Tag: star wars

May 4 Photo

May 4th, 2016

May the fourth be with you.
Movie Review: “Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens”

January 4th, 2016

Just to make sure I really got the full experience, I’ve seen this film twice. And this review will be largely spoiler free, and made upon my own careful reflection of the film.

I’m probably going to get trouble with this one. But here it is: Star Wars: The Force Awakens is not a great movie. It barely qualifies as a good one. Is it better than the prequels? Yes…and no. From a movie-making perspective, including directing, acting, and writing, yes, it’s light years better. From a storytelling perspective it’s a dud.

The storytelling failure of this one is in what it fails to do. The primary purpose of the canonical and eventual nine movies that are “Star Wars” is to tell the story of the Skywalker clan. (I’m leaving the forthcoming “Anthology” movies out of this.) Lucas started with chapter four in 1977 because it was the only story he thought he could get made at the time. And because he was unsure if he would make another, the original Star Wars (now called A New Hope) was a complete story arc unto itself. With its unprecedented success, Lucas was able to make the next two movies, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. These three movies completed the storyline of a young Luke Skywalker and his attempt at redeeming his fallen father. They closed the loop on that segment of the Skywalker clan storyline.

The prequels were an attempt, sixteen years later, to tell the first part of the story of the Skywalkers, the impressive rise and spectacular fall of Anakin Skywalker. Yes, the execution was clumsy, to say the least. Who, after all, finds a dispute of trade routes and intergalactic bureaucratic red tape interesting? Lucas does, as do legions of Star Wars fans who are fully immersed in the world and cannot see past the world to the failings of the movies. I can’t help but think that, were the prequels only books and not movies, they might have been compelling reads. Compelling books do not always translate into compelling movies, as book narratives and cinematic narratives often require different components to work. The Lord Of the Rings is a perfect example of this.

The Force Awakens does virtually nothing to move the next story arc of the Skywalker clan forward. Luke Skywalker, in this film, is really nothing more than a MacGuffin. This movie is less about moving the canonical story to the Skywalker clan forward, and more about crafting a multi-million dollar love letter to the most famous franchise is modern history. The result is a film that borders on pastiche, a fan-film made with high-priced camera equipment, yet with the same super 8 mindset. The plot is a rehash of earlier plots, the characters are recycled from old parts, and the story is stale as a result. There are plot holes in this movie big enough to choke a space slug.

To a degree, it feels as though JJ Abram and Lawrence Kasdan are trying too hard to make a movie that atones for the prequels. This is a noble idea, but the road to the Dark Side is paved with good intentions. I’m reading a lot of reviews that say it’s the best Star Wars movie since Empire, and that the order of movies, from best to worst, now goes 5, 7, 4, 3, and then the prequels, which are all mostly equally bad. I would disagree. I think this movie sits solidly between Revenge of the Sith and Return of the Jedi, with Jedi, for its problems with teddy bears, exceeding this one easily in quality.

It’s not for lack of trying on the part of the filmmakers. JJ Abrams does what he does best, which is to create a film of ridiculous kinetic energy, with the crazy skin-of-their-teeth escapes and near misses that you might find in the last two Star Trek movies. There is a scene with monsters that escape from the cargo containers on a freighter that reminded my of Chris Pine being chased across a snowscape by beasts you can’t quite fathom. The high-octane nature of this movie is too much, and the JJ Abrams influence cannot be ignored. Stormtroopers do not fall down when hit by a blaster blot, they fly backwards as hit with a 400 pounds steel bar. Settings do not explode under blaster fire without bodies sailing end over end to accentuate the destruction. People are not cut down by lightsabers, they are impaled mercilessly and left to die. And for the first time since the original ’77 movie, we see blood. And it’s not Walrusman blood, it’s human.

There is a decided lack of newness to this movie that is sorely missed. With each new Star Wars film, the viewer could count on new ships, new aliens, new settings, new equipment. The Force Awakens skips most of that, with only a handful of new items, including a mean-as-cat-shit looking lightsaber and a beachball droid. The ships are largely as they were in previous films. You have X-Wings, TIE Fighters, a Star Destroyer, and a transport with wings that fold upward upon landing.

Not to seem that I hated the movie, it does have some shining moments. It has the best flight sequence for the Millennium Falcon of any of the movies, as well as the best droid of any of the movies. BB-8 may very well be the best new character period. And as lightsabers go, none are sacrier than Kylo Ren’s, with its laser crossguard.

