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L.A. Noire (2011)
The best crime story you will get!
You know there are many games that defined a whole genre, but quite a few that offer such an unique experience, they are industrie's best. L. A. Noire lets behind all the movies and TV shows, it is far superior than those. It is the perfect crime story that should be experienced by everybody.
It is no coincidence that this game comes from Rockstar Games, the best artists of the world. After Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption this is the third creative masterpiece that will blow your mind.
Set in the late 1940s after WWII we follow a war hero who becomes detective of the LAPD. On hos way through the ranks we get to see everything police work has to offer. From traffic to homicide to drugs to the fire department, Cole Phelps has to find the clues and match them together in order to catch the killer or to reveal an entire crime organisation.
And all that wrapped up with the unresistable charme of the 1940s Los Angeles, the city of dreams. I have never seen any entertainment media portraying this era as good as L. A. Noire. The cars, the clothing, the music, the traffic lights, the arquitecture. Rockstar's love for details pays off again.
Combined with the slow but satisfying gameplay you have a lot of fun. Finding clues, interrogating suspects or chasing criminals, there is a variety of things you have to do and it never gets boring because the story is written that perfectly, it has to be experienced by everyone.
Notmally Rockstar Games is famous for its satirical approach to storytelling. L. A. Noire is far more serious and that is a good thing. The L. A. of the 1940s was a dangerous place with corruption, drugs and serial killers. Rockstar Games portrays this epoque perfectly and prove that they can just do anything they want to do.
The only aspect I have to criticise about this masterpiece is the lack of an open world. The story is linear and the only option you have to explore the city is during the missions. This is a missed opportunity. Exploring the city between the missions to dive even deeper into this era would have been awesome and the last piece to perfection.
L. A. Noire is your Dexter, your NCIS, your Chicago Fire, your Homeland and much more all in one game. If you would make a show out of this game it would get an IMDb of 9 or higher. Rockstar Games are unbeaten. I still haven't played one big game of them that was not a masterpiece!
Star Wars: Tales of the Empire: The Way Out (2024)
A missed opportunity
After Barriss left the empire years go by and we see her again on a lonely ice-planet, now being sime kind of healer.
One day a family with a force-sensitive child arrives and with them Barriss' old inquisitor sister to hunt them down. Barriss, fully returned to the Jedi way wins time for the family to escape and traps the sister in an ice cave. The sister furious to escape, kills Barriss and realises her faults. She did not want to kill her, but her anger controlled her actions. She also leaves her past behind and exits the cave carrying Barriss' dead body.
Unfortunately the episode ends right there, rather abrupt. I think they could have ended her character in a much more satisfying way. If she would duel Vader once again and dies during this fight, that would have been a real highlight of the show. This is a missed opportunity, in my opinion.
Star Wars: Tales of the Empire: Realization (2024)
Redemption Offee
Since Barriss Offee's betrayal on the Jedi Order in Clone Wars season 5 and its consequences (Ahsoka Tano's exit), fans were curious what happened to her after Order 66.
The last episode showed her joining the empire as an inquisitor, but rather out of the lack of options than out of faith.
This episode now shows her on her first mission with a sister. They hunt down a jedi, hiding on some planet and to get information they ask the villagers. While Barriss asks a kid in a friendly way and gets the information, the sister asked a man who says he does not know anything. Instead of being satisfied with getting the information, the sister starts to kill everybody before Barriss eyes. Then she quickly gets to the Jedi's location. Barriss arrives and saves her sister from a deadly blow, then duels the Jedi. She wins and offers him to join the empire but the sister stabs him from behind. Barriss, furious about the sisters ways duels her and pushes her off the cliff.
She realised the brutality of the empire and decides to get out.
It is great to see that Barriss redeems herself by leaving the empire that quickly. In her heart she still is a Jedi.
Star Wars: Tales of the Empire: Devoted (2024)
Nobody is forgotten
This episode shows why this show even exists. The conclusion of long awaited character arcs is bittersweet.
Barriss Offee is still in prison after her betrayal on the Jedi Order in Clone Wars season 5. But during Order 66 she is presented with an opportunity to become an inquisitor.
Together with two other candidates gets tested. The grand inquisitor himself activates the dark side in Barriss and after beating her component she is granted the rank as inquistor under the presence of the dark lord himself Darth Vader. This is ironic, haven't they fight each other after Barriss betrayal. Now Anakin also joined the dark side.
All in all this episode clearly is the best of the entire show, giving us not only the long-awaited return of a beloved character but also the appearances of the grand inquisitor and Darth Vader. We also get to see the construction of the Fortress Inquisitorious, first introduced in Jedi: Fallen Order.
