Star Wars Live-Action series review

Thoughts on each series thus far as of June 20, 2024.

 A) The Mandalorian, s1e3, when Mando gives Grogu to the Client and returns to his ship where he is about to take off and he looks at the ball of the shifter and we sit there for a moment in that moment -- we don't see Mando's face, I don't recall if any music plays, but we know exactly what he's feeling and he acts on that feeling, betraying the guild rules and putting his life in danger for someone he cares about. I was locked in at that point.

Are there some silly or not great episodes of the Mandalorian? Sure. Like "The Prisoner" or "Guns for Hire", but the through line is there from start to finish regarding Mando and Grogu. I will say that you can definitely debate the effectiveness or enjoyment of the side stories regarding The Marshal or Bo Katan or Pershing. Those can definitely either be hot or cold.

B) The Book of Boba Fett was a swing and a miss. The backstory stuff was decent but the present day stuff didn't make sense. The Mando episode was good but his inclusion in the show wasn't enough to save it.

C) The Obi-wan Kenobi show had an okay through line, but stumbled on the execution and the side stories making it only slightly better than BOBF in my opinion.

D) Andor was fantastic. Solid through line, acting, characters, side characters, etc.

E) Ahsoka had an intriguing story premise, continuing what fans have wondered since the end of Rebels, but the showrunners/writers assumed the audience had seen every episode of Rebels and/or The Clone Wars which did not do anyone any favors. Even if you were in "the know", wooden Ahsoka and sleepy Sabine Wren were not great to watch. Thrawn also left a lot to be desired. Also, if you didn't know space witches are a thing.

F) Lastly, there's The Acolyte, which I knew nothing about going in but I knew it was closely related to "The High Republic" novels and comics. I have read none of that material so I'm going in cold, learning as I go from what the show is offering. I thought the first two episodes were okay and three was not great but I'm still sort of interested. Then when episode four was 24 minutes of walking just to end on a cliffhanger was not very good storytelling. Overall, four episodes so far, I don't really care about any of the characters and I'm not seeing a great story here. Remember the space witches in Ahsoka (and Rebels and The Clone Wars and Tales of the Jedi), well, we have them too. And? So what? The only character I like is Yord as he's so sure of himself which represents the entire embodiment of the Jedi Order which will lead to the eventual fall.

History of the World, Part I [1981] review

• The Stone Age
• Quick 6 minute, rapid fire sequence with some funny bits
• Fire, Art Critic, and Marriage were the highlights for me
• The Old Testament
• Moses bit is classic and probably the most popular / recognizable sequence from this film, but sadly it's only the one bit
• The Roman Empire
• This goes on for 43 minutes and after the rapid fire and fast pace established by the first two sections, this one felt way too long
• The highlights were the Hugh Hefner cameo, the Eunuch test, the quick Senate bit, the Trojan Pharmacy joke, the Moses callback, and the Last Supper scene
• The Spanish Inquisition
• 10 minute musical number with a maybe a chuckle or two but it's just one joke stretched way too long; it's almost like when Family Guy puts a random musical sequence in their episode to fill time
• The French Revolution
• This sequence was the sole focus of the last 30 minutes of the movie
• Count de Monet joke was funny at first but then it started to lost its luster the more it was repeated
• "It's good to be the king" was maybe said one too many times
• Fun fact: The female lead in this sequence was Pamela Stephenson who was Lorelei in Superman 3. I don't know her from anything else
• We get a meta call back to the Roman Empire sequence and the movie ends; I did like the Mel Brooks and Gregory Hines kiss
• Coming Attractions
• All 3 were great; I didn't realize that Mel took the music from the Jews in Space sequence and used it for the Men in Tights song in the movie of the same name

I'd think I'd give the movie a 6/10 overall.  I'm really looking forward to the eights episodes of History of the World Part II coming to Hulu on March 6, 2023.

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever [2022] review

God, I miss Chadwick Boseman. I obviously didn't know the man, but his work in the Marvel cinematic universe has been fantastic. He left a hole in everyone's heart when he passed and sadly he also left a hole in this movie that needed to be filled. So, the first step the movie takes is for the characters along with the audience to say goodbye. It's very emotional and powerful beginning that is very well done. As we dry our tears, the movie fast forwards to a year later.

Time doesn't heal all wounds and everyone is still grieving meanwhile the plot begins to unfold. The world wants Vibranium, yet in the wrong hands, it can be dangerous. We see the French government take a crack at stealing some and fail. The American government develops a machine to detect it and they find some in the ocean. Unbeknownst to everyone, the Americans and the Wakandans, the Vibranium is connected to another group, the Talokanil lead by Namor. The Talokanil take out the Americans so now the CIA gets involved. The CIA think it was the Wakandans and they don't know who it was until Namor reveals himself to Shuri and Ramonda. He tells them a scientist is responsible for creating the Vibranium detecting device and he's going to find and kill that person.

