Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. A Review (Review #1465)

STAR WARS: THE RISE OF SKYWALKER

Some things, perhaps, were doomed from the beginning. 

After The Last Jedi, director J.J. Abrams had a nearly insurmountable difficulty with The Rise of Skywalker, the concluding episode to the now-nine episode Star Wars saga. He was essentially asked to recon a reboot that had already established so much in the Star Wars mythos that Star Wars fans hated. Add to that attempting to integrate a major character whose actress had died before she could return and Abrams perhaps found the whole thing simply too much.  The Rise of Skywalker is anything but, a muddled, boring mess that leaps about from one point to another but has nothing to thrill or excite.

The Resistance and the First Order are now on the hunt for each other, with Jedi trainee Rey (Daisy Ridley) and Sith Lord Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) continuing their efforts to lure the other into the Light or Dark Side. Kylo Ren has a surprising ally: the formerly late Emperor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid), who has secretly created a massive fleet to wipe out the Resistance once and for all.

The Emperor has a special reason to find Rey, but it is not to kill her. It is to enthrone her as the new Empress, for we learn that Rey is the Emperor's granddaughter! None of this is known to Rey or her Resistance friends: dashing fighter pilot Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac), former Stormtrooper Finn (John Boyega) or Wookie Chewbacca (Joonas Suotano). They, along with Rey, are in search of a Sith Wayfinder to find Exogol, the hidden world of the Sith.

The war continues with a secret Resistance spy in the First Order, and General Leia (Carrie Fisher) making the ultimate sacrifice to bring Kylo Ren back to being her son, Ben. Now redeemed to the Light, Ben and Rey form something of an alliance as she confronts her grandfather on Exegol. She manages to send her location to the Resistance, and all have a final battle for the future of the galaxy far, far away.

The Rise of Skywalker answers the question 'Can a company spend an estimated $275 million only to end up saying nothing'?  Four people are credited with the story, including credited screenwriters director Abrams and Chris Terrio, but I think many more hands were involved. Even if one were generous and said only four people created Rise of Skywalker, it would still be a hopeless mess.

The film skips and leaps from one world to another with nary rhyme or reason. So much is left out or unexplained you genuinely wonder if Abrams and Disney literally were making it up as they went along. On the planet Pasaana as it looks like the Resistance fighters were about to die, Finn desperately wants to tell Rey something. Twice he is asked what he wanted to tell her, and twice he demurs. It's lazy to bring up something only to never resolve it.

General Hux (Domhnall Gleeson) turns out to be the Resistance spy because...reasons. His only answer to why he is helping them is "I don't care if you win. I need Kylo Ren to lose", but again as to whether this is genuine concern for the future of the galaxy or a petty revenge is something for fanfic. As to how Rey ended up the Emperor's granddaughter when The Last Jedi established there was nothing special about her, well, I guess fans needed some grand explanation as to why she was so important.

How the Emperor managed to survive The Return of the Jedi and build up this massive fleet, well, reasons. Exactly who would want to have sex with the Emperor or who ended up having him as a Baby Daddy is for, I'm not exactly sure.

Again and again, Rise of Skywalker throws things in and asks questions that are never answered, teasing things that might have been more interesting than what we ended up with. There's Zorii (Keri Russell) a criminal with whom Poe has a past. She's a convenient plot device to get them out of jams as well as a way to abolish the queerbaiting between Poe and Finn. She is given such a limited screentime however that her character was also shortchanged.

Same with Jannah (Naomi Ackie), a former Stormtrooper turned Resistance warrior. She was unofficially paired off with Finn, but like Zorii and Poe they had zero chemistry and was there to just help.

The divisive Rose Tico (Kelly Marie Tran) was almost a cameo. Other tiny performances veered on comical. I imagine Greg Grunberg must have gotten a nice paycheck out of essentially doing nothing but standing around arms akimbo, occasionally speaking. Dominic Monaghan added nothing to the proceedings but acted as if all of this were so serious and important it slipped into spoof. Both Gleeson and Richard E. Grant as Allegiant General Pryde were hopelessly hammy, signaling they were fully aware of how awful all this was and not bothering to act. Grant in particular was hilariously awful, so much so that I actually started laughing every time he attempted to appear evil and menacing.

Fortunately for all of them, they weren't on screen long enough to completely humiliate themselves. 

As for the main cast, I think Driver is the only one who not only made a genuine effort to take all this seriously but made it work. It is by now impossible for me to think of Kylo Ren as anything other than "Emo Vader", but Driver does work hard at trying to make the conflict between Ben Solo and Kylo Ren plausible. 

Everyone else flounders.  Ridley looks unenthusiastic about things, Isaac plays him like a watered-down Harrison Ford as Han Solo (which to be fair, Poe Dameron essentially is) and Boyega can't seem to decide if he's heroic or bumbling. Again, to be fair to Boyega at least I put that more on Abrams as director than Boyega as actor, but it doesn't help any. 

One feels for the late Fisher, who died before production could begin. They did as good a job as they could inserting unused footage to include her in the film and that aspect flowed generally well. One should cut them some slack for doing the best they could with regards to Fisher under very difficult circumstances.

The Rise of Skywalker rushes from one thing to another, throwing a lot at the audience but saying nothing. It simultaneously wanted to be fan service (such as the inclusion of Billy Dee Williams' reprising his role of Lando Calrissian) and move the overall story forward. However, it simply was trying too much for it to hold. 

The Rise of Skywalker is a poor way to end this massive saga, but one hopes it is the end. No rise has ever fallen so hard.

DECISION: D-

Solo: A Star Wars Story. A Review

SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY

Author's Note: There are spoilers here.  You've been warned.

Han. Shot. First.

I never understood why this was so controversial, controversial enough to require a little reediting to satisfy some fans who demanded things be altered to fit their wishes rather than the facts. Han Solo was never meant to be thoroughly heroic.  He was a mercenary, a man who cared only about himself and who eventually grew to care about the Rebellion and Princess Leia.

In short, I got all I needed to know about Han Solo in the original series.

That, however, was not good enough for either some rabid Star Wars fans or the Disney Corporation, which figured it needed more money and to create an Expanded Universe to rival Marvel or DC.  As such, we are getting a plethora of Star Wars prequels, sequels and origin stories.  As such, we have Solo: A Star Wars Story.  The end result is not horrible, a credit to director Ron Howard in keeping the chaotic production concluding with a somewhat coherent finish.  However, for being an origin story it isn't very original or informative on the early years of our lovable scoundrel.

A (much) longer time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, young Han (Alden Ehrenreich) is an orphan of sorts on the planet Corellia.  He has a lady love, Qi'ra (Emilia Clarke) and the two have something that will finance their leaving this sewer planet.  They manage an escape from the Fagin-like creature Lady Proxima (voiced by Linda Hunt) and then get separated.  Han, sad and lonely, joins the Imperial Navy as a pilot, but three years later he's still stuck in the trenches.

Here, he meets Tobias Beckett (Woody Harrelson), a criminal who is masquerading as a Captain for some reason.

I'd like to pause at this moment to state that 'Tobias Beckett' is probably the most Earth-like name I can recall as part of the Star Wars universe.

Tobias, along with alien Rio Durant (Jon Favreau) and Tobias' partner/partner-in-crime Val (Thandie Newton), don't want to take Han with them, but after failing in getting him killed by the Wookie known as Chewbacca, reluctantly take him on as part of their crew.  They're going to steal coaxium, a valuable material.  The plot fails in part because despite Val's warning, Tobias failed to take into account that another thief, Enfys Nest, might try to get at them.  Val and Rio die, and worse, Tobias is now on the hook with criminal overlord Dryden Vos (Paul Bettany).

