Movie Review: Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets

Details: Released in 2017. About two hours and twenty minutes long. Stars Dane DeHaan, Cara Delevingne, Clive Owen. Directed by Luc Besson.

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets comes from the director of The Fifth Element and obviously so. If you’ve seen The Fifth Element, then you can clearly see the influences in art direction from that film, except updated with the computer effects of today. Also like The Fifth Element, Valerian is a beautiful movie with incredible imagery, but a mostly nonsensical plot.

TV Show Review: Star Wars Rebels, Season 4

Details: First half aired in 2017 and second half aired in 2018 on Disney XD. Fifteen episode with most episodes at under thirty minutes long. The final episode was around forty-five minutes long.

Star Wars Rebels has come to an end. I am sad to see it go as it has been one of my favorite shows on television.

TV Show Review: Star Trek: Discovery, Season 1

 

Details: First aired in 2017 on CBS All Access, CBS’s streaming service. There are fifteen episodes in this first season with each episode at around forty-five minutes to an hour-long.

When I first heard that they were making another Star Trek show for television, my first response was one of dread. After reading through some comments on a few online forums, I found that I was not alone. My fear as well as the fear of many others was that they would try to make this “dark.” How many times has it happened already where some show business executives take an existing franchise and try to make it “gritty,” or more violent, or more “real?” Too many times by my count, and many of those times resulted in shows that mostly sucked. Surprisingly, Star Trek: Discovery is not one of those shows. It is actually surprisingly good and remains surprisingly loyal to the tone of prior shows in the franchise.

Very few spoilers ahead. Just a brief description of the premise.

Anime Review: Juni Taisen: Zodiac War

Details: Aired in 2017. Twelve episodes with each episode a little under twenty-five minutes long.

Juni Taisen is an action, battle royale oriented anime. I mostly enjoyed it for what it was.

Anime Review: Kino’s Journey -the Beautiful World- the Animated Series

Details: Also known as Kino no Tabi -the Beautiful World-. Aired in 2017. Twelve episodes with each episode a little over twenty minutes long.

Kino’s Journey can be considered a second season or a remake of the similarly named anime that was released in 2003. A few of the episodes are remakes/upgrades to episodes in the prior anime series. Personally, this never bothered me because I’ve mostly forgotten everything from the prior anime series since I watched it so long ago. For me, this newly released series of Kino’s Journey is an interesting, tense adventure that often times dips into the horror, fantasy, and science fiction genres.

TV Show Review: Doctor Who: Twice Upon a Time

Details: Aired on the BBC in 2017. About an hour long. This is the Christmas special.

And so we’ve arrived at Peter Capaldi’s last episode as the Doctor. This final episode is our opportunity to take one final look at Capaldi’s portrayal of the Doctor. It is also Capaldi’s opportunity to say his goodbye and leave his final thesis on who his Doctor was meant to be. While there were some episodes in Capaldi’s tenure that I did not enjoy, there were some that I did enjoy immensely. Twice Upon a Time was a surprisingly emotional goodbye to a Doctor who was not as good as his predecessor (in my opinion), but left a meaningful and distinct mark all the same. It is also a goodbye to the Moffat era of Doctor Who.

TV Show Review: Stranger Things 2

Details: This is a review for season 2 of the show Stranger Things. Released on Netflix in 2017. There are nine episode with each episode at around forty-five minutes to an hour-long.

If I were to summarize Stranger Things 2 into a single phrase, it would be “nostalgia porn.” Stranger Things 2 doubles down on the nostalgia for the 1980’s and almost forces the viewer to partake in the music, style, and pop culture of the 1980’s. If you’re a fan of that decade, then you will likely enjoy Stranger Things 2. If you did not… then Stranger Things may come off as derivative and uninspired. For me, Stranger Things 2 dances the line between homage to the 1980’s and an uninspired, unoriginal mishmash of 1980’s pop culture.

Movie Review: Blade Runner 2049

Details: Released in 2017. Stars Harrison Ford, Ryan Gosling, Ana de Armas. Directed by Denis Villeneuve. About two hours and twenty-five minutes long.

Blade Runner 2049 is the sequel to the original Blade Runner released in 1982. Like its predecessor, Blade Runner 2049’s strongest points are its visuals and the tone and atmosphere that it seeks to create. No spoilers ahead.

Movie Review: Blade Runner

Details: Originally released in 1982. Apparently there are many version of the original Blade Runner movie out there. I watched The Final Cut version which was released in 2007. Directed by Ridley Scott. Stars Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Sean Young. About two hours long.

Blade Runner is often revered for its influence on modern cinema and science fiction. This review isn’t going to deal with any of that. This is just going to be a standard review based on my enjoyment. I can say without a doubt… Blade Runner was okay.

Movie Review: War for the Planet of the Apes

Details: Released in 2017. Directed by Matt Reeves. Stars Andy Serkis, Woody Harrelson, Steve Zahn. About two hours and twenty minutes long.

War of the Planet of the Apes is a misnamed movie in many ways. While decent science fiction, there is far less war and far more scenes reminiscent of Westerns and some clear imagery from internment/Holocaust films. The trailer led me to believe this was going to be a war movie. It is not. Combined with some tonal issues as well as plot issues in the third act and you get a film about half of which was enjoyable to me. This will be hard to discuss without some spoilers, so minor spoilers ahead.