Review of Spiderman: No Way Home

Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021) is a superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character Spiderman, co-produced by Columbia Pictures and Marvel Studios and distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing. Other films in the series include Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017) and Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019). The film was directed by Jon Watts and written by Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers. It stars Tom Holland as Peter Parker/Spiderman and Zendaya as MJ, as well as Charlie Cox, Benedict Cumberbatch, Jacob Batalon, Jon Favreau, Jamie Foxx, Willem Dafoe, Alfred Molina, Benedict Wong, Tony Revolori, Marisa Tomei, Andrew Garfield, and Tobey Maguire. This review contains major spoilers.

The film picks up where Far From Home leaves off. Quentin Beck has framed Spiderman for his murder and named him as Peter Parker in a public broadcast. This makes life miserable for Peter, his Aunt May, and his friends as they’re harassed by law enforcement and the press. Lawyer Matt Murdock gets the charges dropped, but the harassment continues. Frantic to make it stop, Peter goes to Dr. Steven Strange and asks him to work a spell to make everyone forget that Peter Parker is Spiderman. However, in the middle of the spell, Peter suddenly realizes what this might mean. Strange manages to contain the spell, but this opens rifts in spacetime for Peter’s enemies in alternate universes to come through. With a little work, he and his friends manage to round up the group, which includes Doc Ock, Norman Osborne, Curt Connors, Max Dillon, and Flint Marko, and imprison them while Strange works on a spell to send them back to their individual universes. After talking with them, Peter suddenly realizes all these people have been killed by Spiderman, and resolves to “fix” them so he won’t have to kill them in the alternate universes. This seems to go well, but Norman Osborne turns out to be a problem. And now more Peter Parkers are appearing. Things are getting dire. Is there any way Peter can repair spacetime?

The best point about this film is the appealing characters. Of all the Spiderman films, I think this is the best cast, chosen to appeal to the Disney audience most likely, but representing Peter well as a high school student. Willem DeFoe as Osborne is suitably creepy and the other villains manage to be more appealing than dangerous. This film also integrates the previous Spiderman films through the vehicle of the multiverse, bringing in older versions of Peter to give him advice and moral support. And last, there are consequences here.

On the less positive side, this feels like an obvious steal from the Academy Award-winning animation Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018). One of the characters in this film actually wishes for a black Spiderman. Besides that, it’s something of an eye-roller because of the typical Disney tendency for their characters to make emotional decisions. This causes huge problems. First, Peter doesn’t think out the consequences of asking Strange to make the world forget Peter Parker. Next, he decides he can “fix” evil from the alternate universes so none of his captives will die when they’re sent back. The action sags while the other Spidermen commiserate, and then Peter doesn’t end up making his own moral choices, but has to be saved by these other, wiser versions of himself.

There are plenty of consequences here, but I’m not sure the audience will connect these with Peter’s poorly considered choices and emotional overreactions because the film doesn’t really point these out. Strange says something about it after the interruption to his first spell, but it’s early in the film and goes by too fast—Strange should be wiser than this and Peter should be, too. Something not addressed by the film is how fixing the villains so they don’t die will change events in spacetime. The end result will take some fixing in the next film. Last, it was interesting to see Charlie Cox here. I hope it’s an indication Disney is going to try to reboot his Daredevil series that they destroyed through ending their contract with Netflix

This film has been highly successful at the box office, but there are a lot of not-so-positives. I’m going to give it tree and a half stars.

Review of Venom: Let There Be Carnage (2021 Film)

This film is about Marvel’s alien symbiote character Venom, produced by Columbia Pictures and distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing. It is the second film in this series, following Venom (2018). The film was directed by Andy Serkis, with the screenplay by Kelly Marcel based on a story by Tom Hardy and Kelly Marcel. Stars include Tom Hardy as Eddie Brock/Venom, Michelle Williams, Naomie Harris, Reid Scott, Stephen Graham and Woody Harrelson as Cletus Kasady/Carnage. This review contains spoilers.

