Tales Of The Empire

Not what I expected!

I like not being right all the time and upon seeing the trailer for Tales Of The Empire it seemed simple enough, chronicling events of imperial engineer and former nightsister Morgan Elsbeth along with inquisitor in the making Barriss Offee. Now with Morgan it basically was what I was thinking, seeing her get from the massacre on Dathomir to being the magistrate on Corvus while tying in some elements from the Ahsoka series, but it was really nice to get some more backstory on her and any additional Diana in my Star Wars is highly welcome! From the small pool of other Star Wars fans I know, apparently I was the select few who just called Barriss turning into an inquisitor which I felt was obvious due to galactic history and her story thus far but I certainly didn't call anything after that event. There is more to her story than just hunt jedi and it kept me guessing where it was going to leave off. For a series clocking in less than 90 minutes it sure as hell made me want more but I was also satisfied with it, I liked gleaning more details from this galaxy and they were solid stories. Animators show offs as they are, give us another spectacular range of scenery and detail, first friggin' shot of the first friggin' episode made me huff in joyful disbelief it looked dat gud! Seeing familiar and new locales as well as characters in the Clone Wars style was great and I have no doubt this animation style will be with us for years yet. Performances while undoubtedly brief due to the structure of the show were regardless quite good, to get Meredith back for this and seeing her encapsulate the character of Barriss so well was lovely, of course some love must also be shared with Jason Isaacs and Lars Mikkelsen I mean those are my guys through and through and I adore them endlessly. I know these Tales series are just bite sized stories to tide us over for the next big project in the pipeline but the versatile range and freedom within can mean anything is next both for the next series focus and also individual stories for each season, I am once again asking Lucasfilm for a Tales Of The Sith series and I know I'm being greedy with The Acolyte mere weeks away but a boy can dream! Speaking of which, that's the next big series and the one I've been looking forward to most since the announcement. Hopefully I can catch up on the High Republic books more beforehand. As for this series big time 4 stars, 8/10!

Next week will be the slowest week so far of the year but I got some work to do so I can give you not one but two television series' reviews so hang tight and may the Force serve you well.

Return To Hogwarts

I would have sat for 5 hours watching this.

Big shock. I loved it. I'm so glad I watched it, I'm so glad they got everyone they could, and it is without question necessary viewing for all potterheads. It starts simply enough with some cute prelude to the documentary footage, as four chapters break down the 8 films with cast and crew discussing filming, the impact on the world, and most importantly the memories that were had. Now I know there's people out there howling their dislike based on "it's just nostalgia" but there is obviously some form of love and respect to this series to even begin with. They shoot on the real sets, the intercutting of movie footage, behind the scenes, and documentary footage is pretty good, and it's just fun and cute to see everyone back together. Obviously I can't recount every story and anecdote, but it does bring up stuff you wouldn't normally know and addresses facts of the production you may have forgot about. I spaced so hard on the fact that Emma Watson was going to leave the series halfway through, she was thinking about calling it a day and such a powder keg of a news story you think wouldn't have been forgotten. It's little nuggets like that which I loved so much cause you do hear it straight from the actor's mouth, they do reflect on it being 20 years since this franchise started and how it has affected them. There is an undying sense of love and family among the entire crew and cast, with the highlights of them being apparently Emma had a huge crush on Tom Felton and where has that been my entire life? That should have been in the movies, I'll make my own with Draco being a bad boy who can't voice his emotions clearly but he loves Hermoine, you'll love it. It'll be wild. Helena is off her f***ing rocker, I love her, I may or may not want the Daniel crush to be real, it's a thing of immense beauty and chaotic energy and I want you to acknowledge it. Jason Isaacs is still my love, my everything, he is (redacted), and forever will be in my heart. Of course it isn't all fun and unconditional love, they do reflect on these wonderful actors who are no longer with us. Richard Harris, John Hurt, Helen McCrory, Alan of course. And can I just say, hearing Jason and Tom talk about the most damn beautiful and perfect witch in the entire world, and seeing Tom break a little....that took my heart outside and pulverized it with a tenderizer. Like that was hard to watch. I mean we as fans were all devastated when Alan passed away, so how on earth did it feel for the people who worked closely with him for a decade? It would have been impossible to really craft a documentary around something this expansive with so much to talk about, it would have to be it's own series with a single episode dedicated to those we lost. And it was pretty tough seeing the behind the scenes stuff on the last day of shooting, I mean Jesus man Daniel had a full breakdown and I wasn't that far off from breaking myself. Personally speaking, as a 6 year old boy introduced to a land of magic and great characters, though I wasn't super hardcore into it did love it a lot and certainly as years have passed my appreciation has expanded greatly. It's gotten so many kids into reading, it's swept several generations in it's wake, and has forged a fandom the likes only to be rivaled by Star Wars and Lord Of The Rings. I mean that's pretty remarkable to say the sheer least. And they did it. The crazy bastards actually did it. They ended it with the line. You fu- how could you do this to me man? Whatever, 4 stars, 9/10.

