Final Fantasy VII Remake [2020] spoiler review

FFVII Remake:  

• 4/14 - 5/20 First play through complete  
• Total time ~44 hours

Overall thoughts - major spoilers

With memories of the original in the back of my head, I definitely thought the highway part would be the end of the game.  Especially after this image in the link below hit the internet.  There was a part of me thinking that this would be the final shot of the game.  https://square-enix-games.com/en_GB/news/heroes-gather-new-final-fantasy-vii-remake-key-art  I was actually surprised to be wrong.  This shot isn't even in the game at all and it's a beautiful piece of art.

Concerning the Singularity, I can't say with a 100% certainty that everything made sense to me.  IMO, the purpose of the Whispers was they had a certain amount of control over fate and they had the power to change it, so if they are now destroyed in the final battle what does that mean moving forward?  Can future events be prevented or changed compared to what we know happens in the original?  Or now that they're gone, are we truly on our own?  Aerith mentions the future being a blank slate - is she correct?  Red XIII says something like these visions from the arbiters of fate are of the future if we fail.  Actually, the vision of him running through the canyon was after the group succeeded in saving Midgar and the planet, at least that's what I thought when we were shown the final shot of the original game that Midgar is covered in green plants and Shinra is no longer sucking up the life of the planet.

I watched IGN's explanation of the ending and I felt a little bit better as there is a lot of stuff left purposely vague for the sequel.  Specially the "7 seconds" tidbit is up for discussion/debate.  As the world opens up for this little branch of Avalanche in the sequel to this game, will they necessarily follow the same path as the original?  It doesn't feel like it and that's okay.  While I appreciate the backstory dump in Kalm post Midgar in the original, I think that could be done completely different in the next installment of the Remake and I hope it is.

As mentioned above, in the Remake, it felt like there was a lot more talk of Wutai, and a new element? of Avalanche HQ.  I don't remember HQ being mention in the original;  I definitely don't remember them being a presence in the original game for sure.  In the Remake, they are mentioned to be more extreme than Barret's group, but what's more extreme than blowing up a reactor?  Will we find out more about HQ?  Also, speaking of changes, Mayor Domino seems to play more of a role.  I wonder if he'll come back in the sequel.  Also, is Jesse the only person in the game that actually died?

The IGN video also mentioned a parallel universe where Zack is still alive.  I know a parallel timeline story arc was discussed when this game was first developed back in the 90s, but it was ultimately used in FF8 instead with Squall and his father IIRC.  Also, if there is a universe where Zack survives, how will that affect the main story, if at all?

At the end of the day, it was great being back in this universe.  It was fun to play and only slightly frustrating at times, but so was the original.  I died to Sephiroth twice when I was given Aerith and then Tifa in the final battle.  Out of frustration, I returned to the title screen, did all the arbiter stuff again, but then I got Tifa then Barret in the final battle and won.  So I don't know if there's an element of RNG or if I did something different that affected who I was given.  Either way, I look forward to revisiting some chapters now that I have that ability and maybe I'll dip into Hard mode over the long Memorial Day weekend.

The Unknown Journey Will Continue...hopefully in 2021 or 2022 at the latest [fingered crossed]!

Birds of Prey [2020] Spoiler Review

Things I appreciated

1)  For a good chunk of the movie, I felt it was trying to give us the narrative from the POV of being in Harley Quinn's head.  Here's the story, wait, let me go back 4 minutes, wait, now let me go back 1 week, wait, I'm getting slapped so now we're inside my head and I'm Marilyn Monroe.  While I could appreciate this approach, there are scenes in between that didn't match the tone, or we cut to a scene that was too serious, or one that didn't matter like Black Mask talking to Black Canary about his art collection.  Why did that matter?

2)  Most of the fight scenes had a good mix of choreography and feeling real world.  If there was any wire work, it wasn't obvious to my eye.  Compare these scenes to every-time Rey Palpatine leaves the ground in TROS -- it's blatantly obvious wire work, distracting, and pulls you out of the movie.  This was not the case in Birds.

