Dune: Part Two (2024)

While the Harkonnens reestablish control of Arrakis, Paul Atreides (Timothee Chalamet) learns the Fremen ways and joins them in their efforts to fight the Harkonnens.  He takes the name Maud'Dib, so the Harkonnens are unaware that any of the Atreides clan survived.  His mother (Rebecca Ferguson), a Bene Gesserit, drinks the Water of Life in order to replace a dying Reverend Mother.  However, she is pregnant and the Water of Life has a profound impact on her unborn daughter.  Thanks to Paul's exposure to spice, his selective breeding, and his Bene Gesserit training, he has abilities beyond normal men.  He was already suspected of being a savior in the first movie, thanks to prophecies that the Bene Gesserit have spread among the Fremen for centuries.  Now that Paul is a brilliant war commander, opinions that he might indeed be the Madhi spread across the face of Arrakis.

While the Fremen confront the Harkonnens, Paul and Chani (Zendaya) are drawn closer together and become lovers.  Baron Harkonnen (Stellan Skarsgard) has not been idle.  He has groomed his psychotic nephew, Feyd-Rautha (Austin Butler), to assume command of Arrakis, displacing his brother, Rabban (Dave Bautista).  The stage is set for an eventual clash between Paul and Feyd, each of whom is the result of centuries of selective breeding.

Overall, this is a great movie.  Very entertaining, good pacing, great visuals.  My biggest issue with the movie was that Jessica was still pregnant at the end.  Therefore, Paul goes from desperate refugee to emperor of the known universe in less than 9 months.  It took somewhat longer in the book.  It also took longer in the 1984 version, though the introduction of Paul's super precocious little sister was quite jarring.

The movie ends with a clear path for a sequel.  In fact, it ends on something of a cliffhanger as the Fremen travel into space to being a holy war in Paul's name.

Great popcorn fun and recommended.  I eagerly await the next one.

Those Rules No Longer Apply

Mike Finger, a sportswriter, offered political commentary recently.  He announces his confusion about whether sports figures are supposed to be political or not.  When Kaepernick knelt on the field, the howls were that he should just play the game and not get political.  However, now that Harrison Butker is commenting on politics, those same folks are cheering.  Butker's jersey is flying off the shelves.  Shouldn't it be a blanket policy about staying out of politics?   If it was still 2016, maybe those folks would have agreed.  However, over the last 8 years, the kneeling epidemic spread to virtually every sport and all the requests to keep politics out of the various games were ignored.  The fight to keep politics out of sports was lost years ago and, accepting the new rules, the opposing view is now joining the fray.  There is no point in following a rule that only one side obeys.  Of course, the other side would love if their opponents continued to shut up while letting them break that norm.

On another topic, Finger wonders why golfer Scottie Scheffler is being treated as a hero for clashing with cops.  Again, wasn't the rule to obey authorities and cooperate with the police.  Yes, again, Mike is living in a past that no longer exists.  Cops are only too happy to arrest citizens who defend themselves from criminals while simultaneously releasing those same criminals without bail.  The rule of law is a farce and it is hard to respect those who selectively enforce laws.  Too many people remember how police would shut down churches for violating COVID quarantine while at the same time ignoring a huge protest march.  It would be laughable if it wasn't so tragic.

A civil society where most entertainment is apolitical, and people obey authority is gone.  Can it be revived?  I certainly hope so.  America used to be a high trust society.  No one realizes the benefits of a high trust society until the trust has been trashed.

A Boy and His Dog (1975)

The year is 2024 and the world is an irradiated wasteland.  World War IV started in 2007 and lasted five days.  Vic (Don Johnson) and his telepathic dog, Blood (Tim McIntire), wander the remains in search of food and sex.  Thanks to Blood's telepathic abilities and natural dog senses, Vic is able to avoid trouble more often than not.  One night, while enjoying movies at a rundown settlement, Blood senses a female in the crowd.  She is disguised as a boy.  When she leaves, the pair follow her to some ruins.  Vic is eager to have his way with her when a gang arrives.  Turns out Vic wasn't the only one to follow her home.  While Blood wants to cut their losses by just handing Quilla June (Susanne Benton) to the gang, Vic is determined to keep her for himself.  Though he succeeds in driving off the gang through grit and deception, Quilla escaped to the underground.  Determined to get her back, he follows her.

