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Reviews
Andor (2022)
Sadly pretty weak
*SPOILERS*
Sadly, this show doesn't really work. The first episode opens with Andor walking into a bar and asking about his sister. As he leaves he gets stopped by two off duty imperial officers, and he ends up killing one of them.
Not a bad hook. We immediately have conflict, giving the empire a reason to be after him, and a mystery, what happened to his sister? Just one problem, his sister will never be mentioned past this point, so just forget about that plot point.
The police start coming after him for killing the officer, but an episode later he gets away with a rebel guy, and the cop gets fired, and isn't in the rest of the story. Of course, not being in the story doesn't stop him from being in the show. Periodically he gets shown eating cereal while his mom yells at him. It never goes anywhere, but it's there.
So Andor joins a group of rebels for a heist, and you might think this is how he joins up with them for rogue one, but no. Instead, the heist goes wrong, almost everyone dies, and Andor runs away with his cut of the money to some beach resort.
While he's at the resort, Andor gets arrested because he was near the scene of a crime, and sent to a labor camp in the ocean. This is meant to show the brutality of the empire, and how they'll arrest innocent people to put them to work. That's fine and all for your bad guys to do, but it might have worked better if the guy we were following wasn't already wanted for murder and terrorism. Obviously he's gonna be arrested.
In prison, Andor meets Andy Circus. They find out that the prison is cycling prisoners infinitely so they can have permanent slave labor. This plot is fine, and is clearly meant to be a commentary on the US prison system, which is a welcome parallel. But it doesn't really make a lot of sense in universe. The empire already uses slave labor, and the star wars universe has droids that can do all this work for cheaper. Why set up this elaborate prison ruse that I evitabley gets found out, when you could just use actual slaves or droids?
Back to the plot, Andy and Andor plan a prison break, and get out. Of course, the prison is in the ocean, and Andy can't swim, so he dies.
Andor then goes home to get his mom and girlfriend, but his mom won't leave and his girlfriend was captured by the empire, so instead he helps inspire a mob that fights some imperial troops while he runs, and the cop guy from earlier gets to show up and save an imperial officer I haven't talked about yet.
Over all, Andor's story ends up as the worst plotline in his own show. It manages to somehow be both slow enough to bore, without focusing on any one thing long enough to make it interesting. It can't choose a plot, and instead becomes a completely different story every two episodes. Each time, everyone in the story either does or never comes up again, so you quickly learn not to care about the supporting cast. If it were just this story, it might actually get a 1/10 from me.
But luckily, this isn't the entire show. There are two other plot lines both of which are far more interesting.
The first is the imperial officer from the finally. She's low on the ladder, and is trying to Garner status by catching Andor after he was identified during the heist. Due to when that happened she doesn't get introduced till about halfway through the show, which initially made her inclusion feel like padding, just throwing in another antagonist that far in was a bit eye rolling. However, watching her climb and find her way through the empires bureaucracy makes you feel her frustration as she is repeatedly undermined by her colleagues, making you actually root for her before you remember she's evil. She finally tracks down where Andor is from and threatens his loved ones to get to him, leading to the finally.
The final plot line is Mon Mothma's, and is the best plot of the entire show. Watching her navigate political alliances, never fully knowing who she can trust as she tries to secure support for the rebels, while maintaining her position as a senator. It's intense and engaging, and it makes we wish we just got a Mon Mothma show instead. I wouldn't mind the slower pacing if we had this kind of political thriller plot, rather than a half baked action show. Sadly, star wars is afraid to show politics since the prequels. But it is genuinely great, and would easily be a 10/10 if it was the shows focus.
The Anarchists (2022)
A real misnomer
You'd think a documentary called "the anarchists" would be about, well, anarchists. But instead, it's about ancaps, which aren't actually anarchists, but instead libertarians. This is a misconception that could be cleared up with a Google search if anyone working on the project had an ounce of integrity.
No matter your view on anarchism as in ideology, it at the very least deserves to be presented accurately. Misinformation helps no one.
Hamster & Gretel: Empower Failure/Oakey Dokey (2022)
A fumbling start
This is a rough way to start a show. The animation largely looks stiff and lifeless, the character designs range from boring to unfinished, the dialogue often feels forced and unnatural, and the environments are generic and bland. The pacing is rushed, jumping from one place to another with little to no setup. Gretel is often very annoying, though Kevin is likable enough, if not very fleshed out in this episode.
Overall, this was a difficult watch, and while a show is allowed to have bad episodes, the premiere should definitely have gotten more polish. I'm willing to give the show a few episodes to find itself. Dan and his team have done great work with their previous two shows, and it's entirely possible that this was just a hiccup. But if this episode is indicative of the show as a whole, it's going to be a rough ride.
Onward (2020)
Not fully realized.
While this movie is very nice to look at, and is competent in the writing department, the world it takes place in is never fully realized. Everything is just our world with fantasy dropped on top. Things like a mermaid in the suburbs, pixies driving human sized motorcycles, and a centaur having trouble with a normal human car, seem to be funny gags someone came up with without thinking through why any of those things would exist in this world. Ordinarily I'd let it pass, but the history of this world is a big emphasis of the film, so not thinking through the history and development of the world really serves to take the viewer out of the film.
There were a few hiccups in the story/character department.
The character barley came off as a bit more irritating than I think was intended, being almost completely useless and causing trouble until the writer wants us to feel bad for him, then he was suddenly right all along.
The climax of the film felt a bit hollow. From a character perspective, it makes sense that Ian would sacrifice meeting his dad. However, the fact that the audience spends the entire mission with the "find dad" quest makes it a bit frustrating when he does finally come back, but we only get to see him from a distance and from behind.
Overall, Onward does have heart to it, but it is plauged by a few issues that hamper the viewing experience. I would recommend watching it once it's up on Disney+, but maybe save yourself the trip to the theater.
Pokémon: Detective Pikachu (2019)
Fun but ugly
This movie wasn't bad, it was fun and had some heart. It can be hard to sit though, however, because this movie is ugly as sin. The pokemon look so uncanny and disgusting, and the environment doesn't help. The end credits have all the characters drawn in a manga style, and it only served to remind me how much better this movie would be if it were fully animated.
Still, it had some good jokes and some decent characters. If you saw the trailers, and are okay with the designs, you will probably like it.
Venom (2018)
Trust me, this one's good
Despite getting a lot of negative reviews by critics, I actually found it to be quite a good movie. The visuals and action are very well done, and are really cool to watch. The humor was amazing, I was not expecting a funny movie based of the trailer, but there were plenty of times that the entire theater erupted with laughter.
The biggest flaw in the movie is really that a few characters could have been written better, which does hold it back a bit. It's nothing terrible, but nothing amazing either. However, despite this, the chemistry between Venom and Eddie is really solid. It's very fun to see them playing off each other.
Overall, I'd definitely recommend it, especially for anyone with a dark sense of humor.