Hello Again. It’s been a while since I’d posted here, but that’s because I was finishing up the fourth novel in my Venator Series (coming soon), and also posting a new story on Kindle Vella (available now).
But I’m back now, and this blog will contain major spoilers from season one of the Loki Disney+ series. I’m not going to go too deep on the show itself, as many writers have already done a better job than I could. But I do want to examine the core arc of the show, and of the titular character.
Before I get into the details, I want to say that I kind of loved Loki season one. I would probably rank the MCU Disney+ shows as Loki, WandaVision, and The Falcon And The Winter Soldier. Before watching any of the shows, I would have thought that list would be the exact opposite. But WandaVision and Loki took fresh, new angles that I had not really seen in the MCU before. I found that to be a much more interesting watch than Falcon & Winter Soldier, which I also liked, but seemed more like business-as-usual.
At any rate, here’s your last spoiler warning for Loki.
On its broadest level, Loki was about getting the character to a point where he would have been had he not gotten killed by Thanos in Infinity War in a very underwhelming fashion. Since this Loki jumped timelines directly from the invasion of New York at the end of the first Avengers movie, that seemed to be a lot to ask. But taking him into custody in the Time Variance Authority (TVA) where his powers did not work, and showing him a greatest hits reel of “his” life after 2012 got Loki to a state where he was ready to move forward.
At its heart, the show was about allowing Loki to attain a level of self-awareness that then, in-turn, inspired him to become a better man (better god?). To the show’s credit, it managed to do just that in a fairly brief six-episode season. Loki was certainly not able to better himself without a lot of help along the way. Sophia Di Martino’s Sylvie was Loki’s primary companion (and I mean that is a very Doctor Who sense, as that was clearly a large influence here). Her Loki variant had been taken by the TVA as a little girl, spent her entire life on the run, and now had vengeance as her only true compass. She never really got to live a life, while Loki lived one for well over a thousand years. Which made him understand just how selfish, and unwarranted his thirst for power at all costs was.
Owen Wilson’s Moebius made no pretensions about being able to see right through Loki’s usual predilections, which helped Loki see them more clearly himself. Nothing makes it easier to embarrassingly smell your own bullshit than someone calling you out on it without a second of doubt. But Loki came to appreciate Moebius’ candor, and he became the only real friend Loki had probably ever made for himself.
In the void at the end of time, after being pruned and attempted to be fed to a ravenous creature named Alioth, Loki ran into a number of other variants of himself. There was Richard E. Grant’s older, Classic Loki, who escaped Thanos’ clutches, and lived in isolation for hundreds of years, wishing only to escape the vicious cycle of his life. Jack Veal’s Kid Loki was a reflection of what Loki may been been like had he actually succeeded in killing his brother, Thor. That this act was committed by a child who demonstrated more sorrow than any sort of sense of accomplishment, was apt for a childish grudge that Loki had long harbored. And there was Gator Loki, who mainly served as a way to chop down the last of Loki’s ego, when he saw that – in another universe – he was literally nothing more than a reptile. An awesome reptile, but a reptile nonetheless.
True rock bottom came for Loki when Boastful Loki betrayed those who seemed to be his friends in order to be given a throne, which was nothing more than a chair in a broken down bowling alley located in a post-apocalyptic dystopian feeding ground for a giant smoke monster. And then Boastful Loki was promptly betrayed by President Loki (perhaps the closest reflection of our Loki as he was at the start of the series), who was then betrayed by all the other Lokis in his posse. The capper coming when Gator Loki bit off President Loki’s hand, the latter of whom emitted a high-pitched shriek as Gator, Classic, Kid, and Primary Loki made their escape.
A reunion with Sylvie and Moebius, who had also been pruned, set off the endgame. Classic Loki, Kid Loki, and Gator Loki made their way off, as Moebius returned to the TVA to bring it down. That left Loki and Sylvie to work together to get past Alioth, and reach the castle beyond him where the true leader of the TVA resided. Classic Loki returned to save Loki and Sylvie by distracting Alioth with a massive illusion of the kingdom of Asgard. His sacrifice gave the others enough time to enchant Alioth, and make it to their final destination.
Their final destination was THE final destination as it was, literally, the end of time. Inside the castle the delightful, if somewhat sinister, living cartoon Miss Minutes offered Loki and Sylvie a deal, which they promptly turned down. Once they were past Miss Minutes, they encountered the half-mad and ancient “He Who Remains” (HWR) who is never referred to by any other name but is played by Jonathan Majors, who was already announced as playing Kang The Conqueror. What followed was an honest description of how the TVA came to be, and what its true purpose is.
HWR, and his variants in countless universes, were scientists who each discovered the multiverse in their own way. Many were interested in understanding how the multiverse, and multiple timelines, came to be. But many others were determined to conquer all the universes. This lead to a massive, multiversal war that – we are told – nearly destroyed every universe. But HWR managed to weaponize Alioth, and defeat all of his variants. He then created the TVA to ensure that another Kang variant (or similar threat) would not again rise to threaten the multiverse. The cost of his chosen method is paid in the sacrifice of free will, and the destruction of countless universes and those living therein.
But HWR is tired. And, while he at-first appeared to have omniscient knowledge of all that ever was, or will be, even he reached a point where he does not know what happens next. It is in this moment that he offered Loki and Sylvie another choice: Kill him, and allow the TVA to crumble, or take over the TVA and run it as they see fit. The catch is that, if they choose to kill HWR, there will be nothing stopping his more malevolent variants from rising to resume their conquest of the multiverse.
Loki, who has been changed by his recent experiences, somehow manages to be the most level head in the room. He suggests taking over the TVA, and figuring the rest out later. Sylvie, who has been unable to move past her need for revenge and her inability to trust others, believes the Loki simply wants another throne. They fight, Loki attempts to explain his true intentions, but he is ultimately lured into a trap with a kiss, and pushed through a portal back to the TVA.
Sylvie then fulfills her lifelong goal, and kills HWR. Though HWR’s dying words of “See you soon” come to fruition almost immediately. Back at the TVA, Loki tried to alert Moebius and some other allies of the impending apocalyptic threat. But they don’t even remember who Loki is, and Loki then turns to see a massive statue of Kang The Conqueror looming over the TVA.
Loki season two was officially announced in a mid-credits tease, and there are some interesting questions to answer, aside from the obvious “How screwed is the multiverse with evil Kang variants unleashed?” We have Sylvie left alone in a castle at the end of time, with no idea of what comes next after claiming her vengeance. I didn’t mention the TVA red tape big wig Ravonna Renslayer (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) fleeing the scene through a portal in search of (what one has to assume) a Kang variant who can get her back high up on the food chain. And we have a desperate Loki and an oblivious Moebius at the TVA, in ground zero of Kang’s kingdom.
But, putting away any future talk for the moment, Tom Hiddleston’s Loki is now the most fully-realized, and complex version of the character we’ve seen since he first appeared in 2011’s Thor. The show looked great, had a great, sci-fi, synthy score, was strongly written, and wonderfully directed. Much like it was with WandaVision and Thor: Ragnarok before it, the Loki series has taken a character who many MCU fans felt had run his or her course, and made that character more interesting than they ever were before. It’s a new trick for the MCU in a bag full of them, and I cannot wait to see what happens next.
When Hannibal aired on NBC from 2013-2015 it was unlike anything seen before on network television. Which is to say that the gore in Hannibal, as artistically as it was presented, seemed very out-of-place on NBC. In truth, this was probably an intentional move by the network to compete with the shows on HBO, AMC, and then-upstart Netflix who were all providing more graphically adult content. But, don’t be mistaken, as gruesome as the visuals were, they were beautifully-rendered in their own way. This artistry was just as rare on network TV as any grisly crime scene.
Heavily serialized weekly shows were also a bit of a rarity on the networks at the time This is something that Netflix ended up using to its advantage by dropping entire seasons at a time and allowing viewers to binge at their own rate, rather than waiting several months to see a conclusion to any given storyline. All told, if Hannibal were released now, as artistically bloody and serialized as it was, it would be much better served on a streaming platform such as the aforementioned Netflix or Amazon Prime. As it happens, the entire three season run is currently available on both those services. I’ve been meaning to re-visit the show for some time now, and this seemed like the perfect opportunity for me to watch Hannibal as I believe it was intended. I was not disappointed.
Fair Warning: I am going to run through the events all three seasons of Hannibal, so there will be spoilers. Proceed with caution if you are interested in watching this show for the first time with fresh eyes.
Thomas Harris’ fictional philosopher/serial killer/erstwhile cannibal Hannibal Lecter has been part of the widespread public lexicon for more than 30 years. Silence Of The Lambs was a massively-successful, Academy Award and Box Office winning film that made Lecter an icon. Though 1986’s Manhunter, which was based on Harris’ novel Red Dragon, was actually the first cinematic interpretation of the character. After Silence Of The Lambs, a sub-par sequel novel was written and movie was filmed, also titled Hannibal. After which we got a since-forgotten prequel called Hannibal Rising, and an ambitionless remake of the original adaptation of Red Dragon.
That’s a lot of source material, but here’s the good news: You don’t need to have read or seen any of those works in order to jump into Hannibal: The Series. Yes, you’ll get more out of the Easter Eggs and such if you are familiar, but the show is not beholden to any pre-existing continuity. In fact, it frequently undercuts expectations by throwing a new twist on the way events occurred in the novels and films. This both benefits and, in one particular instance, harms the show. But we’ll get to that latter issue further along.
Silence Of The Lambs is built around the relationship between Lecter and young FBI agent Clarice Starling. Their interplay is very much one between an older mentor and a somewhat reluctant protégé. But, before Agent Starling, there was Will Graham. Graham was the protagonist in the Red Dragon novel, and subsequent film adaptations. He was the man responsible for putting Lecter in that iconic plexiglass cell everyone remembers from Silence Of The Lambs. Apparently, the rights issues for Thomas Harris’ characters are a bit of a mess, so Hannibal: The Series could not make mention of Clarice Starling, even if they’d wanted to. However, they do introduce a Clarice analog in equally-young FBI Agent Miriam Lass. Things don’t work out quite as well for Miriam as they did for Clarice when she is brought into Lecter’s orbit. It’s an interesting, and tragic, dichotomy that very effectively sweeps the legs out from under the viewers’ expectations.