The story and movie were inspirations for the Fallout games and the current Fallout series on Amazon.  Irradiated wasteland?  Check.  Mutants?  Check.  Dog as sidekick?  Check.  Protective vaults where people have hidden from the nuclear blasts?  Check.  Yes, lots of similarities.  However, Vic is a much darker character than most of those in the Amazon series.  He is an amoral fellow with no sense of right or wrong.  What is rape?  Why shouldn't he force himself on a woman?  Theft?  Well, of course he steals if he is hungry.  Or if the opportunity arises.  Blood, who is surprisingly well-educated and speaks well (thinks well since it's all telepathy?) doesn't provide a moral education for Vic.

The film has a low budget look to it.  There is no advanced technology in the underground other than the robot, Michael (Mal Baylor), which is dressed as a smiling bumpkin.  Jason Robards is wasted as the villain, proving to be little more than a bored bureaucrat.  The underground is underwhelming.  Even so, it is an entertaining film and worth a look for fans of the post-apocalyptic genre.

Attack on Titan (Season 3, Part 2)

With the political situation settled at the capitol and a new queen installed, the Scout Regiment has time to investigate Eren's basement.  Way back in episode one, Eren's father gave him a key and hinted that all would be explained by a visit to the basement.  That was more than 5 years ago.  The regiment has hardly arrived at Shinganshina when an army of titans appear.  Not only are both the colossal titan and the armored titan present, but so is a beast titan.  The titans have planned this ambush well and the Scouts are in serious trouble.  In the basement, Eren discovers some diaries from his father than detail the origin of the titans as well as the world beyond the walls.

Though only 10 episodes, the season reveals the bigger picture of the world, including the backstory of Eren's father.  The world has been upended by the end of the season and now the conflict is entirely unlike what it seemed.  There are some annoying bits, especially when the Scouts have opportunities to kill major villains but squander them by hesitating.  Despite repeatedly getting in trouble for his impulsiveness, Eren remains a hothead.  Will there ever be some character growth on this score?  Overall, a great season with some epic fights and great storytelling.  Eager to get into the 4th season.

Is This a Joke?

When I first saw this portrait, I thought it was some anti-monarchial statement, a picture of the king on a blood-soaked backdrop. Surely, this was produced by those who want to abolish the monarchy. No. In fact, this is the first official portrait of King Charles III since his coronation. He should borrow a page from Churchill from The Crown and burn the thing on the back lawn. This is worse than the paintings of President Obama and Michelle Obama. Our rulers are so out of touch that they can be bamboozled into accepting garbage art. I have never thought highly of Charles, but this has further diminished my opinion of him. Maybe this is a test to see who will say that the emperor has no clothes; those are the people to sic the police after.

History = The Victor's Story

History tells us the path that was taken to get us to where we are today.  Inevitably, that means it is the story of the victor, because we are the descendants of the victors.  That does not mean that the story of the losers isn't history, but it is less important than that of the victors.  The Confederate States of America had a constitution, but we don't study it.  Had the Confederacy won its independence, that constitution would be really important in history class today, especially in southern states.  However, the Confederacy was dissolved in 1865 and the Union was preserved.  Should we study the Confederacy ad nauseum to respect the ideals of the losing side?  There is only so much time to spend on history and delving into historical cul-de-sacs is not the best use of time.  However, in recent decades, that view is being upended.

In his book, Lies My Teacher Told Me, James Loewen argues for including the stories of all the losers.  Now, being a loser does not mean you were in the wrong.  Losers can be innocent victims, like the American Indian.  Stone Age tribes meet Enlightenment powers and are inevitably displaced.  It is a tragedy for the displaced tribes.  Even those that sought to integrates were forced onto reservations.  However, beyond place names and tribal casinos, this has little impact on the US of today.  Again, that's tragic, but what do Stone Age tribesmen have to teach a culture that is literally thousands of years ahead of them?  If an alien race arrives in orbit around Earth, the human race will suffer the same fate as the American Indians, no matter how much we write histories that say it wasn't fair.

Though history is written by the victor, the history of the losers has never been better recorded than today.  As a historian, I think that's terrific, but it should not be used as cause for relitigating history.  We can't give back land to the Mohicans without taking it from people today who had no part in the theft from more than 200 years ago.  Who gets Palestine?  The Palestinian Arabs, Israel, Egypt, Jordan, the British, the Ottomans, the Crusader Kingdoms, the Seljuk Turks, the Byzantines, the Romans, the Seleucids, the Achaemenids, the Assyrians, the Israelites, or the Canaanites?  The land has been ruled by all these groups and more.  Which one has the best claim?  How long does the claim hold?

