Holly Black’s new spinoff duology, The Stolen Heir, is set eight years after the Battle of the Serpent and tells the story of Wren and Oak.
At the start, we see Wren as a child in the mortal realm living with her adoptive family. She has always felt very out of place among humans due to her bluish skin and bony frame. Wren is visited one night by Lord Jarel and Lady Nore, haunting creatures, who claim she is their daughter and the future queen of The Court of Teeth.
She is taken to The Court of Teeth, where she is abused and treated horribly, but manages to run away and lives out the next few years collecting scraps from the streets and longing for her adoptive family to take her back.
The book flashes forward to Wren being chased by the Storm Hag Bogdana. She is suddenly saved by Prince Oak, the heir of Elfhame, but also the prince to whom she had previously been arranged to be married to.
In the series The Folk of the Air, Oak is still just a boy, but in spinoff The Stolen Heir, he is now a knight. He needs Wren’s guidance to reach the Citadel and to gain control over her mother. Wren’s heart is hesitant to open back up to the boy she once knew. And she fears the consequences of returning to the place she fled as a child. As the story continues, we find out more about the twisted and horror-filled world of Elfhame.
As a fan of everything Holly Black does, I easily became very obsessed with The Stolen Heir. I fell in love with Oak, who gave off a perfect mix of Cardan and Madoc. He was super fun to figure out and see how he’s changed as an overall character.
I really liked being in Wren’s POV. It felt refreshing to be learning things in present tense. Compared to Jude who analyzes everything in her mind before it even happens. Wren felt more realistic to me because I am also not very comprehensive when it comes to big plot twists.
In summary, he whole book is about going on a journey, which sounds really boring, but it is actually what had my attention the most. There were so many things that could have been done with this world and Holly Black exceeded all my expectations. The writing was beautiful and made you want to fall in love with all folk things. Holly Black could write how much she disliked me and I would love it.
What I would’ve really liked was to see more background of Wren’s family, but I think Holly Black did tease continuing that plot in the second book. Also would’ve loved for Jude to make an appearance. But I understand that it is not her book and it’s confirmed she will definitely be in the second.
My favorite part of the whole book was the ending. I was on the edge of my bed screaming when everything finally came to an end. The fact I have to wait a whole year to get book two is insane . Overall I give it 4 stars because Jude wasn’t in it. I also think it’s necessary to read The Folk of Air before starting this duology. Without it, I would have been so confused by the side characters.
On a sunny Wednesday in the lunch quad, I spoke with Aaron McCarty, a member of the band Supercrunk. It’s a band made up of McClatchy seniors that has become increasingly popular this year, well known for playing music at events in and around campus.
If the mosh pits I’ve watched assemble within minutes at all of their concerts are any indication, kids at school definitely seem to vibe with Supercrunk’s sound. I would guess people are also into the cool and casual stoner/punk aesthetic they encapsulate, because it is a good reflection of the style that a lot of CKM students like–and our whole generation, really. The band’s tracks are fairly unique, but in our conversation Aaron mentioned a few inspirations for their sound, as well as artists that some listeners have compared them to. This includes Rock subgenres like Punk, Indie, and Alternative Rock, and bands like Hum and Dinosaur Jr.
“To start off, who are the members of Supercrunk?”
“Currently, it is myself [Aaron McCarty] (bass guitar), Jack McCarthy (singer, songwriter, guitarist), Antonio “Tony” Valencia (singer, occasional guitar player), and Matthew Stepheson (drums).”
“When was Supercrunk created?”
“Around 2019. It started with us jammin’ out at Jack’s house sometimes, because I picked up the bass that year and Matthew picked up the drums. Jack has always been a guitarist, because his dad is a really musical person. So we always listened to music, liked to play around with various instruments there, and fantasized about starting a band, even in middle school. Once Matthew and I got good enough that we could jam with Jack, we had a lot of fun improvising together, and then Tony started jamming with us probably in the first summer of quarantine. During Covid especially, we’d skate around our neighborhood together all day, and when we got tired we’d go to Jack’s house and try writing some stuff. We’d do that like two or three times a week, and that kinda just became a way of life for us throughout all of quarantine.”
