Star Wars Visions: The Bandits Of Golak

Summary

A brother and sister duo try to escape Imperials and Inquisitors whilst fleeing the Galactic Civil War.

There isn’t a whole lot wrong with this episode, it has some okay action and at times knows how to use its tension, but I think that is just it, this is an episode of half measures it is fine but doesn’t push for more than that.

I think the major issue with this episode is that the plot idea has been done before and done better, not the exact same plot but the idea of force sensitives having to run away from the Empire whilst being hunted down and having to make sacrifices to go into hiding. I feel like I have seen the episode so many times before in different areas of Star Wars media and for me that is a problem.

I also think that it is time to stop having all these survivors of Order 66 as it totally ruins the moment within the lore. Order 66 was impactful as it killed off most of the Jedis, it was a big deal, to have more and more of them surviving just takes away from it. Before you say it I know this show isn’t cannon, but I just wanted to say as it plays a role in the narrative of the episode that it is a plot crutch I am not enjoying from current year Star Wars. If they want to have more Jedi they could establish that there was a temple of some kind in the Outer Rim or beyond that was a splinter group from the main order and which didn’t get involved in the Galactic Civil War for whatever reason. That way you can have more new Jedi’s pop up without the question being where were they in the original trilogy.

Overall, a fine episode if one that felt very, very familiar.

2/5

Pros.

The action was okay

It was watchable

Cons.

The lazy plot crutch of another surviving Jedi

I feel like I have seen it before

The emotions weren’t developed enough to be impactful

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Rabbit Hole: Season Overview

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

Kiefer Sutherland finds his post 24 hit, in a paranoid thriller series all about narratives and optics.

I was taken by this show from the first episode, it is an immediate hook kind of show. The twists and turns are numerous and frequent and you never quite know what is going to happen next, the show pushes this further by playing around with the idea of unreliable narration and suggesting that we cannot trust what our eyes are showing us.

The themes and ideas of the series such as the ability to shape optics and media narratives and how the right line or even posture can greatly change the outcome of an event feel very timely within the current climate, and should give food for thought to us all.

I think the show wraps up quite nicely and doesn’t need to come back, though they do tease more in the final episode. In many senses if they left it here it would be a near perfect mini-series. My only issue with the show is the romance they force into between Kiefer and one of his associates which feels a little gross, as she is much younger than him, and also needless and unbelievable.

Overall, a good replacement for Homeland

4/5

Pros.

The tension

The twists

The timely nature of it

Sutherland

Cons.

The forced romance

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The Little Mermaid: The Opening Salvo Of The Summer Movie Season

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

The Little Mermaid gets the live action remake treatment.

So I went into this with pretty low expectations and thinking it wasn’t really going to be my sort of thing but I ended up enjoying it a lot more than I thought I would. I will preface this review by saying that I haven’t seen the animated original so I wasn’t attached to one version of this story.

I want to say right off the bat that Halle Bailey is a great Ariel and really helps the character to feel likeable and rounded in a live action format. On top of that she also has a very believable and strong romantic chemistry with the male lead, played by Jonah Hauer-King, which helps the film to really work as a date movie. Bailey of course also has a great singing voice and pulls off all the songs truly very well, or as well as can be done with the woeful new songs.

However, the strong cast doesn’t extend across the board Awkwafina is terribly miscast as Scuttle and has a groan inducing rap sequence that also doubles as one of the terrible new songs I mentioned earlier. It is such as a shame the film felt the need to introduce a few new songs as the old ones are still great and are what the audience want, but hey they have to have new songs to try and enter them into awards races later in the year. Awkwafina’s miscasting is somewhat offset by Daveed Diggs as Sebastian who is damn near perfect casting and who makes that Crab the stand out character of the whole film, bring on the Sebastian Disney + show I say.

