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Reviews
Foundation: A Necessary Death (2023)
If only for the suspense
A space opera, segmented like an orange, a bit of citrus acidity to sharpen the edge. And of course there is an associate producer with an Asimov surname. But there is little point in calling it Foundation if you get to the point of ripping it's foundations apart. Yes pun intended.
Most books don't transcribe to the moving image without treatment for continuity, action, imagery etc. So changes are usually necessary - no need to stir up the NTB groups with trivial comments either.
But there is a structure to the overall plot that requires the Second Foundation mentalics as a counterpoint to the materialistic First Foundation. It's a big risk to insert a different story line where a secondary planet with a mentalic leader who has less scruples than the future Mule threatens the Prime Radiant and psychohistory more drastically than Seldon ever comprehended.... Or did he???
So one guess is a rearguard reaction as Gaal's daughter Salvor loses consciousness in the water & the connection with Gaal - somehow this produces a confrontation with Tellem and some resolution of the storyline. - perhaps a synthesis of a differing evolution of the second foundation out of this messy diversion?
Every diversion and subplot has been inserted to create an ongoing suspense, but will the story actually coalesce into a cohesive point that has some connection with the premise of Foundation and it's essential elements.
Foundation: Where the Stars Are Scattered Thinly (2023)
A mish-mash of Foundation & Foundation & Empire
Second half of the foundation story just missing in action, a matrix of characters from different eras, Bel Riose brought in prematurely presumably as an antagonist to Hober Mallow, the mental chess deprecated in favour of Star Wars type action
While I think there was some wait and see with S2E3, this one (S2E4) just lost it's way, even if it was an attempt to patch together a gaping hole in the story.
So we are moving through Foundation & Empire to get to the Mule & Second Foundation, but the influence of the third factor in the psycho historical expansion of the foundation, The Traders, of which Mallow and Danvers were pivotal characters, appears to have been abandoned.
I have to observe that the subtlety and mystery in the psychological build has been sacrificed to cgi and action, so the story layers & reveals are sort of too obvious. Not underestimating the capacity of viewers to absorb and follow a complex plot is something that Scandinavian & British writers have often done well in crime & mystery thrillers (eg The Bridge)
Foundation could have reached for the heights that "The Expanse" achieved, but I grieve for it's likely fall, just like Empire. A mish-mash of Foundation & Foundation & Empire.
House of the Dragon (2022)
Looks promising, sounds terribly bland
I know now why some reviews were scathing of the acting - it's the."center of your head", soap opera ADR type sound that's the culprit.
There is little depth or perspective in the sound design to complement the imagery. And the sound scapes seem to be too uniform as scenes change.
Yes the voice delivery seems a little flat too, like reading scripts instead of being absorbed in the part.
I'm sure the GOT fans will lap it up, and it's not unusual for the woodenness in a new series to fade out, but it's not a good look for starters. And the reviewers giving it a 9 or 10 are kidding themselves.
Lets hope that it's like a good red wine: rough when young & improves with age.
(Edited - wrong number of stars on first draft - I always meant to be restrained on this.)
The Family Court Murders (2022)
Too much fill
I'd send it back to the editors & tell them to cut it tighter. Content is interesting, but overly repetitive, like current reality shows. Once you get slow mo walks to cover lack of content, you know it's going to drag.
There's always issues with historical vision & sound (lack of) but the whole story would benefit from a tighter cut into two episodes.
Still, a bit horrifying from the psychological perspective - but that's where the interesting investigation resides.
The Expanse: Babylon's Ashes (2022)
Yes but...
So there was some closure to the Inaros - Nagata - Holden saga that had dominated seasons 4 & 5 and had become wearisome for many viewers. And some intense personal sequences from a number of the players which no doubt gave the actors opportunities to relish their skills in portrayal of their characters.
For those that crave action - a battle sequence and movement in the closing episode. But strangely, the attempt to close the circle was not completely satisfying. Yes The Expanse may have finished, but Laconia & the ProtoMolecule haven't .... So perhaps we have a competition for naming a new Spinoff?
One of the ironies was the reference to Alex's absence both within the script and seemingly by the writers - The Roci {and by inference, the story/thread} was not the same.
In many ways I think that it was the mystery, the exploration, the intrigue & the politics I.e. The uncovering of the layers of the onion which characterised seasons 1-3 that made The Expanse so watchable, but seemed to wane thereafter, and the final closure of the war just was a little too straightforward.
VALE: THE EXPANSE.
