Star Wars Wednesday: Top 8 Lightsaber Battles

Top 8 Lightsaber Battles

(WARNING: This article contains Last Jedi spoilers!)

          Ah, the lightsaber battle. A quintessential part of any Star Wars experience, there’s little better than seeing Jedi and Sith whip out their signature blades and begin a legendary duel. What’s even better is that with the advent of the Prequels and Sequels, lightsaber battles have become more than simple swordfights. Now they can be spectacles that show off tons of awesome choreography, as well as more subtle, being used to further character development.

          So I’ll be ranking my favourites today! A few rules before we start: I’ll be doing the movies only today, so no Clone Wars or Rebels battles for now. I’m also only allowed to pick one battle per movie, and at least two people in the scene must be wielding a lightsaber, and they must be fighting against each other. So no Rogue One Vader hallway scene, no Attack of the Clones coliseum, no Last Jedi throne room, and so on.

With that said, let’s begin!

8. Obi-Wan vs. Darth Vader (A New Hope)

          Despite being the first example of a lightsaber battle in the franchise’s history, Obi-Wan’s climactic showdown against his former student aboard the Death Star…hasn’t aged spectacularly.

          While it’s nowhere near as slow as some fans joke, when compared to literally any other battle from the movies it does look pretty laughably clunky and stagnant. Obi-Wan and Vader knock their lightsabers together a few times and then sometimes they turn around and move backwards a bit. Then one of them delivers some dialogue, and then they do it again.

          I especially enjoy this weird lunging move Vader tries at about the halfway mark. He looks like he’s trying to poke Obi-Wan’s belly more than he’s trying to strike him down.

          A fan is actually trying to modernize this fight a bit with what he calls “Scene 38 Reimagined”, a CGI remake of the battle more in line with the lightsaber battles of the modern movies. While it isn’t finished yet, check out this preview and tell me it doesn’t look awesome.

7. Anakin, Obi-Wan and Yoda vs. Count Dooku (Attack of the Clones)

          This one is easily the most controversial lightsaber battle in the saga, and for a few good reasons. The amazingness that is the Prequel Dialogue is out in full force here (“You’re gonna pay for all the Jedi that you killed today, Dooku!”), Count Dooku is a pretty boring bad guy no matter how cool Christopher Lee tries to make him, and yeah, I can get why some fans see Yoda with a lightsaber as a betrayal of his character.

          But despite all that, this is still a pretty neat fight as far as I’m concerned. I really like the short part where Anakin shuts down the electricity and the entire fight is illuminated just by their lightsabers. It’s a really cool effect you can’t see anywhere else in the movies.

          And, I’ve gotta admit, I think lightsaber Yoda is awesome. Yes, it’s silly, but c’mon, so is everything else in the Prequel Trilogy. Seeing him jump around and spin while fighting Dooku is just hilarious, and I love it no matter what.

          While this fight lacks the style and substance of some of the ones further up the list, it’s still entertaining, and I’ve gotta give it that.

6. Luke vs. Kylo Ren (The Last Jedi)

          Does this one even count? I’m not sure, but this is my list and this is also the closest thing Last Jedi has to a one-on-one lightsaber battle, so here it is closer to the bottom.

          This battle is easily the shortest one in any of the movies, and the only one where the lightsabers never clash (for obvious reasons to those who know how the scene ends). The scene is clearly far more concerned with being more about Luke’s first meeting with Kylo since what happened at his temple instead of being a big flashy showdown between the two, and it succeeds in that regard.

          The fight definitely holds lots of inspiration from Lucas’s own inspiration for Star Wars in Japanese samurai movies. A lot more time is spent just seeing Luke and Kylo stand off against each other, studying the other and trying to predict the move they’re going to make. Luke spends the whole fight feigning being on the defensive, which gives us a fun show of how he’s improved in combat since Return of the Jedi. Definitely a simpler fight with some very unusual circumstances, but a good one as well.

5. Luke vs. Darth Vader - Round 2 (Return of the Jedi)

          Another fight without much fight, the climactic lightsaber battle of the Original Trilogy is much more concerned with Luke’s internal debate of Light Side vs. Dark Side, as well as his mission to redeem his father.