As it so happens, who should turn up with Dryden Vos but Qi'ra, who appears to be his moll.  Now, the criminal gang finds that to placate Dryden, they offer to steal another batch of coaxium, only this time unprocessed.  For that, they need a ship, one that Qi'ra can help find through her contact, Lando Calrissian (Donald Glover).

Lando, along with his fiery feminist revolutionary droid L3-37 (voiced by Phoebe Waller-Bridge) come up with a plan to go to the planet Kessell and steal the coaxium, then take it to the planet Savareen to process it.

Eventually, Enfys Nest (Erin Kellyman) reveals herself, not as a thief, but as the seeds of the early Rebellion against the Galactic Empire, stopping them from letting Dryden get the coaxium which he would have sold to the Empire.  Some double and triple crosses and upmanships later, Han and Chewy decline the chance to join the nascent Rebellion, win back the Millennium Falcon from Lando, and we find the Dryden and his mistress Qi'ra are in cahoots with Darth Maul.

Here is the thing with Origin Stories: they almost always fail to be truly original.  I think it comes from the fact that no matter what kind of danger the characters are put through, we know that somehow they will make it because if they didn't, we wouldn't have the characters when we first see them.  Now, an origin story can fill in blanks and give us new insight into those characters.

Solo: A Star Wars Story didn't.

Instead, it seemed more interested in giving fans a checklist of things that might excite them but that for others would mean little to nothing.  Solo seemed dead-set on showing us everything we learned about Han from the original films: the famous sabbac game where he wins the Millennium Falcon, the 'Kessell Run in 12 parsecs', even how Han got his surname: apparently, some random Imperial Navy recruiter named him 'Solo' because Han had no people and thus, was 'alone'.

I think my eyes rolled at that.

For me, Solo played like a wild fanfic, something overstuffed and amateurish.  The material the father-son team of Lawrence and Jonathan Kasdan gave us could fill several films.  We had two major heists, a lot of wild characters, first meetings, and nods to the original that I felt I needed a playbill to try and keep track of who is who.

I kept hearing about Enfrys Nest, Dryden Vos and Crimson Dawn to where I kept forgetting which was which, unaware that Crimson Dawn was a group and not a person.

One of Solo's greatest flaws is in having so much in it.  Perhaps if the Kasdans and Howard had focused on having one major heist, we could have actually gotten to know the first batch of thieves.  Instead, Rio and Val are killed off quickly, and frankly, there is no way I could feel sad for characters I barely knew.  A stronger focus on one central story rather than a hodgepodge of them with shout-outs to fans might have been more logical, but I think the pressure was on to give hardcore fans what they thought they wanted; more focus was given to all the cool bits of 'oh look, there's THE sabbac game', rather than in giving us actual insight into Han's beginning.

Perhaps the worst aspect of Solo is in inserting Darth Maul into the proceedings.  Going only by the movies, I'm pretty sure he was killed off in The Phantom Menace, when the future Darth Vader was a child.  Now, somehow, he not only managed to survive something that happened long before the events of Solo but has his own apprentice.

It just seems so outlandish, petty fan service for those who know intimately all the goings on in this galaxy but which seem irrational.  The Sith Lord was cut in half and fell into a pit, and now he's back?  It certainly makes for interesting chronology to figure out.

I figure Darth Maul's inclusion is to make him part of more Solo prequels, but I genuinely don't see why we would need more backstories when the first one seems so long, convoluted and frankly boring.

It isn't as if Solo does not have some qualities. Chief among them is Glover as Lando, making him the suave, elegant figure that we got to know when Billy Dee Williams played the older Lando in The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi.  There's a reason Williams was nicknamed 'Dark Gable', and Glover gets the smooth sophistication of Williams and Lando.

The sets are nice too.  Other than that, I'm working hard to find much to celebrate.

Glover's Lando being a highlight, I guess that makes his 'romance' with L3-37 just bonkers.  Some have commented on this droid being more annoying than Jar Jar Binks, a tall order.  I didn't think 'she' was, but only because she wasn't on screen long enough. From what I understood, L3-37's love for Lando was mostly one-sided, but this droid was just dumb.  In her 'droid rights' rampages and rages, I did not find 'her' to be pushing a social justice warrior agenda.

If that was the reason for 'her' instigating a robot rebellion, then she failed.  I took her to be a parody of SJW, comically bad and unnecessary, annoying to no end.

Bless Glover for trying to make Lando mourning her death real when it was more hilarious.

Apart from Glover and Harrelson, who at least has motivation and makes for a more compelling figure, there is nothing among the performances that makes one really believe these will become the iconic characters we'll get to know. 

Rumors swirled that then-directors Christopher Miller and Phil Lord had to bring in an acting coach for Alden Ehrenreich during their time on the production before they were unceremoniously let go and Howard was brought in to essentially rework the film.  Congratulations to said acting coach are in order, for Ehrenreich was not horrible.  We can dispense with the fact that Ehrenreich is at least four inches shorter than the original Han Solo (Harrison Ford), and sometimes when he is silent and still, you can almost believe Ehrenreich's Solo will become Ford's Solo.

For the most part, however, it's hit and miss to believe Ehrenreich will become Ford, mostly miss. However, I'm giving Ehrenreich some slack because the script would have flustered anyone.  Must all heroes/antiheroes all be motivated by thwarted love?

Clarke was decent but not spectacular as the love interest, especially since she didn't seem all that in love to begin with.  Bettany at least has the excuse of having been brought in later, but he wasn't menacing as Dryden Efrin Delta Dawn, whatever his name was.

Solo: A Star Wars Story was not horrible.  It was just too long for the story it was not telling and generally unoriginal for an origin story.  After I left the theater, I was hard-pressed to remember much of it, apart from how long it was and trying to keep the criminals names straight.  It was not worthy of the figure who grew in stature during the original saga.

I have a bad feeling about this: we might have worse Solo or other Star Wars origin stories coming.

DECISION: D+

Star Wars: The Last Jedi. A Review (Review #993)

STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI

There are going to be spoilers here, so skip down to the end for the final decision.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi, seems to have split people all over.  Most of my fellow critics worship it almost as The Second Coming.  Some fans, on the other hand, don't want it to be Canon to the epic Star Wars mythos.  The most obvious example of this divide is on the review aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes: 91% positive reviews from critics, 52% negative ratings from 'average' people. 

For myself, I'm splitting it down the middle: not the monstrosity some of the rabid hardcore Star Wars fans bemoan it as, not the unimpeachable Citizen Kane of Star Wars my brethren insist it is.

Picking up from pretty much where Star Wars: The Remix left off,  The Last Jedi has about three stories going on.  There's the story of Rey (Daisy Ridley) a young girl infused with great power from The Force for reasons still unknown who has found Master Jedi Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill).  She goes to him to help the "not Rebellion" (The Resistance) do battle with the "not Empire" (The First Order), especially against their "not Darth Vader" (Kylo Ren, also known as 'Emo Vader').  Luke believes the Jedi should now die out, but he shows her a few things about the Jedi and The Force, albeit reluctantly as she goes through her own "not Dagobah" (Ahch-To).  Something in The Force allows both Rey and Emo Vader (Adam Driver) to have communications with each other in what I like to call 'Force Skype', down to where they manage to meet despite being in wholly other words.

