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What I Want to See: YA Dystopian Movies

Published on January 10, 2018November 17, 2020 by Michael Christopher Cole4 Comments

Unless you’re living under a rock, you’re aware of some of this recent trend in dystopian films, in which a kid is chosen to go against a huge government conspiracy. Hunger Games, Divergent, Maze Runner, you know what I’m talking about.

I was on board with Hunger Games, I read the books, and saw the movies. I really liked the books, and thought the movies did a pretty good job translating them to the screen. They’re not the deepest in movies or books in the world, but after Harry Potter finished up, they helped to fill the hole.

Then I started reading the Divergent series, and the first couple of books were enjoyable, the third one was terrible, and then I saw the first movie, and realized that I just didn’t care about it. I haven’t seen the second, and I think there was a third, but apparently the audience fizzled out like I did and so I guess they’re not even going to finish the series in cinematic releases, but instead a made-for-TV movie.

Then there was the Maze Runner. Now, I didn’t read the novel, I listened to the audiobook, and if I’m being honest, it wasn’t good. I thought the story was good, but the dialogue wasn’t good, and I wasn’t sure if it was writing or delivery. I tried to listen to the second one but gave up half way through. When the movie came out, I didn’t bother to see it in theaters, just waited until it was on HBO. I still haven’t seen the sequel which has been available on HBO for a while.

Ultimately, these series all told the same basic story, big bad government uses kids for entertainment/soldiering/whatever, and one kid decides to defy them. They’re too formulaic now, and really there isn’t much that’s unique or interesting about them. They found something that worked, and milked it, and I think now we’re seeing it dry up.

What I want to see, is good science fiction in this category. Good stuff targeted to the PG-13 crowd, with new and interesting ideas. I’m currently reading Ready Player One, which is coming out as a movie in a few months (directed by Steven Spielberg), and it might be what I’m waiting for. So far, it appears as if the goal is different, and I just hope it isn’t too formulaic. So far, it seems that corporations and not the government are the bad guys; while it seems to be a competition against a large force, they don’t seem to have a significant nearly insurmountable advantage, and as far as I can tell there are no big hidden secret conspiracies lurking to end the first section (all three of the other franchises are trilogies, and Ready Player One is a stand-alone). Now, I’m not very far into the book, but I am really hoping this is the one to buck the trend.

You look at something like The Matrix, and not only did it visually revolutionize film, but the ideas and concepts it portrayed were interesting and new. You might be able to say Hunger Games (on a much smaller scale did that) but then we saw so many copycats. What I want to see is another movie that makes us go “oh I never would have thought to do that,” and I want that on a story telling level, visually if possible, and basically in anyways filmmakers can come up with, but I don’t want to know the beats and structure of a film because I saw what it’s knocking off anymore. This is a problem that is not unique to this genre, but does seem to have gone from height of popularity to almost completely waning in the public eye in record time, and so we need something new!

Cool STAR WARS Artwork

Published on January 3, 2018November 17, 2020 by theworldsbestblogwithpaulwrightLeave a comment

Hey, everybody

I saw this fantastic Star Wars artwork in an Entertainment Weekly special edition by an artist named Martin Ansin and thought they were incredibly cool. There are different pieces of art for different Star Wars eras. I really wish I could buy prints of these online. Check them out:

535191D0-8663-49A8-B54A-02122084A28C — The Prequels

E549EF6B-5E0D-4F9C-A53B-C830A37ED7D3 — The Original Trilogy

434FD12B-318E-45C4-A393-D9D2564E69CC — The Expanded Universe/Legends (This is by far my favorite)

This doesn’t continue the theme of the other pieces, but it’s still cool

Metropolis - Final — Old Ben Kenobi not putting up with any shit.

Pretty cool, huh?

Here’s a link to his website:

http://www.martinansin.com

Thanks,

-Paul

What I Want to See: Doctor Who

Published on December 20, 2017November 17, 2020 by Michael Christopher Cole1 Comment

As you’re probably aware, Christmas is coming, but what you might not be aware of is that every year on Christmas, Doctor Who releases a Christmas special. These specials aren’t just goofy Christmas specials like many other franchises might create, but are part of the continuity of the series. In this particular special, we will see the 12th Doctor, played by Peter Capaldi, regenerate into the 13th Doctor who will be played by Jodie Whitaker.

Whitaker will play the first female Doctor in this show’s 54 year run. There is some controversy over it, but there is also precedent with other Time Lords (the Doctor’s race) becoming Time Ladies upon regeneration. It’s really not a big deal. I promise. Or at least it shouldn’t be.

The fact that it shouldn’t be a big deal, is actually what I want to see with this show. If Whitaker follows the trend she’ll be on for about 3 seasons (other than the 9th Doctor Christopher Eccleston, all modern Doctors have had 3). I’m hoping that while the writers are making the character female, and can introduce elements of the female experience, I hope they don’t change fundamentals of the show’s structure in order to pander.

Doctor Who has romance in many of its storylines, but ultimately the Doctor him/herself is not inherently romantic or driven by these stories. David Tennant’s tenth Doctor was in love with Rose, and with it came heartbreak and all of those things that romance comes with, but the Doctor stayed focused on saving the world. Matt Smith’s Eleventh Doctor had something of a romance with River Song, (spoiler alert she’s his wife) but again, it was secondary to his main story of saving the world.

