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In this fifth installment in the New York Times bestselling series from Edgar Award winner James...
Chris Sawin (602 KP) rated Kingdom (2019) in Movies
Aug 12, 2019
Action sequences. (2 more)
The Mountain Tribe.
Zuo Ci.
134-minute duration feels like a marathon. (1 more)
Drags a lot in its first half.
I haven’t read any of the 55 volumes (and counting) of Yasuhisa Hara’s Kingdom manga or watched any of the 77 episodes of the anime adapted by animation studio Pierrot (Bleach, Yu Yu Hakusho, and Tokyo Ghoul among many others). To make matters worse, I haven’t seen any of the films by director and co-screenwriter Shinsuke Sato (the two live-action Gantz films, Death Note: Light Up the New World, the live-action Bleach film for Netflix). I’m going into Kingdom completely blind and I have no idea if that makes the viewing experience any better or worse.
In 255 B.C., Kingdom revolves around the quick-tempered and charge-headfirst-into-battle-without-thinking Xin (Kento Yamazaki) that dreams of being the greatest general of the Qin Kingdom. There’s other stuff going on; a bloody 500 year war between the seven states of China, Xin’s best friend Piao (Ryô Yoshizawa) being enlisted by the King only to turn around and be killed, and King Yin Zheng being a splitting image of Piao, but nothing is emphasized or screamed louder than Xin’s desire to become the greatest general China has ever known.
Kingdom feels like it’s about 45 minutes too long for its own good. The first hour seems to drag as blood spraying into the air every now and then isn’t enough to keep you fully intrigued. The manga is an exaggerated recounting of Zheng actually becoming king in 221 B.C. during the Warring States period and eventually unifying China while the characters are loosely based on actual historical figures. The action adventure film attempts to portray Xin and Piao as worthy and capable swordsman because they clunked stick swords together 10,000 times in an empty field throughout their childhood and teenage years.
The film tries to compensate for its slow first hour with a more eventful second half, but it doesn’t totally succeed. Yang Duan He (Masami Nagasawa) and her mountain tribe are pretty awesome. Their masks remind you of something straight out of Princess Mononoke and you’ll be trying your hardest not to compare Yang Duan He to Xena: Warrior Princess. There’s this competition for the throne that gets a little complicated. Zheng’s brother Cheng Jiao (Kanata Hongo) is nasty and heartless and basically a human version of Salacious Crumb sitting on an even more elaborate version of Jabba the Hutt’s dais. Zheng and Jiao have the same father, but different mothers; Jiao’s is of royal blood and Zheng’s is a dancer or, in other words, a commoner. Jiao viewed peasantry as being bone deep; it isn’t something that can ever go away.
The main theme of Kingdom sounds like a direct ripoff of the main Guardians of the Galaxy theme, which is kind of brain-numbing. The prosthetics in the film are questionable with Li Dian, the original slave owner of Xin and Piao, having this awkwardly orange colored face, inhumanly puffy cheeks, stringy facial hair, and the ugliest facial expressions imaginable. After Xin joins up with Zheng, a girl in a bushy owl costume named He Liao Diao (Kanna Hasimoto) is mostly only around to take everyone to the mountains later. The chemistry Xin, Zheng, and Diao have is reminiscent of what Mugen, Jin, and Foo have in Samurai Champloo. Another observation is that Xin is basically Goku with Vegeta’s short-fuse temper; he lives to fight and eat, he’s dumber than a bag of rocks, and he can’t identify a woman when she’s standing directly in front of him.
Cheng Jiao’s go-to henchman, former general and current hitman for hire Zuo Ci (Tak Sakaguchi) may be the film’s coolest character. He doesn’t care about anybody, tells Xin that all dreams are BS, and is a part of what is arguably the best action sequence in the film. Meanwhile, General Wang Yi (Takao Ohsawa), the most renowned general in all of China and the guy with the status Xin plans on taking in the future, is a bit overrated. He mostly just parades his weird and pointy facial hair around and swings his giant sword as if it won’t remind us of Guts from Berserk.
