Star Wars: Dark Empire (1992) #3 Comic Book Review

Star Wars: Dark Empire #3 was the first Star Wars comic I ever received when I was a kid. It was also my introduction to many of the characters from the Star Wars Trilogy as I didn't see the movies until early 1996. It was given to me by one of the nurses I had at the hospital, along with a bunch of her son's old Star Wars toys that he didn't play with anymore. I'm pretty sure that's who gave me this issue as I don't see my parents buying it for me since it came out before my dad bought me Star Trek #31 and Star Trek: The Next Generation #31.

This was a pretty strange issue to get into Star Wars with, which is probably why I didn't actually get into Star Wars until I saw the movies in 1996. Aside from the artwork which just has really bad colouring with way too much green and pink included, the issue opens with a Rebel fleet, commanded by Lando Calrissian and Wedge Antilles onboard a Rebel captured Star Destroyer, arriving at Mon Calamari, Admiral Ackbar's homeworld in response to an Imperial attack on the world. The Rebels pretty much lose the battle thanks to new robotic TIE Fighters and new machines of terror known as the World Devastators. Then it shows Leia having a Force vision of Darth Vader which morphs into Luke, who explains that he has turned to the Dark Side in order to save the Galaxy from the reign of terror instituted by the resurrected Emperor Palpatine. And for some reason this causes Leia to faint. From there her, Han, Chewie and Threepio head off to Nar Shaddaa, the Smuggler's Moon where we meet some colourful characters, and where we find out that Boba Fett is still alive after having been tossed into the Sarlacc in Return of the Jedi.

Yeah, the space battles are pretty great in this issue. Though it is limited to two. The first being the Battle of Mon Calamari between the Rebel Alliance and the Empire, and the second being a much smaller one between the Millennium Falcon and a group of bounty hunters who got the bright idea of trying to capture Han and Leia for the bounty placed on them by the Hutts for the death of Jabba as they approached Nar Shaddaa. It didn't work out so great for the bounty hunters.

One of the things that I like about this issue is that it actually laid the foundation for plotlines shown in The Hutt Gambit and Rebel Dawn, the second and third novels in Star Wars: The Han Solo Trilogy by A.C. Crispin. Nar Shaddaa, Mako Spince, Shug Ninx, and Sala Zend all appear in those two novels and the background notes in the back of this issue are the basis for events that happen during that novel trilogy.

As I mentioned earlier the artwork for Dark Empire as whole, not just this issue, is really weird. Some panels are coloured normally but many of them are a single colour. Mostly green, with some that are just pure pink. Including the characters. I don't know if that's a stylistic quirk of Cam Kennedy's, or if that's just an in house style for Dark Horse Comics in general in 1992 as this is the only comic from Dark Horse that I have from that era. Whatever the case may be, it's an interesting colour choice for a Star Wars comic and definitely not something that other comic book companies have ever done before or since. It does make it difficult to figure out who you're looking at without any dialogue on the page that's for sure.

Final Thoughts and Rating: Overall Dark Empire #3 is probably not the best way to be introduced to this storyline or these characters. With this issue you're approaching the halfway mark in this story and even with reading the opening "crawl" at the beginning of the issue you might be confused with what's going on if you haven't already read issues #1 and #2. It's still a pretty decent issue for the one that's approaching the halfway mark in a six issue mini-series. I'm going to give it 9/10 stars because of the weird colouring choices throughout the issue.

Wookieepedia:  https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Dark_Empire_3%3A_The_Battle_for_Calamari

Return of the Jedi (1983) Movie Review

Return of the Jedi is often referred to as the weakest movie in the original Star Wars Trilogy. And while it's not as good as The Empire Strikes Back it's not a bad movie by any means. It's simply more in line with the tone of Star Wars as the movie's director, Richard Marquand had sensibilities that aligned more with George Lucas's than Empire's director, Irvin Kershner's did. George also wanted a faster paced movie that could be made under budget as Kershner and former producer, Gary Kurtz, had let production on The Empire Strikes Back go overbudget due to the slower pace at which they filmed the movie in.

As a result in this change in crew behind the scenes you get a movie that is not as dark as the previous film, but still delivers on the drama as Yoda confirms that Darth Vader is Luke's father and that Obi-Wan reveals that Luke has a sister, who turns out to be Leia, resolving once and for all whether Luke and Leia or Han and Leia are going to end up together. Which, as I've already said, is very different from The Empire Strikes Back, which focused more on character development, is still handled extremely well. Primarily because Lawrence Kasdan is still the writer on this movie and he handles things like that pretty well.

