Brachvogel

Well, to start positively: This movie offers nice action with buses, the scenery of Nepal is beautiful, and it has a well-picked and capable cast with Liam Neeson as the lead, and I like Liam Neeson; always did.

But that is not enough to call this a good movie. Everything is just a vehicle for action. That may have worked twenty years ago, but nowadays that's not enough. It's just too superficial and predictable. The character development and their relationships have too little space to allow me to build up any attachment whatsoever. There are some interesting side characters with potential, but they all get killed way too soon. And I'm not talking about the antagonists, which have no depth at all.

So all that remains is the action. It's solid but not overwhelming. There are quite some logic issues that spoil the fun, and the editing is way too fast-paced, sometimes confusing.

This is a routinely staged action movie with superficial characters, with questionable editing and without any surprises.

What has happened? This series began as a mind-boggling picture puzzle of the different facets of our consciousness. But the last episodes have been nothing more (or less?) than a meditation on the characters. This third-last episode circles around Harmony Cobel. The closing credits start at 35:54, the first and only valuable information is delivered at 32:09. Until then, we can watch Harmony exist.

Maybe the hype around Severance has gotten to the heads of its makers, believing they can take their fans anywhere. But I'm a fan that's been left behind. I'd really like to know what's going on, but the last five episodes have been nothing but cryptic, and to make things worse, the humor fell by the wayside.

Episode nine promises some "revelations," but the damage has already been done. What a shame.

I'm happy for the enthusiastic reviewers of this episode but I belong to the minority of fans that don't agree with the plot pacing. The last six episodes didn't skimp on mysterious hints about numerous secrets yet to be revealed. Episode 7 opens up yet another new plotline with new cryptic clues, inflating the big mystery even more.

There is another series about a weird, mysterious retro/science fiction world: Silo. Here, the plotline alternates between building up mysteries and revealing secrets. For me, this works much better than withholding enlightenment until the very end.

This episode of Severance leaves me frustrated. I long for some kind of relief in form of a reveal that allows me to understand even a little bit of what's going on. Obviously, most of the viewers enjoy this longing, I don't.