Sep 16 2014

The Case For An Obi-Wan Kenobi Star Wars Spinoff Film

kenobi

With all the recent talk about the new batch of Star Wars films, there’s a lot of interest about the spinoff films announced by Disney. Already Gareth Edwards and Josh Trank are slated to direct two of them, which are rumored to be about young Han Solo or Boba Fett. But if there is one character that should headline a Star Wars spinoff it’s the unsung hero of the films, Obi-Wan Kenobi.

For non-fans, Obi-Wan “Ben” Kenobi was a luke and benJedi Knight who was played by both Ewan McGregor and Sir Alec Guinness in both Star Wars trilogies. He mentored both Anakin Skywalker and later on his son Luke Skywalker for a brief period before allowing himself to be killed by Darth Vader in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. Out of all the heroic characters featured in the Star Wars films, his was arguably the most heroic and selfless with noble traits only rivaled by the diminutive Jedi Master Yoda.

What made him so heroic? Look at what he did, how he led his life. Obi-Wan Kenobi clearly put his duty over his personal wants and needs. This was seen in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, Star Wars Episode III: Revenge Of The Sith and the aforementioned Episode IV.

kenobi yoda, organa

 

At the end of Episode I, Obi-Wan honors his dying master’s wish and chooses to train Anakin to become a Jedi. He did this even though he didn’t hold Anakin in high regard like his master Qui-Gon Jinn did. In Episode III, after the Jedi have been vanquished by Emperor Palpatine and the new Galactic Empire, Obi-Wan could have just hung up his Jedi robe and gone into hiding. Well, he did do that to an extent, although he wanted to continue to fight the good fight against evil. Instead he chose to follow Yoda’s bidding by protecting Anakin’s infant son Luke. He went into hiding on Anakin’s home planet Tatooine where he would live out the remainder of his life looking after Luke from afar. In the dialogue in Episode IV, Luke, now a young man, knew Kenobi so it can be inferred that Obi-Wan kept an eye on Luke as he grew up and only stayed away because of Luke’s uncle’s wishes. Still, he came to Luke’s aid early on in the film when the young man was in danger.

In Episode IV, despite his old age, he was willing to leave the planet and aid Princess Leia after she sent him a holographic plea for help in her fight against the Empire. Towards the end of the film, Obi-Wan made the ultimate sacrifice while confronting Darth Vader.

last kenobi battleDuring that battle Luke came upon them and was about to come to his aid. Obi-Wan knew that it was imperative that Luke be kept from Vader and escape so simply stopped fighting and allowed Vader to kill him. Luke soon learned that death wasn’t the end for Obi-Wan, who would continue advising Luke as a spiritual presence.

This spiritual aspect enhanced Kenobi’s compassionate, amiable manner that he displayed in the films and which made him likable. In Episode IV, he had a gentle, patient way about him and only fought at the last resort, which is why Luke was so  drawn to the old Jedi. In Episode II, during an investigation, Obi-Wan visited his old friend Dexter Jettster for some help. In a rare moment, when the two met at Jettster’s greasy spoon diner, Obi-Wan dropped his stoic Jedi demeanor and came off as an average Joe type who was very relatable.

But Kenobi was also a formidable warrior. In the prequel films, Obi-Wan proved that he was an adept warrior who was more than capable of taking out superior opponents. He first showed this knack in Episode I when he killed Darth Maul. Later in Episode III, he was dispatched to defeat the cyborg Jedi killer General Greivous, which he did in a convincing manner. But later in the film, he was able to defeat Anakin Skywalker who had turned evil. Even though Anakin was more powerful in using the force, Kenobi had better experience and skills, and used that advantage to cripple his one-time friend and student.

kenobi badass

As great as these films were, they focused so much on the Skywalkers and Han Solo that Obi-Wan Kenobi didn’t get much screen time. A spinoff film about Obi-Wan Kenobi could explore what he did in between the trilogies and even go into his life before Episode I. Lots of questions about him and his life could be answered. Not only will these details flesh out his character, but a Star Wars spinoff film will finally let Obi-Wan Kenobi have the spotlight that he deserves.

Lewis T. Grove

Sep 6 2014

Star Trek At 48

trek trioThis weekend marks the 48th anniversary of the premiere of the very first Star Trek episode on TV. The celebrations are unquestionably low key; I couldn’t even find any acknowledgement of this on the startrek.com website. But I expect things will be very different in two years time. At least, that is what we Trek fans hope. By then, it will be the fiftieth anniversary and we know for certain that at the very least a Star Trek film will be out in two years.

