Levius is an a steampunk action anime available on Netflix that features a kid named Levius Cromwell battling other opponents in a sport called “metal boxing,” which is just normal boxing, but they use robot arms. Unlike most anime, this show uses 3D models instead of 2D drawings. The models are done really well and gives the show a sense of energy that you don’t see in other shows of the same type.

The plot of Levius revolves around an upcoming metal boxer named Levius. Metal boxers have metal arms filled with a special water called Agartha Water, that when mixed with a drop of the users blood, turns into steam and falls under their control like a natural extension of their body. When contained inside a prosthetic arm, it’s like the person using it has a normal arm that can hit a lot harder. I like the inclusion of Agartha Water as a plot element because it makes the metal arms seem realistic when the show takes place in an 1800s time period.

Levius lost his arm in a war before the series started, and after moving to his uncle Zack’s house, they bonded through their love of boxing. Soon afterwards, Levius became a rising star in the metal boxing world. The premise is simple enough, a lot like you would see in any other sports anime. But what sets this show apart is the characters.

The supporting cast, which consists of Levius’s one-eyed uncle Zack, his personal mechanic Bill, and his rival Natalia are all great and unique enough that they don’t get boring, but the real star of the show is Levius himself. Right away in the first episode we learn that he doesn’t really know why he boxes, and that he is looking for a reason through the sport. Watching him trying to discover his reason for fighting through the show is easily the most intriguing part of it.

Also, the action in Levius is amazing. Even though every single fight takes place in the same boxing ring and it’s not like they can have weapons in there, the animators still make each fight unique, with each boxer having a unique fighting style and every single fight turning out differently. Each punch has energy you can feel, and the sound effects make you feel the action.

So, if you’re into anime, steampunk, or just like fast paced action shows, then you’ll love Levius. For those into deeper plots and more intricate storylines, Levius’s relationship with his friends and his rival boxers keeps the story moving, and the music is top tier when it comes to a score for a show. 

My only real complaint I have for this show is that one of the episodes near the climax feels like it’s just filler and interrupts the final fight, but because it is so intense, I think it works, and doesn’t interrupt the action. Other than that, sometimes the lips of the characters seem like they don’t match up with the voices, but I think that’s just my brain being too slow.

My final rating for this show is a 9/10.

Who doesn’t love a good war movie? They’re raw, intense and the fact that it’s based on an historical event makes it much better. 1917 in particular stands out from the rest and I believe you’ll love to know why.

1917 came out on December 4, 2019, and made $323.8 million in the box office. The movie is a dramatic narrative film based in World War I and follows two British soldiers by the names of Lance Cpl. Schofield and Lance Cpl. Blake. These two men are given a mission to give orders to another team that the battle they are about to fight is a trap, and they’re about to lose 1,600 of their comrades, along with Cpl. Blake’s own brother. It is up to these two men to go and stop this mission before time runs out.

This movie may sound somewhat simple, but it takes big twists that makes the audience feel more hooked and engaged to the film.

One thing that really stands out, and probably is the most known element about this film, is that they make it look like the whole movie was filmed in one single shot. This makes the audience feel stuck in the movie and it feels as if the story wouldn’t have an end. They also cut scenes in a very clever way, they have the character they’re focusing on walk into a very dark room and that’s when the next scene starts.

The acting in 1917 is very good for the most part. The writing for the characters that the actors play on the other hand can be a bit questioning. For example, the main character would see an enemy and wouldn’t shoot, they would rather wait for the enemy to shoot at them. Or they would try and save the enemy from a freak accident. Moments like these are somewhat irritating because the movie is meant to focus on a soldier who is meant to do their duty and they seem way too soft on their enemy and almost see them as an ally.

One thing I believe really stood out in this film is the color scheme. It has a realistic tone to it but still stays on the grayish and dark green spectrum, which I believe really fits with the time period it’s meant to take place in and the location of the film. 

The film does a really good job at making the audience nervous. They have the movie feel as if it’s going to have a huge blast of action at any moment or that the character next to the main character will get shot with a big loud bang to make everyone jump. It makes the whole audience feel uneasy, and I think the soundtrack plays a big part in this feeling.

The soundtrack is very slow during a majority of the film and it really fits with the timing and moments. Though sometimes it seems to get really dramatic and too intense and it seems they’re trying a bit too hard for the audience to get really into a scene. A majority of the time though, the slow and eerie music makes the movie feel a lot more intense.

Overall, I believe this movie did a solid job at making itself unique and have an interesting take on the war film genre. 8/10

In April 2014 To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before was published by Jenny Han who followed with two more books: P.S. I Still Love You (2015)and Always and Forever, Lara Jean (2017).

