Tag: Star Wars

1,227 words

I was surprised at how much I liked Disney’s live action Star Wars series Andor, so I watched the Mouse’s next Star Wars series, Ahsoka. It was a trudge across vast, dreary plains of pulp, nostalgia, and estrogen-sodden wokeness — punctuated with peaks of genuine magic and drama.

The character of Jedi apprentice Ahsoka Tano, an orange-skinned alien, was created by George Lucas and Dave Filoni and first introduced in the 2008 animated film The Clone Wars, which focused on her relationship with Anakin Skywalker. (more…)

1,236 words

All new Star Wars stories, like the denizens of a vast coral reef, need to inhabit nooks and crannies in the universe and narrative created by George Lucas. But there are better and worse ways to do this.

Disney has produced two kinds of Star Wars products: new and original stories and cynical, safe, nostalgic remakes. Four out of five of Disney’s Star Wars movies fell into the safe and cynical camp. (See my reviews of The Force Awakens, The Last Jedi, The Rise of Skywalker, and Solo.) (more…)

638 words

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny isn’t good enough or bad enough to merit a review. Which I guess is a review in and of itself.

I enjoyed the first three Indiana Jones films a good deal. They aren’t serious movies, but they are well-made, entertaining piffle, with Harrison Ford as an unusual hero who combines two-fisted paleo-masculinity with intellect and taste. But I don’t think I was ever young enough to take the character of Indiana Jones all that seriously. Thus I am pretty much immune to a big-budget nostalgia-fest about the character. If I were feeling nostalgic, I would simply watch the original films. Or better, just listen to John Williams’ wonderful music. (more…)

1,620 words

J. K. Rowling, the beloved author of the Harry Potter series of young adult novels, has come under considerable social scorn for her anti-trans stance. She’s had to return awards, has caused firestorms on Twitter, has been threatened by trans women, and has even been cancelled by the Harry Potter franchise that she created. (more…)

1.511 slov

English original here

Ben Novak
Hitler and Abductive Logic: The Strategy of a Tyrant
Lanham, Md.: Lexington Books, 2014

„Nahlédni do své duše a uvidíš, že je to pravda.“

Kniha Hitler a abduktivní logika Bena Novaka je dost možná tím nejvíce strhujícím akademickým titulem, na jaký jsem kdy narazil. Přináší smělou a nápaditou syntézu filozofie, historie, životopisu i literárního umu. (more…)

Career Opportunities

1,949 words

We’ve all seen sci-fi movies where an attractive woman gets stuck alone with a guy she normally wouldn’t consider, gets to know “the real him,” something threatens her, he rescues or protects her, and they pair up in the end. (more…)

1,480 words

Tolkien world experienced two huge events this month.

Amazon announced last week the diverse cast for its new Lord of the Rings series. Shortly thereafter, Christopher Tolkien, J. R. R. Tolkien’s editor and the guardian of his father’s legacy, died. (Hopefully, there was no connection between the events.) (more…)

1,665 words

Czech version here

Ben Novak
Hitler and Abductive Logic: The Strategy of a Tyrant
Lanham, Md.: Lexington Books, 2014

“Search your feelings. You know it to be true.”

Ben Novak’s Hitler and Abductive Logic is one of the most exciting academic books I have ever read, a daring and imaginative synthesis of philosophy, history, biography, and literature. (more…)

3,115 words

In memory of Raven.

Even I didn’t expect Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker to be this bad. It is simply a terrible movie: derivative, incoherent, arbitrary, superficial, and deeply boring and uninvolving—despite, or maybe because of, the frenetic action sequences, dazzling duels, and effects so special they’ll leave carbon scoring on your eyeballs. (more…)

1,271 words

“Help us, Dave Filoni. You’re our only hope.”

On December 20th, J. J. “Death Star” Abrams and Disney Corp. will complete the destruction of the Star Wars saga that many of us have loved since childhood, while raking in untold millions by cynically exploiting nostalgia for the mythos they are desecrating. So pass the popcorn, because I’ll be right there, dear readers, to review it for you. (more…)

1,283 words / 8:24

Audio version: To listen in a player, click here. To download the mp3, right-click here and choose “save link as” or “save target as.” To subscribe to the CC podcast RSS feed, click here.

I had a bad feeling about this.

It wasn’t just Solo‘s cursed production history: the original directors were sacked near the end of shooting, and Ron Howard was brought in to finish the movie, reshooting 70 percent of it. (more…)

2,754 words

Even as New Star Wars steps into the past of its original characters, it steps further from what originally defined it. (more…)