As luck would have it, Western Civilization is in decline and all these losers might rise again.  When the roles reverse - notably in Europe - don't expect the new elites to care that Europe used to be the land of the whites.  Those civilizations don't hold Enlightenment values.

Attack on Titan (Season 3)

Having recovered Eren and discovering he has the power to control Titans, the Scouts find that they have run afoul of the government.  The king wants Eren delivered up to him.  In fact, while bringing Eren back in secret, a new band of elite warriors - armed with gear designed to fight humans rather than titans - ambushes the Scouts.  Rather than fight the external threat of titans, a power struggle between human factions risks the survival of humanity.  What do the elites know about titans that the Scouts clearly don't know.  Why is Kenny the Ripper, a notorious murderer, leading the elite band of warriors for the nobility and why does Levi know so much about him?

The series provides lots of backstories for many of the characters and offers many explanations for past events.  Secrets are revealed about the royal family, Eren's father and mother, Mikasa's bloodline, Levi's childhood, Historia's ancestry, and Commander Erwin Smith's background.  The politics of the world take center stage rather than the ongoing battle against the titan threat.

This series keeps expanding its scope and getting more interesting.  Eager to see what comes next. 

Barbie (2023)

Barbie (Margot Robbie) lives an idyllic life in Barbieland.  It is a land where women are accomplished and men are accessories.  Ken (Ryan Gosling) is less fulfilled.  Unless he gets Barbie's attention, he feels empty and worthless.  Barbie's world starts to go awry when she ponders death, much to the horror of the other Barbies.  Then she finds her shower is cold, her milk is sour, and her feet are inexplicably flat.  She must consult Weird Barbie (Kate McKinnon), who explains that a rift has been opened between the real world and Barbieland.  To seal the rift, Barbie must go to the real world, find the girl who plays with her, and fix whatever ails her.  Barbie would rather not but finally relents.  To her shock and dismay, Ken has stowed away in the Barbiecar and come to the real world with her.

Barbie is dismayed to find that men dominate the real world, including that the CEO (Will Ferrell) and the entire board for Mattel is exclusively male.  They want to box her up and send her back to Barbieland!  Meanwhile, Ken is delighted to find himself acknowledged.  One woman even asks him for the time!  He learns of patriarchy and horses!  While Barbie continues her search for the girl who plays with her, Ken returns to Barbieland to establish the patriarchy!

The story of Barbie is, surprisingly, that of Pinocchio.  She is unwittingly on a journey to become a real woman.  Along the way, she gets ogled, arrested, upbraided by a middle school girl (Ariana Greenblatt), and pursued by Mattel goons, but she does meet her girl - who proves to be an adult (America Ferrera).  The changes that Ken has wrought in Barbieland begin to show in the real world!  Now, Barbie must return to Barbieland and save it from Ken!

The relationship dynamics are shallow.  Barbieland had virtually no conflict - beyond some jealousy among the Kens - and was basically a female Utopia.  In fact, Ken really has some valid objections to Barbieland.  Obviously, I am not the primary audience for the film and can't really identify with some of Barbie's concerns.  The end message is weird.  So, Barbie was upset that the real world was dominated by men and yet that is the world she chose.  The final scene where I thought she was reporting for her first day as a female member of the Mattel Board - thus correcting that glaring oversight - was instead her first gynecology appointment.  Really?

By contrast, Ken's story arc is more interesting.  He exists in a world where he is an accessory and has no real purpose.  His visit to the real world and return swings the pendulum from Barbieland to Kendom.  Ken gets a song and dance routine, which is hilarious.  Though vapid and shallow, Ken is quite likable, almost childlike in how he views the world.

Overall, fun and vibrant.  Good popcorn fun. 

Greta admits Climate Crisis is a Hoax?

I ran into this YouTube video where Greta Thunberg says, "Since the climate crisis doesn’t exist, how can we expect people to want climate action?"  Freudian slip?  Has she just given up the game, admitting that she has been playing us for fools all along?  No, this is just another of those deceptive selective edits.  Donald Trump has often been on the receiving end of such deceptive editing (e.g., fine people hoax, drinking bleach hoax, etc.) but now it is Greta's turn.  Maybe those who accepted the misreporting on what Trump said will have their eyes opened by this obvious misreporting of Greta.  Probably not, but one can hope.

