[8.5/10] Well, if you want to get my attention with a new Star Wars show, kicking things off with a badass wire-fu fight with none other than Trinity herself, Carrie-Anne Moss, as a Jedi Master, will absolutely do it!
What a breath of fresh air this is! From that action-packed opening sequence, The Acolyte grabs your attention with verve and character. There are lived in touches, a sense of mystery and excitement, and most of all an immediate whiff of who every major character is and what they mean to the story. It’s easier to set up interesting things than it is to pay them off, but if this first hour is any indication, it’s going to be easy to be along for the ride.
I cannot say enough good things about the opening sequence. Maybe I’m a sucker, but so much modern action, including in Star Wars media of recent vintage, is chopped up all to hell in the editing bay. That kind of choice neuters the impact of the fights for me. So taking a cue from Moss’ turn in The Matrix and not only embracing those wire fu influences, but letting us see the fight in longer shots and a more measured pace and cinematography really lights my fire.
Plus man, for all of the Japanese cinema influences in Star Wars, I’m not sure we’ve ever gotten a legitimate kung fu fight on screen in the franchise. (“The Duel” from Star Wars: Visions has a bit of that, and I guess we get brief glimpses of Qi’ra from Solo doing a bit of martial arts as well.) The frantic motion of Mae and the more measured movements of Indara’s response help sell the difference between one who’s still learning and full of emotion versus a centered master. The fight itself is glorious, with well-staged action and strong visual storytelling and choreography. And the clincher -- that Indara falls not from mistake or being bested in combat, but from saving an innocent, makes her a noble and tragic figure, while justifying how this skilled but comparative amateur could take her down.
And that's just the opening scene! Dayenu -- it would have been enough.
From there, the episode splits into two story threads that eventually intersect: Osha, a former padawan being questioned and detained for the murder, and Sol, her former master, deciding to track her down. Both stories work, and the place they weave together is especially meaningful.
I appreciate the twist here. The show does a good job of suckering you into thinking that Osha committed this crime on her day off from being a “mechnik”. She has the ability, given her former training. She has the reason for resentment, having seemingly been expelled from the order thanks to Master Indara. And she has a tortured past, of great loss of her family that, as we saw with Anakin, can lead a young force-sensitive person to some inner demons. So it’s entirely plausible, even expected, that she’s the one going toe-to-toe with Indara in the opening.
I’m not always a fan of big twists, but I appreciate the reveal that it was, in fact, her twin sister who went against Indara for a few reasons. One, it’s meaningful for Osha. To learn that the sister she thought was long dead is still out there and assassinating her former allies leads to complex emotions. For another, it portends an intriguing opportunity for “for want of a nail” storytelling, showing where the different paths of daughters from the same family led them.
Most of all, it puts is in the position of Master Sol and the other Jedi, being intuitively sympathetic to this young woman who seems friendly, funny, and earnest, while wondering if the difficult things she’s been through have caught up to her in some way. Playing with the audience’s sympathies and expectations like that, to connect them to the characters’ perspectives, is the right way to use a twist, instead of just using a reveal for shock value.
Osha’s misadventures along the way are fun and sympathetic. I love the sense of her scraping by as a low-rent nomadic mechnik after leaving the order, keeping her spirits up but just getting by. I like that, through Yord at least, the Jedi seem like smug cops rather than noble monks, who are railroading Osha. I like her excitement on the prison transport, where she’s bitten by her altruism, but empathizes and saves others, which should be our proof that she’s not the one who took out Indara. All these scenes reveal character in a compelling way, and Amandla Stenberg does a stellar job inhabiting the role.
There is also such exquisite texture! The opening scene has a real old world village cantina vibe, and should make Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon fans cheer. Her talking tool droid, Pip, is frickin’ adorable and endearing, and I can easily imagine every nerdy kid watching this show wanting one of their own. The ship designs are memorable and distinctive inside and out. (I especially like the droid-run prison transport.) And the different species represented are memorable and original. (The cyborg dude is especially striking.) Plus hey, the Trade Federation aliens are well done and familiar to anyone who watched the Prequels growing up.
Speaking of which, this version of the Jedi feels particularly indebted to the Prequels. There’s great discussion of the danger of attachments, of training someone who’s too old and has been through too much, of the Order’s political enemies. Setting this show a century before Revenge of the Sith frees you from a lot of the continuity shackles other Star Wars stories have to contend with, so it’s interesting that The Acolyte seems to be picking up themes and concepts from the Prequel era.
That not only includes Yord, who already seems to be the show’s stick in the mud, but from Master Vernestra, who seems more interested in wrapping up this matter quickly than in seeking justice. Heck, Master Sol even feels a bit akin to Qui Gon Jinn, someone who’s patient and wizened, but who allows himself a more emotional connection and less rigid view than the Order.
I like Sol a lot. Making the deuteragonist a master who still cares for his padawan, and is trying to balance that care and trust against his obligations to his order, makes for a compelling mix. He’s a good match for Jecki, his quietly caustic current padawan. And he’s a good counterpoint to Osha, someone who represents a difficult part of her past, but who still plainly has her best interests at heart.
The moment where he seeks her out is well done too. There’s a real The Fugitive vibe to the confrontation, with an appropriately Jedi twist. And most importantly, Sol believes his former pupil. When she’s desperate and running for her life and confronted with destabilizing surprises about her past and her family, he still trusts and accepts her. That is powerful, and portends worthwhile things to come.
The Acolyte leaves us with teases of potential sith-adjacent interlopers and weaponless threats and internal politics within the High Republic. Those are tantalizing enough as teases. But what I appreciate most about this opening hour is the good nuts and bolts work we get: in the cinematic craft, in the well-defined and sympathetic character dynamics, and in the way the script plays with our expectations. If The Acolyte can keep this up, it has a promising future ahead.
(Spoilers for Star Wars: The Clone Wars: There’s many ways in which Osha’s story seems like a reinterpretation of Ahsoka’s. Everything from the fugitive hunt to the master who still loves and trusts her, to the Jedi Order dealing with political pressures give you the sense of what Anakin’s padawan went through. Obviously Ahsoka never had an evil twin, but it’s interesting to see the franchise revisit that story shape in a different time and place. I’m not complaining! I love that storyline, and I’m excited at the notion of exploring Osha’s relationship with the Jedi and the Force through this lens.)
[7.7/10] Let’s start with the superficial and work our way to the substantive.
There is something inherently cool about a Jedi Master who has taken such a vow, showed such discipline, reached some level of enlightenment to where they can basically levitate in place,n protected by a seemingly impenetrable force bubble, that can withstand even the most fervent attacks. We’re only two episodes in but what I like about the Acolyte is that it’s already expanding what we think and know of the Jedi. Using the HIgh Republic era as a playground for new and unique uses of the Force, that pose different challenges for even a trained assassin like Mae, helps make the Jedi feel amazing again, rather than rote and known.
The same goes for Sol’s fight with Mae on Olega. Maybe I will get tired of the wire fu approach at some point, but for now, it remains a thrill. Watching Mae fight with all her might, while Master Sol displays an economy of movement akin to master Indara from the last episode, remains incredibly cool. The nigh-literal dust-up between them, with furious attacks and calm blocks, again displays the differences in disposition between studied master and hungry student.
What I appreciate, though, is that neither of these exist just for the sake of coolness or sheer thrills. (Which, if I’m being pointed, is a criticism that can be leveled at J.J. Abrams’ Star Wars films, even the parts I like.)
Master Torbin’s force bubble isn’t just a unique obstacle for Mae. It means she has to find a way to get to her target beyond the sheer force that is already her calling card. The fact that she doesn't kill Torbin, but rather provides him poison to kill himself and end his guilt over what happened on Brendok is a piercing, fascinating choice. The moment where she offers him an exit, and after so much stillness and silence, he descends to accept this offering, feels monumental. And his uttering one more apology before drinking the poison sells the magnitude of what must have happened in mae’s past tremendously.
