I heard that the fact they're using historic characters is a liberty too
For example : Black Beard will come ( love Ray Stevenson by the way ) in Season 3
Anybody watching 12 Monkeys?
I got nostalgic and decided to watch the original film again tonight, and was quite shocked to discover I actually like the series better. I can't believe that I prefer something that doesn't have Brad Pitt in it to something that did.
(Mind you, I've only seen the first episode)
I got nostalgic and decided to watch the original film again tonight, and was quite shocked to discover I actually like the series better. I can't believe that I prefer something that doesn't have Brad Pitt in it to something that did.
(Mind you, I've only seen the first episode)
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I watched again last month too ( the movie ) and I was surprised how much I didn't understand it the first time I saw it. Growing up is an advantage sometimes. Iam waiting last week's final episode of the serie to binge watch it. I've heard excellent feedback about it. can't wait.
I finished seasons 1 and 2 of Hannibal a few weeks ago. I was weary of it since Anthony Hopkins' Hannibal is such an iconic character and thought that it couldn't possibly be very good. While it doesn't quite reach the marquee of Silence of the Lambs it still is worth checking out if you haven't already done so. That being said if you have a problem with disturbing premises and gore this probably won't be your cup of tea. None of that bothered me since I grew up watching horror movies (I saw Suspiria when I was seven). For those of you who are considering watching it keep in mind that some characters are described in the books as more or less annoying. The acting was fantastic all around with the annoying characters actually irritating me and the rest of the cast doing a fine job in their role, especially Mads Mikkelsen who portrays Hannibal. The writing is excellent throughout both seasons which is part of the reason I enjoyed it so much. The first season Is an appetizer, the second season is the main course and now i'm definitely ready for desert.
This week I finished season 1 of The Strain. It's decent but I couldn't help feeling disappointed. I'm a huge fan of Guillermo Del Toro who co-wrote the source material so that is what got me interested in the show in the first place. The first episode is so much better than the other episodes & maybe it's just me being biased because Guillermo Del Toro co-wrote and directed it but things just seem to fall apart after it. I did enjoy some episodes after the season premire but it was too hit or miss for me. The acting was spotty and the scripts just weren't as strong as what I was hoping for following the premire. I will be watching season 2 when it premires and i'm hoping it has a bit more consistency to it.
This week I finished season 1 of The Strain. It's decent but I couldn't help feeling disappointed. I'm a huge fan of Guillermo Del Toro who co-wrote the source material so that is what got me interested in the show in the first place. The first episode is so much better than the other episodes & maybe it's just me being biased because Guillermo Del Toro co-wrote and directed it but things just seem to fall apart after it. I did enjoy some episodes after the season premire but it was too hit or miss for me. The acting was spotty and the scripts just weren't as strong as what I was hoping for following the premire. I will be watching season 2 when it premires and i'm hoping it has a bit more consistency to it.
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I recently watched Interstellar. Originally it was Steven Spielberg idea and you can still clearly see that, even though it ended up being directed by Christopher Nolan. From Spielberg we have a Sci-Fi movie with lot of imagination, focus on family themes and a few more fantasy like parts. From Nolan we have a lot of realistic Sci-Fi, exposition heavy dialogues and some of the actors from his previous movies. How's all of it combines?
The best part of the movie is definitely the first half hour where we are introduced to this world in a very organic way through the eyes of the average family of farmers. Mysterious plague is destroying the crops, which forced humanity into focusing all the research on preserving the last sources of food, while leaving behind the less important stuff, like AI and space program. It's quite fascinating idea and I quickly got into it. Then we reach the space part, which makes for the majority of the film, and it's (mostly) quite good. It captures really well the hopelessness of the situation, gives us a few emotional moments, a cool looking planets to watch (two of them to be specific), nice visuals and so on. The problem is that this is also where the movie starts kinda drag on, in the end especially, and that's one of it's two biggest issues. The movie last over two and a half hours (not counting the end credits), but there are scenes and plotlines that does not add anything important to the story and could be easily left off, thus saving us over 20 minutes worth of screen time.
