Science Fiction

Star Wars: The High Republic: Trail of Shadows #1

/ / Comics

Set during the High Republic, in the years prior to the Star Wars prequels, opens with the death of Jedi Master Loden Greatstorm and the unexplained disintegration of his body. Jedi Investigator Emerick Caphtor is assigned to the case which will lead him to Vrant Tarnum and a mystery that will somehow tie into a children’s nursery rhyme and the actions of Coruscant private detective Sian Holt looking out for a friend who has gotten in over his head.

The idea of tying together Star Wars and detective story isn’t something I expected. The Emerick and Sian storylines feel very disconnected in the issue which has enough mystery going on without needing to add how the two tales supposedly will fit together. While an interesting idea, I don’t know that there’s enough here for me to come back and search for any answers.

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Steel Dawn

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Steel Dawn
  • IMDb: link

Set in a post-apocalyptic future where water is the most precious resource, 1987’s Steel Dawn stars Patrick Swayze as a former soldier turned nameless traveler, credited only as “Nomad,” whose search for the killer (Christopher Neame) of his mentor (John Fujioka) leads him to a farm run by a widow (Lisa Niemi) under attack by a ruthless nearby landowner (Anthony Zerbe).

Steel Dawn offers your basic western plot (borrowing more than a little from Shane, complete with a young boy taking a shine to our hero) with a modest amount of sci-fi trappings featuring weird mutants in the desert wasteland and struggle over scant resources. Re-released on Blu-ray, the film is at most a curiosity for Swayze fans and holds little other actual value other than the extended fight between our hero and the assassin.

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Dune: Part One

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Dune (2021)
  • IMDb: link

More coherent, but less complete, than David Lynch‘s bizarre 1984 film, director Denis Villeneuve‘s adaptation of the first half of Frank Herbert’s Dune is rich and elaborate storytelling. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still Dune, meaning the story is still complex and bizarre, but, despite only giving us half the story, offers a more satisfying movie experience.

Breaking the film into two halves allows this Dune to spend more time with character, worldbuilding, and setting the stage for a hero’s emergence which won’t fully be explored until the next movie. Gone are the emperor, who is referred to but never seen, the odd space traveling creatures of Lynch’s film, the sound-based weapons which will play such a pivotal role in the second-half of the story, and the narration of the emperor’s daughter which helped explain the story and the large gaps necessary for Lynch to fit the entire tale into a single film.

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Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time
  • IMDb: link

Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time movie reviewThe long-delayed final film in the Rebuild of Evangelion film series wraps up the story of Shinji Ikari (Megumi Ogata / Spike Spencer), looming angels, and the end of the world. The film finally sees the light of day more than eight years after the release of the last movie.

As with the other feature film adaptations of the Neon Genesis Evangelion anime, Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time is beautiful, bizarre, at times haunting, and often confusing. It’s certainly a step-up from the third, and weakest, entry into the franchise, although it does have to work extra hard while relying on quite a bit of monologuing to wrap up the tale.

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Star Wars Adventures #7

/ / Comics

Star Wars Adventures #7 comic reviewPart One of “The Princess and the Bog, A Twin Tale” kicks off a new story in Star Wars Adventures #7 featuring Luke and Leia and set between the events of the original Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back. While scouting the Outer Rim world of Bogano, Leia is a bit miffed to discover Luke there as well (who has felt drawn to the planet by the Force) rather than following the orders she gave him.

There isn’t much in the way of conflict between Luke and Leia in the original trilogy, but the story offers a glimpse of how Luke’s attempts to follow the Force could lead to conflict within the rigid structure of the Rebellion. Luke helps discover an impressive structure, although he’s less sure than Leia it might make a base for the Rebellion. Turns out it’s a good thing Luke showed up, as the pair encounter some unsavory characters.

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