Scott Galloway's latest TED talk

Scott Galloway is a professor at NYU and a prolific entrepreneur.  He has also hosted podcasts and given TED talks.  In his latest TED talk, he discusses how America is destroying young people's future.  He makes many good points.  The old - who are reliable voters - have gradually voted benefits for themselves that impose costs on future taxpayers.  The old are now the richest cohort in the United States while the young of today are less prosperous than their parents and grandparents were at their age.  How do we reverse this imbalance?  Galloway has some ideas:

Economic changes

1. Increase the minimum wage to $25/hour.
2. Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) for high income and corporations
3. Re-fund the IRS
4. Reform Social Security
5. Negative income tax
6. Eliminate capital gains exemption

Right out the gate, he starts with a bad idea.  California has pursued the excessive minimum wage and, rather than getting well-paid jobs for menial skills, it has raised the lowest rung of the ladder to success.  Most unskilled youth aren't going to produce $25 of value with their hour of labor.  This is just a loss to the person paying.  Is it any wonder that McDonald's has switched from multiple counter stations to touch screen kiosks?  The AMT, funding the IRS, and eliminating capital gains exemption are just ways for the already wasteful government to squeeze more money out of the citizenry.  As for capital gains, one must remember the flipside of capital losses.  To take the risk of investing, there needs to be an upside.  If you tax investment, you will get less of it.  Investment drives the economy.  Good luck reforming Social Security with the most reliable voting block (the elderly) in favor of it.  Regarding the negative income tax, Galloway admits that is just a better way to sell Universal Basic Income (UBI).  I'm not opposed to the idea as even Milton Friedman discussed it favorably.

Technology

1. Remove 230 protection to algorithmically-elevated content
2. Identity verification
3. Break up Big Tech
4. Age-gating

Galloway notes that technology companies are providing more news than news companies today and yet, when there is talk of treating them as a media company, the tech giants squeal.  He flips the script with claims of being a platform into other industries.  Funny.  The Big Tech companies are beyond huge and they are crushing competition.  He proposes breaking them up just as happened to AT&T or Big Oil.  Now that social media has been around for more than a decade, the negative impacts have become clear; it is devastating to the young, driving up depression and self-harm.  No one under 16 should be on social media.  

Social Policy

1. Universal Pre-K
2. Reinstate expanded child tax credit
3. Term limits
4. Income based affirmative action
5. Expand college enrollment & vocational programs

Kids who were in Pre-K vs. those who weren't are indistinguishable by the 3rd grade.  There is no benefit to this program other than it employs more teachers and expands government.  As for the child tax credit, I'm for it.  Whenever government gives money back to the taxpayer, I'm pleased.  Term limits are the best idea on this list.  Government 'service' should not be a career.  You serve for a few years and then go back home and suffer the consequences of your government 'service.'  It might be best to get elected officials like we get jurors.  "You've been selected as Congressman for the next 2 years."  As an opponent of affirmative action, I am not keen on just a different way of deciding who is favored and who is disfavored.  However, income-based does seem like a better attribute than race.  Vocational programs are a great idea, but we already have too much college enrollment.  Galloway proposes ways of increasing enrollment while dramatically cutting costs.  Nice, but the benefits of a college education are no longer what they once were.  Now college students graduate with crippling debt and degrees that aren't valued.

Mental Health

1. Ban phones in school
2. Invest in 3rd places
3. Big Brothers/Big Sisters
4. National Service Requirement

Absolutely ban phones in school.  In fact, kids probably shouldn't have smart phones until after they graduate high school.  Maybe treat them like cigarettes or alcohol.  He proposes that the top students don't need help to be successful.  Attention should be paid to those lower on the merit ladder, the 3rd place students rather than the 1st and 2nd.  Big Brothers & Big Sisters are a fine idea in this era of broken families.  Galloway proposes that everyone should serve the country to be exposed to the greatness of it and of their fellow citizens.  Not really a fan of mandatory service.  Government already taxes me and required me to spend years in a government school, now it wants a couple more years of my life as a servant?  No.  

