Star Wars VI: Return of the Jedi

Well folks, we've reached episode six and we're so close to The Force Awakens! ROTJ is considered the silliest of the trilogy and some parts hold true to that. So, let's go to Jabba's and finish this series off!

The Plot:
Previously, Han Solo was frozen and sent to Jabba the Hutt's palace. Luke, Leia and the gang decide to go to Tatooine and save Han. Now, we see Luke's plan go into action. After some action and sweet justice, everyone splits. Han goes to the rebellion, while Luke goes back to visit Yoda. Yoda tells Luke that he must defeat Vader and the Emperor in order to become a true Jedi. Luke has his doubts and is unsure he'll be able to defeat them. Yoda, with his dying breath, tells Luke there is another Skywalker and has the force within them as well. Luke realizes it's Leia and vows to defeat Vader. Meanwhile, the rebellion is planning an attack on the Empire's newest battle station, the....Death Star. The Death Star 2.0? The Death Star Jr.? Anyways, they have learned that the Emperor himself is there, foreseeing the last stages of construction. The plan is to destroy a force field surrounding the battle station and blow it up with an attack. Han Solo volunteered to lead the attack on the shield, so Luke and Leia come along. Things go about as well as you'd think. Han manages to alert the guards, so Luke and Leia chase after them on a speeder bike. Luke and Leia then get separated, and the gang searches for Leia. On their way, they manage to meet the locals, teddy bear like creatures who want them for dinner. However, 3PO is revered as a god and with the help of Luke, frees everyone and they become part of the tribe. Luke is troubled, afraid he is endangering the mission and decides to face his father. Before he leaves, he tells Leia the truth. She understands, and they part. The next day, the attack is in progress. At first, all seems to be going well, but the tables are turned and the rebels are out gunned. Luke meets the Emperor and the sith lord attempts to lure Luke to the dark side. The Emperor also mentions that he was the one who gave the plans, tricking the rebellion into attacking a fully operational battle station. He finally pushes Luke into anger and ends up dueling Vader. Back on Endor, the rebels eventually gain the upper hand and blow up the shield generator. The rebel fleet attacks the Death Star, and Luke defeats Vader. Before he gives into his anger, he tells the Emperor he has lost and the Emperor nearly kills Luke. Vader realizes he never truly was 100% evil and kills the Emperor. Darth, dying, finally sees his son with his real eyes and dies. With that, the rebels finish off the Empire for good. Or do they? Anyways, happy ending.

The Good:
Like the previous movies, this one is fun to watch. You still love the characters, you get invested with the story (for the most part) and you witness Luke's journey to become a Jedi. You're always having fun and there's never a dull moment. And you get one of the most memorable lines in movie history (besides, "I am your father."):

Classic.

The Bad:
So, at the beginning, I mentioned that some say this movie is the sillier of the three. I'd have to agree there. If The Empire Strikes Back was the Dark Knight, this movie would be the Dark Knight Rises. Great movies, but the seriousness is lacking. For example, Han Solo, usually cool and smooth, comes off as a goof ball. I know, his character is supposed to be funny, but in this movie, the Benny Hill song should play when he's on screen. He also is super jealous of Leia and freaks out when Luke looks at her funny pretty much. When Luke tells her who she really is (and is some how totally okay with the fact she made out with her brother) she's distraught. Han tries to comfort her, but she needs some alone time and Han flips out. Dude, you had her before you were frozen in carbonite. She kisses you pretty much every time she sees you. Leia loves Han, no need to be jealous. Luke gets a tad bit annoying during the speeder bike scene. He becomes the back seat driver, and if I were Leia, I would have pushed him off.  The ewoks are kinda adorable and bad ass, but the movie focuses on them more than our heroes at times. It's a bit distracting, I like them, but the battle of Hoth didn't focus too much on the other rebels. Just saying. Now for the end. I like happy endings, but this one's too perfect. Everyone's celebrating the down fall of the Empire and I mean everyone. How did Cloud City find out? How did Coruscant find out? I don't think news travels that fast, right? Maybe a few days later at most, but the immediate down fall? I don't think so. Oh. And this abomination:

*AKA George Lucas' middle finger*

What on earth was George Lucas smoking when he decided to use the guy who -ruined- Darth Vader and put into a this movie? This is the equivalent of a giant middle finger to hardcore fans.


Overall:
ROTJ is a classic. It's a decent end to a great trilogy. It's fun, it's got great scenes and lines. Yeah, it's a bit too perfect of an ending for my taste, but I love this movie.

Rating:
4.5 speeder bikes out of 5.

Mission Impossible 4: Ghost Protocol

Spy thrillers have been all the rage ever since James Bond made his first appearance on the silver screen. And what's not to like about them? Suave gentlemen spies, driving fast exotic cars and lovely women. Mission Impossible has been wowing audiences since it showed up on TV way back in 1966. So far, there have been five Mission Impossible movies, so let's see how well the fourth installment holds up.

