Tag: science fiction

This one actually can control ants

Ant-Man

Marvel continues to add characters to its line-up.  Paul Rudd (known for his comedy films) leads the cast as Scott Lang, Michael Douglas (in my house, we know him for Romancing the Stone, The Jewel of the Nile, and American President) is Dr. Hanky Pym, while Evangeline Lily (we’ll see her in the Hobbit movies as Tauriel) is his daughter, Hope Van Dyne.  Judy Greer (from 27 Dresses) is Scott’s ex, Maggie, David Dastmachian (Murdoc from the 2016 MacGyver) is Kurt, and Anthony Mackie makes an appearance as the Falcon.  Hayley Atwell and John Slattery reprise their roles as Peggy Carter and an older Howard Stark in the prologue to the film, which is set in 1989, while the Triskelion is being built.  Hank storms in to confront Stark, claiming he’s stealing his research.  Howard and Peggy attempt to calm Hank down, but the other man in attendance, Mitchell Carson makes a crack about Hank’s deceased wife.  Hank punches him and resigns, while Stark pleads that Hank’s research is revolutionary science and they need him.  Hank declares that no one will get the formula to his Pym Particles as long as he lives.  Peggy assures them that Hank is not a security risk and Stark agrees with her, unless they make him one.

In present times, there is a fight going on in jail, which is actually a weird good-bye ritual the inmates do when someone leaves.  Scott’s buddy Luis picks him up and lets him crash at his place until Scott can find a job.  Though Luis first offers another criminal job, but Scott insists he is finished with that.  He wants to be able to see his daughter and doesn’t want to get arrested again.  Scott feels with a Master’s in Electrical Engineering, he’ll find a job easily.  Not so much.  He ends up at Baskin-Robbins (dealing with an idiot customer), but his record is found out and he’s fired.  Luis, joined by Dave and Kurt, offer the criminal job again.  Scott again insists he is out, and emphasizes that he burgles, which involves not threatening.  But when he visits his daughter’s birthday party and speaks to his ex-wife, he realizes he needs to do something to make money so he can have a chance at visiting his daughter.  [It is rather sweet that his daughter absolutely adores him and later, her mother even defends her ex-husband, saying he’s not a bad man, just confused.]

Meanwhile, at Hank’s company, he makes a rare appearance when the new head of the company, Darren Cross, has an announcement.  Hank’s daughter, Hope is working for Darren and is cold to her father.  But afterwards, it’s shown to be a partial act; she’s helping her father take down Darren.  Darren has found Hank’s old “Ant-Man” research, about shrinking people down to the size of an insect and carrying out covert work.  Darren has developed the Yellow-Jacket suit and touts it as an “all purpose weapon of war,” (and sounds a lot more dangerous for the world.)  Hope insists to her father in their plans that she can use the suit.  Hank tells her he’s found a guy.

Scott agrees to the criminal job, which is to break into an old man’s house and break into the safe (explained through a rambling story).  Scott proves to be a bit of a MacGyver [which is ironic with the Murdoc of the newer series sitting there], but when he opens the safe, there’s only a strange suit inside.  He takes it anyways and gets out.  Out of curiosity, he tries on the suit later and pushes the buttons on the gloves.  He shrinks down and a voice echoes in the helmet, telling him it will be his trail by water (since Luis is starting a shower).  Scott then falls through a crack in the floor and begins his adventure.  When he returns to normal size, Scott tries to return the suit, but is caught by the police.

Hank visits Scott at the station and offers him a choice.  He explains that he had set up the case for Scott and watched him the whole time.  If he wants a second chance, await further instructions.  With the suit, Scott is able to escape prison and finds his way back to Hank’s house, where he meets Hope, who is not happy for Scott to be brought into the plan.  Turns out, Hank has been watching Scott since his burglary and how he beat the security system.  Hank fills Scott in and Scott’s first reaction is that they should call the Avengers.  No, Hank won’t let Stark near his technology and the Avengers are too busy dropping cities out of the sky (a callback to Age of Ultron, but at least a character is aware enough that hey, this is a universe with the Avengers, they can help).  Hank needs Scott to be Ant-Man (and Hank won’t risk his daughter).  So they begin training, Hope reluctantly helping, though she seems to enjoy beating Scott up.  Hank warns Scott against messing with the suit too much, primarily the regulator; he risks entering the Quantum Realm where he would continue shrinking for all time.  When Hope storms out, Scott talks to her, admitting that he’s the expendable part of this plan, because he recognizes that Hank does not want to risk Hope.  And Hank finally admits what really happened to his wife; they were a team years ago, she was the Wasp, and while on a mission, she entered the Quantum Realm in order to take out a missile, but she never returned.  Hope understands more now.

Part of their plan requires a bit of Stark tech, so Scott is sent to an old warehouse in upstate New York.  Turns out that old Stark property has been turned into the new Avengers compound (that we saw in Ultron).  And Sam is on patrol and his goggles allow him to spot shrunken Scott.  There is a rather good fight between the two, Scott going between being shrunk and normal-sized, and he manages to get into the building and retrieves the item they need.  Then he shrinks into Falcon’s suit and messes with it, so Sam can’t follow (and Sam requests that Cap never finds out about this).

They hit a bit of a snag when Darren Cross, who has managed to successfully shrink a lamb, is at Hank’s home.  Hope keeps her cover, but they have to move fast now.  Hank has promised to be at Cross’s next announcement, so Scott suggests calling in his buddies to help, though Hank and Hope don’t hold much hope in their skills.  Scott pays a quick visit to his daughter at night before he goes on the mission.  Luis is the security guard inside, who helps Scott enter through the water main.  When the cops show up to arrest Hank for springing Scott from a holding cell, his buddies distract the cops so Hank can get in.  Scott uses his training to plant bombs throughout the building and almost has the Yellow Jacket suit in his grasp, but Cross was onto him.  He’s ready to sell his tech to Hydra, though he holds on to the shrinking solution for more money.  He threatens Hank and Scott manages to escape, though Hank is still shot.  In the chaos, Cross escapes with the suit, they send Scott after him.  Hank had shrunk a tank, so he and Hope use that to escape.  Cross causes more damage, but the good guys exit the building before it explodes.  Then Cross puts on the suit and heads to Scott’s daughter’s home, knowing Scott will follow him.  They shrink down and have a fight amongst the girl’s toys (which is a bit funny to watch from the outside).  Scott has to go subatomic to enter Cross’s suit and he’s almost lost in the Quantum Realm, but hears his daughter calling for him and switches the regulator so he can get out.  Cross is destroyed and Scott patches the relationship up between his ex, her fiancé, and his daughter.  He also begins kissing Hope, though they’re caught.

Luis has another rambling story that the Falcon is looking for Scott.  Which ties in with the scene at the end of the credits that we now know is part of Civil War, where Sam tells Steve he knows a guy who can help.  In the credits, Hank also gives Hope the Wasp suit he was working on; he knows he should have her as part of that world now.

Ant-Man is not one of my favorite Marvel films, mainly because I don’t like bugs and I don’t want to see enlarged ants on screen.  The story is pretty good and the actors are wonderful; it just doesn’t drag me in.  Though, the daughter is adorable.  And I like how this is still exploding the Marvel universe, showing Hank working with Peggy and Howard Stark, and mentioning other Avengers.

So, next up is Captain America: Civil War  [and I have more of an opinion on this one]

“The city is flying and we’re fighting an army of robots. I have a bow and arrow. Nothing makes sense.”

Avengers: Age of Ultron

The big six are back together and working on taking down Hydra.  James Spader (he was Dr. Daniel Jackson in the original Stargate movie) voices Ultron, while Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Elizabeth Olsen (yes, she is the younger sister of Mary-Kate and Ashely Olsen) join as Pietro and Wanda Maximoff [in some versions of the comics, they are Magneto’s children, which explains their abilities.  In the MCU, they are not, and instead volunteered for the program.]  The Avengers find Struker’s facility and attack.  Strucker is holding Loki’s scepter, but he doesn’t want to risk the twins yet.  He tells his men to not surrender, but he is fine with surrendering himself and tells someone to destroy their evidence.

The team jokes around like many teams do in battle situations, Steve inadvertently calling Tony out for his language; and no, Tony is not going to let Steve live that down.  Steve continues to use his motorcycle as a weapon, tossing it when needed to.  Tony has built new suits, as an Iron Legion, to help protect the city as it takes fire during their assault.  He manages to bring down the shield and get inside [and his dialogue is funny at times, which helps the film].  The Maximoff twins have run off into the battle as well and manage to get Clint hit.  Natasha is called upon to calm the Hulk down once they’re finished.  Tony retrieves the scepter, but not until after Wanda has shown him a vision; of everyone dying and blaming him.  (She’s first shocked at his vision, then smiles when he takes the scepter; not making her the most trustworthy at the moment.)  The flight home is subdued, though Tony gets permission from Thor to check out the scepter before he returns it to Asgard.  Tony also makes a crack about Steve being the boss of the team, while Tony just pays for everything, but he is concerned about Clint and calls in a doctor friend.  (We do get a bit of the Avengers’ theme when the tower comes in.)

Steve finds out more about the twins [and Maria Hill’s explanation that “he’s fast and she’s weird” is a bit rude, in my opinion.  Though she did try to give a more technical explanation, but telekinesis is so much for than “weird,”] and makes a crack about “what kind of monster would let a German scientist experiment on them to protect their country?”  Proving that Steve recognizes he’s not so different from the twins, even if they’re not on the same side right now.  Tony and Bruce work on the scepter and discover that the gem at its center is actually protecting something else inside it; something they describe as a mind, similar to Jarvis.  Tony theorizes that it will help them create Ultron, in order to protect the world and bring about peace.  And no, he doesn’t want to debate it with the team because he doesn’t want them to say no, so he works alone with Bruce.  Once Bruce and Tony leave, Jarvis makes a connection with Ultron and tries to explain things, but Ultron makes the wrong conclusion and attacks Jarvis.

Meanwhile, Tony hosts a party and we get to see Sam Wilson and Rhodey for a few minutes.  Sam is happy to not be part of the firefight and carries on the search for Bucky for Sam.  Steve and Thor hang out with some veterans, while Bruce attempts to flirt with Natasha.  Once the party-goers have left, leaving our main team, they decide to test who can actually lift Thor’s hammer [best scene of the movie].  Clint can’t figure out the trick, Tony calls upon Rhodey and parts of their suits and still fails.  Steve gets Mjölnir to scootch just a smidge (Thor’s a little concerned in the background) and Natasha refuses to join in.  Ultron makes an appearance and ruins the party; he deploys Tony’s suits, one of which grabs the scepter and escapes.  Ultron believes that in his quest for world peace, he has to destroy the Avengers.

Once he leaves, this leads to a discussion amongst the team, who are not happy Tony did not share his plan with them.  Tony is more concerned with the big battle he saw as the endgame [they title dropped that one well in advance.]  Steve insists they’ll go at it together, Tony retorts that they’ll lose.  “And we’ll do that together, too.”

Ultron, in a new shiny body, finds the Maximoff twins; he knows that they blame Stark for some of their lot in life; it was his missiles that struck Sokovia and trapped them in their house.  So Wanda showed him a vision, knowing that Tony’s fear would control him and make him self-destruct.  Ultron agrees that everyone creates the thing they dread and repeats that in order to save the world, the Avengers have to be destroyed.  He will use Wanda to get in their heads.  Ultron then kills Struker, which gets back to the Avengers.  They begin to look through his connections (using files and paperwork) and find that he’s connected to a man called Ulysses (played by Andy Serkis [most notably Gollum in Lord of the Rings]) that Tony had knowledge of back in the day.  Thor notes the brand on his neck and Bruce discovers its from Wakanda, which Steve and Tony pick up as the place where vibranium is from, which makes up Captain America’s shield.

And Ultron does go after Ulysses (and cuts off his arm), but it’s also a trap for the team.  Wanda hits Thor, Steve, and Nat with her powers.  Thor sees Heimdall, then destruction.  Steve imagines himself with Peggy, and Natasha remembers the Red Room.  Clint manages to stop Wanda, who is then rescued by Pietro.  She recovers and goes after Bruce [which, if you see one of them coming, why didn’t you attempt to lock the door?  Let’s just hang out in the open and become a target].  Bruce Hulks out and can’t control it, and creates havoc in the nearby city.  Tony goes after Bruce and uses a new suit to control him.

