Friday, February 7, 2025
Thursday, February 6, 2025
Rosario Dawson and 'The Bad Batch' Win Saturn Awards
https://www.starwarsnewsnet.com/2025/02/rosario-dawson-and-the-bad-batch-win-saturn-awards.html#:~:text=Star%20Wars%20projects%20got%20some,third%20year%20in%20a%20row.
---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: John Coffey
Subject: Why Ahsoka Tano is one of the greatest characters in all of Star Wars
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=joEMcCJAvsU
---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: John Coffey
Subject: Why Ahsoka Tano is one of the greatest characters in all of Star Wars
This Star Wars character, whom you may have never heard of, is beloved by millions of fans. This is due to her long arc of character development, which has spanned over a decade.
She was almost the main character of the animated The Clone Wars series, as the show began and ended with her. She also appeared in the animated Star Wars Rebels and was at least referenced in The Bad Batch. More recently, Rosario Dawson portrayed her in live-action appearances in The Mandalorian, its spin-off series The Book of Boba Fett, and the titular series Ahsoka.
My favorite of these series is The Bad Batch. It is the most fun and perhaps the most beautiful. I've watched it four times.
Wednesday, February 5, 2025
Why Ahsoka Tano is one of the greatest characters in all of Star Wars
This Star Wars character, whom you may have never heard of, is beloved by millions of fans. This is due to her long arc of character development, which has spanned over a decade.
She was almost the main character of the animated The Clone Wars series, as the show began and ended with her. She also appeared in the animated Star Wars Rebels and was at least referenced in The Bad Batch. More recently, Rosario Dawson portrayed her in live-action appearances in The Mandalorian, its spin-off series The Book of Boba Fett, and the titular series Ahsoka.
My favorite of these series is The Bad Batch. It is the most fun and perhaps the most beautiful. I've watched it four times.
Friday, January 31, 2025
Monday, January 27, 2025
Wednesday, January 8, 2025
"Skeleton Crew" Episode 7 Review: How is this so good?
For the most part, Star Wars fans have been disappointed with everything Disney has done with the franchise since acquiring it from George Lucas, except for the Andor series, which was on another level. I, however, differ in that I've enjoyed most of Disney's Star Wars offerings, though certainly not all of them.
When Disney announced they were creating a Star Wars kids' series that would combine elements of The Goonies and Lost in Space, almost no one was optimistic. Many expected it to be just as disappointing as the previous failed series. However, now that people have seen Skeleton Crew, the consensus is that it's knocking it out of the park. After a slow start, each episode has been better than the last, and it feels like what Star Wars should be.
Sunday, December 29, 2024
Friday, December 27, 2024
Friday, December 20, 2024
Thursday, December 19, 2024
Superman | Official Teaser Trailer
I don't understand the need to keep rebooting Superman. It is hard to beat the 1978 Superman movie.
I liked the last two Superman films, and I would have been happy to continue those stories, but they keep going back to the same well. How many Superman origin stories do we need?
Monday, December 16, 2024
Saturday, December 7, 2024
Superman The Movie/Superman II
Superman The Movie came out on December 15th, 1978. It was fairly impressive for its time. This was just a year and a half after the original Star Wars, and the special effects were groundbreaking. It was one thing to have ships flying through space, it is another to have a person fly through the air and look believable. At the Oscars, the film solely won the Special Achievement Award for Visual Effects.
What I didn't remember about this film is that it is half comedy, showing its comic book roots. It doesn't take itself seriously, unlike the more recent Superman Returns and Man of Steel. The film's goofiness is distracting, but this seemed normal in 1978. We were used to campy superheroes, having watched Batman on television in the 1960s.
Some Superman fanatics didn't like Man of Steel because that movie ditched the red tights. I think that the red tights look goofy, and in the modern era, I prefer more serious superheroes.
Christopher Reeve was a great actor and he feels like he was born to play Superman. He is completely believable in the role, and he does a great job as his alter ego mild-mannered reporter Clark Kent.
Whatever problems Margo Kidder had later in life, she made a great Louis Lane.
Marlon Brando is great as Superman's father and gives the movie gravitas.
There are only two memorable pieces of music but they are fantastic. The score by John Williams practically makes the film. Even Christopher Reeve acknowledged this and said that Superman would not be able to fly without John Williams's music. The Superman Theme is rousing and is used constantly. The love song "Can You Read My Mind" is Oscar-worthy, and notes from this song are snuck into almost every scene with Louis Lane.
Much credit has to be given to Richard Donner who gave us a great film.
There are only two memorable pieces of music but they are fantastic. The score by John Williams practically makes the film. Even Christopher Reeve acknowledged this and said that Superman would not be able to fly without John Williams's music. The Superman Theme is rousing and is used constantly. The love song "Can You Read My Mind" is Oscar-worthy, and notes from this song are snuck into almost every scene with Louis Lane.