“Is there any special meaning behind the name Supercrunk?”
*Aaron and Quinn laugh* “We’ve gone through a few names at this point, and we tend to smush words together that we think sound funny – like ‘Liquid Soft’ and ‘Super Crunk.’ We played our first show under the name ‘Strong Male Lead’. It was supposed to be ironic because none of the band members were very muscular. But we became Supercrunk pretty soon after that.”
“Give me a run down on the events you guys have had so far.”
“Our first show was April of last year. Somebody who graduated last year asked us to play at like a gender health fundraiser for their senior project, and we played at some park downtown, and it was cool. And then like a week later we played at The Colony in Oak Park. And it was super epic, and there was moshing, and it was super punk and crazy. After that, we played at a concert for Life Skills Club in October, and then at the McClatchy Talent Show in March. And most recently we played at lunch about two weeks ago (in the back corner of the lunch quad) which was lit.”
“How many songs do you have?”
Aaron: “The CD has like nine real tracks, a few of which are not exactly songs, and two of them have some Spanish. You can listen to them on Bandcamp.”
Quinn: “There’s a ton of songs that they’ve recorded but Jack won’t upload them to Bandcamp because they’re not done yet. I think he’s just getting really into the art of sound engineering and stuff like that. He seems passionate about all of that and plans to study it at Chico State, so that seems to be his main focus. Or he’s being lazy.”
“Do you have any specific inspirations?”
“Well, we all collectively listen to a lot of grunge and Alternative Rock, so that kind of comes out in all of our music. In our sound, a lot of people say we’re similar to Dinosaur Jr. – I don’t really see it, but yeah. This one band called Hum is a really big influence in our sound. Jack and I discovered them around two years ago I think. Matthew never got that into them, but since Jack writes a lot of the songs, you can hear them. For example, I think ‘Girl in Crocs’ sounds a lot like Hum.
“Do you plan to make merch?”
“Yeah, we’ve thought about making merch. Maybe shirts, I don’t know. Our productivity levels are pretty low right now cuz we don’t really care about much. We’re kinda crazy, we’re kinda rebellious…We don’t care about the norms.”
“Do you know when you might perform next?”
“I kinda wanna do another lunchtime thing without telling anyone, because last time we just winged it without planning what we would play, and it was spontaneous and cool. On the last day of school for the underclassmen, we might play a house show at Arlo Payne’s house, so people should come out. But, once Jack goes to Chico, the group will be pretty separated, so I don’t think we’ll keep recording anything. Tony’s going to the Marines on April 16th, so if we do that house show he won’t even be able to make it.”
*Sidenote* “Some of the members have a couple side projects you should talk about too. Jack, Matthew, Tony, and I have this side project called Booster Seat that’s literally just Supercrunk with a different name. Then Jack, Lucas, myself, and our friend Vidal Menard created this other side project called Teenage Runaways and we’re currently working on a song that we’re aiming to release this month.”
“Cool! Do you have any long term intentions for this group in the future?”
Aaron: “I dunno, again maybe a reunion when Jack comes back from Chico. We definitely won’t see Tony for a while… We’re gonna stay in touch though, so maybe a reunion in ten years.”
“Thanks for answering my long list of questions today! I loved hearing some background info on the birth of Supercrunk and its evolution, and I’m pumped to go to the next show.”
This concludes our inside look into the lives of the highly acclaimed, Punk Rock, self-declared “Hesh Riot Grrrl,” musical group of McClatchy High School. Below is a link to their digital album:
“Wild Child” Poppy and introverted Alex met in a car share home from college years ago, and they’ve become best friends ever since. Now, they live in separate cities. Poppy in New York, and Alex in their hometown. But they have a deal. For the past decade, each summer, they’ve taken one week off together to go on a vacation. That was until one big mess ruined their tradition two years ago and they haven’t talked since.
