Sergei_Maruk Reviews

Bloodhounds (2023– )

Deserves more attention

[9/10 · 19 June 2023]

Korean movie industry is really on the rise. While hollywood is strictly following the "successful formula", Korean TV-Shows are creating prodcuts which are simply entertaining.

This is definitely not a masterpiece, there's a lot of logic issues with the plot and reminds a lot about movies from 90-s. And as it turns out, it's exactly what I've needed: good action movie with a bit of drama. There's no cliffhanger for season 2, just a finished story and I like it a lot.

Action is very good and I was anticipating each fight with great interest. Paritally, because I was afraid for some characters, as I knew that they're in danger. Plot wasn't overwhelmed by unnecessary love story. Dramatic component is directed at family and friendship and, in my opinion, it was a great decision.

Each episode moved the plot forward. Despite the fact, that ending is a bit weak, the road which leads to it has many twists. I was always curious to know what is going to happen next and some episodes really caught me off guard with events.

In conclusion, I highly recommend watching Bloodhounds. It really reminded me of 90s action movies and if you are feeling a bit nostalgic - this is a must. 1st episode will really help you decide if you wish to continue. Give it a try.

The Last of Us (2023– )

Overrated, but good

[7/10 · 19 January 2023]

I liked the first episode. It has decent atmosthere, good actors and decorations, however, the score is not honest.

TV-Shows and movies based on games become more and more popular, unfortunately, there's not many good of them. Quite the opposite, most of them are mediocre or even a disaster: Resident Evil, Halo, Uncharted - all of them were in the shadow of originals because of how bad they were, compared to the games.

Now, here comes The Last of Us and immedietly becomes one of the highest rated TV-Show of all times. Really? How low the industry has fallen if that it's enough to make a decent episode of TV-Show and get Breaking Bad - level ratings just for not screwing up? Don't get me wrong, it is enjoyable and I will watch the rest of it out of curiosity, but 9,5/10? -That's rating of the The Last of Us game, not a TV-Show. Not yet, at least.

The Matrix Resurrections (I) (2021)

To fully enjoy The Matrix Ressurections - watch original trilogy and skip this one

[5/10 · 6 June 2022]

As much as I hate the plot and effects of this movie, I still think it's a genius spit in the face to studios which were trying to milk Matrix fans. Look at some Wachowski interviews about this movie. Don't hate them, they're Neo in this movie, who is forced to make another "Matrix" by greedy studious. And that's what they did. Honestly, it's the best outcome for Matrix we could ask for, which is None. They did another Matrix with the same scenes, same message. This movie says nothing new, doesn't answer questions and theories from previous movies, because they need no answers, just as we don't need another sequel. This movie HAD to be bad just to show that original story MUST be left alone. I'm glad I didn't go to the movie theater to see this movie, because if it's successful, then we might expect another one. And that another movie can do much more harm than this one.

Westworld: Genre (2020) Season 3, Episode 5

Wasted

[17 April 2020]

I'll start with the fact that I love this show, but I can't deny the fact that this episode was full of stupidity.

One of the first things - car chase. Those cars we're driving like 50km/h. This show has to be sci-fi, so why do we have electric cars so slow in the future? It was so boring that even the race from "Ali G in da House" movie felt more intense than this chase.

Another thing is Serac crashing plane and THEN taking Liam to crash site to kill him. Why? Just to show that he has an evil side? In the beginning of the Season they described Serac as the person who is really careful with his moves...just to show us this.

Next - Dolores took a SMG burst from 2 meters and just closed her jacket like it was nothing. Why then in the first episode she was dying after 1 hit? Why such inconsistency? What is so different about her now? And also where were the rest of the guys at this moment? Just a second before they were going out of station together, but looks like noone else saw Dolores taking a shots and asked a thing. Or they did saw and were like: "Oh, completely normal phenomenon".

Death of 2nd Liam. Overdramatised. Nobody cared about that guy.

There's more - characters appearing randomly when needed. I hate it so much. Those 2 Calebs friends - HOW? How did they know where he will be? Stubbs - HOW? How did he get inside facility? Can anybody just walk inside the building which has the most powerful computer in it?

