kristianlepka Reviews

The Walking Dead: Here's Negan (2021) Season 10, Episode 22

After who knows how long, finally a good episode

[8/10 · 15 January 2022]

I've dropped The Walking Dead at the end of Season 9 because of all the changes to the source material which absolutely obliterated the show, but when I saw that they tried adapting Here's Negan, I gave it a shot and I was not disappointed.

It adapted the story from its comic counterpart perfectly with just a few necessary changes, which is understandable. It was very well paced, though I would've probably preferred if they stuck to the linear storytelling instead of jumping all over the place, though this wasn't a huge deal. Once again a brilliant performance by Jeffrey Dean Morgan as Negan. His portrayal of the character was what made me go through seasons 7 and 8, and now may have reignited the spark I once had for The Walking Dead. After it ends I might give it another shot to finish it and see just how much they messed it up.

Either way, a perfect episode in an otherwise mediocre show that hasn't gotten one in years.

Bloody Hell (2020)

How could I have missed this???

[8/10 · 2 January 2022]

Let's get it out of the way, this film was awesome. Just seeing the title and the poster, I went in blind and definitely was not disappointed. Has to be the best horror comedy I've seen in a while. Unlike other films like Zombieland, Babysitter, etc. Where they lean to one side or the other, Bloody Hell mixed the genres perfectly. The scary parts were terrifying, and with the funny scenes I couldn't stop laughing. In no scene did either feel out of place. Because of these reasons the film's 1.5 hour runtime went by real fast. If you haven't seen it, stop whatever you're doing and just watch it, you won't regret it.

Spider-Man 3 (2007)

My favourite movie in this trilogy in terms of sheer enjoyment

[8/10 · 14 December 2021]

Yes, Spider Man 2 had a better story, but this is having none of that. This is pure camp and I love every second of it. The lines emo Peter says are legendary, all the things at that point just go instantaneously from 0 to a 100. The fights are actually really good too, I can't see why people view this film so badly? Maybe because it just isn't as serious as the previous ones, but that doesn't have to mean it's bad. I laughed from start to finish and therefore it's much more memorable than Spider Man 1 and 2.

Jan Palach (2018)

The single bright part pf the film is him finally catching on fire

[4/10 · 9 November 2021]

This film didn't resonate with me, like, at all. Might be because I'm not proud of being czech, but I just don't see the sense in what Palach did. Hundreds of people were burned alive through the history, and strangely we don't glorify their actions, so why the exception? We'd reach independence sooner or later anyway, so why should we care?

As for the technical side of things, the film was well shot, I just couldn't get myself to care. So it shouldn't be a surprise that I only liked the last 10 minutes. The burning was really well done, I can't even express how well. But that doesn't save the film.

Overall, I wouldn't recommend this film unless you hold some respect for Palach's actions, which I don't.

....also, it loses a point for Palach drowning those dogs XD.

Eternals (2021)

Don't let the bad reviews fool you, this is a great film!

[8/10 · 6 November 2021]

Going into this I tried to keep my expectations to a bare minimum, though the bad reviews I kept seeing didn't help. I knew nothing of the characters, the plot, anything. Basically the only thing I knew I got from the trailer.

This isn't your typical marvel flick with mostly light hearted tones and the more serious stuff glanced over, this is a mostly serious film in my eyes, and I love it. Yes, you still get the jokes but it leans into the darker tones way more than you'd expect. We got a hint of this in Infinity War too, but here it is way better.

Now let's address some typical points in the bad press this has gotten. One of those is that there's bad CGI, which like, did we watch the same film? Did I notice it? Of course, there's aliens made of purple string, how could I not. But it wasn't distracting nor immersion breaking in any way. The film also didn't fall into the typical trope of large CGI marvel fight ending. Was there a fight? Yes. But it wasn't the "let's fight thousands of faceless monsters" type of fight. It was a personal struggle between characters you got to know through the film, and got me several times emotional.

Overall, I'd say give this film a go (as if you weren't to already). Just please, don't trust the bad reviews.

