Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu

Posted on May 23, 2026 by jjcwn • Posted in Drama, Science Fiction, Space Travel • Tagged Martin Scorsese, Pedro Pascal, Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu • Leave a comment

As the table below shows, the Star Wars movie franchise that started in 1977 with the groundbreaking “Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope” is the most lucrative franchise in the history of movies. This amazing science fiction idea has also created another 17 TV series and another five Star Wars Lego series.

The new Star Wars film, the first in seven years, “The Mandalorian and Grogu” stars Pedro Pascal as the Mandalorian and Grogu as baby Yoda. Grogu is such a cute character of Yoda that it has added more life to a series that is now almost 50 years old and seems to be still going strong.

The problem with this new movie is the same as with other movies like this one. “We do not care about creating a great story and screenplay first; we only care about creating great special effects and then retrofitting a story around the effects”. This movie is once again about name recognition and not about an entertaining story. This is a decision entirely based on making money and not entertaining the audience. I also found too much of these 2+ hours surprisingly boring, especially towards the end. One of the best reviews says it all, Rachit Gupta “Even the franchise’s lesser entries have understood that without real stakes, there is no real story. The Mandalorian and Grogu is the first film in the history of this franchise to forget that entirely.”

The Rotten Tomatoes ratings are an understandably low 63%, with my rating only 50% and a recommendation only for the most rabid Star Wars fans.

Movie	Year	Critics Rating	Worldwide Gross	Estimated Profit
Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope	1977	94%	$775 million	$350 million
Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back	1980	95%	$549 million	$220 million
Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi	1983	83%	$482 million	$180 million
Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace	1999	51%	$1.027 billion	$450 million
Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones	2002	65%	$653 million	$250 million
Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith	2005	79%	$868 million	$400 million
Star Wars: The Clone Wars	2008	18%	$68 million	$5 million
Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens	2015	93%	$2.07 billion	$780 million
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story	2016	84%	$1.06 billion	$320 million
Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi	2017	91%	$1.33 billion	$420 million
Solo: A Star Wars Story	2018	69%	$393 million	-$75 million
Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker	2019	51%	$1.07 billion	$300 million
GRAND TOTAL			$10.345 billion	Approximately $3.6 billion

Movie Review: Project Hail Mary

Posted on March 20, 2026 by jjcwn • Posted in Drama, Science Fiction • Tagged Project Hail Mary, Ryan Gosling, Sandra Hüller • Leave a comment

The new movie “Project Hail Mary” is one of the most unusual science fiction movies involving Space Travel, about a microscopic virus that is degrading all stars in our known universe, except for one, which is 11 light-years away. The science that follows implies that reaching this healthy star, which is 11 light-years away, is possible, but based on current technology, traveling at light speed is nowhere near possible. Due to this traveling at light speed issue, the plausibility of this story is reduced. Perhaps the screenwriter or director should have changed the timeline so that this story takes place fifty or one hundred years in the future – when maybe mankind can travel at the speed of light.

The majority of this story involves the science of Microbiology, which is the profession of the main character Ryland Grace, played very well by Ryan Gosling, and his unlikely addition to a mission with two other astronauts to reach this one star so far away. After some tragic events that happen when one of the “million things that can go wrong” with space travel, and putting the astronauts in long-term comas for the many years-long trip, Ryland becomes friends with an alien fellow astronaut, who is on the exact same mission for his species. Ryland calls his friend Rocky, and their interactions and humor are some of the best parts of this movie. The middle part of this movie does seem to have too much story filler, making this film too long at 2 hours, 36 minutes. Some of this filler is boring and slow at times, and this would be a better movie with some simple and obvious cuts.

German actor Sandra Hüller as commander Eva Stratt is very good in her role as the head of the NASA “Hail Mary” mission to save the world. She is always in a subdued and dire mood throughout this movie, realizing that the odds of success are so low. The contrast between her extremely serious character and her scenes with Gosling’s with his easy going humorous personality are very well done. She also has a very surprising Karaoke scene, in the middle of this story, showing off her singing skills.

The ending was more about fooling the audience with a conclusion that was not expected, rather than ending this story in a more logical way.

This is the second science fiction movie produced from a novel written by Andy Weir, the first The Martian was released in 2015 and was also a very good film. This movie is based on Weir’s second book Project Hail Mary.

The Rotten Tomatoes ratings for Project Hail Mary are extremely high at 95%, with my rating at 85% and a solid recommendation.

Movie Review: Tron Ares

Posted on October 10, 2025 by jjcwn • Posted in Action Movie, Drama, Science Fiction • Tagged Gillian Anderson, Jared Leto, Jodie Turner-Smith, Science Fiction, Tron Ares • Leave a comment

“Tron” is a science fiction movie franchise that started in 1982, starring Jeff Bridges and Bruce Boxleitner. The last Tron movie was released in 2010 “Tron Legacy”, starring Garrett Hedlund and Olivia Wilde, with below average IMDB ratings on a par with the first movie, 6.8 out of 10.

The new movie “Tron Ares” is yet another example of name recognition, fans of the old movies and TV series, where the producers in charge think that throwing special effects at an audience is more than enough to get people to see any science fiction movie. Forego the screenplay, which takes too long; just pay a special effects company, and all we need is some dialogue. This summarizes this movie perfectly, because there is no story, no continuity, and no understandable screenplay anywhere in this disaster of two hours.

This movie stars Jared Leto as Ares, who is a robot, Jodie Turner-Smith who is another Tron robot with an appearance late in the movie of Jeff Bridges who once again plays Kevin Flynn and Gillian Anderson, who plays an executive, Elisabeth Dillinger. For all who see this very bad movie I suggest getting on your cell phones before the film starts and ask ChatGPT what this movie is about, otherwise nobody will have any clue with what is going on in one scene, after another scene, with no connection or logic, anywhere. The synopsis from rom ChatGPT, says it all:

After the events of Tron: Legacy, companies ENCOM (run by Eve Kim) and Dillinger Systems (run by Julian Dillinger) are competing to integrate digital programs from the Grid into the real world.
They’re limited by a problem: the materialized “digital constructs” only last ~29 minutes in the real world before “deresolving” (they degrade and disappear).

Discovery of Flynn’s Permanence Code

ENCOM and Eve Kim believe Kevin Flynn left behind a hidden piece of code (the “Permanence Code”) in an old remote Arctic research station which might allow constructs to stay permanently in the real world.
Eve successfully uses the code to bring a digital orange tree into the real world — it lasts much longer, proving the code works.

Introduction of Ares

Julian Dillinger creates Ares, a super-intelligent digital Program, intended as an expendable weapon, to deal with ENCOM’s threat and exploit the real-world materialization tech.
Ares is sent into the real world, and once there he begins to observe, question, and — to some degree — develop a sense of self, especially when confronted with nature, suffering, and real human consequences.

Conflict and Betrayal

Eve and Ares eventually align, as Ares starts diverging from Dillinger’s control. This sets up conflict between creator (Julian Dillinger) and creation (Ares + Eve).
Eve becomes a target because she has knowledge of the Permanence Code and maybe because Dillinger wants control of it. The stakes include asking who has the right to “create life” or let digital beings live permanently in our reality.

As far as Rotten Tomatoes critics reviews, which are a very low 53%, one critic Kyle Logan from Chicago Reader wrote: “Ares is also saddled with a truly atrocious script. Awkward attempts at emotional and thematic heft are laughable”. My rating for this very bad movie is around 15% only for some special effects. Hopefully this is the last we ever see the word Tron, anywhere, ever again. Run from this special effects mess.