Galloway admits to being a progressive and many of his proposals show that.  He has some good ideas, but too many rely on government.  Tell me again what created this imbalance between young and old?  Yeah, the government, because old people vote and young people don't.

The Wrecking Crew (1968)

A train with $1 billion in gold is traversing the Danish countryside when it is hijacked.  The hijackers are employed by Count Massimo Contini (Nigel Green).  In Washington DC, there is panic.  Chief MacDonald (John Larch) of ICE (Intelligence and Counter Espionage) explains that revealing the theft would be economically catastrophic for both the United Kingdom and the United States; the money was being sent to London to shore up the British Pound.  On account of the need for secrecy, the recovery operation must be as small as possible.  As such, MacDonald calls on Matt Helm (Dean Martin).

Helm is once again photographing beautiful women and not terribly keen on another mission.  Nevertheless, he flies to Denmark with his cover already blown.  He is met by the over-eager and clumsy Freya Carlson (Sharon Tate).  She is to be his assistant though he never misses an opportunity to brush her off.  Once checked into his hotel, Helm is contacted by Lola Medina (Tina Louise), who offers information and maybe a good time.  He also has dalliances with Linka Karensky (Elke Sommer) and Wen Yu-Rang (Nancy Kwan), each of whom are minions of Count Contini.  Of course, before Matt can really get involved with other women, Freya inevitably arrives to spoil the mood.

In tone, The Wrecking Crew echoes The Silencers.  There is a dream sequence where he imagines some intimacy with the various models to the soundtrack of Dean Martin.  Every woman is agog over him.  The leading lady is mostly viewed as a nuisance and a klutz (i.e., Stella Stevens) but he is eventually won over by her beauty.  The battle with the goons is less goofy than in previous movies but still a bit corny.  Really, Dean Martin dispatched Chuck Norris with a lazy kick!  This was Chuck Norris' first movie and he plays a minor goon for Count Contini.  Speaking of fisticuffs, Martin still had an unconvincing double for his stuntman.

Elke Sommer is stunning as the main femme fatale.  She is so villainous and yet so gorgeous.  Sharon Tate is quite dazzling, but she spends much of the film in less flattering outfits than Sommer.  Nigel Green, who is usually outstanding, is unremarkable here.  The count pails when compared to Green's previous villain roles: Carl Petersen in Deadlier Than the Male or especially Major Dalby in The Ipcress File.  The count's constant concern over the schedule and his general indifference to his minions' deaths reminded me of Christopher Walken in A View to a Kill, another unremarkable villain.

This is the last of the Matt Helm films and certainly better than the previous one.  Many of the scenes appear in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood when Sharon Tate (Margot Robbie) goes to see the film!  Good popcorn fun.

The Ambushers (1967)

Matt Helm (Dean Martin) is at an ICE (Intelligence & Counter Espionage) facility when he chances to encounter Sheila Sommers (Janice Rule), an agent he had previously worked with.  However, she is now a pale reflection of her old self, having suffered an extreme breakdown.  MacDonald (James Gregory) explains that she had test piloted an American flying saucer but vanished over Mexico.  When she returned, it was in this state and without the saucer.  Mac proposes that Matt and Sheila go to Mexico and find out what happened to her and where the saucer is now.  Once they arrive in Acapulco, a host of questionable characters are met: there is Quintana (Kurt Kasznar), a brewer of Mexican beer who has a surprising number of thugs and goons in his employ, Francesca (Senta Berger), a spy with a desire to find and kill Ortega, Jose Ortega, a spymaster and central villain who tortured Sheila during her long absence, Nassim, a mysterious Middle Easterner who is always on the periphery and clearly has machinations of his own.

The campiness of this Matt Helm outing is through the roof.  Right out the gate, the United States launches a UFO.  The UFO is brought down by an anti-gravity ray.  The smaller version of the anti-gravity gun is used to pour drinks, unzip ladies' zippers, lift folks into the air, and so forth.  We've gone full sci-fi, having repurposed Star Trek props.  The brawls are poorly choreographed, the gun battles are embarrassing, the jokes are rarely funny, the slapstick is cringy, and the plot is ludicrous.  Sure, it's a comedy but Helm should win not merely because he is supposed to but also because he is the more skilled spy.  Nah, he just sort of stumbles about and let's the villains fail around him.

