strassermarlies Reviews

Chaos Walking (2021)

Interesting and entertaining

[7/10 · 12 May 2024]

I don't remember when it was the last time that I was genuinely entertained by a movie. That's sad, really.

But this movie was interesting. I had no idea what will happen next. It kept me entertained throughout the whole thing, and if suddenly my wifi had died, I would have tuned in later to finish it.

Again, that didn't happen to me for a long time. I'm so used to turn off movies or skip forward or not caring about the ending, that this was such a surreal experience, sitting there glued to the screen and wondering where this is going.

I would rate it higher, if the ending had been better. That's the only weakness I can think of in this movie. Nothing really was explained, and it was more about the journey, than about intriguing revelations. But that didn't take away from the entertainment value.

I also have to praise Holland. I'm a big fan of him, but I don't like his darker stuff. In this movie he really showed us how charismatic he can be.

Trigun Stampede (2023– )

Spectacular on every level

[10/10 · 26 March 2023]

Since I'm bombarding Crunchyroll with comments, I'm now here to show my love for this seires. Don't sleep on this! Get over your nostalgia! While the original anime had a great and unique atmosphere, it wasn't flawless and it was not that close to the original manga either. With this series they took a different direction regarding the atmosphere, the mood, the overall feeling you get watching it. Like another reviewer said: This is no competition. Both series are worth watching. Both have great things to offer. With this being a prequel, we now will see the plot going forward in s2. This feels more like Trigun Maximum manga. I'm extremely excited and glad this series exists. Thank you Studio Orange! It was a fun and spectacular ride! It brought my love for anime back.

An old anime watcher for almost 30 years.

Thor: Love and Thunder (2022)

Really?

[1/10 · 17 August 2022]

Must be the first movie I only give 1 star on IMDB. I loved Ragnarok. It is one of my favorite MCU movies. It was exciting, different, colorful, suspensful and pretty cool. I know Taika Waititi is overdoing it sometimes. In Ragnarok there were at least five situations where I thought he ruined the moment with the strange humour. In Love and Thunder it's different: There is not a single moment that's NOT ruined by the unfunny humour. Doesn't matter what scene, you just KNOW it will be ruined because some bad joke. What's wrong with people? What's wrong with the movie industry? Will we never see a good movie ever again? Everything turns into crap lately.

Top Gun: Maverick (2022)

Best movie I have seen in YEARS

[10/10 · 3 June 2022]

Don't know if this movie really deserves a 10, but I was on the edge of my seat and I felt like that didn't happen for many, many years. Throughout the whole film I constantly thought "That's a good movie. Haven't seen such a good movie in the last years." That doesn't mean this movie is so great, it just means that movies nowadays are extremely bad. Top Gun: Maverick was a bit cheesy, but it had some good dialouges, a good plot, characters that were enjoyable to watch - that's a lot nowadays. The action was mind blowing, and despite me not really liking Tom Cruise I always enjoy his movies. He picks them well, and he is a good actor. I cried a lot, because it was so emotional. Then I laughed. It was a bitter laugh. Because I wondered how that story would go if it was told from the other side, you know, from the enemy side. Those heroes have to kill other people at the end of the day. And who knows who is bad and good? But that's the tragedy of human existence. Overall this was a very emotional, entertaining and smart movie.

Morbius (2022)

Not good, not bad

[5/10 · 31 May 2022]

Since the trailer came out, I was interested in this movie, because I like vampire stories. Jared Leto is a decent actor and he is easy on the eye. Who doesn't like looking at THAT face? The movie was sure not bad, but the spark was missing. They obviously tried to make a nice movie, with nice characters and a nice plot. Maybe that was the problem: it was too nice. Venom sure was on another level. Like others said, don't make those movies for children. Give us something more. We don't want a Disney movie. The characters had potential at first, but at the end they seemed shallow and uninteresting. I liked the police guys! Seeing Morbius work with them would have been interesting. But no. I don't know the comics, so I have no idea where this is leading to. But I feel they wasted the potential. It's just another superhero film with a superhero plot: strange experiment leads to superhuman powers, superhero has to learn to control them, a love interest is introduced, a villain appears, we have a fight - THE END.

