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Reviews
The Mandalorian: Chapter 20: The Foundling (2023)
Fun but it feels out of place
I'm finding the 3rd season of The Mandalorian way too uneven and all over the place. Fabreau hasn't learned any lessons after the Boba Fett fiasco and this season is just as confusing and uneven as that series was. The Mandalorian is supposed to be a space western but this season they try to be so many other things I'm not sure what to expect anymore. It's not that I'm a purist of any genre, I simply like consistency in style and quality. If episode 19 was an amateurish version of Andor, episode 20 is like some filler episode from the Bad Batch. The story that revolves around the Mandalorian covert and how they try to save a child from the clutches of an alien dragon. There is little in terms of advancing the plot although we do see how the relation of Bo Katan and the other Mandalorians solidifies. Style and story-wise the episode is extremely cartoonish. Big and bigger monsters, no sense of risk to anyone (characters survive unscathed no matter what happens to them, some situations are nonsensical), fast chases... the setting felt a bit poor at times, you know they are inside a room and not at the top of a mountain for example... Not a bad episode, it was fun to watch and it had a couple of excellent moments (wait for the final chat between Bo Katan and The Armorer), but it was certainly not at the level this series can reach. They can do much better than this.
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power: Udûn (2022)
Only better because there is less story
I can see many fans believe this is the best episode so far and I can understand why. It is more action packed, more focused and the ending is powerful, unexpected and intriguing. But the main reason why this episode "feels" better is simply because it is so action oriented, it is not hindered by the shortcomings of the horrendous writing. Ironically, since the story is practically non-existant and there is less dialogue, the episode turns out to be slightly better. There is one thing I really dislike about it though and it's not the first time it happens. This episode makes Middle Earth feel so small compared to the books and the LotR trilogy. The sense of wonder and huge scope is totally gone. Armies can cross lands and countries in what seems to be hours. In a previous episode we saw a character getting lost in the middle of the ocean, deciding to swim back to land (!!) and encountering two ships in a short time. That was preposterous, but seeing an army cross hundreds of miles in a matter of hours is not much better. Also, we are supposed to be watching the biggest TV production ever, but battles feel small and restrained compared to what we saw in the films. I can't hate Rings of Power like some people do, it has some good things, but it is always underwhelming and even its best moments feel bland and half baked to me.
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (2022)
Fan fiction, done with passion, is still fan fiction
Watching Rings of Power is like having a good friend who loves the Lord of the Rings films and has watched them a million times, but hasn't really read the Tolkien books. He has decided to write some fan fiction and I have to endure listening to him for hours on end as he goes through his poorly written, lore breaking, comic book inspired retelling of the raise of evil overlord Sauron and the forging of the One Ring. Now, because this guy is such a good friend and he's so passionate about his work, I keep coming back to the story and I struggle to hide my yawning, even if it happens in my beloved Middle Earth with characters I love (although I can barely recognise them because he's changed them so much). Will it improve? I have serious doubts. Maybe my friend should have spent more time fine tuning his writing. Being passionate about something doesn't necessarily translate as good quality.
The Book of Boba Fett (2021)
Uneven and occasionally confusing, but not terrible
Uneven series, with a couple of excellent episodes and 5 average ones. I have similar feelings than after watching The Bad Batch. It's not terrible, saying that wouldn't be fair, but it isn't as exciting as Star Wars should be (with the noticeable exception of episodes 5 and 6 which were pretty awesome). It's like Disney must meet a certain quota so they release these filler series with half baked stories, boring action sequences and bland characters I'm just unable to care about. If it wasn't because of how much I liked the two episodes I mentioned, this series wouldn't deserve more than a 5 or a 6 score.
Star Wars: The Bad Batch (2021)
More even than Clone Wars
The Bad Batch is a continuation of one of the story arcs from The Clone Wars cartoon series. It follows the adventures of a group of clones with special abilities (cloning "defects" that actually give them an advantage) in the first months of the Galactic Empire. The design style is very similar to what we saw in the last season of TCW and so is the story telling and the music score, but there are some important differences. Firstly, there are no story arcs, the whole season follows a single story. As a result, the quality is more even but there are some avoidable filler episodes. Secondly, the story is more focused on the expanded universe, with fewer characters from the main movies but with reoccurring appearances from comics and series. It is clearly aimed at viewers in their late teens but it is well written enough that older Star Wars fans like me can enjoy it, even if I can't say I'm in love with it. They do a good job at filling gaps and expanding the Star Wars universe, and they even attempt shyly to retcon the sequels but without getting dirty, which I appreciate because I'm still traumatised by them. So not the best Star Wars out there, but definitely worth watching if you are fan and probably a must if you liked The Clone Wars.
Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi (2017)
As much an amazing film as it is a massive disappointment.