That is much better than what happened during the iconic show’s fortieth anniversary. Nothing happened then. Paramount Pictures didn’t put out a film because of the failure of Star Trek Nemesis, while CBS Television Studios also followed suit since Star Trek: Enterprise was just canceled a year before on UPN.

Cinematic Rebooting

During that time period both companies felt that the Star Trek franchise needed a rest from the public eye. As we all know, Paramount rebooted the film franchise in 2009 with Star Trek and its sequel Star Trek Into Darkness was released last year. While both films were successful, there is a feeling of unease among a large segment of the fanbase. Under director J.J. Abrams’ guidance, they feel as if Star Trek has strayed far from what it’s meant to be; a story of space exploration and encountering the unknown. Instead, they say that the past two films were just modified Star Wars films. That is a hard viewpoint to argue against, since the films emphasized action and thrills over the more cerebral fare that creator Gene Roddenberry championed when he created the original show and Star Trek: The Next Generation (TNG).

 

The Star Trek reboot was supposed to reinvigorate the franchise and raise public awareness, but how successful was that goal? How much in the public eye is Star Trek? It’s there for sure but a lot of attention is being paid these days to the latest superhero film or the return of Star Wars, while any news of the upcoming Star Trek sequel gets shrugs. This was really clear when Paramount announced this year that the screenwriter for the past two Star Trek films, Roberto Orci, was tapped to direct the next sequel. He isn’t a big-name director, actually he hasn’t directed anything at all. Yet, he is being entrusted by Paramount to guide the next Star Trek film, which is coming out in the fiftieth anniversary of the original series. You would think that with that much attention the franchise will receive then, that the film studio will want to ensure that a topnotch director will handle the reins. But who knows? Maybe Orci will deliver the kind of Star Trek film its fans have been clamoring for.

enterprise viewscreen Continue reading →

Sep 3 2014

Countdown To Destiny

destiny

Out of all the video game releases for this year, the one that really caught my attention is Destiny. It’s made by Activision and Bungie and from watching the trailers, it looks as epic and jaw-dropping as the Halo games.

Destiny takes place about seven hundred years in the future. Humanity has had a period of a Golden Age when planets in our solar system were colonized. But a calamity occurred and now humankind is on the verge of extinction. The last, few survivors live on the Last City on Earth, while aliens have taken the colonies and are now encroaching upon Earth and the Last City. The only defenders are a group known as the Guardians, who use a power called “The Light”, which they received from the mysterious Traveler, a non-corporeal being. The players’ task is fairly simple; defend humanity from the aliens, while reviving the Traveler.

Players get to choose the factions of the Guardians they can play: either humans, Awoken, or the Exo. The game also allows players to choose classes for the factions they pick such as Hunters, Warlocks and Titans. But as a plus, it seems as if players can create different characters from different races.

Bungie has stated that the game isn’t a traditional multiplayer online game (MMO) since players can’t interact with everyone playing, but only with certain other players depending on the game.

To me, the game looks rich, inviting and complex. All the ingredients needed for a game that is playable for a long, long time. The designs of the characters and aliens are just stupefying and beautiful. Like any great game, Destiny promises a unique and intricate universe with its own history and background. I just hope it isn’t too complex for many players but from the looks of it, Destiny doesn’t seem like it’s for the casual player.

It will available for Xbox and Playstation and is sure to be the game of the year when it’s released next week on September 9. I’m very sure Destiny will live up to its hype.

T. Rod Jones

Aug 29 2014

Defiance: This Summer’s Best Sci-Fi TV Show

defiance second season

This summer has had a larger than usual share of genre TV shows, but the best one was Syfy’s Defiance. Its second season took the show and its characters to new places and on the whole it was a vast improvement over its freshman season.

Defiance takes place about forty years into the future in the town of Defiance, which is actually built on the ruins of St. Louis, MO. In the show, several races of alien refugees came to Earth and attempted to terraform the planet and the resulting war ended in a stalemate where humans and aliens are forced to live side by side as they struggle to rebuild society and the planet.

nolan irisa

This season saw four major storylines that were skillfully interwoven and mesmerizing to watch as they unfolded.

One had to do with Datak Tarr (Tony Curran), a Castithan mob boss who ruled Defiance’s underworld last season with a vicious fist. After being elected mayor to the town, Datak Tarr allowed the devious Earth Republic (E-Rep) into the town and effectively ceded control of it. He was also jailed for murdering an E-Rep official. This season dealt with Datak dealing with his fall from grace and his attempts to rebuild.

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But first he had to deal with his scheming wife Stahma (Jamie Murray), who took over his business and turned out to be better at it than he was. This was a conundrum for Datak because women in the albino-skinned Castithan society have a low ranking and he had to accept the new reality. While he was still calculating and malicious, Datak learned a bit of humility and had to swallow his pride.