          One thing I really like about this fight is all the things we see for the first time here when the lightsabers are turned on. This is the first time we see someone try the good ol’ boomerang lightsaber move when Vader knocks down the catwalk Luke is standing on. This is also the first lightsaber battle where we see someone give into their anger entirely, as we see with Luke when Vader threatens Leia.

          I especially love how Luke finishes the fight once he finally gives in to his anger. Vader, who basically embarrassed him on Cloud City in the last movie, is brought to his knees in a matter of minutes. It’s a true perfect bookend to the arc Luke goes on in the movie, and is made even better by his and Vader’s decisions in the following moments.

4. Rey and Finn vs. Kylo Ren (The Force Awakens)

          When it comes to lightsaber battles, Revenge of the Sith was a hard act to follow. While the epic duel between Obi-Wan and Anakin was heavy on the CGI, it also demonstrated some amazing choreography, truly feeling like the lightsaber battle to close out Star Wars once and for all.

          So when The Force Awakens was announced, people were unsure if the big lightsaber battle to end off the movie would be able to match up with the best ones from the other two trilogies. While it isn’t my favourite battle of them all, it’s definitely up there.

          One thing I really like about this fight is how it bookends Finn’s character arc in the movie perfectly. He spends the whole movie up to that point running from everything, particularly the First Order. Then, when confronted with Kylo Ren, he runs towards the danger to protect his friend. It’s the perfect way to finish off his story.

          Of course the actual battle itself between Rey and Kylo is awesome, and I especially like the symbolism with the ravine that opens up between them at the end. With any luck we’ll get a rematch between them in Episode IX, but it’s gonna be hard to top their first bout.

3. Obi-Wan vs. Anakin (Revenge of the Sith)

          And here’s the king of flash itself: the big climactic showdown between Obi-Wan and Anakin. I remember that when Revenge of the Sith was being promoted, despite being the climax of the movie the duel was the thing that was being shown off the most.

          While I know some might dislike this duel because of how CGI’d everything is, but seriously? The whole thing is so awesome that some of the worse looking effects are easily forgiven. The choreography is beautifully done. The speed of the duel itself is to this day unmatched by any other live-action Star Wars product. The volcanic setting of Mustafar is awesome. And, perhaps best of all, this scene has some of the best acting in the entire trilogy courtesy of both Hayden Christensen and Ewan McGregor.

          The ending to the fight is one of the best scenes in all of Star Wars as far as I’m concerned. Obi-Wan thinking he’s killed his former student while Anakin desperately grasps for a way to escape the lava is beautifully shot, beautifully acted, and, in a surprising twist for a Prequel, very well-written. McGregor sells this scene like no other in the trilogy, and for good reason. It was originally planned to be the final battle of all of Star Wars, and it lived up to expectations.

2. Luke vs. Darth Vader - Round 1 (Empire Strikes Back)

          Perhaps the most iconic battle in Star Wars, the duel between Luke and Vader on Cloud City has a lot going for it: the lighting is awesome, putting the dark shadows cast by the carbon-freezing chamber to good use. The choreography is great, especially in the second half when Vader starts putting Luke to shame, and it has perhaps the best ending to any fight in any movie ever.

          A lot of what makes this fight great is how it subverts expectations. As Luke leaves Dagobah both Yoda and Obi-Wan warn him that Vader’s gonna royally embarrass him. Then he arrives at Cloud City and things get even more intimidating as he sees his friends dragged away and Leia warns him of the trap. Then he finally arrives at the chamber and Vader begins taunting him, telling him that he still isn’t a Jedi. They spar for a bit, and then…Luke knocks him off the platform. Uh…okay. That was easy.

          But things get better in the second half of the battle. Just when it looks like Luke is going to make an escape, Vader returns, and without saying a word he does exactly what Yoda predicted he’d do. Without barely moving a muscle he’s able to launch Luke out into the catwalk. Then Vader goes on the aggressive, lunging out at Luke from the shadows and chasing him down until he has him completely cornered.

          And then…the twist. We all know what it is, but the big surprise suddenly paints the entire story up to that point in a completely different light. This battle alone changed the course of not just Star Wars, but cinema itself with just four simple words: “I am your father”.

1. Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan vs. Darth Maul (The Phantom Menace)

          The battle from Force Awakens might’ve had the most character development. The battle from Revenge of the Sith might’ve been the flashiest. The battle from Empire Strikes Back might’ve had the biggest surprise.

