THE GOOD, THE BAD,
THE UGLY: THE CASH GRAB AWAKENS
EPISODE
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Once upon a time, as Sergio Leone
and Ennio Morricone did for Westerns, George Lucas and John Williams redefined
the Sci-Fi/Fantasy genre. Star Wars is a visceral cinematic experience; a space
opera that Hollywood has not seen before or since. Drawing from Joseph
Campbell's The Hero With a Thousand Faces (1949), audiences were captivated by
a young person's call to adventure against the backdrop of funky aliens and
cheesy space jargon.
A bootleg copy of Return of the Jedi was the first movie
with which I became "obsessed”. The idea of triumphing over a powerful
dark force resonated with my five-year-old brain, and like millions before me,
I was hooked on the spectacle of Star Wars.
Also like everyone else, I was thoroughly disappointed and
bored with George Lucas' hashed out return to a prequel trilogy. See Redlettermedia’s
on point analysis offers for why these movies fail so miserably.
Ten years after we said NOOOOOO to Darth Haydensen, why did
everyone in the world eagerly spend their holiday vacation in packed theaters, to
sport disorienting tinted glasses for a 3D gimmick?
THE CASH GRAB
After Disney’s strategic acquisition of LucasFilm, the human
race collectively gasped and wondered if a competent movie maker like JJ Abrams
would satisfy the needs of mourning Star Wars nerds - still recovering from
painful dialogue exposition (“I hate the sand; it's coarse and...”).
Inevitable teaser and the theatrical trailers revealed familiar
desert landscapes, storm troopers, tie fighters, defunct Imperial Cruisers, the
millennium-freaking falcon and HAN SOLO! The lush Princess Leia theme pulled
our heartstrings, while an aged Solo tells us, or new the generation of Star
Wars actors, that the myth of the force, the dark side and light are true. ALL
OF IT!
It felt like an affirmation that 21st century
Hollywood producers finally understood and recognized elements from the
original trilogy that fans were missing: coherent story telling, daddy issues,
and of course, the millennium falcon.
But hold on…
After nearly forty years, is it realistic to expect any
filmmaker to capture or reproduce the essence of what made the original movies
so magical? Haven’t we been down this road before? (re: trailer for Phantom
Menace)
BUT THE ORIGINAL CAST IS BACK TO REPRISE THEIR ROLES!!!
AND LAWERENCE KASDAN CO-WROTE EMPIRE!!!
First of all, has Lawrence Kasdan written anything of
significance since the 1980s? (wtf is Dreamcatcher [2003]?)
Rather than tell a new story and extend the Star Wars
Universe, like Empire or ROTJ, TFA recycles characters and imagery - a sort of
mish-mash of atmospheres and drama points. Disney and Co. exploit our nostalgia
for the original trilogy as a basis to accept the new cast of overly giddy
actors. Ultimately, it feels like a
disservice to the characters and story we grew to love.
The actors that played these roles in the 1970s are not the
same people today. The success of the franchise and its enduring legacy has
radically altered their personal and professional lives, pulling them light
years (or some reasonably long distance) away from the characters they
inhabited as young stars. To expect the original gang to step back into their
respective roles seems a little cruel.
Why did it take $23 million dollars to bring Harrison Ford
back? It’s a nostalgic treat to see these actors return to their iconic roles,
but didn’t anyone see the last Indian Jones movie? Do we really need to see
Carrie Fisher as a General (?) Leia talk about how she lost her son when he
went to Jedi school?
Would the character of Han Solo really be running around
cargo ships with Chewy, sporting the same outfit (but it’s a new jacket!), 30
earth years after the events of ROTJ? What function does a dusty looking
version of Han Solo serve other than passing the falcon torch and being related
to the new villain?
HEY, DO YOU LOVE HAN SOLO AND PRINCESS LEIA?
IN THE ABSENCE OF NARRATIVE LOGIC,
THEY LOVE THE NEW CHARACTERS - SO YOU SHOULD TOO!!
The prospect of a strong female protagonist in the
fantasy/sci-fi genre is a brilliant opportunity to portray a complex character
whose challenges are more daunting in the context of a male dominated society,
and all the more satisfying when they over come them (re: Aliens and Terminator
2). We almost get a taste of that with Rey; however, she seems to effortlessly
overcome any obstacle that comes her way.