All in all, Kingdom is a decent action adventure that just takes a while to really get going. The performances aren’t totally satisfying with Kento Yamazaki hamming it up on more than occasion and taking the brainless dolt with a huge mouth thing to uncomfortable levels. The story isn’t exactly hard to follow, but it does feel like it’s trying to be more convoluted than it needs to be. You don’t feel any sort of attachment to any of the characters and any sort of twist can be seen long before the reveal. Kingdom is just an okay way to spend two hours that is probably a justifiable rental on a day when you have nothing better to do, but is not worth paying full price to own.
In 255 B.C., Kingdom revolves around the quick-tempered and charge-headfirst-into-battle-without-thinking Xin (Kento Yamazaki) that dreams of being the greatest general of the Qin Kingdom. There’s other stuff going on; a bloody 500 year war between the seven states of China, Xin’s best friend Piao (Ryô Yoshizawa) being enlisted by the King only to turn around and be killed, and King Yin Zheng being a splitting image of Piao, but nothing is emphasized or screamed louder than Xin’s desire to become the greatest general China has ever known.
Kingdom feels like it’s about 45 minutes too long for its own good. The first hour seems to drag as blood spraying into the air every now and then isn’t enough to keep you fully intrigued. The manga is an exaggerated recounting of Zheng actually becoming king in 221 B.C. during the Warring States period and eventually unifying China while the characters are loosely based on actual historical figures. The action adventure film attempts to portray Xin and Piao as worthy and capable swordsman because they clunked stick swords together 10,000 times in an empty field throughout their childhood and teenage years.
The film tries to compensate for its slow first hour with a more eventful second half, but it doesn’t totally succeed. Yang Duan He (Masami Nagasawa) and her mountain tribe are pretty awesome. Their masks remind you of something straight out of Princess Mononoke and you’ll be trying your hardest not to compare Yang Duan He to Xena: Warrior Princess. There’s this competition for the throne that gets a little complicated. Zheng’s brother Cheng Jiao (Kanata Hongo) is nasty and heartless and basically a human version of Salacious Crumb sitting on an even more elaborate version of Jabba the Hutt’s dais. Zheng and Jiao have the same father, but different mothers; Jiao’s is of royal blood and Zheng’s is a dancer or, in other words, a commoner. Jiao viewed peasantry as being bone deep; it isn’t something that can ever go away.
The main theme of Kingdom sounds like a direct ripoff of the main Guardians of the Galaxy theme, which is kind of brain-numbing. The prosthetics in the film are questionable with Li Dian, the original slave owner of Xin and Piao, having this awkwardly orange colored face, inhumanly puffy cheeks, stringy facial hair, and the ugliest facial expressions imaginable. After Xin joins up with Zheng, a girl in a bushy owl costume named He Liao Diao (Kanna Hasimoto) is mostly only around to take everyone to the mountains later. The chemistry Xin, Zheng, and Diao have is reminiscent of what Mugen, Jin, and Foo have in Samurai Champloo. Another observation is that Xin is basically Goku with Vegeta’s short-fuse temper; he lives to fight and eat, he’s dumber than a bag of rocks, and he can’t identify a woman when she’s standing directly in front of him.
Cheng Jiao’s go-to henchman, former general and current hitman for hire Zuo Ci (Tak Sakaguchi) may be the film’s coolest character. He doesn’t care about anybody, tells Xin that all dreams are BS, and is a part of what is arguably the best action sequence in the film. Meanwhile, General Wang Yi (Takao Ohsawa), the most renowned general in all of China and the guy with the status Xin plans on taking in the future, is a bit overrated. He mostly just parades his weird and pointy facial hair around and swings his giant sword as if it won’t remind us of Guts from Berserk.