Return of the Jedi is probably the Star Wars movie that I watched the most when I was a kid. Before I'd seen the movies, I'd watched Ewoks as well as Droids, so I was already familiar with the Ewoks as well as Artoo-Detoo and See-Threepio. And with this movie introducing the Ewoks, it ended up being my favourite of the Star Wars movies when I was a kid.

Unlike in the first two films, there's so much going on in this movie. I mean the entire first half an hour or so is dedicated to Luke and the others rescuing Han from Jabba the Hutt, finally wrapping up the Jabba subplot that was started in Star Wars and had been going through the entire trilogy. Which actually works a lot better in the original theatrical version of the movie since Jabba doesn't show up in the first movie like he does in the Special Edition. He's just this mysterious gangster character that looms over Han's life and prevents him from fully committing to the Rebel Alliance. And I'm sure that audiences who saw this movie in theatres back in 1983 were thrilled at this pay off that they'd been waiting for since Star Wars came out in 1977. I only had to wait two nights.

I've always seen Luke and Han as dual protagonists as Han has been on a journey of his own since his first scene in Star Wars which parallels Luke's journey as the hero of the trilogy. In Star Wars Han starts out as a selfish mercenary, but comes to Luke's rescue during the Death Star battle. Then in The Empire Strikes Back Han loses that selfish edge as he does everything in his power to evacuate Leia and Threepio from Hoth and get them to safety, culminating in him sacrificing himself to being frozen in Carbonite by Darth Vader to prevent his friends from getting killed by Vader or Boba Fett. Until finally we get to Return of the Jedi where Han leads a squad of Rebel soldiers to destroy the Death Star's shield generator on Endor.

Luke is also wiser and more in control of his powers in this movie. Not only is it evident in the Jabba the Hutt sequence at the beginning of the movie, but during his Lightsaber duel with Vader at the end, you can tell that his attacks are more fluid and less choppy than they were in the previous film. He also planned out Han's rescue rather than just charging into Jabba's Palace and fighting his way out.

When I was a kid, the Emperor was never as scary in this movie as Vader was in The Empire Strikes Back. Sure, he was menacing, but he's a villain, he's supposed to be menacing. He just isn't scary like Vader is. Probably because we didn't see the true scope of the Emperor's power until he starts hurling electricity at Luke from his fingers. Whereas with Vader, he's got the black suit and mask, and the first time we saw him in the first movie, he was killing Rebel officers left, right and centre. So that definitely creates a scary first impression.

Speaking of Vader, I almost feel like he's lost his edge in this movie. Not simply because the Emperor shows up here and not because he's a lot more conflicted due to his interactions with Luke. In the first movie, despite being under the command of Grand Moff Tarkin, played by Peter Cushing, he almost seems young and not as in control of his powers or his temper, as we saw when he attempted to kill Admiral Motti in the conference room during Tarkin's first scene. Then in Empire Vader is more confident in his power, but also more aggressive, killing several Imperial officers under his command simply because they failed him in some way. Here though he doesn't kill anyone, and doesn't even fight quite as well against Luke in the Emperor's throne room on the Death Star.

Final Thoughts and Rating: Overall Return of the Jedi is the perfect sequel to The Empire Strikes Back and the perfect conclusion to the Star Wars Trilogy as a whole. It's not a perfect movie by any means. The rescuing Han from Jabba sequence could've been a little bit shorter, though again, aping the old movie serials of the '30s and '40s George wanted to make it dynamic and interesting enough for audiences not to walk out of the theatre. The Ewoks are also pretty badass in the way they take out the Emperor's so called "best" troops. I'm giving Return of the Jedi 9/10 stars simply because the Jabba stuff took up too much of the movie, Leia didn't have a whole lot to do in this movie, and some of the backdrops during the speeder bike chase scene aren't great and you can tell they were shot against blue screen.

Star Wars will return in Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace...

IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086190/?ref_=tt_sims_tt

The Empire Strikes Back (1980) Movie Review

The Empire Strikes Back is probably the Star Wars movie that scared me the most when I first watched it as a kid, leading me to skip over it when I was watching the Star Wars Trilogy pretty much every time after that when I was a kid. I mean as a nine year old I freaked out when I saw Darth Vader bear down on Luke Skywalker in the dark Carbon Freezing chamber on Cloud City and the illusion of Vader in the cave on Dagobah.

