Star Wars / Lucasfilm - Action Figure Insider Forums

Star Wars Visions; Season 3

Matt Zimmer — Mon, 03 Nov 2025 01:10:03 +0000

Star Wars Visions "The Duel: Payback"

I learned something bad about this show ahead of this season. None of this is canon. None of this matters. So as beautiful as the black and white animation is, it doesn’t matter because it doesn’t matter.

Holy fuck! Snow Ewoks!

Oh, wait. Snow Ewoks don’t matter. 3 stars.

Star Wars Visions "The Song Of Four Wings"

The animation is cute. But cute animation doesn’t matter.

I liked the origami cranes. But origami cranes don’t matter.

The girl is a Mecha! Cool! But cool Mecha girls don’t matter.

Are you sensing a theme in these reviews? It doesn’t matter because themes don’t matter. 3 stars.

Star Wars Visions "The Ninth Jedi: Child Of Hope"

The short is filled with hoary clichés. But hoary clichés don’t matter.

The animation is dull and unimaginative and has those annoying flapping mouths.

Dull animation doesn’t matter. Flapping mouths don’t matter.

The ending is unsatisfying, but cliffhangers don’t matter.

Am I about to give this short the first legit negative review of the season?

…

…

It doesn’t matter. 1 1/2 stars.

Star Wars Visions "The Bounty Hunters"

Cool asplosions at the beginning. Asplosions don’t matter.

The health monitors being slave collars is predictable bullshit. The heroine knowing that the whole time is interesting. Neither thing matters.

Pop music sucks but it doesn’t matter.

The animators are so lazy that they cover the characters’ mouths whenever possible so they don’t have to lip-synch. Embarrassing, 1980’s cartoon move. Unfortunately, it doesn’t matter.

Do you know what though? It really should. **1/2.

Star Wars Visions "Yuko's Treasure"

The cartoon is cute and kid friendly. But it’s not canon so it doesn’t matter.

Darth Billy doesn’t matter.

The kids look like Mega Man characters. Mega Man matters but this doesn’t.

The Bantha Girl reminds me of Harley Quinn. Why doesn’t that matter?! That should matter! 3 1/2 stars.

Star Wars Visions "The Lost Ones"

This one has bright colors. Color doesn’t matter. Stephen Colbert taught me this. I don’t see color. People tell me I’m white and I believe them.

This one feels overly and cartoonishly tragic and preachy. But since this never happened and isn’t real, I don’t care. I am only moved by melodrama that matters.

Final Grade: It doesn’t matter.

Star Wars Visions "The Smuggler"

Recaps don’t matter.

Me: “When do things start to matter?”

Every episode of this show: “Never. Things never matter.”

This show’s answer is identical to my entire adulthood when I posed it this exact question.

The animation is great, the English voice cast is strong, and the script actually doesn’t totally suck butt. Does that matter? What do you think?

Running out of matter jokes, but only two episodes left. I don’t think that matters. 4 stars.

Star Wars Visions "The Bird Of Paradise"

The animation is stunning. A sumptuous visual feast. But Visions aren’t real and don’t matter. The series’ title and premise don’t matter.

George Takei is a national treasure and deserves to be in a Star Wars project that matters.

Every rug-pull and back-pedal the episode did, down to the entire “It was all a dream” ending makes my reviews for this season relevant.

Do they matter? Here’s the deal: None of these reviews are canon with my other reviews and never happened. They are just a fun What If scenarios for the fans. They aren’t real and don’t actually matter.

Did I just blow your freaking mind? It doesn’t actually matter. 3 stars.

Star Wars Visions "BLACK"

The animation is bonkers, bizarre and as off-putting as the freaky deakiest of Plymptoons. I also see heavy influences from TRON by the end. The funky jazz score sells how insane things are. It’s the only one of these I truly like. But it’s the last fucking episode! Does that even fucking matter? What do you think?

Quentin Tarantino once famously referred to this era of Star Wars as “That Disney shit.” Quentin Tarantino’s dumbass opinions don’t matter.