I will not mind them having flirtations, or even a genuine love story in the 13th Doctor’s story, but the character cannot be defined by any relationship. There seems to be a tendency in fiction, and perhaps in non-fiction to define people by their relationships, and the Doctor whether he’s a he, or she’s a she, should not be defined by an individual relationship, but rather his or her love for life, and the living. We get to see the Doctor over the last 10 seasons breaking down as severely over loss of friendship as loss of romantic love, and just as deeply at the loss off a species as that of the loss of a single life. This is the Doctor’s strength as a character, and there isn’t anything inherently male or female about that (although if written well a female Doctor may shine brighter in this way).

Lastly, sexuality. The doctor has mostly been portrayed as heterosexual, but I would argue that this doesn’t seem like a very strict rule at all. I don’t care, in the inevitable romances that will occur (hopefully in small doses) whether or not the character is engaged in straight or lesbian relationships, as long as it’s about character, and not sticking with continuity, or sending a message. The companions are where sexual orientation seems to be best displayed, having had some of each, and the Doctor seems to be beyond that. So I hope that will remain the case when it comes to the 13th Doctor.

Why Disney Buying 20th Century Fox Is A Bad Idea (Especially For Genre Fans)

Published on December 19, 2017November 17, 2020 by theworldsbestblogwithpaulwright1 Comment

For the past few weeks rumors have bounced around Hollywood that Disney was in serious talks to buy the film and television divisions of 20th Century Fox. Now, it seems that after weeks of negotiation, this deal will become a reality.

If you’re sharp and pay attention to this kind of thing (and World’s Best Media) you may have already put 2 and 2 together and realized why I might be pretty happy about this news. After all Disney owns Marvel Studios which gives us the Marvel Cinematic Universe and from the beginning, the MCU didn’t have access to key Marvel characters like the X-MEN, Fantastic Four, and until recently, Spider-Man. The film rights to X-Men and FF are held by 20th Century Fox. On paper this would mean everyone is coming home to Marvel. However, I’m not as enthusiastic about this deal as you may think…

After the utter shit show that was Amazing Spider-Man 2, Sony who still owns the film rights to Spider-Man, made the very smart move of making their current deal with Marvel Studios, Which means that Marvel Studios has our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man swinging around with The Avengers (at least for a few more films, but something tells me that will be extended) as well as creative control of the Spider-Man movies they’re making.

Now, if Sony had handled Spider-Man pretty poorly before their Marvel Studios deal, then Fox has handled the Fantastic Four like a deliberate train wreck. Fantastic Four and it’s sequel Fantastic Four: Rise of The Silver Surfer aren’t going to be on anyone’s list of the all time great superhero films. But last years attempted reboot, FF, made those films look like The Dark Knight. For studio’s to retain the rights to these characters they need to keep making movies within a certain period of time before the rights revert back to Marvel. I don’t think anyone thought Fox was going to throw away hundreds of millions of dollars on another sad attempt to develop a film from a property that they clearly don’t understand. My point is that eventually, something similar to the Spider-Man deal would have been worked out with Marvel, if not the rights reverting back to Marvel Studios outright.

(My God, seriously, these movies are SO, SOOOOO bad. Just… What the fuck?!)

When Bryan Singer was making the the 1st X-men film, it was clear FOX that didn’t understand what they had. The movie had a a pretty small budget compared to the Superhero juggernauts we see today. So (even though it was released in July, the heart of tent pole, summer block busters) they didn’t have much faith in the movie. Ryan McDonald (World’s Best Media contributor) once said to me that the first X-MEN film is a science fiction movie and not really a superhero film. I always thought that was a great observation and if you rewatch X-MEN as a sci-fi movie, it works a little better than superhero film. X2 on the other hand felt much more like a superhero film, as well as feeling much more like the X-MEN Comics.

The first X-Men film doesn’t get nearly enough credit for creating the Golden Age of comic book movies that exists today. As the superhero movie making process began to drastically change after X-MEN was released in 2000, The X-MEN films have always been there chugging along. In the 17 years since X-MEN was released there have been 10 X-MEN movies counting Deadpool. This is a series that has had major highs and lows. But lately something really great has been happening to the X-MEN franchise, which brings to my main point: I don’t want the X-MEN part of The MCU (for a couple of reasons).

First, in a time when every damn studio is looking to emulate Marvel’s golden model of a “shared universe”, The X-MEN movies have been doing the “shared universe”-thing without even trying. Anyone who reads comics knows that The X-MEN have so many decades of characters, storylines, spin-offs, crossovers, and events that they’re a universe unto themselves in Marvel Comics. My point is that though they are very much Marvel characters, there’s so damn much going on in the comics to cherry pick from for the movies, The X-MEN films don’t need the MCU to be successful. The X-MEN are a never ending stream of characters and stories. Think about everything that’s happened in The X-MEN film franchise and imagine if that was part of the MCU. It would be a goddamn mess.The X-MEN mythology is too big and unwieldy to dump into the MCU. It would just be too much. Yes, it would be cool to see Wolverine and Beast, two classic Avengers members, on the team. And yeah, sure it’d be cool to have the Avengers face off against Magneto and a cool version of The Brotherhood. In the end, it wouldn’t be worth it though. Even in the comics, The X-MEN are kind of off in their own little corner right now.

(Look at all this! It’s madness!!!)

