A Star Wars Recap: Episode VIII

 Alright, let’s just get this over with.

A Star Wars Recap: Rogue One

 

Okay, since I reviewed The Force Awakens and recently watched all eight movies in one sitting, I figured a review of Rogue One is also in order.  I was pretty pumped in the lead-up to it, despite the PC pandering that was obviously in high gear.  The idea of exploring stories apart from the Skywalker saga was very enticing.  Plus, when the backdrop is precursory events merely mentioned in A New Hope, it was hard to resist getting a little excited.  With Gareth Edwards, who had recently given us a moderately entertaining and fairly mythos-honoring monster feature in 2014’s Godzilla, Lucasfilm again was not going with the time-tested big-name director.  Plus, there was a wildly diverse cast.  Would it pay off? 

A Star Wars Recap: Episode VII

Okay, so my friends basically insisted that I write a review for this before The Last Jedi arrives in theaters in 50 hours, so here it is.  I was so pumped for this movie, but I was afraid that it would be more Terminator: Salvation, rather than Batman Begins. It exceeded my expectations on many levels, but it wasn’t better than Hope or Empire.   It has aged (if a movie can age in two years) pretty well.  Maybe not as well as Jurassic Park, but not nearly as poorly as the prequel trilogy.  It’s not perfect, and there are legitimate reasons to be a detractor from the overwhelmingly positive response.  However, for the saga, in my humble opinion, it was a win. 

Kaine vs Pence

So, this is the one that I’m more interested in.  I like Pence.  Much like when John McCain ran in 2008, picking Sarah Palin to run with him, I’m more excited to vote for a vice president than the guy on top of the ticket.  I don’t care for Kaine, but he’s not a shrill harpie like his running mate.  I fully expect Pence to dominate this.  Kaine will likely just sit there and attack Trump, never spout any real policy points, and probably go off on guns at some point.  And I think Pence will pounce all over him.

Clinton v Trump: Round 1

Apparently this is going to be historic.  Why?  Because no one likes either of them?  To be fair, some people just love one or the other, or, more likely, they hate one or the other. 

The Obama Show: 2016 State of the Union Edition

I didn’t watch it.  There, I said it.  It wasn’t worth my time. Honestly, when it came to this final state of the union from President Obama; I kept hearing the words of the late Maureen O’Hara from what is probably my favorite John Wayne film, McLintock!  She laughs in the face of the governor and says “Why you pompous windbag.”  Yep.  That’s pretty much how I feel about President Obama at this point.  To listen to the talking heads in the mainstream media, you'd think this was the second coming of JFK.  They even had a countdown to the speech on CNN.  Yeah, it was that lame.  So, without further delay, let’s just get this over with it.  What follows is parts of the transcript that I deemed necessary to include for commentary.  Honestly, you could probably do without any of it, but apparently I’m supposed to watch/read so you don’t have to.  So here goes.

A Star Wars Recap: Episode VI

The end.  The beginning.

This is it folks.  The last of six, and the lead-in to what will be.  This thing sends the original trilogy out on a monotone note, really, despite its best efforts to raise the stakes.  However, as we’ll see, this is the film that really made the prequels possible – for better or worse.  Still, it’s packed with enough fun and mythos to make it enjoyable repeatedly.