Karate Kid Legends: New Blood?

A new Karate Kid is chosen.

So this was a fairly charming film. I was a fan of Cobra Kai and when I heard about this film I was unsure, especially when it was murky whether it would even mention any of the events from the show, however, I have to say the final stinger of the film with Miyagi-Dough made me cheer a little bit inside.

This is a reverse Jaden Smith Karate Kid and has a Chinese boy, Ben Wang, come to America which was interesting. Personally I think the Smith starring film is easily the worst in the franchise so I was not super hyped about the return of Mr Han, Jackie Chan, though he did have a few funny scenes. It is such a shame that Chan has become a whore for the Chinese Communist Party, and all they have done, I used to like him but him being in this makes it hard for me to watch.

Seeing Daniel, Ralph Macchio, was a highlight and I loved how they honoured the legacy of Mr Miyagi, Pat Morita, and managed to bring together the two schools of Kung Fu and Karate.

Was it a bit formulaic? Yes. Did it repeat plot beats from the franchise? For sure. However, there was enough here to make this special and charming.

Overall, probably the best action film of the summer.

4.5/5

Pros.

Daniel

How they honoured Mr Miyagi

The stinger at the end

It was charming

The action was pretty good

Cons.

It was a bit familiar at times

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Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire: A Traumatic One For The Twilight Fans

Summary

Harry enters the Tri Wizard Tournament and Voldemort is reborn.

So this Harry Potter film is easily the best, you have the expanding of the world by seeing the Quidditch World Cup and seeing other countries and how they use magic, as well as seeing the other schools and how they present. I would say though that this film marked the start of the teen angst which comes to linger and ruin the flow of the latter films, whereas at least here it is minor.

There does seem to be a genuine sense of threat during the tournament and the graveyard seen is able to capitalize on that, with it being quite harrowing to watch Voldemort’s return and the death of Cedric, Robert Pattinson. I would have to like to have seen more of the Death Eater trials but I suppose you have to streamline things for theatrical release.

I think the film manages to do a lot to keep the pace moving along nicely with a good mixture of action and character moments with it never slowing down too much as we will soon see with the later films.

Overall, the best Harry Potter has.

4.5/5

Pros.

It allows us to see more of the world

The graveyard scene

The tension

The pace

The opening sequence at the Quidditch World Cup

Cons.

The beginnings of angst.

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Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban: Rats And Dogs

Summary Harry meets his godfather.

This is easily the second best film in the series, I appreciate the more adult tone of it and think that seeing more of the wizarding world such as during the night-bus scene is a credit to the film. The dementors make for excellent monsters for Harry and co to face off with as they are both evil but also fairly unexplored, we know they are a threat without even needing to see them be threatening.

I thought the film almost had a paranoid thriller aspect to it with the prisoner being on the loose and supposedly out to do Harry harm. There was a great sense of tension particularly after the Fat Lady is attacked that really makes you share in the sense of peril.

Lupin, David Thewlis, is one of my favourite characters as he makes an impression right from the off and you really buy his connection to Harry. Finding out more about Lupin and Harry’s Dad as boys was also interesting. The twist is quite well done and you would not realise it unless you had seen it before, I am talking about Timothy Spall’s reveal of course.

Overall, a fun ride with a great gothic charm

4/5

Pros.

The twist

The atmosphere

Exploring more of the world

The past stuff

Cons.

The pacing is off

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Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets: I Hope You’re Not Afraid Of Spiders

Summary

Harry’s second year at Hogwarts brings killer Basilisks and a look at what is to come.

So this is a much better film than the first, outside of the first half an hour which feels like its aimed younger than the later sections of the film, it all feels very in keeping with what I would say is the tone of the series.

Getting background information into Voldemort and seeing the first horcrux is also interesting and helps to flesh out the character beyond just the name. I do find it difficult that Harry did not know Voldemort’s name was Tom Riddle as surely there must be information available about him in the wizarding world and he would want to know who killed his parents, but anyway.

I like the mystery of who has opened the Chamber of Secrets and why are all these students being killed or turned to stone, it feels just the right amount of horror for a film like this. There is a creep factor to it without it being unsuitable for kids.

Overall, a better sequel.

3.5

Pros.

The horror

The tone

Setting things up for the future

Seeing more of the Wizarding World

Cons.

The first hour feels removed from the rest of the film

Too many side plots and angst

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Harry Potter And The Philosopher’s Stone: Out Of Step

Welcome dear reader to the first in a series of reviews I am publishing over the coming few days which will explore the Harry Potter series a few decades on. We will be talking about contemporary issues with the franchise, mainly around the actors and we will be discussing it in depth. I have watched the series many times all the way through and hopefully we can have an interesting conversation along the way.

