Change Your Image
otto_tieleman
Reviews
Dune: Part Two (2024)
Part two, the continuation of the best Dune adaption ever.
Part one of Dune was the first part of the famous book of Frank Herbert. Denis Villeneuve captured perfectly the story of Paul Atreides. The first movie comes to a satisfying conclusion but thankfully we get the second half that has more spectacle than the first movie.
I enjoyed both movies as one movie. By now I am so tired of the CGI specticals of Disney that are pushed in their Marvel and Star Wars films because they lack a good story. Dune isn't that, it's a smart movie with a story that has everything from romance to action, intrigues to political and religues plays that put Game of Thrones to shame. Go and experience the movie on the biggest and best screen.
Ahsoka (2023)
Slow......boring......stretched out......content.
If I had to say one positive thing than it's the production value. This show probably costed a ton to make but that doesn't make it good.
The pacing of the show is very very very very slow, filled with walking (a Di$ney Star Wars staple) and look shots of looks, a lot of looks.
The end result is horrible and unwatchable. Maybe this will gel with you if you are a fan of the animated series this is based on but I've never seen them and there is no introduction about who is who.
I didn't completed the second episode after struggling trough the first one. It is that bad. For everyone who had a sliver of hope that this would end the streak of failed Star Wars from the mouse house I'm sad to say it's not, Star Wars is dead.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023)
A masterpiece in animation and story telling
Spider-man: Across the Spider-Verse continues where Spider-man: into the spider-verse left of.
What changed is the scale of the story and the with of animation used to tell the story. The first movie shook up the animation world in a positive way and we can see it's influence in movies like Puss in Boots 2. But this movie expands on it's ambition in animation to go even wilder and more inventive.
All the beautiful animation won't be much if the story didn't live up to the animation. We have seen many Marvel films and tv series from Marvel/Disney that have degrade to the point of bloated CGI without any enticing stories, loveless created only to make money but don't deliver on the rich world the comic books have created. Thankfully Sony wiped the slate clean and created a unique, excited and touching story. Not only Miles Morales has an incredible story arch but every side character that is created for the story. Making all characters relatable and it makes you care.
Go watch this movie if you can on the best screen you can find as it is worth your money and time and that is something we couldn't have said for a long time for a super hero movie.
Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (2022)
This movie works on all levels
Disney en Pixar move over as there is a new king in town and it's Dreamworks.
Puss is on his last life and that fact changes his perspective on life and the value of it. On his journey to the wishing star he meets a dog and Kitty Softpaws, two characters who are all changed after their adventure.
The story is as simple enough and entertaining for kids as it is deep an thoughtful for adults. The voice actors, writing, direction and animation (that borrows lightly from the excellent Sony Spider-man animated movie) and it hits on every cylinder. There is no political agenda pushed, it's fun, emotional, scary and all done perfectly.
I don't like this movie, I love it and it's a must watch for the whole family.
Turning Red (2022)
Story crippled by over explaining and lack of restrain
The story is okay but fails to be very, very on the nose in giving everything away in dialog. Like the animation it fails subtilty making the end result crude and a far cry from Pixar of old days.
The animation is fine, the character models aren't and the whole thing is very mediocre at best. The core demographic is pre-teen, that is finest Pixar movies have layers for all layers, something that this product fails to deliver on.
The Book of Boba Fett (2021)
Boring, slow and unimaginative.
Why keeps Disney defecating on the original trilogy as if they haven't tarnished the wonderful first trilogy enough.
We meet Boba Fett, we see his old face first so all the mystery is gone. In an overly long and boring sequence we see how he survived the Sarlacc pit (he just does). What follows is a member berries tour of characters we know and who get now more exposition than we ever wanted. Showing the lack of creativity from the Disney company. They go as far as showing Luke Skywalker's uncle Owen Lars getting killed and there is no reason for showing it other than (crapping over episode 3 of the prequal) the sand people didn't kill them.
Meanwhile Boba clearly survives all the torture as in the now we see him in Jabba the Hutt's palace he owns now and we see him go to a village where we get some useless Boston Dynamics robot dogs that need to be herded by a human for whatever reason. We are served shots of the annoying droid Rex that needs to be pushed as it is in Disney's terrible "Star Wars" lands and we need to see a card game as it is in the overpriced "Star Wars" hotel. What follows is a fight that is badly choreographed and filmed and that is the end of the first boring. It is slow, boring and above all unimaginative.
Why, in such a bog universe, can't Disney keep their greedy hands from the original movies and come up with something new.
Star Wars: The Bad Batch (2021)
Introduce a kid and the series went down
It's beyond me why Disney feels the need to add a kid in this series that started out with an interesting premise. When did any successful Star Wars film/series needed a kid? To mind come the Ewok movies that where terrible.