 The Plot:
An IMF agent is killed while trying to extract nuclear launch codes in order to stop a man codenamed "Cobalt" from starting nuclear war. Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) is called in to do the job and stop Cobalt. He and his team (Simon Pegg and Paula Patton) are ordered by IMF to go to Russia and infiltrate the Kremlin. Their mission, to find the true identity of Cobalt and let the authorities arrest him. The mission goes well, however, someone piggy backs Ethan's team's radio frequency and alerts Russian authorities. As Ethan and his team manage to escape, the Kremlin is bombed and Ethan ends up unconscious. Ethan ends up in an hospital and escapes calling for an extraction. He is picked up by the IMF Secretary and his analyst, William Brandt (Jeremy Renner). The Secretary tells Ethan that the President of the US has shut down IMF and disavowed the agents. On the way, the Secretary mentions if Ethan were to escape, there could nothing he could do. As he explains this, he gets killed. Ethan and Brandt escape to an unmarked train car with IMF gadgets in order to stop Cobalt. It's when Cobalt's identity is revealed to be Kurt Hendriks a nuclear strategist. Ethan and his team discover that Hendriks is going to Dubai to buy the codes from the assassin who killed the first IMF agent. The team reaches Dubai and hatches a plan in order to stop Hendriks, get him and the assassin. However, the gadgets that they're using aren't high quality and must improvise the plan. During the meet, Hendriks escapes with the codes and Ethan tries to track him down in a sandstorm, only to loose him at the last second. But, Ethan has a plan and he and his team head to Mumbai, India. After some spy stuff and whatnot, Ethan corners Hendriks and the two fight. Oh, and Hendriks did launch a nuke towards the US and Ethan has to stop the nuke from hitting US soil. Ethan does eventually stop the nuke and it's mission accomplished.

The Good:
As Mission Impossible movies go, this is a pretty fun flick to watch. The stunts are jaw dropping and the action's pretty decent. It's pretty funny to see Hawkeye be in an Mission Impossible movie but, Jeremy Renner does a good job. Some of the special effects are decent, and there are some good lines.

The Bad:
Maybe it's just me, but not once did I feel tension during any of the action scenes. For example, when Ethan Hunt is climbing the world's tallest building, I never felt like there was a moment where he -might- fail. Take the scene from the first movie where Hunt is hacking into the computer room with all the security safe guards. I felt tension in that scene, and you're thinking that Hunt could fail at any moment. Ghost Protocol never keeps you on edge, even when there's a nuke hurtling towards earth. As for the nuke part, well...I assumed that the US would have, I don't know...early warning systems just in case nuclear threats were coming in? It's not like this missile flew below radar. It freaking went into the stratosphere where something could pick it up, right? Now, for Hendriks. I get that he's this genius and is evil, but I have a hard time believing that he could best a trained IMF agent in hand to hand combat. I'm sorry, but that's pushing the immersion for me (yeah, so is the nuke). I mentioned there were some decent special effects, but there were some bad ones too. When Ethan is running away from explosions, you can tell that Tom Cruise is against a green screen and you don't feel the danger. There's another scene when Ethan is chasing Hendriks out of the hotel, and the camera angle goes to a bird eye view. Ethan is sprinting towards Hendriks and Hendriks takes off like the flash. How is a sixty plus year old man outrunning Hunt? Good movie, but there's alot of moments where it's not believable.

Overall:
Ghost Protocol is a fun movie, and despite all the negative things I just said, I like it. Yeah, there are a lot of moments where you're trying not to laugh, but it has it's good moments too.

Rating:
3.5 Tom Cruises sprinting out of 5.   

Back to the Future Part 3

So, when October 15, 2015 came along, the world watched Back to the Future Part 2 to compare what came true and what didn't. I went ahead one day to see if we got hoverboards, but alas, we neanderthals still rely on wheels. Now, what most people might not know is that BTTF2 and part 3 were filmed together, just that part three came out after (obviously). Today, I'll be reviewing Back to the Future Part 3.

Yeah, they may have gone too far with this one.