In the aftermath, the Avengers need to lie low.  Natasha, Steve, and Thor are all recovering from their visions and Bruce is upset about the destruction he caused.  Clint has a place they can go; his own farm.  The team meets the family (and Natasha is an honorary aunt to his children).  Thor needs answers about his vision and flies off.  Bruce talks to Natasha about leaving and she offers to go with him.  Steve and Tony take some of their frustration out by chopping wood (admittedly, impressive that Steve can just rip a log in two), but end up in an argument.  Clint’s wife, Laura, pulls Tony aside to have a look at their tractor.  Fury is actually waiting for him and Tony admits that he saw the team dead, because of him.

That is after Nick admits he cares about Tony…which, let’s unpack that a little.  Earlier, both Thor and Tony attempted to make light of the fact that their significant others are not at the party.  And Tony’s getting a lot of flak from everyone on the team, heck, even Fury was joking about it a minute before.  But Tony is shouldering the burden of this knowledge he was shown and he can’t share with his team.  So he throws himself into a project in order to protect the team and the world…which admittedly was maybe not fully thought out.  But it all boils down to, no one is on Tony’s side.  And he’s just had someone he does respect; because if Tony didn’t respect Nick Fury, he wouldn’t help him as much as he does or even pay attention to him if he didn’t want to, admit he cares about Tony.  There’s not a lot of that going on at the moment.  So Tony is honest with him.  And Nick tells Tony it’s not all on him, and he also understands that Tony is dealing with the knowledge that he lived, while all his friends died.

So Nick gives the team a pep talk.  While he does this, Thor goes to Erik Selvig for help.  Erik leads Thor to a pool that is similar to others on other worlds where Thor can go back into his vision and find answers.  And while all of that is going on, Ultron has hunted down the Avengers’ doctor because she has a “cradle” that can create skin and cells and essentially a human body.  He has to use the scepter to convince her a little, but she starts work.  He plans to upload his mind into the new body, along with binding vibranium to the human cells, making him nearly invincible.  Ultron also brings the stone out of the gem in the scepter and sets it in the head of the body.  Wanda can now read this being’s mind and sees the destruction that will come.  She’s horrified, but Ultron shoots the doctor and escapes with the body.

The Avengers have a new mission; get the body back.  Natasha gets her own motorbike this time and races after the truck, Clint calling out locations from above.  Steve takes on Ultron.  Pietro and Wanda come along to help the Avengers; Wanda slows down a runaway train while Pietro gets people out of the way.  It is nice that Steve accepts them when they show up; he cares more about saving people rather than why someone is doing it.  Yeah, they fought each other before, but if you want to help innocent people, that’s okay.  Natasha manages to get the cradle to Clint, but does not escape herself.

Back at the Tower, Jarvis is back.  And Tony wants to put him into the body Ultron was creating.  When Steve and the twins show up, the argument begins all over again, until Thor flies in and superpowers the cradle.  The body emerges and at first, tackles Thor, but stops when it takes in the window and the city outside.  Thor explains the Infinity Stones, one of which is the Mind Stone that now resides in this new body, which has Jarvis’s voice [and now Paul Bettany doesn’t get to just read lines], but he is neither Ultron, nor Jarvis, he is something new.  Thor warns of the destruction the Mind Stone can bring, but with it on their side, they stand a chance of defeating Ultron [and Thanos].  The most important sign that they can trust this new being?  He can lift Mjölnir.

So the team gears up for a new fight.  Tony puts a new interface into his suits, Friday.  They land in Sokovia and Steve states that their primary mission is to save the people and get them out of the city.  Pietro and Wanda help with that.  Bruce rescues Natasha, then wants to run and offers Natasha to come with him.  She kisses him, but pushes him off the rising city, because she needs the Hulk at the moment to take down Ultron.  He plans to lift Sokovia and then crash it to Earth, creating a massive explosion and global extinction.  Tony works on a way to minimize damage.  Steve tells everyone to take out the suits Ultron has sent out.  “If you get hurt, hurt ‘em back.  If you get killed, walk it off.”  Clint gives Wanda a pep talk; she can stay safe where she is and he’ll send Pietro for her, but Clint has to go out and help the people.  If she comes out that door, she’s an Avenger and has the same job.  When she walks out, she’s ready to fight.  When Pietro runs by Clint again, he jokes to himself about getting the guy.  The fight continues.  Ultron takes on Thor, which is just a distraction.  Tony and Steve debate the best way to finish the fight; Steve wants everyone rescued.  And Fury comes in with the helicarrier and SHIELD.  The rest of the Avengers start getting the people away and even Rhodey is there to help.

The team converges.  Thor taunts Ultron “is that the best you can do!”  And more suits show up.  As Steve says, “you had to ask.”  The fight intensifies.  At one point, Clint is about ready to leave, but realizes there is a kid still in the city, so he goes for him.  Pietro notices that a suit is lining up at Clint and runs between them, taking the shots.  Wanda feels her brother’s death and screams.  Clint takes Pietro with him.  Hulk rescues Natasha, then takes a Quinjet.  Wanda goes after Ultron, wanting to cause him pain.  One of the suits manages to drop the city, so Tony has Thor help him stop the crash.  Vision rescues Wanda, then speaks to Ultron after the city is back.  They speak of humans, but Vision is on their side and uses the Mind Stone to destroy Ultron.

There are some happy moments in the ending.  Clint is back home and his wife gives birth to their third child, a boy they name Nathaniel Pietro Barton.  Tony drives to a new facility and we catch a glimpse of Erik Selvig.  There’s a funny bit between Steve, Thor, and Tony discussing the hammer again.  Vision is worthy, but would an elevator be worthy?  Thor flies off to continue tracking the stones.  Tony is thinking of trying the simple life, and Steve admits he’ll miss him.  As for Steve, he’s staying at the facility, more comfortable with who he is.  He’s not the same man who went into the ice.  Instead, he’ll have Natasha help him train some newbies who aren’t a team yet (as we hear the Avengers theme).  Rhodey, Sam, Vision, and Wanda are waiting for them.  Steve calls them to order, “Avengers…” and the scene cuts [in a blooper, Scarlett shouts “assemble!”].  In the credit, Thanos picks up a gauntlet, declaring “I’ll do it myself.”

I’m not as fond of this film as other follow-ups in the MCU.  It’s setting up Civil War; a lot of fans, me included, are not fond of the idea of our favorite superheroes fighting amongst themselves.  Lines are starting to form between them; a lot of blame gets placed on Tony and okay, his idea wasn’t the safest, but he apparently doesn’t trust talking about what he saw in his vision with the rest of the team, so he made a bad decision, though Thor approved of part of it, I guess.  It gets a bit confusing.  But there is definitely a separation between Steve and Tony and at the end of the first Avengers, we hoped they were getting over it.  Which is why fanfiction includes Tony looking in on Steve at the end of Winter Soldier.  Dear Marvel, we want our characters happy.

And I don’t get how the Ultron project was supposed to actually work or how it really went wrong.  But faceless suits of armor attacking are a bit creepy.  Also, in regards to pairing Natasha and Bruce, my comment is why does there have to be a romantic couple at all?  Do we have to pair Natasha off with one of the guys on the team [yes, we were kind of rooting for a Natasha and Clint pairing at one point, but it’s also sweet that he has a family totally outside of Shield].  But why can’t she just be friends with these guys?  Why does there have to be a strained relationship going on?  She could be Bruce’s friends and the story will still stand.

Admittedly, there are a few funny parts, such as everyone joking about Steve’s “language” comment.  (As fans have pointed out, Steve probably swore a lot as part of the Army, despite coming from a generation that looks down on casual swearing.)

Up Next: Ant-Man

“I’m going to die surrounded by the biggest idiots of the galaxy.”

Guardians of the Galaxy

Marvel adds some new characters and a different tone to the scene.  The film stars Chris Pratt (famous for Parks and Recreation [which I’ve only seen commercials for], he’s also Own Grady in the newer Jurassic World movies) as Peter Quill, Zoe Saldana (she’s Neytiri in Avatar, Uhura in the alternate universe Star Trek movies, and was in the first Pirates of the Caribbean movies) as Gamora, Lee Pace (Thranduil in the Hobbit movies [we’ll get to Marvel casting Lord of the Rings and Hobbit actors later]) as Ronan, and Karen Gillan (Amy Pond in Doctor Who) as Nebula.  Vin Diesel (he’s part of the Fast and Furious franchise, though I thought he was funny in The Pacifier) voices Groot and Bradley Cooper (he’s been in a lot of big movies in recent years; he was Face in the 2010 A-Team movie) voices Rocket.  Glenn Close (she voiced Kala in Tarzan and played the Vice President in Air Force One as well as Cruella de Vil in the live action Dalmatians movies) appears as Nova Prime.  I recognize John Reilly as Corpsman Dey, Sean Gunn (he was oddball Kirk in Gilmore Girls and would stand in on set as Rocket, and he’s also director James Gunn’s younger brother) as Kraglin, and Djimon Hounsou (he voices Drago in How to Train Your Dragon 2) as Korath.

We do start on Earth in 1988, unfortunately, in a hospital.  Young Peter is there for his mother; he’s called in one last time, the rest of the family surrounding her.  She has one last gift for her son and also mentions his father, calling him an angel.  When she passes, Peter runs.  And gets taken by an alien ship.  Twenty-six years later, Peter is grown up and dances his way to steal a mysterious orb.  He’s caught, and refers to himself as Star-Lord, a legendary outlaw.  He manages to escape, then his boss calls him.  (And Yandu may not be fully honest with the guy, because he claims that he saved him, but actually he was hired to deliver the child.)  Peter just wants to deliver the orb and get paid.

But trouble is brewing in the galaxy; a race known as the Kree have made peace with Xandar, but Ronan is a more traditional Kree and wants to destroy Xandar.  It was his men who confronted Peter about the orb; they want it as well.  Ronan is to deliver the orb to Thanos (he starts becoming a big and visible player) in return for Thanos destroyed Xandar.  Ronan has two daughters of Thanos in his company, Gamora and Nebula.  Gamora volunteers to go to Xandar to get the orb.

On Xandar, we meet Rocket and Groot, who are bounty hunters and want to capture Peter, since Yandu put a price on his head.  When Peter goes to the Broker to sell the orb, once Peter mentions Ronan, the Broker wants nothing to do with him.  Gamora is waiting for him outside and tries to get the orb.  It soon becomes a three-way fight when Rocket and Groot join in.  They are all arrested by Nova Corps and sent to the Kyln prison (and they helpfully run down the characters so we know a bit about them).  Many inside the prison want Gamora dead for her connection to Ronan and Thanos and Rocket admits to Peter that the guards won’t help; they’re only there to keep people from escaping.  And Rocket is keeping an eye on Peter because he still wants his pay day.  In actuality, Gamora plans to betray Ronan and she has another buyer in mind for the orb, who will pay more.  When Peter interrupts some guys killing Gamora, she offers to lead them to the buyer if he, Rocket, and Groot get her out of prison.  Drax is another prisoner in the Kyln, who has serious beef with Ronan.  Peter has to stop him from killing Gamora, pointing out that Drax really wants to kill Ronan and Gamora will be helpful in the meantime.  They have to improvise, but they make it out, with the addition of Drax.  (First, Peter has to make sure he gets his tape player back [I appreciate that Marvel brought fun music back to their movies]).

Ronan is called before Thanos, who does not care about the politics of the Kree or Xandar.  All Thanos wants, is the orb.  Yandu pays a visit to the Broker and we see the Collector again (still creepy).  Gamora’s buyer is on Knowhere, the severed head of a celestial being which has become a home to outlaws.  She reveals to Peter that Thanos is not her true father; he destroyed her true family and tortured and turned her in a weapon for him.  She wants out.  Peter shares the “legend of Footloose and the hero, Kevin Bacon.”  [He’s lucky he’s good with tech and actually has a good heart or this guy would be too stupid.]  However, it gets him an almost-kiss with Gamora, until Rocket and Drax get in a fight.  They try to settle down, for the deal, when Gamora is called before the Collector.  He explains that inside the orb is one of the six Infinity Stones.  And Gamora realizes what Thanos’ plan is.  One of the Collector’s servants grabs the purple stone, destroying part of the building and herself (which was better than living as the Collector’s slave).  Gamora gets the orb and now they have to try to get off Knowhere.

But Drax is drunk and calls Ronan so he gets his showdown.  Ronan beats him fairly easily and Nebula goes after her sister.  Peter goes after Gamora, claiming they should take the Infinity Stone to Nova Corps for safe keeping.  When Rocket asks him “What did the galaxy ever do for you?  Why would you want to save it?” Peter comes back with “Because I’m one of the idiots who lives in it!”  And someone has finally pointed that out!  Peter’s also trying to get away from Yandu, who has also arrived.  Nebula manages to shoot down Gamora and take the orb, leaving her sister to float in space.  Peter leaves his pod and gives her his mask, so she’ll live.  He had also sent a message for Yandu to come and get him, so they’re rescued quickly, but Yandu’s crew still beats him up, as an example.  Peter does manage to convince Yandu not to kill him (still in exchange for the orb).  Groot rescues Drax, and insists to Rocket that they save Peter and Gamora, since they’re friends.

