j-bruns

And I don't say that lightly, or often. I'm usually pretty much in agreement with IMDb user ratings, or I rate it way lower.

I'll agree this could use some tidying up in the cutting room as some shots drag on a bit, but I feel like it fits the story it's trying to tell. It's not a light subject as it deals with PTSD and estrangement.

There's a lot of symbolism and subtext in most of those long shots which I think the TikTok generation won't care to notice.

I'll give a few non-spoiler examples of dialogue free shots.

Pair walks through a closed funfair/carny. One looks around, the damaged looks straight ahead.

Pair walks across a beach, only one pets the dog.

There's more like this and the worst you can say about them is that they can be a bit repetitive - but they tell slightly different stories.

The dialogue is excellent and the characters and their relations believable.

They never get cartoonish, over the top or unrealistic. And though the Troubles PTSD is well trodden at this point, it doesn't devolve into cliché.

What I also liked is that it leaves some things open to interpretation. It doesn't really tell you how to feel, that's up to you.

If you've grown up on >15 second shot editing I'd say give this a try (without a phone in your hand).

Good first effort for a new film maker. This deserves way more praise.

Nothing seems planned. It's like they wake up each filming day and have to write the script right then and there.

What should be explained isn't. And what doesn't need an explanation gets one. And it miraculously makes it worse than it already was (which I thought wasn't possible).

Whatever little "suspense" there is, is based on things we know will not happen. Characters we know cannot die. Or rings "disappearing" that we know will turn up, and given to exactly the character which they try to depict as undeserving. A character being turned away when we know he'll have to be brought in.

The dialogue is as atrocious as it was in the first season, like how children would speak while larping as medieval nobles.

The costumes. "Gaudy gold and shiny means status". That's it. A trailer park idea of sophistication. Zero identity or vision.

And because everyone seems to constantly run into others by accident, or get intercepted by teleporting people, the world seems very small. The opposite of Tolkien.

This isn't the worst adaption ever (far from it), but neither is it amazing as a standalone piece of entertainment.

It's just bland. And unimaginative.

Terrible fightscenes. Possibly the worst fight scenes I've seen to date. Apparently we have Steve Battaglia to thank for them, who also made the worst John Wick and Expendable movie fight scenes.

Characters are okay. Side characters are kinda funny, sometimes.

Dialogue is fine, leagues ahead of anything Netflix generally makes (I have no idea why theirs is uniquely bad).

Comedic theme works well with the over the top violence and gore.

I'm not a huge fan of the Bethesda Fallout games but they managed to water down their already watered down take of the original IP.

Not that that is it's worst quality - that is easily the lack of pressing (character) stakes.

Only worth your time if you're really bored.