Voltron: Legendary Defender

For the uninitiated, Voltron: Defender of the Universe is a classic giant robot show from the 80's about five pilots who defend the universe (duh) from the evil space empire of King Zarkon. They fly giant color-coordinated robots lions that combine to form a cool, giant robot with a cool, giant sword; the titular Voltron.

The 80's Voltron cartoon was light, simple, and fun. It doesn't hold up nowadays, but the appeal can be seen. And given that Voltron is one of the grand-daddies of color-coordinated robot team shows, I wouldn't dream of besmirching its good name. There's been several continuations over the years; sequel series, comics, and the like, but none of it ever had the same sort of punch the original had in terms of dedication and semi-quality.

Voltron: Legendary Defender has changed that.

In the future, five pilots are gathered together by an ancient magic princess and the forces of destiny to save the universe from the evil empire of Zarkon. These pilots are Shiro, the leader fresh from an escape from alien captivity; Keith, a fierce and headstrong combat ace; Lance, a goofy self-styled ladies man; Hunk, a caring and motion sick engineer; and Pidge, the tech-savvy youngster of the group. Together, along with Princess Allura and her advisor Coran, they must overcome their personal struggles to rise and become the legendary defender of the universe: Voltron.

Legendary Defender is a Netflix exclusive and come to us from Lauren Montgomery, Joaquim Dos Santos, and Tim Hedrick who were all deeply involved in the production of animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender and its sequel The Legend of Korra. Along with them comes Studio Mir, the Korean animation house that worked on both series. The quality and prestige of these talents shows in every level of production. This is a true successor to the Avatar legacy and worthy to be within the same animation family as both series.

The art design and animation are crisp and fluid, highly reminiscent of where's Korra ended up by the end of its run. Lighting and colors making the whole universe vibrant and exotic. The melding of 2D and 3D animation is masterful and doesn't detract from the world in the slightest. One would be hard-pressed to find a current better looking animated series on any platform.

Some shortcuts were taken, however. Certain scenes feel like bits are missing. It's nothing to ruin the overall flow. Often the narrative with take a leap which causes an occasional "okay, I guess we're here now," sort of jump. Attached to that is a noticeable ill-treatment of time. The viewer definitely has to take liberties with how fast each scene is moving in comparison to the others judging by how often they match-up in the most awkward of ways. However, these are only hiccups in an overall solid output.

Story-wise, the plots from episode-to-episode and even the overall narrative feel tired. If anyone's ever watched a sci-fi, fantasy, or drama show with some gray hair on it, these stories will feel all to familiar. They're well-told versions of these stories, but nothing new is done. The saving grace comes from character.

Even though we only get to see them for the span of a single hour-long special and ten normal-length episodes, this is a surprisingly well-realized  cast of characters. The production team has taken the basics of who these people are from the original series and truly remastered and fleshed them out. Certain new twists to certain characters are added that are pulled-off remarkably well. The character of Shiro has also been reworked entirely, given the original was a comedically over-the-top Norwegian stereotype and no I am not kidding that was an actual thing.

The cast, front-lined by of The Walking Dead's Steven Yuen, Adventure Time's Jeremy Shada, Kimberly Brooks, and Josh Keaton, all do a remarkable job and breathe palpable life into these people. From this short introduction, I definitely want to see more of these people and their adventures. This is only the first season, after all. Other shows don't get nearly this much done in the same amount of time. Even Korra didn't have this strong of a first season.

But if there is one huge, glaring fault, it's the ending. Legendary Defender ends on one of the most frustrating cliffhangers in recent memory, cutting off right in the middle of an action scene. There was a way for them to leave the story on a relatively stable note, and then save the set-up for the cliffhanger for the next (presumed) season, and it's difficult to understand why the production staff decided to take it in the direction they did. I suppose it does create a rabid froth for more Voltron. So a second season is guaranteed by fan reaction, but I don't think they had to stoop to that level for support.

On a final note, the music is incredible. It's reminiscent of 80's synth in the best possible way. Each scene is accented by its majesty and I desire that soundtrack greatly.

This type of show obviously isn't for everyone. Some will scoff at it from outset, which is fine by them. But there's real heart, dedication, and quality being put forth here. This is the show for all current competitors to attempt to beat as far as I'm concerned.

And it's a must-watch for fans of the Avatar shows. This will scratch that itch, trust me. It may not do it to the extent that you want it to, but it'll help alleviate the pain until something new comes from that world of the Four Nations.

As someone who has never cared about Voltron beyond that one breakdancing Robot Chicken parody, I'm glad to have another amazing realm of science-fiction to love. This a fun, crazy magical space opera with lovable characters, engaging action, and a plot with a great deal of future potential.

