Tag Archives: Star Wars: The Last Jedi

Top 10: Movie Deaths That Pissed You Off

Even if I don’t always agree with their actual choices, I admire the ability of WatchMojo to churn out list topics like fortune cookies.  Character deaths are tricky.  On one hand, a great character death can be a defining moment not just for the story arc of the deceased character but also for every character around them.  On the other, if you botch it, people get maaaaaad.  WatchMojo hits a number of them in their Top 10: Movie Deaths That Pissed People Off.  The list is too heavily weighted toward recent films, and has some duds (is anyone really super incensed over Mortal Komat: Annihilation, Pacific Rim: Uprising, or Godzilla?).  It does also make the long-overdue argument that all Kate Winslet had to do to save us from one of the most annoying deaths of all time in Titanic was haul to Leonardo Dicaprio out of the water and spoon.  No matter what side of the debate you are on, you have to admit that the deaths of Luke Skywalker and Captain Kirk deeply peeved people.  What makes me maddest about character death is when characters die just to fill an unspoken death quota in bigger films.  I love Joss Whedon, but he is the absolute worst at this.  Whedon blood rage is the only explanation for why Quicksilver had to die in Age of Ultron or, even worse, why Wash & Shepherd Book were slaughtered in Serenity.  Which character deaths made you throw things for weeks?William Shatner in Star Trek: Generations

Kylo Ren Reviews Solo: A Star Wars Story!!!

 


Solo: A Star Wars Story has proven to be a box office disaster for Disney, and has been received with mixed reaction with the fans.  I enjoyed the film myself, but the most important question is….WHAT DID KYLO REN THINK OF IT???  Here with a VERY SPOILER INTENSIVE REVIEW is none other than Auralnauts’ Kylo Ren.  For Kylo’s thoughts on The Last Jedi, and Rogue One click on the link and enjoy.

Solo_A_Star_Wars_Story_Theatrical_Poster

My Favorite Scene: Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017) “Rey & Kylo vs. Snoke’s Praetorian Guard”

 


Six months removed from the release of Star Wars: The Last Jedi, fans have some perspective but little direction.  For a film that did so well at the box office, it sure vanished off the cultural and geek landscape quickly.  After The Force Awakens, people were still buzzing about the film a year after its release.  Most fans I know put it behind them, or are looking to JJ Abrams to somehow make sense of Rian Johnson’s film in Episode IX.  Not even Star Wars fans seem very pumped about Solo’s release this week.  Whether you thought it was brilliant (which passes my understanding) or, like me, thought it was an incredible misstep that broke characters and plot lines irredeemably, the point of these columns is to highlight the best of a film.  Maybe the thing about The Last Jedi that most frustrating is that there is enough coolness in it to not be able to hate it straight out.  However, in every bit of greatness in the film there’s something embedded that makes nitpicking Star Wars fans (and we do love to nitpick like no others) wince. Continue reading My Favorite Scene: Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017) “Rey & Kylo vs. Snoke’s Praetorian Guard”

The Greatest Teacher Failure Is….Star Wars Tribute Video

The latest fantastic Star Wars tribute video from Hero Fan Productions (you have to subscribe to them on YouTube) features something not often dwelt upon when you think of the Jedi.  They are awesome.  They are heroic.  They are also…possibly the worst educators in fiction.  Yoda trained Dooku, Obi-Wan trained Anakin, Obi-Wan and Yoda barely trained Luke, Luke botched training Ben, and gave Rey 48 hours or so of instruction before Ghost Yoda had to show up and whack him over the head with his ghost stick (which apparently you can do if you’re a ghost…now).


Of course there were extenuating circumstances in all these training failures, and the hubris of the Jedi Order was what ensured its downfall from Palpatine (who was, all things considered, probably a better teacher than any of them).  Those who can do; those who can’t teach.  What the Jedi needed were a lot more mediocre doers who made better teachers.  I’m sure Rey will take all the magic broom kids from Canto Bight and turn them into a new generation of Sith if the pattern holds.  Still, it’s a wonderfully edited look at the lessons of failure in the Star Wars Saga from The Phantom Menace through The Last Jedi.

Daisy Ridley and Mark Hamill in Star Wars: The Last Jedi

May the Fourth Be With You! Happy Star Wars Day 2018!!!

May the Fourth Be With You, Yoda

“May the Fourth be with you!”
“And also with you!”
If you can have this exchange with someone today, this person is someone to not ignore the other 364 days of the year.  Today is, of COURSE, the greatest unofficial holiday on the calendar: Star Wars Day!  Not Cinco de Mayo eve, but a celebration of the greatest fictional universe and the state of that fictional universe is, unfortunately, a lot more precarious than it was at this time last year.  Star Wars is at a crossroads.  Though it was a financial and critical success, Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi split the fanbase in a way that it hasn’t been since Disney started managing the property.  Whether you thought what Rian Johnson with TLJ was brilliant, or-like me-you’re still kind of trying to suppress the whole experience because the more you dwell on it the more depressed you get, it was a divisive film.  My short, personal rant is that it undid nearly everything good that The Force Awakens did, ruined several characters (some irredeemably), and didn’t really accomplish a whole lot for being the longest film in the Saga.  But it’s more fun if Auralnauts’ Kylo Ren breaks down the film.


Continue reading May the Fourth Be With You! Happy Star Wars Day 2018!!!