The connection between Emo Vader, formerly Luke's nephew Ben Solo, and how they came to be at odds has a Rashomon feel, as the stories about his turning to the Dark Side don't quite gel.  Having the Jedi temple set ablaze echoes Revenge of the Sith, but why quibble?

Meanwhile, hotshot pilot "not Han Solo" (Poe Dameron) keeps disobeying orders from Princess now General Leia Organa (Carrie Fisher in her final role) and while he does get results, he also has no problem with getting many others killed to meet them.  Everyone is alarmed when the "not Empire" manages to follow them into hyperspace, where they begin destroying the "not Rebellion" with ease.  Alarmed at this, and with Leia having semi-magically survived the bridge getting a direct hit by floating back from space onto another ship, eventually they realize they need to disable a tracker that is on board the "not Empire" ship.

Now we get into Story Three: reformed Stormtrooper Finn (John Boyega) and low-level mechanic/Finn fangirl Rose Tico (Kelly Marie Tran) need to find a codebreaker to disable the tracker.  Travelling to Canto Bight and their casino, they find the codebreaker they are looking for, but plot reasons make them join with another codebreaker, DJ (Benicio del Toro).  He does help them, but there's a 'shocking' twist.

More shocking twists are when Emo Vader brings Rey to "not Emperor" Supreme Leader Snoke (Andy Serkis), who taunts Rey.  With Snoke dead at one of their hands (guess who),  Emo Vader takes command and with General Hux (Domhnall Gleeson), takes the final battle to the "not Rebellion" to the actual Rebel stronghold of Crait, where Emo Vader and Luke Skywalker have another, final confrontation.  Rey saves the day, channeling her great Force powers to provide an escape to the "not Rebellion", and the "not Rebellion" continues.

Has anyone ever noticed how few people actually finish Jedi training?  Luke didn't, Rey didn't, those kids at the Jedi temples they're always burning down don't, not sure about Anakin.  Sometimes it's a puzzle as to why they even bother.

What is so impressive about The Last Jedi is how unimpressive it is.  For all the Sturm und Drang it belts out, there's remarkably little here.  Writer/director Rian Johnson is certainly well-impressed with himself, but at times The Last Jedi, like another beloved sci-fi franchise (Doctor Who) seems more interested in being meta than in being timeless or from 'a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away'.

There's the opening scene where Poe taunts Hux by continuously saying he's 'on hold' for the General, making snide remarks about asking if anyone there has seen him.  "You know, pasty skin," Poe ridicules at one point, while the increasingly campy Hux keeps replying that it is him.

The audience laughed, which I figure they were trained to do, but I couldn't help think this is something that would have appeared in Spaceballs, not Star Wars.  Do people really 'hold' in outer space (or drop bombs rather than fire them)?  These incessant calls for comedy and quips (I think I heard at least twice 'need a lift?' whenever someone was stranded and another ship came in) are a bit too 'now'.  Having Yoda tell Skywalker with regards to the sacred Jedi texts, "Page-turners they were not", again sounds a bit too much like Johnson wanted something only for contemporary audiences.  Who is to know whether these terms will still be in use fifty years from now.

As a side note, I am a total loss to understand how the ten seconds of silence when we have a suicide run could so confuse people as to require advanced notification that there will be no sound.  Are modern audiences that out of tune with filmmaking techniques?

The story is also ridiculously and needlessly long.  The search for this 'master codebreaker' led not to the one they sought but to DJ, whom they found by mere chance.  It seemed to be a thorough waste of a bloated 2 hour 30 minute running time.  Why not just search for DJ in the first place?

What were the odds Rose and Finn would get thrown into the same cell as he?  For that to happen, the First Order would have had to have planned for things that they might have been able to predict (they land in a particular spot, they be captured, they know what they were looking for).

I think a lot of The Last Jedi depends on things going in a certain way when there is no guarantee that they should go in a certain way.

Unless Johnson wanted us not to take Hux seriously as a villain, there was no reason to have him behave as he did: all camp theatrics.  Gleeson is probably the worse one in The Last Jedi, though probably not because he set out to play a spoof of a Star Wars villain.  He was missing a mustache to twirl, but he was as menacing as goat cheese.  Del Toro wasn't too far behind as DJ, adding a stutter for no real reason, though I suspect it was for 'representation'.

After all, this new series has made much of how multicultural the galaxy is: female lead, more women, more minorities.  Why not one with a speech impediment?  One scene with Isaac, Boyega and Tran stood out not because it was particularly good, but because I can almost see people checking off boxes.

Fisher did not have much to do except look pensive, but I put that more to the script than to her abilities.

As a side note, I'm still puzzled about that 'Leia Floating in Space and Living to Tell the Tale' bit.

Tran seemed almost like a fangirl who found herself in all this craziness, but again I put it to the script than to her.  For what her role was (the chipper and downtrodden Rose), she did well.  Boyega did well too, though as with Tran and a purple-haired Laura Dern, nothing spectacular.

I think the two standouts are Ridley and Driver, their scenes working rather well when they're on Force Skype (though I'm surprised Rey is so prudish when Emo Vader is seen topless, her insistence of putting something on sounding rather peculiar).  Again, it's the script that fails them and pretty much fails everyone.

There was no reason for The Last Jedi to be as long as it was.  The entire casino scene (which is the one that I think upset conservatives the most), could have been cut out entirely, as if the "not Rebellion" didn't buy arms either.  What, were they donated?  Does the Resistance manufacture them themselves?

As someone who is not vested in the entire Star Wars universe, The Last Jedi is neither this epic my fellow critics tell me it is nor this blasphemy fanboys tell me it is.  It's OK, longer than it should be, with a bit too much fan-service and teasing (Emo Vader taunting Rey about who her parents were teases audiences while still not giving answers).

At least I can agree with Snoke on one thing: Kylo Ren is no Vader, just a child in a mask.

He didn't know it was a trap...

DECISION: C+

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. A Review

ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY

It's curious that once Disney took over the Star Wars universe, they managed to do what Star Wars creator George Lucas couldn't: give us a sensible, real prequel to his Magnus Opus.  Rogue One: A Star Wars Story wasn't the spin-off I remember being promised, a film set in the Star Wars universe that wasn't connected to the overall Star Wars story.  Far from it: it is directly connected to said universe.  That, however, isn't a negative.  Far from it: Rogue One manages to create an exciting, original world where it comes close to equaling what made the original series so unique and beloved.

Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones) is the daughter of scientific/engineering genius Galen Erso (Mads Mikkelsen).  Galen has been forced to help the Galactic Empire create a new and powerful weapon: what is known as the Death Star.  Before he was taken, Galen helped Jyn escape, where she was helped and raised by Saw Gerrera (Forest Whitaker), leader of a splinter group of the Rebellion who became too radical for the Rebellion and broke off from them.

Many years have passed, and the Rebellion has heard whispers of the new and powerful weapon. An Empire defector, pilot Bodhi Rook (Riz Ahmed) tells them of the Death Star, but he defected Gerrera's forces.  The Rebellion and Gerrera are not allies, but the former hopes that with Jyn acting as intermediary, they can win his confidence and get Galen's message regarding the Death Star that Bodhi has with him.  To this endeavor, they send Cassian Andor (Diego Luna), who brings the reprogrammed Imperial droid K2SO (Alan Tudyk).  Eventually, Jyn and Gerrera reunite, but as she hears Galen's message the Empire decides on a small test of the Death Star, on the city where they are at.  Both Director Orson Krennic (Ben Mendelsohn) and Governor Tarkin (Peter Cushing, returning from the dead with help from computer generated imagery and Guy Henry doing the physical and vocal work) are delighted with it, but a power struggle begins between Krennic and Tarkin for control.

