STAR WARS REBELS: SPARK OF REBELLION

GRADE: A 
Created by Dave Filoni and Simon Kinberg and Carrie Beck
Based on characters and situations created by George Lucas
Teleplay by Simon Kinberg
Directed by Steward Lee
Rated PG (violence)
Reviewed by Paul Gibbs

We usually only review theatrical films, but if we're willing to make an exception for anything, it's Star Wars. And since we had the opportunity to view the highly anticipate premiere of the new animated series early in a special theatrical presentation, why not post a review? Especially considering how good it is. Oh, not that it will satisfy all Star Wars fans. Nothing has really done that since The Empire Strikes Back (anyone who didn't like it is, it turns out, actually not entitled to an opinion), and the new Disney era is already dividing fans even before anyone has seen anything. But now that I have seen something, I'm all the more optimistic.

Star Wars Rebels takes place between the classic and prequel trilogies, at a time when the Empire has become more or less what we know it to be, but the Rebel Alliance has not. Instead, it consists of small cells like the crew of the Ghost, a ship that that might be described as a cross between Serenity and the Millenium Falcon, but in far better shape than either. The crew consists of:

 Hera Syndulla (voiced by Vanessa Marshall), a Twi'lek woman (the ones with the tentacle tails on the back of their heads) who seems to be both the brains and heart of the outfit.

Kanan Jarrus (voiced by Freddie Prinze Jr, and relax, he's actually pretty good), the requisite charming rogue with a secret past.

Zeb Orrelios (voiced by Steven Blum), a gruff creature who plays a bit like an amalgam of Chewbacca and Jayne Cobb with the voice of Ray Winstone.

Sabine Wren (voiced by Tiya Sircar), a plucky and resourceful younger woman in Madalorian (Boba Fett) battle armor.

Chopper, a beat up R2 unit droid with an attitude to compete with Zeb's.

As the pilot begins, the Ghost crew is on a mission to retrieve a crate of blasters when they run into some trouble with a young "street rat" named Ezra Bridger (voiced by Taylor Gray). The type of Star Wars fan who is still bitter about Darth Vader and Boba Fett starting out as kids in the prequels is likely to have a hard time warming up to Ezra, which is a problem because he seems to be the protagonist of Rebels. Fortunately, he's actually a likable, promising character, even if he shows the Disney influence by owing a lot to Aladdin. After Ezra and Kanan are caught in a chase for the crate with some imperial troops, Kanan rescues Ezra and bring him on board the Ghost, where he is swept into their mission to rescue a group of wookies being sold into slavery on the spice mines of Kessel. But Ezra is used to looking out only for himself, and he doesn't seem to mesh with the more altruistic crew of the Ghost. But this is Star Wars, and we all know that sometimes rogues, thieves and smugglers have hearts of gold.

X-Men: Days of Future Past screenwriter Simon Kinberg, also an executive producer of the series, penned pilot episode, and he's a very welcome addition to the creative team from the previous Clone Wars serious. Kinberg  clearly loves the Star Wars universe and stories, and Rebels does an admirable job of bringing back the feel of the classic trilogy while still keeping enough Clone Wars for the kids who are watching. The pilot is fast-paced, fun, engaging, and is just all-around great Star Wars . Yes, it's intentionally kid friendly, but in a way that more frequently brings to mind A New Hope than the much-maligned Phantom Menace. That said, the crowd of adult Star Wars fans who absolutely cannot embrace the fact that Star Wars was always kid friendly and PG aren't going to be won over by Rebels, and should probably just watch Game of Thrones (though they can at least take comfort that stormtroopers are still easy to shoot and they still drop like flies). This is more for those of us who love watching the kids of today embrace Star Wars the way we did when we were their age, but of course want to see good storytelling. And Rebels embraces many of the Joseph Campbell ideas that made Star Wars such a great story to begin with. It also brings back the rough and tumble, Han Soloish underworld that has felt like it was missing so much of the time in the Old Republic era, while still allowing the Force and the Jedi to loom largely over everything. The characters are engaging enough to immediately embrace as part of the mythology, and seeing things like the Imperial Security Bureau brought to life is a thrill for those of us who devoured the novels, role-playing games and what-have-you. If there is anything I'd like to see improved it's the quality of the banter between the characters, but it's not bad and really, the banter in Star Wars has always been hit and miss (even The Empire Strikes Back has "laser-brain".).

To life-long (and still pretty hard core) fan like me, Star Wars Rebels feels like a major event, as new characters are introduced to the legends and we finally get to see the rebellion forming (even as I wrote that sentence I felt a disturbance in the Force telling my I will become obsessed with this show to an unhealthy degree). I'll buy the Blu Ray and watch it many times. And I can't wait to for the next episode. It's great fun, and it's great Star Wars. The Force is with it.