I just wasted two and a half hours on the other eight super-boring and mostly stupidly-written episodes and now my reviews are out and that wasted time doesn’t even matter. Are you underwhelmed with these reviews? That doesn’t even matter. I’ll make more and the next ones will be canon and matter. But wasn’t it fun JUST once to take a fun What If scenario detour and see what--?

No? I guess not. But it’s done. It doesn’t matter. Clunky final jokes don’t matter either. 5 stars.

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

Matt Zimmer — Thu, 15 May 2025 02:52:04 +0000

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

In hindsight, this plays like a perfect series finale for Andor.

This was always my favorite Star Wars movie, even BEFORE Andor, just because of how ballsy it is. While Quentin Tarantino is sneering at "That Disney shit" he's too dumb to realize George Lucas would NEVER sanction a Star Wars movie where every single lead hero dies. And fuck, Vader's one-man-wrecking-crew in the second-to-last scene remains the most badass Darth Vader scene of all time. I SO wish the character had been like that in the Original Trilogy. But budgets, and unevolved fight techniques, make things back then seem quite boring in comparison.

The funniest bit was Chirrut complaining about the bag being put over his head. Dude's blind! What's the fucking point?

Set aside how awesomely hardcore and violent K-2SO is for a second. Set aside how funny Alan Tudyk is in the snarky role. I like the character so much because he was the first Droid in the entire franchise to talk like an actual person. Props to the film for that.

This is the only role I've ever seen Mads Mikkelsen in in which he wasn't the bad guy. The only other character he's played even CLOSE to Galen's moral nuance is.... Hannibal Lecter. Yeah, seeing him in a legit heroic role instead of a subversive protagonist role, is quite different than how he is usually cast.

I'll say this for Krennic. Unlike the other Empire suits (like Tarkin) he isn't afraid to get his hands dirty. Of course he DOES have a personal incentive to put himself in life and death situations. He knows DAMN well how the Empire treats incompetence and failures. His risking his life in a shoot-out on the tower is safer than waiting for Big Papa Darth to... scold him.

The Tarkin and Leia stuff is unconvincing CGI which frustrates me a little. 8 years later AI would have made them indistinguishable from Peter Cushing and Carrie Fisher from the 1970's. AI has done a lot of artistic damage, but this kind of thing is something it excels at. Not loving the Uncanny Valley of it all.

This is not the Best Star Wars Anything Ever (that's Andor). But if I might go out on a HUGE limb, but it's probably second-best. Come and get me. 5 stars.

Star Wars: Tales of the Underworld (Disney+) (2025)

Jim_Abell — Thu, 03 Apr 2025 19:21:20 +0000

May 4, 2025

ht tps : / / w ww.you tube.c om/watch?v=GkywNANueew

removed link

EDIT: (...back to no linking, I see...)

Andor (Season 2) (Disney+) (2025)

Jim_Abell — Mon, 24 Mar 2025 20:52:14 +0000

April 22, 2025

ht tps : / / you tu.b e/duN-KQgOjYs?si=TNL_EMZTJ2QigbBC

https://youtu.be/duN-KQgOjYs?si=TNL_EMZTJ2QigbBC

LEGO Star Wars: Rebuild The Galaxy (Disney+ Series)

Matt Zimmer — Mon, 07 Oct 2024 19:49:42 +0000

Not posting the reviews. They are harsh. Not on the project, which I love (how great is Surfer Luke?) but on the fandom for the bullying they tortured Ahmed Best with. My words are not measured there. They are completely offensive and they will not be posted on any site besides my Dreamwidth Journal.

But lay off Ahmed, all right, folks?

Tales of the Empire (Disney+) (May 4, 2024)

Jim_Abell — Thu, 04 Apr 2024 19:05:57 +0000

Series of shorts dropping on Star Wars Day...

ht tps://w ww.you tube.c om/watch?v=8SIST9t72kY

removed link

Star Wars: The Bad Batch Season 3 (Final Season)

Matt Zimmer — Sat, 24 Feb 2024 05:29:28 +0000

Star Wars: The Bad Batch "Confined"

I have my suspicions about why they dropped three episodes at once, but I'll talk about them after seeing the third. Andor's initial drop schedule will probably come up then.