All in all, Kingdom is a decent action adventure that just takes a while to really get going. The performances aren’t totally satisfying with Kento Yamazaki hamming it up on more than occasion and taking the brainless dolt with a huge mouth thing to uncomfortable levels. The story isn’t exactly hard to follow, but it does feel like it’s trying to be more convoluted than it needs to be. You don’t feel any sort of attachment to any of the characters and any sort of twist can be seen long before the reveal. Kingdom is just an okay way to spend two hours that is probably a justifiable rental on a day when you have nothing better to do, but is not worth paying full price to own.
Gareth von Kallenbach (980 KP) rated Moneyball (2011) in Movies
Aug 7, 2019
Baseball economics has long a source of serious debate amongst fans, players, and teams. The contentious issues of how to divide the revenue in an equitable manner led to the cancellation of the playoffs and World Series in 1994 and is still largely unresolved today. While smaller market teams are given funds from a luxury tax imposed on larger payroll teams, it still fails to provide an even competitive playing field when large market teams, such as the New York Yankees, can field teams with a $225 million-plus payroll while the smaller market teams have to make do with budgets often under $40 million.
Naturally, this has put many teams at a competitive disadvantage and most feel that they have no chance to win long-term, even as they develop cheap homegrown talent in their minor-league systems. They lose said talent to the larger market clubs once players become eligible for free agency. It is against this backdrop that the new film “Moneyball” starring Brad Pitt is set.
The film was based on the book of the same name which tells the story and philosophy of Oakland A’s general manager Billy Beane. Beane was a highly recruited baseball player at a high school who turned down a scholarship to Stanford for his shot at the major leagues. Unfortunately for Beane, his career was a major disappointment punctuated with numerous stops between the pros and the minor leagues which resulted in a very mediocre and forgettable career.
Beane got himself a job as a scout and in time worked his way to being the general manager of the Oakland A’s. As the film opens, Oakland has just lost a deciding Game 5 the New York Yankees, whose payroll at the time was almost $120 million greater than Oaklands. Adding further insult to injury, Oakland is unable to re-sign its three biggest stars as they accept large contracts with the Yankees, Red Sox, and other large market teams.
Unable to get any additional funds from his owner, Beane travels to Cleveland in an attempt to find affordable talent via trades. Beane is categorically rebuffed and told that he couldn’t afford many of the players that he’s asking about and that the ones he can afford are not be available to him.
Beane notices a young man, Peter Brand (Jonah Hill) during the negotiations, whose quiet input was heeded by the Indians, even though this is Peter’s first job since graduating from Yale with an economics degree. Beane gets Peter to confide in him about his beliefs that the traditional baseball method for evaluating talent is all wrong and that there is a better way to do it.
Intrigued, Beane hires Brand to be his assistant general manager and the two set out to rebuild the Oakland A’s on a budget. Needless to say this does not sit well with many of the talent scouts or manager Art Howe (a very believable Phillip Seymour Hoffman), who sees the recruiting of washed-up has-beens and never-weres by Beane as misguided and ridiculous.
But Beane and Brand are determined, and using statistical formula that looks at such things as on-base percentages and runs scored as opposed to batting average, home runs, and RBIs, the A’s quickly put together an unlikely team. It doesn’t immediately play out well for the hopeful general manager because Howe is unwilling to play many of the new players that have been brought on. Oakland quickly sinks to the bottom of the league, and many begin to question the sanity of Bean’s approach, to the point that even his young daughter worries that his days as a general manager are numbered.
The film does a good job at showing the inner workings of baseball and Pitt does an amazing job showing the complex nature of Beane. He is a single father dealing with the failure of his playing career, and his inability to get Oakland to be a consistant winner. He puts everything he has into this so-called outrageous scheme and is willing to see it through no matter the cost. Chris Pratt does great supporting work as Scott Hatteberg, one of Beane’s reclamation projects as does Stephen Bisop as aging major-league slugger David Justice.
The film stays very true to historical events and shows the characters as they are, flaws and all. While a true story, Peter Brand, is a fictional charcter based on Paul DePodesta who introduced Beane to the analytical principles of sabermetrics. The movie remains a very interesting character study as well as an examination of the delicate relationships between players, front offices, and ownership where wins and dollars are paramount even when many teams are struggling to make do with less.