Credit to the writers. I can get really tired of mystery boxes in genre fix. (Thanks again, J.J.!) But in moments like this one, where characters’ choices are informed by a past we’re not fully privy to yet, the magnitude of those choices makes us care about and anticipate the reveal of Mae and the Jedi’s history without needing to know it right now. As someone who came of age during the Prequel movies, it’s easy to see the Jedi as a flawed institution. But meeting four Jedi who were a party to whatever happened ito Mae and Osha, and who are all clearly haunted by it, to where someone like Torbin would go to these extremes, gives you a sense of how significant that event must be, and why Mae must be so desperate for revenge.
That ties into her fight with master Sol. He’s less interested in defeating her than disarming her, both mentally and physically. From a sheer plot standpoint, the fact that even Mae doesn't know the identity of her master is an interesting little twist. But more to the point, Sol trying to get through to Mae, to help her move past what happened, gives their fight more meaning than even the most thrilling of fisticuffs could.
I also appreciate how Master Sol is in the middle of two extremes here. On the one hand, he seems frustrated by the Jedi strictures and bureaucracy. He bristles at Master Vernestra telling him the Jedi must convene a committee before he can follow-up on Mae’s fugitive run. He rejects Yord’s warning that sending Osha in to deceive the apothecary would violate various precepts. He seems annoyed at best at how Jedi practice doesn't always align with real lif needs.
But at the same time, he tells Osha to let go of her grief, of her attachments in the past, in a way that seems as though he’s telling her not to be human. On the one hand, you can sympathize. He sees how these complicated feelings about what happened have harmed both Osha and Mae, and wants to offer a method to attain peace with them. On the other hand, he still seems haunted by them, as do his colleagues. So it’s rousing when Osha basically tells him, You're not my master anymore; you don’t get to tell me what to do .”
I’m surprisingly receptive to notions that, as cool as the Jedi are, they are a terribly flawed body. (see also: their morally questionable use of invasive mind control tricks, including on Mae.) The idea that they made a grand error on Brendok, covered it up or minimized it, and are facing the choes of it in Mae and Osha is a resonant throughline.
I also appreciate how we have some structure here. Mae has a Kill BIll-esque list of the Jedi she wants revenge on. She has a particular challenge -- to defeat one without using a weapon -- that puts her at an additional disadvantage but gives her a cause and an objective. And the way these aren't random targets, but rather people she feels have wronged her adds extra juice to the proceedings.
So do the side characters. I kind of enjoy how much of a dick Yord is, but I also appreciate that he’s not actively evil or anything, to where he stands up for Osh when she’s accused of murdering Torbin. I’m increasingly entertained by Jecki, her willingness to call Yord’s plan stupid, and her cleverness in coming up with a much better and more effective one. And as a Good Place fan, it’s nice to see Manny Jacinto as Qimir, a feckless apothecary aligned with Mae who feels appropriately rough around the edges.
This is also a good episode for Mae. It’s not easy for her to be around Sol again, or to have him judge the life she’s made for herself since leaving the order. The tender and fraught rekindling of their partnership is one of the best things about the show so far. It adds a certain charge and sadness to every scene where they’re together.
Likewise, it’s nice to see Osha and Mae confront one another, after each believed the other was dead. (And, not for nothing, it neutralizes my theory that maybe Mae is the dark side taking over Osha’s subconscious or something.) The fact that after everything each has been through, the connection shared and lost, Osha ultimately provides for Mae’s escape rather than bringing her in, portends more interesting things to come.
Overall, once again, The Acolyte blends compelling intrigue, exciting action, and meaningful character work to produce another pleasing episode of television.
Hilariously, this is not a political film.
Coming from a background in photography and art, I appreciated the cinematography a lot. It felt like they looked right at me and said these shots are for you. Additionally, I was proud of Jessie becoming a photojournalist as the film went on. She started as enthusiast but as the movie went on you could see her learning and becoming more hardened. I also appreciated that she was shooing on film. So many moments in the film I could feel myself seeing the "right shot" and while Jessie missed some of them, she also got them too, especially at the end where she becomes actualized.
As someone with an education in psychology, I also really appreciated the film's portrayal of the artist. Both in Lee and Jessie. One dying as one, and the other becoming one. The changes in both of their mindsets and reactions to the events they encounter were interesting and I loved that there were small moments where the two of them got to reflect and contrast each other.
As a fellow viewer, I don't think this isn't for the lighthearted. I watched this not knowing anything about the film and walked out really impressed but also knowing that many people were not going to like this movie. Most of my friends were less enthusiastic about the film. Unfortunately the film was marketed to be more political, violent, and action adventure-y. It's not. It's gory, dramatic, and introspective. I warn people that this film is about war journalism and being an artist. The people behind me may have appreciated a warning like that because they were mostly bored throughout the film and gave the movie a lower score than I - and I can't blame them. It was not an action movie. But for those who seek the stories of the human condition, this was a masterpiece.
The revival wasn’t bad, but it also wasn’t any where near as funny as the original. I wanted to love it, but it was very like every CBS sitcom, like" "Mike and Molly" for example.
The competence on display really reminds you that the best of the original series was a masterclass in ensemble cast work. Kelsey slips into the role like a pair of socks, as for the rest of the cast, I'm reserving my judgment until I’ve watched at least a few more episodes.
Definitely feels like they're just trying to replace characters like for like. I get that David is basically doing his best Niles impression, but something isn’t clicking here, so far he seems to have been written like Shelton from Big Bang Theory to me rather than Niles. Flipping the Martin/Frasier dynamic with Frasier/Freddie just feels like "been there, done that". I'm worried about Frasier not having anyone to snob around with, I felt that his and Niles' discussions about clothing, opera etc. were quite important. Alan doesn't seem to fill that slot, and neither does David.
The canned laughter is spoiling the funny bits. It's on almost every damn line. Do people really need to be told when to laugh?
I’m hoping that it gets funnier as the characters develop.
This will probably become more beloved than Dune for being a bigger, more action driven film. Personally I prefer the first film by a long shot, but there's a lot to like here. I loved Paul's new journey for this installment as it doesn't develop in the way you'd expect based on the ending of the first film. The themes of colonialism, false prophecies and religion reach a level of depth that cannot be found in other sci-fi/fantasy contemporaries like Lord of the Rings or Star Wars; this film certainly made me understand why this story is taken so seriously as a piece of literature. Despite the source material being so old, there's still something new and refreshing about it. You don't often see major Hollywood productions calling out religion as a manipulative force helping the people in power. On top of that this brilliantly subverts the concept of the hero's journey we've become accustomed to by everything that was in one way or another inspired by Dune. The acting is pretty great, Timothée does a great job at playing the transition Paul goes through. Despite his boyish looks I was sold on his performance as the leader of the Fremen. Rebecca Ferguson and Javier Bardem are also scene stealers. The visuals are once again mindblowing, in terms of set/costume design, cinematography and CGI this is as close to perfection as you could get to right now. The vision and scope of this movie are truly unmatched, which leads to some breathtaking sequences that I'll remember for a while (sandworm ride; the black/white arena fight; knife fight during the third act).
However, for all the praise I have for Dune: Part 2, I think Denis is being uncharacteristically sloppy with this film. First of all, Bautista and Butler feel like they're ripped from a different franchise altogether. Their over the top, cartoonish performances are more suited for something like Mad Max than the nuanced world of Dune. The bigger cracks start to appear when you look at the writing. The brief moments where the movie pokes fun at religious zealots through Javier Bardem's character, while funny, probably won't age very well. Like the first movie, it has a tendency to rely too much on exposition and handholding, a problem which might be worse here. I feel like a lot of the subtlety is lost in order to make the movie more normie proof, and that's quite annoying for a movie with artistic ambitions like this one. For example, there's this scene where Léa Seydoux seduces Austin Butler's character, and everything you need to know as a viewer is communicated through Butler's performance. Cut to the next scene, where Seydoux is all but looking at the camera saying "he's a psychopath, he's violent, he wants power, etc.". I just feel like compared to Villeneuve's precise work on Blade Runner 2049, he's consciously dumbing it down here. It's understandable and somewhat excusable for a complex story like Dune, but he occasionally takes it too far for my liking. Then there's the love story subplot between Chani and Paul, which almost entirely misses the mark for me. It feels rushed, there's no chemistry between the actors and some of the lines are painfully cheesy. Because of that, the emotional gutpunch their story eventually reaches during the third act did little for me. Finally, I'm a little dissatisfied with the use of sound. I loved the otherworldly score Zimmer came up with for the first Dune, however this film is so ridiculously bombastic and low-end heavy that it starts to feel like a parody of his work with Christopher Nolan. For the final action beat of the film Villeneuve cuts out the film's score, and it becomes all the more satisfying for it.
