So, Did the Force Awaken or...?

The biggest news of the entertainment world in the past week has undoubtedly been the opening of the new “Star Wars:  The Force Awakens” film.  As already mentioned, I didn’t exactly join in to the hype or fever but I did remain hopeful overall and shared in the simple concept that this new film couldn’t possibly be worse than “Star Wars:  Episode I – The Phantom Menace”.  In my personal opinion, well, one would really have to work very hard and go way out of their way to make a film worse than that.

It’s no secret that I’m a bit of a film aficionado, a sometimes so-called “movie snob”, depending upon how you view film in general.  I’m therefore going to attack this blog entry by wearing 2 different hats, both with my movie and film critic hat as well as through a Star Wars fan’s eyes.  I’ve already covered how I was on the tail end of being a first gen Star Wars kid (vs. THE actual Star Wars kid…look on YouTube, if you’re confused) and so I feel qualified enough to navigate both areas and attempt to do them at least a tad bit of justice.  This will not be a traditional movie review, however, since I feel that such turf is more than adequately covered elsewhere.

Let me begin by saying a bit about my current hometown.  When I stood in line for the dreaded “Episode I” in Phoenix, AZ, I think the group that I was with was in line a total of about 10-12 hours in order to see the film.  With “The Force Awakens”, though, I was able to pull a single seat primo location ticket for opening day a mere 20 minutes before show time AND I was still shocked to see that it wasn’t a sold out theater.  For anyone who argues that the Minneapolis/St. Paul/Twin Cities area isn’t a “small town”, I thus rest my case.  I was also kind of shocked to hear a completely hushed, non-audibly excited audience all around me versus the major cheers that occurred during the “Episode I” showing (of course, these were cheers when the film started…it was more like sobbing by the time it ended).  Having said that, I really don’t mind the fact that the theater wasn’t wall to wall people and that no one was making noise, and I think in many ways it made me more able to take in the film unbiased.

The previews seemed endless, like always.  Seriously, folks, we need to cut down on the 20-30 minute trailer and commercial thing at movie theaters these days but that’s a whole different blog entry.  Finally, the film started and it took so long that I almost forgot what movie I was about to see (ok, not really).  The film begins of course in the exact same manner as all the others before it and my first question was quickly answered:  there was absolutely no mention of Disney or a Disney logo anywhere in sight!  I had been wondering for quite some time if we’d see the iconic Disney castle first, or if they’d slip the Disney wording somewhere into the beginning, but none of the above.

The famous slanted words came out in 3D fashion and I raced against the clock to digest them as quickly as possible.  I was less than impressed, quite frankly.  Seriously?  There’s still drama going on in the galaxy even after the destruction of the Empire, the Death Star 2^nd Gen, and Darth Vader?!  Geesh, these people just don’t know how to celebrate and live in peace, apparently!  With that said, it also occurred to me that, well, the wording is pretty lame and 3^rd grade level writing in all of the films so I quickly let it go and stayed optimistic, not to mention that if there wasn’t some sort of useless drama, well, we probably wouldn’t have a movie, right?  I should also mention that an initial puzzlement for me when the title of this film was announced was something along the lines of…what do you mean ‘The Force Awakens’?!  The force seemed pretty damn strong at the end of ‘Return of the Jedi’.  What did it do…go on vacation or something??  Apparently, destroying your enemy and saving your lives isn’t ‘strong’ enough.  Who knew?!

I’m not going to go scene by scene through the movie, etc.  Again, I’m sure there are countless other blogs out there doing exactly that so I’m just going to skip around from point to point, if that’s okay.  Let’s just cut right to the chase:  with my Star Wars fans’ hat on, the film is much to be rejoiced over.  It’s fun, it’s got the cheesy interlaced humor throughout the film, it’s got action, it’s got drama, and so on.  The film completely LOOKS and FEELS like the original trilogy and the only nod to the prequels is really in the cantina scene with the character Maz Kanata.  Otherwise, the new film more or less can leave us first gen’er’s forgetting that the prequel disaster ever happened which I’m 100% positive was the intention.  I think the overall consensus with fans is that this was the movie we were hoping for about 20 years ago and it’s about darn time that it comes out.  From a typical Star Wars fans’ viewpoint, this is a hit, a 9 out of 10 scale film, and possibly a dream come true.