The lack of Clarice didn’t really bother me, since I’d always found Will more interesting than Clarice in that he was meant to be more of an equal to Lecter. The Sherlock Holmes to his Moriarty. What drew me to Hannibal in the first place was the announcement that Will and Lecter would essentially be co-leads in the show. They famously never shared more than a few pages, or a few minutes of screentime, together. So that relationship was ripe for exploring.
Hannibal Lecter is a brilliant psychiatrist, social butterfly, sociopath, murderer and cannibal. Will Graham is brilliant in his own way, but the cost of his brilliance is a near-superhuman level of empathy. That’s what allows Will to get into the minds of the killers that he profiles for his boss, Special Agent Jack Crawford, to bring to justice. For a man with no legitimate connection to his fellow human beings, as Lecter is, Will is something of a unicorn. That push-and-pull is the essence of their relationship as the show progresses.
What follows below here is essentially a summary of each of the three season of Hannibal. They won’t be especially deep dives into the episodes, but they will include major spoilers for the overall arcs of the seasons. So, consider this your final spoiler warning.
Season One plays the most like a procedural show that you might typically see on NBC, even though it did have its flourishes. Hannibal Lecter is a practicing, and renowned psychiatrist, who no one suspects is murdering and eating people – though he is very much already doing both of those things. Will Graham is coming off a case where, as we see in the pilot episode, he shoots and kills a different cannibalistic serial killer. Will is traumatized by the whole experience, and so Jack Crawford sets him up with Dr. Lecter to help manage the toll that Will’s profiling work takes on him. Needless to say, this ends up being a terrible decision.
Throughout the season, Will uses his gift to track down serial killers who commit the most atrocious and horrifying of crimes. What’s interesting is how the final result of many of these murders are presented as works of art. The production design and framing are darkly beautiful, at least until they pull back and show you the horrific entirety of what you’re looking at. A similar style is used when showing Lecter’s food preparation. Everything he makes, set to the tune of popular classical music compositions, looks more delicious than anything you’d see on the Food Network. “Food Porn” is a term I saw applied more than once, even though the viewer knows damn well that the meat used for the recipes is not the sort you could purchase at Whole Foods or Shop-Rite.
After each case Lecter spends a little time helping Will manage, while spending a lot more time trying to dissect Will’s psyche and find out what makes him tick. This is the most serialized part of the first season, Will is helping track down the elusive “Chesapeake Ripper” (aka: Dr. Hannibal Lecter) but not getting close, even though he’s sitting right across from him in therapy. Will also begins acting stranger as the season goes on, losing time, hallucinating, and otherwise losing his grip on reality. Only Lecter knows that Will is suffering from encephalitis, but he doesn’t share that knowledge as that would interfere with his curious mental experiments on Will.
Eventually, Will puts things together and realizes that Lecter is the Ripper. But, by the time he confronts him, Lecter has already framed Will as the Ripper. Will’s mental health is already so ravaged that he’s unable to effectively stop Lecter before Jack steps in and arrests him. The season ends with a twist on the popular “Hello Dr. Lecter” greeting that, to this point, was offered to Lecter in his cell. But, in this case, Lecter is the one standing outside the cell, while Will is locked up.
Season Two takes the serialization to the next level. Will spends the first half of the season, finally free of the encephalitis and thinking clearly, trying to figure out how to acquit himself while convincing all of his FBI colleagues that Lecter is the Ripper they’re hunting. It somewhat stretches credibility that everyone is so sure Will is the Ripper, and that Lecter could not possibly be anything more than he appears on the surface. This is especially egregious with the character of Dr. Alana Bloom, another psychiatrist who played a pretty important role in season one. But, in season two, she is depicted as so blindly believing in Lecter’s innocence that she begins a romantic relationship with him while wagging her finger at Will. It’s a bad character turn that is overcorrected a little in season three.
One thing that season two does better than season one is show the viewer some aspects of Lecter’s insanity that actually create a weaknesses in his armor. For one thing, he cannot stop killing and eating people, which undermines the case against Will, and ultimately leads to Will’s release. Will takes this opportunity to finally convince Jack that Lecter is the Ripper, and the two of them conspire to lure Lecter into a trap using Will as bait.
Lecter’s twisted, yet genuine, love (for lack of a better term) for Will is another of his weaknesses – eventually, this will prove to be his greatest weakness. Will and Lecter engage in a very interesting game of Cat-And-Cat as they re-engage as doctor and patient, only now with both knowing the other’s true selves. Lecter does manage to avoid saying anything direction actionable from a legal level, but he’s also no longer attempting to play Will for a fool. Thus, they finally become more like equals. This makes up most of the second half of season two, and really provides a tense and thrilling propulsion for the remaining episodes.
Lecter’s other symptom of madness is demonstrated by sharing his table with Will and Jack, not knowing that Jack is working with Will to bring him down. Lecter is happy to maintain the illusion that everything is still normal about their interactions, while providing meals and polite conversations. One might expect that, since Will openly acknowledges Lecter as the Ripper, he may have looped Jack in. But Lecter has the pathological need to believe that his mask is still fully functional. This allows Jack and Will to get close enough to spring their trap. Unfortunately, Jack’s boss shuts their plan down shortly before they could complete their sting operation.
The finale of season two is fantastic up until its final moments. I don’t recall the real world circumstances surrounding the show, though there had been some doubt cast regarding a third season pick-up. It seems likely that Hannibal received a late season three renewal or, possibly, a higher episode count for season three than they were expecting. That would account for the finale ending in a massive cliffhanger, rather than with any sort of closure. Or, it’s possible that my expectations were too colored by the source material, and therefore I was left hanging for a last moment that never came, leaving me massively disappointed.
For those unfamiliar with the events leading to Lecter’s capture in the books, and previous films: Lecter stabs Will in the gut, and goes to leave. But Will is able to shoot Lecter before he makes his escape allowing his back-up to arrive and take Lecter into custody while Will goes to the hospital. The season two finale plays out almost exactly in this manner. An added aspect is Jack Crawford fighting Lecter before Will’s arrival, and receiving a grievous injury of his own. Will shows up and gets stabbed by Lecter, who simply walks away from the scene of the crime. No gun shots. No capture. The season just ends with Jack and Will bleeding to death in Lecter’s fancy kitchen.
They do not die, however, because there is a season three. The final season has 13 episodes, and the first seven of those episodes are, in my opinion, the worst seven episodes of the show. Lecter is in Florence, Italy living the good life under an assumed identity while occasionally killing and eating his intellectual rivals. Will and Jack, both recovered, are hunting him separately. Each of these episodes are extremely methodical and dreamy. The scenery is absolutely lovely, and the production design is as lush as it ever was. But the story lacks any forward momentum whatsoever.
In the background of things, Mason Verger is seeking vengeance against Lecter after being drugged and convinced to mutilate his own face at the end of season two. Alana Bloom is by Verger’s side, as she is his sister Margot’s lover. Dr. Bloom dresses like a character from a Tim Burton movie, and is presented as much more cold and stern that in the previous seasons. As I mentioned above, I feel like this was an overcorrection from her season two arc. Regardless, the arc of these episodes involves Will, Jack, and Mason in a race with one another to see who can get to Lecter first.
Will manages to get to the same place at the same time as Lecter first, but Lecter manages to avoid a face-to-face confrontation. Jack tracks Lecter down next, just after Lecter disembowels an Italian police officer on Mason’s payroll, and beats the crap out of him as a receipt for the events of season two. But he misses out on his chance to finish the job on Lecter once and for all. Eventually, several other officers collect the bounty on Lecter, and bring in Will as well. This leads the action back stateside, where Lecter and Will end up prisoners at the Verger Estate.
Alana and Margot’s interests are in direct contrast to Mason’s, which leads to them helping Lecter and Will escape, while killing Mason. Lecter brings Will back home, where Will attempts to extricate himself from Lecter once and for all. In no condition to try to physically end Lecter, Will does the next best thing and tells the mad doctor that he is making the choice to completely remove him from his life in every way. Lecter seems genuinely hurt by Will’s words, as he still feels a powerful kinship with Will. Rather than disappearing from Will’s life, Lecter surrenders to Jack Crawford. His explanation being that, this way, Will will always know where he is and where to find him. Lecter considers this a victory but, as we learn later in season three, Will had anticipated Lecter’s response. Will later says to Lecter “I knew that if I’d kept chasing you, you would have kept running.” Instead, by rejecting him, Will allowed Lecter to seal his own fate while thinking he was getting the last laugh.
This leads to the final six episodes of season three and (as of this moment) the show as a whole. The creative team uses this opportunity to remake Red Dragon for a third time. Had season two ended with Lecter shot and captured, the logical start of season three would have been episode 8. This is why I theorize that the season three renewal and 13 count episode order were somewhat unexpected. If Hannibal had gone from the season two finale directly into Red Dragon, I would have considered it amongst the strongest 20 episode run of any TV show ever. As it stands, I do believe that Hannibal’s telling of this story is significantly better than the Red Dragon film from 2002, and even a little bit better than Manhunter – which is a movie I like quite a lot.
Episode 8 picks up three years after the events of episode 7. Hannibal Lecter is securely locked up, with Alana Bloom as his primary warden. Will Graham is happily married, seemingly retired, and trying his best to be a good stepdad. Jack Crawford is still at his FBI post, and has a big problem. A new serial killer, one who murders entire families, is at-large and he needs Will to come back to help hunt the killer, dubbed by the media as the Tooth Fairy, down. Will is reluctant, but his wife – Molly – knows that he wouldn’t be able to live with himself if he didn’t try to stop the Tooth Fairy before he kills again. So, Will comes back into the fray, and starts by visiting Lecter for the first time since he was imprisoned in order to get the scent back. Lecter is very pleased to see Will again, but the feeling is most certainly not mutual. He agrees to help, though both he and Will know that he will only help to the extent of his own amusement.