          But for my money, there is no lightsaber battle in all of Star Wars than the Duel of the Fates in the climax of The Phantom Menace.

          Yeah, the movie surrounding it might be bad, but this battle is like an oasis in the centre of a harsh and unforgiving desert environment. The climactic showdown between Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan against the mysterious Sith lord Darth Maul is awesome from the first few seconds. The doors open, revealing Maul awaiting inside. Qui-Gon sends Padme and the rest to find another way out of the palace. The epic John Williams piece kicks in. Maul ignites his double-bladed lightsaber. And then the fight’s on.

          The choreography and music alone are enough to put this one at the top for me. Unlike most if not all the other battles on this list, the Duel of the Fates plays out with very little dialogue spoken, instead telling its story through the battle itself. While Phantom Menace is definitely the most kid-friendly Star Wars thanks to a certain Gungan, this duel is surprisingly dark. There isn’t much colour in the scenery. The jokes have stopped. Maul himself is a really intimidating villain. The music is epic and intense (to date still one of cinema’s best fight scene songs).

          And the fight itself is awesome. A perfect blend of fast action and slow moments, all while not saying a word, make up for the perfect ending to an overall mediocre movie. It’s just awesome overall.

Star Wars Rebels Reviews: “Jedi Night/DUME”

Just one week late!

(This review contains spoilers!)

          Well, they’re finally back. They could’ve been back last week, but since for whatever reason Disney XD Canada is airing the episodes a week behind schedule I’ll be late on reviewing these last few episodes as Rebels winds down to a close. Sorry!

          So, anyways, we have three weeks of double-features (including this one) before Star Wars Rebels takes its final bow and is replaced by…nothing, apparently. There’s still a lot of questions to be answered, such as what’s going to happen to the leads that we don’t know make it to Rogue One and beyond, the mystery of the lothwolves, and whether Ashoka will make a return or if she’s really dead and gone.

          These few episodes answered a few of those questions, especially the first one. “Jedi Night” ranks up as one of the best episodes of Rebels ever, without a shadow of a doubt. Everything from the visuals to the dialogue to the amazing look and feel of the ending was pitch-perfect. While it was pretty obvious what was gonna happen to Kanan throughout the episode, the season thus far, and just by knowing basic Star Wars lore, his death was incredibly hard-hitting. I love how it gave him one last awesome moment as he was able to use the Force to get his sight back for one last look at Hera.

          Why he had to die with that awful new haircut though is a mystery.

          Perhaps because it came immediately after “Jedi Night”, “DUME”, while still not a bad episode by any means, kinda paled in comparison. Ezra went off to find out what to do next without Kanan to guide him, and Sabine and Zeb went to see what the Empire is up to.

          One thing I really liked about this episode is how it subtly tied into Rogue One. Early on Tarkin calls in to tell Thrawn that should his TIE Defender project fails, the funds for it will instead be sent to Orson Krennic’s project “Stardust” (ha ha). Wouldn’t you know it, Governor Price screws the pooch for the TIE Defenders in taking out Kanan, leading to the final push for the Death Star and, by extension, the end of the Empire.

          Overall though “DUME” felt like very little progress for very little gain. Zeb and Sabine fought off Rukh…but didn’t kill him for some reason, Hera came to peace with Kanan’s death, and Ezra figured out that his next goal is to return to the Lothal Jedi Temple. Not much happened here, to be honest. There was also a giant Lothwolf named Dume, but they didn’t do much with that.

          Despite being a week behind, it looks to me like Rebels is really going to make the most of its final six episodes. If “Jedi Night” is the starting point, then we’re in for a real treat later down the line.

FINAL SCORE (Jedi Night)

10/10

Legendary

FINAL SCORE (DUME)

6/10

Okay

Editorial: The importance of positivity

The importance of positivity

          I’ve been doing this blog for just under two years now, and if there’s one thing I’ve learned over that period of time, it’s this: the game industry is a very silly thing to write about. Every week there’s something new going on, and usually none of it’s good news.

          I had a few options of things to talk about this week, ranging from Sea of Thieves being praised for having just plain, ordinary microtransactions instead of loot boxes to recent tragedies reigniting people who still cling to the baseless “video games make people violent” debate. But instead I’ve decided a change was necessary to how these weekly editorials will go.