As an adult though I've come to appreciate this movie more than I did as a kid. Vader still scares the crap out of me, but he no longer fuels my nightmares like he did 24 years ago. While The Empire Strikes Back isn't my favourite movie in the Star Wars saga, it's the best Star Wars movie that has ever been made. With the introduction of Yoda and the further exploration of the Jedi and the Force, this movie is probably the most iconic of all the Star Wars movies. It's also the most quotable film in the franchise too. From "No! Try not. Do or do not. There is no try" to "The Force is with you young Skywalker. But you are not a Jedi yet!" to "No, I am your father", this movie has the most memorable quotes in it.

The reason for that is how much sharper a script this movie has. Lawrence Kasdan took over writing duties from George Lucas after the initial draft was completed and you can really tell. The relationships between the characters are stronger, and the new characters, such as Yoda and Lando are more complex than the archetype characters like Han, Luke and Leia that we were introduced to in the previous movie. Even Vader is a more dynamic villain and is also a more interesting one. Though one has to wonder if he was all that smart since he was so intent on capturing the Millennium Falcon, believing that Luke was onboard, he didn't stop to consider until the end of the movie that maybe Luke had gone off on his own following the Rebels's escape from Hoth.

As I was watching the 1995 VHS release of this movie last night, there's something I picked up on that I really hadn't before this viewing. In the scene in his home, Yoda mentions that he'd been watching Luke for a long time. We know from the original Expanded Universe, as well as from the sequel trilogy that Force users, be it Sith or Jedi, can watch an individual through the Force, as Luke was able to do that with Han, Leia and their children in the post-Return of the Jedi novels published throughout the '90s. But with this movie, none of that was written yet and George hadn't really developed the Force yet prior to Kasdan coming in and doing so for him with this movie, so had Yoda been using the Force to help Obi-Wan keep an eye on Luke between the Prequel Trilogy and Star Wars? Also, did he know Luke was coming to Dagobah and that's why he chose to test Luke the way he did?

The parallels between Obi-Wan in the previous movie and Yoda in this movie is pretty spectacular. I mean both are meant to represent the wise old mentor figure from the Hero's Journey as laid out by Joseph Campbell, but they both tested Luke differently. While Obi-Wan is the wise old wizard sent to watch over the hero, Yoda is more the old man on the side of the road, that the hero dismisses at first sight due to the situation he finds the old man in. But regardless of their methods, Yoda and Obi-Wan both tested Luke in their own way. Of course, Obi-Wan and Yoda must've planned for Luke to journey to Dagobah so Yoda could train him to be a Jedi at a specific point in time, and that just happened to coincide with the events of this movie.

My favourite relationship in this movie is between Han and Leia. Their witty banter is great and just the way they bounce off of each other is pretty great. Han almost becomes more mischievious in this movie when he's around Leia because he knows it'll piss her off. Which is pretty bold, considering we saw her grab a blaster out of Luke's hand and burn down several Stormtroopers in a row in the previous movie. And just the way their relationship developed through the course of this movie felt way more natural than some relationships have in modern movies and TV shows.

I also really like Lando in this movie. He's a lot like Han was in the previous movie, but while you knew that Han was a good guy, there's something a little off about Lando throughout the first part of his appearance. He's too charming and forgives Han way too easily for whatever slight Han committed against him in a previous adventure, which isn't talked about, apart from Han saying, "That was a long time ago. I'm sure he's forgotten about that by now", after Chewie makes a comment, resulting in Leia looking at Han sideways for a moment. Even when Lando is talking to Vader after Han, Leia, Chewie and Threepio gets captured, you aren't really sure whether Lando is a good guy or a bad guy, though you definitely getting the feeling that dealing with Vader makes Lando uneasy. As it should considering he's Darth freaking Vader, the right hand man of the Emperor. I'd be uneasy too if I was dealing with a person like that.

The character that I think is highly overrated in this movie and in the next is Boba Fett. Yeah, he looks cool, but he does nothing in the entire movie. Aside from taking Han, frozen in Carbonite, to Jabba the Hutt of course. But he doesn't do anything except stand there and talk back to Vader. Yet somehow he's gotten a cult following, which, in turn led to the development of the Mandalorian race, which then led to the creation of the Disney+ series, The Mandalorian. Which I'm not complaining about, but I do think Boba Fett is the most overrated character in the entire Star Wars franchise.