The Tooth Fairy is a man named Francis Dollarhyde, given that nickname due to the bite marks he leaves on some of his victims. He hates the name, as he sees himself more as a man transforming into a dragon. His psychosis is tied in some way to the famous William Blake painting “The Great Red Dragon And The Woman Clothed With The Sun” hence the name of the novel. We spend a fairly significant amount of time with Dollarhyde, who’s pretty terrifying but not what I’d call an overtly interesting character. Even though there is a creepy love story involving him and his blind co-worker, Dollarhyde is ultimately meant to serve as the Minotaur in the center of the labyrinth for Will.
Lecter doesn’t see Dollarhyde as a monster. In fact, a recurring theme with Lecter through the previous seasons is him encouraging serial killers to become the best, most interesting serial killer they can be. He even tried, to no avail up until this point, to make Will Graham into a murder. His relationship with Dollarhyde proceeds much along the same lines. Lecter is quite famous – more accurately infamous – by this point, having earned his new title Hannibal The Cannibal, and Dollarhyde tells him that he served as an inspiration for his own transformation. Lecter is flattered by this, and sees an opportunity to the Dollarhyde as the protégé than Will was never willing to be.
By the end of season three, two seemingly unconnected things happen: Lecter sends Dollarhyde to kill Will’s wife and stepson. But Molly is tougher than she looks, and manages to escape with her son. As Will becomes more determined than ever to stop Dollarhyde by whatever means necessary, he also accepts the shocking truth that Hannibal Lecter is in love with him. At least as much as someone like Lecter can love another person. Will decides to use this to put together one last plan with Jack Crawford: Stage a fake escape for Lecter, who will connect with Dollarhyde – who intends kill and eat Lecter to gain his strength – giving the FBI a chance to then kill Dollarhyde. The idea being to kill two monstrous birds with one stone.
Naturally, this plan backfires as Dollarhyde intercedes before they were ready for him, and breaks Lecter out for real. Lecter then bring Will along to a lovely, isolated, cliffside home. The assumption being that Dollarhyde will track them there to kill them. This assumption is correct, and Dollarhyde makes his entrance by shooting Lecter through the glass wall in the back. Will steps aside and allows Dollarhyde to proceed with his plan to kill Lecter. But then Dollarhyde – his psychic transformation into the Dragon clearly leading him to overestimate his abilities – attempts to take on Will and Lecter at the same time.
After a brutal fight that ends with Lecter and Will (again) grievously injured, the pair manages to kill Dollarhyde while atop the cliff. Lecter helps Will to his feet, and embraces him at the edge of the cliff, confessing “This is all I ever wanted for you, Will. For both of us.” It may be the only moment of pure honesty Lecter demonstrates through the entire run of the series. Will knows this, and realizes that Lecter has completely let his guard down with him for the first time. Will then takes the opportunity to wrap his free arm tightly around Lecter’s neck, and launch them both off the cliff to the raging sea below to their apparent deaths. It may have cost Will his own life, but he did accomplish his goal of ridding the world of both Dollarhyde and Lecter.
Now, there is a post-credits sequence that is left somewhat open to interpretation. Dr. Bedelia Du Maurier, Lecter’s psychiatrist who had proven to be nearly as twisted as him, is dressed up at a dinner table about to be served her own severed leg. If the show had been renewed for a fourth season, this would have seemingly been the way to confirm that Lecter – and likely Will – survived their dive off the cliff. But it was never renewed for another season, or even a standalone movie, so one could just as easily interpret this sequence in another way. Du Maurier was Lecter’s accomplice for several months after he escaped to Florence as she wished to study him in his natural habitat. She managed to escape justice through her own machinations after Lecter turned himself in. But her mind was riddled with paranoia, so it could also be assumed that – if Lecter’s body was never found – she entered a fugue state, and prepared her own leg for dinner. It’s a bit more of a stretch, but is easy enough to sell yourself on if you’re looking for a bit more closure on the story that will likely not be continued.
If you’ve read this far, then you clearly have an interest in the show. Hell, the spoilers in this article may even convince you that you won’t be wasting 40 hours on something lackluster. The devil is in the details, as they say, and Hannibal is absolutely a devil worth getting the know the details of. I’ve mentioned the lush production design at the top but, honestly, every part of the production was phenomenal. The writing is sharp, clever, and offers more-than-a-little gallows humor. The directing of each episode is top notch, and the cast is fantastic from the top billed stars, all the way down to the one-off guest stars.
In this era of endless streaming platforms, and the primary cast being pretty open to the idea of reviving the show in – even six years after the final episode aired – there is always a chance that we get more in some fashion. Hell, CBS has already delved back into the IP with their show Clarice starring – you guess it – Clarice Starling, the Thomas Harris brand is still well in-demand. Hannibal ran only 39 episodes, out of which there were only a handful that underwhelmed. Believe me when I say you can, and should, binge this series in a week. If nothing else, it will allow your imagination to run wild next time you watch anything on Food Network.
The Obi Wan Kenobi series on Disney+ is bringing back Hayden Christensen to presumably play some version of Anakin Skywalker / Darth Vader. The questions are how and why.
The is all purely speculation on my part, but the how is very likely in some sort of guilt-and-loneliness-induced vision. Spending twenty years living in a cave on Tatooine after a lifetime of high adventure as a military commander and Jedi Knight is clearly not going to be an easy endeavor. So, using his memories to bring back the ghost of his best friend seems like a reasonable response for Obi Wan. But there’s one particular question I have, that may not have as simple an answer as one might think: Why did Obi Wan leave Anakin/Vader burning alive in the lava pits of Mustafar?
Was he unable to bring himself to kill the man he’d considered a brother? It’s possible. But, after watching the man he thought he knew effectively kill Amidala along with many Padawan children in the Jedi Temple, Obi Wan knew very well that the Sith Lord lying in the flames was no longer Anakin Skywalker. And Obi Wan knew very well that Darth Vader would do nothing less that cause mass death and destruction at the behest of his master, Darth Sidious. Ending this one life likely would have saved millions more.
Obi Wan Kenobi is an old school honorable man, but he’s also proven to be a realist in many instances. He had very sensible doubts about Qui Gon Jinn taking on young Anakin. He very distastefully used a blast to kill General Grievous. And, when he knew he was too old to fight at Luke Skywalker’s side, he allowed himself to be slain by Vader in order to continue helping Luke the best way he could: As a Force Ghost.
Back to the honorable man argument: Would killing a defeated opponent violate the Jedi Code? Very likely, yes. But he had just dismembered Vader, and left him burning alive alongside a river of lava. Wouldn’t it have been more merciful to just finish him off, rather than allowing him to suffer a slow, torturous death on the burning sands? Was it truly more ethical to leave Vader like that?
There’s not even a question of how, practically-speaking, Obi Wan could have finished off Vader. He would have just used the force to lift Vader off the sand, and levitate him over to take his head off. Every part of that was within Obi Wan’s power to accomplish.
Here’s a much more interesting theory: Did Obi Wan leave Vader alive to provide Darth Sidious with his prize? As damaged as Vader was after the duel with Obi Wan, that did not change the fact that Sidious invested more than a decade grooming Anakin via gaslighting and other temptations. He spent a whole lot of effort over a great amount of time poisoning Anakin’s mind to the point where he would willingly choose the Dark Side over the Jedi Order, and one couldn’t doubt just how determined Sidious was to turn The Chosen One over to his cause.
Obi Wan knew this just as well as he knew that Anakin’s and Padme’s children would shine like a beacon to Sidious if he’d had any desire to seek them out. With Vader by his side, Sidious had no reason to actively search for another apprentice. If he had been so inclined, he may well have found Luke and/or Leia before they were ready to defend themselves against him in any capacity. But Sidious had the prize that he had longed for, and set about his quest to consolidate power, and conquer the galaxy.
It’s possible that Sidious may not have been able to complete his conquest without Vader by his side. But Obi Wan had little reason to think that the evil Sith emperor was lacking in the resources necessary to accomplish his goal, with or without Vader. So, he used Darth Vader as a shield to protect Anakin Skywalker’s children until the time came where they would be capable of ending Darth Sidious’ reign.
I may be totally off-the-mark here, and Disney+ may really just be bringing Hayden Christensen back to get a little nostalgia bump. Or, maybe they actually want to give him a chance to play the role of Anakin/Vader with a more competent filmmaker than 1999-2005 George Lucas, and thus redeem himself from the bad reputation that he got saddled with due to the prequel trilogy. But they do have the chance to do something really cool, and really emotional when they get Christensen and Ewan McGregor back on-screen together for the first time in more than fifteen years. I hope they ask the question that I have here, and I hope the answer is at least as interesting as my theory. I suppose we’ll find out soon enough.
This past Friday, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier completed the sixth episode of its first (and possibly only) season. There have been a million reviews and recaps already, so I’ll be doing my season recap by way of the primary characters’ story arcs. As noted, this is a season recap, so you’ll no doubt find spoiler a-plenty below. Please do not continue any further down unless you’re cool with that.
Sam Wilson – Despite being – to perhaps because of being – the character that the show revolved around, Sam didn’t have much of an arc. This was mainly because the distance between being Falcon and becoming Captain America was not very far, as Sam Wilson had already proven himself a worthy successor to Steve Rogers. The trick was getting him to believe that.
Sam started out the season as a freelance military contractor after getting a “helped defeat Thanos” pardon for his actions in Captain America: Civil War. After being bequeathed Steve Rogers’ shield, he promptly turned it into the Smithsonian, as he didn’t believe there could, or should, every be another Captain America. This sort of pessimistic outlook was exacerbated by being turned down for a bank loan to save his family’s fishing boat, despite being a world-saving Avenger.
Once his friend Torres filled him in on a revolutionary group called the Flag Smashers, Sam reconnected with Bucky Barnes for help taking them down. Unbeknownst to Sam at the time, this reunion set him on a path to where he needed to be. Once he was made aware of the Flag Smashers’ agenda, Sam’s plan all along was to try and quell the group using non-violent means. This didn’t quite line up with Barnes’ plan, and was very far way from newly-government-issued Captain America, John Walker’s, methods. But it also displayed an example of why Steve chose Sam to carry on the Captain America mantle.