Star Wars: Tales of the Empire: The Path of Hate (2024)
Let them burn
The third episode of Morgan Elsbeth's arc shows her just before the events of The Mandalorian season two in which Ahsoka and Din Djarin free the village and Elsbeth has to flee the planet.
Before that happens a new republic ambassador arrived to offer her to join the new republic. She kindly dismisses the offer and kills all of the new republic men. To stress her power she burns down the forest in front of the town. Like her home planet Dathoomir Corvis has to burn.
All in all the Morgan Elsbeth story arc is a fine addition to the Star Wars universe. She had little to none back story before, so this improved her character for sure.
Now to Barriss Offee!
Star Wars: Tales of the Empire: The Path of Anger (2024)
Long live the empire
In episode two we get to see how Morgan Elsbeth and Admiral Thrawn met. After she presented plans for the TIE-Defender program, which Thrawn realises in Star Wars Rebels, Thrawn tests her with an assassin on her planet Corvis. She rules over the planet but the people are angry so the help of the empire is welcome for her.
After beating the assassin Thrawn appears to recruit her. This finally explains how the both of them met. Unfortunately it ended disastrously in the Ahsoka series, so this may not be worth much for you.
All in all another solid episode but not as godd as the first one, in my opinion.
Star Wars: Tales of the Empire: The Path of Fear (2024)
Important character work
Morgan Elsbeth's character was not the most interesting, to say it nice and easy.
In fact the Ahsoka show completely destroyed several characters. But this show has been forgotten and so we focus on Tales of the Empire which tells us Morgan's backstory.
In this first episode we get to see her during the purge of Dathoomir. General Grievous and the seperatist army slaughter the nightsister clan, Morgan's mother inclusive.
Elsbeth swears to take revenge and therefore brings hatred and destruction to the mountain tribe that gives her shelter.
Eager to get some weapons to fight agains the droids several members of the clan die and the leader sees a dark future for Morgan Elsbeth.
All in all a great start to this show. The action was pretty good, seeing Grievous again was awesome and the character work for Elsbeth is very important. See you on the next episode.
Star Wars: Tales of the Empire (2024)
Another fine addition to the Star Wars Galaxy!
Tales of the empire fails to surpass the Tales of the Jedi but nevertheless enrichens this already loaded franchise with a few new gems.
The first three episodes focus on Morgan Elsbeths journey, starting with the purge on Dathoomir. The nightsisters get eliminated by General Grievous, Morgan Elsbeth is one of the few survivors. This event is known from the clone wars and it was great to revisit it.
Morgan Elsbeth, thrived by revenge, brings destruction to the mountain clan, that was so kind to give her shelter.
We next see her presenting the plans for the TIE-Defender systems to imperial officers. Admiral Yularen is interested and connects her with Admiral Thrawn. So this is how they met.
In the third part we see her after the fall of the empire, slaughtering an ambassador of the New Republic, who wanted to bring peace to her planet Corvis. This episode should play right before the events of The Mandalorian season 2, in which Ahsoka and The Mandalorian arrive on the planet.
All in all an very entertaining arc, that finally gives her some character. However the ultimate banger it was not.
Moving on to the second story arc featuring Barris Offee during Order 66. She is currently imprisoned as she was sentenced to after her betrayal on the Jedi Order in The Clone Wars.
However the empire offers her to become an inquisitor which she kindly accepts. The grand inquisitor tests her personally and she proves herself worthy by killing her old jedi-colleague contender. She now is an inquisitor and the dark lord himself arrives at the Fortress Inquisitorious to oversee his new tools.
After that we see her on her first mission which is to hunt down a jedi with her sister. Barriss uses her jedi-training to get the information from a child so nobody has to be hatmed. But her inquisitor sister has another plan and so she kills all of the villagers to make an example.
This is when Barriss realises her fault to join the empire and so she turns on her sister to protect the jedi.
The third episode shows Barriss after some years have gone by. She is now a healer and helps people in need. Just like a jedi. One day her sister finds her on the hunt for a force sensitive child. Barriss makes sure the child and his family escape and trap her sister in an ice cave. The sister is furious and in her anger she kills Barriss. This is when she realises that her path only causes sorrow and destruction.
In my opinion this story arc is the better one of the both. However it is still not flawless, especially the third episode ends a bit abrupt. I guess Barriss is dead, which makes sense, because we do not see her in any show or movie after these events. Still I am glad they finished her story which was open since The Clone Wars season five.
