FinFan

Ridley Scot is back! After some less interesting movies he succeed to make an great one again! It isn't the greatest movie I have ever seen but I couldn't recall one fault or issues with this film. The acting was great especially with his carry Matt Damon! The rest of the cast did fairly good. Matt Damons character stranded on Mars and wants to find a way to survive until he is rescued. This is the main part of the film which was surprisingly funny. Mainly due to the optimistic attitude that Matt Damons character had. It was even funnier than some comedies I have seen this year. Besides that there are some really suspenseful scene with are handled very well by Ridley Scott. He build the suspense fairly slow but great. They also created a great setting of Mars, it really felt like a place which was gorgeously filmed.

Overall I would gave the film a 8,5 but unfortunately Trakt would allow me to give that many hearts so I rated it a 8. Simply because I liked my 9 rated films more than this one. Nevertheless I had a really good time with this entertaining, greatly directed and interesting film.

I'm currently watching season 6 of the original Magnum PI and was surprised to see this pop up. I immediately thought about how they could fuck up the themesong that I spent many tries attempting to record completely on my cassette-recorder but upon viewing this I must say they didn't fuck it up.
The rest however...

The thing that made Magnum PI so great was the fact, despite being a marine, that he was real human being... this Magnum, from the get-go is an action hero jumping from space and blazing his way through the Jungle, driving backward and shooting others... Why is it so important that these remakes need to lose the human aspect that made us cling so much to these characters. The original Magnum wasn't less of a hero for being afraid to get shot or hesitating to jump from one building to the other... On the contrary.
Couldn't care less that this Higgens is a woman but... where's connection between these two characters. Higgens and Magnum were at odds at the beginning of the original series but these almost seem to be at each others' throat. And let's not start about destroying the iconic Ferrari not once but twice (I know, it's popular, the A-team movie did it too, apparently it's their way of saying "fuck your past").

I'm not the kinda person to say this shouldn't exist but I do wonder why it needs to be so different from the original (same with MacGyver) that it barely resembles the source material. Maybe I don't like sucky reboots and rather have mediocre sequels, maybe I don't like bulletproof hero's but people with heart... and this comes from a person who still adores the 80s

Full disclosure: I haven't watched the complete episode (edit: I have now) and I started skipping scenes to see if it would stay like this (and as far as I could tell it did). I have three more seasons of original Magnum to go. I'll be with the lads, Higgy baby! (though I guess new TC won't be saying this to new Higgens any time soon)

Like the last four Transformers movies, The Last Knight is over-long and overstuffed. While screenwriter Akiva Goldsman (Batman & Robin, Lost in Space, The DaVinci Code) who came up with the story added some DaVinci Code like subplots to the film. Which has Anthony Hopkins sending Mark Wahlberg's character on a quest to find Merlin's staff.
The upside is that there's some nice visuals and set pieces. All that seems wasted on films that don't add up to much. Sarcastic Spoiler Alert: They all have pretty much the same ending for movies that are so epicly long. "My name is Optimus Prime and I will always fight for humans and their planet....blah blah blah."
Michael Bay, before the start of some recent movies at theaters bragged about testing the limits of IMAX for the viewers. Yeah when he did that, he let the writer of Batman & Robin worry about the story. The film looks great but is it great ? No.
There's some laughs and cool new Transformers and robots but the movie is so long with a scattered plot that the good points don't save it . You also have Josh Duhmel back and chasing Wahlberg and the Autobots throughout until he's suddenly not.
Plus why are the humans even still after the Autobots that saved them four times and are their best defense against the Decepticons ? That's something for example that makes the film a mess. Bay hasn't learned from making any of these movies. Never takes notes from a bad review and just presents similar movies each time.
It's like "screw you, I'm Michael Bay and people will keep seeing these movies. So I will make it longer, louder and add more explosions!!"

I would have wanted the overarching plot of season 2 to have been written by someone who knows how to write ...anything really, not even someone who's experienced writing science fiction particularly. I'm a sucker for time travel plots, and I don't think I've ever been this disappointed in a story about time travel, from Star Trek or anything else.

I have also never seen [insert social/political bias here] representation so self-sabotaging. At best, it was simply devoid of any substance. I can't feel anything for Culber and Stamets' reunion because I haven't spent any time with them as a couple to know what that rededication to each other even means. I've spent the last two years being told how wonderful their relationship has been, but never shown. Which is a problem for many other aspects of this show. Bad writers tell you what something is and then have to tell you what to feel, good writers show you what something is and that in turn makes you feel.

This has been the worst Michelle Yeoh performance I've ever seen. You know it's the producers' fault when such a stellar actor as her becomes annoying and forgettable. I got more out of her cameo in Guardians of the Galaxy 2, at least that's a character I want to see more of. CBS wants Mirror-Georgiou to have her own series? Can she be allowed to act from now on? Can she be given writing befitting of her status in Hollywood? From a character standpoint, Anton Mount carried the whole damn season on his back. Despite the bad writing overall, despite being forced to read off horrible dialog, he actually has a three-dimensional presence and gravitas. He is the most Star Trek thing about this entire series. He deserves a spin-off show more than anyone else.

I never would have thought it possible to make a Star Trek property worse than The Final Frontier, but, dammit, CBS managed to pull it off. Was William Shatner secretly giving "creative" input this whole time? What was it that Kurtzman did anyways? I can't imagine things being any worse if they had left Fuller in change. In a perverse way, I want to know what his version of the show would have been like. To paraphrase Steve Jobs, "Discovery is a ship with a hole in the bottom, taking on water, and Kurtzman's job was to point that ship in the right direction." ...Directly into a quantum singularity.

The best part of this episode was that it ended, and that it drained the timeline (at least presently) of Discovery and all her baggage. Can you imagine any other Star Trek series, the original, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, Enterprise, ending a season the same way? Let alone the second season. The lack of effort it took for the insistence that the ship had been destroyed and all aboard had been killed to be the cleanest way to sign off. The unoriginality it took for all Discovery season finales thus far to be showcasing a ship and crew from another show, that was wholly created and made famous by an entirely different group of people.

Ladies and gentlemen, Star Trek: Discovery.

[9.5/10] Holy hell. This was incredible. I love that after A New Hope pulled a lot from classic Japanese films like Yojimbo and The Hidden Fortress, the franchise is coming full circle. Japanese artists are now translating the tropes of Star Wars back into a feudal Japan setting, and it could hardly be cooler.

The art here is just gorgeous. This is the most beautiful blend of 3D animation with 2D flourishes since Klaus. The choice to go black and white, with only electronic things like lightsabers, droid lights, and whistling birds appear in color creates a striking aesthetic. And the design choices are downright stunning, from straw-covered R2 units, to the force-sensitive combatants and their artistically-conceived hair and clothing, to vehicles, weapons, and whole species reimagined with an ancient Japanese flair.

The basic premise works just as well. The notion of a Sith warlord coming to harass a humble village, while a calm ronin springs into action to save the innocent from their oppressors, fits wonderfully into this new rendition of Star Wars. That’s no shock. Episode IV reinterpreted a number of standard ronin tropes into a space setting, and watching those tropes reabsorbed and remixed back into a feudal setting is a thrill.

The action here is top notch. This is one of the best lightsaber battles we’ve seen in ages, with stellar choices in the blocking, shot-selection, and choreography. I love the little choices like letting the “camera” focus on the Sith’s hood floating away in the wind while we only hear the sound of her clashing with the hero. There’s a real mood and atmosphere which adds to the epicness of the confrontation. Intensity in the pace, eye-catching poses, and clever shifts and ruses to get the upper hand all make this a stand out among Star Wars skirmishes.

I’m also a big fan of the texture to this one: little moments that don’t contribute that much to the fairly simple “story” but which add color and intrigue to the world the characters inhabit. A ten-year-old being the chief because his dad’s asleep or ran-off, the hunched tea-maker fixing the droid, the bounty hunters fighting back against the Sith are all little details, but make this world feel more alive and lived-in beyond the immediate story.

On the whole, this is one hell of a coming out party for Star Wars: Visions. I’ll confess, I’m not much of an anime afficionado. But “The Duel” is enough for even a relative neophyte like me to sit up and take notice.

[6.8/10] What the hell does this show want to be? Is it a gritty modern sci-fi show where people get tortured and characters glug bourbon and shoot up seedy nightclubs? Is it a zany heist type deal where our heroes go on light, quasi-comic adventures? Is it a frank reflection on addiction and loss? Who the hell knows? Definitely not the writers.

That said, this is still watchable and mostly fine. There's something almost Poochie-esque about the new badass loner version of Seven, but it's still nice to see the character back in action, and I particularly appreciate that the show has the two of them comment (however cheesily) about recovering from assimilation as the two most prominent characters who've done it. The heist element is fun until it devolves into pained exchanges about whether hope or mercy can exist. And while the show again spits out a heap of lore like there's no tomorrow, I'm at least intrigued by what Jurati's end game is, so that's something.