Upon learning they were super soldiers, Barnes took Sam to visit the only remaining super solider he was aware of: Isaiah Bradley. The plan was to find out how there could be more super soldiers out there, but the revelations of the American government’s crimes against Bradley only further cemented Sam’s belief that Captain America had no real place in the modern world. A belief that was continually reinforced by John Walker’s series of failures and crimes (which we’ll discuss further when we get to Walker later).
When Sam was finally able to confront Karli Morganthau, the leader of the Flag Smashers, Sam did what he actually does best: He made a connection with her. This was a reminder that Sam Wilson does have super powers of sort, and empathy is one of them. When he and Barnes finally have time to bond, and truly get to understand one another without having to rush from one fight to the next, we are shown a great example of Sam’s other super power: His ability to see the best in people, and make them see that in themselves. With some tough love, Sam is able to break through what’s left of Bucky’s hard exterior, and help him understand what he really needs to do if he wants to make peace with his past and himself.
In return Barnes brings him a new uniform, complete with new Vibranium wings (as his original wings were ripped off by Walker during their fight) courtesy of the White Wolf’s friends in Wakanda. By the time the Flag Smashers make their final move to kill everyone on the Global Relocation Council (GRC), Sam is there in his new Captain America gear to stop them. The world is watching as Sam dons the stars and strips, stops the Flag Smashers, and demands that the senators of the GRC do better to make things right for all the people of the world. After claiming the mantle, and shield, on his own terms, Sam has convinced everyone – including Isaiah Bradley and himself – that the world does still need Captain America. Just as long as the right person wields the shield.
James Buchanan Barnes – Like Sam, Bucky was also given a fresh start with the “helped defeat Thanos” pardon, and is working with a government-appointed therapist to make amends for his deeds as the Winter Soldier. This mainly involves helping to take down the people who were placed into power by Hydra sending in the Winter Soldier to do their dirty work. He has a sort of mission of sorts, but no personal connections to the world. The only people we see him interact with are an elderly man whose son he murdered as the Winter Soldier, and a bartender he flees a date with because he simply does not know how to be with regular people.
He seeks out Sam after Sam gives up the shield, which is subsequently given to John Walker by the government. He’s angry at Sam for handing the shield over, since their mutual best friend Steve Rogers designated him as the man to carry on the Captain America legacy. But, really, he’s angry because if Steve was wrong about Sam being the right person to take up the mantle, then Steve may also have been wrong about Barnes deserving redemption for his deeds while under Hydra’s control. Despite this tension, he and Sam start working together the take down the Flag Smashers.
Along the way, we discover that Barnes did make a strong connection with the Wakandans who sheltered him, and cured him of Hydra’s brain-washing. Most notably Ayo, a member of the Dora Milaje, shows up to collect Baron Zemo, after Barnes and Sam broke him out of prison for help, clearly share a bond with Bucky. This demonstrates that he is still capable of connecting with people, just as long as he doesn’t need to hide the dark deeds of his past from them. While seeing Ayo again helps Barnes come out of his shell a little, it’s not until he and Sam have a chance to stop fighting that he finds the sort of personal connection that he’s been missing.
After finally setting their issues with one another aside, Sam and Bucky defeat John Walker, and take the shield from him. At that point, with no other active leads to follow, they travel to Sam’s hometown for some good old fashioned bonding. Spending time with Sam’s family, and closest friends, helps Barnes find the true man inside the Winter Soldier, and bring him back to the surface. Sam also helps him realize that, to truly make amends, he needs to stop hunting bad guys that he helped, and start seeking out the people he hurt to give them the peace-of-mind that only he can. He admits to Sam that he and Steve could never fully understand what it would mean to a black man to be Captain America when they discussed passing the shield onto him. While, at the same time, he provides Sam with his own version of the Captain America uniform. Notably, he only gives Sam a locked suitcase from Wakanda, and leaves it up to Sam to decide if and when he opens it.
In the end, Barnes has found his true mission as well as his new family. The former is to find his own peace by giving peace-of-mind to the ancillary victims of the Winter Soldier’s crimes, while continuing to fight by Captain America’s side. As a benefit of the latter, Bucky now also gets invited to awesome cookouts and block parties at Sam’s place. With a new social support network, Barnes’ has started living the sort of life he had not led since before shipping off to World War II.
Bucky’s arc took him to a much better personal place but, in many ways, he’s still a work-in-progress. This is probably why the title card at the ends of the season read “Captain America and the Winter Soldier” rather than “Captain America and the White Wolf” but I believe we’ll still get there in a forthcoming movie, or second season. Perhaps one that will further explore his connection to Wakanda, where he was able to break free of the Winter Soldier programming, and was given that other cool nickname that doesn’t come with all the baggage.
John Walker – Walker started off the season as a slap-in-the-face to Steve Rogers and Sam Wilson in his knock-off Captain America uniform. He then was proven to be a joke by failing on each of his first missions, partly because he was trying to deal with super soldiers while not having the same physical gifts as Rogers. His lack of worth was further accentuated by the fact that he displayed neither the gift of empathy, nor the ability to inspiration, that Steve and Sam shared.
He was able to match his physical self up to his self-perceived level of due respect by injecting himself with a dose of super solider serum. But his actions in the immediate aftermath completely struck home the personal failings that made him unworthy to wield the shield, as he publicly executed a member of the Flag Smashers who was surrendering to him. He has his rank and charge removed during his trial for the murder of a Flag Smasher, but this does not dim his misguided belief in himself.
While he had done nothing to deserve redemption for his crime, he does ultimately help Sam and Bucky stop the Flag Smashers’ plan to murder the GRC. He also defers to Sam’s proper claim to the shield when he sees him demonstrate, firsthand, the traits and values that Captain America needs to represent. However, rather than continuing on his path to better himself, Walker promptly signs up with the enigmatic Valentina Allegra de Fontaine to join her mysterious organization as the U.S Agent.
This pretty much puts him back as square one as the incognizant cog in someone else’s machine. I found Walker’s arc interesting until the season finale when it seemed to abruptly end in a manner that seemed far too tidy for him. We’ll definitely be seeing more of John Walker in the future, so hopefully we get a more fitting payoff at that time.
Sharon Carter – Sharon’s onscreen role was much smaller than expected when going by the promotional materials, and her spots in Captain America: The Winter Solider as well as Captain America: Civil War. Offscreen, however, as the Power Broker, she played a big part in orchestrating many of the events that propelled the story forward. Her character arc, however, played out before the start of this show.
Not having received the “helped defeat Thanos” pardon that the fellas enjoy, since she apparently didn’t have access to one of those handy sorcerer portals at the time, she had been a fugitive from the United States government for the past five years. Sharon felt that she chose the right side, by joining Steve Rogers’ team against Tony Stark’s in the Avengers’ Civil War. Embittered by receiving this treatment despite years of service to the government, an sensing an opportunity in the power vacuum that ensued from half the criminals on the planet turning to dust, she became the Power Broker.
Or so we have to assume, as the show never provided us with the specifics of Sharon’s situation. This was one of the biggest disappointments of the show for me. But, like John Walker, we’re sure to see Sharon again. Hopefully, we’ll get to learn her whole story then as well.
Baron Helmut Zemo – Zemo was another character whose arc happened in the years between Civil War War and Endgame. He’s no longer a vengeance-driven force of destruction aimed directly at the Avengers. When he’s re-introduced to us, he’s an enlightened fugitive millionaire playboy who’s the most charismatic character every time he’s onscreen. He helps Sam and Barnes in their mission, as it aligns with his own mission to rid to world of enhanced individuals. And he manages to evade capture by the Dora Millaje until he’s good and ready to get captured.
His Plan A seemed to be getting shot in the face by Bucky, which was also how he wanted to end his Civil War plan, until Black Panther thwarted his suicide attempt. But Barnes is well-past his Winter Soldier days, and chooses to hand Zemo over to the Dora Millaje rather than killing him. They end up taking him to The Raft supervillain prison, though his loyal butler/manservant completes his mission for him by blowing up the remaining Flag Smashers after they are taken into custody. This establishes that Zemo is very capable of being dangerous even from behind bars. He may have been the most consistent highlight of the show, so I look forward to seeing more of him in future projects.
Karli Morganthau – Karli was pretty much done dirty through the run of the show. She was made into less of a character, and more of a human stand-in for a valid ideology taken to extremes. Some efforts were made to humanize her, such as her conversation with Sam before Walker crashed the party. But nothing truly enlightened us to who she was as person. We were given the broad-strokes of the Flag Smashers’ belief system: That the GRC were destroying the lives people built for themselves during the five years where half the population was gone. The viewers were given space to agree, or disagree, with this stance, and I chose the former.
The issue with Karli, was the she was the one pushing the group toward escalating violence, but we were never told the reason why. Was there some deeper, personal tragedy tied to the way her family was treated by the GRC? Was she simply someone with a history of violence who was drawn to the Flag Smashers’ mission, assuming it would give her to opportunity to indulge her more destructive tendencies? It’s impossible to say since, even given six hours to work with, Karli was never allowed to be anything approaching a fully-formed character.
As a whole, I really enjoyed The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. It was great spending time with Sam Wilson and Bucky Barnes again, and watching them form the sort of bond that they’ll need to rebuild the Avengers and lead them into whatever cataclysmic threat rises next.
But, more than that, it was great seeing Marvel embrace the legacy of one of their most beloved characters. They passed the mantle onto Sam Wilson, a character who stands for millions of people who spent far too long not being allowed to see themselves in the greatest superheroes ever created.
A fourth Captain America movie was announced with The Falcon and the Winter Soldier’s showrunner writing the script. I am greatly looking forward to seeing where they take these characters next. Steve Rogers was my favorite character in the first three phases of the MCU. It would not surprise me in the least is Sam Wilson ensures that Captain America retains that spot for me through the next phase.
Time for another round of tunes that I love, and would like to share with more people who may not have heard them yet. So, without further adieu.
Suzanne – Journey – Pure, unadulterated ’80’s Pop Rock. This gets off on the jump with pulsing synthesizers, and doesn’t take a moment to slow down. Journey doesn’t need any ink from me, since everyone already knows all the lyrics to a couple of their songs, and gleefully sing along in pubs across the world. But “Suzanne” is a bit lesser know than their big hits, though it’s message of pining for a lost love who may not even remember your name is a sentiment most everyone can related to.
