It’s a slightly click-baity title, but as we’re still generating more content for our magazines, this one included, why not?
My Sci-fi unpopular opinion is that 2001: A Space Odyssey is nothing but pretentious, LSD fueled nonsense. I’ve tried watching it multiple times and each time I have absolutely no patience for the pointless little scenes which contain little to no depth or meaningful plot, all coalescing towards that 15 minute “journey” through space and series of hallucinations or whatever that are supposed to be deep, shake you to your foundations, and make you re-think the whole human condition.
But it doesn’t. Because it’s just pretentious, LSD fueled nonsense. Planet of the Apes was released in the same year and is, on every level, a better Sci-fi movie. It offers mystery, a consistent and engaging plot, relatable characters you actually care about, and asks a lot more questions about the world and our place in it.
That means you’ve missed out on Andor, which I think is better than any live action Star Wars (including, perhaps controversially, Empire Strikes Back)!
It’s mature, deep, detailed, grounded, and very political. The characters and world are built up phenomenally, and it’s much more contemplative in its pacing, and it definitely treats its audience as intelligent rather than beating them around the head with obvious exposition. It feels more like an HBO show than your standard Star Wars affair, frankly. And it works as a standalone, too - it’s not just yet more Skywalker family drama.
I’ve always loved anything Star Wars that didn’t really involve Jedi. The universe is incredibly diverse and interesting, and cutting out the light side vs dark side trope most star wars content is centered on lets writers make really interesting characters and situations. Like in Mandandolrian the scene with Bill Burr confronting the Imperial officer that spearheaded the Burning Khan massacre was just fantastic, regardless of it being star wars.
Bill Burr crushed that entire episode. He showed acting chops he’s rarely had the chance to flex before, honestly. The guy is so self-deprecating in his humor, almost aggressively so, that it’s easy to miss his talent. Heck, I did, and for a damned long time.
You ads selling that to me! I don’t have Disney + so that might be an issue. I loved rogue one, but that was the last star wars thing I enjoyed.
Oh my sibling in Xenu, Andor is mandatory viewing if you have any love for Star Wars at all, but ESPECIALLY if you love Rogue One. It is absolutely incredible.
Well this has very much sold it to me!
“Andor” refers to Cassian Andor, the team leader in Rogue One. It’s his origin story, basically
Thank you! I’ve not kept up with star wars stuff at all so I had no idea. Seems like I’ll have to watch it now!
You know how OP said 2001 was pretentious nonsense? That’s how I felt about Andor. It was actively bad, and I struggle to see all the praise it gets as anything other than Morbius level trolling! It was badly written, badly plotted, was trying to be about three things at once and didn’t do any of them well, and was about six episodes too long. It’s what really turned me off Starwars!
Talk about trolling. Jaysus. Is there a way to tag users here yet, or do we wait for Sync? 😶
I take it you liked Andor then? Why?
I don’t feed trolls, especially when they can’t be bothered to put any effort into their nonsense.
I’m not trolling. I honestly thought it was utterly awful on pretty much every level people seem to praise it for and cannot understand why anyone liked it! The first three episodes should have been one, the next three should have been two (and I would have started with them and had the first arc as a flashback), iirc literally nothing happened in the 7th episode except for the last two minuites when he was arrested for arbitrary and stupid reasons, then next two episodes were just messy, and then I gave up because I had been told “oh it all comes together at this point” too many times and it was just making me angry.
I mean okay accusing it of being Morbius levels of bad might have been a troll, it wasn’t as bad as Morbius (but few things are) but it was nowhere near good, let alone deserving of the praise lauded upon it!