Genre - the drug that this episode was all about. Nice idea, but it didn't worked. Partially, because the effect of it was "overrated". A combination of music and nice visual effect was accompanied by pointless action. 1st stage of drug gave this Old western movie vibe with its filter and sound. There was 1 static shot, when Dolorer was checking the bike aaand that's it! Wasted opportunity. Back to the car chase: when Flight of the Valkyries started playing I was expecting some serious action. Instead.... wasted opportunity. Next stage with the Love theme was actually very good. It was a great combination of music and camera shots, but an actual gun shooting was terible. C'mon guys, Dolores is a robot, who can shoot with extreme precision, which she has already demonstrated before. At this shotting scene she wasn't even tring. Partially wasted opportunity. Nightclubbing stage next and it was a nice moment. Very short moment. They just entered the train and.... that's it. I don't think I should repeat the phrase again. The last one was strange, they just called it "Reality" and decided that this will answer all questions. Well, it did for me. You can call it a metaphor, I will call it lazy writing.

So when I look back at all this stuff, was the "Genre" (as a drug) essential for a show or an episode in any way? -No. It's just a filler. A justification to add visual effects and some music. Had 0 effects on a plot, close to 0 on character progression.

Was the "Genre" (as an episode) essential for a show? We did learned some things. Plot moved forward (slowly). We learned some things about characters. All of this informaton was handed to us in a very dull way. The amount of inconsistencies and stupidity is too high. Much higher than drugged Caleb.

I've got a suggestion for you: how about making an episode in actual Sci-Fi genre?

I Am Mother (2019)

Above average sci-fi movie

[7/10 · 5 April 2020]

Humans went extinct. Movie doesn't answer the question how exactly, but based on the sounds from first minutes of the movie, there was shooting and bombing and as it turns out later: it was AI what destroyed them. Pretty standart idea, which was used in numerous movies before.

I Am Mother, however, is a bit different (at least I really want to see it that way). So, allegedly, AI killed all humans to repopulate earth with humans again, but with the "better versions of them". We know that the main character, "Daughter" or APX03 is 3rd attempt for an AI to raise a baby and that's really smart approach. One of the phrases "Mother needs time to learn" is what describes the process from 1st scenes, where Mother tryies different music to comfort the baby, until it finds something what works and it uses the same song for APX03 as well, since she sings it at the very end. Same with other child-raising techniques. Later we see that APX03 is practicing dancing and origami. When movie takes us to container (living place) of APX01, we see that she was interested in drawings and wood carving. Apparently origami works better...

Why is APX01 alive and doesn't remeber stuff? The only reasonable explaination I see is that, as she said: she was found and raised by people in the mines. Apparently, AI just exiled APX01 in place of inciniration, later she was picked by survining humans and raised to hate the droids. Why does AI "aborter" APX02 then? Probably it learned that exiling creates more trouble that way. It's a good thing that AI fixes this later in the end of the movie.

About the corn field. APX01 said that it appeared only recently and it might be because as AI continued to watch over APX03, it was prepared for such outcome, that it will finally hand over raising humans to "other human". More humans needs more food, so it's quite logical.

About other stuff: actors did a good job. Visuals and sounds are on acceptable level. It didn't hurt my eyes nor my ears to watch this film - that's for sure. Still, quite a lot of cliches, like walk with fire axe at the end. Completely unnecessary.

Overall: decent movie, with attention to details. Not regreting time spent, but could've been better.

7/10 well deserved. And I'm really curious what happenned to the dog.

Black Mirror: Rachel, Jack and Ashley Too (2019) Season 5, Episode 3

Black mirror? -NO

[8 June 2019]

Episode starts with an interesting idea of how pop-culture works these days and what's hidden behind it. Sadly, after some time, this episode becomes a product of described pop-culture as well: with dumb clichés, poor acting and jokes for kids. Either I'm missing something, or the episode is just bad.

Just watch Spy kids instead.

Chernobyl: 1:23:45 (2019) Season 1, Episode 1

Impressive

[12 May 2019]

Usually, when there's a series or a movie about the USSR - it's full of stereotypes, but this... this is frighteningly similar to reality, and fear is what this episode is all about.

I was hooked into the action from the beginning till the end. Actors did a great job, and luckily, there is no "russian-like" accent. Visuals are on a high-end as well. Environment of USSR is recreated extremely good. If you're from eastern Europe you will see a lot of "close" things.