In the mid-1990s, budding serial killer Cletus Kasady is separated from his love Frances Barrison when she is taken away from St. Estes Home for Unwanted Children to the Ravencroft Institute. She almost escapes, but is shot by police officer Mulligan, and then imprisoned because of her psychic ability to manipulate sound. In the present time, Kasady is scheduled for execution for his crimes, and he asks for Brock. At Kasady request, Brock does an interview and publishes an article which makes the headlines because Eddie and Venom have sorted through various clues to find where Kasady has buried bodies of people he killed. After the boost to prominence, Eddie gets a phone call from his love interest Anne, asking to meet. She tells him she’s engaged to her doctor friend Dan Lewis. Eddie is heartbroken and Venom tries clumsily to console him. Kasady invites Eddie to his execution, but the two argue beforehand and Kasady bites Eddie, ingesting some of Venom from his blood. Carnage emerges and Kasady escapes, leaving the prison a ruin behind him, and goes off to free his love Frances. The two go on a rampage. Meanwhile, Eddie and Venom’s dissatisfactions with each other leads to a domestic battle and Venom leaves, jumping to someone in the alley outside their apartment. Suspicious of Eddie, Detective Mulligan takes Eddie to the police station where he uses his one phone opportunity to call Anne and ask her to find Venom. She does, and brings it back in her body where it bonds again with Eddie and they break out of the police station. They go off in search of Kasady and Barrison, who capture Mulligan and Anne. The search ends at the cathedral, where Kasady and Barrison plan to get married, and Venom and Carnage fight it out. Venom has weaker powers. Can he win against the stronger Carnage?

On the positive side, this has lots of action and a strong plot with clear cut good and bad guys and Eddie/Venom fighting to save the woman they love. This also provides social commentary about how unwanted children can be twisted and corrupted by the care and prison system and turned into evil supervillains. It turns out that Venom isn’t that big a secret, as a lot of Eddie’s friends seem to know or suspect he’s harboring an alien symbiote, from Anne’s fiancé Dan to the gal at the store who sells them huge orders of chocolate. There are elements of humor, from the chickens Eddie bought for Venom to eat (which he rejects) to Venom’s attendance at a rave party where everybody thinks he’s got a great costume. The film’s best point is the strong performances that develop characters for Eddie and Anne. And of course, Woody Harrelson is totally wacko as Kasady with Naomi Harris a strong second.

On the less positive side, this is really heavy handed. The stress and action are so continuous that there are no quiet spots for Eddie to come down off the heart-attack pace and actually spend some time with friends or bond better with Venom. Kasady and Barrison have no shades of gray, and after all those years apart, they set off on their like-minded revenge as if they’ve only been apart for a few months. I didn’t think the attempts to lighten things with humor came off very successfully. And Venom’s defeat of Carnage doesn’t quite hold water, either. The script suggests it’s really smart, and it says its strong bond with Eddie gives them an edge, but I’m not buying it. It’s victory looks like it’s just written that way.

There’s a mid-credits scene that ties this to the next Spiderman film, due in November.  

Three and a half stars.

Review of “Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings”

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is a 2021 film based on the Marvel Comics character Shang-Chi. The film was produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. It is the 25th film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), directed by Destin Daniel Cretton from a screenplay he created with Dave Callaham and Andrew Lanham. The film stars Simu Liu as Shang-Chi and Awkwafina as Katy, with Meng’er Zhang, Fala Chen, Florian Munteanu, Benedict Wong, Michelle Yeoh, Ben Kingsley, and Tony Leung. This review contains spoilers.

Shang-Chi was trained by his tyrannical father Xu Wenwu, the holder of the powerful Ten Rings, as an assassin to avenge his mother Ying Li’s death at the hands of the Iron Gang. Shang-Chi has managed to escape his father and is happily working as a car valet in San Francisco and bar hopping at night with his friend Katy. The two of them are attacked on a bus by minions of the Ten Rings organization, and after a battle with Shang-Chi, they escape with a pendant given to him by his mother. Knowing this will be a problem, Shang-Chi is determined to find his sister Xialing who has the matching pendant. Katy insists on going along, and they find Xialing at an underground fight club she has founded in Macau. Shang-Chi is drafted to fight, but while they are there, the club is attacked by the Ten Rings and Wenwu captures Shang-Chi, Katy and Xialing, along with her pendant. He reveals that he has been hearing Ying Li’s voice calling him to save her from the magical village of Ta Lo, and uses the pendants to reveal a map to the village. The others are imprisoned with the Mandarin impersonator Trevor Slattery, who helps them break out and head for the village. They arrive before the Ten Rings and find the voice is an evil dragon trying to break through the gates that the village guards. Ten Rings arrives, ready for battle. Can Shang-Chi and his friends save the day?