Overall, I recommend this film, however maybe temper those expectations if you're expecting a masterpiece. There's a lot to admire, but it's flawed.
6.5/10
[6.9/10] This was pretty easily my least favorite episode of The Acolyte so far, and a big part of my complaints is that the dialogue is painfully clunky here. This is Star Wars, so not every line has to be the most poetic or natural thing you’ve ever heard. But the conversations in this episode feel so stilted and declaratory. You have characters outright announcing their emotional states in a jarring way. The actors do their best to make up for it, and some of them manage to inject some emotion and feeling into otherwise tin-eared lines. (The actress who plays Jecki does a particularly good job of this.) But when the words being exchanged by the characters feel so awkward and obvious, and it’s a dialogue-heavy episode, you’re going to have problems.
The production design and location scouting helps make up for some of it though! My goodness, Khofar looks lovely. It’s easy to shoot lush verdant landscapes and wow the audience. But the art direction team also does a lovely job of making the planet seem like a deep, interwoven jungle that's alive and treacherous. (For those of you who’ve played Fallen Order it feels true to the Wookiee environment on Kashyyyk in that game.) Plus, Master Kalnacca’s camp seems incredibly cozy, with shades of the freakin’ Ewok films of all things. Even as the narrative presentation falters a little bit, this is a nice place to spend half an hour in, which helps.
That said, it’s not just the dialogue that suffers here; it’s the character choices. Mae and Osha’s reactions to one another seem sudden and jarring, to the point that I wondered if both were feints at first. I get that Oshi being alive would be a big deal for Mae, but all of a sudden she’s ready to give up her entire quest and turn herself into the Jedi and give up her master? It’s not inconceivable as a character choice, but I think you need more build to that notion to make it meaningful. Here I almost thought she was just messing with Qimir. All we;’ve gotten from Mae so far is this firm resolve and determination to complete her mission, so to turn on a dime like that feels implausible.
The same goes for Oshi asking the annoying prig Yord to kill her sister if she has to. I get the idea that Osha thinks she’s incapable of doing it and wants to make sure someone can handle it. But again, the conversation is awkwardly written, and going from “I can't hurt my sister” to “I want to make sure someone else can” feels like a big leap.
I do like that we get the awkward dynamic of Osha being on a Jedi mission as a civilian. Her status as an ex-Jedi with her former crew pays some dividends, and her budding friendship with Jecki is especially endearing. The theme of different cultures’ reactions to death and loss is a potent one. And on a pure fun level, Basil the tracker is a memorable design and addition.
That said, I’m less up on the partnership between Mae and Qimir. Not to belabor the point, but it’s where the dialogue is at its worst and most emotionally expository, which doesn’t help. But it also feels like the writers are tiptoeing around something in a graceless way that makes their interactions seem off. (Speculative spoilers:I’m sticking with my prediction that Mae’s master is one of her moms, but my backup guess is that it’s actually Qimir, and the show’s trying to pull a legit Darth Jar Jar by taking a jokey character and turning him into a secret menace. There’s at least something more going on with him, I think, and I’m not entirely sure what.)
Otherwise, I do appreciate that the awkward relationship between Osha and Sol continues. In a way, Sol is using her, while catching heat from his superiors. But he also doesn’t want Mae hurt. His intentions are good, even if his methods are questionable, which is a compelling way to write a parental figure.
Plus hey, halfway through the series, it’s about time we got a little more from our dark side force-wielder. So even if it’s just a tease, seeing Mae’s master show up, compel Osha as an adult much as the Jedi did when she was a kid, and then casually flick away Sol’s forces, gives the baddie a formidable introduction.
Overall, this is still the lowlight of the season to date, especially given the tepid lines that pervade it, but there’s some promise for things to come.
[8.0/10] Another blast of a short piece for Star Wars: Visions! I will admit I’m a sucker for this shtick in particular, if for no other reason than I grew a big pop punk fan, so musically, this was right up my alley. Your mileage may vary, of course. But hearing a bunch of Star Wars characters rock out in such fanciful tones was a treat for me.
But I also like the pure story of this one. Having a young padawan type who goes underground and becomes a rock singer, at the same time he’s paired up with a Hutt who doesn’t want to go into the family business and is marked for death because of it, makes for a unique and compelling premise. It’s a sort of Billy Elliot type story of “Just let me do my thing, dad”, but in an enjoyable, light sort of way.
The artists do a good job of blending the traditional Star Wars style and familiar faces with a an anime world and tone. The voice acting was well-done too, with Joseph Gordon Levitt returning to his Treasure Planet roots as the protagonist, and Disney go-to Bobby Moynihan making the bass-playing Hutt both funny and endearing.
Their escape from the baddies, the friendship of the band, and especially the closing Tatooine number that’s rocking enough to earn ol’ Jabba’s approval made this one a top notch lark of a story, with just enough heart between Hutt and youngling to make it meaningful.
[7.8/10] Let's address the elephant in the room first. I don't love the fact that Jack turns out to be Picard's son. The long lost offspring is a big cliché, and Wrath of Khan influences or not, I could probably do without it.
That said, I like how Star Trek: Picard uses it here. The bad guys want Picard and the Titan to turn Jack over. It prompts one of those classic, Next Generation-style moral dilemmas that were always so fascinating. Do you hand him over to the bad guys because, true to that Wrath of Khan homage, the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, and there's 500 crew members at risk? Or do you stand your ground because, scoundrel or not, this young man deserves a fair trial and a chance at rehabilitation rather than swift judgment and likely a summary execution.
This is Star Trek, so we pretty much know how it's going to go down. But seeing Picard explore the issue, get to know this kid, see if there's a way out of this situation through guile or diplomacy, is some classic TNG-esque stuff. Sure, it's all magnified with the grittiness and bombast of modern television, but I appreciate that this is, at base, the kind of boardroom debate where the philosophical meets the practical that was the lifeblood of the old show.
So was the personal getting in the way of all this. I appreciate how Picard elides the questions of this young man's parentage because he already knows the answer in his heart and doesn't want to confront it. But I love how all it takes is one look from Beverly, a soft exchange of expressions that shows they still have the intuitive shorthand of twenty years ago, and he can deny the truth no longer. This is his son, a son as reckless but valiant as they once were, and by god, they're going to protect him.
For all the added pomp and circumstance, that's the core of this one, and for that reason alone, borrowing the rhythms that made The Next Generation famous, this is one of my favorite outings from Star Trek: Picard yet, despite the questionable cliché at the heart of the story.
[7.3/10] This was fine, which is more than I can say for most of season 2. It didn't really rise above that, and is mostly coasting on nostalgia, but hey, I'll take it for now. The best part is the chemistry between Patrick Stewart and Jonathan Frakes. Honestly, they should have added Frakes as Riker from the beginning, if only because Stewart seems so much more vibrant and engaged playing off his friend. Even the bog standard plot points here are better with the old pals bantering their way through them.
I also like Seven's story here, of feeling prejudice based on her ex-Borg status, and feeling sanded down by having to conform to rigid Starfleet protocol. Her breaking ranks to do what's right and help our TNG heroes is a nice beat for her.
That said, the rest of this is solid enough but unspectacular. How many times have we seen Raffi scoping out a conspiracy, or some catastrophe at a Starfleet site, or a firefight with bad guy alien types? I'm also leery of the reveal of Beverly's son, which has some Wrath of Khan-type implications in the air.
But hey, for now, given how awful a taste season 2 left in my mouth, I'll take something that falls into "not bad" territory without question for the time being.
Weakest episode so far. Not much really happens: a car chase, Agnes in a very shallow and boring conversation with the Queen (is she an ally or a foe?), being not very subtly preached about contemporary immigration policies (which could have probably been better told by integrating this into the more fictional 2024 bell riots instead of telling a story about contemporary politics), Picard encountering the next person that represents mostly inconsequential fan service.