This show certainly deserves more attention. And I have high expectations for the rest of the episodes. Give it a try!

Avengers: Endgame (2019)

I'm glad this is over.

[7/10 · 8 May 2019]

Reason why I am not disappointed by this movie is because I wasn't expecting much from it in a first place.

Infinity war was 'perfectly balanced': action scenes, motivation of characters, humor. Endgame wants to be the same movie, but it simply cannot reach that level.

Things I liked: Humor level is pretty good. It's not overwhelming and there is enough. Visuals - obviously, action scenes... as well as everything else looks amazing. Feeling of nostalgia - can't deny, there are tons of references you will find at this movie and it feels amazing to spot every small detail of this universe. (Not gonna work, if you haven't watched majority of marvel movies).

Things I am neutral about: Time travel: the very moment characters started to talk about time travel, I had a bad feeling. Ironically, they even inserted jokes about time travel movies and ultimate phrase: "It's not how time travel works". After Thanos stated that he "shred stones to atoms" I was expecting they will just use quantum realm to restore the stones without time-travel stuff. However, at the same time it would neglect huge part of Nostalgia, so I'm undecided on this. The major hole of time travel I noticed is ending with old Steve, who spent his life in another timeline (if I understood correctly) and somehow ended up on the bench in the original timeline without using a machine.

Things I disliked: Pace of the movie: It starts really slow, almost boring. And when the main story actually starts to be interesting and intense (which is after 75% of the movie), there is simply no place to insert character interactions I would like to see. Most of the characters, who died in IW has like 5-30 seconds of screen time and only few of them even says a word.

To sum up, Avengers: Endgame is not a perfect movie, but it's also not terrible. Experience from it is truly individual. If you weren't following marvel movies story-line and characters, or you feel indifferent to them - it will be just an average marvel movie with full bag of stereotypes you love/hate. In case you liked all previous movies, this - will be no exception.

Game of Thrones: The Long Night (2019) Season 8, Episode 3

Could be the best episode, but plot armor is too strong

[29 April 2019]

I started to have a doubts about this episode from the very beginning: 1. Rushed with the cavalry directly at the enemy Why? They had so many experienced warriors there and no one told that this seems like not the best idea ever? 2. stood behind catapults. How useful those catapults were? Same as point 1. 3. no burning oil from the walls Seriously. That would be very effective. (point 1 again) Okay, it's still a show... I can forgive bad strategic planning.

On the good side: first strike of white walkers into humans was one of the best moments of entire episode. They crawled on top of each other and it was frightening. I was really thinking: "Wow! I can't believe how screwed these guys are!" Aaaaand here comes the almighty plot armor. Suddenly amount of dead around main characters is decreased by 300% and they are able to fight quite freely and retreat afterwards. Well, fine. Battle goes on and with every minute my feeling of watching typical Hollywood movie grows. In one scene character is surrounded by dozens of dead, then camera jumps and character fights few only of them... After some time it just becomes annoying and makes battle look too unrealistic. If you want to keep characters alive, keep them away from battle and do not show them fighting solo against a crowd when being pushed against the wall. What I want to see in GoT is a bit more realism (not in terms of less magic, dragons and other stuff, but realistic result from certain actions).

Another thing: people complaining about Arya killing NK, but I wasn't really mad about that part. NK is obviously super bad-ass and if somebody would duel him on swords it would look even worse, in my opinion. Ninja-strike is obviously, not the best way, but it's good enough for me.

They put a lot of effort in this and If people who were writing plot would have more realistic, and less Hollywood vision it would be the best GoT episode. Action scenes and all visual effects are amazing. Lightning work is done RIGHT, CGI is also keeping the level.

To sum up: It's a great episode. Some scenes are just stunningly good, but as soon as you turn on your brain - everything breaks. Still, 80 minutes of pure action is VERY impressive. Unfortunately (thankfully?) GoT is not only about action. I am not completely disappointed by the episode, but there definitely was a better path.

Black Mirror: Bandersnatch (2018)

A very good example of possibilities that Netflix is capable of

[9/10 · 28 December 2018]

The episode itself is not the best story-wise, but the interactivity puts it way above the bar there. It's even a bit unfair to compare Bandersnatch with other Black Mirror episodes, just because it's not a linear, but interactive story, where the viewer decides what should character do. It's not first TV-show, which does that, but since it's Black Mirror, whole interactivity makes sense and plays an important role in the progression.