3)  The title cards when a random character came out of nowhere who had a grievance with Harley was good, but again the contrasting tone with other scenes didn't match the overall tone making the "toned down" scenes boring or confusing.  Also Black Mask yelling at the random girl in his club to dance and strip.  What was that about?

As for the rest...

Why is this movie called Birds of Prey?  Black Canary is a bird, but what about Huntress and the cop?  Is birds in this case a use of the British slang for a woman?  

I feel this movie wanted to focus on Harley Quinn, because that's who people want to see, but unfortunately she had the least interesting storyline.

My only experience with Harley, other than Suicide Squad, was Batman The Animated Series.  If Joker kicked her out, I feel that she would do what she could to get back in his good graces.  Maybe capture Batman or Robin or Batgirl or something and present them as a present to Joker.  This would make the Joker happy and then they'd make up.  But this movie was committed to Harley going out on her own, so because of that she causes her own problems.

Then while she's dealing with her problems, we get mostly Black Canary who is pretty uninteresting.  Huntress randomly pops up here and there and she's also pretty uninteresting and one dimensional.  The pick pocket girl didn't add much either.  There was a lot of focus on the cop getting a raw deal but I didn't find myself caring about her either.

Back to the Animated Series, I appreciated Harley having a pet hyena.  I'm sure there were other Easter Eggs from the show that I missed.

Margot Robbie can definitely carry a movie, unfortunately her emancipation alone could not fill an almost 2 hour movie, so they need to add other "stuff".  The stuff they decided to add concerning the Birds didn't get me to the point of caring about the overall story and once they were finally together, they tried for some more comedy amid the chaos where some landed and some didn't.  I wish this "girl power" movie had had more power.

In summary, it felt like it was trying to and wanted to be "Deadpool" and I wish it was, but it never got there.  I was very bored at times and comparing this to Suicide Squad - I had more fun during Suicide Squad.  Most of my blame on why I didn't enjoy this movie would be on direction and tone, so I mostly blame Cathy Yan.

Star Wars Resistance [2018-2020] - Series Finale Review

Regarding the Star Wars Resistance series finale - The Escape - and the show as a whole, there's definitely two ways to look at it -- worth it OR waste of time.

#1) The show was about being part of a team/family. Let's race together and be competitive, but at the end of the day, we're still friends. We all live on the Colossus and we need to come together as a community to support each other. Team Aces, Team Fireball, Team whatever -- you were part of a family.

Losing Tam to the First Order as the end of Season 1 was huge and we were emotionally invested in her story because we could sympathize with her. We wanted to see the person that had fallen / made a bad choice to be saved/redeemed. That's Star Wars 101. And in the end, we got what we wanted, and some of the best episodes of the second season dealt with Tam's decisions on when to betray and not betray her friends. You could see she was torn. You could see the conflict. It was rewarding and heartwarming to see her finally make the right decision for herself and for the Colossus. So from this POV, maybe you feel it was all worth it.

#2) The journey of this season was roughly 7 hours of content. And it's quite evident that a lot of threads that were started were probably going to be addressed in future seasons. With the station now mobile, it was the writers opportunity to world build. Although, the overarching goal, the thing that kept us coming back each week was (a) was the Colossus going to survive being chased by the First Order? and (b) what was going to happen with Tam? We got to meet some interesting characters along the way that unfortunately didn't bear any fruit this season. Our only hope is that we get to see them in a future stories along with others that didn't get to shine in TROS. So from this POV, maybe you feel it was all a waste of time.

Personally, I love that we keep getting more animated Star Wars. I'd love to see the Poe Dameron comics in animated form. I enjoyed the art style and the designs and expressions of the characters.

Unfortunately, the story was very much lacking and I really don't see myself revisiting or recommending these series. I'm glad to have gotten a book-ended ending and I look forward to better stories (The Clone Wars - Final Season, The Mandalorian Season 2) in the future.

