Visions: Season 2

Open minds for a different view.

This was so interesting coming back to Visions, it really feels like a strong palate cleanser from the usual Star Wars material. It's even more vastly different than the first season and I didn't quite consider that possible. Comprising 9 episodes with longer runtimes averaging 20 minutes, there is so much to talk about. You'd think with such bite sized pieces of new Star Wars it would be easy to summarize but marathoning Visions is like sensory overload with so many styles and stories to contemplate. I wish I had more time to divulge in it but I can at the very least praise my favorites. First episode off the bat, Sith, you know me well Lucasfilm and how to please me. Holy hot damn this might take the cake, combining surrealism while still tethered to the physical world this episode is as much a virtual art project as well as a good story. To summarize it's almost as if you're watching color tell the story, there isn't a lot of shape and form beyond our opposing leads, so it's as close to psychedelic as Star Wars can get. Screecher's Reach was nothing but unpredictable, slightly horrific for a moment, but has an ending that only select few would call happy. I dig it man! Journey To The Dark Head is undoubtedly the most anime styled episode and I feel brings up a point highly important but rarely ever talked about in the visual mediums of this galaxy we love, and is very true to our world as well. And lastly Aau's Song, this got in just based on the cute as hell animation and very easygoing almost wholesome story, I genuinely could see a young kids show in this style similar to Rilakkuma And Kaoru. Oh my lord I loved every single animation style presented here, from 2D to 3D, from stopmotion to CG, it is nothing but a gorging session for your eyes. I saw bits of Kubo And The Two Strings, The Clone Wars, Time Squad, and Kill La Kill from certain episodes and I'm all here for it. The potential for Visions is limitless, and some of these stories beg for a continuation in some form or another like in the first season. Any animation studio can run out to this playground and have at it, any kind of story can be told, any style is accepted. It's madness but I wouldn't want it any other way because it's so awesome! What more can I honestly say? It's another great series and previous statements about the last season hold true here, if one story and animation style don't do it for you well you got 8 more to explore. It's all just top tier effort from the animation studios, to the voice actors, to just the free reign of it all. Such freedom is rare in this day and age to be perfectly honest and clear, to just go out and craft something to be presented to the whole world in a genre and universe as recognizable as this one, and there is no questions asked. Amazing. And in my opinion, it's another 10/10 for Visions, a full 4 stars, and here's to season 3 in the future. A splendid start to the day and my stars above is there so much more Star Wars to revel in today! So enjoy the day, follow your own light, and may the Force be with you.

Snake Eyes

Full frontal admission here, I know precisely dick about G.I. Joe.

I've maybe watched 2 or 3 episodes of the show on a sleepless night in my pre-teen years on Boomerang, I can name exactly 3 characters, Snake Eyes, Baroness, and Cobra Commander, and that's about it. So I walked in virtually blind, and the movie was okay. It wasn't horrible but wasn't terribly good either, I'd say the cast is the strongest point of the movie, the action is very shaky and is slightly hard to follow at times but done admirably, the story really didn't grab my attention until a good bit in, and the fact that the majority of the film takes place in Tokyo gets the movie some brownie points. Of course I enjoyed that immensely, seeing the bits of culture and locations on a big screen brought me much joy. But in terms of plot, it's sheer basics. We meet up with a young Snake Eyes, who sees his father murdered and devotes his entire life to kill the man who did it, only to be recruited by a ninja clan and you know the rest. It's very by the numbers, I kinda expected it to be an average decent movie from the trailers and TV spots and that's really what I got. I would absolutely love to see a hardcore G.I. Joe fan's thoughts on this, picking up on all the easter eggs and educating me on the differences. Henry Golding is a decent lead, he has the physical prowess and is believable in the role and he commits fully. Andrew Koji does actually really good work with the material and the inclusion of his character being the next heir to a powerful family clan brought a lot of enjoyment to the film for me. Haruka Abe is awesome, able to pull off the choreography and does indeed suit the role of chief of security for the family, she's class. Takehiro Hira and Ursula Corbero are okay villains, just not having much of a role to really play with. And from what very super little I know and have seen of the Baroness, I think Ursula hits the nail on the head in terms of physicality, and I'm genuinely curious to see what might come next for this new fledgling series. It's kind of a modus operandi for these G.I. Joe movies to be average, the first run got what, like 2 movies? And were not terribly loved at that, so it kinda peaks my interest more than anything to see if this series continues, though I have this tugging sense that this will be a one shot. Not because it's bad but because of how it's all about the profit the movie makes to seal the deal for a continuation. I'm not expecting high art or future action movie classics with this series, but it could turn into something better than what is here. I personally give the movie 2.5 stars, 6.5/10, but you can tell there was honest to God effort in terms of sets, choreography, acting, and it wanted to tell a story beyond this even if the story and script were not very good. It's a mixed bag, and thusly very mixed conclusions can be drawn from it. And on that shrugging bombshell it is time to end this week, see you next time everybody.