          If you follow this blog, you’ll know that aside from my reviews and Monday editorials, my biggest piece of content is a bi-weekly series called “Star Wars Wednesday”, where I take a look at something funny, interesting or cool from Star Wars and just talk about what I think about it. It’s easily my favourite thing to do on this blog, partially because it’s not a series where I have to lob criticisms at Lucasfilm for every single decision they make that I don’t agree with. I know it’s popular these days to see videos with names like “This is why Canto Bight is the WORST thing in Star Wars EVER! Part 65”, but I’d much rather focus on the good in something than the parts of it that kinda miss the mark.

          And that’s where these Editorials come in. Bottom line, I’m tired of just being negative and focusing on the bad parts of the game industry week after week after week. It’s just exhausting to focus only on news that other people have already talked about extensively, and you can likely find more varied and in-depth arguments and opinions on the industry’s hottest topics elsewhere than my little corner of the internet.

          It turns out you can only talk about EA and Ubisoft so much before you get burned out, actually.

          So starting next week I’m changing how I do these weekly Monday editorials. From now on, we’ll be doing a more positive take on the game industry. I might still do news and opinion pieces from time to time, but only if it’s a subject I’m really passionate about or a topic where I really feel I can add something new and different to the discussion, but for the most part I want to do more positive stuff. I want this to be a series people can read on their Monday mornings not for “juicy drama”, but because it’ll be a small, fun part of their day that’ll make it that much better.

          I’ll be doing more Top 10 lists for sure, but the main thing I want to try out is “What makes games great”, a new subseries where I’ll take a single game or game franchise each week and examine what makes them so awesome. Next week I’ll be doing Breath of the Wild to celebrate the first anniversary of its release, so you can look forward to that.

          At the end of the day, I’m doing this because there’s enough negativity in the world, and I’d much rather spend my time writing about something that’ll make people happy. If you want news, you can go on IGN or Kotaku or The Jimquisition, because trust me, there’s plenty to go around. I’m happy taking this path instead.

          See you next week.

Behind the Screens: 10 things you NEVER knew about Back to the Future!

10 things you NEVER knew about Back to the Future!

Welcome back to Behind the Screens, the series where I’ll be talking about some of the most popular movies, TV shows, games and more and teaching you 10 facts about each that you likely have never heard!

          Back to the Future is one of those rare film trilogies where each installment can be considered a bona-fide classic in its own right. The time-travelling adventures of Marty McFly and Doc Brown are a rarity in that none of the three movies are a true weak link, and each are strong films on their own as well as in the context of the trilogy. As is to be expected they’re also hiding lots of fun and interesting secrets, so let’s find out what the DeLorean has under the hood!

1. Steven Spielberg saved the title

          While Back to the Future is one of the most iconic names in cinema these days, studio execs were unsure if it would sell back when the first movie was in development. The title especially was a huge point of contention for them, as they believed a movie with “Future” in the title, primarily because they thought this would lead to the movie being unfairly compared to sci-fi films of the time. Instead they suggested what they thought would be a better name: “Spaceman from Pluto”.

          Because that name definitely wouldn’t inspire some sci-fi comparisons.

          Producer and movie legend Steven Spielberg swooped in to save the day, writing a letter back to the execs thanking them for their excellent joke and telling them it made the entire crew laugh. Unwilling to admit they’d been serious, they let the original name stay.

2. Michael J. Fox wasn’t always Marty McFly

          While Michael J. Fox was always director Robert Zemeckis’ first choice for the part of Marty, he was unfortunately met with a scheduling conflict with the sitcom Family Ties. With Fox unavailable, TV star Eric Stoltz was hired in his place.

          Unfortunately, it wasn’t long before Zemeckis realized that Stoltz didn’t fit the part at all. He took everything way too seriously, leaving little humour in the role (which is what you always want from your star in a comedy movie). He also refused to pull his punches in fight scenes with Biff Tannen, leaving actor Thomas Wilson with bruises after every scene. Zemeckis quickly excised Stoltz from the movie and an agreement was made with the producers of Family Ties to bring the right actor to the part.

3. Back to the Future II introduced a revolutionary effect

          Back to the Future II marked the first ever movie to feature two actors playing different characters interacting with each other in the same scene. This is most obvious in the scene where 2015 Biff talks to 1955 Biff about the sports almanac, but it’s also used in the scene where Marty is hiding in his house in 2015 and when 1955 Doc and 1985 Doc are working together. The 2015 house scene was especially difficult to shoot, with Fox having to shoot the scene at least three times to make it look right.