That being said the film was a very enjoyable and realistic look at the inner workings of baseball that should not be missed.
Naturally, this has put many teams at a competitive disadvantage and most feel that they have no chance to win long-term, even as they develop cheap homegrown talent in their minor-league systems. They lose said talent to the larger market clubs once players become eligible for free agency. It is against this backdrop that the new film “Moneyball” starring Brad Pitt is set.
The film was based on the book of the same name which tells the story and philosophy of Oakland A’s general manager Billy Beane. Beane was a highly recruited baseball player at a high school who turned down a scholarship to Stanford for his shot at the major leagues. Unfortunately for Beane, his career was a major disappointment punctuated with numerous stops between the pros and the minor leagues which resulted in a very mediocre and forgettable career.
Beane got himself a job as a scout and in time worked his way to being the general manager of the Oakland A’s. As the film opens, Oakland has just lost a deciding Game 5 the New York Yankees, whose payroll at the time was almost $120 million greater than Oaklands. Adding further insult to injury, Oakland is unable to re-sign its three biggest stars as they accept large contracts with the Yankees, Red Sox, and other large market teams.
Unable to get any additional funds from his owner, Beane travels to Cleveland in an attempt to find affordable talent via trades. Beane is categorically rebuffed and told that he couldn’t afford many of the players that he’s asking about and that the ones he can afford are not be available to him.
Beane notices a young man, Peter Brand (Jonah Hill) during the negotiations, whose quiet input was heeded by the Indians, even though this is Peter’s first job since graduating from Yale with an economics degree. Beane gets Peter to confide in him about his beliefs that the traditional baseball method for evaluating talent is all wrong and that there is a better way to do it.
Intrigued, Beane hires Brand to be his assistant general manager and the two set out to rebuild the Oakland A’s on a budget. Needless to say this does not sit well with many of the talent scouts or manager Art Howe (a very believable Phillip Seymour Hoffman), who sees the recruiting of washed-up has-beens and never-weres by Beane as misguided and ridiculous.
But Beane and Brand are determined, and using statistical formula that looks at such things as on-base percentages and runs scored as opposed to batting average, home runs, and RBIs, the A’s quickly put together an unlikely team. It doesn’t immediately play out well for the hopeful general manager because Howe is unwilling to play many of the new players that have been brought on. Oakland quickly sinks to the bottom of the league, and many begin to question the sanity of Bean’s approach, to the point that even his young daughter worries that his days as a general manager are numbered.
The film does a good job at showing the inner workings of baseball and Pitt does an amazing job showing the complex nature of Beane. He is a single father dealing with the failure of his playing career, and his inability to get Oakland to be a consistant winner. He puts everything he has into this so-called outrageous scheme and is willing to see it through no matter the cost. Chris Pratt does great supporting work as Scott Hatteberg, one of Beane’s reclamation projects as does Stephen Bisop as aging major-league slugger David Justice.
The film stays very true to historical events and shows the characters as they are, flaws and all. While a true story, Peter Brand, is a fictional charcter based on Paul DePodesta who introduced Beane to the analytical principles of sabermetrics. The movie remains a very interesting character study as well as an examination of the delicate relationships between players, front offices, and ownership where wins and dollars are paramount even when many teams are struggling to make do with less.
That being said the film was a very enjoyable and realistic look at the inner workings of baseball that should not be missed.
Kara Skinner (332 KP) rated Eleanor & Park in Books
Jun 11, 2019
Eleanor and Park: First Love At Its Finest
Contains spoilers, click to show
I did this book for a reading vlog without knowing anything about it and that turned out to be a mistake. This book was a lot heavier than I anticipated. Trigger warnings for domestic violence and child abuse for those who want to read it.
Together, Eleanor and Park are excellent. They have witty dialogue full of 80’s references and general high school silliness. The two of them together made me nostalgic for high school with their cuteness.