I don’t know where Marvel finds all their talent. This is a really dense, out-of-date kind of story, but the writers, director and stars have managed to make it fun, lively and entertaining. This has to do with a script that modernizes the main characters and then sends them on a mystical journey into the realms of magic. Sima Liu and Awkafina (stage name for rapper Nora Lum) are especially entertaining as the all-American couple yukking it up at karaoke bars and out to dinner with friends. Simu Liu is rumored to be a student of Taekwondo and Wing-Chun kung fu, and got his start in films as a stuntman, so looks great in the fight scenes. There’s also a tribute to the film Speed when Katy ends up trying to steer the out-of-control bus through the steep streets of San Francisco.

It’s hard to come up with less positives in this. Slattery is something of a weak point. He introduces himself and gives a quick history, but for people unfamiliar with the Mandarin character, this is pretty much meaningless, and he has very little role in the film. The special effects were also a bit on the weak side compared to the kind of property damage we normally see in Marvel films, but they did look very traditionally Chinese.

Recommended for adventure fans. Four and a half stars.

Review of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (Season 1, 6 episodes)

This is a Disney+ show based on Marvel Comics characters Sam Wilson/the Falcon and Bucky Barnes/the Winter Soldier. It takes place after the events of the film Avengers: Endgame (2019), and was created by Malcolm Spellman. Spellman also served as the head writer, and Karl Skogland directed. The show stars Anthony Mackie as Falcon and Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes, along with Wyatt Russell, Erin Kellyman, Danny Ramirz, Georges St. Pierre, Adepero Oduye, Don Cheadle, Daniel Bruhl, Emily VanCamp, Florence Kasumba and Julia Louis-Dreyfus. This review contains spoilers.

Steve Rogers/Captain America has retired and left his shield to Sam Wilson as his designated heir. However, Wilson feels there can be only one Captain America, so he gives the shield to the US government and goes off to attend to family business, trying to help his sister out of financial trouble. Barnes has been rescued from Hydra by Cap, and is now attending court-ordered therapy sessions with a psychiatrist who insists he needs to make amends to the people he has hurt in order to get his life back on track. The government uses Steve’s shield to create a new Captain America with the war hero John Walker, and a new terrorist group called Flag Smashers starts up activities in Germany. Walker and his wingman Lemar Hoskins and Wilson and Barnes go as separate teams to investigate. Wilson and Barnes try to stop the group from stealing medical supplies and find they are all super soldiers like Barnes. Someone has recreated the serum that gave him trans-human powers. Wilson and Barnes refuse to work with Walker and draft arch-criminal Zemo and Sharon Carter/the Power Broker instead to help with their operation. Walker acquires a vial of serum and becomes a super soldier. In a fit of anger after Lemar is killed, he beats one of the terrorists to death on a public street and is recalled by the US government. In the aftermath, Wilson starts to rethink his position on rejecting the shield. Wilson and Barnes are successful at taking down the terrorists, but the Power Broker has now infiltrated the US government and begun operations from within.

On the positive side, this is well written and produced. The characters are strongly developed at this point, and operate well as a cast. Wilson and Barnes are introduced in the first episode, Wilson in an operation for the military, and Barnes in a visit with his psychiatrist. This is entertaining and sets the tone and dimension for the character for the entire series. He tells her with a totally straight face that he is making amends while we see in an aside what he’s really been doing. Ah-hem. Walker is clearly not up to the Captain America gig, and Wilson makes a great comment about it that power just makes you more of what you are. There’s lots of great action, stunt work and special effects in the show. The Power Broker is also a strong character and responsible for the cliff-hanger. The government has committed a serious error here, and I’m sure we’ll find out more about it next season.

On the less positive side, the politics between the terrorists and the government here aren’t clearly outlined, and on the first pass it was a little confusing about who was who and what they’re doing. Karli Morgenthau, the leader of the Flag Smashers cell, isn’t quite convincing as a character. She looks very young, pulls a sad, uncertain face and orders her minions to commit atrocities they seem to dislike but still carry out. More on this in a moment. The series is trying to be woke, but ends up with a confusing mashup of ideas that needs to be unpacked.

