Apologies, I was coming in here to talk about what I have been watching, I have been derailed by one of my favourite subjects, sword fencing. Just noting that after a few months of catching up, my 11 yo daughter and myself managed to finish all 4 seasons of Stranger Things, which we really enjoyed.
Finished season 2 of The Wheel of Time, which I am glad I am watching over a decade after I read the books, because I would have stopped earlier seeing how much they are changing the story. If I’m honest I am watching it mainly because of my better half, I think the show suffers a lot from deviation of the original. Which is a shame, because I think the actors are doing a really good job, specially Lanfear and Ishamael.
Also, I am half way through One Piece, which I am thoroughly enjoying. I have never watched the original anime, but I think the characters are really working for me.
I feel exactly the same, half the cast are amazing actors (I’d watch Lanfear quietly drink tea) but why buy a beloved epic property and then make something else?
(See also Rings of Power, cough, although I actually really like Morfydd Clark in it).
It definitely got better. It its own thing - do you need to watch it? No. Did I enjoy it? Yes. Are all the fanatical trolls that hate it because of things like representative casting complete effing idiots? Absolutely.
I enjoyed it a lot. Tolkien would’ve hated it but he also would have hated the Jackson movies, so that’s neither here nor there. As a significant Tolkien and Arda fan (like reading the illustrated encyclopedia over and over for fun as a kid), I actually liked that it wasn’t a rehash of known stories and wanted to do its own thing. To me it felt like a new story in a familiar setting, which is very much in the spirit of Tolkien if not the letter.
Oh and I finally saw The Seventh Seal the other day! I was expecting it to be clever, but it actually still holds up as entertainment. It’s definitely got interesting characters and even manages to be funny on occasion. Would recommend.
We don’t know that Tolkien himself would have hated it - he himself sold the film rights before he died so he must have known that films could never be the same as books. We know that Christopher Tolkien hated them but I really get the impression there wasn’t much he did like tbh
Okay, I have finally finished Ahsoka. Overall, thoroughly enjoyed, and some of the best lightsaber duels ever filmed. A joy.
But.
Why in nine burning hells was Ahsoka and Co escorting the INCREDIBLY SLOW SNAIL PEOPLE in the last episode? And then when her ship is shot down, she just rushes off?! Why… WHAT?! Of all the stupid, idiotic, nonsensical dumb… like, they are in a RUSH. What was even the point? Argh!
Otherwise, thoroughly enjoyed. 8.5/10, and Episode 5 was worth the price of admission alone.
I watched A Man Called Otto. It’s really good. I knew nothing about it, and was vaguely expecting a film about a grumpy man who adopts a cat and cheers up a bit. (Spoiler: that’s not what this film is about.) It’s handled really well. Tom Hanks and his son play the same character at different ages, which is kinda fun (even if I suspect there’s probably some actor out there who looks more like a young Tom Hanks than his own son : )
Until just now I didn’t realise that, as well as being based on a novel, it’s a remake of a Swedish film, but of course I can’t compare them. I’d hazard that it’s “a good remake” though.
Worth it for the title alone + it has Jeffrey Combs
Is it a great film? It is not. But it isn’t a bad one.
For this sort of thing it was well directed, the production values were high, it was very well lit and everyone in it could act.
Is the main character a bit annoying? Yes.
If you employ Jeffrey Combs, you know what he will reliably bring to the table. If you cast him in a subtle psychological drama about the breakdown of a modern family, that’s your error.