I completely enjoyed this film.  I did go along for the ride, I just vegged out with the story, and found it completely enjoyable.  It’s inevitable, though, that my film critic’s hat will come into play and here it certainly does.  What’s my biggest complaint?  It’s simple – J.J. Abrahms not only nailed the look and feel of the original trilogy, but he and crew also basically COPIED the original “Star Wars”, in my viewpoint.  I mean, they went sooooo out of their way to do so many nods to the original trilogy that it kind of got annoying by the end of the film.  The format of the movie also mirrors the original “Star Wars” on so many levels.  For example, both films begin with an Empire/First Order “strong” scene with the main character at that moment being in jeopardy; the droid with the plans gets away, then ends up on a sandy planet, etc.  We have mirrored cantina scenes with similar characters and even the whole “we need to go to the Death Star and do a rescue” thing is here, not to mention we have yet another freakin’ Death Star!  Is a Death Star the only thing that anyone can come up with in the Star Wars universe?  Yeah, sure, the Empire is now the First Order and the new Death Star has a different name, but seriously?  I can’t give this film a ton of originality points and instead it seems that the entire crew were so concerned that it go over well with Star Wars fans that they didn’t want to stray whatsoever from the original format and instead basically remade the movie without it actually being a reboot.  I think nods to the original films are fine but this movie went a bit overboard, at least with my movie hat on, that is.  I think it’s obvious that the filmmakers took the safest route possible with “The Force Awakens” in order to ensure a sure-fire hit and a profitable investment for the Disney Company.  Clearly no risks were taken here and only already explored, successful ground was re-explored in a new film version.

Other issues?  Like I said earlier, how did the rebels not enjoy at least some peace and quiet and much needed R&R post “Return of the Jedi”?  I have some issues with the congruency of the story at this point.  In my eyes, the story could have taken a very different twist and turn and it wouldn’t have taken too much of a brainstorming session.  For example, instead of the force awakening, shouldn’t it be the First Order/Empire awakening?  I feel that they could have easily done something more along that route.  There’s also the typical Star Wars “everything happens so easily and coincidentally” thing going on where characters just so conveniently run into one another over and over even though there’s supposedly an entire galaxy of people and creatures out there.  For example, what a bizarre and easy coincidence for Han and Chewbecca to find the Millennium Falcon, and yet they couldn’t find it all those years prior?  Hmm.  These things are usually written off by saying that the “force” is at work here.  If you ask me, it’s a lack of originality and a need of propelling the story forward as quickly as possible.

Here are 2 more points...  Whereas I really like the actress and character of Rey, I feel that the predictability of turning all of the characters in opposite gender roles from the original was incredibly predictable and a bit of a cop out.  Sorry – just my opinion on that one.  Furthermore, Kylo Ren seemed so incredibly vicious and almost as menacing as Darth Vader (and suspiciously looks quite a bit like him, too…another ‘hmm’) but upon being de-masked and seeing Adam Driver, um…?  Whoever decided to cast Adam Driver needs their head examined.  It was almost like, without the mask, it was a completely different character and caused me a bit of confusion momentarily.  I think that was probably the intention, to show that there was a bit of a question mark about his loyalty to the Dark Side, but I think it went a bit overboard, personally.  Adam Driver doesn’t ever really scare as much as flat out annoy me.  In my eyes, he has about as much presence on screen as an evil character as Chevy Chase being cast as Napoleon.

My last complaint is that the film ends with the one and only incredibly long shot of Luke Skywalker.  Why the very long shot?  We all know that Mark Hamill can’t act and this shot only reaffirms that nothing’s changed with his acting “force” over the years.  Also, why not just leave that for the next film?  Oh, I know why…we have to pay homage to everyone from the original film, right?  Again, no risks were taken whatsoever and every nod to the original trilogy had to be done.  Tsk, tsk.  And, speaking of how rehash this new film is to the original, even the end of the film closes with the blowing up of (you guessed it) the new “Death Star”, which we’ve all seen at least twice before.  I was seriously having déjà vu in the theater, personally.  After thinking about it a bit, my attitude was why even bother blowing up the new Death Star?  Why waste the time?!  They’re obviously just going to build another, seeing as this is most certainly a group of people obsessed with building Death Stars.  In all seriousness, I was quite disappointed that “Return of the Jedi” copped out way back in 1983 with rehashing a new Death Star rather than doing something new and original so to see yet another one in this film was a big snooze fest.

