Weekend Play - Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga

This week’s Weekend Watch is going to be a Weekend Play instead, mainly because I haven’t yet gotten to go see Michelle Yeoh’s Everything Everywhere All at Once. Really looking forward to getting out to see that one and, in a couple of weeks, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent. So for now, I’m going to write about some new media that I did get to consume this week: the new Lego Star Wars game! (We’ll be back to regularly scheduled new movie/T.V. programming next weekend.)

Letter Grade: A

Should you Watch This Film Play This Game? Absolutely!

Why?

This recommendation is based on a completion of the Original Trilogy only and some Free Play game time. The Lego video games are consistently some of my favorites with a solid brand of humor that will reach both kids and adults (really, I laughed out loud at some points), recognizable tributes and references to their source material, and a combination of puzzles and – more recently – open-world gameplay. The new offering Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga is no different, introducing some new game elements while staying true to the Lego formula. New combat systems make combat feel slightly more innovative even if it is still mostly just button mashing; the puzzles I have encountered so far have been consistently rewarding and often have multiple solutions, encouraging multiple playthroughs, and the humor and references have been top-notch throughout. I am looking forward to getting into the other two trilogies and exploring all of the new worlds that they have to offer. With that said, definitely check this game out if you need a new casual game that is worth the money!

Weekend Watch - Morbius

                Welcome to the Weekend Watch, where each week, the blog will take a quick look at a new piece of television or film media that many people will probably be watching over the weekend and help you figure out if you too need to watch it. It’ll receive a subjective letter grade, as it is still too early to grant new films objective composite scores, and a quick, mostly spoiler-free recommendation for viewing. This week’s subject is Jared Leto’s new contribution to SONY’s Spider-Man universe, Morbius.

Letter Grade: D+/C-

Should you Watch This Film? Only if you are not the one paying for the ticket!

Why?

                Morbius already has a bunch of terrible reviews, so I’m not going to belabor the point. This film is perfectly fine, but it fails to live up to the legitimate movie greatness of many other MCU films or even the fun, disjointed chaos of the Venom films. Leto’s performance is not overly noteworthy (he does look good though so that’s something), and honestly, the most realistic portrayal comes from Matt Smith as the villainous Milo/Lucian – his name gets a little confusing. Action sequences are almost exclusively CGI and not overly gripping. The story is pretty generic, but the character has potential. SONY has embraced the Spider-Verse anti-heroes but doesn’t quite seem to know how to make a fully high-quality film featuring one yet. There is a lot of discussion of what Morbius is going to do once the highly convenient artificial blood no longer slakes his thirst, but that question simply does not get answered. Even the proprietary post-credits scenes don’t fully understand what to do with an anti-hero, or even maybe with a villain. After watching Morbius, I am not sold on SONY’s Spider-Verse and certainly not convinced that it was worth the ticket price. The film’s biggest saving grace seems to be that the studio knew that it hadn’t produced a great product and kept the runtime under 2 hours, respecting the audience’s time. After we left the showing, my wife commented, and I agreed, that this was probably a film we could have waited to watch when it was on one of our streaming services, and that is honestly my recommendation to you. There is nothing that makes Morbius a must-watch big screen blockbuster, but it might be worth the watch if you want to see some hot Jared Leto and creepy Matt Smith action.