The another major issue is how visions of both great directors does not blend very well. Ham-fisted message about power of love and the (kinda predictable) ending just feel completely out of place in a movie directed by Christopher Nolan. They are not terrible, just terribly unfitting to his style. On the plus side, I have to say that I really liked how the movie didn't had any obvious villains, just a people who lost hope for any other solution, so they are willing to do anything to complete their mission and make sure that human race will survive. Overall not all parts of this movie felt like a integral part of the bigger picture and it is a little too long, but it was still pretty interesting to watch and most things (story, characters, acting, atmosphere, the world) are done right, which makes for a nice, but not in any way special, experience.
And I know this is a big spoiler, but I can't stop myself from summarizing this movie with:
The best part of the movie is definitely the first half hour where we are introduced to this world in a very organic way through the eyes of the average family of farmers. Mysterious plague is destroying the crops, which forced humanity into focusing all the research on preserving the last sources of food, while leaving behind the less important stuff, like AI and space program. It's quite fascinating idea and I quickly got into it. Then we reach the space part, which makes for the majority of the film, and it's (mostly) quite good. It captures really well the hopelessness of the situation, gives us a few emotional moments, a cool looking planets to watch (two of them to be specific), nice visuals and so on. The problem is that this is also where the movie starts kinda drag on, in the end especially, and that's one of it's two biggest issues. The movie last over two and a half hours (not counting the end credits), but there are scenes and plotlines that does not add anything important to the story and could be easily left off, thus saving us over 20 minutes worth of screen time.
The another major issue is how visions of both great directors does not blend very well. Ham-fisted message about power of love and the (kinda predictable) ending just feel completely out of place in a movie directed by Christopher Nolan. They are not terrible, just terribly unfitting to his style. On the plus side, I have to say that I really liked how the movie didn't had any obvious villains, just a people who lost hope for any other solution, so they are willing to do anything to complete their mission and make sure that human race will survive. Overall not all parts of this movie felt like a integral part of the bigger picture and it is a little too long, but it was still pretty interesting to watch and most things (story, characters, acting, atmosphere, the world) are done right, which makes for a nice, but not in any way special, experience.
And I know this is a big spoiler, but I can't stop myself from summarizing this movie with:
Matthew McConaughey was a ghost.
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my biggest problem with interstellar can be summed up with this paraphrase from the movie: " maybe love is the 5th dimension?"
really, how did that get though, with kip thorne being involved? the whole third act was very unsatisfying.
really, how did that get though, with kip thorne being involved? the whole third act was very unsatisfying.
I don't think Kip Thorne had much to do with the tesseract or the "love is the 5th dimension" thing. Everybody knows Rhythm and Blues is the 5th Dimension. They did use Professor Wormhole's physics for the dives into the wormhole and the black hole, which prompted my physicist friend to observe that it was the first sci-fi he'd seen in a long time that wasn't an insult to his intelligence.
So I picked up the first 2 seasons of Grimm and am finding it fun enough. Anyone else watching this?
It was grander in scale than I expected from History Channel. I'm still annoyed by shirtless warriors, but overall, it's nice to see they aren't invincible.
Am I the only one glad that the vikings lost? I mean the show is called Vikings but my favorite characters are the christians. Athelstan and King Ecbert are my favorite characters until king Ecbert became a major asshole. It's funny that Athelstan is my favorite character because I don't really consider myself a Christian but he was the only rational person among all the bloodthirsty warriors who pillage, murder and rape just because they can. Moreover, no matter how much of an atheist I am, our western world was built on Christianity so now that I have all this in mind it's not hard for me to see why I sympathize with Athelstan so much. Since our western civilization was built on ideals such as his, he is in a way a projection of the of the viewer. He is how the vikings would perceive the viewer and how the viewer would react to this culture if he were suddenly magically transported back in time.