The one thing that genuinely frustrates me is killing off Icheb in three minutes. I know the Borg Babies weren't everybody's favorite part of Voyager, but still. He was a significant character with a major arc on the series. Dispensing with him when the episode barely out of the gate, all for a single-episode, bog standard revenge plot that wasn't even particularly good, is bothersome.

Overall, this show continues to be watchable enough, but far from a well-oiled machine that comes anywhere close to matching the heights or intrigue of its predecessor.

Violent. Bloody. Dark. Gritty. Bloodier. Finally, a DC show done right!

If this premiere is anything to go by, I'm so glad to have this show among us! DC's TV series gave been mostly uninteresting, to use an euphemism. With the exception of the more mature and better accomplished Fox's Gotham, the CW offering has been nothing but a subpar series of shows clearly aimed at teens. But Gotham will have its finale next year, leaving an uncomfortable void in the universe of DC's TV series. Though it's rather premature to affirm this, I am betting that Titans is stepping in to fill that gap just nicely. This pilot episode gave me almost everything I'd want in a DC show.

Being used to watch Teen Titans on the Cartoon Network with my little niece, I was disappointingly expecting this show to be in the same league of all those CW series. But, after only a few minutes, I was so happy to be wrong! They made sure to let us know that this ain't a show for kids. The premise, though barely scratched in this episode, looks promising and the few characters that appeared look intriguing and appealing. This was a pilot episode well done in the sense that I'm already craving for more. And that's all a pilot episode should do.

Overall, I was pleasantly surprised with the way they've kicked off what is shaping up to be DC's most somber show yet.

Fuck Batman!

The characters reasoning in this Episode makes 0 sense.

They figure out, that the Angel is Michael. OK!
Now they want to trap it using a plan Michael cocked up, thinking the Angel would appear to protect her. That kind of makes sense. But as long as the safety net (The Doctor standing by to recessitate her, should the Angel not appear) is there, why would someone not wanting to be captured appear?
It isn't necessary. I certainly wouldn't.

There is a reason former Star Trek writers shyed away from crossing own timelines (With the exception of DS9 and they were really careful not to make too long story archs - and that was a show about beings living outside of time...).
You really easy fuck up - and the fuckups here are countless.

Also, what the f*** is up with Section 31?
In ST:DS9 their mere existence was a very well kept secret. Yet here we are decades before where everyone seems not only of their existence, but also about their missions.
Not even mentioning their AI System, which kept and analysed Data for the Admiralty aiding their decision making.

I will get really angry if the staff of this show keeps mentioning the word canon. They blatantly disregard it every turn - canon-wise this Season is even worse than the one before.

It's still an entertaining show, but they really should rebrand it as something other than Star Trek as it clearly ain't anymore. It's some random Sci-Fi Show using the trademark...

I thought the movie really underdeveloped the world, and didn't take advantage of all of the cool possibilities. Other than The Shining none of the references had any impact. Mark Rylance was the only actor to make an impression. I didn't even like the narrative of the book that much but I thought Stephen Spielberg would improve it not make it worse. The plot holes were huge especially in the third act ( How did Art3mis just walk into his office, walk out without anyone seeing or hearing her, and just walk out of the IOI headquarters ). It felt like a lot was cut for time, or they spent so much time on CGI sequences they forgot to make anything real, but what they cut were the parts that made the book interesting. You could ignore Ernest Cline's narrative and plot struggles because he made the characters slightly interesting, the challenge seemed difficult and all encompassing, and a lot of the references were actually relevant to the story. Every time they got a key it was a huge deal in the book, here I totally forgot it even mattered because it was so glossed over even from the beginning ( Really a race? ) and the real world consequences also didn't matter, so the whole thing felt like it was hitting the classic sentimental Spielberg movie moments with nothing to back it up.

I am a huge fan of the inventive yet simple first film. It is a guilty pleasure of a film that includes giant robots and monsters, but has enough development of characters that I have something to latch onto. It also helps that Del Toro's imagination helps build not only some fantastic beasts, but a great world to have the action focus on.

This sequel, while almost stand alone, doesn't have as much in any of those departments. The characters are pretty flat. The relationships between the characters are barely developed (like between Pentecost and Lambert, or Pentecost and Amara). The film lacks any heart or soul to it. Yes, there is lots of action, lots of Jaegers fighting Kaiju, but it almost feels rote. While the fight scenes in the original film are masked in night and rain, the fight scenes in Uprising take place mostly in the bright day light. I figured that would make for something exciting, but the action mostly falls flat. Maybe, it's because there aren't any memorable touches in the fight scenes like the original such as the Newton's Cradle or the funny items falling out of cargo containers used as weapons.

Even with this said, I did enjoy the film for what it is, a film that aims high, but falls quite short of its original. The film is carried by John Boyega whose charisma makes the film very watchable. The casting of newcomer Cailee Spaeney was also great, she has a future ahead of her. I didn't much care for Scott Eastwood who doesn't emote anything other than "stern" or "annoyed".

The story for the film was pretty thin, except for the twist which sets off the big fight in the third act. I actually thought the twist of flipping Newt to be the bad guy was brilliant since Newt is the last guy I would think could be a bad guy.

I do wonder what happened to some of the other characters that survived the original film. What happened to Raleigh Becket? How come he's not with Mako Mori who shows up in this film? How come Herc Hansen is not leading the Shatterdome? And where in the hell is Hannibal Chau? The script doesn't bother to fill us in on these interesting characters from the first film.

The score was taken over by Lorne Balfe and was fairly forgettable until he uses Ramin Djawadi's original Pacific Rim theme in the third act.

In possibly my favourite entry so far, we get a far more traditional "episodic" story. A situation develops at the start, complications occur and things are happily resolved by the end (although, Harry Mudd may disagree with that assessment). Although, that final shot was a doozy!

Everything felt like it was working better here than it has previously. The Klingons have been the most difficult thing so far as they slow down the episodes so much, but here we get them speaking English and behaving a lot more like the classic Klingons that Star Trek presented us with for so many years. These guys want to fight and hurt other people, and no religious nonsense is going to get in the way.

This gave us a much more detailed look at a couple of characters. Captain Lorca reveals more and more what kind of person he is. He wants to help people, but he also recognises the sacrifices that may need to be made to do that. It's easy to disagree with his perspective when we hear about the results, and the news that he destroyed his own ship and crew is a lot to take. He's also extremely intelligent and perceptive, and he has no qualms about people paying the price for what they've done. Rainn Wilson's portrayal of Harry Mudd isn't too far removed from the Original Series character, but he also managed to put his own spin on it. Maybe it was just due to the quite horrible situation he was trapped in, but this Mudd was more serious while being no less selfish. Still, I don't know if I agree with Lorca leaving him there.

More compelling to me was the different side we see of Saru. It felt like his desire to be an effective captain (going as far as researching the traits of Starfleet legends) began to override his more natural decision making. The debate over the use of the Tardigrade was exactly the Star Trek storytelling we've been waiting for, but at the same time the context here made it kind of one-sided. Placing Saru on the side of using the creature made him seem unsympathetic and cold, and it's only when we realise that he has to make these choices because he believes that saving his captain is the highest goal that we can begin to see why he's doing that.

There was also scientific joy as Stamets uses himself with the jump drive. This is one part of the show that I wasn't quite clicking with, but the more detailed explanations here have made things clearer. As it stands, it seems to me that this method of travel isn't sustainable given the high cost on the user (is Stamets going to be willing to do that again?) and I'm really interested in where it's going to go. I was also pleasantly surprised to hear the first use of the word "fuck" in all of Star Trek. Tilly continues to be a delight.

Very disappointed to see the online homophobes and bigots crawling out of their holes all over the place.

[9.5/10] Trans rights are human rights. Let’s start there. But more than that, they help save lives. I’m still compelled by the public statement from a leader as he vetoed an anti-trans bill that basically made that point. Whatever you think about transgender individuals, and young people in particular, the evidence shows that they’re at greater risk of depression and suicide, and that allowing them to express the gender identity they want makes a huge difference.

That is, more than anything, the abiding message of “A Tale of Two Topas”. Allowing folks to live as the gender they see themselves as is not a cure-all. But it removes one of the roadblocks to joy, to self-fulfillment, that are so important for young people in particular who are already primed to feel the weight of the world more fiercely and acutely than their elder brethren.

The scene that stands out to me here, in an episode full of fantastic scenes, is the one where Topa sees herself in the mirror for the first time after undergoing the procedure to become female again. Topa remains sympathetic for the whole episode, but also seems a bit detached, a bit numb. It’s easy to write that off as the usual Moclan stoicism, but when Topa tells Commander Grayson that she feels like a bookmark for someone else she’s meant to be, it’s revealing. There’s someone in pain underneath that steady veneer, someone troubled enough to ask Isaac what it was like to be dead and whether or not he was happy to return to the world of the living.

The upshot is clear. Topa is unhappy. She has trouble envisioning what happiness would be like, since she doesn’t know what exactly is standing in her way. But there's something wrong with how she feels about herself, some way in which the societal role she’s expected to play, doesn’t align with how she sees herself. We, and Grayson, know why that is, and the secret that’s kept from her. But the important thing is that she doesn’t feel right, and it means she struggles to feel happy.