As a versict to this 6-part mini-series I would say that it does its job. Tales of the empire is a satisfying addition to the Star Wars universe. The animation looks great, the soundtrack by Kevin Kiner is superb as always and the stories help the viewer understand certain character developments that happened in other shows before.
Please give us more of this, maybe in for of a Tales of the Sith or Tales of the Rebellion. There is always somwthing to tell in the Star Wars Universe!
May the 4th be with you!
Star Wars: The Bad Batch: The Cavalry Has Arrived (2024)
Bittersweet, glorious, powerfull. A picture perfect ending!
This day was inevitable. I tried to prepare myself for it, but it is just too much. A legacy that started in 2008 with the Clone Wars ends 16 (!) years later with The Bad Batch. I am trumbeling, struggeling with the tears. This is it. The final part of my childhood. And it is glorious, it is overwhelmingly beautiful and it is so close to perfection. Dave Filoni, I forgive you for the Ahsoka show, because without your work on the animated Star Wars shows I would be a different man today. I thank you and your team for everything you gave me. You have enrichened my life like no other had!
Consider my review of this episode as a love letter, directly coming from my heart.
Last week we witnessed the Bad Batch crash-landing on Mount Tantiss with former Admiral Rampart. Their mission is simple but hard: They have to rescue Omega.
Omega herself has her escape plan in full motion as they reprogram a droid to get rid of the scientist in the vault. Then they escape through the energy tunnel and free the Zillo Beast. The Zillo Beast unleashes its mighty power to not only devour the stormtroopers but first and formost the haters of this show. (It does this the second time)
The chaos is unleashed and Hamlock is furious. He sends out his special-mutated clones to hunt down the Bad Batch, to use it as a bait for Omega. Echo and Emerrie Karr get to Omega and the kids. What a lovely reunion between Echo and Omega! It brought me the first tears of the evening. With the kids rescued Omega and Echo go rescuing their brothers and with brothers I mean all of them.
Lama Se was with them to. Her task is to destroy all the data on project necromancer. But Rampart's following her to take the data for himself, so he can sell it to the empire. As always, imperials have only their own skin in mind. Lama Se has other plans, holding a detonator that will tear everything down. Rampart shoots her and realizes his demise, but it is too late. All the data together with Lama Se and Rampart gets destroyed. A sad moment, Caminoo's last survivor and with her all the knowledge lost forever. Now only the clones remain as relics from the old glorious days.
Back to Echo and the clones, they get to the place where Hunter, Wrecker and Crosshair are being hold, but it turns out to be a setup and they have to fight Hemlock's special clones. In an epic fight they barely make it, but Hemlock got Omega and tries to escape. Crosshair and Hunter go after them and get into a difficult situation. Hemlock has Omega chained to his hand, standing on a narrow bridge. Now Crosshairs sniper skills are crucial. Will he manage to hit the most important shot of his life? Hemlock's troopers cut off his right hand, the one he struggeled with since the end of season 2, so he has to shoot with his left hand. All the character development throughout the last 16-20 episodes pays off when Crosshair hits the handcuffs to free Omega so Hunter and him can shoot Hemlock down.
The Batch is reunited and escapes to Pabu for retirement. But before we come to that, Governor Tarkin arrives on Mount Tantiss to inspect the situation. The Zillo Beast escaped, all the data is lost, so he decides to pull everything down and redirect all the funding to project Stardust, which of course means the construction of the death star.
Back on Pabu we get to see all of team alive, retirering from being soldiers. This marks the end of a journey. The clones were born to fight for the Republic, then were ripped from their free will in form of Order 66 and the inhibitor chips, just to became samples for the empire to experiment on. Now their fight is finally over and they get their well-deserved peace. Such a beautiful end to their story.
The last sequence of this show, features Omega, as she has grown up to become an adult. Hunter is still there (he looks wild) and Wrecker and Crosshair seem to be around as well. She decides to leave Pabu to fight her war, which means the fight with the rebellion against the empire, I guess. Maybe we will see her again, sometimes?
But this is the end for now. It is a happy ending and in my opinion, this was the right decision to make. Tech's death in the season two finale was shocking enough. It was heartbreaking to witness that last year, I would not have survived any more deaths.
It is the perfect ending to this glorious show and the last missing part of the clone wars. What George Lucas began in 1977 inspired millions of people to create art themselves. One of them was Dave Filoni, the man that brought us animation's greatest show and now a wonderfull conclusion to its legacy.