And Ronan plans to turn on Thanos, now that he has absorbed the Infinity Stone into his war hammer.  Nebula will gladly help kill Thanos (no one likes this guy).

Peter’s got twelve percent of a plan [call back to Avengers, when Tony and Pepper were having twelve percent of a moment] and asks his new friends for help.  It will likely result in them dying, but they’ll do it (Rocket takes some convincing).  They know that Ronan wants to destroy Xandar, so Peter sends a message.  They then plan to punch a hole in Ronan’s ship, get inside, and destroy him with some contraption that Rocket has put together (that racoon likes gun).  Nova Crops helps and Yandu and his crew also help.  We see Yandu whistle-arrow take out a whole bunch of Kree.  Gamora and Nebula face off again, and Gamora manages to get the upper hand.  Rocket and the Ravagers protect the city.  Yet, Ronan is still standing after the blast.  They do manage to get his ship to crash (Groot protects everyone, which makes his burst into a thousand pieces when they land, much to Rocket’s sorrow), and Peter declares a dance-off with Ronan…who is very confused. 

It’s actually a diversion.  They hit his war hammer, which releases the stone.  Peter grabs it.  Gamora then grabs his hand, and Drax grabs his arm.  They destroy Ronan and manage to still be standing afterwards.  Gamora puts the stone into a new orb, which they have to hand over to Yandu, with the warning not to open.  Again, Kraglin makes a comment about how it was good that they didn’t deliver Peter to his father, like they were hired to.  Except, Peter switched the orb; Yandu’s has a troll in it.  Peter delivers the real Infinity Stone to Nova Corps, who also point out that Peter is only half from Earth; his father was something else and that may explain why he was able to hold the Infinity Stone and not blow up.

We catch some glimpses of happy endings.  Groot has been re-potted and is growing again.  Peter gets a new ship and everyone agrees to stay [and Gamora’s dress is reminiscent of Starfleet uniforms].  Drax wants to kill Thanos, since Ronan is gone.  And Peter finally opens his mom’s last present, with a letter that called him Star-Lord.  He has a new tape to play (and Groot enjoys dancing to Jackson 5’s I Want You Back).

I’m not a big fan of the Guardians of the Galaxy, but I can appreciate the change in tone.  It’s funnier and I do appreciate the music.  The characters act more like humans, being honest when things are dumb.  They’re honest that they’re not the most morally upright people, but they do recognize what is the right thing to do; as in saving thousands of innocent lives and that is actually more important than money.  As Dey quotes Peter, they may be a-holes, but they’re not dicks (which, way to go for Marvel and Disney for letting the language slide).

I just, tend to prefer my heroes to be a little more, classically heroic.  And the humor in this movie is not quite my brand of humor.  But I can stand this better than some other films [like re-watching Thor: Love and Thunder recently and they just made Thor so incredibly stupid.  He was not always that stupid; this is far better in comparison (and doesn’t have screaming goats for no good reason)].

This also happens to be my 200th post, which is a little mind-boggling.  When I first had the idea to do this blog, I didn’t have a notion of how much it would encompass.  I’m a little in awe of how much I’ve done, but also aware of how much more I want to do (we haven’t even hit Lord of the Rings yet, which has had a huge impact on me).  This “exercise” also shows me that this is something I enjoy doing; I enjoying watching movies and talking about them and sharing little tidbits that I find out.  And when my brain will focus, analyzing story or character aspects.  So, thanks for coming along for the ride!

Up Next: Avengers: Age of Ultron

“As always sir, a great pleasure watching you work.”

Iron Man 3

Draws on what happened in The Avengers.  Ben Kinglsey (Nizam in Prince of Persia, he appeared in The Last Legion and Schindler’s List.  There is also a video of him singing “Shall We Dance” with Julie Andrews from The King and I) is added to the cast as Trevor Slattery.  Miguel Ferrer (Assistant Director Granger from NCIS:LA; he sadly passed away in 2017) appears as the Vice President.

Tony voice-overs the opening of the film, stating “we create our own demons.”  And with I’m Blue playing, we flashback to New Year’s Eve of 1999 in Bern, Switzerland.  Tony, accompanied by a mullet-wearing Happy, had made a presentation and is thoroughly enjoying the after party, even bumping into Yensen (a callback to the first Iron Man movie).  Then he comes across a pretty girl who asks questions about research.  They move the party upstairs, though Tony is briefly approached by Aldrich Killian, who has a proposal for a think tank, named AIM.  Tony is briefly intrigued, but moves on to going over the pretty girl’s research, which examines the healing center of the brain, and she calls the project Extremis.  Extremis has explosive results.  Getting so caught up in the research, Tony forgets to meet Killian.

Fast forward to the present, post Battle of New York world, Tony is working on more suits.  The latest is the Mark 42, which is supposed to come to him piece by piece, guided by chips implanted in his arm.  There are a few errors, but then Tony has been awake 72 hours.  But the world doesn’t rest; the Ten Rings have reappeared and taken over the airways, with their leader, the Mandarin calling out Americans and warning “you’ll never see me coming.”  The President immediately announces that Captain Rhodes will be handling the situation as the Iron Patriot.  Tony has to meet his friend afterwards, but Rhodey is worried about Tony; he’s showing signs of PTSD, having panic attacks and flashbacks.  Tony tries to laugh them off in public and flies off before he has to deal with it.

In the meantime, Pepper is still CEO of Stark Industries, with Happy as her chief of security, which he takes seriously.  And he gets bad vibes from her meeting with Aldrich Killian and his bodyguard, and reports such to Tony.  Pepper wisely turns down Killian’s proposal on Extremis, feeling it is too weaponizable.  When she returns home, she finds Tony in his workshop and he’s trying to make this relationship work, admitting he’s a hot mess.  He loves her and just wants to protect her; that’s why there’s multiple suits; he can’t live without her.  Pepper gives him a chance, until he has nightmares in bed and unconsciously calls his suit to him, scaring Pepper.

Happy follows his hunch and follows the bodyguard, who’s doing some sort of deal.  Happy pockets something, then gets in a fight with the guard until the other man heats up and explodes.  Happy is gravely injured and Tony takes a place by his side, informing the nurse to ensure that everyone is wearing their security badge, something Happy is a stickler about.  Oh, and Happy thinks Downton Abbey is romantic, so keep him playing.  Tony is greeted by reporters outside the hospital [one of whom is Kim Holderness, who has a YouTube channel with her husband with funny skits now].  The Mandarin has already claimed the attack (and the videos are a bit terrifying).  Tony has a response; he’s not afraid of the Mandarin and he’s coming for him, good old-fashioned revenge.  He even gives the Mandarin his home address.

Once home, Tony has JARVIS compile a Mandarin database and examine the attacks associated with the terrorist.  There are several bombs that have detonated, like the one at the Chinese Theatre with high heat, but no bomb parts found.  Happy, in his last conscious moments, pointed to a clue for Tony and JARIVS finds a similar case in Tennessee.  Until there is a woman at the door; Maya.  Pepper, of course, wants to leave.  Their discussion is interrupted by helicopters outside that shoot missiles into Tony’s home.  Tony calls the suit, but has it cover Pepper, and in turn, she protects Tony, until he gets her to safety and calls the suit to him.  Tony manages to take out the helicopters as the house crumbles around him and he drops into the water.  He manages to shoot out of the water, but no one seems him.  He passes out and wakes up as he crashes in Tennessee.  The suit is low on power and JARVIS shuts off, so Tony drags the suit behind him until he finds a pay phone to leave Pepper a message.  Then he finds a seemingly deserted shed.  Turns out, not so deserted, it’s got a kid, Harley.  Tony convinces Harley to help him (cause what kid is going to turn down the chance to help Iron Man?)

Meanwhile, Pepper talks to Maya about why she came to the house (she did get Tony’s message and knows he’s alive, but let’s the media say he’s presumed dead).  Maya thinks her boss, Aldrich Killian, works for the Mandarin.  When they find a hotel, Aldrich shows up and captures Pepper.  Maya indeed works for Killian and yes, she went to Tony for help.  She needs him to fix the glitch in Extremis.

Tony investigates the explosion site in Tennessee, though Harley pesters him with questions about the Avengers and New York and causes Tony to have another panic attack.  Tony visits the victim mom, assuring her that her son was innocent, until another woman tries to arrest him.  He battles her; she’s another one that will glow, as well as Killian’s bodyguard.  He tires to take Harley prisoner, but Harley uses Tony’s bully defense sparkler to get away.  Tony’s got the information he wanted and instructs Harley to guard the Iron Man suit.  Tony realizes that AIM, Killian’s company is behind this, with the Extremis program, and calls Rhodey.  Rhodey’s a little busy, being Iron Patriot all over the Middle East, looking for the Mandarin, who put out another video, threatening to execute a man.  Even though the President called, the Mandarin still shot him (we don’t actually see that part).  Iron Patriot is taken down in one of the buildings he’s investigating.

This causes Tony to have another panic attack, and luckily, JARVIS is running enough to help him out, with some assistance from Harley.  JARVIS’s system is showing the Mandarin’s messages originating in Miami.  Harley suggests that Tony builds something, since he’s a mechanic.  So Tony showcases his genius again in making an arsenal out of what he can find at a hardware store (recalling that “box of scraps” comment from the first movie).  He enters the compound in Miami and finds the set of the Mandarin videos.  And that the Mandarin is actually just an actor hired to play a role.  And yes, Killian was behind it; a custom-made terror threat.  The bodyguard enters and captures Tony.  Tony sees Maya again, who reveals that Tony had jotted down an equation all those years ago and hence why she thought Tony could help.  But Tony doesn’t remember the equation and tries to appeal to Maya.  Killian enters and credits Tony with creating him; leaving him on the roof in Switzerland made him desperate and he decided to rule from behind.  He gave evil a face and a target in creating the Mandarin.  He’s planning on opening the Iron Patriot suit and he will own the war on terror, creating supply and demand.  Oh, and he’s given Pepper Extremis.  Maya threatens to kill herself to protect her work; Killian shoots her anyway.

The clock is ticking.  Tony calls the suit to him (which is hilariously delayed), but he still takes out the guards and makes his way back through the compound (one guard easily gives up; he’s had enough weird) to find Rhodey.  They have to find the President, who is now on Air Force One with someone he thinks is Iron Patriot.  Iron Man arrives in time to rescue the people falling from the plane [pretty cool].  Then he’s hit by a truck; it’s not actually Tony in the suit, he’s controlling it from a distance.  They continue to make their way to the shipping yard where Killian is staging the murder of the President.  Rhodey is no slouch in sneaking on and taking out guards, with Tony backing him out.  Then Tony’s other suits arrive, all controlled by JARVIS and the action really begins.  Tony uses this as a chance to find Pepper, who is trapped.  He almost has her, then she falls into a fire.  Rhodey, in the meantime, rescues the President.  Tony goes after Killian, switching suits as he needs to (because Tony cannot go against Killian as Extremis in just his human form; the suits come in handy and he can take on more dangerous enemies).  Killian mocks Tony, that Killian was trying to improve Pepper.  Tony retorts that no, he didn’t deserve her, and she was already perfect.  Tony gets Killian in one of the suits and blows it up.  It does not stop Killian, though he admits to the Mandarin plot.  Just as Killian is about to deal the final blow, Pepper to the rescue!  She knocks Killian out, then takes on the suit and blows up Killian.  Her comment at the end?  “That was really violent.”  Now she’s the hot mess.  Tony quips, it’s still debatable; she’s in a relationship with him.  He promises to fix her; he almost had it while he was drunk years ago, and this is what he does, he fixes things.  He then has JARVIS blow all the suits.

The story wraps up with Rhodey arresting the Vice President, who was in on the kidnapping of the President since his daughter would have benefitted from Extremis.  Tony got Pepper sorted out, then has surgery to finally remove the shrapnel from his chest and remove the arc reactor.  And Happy wakes up and Harley gets an updated lab.  Tony theorizes that his armor and tools can be taken away, but no one can take away the fact that “I am Iron Man.”  And this is all revealed to be Tony talking to Bruce (who fell asleep).