There are a lot of dialogue-free moments in the episode, which is nice. Of course it's unusual for animation, but whenever it DOES happen, the challenge for the animators is getting across what the characters are thinking and feeling without words or explanations. Usually dialogue-light cartoons are like Genndy Tartakovsky's stuff, and "Show, don't tell," and it makes things feel very epic and old-school cinematic. I like it here because I feel like it's being done for a different reason than to convey scope. I think we don't hear everything Omega and Karr are thinking because the show wants to keep us guessing. Karr having saved the doll is a genuine surprise, and you seeing Omega actually made her come around without actually hearing the whys and hows of why she changed her mind about the doll. And animation is a medium, not a genre, so I appreciate the show for using a lack of talking to instead of making it a challenge to convey every emotion to the audience, they are using it as a way to keep things a bit of a mystery to the audience instead. Animation with little dialogue is still rare, but there are MANY reasons not to have characters speaking. Pixar uses comedic pantomimes (which are somehow weirdly never funny) and Samurai Jack uses panoramic vistas to immerse the viewer in an old-school fantasy epic. The show using it to keep us guessing instead is cool because while a lot of TV and movies do that (it's pretty much David Lynch's go-to) I don't see a ton of ANIMATION doing that. And I like seeing new things in cartoons, especially from a kids show.

For the record, Ahsoka and The Book Of Boba Fett have gotten a TON of crap for being so boring because of the amount of dialogue-free wandering. But do y'all remember what franchise this is? The first half hour of the first Star Wars is just C-3PO and R2-D2 wandering around an alien desert with zero context, or even interesting things happening. It's both boring as hell and weirdly compelling. It's shouldn't be both things, but it is. Star Wars raising questions by saying little is something the franchise has always done. I am glad to see it in animation finally. Star Wars has done dialogue-free animation before (see Visions) but I like this because there's less dialogue for a different reason.

For the record when Omega insists Crosshair would NEVER leave her behind, I found that struck a false note. Not just because I think she's wrong. But I think the correct idea is that even if he WOULD do that, that doesn't mean she's gonna. If I had written the episode I wouldn't have made her hurt by him saying that. I'd have her consider it irrelevant. Because it is.

Jimmi Simpson voices this Hemlock cat with the damn whisperiest, spookiest voice. Nobody ain't dethroning Lars Mikkelson as Admiral Thrawn with whispery, spooky voices. Mostly because Thrawn rocks the quiet British accent, which makes the calmness extra scary. But Hemlock can probably go toe-to-toe with Sam Witwer as Darth Maul there, which is a big enough compliment.

When I review the third episode I'll talk about my theories about Disney+'s premiere release schedule. Until then, this was an episode that was completely solid and totally unsatisfying in equal measure. 4 stars.

Star Wars: The Bad Batch "Paths Unknown"

I was like "Where have I heard Lady Durand's voice before?" And it's Angelica Huston! I'm not going to say the rest of the episode was bad, but the first scene was the best.

I love that the show plays it as if she might screw over Hunter and Wrecker. There is no actual reason for her to do so, but she is portrayed as a borderline sociopath, which seems to me reason enough. It's somewhat of a pleasant surprise when she raises the plank to give them the information instead of dropping the trap door.

The dude at the beginning calling everyone else cowards for not standing up to her had a sack on him if you ask me. For someone calling everyone ELSE cowards, he sure didn't fess up to his resistance until it was made clear their proof was iron-clad. If his position were as righteous as he claimed, he would have defiantly owned it the entire time.

I loved at the end them dumping the explosives in the mouth of the creature that somewhat resembles a Sarlac pit. Star Wars is beloved because it knows how to deliver the crowd-pleasing moments. That definitely qualified. I have mentioned in the past how much I detest fiction that punishes the viewer for liking the characters. But the Original Trilogy was a huge crowdpleaser the whole way through. Sadly, the franchise didn't always stay that, but I liked it when things were deliberately enjoyable. So there.