I decided to give The Last Jedi a second chance and see if I could understand better how come it is so divisive. I belong to that 50% of people who saw it at the cinema in 2017 and felt completely heartbroken. I don't think I've ever been so disappointed with a work of art in my whole life. Not only I got bored, I felt so let down, so angry. The film even managed to ruin my love for Star Wars as a whole. I wasn't able to watch or read any Star Wars content for about a year. My illusion was gone, my heroes tainted, the stories I had once adored now felt dumb and broken. And yet, I could see that some people genuinely liked The Last Jedi, and many film critics praised it. So, was I wrong? Did I overreact? Did I focus too much on what I didn't like instead of allowing myself to enjoy a novel approach on my beloved saga? I recently rewatched Episode 8 with an open mind to challenge myself.
The truth is the film is not the bland, boring, nonsensical heresy I remembered. It isn't a cinematic masterpiece either. And, "from a certain point of view", it is both things at the same time.
The Last Jedi is probably the most beautiful film in the whole of Star Wars. It is gorgeously shot. It is full of poetry and symbolism. It also has one of the best soundtracks in the saga. Very possibly, the best since the Return of the Jedi. The mixture of music and cinematography is stunning. A treat for the senses.
The story is simple, but it works, and it even challenges the viewer with some unexpected twists, driven by a concept that is repeated througout the film: you must let the past die, look forward. Sure, there is a kiss that feels shoehorned because there must be a love story, a dramatic situation that is dragged for so long it ends up not being dramatic at all, some pedagogical moments that feel cringy, pretty bad humour and a main character that is so flawless it is hard to connect with her. And yet, overall, the story is consistent and interesting, plus it is told beautifully.
Doesn't sound too bad though, does it? So, why did it disappoint me so much when I first saw it? Was I a bit of a drama queen? I probably was, yes, but that doesn't change the fact The Last Jedi is a disappointment.
The reason why I felt so heartbroken back in 2017, and the reason why I still can't really enjoy this film even if I must admit it is not that bad as I once thought, is that it not only ignores the lore and the atmosphere of the older films, it doesn't even respect the previous installment of the sequels. It goes its own way, which would be okay if this was some spin off with new characters, but it isn't. For the invested Star Wars fan, the sequels, and The Last Jedi in particular, are a frustrating and disappointing experience.
JJ Abrams was so scared of the fans it risked nothing on The Force Awakens. Anything that could have been challenging or new, was left as a cliffhanger or a black box. The infamous "good story for another time" quote summarises well what I felt throughout the whole film. Everything is either a lazy copy of the original trilogy or a story for another time. Why is Rey so overpowered without training? Who's Snoke? Who's Maz? What is the First Order? Is Finn force sensitive? Was Han waiting for Rey? As disappointing as it was, I believed at the time I could be forgiving because it was the first part in a trilogy.
The Last Jedi not only didn't bother to deal with any of those questions left unanswered by the Force Awakens, it went against what was built by that film, creating confusion and frustration on viewers like me. Characters that seemed to go on a direction, suddenly go on a different one. Even established characters like Luke Skywalker are drastically changed so they can match the film's message. Where JJ Abrams philosophy was "don't risk" and "repeat what worked in the past", Rian Johnson's was, "grow up", "kill the past". In my humble opinion, both approaches are wrong or, at the very least, they weren't accomplished with enough skill and taste.
Rian Johnson believes the manichean concept of good and evil in Star Wars is too simple and must evolve. He thinks heroes like Luke Skywalker must be shown as pathetic relics, so we learn that we should all fend for ourselves, we must not rely on heroes. Instead, we can all be heroes, like Rey or the broom boy. Beautiful concept, if it wasn't because it isn't what we have seen in the previous 7 films of the saga (Jedi knights are heroes, people are people), it goes against what makes Star Wars special (hope and optimism) and Rey is so perfect it is impossible to use her as a role model. If anything, farmboy turned Jedi knight Luke is more "one of us" than perfect Mary Sue Rey. Also, I don't need to be told that wars are bad, profiteering is bad and heroes are imperfect, I know that. But I watch Star Wars precisely so I can escape from the grim reality of life, because it is about the triumph of hope and perseverance, because good wins in the end and because there are no grey areas. Characters are powerful archetypes. The themes of family and betrayal are grand. The Last Jedi is a contemporary take on something that is atemporal. Star Wars is epic, motivating and it rings with the same tone of the great tales of old. Those tales bonded communities and made them part of something bigger than themselves. The Last Jedi, in spite of all its poetry, its ambitious themes and its cinematic beauty, achieves the total opposite. It is divisive, annoying, childishly pedagogic and disrespectful with everything that came before. It is great cinema, average story telling and horrible Star Wars.
Furtivos (1975)
Perhaps, one of the best Spanish films ever
This film is so grim and haunting... It is one of the best representations of the Spanish golden age of cinema during the seventies. I can think of only a handful of films that achieved similar levels of craftsmanship and atmosphere: 'La Prima Angélica' (1974) and 'Cría Cuervos' (1976) by Saura are probably the finest examples.
'Furtivos' is a poetic metaphor of the dark times Spain lived during the dictatorship without being too political. The mother and the son, living isolated in the forest, are themselves the representation of the relationship between people and government at the time.
A must if you want to understand Spanish cinema and Spanish culture during those difficult times when Franco was dying (it was released two months before his death). It shows more than many other films without being too obvious, which is a relief if you don't like 'didactic' films.