A final point I want to flag up is that the effects and pacing of this film are both noticeably off and that on a technical level these things hold back the film. The underwater effects look bad and unfinished and I know Disney has bad relations with effect houses but they clearly needed to fix this if they want to improve their CGI, because at times the CGI hear was shocking, especially compared to what The Way of The Water was doing at the end of last year. Moreover, the extra story for Eric and a few other characters is nice but it really doesn’t need the film to be an extra half an hour longer than the original, at the length it is being shown at this film has a second act that drags by at a glacial pace.

Overall, a better live action remake than most of Disney’s others

3.5/5

Bailey

The classic songs

The romance

Digg’s Sebastian

Cons.

The effects and pacing

Awkwafina

The new songs

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Love Again: Reading The Texts Of A Deadman

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

A music journalist, played by Sam Heughan, finds himself in possession of a phone that is receiving texts from an unknown number, little does he know that he will end up falling in love with the mystery sender, played by Priyanka Chopra.

This film was strange, in many senses this misjudged a lot of things. Most noticeably was the tone, there are things in this film that are big deals like the male lead using the texts send to him unknowingly by the female lead, who thinks she is sending them to her dead ex, to track her down and pursue her, but rather than treat this as the red flag it is it is instead set up as a quirky meet-cute.

Moreover, Sam Heughan was entirely miscast with the film wanting more of a bumbling Hugh Grant sort but instead has a brooding and quite intense lead that doesn’t meet any of the boyish playfulness his role is clearly written to have. Additionally, the romantic chemistry between Chopra and Heughan is fairly non-existent.

Don’t even get me started on how much this film goes out of its way to plug Celine Deon, who no doubt Sony owns the rights to her music catalogue, it was off putting and made me feel like I was watching an advert rather than a film.

The film is passably watchable in a pinch and I did think the sequence in which Chopra’s real life husband Nick Jonas showed up was quite funny. Jonas shone in his little cameo role and it really was a shame he didn’t get more time or a bigger part as his character was far more interesting that Heughan’s.

Overall, Jonas is good for a laugh and it is passable if fairly generic and forgettable.

2/5

Pros.

It was passable

Jonas was funny in his brief cameo

Cons.

The leads have no chemistry

Heughan was miscast

It is generic

The tone is off

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Yellowjackets Season 2 Overview

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

Mysteries from the first season are tied up and new ones are born as the Yellowjackets sink further into the darkness.

This may be the first time I have written about Yellowjackets, I really got into the series last year and was eagerly awaiting this season, I was going to do an episode by episode series of reviews as I do with some shows but instead decided to do a broader season 2 retrospective as I don’t know how many of you would be interested in me doing weekly coverage. Do let me know if you are and I will do it for season 3.

For the most part I thought this second outing was more of the same, in the best way. It delivered on the character moments we had wanted to see since the first season, mostly noticeably getting together all the survivors, that we know off in the present day scenes. It also flushed out many of the mysteries from the first season in both the past and the present and it was nice to get those answers. Of course this is the kind of show wherein whenever they give you an answer hundreds more questions are posed.

The performances across the board were great throughout the season and that goes for both the flashback wilderness and present day scenes. If I had to pick a best for the season I would be split between Christina Ricci who does a lot more with Misty this season even getting a full on musical number, Elijah Wood who enters as a new character but by the end of the season immediately becomes a favourite or Sophie Nelisse who acts the hell out of her scenes this season.

My one complaint of this season would be that some of the storylines overstayed their welcome. Mainly I am talking about Shauna’s affair, and don’t get me wrong Shauna, played by Melanie Lynskey, is one of the best characters on the show and her storyline was interesting I just thought that they dragged it out for far too long. I think that it could have been condensed down and then the extra screen time could have been given to the other non-Misty Yellowjackets in the present day who needed a bit more attention.

Overall, one of the best show’s on TV, but a minor step back from the heights of the first season.

4/5

Pros.

The characters

The mystery

The style of the show

The ending

Cons.

Shauna’s present day storyline got a bit too much screen time

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