Coming up on the third part and my baseless speculations. 3 1/2 stars.

Star Wars: The Bad Batch "Shadows Of Tantiss"

I had a theory about the three episode drop and it appears solid after seeing this. Disney+ (rightly, I think) believed fans would be extremely frustrated with Omega behind bars and trying to escape for weeks on end. They dropped the first three episodes together so we can see her reunite with the Bad Batch the next week and the arc of the season can begin proper.

Andor's three episode premiere drop was done for a similar reason. Nobody would have been impressed by that show's Pilot. But in the context of the first three episodes, that show found its groove scary quick, and the the first episode is a huge part of that. But they dropped all three of the first episodes at once there because fans would appreciate the story as a whole better, quicker. I think that's what happened here.

Of course the dog thing Omega rescued gets a callback and is a huge part of their escape. It's fiction. It would be weird if it didn't and wasn't.

What are my thoughts about this episode tying into Palpatine's plot in The Rise Of Skywalker?

I LIKED The Rise Of Skywalker (unlike most fans) but also unlike most fans I LOVED The Last Jedi. That movie was the absolute coolest. And the only reason the Palpatine "twist" occurred in Rise is because Disney got nervous at the toxic feedback The Last Jedi got. For Captain Marvel and Black Panther, the producers of those films ignored it. For Star Wars, it got into Disney's head instead and they got cold feet about it. And Rian Johnson, who had created this incredibly tantalizing idea about there somehow being equality capable in who could use the Force, an utterly unheard of and awesome concept, was retconned for more tired Skywalker / Palpatine legacy melodrama. I thought "The Rise Of Skywalker" was all right for what it was. But I thought Rian Johnson's vision was fantastic, and it annoys me Disney never let him realize it because toxic fans said mean things about Rose. I guess my perspective is this show trying to create a canon basis for an unpopular plot twist never would have happened, or even NEEDED to happen, if Johnson had been allowed to finish things up. And if that's so (and it is) that makes all of the legwork this show is doing in solidifying it into the canon kind of pointless. Ultimately, the reality of the twist was random, created due to executive interference and panic. Trying to justify it in hindsight doesn't really jive with me, because if Disney had been chiller about The Last Jedi's controversial reception to begin with, this nonsense would never happen on this show. If this is what the last season is about, it's random. And maybe that's okay for a show about a bunch of defective clones, but the show isn't doing the canon the favor it thinks it is by trying to make a dumb plot turn seem plausible in hindsight. Because it was clearly NOT a plot twist built into the fabric of the sequel trilogy, and was really pure desperation on Disney's end. Therefore there is no need in my mind for a canon rationalization to make it credible. It isn't strengthening the lameness of The Rise Of Skywalker. It's weakening the coolness of THIS show. Guess which thing I'm more currently concerned with?

I'm glad Omega and Crosshairs are oot and aboot, and I look forward to a corny reunion next week (especially Hunter and Wrecker's probable mistrustful reactions to Crosshair). But making Omega the entire canon lynchpin of The Rise Of Skywalker? No. No. Star Wars. Don't do that. That's not good. 3 1/2 stars.

The Iconic Sounds of Star Wars

Jim_Abell — Wed, 20 Dec 2023 22:38:01 +0000

Adam Savage discusses sound design and other things with Ben Burtt (roughly one hour)

ht tps://w ww.you tube.c om/watch?v=KAg4wySzgUg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAg4wySzgUg

A Disturbance in the Force (2023)

Jim_Abell — Fri, 03 Nov 2023 03:44:29 +0000

I'm certain that this isn't an actual Lucasfilm production but this belongs here...

Life Day 2023 (November 17) and no Alamo Drafthouse within 300 miles...

ht tps://w ww.youtube.c om/watch?v=MUs57-Cz2Pg

Lego Star Wars Shorts

Jim_Abell — Thu, 12 Oct 2023 22:49:31 +0000

Halloween themed...

ht tps://jedii nsider.c om/243-25981#g sc.t ab=0