The first issue is race, racism and power. Cap is a patriotic symbol. He has left his shield to Wilson, who is a black man, and Wilson feels unworthy to step into his shoes. We first think this is a personal problem, but when challenged, Wilson admits it’s because Captain America should have blue eyes and blond hair, like Walker, for example. However, Wilson finally steps up once it’s clear Walker can’t deal with the demands of the job. So, is this suggesting that black Americans are unwilling to take responsibility because they’re not white? The series also presents various cases of racism, when Wilson and his sister are denied a loan regardless of his position as an Avenger, and it turns out the super-soldier serum was first tested on blacks. Presumably this didn’t work as well for the survivor, as he seems to have aged when Bucky and Cap haven’t.

The next issue is the terrorist manifesto. The last year has exposed a lot of people to the nuts and bolts of the “revolution” and how it might develop. The Flag Smashers are an anti-nationalist group that somewhat resemble Antifa. Their slogan is “One world, one people,” and their somewhat nebulous operations seem to be about taking from the “haves” to provide supplies and medicine to “have not” refugees and attacking government bodies that are displacing populations. The series attempts to present them positively, regardless of their evil methods, and Wilson tries several times to talk Morgenthau down, telling her he agrees with her in principle but not with her methods. Her minions are also presented sympathetically, with worried faces when they’re asked to bomb occupied buildings and such like. So what does this say? How does it align with Captain America as a symbol of patriotism? Is the show criticizing Antifa? Aligning with globalists? Or are they just hedging their bets with a confused message? It’s kind of an eye-roller.

Four and a half stars.

Review of Loki (Season 1, 6 episodes)

This is an original show produced by Disney+ about the Marvel Comics character Loki, Norse god of Mischief. The show is set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) and takes place after the film Avengers: Endgame (2019). The first season of Loki was produced by Marvel Studios, with show creator Michael Waldron as the head writer and Kate Herron directing. The series stars Tom Hiddleston as Loki, with Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Wunmi Mosaku, Eugene Cordero, Tara Strong, Owen Wilson, Sophia Di Martino, Sasha Lane, Jack Veal, DeObia Oparei, Richard E. Grant and Jonathan Majors. This review contains spoilers.

During the events of Avengers: Endgame, Loki steals a tesseract, planning to escape with it through time. This act creates an alternate Loki, who is immediately captured by the Time Variance Authority (TVA), a militaristic and bureaucratic organization that exists outside of time and space and regulates the Sacred Timeline to keep it from branching. One of the agents named Mobius offers Loki the choice of being “pruned” from the timeline, or working with them to stop a current threat. Loki offers to help, and finds that it’s another variant version of himself who is the threat. Analyzing the pattern of attacks on the TVA, he realizes this variant is hiding in apocalypses where there are no survivors and their actions will cause no interruption of the timeline. Armed with this supposition, they accurately locate the variant, who sabotages their efforts at capture and teleports away to attack the TVA headquarters. Loki finds the variant, a woman who calls herself Sylvie, and successfully teleports them both out of the headquarters onto a dying planet. Now, however, the TemPad they’ve been using to teleport runs out of power and they are recaptured by the TVA. Sylvie undermines the TVA narrative of lies about its origin and shows the “timekeepers” are actually all mechanical androids. The true timekeeper is hiding in the Void at the End of Time. They are pruned and end up in the Void, where they enchant the monster Alioth and penetrate the Citadel at the End of Time. He Who Remains is the real timekeeper, and he tells them he has created the Sacred Timeline to stop a multiversal war, and that if he is killed the war will resume. Loki and Sylvie fight over what to do and Sylvie wins. She sends Loki back to the TVA headquarters and kills He Who Remains. At TVA headquarters, Loki finds no one remembers who he is.