This is not my favorite Marvel movie, or Iron Man movie; there’s just too many things going on at the same time.  However, I do like seeing more of Tony Stary, rather than just an Iron Man suit.  While the suit is helpful, he’s no slouch outside of it.  There are a few things that I don’t get why the character had to do; like why did Tony have to destroy all of his suits?  He just proved how helpful they are and he doesn’t have to be in them all the time.  And while I think it’s great that Tony no longer has the shrapnel in his chest, I was a bit sad to see the arc reactor just thrown in the ocean.  And kind of missed seeing the other Avengers.  I get that these are their individual movies again, but some crossover would have been nice.  For instance, when Pepper is standing in the ruined mansion, alone.  No one came to check on her?  Or attempt to find Tony?

Up Next: We circle around to Thor: Dark World

“Those with the greatest power…protect those without.”

X-Men: Apocalypse

The final X-Men movie I will cover (and really the last one I’ve watched; I’m aware Dark Phoenix came out afterwards and continues the story, but it definitely looks like it is not a fun story, and there are several other Logan/Wolverine movies that also look depressing…superhero movies should have a good dose of fun).  Sophie Turner (equally famous for her portrayal of Sansa Stark in Game of Thrones, and is now married to Joe Jonas) joins the cast as Jean Grey, and Oscar Isaac (Poe Dameron in the Star Wars sequel trilogy and Prince John in Russel Crowe’s Robin Hood) is the lead antagonist, En Sabah Nur.

Charles’ voice opens the film, saying that mutants are still searching for guidance.  Their gifts can be a curse and when they are given “the greatest gift of all, powers beyond imagination, they may think they are meant to rule the world.”  We go way back in history, to 3600 BCE and the Nile valley.  There is a ceremony going on in ancient Egypt, the crowd chanting “En Sabah Nur.”  There is to be a transference between an ancient mutant and another mutant.  But the guards betray En Sabah Nur and collapse the pyramid, though a few mutants remain loyal and protect their leader or god.  Now, we’re in 1983 and a high school class in Ohio is learning about mutants being “discovered” at the 1973 Paris Peace Accords.  One of the students is Scott Summers, who discovers his powers that day.

At the same time, in East Berlin, there are cage fights between mutants, with Angel as the reigning champion, now to face Nightcrawler.  Raven is in the audience and knocks out a guard in order to overload the electric fencing, so the mutants can escape.  She takes Nightcrawler and is going to get him set up with a new identity.  Meanwhile, Erik is living fairly peacefully in Poland, with a wife and young daughter.  Nina shows an affinity with animals (and is rather adorable).  Note: he has to live like a human in order to survive, but it’s good to see him happy.

Alex picks his brother up and brings him to Xavier’s school (Charles is already teaching The Once and Future King, like we see in a later/earlier movie…boy, that’s confusing).  They meet a young Jean Grey and Hank is still at the school.  Scott unfortunately destroys Charles’ favorite tree, but the professor is excited to help him nonetheless.  Across the globe, Moira McTaggert is investigating in Egypt and discovers a group chanting “En Sabah Nur” again.  Sunlight touches the capstone of the pyramid and makes its way into the Earth, awakening the ancient mutant.  This causes an earthquake across the world.  In Poland, Erik saves a coworker at the factory, then hopes he wasn’t spotted.  In the mansion, the earthquake is just the precursor to Jean’s terrifying nightmares that Charles attempts to comfort her.  When he puts on Cerebro later, he comes across Moira and the next day, has Alex take him to the CIA to see her.

The group was part of a cult that views mutants as a sign of god and actually believe that the first mutant lived thousands of years prior, in contrast to the popular held belief that mutants only evolved in the twentieth century.  Wherever this god that was raised went, destruction followed, and he always had four key supporters; like the four horsemen of the apocalypse.  The way this god lived so long, before being buried, was by transferring his consciousness from body to body and thus, gaining more powers.  And now this god is out and about in Egypt.  He discovers a young mutant thief, we know to be Storm by her powers.  She leads him back to her hiding spot, where there is a poster of Mystique, her hero.  En Sabah Nur touches her television screen and begins to soak up the world news.  He sees the clip of Magneto at the White House and calls the nuclear weapons and state of the world false gods and idols.  When finished, he declares to young Storm his intent to take over and rule the world as he did in days of old.  He calls it “saving” the world, but really means “cleansing.”  He makes Storm his first follower and her hair turns its’ signature white.

Back in Poland, Erik’s actions were noted and reported to the police; men he viewed as friends.  Erik is trying to run, but has to collect his daughter from the woods, where the police are holding her.  They point-blank ask if he’s Magneto.  All Erik wants is for them to release his daughter; he even offers to come quietly.  But when they’re traded, Nina reaches for her father, like young Erik did decades ago, pleading that she will not let the men take her father away, like his parents were taken.  The animals react to her distress and scare the policemen.  One accidentally released his drawn arrow, instantly killing Nina and her mother.  Erik cradles his babies, then uses Nina’s locket to eliminate the guards.  “Is this what I am!” he shouts to the sky. 

News quickly spreads.  Raven discovers it from her informant and has Nightcrawler/ Kurt Wagner take her back to the mansion.  Charles is still out, so she talks to Hank, while Kurt befriends Scott, Jean, and their friend Jubilee.  The teens escape to visit a mall and see a movie [Return of the Jedi and they have a humorous discussion about movie trilogies].  Hank tries to persuade Raven to stay; start the X-Men like they talked about years ago.  Charles is still hopeful for the world, but Hank is a little more realistic; they should hope for the best, but prepare for the worst.  Raven just wants to find Erik.  En Sabah Nur and Storm recruit more mutants, gathering Angel, with new wings, and a woman with a laser sword.  Then they come upon Erik at the factory, ready to make the men who betrayed him pay (to which Erik asks the intruders, “who the fuck are you?”  He gets the swear word this film).  En Sabah Nur easily takes care of that, then takes Erik back to Auschwitz to teach him to pull metal directly from the earth.  (Note that he picks mutants who are angry with the world.)

Charles is pleased to see Raven, though disappointed she’s only there to find Erik and to argue the point that Charles should be teaching his students to fight.  Mutants in the outside world still live in fear; they’re not accepted, people just have to be polite to them now.  Charles reaches out with Cerebro to speak to Erik, which En Sabah Nur senses.  He then turns that conversation on Charles and takes him over; “thank you for letting me in.”  He uses Charles to release all the nuclear weapons straight up, and destroy them.  “No more weapons!  No more systems!  No more superpowers!”  [If the music sounds familiar, it is Beethoven’s Allegretto.]  Charles gets ahold of himself long enough to ask Alex to destroy Cerebro; “wreak havoc,” is his order.  Alex does so, but once they have the professor safe, En Sabah Nur and his followers arrive at the mansion.  Alex is still enough of a hot head, he charges the god while Erik pulls Charles to him by his wheelchair; Alex lets loose a blast, but the horsemen escape and the blast creates a chain reaction.

Peter Maximoff has seen the news on Erik and plans to track him down, so he goes the mansion.  Just in time to rescue everyone from the blast (rather hilariously too).  Well, almost everyone.  Scott instantly notes when he arrives, that Alex is missing.  He was closest to the blast and already gone before Peter arrived.  Scott, Jean, and Kurt separate off from the rest of the group, Scott grieving for his brother, when the military arrives.  They blast the mutants unconscious, and Stryker collects Raven, Moira, Hank, and Peter.  The other three follow, intent on rescuing their leaders.  Stryker wants Charles, but no one knows where he is at.  There are barriers in place to prevent the teens from entering, and Peter reveals to Raven that he is Erik’s son.

En Sabah Nur brings his horsemen and Charles to Egypt.  His plan is to wipe the face of the earth and rebuild it as he remembers, ruling as god.  And now, with Charles, he can control every mind on earth.  Charles, of course, tries to reason with Erik, but his old friend is still too hurt, too angry.  En Sabah Nur’s message that Charles passes along is to warn the world of his plan.  That the strongest among you, those with the greatest power, the earth will be yours.  Charles also manages to send a secret message to Jean, letting her know where they are.  And Charles changes the message at the last second, telling those with the greatest power…protect those without.  That is Charles’ message.  And that has always been and will always be Charles Xavier’s message to the world.  (And we love him for it).  En Sabah Nur’s not happy with the change, but his plan is not over yet.

The trio find Wolverine (because that apparently needed rehashed again), who goes on a rampage.  Jean manages to set him free and gives him “Logan.”  And no Scott, that is not the last you’ll see of him.  But they manage to free Hank, Raven, Peter, and Moira.  And find a plane to take to Egypt.  Raven speaks to the teens, telling them about her first mission and tells them that Havok was brave.  Raven doesn’t feel like a hero because she couldn’t save everyone.  But the teens still view her as a hero, so she will lead them.  Their objective is to rescue Charles.  Raven and Peter will try to get Erik.

En Sabah Nur’s final plan is to transfer into Charles; then he gains Charles’ power, but not his morality.  The transference is how Charles loses his hair.  The teens take on the horsemen, and Kurt manages to get inside the pyramid and get Charles out.  But their plane is caught before they can escape, so he has to get everyone out at once.  They hide, Scott and Hank taking on the other horsemen.  Raven tells Erik she’s going to go save her family and gives him the choice (and he recalls moments from First Class).  Peter uses his speed to punch the ancient mutant, until his leg is caught and broken.  Then Raven disguises herself as one of his horsemen to get close and uses the blade to slice him.  But he chokes her.  Storm watches as mutants fight mutants and the god she is following attempts to kill her hero.  Yet, En Sabah Nur and Charles are still connected.  Charles wants to save his sister and uses that connection to distract En Sabah Nur.  In his mind, he gets a few good punches in, until En Sabah Nur grows and beats Charles up.  Erik puts a metal X between En Sabah Nur and his friends.  He will no longer betray them.  Hank and Scott rescue Peter and Raven, then Scott uses his powers in conjunction with Erik’s to take on their opponent.  Charles asks for Jean’s help, telling her to let go.  Unleash her power without fear.  She walks into mid-air and flames erupt, in the shape of a phoenix.  Her powers pull back the ancient mutant’s armor, giving the men an opening.  But he tries to get away.  Until Storm electrocutes him.

Everyone is safe.  Charles gives Moira her memories back; she later has Stryker arrested for kidnapping her.  Peter and Storm decide to stay at the rebuilt mansion, courtesy of Erik and Jean working together.  And Raven has decided to stay to train the new batch of X-Men.  Erik and Charles have a conversation outside the simulation room, Charles now looking like his older counterpart with the bald head.  Charles was right about Erik and he was right about Raven.  There is still hope for the world.  But Erik cautions him, “doesn’t it ever wake you up in the middle of the night?  The feeling that one day they’ll come for you and your children?”  Charles responds: “I feel a great swell of pity for the poor soul that comes to my school looking for trouble.”  [I love that this is a call back to the last scene of the first X-Men movie!]

Overall, I prefer the prequel trilogy of the X-men franchise to the original trilogy, but the stories get a little wonky.  Honestly, the time jumps between the three newer films almost get in the way of the characters.  Sure, the ones who were introduced in First Class are still around twenty years later, but realistically, they shouldn’t be the same actors, as much as we love them.  If the studio wants to keep the same actors, great, just don’t show the same person looking the same twenty years later.  Also, while I love that Raven is Charles’ sister and that dynamic, this doesn’t work fully in retrospect: our Mystique could have never poisoned Charles like Mystique did in the first X-Men movie.  I’m sure the executives would explain that with the time travel, the future that was the original X-men films changed…ultimately boiling down to alternate universes in combination with wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey stuff.

Up Next: The two Fantastic Four films with Chris Evans; then I’ll be taking a bit of a break to work on some other writing, mainly the fantasy epic I have intentions of writing.  I figure this is a good place to pause, before jumping into the twenty-or-so Marvel Cinematic Universe films.

“All those years wasted, fighting each other, Charles, to have a precious few of them back.”

X-Men: Days of Future Past

This unites the older cast with the newer cast, with Bryan Singer back at the helm.  Peter Dinklage (Tyrion Lannister in Game of Thrones, Eitri the Dwarf in Avengers: Infinity War, Trumpkin the Dwarf in Prince Caspian, and the lead in the recent Cyrano movie) joins as Dr. Bolivar Trask, Evan Peters is Peter/ Quicksilver (yes, he appeared in WandaVision and SPOILER [in case you’re even later than me watching the show]: he plays the other version of Pietro…I just laughed when I saw in on the show and really wish more had been done because, he’s Peter, just the other one).  Booboo Stewart (he’s Seth in the Twilight movies and Jay in the Disney Descendants movies [haven’t seen those]) is another mutant, named Warpath.

