Frankenstein (2025)

I hope everyone sees this on the big screen.

It is well worth it I will fully admit and wow what a good adaptation! Like this was on my radar since it's announcement and I only wish I could have seen it sooner, but we're here now and I am so so happy. Now admittedly I haven't read the book in years, fun fact true fact this was the subject of the first ever book report I had to do in school and was recommended to me by my teacher, but now I feel even more enticed to read it again! So I can't fullheartedly say this is a flawless adaptation of the story but I can say it is a damn good re-telling. I like how the movie is split up into parts giving us a bit of backstory on Victor before he even attempts reanimation, then going into the real meat and bones of his work in a fairly quick pace, and then we shift to see his creation's story from his perspective. Oscar Isaac is on top form here, easily the best performance I've seen him give and if ever people didn't pick up on the subtleties of Victor being the truly monstrous figure this film will set it straight for you! He manages to capture that wide eyed manic genius, the manipulation and spurn, and the sorrow of what his work has done to his life, so he plays quite a gambit throughout! Jacob Elordi as the creature in the very first example of his acting I have ever seen was indeed the highlight, balancing more nonverbal acting with very eloquent and equally dramatic lines with so much heart that would make Boris proud. Mia Goth was an interesting choice for Elizabeth and indeed while she's not in the movie a great deal her characterization is what makes her so memorable, she has her own interests, is very outspoken, smacks Victor in his place on several occasions, and melts quite easily in the presence of a quote unquote monster which was very lovely to see. It's funny how no matter how much times have changed there's still this intangible attraction to monsters in cinema, which of course I'm a massive fan of. Those are our big players but the fact we get talent like Lars Mikkelsen, Christoph Waltz, and David Bradley in the secondary character department made me happy as hell regardless of their screentime and role. The visuals are shock of all shocks amazing, I know very hard to believe in a Del Toro film, but the period piece costuming and sets, the gothic lens we peek through from time to time, the snowy environments, it all lends to a very beautiful film! And it has certain little bits of visual DNA from the other versions of this story, the windmill from the 1931 film, the black trenchcoat and possibly the heterochromia eyes of the 90s Robert De Niro movie, the lab sets almost straight out of a Hammer film, it felt right at home. The movie has the heart needed for the subject material without question, it didn't make me cry but it got me close, it is an emotional tale at the core of it all and it doesn't get overdramatic but when it needs to go big it revels in the moment. All the effects work is so well done from the creature design, to the more gory bits, to the pyro it all is top notch stuff. I had a very good time with it and I know some people will get even more out of it than me without a doubt to which I say, party it up girls! Have fun with it, go see it if you haven't already, it's worth the runtime. 4 stars, 8.5/10, and next week we'll get back to one review but it's more catch up from me so stay tuned.

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.

Ahsoka

Holy shit. Holy shhhhit!