This series has a lot of good points. It’s clear Disney is investing a lot of money in production, as the artistic and special effects are notably well-done. The cast is multicultural, with accents varying from England to Georgia and several names that look African. The premise is fairly sound here. Avengers Endgame changed the timeline so fixing the fallout is a logical direction for the Loki character to take. The backdrop of world building is pretty well established for the MCU, and what’s added is plausible, consisting of disaster settings coupled with fairly luxurious housing for the TVA personnel. The cliffhanger at the end is effective in setting up the next season, where it’s apparent they will have to deal with an emerging war between timelines.

On the less positive side, the scrip here seems weak. The episodes and the series arc both move slowly, padded with a lot of useless conversation, and a suggestion of a budding love relationship between Loki and Sylvie seems out of place. Is this about narcissism? None of the characters captured my imagination, either. Loki never quite hit his stride as a master liar and conniver, and the various variants of himself are more sad than comedic. Sylvie is a strong character, but her motivations don’t seem strong enough to fuel the kind of war she’s conducting on the timeline. And I’m not sure how Sylvie opened a doorway to send Loki back to the TVA at the end of the finale. Hopefully, they’ll have more time to work on the script next season.

One more comment on this: During the last year, I’ve seen lots of fanfare in different media about Loki coming out as trans and LGBTQ. Anyone who is familiar with the Norse legends should already know about this. Loki is a shapeshifter and can assume different forms at will. As a female horse, he conceived and gave birth to Odin’s eight-legged steed Sleipnir, but also had children with two goddesses and a frost giant. There’s nothing in the legends about different timelines, though. I would expect there should be more similarity in this series between the variants.

Three stars.

Review of Black Widow

I’m on a roll with the films. After I got back from traveling, I’ve been to the theater for the first time in a couple of years, (thank COVID), so here’s a review of the long-awaited Black Widow movie. This is a 2021 film from Marvel Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. It’s the 24^th film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, directed by Cate Shortland from a screenplay by Eric Pearson. It stars Scarlett Johansson as Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow, and Florence Pugh, David Harbour, O-T Fagbenle, Olga Kurylenko, William Hurt, Ray Winstone, and Rachel Weisz. This is set immediately after the events of Captain America: Civil War (2016). Romanoff is on the run at this time and is forced to confront holdovers from her past.

The film opens in Ohio, showing a happy family with mom, dad and two little girls, Natasha and Yelena. Mom and dad are actually transhuman super-soldier Alexei Shostakov and Black Widow scientist Melina Vostokoff, both undercover Russian agents. They accomplish their mission and have to flee to Cuba, bringing the little girls with them. The girls are taken to the Red Room and educated to be Black Widow assassins. Melina continues her work as a scientist, and Alexei is later imprisoned. While working as an assassin, Yelena comes in contact with a gas that removes the Red Room’s mind-control. She sends captured vials of the gas to Natasha, who is hiding out in Norway, and the two of them get together to free Alexei and find Melina, who they expect can tell them where the Red Room is located. Can they free the army of Black Widows now under the control of the Red Room?

I looked to see who wrote the script for this one. The plot is convoluted, there’s plenty of action and amazing stunt work, and the interactions are hilarious. All the main characters are trying to come to terms with the years they spent as a happy family in Ohio, placed against the backdrop of larger political events. The truth is that they love each other. There are other subplots, as well, as Natasha regrets having (she thinks) killed the young daughter of Red Room supervillain Dreykov, and the Black Widow mind-control situation looks a lot like slavery. There are subtleties there, too, as not all mind-control is chemical—we know it can also be ideological. There’s also an interesting comment about girls being easy prey because they’re in excess in the world today. Florence Pugh put in a very strong performance in this movie as Yelena, and from the after-credits scene, it looks like she’ll be picked up for the upcoming Disney+ series on Hawkeye.

It’s hard to identify any less positives on this one, but I’m wondering about Alexei. If he’s a mutant super-soldier like Captain America, how did they keep him in a regular prison? I didn’t see any special constraints placed on him. Then Yelena says all the Black Widows are given complete hysterectomies, including the ovaries. That doesn’t sound like a good plan, as I think women with hormones are stronger than post-menopausal women. And last, the convoluted plot and fast action meant it was a little hard to keep up with what was going on.

Highly recommended that you see this one.

Five stars.