Why.

Loki (2021–2023)

Started out great, became a nightmare later on

[7/10 · 14 July 2021]

It's ironic, really, how Tom Hiddelston as a villain got so much attention and is loved by so many fans that he even got his own TV-series. And then, in his own TV-series, titled after the character's name, they manage to make him a mere side character who has no balls.

Let me start with saying the show started out very well. I liked the style of the TVA, I liked some of the CGI, I liked most of the actors. Owen Wilson a.k.a Mobius does a terrific job. He delivers every line in such an iconic way, it's indredible. The dynamics between him and Loki are great, and by far the best thing about the whole series. Their dialogues are brilliantly written. But WHAT EXACTLY did they do to the God of Mischief? While I enjoyed the *emotional therapy*-scenes with Mobius and the obvious character development, just let him be a badass for once! The series should be called *Sylvie* rather than *Loki*. She was appearantly the most capable of all Lokis and the star of the series. That said, they messed it up in the romance department BADLY. For whatever reason they hinted towards Mobius having a tiny little crush on Loki. -I know you have a soft spot for broken things-, -your favorite Loki-, -he cares about you-, -thank you for the spark- etc. Why did they do that? Just to feed the shippers out there? At the same time they declared Loki bi and made him fall in love with his other female self. You can be damn sure he wouldn't have fallen for a male version! It's weird, to say the least. I never felt the need to see Loki in a relationship, but why not? A nice love story with a woman could have worked very well. A nice love story with a man too, but we all know Disney is not going there. But why his other self? WHY, Marvel, WHY? Not to mention that he has no chemistry with Sylvie. NONE. I felt very uncomfortable watching those two, and I'm honestly amazed that so many people seem to enjoy this *romance*. People ship everything nowadays. The whole thing was so unnecessary and weird. Let him be friends with Mobius and having a sibling-like relationship with Sylvie, so he learns about trusting and loving others (and himself) and we are all happy. And don't change his character too much! The God of Mischief became a little kitten. Tom Hiddelston's performance was borderline cheesy most of the time.

I thought I would rate it with a solid 9, but after this very disappointing and boring finale I will only give it a 6 stars, sorry. I will make it 7 for Owen Wilson's performance. He really nailed it. But come on, Marvel! What were you thinking. I still get chills from this strange romance ... ugh.

Loki: Journey Into Mystery (2021) Season 1, Episode 5

I hope for a great finale

[8/10 · 7 July 2021]

I love the Mobius & Loki relationship. It's the main reason I enjoy this show. Mobius is such a bada** character! It's hilarious, really. A bureaucrat with a boring suit? But he is very smart, brave and has a good heart. Every line is iconic. Owen Wilson does a terrific job.

About the rest? The show should be called "Sylvie" and not "Loki". Apparently she is the star of the series, and much more capable than the other Lokis. At this point I just hope they let Loki shine at least in the last episode. They did him dirty, really.

I don't dislike Sylvie, and the actress is doing a pretty decent job in portraying a "Loki", but the semi-romance they are going for between those two is very unsettling to watch. They are basically the same person.

Last but not least: The action scenes and the plot. It's getting a bit ridiculous, really.

I give this episode 7,5 out of 10 stars. Let's make it 8 because of Mobius. I love Tom Hiddelston as Loki, but in this series he is overdoing it a bit. His performance is borderline cheesy sometimes. The sly god of mischief became a little kitten.

Loki: The Nexus Event (2021) Season 1, Episode 4

Mobius is back!

