Netflix Retrospective - Dragons: Race to the Edge Season 3 episodes 10-13

Alright, let’s finish this series, shall we?

RageLite review - Oceans Eleven

What happens when Batman and Jason Bourne try and rob Vincent Mancini with Brad Pitt? Let’s find out with Oceans 11.

Oceans 11 is a remake of a film by the same name released in 1960, it follows a largely similar plot, with the writers of that film credited for the story of this one. Adapting it to the new era is Ted Griffin, who had previously written Ravenous and Best Laid Plans, but might’ve enjoyed writing this as he went onto write another successful Heist Movie, Tower Heist, he also did a rewrite of killers but I can’t imagine even the greatest screenwriters being able to polish that turd.

In the director’s chair is Steven Soderbergh, who the year previously had Academy Award, BAFTA and Golden Globe nominations for Best Director for both Erin Brockovich and Traffic, the latter of which marked his return to Box Office success after a series of flops. The film continued that streak, making $450m on its $85m budget and has generally favourable ratings with both critics and audiences.

Netflix Retrospective - Dragons: Race to the Edge Season 3 episodes 7-9

Much like the first half of the second season of Race to the Edge, very little in terms of plot progression happens, I understand the need to do one-and-done type episodes for syndicated television but with Neflix sharing the budget, you’d figure they could try for some more long term stuff too.

#77 - Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker (Rage4Media 6th Anniversary)

It’s the Rage4Media 6^th anniversary

And I can only apologise for how few Rage Reviews there have been this year. My focus has shifted away from smaller direct to DVD films with weird quirks and annoyances to big budget blockbusters and franchises, more over I’ve shifted away from older films to more recent stuff, not entirely but this is largely down a work benefit that gives me a discounted cinema pass that means I’ve seen a lot more recent films there.

Beyond that, I can say assuredly that less films annoy me in quite the way things used to, perhaps it’s down to me. I was 21 when I started this blog, and my opinions are hopefully becoming a bit more nuanced.

But don’t think for a minute this format is going away. If Cats taught me anything last year, it’s that bad exists in ways I’d never imagined before and I still can ignite passionate rage when I want to.

Speaking of which, let’s start with that thing that will get me hate comments: Star Wars: The Last Jedi is not a bad film. It’s a good one, though not without its problems, some of which are massively overstated by critics of the film and some are just bad faith nonsense because they don’t like what a character did and have a creepy feeling of ownership over a character, often to the point where they forget that the character has flaws.

It’s very difficult to say something goes against Luke’s character when there’s at least a 30-year time gap from the last time we saw him. A lot can happen in 30-years, is all.

But enough defending the Last Jedi, I have a whole review dedicated to that, let’s get instead to what this review is ultimately leading up to, bashing the Rise of Skywalker. 

Colin Trevorrow was originally set to write and direct this film but left owing to creative differences. This is becoming an all-too-familiar pattern, Disney. Then again, given that his last film was the abysmal Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, maybe they did us a favour.

Replacing him is JJ Abrams… The Force Awakens had its moments, and I honestly like both his Star Trek films, against the popular grain on Into Darkness, I know. The problem is he’s very safe and he’s following up on a director who had a more out-there approach, an approach that had divisive feedback. Also, judging from what I hear about Lost, he’s good at setting up interesting mysteries but sucks at paying them off.

Probably not helping is Chris Terrio being his co-writer. What happened to Chris Terrio? He won an academy award for Argo, then he wrote Batman v Superman, and then Justice League. To reiterate again, however, I do not bring up the writers by name to shame them, I merely do it to provide some context as to what might’ve been going on behind the scenes and how a combination of factors lead to the bafflingly awful product we ended up with. It’s entirely possible Abrams and Terrio had a brilliant script and it was messed up through editing and we don’t know the degree of contribution each writer gave, so it’d be foolish to lay the blame squarely at anyone. Disney and LucasFilm president Kathleen Kennedy are not off the hook here either, I will get to them at the end as this preamble is long enough already.

The end result was the film being the first $1bn disappointment in recorded history, making less money than either of its predecessors; with a 52% critical rating on Rotten Tomatoes, the lowest rating of any live action Star Wars film, prequels included.

One last thing before we start this proper, the novel: I haven’t read it and if the book explains a plot-hole in the film, it’s still a plot-hole in the film. The fact that the novel spawned several articles explaining what should’ve just been explained in the movie is in and of itself a major problem.

Netflix Retrospective: Dragons: Race to the Edge Season 3 episodes 4-6

The first 3 episodes of the season were fine, but episodes 2-3 were more akin to filler episodes, let’s take a look at how things progress in the next 3 episodes

Praise4Media #65 - How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World

The adventures of Hiccup and his crew come to an end, it’s time to explore the Hidden World.

I have enjoyed both of the first two How to Train Your Dragon Films, and I’m continuing to offer my retrospective on the Race to the Edge series, which exemplifies both the best and the worst of the film’s writing. But will the final film stick the landing? Let’s take a look.

Netflix Retrospective - Dragons: Race to the Edge season 3 episodes 1-3

It’s been a while since we last checked in with hiccup and the gang, and with May also bringing my How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World review, it’s as good a time as any to take another look at race to the edge.

#76 - Mary Poppins Returns

Wow, have I really not done a Rage review in 2020 yet? (Yes, but Crimes of Grindelwald was originally planned as a 2019 review)

Let’s fix that, shall we, hello Mary Poppins Returns, aren’t you just a prime candidate

Yes, both my rage reviews this month are gonna be of Disney Films, both of which came out in December, though of different years, want to guess what the other one is?

It’s no secret that PL Travers, the writer of the Mary Poppins Books was no fan of the film. There had been talks about a sequel but Travers and Disney had very different ideas for it, so the idea laid on the shelf until well after Travers’ death. But this is Disney in the late 2010's, taking off old properties, giving them a lick of paint and then presenting them as something new is the norm, and sequels are more prevalent than they were in the early 2000's. So naturally a sequel to Mary Poppins was inevitable.

And naturally, it made money, because unless Tim Burton is involved in some capacity, all of the 2010's Disney sequels and remakes made money. No, I’m not bitter at all, why would you think that? The Tim Burton Dumbo sucked too, by the way, we’ll get to that at some point 

But why is this film the one that ignites my rage, let’s take a look

Netflix Retrospective - Voltron: Legendary Defender Season 7 Episodes 10-13

Ok, we’re on the final season 7 retrospective. Things are pretty dire on Earth right now, can the Paladins turn things around?

RageLite review - Mission: Impossible Fallout

With Ghost Protocol and Rogue Nation, I finally became a fan of the Mission: Impossible series, it has a good story-telling engine, allowing for some interesting plot-lines, the main cast are generally well developed and the action is among the best film can offer, in part due to Tom Cruise putting his life on the line, doing his various stunts personally.

Mission Impossible Fallout, the 6^th entry in the series keeps things going strong with a $791m box office haul on a $178m budget and, even more impressively a 97% Rotten Tomatoes rating. There was a mishap on set where Cruise broke his leg during a stunt, all the crew had to be paid during his recovery time, upping the budget. He actually came back to set a week early, he’s either deeply committed or crazy, probably both.