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6StringSamurai
Reviews
IMDbrief (2018)
What, no Straight Outta Compton?
I mean, it's got a higher rating than the Doors, 24 Hour Party People, Control, and Ray, and ties with Walk the Line.
Then there's Amadeus, which blows them all out of the water with an 8.3. C'mon guys. You have two movies about the same band.
Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018)
Fun, but lacked anything revelatory
This was a fun, outer space romp of a movie. That's all that can really be said about it. If it wasn't about Han Solo, and just another outer space adventurer, it would be chalked up to a fun distraction, but nothing special. However, the film is about Han Solo, beloved scoundrel to generations of fans, so doing a film about his early days was always an uphill battle. First, they had the unfortunate task of trying to get someone to fill in Harrison Ford's rather epic shoes. Alden Ehrenreich does his best, but no one was ever going to get it right, especially coming on the heels of Ford returning to the role after 30+ years.
Despite this, it could have all worked out rather nicely, if they had brought something new to the character. Unlike the last Star Wars anthology film (Rogue One), this film utterly fails to bring anything new to the story we already knew. We knew that Han was from Corellia, went to the Imperial Academy, we knew he freed Chewie from slavery, we knew that he made the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs, we knew that Chewie was 200 years old, we knew that he won the Falcon in a card game from Lando, we know that Han shoots first. Some of these things are straight out of the original trilogy, some are from the expanded universe that has been a part of the SW saga for so long. The point is that it was as if the filmmakers just had a checklist of fan service items that they ran down in order to lock these items firmly into Star Wars canon.
Rogue One, on the other hand, takes a story that we already knew, and builds off of that. They take a plot element that had been considered a bit of a weakness in A New Hope (the fact that such a huge weakness in the Death Star went completely unnoticed) and made that vulnerability an act of deliberate sabotage. That revelation strengthened the original film and made the new film that much more compelling.
Solo, for all it's fun, didn't add anything. It didn't enhance the character, or flesh him out in any way: Han had a mentor once. (So?) He had a girlfriend once (So?). Lando was a card cheat (duh).
The only big revelation that happens is that Han's girlfriend works for Darth Maul. I loved that actually, because I love Darth Maul. But he come way out of left field at the end of the movie. Okay, Qi'ra is working for him. So? Han knows nothing about that and it doesn't affect him in any way. So what's the point? It's a standalone film, so where are they going with this? You can't have Maul interact with Han in any meaningful way, because he doesn't believe in the Force until he meets Luke years later.
Despite all this, I did like the movie. It wasn't on the epic scale of the other movies, but it was fun. Donald Glover was born to play Lando, and this was a solid heist film. But that, unfortunately, is all.
Miles from Tomorrowland (2015)
The series has been retooled, and it has lost its magic
Miles from Tomorrowland was a great show. It was a fun outer space romp about the Callistos, a family who lived and worked together in outer space for the Tomorrowland Transportation Authority (TTA), a governmental organization akin to the Federation in Star Trek. The family consists of Captain Phoebe Callisto, mother and commander of their ship, the Stellosphere; Leo Callisto, father and ship's pilot/engineer; older sister and resident brain Loretta Callisto, and finally the titular character, Miles.
Part of what made the show great was that the family dynamic of the series was routed in reality. Miles is an ordinary kid. He loves to play video games, ride his blastboard (hoverboard) and play with his best friend Merc (a robotic pet ostrich). Like all kids, he makes mistakes. He clashes with his sister (although they generally get along well), he "accidentally" makes messes and breaks things, he tries to get out of chores. You know, normal kid stuff. But he's good-hearted, loyal, and does his best to try to help when he can.
Of course, as normal a kid as Miles is, he does live on a spaceship, which leads to plenty of adventures. Miles, despite being the main character, doesn't always save the day. The family always comes together to solve any problem or overcome any challenge. The family was always at the core of each story. There is the occasional villain, but often they are on missions of discovery, rescue or even diplomacy. Woven throughout is the mysterious Builders, an ancient and highly advanced race of peace-loving aliens who left cryptic and mysterious clues about themselves across the galaxy.
The stories were exciting, engaging and even occasionally educational. It was the kind of show where you didn't mind watching with your kid because you enjoyed it too.
Fast forward to season three. Miles and his sister are both entering the TTA academy, which makes no sense because Loretta is like two years older than Miles and at least five years ahead of him educationally. The siblings are joined with their friends Blodger Blopp, Mirandos, and Haruna Kitumba. While on a training mission they manage to save a runaway starship from crashing into a colony. As such, the TTA decides that these prepubescent tweens should form Mission Force One- the TTA's first line of defense against the heretofore unheard of Nemesystems- a nefarious agency determined to steal all of the tech in the universe.
Miles is given command of their new ship, and each team member is given a new color-coded spacesuit and a new specialized skill. (In other words, they look like the Power Rangers.) The parents are gone, and these unsupervised children are left to their own devices in the TTA's most advanced starship.
They've completely changed everything that made the first two seasons so great. Miles isn't the ordinary kid he used to be. He's a infallible super-captain who always saves the day. The family dynamic is gone; Loretta always seems to follow his lead without having any opinions of her own. They've turned a great family adventure show and turned it into a hollow action movie of a Disney show. Maybe they can turn it around, but I doubt it.
Legend Quest (2011)
Finally! Ancient mysteries are "solved"
Legend Quest is SyFy's attempt to create a modern Indiana Jones (with a bit if Dan Brown thrown in for good measure), and is about as historically accurate. Host Ashley Cowie certainly looks the part, right down to the 5 o'clock shadow and the shoulder bag (it's a satchel!) In a half an hour of television, this "archaeological explorer" (whatever that means) seeks to solve the great mysteries that have plagued historians and archaeologists for centuries. Along with him is Kinga Phillips, a buxom "field producer" who's sole purpose is to be a sounding board for Cowie's wild assumptions and theories. Some of his leaps of logic are laughable at best. "Hey, this two headed eagle has wings. The Ark of the Covenant had angels with wings. It must be a clue!".
The show's structure is much like a treasure map. "Take 20 paces to the the south west". One clue leads to another and another. If it were that easy, they would have solved these centuries ago. Rubish.