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Ahsoka: Part Five: Shadow Warrior (2023)
Peak Star Wars - Just magical!
This episode is very special in a lot of ways. First of all, it feels like the ultimate culmination of everything that came before. From the Prequels, Original Trilogy, animated shows, to Mandalorian and Andor. Except the Sequels - Luckily.
Bringing Hayden back in such a meaningful way and having scenes from the Clone Wars in Live Action is every fans dream. They nailed it! Years of Build Up made the Reconnection of Ashoka and Anakin very powerful and emotional. I also loved seeing Gen 1 Clone Troopers portrayed by real actors. It looked amazing.
But overall this whole episode captured what Star Wars is all about - a sense of wonder. The mythical and spiritual. That feeling was conveied beautifully by good acting, directing and the right choice of music. Seeing the swarm of Space Whales flying into an unknown universe was truly poetic. A fantastical universe full of wonder.
Thank you Feloni!
One Piece (2023)
Overall really good but it's rushing through the story
They turned one of the most beloved mangas/ animes into Live-Action and almost everyone was rightfully skeptical. Now comes the surprise: It's actually well done! But the fact that they condensed a complex long-form story into 8 episodes creates some problems. If you know the original, the pace is just too quick. That leads to some moments falling a bit flat.
Acting:
+The main actors do a great job of portraying the animated counterparts - faces and mannerisms are spot on
+After over 20 years the German dub still has most of the original voice actors - very nostalgic!
+The casting can't be praised enough - almost every character was visually translated near perfectly into live action
Script:
+They recreated the tone of the original: adventurous, epic, goofy, emotional and sometimes pretty graphic and brutal
-To fit the story of the East blue saga into 8 episodes they had to condense and leave out certain plot lines, which leads to:
->some missing side characters that brought a lot of personality
->emotional payoffs and reveals not having as much weight since there is not enough time to establish them properly: e.g. Characters backstories, foreshadowing of big baddies, Namis betrayal
- > too much screen time for Corby
+The shortening and adjustment of the story for live action also led to some positive changes like interesting new character interactions that weren't in the Anime /Manga and scenes that were only talked about before
VfX/SfX:
+You can see where the budget went: CGI, set pieces and choreographies are high quality
-even with a huge budget they had to scale down some epic battles in size: e.g.captain black fight without his crew and only inside the mansion, no Don Creek with his crew at the barratie
+Set pieces are designed in a very colorful and fantastical way, almost like a Tim Burton Movie
-The visuals can tend to be a bit to cartoony at points though - they also went a bit too far with the modern stuff that pulled me out a few times: e.g. Having ghetto blasters in Arlong Park
-The soundtrack is really mediocre and pales in comparison the wonderful orchestral OST of the Anime - at points it even pulled me out a bit by adding Hip-Hop Beats every time Along appears
Direction:
+Interesting shots are mixed in to further substantiate the quirkiness of the universe and it's anime roots, e g. Cross cuts, wanted poster presentations
-But they could also be considered a bit distracting at times.
Ahsoka (2023)
Dave Filoni understands Star Wars
When I read some of the negative reviews here I have the feeling that quite a lot of people dont understand what makes Star wars Star Wars. Filoni nailed the tone with the two first episodes.
+ wonderful OST that comes close to the scoring of the original trilogy
+ small details like scene transitions that were also used in the original 6 movies. Seems like a small thing but does a lot to convey an authentic Star Wars vibe
+ a beautiful transition from the animated Rebels show to Real Life Action. Locals and characters were very faithfully created.
+ cinematography, sfx and vfx are high quality to create the atmosphere of an epic. Something that was lacking in other Star Wars shows like Kenobi, which felt quite cheap as a result.
+ the villians are menacing and interesting. There will probably be quite a bit of character progression in regards to the dark jedi
+ the plot entails the core principles of Star Wars: Adventure and mythicism
+ the show takes its time to create atmosphere and tension.
Now to my minor gripes:
- some would argue the show starts off a bit too slow but people were saying the same thing about Andor which is now highly regarded as one of the best Star Wars content. Just be prepared that it is not a non-stop action fest.
- the main characters dont express a wide range of emotions yet. Ahsoka can feel a bit monotonous in her portrayal which makes sense though, since she is a calm and collected Jedi just like Qui-Gon for example. The interactions of the three protagonists are convincing and wholesome, especially when you have seen Rebels. But overall it can come across a bit stale, since they dont have that much to work with yet. That dynamic will likely change though as the stakes are getting higher and Ezra comes back.
Tumblestone (2016)
One of the best Puzzle Games ever made
That I'm the first person here writing a review, shows how overlooked this gem is. In my opinion Tumblestone even surpasses the most iconic puzzler of all time: Tetris. And there is one main reason for that: Scalability. What starts out as a fairly basic puzzler evolves into something more complex with each added modifier. After you mastered all the different puzzle variations (which can take quite a while), different modifiers can be combined to create some of the most demanding puzzles that can take over an hour to solve. After years of casually playing this game, I'm still improving. Tumblestone has such a long term learning curve, it's ridiculous. That speaks to the impressively well thought through game design. If you love Puzzle Games, get this game ASAP!
Obi-Wan Kenobi: Part VI (2022)
Emotional Payoff that brought me to tears
After some Ups & and quite a lot of Downs with this Show it already got much better last week. But this finale got me quite emotional. There are still some things that could almost be considered severe plot holes (Reva finding Luke and left alive after that, Connection between Obi-Wan and Leia, Bail untouched by the Empire) but at least they did their best to not directly break canon (thank goodness). BUT the battle between Vader and Obi-Wan and the Ending delivered big time. What an emotional Roller Coaster. As Long Time Star Wars Fan who loves the Prequels just as much as the Originals - this was bliss. 10/10.
Obi-Wan Kenobi: Part V (2022)
This Episode saved the Show!
I think most of us would agree that the writing and directing in this show has been wonky to say the least (especially the end of Ep.3 and whole Ep.4). Though I still think "Obi-Wan Kenobi" missed a lot of potential as a whole, this episode pulled me back in and luckily tied some plot strings together that didn´t seem to make any sense before. This episode was definitely better directed and got the flashbacks we wanted, the most Badass Vader we´ve ever seen, emotional confrontations and finally I felt like something is at stake. Sure, there are still plotholes but I´m willing to forgive those since the episde as a whole was just coherent and well made!