Short Review Time: Solo and Cobra Kai
In the last few weeks, I caught Solo in the movie theaters and just churned through the YouTube Red series, Cobra Kai. I’ll be covering my impressions on each of these properties, both of which are follow ups to existing movies. There’s a marked difference, in my opinion, on how I received the nostalgic elements of each.
I’ve attempted to stay spoiler-free, but I’m a bad judge of what constitutes a spoiler to some folks, so please don’t call the spoiler police on me because I didn’t mean to do it. . . honest!
Solo: A Star Wars Story
Solo is a prequel (no, not that type of prequel) to Star Wars (aka, A New Hope or Star Wars 4), set in the time period between A New Hope and the last of “yes, those prequels” Confusing? Yes, it can be difficult to explain the chronology of the ongoing Star Wars movies to someone who’s never had any contact with them before, but that’s besides the point.
When asked what I thought about Solo, I offered my bland approval: shrugging, I said, “It’s alright.” More and more that phrase is an indictment of Disney’s approach to many of the media they’re producing. I enjoy the spectacle of it, but everything moves so fast I’m never allowed a moment to really feel anything. Even emotional moments are undercut by some quip or the need for MOAR ACTIONS!!!
Without getting into spoilers about the movie, I initially felt like this was a backstory I didn’t need and by the end of its run time, I hadn’t changed my mind. At around the halfway mark, they go into Han’s celebrated Kessel Run, and. . . well, I never thought the “run” part of that action set-piece would be pretty boring. The setting itself–the criminal underworld of the Star Wars universe–is fantastic but I wished I’d gotten more of the internecine conflicts the crime syndicates engage in. Granted, this could have been engaged with by having a less green, but more jaded (and possibly older) Han Solo as the protagonist. An older and more worldly Han would’ve given us someone who’s a bit more in control, and able to drive the action rather than be a bit of a bystander, but I’m sure Disney and LucasFilm are marketing to a younger crowd than me.
There was, of course, the disappointment of finding out the amazing talent of Phoebe Waller-Bridge was squandered in the droid L3-37. I had a hard time discerning a lot of her dialogue, and her goal of droid liberation is played for laughs–a strange tone, considering the franchise’s reliance on resistance and rebellion as a method of effecting change.
Cobra Kai
Given the amount of reboots and sequels of old properties, I was a bit wary of YouTube Red’s continuation of The Karate Kid.
Again, this felt like a sequel I never wanted, but imagine my surprise finding out it was a sequel I didn’t know I needed. The series begins 30+ years after the events of the first Karate Kid, from the point of view of Johnny Lawrence (the antagonist of the first movie in the franchise). The show’s only conceit is how much the results of that long ago karate tournament weigh upon Johnny. When we find him, he’s as likely to be passed out on his crappy apartment’s rug, amid a variety of Coors bottles. After a series of mishaps, Johnny ends up intervening in a teenage neighbor’s beat-down because they almost damage his car in the process of tossing him around. This, along with Daniel LaRusso’s success (he owns several car dealerships in the area, so Johnny ends up enduring his old rival’s smiling face nearly everywhere), spurs Johnny to resurrect his old karate school, the eponymous Cobra Kai dojo.
As the series progressed, I sympathized with Johnny, despite his negative qualities. The writing is very clever, and is able to juggle both fan service with many call-backs and nods to the source material, while also subverting expectations. I found this show–apart from being much better than it had any reason to be–to use nostalgia as a lens to examine how the past is complicated, and not always a cool or good place. Plus, I found there was an underlying theme of how neither Johnny or Daniel is happy with how things turned out.
I enjoyed this show very much, and want other people to watch it, too. The first two episodes are up on YouTube for free, but if you want to watch more, you’ll have to sign up for YouTube Red’s free trial period (at least).
If you liked the source material, go ahead and try it out. . . I’m sure you’ll be charmed by it.
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