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Dathbrenga
Reviews
The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon: Alouette (2023)
A dangerous path?
So far so good.
Have liked the first two episodes. They have kept the cinematic vibe of the Walking Dead series.
With this second episode, I've started to consider a pattern that some themes may be adopted from other zombie universes.
First episode had the burner which was new and nice and, at the time, I immediately thought of Z Nation. Now this episode has a reveal about the origin of Laurent. I started to dread the idea of creators borrowing from other universes: not that I recall seeing a burner zombie in Z Nation but that universe is one of the most prolific, in terms of unique zombies - and of this reveal about Laurent's origin: this season is starting to look a little too much like The Last of Us.
I have enjoyed the series, so far, and I'm a huge fan of all of the Walking Dead series but I hope the creators can keep these new ideas as original as they can be, without being too obvious where their ideas may have come from - it may be a dangerous path from which only a surprising twist may redeem.
The Last of Us (2023)
A gamer's review.
Just came out of my second watch, of the first episode, on Neon, and, as a gamer, I thought I'd put up a review.
Well, firstly, Pedro makes a convincing Joel - when I first heard the casting, I thought well, Pedro, yeah, he could pull it off - my idea of the perfect Joel would be someone like Kris Kristofferson, or even Tom Berenger - maybe Tom for Joel and Kris for Tommy. Anyways, I thought, yeah, Pedro could pull it off and since being a GOT fan, I figured, yeah, let's see what he's got.
For Bella Ramsey, on the other hand, I wasn't initially convinced - I did like her in GOT for being a feisty little package but, for Ellie, in The Last of Us, I wasn't entirely sold. I think this was mostly due to having played the games and being aware that Ellie, for the first iteration of The Last of Us, was supposedly originally partly modeled after the then actress Ellen Page - there is a whole history to this and how Ellie has developed over the years so hence the announcement for Bella Ramsey left me with misgivings but who else would they cast, indeed, to portray Ellie at the age of the timeline?
Anyway, having played the three games, The Last of Us, The Last of Us: Left Behind, a sort of part origin prequel, part filler, to The Last of Us, and the brutal Last of Us II, I have been nonetheless waiting, with excitement, for the HBO show release.
So, from a gamer's perspective, first impressions were very positive. I just like to say that I am totally impressed with the effort and lengths the production team has gone to, to bring the vibe and feel of the game, to the screen. Main things I noticed, right off the bat, were the main colour palette, saturation, depth and fields of view, certain camera shots, all brought the game feeling to the screen and when I heard that opening theme and I knew it was Gustav Santaolalla's music, well it was so eerie and a lot of emotion from the games came flooding back.
They even used the same font, from the game, for the show title, hahaha - awesome.
First off, clearly they will do some stuff different as that's just the way it is, with adaptations but, so far, their commitment to the game deserves applause.
Am not gonna talk about the plot or anything, just excited to be here, for what seems to be a great start.
I think Bella will grow on me - for a game, Ellie is a very deep and multi-faceted character, perhaps more so than Joel, and so far, at this point, I'm willing to stick with it and give it a shot.
Great to see Australian actress Anna Torv too, by the way - have liked her pragmatic, hard-headed style, since her days in the underrated show Fringe. I think she is a great pick to play hardened characters.
A great start. There is quite a bit of breadth and depth to the games, so they have a lot to work with - looking forward to see how the content is interpreted, managed, and portrayed throughout this series.
As most gamer's will have some rough idea where it's all heading, I almost wish I was in the seat of someone going in totally blind but how it is executed will hopefully be a totally new and, oxymoronically, nostalgic experience.
A week is a long time to wait, hahaha. Excited to be here.
Beastly (2011)
i.e. not convinced
This movie didn't really nail it for me and I haven't even read the book. For me there were just too many variables that weren't taken into account, or were just plain removed from the movie which, in my opinion made the events and outcome in the movie a bit hard to believe.
!!! THE FOLLOWING MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS !!!
For me there were a lot of superficial elements in the movie which I think ultimately contradicted the whole point. I think the message is supposed to be that a good looking girl can fall for an ugly guy; well there are elements that detract from this very supposition. For instance, the lead role, Kyle's alter ego Hunter, uses trickery, i.e. blackmail, to isolate the girl from the social collective and put her up in a home that he only has because he has resources, i.e. his rich daddy, he then uses money in an attempt to buy her, and lastly he takes her to his fathers expensive cottage. By removing the lead girl Lindy from her social collective, i.e. her friends, this takes away the variable of what her friends would say, and how and to what degree they could influence her perception of Hunter. Secondly, isolating her takes away the competition, i.e. other guys, which in my opinion would also influence her decisions regarding spending time with Hunter. Now with those two elements removed, sure it is possible for Lindy to slowly fall in love with Hunter: but is it really true love; should it really be marketed as the stuff of magic that breaks spells; like the kind of love that endures the social hailstorm and stands the test of time? By removing those elements it makes it some kind of circumstantial marginalized social engineered love, and frankly, makes the story a bit hard to believe. The other element that could have influenced the relationship is the fact that Hunter has resources, i.e. money. How would it have played out if he had no money, i.e. the means to patronize her and make costly gestures? How would it end if he played a moral hand, i.e. didn't use blackmail to isolate her? I'm not convinced; however I appreciate the effort, and obviously this movie is targeting a specific market. Would be interested in watching something that covered more variables and built the relationship more convincingly.