BOOK: Stars Above (2016)

by benmweilertNo Comments
Stars AboveYear: 2016Author: Marissa MeyerLength: 581 minutes / 9.63 hours Something I feel is underappreciated in book series is when authors don't try to cram in as much material and side stories as possible to pad each of the books to be longer than they should be. Keeping the core books of a series concise helps drive the main plot forward without requiring larger and larger volumes to tie up all the loose ends introduced along the way. The Lunar Chronicles excels in this. Look no further than the "prequel," Fairest, and the collection of short stories and epilogue that is Stars Above for proof of this restraint. I can appreciate that worldbuilding will often create so much content that it doesn't always make sense to include it in the actual storytelling. Still, some origin stories might seem interesting, only to find out that most of these moments of exposition happened along the way as the character's motives are revealed to the...
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MOVIE: El Camino (2019)

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El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie Year: 2019 Rating: R Length: 122 minutes / 2.03 hours While the television show Community always joked about getting "six seasons and a movie, Breaking Bad actually accomplished the feat with only five seasons of the best heart-pounding drama ever to be seen on the small screen. As an epilogue to this fantastic series, El Camino (2019) wraps up the one remaining loose end that remained from the series finale: what happened to Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul)? While El Camino is basically two episodes of Breaking Bad used to tie everything up into a nice little bow, it was nice to finally have that final bit of closure. As is the case with a lot of Breaking Bad's best episodes, there are moments in El Camino that are hard to watch. Jesse's slavery really hits home in this film as the viewer grapples with the intense psychological punishment that can break down a man and steal his motivation to...
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