I am so sorry this was as late as it was and I'm desperately gonna attempt to keep this coherent, but there is so much to talk about and not tread into spoiling everything so with that let us begin. We knew this show was coming, we knew it would be all about finding Ezra and Grand Admiral Thrawn, and still and STILL it gave us fans so much to be entertained by and love! Son of a krayt dragon, where do I even start? Literally before act one scene one I was a happy boy seeing a red Lucasfilm logo and red text crawl. We are quickly introduced to our principal protagonists and antagonists, Ahsoka and Sabine after a falling out in jedi training reconvene with hopes of finding Ezra Bridger and stopping Thrawn's return after retrieval of an ancient map, while Morgan Elsbeth hires two...I have no damn clue what to call them cause they're not mercenaries and they're not sith and I dare not even call them dark jedi, Lord Baylan Skoll and Shin Hati who are looking to traverse to a galaxy far far away to retrieve the Chimaera and it's captain as heir to the Empire. Now I actually only have one singular qualm with this show and even then it really isn't all that much but I wonder how does Ahsoka know the map she finds leads to the precise location of Thrawn? I know it's a simple Macguffin and there is indeed a time gap between when Din met Ahsoka and now so whatever, just a nitpicky thing. And for a show that's only 8 episodes long with varying runtimes for each episode, what it juggles and how the story progresses ain't half bad. It's quite tentative how each link gets Ahsoka and Sabine closer to Ezra but far from plot breaking, and I can see that some might claim the show to be slow and it is indeed far from action packed but I feel that's necessary for the story that needs to be told. There's a lot of character backstory and baggage that gets sorted, and yeah it's damn near pivotal to see Star Wars Rebels to fully get the picture. You can still watch this show uninitiated but I don't feel like it would have as much of a draw or impact, it's essentially a fifth season of a television show just swapping from animation to live action. I mean they do a competent job getting across what each character is like and their history with one another but it's one thing to infer from it and another to experience it. Now that being said they got some fuggin' GOOD actors to play these roles, and I'll tell you something right now I can't imagine being the casting director for this because not only do you have to pick the best candidate but you also got to get the right looking person to be this animated character come to life. That is unbelievably difficult but they pulled it off in spades for my money's worth. Rosario gets to finally spread her wings and explores the boundaries of this fan loved character and delves into her psyche a bit, you see an arc with Ahsoka as she gets some very much needed closure and acceptance of her past. Natasha couldn't be more of a dead ringer for Sabine Wren if she tried and effortlessy captures the still rebellious sassy attitude that masks some grief and pain, she was an easy sell for me. Mary Elizabeth Winstead did take a hot second for me to get as Hera but once we were there all was well, she takes way more of a mom stance and while she does have her son Jacen around you can tell she wants to get Ezra back after so long too, and she ain't taking no nonsense from certain republic senators, so I say rock on. Okay this is gonna go on for a minute but fuck it, Ray Stevenson...good God. This is a greater tragedy than Darth Plagueis, the fact he never got to see the fans adore his character and even greater the fact we won't see him again continuing the quest of Baylan Skoll, it just hurts man. Del Rey books, Pablo Hidalgo, whoever I need to make a case to, please for the love of all things grand and amazing make a book on Baylan Skoll, either his break off from the Order and how he found Shin or a continuation of where we see him last or friggin' both! Baylan Skoll jumped up to my second favorite Star Wars character of all time in just 8 episodes (sorry Kylo I still love you) and I'm pretty sure I could write an entire character study on him but to keep it brief, he is a strong enigma but the best way I can describe him is he seems to put the emphasis on knight in former jedi knight, we really don't know what his endgame is though we get hints and breadcrumbs but he was perfect from beginning to end. I fell so head over heels for this character I fashioned my Halloween costume after him. Just wow, 12/10, 200/100, goddamn it I miss you Ray. Ivanna Sakhno though we don't get a firm grasp on her character's standing in the larger scale of the story, was an effective villain and my lord the eye acting of this woman was nothing short of phenomenal and pants wettingly terrifying. And I know a good sect of the internet who wants Shin and Sabine to be an item, I hold no grudge against that so I'm rooting for your dreams over there you romantic oddballs. Big time plot twist with Morgan Elsbeth played by Diana Lee Inosanto, turns out she got some Nightsister blood in her even though we had no inkling to believe so beforehand, but they fiddle and change stuff all the time in Star Wars you get used to it. But it's really damn cool to see her have such a prominent role from basically a cameo in The Mandalorian, she even gets to flex her sword fighting skills and I'm just happy to see her back in this role. Now if you go back and read my Mando season 2 reviews there was a little breakdown moment over the mention of a Chiss strategist by the name of mothertrucking Grand Admiral Thrawn so you would think I'd practically launch myself from my chair into the stratosphere upon his arrival but I kept quite a icy cool demeanor like the man himself, mainly because it was just a given. Of course we're gonna see Thrawn, of course we're going to see the star destroyer Chimaera, everything is proceeding as I have forseen, so it wasn't a matter of if we're going to see Thrawn but rather when are we going to see Thrawn. I mean can you believe it took over 30 years for this character to make the jump to live action? Heir To The Empire came out in 1991, we've had Thrawn in games, in comics, in animation, damn near every medium except live action until this year. Of course I'm utterly thrilled they got Lars Mikkelsen to do the performance rather than just dub his voice, and you can indeed see he is having the time of his life playing this role to the max in person and it's everything you both expected and wanted from it. I barely have to talk about him because you know it's great, I know it's great, the New Republic is gonna get wrecked and that's great! I genuinely do hope we get a second season of Ahsoka, I know Dave is gearing up for a film and that's wonderful but there clearly is some things to resolve by the end of this season, so please and thank you Lucasfilm. It's kinda mental how good the production is here, it really does seem like each show just keeps getting better in quality of effects to where you kinda forget it's supposed to be a TV show, the costumes are beautifully realized, the sets go from intricate to sprawling and look grand, the fight choreography feels in touch with each character and has some directorial flourishes which I love, we get a lot of emphasis on ships and space so obviously they excel at that over at ILM, it's just proper good production. Plus there's just a lot of new ground that was broken that I never thought Star Wars would do, I mean they have the balls to push the setting to a galaxy even farther away and yet it still feels appropriately Star Wars. If I had to pick favorite episodes, there's no bad episode for sure, they space each one out to where nothing ever feels like filler, that's a tough decision because there are solid candidates and I'm split on episode five and the finale for two very different reasons but I will go with the finale because they throw a lot of cool stuff at you and you want to see how it all ends and it leaves you with ample questions for next time. Regardless you're in for a treat with this show, I have no friggin' clue what the next Star Wars show will be, my want for The Acolyte is unrivalled so fingers crossed for that! Final scores I give it 4 stars, 8.5/10! And I shall return next week for a historical drama so stay tuned. Long live the Empire.