As always with Star Wars, if something ends, something begins. Just two days from now on May the 4th, the next animated project in the form of Tales of the Empire will be released. It just goes on and on, no matter how many bad projects Disney puts out, there will always be people working at Lucasfilm, who respect the franchise and create magic. You can't kill Star Wars!
And I can't close this review without a special acknowledgement for Kevin Kiner's work. Since 2008 he composes the score for the animated projects and contributed immensely to their glory. But what he did with the Bad Batch is something even more extraordinary. All the themes, form the Bad Batch theme, to the clone anthem and the emotional theme from Tech's death, he got better and better with each episode. I am looking forward to listen to the soundtrack on Spotify when it is released.
So with this said, how could I possibly end this review?
Star Wars The Bad Batch gave me the best nostalgia I ever received in my life. It answered the remaining questions from the Clone Wars and expanded on its glory. But it also stands for itself. Being able to follow Omega and fhe Batch on their journey was priceless. It will always remain a special part in my heart and I will rewatch the entire show again and again with my children and grandchildren. I am sure there is even more the find, that has been missed on the first watch.
With the journey coming to its end, I want to thank all of you for reading my reviews and contributing yourself. Especially you and_mikkelsen I want to thank for your reviews! I always enjoyed reading them!
I will miss you all, even the haters. See you at Tales of the Empire and may the force be with you, always!
X-Men '97: Tolerance Is Extinction - Part 1 (2024)
Excellent start for an eXellent finale
The first part of the X-Men '97 finale is an bombastic and entertaining episode that sets expectations even higher for the other two parts to come.
The villain reveals his secret plan as he activates his sentinels around the globe to eliminate all mutants and the X-Men. They stand barely a chance agains these cyber-humans, because of their self-repair abilities.
Fortunately the president lady frees Magneto from the villain's lair and he flies to north pole and sends our electromagnetic impulses that deactivate the sentinels.
We also get a lot of backstory from our villain, so we understand his motives.
There was also a short spider-man cameo which I liked, because it was just 2 seconds or so.
In the end a capsule crashes into the X-Men mansion and it's Charles Xavier himself calling HIS X-Men to fight against whatever evil comes.
All in all a superb episode, the second best so far, ranked behind the Gambit one. If they continue to improve God save us, because that would be an insane finale.
I said it last week and I say it again now. If Marvel wanna survive they have to cut down their live-action garbage and focus on animated shows like this. They still have the knowledge and creativity to tell fascinating stories. This may their way to remain relevant for the next years.
X-Men '97: Bright Eyes (2024)
Rogue's Revenge
Last week's episode felt like a drawback if compared to the masterpiece episode 5 was. So it was time to set things straight and the showrunners delivered!
This episode shows us what we all wanted to see last week: A revenge for the attack on Genusha and the murder of Gambit. Rogue sets out to find the person responsible for the attack and even meets Captain America. He can't help her so she logically throws his shield away and goes on.
When they finally find the person behind the attack, they find out that there is someone bigger pulling the strings behind the scenes. In her fury Rogue goes rogue and drops the guy off the building. X-Men usually don't kill humans, but this time we all understand their anger.
It turns out that this guy was some kind of cyber-mutant (sorry for my lack of expertise) and a battle starts. Luckily they get rescued by Schwarzenegger's brother and we switch to our villain who is shaving Magneto. How kind of him!!
The next three episodes will form the finale of the first season and I am eager to see, if they manage to keep the quality up. If they do so, maybe this animated form could be Marvel's future? Their live action shows were all garbage. With X-Men'97 they returned to the roots. Why not producing more of these shows? Just an idea...
Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare (2010)
Best Zombie Movie Ever
Red Dead Redemption is a milestone for open world videogames and was the first ever with a western setting. But Rockstar Games decided to go one step further with their DLC Undead Nightmare, which turns the game into a zombie-apocalypse-western.
Rockstar's story and mission design are excellent as always. Their games' biggest strength is the satirisation of the United States of America and it works here again. Their developers' creativity has no limits, the player profits immensely from that.
This time there are bigfoots, burning horses and an unicorn.
The only aspect you may criticise is, that it is too short. There are only 10 story missions and some of them are pretty easy and a bit boring. So that's why the main game is superior to this dlc.
However both of them are recommended to play. These are historical pieces of art you can learn from, and most importantly, that will give you a lot of fun! Before watching a zombie movie, just play the best one available!
Red Dead Redemption (2010)
The Destruction of Cinema
In 2010 Rockstar Games, the makers of the industry's biggest franchise known by the name of Grand Theft Auto, decided to take a risk. Leslie Benzies, Dan and Sam Houser had a dream. This dream was to make a western, but not a movie, they wanted to make a western videogame. What they achieved, was not only to create one of the best gaming franchises of all time. With Red Dead Redemption Rockstar started to kill Cinema.