However, I was expecting a bit more of "Black Mirror". I can barely link this episode with TV-Show universe. There are few references, but that's all. It feels more like a Netflix experiment, covered under successful TV-Show label to attract more viewers ... And It is a success indeed. I had a lot of fun "watching" this and taking moral decision. Some decisions were really hard to make, like picking Sugar puffs over Frosties (I was not ready for taking such important decisions in my life). After completing the main story, you can play other options as well, and some of them even made me laugh, good job, Netflix.

I really want to see more of that.

Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)

Best Spider-Man movie so far

[8/10 · 8 August 2018]

Spider-Man: Homecoming is a MCU movie and if you are familiar with other titles, you can imagine how this movie works. Part of becoming a hero is skipped and it's a big plus, since we know it already and seen it thousands of times. The movie shows that expectations about being superhero may differ from reality and that makes Spider-Man a bit different from other superhero movies. Since Spider-Man is a 'teen' in this movie, Tom Holland act like one and he does a great job. Making Spider-Man younger again didn't make movie childish. Of course it's not serious drama movie and you shouldn't expect it from Spider-Man, but the movie can entertain adults just as kids, just because it's not filled with too much fantasy and unbelievable stuff. Jokes fits perfectly and are not overwhelming. If you are looking for fun family movie - this one is probably the best pick from whole MCU movie collection.

It's easy to watch, entertaining and filled with good humor- go for it.

Westworld (2016–2022)

One of the best TV shows out there.

[9/10 · 30 July 2018]

If you ask yourself a question: "Should I watch this?". The answer is: "Yes".

What is it? It's the show about theme park where robots live* as they were humans. And humans are allowed to do everything there... at first. Season 1 is doing good job by describing this world from it's every perspective and allowing us to understand it's rules. Story is good and most events are hard to predict. Season 2, on the other hand, is totally different. Rules of the world are changing and characters are adapting to it. (Story is hard to explain without spoiling anything, so I will skip that.)

There are a lot of criticism about Season 2 and I don't get it. I watched Westworld very carefully and it was very enjoyable experience (both: SO1 and SO2). I think the main issue here is that after incredible Season 1, a lot of fans expected even more from the series. I see Season 2 as a transition period from amazing Season 1 to possibly* great Season 3.

I consider myself as an average viewers, who likes movies about AI and from this perspective this TV show is really good. Ignore negative reviews and try to see the story with your own eyes.

A Quiet Place (2018)

Step in the right direction.

[8/10 · 24 May 2018]

So events take place in post-apocalyptic modern environment, where monsters wiped most of humanity. Monsters are blind and only can hear sounds on great distance. Sounds cool and I really want to see more of this, but... world creation requires much more effort. It feels like movie makers were much more worried about acting and plot stuff rather than making believable world scenario. A Quiet Place is a good example of in which direction modern horror movies must go, but it's far from perfection.

On the first place It's a story about family which tries to survive in this world and also live a full file, like a normal family. In order to live they need to stick to set of rules which forbids to make any loud noise. First part of movie demonstrates us characters and their daily routine to understand their motivation. Actors are doing great job. I sympathize with them and I was really worried about them during intense moments.

A Quiet Place rarely tries to scare with typical horror movie moves. It is using quiet environment to increase intensity of the moment instead of "jump-scaring" every minute. There are only few "jump-scares", but they fit perfectly. A Quiet Place gives feeling of constant danger and it's a perfect fit for selected environment.

And now - world around the story. It's the weakest point of the movie. There are SO MANY possibilities to make this world more realistic and only few good ideas in the movie, but it's certainly not enough to believe in this kind of world. I hope that if there will be sequel (and I really want it), film makers will be more focused on environment details.

Overall: A Quite Place is definitely worth to watch. Good combination of drama and thriller with a bit of sci-fi horror elements. One of my favorite movies in 2018 so far. Give it a try.

The Cloverfield Paradox (2018)

Average movie, logic not included.

[6/10 · 24 May 2018]

So this is kind of prequel of the original Colverfield (which is amazing movie), so I would recommend to watch it before this one. Previous Cloverfield movies weren't giving viewer feeling of typical sci-fi. This - does.

