Fish and Cherries Productions

Title: William Shakespeare’s The Empire Striketh Back
Author: Ian Doescher
Type: Play
Genre: Science Fiction, Parody

Summary: On the surface, combining Shakespeare and Star Wars sounds like an idea that a lazy student would do to try and get an easy A in his literature class. However, despite its inherent silliness, there is a sort of cleverness and, dare I say, dignity with the execution. It isn’t just The Empire Strikes Back run through a Shakespeare translator, there are whole new scenes between incidental characters to match the Shakespeare style, different characters are given entire soliloquies, and there’s even a chorus that takes over when it serves the purpose. The real cleverness, though, comes with what the author did with Yoda; rather than just keep his backwards dialogue the same and make it more Shakespearian, they have him speak entirely in haiku. That’s pretty ingenious. Personally, I think it was a good read and I can’t wait for The Jedi Doth Return.

Edge of Tomorrow is a very well done action movie that gets a bit of bad reputation from its main actor. But make no mistake, Tom Cruise is well in his element here and for those that don’t like him, you get to watch him die many times throughout the movie. The rest of the elements are no slouch either, with special mention going to the plot, the creature design, and all of the action sequences. However, and this is a big however, the ending is a major cop out that makes less sense the more you think about it. It’s true that’s only one thing, but it really drags down what was shaping up to be a great movie. Still, if you can get past that, you’ll find quite a bit to like about this flick. Even if it tripped on the last leg of the race, it’s bound to be smarter than the upcoming Transformers movie.

How to Train Your Dragon 2 is indescribably good. The first one was a hard contender with Toy Story 3 for best animated film of the year at their time and the sequel improves on everything significantly. All of the characters, even the minor ones, still have very distinct personalities, the animation is still beautiful, the flying scenes are still breathtaking, and there were some very emotional scenes that definitely hit harder than the ones in its predecessor. The ending seemed like a bit of a deus ex machina to me, but it was still within reason. Oddly enough, the thing that always impressed me the most about these movies is how they did the hair, as that is often the hardest thing to animate. But in this series, every single one is given a lot of detailed work and legitimately looks real. Overall, this is definitely a must-see. Here’s hoping that this one takes the Oscar home.

The Fault in Our Stars is a brilliant movie, but a very difficult one for me to talk about and an even harder one to sit through. Growing up, I have lost a lot of people, some young ones to cancer, so watching a movie nail the pain and experiences so well was like losing them all over again. So when I say that I’d have a difficult time watching it again, it has nothing to do with the quality and everything to do with the old wounds it reopened. Some of the lines even felt like they were directed specifically at me, which made the film hit even closer to home. It runs the gambit of emotions, from sadness to laughter to disappointment to joy and even to heartbreak, and ever one of them hit their mark. If you’re looking for a deep film making analysis from me, you won’t find it in this article. The acting, offbeat dialogue, cinematography, and interactions are all beautiful. That’s all I can really say at the moment.

Maleficent is not nearly as subversive as it thinks it is, but that does not make it a bad movie. A friend described it as feeling like a pro-Maleficent fan fiction where all of the other characters are made to look horrible and I can see where he is coming from. The three faeries are borderline useless and the people in the human kingdom are dark and evil with zero shades of gray or redeeming features. The only good one are Aurora and Prince Philip, but the latter is so bland and uninteresting that he was almost a non-presence (though his counterpart from the original Sleeping Beauty was probably the least interesting Disney Prince, so at least they’re consistent). There were other problems too, like the fact that certain relationship progressions progressions were relegated to rushed montages, there is a very unnecessary narrator that is really hard to put up with, and a few serious scenes are nearly ruined by some unintentionally hilarious moments in them. But there are some superb moments as well. The characters of Maleficent, Diaval, and Aurora are wonderfully written and lend themselves to some brilliant and funny moments. On top of that, the visuals of the film are drop dead gorgeous and may be some of the most beautiful you see in a while. On top of that, the second half of the movie is really engaging and the twist on the end, while already done in a much better Disney movie, is still refreshing to see, as is the part where the Prince says that he wouldn’t feel right kissing an unconscious girl. Those who are sick of the Disney tropes will not have a good time, but there are still quite a few gems in here to prevent it from being a bad movie. Just don’t go in expecting Wicked.