Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back – JenEric Movie Review

How This Works – Read Other Reviews

Hello Cinephiles,

Today we’re talking about the 1980 film Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back.

Story

Deviating a little from the bare bones hero’s journey of the first film, this one introduces new villains and allies. It also becomes a lot more confident in its worldbuilding. It definitely leans further into the space opera in one story and the wizard fantasy in the other.

Score: 0.5

Characters

Luke starts to have a backbone and agency, which is shown as a bad thing. The romance between Leia and Han is pretty forced. Leia is portrayed less like a competent diplomat and more like an overworked leader with workaholic tendencies.

I’m also reminded that I like C3P0 significantly more when the humans ignore him.

Score: 0.5

Dialogue

The dialogue is deliciously cheesy and I love so many of the lines. I get annoyed at the bargain-bin Orientalism of Yoda and the ridiculous absolutism of the Jedi in general.

Score: 0.5

Visuals and Music

Once again the model work is utterly fantastic and the practical effects are wonderful. The camera work is great and the set are spectacular.

The music is iconic and although there’s a lot of carry-over from the first movie, the new themes are wonderful.

Score: 1

Fun

This movie is a lot of fun but has less of the hope (pun intended) of the first film. The shift in tone comes from the defeat at the beginning and the way the Jedi act like all is lost when Luke, rightfully, chooses to save his friends.

Score: 0.5

Overall

The movie is epic and the visuals amazing but it suffers from being half of a story and from a drastic change in tone that would continue in the sequels/prequels.

Final Score: 3 Stars out of 5

If Jason Johnson had Instagram

If Instagram existed in 2003, this is what Jason would’ve posted during the book Monsters! Incidental Wedding Guests.

@jendesmaraisauthor

If Instagram existed in 2003, this is what Jason would’ve posted during the book “Monsters! Incidental Wedding Guests”. “Monsters! Incidental Wedding Guests” is an Urban Fantasy Romance. What happens when superheroes plan a wedding? Monsters, that’s what. Kennedy and Jason are ready to get married. They just have to deal with evaporating monsters first. Available for pre-order now! https://www.jeneric-designs.ca/books-and-timeline/universal-book-links/#MIWG Cover art by @pinkpiggy93 #MonstersIncidentalWeddingGuests #JenDesmarais #authors #book #pinkpiggy93 #artist #UrbanFantasy #RomanceBook #superheroes #BattleCouple #original #booktok @Éric Desmarais @PressesRenaissancePress

♬ Magical Fantasy – Dmitriy Sevostyanov

Monsters! Incidental Wedding Guests is an Urban Fantasy Romance. What happens when superheroes plan a wedding? Monsters, that’s what.

Kennedy and Jason are ready to get married. They just have to deal with evaporating monsters first.

Available for pre-order now!

Monsters! Incidental Wedding Guests by Jen and Éric Desmarais is available now!

Indigo Books Monsters! Incidental Wedding Guests
Archambault Monsters! Incidental Wedding Guests
Amazon Monsters! Incidental Wedding Guests
Rakuten Kobo Monsters! Incidental Wedding Guests
Apple Books Monsters! Incidental Wedding Guests

Add it to your “Want to read” on Goodreads here!

Week 37 – Curious George

This is one of the cutest movies I’ve ever seen. I find it a challenge to watch it without smiling. It also has SO MANY potential activities, it’s hard to just pick 3.

Here is the link for the downloadable materials. (I hope this works…please let me know if you have any problems so I can fix it!)

MondayTuesdayWednesdayThursdayFriday
paintingWatch moviemake crownFlexbake with bananas

Summary of the week

Daily details:

Dance

Ballet and martial arts on alternate days

Music

Singing, listening to different pieces, learning piano, learning guitar

Basic Information

We talk about the days of the week and play games with the cutouts of the names. We do the same thing with the names of the months of the year. You can find the print-outs here.

Printing words

Download material

Counting objects/math-type activities

Practice counting objects and writing how many of each type – (in download material)

Addition and pattern – worksheet

Storytime

Activity

Painting
Make crown – link to reference
Bake with bananas – link to recipes for banana bread, muffins, and cupcakes

Next week: How to Train Your Dragon

Week 35 – Brave Results

Pegasus enjoyed this movie, especially the antics of the triplets (I’m shocked, I tell you). I thought it was funny that he made a book about a bear last week, when this week was the movie about a bear, but I guess it’s just a coincidence.

Dance

As per usual, I didn’t do anything specific for this.

Music

His scales are coming along nicely and he willingly practises both his scales and the pieces in the book. He’s only 20 pages away from finishing the first book.

Basic Information

We are working on the day before and the day after any given day. The months of the year is going well. All months have proper pronounciation now, and we’re working on the month before and after any given month. That’s coming slowly.

We practised the seasons, but he still needs help remembering them in French.

Printing words

I had to draw the lines in because the printer decided not to work properly. Pegasus decided to completely ignore the lines in retaliation lol

Counting objects/math-type activities

He wrote the 9 and 6 backward, but he fixed them without complaint.

Math worksheets. Zero problems with these. He was extremely proud of his star. His 7 was backward again, but he fixed it no problem.

Storytime

We have no French library books this week, so he read some French books through Boukili.