4. A time-travelling Easter egg

          We all know the scene where Marty first arrives in 1955 and crashes into the farmhouse, but did you know that there’s a fun nod to another series about time-travel in there?

          According to the credits, the farmer’s name is Mr. Peabody, and his son’s name is Sherman. This is, of course, a reference to Mr. Peabody and Sherman, the cartoon dog and boy duo who jumped through history on adventures.

5. Robert Zemeckis didn’t intend on making any sequels

          While the first movie seems to end with a tease for Back to the Future II’s plot, according to Zemeckis this was initially one final joke to end the movie on. According to him, if he was planning on the sequel he wouldn’t have had Marty’s girlfriend go with them, as she didn’t have much of a place in the story. This is why she is knocked out and removed from the story so quickly in the eventual sequel, because Zemeckis couldn’t figure out a way for her to organically gel with Marty and Doc’s adventure.

6. The original design for the time machine inspired an infamous scene in a different movie

          Before deciding on the now-iconic DeLorean time machine, the filmmakers went through plenty of options as to what would be the most original everyday object to turn into this fantastical machine. One of the earliest ideas was to have it be a refrigerator, but this was scrapped out of fears that kids would start climbing into their own fridges after seeing Marty do it in the movie.

          However, the idea lives on in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull in the much-mocked scene where Indy survives a nuke by climbing in a fridge. Spielberg left this in as a reference to the original idea for the time machine.

7. A fun callback at the end

          This is a fairly well-known secret, but it’s such a good one that it’s worth keeping in here.

          We all know that the iconic scene where Doc introduces Marty to the DeLorean takes place in a mall parking lot. What’s so special about that? If you notice, the mall is named “Twin Pines Mall”. Again, nothing really special…until you reach the end of the movie when Marty returns to warn Doc about the Libyans. Here, the mall’s name has been changed to “Lone Pine Mall”.

          This is because, upon first arriving in 1955, Marty runs over one of two side-by-side pine trees. Without the twin pines existing anymore, the mall’s name changed in the future!

8. The filmmakers got their timing almost right

          This is a small one but a cool one. From the time that Marty meets up with Doc at the clock tower to the time lighting strikes it, nine and a half minutes of film have passed. This is extremely close to how long it takes in-universe to get Marty home. He meets up with Doc at 9:56 PM and the lightning strikes at 10:04, which is 10 minutes exactly. They missed perfection by just 30 seconds.

9. Doc’s shirt from the second movie makes a return

          By this point we all know that Doc’s steam train-themed shirt was a sly hint as to what time period the franchise would be heading to next, but did you know that the shirt makes a return later on in the franchise?

          When Marty and Doc are stealing the train in the climax of Back to the Future III, Doc is using the shirt as a balaclava to disguise himself as a bandit.

10. The film was made in record time

          Nowadays it can take movies years to be made. From the end of filming to release the latest Star Wars movie was in production for just shy of two years. This was not the case for Back to the Future.

          The time between the end of shooting and the release of the movie in theatres was just 10 weeks. These days it would likely take that time to just render the CGI in a single scene. The post-production team’s jobs were perhaps made easier by the fact that there are only 32 special effects shots in the entire movie, and several of them were practical.

          That’s all for this installment of Behind the Screens! Tune in March 21 for the next one!

Editorial: All Work and No Play

All work and no play

          The game industry likes their big, impressive-sounding buzz words. They adore filling E3 presentations with stuff like “innovative”, “unprecedented”, “high-quality”, and the like. In fact, some companies seem like they’ll do anything in their power to avoid referring to fun video games as…well, fun video games.

          This week, a new buzz word entered the fray. Thanks to a Ubisoft report from a recent shareholder meeting, we now know that they are referring their upcoming releases not as games, but as “live services”. According to the report, Ubisoft alongside other major third-party developers (mostly the more infamous ones such as Activision and EA) want to continue to push secondary revenue sources into their games in the form of microtransactions. Along the way someone figured that the best way to encourage sales of microtransactions to players is to keep them coming back to the game over and over for not months, but years.

          Clearly they’re looking for a World of Warcraft level of player engagement and revenue stream here, but I don’t know if they’re gonna be getting it with the stunts the Triple-A industry’s been pulling as of late.

