Ok, I’m going to start off by stating it plainly, Chris Evans plays a bad boyfriend. 

Seriously. 

I really enjoyed the change in gender roles for an action movie, but it really reminds me of what is wrong with the “formula” that Hollywood had used for years. Think about Jaime Lee Curtis in True Lies. 

Still, it was enjoyable and would recommend it to those looking for a little mindless fun.

I enjoyed this movie but I found myself not fully invested in the characters during some points of the film. There are a tooooon of Easter eggs for those who like Spider-Man so keep your eyes peeled as they move from point to point in the story.

Short review

It’s alright, but I hope that it gets better over time.

Longer review

Let me say this first, before I get into it more. I loved the Original Willow movie when I was kid. It came out in 1988 and must have been 8 when I saw it on VHS. I even remember reading the first two books in of a series that came out in 1995.

I don’t want this just to be good.

I want it to be great.

That said, it’s been… a while since I’ve seen was that age. And although I still love the movie and force my family to watch it recently, I have an understanding that this is Disney rebooting a franchise. I am not going to capture that same feeling as when I first saw it.

I’m fine with that, and I’m not screaming to the internet that they ruined my childhood or anything silly like that.

I am grateful that they think it’s worth going back to it.

And to be honest, the original had some problems as well.

But where does that leave us with this show?

Well…

I like it… but it’s got some real flaws that I know that are really going to turn some people off.

First of all, the 54 minute pilot has a big job of introducing our 5 principle characters and getting the audience up to speed.

At this point in the story, I don’t honestly care too much for a few of them as they haven’t shown enough of why I should care for them apart from they are our protagonists. I feel a couple of them are just saying the lines of sometimes rushed dialog to help us move the plot along and act as exposition. I’m going to hold out hope that they were directed to behave in the way, and that we’ll get a chance to see what they can do with the characters later. Similar to how Chris Hemsworth was able to take Thor from being a stick in the mud to one of my favorite characters in the MCU.

I believe that thing that will keep me watching will be Warwick Davis (Willow), Tony Revolori (Prince Graydon), and Amar Chadha-Patel (Boorman). After the second episode (which is better than the first), I found myself missing them when they weren’t on-screen. Although, Warwick does have some cringeworthy moments, I really get a feeling that he wants this to work and that really shines through. He is the same Willow from the movie, and that what I love.

Super short review:

I liked it.

Longer short review:

I really, really wish that I had more sleep before and after watching the movie. This movie does a lot of things that we don’t really see in a “super hero movie”. You get a feeling that the people making it were really trying to convey what it means to really lose someone. That in itself can be the entirety of a movie.

But.

This movie has a lot more that it wants to do and it’s ultimately the part that some might have a problem with.

It’s 3 hours and my family had just finished a day at amusement park after spending 6 hours on the road¹. They fell asleep but I’d go back and watch it all over again.

Let me say this and there will be spoilers

I really, really liked the Matrix when if first came out. It was revolutionary in the effects and probably the first piece of media that ever outside of my high school required reading that asked me to question reality.

Although, I remember walking over to a local theater and watching it without knowing what it was about. I think I might have thought it was going to be a clone of Dark City. But now, the image of Neo dodging bullets has been parodied and copied so much, that I’m sure there are people who honestly don’t know where it came from.

Good times…

I remember watching the videos of people saying how the movie had changed their life. I remember how excited I was to find out that there was going to be a sequel¹. I even remember being excited by the video game²!

After all of it, I don’t look back and say it was a waste because it taught me that I have to have some standards on what I want when continuing a franchise. I’ve never gone back to see the movies again. Other than seeing the three main actors popup every once in a while and thinking about how one of the others was removed from the sequels³, I haven’t really thought about the movie franchise.

But then I heard rumors about a reboot.

At first, I heard that Michael B. Jordon was going to be cast as the new Neo.

Then I heard that star of the John Wick films, Keanu Reeves, was going to make an appearance!

Then I heard that Laurence Fishburne was Not going to be in it…

Wait… What?

Ok…

What about Agent Smith?

Nope.

Ok…

Carrie-Anne Moss?

Yes.

Alright, I’ll bite.

And I well… it bit me.

It was 2 hours and a half hours with some change and it seemed to drag on even longer.

It felt like it was trying to say something but didn’t know what words to say.

There are moments where it uses footage from the old trilogy and it feels like when one of your friends is telling everyone they are cool because their older brother is cool.

But this whole time, I’m thinking “why do I care?”.

Should I care about Neo? What about Trinity?

I don’t want to sound heartless, but although they had died in the original trilogy, they accomplished their life goals. I don’t know how many characters can say that. They ended the war between man and machines.

This is actually a first for me.

If a character comes back from the dead after accomplishing their story arch, should I invest in them emotionally?

To be honest with myself.

I did.

But after watching for 45 minutes, I never got the feeling that they were in danger.

I knew that the director had already said that the two main characters where reflections of her parents.

There was no way that they weren’t going to make it.

They were going to be together.

And thus every other character that you can identify makes it through as well.

It’s just a long wait until the end.

Ultimately, my wife said to me “It’s not the worse movie you’ve made us watch.”

Oh, and they cuss in this one.

So, that’s different.

Downstream is a new podcast about the future of streaming media. Tech and entertainment companies are vying for our attention and money, all to see who will become the media giants of the 21st century. J

Jason Snell, one of my favorite podcasters, has a new podcast out about media streaming. It’s something that I’ve grown more and more interested in as we have seen so many new services being introduced in just the last couple of years.

I remember “the bad times”, where people had to get certain kinds of media by… um… having it fall off the back of a truck and onto your computer. And then netflix happened and the whole world changed. People could actually get things a legal way and support with their wallets what they wanted to see.

Now… well… there are a ton of services out there each asking for 4.99 to 15 dollars a month and it can really start adding up.

The podcast looks to be focused on those issues and more and I encourage you to check it out.

This is the pilot episode of a podcast covering the Apple TV+ show “Schmigadoon”.