Darth Sidious has a new dark assignment: kidnap Force-sensitive children from across the galaxy and bring them to Mustafar.
Okay, this is pretty much what I’ve been waiting for on this show: the Jedi being Jedi! Holy crap! Need to get information? Use the Force! Need to crack the mind of a strong-willed bounty hunter? Use the Force! Really, this use of the Jedi doing Jedi-things only serves to make early instances of the Jedi not using the Force more annoying to me. Like I keep saying: the Jedi are only as strong as the writers want them to be and it’s been wildly inconsistent. At least here I can’t complain about their use of powers.
In fact, there’s not much I can complain about. It was a pretty good story giving more depth into both the Jedi and Darth Sidious. There are a ton of locations in this one, making it feel much more epic than in some episodes. And of course, Cad Bane is becoming an interesting character in his own right.
The only downside is that the action sequences - something this series has been solid in - feel a bit rushed. The episode could have stood to have been ten minutes longer, just to flesh out the fighting scenes. But otherwise, so far, this is the best episode of Season Two in my book and one of my top three favorite episodes so far.
The Resistance - Muse - Right off the bat, I’ll admit that this has been on a loop on my iPod in my car for the nearly two weeks that I’ve had it. Seriously, I dig this album a lot. I’m not an old school Muse fan, having only been introduced to them with their previous album, Black Holes and Revelations, so I can’t compare it to anything they did before that. However, when this album is mediocre, it is hitting at the best of BH&R; when it is good (tracks “The Uprising” and “United States of Eurasia”) it is superb. The whole thing is catchy and has a tendency to get stuck in my head. Highly recommended.
Black Gives Way to Blue - Alice in Chains - Wow. New Alice in Chains sounds more like regular Alice in Chains than any of the leading competitors. Which I’m not sure is good or bad at this point as I’ve only listened to it once all the way through. Sure enough, the album sounds exactly like Alice in Chains’ other albums, but at the same time, it sounds so much like them that I’ve yet to truly be able to differentiate it from their previous endeavors. There’s not enough that stands out to make me go “Oooh! Nice” and instead I feel more or less like I’m on a nostalgic flashback to the grunge-era. Not saying that it’s bad - it’s nice to know that these guys are at least performing at the same skill level that they were when they left us - but it’d be nice to hear their sound progress and evolve. I suspect that if they do another album it will, as my gut tells me that this album was more or less about getting back on their feet and reestablishing the identity of the band after Layne Staley’s death a few years back. Recommended for the heavy metal, grunge, or Alice in Chains enthusiast, but not to many others.
Well, The Clone Wars are back on Cartoon Network, with Season Two having premiered this last Friday. As I did during Season One, I’m going to be posting my thoughts on the episodes. So, let’s get started.
Holocron Heist
Cad Bane infiltrates the Jedi Temple and attempts steal an ancient Jedi Holocron. It’s up to Ahsoka, Anakin & Obi-Wan to stop the bounty hunter from escaping with the valuable Jedi artifact.
Right away, this episode is up there with the best of Season One, which I think is a good way for the season to start. Season One was rocky at first but progressively improved and by the end was pretty solid. It’s good to see Season Two starting off on that pace.
The introduction of the bounty hunters adds a nice area of gray into the show and I think helps round out the animated universe. It’d be nice to see more “normal” characters (i.e. not Jedi, not Sith, not Clones) introduced as I tend to believe it is easier to identify with a Han Solo-type than a character using the Force. The bounty hunters give a bit of that normality, though working for the bad guys it’s still not there 100%.
My big complaint with this episode in particular is that, once again, the Jedi are only as powerful or weak as what fits the story. I found it kind of hard to believe that while tracking down Cad Bane in the Jedi Temple that Obi-Wan and Anakin wouldn’t be relying on the Force more to sense where he was. Instead, they’re easily fooled by diversions, and I just didn’t buy it. They’re Jedi: it should be quite a bit more difficult to trick them. And frankly, it seemed like Bane had a harder time infiltrating the Senate in last seasons episode “Hostage Crisis” than he did the headquarters of the Jedi.
Still, despite its flaws, this is the kind of storytelling I’d like to see the Clone Wars go after. There was a bit more depth to it, and the introduction of the Holocrons added an extra little layer to the Jedi. I’m hoping that as the series progresses, they begin fleshing out the details of this world and give us more insight into things like the Jedi, the Sith, the Separatists, and so forth.
Cargo of Doom
Anakin & Ahsoka intercept Cad Bane’s warship hoping to recover the stolen Jedi Holocron - but the Jedi underestimate the bounty hunter’s cunning tactics.
This episode was more or less a straight forward mission episode. As such, it was well done and I don’t really have a lot to say about it as the episode description pretty much says it all. What you expect is what you get, with some great action sequences and great animation. The only thing that makes it stand out more than just one giant animated battle is the Anakin and Ahsoka interaction, which seems to be growing in complexity over the previous season. Which of course, needs to happen as for whatever reason Ahsoka isn’t in Revenge of the Sith, meaning she’s ultimately what this series is hinged upon.
Adventureland - A “dramedy” about a kid who graduates college but has to work at a theme park in order to pay for an apartment in New York the following fall. I thought the movie did a pretty decent job at capturing the feeling of that time when one first falls in love and idealizes the other person, overlooking their flaws, and then also when the rude awakening happens and one realizes that their partner isn’t quite what they’ve built them up to be in their mind and how to handle it. Also, good performances from a strong cast; when it’s funny, it’s pretty funny. When it’s not, it’s still worth watching.