Battle Royale (2000)

Differs from the book in many ways, is still good

[8/10 · 6 November 2021]

I can't even begin to say how much I love this film. The sets look nice, it all feels grounded, exactly what I'd expect from a Battle Royal film. Just isn't as good as the book. This doesn't mean it's bad, I still give it 8/10, but the book is an easy 10/10.

This is more of a run-time fault than the film's though. In the book you get backstories for each side character, no matter how unimportant, and spend with them at least one chapter. Here they had to run through them as if they were racing to the finish line.

So, the conclusion? A great film, definitely give it a try. And if you like it, give the book a go, your experience will be greatly improved and even though it's 600 pages, it's so catchy you'll easily run through it in a week.

Dune (2021)

Orgasmic bliss all the way till the credits....Now I want more

[10/10 · 21 October 2021]

Dune surprised me. It did what no movie ever did before. It not only surpassed my expectations, it did so by such force that it absolutely obliterated them! This has to be the best book adaptation after Lord of the Rings, without a doubt. The cinematography, the performances, I can't think of anything that might improve them, they're perfect.

As for how well it adapted the book, here it nailed it as well. It did skip some scenes, rearrange the order of others, but all in all it's the same story, just changed where it needed to be so it would work in film format. The only slight downside is that even though the film is "slow", it is still fast paced. This is not bad, but I'd have like to see a scene or two of Gurney playing his baliset,... Hope that there'll be an extended edition. Same with LotR, the film is perfect without it, but might still be good to have it.

Foundation: Preparing to Live (2021) Season 1, Episode 2

The ending ruined it

[4/10 · 26 September 2021]

I loved most of this episode. Might be because I didn't read the original but I don't care. The romance made this episode slightly worse, but the ending absolutely destroyed it. Gaal clearly saw the guy (forgot his name) kill Hari, but still decides to follow him???? Like, what? And to top it all off she lets herself get shot into space? This character shift from a semi interesting competent character to another stupid "damsel in distress" happened so quickly that it is actually kinda astounding. I'll give the next episode a go but if it continues in this character-ruining marathon, I'll probably just drop it.

The Night House (2020)

A great film with a not so good ending

[7/10 · 28 August 2021]

As said above, a great horror film, as it was mostly atmospheric with only a few jump scares here and there. The acting was on point, the mystery was great, and the great reveal wasn't just a huge exposition dump (like in Lights Out for example), instead it was being revealed over the entire third act in a slower, steadier pace which I like. But the ending....

!!!SPOILERS!!!

The ending was very disappointing, your typical happy ending. I'm no filmmaker but even so in the last 10 minutes I've seen several opportunities where it could've ended. For example when the protagonist is stuck on a boat, gun in hand and Nothing persuading her to shoot herself it could've just ended in an open ending with her pointing the gun at herself (or show her shooting herself right before her friend had the chance to save her). Or why not just have it absolutely vague and open where it would end at the moment where the protagonist was looking up at the two moons for the first time? Much better then "her friend saves the day at just the right time"

Too Hot to Handle (2020– )

So the way to win is...to just not have sex?????

[1/10 · 30 June 2021]

Netflix's done it again, another atrocious reality show, how surprising.... Again, a cast of stupid people worthy of being tik tok stars from the level of stupidity we're talking about has a normally simple, but for their little minds probably impossible, task: give up sex? Really? So it's just "be a regular human being"? Why?

So not only is here an unlikable cast made of people looking like they're from a printer due to how "generic" they look, but not even a good task.... I give up, reality shows should just not be made anymore if they're all on this level of "quality", or lack there of I should say, or at least netflix should not make them.

Record of Ragnarok (2021– )

Boring in every way possible

[1/10 · 23 June 2021]

This show looked promising from the trailers, but after watching a couple of episodes I can say with absolute certainty that my hype was unfounded. That's because this show has done the worst thing a show can be, it's utterly boring and forgettable.

With bad shows, you can enjoy how bad they are, with mid shows you just feel like you wasted your time. There's a reason The Room is a 10/10 but The Lion King remake is a 1/10 for me, even if the latter has several times bigger production quality, and it's the same here.

