[7.1/10] So here’s the problem -- I don’t really care about Pabu. That's not necessarily The Bad Batch’s fault. I think the show has dutifully established what this town means to Omega, Hunter, and Wrecker, and what it represents for them as a safe haven. But the other side of the coin is that, given the passage of time between seasons, I’m not sure I could name a single one of the characters who resides there, or recall what exactly their significance is to our heroes. (I vaguely remember Omega being friends with Lyana and Wrecker having a moment of camaraderie with Mayor Shep, but that's about it.) That means it’s more of a generic setting than an important place to me as a viewer. So for me at least, the idea of “Pabu is home” works in theory, but not really in practice, lacking the impact that, say, watching the Empire destroy the Marauder has.
Which is all to say that I get what The Bad Batch is going for here. The Shadow Agent has arrived! He’s brought Stormtroopers to their safe and sacred place! They’re hurting innocent people! Omega has no choice but to go with them to stop the suffering!
But it doesn’t really land for me emotionally. Some of it’s just that the pacing of this one is all over the place There’s a long slow build, and even once the Empire arrives, it’s a bunch of muddy and indifferent action, without much to latch onto as a viewer. I can, in principle, appreciate Wrecker getting incapacitated in the explosion, Hunter getting sidelined trying to grab a transport, and the locals seeing their livelihood destroyed. But without a more personal connection, much of this feels like standard piece-moving and table-setting for the final stretch of the series. I understand why the show needs to do these things, and the violation it’s supposed to feel like, but the stakes don’t really land and neither do the emotions.
There’s a few points worth noting. For one, the fact that the Shadow Agent is able to snipe a stormtrooper from seemingly miles way strongly suggests he’s a clone of Crosshair, which portends interesting things. While I can see the seams a little too plainly, the best thing this episode does to establish Pabu as important is making it the home for Tech’s glasses and Omega/Wrecker’s plush, sacred objects in The Bad Batch’s corner of the universe.
Most of all, I appreciate that on Omega’s journey to maturity, she is now willing to give herself up, put herself in harm’s way, both to save the villagers of Pabu, but also in a bid to rescue the clones who are still trapped on Tantiss. There is a selflessness, a courage, a righteousness to Omega that bears out. The interplay between ehr perspective and Crosshair’s this season ahs been a particular highlight. The way he tells her this isn’t a viable plan, and she responds “It’s all we have” shows not only how Omega’s grown, not only the bravery she displays on a daily basis, but the sense of self-sacrifice she’s picked up from Tech.
The most tension “The Point of No Return” can offer comes in the plan to track Omega’s jaunt to Tantiss. Her giving up her comms to the Shadow Agent as a feint, only for Crosshair’s secondary tracker to miss comes freighted with expectation and disappointment. And Omega’s sigh when she’s on the Shadow Agent’s transport, suggests there’s another layer to the plan, but also perhaps just a sense of exhaustion, of resolve, of that franchise trademark hope within the young clone heading back to the site of her captivity.
I can't say I loved this one. It strikes me as a more functional episode than a purely riveting one. But it does leave me impressed with the show’s main character, and excited to see what happens next, so it must be doing something right.
[7.9/10] A funny thing happens as you get older. Children stop being peers. They stop being those bratty things you have to put up with as a teenager. They’re no longer the little ones you see, but aren’t really responsible for as a young adult.
And somewhere along the line, they start becoming these small people that you need to protect, to look out for, to support, to nurture. You recognize, in a way that's hard when you’re younger, how vulnerable they are, how much they depend on the folks who’ve been through the wringer and know the perils of the world to make sure they’re okay.
Kids are not naive innocents. They have the same vibrance and diversity of thought and feeling and attitude their grown-up counterparts do. But they need help, your help, and that realization is humbling and more than a little scary.
Which is all to say that “Identity Crisis” hits harder when you realize you’re no longer a ten-year-old imagining what it’d be like to be Luke Skywalker hacking and slashing through stormtroopers, and instead, you’re a crusty old grown-up struck by what it’d be like to be the Luke Skywalker who’s been entrusted to look after his nephew and see that he goes down the right path.
I assumed that what lie behind the trooper-protected doors of “The Vault” was something expected: a bunch of jars of pickled Snokes, a few budding attempts at cloning Palpatine, maybe a few more deformed Clone Troopers or something. The last thing I expected was a small collection of imprisoned children, and it draws out the evil of the Empire in a way that few things could.
This is one of the more harrowing episodes of The Bad Batch. I can easily stand blaster fire and dogfights among commandos. I can readily handle life-or-death fights between good guys and bad guys, even if feisty Omega is in the fray. What’s harder to withstand is a toddler, who weeps without his plushy, being torn from his mother. What’s more difficult to stomach is seeing young force-sensitives imprisoned, who only want to return home, and are treated like indifferent property rather than people.
It’s devastating to watch, and The Bad Batch is counting on that. This is (I think?) the first episode of the show that doesn’t feature a single moment of Omega or Clone Force 99. This is all about Emerie Karr stepping into a bigger role and realizing the horrors it would require of her. It is seeing the depths of what she’s participating in, trying to suck it up and do her job, only for her to be moved by the plight of the young souls she’s supposed to treat like chattel.
There is great power in that. “Identity Crisis” has some cool moments for longtime fans. Tarkin’s appearances are always a pip. The back channel negotiations and rivalries of Imperial politics always intrigues. We learn that Omega isn’t necessarily a force-sensitive herself, but rather her genetic material can act as a “binder” for DNA from other force-sensitives, which is a welcome swerve. And The return of Cad Bane and Todo is always a plus. (I should have known Bane was in the offing once I heard Seth Green voice one of the random villagers.)
But for the most part, this is a more stark story, about someone recognizing the abject cruelty they’re a part of, and not being able to turn their heart away from it once they do. The callousness with which Dr. Hemlock encourages Dr. Karr not to become attached to tiny people asking for help and solace, the casual dispassion with how Cad Bane kidnaps a child and practically taunts Emerie for asking too many questions, all reveal a rot in the soul that must have taken hold for someone to be so unconcerned with the welfare of blameless children caught up in the machinery of the Empire.
Not for nothing, there’s a political charge to this story. It is hard to see children ripped from their parents, families ratted out by opportunistic neighbors, and most pointedly, kids in cages, without thinking about the current moment. The Bad Batch is not the first show to suggest a regime is evil by treating young ones this way, but it comes with extra bite in the wake of American policies that are not so different.
The message here is affecting -- that it’s hard for anyone with a heart not to be moved by such terrible things being visited upon little people who don’t deserve it. Dr. Karr wanting to step up, to replace Nala Se, only to see what the Kaminoan saw and realize why she did what she did, makes her change of heart palpable and meaningful.
Because she sees little Jax try desperately to escape and be harshly stopped and punished; she sees little Eva ask plaintively when she gets to go home; she sees a small infant torn from its mother whose tender age is treated like a boon to compliance, not a crime against an innocent, and cannot help but care.
I still love the stories of heroes choosing good with lightsabers and magic powers. I still love badasses leaping through the galaxy and fighting for the good. But the more real acts of evil, and more mundane acts of kindness move me more these days. And all the more, I understand how what could turn your heart, are these tiny beings who need your help, and witnessing an institution that would ignore their suffering, or worse yet, make it the point.