Final Thoughts and Rating: Overall while The Empire Strikes Back isn't my favourite of the Star Wars films, it's still the best Star Wars movie ever made. The story is precise without any extra material that makes it drag, the characters are more dynamic and their relationships are more solid, and the further development of the Jedi and the Force is pretty cool. I'm giving The Empire Strikes Back 10/10 stars.

To Be Concluded in Return of the Jedi...

IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080684/?ref_=tt_sims_tt

Star Wars (1977) Movie Review

Star Wars. So much has been said about this movie and yet there's always someone who's discovering it for the first time, or talking about it still that we can't help but get excited when a new home video edition comes out. We've had so many VHS, DVD, and Blu-ray releases of the movie, as well as the other movies in the franchise that you could collect nothing but Star Wars movies and that would last you for a lifetime. So why am I here talking about this movie when so many other people have reviewed it and talked about it endlessly? Because I am a Fanboy and more than any other movie in the Star Wars series, this one is my favourite.

My introduction to Star Wars came in 1996 with this VHS tape. It was released in 1995 and marketed as the last opportunity to own the original version of the Star Wars Trilogy on VHS (and Laserdisc) before the Special Edition came out in 1997. Before this my only contact with Star Wars came from the Droids and Ewoks cartoons, a single comic book, and a handful of toys passed on to me by a nurse I had at CHEO when I was a kid. I'd never seen the movies before as for whatever reason my parents didn't think to rent them for me, we didn't own a copy and I never watched them at the hospital. But then my dad got the 1995 Trilogy VHS box set for Christmas in 1995 and it wasn't too long before I sat down to watch this movie for the very first time. Though now that I think about it, I might've watched Return of the Jedi first because it had the Ewoks in it and I knew them from the cartoon.

Regardless, I fell in love with this movie when I watched it for the first time. The spaceships were more interesting than the starships I was used to seeing on Star Trek and Star Trek: The Next Generation, the characters looked cooler and the villain looked more frightening than any Klingon did in Star Trek. Plus you had space wizards, laser swords, and funny robots who weren't trying to be funny all the time. Also the story was exciting. I mean it was an ordinary boy who had to rescue a princess from an evil being and then save the galaxy. How could a nine year old boy not get excited about seeing that? I mean George Lucas himself has stated numerous times that he made Star Wars for nine year old boys because he was watching the Flash Gordon movie serials starring Buster Crabbe when he was nine years old. Naturally I was the perfect age when I first watched Star Wars 24 years ago.

One of the things that I love about this movie is that it doesn't take itself too seriously. One of the things that I found with the '90s incarnations of Star Trek is that each one took itself more seriously than the previous series did. Which was fine for Star Trek. But as a nine year old boy, and now as a 33 year old adult, sometimes I found myself just wanting to have fun, without having to think about things while watching a movie. And that's what Star Wars is. It's a fun movie. Every time I watch it, I have fun watching it. As journalist Bill Moyers once said in an interview in the documentary Empire of Dreams: The Story of the Star Wars Trilogy, "It's a lot of fun to watch Star Wars". I agree with that statement 100%.

My favourite character has changed a lot over the years. When I first saw the movie, I liked Darth Vader a lot. Then as a teenager, I found myself drawn to Luke Skywalker, because I could relate to that character. Now as an adult, I find myself drawn to both Han Solo and Obi-Wan Kenobi. Han, because in this movie he's approximately the same age as I am now, plus or minus a year or two, and Obi-Wan because he's the wise old mentor, who has to explain a lot to Luke in such a short amount of time, as well as find a way to tell Luke about Darth Vader, without revealing who Vader actually is. Also, one thing I was wondering during my viewing of this movie last night, is whether Obi-Wan knew he was going to have to face Vader on the Death Star when he volunteered to shut the tractor beam holding the Millennium Falcon in the hangar bay. I mean obviously he could sense Vader's presence, just as Vader could sense his, and there were two shots where Obi-Wan pulled out his Lightsaber as if he was expecting Vader to appear, knowing he couldn't just use the Force to cloud Vader's mind into not seeing him as he'd been doing with the Stormtroopers the whole time he'd been on the Death Star.

Final Thoughts and Rating: Overall Star Wars is one of those movies that I can go back and watch over and over again and never get tired of it. It's fun, it's exciting and it's the reason I love movies so much. There are so many ways to watch it too. All of the Star Wars movies are on Disney+ now, and there's dozens of VHS, Laserdisc, DVD and Blu-ray editions out there for you to watch too. I'm giving Star Wars 9.9/10 stars with it losing half a star because the Stormtroopers are lousy shots against our heroes anyway, and Greedo was dumb enough to try to take Han Solo on his own.

