Rise of Skywalker is a Film Designed by a Committee
Rise of Skywalker is a Film Designed by a Committee, and when we say that we mean not only an indictment of how the Lucasfilm and Disney execs worked over the story, but the obvious and huge retcons of the story line not only from eps 7 and 8, but also the original trilogy.
In the original trilogy, we cared about the characters. We were curious and even inspired by the force and samurai wizard mentors such as Obi-Wan and Yoda dishing out ice cream koans like [The Force is] “an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us and penetrates us; it binds the galaxy together” and “Do. Or do not. There is no try.”
Episodes 7, 8 and 9 eschew the samurai warrior/wizard mentor stuff and goes for an origin story of the protagonist Rey. But after three movies, we still know almost nothing about her, and she knows almost nothing about her origins. Why is it that so many strong female characters are devalued by spending their entire story line angsting about “who am I?” I mean does John Wick or James Bond get all emo about their identity?
Special effects are wonderful, of course. The script is just miserable. Lawrence Kasdan this is not. Acting is serviceable. Adam Driver still seems weirdly miscast to me as an evil Sith wannabe overlord. He comes off more like a creepy abusive satanist boyfriend. Daisy Ridley gives a solid performance as Rey. She really gives it her all physically and emotionally. Her whole fierce elf aesthetic made me think of Elfquest.
The music was not John Williams. It was bombastic, overly dramatic and had only sound and fury, nothing really memorable or lyrical.
One of the things which made Fury Road a great movie was how the battles were set up, you could tell exactly who was where doing what. Ep 9 is the opposite, it’s a huge mess.
Trying not to be too spoilerish but there are also big issues in terms of even the internal logic of the third trilogy leading to a problematic and improbable deus ex machina.
The best I can say about ep 9 is that it re-retconned a lot of the scurrilous and disrespectful retcons in ep 8. But continuity is out the window totally. And for folks who enjoy the Old Republic and the legends continuities these three last Star Wars films gave us nothing and disrespected or devalued a lot of what we thought we knew.
Skywalker is a well-made movie in terms of production values. As a story, it is very unfullfilling as a way of ending the Skywalker series and fails in theme, plot, characterization, and continuity.
2 of 4 stars.
Copyright © 2019 Henry Edward Hardy
First Thoughts on the Last Jedi
==SPOILERS AHEAD!!!==
This is my reaction after just having seen The Last Jedi at the theater. If you haven’t seen the film then stop reading because spoilers and also I’m making reference to events in the film without explaining them to the point of view of someone who hasn’t seen the film.
Well, long story short, or perhaps I should say, long story excessively long, a big disappointment.
Going in to the film, I wanted to know who is Rey? Who is Snoke? What happened to Ahsoka, Kanan, and Space Aladdin aka Ezra? What is in the ancient books of the Jedi? How does Leia die (hopefully heroically)? Why is it time for the Jedi to end?
Are those crystal wolf things Loth-Wolves? Did Han survive his Disney death in the shaft?
And most of all, I wanted to see Luke kick some ass. And smarmy emo Adam Driver handed his.
Well if you were looking forward to any of those things, rest assured, none of those things are in this movie. None of them. For this manufactured committee-made story-line the awesome Clone Wars and Rebels and their bespoke characters were/are being terminated, why?
Kathleen Kennedy, you’re no George Lucas or Dave Filoni. And Rian Johnson, you’re no Lawrence Kasdan. Looking forward to the last half of the last season of Rebels, otherwise, I think that Kennedy, Abrams &co have just about driven this franchise over the shark as has happened to poor old Star Trek. Did anyone say “spore drive?”
Anyway, the Force went back to sleep, and nobody cared. There was zero audience interaction at the packed theatre. When I saw Thor Ragnarök and Rogue 1 at the same venue (AMD 12 Assembly Row Somerville, MA USA) , the crowd was very engaged, laughing, snarking cheering, and crying in the case of Rogue 1. Not so here, more’s the pity. 2 of 5 stars.
Copyright © 2017 Henry Edward Hardy
This! IS! THEMISCIRA!!!
