A couple of quick reviews:
Homestead-This is the recent Angel Studios movie about the fall of society and how people gather at a compound in the Colorado Rockies to try and survive. The movie starts fantastic and for about 3/4 of the production it's actually very compelling. But where it falls off the rails is in the overt Christian messaging, which is to be expected since it's an Angel Studios production but at the same time it was way more subtle in Sound of Freedom. Christian media has a problem where it becomes very patronizing to those already in the fold and very pedantic to those that are not. There is a scene where the homeschooled daughter of the compound's owner prays for a young man that shot someone encroaching on the compound's territory and not knowing what to do about it.
The movie is very good at the logistics of organizing a large scale prepping operation like this. Everyone is going to want in, everyone is going to want to control it and there are so very few people that you can trust in those circumstances. Hell, there are very few people you can trust even in the best of times.
The film's solution to all of these problems is patently dishonest. And as a Christian, even I can see that the 'welcome everyone in and a miracle can happen' creative decision is brain dead. From a secular standpoint, the better conclusion would be one where shit goes sideways. From a Christian perspective, I just feel that the outcome needs to bit more rigorous, I guess.
I give it a 2.5 out of 5. The first 3/4 of the movie is an easy 4 but it falls into the emotional tropes that so many Christian films can't help but stumble into.
The Witcher: Sirens of the Deep-An animated film adapting one of Sapkowski's stories from the novels, this film is a pretty solid adaptation of the novella but plagued by the technical issues typical of western animation productions. It just doesn't look very good and the animation is that standard 'western anime' tripe that people have gaslit themselves into thinking is good. I'd put this well below Castlevania: Nocturne's standards on its technical prowess, and that's not even a very high bar to reach.
The good things are that the voice performances are pretty stellar. Joey Batey, who plays Jaskier (Dandelion) in the live action show reprises his role here an he's vastly preferable to the stiff that plays him in the video games. Doug Cockle comes back from the video game series to reprise the role of the protagonist Geralt and he actually infuses the role with more life than in the games. This Geralt SOUNDS like the video game version but it's infused with a bit more charm and charisma than I was expecting. I'm glad for the performance sounding a bit more lively. Anya Chalotra returns as Yennefer in a few flashback sequences and despite having less than 20 lines of dialogue she reprises the essence of the character well enough. Christina Wren does a good job as Essie Daven, Jaskier's childhood friend and Geralt's love interest in this story, but sometimes I'm not sure she knows how to read for an animated production. The voice is sweet and pleasant to listen to but sometimes her words run together and she could have used a bit better direction.
There is one cringey scene in the film that is a callback to Ursula's musical number with Ariel from Disney's animated The LIttle Mermaid. I understand that a lot of The Witcher's plotlines are lifted from old fairy tales and presented as a sort of 'true' version of those fanciful efforts. That is the grist for many of Geralt's short story adventures, in fact. But it was the one moment in the whole movie where I was taken completely out of the narrative. It doesn't ruin the movie but it is definitely a dark spot on what is an otherwise interesting story in the traditions of the best of speculative fiction. Sapkowski has always used his Geralt stories as commentaries on the human condition and, much like Star Trek, compels you to ask questions rather than make judgements.
Some of the action ius very nice and wildly imaginative but I have a hard time believing that Geralt is parkour fighting, running off of walls, up kraken tentacles, being flung 80 feet in the air, twirling, landing on his feet and continuing the dance of death. Nightmare of the Wolf, the animation staring Geralt's teacher, a youthful Vesemir, is similarly incredulous. I get it: it's animation. Normal fightinjg might seem a tad quaint or boring by comparison. But when you throw verisimilitude out the window, then you unanchor the audience from any understanding of the world these characters exist in. I compare it to Solid Snake's superheroics in The Twin Snakes: fun to watch but ultimately stupid and silly.
3.75 out of 5. It's not the film I'd hoped it would but it IS the one I expected so I'm not let down. At least Geralt is the coolest one in his own story this time around, doing all the coolest shit and being the biggest badass. And really, when a western production delivers on that promise, one should be grateful.