The scientist turns out to be a young female MIT student named Riri. The Wakandans find her first and try to bring her back to Wakanda to protect her, but the Talokanil capture Riri and Shuri. Because of her failure, Okoyo is stripped of her title and status. Ramonda turns to Nakia (Lupita Nyong'o) for help. Nakia has been out of the game for years now as she's doing good work in Haiti. She agrees to help, finds and rescues Riri and Shuri, and brings them back to Wakanda. Namor and the Talokanil attack and Ramonda is killed. This scene mirrors the beginning of the movie and it was another gut punch where the tears were definitely flowing.

It's now war between Wakanda and Talokan. Wakanda is given one week to prepare by Namor. Shuri is able to recreate the flower that gives her the powers of the Black Panther and becomes the new Black Panther. Riri makes an Iron Man suit and becomes Ironheart (I don't think this name is said in the movie, but I read it afterwards).

Shuri is able to defeat Namor, she spares his life, and they come to an agreement.

There's a whole side plot with the CIA involving Ross (from the first Black Panther film) and his ex wife who is the director of the CIA: Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus). That really doesn't go anywhere unfortunately.

The final emotional gut punch comes in the mid-credit scene. We find out that Nakia was with child during "the Blip" and she had a son with T'Challa. She wanted to raise him outside of Wakanda. His name is Toussaint but his Wakanada is T'Challa.

The movie was an emotional rollercoaster. It had to not only had the task of giving us an interesting story, but it also had to pass the baton from T'Challa to Shuri in a meaningful way. The latter was done fairly well, with a few minor missteps, but the former was a little bit of a miss. Assuming Namor and his people have been in hiding for countless centuries, you'd think they'd be a little more subtle in their approach when the Vibranium in the ocean was found. Also, you'd think that maybe they would have partnered with the Wakandas instead of almost immediately becoming their enemy. I didn't like the plot point that the scientist had to be killed. Killing the scientist was not going to suddenly stop the search for Vibranium and keep the Talokanil safe. And even though they hid in the ocean, the Talokanil seemed to be pretty smart and technologically evolved, especially to figure out a way to exist on land.

After learning that this movie was supposed to the a father/son adventure, it had to be shifted to a mother/daughter one. I wish we got more of that instead of the CIA things that really didn't go anywhere which were probably a setup for a future conflict.

Willow Series [2022] Review

The long-awaited sequel to the movie of the same name has finally completed airing.  I wouldn't consider the movie Willow a cult classic like Rocky Horror for example, but I feel the heart and the fun that existed in the movie touched a lot of people and it's remembered fondly.  I'm one of those people. 

I don't think I can talk about the series without first touching on the movie.  After a recent re-watch, and looking at it with adult eyes, its purpose was simple - to show that even though Willow was smaller than everyone else and a struggling farmer trying to support his family, he was brave and selfless, willing to protect a child simply because it was the right thing to do.  To that simple story, the writers added some fantasy elements like magic, prophecies, witches, fairies, and trolls, and the result is that the small world starts to get a little bit bigger, growing with potential for a rich backstory and world building.

With small beginnings, Willow comes upon Madmartigan, the unlikely ally, as well as two homeless gnome like creatures named Brownies.  All three add a lot of humor to the journey which makes it much more enjoyable.  The reaction shots of the baby are also quite humorous.  Mix in an awkward George Lucas trademark love story, and good overcoming evil, and we end up with a delightful fun story.  The finale even recalls a "magic" trick from the start of the movie, bringing everything full circle and ultimately a happy ending.

Last, but not least, the music in the movie is well done.  While it heavily relies on the Willow theme, Ron Howard and his team made good use of it, knowing when to use it to ramp up an already exciting action scene or slow it down during a more dramatic scene like one with Willow and his wife.

Now, does the series have that same heart and fun?  Sadly, I don't believe it does.

Storyline wise, what happened between the end of the movie and the start of the show?  Baby Elora is now a young adult, who Willow thinks needs to be trained to fulfil her prophecy of being a great sorcerer that will destroy evil.  Sorsha disagrees and decides to have Elora work in the kitchen, not tell her about her destiny, rename her, and hide her in plain sight by having her hair dyed to blond instead of red.

Madmartigan is absent.  We later learn that he went in search of a magical protective armor.  Sadly, due to Val Kilmer's health issues, I don't think he could physically be in the show, so his lack of appearance needed a story and unfortunately, it's not a very good one.  His friend Boorman's humor is a welcome addition as first, but his humor turns to lies which turns to mistrust which turns to a dislike of the character.

All the new characters have similar issues where they're poorly written.  They fight with each other.  They don't trust each other.  They barely bond.  The writers give us very little reasons to care about any of them or their quest.