Now Jyn, Cassian, Bodhi, and two others must warn the Rebellion on the awesome power of the Death Star.  Galen's message tells his daughter that he deliberately created a flaw in the Death Star that if triggered would destroy the monstrous creation.  He entrusts her with finding the plans, which are on the heavily guarded Imperial planet Scarif.  The Rebellion does not want to go and try for a raid, but Jyn and her friends will not be denied.  They go rogue, and a major battle ensues, with Krennic fighting furiously to stop them.  Eventually the Rebellion joins in the fight, and while Jyn and Cassian manage to send the plans to them, the Death Star opts to destroy their own base in a failed effort to stop them.  The plans are smuggled aboard a Rebel ship, where they are received by Princess Leia Organa (the late Carrie Fisher, also digitized to her Star Wars: A New Hope phase) as Darth Vader himself storms the ship, desperate to get said plans back.

I know many people, particularly the Star Wars fanbase that thinks cinema started with the first Star Wars film, are thrilled.  Part of me can see how they got excited.  Rogue One is the first new Star Wars film to be worth our time.  This adulation Rogue One has received is up to a point warranted.  The final act, the assault on Scarfin, is a particularly thrilling sequence, full of action and excitement that puts you squarely within the battle.  It has all the elements: gigantic machines fighting it out, Chirrut Imwe, a Force-loving blind samurai swordsman (Donnie Yen), quiet but tense moments as Jyn and Cassian search the massive archives to find the Death Star plans, the sneering Krennic after them, and even some comedy with both Bodhi and K2SO.

I also see that the Star Wars universe now is going all-out with creating diversity within it.  We have, like in Star Wars: The Remix, a strong female protagonist.  We have Hispanic, Asian, and Islamic actors in major roles. We even see dead people making a comeback.   It makes it a bit interesting in some respects (one, for example, wasn't aware the galaxy far, far, away had people with Spanish accents). 

I'm Hispanic myself, so I can get away with that.

On the issue of Peter Cushing, it worked on the whole.  Cushing did look a bit waxwork, even a little creepy, but it wasn't so obviously a fake.  It does seem a bit unfair in that it isn't the Peter Cushing and thus we can't say this would have been the performance Cushing would have given.

Everyone else, with perhaps one exception, did solid work.  Jones' Jyn wasn't the greatest, but she was smart, competent, and courageous, qualities that are admirable in anyone.  Luna was a little funny to me, but that probably comes more from the fact that I know more about his background than most, so picturing him, accent and all, as this heroic figure struck me as a little amusing.  Then again, as I said, that's just me.  He too did a strong job.  Ahmed balanced being serious when captured and a little more amusing as he attempts to help link up the universe to help send the message.

Tudyk is creating another 'cutesy' robot with his sensible K2SO, and I wasn't overwhelmed or underwhelmed by it.  I was just whelmed.

The only performance I had issue with was Whitaker, who appeared to be channeling Dennis Hopper's Frank Booth in Blue Velvet for the soft-voiced Sol, down to sucking a version of an oxygen mask in his brief role as the slightly crazed anti-Imperial rebel leader.  His sotto voce performance was already a curiosity, but his sucking up air was slightly hilarious.  I half-expected him to call for his Mommy.

Other things I had issues with, things that director Gareth Edwards and screenwriters Chris Weitz and Tony Gilroy came up with.  First, we had bits of dialogue that are, I think, geared for more Millennials than meant to be timeless.  As Vader releases a choke-hold on Krennic, he tells him, "Be careful not to choke on your aspirations, Director".  Not a big fan of deliberate puns.  Another time, as Sol's men take the small rebel group hostage, they put a bag over Imwe, who callous out, "Are you kidding me?! I'M BLIND!"

As a side note, I was so unsure of his name I kept referring to him as 'Samurai Jack', my only point of reference.

Other times, we had rather clichéd situations.  In one laser fight, we had to have a little girl caught in the middle of it, with Jyn forced to rescue her.  In another, when Galen is facing death, we had to have it in the rain.

A part of me thinks that the whole journey to find Sol wasn't a payoff, almost a diversion to make Rouge One longer (two hours and thirteen minutes).  Certainly, a message from Galen to Jyn (his 'Stardust') could have found its way to her and the Rebellion without having to go through a character who doesn't make it to even the half of the film.  I figure all this could have been trimmed. 

We also had a bizarre moment early on when Krennic and his Storm Troopers were searching for Jyn, who had escaped when Galen was taken.  In their search, they found her plush toy, which was of a Storm Trooper.

Color me odd, but why would a child have a Storm Trooper plush toy in this galaxy far, far away? 

Still, Rogue One does in one film what The Phantom Menace/Attack of the Clones/Revenge of the Sith couldn't do in three: tell a Star Wars story that actually leads somewhere and compliments the original trilogy.  It might not be the Star Wars spinoff I thought it was going to be, but it is a fine film on its own.

Yes, at last we have A New Hope.   

DECISION: B+

Star Wars: The Force Awakens. A Review

STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS

Star Wars: The Remix...

Author's Note: This review will be filled to the brim with spoilers.  This will be your only warning. You read at your own discretion. 

It's a safe bet that Star Wars: The Force Awakens was the most anticipated film of the year.  The fans were lining up three and a half hours early to see it in IMAX, some in their outfits.  Now, I think I'm a bit too old to be walking around in public in Jedi garb with my lightsaber at my side (and I also think people dressed in pajamas and taking selfies inside the theater is also idiotic, but that's neither here nor there). I didn't line up three and a half hours early (and see no need to).  About half an hour was the most I waited, altogether a reasonable time.  Yet I digress.

The Force Awakens is a good film, but like J.J. Abrams' last effort (Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan Remake), I couldn't shake off the feeling that I was essentially watching a 'greatest Star Wars hits' mashup, something less original and more retread of what I've seen before.  There's nothing wrong that per se, but still, I sensed some disturbance in The Force.  Perhaps this is what those fans in their Wookie wardrobe waited three hours (in some cases, more than three days) to experience.  For my part, it takes more than fan service to make me think something is good. 

As this is my second time watching The Force Awakens, I found that while my position has actually softened with regards to the fact that the film is really a retread of the Original Trilogy, my ranking has gone down.  I didn't think The Force Awakens is terrible.  I just didn't think it was as brilliant as all those dazzled by its IMAX 3-D glory thought it was either. 

It's been 30 years since the events of the last chronological Star Wars film, Return of the Jedi.  Luke Skywalker, the last Jedi, has disappeared.  The search for him is on, with two groups in pursuit: the "NOT Empire" First Order, and the "NOT Rebellion" Resistance.  The First Order is headed by the "NOT Emperor" Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei...I mean, Snoke (Andy Serkis), who has his own "NOT Darth Vader" Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) and his own "NOT Grand Moff Tarkin", General Hux (Domhnall Gleeson).

Meanwhile, on "NOT Tatooine" Jakku, "NOT Luke Skywalker" Rey (Daisy Ridley) is eking out a life as a scavenger when she comes upon "NOT R2-D2" BB-8.  BB-8 contains important information about Luke's whereabouts, information both the "NOT Empire" First Order and the "NOT Rebellion" Resistance need.  "NOT Darth Vader" kills the villagers and "NOT Rebellion" hotshot pilot Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac) is captured.  "NOT Darth Vader" extracts the information by using The Dark Side, and the chase for the "NOT R2-D2" is on.