Second, Fox is doing so many interesting things with The X-MEN in film and TV it would be a shame to stifle and censor the creativity that we’ve seen in the franchise lately. Legion on FX was on of the years best shows and one if the most wildly unique comic book adaptations that I’ve ever seen. Logan could be nominated for or even win an Academy Award with incredible performances from Hugh Jackman and Patrick Stewart (Seriously, it would be a crime if Hugh Jackman doesn’t get awards attention for this unforgettable movie). Then of course we have Deadpool which would NEVER, EVER, EVER be made if it was in the MCU at the time. Legion, Logan, and Deadpool are some of the best superhero stories ever made. Fox is taking bold risks with their X-MEN properties. With projects like the upcoming New Mutants movie being a straight up horror film with X-Men characters in it, it seem like this studio is willing to do the type of out of the box super hero stories that will keep comic book adaptations alive. Comic Books aren’t a genre, they’re a storytelling medium and the projects I listed above are proof of that. Hell, Logan might as well be a straight up western.

I will admit that the silver lining for me is that Marvel Studios will have access to the Fantastic Four which I desperately want to be part of The MCU. Seeing Tony Stark and Reed Richards, two of the comic book world’s biggest pieces of shit, finally on screen together recklessly causing more problems than they solve would be a delight. Of course, seeing The Avengers fight Doctor Dom would be fucking amazing. But The X-Men and The MCU don’t need each other right now. Maybe someday, but not now.

I will say that I think it’s a good thing that Marvel never had access to their A-list characters like the X-Men and Spider-Man when they first started the MCU. Instead they had to use lesser-known characters like Captain America and Iron Man, which forced them to be more creative and pull more deeply from the rich roster of characters that Marvel has. Which would’ve meant we’d most likely never have gotten something like the wonderful Guardians of the Galaxy on the big screen.

Obviously this is out of my hands, I don’t know if they’re going to somehow make an attempt to put the existing X-Men universe into the MCU or if they’re going to treat the X-Men as brand new characters that we’ve never seen before in this universe. I think if they do decide to make the X-Men part of the MCU, the smartest way to go would be to recast and go in a complete different direction than what’s been done before. It’s going to happen anyway one way or another. At the end of the day I’ll be happy if they finally get fucking Doctor Doom right at the very least.

Thanks for reading !
-Paul

What I Want to See: Jumanji

Published on December 10, 2017November 17, 2020 by Michael Christopher Cole5 Comments

When Jumanji came out in 1995, I was eleven years old, and my Aunt Amy and Uncle Mike brought me and my little sister to see it, and it was awesome. This was possibly the most intense action movie we had seen at that time, and we hadn’t even broken any rules watching it, it was for us!

At the end of the movie, there was a very clear lead in to a sequel, with the board game being found on a beach, and so as it fades to black the whole audience thinks “oh here we go again!”

But this was before it was obligatory that all blockbusters became franchises, and perhaps it wasn’t the box office behemoth I assumed it was, so we never got a sequel. …Until now!

Now, you’ve probably seen the trailer for Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, starring Jack Black, Karen Gillan, Kevin Hart, and Dwayne Johnson. From what I have gathered, I am the only one excited for this film, but that’s because I’m the only one who is right.

Here’s the deal, the original Jumanji, was about a board game which pulled one character into it, and eventually spit all of the world of the game out of it into the real world. It was pretty cool, but ultimately it was grounded in the real world, and personally I always wanted to see the world of Jumanji. Then we got the cartoon, and in that we saw the characters of the film go into the game, and it didn’t quite make sense with the continuity but it was still cool.

Welcome to the Jungle!

Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, is a video game that sucks four teenagers in, putting them into the bodies of the game’s avatars. The fact that it’s a video game and not the original board game seems to be a major point of contention for people, but honestly we have Monopoly video games, and Lego video games, and all kinds of video games that might seem redundant or unnecessary, so why not magically possessed adventure games in both formats?

There have been reports that Robin Williams’ character will have left an imprint on the game, which means it falls into the same continuity, and I have to be honest, I’m psyched. Jumanji is a great concept, and I don’t think they fully actualized it in the first film, in fact I even liked Zathura, which was just space Jumanji.

One of the cool things about this concept, is that it opens up what they can do with Jumanji. We could see all manners of jungle beasts imagined and real, in a human killing rampage of nature. There are many different terrains the world of Jumanji can inhabit, and so maybe in this movie it’s just Amazonian style jungle, but there are going to be sequels (if it makes enough money, and it has The Rock, so lets face it, it will). That’s the great part about the video game avatars, is that we could have the cast for a full trilogy, but not necessarily have the characters be the same throughout.

In addition to wanting a lot of world building, and exploration of that world, I want cameos. I want Bonnie Hunt, or Kirsten Dunst, or that other kid. I want this film to be the clear baton passing, and then after that, we get to the new Jumanji franchise. Kill off Han Solo in the first film, and move on. That’s what I want to see!

I totally want to see this guy pop up again!

STAR WARS RETROSPECTIVE (Part 7) EPISODE VII THE FORCE AWAKENS

Published on December 8, 2017November 17, 2020 by theworldsbestblogwithpaulwrightLeave a comment

Hey everybody,

So here it is, our final entry in our look back at the epic Star Wars saga. Thank you so much for reading and supporting this series of articles. Everyone involved has had a blast doing it and we hope to do something similar in the future. I also want to personally thank the writers who contributed to the series. Thank you, guys! You all did a great job. Now all that’s left is to see the new movie! I know I have my tickets to Star Wars Episode VIII The Last Jedi! May The Force Be With You…

-Paul

Star Wars Episode VII The Force Awakens Written by Paul Wright

We never thought it would happen. A promise 40 years in the making. The fabled final 3rd act in an epic 9 part Saga. We knew that Anakin and The Republic’s story in the prequels would ultimately, inevitably end in tragedy. Now a new, uncharted story awaited us…

I don’t remember when I realized “This is really going to happen. We are getting the final 3 films.”. As I’ve always said seeing Star Wars films have always been deeply personal experiences for me and I was thrilled that as I entered a new chapter in my own life that I’d get to share in The Star War Saga with my friends and family once again. They thrilled me as a kid with the re-released Special Editions, The Prequels illicit many fond memories from my high school and college years, but now I’d get to experience the Saga as an adult. It’s a great feeling.

