At Home with Tech

Unlock the power of all your technology and learn how to master your photography, computers and smartphone.

Category: movies

June 7, 2026

Why “The Mandalorian and Grogu” Didn’t Fill Theaters

This is a good summer movie that lots of Star Wars fans skipped. Here is why I think so many people didn’t come back for more Mando and Baby Yoda.

“Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu” has clearly underperformed at the box office. This is not the way. So, what went wrong?

First off, this is not a bad movie. In many ways, director John Favreau has given us the perfect summer flick. Action-packed. Fun. Great special effects.  And the cutest character in a galaxy far, far away.

Plus, it’s fresh “Star Wars” material. We haven’t seen a new movie in over six years.

But with all that is good with it, there’s also this feeling of… been there/seen that.

Nothing New

If there had not been three previous streaming seasons of “The Mandalorian” on Disney+ (2019-2023), I think this movie would have performed much better.

The series had time to provide a deep experience regarding Din Djarin’s backstory. His bounty hunting adventures were only part of the larger narrative, including the Mandalorian people and culture.

But the movie couldn’t simply pick up from where the series left off, because not all movie goers would know (or remember) the previous plot points.

So, the movie was effectively forced to exist as a standalone and otherwise disconnected bounty-hunting adventure. Everything else from the series had to be stripped away.

As a result, Mandalorian fans didn’t get to see anything especially new.

A Razor Crest Isn’t Just Another Ship

Sure, there are a few new characters here, but if you’re a Mando fan, you might be disappointed after watching the movie, because the larger story arc didn’t move forward.

Yes, there were lots of background references to the larger series, but few were allowed enough time to create emotional impact. 

Even the moment when (minor spoiler) we see the new Razor Crest, there’s barely a pause in the dialogue as Mando takes this replacement for his previously destroyed ship (season 2, episode 6).

I listened for an emotional surge in the music, but it never came. He admired this particular ship’s restoration, but you wouldn’t otherwise know the importance of Mando flying another Razor Crest.

The ‘Dadalorian’

I’ve read many reviews that said this felt like a few episodes stitched together. Yes, I agree this could easily have been part of a season 4.

But guess what? We didn’t get season 4.

And quite frankly, I was happy to get to watch a few more episodes, so to speak.

And it’s always nice to spend a little more time with Pedro Paskal’s ‘Dadalorian’ and Grogu.

Baby Yoda Rocks

And if you’re a Grogu fan, you’re in luck. Baby Yoda has a lot to do here.

He delighted the row of kids who were sitting in front of me in the theater. But they certainly weren’t old enough to officially be part of the PG-13 crowd.

Which makes you wonder about the target audience for this movie. It’s PG-13 for all the fighting. And G-rated for Grogu. That’s a difficult balance to maintain to satisfy everyone.

The Challenge Turning a Series into a Movie

I think in many ways it just comes down to this: Successfully converting a TV series into a big screen movie with the same cast is often hard to do.

“Firefly” couldn’t get “Serenity” to fly.

Sure, “Star Trek” did it, but it needed two attempts, and “The Wrath of Khan” certainly didn’t play it safe.

Sigourney Weaver Stopped By

Not only did this Mandalorian flick play it safe, it felt like an extended premiere of season 4.

And while that was fine with me, that won’t draw the crowds who will otherwise watch it in a few months (weeks?) on Disney+.

But wait! This movie’s got the great Sigourney Weaver. Hmmm… well, she actually didn’t seem that excited to be there.

Hold on… We’re introduced to not one, but three Hutt characters, including Rotta the Hutt (voiced by Jeremy Allen White), who is Jabba the Hutt’s son. While that’s certainly interesting to some, more giant slug Hutts didn’t fill seats.

Grogu is Sad

Still, this is a solid movie, and I enjoyed seeing it in a theater. But it was just not enough to satisfy the broader fan base. It feels like the entire human race is quickly losing interest in this particular galaxy that’s now almost half a century old.

As a result, “The Mandalorian and Grogu” has already disappeared from my local multiplex on week 3 of its release. (I’m sure that made Grogu cry.)

At this point, can anything save this franchise? 

“Star Wars: Starfighter,” directed by Shawn Levy and starring Ryan Gosling is set to launch in theaters on May 28, 2027.

I certainly hope the Force is stronger with this next one.

