Month: December 2017

Holiday recap

Posted on by jacobsonbblog

Movies:
Thor Ragnarok: Incredibly funny and entertaining conclusion to the Thor trilogy. A

Murder on the Orient Express:Wonderful performance by Kenneth Branagh. B

Justice League: Great heroes but weak villain. B-

Coco: Best animated movie of 2017 with a great world and great songs. A

Star Wars the Last Jedi: A great continuation to Star Wars. A+

Ferdinand: Your basic animated movie for kids, and also the goat is really annoying. C-

Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle: A fun time waster with fun video game references. B

The Greatest Showman: Hugh Jackman’s character arc is nice but the pop songs in the time period seems distracting. B-

TV:
Star vs the Forces of Evil: I love how it reverses the status quo. First season had Star on Earth and now Marco is on Mewni. Also Monster Bash has an awesome reveal to one of the characters.

Steven Universe: Good to see Steven again though these episodes were kind of depressing.

Hey Arnold The Jungle Movie: Great conclusion to my favorite Nickelodeon show. A

A Christmas Story Live: I though it was a fun retelling of the classic movie.

Be sure to check my blog soon for my top 10 most anticipated movies of 2018 and my top 10 favorite movies of 2017 lists.

Thank you to everyone who’s followed my blog and have a Happy New Year.

 

Star Wars the Last Jedi review

Posted on by jacobsonbblog

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away….

FYI, this is a Spoiler filled review. Also Merry Christmas, and what better way to celebrate this holiday than to talk about the most anticipated movie of the year, Star Wars the Last Jedi. It has a very dark tone compared to the rest of the movies since a lot of characters die and has some deep themes. There are still some fun moments like on Canto Bright which is think is a really cool location. The two things that stood out to me were the acting and actions.

The three actors that really stood out to me were Mark Hamill, Adam Driver, and Daisy Ripley. Rey and Kylo have great moments together but what stood out to me in there acting was when they both talk to each other using the force. The angles and editing in those scenes make it look like there talking to each other in the same room. I also like that both struggle from falling to their opposite sides. Rey gets too close to the dark side while Ben gets too close to the light side. Mark Hamill is at his most tragic and emotional as Luke Skywalker. His final scene is a great conclusion to his arc and a beautiful call back to the first Star Wars movie. Carrie Fisher was also great as Princess Leia even though this was her last movie and Yoda was a great surprise.

The actions scenes are incredible. Holdo ramming Snoke’s starship at lightspeed with her ship was probably the most badass sacrifice in any Star Wars movie! I love how the Battle of Crait has the colors white and red to represent blood. I did however feel that it looked more like a middle of a movie battle rather than the climax but Luke’s duel with Kylo was a great climax to the climax. I think me and my brother’s favorite fight was with Rey and Kylo Ren vs Snoke’s guards because the choreography is great and it’s awesome seeing two opposite sides working together.

Big Spoilers: My main problem with this movie were some of the reveals and twists though it’s mostly out of anticipation rather than presentation. Rey’s parents turn out to be nobodies who sold her for alcohol, Kylo Ren kills Snoke and becomes the main villain. At first they seemed odd but thinking over them they kind of work. We don’t learn anything about Snoke but to be fair we didn’t know much about the emperor before the prequels. I was expecting Kylo Ren to have a redemption arc but it’s like what Garnet said in Message Received “Not everyone deserves that patience”. Rey’s parents being nobody’s shows that the main character doesn’t have to have a tragic backstory to be a good protagonist.

There are elements from The Empire Strikes Back but it still feels like a new movie than a repeat like Force Awakens. The Last Jedi is just as great as The Force Awakens maybe even better and it made me excited for Episode IX. Hope you have a Merry Christmas and happy New Year!

Verdict:
+ Action scenes
+ Canto Bright
+ Dark tone
+ Great acting
+/- Plot twists

Score: A+

May the Force be with you
Carrie Fisher

Ranking the Star Wars movies

Posted on by jacobsonbblog

The Last Jedi has just released in theaters and I’m planning on seeing it tomorrow. For the last few months I have watched every movie in the series to get a fresh eye on them. I will also not be ranking the Clones Wars movie (which I did see in theaters) and even if I did it would’ve ranked last place anyway.

10. Episode II – Attack of the Clones

Looking at the other Star Wars movie there was at least something special about each of them except for episode II. The characters are dull, the story is dull, and the action scenes are dull. Count Dooku is kind of cool but that’s mostly because Christopher Lee is a great actor. Was it ever George Lucas’s idea to have Boba Fett and the Stormtroopers have a connection? Episode II just felt like a generic Star Wars movie.

9. Episode I – The Phantom Menace

The movie that made people realize that Star Wars can suck. It’s impossible to see Jack Lloyd playing who will become Darth Vader and he’s too young to be with Natalie Portman (I think Dipper and Wendy have a better chance than these guys). I guess I do like the climax of the movie because it combines all types of Star Wars battles like a space battle, an army battle, and a lightsaber battle. Also Jar Jar sucks.

8. Episode III – Revenge of the Sith

Best prequel film though that doesn’t say much. Grievous felt unnecessary (Genndy Tartakovsky did him justice), too much politics and I don’t get Anakin’s reason for turning bad. There are still good stuff though. The movie feels much bigger and darker (though mostly in visuals than themes) than the other movies and I also like how everything reached its lowest point with the Jedi dying, the republic turning into the empire, and Anakin turning into Darth Vader.