[7.6/10] I appreciate that this one focused both on Crosshair’s recovery from his trauma, particularly when returning to the place where his heart fully moved, and on his tense reconnection with Hunter. Neither is easy.
For the latter, the show does some of its best work. There’s something very understated about Crosshair’s pain at returning to the location where he realized the Empire saw clones as disposable property. The way he’s tense even stepping onto the site comes through clearly to the audience. The way he looks around, the sense memory flooding back, is palpable. And my favorite moment in the episode is where he stacks the stormtrooper helmets on the storage container, a quiet tribute to his fallen comrades for no one but himself. Crosshair is taciturn, unemotional, but you can tell this place had an effect on him, one that he’s still reckoning with, and the show doesn’t flinch from that.
“The Return” doesn’t shy away from the lingering friction between him and Hunter either. In some places, the episode lays it on a bit thick, but there’s a core of truth that bears out. Hunter’s right in his reluctance to trust Crosshair after the way he turned on them and even helped hunt them down. And given that Crosshair went to work for the Empire, it’s not crazy for Hunter to wonder why Crosshair’s not telling them the whole story and harbor his suspicions.
Crosshair is equally justified in feeling like his onetime brother is giving him an unnecessarily hard time. He rightfully points out that, whatever the rest of the Bad Batch may think of him, Crosshair sent them the message about Omega. You can tell both that whatever his protestations, Crosshair still harbors plenty of affection for the young girl (who amusingly points out that she’s technically older than Crosshair), and that he blames his brothers for not acting to save her before she was captured.
Most importantly though, having seen Crosshair;s journey, we know that he’s not keeping details close to the vest because he’s trying to deceive his comrades. He’s holding things back because they hurt to talk about, because he’s as bred soldier who’s not equipped to express basic emotions, let alone complex ones like, “I thought I was being a good soldier, but I committed acts of evil and realized I was being used as a weapon to be used up and then discarded.” Both he and Hunter are sympathetic here in why they’re not on the same page.
Of course, what gets them on the same page is fighting a giant ice worm.
The defense and attack of the Dune-esque oversized wiggler is creditably done. The script sets up the threat subtly, lets it escalate, and gives our heroes goals both immediate and longer term that drive the action. The fights are generally well staged, with the worm looming over our heroes and causing a ruckus even when he’s not in frame. And Crosshair and HUnter having to work together, rebuilding their trust in the process, gives the action a point.
I’ll admit, after decades of watching Star Wars, and years of watching the animated series, I’m just inured to most of the action now unless it’s especially well done. The worm fight is the kind of interstitial battle where you know everyone’s going to make it out unscathed, and it’s just something action-packed to drive Hunter and Crosshair closer. So while I can appreciate the work, it’s easier for me to zone out during these moments.
Still, I like that through the work the pair come to trust each other a little more, and Omega, who’s still learning and growing, recognizes that it’ll take time, but that two people she loves are starting the rocky path to loving one another as brothers again. I’m more in it for the deep psychological examination of trauma and rebuilding of shattered relationships than I am fighting gigantic bugs at this point, but thankfully The Bad Batch has both.
(As an aside, I’d assumed that Crosshair’s shaky hand was a physical ailment or clone degradation he wasn’t allowing himself to treat out of some kind of penance. But now I’m beginning to suspect it’s psychosomatic, and a reflection of his internalized guilt over his past actions. I’m interested to find out!)
Spoiler free review
Do yourself a favour, don't waste your time on this. It's a perfect example of all sizzle no steak. The show starts off weak then eventually hints at a decent mystery which you expect will come to some satisfying conclusion, but as the season reaches its crescendo it turns into one of the biggest let downs ever.
Admittedly it has some pretty moments but is mostly shot in drab, uninteresting settings, which doesn't really feel intentional. All the characters apart from the OA are wildly predictable, but she eventually falls into this category once you learn more about her. Any character relationships that are built up don't feel at all worth investing in, and any semblance of a subplot is swept under the rug quickly. Despite being eight episodes the show feels heavily padded, yet they decided to barely dedicate any time to develop side characters, because Brit Marling has to dominate every scene she's in, and the result of which feels massively self-indulgent.
If there's one thing I have to warn anyone watching The OA is that it completely cons viewers with a vague, nonsensical ending. I can only assume that they thought they were a shoe-in for a second season from Netflix and left it completely open, or they were trying to create an ending that was open for interpretation - which this show definitely didn't have the smarts to accomplish. The ending literally makes no sense, and only serves to add another gaping space to a plot already filled with holes; after seeing it I thought "wait, is that it? What the hell was that?" It's honestly like they reached the deadline for the script and figured "screw it, we'll make it vague, I'm sure Netflix will throw cash at us next year, we'll pretend to explain it then".
The OA is a interesting but lazy and frustrating mess. If you can put aside common sense and a desire for a decent plot and story for eight hours, then by all means go for it. The ending was such a huge "screw you" to the viewer that I refuse to return for resolution should they get another season. Oh, and this show shouldn't be called sci-fi at all, it couldn't be any further from it, if anything it's profoundly anti-science and unashamed of it.
Writing this comment a few years after the show ended, and my 5 star rating stands.
I really enjoyed the show at the beginning and enjoyed it enough to watch it (not hate watch) it through it's first cancelation. The show was cast very well, everyone played their role really well, but the constant hard line political views and commentary were just annoying. I am not political, this is not an "I find it offensive" response, I truly just found it annoying to have any political ideal thrown at me in ~75% of the scenes the star is in.
That said, I would have given it a 6 if they had not come back for a few more seasons. To start, they replaced Molly Ephraim with Molly McCook, and while I have no issue with McCook at all, both my wife and I thought she was great, something was off (and we accepted her as Mandy, roles get recast for a myriad of reasons) and we still cannot put our fingers on it, but I think McCook was dumbed down too much in the role, neither my Wife or I could imagine her as that stereotypical "dumb blonde" character.
The show dragged on, it felt like people were contractually obligated to be there, more than they wanted to be there. Just one guy's opinion, take it as you will.
Also, I missed Kaitlyn Dever, Eve was such an awesome character, and I understand the timing was bad for her (I thought I read), but her absence was noted.
As some have said, this was not what I expected. I expected a film that focused on the actual scientific undertaking and technological achievement as well as the psychological, emotional, and real world turmoil of creating man's worst invention. I expected to come out of this film impressed by the science, but also as horrified as Oppenheimer himself.
I thought this would be an actual biopic of Oppenheimer. I was curious to see what type of life he lived that would eventually lead him to the Manhattan project, its destructive aftermath, and his future work. And I expected to come out of this film with a better understanding of how they even built this crazy thing - which despite its obvious horrific application, is still a scientific marvel that only a small handful of countries have been able to reproduce even nearly 80 years later.
But instead, this stuff was glossed over to give us 3 hours of boring political dialogue outside the scope of anything that truly historically mattered. Oh, and they gave us occasional scenes about his sex life mixed in. Because of course, when it comes to the father of the atom bomb, the first thing people want to know about him is his sex life??
Remember, just because the film overwhelms viewers with intense, suspenseful music from beginning to end doesn't make the accompanying boring political squabble scenes any less boring. Just because it tells the story non-chronologically doesn't make the script more profound, it just makes it frustrating to watch. And just because it had the budget to fill even minor roles with A list actors doesn't mean it should have. Each time another big face popped up, it pulled me out of the film (which admittedly, was not hard to do since the film was so boring).