We open in a dark future, ruled by Sentinels, machines that hunt down and kill mutants and any humans who try to help.  But there is a ray of hope left, for what’s left of the X-men are making for a hideout to meet with a few fighters, including familiar faces Bobby and Kitty.  Professor Xavier (yep, he’s alive, not sure how, but it’s X-men, we’re not really going to ask) has a crazy idea, have Kitty send him back in time to 1973 to prevent Raven/Mystique from killing Trask and thus causing the Sentinels to be built.  (Another quick question, how does Kitty have time travel abilities?  She phases through walls.)  Unfortunately, Xavier would not physically be able to withstand a trip that far.  So Logan volunteers and has to meet a very different Charles and Erik, and convince them to work together when they couldn’t be further apart.

The time travel works and Logan tracks down the Professor, only to find the mansion run down, with only Hank McCoy as a companion.  Oh, and he can walk.  But, the tradeoff is he doesn’t have his powers.  And wants nothing to do with Logan or his hope for the future; he’s a broken man, leave him alone.  However…he relents and will do it for Raven.  He still cares for her and will save her if he can.  Except they’re going to need some more help, particularly to get Erik out of…wherever he’s being kept.  Logan happens to know a mutant who is a teenager in the seventies: Peter Maximoff.  He gets to break in and get Erik out of prison in the Pentagon; Erik was arrested for killing JFK.  Peter is in fact very helpful, rescuing the men for a rain of bullets (Charles does get to hit Erik, then insist on no killing).

We see a brief glimpse of Havok in Vietnam, though Mystique impersonates a Colonel to rescue the mutants before they’re shipped off to Trask Industries under a young Stryker.  She’s taken Erik’s lesson on one-track mind to heart.  She later sneaks into Trask’s office and finds the reports on the dead mutants Trask has experimented on.  And gets the clue to head to Paris, for the Peace Accords.  There, she seduces a Vietnamese general and impersonates him to get into the meeting.

It’s a very tense plane ride for Charles, Hank, Erik, and Logan.  Charles and Erik finally confront each other; it’s a wonderful scene and hints at the mental headspace that Charles was in following First Class.  “You took her away and you abandoned me!” Charles shouts at Erik.  Erik’s comeback is that Charles abandoned all the other mutants; “we were supposed to protect them.”  Charles storms away and Erik levels the plane.  Logan points out that Erik has always been an arse.

Erik later offers a game of chess to Charles as a peace offering.  They discuss Raven, a woman they both love, in different ways.  Charles remains concerned for her.  Erik also admits he didn’t kill JFK, the bullet curved because he was trying to save him, because he was a mutant.  The friendship starts to mend, but it has a long way to go, so Charles starts the game.

Action comes to a head at the Trask meeting, who is trying to convince foreign governments now of his machines since the American government shut him down (some members didn’t like the idea of targeting Americans who are living peacefully).  Raven reveals herself and is briefly taken down by Stryker, but our heroes arrive.  Logan glimpses Stryker and loses control for a moment, not remembering any timeline.  Charles hilariously tries to pass it off as a bad acid trip, until Logan comes back.  Raven is genuinely happy to see her brother, until Erik picks up the gun and is willing to kill her to prevent Trask from getting his hands on her and her DNA and thus wiping out all mutants.  Raven tries to escape, but is nicked in the leg.  Erik pursues her, and Beast jumps after him.  Mind you, all of this is caught on camera when they land outside and use their powers.  Trask escapes, but manages to get his hands on a small blood sample.  Trask next meets with President Nixon himself and offers his machines once again as a response to the “mutant problem.”  (And that’s apparently what the deleted recording was about.)

Raven is patched up, then catches up with Erik and demands answers.  Erik attempts to persuade her to work with him to strike while they have the upper hand.  But Raven draws a line.  She’ll kill Trask because of what he’s done to her friends.  But this won’t become genocide.  Meanwhile, Logan convinces Charles to stop taking the serum, so that his powers will come back.  They need Cerebro in order to find Raven and prevent the murder she is still planning.  But Cerebro overloads since Charles is rusty.  So Logan has young Charles read his mind into the future and talk to older Charles (another brilliant scene).  Older Charles counsels his younger self that the pain Charles feels and fears will make his stronger if he embraces it.  His greatest gift is to bear their pain without breaking.  And that is born of hope.  Charles needs to get his hope back; only then will the future change.  Energized, Charles uses his powers to talk to Raven through others at the airport.  She’s still set on her path and dislikes that Charles is trying to make a decision for her.

Everyone manages to meet up again in D.C., where the President is making an announcement with Trask to showcase the Sentinels that will protect Americans.  Erik breaks into the Pentagon to retrieve his helmet to keep Charles out.  He’s also put metal inside the Sentinels so he has control, which he has go off on the crowd at the White House.  At the same time, the Sentinels of the future have found the hidden X-men.  Young Erik wraps metal into Logan and sends him off to drown, then uses the cameras to speak to hidden mutants, calling for them to unite and fight for their rights.  Raven duplicates the President as an offer to Erik, then shoots him.  Charles, pinned under a structure, uses his powers to convince Raven to choose a different path.  She can show the world that not all mutants need to be feared.  She puts the gun down (which erases the future, one where everyone was on the brink of being destroyed), and Trask lives.  But his program is scrapped and Stryker gives information to the President that Trask was selling secrets to foreign governments.  Raven takes the helmet off Erik so that Charles can use him to free himself.  He lets Erik fly off and lets Raven walk away.  Though she appears to impersonate Stryker to rescue Logan.

And Logan is in the new future now.  The mansion is full of students, Bobby and Rogue make a brief appearance.  Hank McCoy is teaching, and even Scott and Jean are back.  Logan needs a bit of help from the Professor, clearing up with the new history is after 1973.

Where we started with Patrick Stewart’s Charles asking if we’re destined to destroy ourselves, or can we change our fate.  Is the future truly set?  We end with James McAvoy’s Charles giving us hope that the past is “a world of endless possibilities and infinite outcomes.  Countless choices define our fate: each choice, each moment, a moment in the ripple of time.  Enough ripple, and you change the tide” and answering that “the future is never truly set.”

I adore that they brought familiar faces back and it’s wonderful to see on the same screen the differences between their younger and older selves.  The greatest scene is watching James McAvoy and Patrick Stewart play the same character at two different points in life in the same shot.  Patrick Stewart always gives us hope for humanity.  I continue to enjoy the sibling relationship that they developed between Raven and Charles.  They still care for each other, but Raven has grown.  She wants to please her brother deep down, but now she’s own person.  And she realized that Erik wasn’t going to lead her where she wanted, so she struck out on her own.  And becomes the badass woman we love.  Charles ultimately lets go and has faith, but he’ll pull himself out of a hole in order to save her.  Work alongside the man who let him down in order to save her.  And of course, Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart are adorable alongside each other; there’s a funny blooper where Ian spouts some BS line and Patrick looks at him with “what did you just say?” on his face.

Really wish Erik would stop trying to rule the world!  You’ve gotten your revenge, leave it alone.  There are better ways to fight for mutant rights than reverting to killing all humans.  Also, we want you to settle down with Charles…hey, older versions of them are friends again, we want to see them come around.  Again, I encourage you to read Rumor Has It on either fanfiction.net or AO3.

Overall, this movie tends to give me a bit of a headache trying to keep timelines straight and I get that this re-writes a lot of what happened in the original trilogy and I like the happy ending, but it’s not always one I want to re-watch.

Up Next: X-Men Apocalypse

“These Aren’t the Droids You’re Looking For”

A New Hope

Originally released as simply Star Wars.  It ranks 13th in AFI’s Top 100 Movies, #1 for Film Scores, #8 in Movie Quotes, and #14 in Heroes and Villains.  This is the film that started the saga.  Expertly cast with Mark Hamill (would later voice the Joker in several Batman cartoons [we’ll catch one later] and Fire Lord Ozai in Avatar: The Last Airbender [we’ve already noted the irony of that casting and characterization]) as wet-behind-the-ears Luke Skywalker, Carrie Fisher as Princess Leia Organa, and Harrison Ford (action star extraordinaire; Jack Ryan, Indiana Jones, Air Force One) completing the trio as Han Solo.  Alec Guinness is Obi-Wan Kenobi, Peter Cushing (he worked alongside Christopher Lee several times, mainly in horror films, but he portrayed Sherlock Holmes as well) is Grand Moff Tarkin.  Anthony Daniels brings C-3PO to life, like Kenny Baker does with R2-D2; Peter Mayhew dons the Chewbacca costume while David Prowse wears the Vader suit.  Of course, James Earl Jones (Mufasa, as well as appearing with Harrison Ford in the Jack Ryan movies) provides that deep voice (though not credited in this film).

And seriously, the original theme is also the best, since it doesn’t have to segue into any other theme.  It’s the most joyful and triumphant.  We also hear the Force theme for the first time, which also plays a huge part in the soundtracks of the rest of the saga.  I could try to go into how this film was pioneering, but I wouldn’t be the best choice since I was not alive to witness this film when it first came out and wasn’t a huge fan of it when I first saw it.  And now that the prequel trilogy is out especially, it’s a bit hard to separate what was all brand new in this film when first released with what we know now.

After the crawl, we see that iconic scene of the Star Destroyer chasing the Rebel Runner and are first introduced to R2-D2 and C-3PO; 3PO is the definition of a fusspot.  R2 is given a secret mission and they must escape from the imposing black-caped Darth Vader.  He is looking for the stolen Death Star plans (which we saw how those ended aboard this ship in Rogue One; which was kind of the whole point of that film) and captures Princess Leia.  R2 and 3PO end up on Tatooine and separated briefly until the Jawas (and their signature “oo-tee-dee!”) get their hands on them.

Enter teenager Luke Skywalker and his aunt and uncle Beru and Owen Lars.  They purchase R2 and 3PO.  But R2 is insistent on pursuing his mission and escapes to find Obi-Wan Kenobi, though Luke only knows an “Old Ben.”  Uncle Owen shuts down his questions, simply stating that Obi-Wan died alongside Luke’s father, and he shouldn’t worry about Ben.  Luke, tired of being stuck on a backwater planet, storms off.  Owen tells Beru he’s afraid that Luke has too much of his father in him [and we know why that would be dangerous].

When Luke goes looking for R2, he runs into Sand People.  Ben is around to scare them off and is surprised that a little R2 unit has come searching for him.  Luke asks Ben if he knows an Obi-Wan.  Of course he does, he’s Obi-Wan.  But he hasn’t gone by that name since Luke was born.  He takes Luke home with him and informs the teenager that his father was a Jedi Knight, as was Obi-Wan; they fought in the Clone Wars together.  They were guardians of the peace and justice in the Old Republic.  Luke inherited his piloting skills from his father and Obi-Wan gifts him with the blue lightsaber; “an elegant weapon for a more civilized time.”  Darth Vader was once a pupil of Obi-Wan’s, until he fell to the Dark Side of the Force and betrayed and murdered Luke’s father (uh, he’ll get to that later…shh, it’s a secret for now).  We finally see the whole message that Leia sent to Obi-Wan, asking for his help in the name of her father, Bail Organa [oh yes, you should totally read Wild Space by Karen Miller to find out how Bail and Obi-Wan ended up becoming friends].  She has stashed important plans inside the R2 unit that are vital to the Rebellion.  “Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi; you’re my only hope.”

Luke doesn’t want to go running off to Alderaan; he has responsibilities here that his uncle was outlining just the previous evening.  He comes across an attack on Jawas on his way home and Obi-Wan deduces it was stormtroopers trying to disguise there attack as Sand People,  They were looking for the droids.  Which would have led them home.  Luke races back only to discover the homestead to be smoldering and two burnt bodies at the door.  He has nothing now, so he’ll follow Obi-Wan.  “I want to learn the ways of the Force and become a Jedi, like my father.”

First, they must find transport and head to Mos Eisley; “you will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.”  Obi-Wan gets them past the troopers using a Jedi mind trick [that he probably picked up from Qui-Gon] and they search for a pilot in the cantina (cue that iconic music).  Luke gets in a bit of trouble and Obi-Wan proves he still has some fight left in him, slicing off a criminal’s arm with his lightsaber.  They then meet Han Solo and Chewbacca who agree to take them to Alderaan, avoiding Imperial entanglement, and no questions asked for a pretty sum.  Han briefly deals with Greedo after the pair leave (and yes, he shoots first!).  Then he buys more time to pay back his debt to Jabba the Hutt.  Han also gets the idea that his passengers may be more than meets the eye when Imperials show up and start firing as the pair attempt to board the Millennium Falcon.  Chewie gets them out of Tatooine; “here’s where the fun begins.”  Luke is certainly an eager young kid, contrasting with Han who is more world-wise.