We are four episodes into this season and still I don't understand what they are doing there, what they are looking for, who's involved, what's their goal. And neither do the protagonists seem to know (with perhaps the exception of the Queen who won't tell. Why not? Didn't she take them to the past so they could get a job done for her? Why wouldn't she tell them their goal?). I gave this season much leeway to tell the story and I liked that the story was bit mysterious and opaque and slow but four episodes in, the story needs to be more concise and more consequential. I don't want to watch the protagonists get lost in contemporary California, experience mini-adventures (as much fun diversion this night be) but not to know what they are really supposed to do 'cause their mission is shrouded by some sort of - what seems to me - artificial riddles which were only added by writers to fill time.
[7.6/10] I’ll confess, I haven’t seen much anime. The most I’ve watched is Miyazaki films, Akira, a few random episodes of Dragon Ball Z, and...[ducks]...Avatar: The Last Airbender.
So I say, as a total layman, this is the Star Wars: Visions episode that felt the most anime-esque to me. I’m not 100% sure why that is, but I think it comes down to a few tropes of the genre I’ve picked up through osmosis. (Or, more accurately, through probably unfair parodies and summations.) The character designs feature big eyes and big crazier hair. There’s a lot of over-the-top fights with the major players hamming it up as they speechify against one another mid-battle. There’s also a sort of breathless, one-upping power-up quality to the confrontation between the titular twins.
Despite all that exaggeratedness and conceits of the genre, I still liked this one quite a bit! It’s a boon to get Allison Brie, NPH, and even Mr. DiMartino himself, Marc Thompson on board with this. I love the idea of roughly reimagining A New Hope as though Luke and Leia had been born and raised in the dark side. And while their big fight is, perhaps, a little less realistic and a little more impressionistic and fanciful than the prior two outings from Visions, I appreciate the variety and creativity at play here.
This is the episode that feels the most like Genndy Tartakovsky’s 2003 2-D Clone Wars series -- a Star Wars story that feels more like a tall tale with wild animation and Jedi powers taken up to eleven. And yet, there’s also a thematic root here, of the bond between Luke and Leia, of trying to redeem someone who’s gone to the darkside, of trying to protect the people you love no matter what, that feels true to Star Wars, even as the short goes off on a wild, Legends-esque flights of fancy.
This is the episode that feels the most conspicuous in nodding to the rest of Star Wars. We get (I think?) our first “I’ve got a bad feeling about this.” We get a “Do or do not, there is no try.” We get slightly off versions of Artoo and Threepio with their appropriate counterparts. We even get what feels like a General Grievous reference with faux-Leia’s multi-armed lightsaber attack.
Plus, not for nothing, this short feels specifically indebted to The Last Jedi, which is a feature, not a bug, in my book. The Force tug of war over the kyber crystal feels akin to a similar moment of Rey and Kylo pulling at Anakin’s lightsaber from opposite ends. Faux-Leia floating through space is reminiscent of the infamous (and over-criticized) “Carrie Poppins” moment. And faux-Luke’s hyperspace blast to smash his sister’s power armor calls to mind the Holdo Maneuver, especially with the silent shipside view that follows.
On the whole, “The Twins” is a little more extreme and what I would consider traditionally anime-esque than the prior two shorts. But the creative team behind it does what it does well, with cool, out there animation and strong hook for the darkside twins at the center of the story.
[7.0/10] This is the first Star Wars: Visions episode that didn’t do much for me. It’s largely fine. Totally watchable, especially as a short, with some neat flourishes. But it lacks the more transcendent or enjoyable elements of the other episodes we’ve received so far.
I do love the idea here. Mixing together A New Hope with Pinocchio is a neat idea, and the Science Saru team has fun with it. The animation here is a little cutesier than in the other shorts, but the character designs are endearing (and in the case of the Inquisitor, appropriately scary). And the bumpy movements and changing perspectives are a lot of fun visually.
It’s just hard to connect with what’s going on given some of the other stylistic differences. Maybe it’s a cultural storytelling thing, but there’s little build or cause and effect or connective tissue between scenes here. Events just sort of happen one after the other, very quickly, without a strong sense of one progressing to the other. Some of that, I’m sure, is a result of condensing the traditional “young hero becomes Jedi” story down to thirteen minutes or so. But while we get motivation, conflict, and self-actualization here, they all seem to happen arbitrarily.
Also, this one can be really annoying. The score and sound effects are just a cacophony of bleep-bloopy noises that only sporadically coalesce into a melody and detract from more serious scenes. The young actor who voices T0-B1 is doing his best, but the delivery calls to mind poor Jake Lloyd in The Phantom Menace, which isn’t something to aspire to. On a minute-to-minute basis, this episode is more actively pestersome than anything else in Visions so far.
Despite that, I’m hard-pressed not to be at least a little touched by a young droid kid who wants to become a Jedi and, in finding his way toward the Light, becomes a real boy. The change from his master and creator (Kyle Chandler as an old “almost Jedi”!) calling him “Tee Oh Bee One” to calling him “Toby” cleverly signifies that change, and Toby’s newfound calling to live up to his father’s legacy and help bring back life to the galaxy is a cheerful one.
On the whole, this would be my lowest rated Visions episode of the first six, but it still has enough to recommend it.
Watching order
Because there are some issues with watching this, here is the order.
Copying from the site in case it ever goes down, but this info came from here: http://thunderpeel2001.blogspot.com/2010/02/battlestar-galactica-viewing-order.html
It's probably more confusing here on trakt, so go to the above linked site for a better layout.
The Miniseries
Night 1
Night 2
Season 1
1.01 33
1.02 Water
1.03 Bastille Day
1.04 Act of Contrition
1.05 You Can't Go Home Again
1.06 Litmus
1.07 Six Degrees of Separation
1.08 Flesh and Bone
1.09 Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down
1.10 The Hand of God
1.11 Colonial Day
1.12 Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part I
1.13 Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part II
Season 2
2.01 Scattered
2.02 Valley of Darkness
2.03 Fragged
2.04 Resistance
2.05 The Farm
2.06 Home, Part I
2.07 Home, Part II
2.08 Final Cut
2.09 Flight of the Phoenix
2.10 Pegasus (56 minute extended version)
2.11 Resurrection Ship, Part I
2.12 Resurrection Ship, Part II
2.13 Epiphanies
2.14 Black Market
2.15 Scar
2.16 Sacrifice
2.17 The Captain's Hand
Razor (101 minute extended version - not the 81 minute broadcast version)
Important note: This was originally broadcast just before Season 4, but chronologically it fits here, telling more of the Pegasus's story. Some people argue it's better to watch after Season 3, as originally broadcast, but it makes most sense to watch it here.
The reason that the placement of Razor is a hotly contested issue among BSG fans is because of a bit of dialogue at the very end (in the last 10 minutes) which sets the tone for Season 4 (barely even a spoiler). Everything else in this TV movie is not a spoiler.
So why place it here, and not where it was originally broadcast, if there's any sort of issue? Because, chronologically, the story is set here, and by the time you reach the end of Season 3, the story of Pegasus will feel like ancient history. Indeed, that was the complaint echoed around the internet from fans after Razor originally aired -- it had nothing to do with what was going on in the story at that time.
As a result of this, most fans agree it's better to watch Razor here. In doing so, you'll appreciate the story more and it will have greater emotionally resonance. In short: I highly recommend that you follow my advice and watch it here.
There is one small caveat, however: In order to deal with the above dialogue issue, and so not to unintentionally alter the tone of Season 3, I have two, very specific instructions that I recommend that you follow for your absolute optimum enjoyment.
I will try not to spoil anything with these instructions, so pay attention. You need to press MUTE on your TV (and/or turn off any subtitles) in the following two moments. Both of these moments occur in the last 10 minutes of the story, so you can relax and enjoy the first 90 mins before you need to worry.
Press MUTE when:
and shortly afterwards:
That's it! That's all you have to worry about. Two very small moments, and even if you don't unmute it, it's not a huge spoiler, it just unintentionally alters the tone of Season 3 if you don't, so do try your best to follow my instructions.
2.18 Downloaded
2.19 Lay Down Your Burdens, Part I
2.20 Lay Down Your Burdens, Part II
The Resistance
A 10 episode web-based series bridging seasons 2 and 3. (25 mins.)