To Be Continued in The Empire Strikes Back...

IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0076759/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

Star Wars Week Announcement and Schedule

Hey guys! Happy Star Wars Day! I'm just here to announce that this week is going to be Star Wars Week here at The Review Basement and to let you know what reviews I'm going to be doing and when they're coming out. I've got a decent lineup of Star Wars and Star Wars related movies to review this week as well as a comic book and a novel as well.

Monday - Star Wars (1977) VHS Movie Review, Star Wars Week Announcement post

Tuesday - The Empire Strikes Back (1980) VHS Movie Review

Wednesday - Return of the Jedi (1983) VHS Movie Review, Star Wars: Dark Empire #3 comic review

Thursday - Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) VHS Movie Review, Super Star Wars Super Nintendo Video Game Overview

Friday - Spaceballs (1987) DVD Movie Review, Star Wars: Heir to the Empire book review

Saturday - Fanboys (2009) Blu-ray Movie Review, Star Wars Trilogy VHS Box Set Overview

That's the schedule for this week's Star Wars themed posts. The blog will return to normal next week with plenty of reviews and posts, but this week is all about Star Wars. So have fun and enjoy the reviews and posts. Before I go though, I included Spaceballs and Fanboys because Spaceballs is a parody of Star Wars and Fanboys is all about the Star Wars fans. So that's why they're there. Alright guys, I'll be back soon with my review of the movie that started it all, Star Wars from 1977. May the Force Be With You!

Star Trek: Prime Directive (1990) Book Review

Star Trek: Prime Directive is one of those Star Trek novels that fit much more into the authorized fan fiction category than it does into the category of Star Trek novels that work as a companion piece to the TV show or movies. Of course it's written by Star Trek fans Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens, a husband and wife writing duo that are the most high profile Star Trek writers from the '90s and 2000s, which contributes to the more fan fiction feel to the story.

I've read this book a few times over the years. I originally had the hardcover edition after Brad had given me a box of his old Star Trek novels. Eventually I got the paperback edition, which is the copy I have now. Each time I read it, I enjoyed the story, but this time around when I read it, originally not intending to review it, it felt different to me. While the characters all feel like the characters from the TV series, the story itself felt more like something they'd do on TNG, DS9 or Enterprise in the '90s and 2000s. In fact, the premise of the Enterprise being responsible for the destruction of an entire world was used by Rick Berman and Brannon Braga for the season 1 finale cliffhanger of Star Trek: Enterprise in 2002.

The reason it feels like a '90s story that would be done on a Star Trek series or movie of that period rather than on the original series in the '60s is that there's an undertone of certain Starfleet officers simply being out for themselves as shown by their swift inquiry which leads to Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Sulu, Chekov, and Uhura resigning from Starfleet. It's also evidenced by the portrayal of Styles, the captain of the Excelsior in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, who is a Lieutenant in this novel. He was arrogant and pompous in Star Trek III because he was in command of the Excelsior, a brand new starship that was more advanced than the aging Enterprise was at the time. Here he's just a jerk and actually comes off as a bully and someone who really shouldn't be in command of salvaging the heavily damaged Enterprise let alone in command of a starship. Which again, feels more '90s than it does '80s like the portrayal of the character in Star Trek III from 1984.

Another thing that makes this novel very '90s is the inclusion of a special interests group intent on seeing the Prime Directive get abolished, something that was quite prevalent in the '90s.

Something else that I found interesting is that Kirk had already violated the Prime Directive in numerous episodes of TOS, yet he was never punished for it because in the 23rd Century, Starfleet officers, and pretty much Starfleet as a whole, were a little too slow to invoke the Prime Directive, as Janeway put it in the episode "Flashback" from season 3 of Star Trek: Voyager. Here though, not only was Kirk punished, but everyone who was on the Bridge when Talin IV was destroyed and participated in the event, were too.

My favourite part of the book was when McCoy pretended to be a space pirate named the Black Ire in order to get to Talin IV more quickly. I mean despite this novel being written in the '90s and having the sensibilities of the '90s, that kind of thing is totally in character for Doctor McCoy. Plus, having Uhura helping him with it, is pretty great too, because it utilized her skills as a communications specialist and former Communications Officer of the Enterprise.