The Expanse: Azure Dragon (2021)
Only because something is progressing
After the intrigue, mystery & double tales of earlier seasons, ep 6/2 just seemed too neat. I hope to be red herringed, but it has all the signs & momentum of the writers assembling the parameters for a final showdown, probably ep 6/5 so there can be a wind-down final episode.
Still a visual treat, respectful of physics, but it seems more & more like StarTrek discovery wth Naomi=Burnham , with all the angst and sideplots.
But let's hope for a satisfying crisis resolution that's got some surprises in store. Too much to ask?
Warrior Nun (2020)
Sounds amazing!
It sucks you in. Somehow the hooks at the end of each episode are enough to pique your interest to watch the next one, without being over the top.
But the real genius is the sound design!!! - drop a pair of headphones on and listen to an open, three dimensional soundtrack that is clear, balanced between foreground and background, enough reverb to make the right distinction between focus and surround / ambient, and, heavens forbid, voices that are NATURAL and don't have that horrible, centre channel ADR muffled mess at all.
If you are a film buff, and an audio post nut, have a listen to what CAN be done with sound.
Let's not forget the pix; the panoramas are striking & there's detail in the cinematography.
You do have to suspend your disbelief with the story, and some of the characters are a bit wooden - Salvius for instance is a bit of a paper cutout of the mad obsessed scientist, and I can't help but see a bit of Da Vinci code mystery/intrigue plus a smattering of romance for the teen/twenty something market.
It is entertaining, there's a lot worse out there & like I said at the beginning - listen to it on a good system, it's more than just the pix.
Dune: Part One (2021)
Entertaining, but hyper exaggeration sound & dark visuals detracts
An admirable attempt, but too much effort required to follow the subtleties of the script as the thematic music was so overpowering the essence of the dialogue was lost.
So many rave about the cinematography and cgi, which yes, is oozingly spectacular, but the story and emotional mood is so embedded in a movie's script, acting and sound stage, & in this Dune the sound side of things was left wanting.
It's not difficult with subtleties of good acting, good script to convey the tension in a movie - in this version of Dune, we were blasted with a pompous, self important soundtrack so that the gravitas of the coming of Muad'dib would not be missed.
It could have been much more eerily desert like - more silence in places to really carry the suspense, but also the isolation and desolation of the desert.
On the image side, the digital print I watched was flat, really substandard and very, very dark. Perhaps it was the theatre - or did the director seek a dark theme for its presentation? I hoped that the heat and strong light of the desert environment would glare out of the screen, but it was all a bit pale.
In the current days of hi quality UHD & content sourced in higher than 4K resolution, it was just very ordinary.
Worth a look? Yes. Brilliant, no - it is spectacular, but that in itself is not enough to make it a really great movie.
Foundation (2021)
It's not too late to save it
The Brits would have done a better job: what I mean is - Asimov's series was about the mind games & political manoeuvrings, something quite engaging in a written work but problematic when you are translating it to a visual medium. In his Foundation stories the reader is drawn into certain scenarios, but there is usually a twist or a red herring.
Think of a lot of top scripted & written British detective shows that keep the viewer engaged because the outcome or actions of the characters is not always predictable.
This is my view on why the Foundation fans are upset; the intrigue and plot layers and development has not been honoured - it's been forsaken in deference to visual spectacular, action, & plot changes to try and make it "current times" - eg changing roles to female and appealing across a wide range of potential audience.
I can understand that the writers based it on Asimov's series, but took the liberty to adapt it (and it appears in the credits to have one of the Asimov descendants involvements) in light of technology changes. Asimov also adapted his themes and technology by the time "Foundation & Earth" was written many years after the first Foundation, and you can read this in how some of the issues and themes of these later times were written in to it. So adaption does not necessarily make it lesser.
But to save it? Get a screenwriter in who will find a way to represent the intrigue, double dealing, false leads, red herrings and the mental chess in particular that is fundamental to the plot - after all, the layers of knowing and not knowing are inherent to the plot, aka the Seldon Plan, & the hidden workings of the Second Foundation. The first series missed the mark: I think they tried to be too safe, after all, good sci-fi is expensive, and such shows end up being abandoned early - eg "The Expanse".
It can be done, can still be entertaining, be current, be visually spectacular without disrespecting the fundamental basis of the Series. Trust your audience to follow a well written and acted series.
"Home before Dark" the Series on the young journalist, proves that good plots and acting can be done without having to assume that the audience is so dumb that everything has to be boringly obvious. - Let's hope for an improved Series II.