Favorite Lyric – “I wonder if you’re really happy / And if you saw me, would you know my name / I’m the one you used to hold onto / You’re the one who used to wear my ring / Remember our last September”
For Me This Is Heaven –Jimmy Eat World – Young love by way of Emo-Rock in full effect. A song about watching the stars with someone, and counting the minutes that you have with them before having to part. The butterflies never really leave your stomach until you’re with them again.
Favorite Lyrics – “When the time we have now ends / And when the big hand goes round again / Can you still feel the butterflies? / Can you still hear the last goodnight”
Poison & Wine – The Civil Wars – A lovely duet telling you that love can be complicated, but that doesn’t mean it’s not worth sticking around for. Times can get tough, and the better you know someone, the better you know how to hurt them. But you still regret it every time, because the reason you know them so well, is because you’ve been with them for so long. And you’ve been with them for so long, because you love them, and can’t stand to be without them.
Favorite Lyric – “Oh, your hands can heal / Your hands can bruise / I don’t have a choice / But I’d still choose you”
Breathe In Breathe Out –Mat Kearney – Starts low, and slow, only to build up to a cathartic confirmation of love. This sounds like the greatest Coldplay song that Coldplay never recorded and, frankly, better than just about anything they have.
Favorite Lyrics – “We push and pull / And I fall down sometimes / I’m not letting go / You hold the other line / Cause there is a light in your eyes / In your eyes”
I Choose You – Sara Bareilles – A simple love song that may not have been written with a parent’s love for their child in-mind, but I first heard it after my oldest was born, so that’s where it landed for me. As the song says, it’s impossible to truly be prepared for parenthood, and that makes it really scary. But there’s nothing more rewarding in the world than overcoming your fears, and doing right by your kids.
Favorite Lyrics – “I am not scared of the elements / I am under-prepared, but I am willing / And even better / I get to be the other half of you”
The Secret Of My Success – Night Ranger – From a band best know for “Sister Christian” and a soundtrack from the most overlooked of Michael J. Fox’s peak 1980’s trilogy (the two more well-known movies being “Back To The Future” and “Teen Wolf”) this is pure ’80’s excess hair metal. I mis-heard the part of the chorus that goes “The secret of my success is that I’m living / Twenty-Five hours a day” as” “The secret of my success is that I’m doing / Twenty-Five pounds of cocaine” But, frankly, it works just as well. If not better.
Favorite Lyrics – “Worlds collide / And hearts will be broken / Over and over / It’s the same every day”
I Will Survive – Cheap Trick – No, not the disco megahit from Gloria Gaynor. And from the hit film “Gladiator”, but not the Oscar winning blockbuster starring Russell Crowe. It’s the one from 1990 about an underground boxing tournament starring the guy from Twin Peaks (not that guy), Brian Dennehy, and a young Cuba Gooding, Jr. Just trust me, if you’re feeling down and need a little pep in your step, this song should do the trick.
Favorite Lyrics – “You think you’re shaking my innocence / But you’re wasting time / ‘Cause you don’t know who I am”
Icehouse – Icehouse – An atmospheric, new wave, horror, folk tale if taken at face value. A metaphor for unrequited, or lost love to a less literal interpretation. My favorite song by Icehouse will always be the new wave adrenaline shot of “Electric Blue” but this is the song they named their band after (or vice versa) so it’s clearly important to them as well.
Favorite Lyrics – “The devil lives inside the icehouse / At least that’s what the old ones say / He came a long time ago / He came in the winter snow / Now it’s colder every day”
Stolen – Dashboard Confessional – A song about capturing that little bit of love and beauty while you can, before it fades like the seasons. A sepia-toned flashback of a song from when I was younger, and love was more fleeting. It sounds like the bittersweet end of summer captured in three minutes.
Favorite Lyrics – “We watch the season pull up its own stakes / And catch the last weekend of the last week / Before the gold and glimmer have been replaced / Another sun soaked season fades away”
Breathe – Michelle Branch – The argument you have with yourself when you can’t seem to say what you really mean to the person you love wrapped up in pop-rock with a hook that keeps pulling you back in. Michelle Branch has had bigger hits, but this one is my personal favorite.
Favorite Lyrics – “So just give me one good reason / Tell me why I should stay / ‘Cause I don’t want to waste another moment / Saying things we never meant to say”
This will be my review of Godzilla vs Kong, so be warned that there will be spoilers-a-plenty below.
One thing that is not really a spoiler is that the movie is told primarily thought Kong’s perspective and he is, in every measurable way, the main protagonist of the film. The movie follows him around, and gives him the biggest story arc. While Godzilla shows up throughout the movie to do Godzilla things, it’s clear that Kong is the audience surrogate, which somewhat miraculously works really well. As such, I’ll be writing this review mainly through Kong’s perspective.
When we last saw Kong, it was was 1970’s, and he was left to his own devices on Skull Island. But thing have changed a lot since then, and we get some details about those changes through expository dialogue. As you may recall from Kong: Skull Island, there was a massive superstorm that surrounded the island, while never really making landfall. Apparently, that changed, and the storm began tearing up the island itself. In order to keep Kong safe for observation, Monarch (the Kaiju experts from previous Monsterverse films) built a giant dome around a section of Skull Island.
This makes sense in that Kong can remain, more or less, in his natural habitat while the scientists observe him. It would also be extremely dangerous to move Kong anywhere else where he might encounter humans, other potential collateral damage, or even threats. The biggest such threat would be the reigning, and defending, King of the Monsters World Heavyweight Champion: Godzilla. Old Zilla claimed the title by defeating King Ghidorah a few years prior, leading to many surviving Titans literally bowing to him at the end of Godzilla: King Of The Monsters. As the opening credits inform us via bits and pieces of news reports, Godzilla has been putting a whooping on any dissident Titans between the end of that movie and the beginning of this one.
Anyway, we see Kong’s morning routine of waking up, yawning, scratching his butt, taking a shower in a waterfall, and chatting with his best friend. His best friend happens to be a little girl with whom Kong communicates via sign language. But he’s no dope, he knows that he’s domed in, and makes his displeasure known by uprooting trees, twisting them into giant spears, and hurling those giant spears through the top of the dome. Clearly, he’s not happy about being kept in an enclosure like some zoo animal. All this aside, the little girl and her scientist mother do have Kong’s best interests at-heart.
Apex Industries, a mutli-billion-dollar tech company, have something else in-mind for Kong. To cut to the chase: Apex wants to be able to stand against Godzilla, and other Titans, by building one of their own: Mecha-Godzilla. Their creation is a technological marvel and nightmare, that is piloted using the psychic connection between two of Ghidora’s heads – which were conveniently available after his last tango with Godzilla. Essentially. Mecha-Godzilla requires a shit-ton of power to run, and Apex has located a source of seemingly limitless energy in the Hollow Earth.
Most people believe Hollow Earth is just a myth, as no one has successfully ventured there. But Apex enlists a disgraced expert on the subject, who’s brother died during the last attempt to reach Hollow Earth, to guide them to their destination. As it happens, the core of the Hollow Earth theory is that it is the origin point for all Titans, so they are able to sell the Monarch team on Skull Island on the idea that bringing Kong there is what’s best for the big fella himself. Allowing him to finally go back to his true home which, as it turns out, is pretty much Kong’s entire motivation through the film.
Next thing we know, Kong is heavily-sedated, and chained to a cargo freighter en route across the sea to Antarctica, where they believe the entrance to Hollow Earth can be found by following Kong following his genetic memory. They chart a course away from Godzilla’s usual territorial beat in hopes to avoid an incident. Naturally, said incident is not avoided at all. Godzilla attacks the boats, destroying most of them, before attempting to drown a drugged and chained Kong by capsizing the freighter. The scientists manage to free Kong, and allow him to fight back. But the ocean is Godzilla’s home field, so the already-groggy Kong can’t do much other than survive the fight before the remaining ships “play dead” in order to get Godzilla to leave them be.
Things are not going great for Kong, as he was dragged off his island, and across the ocean on a trip he does not want to take, and then jumped by Godzilla. This is the first of their three-round fight, but hardly counts since the playing field was far from even. It was more like the pro-wrestling angle where one guy cracks another guy from behind with a steel chair the week before their big pay per view match.
Team Kong arrives in Antarctica, where the big guy wakes up in the freezing cold, looking as miserable as can be. This is a sentiment that any reasonable person (or gargantuan ape) can equally relate to. The team gets Kong’s little girl buddy to tell him to go down the largest, darkest hole ever with the promise that he might find some family down there. Kong happily obliged as, if nothing else, it’s got to be warmer down there than is was outside. And, again, the poor guy really just wants to find a nice home to settle into. The scientists follow him, and end up in Hollow Earth.
Hollow Earth looks a lot like a much, much bigger Skull Island, and Kong looks to be happy for the first time in the movie. There are a few giant-bat-snake-monsters that attack the humans, but Kong easily takes them out. Therein lies, perhaps, the biggest different between Godzilla and Kong: Kong has people he actually cares for, and wants to protect, while Godzilla just wants to defeat every other Titan in order to remain the apex predator. Aside from Godzilla’s atomic blast breath, this mindset is probably Zilla’s biggest competitive advantage.
While in Hollow Earth, we also get glimpses of some other – less openly hostile – kaiju as Kong makes his way to his ancestral Kongston Abbey. He finds some ginormous doors to go through, a really cool glowing axe, and even a throne fit for a King (Kong). His ancestors seem to have been the rulers of Hollow Earth, and Kong makes himself at home. Finally, it seems that everyone will let Kong do Kong.
No sooner does he settle in, though, than Godzilla invades Hong Kong, where they are keeping Mecha-Godzilla. Kong, again, has no interest in fighting. But Godzilla is a real asshole through most of this movie, looking to pick fights with whomever might challenge his reign. Apex fits this description, but Kong just wants to kick back, and do his thing. Godzilla, however, pulls a major dick move and uses his atomic blast breath to blow a hole deep into the ground, and through the roof of Kongston Abbey. Leaving Kong no choice but to lay a smackdown of his own on the legendary lizard. With axe in-hand, Kong is able to put Zilla on his ass for a while, winning round two. Or, round one of their first legitimate fight, if you’re not counting Godzilla’s previous heel sneak attack.