[9/10 · 30 June 2021]

I loved seeing Mobius again. His dynamic with Loki is what I enjoy the most about this series. Owen Wilson again delivers every line perfectly! I'm not even joking when I say he has the potential to became my absolute favorite. Not sure about the action and the direction this series is going. I feel the pace is a bit off, the fight scenes are lacking, but maybe I'm just too critical, because I rewatch those episodes many, many times. I guess the budget isn't that big for this one. Still a great series, and I want to know what happens next. But yeah, it starts to look a bit messy. I feel they tried to put too much stuff into only 6 episodes. 9/10 because of Mobius.

Loki: Lamentis (2021) Season 1, Episode 3

Not as good as the previous episodes

[8/10 · 30 June 2021]

Unfortunately I'm not really a fan of female Loki, and I don't understand how this works, that people are apparently the same, born by the same parents in a different universe, but they somehow have a different gender, different appearances.

Anyways, the planet adventure was great. I loved the colors, the action and the dialogues. It was not bad at all, though the previous episodes were better. I miss Mobius.

Loki: The Variant (2021) Season 1, Episode 2

Very good episode

[10/10 · 30 June 2021]

After watching up to episode 4, I must say that I enjoyed episode 1 & 2 the most. The style in the first two episodes is the same, the mind games continue, the relationship between Loki & Mobius is great and very enjoyable to watch. Loki shows us how smart he is. I mostly enjoy the "emotional therapy" part. It's a nice to see something different, and I think they really did justice to the Loki character. He was never meant to be a hero like Captain America or Thor, but he isn't suited to be a villain either. I see a lot of potential at this point to give him some important role in the Marvel Cinematic Multi(!)verse. He deserves it for sure. 9,5/10.

Loki: Glorious Purpose (2021) Season 1, Episode 1

Very smart

[10/10 · 30 June 2021]

It's a while since I enjoyed an episode of a TV series so much. I'm not very familiar with Owen Wilson's other works, but he nails that character Mobius. He delivers every line just perfectly. Everything that comes out of his mouth is iconic. The character is extremely well written and the chemistry with Loki is great. The dialogues are really smart. How they focus more on emotions and mind games is brilliant. The TVA and this style of the 50s/60s is great to look at. Very good episode!

Sweet Home (2020– )

Don't give up too early

[8/10 · 29 December 2020]

I wonder if the people who rated this poorly gave up too early. I was one of them, I gave it 5 stars and moved on. But something about it was intriguing, so I came back. Ep 1 was promising, then it went downhill, I dropped it after Ep 3, but when I came back and I didn't regret it. I'm now rating it with a solid 8. The characters were annoying, yes, but they grew on me. Many dialogues and reactions seemed rather stupid, but they leaded to some great scenes. This series has a nice atmosphere, beautiful actors with lots of charisma. I liked the soundtrack and the CGI (yes, I do!). My biggest issue was the storytelling. They told too many stories at the same time. You want to know what happens to a certain character, but you have to wait, because other stories get in the way. I would have preferred it, if they finished one story arc and then moved on. I wasn't bothered by this kind of storytelling that much later on, when the series progressed. Most likely because the characters grew on me, and I was equally invested in everyone of them. To make it short: interesting survival/zombie/monster plot with annoying characters who became less annoying the more you know about them, decent CGI, decent music, some very good coloring and atmosphere. Some very good directing, some very bad directing and yeah ... Could have been better, but they did a good job most of the time. Some scenes were really bad, some were brilliant. Sometimes the action was incredible, sometimes it looked cheap or they just skipped a scene so you didn't even know what happened. It is, what it is. And it was a nice watch and an emotional ride.

The Martian (2015)

Is this a parody?

[5/10 · 27 June 2020]

When this movie came out I heard only good things about it. I thought this would be a rather realistic, thought-provoking and dramatic survival story that would make me emotional because it's so well done. What I got was a comedy movie with unbelievable bad dialogues like I have seen and heard them only in very low budget horror/splatter movies. I refuse to believe that grown-ups are laughing at those jokes. The portrayal of the emotions was badly done. Very, very badly. The characters lacked any personality. There was no soul, no depth, no character you could get invested. Everything was extremely shallow and forced-funny. 5 stars because of the landscape and everything else. The concept was nice and interesting. The acting was okay. The writing brought this movie down.