The Plot:
So, Marty McFly heads back to 1955 to stop Biff from becoming an evil Donald Trump and ends setting things right in 1985. However, the time machine is struck by lighting and Doc Brown is sent back in 1885. Marty, now stuck in 1955 has to get help from none other than Doc himself. Originally planning to head to 1985, Marty discovers that 1885 Doc gets killed and decides to save him from his demise. The man who kills Doc is none other than Biff- I mean, Mad Dog Tannen (Biff's past relative). Marty heads to 1885 with the time machine and instantly runs into trouble, however, Doc saves him. Doc is angry at Marty, but once Marty explains his purpose, the two decide the best course of action is for both of them to head back to 1985. The problem is, the time machine is broken and unable to drive. Doc devises a plan that can send them back, but runs into Clara, a school teacher who nearly fell to her death. Doc and Clara fall in love at first sight, causing Doc to become torn between staying or going. Marty convinces Doc to leave, telling him what unknown changes to the future might bring and ruin history. As for Mad Dog, he still plans to kill Doc or Marty, who angered Mad Dog as well, meaning they have a deadline to meet. After resolving that conflict with manure, Doc and Marty hatch their plan to go back to the future. Using a train to push the time machine up to 88 (sure, why not?) Clara ruins everything, only sending Marty back to 1985. Doc eventually shows up in a time machine train (again, why not?) and the series ends.

The Good:
Micheal J. Fox manages to do a decent job at being Marty again. He even uses Clint Eastwood as his "cowboy" name and says some lines Clint has said before. There are some amusing scenes, such as the one above. The hover board makes an appearance again, so that's cool.

The Bad:
Unfortunately, this movie falls to pieces once Marty heads back in time. Doc is goofier than he's usually portrayed and Chris Lloyd overacts pretty much in every scene. We also see everyone's past relatives and it's creepy Marty is totally into his mom (past version). There's a bunch of scenes that remind us, yet again about the first movie and how great it was. Thankfully, Marty doesn't invent skateboarding again, because that'd be too stupid. The Tannen family at this point are just laughable villains and you can no longer take them seriously anymore. Now for Clara. I get that Doc has to have his "one" but for a school teacher, Clara's pretty dumb common sense wise. Not abandoning her wagon when her horses were spooked, messing up a perfectly good plan by tooting the train horn, the list goes on. As for other problems, when did Doc Brown learn how to drive a train? I'm pretty sure it's not like driving a car and would take some learning, but he seems to be pretty good at it. I could go on with the list of problems with this movie, but that'd end up being another post.

Overall:
Yeah, Part 2 was cheesy, but it was fun. Part 3, though? It tried to pull out all the stops, but failed miserably. There's too much silliness at times, a majority of the actors are trying too hard so it comes off as bad. The flying train time machine took the cake though. Is this movie fun? Up until the part when you head back to the Wild West, sure. After that it's, pardon the pun, a train wreck.

Rating:
1.5 Clayton Ravines out of 5.

Nerd Rant! The Stormtroopers of Star Wars!

Hey all! It's November and that's one month til the New Star Wars movie! And holy crap, it looks awesome. So, in the spirit of Star Wars, I'm going to try out something new. This is a nerd rant, where I pick a topic of film, comic, TV show, or whatever you want. Depending on how popular this gets, of course. So, lets kick off the first topic: the Stormtroopers in the Star Wars films. A big debate is why superior soldiers can't hit the broadside of a barn sometimes. Something wrong in the clone genetic code? Or did they know Luke and the gang were the heroes the whole time and wanted them to win? Let's find out.

AKA Cannon fodder.

A Brief History 

 A long time ago, the Galactic Republic was at war with the Trade Federation. However, the Trade Federation had an advantage. They had factories that could build millions of robot soldiers and could send out to do whatever they pleased. The answer to this was clone the perfect solider, Solid Sn- I mean, Jango Fett. When these clones were deemed operational, the Republic used them to fight in the Clone Wars and take down the Trade Federation. After the Clone Wars, Senator Palpatine decided to use these clones for a more sinister purpose. He would use them as foot soldiers, pilots, commanding officers, you name it. They became the face of the Empire when Palpatine rose to power. 

The many faces of the Empire.

So, the question is, why are these so called super soldiers such lousy shots? Could there be a defect in the cloning process? Or did they know deep down that the Empire was doomed? No, they were just recruits. 

Clones? We don't need clones

Now, naturally, when the Empire rose to power, not everyone was on board. Naturally, there was the Rebellion who took a stand against the Emperor and his faceless army. When you watch the Star Wars films, you only see a small fraction of what's going on during this civil war. Luke, Han and Leia do have huge roles, but there are other rebel bases and space fights going on too. Heck, I'm sure there were other systems and planets fighting against the Empire that weren't involved with the Rebellion. See that picture above? At best we see five types of troopers at once. There are some that we don't see at all. Sorry, I'm getting ahead of myself here. My point is, during all this fighting, clones (no matter how good they are) are dying off by rapid numbers. So, how do you keep your numbers up and impose a threat? Easy, you recruit. Whether it's by force or voluntary, you gotta keep fear up in the galaxy. Now, I hear you all saying, "But they could make more clones!" True, but during a massive galactic war, I'm willing to bet making clones takes time. And the Empire wants to make time for one thing; The Death Star. If you focus on one thing, other things tend to become less productive.  Even the trailers for the new Star Wars movie shows a black guy as a Stormtrooper, and the clones were predominantly white. 