She intuitively pilots the millennium falcon, presented to
us in all of its digitally rendered glory (how is this thing still standing,
let alone operational and fueled for take off?). Rey and Finn are overjoyed and
mystified by their successful escape from those pesky tie-fighters - it's as if
the force was with them. Or perhaps there’s another explanation for the ease of
their escape - but I digress…
Rey’s knack for the force doesn’t really bring any tension
to the story. It’s a missed opportunity to watch the protagonist genuinely
struggle and hone in her skills. After
having an unpleasant Jedi trip, she does have a moment of internal conflict and
basically “Nope(s)!” the f*ck out. But where was she going to go anyway? Sure
enough, she gets captured by her cousin and returns right back to the movie. By
the end, Leia forcefully accepts Rey with a “may the force be with you” high
five and she’s off to invite the movie’s McGuffin into the sequel.
When you pause for another moment and think…
How does Finn know how to use a lightsaber? What is that
weapon used by the random traitor hating storm trooper? How does he even
recognize Finn in the first place? Are these storm troopers more social in
First Order and hang out without wearing their gear? How the heck was
Anakin/Luke Skywalker's light saber recovered - did they find Luke's hand too?
How Ben/Ren find his grandfather's burnt mask? Is Poe just a bro? Why do Chewy
and Leia not grieve together over Han’s death? And Maz, really?
On the surface, TFA has all the right intensions of looking
and sounding like a Star Wars movie, but at the best, its effort feels like an
impersonation. When you peel back the layers of nostalgia, what remains? Why
are reviews so quick to glean over obvious plot holes, forced characterization,
inconsistent quality of special effects, all for the sake of satisfying their
inner child's excitement? Why create an inferior product when the existing one
still exits and works great?
Could this movie possibly stand on its own if the original
trilogy never existed? That would be as unrealistic as any comic book movie.
Was there really nothing more novel than to blow up another
sphere of celestial death? Just compare the names Death Star and Starkiller.
Both have the word Star. One has Death and the other is Killer. C’mon…
Even Han Solo agrees: this is tired plot territory. And yet
the Rebel, eurh, Resistance, fighters swiftly surmise the death planet thing
must have a vulnerable weak spot that when attacked will ignition a chain
reaction explosion. Why do these reboot sequel franchise movies act like its
audience have no knowledge or memory of the original?
In a galaxy like Star Wars, it's a shame that George Lucas's
failed prequels have revoked the imagination of new worlds, characters and
designs. The Star Wars franchise template
offers unlimited possibilities for storytelling and characters; it’s as ripe
for innovation and imagination as it was forty years ago.
So much of the success of the originals was based on its
rich detail. The Cantina bar evokes the feeling of a shady alien spaceport bar.
You feel its dank atmosphere and uneasiness; the perfect hang out spot for a
guy like Han Solo.
While TFA has callbacks to these kinds of familiar settings,
they come off a bit polished, out of place, and coldly calculated. Mostly, it
feels needlessly derivate to recycle and mash not just character arcs and
plots, but actual shot references (Chewy choking Lando/Finn). The effect feels
so pointlessly obscure it comes off as an attempt to hack my subconscious
five-year-old brain to think hey this DOES feel like a Star Wars movie!!
But more likely, Disney needed to rekindle a very specific
set of emotions among viewers, calling back familiar visual cues and designs.
Using a safe director like JJ is another calculated move on the movie-making
chessboard. The result is a high concept sci-fi flick released in the year 2015
that borrows heavily on the design and internal logic of a low budget 70s
flick. The original films are inherently corny and cheesy in dialogue, but its
absurd execution somehow works better in the context of the time these movies
were produced. Shouldn’t we strive for something more?
The overwhelming success from an independent visionary has
stripped away the imagination of movies, placing emphasis on proven formulas and
familiar icons.
Along with the strategies of Warner Brothers and Universal
Studios, we can count on the future of cinema to be comic books, Jurassic
Worlds, and Star Wars – but to call this movie a Star Wars film, to me, is a profitable
lie.