Scoob

Damn it nooooo!

Ugh, I wanted it to be better! Guys I wasn't expecting Mystery Incorporated levels of quality but I had hope this would be the one theatrically released Scooby-Doo movie that would be good! It's not. It's slightly above average, I didn't hate it, but I didn't love it either. I think the animation is really dang nice, it's fluid and dynamic and the colors are rich and vibrant. The cast takes time to get used to but that's because I know these characters and who voices them, but they do decent work. Even the story on paper isn't bad, Scooby and Shaggy team up with Blue Falcon and Dyno-Mutt to fight Dick Dastardly and foil his plans. That is a simple plot, that is a fun plot, it wouldn't be out of place in a Hanna-Barbera cartoon at alllll, but the humor is what really shoots this movie in the foot. Now I will say it did make me laugh occasionally, but my sweet merciful God this movie is dated and it just came out! How can a cartoon so obviously produced in 1969 be more timeless than this?? Oh by the sainted Hallow's Eve, the humor just needed more work. It's so....ugh, Minions level of humor except worse. This hurts guys, this cuts me on a deep level, I wanted this movie to be good and I had hopes it would be after seeing the trailer, but it fell flat by the dumb choices. It's like if you combined the tropes and characters of Scooby-Doo with a cookie cutter, high budget, star studded 3D animated movie. What sort of topsy turvy reality do we live in when the live action spinoff that looks like it would be hot garbage dead on arrival, is so much more entertaining, fun, and interesting? Daphne And Velma was such a different take on the world of this series, but held up due to the world building it crafted, the different but familiar characters, and surprisingly strong humor! Sure the movie got me with references to The Hex Girls, and a plethora of other Hanna-Barbera cartoons which of course I know all the names of because I'm a friggin' dork (I still wanted to see the Herculoids!), and it filled me with happiness to see these characters even as slight nods in the background, but a good movie that does not make. They don't even have a mystery to solve, we know what Dick Dastardly is up to and why he's doing it which defies everything Scooby-Doo is, yeah the characters are done as they usually are, the voice cast isn't half bad with of course major love going to Frank Welker but also Jason Isaacs (I just love that guy so much), I dig the animation designs, it just seems like all the pieces were there to make a very good if not great movie. But the ball was dropped in places which forces the score to go down lower and lower. I've seen some shit in my day with Scooby-Doo, and this movie is by no means terrible but I cannot in good conscious recommemd this movie even if you are a hardcore, forever dedicated, unconditionally loving fan of Scooby-Doo such as myself. Which could harm seeing a new proper Scooby movie in the future so much. We had to wait about 15 years from Scooby-Doo 2 Monsters Unleashed to this, and now I genuinely shudder to think how long it will be until a new iteration is brought to us on the big screen. This week started off so well, and it went south in a real hurry. But nothing ever is going to stop me from loving Scooby-Doo, I have suffered through the live action movies, Return To Zombie Island, the not so good direct to video entries, and I still stick around. Why? Because I love it, it means the world to me, I couldn't quit it even if you put a gun to my head. 2.5 stars, 6/10. So instead go check out Mask Of The Blue Falcon, check out the other movies I reviewed this week, pick up the Mystery Incorporated series that's like $30 online, I'm gonna go eat some sour cream and onion chips with chocolate pudding and take a nap.

Superman Red Son

This was goooood! Oh it was so good!