It feels like when they were filming this movie, they always kept "Book of all sci-fi movie cliches" by their hands. However, it's not terrible as it seems after reading all these reviews. I was expecting much more from this movie -true, but there are some mysteries in this universe and The Cloverfield Paradox explain things a bit. I would recommend to watch this if you are desperate to get more information about first Cloverfield movie events. Main issue of Cloverfield Paraxod - it's totally weak movie by itself. If you haven't watched first Cloverfield - this one is just another average quality sci-fi movie.

Plot mostly is predictable and characters are empty. I wanted to skip most dialogues to see whats next. It's not science related at all. All movie scenes consist of how characters appeared in a situation that no human ever experienced before, but they are 100% sure how to solve it. Things just work in a magical way. Film makers try to put in a lot of unfunny jokes and it's making situation even worse than it could be.

The Pagan King: The Battle of Death (2018)

OK movie, but 10 years late.

[6/10 · 21 February 2018]

I like the idea to make a movie about baltic tribes during crusades. There are a lot of interesting traditions and events to explore.

I can feel that The Pagan King wants to be a movie that will introduce the world with Baltic culture and land of Semigallia. However, they put too much accent on showing traditions instead of focusing on characters or plot. The best example is wedding scene. This scene gives us 0 new information about characters. They love each other- we already know it, but what else? We learned how pagan weddings looked like. Well... ok.

Characters are living stereotypes. Bad guy wants to rule this land just because he's bad. Good guys doesn't want to allow him, because he's good. First half of the movie tries to rush all the action without actually introducing us to the characters and as a result there is lack of connection between character and viewer.

Plausibility. I can't believe in this world and actions. Movie budget wasn't great and this fact affected overall movie quality. There are few locations: village, swamp, castle and few more. Village, which is one of the most important locations looks really small and artificial as well as crusader ship- it simply cannot transport so many crusaders.

Visual part of the movie is great. Camera angles and views are well chosen and gives me a feeling of high quality work, especially during fighting scenes. Fight on the sand beach is amazing. Sand and blood is an amazing combination, wish there would be more of that. There are a lot of dynamics and fighting scenes feels natural.... except last one. Fight scene in the swamp with fog and smoke looks unrealistic. Smoke takes over battleground too fast and it feels empty. Film editing makes it even worse, when they show same action with rolling fireballs from different angles all over again during battle.

Overall, The Pagan King gives me feeling of a good movie which struggles because of low budget and poor script. I would recommend to watch this movie if you are interested in old traditions and cultures, otherwise - you can skip it, won't miss anything.

American Wrestler: The Wizard (2016)

Inspiring and easy to watch

[7/10 · 13 November 2017]

I have found this movie by accidental click on IMDb and decided to watch it without waiting. I am wrestler too and I am always very interested how actors will handle wrestler roles and how wrestling feeling will be represented in the movie. I was not expecting a lot from this movie and in the end I was not disappointed.

Movie is based on true events and that is definitely a plus, since I can also learn something about events I am not familiar with. There are a lot of serious topics, like descrimination, bullying in school, relationships between generations and of course, wrestling. Competitions and training are shown quite realistic. There was only 1 moment in whole movie, when Ali's uncle shows one of the basic moves and wrestlers look at him like they have learned something new, but I believe It was made just to keep things more simple.

In the end It's a well made movie which is not exceptional, but I definitely can recommend it even if you're not a sport lover.

Se7en (1995)

That's how thrillers should look like.

[10/10 · 26 October 2013]

(Sorry for bad English)

Se7en is unique. Usually after watching good movie I want to see it again, but not in this case. This movie shocked me with violence, it gave me so many emotions that i don't want to watch it one more time, I never thought that just a movie can scare so much. Most of horrors novadays doesn't scare so much as Se7en. Storyline is awesome and actors play very good, especially Bradd Pitt in final scene - unforgettable. Morgan Freeman always play well and so he did. After watching Se7en you will start to compare all thrillers with it. By the way I watched Se7en about a year ago but I still remember it very well and I still don't want to re watch it. This film definitely is not for everyone. If you're going to watch film just for fun or with family - choose another movie. Se7en is for serious audience.