Ewan McGregor’s fantastic as the titular Jedi master, who’s hiding out on Tatooine to watch over young Luke Skywalker while still haunted by the death of Anakin Skywalker — who, unbeknownst to Kenobi, has returned as Darth Vader. The Inquisitor side plot held promise but was a bit underwhelming. There’s been talk about a second season; not sure how I feel about that.
My Cultural Diet
The story feels more like a series of elaborate set pieces than a coherent narrative, but the set pieces are fun enough that it doesn’t really matter. Also, the Davy Jones special effects still look as good now as they did back in 2006.
Mitsuo Iso’s long-gestating follow-up to Den-noh Coil often feels like a spiritual and stylistic sequel. And like Den-noh Coil, I was alternately fascinated and frustrated by Orbital Children’s storyline. It’s very clever and imaginative, but I kept feeling like I’d missed an episode containing some key details.
I still think the first season was the best, but this was a solid improvement over season two. Ultra violent and gory, as to be expected. I’m a sucker for the Lovecraftian “In Vaulted Halls Entombed,” but I also enjoyed “Mason’s Rats” and “Night of the Mini Dead.”
If I remember correctly, this was the start of the Mission: Impossible films where Tom Cruise did the big stunts himself. (I’m not sure the Shanghai scene in Mission: Impossible III counts.) Cruise’s climb up the Burj Khalifa still gives me heebie jeebies to this day.
My son’s going through a bit of a pirate phase, so this was an obvious choice. Still pretty entertaining after nearly 20(!) years. It’s impossible to imagine anyone else but Johnny Depp as Jack Sparrow.
Oscar Isaac is great as always, and I like the fact that Marvel isn’t afraid to get weird, but towards the end, Moon Knight felt like it was getting weird simply for its own sake.
Pretty much what I’ve come to expect from Scalzi: nothing earth-shattering, but light, clever, and very entertaining nevertheless. (I finished it in less than two days.) He likens the novel to a fun pop song, which is pretty accurate.
It’s heart is in the right place, and I chuckled when I saw myself in the protagonists’ zeal for their favorite music, but a bit underwhelming overall. That said, I can see this becoming a cult classic in 10 – 15 years.
Does a good job of filling that Parks and Recreation-shaped hole in my life. While not every joke hits (the “power clashing” line kills me, though), I enjoy the characters and premise, and am looking forward to another season.
I saw this once described as “The Matrix, if made by Studio Ghibli,” which isn’t too far-fetched. Filled with interesting ideas and concepts but gets pretty convoluted near the end. Wouldn’t mind watching it again to try and make better sense of it.
Packard has more fun toying with the “Choose Your Own Adventure” format, though Inside UFO 54 – 40 isn’t as trippy as Hyperspace.
Not sure if this gave me a lot of new insight into Kon’s films, but it was neat to see how respected he was by other filmmakers. We lost someone truly special when he died.
My least favorite Expanse novel to date. But even a “bad” Expanse novel is still pretty good.
Read this in under 24 hours. Hurwitz knows how to write a pageturner, but it’s 100% style over substance. I appreciated the effort to make more nuanced and thoughtful bad guys, but I would’ve liked more mindless action and less existential philosophizing re. marriage, parenting, etc.
The very first Choose Your Own Adventure story proper.
And yes, I’ve had “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” going through my head ever since.