Godzilla manages to get back to his feet again, but Kong is waiting to get the drop on him. It’s a pretty brutal fight, during which Kong looses his equalizing axe and, subsequently, the fight. Godzilla roars in his face to demand Kong surrender, but Kong bows to no one, and roars a big “Eff You!” right back at his opponent. But, the damage is already done, and Kong cannot continue the fight. So, Godzilla gives him a nod of begrudging respect, and takes his leave.
Unfortunately for everyone, Apex was sent a chunk of the Hollow Earth power source, and used it to send Mecha-Godzilla into overdrive. The influx of limitless energy kills the pilot, and seems to reawaken Ghidorah’s consciousness in Mecha-Godzilla. The Rumbling Robot takes to the streets of Hong Kong, and begins absolutely wiping the floor with Godzilla. Team Kong has noticed during all this, that Kong is dying. So, they use an energy burst from one of the high-tech ships they flew to Hollow Earth in to kickstart his heart.
So, the big fella wakes up, grabs his big axe, and is like “Cool, I’m alive. Let’s get back to that awesome new home you found me.” But then his little buddy is like “Hey, I know you just almost died from your fight with Godzilla, but we kinda need you to interject here, and save him from that gargantuan killing machine, who is currently dragging Zilla’s ass across the entire city. Okay?” At which point Kong is like “Are you friggin’ serious?” And his little buddy is like “Afraid so, big guy. You up for it?” And Kong sighs heavily before agreeing “Fine. Eff it. I’ll be right back.”
Kong fairs a bit better than Godzilla did, and they briefly turn the contest into a two-on-one match before Mecha-Godzilla reclaims the advantage. Remembering that his nuclear fire breath charged up Kong’s battle axe during their fight, Godzilla blasts the axe blade again. The blade glows with energy, and Kong then uses it to fully dismember Mecha-Godzilla. Kong manages to win the final boss battle of the movie, shaking up the rankings (rock-paper-scissors style) as Godzilla defeated Kong, Mecha-Godzilla defeated Godzilla, and then Kong defeated Mecha-Godzilla.
Even after all that, Godzilla gets back up, and roars with a “We gonna throw down again, brah?” Kong, deciding to be the bigger Titan, responds “Nah, we’re cool.” and drops his axe. At which point Godzilla turns around to swim back out to sea, and Kong returns to Hollow Earth where he can finally chill out in his throne room, and do things his way. His little buddy, her scientist mom, and the disgraced scientist are also shown hanging with Kong in his true natural habitat. So, in the end, everyone got what they wanted….aside from the several thousand people unlucky enough to have their city turned into a kaiju battlefield, and whomever ends up having to pay for the several trillion dollars in property damage.
In all seriousness, though, I really enjoyed this film. If what you want to see is Godzilla vs Kong, you’re gonna get your money’s worth. If you’re looking for something more than that, you may want to look somewhere else. I did watch this both on HBO Max, when it premiered, and a second time in a movie theater. If you’re feeling brave enough, and have a nice, comfy mask, I recommend seeing it on the big screen.
In fact, I liked all four Monsterverse movies. Godzilla (2014) was the most deliberately-paced, and most “real-world.” Kong: Skull Island was the most fun. Godzilla: King Of The Monsters was the biggest spectacle. And Godzilla vs Kong felt like the most personal. You may have a hard time believing that a film can put you in the giant shoes of a titanic ape but, if you’re curious about trying, you should absolutely see this movie.
Like millions of other people, I watched Zack Snyder’s Justice League (to be referred to in this blog post as The Snyder Cut) over the weekend on HBO Max. And like almost everyone else who watched it, I’ve decided to post some thoughts.
I watched it over two nights, splitting it to about two hours each night. The chapters that it was broken up into didn’t really seem like especially natural break points, so I set my own viewing schedule, since I didn’t really have any desire to burn through four hours in one sitting. This felt like the right way to watch it to me, so my viewing experience was probably about as good as it was going to get.
I will be getting into spoilers, so consider this your warning.
Unlike Snyder, I’ll be cutting to the chase, and getting immediately into my main gripe with the movie. This thing is every minute of four hours long, and the Justice League never actually throws down with Darkseid himself. The closest they get is tossing Steppenwolf’s decapitated body through a portal to Apokalypse. At which point, Darkseid essentially grunts, shrugs, and walks away. I found this to be massively disappointing, and that sentiment was only compounded by the fact that the last time we see Darkseid, he’s gathering up his armada to invade Earth. So, we’re left with a cliffhanger of a movie that – as of the writing of this blog – there are absolutely no plans to make a sequel to.
This all begs the question of what the extra $70 million dollars, and two hours were even for? I have a hard time imagining Warner Bros agreeing to pour that amount of additional budget, and give Snyder that amount of runtime, back when this was intended to just be the first part of a trilogy. I’d figured that the extra budget, and the extra 90 – 120 minutes were given to Snyder to film some sort of completed version of his Justice League story. Sadly, I was mistaken. This really was always just going to be the mega-over-stuffed version of his first-of-three movies.
This is not a breezy four hours, I’m not even sure four hours could ever be described as “breezy” regardless of what you happen to be doing. It felt like an hour of it was filled up just with all the slow-motion shots, and the actor reactions shots that lasted twice as long as they should have. This is especially egregious in the first two hours, which may best be summed up by the fact that Batman and The Flash don’t even put their costumes on until a full two hours into the movie. Superman doesn’t show up until a half-hour later than that.
There was also some strange stuff that could have been dropped from the film without losing any effect. There is a scene where Martian Manhunter, posing as Martha Kent, visits Lois Lane and gives her the sort of familial pep talk that would make complete sense for Ma Kent to give Lois as they were both grieving the loss of Clark. Why Snyder decided it it ought to be J’onn J’onzz rather than actually Martha is fairly confounding. Are we to assume this means Martha never bothered to check in on Lois after Clark died? That seems very un-Martha-like. Martian Manhunter also shows up at the very end of the third part of the epilogue, thus making this earlier appearance redundant.
Willem Dafoe also shows up in a terrible wig, while Amber Heard shows up with a terrible faux British accent for scenes with Jason Momoa that don’t line-up with the Aquaman solo movie that came out two years ago. Dafoe’s wig was much better in the solo movie, and Heard wisely dropped the fake accent. Snyder also spend several scenes setting up a reason why S.T.A.R Labs would need to be evacuated when a giant Biohazard Warning flashes on every monitor in the building. It seems pretty self-evident that you ought to clear out of your high-tech super-science lab when you see there’s a biohazard warning, so laying that groundwork was completely unnecessary.
With all that said, this version is superior to The Whedon Cut in every way. And – I’ll even do you one better – despite everything that I wrote above, I rather enjoyed The Snyder Cut. For one thing, it’s a much more cohesive, and comprehensive (one could easily argue too comprehensive) story. Apart from my desire to see a true Darkseid vs Justice League Rumble, my expectations were pretty low, which I’m sure helped with my experience.
The Flash and Cyborg’s characters and stories are fleshed out a lot more in The Snyder Cut. In fact, my biggest surprise was that most of The Flash’s scenes were lifted almost directly from this for The Whedon Cut. My guess is that the suits at WB saw those scenes and decided they wanted the whole movie to be more like them. Meanwhile, Cyborg gets a full character arc, while also showing the audience all the things that he’s actually capable of. Not only with his cool robot-parts blaster stuff, but also in cyberspace and some sort of loosely-defined mechanical telepathy.
Steppenwolf is presented as more frighteningly bestial in The Snyder Cut, which really plays into his favor. He’s also given a motivation that is, at least, partially revealed. Apparently, he failed on some big mission that got him into the boss’s doghouse, and needs to conquer 50,000 planets to get himself back out of it. Despite my disappointment of no true Big Bad Battle, I was glad that Darkseid was actually in this movie. His presence does add an extra threat level that wasn’t really present in The Whedon Cut. The flashback to Darkseid’s first attempted invasion from thousands of years ago plays much the same as The Whedon Cut, except with Darkseid himself leading the charge. Again, having it be him rather than his leg-breaker Steppenwolf makes everything about the battle matter more.
Also, everything in The Snyder Cut is bigger, and more open then in The Whedon Cut. The battle over the Mother Box with the Amazons on Themyscira happens more in the wide-open spaces of the island. It also includes many more Amazons and Parademons, both of whom seriously boost the scale of the scene.
Big, establishing shots, and other wide shots are more prevalent in The Snyder Cut. There were several times where I had to shake my head at the amount of money the studio flushed down the toiler when they cut them from the initial theatrical release. All-in-all, it’s much less claustrophobic than The Whedon Cut. Which is a good thing, because one word you never want used to describe your massive, franchise, tent-pole film is “claustrophobic.”
The three part epilogue is one part wrap-up, one part set-up, and one part post-apocalyptic nonsense. The first part is shots of all the heroes doing their hero thing while an inspirational message that Dr. Silas Stone recorded for his son plays in the background. It was a nice little flourish with some much needed optimism after the grimdark of the proceeding 3+ hours.
The second part was a slightly different version of Deathstroke visiting a newly-escaped Lex Luthor on the latter’s yacht than we got in The Whedon Cut. The difference was that, instead of Luthor suggesting they make “a league of their own” he flat-out just tells Deathstroke that Batman is Bruce Wayne. I assume this was meant to set-up Ben Affleck’s long-since abandoned Batman solo film, and was therefore completely irrelevant.
The third part was another dream/premonition of Bruce Wayne’s that takes place in the “Knightmare” future from Batman V Superman, and that was also alluded to during Superman’s resurrection scene earlier in The Snyder Cut. By Snyder’s self-admission, it was not much more than an excuse to have Batman and the Joker share a scene together. But it’s a rather pointless scene, with eye-rolling dialogue that hints at a future that will likely never come to pass in the DC Movie Multiverse. Honestly, I felt he could have just stopped after the first part of the epilogue and left it at that.