Meanwhile, Leia has been taken aboard the Death Star and Vader attempts to interrogate her on the location of the Rebel base, but she resists the mind probe.  Grand Moff Tarkin (he goes by Governor in the film) has another idea.  If Princess Leia does not reveal the base, he will fire the Empire’s ultimate weapon on Alderaan.  Leia finally gives them the planet Dantooine.  Tarkin destroys Alderaan anyway to prove a point.  Obi-Wan feels the incredible loss of life all the way on the Falcon.  But he insists that Luke continue with his training.  Han’s not one to believe in the Force while Obi-Wan comes back that there is no such thing as luck. 

When they come out of hyperspace, they discover what the Empire has done, though they don’t know how.  Until Obi-Wan realizes that the object in the distance is no moon.  It’s a space station.  And they are caught in its tractor beam.  Luke has a very bad feeling about this.  Obi-Wan has a better idea that fighting.  They hide away in the smuggling holds from the Imperial boarding parties, though Vader senses something. Obi-Wan also has an idea on how to deal with the tractor beam.  Han figured the old man would do something foolish.  “Who’s the more foolish; the fool, or the fool who follows him?”  [Still spouting wisdom.]

Han and Luke then discover that Leia is aboard the Death Star and Luke immediately wants to rescue her.  He persuades Han with the promise of reward.  They use Chewie as a prisoner to get to the cell.  The plan goes pretty well, until Han’s funny conversation and Leia notes that Luke is short to be a stormtrooper.  Proving he is an eager young lad, he announces himself to Leia “I’m Luke Skywalker, I’m here to rescue you.”  Oh, and I have your droid.  And Obi-Wan Kenobi.  As Han predicts, they end up with company and Leia takes charge: “into the garbage shoot, flyboy.”  Han either wants to kill the princess, or he’s beginning to like her.  “What an incredible smell you’ve discovered,” Han snarks once they’re out of the line of fire.  Leia contends that the situation could be worse.  Now Han has a bad feeling about this.  It gets worse when a slug creature grabs Luke.  It only lets go when the trash compactor starts up.  Luke calls for R2 and 3PO, but the droids are almost too late to save their humans.  R2 to the rescue in the nick of time!

And now they just have to get through a couple dozen troopers.  Han and Leia still snip at each other; Han is used to taking orders from just one person, himself.  Leia is used to being in charge and asks someone to get the walking carpet out of her way.  (Gotta admire a woman who takes charge and doesn’t wait to be rescued)  They split up; Han deciding it is great tactics to chase after one’s opponent shouting at the top of his lungs.  His luck holds out.  Luke and Leia have to swing across an opening [which Mythbusters proved was possible; and was performed by Mark and Carrie on set in one take (they didn’t have the money for stunt doubles).]  They all eventually meet up by the Falcon.

Obi-Wan sneaks about the battle station and Vader determines he must face his old master alone.  Tarkin dismisses Vader’s power (which we’ve already witnessed is a bad idea; he choked a subordinate when he found his lack of faith disturbing.)  When he confronts Obi-Wan, he claims he is now a master.  “Only a master of evil, Darth.”  Vader claims Obi-Wan’s powers are weak.  Obi-Wan also warns Vader “if you strike me down, I’ll become more powerful than you can possibly imagine.”  [Yes, this duel is much slower than their epic battle in Revenge of the Sith, but keep in mind that this was the first lightsaber duel ever conceived; and take into account Alec Guiness’s age.  And Vader is impeded by a black suit.  And heck, he probably hasn’t had to duel anyone in a while…yet the end of Rogue One proves he’s still got it.  George Lucas’ original concept was that there was a heft to lightsabers; he didn’t want them flung about.  Obviously, once we got back and see Jedi young and in their prime, the duels are more fantastic.  Nevertheless, the choreography is sound]  Obi-Wan senses his young charges are near and allows Vader to slice through him.  But his body disappears (surprising everyone).  His disembodied voice urges Luke to run and the Millennium Falcon escapes.  There’s a brief dogfight to ensure they get away [I remember reading in a novel somewhere that gravity is a bit off in the Falcon at that ladder] which Leia insists was an easy escape.  In fact, Vader has a homing beacon planted on the Falcon.

Our heroes make for the Rebel base on Yavin 4 with all haste to analyze the readouts on R2.  Han takes his reward and intends to leave.  He’s got debts to pay off and going against the Death Star is not his idea of courage.  The Rebellion is banking on snub fighters getting past the guns, flying through a trench, and hitting a small opening to start a chain reaction.  Luke figures it’s not much bigger than the womp rats he used to shoot on Tatooine.  He’s disappointed in Han, but the smuggler does tell the boy, “May the Force be with you,” in parting.  Luke cheers up a bit reuniting with his friend Biggs.  They’re part of Red Sqaudron, along with Wedge Antilles [played by Ewan McGregor’s uncle, Denis Lawson; and the character is most likely related to the Captain Antilles Bail Organa addresses at the end of Revenge of the Sith].

The Death Star is orbiting Yavin to get into position to fire on the base.  Tarkin refuses to leave, even after the techs figure out what the Rebels are aiming for.  The Grand Moff is certain this is the Empire’s moment of triumph.  Even Vader commented that this day saw the end of Kenobi and will see the end of the Rebellion, though he does take his TIE Interceptor out to shoot down Rebel ships.  [Lucas was influenced by the dog fighting of WWII, and I feel that the effects still hold up well forty years later; proves how well made it originally was]  Wedge is hit and has to break off his attack.  Biggs is killed protecting Luke.  Luke hears Obi-Wan urge him to trust the Force to aim his torpedo.  Vader and his friends are gaining on Luke in his X-Wing and R2 is a bit fried [Anakin!  You shot your droid!]  Han swoops in on the Falcon to save the day; knocking Vader away, and giving Luke his chance.  Bombs away just as the station powers up its giant laser.  Huge explosion!

Luke is greeted by cheers and a hug from Leia.  Han joins in.  Luke’s thrilled he returned; Han claims he couldn’t let Luke get all the credit.  [Note the height difference between Carrie and Mark and Harrison, particular Harrison.  It’s a bit funny]  The Rebels hold a ceremony (cue awesome music) to recognize Han, Chewie, and Luke for their actions. 3PO and R2 are all shined up and the Rebellion lives to fight another day.

The main word I can use to describe this film is “iconic.”  Even if you’ve never watched the film, you probably know a lot of key points and dialogue because it is seeped into pop culture so much.  There are several books and magazines articles that outline all the trouble George Lucas went through to get this film made; I highly encourage you to check them out!  This film, and really the whole saga, echo Joseph Campbell’s idea of the “monomyth.”  There is a path that most major hero stories follow [I’ve read the book twice and not even for a class!  And I totally agree with his hypothesis].  Luke receives his “call to adventure;” there is a “refusal of the call;” then there is “supernatural aid.”  This all happens on Tatooine with Obi-Wan.  Luke crosses his first threshold and is thrown into the “belly of the whale.”  That would be joining the Rebellion.  And he begins to undergo trials.

Up Next: The Empire Strikes Back

Rebellions are Built on Hope

Rogue One

Felicity Jones leads the cast as Jyn Erso, Mads Mikkelsen (the bad guy in Doctor Strange, Rochefort [the bad guy] in The Three Musketeers from 2011, Le Chiffre [the bad guy] from Casino Royale, Tristan from King Arthur, and he will appear as Gellert Grindlewald in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them 3 and is supposedly in the upcoming Indiana Jones film) is her father, Galen [not a bad guy].  Jimmy Smits reprises his role briefly as Bail Organa, and if one of the senators looks familiar, that’s Jonathan Aris, who plays Anderson in Sherlock.  Alan Tudyk voices K2.  They made good use of CGI in this film considering that this takes place directly before the original trilogy and many of those actors are too old to reprise their roles, or sadly passed away.  Grand Moff Tarkin came across excellent.

The Imperials are coming.  A family tries to run and hide, but the father stays back to deal with their visitors, after assuring his young daughter that all he does is to protect her.  Her mother turns back, but tells the girl to hide and “trust the Force,” fastening a crystal around her neck [okay, could she be an old Jedi Initiate or similar?  As revealed later, that crystal is a kyber crystal, which was the heart of a Jedi’s lightsaber…and we know that some Jedi managed to escape the Purge.  She could be hiding in plain sight, married to an Imperial scientist, or else, no one is that dumb…two minds]  But the girl watches her father greet the visitor, an Imperial governor, Krenic.  Galen is instructed to return to the Empire to continue his work.  His wife, Lyra steps in to threaten Krenic, but she’s quickly dispatched.  The child, Jyn flees.  There’s a secret hide-out she curls up in until a family friend retrieves her.

We jump ahead fifteen years and meet Jyn briefly again in a prison.  She is rescued by the rebellion and taken to the rebel base on Yavin 4.  They need her help; news has come out that an Imperial pilot has defected and is searching for the rebel Saw Guerra.  Jyn has a history with Saw; he was the one to rescue her after the incident with Krenic.  The pilot is also said to be acting on instructions from Galen.  Mon Mothma sends Jyn with Cassian to find the pilot and information he carries about an Imperial weapon.

Grand Moff Tarkin visits Krenic to oversee the final assembly of the Death Star above Jeddha [why do these all look like Tatooine?].  They are harvesting the kyber crystals from an old Jedi temple.  The pilot has made his way to Saw Guerrra, but Saw is a paranoid extremist and doesn’t believe the pilot.  Cassian and Jyn begin their search, but get caught in an attack by Saw’s men.  They also meet a blind guardian who speaks of the Force: “The Force is with me and I am with the Force.  And I fear nothing for all is as the Force wills it.”  Impressive fighting from both Chirrut and Jyn [which that staff is totally part of a lightsaber hilt].  Chirrut is followed by Baze who carries an arsenal to keep them safe.  All four are eventually taken to Saw’s headquarters, but only Jyn is allowed to see the man.  The other three find the pilot and when the attack comes, they hightail it out of the compound. 

Jyn finally gets to see the message from her father.  He obeyed the Empire because he knew that was the only way to destroy them.  He designed a flaw in the Death Star; Jyn only needs to recover the plans and get them to the rebellion.  Above the planet, Tarkin wants to make an example of Jeddha, so he has the Death Star fire on the holy city; also testing Krenic whether the station is operational.  Luckily for Krenic, it is, but Tarkin is also taking over command.  Krenic leaves to discover the depths of treachery that came from his science base.

The ragtag crew heads to Eadu to possibly rescue Galen, but we also know that Cassian carries orders to kill Galen.  But he hesitates.  Then an alliance squadron bombs the area anyway, almost hitting Jyn and mortally wounding Galen.  Cassian does rescue Jyn, but they have words later.  Director Krenic discovers Galen’s treachery and manages to get away.  He appeals to Darth Vader (who may be on Mustafar, not sure since it wasn’t label and why would he return there?).  Vader cautions Krenic “be careful not to choke on your aspirations.”  Krenic needs to ensure that the Death Star was not sabotaged.

The Alliance is not willing to trust the word of either Erso’s and will not commit their fleet to going after the plans.  So a volunteer squadron gathers and they head for the Imperial information station, giving themselves the call sign Rogue One.  Jyn and Cassian make it inside the building and Cassian’s sarcastic droid, K2 helps them find the correct data file.  But they have to beam out the information; it will be difficult to get it off world.  In the meantime, Bail Organa is heading back to Alderran and sends a trustworthy woman to speak to an old Jedi friend.  The Alliance finally decides to scramble part of the fleet, led by a few daring leaders (we even see R2 and 3PO for a brief moment.  And that is the same Red Leader we’ll see in A New Hope [they used unused shots from New Hope]).  A battle takes place over Scariff crashing to Star Destroyers into each other to take out the shield while Jyn tries to align the dish.  Krenic is about to  kill her, but Cassian limps in to save the day.  The couple sits on the beach as the planet is destroyed by the Death Star to protect the Empire’s data.

Vader boards a rebel ship, using his red lightsaber to slash through the men.  The disc manages to escape and is beamed to a familiar Rebel Runner with a familiar young woman aboard (another example of CGI).

This all leads directly into Episode IV: A New Hope

My thoughts on the film are mixed.  We could guess that it was a foregone conclusion that the new characters introduced would all die by the end of the film because they weren’t in the original trilogy.  Cassian [who apparently is getting his own Disney+ show] is not a wholly nice character, which some people would applaud as it builds dynamic.  But he’s trying to come off as a cross between Luke Skywalker and Han Solo (look at the shirt he wears in the last few scenes) and he has none of the charm.  I applaud him for following his conscious finally but you also want to smack him a lot in the beginning.  Jyn is very much like Rey from the sequels which makes it a bit confusing.