Red Dead Redemption, or RDR, as it is called by fans, lets you play as John Marston, a bounty hunter, blackmailed by the government to hunt down his former crew members. Marston is all the legendary western heroes combined. He is Clint Eastwood's "Blonde", he is John Wayne, Lee Van Cleef, Henry Fonda, Gary Cooper, etc.
We follow him on his journey through New Austin, the Wild West equivalent, Nuevo Paraiso, which is Mexico and West Elizabeth, which can be interpreted as the East Coast.
Each territory is unique and feels alive. The wildlife and flora is different in every territory.
RDR's open world feels alive and realistic and there is nothing I missed.
Rockstar's Mission design is king of the industry. RDR's 57 story missions and 20 side missions are all great with a few exceptions. Some of the missions, especially those with the Gatling Guns were amazing.
But there is much more than the story. If you want to complete the game, and I mean complete complete, platinum trophy inclusive, you gonna be prepared for an insane grind.
There are 7 bandit camps, 4 environment challenges, each coming with 10 levels, there are 17 outfits to unlock, 20 bounties to collect, every animal has to be killed, etc., etc.
And if that's not enough, there is a dlc, called Undead Nightmare, that gives you even more to do.
Verdict:
What Rockstar Games achieved with Red Dead Redemption is historical. Who needs movies anymore if you could just play better versions of Western films in videogame form?! Rockstars cinematic storytelling makes cinema absolete. Hollywood's golden ages are long over, in comes the gaming industry to take its place. 8 years after RDR, Rockstar released RDR2 which earned 750 million dollars in 3 days. No movie ever achieved such success.
Red Dead Redemption is part of those historical pieces of art, everybody has to experience at least once in their lives. Now is the perfect time for that, since Rockstar ported the game to PS4. Go play it and find redemption.
Star Wars: The Bad Batch: Flash Strike (2024)
Fortunately, yes!
The Bad Batch season three prepares everything for a glorious finale in its penultimate episode. Its title "Flash Strike" describes the episode well. There is a lot going on, the pacing is superb and the tension is high. Dave Filoni and his writers have pulled of another brilliant episode. Kevin Kiner's magestic score delivers again.
The Bad Batch now is so close to rescuing Omega and all the other prisoners on Mount Tantiss, together with revealing the secrets about project necromancer.
The Zillo Beast also makes his return at the right moment, adding another mysterious element to the operation.
All in all, this episode gave me everything I wanted. Action packed, funny moments, tense moments and most importantly it hold back the reveals for the finale!
In my opinion the last episode has to be much longer than the usual 20-25 minutes. I expect it to be 40-45 minutes like the Star Wars Rebels finale. I just do not see how they possibly could end this journey in 20 minutes.
We will find out in 7 days from now. Enjoy the last week of Star Wars The Bad Batch. A show that will be missed, at least by me!
Shôgun: A Dream of a Dream (2024)
Like leafless branches
When I started to watch this Show I had high expectations given to the high score it has. What I did not expect was to fall in love.
We start where we took off last week, right after the door explode. I had hope. Many had hope that she will survive. But it would not be Shogun if she survived. And so she died. Mariko-sama died.
She was many people's favorite character. She was Shogun's heart. And now it was ripped out of its chest and the world feels not the same. It is emptier. It is like a leafless branch.
The showrunners planned this from the start. They did not want one epic final battle to conclude the show. They wanted it to be Mariko's death and its aftermath.
But it does not end without giving us the reveal we all have waited for. Lord Toranaga's plan was to become Shogun from the beginning. All the sacrifices he made served this purpose. So he can restore peace in the realm.
He tells that Yabushige before his death, so only the viewer knows about it. Yabushige, the anjin and Lady Mariko are tools of Toranaga and they always were.
I am not sure if I like Toranaga for that or if I hate him. Mariko died because he set her in danger. But her death will save the lifes of thousands. A satisfying and unique ending.
I wanna thank the showrunners and you my fellow readers and colleagues for this incredible journey! We will keep Shogun in our hearts and show it to our children and grand children! The story ends, but its legacy will live forever.
Star Wars: The Bad Batch: Into the Breach (2024)
Kevin Kiner
The Star Wars soundtrack always has been one of its most iconic trademarks. John Williams with the movies, Ludwig Gorannson with the live action shows and of course the legendary Kevin Kiner with the animated shows. The last two episodes serve as an example for his masterclass art work.
