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The Art of Star Wars Rebels
The Art of Star Wars Rebels
Dan Wallace | 2020 | Film & TV
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
By far, Rebels is the best thing to come out of the Disney takeover of Star Wars (sorry, not sorry Mandalorian). Dave Filoni knows what he's doing, since he obviously learned from the Master.
This art book is around 200 pages, and filled with beautiful art. I knew that some of the design choices were taken from Ralph McQuarrie's original artwork, i.e. Zeb being a form of Chewbacca and the thinner lightsaber design, and I was glad a lot of that was incorportated in.
Maybe I was expecting too much? I wanted more commentary and insight. There were some pretty big omissions, and it was a bummer. I really want to know more about Jacen, and there was no mention of him (boo). Hopefully that means he's going to appear in something else?
Overall, I'm glad I purchased it, and now I want all of the art books, including the prequel costuming one that costs almost $1k.
  
Pacific Rim: Uprising (2018)
Pacific Rim: Uprising (2018)
2018 | Action, Sci-Fi
I don't know why, but for some reason Asia (and Japan in particular) seems to have a thing for Giant Monsters (think Godzilla) and for Giant Robots (think BattleTech).

Or, as they're called in this series (and elsewhere? I don't know) Kaiju and Jaegers respectively.

This is a sequel to the best non-Godzilla Godzilla movie (in all but name), this time starring Star Wars own John Boyega as its reluctant hero, as the son of the "we're cancelling the apocalypse" hero from the first move, and who gets drawn back into the whole military training around the Jaegers 10 years after the events of that last movie.

Just in time, then, for him to be in place as the undersea breaches reopen and more of those Kaiju to come through ...

Dumb fun, but seemingly lacking something (although you can actually see what's happening in the battles this time around!) compared to the original, or to the various 'official' Godzilla/King Kong/etc movies.
  
40x40

Terry Crews recommended Aliens (1986) in Movies (curated)

 
Aliens (1986)
Aliens (1986)
1986 | Action, Horror, Sci-Fi

"And then I’ll go to my next one. Aliens. Jim Cameron, Sigourney Weaver. Dude, again, I am a “big movie” guy. I like the small, poignant indie, but you know, give me a Summer flick all day long. That’s what I grew up on, that’s my era. I mean, I remember seeing Star Wars at the drive-in; I’m that guy. But Aliens really upped the game for what the horror genre could be, you know what I mean? Because it was this weird mix of action and horror. You know, the first one was like straight horror, like oh my god, the creepiness, the ickiness of this thing. But then in Aliens, you’re like, “Yo, they got Marines! It’s like that? This is nuts!” It just created this frenzy in me that was like, oh, this is how it’s supposed to be done. I’ll never forget it. Any time Aliens is playing, I can’t turn away. I cannot."

Source
  
Darth Vader.

Both legs chopped off.

Only one arm.

Left on the lave beds of Mustafar.

No, we're not talking about the end of 'Revenge of the Sith' here, but about part of what happens to Vader in this, the second compilation of Greg Pak's run on the Darth Vader series of graphic novels (here, comprising issues 6 through 11), at the behest of The Emperor, who has found out about Vader's previous 'failings' from Volume 1 (Star Wars: Darth Vader by Greg Pak, Vol. 1: Dark Heart of the Sith in which he allowed his personal feelings to get the better of him.

This run also introduces Ochi of Bestoon - who The Emperor has sent to kill Vader - and actaulyl makes a better attempt at tying together the Original Trilogy and the Sequel Trilogy (with Vader discovering about, and travelling to Exegol and encountering the Sith Eternal) than any of those latter movies did!
  
Star Wars, Vol. 2: Showdown on the Smuggler's Moon
Star Wars, Vol. 2: Showdown on the Smuggler's Moon
Jason Aaron | 2016 | Comics & Graphic Novels
9
8.5 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
Note: this review is transposted from my personal review blog, and so was originally written several years ago. I figured if I reposted it here, someone might actually read it….

I very much enjoyed the first volume of Marvel’s ongoing Star Wars series, but many other reviewers took issue with it for playing things safe and giving us a story like many we’d seen before. These criticisms are not completely unfounded, I’ll admit, but neither are they completely fair. Either way, this is not a problem the series has going forward…. This second volume also includes the one-off flashback story THE LAST OF HIS BREED, featuring Obi-Wan Kenobi adjusting to his exile on Tatooine, which is discussed separately below.


Luke Skywalker has successfully escaped the clutches of the bounty hunter Boba Fett, but all he got for his troubles was the journal of Obi-Wan Kenobi–no small prize, but probably not all that helpful in furthering his Jedi training. So what’s the next logical step in learning about the Jedi? Try and sneak onto Coruscant to infiltrate the old Jedi Temple, of course! But when his attempt to find a discreet ship and pilot in a seedy bar on Nar Shaddaa goes horribly awry, Luke finds himself the prisoner of Grakkus the Hutt. In addition to the traditional crime and vice, Grakkus has made a name for himself as one of the foremost collectors of Jedi artifacts. Now Luke faces the battle of his life in Grakkus’ arena, billed as “the last Jedi” and pitted against a fearsome creature for the amusement of Grakkus’ fellow crime lords….Meanwhile, Han and Leia are out scouting potential locations for a new Rebel base when they run across a figure from Han’s past. Her name is Sana, and she claims to be his wife….

As with the previous volume, this was some stellar work. Jason Aaron nails the banter between Han & Leia, to the point where you can almost hear Carrie Fisher and Harrison Ford delivering the lines, and Luke’s mix of cockiness and self-doubt is spot-on for his character and situation. Also of note is Stuart Immonen’s spectacular artwork. From the character closeups to the panoramic vistas, this was pure Star Wars. Also amusing was watching our entire cast wade into battle wielding lightsabers. Did Luke manage to salvage anything of value from Grakkus’ stash on his way out? I guess we’ll have to wait and see….

Then there’s the Obi-Wan backup story. It’s been seven years since the rise of the Empire, seven years since the death of the Jedi and the Republic. Formerly one of the greatest Jedi of his generation, now Obi-Wan Kenobi lives a life of obscurity on the desert planet of Tatooine. Where once he protected the innocent of the galaxy, now “Old Ben” forces himself to look the other way lest he draw the Empire’s notice as Jabba’s thugs extort water from the locals. All that matters is protecting the boy, Luke Skywalker, on whose unknowing shoulders rest the fate of the galaxy. But there are limits to the patience of even the greatest of Jedi….

This was a good one. The story was solid, and it’s always interesting to see Obi-Wan’s state of mind during his exile. Was this done better in John Jackson Miller’s KENOBI? Yes. That goes without saying, if only because he had more than twenty-four pages to tell his story. At any rate, KENOBI isn’t canon anymore, so we’ll not dwell on it. Simone Bianchi’s art here was stellar, I must say, and his Kenobi managed to blend Ewan McGregor and Alec Guinness superbly. I would very much like to see more of these one-off excerpts from Obi-Wan’s journal appear in future issues of the comic.


CONTENT: Moderate violence, not too gruesome most of the time. Mild profanity. Mild sexual innuendo and flirting.


Original posts: Main story (https://jordanbinkerd.wordpress.com/2015/11/23/review-star-wars-showdown-on-the-smugglers-moon-by-jason-aaron-stuart-immonen/) & Obi-Wan Flashback (https://jordanbinkerd.wordpress.com/2015/11/23/review-star-wars-the-last-of-his-breed-by-jason-aaron-simone-bianchi/)