That was definitely needed because the rest of the book was really dark.
From the start, Eleanor isn’t doing well. As the new kid in school, she is an easy target for bullies and has no friends to turn to (at least until Park). But her home life is even worse. After living off a neighbor’s couch for a year, Eleanor was finally allowed to move back into her mom’s house, where her mom and siblings live under the tyrannical rule of Ritchie, a violent and abusive alcoholic.
In Eleanor’s house, the feeling of danger and unease is always there, heightened by nightly fights between Ritchie and the mother and having no bathroom door. Eleanor only really feels safe in the house when Ritchie isn’t there.
Her escape becomes Park, the quiet boy on the bus who let her sit next to him and lets her read comic books over his shoulder. Slowly they develop a reluctant friendship which turns into love.
I really like Eleanor. I think she’s really smart and witty and very relatable. She’s insecure about her body and the abuse definitely took a toll on her emotional state. But in general, she’s just a normal teenager.
Park is a typical teenager as well. He’s frustratingly insecure and angsty, which makes him act like a jerk to Eleanor sometimes, especially in the beginning. But despite that, he’s usually a really nice guy who cares deeply for Eleanor. He’s pretty understanding about her home life and is patient with her, which I really like. He does a lot of things that he thinks are small, like lending Eleanor comics and making her mixtapes, but they mean the world to Eleanor, and it’s really sweet.
The only time I didn’t like him was when he found out someone was writing dirty messages on Eleanor’s textbook and he accused her of writing the messages herself. That was really out-of-character for him and was pretty horrible. Aside from that, though, he was nice. He was, in general, a normal, realistic teenage boy.
My biggest problem with the book was the ending. It wasn’t satisfying for me because it ends abruptly and I didn’t get enough closure about Eleanor’s family. It’s hinted at that they move out of the toxic house but it’s never confirmed. So because of that, it’s only 4 out of 5 stars, but still definitely worth reading.
Together, Eleanor and Park are excellent. They have witty dialogue full of 80’s references and general high school silliness. The two of them together made me nostalgic for high school with their cuteness.
That was definitely needed because the rest of the book was really dark.
From the start, Eleanor isn’t doing well. As the new kid in school, she is an easy target for bullies and has no friends to turn to (at least until Park). But her home life is even worse. After living off a neighbor’s couch for a year, Eleanor was finally allowed to move back into her mom’s house, where her mom and siblings live under the tyrannical rule of Ritchie, a violent and abusive alcoholic.
In Eleanor’s house, the feeling of danger and unease is always there, heightened by nightly fights between Ritchie and the mother and having no bathroom door. Eleanor only really feels safe in the house when Ritchie isn’t there.
Her escape becomes Park, the quiet boy on the bus who let her sit next to him and lets her read comic books over his shoulder. Slowly they develop a reluctant friendship which turns into love.
I really like Eleanor. I think she’s really smart and witty and very relatable. She’s insecure about her body and the abuse definitely took a toll on her emotional state. But in general, she’s just a normal teenager.
Park is a typical teenager as well. He’s frustratingly insecure and angsty, which makes him act like a jerk to Eleanor sometimes, especially in the beginning. But despite that, he’s usually a really nice guy who cares deeply for Eleanor. He’s pretty understanding about her home life and is patient with her, which I really like. He does a lot of things that he thinks are small, like lending Eleanor comics and making her mixtapes, but they mean the world to Eleanor, and it’s really sweet.
The only time I didn’t like him was when he found out someone was writing dirty messages on Eleanor’s textbook and he accused her of writing the messages herself. That was really out-of-character for him and was pretty horrible. Aside from that, though, he was nice. He was, in general, a normal, realistic teenage boy.
My biggest problem with the book was the ending. It wasn’t satisfying for me because it ends abruptly and I didn’t get enough closure about Eleanor’s family. It’s hinted at that they move out of the toxic house but it’s never confirmed. So because of that, it’s only 4 out of 5 stars, but still definitely worth reading.
