geeklegionofdoom

I actually enjoyed it more than I thought i would. It's obviously aimed at kid. So im thinking would they enjoy it, and i think they would. This would be the sort of thing I wouldn't mind watching with my nephews or something. Any gripes for far?

The main female lead, comes accross as a bratty wanna be girl boss. I hope they do more with the character. It's not super original, it does feel like The Goonies ( but kids these days probably haven't seen that ) . I think it's interesting the kids seem to be placed as middle class gated community types, which seems and odd choice. Perhaps also it seems a little to close to the real suburbs. But i think it's foing it's own thing in it's own space and as such can be watch with less of the burden of the rest of the franchise. So it's pretty inoffensive fun predictable adventure so far. We'll see where it leads.

Review based on first two episodes only. A slower start than expected from this anticipated series. This is one series where you really do have to have watched the Cartoon Rebels show. I wacthed the first two seasons of that, so i was somewhat familiar.

What works?

I think Ray Stevenson's dark Jedi is interesting, not evil as such , but more of just a mercenary attitude . I hope they don't do full pantomime with him later on.

I quite liked his apprentice too (although she is clearly being set up as an antagonist for Sabine , Alt girl smack down ).

VFX is mostly strong, apart for some obvious use of 'The Volume' I like some of the political elements hinted about with Ex Empire workers.

Star ship sequences were well handled.

I liked some of the production design here that somewhat captures the feel of the OG movies What doesn't work?

Odd dialog sequences. Decisions where to have lots of what i can only presume were meant to be dramatic pauses between conversations with characters make dialog scenes sometimes feel oddly artificial , and makes them less dramatic.

I like Dawson as an actress, but I have to say she struggles to make a convincing action hero . The action scenes aren't particularly realistic and lack a sense of danger. Lightsabre battles look more like a stunt show being performed.

As mentioned the pace feels a little slower than expected and at times borders on a little dull It might be mentioned later in series, but I can't help but wonder where the financing would come from for this new empire (although the same issues can be said for most modern SW) I know Rebels has its fans; however I personally feel Filoni characters tend to be particularly overwritten in general but in particular in Rebels. Every character is the last of their kind, some type of highborn or royalty, retconned into an existing major characters backstory. Think about what made the original movie work. We had a farm boy, two criminals and an old veteran. Relatable.

As it goes, its ok, fans of Rebels I expect will enjoy more, but objectively it's somewhat average.

So we have to talk politics when discussing this movie, because the movie certainly wants to talk about it. This movie deliberately takes swipes at more right wing social political attitudes. So even before discussing the quality of the movie you have to decide if this will be a problem for you. This movie IS preachy, and can be accused of having hard line left leaning attitudes, with little counter balance . For the interests of transparency my political stand is centre right . So yes i did roll my eyes a few times in this movie (not as much as main star Nicole Maines who literally rolls eyes back in every other shot). But i'm not going to critique a political opinion that isn't one i share. Out side of the political side of things, i still somewhat enjoyed the movie. In actual fact this movie i'd say this movie is almost a spiritual successor to the great 80's movie the lost boys. Im not saying the movie plays like that. But the lost boys were all about the outsider attitude and living to their own rules, and this movie succeeds in doing this, but for a very different time period with a different outsider mindset . In addition Diana Hopper's Duke (the main leader vampire) if effortlessly cool and leads the gang just like David did in the Lost boys. She is alot of fun to watch. The effects are pretty good with some decent gore effects & kill scenes. What doesn't work. Nicole Maines acting is pretty poor , as mentioned , count how many times the character rolls back their eyes in this movie. If it were a drinking game you'd die of alcohol poisoning . The character comes across as petulant, unlikable and selfish (the later, the character's own brother calls them out on) I personally think this is more stunt casting as they are a real transgender person , rather than acting ability. Also the 'Vlad' character is somewhat miscast, and why not just call the name Dracula as it's in the public domain . The rest of the vampire gang either gets little , or no character development . The movie is also unwilling to fully pull the trigger on it's own political posturing . The word transgender , never comes up and it's amusing watching characters talk around it without actually saying it. It feels like the movie doesn't have the strength of it's own convictions , and the whole mantra of the vampires only turning females , then the the fact they turn a trans person is simply waved away , in what could have been an interesting dramatic set of circumstances. As i recall there was a similar set up in Supergirl TV show that also stars Nicole Maines. I do think this movie deliberately tries to antagonize right leaning internet folk, as the vampires literally state they hunt not criminals or anything like that , but internet trolls and the types who make right leaning content om social media. This to me seemed very hypocritical and out of all the social political shenanigans this was the thing that maybe bugged me , as it's very typical of 'cancel culture' and very un progressive ironically. I feel the film makers a making a point to try and ruffle feathers to create a 'controversial marketing buzz' for this movie. All that being said, you can still have some fun with this decently paced , well shot vampire flick with decent effects . But most people will have to decide if the political element is something you can watch or not