#eye review

[eyeloch]

Dunkirk “review”

So, the obvious point that’s been brought up a lot was the sheer whiteness of this film!  It bears repeating though, since it’s both historically inaccurate (a lot of Indian soldiers, for example) and sends a deeply troubling message to post-Brexit Britain.  I’ll get back to this point in a moment.

On the positive side of things, I very much enjoyed the setpiece with the fishing trawler being shot at while the soldiers took shelter in it waiting for it to get of the ground.  I also loved the way that they repeated the fuel gauge and time calculations, since it meant they could play the pilot deciding to fight on without any words at all.  The way the three stories came together was also rather entertaining.

However I was a tad annoyed by how safe it was.  This was hyped on the radio as an unflinching take on the evacuation, and it was certainly quite brutal to background extras, but in the end it never quite achieved that “anyone can die” feeling I was hoping for.  It also killed off the only non-white character merely as a character beat to have a white chap of the same age briefly dislike the shell-shocked man who did it by accident.  

More worryingly is what this movie can represent in the national landscape of Britain these days.  The evacuation of Dunkirk, and the years of the Blitz that followed after are in many ways the epitome of a certain type of Britishness.  The kind that may grumble, but will still tighten their belts and do their duty for Queen and Country.

The problem is that this spirit, wonderfully admirable as it is, can be used to turn these sorts of people into those who would support (instead of fighting) fascism.  Because “doing your duty” isn’t inherently moral.  All solders on every side of any conventional war do their duty.  Thus this celebration of selfless duty, combined with the overwhelmingly narrow range of ethnicities, borders on supporting the kind of “mild” racists (the kind who’d not actually commit any hate crimes, but wouldn’t speak out against insults and slander).  

In conclusion, while it contains good setpieces and has good use of tension, given the way of the world, this movie came out at a bad time for what it is!  

[eyeloch]

Trials of The Darksaber

Well, that was a good episode.  I especially liked the music - it had it’s own feel, yet one that really seemed to work for Sabine - I’m going to love the season 3 soundtrack when it comes out!

However:

Sabine made weapons.  Terrible weapons.  And the empire used them on Mandalore

What.

Okay, I’ve been firmly against the Sabine is OP and/or a Mary-Sue crowd from the first moment I knew of it.  I felt she was an exceptionally smart teen who studied her interests in detail and efficiently.  And that worked, seemed very plausible.

The business with her wanting to be a bounty hunter made a lot of sense, given how much warfare was glorified on Mandalore, yet (we assumed) she saw the damage armies caused.

But the empire using weapons she created?  I just don’t see it.  Her family not standing up with her when she spoke out - oh that’s perfection, given her character!  Her seeing things differently to others - wonderful.

But for her to make brilliant weapons when she was younger than 16?  I just don’t buy it, along with all her other talents.  Oh I can completly believe she’s a child prodagy - she’s incredibly skilled at some things, and very talented at others, but why would she create terrible weapons?  If it was part of some scheme or other on the par of The Empire, then why her?  They have so many caperble engineers in an entire galaxy!

The writers have packed too much into her backstory and it’s starting to strain her. 

[eyeloch]

Twilight Company review

So, I read the entire thing in one sitting due to my train being delayed for 75 minutes!! Since I’m finally on the last train, here’s a brief review.