Review of Wonder Woman 1984

This is a 2020 sequel to Wonder Woman (2017) and the 9th installment in the DC Extended Universe. The film is based on a story by Geoff Johns and Patty Jenkins, with script written by Geoff Johns and Dave Callahan. It was directed by Jenkins and stars Gal Gadot as Diana Prince / Wonder Woman and Chris Pine as Steve Trevor, plus Kristen Wiig, Pedro Pascal, Robin Wright and Connie Nielsen. Lynda Carter and Gadot’s husband and children make cameo appearances.

It’s 1984 and Diana Prince is working at the Smithsonian in Washington D.C. One of her co-workers is Barbara Ann Minerva, a shy geologist and cryptozoologist who envies Diana for her self-assurance. The FBI sends Minerva an artifact they want identified, and Diana reads the inscription about a granted wish. She unconsciously wishes for Steve, and Minerva wishes to be more like Diana. Later at a museum gala, Max Lord meets Minerva and cons her out of the artifact. He wishes to be it, and goes on to disrupt world politics through granted wishes. Steve is reincarnated in another man’s body and finds Diana. Minerva starts to sap Diana’s powers, taking them on herself. It turns out the artifact was created by the god of mischief. Is there any way to make things right again?

Gadot is effective as Wonder Woman, and clearly most of the plot was designed to get Chris Pine back for a romantic interlude. Minerva is also a very strong character as she starts to gain Diana’s powers, and Lord comes across clearly as a weak man in pursuit of power. There are some dramatic shots that take advantage of the fine points of the characters, and of course, Diana has to make the decision to let Steve go in order to fix the world again. The theme here is clearly the dangers of instant gratification.

On the less positive side, the film feels too long, and suffers from mid-plot sag as we follow Steve’s mild wonderment at reincarnation and all the changes in the world since he last saw it. This sequence is presumably meant to be the romantic part, but the character reactions seem way understated, as if it’s an everyday thing to wish back a dead lover. His reappearance should have been a huge warning sign for Diana. Next, the characters don’t quite ring true. Wiig is described as shy and awkward in the beginning, but doesn’t do this well, and Lord doesn’t seem to go through any kind of discovery process for his powers. Last, the main criticism of this film has been how Diana and Steve used the man’s body that he inhabits without consent. This episode would have been a huge disruption in his life, as he stops going to work and engages in dangers and sex with a woman he doesn’t know. Why haven’t his co-workers or family filed a missing-person’s report and sent the police after him?

Three and a half stars.

Review of Onward

I’m running sort of behind on my movie viewing, but have been traveling, so caught some films on the (somewhat lengthy) plane flight. Onward is a 2020 urban fantasy adventure film animated by by Pixar and released by Walt Disney Pictures. The film is directed by Dan Scanlon, produced by Kori Rae and written by Dan Scanlon, Keith Burnin and Jason Headley. It stars the voices of Tom Holland, Chris Pratt, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and Octavia Spencer. This review contains spoilers.

Suburbia has overtaken the elven world, and magic is in decline. Ian Lightfoot has just turned 16, and he’s struggling with self-image. His older brother Barley is a gamer and has done his best to be a good mentor to Ian, whose father died before he was born. It turns out Ian’s father has left him a gift for his 16^th birthday, which includes a wizard’s staff and a magic jewel that will combine with a spell to bring Dad back for a day to visit with the son he never knew. When mom Laurel leaves the boys alone, they try the spell, but Ian doesn’t get it quite right and only resurrects the bottom half of Dad. Barley says they need to go on a quest for another jewel so they can finish the spell properly and bring Dad back. They set off to the Manticore’s Tavern, where they find a placemat with a route and instructions to find the jewel. Along the journey, Ian and Barley have to come to terms with Ian’s lack of confidence and Barley’s tendency to screw up. Can they successfully fix Dad before the sun sets on his day?

Like most Pixar films, this one is first rate. The animation is charming and engaging, and the characters are all strongly developed, trying to deal with issues that will help them become better people. Half-a-Dad feels his way around with his feet, displaying an amazing amount of personality for just the bottom half. Laurel is the concerned parent, risking the dangers to save her boys, and Corey the Manticore assists, trying to add some excitement back to her life. The boys deal with various challenges, and the plot has an action line that builds to a nice climax and a heart-breaking twist ending. Highly recommended.