The action is terrible.  At one point, Matt rides a motorcycle underwater.  Yeah.  Oh, when he comes out of the water, there is an alligator in the sidecar.  Ha ha.  Dean Martin on a green screen was alarmingly unconvincing.  One of his stunt doubles had a noticeably receding hairline.  Are you even going to make an effort?  Maybe that was played for laughs too.

Again, this is trying to be a comedy, but our heroine has suffered torture that turned her hair white and left her skin ghostly pale.  Yikes.  Then, she is nearly raped and murdered by one of Ortega's goons.  Then Ortega himself strips her and likewise tries to rape her.  What the hell?  Dark!

Skip this one.

Blue Steel (1990)

Megan Turner (Jamie Lee Curtis) has just graduated the police academy and is on her first day of patrol when she spots a robbery in progress.  Her partner has stepped away and she is on her own.  She rushes to the scene and gets the drop on the robber.  Despite having him in her sights, the robber dares to try to shoot her.  She unloads her gun.  Unnoticed, Eugene Hunt (Ron Silver) was lying on the floor, one of the many witnesses.  Though an innocent bystander, Hunt grabs the robber's gun and flees.  While Megan finds herself the subject of an Internal Affairs investigation for killing an apparently unarmed suspect, Hunt develops an obsession with his newfound gun and Officer Turner.  He arranges a chance meeting with her and is soon wooing the unsuspecting subject of his obsession.

Turner is both well-developed and yet unexplained.  Multiple people ask why she wanted to be a cop and she never gives a clear answer.  Her father is abusive toward her mother, and neither of them came to her graduation from the academy.  Her father is particularly annoyed that she's a cop.  She has trouble with relationships, which is brilliantly shown with a brief encounter with Howard (Matt Craven) and doomed fling with Eugene Hunt.  She's a loose cannon most of the time, rushing into action without her partners.  By the end of the film, there is no way she should be allowed to remain on the police force.

Eugene is even more of a mystery than Megan.  How did this quite successful Wall Street trader suddenly become a homicidal maniac?  The robbery had a huge impact on him, but it's unclear why.  He becomes increasingly reckless.  Despite being a serial killer, he has crazy plot armor that allows him to roam free and unobserved.  When the detectives determine that he has buried his gun in a particular area, they don't just get a metal detector and find it.  No, they stake out the area and wait.  Oh, that's going to work out great.

Nick Mann (Clancy Brown) is the lead detective on the string of murders that are linked to Megan thanks to her name carved on the shells.  Why are the shells left behind?  They do not eject from a revolver, so Eugene has intentionally left them behind.  No fingerprints?  As far as we see, they didn't check.  Of course, once Eugene is a suspect, Nick becomes Megan's new love interest.  Yeah, her social life is a catastrophe.

Overall, mediocre.  Much as I like the three leads in general, they couldn't make this movie work.  Skip.

Attack on Titan (Season 2)

The fight between titans in the heart of human civilization has hardly ended when word arrives that titans have breached Wall Rose!  Without time to even gear up, the troops rush into the field to be confront the invading titans and also to locate and seal the breach.  En route the wall, some teams stop in various towns and villages to warn the locals about the rampaging titans.  To the surprise of many, one town has been severely damaged but there is no blood.  Did everyone escape?  If so, why did they leave their horses?  And what is the explanation for the one titan that is too weak to move?  How did it get there?  To make things more complicated, both the colossal titan and the armored titan reappear and snatch Eren.

Carrying on the story from the first season, there are huge reveals that expand the mystery.  The link between humans and titans is closer than expected.  The religious leader, Minister Nick, apparently knows the secret of the titans but is forbidden by his faith from revealing it!  What does this portend?  Early on, an unusual ape-like titan is introduced; he proves to be both intelligent and capable of speech.  Is he the mastermind behind the current attack?  What are his goals and why is he so interested in the grappling gear that the soldiers use to fight titans?  Eren's only recently awakened powers expand, making him more formidable to the titans and their allies.  He is so valuable to humanity's defense that the leader of the Scouts - Erwin Smith - risks the lives of every member of his command to protect Eren.

Though only half as long as the first season (12 episodes vs. 25), it manages to dramatically expand the story and delve into the motivations of many of the characters.  There are multiple flashbacks to further develop the main three (Eren, Mikasa, and Armin), but also to explore other important support characters (Reiner, Connie, Ymir, Hannes, Bertolt, and Historia).

Great popcorn fun and recommended.