Onward (I) (2020)

Nice movie

[9/10 · 14 April 2020]

This movie didn't appeal to me. The trailer, the art, the story. But with an animation movie you cannot go wrong so I watched it, and I was surprised. It's very deep and emotional. It made me cry at the end. Very nice movie with a beautiful message.

Travelers (2016– )

I'm a bit mad at this series

[6/10 · 14 April 2020]

It's a good TV series, one of the best Netflix series I have seen. Solid writing, an interesting plot and good characters. The first couple of episodes were perfect. There is really nothing I have to complain about. But now, being somewhere in the middle of season 2, I wonder what's happening. I constantly feel like I have missed something and the characters are treated very differently regarding their screentime. I don't understand why the love story between Marcy and David (a social worker and side characters) gets so much attention. Is this a romance show after all? Philip is the most sensitive guy, but nobody seems to care for him. He could die from an overdose and they wouldn't even notice. Marcy is too concerend about her so important love life, MacLaren is such a small man who also thinks he has a hard life when he got the best life of all of them! The people with the real issues get completely neglected. Carly has to deal with raising an infant and having a violet husband, but MacLaren tells her she has to figure it out by herself like everyone else when he has a beautiful house, a beautiful wife, a good and well paid job, friends and colleagues who like and support him. Seriously? It's not bad writing, it's just difficult to like those characters at this point. I get the feeling some are favorised by the authors for no good reason. So much attention to Marcy's boring and cheesy love story while Philip's and Carli's life doesn't seem to matter as much. I'm more interested in Jeff (Carli's husband) than David. I also think that the plot is getting a bit messy with the time travel concept. The whole plot around Grace and the Director and how she overwrote him didn't make much sense to me. Trevor suddenly breaking the rules and trying to save a woman (by behaving like some crazy serial killer) was strange too, but maybe I just understood that character wrong from the very beginning. It's still a nice and entertaining show, but yeah, at the moment I'm a bit mad at it. They could have made some better choices along the way and used their characters better.

EDIT: okay, I changed the rating and I dropped the series now. I skip too many times forward. I couldn't care less about Marcy and her love story with David. It just isn't very interesting, and I really liked it at the beginning but now it's just too much. I also don't care about MacLaren and his wife. Sorry. So what is left? They have no other plot for Philip than being high (from heroin to eye drops and now he hallucinates and has to take some yellow pills), Carli is going nowhere with her private life (with that kind of husband it's no surprise) and Trevor? No idea. I guess he is the only one left I enjoy watching. But his story is not going anywhere either. I guess I just expected too much.

Parasite (2019)

Not for me

[5/10 · 17 March 2020]

This movie just wasn't for me. It's very symbolic, which means you can interpret almost every scene and give it some special meaning. But at the end of the day it was such a strange movie with characters that weren't likable at all, and whatever message it tried to convey, it wasn't doing it in an appealing way. I feel like this is one of those movies suddenly everyone is talking about and so it became bigger than it deserved. And that comes from someone who admired Korean movies for almost a decade now.

Kingdom (2019–2020)

One thing doesn't make any sense

[7/10 · 17 March 2020]

10/10 for costumes and production. Acting is good. Characters are likable. But what bothered me (and I cannot get over it), why didn't they kill those people at the very beginning? They knew going for the head would put an end to those "monsters". Why did they try to contain them in the hospital? They are sleeping during the day (hiding in dark places, looking dead and not moving). Just cut off the head of everyone of them and it's done. After they escaped, yes, it was too late. And there were too many other infections. It seems they thought they could cure the "disease". Maybe that was the reason. But really? With people looking like this? Just go during the day, cut off as much heads as you can -- and it's done. In almost every other zombie flick those undead are a danger during night AND day which makes it hard to kill them. But those were mere vampires with no powers during the day.