Ironically, the film multiple times hinted that certain aspects of the bomb and its story are actually important and should be seen by all. For example, they explicitly talked about the importance of actually seeing the bomb and its destruction to fully appreciate, and fear, its power. But then the film ignores its own insight and only shows us short clips of one test while completely ignoring its destruction. And Hiroshima and Nagasaki occurred off screen! Seriously This film could have used 2023 movie making skills to re-instill fear of nuclear apocalypse (which given current international conflict, wouldn't be the worst thing right now). But it didn't even attempt to. Further, the film even acknowledges in its conclusion that the political drama was almost entirely unimportant compared to the bigger picture of the technology and its impact on the world. So why couldn't they make the film focused on that instead??
They should have just called the film "Straus vs Oppenheimer" since that's really what this film was about. They built a device that killed hundreds of thousands of people in a single strike, and which changed the world forever, yet the film portrays the political stakes of Oppenheimer losing his security clearance and Straus not being confirmed to a cabinet position as the bigger deal worth caring about (and worth a 3 hour runtime).
This was a chore to watch and I had to rewind it multiple times because I kept falling asleep. I finished the film not entertained nor did I even learn anything of value. I feel like I got robbed out of what should have been a deeply impactful film.
I will ignore the historical inaccuracies, false character portrayals and the english speaking sinse this is Hollywood after all and they can do whatever the hell they want with it.
I was never sold on any of the characters or performances. Joaquin Phoenix does some overacting and I still don't know who his character is by the end. Poor character study. Phoenix and Kirby have no chemistry. Their relationship is so boring and they focus on it to no avail because I have no idea what makes this relationship tick.
There's undeniably some comedy incorporated into the movie at times but I was laughing in some serious scenes—it's camp! You can tell this was intended as a 4h movie because the editing and pacing are flagrantly bad. It's as if important scenes are missing. The 4h version could solve a lot of these problems, sure, but I doubt most people are going to rewatch this. So why release this version in theaters?? I don't like the look of the movie either, it's all so... blue.
The score is nothing out of the ordinary but it's good. The costumes look great. The action sequences are hit and miss. They look great (except for the blue filter), the set pieces are memorable and epic but I find the sequences short-lived. Edited maybe? In addition, the action loses a lot of weight because of the camp, rushed story and poor characters. Overall, Napoleon is one of the biggest disappointments of the year.
I finally get what all the fuss was about.
I got to see it in theaters (in 3D, but it's not like that matters these days), and it was an awesome experience in every sense of the word. For starters, I had no idea the entire movie was framed around a semi-fictional deep-dive to the remains of the Titanic, and the movie proper didn't start until around 15-20 minutes in.
I can hardly remember the last time I felt like this while watching a movie: a thousand thoughts about the technical craft flew through my mind, yet I was totally engrossed in the story. And what a story it is. I had a lovely short conversation with an older couple as we were leaving the theater. The woman called it a classic and one of the greatest love stories, and that I should bring my girlfriend next time instead of seeing it alone. It almost feels like a Disney love story when you step back. A wealthy girl falls in love with a poor but bright boy over the course of one day. Big Aladdin vibes. But with the impending tragedy looming, the simple love story works in the movie's favour. In fact, its forthcoming doom hangs over every part of the movie. Every passenger the camera moved over, every child, could be doomed to die in the end. I was so immersed, my brain chose not to see it as fiction, and it terrified me. The entire third act of the movie where the ship sinks had me so tense watching people move from confusion to denial, and denial to panic, and panic to chaos. It terrified me, and shook me to my core.
Even so, this movie has some excellent moments of levity. The dialogue is so well-written and performed with such excellence. Every member of the cast absolutely killed it. From Billy Zane's caricature of a posh man to the more intimate performances of DiCaprio and Winslet, and even the extras, they all did an amazing job. Also, it would be a crime not to even briefly mention that this movie not only has the best pacing I've seen in a 3+ hour long movie, but some of the best pacing I've ever seen in a movie, period.
And to cap it all off, My Heart Will Go On was the perfect song to play over the credits as I collected my thoughts after that wonderful, thrilling, magical movie. Absolutely fantastic, it is.
There’s a reason why this has been ripped off by a dozen other films. The plot is so well constructed that it gets away with being as relatively serious as it is, despite coming out during a time where being as cheesy and over the top as possible seemed to be the name in the game. The characters and dialogue are absolutely iconic. They took a major risk by making McClane this everyday man, because 'regular' people can easily be cinematically boring, but he really pops because of the personality that’s given to him by Willis and the script. Rickman plays one of the best bad guys ever, so many quotables coming out of his mouth. Filmmaking’s terrific, love the use of wide shots and McTiernan’s faith in visual storytelling, a surprising amount of information in this film is communicated without dialogue. The main selling point are of course the action scenes, which are visceral, tense and bloody. You know, it’s the kind of action that gets an emotion out of you, which I appreciate because that barely happens now with action films generally being so tame. There’s some very minor stuff that hasn’t aged well (the portrayal of Argyle the driver feels a bit dated; some sets and props are clearly sets and props), but it’s nothing that’s inexcusable for an 80s production, or anything that takes me out of the experience. Maybe it deserved a better score as well, it’s not bad but at times it feels like you’re listening to John Williams Star Wars leftovers, which is not the vibe the rest of the film is going for. Overall, it’s one of the best action films ever made, but I will always prefer the other McTiernan classic over this one.
8.5/10
To me this was a well done debut. It actually felt like a movie in a lot of places. Especially because of production value.
For the most part Filoni managed to adapt Rebels to life action astoundingly well. I like Rosario Dawson as Ahsoka - even though her take on Ahsoka's snippyness is somehow limited to a constant smirk which kind of makes her seem as though she doesn't take anything seriously. I love seeing Clancy Brown reprising his role, I love Huyang's adaption in terms of a more realistic design and demeanour. (So much better that he is not bent over like an old man!) And I am absolutely surprised how well Bordizzo as Sabine Wren works for me. I am completely sold on her so far.
speaking of the cast Stevenson does an excellent job. He is simultaneously menacing, calm and somehow even amicable. The only person that does not work for me at all is Hera. Which is probably even more due to horrible make-up artistry than bad acting. She looks so fake, not like any of the Twilek so far and her contact lenses are so noticeable, seeing her takes me completely out of it.
There were a few issues in terms of content like the unreasonably huge explosion from those droids or another definitely non-fatal lightsaber stab or even the reason for a map that is much older than Ezra's jump but I can overlook them so far.
I think the episode manages to find a nice balance between serving cartoon veterans and including people who have not watched any Clone Wars or Rebels. In fact I think it must be much more intriguing to not know all the background. In my opinion the episode still gives you enough information to follow and to want to know more.
