Star Wars is a pretty huge franchise and you will have definitely heard of the franchise at some point during your life. The franchise is huge in just about all areas including: Video Games, a popular TV series, many comics, and the large film franchise. The series may not have had over a dozen films like some other series, but each film has grown to be very popular. I saw this film many years ago and after re watching it, I can definitely say that I liked it more than the first time around. There’s a lot to say about a classic film such as this one, but let’s get into the plot first.
This film mainly deals with the adventures of two characters who go by the names of Luke Skywalker and Han Solo. In this film they are typically featured in the same scenes, but they do have their own story lines that continue through this film and the sequels. I’m sure that most of you know the basic plot of Star Wars, but I’ll give a little recap just in case. The Empire is basically in charge of the galaxy and you can call them The Empire. They’re more corrupt than the average government and there is a small group of rebels who currently oppose them. Unbeknownst to all of this, Luke Skywalker dreams of leaving his planet and going to where his friends now reside. His uncle is against the idea and he constantly tries to show Luke who’s boss, but it’s to no avail.
Luke ends up going with C-3PO to find R2D2, but he is attacked by the sand men. Ben Kenobi saves them and reminds Luke that he has a duty to help him save the universe! R2D2 delivers a message to Kenobi and they realize that they must get the schematics of the Death Star to the Rebels and also free the princess. Luke’s uncle may not approve, but he’s quickly annihilated along with whoever was still in the village. Luke takes this chance to go with Kenobi and they head off to stop Darth Vader and the Death Star!
Please understand that this is a very rough/abridged version of the plot. Star Wars is a film that does a good job of fitting a lot of plot points into one scene and you can tell that this was the start of a franchise. There are numerous characters and scenes that could lead to future plots and they’re all fairly interesting. The first scene where Darth Vader and the Storm Troopers take on the army is pretty fun and definitely holds up well. This may be a 70’s film, but they certainly knew how to use their budget and clobbered the effects from the Star Trek films. (Pre reboot and even then, they make it close to the first one)
Darth Vader has always been one of my favorite Star Wars characters and this film definitely shows me why this is true. He completely outranks all who oppose him and he never backs down. None of the good guys really seem to be a match for him and he creates a feeling of dread whenever he appears. He seems to work for a human in the Empire, but it’s hard for the believer to…believe this! Darth Vader is much stronger than any of the other villains since he can use the force and is very experienced in its use. He demonstrates how he can choke a person with it and use telekinesis. This is one character that will definitely be sticking around for a long time and his character design will stay awesome as his helmet is unforgettable.
Luke Skywalker is one of those characters that I’ve always liked and I barely know why. It may have been from when I saw the Clone Wars animated film, but I’m not completely positive. Either way, it definitely wasn’t this film that did it for me. Luke is definitely not a bad character, but in this film he’s still a novice when it comes to the Force and he’s not a character that really stands out. He’s a hero through and through, but there really isn’t much too him. He’ll get a lot of character development through the sequels, so we don’t really need to worry about him. He’ll definitely have his moments at some point.
Han Solo is a pretty good character for the most part and he’s a lot more charismatic than Luke. He’s definitely not as heroic and noble as he is still a bounty hunter. He seems to have gotten in with the wrong crowd and getting out isn’t very easy. He’s not a complete hero, but we are led to believe that he’s a good guy deep down. He ends up getting attached to the other good guys and slowly starts to turn towards the good side as the film goes through. He flirts a lot during the film and Princess Leia continues to use him and Luke. If not for the flirtations, Han would easily be the best hero in the film. He’s a good pilot and his ship is pretty fun to watch since it can definitely fly at high speeds!
Princess Leia is one of the big characters of the film as well, but I can’t say that she was quite as likable as the other characters. I believe that she tried a little too hard to be the real “tough” character and it didn’t translate so well. I never really comment on acting ability and I don’t intend to start now, but she did seem to overact a little unless it was part of her character. When Princess Leia would talk, her eyes would always be opened very widely and it looked a little puzzling to say the least. That being said, it’s more of a positive than a negative. At least Leia is a hardened professional and her gun skills are…..better than the Storm Trooper’s! I can’t say that I’m a fan of her, but she’s far better than some of the other characters coming up.
To spare myself from wincing, I’ll be shorter with these characters coming up. Let’s start with R2D2 and his pal, C-3PO. R2D2 can get really annoying as the film progresses since he can’t talk and is constantly getting the characters in trouble. He’s pretty mean to the heroes when he needs to be and he just won’t listen to reason. C-3PO is the comedy character, but he’s not really funny and he makes the effects feel dated. The effects are quite good, but his character looks pretty clunky. This could be intentional, but I’m not sure and he’s a pretty sad character. We’ve also got Chewbacca and his “roar” can quickly make you turn the volume down. I can barely imagine hearing that sound in theaters, it must have been ear splitting! He’s a pretty annoying character, but I suppose that he’s not awful. He’s definitely better than the two droids, but he doesn’t really add anything to the table. If he had not been in the film, I doubt that anything would have changed.
We can’t forget about Ben Kenobi…or should I say, *Spoiler Alert*Obi Wan Kenobi!!!!! He’s the wise man who was very tough in the past and he wants to make sure that Luke doesn’t make the same mistakes that he did. He knows a lot of neat tricks with the Force, but he is no longer able to fight as well as he could. He gave Darth Vader a decent fight, but Darth Vader was hardly trying and they were definitely not in the same league. It’s good that he tried and he was actually a decent character. He may not have been around for very long, but he gave Luke a reason to fight. Let’s see if it helps him in the next film!