          When I think of a game being a “live service”, the first one that comes to mind is Splatoon. Here’s a game that costs the $60 up front, but is then followed by a near weekly stream of new content for over a year for absolutely free. That, to me, is a game that is worth coming back to many times.

          On the other hand, these “live services” seem more concerned in creating fake jobs that gamers clock into after a long day at work. You boot up the game, do some mundane, repetitive tasks to earn rewards, and then go play something else. Except, unlike a real job where you get paid to do these things, instead you have to pay the publishers for the privilege to play their “live services”.

          In fact, it looks like Ubisoft isn’t even looking at their major titles as games anymore. One of their most prominent slides is titled “From Game to Platform”, and lists all the ways that the old style of games are a thing of the past and now all they’re interested in making are platforms to peddle more secondary economies.

          Sounds like a real moneymaker, right? Well, here’s what the industry has missed. Sure, you might be able to get a few extra goldmines off of the Day 1 microtransaction purchasers, but what happens when they realize that your “live service” has no substantial value as a video game and copies begin to flood the GameStop used games shelf?

          If you look at all the games from last year that tried the “live service” angle, they all ended in disaster. NBA 2K18 was rallied against by casual and hardcore fans alike, Forza 7 was quickly dismissed, Middle-earth: Shadow of War was derided for being one of the worst sequels to a legitimately good product in recent memory, and there really is nothing left to say about Star Wars Battlefront II. All four of those were “live services” that served as little more than to shove microtransactions at unsuspecting players from behind a familiar franchise name, and all four of those failed to please consumers because they weren’t real video games.

          I don’t know why publishers are trying to ride this train so hard. The biggest missteps gaming saw in 2017 were all thanks to “live service”-style games, but this looks to be the buzz word of the year. Don’t fall for this stuff, guys. Your money is worth more than spending it on a slot machine in disguise.

Black Panther Review

Wakanda Forever

(This review contains minor spoilers!)

          Black Panther has had a very unique build-up on the internet. While, like previous recent MCU movies, everyone and their brother has been looking forward to it, this one has been made special for one reason and one reason alone: it’s the first major superhero movie to star a black actor.

          Unless you count Shaquille O’Neal’s cinematic magnum opus Steel of course.

          All joking aside, to say Black Panther had a lot riding on its shoulders in the weeks leading up to release would be the understatement of the century. People showed up in traditional African garb for this movie. You really can’t get more excited than that.

          The good news is that Black Panther lives up to all these expectations and then some, creating a movie sure to please those who were counting down the days to it. The better news is that it’s not only one of the best MCU movies ever made, but potentially one of the best superhero movies ever made, period.

          Let’s start with the real star of the show here: Wakanda. A secretive advanced nation hidden in Africa, Wakanda is one of the most captivating settings I’ve seen in a movie for a very long time. It felt to me a lot like how after you saw Hogwarts for the first time in the first Harry Potter movie and you immediately thought “I wanna live there!” It’s the same story here.

          Wakanda is brought to life by the ultimate unsung heroes of the movie: the set and costume designers. Utilizing an incredible blend of traditional African designs and more futuristic looks, this is a movie that truly looks like no other. Every single costume is mind-blowingly good, and even extras stand out with some of the more unique designs that the department came up with. While I wasn’t too keen on Black Panther’s new suit when I initially saw it in the previews, now that I’ve seen the movie I can safely say it fits in flawlessly with the look of the rest of Wakanda.

          Moving onto the story, Black Panther is, again, one of the most unique movies in the MCU in this department as well. It doesn’t have the high-energy moment-to-moment action that made Thor: Ragnarok so invigorating, instead taking a slower approach, spending more time exploring T’Challa and his friends as people rather than as superheroes. The story is extremely brilliant, weaving in some very topical political subjects of current-day Africa that fit the story extremely well. The movie’s biggest question is that why, with all their technology, do the Wakandans not go and help the rest of Africa become more than a cluster of third-world countries?

          Fear not, though, because T’Challa gets plenty of awesome moments both in and out of the Black Panther suit to do what MCU heroes do best. The action sequences and humour both being pitch-perfect are to be expected from Marvel movies at this point, and Black Panther is no different. A chase scene through the streets of South Korea blends them both perfectly, with several scenes that left my theater in stitches.