I know it was to be expected for a show about a former Padawan but I could have done with a less lightsaber- and force centred show. I really really hope that Sabine being Ahsokas apprentice is supposed to be limited to lightsaber training and they will not retcon her to be force sensisitve. I could even go with some light idea of the force but please do not make Sabine force push/pull things and jump like a Jedi.
what strikes me about Band of Brothers is that when I first watched it... I really struggled to know who was who, at least beyond Lewis (Winters), Schwimmer (Sobel) and Livingston (Nix). Took me maybe 2 or 3 (or 5) rewatches before I knew Guarnere, Bull, Liebgott etc etc from the get-go. And isn't that the point? Like, there's a heavy subtext here; it's hard to really have any individuality in a military context, and what better way to communicate that than by inundating the viewer with so many nameless faces, faceless names and random conversations being thrown around the mess hall, the barracks, and the hammocks.
There's more here in the pilot too, it's not just leaders who matter, but it's who you're going to be in a hole with. The focus is on how everyone relates to each other, and Spielberg makes a point not to shy away from American anti-semitism. In short, putting the viewer's attention squarely upon the interpersonal movement of Easy Company so early creates a solid foundation for episodes to come. You don't know for sure who is buddy-buddy with who, but there's a sense of camaraderie that pervades everything despite Sobel. It draws you in, and makes for great television.
Wow, what a deep emotional rollercoaster this episode was! From the outset, it tackled the conflicting perspectives of survivors of the Kaylon War in a truly powerful and amazing way. The smattering of action/showcase scenes - the opening battle scene, the refitted Orville, the Pterodon and the close-up scenes of Malloy in the cockpit which put me in mind of Star Wars pilots in their X-Wings, the surprise Kaylon attack later in the episode - helped to ease the weight of the psychological elements. That last one (the Kaylon attack) was fab for demonstrating just what a strong, top-calibre captain Mercer can be, when he isn't being an obnoxious creep about the whole Kelly love quagmire. It was a clever solution to a situation that would otherwise have been a bit of a Kobayashi Maru moment. Ultimately though, in the context of this episode, all of that was was a sideshow because the psychological aftermath of the war was the real focus. I actually got teary over a few scenes, particularly Claire telling Ty not to use the holodeck (oops, "simulator") to recreate dead people because it hinders the grieving process, but then using it herself to recreate her "happy place" that she shared with Isaac - which was a brilliantly-directed and acted scene. I even almost welled up for Isaac (for the first time ever) when he was clearly gut-punched by the level of hatred and loathing from the rest of the crew, especially Marcus, with whom he was very close. I thought they may do a tearful "I'm so sorry" thing between Marcus and Isaac (obviously no tears from Isaac) at the end, but I'm relieved that they didn't, as it would have been incongruent with Marcus' behaviour. What they did do allowed Marcus to maintain his cool-boy image whilst also visually conveying everything necessary. Perhaps he will apologise directly to Isaac off-screen, perhaps he won't; it matters not for now. A truly awesome start to season 3 in every way, with absolutely no bad jokes/acting from anyone.
For a season with so little episodes this truly is empty and lackluster and it's so overly zoomed in on something so tiny compared to all that preluded this show. It feels just like fanservice; and yes I seen all that came before and it's nice to get all the throwbacks that came with these characters, but this is such a waste of live-action resources. This feels less of substance than one of the boring episodes from the animated series.
With only 8 episodes and then the previous two episodes also already being quite boring, this shouldn't be the new trend. It's like it's on purpose that many shows (also outside Star Wars) are just giving us the slow-treatment every time. Just give us 8 episodes of jam-packaged fast-moving content. We're not stupid. It's like this has been systematically done on purpose to instil some sense of significance in certain characters and moments, but the definition of that is just "boring". Some short moments of displaying lightsabers and some space-pew-pew won't cut it (accidental pun intended?). I'll be fair with a 6, but it would probably be a 5, without my bias and hope for betterment.
The acting is ok, but also not even that great. It's very nonchalant and not enough to justify the character's traditional tranquility. I hope they improve, because this is really not that good. We are already comfortable with higher standards in special effects and visuals in many modern series and movies. You can't sell it with only just that anymore.
7.6/10. Another episode that reminds me of Firefly with the good guys trying to cause a ruckus on the anniversary of the bad guys' big victory. But this episode is mostly focused on giving us a little of Ezra's backstory and a little more insight into his particular damage and abandonment issues with his parents. We learn that his mom and dad ran a pirate radio station, with intimations that it was their tweaking of the Empire that practically made Ezra and orphan since he was seven years old. It's not especially subtle, but having him go back to his childhood home, and look around with both wistfulness and anger (and chekov's holodisk) is a nice way to let the audience know a little more about what his life was like before he started traveling on The Ghost.
It's also a chance for the show to assemble essentially every bad guy it's ever had, from The Inquisitor and Agent Kallus, to the local Minister, Commandante, and his lieutenant, all there to celebrate Empire Day. The walking-talking mcguffin is Cebo, a Rhodian who knew Ezra's parents and whose brains have been scrambled to where he's not quite all there, but has important Imperial plans stored in his mechanically-augmented brain somewhere. The discovery and chase involving him, with our Rebels trying to find and rescue him, and the Empire trying to take him out, leads to a pretty cool car chase action scene, in addition to the Empire Day operation (terrorist attack) that our heroes pull off to disrupt the parade. It all leads to a dramatic cliffhanger, where the good guys are still on the run, but Cebo says he knows what happened to Ezra's parents. Dun dun duuuuuuun!
Overall, it's tough to judge this one as a standalone episode, because it's so clearly setting up the conflict for the second half of the story, but it puts the pieces in place to create intrigue about what happens next, and includes some exciting set pieces and backstory in the interim, so thus far, I'm on board!
8.9/10. I really enjoyed the mini-Ender's Game -esque premise of this one. Having Ezra infiltrate an Empire Cadet Academy, and meet other kids with their own motivations and personalities helped to flesh out the world and add stakes to the individual events of the episode. I particularly liked Leonis, who's doing basically the same thing as Ezra, but for different reasons, specifically to find out what happened to his sister, and the hint that the Inquisitor is using this academy as a way to identify and possibly root out those with force potential is an interesting idea floating in the background.
There were also a lot of nice touches in the third act. Again, I liked Leonis and Ezra working together to both save the third cadet and get the decoder so that Kanan and Hera could take out the kyber crystal (hooray call back to the Clone Wars story reels!). The climax of the episode, where you have Ezra and Leonis trying to spring the other good cadet on the one hand, while Hera and Kanan (whose fatherly/big brotherly concern for leaving Ezra alone on this mission is very sweet) are immersed in a dogfight, worked very well to keep the episode's energy up and included some nice kinetic cinematography and design.
Overall, I really enjoyed this one, as it had a nice mix of emotional stakes with the new cadets, intrigue and world-building with the introduction of the cadet academy and its purposes, and very well done action with clear stakes for both Ezra breaking his chums out of the facility and The Ghost fighting Empire forces in space.
(As an aside, the floating platform games the cadets played reminded me of the danger room scenarios a disguised Obi Wan Kenobi made it through with a cadre of bounty hunters back in Clone Wars.)
7.1/10. Another good-not-great one. Zeb as Ezra's surrogate big brother works as a framework for the episode, and while it's a little hoary, the pair's misadventures through trying to get a meiloorun fruit and ending up hijacking a tie-fighter in the process is enjoyable enough. There's some fun set pieces (the original escape in the tie fighter and the villager rescue), and it succeeds as an immediate resolution to Ezra saving Zeb's life and being kind of a butt about it afterwards, albeit a little too tidily. Everything is set up well enough, from their initial bristling at one another to the local villagers to Ezra struggling to use his force-lifting powers. It just feels like a startlingly standard story with a pretty generic arc for the two characters. I enjoyed side bits like Kanan and Hera playing surrogate mom and dad or Sabine having an art moment well enough too, but it just seems kind of insubstantial.
