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robinisathakur
Reviews
Years and Years (2019)
Too PC
I liked it overall, but it feels like the agenda of the writer is too on display. It's pro gay in the sense that the only sex I've seen depicted is guy on guy (I'm ok with that, being gay myself) by the end of episode 2 and it is very left-leaning in general. Some moments like the financial crash or the nuclear attack are legitimately terrifying! Some commentary like the subtle way the black wife's attitude to the mother in law changes over time I appreciated, and the heavy reliance we have on technology.
However I felt like the Emma Thompson far-right character is very transparently Nigel Farage/Marin Le Penn and I found that a bit hard to stomach given that they used President Trump himself as the main villain (the democratically elected leader of the free world who has, to date, been very anti-war in fact) but chickened out of depicting Nigel Farage in such a way.
I also found the fact that...let's see, we have gay characters, a disabled character, an asylum seeker, an inter-racial couple and even a trans-human in the same family slightly...unusual. There comes a point where the relentless pursuit of diversity becomes comical, albeit unintentionally and it shows the mindset of the BBC and RTD that it's seen as believable and desirable to have this in a show even if it's hard to then take seriously. Definitely one for the Guardian readers, but it's quite entertaining if you switch your brain off and let's face it, you can't go wrong with a bit of Russell Tovey.
Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019)
Brilliant monster movie
I loved this Godzilla because it was (pop) corny great monster action with spectacular set pieces and amazing, faithful takes on the classic Kaiju designs of the last half century. The human story, I wasn't really bothered about but some of the lines were definitely played for laughs. The underwater city scene I'm not sure was that needed to really add to the backstory, but was interesting, nevertheless.
I feel that people take this far too seriously and it will divide reviewers between Kaiju film fans and regulars but this film is the essence of Godzilla. It's about giant monsters fighting to protect or destroy humanity with an ecological subtext, nothing more and the source material has been respected.