littleriver-65252

Shogun is easily the best historical drama series to come out in the past decade, if not longer. It sticks to the source material, and beautifully combines history, intrigue, and culture. The best thing about the show is by far the writing, something that cannot be said for most movies and shows coming out of modern Hollywood. The characters all have great character development, and although there is a lot going on, it just works, for lack of better words. The cinematography is phenomenal, and the costume design is on point to say the least. In addition to this, the attention given to historical details is very admirable. The show focuses on the traditions, cultural norms, and beliefs of feudal Japan, rather than taking an anachronistic approach to the time period. There is a clear focus on the importance of honor, loyalty, and respect, and its importance is reflected in this show. This show is fascinating, and in my opinion, it deserves to be considered one of the best shows in cinema history.

I am a big admirer of Keanue Reeves and his work. The John Wick series is definitely one of the best I have seen, and considering the state of modern Hollywood, this movie was a breath of fresh air. However, this movie felt SLIGHTLY underwhelming compared to its predecessors. To start of with, I think Cain and Mr. Nobody were really a great addition, and it was thoroughly interesting to watch them throughout the movie. One of the factors however, that I feel made this movie slightly less satisfying than the other's is the villain. While I have definitely seen people say that he was the perfect villain, I beg to differ.

In the previous films, John Wick had something taken away from him by the main villain. In the first film, Losef steals John Wick's car and kills his dog, which causes John Wick to pursue him with the goal of killing him. In the second movie, Santino destroys John's home, and attempts to kill John once he has completed his marker. In the third film, it feels like the world is against him; he get's betrayed by Winston, and ends up seeking revenge against the high table. In this film however, Marquis seems to be John Wick's nemesis, however, they don't meet until the middle of the movie, and aside from destroying The Continental, it does not seem like Marquis has done anything PERSONAL to John. Instead of personally trying to eliminate John Wick with the help of his right hand like in John Wick, he relegates it to too many side characters, and it no longer feels like Marquis is the main villain in my opinion.

Aside from this, I found the fight scenes to be quite satisfying and amazing. There were three scenes that stood out to me, the first being the fight between Cain and Shimazu which I thought took place in a beatiful scenery. The second is when John Wick gets his hand on a Dragon's Breath Shotgun, and goes from room to room blasting his enemies away, all while the audience gets a bird eye view of the action. The third would be the fight in the club between John Wick and Killa which I found to be a little unbelievable because it seemed that no one, until the end of the fight, noticed what was going on in the club despite the gun shots and bodies going down left and right, but it was never the less very entertaining to watch.

Overall, I think this was a banger of a movie considering the length and how in-depth the plot must have been. I would give it a solid 8/10 and would recommend on any night of the week.

When this series first came out, I did not consider watching it primarily because it is not a genre that I am particularly interested in. However, over the past couple months, someone I am acquainted with continuously insisted that I should give the series a try before the next one was released. Although I was reluctant, I went ahead and watched episode one, and before I knew it, I ended up watching the entire series within a few days. I found it to be intriguing, unique, and overall entertaining. For me, the characters are what really make this anime great. The plot is pretty simple and you get the idea of what is to come pretty much after episode three. The plot is simple, but it is well executed, and all I can say is that I will be watching the next season, and if you have not watched the first season yet, it would be worth giving it a shot!