Season 3
3.01 Occupation
3.02 Precipice
3.03 Exodus, Part I
3.04 Exodus, Part II
3.05 Collaborators
3.06 Torn
3.07 A Measure of Salvation
3.08 Hero
3.09 Unfinished Business (70 minute extended version - Note: Not included on Region 2 DVDs, but is included on ALL Bluray releases.)
3.10 The Passage
3.11 The Eye of Jupiter
3.12 Rapture
3.13 Taking a Break From All Your Worries
3.14 The Woman King
3.15 A Day in the Life
3.16 Dirty Hands
3.17 Maelstrom
3.18 The Son Also Rises
3.19 Crossroads, Part I
3.20 Crossroads, Part II
Razor: Yes, this again. (Well this is where Razor was originally broadcast, after all.) Remember the last 10 minutes where I told you to MUTE two small moments? Well, guess what, now is when you get to go back and hear what was said. Watch the last 10 minutes of Razor here.
Season 4
4.01 He That Believeth In Me
4.02 Six of One
4.03 The Ties That Bind
4.04 Escape Velocity
4.05 The Road Less Traveled
4.06 Faith
4.07 Guess What's Coming to Dinner?
4.08 Sine Qua Non
4.09 The Hub
4.10 Revelations
Season 4 Continued (aka "Season 4.5" or "The Final Season")
4.11 Sometimes a Great Notion
The Face of the Enemy
A 10 episode web-based series (although it plays together like an intense mini-episode). (36 mins.)
4.12 A Disquiet Follows My Soul (53 minute extended version - only on Bluray releases)
4.13 The Oath
4.14 Blood on the Scales
4.15 No Exit
The Plan (DVD/Bluray movie)
A stand-alone movie that shows (approximately) the first two seasons from the Cylons' perspective. (You finally get to see "The Plan", mentioned all those times in the opening sequence!) Although The Plan was originally released after the show had finished, it is generally agreed that it should be watched here, so that everything is all tied up when you do reach the end.
4.16 Deadlock
4.17 Someone to Watch Over Me
4.18 Islanded In a Stream of Stars (62 minute extended version - only on BluRay releases and Region 1 DVDs)
4.19 Daybreak (150 minute extended version - only on BluRay releases and Region 1 DVDs)
The Plan : This is where this DVD/Bluray movie was originally released (after the show had finished). It seems universally agreed that it's preferable to watch this after No Exit, instead of after you've finished the entire series, but there's no harm in waiting until now.
Then Caprica the series: http://trakt.tv/show/caprica
Denis Villeneuve is the man!
There’s only one word that came into my mind after watching it: finally.
Finally, a blockbuster that isn’t afraid to be primarily driven by drama and tension, and doesn’t undercut its own tone by throwing in a joke every 30 seconds.
Finally, a blockbuster that puts actual effort in its cinematography, and doesn’t have a bland or calculated colour palette.
Finally, a blockbuster with a story that has actual substance and themes, and doesn’t rely on intertextual references or nostalgia to create a fake sheen of depth.
Finally, a blockbuster that doesn’t pander to China by having big, loud and overblown action sequences, but relies on practical and grounded spectacle instead (it has big sand worms, you really don’t need to throw anything at the screen besides that).
Finally, a blockbuster that actually feels big, because it isn’t primarily shot in close ups, or on a sound stage.
And of course: finally, a blockbuster that isn’t a fucking prequel, sequel, or connected to an already established IP somehow.
(Yeah, I know Tenet did those things as well, but I couldn’t get into that because the characters were so flat and uninteresting).
This just checks all the boxes. An engaging story with subtext, very well set up characters, great acting (like James Gunn, Villeneuve's great at accentuating the strengths of limited actors like Dave Bautista and Jason Momoa), spectecular visuals and art design (desaturated but not in an ugly washed out way), pacing (slow but it never drags), directing, one of Hans Zimmer’s best scores: it’s all here.
I only have one real criticism: there’s too much exposition, especially in the first half.
It can occasionally hold your hand by referencing things that have already been established previously, and some scenes of characters explaining stuff to each other could’ve been conveyed more visually.
Other than that, it’s easily one of the best films of the year.
I’ve seen some people critiquing it for being incomplete, which is true, but this isn’t just a set up for a future film.
It feels like a whole meal, there are pay offs in this, and the characters progress (even if, yes, their arcs are still incomplete).
8.5/10
This is a very weird movie, but not by its content. Hard to tell whether it was worth watching.
Visually it's nice, extremely clean and ordered. But 90% of what happens has absolutely no interest. Family picnic. Wife showing the garden to her mother. Some random conversations. Dictation of work letters. Administrative work. It is very boring, soporific even.
The only interest comes from knowing who those people are and the whole context, and the contrast with the banality of their lives, with the clinical simplicity of administrative decisions.
The whole camp is hidden behind a wall. There is just a background noise, far away, muffled, some cries, some gunshots. And the chimneys smoke.
Among what is banal but extremely shocking by the context:
- The mother complaining she could not get her neighbour's curtains.
- The commander getting a new post, but her wife complaining about losing her garden
- The sales pitch of the new generation crematorium
- Being so happy that the plan is named after him that he calls his wife in the middle of the night
- Ashes used as fertilizer in the garden
The only small moments that acknowledge the violence are:
- the wife, upset, threatening the maid that she could have her incinerated just like that
- the commander having a young girl sent to his office
- in the commanders meeting, the word "extermination" is said once, but all the rest is just logistics and quotas
At the end, a cutscene shows people cleaning the camp, and it takes a while to realize they are cleaning the current day Auschwitz museum, I guess showing the continuity of mundane tasks in all circumstances.
So in the end, this is definitely a work of art that succeeds in what it's trying to achieve. However the boringness is what makes it special, and you can't avoid the fact that it is mostly boring. Not to watch when sleepy or tired.
Coming from the same school as One Cut of the Dead, Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes, like that film does not tell an entirely original story but tells it in such a fresh and positive way you cannot help but enjoy yourself and get truly involved in this short snappy tale of Kato and his cadre of daft friends.
As I often say, budget is the true driver of imagination and invention and with a very small budget Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes uses this ‘hardship’ to its advantage, and goodness me how successful it was.
The film uses three cramped locations, a café, an upstairs apartment and another small office on the next floor up and the actors spend the majority of the lean, snappy, 70 minutes run time, traversing between these places.
Filmed mainly on iPhones and using other various versatile techniques it is to the credit of all involved that this is not noticeable. Yamaguchi the director further shows his creative chops by editing the mobile phone footage to look as if the entire film was made in one take. It was not and you can see a few joins but to point them out would be churlish, to say the least.
The actors had to complete their monologues to camera and then repeat the same dialogue to a video of themselves [in the future] repeating it word for word, with the same inflections and gestures. It is difficult to comprehend how they never went mad or gave up. But the hard work they put in pays off. All of the ridiculous shenanigans play out in an entertaining way. I was glued to the screen trying to figure out what was going to happen next.
The big conceit and ultimately question you must ask yourself is, if you know the future and see what you are going to do and then do that thing because you’ve seen yourself doing it, does the future control you? Are you caught in a hellish conundrum?
This film will resonant with people who have spent the last two years on video conferencing calls where lags in signals can result in seemingly similar timelapse situations. A great premise for the story, although it is based on a short film called The Howling from 2014.
The running time is as exactly as long as it needs to be, the story is fraught but always light and the main five characters are all different but believable characters with their own significant traits and are likable and fun. If you ask me to criticise, perhaps some of the acting shows the makers theatrical roots but once again this is being churlish and ungenerous.
I liked the film, the tale and the characters, it was wacky enough to be off the beaten track but not obscure or off-putting, and throughout its brief running-time it is infused with sweet, good-natured fun.
I recommend this film and if you feel you might not have time to watch a strange subtitled Japanese film, well I can happily say that not only is this good fun but it runs at a lean, efficient 70 minutes.