Leave a comment
May 31, 2026

How to Use Claude AI to Find New Streaming Movies for Family Movie Night 

Instead of manually searching through each of my streaming apps to find new film releases each week, I did this instead using Claude.

In our house, streaming a movie on a Friday night isn’t just fun, it’s become something of a family tradition. Each week for more than a decade, I’ve curated a list of films for my wife and son to stream with me. (We usually choose one after I play all the trailers.)

As you can imagine, the movie choices were more limited when our son was younger. (Don’t ask how many times we watched, “The LEGO Movie.”) Now that our boy is in high school, he’s ready for a wider range of options. 

But that still doesn’t make our movie selection process easy. We’re three people with three different tastes in movies. I can often predict what our son will like, but not always. 

“John Carter?”

I’ve got a running joke going with him regarding Disney’s “John Carter.” That flick’s been on my list since our son was in elementary school. Even though it was an absolute box office bomb, I thought this silly adventure on Mars was fun. Plus, its parallel Civil War era dark vibe provided an interesting stylistic twist. 

I’ve always felt it was the perfect Friday night choice. But he’s probably turned it down at least 100 times. (I think I might want to take it off the list.) 

I Always Need More Choices

The truth is Barrett’s movie list doesn’t always contain a collective choice to watch each week.

So, I’m always looking for new options to offer up. And it feels crazy to say that with eight streaming platforms to choose from, it’s been challenging to find enough fresh releases. (This has become increasingly difficult since the pandemic and the overall decrease of movies being made today.)

Hurry!

Every Friday evening before dinner, I find myself quickly scouring through all my streaming apps in search of any new releases to add to my list.

And let me tell you, this process always feels like it takes forever as I hunt around! 

Wouldn’t it better if I could put a little AI-oomph into this process to speed up my search?

And that’s exactly what I just did.

Set up a Claude Project

So, I went to my Claude AI assistant and asked it for help on how I should set up this movie search to repeat regularly. It suggested I create a Claude Project.

You can do that by navigating to the left sidebar and clicking on “Projects.” 

  • Click on “New Project”
  • Add in the “Description”
  • Then add in the “Instructions”

The “Instructions” field is for your prompt, which provides the directions for Claude to follow.

Here’s the prompt that Claude created for me to use:

  • When I ask for new streaming movie releases, search each service individually with separate web searches — one each for Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+, Max, Hulu, Apple TV+, Peacock, and Paramount+. Cross-reference with Rotten Tomatoes and JustWatch. Do NOT use a single combined search. Group results by service and include: title, date added, genre, and Rotten Tomatoes score where available. Only include movies, not TV shows or specials. Include results for the most recent seven days. (I added in that last sentence.)

You, of course, can use this prompt as well. Just modify it with your particular list of streaming services.

Creating My Movie List in Seconds

So, I quickly set up this Claude Project and then ran it. It instantly got to work searching a variety of websites that track new streaming movie releases for the platforms I listed.

And then about ten seconds later, Claude provided me a report with all the new movies I should consider, sorted by streaming service and complete with brief descriptions.

It was perfect.

(You don’t need to set up a Claude Project for this. You can just run the prompt as part of a regular chat question. But the project makes it ready to go for the next time.)

A Huge Time Saver

Wow. Why didn’t I think I this sooner?

Claude isn’t the only AI assistant out there that can do this trick. (It just happened to be the one I used for this exercise.)

Now, I can accomplish this movie search in seconds. That’s quite the time saver.

Barrett’s Movie List

I must admit that presenting my movie list has become a bit of an eye-rolling moment for my family after all these years. But they still let me do it.

And you might be asking… where are their lists? Exactly.

Somehow, I’ve fashioned myself as the all-knowing movie critic in our family. (In my defense, I have been writing movie reviews as a hobby since I was in college.)

But that doesn’t really make me an authority any more than you.

Thank You, Claude

At best, my movie list is a quaint family tradition. We’ll leave it at that.

And by the way, our son is growing up. Did I mention he’s in high school already?

So, Friday movie night doesn’t happen regularly anymore. And when we do sit down together after dinner, it’s often to watch the next episode from a series we’re watching. (We’re currently enjoying “Dark Matter” on Apple TV.)

But I will always have a few movies to suggest whenever the moment calls for it.

And now, Claude gets to do all the research work for me.