So straight off the bat I just want to say that I tried to not let my dislike of the actors particularly Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson spoil my enjoyment of these films. I fully stand with J.K Rowling in everything she has said and I think the fact that these actors, who would not have careers without her, so openly disparaging her is disgusting.

Summary

Harry Potter, Daniel Radcliffe, a young boy finds out he is a wizard.

So this is my least favourite of the Potter films for the simple fact that it feels so disconnected tonally to the others, and it feels like they don’t do enough to build up to the big Voldemort reveal at the end. Now obviously you are bound by the books, but I think that a scene showing more of the aftermath of the fall of Voldemort would have worked well here, we could also get a tease him being on the back of the teacher’s head.

As it stands it feels very generic fantasy, and that makes sense as it is a first film so clearly trying to find it creative voice, but I would have liked more references to the wider lore and world in this film. I suppose the film does introduce us to a number of characters and locations here so that very basic but necessary work is being done but I would have liked it to feel deeper.

Overall, a slow start and one that feels very disconnected from where the series will go tonally.

3/5

Pros

The effects mostly hold up

There are some enjoyable moments

The ending remains strong

Cons.

It needs more explanation of what happened in the world post Voldemort’s defeat

It feels tonally disconnected from the rest of the series

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Andor Second Season Overview: Rape In Space, ICE, and Unfortunate Comments from Diego Luna

Summary

Andor returns for an incredibly slow second season.

In many ways this entire second season was a step back from the first, there was less action, less character development and even more things left open-ended.

The final arc of the second season wherein we were seeing more of the Partisans on the earlier rebellion should have been the main focus of this season, but instead we got wild weddings, an ICE allegory and far too many scenes of Syril’s mother. The first two arcs were boring filler that really added very little to the overall season. How was seeing Mon Mothma dancing for well over 5 minutes in any way necessary to understand the early rebellion. Gilroy has gone on to say that Kathleen Kennedy fought for him to have his vision but maybe just maybe this is one of those times she should have intervened.

Showing the Ghorman Massacre was interesting and probably the high point of the season but again this was far too drawn out with about 5 episodes leading up to the actual massacre. The pacing of this show is really what kills it for me in many ways. Likewise I thought the finale arc mainly revolving around Luthen’s assistant was a weird move as it prevented us getting closure with seemingly much more important characters in the narrative.

Overall, it is watchable but the pace is so bad it will send you to sleep.

2/5

Pro.

The Ghorman Massacre

Some of the earlier Rebellion stuff

Cons.

The pacing

The unanswered questions

Too many side characters

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Star Wars Tales Of The Underworld: Filler As We Wait For Maul

Summary

We get to see the early life of Cad Bane and the resurrection of Ventress.

So I have to say this series hit a sore spot for me, I have been eagerly awaiting a new animated Star Wars offering since Bad Batch went away and when I heard about this and the character focuses I was excited. However, upon watching, it feels like filler, nothing very epic or of consequence happens, and whilst yes it fills in some blanks it is pretty dull. They managed to have Ventress fighting an inquisitor be over in a few seconds, this should have been a big epic duel like when Maul and Ezra fight inquisitors in Rebels but no.

Moreover, in the Ventress centric episodes we see yet another jedi survivor and it is now getting to a point wherein it is taking away from Order 66, if everyone ended up actually surviving then it wasn’t this big event that it is portrayed as in the Star Wars lore. Seeing the kid talking about Quinlan Vos and the Path made me just want to get a Path show, which could give us either an animated or live action Cal Kestis and Merrin. There are projects that would be a slam dunk for Star Wars they just need to commit to them.

Overall, a sad missed opportunity.

2/5

Pros.

It has some interesting ideas and concepts

The inquisitor design is pretty cool

Cons.

It is dull

It feels like filler

It cheapens Order 66

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The Force Awakens: The Beginning Of The End?

Summary

A new trilogy is born.

So recently I went through and watched every single Star Wars film again, and found that by and large the sequels are the worst era. Shocker.

My issue with this film is not that it is bad, but rather that it was a missed opportunity.

Whilst I could make the same point that everyone has made about how the film is far too reliant on nostalgia, I will instead say that the issue with it is that it has three protagonists when it should have two. For my money I think the film should focus on Rey, Daisy Ridley, and Poe, Oscar Issac, and just cut out the entirety of Finn, John Boyega’s, storyline. This is mainly because it does not pay off in any meaningful way in the following films and just ends up feeling like a needless side story. Think about it Rey has the Jedi side down and Poe has the Smuggler/Rebellion side down what does Finn actually bring to the table.