THE EQUALIZER

Reviewed by Paul Gibbs and Patrick Gibbs

GRADE: A+
Starring Denzel Washington, Chloe Grace Moretz, Martin Csokas,  David Harbour, Johnny Skourtis, Haley Bennett,
Bill Pullman and Melissa Leo
Screenplay by Richard Wenk
Directed by Antoine Fuqua
Rated R (Brutal violence, profanity, sexuality)
Reviewed by Paul Gibbs and Patrick Gibbs


Adapting a TV series into a movie is inherently one of the most challenging forms of adaptation, because there is a huge difference between an open-ended premise for a weekly series and the self-contained plot of a truly satisfying movie. By far the film which has most successfully managed this transition was Andrew Davis' The Fugitive, in no small part because that was really a better plot for a movie than premise for a TV series. But the 1980's crime drama The Equalizer was pure TV: retired government agent Robert McCall (Edward Woodward) atones for the sins of his former life by using his skills to help out people in need, standing up against drug dealers, pimps and others who trade in human suffering. It was sort of like a grown up, one-man  A-Team. As such, it's a bit surprising that director Antoine Fuqua's new version of The Equalizer is a spectacular success, not only standing up there with the best of the TV series turned movies, but providing a much needed boost for the idea of grown up, contemporary thrillers just when The November Man had us wondering if the whole concept is was obsolete.

Denzel Washington stars as McCall, who works for a thinly disguised version of Home Depot during the
day, and spends his nights reading the classics in a coffee shop. McCall strikes up a casual friendship with a young hooker named Teri (Chloe Grace Moretz), and encourages her to pursue a better life. But when Teri is viciously beaten by her "manager", McCall finds himself wrestling with the demons of his past. He's promised never again to be what he once was, but at the same time, he knows he's the only one who can help Teri and the other people he cares about who are being pushed manipulated and abused by thugs, which include corrupt members of the Boston Police Force. But McCall's intervention greatly escalates the situation, and soon a Russian mobster (Martin Csokas, in his most engaging performance in some time) comes to America to find out who is getting in the way of his operation.

Washington may not be a dead wringer for the white-haired, very British Edward Woodward, but he has the same air of dignity and class, and as such is a superb choice to give a portrayal that invokes the Equalizer of the series while becoming a character of its own. Washington is such a master at expressing thoughts and emotions with his eyes and face, and from him a slight Southern drawl is as classy as Elizabethan English.  We're instantly pulled into his McCall, and his early scenes of interaction with the Moretz are so strong that we almost didn't want to see the film turn into an action movie, we just wanted to see these two excellent actors doing dialogue scenes together as these compelling characters. Luckily, when the action and suspense come, Fuqua handles them with first-rate skill and finesse. In the past we have considered Fuqua's work to be largely forgettable, with biggest exception being last year's Olympus Has Fallen. which we genuinely hated. But here he shows a deft hand that recalls Martin Scorsese, Sidney Lumet and even Alfred Hitchcock. He absolutely knocks the action, suspense and characterization out of the park, and there are some truly brilliant shots in this film (including a gorgeous master image shot that recalls In Cold Blood without merely being lifted from the way we saw in The Ides of March.). Fuqua has risen to the occasion and found the perfect match of director to material in much the same way that Andrew Davis did with The Fugitive, and an Oscar nomination may be in order. But equal credit has to go to screenwriter Richard Wenk, who tightly weaves the story and characters in expert fashion, never wasting a moment. This is writer who knows what makes a good screenplay, but doesn't lean too heavily on tired tropes.

In the end, our only caveat about The Equalizer is that it's brutally, shockingly, even sadistically violent, beyond the level of violence in a standard R-rated thriller`(think Braveheart or even Inglorious Basterds, but not nearly as cartoonish as either.) McCall is a brutal killer, there's no getting around it, and he's very good at it, and very creative. We don't get the sense they he gets any kind of thrill from it (it's a means to a very decisive end) but he's alarmingly comfortable doing it, using whatever method is most effective in the given situation. He's somewhere in between Clint Eastwood and Dirty Harry and Clint Eastwood as William Munny: he doesn't like violence, and would rather live in a world without it, but barring that, he's going to make sure that those who hurt the innocent get hurt even worse. Wenk and Fuqua make it work by not wasting a single character and making you care so much about each person that McCall is protecting, and putting him into Die Hard style show downs that leave you finding it hard to judge the character for his severe actions and even questioning if he really has other choices. If you can get past the brutality (and we really don't blame you if you can't), The Equalizer is a triumph, a film that re-energized us for the possibility that Hollywood can still make thrilling, compelling popcorn fair without CGI. It's a masterpiece that we'll revisit many times in the years to come.

The Equalizer is rated a well deserved R for brutal violence, quite a bit of profanity, and some sexuality (no sleazy sex scenes, but the degrading world of prostitution is an important part of the plot and it is referenced frequently and bluntly.).