Spoilers ahead.
I enjoyed Wonder Woman. I found it rather predictable and it is a linear story with a foreordained conclusion.
However, there were a few averted tropes there. WW’s mother turns out to be a reasonable authority figure who understands that her daughter must go to “man’s world” to stop the scourge of war brought upon mankind by Ares. However, true to the original story, she then tells Diana she can never return if she leaves. Curiously, when she ponders sending all the Amazons, one of the reasons she mentions for not doing this isn’t “and we could never return.” Since Diana is not disobeying her mother’s commands by leaving, then exactly what is she banished for?
Cinematographicly, Wonder Woman has a lot in common with another feminist folktale, Fury Road. The oversaturated orange and blue coloration, and the persistent use of over and under-cranking the speed of action shots is characteristic of both movies, and seldom seen elsewhere. Similarly in the action scenes it was much like an estrogen-powered version of 300.
Finally, although shifted to WWI, it is difficult to overlook the many similarities of Wonder Woman with the first Captain America movie. Supersoldier/demigoddess and fish out of water in a red, white and blue uniform fights a German Big Bad whose sidekick is a renegade German scientist with a severe facial disfigurement in the midst of a World War.
The movie is carried by deft writing which neither quite falls over into camp nor takes itself too seriously. There is some real romantic tension between WW and her companion/love interest/designated rescuee, Steve Trevor, enough to make his Captain-America-like ultimate fate really sad and distressing.
Overall, a quickly passing and pleasant diversion, and fun to see in the theater and share the laughs with the audience.
Copyright © 2017 Henry Edward Hardy
Reflections on the first Ghost in the Shell Trailer
Here are some actual issues to be concerned with in the new trailer of Ghost in the Shell:
* The Major doesn’t need a traditional origin story along the line of “the government stole my identity and made me a super soldier cyborg.” This is a way overdone trope and it misses the essential nature of the Major’s identity issues in the manga, movies and the series. What holds the Major back in her evolution is is not, not knowing who she was, it is clinging to material items like her watch which serve as tangible confirmation of our identity and that our memories are real, not a dream or illusion or a memory edit or hostile program.
* Bateau seems miscast. He is supposed to be a laid back, beer drinking, basset hound loving, weight lifting ex-US special forces operator. Seems like here the character has been “Danewashed.”
* An important point in the representation of the world of Ghost in the Shell is that cyberization is becoming common and the Net is becoming universal and starting to evolve in it new forms of consciousness and life. Having Motoko as “the first of your kind” is again, recycling a tired old trope which isn’t needed here.
* “Major” is an orphan appellation in this movie. It is used as though it is a first name, which in the manga, movies and TV series is not the case. There, she is called “Major” because she was a special forces operative, a Major in the JSDF and UN forces in Central America before she was recruited for Section 9. But because they have latched on to the “they stole your life” formula, they have lost the more interesting origin story of Motoko losing her parents, her body, her memories, everything in a plane crash when she was six. And they have lost the very touching backstory of her relationship with Kuze and the one hand folding paper cranes by which they recognize each other again.
Part of the confusion in the “whitewashing” issue is that Little Englanders and USians who are not familiar with the franchise assuming “Motoko Kusanagi” is her given name, whereas in English it would be like naming a character something like “Jane Doe Excalibur” and should be seen as an obvious code name, callsign, handle or pseudonym and not as a given name. So they shouldn’t shy away from using it.
Simply “looking awesome” and “looking like the source material” does not necessarily a good movie make. Witness “Warcraft.”
So count me encouraged but dubious about this trailer and film. On the plus side it looks gorgeous and we can at least enjoy the world building and watching a smirky naked badass Scarlett Johannson kicking ass. Which can’t be all bad.
Copyright © 2016 Henry Edward Hardy
About Scanlyze
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Scanlyze is an online magazine of essays, commentary, satire, and analysis. Were we half as clever, for inspiration we would take Mark Twain, Ambrose Bierce, Swift, Montaigne, or Seneca.
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John F. Kennedy, October 26, 1963
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