I saw Rogue One again, this time on a bigger, better screen, and with a few nights to simmer on my first experiene, what did I learn? I may have been a little harsh on the film, the first go around. It really is actually a pretty complex and compelling narrative achievement. Let's give it a second glance... I saw the new Rogue One (A Star Wars Story) tonight and it was good. How good? I wouldn't be the first reviewer to compare it to Empire Strikes Back, but regardless of your thoughts on that comparison, the fact that everyone is even debating it at all is basically a good thing. And the movie is pretty darn good, mixing seamlessly some memorable nostalgic imagery from the originals with new and expanded development and backstory (you know, the kind of thing Empire Strikes Back is renowned for). Any attempt to rank the Star Wars films is an inherently subjective one. However, if you use basic technical measurements such as plot, pacing, structure, dialogue, acting, production value, etc. you can actually make a pretty good case for an objective ranking, with Empire Strikes Back at the top of the spectrum and Phantom Menace at the bottom. But where the other films fall exactly between them is a little trickier: is Attack of the Clones better or worse than Revenge of the Sith? Is The Force Awakens better or worse than Return of the Jedi? The answers start to say more about you than the film (I for one, am a sucker for both Attack of the Clones and Force Awakens, despite any legitimate flaws. I can't help it!). So... Is Rogue One the best Star Wars film yet? Haven't you heard? Doctor Strange is supposed to be really good. It's got like a really high score on Rotten Tomatoes and it's got that up and coming Benedict Cumberbatch. Plus it totally looks like Inception! Win win win! Right? So I saw it. And... Meh. They should really start getting the people who make movie trailers to start making movies, because they all seem much better at structure, style and pacing. Even my wife thought it "Looks awesome!" Instead? When we saw the actual film? Meh. Now don't get me wrong. "Meh" does not equal "Ugh." "Meh" means it was an okay film, where they managed to avoid all the things they could've done wrong. The film is no embarrassment. And many people seem to honestly like it. But I was, as they say, whelmed. Sure, it has great special effects. Sure, the acting is all sincere. The jokes land. The plot thickens. The ending appropriately solves all the issues it needs to solve while being both kinda clever and awesome looking, and only enough plot threads are left loose to seed future story lines in a deliberately organic sorta way. And yeah, it's more or less a fairly accurate interpretation of the comic book core concept. But still. Meh. Why meh? Keep reading... So... I saw Suicide Squad and I actually really liked it but mostly because I expected it to really suck and was pleasantly surprised at how much less than completely sucky it was. So hurrah for relativism. Sadly the negative reviews are spot on about the film, though some are a little nitpicky. On the other hand, the positive fan response isn't completely unjustified either, though maybe a little in denial. For someone who is already a fan, there are some legitimately likeable things in this film, but isn't necessarily what you were expecting from watching the trailers. The right components are there (some of them anyway), but they maybe could've been assembled together better. "How it Should Have Ended" has a great review on YouTube. I thought I would riff on that a little because it got me thinking: What is this movie really about and what should a movie like this be about? How do you say to a movie fairly, "You were supposed to be about something other than this," and be right. No one was disappointed that Saving Private Ryan didn't explore the divisive themes of slavery vs states' rights vs federal government that the Civil War provokes, because it wasn't about that war. Nobody says to Back to the Future that the romance is under-cooked and the drama is hyperbolic because it's a fun buddy adventure series, not HBO. But people will complain that the new Star Trek isn't "cerebral" or "socially relevant" enough or that it's too "action-packed" and has too many lens flares (for the record, I love the new Star Trek Beyond, but we'll talk about that another time). People also complain about Star Wars, the same way, "It's not like [fill in the blank] enough." So as much as I could write a blog about the origin of fan expectations and whether they are valid or not, instead I'm going to explore the concept of Theme in story. I believe that every good story has a theme or two and whether or not you are satisfied at the end is dependent upon whether that theme was coherent and properly depicted from start to finish. If there is a problem with Suicide Squad, it is that there is no coherent theme. There are hints of a theme here and there, and echoes of accepted genre tropes we're used to seeing elsewhere so much that we almost don't question them here, but nothing internally consistent. This could be the byproduct of too many changes to the film in post-production or differing opinions on final edits of the film. Or just lazy writing. So here is what I think the theme should've been... Welcome Back, future fans, for Part III of my Force Awakens coverage! I sort of have a secret hobby inside my brain when I watch movies or read certain books where I like to daydream what I might have done different. Just for fun. You know, because I'm a writer and stuff and sometimes I have to rework my own stories in this same fashion. It's like practice. It starts out with a phone call from someone really important like JJ Abrams. He calls me in to view the finished script of The Force Awakens and he asks my advice as a well-respected and acclaimed script-doctor to help him make it even better... So in that scenario, these are the things I might suggest to promising young upstart filmmaker JJ Abrams for Star Wars, Episode VII: The Force Awakens (The Perkins Edition)... Welcome Back Future Fans for Part II of my positive reflections on Star Wars: The Force Awakens. While the first part focused on the memorable lines of the movie, here I will focus on the memorable moments. Original and Memorable Moments: Despite claims of riffing on old ideas and reveling in nostalgia, there are enough unique ideas to cement The Force Awakens as a key episode in the series. Though there are carryovers of course and recurring elements, every installment of the series has always prided itself on providing at least something new and unique that you'll never see anywhere else, sometimes not even in another Star Wars film. Remember the garbage compactor in the first film, or the first time we saw AT-AT walkers slowly creep up on the Rebel base in the snow? Return of the Jedi is the only place you can see the Sarlac Pit or those cute Ewoks. Even from the prequels you had the Pod Race sequence in Phantom Menace and the gladiator's arena in Attack of the Clones. My nephew won't shut up about General Grievous, as if he's the heart and soul of Star Wars, but he can only be found in Episode III (thank god). Like all those films, I think we will one day look back on The Force Awakens with a little more appreciation for what it did in fact add to our favorite galaxy, far, far away. Some of these may turn out to be the beginning of recurring concepts, like Jabba the Hutt, or Yoda, who were both original and unique but later appeared repeatedly, while others may be one-offs, never to be seen again no matter how popular, like Cloud City, Darth Maul's double lightsaber, or Jengo Fett. Wow, that's one helluva movie! After seeing the new Star Wars movie three times, I feel ready to see it three more. I'm pretty sure this post took me so long that just about everyone has finally gotten tired of complaining about the new Star Wars. The underlying plot structure is derivative and unoriginal; the new characters are too adept at whatever skill gets them out of trouble; the turning points are all conveniently timed. There. It's been said. Moving on. With the complaints out of the way (and having already been given way too much time in the limelight as it is) I thought I'd take some time to remind everyone just how much of the film was brilliant and why in spite of the valid concerns above, the experience was incredible. On a movie rating scale of 1 thru 10, The Force Awakens ranks as Star Wars. That says it all. Years from now I am confident pop culture will look back on this film with fond memories and fans will overlook quibbles like those mentioned above the same way they overlook the Ewoks, or Luke's whiny power converters at Tashi Station. The following is my list of reason why I think The Force Awakens will stand the test of time: |
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