The only negative I can come up with is that this is so carefully produced for kids that none of the threats feel like real dangers. If it were a little bit darker, I’d have been more concerned about the boys getting hurt, but the threats actually seem to be more about personal development than risking life and limb.

Five stars.

Congrats to the 2019 Nebula Finalists!

The SFWA has released the finalist for the 2019 Nebula. I’ll start reading for reviews PDQ.

Novel

Marque of Caine, Charles E. Gannon (Baen)

The Ten Thousand Doors of January, Alix E. Harrow (Redhook; Orbit UK)

A Memory Called Empire, Arkady Martine (Tor)

Gods of Jade and Shadow, Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Del Rey; Jo Fletcher)

Gideon the Ninth, Tamsyn Muir (Tor.com Publishing)

A Song for a New Day, Sarah Pinsker (Berkley)

Novella

“Anxiety Is the Dizziness of Freedom”, Ted Chiang (Exhalation)

The Haunting of Tram Car 015, P. Djèlí Clark (Tor.com Publishing)

This Is How You Lose the Time War, Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone (Saga)

Her Silhouette, Drawn in Water, Vylar Kaftan (Tor.com Publishing)

The Deep, Rivers Solomon, with Daveed Diggs, William Hutson & Jonathan Snipes (Saga)

Catfish Lullaby, A.C. Wise (Broken Eye)

Novelette

“A Strange Uncertain Light”, G.V. Anderson (F&SF 7-8/19)

“For He Can Creep”, Siobhan Carroll (Tor.com 7/10/19)

“His Footsteps, Through Darkness and Light”, Mimi Mondal (Tor.com 1/23/19)

“The Blur in the Corner of Your Eye”, Sarah Pinsker (Uncanny 7-8/19)

Carpe Glitter, Cat Rambo (Meerkat)

“The Archronology of Love”, Caroline M. Yoachim (Lightspeed 4/19)

Short Story

“Give the Family My Love”, A.T. Greenblatt (Clarkesworld 2/19)

“The Dead, In Their Uncontrollable Power”, Karen Osborne (Uncanny 3-4/19)

“And Now His Lordship Is Laughing”, Shiv Ramdas (Strange Horizons 9/9/19)

“Ten Excerpts from an Annotated Bibliography on the Cannibal Women of Ratnabar Island”, Nibedita Sen (Nightmare 5/19)

“A Catalog of Storms”, Fran Wilde (Uncanny 1-2/19)

“How the Trick Is Done”, A.C. Wise (Uncanny 7-8/19)

The Andre Norton Award for Outstanding Young Adult Science Fiction or Fantasy Book

Sal and Gabi Break the Universe, Carlos Hernandez (Disney Hyperion)

Catfishing on CatNet, Naomi Kritzer (Tor Teen)

Dragon Pearl, Yoon Ha Lee (Disney Hyperion)

Peasprout Chen: Battle of Champions, Henry Lien (Holt)

Cog, Greg van Eekhout (Harper)

Riverland, Fran Wilde (Amulet)

Game Writing

Outer Wilds, Kelsey Beachum (Mobius Digital)

The Outer Worlds, Leonard Boyarsky, Megan Starks, Kate Dollarhyde, Chris L’Etoile (Obsidian Entertainment)

The Magician’s Workshop, Kate Heartfield (Choice of Games)

Disco Elysium, Robert Kurvitz (ZA/UM)

Fate Accessibility Toolkit, Elsa Sjunneson-Henry (Evil Hat Productions)

The Ray Bradbury Award for Outstanding Dramatic Presentation

Avengers: Endgame, Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely (Marvel Studios)

Captain Marvel, Anna Boden & Ryan Fleck & Geneva Robertson-Dworet (Marvel Studios)

Good Omens: “Hard Times”, Neil Gaiman (Amazon Studios/BBC Studios)

The Mandalorian: “The Child”, Jon Favreau (Disney+)

Russian Doll: “The Way Out”, Allison Silverman and Leslye Headland (Netflix)

Watchmen: “A God Walks into Abar”, Jeff Jensen & Damon Lindelof (HBO)

Review of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker

This film is Episode IX in the Skywalker saga. It is #3 in the current trilogy of episodes, following The Force Awakens (2015) and The Last Jedi (2017). It was directed by J.J. Abrams, produced by Lucasfilm and Bad Robot and released in December of 2019 by Walt Disney Studios. Stars include Daisy Ridley as Rey, Adam Driver as Ben/Kylo Ren, John Boyega as Finn, and Oscar Isaac as Poe. There are also appearances from Carrie Fisher as Leia, Mark Hamill as Luke, Harrison Ford as Han Solo, Billy Dee Williams as Lando Calrissian, Anthony Daniels as C-3PO, and Joonas Suotamo as Chewbacca. Composer John Williams is featured as Oma Tres. This review contains spoilers.