This episode even starts with a loud sound, my soundbar let the floor erupt. Goosebumps from the first second on, not many shows manage to do this.
But throughout the episode it keeps up the quality. Being it the dark, menacing sound of Mount Tantiss or the infamous Bad Batch Theme in a different variation. I wanted this review to focus on this man's precious work. Thank you Kevin Kiner, for everything!
Now to the story. The Bad Batch still tries to get the coordinates to Tantiss with the help of Rampart. They break into an imperial space station and copple their ship on a science freighter that heads toward the secret base.
Meanwhile Omega prepares the kids to escape the facility.
Now everything has been prepared for a great finale, that we will get, I am sure of it. The hype is real!
Shôgun: Crimson Sky (2024)
Heartbreaking
The Abyss of Life presented one of the most emotional scenes of entertainment to us. Episode 9, Crimson Sky, continues on the same emotional level.
Blackthorne, Yabushige and Mariko are in Osaka to prepare everything for Crimson Sky. Lady Mariko wants to bring Toranaga's wife and his newborn son out of danger and back to Edo, but Lord Ishido prohibits it. Mariko tries nevertheless but gets stopped by Ishido's men. She protests and declares to commit suicide at sunset. This puts Ishido and the council in a tricky situation. If they let her go, the other hostages also want to go, if they let her kill herself this would cause protest by the other high families in Osaka.
When Mariko prepares to die, the Anjin tries to convince her not to do it. But even his love can't change her mind.
Literally in the last second Ishido arrives with permission for Mariko to leave in the morning.
Our heroes win and everything is prepared for Toranaga's strike.
But wait, this would not be Shogun, if it is that easy.
In the night Yabushige opens the doors for some ninjas to infiltrate the mansion. Blackthorne, Mariko and Yabushige manage to hide in some storage house but the ninjas prepare to blow up the door. The anjin tries to move something before the door and asks Yabushige to help him. But he does not move. Instead Mariko goes to the door and it explodes.
Puh, that's a shock. Honestly I expected her to commit suicide and was prepared to fill my bathtup with tears, but was reliefed to see her survive. And then that happens. I mean, there is still a chance she survives and I will spent 7 days hoping she will, but if not, I do not know what to say. I loved this character since she was introduced. Love by the first sight, you could say. Her death would break me and the anjin all together.
All in all this episode delivered another masterclass. With nine episodes done, we have only one left to conclude this show in perfection. Humanity holds its breath while waiting for the grand finale of the best show of the year. Maybe even the best show of the decade. We will see in one week from now.
Star Wars: The Bad Batch: Juggernaut (2024)
How is it possible that people hate this episode? Shame on you!
The Bad Batch's double feature one week ago was a massive banger that put the season back on track. This week's episode continues with an outstanding performance. It's tense, full of action and a lot of fun to watch.
After everything went wrong last episode, Omega is brought back to Tantiss, where she is the final part of the puzzle. Her blood and the M-count sample's can be used to clone something. However they do not reveal what to clone. This will be hold up til the end.
To get the coordinates of Tantiss the Bad Batch has to rescue Admiral Rampart from a mining fascility. He is the one who might know the way. This whole part was very entertaining to watch, because of the great action and the legendary soundtrack by Kevin Kiner. This guy put out another masterpiece.
In the end, they still do not know the coordinates, but Rampart knows a way how to get them.
All in all I really liked the episode and cannot understand why it got a 7 instead of an 8, at least. What do you expect, people? According to you, every episode not reaching the quality of peak Star Wars is a bad one. Please lower your expectations and enjoy the ride! Spare your bad vibes for The Acolyte!
X-Men '97: Remember It (2024)
Now I am a fan
I started this show out of a minor interest. The last couple of years Marvel released garbage after garbage, so I did not expect much. And at first I kind of was confirmed. It was good, but not extraordinary. The last episode was even bad, a filler. But then I saw this episode and everything changed.
The double love story of Magneto, Gambit and her (sorry I forgot the name) was intense and the tragic end of Gambit hit me hard. I do not know any backstory of these characters despite of what I have seen in this show, so it is not such a big deal for me like for some others, but it still was emotional and very well written.
I also like the subtle criticism on the UN by Magneto when he counters the UN woman's thesis "terrorists should not be allowed to be leaders" with "many leaders decide to become terrorists". He has a point!
Most importanly this episode gained me as a new fan of the animated X-Men. And I think this applies to many people like me who just wanted to give it a try. This show has great potential and I hope they do not throw it away!
