On What Raya and the Last Dragon Lacks…

Without the proper cultural milieu made front and center, Raya and the Last Dragon feels like another atypical Disney Princess origin story.

Raya and the Last Dragon Movie PosterDisney‘s Raya and the Last Dragon is a very paint-by-numbers animated film which lacks originality. We are introduced to another princess with her pet, and we get to visit a distinct part of Asia! If I had to say which movie knows its mythology, Moana wins hands down!

The world of Laos, Malaysia and Indonesia is the spotlight and sadly, the missed opportunities I noticed are plentiful. The distinguishing features of each region aren’t really played up. The details don’t show how the people are unique. Each nation has lost their focus ever since a magical crystal that can keep the Druun–rejected shadowy entities from Studio Ghibli’s Mononoke Hime–shattered.

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Which Stars Shine Bright in The Last Jedi?

The trailers and opening scroll in The Last Jedi reveal the Resistance will have to start running for their lives as the bad guys are hot on their heels.

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Spoiler Alert

After the events from The Force Awakens, both sides are in disarray. The First Order lost their planet destroyer (technically a new Death Star). The trailers and opening scroll in The Last Jedi reveal the Resistance will have to start running for their lives as the bad guys are hot on their heels.

As mentioned in my review of the previous film J.J. Abrams crafted a love letter to the fans. He offered plenty of nostalgia to enjoy and made sure the digital technology got exercised to its fullest to make those moments count. Watch it too much, and everyone will agree it’s basically A New Hope.

There’s no denying that Star Wars, in all its other iterations in the animated front, comic books and novels, are built on a lot of tropes George Lucas created and improved upon from Episode IV to VI.  They range from classic one-liners and visual moments we always get excited by. From exhilarating trench sequences, varied variations of a ‘speeder bike’ chase to crazy aerial dog fights, is it even possible to add anything new? Writer/Director Rian Johnson offers a bit of the same old thing with a great new look and injects some fantastic narrative spins not everyone saw coming.

In what I loved after a second viewing (I bought tickets for Thurs and Friday) is with how actor Benicio Del Toro chewed up the scenery. To say more and to read ahead contains major spoilers.

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