6. Solo: A Star Wars Story

This is honestly the black sheep of the new Star Wars movies.  There are way too many plot conveniences like having the character try to find something that just so happens to be on the same planet there on now. The cast was good though especially Donald Glover as Lando Calrissian and Alden Ehrenreich as Han Solo.

6. Episode VI – Return of the Jedi

I think my main problem was moving from the stuff with Jabba’s palace to Endor felt like two separate stories felt odd.  Another problem is the 2nd Death Star because it’s just another Death Star. The first thing you literally see is the 2nd Death Star and there was no build up to it. The best part about the movie is the stuff with Luke, Darth Vader and the Emperor. Return of the Jedi was a great conclusion to a great trilogy and for a while to a great series.

5. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

Ever heard of the movie that fixed an old plot hole? Rogue One is that movie. This was a very different Star Wars movie but it still has the feel as one. The movie took a lot of risks like killing off all the main characters. There’s so much stuff that’s awesome about Rogue One. K-2SO is awesome, Darth Vader is awesome, and the climax is one of the best in the series. For a stand-alone Star Wars movie, they still put there all into it.

4. Episode VIII – The Last Jedi

I don’t care if it’s controversial, I really like this one even if it is simular to The Empire Strikes Back. I will admit I was disappointed with the answers to questions we got like Rey’s parents or Snoke. Still, Mark Hamill, Adam Driver and Daisy Ripley are the standouts of the cast and both work off each other wonderfully and the action scenes are still great.

  1. Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back

I know this is considered the best, I just like my top 2 more. The narrative is incredibly different and darker from the first one which makes it more like a continuation rather than a repeat. It wasn’t about destroying an evil weapon it felt more trying to escape from the villain and learning about the force. I like that the planets are different in terms of color and environment. The Father twist is great, Darth Vader is a great villain and everything else is great at progressing the characters, galaxy, and story.

  1. Episode VII – The Force Awakens

One of my favorite movie experiences was seeing The Force Awakens at Las Vegas with my Dad on opening day. Seeing The Force Awakens was like seeing the original back in 1977. It introduces new characters that are not killed off therefore we can see them develop later and I think it has the best use of balancing CGI with practical effects. Sure Episode VII did do the same story from A New Hope but I think the ideas was to remind us of how grand Star Wars was and that it can be grand again.

  1. Episode IV – A New Hope

The one that started it all. Why is it my favorite? Because Episode IV is one of the best examples of the Hero’s Journey. I think I also like this movie because it feels the most complete and most standalone from the others because there’s no cliffhangers and everything wraps up nicely. Though if that happened we wouldn’t have had such a wonderful movie series. Episode IV established great characters, a great setting (or galaxy), great music and great moments that we knew and loved for 40 years and more years to come which is why it’s my favorite Star Wars movie.

Where will The Last Jedi rank? I’ll just have to trust the force and see what happens.

Hey Arnold the Jungle Movie review

Posted on by jacobsonbblog

I bet an executive at Nickelodeon heard that Cartoon Network was bringing back Samurai Jack and he was wondering how they can top that, Hey Arnold the Jungle Movie was their answer.  In case you didn’t read my top 10 favorite Nicktoons list click here.

If you did you’ll know that Hey Arnold is my favorite Nicktoon show. I’ve been looking forward to this all year, heck anticipating this (and The Last Jedi) got me through Steven Universe’s longest hiatus. The movie is very faithful to the show because of its callbacks, the music, and animation.  The animation is wonderful and I’m glad Nickelodeon put effort into updating but not too much the animation and style. The character designs have updated but they still look like the characters we knew and love and the backgrounds still look like the same neighborhood that we love too.

Big Spoilers: The movie answers all the questions fans have wondered like what Arnold’s last name is, who the green eyes people are, or where his parents are. It turns out that Arnold’s last name is Shortman. His Grampa has called him Shortman a few times but we assumed it was just a nickname. This is smart and clever because it would have been cheap just to think of some random last name. Back then I always assumed Arnold’s parents were dead, but I was young and I didn’t know that the show would be back. It’s revealed that his parents fell under the sleeping sickness and have been asleep for years. The scene at the end where Arnold is running passing by awaking green eyed people is great due to its build up and when he finally reunites with this parents, it’s emotionally brilliant.

La Sombra is kind of the weak villain because he has no motive to what he’s doing unlike Scheck (though it was a stupid motive) but he’s still intimidating for this kind of the cartoon and is played very well by Alfred Molina. I was almost fooled to think that Eduardo was secretly La Sombra the whole time and was responsible for Arnold’s parents’ disappearance, but I’m glad they didn’t go in that direction. It’s also kind of cool that the villain gets killed off in the end (you know for kids).

Problems I have are mostly minor. One was when after Arnold’s grandparents and Helga’s parents come and save the students. After that they Arnold’s classmates except Gerald and Helga just disappear from the rest of the movie until the very end. Helga’s family gets it worst because they disappear completely and never show up again. Another problem is when Arnold wakes up at the end of the movie making it feel like the whole movie was just a dream. That’s would have been a complete dick move from Nickelodeon if they went in that direction.

Do I think there should be a season 6? Honestly no, I think it ended on a good note. Hey Arnold the Jungle Movie brought back the nostalgia and conclusion to a wonderful Nickel

Verdict:
+ Animation
+ Faithfulness
+ Questions answered
+/- La Sombra
– Dream fake-out
– Supporting cast dropped

Score: A