I eagerly look forward to further output
[7.4/10] I’m of two minds about this one. On the one hand, I really enjoy the A-story, about Jeff realizing he’s in his thirties, not his twenties anymore, and that he wants something deeper and more meaningful from his romantic life at this point. He gets appropriate nudges from Britta, from the surprisingly worldly escort, Dorreen (a great one-scene wonder of a character), and a wake-up call from his makeout session with the Dean’s assistant gone awry. It’s a little clumsy along the way, which loses it some points, but it eventually leads to Jeff changing for the better just a little, with an unwitting assist from Pierce of all people. (Pierce, as he often is, serves as a cautionary tale and inadvertent dispenser of wisdom.)
I’m much less crazy about the Annie/Britta/Shirley story involving Annie wanting to look at the anatomically correct model she’ll have to demonstrate condom use on. It feels like more of a standard sitcom storyline, and while it’s good for a few laughs here and there (mainly from the Dean’s enthusiasm related to the STD fair), there’s just not much there.
But I do enjoy the C-story, which features Troy feeling threatened by Abed’s dispossessed talent at athletics, until Abed lets him win, but he accepts Abed as the better athlete when something’s actually at stake. It’s a nice little story about Abed trying to make his friend feel better and Troy recognizing that Abed is a pal, not a competitor, and it dovetails nicely with other stories.
Overall, a good episode with some notable issues.
(840-word review) This appears to be a commonly held opinion, and I shared it: the first half, or everything with Luffy, Koby, and Alvida, was a difficult start, even to "get through." It primarily concerned the acting of all three characters by Iñaki Godoy, Morgan Davies, and Ilia Isorelýs Paulino, with Iñaki's acting requiring some immediate adjustment, same with Morgan's acting (particularly the voice/accent, including the line delivery) to an extent – while Luffy and Koby's interactions had a bit of a whiplash, partially stemming from that, in addition to the characters themselves and their characterizations – and most notably, Ilia's acting, which was the most effective at throwing you for a loop; her and Morgan were the most distracting as far as that's concerned. You can ascertain what I'm insinuating. While Iñaki only required the continual exposure of the entire episode.
Fortunately, as the episode continued past that point, it became better and better, steadily improving. It spiked once Zoro appeared, who effortlessly stole the show for a variety of reasons, including Mackenyu's dominating presence, the fight choreography and his execution of it, and the subtle comedic tones at moments when Zoro was on-screen. Then Nami appeared – fantastic stuff; I liked the progression of her, Luffy, Zoro, and their arrival at the same place and the lead-up to them being together: a Luffy-proclaimed crew. But they're "not a crew/not together." Mackenyu and Emily Rudd, especially him, were the most distinctive highlights; all three characters, when together, stole the show collectively, aided by a palpable and genuine dynamic filled with chemistry that Luffy and Koby lacked.
Other aspects, such as the world-building and production value, were, understandably, prominently featured, as this world is vast, detailed, and particular; it was well-depicted, but I'm looking forward to the rest of the season for more of that aspect to see its overall scope, not because it wasn't good in this episode (it was), but because it can be better, and I'm sure it improves throughout. That's one reason to want another season: a larger budget and a better understanding of how to improve on many components through trial and error in this one by everyone involved with all facets of this show's development, utilizing the experience and knowledge gained here.
Going deeper into that, the set design stood out, namely the spaciousness, which I appreciated, probably more than I should have because I have no idea why. It may be summed up by saying it looks appealing; additionally, it may represent the magnitude of the entire world itself to an extent. Their environment-related details were notable, such as Helmeppo's self-portrait, the statue, paintings, the square sections of the ceiling, and the thing on the wall showing several axes in Axe-Hand Morgan's office. That gave the environments life, giving them identities and the impression that they were actual characters. You can see that a lot of thought and care went into it.
Specific things that were effective for me and great: (1.) the direction/editing regarding the close-up shots on faces – primarily the close-up shots on eyes (e.g., Mr. 7 and Zoro's at the beginning of their fight sequence) , the telescope shot of Nami, the split-screen one, akin to Western-genre films and also manga panels, before the fight sequence against Axe-Hand Morgan kicked off (all that was missing was the starting pistol shot signaling to begin), and the rocky (hand-held...?) camerawork in the scene of Garp and Bogard – (2.) the score, which was unsurprisingly a hit, especially the one when the crew set sail, aside from the "Wealth Fame Power" track.
Followed by various funny moments: "I even have to paint her toenails," Luffy slapping Koby (for "You being dumb"), "A bottle for me, and one for my friend: he's had a rough day," "You stupid, stupid girl," – Helmeppo's laugh, the scene of him naked, enjoying his reflection in the mirror while swinging Zoro's sword, then the majestic arrival of Zoro, and his final appearance, especially Luffy and Zoro laughing at his new haircut, courtesy of Zoro; his entire character and Aidan Scott's performance was phenomenal, forming the desire to want more of him – "Get lost. I am...lost," and finally, Jeff Ward's performance, which is already somewhat stealing the show with so little screen time; Buggy will surely be a highlight of this season.
Zoro (Mackenyu), Helmeppo (Aidan Scott), Nami (Emily Rudd), and Buggy (Jeff Ward), along with the scenes of the crew together, where the fun began, were the ultimate show-stealers. I suspect Iñaki Godoy, who was decent despite the outstanding competition, will achieve that level during the season as he settles into the part and grows accustomed to it, making the character his and as effective as possible. There's undeniable heart at work – already in the series premiere, and that's paving the way for a larger-scale, likely successful execution of that, on top of the feeling of pure, genuine fun that took over the screen once our three central characters teamed up; little do they know what awaits them.
The first season of Ms. Marvel is... frustrating. The series is blessed with high energy, high concept visuals and writing. The cast comprises of charismatic, top notch performers, blessed with refreshing cultural backdrop.
So what went wrong?
The lack of clarity. For me, one consistent problem with most "Phase Four" Marvel Cinematic Universal series is that they try to be too clever and mysterious. The side effect is a villain arc that doesn't get the time to fully develop. On Ms. Marvel, I am not even sure who the villain is. I am guessing it's Najma, a mother of Kamala's crush, Kamran, but she is given so little air time and is dismissed relatively early that I would dismiss her as the season's primary antagonist/villain. The series suggests her son could become a villain, but the idea is not fully explored. It might also be the government (Damage Control), but they are just so comically inept. Maybe it's no one and it's a story about Kamala discovering her root and embracing herself, a shade of Pixar's Turning Red?
Having said that, the Khan family is an infectious bunch. Everything from their appearances, their voices, and their characterization is just so lovable that I found myself tuning in just to be a part of the family for about an hour. And their friends are equally and uniformly charming. This is just one attractive show!
Ultimately, however, I need more substance and there's nothing for me to hold on to, nothing to root for.
[6.0/10] Easily my least favorite of the show so far. This one had the most conventional designs, with giant eyes and busy looks abounding. It also had the sort of constantly-breathless, half-shouted approach to the line-reads throughout that took me out of the moment emotionally rather than drawing me in. Plus the dialogue itself was pretty bad, with characters announcing their emotional states or motivations or exposition without any sense of naturalness to the conversations.
What’s frustrating about that is that the bones of this one are good! The idea of a mixed family, where the Father supports the Rebellion, one daughter supports the Empire, and the other daughter just wants to keep her family together is a cool idea. The political disagreements made personal is a good vein to follow (something Star Wars Resistance did well, of all shows), and the stakes are obvious when it’s an intra-family dispute.
But the characters are just so simultaneously flat and over-the-top that the good ideas are wasted. Personalities change on a dime and we hop across years in an instant, with major plot developments happening just as quickly. That’s a little inevitable for big stories told across nineteen minutes or so, but it’s done particularly clumsily here.
The visuals don’t have much to recommend them either. There’s some superb backgrounds and sense of place for the bucolic planet being harvested by the Empire, but the actual character movements are stilted and stuttery, and even the big climactic lightsaber fight lacks a certain oomph.
Overall, this is the clear lowlight of the bunch thus far, and hopefully it’s an outlier in that regard.
[9.5/10] They got me. They really did. I believed that Saul would do it, that he would find a way to lie, cheat, and steal out of suffering any real consequences for all the pain and losses he is responsible for. I believed that he would trade in Kim's freedom and chance to make a clean break after baring her soul in exchange for a damn pint of ice cream. I have long clocked Better Call Saul as a tragedy, about a man who could have been good, and yet, through both circumstance and choice, lists inexorably toward becoming a terrible, arguably evil person. I thought this would be the final thud of his descent, selling out the one person on this Earth who loved him to feather his own nest.