It's obviously too early to make any big judgments, but it's hard not to compare this show to The Clone Wars since I just finished its predecessor series. It's funny, in many ways, Rebels is much better out of the gate that The Clone Wars was. While some of the designs are funky here or there, the animation is crisp and fluid and there's a lot of visual flair thus far. On top of that, the show seems to have preemptively adopted the J.J. Abrams "Is this delightful?" approach to Star Wars. And there's a Whedon-esque vibe to the crew of The Ghost, with playful quippiness and found families intersection with world-ranging threats. But somehow, Rebels just feels less substantial so far. It's charming in its way, and it hits the right beats, but there was a gravity to the events of The Clone Wars that just hasn't reached Rebels yet. I suppose it deserves a lot more time to get there, given how rocky The Clone Wars' could be as a series, especially in its early going.
7.2/10. A solid debut for the first regular episode of the show. I'm always a sucker for a good heist episode, and it only contributes to my Firefly flashbacks with this show to watch the crew of the Ghost pull off boosting a set of imperial weapons under the nose of a traveling attache. Throwing R2-D2 and C-3PO into the mix felt a little pandering, but I understand having to hook casual first time watchers with some familiar faces (though their designs looked a little off to me - probably just fitting them in with the art style of the show.)
I really liked the idea of Zeb's discomfort with the crew of the Ghost selling blasters that had been banned because they were used to wipe out his people. It added some real stakes and character to distinguish this heist from any other "sell weapons to make money" bit the show might do again. But I liked it a lot better when it was stray lines of dialogue that told as much of the story as we needed rather than Hera giving Ezra an exposition dump about the assaults. Similarly, I liked that they were trying to give Zeb an "anger before reason" rationale to dive into the fray to fight Callis, but having Callis use a Lasat weapon and declare that he gave the order to wipe them out was a little too simplistic and mustache-twirlingly evil for my tastes.
There's other interesting bits here or there. Ezra having a Potter-esque "emotion = magic powers" moment is kind of cheesy, but worked well enough. And seeing Bail Organa was a treat. Overall, it's a solid, if somewhat unambitious start to the season in earnest.
[7.5/10] Ahsoka feels right. The vistas of Lothal feel of a piece with their animated rendition. The characters seem like themselves despite shifts in the performer and the medium. Their relationships feel genuine even though much has changed in the five years since we’ve seen them together.
Maybe that shouldn’t be a big surprise with Dave Filoni, impresario of the animated corner of Star Wars, both writing and directing “Master and Apprentice”, the series premiere. He is the title character’s co-creator and caretaker. He is the creator of Star Wars: Rebels, the show that Ahsoka is most clearly indebted to. And he is, for many, the keeper of the flame when it comes to the Galaxy Far Far Away.
But it was my biggest fear for this show. More than the plot, more than the lore, more than the latest chapter in the life of my favorite character in all of Star Wars, my concern was that translating all these characters, and their little corner of the universe, to live action and a different cast and a different era of the franchise would make everything feel wrong. Instead, we’re right at home. The rest is gravy.
And the gravy is good. Because these are not the colorful, if intense, adventures of the Ghost crew fans saw before. This is, or should be, a period of triumph for the onetime Rebels. They won! The Empire is torn asunder! Lothal is led with grace and a touch of wry sarcasm by Governor Azadi, with none other than Clancy Brown reprising the role! Huyang the lightsaber-crafting droid is still around and has most of his original parts!
Nonetheless, our heroes are hung up on old battles and older wounds. Ahsoka Tano is on a quest to track down Grand Admiral Thrawn, who hunted the Spectres in Rebels. Sabine Wren can’t bask in the afterglow of victory as a hero when she’s still mourning Ezra Bridger. And the two warriors have some lingering bad blood with one another after an attempt to become master and apprentice, true to the title, went wrong somewhere along the way.
With that, the first installment of Ahsoka is a surprisingly moody and meditative affair, one that works well for Star Wars. Sure, there's still a couple of crackerjack lightsaber fights to keep the casual fans engaged. But much of this one is focused on familiar characters reflecting on what’s been lost, what’s been broken, and what’s hard to fix. The end of Rebels was triumphant, but came with costs. To linger on those costs, and the new damage that's accumulated in their wake, is a bold choice from Filoni and company.
So is the decision to focus on Sabine here. Don’t get me wrong, Ahsoka has the chance to shine in the first installment of the show that bears her name. Her steady reclamation of a map to Thrawn, badass hack-and-slash on some interfering bounty droids, and freighted reunions with Hera and her former protege all vindicate why fans have latched onto the character. For her part, Rosario Dawson has settled into the role, bringing a certain solemnity that befits a more wizened and confident master, but also that subtle twinkle that Ashley Eckstei brings to the role.
And yet, the first outing for Ahsoka spends more time with Sabine’s perspective. It establishes her as a badass who’d rather rock her speeder with anti-authoritarian style than be honored for her heroics. It shows her grieving a lost comrade whose sacrifice still haunts her. It teases out an emotional distance and rebelliousness between her and her former mentor. And it closes with her using her artist’s eye to solve the puzzle du jour, and defend herself against a fearsome new enemy.
This is her hour, and while Sabine is older, more introverted, all the more wounded than the Mandalorian tagger fans met almost a decade ago, this opening salvo for the series is better for it.
My only qualms are with the threat du jour. Yet another Jedi not only survived the initial Jedi Purge, but has made it to the post-Return of the Jedi era without arousing the suspicions of Palpatine, Vader, Yoda, or Obi-Wan. Ray Stevenson brings a steady and quietly menacing air to Baylan Skoll, the former Jedi turned apparent mercenary, but there's enough rogue force-wielders running around already, thank you very much.
His apprentice holds her own against New Republic forces and Ahsoka’s own former apprentice, but is shrouded in mystery. She goes unidentified, which, in Star Wars land, means she’s secretly someone important (a version of Mara Jade from the “Legends” continuity?) or related to someone important (the child of, oh, let’s say Ventress). And I’m tired of such mystery boxes.
Throw in the fact that Morgan Elsbet, Ahsoka’s source and prisoner, turns out to be a Nightsister, and you have worrying signs that the series’ antagonists will be rehashing old material rather than moving the ball forward. The obvious “We just killed a major character! No for real you guys!” fakeout cliffhanger ending doesn’t inspire much confidence on that front either.
Nonetheless, what kept me invested in Rebels, and frankly all of Star Wars, despite plenty of questionable narrative choices, is the characters. The prospect of Ahsoka trying to train a non force-sensitive Mandalorian in the ways of the Jedi, or at least her brand of them, is a bold and fascinating choice.
But even more fascinating is two people who once believed in one another, having fallen apart, drifting back together over the chance to save someone they both care about. “Master and Apprentice” embraces, rather than shying away from, the sort of lived-in relationships that made the prior series so impactful in the past, and the broken bonds that make these reunions feel fragile, painful, and more than a little bitter in the present.