Since their fallout, Poppy’s been unhappy and wants to convince Alex to take another vacation to try to repair what went wrong in their relationship.
Alex surprisingly agrees to go, and Poppy has a week to fix it all.
With the move to a new high school in Alabama, Chloe Green finally got out of a school full of gossiping classmates and unfriendly administrators. Now her only focus is beating Shara Wheeler, the principal’s pet and her biggest rival, for prom queen and winning her spot as valedictorian.
But one month before graduation, Shara kisses Chloe and then Shara disappears.
It’s only natural for Chloe to look for answers. Her search leads her to discover she’s not the only one who kissed Shara Wheeler. Two others also kissed Shara and received cryptic notes before her sudden vanishing. They all work together to find Shara before graduation and figure out what happened to her leading up to her disappearance.
Anastasia “Stassie” Allen has been figure skating for as long as she can remember. On a full-time skating scholarship at Maple Hill, she dreams of making Team USA one day. Though nothing is going to stop her from getting what she wants. Not even Nathan Hawkins, the captain of the Maple Hill Titans hockey team.
When a rink accident brings the two teams together, the two end up in a sticky situation.
Nathan the all-time problem solver steps in to help Anastasia when her skating partner gets hurt. They ended up getting closer than they thought. But that won’t distract her, right?
Florence Day ghostwrites for one of the best romance writers in the industry. There’s just one problem, Florence no longer believes in love after a recent breakup.
Plus, her brand new editor, a pretty handsome one, won’t extend her deadline. Adding to the stress of her soon-to-be-ending career, her father just passed away and she has to return home after almost a decade away.
The welcome home to a town that calls her a freak isn’t the best. Telling them you see dead people kind of makes them think that. So when Florence spots a ghost in the doorway of her family’s funeral home who looks eerily like her new editor, she’s a little confused.
There’s a ghostly constant in her life and it’s not her dad. Florence has to revert back to her old habits and figure out how to help him finish off his unfinished business so he can leave. It looks like romance truly is dead.
Romance author, January, and thriller author, Augustus find themselves neighboring each other in a beach house for the summer with a big case of writer’s block.
Augustus Everett and January Andrews are polar opposites who are both renowned in their fields. The two make a deal for the summer: Augustus’s summer will be spent writing about happiness, and January’s will be spent writing the next greatest fiction of all time.
For inspiration, they head out on fun excursions that challenge their different perspectives of each other’s genres. It’s just about finishing their books and keeping their relationship strictly platonic. That simple, right?
Hopefully, some of these will become favorites of yours too. Happy reading!
The Last Of Us is a TV show based on a game with the same name, and has recently released its final episode concluding the first season. The show is set in a brutal post-apocalyptic world, where raiders, bandits, and the infected run rampant. Due to the heating of the Earth, the Cordyceps, a fungus that infects bugs with zombie-like symptoms, evolved to be capable of infecting humans. In turn led to a zombie apocalypse.
The story follows Joel Miller, a gruff old man born before the outbreak, who has lost his daughter, Sarah. The plot kicks off when he receives an offer to transport some important cargo: a young girl who is immune to the effects of the Cordyceps.
In many cases, the show makes the game look like it missed a lot. Characters who formerly had relatively shallow personality development before they died had a lot more character to them. Episode three is an absolutely beautiful love story that builds on a character who only appears once in the game version, and I am all for it. It strays away from the events of the game at times to express some new ideas, but keeps all the most iconic moments.
If I had to pick just one tiny complaint, it would be the lack of action. It’s sort of rare to get action in the middle of the episode, but it’s always worth it to look forward to, as it can be very, very tense.