Activity

Elements of a fairy tale – We discussed what elements are in fairy tales, and how the movie showed (or tweak) them. Then, Pegasus came up with a fairy tale of his own, which was so much fun! Here it is:

Once upon a time, in a kingdom far, far away, there lived a king with a daughter. She had lots of special powers, like healing, turning invisible, and being really good at hiding. A witch heard about these special powers and wanted them for her own, so she snuck into the castle and stole the princess away! She turned the princess into a talking frog and put her in a tower, far away from the kingdom she had grown up in. The witch told the princess that she had seven nights to figure out how to turn back into a human, or else she would remain a frog for all time, and her powers would belong to the witch. The princess, on the first night, turned invisible and snuck out of the tower. She knew that if she made it back to her kingdom, she would return human. Her journey home was fraught (my word lol) with danger. She fought off a snake that wanted to eat her, but she escaped. She was almost eaten by a crocodile, but she escaped. She was almost eaten by a heron, but she escaped. At long last, she made it to her kingdom. The instant she crossed the border, she became human again, right before the clock struck midnight on the seventh night. Her father was so happy to have her home once more.

Make spell cake – We did not make spell cake, and instead made iced cookies from Dragon’s Disney cookbook. Pegasus loved making these. They were extremely drippy and messy, but they were delicious!

Learn about bears – He enjoyed the video about bears for kids and randomly spouted facts the next day that he’d gotten from the video, so I gather he paid attention.

Monsters! Incidental Wedding Guests Style Comps

“Monsters! Incidental Wedding Guests” is an Urban Fantasy Romance. What happens when superheroes plan a wedding? Monsters, that’s what.

Kennedy and Jason are ready to get married. They just have to deal with evaporating monsters first.

There are several other books and TV shows that have a similar style, in one way or another, to our book. Here are the images I made with all the covers of the style comparisons.

Summary

The week before Kennedy and Jason’s wedding is busy. There are cake tastings, dress fittings, a formal ball, and, as their superhero personas the Phantom and the Wraith, fighting monsters.

These behemoths are destructive, smell like snack food, and are only after one thing: Door Tech Industries technology.

Adding to the chaos are their friends and families; Jason’s grandmother has returned after having been missing for half a century, Kennedy’s mom is dead-set on keeping things traditional, and Jason’s best friend is kidnapped before the rehearsal.

Kennedy and Jason just want to get married, preferably before the next monster attack.

The second book of four in The Gates of Westmeath series.

Monsters! Incidental Wedding Guests by Jen and Éric Desmarais is available now!

Indigo Books Monsters! Incidental Wedding Guests
Archambault Monsters! Incidental Wedding Guests
Amazon Monsters! Incidental Wedding Guests
Rakuten Kobo Monsters! Incidental Wedding Guests
Apple Books Monsters! Incidental Wedding Guests

Add it to your “Want to read” on Goodreads here!

Star Wars: A New Hope – JenEric Movie Review

How This Works – Read Other Reviews

Hello Cinephiles,

Today we’re talking about the 1977 film Star Wars: A New Hope.

Story

This is a Fantasy movie, set in a Space Opera setting, populated with characters from Westerns and Samurai movies. It’s a combination that shouldn’t work, but works really well. However, all the set dressing in the world doesn’t make it any less of a stereotyped hero’s journey.

Score: 0.5

Characters

The characters are barely fleshed out archetypes and tropes. The farm boy, the rogue with a heart of gold, the strong(TM) princess, the honourable wizard knight, and the evil dark cloaked former apprentice.

The actors do a great job with what they have, but the weakest part of the movie is the characters’ motivation and personalities. (Something that improves in future movies.)

My biggest gripe is that the bad guys and the good guys treat non-human races as inferior. I’m still annoyed that the droids and Chewy didn’t get medals.

Score: 0.5

Dialogue

Iconic quips and quotes that are hardwired into geek culture. The movie has some amazing lines and some absolutely terrible ones.

As quotable as the movie is, its dialogue is stilted and filled with pseudo-nonsense that wouldn’t be explained for decades.

Score: 0.5

Visuals and Music

I realize that the special effects were touched up in the version we have, but the touch ups look worse then the actual practical effects. The original effects are utterly fantastic.

John Williams wrote one of the most iconic themes in film history.

Score: 1

Fun

I first saw this movie when I was in my teens. It was re-released in theatres. It was quite the experience, but watching it at home and seeing the wonder in my kids faces was great.

Score: 1

Overall

Iconic and amazing, this movie captures the wonder and joy of going to the movies in a way that every blockbuster wants to recreate. It has its problems, but it’s a great watch.

Final Score: 3.5 Stars out of 5

Week 36 – Strange World

The last new movie! The first time I saw this, I knew exactly what I was looking at once they descended into the caves. I look forward to this week.

Here is the link for the downloadable materials. (I hope this works…please let me know if you have any problems so I can fix it!)

MondayTuesdayWednesdayThursdayFriday
learn about body systemsWatch moviegardeningFlexdraw by numbers

Summary of the week

Daily details:

Dance

Ballet and martial arts on alternate days

Music

Singing, listening to different pieces, learning piano, learning guitar

Basic Information

We talk about the days of the week and play games with the cutouts of the names. We do the same thing with the names of the months of the year. You can find the print-outs here.

Printing words

Download material

Counting objects/math-type activities

Practice counting objects and writing how many of each type – (in download material)

Addition and pattern – worksheet

Storytime

Activity

Gardening
Learn about body systems (digestion, respiration, circulation, nerves)
Draw by numbers – in download materials

Next week: Curious George

Caitlyn

Caitlyn from League of Legends visited with her cupcake (fitting, since it was this cosplayer’s birthday yesterday!). Go follow Princess of the North on all the socials – she’s awesome!