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Reviews40
Tostig66's rating
Game adaptations are usually hot garbage. This however is still the greatest video game adaptation of all time. Pushing aside the MOBA game play and instead focussing in on some of the rogue's gallery of characters, the series build to a hugely ambitious and highly successful narrative. It's also satisfyingly diverse with plenty of female and gay characters with lots of different races in the story. But unlike a lot of stories paying lip service to diversity, here it's earned.
We see events unfolding from multiple different view points. Due to the faction's motives some times they win, other times they lose. Nobody is entirely good or bad. It's like an animated game of thrones.
Which brings me to the peerless animation. Anyone can make things pretty, but innovative, mixing styles and innovating the medium, this is the most ambitious, artistic, original and and intelligent series ever created.
We see events unfolding from multiple different view points. Due to the faction's motives some times they win, other times they lose. Nobody is entirely good or bad. It's like an animated game of thrones.
Which brings me to the peerless animation. Anyone can make things pretty, but innovative, mixing styles and innovating the medium, this is the most ambitious, artistic, original and and intelligent series ever created.
They say when considering to convert a book into a film each page is a minute. Do to make a 10 part series you'd need a book of around 500 pages and as the original was your typical airport thriller that means a LOT of padding.
The central idea is timeless a trained sniper hunting down a hard to reach target. Only this time we get more emphasis on the agent hunting him down. That works, finding out about both of their family lives does not. In the case of the jackal, his wife, mother in law and brother in law try breaking into his secret later. They become the three stooges. It's embarrassing.
In the original it shows the meticulous detail of the planning, while that is here, they seem to have half read an article on sniping. They go to great lengths to show hard it is to pull off a long range shot taking into account the delay before firing and reaching the target. But there's something called bullet drop where over distance the bullet starts to fall. So to have every shot hitting right in the centre of his scope is an odd error.
Bottom line if this had been a 6 part story it would have been very tense, maybe even a classic, but as it is there are good bits, silly bits, boring bits and very dumb bits.
The central idea is timeless a trained sniper hunting down a hard to reach target. Only this time we get more emphasis on the agent hunting him down. That works, finding out about both of their family lives does not. In the case of the jackal, his wife, mother in law and brother in law try breaking into his secret later. They become the three stooges. It's embarrassing.
In the original it shows the meticulous detail of the planning, while that is here, they seem to have half read an article on sniping. They go to great lengths to show hard it is to pull off a long range shot taking into account the delay before firing and reaching the target. But there's something called bullet drop where over distance the bullet starts to fall. So to have every shot hitting right in the centre of his scope is an odd error.
Bottom line if this had been a 6 part story it would have been very tense, maybe even a classic, but as it is there are good bits, silly bits, boring bits and very dumb bits.
Everything you have heard about the camera were in cinema photography is true. This is simply one of the best looking, best directed films you will ever see. However, a film isn't just pretty pictures.
What we have is a propaganda piece that shows how corrupt Cuba was before the revolution and how great communism is. Whatever you may think of the politics it means that this is leaning more on the message than it is in terms of character. It's four different stories that goes on for over two hours. Literally every word gets an audio translation into Russian which was important in the 1960s in the Soviet union but is distracting today and reminds you that this is not meant to be entertainment-this is education.
The scenes are too long, the stories are too slight, you know where they're going the moment they start and the acting is totally adequate. So in terms of plot, character development and narrative pace this film is substandard. It's pretty... Pretty dull.
What we have is a propaganda piece that shows how corrupt Cuba was before the revolution and how great communism is. Whatever you may think of the politics it means that this is leaning more on the message than it is in terms of character. It's four different stories that goes on for over two hours. Literally every word gets an audio translation into Russian which was important in the 1960s in the Soviet union but is distracting today and reminds you that this is not meant to be entertainment-this is education.
The scenes are too long, the stories are too slight, you know where they're going the moment they start and the acting is totally adequate. So in terms of plot, character development and narrative pace this film is substandard. It's pretty... Pretty dull.