A&E

Star Wars Episode VII: A Phantom Menace or a New Hope?

January 4, 2016 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

Sean Morris

Staff writer and editor

So, here it is. The review we’ve all been waiting for.r. After the last few years of speculation and feverish anticipation, I can say with confidence that the newest installment of the Star Wars movie franchise, the force awakens, is an enjoyable one- but with several faults. Interestingly, my feelings about these faults differ greatly from what many people at SLA feel about it- which puts me in the unique position of being the film’s review with some of the more negative thoughts on it. I’ll tread carefully to insure a major spoiler-free review.

To begin with the positives; this movie was a big treat in terms of throwbacks and references to the previous movies and plenty of eye winks that can appeal to occasional or die hard fans. This film also mastered comedy very well, better probably than any of the other movies and definitely played with some of the more common jokes in the star wars movies. The cast all did their jobs phenomenally- especially the leading protagonist of Daisy Ridley as Rey, who has become one of my new favorite characters within Star Wars and defiantly has a long bright career ahead of her. John Boyega was also solid as a reformed stormtrooper and had several good moments, bringing in most of the story’s comedy. Part of the fun also goes to the incredibly handsome Oscar Isaac’s charming portrayal of Poe Dameron that makes him infectiously likeable.

But it wasn’t only the new stars that stole the show as Harrison ford’s return as Han Solo was utterly wonderful and provided some of the best scenes and heart of the film. From the returning characters like Carrie Fisher’s feisty former Princess Leia, Chewbacca, C-3po and more all make trumpet returns to the saga that immortalized them. The special effects were outstanding- even more so when you realize many elements were captured through real-life animatronics rather than CGI.

Now, some of the things I didn’t like. I felt that the recycled plot elements from “A New Hope” took away from the “new” aspect the movie was promising and gives me some worries as to how they will handle future projects. The mysterious big bad- Supreme Leader Snoke- was also not very exceptional. For all the secrecy about his appearance, he was not even intresting looking and, so far, a bland, motivationless appearing villain- with a quite frankly TERRIBLE villain name. I mean, Snoke? What are you, a dolphin or something? While he still probably has at least another one or two movies to prove his potential, there were a number of ways they could have made a lasting impression in his first appearance that they did not. One character made a departure in this movie as well. I was not happy with how they handled his or her leave, although telling more about this would MASSIVELY spoil the plot. And another character that was hyped in promotional material was little used, and when used wasn’t being very effective.

When compared to the previously crafted worlds of the comics and books that took place after “Return of the Jedi” these new movies (that replace this, cannon wise) haven’t even met some of the originality and characters that they had. And I will say that they had more than one opportunity to make references to that particular mythology or include it somehow, but they straight up did not, which felt like a massive slap in the face to those who loved read and knew about those . I will try to cover some of this in a more spoiler filled thoughts on the movie.

Overall, the Force Awakens is the biggest film of the year, possibly of all time, but that doesn’t make it the best. It was an enjoyable picture that deserves acclaim for doing what many thought would be impossible. In the words of Lucille Bluth, I encourage everyone to “Go see a Star War”.

Rating: 3.5 /5 stars

The 100: Lord of the Mutant Flies

December 11, 2015 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

Staff Writer: Dylan McKeon

Today YA novel trilogies are very popular… and very generic. They often follow a set of cliches: there’s a love triangle, the teens are always fighting to survive, there’s an oppressive dystopia, and eventually the books get made into a movie trilogy with the third book split into two parts.

It’s because of these cliches I was a little nervous about the new TV series The 100, which is based on a YA trilogy. What’s more, the first episode seemed to make it clear that most of these cliches were going to be a regular part of the story. However, the series proved to be much better than I had originally excepted, with the characters forced to make some dark decisions in order to survive to the point that I questioned if they even deserved to live.

The story takes place about a century after a nuclear war which destroyed the civilization on Earth, forcing the remains of the human race to flee the planet in a space station known as the Ark. With oxygen running low on the Ark, the council decides to send 100 teens to Earth to test if it’s habitable. Earth turns out to be perfectly fine for the teens; however, the radio was broken in the crash so they have no way to communicate with the Ark.

While the first half of the first season suffers from feeling like a post-apocalyptic soap opera with a love triangle and attractive actors, the series improves as it show the grim nature of the world the teens live in. The characters are forced to make some tough decisions, ranging from mercy kills to sacrificing three hundred people to potentially save everyone on the Ark. By the end of the first season, the characters prove to be complex and willing to go to extreme methods in order to stay alive.

The story feels similar to Lord of the Flies for the first season with its focus on survival and the struggle to form a society before focusing on the conflict between the 100 and native survivors living on Earth known as the Grounders. The Grounders live in a society lacking the much of the morals of the old world. This creates an interesting dynamic between the two groups in terms of leadership and society.

The second season expands on these themes and starts out strong by introducing a new society known as the Mountain Men on the post-apocalyptic Earth, showing the how the characters have grown since the first season, and getting an awesome intro. It’s here that the show improves on it’s flaws and really dives deep into its themes of leadership and survival.