I do remember the excitement leading up to The Force Awakens. I remember that first incredible teaser released over a year before the film opened. Man, if there’s one thing Star Wars is incredible at, it’s the art of teaser trailers: Andy Serkis’ voice over. A panicked looking stormtrooper, a droid shaped like a ball, a girl on a big speeder, and of course a snow cover landscape with a dark figure unsheathing a red lightsaber with a cross guard. Then… BOOM The Millenium Falcon being chased by tie fighters. The trailer said “Here’s something new, but it’s continuing the story you love.” The idea of watching the fall of the Jedi and Anakin Skywalker’s decent into Vader was interesting (at least on paper). But there were a lot of questions left unanswered after Return of The Jedi and all our key characters were still in play. Finally we’d see that story.

As soon as I heard J.J. Abrams was the director, I knew we were in good hands. I remember him being interviewed for his first Star Trek movie and saying that he wasn’t a Star Trek fan, but Star Wars was why he became a film maker. In fact, if you look back on almost all of his work, he constantly brings up Star Wars as his reason for being a film maker. Personally, I think he did a hell of a job. The worst thing that could have happened would have been if The Force Awakens was… fine. Just a movie, just OK. Terrible is better than “OK” in a strange way. But he didn’t do that, he made a Star Wars film and one of the great Star Wars films at that. Yes the film has it’s flaws, but the movie is exactly what it needs to: a great start to a new trilogy.

What makes this movie work so well is its characters, both new and old. We all fell in love with Rey and Finn. Poe was cool enough, we’d see more from him in subsequent films. Kylo Ren gave us another truly great Star Wars villain. Everyone’s favorite Princess was now General Organa. In hindsight, I like what they did with Luke, it gave us that much more anticipation for the next Episode without being a true cliffhanger. But the man who stole the show was the smuggler who made The Kessel Run in 12 Parsecs…

There are so many things I could bring up and analyze with this film, but today I’m going to focus on one aspect a little more than the others: The Solo family (mainly Han and Kylo Ren AKA Ben Solo.

One of my favorite parts of this film is how Han Solo is portrayed and especially how Harrison Ford plays him. It’s been no secret that Ford has no great love for the Star Wars franchise. I was surprised he agreed to do The Force Awakens, but I think it was a great idea for Ford as an actor. He’s alive in this character and in this film in a way we hadn’t seen him in far too long. It was like, Holy shit, Harrison Ford… its good to have you back. This was not the Han Solo of the Original Trilogy. The thirty years had changed him, this was a man with more depth and perspective than the cowboy smuggler we new and loved. But the cowboy smuggler was still there.

This films biggest weakness is it’s plot. As so many other have said, when it comes to the story, it might as well be a remake of A New Hope. But in one of my favorite scenes of the film, when Han, Chewie, Finn, and Rey are on The Millenum Falcon, that “weakness” actually helps the movie to give us one hell of a great character moment:

Han Solo: This map’s not complete. It’s just a piece. Ever since Luke disappeared, people have been looking for him.
Rey: Why did he leave?
Han Solo: He was training a new generation of Jedi. One boy, an apprentice, turned against him, destroyed it all. Luke felt responsible. He just walked away from everything.
Finn: Do you know what happened to him?
Han Solo: A lot of rumors. Stories. People that knew him best think he went looking for the first Jedi temple.
Rey: The Jedi were real?
Han Solo: I used to wonder about that myself. Thought it was a bunch of mumbo-jumbo. A magical power holding together good and evil, the dark side and the light. Crazy thing is… it’s true. The Force. The Jedi… All of it… It’s all true.

What’s wonderful about this scene is that it brings Han’s story full circle. 40 years ago he stood in almost the same spot and called The Force bullshit to Ben Kenobi. Which gives me the perfect opportunity to point out how significant it was that Han and Leia chose to name their son Ben. This goes back to that new depth to Han that I spoke about before. I think that naming his son Ben was almost certainly Han’s idea, not Leia’s. Leia knew him more as the fabled General Obi-Wan Kenobi The Jedi warrior who fought in The Clones Wars, Han was the one who knew him as Ben in the short time they spent in each other’s lives. This tells the audience that the massive impact Old Ben Kenobi had on his life, was not lost on Han. This old man who Han dismissed as a fool set Han on the path that would define him. The path that led him to everything in his life that mattered. They spend such little time on screen together that fans forget how important Han Solo meeting Obi-Wan Kenobi was. But Han didn’t forget.

Ben Solo AKA Kylo Ren played brilliantly by Adam Driver has the potential to be one of the most complicated, interesting, and best characters in the Saga. As far as I’m concerned he’s already great. But depending on where the story takes him, by the end of the trilogy, he could become iconic. I always felt like this was how Anakin should have been portrayed in the prequels. What made Kylo Ren unique was his struggle not with the dark side, but with his better nature.

That was take on a dark force user that we hadn’t seen before. He saw the light as something tempting him off his path, where the dark side was so easy to slip onto for so many others.

I knew Harrison Ford would die in this movie the second I’d heard he signed on. There was no way he was going to stick around for two more films (they’re lucky they got him for this one). So I knew walking into the theatre, that’d we’d probably be saying goodbye to one of the most beloved characters in cinematic history.

