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Jordan-ward2211
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Percy Jackson and the Olympians (2023)
Very disappointed.
I grew up with these books, I have read every book Rick Riordan has written, I had such hopes for this series but clearly they were misplaced. Woefully wrong and inaccurate casting, butchered plot, mischaracterisations aplenty, exposition dumps every 5 seconds and completely unnecessary plot changes. Rick was meant to be highly involved to make these book accurate. Minor deviations would have been fine but 98% off the books are so well written and described you can easily make it a 1 for 1. This was a chore to watch, dare I say it, the films RR hates so much represented the books more than what ever this is.
So disappointed.
Percy Jackson and the Olympians: I Accidentally Vaporize My Pre-Algebra Teacher (2023)
Why did Rick sign off on this?
I grew up reading the books, I have read everything RR has written in this universe multiple times. Poor and non accurate (Disney influenced) casting choices aside, some bazaar changes have been made. Gabe's personality has been changed completely making the ending of the book very questionable now, he is a vile pig of a man in the book, a domestic and child abuser making Sallys actions as we learn them all the more deep and heroic, now he's unrecognisable as at worst a layabout. Grover's personality has been changed and he is now a walking plot exposition, not the lovable happy go lucky character who's scared off everything but finds his bravery to help his friends. The beauty of the writing is we discover the world slowly with Percy, not just have it all explained. The first few chapters go 0-100 and it makes the payoff of Percy's first big hero act with 0 idea what's going on all the greater.
And the worst of it is the dialog is boring and flat. One of the hall marks of Ricks writing is zip and whit, Percy is funny, sassy and a fun character to be our POV. Everything was flat boring and like they were going through the motions. Dare I say it, the move did this story section better!
The Nan Movie (2022)
Could have been so good.
Reading the behind the scenes, this could have been an amazing film. The original Catherine Tate show was exceptional and Catherine Tate is a genuinely amazing comedian and actress. But studio interference left this a very mediocre film that has to pull an extremely distasteful joke as the big punch line. This film suffers from stylistic whiplash, it tries to be a modern comedy and fails, falling in to the trap of Americanised low brow humour over the dry English humour that made the Nan character famous. It tries to have a historical flash back plot. That you can tell would have been very successful if properly written and allowed to flourish, the emotional ending flash back is proof of this. In all a very disappointing bungled opportunity.
American Horror Story: I Am Anne Frank: Part 1 (2012)
Out of respect to the actors alone.
This entire series is great but the actors are truly what makes this episode shine. I have Utmost respect to the actors for portraying such abominable people with skill and grace. Especially to Zachary Quinto in this episode for the scene he undertakes with such dignity given the subject matter and the increased impact it must have had given his personal connection.
The Shape of Water (2017)
Very over rated.
This story was boring and predictable. It was clearly an attempt at being artsy that failed to be artsy. The sex scenes and general explicit scenes where unnecessary and out of place. It's only redeeming quality was the creature effects where good. Save your time and miss this out.
Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald (2018)
Pitiful
I am a massive potter fan, I grew up with the books, loved the original films and liked the previous instalment, this film however was the worst. The plot is beyond weak, it feels as though it is a collection of different things put together attempting to be a cohesive story and failing. The film is undoubtedly well filmed, the scenery is stunning and there are some sublime effects, the lastrange boggart in peticular was amazing. However there is simply no followable over arching plot, there are multiple story threads running in parallel and they are confusingly pointless, it is very much, let's go here, now here, why? No one knows. Nothing is explained and what little subtlety they try to have is as subtle as a led brick. There is one redeeming facter in this film, and that is Johnny dep.
Dep is the best part of this movie, the scene in the necropolis is the best part of the movie, dep is hipnotic and felt threatening, cunning and even had me sat there empathising with him. The use of the real world history to ground his arguments was excellent. The fight scene was genuinely excellent and the decisions characters made felt real and had genuin weight.
The worst part of this movie however was the blatant shoe horned plot points, and disrespect of the source material. The inclusion of Dumbledore, flamel and that last plot point which I will get to in a moment felt out of place and wrong, for example Dumbledore was a transfiguration teacher, not a DADA teacher, mcgonigle was not even born in 1927 and when she used the spell to remove that girls mouth, she would never have done that, "we never use transfiguration as a punishment" to quote the true source material. I appreciate that the writers are trying to add in charecters we know and love or that perhaps have always wanted to see however not at the expense of the story's integrity surely. Another example was the mirror of Errised. That was brought in to the school only to protect the philosophers stone, it was not there in 1927. And nermongard was a prison, not a bloody castle, it even says in the books specificly that grindlewald built it to house his enemy's, not to be his personal lair of evil.
The biggest one though, the one that made me lose all hope for the movie was the final big twist at the end.
Spoilers ahead....
There is no bloody third dumbledore brother. No no no no no!!!! This made it feel like nothing more than poor fan fiction, just like the cursed child before it, this poor excuse for a HP universe story fees like it is totally disconnected from the original canonic story.