In the end, however, the return of origin characters and a rehash of older plots does not make a great movie. It makes one hell of an homage, and with inside jokes such as Rey saying, “This ship made the Kessel Run in 14 parsecs,” and Han replying testily, “It was twelve.”, the movie feels like a fanboi’s daydream, and little else.
Thoughts On The New Star Wars Trailer

April 17th, 2015

My wife suggested I start this post with the following disclaimer:

If you don’t want anyone to harsh your Star Wars mellow, do not read on.

Still there? Good.

Yesterday, a number of people I know lost their minds. You see, at a Star Wars Celebration yesterday, JJ Abrams and company revealed a new teaser trailer for the next Star Wars film.

And the crowd went wild.

I, however, did not.

First, let’s go to the videotape:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsC1XSroHwY

Okay, now you’ve seen it. And yes, it looks snazzy and polished and action filled and ohbytheway did you notice Han and Chewie? That was, naturally, what sent the crowd at the celebration over the edge.

So why am I not all tingly inside, along with everyone else? Why am I filled with more excitement over the trailers for the new Mad Max film than I am Star Wars? Have you seen the trailer for the new Mad Max movie?

Sidebar:

Okay, had to get that out of the way.

The truth is, the Star Wars trailers don’t show us anything yet to be excited about. We have a number of new characters, none of whom we have any emotional attachment to. Contrast that with the trailer for The Phantom Menace, where we saw images of old favorites from a different era. In TPM trailer, we get glimpses of Anakin and Obi-Wan, characters we have deep deep connections with. In the new trailer we have glimpses of Rey and Finn. To which you have to ask yourself, “Who?”

To be fair, we do get a glimpse of Han and Chewie at the end, with Han saying, “Chewie, we’re home.” But that’s it. That doesn’t show is anything. In TPM trailers we get to see Anakin and Obi-Wan doing stuff, racing across the desert, using lightsabers, being introduced to each other, rather than a elderly Han waxing philosophical. It’s true we see the Millennium Falcon being chased by a TIE Fighter and flying into the superstructure of the ~~Death Star~~ wrecked starship, but is Han flying it? Perhaps not, given that he and his now 240 year old fur ball friend appear to be coming home to the Falcon itself.

Another aspect that’s generated endless speculation is just who is this Kylo Ren, the apparent villain of the film. We’ve now seen a masked visage and we’ve previously seen an improbable lightsaber, but little else. As far as trailers go, he’s been boring. Boring to watch, boring to look upon. Contrast that with the coolest looking and ultimately most boring villain in the pantheon of Star Wars movies, Darth Maul. He looked like the devil himself, and turned out to have one line in TPM. With nothing to ground us as to why we should invest emotional energy into this character, he was the Sith equivalent of a special effect without a storyline: a pretty boring thing.

Some folks have gone gaga over the image from the opening shot of the trailer, namely a Star Destroyer beached and half buried in the sands of the desert world ~~Tattooine~~ Jakku. (Why we need a different desert world I’m not sure. There are doubtlessly more than one in the galaxy, but maybe the need will be revealed in the film.) It’s a cool image, I’ll give you that. Almost as cool as this one from one of the now discarded former canon of Star Wars literature. Yes, that’s a wrecked Millennium Falcon crashed on (if memory serves) Kessel.

Okay, that’s perhaps enough badmouthing for now. Because I don’t want to come across as a total geeked-out asshole. If I’m being truthful with myself, I really am looking forward to seeing the new film. I grew up with Star Wars and was the quintessential geek about it when I was younger. But if I keep in the truthful vein, I, like millions of other fans, was extremely disappointed at the new trilogy. All of the magic and mysticism that made the first three so enjoyable had vanished in the new three. Yet, before anyone knew how underwhelming they would eventually be, there were trailers that made all of us self proclaimed nerds wet our pants. Sadly, as a friend recently pointed out, often times the trailers for movies exceed the movies themselves.

I’m hopeful about the new three. But for reasons other than the trailer. I’m hopeful because Lawrence Kasdan worked on the script. I’m hopeful because JJ Abrams is good at rebooting things. I’m hopeful because he won’t be continuing after this one, which, if you’ve seen Star Trek: Into Darkness, you’ll likely agree that’s a good thing. I’m hopeful because Lucas, who should have known better when he made the new trilogy but clearly didn’t, isn’t really involved in this new movie.

Time will tell.