The ending of episode eight really got to me. There is an intense scene in a burning diner, with Ellie in a constant state of panic as she takes out what is essentially the antagonist of the episode. Then the scene cuts to the frigid outside, Ellie is a bloodied mess, and likely will not forget what just happened for a while. Joel, seeing this, does something he hasn’t done in 20 years; comfort somebody. “It’s okay, babygirl,” he says–a phrase he had not uttered for twenty years. The two walk away, then credits roll. What possibly makes this scene even more powerful is the shot outside was inserted before the shot in the diner, bringing some perspective in.
As I was watching this, I wondered at times, “Why couldn’t the game adaptation for [insert game] be like this?” But a question like that has a rather simple answer; the game creator is a director. Rather than just handing it off to some random company to be transformed into a film or show, Neil Druckmann (the creator) found a crew who actually liked the game. Most of the time, movies for video games are directed by people who only see the money in a project; they don’t care if the product is good or bad or accurately depicts the vision of the game. They just want to be involved in its production because it is tied to a popular game which indicates money.
By getting the original creator on board, HBO was able to produce a masterful retelling of an unforgettable story.
Earlier this month, Maxis and EA, the developers of The Sims 4, streamed a gameplay livestream showcasing the new features and pack details that will be arriving in the Sims 4 in the coming weeks.
The Sims has introduced a brand new life stage called “Infants”. With the free base game update, players can create their own infant, care for its needs, and watch it grow. Additionally, the new Sims 4 Growing Together Expansion Pack will introduce even more in-depth family gameplay, which has been highly anticipated for almost a decade in the Sims community.
The Sims 4 is an interactive life-simulation game, where players can create and control their very own Sim. With the game, one can create their own families, build their own homes, and explore various gameplay options.
The upcoming Sims 4 Growing Together Expansion Pack brings with it the new world of San Sequoia, a beautiful coastal region that is heavily influenced by San Francisco and the California area. This bayfront town is divided into three neighborhoods, Anchorpoint Wharf, Gilbert Gardens, and Hopewell Hills. There is a new Urban Park that offers new trails so that visiting Sims can enjoy hiking and cycling all throughout. There are also restaurants along the pier and a new splash park for Sims to enjoy afterward.
An infant’s behavior can now be changed by the new eighteen discoverable Infant Quirks: Good Appetite, Snuggly Sleeper, Frequent Hiccups, Messy Eater, etc.. You’ll also receive 18 Toddler quirks, which include being Aggressive, Having a Good Appetite, Hating Bedtime, Loving Being Carried, and more.
Since the release of The Sims 4, children have never had new aspirations, but for the first time ever they are being added to the game. These aspirations are Slumber Party Animal, Mind and Body, Playtime Captain, and Creative Genius. New children’s activities like building a treehouse, riding bikes, having slumber parties, making friendship bracelets, and more are new things that will be coming to the pack.
There is a major redesign of the elders in the game. Now, elders can enjoy a recreational center that includes a puzzle-building area and a welcoming hangout spot. With the new keepsake box, they are now more connected to their family than ever before. Elders are also now able to give advice to their grandchildren and influence many of their family decisions.
Over the course of a Sim’s lifespan, Sims can now experience milestones that are influenced by their personal growth and change as they age. For example, these milestones may occur when an adult is laid off, experiences a midlife crisis, or moves a great distance from home. When an infant takes his or her first steps or says their first words, it marks a milestone in their life as well.
As part of the new social compatibility system, Sims can now have preferences when it comes to meaningful conversations with family and friends. As the relationship grows, conversations will become more meaningful. It is possible for a character to have a closer relationship with some people in their family than with others due to different interests.
There is no doubt that Sims 4 is taking a huge step in the right direction with this release. Although it has not even been released yet, many are already calling it a “must-have pack”. So far, many players like the direction The Sims 4 is heading in and hope that the game will continue to improve like this going forward.
This review includes major spoilers! Ant Man and the Wasp is a good movie that is definitely worth watching. The multifaceted storyline includes events that will influence the future of the MCU, and except for a couple of minor qualms, the experience is both intriguing and rewarding. Here are my key takeaways from the film.
