Wal_Kay

I almost missed this series due to a lack of interest in all the disappointing sequels and prequels that the original Star Wars saga had. But I am glad I listened to the positive reviews about Andor and gave it a try, and oh yeah... what a treat that was.

That's how it should be done from now on.

Real human characters on both sides.

Rebellions fighting an oppressing regime, seeking for all kind of reasons an idealistic freedom that never lasts, against an empire governed by a ruling elite that keeps pushing tighter its grasp on power, neglecting the devastating consequences it leaves behind, thinking they will last because they are different from the ones that came before them.

For someone who have seen the first "Star Wars: A new hope" in a movie theater when it came out in the 70s, in my opinion and call me old fashioned... Andor sounds much more familiar to me than all the stories about mighty bounty hunters, or wars among clones or even ex-Jedi from the planet Shili.

Good storyline, very well executed, convincing cast. For a none Hollywood movie and I assume no gazillion Euros budget either, that is quite an impressive and enjoyable movie.

Big respect to Robert Hloz who did a great job, I am sure we'll see more of his work in the future. You could tell that he is a big fan of Denis Villeneuve's "Blade Runner 2049", although the similarities are not imposing, but you could feel that we are not far from that reality, in a brighter and less gloomy future compared to Blade Runner.

I like very much the new everyday technology of 2041 and the performances of the cast and the casual way they were interacting with it, presumably most of it is CGI, but still it was quite convincing and a kind of a glimpse into the not so far possible future.

Very solid performance from all the cast but surely top praise to the lead character played by Andrea Mohylova.

I love it when a movie I know nothing about surprises me the way this movie did, quite a joyful gem.

I simply loved this movie, I did not know what to expect and it ended up to be a nice surprise, Tom Hanks delivers a beautiful performance as you would expect Mr. Hanks to do, but the bonus reward was the performance of Alexander Black (in the role of Yousef), the pleasant screen chemistry both actors delivered with their performances was quite delightful to watch. This is not a movie for everyone, this is an enjoyable light comedy-drama about humans relations originating out of two "really different" cultures and I assume unless the viewer had at a certain time interacted with both of them, by that I mean the western and the middle eastern (mainly the Gulf region) cultures, one would not enjoy it as such, as you could tell from some of the negative reviews mentioned earlier.

Tom Tykwer the director whom I enjoyed previous work as Run Lola Run 1998, Perfume 2006, The International 2009 and Cloud Atlas 2012, managed to display on the screen the culture shock of a westerner in Saudi Arabia, avoiding the usual negative stereotyping assumption that we would expect from a Hollywood movie when the subject involves the middle east region in general.

I didn't have a chance to read the book but definitely I enjoyed the movie and wanted more when it ended, as mentioned earlier this is not a movie for everyone, if you enjoyed movies like "Lost in translation", "The best exotic marigold hotel" or even "The way way back", movies about regular people out of their usual environment then I surely recommend this one for you.