As death’s of legendary characters go, it’s fine I suppose. Killed by his son and falling into an abyss. I still don’t know if Ben Solo intended to kill his father no matter. Had Ben Solo known what he was going to as soon as Han stepped onto that catwalk. Was Han getting through to him or was this the only way that confrontation could play put? I think there was doubt there in Ben Solo. The Dark and The Light inside of him pushing and pulling. Who knows? Unfortunately we all know the choice he makes…
Will he find some sort of redemption like his grandfather did? Does he even deserve redemption?

In the end, what makes The Force Awakens a great chapter in the Star Wars Saga is the magic. It manages to tap into the moments of wonder, the excellent characters, and excitement that make a great Star Wars movie. The stage has been set for Episode VIII. I hope The Last Jedi is The Empire Strikes Back of the new trilogy. All I know is that I can’t wait to visit this world and these characters again.

May The Force Be With You…

(To my female readers.. I’m sorry. I couldn’t help it)

What I Want to See: Trollhunters

Published on December 2, 2017November 17, 2020 by Michael Christopher Cole1 Comment

You might not have heard of Dreamworks’ animated show Trollhunters on Netflix. Until I talked to Paul about potentially writing about it on here, I wasn’t aware of anyone I knew who had watched it, other than myself. But it’s a great show, and I cannot recommend it enough. I started watching it, because I wanted to watch something that would keep my son’s attention (he was 9 months old when we began season 1) but wasn’t so inane that I would go blank behind the eyes. So, when I saw the poster on Netflix, and it boasted that it was created by Guillermo del Toro (director of Hellboy 1 & 2, Pan’s Labyrinth, and Pacific Rim) I thought it might be a good fit for us.

Trollhunters, is an action adventure cartoon that I think pretty much all ages can enjoy. It tells the story of Jim Lake Jr. who becomes the first human ever to become a trollhunter, when the previous trollhunter is killed in action. (These aren’t really spoilers as it’s kind of all revealed in the first 5 minutes of episode one.) Jim is in high school, and much like other YA fiction, he is thrust into a world that mixes his normal growing up troubles with life and death stakes. In this way, it’s not too original, but it is fun!

Trollhunters, thrives in it’s characters. Jim is less steadfast than a typical Harry Potter kind of protagonist, but is a more believable teen for it, and it makes the call to responsibility even more impressive. Toby, his best friend, plays on the typical scared side-kick trope, while at the same time being a total bad-ass, which shines through in his ability to help out with Jim’s training, and his own desire to do the right thing. Blinky and AAARRRGGHH!!! (that’s how IMDb spells it) are my two favorite characters, because they are the trolls who are tasked with helping Jim to become the trollhunter that the good troll community needs him to be. Blinky is voiced by Kelsey Grammer, and it is endlessly amusing to hear him read lines that seem so silly, with such gravitas.

So, what do I want to see with Trollhunters? Well, in order to answer that, I need to explain something. Jim, is voiced by Anton Yelchin, who died in an accident more than a year ago. Yelchin had finished recording season one by the time he died, but until recently, I hadn’t realized that he had also recorded (not sure if it’s complete or there is some patchwork with another actor) season two.

Yelchin does a great job voicing Jim, but I don’t think he has to be the voice. That is where I come to my point. I’m glad we get two seasons of Anton Yelchin, but I really hope, that Trollhunters is going where it naturally would have, had Yelchin lived. His death was tragic, and I don’t mean that in a disrespectful way, but as far as the story is concerned, I don’t want it to shift to reflect his death.

It’s something that many TV shows, and movies have to deal with, this idea that if someone dies, they have to figure out how to move on with their story, and unfortunately it seems to rarely work out well. When Heath Ledger died for example, he was working on the Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus, and in order to finish the movie, they recast with Jude Law, Johnny Depp, and Colin Farrell. Because of the nature of the story, it didn’t seem to have too significant of an effect on the movie (which seemed like it may have been a mess regardless) but look at the other posthumous Ledger movie, The Dark Knight. Sure, Ledger had finished The Dark Knight, and so that movie remains untarnished by the flaws of a mid production death, but as a franchise, what would the third film have been had Ledger lived? It’s something I’ve wondered since before The Dark Knight Rises was released.

The point is this, Anton Yelchin is great in this role, but ultimately, we don’t have a Ledger situation, where recasting seems sacrilegious, we have a voice over of a teenage character, and there are a lot of ways of adjusting to a new actor, without being disrespectful to Yelchin, and without having to shift the storyline, or the tone of the story.

Check out Trollhunters on Netflix if you watch the first episode, you’ll get the feel for the show, and I think you’ll fall in love with it! Season two comes out on December 15.

STAR WARS RETROSPECTIVE (PART 6) EPISODE VI RETURN OF THE JEDI

Published on November 30, 2017November 17, 2020 by theworldsbestblogwithpaulwrightLeave a comment

Hi everybody,

First of all thank you all so much supporting this series of articles. We had a great time putting them together. We’re really getting down to the wire here because today our article is on Star Wars Episode VI Return of The Jedi. I originally asked Marc Rodolfo, the author of today’s article, to just right the article for Episode VI. But I thought it was so damn good, that I asked him to write the Empire Strikes Back article, which we published last week. So this is absolutely one of my favorite articles in this series ( I feel like I say that for every piece because all of them are so damn good, I love them all!). Please enjoy!

