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Reviews
Slumberland (2022)
A great story in a great story drought
Just watched this with my kids last night. It was gutsy, refreshingly original, squeaky clean and utterly breathtaking in its cinematography. I was deeply impressed that modern writers, to say nothing of a Netflix production, could produce a story like this. Momoa is shockingly suited to the role. I thought he was only capable of being one character. He looks weird and acts weird, but if you pay attention, what he is fits perfectly into the role. The movie takes on some heavy real life topics with heart and tact and never fails to be funny at the same time. Another amazing thing about it is that every single plot hole introduced in its run time is neatly addressed and wrapped up by its end. Good to see the internet isn't shredding it like it does with everything else. I would agree with this review except for the "predictable" part. There are MANY threads and sudden occurrences that took us totally by surprise and kept us guessing all the way to the happy ending.
The Quest (2022)
REALLY love the concept
The first Quest was legendary. An exciting plunge into what "reality TV" could potentially be. A teenage D&D fantasy come to life where the stakes felt real and the relatable participants were capable but clueless.
After one episode, its hard to say where this Quest is heading. The production value is definitely up from the original. The casting choices for the paladins seems deliberately aimed at "kids next door" kind of normality, which is endearing. None of them seems like "captain of the football team" or "Disney princess super model" types. But the lack of scripting seems to cast the kids into a pinball machine, where they bounce from one expertly layed out situation to another, not knowing what to say.
I really wanted to know their names, their stories, their origins. Episode one takes ZERO time to do character introductions or build up. Since the kids say almost nothing the entire time, the audience knows little to nothing about them (unless they follow the Quest on Facebook or something). Despite all this, Im still giving the show 8 out of 10 stars because I want it to succeed so badly. Maybe the paladins will open up as the episodes go by. Who knows? Could be great!