Final Thoughts and Rating: Overall this is a pretty good Star Trek novel. As I said at the beginning it works pretty well as a novel that fits into the category of Star Trek fan fiction or Star Trek Expanded Universe material rather than a novel that could've been an episode of the TV show or a movie. I'm giving Star Trek: Prime Directive 9/10 stars for being an interesting story despite it being something that would never have been done in an episode of TOS or a TOS movie.

Dick Tracy (1990) Movie Review

Dick Tracy is a strange movie in that it's based on a comic strip from 1931, but is heavily influenced by a movie based on another comic book series. Dick Tracy came out a year after Batman did and is heavily influenced by that movie. Right down to Danny Elfman scoring the film. Which is my biggest problem with the movie.

Don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed Dick Tracy and I think it's a wonderful movie. But, while Batman embraced the Noir atmosphere of the Batman comics of the time, Dick Tracy couldn't decide whether it was going to be ridiculous, which there are more than a few scenes that are completely ridiculous, or it was going to fully embrace the more serious undertones that the movie had. For example, for the entire movie, Tracy is after Big Boy Caprice, the head of the Mob in whatever city the movie is set in, but we're never told why, aside from he's the head of organized crime. There's no personal connection between Tracy and Big Boy like there is between Batman and the Joker in Batman. There doesn't always have to be a personal connection between the hero and the villain, and I certainly don't want that in EVERY comic book based movie that gets made, but when there isn't a whole lot to the hero, that personal connection helps to connect me to the character I'm following in a movie. Especially in a movie that is as weird as this one is in terms of how the villains look and the weird way the movie doesn't seem to have any rules for the universe it's setting up.

I love the cast in this movie. Warren Beatty plays a great Dick Tracy. Though he really doesn't do a whole lot in the movie because he was also directing it. This is the first movie I've ever seen Al Pacino in as I've never seen The Godfather or any of the other movies he's been in. He was so over the top as Big Boy that his performance kind of reminded me of Mel Brooks as President Skroob in Spaceballs. In fact there are a couple of scenes where Pacino is giving dialogue and his voice sounds almost exactly like Brooks. I also love Glenne Headly as Tracy's girlfriend, Tess Trueheart, I felt for her quite a bit in this movie when she was feeling like Tracy cared more for his job than he did for her. At the same time she does love him, and he loves her, though he has difficulty expressing his feelings to her, much like the way Cliff Secord had trouble expressing his feelings towards Jenny Blake in The Rocketeer.

The only cast member and character that I have a huge problem with in this movie is Madonna as Breathless Mahoney. I'm not a huge Madonna fan, though I certainly grew up listening to some of her songs on the radio and I just feel like her acting is atrocious in this movie. And it certainly doesn't help that she tries to seduce Tracy every time they're on screen together. I felt more sympathy for Jessica Rabbit in Who Framed Roger Rabbit than I did for Breathless Mahoney in this movie. I will say that there's a turn with Madonna's character at the end of the movie that I didn't see coming. I won't spoil what that turn is for those of you who haven't seen the movie before, but for those who have, you know what I'm talking about. It's a pretty great reveal that's for sure.

Last night was my first time watching Dick Tracy though up until I watched it I was pretty sure I'd seen the movie before. But it turns out I hadn't though it simply felt like I had as the movie was pretty heavily marketed back then in the same way Batman had been marketed the year before and I remember seeing the trailer for the movie at the beginning of the VHS release for Honey, I Shrunk the Kids. Plus I knew about the movie since my grandparents had it on VHS, which is the copy I now own, and from Captain Logan's review of it on Superhero Rewind. This was just my first time watching it for myself.

Final Thoughts and Rating: Overall I think Dick Tracy is a pretty good movie. I don't like it as much as I do The Rocketeer, but it's still a solid movie. I'm more of a Sci-Fi person than I am a crime fiction person, so this movie didn't tickle my fancy quite as much as The Rocketeer did. I do wish that they'd developed the character of Dick Tracy a little bit more in terms of what he wants and why he's after Big Boy specifically. There's a history there that just isn't explored in the movie. It's been a long time since I read any of the original comic strips, so I don't remember if that history is explored there at all or not, but it's definitely lacking here. The cast is great, aside from Madonna, and it was really weird seeing Dick Van Dyke in a more serious role than what I'm used to seeing him in. And while the uneven tone, the untapped potential of this movie's world, and Madonna detracted from the movie for me, I'm going to give it an 8/10 stars because the rest of the cast is awesome and there is definitely potential for exploring the world of Dick Tracy in film.

IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0099422/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0