The Phantom Menace was on my mind last week because the video game based on the movie got rereleased and I decided to see how the game felt over twenty years later. I played The Phantom Menace sometime around when it first came out in 1999 and my father bought it for my brother and… Continue reading Corridors, Again
Tag: Star Wars
In Defense of The Phantom Menace’s Opening Crawl
The opening crawl to The Phantom Menace is decidedly dull. Where the crawls to the original trilogy spoke of civil war, the dreaded Imperial Fleet, and a second Death Star, The Phantom Menace opens with a discussion of the taxation of trade routes. Maybe the crawl gets interesting later on? Nah. There’s no evil Galactic… Continue reading In Defense of The Phantom Menace’s Opening Crawl
Gardening With a Lightsaber
One of the many collectibles in Jedi: Survivor are seeds. Some plants around the central planet of Koboh have seeds that you can collect and bring back to your cantina's garden. Me being me, I've been running around the planet and getting all the collectibles as I head toward the end of the game. So,… Continue reading Gardening With a Lightsaber
I’ve Been Here Before
There’s a bit in Star Wars Jedi: Survivor where you end up raiding a crashed Lucrehulk’s command sphere. You know, one of those big Trade Federation ships in Episode I. It’s a great time — and you get to fight a bunch of B1 Battle Droids which is always a highlight. Before long, you make… Continue reading I’ve Been Here Before
Jedi Fantasy
I wasn’t super impressed with Jedi: Fallen Order when it came out a few years back. Sure, it was fun, but it felt clunky. The combat felt like a lesser Dark Souls, but got markedly better when turned down the difficulty — though I felt that the game lost that appeal of being able to… Continue reading Jedi Fantasy
Contradictions
There was a delightful irony to the world of Bionicle that drew me in when the toy line started back in 2001. Here was a tropical, tribal-looking island that drew a lot on Polynesian imagery populated with robots who could wield magical elemental powers. Well, technically biomechanical robots, but there was still this really cool… Continue reading Contradictions
Star Wars Sandbox
The sixth episode of The Mandalorian’s third season is classic sci-fi nonsense. The titular gunslinger finds himself on a planet where, through the judicious use of repurposed battle droids, the citizens are able to leave a life of luxury, directly participate in democracy, and live lives of recreation and ease. But all is not well;… Continue reading Star Wars Sandbox
Revolutionaries
I realize I haven’t mentioned it here on this blog, but Andor is very good. A prequel to 2016’s Rogue One, Andor follows the titular Cassian Andor as he goes from a guy just schlepping about the corners of the galaxy to an all-in member of the Rebel Alliance who helps steal the Death Star… Continue reading Revolutionaries
What The Hell Is Canon, Anyway?
That long-awaited/feared Amazon-made show based on Tolkien’s stories is finally out and I have watched the first two episodes and let me tell you that I am surprised by how much I dig it. Understand, I absolutely love The Lord of The Rings —in both book and movie form—, I tackled The Silmarillion shortly after… Continue reading What The Hell Is Canon, Anyway?
Catharsis and Kenobi
So, the Disney+ series about Obi-Wan Kenobi (titled, uh, Obi-Wan Kenobi) came out on Friday and it is a fantastic exercise in catharsis. And I want to talk about that, because after this week I needed some damn catharsis. Catharsis, as Aristotle defined it in his Poetics way back when, is a purging of emotions.… Continue reading Catharsis and Kenobi
Essays, Not Rants! 