And so, there you have it.  From a Star Wars fans perspective, the film is mega enjoyable, celebration worthy, and a sure fire hit, provided you don’t mind the fact that you’re basically watching the original film all over again with just minor tweaks; in a movie critics’ viewpoint, it’s got just as many flaws as the original 1977 “Star Wars” and is basically a rewrite without actually being a rewrite.  There’s poor acting, terrible dialogue and script writing, etc.  My true personal opinion?  I think the original Star Wars trilogy should have been completely left alone.  There should have never been the prequels, or further sequels past “…Jedi”, and Lucas should have surely not been allowed to tamper with the films whatsoever.  Leave well enough alone, I say, but that’s not our society, now, is it?  And so, the biggest question I left the theater with was what happens now?  The film did a semi-successful hand off to the new cast but can the new cast really carry it forward?  I guess that remains to be seen.  One thing for sure is that the Star Wars franchise is once again alive and well, at least financially and fan based-wise, and from the rumors out at Disney, it’s not going away any time soon.  With that thought, let’s hope that the force is with all of us because we’re probably going to need it…

Star Wars: To Geek or Not to Geek?

Unless you’re completely living under a rock, I’m sure you’re undoubtedly aware that the new “Star Wars:  The Force Awakens” film opens in just slightly over a month.  Ticket sales have been crazy, setting records and such, just as pretty much anyone would have suspected.  The question, still, is ‘to geek or not to geek’?!  I’m not entirely sure but I’m going to attempt to explain where I stand on this topic.

We’ve been around this block before, of course.  Even bigger than the fact that a new Star Wars movie is opening, the real “news” here is that a new trilogy is emerging.  For those of us that have been dying to know what happened after “Return of the Jedi”, those answers are apparently going to be made public very soon.

Let me begin by saying that I’m not one of “those” people.  I’m not one to normally exit a film and ask questions like “so what happens now?” and “where do you think that character came from?”  This seems to be a very American trait (what I call an “American-ism”), in my opinion…wanting to know the back story of every character, wanting to know precisely how something ends, what happens next, and so on.  As much as I’m an American, I definitely seem to be the exception to this and many rules since I just leave questions like that to my imagination.  In my humble opinion, that’s part of what’s lacking in our society today since we’ve seemed to lose the concept of using our imaginations, but that’s a whole different blog entry.

Full disclosure:  I’m a first generation Star Wars kid, just barely.  Star Wars came out in 1977 and, while I didn’t see it on its’ initial release over the summer, I saw it on the re-release in the theaters later that year so I just barely “slipped” into this group.  I was a whopping 6 years old at this point but it seriously changed my life at the time, like most kids I know in my age group.  Almost all first gen Star Wars kids have this in common and most of us put the Star Wars trilogy on a pedestal back then, thinking that they were the greatest movies ever made.  It almost seemed like our very lives also revolved around the event of the two original Star Wars sequels.  I still clearly remember standing in line at the Yorktown Theater in Lombard, IL, waiting to see “The Empire Strikes Back” with about a hundred other people, all chomping at the bit to see one of the first sequels that really mattered (note for younger readers – sequels were not yet prevalent in those days).  And then flash forward to 1983, where I somehow convinced my parents to let me out of school early to see “Return of the Jedi” on opening day during a late afternoon showing.  These were all landmark events for me and, like so many others, I thought these movies were cinema at its’ highest.

 About 10-12 years later, I started my journey down the movie fanatic road, seeing every kind of film possible and deeply studying various eras of cinema.  By this time, the whole idea of George Lucas ever making any more Star Wars films was completely gone and it seemed to be an idea (or taunt) that was either scrapped or just never going to come to fruition.  Much to my shock, after really getting into film, I re-watched the Star Wars trilogy and was quite taken aback by how, well, silly the whole thing seemed in retrospect.  The acting was horrible, the plots were quite thin, and most of the dialogue was downright laughable.  Having said all of that, I was still able to watch the films through my nostalgia eyes and I couldn’t help but get some sort of deeper enjoyment.  I also felt that, despite the change in technology, the special effects still felt pretty relevant and those always seemed to be one of the standout trademarks of those films.

Then, everything changed.  George Lucas announced that there would indeed be prequels to Star Wars!  The clouds lifted!  The earth shook!  How could this be?!  The possibilities seemed endless!  The excitement was beyond belief, and yet we needed to wait about 3 years for the release.  The news that George Lucas would be hands on with the first film and even direct it seemed to be a sure win.  What could possibly go wrong?!