Superman The Movie defined the superhero movie for a generation. It is extremely well-made but feels dated.
Rating: A-.
Superman II was filmed at the same time as Superman. Richard Donner directed both films but didn't finish the second one. The filming on Superman II was suspended so that Donner could focus on finishing the first film. After Superman was released, producers Alexander and Ilya Salkind decided to cut Marlon Brando's scenes from Superman II to avoid paying him a percentage of the film's box office. Donner refused to make the film without Brando's scenes.
Superman II fails in every regard. The story is weak. The villains are goofy. The special effects look bad compared to the first film. The Kryptonians have powers we have never seen before, like telekinesis. Rating: C-.
Why everyone loves "Shared Universes" (And how one may be in trouble before it even starts)
The roughly 23 movies in the Marvel Universe weren't all great individually, but the way they all culminated in Avengers Infinity War and Avengers Endgame was impressive. Although Endgame made more money, I thought Infinity War was one of the best movies I had ever seen.
James Gunn, who made some good Marvel movies, is rebooting the DC Universe next year with a Superman remake. I just barely found out about this. However, there were already a couple of attempts to reboot Superman that didn't go anywhere.
Superman Returns * * * 1/2
People attending The Dark Knight Rises today will be treated to the first trailer for Man of Steel, which is due out next summer. This is the latest attempt to reboot the Superman series, just coming seven years after the last attempt, which was Superman Returns. Superman Returns is not so much of a reboot as it is a sequel that is also highly reminiscent of the 1978 Superman movie. A few parts of it feel like echoes of the previous film with new twists. Whether or not you will like Superman Returns depends upon your taste, but it is highly reminiscent of the 1978 Superman movie, which I loved, while exploring new territory that is interesting.
Superman Returns explores the Superman story in a post 9-11 world. After a trip to find his home planet, Superman returns to earth to find that Lois Lane is married and has a child. It is a world that has mostly forgotten about superheroes.
I assume that those still interested in Superman are looking forward to Man of Steel. By now, Superman Returns has largely been forgotten. Still, the movie received 76% positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes and I think that it is underrated. If you fell in love with the first Superman movie, as I did, then this film has everything you could want. Watching this movie felt nostalgic, because it does echo some key points from the first movie, but there is enough new material to make it into a good film. Casting Kevin Spacey as Lex Luthor was an act of genius. He is is brilliant in this movie.
If there are negatives to the movie, it is that it is a little more brooding and that Brandon Routh doesn't quite look the part. The 1978 Superman movie states that Superman weighs 220 pounds. Christopher Reeve bulked up for the movie and really did weigh 220 pounds. Superman Returns states that Superman weighs only 120 pounds, and the contradiction bothered me. Although Brandon Routh does look somewhat like Christopher Reeve, he also looks too thin for the part. People expect their superheroes to have some mass on them.
Man of Steel
I wrote of review of Man of Steel right after it came out. I simply noted that I liked it much better than the average review on Rotten Tomatoes. I am a sucker for Superman stories. I very much liked the slightly mundane Superman Returns, and I was a big fan of the television show Smallville until it overstayed its welcome by stretching out to ten seasons.
Man of Steel is a near-perfect Superman movie despite a few minor flaws that turned off a few people and critics.
Just to get this out of the way, the second half of the movie is dominated by over-the-top battle scenes between Superman and other Krytonians, like General Zod. These superbeings hit each other with such force that they send their opponent flying through multiple buildings doing enormous damage. Yet, the Kryptonians don't take much damage personally despite the force they inflict on each other. Superheroes in movies often do physically impossible things, which takes away from the believability, but if such powerful and nearly indestructible beings actually did fight each other on planet Earth, this is what it would look like.
What I like about Man of Steel is that this is the first Superman story to put extra emphasis on him being an alien from another world. We see Krytopn, and we see their technology and how it is more advanced than ours. On Earth, the people's initial reaction to Superman is to be fearful, and rightfully so.
Henry Cavill makes a good Superman. He portrays stoicism and morality in the face of lifelong adversity. He does a good job of displaying angst over trying to fit into a world that he wasn't meant for.
But a good hero needs a good villain and we get it in General Zod, who is Superman's apparent equal and played menacingly by Michael Shannon. Zod isn't just a cartoon character. He is pursuing the logical goal of preserving the Kryptonian race, even if he has to wipe out humanity to do it
Amy Adams is perfect as Louis Lane. Kevin Costner and Dianne Lane do superb jobs as Jonathan and Martha Kent. Many of the other cast members have small but memorable performances, like Laurance Fishburne as Perry White, and Christopher Meloni as a military officer who puts his life on the line.