I am serious man if I had to rank my favorite animated DC movies this is top 5 if not even top 3, no joke this was an amazing movie. Top 3 favorite DC animated movies goes as follows, The Dark Knight Returns, Batman Mask Of The Phantasm, Superman Red Son, and I can't even believe the lukewarm reception this little feature has gotten, with most scores being an average of 3/5 or 6/10. Whaaaat?? This is 8/10 if not 9/10 material, I friggin' loved this movie it is so damn awesome! Which is funny because while I never had an issue with the idea of an elseworlds Superman story about him growing up in the Soviet Union instead of the States, it didn't sound that terribly interesting. So if the book is anything like this I'm reading it immediately! It is a fascinating concept, what if not only Superman was russian but also Batman and even Wonder Woman has strong ties to Russia? And I greatly enjoy how the film handles it, it doesn't spend an indiscriminate amount of time with Superman as an adult, we go through the history of the USSR from 1946 to 1983 experiencing several aspects of the Cold War throughout from Stalin, to the Berlin Wall, to Lex Luthor being elected President after Kennedy is assassinated, and it all works so incredibly well. I had zero complaints through the whole movie, no edgy adult humor or unnecessary swear words just a great story being told. And I can actually roll with everything the movie throws at me because it's an elseworlds story, yeah I can see Lois Lane marry Lex Luthor, I can see Jimmy Olson being a G-man for the government, I can totally buy we get Wonder Woman, Brainiac, and the Green Lantern's in the same story, and it never once feels crowded or rushed. For a movie barely under 90 minutes, it takes it's time to flesh out this reality and make it incredibly believable, I was having a grand time enjoying the story, picking out more references than you can shake a stick at, being surprised and even kind of emotionally connected to certain scenes. The cast is amazing with my man Jason Isaacs being a pretty grand Superman in my eyes, and I appreciate the fact that he still has the same morals as our Superman but bent ever so slightly to fit his growth in a totally different society. Vanessa Marshall is still a queen and I just love that they made Wonder Woman an ambassador again, on good terms with the two largest superpowers in the world and only wants peace, Gail Simone would be proud. Diedrich Bader is a great Lex Luthor, so very different from more popular iterations of the character but still the Lex we love to see and I just love that we have ginger Lex Luthor, a fact which most people never knew about the character. You get the real sense that the writers knew Superman backwords, forwards, inside and out not just simply on a character basis but the lore basis, you see bits from comics, from the Christopher Reeve movies, from the animated series, it's kind of a love letter to hardcore Superman fans. The only reason this does not get a perfect 10/10 is simply because while I liked the idea of a cloned Superman to fight for the americans it did come from out of nowhere and the title they gave him is...wow. Like a colossal unimaginative wow. And he's only there for a handful of scenes so it was a bit superflous but certainly not bad. I could not recommemd this higher if you are a comic book fan, a Superman fan, or just greatly enjoy different takes on classic stories. 4 stars, a very high 9/10 and if I did decimal points on a regular basis it gets a 9.5/10, this is a fantastic movie and well worth buying without a doubt.

What will come next week? Even I'm not too sure but rest assured the show will continue on as usual.

Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets

I would definitely say this is better than the first.

Chamber Of Secrets does what every sequel should do, expand the story and characters while still introducing new elements into the world and overall having a better feel than the first. Granted the first story was a very basic story, more an introduction if nothing else but it turned out to be a pretty good film and was a massive hit at the box office. So now we have a better story with Harry returning to Hogwarts admist a rash of student endangerment after hearing tale of an illusive chamber built by one of Hogwart's original founders, leading Harry, Ron, and Hermione to find the location of the chamber and kill the beast within that is hunting down non-pure blood students before the school is closed. I know I give brief synopsis to every movie, but there's tons to talk about in every aspect for this film. Already the budget and effects have clearly been given a major upgrade, with more lavish sets, excellent animatronics, and better CG. I particularly like how we see familiar locations from the last movie but we get so many more new settings that we will see for movies to come. That's something I greatly appreciate about this series that I don't normally see, the continuity between films is probably the strongest I've ever seen in all my movie watching history. I like how the story goes a tiny bit dark and there's much more of a strong impending threat which permeates the entire film, as opposed to a threat that really only was near the end of the past film. It's great to hear the lore of Hogwart's and was something I loved even when I was a kid, and the aspects of the Chamber itself and the mysterious Heir of Slytherin are done brilliantly. The cast is even stronger in my opinion with all the returning students and teachers, a trend that will continue for many more movies to come. I think I'd mainly want to talk about story and character elements more than production and overall quality cause let's be honest these films are loved by almost everyone and each film is a standout movie in it's own way. You're not here for me to tell you to go see this movie, you're here to know my thoughts on the elements of each film. I don't think anyone has ever liked Gilderoy Lockhart and to be honest he's the worst DATDA (Defense Against The Dark Arts) teacher we have yet, but he did get a few laughs out of me near the end. I know J.K. Rowling didn't have everything planned out but the idea of a magic diary that holds part of someone and power over someone is a genius idea that evolves into something much greater as the films progress. I got to say that's pretty ballsy putting what is essentially a wizard slur word in a family film, I still kind of lose my shit when I hear Malfoy say that, talk about triggered! Not as much Severus this movie around but the bits he has knocking the hell out of Lockhart is cinematic gold in my eyes. I loooove the fact the Chamber Of Secrets is a full fledged set, and the fact we have a full on animatronic of a Basilisk is even more outstanding! Oh and we finally meet both Arthur and Molly Weasley, I adore them so much, I practically crush on Molly and Mark Williams is such a good actor and always will be Mr. Weasley in my eyes. Oh my God, I almost forgot to talk about Jason Isaacs, sweet mother of mercy that man is a fine actor and he is superb in this movie, we honestly needed so much more of him and I genuinely want to see more of him as The Grand Inquisitor. I'm sorry I'm just nerding the hell out over here but I just really had a grand time with this one and I cannot wait to see Prisoner Of Azkaban again. Another easy 4 stars, 8/10 again from me! Loved it, wonderful production values, great performances, deeper story, expanded characters, it's kind of hard not to like! I knew people though back in the day, who had um....issues. Major issues with the world of Harry Potter, and I just want to say I hope they don't exist anymore. Because they are the dumb and I for some reason gave them enough attention to argue with them. You just don't feed the trolls kids, take it from me. Just go watch the movie, it's wild, you'll love it!