The Mandalorian (2019– )

One of the best shows I have seen in awhile

[10/10 · 1 January 2020]

I normally don't review much on this site, but after watching "The Witcher" and seeing how many people rated that show with a 10 when objectively speaking it was pretty bad -- I feel the need to support a GOOD TV show. The Mandalorian is a good show with good character, good dialogues, an engaging plot that keeps you on the edge of your seat. THIS IS HOW IT'S DONE. I'm not a Star Wars fan, I think I watched two or three movies but could never get into it. But I'm a sucker for Space Western like Cowboy Bebop, Firefly, Killjoys etc. and this is the same genre. The world is incredible, the custumes and CGI are great, the character are lovable and it's NOT overly sexual. You have a guy who forms a friendship with a female soldier without having to sleep with her after one episode. This was such a solid and enjoyable TV show. Whoever is behind this, is very talented. Normally I would give it a 8.5 or a 9, but I will give it a 10, just to show my support. I hope we'll get many more series like this in the future. And I'm not necessarily taking about the genre, I'm talking about a good script, charismatic actors, smart plot and dialogues.

The Witcher (2019– )

Not the quality I expected

[5/10 · 20 December 2019]

It looks cheap and is extremely slow. I had a hard time getting into it. The gore, the mediocre acting, the rather dull and uninteresting characters, the dark atmosphere, the music, the lights ... sigh. This doesn't look like a high budget show at all. So if you're a hardcore dark fantasy fan and don't mind low budget shows, The Witcher will entertain you. But after seeing the trailer and knowing it was advertised as the next big hit after "Game Of Thrones" I expected something that looked much, much better with a more intriguing story, better dialogues, better characters, better ... everything. I mean, it could be worse, I guess, but well... I even marked the air date in my calendar because I was so excited and now I don't even know if I want to finish this. A typical case of "false advertising".

Mortal Engines (2018)

A decent movie with spectacular visulas

[7/10 · 17 February 2019]

I'm always willing to watch some young adult fantasy-sci-fi-dystopian movie. The first 15 minutes of Mortal Engines didn't impress me much, but then the story really started to shine. The whole world was very captivating and the CGI (which didn't look as CGI at all) was spectacular. I must say it's a while since I have seen such a well done movie with such great visuals. I immediately thought there must be some talented people behind it. It turned out Peter Jackson (responsible for Lord of Rings/The Hobbit) was working on this. That explains a lot! So back to the movie: the story was nothing we have never seen before, but I honestly preferred the main actress over Jennifer Lawrence in Hunger Games. It's hard to understand why movies like Hunger Games and Maze Runner (I love Dylan O'Brian but the movies were stupid) are so successful and well received and this one wasn't. One explanation may be the bad advertising. I got the feeling the movie wasn't hyped at all. Or just the bad timing: people are fed up with such stories. I really don't know why it was such a flop on the Box Office. Was ist worse than Mad Max, Hunger Games etc.? No. Was ist better? No. This was an okay movie which deserves at least 6 stars but I will give it 7 just for the stunning visuals. The characters weren't that charming, but they weren't annoying either. Some of their dialogues were more mature than what we heard in the last superhero installment. It's such a shame that this movie wasn't received very well. And the critics? There must be some political agenda behind it I guess ... Big cities "eating" small cities, London on wheels on the run ... whatever. We all know that critics rate a movie for the political message and not for the acting or story.