Until Isaac treats her, and she looks in the mirror and finally sees the real her looking back. She smiles, a smile of relief but also of self-realization. There is the person she viewed herself as, finally realized in flesh and blood. The young actress does an outstanding job communicating the happiness Topa achieves in that moment, the alignment between inner self and outer self that makes her feel like her, maybe for the first time in her young life. After so many roadblocks, she feels like herself, and it makes that happiness possible.

Yet, one of the things I like about this episode is that it makes the antagonists comprehensible, instead of monsters. Our sympathies (or at least my sympathies) naturally lie with poor Topa. But you can also understand the perspective of the latest duty-bound admiral, who expresses her own empathy for the girl, but makes the valid point that upsetting the Moclans amidst the the Kaylon threat to save Topa could be trading one life for billions.

It all works out, of course. It’s kind of a cheat. But the show comes up with a credible enough reason why the worst case scenario of diplomatic relations didn’t happen. And the admiral dresses down Mercer and Grayson with the appropriate “You got lucky” speech. Most importantly, though, it gives her a motivation that makes sense and makes the audience have to weigh the moral imperative of helping this young soul against the broader concerns of politics and war that could lose orders of magnitude more.

Even Klyden, the closest thing to an outright villain in the piece, is given some sympathetic shading. He is horrible here, nearly resorting to violence not once, not twice, but thrice. Him telling Topa that he wishes she had never been born is horrifying, the greatest cruelty in an episode not short of tough things to swallow. Even there though, the episode roots his reaction in the fact that he too was born female, and wishes he never knew. He’d trade Topa’s unhappiness for her own despair. That small bit helps explain Kylden and his awful reaction to all of this. Storytelling is better when we understand the antagonist’s motivations, and hinting at the way this is a generational trauma only adds to the tragedy and pain of it.

This is also one hell of an episode for Commander Grayson. Adrianne Palicki does some series-best and maybe career-best work here. Through her performance, Kelly is empathetic with Topa, righteously indignant on her behalf, confident and commanding with Klyden, sharp and shrewd when they come up with a plan, and practically glowing when things seem to be working out for Topa. “A Tale of Two Topas” puts a lot on Palicki’s shoulders, but she’s more than up to the challenge. So much of Star Trek, and the shows that follow in its wake, is built on the aspirational. It’s hard to think of something more aspirational right now than a person in a position of power, using that power to help someone become their truest self, and maybe help save a young person’s life in the process.

Granted, the inevitable abstraction of the metaphor could lead to some misreadings. You can easily imagine the worst anti-trans folks misinterpreting this as a story of why trans kids should stick with the gender they were born with. But that crowd would have a bad faith reading of the episode no matter what, and they’re not worth catering too. More generously, the story of Topa has always taken something from the real life treatment of intersex children, which carries some resonance here too.

Yet, the language used and the subtext of the episode plainly puts it in the realm of a transgender allegory. The way Topa expresses herself reflects gender dysphoria. The arguments between Bortus (who does great work here too) and Klyden reflect real life conflicts between family members over whether to accept or reject their trans relatives. And the minefield of balancing your personal morals and the morals of your society and the rights of the child and the rights of the parent, (especially when the parents disagree) makes the heady themes of the story that much richer, while pulling from real life debates.

Fortunately, through all this complication, our heroes, and The Orville are always on Topa’s side. There are, assuredly, some cheats and questionable calls. The fact that Bortus gives Topa the password to learn the truth about what happened to her is fairly convenient when it was Kelly’s actions driving this to that point. Likewise, as clever as it is to have a vocal performance by Bortus give everyone an alibi, or at least plausible deniability, while Isaac performs the procedure for Topa, the chances it would do anything but blow up relations between the Union and the Moclans seems slim to nil.
Still, ultimately, this is a story centered on Topa’s dissatisfaction with the world and struggles with her identity, bolstered by a group of noble people willing to risk their careers and their safety to help her, who succeed in helping the young woman discover and become the person she really is. The scene where she cries with joy at seeing a Moclan woman value herself and her gender, affirms the strength of that message, where simply recognizing these struggling young people for who they are, and helping them reach their truest selves, can bring them the joy, peace, and self-acceptance we all deserve.

9.8/10. I realized, watching this episode, that I care about the relationship between Anakin and Ahsoka one-hundred times more than I ever cared about the relationship between Anakin and Padme. There's lot of reasons for that. We've gotten see Anakin and Ahsoka's relationship grow and develop over the course of dozens of episodes, whereas Anakin and Padme get scattered parts of a few films and a handful of episodes for theirs to be developed. The writing and plotting on The Clone Wars and Rebels has easily surpassed the horrorshow of the prequels. And as a franchise, Star Wars has almost always been better at stories involving neophytes and mentors than it has at romantic relationships.

That is what the finale for Rebels's outstanding second season embraces as it brings things to a close. The episode focuses on Masters and apprentices, with Maul and Kanan warring over Ezra's soul while they're forced to be temporary allies, at the same time Ahsoka finally confronts her former master face-to-face. In the juxtaposition, we see the importance of that type of relationship, the way it can scar you or lift you up, no matter what side of the equation you're on.

That idea comes through in the effort to install the Sith holocron into the top of the temple. The race to the top divides Kanan, Ezra, Ahsoka, and Maul into different pairings as they make a plan to divide the Inquisitors and are forced to abide the temple's "rule of two" design. Kanan warns Ezra about trusting Maul, fearful about what his apprentice will do after the warnings he's received about Ezra potentially turning to the dark side. Ezra pushes back, claiming that Maul sees his full potential, in words that echo those of Anakin's own words to his master and the same frustrations and sense of being held back that paved the way for his turn to the dark side. Ahsoka, on the other hand, reassures Kanan that Ezra will be okay, since he has Kanan's training. The subtext there is that Ahsoka herself managed to be good, to stay on the right path, thanks to her own master's training, even after she left the order.

And Ahsoka is right. When Maul and Ezra are paired up, they're confronted by the Seventh Sister. Maul holds her aloft and demands that Ezra kill her. Despite the ways in which Ezra has found a kinship with Maul and begins to trust him, he cannot bring himself to do it, something that Maul chastises him for. (This doesn't really cohere with how many times Ezra's been willing to kill stormtroopers, but you know, you just kind of have to go with these things.) Later, after Ezra makes it to the top of the temple and inserts the holocron into the obelisk, it offers him the power to destroy life (in Mother Talzin's voice, which is a nice touch). There too, he demurs, taken aback by what's being offered to him and declaring that it's not what he wants. As Ahsoka predicted, Ezra is given a glimpse of the dark side, of the power that lures so many Sith, and turns away from it. Whatever the fears that Ezra may one day turn to the dark side that Kanan harbors, his instruction and the good nature of his ward keep him steadfast despite Maul's cajoling and the temptation placed before him.

(As an aside, the use of the junior inquisitors here is pretty disappointing. For the Seventh Sister in particular, there were hints at there being more to her, which felt like Rebels was building to something. Instead, she's killed off without being much more than a colorful but easily survivable threat over the course of this season. It comes off like a waste of a potentially interesting character and the talents of Sarah Michelle Geller. The fact that Maul basically takes each of the Inquisitors out helps establish his bona fides as a powerful force-wielder at this stage of the timeline, but their fairly quick deaths still make them feel less developed or useful as antagonists than they might have been.)

Maul, however, is convinced that he's swayed Ezra, and calls the young man his new apprentice. He reveals that the temple is a battlestation that he intends to use to take out the Empire through raw force, and blinds Kanan with his lightsaber as Ahsoka goes off to find Ezra. Kanan finds a temple guard mask, like those worn by the guards he faced in the temple on Lothal, and manages to defeat Maul in battle, sending him into the chasm below. That fight is a symbol for the way in which Kanan's influence trumped Maul's over Ezra, and to get even more grandiose about it, Kanan's injury represents a certain blind faith he has in his apprentice, that he believes he can succeed even if he doesn't have a perfect vision about what the future holds.

That training, however, cannot prepare Ezra for a confrontation with Darth Vader, who arrives and quickly overpowers the nascent force-wielder. It's then that Ahsoka arrives, saving Ezra and facing down her own former master. It's a powerful reunion. Vader making an offer not unlike the one he'll eventually make to Luke in The Empire Strikes Back, threatening to torture Ezra when she declines. It's then that, as Obi Wan once did, Ahsoka believes that Anakin is truly lost, that the man she knew would never do such a thing. Vader responds that the Anakin she knew was weak, and Vader "destroyed him." When Ahsoka vows to avenge her master, Vader declares that revenge is not the Jedi way, to which she responds with the line of the episode -- "I'm no Jedi."

It's the confrontation we've been waiting for from the very first episode of this season. There is so much power and history wrapped up between the two. Ahsoka is forced to look at what her dearest friend and mentor has turned into firsthand, and Vader is forced to look upon one of the last connections to his humanity, to the person he used to be. It's a charged moment from the very beginning, one wrapped up in all the struggles and shared history the two characters have up until this point.

