Back when The Clone Wars was first cancelled, the animatics from an arc entitled The Bad Batch released on StarWars.com. Here we had four super commandos on a mission with Anakin and Rex to stop a Separatist plot that is allowing them to gain a major advantage in the war. It was an enjoyable arc, but there was nothing really special about Clone Force 99 – otherwise known as The Bad Batch.
When it was announced that The Clone Wars would be returning for a final season, The Bad Batch was one of the first confirmed for it. A number of changes were made for the arc that made it feel more impactful, but still the Bad Batch had little character focus. I still loved them, but that lack of focus made them feel like any other squad – particularly when you’ve got Rex and Echo in the spotlight. They were never meant to be the focus, though. They served as an introduction. An introduction to a series that put the focus on them. When that first announcement was made, there was a lot of uncertainty about how good it would be. The Dark Times and the immediate aftermath of Order 66 is something that hadn’t before been explored in this new canon, which we would now see. But how good would the series be with a squad of clones that many disregarded?
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It’s been a long road of wondering just how a Sonic the Hedgehog movie would play out, and just what the focus of such a movie would be. As the years went on, we got some news and a trailer showing… the thing. But since the backlash and redesign, things have been feeling pretty positive for it.
Sure, it was probably never going to be a massive standout in terms of plot. Never breaking any ground or giving unexpected twists. But what is here is a joy to watch and gives plenty of action and laughs for an audience to experience. Even non-fans of Sonic can find things to enjoy about it. The end of a trilogy and the end of the Skywalker Saga. Is it wrong for me to say the best thing to come from this new trilogy is a LEGO game that will contain all nine films for what sounds to be one of the greatest LEGO – and possibly Star Wars – games of all time?
I know that sounds like there’s nothing redeemable about the trilogy or this film, but that’s where you’d be wrong. I don’t hate The Rise of Skywalker, just as I don’t hate the Sequel Trilogy, but there has been a lot of missteps within the execution of all three films within it. The Rise of Skywalker follows the trend of being good but not great. Sure, there’s plenty of great sequences and a load of character interactions that work, but it still cannot escape from the fact that it never seemed to have a coherent plan. The first thing to really notice about The Last Jedi is that it sets quite a bit up within the first ten minutes. Then it decides to go further. What the trailers showed us and what we see in the film is different, though many suspected that it might be. Narrative structures teased in the trailers go to unexpected places, and there are plenty of unexpected things within the film.
The characters here continue from where they left off in Force Awakens, with Poe immediately being back in an X-Wing blowing things up. That trait gets focus here, and some development in his understanding of the larger plan of war happens. BB-8 is again a standout droid, giving some great character and getting into some action of his own. The TV series of Power Rangers is always good fun, with the suits and story pretty colourful and fun. A few seasons took a more serious side with the story, and even in the more light-hearted ones there were some serious moments.
But no-one really expected those spandex suits and cheap effects to change to reflect that more serious tone. Here then, with the first in the new Rangers films, a more serious tone is presented with the effects and suits to match. I'm going to keep this one short and sweet, and as spoiler free as possible. The story presented in Rogue One is as we've known for a long time. The Death Star plans are stolen.
But the journey it takes to get there is an interesting one, with plenty of scenes that make you feel for these characters. Most of them get developed very well across the story. Said I would do this, to give my feelings on the show, and whether the rest of the world should be excited for this when it finally airs elsewhere. The answer is - yes. I can literally say this is one of the best crafted cartoons of Sonic I have watched.
Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog felt like it was nothing but a comic fest. Nothing but joke after joke with little story. Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic X felt more serious in nature, a bit too off tone, and relying too much on gimmicky power ups so as not to make Sonic too powerful all the time. And Sonic Underground... It tried to strike the right balance, but it either came off as too annoyingly comic or too serious about itself. Well, this was interesting. I was already anticipating the release of this, and the forty minutes of greatness has finally arrived. What we have here is two episodes put together to form a season opener, or a conjoined arc, if you will.
The first half gives all the main characters time in the spotlight. The second half expands on them. I'll try not to go into that much detail on plots this time, but it should still be a decent review. |