Comparing the sci-fi bars
A bar or tavern in a sci-fi space opera setting can be a lot of things. It can be a place of potential danger, as in the Mos Eisley Cantina in Star Wars. It can be a place of opportunity…
Tagged: Star Wars
Why The Last Jedi gives me (yes!) hope for Episode IX
As the Christmas release date for the next Star Wars movie approaches, and with filming now reportedly completed, the anticipation and the backlash that have both become synonymous with the franchise since the release of the prequel trilogy remain as…
Solo, and the appeal of smaller storylines
What do you get when you take away the usual ingredients of a Star Wars movie, such as lightsaber duels, the Jedi, and the Force? What happens when you tell a more prosaic, character-driven story that delves into the background…
Solo was good; here's how it could've been great
Solo: A Star Wars Story was good.
It was really good, you guys. You should see it if you haven’t yet. I’d imagine a fair bit of you haven’t, given that Solo was the second lowest-grossing Star Wars movie to…
Battle of the Nerd Comedies: Free Enterprise (1999) vs. Fanboys (2009)
A short while back, I wrote an article comparing the documentaries Trekkies and The People vs. George Lucas. These movies looked at the appeal and devoted followings of Star Trek and Star Wars, the two most famous series in…
7 ideas for the next A Star Wars Story
It was a golden moment when Lucasfilm and Disney announced their intention to make a series of standalone Star Wars movies in addition to the sequel trilogy. For the first time in history, the Star Wars franchise wasn’t penned in…
Hit or Bomb? May 2018 movie predictions
Feeling like you’re recovering from a massive hangover of Avengers proportions? Well, pop a fistful of Tylenol and pour yourself a Bloody Mary, because blockbuster season has only just begun, and Hollywood still has a ton of action/comic book/sci-fi extravaganzas…
Can we stop using the word "reboot"?
Looking at this year’s slate of movie reboots (including Death Wish, Tomb Raider, Venom, Robin Hood: Origins, and Mary Poppins Returns) made me come to a realization: Someday, Disney is going to reboot Star Wars…
5 burning questions about Star Wars: The Last Jedi
In a review of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, I wrote that it turned out that one of the least interesting questions about The Force Awakens was “is it a good movie?” The reason is that it was so…
The Star Wars Holiday Special (1978)
For the holiday season, I decided to take a look at something that’s truly scary. No, I’m not talking about Black Christmas, Silent Night Deadly Night, or even Gremlins. I’m talking about a TV special that only…
5 ways to make The Last Jedi great
Let me start by explaining where I’m coming from with respect to Star Wars: The Last Jedi. First, it’s a sequel to a movie that I had a mixed reaction to. I found The Force Awakens enjoyable and some of…
The biggest plot hole in Star Wars... isn't a plot hole
So I finally saw Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. I have in fact seen it twice in the last four months. And my reaction is…
…eh.
I mean, it wasn’t bad or anything. It was a perfectly serviceable…
A cynic’s look at the Star Wars: The Last Jedi trailer
So hey, how about that Last Jedi trailer? Here it is, if you haven’t seen it:
We all know the drill pretty well by now, don’t we? The trailer drops. Everyone pores over it and does their own bit of…
Top 5 (bad guy) movie sidekicks
Last time, I looked at heroic sidekicks from movies. Now, I’m going to take a look at 5 movie sidekicks that were anything but heroic.
1. Oddjob
Granted, the James Bond series was already on its third movie (Goldfinger…
Top 5 (good guy) movie sidekicks
Throughout history, both in real life and otherwise, there have always been those who seem to be, intentionally or not, subordinate to someone else. The slang expression that describes such a person is “sidekick”. In literature, such characters include Sancho…
6 real Han Solo EU storylines too wacky for the movies
The standalone Han Solo movie (provisionally titled Han Solo: The Motion Picture) is filming right now as we speak, and it, um… could be going better? Original directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller (21 Jump Street, The LEGO …
Battle of the Nerd Documentaries: Trekkies and The People vs. George Lucas
It goes without saying that Star Trek and Star Wars are the two biggest science fiction franchises ever. Even non-science fiction fans can recognize elements from either franchise, such as “beaming” or “the Force”. So it’s not surprising that numerous…
How is science fiction becoming reality this week? (8/18/17)
Agony Booth brings you the latest real-world science news that may seem more than a little familiar to science fiction fans…
Does Star Wars really need the opening crawl?
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story was a departure from previous Star Wars films in many significant ways. And one of the least significant ways in which it differed from previous entries is the lack of a lengthy prologue wherein…
Rogue One: A mediocre EU novel on the big screen
While watching Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, I noticed that I was feeling something that I was unaccustomed to experiencing while watching a Star Wars movie. That feeling was boredom, which is an understandably unusual reaction to movies famous for space battles, blaster shootouts, and lightsaber duels.
Latest Comments