Sara
United States
This is not a good movie.
So...This is not a good movie.
Things I liked:
The actors were very good, that wasn't really a problem. Who knows how unbearable this would have been with less talented actors. The sets where very good, as was the camera work. Some of the plot twists were very good ideas.
Things I didn't like:
Pretty much everything else. Here's the heart of the issue from my view: the writing was bad. For some unknowable reason the movie was very fond of showing something, then having dialogue explaining what you saw, then having dialogue explain to someone else again what was happening. The movie felt like 90% exposition. The movie thinks the audience is very stupid.
Because the movie thought that we were very stupid, the actors had a hard time conveying emotion in a way that didn't feel moronic after awhile. How long can one person smirk and seem too cool and above it, despite changing circumstances? How long can one person maintain a creepy smile with out it getting boring? No, I don't blame the actors, I blame the stubbornness of the choices made by the director, writer, whoever, in thinking that the emotions being conveyed made any sense after a certain point.
Then, editing wise, the movie kept cutting itself off at the knees, it was very frustrating. I understand there is a certain level of goriness it didn't want to go past, and that's fine, I'm not a huge fan of gore, but it's solution to that was to cut off right before the climax of certain scenes. There was only one scene where I felt like it executed the violence to the emotional climax of the moment. So somehow the movie, by cutting out the point of the violence, ends up making it all feel unnecessary.
Then there are the characters. Gah. Gah. Only the protagonist was interesting and the idea they had for her, the showing and development of her character could have been so. cool. But they butchered it. Just butchered it, which makes me angrier than if they had butchered a worse idea instead. I couldn't stand the crowd of smirking edge lord kids, don't even get me started on them. When you break it down, what was the point of them? What as the point?
I walked away from the movie angry, is how bad it was. Which is better than entirely indifferent, in someways, but still. Not recommended.
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Please stick with me while I go on a tangent. I promise it is very related.
I have been watching Japanese Dramas the longest out of all the dramas I have been watching. (11 years now? No...Yes, Oh MY God, 11 years...I'm getting old, holy crap.) When I first started watching them, no one watched Korean Dramas. I mean, some people did, don't get me wrong, but Japanese Dramas were where it was at. The early, mid-2000's were the Japanese Drama hey day. And then...not so much. I can't honestly say what happened. Perhaps they were simply steam rolled by the tank that was Hallyu. Perhaps they hadn't changed in quality at all and this whole thing is entirely in my own head.
But in my head, it seemed like Japan got bored. They just didn't want to any more. They didn't want to long heart felt speeches, almost cringe-y except for the complete earnestness. They didn't want the romance, the relationships. Rom com after rom com tanked until they pretty much stopped making them. Except for a few notable exceptions, everything was work place dramas and police procedurals and even if the mind was there, the heart wasn't.
Basically, it was boring.
But this show, and the more and more that are coming out like it (9 to 5, A girl & Three Sweethearts, the plethora of manga based shows) seems to me like Japan putting its embarrassing heart back into it. This show made me feel something with out being completely ridiculous. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't super realistic, but it was vulnerable in a way Japanese Dramas haven't been in a long time.
Japan hasn't got it's groove back, but it's shaking, and I'm excited. I feel like Japan entered a Drama dialectic and now we're approaching it's synthesis.
Okay, now I'm definitely over thinking this.
Point is, perhaps it isn't everyone's cup of tea. Like most Japanese shows there is zero, absolutely zero, subtly.
The dialogue is fast and if you aren't into the dialogue, you just aren't going to be into the show, which is fair. There isn't a ton else going on here.
But, if you're like me and you were into the dialogue, you can feel it's heart. And that's it. That's the whole shebang, it was honest and I could feel it's heart and loved it for it. The feels man. That's why we're all here in the first place, no?
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That disappointment aside, I still think dropping it wasn't a bad choice. The shift between the 4th and the 5th episode is too much. It's like the writer was hit by creative inspiration. They had this story as a base and then went to the moon with it. Which is wonderful, really. I would love it if more writers took more risks with their stories. But as the writer went off to the moon, they needed to take us with and they didn't. It wasn't just hard to follow, which would have been more forgivable, but honestly jarring. Jarring's not good. Jarring is dropping.
Besides that, the Pretty was good. The actors were great, even if Seol Hyun was a little green and awkward, the two actors really stepped in and then none of that mattered. I was surprised and impressed by the sexuality (as a tangible feeling of lust, not showing actual sex) displayed in the first couple of episodes, which Korea seems reluctant to show in most adult dramas, let alone ones based around teenagers. But still I wish they'd show it more in more Vampire type shows, as that's half the appeal of the lore, the sexual tension around it.
I can't recommend the show because of how it doesn't take you with it, but I can't be mad at it because it does everything else so well.
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It's okay!
It's not a bad movie! If you feel like watching it, go ahead, it's totally fine.The acting's good, the characters are engaging, the zombies are freaky, over all, I enjoyed it.
There were some pacing issues, I was particularly confused about a part of the movie towards the end which I'm pretty sure the movie was trying to make a point with but didn't really? It seemed an odd addition. But the over all point of the movie, staying alive, surviving even when it's hard, I think was definitely followed through on.
Yeah, it's fine! Nothing to think about too much afterward, not a great movie, but fine!
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