– Paul

Star Wars Episode VI: Return of The Jedi written by Marc Rodolfo

Cartoons and Carbonite: A Reflection on Return of the Jedi

I hated Return of the Jedi the first time I saw it. Strange, I know. Especially since I am now such a huge Star Wars fan. But there was a reason for my initial ignorance; Return of the Jedi was the first Star Wars movie I had ever seen. And because it was the first Star Wars movie I had ever seen, I had absolutely no fucking clue what the hell was going on.
At the behest of my mother, I was told over and over “you should watch this movie,” and my mother, bless her heart and all that, didn’t quite remember that Star Wars was a trilogy and that Jedi was the end of that trilogy. See this was the early 90’s before the word “Prequel” became so dirty, and at a time when the words “Special Edition” were still just a mere twinkling in daddy Lucas’ eyes. Star Wars had hit a lull in popularity and at the time, it wasn’t quite on my burgeoning nerd radar. Star Wars, to early 90’s me anyway, was nerd stuff. I had better things to do like watch Batman the Animated Series, or the saturday morning Spider-Man cartoon, or set-up and play out elaborate and dramatic scenes with my action figures from the aforementioned shows. Yeah, Star Wars was nerd stuff and I was, decidedly, not a nerd. Denial is a funny thing.

Anyway, I ultimately gave in to my mother’s suggestions and we went to the video store to rent a VHS copy of pre-special edition Return of the Jedi. If I had been less moody that day, maybe I would have noticed that what sat right next to Jedi on the rack were VHS copies of The Empire Strikes Back and A New Hope; and yes, it was called A New Hope back then. Lucas began his artistic OCD in 81’ with Star Wars’ first re-release. But I was a little jerk back then and DID NOT want to watch some old movie with crappy special effects. Hell, I had just seen Jurassic Park. The dinosaurs looked like they were pulled right out of the past and plopped on a Hollywood soundstage. The rancor…looked like something out of a nightmare version of a christmas special. It was some cheesy claymation crap that made me cringe instead of fear for Luke’s life.

And that…is exactly where I stopped watching. Right at the rancor. I shut it off and counted the days until Jurassic Park would release on VHS. Jedi just couldn’t hold my interest. Besides having no idea what was going on, not knowing who these weird looking robots were, or why Indiana Jones was frozen like he was about to get hit by a car, or what that gross looking slug was all about, or why this guy dressed all in black was talking like some bad ass when he looked like anything but a badass, this stop animation monster was in no way as realistic as the dinosaurs from Jurassic Park. I had my fingers stuck in my ears and my feet firmly planted in the ground.

It wasn’t until years later that the trailers for Episode IV dropped in all their special edition glory. “Wait a minute,” I said to myself, “how do I know these characters?” I even remember getting in a short lived tiff with my mother. Now I knew. Now I knew that you weren’t supposed to start with Jedi. How could she have done this to me? Start me off with the END of a story? It was like reading Return of the King without Fellowship, or A Storm of Swords without A Game of Thrones. A New Hope was first. Duh! THAT is why I couldn’t get into Jedi. That is why I spurned it and didn’t give it a chance. And that really was the reason I never liked the movie. Eventually, I saw A New Hope and I fell in love; the rest of the trilogy came after and I fell further into the fandom.

At the time, there not being an internet community to bitch about everything, people actually seemed excited. Star Wars was getting re-released (re-re-released?) and in the way George Lucas originally intended. The special effects were getting cleaned up, the creatures actually looked as realistic as the dinos, and all the little nuances were being perfected. It was time to embrace Star Wars. Of course, this was all in preparation for The Phantom Menace which had hyped me even further, but the excitement was real. I became a Star Wars fan and Jedi, a movie I once “hated,” became my favorite.

Why did I love it so dearly? Jedi was the redemption story for one of, if not, the greatest villains of all time (rivalled only by the Joker). The feeling of finally seeing what was under the mask of Darth Vader was indescribable; I was both alleviated that he was just another guy and saddened that he wasn’t something more.

Yet, I loved every bit of Return of the Jedi. I loved the Max Rebo band’s new song, as corny as it was. I loved the sarlacc’s beak coming out of the pit. I even loved the “Victory Celebration” song that replaced “Yub Nub.” In fact, “Yub Nub” can go screw. I even loved the damn ewoks, as crappy as they seem now. It was also when I fell in love with Leia. Yeah, sure there was the golden bikini and all, but seeing her in the army digs later in the movie during the Battle of Endor, is what really made me fall for her. This cemented my appreciation for a strong woman that wasn’t afraid to get down and dirty and kick some ass when she needed to; Linda Hamilton and Sigourney Weaver were on that list too.

Many complain about the changes of the special edition episodes today, but I was never disillusioned by them. Jedi was a perfect movie in every way. Though I will admit, that as I have grown older, Empire has replaced it as my favorite. As Dante from Clerks said, “[Empire] ends on such a down note. That’s all life is: a series of down endings.” It’s interesting that Jedi was my favorite as a kid and now, as an adult, Empire, the darker of the two, has become my favorite. If that’s not a metaphor for…something I don’t know what is. But Jedi will always hold a special place in my heart. It’s a movie that taught me to give things a second chance, to not judge right away, to embrace my nerdom, to love princesses that kick as much ass as the princes, and to have an appreciation and love for old cinema.

