LIGHT & MAGIC Season Two
★★★★☆
▶ UK/US Disney+, streaming now
▶ Director Joe Johnston
EPISODES 2.01-2.03 Modern day visual effects are often flawless, but they rarely occupy the same place in your heart as stop-motion AT-ATs. This season of Disney+’s Industrial Light & Magic documentary has the same problem – as well made as it is, it’s nigh-on impossible to make people staring at computers as compelling as blasting a model house with shotguns for Poltergeist’s finale. Movie director and former ILMer Joe Johnston takes over from Lawrence Kasdan at the helm, but otherwise this three-part season follows the same blueprint as its predecessor. Using the Star Wars prequels as a loose framework, Johnston assembles the key players, and plenty of wonderful archive footage, to explain how the legendary effects studio transitioned to the digital space.