I nearly forgot to mention the Storm Troopers! Their aim was about what I expected and it is fun to see them miss targets at very close range. The heroes are usually right in front of them and the Troopers will still find a way to miss. That being said, their uniforms are pretty cool and they never back down from a fight. These fighters have a Lion’s Heart and they’re some of the best cannon fodder that I’ve ever seen. The Chitauri could learn a thing or two from these guys. It’ll be interesting to see how they deal with the Jefi in the upcoming films.
As stated earlier, the effects for this film were pretty good. The beam fights were fun and the Lightsaber will always be a very cool weapon. The Force seems to have almost unlimited power and it really comes down to will power, but it also makes for some cool visuals. Seeing the Death Star take out a planet was also pretty awesome and a solid way to make the weapon threatening.
To throw my two cents in on the Star Wars vs Star Trek debate, I’ve always been on Team Star Wars. I prefer the characters, video games, TV shows, and comics. Filmwise, it’s a little harder since the latest Star Trek film was so good, but once I watch the other Star Wars films, I’m confident that it will pass Star Trek. The Clone Wars may have already given Star Wars the edge, but this will make it certain. Star Trek is still a…..interesting take on the Sci-Fi genre and the last film was quite good, but Star Wars definitely has the edge. This is the stuff of legends and Boba Fett hasn’t even appeared yet!!! (Jango Fett is also pretty awesome in the Bounty Hunter video game)
Overall, this was a very solid start to a great franchise. It’s easy to see why Star Wars was such a great hit as this film avoids the mistakes that most other films make. This film is pretty fun and it definitely goes by pretty quickly. Luke has not hit his stride yet, but just wait until the next film where the stakes increase and we start to reach the climax. I’ll have a review up for that film in the near future to continue the Star Wars streak!
Overall 7/10
FLCL is a pretty legendary anime to many who have seen it. Some have called it a masterpiece and explained why it’s one of the best anime out there. I can only imagine what anime they must have seen before this one (Fruits Basket? Nah, even that one’s better than this!) because FLCL is officially the worst anime that I have ever seen. I dare say that it’s the worst animated show that I’ve seen and that’s saying something.
This show tried to be a lot like Serial Experiments Lain. While I did not care for that show too much, it was leagues better than FLCL. Lain may have had some weird moments and scenes that were filler, but some of the conspiracy theories were fun to watch and the fact that aliens started to appear made things even cooler. FLCL is also a very strange show, but there is no payoff and most of the “strangeness” is just used for fanservice. You can’t go a minute in the show without something wince worthy happening.
Takun is the main character and he’s one of the worst main characters that you will ever see in any media. He’s the type of guy that ends up falling for just about anyone and he has absolutely no will power. He can’t seem to make up his mind and he’s constantly whining about something. Anyway, he is run over by a motorcycle one day. The person who ran him over is an alien (Sure, why not) named Haruko and now robots are able to transport through Takun’s head by way of a portal. Takun is the only head that seems to be naturally able to do this although others can be forced like Mamimi and Eri. Takun decides that he will help the fugitive Haruko to defy the law and try to incinerate the planet by finding the Pirate King.
As you can see, Takun is a very unlikable character and he definitely seemed ready to betray Earth in a heartbeat. I don’t even need to go into the other characters because they are all very awful. Haruko is just there to lead on all of the other characters and his friends are all very sad as well.
The show suffers from hundreds of problems, but there are several big ones that should be noted. The first is that the music score is horrendous pretty uninspired. There are no themes that stand out and they constantly keep on reusing the same old themes over and over again. Considering that this show is less than 10 episodes, it’s sad that the themes drag out so much.
Another one of the show’s problems is the fact that it does drag out. The series is only around 6 episodes and yet it will feel like you’re watching a 3 hour movie each episode. It’s not that they cover a lot in each episode…far from it! Each episode is essentially filler and nothing happens in the entire series. Each episodes drags on and on and you’ll constantly be looking at the clock to try and gauge how much time is left. None of the jokes in the show are funny and the characters are all so bad.
I already mentioned the characters earlier, but that is one of the critical negatives of the show. Just about every single character in this anime is perverted and they are all very bad characters. I should probably give more of them losses on the blog in the future.
The animation is also pretty awful. The show was going for a cinematic look, but that’s not a very good thing in the first place. Standard animation is still the best, although you still have the rare cinematic animation that really works. (DBZ Hatchiyack, Transformers G1) The show tries to disguise the terrible animation by making things go crazy, but it just makes the show look worse. The show came out in 2000, but I could name shows from the 70’s and maybe earlier that had far superior animation.
There are dozens and dozens of other problems with the show, but we don’t want to be here for the next 10 years. Either way, you get the drift. This is a show that you should stay far away from. It has terrible characters, terrible animation, terrible plot, terrible setting, terrible pacing, terrible episode count, terrible soundtrack, terrible character designs, terrible voice acting, terrible…..etc.
I didn’t mention any good things did I? There was the final fight in the final episode, but it was only about a minute long and it ended with a total cop out, plus it was a fight between two extremely awful characters and the power levels were very inconsistent so it just ended up adding more errors to an already loaded show so I figured that I probably shouldn’t add this as it would only make the situation worse for the show and we wouldn’t want that. That’s probably for the best since there weren’t any real good things about the show.
Overall, you do not want to check this show out. Do not believe the reviews and just remember how awful it is. The amount of fan service and perverted characters should be an instant warning sign for you. This is definitely the worst anime that I have ever seen and it’ll probably stay that way. (I hope so, for my sake!) If you want to watch something strange, then check out Serial Experiments Lain, although I can only half recommend that. Otherwise, seriously..just watch any other show. It’s bound to be better than this and FLCL is something that will hopefully die into obscurity. (After I finish drop kicking the characters on the blog) In the end, I don’t get how anyone could like this show. To each their own, but do yourself a favor and don’t watch this. This is something that you will want to forget. This show offends your eyes!!!
Overall 0.000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000/10
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