However, I feel that Harry Lennix is typecast in most of his roles, always playing similar predictable characters, but he is memorable nevertheless.
I noticed television actors popping up in a bunch of different roles. I recognized Alessandro Juliani from Battlestar Galactica.
I cringed in just a few places where the dialog seemed simplistic or just unnecessary. Movies have a compulsion to explain what is going on in the simplest possible terms just to make sure that we get it.
I cringed in just a few places where the dialog seemed simplistic or just unnecessary. Movies have a compulsion to explain what is going on in the simplest possible terms just to make sure that we get it.
Rating: A-.
P.S. The CW series Superman & Lois feels very derivative of Man of Steel. The show uses a similar storyline, and similar props and effects. Since the show is 80% soap opera, I don't care for it. The 20% that is not a soap opera makes for a good Superman story, but it is not that different from what we have seen before.
The Wild Robot
If you have seen the trailer for The Wild Robot, you might ask yourself, "Haven't I seen this movie before?" The Iron Giant gave us a robot that fell from the sky but didn't know its origin or purpose and eventually rebelled against its creators. Over the Hedge gave us animals that talk and must cooperate to survive, along with a bear that is a bad guy. Zootopia gave us an unscrupulous fox who helps the main character. Logan's Run gave us humans living in a dome. Silent Running gave us plants being grown in a dome. Wall-E gave us robots with compassion while on a voyage of self-discovery, along with an evil robot trying to do them harm. Bicentennial Man gave us a robot that rewrote his own programming to become more than he originally was, and so therefore the robot is wanted by his creators to find out what those changes are.
Many of the elements we have seen before, but the movie is so well-written and well-executed that it is one of the best films I have seen in a while. I was impressed.
Rating: A-.
The following section contains spoilers:
I have one big complaint about a plot point that doesn't make sense and is likely there to push an agenda. The robot is on an island with animals that normally compete with and kill each other. While the animals are hibernating for the winter, a massive snowstorm threatens life on the island. The robot takes it upon itself to bring some of the hibernating animals to a large shelter that it has built. While in the shelter the animals agree to overcome their natural instincts and cooperate for their mutual survival. Logically this makes no sense. If the animals are adapted to hibernate on the island, then they have already found shelter to survive the weather. The robot, which has overcome its own programming, gets the animals to do the same and make a permanent truce. So if the animals aren't going to hunt each other, how do they survive going forward? The message is that competition is bad, and cooperation is good, which reminds me of Our Daily Bread, a Great Depression-era movie with a socialist message. Both movies have a climactic scene about diverting water.
Reagan
I did not think Dennis Quaid would be the right person to play Ronald Reagan. This is the same actor who played Gordon Cooper 40 years ago in The Right Stuff, one of my favorite movies. In that film, Quaid displayed his wide boyish grin, which is on display here as well, and gives away that under all that makeup we are watching Quaid and not Reagan. However, Quaid gives an Oscar-worthy performance as Reagan, capturing perfectly not only the voice but also the essence of who Reagan was.
The problem with any two-hour biography is that it is going to be rushed. Ronald Reagan's entire life was much more complicated than what can be shown in two hours. A single event in his life might take two hours to tell perfectly. The movie is more of a collection of brief highlights of Reagan's life. There are so many details left out that I feel shortchanged. For example, we see David Stockman for only about 5 seconds, and the film barely covers the Iran-Contra scandal. However, the movie succeeds brilliantly at capturing the emotional feel of Reagan.
Had this been a three-hour movie like Oppenheimer, it could have captured more detail about Reagan's life, but Oppenheimer didn't do this very well and was more of a soap opera. However, a longer run time wouldn't have made the film any more entertaining. You can tell that the movie had a limited budget and they did the best they could with the budget they had.
I'm impressed by the performances of a great many supporting actors.
The negative reviews have much to do with how people feel about Ronald Reagan. If you lived through the 1970s and 1980s then you are going to have a different perspective than people who didn't. The 1970s was likely the worst decade for the nation in my lifetime. There was the Watergate scandal, the oil crisis, and then during the Jimmy Carter presidency, we had monstrous inflation, high interest rates, unemployment, a deep recession, and the Iranian hostage crisis. Ronald Reagan came along and said that we as a nation are better than this, and we have only forgotten what a great nation we are. Things did improve significantly under his presidency.
The rushed presentation reminds me of "The Iron Lady", but the difference is that "The Iron Lady" is highly critical of Margaret Thatcher, and this film adores Ronald Reagan. For older Americans who also adore Reagan, it is preaching to the choir.