Star Wars The Rise of Skywalker [2019] Spoiler Review

Personally, the first time I saw the movie was 12/19/2019.  My second viewing was exactly one month apart on 01/19/2020.  My initial thoughts that I shared with friends was that I didn't like it.  After letting it digest and upon second viewing my main problem was "the mission".

Before I get into that, what I did like was (1) Rey calling Leia - Master, (2) Babu Frik, and (3) Young Luke and Leia lightsaber flashback training.  That's about it unfortunately.  I wanted to like it more, but I couldn't as "the mission" is the essentially the plot.

Upon my second viewing, the thing that stood out the most was the repeated line about the mission failing.
(1) Leia says "This mission is everything. We cannot fail."
(2) Poe, then (3) Rey and then finally (4) C3P0 all say, "If this mission fails, it’s all been for nothing. All we’ve done, all this time."

It's repeated 4 times up until the "big" moment - C3P0's brain wipe and Sith translation - on Kijimi. We're constantly reminded that the mission is the most important thing - the plot is the most important thing.

Unfortunately, the mission isn't 100% clear at this point.

What we're told is that Palpatine is back and he has a giant fleet thanks to the mole in the First Order. So they trust the mole completely and believe it's not a trap ever? Yep. Got it. Sure.
So what's the plan? What's the mission? Rey needs to get to Exegol to face the Emperor and the only clue they have to finding and getting to Exegol is a mission that Luke started with Lando years ago but never finished. So they're essentially putting all their faith in winning the war and beating Palpatine by sending Rey/Poe/Finn/Chewie/BB8/C3P0 to Pasana to HOPEFULLY succeed where Luke and Lando failed. So far, this mission does NOT sound promising.

So how do they succeed in their mission? They don't. They constantly fail which is why the need to keep repeating the line above. We can't fail! Remember? It's in the script. We just can't.

Well, Kylo finds them on Pasana and he is on his way with his (useless) Knights. The FO patrol that happens to be on Pasana finds our heroes in the meantime while we wait for Kylo. Again, the heroes fail a speeder chase, but this time they fail upward by finding the exact spot where they need to sink into the ground to find the item they need to move the plot forward - the dagger.

Then the mission takes another set back when they think they lose Chewie when Rey accidentally kills him. So at this point, what is the "all we've done"?
They found a dagger which they don't need now (or they don't think they do, but they will) because they have C3P0's memory. So as it pertains to the mission, they only thing they've acquired is information that they can't access. It's like a bad Mission Impossible movie. We've acquired the laptop. Anyone know how to crack the password? So in the grand scheme of the movie, they haven't really done anything yet. They have a beer with no bottle opener.

So let's take a pause. Maybe the "All we've done, all this time" is meant to reference the past movies. So what have they done? They destroyed Starkiller Base which resulted in the thinning out of the Resistance to the point of extinction with no one coming to help. The FO still reigns AND on top of it all, Palpatine is back with another giant fleet. So what did they do since The Rise of Skywalker mission? They dropped a cup of coffee in the ocean.

Then the final insult to add to the injury, and we haven't even got to the final act yet, is that this SUPER IMPORTANT MISSION that CAN NOT FAIL - Rey decides, ya know what? - I quit. She burns Kylo's ship she stole from Kef Bir (good thing Kylo had two ships, one that was destroyed on Pasana and the one he had on Kef Bir) and decides that she's just going to stay on Ahch-To. She doesn't want to end up on the throne as a Sith and that's okay because Palpatine and the FO are just going to destroy whatever planets they want and that's that. Maybe she doesn't know what happened to Kijimi, but if she's super strong in the Force, she probably should have felt it, like when Obi-wan felt Alderaan.

The final kicker is that I haven't even touched on Palpatine's contradictory plan and how it makes very little sense and very little is explained. I digress.