In the meanwhile, let’s go for a ride down Fury Road and say hello to this handsome fellow:
Why Star Wars Episode III Is Actually A Good Film

December 18th, 2013

This is not a review. If you want a review of the Star Wars prequel movies, Google it. You’ll get somewhere in the neighborhood of a googol of reviews. (See what I did there?) The new movies have been reviewed, dissected, disemboweled, villified, trumpeted, defended, and defecated on more than just about any movie franchise extension I can remember. And rightly so. The original Star Wars trilogy took about two days in 1977 to completely and totally embed itself like a deer tick in the American (and worldwide, really) pop culture psyche.

Naturally, then, when Lucas announced in the mid 90’s that he was embarking on the holy crusade of geekdom and making three new Star Wars movies, the world lost its collective shit. As a child of the 70’s and 80’s, I can safely say, so did I.

I wanted to like the new Star Wars movies. I desperately wanted to like them. Someone asked me (I can’t remember who now, since it’s been fifteen years) what if the movies weren’t that good. And all I can remember thinking was “What are you, nuts? How could they possibily be bad?” How indeed.

My primary gripe with Lucas is that he forgot his own motto, by which he lived back in the time of the first three movies. Specifically, he stated that a special effect without a story is a pretty boring thing. I wish he’d remembered that, and modified it a little. A special effect with TOO much story is also a boring thing. The first of the new moveis, The Phantom Menace, had all kinds of stuff going on in it. A dispute centering on a trade dispute, which causes the aggressors to invade a largely peaceful planet. The political machinations of a dark shadowy figure pushing the aggressor to act first. The discovery of a messianic child and his extraction from his slave existence. The peaceful planet’s not so peaceful coexistence between two species that, while not at war, are certainly not at peace. A noble knight so blinded by his belief in the potential of the messianic child that he’s willing to defy the orders of his elders and train the boy.

I mean, way too much.

The Phantom Menace, while it made a bundle and a half of money, received a lukewarm response from critics. Viewers and devotees of the franchise flocked and reflocked, and flocked a third time, to see the young Obi-Wan, the younger Anakin, the insanely awesomely designed and underused villain Darth Maul, and to lose themselves in new depths of a galaxy they had not visited in sixteen years.

Guilt as charged.

I actually didn’t despise the first movie the way many fans did. I was four when I first visited the barren wastes of Tattooine. Returning to the desert planet was like a homecoming of sorts for me. Despite the inadvertent cultural insults, the hit and miss speed sequence of the pod race, and lackluster acting and dialogue that can only be summarized as being written with a “tin ear”, I enjoyed the first movie.

The second movie was so-so for me. Lucas continued to push forward, continued to direct, folding odd storylines in on themselves, and introducing even more special effects that were, honestly, boring.

While the third movie seemed to showcase Lucas finding his directorial stride, it was still beset with issues ranging from crappy dialogue to continuity holes so big, they could only be filled by the small cadre of party-line devotees that refuse to see the movies’ flaws for what they are, and endlessly debate the ways the continuity holes were “probably” filled.

And yet…

And yet, as I watched the third movie, I realized that, as we came to a point that every Star Wars geek had been waiting for, the visualization of the betrayal of the Jedi order at the hands of Anakin, as I watched him arrive at the Seperatist stronghold on Mustafar and proceed to, um, despense Sith justice to the Seperatist leaders, I realized the Lucas may be a stroytelling genius. These Seperatists–who had been among the primary antagonists of the first two movies, and the first half of the third, who the audience was meant to root against and whom the Jedi struggled to defeat–these individuals were being slaughtered at the hands of the newly annointed Darth Vader, showing ruthless effeciency. As he cut down the Seperatists, I realized that these villains/victims had been the progeneters of the Rebel Alliance, a group that we will ultimately root FOR in Episodes IV through VI.

It was a kind of stark moment for me, and I sat in the theater wondering how I should feel about that. And as I watched the phenominal final lightsaber duel between Anakin and Obi-Wan, a duel made fantastic by the involvement and advise provided to Lucas by his good friend Steve on how to craft a great action sequence, I realized that the characters I thought I knew had changed, as did my feelings toward them. As this realization came to me, I accepted the fact that Episode III was actually a good film.

Through all of the machinations and somersaults Lucas took in his films to set up a political war, a power grab by an evil villain, and the subsequent betrayal of the Jedi order, Lucas created a helluva story arc. What’s unfortunate is that his execution on the movies was feeble, causing his Machievellian like plotting to be overshadowed by mediocre filmmaking.

Maybe these would have been better as books…