Stormtrooper FN2187 finds a conscience, and helps Poe escape.  Poe gives the Stormtrooper the new name of Finn (John Boyega) and while Finn would rather flee as far from the "NOT Empire" as possible, Poe needs to get "NOT R2-D2" back which has the message for Obi-Wan Kenobi...I mean, the whereabouts of Luke Skywalker.  Finn crashes on "NOT Tatooine" and finds "NOT Luke Skywalker" who w/Finn escapes on the Millennium Falcon (left to rot in a junkyard).  Finding the Falcon is none other than Han Solo (Harrison Ford) and his Wookie sidekick, Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew).  Han has gone back to smuggling, and mourning the loss of Luke and of Han and Princess Leia's son, Ben.

Han takes them first to "NOT Yoda" Maz Kanata (Lupita Nyong'o), the owner of "NOT Mos Eisley's Cantina".  Here, Rey discovers Luke's lightsaber, which calls to her for reasons she knows not.  As for what "NOT Yoda" is doing with Luke's lightsaber, by her own admission, is a good question...for another time.  "NOT Darth Vader" captures "NOT Luke Skywalker", leaving "NOT R2-D2" since he believes she can lead them to the map the bot has.

"NOT Darth Vader" realizes that "NOT Luke Skywalker" is strong with the Force, though untrained.  Despite no training, she is easily able to use Jedi mind tricks to work at escaping the spaceship, which the "NOT Rebellion" discovers is "NOT Death Star" Starkiller Base, which can harness the power of a sun to destroy other planets.  Even Admiral Ackbar is SHOCKED!  Finn agrees to help the "NOT Rebellion" break into the "NOT Death Star" and destroy it, though his real motive is to rescue "NOT Luke Skywalker".

Han and "NOT Darth Vader" meet, and "NOT Darth Vader" kills his father.  "NOT Darth Vader" is now in pursuit of "NOT Luke Skywalker" and Finn, the former who wields Luke's lightsaber with remarkable agility.  Eventually, Poe leads the fighters into destroying the "NOT Death Star" (though both "NOT Darth Vader" and "NOT Grand Moff Tarkin" manage to escape), and while Princess/General Leia mourns for her husband and son, she sends "NOT Luke Skywalker" to where the map leads, and that is to the reclusive Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), who silently stares at the person I figure is his daughter.

Contrary to any impression I may have left, I am not opposed to remakes.  I'm not particularly fond of them, but sometimes remakes can be good, provided you have intelligent people behind them.  The Charlton Heston versions of Ben-Hur AND The Ten Commandments are remakes, something people tend to forget.  The problem is that The Force Awakens essentially is a MadLibs version of at least the first original Star Wars films (and I've heard a few people say it takes bits and pieces from the prequels too).

About the only thing left was for someone to come around wearing a slave-girl outfit (though fortunately, Carrie Fisher was spared that indignity...and us that horror).  It's a terrible thing to say, but say it I will: Carrie Fisher looks more haggard than her mother Debbie Reynolds, and I figure the audience thought so too.  At the second screening I went to, there was more applause for when C3-P0 appeared than when Princess Leia showed up (the biggest applause reserved for Han Solo).

Perhaps this is one thing that The Force Awakens has no interest in.  I suspect it expects you to know who everyone is, so for those uninitiated the appearance of this old man would mean nothing (though in fairness I think you could put that together really quickly). If you walk into The Force Awakens completely unaware, a lot will get lost.  This leads me to ask if The Force Awakens was meant as pure fan service, a fan-fiction brought to the big screen rather than a legitimate effort to expand the galaxy far, far away.

When I first heard there would be more Star Wars films, I asked 'why?' (and was the only one to do so apparently).  The Empire was defeated, Anakin was redeemed, what more was there to say?  Given The Force Awakens, not very much. 

I think it is clear now that director/co-writer J.J. Abrams (who co-wrote the script with Laurence Kasdan and Michael Ardnt) is a great mimic, but is not one for originality.  I've already commented that in his films, he's copied from Wrath of Khan and from directors Steven Spielberg and Cecil B. DeMille, which is within his right to do so.   However, what is the point of watching what one has seen before (especially when there was such a great opportunity to create something truly original).

In regards to the script, I'm calling crap on one particular point.  Here is Rey, a scavenger who has apparently spent her whole life on "NOT Tatooine", yet with no training whatsoever she is able to use Jedi mind tricks with the greatest of ease.  Furthermore, her climatic battle with Kylo Ren (while good) is equally bizarre: this scavenger so adept at using a lightsaber.  Ren at one point tells her she could benefit from a teacher, offering himself as her mentor (I figure for the Dark Side), but I actually laughed out loud at this.  Given show well she was doing on her own with someone who had been trained by Luke Skywalker himself before being seduced by the Dark Side, it didn't look like she needed a teacher.

The same goes for how adept Finn was at lightsaber battling.  Twice this low-level Stormtrooper used Luke Skywalker's lightsaber and used it with remarkably great skill, and I just said that is patently ridiculous.  Finn would not have lasted a minute battling Kylo Ren in a lightsaber duel, but there he was, giving as good as he got. 

One of two things: either any Tom, Dick, or Finn can now use lightsabers, or Kylo Ren is just what Driver made him to be: a whiny emo kid with MAJOR Daddy and Granddaddy issues.  When Kylo smashes part of the spaceship with his lightsaber when learning Rey and BB-8 escape, it was reminiscent of Hayden Christensen's reaction in Attack of the Clones.  I'm surprised he didn't shout that it was all Obi-Wan's fault and that he was holding him back too.

The one thing Kylo Ren didn't learn regarding Granddad was that it takes more than a mask and black robes to make you menacing.  It takes being soulless, but Ren I thought was never a real menace.  I think Driver did as good a job as he could (though the constant unmasking was a bit much for me), but I couldn't help that maybe if Han had hugged him more all this could have been avoided.

Also, I thought all of Darth Vader had been burned on Endor in Return of the Jedi.  What, did someone dig him up for Kylo to be carrying around all these years?

Now, I think I should focus on the positive, and that is Ridley as Rey.  This is her film, and she did an absolutely fantastic job as this reluctant warrior, one who lives by her wits and is stronger than she's given credit for.  "Stop holding my hand," she shouts at Finn when they're making their escape, and it's nice to see that Star Wars can still give good roles to women.

The diversity program of The First Order also helps with Boyega's Finn, who evolved from the frightened, somewhat bumbling Stormtrooper to someone who could rise to be a warrior against his former comrades.  It's unfortunate that Isaac had a limited role as Poe, for he makes the most of his screen time, making the cocky but talented pilot into someone we do genuinely like.

John Williams, whom I see as the last Jedi of film composers, still delivers with a brilliant score, and while in terms of actual story I think little of Abrams I have to give credit where it's due: he did keep things flowing (save for when Solo and Company had to escape his pursuers and the monsters he was transporting, which could have been cut or trimmed from the bloated running time and added nothing to the story).   

As for Solo's death, well, to be frank I think people should have seen it coming.  Once he walked onto the bridge, I think we all knew he was a goner.  I think Ford has always wanted Han Solo killed off (I think that was his original wish in Empire Strikes Back) and now he is forever free of one of his most iconic characters. 

Well, there's always the Star Wars Holiday Special to remember him by...