Aquaman (2018)

Another mediocre superhero movie

[6/10 · 16 February 2019]

People who complain about the cheesy dialogue and missing story, often say things like "this is for children" or "this is like a cartoon". The thing is children shows like Peppa Pig (I watch it with my 3 years old nephew) or Ladybug (I watch it with my 6 years old niece) are hundred million times more mature and more suspenseful than the average superhero movie. Not to mention that the many animation movies out there have some of the best storytelling you can find nowadays. So why Hollywood? Why does it have to be so ... dumb? I don't get it. I'm a writer myself. How hard can it be to write some good dialogues? I was never a DC fan, but I always thought the DC Universe would be more mature and darker. Maybe the whole atmosphere is "darker" but sure the stories aren't more mature. So talking about Aquaman: I like the character and the actor. The movie was not terrible, but it was like 99% CGI (even the hair in the water was animated), some superhero things happened, there were a lot of fights going on and yeah ... he became the king of Atlantis. Honestly, I don't even know why I'm writing this review. I just wonder why Hollywood cannot make a blockbuster movie with a good and intriguing story. Do good stories don't sell anymore? It's just sad.

Alpha (II) (2018)

Okay, but not much more

[6/10 · 16 February 2019]

I love human-animal relationships (*thinking about Hachiko and crying a river*) and this movie was okay, but nothing more. There were many things wrong with it. I feel like they could have done a better job if they tried. I was so excited about seeing him coming home with the wolf!! But nothing worth remembering happened. I'm pretty sure I will soon forget about the whole movie. They should have taken some lessons from Hidalgo (2004) or Iron Will (1994). Those are movies with scenes you think about 10 and 20 years later.

Killjoys (2015– )

Terrible start, but gets better and better and better

[9/10 · 5 January 2019]

I'm only writing this review to tell the people: don't get fooled by the first couple episodes. This show looked like trash. A small and skinny woman with no muscles and no hips is supposed to be a badass fighter and so sexy. Of course she is black too. Diversity! Yeah. The bossy woman (sorry, the actress wasn't convincing AT ALL at the beginning) has two sidekicks, two good looking man. The first one is the typical nice guy, bff material, the other one is a very manly man, a soldier with a war trauma. Of course there is some sexual tension going on between him and the female lead. To make it short: I wasn't impressed. Slow motion scenes and those cringy one liners while fighting ('I like to dance') weren't helping either. I dropped it after episode two, and came back because I had nothing better to watch. Even though it was stupid, I didn't hate it. Well, so why the high rating? This show surprised me from the very beginning with the great world building. It reminds me a lot of Firefly and Cowboy Bebop. It was so excellent and creative in this area, that I was wondering how they decided to go with such cliche characters. The thing is: those characters aren't cliche. They did an incredible job with developing them over time. The chemistry between all of them is great (it reminds me of Supernatural in that matter), the story itself is one of the most suspenseful I have seen in a while. At the end of the day it's sci-fi fantasy and there may be some plotholes, but overall this is the kind of storytelling that I thought wouldn't exist anymore. It is really, really smart. Everything comes together so well, everything is exciting and suspenseful. The show is not too sexual (like many nowadays), but has some mature dialogues I really enjoy. This review doesn't do the show justice, which is a shame. But I tried.

Creed (II) (2015)

Nice sequel

[7/10 · 18 June 2018]

I loved the idea, I loved the story and I loved every single scene with Sylvester Stallone aka Rocky Balboa. It was nice. So why only 7 stars? The main character just doesn't have enough charisma to really entertain an audience until the end, especially when we all know how it will end anyways. That never bothered me watching Rocky. Who can be bored seeing the underdog fighting his way up? But here it didn't work that well. Maybe the whole setting was at fault too. Everything was hip and shiny, the girl was pretty and cute, the drama was a bit cheesy. I miss the 80s feel I guess. I miss the rawness. But you cannot bring that back, I know.

World of Dance (2017–2020)

As annoying as people say

[6 June 2018]

I must agree with many others opinions on this show. It's hard to watch. The dance acts are fantastic, but not really in the center of the show. It's about the judges, the drama, the entertainment. When a dance group is dressed in blue, then the whole background is blue too. It's distracting and I have a hard time seeing the dancers movements. It's all just a big and loud show. The reaction of the judges are so annoying. They are like "WHAT?" or "WOAH!" or "OHHH!" Like seriously? It's very superficial. I'm watching the dance acts on Youtube, I cannot sit through an hour of this show.