Angels & Demons - The best National Treasure flick ever made, A&D perfects that other franchise’s formula of following clues and using information that the characters already know but which they don’t find out over the course of the movie to lead them on to the next clue. Better than it’s predecessor, but still so/so. Tom Hanks is just kind of there and the casting of Ewan MacGregor still has me scratching my head a bit (c’mon, man - I’ve seen Trainspotting. You’re better than this!). A decent rental.
Outlander - New to DVD, it’s a competant sci-fi/fantasy flick about an alien who teams up with vikings to hunt down dragons. There’s nothing amazingly earth-shattering about it other than it’s a high concept flick that is well put-together and effective in a time when too often bigger tentpole flicks forget the basics and fall apart (see my Terminator: Salvation review). A breath of fresh air amidst too many MTV-editing-style soulless wastes of celluloid.
Fanboys - Speaking of wastes of celluloid, this flick about a group of friends trying to break into Skywalker Ranch in 1998 isn’t quite one, but if you aren’t a Star Wars fan watching it while drinking with other Star Wars fans or you aren’t wanting to sit through an hour and a half of almost funny jokes and cameos just to see Kristen Bell in a Princess Leia gold bikini (which is pretty nice), then it’s probably not for you as the whole seems more like a group of gags that were written and strung along a loose plot, as opposed to developing a movie and writing the jokes around them.
Taken - Ever wonder what a foreign, fifty-something-year-old Jason Bourne would do if his daughter were kidnapped for the European sex market? Look no further! This movie is another competent action flick, nothing that will completely knock your socks off, but good enough to make you root for Liam Neeson as he kicks ass across Paris.
Drag Me to Hell - I never thought I’d see another Sam Raimi Evil Dead movie, but somewhere in this flick’s fantastic seance sequence, I realized that was exactly what I was watching. And I loved it. I’m not a fan of the torture porn horror flicks of late. I like to be scared, surprised, and shocked in my movies, but I’m not a big fan of being disturbed by them, which is what I think the likes of Saw and Hostel are going for. Luckily, DMTH manages to shock, surprise, and scare without ever sinking to the levels of disturbing that so many “scary” movies go for these days. And, the flick was actually funny on top of all of that. Some of the shocks and scares are done in such a way that I was laughing in glee as the main character (portrayed by Alison Lohman) was tortured by the demon sent to torment her. Of course, anyone that has seen Raimi’s brilliant Evil Dead Trilogy (particularly Army of Darkness), would be expecting just that, and man, does Mr. Raimi deliver. Frankly, I think it’s Raimi’s best work since at least before the first Spider-Man movie, and it really makes me wish he’d drop the webhead and come up with more flicks like this. Perfect for a drive-in (if it shows up at one near you) and if it’s out on DVD by Halloween, pick it up and watch it with a group of friends. Well done, Mr. Raimi. Well done indeed.
So, I was one of the few that saw Terminator: Salvation this weekend (right after viewing Star Trek for a third time). All in all, I thought it had some great action bits but a paper-thin story and no soul. Really, CHUD has an article on it that I think just about sums it up perfectly, so I’m just going to leave it to them to do so (warning: SPOILERS are all over that article).
I grew up on Disney cartoons. I remember my grandparents taking me to see Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Pinocchio in theaters. I remember seeing Bambi and The Rescuers that way as well. The Sword and the Stone and Robin Hood used to be on in reruns all the time while I was growing up. My mom rented Sleeping Beauty, Dumbo, The Jungle Book, Lady and the Tramp, The Artistocats, and The Fox and the Hound for us. We owned 101 Dalmations. I even vaguely recall seeing The Black Cauldron once upon a time.
When Disney began their first 2D resurgence with Oliver and Company, my sister and I were the right age. While that flick just missed the mark, I clearly recall being caught up in the fantasy aspects of The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, and especially Aladdin, which has been my favorite Disney movie since the first time that I saw it. The Lion King just missed the mark for me (apparently, that’s everyone else’s favorite). And then after that, I was “too old” to watch Disney cartoons.
Admittedly, I’ve caught a couple of the movies that were released after The Lion King. Tarzan was alright, Lilo and Stitch was funny, but nothing that I’d seen captured the same kind of magic that the old school Disney flicks had - with the possible exception of the stuff that Pixar has been putting out. But Disney on its own seemed a ghost of its former self, which I thought was a shame as they’d put out some quality cartoons back in the day.
So, when Disney bought out Pixar in 2006 and it was announced that John Lasseter (who’d executive produced all of Pixar’s flicks) was made Chief Creative Officer of both Disney and Pixar and that he was interested in returning Disney to its classic 2D roots, I automatically took an interest. Could the company that had created so many movies which had helped shape my childhood (and undoubtedly countless others) get back to making good ol’ fashioned, fun, 2D animated masterpieces? I certainly hoped so and I decided to keep an eye on what they were up to.
Well, now there is something to be seen. The Princess and the Frog, Disney’s first traditionally animated feature in five years, finally has a trailer:
My thoughts? I think it might be a winner. It’s definitely giving off the vibe of the earlier Disney flicks and stylistically looks like it’d be right at home with any of the Disney greats. Now, hopefully they will be able to keep that up with the storytelling and the acting, without having some has-been comedian spouting pop culture references non-stop. I’m still not 100% sold, but I’d certainly say it appears that they’re going in the right direction and I’m going to continue tracking this one until its December release.