          But I haven’t even touched on the best part of this movie yet: the characters themselves. It’s hard to know where to start where to start when talking about them because there’s so much to say, but I’ll do my best.

          Chadwick Boseman as T’Challa is just as good as you remember him being in Civil War, if not better. There’s something about him that every time he appears on screen with or without the suit you really want to root for him. As a king who has to start making tough decisions in the wake of his father’s death, you really relate to what he goes through over the course of the movie, even though we’ll likely never be put in the situation he’s in. Thanks to the way the movie is structured we see T’Challa immediately as more a man with superpowers than a superhero that also has a normal life, similar to how Spider-Man: Homecoming balanced Peter Parker and Spider-Man perfectly. He’s awesome as the Black Panther, but he’s also awesome when he’s just King T’Challa.

          Michael B. Jordan creates one of the MCU’s best villains in Erik Killmonger, a man who invades Wakanda with the intent to take it in a new direction for the future. Again, drawing comparisons to Homecoming, they definitely made the right choice in tying Killmonger’s story to T’Challa’s. A lot of it goes into spoiler territory so I won’t touch upon it too much here, but in the end you understand where Killmonger is coming from and why he wants Wakanda for himself, and sometimes he even gets a strong point across about the political direction the country should take that ties in well with the overall themes of the movie. For me he definitely ranks up there with Loki, Ego and Vulture as one of the best Marvel villains.

          But while our hero and villain are both amazing in their own right, the true superstars of Black Panther are the women. This movie is the feminist superhero masterpiece that Wonder Woman wishes it was. Lupita Nyong’o is awesome (surprising literally no one) as Nakia, T’Challa’s former lover and a spy for Wakanda. Unlike some of the other superhero girlfriends Marvel’s used in the past, she actually has a major stake in the plot and has a lot to do to further the story. She carries the story on her shoulders for a pretty hefty chunk of time, and I’d even go far enough to say her screentime is close to even T’Challa’s. Danai Gurira as Okoye, the leader of T’Challa’s royal guard, is also fantastic, and has excellent chemistry with Boseman. There’s a scene towards the end of the second act where she needs to make a crucial decision, and she performs it perfectly. She’s also one of the strongest female characters I’ve ever seen in a completely literal sense. By the end of the movie it’s clear that she could lay you out on the ground and stomp you into next Tuesday if she wanted to. If you’re a woman looking for a badass role model in a superhero movie, look no further.

          And finally there’s the true scene stealer in Letitia Wright as Shuri, T’Challa’s sister, princess of Wakanda and comparable to Tony Stark or Rocket Raccoon in her levels of technological genius. Her amazing rapid-fire sense of humour dominates every scene she’s in, and she quickly becomes the kind of character you really want as a best friend. The fact that she’s already confirmed for Infinity War just makes me even more excited for that movie than I already was.

          And that’s just the main characters. There’s also Martin Freeman and Andy Serkis returning as their characters from Age of Ultron and Civil War respectively (and it’s nice to see Bilbo and Gollum facing off again) as the only real white main characters in the movie, and they’re both hilarious. Freeman especially is surprisingly integral to the plot, and adds a lot of charming humour as he discovers Wakanda for the first time. Forest Whitaker has a surprisingly big role to play in the story, as do Daniel Kaluuya and Winston Duke. They’re all fantastic as their characters, particularly Duke as M’Baku, leader of a tribe of defectors from Wakanda. I wouldn’t mind more of him and his gorilla-themed people anytime soon.

          There’s so much more to talk about, but I’ll stop here for the sake of leaving some surprises. Black Panther is the first movie to completely pull me out of the theater and into its world since I saw Moana for the first time back in 2016, if only because of the beautifully well-designed world and mind-blowing costume design. It helps that the characters and story are both just as amazing as you’d hope too. For years I’ve maintained that Guardians of the Galaxy was the best MCU film, but now I think I might be ready to pick a new favourite. My advice? Grab your friends and family and go see this movie in IMAX as soon as you can. It’s well worth your time.

          Wakanda Forever indeed.

FINAL SCORE

10/10

Legendary

Star Wars Wednesday: The OTHER Star Wars Atari Games

The OTHER Star Wars Atari Games

          A few months back I tackled Star Wars: The Arcade Game, the original classic Star Wars game released on the Atari. Everyone knows that game’s iconic recreation of the iconic trench run, but what you might not know is that The Arcade Game was not alone on the system. There were four other Star Wars-themed Atari games, and we’re going to be looking at them all today and see how they hold up.