As they begin to fight in the dazzlingly designed confines of the obelisk chamber, the episode juxtaposes one master and apprentice coming to blows with another coming together. Much in this episode focuses on the Sith rule of two, an ancient tradition meant to preserve a structure among the ambitious adherents, but "Twilight of the Apprentice" finds the goodness in that idea, that it may take two people working together to achieve these great things. That's why when it comes time to remove the holocron from the obelisk, to avert the potential disaster on the horizon, it requires a master and an apprentice -- Kanan and Ezra, working together, to accomplish this, a testament to the connection between them and the way they lift each other up.

Of course, even after retrieving the holocron, they cannot make a clean escape. Vader uses the force to stymie them as they head for their shuttle, but Ahsoka dives in to save the day, slicing Vader's helmet in the process. The temple begins falling apart as Ezra and Kanan try to leave and beckon Ahsoka to come with. It's then that Vader says Ahsoka's name for the first time in the episode. She turns to her former master and sees the man behind that helmet, the scarred face with the eye she recognizes. He speaks in the voice she knows from The Clone Wars, not the mechanical baritone of the monster she's seen this day. Faced with the choice to go with Ezra or attempt to rescue her former master, she force pushes Ezra onto the shuttle and speaks the words to Anakin that cut through me like a knife -- "I won't leave you, not this time."

It's an absolutely devastating line, one that speaks to the connection forged by this master and apprentice that survives even the horrors she knows Anakin has committed as Vader. It speaks to the guilt she has, the questioning of whether the man she once knew would have turned into something so twisted if she'd been there to help guide him in his hour of need the same way that Ezra was able to guide Kanan. Vader is too far gone, seeming to consider her help for a moment before returning to his attack, but in that, there is a glimpse of that humanity. There is a connection that emerges when people go through these events together, when they become teacher and student, mentor and padewan, instructor and friend, that allows them to, if only briefly, overcome all that's happened, all the betrayals, personal and ethical, that have happened between their time together and the present.

There is a sense of melancholy over the final montage, which portends so much for Rebels next adventure. In scenes with a noted visual devotion to symmetry -- representing the balance of the force -- a blinded Kanan and Ezra return to the rebels on Attolon. Rex's face falls when Ahsoka isn't with them. Maul flies away, out there to scheme and attack as before. Ezra begins to unlock the Sith holocron. Both Vader and Ahsoka limp away from their battle, their futures uncertain.

What is certain, however, is how those connections between masters and apprentice have defined the people enmeshed in them. Ezra stays on the right path thanks to the teachings of his master, and in return, he helps Kanan to survive the encounter at the temple. Maul is scarred and bitter at the way his master abused him, and it fuels his anger and resentments. And despite everything, Ahsoka refuses to give up on Anakin, even when he's encased in the horror that is Darth Vader, and that is enough to bring out the first glimpse of humanity we see from him since donning his new face. This type of relationship between people dominates the Star Wars universe, dictating who becomes a hero, who becomes a villain, who rises to the occasion, and who stands by the those who have brought them up, even in the face of unmitigated power and the threat of oblivion. In Star Wars, it always comes down to a master and an apprentice.

(No spoilers)

I should have known MacFarlane would do something like this. No cliffhanger, nay, rather an anti-cliffhanger. Last week was the season finale, this was a tribute to the series thus far. And it was earned.

Instead of going into specifics for the episode, I'll just summarize how I feel about The Orville as a whole. This show started in 2017, almost at the exact same time as Star Trek Discovery. I was eagerly awaiting both for what I thought were similar reasons. To say that these two shows are the exact opposite of one another is an insultingly tremendous disregard to the scope of the reality that surrounds the existence of both series.

Both The Orville and Discovery shamelessly lied to its viewers. Discovery was suppose to bring the ideals of Star Trek back in the first of many new series, and The Orville was suppose to be Family Guy in space. Here we are, five years later, and I don't think anyone correctly predicted what either of those properties would actually end up being.

For all the terrible things that have happened in the world (most notably during these last five years) and for all the personal hardships I've endured during that timeframe, The Orville has defied everything (including Star Trek itself) and chosen to believe better of humanity. Much the same way a chintzy, low-budget sci-fi show did back in the 1960s, when many were convinced the world was going to burn in nuclear holocaust. And even though that little sci-fi is now a cultural giant with the power to be whatever it wants, it wants to be something else for now. Like we needed that campy, optimistic, character-driven show then, we need shows like The Orville now.

We'll always have classic Star Trek, we'll always have three seasons of the best send-up to Star Trek ever created, but we need more. We need a continuous drip of positivity and introspection this concentrated because things really have gotten that bad again and it feels like no one else is willing to try - not even those best positioned to do so.

Disney would be brainless not to renew this show for multiple additional seasons. Even from a purely self-serving position, it would be stupid to not use The Orville to their advantage. Yeah, they already own Star Wars, but the Venn diagram of the Star Wars and the Star Trek fanbases looks kinda like the Mastercard logo. Now Disney owns the only real contender to Star Trek. Just keeping this show going as is would bring in droves of Trek fans old and new.

Rest in peace, Norm Macdonald.

#RenewTheOrville

That's probably the best episode that the show has ever done and my favourite episode of anything from 2020 so far. WOW. What a rollercoaster. We've reached the part where we've caught up with Revenge of the Sith and that can only mean that bad stuff is going to happen. I like how Obi-Wan has been able to keep Ahsoka up to date of where we are in it - he's off to Utapau, Anakin's spying on the Chancellor and they can't learn about Sidious from Dooku because Anakin killed Dooku.. on Palpatine's orders. Obi-Wan admitting that the Council aren't always right and getting Ahsoka to speak to Anakin on his behalf was a nice touch too, even if it hasn't happened yet.

This whole arc was building up to the Maul/Ashoka fight and it was as every bit as epic as I was hoping it would be, the animation is legendary and the fact that Maul knows what's going to happen and baits Ahsoka with Anakin turning to the Dark Side was handled really well. These little touches throughout the episode of showing Ahsoka caring for the Clones and them respecting her in return is only going to make the next two episodes all the more emotional, because it's going to get to Order 66. And I'm NOT READY. The idea of a Maul and Ahsoka team-up to stop Order 66 was fascinating - and might still happen - two former apprentices working together. Maul technically tried to save the galaxy too by wanting to bring Anakin to Mandalore to kill him before he could turn to Sidious really worked too - even if it was only Maul acting as the bitter ex and in his own self-interests - after all, Anakin would be the second apprentice that Sidious had since him.

Maul screaming that he would rather die than witness what was coming next and begging for The Clones to kill him rather than take him prisoner was, certainly a morbid end. I love what the show has done with his character too - I groaned when they brought him back the first time but Maul's arc has been as good over the course of the series as Ahsoka has, and as absolutely vital to the show. Revenge of the Sith is going to hit a little differently after this.

You have to be in the right frame of mind for this. It isn't a heroic epic where everything turns out all right.

It is a graphic and real depiction of the horrors of war from the eyes of those fighting on the front lines in ww1. It is meant to make you question the motives of leaders. It is meant to make you think about how much the normal people putting their lives on the lines to kill each other, actually differ from the ones they are killing. And it's meant to show you/make you viscerally feel the shift that happens when you move from only hearing the media/govt rhetoric - to seeing first hand the conflicts of interest / cruelty in your own / illogical decisions - to finally becoming a numb, automaton following orders blindly to stay alive.

It is a very well made film. You care about the characters. You feel the emotions. You really understand the implications of the fruitless efforts at the western front. You end feeling how tragic it was. I ended feeling anger for how people were treated like throwaway chess pieces. You've got to be in the right frame of mind!

Dammit, I just wanted to watch some science fiction. I didn't want to have to clean myself up off the floor with a mop... for 75 minutes!

(I now have more to say...)

Everyone else is going on about the child actor who plays Topa and Palicki playing Grayson. They made this episode, without a doubt.

But I want to draw more attention to Peter Macon's Bortus. The character's best episode and Macon's best acting ever in my opinion. Klyden finally shows up in season 3 only to fuck off in the very same episode! Hilarious. He wasn't badly acted, but he was more of a caricature than anything else. I get it, the episode needed him to be that way. But Bortus shows so many layers and emotional combinations. Multiple times throughout the episode I stopped sitting and watching and found myself standing and watching, and once holding my hand over my mouth and fighting back my own tears as a father. It hit so hard and so soundly, no once feeling forced or cringy or convenient to the plot. He was behaving like a real dad who had real desires and fears for his child. It's in this acting and getting to see these scenes play out on their own time that the show is partially forgiven for shamelessly running so gosh darn long!

Though I did get to the point where I was asking myself how many MORE addendums was this episode going to get? But, in the end, I'm glad that it went out the way it did. With a lot levity and positivity instead of that safe, diplomatic conclusion the Union brass felt tied to - which would have echoed the failure from the first season during the trial on Moclas. I'm also glad that Mercer and Grayson got chewed out for it. It would have felt fake if there was no repercussions. But because the fleet is at war, The Union can't afford to jail any command officers, and Moclas can't afford to lash out the way they'd like to either. That's definitely the only reason that Admiral was satisfied with her mere pound of flesh from each of them. And also why she was willing to admit that she was unofficially happy everything worked out in their favor.