May The Force Be With You…

STAR WARS RETROSPECTIVE (PART 5): EPISODE V THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK

Published on November 23, 2017November 17, 2020 by theworldsbestblogwithpaulwright1 Comment

Hey, everybody

It’s Paul, today we have the next piece of our series of articles looking back at The Star Wars Saga with Episode V The Empire Strikes Back. Our guest writer today is Marc Rodolfo who is a Incredible wordsmith. He’ll also be writing our Return of The Jedi article which I’m excited for you guys to read, (it’s one of my favorites from the entire series of articles). Without further ado, please enjoy our article on arguably the best Star Wars film: The Empire Strikes Back…

Star Wars Episode V The Empire Strikes Back Written by Marc Rodolfo

The Darkside of Dagobah: Reflecting on The Empire Strikes Back

Empire…Empire…Man…If you tell me that A New Hope truly made you a Star Wars fan, I simply, and unequivocally, don’t believe you. And I mean, a true fan. I’m sure you liked A New Hope. I am sure you thought it fun and interesting and if pressed you may even admit you WERE a fan. However, it was Empire that truly made you a fan. Empire that turned you from a fair-weather Storm Trooper (puns!) to a Darkside lovin’ Darth Vader. This is how it was for me and for the purposes of this article, for you too.
What follows is a piece written with an unmitigated love for the best Star Wars film ever…and yes, I am going to be THAT stubborn and say it will be better than Episode VIII and Episode IX and any A Star Wars Story movie that is bestowed upon us in the future. Because this is Empire and Empire changed the essence of Star Wars. Empire took a franchise that was supposedly created for the enjoyment of children and made it for everyone.

It’s funny, I don’t really have a nostalgic story for Empire like I do for A New Hope and, as you will see in the next article, for Return of the Jedi. All I truly remember is that I went to the movie theater and I saw the movie. I don’t remember who I was with. I don’t remember if it was at the old General Cinema in Shopper’s World or the new AMC “A Lesson in Excess” Theater. I don’t remember the trailers or the ticket. I don’t remember if I got popcorn or soda. I don’t remember anything except for the movie. All that mattered was Empire. Yes, once the auditorium lights dimmed and the excited voices drifted off into soft murmurs and then to silence and the opening crawl accompanied that oh-so-familiar theme, I was back: enraptured in a universe that the previous chapter didn’t quite prepare me for…

And as the opening preamble drifted upwards and the camera panned down towards this new planet, the hushed silence of the theater began to echo the icy azure aerospace of Hoth. Soon though the silence would be broken by a roar, a flash of a lightsaber, mumblings about someone called Yoda, and the incoming Imperial onslaught of the AT-ATs. Those AT-ATs…I mean, the Death Star was huge, sure, but it never really gave a menacing presence. It was just a giant steel ball after all; a “small moon.” But these new machines, these new tanks, looked like giant mechanical camels or elephants or something and slowly, they stalked towards their tiny prey, not unlike a monster in a slasher flick.

And then, we got Vader. The last we saw of him he was spinning away into the eternal blackness of space. But now he was back, on the ground, and cutting rebels down left and right. Sounds of lasers, explosions, and the whirring of a red lightsaber pervaded the once tranquil theater. We were all on the edge.

Empire started with a bang and continued throughout with more and more revelations: “I am your father!” (Notice he didn’t say Luke first?) Force ghosts. Removable hands. Immovable Hans. Betrayals and backstabbing. Cities in the clouds. And an ending…an ending that tipped us over that edge.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention Yoda. But let’s face it-Yoda was a risk. In a complete tonal shift from the maturity of the movie, we got a seemingly goofy puppet with a weird backward voice. We all complain about Jar-Jar, but if Yoda wasn’t putting us on and pulling a fast one, he would have made no sense in that movie. Luckily for us, it was a ruse; it was a test for Luke to see if he had the patience to start his training. It was then that Yoda quickly went from just another Star Wars muppet, to the wizened Jedi Master we know today. It was from Yoda we learned the true extent of what “the force” was capable.

More than a “bad feeling about this” (a cliche that is uttered over ten times throughout the movies and is even mocked in Rogue One), more than intuition, more than mental connections, the force was a strength that awed even the most skeptical of us (Han Solo-lookin’ at you). It was Yoda that made us all, and I’m admitting it, actually try to move things with our minds. Yoda who taught us even the smallest of us can have strength and power as well as wisdom. Yoda that taught us the path to becoming a Jedi was found in patience and virtue. Yes, our little Buddhist monk quickly became a fan favorite.

The Empire Strikes Back is one of those rare near perfect films. It brings back old characters and introduces new ones that quickly became fan favorites. It is the movie that cemented the Star Wars fandom and expanded it from a somewhat claustrophobic space opera (Episode IV was really only Tatooine and the Death Star) to a vast open wide space epic. From tundra to jungle and cave, from space to cloud and sky, each of Empire’s set pieces is as epic as the next and each moment is as memorable as the last. It is the Star Wars movie that created a universe.

May The Force Be With You…

STAR WARS RETROSPECTIVE (PART 4): EPISODE IV A NEW HOPE

Published on November 15, 2017November 17, 2020 by theworldsbestblogwithpaulwright2 Comments

Hey everyone,
Here’s the next in our series of articles looking back at the Star Wars Saga. Today we look back at the one, the only, the ORIGINAL, STAR WARS EPISODE IV A NEW HOPE. This excellent article is written by our very own Ryan McDonald and it is not to be missed. With respect to all of my other fantastic writers, I think this may be my favorite article in our Star Wars series. Enjoy!
-Paul

Star Wars EPISODE IV: A NEW HOPE written by Ryan McDonald
Unfortunately, I can’t remember the first time I saw Star Wars, (I can remember the copied VHS tape I had) but I really can’t remember the exact moment I saw it. I feel ashamed being as Tim called me in his Phantom Menace article, a “Star Wars Guy”. I wish I had some great “blown away” story about seeing it as a kid and it changing my life forever. What I can always remember though is, how it felt, or should I say how Star Wars makes me feel. Having watched Episodes I to VI in a single day (ladies, I’ll post my phone number in the comments) I know if someone had never seen a single Star Wars movie, I would definitely have them start with Star Wars Episode IV New Hope. A New Hope has a timeless quality to it that makes it feel brand new every time I see it and I keep getting sucked down the rabbit hole again and again every time I watch the movie.

