Always War Stars

broderic on February 27, 2019

Umm. Now I’m kind of excited for the latest last installment in the franchise. Thanks to the guy from that 70s Show!

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

broderic on December 28, 2016

Rogue One is an excellent tie into the Star Wars Universe. It answers the dumbest question from the first, original movie: why did they build the Death Star with an vulnerability? Because the designer built it in. D’uh!

At least that was answered. Now for the movie itself. It was somewhat disjointed. Like it could’ve been another 30 to 40 minutes longer to extrapolate some of the plot points. Who and why Saw Gerrera? Why was Andor sad about his work? Why weren’t the Jedi temple protectors Jedi themselves? Also, the technology was weird. From thumb drives to crackly holographs to large tape drives, why can’t they settle on a particular technology? It’s amusing that these questions should arise almost like this craziness was not thought out.

Anyhow, I was expecting Seven Samurai — recruit a small team to retrieve the plans and die in glory for the Rebellion. It was actually a Dirty Dozen — send in a force to do the damage. Plus, then it became the opening salvo to the start of the Rebellion offensive. It also finished up at the beginning of the original movie.

4 of 5 stars.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens

broderic on December 30, 2015

I didn’t think that I would be writing a review of a new Star Wars movie in 2015. I thought we were done with it, but here we are at Episode VII, Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

This one finds us 30 years after the final battle of Return of the Jedi. The New Republic is moving along slowly, but is faced with an evil adversary in the First Order. There’s a Resistance to the First Order lead by General Solo-Organa. Luke is doing his best Yoda impression. Han and Chewie are bootleggers. There’s new characters: Fin, an ex-Stormtrooper: Rey, an orphan stranded on a desert planet: Poe Dameron, the Wedge Antilles character. And we have the dark robot: Kylo Ren of the Sith Knights of Ren. Ni! Ni! Ni!

What is the Resistance resisting? Who is Rey’s parents? Why is Kylo Ren so emo? All this will be answered in the upcoming films, but this one lays them out for it.

I loved the part when Rey reaches for the light saber, grabs it, and becomes badass. She’s going to be a great character if they do her story arc right.

They killed of Han Solo (SPOILER ALERT!!), but I liked that.

Luke is yoda-ing. The Jedi Knights are incompetent. They may well be the Knights Who Say Ni. They can’t even figure out who the Sith are.

Kylo Ren will be saved — by his sister.

If this cycle of the trilogy ends up better than the prequels, we’ll be happy.

If you would have to watch another entry of a beloved sci-fi epic, I would recommend Mad Max. But Star Wars isn’t bad either. Watch it. Preferably more than once!

4 of 5 stars.

“Okay, who did I hire as news director here?”

broderic on September 14, 2013

Wired commemorates 50 years of X-Men by offering up 10 essential X-Men story lines. The usual suspects are there, Giant Size X-Men #1, Days of Future Past, The Dark Phoenix Saga, as well as mid 90s comic desolation crossovers and latter day reboots. They’ve hit a good set of stories and arcs to give an overview of the who, what, and why of the X-Men. But like all lists that try to categorize something I have more than a passing knowledge of, it’s missing a few arcs that I would deem essential.

I’ve been an X-Men fan since I started reading comics. I am still picking up the latest issues even when I have no idea what is going on. Now, I’m not familiar with the mid and late 90s X-Men, but I want to add to that list.

I would add a few of the first issues: The X-Men #1-3. I own a copy of #3 with the Blob as the villain. Any list about the X-Men should include the origin stories!

I would add the run of classic Chris Claremont from the mid-80s. These were the stories I grew up on. I would start with the Shi’ar/Brood arc (#155) and run through the Wolverine/Mariko wedding in Japan (#174). That’s at least twenty issues of Claremont. It’s not leaning on John Byrne, but Claremont on his own.

I would add the Fall of the Mutants arc. The story line I came back to reading the X-Men after a couple years off.

I would add Inferno because that was the last meaningful arc I read.

I have yet to catch up to all the X-Men comics. There’s been a lot that happened to them. I should try to catch up on some kind of wiki.

Otakon

broderic on August 12, 2013

I psyched myself up so much that I almost psyched myself out of going to Otakon. I did end up there on Saturday, but I didn’t get to experience it all just the cosplaying and the dealer room.

The week leading up to Otakon I couldn’t fully make up my mind to go. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to go or not. On one hand there is no day ticket; it’s $80 at the door for the whole 3 day affair. Would I be able to spend that much time? Perhaps Saturday, but Sunday? To make that $80 go far it would have to be two days.

I went Saturday but failed to make it on Sunday.

Cosplaying is out of hand. I could admire those that put effort into their costume, but most of the time they cosplayer just slaps something on. There’s clever and then there’s the cosplayers from Otakon. Or is this just an non-japanese thing?

I stood in a line expecting that what I was waiting for would turn out to be worth it. Then I checked the description again, found out they would show several episodes before the special guests would speak, and I jetted. I worked my way to a manga industry panel, Vertical, to see what they had coming out.

That was only thing I sat in on. The day was cut short because I had to go to dinner for a cousin. I left having accumulated several phone charms of K-ON! girls (Waitress Mugi, Jun-chan, and Ui), the special Lawson limited edition Nendoroid petit of some K-ON!! girls (Azusa, Mio, and Yui), and 3 manga of Watamote in Japanese.

It was fun. I’m thinking about next year.