          We’ll start off with the very first Star Wars game ever released: 1982’s The Empire Strikes Back.

          This one has now been made infamous by a popular gaming YouTuber who explained it by saying “You could call this game ‘Bird vs. Camel’ and no one would argue with you”, and honestly he’s not wrong.

          The game presents you with a conga line of AT-ATs, and you as a lone Snowspeeder must take them out. The only problem is that your engine seems to be malfunctioning because you fly around at superspeed all the time. It’s incredibly hard to focus in on a single target because of how fast your character flies. Even worse is that the AT-AT fire homes in on you, so even when you’ve finally gotten into a position where you could conceivably take one down, you’re hit and you need to move again to get your aiming right.

          The AT-ATs also take forever to take down each, so unless you want to be stuck doing the same thing over and over again for ages, I’d suggest you only play this one if you really want to try the original Star Wars game.

          So that was a bust. Let’s try the next one: Star Wars: Jedi Arena.

          Released in January 1983, Jedi Arena’s claim to fame is that it’s the first ever Star Wars game to feature lightsaber action. Unfortunately no matter how hard I tried I couldn’t get this one to work properly. I think what’s supposed to happen is that the cantaloupe-looking thing in the centre of the screen shoots lasers at you and you have to deflect it at the red lightsaber at the top of the screen, but my blue lightsaber just wouldn’t budge.

          To make up for this though, I’ll be reading a review of the game straight from the most reliable review source: iMDB.

          Back in 2004 Star-Wars-Lover wrote this of the game (note: I left this completely undedited): “Jedi Arena was the fourth Star Wars game ever made. It was launched to Atari 2600. The rules were simple. Someone shoots a Seeker into his/her opponent, then the opponent reflects the missile with a lightsaber. Then the game transforms into a tennis game. The game's graphics were simple, but goo for the Atari 2600. The game had a bad sound. The controls were extremely easy (Only uses the joystick and the action button). The game wasn't so cool for 1-p mode, but it was better in a Multiplayer combat Mode. Jedi Arena is a cool game, only good if you have another controller.”

          Technically it was the second Star Wars game, not the fourth, but there you go. It was simple but goo for the Atari 2600. I just couldn’t get it to work for me.

          Next up is Return of the Jedi: Death Star Battle. With a title like that how could you not get excited?

          This one is actually pretty cool. The only problem is that it’s incredibly difficult. You pilot the Millennium Falcon on a mission to destroy the Death Star II. The first segment sees you being attacked by TIE Fighters and being held off from the Death Star by some mysterious wall. When a hole appears in the wall you can fly through it, and you’re transported through time and space itself to arrive at the station.

          Once you face off with the Death Star itself, things start to get tough. Sort of like Breakout meets Space Invaders, you have to shoot your way to the middle of the station to blow it up. At first it doesn’t seem too hard, but once you reach about the halfway point the station starts to fight back. It starts shooting insta-kill lasers at you, making it impossible to stay in one place and keep carving out the one path you started on to the centre. I wasn’t able to get past this point, but if someone more skilled than me wanted to try this one I’d recommend giving it a shot.

          We have one more game on our journey, but this one requires a bit of background. Return of the Jedi: Ewok Adventure was originally meant to be Part 1 of a two part series, the second part being Death Star Battle. The game was never finished due to production difficulties, but a physical cartridge found its way online in 1997. And thanks to the power of the internet, now everyone can give the game a try.

          Unfortunately, once again I couldn’t get the game to work. I couldn’t even get this one to start, let alone play. At least I was able to get Jedi Arena up and running, but Ewok Adventure just gave me an error screen and a lot of corrupted visuals. I couldn’t find any reviews for this one either, probably because it’s a bit more obscure, so that was the end of that.

          None of these other games ever quite managed to be up to the same level of quality that The Arcade Game enjoyed, but some of them are worth a look just to enjoy how silly they can be. Death Star Attack is cool albeit difficult, Empire Strikes Back is hilariously archaic, and, as we previously established, Jedi Arena is simple but goo. I wish I could’ve gotten more info on Ewok Adventure but what can you do. While the future of Star Wars games is looking pretty bleak these days, it’s nice to look back and appreciate how far we’ve come sometimes.