maliapac

Worst film of the year in my personal opinion. You have MM and Elba, you have 8 - EIGHT - books of material, and you do a movie that is hour and a half long, you butcher the material, and after all, you don't make the Gunslinger the central character in the movie.

This project should've been straightforward: Chronologically you start with the genesis of the conflict between Ronald and the Man in Black, you build your characters toward the conflict aka Last Stand, and you end the movie in the dark, just before the start of the first book. Movie of 2, 2.5 hours, dark, with R-rating. You exploit the potential of the brilliant actors at your disposal.

You just don't do this. Rubbish. I gave it three stars just because of McConaughey and his obviously good performance as the Man in Black.

It isn't 9 but I will give it one just in spite of all the haters. I just watched four episodes of the show and it isn't bad at all. Just the contrary. It is one of the best SF shows in the last few years. I will try to explain why.

Straczynski is an old-school storyteller. His stories are methodical and often revealed in the later stages of the show (remember B5 where the whole S1 was an expose only). "Sense8" isn't any different. It's a show where the story begins after the first few episodes so if you don't have patience to wait and see into what will the story develop just don't watch it. However, if you acknowledge that and give the show a chance you'll see that it's a testament of tolerance. In the beginning of the show 8 people are interconnected. They can literally "feel" each other. That's freaky. But they are all as different as they could be. They also come from different continents and different surroundings. "Sense8" asks us to have faith in each other and perhaps even to coexist because and not in spite of our differences. However, story is slow, and in the beginning there is just to many characters to feel any real connection to any of them. It doesn't matter really. We can see the sketches of the things to come.

"Sense8" tackles some serious subjects. Homosexuality, transgender relations, racial differences, feminism and deficiency of capitalism.

Of course, all that criticism probably won't appeal to everyone and it will probably offend the feelings of the conservative viewers but neither Wachovskis nor Straczynski are worried about that.

"Sense8" does what it describes. It introduces us to the bigger picture. The story will fully develop in the later stages, the universe of the S8 is just fleshed out here. This passed with B5 in the nineties but today when people are watching their cellphones while watching the movie and when everything must happen now or it doesn't matter anymore - S8 is a bit anachronistic. It's not made for everyone and it won't be liked by everyone. But it isn't bad. On the contrary, it's one of the best SF series in a while.

"Strange Days: Cold War Britain" in only three episodes changes cold war perspective. In modern days that perspective is mainly from the US corner, but here we have unique opportunity to see the British viewpoint on some major events of that conflict. In the light of the modern events with Russia question arises, is Cold War really over and who (if anybody) has won? "Strange Days" won't answer those questions and it has some shortcomings, primarily on lacking objectivity and demonizing communism and Russia, but it's most comprehensive take on British Cold War to date and because of that - recommended to everyone interested in the subject.