Maybe Walt was right when he said that Jimmy was "always like this." Maybe Chuck was right that there something inherently corrupt and untrustworthy in the heart of his little brother. This post-Breaking Bad epilogue has been an object lesson in the depths to which Gene Takovic will stoop in order to feed his addiction and get what he wants. There would be no greater affirmation of the completeness of his craven selfishness and cruelty than throwing Kim under the bus to save himself.
Only, in the end, that's the feint, that's the trick, that's the con, on the feds and the audience. When Saul hears that Kim took his words to heart and turned herself in, facing the punishments that come with it, he can't sit idly by and profit from his own lies and bullshit. He doesn't want to sell her out; he wants to fall on the sword in front of her, make sure she knows that he knows what he did wrong.Despite his earlier protestations that his only regret was not making more money or avoiding knee damage, he wants to confess in a court of law that he regrets the choices that led him here and the pain he caused, and most of all he regrets that they led to losing her.
In that final act of showmanship and grace, he lives up to the advice Chuck gives him in the flashback scene here, that if he doesn't like the road that his bad choices have led him, there's no shame in taking a different path. Much as Walt did, at the end of the line, Saul admits his genuine motives, he accepts responsibility for his choices after years of blame and evasion. Most of all, he takes his name back, a conscious return to being the person that Kim once knew, in form and substance. It is late, very late, when it happens, but after so much, Jimmy uses his incredible skills to accept his consequences, rather than sidestep them, and he finds the better path that Kim always believed he could walk, one that she motivates him to tread.
It is a wonderful finale to this all-time great show. I had long believed that this series was a tragedy. It had to be, given where Jimmy started and where the audience knew Saul ended. But as it was always so good at doing, Better Call Saul surprised me, with a measured bit of earned redemption for its protagonist, and moving suggestion that with someone we care for and who cares of us, even the worst of us can become someone and something better. In its final episode, the series offered one more transformation -- from a tale of tragedy, to a story of hope.
(On a personal note, I just want to say thank you to everyone who read and commented on my reviews here over the years. There is truly no show that's been as rewarding for me to write about than Better Call Saul, and so much of that owes to the community of people who offered me the time and consideration to share my thoughts, offered their kind words, and helped me look at the series in new ways with their thoughtful comments. I don't know what the future holds, but I am so grateful to have been so fortunate as to share this time and these words with you.)
EDIT: One last time, here is my usual, extended review of the finale in case anyone's interested -- https://thespool.net/reviews/better-call-saul-series-finale-recap-saul-gone/
Not as solid as I hoped. It's confusing for sure, but they could have done so so much more with this concept and world. But they didn't. It has left us with a story that is interesting, yet unrelatable. Things move way too fast and I would have preferred a longer runtime because it is that intriguing. And while the ending is great, the way that Nolan tries to merge the two viewpoints isn't done well. Leaving me feeling like my dad when he watches Transformers (2007) and asks who is who.
It needed to be simplified a little more because everything else is amazing. The effects, the overarching story, the acting. The music, however, is terrible and overblown to give a sense of action when there isn't enough happening. The only part where it worked well was in the final fight, but even then it needed to be quieter.
The cinematography is good as always, but I feel it is lacking compared to Nolan's previous work.
When it comes to action and the draw to this movie, the reversal shots. They deliver, but they are too and far between. It gives us great scenes of reversal action, then one drawn-out segment at the end that doesn't feel rewarding as like I said before, it isn't merged well.
This movie may grow on me more after a second viewing, but it left me in a state that I don't wish to see it again any time soon. It is not fun enough to see again, it is not engaging enough to associate and learn from. Something that Nolan has done well at in the past is his ability to leave questions with the audience after they finish his films. Here, it just provides answers and left me unsatisfied in that regard.
7/10
[9.0/10[ An incredibly tense hour of television. What's so impressive is that Better Call Saul accomplished this despite us knowing that, of course, Jimmy and Gus both survive. It comes down to such fantastic performances from everyone involved. You immediately buy how shaken and terrified Jimmy and Kim are, and how frightened even the normally steady Gus is at the point of Lalo's gun. Vince Gilligan's direction is outstanding, with a Hitchcockian flair for light and shadow that sets the foreboding mood of all these set pieces. And the score does the rest, helping the audience to feel the emotion of these scenes even if we rationally know the fates of several of those at the most risk.
My only mild beef is that Gus' survival feels like a bit of a cheat. It's still not clear to me why he did the gun in the superlab, and the dialogue kind of shrugs at the idea. Even in the dark, it seems like Lalo would have done better against Fring than he did. But details like Fring seeming to make one last desperate ploy to survive, still suffering wounds despite his body armor, and admitting he was over his skiis with this whole thing in the end helps make it passable. On a moment-to-moment basis, the scenes absolutely work, which covers for a lot.
What struck me the most is that closing image -- Howard and Lalo, two very different men, sharing the same fate and the same grave. It's a sign that the barrier between Jimmy's legal life and Saul's criminal life has been firmly shattered. Both lives, both worlds, are bound up in these deaths now, with the psychic weight hanging over Jimmy and Kim for the last five episodes. This never happened, but they, and Mike, will all still have to live with it. I can't wait to see how.
EDIT: If you'd like to read my usual, longer review of the episode, you can find it here -- https://thespool.net/reviews/tv-recap-better-call-saul-season-6-episode-8/
Léon is a film I've watched many times and it never fails to affect.
I could watch it a hundred times more just see to Léon's face as he watches Singing in the Rain; such unabashed joy. He turns around in a near empty theatre looking for someone else lost in a moment of bliss, but finds no one. Rarely has both joy and loneliness been captured so perfectly.
Jean Reno's naive and emotionally challenged Léon is 12 year old Mathilda’s knight in blood soaked armour. He immediately fills an emotional void and she clings to it, starting to play house; cleaning, shopping, washing. Léon and Mathilda need each other in a very basic human way; to love and be loved. The inevitable slide towards her sexual stirrings is uncomfortable and deftly handled by Natalie Portman. Her desire for revenge seems to slip away, lost to just being and working with him, until when pushed he denies any feelings of love for her. She takes incomprehensible action to exact her vengeance on Gary Oldman’s insane DEA agent, but with an unconscious belief that Léon will save her if it all goes wrong.
The “International Version” of Léon, the only I’ve watched, adds 25 minutes to the theatrical release, mostly depicting their growing relationship and brings the gravitas that makes their final scene together simply heart breaking.
While I definitely liked the episode, it felt more like a Mandalorian episode rather than a Book of Boba Fett one. That's really my biggest complaint. The show is literally meant to be about Boba Fett, but we don't see him once this episode. Kinda weird and it disrupts the entire tone of the show.
Approaching this as more of a Mandalorian episode rather then a Boba Fett one, I really liked how Din doesn't seem to really fit in with the strict ideals and traditions of the Children of the Watch anymore. He's growing as a person and now that he's been cast out of the covert, he is free to live his life without feeling the constant fear of others seeing his face.
Seeing a Naboo Royal Starfighter was cool. Also Din training with the Darksaber gives me Rebels vibes.
Overall a very entertaining episode with some added bits of lore, like what happened on the Night of a Thousand Tears. It seemed to be hinting that Din will visit Grogu and Luke before he teams up with Boba and Fennec, but I don't want Din to become the main focus for the rest of the show, considering he'll have all the focus in season 3 of The Mandalorian.
