Kaka

A film about how important it is to have a family, or at least friends you can rely on. A feel-good movie that, aside from decent performances and a few too many tear-jerking scenes, keeps itself mostly wholesomely civil and enjoyable, peppered with great jazz and "Shawshank" voiceovers that are dosed just when they're needed.

House of the Dragon is too drawn out for my taste, and insufficiently skilful in dealing with the intrigue, power struggles and psychological warfare of the main characters. It often goes to such an extreme that it basically "takes away" even one whole episode. And watching hours of brooding gazes in darkened (albeit fantastically arranged) sets is not why we love the world of Game of Thrones so much. There is a lack of balance, there are no strong characters to carry the story and when there is one, or one is finally formed, it is raped by the replacement of the main protagonist – another big problem that was not handled well at all. But the truth remains that HoD solidly replicates the trademarks that worked well from the beginning. It can create a gripping atmosphere in places, the character of Daemon is great and when the dragons kick it up a notch it's worth it too. Considering how the first season ends, the second one could finally be the real deal with about three times the budget of its older sibling. Overall, the first season is surprisingly rather intimate and lacks any spectacular battle.

The right alliances, fateful dilemmas and key twists. It is good to know that the creators did not forget to produce breathtaking material, it's just a shame that it had to come in the last few episodes with the exception of the opening one. Exceptional visual effects, great set design, a conclusion in a tension that could be cut, and probably the best scene of the whole series.

Without that ending, this episode would be barely half as good. But it's true that we're slowly reaching a boiling point between the characters and their motivations. Matt Smith is in a different acting league than the rest.

This reminds me a lot more to the good old Thrones. The scene of the last supper was delectable. Paddy Considine is acting his heart out.

The dragon ride is epic, the scene with the eye is dark. It's got a bit better "substance" and better character work, but I really could have done without the first 20 minutes of over-exposure of the funeral, where we get clouds of views/pulses, but the poor image work makes everything cruelly dark and often cluttered. Just because the picture needs to be dark doesn't necessarily mean the film should be.

Jump 10 years and the dark world of Game of Thrones suddenly looks and feels like a mix with the Twilight saga. Lots of talk about nothing, extremely unlikeable main protagonists and lots of twists that don't make much sense and don't hold the dramatic arc together. A fatal downward plunge.

Decent standard. Every cut, shot, look and gesture has its own meaning and importance in the whole mosaic of the story, but it only manages to pull the viewer in once, as is usual in the Game of Thrones universe, at a wedding.

An unnecessarily complicated script full of intrigue. We have a bunch of more or less interesting main characters who dive deeper and deeper into trouble that in some cases is literally pulled out of thin air, without a very strong grounding in an otherwise decently written epic series. Game of Thrones had more juice and creative finesse in this respect.

Too long. The plot and the pulling of strings doesn't have the necessary grace that, for example, Baelish or Tywin Lannister gave it in Game of Thrones; there is no such refined figure here (yet). In addition, there is an oddly crafted crab battle, which is very reminiscent of the Battle of Bastards in its structure, but from a tactical point of view, it is completely upside down.