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Parfs (178 KP) created a post in Avengers: Endgame (Discussion)
May 4, 2019
Kelly (279 KP) rated Outlaw King (2018) in Movies
Dec 16, 2018
Clear passion to retell the story (1 more)
Excellent battle scene
Watchable
After seeing an advert for the Outlaw King, I was excited to watch the movie. Despite this I found that the film missed my expectations, and I found that it became almost boring in places.
The writers of the outlaw king had a clear passion to retell the story of Robert Bruce and his fight to regain the Scottish crown from the English in the early Plantagenet period. To the best of my knowledge, the story was told as accurately as possible, however this did mean that there were a lot of scenes centred around the politics of Roberts plight. The slower scenes were unbalanced with the battle scenes which meant that the pace of the story dipped many times during the film - I have to confess it took me three attempts to watch it in full as a result of this.
As the writers tried to cram too much into such a short film, I found that the movie had a bit of an identity crisis - was this an action, romance or political film? Had the writers focused on just one area, I believe the movie would have been a lot more watchable, instead the movie felt overloaded.
The acting in general was okay, and reasonably well cast, except for the relationship between Robert Bruce and his wife. I struggled to believe the romance between the two actors. Although this is ultimately my opinion, I struggled to believe that what was ultimately an arranged marriage between the two, could rest in the two characters falling for each other as quickly as the film portrayed.
In general, the film is watchable, although it is not one I would go to as a first choice. There are some good parts of the film, for example the relationship between Robert and his men, and the final battle scene. The film also teaches us about part of Scottish history that tends to be overlooked by many schools during history lessons.
The writers of the outlaw king had a clear passion to retell the story of Robert Bruce and his fight to regain the Scottish crown from the English in the early Plantagenet period. To the best of my knowledge, the story was told as accurately as possible, however this did mean that there were a lot of scenes centred around the politics of Roberts plight. The slower scenes were unbalanced with the battle scenes which meant that the pace of the story dipped many times during the film - I have to confess it took me three attempts to watch it in full as a result of this.
As the writers tried to cram too much into such a short film, I found that the movie had a bit of an identity crisis - was this an action, romance or political film? Had the writers focused on just one area, I believe the movie would have been a lot more watchable, instead the movie felt overloaded.
The acting in general was okay, and reasonably well cast, except for the relationship between Robert Bruce and his wife. I struggled to believe the romance between the two actors. Although this is ultimately my opinion, I struggled to believe that what was ultimately an arranged marriage between the two, could rest in the two characters falling for each other as quickly as the film portrayed.
In general, the film is watchable, although it is not one I would go to as a first choice. There are some good parts of the film, for example the relationship between Robert and his men, and the final battle scene. The film also teaches us about part of Scottish history that tends to be overlooked by many schools during history lessons.
So a couple of months back I read Fallen and was decidedly unimpressed with the whole story in general. I still can’t explain why I decided to read to follow up book Torment. But I’m glad I did. Once again, it could have been better, I’m not saying it was as good as some of the books I have read lately, but it was much better than the first book.
This book sees Luce sent off to a posh school on the west coast (there happens to be special classes about angels and demons, which made me pull many faces when reading it). Daniel, the uber love interest of the first book, Luce’s ‘one true love’ send her here after the events at the end of fallen with the premise of keeping her safe. Rebellious teenage acts ensue, and as you can guess, Luce ends up not being very safe. I still have real issues with Daniel as the love interest. We know nothing about him, he hasn’t done a single thing to endear me to him, and I kind of route for Luce to screw him over a little bit and date someone who doesn’t control her every move without giving her even a glimpse of understanding as to why these things keep happening to her.
Other than that actually the general way the story is going was much more interesting to read, Luce had more backbone and the new characters that were introduced as her friends were well rounded and well written into the story. I can see where the story may head now, which is saying a lot as I didn’t get the first book at all. I can honestly say I will now read the rest, I just hope that the author carries on developing the story and possible try to include a few less cliché type scenarios.
