I watched
Nosferatu last weekend, and liked it a lot. I even go as far as saying it’s one of the best vampire movies I have watched. My son, who saw it before me, said it was a bit too slow for his taste, but for me the pacing was perfect. The photo and settings were simply gorgeous, and so were the costumes. I only saw one dress that I thought was a bit not quite right. There was a lovely attention to details, like the Christmas tree hanging from the ceiling, and the sequence with a naked girl on a white horse was lifted from an actual practice to find vampires. I also found the acting excellent, all round, with people acting like 19th century people, not modern ones in period clothes. The movie also refrained from making a villain of the rich friend who made some questionable decisions in the treatment of Ellen. He never acts like he does because he is evil, but because he is depicted as a man of his time. And he is also a loving husband and father, and a good friend.
My main criticism is on the subject of the vampire itself. I’ve no problems with making him monstrous, which Dracula in the novel actually is, and not always handsome either. And I think Bill Skarsgård did a great job menacing his way through the plot. As long as he was kept slightly out of focus I found him rather scary. But a lot of that disappeared when we were treated with closeups in great detail, and that took away a lot from the last scene for me. Also, all that heavy breathing? Since when do the undead breathe? But overall I thought it a very good movie.
I’ve watched a great deal of TV shows in the past few years, and many of them were very good. None has prompted me to write fanfic, that hasn’t happened since
The Queen’s Gambit. I really enjoyed
Shadow and Bone and thought it a pity we only got two seasons. Loved the costumes in that one too!
I really like Ncuti Gatwa as our new Doctor, and Ruby as a companion too. Though I like Jodie Whittaker as an actress, I was a bit sad that I didn’t like her Doctor very much. I wanted to! And I think it was a disservice to give her so many companions. I feel like the showrunners didn’t trust a female Doctor to own the show. I liked Sacha Dhawan as the master, though I don’t buy that the Master would want to destroy the universe- he wants to rule it! I thoroughly enjoyed getting Ten back, kind sorta, and that they finally let Donna have her memory back! The way she was treated always annoyed me. I don’t care if it was fan service. When it comes to
Doctor Who, I’m all for the fan service. Needless to say I also enjoyed getting Tegan, Ace and Mel back. My prediction is that Ruby’s mystery neighbour is either Susan or Romana.
What I haven’t enjoyed are the news about Neil Gaiman.
Cut for talk about sexual abuse.
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