qumshoe

This film is not great. This film is not good. I don't appreciate the fact a real cow was gunned down for the making of this film

Nevertheless, it offers a real warning to the dangerous objective nature of fascism. It's history we can learn from. History that, people unfortunately tend to forget. In the face of fascism, people tend to not comprehend just how bad it is until it impacts them directly. People tend to be complacent when it happens overseas-even if facilitated by their own government. People tend to be complacent when it happens to immigrants domestically.

This film greatly showcases that fascism will initially kill on the basis of discrimination, and when there is no longer anyone left to discriminate against, fascism will kill indiscriminately. Anything to justify a cause, even if based on a lie. Anyone you can direct your anger at and put at fault for the issues that exist in your world or country, in order to avoid introspection.

Many aspects of this film are masterful. Such as the acting, dialogue, cinematography, interactions between characters, and the characterization of its main antagonist. 1991's "Silence of the Lambs" also offers subtle commentary on social class, depicts the prevalence of misogyny in male-dominant careers, and shows how a young, aspiring agent navigates through that.

If we hyperfocus on just the overall story itself-it hinges on the idea that that an incarcerated serial killer has information that will lead to the whereabouts of a wanted serial killer. It never quite offers an explanation as to how investigators originally arrived at this conclusion, and I think leaving this fact ambiguous for the sake of this film's scope was simply a mistake.

Hannibal Lector is an interesting villain, and I would have liked to know how investigators arrived at the conclusion, for reasons other than a hunch. You cannot just say "They're both cannibals, therefore are both similarly deranged, therefore must have known each other at some point", as a means to suspend my disbelief. That's just non sequitur. Minor tweaks would have resulted in a much better story.

I still applaud this film for the ideas it had at the time. This has led to much inspiration in the industry of film and storytelling.

This show occasionally has some of the most beautiful writing I've ever seen in an animated series. Other times, it's painfully ordinary.

What I mean by that is, "Pantheon" begins as a highly compelling character drama imbued with Sci-Fi elements from theoretical computer science. I immediately fell in love with it, and this series continued to deliver-episode after episode. However, at a certain point in season 1, it begins to pivot.

When the virtual world becomes a more prominent component of the series, it gave writers the freedom to pretty much write any sequence of events from an imaginary standpoint. This led to an immense number of action scenes, and this remains rampant for roughly 9 episodes in a row. Given that Pantheon is two seasons and a total of 16 episodes, this action becomes part of its identity.

Don't get me wrong, I have no opposition towards action scenes or fantasy. It was animated quite well, given their budget. But this series was previously a really eloquent character drama. That's what made me binge it, and I missed that. Problems were solved through a thought-out series of events, and then it just becomes "my energy blast is stronger than yours", which feels like a betrayal. For 9 episodes, Pantheon is comparable to your average superhero show or movie.

However, the last two episodes of season 2 were once again interesting. I enjoyed it quite a lot and commend the writers for pulling it off. I still prefer the first six episodes of season 1, but the ending of season 2 was a pivot I welcomed with open arms. Had it not been for those two episodes, I would have given this series an overall 8/10, instead a 9.

We need more series like Pantheon and they need to be supported. While it has its flaws, it's still better than a vast majority of 'live-action' television series.

(8.6875/10) Season 1 (10/10) episodes 1-5 Season 1 (8/10) episodes 6-8 Season 2 (7.5/10) episodes 1-6 Season 2 (10/10) episodes 7-8.