Overall, the movie is very slow.  It also relies on the audience knowing the current expanded universe; like I had no idea who Saw Guerra was before this but everyone in the film does.  [After watching some of Rebels, I did catch the shout out to General Syndulla (Hera), but it’s so small that you don’t notice it if it means nothing to you].  I wish we saw more of the battle at Scariff (it has been noted that Star Wars finally made a tropical beach base; then blew it up with the Death Star…this is why we can’t have nice things)

Speaking of Rebels, I have watched some of the first two season (and I hesitate to continue because I am aware of some things that happen and not sure I really want to actively sit and watch that) and it is hilarious.  Lots of good banter, wonderful to see some familiar faces.  And the family dynamic of the crew is heartwarming.  This is why Jedi should be allowed to have families!  I totally recommend the show.

Up Next: The one that started it all, A New Hope

Aggressive Negotiations: Negotiations with a Lightsaber

Episode II: Attack of the Clones

A lot of carry-over from Phantom Menace, though Hayden Christensen has been brought in to play an older Anakin Skywalker.  Ewan McGregor and Natalie Portman return as Obi-Wan and Padmé.  Esteemed Christopher Lee (sadly passed away in 2015, but is extremely memorable for playing Saruman in Lord of the Rings and Hobbit [he had met Tolkien once], as well as voicing the Jabberwocky in Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland.  He was also Rochefort in some of the older Three Musketeer movies featuring Michael York as D’Artagnan, and was a Bond villain in The Man with the Golden Gun; portrayed Dracula, and several different characters is various Sherlock Holmes renditions.  His filmography goes back to the mid-forties, with over 280 credits, after serving in the Royal Air Force in WWII) plays Count Dooku.  Jimmy Smits (spent a decade with NYPD Blue and a few years after that on The West Wing, and has a role in the new In the Heights movie.  Prior to that, he was with L.A. Law; I think that’s how my parents knew him…I do remember him hosting A Capitol Fourth  one year; the orchestra played Battle of the Heroes after Revenge of the Sith came out) joins as Senator Bail Organa (yes, Leia’s father down the road).

Takes place ten years after Phantom Menace, Anakin and Obi-Wan have grown as a Master-Padawan team and are assigned to protect Padmé Amidala, now a Senator after an attempt has been made on her life (the opening of the film).  Anakin still puts his foot in his mouth and apparently has not lost his crush on Padmé.  Obi-Wan cautions him, but Anakin is also distracted by dreams and visions he’s had about his mother.  That is why they almost miss a bounty hunter sending a droid to put two worm creatures into Padmé’s room.  Obi-Wan takes the quick way and jumps out the window after the droid (who’s reckless now?)  Anakin chases after his Master in a speeder, weaving in and out of Courscant traffic. The bounty hunter shoots down the droid and Obi-Wan almost plummets to his death, but Anakin catches him.  Then they banter back and forth a bit and Obi-Wan comments “if you spent as much time practicing your saber technique as you do your wit, you’d rival Master Yoda as a swordsman.”  “I thought I already did.”  “Only in your mind, my very young apprentice!”

What follows is a bit of a chase, where Obi-Wan is not fond of Anakin’s flying; “I don’t mind flying, but what you’re doing is suicide!”  [I did an excerpt of this scene from the novelization as a dramatic reading when I was on the forensics team in high school]  Until a shortcut doesn’t work out so well and the pair thinks they’ve lost the bounty hunter.  Anakin then leaps out of the speeder to catch the bounty hunter; “I hate it when he does that,” Obi-Wan mutters.  The bounty hunter tries to shake Anakin, but he persists, though he drops his lightsaber in the process.  Obi-Wan follows and catches his Padawan before he can run after the bounty hunter again.  They track their prey to a bar, Obi-Wan bemoaning a bit, “why do I have the feeling that you’re going to be the death of me?”  Anakin insists not, Obi-Wan is the closest thing he has to a father.  Obi-Wan sends Anakin to scan the crowd while Obi-Wan draws their prey out by having a drink at the main counter, after sending a patron away with a mind trick.  Obi-Wan catches the bounty hunter with his lightsaber and they attempt to question her, but another bounty hunter fires a toxic dart, leaving the Jedi with more questions and few answers.

The Jedi Council instructs Obi-Wan to track down the second bounty hunter.  Meanwhile, Anakin is to escort Padmé back to Naboo and keep her protected.  Chancellor Palpatine is eager to help young Skywalker and remarks he sees Anakin becoming the greatest Jedi, even more powerful than Master Yoda.  [This is not going to end well].  While Padmé is packing, Anakin complains to her about Obi-Wan; yes, his master may be as wise as Master Yoda and as powerful as Master Windu, Anakin still feels like he is ahead of Obi-Wan.  The older man is holding him back (fueled no doubt by the general consensus that Anakin is the Chosen One and probably nudged further by Palpatine’s slippery words).  An old informant of Obi-Wan’s sends him to Kamino; once he gets some help from Yoda and younglings when the Jedi Archives are incomplete regarding the planet.  They’re cloners, Obi-Wan is told.  They seem pleasant enough when he meets them, though they were expecting a Master Sifo-Dyus.  He ordered an army created for the Republic, using a man named Jango Fett as the base.  Jango claims he was recruited by a man named Tyranus.  Oddly, Sifo-Dyus was killed ten years ago.  When Obi-Wan reports to the Jedi Council, they confirm that this army was created without their authorization.  Obi-Wan is to bring Jango Fett in for questioning.  Jango Fett is undoubtedly the bounty hunter that Obi-Wan is searching for and they battle each other in the rain.  Jango has a young son named Boba (he’ll pop up down the road) who tries to help out (and that ship probably looks a bit familiar). Obi-Wan manages to plant a tracker on their ship and follows.

Padmé’s not terribly keen on hiding out on Naboo, but she can’t really go against everyone.  There are some deleted scenes that show more of Padmé’s family; very sweet.  And the scenery for Naboo is gorgeous, feels very Tuscan.  She and Anakin do manage to share a kiss while at the lake house (cue gorgeous love theme), but Padmé breaks it off.  Anakin tries to awkwardly talk about their feelings [the dialogue here is terrible], but Padmé keeps insisting that even if there was something between them, it is terribly unwise and forbidden.  While there, Anakin continues to have nightmares about his mother.  Padmé agrees to go with him to Tatooine.  There, they discover that Shmi is now married to Cliegg Lars.  But she’s not at the Lars homestead; she was taken by Tusken Raiders.  Anakin leaves Padmé with Cliegg, his son Owen and soon-to-be daughter-in-law, Beru (not the last time we’ve heard those names), so he can track them down (we hear Duel of the Fates reprised briefly).  He indeed finds his mother, but she dies in his arms.  Rage fills Anakin and he slaughters the entire village.  In the background we can hear Qui-Gon Jinn beg Anakin “no!”  Even Yoda hears it.  It does nothing to sway Anakin.  He confesses to Padmé after he brings his mother back.  She tries to comfort him, saying that to be angry is to be human.  Anakin retorts that as a Jedi, he is better than that.  He blames the Tusken Raiders, he blames Obi-Wan (and in pops a theme that will gain significance as we go).

Obi-Wan tracks the Fetts to Geonosis, after surviving an asteroid field; again, he’s not too keen on flying.  [Fun note, in the books that precede this film, mainly the Jedi Apprentice series, Obi-Wan didn’t mind flying, but there was an incident at some point that made him not as keen.  And Anakin is very reckless when flying, so that probably doesn’t help]  He transmits his report to Anakin to relay to the Council, then is captured.  We  finally meet the man behind a lot of this; Count Dooku (yep, over an hour into the film and we finally meet the big bad).  Dooku tries to sway Obi-Wan to his side, telling him that the Senate is under the influence of a Sith Lord named Darth Sidious.  We all know this is true, but Obi-Wan doesn’t trust a fallen Jedi.  Dooku was once Qui-Gon’s master and feels that his former Padawan would have aided him and attempts to sway Obi-Wan that way.  Together, they can destroy the Sith!  [All Sith seem bent on destroying something or someone].  Obi-Wan holds firm.

The Council is disturbed by the news from Geonosis.  They order Anakin to stay put.  Jar Jar is chosen to petition emergency powers being granted to the Chancellor in order to take control of the clone army (another reason for us not to trust the Gungan).  Palpatine makes a rousing speech promising to lay down the power that has been granted to him when the conflict is over.  [Liar!  And further disturbing note, this is very similar to how Adolf Hitler gained power in Germany].  Yoda will go to Kamino and Windu will take what Jedi he can to Geonosis to rescue Obi-Wan.

Luckily, Padmé firmly tells Anakin she is going after Obi-Wan, so if he wants to continue protecting her, as ordered, he will have to come with her.  They find a droid factory on Geonosis and almost make it through, even R2-D2 and C-3PO get in on the action, but the couple is captured.  They declare their love for each other, considering there is a good chance they’re going to die soon and share a kiss before taken into the large arena (sweeping love theme!)  Obi-Wan quips they did a good job of rescuing him.  Dooku announces that the three will be executed and three animals are released.  Padmé quickly makes it to the top of her tower (cause she was smart and snuck a lock-pick into her mouth); she’s showing up the men.  All three manage to get free, notwithstanding any injuries.  But droids roll out.  Countered by Mace Windu holding a purple lightsaber to Jango Fett’s throat, the cue for dozens of Jedi to enter. 

Battle commences.  Everyone gets in on the action, Padmé picks up a blaster and R2 has to rescue 3PO.  Jango and Windu face off and Windu decapitates the bounty hunter (with his son watching; I think the Jedi Master does regret it).  Dooku calls for a halt when the droids seem to be winning, offering the Jedi a chance to surrender.  Windu refuses for them to become bargaining chips.  “Then my friend, you will die.”  Not so fast, Yoda to the rescue with the clones.  Now it’s clone versus droid with the Jedi taking the lead.  Anakin, Padmé, and Obi-Wan follow after Dooku.  Unbeknownst to them, Dooku has secret plans for the ultimate weapon [and that picture should look familiar] in his possession.  The trio’s carrier is knocked about and Padmé falls out.  Obi-Wan insists to Anakin they continue with their mission (except he hasn’t missed what his Padawan’s reaction implies).

Obi-Wan and Anakin face off against Dooku [his fighting style is influenced by the fact that Christopher Lee was trained in fencing (Three Musketeers, etc)]  Anakin rushes in and Force lightning quickly throws him into a wall.  Obi-Wan lasts a few minutes against the master swordsman, but two cuts put him down.  Anakin leaps to his master’s defense.  For a moment he even has two blades, then they fight in dim lighting (call forward to some duels in the originals), but Dooku cuts off his arm (and I think he even regrets that for a moment).  Yoda hobbles in to face Dooku, who turns out to be his own former Padawan.  They’re equal in knowledge of the Force, so it comes down to skills with a lightsaber.  And Yoda jumps everywhere!  Just a blur of green!  Dooku can sense he’s losing, so turns his attention back to the fallen pair and tries to bring machinery down on them.  Yoda saves them, but that allows Dooku to escape.

Dooku meets with Lord Sidious on Courscant, revealing that he himself is now a Sith, named Darth Tyranus.  Everything is falling into place as Sidious planned.  The military parade outside the Senate building is ominous (paired with a very familiar theme).  Yoda sadly announces to Obi-Wan that the Clone Wars have begun (hinted at back in the original film).  And Anakin and Padmé secretly get married on Naboo.

There are elements of the film that I like; of course the music is amazing. As much as I may not like the love story between Anakin and Padmé, or at least how poorly it was developed, the love theme, Across the Stars does make me think of a grand romance with a hint of yearning; it’s just perfect for that deep passionate kiss…I mean, you could use it as inspiration for any favorite pairing.  There is a dramatic bit in the middle that signifies that all is not wonderful and happy in love.  (At times it does sound a bit similar to Fawkes the Phoenix from the soundtrack of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets; the movies were released the same year and shared a composer; we’ll forgive him).

The arena scene is probably the best of the movie; very cool to see that many lightsabers.  Again, compared to the original trilogy, this is when the Jedi are at their height.  And it was fun to see how our main trio each fought their monster.  The duel between Dooku and our heroes was a bit of a letdown; he defeats Anakin and Obi-Wan fairly swiftly, though certainly left his mark (and it makes another connection between him and Luke).  Yes, it was rather cool to watch Yoda finally duel.