Secondly, I want to draw attention to the actual footage from "About a Girl" from the first season used in the simulator. I don't know how they pulled this off, but the perfect editing required to make the new footage of Topa and Grayson blend in with something that was shot five years ago and not even look slightly uncanny is probably owed to the COVID downtime. Seth MacFarlane said that since they couldn't do any shooting or practical work, they kept refining the post-production of the episodes they were already working on while they waited for the all clear to go back to work. This has to be one of those episodes because I was looking for blurry lines and cuts in the footage or other strange artifacts that HAD to exist and it just looks like it was all shot at the same time in the same physical space. Bravo to the editing team, this is clearly your best work.

The previous episodes do have much better pacing (even Electric Sheep), no argument there. But this episode is of the storytelling caliber that Tom Hanks uses when he needs a few more Oscars to decorate his tenth mansion. The Orville set a new bar for themselves and for all modern science fiction with this story. Both in-universe and out-of-universe, this was a comeback victory several years in the making. It still blows me away that The Orville is both generously pulling from its own past to create new and continued stories while also being mature and reserved enough to not overdo it or wear out the gimmick. They (again) covered a topic of white-hot contention at one of the worst moments in American history to do so, and they did it with respect for themselves and for their viewers. And without a doubt the beaming approval of a particular Great Bird. Maybe Umbrella Academy (they kind of already are) or Doom Patrol could pull it off. I honestly don't know what else is on TV right now that could even reach such heights without a massive overhaul to their writing team.

(Obligatory remark about people who are repulsed (Klyden'd, if you will) by the topic of this episode needing to grow up and realize that they've only got so much time on this Earth to enjoy life and how they're currently, objectively failing to do so. And also morbidly curious as to why they're watching this show knowing full well what it is and then acting surprised that such topics are broached. And reminding them that if they hate this episode it's probably only going to get worse from their point of view - especially if this show is renewed for a fourth season.)

[7.5/10] I continue to be in awe of the way WandaVision marries difficult emotional truths with the trappings of the televised form. This week, we’ve made it to the late 2000s/early 2010s mockumentary stage, with a style borrowed from shows like The Office and Modern Family. As always, the show does it well, with the talking head segments and characters looking at the camera (or “Jimming”, to borrow a term from Community) that capture the humor of that style of comedy.

The thing that grabbed me about this one, though, is that it uses that form to lean into Wanda’s depression, her sense of meaningless to life after witnessing and suffering so much trauma, her lurking fear that she’s endured so much pain because she deserves it. So often, the show has used its sitcom homages for subtle horror, when there’s something odd at the edge of the laugh track or TGIF rhythms that make us uneasy about what terrible thing might be lurking beyond the polished exterior.

But this week, the jarring part is that we’re still doing the cheery sitcom sheen but instead pairing it more directly with Wanda’s abject despondency. She has trouble getting out of bed. She’s incapable of doing anything. She can’t take care of her kids. Our title character (or one of them, at least), has basically given up.

That’s low-key dispiriting. There’s a realism to all of this. I’m sorry to say I know what it’s like to be with a caretaker who’s suffering from this kind of depression, and once again, WandaVision is unnervingly real in its depiction of it here. The fake ad this week (a pitch-perfect spoof of pill commercials) hints at what Wanda’s going through, weighed down not only by the losses she’s experienced so far, but by the sense that the perfect world she’s constructed is now crumbling too, especially with Vision seeming to have left her.

“Breaking the Fourth Wall” conveys that nicely (and in a visually sharp fashion) as objects within the Maximoff household start fritzing between different eras. It’s a nice way to communicate that Wanda is being overtaxed and overstretched, to where without the object of her affections and the person she ostensibly did all of this for, she can’t hold the focus or will to maintain it. She doesn’t know why, but she seems to ignore it in favor of her depressed stupor, hinting that it’s an emotional issue, rather than a magical one.

There’s other big plot happenings to be enjoyed though! For one, we pair up Vision and Darcy, the latter of whom has been officially sucked into the Hex. I honestly don’t love the pairing, as their comic energy isn’t brilliant. But I suppose it’s necessary, to bring this Vision up to speed on what’s happening both inside and outside this bubble. There’s some good comedy in the impediments that Wanda sets out for Vision to prevent him from making his way back home, and as much as they’re used for comedy, there’s something quietly heartbreaking about Vision’s confessionals, where he’s unusually emotionally raw about what he knows and what he suspects about the things his wife has done and his strange state of identity. Him getting fed up with the construct and just flying toward Wanda is a big move, both in terms of plot and his character.

Arguably just as big is Monica Rambeau not only making it inside the Hex, but maintaining her sense of self. It turns out that her aerospace engineering pal is just a friend of her mom’s who’s willing to deliver a favor, which is admittedly a bit of a letdown. But the purpose is to show the strength of the Hex and, by extension, the strength of Monica when she discovers her powers. The hardcore aerospace tech can’t penetrate the bubble (and even gets turned into a wood-paneled minivan in the process), but Monica wills her way through.

I’ll be honest. I had trouble hearing the echoing voices that presumably spoke important sentiments from Monica’s life as she burst through the barrier. Given her comments later, I took it to be a commentary on trauma, that Monica too has lost people and suffered, but chooses to keep going and finds strength in that, literally and figuratively. The strange body scans were a harbinger -- she’s got abilities of her own, and she wants to use them to help Wanda, to reason with her, as someone who’s experienced similar losses.

The confrontation goes about as well as you’d think, with Wanda trying to blast her away again, but Monica being tough but firm with her target. She’s running out of time though, as Director Hayward not only wanted to use Vision as a weapon, but is planning some sort of tactical strike. I gotta say, that’s my least favorite part of this one. We’ve done the “Government agency guy has a villainous, weapons-focused motivation” time and time again in the MCU. Unless there’s some unseen wrinkle here, it’s just not an interesting twist anymore.

What is, on the other hand, is the reveal that Agnes is behind it all! That may not be a shocking revelation, but it’s still a cool one. I’ll admit, I both thought Agnes was the likely culprit going back several episodes, but also bought into last week’s headfake where she pretended to be under Wanda’s influence. WandaVision unveiling her as Agatha Harkness, another “magical gal” in town, with ominous plans still totally work.

I have to say, I love the “Agatha All Along” montage and the fact that she gets her own theme here. Kathryn Hahn is a total pro, and the way she channels the cheesily cackling and winking baddie vibe on the one hand, while conveying some actual menace on the other, is really impressive. The little outro is very funny at the same time it fills in tons of gaps, and the villainous laughter coda that she killed their little dog too is the icing on the cake.

Beneath that heightened, audience-nudging reveal is some real terror though. The prospect of what happened to Billy and Tommy concerns me, especially when Wanda finds an expansive, gothic basement containing a box like the one that she and Pietro were kept in back in the day. One of the twins, the one seemingly with psychic powers, likes her because she’s quiet inside, something far scarier than it should be. She clearly has plans for them, and children’s lives in danger chills the blood of any adult.

As it reaches its closing stretch, WandaVision puts its cards on the table, telling us who the villains on the inside and outside are, reaching the present (more or less) with its homages, and giving us four superpowered beings within the Hex prepared to do battle to save/protect/convince Wanda of what has to happen left. It’s a hell of a setup, emotionally and story-wise, and I’m excited to see how the show finishes it.

As i expected the wow-effect wore a bit of in the second episode. But still i enjoyed it a lot. After they set up their general nostalgia-flair and their very well written and acted characters, this episode showed us, what i think is the key element that makes and hopefully will make this series so lovable. It is a dichotomy of the protagonists between being an 80s cliché and a human being with a soul (although i am not sure that all protagonists are human beings...). There are some scenes in this episode that really stung right in my heart, for example at the beginning, when Eleven lies there and starts crying. It felt so true. I remembered all the times as a kid when i was sleeping somewhere besides my own bed and felt homesick. So well play by Millie Bobby Brown! And also when Chief Hopper says how in the city he only dealt with strangers and now it was his friend. Those scenes are maybe easy to write, but not easy to act without it feeling acted but real.
Furthermore the story is really interesting. I have absolutely no idea how it will unfold and that happens rarely these days. There are so many possibilities and Stranger Things makes not the mistake to explain anything. It's show, don't tell how i wished i would see more in the mystery and sci-fi genre.
I gave the episode 8 points because i want to keep some reserve for episodes that really overwhelmed me.

The flaws of the previous sequel are more readily apparent here as the focus shifts to the “real” world which is populated largely with uninteresting characters that were poorly developed in the previous film. As before, the film is stronger when it focuses on what is going on in the Matrix and Neo’s own struggle to understand his role and the fallout from his discoveries. It is a shame then that most of the plot centers around a large scale assault on Zion that quickly becomes tiresome as characters who we care little about face off against an overload of CGI machines that really needed cutting down. That the film grinds to a halt in its biggest action sequence says a lot about how badly thought through this part of the film was and without the juxtaposition of scenes within the Matrix that made the “real” world sequences bearable in the last film, it never really recovers from it, even if it does improve slightly as it shifts its focus back to Neo. It doesn’t help that whereas in the last film plots elements from the “real” world were rushed, here it’s the elements related to the development of the Matrix that feel rushed and forgotten about for large parts of the film which make the final sequence difficult to care about. It’s not unwatchable by any means, but as the culmination of a trilogy it can’t help but disappoint.