I really can't say The Force Awakens is a terrible film.  It moves well, has some really great work by some of the cast (Ridley, Boyega, and Isaac, with Driver failing only because his character was so whiny).  Gleeson was the exception, going full-on crazy with his Nazi-like speech just before the "NOT Death Star" unleashes Hell.  I thought it was comical, as was "NOT The Emperor" looking like Voldemort's long-lost cousin.  The original cast was also pretty good: Ford bringing in the pathos of his failed relationship with Ben Solo, Fisher not as strong as General Leia. 

I can see why so many Star Wars fans like The Force Awakens.  After all, it's an amalgamation of all the past Star Wars films rolled into one.

However, as someone who, despite his large Obi-Wan collection, is not big into Star Wars as I was when I was six, I am not as easily bought off as others.

Finally, to those who insist that Star Wars: The Force Awakens is really this absolutely brilliant film, one that will leave you astonished in its ingenuity and originality, I have only this to say...

  

DECISION: C+

The Star Wars Holiday Special Review

THE STAR WARS HOLIDAY SPECIAL

The Citizen Kane of Star Wars...

November 17, 1978, is a date that will live in infamy among Star Wars devotees.  I suspect that even the Mandalorian Mercs, who are of the mind that even Episodes I, II, and III are things of beauty, might look askance at The Star Wars Holiday Special.

Actually, I have proof of this.  At the Sun City Sci-Fi Convention 2013, I approached one of these young men dressed as Boba Fett and asked him about the SWHS.  He just hung his head and shook it, a look of pain in his face.  I nearly made him cry.  Here he was, enjoying his outing in cosplay when I come along and ask him THE Question: "What about the Holiday Special?"

The SWHS is held to be one of if not the worst moment in television history, a major debacle that has forever tainted the reputation of the George Lucas-created universe.  The debut and farewell to the SWHS so horrified the world that it has never been rebroadcast or officially released on DVD (apart from a well-regarded animation sequence).  However, on this the 35th Anniversary of The Star Wars Holiday Special (whose name alone shows how misguided the whole thing was) we pause to remember what David Hofstede, author of What Were They Thinking?: The 100 Dumbest Moments in Television History, called "The Worst Two Hours Of Television Ever", earning it the Number 1 Spot on his list.

I don't know if I can give a plot summation because the story is so bizarre and obscenely long, but here goes.  Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew) HAS to get back home to Kashyyyk to celebrate Life Day (though exactly WHAT Life Day was or WHY it was important is never explained).  Taking him home is his lifelong friend Han Solo (Harrison Ford).  No easy task given the Empire is after them.

Waiting for them is Chuy's (1) family: his wife Mala, his father Itchy, and his son Lumpy.  I am NOT making those names up: that is how they are introduced in the opening credits.  While they wait for Chewie to show, they do what has to be done: clean the house, throw the trash, make dinner, and entertain themselves by watching what I think was called a 'third-rate Cirque de Soleil show' projected by machine.

Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher) calls asking to speak to Han or Chewie, and later on Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) is contacted for information about Han and Chewie's whereabouts.  It is only hoped that they can make it in time for Life Day.  Help comes in the way of Saun Dann (Art Carney), a local tradesman who comes bearing gifts, including what appears to be a hairdryer where Itchy can watch what can only be called "Wookie Porn".  It is The Mind Evaporator (a name to be played with), a machine that brings a fantasy woman into his mind, and this woman (Emmy nominee Diahann Carroll)(2), coos such lines as "My voice is for you alone.  I exist for you.  I am in your mind, as you create me.  Oh, YES, I can feel my creation.  I'm getting YOUR message; are you getting mine?" (Boy did we EVER)!  Adding more sexual overtones, she continues, "Oh, OH, we are excited, aren't we?  Just relax, relax.  Now, we can have a good time, can't we?" 

Nothing suggestive in all this, right?



Anyone know where I can get some Wookie Porn?

Putting the coda on what I dub the Kashyyyk Erotique number is when Carroll whispers to us, "I'll tell you a secret.  I find you adorable," something which so excites Itchy that he hits the machine, causing her to repeat "I find you adorable." She goes on to deliver perhaps the most suggestive lines ever to be connected to the Star Wars myth: "I don't need to ask how you find me.  You see, I am your fantasy.  I am your experience, so experience me. I am your pleasure, so enjoy me." 


WOW, and this was a FAMILY-geared special!

Finally, she sings the first of four musical numbers, This Minute Now.

Things are rolling along when Stormtroopers, searching for Han and Chewie, burst into the Baca home.  To placate them, Dann shows one of them a large 3-D-like screen, where one Stormtrooper is entertained by The Jefferson Starship playing Light the Sky on Fire.  That seemed to do the trick for one of them, but the others aren't so easily impressed.  They look around the house, hoping to find Rebel information, so Lumpy does the logical thing: watch a cartoon about his father's exploits against the Empire!



What a sorry debut for an Icon...

This animated sequence is of an adventure Luke, Han, Chewbacca and the droids have against a sinister and mysterious figure, a bounty hunter named Boba Fett.  Fett has laid a trap for them but they manage to outwit the bounty hunter, who swears revenge.

Cartoon over, Lumpy goes up and works on a voice manipulator to outwit the Stormtroopers.  For reasons known only to the Empire regular broadcasts are interrupted and everyone is forced to watch some sort of instructional video from Tatooine, which is now under curfew.  We go to the Mos Eisley Cantina, where bar owner Ackmena (Bea Arthur) politely brushes off the amorous advances of Krelman (Harvey Korman, making his THIRD appearance on the show) (3) when she learns of the curfew.  Having to force all the customers out, she gives everything one last drink on the house and sings them off with Goodnight, But Not Goodbye.  

The voice manipulator works up to a point, but one of the Stormtroopers realizes he was tricked.  Fortunately, Han and Chewie arrive just in time to get rid of said Stormtrooper.  Dann deceives the Imperial Forces by saying the Stormtrooper deserted, and now we get on to the Life Day celebrations.  The Baca clan magically don red robes and all the Wookie-Ookies join together with candles.  Luke, R2-D2 and C-3PO and Leia arrive in time too (with the latter, in the words of Hofstede, looking like she's just arrived from a three-day visit to the Planet Happy Dust), just in time for Leia to "sign" us a song, apparently some sort of Life Day Theme set to the music of the Star Wars theme. 

Side note: if Luke, Leia, and the droids managed to get to the Life Day celebrations rather easily, why didn't Han and Chewbacca just go with them?

End of Special...and End of Nightmare.

At a certain point during the "Kashyyyk Erotique" sequence, I could have sworn that Diahann Carroll actually looked frightened, as if pleading with us, 'Help, I'm trapped in Wookie Porn and I just realized what I'm involved in".   Truth be told, "Diahann Carroll in Wookie Porn" is one of the saner moments of The Star Wars Holiday Special, and that is saying a lot.

Almost everything in The Star Wars Holiday Special was embarrassingly bad, starting with the bizarre idea to focus things on Chewbacca's family.  We start the special with around ten minutes of Wookie dialogue with no subtitles.  Endless grunting from beings we neither know or care about, given idiotic names that almost appear to mock the original.

Then there's the odd mix of Star Wars with variety show performances.  The musical numbers and the acrobatics are more appropriate for The Ed Sullivan Show, and people watching the Star Wars Holiday Special may scratch their heads wondering what Diahann Carroll, Bea Arthur, and most bizarrely The Jefferson Starship were doing in the world of Star Wars.   Putting 'big names' within the Star Wars universe dates the special and takes one out of any hope of putting things within context.  How can you take this seriously when you have Maude/Dorothy Zbornak running the Mos Eisley Cantina? 