After young activist Cassie Lang makes a communication device linking the quantum realm to theirs, Scott Lang, Cassie Lang, Hope Van Dyne, Janet Van Dyne, and Hank Pym get sucked into the quantum realm. As the story progresses, we find that when Janet was trapped in the Quantum Realm, she formed a friendship with Kang, who claimed that they could both escape if she helped him rebuild his multiversal power core. After she helped him fix it, she had visions of Kang destroying multiple timelines and universes. Using Pym particles, she enlarged his power core, making it impossible to use. The group was split up in the initial teleport, the Langs were found by some resistance fighters, and the Van Dynes, accompanied by Hank Pym, were stuck in a large quantum forest.
After we are given this context, the Van Dynes visit an old friend of Janet’s, where we find out he switched sides, now working for Kang the Conqueror. We also find out through Jentorra, one of the leaders of the resistance fighters, that Janet’s connection with Kang caused his rise to power. When Scott and Cassie are taken to Kang after the resistance base is discovered, Kang demands Scott to shrink down and help them recover the power core. When Scott says no, Kang threatens to kill Cassie.
As he shrinks down and gets to the power core, he begins to multiply. After speaking with M.O.D.O.K, a half-human, half-machine who Scott fought in the first Ant Man movie, he learns he is in a possibilities zone, leading to the appearance of every possibility of Scott resulting from making different decisions. Before Scott becomes literally smothered by his variants, he hears Cassie through his helmet, and his possibilities help him get to the power core. As he tries to fix it, Hope shows up and assists him in gathering the core.
After shrinking the core back to original size, Kang goes back on his deal, captures Janet, and destroys the ship the group had stolen with Pym still on it. Pym, being saved by his evolved ants, who were also pulled into the quantum realm, helps save Scott and Hope and they begin making their way to Kang. Cassie frees Jentorra and together they start an uprising against Kang and his army, even convincing M.O.D.O.K to turn against Kang. He ends up losing his life in the battle.
Janet fixes the power core and Hope, Cassie, Janet, and Pym all escape back to their realm. As Scott is about to leave through the portal, Kang attacks, beating Scott with ease. Hope returns to help. Scott and Hope destroy the power core, using some Pym particles. There they knock Kang into the power core, where he is pulled into oblivion. Cassie opens the portal back home and together Hope and Scott leave. Scott remembers the mentioning of Kang’s death to be the start of something terrible, but he brushes it off.
In a post credit scene, we see many variants of Kang planning an uprising. They speak of Kang’s death. We found out earlier in the movie that the Council of Kangs feared Kang and exiled him where he could never escape, in between space and time. Then we see Loki and Mobius find another Kang variant, Victor Timely, located in New York in the 1900’s.
I think the movie was good! The storytelling was excellent and the CGI in most of the film was astonishing. We got to see more character arcs that many Marvel fans were hoping for. Paul Rudd nailed his performance and having Cassie Lang included in this movie provides a possible new character in the Young Avengers cast. Jonathan Major as Kang the Conqueror was the perfect choice. His portrayal of the villain is exactly what I hoped for, linking almost directly to the comics and what we expected from Kang. I enjoyed the after credit scene where the many Kangs started an uprising. It links to Scott’s remembrance of the possibility of Kang’s death being bad. The acting skills of Majors provided some well needed improvements to the MCU, the few versions of Kang we had seen had stunning acting and showed how he was able to be multiple people at once.
The movie had its good parts, but there were also moments of bad CGI and some questionable acting from Kathryn Newton, who played Cassie Lang. My main problem with this movie is that we constantly get world shattering, multiverse endangering threats in every new Marvel movie. Also, Kang has to be an idiot for the plot to move, which contradicts the comics where Kang is probably one of the most intelligent people in the universe. While I like that the “good guys” win, this is not the case in the comics, where villains are designed to be just as strong and as smart as the heroes. Most of the time, it takes multiple super heroes to defeat the villains, so why the creators keep diminishing their intellect and power in modern movies is a conundrum to me. The newer Avengers are pretty weak, and in order to save their views and restore the quality of their work, the creators need to get together and work something out. The lack of perceived effort in Marvel movies has declined, resulting in a loss of profit.