Leave a comment
March 8, 2026

Why Can’t Today’s “Star Trek” Give Us What We Want?

Is “Star Trek” falling into a black hole of missed opportunities and fan disillusionment? Well, here’s one Trekkie’s opinion.

There are numerous theories why “Star Trek” has had a bumpy ride during these past years. While on the one hand, Paramount+ has given us multiple new series, they were often uneven (“Discovery” and “Picard”). Plus, the best ones were cancelled too soon. (“Lower Decks” and “Strange New Worlds.”)

And then there’s the problem with the movies… or lack of them.

Kelvin Timeline Abandoned

We waited ten long years for the fourth Kelvin timeline movie… only to have it recently cancelled after so many false starts. (The Kelvin timeline was a clever ‘alternate reality’ version of the “Star Trek” universe, which allowed the producers creative license to make certain narrative changes in this Kirk-era prequel.) 

I remember reading that the problem was the huge price tag vs. the expected box office. 

The writers would have had Chris Hemsworth come back as Kirk’s father. But Thor was too expensive (not to mention all the other actors).

That would have been a wonderful way to wrap this version of “Star Trek.” And I expect many of the other proposed scripts had potential as well. But the producers clearly couldn’t make it work. 

A New Ship with Nowhere to Go

So, Chris Pine’s Kirk and crew won’t get their final voyage together on their new ship that was constructed at the end of 2016’s “Star Trek: Beyond.”

Sure, I’ve read there’s now a completely new movie reboot in the works. And that’s fine (if it actually happens).

But that doesn’t change the fact that Trekkies waited a decade for the movie they wanted… and then never got. 

“Star Trek” on Paramount+

Instead, we’ve seen a “Star Trek” renaissance explode on television via Paramount+ since 2017. And that’s not so bad, right?

But this great streaming run is seemingly ending. “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds” has wrapped filming its truncated fifth and final season. 

And the new “Starfleet Academy” has had a rough first season. They’ve already shot the second season, but the series hasn’t been picked up beyond that.

A lot of fans (myself included) are angry that we never got the spin-off series “Star Trek: Legacy” after “Picard.” With Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan) helming the new Enterprise-G, that series would have been spectacular. It would be the perfect bridge between the old and the new.

Instead, we got a show about some cadets in Starfleet Academy that nobody asked for.

Kurtzman Trek

It really shouldn’t be that hard to read the room when it comes to satisfying the core fan base.

I certainly understand that the recipe for “Star Trek’s” ongoing success must include bringing in new fans. And that means evolving the franchise.

I know that many Trekkies have been piling blame onto Alex Kurtzman lately. He’s the showrunner behind all the recent Star Trek series on Paramount+. And he’s clearly been tweaking the “Star Trek” formula.

There’s nothing wrong with updating the “Star Trek” universe. But I would say the core elements of great science fiction storytelling must always apply.

No, not every Trek episode has to be perfect, but with so few episodes being created for each season (10), there’s not much room for misfires.

Grading “Starfleet Academy’s” Freshman Year

“Starfleet Academy” has launched to a slow start. Happily, it’s been picking up steam. Episode 9 is the best yet. 

It’s directed by Jonathan Frakes with a more exciting plot that gets out of the classroom and tests the rigor of our cadets. Plus, we get to see Captain Ake, played by Holly Hunter finally act a little more like a strong starship leader.

Still, you might say a good 9th episode is a little late in the semester.

I think the problem with “Starfleet Academy” is that it’s trying so hard to be fresh, it doesn’t feel enough like “Star Trek.” It’s too loose and too often silly.

Sure, it gives us the Doctor from “Star Trek: Voyager” and a couple characters from “Discovery” as anchors. But that’s not enough.

This series has some real work to do, but I’m not sure how you course correct when your second season is already in the can.

“I Don’t Believe in a No-Win Scenario”

I’ve read that some fans are complaining about the politics of “Starfleet Academy.” I don’t think that’s the problem. Being a Trekkie has always required being open to inclusive ideas. That’s the point of “Star Trek.” For 60 years.

Not to oversimplify, but I think this all comes down to the basics. We need to focus more on better storytelling. Better character development. Better science fiction. 

And please just give the core fans more of what we want.

Then, I think more of everyone will show up.

I hope it’s not too late.

Leave a comment