Reviews

This reminded of the movie Edge of Tomorrow, both Tom Cruise and Loki burdened with the time and events played out for infinite amount of time, but willing to carrying the weight for the greater good.

I rewatched some of the crucial scenes of Loki from The Avengers, where his motivation is to take away the freewill of people because freedom is a lie, and people makes a mess of it when they are given freewill. This show, especially this finale re-evaluates such stance and philosophy held by Loki, and in the end, he makes peace with the fact that let people live and make their own creation and destruction. So much so that, in the end, he is willing to carry on with purpose of watching over all the infinite lives.

"Love can conquer, heal, transcend everything" - this is a commonly thrown, rather vague trope used to glorify the power of love. But the reality couldn't be further away from such Platonic idea (of course according to my experience and reflections). The story and the storytelling of season 01 of The Last of Us leaves a deep emotional resonance in me before it captured the bleakness and brutality of human nature so damn good.

Using the theme of love, they subvert the trope. Love here costs so much that the consequence of your actions (driven by the sentiment of love) weights on you till your death, the consequences of your action ends a good man's life, the consequences of your action denies the humanity a chance. Sentiment of love and the sense of being protective is nothing abnormal neither new, it's been ingrained in us since our origin even when we weren't even homo sapiens. But that most certainly turns into a deep flaw when you are a deeply traumatized person in a tragic world. Our reality is as screwed as the reality of The Last of Us. So many of us are hurt, traumatized, all worse of all, we are repressing all the past and newly added pains. Especially when you are a person who struggles with the stability of mental health - i.e: someone with an immense fear of abandonment (Joel, Ellie) - a new found hold of love is capable of clouding your judgement so gray, it's often impossible to see through your scars and your clouds. Love conquers? No. Love corrupts.

The ending felt really tragic and bleak to me. Ellies knows deep inside what damage has been done. I am pretty sure she feels heartbroken and adding even more burden of existence in her baggage of trauma.

Like the portrayal of character with complex psychological state, the storytelling is equally nuanced. In each episode, I noticed little details in visual storytelling that proved that the writers and the directors trusted the intelligence of their audience. The showing or expositions are subtle and precise. Restrained use of zombies, or zombie hordes helps keeping the tension fresh and dreadful each time. Joel's rage and OP moments were also helped by the lack of them: interrogation of Davin's men, and the finale scene of Joel going inhuman in the hospital - these two felt so visceral because the build up to those moments were so earned.

The Last of Us - is a peak cinema to me.

Cinematography, color, lighting, and camera movements: the direction of the visual narrative really the best and most standout aspect I am taking out from pilot of Mr. Marvel's. Every frame is so condensed yet aesthetically really pleasing which made me more engaged and curious to pause some scenes to look at all the visual panels. To me, this show already developed a unique character with it's visual.

I must not forget to praise the top notch acting of Iman Vellani, she delivers every subtle expression with finesse to flawlessly capture a teenager that is both she and her titular character.