The musical numbers didn't work, especially Fisher's truly bizarre closing number.  I keep getting told it's set to the Star Wars theme, but having heard it multiple times I don't even hear a melody, let alone the Star Wars melody.  Fisher's mother, Debbie Reynolds, CAN sing.  Fisher cannot, and the tune is so off-key and perplexing one wonders why no one actually stopped her, or at very least dub her voice.

Where else did the Star Wars Holiday Special go wrong?  Well, let's start with the Wookies, particularly Lumpy.  I imagine the goal was to make them cute, but Lumpy in particular looks frightening (and with simply awful make-up work).  The story (such as it is) is idiotic (Life Day?  What's Life Day, and why should we care?), the comedy routines insufferably bad (Korman, a gifted comic, made his three appearances all awful, and as a digression, why did he have to show up three times?), and some of the scenes were more horrifying than amusing.  Korman, again, is at the center of this.  In his third appearance, he drinks his liquor from a hole at the top of his head!  If I were a child watching this, I would find this more traumatic than hilarious.  His second appearance as a monotone robot was just so boring, and his first as a cross-dressing cooking enthusiast was in terms bizarre and sad.

Long, boring, unfunny bits.  Musical numbers that make no sense (and one of them appearing to come from a 70's idea of a porn musical), bad performances from most of the cast and a plot that wastes two hours damns The Star Wars Holiday Special.  However, in fairness there are two moments that have some redeeming value.

Putting aside the lunacy of the setting, Goodnight, But Not Goodbye is actually a good song.  Arthur makes it a sad lament, showing that the Broadway veteran could handle material so beneath her.  If it were in any other setting, Goodnight, But Not Goodbye would be a more memorable song.

The highlight is the animated sequence that introduces Boba Fett.  While the animation is not the greatest, at least the story HAS something to do with Star Wars (since seeing an old Wookie get sexually aroused is not what I think would make Darth Vader tremble).  IF The Star Wars Holiday Special had been completely about an adventure involving the characters (not a silly story about Wookies in Christmas Pageant robes being serenaded by Princess Leia), it would have launched what could have been more expansive Star Wars mythology.

Obi-Wan Kenobi:
My Hero, My Role Model

This lesson was learned many years later, when the animated Star Wars: Clone Wars and a follow-up, Star Wars: The Clone Wars both added to the overall Star Wars mythology (though their Canon status is a subject for debate) and were well-received by both critics and fans (not to mention having much better animation). 

Now with Disney owning the rights to Star Wars, could we hope that at long last, the infamous Star Wars Holiday Special will be released officially on DVD?  I don't see why not.  Disney if nothing else loves milking its properties for every cent they can earn, so why not give in to temptation and deliver us the Holiday Special.  It's never been released becauce Lucas (a man not averse to making a quick buck from the diminishing returns of his work) is simply too embarrassed to acknowledge its existence.  I have long argued that it should be released, along with a couple of special features: one called What Went Wrong, detailing how something as simple as a Star Wars television program could have veered so wildly out of control, as well as where the cast and crew 'recall' the rise and spectacular fall of The Star Wars Holiday Special.

The second one would be called simply, I'm Sorry, where George Lucas must atone for his sins.  Looking straight in the camera, Lucas simply says, "I'm Sorry."

The best summation for The Star Wars Holiday Special is what Captain Peacock (Frank Thornton) of Are You Being Served? said when Mr. Rumbold (Nicholas Smith) is asked to wear a toupee for a potential commercial, then have his ears taped back to prevent them from sticking out.  "We've seemed to have gone from the grotesque to the bizarre," Peacock intones. 

The Star Wars Holiday Special: From the Grotesque to the Bizarre...

1/10

1).  While I know it's "Chewie" when speaking of Chewbacca, I'd thought I'd have a little fun with the old story about how he's really Hispanic.  The story is that his real name is Jesus Baca.  A nickname for Jesus?  Chuy, as in Chuy Baca.

2.) Carroll's nomination came for her work in the series Julia, where she starred in the first television program where the lead African-American character was a professional rather than domestic (playing a widowed nurse).  Carroll became the first African-American to receive an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series.  Since her nomination in 1969, the number of African-American women who have won Emmys for Leading Actress in either a Comedy or Drama have been...one: Isabelle Sanford as Lead Actress in a Comedy for The Jeffersons.

As of today, not counting Specials, Miniseries, or Guest Actress in a Comedy or Drama, five African-American woman have won for Supporting Actress: Gail Fisher for Mannix, Alfre Woodard for Hill Street Blues, Madge Sinclair for Gabriel's Fire, Mary Alice for I'll Fly Away, and Jackee Harry for 227.  Harry is as of today the only African-American woman to win for a Comedy Series, the rest of the winners being in the Drama category. 

3.) Korman played a four-armed Julia Child-like chef on Wookie TV giving Malla instructions on making something called 'Bantha Surprise' and the robot giving instructions to Lumpy on how to put together the voice manipulator. 

George Lucas' "Lumpy" of Coal for Christmas...

The People vs. George Lucas: A Review

THE PEOPLE VS. GEORGE LUCAS

You Don't Know the Power of the Nerd Side...

I'll go on record to say I never cared who shot first: Han Solo or Greedo.  I also never dressed up for any screening of a Star Wars prequel, though I was heavily pressured to bring along a lightsaber for Attack of the Clones and have always regretted this lapse of judgment. I don't understand the entire subculture of the Star Wars fans.  All the things about the devotion many people have for the entire Star Wars universe is frankly a bit beyond me. 

I think the original Star Wars films (A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi) are as a collection, one of the greatest series ever made, pushing science-fiction/fantasy to both a deeply emotional and even intellectual level.  I cannot say that for the prequels.

George Lucas is in one of the most unenviable positions of any filmmaker: a man both revered and reviled in equal measure for the same thing.  The People vs. George Lucas at first may, like the Star Wars devotees, may be dismissed as the ramblings of angry nerds upset at Lucas for doing/not-doing things in both the Star Wars trilogy re-releases and/or the prequels.  In truth, The People vs. George Lucas is a remarkably sober, even-handed exploration about the trials and tribulations Lucas has endured as well as inflicted on those thoroughly devoted to his stories, exploring the contradictory emotions his magnum opus unleashes on that rabid fanbase. 

We start with the man himself: George Lucas, interested in making films, good films, who hit on the idea for this massive space opera about this tale that occurred a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.  The first Star Wars film which, in a strictly technical sense, was called Star Wars, only retroactively called Star Wars: A New Hope, unleashed a mania that was unparalleled in the history of film. 

Lucas, ever the shrewd businessman, knew there was a market for Star Wars-related products.  His films, including the Indiana Jones series, started meeting with both critical and public acclaim.  All was right with the universe.

Then, for reasons we know not, something began to grow amiss.  It could have been hubris: always the great man's downfall, or a sense that everything put down or thought was perfect; it could have been a loss of creativity or it could have been simply having expectations way too high. 

However, the public, and in particular the fans who had been deeply touched by all things Star Wars, began to lose faith and hope in the works of the Creator. 

Already stinging from the polarized reception of the Ewoks in Return of the Jedi (for the record I'm in the pro-Ewok camp myself, though granted I was a child when it came out), out came the Special Editions of the Star Wars trilogy.