Okay, so the action is still pretty bad, and the Reva stuff is every bit as predictable as it seemed. BUT I'm glad we're FINALLY getting some of the stuff that we were promised! The flashbacks with Anakin, although not perfect, are what I wanted from this show. I just wish that they had started with these much sooner, rather than the second-to-last episode of the show.

Also, I know the Reva wasn't exactly on Vader's side, but her sending Obi-Wan inside with two stormtroopers when it would have made much more sense for her to just keep him outside exactly where he was with the rest of the troops and her... that was one of the dumbest things I've ever seen.

IDK how this show manages to keep doing it, but every episode just seems to have dumber and dumber writing decisions and it's truly painful to watch. Vader is being written as a total moron. Why on earth would they just leave Reva alive like that? It makes absolutely no sense.

I've said it almost every episode, but it still rings true - I really want to love this show, but I just CAN'T. I'll give this one a 5.5 simply because it was a fun watch despite all the horrible issues.

Brilliant! Thanks for this mini-series! I wasn't an expert on how the Hernobyl disaster went down, only by what I read or saw in documentaries. This series has shed light into my knowledge of it. I can't believe how incompetence lead to so many deaths. After every episode, I always felt a little drizzled, but this one just made me cry. I swear, 93,000 lives were lost because, among other factors, one man wanted to get promoted. I can't even begin to fathom what all these people went through.
I've watched the series twice already before writing this comment. Some of the quotes in this show just gave me the goosebumps. Starting with "were asking for your permission to kill 3 men", "You were the one who mattered most", through the concrete Graves scene, the puppy scene, and the official recordings at the end.

This show really felt like a horror movie, only because it really happened, which proves that reality is scarier than fiction. It was beautifully shot and acted. Some scenes will be forever in my memory. It's amazing to think that such a brief show can be so educational, terrifying and yet beautifully narrated at the same time. This is not only a show, it's, from my humble point of view, a masterpiece. Bone-chilling scene sequences, the sound of Geiger's counter to add anxiety and fear to the spectator. All of it has to make this one of the best series I've ever watched. It deserves all the awards it can get. Hands down to the actors, especially Jared Harris and Stellan Skarsgård, the whole crew and everyone involved for giving us one of the most invaluable, terrifying, evocative and educative documents of all times through wonderful filmmaking.

[8.0/10] “The Solitary Clone” plays like a throwback to the days of The Clone Wars series. I used to accuse TCW of “video game plotting.” On a regular basis, some combination of Anakin, Obi-Wan, and Ashoka would fight some goons, then probably some bigger goons, then a few genuinely challenging enemies, before going toe-to-toe with the final boss of the episode. As much as I enjoyed the show, I got tired of that formula in its early seasons.

In a sense “The Solitary Clone” is just that. When infiltrating a planet to rescue a kidnapped superior, Crosshair and none other than the long missing Commander Cody lead the mission. They mow down a series of nigh-useless B1 battle droids, before having to contend with some mildly more challenging droidekas, then they have a legitimately harrowing fight with a few droid commandos of the sort that gave Ahsoka fits at the beginning of The Clone Wars, before taking out a strategy droid and facing down their target’s captor.

The action is exciting, with losses (albeit of barely-named “regs”) that show the costs of the assault, and some genuinely clever tactics at play. In particular, Crosshair’s use of reflective pucks, and the ensuing struggle within a spiral staircase, is some of the most claustrophobic, well-directed action The Bad Batch has offered this season. But the general shape of the way the battle escalates would be familiar to anyone who’s been watching Commander Cody since he appeared in The Clone Wars pilot movie.

But I take that to be the point here. Because even though the rhythms are the same, the context is very different, and I think The Bad Batch wants its viewers, especially the longtime fans, to contemplate that. Watching clone troopers fight through a bunch of battle droids on a Separatist planet where they’ve taken an opposing leader hostage is meat and potatoes, rah-rah stuff. But now the situation is different.

The government the soldiers are fighting for isn’t the Republic; it’s the Empire. The Separatists aren’t aggressors attacking our heroes; they’re an independent system that just wants to remain independent and avoid being gobbled up by the Empire. Many of the faces are the same. The overall progression of the fight is the same. But everything here feels off, to where who to root for, versus who the perspective characters are, isn’t as clear as it once was.

That's a feature, not a bug. Cody is doing what he’s always done. He listens to the orders of his generals. He battles his way through wave after wave of battle droids. He reaches the enemy target and gets them at a disadvantage.

Yet, that's where things are different. Governor Tawni Ames is a reasonable person. Her motives to protect her people from Imperial overreach are sympathetic. She is not a warmonger. In fact, she joined Mina Bonteri, a Separatist Senator, and a group of Republic Senators, in proposing a peace accord that was rejected by Palpatine. Bonteri was part of an episode called “Heroes on Both Sides”, crossing paths with the heroes of The Clone Wars and teaching Ahsoka in particular that the war wasn’t as cut and dry as “good vs. evil”, but that there were well-intentioned Separatists who had their own fair points and legitimate grievances to bear.

Now, Cody gets the same lesson. He recognizes her as someone else who lived through the horrors of that war, and persuades her to let the hostage go without a fight lest their actions this day result in more bloody conflict. In effect, he recognizes that despite his orders, Governor Ames is not a bad guy. He wants a peaceful, diplomatic solution to this, and manages to achieve it by laying down his arms and promising her that if she works with him on this, this can all stop without anyone else having to die for it. With the word of a fellow traveler as a bond, she agrees.

And Crosshair kills her.

You know it’s coming, and it still hurts a little. We know from last season’s finale that Crosshair is a true believer, not even needing the control ship to continue the path that he was set on during the Clone Wars. He has his orders. He follows them. It’s not his to question why. The Empire is the inheritor of the Republic, and thus the institution he owes fealty to. That's it. That's all it ever was. He does what’s asked of him.

But Cody can’t. There’s a grim tone that spills over Dessex as the Empire descends on the once-independent world. The skittering residents seem even more concerned as the stormtroopers show up to take their world by force and make an example out of them. Cody can’t abide it. He can’t abide the Imperial general breaking the promise Cody made to Governor Ames. He can’t abide Crosshair’s cold willingness to execute those orders, and the Governor, without a second thought. He is the latest trooper to cross paths with Crosshair and decide to go AWOL.

The reasons are clear. He tells Crosshair that there’s a difference between clones and droids, and it rings true, despite the comparisons Star Wars animation has drawn between the two over the years. Clones do make real choices, and they have to live with them. Cody still thought he was fighting for the good guys. But the game has changed, and after such a craven display, the familiar becomes foreign, and what you used to do unquestioningly suddenly becomes a moral compromise you can no longer stand. Cody’s the same, but the world’s different, and he has to act on that difference.

So true to the title, Crosshair is once again left alone. Even the other regs won’t sit with him. Anyone he has a bond with, even a passing acquaintance with, seems to have taken a different path. The world is the same to him, and maybe it is. Maybe we were just as wrong for rooting for one side over the other rather than recognizing the abiding message of The Clone Wars and, to some extent, the whole Prequel Trilogy. To the extent there’s anything but, this was a senseless war, and it didn’t matter whom you were cheering for, because the same forces were pulling the strings on both sides, they served to benefit from it, and everyone else, even those fighting for the right reasons, were sullied by it.

That's a hard lesson, especially for what is ostensibly an all-ages program. But it seems to be increasingly the purview of The Bad Batch. This series carries on the legacy of the show that spawned it, through the eyes of one of the heroes turned villains, ordered to kill the heroes turned villains, and finds himself ostracized and isolated for it.

Is that a sequel to The X-Files? To me that whole FBI agent plot (who has encountered a Vulcan reconnaissance team long before Cochrane allegedly made first contact?) seems totally pointless. Is that of any consequence to the main story? Or is Picard just free to go and won't see Fox Mulder ever again? If that's the case this episode is another inconsequential mediocre filler episode for the most part. A 6/10. The other part with the hunt for Jurati and what she tries to use Soong for is probably more important - but that's only a small part of this episode.