Captain Fantastic (2016)
A fantastic movie
Captain Fantastic is a special movie, not mainstream and that's a good thing. This movie shows two worlds crashing against each other. On the one side you have a hippie family living in the woods away from the "fashist capitalists" ruling the world. On the other side you have the rest of the world, living the "normal" life we know. And this confrontation is worked out perfectly in this movie.
While the hippies for example, have been teached by their father, played by the great Vigho Mortensen, and know a lot of things, the two boys of the normal family don't know anything, despite going to school. The hippies also know how to survive on their own, how to hunt, how to treat wounds, etc., etc.
But they also have faults. Being kept away from the rest of the world, they do not know how this world works. Take the interaction of Bo with females. He does not know how to interact with them, because he never spoke with a girl despite his little sisters.
When their mother dies and the funeral takes place in a church, despite her will of being cremated in a buddhistic way the family travels all the way to the place to fulfill their mothers wish. Being confronted with the normal people one boy questions his father's way and wants to stay with his grand parents. The grandfather confronts him with child abuse, mentioning the many scars on the childrens body and the fact that he gave them real weapons. Additionally one daughter suffers a severe injure while trying to get the boy back. This makes the father question himself and his way of living. This concludes when Bo, ghe oldest son shows him invitations from all the big highschools. The father did not know about that, Bo assigned himself with the help of his mother.
In the end the father decides to let Bo go to college and moves into a real house with his kids. They also go to school now. So he opens up to the feared capitalistic world, but still keeps the wildlife habits like making their own food and living very sustainable.
So the message of this movie, as I would interpret, is that both extremes, the hippie world and our capitalistic western world are not ideal. A hybrid of both worlds would bring the most benefits. Everybody has the choice to either adept this idea or ignore it.
I recommend watching this fantastic movie, because it is full of heart. The great Viggo Mortensen is amazing here. This is a special movie I would not want to miss out!
Shôgun: The Abyss of Life (2024)
Brutal, emotional, breathtaking! Best episode so far!
Shogun's 8th installment, "The Abyss of Life", climbs at the top of all episodes so far and comes with a scene that surpasses everything we have seen before.
Having to wait one whole week to see this episode felt like an eternity! After the "Rains of Ajiro", as I called last week's episode, featuring the shocking betrayal of Toranaga's half brother and his surrender to the council plus the unexpected death of Toranaga's son Nagakado, I was trying to figure out how the show will move on. A few people had the idea (and hope) that Toranaga still has a backup plan and these people were right, at least they had the right idea.
What this episode does, and that's kind of typical of Shogun, is to play with its audience. It starts by showing the condition of Toranaga. He seems to be weak and suffering from an illness. His allies question his decision to surrender. They believe there is a chance to win if they fight Lord Ishido. But Toranaga seems to have mad his decision and declares every disobedience as treason. The anjin tries to win Lord Yanushige's allegiance for his plan to attack Osaka with ships, but he still believes Toranaga has some secret plan.
Then Toranaga summons all his Lords to sign a letter of surrender which he will be sending to Osaka. But some Lords and his personal advisor Hagemitsu refuse to accept this defeat. And Hagemitsu goes even further:
He sets Toranaga before an ultimate decision. If he does not decide to fight, Hagemitsu will commit Sepukku. Lord Toranaga fights with his emotions, you can see the tears he is trying to hide. This is his most loyal friend, he was there from him since he was a little boy and now he has to sacrifice him to ensure his masterplan will not fail. Watching this scene was heartbreaking! It was one of the most brutal and emotional scenes of entertainment history! To make it short and simple: This scene almost brought me to tears!
Lord Buntaro, Hagemitsu's son has to second his own father, which makes things even harder. This was the best scene of the show so far!
After this shocking event, Lord Yanushige decides to accept the anjin's offer. He now thinks of Toranaga as an old, mad man. But then we swith to Toranaga speaking to Lady Mariko, finally revealing his plan. By letting Hagemetsu die he made sure Lord Ishido and the council think his decision to surrender is real, but in the background he plans to fight. He explains how easy the anjin and Yanushige are to control. It was his plan they join forces and attack Osaka all the time. Lady Mariko also joins the two on their journey, of course you might rightly think!
The last scene of this episode shows Toranaga all dressed up, looking as good as new, concluding hos transformation from a sick old men at the start of the episode, to a determined, prideful leader!
This episode sets things up for a great finale we will get only two weeks from now! It is awesome to know, that we will get another two episodes of this phenomenon. Shogun proved again what it's made of and the steps of becoming the greatest show of the decade are getting fewer and fewer every week.
Midnight in Paris (2011)
Allen's best. Period!