This book sees Luce sent off to a posh school on the west coast (there happens to be special classes about angels and demons, which made me pull many faces when reading it). Daniel, the uber love interest of the first book, Luce’s ‘one true love’ send her here after the events at the end of fallen with the premise of keeping her safe. Rebellious teenage acts ensue, and as you can guess, Luce ends up not being very safe. I still have real issues with Daniel as the love interest. We know nothing about him, he hasn’t done a single thing to endear me to him, and I kind of route for Luce to screw him over a little bit and date someone who doesn’t control her every move without giving her even a glimpse of understanding as to why these things keep happening to her.
Other than that actually the general way the story is going was much more interesting to read, Luce had more backbone and the new characters that were introduced as her friends were well rounded and well written into the story. I can see where the story may head now, which is saying a lot as I didn’t get the first book at all. I can honestly say I will now read the rest, I just hope that the author carries on developing the story and possible try to include a few less cliché type scenarios.
LeftSideCut (3776 KP) rated Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith (2005) in Movies
Nov 29, 2019 (Updated Dec 20, 2019)
The final chapter of the Star Wars prequel trilogy is definitely the high point (which isn't the highest praise...) throwing a large amount of sci-fi action at the audience, whilst bring the Star Wars narrative full circle and finally tying into the first film.
The action is over gratuitous at times, but it's still entertaining enough - the opening space battle, the climatic battle between Jedis, the harrowing Order 66 scene.
The special effects here are noticably improved from Episodes I and II, and once again, the various locations and landscapes that we're shown are stunning to look at (Kashyyyk is a good example).
The most important character arc here is of course Anakin's, as he completes his turn to the dark side and steps further towards the iconic Darth Vader. I much prefer Hayden Christensen this time around, although he's still wooden in parts - I get the feeling that he's trying his best, but George Lucas isn't giving a whole lot for him to work with.
Ewan McGregor is great once again as Obi Wan.
The biggest new character we're introduced to in ROTS is General Grievous, who's ok I guess - he's nothing more than a CGI model designed to sell merchandise, but then again, who doesn't want to see someone wield four lightsabers at once ey?
The dialogue is just about more bearable than in the other two prequel films, and the movie has a general sense of 'getting shit done' than before, and it's all the better for it and has some dark turns here and there.
There are some cringey bits of course - the unessecary Chewbacca line for one, and of course, the god awful 'NOOOOOOO' line near the end (literal sick in my mouth)
When looking back on the prequel trilogy of Star Wars, it's easy to cast them aside and say they're no good, when in reality, that's not wholly true. They have they're moments and will always be something that I'll (maybe) watch when they're on TV...
The action is over gratuitous at times, but it's still entertaining enough - the opening space battle, the climatic battle between Jedis, the harrowing Order 66 scene.
The special effects here are noticably improved from Episodes I and II, and once again, the various locations and landscapes that we're shown are stunning to look at (Kashyyyk is a good example).
The most important character arc here is of course Anakin's, as he completes his turn to the dark side and steps further towards the iconic Darth Vader. I much prefer Hayden Christensen this time around, although he's still wooden in parts - I get the feeling that he's trying his best, but George Lucas isn't giving a whole lot for him to work with.
Ewan McGregor is great once again as Obi Wan.
The biggest new character we're introduced to in ROTS is General Grievous, who's ok I guess - he's nothing more than a CGI model designed to sell merchandise, but then again, who doesn't want to see someone wield four lightsabers at once ey?
The dialogue is just about more bearable than in the other two prequel films, and the movie has a general sense of 'getting shit done' than before, and it's all the better for it and has some dark turns here and there.
There are some cringey bits of course - the unessecary Chewbacca line for one, and of course, the god awful 'NOOOOOOO' line near the end (literal sick in my mouth)
When looking back on the prequel trilogy of Star Wars, it's easy to cast them aside and say they're no good, when in reality, that's not wholly true. They have they're moments and will always be something that I'll (maybe) watch when they're on TV...