I think my favorite part of this movie was when Hank Pym walked in with an army of ants. The final battle was brutal but amazing and provided insight into the anger and desperation of Kang. We have never seen Scott so upset, and the acting on Paul Rudd’s part made the story even better. The battle proves how strong Kang really is. Scott would have lost that battle if Hope had not returned. The end credit scene with the council of Kangs is a great addition as well, proving that with the sheer number of Kangs there are, the next battle or war involving Kang will be not only brutal, but terrifying.
All things considered, I would give the movie a rating of 3.5 or 4 stars out of 5. While there were some changes that would have improved the quality, it was definitely one of the better Marvel movies in the post Endgame era. Ultimately, Quantumania is undoubtedly worth the watch.
Valentine’s Day is often mistaken for a day that you can only celebrate if you have a partner. But this is inaccurate because the meaning of Valentine’s Day is romance and love. This love can be toward friends as well and not only your partner.
There are many ways that you can spend Valentine’s Day with your friends but here are 6 ways. One way is to have a movie night with your friends. You can all watch some of your favorite movies and eat snacks together. Even baking a cake altogether and decorating it would be something very fun to do.
Two, is having a Valentine’s Day picnic. Everyone can bring snacks and decorate the picnic. This allows you to talk and catch up with friends and someone can bring card games. Having a picnic is a good idea because it involves something that everybody likes. Food!
Three, having a pizza and paint night would be a great way to spend February 14th. You can invite friends over and each person can create their own pizza. If you want to spice it up a bit more the pizzas can be heart-shaped. Then while waiting for the pizzas to be ready, you can all paint and listen to your favorite songs.
Four includes spending a bit of money on your friends, but you can have a gift exchange with your friends. It can be something small like getting them a stuffed animal with their favorite candy. Or you can make your friends gift baskets full of their favorite things.
Five, going to eat dinner with your friends at your favorite restaurant and enjoying each other’s presence is a great way to spend the day. If you are craving something sweet you can then go for dessert. Then if you guys want to do something fun and get creative you can go to a pottery class and make something or paint.
And finally, having a game night/ potluck. Each person can bring their favorite dish or even snack and then a game to play. If you and your friends love to sing, having a karaoke machine would be an amazing idea if you don’t want to play games.
Don’t miss out on celebrating another Valentine’s Day just because you don’t have a date. There are so many ways to celebrate with your friends and have just as much fun. Here’s a chance to show your friends how much you love and appreciate them.
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Making a show about Boba Fett would have been a difficult task no matter the circumstances. The Star Wars character became such a fan favorite not because of his deep characterization or interesting connection to the storyline, but because he simply has a cool design. In fact, in the original Star Wars trilogy, Boba has exactly four lines of dialogue: hardly something that could make for an engaging protagonist.
A show like Disney+’s The Book of Boba Fett, centering on the iconic bounty hunter, had to simultaneously live up to the character’s legendary reputation while also inventing a personality that never existed in the first place.
The series picks up where the second season of The Mandalorian left off: Boba Fett (played by Temuera Morrison), along with his fellow bounty hunter Fennec Shand (Ming-Na Wen), attempts to become the new reigning crime lord on the planet Tatooine. Intermittent flashbacks depict how Boba survived his apparent demise in Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi, revealing how the hardships he faced forced him to evolve as a human being.
On paper, this sounds like a genuinely compelling concept for a Boba Fett series. Depicting Boba as a burgeoning crime lord allows him to genuinely struggle as a character in a way that portraying him in his element as a talented bounty hunter would never allow for. Moreover, it has the added benefit of distinguishing the show’s premise from that of The Mandalorian, which follows a very similar stoic armored bounty hunter. Meanwhile, the flashbacks not only provide a much-needed follow-up to Boba’s last movie appearance, but also allows him to develop as a character, giving him the necessary emotional range to lead a series.
