bertrandma
Joined Feb 2022
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Reviews76
bertrandma's rating
From afar it vaguely looks like meat, but from up close you can tell its assembled from bits and pieces unfit for human consumption. The series had its moments, but this is just plain ol' bad. All the cringey bits of the series have been retained (Boon & Mill romance, awkward erotica, embarrassing one-liners, useless sidekicks, etc.) but all the good bits have been excised: all characters are one-dimensional and interchangeable, the plot is painfully both predictable and full of holes, the twists are telegraphed and tepid, etc.
The action scenes are not particularly good, but they are by far the best this has to offer: as with much Netflix US-made animation, the art is bland and the animation cheap. Here the fights are numerous enough that the team manage to even make them repetitive. The most successful ones are those relying on cell-shaded 3d.
The action scenes are not particularly good, but they are by far the best this has to offer: as with much Netflix US-made animation, the art is bland and the animation cheap. Here the fights are numerous enough that the team manage to even make them repetitive. The most successful ones are those relying on cell-shaded 3d.
This is a good story. Perhaps even a great story. But it is a mediocre TV-series. Let me explain: the series attempt the 'reverse conspiracy' trope (à la Cruel Intentions and/or Liaisons Dangereuses). We follow a scheming hero ensnaring their victim, rather than one fighting to escape the trap laid by powerful enemies. This is a type of plot I am fond of, and one difficult to pull off (see Rabbit Hole, with Kiefer Sutherland, a couple of years ago, for an egregious example of failure.) And undoubtedly the writers did a very good job with their premise: as in a murder mystery, the cast of characters are established from the get go, and we follow the protagonist as she works behind the scenes to bring about their downfall. The script manages to remain suspenseful, eventful and coherent, because evidently the writers had finished their scripts before the first episode got filmed (something, believe it or not, relatively rare for serials due to market pressures.) No less unusual, the format actually fit the script, and the large number of episodes actually testifies to a complex intrigue rather than Netflix wanting to milk it.
And yet, and yet... story aside, this is not great TV. It suffers from the usual shortcomings of Korean series: a personality-deficit propped up with bland and glossy luxury; low-grade romantic melodrama with assorted super-cheesy soundtrack; too many dialogues, which are never heartfelt or perceptive; etc.
To some extent, Deo geullori seem somewhat aware of its cinematic crimes: Jeon Jae-joon's wardrobe is such an eyesore (all-over monograms, absurd detailing, eye-watering colour schemes, etc.) that this car crash cannot have been entirely an accident. Similarly, although the romance is cookie-cutter K-drama fare (cute but shy broke girl meet nice & funny rich bloke), there are some occasional attempts at social criticism. Still, Deo geullori ultimately remain a generous serving of celebrity worship by other means... like so much mainstream K-drama: the few working class characters (Kang Hyeon-nam and Moon Dong-eun's mother or her factory colleague) are all used and abused for comedic relief, leaving any clever scheming, romantic tension or tragic grandeur to the rich and beautiful.
On the whole it's worth a watch. Although I caught myself more than once thinking of what could have been made with this great story, I thoroughly enjoyed the experience. The few times I have attempted to watch K-Drama I was nearly always dismayed by what seems like trash rolled in glitter. Here for a change, we have a very nice core. Too bad it is still rolled in glitter.
And yet, and yet... story aside, this is not great TV. It suffers from the usual shortcomings of Korean series: a personality-deficit propped up with bland and glossy luxury; low-grade romantic melodrama with assorted super-cheesy soundtrack; too many dialogues, which are never heartfelt or perceptive; etc.
To some extent, Deo geullori seem somewhat aware of its cinematic crimes: Jeon Jae-joon's wardrobe is such an eyesore (all-over monograms, absurd detailing, eye-watering colour schemes, etc.) that this car crash cannot have been entirely an accident. Similarly, although the romance is cookie-cutter K-drama fare (cute but shy broke girl meet nice & funny rich bloke), there are some occasional attempts at social criticism. Still, Deo geullori ultimately remain a generous serving of celebrity worship by other means... like so much mainstream K-drama: the few working class characters (Kang Hyeon-nam and Moon Dong-eun's mother or her factory colleague) are all used and abused for comedic relief, leaving any clever scheming, romantic tension or tragic grandeur to the rich and beautiful.
On the whole it's worth a watch. Although I caught myself more than once thinking of what could have been made with this great story, I thoroughly enjoyed the experience. The few times I have attempted to watch K-Drama I was nearly always dismayed by what seems like trash rolled in glitter. Here for a change, we have a very nice core. Too bad it is still rolled in glitter.
Half-Gotham, half-Cronenberg's Cosmopolis, the setting had some potential: despite some occasionally egregiously bad SFX , the production design has its moments (the architecture, when least obvious, and the male costumes, which are understated and original, whereas the female ones have been seen a hundred times before).
The cast is impressive and tries its best to salvage what it can: pushing heroically through a bloated embarrassment of a script, Driver, Hoffmann and (to an extent) Esposito manage to keep it together in between abrupt shifts between parodic peplum grandiloquence, grimdark thriller and postmodern satire. Their performance (as they probably hoped) would have been praise-worthy, had the oratory not sounded painfully middle-brow, the grimdark managed to build any suspense, or the satire been any less worn-out. As it is, it merely looks like a tasteful if showy frame around self-important scribblings of a spoiled child.
Here is a reminder that production companies are not or not only the usual villains, holding the purse's strings to curtail the director's vision: they should also be the voice of reason, to restrain the narcissist asleep within every director. Megalopolis is what happens when they don't. A film that has some interesting ideas, none of which are fleshed out or carried through, because no-one dared to tell their progenitor that they needed more time in the oven.
The cast is impressive and tries its best to salvage what it can: pushing heroically through a bloated embarrassment of a script, Driver, Hoffmann and (to an extent) Esposito manage to keep it together in between abrupt shifts between parodic peplum grandiloquence, grimdark thriller and postmodern satire. Their performance (as they probably hoped) would have been praise-worthy, had the oratory not sounded painfully middle-brow, the grimdark managed to build any suspense, or the satire been any less worn-out. As it is, it merely looks like a tasteful if showy frame around self-important scribblings of a spoiled child.
Here is a reminder that production companies are not or not only the usual villains, holding the purse's strings to curtail the director's vision: they should also be the voice of reason, to restrain the narcissist asleep within every director. Megalopolis is what happens when they don't. A film that has some interesting ideas, none of which are fleshed out or carried through, because no-one dared to tell their progenitor that they needed more time in the oven.