The rough and tough members of the bad batch are forced to babysit episode after episode where the girl does the most stupid things to push the weak stories forward. In effect the members act out of character to risk life and limb, killing a dozen or more ex colleagues to clean up her mess. And due to that lack of creativity on the writers this loop is on repeat. As I kid I never needed a stupid acting kid in a movie or series to think it's cool, most of the time it's condescending to the younger viewer.
This could have been good, unfortunately it's a waist of potential as most things made by Disney.
Behind the Attraction (2021)
Excellent informercial disappointing documentary
I am a huge fan of the original Walt Disney Imagineering and I have the books to proof it. Because of that I was looking forward to the first episode about The Jungle Cruise and boy did it disappoint. The whole form is so badly written and lacks any depth it's amazing a company as Disney would approve it. The jokes are even worse than on the original ride and the whole "make it bubbly and fun" sauce that is dripping over the end product takes away the hart and passion the people who worked on it.
It wouldn't be a Disney product if it didn't had cross promotion shoved in it and so the upcoming Jungle Cruise movie is slapped in there taking even more away from the quality of the documentary.
Star Wars: The Bad Batch: Cornered (2021)
Out of character actions and decisions make this a downer
Omega is bringing the whole batch lives in danger while the hard boiled and trained killers go above and beyond to fail in most of their attempts to get the annoying plotpoint back instead of saving their own backs.
For a lame kids series this has a lot of killing in addition of bad writhing. An epic fight between the bounty hunter and Wreckers is over in one hit, the chase scene is badly animated and the subplot with the droids isn't funny nor smart.
Sure it's the best Disney has done with this ip but that is a low standard.
Ellen's Next Great Designer (2021)
Great idea but is let down by it's contesters
Designers are building pieces of furniture to win a contest.
You follow the building process and the ups and downs.
There are many of these kind of shows on television. Unfortunately the enjoyment of the show hangs on how fun the contestants are. In this case quite a few whine and moan about being tired and hard work and it is getting on my nerves. I would never ever buy something from some of these designers just based on their attitude.
Above that Ellen is hardly involved making me wonder why her name was slapped on the show.
MacGyver: Diamond + Quake + Carbon + Comms + Tower (2021)
Predictable and lazy
I like the new MacGyver but this 5th season lacks new vilains and problems.
I say villains' as they act like comic book vilains instead only out to d something bad to the heroes. We all know how it will end. Throwing personal issues and the lack of communication between the team members as a plot enhancer to add some drama in there feels cheap to push this episode forwards and it's something we have seen done many times before and has been excecated better.
The actors make as much as they can from the script, kudo's for that. The fight scene's are getting more predictable and formulatic with every show. Rather we had less fighting and now and then a truly original and quality fight ever 4 episodes.
But in the end it's the story and the writing that pulls this otherwise excellent show down.
Debris: Pilot (2021)
The Next X-Files
Watching the first episode it is a lot to take in. But the chemistry between the main characters and the premise is very good and offers a lot of possibilities.
I always longed for a next X-Files show that could capture that feeling and I think this is it.
Professionals: Hot Zone (2022)
Not so professional
This series has potential as most actors are fine to good but the series doesn't know what it wants to be. It's slides from an adult show to a kids show and back.
In this episode there are stupid decisions made for the sake to continue the story. It's painful to watch. The writers should be hold accountable for bad writing and terrible dialogs.
Technically the show also under preforms from the first episode on. Take the stunt and fight scene's, they are filmed terribly and miss excitement. It would be good to add a few days to have the stunt and photography department work closer together. CGI (especially fire) looks bad too.
Muppets Now: Due Date (2020)
This is not the Muppets
From the company that brought you the worst star Wars sequels and a ton of bad real life remakes from their once so wonderful animation movies we present you Muppets Now.
I hold the Muppets neer and dear to my hart so I was looking forward to see something fun and new on the lackluster Disney+ service and what we got was an almost 23 minuted disappointment. A Chinese knock off with no knowledge about why the Muppets where so amazing.
Let me start with the positives, the Muppets look excellent. And there it ends. Sure they couldn't get the original voices but it sounded like they didn't even try to find voices that would come close. The writing is bad and misses both the sharpness and humor the Muppets are known for. Due to that, the characters are loosing their characteristics. Kermit is never in control where we know him to stay a leader even when everything goes wrong. Miss Piggy is only narcissistic and doesn't court Kermit or the guests. The list goes on and on with one dimensional characters who once had much more balance to them.
The clips are painful unfunny to watch, the (camera) direction is rough and the whole thing is painful to watch. Even the guests rolle their eyes. It sounded like their role was improvised but non of the Muppets picked them up and let them shine.
Just like Star Wars the Disney company doesn't understand the ip they bought and it shows in every single frame.