Leadership is the main concept that forces the characters to make such dark decision and it’s interesting to see how this is justified by a need to protect their people. Clarke (Eliza Taylor) is the prime example willing to make a difficult alliance and compromise many morals in order to save 47 of her friends. Jasper (Devon Bostick) a light hearted character who rarely played a major role in the first season was forced to step up to act as a leader. One of the most interesting examples comes from Jaha (Isaiah Washington) who faces the difficult task of finding a purpose, once his leadership is no longer needed.

The Mountain Men act as the main antagonist of the season, living in a bunker and unable to go outside due to the radiation. While they appear to have a friendly and civilized society they are also forced to do terrible things to survive in a way that makes them seem both sympathetic and cruel. It’s here that the show truly comes into it’s own and delivers an excellent season topped off with an unforgettable finale.

In conclusion, the show is surpassing the series it was adapted from, with a willingness to go darker and deeper into the characters and setting. The look at the moral choices and the consequence give it an interesting and dark story and the justification of the actions help add to moral ambiguity of the characters.

The third season of The 100 will air on Thursday, January 21 on the CW. The first two seasons can be found on Netflix.

Album Revview: ‘V’ by Wavves

December 10, 2015 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

Aidan Williams, staff writer

Wavves, the musical project of Nathan Williams, the lead vocalist, is one of the more interesting bands out there today. Having started off as a Lo-Fi indie punk band back in the late 2000’s, they quickly evolved as they picked up traction, and have adopted much more of a pop-punk feel. The quality of the sound has improved, with much tighter instrumentation, and a solid studio sound. However, the music seems to have flatlined.

The band’s most recent release, the album ‘V’, was generally well received. With solid, full songs. Though it may not be the band’s best work, it is well respected, and is far from the worst. However solid the songs are, though, it seems as though they’ve become flat, without rock and roll’s signature crescendo. Beginning at a midrange tempo, which carries through the entire song with minimal ups and downs. The album is exciting to listen to a few times, but as you listen to the songs more, they lose the initial rush.

That doesn’t mean it is a bad album, however. In fact, I believe it is one of their better albums. Prior to the release, there was a bit of controversy as Nathan Williams uploaded a few of the songs early, without the record label, Warner Bros., permission. A small fight ensued, before Warner Bros. finally caved, and allowed Nathan to upload more music. The few tracks Nathan uploaded were very good, solid songs that successfully got listeners hyped for the album, and it became clear very quickly that, while different from the band’s original style, it was a great collection of the band’s work.
By the time the album was released, a good number of songs had been available for a fair amount of time. However, the rest of the album was surprising good, and purchasing the album is worth the money. ‘V’ is a good piece of work from a great band, and I look forward to their future projects.

Jessica Jones: Intense, Mature, and Purple.

November 30, 2015 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

Dylan McKeon

Staff Writer

Marvel’s Cinematic Universe has made some of the biggest movies of this decade. Their success has forced inspired DC to come up with their own movie universe, introduced a new generation to their comics, and made the Guardians of the Galaxy popular. Despite this success, critics were divided as to whether they could repeat their superhero team up formula on Netflix with 5 series focused on gritter street level heroes.

The first of these series, Daredevil, was released last April and holds a high rating on Rotten Tomatoes with a 98% favorable rating.. This set the bar even higher for Jessica Jones, the next show in the series. However, now that it’s out on Netflix, it’s clear Jessica Jones succeeds to bring a story just as good, if not better, than Daredevil, using its characters to look at a different kind of hero with a noir tone. The show has also been noted for tackling the subjects of rape, trust addiction and more in a mature and thoughtful way.

The plot of Jessica Jones follows the titular heroine (played by Krysten Ritter) as she works as a private detective discovering that an enemy from her past Kilgrave (David Tennant), is alive. While Jessica has super strength, she’s helpless against Kilgrave, who has the power to make people do whatever he tells them to. Additionally, Jessica needs Kilgrave to make a confession, forcing her to find a way to not only to capture him but to get the information needed.

Jessica proves to be a great character as well. She unlike almost every other hero in the universe so far. While she does have super-strength, she mostly uses it in her job as a P.I. to intimidate people- she’s not into saving people, she’s just trying to make a living. When she decides to go after Kilgrave, it’s not because she wants to be a hero, but a darker combination of fear, justice, and revenge.

Kilgrave is without a doubt one of the MCU’s greatest villains, due to how his abilities are explored. He tends be less than moral given that his powers gave him the ability to get anything he wanted from the age of ten. Because of this, he very often doesn’t see any problem with how he’s using his powers and can compel people to murder or torture themselves and it comes so natural for him to control others to the point where he has trouble talking to others when he doesn’t use his powers. One of his most often commands is simply to have people smile for him, showing how sad and deprived he is.

For the most part, Jessica is an example of an average person with powers who doesn’t try to be a hero,and the show’s structure reflects that. The show has fewer fight scenes then the other Cinematic Universe shows and uses this space to focus on the characters.