Emperor Palpatine has returned and is building an armada on the planet Exegol. Kylo Ren captures a Sith wayfinder device that leads him to the Emperor, who demands that he kill Rey. Meanwhile, Rey is training to be a Jedi under Leia Organa. Finn and Poe obtain intel that Palpatine has returned, and a group of Renaissance fighters leaves on the Millennium Falcon in search of a wayfinder device so they can get to Exegol. On Pasaana they encounter Lando Calrissian, who gives them helpful information. Ren locates Rey through their Force bond and arrives on Pasaana, where Rey confronts him and Chewie is taken prisoner. C-3PO has seen the inscription that leads to the wayfinder, but is forbidden by its programming from translating. The group goes on to Kijimi to find a hacker, where Poe encounters an old friend/enemy Zorii. After obtaining the information, they mount an expedition to rescue Chewie from aboard an Imperial battleship. Ren tells Rey she is Emperor Palpatine’s granddaughter, and General Hux reveals himself to be a spy, allowing Chewie, Poe and Finn to escape. The group moves on to Kef Bir, where Rey locates the wayfinder on the remains of a wrecked Deathstar. Ren destroys the device and the two duel. Leia is dying and tries to reach Ren. Rey takes advantage of his distraction dring the duel and deals a killing blow, but then relents and heals him with her own life force. Upset by what she has done, Rey takes his ship to Ahch-To where she means to become a hermit like Luke, but Luke appears and convinces her she is wrong. She takes Luke’s ship and leaves for Exegol, where she expects to face the Emperor in a final battle. Is there any way the Renaissance can win?

In general this went very well. The actors have grown into their roles since the first film of this series, bringing a dignity and authority to their characters. It’s a fairly long movie at 1 hr. 22 min., but the plot keeps everybody moving, jumping from planet to planet in a quest to find the Emperor’s hidden stronghold. We encounter various colorful characters along the way while Rey and Ren keep up their personal conflict from within the Force. An interesting symbolism emerged when Rey was revealed as the Emperor’s granddaughter. She and Ren/Ben are a dyad within the Force, two sides of the same creature, presumably, we expect, representing good and evil. They grapple with love and hate and swing first one way and then the other, seeking for balance. Besides this excellent screenplay, Abrams has produced a visually artistic movie using both the live and CGI elements. He’s also made amends to the older fans, bringing back characters from the previous films, including Leia Organa, Han Solo, Lando Calrissian, Luke Skywalker and a host of others, through various glimpses and voices. The story ends, as it began, on Tatooine.

I was mostly pleased with this. On the not so positive side, the action sometimes seems a bit frantic; there were no quiet moments of reflection/decision, and it skips from world to world like driving down the street. Supposedly the Emperor’s battle fleet is docked within the planet’s atmosphere, but I wondered about action on the wing of one of the battleships. Shouldn’t the air be a little thin for that? Can’t the people inside the ship get out there to deal with things? And why do people keep disappearing? I know they’re supposed to be absorbed into the Force, but it still irks me.

Controversies: Others weren’t quite so happy with the screenplay. Social media producer Klaudia Amenabar complained on Twitter about Rey needing men to help her succeed when she should have been powerful enough to do it on her own. Joonas Suotamo (a.k.a. Chewie) replied, calling this toxic fandom, and a squabble ensued. See a summary article about it here. Also, I’ve seen some comments about this installment generating the widest split between fan and critic ratings of any of the Star Wars films: 86% to 54% positive at Rotten Tomatoes. This is a gap of 32 points, apparently for catering to the masses.

Although this film didn’t quite pack the sense of wonder the first Star Wars movie did, it’s a very satisfactory ending to the series. Highly recommended.

Five stars.