Woody Allen made some well known films in the 70s. I watched some of them and I had mixed feelings about them.
Midnight in Paris changed my view of maestro Allen because it touched me personally.
I often think about how it would be like living in the 1920s or the middle ages or during the antiques. These epoches have something magical on them I love. Just take architecture: Modern architecture is lifeless rubbish. The 1920s had some of the best.
Woody Allen finds a perfect answer for this dilemma. Every generation thinks a generation before them was the best. Ariadne, the woman Gil meets in the 1920s wants to live during the belle epoque. He coming from the 2010s thinks the 1920s are the best. And so it goes on and on.
The message of this movie is, that while it does not always seems to be the greatest period, the present is not worse than the past. But it is also not always better than the past. Every generation had something special, the others will never have.
Star Wars: The Bad Batch: Point of No Return (2024)
Powerful, tense, tragic! Masterclass!
After the great first part of our double feature fhe second part tops the first in every way delivering us the best episode of the season so far!
Fbi special agent clone wastes no time and tracks the pirate down. He gets the coordinates of Pabu and confirms the target. And then it happens.
The Havorc Marauder is gone, forever. Wrecker gets injured badly and the empire arrives with a venator attack cruiser to eliminate the chances of escape. They a roaming the streets in search for Omega, threatening wiman and children. Omega, who is lighthearted cannot watch this happening and surrenders to the empire. But not without a plan. Crosshair has to hit the ship with a tracking device, so they can finally get the coordinates of Mount Tantiss. The whole season he has issues hitting the target. This could be his moment of redemption.
But it is not. He misses the ship and Omega is gone again. He failed. The Bad Batch failed. Everything went wrong. This is pure tragedy.
Honestly, I did not expect such a blast! I hoped for it, being a huge fan of the show, but after the last two episodes even I had my doubts.
But Dave Filoni and his crew delivered again and set up the hype for the remaining 4 episodes. Now, they have no time left for filler episodes. This is serious business! I hope they make the most of it!
PS: I have to make a big shout out for Kevin Kiner, who's soundtrack electrifies me every single minute. John Williams could not have made it better!
Star Wars: The Bad Batch: Identity Crisis (2024)
Bane's still stealing kids for Palpatine!
After the last two episodes were below our expectations this week's double feature has to set things right and the first part does a great job achieving this goal.
We are back on Tantiss were Kara overtakes the supervision of children with high M-counts. These "specimen", how the empire calls them, are force sensitive and serve project necromancer. And the empire cannot get enough of them...
This is were the legendary bounty hunter Cad Bane steps in. I knew it was him, just by listening to the sounds of his boots. This is one of my favorite Star Wars characters of all time!
He and Todo capture a force sensitive child and give it to the empire.
So, if you are a true Star Wars fan, this will sound familiar to you. In fact Bane did this before, in The Clone Wars. There was this episode were he stole a child and brought it to Mustafar, where Palpatine had a collection of force sensitive babies. So the project necromancer has been there all the time. Masterclass storytelling I call that!
At the end of the episode Hamlock is informed by the special fbi clone agent that he tracked down the pirate helping the Bad Batch sometimes. This is the beginning of the end.
I am relieved to see that Dave Filoni and his crew set things straight with the audience. There are only 5 episodes left of our precious childhood. Let's enjoy the ride together!
Shôgun: A Stick of Time (2024)
The Rains of Ajiro
A good story knows sacrifice. A good story knows to use the element of surprise. A good story knows to hit its viewer right into the heart.
Shogun's seventh entry "A stick of time" does all of these.
Lord Toranaga requests the assistance of his half brother Saeki to join him with Crimson Sky. At first it seems the plan works and the brothers are reunited, but then in good old GoT manner Saeki reveals he was named the fifth regent of the council, which means he is following Ishido's orders.
Lord Toranaga is forced to go to Osaka where he will await execution. But that's not all. Nagakado Toranaga's son tries to kill Saeki while he is in the brothel but he slips and dies a meaningless death.
Oh my god, everything that could go wrong, went wrong! Without Toranaga his army is useless and the fates of Lady Mariko and John Blackthorne are in the hands of the council.
The only possible outcome I can see is for Blackthorne to gather with Yanushige, Buntaro, Lady Mariko and a few good men to take back his ship and try one last attack.
This betrayal almost reaches GoT's unforgettable plot twists like Baelor or the Rains of Castamere. It shows us that no character is safe.
The showrunners made everything right. Now they have three whole episodes to bring the story to an satisfying end. I am more than sure, they will achieve it!