Change Your Image
johnnyoflynn
Reviews
The Wheel of Time: Leavetaking (2021)
Small is okay
I wish the showrunners had the confidence to let the story start off small. They seem to be in a big rush to introduce a whole bunch of concepts as quickly as possible, and that's a shame.
Emond's Field (by design) give's off a Shire vibe in the books, and that wholesomeness anchors some of the best moments in the story. It's isolated and innocent, and a huge part of how the MCs think and act.
I knew they would make changes, but so far I'm not sure I recognize these characters.
This still could be a great show, but I'm sad to seemingly lose that core of innocence and discovery.
Foundation: The Mathematician's Ghost (2021)
But Why
I don't mind that it's different from the books, but the pacing and tone of this show is just so weird, and while it may come together in the end, I'm having a hard time understanding a lot of the decision making here.
I guess my biggest issue is the how often the show stops to tell us how the protagonists are special or gifted in some way. Foundation is a story that almost requires any adaptation to add a bunch of new material, but how do you take a story about people being clever and adapt it as a magical chosen one story? Changes are fine, but it's almost like they're going out of their way to remove the reasons people enjoy these stories.
I actually kind of dug the brother dusk sections, but I'm really struggling with almost everything on Terminus. And was it just me, or was Leah Harvey pretty bad in this episode.
I don't think the script is doing her any favors, but there were several times in this episode where her delivery was distractingly clunky. Here's hoping it was just an off day.
I'm sorry to be so negative. It's not a bad show, it just seems to be missing the point. And that's kind of a bummer.
Foundation: The Mathematician's Ghost (2021)
But Why
I don't mind that it's different from the books, but the pacing and tone of this show is just so weird, and while it may come together in the end, I'm having a hard time understanding a lot of the decision making here.
I guess my biggest issue is the how often the show stops to tell us how the protagonists are special or gifted in some way. Foundation is a story that almost requires any adaptation to add a bunch of new material, but how do you take a story about people being clever and adapt it as a magical chosen one story? Changes are fine, but it's almost like they're going out of their way to remove the reasons people enjoy these stories.
I actually kind of dug the brother dusk sections, but I'm really struggling with almost everything on Terminus. And was it just me, or was Leah Harvey pretty bad in this episode.
I don't think the script is doing her any favors, but there were several times in this episode where her delivery was distractingly clunky. Here's hoping it was just an off day.
I'm sorry to be so negative. It's not a bad show, it just seems to be missing the point. And that's kind of a bummer.
Shadow in the Cloud (2020)
Could have been fun, but it's really let down by the script
Shadow in the Cloud was never going to be a revolutionary piece of cinema, but with a few simply changes, it really could have been a much more enjoyable cult classic. I went in with almost no expectations, and left feeling more disappointment than anything else.
Things really started to fall apart for me during an extended radio sequence, where the film goes out of its way to be as crass as possible for no reason. It's like a group of 12 year-olds got together to express their thoughts on how hard they would each bang the main character. This one scene represents about 80% of the crew's involvement in the story, and all it really does is make sure you don't care if/when any of them get picked off later.
And what's really frustrating about it is that most of the crew's dialogue is just voiceover, so they could have re-worked this so easily at any point during post. The rest of the movie is a totally serviceable bottle story that's stupid, but fun. With a few minimal changes, this could have been an enjoyable little PG-13 genre movie with much wider appeal. But as presented, it's just off-putting.