Search Your Feelings

So, if the troopers weren't clones, but recruits it would explain a lot. Even during a mass recruitment, not everybody's going to be a expert sharpshooter on day one. That takes time and training. And yet again, I'm willing to bet that the Empire only cares about one thing: Fear. The more you fear something, the less you're going to try and take it face on. But wait! There's more proof. In a deleted scene for a New Hope, Luke runs into his friend, Biggs. Biggs is originally being recruited to be an Imperial fighter pilot, but he's planning to defect to the Rebellion. Bigg's isn't a clone either. If you want even more proof, and which a huge point most people forget while doing this debate, is Luke. Yes, when Luke and Han go to rescue Princess Leia, Luke makes a comment. "I can't see a thing out of this helmet", Luke comments before saving the Princess. So, if you can't see well, chances you can't shoot well either. Now, sure, if you're a super solider and are used to those conditions, yes, you can be accurate. But, if you're a recruit and you aren't conditioned well enough, and wearing a helmet that supposedly effects your vision, chances are, you're going to miss. A lot. 

Conclusion

So, while there were probably clones still fighting against the Rebellion, the ones our heroes encountered were slim at best. And that's why I think that most of the Stormtroopers were just every day guys participating or forced into something they weren't trained well for. I could be wrong, but maybe the new movie will explain more of it. 

Want more of this? Or was this pointless and should I never do this again? Let me know!

Dark City

A man wakes up from a dream and discovers reality. Only reality is dreary and dark, gloomy and depressing. However, this man is told he can change reality and make it better. Using his new found powers, this man does change reality and makes it a better place. Sound familiar? I mean, if you didn't look at the title, this plot sounds a lot like the Matrix, right? What if I told you there was another movie, with the same plot but came out a year earlier? I'm talking about Dark City. This did come out a year earlier and the Matrix movies are heavily influenced by this film. It didn't do well at the box office, but over the years, Dark City has aged well and has a cult following to it. It's a fun film to watch and it's much better than the Matrix trilogy. So, let's visit this dark city and review Dark City!

The plot:
John Murdoch wakes up in a hotel room with no memory of why or what he's doing there. The only clues are his clothes and a dead hooker. Before he can leave, he gets a phone call telling him a group of people are coming after him and he must leave immediately. John escapes and tries to search for clues about his past. Before he can make headway, a group of men, known as The Strangers try to kill him. However, John alters the reality allowing him to escape. The Strangers are curious as to why a human has their ability and begin to seek him out. During that time, John runs into his wife, Emma, who tells him that she cheated on him and he left her.  John doesn't remember and forgives her, wanting to take her with him to safety. He does however, remember his childhood and wants to go to Shell Beach to see the sun and waves, but no one remembers how to get there. Meanwhile, Detective Bumstead is investigating the murders John supposedly committed and chases after him,though he joins Murdoch after he opens the detective's eyes. At 12 midnight, though, all the clocks stop and The Strangers change the city and give new identities to the citizens. John is the only one awake and witnesses this, making him curious if his memory has been changed before. John runs into Dr. Schreber who tells him that he is like The Strangers and can "tune", meaning he can fight them and defeat them. John eventually hones his powers and with the help of the doctor, he defeats The Strangers in battle. Once they're defeated, John changes the city to his whim and finally goes to Shell Beach.

The Good:
There's a whole lot going on in this movie, and it's hard to condense such a complex plot without telling the whole movie. That being said, it's definitely worth a watch. This movie is a like a noir film of the days of old. You're trying to figure out what's real and what's not. And it works. Rufus Sewell is captivating to watch and he does a convincing job. As does the rest of the crew. The special effects are decent, though a little dated at times. The Strangers are creepy and weird, but they do it well and they never go over the top, until the end (more on that later). Like I said, this plot is complex and it makes you think. And I like movies that do that. Sure, some you can turn your brain off and enjoy the movie, but the ones that make you think are even more special.

The Bad:
I can't think of a whole lot, so I'll cut to the chase. The action isn't the best and there's too many jump cuts. For example, a Stranger will make an attempt to stab John and the camera will jump away before the action is completed. So, you see the Stranger finish and not hit anything. Then there's the last fight. John and the "lead" Stranger have a tuning battle if you will and it comes off like an episode of Dragonball Z. There's even screaming included. It's...not that great.

Overall:
Dark City is a great film. As I said, it's like a noir film and it works. The story's well written and the cast performs wonderfully. Yeah, the action's not the best, but that's not the focus of the plot. And if you've seen the Matrix movies, you can see a lot where they got the inspiration from. Dark City is a movie that makes you think and it's worth the watch.

Rating:
4 buses to Shell Beach out of 5.