The only interesting part is perhaps the Q/Guinan interaction. Since TNG I wonder, where (or when) these two races have crossed each other's paths. I have to admit that I still don't understand Q's game. But Picard and Guinan obviously don't get it either. Jurati (aka the Queen) revealing parts of her plan to Soong is equally mysterious and hard to understand. Let me get this right:

So the Borg, who mysteriously appear from yet another timeline or an extra dimensional pocket of space, summoned Picard in episode 1/2. They almost killed him, so that Q rescued Picard from death (why would the Borg know that's gonna happen?) and hurled him into the alternate "Terran" timeline, that Q branched off from the regular timeline by manipulating Renée in 2024. The Borg knew (Why? And how could they know at this point since Q supposedly created this timeline only after making the decision to rescue Picard?) that in this alternate timeline (which must be yet another timeline than the one the Borg ship emerged from) there was a Borg queen imprisoned by humans. This Borg Queen was the last of her kind in this alternate timeline. She was awaiting her execution. This would mean the total eradication of the Borg in this timeline. They were defeated by mankind. In this alternate reality, this last Borg Queen lured Picard into time traveling to 2024 Earth pretending that's where the timeline could be fixed. She needed Picard to escape from her 24th century execution. For two reasons: she trusted Picard would free her for morale reasons and - of course - alternative Picard was supposed to be her executioner and was the only one who had the chance to liberate her. But in reality this Queen wanted to go back to 2024 to execute her own cunning plan. In 21st century California she wanted to stop Renée (who - for whatever reasons - is a Picard ancestor? It's that important?) so that this dreadful alternative Terran timeline prevails (It's not clear what Q was up to... He wanted to stop Renée, too. Why? Only to branch off the alternate timeline where he'd Picard fling into? His intervention as her shrink must have had the desired effect: before Picard intervened, Q created an alternate path where she was determined not to fly into space and which ultimately led to the universe of in which Picard became this cruel warrior in the first place. Why wanted Q Picard hurl into this terrible version of the universe? I don't get it. And why do the Romulans represented by the watcher try to protect Renée? Or don't they protect - just observe? How do they know that Renée will be important to the future of the galaxy? And if they knew, why doesn't this particular watcher - is she Laris or not? - doesn't have any clue wether it's best to help or stop Renée from being launched into space?) Back to the Queen: She never wanted to revert the timeline back to the timeline Picard came from. That was just a pretense. She wanted to change this timeline in a different way: Her cunning plan is to assimilate Earth before humans will become a threat. Stopping Renée will somehow preserve the Terran timeline (for reasons not known to us 'cause we don't know what the Europa mission will discover) and she knows this (cause she knew what Q has manipulated? How does she know?). Only preserving this Terran timeline will give the Borg Queen the chance to have a 400 years headstart (the other timeline where Renée flies into space won't allow her plan to materialize. Why? Wouldn't that equally allow her to quickly assimilate the whole Earth before Renée is even back from Europa? And if that's so, why didn't she travel to a time in the year 2024 in which the Europa rocket has been launched w/o Renée, who was discouraged by Q anyway?) During this 400 years time period she would have all the time in the world to assimilate humankind. In a couple of decades the rest of the Borg will eventually expand their space into the alpha quadrant (if the timeline we know from TNG and VOY is an indicator when the Borg will be able to reach Earth) and this Borg Queen (or her successors) will reunite with the collective. By keeping the alternate "Terran" timeline intact she would prevent regular's TNG (in which the Borg are also controlling vast stretches of the galaxy) timeline from ever happening. The Borg would dominate humankind in that alternate timeline long before those violent Terrans even started to develop warp technology and ultimately will have had the chance to defeat the Borg. And then there's Soong who seems to be important to both Q and the Borg Queen, right? Why? This part of the story is still shrouded in mysterious fog

Is that the general idea? Hmmm.... probably not even close. But you see my point right? Who is supposed to understand that w/o consulting the Memory Alpha wiki article? When does a plan become too convoluted to be a believable plan? When does a show's plot become too convoluted to be enjoyable?

Why … does … the … band … just … seamlessly go along with Jurati's singing all of a sudden? It makes no sense. They have no idea who she is. The lights just went out. There was no time for her to make any arrangements with the band for her song. Not only do they happen to know this song and can play it perfectly, but they aren't at all confused by the fact that some random lady has just started singing on a balcony somewhere? At least show a little bit of confusion. Come on. These little things are easy to ignore but they still matter.

The writing in this show is just awful. There's no subtletyl everything is just thrown in to fill in plot holes without any thought for the additional plot holes they generate.

Hated Jurati in season one too, but now she's paired with the Borg Queen, whose acting is especially terrible and not at all in keeping with her character.

Making an entire season set in the present-day is also incredibly boring. This is Star Trek. We want to see cool sci-fi shit, not hear about deportation. Even ignoring that, the story is just so tiresome, I can barely make it through each episode. Still, it beats Discovery any day.

The characters are all just shoved in there in an overt attempt to keep all the original cast relevant for season 2. Laris? Oh let's just make her this "Watcher" person (they'd better have a good explanation for that one…). Elf boy? Yea he's like a ghost now. That girl who was a robot is now some kind of genetic experiment who happens to look exactly like androids hundreds of years in the future. Yea sure Soong must have based her appearance on her but that's still a pretty convenient coincidence. Seven never became a Borg anymore but conveniently she became president of alternate-Earth (by the way, Seven doesn't have any of her Borg implants but Picard is still full of implants? His body belongs to evil-Picard, who just happens to have also been stabbed in the heart? Shrug I guess why not…)

Cory or whatever her name is never looked at Soong's computer before?

And with one episode left to go, The Clone Wars delivered another perfect episode that finally reached the moment that we were all expecting it to reach: Order 66.

Refreshingly avoiding the all-too easy option of repeating excessive scenes from the movie such as the montage of all the Clones turning on the Jedi and not featuring Obi-Wan and Anakin or any of the other Jedi at all full stop, The Clone Wars reminds us at the end what the show has always been about, Ahsoka and Rex. Their story. I'm not lying when I say that this episode full on wrecked me - there was no point in trying to hide Order 66 because we all knew it was coming, and instead, keeping the focus on these two characters rather than going for something much bigger led to a much more impactful moment with the scene where Rex gets his orders from the Darth Sidious being one of the strongest moments that the show has ever done. You can feel the emotion. You can see him trying to fight it and failing. And then there's that moment where he, like the entire army of the republic, switches into cold-blooded hunter the moment the Order is given. I mentioned last week about Revenge of the Sith hitting a little differently on a rewatch; it's not just that: Rebels is going to hit a little differently on a rewatch, a show which I fully plan on revisiting too.

The little touches designed to play to audience's emotions like having the clones in their Tano-coloured helmets salute Ahsoka, and the show reaffirming the bond between Rex and Ahsoka moments before Order 66 happened added up to this emotional gut-punch of a moment even further. We've all seen Revenge of the Sith, we all know this moment was what this season was building towards - yet it doesn't stop it from being arguably, the most emotional moment in the whole series and one of the most emotional moments in the entire franchise, thanks in no small part due to the fact that the writers know that we know what's coming next. The music played a huge role here, which is appropriate - arguably Order 66 wouldn't have had the same impression without that John Williams fanfare in Revenge of the Sith, and the little touches of silence before it lead create a sense of eeriness and fear. I was worried throughout the episode constantly for Ahsoka even if Rebels fans know her fate, and Rex's, after The Clone Wars.

The scenes that the show did include from Revenge of the Sith were chosen perfectly - the council meeting to reaffirm the fact that the Chancellor was involved in something dodgy and to remind us of where we were in the film's timeline (honestly, overlapping this show with the events of the film was the best decision ever - Claudia Gray's Lost Stars did something similiar with the original trilogy and that too worked perfectly so it's not without precedent in the Star Wars universe), and that scene where Ahsoka saw the vision of Anakin turning on Mace and joining Sidious, completing his tragic fall from grace, hit perfectly - especially using the voices of both actors who have played Anakin to sync it up. It was a big, operatic sequence that succeeded on every level.

And then there's Maul. Maul unleashed is Maul at his best, even once defeated the show never stopped reminding us how deadly he was; I love that Ahsoka was smart enough not to give her his lightsaber. We've seen this part so many times where the hero has to trust the villain to escape and the villain inevitably betrays them. Letting Maul go to unleash chaos was exactly what he did - in brutal, visceral fashion, tearing through the Clone army using only the force.

Among the purest representations of what Star Trek is all about, 'Darmok' is near enough a masterpiece. It's a beautiful look at the language barrier between two people when you don't understand how the other person communicates. It's exciting, at times bewildering and ultimately sad.

Of course, it's got issues. The concept of the language based around metaphors seems inherently flawed (how do you have a normal conversation with someone? How do you order a meal off a menu? How do you potty train your child? How do you teach your children the stories in the first place?) but it also works because the point is we find it incomprehensible. It's alien. There are ways to answer my questions (maybe the aliens have some telepathic abilities, or pass down genetic memories) that really don't matter in the grand scheme.

Patrick Stewart is on top form as always, but he's given a run for his money with guest star Paul Winfield as the alien captain. There's also a brief glimpse of a very young Ashley Judd in what looks to be her first ever on-screen acting job, and she will return in the future.

It's a compelling mystery episode with tension and excitement. The crew of the Enterprise all have great scenes trying to solve the problem while Picard struggles to understand his companion and how to stay alive. Also, I really love the uniform jacket that Picard wears here for the first time.

[9.0/10] I loved this. The premise of it is so simple. Two Jedi are sent to rectify one injustice and, instead, discover another. But the consequences are so profound. Master and padawan are sent to rescue the kidnapped son of a senator from the dastardly villains who stole him away. Only, they’re not villainous, and it’s not a handful of bad apples. It’s the whole town, having taken direct action because the supposedly noble senator’s policies have robbed their community of the resources it needs to survive. This is their only, desperate option to make change.