Judging by the reception to – and apparent number eyeballs on – The Snyder Cut, I wouldn’t be completely shocked if they actually do let Zack Snyder make at least one more Justice League movie. They are starting to lean into the whole Multiverse idea, after all, so it wouldn’t have to alter the current direction of their shared continuity. But, going off of Snyder’s own description of what JL 2 and JL 3 would have looked liked, it’s probably too close to the story that was told across Marvel’s Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame.
In a nutshell, JL 2 would be Darkseid’s army invading and conquering Earth when Superman succumbs to the Anti-Life Equation after Lois Lane is killed. This would also result in the deaths of Wonder Woman and Aquaman, which were shown as part of Cyborg’s visions while bringing Superman back from the dead. And JL 3 would have been Cyborg sending the Flash back in-time to ensure that Batman sacrifices himself to save Lois, so Superman doesn’t lose the will to live, and leads the world, alongside also still-alive Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Cyborg and Flash to victory against Darkseid. So, if there were to be more, it would need to be revised to better differentiate itself from Marvel Studios’ magnum opus. Which, after hearing some of Snyder’s other specific future plot points, is really for the best.
In the end, I guess I liked more of The Snyder Cut than I disliked. With that said, Snyder himself has again demonstrated that he doesn’t truly understand these superheroes enough to make a truly great movie with them. His Justice League Batman is eons better than his BvS version, and his Cyborg was pretty solid as well. But Patty Jenkins has a much better grasp of what people respond to about Wonder Woman. James Wan better tapped into the gonzo, fantasy adventure myth-building fun that made Aquaman finally work. And the brain trust at The CW have had better luck bringing out the traits, and stories that fans love about the Flash and Superman. Still, my opinion is that Zack Snyder’s Justice League is worth a watch. Even if that watch takes you three or four nights to complete.
I’ve updated my DC Multiverse Movies ranking list to add The Snyder Cut, and it lands right around the middle of the pack.. Whether that’s praise of this film, or a knock against the others, is the topic of a separate conversion.
That’s a line that Vision says in a flashback from the penultimate episode of WandaVision. It’s also, essentially, the show’s thesis statements. I liked that line of dialogue a lot. Though I’ve always thought of grief being the love that remains once someone you care for is gone, I was never able to put it quite so succinctly. I have heard a number of other people say that line altered their perception of grief, so the impact is definitely real.
The impact of WandaVision is also very real, especially after an entire calendar year where forces beyond our control lead to there not being a Marvel movie released for the first time since 2009. The show was very well done, and I greatly enjoyed it. But I still must wonder whether it would have had such a large footprint on America’s entertainment culture had it been just one of three or four MCU projects that came out shortly after Avengers: Endgame.
Ultimately, it doesn’t matter, because the show very much stands on its own merits. However, due to the extraordinary circumstances surrounding its release, WandaVision was nothing, if not, the MCU persevering. Because, had it not been almost through production already when the pandemic hit, then we would have had to wait several more months before seeing anything or anyone from the MCU again. And, had it been a movie rather than a nine-episode TV series, it would not have satiated the viewers for nearly as long as it did.
By design, the show took an extremely roundabout way to reach its own fairly straightforward conclusion. There were may twists, and feints, and trollings and red herrings. But, in the end, it was about how Wanda Maximoff was finally able to allow herself to properly grieve for her lost loved ones, and also get a proper superhero costume and name. Although, it’s safe to assume that she’ll be seeing Vision again with all his memories but none of his emotional attachments (or fancy colors). So that’ll be another curveball for her, when the time comes.
Emotional attachments are not something I ever had for Wanda or Vision. Even back in my youth when I was more regularly reading comics. I never had much interest in them. This was no different when it came to their cinematic interpretations. I enjoyed Paul Bettany as the voice of J.A.R.V.I.S, but his turns as Vision always left me cold.
He was a bit of a MacGuffin who transformed into a deus ex machina in Avengers: Age Of Ultron. I also rolled my eyes a bit when he became the first character besides Thor to lift Mjolnir. He had a little more to do in Captain America: Civil War, but was still little more than an afterthought to the primarily storyline. When he and Wanda were suddenly a couple in Avengers: Infinity War, it never rang as emotionally true to me. And, because of this, his death(s) at the end of that movie again felt simply like the means to an end.
I was more on-board with Elizabeth Olsen’s Wanda Maximoff when she also debuted in Age Of Ultron. Unlike Vision, at least she had an interesting backstory. But even that was soured for me by the pointless, and underwhelming, death of Pietro in that film. I assumed it was a right issue, considering Fox still had the X-Men film rights at the time. But it was still a lame ending for a character with a great deal of potential. Really, the usage rate for Quicksilver was one of the very few things that Fox’s X-Men cinematic universe did better than the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Wanda was the main catalyst at the starts of Civil War, due to her mistake on a mission with Captain America’s team leading to the deaths of civilians. By extension, her actions left to the writing of the Sokovia Accords. Her actions sequences – the opening, the fight with Vision, and the battle royal at the airport – were all pretty cool. But, by the end of Civil War, her part in the disassembling of the Avengers took a backseat to the Iron Man vs Captain America & The Winter Soldier fallout and rumble.
As I mentioned earlier, her scenes with Vision as a romantic pairing in Infinity War felt sudden, and unearned to me. Though her arrival on the battlefield in Wakanda was one of the action highlights of the film, alongside Team Cap’s arrival at the train station in Edinburgh, and Thor’s big Wakandan entrance. Wanda’s own return in Avengers: Endgame was better, as I felt her rage as a more realistic motivation than her love in the previous film. And she did nearly break Thanos in-half, which was also an impressive of power.
So, while I always found Wanda more interesting than Vision, she was still near the bottom of my list of characters I cared about. Until WandaVision. Giving Wanda and Vision 7+ hours to develop their relationship, even in as strange a way as they did, finally won me over to their storyline. In short – I never knew I wanted more of Wanda and Vision until I was given more of Wanda and Vision.
It helps when two characters that we are told are in-love actually have time to show us what their love looks like, be it in a domestic situation or otherwise. Also, just having more screen time than either did in the films allowed the actors to fill out the roles in a much more meaningful way. Bettany’s and Olsen’s talent, coupled with the creative team providing them top notch material, allowed this flex to happen.
At the conclusion of the finale, there are primarily three threads left hanging to lead us forward to the next Phase of the MCU: Monica Rambeau’s emergence of superpowers, White Vision’s memory download and escape, and Wanda’s quest to hone her powers for seemingly one very specific reason.
I’m not going to spend much time on Monica, Agent Woo, or Darcy. As much as I enjoyed that part of the show, I’d rather focus on the titular characters. Monica’s introduction, and gaining of powers all pretty much led up to the mid-credits stinger, which involved a Skrull enlisting here to join Nick Fury and Talos on a space station as they venture into the upcoming Secret Invasion Disney+ series.
Woo and Darcy were just a lot of fun, and I very much hope to see more of them both. I figure Darcy will be in Thor: Love & Thunder, and Woo seems like he’ll be moving up in the FBI world, which ought to provide more chances to roll him out in future shows and movies.
White Vision seemed like he’d be a bigger deal in the penultimate episode than he ended up being. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t figure he’d be used as a tool to bring the original Vision back into the real world outside of the Hex that Wanda created. Still, it was a clever way to use a new character to bring back an old character, and then combine the two to be something different. I’ll be interested to see where White Vision next appears, and what his character is now that Vision loaded up his memory file.
That leaves the last thread, and the most tragic piece of the finale: the fate of Billy and Tommy, the children who Wanda created for herself. What was interesting was that, even though they were manufactured whole-cloth by Wanda, they had personalities and, dare I say, souls independent of their “mother.”
At the end of her fight with Agatha Harkness – whom I didn’t mention, but was also pretty great – Wanda realizes that she needs to free the town of Westview from her Hex. This means losing Vision…for a third time…but he’s aware of this, prepared for it, and also knows that White Vision is out there somewhere carrying his life experience into the future.
Billy and Tommy, on the other hand, are put to bed and erased in heart-breaking fashion. Wanda’s response to this tragedy felt strangely underwhelming, considering the extreme way that her grief over her parents, brother, and lover manifested itself. I was confused by this until we got the second stinger at the end of the credits. In a scene that looks very Sam Raimi-esque, we see Wanda far out in the middle of nowhere, using the Doctor Strange pocket dimension learning strategy to train herself in the Chaos Magic found in the Darkhold – the “book of the damned” – recovered from Harkness’ creepy black magic cellar.
Upon first glance, one might assume she is simply learning how to better hone her magic skills to be a better Scarlet Witch. However, at the last moment we hear a little bit of what Wanda is hearing. And what she’s hearing is her children crying for help. If her existing, pent-up grief led an untrained uber-witch to accidentally enslave an entire town in her altered reality, imagine what the loss of her children will lead her to do on-purpose. Especially now that she’s determined to fully harness her power. Sounds to me like the perfect recipe for some multiversal madness. Paging Doctor Strange.
All-in-all WandaVision was a fascinating cocktail for the familiar (quick-witted jokes, bright colors, superpeople bombarding each other with energy blasts) and the different (the internal sitcoms-through-the-decades format, the TV series format in-general). In most cases, a living entity must evolve in order to survive, and this very much felt like the MCU’s evolution. So, I once again ask my own thesis: What is WandaVision, if not the MCU persevering?
Talk about a cliffhanger. I posted a spoilers and speculation blog about Avengers: Infinity War way back in 2018, shortly before I took an unplanned three year break from blogging, and never followed it up. That’s like a Star Wars Original & Prequel Trilogy style gap.
But I still didn’t want to leave anyone, including myself, hanging. So, I’m writing this piece to close my own circle with some general thoughts about Avengers: Endgame, and what’s come in the Marvel Cinematic Universe since then. I made some predictions in that blog, and I’m happy to say that I was more right than wrong in my predictions.
Loki and Heimdall definitely died “for real” even though Loki is getting his own time travel-ly series out of it. All victim of The Snap returned, though that wasn’t exactly a long shot. I was right to assume Hawkeye wasn’t snapped, and that the original Avengers squad all survived for a reason – I was also right about the reason being to give them a proper curtain call. Doctor Strange’s apology to Tony Stark did end up being because Tony had to sacrifice his life to save the universe.
