Miles Burks

***Spoiler Free Review*** I don't say this lightly: but this movie is FLAWLESS. Easily the most airtight, entertaining, and innovative piece of cinema I've seen in a very long time. This is exactly what a sequel is supposed to be. I haven't seen that done since the LOtR trilogy. This movie is a saga. It hits every beat perfectly. I'm not even a Spiderman fan--heck, I actually held off on watching this simply because of that. But MAN... this movie is very, VERY well done. No spoilers from me. Go check it out!

I mean, not sure what anyone else expected. I wasn't really in any sort of mood to see this movie--seeing that I'm pretty superheroed out. We're in the ultimate age of superheroes now, including a time when like 50 Spiderman movies come out like the new iPhone variants, so I wind up watching this movie on a whim, and I found it pretty enjoyable. For the most part, BLUE BETTLE is a super pain-by-the-numbers superhero movie. The action scenes are something you've seen already, the bad guys are cliched, sinister, cutthroat cooperate types, the hero is your average young adult kid who has the hots for the attractive young heroine who's on the bad guys' side etc... The one thing I did like was the family dynamic and their chemistry, it's done really well. The rest of the movie is kind of whatever. It's another origin story, so of course the MC has to go through the whole "I don't know how to control my new powers," to being a pro by the end of the film. This movie isn't bad by any stretch. The cinematography is amazingly well done, the environments are well shot and the sets and CGI hold out fantastic. But the story itself is mid at best.

It’s almost like there are some Star Wars fans who are seemingly incapable of enjoying this show because it is geared toward a very young audience. I follow Star Wars extensively, so I’m very familiar with the High Republic era. I guess if you’re a casual follower of the saga, you won’t have 0 idea what the High Republic is and would assume this takes place near the Clone Wars era of the Star Wars universe. It does not. This Star Wars show takes place about 232 years BEFORE the first Death Star is destroyed. If you played JEDI SURVIVOR, this is the era where Degan Gera is from. For a show geared toward very young children set in the earliest parts of the Disney Star Wars canon, the attention to detail and the lore are spot on. It’s great seeing the Jedi in this era, where they’re not so stoic as they become later near the Clone Wars and are very much part of the greater community rather than just acting like a specialized police force at the rich beck and call. The High Republic Jedi are far more inclusive in their service to the community and amongst themselves. The characters aren’t that bad—they’re a good cast. The voice work is great and the animation is gorgeous. I’m curious to see how or if this should connect with the greater fabric of Star Wars continuity. I wonder if we’ll see the Nihil, maybe a cameo from Gera or the Drengir and other sorts of characters from this era.