The shift is powerful. The way Dooku comes in, flashing his lightsaber and seemingly ready to impose his will on this backwater berg, only to discover they’re the real victims, is striking. Hell, even the senator’s son ends up sympathetic, despite the fact that he’s the bargaining chip here. And the fact that Senator Dagonet himself shows up, threatening to exact terrible vengeance upon a hurting people, shows that despite his exalted position and the Jedi’s obligations to the senate, the cause of these supposed malcontents opposing him is a righteous one, and he’s not worthy of a Jedi’s honor or protection.

You don’t want to make too much out of one incident, but it’s a microcosm of the psychology that will lead Dooku and Qui Gon down very different, yet still related, paths. Dooku sees the rot within the Republic’s government, and is ready to root it out by any means necessary. He’s ready to use terrible force (and Force) against the corrupt and the shameless like Dagonet. Here, his anger is righteous too. His force choke, while terrifying, is pointed in the right direction. You can see how this noble starting point -- a belief that his loyalty lies with the people, not with a corruptible government -- could make him sympathetic, yet also lead him down a dark road.

You can see the observe of that for Qui Gon. He doesn’t want his master to suffer the consequences of murdering a senator. So he goes off to free the son who’s the source of this trouble whose presence convinces Dooku to relent. He too is ready to act to preserve life, less angry, more young and innocent than Dooku is now. But he too will, at some point, decide that observing rules and protocols for their own sake is a fool's game when kidnapping a senator's son can be both legally wrong and morally right under the circumstances. The spark this experience ignites in both of them as consequences that run through the most important parts of the Star Wars saga.

I appreciate the simplicity of the fable, the moody tone of it, and the ethical weight that hangs over everyone. The art styles continues to be improved from The Clone Wars days, with my only complaint that a semi-realistic rendition of a young Liam Neeson seems a little mismatched spending so much time standing next to a more stylized version of young Christopher Lee.

Overall though, this was fantastic, having the standalone beauty and purpose behind its story of one of the Visions shorts, while also presenting important shifts in character that ripple through the broader story told across the franchise.

[8.3/10] I’ve played a couple of Star Wars games recently where high ranking Imperials defect to join the good guys. And to be honest, it feels cheap. There’s a real opportunity when exploring a villain’s perspective. Why someone chooses to do evil, or at least do harm, is a rich vein to examine. These games squander that opportunity, with the (theoretically) bad guys simply seeing the Empire do one more bad thing and declaring, as Britta from Community once put it, “I don’t know why, but this is the last straw.”

But that’s why I love what The Bad Batch does with Crosshair here. He’s not just a generic amoral villain who fights for his love of evil. He has complex, believable motivations behind the choices that he makes, choices he hashes out with Hunter. I’ll cop to being a sucker for those kinds of philosophical conversations between old friends (hello fellow Star Trek crossover fans!), but they give depth to the major antagonist of this show’s stellar first season.

The rest of the Bad Batch is grappling with what to do now that there’s no more missions. Crosshair has found his, or at least, a new institution that gives him the clarity that comes with orders. The rest of the Bad Batch struggled with the fact that one of their own turned on them, trying to take their lives. But Crosshair is the one who feels abandoned and betrayed, as though his brothers turned their back not only on what they fought and stood for, but on him. And while the Bad Batch had loyalty to the Republic and remains wary of what the Empire is up to, Crosshair sees the power and potential in this new galactic force that could allow him and his brothers to do more in this new age.

In short, he has comprehensible reasons for how he feels about the Empire, his former comrades, and most importantly himself. He’s granted a believable inner life in all of this. More than anything, The Bad Batch makes him into a tragic figure, one who still has loyalty to his brothers, who wants to fight alongside them, but who’s been too enmeshed in all of this for too long to see things with the moral lens Hunter and the rest of the team do.

And then “Return to Kamino” drops the bomb. Crosshair had his inhibitor chip removed. Questions of how and when abound. But regardless, it makes his position and his thoughts that much stronger and more complicated, because they’re his own. Most of Crosshair’s actions to this point could be written off as a product of a control mechanism cranked up to eleven. But now he’s ostensibly free, and still wants to fight for the bad guys, albeit with his brothers at his side rather than at the other end of his blaster.

Oh yeah, and they also have to stave off a base full of stormtroopers, survive an assault from a bunch of battle droids, and find shelter as Admiral Rampart destroys the Kaminoan cloning facility. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy, right?

There’s a sense of things coming fully circle to all of this. Not only is it a reunion for the Bad Batch as originally constituted (or at least after Echo joined the team), but it takes place in the same battle arena where Admiral Rampart tested their abilities in the first episode. The danger is enough for Crosshair and Hunter to stop targeting one another and take on the common threat, a sign that their camaraderie isn’t dead.
It’s strangely heartening (albeit a little puzzling) when Crosshair chooses to kill his stormtrooper team in order to give the rest of the Bad Batch a second chance to join him. It’s rousing when the group sets aside their differences to show a united front in this battle, much as they did in the series’s first episode. And its bittersweet when Hunter and Crosshair have a post-skirmish showdown, and Hunter shoots his friend, but on stun rather than kill.

Omega is sidelined for most of this. I imagine she’ll get more focus in the season finale. She proves useful not only in navigating the cloning facility, but in creating distractions and teaming up with good old AZI-3 to neutralize some stormtroopers on her own. In particular, we get another hint at her suffering some trauma in a cloning lab (much like the one in “Battle Scars”). She’s clearly upset when having to go back to Nala Se’s lab, even as she pushes through for the good of her team. The episode sets up things for her here, even if she isn’t as big a presence as in other installments.

But her influence is still felt, particularly in how she’s moved Hunter over the course of the season. Despite the better part of valor being to just run, despite the safest thing to do being to eliminate Crosshair after all the trouble he’s caused them, Hunter decides to save his villainous brother-in-arms instead. It’s a choice of understanding. Hunter plainly disagrees with Crosshair’s ideas, but he thinks the fellow clone can be saved, and deserves to be given the chance that he tried to give them. It’s a sense of altruism and understanding toward those who need help, even when it creates more danger, that Omega’s represented from the beginning, when she told Crosshair it wasn’t his fault.

Much of The Bad Batch has felt like a postscript to Star Wars: The Clone Wars so far. The show’s examined what someone bred for war does when the war is over. What side do you choose, what orders do you follow, when the body giving those orders has dramatically changed? There’s a desire among some of our heroes to go back to the way things were, or at least a wistfulness about the certainty of their role in the war ending.

The destruction of the Kamino cloning facility is a dramatic ending, creating a series of explosions and mortal threats for our heroes to survive. (Which they will -- my bet is on Omega leading them to safety via more tubes.) It’s a practical ending, as the industrial clone production has ended in favor of stormtroopers, and the Empire is holding the cloning technology. (Pickled Snokes, anyone?) But it’s also a symbolic ending, for the legions of clones birthed there, a last bastion of how things used to be rended to rubble. From here, there is no going back.

We’ve seen Hunter, Omega, and the rest decide that the way forward means helping people, even when it’s not easy. We’ve seen other clones like Rex, Cut, and Gregor struggle to make their way in the new world. And now we’ve seen Crosshair, fully liberated, choosing to side with the Empire. Showing that spectrum, making each clones choice understandable, makes for a deeper conflict, and a sort of evil more tragic and insidious than any run of the mill Imperial bad guy can muster.

I looked forward to this not because I've been blown away by the recent Marvel films - by the time Endgame arrived, I was past humouring the franchise if I'm honest - but because Scarlett Johansson deserved a standalone film before her time was up.

The worst Marvel film so far for me was Captain Marvel. Just tedious, inconsequential, Marvel-by-the-numbers. This is now 2nd on their list of piss poor films.

The opening 20 minutes were really good. Setting a scene that could have rivalled Winter Soldier - for me, the best of the franchise so far. But once the sisterly reunion was over, it went downhill fast. I think it was the cumulative effect of so many ropey accents. Even cockney geezer Ray Winstone shouldn't be given a role if he refuses to do voice lessons... Quite unforgivable.

I liked Olga Kurylenko, as always. I disliked that her stunt double was clearly a man for the first 2/3 of the film. How is that meant to be ratified by the viewer?

I thought the constant humour was an effort to be Thor Ragnorok-like because, you know, "all Australians are funny"... but that didn't work. And jokes about involuntary hysterectomies don't fall right 99 times out of 100, I'm guessing.

The plot was staid. The action generic. The script fine, I suppose, had it not been for those dreadful accents throughout. And the confinement of the time line needing to fit in with the rest of the franchise meant it was always going to end at a point we all knew it needed to. So the ending really was a damp squib.

5/10

PS. One thing that irked me a little was the unnecessary complaint by SJ during press for the film about feeling sexualised (though I don't recall where in the myriad plots) . Clearly the director and her had an agreement to do tracking shots of her arse several times during this film. If that's not hypocrisy, I don't know what is. For a film this average, I won't be holding a grudge though as I won't remember a single thing about this movie tomorrow.