Star Wars Rebels: Season 4

Rebel scum....

Okay, fine! The last season was good, I'm not so sure it's the best, I still say the 3rd season was the best but for the end of a series it was fine. I got to say though I was so concerned about an episode titled "Worlds Between Worlds" not only did it remind me of that stupid friggin' line from Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull, but it introduces a premise that could severely destroy Star Wars but they showed restraint and they did the right thing. I do have complaints. Mainly down to one factor, they didn't go all out. Now what do I mean by all out? Simple, you go dark. You push the threat to the next level, you show people die, you touch on darker aspects of war. And while they kinda do that, they wimp out. I fully expected the entire Ghost crew to bite the dust, pull a Rogue One, everyone dies, the end. But they don't and it bugs the hell out of me. You never see these people again, so why not make their deaths powerful and memorable? That's what pissed me off the most, they couldn't kill people. I know this is for kids, but Clone Wars was for kids and people got straight up executed in that show! So why not show some heroes die or stormtroopers be cut to shreds by a lightsaber? What are they gonna do, pull the plug on your final season?? Go all out, push the characters to the limit, elevate the threat and the danger of not only Thrawn but The Emperor himself! Do something! I don't hate this show, I really don't but on the verge of the end you gotta go off the deep end. Beyond that factor, the season was good. It did not end the way I thought in any fashion, but it was a decent end to a good show. The story is good though, with Ezra and the Ghost crew taking missions for the Rebel Alliance and trying to liberate Ezra's planet of Lothal. Throw in good character moments, decent action, and a pretty um....liberty taking ending that will make some people happy but me, I'm just not feeling it. I'm happy Rex made it though! But Thrawn...it killed me. I am wondering why they brought in Rukh if they never intended of using him that way, but it was cool seeing him. Oh yeah, heavy underuse of Thrawn. Like, how dare you? He did have the most badass moment in Star Wars, more so than Vader in a long hallway in my opinion. Yes. I said that. I have such respect for this show and use of Expanded Universe content, which I am always thrilled to see so I can't be too upset. It's a very good show that kids will look back on 10 or 15 years from now and remember fondly, and how on Earth can I hate that? That is beyond awesome and cool to me! So the saying still holds truth in Star Wars, "For those who remember, for those who will never forget, and for a whole new generation who will experience it for the very first time.". I greatly enjoyed Star Wars Rebels and it is sad to see it end, but there will be more greatness in the future. Everything is proceeding as I have forseen....

Star Wars Rebels: Season 3

What the hell? This shouldn't have taken so long. They literally did a Christmas break, which I can fully understand, it lasted for nearly a month, fine. But then they had the gall to take almost a whole nother month off, and just to add insult to injury it was between a two part story. This series should have already been ended in either late February or early March. Not almost fraking April!!

Ugh, anyway following the kickass season 2 finale how does this hold up? Quite well actually, but really the sheer focal point of viewing this season besides the usual Star Wars fan ideology is because of Grand Admiral Thrawn. This is major to the hardcore Star Wars fan. Thrawn has been in Star Wars since 1991, but recently since Episode 7 was deemed Legends, it never happened it was just a tale. But now he's back, it was due to the season 3 trailer that I went out and bought The Thrawn Trilogy (Close to finishing the last book.) , and pre-ordered the new book Thrawn written by the man who created him Timothy Zahn. So going into season 3, I was expecting great things, what I got was a decent continuation of the story, with the same characters that had minor character development, and Grand Admiral Thrawn being just as I had imagined him. It was a good season, had only a few filler episodes maybe 3 or 4 out of 22 episodes, so not bad and even then they have an interesting factor in them, like seeing what looks like Dark Troopers but are really a cross between a super battle droid and a stormtrooper, and a similar ship to Dash Rendar's. Plenty of nice nods to the Expanded Universe are within this series. What kind of sucks though is, like season 1 the finale which is actually a two part ending, feels like just another episode. It wasn't this amazing, groundbreaking episode that would have reprocussions in the next season. It's just eh, we lost a bit but whatever. Nobody dies, nothing is truly resolved, and we're pretty much where we started at the beginning of the season. La dee da. Alright, good points! Thrawn obviously, Tom Baker as The Bendu was awesome because it's Tom Baker, that voice is just mesmerizing, and....that's it. Everything else is just okay. Except for Kanan's mask, I hate it. It does nothing, the design is wretched, it has no artistic or practical appeal to me. Other than that though, the season is just okay. Just watch it either for Tom Baker or Thrawn.

Oh, but we are not done yet. Our buisness in a galaxy far, far away has not yet been completed.