About 5 or so years ago, when I was still in my mid-teens, I went to the history of medicine floors in the London Science Museum. It doesn’t exist anymore - restructuring and the fact it was very old fashioned in parts has closed the two floors and condensed them into a single gallery. One image stuck with me well though - a world war 1 scene made with plastic miniatures and modelling glue. It was faded badly, such that the mud and dying soldiers’ skin were the same colour. This gave me uneasy feelings for a long time (also lots of weird ideas for books I’ve long forgotten) and perhaps best sums up my feelings towards this book: It will linger with me in almost exactly the same way, a feeling of bleak, bleached out mud. However, just like the miniature, it isn’t necessarily objectively good. Characterisation is often sparce, quite deliberately. While this is perhaps better than unintentionally dull characters, to hint at what interesting characters may or may not have done highlights that the main character doesn’t know these details, I’d much rather read a book about say Roach or some of the others - since our main character is an unlikeable twat for at least half the book. The stuff I like the most all takes in the middle of the book - the rather fragmented narrative suddenly coheres into a wonderfully bleak destruction in echo Base, which then forces the main characters into picking up the pieces and make a new status quo.  This reconstruction was the only time I truly felt much of anything from the book - much of the rest of the time, I felt a kind of tonally induced apathy.  After all, since both sides are full of people who aren't terribly sympathetic, I would have been tempted to put the book down - except I was stuck on the train! The resulting second half is more focused, which helps matters. Some dialogue is outright bad though, and as a chemist I have to say catalyst metaphors are overdone and rarely accurate or meaningful. I loved the Rebels and New Dawn references though! (Though would Coul Vidian take a protégé? He seemed too busy keeping a place in the Imperial Court in A New Dawn…)

[eyeloch]

Iron Squadron thoughts

below the read more, since it’s rather new...

So, enjoyable first half, mostly lackluster second half.

I rather enjoyed Ezra showing that he’s coming off his dark side trip, and thus having some perspective on the whole when to fight and when not to thing.  The Sabine and Ezra dynamics was great fun as well this episode.

Thing is, the tension was rising rather nicely in the initial escape, but then was almost none existent at the point where the Ghost came back.  Thus Sato’s appearance felt unnecessary, from a tactical sense.  (In a narrative sense, it was most rewarding, given that Thrawn obviously knows of Iron Squadron and Sato personally....)

TL;DR: fun, but felt like it could have had almost 10 minutes trimmed off it to tighten the episode up a bit.

[askspiritdragon]

My math is solid, I swear I didn't make up that number! ;D

Crappy art is crappy. But that's mouse with me, if I don't have lines to work with.

[askspiritdragon]

Earth To Echo - Eye Reviews

Recently I watched Earth to Echo, a movie by Disney. In a way its similar to Cloverfield, where all the footage is taken by 'handheld' cameras. Though the difference here is that there were three actual cameras being used in universe as well as a collection of smart phone cameras. The story was basically a retelling of E.T. with a vast many elements changed and rehashed.

Echo is the alien of the movie, named such for his tendency to 'echo' sounds. He's smallish sized and kinda looks like a robot owl. Though I think he's not suppose to be a robot? I think I may have heard something wrong when I watched it, almost a week ago.

The story itself was entertaining and the child actors weren't terrible and actually not annoying as they often are, there is so much of the story and setting that is just simply left unexplained. The powers that Echo has, the 'Key', who the organization who is hunting echo works for, and of course how long has echo's ship been there, etc.

Personally, I like how much isn't explained, because I've seen some movies where they over explained the setting and either made things worse with the explanations (being bad, as horribly conceived as Answers From Genesis is with science or simply making no sense), or made you stop caring. Mystery is a wonderful flavor in any piece of media. It makes you ask questions, imagine scenarios, and so on. Simply put, enough mystery makes something engaging and interesting, too much though can make it confusing.

I'm kinda rambling this review out, while not attempting to say any spoiler for anyone who has yet to see the movie.... not that I have many followers but.. yeah!  Reviews spouted out in one shot, FTW!

Anyways, I recommend seeing this movie because while it may be a more or less a retelling of E.T. it is still an interesting movie, with characters with interesting quirks and traumas. Though the adults in the movie are, of course, less than competent. Kid's movies for you.

[askspiritdragon]

Eye Review - Bee and Puppycat

Due to some issues with the production of our joint review series, I'm releasing this simple solo review of this web cartoon, Bee and Puppycat. Here's the review - >http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWzD6xWBXNY

And here's the first episode of the show -> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOG_UtLxh58

There may be some changes to our plans for our review show in the near future.