The story is told from the perspective of a fictional KGB political analyst whose job was to monitor Reagan as a potential threat to the Soviet Union. I have no doubt that such people existed, but here it comes off as a gimmick, but it also works by putting Reagan into the context of the Cold War. Reagan was such a strong anti-communist that the movie made that the main focus of his life.
Since the movie was released during an election year some people might view it as political propaganda. However, the plan was to release three years ago but the film was delayed by COVID and the writer's strike.
I was so impressed that I wanted to applaud at the end. I didn't at first because I thought that it might look silly to applaud a motion picture, but when the rest of the audience applauded, I joined in.
Rating: A-. Although far from a complete biography, the movie does an excellent job of capturing who Ronald Reagan was.
Wednesday, November 27, 2024
Star Trek Unification (Kirk's Journey to the afterlife)
With the help of the latest special effects, William Shatner along with Sam Witwer, who played in Battlestar Galactica and Star Wars animation, play James T. Kirk at different ages. It is about Kirk's journey to the afterlife.
Although it is good, I'm not as blown away by it. The special effects are a novelty. It is a lovely way to say goodbye to Kirk. Kirk seeing his younger self reminds me of 2001, A Space Odyssey.
Lenard Nimoy died almost ten years ago. All our old favorite actors are dying off, which makes this all the more touching.
The final scene looks like it could have been shot in "The Volume" which is a Lucasfilm spherical stage where all the walls are screens to create artificial scenery. The Mandalorian series was created primarily on this stage.
Tuesday, November 26, 2024
Black Friday Deal: 99¢/month for a year | Hulu
https://www.hulu.com/gma
This was the deal I was waiting for. However, the fine print tells me that I am ineligible because I was a member within the last month. I click on "Get this deal" and it doesn't give it to me.
I don't like the ads, but I like saving money.
Disney+ has a ton of content, but I've seen most of it. I'm especially fond of the Star Wars shows, but there are also Marvel, Pixar, and National Geographic.
Monday, November 25, 2024
Thursday, November 21, 2024
A Disney Holiday Short: The Boy & The Octopus
This qualifies as the sweetest commercial I have ever seen. It is the usual Disney tripe but is sweet nevertheless.
This is pretty good PR from a mega-corporation.
Wednesday, November 20, 2024
Tuesday, November 19, 2024
The irony of loving Star Wars too much
@john2001plus
0 seconds ago
Hey Thor,
I have many thoughts, so sorry if this goes long.
The ideal sequel trilogy would have been one of Luke, Han, and Leia, but we needed that thirty years ago before the actors got too old. Disney was stuck where they couldn't continue the story right after Return of The Jedi, so they tried to go down a path of discarding the old characters and introducing new ones. The decision to discard the old characters seems like a bad one because the fans wanted the old characters. With current technology, it is not too late to have a story that takes place after Return of the Jedi.
No offense to anyone, but Star Wars fans appear to be very hard to please. If a new movie or show is not exactly what they want or expect, they will claim it is bad when it might be entertaining. We saw that with the prequel trilogy where right away people claimed that Episode 1 was terrible. However, I loved the entire prequel trilogy. George Lucas tried to make every movie different, but this turned off some people who claimed, "Not my Star Wars."
The Last Jedi is a dilemma for most people. It has some bad dialogue. It has a couple of bad scenes. It could have been a better film. However, I will swear to my dying breath that it is an entertaining movie because I found it entertaining. I enjoyed it quite a bit. Would I have preferred something a little different? Yes, but I don't see it as my story to tell. People are upset by how the movie handled Luke, but I was open to a story about Luke that was different from what I expected. Had the movie gone exactly the way we expected it could have been boring.
There is a difference between a movie or show being entertaining and great. We want Star Wars to be great. However, it isn't always great, but that doesn't necessarily make it bad. I like watching shows about Star Wars and I enjoyed most of the TV series even if they were far from the greatness that we wanted them to be. In particular, I liked Kenobi quite a bit.
I have a big problem with The Rise of Skywalker. Bringing back Palpatine undermines Darth Vader's sacrifice. The movie has other issues. It is a weaker film than The Last Jedi. It is a disappointing conclusion to the trilogy. However, I did enjoy watching it and I might enjoy watching it again. But I hold movies to a higher standard than I do TV shows. It could have been much better.
I have a concern that the Star Wars story is too limited in scope to keep making more movies and shows. According to George Lucas, Star Wars is a soap opera about the Skywalker family. That story has already been told. Anything that follows is either going be be repeating the same story, or too different for the fans to embrace. I think that we both would like to see a new set of characters set in a different period. The Acolyte tried to do this but was mediocre at best.
Best wishes,
John Coffey
Sunday, November 17, 2024
Monday, November 11, 2024
Sunday, November 10, 2024
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