I am here for Hera the general trying to patch things up between old friends. I am here for Sabine holding onto her rebellious streak but carrying scars from what went wrong, in the Battle of Lothal and in her attempts to learn the ways of the Jedi. And I am here for Ahsoka, once the apprentice without a master, now the master without an apprentice, here to snuff out the embers of the last war and reclaim what was lost within it.
They all feel right. The rest can figure itself out.
Another entertaining Bond series entry that gets up close and personal with M and 007 himself. The opening sequence with Bond in hot pursuit of a thief with an important hard drive is great. The rooftop chase on motorcycles followed by a fight on top of a moving train, it's almost action movie overload. When Bond fires up the crane, it's a supremely cool start.
There's a whole lot of Judi Dench in this movie and the relationship with Bond reaches a new level. Bad guy Silva is played by Javier Bardem. He's sufficiently evil and his motive is based on revenge. The computer hacking accomplished by Silva is ridiculous. Technology is so abused (or dumbed down) in movies, it's most often distracting. A rooftop motorcycle chase is far easier to believe than some of the network packet busting on display by a new Q (with Bond's help, no less). And some how Bond manages to find a clue buried within a hexadecimal block of characters. Problem is, some of those characters are not hexadecimal. Silly and stupid. It took me out of the movie almost permanently. And I'll leave the asinine graphic displays, IP address troubleshooting stupidity and unfathomable user interfaces alone.
"Skyfall" fails as soon as Bond takes M to his boyhood home. Getting this personal with Bond was a mistake. It's like two different movies. The first half is excellent and the last half is pretty dumb.
Daniel Craig continues to be a top notch Bond, though, and is my favorite after the great Connery. I'm pleading with the creators to stop softening him up.
Flying high off the back of Casino Royale, Daniel Craig and co. return with this poorly-titled, somewhat short entry into the annals of Bond history.
The most glaring sore point is the weak, badly executed plot. We follow a businessman backing a Bolivian coup in return for the nation’s water supply. It seems like something for a larger authority to get involved with rather than a semi-rogue super spy. This feels like a real MI6 operation, and a dull one at that.
Quantum of Solace was made during the writer’s strike and Craig himself has admitted that he had to co-write much of it with the director, the two making it up as they went along. This is a reasonable excuse but obviously it doesn’t make it a better story.
There’s a lot of action packed into the film. None of it really serves any real purpose other than to distract from the fact nothing is happening; but some of the sequences are really quite entertaining so in a way this tactic pays off! The opening car chase is a like-it-or-loathe it pastiche of a Bourne film; it’s a brash start and at least it tries to make some sort of statement. There’s just something missing there though and things quickly become confusing instead of enthralling.
The opera scene is also noteworthy, it’s a cool idea and Craig’s smug superiority fits the moment. As he uncovers the members of an illegal organisation one by one, it’s satisfying to see they have been rumbled. Unfortunately like the rest of the film it starts with a bang and ends with a whimper, the scene not really going anywhere.
There are some good central performances as usual. Daniel Craig has successfully put his own spin on Bond now and makes you want to see anything he does. Judi Dench gets a little more to do than last time. Olga Kurylenko is exotic enough to fit the bill but doesn’t actually get anything to do. It’s a shame that the only Bond girl who doesn’t sleep with Bond should be so wishy-washy. Gemma Arterton suffers a similar fate although she does manage to give some extra depth to her limited role.
The same can be said for the villain, who is so unremarkable it’s hard to remember what role he actually plays. The idea is supposed to be that Bond is up against a ‘normal’ bad guy, which is ‘real’ and therefore scary but it doesn’t actually make it any more menacing, just boring.
Quantum of Solace isn’t a particularly bad Bond film compared to some of the dreck we’ve seen so far, but just when Casino Royale showed us that the franchise was beginning to take a fresh start; this is a step in the wrong direction. It’s a film like no other in the series, and Craig is always a joy to watch, but otherwise this is a forgettable moment in Bond’s history.
http://benoliver999.com/film/2015/09/26/quantumofsolace/
This era is the Bond I'm most familiar with. I was a teenager when Brosnan started in the role and I think he was a fantastic casting - and seeing this after all these years only proves that.
All those years on TV mean he is masterful at using his facial mannerisms, glances, slight posture changes to make an impact... A fine actor.
At the darker side of Bond's nature, he is fantastic. He is extremely elegant but there is a believability to his nastiness - after all, take away the martinis and casino games, he is just a government assassin is he not?
And what about the female castings of Teri Hatcher (the best Lois Lane we've ever had) and Michelle Yu (his equal or his superior?) Inspired and extremely compelling, they add so much to the usual disposable casts we have become used to.
The casting of Jonathan Price however is unforgiveable. He's dreadfully overacting - chewing up the scenery like he's in an episode of Blackadder. And the director deserved to never work again when he allowed Price to clatter on a keyboard like a drummer pounds the skins. Ridiculous - and in the world of the Bond megalomaniac, that's saying something.
The stunts are good. The plot is interesting, though of its time - it feels a little naive now. And the opening has a real menace and tension to it.
However, it is infuriating that after the debut of a harsher, leaner, more modern Bond that we get an almost immediate desire to bring in so many of the overly comedic Moore tropisms... Brosnan can deliver a line for sure but it is unnecessary and weighs down the flow of what is quite a brisk film.
Without the stupidity and fixing the casting of Price, this would likely be the best Bond of all time. As it stands with its flaws, it is better than Goldeneye because it is fleshed out with a higher budget - sadly it is at the expense of its brutality.
A special shout out to the awful electronic impulses of David Arnold and his music. He does more harm than good though not as bad as Bill Conti's effort that one time!
8/10
The first and likely best of the Pierce Brosnan Bond movies. I remember thinking that Brosnan would make the perfect Bond back after Roger Moore started receiving the senior discount at Denny's. Unfortunately, contract conflicts necessitated the need to sign on the Shakespearean but stiff Timothy Dalton for a while. Once that was over, we got Brosnan to play 007 for a while.
Brosnan was slick and athletic and did a great job playing Bond. He's third on my list of best Bonds right after Connery and Craig (yeah, it's sad that I've personally ranked them). After a few movies, Brosnan seemed a little bored but for "Goldeneye" he was spot on. Maybe he is a little slight for all the brawling he is called upon to do, but when he busts through that brick wall driving the Russian tank, it's as cool of a Bond moment as any.
The final battle with Bean (Sean Bean as baddie Alec Trevelyan) is a bit long and way over the top, but it is quite an action scene. I liked Famke Janssen as henchwoman Xenia Onatopp, too. I've never seen her play a character like that before.
This is a solid James Bond adventure and certainly did a lot for the future of 007 movies. It's too bad "Die Another Day" practically killed the franchise a few years later.
“GoldenEye” is a 1995 film based on the James Bond series. It features Pierce Brosnan, who plays the fictional MI6 character for the first time.
Ah, “GoldenEye”... This film has a very special place in my heart, as Pierce Brosnan is personally my favorite actor to play Bond. I believe I watched “GoldenEye” and the majority of Bond films before when I was a lot younger, but this most recent rewatch is the first time I’ve watched it from start to finish.