After watching P.S. I Still Love You I was disappointed. I was expecting a big feud between Peter Skavinsky and John Ambrose, but Ambrose wasn’t even in the movie much. They had times where they met and talked but it was mostly still about Peter and Lara.

I would give this movie three out of five stars as there where parts of the movie that lacked emotion and were just slow paced. Also the characters were still brand new even though we were in the second movie. I also thought that Peter was portrayed as a bad boyfriend the whole movie and they put a halo on John making him seem like he was the good guy, and for them to just get back together doesn’t make sense.

The Netflix show, Iron Blooded Orphans, also known as Gundam Iron Blooded Orphans, is a story set around 300 years after something called the Calamity War. The Calamity War refers to a great conflict between the Earth and Outer Spheres that lead to the establishment of the Post Disaster Timeline. 

The war put Mobile Suits in high demand, and the mass fighting caused a lot of destruction. Mobile Suits are humanoid combat vehicles, typically employing two arms to deploy weapons, two legs for propulsion, and a head that acts as a main camera. Generally, a mobile suit is approximately 60 feet in height, with the cockpit located in the Mobile Suit’s torso.

In the story humanity has terraformed Mars. The Mars colony is still under an Earth-based rule and is effectively an economic slave state that now wants its independence. This creates child soldiers that make up the ranks of a civilian security company called Chryse Guard Security. This force is tasked with escorting a Martian noblewoman called Kudelia Aina Bernstein to Earth to go against Mars being under earth’s rule. The Earth military force of Gjallarhorn has plans to stop this escort to earth so that Mars can stay under Earth’s rule. 

All the complex machines they use something called the Alaya-Vijnana System, which is a cybernetic interface across the spine that directly connects the machine to the pilot. The children use the cybernetic interface, or the Alaya-Vijnana System, to create an army of child soldiers that are remarkably adept at handling complex machinery but are a cheap and expendable workforce from a business standpoint. The Alaya-Vijnana System process is a dangerous one to make and almost any adult would not survive the process if they tried to have it done. The group of child soldiers is called Tekkadan.

So, the Gundam series Iron-Blooded Orphans is without a doubt among the best the Gundam franchise has to offer, especially when it comes to the alternate series in the franchise. This is aimed at older audiences since it has a brutal, and very gritty story. I would recommend this to people who like a good story, like seeing big battles with mobile suits and Gundams, and like great character development. 

Recently the Kpop Industry has made a rise to fame in the western music industry.

The popularity of Kpop has gone up tremendously since 2018. Since then, many groups have teamed up with American music record companies to expand their audience.

For example BTS, a well known Kpop group, has broken many world wide records on many platforms. On Youtube they have constantly broken records for the most views in 24 hours, their music video (MV) for “Boy With Luv” got 74.6 million views in 24 hours beating Blackpink’s, a fellow Kpop group’s, “Kill This Love” MV. The biggest accomplishment so far is BTS being the first Korean group to perform at the Grammys.

Being a Kpop fan is different than being an American music fan. In the Kpop industry you have different versions of Kpop albums. The album includes photo cards, which are pictures of each member of the group. Also, the album includes a photo book, which is just a bunch of pictures from a photo shoot, a poster, and a CD for the album.

Another thing that the Kpop industry does is have light sticks at their concerts so the artists can interact with their fans. Unlike many American boy and girl artists, they sing and dance during concerts with full choreography for each song.

Ever since Kpop has become a popular genre to listen to many artists have “borrowed” many ideas from the Kpop industry. For example, Taylor Swift has four versions of her new album lover and it includes different photos of her.

Additionally, Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeran have given their fans flashlight attachments to go on their phone cameras so they can interact with fans during a concert.

Recently, the Jonas Brothers have made a comeback with their song “Sucker.” On Twitter they posted saying that “DNA,” a BTS song, inspired the music video for “Sucker.”

Theater arts is a very interesting concept. I mean, it tracks back hundreds and hundreds of years. You can learn so much about theater arts and you can have so many opportunities with it, like acting on television, being onstage, teaching, and so much more. 

Being in a production is so much fun if you like to act. You get to meet so many new people and do so many exciting new things that will make so many good memories. In certain productions you get to dance, sing, and play around. There are so many opportunities in the world of theater. You can learn to express yourself in so many new ways.

There are theaters all over the U.S. Some of the best theater programs can be found in New York, San Francisco, Minneapolis, and so many more places.

Theater arts isn’t just about being on stage it’s also about lights and sounds, it’s about the sets, the props, the scripts, and the dance moves. The possibilities are endless! 