I loved the badness of EX-Arm, but I can't even be bothered to finish this show, hence a 1/10 score. Don't waste your time on this, do something better...

Attack on Titan: The War Hammer Titan (2021) Season 4, Episode 6

Masterpiece

[9/10 · 19 January 2021]

I loved this episode. As a manga reader I think that they did an excellent job adapting the Warhammer Titan chapters into the anime. Now let's address the elephant in the room: the CG. On first viewing it was a little jarring, but after couple of minutes I got used to how it looked, and after rewatching the episode my eyes didn't even notice that it was done in CG unless I focused specifically on the fact that it was CG. Also you have to take into consideration that MAPPA had only 10 months to do this season, so I'm more than pleased with how it turned out. The ODM Gear was wonderfully animated, the titan models looked excellent,... The only reason I'm rating this 9/10 instead of 10/10 is simply the fact that although good, it's not "Midnight Sun" and "Declaration of War" levels of good.

Vikings (2013–2020)

The latest seasons were the best, despite what others may tell you.

[10/10 · 24 October 2020]

Many think that after the death of Ragnar - the main protagonist up to that point - the show went down hill, but I think otherwise.... I think that ragnar's death actually freed the writers and let them tell more interesting stories like Ivar's rise to power and his eventual fall, the rivalry between Ragnar's sons, etc..

In my opinion season 5, and the first half of season 6 are the best seasons yet, and the first 2 seasons being the weakest for having less interesting rivals (with the exception of king Ecbert) and story lines. Don't get me wrong, I still love these seasons, but think that the later ones far surpass them in quality.

Captain Marvel (2019)

Captain Marvel is the worst part of Captain Marvel

[3/10 · 19 July 2020]

The movie was in my opinion quite enjoyable most of the time, although just in the moments when Captain Marvel wasn't the center of attention, or was left out from scenes completely, because Captain Marvel is very unlikable through-out the entire movie with unfunny lines, and in my opinion really bad acting by Brie Larson. I just couldn't get myself to like the character. So even though Captain Marvel was basically the only major con of the movie, it was so bad it out-weighted all the pros making the film very average in the process.

The Hunger Games (2012)

In my opinion the Battle Royale book's story is far better, so I can't recommend this film.

[3/10 · 19 July 2020]

I'm gonna be completely honest. My opinion is strongly influenced by the fact, that I've seen and read Battle Royale. I'll refer to it a lot during this review.

I fail to see the point in watching this film ever again, if there's a far better alternative. The Battle Royale book. In BR the story is better written, and the characters are flashed out far better too. The characters' actions seem far more realistic, with real motives, and "real" lives outside the games. In Hunger Games most characters are like cardboard cut-outs with no real motives other than, for example, "I'll be the bad guy, because the story wants me to be". Of course this is because in BR (the book) we get to see most of the characters in their day to day lives, and get at least one chapter with them, whereas in the Hunger Games (the film, although if I remember correctly in the book too) we almost always see the story from just the Katniss's point of view. This, at least for me, is a problem.

If you want pure enjoyment out of a film, you'll probably like Hunger Games, but because I want to get to know the characters in a greater detail, than just their names, I'd much rather spend a week reading the BR book, than sitting through 2 hours of this.

The Lion King (2019)

As a copy 10/10, otherwise 1/10

[1/10 · 21 July 2019]

If I was supposed to review how well it copied the original, then this would be one of the best movies made by disney, but that would be an insult to the original Lion King, so I'll review only the originality of this one, and to be honest, there's not a lot of that. The only new scenes are fillers to extend the run time from 90 minutes to 118 minutes, so the only 'good' things are the effects, but even that is questionable, because that removes the magic, that made the original so special. Disney has to finnaly learn that more realistic looking doesn't immediately mean better!

Paprika (2006)

One of the gratest anime movies I've ever seen.

[10/10 · 1 December 2018]

Great movie. I've seen it about 10 times already and every time I see it, I always find some new details. It's realy clear where "Inception" got inspiration.