Brosnan as Bond was, simply, a great match. His wit, charm, and charisma made the film so fun and enjoyable to watch. Izabella Scorupco, the actress who plays the female lead, was... alright? I don’t really have much to say about her other than that it felt like she was made a “Bond Girl” out of pure convenience. I also don’t have much of an opinion on Sean Bean, the actor who plays the main antagonist. I think the true star of the film was Famke Janssen, the actress who plays Xenia Onatopp, the henchwoman. Onatopp is honestly iconic (name included!). I’m pretty sure that it wasn’t intended to so, but the sheer absurdity of Onatopp’s... passionate way of killing always made me laugh. I think what impressed me the most was how well and how much Janssen committed to the role. I truly loved her character.
I can’t say the same for the plot though. It was forgettable, but made somewhat interesting to watch by the action scenes.
No music stood out to me this time either.
I think I’d rewatch this film solely for how well Brosnan and Janssen did, and nothing more.
A slew of legal troubles behind the scenes led to a six year gap between Bond films. As a result, Timothy Dalton resigned and Pierce Brosnan was brought in to take the helm (the man originally intended to step in for Roger Moore were it not for other contractual obligations).
The fall of the Berlin wall has changed the face of world politics since the last film. Bond, although never directly involved with America’s struggle against Russia, is very much a product of the Cold War. That’s all over now, leading some to wonder if the franchise should end altogether.
This leaves the producers with an uphill struggle, trying make Bond relevant and interesting in a age where the very core of the character has been dissolved.
Instead of dodging the issue, GoldenEye tackles it head on.
In 1986 007 is sent on a mission with 006 (Sean Bean) to destroy a Russian military facility. 006 is captured and Bond leaves him for dead in his escape. Years later we rejoin Bond on a mission to follow a member of a crime syndicate. He uncovers a plot to steal an EMP weapon from the Russians, fronted by his ex-colleague.
One would expect GoldenEye to try something radically different in its attempts to appeal to a 1995 audience, and yet the exact opposite happens. This is almost a ‘back to basics’ for Bond, not quite harking back to Dr. No but almost. The women, the action & the gadgets are all there, but somehow it all feels revitalised.
Instead of a completely new idea, the producers opted for a subtle shift in tone. This is a deft move; it keeps the fans happy while helping to bring the franchise into the 21st century.
At the forefront of this change is Judi Dench as M. She gets a small but key role in establishing some of the much needed self-awareness GoldenEye exhibits. She’s cold towards Bond and shows disdain towards him, famously saying “…I think you’re a sexist, misogynist dinosaur. A relic of the Cold War…”. This is something that needed to be said before we could move on; Bond has been getting away with this crap for sixteen films now…
There are lots of new elements brought in behind the scenes too, notably the new director Martin Campbell. He is confident and makes the big action scenes stick. He has a way of bringing us into the moment through close attention to detail. The close-ups of the actors match the wide-shots exactly, despite being shot in two completely different studios. We never feel like we are about to sit back and watch a stunt man do his thing for ten minutes.
Brosnan is also a welcome addition. He is intense but not without a sense of humour, and seems more involved in a lot of the stunt work. He also manages to convey a situational awareness sometimes lacking in the others; it looks like he’s actually thinking about the plot and what he’s supposed to be doing, rather than just ‘do I look cool?’.
He’s helped out by some talented writing. Every character in GoldenEye serves some purpose and no-one is forgettable. Alan Cummings as Boris the computer hacker, Robbie Coltrane as the Russian gangster, Famke Janssen as the crazy thigh-squeezing killer Xenia Onatopp… the list goes on. If you’ve seen the film, you know who I am talking about. This probably hasn’t been the case since Goldfinger (where you know the characters even if you haven’t seen the film…).
Ironically enough the dullest character is the one most central to the plot - Sean Bean’s Alec Trevelyan.
GoldenEye is a promising start to a new era. It somehow breaks new ground on an idea that began in a very different time, whilst being every bit as entertaining and exciting as the best of them.
http://benoliver999.com/film/2015/08/15/goldeneye/
*"Take Me Around The World Again James"*
Michel Lonsdale plays Hugo Drax, billionaire industrialist has a scheme to exterminate the undesirables and impose a new world order from no less than outer space. Adolph Hitler with all his theories on racial purity is a piker compared to what Lonsdale has in mind.
Roger Moore is 007 in Moonraker and British Intelligence brings him in when a US space satellite is hijacked in mid flight. The satellite was designed by Lonsdale's company and when Moore starts investigating Lonsdale, some very nasty traps are set for him, all of which James Bond has to elude.
The official Bond girl in Moonraker is Lois Chiles playing Dr. Goodhead, part time scientist and part time CIA employee. Does she live up to her name, you have to watch Moonraker to find out. Her scientific skills are even more valuable than her romantic ones.
Richard Kiel returns as super villain Jaws. He was a most menacing figure in The Spy Who Loved Me and Cubby Brocoli must have thought he was good enough to use again as he survives in that film. In Moonraker he does the bidding of Lonsdale, but Moore makes the rather logical argument that the racially perfect world that Lonsdale has in mind will have no need of freakish people like him. Kiel has to do some serious reassessment in Moonraker.
Moonraker got an Oscar nomination for Best Visual Effects, but lost to another classic space adventure, Alien.
Even with three succeeding James Bonds, Moonraker remains my favorite film with my favorite 007, Roger Moore. Just the breathtaking extent of the villainy gets me every time I see it.
My score 7/10.
A nice return to form for the series, after wading in cheese up to their knees with the preceding Live and Let Die. It won't be giving From Russia With Love or Goldfinger a run for their money, but as the back-to-basics reality check that the series so desperately needed, this is more than acceptable.
Roger Moore confidently plays a tougher, more businesslike Bond this time around, and spends most of the production flexing his detective chops in search of a rival assassin with nothing more to go on than the color of his weapon and a quick, curious nipple count. Stocked with fresh, exotic locales, skimpy beauties dressed for the beach, an adequate number of wacky, themed sidekicks (as in, less than the full dozen of the former picture) and a cool, legitimate master threat, this is pretty much the root formula for a good adventure with 007.
Occasionally it gives in to a passion for pointless boat chases, and a few bad remnants of the era rear their head at inopportune moments (what was with the slide whistle during that massive car jump?) but such silly bits of self-indulgence are a part of the franchise's heritage at this point. Excellent work by Christopher Lee as the quirky titular assassin nudges this into the top half of Bond's catalog.
Wow… I was not expecting that. Truly a masterclass in all aspects. Maybe the best episode of Bad Batch so far and probably my favourite so far as well.
I think its greatest strength was its subtlety, it doesn’t hit you over the head with anything that it’s trying to say or show. It lets the story do the talking without having to hold your hand. But then it gut punches you in your heart. I think this culminates for me in the scene of Crosshair abandoning all pretence and just huddling up very tightly with Mayday to try and keep warm. That scene really hit me.
It’s funny because without even being able to explain it exactly, from the first few minutes of the episode, it just felt different. Just the vibe and tone. Definitely left me completely in awe and by the end if the episode, a little dumbstruck.
