The English word mellow comes from the Old English word melu and the modern English word meal.
Fun Fact: Mellow Etymology
Men in Black: International (2019 Film) Review
When I was nine, the original Men in Black hit theaters, and it was pretty darn good. I saw the sequel and liked it but I missed out on the 3rd film back in 2012 and I never got around to seeing it. What urged me to see it on Blu-ray (but not in theaters) was its new stars; Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson. They both worked well together in Thor: Ragnarok, so this looked pretty promising. But I heard some terrible opinions on the film. Could it be bad?
The film follows the story of Agent H (who has no real connections to Agent K or Agent J from the first three movies) who became a big hero when he stopped a parasitic race of aliens known as the Hive in Paris, France a few years back. His partner in that case was High T, who is pretty much the higher up at Men in Black’s European branch of the agency.
Then we see Molly Wright, who saw aliens and the Men in Black as a child. Since the agents at the time didn’t notice she was eavesdropping on them, her memory stayed in-tact, while her parents forgot the whole thing. She spends her whole life trying to find the Men in Black to become one of their agents, which is unheard of. The Men in Black find new agents, not the other way around. But Molly puts on the black suit and sunglasses, and becomes Agent M.
Her first case won’t be an easy one. She teams up with Agent H and they soon see one of Agent H’s friends die. Before he passed, he handed Agent M a pretty unique rock. It is the key to a super weapon that may destroy the whole world. There are two rather mysterious aliens after them, and soon enough all of the Men in Black are questioning their loyalties. Can they save the world, or is it doomed?
Overall, Men in Black: International is a rather disappointing film. The special effects are top notch. But the story isn’t really interesting, but it isn’t really mundane either. It feels like a can of soda left on the kitchen countertop for a day. While it looks good, and smells fine, it’s lost most of its flavor and it’s probably not even worthy to be drunk. While I wanted to love this one, a good script of the movie must have existed in another world.
Score: C
She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (TV Series) Season 3 Review
I never watched the original She-Ra as it was a bit before my time. I do remember her brother and his show/movie He-Man. But Dreamworks seems to be remaking She-Ra alone on Netflix, as apparently there are no plans to introduce He-Man/Prince Adam into the story, but you never know. I was a little shocked to see a season 3, but it was more like they cut a true second season in half, and this is the more serious latter half of the story.
The season takes place not long after the first. Shadow Weaver had escaped her confinement by tricking Catra into letting her go. Now totally against Lord Hordak, she falls into the rebellion’s hands. Though not many trust her at all, and for good reason. But the dark sorceress seems to only want to talk to Adora.
Speaking of Adora, she’s till working on the whole becoming She-Ra thing. The princess rebellion seems to be at a stalemate again with the Horde. For every success, there is some kind of unseen failure and there’s seems to be very little progress. Adora really wants answers about what happened to the last She-Ra, Mara. And she might just get a hint of what that was.
The Horde isn’t doing to well either. Hordak has his own issues, which start to explain why he’s mostly been in a supervisor type role instead of taking on the princess rebellion directly. Catra has been demoted and imprisoned for letting Shadow Weaver go. Entrapta has been working hard trying to make a portal happen with First Ones’ tech, but will she pull the switch if she gets it to work?
Overall the third season is about what I expected. It’s a good bit better than the 2nd due to the better and more serious stories, but they’re about in the same league. Netflix let me know season four is coming out soon, which makes me wonder how prolific they are at making these seasons. It ends promising some pretty cool ideas, so I’ll be watching it soon.
Score: B
She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (TV Series) Season 2 Review
Earlier this year I watched the first season of Netflix’s reboot of the old She-Ra show. I didn’t know all these years, but She-Ra was He-Man’s sister, and I do remember watching that show and the movie as a kid, but I forgot a lot about it. But the Netflix show looked promising and it was pretty good. So I decided to watch the 2nd season.
Not much time has passed since the events of the last season. The rebellion thought they had lost Entrapta to the Horde and she had perished under their imprisonment. But strangely enough, she allied with the Horde in the name of science, rather than politics. Lord Hordak wants to use the First Ones tech to crush the rebellion, and Entrapta is one of the few people on the planet that knows how to work with it.
Adora on the other hand is mostly working on her training. She still hasn’t mastered being She-Ra but she’ll get some new powers and challenges on the way. The rest of the Princesses are still allied with the rebellion, but it will mostly be Glimmer and Bow that will work against the Horde in any real battles coming up.
Speaking of the Horde, Catra has taken Shadow Weaver’s place as Force Captain. While she is thrilled at her new job, she is terrified of failing. She knows what happened to Shadow Weaver can easily happen to her. While she has the support of Scorpia and some other underlings, she isn’t too far away from not just a demotion but a termination…from life.
Overall the 2nd season is weaker than the first. Mainly because they split the new season into two mini-seasons. I thought it was weird Netflix had season three so soon, because both 2 and 3 together are about as long as the first season. So while it has some good episodes, I can see that season three will have the more dramatic stories. So I will be starting that season soon enough.
Score: B-
She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (TV Series) Season 1 Review
Netflix never fails to surprise me every now and then. While they make nearly countless “Original Series”, they seemed to really want to make sure everyone knew that She-Ra and the Princesses of Power was coming. I didn’t quite watch the old She-Ra from the 1980’s, as it was a bit before my time. I did watch a little of He-Man, who is the twin-brother of Adora who transforms into She-Ra when she gets her magical sword. I was originally going to ignore the series, but for the bits and pieces Netflix was feeding me, I was curious about it. I also heard they add some subtle LGBT characters, which is rather “brave” for a show crafted mostly for a younger crowd.
The story starts off with Adora, a cadet in the Horde, a military legion that she has been raised in since shortly after her own birth. She has no family that she knows of, but she was groomed by a sorceress named Shadow Weaver to be the regime’s greatest champion. Her best friend is Catra, who secretly considers herself to be Adora’s inferior and is kind of bitter about it. On their first real mission, Adora finds a magical sword that calls out to her. When she says the right words, it transforms her into She-Ra, a Princess of Power.
Shortly later, she realizes that it is the Horde, and not the Princess Rebellion that are the evil ones. She begs Catra to join her, but her feline-humanoid pal stays in the regime. Adora is then befriended by Princess Glimmer and her best-friend (and archer master) Bow. As She-Ra, Adora pledges her allegiance to the Princess Alliance, which is a big statement when they find out she was until very recently, a Horde officer.
Mostly behind the scenes on the side of evil is Lord Hordak. While we don’t get to see much of his power, his might is strong enough to make the powerful witch Shadow Weaver to cower in fear. He originally takes Adora leaving without much of a care. But he will soon realize that will be a grave mistake on his part. The forces of good and evil will soon clash in a mighty war.
Overall She-Ra and the Princesses of Power is a tiny bit worse than what I expected. It’s colorful, smart, and has its very clever moments. Many characters from the 1980’s are rather cheesy with the nostalgia glasses off, but they did a good job modernizing it and making the characters more detailed and unique. Though because it does expect 70% of its viewer or more to be kids, all the violence and destruction in the episodes don’t have many long-lasting consequences. But I would not be shocked in the slightest if He-Man gets remade in the same fashion by Dreamworks and Netflix. I would like to see the shows cross-over as well as I heard happened in the original cartoons.
Score: B
Neko Random 