*****STAR DESTROYER-SIZED SPOILERS AHEAD!***** “A Long Time Ago…” As I may have said once or twice in this column, I make no secret of the fact that the Star Wars prequels are not really my cup of blue milk. Don’t get me wrong; seeing “Star Wars” at age 10 in 1977 was a transformative cinematic…
Tag: Star Wars
San Diego Comic Con 2022 returns at full-strength…
Welcome Back, San Diego Comic Con. With the cancellation of San Diego Comic Con 2020 and the much smaller capacity San Diego Comic Con ‘Special Edition’ over last year’s Thanksgiving weekend, SDCC returned in all of its 130,000 attendee glory this past week (July 20th-July 24th), and it was both good and a little terrifying…
Disney’s “Obi-Wan Kenobi” is more about making pieces fit than bold storytelling…
*****STAR DESTROYER-SIZED SPOILERS!!***** Debuting with a lot of fanfare at the recent Star Wars Celebration in Anaheim, Disney+’s “Obi-Wan Kenobi” miniseries has concluded with a finale that pulls out all the stops and throws in every cameo that it can, perhaps to make it seem more impactful than it actually was. Produced/directed by “Mandalorian” veteran…
DisneyPlus’ “Obi-Wan Kenobi” miniseries has taken its first step into a larger world…
*****STAR DESTROYER-SIZED SPOILERS!!****** Though I am currently attending the Star Wars Celebration convention in Anaheim as I type (details in a forthcoming post), I’m compelled to jot down a review of one of the major events at this convention; DisneyPlus’ premiere of the new six-part miniseries simply titled, “Obi-Wan Kenobi.” Starring actor (and co-producer) Ewan…
Remembering iconic sci-fi designer Colin Cantwell (1932-2022)…
Colin Cantwell, Rocket Man. This morning, I woke up to read that Colin Cantwell–a name I’ve known since my teens, and a man I had the pleasure of meeting three years ago–passed away at age 90, after a struggle with Alzheimer’s disease. No, his name may not be a household name in special effects, like…
“A long time ago…”: Looking back at Star Wars Celebration 2015 in Anaheim…
“You’ve taken your first step into a larger world…” In April of 2015, my wife and I went to our first “Star Wars Celebration”; an every-four-years event that reaches Star Wars fans worldwide in places such as England, Japan, Germany, etc. Usually it’s held in locales beyond my immediate fiscal/practical reach. Luckily, in 2015, Star…
“Hello, there!” Taking a look at Disney+’s trailer for “Obi-Wan Kenobi”…
A long time ago, in a cinema not too far away… As a 10-year old in the summer of 1977, I vividly recall seeing “Star Wars” , and remembering how it fundamentally changed movies forever. The motion picture industry has been trying to recapture the magic of that first film ever since, as it fundamentally…
“The Book of Boba Fett”: The good, the bad and the ugly…
*****SPOILERS FOR “THE BOOK OF BOBA FETT!!***** Whose Book? Like many Star Wars fans, I was looking forward to DisneyPlus’ premiere of “The Book of Boba Fett” on December 29th of last year, and while “Stranger in a Strange Land” was a decent opening chapter for the series, it didn’t exactly ignite my rocket pack….
“Return of The Mandalorian” makes for a far better chapter in “The Book of Boba Fett”…
*****TATOOINE-SIZED SPOILERS FOR “THE BOOK OF BOBA FETT!***** Like most other Star Wars fans, I looked very forward to Disney’s “Book of Boba Fett” when it debuted over a month ago, but several episodes in, I began to feel a distinct lack of interest. After episode 2, my longtime Star Wars fan wife gave up…
“Stranger in a Strange Land” opens the Book of Boba Fett…
*****BANTHA-SIZED SPOILERS!!***** Written by “The Mandalorian” veterans Jon Favreau (“Iron Man”, “The Chef”) and directed by Robert Rodriguez (“From Dusk Till Dawn,”), the first episode of “The Book of Boba Fett” is now available for streaming on Disney+. Clocking in at a brisk 39 minutes, “Stranger in a Strange Land” (in a possible nod to…
“Jodorowsky’s Dune” (2013) examines the landmark sci-fi film that never was…
The Almost Version of Dune. Frank Herbert’s seminal 1965 novel “Dune” gave rise to many things that influence sci-fi fantasy cinema this day; its terminology (“spice mines”) and trappings have been seen in popular franchises like “Star Wars” and later space operas. Herbert’s book is a dense, complex allegory of western colonialism, with various powerful…
“You must face Darth Vader again”: Returning to “Return of the Jedi”…
“Help me take this mask off.” A few years ago, I wrote a somewhat snarky, old guy-perspective of “Return of the Jedi,” and while I still stand by most of my criticisms of the movie (unoriginal story beats, a second Death Star, etc), I think what I needed now was to see the movie again…