The next storyline followed Datak Tarr’s son Alak (Jesse Rath), who is a lot like Michael Corleone. He doesn’t want anything to do with his family’s criminal business and would just be fine doing his DJ job and caring for his human wife, Christie (Nicole Munoz). But as shown in the second season, the two have had marital problems. He cheated on her while Christie struggled in trying to be accepted into his family and had to adopt their alien culture. She even went so far as to secretly cross-dress as a Castithan at an underground nightclub. Her father Rafe McCawley (Graham Greene) also had to deal with having Castithan in-laws out of necessity. Once a prominent mine owner and a rival to Datak, Rafe had his mining business and home taken away by the E-Rep. This forced him to an uneasy alliance with Datak as he sought weapons for an insurrection.

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Niles Pottinger (James Murray) is the town’s provisional mayor and the face of the E-Rep in Defiance. As a representative of the E-Rep, he doesn’t have the town’s best interest at mind and has a sordid past. Throughout the season he contends with keeping things running smoothly in the backwater town and with courting the town’s former mayor Amanda Rosewater (Julie Benz). Now, she is forced to take over her younger sister’s brothel (after she was killed by Stahma in the first season) and reluctantly accepts a position as Pottinger’s advisor. In this season, Amanda struggles to make peace with her fallen status, while agonizing over her sister’s disappearance and finding out she was killed. Continue reading →

Aug 24 2014

New Doctor Who Off To A Mundane Start

new doctor and clara

Peter Capaldi made his debut as the new Doctor in “Deep Breath”, the season premiere of Doctor Who. Unlike the two other modern regenerations we’ve seen, this debut episode of a new Doctor had a very different tone.

To be blunt it was rather underwhelming.

This verdict doesn’t have anything to do with Peter Capaldi as the Doctor, it would be harsh to judge him solely based on this episode. On the other hand, when new actors took over the role of the famous Time Lord, they left very deep impressions. who horseCapaldi’s Doctor doesn’t have any particular quirks or kinks about him and that was a shame. Yes, in the new episode “Deep Breath” the Doctor was characteristically confused after his regeneration at the end of the special “The Time Of The Doctor”, but Capaldi seemed to be just going through the motions. It felt like when he was spouting off disjointed lines about not knowing his hands or talking to a dinosaur that he was just acting.

Even as he settled into the role later into the episode it was very clear that this Doctor would be more subdued and less flamboyant, eccentric or even energetic like the three previous actors to play the Doctor.

It’s a change of pace, but it may turn off some Doctor Who fans who were used to fast-talking and goofy Doctors, which were so endearing.

But Capaldi’s interpretation of the Doctor wasn’t what was offkey about the episode “Deep Breath”. Rather, it was the story itself.

As stated in the opening, this debut of a new Doctor was decidedly different. It was more low key and unfortunately mundane at times with its center being an uninteresting mystery taking place in Victorian-era London.

The episode starts with the Doctor’s Victorian compatriots the Paternoster Gang: the reptilian Madame Vastra (Neve McIntosh), her wife Jenny (Catrin Stewart) and the warrior Strax (Dan Starkey) witnessing a rampaging t-rex in downtown London. The dinosaur coughs up the Doctor’s space/time vessel the Tardis and that is how the Doctor and his Companion Clara Oswald (Jenna Coleman) first appear in the episode.

dinnerAn interesting start, but then “Deep Breath” dovetails when the new Doctor (the 12th? Wouldn’t he be the 13th if you count the War Doctor? Or is he a reset?) starts rambling about in a forced manner at his friends’ residence. Clara is trying to grapple with the fact that the Time Lord she knew and loved (Matt Smith) is now morphed into this noticeably older and confused man. Seeing the two of them together with the in-your-face age difference was jarring to watch and the dynamic between the two feels strained.

After a few uncomfortable scenes of that, the story shifts to this cyborg (Peter Ferdinando) going around abducting people to cannibalize them for parts. This part of the story was rather predictable and mundane. Even the listless fight sequences between the cyborg’s army and the Paternoster Gang wasn’t interesting to watch, nor was the confrontation between the Doctor and the cyborg.

new tardis

“Deep Breath” did come to life near the end of the episode when a certain character made a surprise appearance. As welcome as it was, the cameo served to remind Clara (and the viewers) to learn to accept the new Doctor and to support him. However, the problem wasn’t accepting the new actor, but that his character deserved a better episode to launch his stint. It’s way too early to write off this understated version of the Doctor and some clips from the upcoming Doctor Who previews look intriguing. It’s just lamentable that the new Doctor is off to an unremarkable start.

Annette DeForrester