Sounds like a lot, but Fellowship of the Ring has 187,790. A Game of Thrones has 298,000. The book is small, and there is no way it's filling 8 hours of screen time whilst remaining interesting, so the show takes creative liberties, and good for them.
It's a TV show. The books are the books, and the games are the games. Don't relate them all together, and you will understand why people love this show.
Don't forget that we are also living in a time when everybody is a film critic. Go onto YouTube and you will soon be swamped by 2 hour video essay videos of pretentious pricks thinking they know how to write screenplays better than professional writers. Everybody on Reddit is an expert on adaptation and story telling, and all shows are BAD these days. Everything sucks. According to them.
Season 2 was fantastic! I thought it focused a bit too much on the elves and Fringilla, but I can't wait for season 3.
Game of Thrones: Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken (2015)
Previously thought to be the worst episode...
Well if this was the worst GoT had to offer before season 7 then damn, just goes to show how high the quality is for this show! I come back to this episode after the travesty of season 8 with a new found appreciation. Even this episode, with the stupid Dorne plot and slow pacing, is better than anything we've had in the last season.
Game of Thrones: Beyond the Wall (2017)
Where the show lost credibility.
I am STUNNED this episode is rated 9.2 at the time of this review. It just goes to show the flaws of a starred rating system, as most blind fans will just rate an episode 10/10 if they enjoyed it. This episode is better than any episode from season 1-4? Give me a break.
Plot armour is rampant here, something that does not belong in the GoT world, and has been shown to us over and over again in previous seasons that no character is safe.. But Jon is!
Without even getting into the ridiculous, contrived plan devised by Tyrion to capture a wight, no main characters die. The red priest dies, but he's not a major character. The worst thing about his death was that he died to a zombie polar bear. A complete waste of time, as it only kills a bunch of expendables and injures Thoros.
This is where D&D decided to push the visual spectacle of the show, rather than the classic, logical, carefully thought plotlines of GoT that we all came to love. Unfortunate at the time of writing this (waiting on S8E5), GoT doesn't get much better, and it's painfully clear that the quality of writing drops to all time lows, starting with this episode.
It looks nice though, always nice to see dragons doing their thing. It's just a shame that they were only there so the Night King can get his hands on a dragon to break through the wall, as it's clear that D&D had no clue how the army of the dead were meant to pass the wall.
Game of Thrones: A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms (2019)
Could have been so much better
This had the potential to be one of those amazing classic GoT episodes. When it first came out I think it's fair to say that we were all amazed, and at the time of writing this (Just after Episode 4) this is by far the strongest episode of the season.
UNFORTUNATELY the next episode makes this feel like a total waste. The main characters were given the strongest plot armour we've seen since Jon took a dip in the frozen lake and escaped unscathed.
I can't look back on this with fond memories anymore, as we only have SIX episodes this season. If it was a 10 season ep, this Ep would rightly be one of the greatest episodes of GoT, however it isn't. Now I just wish they got the battle over with in episode 2, and got on with the rest of the story for the last 4 episodes.
(I'm not defending the choice to have Cersei be the final enemy, it's stupid, theres no suspense for this upcoming battle in Ep 5. We KNOW cersei is going to lose, and who honestly cares when you just defeated the Night King, the throne is pointless).
A good, touching episode - IF the characters were actually in any danger in the following.
Tolkien (2019)
Forgettable
I'm a huge Tolkien fan, have been since I picked up The Hobbit when I was 5. This movie is shot nicely but it just leaves you wanting more. It ends when most people are most familiar with Professor Tolkien, I was really hoping to see how he went about publishing his works, handling the reception they received and such, but you get none of that.
What you get instead is a story that really doesn't go anywhere. A lot of scenes with just music playing and characters discussing words. It's boring, plainly put. I love Tolkien and can appreciate biopics but maybe the two weren't meant to be put together.