The show is very mature, and has some points where the violence seems a bit too excessive, but this hardly takes away from the series. It’s adult themes transcend the superhero genre and make it something bold, new and vastly original.The mature theme add the the realism of the world and makes Kilgrave one of the most terrifying villains on the small screen, due to his complete control over others.

In conclusion, the show reaches great success with great use of characters and intense moments. The finale in particular is perfect, bringing in Clare Temple ( Rosario Dawson) from Daredevil in a excellent moment that helps connect the two series. It has yet to be determined if their will be a second season but if there is it will likely happen after The Defenders miniseries which will be released around 2017.

Spectre: A Throwback to Over 50 years of Bond- for Better or Worse

November 30, 2015 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

Sean Morris

Staff Writer

When I entered the theaters to see the latest James Bond film Spectre, I admit i had very high expectations. After the greatness of Skyfall and my own love of the mythology, I was near a fever pitch to see it, especially for the actor Christoph Waltz, an actor who is extremely perfect for any role that has “bond villain” attached to it. And while I overall enjoyed the film, I felt that there were some flaws in it that lowered the bar just a bit from the surprising enjoyment of Skyfall. However it is still a very much enjoyable bond film, a proper conclusion for daniel craig, and a great setup for future films.

At the start of the film, Bond is going behind MI6 orders and directive to uncover a shadowy organization known as SPECTRE and with the help of the daughter of an old enemy (Léa Seydoux) he finds that the chilling leader SPECTRE (Christoph Waltz) has a dark connection to his past- and has been a constant phantom on his life. First off, I will praise the overall look and acting of the film. Daniel Craig shows us again why he’s the perfect (and probably my favorite) James Bond, Christoph Waltz being a good, if underused, bond villain and with many of the supporting cast from Ralph Fiennes, Naomie Harris, Ben Whishaw, Andrew Scott, Dave Bautista (who played a nicely menacing henchman), Léa Seydoux and Monica Bellucci all doing their job well. This movie probably had the best pre opening credits sequence in any Bond Movie I’ve ever seen, with a very impressive continuous shot of Bond moving through Mexico City’s Day of the Dead celebration and later getting into a fight on a moving helicopter. And while I wasn’t initially crazy about the new Bond song “Writing’s on the Wall,” it worked surprisingly well with the opening credits sequence, which incorporated the infamous SPECTRE organization’s octopus logo in some very creative ways. Overall, I will say that the film feels more like an older Bond film- which is good for fans of the older films, but might cause some ire with those that liked the darker realism of some of Craig’s other films.

Some things I wasn’t crazy about:

The love story. The film has a “love story” between bond and one of the women that didn’t really feel very authentic, certainly not as much as vesper lynd (his love in Casino Royale) and while she was an interesting enough character it seemed a bit rushed and forced.
Ralph Fiennes taking over from Judi Dench as M came off as a little stuff, although he’s a talented enough actor whom I’m hopeful that he can bring some more energy to it later. Additionally the “oldest bond woman” who I was more interested in originally had very little screen time or importance to the plot, which was annoying.
While I found some of the dynamic between Bond and SPECTRE’s leader intresting, I felt a little cheated in the fact that we didn’t see more of the organization as a whole- more members doing more things (in fact my parents had suggested it had been interesting if they had done a “roll call” and had other past bond villain names listed- or something to that effect).
The villain’s main motivations could have also used some more explanations. The one’s given felt a bit empty and lacking to justify the scope of his plans. I definitely felt he was underused and could have had more screentime, things to do, and richer dialogue even. I mean Christoph Waltz is a perfect actor to play a bond villain and I didn’t feel they utilized him well enough.

Since it is Sean Morris reviewing a Bond movie, I will naturally also take a moment to discuss the tailoring. Tom Ford can seemingly do no wrong as Bond’s tailor with a sharp windowpane in the opening scene, incorporation of an revamp of an old look- an ivory jacket on a train ride that hasn’t been seen on bond in decades- and one of my personal favorite of all bond looks- his three piece suit with a pin collar bar, which might be a first for Bond- that also incorporated some throwback elements, including the turnback cuff- a style not seen in ages and in synonymous with Bond. However I wasn’t a fan of his double breasted bridge coat during the funeral scene- it looked dated, unstylish and even ill-fitting. While I believe he only wore the one suit, M’s double breasted chalk stripe looked incredibly well made and it showed off nicely on screen. Andrew scott’s C wore some very trendy outfits that showcased his youth. By contrast, Christoph waltz’s costumes left me with some mixed feelings- partly because it was hard to see some of the details in scenes at night, but I appreciated the incorporation of the nehru jacket (which is synonymous with Bond villains like Dr. No and Blofield) but felt there were some things they could have paired better with it. I was not a fan of how in one look Christoph was sockless and wore loose leather slippers instead- in certain shots it made him look a bit silly and less menacing than he should be.
Overall, this movie worked as an older styled James Bond film. Whether you enjoy it is a matter of taste and preference above all else. And while I thought some of the plot elements could have been better, I’m happy to have this piece of mythology back in the Bond franchise and am curious as to where it will go next.