Moreover, the show does tap into some of this potential. Boba Fett finally feels vaguely like a human being, rather than a glorified action figure, thanks to the powerful character development he undergoes here. Although the present-day storyline is messier, it is still packed with entertaining moments that fully embrace the character’s origins as a “space cowboy” archetype. In particular, I thought it handled fanservice exceptionally well: while characters from other Star Wars shows and even comics appeared, they were usually handled in a manner that contributed to the tone of the series and that could still be appreciated even if you didn’t know their origins.
Unfortunately, the structure of the show leaves something to be desired. While the flashbacks provide a solid narrative connection to Boba’s character development, they are incredibly uneven: some episodes center almost entirely on flashbacks, while others rarely feature them. Meanwhile, the crime lord plotline feels jerky and stilted: there isn’t enough of a central conflict to drive these sequences until the third or fourth episode, and the somewhat disjointed nature of the series leaves every episode feeling disconnected from the others, forcing the series to tie absolutely everything together in its admittedly entertaining finale.
The most egregious instance of the show’s structure actively sabotaging itself comes with its fifth and sixth episodes. These episodes focus on a completely different character, whose journey is not relevant at all to Boba’s storylines. In fact, Boba Fett, the protagonist and titular character of the series, does not appear at all in his show’s fifth episode, and has a very minimal presence in the sixth. To be perfectly fair to these episodes, they are absolutely fantastic pieces of standalone Star Wars media. But as episodes of The Book of Boba Fett, they are frankly incomprehensible. While a “side story” like this might be excusable in a long-running show, Boba Fett only has seven episodes, meaning that almost 30% of the series completely sidelines its protagonist.
Because the show spends so much time on completely unrelated storylines, it feels like the narrative lacks the space it needs to grow and develop. While lots of compelling storylines are introduced and set up, most of them are simply not fleshed-out enough – something that those two “wasted” episodes could have easily been better used for.
For instance, the series flirts with the idea that in order to fully redeem himself, Boba must face and fully reject his unscrupulous past. However, that concept is primarily established through other characters talking about Boba – he is never actually given the time to reflect on those aspects of himself, turning an otherwise-interesting character beat into an afterthought.
Thankfully, and as expected from Star Wars, the technical elements of the show are all top-notch. Even though individual episodes have far lower budgets than a full movie would, the special effects all feel realistic and well-integrated into the world. The set design, too, is a strong point, perfectly replicating the aesthetic of Tatooine from the original Star Wars movies while simultaneously expanding upon it.
Finally, the score, written by Mandalorian composer Ludwig Göransson, is phenomenal, once again abandoning Star Wars’ traditionally orchestral soundtrack in favor of the more modern sound that made The Mandalorian stand out as a “new era”.
Ultimately, while The Book of Boba Fett is certainly not a bad show, it could have been so much stronger than what it ended up as. It seems like all the building blocks necessary to make a strong Boba Fett series were in place, but they simply lacked the necessary narrative and thematic ties to bring them all together into one cohesive whole. The show’s end result is a rather messy, but enjoyable jumble of ideas that never seem to build on each other.
Perhaps it was inevitable that a show centered around such an empty character would likewise be a little messy, but it is nevertheless slightly disappointing that it was so close to being a great series.
Spider-Man: No Way Home has almost certainly been the most anticipated movie of the year. The film not only continues the story of Tom Holland’s Spider-Man, following a massive cliffhanger in the previous movie, but also features the return of several popular characters from previous Spider-Man movies.
The film needed to live up to the nearly-endless amount of hype, fan theories and speculation. In this situation, it would be easy for a movie to end up a muddled mess, overburdened by a desire to appease every fan’s wildest dreams. However, Spider-Man: No Way Home shockingly managed to be not only cohesive, but genuinely compelling.