I look forward to what comes in the future.

Score: A-

X-Men: Apocalypse

X-Men: Apocalypse is fine. It's actually quite commendable just how fine it ends up being. At times it even revels in being just fine. Which is, of course, fine. If that's the bar you want to set for yourself, you can do a hell of a lot worse than fine. The fact that Apocalypse manages to be just fine is a godsend and the best anyone could hope for with Bryan Singer once again at the wheel.

The man isn't a bad director. In fact, he's perfectly fine. Which has been the problem with the entire X-Men franchise to this point. Even the ones we considered good way back in the dark days before the Marvel Cinematic Universe, those being the original X-Men and X2, just don't measure up to First Class or even Days of Future Past. And those only manage to be more than fine because Matthew Vaughn directed one and Singer picked up the sloppy seconds for the other. Now the influence of fresh blood has long since been squeezed out and we are once again back to the status quo of X-Men movies which are just fine. This is, as I said, perfectly fine, but the X-Men can be so much more than what Bryan Singer can manage.

At any rate: X-Men: Apocalypse. It's 1983 and all the returning cast members look like they've only aged about two years in an eleven year time-span since Days of Future Past (funny that). Charles Xavier has opened and established his School for Gifted Youngsters proper just in time for lazer-eyed Cyclops to enroll and meet telekinetic psychic extraordinaire Jean Grey, the super-smart super-strong Beast, the awkwardly adorable Nightcrawler, God Mode speedster Quicksilver, and Jennifer Lawrence who is trying her best to still care about being in an X-Men movie.

While the youngsters are meeting and greeting, Apocalypse, our big bad for the evening, has awoken from his ten thousand years of slumber. And now that he's free, it's time to conquer Earth. He gathers around him four Horsepeople (both men and women because even ancient Egyptian mutants respect gender equality) to guard him as he sets out to do all kinds of mean things. The Solid Gold Apocalypse Dancers includes Magneto (fresh from the deaths of his family and looking to vent all kinds of emotions), Storm (who is never actually called "Storm" therefore finally completing the circle of never actually being referred to by her proper name of Ororo Munroe, and now just doesn't have a name at all), Psylocke (somehow ending up as the most comics-accurate character in the entire film for some reason), and Angel (who is also in the movie). Now it's up to the mutant teenagers with attitude to put a stop to all the nasty world-conquering business.

The best thing Apocalypse has going for it is that it doesn't ruin anything and it never makes you glance at your watch. It's the point of being fine that I keep coming back to. All of the X-Men we know and love are depicted as they are supposed to be. There's nothing more to them, no substance, no defined arcs or depth, but they're fine. At no point did I ever think to myself "They've ruined him/her for all time!" But there's also no point I ever thought that they did anything of note with any of them. The worst off are Apocalypse's Horsepeople, who all look to have very interesting lives and personalities, but those aspects are snuffed out once they become a part of his goon squad. Except for Michael Fassbender's Magneto, but that's just Michael Fassbender. He makes everyone look far, FAR worse by comparison.

Notably the costumes the characters wear at the absolute end of the film are phenomenal, but for the majority we're stuck with civilian clothes are all-black pseudo-armor. I'll never understand Singer's fetish for this kind of gear, but hopefully this'll be the last we ever see of it.

Quicksilver is given another impressive slo-mo sequence, this one taking place during an explosion and getting their speedster bang for the speedster buck. But there's far too much jumping around making it less coherent and impressive than the one in Days of Future Past. Still nice and quirky, but it's been done better.

Also, Wolverine shows up. He's the best there is at what he does, and what he does is run around half-naked covered in stupid future tech looking very upset and stabs mall cops. There's nothing else to it and the sequence itself only exists to pad out the run time, but it's always good to see Hugh Jackman doing things. It's also especially good to see Wolverine get a little bloody for once.

Yet, nothing that happens is of any substance. There's just too many balls in the air. There's the young and familiar X-Men to establish, Mystique has to do her thing, Magneto has to do something because apparently he always has to be around even if he has NOTHING TO DO, Apocalypse has to be the villain, the Horsepeople have to do their things, and prom is, as always, tomorrow. Yet, just one month ago Captain America: Civil War managed to perform a similar juggling act and pulled it off magnificently so really the problem here is the direction.

Apocalypse strives to be something more, but ends up being fine. It does nothing, doesn't reveal a new dimension of these characters, and brings nothing new to the table of superhero cinema. But it also doesn't fail. Everything is by-the-books superhero fun, without anything to spice up the formula. Hopefully, for the next one, someone new is allowed to breath life into this franchise. I'm tired of mediocre X-Men films. They deserve so much better than this.

Score: C-