Well, everything…  I was pretty excited and made a decision to be there on opening night for Episode I, along with about 10 million other people, waiting in line for endless hours.  I even organized a group of work friends to join me and we all took either the day off or quite a few hours of PTO.  I even made the news reel that night, with the news anchor talking to me about the long wait in line, the anticipation, etc.  It seemed like a huge event and party and everyone was beyond excited.  Hours and hours later, the moment arrived.  We funneled into the theater, took our seats, and tried to patiently wait for the film to start.  And then, the familiar music began with those slanted words flying out at us.  The crowd cheered so loudly and then everyone quieted in order to give 100% focus on the words in front of us.  The first few scenes of the movie began and, well, it wasn’t exactly what anyone was expecting and you could sense a slight puzzlement in the crowd but, still, you had to give the film time to unfold, right?  Another 5 minutes later, there was a bit more unease in the audience but again, it hadn’t been that long into the story and such.  Then, it really landed.  I think it was around the entrance of Jar Jar Binks that I fully realized that, oh my god, this is going to be a total disaster, and my oh my was it.  Nothing felt right.  The story was bizarre and boring, the “universe” suddenly seemed completely different, and just the overall look and feel of the film had almost no relation to the Star Wars that I grew up with.  In short, the film was a total pile of stinking doggie doo doo, to put it kindly.  I think giving the film 1 star is doing it a kindness, quite frankly.  The film never got any better and ended up being the biggest disappointment of film history, or so it has been in my life.  I remember walking out of the theater and having many people who were still waiting to enter and see the film ask, “How was it?!  Was it amazing?!”  The look on my face probably said it all but I think I did manage to mumble out in a completely defeated manner, “Um, it was bloody awful.”

Prequels 2 and 3 really weren’t any better, in my opinion.  I laughed through most of Episode III, finding it utterly ridiculous.  The whole prequel trilogy was so bad that it created an incredible divide between the original Star Wars generation and the younger crowd that never really got that attached to Episodes IV – VI.  There was even fantastic backlash, and rightfully so, in my opinion, when Lucas modded the original trilogy to inject actors from the prequels, trying desperately to somehow conjoin these completely different series together.  The best thing in my opinion that came with the release of Episode III was that there wouldn’t be any prequels.

When news rang out that Lucas was selling the Star Wars franchise to Disney, my initial reaction was a very loud “ugh” since I was hoping that we’d just let sleeping dogs lie.  After more thought, though, there was a very, very slight possibility that Disney could, well, maybe do something with this mess.  I really didn’t think there’d be a new trilogy, though, and that announcement hit me with a lot of skepticism.  I waited and more or less blew the whole thing off.  The day the trailer was released, I couldn’t help myself, though.  I watched it and I won’t deny…it gave me an albeit rather small but definite tinge of “Wow.  This may not actually be total sh*t”.  I still contained any excitement, though, and then waited for the second trailer.  This time around, there was even more of a tinge of “this might be decent”.

In conclusion, as someone who’s been around the Star Wars hub bub since the very beginning and has been deeply burned, to answer the question ‘to geek or not to geek’, I simply cannot allow myself to completely geek.  Once bitten, twice shy, right?  I have purchased my ticket for “Star Wars:  The Force Awakens”, though, and this time I purchased a reserved seat since there’s no way in hell that I’ll wait in another line like for Episode I.  If I’m going to “geek”, it’s going to be post viewing…it’s just as simple as that.  My major concerns?  First, I’m not a huge fan or believer in J.J. Abrams.  I know many people see him as some sort of great filmmaker but I personally find only about a quarter of his work really worthwhile and interesting.  I also was not impressed with his Star Trek reboot and that definitely makes me a bit leery.  Second, I fear that there may be way too much emphasis on tying things together and showing where the old cast has been for the past 30+ years.  Some of this is necessary and welcome, of course, but if there’s too much of it, I think it could easily slip into being incredibly cheesy.  Lastly, will it feel like Star Wars and do we really want to put some sort of definitive answer to what happens post “Return of the Jedi”?  I guess that’s a personal question.  I just hope that it doesn’t chip away even more at my feelings for the original trilogy.

Look here for a complete and honest review of the film post December 18^th!  Until then, may the ‘geek’ be with you…