It opens right when Spider-Man: Far From Home left off: Peter Parker, alongside friends MJ (Zendaya) and Ned (Jacob Batalon), must deal with the repercussions of Spider-Man’s secret identity being leaked to the public. An attempt from Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) to magically shield Peter’s identity goes awry, summoning previous Spider-Man villains from their home universes.
On paper, the movie’s premise sounds like it sidelines Holland’s Spider-Man in his own series. It seems to be disregarding the emotional build-up established in the last movie by bringing in completely unrelated supervillains. However, this plot choice is played out phenomenally.
Tom Holland gives perhaps his best performance yet as Spider-Man in No Way Home. He still embodies the same youthful, reckless spirit from the previous movies, but also manages a genuinely emotional performance. Despite the fact that the plot seemingly revolves around completely unrelated characters, his character arc is put at the forefront of the movie. Every major story beat is driven directly by Holland’s actions and their consequences, turning what could have been a mess of surface-level references into an emotionally-satisfying narrative. Furthermore, it also addresses key criticisms of this incarnation of Spider-Man carefully, making him into a much more well-rounded character.
The returning antagonists are also a highlight of the movie. They are very entertaining characters just because of how well they match their original characterizations, but they are also interwoven into the underlying themes and moral conflicts in an engaging and satisfying way. In particular, the Green Goblin (Willem Dafoe, reprising his role in 2002’s Spider-Man) is a standout, retaining his eccentric yet menacing personality from the original movie.
The movie balances maintaining the existing motivations and personalities of the 5 returning villains with keeping an internally consistent narrative. While that does mean that a few of the antagonists are given less screen time and focus than in their original movies, it is a worthy sacrifice to make to keep the story focused.
No Way Home has a markedly different tone than its predecessors, moving away from the “high school comedy” atmosphere from the previous Tom Holland movies and into a more generic “superhero” tone. Even though this tonal shift takes away from what made the Spider-Man movies unique, it also seems fitting that the movies get gradually more “mature” alongside their protagonist.
Furthermore, one thing I thought was particularly noteworthy in the movie was its humor (and, at times, its lack of it). The film is certainly not dour: there are quips and jokes throughout it – most of which land fairly well. It also shows restraint in its humor, allowing for certain sequences to feel much more serious and emotional. Marvel movies tend to have an issue with undercutting emotional moments with corny jokes, so No Way Home’s more consistent tone helped it stand out.
Possibly the biggest issue with No Way Home is the pacing of its storyline, which feels underwhelming. It feels as if the movie completely switches gears far too often: initially, the movie is about the public finding out that Peter Parker is Spider-Man, but the focus takes a sudden shift towards tracking down the escaped supervillains. The film is only about halfway done when that plot is resolved, so the story swings in multiple other directions. By the end, the storyline tightens up, and all of the major plot threads converge in a poignant and emotional final act. But before that point, the movie feels slightly directionless, pushing from storyline to storyline with seemingly no rhyme or reason.
While most Marvel movies intertwine with each other in various ways, No Way Home takes the connectivity even further, linking both to other movies in the current Marvel Cinematic Universe and to the previous Spider-Man movie franchises. Thankfully, all the necessary details and connections are explained well enough that no previous movies are completely necessary viewing to enjoy No Way Home. However, the film is peppered with details and references to previous movies in subtle and not-so-subtle ways. The movie’s connectedness is a huge boon to it: there are enough details to reward longtime fans, but the storyline is still accessible to first-time viewers.
Overall, Spider-Man: No Way Home is both a thoroughly entertaining blockbuster and an emotionally-compelling journey for a beloved character. While it occasionally shows its imperfections, it is very rewarding for those invested in Spider-Man as a character.
The emotional stakes are among the highest in the series, and are handled very respectfully, while the fanservice and references scattered throughout are enough to please any longtime fan. Despite the movie’s seemingly-convoluted premise, it manages to succeed on almost every level.
