Dantooine Free Press

Let's get this out of the way.  Yes, the final Star Wars trilogy was pretty bad.  It started off promisingly enough.  I liked "The Force Awakens."  No, it wasn't the most original or creative of the saga's movies.  But it was entertaining, and coherent enough to allow Lucasfilm to build an extended story line from it.  Things went bad with "The Last Jedi." What became clear with "The Last Jedi" was that there was no unified vision of the last film trilogy.  While people like to complain about J.J. Abrams, he set up a number of interesting questions for subsequent films to explore.  They included Rey's parentage, the origin of Snoke and the First Order and could Kylo Ren be redeemed.  Rian Johnson decided to throw all of that away, and gave us a cynical story where the Resistance survived in spite of the saga's overarching hero, Luke Skywalker.  "The Rise of Skywalker" suffered, in large part, because Abrams had to undo muc...

It is an ambitious endeavor.  Season seven of "Star Wars: The Clone Wars" takes place simultaneously with the prequel film, "Revenge of the Sith."  It is an attempt to address the plot holes and generally bad writing of the film, and tie it to other entries to the Star Wars genre. For example, this season tries to explain better the descent of Anakin Skywalker to the dark side of the Force, and connect that to the universe we see in the movies "Solo" and "Rogue One," the cartoon "Rebels," as well as the Disney+ series "The Mandalorian." One of the keys to the success of this endeavor, is the appearance of Darth Maul. Darth Maul serves as a prime illustration of one of George Lucas' most egregious sins, the under-utilization of a compelling villain.  Reaching back to the time just before "The Phantom Menace" was released, the hype leading up to the film, which was the first Star Wars film in the sixteen years ...

If I could sum up my feelings for the second season of Star Wars: The Clone Wars in one word, it would be: frustration.  You see, the writers and producers just couldn't decide what they want this cartoon series to be.  Was it supposed to be a kids' cartoon, with silly story lines and goofy characters?  Or was it supposed to be a mature cartoon, aimed at adult and teenage fans with more sophisticated plot lines and dangerous characters for the Jedi to face.  It is this inconsistency that drove me crazy. The season started on a impressive note.  Having introduced the nefarious bounty hunter Cad Bane in the season one finale, he returned for a story arc to kick off the second season.  He continued to be a formidable challenge to the Jedi Order.  Calculating and cold-blooded, he presents a real challenge to the show's heroes. Likewise, season two introduces us to the mythical planet of Mandalore.  Ever since the introduction of Boba Fett i...

Like many my age, I have Star Wars toys in basement that are well over forty years old.  They have stayed in storage for most of that time.  I have only considered taking them out and placing them on display recently. Even though these toys have not been touched in decades, they have yellowed over the years.  At first, I had thought that I would have to live with the aging.  Then, I saw a series of videos by Retroblasting on YouTube.  In the videos, Michael and Melinda restored an original Kenner X-Wing Fighter toy from 1978.  One video was devoted to the process called Retr0brite, which claims to whiten old, yellowed plastic.  I was amazed to see the yellowed plastic of the X-Wing Fighter look almost as good as new. Doing research, I discovered that the process was developed sometime around 2007, among people who collected and restored old computers, particularly Commodore and Apple products.  These computers, which were popular in the...

It is seems to be fashionable among current Star Wars fans to trash the final three installments of the Star Wars saga.  Some critics even take joy in proclaiming Disney's efforts to continue the narrative initially created by George Lucas to be a miserable failure.  It may go against what's trending, but I liked the first of Disney's instalments in the final Star Wars trilogy.  I found Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens an entertaining extension to the original storyline, one full of potential for what the tale could be.  Sure, looking back, the last two films failed to live up to that potential.  Moreover, the first of the Disney films had it's flaws and it's plot holes.  It certainly was not the best of the Star Wars movies.  But looking back on them all now, including the two movies dubbed "Star Wars Stories" by Disney, which address tangential plots, I can easily say that The Force Awakens is within the top five of the entir...

When I heard that Disney+ had released the seventh season of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, curiosity overcame me.  I remember trying to watch the series when it was first released in 2008.  But my memories of the cartoon series was that is was horrible.  I couldn't make it through the first season, so I stopped watching.  When Star Wars Rebels came out, I found the series far more engaging.  At times, however, Rebels made reference to characters and plot lines established in The Close Wars.  I would go back and watch the relevant episodes of The Clone Wars, and discovered that there were actually a few that were pretty good, such as the Mandalore and Darth Maul plot lines.  I decided to go back and re-watch the first six seasons before jumping into Disney's newest season.  With respect to the first season, I found my memories confirmed.  While there are a few well-executed episodes, for the most part season one is horrible. That is the ...