It's terribly sad to see comments that are taking the "story" for what it is worth at face value and outright dismissing the movie entirely
As loathe as I am to watch "arthouse" movies, this one certainly struck quite a few chords. The journey of the young, unsure, foolhardy knight and his misplaced sense of honor and the turn he takes into fully accepting his destiny was one I enjoyed very much. The visuals and the sounds did play a large part in it, completely selling the atmosphere of a magical kingdom with swathes of unknown and unexplored mystery. The performances, too, were excellent and Dev Patel was very convincing as Sir Gawain
I'm sorry to say but the story is very, very obvious. As with these "artsy fartsy" movies, the way it is told is what elevates it and here, I feel it was justified and used to great effect. Instead of giving us the straightforward story of Sir Gawain in the ballad, something that has been told for centuries (and something I looked up afterwards because I'm not British or European at all), this movie instead attempts to recontextualise and shroud the entire thing in an air of magic and I found myself enraptured by it
It's the classic tale of a straightforward story told in a convoluted way. As King Arthur says at the very beginning, it was always just a game. What mattered was the journey Gawain took that changed him into someone who would accept what was coming because of his honor. The fox and the mansion were distractions and tried to keep him from achieving his destiny. The sash, given by his mother and returned by the witch in the mansion, was to prevent him harm but it prevented it by making him a coward. What happens after the Knight swings his axe is just the future that awaits for him for his broken oath. He removes the sash, thus letting go of all fears and the Green Knight, satisfied with the man he sees before him, lets him go. The Green Knight was never truly harmed and there was never a reason to harm Gawain either
I loved this movie. It blended the mystical and made for an enthralling journey through beautiful lands and forests and was something truly unique that I appreciate and left me wanting more
[5.8/10] This really didn’t do it for me. It feels like it’s trying to be a PG version of Fleabag, without Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s wit or insight. It feels like it’s trying to capture the quippy patter that has become the MCU’s house style, without supplying the good quips. And it particularly feels like it wants these characters to come off as charming and playful when they mostly come off as minorly annoying and even a little concerning at times. It’s all watchable, but scans as a miscalibrated and inauspicious start to She-Hulk: Attorney at Law.
That said, there’s two things that give me hope for the series. The first is, I love the thought experiment of “What if someone got superpowers and didn't want to become a superhero?” It’s not a story you see a lot of, particularly in a world of “with great power comes great responsibility. But the notion of Jennifer liking her normal life, not feeling attuned to or interested in the life of a superhero, and wanting to go back to the future she’s forged for herself, is a thought-provoking and interesting theme to explore.
At the same time, I like the idea that Bruce Banner is pushing this life on his cousin to some degree, as a moral imperative and practical necessity, when, as Jennifer points out, it’s left him lonely and traumatized. So many of these phase 4 projects -- No Way Home, WandaVision, Black Widow, and Hawkeye -- have been about the heroes who participated in the events of Endgame and beyond picking up the pieces after such serious stuff goes down. Exploring how Bruce’s choices have isolated him or made him unhappy as he quietly mourns the loss of friends like Tony, Steve, and Natasha, is worthy territory.
Unfortunately, She-Hulk doesn’t seem particularly well-suited to do that in the early going. It’s a boon that they got Mark Ruffalo to return as Banner to kick things off here, but his performance is really off. It’s hard to put my finger on exactly, but whether it’s not being physically in certain scenes or just having off days, he’s substandard in several scenes here that throws things off.
It’s tough, because much of the episode rests on the dynamic between Jennifer and Bruce, and the chemistry is just as out-of-whack. The show seems to want us to find them cheeky and playful with each other, but with all the tweaking and pointedness, they just kind of seem like jerks. Bruce is condescending and controlling, and Jennifer seems smug and pestersome. There’s not much in the way of likable characters in the early going here. Plus, while I think the show wants to treat two hulks doing battle as mere roughhousing, it’s a little unsettling that the two basically resolve their disagreement with physical force and outright violence.
On top of that, there’s some unfortunately cartoonish “dudes suck” and go-girl feminism motifs. There’s a kernel of a good idea there -- with the notion that Jennifer is better at controlling her anger or other strong emotions than Bruce ever was because it’s the sort of thing women have to do every day lest they face harsh labels or risks to their safety. But the jerky lawyer and other male antagonists are cartoonishly awful, and the “Anything you can do, I can do better” routine between Bruce and Jennifer starts to feel overly blunt very quickly. The point isn’t bad, but the dramatization of it is too exaggerated and on-the-nose to elicit much more than eye-rolls.
And, as the Internet has apparently fixated on, the CGI is very inconsistent and frequently quite dodgy. Sometimes it’s fine! At times, both hulks feel like real, expressive people in bodies with weight and definition. At others, they feel like characters from a video game cutscene circa ten years ago. I’m not one to gripe about such things too hard, but considering this isn’t just side spectacle, but rather core to the main character of the series, it can be genuinely distracting in several moments.
All of that said, we get thirty seconds of The Good Place’s Jammela Jamil, which is promising if she has more to do on the show. And there’s some good ideas worth exploring that are hopefully in the show’s future. But the questionable approach, tone, characters, and realization of these ideas in the early going all provide a shaky-at-best start to the new show.
[7.7/10] I was so pleasantly surprised by this! I didn’t really know what to expect, with this being Marvel Studios’ first foray into animation and the high concept premise of the show. But I really enjoyed what we got.
For a while, I expected that this was really just going to be the plot of Captain America: The First Avenger except with Peggy slotted in rather than Steve. And that would still have been perfectly fun! Watching this show hit the same beats of that film, except with small but significant difference thanks to Captain Carter being in the role rather than Steve Rogers would have been worthwhile on its own.
For one thing, I like how this episode, as Agent Carter did, focuses on how even with her accomplsuhments, Peggy faces discrimination because of her gender. Of all the people for the MCU to bring back, it’s funny that it’s Bradley Whitford’s returning from the all-but forgotten Agent Carter one-shot. But he makes sense as someone who always thought too little of Peggy, stepping into a leadership role after Col. Phillips is shot, and creating an internal impediment.
To the same end, I like how the episode flips the dynamic with Peggy and Steve, but tshowing how they still understood one another and would bond with one another, even if their situations were changed. The two still falling in love, only to have Peggy making the heroic civilization-saving sacrifice play instead, is still heart-rending, and a nice sign that even as major things change, some things stay the same.
But I also liked the places where this episode goes off the reservation! Howard Stark building a proto-Iron Man suit for Steve Rogers called “The Hydra Stomper”? Yes please! Captain Carter saving Bucky, thereby avoiding the Winter Soldier situation (at least with him)? Hell yes. Her finding the tesseract and bringing it back to the good guys on an early mission? Awesome!
The further along the plot of First Avenger that this episode gets, the more it diverges and makes its own rules and own story, and I really appreciated that. Her team’s attack on Red Skull’s stronghold made for a rolokcing conclusion. I don’t know who Red Skull’s “champion” was. (Hive? A Chithuri?) But watching Peggy fight a giant squid monster while the Howling Commandos rescue Steve made for a killer conclusion.
I was especially impressed by the fight sequences here. I have to admit that I had some reticence about the cell-shaded graphics. In truth, the vocal tracks didn’t always sink perfectly. But the action was surprisingly fluid and well-staged. The show uses the freedom of animation to add greater flow to Captain Carter’s badassery, and some of the combat has a more impressionsitic style that makes it top tier MCU fisticuffs. Even the use of lighting and color in these fights stand out. Going into What If...? my biggest concern was the visuals, but they came through like gangbusters.
Overall, this was an exciting start to this new show and raised my expectations for What If...? to be more than a shiny lark, and instead be a meaningful exploration of what these changes in the path might look like.
An underwhelming effort from a company that seems to have fallen behind the curve. Creatively it’s pulling too much from Zootopia and Inside Out while not adding much of its own flavour, almost every choice in this movie is predictable. Sure, the racism/prejudice commentary is more aggressive now that we’ve entered the post-Trump era (seriously, you should go back and look at how Zootopia handled that same topic, it feels quaint now), but besides that it doesn’t bring much to the table. The worldbuilding lacks the clever intricacies of Zootopia, the pretty animation style has some unique textures but it’s no Across the Spider-verse, and emotionally it feels more like Illumination than Pixar. It’s a very straightforward, cheesy romcom with a formulaic set-up for the main characters (think Notting Hill, Crazy Rich Asians, and countless other movies your mom loves), some ok comedy (bad puns notwithstanding) and a boring adventure (fixing pipelines, how exciting). The score’s pretty interesting because it seems to pull a lot from Indian folk music, on the other hand the songs sound generic and overproduced. Overall, I’d easily recommend this over some other animated films from this year, as this does genuinely try as a movie. However, that doesn’t change that I expect both children and adults to be mostly bored by this.
4.5/10
An entire episode of stress, scares and more mysteries.
Give me the next episode already!