Steve Rogers bowed out with a happier ending than I’d suspected. Bucky Barnes likely isn’t the one carrying the Captain America shield forward, so I was wrong about that part. But he, and Sam Wilson, are working together to fill the void, so I was right about the group effort part. Black Widow died, but still has a solo movie coming out (some day) so I was about 50/50 on that projection. Thor is getting a fourth movie, as expected, and they’re keeping Hulk in their back pocket, likely to drop by on the She Hulk series.
As for the movie itself: I loved Avengers: Endgame, and I think the last hour or so of it is the most rewatchable MCU movie out there. The time travel trip down memory lane worked way better than it had any right to. Just the fact that they introduced time travel out of nowhere, and made it work, is a small miracle. Though my faith never really waivered in Kevin Feige and the MCU brain trust.
The Star Wars crew couldn’t even properly wrap up a trilogy with the disastrous Rise Of Skywalker. Meanwhile, Marvel capped out a 20+ movie arc in the most entertaining and satisfying manner possible. Both of these are under Disney’s banner now, but you can see a stark difference in the way they’ve been handled.
I think Marvel has had a looser leash, which worked out for them Meanwhile, they course-corrected Star Wars on-the-fly, likely with a Bible full of studio notes, which ended up being a problem. But, if The Mandalorian is a sign of things to come, and it appears that it is, then Star Wars may soon be rising to Marvel’s standards. Imagine saying THAT twenty years ago.
Now, for how things are looking in a Post Infinity Saga universe.
Spider-Man: Far From Home was the only post-Endgame MCU release so far, even though Black Widow was scheduled to drop a year ago, before the pandemic effed up everyone’s lives for most of the past twelve months. Far From Home was a lot of fun, and a good demonstration of how well Marvel Studios can get themselves back into the flow of smaller, non-universe destroying crossover films. It was very encouraging.
No one has seen Black Widow yet, as I noted above. But I’ll definitely check it out when – and where – I can.
WandaVision is really interesting. I’ll probably post a review of it once the season concludes, since I don’t want to fully judge it without having seen the entire run. It’s pulled the rug out from under the viewers several times already, so I’ll gather up my thoughts about it when standing on more solid ground.
The Falcon & The Winter Solider is coming later this month, and I’m very much looking forward to more of the love-hate-buddy-cop action that those two characters have only been able to hint at up to this point. I’ll probably write that review up after the season (series?) concludes as well.
Loki is up after that in May. Lots of timey-wimey stuff going on there, starting with Loki being not-dead in the first place. But the character is always fun, and time travel worked out nicely in Endgame, so let it ride!
She-Hulk, Moon Knight, Ms. Marvel, Ironheart, and Secret Invasion have all been announced as Disney+ series, and some interesting casting news has come out already. But, it’s also far too early for me to have any real insights.
I’ll judge The Eternals when I know more about it, but I’m not familiar with the title at all, so I won’t make any assumptions yet. But I did watch Nomadland, which was also directed by recent Golden Globe Winner Chloe Zhao. I didn’t exactly know how to feel about the point-of-view in Nomadland, which I think was the point. It was a beautiful-looking film though, that’s for certain, so that’s hooked my interest in Eternals.
Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness is next up. It’s being directed by Sam Raimi, which sounds incredible. All we know so far is the title and director. But I’m loving the title and the director. It’s still in the early stages of shooting, but I’m fully on-board already. I can’t wait to further examine the mystical corner of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (Or, Marvel Cinematic Multiverse, I suppose). I really enjoyed the back-half of Doctor Strange’s solo movie, and loved his few scenes in Thor: Ragnarok. Picking up where those left off seems pretty awesome to me.
Spider-Man: No Way Home appears set to tackle the multiverse as well, which should be fun. Into The Spider-Verse may have already done this about as well as you possibly can. But the MCU has the bonus draw of bringing in actors and characters from the previous iterations of the Spider-Man film franchise. If nothing else, that should be good to pop the crowd a few times.
Thor: Love & Thunder is deep into shooting, with Taika Waititi again at the helm. Much like Doctor Strange’s new movie, the title and director are more-than-enough to get me into a theater. Plus, Thor: Ragnarok was probably the most fun MCU movie to date, so I’m all-in for more of that vibe.
Captain Marvel 2 and Black Panther 2 are also on-deck. But the former has just started casting, and the latter is trying to figure out how best to address the tragic loss of Chadwick Boseman. Either way, it’s far too early to make any assumptions about either.
I’m happy to finally put a bow on my Infinity War cliffhanger, and can’t wait to share my thoughts about all the interesting stuff that’s coming up in the future.
Way back in 2017 I wrote about The Ballad of Luke Skywalker. This was shortly before The Last Jedi was released, and I offered up some theories, and questions. The movie did answer the most important questions I had. Another of the questions was partially addressed by The Mandalorian when Luke sought out Grogu to train him. I certainly would like to see some more of that.
Luke did, essentially, get the big send off that I wanted to see in The Last Jedi. It wasn’t the way I’d imagined it, but it still worked for me. All-in-all I liked the Last Jedi quite a lot. It was a well-made movie that served up some interesting ideas to be explored in the final part of the trilogy.
Then Rise Of Skywalker happened. I’m not going to do a deep dive, because I’m a little late to the party, and pretty much every angle has already been covered 100 times. But I also wanted to wrap up my previous blog post from before my hiatus.
Rise Of Skywalker was terrible. Very likely the worst Star Wars movie I’ve ever seen. Attack Of The Clones had a strong claim to the throne for a while, but that was just the middle part of a prequel trilogy. Rise Of Skywalker was not only the final chapter of the long-awaited sequel trilogy, but also the final chapter in an extraordinarily beloved movie series that stems back more than 40 years.
Among the interesting ideas posed by The Last Jedi was that Rey was just an ordinary person who happened to be strong with The Force. Sure, I was rooting for her to be Luke’s kid, but I was fine with the fact that she wasn’t. In fact, that message was sort of inspiring in that it told us that anyone can be special.
Rise Of Skywalker decided that Rey was Emperor Palpatine’s granddaughter. Or, like, the daughter of a Palpatine clone who didn’t have any powers. Or some such nonsense that was never really explained in the movie, but was discussed in subsequent interviews. What the hell, Rise Of Skywalker?
On the same note, Broom Boy’s whimsically casual use of The Force at the end of The Last Jedi offered up another fun option. Maybe Rey would travel the galaxy to find these Force-Sensitive people, and enlist them in the final battle to defeat the First Order. Something like that could have been displayed similarly to the epic portals scene of Avengers: Endgame. Only, instead of superheroes and wizards, it would have been common people standing together and using what power they had to defeat the evil empire.
Rise Of Skywalker made no mention of Broom Boy, or anyone else like him at all. Sure, they alluded to Finn all of a sudden being Force-Sensitive, but then did absolutely nothing with him besides yelling “REY!” over and over again. Speaking of Finn, he also had a big secret that he wanted to tell Rey. He never told her, and therefore the audience never found out. But we were again told after-the-fact that he wanted to tell her he was Force-Sensitive. This revelation also would have made no difference to the events of the film regardless, so who really cares. What the hell, Rise Of Skywalker?
Kylo Ren was made into a really interesting shades-of-gray character by The Last Jedi, before decided to stick to the Dark Side and slice his way to Supreme Leader status. The clear conflict within him sizzled up ever scene he was in, especially his scenes with Rey.
In Rise Of Skywalker, he falls immediately back in-line under Palpatine like Darth Vader 2.0, even though he had made a big deal of becoming the true big boss man of the First Order in the previous movie. So, he’s just bad again until he talks to a hallucination of his dead father, Han Solo, and is suddenly not bad anymore. Han was not a Force Ghost, not really a memory, and also not explained at all by the movie. What the hell, Rise Of Skywalker?
Honestly, I could go on and on about this stuff, so here’s a few more quick takes.
Palpatine is just back, which is super lame, and you would have only seen it coming if you played Fortnite. What the hell, Rise Of Skywalker?
Rose Tico just doesn’t matter anymore, even though she spent the entirety of The Last Jedi building a pretty fun relationship with Finn. What the hell, Rise Of Skywalker?
Poe and Rey have one scene of a kinda flirty Han-and-Leia interaction, and then it’s never mentioned again. But Poe’s ex-girlfriend shows up for a few scenes to waste time on a subplot that could have been wrapped up in one or two scenes. What the hell, Rise Of Skywalker?
Chewbacca and C-3PO die, or are erased, in service of the greater good. Until they’re back, and right as rain 10 minutes later. Even dramatic sacrifices are brushed aside, and immediately retconned (like J.J Abrams tried to do with the entirety of The Last Jedi). What the hell, Rise Of Skywalker?
When Ben Solo finally completes his slapdash redemption arc, and somehow manages to make a couple of cool moments happen, he’s immediately blasted down a bottomless pit before he can even take a swing at Palpatine. He could have, at least, battled Palpatine’s army of faceless fans(?) in the stands while Rey took on Palpy himself. But, nah. What the hell, Rise Of Skywalker?
And many, many more issues that became even more prevalent when I finally decided to give Rise Of Skywalker a second chance after almost a full year.
At any rate, I wanted to put a bow on my 2017 blog about Luke Skywalker, and I have. I’ve very happy that the Star Wars universe is expanding, and I freakin’ love The Mandalorian. I’m also very much looking forward to some of the other announced projects coming, especially the Ashoka Tano, Obi Wan Kenobi, and Boba Fett shows.
The only issue is that all those projects take place in the past, meaning that for the foreseeable future, Rise Of Skywalker is the end of the Star Wars Saga. I really hope that’s not the case for long.
They’ve finally got the right people in-place to shepherd Star Wars back to greener pastures (yes, another shot at J.J) with Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni’s Mando staff. I’m also happy to hear that Rian Johnson is still set to make more Star Wars movies as well. If they’d given him Rise Of Skywalker it probably would have been more “Hell Yeah!” than “What The Hell?”
So, I will hold out hope that Star Wars Episode X, or whatever they end up calling it, can turn Star Wars back into the Crown Jewel that Disney envisioned when they bought the rights from Lucasfilms. Hope, after all, is where this whole thing started in that long time ago galaxy of 1977.