It sets up a lot of interesting threads with Snoke and Captain Phasma but sadly doesn’t really do much with either of them, this was clearly done to get people to speculate in-between films but then just did not pay off. I would have liked more about how the First Order came to be and less of an emo Kylo Ren, Adam Driver, honestly these scenes are hard to watch, seeing Kylo get mad and smash up the place isn’t scary, it isn’t cool it just looks like a teenager being an emo and it is irritating.

I found the characterisation of Rey here to actually be okay, this was before she became godlike overnight, and I found the character easy to root for. However, one thing I have to say that made these films stand out from both of the other trilogies in a bad way is the horrible Marvel humour that is really quite distracting.

Overall, it was a good start but arguably tried to do too much.

3/5

Pros.

It sets up some interesting things

It does manage to deliver some good nostalgia beats

Snoke

Cons.

It does not really set up or give an identity to the First Order

The Marvel humour and the cringe emo scenes

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The Empire Strikes Back: Star Wars In Its Prime

Summary

The Empire is at its zenith and even though Boba Fett does not do much of anything he is easily the coolest person on screen.

So I rewatched the original trilogy for the first time in years and I have to say I have a renewed appreciation for them, perhaps it is the lore deep dives that I have been doing that have brought that about or perhaps it is the sorry comparison to Disney Star Wars.

Anyway, I think that this is easily the best of the original trilogy as it feels the most like a war film. For me personally I am more interested in the war side of things rather than the broader fantasy and mysticism, so I enjoyed the big large scale battle this film brought to bear. I particularly enjoyed the opening sequence on Hoth, I feel like using practical sets rather than copious amounts of CGI really help to give it a visceral edge.

The growing dread of Bespin as you know even if you haven’t seen it before that something is not right is masterfully implemented and executed and I feel the payoff is satisfying. I would have liked it to be have been played a little more earnestly by Harisson Ford, he’s a bit too jokey for my liking in this scene, however, the emotional roar from Chewbacca really is effective.

Overall, a million miles better than anything we are getting from contemporary Star Wars and all the more proof that there should be an animated show focusing on the adventures of Han, Luke and Leia in between the adventures of the original trilogy or immediately after.

4.5/5

Pros.

The stakes

The visceral war feeling

Boba Fett just being cool

The tension on Bespin

The pacing

Cons.

Han is a bit to cavalier about being frozen

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Yellowjackets Season Three Overview: Falling Off

Summary

After a long hiatus the yellowjackets are back.

So by and large this was the worst season of the show. The fundamental question regarding that is why that is, was it because they never really had a clear plan for this show? Was it because the writers strike changed thing? Or are they trying to spin their wheels for as long as they can in order to profit off the show?

Who is to say, however, I will say that the first half of this season is damn near unwatchable with how slowly it is paced. The amount of filler that is being injected into this part of the show, would make even Millie Bobby Brown blush, it is infuriating to watch as you are left with week after week with basically nothing of major importance happening.

You have the season long mystery of who killed Lottie, Simone Kessell, which just feels like it comes out of nowhere, and the revelation of who did it was both obvious and also uninspiring. It just feels like such a missed opportunity, as there was far more ground they could have covered and directions they could have gone in if they had not done that.

Then you have what I think is the biggest flaw of the season Shauna. So Shauna, Melaine Lynskey, has always been shown to be cold blooded, however, in this season she goes off the rails in a cartoonish way trying to feed a woman a piece of her arm, and vowing to go after her husband and daughter who have left her and reclaim her Queenhood, meaning the savage side of her from her time in the Wilderness. This is coupled with the teen timeline where Shauna seemingly becomes even more of a supervillain as she can force other people to do what she wants with a bark and manages to keep well over ten people locked down when they want to leave with a glare. The writing here is absolutely stupid as it makes no logical sense how one small young woman could keep all of these other people at her mercy with one gun, yes she could shoot one of them but the rest would still get away. The writers I assume would explain Shauna’s fall to the dark side in the teen years by trauma resulting from the death of her child, yet even in that context this seems far fetch and simply as bad writing. They have turned Shauna into this almost psychopathic killer when she really wasn’t presenting as that before, they have likely done this to create drama and not for any other reason. It feels like extreme flanderisation.

Overall a step back in almost everyway from the previous two seasons.

2/5

Pros.

It still has some good moments

Hilary Swank

Cons.

The death of Lottie

How they change Shauna’s character

The pacing

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