Lastly, on the topic of music, the Willow theme is heard briefly, maybe twice in the entirety of all 8 episodes.  If I recall correctly, I think it's heard once in 107 and then once in 108.  While the movie might have overused it, I think the series drastically underuses it.  Also, the series chooses to use popular songs during the credits.  Why just the credits?  Why not use the music in the episode?  I think they did use the modern music in episode twice, but mostly it feels like it was saved for the end for no apparent reason.

Overall, I was optimistic when the series was announced.  While I give the movie a glowing review it is far from perfect, but it had the right idea.  I feel the show might have had some good ideas, but the execution of those ideas was very poor.  I kept hoping with each episode there would be a course correction, but I was just let down each week.  I don’t know if we’ll get another volume of stories; I just hope Lucasfilm can find someone to bring the heart and fun back to the story.

Elvis [2022] review

From the start, it felt like the writers were going for the Salieri/Mozart angle from Amadeus with Colonel Parker being the former and Elvis being the latter.  While Tom Hanks and Austin Butler kill it in their respective roles, it almost felt like Elvis was a side character in his own story, which maybe was the point?  But then don’t call the movie Elvis, call it Snowman for the Colonel.

I did appreciate that the movie did not shy away from Elvis’s musical origin and influence.  It almost felt like every time he started a song the movie had to show his musical sources to ensure that credit was given where credit was due, instead of focusing on Elvis as a person and his personal life.  It’s almost like the flashbacks were footnotes in a research paper.  Going into the movie, I understood Elvis’s life was a bit of a tragedy, but it’s almost like they didn’t want to show it or that he was suffering as it’s evident by the movie’s end that it was a battle he didn’t win. 

Overall, while I found the patented Baz Luhrmann flair mostly engaging, there wasn’t enough extreme emotion, sadness or happiness, in me as a viewer to recommend this as a must see. 

Skyward Sword HD review

Back in 2006, I recall that I enjoyed playing Twilight Princess.  It was a very dark and eerie game, but I felt it was a return to what the fans wanted post Ocarina of Time after many complained about the cel-shading style of Wind Waker.  I was not one of the complainers but I missed land and I missed having a horse so it was nice to have both those things back.  

Five years later, in 2011, we would get Skyward Sword for the first time.  If I remember correctly, it was supposed to come a lot sooner, but they changed the art style last minute to be different than Twilight Princess.  Regardless of the timing, the big thing then was the Wii Motion+ controls which was an improvement on the original Wii Motion controls.  Regarding motion controls, there seemed to be two major camps:  the lovers and the haters.  Personally I liked them, but I didn't love them.  I found that they best responded when I played standing up.  Then I realized that this was the first time I've played any Zelda game standing up and suddenly I was immersed.  I was swinging my sword, stabbing enemies and pod filled water droplets, and I was raising my arm in the sky to do a skyward strike.  I had become Link and I was fully invested in the story, I felt the emotions I saw on the other characters faces, and I was in awe of the design of Demise's final form.  I remember crying actual tears.  I fell in love with this game and in 2011, it was my favorite Zelda game of all time.

Ten years later, I just completed Skyward Sword HD after putting in a total of 34 hours and 40 minutes.  I first tried the motion controls using the Joy Con.  I hated it.   It kept drifting to the right.  I would reset it to the middle of the screen and after a few moments it started drifting to the right again.  I think I gave it a solid hour, I saved my game, and called it a night.  The next time I decided to use my Pro controller.  This was also a bit of a learning curve.  I didn't realize I had to hold L1 to look around with the same R stick that was used to swing the sword now that the motion controls were gone.  Also running and rolling was different.  It was not intuitive and slightly frustrating to play.  I was not having fun.  I was contemplating shutting off the game and maybe selling it on eBay.  I may have taken a day or two break, came back to it, and I found myself finally getting used to it.  Still, I swear if I moved the R stick from left to right I was swinging diagonally when I wanted to simply swing horizontally.  Also, the death blow move seemed to only work 50% of the time.  Either way, I'm glad they incorporated the non motion controls, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to play it with the drifting Joy Con.

So after finally getting used to the motion controls and frustrations aside, I'm glad to have revisited this game in its HD form 10 year later.  It's no longer my favorite Zelda game of all time, (that is "A Link to the Past") but I appreciate the developers giving this one the non motion control treatment.  It shows that Nintendo is listening to their fans sometimes.  I still enjoyed the story and I think it would make a good Netflix miniseries as long as they toned down Ghirahim.  Overall, I'd love to recommend it, but I wouldn't want a new player to be frustrated with the controls and quit.  So if you can get the game on sale and you know what you're getting into and have NOT experienced this story, then I would 100% recommend you give it a go.

Dunkirk [2017] review

Pros:

• definitely sucked me in
• felt like I was there
• cared what happened to characters with little to no backstory

Cons:

• needed more framing devices to actually understand what was going on in the first place -- give me more than just three sentences at the beginning
• I got the confusing time aspect but it was jarring and confusing for no reason
• didn't care about some characters because they had little to no backstory
• was waiting for an unexpected twist/surprise regarding "main" character