Stage fright is a thing and it is really important to know that there are many professional actors, singers, and dancers that had stage fright when they began their careers and they decided that maybe it was time to overcome those fears. Mark Twain, Lorde, all the way up to Rihanna, and Adele had stage fright. 

Theater isn’t just dramatic shows like Shakespeare, no! There are so many new and interesting shows like the very popular Hamilton and Be More Chill. There are very modern shows that can be very relatable to many different people. There are some very old ones that can be fun to see or be in as well. 

Even if theater isn’t for you it’s always fun to support your community and your friends, seeing shows here at Highland or at the theaters near by. 

The Star Wars sequel trilogy has concluded, and just like with the last movie, fans’ opinions are as mixed as ever. Some say the most recent movie, The Rise of Skywalker is terrible, and others are in the completely opposite field. I personally enjoyed it, but can’t overlook some really dumb stuff that the movie includes for no reason. This is as far as I can get into the movie without spoilers, so leave now if you haven’t seen the movie yet.

Right off the bat, The Rise of Skywalker is filled with problems. It deals with the return of Palpatine, the BBEG (big bad evil guy) of the first two trilogies. First of all, I don’t mind the fact that they brought him back, but because they didn’t set up this twist in either of the previous movies, it feels like a cheap reveal. If you didn’t watch the trailers, where it was revealed he would return, then seeing his name in the opening title crawl would feel so wrong without any set up.

On a first viewing, the plot of this movie is hard to follow. It involves Poe, Finn, and Rey tracking down a Sith way-finder that can lead them to where Palpatine is hiding. Palpatine’s endgame is that he’s building a fleet of star destroyers that can destroy planets, and has sent Kylo Ren to kill Rey. The first two-thirds of this movie are about the heroes going to different planets and following leads to find the way-finder.

But when I say it’s incoherent, I mean that literally. J.J. Abrams, the man who directed the movie, doesn’t waste a lot of screen time, so it often feels like things just happen way too quick. There’s no time for any of the themes to develop as the characters are moved from one planet to the next so quickly. 

There is one moment where the plot slows down for a second, which is when Rey is in the desert about to confront Kylo Ren, the shot that was in the trailer. It takes its time to build up the tension before the confrontation, and is honestly one of the best scenes in the movie. If more of the movie had been like this scene, I believe that it would be a lot better.

One thing I really don’t like about this movie is how Rey’s backstory is treated. For two years, her parentage was a mystery, and just about everyone thought she was a Skywalker, or a Kenobi, or a Jinn, or basically a descendant of any other major Star Wars character. In The Last Jedi, it was revealed that she was a nobody, and I particularly liked that reveal, because it made the Force seem special, like anyone could use it if they believed in it. 

The Rise of Skywalker mostly threw that assumption in the trash. Partway through the movie, it is revealed that Rey is Palpatine’s granddaughter, and the reason she is so good with the Force is because of her blood. I hate this so much. They ruined most of Rey’s development in the last film, and the theme that anyone can use the Force, even random loners, like the slave boy grabbing the broom with the Force at the end of The Last Jedi.

However, even though I don’t like that they make Rey a Palpatine, I absolutely love how it plays into her character development throughout the film. It all starts when Rey accidentally uses Force lightning, which is a power that only Sith have, which foreshadows her origin. Then, later in the movie, she decided to run away from the fight and hide on the old Jedi temple because she believed she couldn’t fight anymore because she was a Palpatine. Then, Luke appears as a Force ghost, and his conversation with Rey is one of the best pep talks/motivational speeches in the entire saga, talking about how it doesn’t matter who Rey shares blood with, it matters where her loyalties lie.

On the flip side, Kylo Ren goes through an emotional arc that completes his journey throughout the films. Even though his commanding officers want to join forces with him or want him dead, he is intent on ruling the galaxy side-by-side with Rey. He tries to get her to join him by destroying the way-finder, meaning that she can only go to the emperor if she joins forces with him.

Rey rejects his offer, and from across the galaxy, Leia uses the Force to distract Kylo Ren, giving Rey an opportunity to stab him. I will admit, this scene is kind of shot in a confusing way, but since Carrie Fisher died before this film started and they were using previous footage of her with CGI clothes, I’m willing to overlook it.

Meanwhile, the last of Leia’s force powers connects Kylo to an active memory of his dad, Han Solo, in another great scene. Han isn’t a Force ghost or anything, but instead is just an active memory type thing. Anyways, they have a conversation that mirrors the one they had in The Force Awakens, with Kylo saying that, “He knows what he needs to do, but doesn’t have the strength to do it.” Han comforts him, and this time, instead of stabbing his father, Kylo Ren throws his lightsaber away and leaves to face the emperor with Rey. I feel these were the strongest scenes in the entire movie, and because they happen right before the climax, it recenters the focus of the movie and gets rid of all of the chaos and side plots.