I think what gives the movie this unique quality is how you’re just immediately thrown into this world. Most movies that take a place in a fictional universe tend to take up a lot of screen time, or even whole movies, setting up the history of the world before they can tell story they actually want to tell. I think George Lucas brilliantly began the Star Wars saga in medias res, with what would later learn was the fourth movie, right in the middle of a chaotic shoot-out between the Rebels and the Imperial army. He has you follow C-3PO and R2-D2, two seemingly unimportant characters as they escape from this conflict, unintentionally find Luke Skywalker and along the way uncover Princess Leia’s secret mission for R2 to find the mythic Obi-Wan Kenobi, thus our first steps into this larger world.

Let’s highlight Princess Leia Organa for a minute here. In my opinion she’s truly the first female bad-ass in science fiction movies. One moment I absolutely fucking love, is when one of the imperial Stormtroopers finds her during the aforementioned shoot-out and says “there’s one, set for stun” like she’s just some defenseless little thing who poses no threat, so I’ll just stun her and BOOM she just blows him away. She seems to have this stigma of being a damsel-in-distress. Yes, the fact that she did have to be rescued and the “help me Obi-Wan Kenobi” message doesn’t really help my case here. I love that she was hurling insults as Darth Vader and Grand Moff Tarkin took her prisoner, tortured her and eventually blew up her home planet. She would later go on in the trilogy to have some truly great moments, like killing the Al Capone of the Star Wars universe, Jabba the Hutt. Princess Leia was a trailblazer in film. I think future sci-fi heroines like Ellen Ripley or Sarah Connor owe Leia some kind of gratitude or at least their creators do.

Leia’s rescuers are our two heroes, Luke Skywalker and Han Solo. Han was what every fan wanted to be, smooth, all the best lines, coolest ship and he had the best partner-in-crime ever, Chewbacca. Luke was who every fan actually was, the kid stuck in a rut, longing for more. Luke gazing off into the binary sunset on Tatooine with John Williams’ music doing what it does best is the epitome of that Star Wars feeling for me. I whole heartedly believe that a huge part of the success of these films is the Incredible music of John Williams. He’s carved out some of the best themes in movie history, but his music for the Star Wars Saga, is the playbook on how to score anything. Literally every character, moment and scene has some kind of musical acknowledgement. They never felt repetitive or feel copied and pasted from one scene to another, they just felt right. Williams is so fucking good he even makes the background music in the Cantina bar scene memorable.

Speaking of the Cantina, let’s talk about something I never saw before in any sci-fi movie, a dive bar. Filled with every awful looking creature you can think of: yeti-thing, thirsty-rat, butt-face, satan-guy etc. they’re all just hanging out, drinking like regulars you would see at any dive.

One of these scumbags makes the fatal mistake of messing with Luke and attacking old Ben Kenobi resulting in Ben cutting its fucking arm off. The band stops playing and all the patrons are just staring at Ben, Luke and the severed arm on the floor, only to immediately go back to what they were doing, the band continues to play, not giving the slightest shit, CLASSIC DIVE BAR, I love this place.

I obviously can’t talk about A New Hope without mentioning is main antagonist, the one, the only Darth Vader. Without the influence of the prequels, we only knew Vader as the half man/half machine Imperial Commander, who could strangle people with his mind and stuck to his belief in the long forgotten Force. To me, Vader is at his coldest in this installment, strictly business, trying to locate that damn Rebel Base. The only tiny crack we see in his armor is when he sees Obi-Wan for the first time in very a long time. What I love is just how much I felt their history, in the way these two characters felt each other’s presence in this moment. I love how the shot lingers on Old Ben as he walks down the quiet Death Star corridor then comes to a slow stop. We see Vader standing there with his lightsaber drawn, just waiting for him and of course, that breathing.

Their duel that follows is barely a duel really and I don’t think it was meant to be either. Their dialogue during this scene is almost unnecessary; the sound of the lightsabers, Obi- Wan’s facial expressions, Darth Vader’s body movements and the lack of music does it all, you know shit just got real.

Obi Wan sees Luke and the gang escaping, that stirring force theme whispers its way into the foreground again, he holds his lightsaber up to his face, closes his eyes in moment of Zen and Vader takes him down. I remember being full-on panicked when Old Ben died “what the fuck are they gonna do now?”

A New Hope’s final act is Luke in his X-Wing with his fellow Rebel pilots, against Darth Vader and his TIE Fighters in a dog fight along the crevice of the Death Star. Han, who bailed earlier, shows up just in time to knock Vader out of the fight and give Luke a clear path to destroy the Death Star, stopping the Empire…for now.

When I saw the Death Star explode in theatres during the 1997 Special Edition re-release, I think the entire audience reacted as if something had actually blown up inside the theatre, everyone screamed and immediately began laughing and clapping when the scene ended.

The movie of course ends with a medal ceremony for Luke and Han (not for Chewbacca though? I call bullshit) bestowed upon them by Leia and the Rebel alliance leaders. The recipients turn and face the audience as they are applauded to one final reprise of the Star Wars theme and cut to stars in space…and cut to me buying hundreds of toys, making friends who also love these movies, seeing every episode after with these friends and feeling it every time.

May The Force Be With You…

Ryan

P.S. A note from Paul, our Editor In Chief…