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Zach Smith (62 KP) rated Aladdin (2019) in Movies

May 27, 2019

Aladdin (2019)

2019 | Adventure, Family, Fantasy, Musical

7.2

(157 Ratings)

Movie Rating Watch

The colors, choreography is remarkable (0 more)

In my opinion, two cast members were off. (0 more)

Will definitely keep your attention.

So I'm a big fan of the Disney classic and was looking forward to this. Right from the start I believe they got Aladdin cast member wrong. Sorry he has a freaking 5 o clock shadow through the majority of the film and hairy ass arms. I thought part of the magic was that the love story between two people at most 20 years of age. So yea not a fan of the post puberty Aladdin. The man sings and acts great however.

Will Smith as the genie was a welcome surprise. He brought his own majic to the part so not to dishonor the legend Robin Williams. The film is great because it is based off of Disney's Aladdin so it is not a word for word live action and even includes two new songs that hold up to the originals.

Another cast member I thought was missing major personality was Jasmine's father. Sure he looked the part but he was not fat or jolly and had a droll type manor. Despite these few differences the movie entertained my son and I and almost felt like a new movie. Snore factor of 0/10 great.
PS I miss Gilbert Godfrey as the birds voice.

Kudos

David McK (3540 KP) rated Star Wars: Aftermath: Life Debt in Books

Jan 28, 2019

Star Wars: Aftermath: Life Debt

Chuck Wendig | 2016 | Science Fiction/Fantasy

7.0

(3 Ratings)

Book Rating

The second entry in [a:Chuck Wendig|17152|Chuck Wendig|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1294919586p2/17152.jpg]'s Star Wars: Aftermath series (trilogy) - a series in which the author was given the unenviable task of rebooting the whole Star Wars continuity, after Disney threw the old EU (Expanded Universe) out the window while reserving the rights to cherry-pick the best aspects (Grand Admiral Thrawn, anyone?) from that EU.

I was completely unaware while reading the first entry ([b:Aftermath|25131600|Aftermath (Star Wars Aftermath, #1)|Chuck Wendig|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1426620007s/25131600.jpg|44828548] that the author was also actually a screen writer, only finding this out by chance later.

That, perhaps, explains why I found the first book so choppy.

While I did find this better than that earlier entry, I'm not sure whether that is because I'm now coming at it with that fresh knowledge, or because (perhaps) the author had picked up on some oif the criticism aimed at that earlier work. There's also the fact, now, that the groundwork has been laid and the fuss died down somewhat: no longer do we have to worry about the sometimes vitriolic accusations aimed at the work.

With all that in mind, I have to say: I still prefer the Heir to the Empire series.

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David McK (3540 KP) rated A Princess of Mars (Barsoom, #1) in Books

Jan 30, 2019

To most people, if you mention the name Edgar Rice Burroughs the first thing that they will think of, in all likelihood, is his creation of the character Tarzan. Alongside this, however, he also wrote the Barsoom series of books, of which this is the first (published in 1912).

Commonly regarded as classics of the Pulp Sci-Fi genre of books, and with the new Disney movie John Carter of Mars recently released (even if it is getting a panning from the critics), and finally with The John Carter collection (consisting of A Princess of Mars, The Gods of Mars, The Warlord of Mars, Thuvia, Maid of Mars and The Chessmen of Mars) available on Apple's ibooks stores for 99p, how could I resist picking them up?

Having now read the first book, it's easy to see the influence these particular novels had on later writings and popular culture. James Cameron is on record as stating this particular work as an influence on his movie Avatar, while it is also possible to trace elements of Star Wars (inspired by Flash Gordon, itself inspired by this) back to this work.

In short: this is pretty much a prime example of early pulp SF!

Kudos

Barry Newman (204 KP) rated Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker (2019) in Movies

Jan 11, 2020

Contains spoilers, click to show

Well JJ Abrams certainly had a helluva job to do here, wrapping up a 42 year saga whilst addressing the criticisms made of episode 8 and creating an entertaining movie. Whilst this isn't a complete disaster like the 'Game Of Thrones' ending I still couldn't help but come out of this feeling underwhelmed and disappointed. I wanted wow instead it was just ok and completely lacking in the magic and memorable moments we have come to expect from the series. The first half of the film felt very muddled and disjointed, it did get better in the second half but overall the storytelling felt very safe. I think that was particularly reflected in the decision to resurrect Emperor Palpatine which personally I didn't like. Whilst certainly the weakest of the new trilogy it's not boring, it's a fast paced adventure that does answer some unanswered questions and there's still plenty of fun to be had seeing all the spectacular effects millions of Disney dollars can buy. Adam Driver and Daisy Ridley also continue to turn in decent performances as Rey and Kylo Ren (shame the same can't really be said for the rest of the cast). So as the finale to the 9 film Star Wars saga it's sorely lacking but as a bog standard action blockbuster it's reasonably entertaining.