Often the middle movie in a trilogy will suffer a bit, because the set up has occurred, but you don’t get to the pay off yet (this occurred with Dead Man’s Chest).  Spoilers for those of you who have not managed to actually watch the rest of the series.  We know that a Clone Wars occurs during Obi-Wan and Anakin’s lifetime, though this was not how I was expecting it to occur; I always thought that the Jedi were fighting against the clones.  We know that Anakin at the very least sleeps with someone if not outright marries them and they clearly set that up back in Phantom Menace.  But what is supposed to be the main focus of this film, the developing love between Anakin Skywalker and Padmé Amidala falls flat.  There’s no chemistry between the couple.  Their conversations about feelings are almost painful.  Anakin feels he is entitled to Padmé because he had a crush on her as a boy and has thought of her for ten years.  She still sees him as that boy she helped rescue.  They just seemed forced together because it’s “supposed” to happen; and it’s Star Wars so there’s got to be some other action. 

We all kind of fall in love with Obi-Wan a little more; well, a portion of the fanbase at the very least.  Man, I love sarcasm.  Or quips.  Or snark, whatever you want to call it.  I appreciated all the bits thrown in to connect to the original films.  And yeah, we can now clearly see where design elements of the Empire originated, lot of clone influence.

For me, not the best Star Wars film, but better than basically all of the sequel trilogy…we’ll get to that rant in due course.  What are your thoughts?

Up Next: Revenge of the Sith

There’s Always a Bigger Fish

STAR WARS

Episode I: The Phantom Menace

I have a, we’ll say multifaceted relationship with Star Wars.  This was one of the first fandoms I got interested in as a teenager, but it certainly wasn’t love at first sight.  My parents put on the original trilogy, long before there were even rumors of prequels, when I was growing up; and I had no interest whatsoever.  The most interesting things I can remember from that was that Frank Oz voiced both Yoda and Fozzie Bear.  I was about ten when the prequels came out and still did not have much of an interest.  That changed when I volunteered to man the children’s librarian’s desk during the summer reading program.  All the new children’s books were right behind me, including the Jedi Apprentice series, which tells the tales of the early days of Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi’s master/apprentice relationship.  One sounded vaguely interesting (Number 12, The Evil Experiment, if I recall correctly), so I gave it a go.  And enjoyed it.  And then borrowed all of the other books in the series (which I finished in quick order; they were easy reads for me).  So I favored the prequel movies for the longest time.  Still didn’t necessarily want to watch the original trilogy.  Until I picked up another book at the library: Young Jedi Knights, chronicling adventures of Han and Leia’s twins, Jania and Jacen…I’ll get into all of that when we hit the original trilogy.  Again, I was hooked and thus brought into the fold of the original trilogy.

It was not always fun being the only one of my friends in school interested in Star Wars.  Harry Potter was fine, everyone at that point loved it.  As a teenager, the Jedi Code sounded interesting, mastering one’s emotions.  I read Star Wars and Philosophy and ended up writing a paper for college writing based on it [Living Morally in a Business World; not the project I am most proud of].  For a while, Star Wars played a role in developing my fanfiction world.  Star Wars fanfiction was actually the first fanfiction I read.  Then, I got into Lord of the Rings and that eventually took over.  I still like Star Wars and definitely have favorite characters and there are some books I will re-read multiple times, but growing into an adult changed my perspective on certain things (like Qui-Gon Jinn might not be the epitome of best Jedi Masters…partially influenced by some awesome fanfiction stories on AO3) and I now heavily favor the original trilogy.  Except the lightsaber battles, because they’re just totally awesome in the prequels.

I know there are about a half dozen different ways to watch this film franchise; I seriously debated posting this in release order, but I felt it would be too much jumping around.  I also will not be covering any of the cartoons; I’ve seen a good bit of Clone Wars and Rebels, but not all of them.  And I have not watched and don’t necessarily intend to watch The Mandolorian…I do not have time.  (I’m also really behind on the MCU shows on Disney+ right now, so it becomes a choice).  I do intend to watch the Obi-Wan Kenobi series when it comes out.  Apologies for any disappointment.  Star Wars is such a huge part of pop culture that it is expected that one knows certain things going into the prequels. 

George Lucas put together a great cast for Phantom Menace.  Liam Neeson (Schindler’s List [no, haven’t watched and not one I think I will], Gawain in Excalibur [I probably should watch that movie], the Irishman played Scottish folk hero Rob Roy, appears in Kingdom of Heaven and Batman Begins.  He voices Aslan in The Chronicles of Narnia, and makes bad guys fear for their lives in the Taken franchise) is Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn, Ewan McGregor (he’s got a great voice in Moulin Rouge, is a bit funny in Down with Love, is dashing in Miss Potter, and voices Lumiere in the live-action Beauty and the Beast.  He appears in Nanny McPhee Returns, Angels and Demons, and a seriously weird movie The Island [I watched it because he was in it and I still get freaked out by memories of it]) is his apprentice, Obi-Wan Kenobi.  Natalie Portman (before she was Jane Foster in the MCU and Anne Boleyn in The Other Boleyn Girl) is Padmé Amidala and Keira Knightley (Pirates of the Caribbean, the 2005 version of Pride and Prejudice, The Duchess) briefly appears as her handmaiden Sabé (the girls looked remarkably alike at that age).  Samuel L. Jackson (before intimidating everyone as Nick Fury in the MCU) introduces Mace Windu, I recognize Terence Stamp now (Siegfried in the hilarious Get Smart movie in 2008) as Chancellor Valorum.  Ian McDiarmid returns to play Palpatine; Frank Oz, Kenny Baker, and Anthony Daniels all reprise their roles from the original trilogy.

Now, let’s venture “a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away…”

Jedi ambassadors are sent to the Trade Federation blockade of Naboo to force a settlement.  Master Qui-Gon Jinn feels that negotiations will be short.  As young Obi-Wan Kenobi points out later, they are short indeed; the Trade Federation is under the control of a Sith Lord, Lord Sidious, who instructs them to kill the Jedi.  Not so easy, they find out.  The two Jedi sneak down to the planet and make their way to the Queen.  They pick up Jar Jar Binks along the way [I don’t hate him, but he is annoying], but make it in time to rescue Queen Amidala and her handmaidens.  Qui-Gon recommends taking Amidala to Courscant to plead her case with the Senate, but their ship is damaged while escaping the Trade Federation blockade.  Little R2-D2 to the rescue! 

They still have to divert to Tatooine to make repairs.  The Queen sends Padmé along with Qui-Gon to find parts and in town, they discover a little boy in the shop; Anakin Skywalker [who very awkwardly tries to flirt with Padmé; mind you, he’s nine and she’s fourteen.  Why a nine-year-old is using lines he picked up from spacers…]  Qui-Gon attempts to use Jedi mind tricks on the shop owner, but they don’t work, only money.  So Anakin chimes in when he takes the newcomers home that he has built a podracer.  He’ll pilot and win and his new friends can repair their ship.  Qui-Gon is intrigued by this boy, a bit to Padmé’s displeasure.  Anakin’s mother admits to Qui-Gon that her son has no father [um, when did the Chosen One become Jesus?  Though technically, there are several mythical heroes that do not have fathers; Geoffrey Monmouth’s legend of Arthur terms Merlin as one such lad].  But Shmi feels that Anakin was meant to help Qui-Gon and Padmé.  Qui-Gon does manage to use a Jedi trick in order to gamble for Anakin’s freedom; sadly, the owner will only let one go.

Anakin wins the podrace [space Nascar] and Shmi encourages him to go with Qui-Gon.  As any nine-year-old boy would, he doesn’t want to say goodbye to his mother; but this is his chance to live out his dreams of seeing the stars. On their way back to the ship, Qui-Gon encounters a man dressed in black, carrying a red lightsaber.  We know that this is Darth Maul, Lord Sidious’s apprentice, tasked with finding the Queen and Jedi.  Qui-Gon manages to escape and introduces “Anakin Skywalker, meet Obi-Wan Kenobi” (and those of us familiar with the original movies see foreshadowing!)  On Courscant, Queen Amidala meets with Naboo Senator Palpatine and Chancellor Valorum to discuss politics; Palpatine does not have much faith that their situation will be dealt with swiftly.  He urges Amidala to consider voting out Valorum.

Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan report to the Jedi Council.  The Sith (enemies of the Jedi) have returned.  Qui-Gon also informs them about Anakin, believing he was conceived by the Force (how is that a thing?), thus making him the prophesized Chosen One who will bring balance to the Force.  The Council doesn’t quite believe Qui-Gon, but allow the boy to be tested.  He is truly Force-sensitive, but he is too old, and too attached to his mother.  Attachments are forbidden within the Jedi Code.  Qui-Gon attempts to take Anakin as his Padawan.  One problem, he already has a Padawan.  So he declares Obi-Wan ready to face the trials to become a Jedi Knight.  The Council tables the discussion; Queen Amidala has chosen to return to Naboo to fight for her people.  The Senate is in an uproar over outing Valorum and Palpatine is nominated to replace him (more foreshadowing…some of us know where this is going).  Yoda warns Anakin “fear is the path to the Dark Side.  Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering.”

Our heroes return to Naboo and Amidala meets with the Gungans to form an alliance (and a background pilot is a younger Richard Armitage, fun fact).  And turns out, Padmé is the real queen!  Sabé has been pretending to be the queen in order to protect Padmé.  Boy, is Anakin surprised.  The Gungan army will be a distraction against the droid army [and you’ve listened to John Williams a bit too much when you can tell there is a note sequence in the droid invasion theme that is heavily reminiscent of Indiana Jones facing off against the Nazis; not identical, but pretty close] while Padmé and her people sneak into the palace and take the Trade Federation leaders hostage.

Qui-Gon orders Anakin to stay safe in the cockpit of an empty fighter.  Then Darth Maul enters (most dramatic scene of the film and to the amazing Duel of the Fates soundtrack).  The Jedi will handle him, Padmé will go around.  I must say, it is very cool to see a young woman take charge and kick butt.  But the best part of the movie is Duel of the Fates, Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon facing off against Darth Maul [fun note, the actor hired to portray Maul, Ray Park, is a professional martial artists and swordsman. Liam and Ewan did most of their own stunts and fighting as well; Ewan kept bending his prop lightsaber.  Further fun fact in regards to the words behind Duel of the Fates, they are taken from a Welsh poem and translated into Sanskrit; if you’re John Williams, of course you do that].  These are the Jedi warriors in their prime (compared to a disabled man and elderly man fighting in A New Hope).  There are flips and kicks and falling down platforms.  Maul manages to separate Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan, trapping them all in separate force fields [what that area is actually supposed to be, I have no idea.  It looks cool, so we go along with it].  Maul and Qui-Gon make it through the corridor, but there is one field left, holding Obi-Wan back.  And he witnesses Maul run his Master through.  His “no!” echoes through the chamber.  Maul is waiting for him and it is an aggressive duel.  Maul overpowers Obi-Wan enough to disarm him of his blue lightsaber and kick him into a shaft.

Meanwhile, Anakin has kept his promise to stay in the cockpit, along with R2-D2.  Then he tries to help Padmé by shooting droids, but that engages the autopilot and takes him into space above the planet.  He accidentally crash lands into the droid control ship and blows it up from the inside, escaping to the cheers of the other pilots.  Padmé outwits the Trade Federation leaders.  Obi-Wan summons up his strength and leaps over Maul, calling Qui-Gon’s lightsaber to him, and cutting his enemy in half.  Both halves fall down the shaft, but Obi-Wan runs to his fallen master.  Qui-Gon’s last words to his Padawan are to make him promise to train Anakin.  Obi-Wan agrees.

When the Jedi Council arrives alongside the newly elected Chancellor Palpatine, they confer the status of Jedi Knight on Obi-Wan.  Yoda personally disagrees with the decision to allow Obi-Wan to train Anakin; he senses grave danger in training the boy.  Obi-Wan is willing to go against the Council to honor his fallen master’s final wish.  Yoda retorts “Qui-Gon’s defiance I sense in you, need that you do not.”  Ultimately, the Council has agreed to let Obi-Wan train Anakin Skywalker.  At Qui-Gon’s funeral, Yoda and Mace Windu wonder if Obi-Wan has killed the master or apprentice Sith.  (Then the shot focuses on Palpatine…foreshadowing!)  The film ends with a joyful parade between the Naboo and Gungans, declaring peace.

Now that I am older and re-watching the movie, the first part just seems to drag.  As mentioned above, Duel of the Fates is the highlight of the film.  I understand the necessity of setting up the back stories for all these characters we know, but a good portion of this film falls flat.  John Williams’ score is of course, amazing.

Some fanfiction stories that I have discovered that tie-in with Phantom Menace include

It Takes a Village by Siri-Kenobi12

There is no Pain by Meysun

Both of these require some knowledge of characters introduced in the Jedi Apprentice books.

Up Next: Episode II: Attack of the Clones