The changes Lucas made to his films went from the cosmetic (adding new creatures to certain scenes), to the type that slightly altered the stories as first seen (introducing Jabba the Hutt in A New Hope instead of Return of the Jedi), and some were downright blasphemous (replacing Sebastian Shaw at the end of Return of the Jedi with Hayden Christensen, who played the younger Anakin Skywalker in the prequels). 

All the changes, both large and small, outraged the hardcore fanbase, who thought Lucas was basically screwing them over and did not take their devotion to the franchise into consideration. 

One of the questions The People vs. George Lucas raises is whether Lucas should have thought how the Star Wars fans would react to these changes, whether they had some say in how the films should remain as they were released or how the filmmaker wishes them to be seen: good questions all.


From there, things only got worse between Lucas and the Star Wars faithful.  The prequels were not only disliked, but elements were introduced that rendered the previous stories almost nonsensical, most notoriously having The Force be measurable in the bloodstream. 

Even more disastrous was the introduction of character Jar Jar Binks, still a source of fierce debate within the Star Wars enclave (as if the disavowed Star Wars Holiday Special didn't already sully the franchise).  Even if the affection fans had survived The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones and/or Revenge of the Sith, Indiana Jones & The Kingdom of the Crystal Skulls appears to have only been like waving a red flag before a bull. 

Yet, despite how often George Lucas has failed to please the hard-core Star Wars fanbase, despite how many times his work has disappointed those who can tell an AT-AT from an AT-ST, despite how, in a memorable ditty offered by two fans: George Lucas Raped My Childhood, the fans still love him.

As for George Lucas himself, he remains mostly silent, save for a few clips.  Lucas doesn't defend himself against all the minutia he's raked over the coals for, but he also has never taken any active steps against the fans making their own versions of any of the Star Wars or Indiana Jones films.  It hints at a more nuanced and complex relationship between The Creator and His Worshipers.

The People vs. George Lucas doesn't just deal with who is the ultimate controller of a series/saga, in this case, Star Wars: the fans or the creative force, but also delves into whether one side or the other should have ultimate control.  The most damning evidence against George Lucas is, ironically enough, from Lucas himself. 

Lucas is fierce in his defense of having the right to alter his films to fit his own vision of how Star Wars or any of his films, really appear.  However, in 1988, a good nine years before his own 'Special Edition' alterations, he went before Congress and said the following:

In the future, it will be even easier for old negatives to become lost and be 'replaced' by new altered negatives.  This would be a great loss to our society.  Our cultural history must not be allowed to be rewritten.

Yet, since speaking these words George Lucas has done the very thing he condemned and feared would happen: he took his 'old negatives' of the original Star Wars trilogy and replaced them with 'new altered negatives'. 

Moreover, for the longest time Lucas vehemently resisted bringing the originals back, almost demanding that people accept the changes to his work whether they wanted to or not.  The fans and I figure some impartial critics had emotions ranging from upset to downright inflamed.  Finally, Lucas either relented or was convinced to allow the unaltered versions to be released.

Whether anyone has called him on what appears to be a wild discrepancy I cannot say, but what I can say is that as time has gone by, one can't help get the impression that the more criticism Lucas gets from his fanbase for the changes he makes to the films or the story, the more intransigent and stubborn he becomes.  I cannot say what is in Lucas' mind, but The People vs. George Lucas does give people a chance to speak their minds about what they think.

Again, I have to point out the film is not a long rap session against Lucas himself.  Instead, it goes into a discussion about whether the changes made to the films both visual and story-wise actually work or even make sense. 

Take for example, the midi-chlorian business.  All the indications from A New Hope to Return of the Jedi was that The Force  was a vaguely mystical thing.  When The Phantom Menace was released, we found that The Force was really from midi-chlorians, which one can analyze from the bloodstream.  It had the effect of rendering The Force, something that had been built up to something almost spiritual, to a mere physical entity. 

How midi-chlorians become so integral to the story appears to have been a rejection of everything that had come before.  Even worse, how an experienced filmmaker like Lucas failed to perceive this one simply cannot explain away as an artistic choice.  He didn't appear to understand that once something had been established, introducing something that altered if not destroyed what had come before would be at least insulting to fans, at most an almost deliberate slap to the face.

Allow me my own gripe with George Lucas, when it comes to Star Wars.  When Lucas was doing publicity for The Phantom Menace, he was asked if we would learn who Anakin Skywalker's father was.  Lucas told the interviewer that yes, indeed, we would know from whom young Annie would come from. 

In comes the movie, where his mother Shmi  simply says, "There was no father.  He just...was"  (or 'is', I don't remember).  I felt insulted, and slightly perturbed; was Lucas suggesting Anakin was some sort of Virgin Birth and thus borrowing from a New Testament story? 

I think George Lucas, or any filmmaker, should not react defensibly whenever his/her work (in particular such a beloved work such as Star Wars) faces criticism for things as varied as story, acting, or characters.  In the end, filmmakers are putting out a product, and if something doesn't work, people should be called on it.

 If the characters in The Phantom Menace are seen as racial stereotypes masquerading as aliens, it should be mentioned.  If a particular character is almost universally despised, a filmmaker can make the case for said character, but reacting with umbrage and saying that basically everyone's wrong and that said character should be loved is really counteractive. 

This is a lesson the production team of Doctor Who should take to heart.

The People vs. George Lucas taps into the passion people feel for the series.  It is about the fan's conflicting emotions with a remarkably creative writer/director whom they feel at times has betrayed them even as he gives them more of what they want.  It is also a shrewd investigation of the Industrial-Marketing Complex as I call it, how the quest for merchandise has financed great works but also turned the films into almost adverts for toys.

Finally, I see The People vs. George Lucas as a tragedy.  Here was George Lucas, a man who wanted to make movies, good movies.  His reputation began growing with THX-1138, with American Graffiti, then with Star Wars, he becomes a titan.  Then, like Orson Welles, once he created his own Citizen Kane, he found himself inexorably tied to that. 

From that sprang other things such as Industrial Light and Magic, but there was no escaping the shadow of Star Wars for George Lucas.  The prequels would, perhaps, never have matched the greatness of the original trilogy, but they appear to have been made by someone with a tin ear for dialogue and no sense of bringing life to characters.  It appears that the prequels brought down not only the reputation of George Lucas, but a great deal of affection for him.

The best way to sum up The People vs. George Lucas comes from another great filmmaker: Francis Ford Coppola.  Star Wars, in essence, brought an end to George Lucas as a filmmaker.  What non-Star Wars or Indiana Jones-related film has Lucas made since Star Wars' 1977 premiere?  How many great movies, Coppola laments, have we been robbed of because of Lucas' ties to Star Wars either the story or the merchandising? 

To add insult to injury, so many people think they could have done it better.  Could they, really?  Could anyone truly put himself in Lucas' position?  It is possible that George Lucas became too stubborn, up in his own Xanadu of Skywalker Ranch, convinced the world would accept whatever he brought them in the Star Wars saga (be it midi-chlorians, Jar Jar, or the now-infamous "NO!" from the newly-created Darth Vader in Revenge of the Sith) the fans be damned.

It is tempting to give in and go on my own George Lucas diatribe, going off about the things in the revamped Star Wars trilogy or the prequels that I did not like.  Up to a point, I did. 

Once I finish a Star Wars retrospective, I might do so, and indulge to my heart's content. 

It's that passion for Star Wars that motivates both the love and hate for Lucas, one that The People vs. George Lucas chronicles so well.

Born 1944

DECISION: A-