So while the first half of the movie is kind of a mess with some cool scenes and character development, the finale is awesome. It features a giant space battle with the resistance going up against the hundreds of star destroyers called the Final Order while Rey goes to fight Palpatine and Kylo trying to catch up with her. 

This climax continues the underlying theme of hope that is prevalent throughout all of Star Wars by having Lando and Chewie going around the galaxy to spread the word that there is going to be a final attack on the Sith, and it culminates in a scene where thousands of spaceships from around the galaxy attack the Final Order. However, even though the ship battle is awesome, it pales in comparison to how Rey and Kylo beat Palpatine.

Simplifying a lot, it ends with Rey using both lightsabers to deflect Force lightning into Palpatine, and Kylo defeating the Knights of Ren, his former allies. This ending is great for two reasons: One, it sticks with the theme that Rey’s family doesn’t define her, and two, it actually had tension, and I didn’t know how it was going to end. 

However, once again, the movie pulls a stupid, and resurrects Rey using the Force heal ability. It would have been so much better if she died right there. Once she’s resurrected, they kiss for no reason at all, a scene I actually cringed at in the theatre, and then Kylo dies. Yeah, that was the grand finale of the two best characters in the entire saga. Pathetic.

Rey then goes back to the resistance base, and after hanging out there, goes to Luke’s home on Tatooine and bury’s Luke and Leia’s lightsabers in sand. A random passerby asks who she is, and she responds, “Rey Skywalker.”

I like this, because even though she’s a Palpatine, she can move on from her bloodline and decide who she is. It goes back to what Luke said in the film, about how your blood doesn’t define you, but your allegiances. It’s a good ending, and makes you feel like they name of the movie actually means something.

However, I think there would be a better way to end this film. Rey stays dead, and Kylo takes her place. Since he is a Skywalker, the ending still makes sense, and it doesn’t have to deal with the backlash of resurrection, which is kind of a stupid move to pull in any movie.

Anyways, those are my thoughts on The Rise of Skywalker. The ending would have been a lot better if Rey stayed dead, Poe and Finn were wasted throughout most of the film, and the entire first two thirds are kind of nonsensical, but if you can overlook that, the love is pretty fun. It’s just another Star Wars adventure about people tracking down a random object with a bunch of lightsaber fights. 

In that way, it’s a bit like Revenge of the Sith. A lot of people don’t like this movie, and some say the plot is stupid and confusing, but if you’re willing to overlook the stupid and just watch it because it’s Star Wars, it’s an enjoyable movie that any Star Wars fan can watch without feeling the need to watch the previous two movies.

My final rating for this movie is an 7.5/10

Once upon a time there was a world with no streaming services. If you even had a television, you couldn’t binge watch all you favorite shows. You couldn’t just watch T.V. at anytime in any place. You couldn’t even decide what you wanted to watch. You would watch what was on. Your parents were the remote control for you grandparents. Before remote controls, there were buttons connected to the giant box we called the T.V. 

The first showing of a working television was on January 26th, 1926. There were three crucial inventors of the television: John Logie Baird, Philo Farnsworth, and Charles Francis Jenkins. It was first made in the Jenkins Factory. It cost between $1000 and $3000. It was a large cube with a screen less than half the size of the box.

The first advertisement for the television aired in 1941. 

The first television remote was developed by Zenith Radio Corporation in 1950. it was attached by a wire and had big and bulky buttons.

In the 1990’s ‘‘streaming’’ was first named as a demand service but never really became a thing until 2008 when Hulu first came out. Hulu was owned by NBC and Fox. 

There are so many streaming services that they really took business away from cable networks. There’s Hulu, Netflix, HBO, Amazon Prime Video, Sling TV, Playstation Vue, fuboTV, CBS All Access, Disney+, and so many more. Cable networks are slowly being shut down and suddenly you have a million Netflix and Hulu originals like The Handmaid’s Tale, Stranger Things, etc. 

The television is slowly getting bigger and bigger physically. The variety of shows is getting bigger as well.

Many people say that watching television lets them explore different perspectives and have a world away from our own. Others believe that the same thrill of escaping can be found in books. As people continued to make and buy televisions the new ideas for shows expanded. People began to become invested in a character’s life. 

*Disclaimer* I am not hating on any streaming services, just simply writing about the changes that have happened with television. Thank you.