Athelstan's friendship with Ragnar is one of my favorite things in the show. Seriously, during their last conversation I swear I thought Ragnar was in love with him and it didn't make him look gay at all. I kept thinking why Ragnar, a viking was so fascinated with Christianity and I think I now know why. On a deep level, Ragnar probably knows that viking culture is not sustainable in the long run nor is it a good environment to raise a family (Floki being the best example) and so this is why the ideas of Christianity appeal so much to him. In the end all Ragnar cares about is that his family is safe and that he has land to farm. His follower's deep belief in the norse gods and their warlike nature are only tools he uses to secure this future. On a deep level, Ragnar knows that Christianity is the future and he knows that they can't just pillage and murder forever.
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Trying to avoid reading too much about the Vikings developments/spoilers. Still only on season 2 right now. 
Binged the hell out of Daredevil this weekend. Really enjoyed it. If I had to sum up the series in one word, it'd be 'sharp'. Sharp strong dialogue that really cuts to the morals of being a hero versus a vigilante. Sharp characters that gave nice variety and plots to follow. Sharp action and violence that was interesting and at times extremely brutal. If Batman ever had a show more akin to the comics from the last 20-30 years, it should be more like this and less like Gotham.
Also saw the first 4 episodes of Game of Thrones S5. Wasn't blown away yet, but there were some really good scenes and the end of the fourth episode.....man, wasn't really sure how that was going to go and still not sure what the end result will be. You can tell that things are gonna get crazy quickly.
Binged the hell out of Daredevil this weekend. Really enjoyed it. If I had to sum up the series in one word, it'd be 'sharp'. Sharp strong dialogue that really cuts to the morals of being a hero versus a vigilante. Sharp characters that gave nice variety and plots to follow. Sharp action and violence that was interesting and at times extremely brutal. If Batman ever had a show more akin to the comics from the last 20-30 years, it should be more like this and less like Gotham.
Also saw the first 4 episodes of Game of Thrones S5. Wasn't blown away yet, but there were some really good scenes and the end of the fourth episode.....man, wasn't really sure how that was going to go and still not sure what the end result will be. You can tell that things are gonna get crazy quickly.
A trailer for the two Shingeki no Kyojin (Attack on Titan) live-action movies, made by Japanese. They're dropping on 1 August and 19 September, if anyone's interested.
Mixed feelings about this. I watched the anime and quite liked the visual style and universe, and I'm not sure that visual style has been translated successfully to live-action - can't judge much based on these short snippets of random clips. Also I really have no idea why there will be two movies in such close proximity to each other. Hoping it's got nothing to do with making more profits in the style of the recent Hollywood split-the-story-in-two-for-more-tickets trend. Guess we'll see.
Mixed feelings about this. I watched the anime and quite liked the visual style and universe, and I'm not sure that visual style has been translated successfully to live-action - can't judge much based on these short snippets of random clips. Also I really have no idea why there will be two movies in such close proximity to each other. Hoping it's got nothing to do with making more profits in the style of the recent Hollywood split-the-story-in-two-for-more-tickets trend. Guess we'll see.
Well, as they said they consulted with GRRM and know all character arcs. So it is probably not completely against GRRM's vision. But it is a bit beyond weird for me. If what Littlefinger said to Roose Bolton is his grand master-plan, than he is simply bat-shit crazy, and RB should skin him alive right then and there. If what he said Sansa is true, why a hell not to bring her to Stannis directly? I need to re-read the last two books, and may be it will clarify something, but right now I am very deeply confused about this whole situation.
I watched Attack on Titan and didn't cared much about it, but I'm still interested in watching those movies. Anime is such a specific medium that it's always fascinating to me to see how they going to adapt it into a live action movie.
Two or three movies few months apart of each other seems to be a common practice among Japanese filmmakers, the same thing they did with adaptations of Death Note, Gantz and Rurouni Kenshin. I think they just do all the movies at the same time, which let them release those so quickly. Personally I like that you don't have to wait an entire year to see what will happen next.
Aha you're right, I'd completely forgotten about Death Note. Good thing it's nothing too out of the ordinary then.