I’m glad that finally, it was the last straw for Crosshair. It’s probably been a long time coming. And although at first when watching this series I was somewhat annoyed by his character, that he was being stupid by not reasoning like the rest of his old squad, even after having the chip removed. Having thought about it, I think his initial reaction is probably the most realistic: because Rebellion is the main theme of Star Wars, it’s easy to take that for granted and forget how difficult rebellion actually is, especially when it’s towards the only thing you’ve ever known and the thing you’ve been loyal to forever (even if it changes names)
Although, I do think it took him a little too long to realise and there were several previous opportunities for him to make the right decision - but then again, if he had, we may not have gotten this beautiful episode so maybe it is in fact just right the way it is.
My little hopeful, fanboy heart yearns for the possibility of Crosshair being rescued by the Bad Batch and redeemed. However, I don’t know if it’s too late for that given his past choices, and it may somewhat tarnish his sacrifice, as well as the ending of this episode which even though terribly tragic, was just so beautifully just and heart-wrenchingly necessary.
The black sheep of the James Bond catalog, for just about every reason under the sun. I suppose we can start with Bond himself, played for the first (and only) time by George Lazenby. An extremely green, unseasoned actor, Lazenby just hasn't the chops to do anything with the character. He's certainly got the right look for the part, and he shines especially bright in the punch-outs, which seem far more vivid and realistic than the fisticuffs of the late Connery era, but in terms of intangibles he's all wrong. He lacks the unspoken confidence and worldliness I expect from 007, the charm and charisma that makes this character who (or what) he is. Like Telly Savalas, who struggles to fit in as the villainous Ernst Blofeld, Lazenby may have fit well enough into a similar film, but here he's totally out-of-place.
The plot deserves points for poking in new directions, granting Bond a tangible sense of vulnerability and (of all things) an actual conscience. Alas, I'm afraid that only compounds its problems. The frosty scenery is nice, as are the rampant chase scenes aboard an odd cluster of mixed vehicles, but I don't have kind things to say about much else. That the series darted straight back to the old, familiar mess of silly names, bad puns and dense rivers of cheese in the follow-up, Diamonds Are Forever, is really no surprise. Still, I can't help but wonder what might have been if Eon had stuck to their guns and pressed on through this particular set of growing pains.
aka George Lazenby's "How To Get Away With Lying On Your CV".
A movie so bad, the title sequence would rather show clips from the previous 007 flicks. It's quite a surprise that out of all the flaws this movie has, Lazenby's acting is far, far from the worst of them. Sure it's obvious he hasn't got the experience for such a high budget, super hyped film such as Bond; he hasn't got the acting range required for the character, although with high exception for the really dark, sad ending. Production-wise, we've gone back to one fake punch per shot that was in Dr No and Thunderball, which seriously ruins what could have been an excellent first fight scene for Lazenby's Bond. Story is pretty barebones; it's just Bond chasing after Blofield despite M's wishes which... means nothing. Granted they do make an effort to make is like this film's Bond Girl Tracy which are the parts of the movie that saves it from crapness. It's good to see an actual relationship between Bond and the girl rather than "Bang me because plot says so" or the wonderfly aged "Bang me or I'll tell on you". This film wasn't a painful experience, just a boring one.
[6.2/10] We’re two Lego Star Wars seasonal specials in to the post-Freemaker era and both of them have been mediocre at best. The Lego Star Wars Holiday Special aimed to do some timeline-hopping comedy and pay homage to the original Holiday Special, and stumbled in each. And now the pseudo-franchise-within-a-franchise has attempted to do the same, to similarly middling results.
The best you can say for it is that the structure is clever. Putting together a “three stories” anthology, with a frame story where some lesson and artifact from each of the stories ends up matter is a sharp setup. The (widely foreshadowed) subversion that the Sith-esque dude telling these tales is pointing to lessons for himself rather than the plucky kid hero has some minor oomph, and there’s even a generic but age-appropriate theme about fear to wrap everything around. The construction of the special is sound.
It’s also a joy to see Grabala the Hutt again! Dana Snyder still does some hilarious line-reads, and the very concept of a Hutt gangster whose true heart’s desire is just to run yet another resort/hotel/casino/buffet is still fertile ground for comedy. Grabala trying to get Poe to sign up as a spokesman, cash in on all the Sith memorabilia he finds, and even the very concept to turn Vader’s castle on Mustafar into a tourist destination are all solid laughs.
(Heck, I even like the callback to The Freemaker Adventures with the animatronic Vader greeter a la the animatronic Palpatine greeter.)
And there’s also something interesting about the fact that, however non-canon, Lego Star Wars is the only corner of the on Star Wars galaxy on screen exploring what happens in a post Rise of Skywalker era. I have no idea if Vanea the Sith-adjacent guy, N-1L8, or the generic plucky kid hero whose name I’ve already forgotten have appeared or will appear elsewhere in the franchise, but it’s still neat to get a semi-official glimpse of what the universe looks like after the fall of the First Order.
The problem is that the actual stories here are pretty week. There’s one of Ben Solo joining the Knights of Ren that I really hope isn’t a “canon paraphrase” as other Lego installments have been, since it’s pretty dumb. Him falling in with a “bad crowd” a la high school, and things going too far with his new friends and Uncle Luke really takes some of the oomph out of his turn. And the explanation of how he reclaimed the name “kylo”, which apparently means “small and weak”, is a little too on the nose a la “I’m going to call you Han…Solo.”
The weakest story of them all, though, was the middle segment, which featured Darth Maul and General Greivous each chasing after a certain prized Sith lightsaber. There was nothing to it really, beyond reverting Maul to his spider-leg form and giving us a minor glimpse at Grievous’s technological resurrection. There was a pale Looney Tunes imitation vibe to this one, and while middle manager Palpatine is always at least a minor laugh, the special failed to make much out of the whole shebang.
That's the other big problem here – this just wasn’t very funny. Grabala’s still a hoot. Palpatine’s still amusing. The things that have worked in Lego Star Wars still work. But this isn’t merely dumb kid humor; it’s bad humor in general. There’s big tonal issues in general, as the special wants to be a light, kid-friendly comedy, while also wants to be a legitimate adventure and also one that’s pretty scary. It succeeds at none of this, with a lack of balance that Obi Wan would blanche at. And not for nothing, the Halloween/scary story connection is tenuous as hell, making this meager even as an easy holiday tie-in.
The only segment really a wroth a damn is the third one, which plays the “What If?” game by wondering what would happen to Luke if he’d joined the Imperial fleet instead of the Rebellion and been taken under Vader’s wing instead of Obi Wan’s. The results are mildly intriguing and amusing, with the special remixing classic bits from A New Hope with a Sith-tacular twist. The Twilight Zone-esque Monkey’s Paw angle to it doesn’t do much, but it’s still the segment with the best premise and the one that’s having the most fun.
The main story doesn’t have much going for it, either though. The little kid Poe’s trying to save from working for Grabala in the hopes of helping him realize his dream as a pilot is a bog standard moppet. I get that these kid-friendly specials need an age appropriate perspective character for the tykes to see themselves as, but I wish they had more personality than the same “go get ‘em” kiddos we always see. Vanea’s a disappointing baddie, and the mecha fight with him is tedious and stock standard.
Overall, Lego Star Wars Terrifying Tales wastes a smart structure and the cool idea to do a “Treehouse of Horror”-style anthology in the context of Star Wars on tepid writing and weak humor. There’s nothing here unless you’re already a Star Wars lifer, no matter what age you are, and even then, you’re better off just rewatching something from The Freemaker Adventures or Yoda Chronicles.
